Issue 49

Biz Markie and The Case That Defined Sampling | 45

A Brief History of Korean Rock & Roll | 34

northeastern students on music

Reconciling yourself with one of America’s oldest traditions

EDM Subgenres | 24

No 49

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E-Board

The Team

President Rami McCarthy

Staff Writers Emily Arntsen Allison Bako Spencer Bateman Joseph Bondi Brianna Caleri Justine Cowan Rachel Ellis Isaac Feldberg Reid Flynn Adrian Forrest Nikolas Greenwald Helen Hennessey Quinton Hubbell Zac Kerwin Raquel Massoud John McGill Erin Merkel Joanna Moore Emmett Neidhart Liam Numrich Taylor Piepenbrink Jonas Polin Jake Poulios Seth Queeney Matt Schüler Tanvi Seghal Christian Triunfo Alex Trzaskowski Jonathan Vayness Alex Wetzel Anika Krause Akosa Amenechi

Editor in Chief Terence Cawley Art Directors Madisen Hackley Mckenna Shuster Promotions Director Hannah Crotty

Staff Features Editor Christopher Miller Reviews Editors Tim DiFazio Peter Giunta Interviews Editor David McDevitt Web Curator Anu Gulati Photo Director Nola Chen Rio Asch Phoenix Social Media Directors Hannah Crotty

Art & Design Allison Bako Jenny Kang Cammy Kuo Anna Smith Sara Trosky Sarah Gomez Ryan Fleischer Jamie D’Amato Christina Wysocki Camaryn McKenzie Alex Agahnia Jacqueline Arce

Promotions Suki Affatato Stacy Andryshak Ingrid Angulo Jacob Aubertine Sofia Benitez Julia Boll Scott Breece Dash Dell’Imperio Emily Grinberg Emily Harris Helen Hennessey Erin Hensley Katie Isbell Cara Jones Jae Lee Evelyn Liu Navin Mani Laura Masnato Isabella Miele Patrick Milne Taylor Poehlman Kylie Ponce Jane Slaughter Eliana Tallarida Photography Tajwar Ahad Emily Arntsen Amanda Barr Jason Crouse Hannah Drabin Madisen Hackley Jordon Halteman Sebastian Herforth Abigail Manos Elice Ongko Rio Asch Phoenix Shannon Pires Derek Schuster Lauren Scornavacca Nicole Service McKenna Shuster Lydia Tavera

Meet the Staff

About Jonas Polin Position Staff Writer Major Cultural Anthropology/ Theater Graduating 2019 Favorite Venue The Echo (Los Angeles) Tastemaker Since Fall 2015

Chris Miller Position Features Editor Major Accounting Graduating 2019 Favorite venue The Stone Pony Tastemaker Since Fall 2015

Listening to

The Cranberries “Linger” Weezer The Blue Album

Quote

“I liked Skrillex in 2011 so you can interview me”

Four Tet New Energy

Bomb the Music Industry!

Scrambles The Smith Street Band No One Gets Lost Anymore

“(indecipherable mouth sounds) It’s the Price is Right theme!”

Alvvays Alvvays

Matt Schuler Position Staff Writer Major Environmental Science Graduating Spring 2020 Favorite venue Middle East Downstairs Tastemaker Since Fall 2016

Brianna Caleri Position Staff Writer Major Music History and Analysis Graduating December 2017 Favorite Venue The Sinclair or Paradise Rock Club Tastemaker Since Spring 2017

The Feelies.

Crazy Rhythms Sorority Noise You’re Not as ___ as you Think

“Squishy”

The Antlers In the Attic of the Universe

Tom Petty Wildflowers Richard Strauss “Also Sprach Zarathustra” Light Rain “Chase the Wind”

“Belly dancers aren’t these scary people.”

Solange, Orpheum Theatre

Photo by Jasmine Rayonia (Marketing)

Table of Contents Cover Story

21

In Defense Of: Contemporary Country

Editorial

12

Go beyond pop-country with a deep dive into all this misunderstood genre still has to offer.

Reviews

14 38

17 24 26

Just A Taste Of

43

Discography: R.E.M

Sidney Gish

Treat yourself to a guided tour through the three-decade career of one of the great American bands.

06

Calendar

28

Local Photos

EDM Subgenres Don’t know your house from your techno? This breakdown of six major EDM subgenres can help.

18

34

My Iron Larynx: The Niche of Scream-Singing and It’s Stylistic Variety Can I scream?

45

Defining the Bizness: Biz Markie and the Case that Defined Sampling How “the clown prince of hiphop” became embroiled in a landmark sampling case.

The Original Home Recorder - R.Stevie Moore A look at the unique artist whose home recordings were decades ahead of their time.

Etcetera

33

Shimmy: The Shakedown on NU Belly Dance

The Scientist that Blinded Me He may be best known as an ‘80s one-hit wonder, but that’s just the beginning of Thomas Dolby’s story.

This club is bound to get your hips shaking.

Album Reviews Lil Uzi Vert, LCD Soundsytem, Lights, Terror Jr.

08

When it comes to Grateful Dead live recordings, one show looms above them all.

Show Reviews Oh Wonder, Denzel Curry, Torres, Between the Buried and me

Cornell 5/8/77/: Grateful Dead’s Best Show Ever, Forty Years Later:

Features

Korean Rock and Roll Learn how South Korean rock evolved in tandem with Western rock in the ‘60s and ‘70s- and how the government tried to stop the rock.

Interviews

12

Bellows Our conversations with Tastemakers Presents opener Bellows…

36

Jeff Rosenstock

48

G-Eazy

…and with Presents headliner Jeff Rosenstock.

We interviewed G-Eazy three years ago and forgot about it until now. Wonder if he’s done anything since then…

Calendar January November Su

1

Sa

2

3

14

5 2

6 3

7 4

Sun Drifter O’Brien’s Pub

Title Fight The Sinclair

Grizzly Bears Beastle Blue Hill House of Bank Blues Pavilion The Hotelier Middle East Downstairs

Leon Pink Trout Ariel Thunder Music Road Hall Brighton

Hamilton Big Thief Brighton Music Hall Leirhauser Royale Squirrel Nut Rich Chigga Zippers Middle East The Sinclair

The Clientele Sarah Blacker ClubSinclair The Passim Courtney Barnett/Kurt Vile The Orpheum

8 5

9 6

10 7

11 8

12 9

10 13

11 14

Evanescence Jonathan Biss & Miriam The Orpheum Fried Isabella Stewart Janet Jackson Gardner Museum TD Garden

The English Beat Brighton Music Hall

Blitzen Trapper Meg Baird The Center Sinclairfor Arts

King Crimson The Orpheum

at the Armory The Used House of Blues

Joyce Lab Atlast Manor/ The Middle East Wavves Downstairs Paradise Rock Club

WhiteSurvive Circa Reaper and mewithoutYou Brighton Music Hall House of Blues Tegan and Sara Forth Wanderers The Orpheum and Half Waif Great Scott

Kings of Leon & Deerhunter TD Garden

Kelela Guster Middle ParadiseEast Rock Club Downstairsl Perturbator ONCE Ballroom

12 15

13 16

14 17

15 18

19 16

20 17

21 18

Knuckle Reel Big Puck Fish, Paradise Anti-FlagRock , Club and Ballyhoo!

Tyga/Chief Keef House of Blues House of Blues

The Mountain Goats House of Blues

The JoshDrums Lekas The Sinclair Middle East Downstairs Slowdive Paradise Rock Club

John Carpenter The Royale

Letters to Cleo Plaid The Sinclair Paradise Rock Club

The Jesus and Mary Chain Paradise Rock Club

Public Access T.V Great Scott

Hot Snakes Cherry Glazerr The Middle Middle East East Downstairs Bleachers Caspian House of Blues Royale

Bash & Pop and The So So Glos Great Scott

22 19

23 20

24 21

25 22

26 23

27 24

28 25

Turnover Rye Pines, Font Han and Royale The Bilge Rat O’Briens’s Pub

Kamasi TV Girl The Middle East Washington Downstairs The Royale

American Adam Ant Football Wilbur The Royale Theatre

Tokyo Police Club and Charly Bliss The Sinclair

Basecamp and Lauv Great Scott

Phox and Cuddle Magic Brighton Music Hall

mewithoutYou Warren Haynes and Michael The Sinclair McDonald Orpheum Theatre Jay-Z TD Garden

29

30

Yelawolf Paradise Rock Club

Squeeze Wilbur

David Bazan Brighton Music Hall

29 26

30 27

31 28

Cut Copy The Royale

Isaiah Rashad The Sinclair

Cannibal Cloud Nothings Corpse Paradise The Royale Rock Club

Beach Slang The Sinclair

Biffy Clyro House of Blues

St.Vincent House of Blues

Thrice/ Circa Survive House of Blues

Rockommends

The Hotelier Meg Baird Nov. 1January @ Middle 10 East @ The Downstairs Center for Arts at the Armory

Tyga/Chief Phox Keef Nov. 12 @January House of 27Blues @ Brighton Music Hall

Worcester Yellowcard emo revival is finally titans calling The Hotelier it quits are after making more San their yearly Francisco-based Cambridge return Meg Baird this November. visits the Armory If you on like your sabbatical concertsfrom to resemble the erratic loudpsych-rock group therapy, of Heron you’reOblivion. in luck, because Her 2015 nosolo one does record it better. /Don’tYou Weigh Down may leave the Light/ sadderisthan as true you to arrived, her seminal but trust freak me, folk you won’t project regret Espers a second as ever, of it.and promises a near-astral channeling of her more British folk influences.

Matt Come Schuler out for(Environmental the folk literacy Science) of Shirley Collins crystalized in the cosmic wonderment of Baird’s vocals.

Legendary Indrill theirrapper relatively Chief short Keeftime will be as a tearing band, apart Phox, the Housealso of Blues knownasashe“The opens Little forWisconsin legendary Band bad person Tyga That (also, Could,” he’shas badearned at rapping). praiseCome from music on by to get lit and authorities still make such it toasbed All early; Songsnever Considered’s has there been a better Bob Boilen opportunity and producer/musician to skip the headliner!

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). Their shows are intimate Tim DiFazio yet powerful, (English) and are a great way to break up those mid-winter blues.

By Peter Giunta (Biology)

Helen Hennessey(Music)

December February

you can view the calendar online at: http://tastemakersmag.com/calendar

Su

Sa

1

1 2

1 3 2

2 4 3

Great Good Fine Ok Brighton Music Hall

P. O. S the Man Portugal.

House The Sinclair of Blues

Maximo Park White The Orwells Lies Brighton Music The Middle Sinclair East Hall Downstairs

ClapFriends Your Priests Real and Hands Say Yeah Paradise Halfsour Rock Club Brighton Music Hall Great Scott

3 4 5

4 5 6

5 6 7

6 8 7

79 8

8 10 9

9 11 10

A. Savage (of Parquet Courts) Great Scott

Gary Numan Paradise

Jake Bugg Banks Red Hot Chili Paradise Royale Rock Club Peppers TD Garden

Red Hot Chili Girlpool Brighton Music Hall Peppers TD Garden

Mogwai City and Color Drive-By Truckers Royale Blue Hills Bank Pavillion The Bouncing Souls Sinclair

Converge/Pile Lady Jurassic Lamb 5 Brighton Music Hall Royale The Sinclair

l Noam Nick Cave Pikelny & and The Bad Anais Mitchell Seeds Sanders Theatre Wang Theater

Do Make Say Think The Sinclair

10 11 12

Angel Olsen House of Blues

11 12 13

Reverend Horton Ween Heat/Junior Brown Blue Hills Bank The Sinclair Pavillion

Radiator Hospital Great Scott

GWELL-O The Middle East Upstairs

12 13 14

13 15 14

14 15 16

15 17 16

16 18 17

Lemuria, Mikey Erg and Cayetana The Sinclair

Laura Adams Bryan Mvula BlueSinclair The Hills Bank Pavillion

Less Than Jake and Pepper House of Blues

Cecile McLorin Sorority Noise The Sinclair Salvant and Aaron Diehl

Municipal Frank Diana Turner KrallWaste & Brighton Music Hall Shubert The Sleeping Theater Souls

Berklee Performance Center

Agganis Arena

Rick Astley House of Blues

17 18 19

18 19 20

19 20 21

20 22 21

21 22 23

22 24 23

23 25 24

ToveDirty The Lo and Heads Blue HillsRyan Phoebe Bank Pavillion House of Blues

Japandroids PWR BTTM Paradise Rock Club Royale

John Mark McMillan

David Eye Third Duchovny Blind and Silversun Wilbur Theatre Pickups Blue Hills Bank Pavillion

Cam’Ron Ms.Lauryn Hill Middle East Wang Theatre Downstairs

Run The Kidz BopJewels Kids House of Blues Blue Hills Bank Pavillion Black Joe Lewish &

George Hall andClinto Oates & Parliamentand Tears for Fears Funkadelic TD Garden House of Blues

Wilbur Theatre

The Honeybears The Middle East Downstairs

24 25 26

25 26 27

26 27 28

27 28

28 29

The Griswolds The Sinclair

Colony House The Sinclair

You Blew Jason Isbell It!, All BlueOut, Get Hills and BankFree Pavillion Throw The Sinclair

Moon Hooch The Sinclair

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones House of Blues

29 30

Rose Cousins Club Passim

30 Deer Tick The Sinclair

The Mountain Lady Lamb Goats February Nov.13 @10 House @ The ofSinclair Blues

St.Vincent Japandroids February@20 Nov.30 House @ Royale of Blues

Hot onLamb, Lady the heels the of lovelorn Goths,storytelling a concept album powerhouse about project the black-clad of Maine-native denizens of Aly ‘80s Spaltro, SoCal is and going the first on a living room Mountain Goats touralbum in support without of her anynew guitar, EP: Jon /Tender Warriors and Darnielle Club/. theFortunately boys are coming for you, to your her town Boston to date isn’t in party down. a living Willroom they play – it’syour at The favorite Sinclair! boombox-era So twist your hips, deep cut? Will crane Darnielle your neck, spend and several be thankful minutesyou gushing don’t have about Ace oftoBase? sit onWill someone’s you scream weird thecouch. chorus of “No Children”

By Reiduntil Flynn your (Accounting) voice gives out? Only one way to find out.

Annie Clark isthat Japandroids, hitting dynamic the House duo of of combustible Blues in support Canadians, of her fifth have finally studio album, awoken MASSEDUCTION. from their three-year The videos slumber, for singles and “New they York” return and “Los to Ageless” the touring have lifebeen bearing bold, the bright, gift ofand a new a bit album, off-kilter, much /Near like hertolive theshow.

Wild Those Heart of who Life/. caught If theher title set track at Boston is any Calling a indication, few years back that may new album’s remember going it astoan beotherworldly as chock-fullexperience of (or explosivethat’s perhaps rock glory just me), as the and first thistwo year were, surely andwon’t you’re disappoint. not Not gonna to mention, want Clark to miss absolutely the opportunity shreds. to hear those songs in their intended setting: a dark club full of sweaty believers.

