Vacationer Interview

Last month, WRMC introduced the first annual Grooveyard- a new tradition for the radio to host a concert on Halloween weekend. I sat down with Kenny Vasoli, the singer of Vacationer, the show's headliner. An old-timer in the music scene, Vacationer is Vasoli’s new project hailing from Philly, with a shoe-gaze, Beach House-inspired vibe. The band's album "Gone" was released in March. We talked about everything from the band's conception to "pumpkin pie almonds"..Here you have it. Many thanks to Kenny for sitting down to chat.

What do you do musically in the band?

I'm the singer and I'm the bassist and writing wise I wrote the bass lines and the guitar lines and the vocals. And I have two writing partners— Matt, who's playing vibraphone with us, and his partner Grant. They’re in a band called Body Language and I started writing with them in the summer of 2010 and that's how this came about.

That's really cool. Where are you stationed?

Well, all of us, besides Matt, we live in Philadelphia.

So how do you fit into the music scene there? Philly isn't really what I think of when I think of the music from vacationer.

No, no [laughs] yeah, we've pretty much cut our teeth playing in new york and Brooklyn so we've only played Philly three times so we're trying to, y’know, trying to build up a scene there and um trying to throw some parties and get the word out and sort of cut our own little notch in Philadelphia but it's still a work in progress

With this type of music– you said you wanted to do electronic– were there any certain influences that drove you to that point or is it just sort of wanting to do something new?

Well I'd always really liked electronic music, since like 2005. I think it was around then that I started discovering, y'know, Four Tet and Aphex Twins, even Venetian Snares and all sorts of stuff like that, and I was always a huge radiohead fan . I always loved the way they integrated electronic music in with rock 'n' roll. And then once 2009-2010 rolled around, then I started getting heavy into bands like Beach House and Radio Department– the shoe gaze side of electronic music.

The idea of "vacationer"- you guys have songs called "Trip" and "Gone"- do you see this band as a concept project or is it just a result of writing low key music?

It definitely- the concept is pretty apparent ...it almost feels like concept is kind of a dirty word.But, I think it's more just the "vibe", y'know?

When we set out to do this it was really something just so I could get away from the usual music that I was playing and sort of give my ears a vacation from, like, such loud banging symbols and distorted guitars and stuff like that, and having to not yell at the top of my lungs, y'know?

What is it like having the anonyminity of a new band-If you try to look you guys up online there is zero!

Yeah and there's way more now that there used to be. When we released "Trip" there was nothing. And I was so thrilled that people started listening to it and started blogging about it not knowing that it was me.  Like, certain people had hints because they knew my voice well enough. But that made me really excited that I could still write music that people would be excited about just by hearing it- not like, having to ride the coattails of things that I'd done before.

As far as the songwriting goes, how does it work? You said you do the lyrics and the bass- do you guys all just sit down, do you come with different pieces and try to piece it all together?

We have. Yeah, it kind of spans everything as far as that goes.  More times than not, Matt and Grant will be up at their studio and they'll just kind of be in the box on their computer just messing around and then they'll send me one minute loops, 30 second loops. And then I'll take the loops and I'll put them into my computer and cut them and paste them in a little bit of a different way, or just extend them and then put my guitar, bass, and vocals on top of that and send them a rough idea of what I have. And then they'll be like "Alright, this is good" or "maybe not this" or something like that- just throw me a bit of direction. And usually, by that trade and correspondence, we will get together and lay down the final version.

Are you on a label or is it self-released?
We're on downtown records.

And how did that come to be?

Once we released "Trip" then we were reached out to by a few labels and Downtown was one of the first ones. And by that point we were like "wow". We were like "what could really be a more ideal label for us than them.” And they don't really sign many bands, so they were very excited about having us on the label. And very quickly— once we realized we were one the same page as them and that they had the same vision for the band that we did— we pretty much just made that our home.

What can we expect from a live show? What's the- well, I don't want to say "vibe" because the vibe is pretty apparent from the music but...How does it switch up from the recordings?

I'd say that the danceabiity is a little more apparent live once you see us kind of grooving to it.  And with all the live instruments it's slightly more hyped up than the record.  Like the record is pretty minimal as far as instrumentation goes.  We expand on that. We try not to crowd the sound but we just try to have it a little more dynamic live and have it pop a bit more.  We also have some visuals too.

Yeah, I saw the big screen set up for the show!

Yeah, we have like old archive, basically vacation footage that we tripped out with some after effects. It's like psychedelic vacations.

Did you just find the footage?

Yeah, most of it is found. Some of it is from movies- just from like public domain servers.

Ok I'm going to do a quick round of "Halloween Favorites" because this is our Grooveyard concert. 

Favorite scary movie?

