EMP Pop Conference 2010 — Saturday presentations

And once more into the breach…

Jason Hanley, “The Transformation of Kraftwerk: From ‘Autobahn’ to ‘Man Machine’” — Rock defined often by singers and guitarists, keyboardists trying to look cool (Rick Wakeman!) or trying something different visually. Thus Kraftwerk and its run of core seventies albums. Paper addresses their sound, image, modernist agenda in the post modern rock world. Ralf and Florian’s background, education and early collaborations discussed, “total rupture” by embracing electronic possibilities, meeting Conny Plank and his idea of a uniquely German sound. Photo of the early studio shown, discusses the idea of studio as instrument. First Kraftwerk album discussed, the implications of the name of the band, linguistic resonances, the Dusseldorf setting. Instruments edited and altered, live 1970 TV clip of “Ruckzuck” shown. Critical reputation as intellectuals noted, then Autobahn and the fuller move to the synthesizer, album credits and the audio scientist role, clip played of the synth bird chirps from the album mixed with flute, “Autobahn” and its use of Vocoder and melodic refrains as a new step, clip played. Image shift discussed to full clean cut style, 1975 TV clip shown playing the new percussion pads. Rock journalist responses to Kraftwerk: mixed shall we say, or worse (anti German jokes etc.), Lester Bangs Creem article discussed as is the Man Machine concept. Radioactivity — few on songs, heavy on concept, using new pieces of technology, without Conny Plank, radioactivity as confused concept (as radio waves? as nuclear power?), nuclear power plant press photo shown. More trashing reviews: “album sounds mechanical even for them!” Trans Europe Express released next, a circular pattern of an album, minimalist and only pop because of the vocal hooks. They start reacting back to other musicians working with their sound (Bowie/Eno Low). Man Machine released, response in part to Eurodisco, Moroder, etc. “I Feel Love” and “Spacelab” compared. New box set replaces earlier covers but keep the later ones.

Lauren Hume Flood, “Total Sonic Annihilation” — introduces the story of Oliver Ackermann and Death by Audio and their DIY pedal business, recent attention in the mainstream. Takes us on a tour of the offices, equipment everywhere, scattered pieces of work, various pedal names mentioned and photos of the equipment shown, packaging. Explanation of a pedal’s general construction and appearance, inner workings widely accepted as is unless it doesn’t work or someone wants to change and alter the ‘black box.’ “Necessary but ugly machinery” mentioned. Decoration of a pedal as reflective of sound and meaning/uses. Names as metaphors, aural into text. Death by Audio website shown, text for the Total Sonic Annihilation discussed. Rhetoric around A Place to Bury Strangers discussed plus the noise/analog inspirations, aesthetics through machines. Video for “I Know I’ll See You” shown, filmed via webcam while in an RV, intentionally corroded, circuit board shots interpersed with industrial parks, “Keep Slipping Away” video features old TV sets and other seemingly kitsch audio equipment, plus Ackermann directly interacting with his pedals — lines between machines get blurred, technology as captivating and oppressive. Sonic must manifest itself visually in a market economy.

Theo Cateforis, “‘Dark Spaces and Empty Places’” — Peter Doyle and reverb mentioned, paper explores post 1960 possibilities. Plays clip of the start of “All Cats Are Grey” by the Cure. Reverb! Echo! Great of course. Perception of reverb comes from the physical world, large spaces and hard surfaces. Percussion discussed in the song, the eternally looped and echoed parts with ‘wet reverberance’ — keyboards and bass add a solemn tone, like an organ in a cathedral. Partial sonic inspiration is Mervyn Peake‘s Gormenghast, a massive Gothic castle in the mind’s eye. Double tracked vocals places us in the cave, literally given the lyrics, a sense of passivity and emptiness, enshrouded in darkness. Lol Tolhurst’s mother’s death, Robert Smith’s fear in lack of faith — suburban background and connections explored, Michael Bracewell on Crawley as empty and echoed landscape. Simon Reynolds on the desolate psychogeography of the industrial North in Thatcher’s time, plus general postpunk cultural gloom. Critical reaction mixed — was it Thatcher that annoyed Smith or just the weather? Reverb’s general impact discussed, Martin Hannett and dub and the embrace of artifice. A revolt against dry sound/dead studio effect. Drums as the linchpin. Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” vs Joy Division’s “Heart and Soul” drum styles, close miked vs echo echo echo. Hannett draining ambient spillage and adding it back, Mike Hedges doing similar with the Cure, Lillywhite and gated drums, etc. Songwriting approaches in lines and layers, Wire’s “The Other Window.” Composed on bass, four impossible to reproduce key changes, suggestions of space resultant, lyrics as fragmented in the overall echo construction. Brilliant song. Shifting harmonies reflecting multiplicity of spaces in the song, a mounting inner turmoil reflected. A different song from “All Cats” but there’s an aesthetic at work. Smith on wanting a very stripped back sound, resultant implied harmonies. The Walkman comes out around this time — the ultimate in isolation while listening to music on isolation?

