For the Love of the Uke....

wander over and give NTodd the few hits he needs to hit his goal. He's a thoughtful fellow, funny, and a good photographer, so there's all those inducements, too.

And no, in case anyone is curious, I'm not going to have anything to say here about the recent unpleasantness.

Power Pop: Global Style!

Your blogmistress is a woman of much unexpected--and yes, sort of unusual--information. For example, I know a pretty respectable amount about the cultures of Southeast Asia (though the languages elude my relentlessly western brain). (Do you know the only Malay word in the English language? Answer below.) I mourn the death (a month ago today) of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, upon whom I've done a fair amount of academic work. And I can talk about the problems of the drug trade in Burma or the history of their brutal regime SLORC, or rubber production in Borneo for longer than anyone wants to listen. I've made Balinese story cloths with underprivileged kids and flatly refused to learn Thai dance when I was six months pregnant (I still think that was the right decision).

But I tend to think of these things as concretely separate from my other interests, and so when something blasts through the divider, I get unreasonably excited.

Thus, Couple.



Couple are a Malaysian power pop quartet whose management posted a comment here a week or so ago. Idly, I wandered over to see what the fuss was about, and was completely taken in by the band, who really have internalized the permanently adolescent bubble gum edge of classic power pop. Like Ail Symudiad, there's something vaguely uncanny about hearing the familiar cadences of power pop in another language, and so "Tentang Kita," (means "About Us") which you can hear here at their myspace page, is sort of like listening to an Asian Eric Carmen impersonator.

THE current indie rock revival/craze going on in the local music circuit notwithstanding, a band with a decidedly more tuneful approach stands poised for a popular breakout. Couple, a pioneering power pop combo released its debut album, Top of the Pop last month, featuring a collection of hummable, sinfully addictive songs.

But the word “debut” may be a little misleading. The band dates back to almost a decade now and have previously released four albums, all recorded on cheap home recording equipment and packaged as CD-Rs sold at live gigs. Referencing the classic pop sounds of The Beach Boys, the Beatles, through to American power pop icons like Big Star and The Posies, the Ipoh-born frontman Aidil Rusli formed Couple with a friend in 1995 and began demo-ing songs together.

What the lo-fi output lacked in sophisticated polish, it paid off in loads of homespun charm and loveable pop.

I confess, I love this stuff. Malaysian pop singers debating the salability of Guided by Voices' Bee Thousand in the current climate: how can you not? They also seem to have a great sense of powerpop history: note the Big Starr-ry spelling on "Be My Gurl."

Here's how they describe themselves;

One of the few true blue power pop bands in the region, Couple has been plying its trade for about 10 years now, dedicating itself to remind people of the virtues and magic of 'the song', and the power of the pop!! Taking cues from bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Big Star, The Who, The Raspberries, The Beat, The Rooks, Enuff Znuff and Weezer, Couple has kept on doing what they do best and hope to put a smile (and hopefully a headbang or toe-tap or two) on all youse guys' faces. But, making you wet your pants will make us equally happy too!!

Relying solely, and foolishly, on the dodgy songcraft of our dodgy and lame frontman, Aidil, Couple has continued to defy the odds as none of us can play our instruments competently to save our lives, hoping to inspire similarly incompetent kids to just form their own bands and stick it to the Man!! Our live shows are textbook examples of the triumph of substance over style, if you call professional musicianship 'style', that is. Sloppy and loud, with more than a touch of toilet humor in our lame crowd banter (if we're up for it!!), our live shows will never fail to make you wet your pants with laughter and icky stuff. Yes, we're THAT good and THAT bad!!

Bottom line: We're here to serve the muse that is the pop! To pursue that magic in 'the song'. And to give you the sugar rush you need!!

They're supposed to be coming to IPO in Los Angeles in August.

And here's a video for their Strokes-y "Now That I Can See"



A: The only Malay word in the English language, BTW, is gong, the instrument so crucial to the gamelan.

RIP: Ian Copeland

New Wave pioneer Ian Copeland passed away this week.

The Copeland family was crucial in the late 70's in formulating an American presence for New Wave: older brother Miles founded IRS Records, younger brother Stewart drummed for The Police. Ian was a promoter and manager, primarily. He was a Vietnam vet who claimed to have fought the Vietcong while on acid, and then returned to the States to join the anti-war movement.