"The Shining" is really great... Kubrick is great. Anything Kubrick.  I don't know if you'd consider it a scary movie— I like creepy movies like "Blue Velvet,” any Lynch films. Yeah, stuff like that. And we just saw one of Kronenberg's first movies called "The Brood"; we took our projector into a hotel room and Mike had "The Brood" on his computer and we were watching it on the hotel wall and it was so freaky. I definitely recommend it around Halloween time.

Favorite Halloween costume?

Uh, I've been a Frenchman the past two years- we didn't realize that it was a costume party! So we dropped the ball on that. But the French man, if you have a striped shirt and a beret an eyebrow pencil then it's a pretty cheap and easy costume.

Favorite Fall Food?

Oh man... Oh, you know at my supermarket they have like these pumpkin- covered almonds?

How do they even do that?

It's just like pumpkin pie flavored almonds. This is like chocolate covered almonds but take the chocolate and make it pumpkin flavored.

Ooh that sounds so good.

Oh yeah, it's really good.  I've been annihilating them.

 Well on that note, I guess I'll let you get dinner. But thank you for the interview.; it was awesome. Talking to you. Thank you.

Yeah, great talking to you too. Thank you very much!

Vacationer-Trip

Mr|Tots New Original Series

The Middlebury Radio Theater of Thrills and Suspense (Mr|Tots) produces live audio drama every Saturday from 6:00pm-8:00pm on WRMC.

This week will feature Part Two of the original series The Wild You, written and directed by David Seamans, scored by Dustin Lowman. Listen to Part One here.

A description of the show:

For two years Jay has forgotten his self and his past, hitching across the country. But when an ill-tempered train conductor breaks his leg, he's forced to recuperate in a desert trailer park named Starport. While he struggles to hold his wild self at bay, Jay rediscovers music, friendship, and love. But is it enough to stop him from destroying himself and Starport with him? Written and directed by David Seamans. Music by Dustin Lowman. Recorded live with the Middlebury Radio Theater of Thrills and Suspense.

Suspensefully,
Mr|Tots

The La’s – The La’s. Get listening. People should give a brit about these Liverpudlians.

The past few weeks have seen the ‘Don’t Give a Brit’ boys cover the 90s in three short slots. So, in true ‘Don’t Give a Brit’ style,  I am completing this lack of an overall and thorough assessment in writing this week’s blog on an album released in the 1990 which fails to actually adhere to many of the iconic musical sounds that defined the remainder of the decade. I do not wish to eclipse the great music acts of Oasis, Blur and the like who came after this band, but I do wish to suggest that they owe a big debt to the Liverpudlian four-piece.

                When you think of a Liverpudlian four-piece, it is not The La’s that immediately spring to mind. The band embodies this distinct Merseybeat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mersey_Beat) sound and as a result could not avoid comparisons with The Beatles. This genuine, rootsy and authentic sound is achieved through The La’s unadorned acoustic arrangement. However, the friendly rhythm guitars mask the less pleasant inner-meaning of songs such as “There She Goes” – the song that forms the basis of the band’s identity. The song’s lyrics, such as “pulsing through my veins,” have immersed it in a reference to Mavers’s previous heroin addiction. Nonetheless, the implicitness of these references mean that each song’s lyrics could easily be emulated by an adolescent boy with a draw-string guitar standing on the lawn of the girl he’s trying to win the admiration of at 3am as you regularly see in films. Yes, it would be correct to presume that these guys are a hit at soppy wedding functions. The La’s sound is relatively simplistic, but its in-sync guitar work and catchy looped riffs are just made to seem effortless by the quartet. For example, in “Looking Glass” the tempo is slowly raised throughout the song to give it a momentous ending.

                However, the relative ease in constructing and playing each song did not save the group’s dynamic from turmoil. The core duos tumultuous persona of Lee Mavers (guitar, vocals) and John Bower (bass backing vocals) made for a frequently changing line-up, with this lack of stability eventually causing the band to enter into hiatus after the debut album, with only haphazard reformings since. This instability was manifested in the numerous debut album recordings. Mavers’s personality made working with producer Steve Lillywhite extremely problematic. Mavers’s obsessive, particular and perfectionist mentality was the root cause of this. Mavers, for instance, scrapped multiple recordings of the band’s debut album. He also became aware of Lillywhite’s decreasing patience and told the rest of the band not to play to their full potential whilst recording. However, the entire next LP recording was ironically the LP that eventually got released after relations declined with Lillywhite to the point of collapse. This is why, for example, at the beginning of “Freedom Song” the guitar work sounds fairly disjointed.