Opening Justine is the Cowan man(Marketing) who almost single-handedly put the rock back in indie rock, Craig Finn, with his new band The Uptown Controllers.

Terence Cawley (Biology)

Terence Cawley (Biology)

Feature

The Scientist that blinded Me

Thomas Dolby has built a career out of something that for many one-hit wonders would be the ultimate curse. The synth pop pioneer’s lone Billboard Top 10 single, the 1982 hit “She Blinded Me With Science,” would go on to define the popular image of his public music career, but the drive and curiosity that allowed him to be successful in an evolutionary era of technology and music would lead to a career beyond the infamies of being defined by a fluke hit.

The novelty of the synthesizer shaped the identity of the hits that would dominate MTV in the early parts of the decade. Amongst this class of new wave hits was a frequent trend of tinkering with a sense of musical technological modernization, with songwriters applying new electronic sounds to classics of the past decades. Motown hits and

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“they were engineers and tinkerers, artists applying a new medium of musical craftsmanship to the existing pop tropes of before” rhythm and blues standards of the 1950s and 1960s were frequently reimagined with a newly capable futuristic sound: for example “Tainted Love,” the 1981 hit by the British duo Soft Cell, was originally recorded by Gloria Jones in 1964.

Modernizing the old sounds meant the personnel behind the group of early pop successes in 1980 through 1982 were of a different breed. A unique combination of factors meant that these pop stars were not necessarily great songcrafters. Very frequently they were engineers and tinkerers, artists applying a new medium of musical craftsmanship to the existing pop tropes of before. It would be reasonable to believe that this would be an influencing factor on why the nostalgic sounds of the 1980s are remembered so differently than their neighboring decades. We had this new flavor of sound, and we wanted to put it on everything. The people that led the charge were those that were most capable of stepping into new territory, giving us this inexperienced and ultramodern start to the decade.

Dolby himself found middling success as a songwriter, but would go on to build a career on finding his niche in the challenging new territories of modern pop music. From a purely musical perspective, his 1982 hit “She Blinded Me With Science” had all of the features of a classic one-hit wonder, the accidental greatness of a musician who would stumble his way up the charts and then cease to carry any form of relevance. Dolby recorded his debut solo record The Golden Age of Wireless with the checks he collected working as a session musician, specifically the Foreigner 1981 hit single “Waiting For a Girl Like You.” The original iteration of the album did not include the song that would become his highest charting success. “She Blinded Me

9

Feature

“If Thomas Dolby’s work were to be ranked by the number of people on Earth to have heard it, “She Blinded Me With Science” would be in second place by an astronomical margin” With Science” was a B-side, released with a follow-up EP to his debut record to get the rest of the material out from the studio sessions for Wireless. A music video was made to accompany the single, and it climbed its way up the charts. Subsequent reissues of The Golden Age of Wireless would include the track as a closer.

On top of its coincidental “She Blinded Me With Science” fit right in with the rest of the one-hit wonder category as it was an eccentric, bordering on goofy, earworm. The famous video features Dolby checking into a home for deranged scientists and proceeding to undergo a medical evaluation by Magnus Pyke, a famous British scientist and television persona who was the source of the famous “Science” exclamation sampled in the song, littered with shots of mad scientists with various contraptions dancing around the hospital’s yard.

Dolby’s one-hit wonder status is a bit of fallacy, as he would continue to produce minor chart hits in the United Kingdom over the course of the next decade, yet none made an appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 outside of 1984’s “Hyperactive.” Thomas Dolby currently holds a faculty chair at Johns Hopkins University, designing a new curriculum around the presence of music and new media formats. As a musician alone, Dolby did well for himself, though his career as a programmer and entrepreneur would end up having a larger impact on the direction of popular music than any of the influence he had on the synth-pop charts.

In Dolby’s autobiography, he writes about his growing weariness with the music industry as the 1980s came to a close. In an interview, he shares, “I was pretty pissed off in the early ‘90s when I decided to give it a break. . . You’ve heard all the sob stories from signed artists about the way labels treated them. That was pretty much par for the course, but when I started out, that was the only course to play. I had

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no worse a time than anyone else, but the thing that I really found upsetting was that I had a commercial breakthrough and yet it was so different from a lot of my more personal and atmospheric music. I had no idea why people were buying my records, really.”

For Dolby and many of his contemporaries, producing glossy synth hits was not a day job that lasted far beyond the decade. Luckily, years spent with an innate curiosity to dismantle and fiddle with the synthesizers that he worked gave him a few marketable skills that helped him stay on his feet after his record deals ran their course, as well as setting him up for his greater contribution towards the evolution of music in the age of computers. In 1993 he took steps away from the groups driving popular music and founded Headspace, later to be renamed as Beatnik, an tech startup in the heyday of personal computers that developed sound engines for websites and video games. The company would be credited with defining the RMF file format, a digital content container that was encryptable to protect original compositions and would be to store soundtracks. Dolby would serve as the CEO of the company until 1999.

If Thomas Dolby’s work were to be ranked by the number of people on Earth to have heard it, “She Blinded Me With Science” would be in second place by an astronomical margin. First on this list could be estimated to have been heard in the billions: the standard Nokia polyphonic ringtone, the default setting on millions of cellphones throughout the 2000s. After the dot-com crash, the Beatnik had one contract keeping it afloat: a small design deal with Nokia. The phone manufacturer was experimenting with cheap ways to include polyphonic ringtones in their latest models, as older versions of Nokia phones at the time were only equipped with the capabilities to play single tones at any point. Nokia had originally wanted to use popular music in its ringtones, but was forced to work with what was available in the public domain to avoid paying royalties on every phone they shipped. Dolby led the team that programmed the first batch of polyphonic tones, including a certain 4-bar excerpt from Francisco Tárrega’s “Grand Vals” that would stain the memory of an entire generation.

Thomas Dolby now holds a professorship at Johns Hopkins University, designing a new undergraduate program geared towards pushing music composition into virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and other new mediums. He served as the musical coordinator for the TED Media Organization from 2001 to 2012, curating the musical performance stage for each year’s TED Conference.

• David McDevitt (International Affairs/Economics)

CORNELL 5/8/77 Grateful Dead’s Best Show Ever: Forty Years Later

In 2011, Jerry Moore’s tapes of The Grateful Dead’s May 8, 1977 concert at Cornell University were selected by the Library of Congress for the esteemed honor of inclusion in the National Recording Registry. Suggesting it as the Dead’s best show run ever is rarely contested among Deadheads, arguably one of music’s most annoying, but dedicated fanbases. Moore wasn’t a recording engineer or a member of The Grateful Dead, but merely a Deadhead taper whose contribution now rests with historical significance. In May 2017, this universally lauded Grateful Dead show saw an official release, and the results are nothing short of gorgeous.

For anyone apprehensive towards listening to The Dead due to their monstrous catalog, I cannot stress how perfect of an introduction Cornell: 5/8/77 is. Signature Dead procedures for live shows, such as the transition from “Scarlet Begonias” to “Fire on the Mountain,” spreading their song “St. Stephen” all around the setlist and encoring with “One More Saturday Night” are all in play here. Beginning the show with no introduction and immediately breaking into “New Minglewood Blues,” lead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia establishes his storytelling, provocateur persona as a felonious Texas man whipping back shots of whiskey.

The Grateful Dead were essential members of the rising counterculture in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco in the late 1960s. They began their career jamming and improvising at Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests, a series of parties centered around the heavy, experimental use of LSD hosted by Ken Kesey, author of One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There is where Garcia, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, bassist Phil Lesh, and drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart established their enjoyment of wandering guitar riffs and embellished solos- the intoxicated audience was swaying along no matter what.

After the liberating “New Minglewood Blues,” Garcia offers a mere endearing “Hi” to the audible audience as he and Weir trail into well-known Dead track “Loser.” Garcia wails with background female vocalist Donna Godchaux before he rips into a ridiculously

incredible guitar solo ⅔ of the way through the song, one I’d argue is one of the best guitar solos of all time. Like all legendary solos, he passionately evokes the song’s underlying message of having lost everything through quick and enduring finger work in just the second song of the night; it’s a glimpse into what makes the Dead so endlessly hypnotizing to many. Their lyrics tell ambiguous, weirdly distant stories of nameless, notorious outlaws or young girls pulling rabbits by the ears, and are only an afterthought to the passionate playing offered by all members. Lesh’s bass gleams on “Scarlet Begonias” and Hart and Kreutzmann demonstrate how to bring dual mastery and chemistry to drum solos in “Jack Straw,” and all members overtake a 15-minute jam session that never loses steam between “Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain” before Garcia erupts with an unbelievably satisfying lyrical opening. The remastered audio engineering on Cornell 5/8/77 produces a never-before-heard clarity to the Dead’s sound and adds vigor to this forty-year old recording.

Before being commercially released this year, the 5/8/77 performance was one of the most collected, traded and downloaded concerts by any band ever- no hyperbole. Adding up the many versions of the show on archive.org, the concert has been listened to about 1.6 million times as of October 2017. Cornell 5/8/77 may not necessarily be the best Dead show, but it is an amazing show with a lot to savor over time.

After “Fire,” Garcia rips into an elongated “Estimated Prophet” with a New Orleans rock n’ roll vibe as the guitar whammies into oblivion. The band then rushes into their other great song run, interrupting a classic “St. Stephen” with a 16-minute-long “Not Fade Away,” and then pulling back into “St. Stephen” again. This version of “Not Fade Away” is characteristically dynamic and elongated, with back and forth guitar solos from Weir and Garcia that match the greatness of those in “Loser.” They close out their set with a transcendent “Morning Dew,” where it’s been said that every member conspired and focused on “achieving the cathartic, frenzied release of the climax of this song,” and they surely do not disappoint.

What makes The Grateful Dead’s music so significant that it was included in the Library of Congress is how they transfer emotional fervor through all instruments blending into an agreeable yet radical rock-n-roll sound. They established the “jam band” genre along with the as improvisational Allman Brothers Band and paved the way for similar groups such as Phish, Umphrey’s McGee and Widespread Panic to partake in all sorts of musical experimentation. It’s one of the few genres where I’ve felt equal respect between artist and fan, a respect where each admires the other’s artistry of the craft. Tape recording has transformed into live-streamed shows in the 21st century, where jam bands like Phish allow fans to “couch surf” their unique concerts from home for free sometimes. The preservation that has allowed Grateful Dead’s mystic Cornell 5/8/77 show to live on is a blessing for fans and newbies alike, and an artistic achievement that a live recording can be as outstanding as a studio album release.

Whether all Deadheads can agree on it as the “best” show ever, Cornell 5/8/77 will have a place in our hearts (and the Library of Congress) forever.

• Anu Gulati (Computer Science) 11

Interview

BELLOWS AN INTERVIEW WITH

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Tastemakers Magazine (TMM): The collective, formerly known as Epoch, has had some tremendous output over the last few years. As spotlights shift and each of you find a level of success, how have the writing relationships grown and developed over time?

Oliver Kalb (OK): I think the central meaning behind Epoch, when we were calling it that, was sort of a collaboration culture within our friend group, where everyone is a songwriter or an artist of some kind. We had a habit since high school of hopping on each other’s songs and helping out in different ways. That definitely still happens on a regular basis.

TMM: Did a lot of that go into Fist and Palm when it was recorded?

OK: Definitely, I actually feel like with each successive record, I have been getting better at opening it up. With the first Bellows records that I made in college, I was new to self-recording and felt the need to be very private about it. Fist and Palm was the first one where I was like, “These are half finished songs but I think that my friends can improve this record”, or do things that I am not able to do, especially along the lines of drums and electronics.

TMM: Who was the big teacher, looking at drums and electronics, as a lot of that show up on Fist and Palm, especially on tracks such as “Orange Juice” and the five or six song stretch after it offers a lot of electronic loops and drum machines.

OK: There was definitely a lot of MIDI sequencing on it, which is something that I was really new to when I was making the record. I had never known how to quantize drums until about two years ago, and it exploded my brain in terms of being somebody who doesn’t have a great intrinsic sense of percussion, allowing me to come up with beats that made sense even if I’m very bad at typing them out. I can mash them into a thing that ends up being in 4/4. That was the big part of how the drums on Fist and Palm came together, mostly experimenting with drum sounds.

THAT ZONE YOU GET INTO WITH SELF RECORDING IS DEFINITELY A VERY DIFFERENT KIND OF ENERGY THAT I CHANNEL THAN WHAT THE LIVE BAND DOES, WHICH IS MORE LIKE ROCKING OUT AND MAKING MUSIC IN A MORE IMMEDIATE SORT OF WAY. TMM: Was that the natural transition when you were moving away from your previous record, Blue Breath?

OK: We’ve always been a very energetic live band, which has been a bit of a contrast with the record, or any of the Bellows records, which are all slower, calm sounding records. I feel like I have been trying to figure out ways to record music more energetically. It’s a weird jump to make because I record completely alone usually, which creates an unnatural atmosphere with you and your home recording apparatus that’s a lot more contemplative than what happens on stage. That zone you get into with self recording is definitely a very different kind of energy that I channel than what the live band does, which is more like rocking out and making music in a more immediate sort of way. When I’m listening back to the records, especially after we’ve been playing songs for a few years, they’ve had a chance to grow and develop as live songs. I’m like, “Damn, I wish we had really made this jump out and rock”. I feel like with each record it rocks a little more. Obviously, the best way to do that is to get into an actual recording studio and record the band. I feel like I’m always worried about losing the complexity and subtlety

of the record by making it this straightforward rock record. It wouldn’t be interesting or boundary-pushing anymore with just this straight forward rock arrangement. I kinda no longer feel that way and would be interested to see what happens in an actual studio.

TMM: The sentiment that's cataloged in the record is a foil to the stereotypical break up record in the sense that it's a journey over time without a hard end, dealing with a dissolution of a friendship rather than a romantic breakup. Do you plan for the future Bellows album to stay in this space and see what evolves or is it time to move on to a new focus?

OK: Definitely time to move on. I think it's unhealthy to dwell on things like that. It's a good exercise to try to channel negative feelings into lyrics, but there is also a danger for allowing conflict to consume your life, or become the only thing you think about. I feel like with each record I try to change the central conflict or what I’m thinking about a little bit. I definitely feel like I was tempted after Fist and Palm to continue making that record because it feels like a very comfortable lyrical space for me to be in. Somehow, it comes very naturally to write from that sort of wounded but also guilty place. I don’t know why that is but for some reason I tend to find that voice when I'm writing lyrics and definitely want to not be that character for every single record.

Gabrielle Smith (GS): Yeah, plus your uncle set us out on a challenge to make a record about joy.

OK: Oh yeah!

TMM: Does he call that a challenge?

GS: He was like, “I notice that you don’t have any joy on your record”, and Oliver was like, “Oh no I think we do” and he was like “No no no no no. Kate Bush knows about joy, you haven’t experienced it yet.”

OK: Yeah my uncle got on my case about this.

GS: Which is a good thing to ponder.

OK: Yeah I agree. I think that indie rock has a limited spectrum of emotions that it goes to. There are some that come very naturally to an indie rock song like righteous anger or something, and breaking out of those emotional molds as a songwriter is a good exercise.