Copeland began negotiating music industry minefields in the early 1970s when, as a booking agent in London, he was credited with elevating Average White Band, they of the funky instrumental "Pick up the Pieces," to hit-maker status.

Back in the States in the mid-1970s, Copeland dived into Southern rock, setting up tours for the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Charlie Daniels Band.

His signature moment came in the late 1970s when, in the Times' estimation, he "created the club circuit," finding gigs for acts such as Squeeze in venues where disco balls previously spun.

As the founder of Frontier Booking International (FBI), Copeland proved a reliable tipster for Miles Copeland's I.R.S. Among the Ian Copeland acts signed to new-wave friendly I.R.S.: R.E.M., the Go-Gos, the Bangles and the Police, which Miles also managed.

Owing to Stewart Copeland's Police, Miles Copeland's I.R.S. and Ian Copeland's FBI, the Hollywood Reporter dubbed the siblings the music world's "law enforcement clan."

In 1995, Ian Copeland said of his company's moniker to

I have to confess, I never really thought about the Police/FBI/IRS nexus. And yet their dad was CIA. Huh. Good thing Karl Rove didn't know.

His biography is here.

VideoBlogging: "Mexican Wine"

One of my faves from Welcome Interstate Managers..... note the tribute to Duran Duran. (And is that Prussian Blue, or just a bizarre simulation?)

Monkey Bowl! (for Vicki)

Heeheehee. This is really cute. From the Tenessee band Monkey Bowl.

Al Gore Lives on My Street

I don't know how
He lives with knowing
That even though he won the popular vote
He still lives on my street
Right down the street from me

.....SNIP.....

One time
I lost out on a job
'Cause this kid,
his father owned the whole company
Let me tell you, he was a jerk
and I'm still pissed that he took that job from me
Life isn't fair, don't tell me, I know it
Even with the popular vote
Al Gore lives on my street
Right down the street from me

I have no idea if Gore will run again, or if he should. But he's certainly found a new voice, funny, like here on SNL, or impassioned, as here.

Sign up to see An Inconvenient Truth here.

Monkey Bowl also appears on the Nick Lowe tribute album, Lowe Profile, doing "Let's Eat." Lotta familiar PP names on the record: Walter Clevenger, Michael Carpenter, etc. Worth a listen.

Too Easy!

Amanda's so much fun! She's got a post here about the 50 Top Conservative Rock Songs of All Time. Problem? They ignore their own twits, like Kid Rock or Godsmack or the Godfather of Rock's Right Wing, Ted Nugent, and try to cherry pick songs which are political, but generally critical of their perspective. Anyone who would include Joe Strummer on such a list (That's "Rock the Casbah" at #20) is genuinely a candidate for the short bus.

The NRO commentary is in italics, Amanda's commentary in Roman type.

1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who. The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naпve idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye… Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.

The fact that they fall for the “small government” line and continue to elect Republicans who drive up deficits and curtail civil liberties demonstrates that conservatives are in fact easy to fool over and over and over again. Anyone who still trusts Bush after he lied to get us in the Iraq war is demonstrating a depth of gullibility previous unmeasurable by any instruments known to man.

But the choice of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” was inevitable. The critical mythology of neo-conservatives is that they were once idealistic leftists and totally cool and could so get laid and knew where to buy the best weed but the tawdry stupidity of liberal beliefs ran them off. The seedy reality is that the only known human being to actually make the legitimate case that this is his life story is P.J. O’Rourke. The rest of them were just Marxists who ran off to be right wingers when they realized the American left wasn’t ever going to embrace Stalinist authoritarianism. All attempts to claim the mantle of pseudo-cool rebellion must be viewed in this light.

13. “My City Was Gone,” by The Pretenders. Virtually every conservative knows the bass line, which supplies the theme music for Limbaugh’s radio show. But the lyrics also display a Jane Jacobs sensibility against central planning and a conservative’s dissatisfaction with rapid change: “I went back to Ohio / But my pretty countryside / Had been paved down the middle / By a government that had no pride.”

Ironically, they have a pro-environmental destruction song a couple of notches up. I guess they voted for environmental destruction before they voted against it.

18. “Cult of Personality,” by Living Colour. A hard-rocking critique of state power, whacking Mussolini, Stalin, and even JFK: “I exploit you, still you love me / I tell you one and one makes three / I’m the cult of personality.”

And for some reason, that makes it ideal for people who support a President who’s on a mission to consolidate as much power into the top levels of government as he can.

