Oh goddd why am i not in bed?

While I was playing around with last.fm and doing that other blog post, I happened upon this song:

Good Shoes - Sophia

I was struck with an all encompassing need to work out what song it sounds exactly like. Eventually I happened upon..

Custard's Wahooti Fandango album!

The intro to the Good Shoes song is essentially the love child of Pack Yr Suitcases and another song from the same album called Melody.

So yeah.. having got my Custard nerd on, I can go to bed.

last.fm - handing out subcultural capital at a computer near you.

I read Ryan Hibbett's section on "Marketing Indie Rock: Amazon.com" with interest. I had long used Amazon.com's recommendations to discover new music, and like Hibbett's colleague, felt that "they've pretty well got me pegged. (74)" The marketing aspect of the site didn't work, however - I never bought from Amazon because shipping from the US is expensive enough that I just went to JB Hifi. Eventually, Amazon lost even my web traffic, because I found something better.

last.fm bills itself as the 'social music revolution'. It differs from the Amazon example in that it is not about marketing the music or soliciting the purchase of goods. I am not a student of business by any means, but from what I can tell they are in the business of making money from information. This is from the last.fm hq blog:

"Last.fm is a prominent representative of a growing class of Internet startups: smaller companies whose business entails storing and processing huge amounts of data with a low amount of overhead. Our project teams are comparably tiny and we rely mostly on open source infrastructure."

last.fm is powered by a plugin called Audioscrobbler that, in effect, watches the program you use to play music, and relays the information from every track played back to last.fm. With this data, the website compiles lists - of your favourite songs and bands, this week and of all time, of the popularity of bands and of individual tracks. Check my profile out here.

(Yes, my user name is just 'Loz'. That is because I discovered this site in 2003, I believe when I signed up membership was still in the 200s. I have been using it longer than practically anyone! I am allowed to gloat because I am a nerd who doesn't go out to enough shows, and can certainly not claim to have seen anyone before they were cool :/)

In addition to this, last.fm allows users to listen to a range of 'radio stations'. These can be launched by typing in the name of a band (it will play bands the site has deemed similar), a tag (songs that users have marked with the same tag), or by choosing from 'my recommendations' (songs that the database infers you may like, based on your listening habits and those of people like you), and 'my neighbourhood' (songs listened to by people whose data is closest to yours). Yup, there is a subtle difference between all these stations, and from my listening, they do play a different set of songs.

All of these options allow users to hop between tracks in a loosely directed way, or with a definite intent, at their leisure. For instance, 'my neighbourhood' played me a song by Starlight Run. I am shown a bio of the band, the band's tags, comments, users who like them, six similar artists, and the option to play stations for music tagged 'indie', 'indie rock', 'alternative' or 'piano rock' and 'music like Brand New' and a host of other bands

So, how does it compare to Amazon's system? Well, last.fm can actually provide a more accurate set of definitions and classifications, because it tracks what people actually listen to - it can tell what tracks people prefer, which are their favourites, as opposed to purchases that they might make that swiftly fall out of favour.

It can also tell which songs from any particular band are the most popular. I use this function ALL the time, when trying to decide what songs to sample of a band I've never heard before. It also goes some way to explaining that strange phenomenon - when you go to see an overseas band, who've not really released any 'singles' here, who get NO airplay, not even on triple j.. how they still manage to have a 'hit song' that everyone freaks out when they play? I digress.

At this point, however Amazon is more accurate in knowing what people like in the present, as it can tell more recent purchases. I really wish this was something last.fm could do.. having used it for five years, I want it to realise when it recommends me music that I SIMPLY DO NOT want to hear any more ska in this lifetime.

Additionally, Amazon arguably has a better range of data, person for person, because it is more well known - in my enthusiasm upon re-discovering it, I mentioned the last.fm site to a bunch of people, all of whom thought it was a cool idea, but none of whom had utilised it. However, it really is a consideration of breadth vs depth - by recording data on individual songs, regardless of whether the consumer has made a purchase or not, last.fm's available information is far more detailed.

last.fm also engages in a method of classifying music that is much more flexible and adaptable than Amazon. With Amazon, one can "continue narrowing the category, as if channeling deeper into the vaults of rock usic, toward something increasingly obscure, personally suited to the consumer, and therefore highly valuable. (74) " Hibbett also notes that bands will show up under a number of categories, to reflect the hybrid nature of some bands, or the overlap of certain genres. However, when you search for a band at last.fm, its profile includes user defined tags, powered by a script that makes tags that have been nominated by more users appear in larger text than others. In this way, when I search for Port O'Brien, I see that most users have defined this band as 'folk' or 'indie' - but that it is, according to the size of the tags, more folk than indie. At this point, Amazon simply cannot do that - to make a similarly fine distinction I would have to read a number of reviews, lists or 'so you'd like to' articles, and ascertain the aggregate opinion on Port O'Brien myself.

