Issue 44

10 Years of Tastemakers | 24

10 Year Album Anniversaries | 26

16 (Millennial) Candles: Albums of 2000 | 32

northeastern students on music

No 44

Get Involved Want to become a Tastemaker?

Click get involved on tastemakersmag.com Snapped some awesome photos at a concert?

Email them to tastemakersphoto@gmail.com Heard an album that really got you thinking?

Send a review to tmreviews@gmail.com

E-Board

The Team

President Ryan Kehr

Staff Writers Kelly Subin David McDevitt Jason Levy Clarissa Cooney Audrey Cooney Anika Krause Anu Gulati Sarah Kotowski Jonathan Vayness Raquel Massoud Emily Arntsen Peter Giunta Spencer Bateman Alexander Wetzel Christopher Miller Timothy Fetcher Matt Sherman Alexander Frandsen Mayeesha Galiba Akosa Amenechi Jonas Polin Seth Queeney Emmett Neidhart Isaac Feldberg Jack Boffa Justine Cowan Reid Flynn

Editor in Chief Ben Stas Art Directors Emily O’Brien Amanda Pinsker Marketing Director Rami McCarthy

Staff Features Editor Amanda Hoover

Get More

Reviews Editors Terence Cawley Tim DiFazio

Can’t get enough? Check out more original content on tastemakersmag.com

Interviews Editor Joey Dussault

Become a fan on facebook at facebook.com/tastemakersmag Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/tastemakersmag Follow us on Instagram and add us on Snapchat

@tastemakersmag Tastemakers Music Magazine 232 Curry Student Center 360 Huntington Ave. Boston, MA 02115 tastemakersmag@gmail.com © 2016 tastemakers music magazine all rights reserved

Photo Director Ben Stas

Art & Design Fiona Galey Madisen Hackley Dan Mondschein Rebecca Still Sara Trosky Grace Woodward Bianca Rabbie Brooke Dunahugh Colleen Curtis Anna Smith Sophia Schonwetter Marketing Jae Lee Hannah Crotty Sarah Keneipp Kylie Ponce Liz Flavin Sofia Benitez Preston Tietjien Scott Breecez

Meet the Staff

About

Listening to

Ben Stas Position Editor-in-chief Major Journalism/English Graduating Spring 2016 Favorite Venue The Sinclair Tastemaker Since Fall 2012

Iggy Pop The Idiot Kanye West The Life of Pablo

Quote

“I’m indirectly writing about Satan in every issue”

Megadeth Rust in Peace

Ryan Kehr Position President Major English Graduating Spring 2016 Favorite venue The Sinclair Tastemaker Since Fall 2011

The Mantles All Odds End Andrew Bird Are You Serious

“I am indirectly writing about Ben Stas in every issue.”

Last Good Tooth Not Without Work and Rest

Anu Gulati Position Staff Writer Major Computer Science/ Mathematics Graduating Fall 2017 (?)

Favorite venue Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale, FL Tastemaker Since Spring 2015

Seth Queeney Position Staff Writer Major Communication Studies Graduating 2019 Favorite Venue State Theatre Portland, ME Tastemaker Since Spring 2016

Pinegrove Cardinal Blank Banshee “Hyper Object”

“Wayne Gretzky, that’s the guy from The Flaming Lips”

Julien Baker “Go Home”

The Hotelier Home, Like Noplace Is There Supergrass I Should CoCo DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues

“Oh no, the robots have learned to play metal!

And they’re funky!”

Ra Ra Riot, Paradise Rock Club

Photo by Nicole Service (Mechanical Engineering)

Table of Contents Cover Story

Editorial

24

10 Years of Tastemakers

18

26

10 Year Album Anniversaries

Ryan Kehr recounts the epic saga of the world’s finest student music publication

With Tastemakers celebrating 10 years, we look back at some of the music celebrating with us

32

16 (Millennial) Candles: Albums of 2000

20 22

40 Reviews Album Reviews

34

Show Reviews

Radical Face, Iggy Pop, Frankie Cosmos, Kanye West

Animal Collective, Oneohtrix Point Never, The Soul Rebels Sound System Featuring Talib Kweli, Yung Lean

06 Calendar 14

Local Photos

Looking back to the genesis of freak-folk, and where its leading artists are now

Black Lives Matter How artists are using the world’s biggest stages to get political

A History of Chicago Footwork The story behind the dance music subgenre that’s finally made its way to the worldwide electronic scene

Noteworthy albums celebrating a teenage milestone in 2016

08

The Unfreaking of Folk

42 44

Features

11

Conspiracy Theories

37

If These Walls Could Talk

Single Artist Soundtracks Film music as the creative vision of the individual artist

Johnathan Ulman Catching up with Boston’s session drummer extraordinaire

A discourse in hip-hop’s history of incarceration

Etcetera

17

Joystick Jams How video game music went pop

Jason Levy digs into the music world’s weirdest and most persistent speculations

BandCamp Jams Surveying the web’s finest musical obscurities

46

Discography: Prince

50

Just a Taste Of

A companion to the life and times of the Purple One

The Colonnade

Calendar May Su

1

Sa

2

3

4

5

6

7

Bob Mould Paradise Rock Club

Santigold House of Blues

The Darkness Paradise Rock Club

Eleanor Friedberger Middle East Upstairs

Ben Folds Orpheum Theater

Basement Royale Boston

Cate Le Bon Brighton Music Hall

Ought The Sinclair

Born Ruffians Middle East Downstairs BABYMETAL House of Blues Lapsley The Sinclair

You Won’t The Sinclair

M. Ward Royale

11

12

13

14

8

9

10

Protomartyr Great Scott

Frightened Rabbit House of Blues

Chelsea Wolfe Royale

Yeasayer Paradise Rock Club

Speedy Ortiz / Hop Along The Sinclair

Wild Nothing The Sinclair

Lamb of God House of Blues

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard The Sinclair

15

16

17

Floating Points The Sinclair

18

19

20

Twin Peaks The Sinclair

The Kills Paradise Rock Club Giraffage Middle East Downstairs Beach Slang The Sinclair

Jon Hopkins Middle East Downstairs

25

26

27

Four Tet Paradise Rock Club

Debo Band The Sinclair

1975 Tsongas Center

22

23

24

The Range Brighton Music Hall

29

21

28

30

Discharge / Eyehategod Brighton Music Hall

Rockommends

Cate Le Bon May 3 @ Brighton Music Hall

You Won’t May 6 @ The Sinclair

Hot on the trail of a rewarding 2015 collaboration with White Fence’s Tim Presley, Cate Le Bon will be blowing the Cuckoo Through The Walls of the Brighton Music Hall in May. Where DRINKS was the product of hermits on a hiatus from melodic convention, Le Bon’s upcoming Crab Day promises a stunning return to form. Fans can decide for themselves whether this is a holiday to be celebrated or feared.

Their first record, Skeptic Goodbye, garnered praise from SPIN, NPR, KEXP, and the New York Times. Now, the band is ready to put out another, and is holding the record release party in Boston. You Won’t will be celebrating at the Sinclair in May, with a show/party that You Won’t want to miss.

Peter Giunta (Biology)

David McDevitt (International Affairs/ Economics)

June Su

5

Sa

6

Lord Huron / Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats House of Blues Nothing The Sinclair

12

7

2

3

4

Eagles of Death Metal House of Blues

Bloc Party House of Blues

Beyonce Gillette Stadium

CHVRCHES House of Blues

CHVRCHES House of Blues

Nada Surf Paradise Rock Club

8

9

10

11

Florence + The Machine Xfinity Center

Pity Sex The Sinclair

Buffalo Tom Paradise Rock Club

DIIV The Sinclair

13

Motion City Soundtrack Paradise Rock Club

19

20

Thrice House of Blues

Mitski Brighton Music Hall

14

15

16

17

18

Chastity Belt / Colleen Green Middle East Upstairs

Ellie Goulding TD Garden

The Cure Agganis Arena

Brian Wilson with The Boston Pops Symphony Hall

Brian Wilson with The Boston Pops Symphony Hall

Aesop Rock Paradise Rock Club

At the Drive-In House of Blues

25

21

Wye Oak The Sinclair

26

1

27

28

Dungen The Sinclair

22

23

24

Bonnie “Prince” Billy The Sinclair

Modern Baseball House of Blues

Quilt / Widowspeak The Sinclair

29

30

31

FLAG The Sinclair

Four Tet May 25 @ Paradise Rock Club

Brian Wilson with The Boston Pops June 17-18 @ Symphony Hall

U.K. producer Four Tet has created a vast array of acclaimed experimental electronic works, and he’s also produced a few danceable club tracks, including 2015’s stellar “BACK2THESTART.” Seeing him live promises to be a fascinating and perhaps even psychedelic experience.

You can catch legendary Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson a lot of places this summer. He’ll be performing the band’s 1966 best-album-ofall-time contender Pet Sounds in its entirety for the final time on a 50th anniversary tour. Boston is the only place where that already-essential experience features the accompaniment of a whole damned orchestra. Unmissable.

Jonas Polin (Undeclared)

Ben Stas (Journalism/English)

Album Reviews Radical Face The Family Tree: The Leaves Release date March 25 Label Nettwerk Productions Genre Singer/Songwriter Tasty Tracks “Secrets (Cellar Door)”, “The Road to Nowhere”, “Bad Blood”

Reviews Spring 2016

8

Ben Cooper has always been a musical storyteller. As Radical Face, he’s the kind of storyteller one listens to as if gathering around the smoldering embers of a woodland campfire on a snowy evening. His songs, Arcadian ballads concerned with the intricacies of memory and melancholy, possess a pull both gentle and inexorable. And The Family Tree, a trilogy of records tracing one fictional bloodline— the supernaturally gifted Northcote clan— from the 1800s on, is his most spellbinding yarn.

“Secrets (Cellar Door),” the first track on The Leaves, the third and final chapter in this trilogy, begins with simple instrumentation and one indelible image. “You dug up your old bird / and you held her to your chest as I breathed life back into her lungs,” Cooper recounts. His protagonists? Children, haunted by an unconventional inheritance: the ability to interact with the dead. Lost souls are rife throughout The Family Tree, but there’s particular irony in this pair bonding over a gift so ghastly.

But that’s the way of the world in the quietly mystical corner of Americana that Radical Face calls home, where ghosts real and imagined are so deeply felt that they merit seats at the dinner table. At this point, Cooper’s cinematic musical stylings conjure the setting with ease, and he deepens it on The Leaves, circling not just fantastical tales but more earthbound issues, like how decades of dysfunction and destitution lead some Northcotes to rebel against the weight of their heritage.

“I ain’t gonna hang my head for them / And I ain’t gonna let them paint the truth with sin,” sings the protagonist of “Everything Costs.”

Later, as a daring electric guitar propels the rich mix of strings into modern times, “The Road to Nowhere” manifests as a rallying cry and a turning point in Cooper’s discography, its protagonist tapping into their gifts in search of liberation.

Moldy

Stale

The ethereal “Midnight,” meanwhile, unfolds like a dream but wrestles with the idea that its protagonist’s blood, the source of their powers, is turning to poison in their veins.

Elsewhere, “Third Family Portrait” finds its brood trudging through the seasons, Cooper’s voice parsing out fresh hardships with each successive stanza.

Cooper has been transparent about his own tangles with antagonistic kinfolk playing into certain songs on The Leaves, and so it’s not hard to link the Northcotes’ cycle of suffering to the musician’s own, there and on agonizing closer “Bad Blood.” A downer note on which to close out this trilogy, the track is a painfully raw exploration of Cooper’s past and present, his tumultuous childhood and contemporary strains collapsing in on one another beneath somber strings and wistful vocals. At first a mere murmur, the song builds in intensity until Cooper finally unloads, with one brutal sentiment: “Took a river of bad blood / But now I see where we came from / Can’t grow a proper branch when half the trunk is rotten.”

Edible

Fresh

Tasty

That song, and the album as a whole, is and has always been about providing Cooper with some form of therapy, an outlet to explore his reveries and folk arpeggio playing— even as he processes the toll his real-life traumas have taken on them. That’s a heavy burden for any record to carry, but The Leaves bears it well.

Admittedly, it feels like Cooper will get more out of this album than anyone else ever could.

But for his listeners, The Leaves remains a gem of a record, one that draws intrusively close to its creator but, in the end, feels all the more impactful for its intimacy.

Isaac Feldberg (Media and Screen Studies/ Journalism)

We publish album reviews online too! tastemakersmag.com

Moldy

Stale

Edible

Fresh

Tasty

Iggy Pop Post Pop Depression Release date March 18 Label Loma Vista Recordings Genre Rock Tasty Tracks “Break into Your Heart”, “American Valhalla”, “Chocolate Drops” Iggy Pop has long maintained the curious position of an active and undeniably legendary musical figure whose last widely acclaimed project is many, many years behind him. Three incendiary records of proto-punk madness with The Stooges and a pair of nearflawless art-rock LPs in collaboration with David Bowie between 1969 and 1977 established Pop

Frankie Cosmos The Next Thing Release date April 1 Label Bayonet Genre Indie Tasty Tracks “Too Dark”, “Fool”, “Outside with the Cuties” About a month ago, I celebrated my 20th birthday. “Celebrated” is applied lightly here, as I just went about my normal day with small “treat yo self” moments sprinkled throughout. I slept in a bit longer, got a doughnut for breakfast and went to see the new Coen Brothers movie in the evening. But with every birthday comes the tidal wave of mortality— was the apathy towards my special day connected to my apathy towards death? A quarter of my life has passed by me and I’m still eating doughnuts and getting high. Do I still have time to be somebody?

“I’m 20, washed up already,” Greta Kline echoes on her latest LP, The Next Thing. With over 40 home-recorded Bandcamp albums and far from washed up, Kline, aka Frankie Cosmos, is experienced in the art of “small moments.”

She sings about David Blaine and rest-stop eggs as if they’re mind-blowing forces of nature, nouns that opened her eyes to the bigger ideas of life. Her descriptions of everyday experiences and objects sound gorgeous, like “sunlight on a subway pole” or “fur against a turnstile,” and

as a legend. A lifetime of notoriously intense live performances solidified that legacy. And yet, you’d be hard pressed to find a consistent defender of his solo work since 1980, and the less said of The Stooges’ reviled 2000s reunion albums, the better. The unexpectedly inspired Post Pop Depression feels like a deliberate attempt to course-correct all of that, and it’s by and large successful in that endeavor.