Daphne Brooks, “Open Tuning: Blind Tom, Human Photography & Black (Metaphysical) Noise in the Age of Slavery” — grew out of research for a book, everyone asked about Blind Tom! So into the performance with some Massive Attack, “Pray for Rain,” lyrics about people under stress, a way to enter the past, an alternative sonic sphere in the 19th century. Willa Cather on Blind Tom: a human phonograph, a crossover success after the Civil War in the North. Fits in the nighttime, echolalia — autistic? Defied conventional diagnosis at the time. His ability to translate and reproduce information was beyond measure, yet he was triply exploited as slave, blind man, musician, marketed as a Barnumesque freak show for thirty five years, died in 1908. Moved from unintended CSA fundraiser to something else after the war. Lots of great quotes I can’t capture here, sorry! Thoughts on Blind Tom as jukebox hero, liminally between slavery and freedom, a ghostly medium, fugitive sonics, the reverb of reconstruction. Whew! Daphne is a very quick reader so I’m being a bit outstripped here. What did he hear? America singing but also quotidian sounds, a translator of sounds, Whitman like. Thoughts on intersections, Blind Tom as a hot mike for society. Hits, classical, popular, but imitations of other instruments. Quote from 1867 paper on his imitative abilities, especially of tuning up other instruments. Seeds of an avant garde culture, automatic art? Strindberg quoted and there we are!

David Suisman, “Digital Before Digital” — the player piano has not aged well, true! But mechanical reproduction is not just about the phonograph, and one hundred years back the player piano was seen as the winner and more innovative. Both invented around the same time, both popularized over time into the 20th century, seen as harbringers of dramatic change, often talked about together, seen to be more democratic but less creative, perhaps a menace or robbing copyright holders. Early music business history and copyright issues discussed in Congress, the Copyright Act of 1909 covering both broadly. Player piano disrupts the narrative — music, mechanized, digitized — into something else. Not just revolutionary but evolutionary, part of a larger mechanical interest in music (like the development of the piano itself pre the player piano!). It’s not that the earlier operations were automatic but predetermined, thus Marx and displacement of labor. Examples discussed, piano vs violin as an example, player piano is more advanced but operator involvement still needed, as with phonographs. (Radio etc as something with less control over time.) Antecedents — the oldest organs even shows this, Roman hydraulus organs, through to barrel organs and the like. All based on binary or digital programming if you like! Machine executes feats. Pianolas discussed, human operators still needed for tempo, then later ones take that out. Pianists recorded rolls for reproducing player pianos. John McTammany mentioned, earlier inventions worked from silk looms, 18th century punch cards! Babbage machine stuff noted as well, 1890 tabulating the census inspired by player piano roll work, leading to IBM! Their music box at Seattle Worlds Fair shown, Mo Tucker and punch card work! Last year the final piano roll company shut down — still operating all this time! Amazing stuff. The player piano is still with us.

Lori Brooks, “‘To Be Black Is To Be Funny’” — discussion of coon songs in the early part of the last century, coon as term discussed, applied in the post Civil War years, songs popularized in Tin Pan Alley times by white women, stereotypes outlined. Quote on racialization of society noted, but paper wants to address a different kind of performance. Melancholy and race explored, what of racial grief? Freud and Cheng (?) quoted. Endless self impoverishment that can still nurture, feeding upon it, loss, denial and incorporation. The ego takes it in and sustains it — deep psych theory here, sorry for any elisions! Swallowed, not digested. Nonwhites stuck in the throat of the nation, those who do not belong yet there. Ghostly performances discussed, white female coon shouters, singing in the voice of an absent coon. What kind of modernity is this? What can it teach us about ethics? Coon used rather than black man in this talk precisely because it is a denigrating stereotype. Title is from 1941 book on American humor, conflating minstrelsy and African American art. May Irwin — Canadian, lived until 1938, clip of 1895 “Bully Song” played. Irwin’s style was different — a large woman, used that as a source of humor, performances seen as conversational and intimate. Song is violent, razors mentioned, death…and in this context meant to be comedic. It’s not blackface minstrelsy as she did not dress up as such, other standards apply instead. What does it all mean? What is to be made of her body, rearticulating the bully as something else, a liberation via violence, a presentation of paradox, a kind of cross dressing. Sex is implied, an invasion of the body, white women being a site of anxiety given ragtime. Simply a story of domination? Consider it as queer space too, a space of intersex, so while there shouldn’t be no blame, power must be accounted for. Irwin performs in the liminal space, to perform there is to enact a certain kind of violence in the Plessy v Ferguson years. Irwin’s performance was unethical yet transgressive — not revolutionary but exposed a way of remaking the self, inhabiting forbidden spaces. Anna Deavere Smith described in comparison/contrast.