Back to Hibbett -- "The entire Amazon site is based on an ironic catering to individuals, which is only made possible through a clustering of "types". (74)" last.fm is definitely an example of this, but is made infinitely more complex through the use of song-by-song tracking, charts, radio stations, user forums, comments and private messaging, tagging, personal profiles and so on. It is able to offer this depth of information, as well as free listening by virtue of its model that sells data, not goods. For Amazon, offering all these functions for free, with no guarantee of securing a sale, would be inefficient business practice. For last.fm, "traffic from the incredible wealth of mashups, widgets, and services that leverage Last.fm data matches traffic to our website itself."

As for the social aspect.. I have not really made use of the forums or messaging, having no real desire to meet random music snobs online. However, in my five years of using last.fm, it seems I have become a member of groups entitled "People with inconsistent musical taste - who yet prove a certain indy-attitude", "indie sex", "Aussies with taste" and "IndieRockEmoExchange". I did seek out any of these groups, but was invited, apparently, on the basis of my listening habits. Flattering, no? It goes without saying that last.fm "takes advantage of a power apparatus that drives people toward social differentiation (75)".. maintaining subcultural capital and discovering new bands becomes ridiculously easy, provided you stay within earshot of your computer. No longer do you have to suffer the indignity of finding out the band you discovered yesterday played the Zoo last week. Everyone wins! Yes, I really love this site.

Popular music approaches to the Saddle Creek DVD

So, now to place what I learned about Saddle Creek within what I've read this semester regarding popular music studies. This second part is a consideration of different approaches to classifying this particular group of participants. I'm thinking in terms of what we've done at the end of each tutorial this semester - take whichever subcultural activity we've been discussing, and run through the readings, evaluating then for how well they fit with what we're discussing.

I was going to tack this onto the end of the last post.. but that got really long!

Subcultural Theory

Not so much. We don't really see anything that fits with the 'spectacular' inherent to this theory. There also doesn't seem to be the acting out of class tensions that the CCCS fellows attributed much of the classic subcultures to, nor the complex systems of bricolage such as with punks, mods and teddy boys in the 60s and 70s. At a stretch, one could argue that the DIY practices and the DIY, lo-fi sound of some of the Saddle Creek recordings show a kind of homology.. but observing that the modes of production have an effect on the sound that is produced is more common sense than a sound example of subcultural theory.

Sarah Thornton's article

Much of this article is concerned with youth partaking in the social activity of going to clubs and being consumers of music. As such, it is not all easily applied to the Saddle Creek musicians.

There seem to be shades of Frith's 'sixth form culture' idea that can be observed in the DVD - if not much discussed by the interviewees. Much of their connections were made at college, they fit the description of "individualists who buy albums, listen to progressive rock and go to concerts" (95). There are also allusions to accusations of elitism, and a shot of a note written about how they were called "rich West Omaha kids".

Regarding the ideas of cultural capital, based solely on what we see on the video, there isn't evidence that they "exhibit the burlesque exaggerations of an imagined other" (101). They do not seem to define their music and tastes by "what it emphatically isn't" (105).

However, this does get one thinking about other kinds of capital--specifically, social capital. 80% of the bands on Saddle Creek, says one member in the intro, lived in and grew up with the other band's members in Omaha. As the label enjoyed greater success, the decision was made that they should welcome the bands of friends and family members with more or less open arms. So in this instance, being a part of the community basically guaranteed access to the economic capital available to the label.

Neotribes

The article regarding tribes was largely concerned with consumption and the links between audience members, and the ways in which their styles and consumer preferences intersected with their clubbing activites. There is not a lot here to relate to the music-making community in Omaha.

