Facing The Music

For my last piece of the semester, I think it only makes sense for me to touch on the way that we consume music and what it means to be a responsible fan. The industry has changed dramatically over the last couple of decades, and it has created a very different landscape for consumers and artists alike. As such, being a responsible music fan in the world we live in now means something very different from what it used to.

At this point, I’d like to ask my FBI agent to stop reading. When I first started to expand my taste in music, before the advent of streaming services, I torrented albums off of the internet without a second thought. My Itunes library was completely filled with music I’d stolen. The reasoning for this was somewhat sound; I was not about to pay for an album I wasn’t sure I would like and might only listen to once. Once my tastes started to take shape however, my rampant theft became something that I thought about a little bit more. Foster the People’s Torches  and Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City did a lot for me over the course of a couple of months, and I came to the realization that despite the amount of mileage I had gotten out of these records, I had done nothing for the artist. This made me feel a little guilty, so I made a point of purchasing pieces of merchandise from both acts. I tried to continue to do this for the artists that I felt did the most for me, but far too many fell by the wayside. For a barely employed high schooler, this was simply all I could do.

With streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music now taking center stage, supporting artists becomes a little more of a grey area. Sure, whichever streaming service you pay for pays the artists, but more than 99% of audio streaming that takes place is exclusively streams of the top 10% of most streamed tracks. This is a normal geometric distribution, sure, but that fact offers little solace for the band making mere dollars for the thousands of streams they are receiving. At the same time, top artists are making an absolute killing in this environment. Lil Uzi Vert even delayed the release of Luv is Rage 2 because the lead single was making him absurd amounts of money on a daily basis. Why release the album when the one single you released is netting you more than the cost of four out of state years at PSU?

The most popular artists will always make more money, this goes without saying. That being said, many would argue that the rise of streaming has only increased the disparity between the superstar and the up and comer. In this sense, streaming services are failing consumers of independent and underground music by paying these artists peanuts for the material they work so hard to produce. The statistic that I brought up earlier really drives this home, and raises some interesting concerns. If 99% of what people are streaming is only the top decile of popular music, what incentive do services have to carry the bottom 90% of music on their platform? One could argue there isn’t much of an incentive outside of the odd one hit wonder out of left field that could blow up from the massive catalog, but it is a very real possibility that some of our favorite artists could be dropped from streaming services in the future for simple lack of mass appeal.

So while streaming music is undoubtedly here to stay the primary medium of consumption, make a point of buying that concert ticket and ordering that t shirt you’ve been eyeing. Artists are relying more and more on tours and on merchandise to survive, and your streams are not enough to keep your favorite bands going.

Listening: Donald Trump, Avian, Dang!

Pennsylvania’s own Mac Miller is one of the most interesting case studies in hip hop. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Mac released his first project at age 15 under the name “EZ Mac”. he gained a following quickly, and was signed to Rostrum Records. He sold out his first tour which accompanied the release of his K.I.D.S mixtape, and appeared to have a future as a pop rapper. He released his first full length LP, Blue Slide Park in 2011. It was the first independently distributed debut album to achieve the Billboard 200 number one spot, and I credit the record for introducing me to the hip hop genre. I had been exposed to hip hop before Blue Slide Park, but it was the first album to really click for seventh grade me.

However, the record’s critical reception was nothing short of horrific. It caught a 1 out of 10 from Pitchfork, and experimental Detroit rapper Danny Brown went as far as to call him “The worst guy around”. Mac was labeled a frat rapper and largely written off, doomed to go the way of Mike Stud, Asher Roth, and Sammy Adams. But Mac proved to be far less one dimensional than the aforementioned, and rather than continue to do what he was doing he took the criticism and reinvented himself, but not without struggle.