Jody Rosen, “‘The Microphone Has No Footlights’: Al Jolson’s Radio Days” — “Al Jolson, come on!” Photo on screen, minstrelsy connection noted but paper is on other things. First some clips: Al in 1927 in The Jazz Singer, whistle it up!, then Owl Jolson in a 1936 cartoon! Singing on the radio! Jolson as musical modernity in the 1910/20′s, the human megaphone, a turbine, a current. Vaudeville crashes in the Depression, radio comes in, no comedic gestures to be seen! Crooning is about understatement and Al couldn’t quite fit. In his heyday he covered all areas, of his Jewishness brought full to the fore in his work and life. Part of a revolt against the Anglo-American tradition, song clips played “I Sent My Wife To the Thousand Isles.” Vocal styles about volume and effects, abhorred a vocal vacuum. Hour long encores! Made managers installed ramps, loved sweating on the audience, very James Brown! “Mammy” clip played. Not an act that lent itself to radio! “Jolson too big for radio,” said George Burns. First radio work in 1933 a notable flop, sounded nervous, went offmike. Negative fan reaction quoted. Vaughn DeLeath‘s “The Whisper Song” played, first crooner hit, Rudy Vallee as the anti-Jolson, megaphones as a collegiate signifiers, new not old, PR claimed “the guy with the cock in his voice!” (Jolson in response: “the guy with a cock in his mouth!” Jody says that was real, crowd dies in laughter!) Questions of weak-voiced singers, not masculine, Jolson dismissive and insulting to crooners. Subject matter shrinking to just love songs, Jolson used to doing more, frustrated by limitations and the redomesticated pop world. Jolson returned to radio but as an oldies act later on. But Jolson did have this ballsy move, stepping offmike, clip from The Jolson Story shown him at 60, other film clip starts with a croon, then ragtime, stepping away from the mike, go for the ham joke! And done!

“The Machine Speaks: Hua Hsu Interviews Dave Tompkins on the History of the Vocoder” — I won’t be doing a full runthrough here, taking a lunch break! But Tompkins’s book How to Wreck a Nice Beach is on the subject so check that out — Tompkins has a great slide show and amazing anecdotes.

“Plagiarhythm Nation: Appropriation in Electric Dance Music” — a joint presentation by Bernardo Alexander Attias, Fred Church and Mark Gunderson. Part overview of the phonographic cut and paste aesthetic, part performance with Mark on the VidiMasher:

Mark is doing quote readings from figures in the history of phonographics (Edison, Sousa, Gramaphone magazine writers, etc.) with a crackly/old radio broadcast overlay, along with the musical collage he is overseeing. Ben is doing the initial reading, presumably Fred to follow. It’s a good overall history lesson, touching on various factors — copyright philosophy, perceptions of moral problems in the early days, Edison vs Bell, more to follow — but it’s not easily summarizable given the performance nature!

Christopher DeLaurenti, “The New Photographers: An Alternate History of Field Recording” — field recording conjures images of getting lost songs, recording without ADR, etc. But what is it? We mostly hear studio work, meticulously controlled and predictable, edited down. Field recordings are unstable, uncontrolled, with flaky gear, vulnerable to the elements. Recordist is far from home, but it’s not location but a condition. Alternate history: 1877 and Edison and the tinfoil phonograph, Greek sound writer. Developments into the wax cylinder, then the anthropologists start recording and the archives start appearing, Vienna/Berlin 1899. Tashkent recording from 1905 played, a now nonexistent instrument apparently. Musicians were from royal court, anonymous for their protection, limitations of recording turns string instruments into tones. 1899 is first known recording of bird songs. Gear could be cumbersome — Lomaxes recorded with 315 pound acetate recorder! Field expanded, recorders shrank. Tony Schwartz recorded people and places in New York in the forties and onward, recording played describing a murdered man’s dying words as told by another with thoughts on racism. Field recordings change late between recording and recording/editing/reworking. Nature recordings reached amazing levels of virtuosity in the 1990s. Inaudible edits shored up seamless sonic realities. Then digitally flattened sound kicks in (Nono, Feldman as forebears), glitch and computer manipulation, reissues, MiniDisc recorder arrives (no crumpled tape!). Clip played of dog bark recordings and noise — 1996 Claude Matthews recording of dogs about to be destroyed. Michael Northam recorded the wind in Texas silos, empty blasted drones. 2003 Peter Cusack goes to Lake Baikal, birds and waves and echoed…something, a singing broadcast voice? All three clips unedited, no overdubs. Instruments endure because they are reliable, notation as form of field recording. Recording of vocal piece from Italy (Banchieri?) composed four centuries back, at once singing and meows! Dogs, cats, more. Flutes as representing birds in Beethoven in the Pastorale. Unusual juxtapositions, unexpected polyphony. A history of field recording should therefore not begin with the technology of recording!