Additionally, Andy Bennet sums up his take on tribal theory by noting that "in choosing certain musical styles and visual images, the forms of association and social gatherings in which young people ebecome involved are not rigidly bound into a 'subcultural' community but rather assume a more fluid, neo-tribal character." (111)

The implication is that association and gatherings come out of existing preferences for sounds and styles held by individual members, and that these associations are as changeable as are the individual's tastes. Such a model does not seem to apply to Saddle Creek, which exhibits a consistent membership despite varied and changing interests in exploring new sounds.

Scenes

As is fairly obvious from the fact that it is more often than not referred to as the 'Omaha scene', scene theory fits best with what we can see on the Spend an Evening with Saddle Creek DVD.

Geoff Stahl's introduction to scenes in his article about Montreal gives us a few succinct definitions that illustrate this:

"The significance of musical life might be better seen as occuring at the juncture of soatual relations and social praxis" (53)

and;

"Scene used as an interpretive tool can encourage analyses of the interconnectivity of a city's cultural spaces, its industries, institutions and media, emphasizing its heterogeneity as well as its unifying elements." (53)

So, this approach is suited to looking at the fluidity of roles and the importance of location we see in the instance of Saddle Creek. It also focuses on the production and distribution side of music scenes, rather than focussing on the audiences, as with a lot of the club culture readings.

However, like tribe theory, this conception of scene stresses a certain transience. While certainly over the 10 years history seen on the DVD, it could be assumed that some players have moved on to different occupations, groups of people or locations, there is a consistency of membership over a longer period of time that neither tribe nor scene theories seem to have accounted for.

Problems with the material

In analysing this material alone to begin with, there are a few limitations. The documentary deals entirely with the musicians and others directly involved with the record label. Firstly, this poses the issue that the story is told entirely from their point of view. Bluntly, those involved are never going to say 'Yeah, we really set ourselves up in opposition to the mainstream, tried to make our music inaccessible to gain some indie points', either because that would be inherently uncool, or because claims of opposition and inaccessibility are arguably more the activities of audiences and listeners, and less that of musicians.

Secondly, the production and performance focus renders this subejct matter of less use to some of the approaches, which focus on those who participate by buying and listening to records, going to shows, but not actually making the music.

Spend an Evening with Saddle Creek

For the purposes of this assignment, and also for personal interest, I was lucky to get my hands on a copy of a documentary detailing the first 10 years of Omaha, Nebraska's Saddle Creek Records. Saddle Creek was at the centre of a scene described by the New York Times as "The most vital underground rock scene in the [US]".

The story is told through interviews with the people who were involved in the bands and the label, and is peppered with footage of shows, recording sessions and other label activities. It is useful for gaining insight into the defining characteristic of the mid-nineties Omaha scene, at least from the perspective of those directly involved with the music and production side of things.

Community Ethic

A theme reiterated by practically everyone interviewed is that the label was set up and maintained with the intent to benefit everyone making music within a particular circle of friends. This community ideal is stressed throughout the documentary, which begins with various band members stating how long they've known each other - many of them since primary school. We learn that the label's predecessor - Lumberjack Records - produced it's first major release with the help of donations from friends and college dorm residents. Says Cursive's Ted Stevens, of the Slowdown Virginia cd:

"it seemed like everyone kicked in 100 bucks here, or 200... it was a really nice thing that happened, this record just kinda came out of it."

As the community continued making and releasing music, members comment that while some bands stopped making music, often they never decisively "broke up", rather, individual members would move on to other activities they felt were more important to the label's development - such, collaborating with another artist, or learning the recording process so they could work with bands in the studio.

The DVD is accompanied with a glossy booklet that is laid out like a record yearbook. Flipping through this you can really see this practice of collaboration, community and rotating memberships in bands - most people who were in a given band show up later in another group.

Eclecticism

This eclectic membership is reflected in the range of sounds on the Saddle Creek roster, and goes hand in hand with a homespun, DIY aesthetic. Offhand references to a "Saddle Creek Sound" that the various bands began to attract in the media are somewhat problematic, given that the bands encompass a wide range of styles and production techniques. For example, the three acts that gained the most widespread success run the gamut of indie rock. From Bright Eyes lo-fi teenage bedroom recordings, through Cursive making the kind of emotionally fraught hardcore that became termed 'Screamo', to the Faint, who mixed indie rock with drum machines, electronic music and death metal vocals.