TMM: Has he tried to push more Kate Bush on you? Or anybody else?

OK: There is no need, I love Kate Bush already. I feel like she’s one of those songwriters where the degree to which she’s mastered her instrument is not a reachable goal. She is such a complicated composer and lyricist, and I definitely would love to be making music at that level, but there is a lot going on in Kate Bush’s music that I think is beyond me.

GS: What were other examples of people?

OK: I think Braum's you mention a lot, like classical composers that were channeling joy.

GS: I think it's a great idea.

OK: I do too. That's what I mean by wanting more of the energy in the studio. I feel like when I play music with this band I feel really good and I want to channel a positive energy and not have everything be amount mourning life or not living life. I think that there is a way to make a record that feels really good but still feels heavy.

TMM: The next thing we should be expecting is joy, right?

GS: Ideally!

OK: I don’t know how much I should listen to my uncle.

GS: I’m gonna make my next record about it.

• David McDevitt (International Affairs/Economics) 13

Show Reviews

Reviews

Oh Wonder September 22 @ House of Blues

Spring 2017

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A live performance lives entirely in the moment. Simply, it is inimitable— a singular occurrence, a happening, a moment in time that can never be imitated. Never have I understood this truth as vividly as on September 22nd, when a moment of complete, unique spontaneity overtook the House of Blues as dozens of Oh Wonder fans raised homemade “WE WILL NEVER LET YOU GO” signs during the band’s performance of their song “Overgrown”. In a single moment, a room full of strangers became a community overflowing with love and acceptance, brought together by a shared love of Oh Wonder. Josephine Vander Gucht, lead vocalist, found herself tearing up as she rode a wave of unmatchable and inexplicable emotion for the duration of song, and this was only a small portion of an absolutely electric night.

Jaymes Young opened the sold-out show, however his performance was lackluster to say the least. Every aspect of his performance, from his guitar playing to his singing to his stage presence, was painfully average and incredibly boring. However, the mediocrity of the opener only amplified the excitement and electricity of Oh Wonder’s performance as fans counted the minutes until the duo performed.

With an unmatchable stage-presence and underneath the glow of a simple light

display of the band’s initials, OW, Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West began their visual-audio masterpiece as they allowed their bodies to be taken over by their synth-pop beats and funky melodies. Music dictated their every movement and seemed to race through their veins as they danced and performed with unexpected abandon.

The shockwaves that traveled from their very souls made their way into each and every member of the audience and seemed to animate the entire room.

Oh Wonder’s set was performed in three distinct phases, beginning with an upbeat, high-energy mix of older material and tracks from their newest album, Ultralife.

They opened the show with an intense performance of “High on Humans”, not missing a single beat of the song’s rapid-fire and intricately interwoven melodies. This was followed by a cool-down of “Without You”, during which the band stressed the song’s powerful and well-dictated chords, low-key drums, and chill vibe.

After performing a few upbeat songs, the duo transitioned into a series of slower and more emotional tracks, including “White Blood”, “Livewire”, and “All We Do”. The entire room held their breath as Vander Gucht and West poured out their emotions in a brilliant musical display. During this part of the set, the duo focused primarily on

delivering their touching, meaningful lyrics in harmonious accompaniment with gloomy but simultaneously beautiful chord progressions.

They concluded the show with some of their most popular music, including songs “Technicolor Beat”, “Drive”, and “Ultralife”, ending the night on a perfect fever-pitch as they closed the show with just as much energy as they opened it with.

The standout number of the hourand-a-half set was most definitely “Heart Strings”, during which the duo unexpectedly brought out a saxophonist to play the song’s saxophone solo and revamp its funky melody.

Another highlight was the closer (bar the two encores) “Technicolor Beat,” during which the light display flashed every color of the rainbow in a blinding strobe, creating a rave-like setting despite the slow tempo of the song. The contrast was a dazzling, beautiful subversion of genre.

Oh Wonder put on a once-in-a-lifetime show. It was a night that nobody wanted to end, including Oh Wonder themselves, singing the chorus of the last song a few extra times before the lights once again gave way to abrupt darkness and we were all released into the cold, rainy night, with the electricity of the night keeping us warm on our way home.

Rachel Ellis (Game Design)

Between the Buried and Me September 24 @ Paradise Rock Club A decade ago, metal barely even registered in my mind as a music genre. I had a vague idea of what Avenged Sevenfold and Metallica were about, as well as a cloudy recollection of some music videos depicting scary looking men in boiler suits and roughhewn masks headbanging in an assortment of disused warehouses. I started my journey as a metal listener relatively ignorant of what the genre’s most inventive acts had to offer.

The transformative process from passive listener to devotee was expedited in large part

by Raleigh-based prog-metallers Between the Buried and Me (BTBAM) and their 2007 opus Colors. To see this record performed live was to re-connect with a long-lost companion that guided my acquaintance with one of the things that now matters most in my life.

Toothgrinder got the capacity crowd warmed up with a high-octane set featuring tracks off their 2016 full-length Nocturnal Masquerade.

Vocalist Justin Matthews whipped the whole venue into a frenzy with his grating screams and maniacal stage presence, making everyone temporarily cast off their inhibitions and forget that in roughly 12 hours it would be time to exhaustedly trudge through Monday morning. This was my second time seeing the New Jersey natives in concert, and my second time being left slack-jawed by the tightness of their playing and the energy they put into producing such an emotionally rousing performance.

They wrapped up with the song “Blue”, the highlight of their previous release by quite some margin.

Next up was Polyphia, an instrumental progressive metal four-piece whose music I hadn’t heard much of but had heard a lot about from sites such as Heavy Blog is Heavy. Their sound is a medley of djent, metalcore and math rock, all of which mesh together superbly in a live setting. The cogs in the Polyphia machine move in perfect synchronicity, and it’s quite the sight from a few feet away: guitars stitching together bouncy counterpoint melodies, bass lines gurgling under the surface and the percussion adding a dash of brawn to the harmonious palette of notes. Without a vocalist to act as focal point, Polyphia compensates for a lack of showmanship with instrumental proficiency when playing live shows. In that regard, they shone bright for the duration of their half hour set.

The Contortionist is a band that wears its BTBAM influences on its sleeve, and as such provided a fitting appetizer before the main course. They blended together the more mellow material of Language with the coreinfluenced compositions found in the earlier chapters of their discography. The band showcased its versatile musicianship in full by playing fan-favourite “Flourish,” the result of crunchy palm-muted breakdowns meeting luscious ambient passages. Language is a bold, forward-thinking statement of stylistic rebirth and I’m sure the recently released Clairvoyant is too, but there is something I miss about the less evolved version of The Contortionist. Something so raw, so primal

that can only be conveyed in the flesh; an ineffable quality that makes me hope that they will treat North America to a tenth anniversary tour for Exoplanet when the time comes in three years.

As soon as BTBAM emerged to assume their positions on stage, I could almost feel the shockwaves of anticipation pulse through the air. When the haunting piano lines of “Foam Born (A) The Backtrack” creeped in, the feeling became that much more tangible.

For the next hour and ten minutes, I was swept along by the tide of metalcore riffs, jazz-inspired solo breaks, clean choruses and odd-time drum patterns that make up the majority of Color’s hefty run time.

Watching Paul Waggoner shred his way through countless leads, Blake Richardson beating the life out of his kit and Tommy Rodgers switching up the timbre of his vocal delivery from minute to minute rendered me almost dizzy with rapture. As if playing Colors from front to back without stop wasn’t enough, BTBAM rounded off the night by playing “Mordecai”, a classic handpicked from their second album The Silent Circus. It was a high note on which to end a delightfully memorable night; color me surprised if I experience another one like this in what remains of 2017.

Akosa Amenechi (Accounting)

Denzel Curry & Show me the Body October 1 @ Middle East Downstairs There are few shows that can make me happy I spent an hour and a half dealing with MBTA delays, but for this one I would have gladly spent more. The double billing of New York noise-punk trio Show Me the Body and aggressive South Florida rapper Denzel Curry made for one of the most fiery, energetic small venue shows I’ve ever seen, bringing the sold-out Middle East to its knees with their outright refusal to slow down for even a moment.

Before the headliners could tear the venue apart, however, the show’s organizers, skate crew and streetwear brand Illegal Civilization, treated the audience to an advance screening of their upcoming short film Summer of ‘17. The film, featuring cameos from Tyler, the Creator and Aminé, was an entertaining 20-minute slice-of-life flick about teenaged skateboarders. It was an unexpected treat, and the crowd was

surprisingly respectful, sitting down and staying mostly quiet (although the cameos elicited some cheers).

After the audience finished chilling out to Summer of ‘17, the energy of the venue skyrocketed as Show Me the Body came out.

Although most of the crowd was definitely there for Denzel Curry, frontman Julian Pratt’s masterful snarling managed to bring the hype to an unfamiliar crowd. The whole 15

Reviews

floor was essentially a gigantic mosh pit, with people running in circles, crowd surfing, and throwing elbows. Their bacchanal dancing further proved that small venues are the best way to avoid the overzealous security that has most rappers going out to Lowell or Worcester, entirely skipping Boston on their tours. During the band’s last song, Pratt let out the most Hail Mary stage dive I’ve ever seen, dropping backwards into the crowd mid-sentence with no warning.

Nobody but Denzel Curry could follow a set like that. His red-hot performance brought an already riotous crowd to another level, and I honestly felt the venue shaking. In fact, things got so intense that I sprained my ankle during his third song and had to miss the rest of the moshing. However, there was still plenty to appreciate even when relegated to the sidelines.

Beyond his incredibly fast-paced performance, Curry kept the crowd going with his entertaining stage banter. He picked out an audience member for some lighthearted bullying, but later made up for it by having him start a “cyclone,” where the crowd opened up a gigantic pit for dozens of people to chase after each other in a circle. Curry also knew when to be a good dad, though; after the crowd decided to toss a crowd surfer several feet in the air, he spoke up.

“That was crazy, but don’t do that shit again.”

Musicians taking responsibility in dangerous situations is important, and it’s an integral part of what keeps shows like this both fun and safe to attend. The defining moment of his set, though, came near the end, when Curry leapt onto the ceiling pipes and hung from them as he delivered an intricate, rapid-fire verse.

Rap and hardcore shows at the Middle East are one of the most invigorating concert experiences Boston has to offer.

Every student in the area should take the opportunity to check one out, even if they may not have heard of the artists. This surprising double billing showcased two small venue masters, and whether you knew them or not, it was impossible not to pick up their energy.

Tim DiFazio (English)

Torres September 30 @ Sinclair

Spring 2017

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Torres is the name under which singer/ songwriter Mackenzie Scott records and performs her vividly rendered, psychologically probing art-rock. A day after releasing her third album, Three Futures, she treated the Sinclair crowd to a performance which in its striking confidence revealed an artist totally in command of her unique aesthetic.

Dressed head-to-toe in red, The Dove & The Wolf opened with a set of pretty, languid dream-folk. The Philly band’s gentle fingerpicking and two-part harmonies had a pleasingly lulling effect on the crowd, who made nary a sound beyond the requisite post-song clapping. The one song played with noticeably greater urgency was “Seven Days,” which the originally Paris-based group explained was written in the aftermath of the 2015 terrorist attacks on their hometown. In that context, the song’s climactic refrain of “I cannot stop thinking about it/What am I supposed to feel?” resonated with a simple, sad poignance.

While it comes from a similar headspace as the skeletal intimations of Torres’ self-titled debut and the ‘90s alt-inspired bloodletting of 2015’s Sprinter, Three Futures introduces a self-conscious physicality to Scott’s sound, full of steely synths and tensely undulating grooves. When Torres played

these new songs, her magnetism was such that, no matter how excellent her backing band, all you could focus on was her. Every vocal inflection, glam guitar lick and hip shake seemed calibrated for maximum impact; not a single movement felt unconsidered or extraneous. That remarkable restraint allowed her to start a song crooning gently, then imperceptibly build in intensity until suddenly she was howling with rage.

Aided by the same band that recorded Three Futures, Torres dedicated most of the evening to the new album, playing all but two of its tracks. Scattered amidst these songs were three choice selections from Sprinter, with the guitar-first arrangements and relatable lyrics of “New Skin” and “Cowboy Guilt” offering much-needed catharsis amidst the uneasy ambiance of her recent material.

From Torres, only “Honey” made the cut, a Three Futures-style electronic beat now underpinning its quietly seething account of a curdled romance.

By the end of the set, Torres began letting her tightly coiled reserve come undone. She threw herself into the horrorfilm hysterics of “Helen in the Woods” with theatrical abandon, then briefly kneeled at the lip of the stage during “Marble Focus,” a surprisingly shocking reminder of the tactile reality of this seemingly otherworldly

performer. The final song, “Concrete Ganesha,” was eventually swallowed by the band’s feedback-laden, wall-of-noise outro, but Torres made sure to get the last word, stabbing repeatedly at her guitar in staccato bursts like a malfunctioning robot.

It was such a memorably bizarre finale that the encore, a spiteful take on the grungy Sprinter favorite “Strange Hellos,” felt a tad anticlimactic in comparison. Regardless, with this concert Torres had proven herself to be one of the most bold, arresting performers in modern indie.

Terence Cawley (Biology)

We publish show reviews online too! tastemakersmag.com

Shimmy The Shakedown on NU Belly Dance Passing the Curry Dance Studio on Mondays, one might mistake it for an Egyptian dance party. Well, it wouldn’t be much of a mistake, except that the people inside are still just /learning/ to party like an Egyptian. Or anyone else in the Middle East, for that matter. The NU Belly Dance Club meets weekly for hour-long lessons led by Natassia, a professional belly dancer and instructor in Boston. Here, Northeastern students like myself learn how to shimmy, turn, and execute all kinds of dizzying hair tricks. But more importantly, belly dance unlocks innate, ultra-personal values through movement – in beginners and experts alike.

“Should my left hip be moving too?” asks PR Manager Rachael Sverdlove hesitantly, /literally/ slowing her roll. Natassia’s answer is disruptively simple. “Yeah,” she says. “Your hips are connected.”

As she realizes the groundbreaking anatomical obviousness of her response, she stops the class and turns around. “This is one thing,” she says, framing her hips assertively, but elegantly with her hands. “These are connected. This is connected!” she says, tapping her ribcage. “I know it sounds obvious, but when I understood this, everything changed.” When one starts understanding belly dance, everything changes. President Becky Mueller is grateful for the change: “Belly dance reignited in me this energy that I always had, but didn’t always tap into.” The classes in Curry aren’t about how to simulate a perfect hip circle, or umi; they’re about finding connections.

Until now, its first semester as an official Northeastern student organization, NU Belly Dance was a passion project for a group of people who didn’t even know each other. “The idea,” Vice President Nicole Goldstein explains, “is to have a large enough troupe so we can perform at university-wide events and maybe even travel to different universities to link up with other belly dance clubs. I want people to know who NU Belly Dance is – a fun-loving group of people who love and empower each other through dance.” Last year, under the direction of Jackie Dratch, the club met twice a week: once for lessons, and once for a smaller group of dancers who committed to performances around Boston. That smaller group and variations of it performed around Boston and Cambridge at a Hillel celebration for Mimouna, the Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub, and the Out of the Blue Too Gallery & More. Our performance at the Middle East was the first public performance in the Shaabi style – a rowdy Egyptian street dance – in Boston. “The dance itself is beautiful,” adds Goldstein, “but it was the environment that got me hooked.”