Jon Leidecker, “The Radio as Instrument: Shortwave Sound at the Roots of Sampling” — guts of paper taken from a podcast about appropriated collage! Thus a subset about radio as instrument. Collage in general is the style that reflects the 20th century in music the best, in its collaborative and communal over generations. Turntables are the pop instrument in this process, some pieces predate radio. Radio was the instrument that people could respond to first, more than the frozen recorded moment. 1922 is the commercial ground zero, massive boost in stations and receivers even when turntables were still a luxury item. Three works to be discussed here, a novelty 20s piece, Cage in the 40s, Czukay in the late seventies. Quote from book about radio talking about its social nature in the twenties, interactive and immediate, in the room with the broadcast. By late twenties, definitely marketed as a form of entertainment at home. Billy Jones and Ernest Hair were the Happiness Boys, early radio personalities. Song recorded simulates the listener searching through stations at home, “Twisting the Dial” by name. Clip played and it’s great, the static between stations created by a slide whistle (is it?) and a “washboard with a rock.” Not strictly using the radio but encourages others to use it as an instrument, media overload from 1928! Sampling cut to shellac, six records used in the collage and credited on the sleeve, speed altered. Built for non-sequiturs and disjunctive listening where turntables were more static. Cage starts proposing turntable/radio pieces in the late 1930′s, “Credo in Us” from 1942 played, radio operator instructed when to turn on instrument and add snippet (1971 recording but sounds like 1942 anyway!) Forced randomness in the mix, but Cage was pissed whenever improv was introduced! Allow for sounds beyond self-expression. 12 radios in “Imaginary Landscape No. 4″ allowed him to enjoy the beach and its noise! Italian 1974 performance played in part, radio merriment madness and static crackle. Why not more collage earlier given all the radio station equipment? Quite a bit of restraint up to a certain point, but Les Ford multitracking and rock sonics help expand the idea of what works, by 1960 everyone starts collaging like crazy. Shortwave radio interference runs throughout, Keith Rowe, Cage, Stockhausen, Lennon and “I Am the Walrus.” From Stockhausen to Can, Czukay playing radio, Canaxis as world music collage, shortwave noise. Was Can’s tape editor, working with the improvs to create, then shifting with Rosko Gee so Czukay takes radio and Morse code tappers on stage to liven things up, as it were. Czukay leaves just to edit, vocals from shortwave. 1979′s “Cool in the Pool” played, devolved disco? Proto Arthur Russell solo? Vocal samples collaged together. Pop, looks forward to digital sampling. Radio as performative element, Chris Cutler’s performance of the Cage piece lately didn’t work as well as shortwave has mostly gone silent (thus Basinski, Dockstadter).

Laura Harris, “Art and Social (After)life: Jimi Hendrix and Hélio Oiticica” — Oiticica’s archive recently destroyed in a fire, sadly. CC5 HENDRIX-WAR features altered covers of War Babies viewed while tapes of Hendrix play. Can Oiticica’s work be salvaged or recovered? Oiticica bio given, growing up in Brazil with its military government and racism. Grandfather was often imprisoned anarchist, father schooled children at home. Oiticica makes his reputation in Rio in avant garde art circles, explores samba in the mid-sixties and makes sonic connections in his art. Constructs art out of found objects meant to be carried, held, environmental works, “experimental exercise of freedom,” wear them and use them as you can. Impromptu exhibition set up when museum refuses access. Tropicalia installation noted, dictatorship cracks down due to the favelado connection. Oiticica knew he had to leave, first to London and then New York. Realized that he needed the margins in New York (Loft, S&M clubs), gravitates to the image of Hendrix and what it suggests. “Gives rise to a kind of delirium.” Musicworddancebody performances, National Anthem performance. It can’t survive itself, no afterlife, “suddenly arrived at — Woodstock doesn’t exist anymore.” Constructs/reconstructs ‘nests’ to live and work in, tunnels and boxes and more assembled, sites of ‘productive leisure,’ photos shown. Works on paper proposed and designed, constantly revised and worked on, thus CC5 and Hendrix. Notes shown, equipment needed to draw cocaine lines, public and private performances, where and how to set up things.

Tapes to be foregrounded, have all Hendrix to hand! Whatever the ‘administrator’ has available. Hendrix serves less as fetish for social space coalescing and more as theorist in the work. Not wasted time but invented time. A relation at the level of form between Hendrix and Oiticica’s work, Hendrix as constant reworker of material (“Voodoo Chile” and its versions and configurations of the band). Pop song as work of art exploded via technique. Clip played. What Hendrix does to pop song, Oiticica does to the work of art, disruptive, insurgent. Citizenship and the other had shut out the ‘motley crews’ but possibilities and traces exist, open formations and autonomy, aesthetic sociality of blackness. Oiticica extending Hendrix’s afterlife, and now Oiticica’s own?

EMP 2008 Pop Conference — Saturday panels and presentations

Oh my sleeping head. Here was the Saturday schedule. Again, here are my VERY scattershot thoughts on it all as it happened:

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Kara Attrep, “She Yoko-ed the Band” — “don’t Yoko my band!” T-shirts as emblem of the destroyer of male genius. Her voice is the key and core of the metaphor of Onoism. Become a Yoko by being marginal, creative, married to another artist who often dies. Clara Schumann is an early example — someone who brought Robert “down.” Born rich, Yoko learned from Mom and went through WWII then moved to NYC and started loft shows in the sixties, was part of Fluxus, performed at Carnegie Hall, confused the hell out of the NY Times. Work was in demand and well respected, divorced and remarried and met John in London. From there her public identity changed while John felt more like a true artist with her in NYC. In 1973 she described the feeling of how other musicians regarded her as an “other” which felt strange in the “melting pot” of the studio. Dick Cavett clip is played — WEIRD dynamic, but both John and Yoko crush and twist it. She met John as “another artist.” Post 1980 accusations continued and intensified. She did benefit from the connection but still struggles to this day. Courtney Love comparison noted — no race but class issues instead, how the estate is handled. Mary Parks, Albert Ayler‘s last girlfriend, gets a lot of “blame” for his late sixties shift in sound and focus, even though the focus was on spiritual love. Adjectives listed about their voices — screeching, wailing etc. Clips of all three played — Yoko “AOS,” Hole’s “20 Years in the Dakota,” Parks (as Mary Maria)’s “Oh! Love of Life” w/ Ayler. Hearing outside of context they don’t sound as alien as their critics say. “Yes I’m a Witch” as statement of defiance (praise a wizard, burn a witch). (Q&A covers Parks a bit more, some discussion about her rare interviews).

