Elsewhere today Alyson Camus writes a blistering review of DJ Kavinky and some other DJs. Since I haven’t heard the others I can’t respond to those criticism. But I have heard Kavinsky and he is excellent. He records for Record Maker, he has been produced by Daft Punk: he is da man, well he is da zombie.
So here we go:
1. Music isn’t ALL ABOUT TASTE. For instance, to change mediums, you may well think John Grisham is better than Vladimir Nabakov. But anybody who has a brain in their head can read the difference between the greatest stylist in the English language and a real good story spinner. It isn’t about taste, it is about writing fiction.
2. If you are used to melodic and not rhythmic hooks you are gonna have problems with bpms and drum sequencing.
3. Computer generated sounds are as valid as electric instrument generated sounds. if you want to complain that lab music isn’t real (a synonym for live), go back as far as the invention of four track recordings.
4. There is nothing more important in this extremely important moment in music than the Mac and Pro Tools which allows bands from LCD Soundsystem and Holy Ghost! to Afrobeta and Shadowbox to sound as professional as U2. The right PC won’t make you LCD Soundsystem, but at least you won’t be starting at a huge disadvantage.
5. The complaint is the music scene has no center and it doesn’t. But it has the WIDTH that was at the center of the punk dream. Everybody is a star, everybody has their own band, everybody starts on a level playing field..
6. And inevitably there are casualties. The Record Companies are in shambles but that doesn’t mean MUSIC is in shambles. Music is great, vibrant, alive, and electronic music, a different kind of tension, is at the forefront.
7. It is hard to realize how far Western society has improved in the past 25 years BUT at least in the following social areas: a) gay rights, b) black equality, and c) women rights it has come a long long way.
8. Musically, this is one of the great periods in history. From Tehran to Oslo, the music world is unstoppable and the line between above and underground is invisible. In the totalitarian Iran where secular music IS BANNED, bands are emailing their beats across the world to Los Angeles, on the brink of bankruptcy and having just de facto legalized marijuana.
9. Let a million, let a billion, let there be a rock band for every single teen. Why not? “You think you’re a superstar? Well, alright you are.” Lennon said and let it be true. What do I care if musicians aren’t rich? How is that my problem? I wanna hear their music not finance their mansion. If Van Gogh can die broke so can they. It is like the essense of politics returned. In theory, in pre-Western civilization African tribes, the leader of the tribe is the person who most wanted to serve. It is the leader who went out to find the food when it was scarce, who gave back to the tribes the gifts he got when negotiating with other tribes. Same with musicians, all artists who really consider themselves artists, it is about delivering music and then it got corrupted in the sixties. Now it is going back to being about the music since the financial rewards are not what they were. How is this bad FOR ME?
10. Everybody says the recording industry and touring industry are dead. Good. fuck em, who cares? Back to the clubs. Back to the girl speaking to you at Pianos (as happened to me with Shadowbox) saying excuse me and going on stage to play a dynamite set.
The great trick in life is knowing when you are happy and being happy when you are happy.
Get happy rock nycers, you couldn’t have chosen a better period to write about music in.