From the instant an otherworldly guitar tone blends with Pop’s unmistakable voice promising to “break into your heart” on the record’s opening track, Post Pop Depression evokes his past peaks without aping them.

Joined here by Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Dean Fertita, along with Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders, Pop has found himself a set of collaborators that complement his style while successfully bringing their own to the table as well. The robotic desert-stomp of Homme and Fertita’s main project seeps into many of the grooves here, and Helders’ tight percussion anchors things nicely. One hesitates to compare any mere mortal to Bowie, but Homme’s distinctive turns on background vocals, particularly on “Chocolate Drops,” bring to mind the familiar voice floating in the background of an old favorite like Lust for Life’s “Turn Blue.”

Make no mistake though, Iggy himself isn’t overshadowed by the dream team he’s assembled here; these songs still belong to him.

it’s her prodigal twee aesthetic inspired by Beat Happening and Kimya Dawson that makes these small moments feel so much larger than life.

Her sweetness never veers into being saccharine because it’s the same kind of mortality and aging I find myself facing that she sings about in the same lines as her sentimentality. “You look at me, and I look away, though I had been looking” she cheekily swoons, and her maturation since Zentropy is evident. Musically too, The Next Thing is a lot of the same from Kline, but enhanced and more nuanced. “Sleep Song,” “Too Dark,” “Tour Good” and plenty others were previously released on her Bandcamp years ago, when she was still recording on her acoustic in the security of her bedroom. She carries this intimacy into the new recordings of these songs that now have a full band backing them, and her arrangements are so careful to still make her the centerpiece while never being too dull. There’s obvious newer Porches-influenced sounds here and there, what with lead singer Aaron Maine being her romantic partner for quite some time now, but its presence is a welcoming addition to a record that proves Kline can grow from Zentropy in not just album runtime but instrumentally, too.

Kline’s evolving, aging and starting to sound more wistful, but she simply doesn’t care.

Her sheer confidence and unpretentiousness carried the 17-minute Zentropy to the critical lengths it received, and there’s even more of it on

Pop’s trademark seductive sleaze is present and accounted for on the opening duo of “Gardenia” and the aforementioned “Break into Your Heart,” but the thematic preoccupations shift to more timely concerns of mortality and legacy elsewhere on the record. Centerpiece “American Valhalla” pinpoints those anxieties, finding the 68-year-old Pop crooning that“death is the pill that’s tough to swallow.”

For the man whose defining on-stage characteristic has long been his youthful abandon, such musings indicate some serious late-career self-examination taking place. At the end of it all, “Paraguay” fixates on the idea of leaving modern society behind in favor of retirement in an idealistic paradise removed from “so much fucking knowledge”— a sentiment no doubt aligning with Pop’s suggestion that Depression and its ensuing tour could be his last hurrah.

Simultaneously driven by both purposeful selfcorrection and lightning-in-a-bottle spark, Post Pop Depression’s nine tracks feel like the swan-song that Iggy deserves. If the record is indeed his final bow, it’s a fitting last word on the state of the modern world and his place in it, or lack thereof. Homme, Fertita and Helders imbue Iggy with a fresh sense of purpose that resonates throughout these songs and renders the record an early 2016 highlight from an artist we’d mistakenly counted out.

Ben Stas (Journalism/English)

Moldy

Stale Stale

Edible Edible

Fresh Fresh

Tasty Tasty

The Next Thing. “I haven’t written this part yet, will you help me write it?” she asks with innocence, as if she’s really singing these songs she wrote at a rest stop five minutes ago, driving to a lover she’s about to visit. The Next Thing is like sharing the car ride on the cover with her- closed and personal, but with the windows cracked open just enough for the creativity and emotions to just flow.

So maybe it is the way she sings “I drink bad coffee, hope that you’ll call me” with a kind of shrug that resonates with me so deeply because it’s like an exact short story of my life. Sure, another birthday is another year closer to death, but it’s another year spent watching my friends fall in love and walking past flower shops. The Next Thing is a stunning reminder that it’s the little things that matter.

Anu Gulati (Computer Science/Math) 9

Kanye West The Life of Pablo Release date February 14 Label GOOD Music Genre Hip-Hop Tasty Tracks “Ultralight Beam”, “Waves”, “No More Parties in L.A.”

Reviews

By the time you read this, we may be talking about a totally different album. Kanye West’s latest work, The Life of Pablo, is a “living breathing changing creative expression” (in the tweeted words of Yeezus himself ), and that means he’ll be tweaking and adding and subtracting probably until the day we all die. It is an experiment in popular music that we have never seen before, and it is unclear whether the ultimate goal is a perfect album or a constantly evolving one.

Nearly everything surrounding the album has been bizarre, from the messy rollout at Madison Square Garden to the Twitter barrages giving a glimpse into the madness. And the current product (there may never be a “final” product, so to speak) reflects that chaos. TLOP is all over the place, swinging like a metronome

from severely insecure Ye to supremely confident Ye repeatedly. Kanye does some of his best rapping in years on songs like “No More Parties in L.A.,” and then spits some of the worst bars of his life just a song later in “Facts.” In “Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” he drops some preposterously dumb lines about a model’s anus, and then comes back in “Pt. 2” with vulnerable ruminations on fatherhood.

But in a way, this is Kanye in his truest form. He is a hip-hop legend of course, but an exceptionally imperfect one. His God complex has always been an easy reason for people to dislike him, and the violent misogyny in his music is both constant and troubling. Yet he has still maintained a beauty and quality in his music that can’t be touched. He is a diamond with some noticeably rough edges, and so is TLOP. For all of its flaws, this is an incredible album.

The strength of the album lies in the features. And while that might seem like a condemnation at first, it is anything but. No one is as skilled as Ye at recruiting other artists and putting them in a position to succeed.

TLOP reflects Kanye the orchestrator at his finest, and it honestly feels like each guest was born for their role. Chance the Rapper drops a mind-melting verse on “Ultralight Beam,” which also doubles as the best song on the album. Chris Brown absolutely kills his part on “Waves.” The Weeknd’s vocals on “FML” are stunning. These are premier artists with premier skills, and Kanye weaves them into TLOP with perfection. Young Thug’s guest appearance is the best evidence of Kanye’s genius and stature.

He absolutely owned the past year in rap with his prolific output and is a bonafide superstar stretching the genre to another stratosphere.

But Ye gives him just one tiny thing to say on the album, and Thugger absolutely nails that one thing, with “Highlights.” And if nothing else, Kanye deserves a Nobel Prize for digging Frank Ocean out of whatever cave he has been hiding in and getting him to record some vocals.

The Life of Pablo is raw. The Life of Pablo is crude. The Life of Pablo could definitely use some refinement. But The Life of Pablo is also gorgeous. It is a true reflection of Kanye West the man, not Kanye West the celebrity, and will only further cement his legacy in hip-hop.

It may not be perfect, but it is unflinchingly honest. Kanye knows his faults, and he knows that he is not Kanye without them. Perfection is nice, but it’s also boring. And Kanye is anything but boring.

Alex Frandsen (Journalism/Sociology)

Spring 2016

10

Moldy

Stale

Edible

Fresh

Tasty

If you would like to submit a review to be considered for publishing in print or online, e-mail: tmreviews@gmail.com

COURTNEY KILLED PAUL F MUSIC A BRIEF HISTORY O

JASON LEVY (BUSINESS)

On July 25, 2015, Frank Ocean received a startling email from an unknown sender warning him not to release his highly anticipated third album that he had promised the public earlier that year. The email detailed threats warning Ocean that if he released the album without warning in July as expected, certain homophobic factions within an unspecified organization would hunt him down and make sure absolutely no one in the business would work with him, effectively ending his career. Essentially, Frank Ocean was blacklisted. Now, absolutely none of that was true, but now that I’ve released the story to the public, maybe it will take Tumblr by storm by mid-afternoon.

Whether you consider yourself religious, went to a private school, believe in ghosts or aliens, or are voting for Donald Trump, there is one thing we can all agree on: music conspiracy theories are batshit. The amount of nitpicky details that proponents of these stories put into their research to support their theories; the amount of hard-to-see dots they connect; the passion they speak of their findings with. It’s all truly mind-boggling.

What’s critical to mention when discussing the absurdity of these theories is how specific ones came about. Initially when theories arose, they gained traction through fairly reputable publications, such as college newspapers or magazines. As time passed on things changed; while equally as absurd, theories today pop up more frequently, and are noticeably more contrived. Unlike many early urban legends about pop culture figures, most current stories are not carefully stitched together from extensive research and journalistic investigation, but rather fabricated from far-fetched anonymous accounts from online

RIES

CONSPIRACY THEO

social media hounds in search of their illustrious fifteen minutes.

Someone happened to hear “Stairway to Heaven” backwards one day, thought a lyric sounded vaguely like “Satan”, and suddenly Jimmy Page was a devout Satanist and parents were tossing vinyl records out the window to save their children’s virtue.

That’s not to say that older theories aren’t contrived and ridiculous in nature, they simply had a little more thought put into them. And sure, it is a pretty strange coincidence that four prominent musicians died at age 27 within three years of each other, but do you really think Kris Kristofferson is a reptilian shape-shifter who was sent from the moon to spread his lizard agenda? Similarly, the notion that Jay-Z and wife Beyoncé are in the Illuminati is a pure product of the Internet age, a culture in which fans and other young people will find the tiniest shred of “evidence” (in this case, supposed devil worshiping lyrics) and cling to it for dear life as they center their entire investigation around it.

It’s all well and good to joke about how Marilyn Manson surgically removed his ribs to practice autofellatio, or how Stevie Wonder isn’t blind, but some theories truly are complex and fascinating. That being said, a word on a few of the most famous, most unsettling, most absurd, and of course, the most viable music conspiracy theories of the last few decades.

PAUL IS DEAD

What’s most notable about the concept of conspiracy theories in the music industry is the public’s fascination with death. The sheer number of theories involving dead, murdered, or secretly alive musicians is astronomical.

With that we have “Paul is Dead,” a theory so popular it has its own Wikipedia page.

On September 17, 1969, a Duke University publication called Drake Times-Delphic published an article entitled “Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?” The article discussed a circulated rumor on campus that McCartney was dead, citing specific lyrics from The White Album (played backwards of course), as well as another rumor from two years prior in The Beatles Book (a magazine entirely devoted to The Beatles) that Paul had died in a car crash in London. The list of supposed evidence goes on for miles, most notably the notion that Paul was replaced by a double who was photographed on the Abbey Road cover (apparently billed as a photo of Paul’s funeral procession, in which Paul’s bare feet and white outfit represent his apparent passing). Everyone knows this story, but what most don’t know is that most of the supposed

“clues” to McCartney’s death were entirely fabricated by a student who wrote a satirical article from The Michigan Daily a month after the Duke University article; just like how your mom or idiot roommate shared that one Onion article about millions getting trampled and dying on Black Friday, thousands shared the article and passed it off as real journalism.

VERDICT:

DEBUNKED 11

Feature

COURTNEY KILLED KURT

Kurt Cobain’s story is truly tragic; he really was the definition of a tortured artist who wasn’t quite ready for superstardom. That’s why when Cobain’s body was found next to a shotgun and a note, most people accepted

the frontman’s passing as suicide. However the rumors flooded in quicker than “Paul is Dead,” and this time they weren’t from harmless college publications. The private investigator hired by Courtney Love, Tom Grant, believed there was enough evidence to suggest that Kurt was murdered. Was his conclusion a contrived scheme to grab his fleeting fame and a quick buck? Possibly, but when such a conspiracy stems from an individual so closely connected to the subject, it’s bound to get people talking. And with discussion came new theories and more people looking to hog the spotlight. Fingers started pointing in every direction, and soon enough it was Courtney at the forefront of discussion. Now I’m not saying Love is a murderer, but most people are aware of her well-documented antics (she stuffed Kurt’s ashes in a teddy bear). The most common

story is that an overdose suicide attempt by Cobain in 1994, now known as the “Rome incident,” was actually a product of Love slipping extra pills into Kurt’s champagne. It wasn’t enough though, and Kurt escaped with his life. Later in 1998, the film Courtney & Kurt aired the now famous El Duche interview, in which Eldon Hoke claimed that Love offered him $50,000 to “whack Kurt Cobain.” If it were anyone else this would be absurd, but Love might as well be certifiably insane, so people clung to the idea. That being said, there just isn’t enough evidence to support the case.

VERDICT:

ED

CASE CLOS

ANDREW W.K. ISNT A REAL PERSON I don’t know why, but I am so happy this theory exists, mostly because it is downright hilarious. The backbone of the theory is that Andrew W.K., the metal kid turned bona fide party boy, is not actually a real person. In fact, he is simply a fabricated entity that has been cleverly crafted by multiple parties. Much like James Bond, Andrew W.K. is supposedly a fictional persona, a role to be played by multiple people throughout the years. Most

TUMBL

VERDICT:

RTASTIC

Spring 2016

12

proponents of the theory will tell you that Dave Grohl invented the character (the two do look remarkably similar) and released 2001’s I Get Wet as an outlet to make fun party music. The success of the album supposedly provoked Grohl to take the concept even further, and soon enough Andrew W.K. was a multi-actor role. Now Andrew W.K.’s apparent disappearance in the 2000’s is the initial event that sparked the theory, especially when he resurfaced with a clean-shaven face and a thinner build. What, so Pharrell can look like he hasn’t aged in 20 years and nobody bats an eye but Andrew W.K. shaves and loses a little weight and suddenly he doesn’t exist anymore? More likely than not this was a harmless fan theory that somehow hit the mainstream, and it’s even more likely that the

spontaneous W.K. got wind of the theory and is playing along as a self-referential joke. This one is really a product of the bizarre social media and fanfiction era of the millennials.