A number of the artist discuss how being involved with different bands was for them an opportunity to experiment with different sounds. Says Conor Oberst about starting the Desapareicidos:

"I always liked rock music, and screaming... I'd kinda abandoned that kind of music and had done Bright Eyes for a couple years, and only that... I didn't want to get up and just like, play Bright Eyes songs, like louder.. i wanted it to have its own identity and so I really tried to craft the lyrics a lot different than Bright Eyes and make it more external, looking out on the world instead of always the internal."

The DVD also reveals the DIY nature of the scene, showing the recording of a number of releases taking place in basement studios or even just living rooms. One scene shows the construction of the packaging of Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors LP, which included mirrored cardboard on either side. We see Roger Lewis of The Good Life installing the mirrors and polishing them one by one!

Insularity

The interviewees also admit to a certain insularness that came with the community involvement of the scene. The bands involved were accused early on of elitism, something they more or less seem to have made a joke out of. Two anecdotes reveal how the players began to realise that happenings outside of Omaha had a tendency to go unnoticed. Firstly, as the initial Lumberjack Records grew, they realised they would have to change the name. Says Kasher: "Once we opened our eyes and noticed that there's a world outside of Omaha, and there's actually a huge distributor called Lumberjack."

Joel Petersen of The Faint talks about realising their sound was not as unique at first as they thought:

"We kinda wanted to make it like a mix tape.. like, a bunch of different sounds.. we were kinda playing what we heard other people playing, but trying to do it a little differently, and i think travelling round and seeing other bands and guitar players pretty much doing the same thing.. was a, you know, kinda kick in the head.. 'alright, this puts things in a wider perspective.. we're just another band in another city doing the same thing.'"

However, this importance of the scene at home also ensured the continuing relevance of Saddle Creek. A number of bands, including The Faint, received interest from major labels. The descision was made to turn these offers down, citing an uneasiness with the larger corporations and a lack of interest in what they had to offer leading them to question "why do we need it?". In the end, says Dapose of The Faint, "we were completely happy with Saddle Creek". This allowed them to resist what Matt Maginn describes as a "temptation to our collective ideal".

So, there you have it - a crash course in the collective that is Saddle Creek. Stay tuned for an analysis of how this fits in with approaches to popular music theory found in the MSTU2000 reader.

Special features as standard!!

While anyone reading this should not really expect this blog to be appreciably different to any of the other assignments, there are a a few little innovations included for comfort and efficiency:

- Green blog!!
'No it isn't, it's black!', you say. More fool you! Nor should it be assumed that the black background is a symbol of this blog's emo sensibilities or general underground cred. Nope, this blog is actually saving the environment. If you don't believe me, go check out Black Google.

- Keep up, kids.
Over to your right, there's a section for my favourite songs of the moment, which are varied and ever changing. These songs are guaranteed to be awesome, and might be of use to other student's topics. For instance, the current one, Art Star by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, might be of interest to the riotgrrl kids, or anyone fond of ironic digs at vis arts types.

Think of them as the rain-detecting windscreen wipers on your overpriced sedan. I'm off to look for a job with a car company.

Better late than pregnant?

I noticed in the sign-up post for this assignment last year, one of the commenters said 'oh god, i'm glad I'm not first'. To that I can only really say 'oh god, I hope I'm not last'.

I'm posting this from a sweet little apartment on Cavill Ave that I managed to score a free week in. It has a giant spa, so in preparation for actually doing some work, I popped on Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors album, poured myself a cocktail and ran myself a hot bath. It occured to me that while this was a relaxing episode for me, if captured on celluloid it would look creepily like the climactic suicide scene in a depressing movie. Like, so emo right now.

The reason I'm recounting this is because it leads me to why I've chosen my topic - I realised how many times recently I've had to explain to people that when I say 'I used to be into emo', I'm not saying 'I used to be into cutting, kohl and skinny jeans'.

To that end, my blog and final assignment will focus on the music that introduced me to the term 'emo' - American indie emo music of the mid to late nineties. I also hope to look at its roots in earlier styles, such as the DC scene, and the ways in which these styles of indie music came to diverge from the term 'emo'.

So, I guess that's the mission statement done with.. Stay tuned.

hello?

this is not a test.