Right now, that environment is female. NU Belly Dance reaches out to men on campus and has taught a few in class, but, like belly dance itself, appeals to the shapes of the female body, and the community of the female experience. “There is something really incredible that happens when you learn how to move your body in ways you never thought possible,” Natassia says. “To find control over your body as a woman is a very powerful process. You start to feel more confident in your skin, you start to believe in yourself more… and you find this feeling of freedom that is very hard to explain.” People come to class dressed in all kinds of ways: straight from class in jeans and a shirt, yoga clothes, gym shorts, sports bra. Sverdlove and I got kicked out of Marino once for practicing choreography in jeans, torsos exposed. No one will ever be expected to wear, act, or dance in any way but their own at an NU Belly Dance class. “It gave me the opportunity to express myself in an environment that encourages and celebrates it,” says Mueller.

Goldstein’s experience borders on ecstatic: “The girls in that class built a space that was fun, empowering, and supportive – and I fell in love. By the end of the semester I was dancing up front in a bra, shaking what my mama gave me!”

The connection of body and person, person and person, and troupe and community is a millennia-old tradition innate in belly dance, and those connections are present in the young Boston club already. “After one class,” says Sverdlove, “I instantly felt a strong connection to the dancers and to the belly dance community.

NU Belly Dance is the reason I’m happy at Northeastern.” More than half the class still just drops in for lessons, an essential part of keeping the community open and diverse. Going forward with Natassia, the club can expect to “create and enjoy powerful and feminine performances, and inspire other women to work hard, make art and to believe in themselves.” On Mondays, every time I look in the mirror, I do a little dance.

• Brianna Caleri (Music History and Analysis)

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Feature

MY IRON

Fall 2017

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There isn’t much of a rich history behind scream-singing, at least, not in the distant past. While early faces of the technique certainly weren’t the first to strain their voice on tape, they didn’t pull much influence from those who came before. Many popular blues singers such as Little Richard and Jay Hawkins sang in gruff chants and bellows, but there is almost no bridge or evolution in form traceable to the hardcore scene development of the late 70’s. The closest thing to a patriarch metal screamer is Chuck Schuldiner, front man of the band Death. Often referred to as the “Hero and Godfather of Death Metal,” he was a huge influence in transforming the metal sound on the heels of early hardcore punk and thrash. His hoarse screams, constantly sounding on the verge of tearing up his throat, would become the foundation of many new techniques of vocals, though his all-out delivery is still used consistently in many punk and heavy metal acts. Notable musicians who helped Chuck develop this style were punk patriarchs Steve Albini of Big Black and Keith Morris of Black Flag. After the 1980’s however, these styles would split, with metal screaming evolving into 2 new extremes while modern punk acts kept true to their predecessors’ raw delivery, later branching into modern genres like emo/screamo and post-hardcore. The most easily identifiable style of scream used in modern metal is the “death growl,” a visceral groaning vocal forced more with the diaphragm than the larynx. The technique used here utilizes “vocal frying” (accessing a deeper voice registry, rather than forcing air like normal screams) and can also be done with plain speech. Jeff Becerra of Possessed is thought to be one of the earliest consistent users of the growl, though many different bands began showcasing it at a similar time in the mid-80’s. While used across all sects of metal to some degree, death growls are heard most in death metal acts. Across the pond, black metal gained popularity throughout the Nordic countries in the mid-90’s, and with it a more high-pitched, fry-heavy take on screamsinging emerged, propelled by singers such as Dead (who is currently as lifeless as his name implies) of Mayhem and Sigurd Wongraven of Satyricon. The original home to the rumors of Satanism in the metal community, Swedish and Norwiegian black metal is generally shunned by modern artists in the scene, though the sonic influence is very clear.

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My mother once requested to hear a metal track played for her.

My brother and I, having recently caught the shoegaze/black metal band Deafheaven live in Providence, had been discussing the show and the energy in the crowd of noise-drunk headbangers on a car ride visiting family back home. She expressed interest, so we queued a song up for her. It was not her aural cup of tea. She made it all of 5 seconds into “Dream House,” the prolific opener off Deafheaven’s 2013 monolith Sunbather, just as singer George Clarke’s shrieking joins in with a barrage of base drums and guitars before begging that it be switched off. Despite Clark’s relatively clean vocals meshing smoothly with the band’s dreamier, more atmospheric metal sound, they are still a stark departure from the rock norm. This vocal style isn’t for everyone.

The voice is an instrument. Like any other tool, it has many different styles and methods of use. So why does the vocal niche among the more hardcore genres (metal, punk, industrial…etc.) seem so much more polarizing to most listeners than most any other contemporary style? While popular distaste for the genres that feature screaming likely stems from an amalgamation of the vocals coupled with heavier, jarring and dissonant instrumentation, it’s rare to hear people point to most anything but “that awful yelling” as the reason it turns them away. In most modern music genres, vocals and lyrics are the centerpiece of a theme that the rest of the song is built around. The lyrics are comprehensible rather than muddled in a wash of noise, and the singer’s voice is generally clean and smooth; replacing that with mostly unintelligible screams and growls removes a critical aspect of the music for many people. As a concession to the other point of view, the energetic wall of passion and emotion that drives harsher vocals is a main draw for fans. It scratches a musical itch that not much else can reach, through a violent projection of emotion thrust from the singer to and through the listener out the other side. But like most any sonic extreme, this will clash in many genres of music. When it matches the listening mood, however, almost no other style can hold a candle. I once heard the styles of hardcore music likened to the variety of levels of heat people use in their salsas on a burrito. Some people gravitate to the spiciest options available to completely overpower the rest of the flavor, some enjoy a medium heat to accentuate the variance in tastes and some people just stick to mild, enjoying just a hint of spice. Many others would just rather have pizza. It’s all personal taste.

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Feature The science behind the production and consumption of screams is quite interesting. Another factor that separates scream-singing from its normal counterpart is the way it translates in the brain. Most screams produced by humans create an acoustic property called “roughness” that exists outside the range of normal human speech.

This timbre sends signals straight to the amygdala, the section of the brain responsible for fear reactions, rather than the normal neural pathways vocal triggers follow. Screams are quite simple to produce, merely caused by the force of air through the larynx at a greater rate than normal sound. The art gets technical when it comes to the ability of singers to scream for long periods of time, over and over for days on end, with little to no physical damage or vocal cord degradation.

This mostly comes from intense practice and training; the larynx is a muscle after all, and it requires strict conditioning to stay in shape.

An average human will kill their voice after 2 hours spent just singing along at a metal concert, while the lead singer will be able to perform the same show the following night with no issues. They practice for hours a day, continually warm their voice up and stretch out their vocal cords. Many also enlist the help of vocal coaches to ensure their technique is tight. Melissa Cross, a former opera performer and coach, has become well known for training several big-name metal vocalists in this manner, such as Phil Labonte from All That Remains, as well as releasing a popular DVD series called “The Zen of Screaming” on the art. According to her, the projection training and technique between opera and hardcore singing is comparable, and should be treated the same. Still, many bands will crumble early or change their sound due to the short lifespan of their vocalist’s ability. It’s a dangerous game.

Though styles have split and grown, screaming in music has remained tucked away in its niche, unpleasant and inaccessible to certain listeners and uniquely interesting to fans. Due to this restriction of sorts, many artists have rooted themselves deeper in their genres rather than expanding. Despite split opinions, it fills a role unrivaled by any other vocal style. Perhaps we will witness a pop-metal renaissance someday that propels screaming to new mainstream heights and challenges the form. For this to realistically happen, some inherent stylistic change would need to take place to make some of the more extreme aspects of hardcore more palatable (and marketable) to the masses, a tall task for a style generally in stark contrast with any wholesome media. That being said, newer bands such as Deafheaven have found success across genre fanbases by meshing their metal base with other musical styles and personalities such as shoegaze, making their sound more accessible and palatable to new listeners.

Yet classic screaming lives on, waiting for that day when studded leather and skull tattoos are fashionable once more.

• Matt Schuler (Environmental Science)

Fall 2017

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southern

comfort Reconciling yourself with one of America’s oldest traditions When country and western, formerly called “hillbilly” music, started its ascent into the mainstream after World War II, its listeners made up a full third of record sales across the United States. Migration north was bringing the South to wider audiences than ever before. Country and western birthed rockabilly, which evolved into the brand-new genre of rock and roll. As rock took over the pop landscape, traditional Southern sounds were carried through by champions in Southern rock and progressive and alt-country. Country music has been with us since the inception of a national pop identity. So, what happened?

Why is it so unfashionable to admit to liking country music?

Two reasons, mostly. The first is that it comes from the South, an area that has historically been portrayed as uneducated, uncultured, and altogether backwards. Country music is barely, if ever, marketed as an art form; at best, it’s marketed as an emotional connection to the South and folk traditions. It’s a kind of nostalgia that people in the urban North (read: “trendsetters”) don’t naturally access – not that they’re ever encouraged to.

The second reason is the extent to which pop country has been watered down. Diagnosing this shift is a career-long undertaking, but in theory, how could a genre with such spotty industry support survive a natural transition into the 21st century? How could country music evolve within a broader mainstream that insists on preserving its antiquity? Country music has lost its way, and as pop country tries to appeal to wider audiences, even its greatest contenders have turned their backs on it and each other.

There will always be good music in any genre, but current pop country as a whole is a zombie.

But country music itself, like rock and roll, like classical and especially like folk, will never be dead. There will always be great artists coming out of the South, an undeniable incubator of authentic American culture in music, cuisine, literature and more.

There are artists every day coming out of Nashville, Memphis, New Orleans and Atlanta who have been brought up admiring the great American traditions of the South and putting their own spin on them – without selling out. If you already love country music, pop country especially, there’s plenty out there for you. If you don’t know where to start, here are some points of entry that embrace the best of country in unique, contemporary ways that won’t cost you any cool points with your Boston colleagues.

■ Brianna Caleri (Music History and Analysis)

Check out the Spotify playlist to hear all 28 songs, plus a few extra, for 2+ hours of contemporary country recommendations: https://open.spotify.com/user/124404277/playlist/7MoUO0QchhLkv4sgQnJNdi 21

Cover Story

Pure Country

True country music is alive and well for some country artists whose passion is continuing the traditions that shaped the unique Southern culture. These artists are staying true to “real country music,” and ushering it into the 21st century with minor bells and whistles.

One of the most exciting mainstream country songs of 2016 was a total wildcard: Beyoncé’s “Daddy Lessons.” And in case country fans (or haters) overlooked this, the Dixie Chicks stepped in to assert its country standing. Less rowdy but equally ready for established country audiences is Hurray for the Riff Raff, offering up an elegant and buoyant dance in “Blue Ridge Mountain.” The whole album, Small Town Heroes, is full of lovely country Americana.

Country music draws on some of the oldest traditions in America – but popular music isn’t usually about what’s old. The Coen Brothers movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou” is widely credited with bringing back bluegrass. Two traditional songs revived by Alison Krauss on the soundtrack are “I’ll Fly Away” and “Down to the River to Pray.” More simply, Steve Martin’s “Clawhammer Medley” offers bluegrass variety in a neat little two-minute package.

These contemporary arrangements sound new, but they aren’t breaking (far) out of established styles. Crooked Still puts a rhythmically driving, contemporary edge on the traditional gospel song “Ain’t No Grave.” Or check out Rhiannon Giddens’ “Hey Bébé” for some smooth New Orleans jazz.

Giddens is the frontwoman of the African-American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, who won a Grammy in 2010 for Best Traditional Folk Album.

Classical Fusion Some classically-trained virtuosos are transitioning folk-country legacies into traditionally intellectualized art spaces. These artists are instrumental in using their classical status to demonstrate the artistic richness of Southern music to new audiences.

There’s a reason bluegrass used Pop-leaning classical fusion can bring to be called “hillbilly jazz.” On their tremendous appeal in combatting groundbreaking country-bluegrass stereotypes of an unintellectual album, Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thile, and South without alienating nonothers perform original, sometimes classical listeners. Chris Thile and dizzying compositions like the Abigail Washburn reappear here with excellent opener “Attaboy.” Béla elements of pop song structure for Fleck, another champion of the more grounded public accessibility. fusion style who often leans into “Smoothie Song,” by Thile’s band jazz, collaborates with artists like Nickel Creek, is an instrumental with his wife, Abigail Washburn, on “New a groovy chorus, and Washburn’s South Africa,” and with others on “City of Refuge” utilizes smoky an instrumental version of the jazzy vocals and a singer-songwriter feel.

Flecktones tune “Big Country.”

Fall 2017

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Movie soundtracks can be great for experimentally reviving geographic traditions. The multi-Oscar nominee “Beasts of the Southern Wild” is famous for its cinematic Cajun soundtrack. “The Bathtub” (performed by The Lost Bayou Ramblers) swirls between gentle bells, thumping rhythmic strings, and creole blues shouting.

More creole-classical comes from first-generation Haitian-American Leyla McCalla in sultry songs like “Peze Café,” a borrowed folk song.

Historicallynres Southern Ge The South gave us much more than strictly country and western; entire genres have

Probably the biggest turning point for American popular music was the development of the blues.

Valerie June is breaking out in 2017 as a singer-songwriter from Memphis fusing Appalachian, folk blues and more in infectious songs like “Workin’ Woman Blues.” Curiously, foreign bands like Iceland’s Kaleo, with “Broken Bones,” and Australia’s Mitch King, with “Southerly Change,” are embracing the Southern blues with growing success.

developed through direct contact with country through a changing 20th century. Today’s emerging artists were raised on classic rock and blues with heavy Southern influence.

Country and folk rock took over huge portions of the classic rock Chris Stapleton is an undisputed culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s – now, current country sensation – so we have artists writing in those much so that perhaps he was styles so convincingly, you wonder almost too obvious to make the cut what year you’re really listening to. on this list. But the slow, indulgent Hiss Golden Messenger channels “Tennessee Whiskey” is a timeless the Allman Brothers Band, Tom must-hear, and good news: it’s Petty, and Bob Dylan for 2016’s only two years old, and there’s a “Biloxi.” Ray LaMontagne floats lot more coming. With the help of between general Southern and Valerie June and her songs, like the country sounds, but really leans into dreamy “Astral Plane,” the two will the latter with 2010’s Cat Stevensbe nudging folk country (in all its esque “Beg Steal or Borrow.” twangy-accented glory) back into the mainstream.

Country-Leaning Indie Indie rock artists are bringing the style to unexpected places that really highlight the versatile elegance of the American country tradition. Country influence in indie music is often radically unique, and intimately tied to the subtleties of artistic identity.

Here’s an oxymoron: experimental Americana. But it works. With clean studio sounds and huge arrangements, the Barr Brothers create gorgeous country-folk journeys like “Even the Darkness Has Arms,” for fans of Fleet Foxes and The Paper Kites. For more of a post-rock fan, Ryley Walker’s “The Roundabout” contains only the slightest country flavor – but it’s there in the guitar riff, calming bass, and unhurried vocals. Country themes in both lend a mysterious sense of place.