Mina Yang, “The ‘Tsunami Song’: Hip-hop at the Vortex of an International Disaster” — entered part way through. Talking about Asian music and cultural connections to black music in America and back again. Controversy over “The Tsunami Song” and responses (including the role of Jin and the place he is forced into, compared to Eminem but stuck with bigger hurdles). “If it was any other race, the shit would have hit the fan.” But Jin remains optimistic, “hip hop brings us all together.” Protests in New York bringing together groups but highlighted institutionalized racism via the government and big business. FCC silence in particular reflected media silence or exploitation. Some firings and suspensions but even so. Much remains the same, Ms. Jones remains in the morning role, questions of aid and government and hiphop infighting remain.

Carl Wilson, “The Singing of the Disaster: Newsreels, Protests, Charidee and Shock Absorption in Popular Music” — music in background as mood music of sorts, is a work in progress. Being sober minded in the face of disaster is impossible, no matter what Adorno thinks. It will be addressed in song. People Take Warning is mentioned — resonances of the set post 9/11 comes up but has the tradition shifted to the likes of Law and Order, or is it in music still? Event songs are discussed in the mid-20s heyday, pushed aside by Jimmie Rodgers, with disaster records emerging in the 30s via race records. Just in time journalism? Surely not with the Titanic songs, for instance. Talk about the formula of songs, broadsides, disaster stories with morals in a variety of media contexts over the centuries. On the box set the newness lies with industrial accidents, while blues left out the moral in many cases. Protest songs emerge in the thirties with the left looking at things through a new lens (also the New Deal providing a new inspiration). Moving ahead post WWII to “Desolation Row” and the apocalypse song and other protest songs (Auden on disaster noted). Folk revival kicks in and the romantics have it from there. Bee Gees with “New York Mining Disaster 1941″ as confection concoted for the Americans. 80s charity song — celebrities like it, so it must be important! Disaster actually left out of the songs in many cases. New form post-Katrina? Pop eventually off in its own realm while the market controls and encourages private control over public. Charity model in songs, more political hiphop songs, response from a radio station owner in LA — GAWD what a piece of horrific right wing shit, “The Battle of New Orleans” as rewritten by Malkin. New Orleans bounce tracks like “Get Ya Hustle On” takes an activist approach in its own way…another anti-FEMA song played, call and response, milder in language and don’t expect to make anything happen, disaster songs for a YouTube age, one of passivity. How much has happened in the switch from story to star?

Alex Rawls, “The First Rule of Hurricanes” — Katrina in a way will not stop, projects now being demolished, trailer parks being shut down, housing being priced out, businesses going, more. He has handled songs — crappy benefit songs like a cat with a dead mouse in its teeth. “I caught this for you!” What do you tell the writers? Couldn’t praise but couldn’t pan. It was therapy but still. Wish he had kept the CDRs now but then they seemed too emblematic. Bad lines quoted — singer/songwriter trying to sum up the disaster but how they reduced it as a result. Sense from people of “wanting to do something” — really bad song played, oh DEAR. Cowboy Mouth song “The Avenue” does have some modest longing that almost works but other lines, Jesus. Good Katrina should be able to happen but it’s too big an event, requiring the listener to make the connection. Songs feel too foppish given the events. Mary Gauthier complains about the bad Katrina songs but notes the difficulties. Feelings are boiling over in moments and those are remembered. Blues comparisons don’t always work — “Katrina you bitch” But others work, personal stories as microcosms. James Andrews‘ “Katrina Katrina” has a place but there’s more in the acid funk of “One Two What You Gonna Do?” (I think). Dumpster Truck’s “Meanwhile” has a place, others wish to move on. Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke provides a context for Lil Wayne‘s “Georgia Bush” but an isolated one, not widely heard. Elvis Costello does The River in Reverse with Allen Toussaint but it’s more the performance. Annie Lennox’s “Why?” as covered by John Boutte reinterprets but still is bound by contexts — but the words are not always precious. Looking forward to a day when N O folks can hear the metaphors as such, when “Get Ya Hustle On” really gets its due as a cold response to a cold response from the government — a dark comedy. Not therapeutic, examines a complex paranoia. Songs still being made, mostly crap still.

Jody Rosen, “Girl Gone Wild: Eva Tanguay’s Madcap Feminism” — Eva Tanguay born in Quebec died in Hollywood 1947, recorded one song “I Don’t Care,” preeminent vaudeville star in its heyday, “performing songs about herself” — 15000 audience members at a show in 1912. THE star of stars, outstripped Houdini and Caruso. No biography, erased from history, autobio promised but never delivered, biopic erased her story, only passing mentions in histories if at all. Ralph Bakshi put her song in American Pop and it’s more punk rock than “Pretty Vacant!” Great stage stories, noted for backstage fights, breakthrough role in 1904′s “The Sambo Girl.” Sentiments were shocking at the time, flailing and writhing was part of the show, sung with hisses and yelps. Song played — high voice; twisted smiles evident, astounding lyrics. Act gained lots of bombastic praise for brazen sexuality, her energy, her hair! “The evangelist of joy!” Aleister Crowley was a fan and wrote some amazing purple prose, going into Baudelaire quotes, “the vulture of Prometheus!” Distinctly American — one hit called “Personality,” built her legend, employed five publicists, she would have loved TMZ. Publicity stunts, clothes horse, always in the papers, dress made from pennies! Staged feuds, trashed people in poetry in ads in Variety! Song “Give an Imitation” about the biters, “Egotistical Eva” about “I and I” More of the song has self-depracting verses (“brrrrroad!”) She did sing straight though — unironic ballads — so she knew what she was doing all the life. Tanguay is the main figure of “vocal madcapism” among others “zany new women.” A stylized speak-sing patter of which she was the queen. Recordings played showing the shift in styles as a result, from 1907 and the like. Clip of a sound film showing percussion patter on a cello! Trixie Treganza original gangsta! Yay Eva and where does she fit? Couldn’t swing but Mae West was a fan and so was Ethel Waters and it goes to Billie Holliday? Lost her fortune in 1929, scraped along to death sadly.