                Mavers’s trajectory was much the same as the band he fronted. Mavers was originally witty, playful and driven but quickly grew into dropping out of the limelight completely, becoming a social recluse. The short lived success of the band is also due to their inability to find a place in the 90s musical lineage. They seemed to just float on the periphery through being distinctly different to the late 80s/early 90s British bands such as The Stone Roses. However, they evidently influenced the Britpop influx that was to come from bands such as Oasis, Travis, Stereophonics and The Charlatans and other future Liverpudlian bands such as The Coral and The Zutons. The La’s were in fact a “Timeless Melody” – indebted to the past yet not encompassing futuristic traits. This self-made void is created through the band calling upon hooks and harmonies of the mid-sixties whilst also maintain the friendly classiness of the Britpop 90s. However, it would be wrong to say that the band were nostalgic; they were not hindered by tradition; they were liberated by it. They used simple elements to construct their own identity; an extremely alluring the identity, as bar staff at British weddings are far too familiar with I’m sure.

                There we have it guys, a blog and show that sets out to portray the British 90s as a whole in a short space of time, yet not achieving its purpose. The La’s do not fit the general category for 90s sound, embodying timeless elements which could place them in any decade that we have covered in ‘Don’t Give a Brit.’ Odd choice then for the iconic 90s, but I picked them to stay in line with the general vibe of the show – unpredictability. This unpredictability is like a successful blind-date, which is why you should tune in every Thursday from 1-2pm on WRMC 91.1FM Radio. We do not believe in order, which is why there is no playlist to accompany the show, we live for the moment. However, we cannot keep this bureaucratic anarchism up forever which is why you should listen to “Timeless Melody”, “Doledrum” and “Feelin’” by The La’s. I would suggest “There She Goes” but you’ve probably heard it copious amounts of times at family weddings.                

Dreams and Nightmare, Meek Mill, 10/30

The summer of Rick Ross’s Maybach Music Group spills into the fall with the first album from the group’s biggest up and comer, Philly’s Meek Mill.  Meek has released a ton of mixtapes over the past few years, most notably Dreamchasers and Dreamchasers 2 in 2011 and 2012 respectively.  He’s also appeared on many tracks with Ricky Rozay on the Self Made compilations, in addition to making the rounds on records with other members of the MMG roster, including Wale, Gunplay, Stalley, and Rockie Fresh.  On October 30th, Meek dropped Dreams and Nightmares, a 14-song album released through Maybach Music Group/Warner Bros.

The album’s concept revolves around the two sides to Meek’s rising success in the hip-hop game; on one hand, the luxury he can now afford and the satisfaction of making it all the way from the bottom, on the other, the horrors he has seen and experienced along the way and the willingness instilled in him through those memories to defend what he has made for himself at all costs.  The album’s first track, also titled “Dreams and Nightmares”, communicates this split, and when the beat drops halfway through, Meek turns up the intensity about 30 degrees, taunting his detractors, “so much money all yo friends turn inna enemies, and when its beef I turn my enemies to memories”.  It’s a strong opening, largely because it demonstrates Meek’s greatest asset, his captivating energy on the mic.  It is an undeniably infectious talent, and his energy is enough to carry several of the album’s stronger tracks, such as the lurking “In God We Trust”, which honors money’s all-powerful hold over the Philadelphia of Meek’s youth.

However, Dreams and Nightmares is proof that Meek still has a lot to figure out about parlaying an elite and identifiable skill into a full, compelling album.  There are a couple of absolute duds, such as the star-studded “Maybach Curtains” and “Young and Gettin’ It”.  “Amen” and “Lay Up” are both decent, with the latter getting a great boost from the Teflon Don himself, but they are just missing something.  In general, the songs that don’t feature Meek Mill at the height of his aggression feel flat, half-assed in a way.

The good news, and what really saves the album, is that Meek does show signs of being able to adapt his high intensity delivery to different subject matters and kinds of songs.  On “Traumatized”, Meek raps about the death of his father and how it set the tone for the nearly constant killing of people in his life (“prolly part of the reason we drink ‘n we get high, when I find the nigga that killed my daddy know I’ma ride, hope you hear me I’ma kill you nigga”).  “Who Your(sic) Around” expresses disgust and bewilderment at the abandonment and money-grubbing of his supposed homeys and features a solid assist from Mary J. Blige.  “Tony’s Story Pt. 2” demonstrates Meek’s surprisingly strong story-telling abilities in the follow up to “Tony’s Story” off of Dreamchasers 2, and although it’s not nearly as strong as the first, it showcases one of Meek’s most impressive technical skills, his use of a sort of half-half-full bar (or short-short-long, I don’t know the musical term for this) rhyme scheme, which is both jarring and highly listenable (seriously, listen to "Tony's Story", linked above, for this, you'll see exactly what I mean).

All this is to say that Dreams and Nightmares, though spotty, is a decent album, and worth listening to if you’ve heard any of Meek’s stuff in the past and feel as strongly about his energetic flow as I do.  He’s got a lot of work to do, but his ability to distribute his strengths across a variety of songs is promising evidence that he can keep improving.

