It must have been a splendid moment. One beard was scratching himself (maybe he had this clear image in his head of a saber tooth tiger for lunch or he was fantasizing about intercourse with his sister) when his hairy neighbor pointed his finger toward a pile of rocks and snarled: “MHAAAAMOOO!”
Beard hesitated for a second.
“MHAAAAMMOOOOH?” he tried to reproduce this interesting sound.
The other cavemen wildly jumped up and down, pointing toward the pile of rocks near them, and together they growled: “MAAAAMMOOOTH!”
Beard quickly stood up, as he suddenly understood, and the group of hunters started to run. That night they proudly brought home their feast of mammoth meat and juice from a branch of old grapes they had found on their way back, and “under the weather” they celebrated this exciting era of new discoveries with their females. That day communication was invented, and it’s performing its purpose to clarify…so well, ever since.
“How are you? I am good.” “It’s not you, it’s me.” “I never called you a jerk, but if I did, I meant it in the most positive way.” (Doesn’t honesty make life so much easier?)
Imagine, without communication, you probably would have wondered all day if your boyfriend thought that girl he met at the party yesterday was attractive. How boring would that party have been anyway, without our standard list of topics that do well when meeting strangers? I don’t think you would have impressed that blonde girl much, if you hadn’t brought up the ultra-interesting question of what makes humans so different from other species.
But maybe most important of all, words enable us to explain ourselves. I can’t imagine the humiliation a dog must experience, when he accidently farts. That poor poodle won’t able to express himself with a clarifying: “Woops! Heehee, excuse me!”
I am grateful that communication has always been there for me. Thank God no taboos started to exist during time, so that I can openly write about incest, just like I did earlier, and I am jazzed that sayings never get old.
Thank you for your attention, and I am not just saying that, I am meaning it, as well.
Doris ter Horst
Columnist Doris ter Horst can be reached at linfieldreviewopinion@gmail.com
Dr. Dog, the Philadelphia-based indie-rock outfit, released its sixth full-length album, “Shame Shame,” on April 6. In the three years since Dr. Dog moved up from total obscurity (with its album “We All Belong,” which reached No. 30 on the U.S. Billboard chart) to relative obscurity, the group has stuck to what it does best, winning over a growing following of fans and at times perplexing some of the more elitist music critics with their stay-the-course insistence on maintaining their sound. It’s a trite and well-worn cliché to say a band sounds “Beatlesque,” but it’s hard to stay away from that description.
The band’s sound bears a heavy influence from the mixing and layering techniques of later Beatles albums, and the dual vocals of bassist Toby Leaman and guitarist Scott McMicken balance each other out in the way Lennon and McCartney so often did. Throw in some Beach Boys harmonics, wildly blaring horns fading in and out, persistent strings, manic shifts in sounds over the course of a single track, catchy melodies, and that’s Dr. Dog in a nutshell. Oh, but don’t disregard the lyrics, which are often filled with religious allusion and the melancholy of living that’s been echoing around the globe since Hamlet bared his soul to London audiences. Retaining meaning to their lyrics while using an experimental sound has always been one of Dr. Dog’s strong suits.
Here’s a sample from track 10, “Jackie Wants a Black Eye”:
Jackie wants a black eye
Some proof that she’s been hit
And John wants the answers
But the questions just don’t quit
And we’re sitting in the rain
And we’re feeling like the weather.
You could say that we’re alone
Or we’re lonely together
We’re all in it together now
As we all fall apart
And we’re swapping little pieces
Of our broken little hearts.
Perhaps the most notable change in their sound on this album comes from the fact it was recorded in New York with producer Rob Schnap (who has worked with Beck and Elliott Smith). All of Dr. Dog’s previous albums were recorded in their small Philadelphia studio, but this album expands the band’s sounds in even more directions, although perhaps the album isn’t as cohesive as some might like. Nonetheless, the band took a step out of its comfort zone, and the result is an album that relies on retaining its old sound while infusing it with something new.
A solid album, worth listening to even if you’ve never heard of Dr. Dog. If you like this one, check out some of their earlier tunes.
Score: 7.5/10
* * *
On an unrelated note, April 17 is Record Store Day, a national event where independent music outlets across the country celebrate the culture of the small-box record store with dozens of special, limited edition releases. Ranch Records in McMinnville is participating, as are a handful of record stores in Portland and Eugene. Check out the participating stores here. Here’s a few highlights of the exclusive Record Store Day releases:
Beach House – Zebra 12” vinyl, includes two new tracks and two alternates from their hit album “Teen Dream.”
Fela Kuti – The 60s and 70s Nigerian musician credited with the creation of the afrobeat jazz genre has four songs from his first record on this 10” EP.