Maurice Methot, “The Interface is the Message: Software Design as Resistance” — strategies of resistance in electronic instruments. Tech evolved quickly, symbolismof resistance in computer as folk instruments. Communities mobilized by machine design and limitations — marvelling at creations and what they meant when they were created. Theremin performance from fifties TV shown, speaking of the charm of electric power and sound, a wizard embedded in the culture who sometimes emerges. Mr Rogers and Bruce Haack! Wow! What a clip! (Can’t find the full one, but here’s a snippet.) Donald Buchla as seventies inventor, poetic and oracular systems, costly and important. From Fairlight to garage punk users of same, from Trevor Horn to Steve Lipson with Act (no conventional instruments! Huge money outlays!) Software aiming for acoustic and avoiding its own digital nature. Opposing styles of electronic systems. Reason as embracing its analog roots in its visual design and metaphor. 303 and 606 as embracing electronic folk practice via techno. Emulator II in Ferris Bueller popularizes itself and practice. Emile Tobenfeld embraces digital autonomous behaviors. Great fake news clip on Opcode Systems. Strangeness brought back into electronic music when we look at the less familiar parts of the histories. ANS photosynthesizer by Murzin clip shown — bigass crazy great machine! Scrape away emulsion and let light impact to create tones. Matmos would love this — the glissando sequence, “can’t do that with ProTools!”

David Rubinson, “Napster As Cradle of the Revolution” — witnessing and participatory panopticon is the goal. In ancient times the major labels walked the earth and demanded control of all aspects of the system. Then the geeks invented peer-to-peer and the majors tried to control it. “sell every part of the pig but the oink,” but they couldn’t monetarize it no matter how tried it. Now they disappear under their own arrogances and we can apply that to the military government media complex. The truth is not owned. Progressive blog model is old and does not work, a repackaging of past models. Control and intimidation remains in play. Peer to peer will bypass this structures, build now and monetarize later. Create more community access and local networks within the whole. Bentham mentioned, panopticon described and meant to be shared as a model. Foucault’s notes mentioned, “the unequal gaze,” uncertainity of surveillance at any given time and internalizing discipline. Suveillance, watching from below in response to control, reality TV and video cameras. Cassio: “Every citizen with a cameraphone can be a reporter.” Describes actions with Stop-loss Congress, creating video witnesses. “The whole world is watching.” Peter Gabriel‘s Witness project is good but only bidirectional but not p2p, too much control still, fantastic but still limited. Share everything in the participatory panopticon instead. Rodney King as the start, and more from there. Rumsfeld and Abu Ghraib as freakout example, Saddam’s death as another. More on the new model, a bit of rehash.

Tom Smucker, “Story and Stance in American Pop Music and Politics” — (NOTE: my notes here can’t begin to capture the freewheeling combination of images and flow of words Smucker creates in his presentations; very much another ‘you had to be here’ moment.) The Kennedy and Reagan models of presidencies loom large. Kennedy is Rat Pack plus Kingston Trio, has to promise to be secular because of antiCatholic bias. Protest voice is given some attention as a result. Inside the consensus is where it is found. Looks to new configurations, LBJ and King continue things as far as they can to complete the first phase of the civil rights movement. Collapse of consensus leads to conspiracy and paranoia in the counterculture as such. Articulating dislocation in identity politics. Southern Strategy is a step for Nixon but it feels inauthentic. Nixon reinvents but he ain’t no Neil Young or Prince. Carter and the Eagles! He loves jazz but… Reaganism leaps backwards to find a presumed media product consensus and the Rat Pack leaves Kennedy. Back to the Future! Star Wars is in the past! Right wing talk radio emerges, Bruce S is recruited by the right against his will, Jacko and Madonna self-manipulate into the future moonwalking backwards. Clintonism is the Nixonism of the left, unable to sustain itself. Bush II overrealizes Reaganism, McCain and Huckabee can thrive, Hillary is initially Stevie Nicks on a solo tour, Obama recombined Jacko and Oprah and Jay-Z! That’s it!

