Fresh Cherries from Yakima

in indie-rock, probably moreso than any other culture than hip-hop, people love to perch themselves on a high-horse and pretend that they’re better than everything else, or that your favorite band was better three years ago. in indie-rock online criticism, people think that the comment forum gives them free reign to be as snarky, disrespectful, or downright mean-spirited, as they want to be. i practice in a lot of cliches, but one of my favorites is, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all.” this is not to say that you’re not allowed to dislike something, but please make it a little more constructive than “so-and-so sucks,” or, “this shit is so mediocre,” without backing up your thesis. generally, i feel as though too many talking points in popular culture get a bad rap. so, i’d like to defend some of them, if you don’t mind.

in defense of justice and simplicity in dance music:
call me naive, call me ignorant of dance music, but when people call out certain dance outfits [justice in particular, obviously] for not having substance, i immediately think, “since when was dance music supposed to have substance, anyway?” i thought the basis of dance music was supposed to make people DANCE? and when you do it in a way as refreshing as justice does [which is, to say, completely disjointed, but still enjoyable], who cares if they’re making “dance music for kids”? kids like what they like; kids are a lot less self-conscious and concerned with cred than most of the people that read my blog.

in defense of LCD soundsystem and self-assuredness:
james murphy is probably one of my favorite people to read interviews from, because he holds no punches about anything, including how good his music is. some people accuse him of being smug, but i think this is hilarious, because most of those people are who he’s making fun of in his iconic 2005 single, “losing my edge.” i think false modesty is a lot more detrimental to an artist’s work than the confidence that murphy displays.

in defense of modest mouse and being a top-40 band.
for a week during the spring of 2007, pigs flew, hell froze over, and modest mouse had the highest selling record in america. although the band’s fifth [fact checker, please] studio album was unquestionably the weirdest number-one record of the past few years, it was critically-panned and unfairly characterized as being a naked stab at the mainstream. i don’t get it. this was supposed to be a win for alternative music; reaching for the brass ring and snatching out of the hands of the paint-by-numbers modern rock and shamelessly manufactured pop stars that rule the roost of the mainstream. instead, the collective world of indie-rock are pissed that they have to share modest mouse with the jocks and the bleached-blonde 15-year-old girls of the world. truth be told, they need modest mouse more than we do; they need something with a little substance. the fact that success is so frowned-upon is, far and away, our genre’s worst trait.

in defense of the social content of hip-hop:
when the dom imus scandal first made headlines, i brought up a point when talking to my sisters about hip-hop: “is it socially irresponsible? yes. but so are quentin tarentino movies. in fact, the latter is probably even moreso.” i think the defense that they’re just “writing about what they see” is a half-truth, but at the same time, there are forms of art that are seen as “highbrow” by upper [read: white]-america that tackle the same levels of misogyny, violence, homophobia, greed, and disrespect for the law as hip-hop do. although i’m not into some of the subject matter, rappers are just entertainers. how come the senate doesn’t chastise the governor of california for blowing a cop’s head off in his role in the terminator? i mean, there are probably more examples of civil disobedience and misogyny over the course of a decemberists album than an average hip-hop album. it’s a shame that rappers are seen as such threatening individuals, that they’re not allowed for their content to be seen as fictional.

oh, and one more thing about imus: if he actually listened to hip-hop and admitted that he was just acting the fool, that would be one thing. it would be inexcusable, but slightly forgivable. however, imus doesn’t listen to hip-hop; he just used hip-hop as a cop-out to take the pressure off of him, and mainstream [read: white] media bought it.

racism’s still alive, they just be concealing it
but i know they don’t want me in the damn club
they even make me show ID to get inside of sam’s club.

in defense of beth ditto taking her shirt off:
oh, how the body-conscious hipsters were aghast at that gossip gig. beth ditto is challenging the stereotypical image of what a rock star’s supposed to be, and i applaud her middle-finger to the straight-white-male establishment of indie-rock.