20. “Rock the Casbah,” by The Clash. After 9/11, American radio stations were urged not to play this 1982 song, one of the biggest hits by a seminal punk band, because it was seen as too provocative. Meanwhile, British Forces Broadcasting Service (the radio station for British troops serving in Iraq) has said that this is one of its most requested tunes.

I was going to try very hard to be understanding that anyone putting this list together has to know that he’s engaging in a fool’s errand of cherry-picking certain lyrics and ignoring the rest of the band’s career or the very meaning of the word “context”, but picking a Clash song for a list of “conservative” rock songs is just beyond the pale.

But then, textual analysis is not really their strong suit, as the endlessly defensive paste-eaters who've invaded metacomments here and here so amply demonstrate. If artistic intention is all that matters to these fuckwits, they've got a lot of nerve trying to abscond with the work of people who would be disgusted by their political agenda.

I keep picturing Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot tapping herself on the side of the head. "See? Not very bright!" Only she showed exponentially more self awareness than those wingnuts who'd claim the socialist Joe Strummer as one of their own.

Sunday Babyblogging

A few random shots: one I just found from our recent trip to Wisconsin, and two others from sitting around this morning. Enjoy!



CHEESEHEADS!!



Nice light effect here of the 6 year old jumping on a chair.



A rare violence-free moment between Rosie and SP, but he's wary, nonetheless. But then, he had a rough week.

RIP: Freddie Garrity

Okay, it's exercise time here at PowerPop. Stand up. Now, lean to the right from the waist, lifting your left leg straight out to the side. Don't bend your knee! Next, lean to the left, lifting your right leg out in a similar fashion. Repeat. Now, repeat while singing: "I'm telling you now, I'm telling you right away. I've been telling you for many a day, I'm in love with you now." You don't need to do much with your arms: if you're doing it right, you should even be able to play an instrument while dancing.

Congratulations. You have just done The Freddie.



We here at PowerPop were sad to learn of the passing of Freddie Garrity, lead singer of the British Invasion band Freddie and the Dreamers.

Born in Manchester, Freddie - a former milkman - came to prominence in the early 1960s. He became famous as much for his zany approach to rock 'n' roll as for his music. His wild and wacky antics on stage and television endeared him to millions of fans all over the world.

Freddie and the Dreamers - the other members were Roy Crewsdon, Derek Quinn, Pete Birrell and Bernie Dwyer - had their first top ten succes with a cover of the James Ray US chart hit If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody.

It was followed over the next two years by a string of hits including You Were Made For Me, Over You, I Love You Baby, I Understand and the US chart-topper I'm Telling You Now. The band also starred in a number of low-budget musical films.

Freddie and the Dreamers were one of the really, really fun bands from the heady days of the British Invasion. Like Herman's Hermits, the goofiness was part of the act. Freddie had a whole Buddy Holly thing going on, and how can you not love a band which has its own dance?

In the 70's, Freddie had one of those weird H.R. Pufnstuff kind of kid shows on Brit TV called Little Big Time. The segment Oliver in the Overworld was supposed to be exceptionally freaky.

Nostalgia shows and performances filled much of the 80's and 90's (again calling on the Herman's Hermits parallel--Peter Noone just played here in my town last week.)

Garrity has been ill and out of the public eye for five years or so, but reading about him this morning has made me pause and remember the fun of the first dance I ever learned.

Don't mind me; I'll just be over here doing The Freddie.

UPDATE: Thanks to The Kenosha Kid! (I completely forgot about the awkward arm-flapping for those *not* playing an instrument!) Do the Freddie with Frankie and Annette!

Who the F*** is Tony Wilson?

I got an email from an abashed reader confessing that he did not know who Tony Wilson was or why a comparison between him and Malcolm MacLaren might be enlightening. In the interest of complete information, here's a bit of info and some links.


Tony Wilson


Here's Wilson's Wikipedia entry.

Anthony (Tony) Wilson (born February 20, 1950) is a British record label owner, radio presenter , nightclub manager and journalist for Granada Television, on which he hosted the rock program So It Goes. Wilson saw the Sex Pistols at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall, in June, 1976, an experience which he has described as "nothing short of an epiphany" [1]. He booked them for the second series, probably the first television showing of the then-revolutionary British strand of punk rock. He later founded the record label Factory Records and the Haçienda nightclub in Manchester.