Steve Waksman, “This Ain’t the Summer of Love: BÖC, Green River and the Anti-Nostalgic Impulse” — Thurston Moore sez that with Green River was when prepunk music entered Amerindie, after a regular rejection after punk. Reclaiming strands could be seen as radical. Green River merged arena and punk styles, while “Swallow My Pride” was a de facto anthem that was often covered even by the band itself. Chorus progression noted for reference as well as the internal conflict musically and lyrically. Self conscious lyrics and repetition emphasized lust but the verses seem more true. Remade version has some key revisions in structure and with a female voice — this leads back to Blue Öyster Cult. Their critical reputation is discussed as well as the role of Sandy Pearlman, while Sniffin Glue considered them punk in the first issue. NME reference noted. “This Aint the Summer of Love” and its role and structure is discussed, then is played. As great as ever! It relishes the passing of an ethos, full of life, huge solo before the chorus repeats to the end. Second version of “Swallow My Pride” played, directly quotes BÖC musically and lyrically towards the end for half its length. Menace without the vocal harmonies, two-chord sequence in both songs emphasized. “LooooooooooooooVE!” as rejection of same, mocking the past and finding a new past to reclaim. A secret history pieced together.

Douglas Wolk, “Silver Wings and Stranger Things: The Special Force of ‘The Green Berets’” — biggest 1966 pop hit was “The Ballad of the Green Berets” and a TV clip with Barry Sadler is shown. Very stiff and soldierly in looks but a warm enough voice! Folk choral martial smoothness. Death porn! How could this song be so forgotten? Green Beret history discussed, Sadler was injured in Vietnam, wrote song with fifteen verses! RCA signed him and song became big hit. “National theme for the Vietnam War.” Protests emerged soon but covers also swiftly appeared. Answer song by Nancy Ames: “He Wore the Green Beret,” yeesh what a weeper but what a musical gear shift too. Practically “Leader of the Pack”! German cover versions were number one hits too — spooky clips shown with frozen faced singers, but also with antiwar lyrics! Comic book bits are amzing! “Ballad of the Yellow Beret” is also pro-war, mocking American draft-dodgers. “High heeled boots,” jeez! Raveup at the end — and the singer was Bob Seger! Military folks parodied it, Spanish version played next. John Wayne film mentioned, Hershel Gober song mentioned, Norwegian adaptation discussed, Sadler disenchanted, Rhodesian military loved it. 1978 saw Sadler arrested for murder, suspended sentences, started the Casca book series. 1988 shot, died following year, murky circumstances. Vague afterlife at best, why? Not feelgood, can’t be sentimental about dead soldiers or even talk about dead soldiers in an American context at all, only deathless super Green Berets.

Tobias Carroll, “’I’ve Got A Name’: AK Press, Radical Politics, and Music” — entered presentation in progress, talking about Chumbawamba and the Ex and their connections to AK Press and the feeling of DIY activism, with the Ex noting they were not happy with being called anarchist as such. Scritti Politti and Crass then discussed. Other small presses discussed like Arbeiter Ring in Winnipeg and other things. A bit of a quiet catalog of detail so I zoned a bit here, nice enough overview. [EDIT -- Tobias has put together a supplemental overview of links of interest related to his presentation.]

J.D. Considine, “If This Note Could Vote” — the politics of music– what is it? Lyrical, spoken texts, things done to evoke meaning. Nothing inherently political in the notes. Sometimes a cause is used as the hook. But not the music… “Born in the USA” as an example of Copland style construction that was widely misinterpreted due to the “open” sound. [EDIT: JD kindly wrote me some days later to clarify this part further: "It wasn't construction so much as harmonic and melodic vocabulary. If I'd had time, I'd have been more specific, mentioning how many of Copland's pieces (Appalachian Spring, Hoedown, A Lincoln Portrait, etc.) draw elements from American traditional music, particularly the open-fifth drone of double-stopped (that is, two strings played at once) fiddle as well as the hexatonic (i.e., six-note) scales of old-timey tunes. Instead, I merely cited "Born in the USA"'s open fifth synth harmony and hexatonic melody. I might have unpacked that a bit more..." No worries, and thanks for the update!] Wagner as partially tarred by association… “it’s just music” or is it? Polyphony as too radical for tradition but two centuries later it was standard. Liberalism and conservatism is down to change and its perception. Then in music? Sticking to a norm or not but what is the norm? Rapid turnover in the charts so what is consensus — averaging songs? Mathematical analysis? What is the data sample? What are Americans listening to? Polls vs voting is a key point. So bring on Billboard and its imperfect metric. 50 songs analyzed for musical content (number of chords, meter, instrumentation, chart weighting). All very sly, this exercise. Is country conservative? Etc. Was there a perfect bell curve? A is guitar favorite while E flat is for synth, G is “liberal” in comparison. Miley Cyrus as “soundtrack,” etc. Gets pretty involved from here but the whole thing is really entertaining and well observed. Again like Jesse Fuchs you had to be here! Shifts into chord discussion, harmony not correlated with that number, cross cutting cleavages in a poli sci sense if you like. “Cyclone” and “I Remember” played in contrast, both extremes against a middle in a conservative context. Further noncorrelations noted, political comparisons, all great!