Best Line: “But he got killas lurkin outside of your home tonight, and they gon’ hit the crib and kill the kids, oh that’s Kony right?”--Meek Mill, “In God We Trust”

Also worth checking out: Priest Andretti, Curren$y (free download at datpiff.com)

good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar, 10/22

good kid, m.A.A.d city is the first major studio album from Compton’s Kendrick Lamar, but it seems like he’s been around for a long time now.  As a member of the Black Hippy crew along with Jay Rock, ScHoolboy Q, and Ab-Soul, Kendrick won considerable props across the board following his releases through the independent Top Dog Entertainment label, Overly Dedicated and Section.80.  Overly Dedicated earned the attention of the West Coast’s hip-hop Zeus, Dr. Dre, who expressed interest in mentoring the young MC.  All of a sudden, every hip-hop blog, magazine, and enthusiast seemed unable to go a single media cycle without gushing about this new prodigy, and Kendrick was appearing on songs with everybody from Rick Ross’s entire Maybach Music Group to Lady GaGa.

When word came out that Kendrick would be releasing good kid this fall, as a joint release through TDE, Interscope and Dre’s Aftermath label, excitement reached a near frenzy.  To be honest, I was kind of confused.  I had heard the two tapes, and they were pretty good, but it was hard to identify what exactly the big deal was other than the fact that Dr. Dre was cosigning on his dopeness.  It seemed like a lot of engineered hype about somebody who had, to date, done nothing except put out some pretty good music, which a lot of dudes do.

That skepticism endured up until my first listening of the release this Monday, which left me with just one thought: good kid, m.A.A.d city is an amazing album.  It features the subtitle of “A short film by Kendrick Lamar”, and the 12 songs successfully function as a narrative following Kendrick’s experience growing up in Compton.  On the first track, “Sherane a.k.a Master Splinter’s Daughter”, Kendrick immediately puts his effortless, yet urgent, flow on display, describing a teenage romance.  But even the innocent experience of being “17 with nothing but pussy stuck on my mental” brings Kendrick into danger.  The song ends with our narrator confronted by two gang members waiting outside Sherane’s house and cuts immediately to a voicemail from Kendrick’s mom asking him where he is.  This skit is expanded upon throughout the album, and it creates genuine tension unlike anything I remember hearing on any rap album of recent issue.

Although the concept of the album revolves around the struggle of growing up in an area riddled by gang violence and police harassment, it avoids being preachy or heavy-handed in the way that most “socially-conscious” rap is.  gkmc steers clear of that territory by remaining within the consciousness of a frustrated teenager with nowhere else to go.  As a result, Kendrick is able to contrast the care-free attitude of youth against the backdrop of an environment with very real dangers.  “The Art of Peer Pressure” brings those two elements to a head, as Kendrick raps about an empty afternoon cruising around with his boys, which ends with them breaking into and robbing a house, and Kendrick smoking a blunt laced with PCP.  On “good kid”, Kendrick speaks about being caught in the middle of the struggle between cops and gangs, with both sides flashing red and blue as a means of intimidation.

Despite its recurring themes, good kid is never repetitive.  “Backseat Freestyle” sounds like Kendrick Lamar’s take on the megalomania of Watch the Throne (“I pray my dick get big as the Eiffel Tower, so I could fuck the world for 72 hours”), banging Hit-Boy beat and all.  However, within the context of the album’s concept, the track is given more weight, for in it we hear the testosterone charged ambitions of a teenager who wants everything he sees in the “Juicy” music video.  The album’s second single, “Swimming Pools[Drank]”, is similarly far more enjoyable as the 9th song on the album, as opposed to the 9th song on a summer playlist.  The voices around Kendrick urging him to drink tons of liquor are more oppressive and convincing after the frantic, near mania of “m.A.A.d city”, a two part track in which Kendrick uses abrasive internal rhymes to capture the madness around him.

As with all things Kendrick Lamar, there is already an enormous amount of hype surrounding this album.  Comparisons to Illmatic will not be endorsed in this column, but good kid, m.A.A.d city does capture this moment in hip-hop to a remarkable degree, not only musically, but in the very way it came to be.  Kendrick’s rise is very much the blueprint for success in the internet era of hip-hop: make some successful free mixtapes, catch the eye of one of hip-hop’s gatekeepers (Dre), gain momentum on blogs and features, all leading into a major studio album.  In an era when its pretty much unheard of for anybody outside of Kanye, Ross, or Lil Wayne to do well in sales, gkmc is projected to sell more than 200,000 copies in its opening week.  So yeah, it seems fair to say that K.Dot has nailed his come up.  And honestly, I couldn’t be happier.