Seeing a production of Hamlet extinguished Wilson's ambition to be a nuclear physicist. He graduated with a 2:2 in English from Jesus College, Cambridge.

He was the manager of many bands, including A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, and the Happy Mondays, and was part owner and manager of Factory Records, home of Joy Division (latterly New Order) - the band managed by friend and business partner Rob Gretton. He also founded and managed the Hacienda (FAC51) nightclub and Dry (FAC201) bar, together forming a central part of the music and cultural scene of Manchester which was recognised internationally as a hotbed of exciting music. The scene was termed "Madchester".

Wilson originally sought a career as a television journalist on Manchester's local station, Granada TV, where he worked as reporter and anchorman. He eventually returned to the career and the channel in the late 1990s, where he still works. He never made a fortune from Factory Records or the Haçienda, despite the enormous popularity and cultural significance of both endeavours. Both came to an abrupt although not necessarily premature end in the late 1990s, the Hacienda being forced to close because of the out-of-control ecstasy problem at the club: the club never made profits because people took ecstasy instead of drinking alcohol.

A good interview here.

After playing its part in one youth culture explosion, Factory was also immersed in another at the arse end of the 1980's. Acid house was in effect, the lines between rock and dance music were blurring and before long Manchester was popularly coined as 'Madchester' where mad-fer-it kids danced freakily, sported huge baggy trousers and adopted the swagger and street suss of bands like The Happy Mondays.

What set The Mondays apart? "Someone had to take Black American music, add irony and English rock," constructs Wilson. "They did it and everyone f*cking copied them," he asserts. "3 months later you get 'Loaded' by Primal Scream and 'Fools Gold' by Stone Roses and everyone is like 'Oh my God the World has changed.' It was the Mondays that did it." Calling on a witness, he cites the Daily Telegraph: 'it was the rhythm section: the bass player and the drummer; Paul Ryder and Gary Whelan changed British music forever.'

"Joy Division and New Order are quite rightly considered the top 30 or 40 bands ever and The Mondays aren't - that's wrong. As if somehow, Shaun, hiding behind his genius, writing for the Daily Sport and appearing in photos with crap bimbos, detracts from his genius." Not that this affects the belief of his former label boss. "There is no doubt that there are four LP's, a bunch of other songs and its one of the greatest collections of pop and rock and roll songs that belong to anyone.."

And the semi-factual film 24 Hour Party People: worth seeing, if only to watch Shaun Ryder's zestful reenactment of "poisoning pigeons in the park."

Arthur Lee Ill

This just in from Rhino Records:

Arthur Lee, leader of the seminal '60s group Love, has recently been
diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. The band, particularly its
1967 masterpiece Forever Changes, has earned many famous fans over the
years, and now some of them are joining forces to help Arthur - who,
like far too many musicians, lacks health insurance. A benefit concert
has been scheduled for June 23 at New York City's Beacon Theater with
such performers as Robert Plant, David Johansen, Ian Hunter, Yo La
Tengo, Garland Jeffreys, and others, with a hometown show in the
planning stages for Los Angeles. For more information or to contribute
directly toward Arthur's medical expenses, go to www.thelovesociety.com.



There's also a benefit in DUblin, and the LA one has a date now.
(Steve L, you want to carpool to The Beacon on 6/23?)

(hat tip to dave™© at Eschaton)

On a happier note, some good tunes streaming here.

Hmmmm....

Not a wholly positive development.



On the other hand, this is way more entertaining than it ought to be.

Bow Wow Wow Video

Courtesy of the dependably fascinating and time-wasting Bedazzled blog, we have a great little video: Bow Wow Wow's homage to the cassette tape, "C-30, C-60, C-90, Go!"

Every cool girl in my generation wanted to be Annabella Lwin.



Despite little action of her own and (let's face it) not a whole lot of actual talent, she was plucked out of her life, given a mohawk, and made a star. If she could do it, so could any of us! The only difference between us was Malcolm MacLaren.

I keep meaning to blog about MacLaren, whose effect on this era is still not wholly understood, I don't think. Svengali? Sure. But he also saw commercial possibility in what was essentially an underground movement, and in that sense he wasn't so different from, say, Tony Wilson, who arguably gets more respect.

Anyway, I just think the video's cute, and Spike's blog is always worth poking around, so enjoy!

Friday Babyblogging

Hi, all. Things have been a bit strung out here on Liberal Mountain (back from maternity leave into two huge projects and a job process, plus the usual end-of-semester agita, and a deeply unpleasant medical thingy this morning), but I'm determined to see it through.