TUPAC/ELVIS/JIM MORRISON/ MICHAEL JACKSON ARE STILL ALIVE Like I said, the public is fascinated with death, and the supposed list of celebrities who either faked their death or are secretly alive and in hiding is lengthy. However, most of the cavalcade of these stars who are allegedly still alive are musicians, which in a way makes sense. The death of your favorite musician can put you in state of denial, and it is hard to accept that he or she will never put out any new music. What better way to curb yourself out of that denial than by believing they’re alive? Thousands of people, after all, would

VERDICT:

A PRODUCT OF MEDIA WHORES

definitely describe Tupac, Elvis, Jim Morrison, and Michael Jackson as their favorite artist.

Of all the conspiracy theories I’ve discussed thus far, stories of this nature most definitely have the most longevity, prominence, and of course, believers. It wont take you much digging to find hundreds upon thousands of anonymous (but obviously mostly not anonymous, got to pay the bills somehow) accounts of sightings of these artists, with some going as far as to say that Jim Morrison faked his own death to avoid any further fame. Now the sketchy circumstances that surrounded the King of Pop’s death definitely are cause for serious discussion and debate, but most don’t jump to the conclusion that he’s in hiding somewhere. The sevenday theory of Tupac might be a little more comprehensive, but ultimately it’s still grasping at straws. Honestly though, pick any dead singer on Rolling Stone’s “100 greatest artists of all time” list, repeat ad nauseum, both online and in print, how you saw them

riding their bike through town, and maybe your story will be one of the thousands that break through to the mainstream.

THE 27 CLUB

Another theory with its own Wikipedia page, The 27 Club is arguably the most popular, and the most eerie, music conspiracy out there. For the uninformed, from 1969 to 1971,

Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix (who also has a murder conspiracy theory to his name), and Janis Joplin all died at the age of 27. The series of deaths raised some concern and comment, but it wasn’t till Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994 that the theory truly took off.

There are some thirty odd musicians who are considered members of The 27 Club, most notably Ron McKernan of the Grateful Dead, Robert Johnson, and more recently, Amy Winehouse. Some theories suggest that all of these singers sold their soul to the devil in exchange for their talents, but unbeknownst to them, their satanic contracts expired after about at the age of 27 (apparently they couldn’t exactly renew it like a drivers license). Even creepier, four of these singers— Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain (three of which were part of the

initial four death burst)—were allegedly found dead with white lighters on their person. To this day, many “serious” musicians will not carry white lighters for fear of bad luck. Now maybe this makes me a bit sadistic, but if I were to become a superstar musician, the day I turned 27 I would start carrying a white lighter on me, just in case something were to happen to me. Imagine the reaction, all because I wanted to screw with some heads.

For all I know, Cobain, Joplin, and Morrison wanted to do the same thing.

VERDICT:

YOU DECIDE

13

Local Photos

Set It Off, The Sinclair

Seb Herforth (Engineering)

Ty Segall, Royale Boston

Katie Nelson (International Affairs)

Bully, Afterhours

Ben Stas (English/Journalism)

Bandcamp Jams

sean henry/ boy crush genre: lo-fi bedroom dream pop recommended tracks: “peach blossoms”, “candy”, “girls don’t like me” sounds like: Teen Suicide, Starry Cat, Elvis Depressedly, Alex G

Sean Henry Posila is a music maker from New York City who has put out albums under the names boy crush, sean henry, and High Pop. Henry’s music is full of softly distorted, reverby guitars and a ghostly echo voice, all backed by a heartbeat of bass guitar and artificial drums.

I can one hundred percent guarantee that listening to this will make you feel (kinda) cool.

The most noteworthy boy crush release, hauntr, evokes the feeling of a Halloween hangout at the cemetery between the two school dorks, which is perfectly representative of the music it contains. it’s all about me, on the other hand, is more like a walk around the park with people you hardly consider friends anymore, looking up at the sky and still being lonely, but then feeling really good when you go home and watch

a good movie and dream a vivid dream. Boy crush also has a short but sweet 6-track split album with starry cat. One standout track from this album is “Candy,” in which the guitar energetically jumps off the bass, and a childish - almost taunting- voice chimes in to paint some themes of nostalgia, birthday wishes and sweet kisses, and possibly drugs.

I recommend listening to boy crush in October, because its Halloween themes are numerous. it’s all about me, however, is best enjoyed in the Spring thanks to tracks like “Peach Blossoms.” Sean Henry hasn’t released any music in over a year, but every song in his catalog is well worth your time.

• Nile Kealey (Contributor)

SIPP/SMAUG genre: experimental bass recommended tracks: Sipp- “such needless pain we bear,” SMAUG“im just fine,” Usher- “Climax (SMAUG Remix)” sounds like: greyhat, 123Mrk, drip-133

Sipp and SMAUG are the two aliases of Montreal-based producer Johnny Randisi. Both feature lush, diverse soundscapes filled with deep bass, washed-out vocal samples, and slow drum patterns. Listening to Randisi’s music is like walking through a foggy dream. Someone with general knowledge of contemporary pop music can almost make out the words to familiar songs, but they are slowed and obscured and they fade in and out. Samples of traditional instruments are occasionally featured but they are always cut off by Randisi’s remarkably varied bass and drum patterns.

“such needless pain we bear” is perhaps his masterpiece. It begins with a children’s piano, and layers of drums and some wind instrument are added on top. More than a minute in, the song completely switches to blasts of bass and percussion with vague vocal samples. These two parts of the song alternate and blend, and at one point a vocal sample pops in with “I love you so much; I can’t even believe how much I love you.” At the end is a sample from a Christian hymn which provides the titular “such needless pain we bear.” It is at once whimsical and subdued, elated and hopeless.

• Jonas Polin (Undeclared) 17

Editorial

The Un-freakness of Freak Folk

“Parsley… is a herb,” goes the beguiling thesis of 2006’s Folk Off!, a compilation from Sunday Best DJ Rob Da Bank. The last track of disc one, Listen With Sarah’s “Blue Parsley,” echoed the sinking feeling that we had either learned nothing about the current state of folk’s offshoot “freak folk” or had managed to unlearn something essential. The comp was designed to showcase “New folk and psychadelia from the British Isles and North America” in the guise of a bloody folk ground war between the two nations. It erroneously implied that folk had undergone a speciation event and had evolved into two disparate and antagonistic movements. In fact, the project is betrayed by its own shocking incoherence on both fronts, mentioning in the same breath Acid Casuals’ campy “Bowl Me Over” with This is the Kit’s “Two Wooden Spoons.”

“It erroneously implied that folk had undergone a speciation event and had evolved into two disparate and antagonistic movements.”

Beyond a liberal application of folk as genre, Folk Off! characterized precious little that was distinctly British or American about each track, and even less about how freak folk could serve as a unifying shorthand for a collection of tracks that didn’t seem particularly pleased to be organized side by side. Among a slew of other folk compilations in 2006 (see Strange Folk etc.), it was important because it demonstrated that a general sense of “weirdness” was woefully ill equipped, as Devendra Banhart has pointed out, as “an apt descriptive label.” Freak folk

Spring 2016

18

seemed more a description of enthusiasts gouging record crates with dental equipment for the next Parallelogram than a meaningful description of the revival itself.

Ironically, Banhart is indirectly responsible for the modern incarnation of the word, beginning in 2001 when he reached out to Vashti Bunyan, whose 1970 pastoral opus Just Another Diamond Day has since earned her the esteemed title of freak folk’s “godmother.” He has also sung with psych-folk darling Linda Perhacs on his 2007 Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, to say nothing of his foundational Golden Apples of the Sun compilation and 2003 album Oh Me Oh My.

With that in mind, it might be useful to use Banhart’s career to trace the history of freak folk through the present microcosmically. His debut, Oh Me Oh My, populated itself with creepy thumps on clapboard walls and a horde of warlocks for broken harmony. 2004’s Rejoicing in the Hands saw (antithetically to the Folk Off! lineup) a collaboration between Banhart and the British Vashti Bunyan, paying homage to her impeccable sense of fanciful melody while assuring its place in a modern context.

Collaborations proliferated the following year with Cripple Crow, which included members from some of the bands featured on Folk Off!, including Espers and Vetiver. If anything, that album felt like a reasonable facsimile of a collective, bringing many folk artists together under a celebration of Native American and Venezuelan culture.

But Banhart’s 2013 Mala decided, of all things, to take the sentiment of Cripple Crow’s “The Beatles” (“Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are the only Beatles in the World”) and stretch it over 14 tracks. While digging into early pop influences (and even the occasional synthesizer), the album simultaneously dismissed the hipness of “Long Haired Child” in one glorious fell swoop to the tune of livid scenesters. In fact, the album felt wholly “adult” in production value and an almost satiric relationship with his previous work.

“If it exists in any form today, freak folk is about getting excited about the realization that you can constantly reinvent yourself and still age gracefully.”

the Sun compilation, has since matured in breadth and height, recruiting the entire 101st Lightborne on 2015’s Divers.

To many people, it feels like these artists have evolved to the point of contradiction, the proverbial wool having been pulled over their eyes. But it’s one thing to say your child will most certainly be a long haired child, and quite another to explain to your son why he isn’t allowed to get an undercut.

The freakness of a decade ago existed less in the quirk of songs like “Lend Me Your Teeth” than in the ability of an artist to get excited about making an archaeological discovery. If it exists in any form today, freak folk is about getting excited about the realization that you can constantly reinvent yourself and still age gracefully. It might just be time for us to stop mourning the loss of a tired genre convention and do a little growing up ourselves.

• Peter Giunta (Biology)

So perhaps swells of adulthood are responsible for the veritable “un-freakness” of the present. Animal Collective (whose “Kids on Holiday” was also featured on the Folk Off! comp) have seen a decisive shift starting from 2012’s Centipede Hz and solidified in the recent Painting With. They have taken the dissertation of 2004’s Sung Tongs (namely, “you don’t have to go to college”) and drowned it in hours of deep-fried in-studio tinkering, with mixed critical and fan reception (to get a sense of freak folk traditionalist fervor, have a look at The Quietus’ review of Painting With). Even Joanna Newsom, whose caravel “Bridges and Balloons” breathed hot air into Banhart’s literate Golden Apples of

19

Editorial

HOW VIDEO GAME MUSIC WENT POP

Spring 2016

20

It must have sounded like chaos to anyone over the age of 20. Like a horde of broken telephones ringing in a disjointed sequence, the noises echoing through the earliest arcades were probably not what most would describe as pretty. But in those early clicks, beeps and ringing whistles was an electrifying simplicity – a heady rush of noise that represented an attempt to recreate sounds with limited, direct means. Although light on formal musical value, it was heavy on feeling, which would only become stronger as the music in video games took on its own form of expression. This crude, tiny world of sound and its descendants would influence a generation, becoming a language unto itself in the lexicon of popular music.

It didn’t take long for designers to fuse the distinctive sound effects of video games with tuned music. The first game to feature continuous music was “Space Invaders”, a shooting game with a spare but effective accompaniment. This consisted of four descending bass rumbles that gradually increase in speed with the pace of the game.

It sounds almost laughable today, but when the game was released, it must have felt like a harbinger of the future, and crowds too noticed, throwing so many coins into the machines and reportedly causing a shortage of small change in Japan for years.

Despite this, the earliest video game music was still used sparingly. The simple melody that plays between sessions in

“Pac Man” feels like distraction designed to attract patrons in noisy arcades, and the gameplay itself features no music at all; only beeps and clicks of the characters moving.

This was likely caused by the technology’s limitations, which made generating even basic musical sounds a challenge.

More than just kids seeking thrills in arcades felt the simple bass line of “Space Invaders”. The song “Computer Games (Theme From Invader)” by pioneering Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra was perhaps the first to directly incorporate video game sounds. One version of that track was a massive hit, beginning with indiscriminate video game noise screeching before fashioning a pleasant, buoyant melody out of the noises. The popularity of the new medium drew less direct tributes as well.

Funk music legend George Clinton released the EP Computer Games in 1982. Although the album didn’t use the sounds of games, it helped establish a link between early electronic funk and the music of video games.

Both Clinton and Yellow Magic Orchestra began a dialogue that would lead to further overlap between the worlds of video games and dance music.

Within two years of “Space Invaders”’ release, most games began using music to accompany the graphics. The simple tunes, rather than dressing the game itself in an atmosphere, began to feel like an integral part of the games themselves. By the time video games transferred from the arcade to the home computer and console, the idea of

music as part of the game was ingrained in developers.

With better technology, video game music truly began to come into its own. The frequencies of the early video game consoles became a proving ground for a new kind of composer: one that faced limits as specified by the sound cards in video consoles and computers. These soundtracks often had to fight for the attention of the players, and the result of this was a form of music ruled entirely by high-pitched, catchy melodies constructed out of waves of brittle synth sounds.

Despite the catchiness of these songs, they didn’t have the conversation with pop music like earlier games. Some notably recreated pop songs – Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalker” game featured gorgeous renderings of the King of Pop’s hits — while others focused on original composition. Either way, game music was taken increasingly seriously as a medium, and publishers released vinyl and tape copies of their soundtracks.

The sample-hunting nature of hip-hop and dance music would eventually turn this era of video game music into its own sound.

Around 2000, hip-hop mega-producers like The Neptunes and Timbaland, both raised on the video game music of the ‘80s, began to mine their past for a retro-futuristic flavor. Timbaland-penned hits like 50 Cent’s “Ayo Technology” and Nelly Furtado’s “Do It” are bathed in the cold, bright sounds of video game music. Other genres got in on

the sound, too. Worldwide dance smash “Kernkraft 4000” by Zombie Nation takes its melody from an obscure 1984 game for the Commodore 64 home computer. “Smile Like You Mean it” by The Killers opens with the distinctive peal of the Commodore 64.

Similar sounds have enjoyed continued success, with Ke$ha’s 2010 world-conquering dance pop single “Tik Tok” referencing the impossibly high leads of the Nintendo Entertainment system. Modern hip-hop also owes a debt to it. Drake, one of the prominent rappers of this decade, sampled a song off of Donkey Country 2 for “6 God” off of last year’s If You’re Reading This it’s Too Late. Viral hiphop hit “Cha Cha” by DRAM samples a theme from Super Mario World. The “chiptune” sound has become part of the electronic music continuum, stepping down the past predicted by Yellow Magic Orchestra and George Clinton.

