Comments on Pukekos: No New York

This is an argument I've been struggling with ...

2010-02-22T19:17:46.505-05:00

This is an argument I've been struggling with for a long time. I have consumer way more music through downloading than I could afford. For years I only used torrents and not through any invite only site, so the selection wasn't the greatest but nothing to complain about. Once I finally moved to Soulseek I couldn't believe what I had been missing. All of a sudden 95 percent of the albums on my 'to get' list were instantly available.

Before I used Soulseek if I couldn't find the torrent of an album that I must have I would make the 'splurge', as I did for No New York. Actually now that I think of it, I got my friend to buy it and I ripped the CD. Needless to say I loved it and although I don't feel buying an album will make you appreciate the music more, there is something special about it.

Like a lot of things I generally have two opposing and unrealized opinions on the matter. On the one hand I believe there is too much idolizing in music (and generally all art forms). We tend to put artists on pedestals and all the aspects of purchasing music (the limited number of albums you can afford, waiting for an album, trading the money you earned, having a physical copy that you can peruse) only accentuates this. Part of me agrees with the Dada/Fluxus/Post-Modern idea of taking the author (of a work) out of the equation of appreciation and analysis.

On the other hand, not only do I believe in the importance of (considering) the history of a work or of art, but also of the inclusion of the author in such history. As this post argues, and as others have doubtless observed in themselves, buying an album adds value to an album that is not just monetary, and this value resonates in one's experience with the album.

While most of my favourite albums I do not even own, I wouldn't even have them as favourite albums if perpetual and pervasive downloading did not exist.

I would say that purchasing music back in the day ...

2010-02-17T17:06:27.077-05:00

I would say that purchasing music back in the day leant a lot more meaning to the music itself. The excitement I used to feel when a record arrived in the mail still reverberates in me, and I can't say I've experienced that feeling from a download. I used to save money up for a trip to Duluth (!) and load up on records that I'd purchase based on the cover alone, and that method yielded great results almost every time. Media glut has erased that method as viable.

@Wren ok it's obvious to me that you haven'...

2010-02-17T11:56:22.158-05:00

@Wren
ok it's obvious to me that you haven't really thought this no wave contra sex pistols argument through. "Power chords are for frustrated anti-intellectuals. No-Wave is the high-art take on punk." well, lets say a frustrated anti-intellectual monkey got a hold of a guitar. surely it wouldn't play power chords. rather it would be something that sounds just like no wave skronk. so the intellectual part of no wave is the choice of being more primal than punk, by for example rejecting parts of human culture such as rock n' roll or subgenre dresscodes.

Did these performers all listen to the Fugs first ...

2010-02-17T11:55:42.538-05:00

Did these performers all listen to the Fugs first album?

"There is a real grittiness here that is most...

2010-02-17T10:23:39.032-05:00

"There is a real grittiness here that is mostly lacking from today's neo-no wave experience - I think it has to do with eating fucking DIRT, not graduating from a liberal arts college ..."

Yes, but didn't Arto and most of Mars go to Eckerd? (from Wiki.:
"Eckerd College is a private 4-year coeducational liberal arts college at the southernmost tip of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area." Wikipedia lists Dennis Lehane in their list of notable alumni, but not the No Wavers...)

But, no doubt, the original No Wave groups were 4 Real ("That doesn't even SAY T. Rex!")

Great article! But since I'm in a litigious m...

2010-02-17T00:00:15.414-05:00

Great article!

But since I'm in a litigious mood...

No Wave always struck me as intellectual and "liberal arts"ish from its roots. Yeah, downtown Manhattan's squalor and frustration was in that music, but so were Henry Flynt, Andy Warhol and Ornette Coleman. If you just want "eating dirt", you won't get any further than first wave punk -- the sex pistols or whatever gave you that much. Power chords are for frustrated anti-intellectuals. No-Wave is the high-art take on punk.

Which is not to mention that stuff like violence, frustration, eating dirt, being pissed off, etc. are reliable criteria for good music in the first place.

Re: ipods and the instant availability of music. Kids are still really fucking passionate about music. You can't tell it from looking at the internet itself. But people still do really fucking care about music. Wouldn't say the internet's a bad thing.

i'll never forget when my brother came home fr...

2010-02-16T23:22:15.267-05:00

i'll never forget when my brother came home from college on christmas break and he played me the dna tracks from downtown '81, that really knocked me on my 14 year old ass. are there versions of the songs from the teenage jesus pink ep that don't suck?

great eye opener, actually it was the no wave tape...

2010-02-16T22:36:17.263-05:00

great eye opener, actually it was the no wave tape you made me years back, when we first got in touch. it made me hunt down all the vinyls, also ordered the japanse reissue cd, but it never arrived. most of the first generation of no wave bands gave/give me the thrills. It's a pity not much of the same or like feeling is hardly around anymore, while we still live in fucked up times, but different area. this music has become a major part of life and an enormous inspiration, and i feel very related too the feel of it all. genuine above trend or fashion, real, maybe too real.