Mac took the rough reception of Blue Slide Park to heart, and found himself struggling with opiate addiction. This reaction is understandable given where Mac was in his career. It was his first project and he had poured everything he had into it, and it sold in record numbers, yet it was so poorly received and he found himself lumped into a category he wanted no part of. In the throes of his drug problem, he released the much more introspective Watching Movies the the Sound Off. His critics did a full 180, and Mac was able to shed the frat rapper label which was haunting him so much; it was not the artist he wanted to be.

Kicking his addiction however proved more difficult, though he did eventually succeed in November of 2012. Since then he has been on a tear of consistently good releases and numerous collaborations with big name artists, and is held in high regard within the hip hop sphere. Mac is probably the only example of a rapper who has been able to change lanes so dramatically and succeed at it, so it is unsurprising that the initial criticism weighed so heavily on him; he knew he was capable of better.

Some of the highlights of his later career are tracks like Weekend, which ditches the fast pace and bouncy grooves that Miller relied on in his early career in favor of slower instrumentals and the spacey, left field production which is a staple of his post Blue Slide Park career. Dang!, off of his most recent album The Divine Feminine is an extremely funky collaborative effort with R&B artist Anderson .Paak, (another personal favorite), and it went to further prove Miller’s talents as a versatile vocalist and rapper. He also has proven himself as a very skilled producer under the alias Larry Fisherman, and has released projects under numerous other aliases to varying degrees of success.

It is very rare to see an artist grow as much as Mac did, and I feel a little bit as though my taste in music grew alongside his skill progression. I remember being extremely put off when his Macadelic tape dropped following Blue Slide Park because it was too much of a departure from his old style for eighth grade me to handle, but as I aged I grew to appreciate his more experimental style of music more and more, and I found myself preferring experimental varieties of hip hop by and large. Mac is still relatively young and still has much to come, and it is safe to say he has saved the legacy he was so concerned about at age 19.

 

Listening: Car Seat Headrest Tiny Desk Concert

Car Seat Headrest are one of the most interesting indie rock acts to come out of bandcamp probably ever. They began as a solo project by lead singer Will Toledo, a Virginia native and William and Mary grad. Toledo started Car Seat Headrest out of frustration with the lack of progress his band Nervous Young Men was making. Toledo’s aim with Car Seat Headrest was to simply put out as much music as possible and see what sticks, which led to the release of nine self-released albums before he would be signed to Matador Records in 2015. His signing to a major label would grant him access to the resources that would allow Toledo to reach his potential as an artist, and allow him to stop recording his vocals in the back of his car in a target parking lot (thus the name Car Seat Headrest) and mixing his music on a cheap laptop.

The diamond in the rough of Toledo’s albums released prior to signing with Matador was Twin Fantasy. It was an interesting listen because it is extremely apparent that the project has massive potential, but is held back purely by a lack of resources on Will’s end. His goal was always to revisit the project and make it what it could be, and with the album’s re release this February he did just that. With any remaster, the artist runs the risk of scrubbing the new version of the charm possessed by the original, but with the Face to Face edition of Twin Fantasy this is far from the case.

It is worth noting that this is not the first time Toledo has revisited and reworked his earlier material. His first release with Matador in 2015, Teens of Style, was a collection of re recorded songs culled from his vast bandcamp catalogue, and that worked out beautifully. It is rare to see an artist who cares enough to actually go back and try and perfect works that they have already made (looking at you, Migos) and Toledo’s vision and work ethic are very admirable for this reason.

By revamping Twin Fantasy, Toledo forced himself to step back into the shoes of his teenage self. He had to revisit a place where he was not nearly as happy or successful as he is today, and in the rerecording he still manages to capture the emotion of the original, despite being in a much better place. Granted, he did make adjustments to the lyrics of all but three of the songs, and added and cut some instrumentals as he saw fit.