This is a sharp, intelligent, musically fantastic album, with a strong and relatable message.  I didn’t grow up in Compton, I was never pressured to join a gang (shocking, I know), and I haven’t watched any of my childhood friends bleed to death on the sidewalk.  But I, and I think most people, can relate to feeling pressured and claustrophobic in trying to figure things out as a young person.  good kid, m.A.A.d city captures those feelings in what is undoubtedly the hip-hop album of the year.  Anybody who enjoys hip-hop of any era needs to hear this album, especially people who think there’s no meaningful rap being put out these days.  This is a remarkable first large-scale showing, certainly a strong step towards Kendrick becoming a true star, and if subsequent releases live up to this one, we might remember good kid as Kendrick's first step towards greatness.

Best line: “And they wonder why I rarely smoke now, imagine if your first blunt had you foamin’ at the mouth”, Kendrick Lamar, “m.A.A.d city”

Also worth checking out: The Man With The Iron Fists (Official Soundtrack), the RZA

Math in Words (Part 3)

This week's Math in Words attempts to subject an individual to the kind of intellectualizing he made a career out of rejecting. 

Writing any kind of introduction to a piece on musician/pundit/engineer/ Steve Albini is a task which is incredibly marred by the many ventures he is/was involved in and his determination to avoid such academic scrutiny. It is however essential to my project that I attempt to contextualise his accomplishments and work during the 90s. As an exponent of Touch & Go Records (an institution he once referred to as the “only responsible label in America”), Albini's involvement is indisputable in the engineering of math rock as a genre (pun totally intended). Whilst insisting he receive no credit or royalties from musicians (a reflection of his belief that he is in no way responsible for conceptual ideas, just the capturing of them), we must note that distinctively math rock records such as Owls, American Don, and Ron just could not exist as they do without him.      

Sketching an accessible profile of Albini is near impossible; the hellacious amount of information available and the sheer volume of his contributions means any attempt to do so will invariably become limited due to its subject matter. To avoid repeating countless articles and committing this piece to the more banal features on Albini, I figured a closer inspection of his recording principles and music journalism would at least be a little more original and conducive to a study of math rock.    
     
The adulation of any self-respecting music-tech undergraduate, Albini’s approach to recording is tirelessly emulated, but never truly reproduced. Unlike the uniform and multi-tracked approach adopted by many modern studios, Albini privileges analogue apparatus for live recordings over digital, tailoring his sessions towards the sounds and intentions of the artists he works for (to suggest Albini works 'with' artists seems to me counter-intuitive to his project). Strategically placed microphones (each selected independently for their appropriateness) and the exiguity of the kinds of effects made ubiquitous by major studios combine to produce a sound which, however unconventional, seems a great deal closer to the sounds of a band playing than the versions offered by more traditional studios. Unlike the kinds of recordings saturated by studio gimmickry, Albini presents the kind of sound which complements the characteristics of math rock perfectly; the punch of a dynamic shift is totally lost once its been processed by an unnecessary compressor.               
Albini ostensibly acknowledges a division of responsibilities in the creation of records, choosing to remain impartial w/r/t to production (preferring the designation of ‘recording engineer’ to ‘producer’) and allowing total freedom to the bands he works with; the bands perform in their respective creative capacities whilst he resolves any technical issues which may affect the desired sound of the record. This separation ultimately allows for the intentions of the artists to be more clearly communicated through their distinct lack of any compromise; Albini effectively operates less as an honorary member with artistic license and more like a trusty intermediary between the band and listener, relaying as accurately as possible the sounds coming from his revered home studio.

Characterized by an intolerance of pretentiousness and a certain iconoclasm, Albini’s journalism frequently confronts the questionable ethics of major labels and the shared malpractices within the music industry. Regularly contributing to a variety of zines, Albini promoted through many essays his belief that analogue loyalists would survive despite the growing affinity for digital production. This preference for format still exists in Albini's work today, a remarkable achievement when you consider how this kind of approach has become all but obsolete due to the likes of music software Protools and Logic. Albini is likewise critical about the dubious intentions of music journalism more generally, suggesting in one interview that: “there is no one that actually works on stories, there may be feature articles about bands but there is no one, for example, trying to uncover the abuses in PRS society. There is no actual journalism going on.”

Albini's journalism and punditry has subsequently led him to become something of the anti-philosopher for D.I.Y exponents and fans of math rock. Heralded as some kind of demigod, Albini has unfortunately become trapped by a fame which is as ironic as it is deserved; whilst reluctant to be affiliated directly with the albums he engineers, Albini's name has become something of a short-cut for band's desperate to validate their status as a respected identity in their field- Albini appears to acknowledge and refute this kind of glorification in his 1986 Forced Exposure essay by suggesting that: “I don't give two splats of an old Negro junkie's vomit for your politico-philosophical treatises, kiddies. I like noise. I like big-ass vicious noise that makes my head spin.”