Anyway, Here are some nice shots from the last couple of days. Enjoy!

A sleepy Rosie cuddles with her big sister, but can't help rubbing a little bit of eye.


Meanwhile, the boys park it on a comfy chair. The six-year-old is surprisingly gentle with both little ones, but then he has a great role model. Thers is a fabulous dad, silly and affectionate by turns.

Elsewhere, Sean Patrick has a characteristic expression. He's really a very serious baby a lot of the time. The shirt, which reads "Rebel Without a Cause" was a gift from honorary Grandma Hecate.

Stream It, Baby!

It's a day of revelations: the secret of the attacks on net neutrality finally revealed as a payoff to the Telcoms for allowing the NSA to set up in-house operations, in exchange for which the internets will be privatized.

29% Bitches!

And a sweet, sweet video from sweet, sweet Desi to celebrate yet another overturned rock. Lola!

Hey!

I've got Online Blogintegrity!!

Cool!

(And someone over there thinks I'm cute, maybe even more than one person.)

Mark me down on the gritty side in the civility wars, fuckers!

Niiiiiice!

Two v. cool sites I wandered across recently:

The New York Power Pop Page, which has lots of gig information and such... they're obviously just trying to lure me. I dunno, there's a few things on that gig page Imay have to show up for....

Also, I got a note from the webmaster of Powerpopaholic, a great site. He does a lot of reviewing and keeping track of who has what coming out, which is something I strive to do but often fall behind on. (Plus, my interests tend to be more historical.)

I've been seeing more and more dedicated PP sites recently, which I find prety heartening. Once the semester's over (and a hopefully successful hiring process), look for an overhauled and updated blogroll!

Fairy Use

This is really cool: a film made by one of my former students which illustrates the Fair Use Doctrine using quotes from that most tetchy of copyright holders, the Walt Disney Corporation.

Enjoy!

Mid-Atlantic Pop Fans, Take Note!

This weekend is the annual Dewey Beach Popfest in Dewey Beach, Delaware.

Lots of familiar names on this list, but I especially recommend The Churchills and The Dipsomaniacs, as well as perennial PowerPop faves Milton and the Devils Party.

MDP have been going through some lineup changes (new drummer who, I'm told, is more aggressive and gives them more of an edge) and have remastered What Is All this Sweet Work Worth?, their debut CD. The mood of the new WIATSWW is different, harder, more like the energy of their live performances, plus a few new tunes. They've been getting a bunch of college radio play as well. Definitely check them out Saturday at 9.

Plus, the dependably cool Kid Charlemagne will be in attendance. (I've seen him outgeek simels, and that's hard to do!)

Five Weird Habits

Folks have been posting these around the blogosphere, but I didn't get around to it yet. (Here's karmic_jay and watertiger and NTodd, though--three of my favorite co-marchers.)

1. I chew straws. Like, fast-food straws. I don't smoke or bite my nails, so I guess this is my oral fixation. Tiny chewed-up straws all over the damned place. Drives Thers nuts.

2. I really do listen to power pop almost all the time. I check on Ebay for especially obscure things, and keep my turntable alive just so I can listen to them. (For example, I have original versions of Shoes Black Vinyl Shoes and 20/20's Sex Trap, both pretty hard to find.)

3. I obsess, reading books or watching TV shows multiple times. For example, even though I wasn't home last Sunday night, I've watched this week's Big Love about 4 times this week, and will undoubtedly watch it again before Sunday. Also, I look up stuff, not usually about the show, but historical background and such, when I'm really interested. (I know a really lot about the FLDS church these days....) And I read nonstop. I can't fall asleep without a book. I reread all the LOTR books and the Harry Potter books about once a year. I also love crappy romance novels. I'm especially keen on the Native American ones, the kitsch value of these being particularly high. (But why is the originary boundary-crossing always a generation back? Almost all of the male protagonists have white mothers. I blame Freud.) I've been known to spend unreasonable amounts of money (sometimes more than a dollar) acquiring Harlequins I can remember reading at my grandmother's house when I was an adolescent.

4. I rearrange the furniture at least every six months. It's a good way to really thoroughly clean the house, and it gets boring if you never move things around. (File this under "drives Thers crazy" as well.)

