FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS!
No, not THAT kind of drone…the OTHER kind.
I hope it’s not sexist to say that Stereolab singer Laetitia Sadier, in their “Jenny Ondioline” video, is one of the most sensually-beautiful women I have ever seen in my life.
I spared you guys the 18-minute version of that song (but that’s your loss).
When I finally saw Stereolab live, I was thinking of their kitschy side, but I had for some reason forgotten their early obvious debt to MBV also. I was wholly unprepared for the way they scorched that room and melted my face.
An aside: when I was idly searching for info on the above song, I came across this lovely little bit of writing which I really enjoyed, even as it pointed out to me how pedestrian my own music writing is in comparison (and AFAICT the person who wrote that piece didn’t take even pseudonymous credit for it!), and how simplistic my own appreciation and “use” of music usually is – almost wholly functional, and ideally experienced as emotional deliriant.
There are notable exceptions, but in large part I listen to music so I don’t have to hear myself think anymore, for the opportunity to briefly lose myself in pure sensation and sound.
Here are some more sonic alchemists:
Laika – Almost Sleeping
These gals were kind of a murkier Stereolab – less obsessively fussed-over sonically, but more emotionally-direct:
Electrelane – To The East
Heh, when I saw the title my immediate reaction was “hey, what happened to ‘no politics’?”Report
The “no politics” rule remains in place…but I’m not above a sensationalist headline to draw ’em in.Report
I had to do the same when I wrote about Bad Religion (the band… not the all of it).Report
I saw them in 2000, Switched On Volume 2 was on the turntable a lot back then.
“in large part I listen to music so I don’t have to hear myself think anymore”
That’s one way to do it.
There are very few rock bands that I can sleep to, Stereolab isn’t one but MBV definitely is. Turn Loveless up all the way and take a nap.Report
You saw them right around the same time I did, it would have been around ’99 or 2000. They had been doing the “lounge/space-pop” thing for so long, I had forgotten how noisy they could be. They totally rocked.
I’ve mentioned this here before, but Psychocandy can knock me right out. Something about that white noise (or in the case of Loveless, pink noise) can be soothing.Report
1/f puts me to sleep too.
I mean thinking about the stuff I’ve read about 1/f puts me to sleep.Report
I had to look up 1/f. 😉
Sorry, “pink” wasn’t meant as a technical term; just a quickie attempt to distinguish the way they do “noise” vs. the way the JAMC did it. MBV is to me less “masculine” (less aggressive/abrasive, more enveloping).
More like being ensconced in a gigantic, warm ocean swell, and less like being incarcerated in a steel cage with sparking power tools working on it.Report
I figured it was metaphor/imagery, though I wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Makes sense though, now that you’ve explained it. Now I’m trying to think of an example of “blue noise.”Report
Now you’ve got me wondering why I can’t come up with an example of blue noise. Maybe because I think of noise/distortion as “warm/hot”, and blue is “cool”? Like, there’s definitely plenty of beat-oriented or electronic music (or jazz, or pop, or, you know, blues) that sounds “blue” – but once it starts to be distorted, that sound is getting “warmer” to me?
In the same way that the hiss and crackle of vinyl is “warm”.
I wonder if it has anything to do with deep-rooted ancestral fire associations – the hiss and sizzle and crackle (and heat/light) of the campfire.Report
What Edge was doing with the guitar in U2’s “Numb”?Report
[guitar snob]”What is Edge doing with a guitar in ANY U2 song?!” Hey-o!”[/guitar snob]
(NOTE: I actually like Edge quite a bit as a guitarist).Report
Well, I heard this song on the local college station the other day and it always makes me laugh and giggle and then I’m transfixed by how absolutely horrible it is… and then how it becomes… I dunno. Something that you know that he loves soooo much and you see how he loves it. And you stop giggling. Kinda.
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Anyway, the last 4 or 5 minutes of crazy might be “blue noise”.Report
I didn’t think it was that bad, the guitar work was quite nice…but to me that’s not “noise” (well, it is, in the sense of “sonic vibrations”, but not in the sense of “distortion – intentional or not – functioning as musical compositional element”), it’s “music”.
Note that I don’t use “noise” pejoratively. I know my description above of the Mary Chain might seem like a dis, but it’s not. A little bit of pain served up with the pleasure can be a good thing – I have a post coming up on that.Report
I was hoping this post was about Bertie Wooster or Bingo Little..Report