With some of the least deliberately “country” songs of the list, these artists incorporate country elements into otherwise indie rock, so smoothly it seems almost subconscious. “Cry All Day” is a gently building anthem from Wilco’s most recent effort, Schmilco. Fruit Bats breaks out the banjo for “Humbug Mountain Song,” a darkly cheerful, stomping jam. And New Orleans guitarist Benjamin Booker breaks out with the aptly named, explosive “Violent Shiver.”

If progressive country wasn’t already what Willie Nelson played, it would be a great coinage for these spacey instrumentals – the Barr Brothers are back with “Static Orphans,” a Debussylike, half-electronic musical soundscape. And despite being a little dated for our contemporary country hunt, “Sandusky” is a meditative gift from 1992 by Uncle Tupelo that may never get old.

These songs are trance-inducing jams on a little country theme.

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EDM SUBGENRES Feature

Electronic dance music (more commonly known as EDM) emerged overseas in Europe and the U.K. before spreading to the United States. Having established itself as an incredibly lucrative sector of live music, it is typically associated with rave culture and has strong ties with heavy substance abuse. Typically, listeners have strong feelings about it one way or another, and its more recent breach into pop culture and mainstream music has made it a nearly unavoidable area. Whether you are an occasional listener, a passive observer, or a newcomer to the expansive genre that is electronic music today, it is useful to understand that EDM is a massive umbrella term that is commonly used to describe any danceheavy, beat-driven electronically made music, since not all electronic dance music is made in the same way. In fact, there are hundreds of subgenres that fall under the scope of EDM, and if you have ever been remotely exposed to the more recent sounds of the genre, it can be difficult to distinguish one subgenre from another. So, here’s a loose guide for navigating six of the main sounds in American EDM.

HOUSE Most of the more recognizable names in EDM can be categorized under some form of house music. Originating from Chicago, house music is, in a nutshell, strongly driven by a simple 4/4 beat and accentuated with electronic tones. It’s common for a track to have snare hits on the second and fourth beats with the synth, melody and other effects layered on top. Additionally, many tracks have disco influences, as the movement preceded this genre. House music also often incorporates lyrics with intro, verse and chorus sections, making them a bit more radio-friendly than some of their relatives. When you think of the pulsing “untz-untz-untz” of EDM, a lot of the time it is house music. From house comes many other variants like deep house (which has jazz-funk influences and deeper-pitched vocals), acid house, tropical house and progressive

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house. It tends to be less aggressive than some of its fellow subgenres (read: dubstep and bass) and has more of the foottapping, head nodding qualities to it.

Sounds like: Deadmau5, Daft Punk, Zedd, Deadmau5, Avicii, Diplo, Flume

TECHNO Originally traced as far back as the ‘80s, techno music is one of the oldest sounds of electronic music. Created in Detroit, techno established a base in America from which multiple other genres have risen, and more contemporary versions of the genre have a futuristic feel. More instrumental than some of its companions and often making use of repetitive synth tracks, the style has a definitive flow and often draws inspiration from funk and Afro-fusion. Its main melodies become recognizable features of the song, as they tend to occur and re-occur throughout the song.

Sounds like: Gesaffelstein, Carl Cox, Jamie XX

TRANCE/AMBIENT Trance and ambient music are technically two different categories of EDM, but both became more popular in the ‘90s and stylistically have a more laid-back nature than some of the other subgenres mentioned. In general, trance builds and breaks one repetitive beat and/or melody throughout the entirety of the song and aims to literally put the listener in a trance-like state. It is typically more melodic than other areas of EDM, and some relatives of trance include progressive trance, which tends to incorporate house and

be more upbeat, and ambient music, which is more focused on the atmospheric feeling and might not have the constant beat that is typically associated with EDM. Additionally, ambient is less oriented towards dancing and more towards just listening. Electronic music’s infamous relation to drug and substance abuse can give trance a negative connotation to an EDM newcomer, and frankly, it’s easy to see where it gets its name. With tracks sometimes lasting as long as a half hour, the seemingly hypnotic repetition could lose listeners for a while, yet still be dynamic enough to pick them back up at just the right times. Clearly there is sometimes a thin line separating one category from another --trance could transgress into more technolike sounds and then into more house sounds-- but understanding the general difference between them might you help identify which sounds you do (and don’t!) like.

Trance sounds like: Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk Ambient sounds like: Aphex Twin, The Orb

DUBSTEP Another subgenre that listeners might be familiar with is dubstep, which stands far apart from the other, more stoic categories mentioned here. Originating in the ‘90s, dubstep is a somewhat newer part of the EDM scene but has gained a lot of popularity in the U.S. Much louder to its listeners and featuring more heavilyproduced sounds, dubstep is not for the faint of heart. Unlike techno and house, which can at times be easier listening for someone not quite ready to tackle this aggressive genre, this utilizes a syncopated beat, more dramatic builds and bass drops, and often features the screeches and “wubs” that might be one of the biggest turnoffs for listeners. Dubstep even breaks off into more subgenres, such as brostep, which has a harsher, lurching Skrillex-style sound. While the production and sounds of dubstep have evolved to become increasingly in-your-face, the subgenre definitely takes on a darker tone with its use of bass than those previously mentioned, making it noticeably more distinct.

TRAP Trap is one of the newer subgenres to emerge in electronic dance music, and it can be classified by its rap and hip-hop-like inflections.

EDM in its entirety draws influence from hip-hop, but trap music especially has similar vocal qualities, beats and melodic use as rap music. Most noticeable in trap music are the use of the “808 beat,” or the Roland TR-808 drum machine that produces kick, snare and high-hat drum tones, catchy 2 – 4 bar synth melodies to fill the higher frequencies and the energized drops that are commonly found in dubstep. Alongside the hip-hop tempo, trap music also often samples or remixes already-popular songs by shifting the pitch of the vocals and adding lower dub sounds repetitively throughout the track.

Sounds like: RL Grime, Flosstradamus, Baauer, Jack U, Major Lazer

BASS / DRUM AND BASS The last major realm of electronic dance music to visit is drum and bass. Built on easily identifiable quick-tempo breakbeats and a heavy reliance on bass, this genre of music drives the heart rate up from the get-go and keeps it there. Similar to dubstep, drum and bass is heavily influenced by Jamaican dub and reggae sounds. However, a lot of bass music is also rooted in a more hardcore and punk background, giving it a more sinister sound than dub. Other categories that stem from drum and bass are moombahton and future bass, which also have slight variations on the “traditional” sound.

Sounds like: Goldie, Andy C, Dillinja, Excision • Taylor Piepenbrink (Music Industry)

Sounds like: Skrillex, Diplo, Zomboy, Excision, Borgore 25

Feature

R. Stevie Moore

The Original Home Recorder

Whether it be your favorite rapper’s newest mixtape or an indie rocker’s most recent labor of love, home recordings have become an integral part of the music scene as we know it. In the modern age, you don’t have to look far to see immensely popular projects that were recorded in a bedroom or basement: 10 Day by Chance the Rapper, Mac DeMarco’s entire discography, The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St. A project created and worked on solely by the artist in their own space can result in a piece of work that plays to their artistic strengths and lets them explore and develop a unique sound uninhibited by convention. It might seem commonplace now, but before the rise of the Internet, only a select few even dared to record outside of a studio. One of these individuals not only paved the way for future DIYers with his innovative techniques, but created a sound truly unlike any other with a discography of over 400 albums. His name is R. Stevie Moore.

His father was a renowned bassist,

Born in 1952 in Nashville, Tennessee, Robert Steven Moore started recording music at the age of seven.

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playing alongside Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and countless other Nashville stars in their heyday. Growing up surrounded by genius musicians, R. Stevie quickly mastered guitar, keyboard and percussion. He recorded anything and everything he could make using his father’s reel-to-reel acetate tape recorders. This early exposure to so much music both inspired and disappointed the young Moore. He wanted to create music in his own, off-brand kind of way. He spent his teenage years working on what would be the start of a long but mostly obscure career.

In 1976 (only a year after the release of Bob Dylan & The Band’s legendary Basement Tapes) R. Stevie Moore’s first public full-length project Phonography was released on his uncle’s startup label. Full of eccentric instrumentation and creative interludes, the album was one of the first to utilize analog pitch adjustment and looping.

To fully understand the impact that these techniques have on contemporary music, look no further than electropop and samplebased hip-hop beats.

Like many projects ahead of its time, Phonography was too experimental and niche to be picked up by a major label, which before the Internet was practically the only way to reach a wide audience. This

isolation plagued Moore until he created the “R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club” in the 1980s to help listeners discover his music.

This vast catalog of Moore’s different home recorded mixtapes, movies, and albums (which currently number in the hundreds) was neurotically organized, ranked by “listenability” and shipped by mail to the listener upon their request. The whole operation was carried out of Moore’s basement.

As time went on, Moore continued to expand his prolific discography with projects ranging from Beatles cover compilations to live EPs. Utilizing avant-garde soundscapes, idiosyncratic songwriting and a strange, demented sense of humor, it is almost impossible to predict what you will hear on one of his projects. One track could be a song that harkens back to 1960s bubblegum pop and the next could be an audio snippet from his radio show with guitar feedback howling over it. Even though he is one of music’s most unclassifiable artists, he remains a self-dubbed “pop star,” and focuses mainly on writing his own form of pop music.

By the 1990s, the mostly underground independent scene burst to the foreground with alt-rockers like Sonic Youth and

Dinosaur Jr. showcasing DIY-style recordings and garnering large mainstream followings.

The advent of the CD-ROM helped with the distribution methods of his label, and Moore’s popularity did increase, but he surprisingly stayed relatively unknown. R. Stevie’s sound delved into the new wave of home electronic and digital instruments for his projects at this point. Utilizing early drum machines and synthetic voice adjusters, Moore continued to further push his sound into uncharted territory.

By the early 2000s, the cult following that Moore had had for decades developed online forums and a common ground for avid fans to connect. Videos of his live shows and visual projects found a new audience online.

This, combined with several R. Stevie Moore compilation releases by indie labels during the resurgence of garage rock (i.e. The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, etc.), led to a huge spike in Moore’s popularity. Collaborations with modern artists like Ariel Pink, Dr. Dog, MGMT and The Vaccines further increased

Moore’s profile to one of an indie rock veteran with a sound that never became stale.

In an interview with Pitchfork, a whitehaired Moore says, “Finally things have come around, I guess I’ve paid my dues. After so many years, so many recordings… long before the Internet I was doing stuff that’s commonplace now. The joke is, I’m just getting started this late in life.” After being 40 years ahead of the curve, R. Stevie Moore is finally being recognized for inspiring and guiding music to where it is now.

• Quinton Hubbell (Engineering)

At the ripe age of 65, Moore hasn’t stopped creating new music, having released eight albums in the past five years.

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Local Photos

Lady Antebellum, PNC Bank Arts Center

Photo by Lauren Scornavacca (Industrial Engineering)

Jeff Rosenstock, Afterhours

Photo by Nola Chen (Computer Science)

Sara Evans, MPAC

Photo by Lauren Scornavacca (Industrial Engineering)

Post Malone, House of Blues

Photo by Jordon Halteman (Mechanical Engineering)

Khalid, House of Blues

Photo by Jordon Halteman (Mechanical Enginerring)

JUST A TAST E O F

Sidney Gish

By Jonas Polin (Cultural Anthropology/Theater)

How would you describe your sound?

I guess indie rock or bedroom pop. Maybe folk punk? Who

What was your favorite live performance you’ve done?

knows?

I have a bunch of favorites! Some standouts are the show with Xenia Rubinos at Great

What other musicians are you into right now?

Scott and Darwin Deez + Camino 84 at the

Ooooo I’m really getting into the Cardigans even though

Lilypad. Also, I loved playing a lot of local

they’re not active. “Lovefool” is eternally great and their

shows this year; Union Coffee in Milford, NH

other songs (from that album at least) are similarly well-

with Ultra Chapelle and Grazen was one of my

written. Other than that, Steve Lacy, Clairo, Zack Villere, and

favorites this summer.

Temporex – they’re all around my age and they produce their own music, which is awesome and really necessary for creating a style.

How would you describe where you’re from?

My town’s official motto is “where life is worth living,” just to remind us, I guess. It’s generally nice, even though there’s not much to do.

What’s your favorite thing to do on a Friday night?

Going to a show and seeing friends is always a good way to spend it.

Where can people find your music?

Look up Sidney Gish on Spotify + Apple Music https://sidneygish.bandcamp.com/!

A picture of yourselves:

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Feature

A

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f history of e i r b

60’s e h and 7 ’s through t 0

The Korean music you are probably most familiar with is K-pop.

“Gangnam Style” took the world by storm and quickly became one of the most popular videos on YouTube ever in 2012. Korea has always been a deeply musical culture. One of its most unique genres was that of its rock and roll music scene.

Gangsan” (“Beautiful Rivers and Mountains”). After refusing to praise the president, Shin’s career suffered from police harassment and government interference, and some of his songs were banned. He was arrested on drug charges, and after his release he was banned from public performance for years.

Korean Rock got its roots in an unlikely place: the Korean War. Musicians across Korea took jobs as performers in United States Army camps after the conflict had ended and the U.S. occupation of South Korea began. At these camps, performers would play for American soldiers their own renditions of classic American hits as well as their own inventions heavily inspired by Rock music of the United States. One of the first of these performers was Shin Junghyeon, known by his stage name “Jackie Shin.”

Many Korean rock stars had their start during the Korean War. Han Dae-soo was an army camp performer as well. He released his first album, Long-long Road, in 1974, which many critics said drew influences from John Lennon, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan. He released his second album in 1975 which, although not overtly antigovernment, drew attention from the Park Chung-Hee government, which banned his first two albums. Han Dae-soo then moved to New York City in self-exile. However, in his absence, “Give Me Some Water” and “The Nation of Happiness,” songs from his first two albums, became youth anthems.

Shin was known for his psychedelic style and was often compared to Jimi Hendrix. He played electric guitar and sang rock interpretations of traditional Korean music as well as covers of American standards such as “Honky Tonk Part 1” and “Green Onions.”

In playing these Army camps, Shin developed quite a name for himself and even attracted the interest of American record labels and he recorded his first album in 1959. Containing a similar collection of music that made him popular among the U.S. army camps, Shin’s recording’s performance was not notable, however, he did gain mainstream success in 1968, when he produced the hit album Nima for the high school group The Pearl Sisters.

All throughout the ‘70s, the government of South Korea continued to crack down on rock and roll musicians, usually either for being critical of the state or for being associated with marijuana, a drug whose use was a crime punishable by severe jail time. Many South Korean citizens even viewed it as a waste of time, distracting from much-needed industry development. During the worst of the crackdown, police even went as far as to jail bands, confiscate musical instruments and interrogate band members about the whereabouts of other bands. By this time, Jackie Shin had returned to his public spotlight, but musical tastes in South Korea had begun to shift.