Wendy Fonarow, “Singing About Love When All You Want to Do Is Strangle Someone: Musician Jokes and Pranking as Mechanisms to Relieve Conflict” — musician jokes are plentiful and she offers up chupacabras and matchsticks and an iPod with a fake radio station and DJ and more! It’s how they deal with road stress and boredom and the like — having a laugh. Cramped quarters, drugs and their lack, cheating, journalists and all that creates the stress and more examples are provided, an open marriage without sex. So jokes provide the retribution and a moral cover for immoral acts. Never leave a crew alone too much! Testicle-infused wine is the least of it. Fake record company calls, unplugging phone chargers…pranking is simply essential. Often spontaneous but there’s the musician joke cycles (no girlfriend = homeless, etc!), allowing for safe cover and the power of stereotyping in specifics (thus drummers as noted). Various examples given, lead singer syndrome in particular, narcissistic and produced as such, no matter how ordinary they are. Thus the jokes keep them in check. Guitarist jokes show competitiveness in action. Bassist jokes show them as superfluous, drummers as stupid as hell and not really musicians. Crew jokes abound around the division of labor (soundman versus the crew). Lots of examples, great stuff. Drummer jokes show a deeper anxiety all around with an iconography drawn out of the sick joke cycle. Cadbury ad supposed to be shown but link busted at the time (Daphne found it later, though). Gorilla plus Phil Collins and gorilla does the drumbreak! Primitivism and cruelty and imbecility at play. Anxiety — why? Percussion, the tribal and African element — a proxy for a deeper tension of racism. Therefore assert Eurosupremacy in the telling of the joke, knock rhythm in favor of harmony. Racism as tool to understand things (Cadbury chocolate…skin color?) But it’s not just about racism but a general anxiety over being an animal, a primate, so externalize and project. And music critics? They’ll always complain because they can’t do it themselves!

Daphne Carr, “Getting Closer: Extreme Loudness and the Body in Pain/Pleasure” — up goes the black hood, in an attempt to avoid metaphors in talking about noise, specifically East Coast styles. Elements and sources detailed — Providence! What noise does is the goal. Loudness is psychological, physical and temporal and more. Details provided (amplifications over drums in predominance). Amplifier proximity is very key. Noise performance takes note of the enclosed spaces and other location factors. Technical details discussed — hertz levels and more, comfort levels. Earplugs block the excitement. Exaggerated gestures showing musical and compositional change. But is there limitation in the formal approaches to noise? Complaints noted. Reacting to noise as cathartic — cannot be done at home, communal but singular. Fan reaction can include solitary pressing against amps, avoiding others, being a signifier. Elaine Scarry‘s Body in Pain quoted. Hard to measure reaction, diagnostic questions are metaphors of weapons, aggression on self. Musician as s/m enthusiast sharing with others. Those who stand near ask for pain as service weapon. Motionless or spasming amid pain loudness. Male dominance noted, is failure gendered, is success? Desire for punishment to allow for pleasure, is sexualized, beyond reproduction. Sex as negotiating power through pleasure, music as having a role. Suzanne Cusick (“Towards a Lesbian Relationship With Music”) quoted in re: new ways of listening. Noise fans choose the passive in contract. Worthy of dignity against other models. Powerpoint presentation from Scott Reber aka Work/Death combines slogans and quick pace. Performance in starkness, literally black and white, countdown to noise in darkness (kinda calm really but I had earplugs!).

Tom Kipp, “’I Never Heard a Man Speak Like This Man Before!’: Song, Horror and Tragedy in Jonestown, and a Convincing Simulation of Hell” — entered in progress, recordings from Jonestown being played. Unsettling and then some. Again, you need to be here, the presentation is key. Powerful stuff, delivered calmly — Tom’s great gift. Talking about being haunted by a singing of a hymn soon before the end, a psychodrama beyond easy description, “I Never Heard a Man” (traditional song, version here from Five Blind Boys of Mississippi) as passion play for self sacrifice. Jones tears into one who wished to leave, calling it blasphemy. Terrifying. Father cares indeed… Few willingly drank it, and the phrase is now in currency when it should be rejected. There is love, devotion, pathology. No songwriter could have conveyed it, “Never Heard A Man” is just too perfect for the whole horror, theatrical and diabolical. But all they sang was the chorus, the endless repetition. Jim Jones like Elvis cannot be solved, no matter what. But we can learn from it and what helped produce it, though nothing has receded. Tom then sings the chorus — a powerful end.

Elijah Wald, “Mexican Murder Musicals: How Youtube Has Revolutionized the Narcocorrido” — entered in progress (Robert Christgau has a more detailed overview of the full presentation which I heartily recommendation). Video as tool of unofficial tribute of cartel deaths. Valentin Elizalde killed after giving concert — because of the video? Just a rumor and yet. Videos can get very grisly and are widely viewed. Wald has had work forced on him because of his research but he notes that crime and music have far longer roots on both sides of the border. Some logic to the death connection exists but there is no definitive word. Two musician deaths in December are noted — but in the States this was given massive coverage and undue connections were made, “who is killing Mexico’s musicians?” Context — 9 out of 4000 actual drug crime deaths in that time but the stereotypes overwhelm, lyrics are twisted. There are some genuine stories here — the rise of corridos, the rise of crime, the use of YouTube — but there is massive conflation and only one possible death where drugs are a factor.

David Ritz, “Divided Byline: How a Student of Leslie Fiedler and Colleague of Charles Keil Became the Ghostwriter for Everybody from Ray Charles to Cornel West” — a fine and considered testimony as he puts it, and much as I would like to report on it, it’s better just to enjoy it. More tomorrow!