The record tells the story of a long distance relationship Will was engaged in in his teenage years, with the added difficulty of the relationship being with another man whilst Will was still closeted. On the track “Beach Life-in-Death”, he sings, “I pretended I was drunk when I came out to my friends, I never came out to my friends, we were all on Skype, and I laughed and I changed the subject.” It is clear that this relationship was tearing him up inside as he came to terms with himself. The record also makes it apparent that both Will and his partner are dealing with mental health issues in this stage of their lives, with the line on “Sober to Death” where he states “we were wrecks before we crashed into each other”, and the line from the same song, “take your hands off your neck and hold on to the ghost of my body.” Even though Toledo cannot be there physically, he wants to see his partner stop beating himself up and let him help.

The very personal and exposed nature of the writing on this record is what has really made me fall in love with it as I myself struggle with the complications that come with falling in love with someone at a distance.  It can be a very frustrating thing, but a truly rewarding experience at the same time, and certainly one in which I have learned a lot about myself. If this record has taught me anything, it is the importance of realizing that there are some things outside of our control and no matter how it feels, all you can do is let your person know you’re there and hope for the best. The universe has a funny way of working things out on it’s own, and what is meant to be will simply be. Thinking like this all the time is impossible, but taking a step back and telling myself this certainly helps.

 

Video Link

I won’t pretend I’ve always been the biggest Drake fan. I haven’t cared much for his music since Take Care with the exception of a few singles here and there. I think as an artist  he’s done some questionable things as far as taking music that belongs to other artists, particularly jacking the beat and the vibe from DRAM’s Cha-Cha and using it for Hotline Bling. Not cool. This being said, Drake does a lot to put up and coming artists on the radar thanks to his superstar status, so some would argue it balances out.

Drake has been on a tear as of late. One of his latest singles, God’s Plan, has reached levels of popularity at speeds that only a Drake track can. In my opinion, it’s not his best. The song he dropped directly after, Look Alive, is far more interesting. However, the music video for God’s Plan is certainly worth discussing. The video had a budget of nearly one million dollars, and Drake and his team opted to give it all away to a community in Florida through scholarships, donations to schools and local organizations, as well as just handing cash out to people on the street.

Maybe this makes me a bad person, but my immediate reaction to something like this is to roll my eyes. Giving out stacks of money is certainly an attention grab, and on top of that it’s been done plenty of times before. Sure, they couldn’t shoot a real video because they were giving the money away, so there wasn’t much else to do but film the money being given away.

The more I thought about the video however, I had a change of heart. Drake didn’t hand out a few ten thousand dollar checks (the giant ones, obviously), he actually gave away a very, very significant sum of money that will do a lot of good in that community. So was the video a PR stunt? Definitely. But it was a damn good one.

The video also raises a host of other questions. Did Drake and his team vet the people they were handing money out to? Particularly with the stacks of cash, I wonder where that money will really go. The vast majority of people in general, and especially people in economically depressed communities are not responsible spenders. One hopes that the money will go to improving people’s well being, and isn’t squandered on vacations or luxury items. That’s not the point. An organization as big as Drake’s label thought of this I’m sure, as they don’t want to see their money go to waste either. I would be interested to see a follow up video maybe three months from now to see what kind of change was spurred about by Drizzy’s generosity.

This video is an opportunity for the hip hop community to have an important discussion. So many rappers are ultra rich and while some give, not enough do. I have a lot of respect for individuals like Kendrick Lamar who consistently donates money to the high school he graduated from, and did so quietly and has no interest in telling the world. Hopefully more performers take a page out of Drake’s book and and give back. The cost of an eye roll at a corny publicity stunt is far less than the benefits of a million to a community in need.

Rap music in the last eight years has had some excellent moments, and usually the community can reach something of a consensus as to what those moments are. Generally, even if I don’t like something that others do like I am at least capable of recognizing the merits of the music and seeing where fans are coming from. This is not the case with Migos. At every party I attend at school, my ears are assaulted by a crowd of people singing along to T Shirt, Slippery, and of course Bad and Boujee. All these songs are off of Culture, and just as the hype had worn off, Migos dropped Culture II at the very beginning of this year, just in time for spring semester.