KOREAN ROCK WAS AN ESCAPE FROM THE ORDINARY. As the mid-‘80s approached, Korean Rock became dominated

As Shin’s music and style rose in popularity he started his own band, Add 4, which was the first Korean Rock band. At the time most Korean clubs only played “trot,” a kind of faux-polka music similar to what you would hear on “The Ed Sullivan Show” pre-Beatles. Shin believed that Korean Rock was born at US army bases because of this fact.

Those military bases were a new platform for music to be created, unaffected by what was culturally popular among Koreans at the time.

by heavy metal as the popular music scene began to focus more on dance music. This shift led to the fall of Korean Rock as music clubs were once again repurposed for a new genre of music. As the cultural lens began to shift away from Rock n’ Roll the genre’s original hero, Jackie Shin also began to retire. During the 1980s, Jackie Shin became a club owner himself and today, Korea’s godfather of rock is the first Asian musician and the sixth in the world to receive his own Fender Custom Shop Tribute Guitar.

During this time, notorious South Korean presidential dictator Park Chung-hee was in power, and there were a number of military conflicts against American and South Korean forces in the DMZ. Korean Rock was an escape from the ordinary. Just like for America, it was a way to forget about the terrors of the 20th century and, uniquely for South Korea, it was a vehicle for forgetting the terror to the North.

Despite its short popular life, Korean rock is a unique and interesting genre that bears a large number of similarities to its American counterpart. Its twists and innovations on many musical ideas first pioneered here in the United States is delightful to listen to and remains fresh to this day. Next time you open Spotify to listen to The Doors, Jimi Hendrix or Bob Dylan, maybe hit the ol’ shuffle button on Jackie Shin instead; you won’t be disappointed.

In 1972, Shin was asked by the president of South Korea, Park Chung-Hee, to write a song in praise of him. Shin refused and instead wrote a song about the beauty of Korea called, “Ahreumdaeun

• Spencer Bateman (Computer Science/Music)

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an interview with Editorial Interview

JEFF ROSENSTOCK

After their set at this year’s iteration of Tastemakers Presents, Features Editor Chris Miller sat down with Jeff Rosenstock to talk about how he’s kept himself busy in the wake of his critically acclaimed album “WORRY.” TMM: When you guys played Pitchfork Festival this summer, it got a lot of buzz.

I was interested in terms of what made you decide to do it as a DIY punk band. Also, you mentioned onstage about how much you were paid and someone getting fired for inviting your band.

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JR: (laughter) Nobody got fired for it. That was a damn joke that we said before the set, and I stole it. Then I said, “I’m sorry I stole your joke” and he said, “Nah man its cool, I’m glad somebody said it.” I just said the thing about making $7500 because I felt like

I was trying to say, this isn’t true because I know a lot of bands have a punk heart and stuff, but I felt like we were the mostly outwardly punk band of that festival and I know that we all came from DIY backgrounds and house shows and shit like that, zines and political stuff, and doing all kinds of shit and anti-capitalist stuff, and I think we’re more on that bend than a lot of the bands at Pitchfork.

We could be wrong, but I felt like we could be a band to speak to a lot of people and say some shit.

TMM: The Hotelier played [Pitchfork] the year before. I felt as if it was a signal for some bands like you.

JR: Cymbals Eat Guitar played [Pitchfork] and they’re f***ing awesome. Basically, we were the only band that was going to say some sort of hella anti-capitalist shit on stage.

I started saying stuff and I felt like I sounded

dumb, that I was an idiot and everything I said was stupid. As in, “We got paid $7500 to play this, who am I kidding?” I was full of shit. At that moment I needed to let everybody know how full of shit I was. It was in the moment, and I looked over at our tour manager and the booking agent and the one friend of ours that works at Pitchfork and they were all just shaking their heads, and Mitski’s drummer was like “Yeah!”

TMM: Did it feel like a one-off thing to you, as a reason to say stuff like that?

JR: I don’t know, what do you mean a one-off, as in not being asked to come back?

TMM: Maybe that you think that doing festivals is so sporadic for you, it was ok to take the opportunity?

JR: I feel like whenever you’re speaking to a lot of people, I don’t know, I kinda wanted to

or cut out this thing.” For Throw Me into the River there is a lot of structural stuff where we

say something that will hopefully, especially at a festival, undo the effects of all of the bombardment of advertising at the festival.

Then again, when we’re playing, it’s an advertisement for our band and we’re getting paid to be there, so it’s like we’re willing. We’re part of it, so I think that’s kinda why i said it.

I was just like, “I’m full of shit.” I don’t know, I think we don’t have the chance to do that a lot so take whatever opportunity you can.

It seems like we play to more people now than we have before and it’s a bit different now.

I remember the first time we played a festival and tried to say important stuff about like, “Hey everybody here treat each other well”.

It stems from that. When you’re speaking to thousands and thousands of people, say something. But like I said, I feel like I am very hit or miss whether good words are going to actually come out.

talked about and [More Scared of You than You Are of Me] was just like layers and stuff like that which is what I think they wanted me to do. I did some of it but for this one, Wil[Wagner] just had a lot of really out there ideas and I was trying to go down the well with him, you know what I mean. [If] we don’t like anything we throw it out, and we ended up liking most of the stuff. Also, just trying to get good energy out of people. I think most of what I do, or the only thing that I might even be good at, is being able to work with singers.

When I’m recording I know my voice is very frustrating, and I can understand that it’s very frustrating so it’s like try to be comforting and make it feel fun and easy and let people know that they can do it, put together the most energetic stuff and then be like, “Hey! See you did a good job,” because every singer is a f***ing head case, myself included. You get really inside your head when you’re singing, unless you’re really good at it. I think Laura and Wil are pretty good at it, and everybody gets in their head.

TMM: Looking at the Smith Street Band, you’ve produced their last two albums for them. I was wondering, you have a relationship with Jack Shirley, when did you transition from recording with him to being sort of a middle man for him?

TMM: You’re playing WORRY. fully through the last shows. How does it feel to close it out?

stuff, but I wonder when bands do 10 year anniversary tours, and I’ve seen 10 year anniversary tours and they’re f***ing sick.

I saw The Hold Steady do Boys and Girls of America, and it was awesome. I saw the AJJ thing, which was really good. But I feel like for me, I’m always in the mindset of what I’m doing at the time. I thought this is a record that people liked, and then instead of doing a 10 year anniversary thing, let’s do it now when we’re f***ing in it. Not when we have to relearn it, but when we’re already in it.

We’ve kind of grown with it and everybody’s been around for a while. Not as a retro thing but more of a celebration thing.

TMM: Especially with the medley at the end I think it’s good to be tight performance wise.

JR: Yeah, we’ve done the medley stuff the bunch. The first half of the record is fun, we did it at a show in Australia and it was like, “Ok, we can do this. Why don’t we do this?” and the first half of the record finished and I had to stop and switch guitars a lot, you know all of the little things you find out.

Thrilling stuff that I’m sure the readers of Tastemakers are excited to hear about.

• Chris Miller (Accounting)

JR: He’s super good. Whenever anybody asks me, at some point that’s my job as a producer when somebody says, “I don’t know who to get to mix this,” I say, “Just get Jack to mix it, Jack is the best!” Jack mixed the Dan Adriano album and we kind of worked together on that. I was like, “Oh cool this is sick.” Then he did the Laura Stevenson record, and [The Smith Street Band] was asking me about stuff for their next record. [They] were like, “What would you do?” and in my dream world I would have Jack record it, I would have John Agnello mix it, and I would have Greg Calbi master it.

And they were like “OK we’ll get that.”

JR: It felt cool to be like, “Hey we can do this.

Let’s do this kind of thing”. I’ll let you know how it feels. I can tell you while this record was happening a lot of things happened for us. In a decade plus of us being in our previous bands we’ve never felt this kind of response, so it kind of felt like, not to throw shade or anything because I know these things make a lot of people happy and

TMM: Do you think the other thing is that you’ve arranged in your former bands, that’s kind of what you would say is the main thing you’ve done as a producer, that you help tighten the sound?

JR: There are lot of intangible things to me because I think that for bands, if you don’t have good songs then it’s not going to work, or if you don’t know your songs then it’s not going to work. I’ve been lucky enough that everybody I’ve worked with has a really, really f***ing good batch of songs, so we’re like sometimes it’s just, “Ehhh maybe this part can feel more energetic or this kind of beat 37

Album Reviews Lil Uzi Vert

10

Luv is Rage 2 Release Date August 25 Label Atlantic Genre Indie Pop Tasty Tracks “XO TOUR Llif3”, “Early 20

9

Tasty

8

Rager”, “Feelings Mutual” Reviews

7 Rappers have always claimed to be otherworldly, but something about Lil Uzi Vert feels truly extraterrestrial. In interviews, he circles around questions behind expensive frames, channeling a kind of 70s David Bowie vibe as he sits still despite his tendency to bounce off the stage. In his music, he rapidly raps over harpsichords before delivering genuine malaise on lines as emo as “Push me to the edge / All my friends are dead.” On his Atlantic Records debut, Luv Is Rage 2, Uzi demonstrates that this isn’t his first merry-go-round, ditching his get-the-girl narrative to provide a matured, all-encompassing presentation of his divine talents.

Categorizing Uzi as simply a rapper feels like a disservice. His wails on “Feelings Mutual” channel Deftones’s Chino Moreno and Morrissey, and his motivational rap-singing on songs like “The Way Life Goes” are more in line with Hayley Williams than the rest of hiphop. On album opener, “Two,” the beat flows in and out, dancing around commencing accordions reminiscent of Lil Uzi Vert vs. the World’s “P’s & Q’s”. Uzi’s voice, coated in echo and reverb effects, boasts about having “the money and the power,” a hook truly astounding in a genre that began with Melle Mel’s “It’s like a jungle sometimes / It makes me wonder how I keep from going under.”

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Since his Soundcloud days, Uzi has had a knack for choosing impeccable beats; sometimes they drop out entirely to feature his singing voice, or slow down and drag his voice along for ultimate deprave effect, or alternate on each beat between being louder or quieter than his vocals. He inspires success to the tune of an electronic keyboard on “444+222,” then efficiently slides into his emo persona in “Feelings Mutual” where he boasts the only thing he can feel is “the pain in the rain.” “X,” produced by Metro Boomin

6 5 4 3 2 1

and Pi’erre Bourne, begins with an onslaught of screeching producer tags and reversed voice effects before Uzi brightly arises in his version of 21 Savage’s “X”. Another highlight is “How To Talk,” the track closest to his famous “Money Longer” sound that rewardingly splatters a variety of Barter 6 samples throughout.

On Luv is Rage 2’s bright centerpiece, Uzi ditches the steely attitude for the colorful “Neon Guts” with a rare rapping Pharrell.

Glockenspiels, keyboards, and shimmering hihats provide background to Uzi and Pharrell trading success stories. Opposed to the retrospection Uzi offers on past relationships in other songs, Uzi reflects fully on himself here, with references to his middle school days and his desperate beginnings. He battle raps with a smile, “I had to push like a pedal start / Started way after but ahead of y’all / New crib, got a better yard / Two years, I got hella cars”. In the two years since his first Soundcloud uploads, he was featured on the annual XXL Freshman list and solo peaked at no. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 for his magnum opus “XO Tour Llif3”. He succeeds at his own

frenetic and off-kilter tempo, generating our generation’s singalongs and crafting dreamy worlds surrounded by diamonds and Off-White everything. Uzi’s cosmic journeys inspire more than hip-hop’s typical true locus, the flesh-and-blood, asphalt-and-concrete street, and his melancholy rage is arguably the most rebellious uprising since gangsta rap infiltrated the pop charts. With an onstage presence so far away from his place of origin and an aesthetic so divorced from the hiphop’s classic constraints, neon guts may be the best hypothesis we can get for Uzi’s ethereal being.

Anu Gulati (Computer Science)

10 9 8

Fresh

7 6 5 4 3 2 1

LCD Soundsystem American Dream Release Date February 24 Label Brainfeeder Records Genre Funk, Jazz Tasty Tracks “Oh Baby,” “Call the Police,” “American Dream” Back from the dead and to the delight of indie nerds the world over, LCD Soundsystem has come out with their fourth full-length studio album, American Dream. More than half a decade after James Murphy ended his cult project in spectacular fashion, American Dream is proving to be a very good album – one that exchanges the brighter optimism of This Is Happening for a more pensive and fuzzy sound. The tracks feel unified by a good lyrics and consistent, unique instrumentation. Some songs beautifully create this previously unexplored sound for LCD, but others fall a little flat. The album is enjoyable, but for a band with an otherwise perfect discography, “enjoyable” just comes up a little short.

The opening track “oh baby,” one of the best on the album, mixes a longing melody with some heavy bass and a soaring vocal arc, creating the kind of sound that LCD Soundsystem really does pull off like no other band. After six years it feels like LCD Soundsystem is reintroducing themselves by sweeping up cobwebs, instead of blowing out your speakers.

The album continues with tracks like “i used to” and “how do you sleep,” whose repetitive structure follows a lot of what LCD Soundsystem has done in the past, but in a dark and soaring sonic space. “how do you sleep” features gritty synth-bass jabs and a vocal arc similar to “All I Want,” from their previous album. But where “All I

Want” felt exciting, “how do you sleep” feels ominous. Those tracks are good, but become forgettable after a few listens – they just lack the punch that the bands similar earlier work had in spades.

The album continues to the three singles “tonite,” “call the police” and “american dream.” These three tracks feel like complete LCD Soundsystem, fitting into the broader aesthetic of the album. “tonite” features all of James Murphy’s patented cynical observations about generic pop music – “And all the hits are saying the same thing/ There’s only tonight, tonight, tonight…”

– with self deprecating examination – “Oh I’m a reminder/ The hobbled veteran of the disk shop inquisition…With my own late era of middle aged ramblings” – set against a danceable synth. “call the police” sounds like a callback to 80s pop with bright synths, sweeping guitar, and a chugging bass line.

On top of the tight backing, however, is a somewhat lackluster vocal track, a time when the wooly aesthetic of the album feels unnecessary and ultimately worse than previous, tighter iterations of the band’s sound.

This is not to hark on the albums sound as a whole, because sometimes they really do nail it. “american dream” is a dreamy, synth laden ballad, which along with tracks like “oh baby” and “black screen,” embodies the sadder, heavier tone that is this albums distinctive contribution to LCD Soundsytem’s discography. It’s those tracks that show James Murphy is still capable of doing new and interesting things, maybe going so far as to push the genre of music in which he plays around in new directions like he used to do.

But again, there is the other hand, where songs like “other voices” and “emotional haircut” feel like they could have been unused alternate takes of their previous song “one touch.” They don’t particularly add much to the album, or the band’s work as a whole.

Sometimes American Dream plays like the thoughtful addition to a remarkable body of work, brought about after years of incubation. Other times it feels like a soundtrack or set of B-sides released to tide fans over until the real comeback album comes out. LCD Soundsystem is back, and they’ve brought some solid “middle-of-theset” jams. Maybe their next project will blow everyone out of the water. In the meantime, personally, I’m just glad they’re back.