What ultimately seems the most refreshing quality to Albini is his willingness to engineer just about any record he finds in some way interesting; charging bands on their circumstances means that, in theory, anyone from U2 through to the precocious kids down the street indulging in atonal sonic-experiments could have themselves a great sounding record, providing their ideas captured his imagination.

This ethos is arguably an inherent part of math rock; if such producers didn't exist, it's unlikely anyone else would have taken the risk of engineering records that would find their market only once fans had consumed the vast amount of material already available to them. Whilst Albini may be reluctant to accept credit, it's at least a little encouraging to have an anti-hero who's prepared to work endlessly on records which however unpopular or inaccessible they may often be, are all important and respected by their fanbase. To offer a 'suggested listening' to end this piece seems to me a foolish move (his catalogue rivals Dante's), so I figured I'd just recommend a listening to Slint's debut record, Tweeze. Whilst no record Albini has engineered can truly operate synecdochally,Tweeze features a stock of his 'trademarks'; the sounds of the band talking through a take, huge leaps in dynamics, and a mix which is only identified as his own because no one else would dare try it that way.   

I Can Feel Brit Coming ‘In the Air Tonight’

I know what you’re thinking - blog posts from ‘Don’t Give a Brit’ are synonymous with blog posts about drummers. In effect, I have even tunnelled my concentration to a larger extent than my last post on a single musical artist in dedicating this latest blog post on just the famous Phil Collins song ‘In the Air Tonight.’ I am not intentionally showing my ignorance of the excellent music that was produced during these sublime decades; it is simply poor management on our side. We are not advocators of bureaucracy on our show, we tend to side with arbitrariness.

The 1980s saw the rise of the New Wave musical movement and in another all too typical trait of our weekly show, I have chosen a song which is the antithesis of much of the music that dominated the radio airwaves at the time. This dark, eerie song stands as a binary to much of the upbeat, electronic 80s. But then, if those old rascals Cliff Richard and Tom Jones were still knocking around in the 1980s, I can surely dedicate this blog to ‘In the Air Tonight’…  

                The title ‘In the Air Tonight’ provokes many thoughts in the minds of its listeners. Is Collins documenting his flatulent habits? Do you think of Miami Vice’s famous scenes from its first episode? Do the numerous attempts at the final mission of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City come to mind? Perhaps the Mike Tyson scene from The Hangover? Or maybe even Cadbury’s 2007 dairy milk gorilla advert (located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo)? Judging by all these instances I have just rekindled your memories over, it would be true to say that this song has been widely used in popular culture. The numerous interpretations of the song have been considered in its use in popular culture. Its wide use makes it hard for a listener of the song to solitarily relate it to just one moment in that culture. The track’s inscrutable nature makes it so powerful.

As well as the multiple interpretations in popular culture, the song’s lyrics have also been met with multiple interpretations surrounding their meaning. In consequence, there have been many pervasive urban legends regarding the song’s undercurrent. These urban myths have included whether Collins was writing about a man who watched another man drown. This urban myth gathered cultural credibility through Eminem referencing it in his song ‘Stan.’ Some also argue that a young Phil Collins witnessed a man drown. Over time these two myths became more and more farfetched to the point where it was claimed Collins hired a private detective to find the man who witnessed the drowning, sent him a free ticket to his concert, and premiered the song that night with the spotlight on the man the whole time. The implausible tendency that these myths developed removed their validity and their falsity lied exposed. This led to Phil Collins publically stating that the song was written about the feelings he had surrounding his 1979 divorce from his first wife. This very reason is also why Collins left Genesis for a short time. The lingering tension of the ins and outs of a complicated divorce is structurally mirrored in the song, cumulating in the explosive drum solo at the end. However, with the atmospheric guitar work, simplistic keyboard chords, a prolonged, sequential drum beat and dystopian, Big Brother-esque video (located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkADj0TPrJA) it is hard to ignore these credible myths surrounding the song’s creation. These techniques also builds upon the freakiness and macabre already created by the song’s lyrics.

‘In the Air Tonight’ was Collins’s first single as a solo artist as the rest of Genesis felt it was too simplistic to be released as one of their own songs. However, the intense passion that Collins put into the song led the album Face Value, of which ‘In the Air Tonight’ was the title track, to sell more copies than any other prior Genesis release. It seemed the ‘genesis’ of the song was something that the band had not picked up on prior to this and that caused the group to move in a different direction. ‘In the Air Tonight’s’ raw emotion was typified in that the song’s lyrics were simply an impulse and were not written down prior to Collins’s first play of the song.  

So at this point of the blog, I would generally suggest checking out some other music that relates to the blog post. However, in choosing to do my latest blog on a single song I have removed any potential doing that. Similarly, no other Phil Collins song comes close to achieving the greatness, mystery, popularity and acclaim of ‘In the Air Tonight.’ Likewise, I cannot point you in the direction of a playlist as we did not construct one from this week’s show. Stepping into the studio is about where our bureaucratic duties begin and end.  However, having said that, we will be releasing a podcast for all those listeners who are occupied from 1-2pm on a Thursday. But then what things in life are more important than hearing why you should give a brit in life?

