The Morning News

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Currently: TMN wishes you a very good weekend equipped with interesting things to read. Thank you, as always, for reading us. http://tmne.ws/h
1 day ago

Listening • A Stern Mouth- and Earful

Who Invented Tapping?

Not Eddie Van Halen. Violin shredder Paganini employed the technique in early 19th century performances, Harry deArmond was said to have developed the two-handed method, and Emmett Chapman perfected the method in 1969. [source]
Shortly after the release of her first album early last year, Marnie Stern was featured alongside Kaki King in a New York Times article for, essentially, being a woman who plays guitar really well. It’s hard to estimate how accurate the Times’s assumption is that virtuosic performers are rarely found in “indie” music. The writer looks all the way back to the birth of the punk rock ethos as proof that “indie,” its supposed descendant, is by definition couched in a simplistic musical approach. The genre label, however, is increasingly difficult to qualify since it’s applied as a modifier to everything from noise to folk to hip-hop to pop. One need look no further than such diverse artists as Jonny Greenwood, Andrew W.K., or recently Digest-featured James Blackshaw to see that technically proficient musicians also regularly court the “indie” marketplace. What the Times piece does get right, unfortunately, is that, outside of classical performance, women are rarely those virtuosos (although Stern herself is uncomfortable with such an assessment of her own craft).

What’s awesome about her music, though, is the way she takes these Van Halen-inspired loops of ebullient guitar tapping and applies it to power pop, which produces a joycoretastic cacophony of glorious energy and exhiliration. It’s progressive pop. It’s bubblegum metal. Whatever. Most importantly, it’s fun. These seemingly disparate elements converging under her staccato, saccharine soprano—like on “Ruler” from her forthcoming second album, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (phew!)—go a long way to proving that these genre assignations are porous and lose validity when confronted with artists who continue challenging the rules. And that is it. —Erik Bryan, Sep. 18, 2008

» Listen to "Ruler" at Fluxblog

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: Andrew W.K., Emmett Chapman, Harry DeArmond, Indie, James Blackshaw, Jonny Greenwood, Kaki King, Marnie Stern, Niccolo Paganini, Tapping, Van Halen

Listening • And We All Drone On

Also From This Astral Plane

Stars of The Lid released an album last year hits in a similar way to Blackshaw’s latest: Both are weaved of beautifully long strands of light that shine favorably on most things—especially deep concentration and spinning around in the high-winds.
The music of James Blackshaw, 12-string guitar virtuoso, elegantly drones and is perfect for drifting—in and out of the room, in and out of concentration, between the city, silent trains, and the ocean. “Infinite Circle” is really about these sorts of grand and complete movements. Derek Walmsey of The Wire magazine calls it like so: “His fingerpicking mantras are as melodic as a music box, gliding through dizzying tempos like clockwork…Blackshaw often sounds more like a court harpist than a backwoods strummer.”

“Infinite Circle,” is one-fifth of Blackshaw’s latest album, Litany of Echoes, and the mesmerizing 12-string guitar is perfect. We should expect no more—that’s what 10 out of 10s are for. Float onwards, away-wards. —Mike Smith, Sep. 11, 2008

» Listen to "Infinite Circle" at Indie Muse

SHARE THIS • EMAIL THIS • FILE UNDER: 12-String Guitar, Derek Walmsey, James Blackshaw, Stars of the Lid, The Wire

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