Part of this popularity can be attributed to nostalgia, or the voracious appetite popular music has for new sounds. But whatever the reason, the “disposable” soundtracks of video games have become an enduring sound, a template of timbres that looks to the past while looking to the future. Like the protagonist of countless video games, the music has functioned like an underdog hero, beating slim odds to become legitimate, powerful expression.

Seth Queeney (Communications Studies)

21

A History OF Feature Editorial Fall 2014 Spring 2016

22

chicago FOOTWORK Recently, the Internet has allowed many off-kilter and locally specific subgenres to flourish, including Chicago born and bred footwork. Although the genre’s unconventional dancing has been recognized for years, the intensely rhythmic music has only recently become a player in the worldwide electronic scene.

Since the ‘80s, Chicago has served as a hub for electronic dance styles like house and techno. In the ‘90s, house music and its function were evolving, leading to several offshoots, such as deep, acid and electro house. In the underground scene, a fast-paced style of dancing centered on disorienting foot motion emerged, which called for a faster style of house music that was later, and appropriately, dubbed footwork. Throughout the decade, local DJs made skeletal footwork music only intended for dance “battles,” keeping the music’s anticommercial edge.

Although footwork saw some hints at commercial viability in the 2000s, the next decade finally saw the genre’s emergence from Chicago. Influential British label Planet Mu released the commercial compilation Bangs & Works Vol.1 in 2010, which strictly adhered to the foundations of the subgenre, using danceable yet hypnotically repetitive grooves made from 808 drums, simple synth leads and syncopated samples. The music is groovy, but echoes background music for footwork’s signature dancing.

DJ Rashad, a man heavily involved in the footwork scene, helped garner attention for the genre by mixing its foundation with more diverse electronic styles, such as U.K. garage and trap. With developed and progressive tracks, his music had a larger appeal, allowing a listener to enjoy the songs without necessarily being at a footwork club or “dance-off.” He released several EPs and a full-length debut Double Cup on British label Hyperdub, but passed away in 2014 following a drug overdose.

Two years later, the footwork scene has both lost and gained traction. Without Rashad prolifically producing innovative footwork music, music from his partners, such as DJ Spinn and Taco, fails to grab the same attention and lacks Rashad’s crossover appeal. Still, Rashad’s influence can be seen in artists outside Chicago. Northern California-based Machinedrum, who had even worked with Rashad, has made his recent albums a combination of jungle and footwork; his label Ninja Tune has been carving out a group of similarly minded producers bringing footwork into U.K. electronic styles. Then there’s Iglooghost, a new signee on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, who’s making IDM with the hyper sampling of footwork, showing a crosspollination between the American and British instrumental hip-hop with the Chicago style.

The result of these innovative newcomers is the splicing of the genre in competing directions: Keeping a niche genre of music underground “pure” versus experimenting and crossing over is a dichotomy that isn’t new, of course.

The evolution of footwork’s culture and musical identity is not unlike the extreme forms of metal music. For instance, black metal grew from a very rigid style that contained itself in the ‘90s underground, and now with bands from across the world fusing the style, there has been backlash from those who have seen the erasure of the sound’s style and anti-commercial culture. This tends to happen with locally specific genres built from a set of stylistic rules, and when people begin to interpret the music in a different way, musicians and listeners react negatively.

These newer artists who are using footwork as an artistic exploration do not adhere to the original demographic of the style, and most of them probably are not going to be hosting footwork dancing clubs, either. As the separation between Chicago’s “pure” interpretation and the world’s new interpretation of the style grows, a vocal backlash will most likely occur. DJ Rashad was seen as a mediator for the two different sides, and his passing may have opened up a forum for this ideological war.

DJ Rashad was an extremely important voice for the footwork scene, and his collaborators still consistently produce new music.

Footwork came from humble beginnings, and Rashad may have been able to make it a strong trend in electronic music. Luckily, Rashad had enough music that his influence remains, albeit in smaller doses.

Most likely, footwork will be viewed like the No Wave scene in New York City and the Krautrock movement in Germany: offshoots of a bigger movement that had a subtle reach through other artists’ interpretation of the style. While many outside of Chicago knew of the ‘90s footwork scene, its history and culture have staying power in the Windy City, and only those who have seen the shows have the best frame of reference. This idea goes to show the importance of the local scene, even with the Internet being a larger platform to bolster independent music. The Internet has allowed musical ideas to transcend a local area, but the fact that many still label the music “Chicago footwork” goes to show the city’s importance in its identity.

Years from now, people might argue that footwork’s somewhat alienating dancing is no longer connected to the genre. But if you travels to Chicago in the future, it’s likely dancing will still be there.

Culture and music do not always grow parallel, and usually the music’s popularity grows faster, but culture remains integral to footwork. At this current state, footwork may not be a profitable force in electronic music, as its sound is so tied to an underground style of dancing. It’s hard to bring a certain style so embedded in a local area into the worldwide listening consciousness, and footwork most likely won’t be able to do that unless it shaves its cultural roots.

• Chris Miller (Music Industry)

23

Cover Story

Fall 2005 Northeastern’s chapter of MEISA (Music and Entertainment Industry Students Association) starts thinking about creating a music magazine on campus.

A small meeting is held to gauge interest. The name Tastemakers is chosen and a handful of students take charge of writing and designing the inaugural issue.

fun fact The name Tastemakers was coined initially by NU student Clara Rice. Often used to refer to trendsetters in the world of fashion, the phrase was chosen as a nod to the role college students often play in kick-starting the careers of budding musicians.

Spring 2006

What is Tastemakers? It’s a resume builder, something to hand out when you’re trying to nail your dream co-op. It’s a deadline, a piece you need to design or an article you need to write during breaks in studying for that orgo exam. It’s a group of friends, people from all walks you can chat about the new Drake album with. It’s a proving ground, a chance for some of Northeastern’s best and brightest to hone their skills before being thrown into the ‘real world.’

Tastemakers is all these things, but most importantly: It’s a legacy, 10 years of students, readers and writers, who’ve come together to take part in an organization that, who knows, may be their defining experience at Northeastern.

Or not. Maybe it’s just a group of pretentious music snobs.

Throughout its 10 years on campus, Tastemakers has meant something unique to each of the hundreds of undergrads with a hand in its history. And that’s part of the fun of student organizations—they take on new shapes as students join and leave, as generations come and go, and as new projects are realized and abandoned.

While we celebrate a decade on campus, we wanted to take stock of this history. What made Tastemakers Music Magazine what it is today?

With the help of Zivi Krieger, Kelsey Tucker and Kyle Risley, three of the magazine’s most influential alumni, we’ve sketched out some of TMM’s most memorable moments of the past ten years. The resulting timeline is hardly complete, it would take more than an entire issue to properly acknowledge all of the incredible people involved over the years, but it does provide a quick look at just how far we’ve come.

As a final note, if you’re reading this as a TMM member, alumni or new recruit: thank you. No matter your involvement, you’ve helped make this magazine everything it is today.

Here’s to another 10 years of Tastemakers!

Spring 2016

24

• Ryan Kehr (English/Business Administration)

The first issue is released: 11 black and white pages of Rockommends, ska reviews, and articles about myspace.

Its mission statement reads, “We take our music seriously, and take our magazine less seriously, and we encourage you to do the same.” Kelly Clarkson is hidden within, starting a tradition of hidden pop stars that would continue for 43 issues to come.

FALL 2006 The first show in the Tastemakers Presents concert series is held in afterHours to celebrate the release of issue #3.

The lineup featured local groups such as the now-defunct Plastic Reverie.

Tastemakers becomes its own student organization, separate from MEISA. It joins Northeastern’s Print & Broadcast Media division, alongside student publications such as Spectrum, Onyx and Times New Roman.

fun fact Tastemakers has worked alongside a wide variety of student groups over the years, sharing an office with WRBB, the Onyx, and most recently, NU Science. Our current space was once occupied by Times New Roman—NU’s satirical newspaper—until they disbanded in 2008. They left behind a number of artifacts though, including a box filled with sunglass-wearing plastic pigs and a Greco-Roman gladiatorial helmet.

FALL 2007 The first executive board (or ‘e-board’) of Tastemakers is created; Zivi Kreiger takes on the role of President.

During this semester, Tastemakers also undergoes its first rebrand led by Art Director David Landry. The Tastemakers logo created at this time is the same seen on the issue today.

FALL 2008 Kevin Devine headlines the first outdoor Tastemakers Presents concert held on the Centennial Common.

spring 2009 Nick Mendez and Andrew Phan create Tastemakers Radio, a series of student-run podcasts. Initially held in the WRBB studios, recording would be later taken off campus until the project ended in late 2010.

Fall 2009 Kyle Risely and Katie Price are respectively appointed the positions of President and Editor-in-Chief, ushering in the first new generation of e-board.

spring 2010 The first Tastemakers Prom is held in the Curry Ballroom to celebrate the release of issue #17. Acts from Banana Peel Records, such as Doctor Jeep, perform during the event. These ‘proms’ featured not-so-strict dress codes, live music, and photobooths to commemorate the release of the magazine.

fun fact The Spring 2010 Tastemakers Presents concert, featuring Yeasayer, was held outside on the Centennial Common. This proved to be problematic as temperatures dipped into the low 40s. TMM had to provide massive heaters on stage to prevent the bands from freezing. Also worth noting: one of the members of Yeasayer required his hair to be cut in Ryder before the show.

fun fact After finding a full-body spandex suit in the TMM office, Edwin Morris proceeded to wear the suit during the interviews of future e-board members.

FALL 2012 The Presidency passes on to Jeff Curry, who would be instrumental in booking acts such as Purity Ring and The Antlers for the Tastemakers Presents concert series. He would also go on to host the magazine’s inaugural Battle of the Bands event.

spring 2013 In an initiative led by Art & Design Director Dave Tschiegg, the magazine undergoes a rebrand yet again, featuring higher quality paper, a larger format, and an updated layout—the format still used today.

FALL 2013 Editor-in-Chief Nick Hugon starts Tastemakers Sessions, a video series featuring local bands performing live in the Snell Library Audio and Video Creation Studios.

Northeastern performer Anjimile is the project’s inaugural act. This semester also sees Dinorah Wilson taking over the reins as President.

fun fact Tastemakers Sessions nearly met its end after facing noise complaints from students studying in the Snell Library. Although warnings were issued, no permanent action was taken and the Sessions continue to this day!

spring 2015 fall 2010 Tastemakers makes the switch to color interiors, featuring illustrations, photos and layouts in CMYK for the first time. This semester also marked the historic moment when Justin Bieber replaced Kelly Clarkson as the magazine’s hidden pop star.

spring 2011 In an effort led by Web Director Edwin Morris, the Tastemakers website undergoes a complete redesign.

Using a responsive Wordpress template, Edwin created a site that would serve the group for years to come.

Ryan Kehr and Ben Stas transition into the roles of President and Editor-in-Chief. Their tenure is marked by the discovery of the hallowed Frost Lounge and the purchase of the ceremonial Tastemakers gavel.

FALL 2015 The Marketing department is restructured and rebranded as the Promotions department under Rami McCarthy. The Tastemakers Snapchat account is born. This semester also marks the end of Justin Beiber’s reign as the magazine’s hidden pop star—Kanye West steps in to take his place.

spring 2016 With its 44th issue, Tastemakers celebrates its 10th anniversary on campus.

25

Cover Story

10 YEAR ALBUM ANNIVERSARIES In 2016, Tastemakers celebrates its 10th anniversary, and in honor of that milestone we’ve decided to take a look back to the days of our infancy. 2006 saw the release of a number of indie, rock, pop and hip-hop classics and commercial smashes, and here we revisit a select few for a survey of the musical landscape that would’ve been on the minds of the magazine’s founding fathers (and mothers).

GRIZZLY BEAR YELLOW HOUSE

Spring 2016

26

A common misconception is that home recorded albums are haphazardly put together. Ten years ago, Grizzly Bear sent this notion to the grave with their second album Yellow House. Although the concise and slicker album Veckatimest would bring the band into the indie spotlight, this album features more diverse instrumentation and expansive songwriting than many folk and indie rock albums that have come out after it.

Yellow House features psychedelic folk songs that are well adorned with horns, strings, synthesizers, and effects. Topping these lavish instrumentals are soaring vocal harmonies that harken back to 1960’s psychedelic pop kingpins such as The Beatles. This album may have ten tracks, but the multifaceted song structures and builds these songs achieve make the listening experience much more expansive.

The more straightforward songs start with a simple or strippeddown motif that builds into an epic climax. The song “Lullaby,” for example, has a pretty guitar riff that is enveloped by distorted guitars and a pounding drum beat. “Knife” operates in a similar fashion: the somewhat simple chord progression is remedied with a great vocal and horn lines as the progression repeats. On the closer “Colorado,” jazzy drum fills pepper an ascending and descending chord progression and vocal line that make for a satisfying ending to the record.

Other songs build on various motifs and create a mesmerizing listening experience. “On a Neck, On a Spit” and album highlight “Little Brother” bring complex, yet pretty and strange folk progressions that give a jumping point for sprawling compositions.

Ten years later, this album still stands as an achievement in home-recorded music, and a snapshot of a band that has an undeniable talent for making folk music that expands from an acoustic guitar into a whole other beast, and a wondrous one at that.

• Chris Miller (Music Industry)

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

FUTURE SEX/LOVE SOUNDS It’s difficult to break out from a preconceived boyband image and launch a legitimate solo career. Many have tried and failed, doomed to awkward TV cameos and stints on “Dancing with the Stars.” Justin Timberlake was able to do exactly this with his 2002 record Justified, which proved him to be a completely capable solo performer. It wasn’t until 2006, however, when his sophomore solo record FutureSex/ LoveSounds was released, that he was able to establish himself as a true pop contender and more than a forgettable one-hit wonder.

