Art/Music as Technique

In victor Shklovsky’s article, “Art as Technique,” he writes that “art exists that one may recover the sensation of life.”  I believe that music is art, and thus, music exists so we can recover the sensation of life as well.  He states that it exists to “make one feel things,” and he gives the example of making the “stone stony.”  In other words, to make familiar things seem unfamiliar, art, and arguable music, exists to make those things seem unfamiliar.

“Art removes objects from the automatism of perception,” he states, and music, does the same thing.  By creating a song about a familiar object, the object then appears unfamiliar.  For example, there are countless songs about falling in love, which is something familiar.  However, the song, whether it be the lyrics, the way the lyrics are sung, or the music itself, falling in love appears unfamiliar.

He also writes, “the purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known.”  Music does this very thing, and causes perception of things to be seen differently and not as they are known in one’s daily life.

Covers- by Ashlee Page

When preparing my music for the performance for the mini Art’s Week, I learned that it was going to be almost completely experimental.   Before taking the E.A. class, I would have definitely considered a performance being experimental NOT ok.  Since I have only been classically trained on the piano, I had virtually no experience in putting electronic music and my piano music together.  Somehow during the class I came up with that idea.  I worked hard through Garage Band assembling music that I thought would work well with my piano playing.  I practiced playing the piano, timed it, and then went back into Garage Band to make sure the times were synchronized.  The day of the performance I actually had no idea how the electronic music would sound combined with my piano music.  Thus, I considered it somewhat experimental.

However, I remembered Andrew Bellmore presenting a song during class once, in which he and a couple friends simply playing music that sounded rather atrocious at first listening.  It worked very well with the punk rock artist’s quotes that he played with it, and it ended up correlating with the Noise/Music chapter “Inept.”

My friend Wesley attended my performance, and he commented on the fact that during the song “Hurt” that I played, the electronic music that was playing “annoyed him” because it was “playing during the off beats” and “wasn’t playing during the right beats.”  Because of the experimental nature of my song during the performance, I was not insulted by this, as this could be considered “inept” and experimental.

I was rather pleased with my performance, but I wish I could have heard the electronic music that was playing better from my place on the piano.  I would certainly like to do something like this again, perhaps if there is an arts week next semester.

Gin ‘N Juice

“Rollin’ down the street smokin’ indo, sippin on gin and juice” are lyrics most often associated with Snoop Dogg; however, a lesser-known and quite different version of the song was covered by the band The Gourds.  Often mistaken for a Phish cover, The Gourds version features fast fiddles and a country twang.  It’s quite humorous to hear a country song, complete with fiddles, with lyrics stating “but what we don’t love them whores.”

The Snoop Dogg version is slow and steady, with the typical old-school rap spoken word, whereas The Gourds version is more melodic and features fiddle solos, as well as changes in speed and pauses when singing the lyrics.

Another interesting cover is Dynamite Hack (a pop/punk group) covering EZ-E’s song Boyz n the Hood.  The EZ-E original is spoken, and very old-school rap, whereas the Dynamite Hack cover is sung and complete with guitars and drums.

What value do cover songs have in the music world?  Often times it is shocking to hear a classic familiar song covered by a lesser-known band.  With their own unique style (for example, The Gourd’s country sound) a band can demonstrate their diversity.  It’s often said that imitation is the best form of flattery, and the same goes in the music business.  When an original song is covered, it doesn’t necessarily mean the original is outdated, it just means value is added to the song when other bands cover it.

April 26, 1992

Sublime’s song, “April 26, 1992″ is their interpretation of their experience during the L.A. riots.  The Los Angeles riots occurred after the Rodney King trial on April 29, 1992.  Rodney King was a black man, beaten by four white police officers after being pulled over in his vehicle.  The entire incident was videotaped by someone living nearby, resulting in a huge news story which dealt with the issue of race and police brutality.  The case went to trial, and an all-white jury acquitted the officers.  Soon after the verdict, riots broke out in sections of Los Angeles.