Jonathan Vayness (Psychology/ Economics)

10 9 8 7 6

Edible

5 4 3 2 1

Lights Skin&Earth Release Date September 22 Label Warner Bros. Records Genre Pop Tasty Tracks “Skydiving,” “New Fears,” “Magnetic Field” Lights, aka Valarie Poxleitner, has a habit of releasing albums that I initially dismiss, until she releases an acoustic companion LP that I love, causing me to go back to the original and listen with newfound appreciation and adoration.

Abrasive songs like “Flux and Flow” and the more timid “Suspension” (from 2011’s Siberia) were lost on me until their acoustic counterparts showed me how dynamic and layered the originals were, and subsequently had me hooked. Similarly, the far more subtle and ambient versions of “Head Cold” and “Running with the Boys” (from 2014’s Little Machines) showed me the true emotion and depth of the original tunes, which I initially found boring and generic. With Skin&Earth, Lights’ fourth full-length album, this pattern repeats itself yet again, but unfortunately an acoustic version has yet to be released, currently leaving me with a lukewarm feeling.

While Skin&Earth is Poxleitner at her catchiest, most focused, and most polished, I can’t shake the feeling that the album is a great step forward and two steps back, and can’t possibly compare to previous effort Siberia, despite its grander ambition in scope and storytelling.

Skin&Earth is a concept album written in conjunction with a six-issue comic series

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of the same name, written and illustrated

by Poxleitner herself. So far, three of the six issues have been published. While the LP technically skips ahead to the end of the story, it by no means spoils the narrative, and is a truly impressive multimedia effort.

So there’s no debate that Lights’ newest venture is her largest in scope yet. However, for all the creativity on display here, I can’t help but find Skin&Earth a bit generic. Had I not known about the comic series, I might not have realized that the LP was a concept album, as it is lyrically quite similar to all her previous work. More so, the backbeats on most songs here are nothing new, the most egregious example being the island beat on “Until the Light,” which seems to be contractually obligated on pop records nowadays. Similar points can be made about “Morphine,” “We Were Here,” and “Fight Club,” which largely bleed together. Even “Magnetic Field,” spiritually akin to Midnight Machines’ excellent closer “Don’t Go Home Without Me,” is nothing we haven’t heard from Lights before.

Like Siberia, Skin&Earth manages to feel raw, gritty, and emotional while presented in a glossy and pristine package. “Skydiving,” “Moonshine,” and “Giants” are the best examples, as you can hear the intense depth and rawness of Lights’ beautifully highpitched voice over a radio-ready electropop track that’s been polished to a mirror shine.

Pseudo-rock tune “Savage” could also be added into the mix here, as it is probably the most obvious example, but something about this track seems off. Lights is to be applauded for trying something new here by introducing to her catalog some heavy guitar riffs and belting like we’ve never heard from her, but catchy as the song is, Lights’ sultry vocals simply don’t suit this format.

Despite its imperfections, I can’t call Skin&Earth a “bad” album. Sure, it may be uncharacteristically standard, but that hasn’t stopped me from singing along to standouts like “New Fears” all week. Derivative but infectious, Skin&Bones ends up being perfectly average. Then again, that could all change for the better once the acoustic version comes out.

Jason Levy (Marketing)

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10

Terror Jr. Bop 3: The Girl Who Cried Purple

9 Fresh

7 6

Release Date September 29 Label EFFESS/Atlantic Records Genre Pop Tasty Tracks “Back Baby,” “IDK + IDC,” “Useless” Terror Jr has distilled the art of musical evolution. The variety and growth illustrated in the Bop City trilogy is reminiscent of the type of changes a typical pop artist might make over the course of a decade. Somehow, Lisa’s crew has managed to concentrate this divergent trait, separating the one-hitwonders from the lasting influencers, into the span of a singular year of releases. Bop 3: The Girl Who Cried Purple advances into a domain unexplored by the group, filled with brazen emotions and vocal dexterity, while staying true to Terror’s signature tonguein-cheek humor, societal commentary, and above all else, catchy melodies.

The production of Bop 3 is notably different from its predecessors. No more is the group’s sterile production and minimalistic soundscapes. Though its remnants still exist in tracks like “Holding Your Tongue”, it is no longer the focus.

Rhythmically jagged drums, vocal chops galore, and sparing use of reverb has been traded out for cinematic percussion, lush pads, and a more traditionally ‘full’ mix.

This is all accentuated by the evolution of Lisa’s vocals. Just as Terror Jr forfeited their anonymity with Bop 3’s album art, Lisa’s vocals have broken out of their shell. Restrained, haunting whispers have transformed into heart-wrenching cries; even the slight vocal flare demonstrated at the end of album opener, “Lifeline,” is enough to make an acclimated Terror Jr. fan double take.

With new production and performance comes a new take on messaging. Bop 3 completes a development of identity and self-fulfillment for the group. What vague whispers of love and heartbreak were to Bop City and what shameful, hesitant acceptances of love and self were to Bop City 2: TerroRising, unyielding declarations of existence are to The Girl Who Cried Purple.

The simple “I’m feeling good” hook on “Back Baby” comes as a shock: there are no strings

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attached, it is no longer conditional or negotiable, and that in itself is a feat. Alone, Bop 3 explores a plot filled with heartbreaks, love, and hedonism in the typically murky and bewildering style on which Terror Jr has been able to capitalize. This story becomes a lot more interesting when viewed macroscopically with the previous two albums. If Lorde’s Pure Heroine was the quintessential record for teenagers, then the Bop City trilogy is an analogous, slightly lesspolished summation of the following stage of life: a mix of impulse, apathy, lust, and a general sense that what one is doing isn’t what one should be.

For a group that was born from an identity crisis, Terror Jr has managed to explore the intricacies of youth somewhat remarkably. Bop 3 offers listeners not only a surprisingly profound assessment of this experience, but also a logical step in the band’s evolution. It offers an impressive tracklist of earworms with bizarre and crude lyrics that manage to burrow inside your head, which is the very essence of the success of this pop-terror trio.

Nikolas Greenwald

CRAZY WHAT YOU COULD HAVE HAD A N R . E .M. DISCOGR APHY

R.E.M. changed music. A hyperbolic statement, sure, but the lovable lads from Athens, Ga. are among the precious few bands for whom the claim rings true. As underground pioneers, they were to the ‘80s what The Velvet Underground and Ramones were to the ‘60s and ‘70s, developing an entirely new aesthetic that would inspire and influence generations of musicians.

While their records helped define the sound of indie rock, their tireless DIY touring and graceful balancing of steady growth and artistic integrity made them role models for a nascent alternative culture. And that’s before they gate-crashed the pop charts and briefly became one of the biggest bands in the world.

Their tireless DIY touring and graceful balancing of steady growth and artistic integrity made them role models for a nascent alternative culture.

Yet when the great American rock bands are listed, R.E.M.’s name rarely comes up. People too young to witness R.E.M. in their prime seem to know them primarily from their biggest hits (some borderline novelty songs, most unrepresentative of R.E.M.’s catalog, all overplayed), while others acknowledge their importance without actually listening to them much. It doesn’t help that they released 15 albums over 30 years, an imposing bounty with few obvious entry points. Hopefully, this chronological breakdown can serve as a sort of user’s guide to R.E.M. Ready to dive in?

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R.E.M.’s first single, released in 1981, was “Radio Free Europe.” That’s right- the very first time they stepped into a studio, a mere year after first forming, they emerged with one of their most iconic songs. All the core elements of R.E.M. are here: Peter Buck’s ringing, pointillist arpeggios, Bill Berry’s simple, energetic drumming, Mike Mills’ busy, melodic basslines, and of course Michael Stipe, lyrically opaque yet fully selfpossessed, singing that enigmatic chorus like a generational call to arms. In a way, by inviting listeners to discern their own meaning, that’s precisely what it became.

After testing the waters with 1982’s Chronic Town EP, R.E.M. properly introduced themselves with their 1983 debut album Murmur. The record starts with “Radio Free Europe,” and every track that follows inhabits

a different corner of the strange, wonderful universe that song first revealed. There is an energy here that R.E.M. would never quite capture again: the energy of four young people in love with the majesty and mystery of life, reveling in their ability to make art of the feelings they could never put into words.

Like many of their ‘80s indie rock peers, R.E.M. had a Beatlesque obsession with prolificacy and progress, pushing their sound forward with new albums every year. 1984’s Reckoning largely follows Murmur’s example, but sees the group emerge from their waking dream to interact with the outside world.

The band’s attempts to replicate their live show yield a bolder, more tangible product, while Stipe takes his first tentative steps to proper enunciation- you can even tell what some songs are about! The most rewarding

moments come when R.E.M. deviates from their jangle-pop formula, as on the country homage “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” or the shimmering psychedelia of “Time After Time (AnnElise).”

1985’s Fables of the Reconstruction presented a new kind of Southern rock, one more indebted to Flannery O’Connor than Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s here that Stipe stopped mumbling cryptically, though his tales of peculiar outsiders and regional arcana only bolstered his reputation for unknowable eccentricity. The way Buck turns his formerly ebullient arpeggios into harbingers of foreboding on “Driver 8” is indicative of the mood here: dark, exhausted, and desperate for change. Sounding like the Smiths record Boo Radley never made, Fables was tailormade for its eventual cult status.

The Quiet Revolution 1981 - 1985

MURMUR

RECKONING

FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION

LIFES RICH PAGEANT

DOCUMENT

The Raising of Voices 1986 - 1990

With 1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M. broke out of their funk with newfound purpose and ambition. Just as Murmur begat Reckoning and Fables, Pageant’s clean production, sociopolitical lyrics and rousing choruses set the course for 1987’s Document and 1988’s Green. Over the thick power chords and forceful drumming of “These Days,” Stipe declares the new R.E.M. ethos: “We are young despite the years/ We are concerned/We are hope despite the times.” Even as arena stardom beckoned, R.E.M. never abandoned their fundamental weirdness, leavening environmentalist paeans

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with detours like the gnarly instrumental “Underneath the Bunker” and “Swan Swan H,” whose antiquarian folk basically invented The Decemberists.

Document marked R.E.M.’s official entry into the mainstream, as radio, against all odds, embraced the deceptively unsettling “The One I Love” and the word-drunk, fatalist “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” As the group’s star rose, their political rhetoric heightened, with “Welcome to the Occupation” critiquing imperialism and “Exhuming McCarthy” comparing Reaganism to the Red Scare.

“We are young despite the years/ We are concerned/We are hope despite the times.”

While Document, like Pageant, is steeped in anthemic rock ‘n’ roll, the dulcimer on “King of Birds” and saxophone on “Fireplace” show R.E.M. itching to move past such limitations.

After the topical sternness of Document, Green, R.E.M.’s major label debut, reasserts the value of silliness (“Get Up,” “Stand”) and prettiness (“You Are the Everything”), while still indulging in plenty of topical sternness (“World Leader Pretend,” “Orange Crush”). The band members switched instruments throughout Green to avoid creative stagnation, with Buck’s new crush on the mandolin, as heard on “Hairshirt” and “You are the Everything,” facilitating some of Stipe’s most nakedly emotional performances yet.

Seemingly disinterested in being a rock band, R.E.M. makes pastoral beauty the top priority, filling “Half a World Away” and “Texarkana” to the brim with lush sweetness.

Burned out after a whirlwind decade, R.E.M. took some time off, hunkered down in the studio with some string players, and returned in 1991 with the album that would make them superstars. Yes, Out of Time is the one with “Losing My Religion,” and that timeless, elliptical song proved that at their most inscrutable, Stipe’s lyrics were a puzzle that listeners never tired of pondering (it’s also the one with “Shiny Happy People,” which isn’t that bad). Seemingly disinterested in being a rock band, R.E.M. makes pastoral

beauty the top priority, filling “Half a World Away” and “Texarkana” to the brim with lush sweetness. The biggest marvel is “Country Feedback,” on which Stipe evokes his hero Patti Smith with an impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness elegy to lost love as the pedal steel swoons and Buck’s guitar shudders and decays. By the time Stipe’s howling “It’s crazy what you could have had,” over and over, as if it’s the only thing keeping him alive, you understand why this is his (and my) favorite R.E.M. song.

1992’s Automatic for the People is R.E.M.’s most well-loved album. It’s a slow, elegiac record which somehow produced multiple hits, a testament to the eternal relevance of the themes Stipe addresses so eloquently here. Just as gorgeous as “Man on the Moon,” “Nightswimming,” and the unfairly maligned “Everybody Hurts” are album cuts like the achingly compassionate “Try Not to Breathe” and the haunted, brooding “Monty Got a Raw Deal.”

The Imperial Phase 1991 - 1993

GREEN

OUT OF TIME

AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE

ADVENTURES IN HI-FI

MONSTER

The Unknown Frequency 1993 - 1996

Just as U2 had done with Achtung Baby, R.E.M. consciously sought to shake their veneer of respectability on 1994’s Monster. While the album was pitched as R.E.M.’s return to rock, it’s an odd sort of rock, one Frankenstein-ed together from reference points (glam, shoegaze) the band had never referenced before. It’s a fun, frequently underrated record, caked with layers of sleaze and ironic distance but hiding some real heartbreakers (the nostalgic piano ballad “Tongue,” the harrowing Kurt Cobain tribute “Let Me In”) among the fuzzy guitars.

R.E.M. wrote the majority of 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi while on the Monster tour, and it’s an excellent road record: sprawling, loose and spacious. They pilfer expertly from their past, combining Monster’s swagger with Lifes Rich Pageant’s invigorating clarity on “The Wake-Up Bomb” and getting a transcendent Patti Smith vocal for “Country

Feedback” sequel “E-Bow the Letter.” The album ends with the understated lullaby “Electrolite,” and Stipe’s final declaration that “I’m not scared/I’m outta here” would have been a perfect epitaph for a brilliant career.

Instead, it was merely a farewell to Bill Berry, who left the group the next year.

Stipe’s final declaration that “I’m not scared/ I’m outta here” would have been a perfect epitaph for a brilliant career. Instead, it was merely a farewell to Bill Berry, who left the group the next year.

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It’s at this point that most people stop following R.E.M. That’s a shame, as 1998’s Up, which uses Berry’s departure as an excuse to futz around with electronic instrumentation, is a unique, quietly charming record. Admittedly, it’s uneven and too long, and the best song, Pet Sounds pastiche “At My Most Beautiful,” sounds nothing like the rest of the album. However, the diverse,

minimalist arrangements make playing Up on headphones a real treat, and the heartfelt melodies of “Daysleeper” and “Falls to Climb” are among the best Stipe has ever sung.

The early 2000s were not kind to R.E.M. 2001’s Reveal was hailed as a return to form, but there exists no fainter praise than calling

a legacy artist’s latest album a return to form.

It’s pretty, but the halfhearted grafting of electronic gurgles onto sleepy, Automaticlite songwriting marked the first time R.E.M. didn’t even try to break new ground. The nadir of R.E.M.’s discography, 2004’s Around the Sun, is somehow even sleepier than

The diverse, minimalist arrangements make playing Up on headphones a real treat, and the heartfelt melodies of "Daysleeper" and "Falls to Climb" are among the best Stipe has ever sung.