The record mixes flashy synths, heavy drum beats and stylish guitars with Timberlake’s smooth vocals that sound more refined here than ever. It’s evident immediately that Timberlake’s sound has matured since Justified, as he whispers the album’s namesake on the opening track while drums pound in the background. The sexually charged lyrics of the title track set a tone for the album, but never quite stray to a point where they could be considered classless. The

THE HOLD STEADY

BOYS AND GIRLS IN AMERICA

This one’s for the romantics. Boys and Girls in America is the final draft of the new rock gospel Craig Finn had been revising since Lifter Puller. 2005’s Separation Sunday mined the same thematic vein with heavier riffs and more narrative drama, but it’s the joie de vivre of Boys and Girls in America that turned The Hold Steady into a way of life.

The screwed-up yet charming characters who drink, get high, love, lose and just hang out all over this album are a scene unto themselves, one in which everyone takes their rock ‘n’ roll a little too seriously and the pursuit of a good time is never less than a sacred pilgrimage. Boys and Girls in America sits at the midpoint between Bruce Springsteen and Paul Westerberg, two songwriters trapped in dismal workingclass environs but determined to make of them something beautiful.

Similarly, Finn and his band took ordinary stories, the kind shared by millions of young people at thousands of basement shows and weird parties, and imbued them with the significance of legends. Through Finn’s nostalgia-tinted glasses, every barstool philosopher is a Beat poet and every teenage romance a great American love story.

following track, “SexyBack,” follows suit in its subject matter, which Timberlake pairs effortlessly with the aforementioned synths to create perhaps the most iconic track on the album.

While aspects of the lyrics could be construed as crass, there’s a certain genuineness to everything that Timberlake sings about.

The album eventually evolves lyrically from sex to love, with both subjects weaved into the remainder of the tracks. “My Love” mixes a catchy techno beat with Timberlake singing about his future with the person he loves. “Summer Love” again sees Timberlake professing his eagerness to fall in love, with his lyrics accompanied by heavy drums, flashy keyboards and continuous handclaps. The lyrics consistently match the sounds perfectly, creating a slew of memorable tracks and beats that retain their popularity today. Additionally, the album flows immensely well, with certain tracks blending seamlessly into one another in a satisfying way. This element further contributes to the incredibly polished feeling of the album as a whole, resulting perhaps in Timberlake’s best album to date.

• Jack Boffa (Media and Communications)

Finn may spend Boys and Girls in America waxing affectionate about his dead-end friends and the “Massive Nights” they’ve shared, but the album’s true love affair is with music. The Hold Steady never sounded more stadium-ready, with horns, gang choruses and the gloriously mustachioed Franz Nicolay’s piano ornaments giving songs like “Stuck Between Stations” and “Southtown Girls” that extra boost into classic-anthem territory. There’s less overt guitar heroism, but Finn and Tad Kubler still dish out enough juicy riffs and solos to satisfy the classic-rock contingent. And Finn, always more rambler than singer, comes into his own as a vocalist, pulling off softer moments like wistful piano ballad “First Night” and the acoustic “Citrus” with understated grace.

Since Boys and Girls in America, many excellent bands have preached variations on The Gospel According to The Hold Steady.

It’s in the don’t-stop-or-we’ll-die urgency of Titus Andronicus, Japandroids’ quest for electric transcendence and the bleeding-heart compassion of Beach Slang. Meanwhile, Finn and the boys are still spinning yarns on the road for anyone who’ll listen, and while their latest albums don’t have quite the same magic, you can’t really hold that against them. After all, they made Boys and Girls in America- isn’t that enough?

• Terence Cawley (Biology)

27

Cover Story

TAKING BACK SUNDAY LOUDER NOW

Spring 2016

28

Pop-punk isn’t complete without a taste of Taking Back Sunday’s third album Louder Now. This album is harder than their last few—the well-known single “MakeDamnSure” being one of the softer of the album. Instead of tapering off like some bands do by album number three, Taking Back Sunday hits with the same passionate lyricism that made their first two albums so well-received. Even after dealing with the major hit of a changing lineup, they bounced back and produced a product that was worthy of their name and broke more into the mainstream.

The title Louder Now comes from a lyric in their preceding album Where You Want to Be—“So scream louder now, I’m bound to come around about.” And they sure did. Lead singer Adam Lazzara’s voice has always been powerful, but this album took that vocal capacity and hiked it up. He toes the line between singing and screaming in the song “Error: Operator” and it makes for a fast-paced and exciting three minutes. He goes from almost-screaming to breathing heavily to slurring his words to the point where those words are barely comprehensible. It worked. Guitarist Fred Mascherino’s background vocals play nicely off Lazzara’s, giving emphasis and support in songs like “What’s It Feel Like to Be a Ghost?”

“MakeDamnSure” is the song of angsty teenagers, possessed with love and loss. It speaks to a theme of obsessive love that is both electric and terrifying. In just one song, Lazzara switches from a frenzied proclamation (“I just want to break you down so badly”) to a hauntingly clear statement of “I’m gonna make damn sure, that you can’t ever leave.”

They slowed it down for a much needed acoustic number, “Divine Intervention.” Lazzara sings softly and clearly, with simple guitar accompanying him. This is the sort of song you would listen to while staring out into the rain. It was a necessary break before they launched into the more upbeat and catchy “Miami” and finished off the last few songs energetically.

• Mayeesha Galiba (Journalism/Political Science)

ARCTIC MONKEYS

WHATEVER PEOPLE SAY I AM, THAT’S WHAT I’M NOT

Standing on this end of the timeline, it is difficult to imagine that the Alex Turner of 2016 was once the Alex Turner of 2006, a gangly kid of twenty with an unkempt mop of hair, almost too shy to front the Arctic Monkeys. Yet with 10 years’ time, Turner has transformed from an awkward youth to a polished rock star, writing love songs for models rather than the one girl at the club who doesn’t want to dance.

But before Turner coiffed his hair and threw on a leather jacket, the Monkeys found themselves on the swell of a new wave of music distribution centered on the now antiquated MySpace. While Turner and Co. never uploaded any of their demos to the site themselves, fans took CDs handed out at early AM gigs and digitized them. The tunes spread like wildfire, allowing the Arctic Monkeys to sell out shows before even having a record deal or an LP released.

It wasn’t long, however, before Domino Records caught on to the hype and signed the Monkeys, releasing their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. By the end of its first week, the LP dished out an impressive 360,000 copies. Though it did not change the course of rock music in as drastic a manner as some had predicted, AM nonetheless released a solid debut, proving that they had the talent to match the hype.

Much of their debut’s success may be attributed to the fact that it captures the transitory period into young adulthood, when much of one’s time is spent trying to escape suburban malaise by getting drunk and laid. From the get-go, Turner showed himself to be an adept storyteller in his lyrics, and he offers the listener poetic observations of British nightlife without overly romanticizing what he encounters.

The anecdotes are relatable, Turner himself is likeable and it is easy for the listener to want to come along for the ride.

Though at times it feels as if Turner has tried too hard to be clever, and while he often shouts when it would better suit him to sing, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not remains an infectious mix of youthful energy and groggy, hung-over balladry well-suited for nostalgically recounting the golden days of being young, bored and inebriated. Turner may have told fans early on not to believe the hype, but time has proved the Arctic Monkeys capable of using their initial success to jumpstart a consistent career in modern rock.

• Sarah Kotowski (Economics)

29

Cover Story

J. DILLA DONUTS

On Feb. 7, 2006, Donuts was released. On Feb. 10, J Dilla passed away.

If Dilla had given us nothing but Donuts, we would all owe him a great debt, but Dilla was already one of the most established and talented hip-hop producers of all time. Donuts was just his parting gift.

Twenty-nine of the 31 tracks on Donuts were recorded while Dilla was in the hospital. With this in mind, it becomes a little clearer what all the short, scattered-but-connected tracks on the record mean—a great artist’s last chance to get everything he wants to say down on paper (or in his case, on “wax”). Donuts is an undisputed masterpiece, the gold standard of sample-based hip-hop. Soul, Motown, R&B and hip-hop are all present on the album, cleverly chopped and blended with the touch of a true maestro. One song that embodies the sound is “Lightworks.” Dilla takes a decades-old song that was already a little bizarre, and, by jacking up the bass and drums and inserting lyrical hip-hop fills, creates a sound only he could have made, one that’s nearly impossible to name or capture.

Certain fills and short samples can be heard repeating throughout the album, serving as reference points on what can otherwise be a chaotic mixture of sounds on a dying man’s last opus.

The album vacillates between times of chaos and clarity. Songs like “Mash”and ”Glazed” contain very short samples that Dilla repeats over and over to the point where it can be a little unsettling. You’re just aching for him to move on, and when he does it’s like you can finally take a breath. The last two tracks capture this perfectly when, after repeating the same two-second soul sample for about a minute on “Last Donut of the Night,” Dilla transitions to the last track “Donuts (Intro),” which has an open, soaring sound. This last track also ends with the same sample as the opening track, “Donuts (Outro).” With that Dilla makes the album cyclic, a brilliant little detail that gives us just one more thing to think about when trying to figure out how Donuts fits as a punctuation mark on the legendary producer’s entire legacy.

If there’s one thing that’s undeniable after listening to Donuts, it’s that J Dilla loves music. Dilla chops and repurposes music from past decades in a way that doesn’t feel like he’s trying to “improve” it, but rather in a way that shows respect for the musical legacy from which he comes, incorporating older works as he sees fit into the unique art form that he helped establish.

• Jonathan Vayness (Psychology)

Spring 2016

30

CLIPSE

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

The main lyrical themes explored by Clipse are essentially the life of a coke dealer and the positive/negative effects of that lifestyle. At times, they are braggadocious and arrogant, relishing in their luxuries.

At other times, they have a deathly paranoia that the realities of their actions will catch up with them. An interesting aspect of Clipse’s rapping that changed between Lord Willin’ and Hell Hath No Fury is the evolution of Pusha T and Malice’s personalities. It’s almost hard to tell them apart on their debut, as they have very similar rapping styles and even voices. But on Hell Hath No Fury, their unique characters juxtapose each other audaciously. While Malice isn’t yet a socially conscious rapper and is still just as materialistic and confident as his brother, he seems to express a lot of regret for what he’s become towards his family and also seems concerned with making sure his fellow drug dealers living in the hood don’t fall into a destructive lifestyle. Meanwhile, Pusha T brings his arrogance to over-the-top levels, just exuding ridiculous amounts of charisma in his lyrics and embracing the drug dealer lifestyle. Their lyrical style is technical and witty, yet they don’t get overly complicated in rhyme schemes or double entendres just for the sake of it. Hell Hath No Fury can best be described as efficient, a trait that’s become harder to find in the era of double albums and over-the-top production. No beat or song feels wasted, and each bar feels impactful combined with the intensity of the brothers’ cadence. “I philosophize about Glocks and ki’s, niggas call me young black Socrates,” Pusha raps over noir-dark, minimalist Neptunes production. The Neptunes employ their signature synths here, and their instrumentals are weird and progressive but don’t sacrifice the simplicity of a hard, banging beat. There’s accordions on “Momma I’m So Sorry,” banging steel drums on “Wamp Wamp (What It Do)” and a chilling harp on “Ride Around Shining,” and each distinctive sound still contributes to the incredibly cohesive sound of the project. Beginning with the triumphant “We Got It for Cheap” and ending with the haunting ballad “Nightmares,” Clipse manages to suck you into their hellish world with an LP that subsequently makes everything akin to it feel like a footnote.

• Anu Gulati (Computer Science/Math)

Few rock albums in the mid-2000s achieved the level of cross-cultural dominance of Stadium Arcadium. The album had sales that would make 2016 artists swoon and big hit singles that rode the charts for months. It probably felt like a coronation, the final step in the second act of the band that had seen them morph from wild funk rockers to California pop princes. Not only was it popular, but it was just ambitious enough to seem important, boasting two astronomythemed discs that evoked stadium rock classics of decades past.

However, with 10 years of context, Stadium Arcadium looks a lot less like a culmination and more like a beautiful, confusing flameout.

It would mark the last time the Red Hot Chili Peppers held any kind of chart relevance, but more importantly it was their final album of pushing their sound in any new directions. All at once the band stretches towards progressive rock, glossy studio pop, tender balladry and goofy psychedelia. The result is overwhelming, indulgent and strangely boring. Even more frustrating is that it starts off wonderfully.

The booming stadium rock of lead single “Dani California” is followed by the jumpy pop of “Snow (Hey Oh),” a one-two punch of singles that suggests a record full of breezy singalongs. By the time the album hits the overstuffed prog-rock of the tenth track, “Especially in Michigan,” the cracks are beginning to show. From there on the band seems to forget the immediacy and melody of the album’s opening set. For the most part, the rest of this 28-track monster is a slog through weak melodies and endless flashy solos. For a band that arose out of the boundary-smashing ethos of punk rock, the Peppers sound more like Pink Floyd than the Sex Pistols on this album, filling every gap with tiring examples of instrumental skill. Even attempts to recreate their early style as punk-funk party-starters fall flat.

The lineup that made this record, as well as some of the band’s best, has not reunited as of this writing. The only other album the Chilis have made since was the holding-pattern I’m with You. The radio dominance of the Chili Peppers is long since passed in 2016, and the frustrating Stadium Arcadium shows that they knew the right way for royalty to go out - in wicked, overambitious excess.

• Seth Queeney (Communications)

HELL HATH NO FURY

STADIUM ARCADIUM

31

Cover Story

16

(MILLENNIAL) CANDLES: ALBUMS OF 2000

BY JUSTINE COWAN (BUSINESS)

MTV may have had a hit show about Sweet 16s, but rarely did real life pool parties end with the guest of honor throwing a fit after being presented with the “wrong” Mercedes, or any at all, for that matter.

For most of us, 16 was the age at which we experienced that first small taste of independence (a driver’s license), began the transition towards the realm of impending adulthood and grappled with the distinctive pangs of unrequited puppy love. Although we have grown

up since and perhaps grown out of some of the music we listened to back then, music ages, too, and there are many albums celebrating their 16th birthday this year that feel just as awkward, confused and frustrated as any other 16-year-old. We’ve compiled a few albums making the transition into adulthood this year, and while they were not necessarily the biggest or most critically acclaimed albums of 2000, each provides a glimpse into the teenage experience.

GROWING PAINS: Fevers and Mirrors, Bright Eyes Five years before hipster lovers everywhere would serenade each other with “First Day of My Life,” there was Fevers and Mirrors, an emotionally jarring lo-fi journey into songwriter Conor Oberst’s deepest anxieties.

