Indie Music Chatter

I think all girl indie groups are so cool. What I like about them is that even if these groups play different genres — from Sleater-Kinney’s post punk to Tegan and Sara’s indie folk — there is an unmistakeable femininity to their sound that always comes out.

You would think though that this quality naturally comes out because these women tap into some kind of sexual force that women discover when they discover their sexuality. But then you listen to a group like Smoosh — a sister duo consisting of a 12- and 10-year-old — and you realize that it’s still not the answer. Smoosh has managed to tap that same sound and yet they are still pre-pubescent girls. These girl musicians must tap into some other creative well that only the members of the “fairer” sex has access to.

Whatever it may be though, I’m glad that women artists can bring this unnamed force to their creative process and give us avid music listeners something that we otherwise would not hear (most particularly men).

Smoosh, Sleater-Kinney, Tegan and Sara

Over the years I have built a reputation among my friends as the go-to guy when it comes to music. I obsessively collect CDs and I love reading about anything related to music. I may love indie the fiercest but I do listen to other types of music as well. In my CD shelf it will not be uncommon to see Janet Jackson alongside Jessamine or Norah Jones sharing shelf space with Nusrath Fateh Ali Khan and Owen (yes, I sort my CDs alphabetically).

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me for recommendations for music he can play at his party. He already knew that I’ve been grooving to The Klaxons so I wanted to throw him a curve ball and recommend an artist that he most probably never even heard. So, very casually, I said “Girl Talk.” He asked me if it sounded if I was recommending something along the lines of The Klaxons. I smiled, gave him my iPod, and told him to just listen for himself. The look on his face said it all — it was a mixture of bewilderment, dawning comprehension and a loopy grin. A good description for Girl Talk’s music, if you ask me.

You see, Girl Talk (which is the moniker of Greg Gillis) makes what I’ve come to call Frankenmusic. Gillis pastes together snippets from different songs in order to make a whole new song. Imagine DJ Shadow but only with more recognizable samples and a tongue-in-cheek perspective towards the whole process and you’ve got the basic idea behind Girl Talk. In one song, you’d probably hear a part from The Pixies’ Where is My Mind spliced to James Taylor’s Your Smiling Face while D4L raps over the track.

My friend went home with the intent of playing Girl Talk’s Night Ripper album. I’m pretty sure that the party will be a success gauging by the music he intends to play.

Girl Talk, Greg Gillis,  Pixies, Night Ripper

There’s no denying it, music piracy is still a very prickly topic to talk about. It has achieved the mythic status of politics and religion as a subject that should not be discussed. As the debate rages regarding subject even artists themselves are being forced to take sides in this intellectual debate.

But one artist that really put forward a very interesting opinion with regards to “theft” is Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. In an interview with Wired Tweedy had this to say about piracy, “A piece of art is not a loaf of bread. When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that’s it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it’s just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience. How they perceive your work changes your work.”

What Tweedy said makes a lot of sense and echoes my own sentiments (now you know where I stand in this debate). I just hope that the record companies finally realize this basic piece of logic, too. What we need is not a witch hunt but a basic understanding of what the internet and file sharing has brought in order to change the status quo and find a happy medium between technology and old, obsolete laws.

Jeff Tweedy, Wilco, Wired, music piracy

I woke up this morning feeling extra cheerful. It’s my son’s third birthday and the enthusiasm for my son reaching a milestone (I survived the terrible two’s!) made me want to start off the morning with the perfect “soundtrack” to reflect my mood. So I went to my record collection and immediately chose The Delays’ Faded Seaside Glamour. I popped it in my CD player and cranked my amp to a respectable volume (not too loud or my son would complain that it’s hurting his ears) and the familar wash of the dreamy and atmospheric music of the The Delays flooded our house. My wife, who was curled on the sofa, trying her best to wake up, immediately noticed the music and asked me who the female singer was. “It’s Greg Gilbert honey, and she’s a he.”

I can safely say that the vocals of Greg Gilbert is one of the main factors that make The Delays’ music work. The kind of dream pop they play would only work with Gilbert’s breathy, near-androgynous voice. I think the Delays has hit on a great formula by standing out not only for their music but for their frontman, who I love to think is channeling Elizabeth Fraser whenever he sings.

As it is, The Delays makes my mornings so much more brighter when I listen to them.

The Delays, Faded Seaside Glamour, Elizabeth Fraser

Here’s a confession — I’m not just a music geek, I’m also a big film geek. I have loved films ever since I was a teenager. I find the whole process of filmmaking so inspired and a wonderful creative outlet. I’ve actually dabbled in filmmaking in college and a few years after it — basically doing some acting work for indie filmmaker friends and also helping out with production. I just absolutely love it when everything just comes together and you are presented with a film that assaults you visually with some of the best eye candy directors/auteurs can muster.

What I absolutely love though is when an artist manages to combine both my love for film and music and actually succeed in his vision. These films are few and far between (I can name drop The Commitments, 24 Hour Party People, and yes, even Singles) so it really excites me when I hear about a new work that has the potential of joining this very rarefied field. I think one film that I can add to this group would be Once.

The new film, helmed by John Carney, stars Glen Hansard. For indie rock fans, Hansard will be immediately recognizable because he is the vocalist for Dublin band The Frames — which is one of the most awesome bands to come out of the area in recent years. The film is quite simple and understated in the way it chronicles the story of a street musician and an immigrant as they sing songs that describe their love story. According to the distributor, it is a modern day musical and from what I’ve seen it really is one. Glen Hansard is one cool dude and I believe that after this movie is seen by more people, The Frames will become more famous — which they justly deserve.

The Frames, Glen Hansard, Once