Gorillaz – 10” single release of the song “White Flag” from their 2010 album Plastic Beach.
Jimi Hendrix – 12” colored vinyl album Live @ Clark University, featuring several of his classic jams.
MGMT – 12” vinyl release of their sprawling, 12-minute epic “Siberian Breaks” from the forthcoming album Congratulations.
Paolo Nutini – CD release of his Live @ Preservation Hall EP.
Phoenix – 12” release of their single “Fences” (with alternate takes) on pink vinyl.
TV on the Radio – re-release of their most recent album Dear Science on vinyl, includes free mp3 download and Hot Chip remix.
Jordan Jacobo
Columnist Jordan Jacobo can be reached at linfieldreviewopinion@gmail.com
Photo courtesy of Anti
For those who did not attend last night’s ASLC Senate meeting: Landon Pigg, best known for his song “Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop” and his performance in Drew Barrymore’s “Whip It!,” will headline Wildstock on May 21.
Derby, named The Best New Band in Portland, Ore., by Willamette Weekly, will be opening for Pigg.
Dominic Baez
Editor-in-chief Dominic Baez can be reached at linfieldrevieweditor@gmail.com
Video courtesy of RCA/JIVE Label Group
It had all sound too perfect when I was planning for my Spring Break. After spending four nights with a friend in a hostel in San Francisco, I would take the bus, then train, then bus to Yosemite National Park on my own and stay a couple days to hike. There was nothing to be afraid of. Oh, and did I tell you that my personality is way too cool to soundlessly cry the entire last night in my San Francisco hostel bed?
Of course, I had not expected all my credit and paying cards to be declined during break. I also had not foreseen losing my European electricity converter, resulting into a dead phone and laptop. But this did not scare me at all, uh-uh. With my stash of foods, a friend’s pocket knife and my charming hiking shoes I bravely waved my friend goodbye, straightened my back and walked up to the bus driver, who had to pick up the ticket that my shaking hand had accidentally dropped in front of him.
Luckily all had turned out to be just fine, until now. I had hiked the three days without falling of cliffs or being eaten by a bear (I don’t think money or a phone could have helped me out of these situations anyway), and now I was tanning at the side of the road, waiting for the bus to come pick me, when I heard a car slowly passing by.
“It’s her, I swear!” a woman’s voice yelled.
“Well… I don’t want to do it!” the man sitting next to her said.
“Fine! I’ll go out. I’ll tell her,” the woman grumbled.
One thing I forgot to mention. After the first two days my food supply was not a food supply anymore, but luckily in hostels people leave their food unlabeled when they take off, so that other travelers can take it over. On my last day in Yosemite, I became the happy owner of a full bag of granola. As if this was not too good to be true already, I also saw an innocent American family with a little son that I could hitchhike along with into the park.
“Is that your granola?” the young mother’s high voice snapped at me, when we were already driving, doors on the children’s lock. “Yes…” I mumbled – an evolutionary natural response to witches, in order to safe the body from acute danger. Apparently they weren’t aware of the label-your-food-rule.
I spent the rest of the day feeling guilty. Then, as soon as I got back to the hostel, I hurried to the kitchen to return their granola, but found out that they (or at least their food) had already left.
This is it, I thought, as I heard the woman’s heels walking towards me. She’s going to turn me into a frog.
“Do you want a ride to the park, me and my boyfriend were wondering?” A smiling German accent– not the witch’s, for certain (or she had transformed to a different body, that’s possible, too).
My bus came, I thanked, but no thanked, and when I safely sat behind the window, breathing heavily, I realized that Spring Break had been awesome, and that it was finally over now.
Doris ter Horst
Columnist Doris ter Horst can be reached at linfieldreviewopinion@gmail.com
MGMT’s sophomore album “Congratulations” won’t be released until April 13, but leaks of the psychedelic-pop duo’s music have been available online for nearly a month. As a way to lessen the number of illegal downloads, MGMT posted the entire album streaming on its Web site, www.whoismgmt.com, in late March. The band posted a message to its fans: “Hey everybody, the album leaked, and we wanted you to be able to hear it from us. We wanted to offer it as a free download but that didn’t make sense to anyone but us.”
This tongue-in-cheek message to a fan base says a lot about the record industry as it enters the second decade of the digital music era. But first, a little history lesson.