Many believe the album tries entirely too hard to be interesting, with its strange and often unnecessary non-musical additions – including a recording of a young boy reading a children’s story and a staged radio “interview” that was later revealed to be a friend sarcastically impersonating Oberst.

Others praise the album’s raw emotion and Spring 2016

32

lyrical content; some tracks feel as if they are quickly approaching the point of unraveling and leave the listener with an overwhelming sense of nihilism (the eerie waltz of “Sunrise, Sunset” comes to mind). Love it or hate it, Fevers and Mirrors finds Oberst honing his craft: shaky, verge-of-tears vocals and heartbroken existentialism. He would go on to further this signature style on 2002’s Lifted, and slowly add political commentary to the mix before truly hitting his stride with I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning in 2005.

JUGGLING YOUR NEWFOUND POPULARITY (AND PISSING OFF A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE PROCESS): The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem Facing sharp backlash from some of the lyrics off his 1999 Slim Shady LP, Eminem did what many teenagers probably would have done had they been in his place: He fought back as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. The Marshall Mathers LP has been praised for its clever rhymes, outrageous storytelling and extensive vocabulary, but it’s clear that this record comes from a place of deep-seated anger. Much of this is directed towards his ex-wife, Kim, and his mother, but there are also references to Eminem coming

to terms with his newfound celebrity. Every lyrical theme Slim Shady was criticized for (misogyny, violence and homophobia, to name a few) finds itself taken to new heights on Marshall Mathers. As appalling as it may be on first listen, not many records begin with a fake public service announcement and joke about sexually assaulting one’s mother only to be certified platinum 10 times. Shock value aside, Eminem’s insane, cartoonish fury resulted in the most brilliantly offensive album of the year.

REBELLION DONE RIGHT: Kid A, Radiohead After the widespread acclaim of 1997’s OK Computer, the world was waiting for Radiohead to follow up with another mind-blowing rock album. They did just that, although not in the way anyone was expecting. Weary of guitar music and searching for artistic fulfillment, Thom Yorke and company turned the tables and shocked music fans everywhere with the release of Kid A, an ambient, experimental masterpiece that washes over the listener in waves of wandering synths and textured vocals. The band didn’t release any singles

or music videos to promote the album, instead keeping the focus on the radical shift in sound. While it was met with mixed reviews at first, many critics went on to voice their appreciation for the record, and it has since become a shining example of a band pursuing true creative expression in the face of mainstream success and expectations.

Then again, maybe they just couldn’t bear seeing themselves play on MTV.

FINDING SOLACE IN SIMPLICITY: Parachutes, Coldplay It’s easy to imagine many a high schooler coming home after a particularly stressful day and laying in bed with headphones on and Parachutes playing full blast. With 42 minutes of sweet, straightforward melodies, there isn’t one track that doesn’t soothe the soul (“Don’t Panic”) or tug on the heartstrings a bit (“Yellow”). While not the most memorable collection of Coldplay songs by any stretch, the British quartet’s debut resonated as rock’s middle ground with many of those alienated by Kid A’s ambience and laughing in the face of Limp Bizkit. Coldplay’s

strength, at least commercially speaking, has always lied in its digestibility, and its entrance onto the scene in 2000 proved it was more than capable of churning out well-written songs for fellow romantics. The record has been criticized as being “nice” yet forgettable, but a former 16-year-old might tell you that sometimes “nice” is exactly what’s needed.

33

Show Reviews

Reviews

Animal Collective February 22 @ Royale

Spring 2016

34

At a certain point in an artist’s career, it seems likely that they can mail in the same performance each night and still satisfy fans. Fifteen years into their weird, amorphous tenure and Animal Collective probably could do exactly that. Yet no two sets they play will ever be identical, as they are approached by the band with a new sense of childlike wonder and exploration each night. Monday night’s show at the Royale was no exception.

A sold-out crowd packed the dancefloor, still streaming in as New York-based hip-hop quintet Ratking took the stage. It’s always fascinating to see an opener chosen based on the headliner’s own taste in music, and one may not have initially figured Animal Collective as fans of such punk-infused rap.

But between the samples, drum machines and weird instrumentation, it really wasn’t a stretch to draw a connection between Ratking and some of Animal Collective’s recent work.

AnCo took their positions in the old Merriweather Post Pavilion formation of Panda Bear, Geologist and Avey Tare parallel in a row, each equipped with their own

workstation of synths and sequencers, like Disclosure but for kids who like hacky sack.

Opening with Painting With single “Lying in the Grass” to a roaring crowd, the band’s infectious energy set the mood for the night.

Animal Collective are notorious for their lack of stage banter, mixed with creative ways of segueing between songs so that the whole night becomes one loop fed into another until you have no idea when one song ends and the next begins.

The show was heavy on tracks from Painting With, understandably, as the album was released three days before the show and the band has expressed boredom with playing the same old hits each night.

Standout tracks included “FloriDada,” which featured a spasmodically dancing Avey Tare accompanied on vocals by the whole venue, and an extended jam of “On Delay.”

The album was spectacularly brought to life between new song arrangements and the inclusion of a hyper-energetic live drummer.

Fans of older material found solace in the setlist’s inclusion of “Daily Routine,” “Bees” and even the super-rare “Alvin Row” from

2000’s Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished. If there’s anything negative to say about the performance, it would be casual fans’ disappointment at the lack of a “My Girls” on the set.

A lot has been made in interviews and reviews about Painting With’s connection to art movements. These inferences are absolutely not misguided. Taken as a whole, an Animal Collective show is not a collection of songs played serially, but a live art installation. Consider the backdrop: each member was stationed in front of their own cubist statue that could be described as “Pablo Picasso presents: The Easter Island Moai.” The band members were even dressed in all white, with a digital projector slathering them and their surroundings in 8-bit paint while they twisted knobs and triggered samples. Painting With may prove to be the most divisive album in AnCo’-s catalog, but the life and color that Panda, Avey and Geologist pump into the songs on stage make this tour a must-see for any fan.

Reid Flynn (Accounting)

Yung Lean March 21 @ Royale Chicago native Adamn Killa was welcomed to the stage by a sea of Fiji Water and Nintendo t-shirts and bucket hats chanting “Sad Boys!” every 5 minutes before his set. His softer, mumbling vocals didn’t pave the way for much in the way of theatrics during his performance, but he kept the crowd excited nonetheless. Around halfway through the set he brought Goth Money rapper MFK Marcy Mane on stage.

Right after, he brought out Bladee to perform their track “Psycho,” only multiplying the energy in the venue.

After Adamn, the chants for Yung Lean to come out only increased until the pounding beat of “Hoover” overtook the speakers, Yung Sherman took his place at the production table and Yung Lean and Bladee made their way out to the front of the stage that was decorated to look like a cemetery.

The nineteen-year-old Swedish rapper and leader of Sad Boys Entertainment is on the

North American leg of his Warlord Tour, in promotion of his album of the same name, released Feb. 25. The set began with four straight Warlord tracks before Yung Lean wanted to “take it back to that 2003/2004 shit” with “Motorola.”

For the most part however, Lean kept the talking between songs to a minimum, only interjecting a “how are you feeling Boston?” every few songs to keep the energy up, especially after some of the less hard-hitting tracks off of his 2014 debut record Unknown Memory, like “Volt” and “Sandman.” With Bladee rapping along to back him up, Lean was jumping all around the stage. Only once did they stumble over each other, very early on.

Yung Lean is definitely not for everyone, but to much of his fan base he is a cult-like icon. Like many other artists with this status among fans, even though he connects so clearly with them, he does appear to have a

desire to maintain his distance, especially with his personal life, which little is known about. And while he definitely gave an entertaining performance, I couldn’t help but feel slightly separated from him, possibly due to the size in venue, as his popularity has jumped from his last US tour for Unknown Memory in 2014.

Once he walked off after “Monster,” the crowd erupted into a “Yung Lean!” chant, and within the minute he was back onstage rapping “Yoshi City.” He followed that up with “Hurt,” sadly the only track he played from his Unknown Death 2002 mixtape, and closed out the night with “Ginseng Strip 2002,” a track he wrote at only 15. Lean capped off an emotional and exciting night the right way.

Alex Wetzel (Business Administration)

The Soul Rebels Sound System Featuring Talib Kweli February 20 @ The Sinclair It was evident that the crowd was under the assumption that this show was billed as “Talib Kweli and The Soul Rebels Sound System.” What they got was a Soul Rebels show with a climax and encore from Talib Kweli. Either way the music was incredible. Not often do you get to see a world-renowned New Orleans brass band a week after Mardi Gras in Boston. The Soul Rebels are, in fact, world-renowned.

They tour internationally and have been collaborators with artists ranging from Metallica to Slick Rick, from Green Day to Joey Bada$$, from Arcade Fire to Ice Cube, from— you get the point. So it was natural that they tour with Talib Kweli for a fourshow stint along the East Coast.

Opening up was DJ ABD, a member of Boston-based Bad Rabbits. He played a combination of top 40 and classic hiphop. Surprisingly, the whole crowd, which encompassed a wide age range, bobbed

along willingly. Shortly after, the eight-piece ensemble known as the Soul Rebels took the stage. The frontman/master of ceremonies was Erion Williams on sax, who provided the auditory cues for the crowd. The show began with an opening medley of soulheavy numbers and Williams introducing each member of the band as they played introductory solos. They then got down with a cover of “The Way You Make Me Feel” by the legendary MJ, allowing the crowd to be the lead singer. Throughout, the band would assault on multiple fronts, causing a stereo effect in your left and right earstrumpets in the left, trombones in the right.

Williams coaxed the crowd into an organized two-step along to the music.

In the middle of the setlist, almost the exact middle, Williams seemed to almost remind the crowd about Talib Kweli as people were just lost in The Soul Rebels.

Then Kweli took the stage, openly loving having an authentic brass band providing the music.

They were on the same wavelength, and The Soul Rebels took a back seat to let Kweli rock. In this three-song time period Kweli hit us with “Great Expectations” and “Push Thru” while commanding the crowd like a true MC. He even signed a fan’s record from the stage. Kweli’s lyrics took on a new cadence over the brass band and adapted to the pace. Kweli then exited the stage and The Soul Rebels got into the meat of their set with songs that got more and more improvisational and ecstatic as they reached the end. After “going down with the rebels” into the rabbit hole of rhythm, Talib came back for a strong encore of “I Try” and the always incredible “Get By.” Matt Sherman (Business)

All photos by Ben Stas (English/Journalism)

35

Oneohtrix Point Never March 14 @ The Sinclair

Reviews Spring 2016

36

Oneohtrix Point Never and opener Jason Lescalleet promised to give unusual performances. Both are known for producing intricate and lush but abrasive soundscapes and using unconventional input methods. I had prepared for the bizarre but was still taken by surprise.

Big and tall, middle-aged and sporting long unkempt gray hair, Jason Lescalleet looks more like your eccentric uncle than someone at the forefront of experimental electronic music. But he’s exactly that, having created some of the field’s most interesting musique concrète for over 15 years.

Lescalleet began his performance without introduction 10 minutes before the scheduled start. He led with a slowed disco track akin to modern vaporwave, and from there his set was completely livemixed. He had a turntable, a tape-mixer, a few soundboards and an optical input he controlled with hand motions. It was 30 minutes of looped ambience, assaulting static and solid walls of bass. Half the people on the floor had their fingers in their ears, and I had never been so grateful for earplugs. It

was a frenetic performance, as Lescalleet closed his eyes and seemed to feel the sound like it was a part of himself, controlling all the inputs at once with dexterity. At some points he physically struck his equipment or stomped on the ground, creating deafening bursts of static. There was something of a lull about 30 minutes in, but he managed to re-raise the energy levels before abruptly cutting modulated disco back in, dancing along gleefully and then deconstructing it once more to end his set. It was a masterful performance unlike any I’d ever seen.

OPN had a tough act to follow. What he lacked in mixing skill he tried to make up in visual frills provided by his touring partner Nate Boyce. Two vertical television screens bordered the DJ booth, displaying horrifying 3-D rendered faces, rooms and unidentifiable forms along with unsettling text. For me it was impossible to focus on both screens at once, and the disorientating images served to distract from rather than complement the music. The same can be said for the occasional, seemingly random, blinding blasts of white light that shot out at the audience from powerful flash bulbs.

OPN’s 2015 LP Garden of Delete was one of the year’s best, so it wasn’t surprising that his set drew heavily from it. Though his

mixing was nowhere near as impressive as Lescalleet’s, I still relished the opportunity to hear the tracks with concert-level quality and volume. “Sticky Drama” and “I Bite Through It” were high-energy highlights. Their gnarled melodies, hefty bass and heavily distorted vocals reached fever pitches and then abruptly calmed, only to build up again. However, most of the album’s less forceful tracks fell flat, including a decidedly blasé encore.

Perhaps the more impressive performer of the set was not OPN himself but Boyce, who played a MIDI input that looked like a tiny electric guitar plus a string or two. With it he controlled everything from barelynoticeable ambience to the focal melody.

Generally when physical instrument-like inputs are used in electronic music concerts, the result ends up sounding like a slightly-off rock concert, but in this case, the replication of the recorded tracks was shockingly spot-on.

All in all, it was a night of fascinating sonic beauty. I would never have heard of Lescalleet had it not been for this show, and I’m grateful that I got to see him live. OPN may have been a bit disappointing, but it was still a dazzling display overall.

Jonas Polin (Undeclared)

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK: A Discourse in Hip-Hop’s History of Incarceration

37

Feature

Kanye West’s “Silver Surfer Intermission” from The Life of Pablo is a short but sweet recorded phone conversation with Harlem-based rapper Max B. “Hollering at you man, it’s all love, I appreciate the... the energy. And we here, hit the town, we do something big. We gonna make a big tsunami up in the joint,” he buoyantly says in response to West, who almost scandalously made his album title Waves. It sounds like a cheerful conversation, and you might not guess that Max B is calling from prison.

In 2009, Max B was convicted of dispatching his stepbrother, Leerdam, along with his girlfriend, Gina Conway, to a Holiday Inn to rob two men. Things turned sour quickly, and Leerdam ended up killing the two victims.