The Three Legged Dog 1997 - 2006

AROUND THE SUN

REVEAL

COLLAPSE INTO NOW

ACCELERATE

The Final Sprint 2007 - 2011

Realizing just how much goodwill their last few records had burned, R.E.M. snapped out of it with 2008’s Accelerate, finally delivering the quick-and-dirty rock album Monster wasn’t. It’s by far their best album of the 2000s, even if the whole back-to-basics angle felt more like fan service than genuine

inspiration. Still, only a killjoy could deny the zippy riffing of “Man-Sized Wreath” and “Horse to Water.”

In March 2011, R.E.M. released Collapse into Now, a very good record which, like New Adventures in Hi-Fi, balanced the band’s tender and rambunctious sides while showcasing everything they did well. Six months later, they broke up amicably, refusing to cash in with a farewell tour in a final show of stubborn integrity. Since then, Peter Buck has made

[Monster] is by far their best album of the 2000s, even if the whole back-to-basics angle felt more like fan service than genuine inspiration.

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lots of music, Mike Mills has made a little, and Bill Berry, content to work on his Georgia hay farm, has made none. Michael Stipe has grown an impressive beard, appears in public just enough to avoid being labelled a recluse, and steadfastly refutes any possibility of an R.E.M. reunion. While it’s probably for the best that they join ‘80s art-rock peers Talking Heads and The Smiths as the last deniers of nostalgia’s pull, part of me can’t help but wish they’d tour just one more time, if only to remind us exactly how much brilliance and beauty we’ve been taking for granted.

• Terence Cawley (Biology)

Defining the Bizness:

Biz Markie and the Case that Defined Sampling 45

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Breaking out in an era where hip-hop was dominated by harder street-based and identity-focused rap groups, such as N.W.A. and Public Enemy, Biz Markie’s work served as a clever juxtaposition to the aggressive sound that dominated hip-hop at the time. His most famous single, “Just a Friend,” documents a simple man trying to catch the attention of a pretty lady, who was simply stringing him along for kicks. “Just a Friend” was not a novelty single for Markie, despite standing out as such amongst hip-hop enthusiasts in 1989.

Markie’s follow-up singles to his lone hit were as goofy and off-kilter as the one that brought the spotlight to his work. The “Clown Prince of Hip-Hop” carved out a niche for himself in popular rap as a genuine foil to the tawdry hits of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. His breakout record, 1989’s The Biz Never Sleeps features him in a cartoon-style over-the-top laboratory, mixing strange colored liquids in a lab coat and an oversized wig. Biz Markie’s success opened a space for artists like Sir Mix-a-Lot to fill in coming years, as part of a contingency of pop hits that painted hip-hop in a lighter manner than the harder genredefining albums of the previous decade.

Immature antics aside, the direction of hip-hop and sampling moving forward would be influenced heavily by the actions of Biz Markie through the 1991 federal court case “Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc.,” which would become one of the most cited cases when examining copyright violations involving sampling.

On “Alone Again,” the closing track of his 1991 album I Need a Haircut, the usage of a ten second loop of the song “Alone Again (Naturally),” originally recorded by folk singer Gilbert O’Sullivan in 1972, prompted an injunction against Warner Bros. Records and Biz Markie. According to court transcripts, a copy of the master cut of the song was sent to O’Sullivan and his representatives, but after no response from the original songwriter the album was published anyway, featuring the sample of O’Sullivan’s 1972 single.

Sampling was by no means a new feature of popular music in 1991, which makes the reasoning behind why Markie’s case would become a quintessential part of the legal evolution of sampling a bit puzzling.

What made Biz substantially different to the point where he was hauled into court, unlike his predecessors? Pop success was not a factor in this, as other famous sampling cases, such as Vanilla Ice’s Grammy-winning single “Ice Ice Baby” climbed to the top of the charts in 1990, as well as MC Hammer’s hit single “U Can’t Touch This” in the very same year. Beyond the pop charts, hip-hop producers had been regularly sampling loops and drum beats through vinyl manipulation for nearly a decade at this point. 1991 was ten years past the prime of artists such as Grandmaster Flash and the popularization of rhythmic staples such as the Apache Break and the Amen Break that would set the foundation for the growth of hip-hop through the 1980s.

Warner Bros. and Biz Markie had very few legs to stand on in the courtroom. The Copyright Act of 1976 had plenty of case law surrounding it at this point, and the defense claiming that the practice was commonplace would not hold up in front of a judge. To quote the opinion of the presiding judge, Kevin Duffy: “Thou shalt not steal” has been an admonition followed since the dawn of civilization.

Unfortunately, in the modern world of business this admonition is not always followed. Indeed, the defendants in this action for copyright infringement would have this court believe that stealing is rampant in the music business and, for that reason, their conduct here should be excused.” Very little could be done to defend the usage of Gilbert O’Sullivan’s track.

The court came down hard against Warner Bros. and Biz Markie.

O’Sullivan’s representatives forced a recall of all copies of I Need a Haircut and for the sampled track to be wiped from the album. The album was then reissued without its closing track, but any attempt to capitalize on the momentum of “Just a Friend” had been completely squandered. I Need a Haircut would go on to peak at #113 on the Billboard 200, without any singles breaking into the Billboard Hot 100.

Biz Markie was not the first to be called out for misuse of sampling, but he was the first to experience such severe consequences. Looking at previous notable cases, settling out of court was the common practice. Vanilla Ice would go on to give David Bowie and Queen songwriting credits and a share of royalties for their ownership of the famous bass line of “Under Pressure.” Rick James would eventually get a similar share of the royalties from MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.” Everybody won in these cases, as the original artists reaped the benefits of their work and the sampling artists could capitalize on their success. The drastic nature of “Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros. Records Inc.” came from Gilbert O’Sullivan’s refusal to settle out of court.

It would be hard to deny that race played a substantial role in the consequences brought upon Warner Bros. and Biz Markie. In any of the previous cases, sample clearance was a win for both sides, as the sampling artist could continue to benefit from their work while the sampled artist could be compensated for the revived popularity of their original creation. Spite would prove to play a definitive role in the case. Regarding the earlier stages of sampling in hip-hop, it frequently was not worth the legal cost to drag most of the producers into court, as the revenue being generated by artists such as Grandmaster Flash was negligible in the long run when compared to the legal fees required. Biz Markie was treated exceptionally in the eyes of the law because he was simultaneously a financially successful artist and one that dared to cross racial lines in sampling. The verdict of recalling all unsold copies of the album was a comparative extreme when placed against other contentious sampling cases, one that can also be looked at as unnecessary with the option of royalties and songwriting credits still on the table. In his book “Hip Hop America,” Nelson George refers to the case as “the most damaging case of anti-hip hop vindictiveness in a sample case,” going on to cite the racial bias of the presiding judge, including the usage of passages from The Bible and allegories linking hip-hop to criminal behavior.

The case’s impact echoed throughout the recording industry. For the first time, improper sampling had the threat of severe, previously unimaginable consequences. This would go on to raise the cost of sample clearing, as the original artists had a substantially higher amount of leverage than before. On the plus side, as the costs rose

in favor of sampled artists, more labels were inclined to clear sample requests thanks to higher payouts, meaning sampling as an art form remained present throughout the trajectory of popular music for the next decades. However, with the rising cost of clearance, sampledominant albums such as 1989’s Paul’s Boutique by The Beastie Boys and 1990’s Fear of a Black Planet from Public Enemy would be a thing of the past.

Biz Markie’s career never fully recovered from the loss of momentum stemming from “Grand Upright Music, Ltd. v. Warner Bros.

Records Inc.,” marking him as a typical one-hit wonder. His follow up album in 1993 was aptly titled “All Samples Cleared!”, with cover art featuring Biz Markie as a grouchy judge in a comical powdered wig. In a sense, the “Clown Prince of Hip-Hop” got the last laugh .

• David McDevitt (International Affairs/Economics)

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Interview

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WE INTERVIEWED

G-EAZY

AND THEN FORGOT ABOUT IT

FOR THREE YEARS Editor’s note: Back in April 2014, three months before the release of G-Eazy’s major label debut album These Things Happen and one year before “Me, Myself & I” made him a pop superstar, Tastemakers writer Kelly Subin interviewed the rapper for Tastemakers. For some reason, it has sat in the darkest recesses of the Tastemakers archives until now, when we have finally gotten around to publishing it. Enjoy this blast from the past!

G-Eazy, otherwise known as the “James Dean of Hip Hop,” has been breaking hearts across the country with his unforgettable live shows for years now, including stints opening for Drake and Lil Wayne. Currently, his “These Things Happen Tour” is selling out almost every venue it touches, while G (aka Gerald Gillum) puts the finishing touches on his highly anticipated album, to be released later this year. G-Eazy took a break from being on the brink of superstardom to sit down with Tastemakers before his sold-out show at the Paradise Rock Club.

Tastemakers Magazine (TMM): Were you really involved for the creation of your last three videos? Like “Been on,” “Far Alone, and “Almost Famous?”

G-Eazy: Well, somebody will bring the initial idea to the table, somebody on our team, and from then on, we all get really hands-on. From me, to my manager Matt, to Bobby, who shot “Been On” and “Almost Famous” and directed the photography for “Far Alone,” to Daryn Deluco who directed “Far Alone” and the Brooklyn Circus guys who are creative directors on my team, we all kind of just get around a big round table and all share our ideas.

The thing about shooting a video is it cost a lot of money, but you have this free limbo before you shoot to kinda like shape the idea and the treatment, and get it perfect. Whereas, once you actually shoot it, the equipment has been rented, the people have been hired, everything is in place, it’s been recorded, and there’s not so much reshaping you can do once it’s already been shot. So you have this luxury of being able to take your time and refine the ideas that go into it before you actually shoot it. So, we all do a ton of homework and really go in and try to make sure that the creative is on point before we actually shoot it.

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Interview

TMM: Where did you find the kid that looks like you for the “Far Alone” video?

G: That’s actually a crazy story. We were gonna cast this other kid, and we were kind of still on the fence about him. And, they were driving around Berkeley, scouting, just looking to find some random kid in the streets and I was like “Dudes, that’s the creepiest thing in the world, I’m not even gonna come for this.” And they found him skating across the street from Berkeley high school, where I went to school. They walked right up to him and pitched him the idea. Turns out, he was a fan of my music but he’s also a musician. He’s in a band. He also lives around the corner from my grandma’s house, and he goes to Berkeley High. It was like this kid was literally perfect for the role. It just miraculously fell into place. We definitely got some really good luck with that one.

TMM: The video is really cool. How did you get that one second Lil B cameo?

G: The Based God cameo is very necessary. That was random.

That wasn’t planned.

TMM: He was just there?

G: We were at Gordo’s, which is like the legendary taqueria in Berkeley.

If you’re from there, obviously you know Gordo’s, so that’s why Lil B would be there. Still, the chance of it happening while we were shooting at the restaurant… We had planned on shooting that scene there, and we were all gonna eat a big team dinner at that location, obviously, because you’re at Gordo’s. I’m waiting in line for my burrito, and right in front of me there’s this guy with a hood on and sunglasses.

You just felt the presence of a Jedi. Somebody special was in front of me. And he turned his head, and I noticed it was Brandon. I know him, but not too well, so I‘m still starstruck every time I see him. It hit me that we were at Gordo’s, we had the camera crew outside, and Based God was here. So I was like, “Ya gotta bless me, Brandon, please.” And he was so positive, he was like “G, I’m proud of you and everything you’re doing.”

TMM: He’s very inspirational.

G: Yeah, did you see our shrine? We have a Based God shrine.

He brings us good luck.

TMM: I’ll have to check it out. So, where did the phrase “These Things Happen” come from, and what does it mean to you?

G: It’s kind of this nonchalant reaction to this crazy life we’re living right now. Everybody says the come-up is the best part. We definitely, kind of, over-indulge in that, sometimes. The after parties can get wild, and you wake up the next morning with this dumbfounded “what the fuck happened last night?” feeling. And you’re like “Well, how can I explain this?” Well, these things happen. But it’s also this reaction to these dreams coming true, and being like “well, fuck, these things happen.”

Fall 2017

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TMM: How does it feel to have sold out almost every venue so far on the tour?

G: So fucking tight. We’ve been here on this ride for a number of years now. We were here when I played the upstairs of the Middle East and was just happy to have 200 people there. We feel like this is a culmination, like a big achievement, but realistically, this is my first tour. This is my first introduction to the world. This is where it all begins. So, it’s crazy to think about where we go from here. And that’s what’s exciting.

TMM: Since this is a college publication, how do you feel like your education at Loyola University helped contribute to your career?

G: Well, I was studying music business. So, I had all kinds of strategy questions about touring, and how best to release and roll out my music.

I would just ask my teachers the questions that directly applied to what I was trying to do. I just made it work. You’ve got to, kind of, figure out a way to cater your experiences at school to what applies to your world.

TMM: What’s your favorite song to play on tour?

G: “Far Alone.” It’s the song I open with.

TMM: What gets the crowd most pumped?

G: The “now I’m here bitch” part. That line right there.

Gets ‘em every time.

TMM: What’s your dream collaboration? It could be with anyone.

G: Kanye.

TMM: Good choice. So, what’s the next big thing for you?

G: Take over the world, baby! I’m just really excited for people to hear the new album.

TMM: When is that going to be released? Your fans are all waiting for it.

G: Very soon. We just got the final, mastered copy, so, I’m really excited about that. I always dreamed of just having an audience who would be excited to hear new music. And with the anticipation for this record being what it is, and knowing what we have and the work we put into it, I just can’t wait to see what everyone’s reaction will be.

TMM: Are you more excited for this one than previous projects?

G: Oh yeah. This is like the real deal. Everything else in the past, not to take anything away from it, just didn’t have nearly the amount of work that we put into this one.

Kelly Subin (Marketing and Interactive Media)

TASTEMAKERS PRESENTS

The Shins, House of Blues Photo by Abigail Manos

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST We’ve compiled a playlist with songs from each article. See if you can guess which songs correspond to each article!

Find the playlist at: sptfy.com/1O0m

1. “Culture” — Migos DJ Khaled 2. “El Chupa Nibre” — Danger Doom 3. “Reagan” — Killer Mike 4. “Re: Stacks” — Bon Iver 5. “33 ‘GOD’” — Bon Iver 6. “Armando’s Rhumba” — Chick Corea 7. “Times Like These” — Foo Fighters 8. “I Kissed a Girl” — Katy Perry 9. “I Wanna Boi” — PWR BTTM

FIND KANYE

10. “Kuch Kuck Hota Hai” — Jatin-Lalit Udit Narayan 11. “IT G MA Remix” — Keith Ape f. A$AP Ferg 12. “Look At Me!” — Xxxtentacion 13. “Tables and Chairs” — Andrew Bird 14. “Say Yes” — Elliott Smith 15. “No Problem” — Chance the Rapper f.

Lil Wayne 16. “Levanta e Anda” — Emicida Rael 17. “Everything 1k” — Kodak Black

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

Like what you read? Check us out online. tastemakersmag.com @tastemakersmag 

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