A little background for the uninitated. Migos is a trio hailing from Atlanta consisting of members, Offset, Takeoff, and Quavo, who are basically indistinguishable except for the fact that Takeoff is the tallest one. Ironically, they run a label called Quality Control even though it’s their weakest department. They came onto the scene in 2013 with some assistance from Drake, who appeared alongside them on their breakout single Versace. They had a number of popular songs leading up the the release of Culture in 2017, but that is the record that really launched them into the stratosphere and gave the group an unprecedented amount of popularity at any event where reckless amounts of drugs and alcohol are consumed.

When Migos released Culture II, I genuinely tried to give it a chance, but frankly the album is a dumpster fire. Migos have somehow managed to record the same song about 40 times, and people continue to eat it up. Culture II is 24 songs and about an hour and 45 minutes long, and about 20 of those minutes are actually listenable. This project is truly a mixtape, and the fact that they branded it as an album bothers me. The whole thing is highly unpolished and there is simply far better music out there that deserves the attention Culture II is getting. Normally I can easily avoid music I don’t want to listen to by just choosing not to listen to it, but this is not the case with any Migos release.

On top of the group’s already massive catalog, Offset and Quavo have a habit of appearing on tons of other popular songs, so you can never truly escape. Travis Scott’s most recent project, Huncho Jack, was a collaboration with Quavo, and while he had his moments he is outdone by Scott throughout the record. I’m really just not sure what I’m missing here.

In fairness, Migos do have their moments. Stir Fry off Culture II is a great track, and all three members of the group sound good. For this, they have Pharrell Williams’ production to thank. Maybe they just need the guidance of an industry veteran to keep their music interesting, and if that’s the case I’ll keep following because I really have no choice. Culture II would have been a much better record had they just cut half the songs on it rather than making the listener sift through them. A group this popular must have potential. Maybe I just don’t see it, or maybe trap music just isn’t for me. Either way, it seems they’re here to stay, so I have to deal at least for the next three years.

Listening: GOLD, GUMMY, BLEACH

This is a piece that I have been looking forward to writing since I decided that I would be dedicating this blog to music. Brockhampton have been taking the underground hip hop scene by storm since the release of Saturation in June, and have not stopped killing it with the subsequent releases of Saturation II and III in August and December respectively.

Brockhampton formed in 2015 on the Kanye West fan forum kanyetothe, and is led by Texas native Kevin Abstract, who had a short solo career before forming the collective. The group will not disclose how many members they have, as many work behind the scenes as producers or creatives in realms other than music, but the main voices that will appear on these three records are Kevin Abstract, Matt Champion, Merlyn Wood, Ameer Vann, Joba, and Dom McLennon. They draw influence from a wide variety of places, ranging from other prominent hip hop collectives like Pharrell’s NERD and Odd Future, namely Tyler The Creator and Frank Ocean, as well as non hip hop acts like Radiohead and singer/songwriter King Krule.

 

Abstract very much takes on a leading role on all three records, handling most of the hooks on their songs and almost always has a verse. He frequently will alter his voice with effects in production, giving the group a massive range of options. The only true vocalist in the group is Joba, who does not generally rap but adds an extra dimension to their music; few rappers or even rap groups have access to a vocalist as talented as he is. Champion, Wood, Vann and McLennon all have distinct voices and styles that keep songs interesting for the listener, as no group in recent memory has had such a variety of talent at their disposal.

 

An interesting thing about Brockhampton is that while their music is primarily hip hop, they refuse to brand themselves as a rap group but rather as a boyband, and they certainly do not confine themselves to the realm of hip hop. They have a number of songs on every record which do not feel like rap songs, my favorites being FACE and BLEACH. The juxtaposition between songs like WASTE and HEAT, the closing and opening tracks on Saturation really showcases the incredible range that the group has.