Now, Max B is behind bars, where he’ll likely stay until he’s eligible for parole in 2042. He continues to seek higher appeals, but his chances for release anytime soon look grim.

When asked in an interview with Village Voice in 2011 if he would say anything to the judge who sentenced him, Max B refrained from badmouthing and instead spoke on the New Jersey judicial system. “They got some type of big business going on out here – as convicts, I think we all like a piece of money or something…

My thing is, not only do they lock you up, but according to the law… you’re supposed to be served and convicted according to your culpability and charges. But these guys out here, they real tough out here.”

“

Prison, as depicted in rap music, is a placement center for the undereducated, the unemployed and especially, the aspiring capitalists, who, if not locked up, would successfully challenge white elites.

“Real tough” is an understatement. Meek Mill was very recently sentenced to house arrest and six months parole after he violated his parole at 19 by turning in a fake urine sample.

His sentencing reads like an arbitrary, jumbled mess of sanctions, but once you’re on probation under America’s judicial system, it’s just that: None of Meek’s wealth, counsel or influential people in court -- like Nicki Minaj – could stand against the power of the judge, probation officer and district attorney.

Take into consideration another hip-hop artist who frequents headlines with his constant convictions: Chief Keef. He was sentenced to juvenile detention when he was 17 for a probation violation that stemmed from holding a rifle in a New York gun range in a Pitchfork.com music video. The prosecutors even read lyrics from his intro to the undeniably catchy “Love Sosa,” which references gangs and violence but in a jokingly angry way, to build a case against

”

him. The entire case felt like a questionable encroachment on free speech, but it shows the length law enforcement officials were willing to go just to ruin someone’s life on some quixotic judge’s respectability quest.

What judges should be considering when it comes to probation and sentencing is whether these young black men like Max B or Meek Mill are a threat to public safety today – a case I don’t believe prosecutors can make. It’s important

to not view someone like Meek as simply a rapper or a beef-starter, but as a human being, as another example of how ill-equipped the system is. “Meek faces jail time and takes another L,” was an often-seen, catchy headline that reduced his plight, family, kid, career and mental health to nothing more than a meme. He has been struggling with a sentence he served almost a decade ago, and the fake urine test he was sentenced for reeks of desperation of a man who will try anything to evade a return to prison.

p Love Pe

Big

L

“Shout out to my niggas that’s locked in jail/P.O.W.’s that’s still in the war for real/But if he’s locked in the penitentiary, send him some energy/They all winners to me.”

“Hollering at you man, it’s all love, I appreciate the... the energy. And we here, hit the town, we do something big. We gonna make a big tsunami up in the joint,”

- “A Ballad for the Fallen Soldier,” The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse

- “Silver Surfer Intermission,” The Life of Pablo

“[The police] wanna lock me up even though I’m legit/ They can’t stand to see a young brother pockets get thick.”

Spring 2016

38

- “The Enemy,” The Big Picture

W nye est Ka

Ma

xB

“The pen is an inkwell, niggas is slaves/Even if we not locked up, we on our way.”

- “All Things,” 3rd Eye Vision

Jay

Z

one in six

According to the NAACP, prison doesn’t necessarily rehabilitate those who behave badly, as two-thirds of convicts will reoffend.

Together, African American and Hispanics comprised 58 percent of all inmates in 2008, even though African Americans and Hispanics make up approximately one quarter of the U.S. population. One in six black men had been

Hip-hop often sounds like it glorifies incarceration, but their point is that prison actually stigmatizes the government. In a culture that celebrates rebelliousness, prison is the place for unruly “niggas” who otherwise would upset the political or economic status quo. In “A Ballad for the Fallen Soldier,” Jay-Z sends a “shout out to my niggas that’s locked in

including feminism, gay and lesbian rights and religion, but their united front on the issue of incarceration is remarkable. The central point of agreement between gangsta rap and conscious hip-hop is their joint critique of American criminal justice, especially its heavy reliance on prisons. In “All Things,” Pep Love laments “The pen is an inkwell, niggas is slaves / Even if we

black men had been incarcerated as of 2001

one in six 58%

25%

of all prisoners in 2008 were African American or Hispanic

of the US population are African American or Hispanic

black men had been incarcerated as of 2001

ncarcerated as of 2001, and if current trends jail / P.O.W.’s that’s still in the war for real / But not locked up, we on our way.” Popular culture continue, one in three black males born today if he’s locked in the penitentiary, send him some once presented prison as a black boy’s rite of can expect to spend time in prison during his energy / They all winners to me.” In a sense, passage with media’s focus on which rappers prisoners inheroic figures. of the USare populifetime. These often-quoted stats can start to of all inmates become going to jail rather than their musical work, 2008 were lation are have a normativeof effect, but prominent figures of

Glorifying outlaws is certainly not limited and incarceration among young black men prisoners in the US will African American African American hip-hop like Meekreoffend put a face to the numbers and to but the culture’s depiction of the or Hispanic has been naturalized both in actuality and in orhip-hop, Hispanic within three give underlying, human to these facts. criminal as a socially useful actor is different. representation. yearsstories of their release

For much of history, imprisonment Breaking the law is seen as a form of rebelling

With the increasing discussion was used as a last resort. Since the 1980s, the against the oppressive status quo. The hipincarceration in America, the constant “Free American Justice system has started using hop slang for being arrested demonstrates the Guwop” or “Free Shmurda” trending topics, incarceration against blacks and Latinos, culture’s view of the almost arbitrary nature of and albums like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a black today can criminal justice – one “catches a case” in the all the while blackof and Latinomales artists were Butterfly or Run the Jewels’ RTJ2 that provide

58%

25%

|

2 3 1 They3got some type of2big business going |

“

expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime

of prisoners in the US will reoffend within three years of their release

”

|

on out here -- as convicts, I think we all like a piece of money3or something…

1 3

today - Max B of black males can

|

expect to spend time in duringway their lifetime prison same happenstance one “catches” a cold.

inventing a dominant form of popular culture: hip-hop. Hip-hop culture makes a strong case for a transformation of the American criminal justice system. Prison, as depicted in rap music, is a placement center for the undereducated, the unemployed and especially, the aspiring capitalists, who, if not locked up, would successfully challenge white elites. Take Big L in “The Enemy,” for example, who complains that the police “wanna lock me up even though I’m legit / they can’t stand to see a young brother pockets get thick.”

Hip-hop suggests that American punishment is not primarily designed to enhance public safety or for retribution against the immoral, but to benefit the state. Viewing lyrics through this lens, you’ll start to notice that most rappers – especially gangsta rappers – treat prisons as virtual fascist institutions.

Hip-hop artists are arguably the most visible critics of the massive punishment regime.

They disagree about many controversial issues,

first-person accounts of what it’s like to be sent to jail as a black man, prison sentences and those who dole them out for minor offenses, are being examined under a harsher light. The voices of hip-hop evaluate criminal justice from the bottom up and believe that unfairly punishing people by locking them in cages for years is a miserable public policy. Hip-hop artists like Max B, Meek Mill, Chief Keef, Bobby Shmurda and Gucci Mane shine a light on the young black men that aren’t in the news and face racist criminal justice treatment every day. Rather than rehabilitating these young men, the institutions are simply corralling bodies labeled menaces to society – a topic that groups like N.W.A. have been hollering about for more than 20 years.

Things haven’t changed. It’s time we start listening.

• Anu Gulati (Computer Science/Math) 39

Editorial

More than likely, those who bought one of the 22 million copies of Prince’s Purple Rain soundtrack never saw the film from which it was created.

In spite of the film’s mediocre at best ratings, the “Purple Rain” soundtrack is regarded not only as one of Prince’s greatest albums, but as one of the best of all time by publications like Time and Entertainment Weekly.

The film features Prince in the lead role as “The Kid,” a musician who performs the songs later made popular by the soundtrack.

This odd relationship makes the film entirely dependent on the soundtrack, while the soundtrack enjoys complete autonomy absent the film’s context.

Alternately, Mike Nichols’s “The Graduate” is ranked at number 17 on AFI’s top 100 movies of all time, and the soundtrack by Simon and Garfunkel is also one of the most revered. Unlike “Purple Rain”, the soundtrack and film are completely interdependent.

At the most surface level, “Mrs. Robinson,” which mutually benefitted both the film and soundtrack, would never exist had Simon and Garfunkel not agreed to create the music for the film. The repetition of both “The Sound of Silence” and “Mrs. Robinson” throughout the film controls the emotional feel and guides the exposition.

Spring 2016

40

In a similar vein, Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” saw success both financially and with critics. The soundtrack, written and performed by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, has sold more than 350,000 copies in the U.S. alone, with “Guaranteed” winning a Golden Globe in 2008 for “Best Original Song – Motion Picture.” The soundtrack saw positive critical reception, with even the harshest of reviews acknowledging its relevance in the film. Vedder captures the essence of young Christopher McCandless searching for meaning in his life with a gloomy, folky overtone to remind the viewer of his impending death, presented in the first scene of the film.

While a good compilation soundtrack is made for the film, a good single-artist soundtrack is made with the film. And while they would not work with every movie, single-artist soundtracks can carry stories from scene to scene, giving a consistency that compilations can’t. Even in cases where contemporary artists score films, take, for example, Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy—Guy and Christian create an album that captures the futuristic nature of the film. Additionally, similarly to “Purple Rain” (while not nearly to the same extent) the soundtrack on its own managed to surpass the mediocrity of the film.

In this way, many single-artist soundtracks should be regarded as conceptual albums – even when they stand alone as well composed albums, the context of the film is what drives them.

Plenty of other single-artist soundtracks have managed to contribute similarly to their respective films: The Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner wrote the soundtrack for “Submarine,” Karen O’s crafted music for” Where the Wild Things Are” and Yusuf/ Cat Stevens is responsible for “Harold and Maude”. That is not to say that compilation soundtracks cannot achieve similar levels of success in their respective films. Some of the most highly critically acclaimed films – take “Forrest Gump” and “Pulp Fiction”, for example – have equally respected soundtracks, and both are compilations.

They manage to capture the era and storyline of their respective films, as well-compiled soundtracks should.

It is incredibly important to view soundtracks created by a single artist in both what they accomplish in the film and outside of it. The mostly acoustic “Into the Wild”, “Submarine”, and “The Graduate” fit musically and lyrically into the subtle dramatic nature of their films. But Prince’s “Purple Rain” is successful because the context of the film is not essential to fully appreciating the album. But when Vedder sings “As I walk the hemisphere/Got my wish to up and disappear,” in “No Ceiling,” the line relies on the film’s context. In this way, many single-artist soundtracks should be regarded as conceptual albums – even when they stand alone as well composed albums, the context of the film is what drives them.

What separates “Purple Rain” from other soundtracks is that context can be disregarded to the point that some may even forget the record has a relationship to a film.

Because single-artist soundtracks are made with the film, and often become important parts of artists’ discographies, they are much less likely to outright fail, when compared to compilation soundtracks. There’s a risk with compilation of ending up with a result like “Spider-Man” (2002) featuring mostly early 2000s alt-rock from artists like Theory of a Deadman and Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger.

And regardless if one finds this genre appealing or not, it doesn’t mesh well with the film. Though other compilations have proven effective in conveying a film’s tone and mood, single-artist soundtracks add a dimension to their respective films that boosts both the music and storyline in a way compilations cannot.

• Alexander Wetzel (Business Administration) 41

Inside The World Of Drummer Extroardinaire Editorial Spring 2016

42

Jonathan Ulman

You can find Jonathan Ulman behind the kit in a lot of places. As a Boston-based session drummer and percussionist-for-hire, Ulman works with a huge range of artists both in the studio and performing out in the wild. The Northeastern alum sports endorsements from big names in the world of drumming including Zildjian, Ludwig and Vic Firth, plus regular performing gigs with dance-rock upstarts Bearstronaut and local legend Thalia Zedek (whose four records with Come are among the 90s’ finest, most unflinching rock). This year, he’s teamed up with singer/ songwriter Holly Miranda for some shows, including a stop at the Governors Ball music festival in New York City. And that’s not to mention a day job at Berklee College of Music, where he manages the percussion department.

Suffice to say, Ulman is a busy man.

“It’s gonna seem crazy,” he tells me over coffee on a brisk January afternoon, “but…I’ve already had to learn more than 300 songs for just events.” He means since the

beginning of the year. It does seem crazy, but for a freelancer in the music world, that’s the way it has to be. “There’s 8 or 9 different artists just in the first month and a half that I’m playing with,” Ulman says. “That to me is being really busy, and having a wide range of music to play with, but it’s the only way I know how to do it.”

The art of the hustle is a necessity for Ulman’s line of work, where self-direction and a tireless work ethic are the keys to succeeding as an independent artist in Boston’s band-centric musical environment.

“This is a band scene,” he explains. “Session musicians are not something this city has an abundance of…You’re in bands, that’s what you do.”

For Ulman, that decision to go solo came after years of pursuing the band route. “I think I was about…30 or 31 when I decided to try the session thing out,” he says. “Bands can be really frustrating, it’s like 4 or 5 other people… trying to kind of match personalities and

mentalities and goals.” In the end, “it was just too frustrating.”

Boston is a contrast from a musical metropolis like Nashville, Ulman says, where if you’re sitting in any given coffee shop, “eighty percent of the people are session musicians trying to make it.” The upside to Boston is the lack of competition, but the disadvantage ties back to the fact that everyone joins a band – there’s also less work.

The opportunities do exist if one knows where to look, however, as Ulman’s career trajectory demonstrates. “I think what ends up happening in this city a lot is the older musicians who’ve been doing it for a long time sort of understand that they don’t want to deal with band drama, politics of being in a band,” he says. Independent singers and songwriters are often seeking the same arrangement, in studio or on the stage. “If you have the music [and] you wanna play it out,” Ulman explains, “it’s almost easier just to hire a band that’s gonna come, show up,

be professional, play the music.” That’s where he comes in. As the art of making music integrates itself further and further with technology, sometimes his job doesn’t even demand a physical presence. “It’s almost to the point where they don’t even want to book studio time,” Ulman remarks. “Hey, can you record this from your house and send it?” is a frequent request from his clients in situations where digitally copy-and-pasted drum parts will get the job done.

