Monday, July 21, 2008
Art/Whartscape 2008
I've been suffering from serious blog-block lately -- just not been finding the time to write, unless I'm on the clock and getting paid for it.
But I figured I'd jump back into it with a post about this past weekend, the best weekend in Baltimore music, the perennial face-fest that is Artscape, and more recently Whartscape. My photos (in my newly-minted slideshow format!) give a food impression of the bands I saw, and what I thought of 'em, but a few more observations.
1. What does it take, exactly, to get booked at Whartscape, the Wham City-hosted freakfest of concerts, art displays, etc, that is the warehouse-dwelling art kid's alternative to Artscape, the big city fair? What I've found is that you have to produce music that is completely unearnest, or that doesn't conform to any sort of musical form -- i.e., it's noise-based or involves a lot of screaming. Now, I'm not saying I don't like these sorts of bands. Ponytail, Double Dagger, Mae Shi -- they all gave killer performances -- but it was all just so weird. The only exceptions, I thought, were Parts & Labor and the Death Set, the former of which actually sang, melodically, over the noise, the the latter is pretty earnest (if spazzy) and has quite a bit of melody to them as well. When, and under what circumstances, might Wham City book a non-freaky act, that actually highlights traditional talents, and when would WC fans ever find time to appreciate such an act?
2. Standing (dancing) in the Saturday night crowd in front of the DJ stage at Artscape, watching Blaqstarr and Rye Rye, and then looking around myself and seeing people of all ages, and mostly African-American, with a healthy mixing of other-colored people as well, it occurred to me how different a "public festival" is in Baltimore than in Pittsburgh, where I grew up. There, you're likely to have some sort of benign, peace-and-happiness-promoting ethnic act on the main stage, so that the white people in the crowd feel educated or open-minded, I guess, while the minorities presumably appreciate what's going on onstage for what it's worth. In Baltimore, it's accepted that people like to party, and in particular, the black crowd likes to party to Bmore Club music, so why not book the best acts to do that, and not worry about being inoffensive or didactic or "inclusive"? I found this attitude, with local, popular, and somewhat unwholesome acts onstage at what is otherwise a family event, to be really refreshing. Also, I danced harder that I have in a long time. Bravo.
3. South Carolina BBQ's "minced barbecue" is not nearly as good as cracked up, and I make better pulled pork. Sorry guys.
4. How is it possible that Druid Hill Park pool would close its deep end on one of the hottest Sundays in the summer? Shaun rode the back of my 10-speed all the way there, and they wouldn't let us in, so we had to wash off in an opened fire hydrant in front of a million people down at Artscape. Major bummer, but a fun expedition to the pool in the first place.
5. Be careful at night near Park Ave. and North Ave. The kids over there are off the handle. They gave Macgregor Burns a beating, unprovoked, on Saturday night, involving a hubcap and a rock that sent him to Union Memorial for a few staples in his scalp. Rough.
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6 comments:
robs -
don't like the slideshow picture format. the pics are too small.
also, dunno that i agree with your assessment of concerts in pittsburgh. sorta depends on where you go and who's playing - especially if you're talking about something like the 3-rivers arts festival. not enough evidence in your analysis to support your conclusions.
otherwise, good to see you blogging again.
maggie
yeah, the slideshow is a bit weak.
and as far as the noise bands thing goes, i think there's a lot to be said for wham city pretty much putting on all of those bands, as artscape had plenty of other spaces for more traditional bands (such as the metro gallery for caleb stine), and i don't know if you know anyone who tried to get on the bill but didn't, but i imagine that it's mostly the noise bands who want to be on the bill. i think if a more traditional (but still somewhat freaky) band tried to get on the bill, they could.
dani the kickdrum holder
methinks equating music you don't understand or like with unearnestness is pretty naive!
@"reading":
methinks maybe if "reading" was something you actually did to this blog post, you'd probably see that i specifically wrote that i DID like a lot of the bands that i'm talking about, so clearly there's no issue of "equating music [I] don't...like with unearnestness" -- but maybe you're right about me not understanding something. what is it that i don't understand about this music? or rather, which music, of the music discussed here, don't i understand? enlighten, please.
I believe you specifically don't understand that just because an artists music lacks structure or melodic progressions that are prevelent in more pop based music that it is unearnest.
let's look at the definition of earnest here.
1. serious in intention, purpose, or effort; sincerely zealous: an earnest worker.
2. showing depth and sincerity of feeling: earnest words; an earnest entreaty.
3. seriously important; demanding or receiving serious attention.
–noun 4. full seriousness, as of intention or purpose: to speak in earnest.
I would say there is as much if not more unearnestness running through more the "standard" rock/blues music lineage than within the experimental scene. I think it's clear that you have very little background in music that veers away from this, which is fine, but I think it's a shame to assume something in insincere because it doesnt adhere to what you have casually defined as "music" in your own mind.
Either way, i'm glad you had a good time at the festival and hopefully it will lead you to expand your understanding of what music is(i mean if we wantto get deep we can talk about how noise music outdates rock and roll, and what melodic structures are normal to different cultures and so on... but thats for another day)
perhaps this is an example of confusion based on my own diction.
i wrote,
"What I've found is that you have to produce music that is completely unearnest, or that doesn't conform to any sort of musical form -- i.e., it's noise-based or involves a lot of screaming."
i was referring to two conditions -- either (1) music that is unearnest, or (2) music that doesn't conform to any sort of musical form and isn't based on traditionally-defined musical talents. i was not suggesting that they are one and the same, nor implying that noise music is "unearnest."
i consider my taste in music to be pretty wide-ranging, and it certainly doesn't exclude noise, free music, or any number of artists that are far weirder than what was booked at whartscape this year. i am, in fact, a big fan of a lot of what went on at high zero last year, much of which struck me as bizarre, noise-based art, but at the same time, totally sincere in its presentation and intent.
my only point was, it seems that what all whartscape artists had in common was that they (a) either didn't write earnest, serious, sincere music (height, grand buffet, dan deacon), (b) their music was way off the map w/r/t traditional pop music structure (ponytail, mae shi, bird names) or (c) both (lexie mountain boys). then i was musing about what it would take to make an act appealing to such a crowd or such an event-organizer -- what is it, exactly, that they're looking for from the bands they support? and the only exceptions to the above, based on what i saw, were p&l and deathset.
hope that clears things up.
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