Being a collective all living under the same roof has given the group an unbelievable ability to pump out music at an incredible rate. Three full length projects in a single year is an absolutely absurd amount of music when you take into consideration the quality of all of them and the critical acclaim that they all received. They have been and will continue to be a group to watch as each member grows as a musician. Even between the first and third Saturation it is clear that they have matured considerably as a group and individually. Their music is extremely unique and there is a clear reason why they’ve gained a cult following so quickly. They are slated to release another record, titled “Team Effort” at some point this year, so do yourself a favor and get caught up before the release.

I know the title of this post has to be pretty confusing for anyone who isn’t pretty in tune to who’s who in hip hop, but I’m going to go ahead and break it down for everybody. What basically happened here is rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and his crew beat up other rapper Lil B before his set at Rolling Loud music festival this past Saturday, and allegedly stole his equipment as well, over a tweet made by Lil B about a month ago. B then did not perform his set and announced to the crowd he was going to the hospital.

There are a number of things wrong with what happened here. First of all, you don’t jump people. It is way easier to not beat someone up than it is to go to the effort of finding them backstage with a group of people and then kicking their ass. Just don’t do it. Secondly, A Boogie is a rapper who just dropped his first full length project and was a XXL freshman this year, while Lil B has been making music for over a decade and is a very well established figure in the hip hop community. This is like being recently accepted into graduate school and then going and busting up a tenured professor because you heard that they said your undergraduate thesis wasn’t that great, or setting your elderly neighbor’s lawn on fire because he made a snarky comment about how you haven’t cut yours in awhile. I have plenty more analogies, but the bottom line is this move could have been career suicide for A Boogie and PnB Rock, who is also new to the scene and was involved in the attack as well. However, they got lucky.

Lil B has long been preaching peace and nonviolence, and he put his money where his mouth is by forgiving his assailants immediately following the attack – see below.

Understand the gravity of this move. B had every opportunity to end the careers of the young artists who went after him this weekend, but he instead chose to let it go, which is not an easy thing to do. Apparently, he and Boogie spoke on the phone today and are now on good terms.

While it’s great to see the issue resolved so fast, this incident is still unacceptable, and in my opinion A Boogie’s and Pnb Rock’s careers both deserve to suffer, and I say that as a fan of both. These artists come from backgrounds where attacks like this are somewhat of a social norm, and things like this no doubt occur all the time among young artists who have yet to reach popularity, and often have gang ties. This is no excuse; if you want to be taken seriously as an artist this is no way to settle a disagreement. Hip hop has become so universal today that things like this do not fly under the radar. Rap musicians ought to treat their choice to make music as a professional career like any other, and in a professional career you can’t go around roughing up anyone you disagree with.

Listening: Dance Yrself Clean, Home

LCD Soundsystem are a long time favorite act of mine with a truly unique sound thanks to the wide range of music they draw their inspiration from. For this post, I am going to focus on the title track of their third LP, This Is Happening.

This Is Happening  was supposed to be the last we’d hear from LCD Soundsystem. It was released in 2010 following the death of their drummer Jerry Fuchs, who in November of 2009 fell to his death down an elevator shaft in Brooklyn while attending a fundraiser for underprivileged children in India. The record is dedicated to his memory, and the band went on a legendary farewell tour. They have since returned to the scene and released an album earlier this year, and I was lucky enough to see them in New York two years back, which was nothing short of a dream come true.

This Is Happening combines elements of 70s art rock, dance music, and post-punk to create something entirely new. Frontman James Murphy is writes long songs that sometimes feel as though they are telling a story without actually telling one. The best example of this is on the album’s opener “Dance Yrself Clean”, which is linked above.