5. I talk to myself. You get in the habit, when you have children, of narrating everything you do to a largely unresponsive audience--it's supposed to be good for their language development or something. But I find myself doing it in the car and, every now and again, in public. I hope people just think I have a hands-free cellphone.

What are your weird habits? (And NTodd, where are your archives? You need to streamline your site, my friend.)

Stupid Boys

Courtesy of Firedoglake, I ran across this interview from Arthur magazine with Sully Erna from Godsmack. I really hope this guy's on serious drugs, because he couldn't be this clueless without them, could he?


Could he?

SO I NOTICE YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN REALLY INVOLVED WITH PROMOTING THE MILITARY. [1]

Well, they actually came to us, believe it or not. Somebody in the Navy loves this band, because they used ‘Awake’ for three years and then they came to us and re-upped the contract for another three years for ‘Sick of Life.’ So, I don’t know. They just feel like that music, [laughs] someone in that place thinks that the music is very motivating for recruit commercials I guess. And hey, I’m an American boy so it’s not… I’m proud of it.

YOU’RE PROUD OF RECRUITING YOUR FANS INTO THE MILITARY?

Well, no. [laughs, then jokingly] Don’t be turning my fucking words around, you!

WELL, TELL ME WHAT YOU MEAN. YOU SAID YOUR MUSIC IS POWERFUL, IT’S GOT AN EFFECT, LIKE YOU SAID, AND YOU’RE LETTING THE MILITARY USE IT. THE MILITARY, WHO ARE THEY RECRUITING? 18 TO 30-YEAR OLDS, RIGHT?

I guess… I don’t know what their recruit age is. I know it’s at least 18.

YEAH, THEY GO DOWN IN TO THE HIGH SCHOOLS NOW.

My thing is… Listen, here’s my thing with the military. I’m not saying our government is perfect. Because I know that we make some mistakes and we do shitty things BUT, BUT. You wouldn’t have your job, and we wouldn’t have our lives, if we weren’t out there protecting this country so we could lead a free life. So there’s kind of a ying and a yang to that. Sometimes it’s not always the best choices that we make, or we stick our noses in other people’s shit, but at the same time, we protect this place enough that we’re able to like pursue careers and do what a lot of people in other countries aren’t able to do. They’re kind of picked and they’re chosen to be whatever they become… I’m, I’m, I’m proud to be an American, I’ll tell you that.

SO YOUR COUNTRY, RIGHT OR WRONG?

Uh, no. Not right or wrong. But I’m proud to be an American. I love my country. I’ve seen the depressions and how people live in other countries and how they’re told what to be, and they don’t have the choices that we have. I do love that about our country. So, you know… And I actually sympathize with a lot of the soliders, and the military in general, that are trained to go out and protect FOR us, and what they have to go through, it’s really kind of shitty in a sense that these young kids have to go over there and die, sometimes, for something that isn’t our fucking problem. And that kind of sucks. So what I have to do is at least support them, because they don’t have the choice that we do.

THEY DON’T HAVE THE CHOICE BECAUSE…?

Because they’ve decided to fight for our country.

AND THEY DECIDED TO DO THAT BECAUSE…?

[laughs]…

…OF YOUR SONG…?

Aw, come on. It’s not like that.

WELL I HAVE A QUOTE FROM YOU HERE: “WE’VE ALWAYS BEEN SUPPORTIVE OF OUR COUNTRY AND OUR PRESIDENT, WHEREAS A LOT OF PEOPLE I THOUGHT”—AND YOU SAID THIS IN 2003 TO MTV NEWS, YOU SAID – “A LOT OF PEOPLE I THOUGHT LASHED OUT PRETTY QUICKLY AT WHAT WE DID AND I THOUGHT THE GOVERNMENT DID EVERYTHING PRETTY CLEANLY AND PUBLICLY AS POSSIBLE.” [2]

Yeah…?


WELL, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

That was my opinion at the time. The whole war thing, and trying to keep us up to date like… If you remember, back in other wars, we didn’t have the opportunity to follow it through the media, and CNN, and the news—live updates and that kind of thing. And I thought that for the most part you know we were allowed to follow it as best we could through the media sources that were feeding us information.

[incredulous] YOU DIDN’T THINK THE MEDIA WAS BEING CONTROLLED BY THE MILITARY?!?

Well, it could be. I don’t know.

YOU DIDN’T LOOK INTO IT?

Listen. Are you a fucking government expert?