Riots occured  in Long Beach, as well as other cities, where the members of Sublime lived.  The very beginning of the song features the voice of a police dispatch, attempting to get help to Ons Junior Market in Long Beach, which was one of the first buildings vandalized in Long Beach during the riots.  The song continues to state the items Bradley Nowell and his band looted during the riots, including liquor, furniture, and guitars.  However,  this song also makes a bold statement regarding police brutality in their lyrics:

But if you look at the streets it wasn’t about Rodney King,
It’s bout this fucked up situation and these fucked up police.
It’s about coming up and staying on top
and screamin’ 187 on a mother fuckin’ cop.

The lyric regarding screaming 187 on a police office is not about killing a police officer, as 187 is the police code for murder; it’s about a police officer actually killing someone.

Sublime has mostly a young following, and I believe this song allows a serious issue to be raised with young people, who perhaps were completely unaware of the LA. riots of the ’90’s.  Sublime makes a bold statement regarding police brutality and allows their fans now more than ten years later to consider a serious issue.

On Bob Dylan

The October 2008 issue of Rolling Stone features Bob Dylan’s CD Tell Tale Signs:  The Bootleg Series in its Reviews sections.  Tell Tale Signs “depicts Dylan’s development from 1989 to 2006″  and is reviewed as “setting a new milestone” for Dylan.  Very different from the protest songs of his past, which “questioned society’s values and politics,” Tell Tale Signs allows Dylan to make known that things have changed.

What do the fans think of this change?  Well, in November of 2006 I saw Dylan perform in Portland.  Jack White, of The White Stripes, side project, The Raconteurs, performed before Dylan and his band played.  The Raconteurs certainly got the crowd roaring, including me, with their guitar solos and catchy lyrics.  After The Raconteurs played, Bob Dylan and his band appeared.  The crowd also roared, but for a different reason.  The crowd cheered for Bob Dylan, but only because it was BOB DYLAN.  After his initial appearance, the crowd quieted and listened to unfamiliar songs.  The songs he played were not the songs the middle-aged crowd remembered hearing when they were teen-agers or the songs I remembered listening to with my father when I was a young girl.  In fact, I remember turning to my boyfriend saying, “What the hell is this?”  I was very disappointed to see Bob playing THE KEYBOARD and not THE GUITAR.  I wanted to see him play the guitar!  I wanted to hear “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Blowin’ in the Wind!”  I didn’t want to hear songs I didn’t recognize.  The crowd was rather quiet, but polite and gave him a round of applause as he left the stage.  However, Bob and his band came back on stage and played “Like a Rolling Stone.”  That certainly got the crowd moving, and he and his band received more applause then, than during his entire set.  This proves that Dylan’s old songs are much more popular with fans than his new songs.

Dylan’s new album Tell Tale Signs is his way of stating that things have changed, including his perspective– “not something born of the existential moment but of the existential long view and the courage of dread.”  As Rolling Stone states, “we’ve asked Dylan to deliver us truths.  Now that he has, we need to ask ourselves if we can live with them.”  Can the fans live with the fact that things have changed?  From the artist’s perspective, he’s simply set a new milestone.  From the fan’s point of view, it may be hard to accept the fact that Dylan doesn’t play the guitar much anymore and his voice is much raspier than the young man who sang “Like a Rolling Stone.”  What the fan must realize is that Bob Dylan will always be  BOB DYLAN, and as time evolves, so will he.

First song…

I assembled my first song and wanted to keep it simple, so I only used songs I already had from Jim Morrison, Nine Inch Nails, and Rage Against the Machine.  I couldn’t figure out how to make tracks fade, so that’s something I’m going to have to look into.  Mostly, I like the way the song came together in the end, even though it is pretty simple.  There’s some things I’m going to have to research, such as how to make certain parts fade and how to save the song to my ipod because I had a terrible time trying to figure it out.  For the next song I want to use Allan Ginsberg’s “America.”

E.A. Music

This is my blog for MUH253.  Read it and enjoy!