In the early 2000s, as MP3 files began to accumulate on the Internet and organizing them became a pressing matter, Napster was king. The online file sharing service revolutionized ethical and legal questions surrounding issues of copyright. Thus, we entered a new age, an age where the value of music and the gradual degradation of physical-format sales has caused us to question what price, if any, we should pay for a work of art. After Napster was shut down by a court order, dozens of similar sites popped up on the Internet, some rising to more fame than others. (Among the most popular were Kazaa and Limewire, though their music organization was often plagues by incorrect track, album and artist listings.) At that time, downloading music illegally was about as easy (and as fun) as digging through a pile of smelly socks in the hopes of finding a clean shirt.
Today, the most common online file distribution Web sites are BitTorrent sites, which store an enormous library of torrent files full of pirated media. You can log on to torrent directories like btjunkie.org and, with the help of a torrent application that allows you to download files, you are just a click away from expansive pirated music libraries that include rare albums, early EPs and full artist discographies. To make a long story short, that pile of smelly socks from the days of Limewire is now an immaculately organized walk-in closet.
Back to MGMT, whose album was leaked weeks before its release date. They are trying to reduce the impact of the leak; it’s like saying, “here, listen to our album for free on our Web site, just don’t download it illegally.” MGMT is, for the time being, succumbed to the realization that its music is flying through cyberspace and no one is paying for it. The question is, will those same fans who are listening to pirated copies of a leaked album go and purchase that very same music once it is officially released? Perhaps some of them will, but certainly album sales will be hurt; on the other hand, people could have just waited until the day of the album released, then logged onto a torrent site and found the same album and illegally downloaded it then.
One thing is for sure: Music means much less to people, it has less value, when you can’t hold it in your hand. When you walk into a record store, you wouldn’t think about shoving a few CDs under your shirt and walking out, would you? And yet, by clicking your mouse a few times you can end up with the same product – music you didn’t pay for. I think it’s easy for us to forget where music comes from, to forget about those artists who have spent years trying to make it in the business. It’s easy to be cynical about the oligopoly of major record labels, but don’t forget about all those independent record labels that are trying to support new and exciting progress in the world of music.
I know most people have a lot of files in their music libraries that they didn’t pay for; it’s natural. Files are easy to download online, and its even easier to share and copy music with your friends. I don’t want to sound preachy, but I just want to say that when you love an artist, or an album or anything, you should want to pay for it. By purchasing an album, you are saying you support what a band is doing; you are saying, “this is the direction I want music to go.” Most importantly, you’re keeping the very music you love alive, so you can enjoy it longer.
At the same time, music has expanded in so many different directions that it’s hard to expect people to pay for everything that they want to listen to. Personal music libraries of 5,000 songs are not uncommon – does that mean those people should have spent (assuming a price of 60 cents per song) $3,000 on music? It’s hard to say, and there are no real answers, because we’re still living in a time of transition. The music industry is doing all it can to respond to technical and cultural changes surrounding the consumption of music; we are still riding the wave of change. It’s exciting to think we get to be a part of a moment in history that people will be talking about generations. We are the MP3 generation, a group of people who’ve come of age in a time where music went from being something physical to something intangible that flew through the air at unimaginable speeds, readily available to anyone with an Internet connection and a love of musical exploration. I’m excited to see where it’s going, where we’re going and how the dissemination of music will change in our lifetimes.
Jordan Jacobo
Columnist Jordan Jacobo can be reached at linfieldreviewopinion@gmail.com
It’s not often I come around a song that makes me smile just by listening to it. However, when I was driving to Port Angeles, Wash., during Spring Break, I heard Michael Bublé’s new release, “Haven’t Met You Yet,” from his new album, “Crazy Love,” I have to say I fell in love.
In all honestly, I never gave Bublé a chance; the first time I heard him was sophomore year when my best friend had himplaying in her HP apartment. At that point in my young life, I wasn’t what you would consider a patron of fine music. I was more attuned to Britney Spears and Rihanna.
However, now I consider jazz/big band music incredible, so I am instantly drawn to Bublé’s style and songs (even if the vast majority of his releases are covers of popular jazz hits).
I’ve been addicted to Bublé’s smooth, almost smokey lyrical prowess, which has the ability to leave me either somber or hyperactive. It’s not so “jazzy” that you have to be sitting in a smoke-filled dungeon to enjoy, but it still makes you want to swing dance.
However, “Haven’t Met You Yet,” vastly unlike anything else on the album, has an upbeat, near-pop tempo to it, while still retaining Bublé’s signature voice. It really just is a bubbly song. The rest of the CD, in contrast, is more reminiscent of his previous albums.
I encourage you to take some time and listen to “Haven’t Met You Yet” (above) if you haven’t heard it yet. It’s definitely worth your time. Who knows, you might even leave with a smile.
Dominic Baez
Editor-in-chief Dominic Baez can be reached at linfieldrevieweditor@gmail.com
Video and photo courtesy of Warner Bros.