the new role of rock'n'roll
ok, so maybe rock is no longer the envelope-pushing force in music that it was three or four decades ago. i will even agree with those who, out of some mysterious sense of duty, declare that rock is dead (as for me, at least, this is true). this doesn't mean that i can no longer appreciate a great rock album. the two most recent that fall into this category are the debut lps of franz ferdinand and lcd soundsystem. i thoroughly enjoy these albums as such, but they also both have amazing singles. and what i really love are the remixes of these singles, particularly the tiga remix of tribulations (by lcd ss) and the playgroup remix of this ffffire (by ff). other fantastic remixes include the m. geist and daft punk remixes of take me out by ff.
i suspect that the artists of these songs knew that the music would be improved upon by some of the world's finest remixers as they were making it. i will even go so far as to speculate that they were counting on it and therefore made the music as remixable as possible, keeping it beat driven and fairly poppy.
from my perspective, the rock that i am interested in these days is more of a rough sketch - a handful of rhythms, guitar and vocal sounds that sound spectacular when sampled and mixed with the perfect synth sounds. in this roughness, rock, although playing a new role in the society of musical genres, remains true to it's roots.
i suspect that the artists of these songs knew that the music would be improved upon by some of the world's finest remixers as they were making it. i will even go so far as to speculate that they were counting on it and therefore made the music as remixable as possible, keeping it beat driven and fairly poppy.
from my perspective, the rock that i am interested in these days is more of a rough sketch - a handful of rhythms, guitar and vocal sounds that sound spectacular when sampled and mixed with the perfect synth sounds. in this roughness, rock, although playing a new role in the society of musical genres, remains true to it's roots.
COMMENTS:
said: making tracks that are intentionally ammenable to remixing seems like an essentially non-rockist thing to do. so by "roots" i take it you mean more the 50's/early 60's pop aspects rather than the late 60's and onward prog/auteur bullshit?
i agree about the type of rock music i like now... i like some of the sounds and very little of the baggage. mr perpetua sums it up nicely. but yeah, when caps&jones dropped some spare, riff-heavy rock over some nice beats, shit was great. see also johnny cash's personal jesus cover laced over an akufen beat on the fourth optimo mix, and many more...
if you're gonna talk about remixable rock, you should at least metion the first rapture album. so so many good remixes. oh and the lindstrøm remix of tribulations might top the tiga one.
but this all seems like admiring rock music for its utility... what you can do to it, rather that what it is in and of itself (obv these are not entirely seperable). sort of backhanded compliments, in a sense. at least some people would veiw them as such... i think that remixablity is a perfectly great trait for a rock song (or rather, track?) to possess. i get a different impression from a lot of rock fans though: whenever i mention how much better a remixed version is than someones fav album track i get some wonderfully disdainful looks.
so anyway... recent rock albums that i like, with no thought given to how they could be remixed? i can ony think of on from this year: the sunset tree by the mountain goats. so out of line with my recent listening habits that it sticks out like a sore thumb... so good though. i am still trying to figure out why i like it so much, but it's sitting damn close to my album of the year right now.
said: yeah, i almost went in to the rapture album, but skipped it for the sake of brevity.... but what i said regarding ff and lcdss is probably even more true for echoes...
i have not heard a single track off the new mountain goats album... i take it this is one with a full band and decent production?
said: you should listen to it. like the last one, john vanderslice produces, and there is a backing band most of the time. compared to his previous stuff it sounds super lush (not that i wasn't a fan of a lot of his guitar&boombox stuff). according to the play counts, i like "dance music" and "up the wolves" best on the new one. oh man, his voice is so great. and the lyrics... for the first time in forever i cared about someone's lyrics. maybe i like him so much because he's, as sf/j said, "america’s best non-hip-hop lyricist". haha.
said: i lied... i have heard dance music... liked it... didn't realize it was a recent track.
said: what's up with the new font family?
said: got a little tired of verdana. it'll probably be back eventually since it's such a nice screen font, but i wanted to see some serifs for a while. also, i added dates to the posts and georgia has nice lower case numbers.
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