The work isn’t all transactional though; maintaining a balance between the business side of making music and the fun of it that brought you there in the first place is important, according to Ulman. “One of the aspects that I miss a lot from doing session work is that side where you’re just in a band with your buds, and playing music and drinking beers and having a good time, and so I try to incorporate that as an equal part to the sessions,” he says. “I’ll do a lot of session work, but I gotta have that band with my friends.”

It doesn’t take long in conversation to register Ulman’s passion for his craft, be it recording stems for a band he’ll never meet on the other side of the country or helping a local songwriter’s vision come to life on stage. “If you strip it all down to its most basic thing,” he tells me, “I just get to play drums for somebody or percussion for somebody and that makes me happy…I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”

• Ben Stas (English/Journalism)

43

Photography by Ben Stas

Editorial

M

usic is no stranger to social issues. It provides an easily disseminated platform for artists to bring their causes to light in a way that is extremely impactful. Not everyone listens to protesters or long-form written pieces detailing injustice, but (almost) everyone watches the Super Bowl Halftime Show or the Grammys. Artists like Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar have been using their influence to raise awareness for the brutality against African Americans in present-day America. We didn’t leave racism back in the 60’s, and they want to make sure everyone knows that.

The day before Beyoncé performed the Superbowl, she dropped a single and music video in true Bey fashion — out of nowhere.

Her song “Formation” is a taking-back of black culture, often appropriated by others.

Spring 2016

44

“I like my baby heir with baby hair and afros,” she sings, a nod towards celebrities like Kylie Jenner, who make baby hair into a fashion statement. She writes of many common stereotypes associated with black culture, like keeping hot sauce in purses or eating collard greens — her pride comes through, she is unapologetic and unafraid. Her music video, arguably, was the most shocking. It starts off with a shot of Beyoncé squatting on top of a sinking police car, which is a likely commentary on the increasing tensions between law enforcement and AfricanAmericans, as well as the primary issue of police brutality. Interlaced between her incredible dance sequences are powerful shots of a small black boy dancing unafraid in front of a line of stoic police officers, a black minister giving a powerful speech and a quick clip of a man holding up a newspaper with Dr. Martin Luther King jr.’s face and the

headline reading “The Truth” in big letters.

Arguably, the image of the graffiti that said “Stop Shooting Us” is the most unabashed — Black Lives Matter, and Beyoncé is taking a clear stance.

All of this, as amazing as it was on the internet, was nailed down when Beyoncé walked onto the Superbowl field surrounded by her dancers in outfits that looked like those of the Black Panthers. This performance set off much criticism from those that didn’t like the idea that Beyoncé was getting political and even caused a very, very small minority to host a Beyoncé Hate Rally that had a scant amount of people show up. Alongside the criticism, there was an overwhelming support not only for the singer but for the movement to which she was helping give a voice. Racism existed before Beyoncé. Racial profiling existed before Beyoncé. Police brutality existed before Beyoncé. It’s just now, people finally hear about it.

Another shocking and breathtaking performance that same month was at the Grammy Awards. Kendrick Lamar performed a medley of his songs “The Blacker The Berry” and “Alright.” Lamar’s third studio album To Pimp a Butterfly is a narrative masterpiece where Lamar laments about the difficulty of growing up as well as growing up black. The album was heavily represented in the Grammy nominations. Not only was the song choice in his performance very telling but also the performance aspect of it didn’t mess around. He shuffled across the stage, shackled to a row of inmates behind him. This image speaks to the mass

incarceration rates of African Americans, especially men who make up 60 percent of the prison population, though only 12 percent of the American population. He, like Beyoncé, speaks of the capitalizing of black culture when he raps “you vandalize my perception but can’t take style away from me.” His lyrics are blunt, and they are fueled by the anger of hundreds of years of institutionalized racism.

His most powerful and relevant line is “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street.” By mentioning particular, fresh cases of black death and police brutality, he is contextualizing his message.

When he launched into “Alright” (which later won two Grammys for “Best Rap Performance” and “Best Rap Song”), a giant bonfire erupted from the middle of the stage.

“Alright” is a song of hope, promising that even though the fight is far from over, “we gon’ be alright.” The continuing disparity between races is a place for anger and sadness, but that shouldn’t facilitate the loss of hope for fighting for equality and justice, which is what Lamar’s lyrics put forth. The lyrics are almost spiritual, putting a part of his struggle into the hands of God. He ends his performance by performing a new song, which also highlights racial issues, and by flashing a big image of the African continent on stage with the name of his hometown “Compton” inside of it — an explosive and lasting final image after he spent the last few minutes laying out the African American plight through quick lyrics and a dynamic performance.

45

Dance Music Sex Romance Etcetera

A Companion to the life and times of the Purple One.

Prince Rogers Nelson, who would later attain such a position of status that he would be referred to solely by his first name, was born in 1958. Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, he was instrumental in pioneering the city’s sound - a contemporary modification of the funk moment that was characterized by an increasing electronic influence.

During his career he has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe and an Academy Award.

Prince released his first album at the age of 19, and his most recent in December of last year. He has a memoir called The Beautiful Ones in the works, and has been touring in a solo piano show. Never has there been or will there be an artist who has had such a unique impact of the world of pop music. His obsession with sex, religion, the righteous and the divine, along with his perfectionist approach to composition, production and performance have yielded an impressive body of work that includes 39 studio albums, 136 music videos, 104 singles, four films and numerous other projects. What follows is a heavily abridged guide to some of his best work.

• Spencer Bateman (Computer Science / Music)

Controversy 1981

Prince 1979 There is no Prince album that sounds more like what Prince is supposed to sounds like than his self-titled 1979 release. Tight funk grooves and squealing guitar permeate this record. Experimentation and strange mixing is somewhat lacking, but the songwriting is great, and a number of them have been covered by contemporary artists, including Chaka Khan’s take on one of the album’s strongest tracks: “I Feel For You.” In fact, Prince has been so favored as a song writer throughout his career that he’s written for the likes of Sinead O’ Connor, Cyndi Lauper, Alicia Keys, Stevie Nicks, M.C. Hammer and Madonna.

Not afraid to show off his guitar chops whether it be on the ‘80s power ballad “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” or the facemelting “Bambi,” Prince made a permanent mark on pop music with the record that launched his career, and arguably became one of his most revered.

Spring 2016

46

Key Tracks: I Wanna Be Your Lover Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad? I Feel For You

Controversy is the juxtaposition of that which is wrong with what is so, so right. Covering sex and religion, the album is defined by its blasphemous overtones and also marks the start of Prince flirting with the more risqué.

If anything, Controversy hints at much of Prince’s experimentation to come.

While some ideas are not fully formed, others are overdone — that’s what this album is about: the juxtaposition of religion and ‘80s pop music. Reminiscent of work by Frank Zappa, Controversy is about the absurd; taking contradicting concepts and meshing them together to see how they interact.

On a more sonic level, Prince is giving us a sneak peak of the future. Controversy feels like a half-baked combination of a bit of 1999, a bit of Purple Rain and a bit of Sign o’ the Times — all Prince epics in their own right making a debut on one album. In some moments, it sounds like a sampling on a demo reel.

If you want to get into Prince fast, get over him fast or you just want to swallow the “Prince Pill,” this is the best album to try.

Much like the artist himself, it’s quick, dirty and to the point.

Key Tracks: Controversy Private Joy

1999 1982 Jack U Off Known as the “end of the world album,” 1999 contained some of Prince’s most brash tracks and daring songwriting. Unforgivingly focused on sex (even more than the majority of his other work), the album’s tracks tend to drift more towards an arena rock style than his traditional dance-influenced song writing.

This very fusion is what defined the majority of his body of work post-1982.

Not everything sounds new on 1999, as the album draws from Controversy’s explicit, sexual style. “D.M.S.R.” is a thumping power groove, and “Lady Cab Driver” sounds like the precursor to the entirety of Sign o’ the Times. But what makes this record strong is the fiery dance party that it incites. Even as Prince moves to a style involving more distorted electric guitar and less syncopation, he maintains an earthly groove, with all its talk about the end of the world. These songs make you forget about the past and the future, and make you think about the now.

Key Tracks: Little Red Corvette D.M.S.R.

Purple Rain 1984 Lady Cab Driver Purple Rain is Prince’s magnum opus. It defined a generation of popular music, spawned debated about music censorship that was brought before Congress and contained some of the finest pop songs the world has ever heard. Similar in scope to Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Purple Rain was accompanied with a full length feature film that starred Prince, kick starting his acting career.

Sign O’ the Times 1987

Purple Rain, much like Prince, hangs on its image. The timeless cover of Prince on a modified Honda motorbike, gazing straight into the listener’s soul, is an image as timeless as the album itself. The sexual overtones on Purple Rain were so powerful that they actually spawned one of the first debates on music censorship which involved the testimony of both John Denver and Frank Zappa before Congress and eventually resulted in the parental advisory labels that now grace albums determined to be obscene.

Purple Rain is as much a movie soundtrack as it is a stand alone album. For newcomers, the album may be a little difficult to get into — its production is some of the strangest that Prince has ever employed, but also some of his most effective and creative.

Purple Rain is the perfect mesh of pure dance tunes, searing rock n’ roll and experimental electronic music. Here it is, all of it curated by Prince and brought to a fabulous conclusion on the album’s title track.

Prince’s mellow soul work is full of surprises.

With interesting twists and disregard for consistency, Prince takes the opportunity to follow new paths after the career-defining Purple Rain. Sign o’ the Times is more laid back and it feels like a moment when Prince turned his head to look at his early work as inspiration. In a lot of ways, Sign o’ the Times sounds a lot like a finished or more polished version of his debut album For You, circling back with a sequel nearly a decade later.

Released as a double album, Sign o’ the Times contained fiery tracks, including, “I Could Never Take the Place of Your man” and “It’s Gonna Be a Beautiful Night,” a track reminiscent of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” or Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” But these songs exist more out of obligations to Prince’s past and his reputation as a hit maker and dance master. It’s “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” “Starfish and Coffee” and “If I Was Your Girlfriend” three songs that are unforgiving in the dreamy weirdness, that make the album what it is. The opening detuned synth on “Dorothy Parker” immediately transports you to another world, and “If I Was Your Girlfriend” is rumored to be sung by Prince’s female alter ego, Camille.

From front to back, Prince continues to push the envelope of pop music with Sign O’ the Times.

Key Tracks: Let’s Go Crazy When Doves Cry Purple Rain

Key Tracks: The Ballad of Dorothy Parker If I Was Your Girlfriend I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man

HITnRUN Phase Two 2015 Since Prince’s revival and his slow return to the spotlight, he has released a smattering of albums. HITnRUN Phase Two is not only his most cohesive, but also his most adventurous and modern. There are a number of classics on this record, including “BLACK MUSE” and “LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT YOU.” The album also contained “BALTIMORE,” a song about the racial tension in Baltimore following the 2015 death of Freddy Gray and the Black Lives Matter movements. This album was also recorded around the same time as Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, where Prince reportedly contributed his talents.

HITnRUN Phase Two brings Prince’s slickness back with a new refined edge and modern tools. This album almost feels like a remake of some of Prince’s early work. Tracks like “XTRALOVABLE” and “STARE” sound like they came straight from his first or second record. There are few artist who can continue to write music with the same style and vigor as they age, and that’s what makes Prince such an incredible musician.

Key Tracks: LOOK AT ME LOOK AT YOU XTRALOVEABLE BLACK MUSE 47

Sta

Where to start?

Prince has a lot of albums - 39 studio albums to be exact. This does not include the numerous live albums, compilations, soundtracks, side projects, and films he has produced, alongside a rumored vault of his own music that is said to contain up to three times the amount of music he has released himself. Listening to his studio albums alone is a daunting task to undertake, which is why we have provided the following chart to guide you through all of the twists and turns of Prince’s incredibly diverse studio discography. So grab a friend, sit back, relax and see where his music takes you.

Prin Purple Rain

Plectrumelectrum

Around the World in a Day

Etcetera

Chaos and Disorder

Love Sexy

The Gold Experience

Dirty Mind

Sign O’ Th

Batman 3121

Controv

Diamonds and Pearls

Eman

One Nite Alone...

Slaughter House

News

Love Sym

Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic

Crystal Ball/The Truth Spring 2016

48

The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale

art

nce 1999

HITnRUN Phase Two

For You

Art Official Age

Parade

Come

he Times

versy

ncipation

HITnRUN Phase One

20 Ten

The Black Album

Lotusflow3r / MPLSound

Xpectation Graffiti Bridge Musicology

mbol Album

The Chocolate Invasion

Rainbow Children

Planet Earth 49

Etcetera

Spring 2016

50

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST The following playlist calls many of the artists featured on the 2006 Folk Off! compilation deeply out of context, and hopes to demonstrate the futility inherent in the exercise. This is the Kit and Marissa Nadler have seen considerable stylistic maturity over the past decade, and earn the company of legendary folk vocalists in Vashti Bunyan and Josephine Foster. Meg Baird (of Philadelphia’s Espers) covers “Locks and Bolts,” by 1960s English folk revivalist Shirley Collins.

Baird’s reverence equals that of Foster and Diane Cluck on last year’s Karen Dalton tribute Remembering Mountains. The mix destabilizes into radioactivity with Devendra Banhart’s “Golden Girls” through Vetiver’s “Current Carry.” If the latter half of the tracklist feels like a betrayal, it’s because of influences taken from airy funk and NBC in equal measure.

FIND KANYE Revisiting Folk Off! 1. “Magic Spell” – This is the Kit 2. “Heartloose” – Diane Cluck 3. “I’m a Dreamer” – Josephine Foster 4. “Mother” – Vashti Bunyan 5. “Drive” – Marissa Nadler 6. “Locks and Bolts” – Meg Baird 7. “Golden Girls” –Devendra Banhart 8. “Golden Gal” – Animal Collective 9. “Current Carry” –Vetiver

We’ve hidden Yeezy somewhere in this issue. Find him and maybe something cool will happen...

Find the playlist at sptfy.com/Ujv

• Peter Giunta (Biology)

tastemakers flashback

51