Have you seen the Howie Mandel Watusi video? I thought of you…
I replied.
E-mail it to me.
He e-mailed me the link.
I replied.
I have never seen that before, but it might have changed my life. For the worse.
He replied.
Yeah, right?
It’s amazing- I hate it so much – yet it also predates Tim & Eric and reminds me so much of their aesthetic and what they mock and love – but it has no irony – but then that makes it more real – but the real is a bad – but I hate it – I can’t stop watching it – I love it – I hate Howie Mandel – but I understand myself better – but I don’t like what I now know.
I finished the chain off with this message.
You are getting Black Lasered in about 6 minutes.
I present this here for you all so that you understand what it is I am working with. There are definitely bright points, this being one of them.
The song from This Is Hardcore I really wanted to post was “Glory Days” but it doesn’t have a video, so I went with this one instead. “A Little Soul” is Jarvis Cocker’s conversation between himself and his own absent father, his father telling him not to turn into him and that he was a bastard when Cocker was a kid. He sings, “You look like me/But please don’t turn into me/You look like me/But you’re not like me I hope”. Christ, what a sad, fearful song for him to write, but a sentiment we can all relate to. That fear that you are going to grow up and repeat the same mistakes your parents made is the whole point of the song.
And that is sort of what makes This Is Hardcore so wonderful. Every song is sad and every song is dark, yet every song is catchy and driving and slick. It’s like all this lyrical sadness layered on top of fucking awesome rock music. God, I love it so much. So so much. I have no idea how many hundreds of times I’ve listened to it since 1998.
IN ITALIAN. Holy crap. I have never heard this before and it is awesome. Look at these fucking guys! LOOK! It’s figuratively inconceivable that this is the same band as the video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry64e6SVQGs
Same band! Same members (mostly!)! Holy crap! I LOVE KRAFTWERK!!!!!
After bitching about being sad last week, let me start this week with a music video because it means I don’t actually have to provide you with any meaningful content. You might get a letter later, not sure. We’ll see.
I’ve been listening to this Monarchy record a bit recently and I am a little mixed on it. I like the music, but the dude’s lyrics are kind of bullshit sometimes and kind of good other times. And when they’re kind of bullshit I get pulled right out of the music. Too bad. But I really like this song and I dig the astronaut video all in close up that they probably shot in a dark room. Simple, nice effects, cool song. A smidge emo, but who isn’t a smidge emo right now?
If there’s anything that fans of electronic music and metal like more than the extreme subgenrefication of their beloved music types I don’t know what it is. Take heavy metal for example: we’ve got death metal, black metal, thrash metal, speed metal, doom metal, sludge metal, prog metal, power metal, new wave of British heavy metal, new old school death metal, new wave of American black metal, tech death metal, blackened thrash metal, blackened death metal, nü-metal, metalcore, slamcore, mallcore, deathcore, thrashcore, crabcore, who knows what the fuck else. That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure I’m missing something.
The same is true of electronic music. House, acid house, tech house, trance, psy-trance, progressive trance, electro house, disco house, minimal tech house, electroclash, gabber, horrorcore, progressive house, Detroit house, Chicago house, Miami house, booty bass, drum & bass, dubstep, brostep, EBM, synthpop, futurepop, ambient house, italodisco, ghettotech, goa, witch house, grave wave. Christ, I could keep going and going and going.
For me this extreme diversification has always seemed totally unnecessary, especially as the differences between genres become smaller and smaller to the point that they are basically indistinguishable. Is this band futurepop or EBM? Or is it EBM with synthpoppy overtones and some dubstep inspiration??? Did this band release a deathcore record and are they straying away from their traditional NOSDM roots by incorporating some slamcore elements?! DID MACHINE HEAD REALLY RELEASE A NÜ-METAL RECORD?!? (They did and it broke my heart.)
See how stupid that all sounds? Not just stupid, but utterly pointless and fruitless?
Then what the hell am I doing proposing yet another subgenre? I have my reasons!
First, for me, House music breaks down into two categories: serious and not serious. I tend not to think of it as it sounds—it’s four on the floor for dancing and was inspired by Disco? it’s house—but whether it is taking itself super seriously or not. No one seems to take that into account, and I think it’s the most important factor defining house producers. Are you going to take this shit seriously (Euro House, I’m looking at you) or are you going to have fun with it and fill it with silly lyrics and idiocy?? I much prefer the latter.
For those of you who grew up on the Moon and have never heard of house music or have some sort of poor understanding of the music, house is a genre of electronic music that came out of Chicago in the early 80s. Specifically, the name comes a club called The Warehouse where the music first really became popular. Or from the fact that DJs made it in their homes. Or from the fact that these records were the DJ’s “house” records, in the way that a restaurant has a “house” wine. Whatever. It is characterized by a four on the floor beat, off-beat hi-hats, drum machines, driving basslines, and a strong Disco influence.
Here are some examples of what I am talking about, all of which have been on the site before.
Le Le’s “Breakfast”
Duck Sauce’s “Big Bad Wolf”
The 2 Bears’ “Bear Hug”
Detroit Grand Pubahs’ “Sandwiches” (CLASSIC!)
See what I mean? These guys are making dancey as hell beats but without a serious face in the mix. I love it.
But then what do I call it? It seems unfair to lump it in with all the other subgenres of house music. The difference between these guys and some coiffed dick head is like the difference between a Gwar show and a 6 year old’s piano recital.
The subgenre needs a name. I originally thought I would call it “Goon House” since to me “Goon” is sort of a good name for that and the words sound nice together. Goon House. Goooooon Houssssse. But Michael said that it reminded him of Jersey Shore douchebags and Charles said he thought of MSTRKRFT, which is, I guess, kind of close, but not exactly right. I went to talk to Steve about it and bounced around Clown, Silly, Goofy, Nonsense, whatever this, whatever that, but nothing was clicking. Panty House? No. Bouncey House? Nope. Light House? That’s actually kind of good and funny, but I am not sure. Fun House? White House? Jack House? Takk House?
What the hell do I call it? What do you all think?
This rules. A tribute to the 80s in all the best ways, how great is it when the woman’s mouth becomes a spider?! The juxtaposition of the neck shot with the champagne splashing into glasses?! The neon titles?! The Miami Vice steez throughout?!