The song starts very quietly, and is reminiscent of waiting in a long line outside of an NYC nightclub, clamoring to get in. The familiar feeling of being sick of your friends and contemplating calling it a night is embodied in Murphy’s criticism of his companions, “Talking like a jerk, Except you are an actual jerk, And living proof that sometimes friends are mean”. You can feel the frustration in these lyrics, and being frustrated with your friends is a situation that everyone has been in. Murphy does not beat around the bush lyrically, and his direct delivery and writing style makes their music into something much more than repetitive synth beats and piano riffs.

Just before the first major shift in the song comes the line, “Present company excluded in the night, Present company included in the fight”. Again, he and his friends are feeling left out and the infighting continues. However, the transition to follow this line is nothing short of magical. The volume of the song increases notably which normally just pisses me off when I’m listening to music, but it is so well executed in this track that I anticipate this part and look forward to it, and it seeing it live was one of the best experiences of my life; I can still remember vividly where I was in that moment. The mood of the song gets a shot of energy, and the sensation goes from that of waiting to get into the party to being thrown right in the middle of the action. This drop is followed in short order by Murphy yelling at the top of his vocal range, “Arguments are made for make ups, so give it just a little more time”. Now that he’s in the action, all the things that were worth fighting about when there as nothing better to do have melted away into heavy synths and percussion.

The rest of this record is definitely worth a listen, and I think upon hearing the opener most would be inclined to keep listening. LCD Soundsystem embody one of the best things about music in the 21st century, which is the ability of artists to draw inspiration from past musical trends and pick and choose aspects of them to combine into something completely new. James Murphy and his band will go down in history as a truly innovative act, and New York City ought to be proud of them.

 

One of most interesting parts of the indie genre in my opinion is exploring music from different parts of the world. There is great music coming out of a laundry list of different nations, to the point that it is very difficult to really delve into all of them. Some of my favorite artists consistently come out of Australia, and at the top of the list is Courtney Barnett. As much a writer and storyteller as she is a musician, her stripped-down style is extremely refreshing in a time where the production on so many records often overshadows the vocals.

Barnett released her first full length project in 2015, titled Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. The title is very telling of her wandering, humorous lyrics and often deadpan delivery in her songs. Much of the time, it feels as though she’s not even singing, but rather talking and falling in and out of melody as it suits her. Written out, this sounds like a recipe for disaster for an artist. In practice however, it makes for a very interesting and involved listening experience.

Sometimes I Sit was extremely well received, especially for a freshman album. It charted at #20 in the US and #4 in Australia, and Barnett was nominated in 8 categories at the 2015 ARIA Music Awards, taking home the trophy in 4. She also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, but was beat out by Sam Smith. In my opinion, this is highway robbery, because last I checked Smith’s music never made an appearance on one of President Obama’s playlists while Courtney’s did. But I digress.

My favorite tracks of hers from the record would have to be Elevator Operator and Depreston, in no particular order. Sometimes I Sit opens with Elevator Operator, a track chronicling a story a friend of hers told her. He one day decided to skip work in favor of sitting on top of a building, and a woman finds him up there and thinks he is going to hurl himself off. This is the only song where Barnett talks about someone other than herself, and listening to the narrative unfold is as humorous as it is entertaining. Depreston is a considerably more somber track, as we follow Courtney as she looks to purchase a home that belongs to a widow in a quiet neighborhood. She begins to appreciate the sentimental value that the home must possess, and with the line, “if you’ve got a spare half a million, you could knock it down and start rebuilding” she foreshadows what is more likely to become of the modest home she describes as, “a California bungalow in a cul-de-sac”.

Courtney Barnett has a collaborative album with Kurt Vile titled Lotta Sea Lice scheduled to release tomorrow, which is something exciting that I’m just now realizing. She has been a favorite artist of mine since her 2015 debut, and her unique style which is equal parts poetic and humor fill a niche in the independent music scene that no other artist can really touch, nor have any tried. Barnett is one to watch and definitely worth a listen for anyone looking for mood music with a compelling narrative, something which is increasingly rare today.