I Want The World, And I Want It Now – Can That Be Arranged For Me Somehow?
As a result of the Reuters article and the mention in Blender, there’s been a spike in traffic to this site, presumably from a lot of folks who have never been here before. (As it turns out, many of the new readers are from Brazil. Hello, people of Brazil. You are lovely and beautiful.) Anyway, I’m going to go back and revisit a few artists who I have covered recently, but feel deserve a bit of extra attention. This way, the new readers can get a taste of what they had been missing, and the folks who have been around have another chance to be convinced.
Maxi Geil and Playcolt “A Message To My Audience” – When it comes down to it, this site is all about music which is being slept on, and as I see it, the Maxi Geil album is clearly the most slept-on record of the year. I’d wager that at least 98% of all the slumber taking place in 2004 has been upon the mattress of Geil.
A lot of the time, the best indication that I am hearing a great album is when I must seriously deliberate over which song I should post here. While there are a small handful of duds on A Message To My Audience, at least eight of the songs are strong enough to be worthy of your attention. “Now The Music Stops” is an atmospheric, intensely sexual dance tune with a heavy backbeat which stops cold at the end of the verses as if to intensify the physical sensation when the beats return. “Please Remember Me” slickly balances crooning balladry, disco grooves, and bits of heavy rock with a self-aware smarminess akin to that of Jarvis Cocker. “Artist’s Lament” is an epic reverie of insincere sleaze and earnest egomania. “The Love I Lose” is an appealingly narcissistic dissection the power dynamics of the performer and the audience set against an arena rock power ballad backdrop.
Ultimately, “A Message To My Audience” is the best introduction to the band. It’s all self-aware bombast and over the top hugeness – a gallery band playing to imaginary cheap seats. The song is an essay about the angst of the artist, as he struggles with his relationship with his audience and the motivation for his art, vacillating between contempt and dependence of the audience’s approval. (Click here to buy it directly from the band.)
United State Of Electronica “Emerald City” – For me, this summer has been a bit of a let down in terms of mainstream hits. Where are our big summer pop anthems this year? It definitely seems as though 2003 was such a strong year for mainstream singles that we end up being stuck with a bunch of okay (or outright boring) singles from middling talent dominating the US pop charts because all of the big guns are taking the year off. To me, this is the best explanation for the omnipresence of Usher right now – he’s the best any of the major labels can come up with, and even though his current hits lack the urgency, sparkle, and pop of something like “Ignition (Remix)” or “Crazy In Love,” we all have to make do with what we’re given. There are some mid-sized hits of note (Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand, Nina Sky, that wonderful cover of “Our Lips Our Sealed” by the Duff sisters), but nothing which commands love, attention, and respect from nearly everyone; something which imposes itself upon pop culture, and demands that we all either fall in line or get out of the way.
I believe that in a better world, “Emerald City” would fill the Force Of Nature Pop Hit role for this summer. It has everything going for it – a novel, modern sound that reimagines Daft Punk as a rock band; an air of intense optimism and resounding joy; a feeling of grand inclusiveness which suggests that everyone in the world is invited to the U.S.E. party. Still, I don’t feel as though this song will ever be truly complete until/unless it achieves some level of mass popularity, because so much of its basic appeal is dependent on experiencing it with others. This song needs communal approval, it demands group participation. Whereas Maxi Geil fixates on what separates the artist from the audience, United State Of Electronica seem focused on the magic which happens when the audience becomes inseparable from the art. (Click here to buy it from Sonic Boom Records.)