check out this somewhat hilarious video... two of the twentieth century's greatest men of letters, gore vidal and william f. buckley, trading barbs at the 1968 democratic convention. vidal calls buckley a "crypto-Nazi" and buckley shoots back calling vidal a "queer." pretty amazing that two brilliant men could stoop so low...
(insert: quick obligatory "i haven't updated this blog in forever" comment..) i've been thinking lately about the quintessential challenges of our generation. among them, averting boredom, not caring so much about your favorite old band's new comeback, appreciating coffee from third world countries as much as wine from the south of france. seriously, the bouquet in my kenyan brew tells stories and complements my recent hangover better than your cab-sav/rack-o-lamb pairing. also, and perhaps most relevant to my current endeavors, is finding how to humanize our increasingly digital lives. shoutouts to my sci-fi-loving friends... musically, this means putting the soul back into drum machines. i don't pretend that this is a totally new idea, but it does seem to fit into the iGeneration plan. i'm completely stoked on a couple of bands that are increasingly successful at this: Animal Collective (always), Portishead, and one of my new favorite haunts, Tussle. if you can figure out how to get a hold of me, i'll give you samples of all three. there are plenty more, but those are the three on repeat. i think that if we are crafting a new genre of music it has to somehow sieze on this essential balance. intimately speaking, i think a lot of this success can be achieved by making relentless repetition something less than only meditative. check out the two album covers above, which effortlessly show how the beauty of repetition can be both a) incredibly organic and b) mind-altering. tip: view the second one at actual size for desired effect.
which reminds me, i've written about the importance of balance before, and it's fair to say that balance is as important in every facet of my own life as it is in nastia liukin's (we will never forget).
with that, here is a great track that exemplifies the blend of acoustic and digital elements to profoundly soulful success. just check out how seamlessly the twangy guitar plucking transmogrifies into hypnotic repetitive static synth line. listen to the rest of portishead's latest, third, for ten more beautiful examples.