WRMC featured on NPR website!

In some of the most exciting station news of the semester, WRMC is currently featured on the NPR music site for our help in curating their 2012 CMJ Preview Mix.  Dylan Redford, our general manager, was approached earlier this fall about collaborating with other prominent college radio stations on this mix and brought the project to the station's music directors (Carly Shumaker and Stephanie Roush) with much delight.

The music directors were asked to choose their favorite song of 25 artists from a list of about 100 artists that are all playing at the CMJ Festival this week (October 16-21) in New York City. CMJ represents the foremost opportunity in the college radio world to connect with other stations as well as the music industry as a whole.

This WRMC collaboration with NPR Music is a step forward for the station in terms of establishing WRMC as one of the best college radio stations in the country.  Hopefully, this will help the station gain recognition not only among other college stations, but with music promoters and music labels alike.  With NPR under our belt, who knows what could happen next.

Check out our NPR playlist here.

Ghost EP, Sky Ferreira, EMI, October 16th

For fresh-faced twenty-year-old pop icon Sky Ferreira, embodying America’s Sweetheart was never an option, much less the goal. At a young age, Ferreira breeched the music scene via MySpace, winning e-audiences over with racy tracks like “Sex Rules” and “Lolita”. Her second extended play solidifies the singer’s image as a natural-born rebel. In the past two years, Sky has capitalized on growing internet phenomenons like ‘soft-grunge’ and ‘pastel-goth’, blending bubble-gum pop beats with a Kim Gordon-esque edge. It comes as no surprise then that Ghost registers as an eclectic collection of teen-blogger anthems. In a recent interview with fashionista and Rookie founder Tavi Gevinson, Sky declared that she “wanted to make something different...and [wanted] it to speak to younger women”. While Ghost undoubtedly caters to the adolescent female audience, my initial listen left me feeling disoriented, and ultimately unsure as to whether Ferreira was writing for herself, the producers she collaborated with, or the anonymous internet following that has come to define her fan-base. 

Ghost’s opening track, “Sad Dream”, lures listeners in with a smooth lullaby, as Ferreira’s voice glides effortlessly from a surly alto to wistful soprano. The song is simple, almost too simple to work; it is a trick that the track’s producer, California-born songwriter Cass McCombs, has pulled off countless times: give listeners something clean and familiar, leave them contented at that. The trouble is, “Sad Dream” ends up sounding more like McComb’s creation than Ferreira’s. Her voice is shrouded in Cass’s dreamy acoustic riffs, making for a strong track, but one that lacks a distinctly “Sky” quality. 

Similarly, grunge-girl anthem “Red Lips” feels drenched in co-writer Shirley Manson’s (of Garbage fame) influence. The crunchy bass line and whispery vocals sound uncannily like Garbage hit, “Stupid Girl”. Ferreira’s delivery is effortless—she sing-speaks jibes like “you’re ten a penny” with an undeniable cool before the chorus erupts in a wave of power-chords; nonetheless, I find myself disappointed, waiting for Sky’s synth-pop edge to resurface. The track is a far leap from the crooning ballad that starts the EP, and almost left me wondering whether I was listening to the same release. It is for this very reason that Ghost feels disjointed and almost unfinished. Rather than building on the successes of her 2011 release, As If!, Ferreira forfeits her creative ownership and offers too much authority to the producers. 

With ominous electro-pop tracks, “Lost in My Bedroom” and “Everything is Embarrassing”,  however, Sky holds her own. Here, Ferreira revisits a style she mastered when she first entered the music scene at fifteen: a careful balance between catchy dance beats and melancholy atmospherics. Accompanied by a booming bass and tight snares, Sky sings wistful melodies of racing minds (“lost in my bed, and I’m lost in my head”) and unrequited love (“maybe if you let me be your lover”). The tracks are definitively teen-angst, definitively Sky Ferreira, and arguably the best on the EP. With these modern girl anthems, she holds nothing back; she sounds sure of who she is as an artist, unafraid to wear both her true bubble-gum-pop colors and a grimy layer of smudged black eyeliner. By the time Ghost draws to a close, “Everything is Embarrassing” gives listeners a glimpse of Sky’s promise. The track shows Ferreira for who she is, a rising commercial-avant-garde starlet who owns her image without apologies. And although disappointed that the EP as a whole fails to showcase Ferreira’s potential, I am hopeful that her upcoming album I’m Not Alright (still awaiting a release date) will give testament to Sky’s capability as a dark-pop girl wonder. 