I’M NOT TELLING PEOPLE TO GO JOIN THE MILITARY AND THEN NOT KNOWING WHAT THE MILITARY IS DOING.

I don’t tell people to go join the military!!

YOU DON’T THINK USING YOUR SONGS –THE POWER OF YOUR MUSIC, WHICH YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT—HAS AN EFFECT ON THE PEOPLE THAT HEAR IT WHEN IT GOES WITH THE VISUALS THAT THE BEST P.R. PEOPLE IN THE WORLD USE?!

Oh man, are you like one of those guys that agrees with some kid that fuckin’ tied a noose around his neck because Judas Priest lyrics told him to?

YOU WERE TELLING ME HOW POWERFUL YOUR MUSIC WAS, AND WHAT AGE THE PEOPLE ARE THAT LISTEN TO IT. AND YOU MUST HAVE THOUGHT, ‘WELL THE NAVY SURE THOUGHT IT WAS USEFUL.’ SO YOU TELL ME.

Hey, listen. The Navy thought…. It’s the same reason why wrestlers work out to the music, and extreme motorcross riders listen to the music and do what they do. It’s ENERGETIC music. It’s very ATHLETIC. People feel that they get an adrenaline rush out of it or whatever, so, it goes with whatever’s an extreme situation. But I doubt very seriously that a kid is going to join the Marines or the US Navy because he heard Godsmack as the underlying bed music in the commercial. They’re gonna go and join the Navy because they want to jump out of helicopters and fuckin’ shoot people! Or protect the country or whatever it is, and look at the cool infra-red goggles.

YOU SAID TO MTV, “WE’RE NOT A VERY POLITICAL BAND BUT WE’RE SUPPORTIVE OF THE U.S. MILITARY AND HOW THEY APPROACH THINGS.” [2]

Listen. Someone turned that around. I never said “and how they approach things.”

OKAY. SO THAT’S A MISQUOTE. OR SOMETHING,

Wow, what—

WHAT ABOUT THIS? IN 2003 YOU DID A SHOW THAT STARTED WITH VIDEO FOOTAGE OF APACHE HELICOPTERS HONING IN ON A DESERT TARGET INTERSPERSED WITH THE WORDS “WE WILL PREVAIL/STRONGER THAN THEM ALL.”

Say that again?

I’M READING FROM A BOSTON GLOBE REVIEW OF A SHOW YOU DID AT THE TWEETER CENTER.

Yeah.

IN FRONT OF 13,000 PEOPLE ON MAY 22, 2003.

Yeah, but tell me what it said again.

YES SIR. IT SAID “GODSMACK’S FEROCIOUSLY HIGH ENERGY 90-MINUTE SET STARTED WITH VIDEO FOOTAGE OF APACHE HELICOPTERS HONING IN ON A DESERT TARGET, INTERSPERSED WITH THE WORDS ‘WE WILL PREVAIL/STRONGER THAN THEM ALL.’” [3]

Yeah…?

SO YOU’RE USING MILITARY IMAGERY WITH YOUR MUSIC AT YOUR CONCERTS?

First of all, it was a COMPUTER image, a computer-animated helicopter that didn’t… There was no scene of a desert in there. It was a helicopter that rose up from the screen and scanned the audience. It was an EFFECT. And then it shot out missiles that hit the stage.

UH HUH…

Because the intro to ‘Straight Out of Line” has the sounds of like, a war thing going on.

OH I SEE. SO IT’S JUST SORT OF A CONCEPT THING.

Read the whole thing, because he totally melts down, including the favorite defenses of wingnuts, "Dude, [yelling] WHY DON’T YOU GO LIVE IN IRAQ THEN IF YOU HAVE SUCH A PROBLEM WITH AMERICA?" and "Who are you working with?"

Sad, really.

Of Swift, Stephen, Sobule, and Satire

In the English language (and yes, I am a professional) the only two words used incorrectly more than satire are irony and presently (kisses to Keith Olbermann, who uses the latter correctly almost nightly).

Satire is generally taken to mean "political comedy" in our current climate. But rhetorically, that's not what it is/does. Saturday Night Live, for example, isn't satire, though Ali G sometimes is. (Getting the rednecks to sing "Throw the Jew Down the Well," for example.) For proper satire, the informing emotion isn't humor, it's anger. In fact, the listener should be made a bit uncomfortable by it in order for it to work.