in defense of myspace:
myspace jumped the shark, because it’s not just for the hipsters and the emo-kids to sit at different lunch tables anymore. now, EVERYBODY’S on myspace. there are rap songs about myspace. myspace is now a cultural phenomenon, and because of that, it’s no longer cool. but what do you do FIRST when you hear about a new band and you want to sample their music? you head over to their myspace page. what happens when you meet someone whose e-mail address you just happen to have? you casually view their myspace page as a screening process. there have been times where i’ve been asked for my e-mail instead of my phone number, because the girl wants to connect via myspace. it’s going to be around for a long time, so get used to it.

in defense of self-promotion:
speaking of myspace, i left a comment on the page of a local website one time about how much often i read their site. less than a week later, they did a review of a local album, which threw a subliminal jab at my “snazzy social networking.” for starters, it was genuine; i’m not calculated enough to do something like that just to get traffic to fresh cherries from yakima’s myspace profile. secondly, how many bands leave flyers on your page without even bothering to say something nice about your website? lastly, i’m an unsigned artist who controls every aspect of this entity called fresh cherries from yakima: recording, producing, mixing, running the blog and the myspace page, booking shows [and scheduling on-the-fly garage/kitchen/basement/trunk-of-car gigs, sending out advance copies of the album, and yes, promotion– EVERYTHING. who is supposed to spread the word about me OTHER than myself?

in defense of peter wentz:
whether his obsessive self-consciousness, his verbose song titles, his online rants, his candid honesty, or the fact that he’s dating ashlee simpson, pete wentz is the guy everyone loves to hate. here’s the kicker: i don’t. i think he’s a clever lyricist and all-around intelligent guy who gets a lot of flak for being honest regardless of the consequences. a friend of mine and i once got into an argument about wentz’s desire to be famous. EVERYONE WHO SIGNS A DEAL WITH A MAJOR LABEL WANTS TO BE FAMOUS. in all frankness, i’d rather someone who looks to morrissey as an idol be a world-famous pop star than the assembly-line pop fluff that american idol churns out every year.

in defense of bands that license music:
the whole “sellout” thing is played out like kwame and them fucking polka dots. it ain’t getting any easier to sell records, and we’re all consumers of a product of some sort. plus, once again, it’s a win for indie-rock when my niece is watching a crayola commercial and she ends up bobbing her head to animal collective.

in defense of bloc party:
no matter what anyone says about a weekend in the city, it’s still got more interesting musical ideas than most bands can muster up in their entire careers. bloc party is still one of my favorite bands of the decade, and no quote-unquote “sophomore misstep” is going to shut out the promise they have for the future. i still believe they’re one of the few bands that could realistically attain radiohead-levels of both fame and artistic relevance.

in defense of detox not coming out for the fifth-straight year:
if dr. dre’s magnum opus would have came out in 2003, like it was supposed to, it probably would only have eminem, snoop, and 50 cent as guests. now, it could very well have every relevant figure in hip-hop with a guest verse; stat quo is the most promising rapper to join aftermath since 50, lil’ wayne recently made his contribution to the album, i’ve heard that hov is supposed to be on it, so is bishop lamont, who is widely regarded as the most promising rapper on the west coast, and i’m crossing my fingers that dre reunites royce the 5’9” and a hopefully-rejuvenated eminem. plus, if he’s been making beats and doing them over for the past half-decade, you may be looking at the best-produced hip-hop record of all-time.

in defense of the shins:
wincing the night away is unquestionably their weirdest, most experimental effort, yet. there’s more texture, versatility, and attention to production than any shins release thus far. so, is it because the album went to number two on the billboard charts why people are pretending not to like it? although i don’t like it as much as chutes too narrow [probably one of my favorite records of the decade], i like it as much as oh, inverted world, and i think it was produced better than either. i think wincing is a step closer to creating another classic album.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 2:59 pm and is filed under "meaningful" essayism, lists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.