Here's a concert I'm pretty excited to attend: Russian Circles & And So I Watch You From Afar, June 22 2012 @ Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver. Russian Circles is an instrumental rock band I've liked for a few years now, and this is the first chance I've had to hear them live.
And So I Watch You From Afar (yes, that's the band's name) is a Belfast-based band also set to play that night. I'd never heard of them until I caught wind of the concert, but I checked them out, and I'm even more excited to go. This is the kind of music I want to make. Take a listen.
I read someone describe ASIWYFA as a "mathematically influenced punk" band. I suppose that's accurate, but the purpose of the comment was to point out that they're not a post-rock band. This is just silly to me. I honestly don't understand all the backlash against the term, "post-rock," or most genres for that matter. Remember all the bands that refused to be known as "emo" in the early- to mid-2000's? The same happened with "nu-metal" in the late 90's, and "grunge" in the mid-90's. You'll often notice artists, especially ones from alternative scenes, get really touchy when people talk about the genre of their work. (Just so we're clear, I'm not specifically talking about ASIWYFA.)
The thing is though, that these terms are not value judgements. Not originally, anyway. Genres are the territory of journalists and critics. They're descriptive terms invented to explain what a work (in this case, music) is like. Genre talks about the structure, style, and often the cultural context of the work. It's more for the benefit of the listener than for the artist, meant to set up appropriate expectations about how to listen to the music, not to put it in a box.
Many artists have a rather cynical outlook on genre. I've heard some dismiss it as an outdated system created by music shops to figure out how to stick which records where. [I'll leave the dirty jokes to you guys.] Others blame it more on music journalists, those guys who clearly don't understand music at all since they have to steal its soul by writing about it. It's an us-against-them mentality, and it may show my ignorance or naivete to say this, but my guess is that it's unnecessary for artists to be antagonistic about this. Other music business drama notwithstanding.
Personally, I find genre categorization fascinating, as a thinker, musician, and music lover. Genre is a critical thinking and listening tool, and this is what artists miss. Perhaps rather than fearing genre, they could study it and use it to their advantage. Categories and limitations are great creative tools. They eliminate the paralysis of the blank canvas, providing a place to start making art. At the same time, one doesn't need to be a slave to genre. If you know what the rules are, you also know exactly how far you can bend them.
So I guess what I'm saying is this: if the shoe fits, wear it. It not...
Become a cobbler? Or at least learn more about shoes.
Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vancouver. Show all posts
Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Meshuggah, May 8, 2012 @ Commodore Ballroom - Concert Review
A week ago I went to see Meshuggah play the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. I've been a fan of theirs for a few years now, but I'd never been to one of their shows.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Meshuggah, they are a Swedish heavy metal band. They've been around since the Late Eighties, but they didn't start to get big until about a decade later. Throughout their career, they've carved out a very unique sound and reputation. They are known as one of the heaviest bands in the world, but not in the sense that one might expect. Their sound would not be accurately described as "death metal." There are no blast beats, no growled vocals, and their lyrical content is not particularly preoccupied with death, though it is dark to be sure.
There are several elements of their music which really stand out and define Meshuggah's unique place in the world of metal. The best-known, most talked-about element is their polyrhythmic guitar riffs. They've said in interviews that they only ever play in 4-4 time, but the guitar parts are written in weird meters apart from the drum beat, lending the songs a highly complex rhythmic feel. What is really remarkable about this approach is that they do not let it hinder their musicality. Though it is challenging to listen to at first, the music grooves along very well, and once you listen to it for a while, you learn when to bang your head along to it. Generally, you just follow the crash cymbal.
Marten Hagstrom and Fredrik Thorendal, the two guitarists in the band, have chosen their guitars and amp setups for maximum efficiency and destructive power. They play custom Ibanez 8-string guitars, which are constructed more like short-scale (30.5") basses, Lundgren pickups, and Line 6 amps. The resulting sound is sharp, tight, percussive, and cold. It's machine-like, really. It's like a mechanical device designed to generate to most powerful metal guitar tone ever heard.
Jens Kidman's vocals are also quite different from the droves of growlers and screamers on the scene right now. Instead of a devilish, death-metal style, his vocals, like the guitars, sound almost mechanical. "Robotic" is a term I've heard used to describe it, which I think is accurate. He paces himself rhythmically, just like the rest of the band.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Meshuggah, they are a Swedish heavy metal band. They've been around since the Late Eighties, but they didn't start to get big until about a decade later. Throughout their career, they've carved out a very unique sound and reputation. They are known as one of the heaviest bands in the world, but not in the sense that one might expect. Their sound would not be accurately described as "death metal." There are no blast beats, no growled vocals, and their lyrical content is not particularly preoccupied with death, though it is dark to be sure.
There are several elements of their music which really stand out and define Meshuggah's unique place in the world of metal. The best-known, most talked-about element is their polyrhythmic guitar riffs. They've said in interviews that they only ever play in 4-4 time, but the guitar parts are written in weird meters apart from the drum beat, lending the songs a highly complex rhythmic feel. What is really remarkable about this approach is that they do not let it hinder their musicality. Though it is challenging to listen to at first, the music grooves along very well, and once you listen to it for a while, you learn when to bang your head along to it. Generally, you just follow the crash cymbal.
Marten Hagstrom and Fredrik Thorendal, the two guitarists in the band, have chosen their guitars and amp setups for maximum efficiency and destructive power. They play custom Ibanez 8-string guitars, which are constructed more like short-scale (30.5") basses, Lundgren pickups, and Line 6 amps. The resulting sound is sharp, tight, percussive, and cold. It's machine-like, really. It's like a mechanical device designed to generate to most powerful metal guitar tone ever heard.
Jens Kidman's vocals are also quite different from the droves of growlers and screamers on the scene right now. Instead of a devilish, death-metal style, his vocals, like the guitars, sound almost mechanical. "Robotic" is a term I've heard used to describe it, which I think is accurate. He paces himself rhythmically, just like the rest of the band.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)