Satire also requires a credulous persona, like the wide-eyed philanthropist of "A Modest Proposal," or the ambitious teen in Jill Sobule's song "Supermodel." I use Sobule to teach Swift, because I find that my students are often foxed by the idea concept of the persona, a character speaking in the first person who does not represent the author him- or herself, but is instead a voice, a character through which the author can make a larger point.

For Swift, the tragedy at hand was the overwhelming poverty of the Irish Catholic population in 1729. In a certain sense, it wasn't his problem: he was a Protestant clergyman, unmarried, and he certainly had enough to eat. No one made them have all those children (though of course birth control in the eighteenth century was a pretty dodgy proposition). But he saw them on the streets, recognized their humanity, and it moved him. He created a character, common enough among the pamphleteers of his day, of a concerned philanthropist posing a solution to an intractable problem. His solution, to harvest the children of the Irish poor at the age of one year, is thought out with all the care of a farmer calculating the best use of his herd, considering the benefits to the poor themselves, to those who would consume the produce, to the general economy (people would go out more to restaurants, because they'd be doing the most interesting things with the meat, he suggests). When it was originally published, it was not immediately recognized as satire, something remarkably common about this rhetorical mode.

Odd, since Swift bares his fangs a few times:

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation of so grievous an encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter, because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected.

I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold as to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.

Ouch.

When I teach Swift, I use, for comparative purposes, Jill Sobule's song "Supermodel," which has a similar construction: anger at a social issue (in this case the damage done to young women by obsession with appearances and the resultant eating disorders), the creation of a credulous and credible persona (a young woman who believes that by controlling her intake she can become said supermodel), and the resultant commentary, which is, in a sense, external to the song itself and dependent on an understanding of the broader cultural factors that inspired it.

I don't care what my teachers say
I'm gonna be a supermodel.
And Everyone is gonna dress like me,
wait and see

When I'm a supermodel
and my hair will shine like the sea.
Everyone will wanna look just like me
me...

Cause I'm young and I'm hip, and so beautiful,
I'm gonna be a supermodel

......

I wish that I was like Tori Spelling,
with a car like hers and dad like hers.
And I show them how how it was done.
That be fun, that be fun.

......

I'm young and I'm hip and so beautiful,
I'm gonna be a supermodel

I didn't eat yesterday,
I'm not gonna eat today,
I'm not gonna eat tomorrow,
Cuz I'm gonna be a supermodel.

And then there's Colbert.

The blogosphere is buzzing with reports of his performance at the annual White House Correspondent's Dinner, which I caught by accident from my hotel room in Wisconsin. The video is at Crooks & Liars, however.

Colbert skewered the administration and the press corps and guess what? They didn't like it. Boo-fucking-Hoo. These are the same twits who laughed at Bush looking under the podium for WMDs. They also seemed amused by the double-Bush routine, and loved the joke about how the double had debated Kerry. These are the kind of people who greenlight Scary Movie sequels.

Rhetorically, Colbert's schtick is pure satire. He's "Bush's Man" and proud of it. Here's how you can tell:

So, Mr. President, pay no attention to the people that say the glass is half full. 32% means the glass -- it's important to set up your jokes properly, sir. Sir pay no attention to the people who say the glass is half empty, because 32% means it's 2/3 empty. There's still some liquid in that glass is my point, but I wouldn't drink it. The last third is usually backwash.

Folks, my point is that I don't believe this is a low point in this presidency. I believe it is just a lull, before a comeback.

I mean, it's like the movie "Rocky." The president is Rocky and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world. It's the 10th round. He's bloodied, his corner man, Mick, who in this case would be the Vice President, and he's yelling cut me, dick, cut me, and every time he falls she say stay down! Does he stay down? No. Like Rocky he gets back up and in the end he -- actually loses in the first movie. Ok. It doesn't matter.

The point is the heart-warming story of a man who was repeatedly punched in the face. So don't pay attention to the approval ratings that say 68% of Americans disapprove of the job this man is doing. I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68% approve of the job he's not doing? Think about it. I haven't.

I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world.

And, like Swift, it's likely that there are a lot of folks who were missing the point of The Colbert Report. Conservative law-and-banality blogger Ann Althouse hangs her hipness hat on her viewing of Colbert. Michael Smerconish and Caitlin Flanagan appear on The Report, apparently without irony. Maybe they'll get it now.

And next time you're tempted to call Bill Maher "satirical," whack yourself in the head with a copy of Gulliver's Travels and reconsider.