Numbers, MellowHype, 10/9

Los Angeles’ Odd Future collective (officially Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), burst on to the scene formed in 2007, and it quickly gained a considerable audience following frontman Tyler, the Creator’s release of his debut album Goblin in 2009.  But interest in the group truly exploded following the posting of Tyler’s “Yonkers” music video on YouTube (seriously, watch this if you haven't seen it already) and his appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with fellow OF rapper Hodgy Beats.  On Tuesday, Hodgy Beats and producer/occasional rapper Left Brain dropped Numbers, their third album as the duo MellowHype.

First off, Numbers is overall a good album.  It’s consistent in every regard, it’s sufficiently diverse, and it has a definition not common to many contemporary hip-hop albums.  But listeners hoping for the chaos, anger, and general depravity of Odd Future’s early music will likely be disappointed.  Numbers takes a decidedly more stable tone than Tyler’s releases, or even previous MellowHype joints YelloWhite and BlackenedWhite.  That’s not to say that the duo is attempting to transition to the mainstream; rather, it feels as though we’re hearing their maturation as it happens.  Its just that what they’re maturing from, a delinquent gang of anarchist skaters celebrating their rape fantasies, was pretty darn entertaining.  Their early work was so startling and captivating that Numbers, which has more than its share of aggression and creepy allusions to satanism, comes across as relatively tame.

That being said, there are many strong aspects of Numbers.  Left Brain’s production, which is featured on all 16 of the tracks, is consistently enjoyable.  He rarely uses samples, and the built from scratch quality works well, for he rarely tries to do too much.  His jumpy, dissonant sound is unique and effective when paired with Hodgy Beats’ nervous, almost compulsive delivery.  Hodgy has certainly chilled out a bit, his rapping is more controlled than previous efforts, in which he often seemed right on the edge of dropping the lyrics and just screaming.  He is technically sharp throughout the album; indeed, its hard to think of one poorly delivered verse, and his newfound precision makes his more aggressive lines cut sharper (“On a one to ten, you like an average 8, blow job, you suck, shall I, elaborate?”).

Numbers starts out hitting on all cylinders, with assists from OF big shots Frank Ocean and Earl Sweatshirt on “Astro” and “P2”, respectively.  Earl’s verse is fantastic, despite being the consensus best MC in the collective, his flow and content has evolved.  Again, this isn’t your high-school self’s Earl, there’s nothing on dismemberment or vomiting blood, but he explains, “Last year I didn’t know what the cost of a coffin was, so now I’m often buzzed, in the apartment bummin’”.  Left Brain pulls out all the stops on “Grill”, with an awesomely twitchy, smokey beat and a rare verse, which is pretty average, but his spacey, deep voice is a lot of fun to listen to. The segmented “65/Breakfast”, which couldn’t be any more different than BlackenedWhite’s “64”, unless it was performed by the 2 Live Crew, is also quite strong, as are most of the album’s tracks.  Left Brain and Hodgy Beats are just simply both very skilled at what they do.

There are weak spots, such as “Snare”, which sounds like MellowHype covering a rejected Talib Kweli cut, and “Gnc”, a hip-hop 101 piece filled with familiar rap tropes.  And when Hodgy urges us to take care of our families and loved ones on “Nfwgjdsh” (your guess is as good as mine), it feels forced, and honestly, he’s not somebody I would ever consider taking advice from concerning the organization of my life.  In these instances, MellowHype strays too far towards the middle of the pack, but they always find their way back, close to their unique place.  Over the course of “Leflair”, “Untitled L”, and “Monster”, Left Brain deftly pulls off 3 beats which move through electro-freak-out, to a Lex Luger style blast of snares, to a Tyler-esque classic OF sound.  Hodgy ramps up the intensity, bringing the album to a darker, moshier place.  On these tracks his rhyming is most impressive, sometimes so rapid as to demand multiple rewinds, other times excruciatingly slow, scratching out every syllable.  In an era in which guest spots from producers attract more attention than guest verses, there is a definite and refreshing flow to the way MellowHype’s two members move through the album together.

Again, Numbers is a really solid album.  But, fair or not, it didn’t quite satisfy the itch that builds up as the release date for an Odd Future album approaches.  I found myself pausing in the middle of songs and looking up old classics like “Drop” and “F666 the Police”.  This is not a knock on  MellowHype, so much as a testament to the degree to which Odd Future occupied such a specific spot in hip-hop.  I really like Numbers as a showcase of Hodgy’s evolving skills and Left Brain’s unique touch, but I can’t help but feel a touch of nostalgia for the good old days, when you could count on two words to be screamed in every MellowHype song: “Fuck...you!”.

Best Line: “I said...niggas be takin life to serious, that’s why my music be takin’ lives (uh) period”-Hodgy Beats, “Astro”

Also worth checking out: Wu-Block, Wu-Tang Clan and D-Block, presented by Ghost Face Killah and Sheek Louch