RTP-area local music and culture

[Fikri Yucel <fikri_y AT yahoo.com>]

Sometime before GO's days as a live music venue came
to an end there was a show featuring Cantwell Gomez
and Jordan, Seven-Year Rabbit Cycle, and Deerhoof, all
of whom use the traditional tools of rock music; yet
none of them sound a whole lot like what you'd call
"rock."  That show was notable in that it seemed
entirely appropriate for these three bands to be
playing on the same bill, even though none of them
sounded particularly alike.

Perhaps others more knowledgable than I can point to a
long pedigree of predecessors of the sounds of the
likes of Deerhoof, 7-Yr RC, and CG&J, but it seems to
me that all of them are at least striving for
something fresh.  7-Yr RC mess about with one's usual
expectations of rhythm and dynamics; Deerhoof sorta
mine an indie-prog vein while managing to subvert it
at the same time; and CG&J--well, shoot, y'all already
know how they do.

So I guess I'd say that there are folks who are at
least trying to create "new vocabularies" for rock,
but it gets kinda lonely out there on the frontiers,
so those brave souls are few and far between.

-Fikri


--- grady <grady AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

> Yeh, but I think, if I read Woody correctly, he's
> asking what the new 
> non-derivative "rock" is. I mean, yes, there was
> sometimes a grain of 
> truth to the "Polvo bite Sonic Youth hard"
> accusation, at least 
> superficially, but at root it was fairly
> off-the-mark inasmuch as Polvo 
> seemed really to be working in a whole different
> direction.
> 
> But apart from the occasional SY and/or Savage
> Republic comparison, 
> Polvo seemed to be breaking new ground, or at least
> doing their 
> damnedest to attempt it, in the field of
> 2-gtrs+bass+drums+vox "rock" music.
> 
> & so I think Woody is asking if anybody is still
> trying to come up with 
> new vocabularies for that basic "rock" combination
> or if everything has 
> pro/regressed to recombination of chunks of previous
> eras. Certainly the 
> stuff that's getting the press/attention/airplay
> seems to be 
> by-and-large blenderizing the 70s/early 80s. To the
> extent that it 
> attempts to toss wildly different genres into the
> blender, it's still 
> interesting, but it's not working in the same
> uncharted-territories vein 
> that Polvo were.
> 
> I suppose one could extend the Lightning Bolt/brutal
> prog thing to 
> include stuff like the Locust, although that's just
> Locust:Devo::Anal 
> Cunt:Metallica, or something.
> 
> I'm glad Woody asked the question, too, as my ears
> are getting really 
> weary of "rock" with guitars, particularly in all
> its seemingly-infinite 
> 70s-retreading of late.
> 
> But I dunno the answer. I wish Fugazi would tour
> again so I could get 
> over myself & remember how much I love smart
> punkrock, regardless of 
> subgenre allegiances or influence. Although I
> suppose one could argue 
> that Fugazi have consistently tried to stay a step
> or two ahead of 
> whatever genre was chasing them.
> 
> Ross
> 
> Chris Rossi wrote:
> > Electronica is the new post-rock.  At least, as
> near as I can tell from 
> > eavesdropping on my roommates.
> > 
> > rossi
> > 
> > Woody wrote:
> > 
> >> I had to think of you good folks recently as I
> just picked up the above
> >> mention Polvo album used last week and suddenly
> its 2005 and I'm
> >> listening to way too much Polvo again.  Richard
> chimed in recently
> >> about current musings so I will too...
> >>
> >> at first, I wasn't sure if I was nostalgic for
> the rock of an earlier
> >> era but I think Polvo sort of symbolizes the last
> breath of modernism
> >> in rock... maybe?  I mean like Polvo was actively
> working on a
> >> development of some sort of new music or new
> guitar work or some sort
> >> of furthering of the rock genre.  I mean there
> were a number of Chapel
> >> Hill bands that while referenced the rock past,
> had something of a new
> >> sound.  I'm just saying this in reference to the
> ummm post-rock to
> >> follow.
> >>
> >> I mean Polvo faded out as Tortoise sort of became
> the CMJ darlings.
> >> Tortoise on the other hand, with the exception of
> their 1st cd, is more
> >> or less just a combination of a number of 70s
> bands.  Following
> >> Tortoise, is a slew of bands now combining their
> favorite moments from
> >> the 60s, 70s, and 80s or are just hyper-stylized
> versus content.
> >>
> >> While not qualifying any of these developments,
> am I just out of it as
> >> far as interesting new rock or am I right that
> indie rock or whatever
> >> has made the transition from formalist
> developments to
> >> recontextualization of its past?  I mean the late
> 90s saw Storm and
> >> Stress and all those Kranky bands taking rock
> away from its rhtymic
> >> constraints and Polvo challenging melodic content
> (in ways much
> >> different than the no wave 20 years before).  Am
> I making sense?  What
> >> I am missing going on now that counts as rock
> other than Lightning Bolt
> >> and brutal prog?
> >> -Woody
> >>
> >> PS. Uncle Woody Sullender @ Nightlight March 3
> >>
> 
> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors
> alt.music.chapel-hill --
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
> 



                
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