Monday, October 29th, 2012 // Blogs,Paperhouse
It’s that time of year again. Your Facebook is flooded with invitations to Halloween parties, slasher fests, pumpkin patch frolicking, nights of horror — the list goes on. Yet upon attending these events, you are overwhelmed with downright bad costumes and a lack of Halloween spirit.
Invitations to these events include descriptions that tell girls to be whatever they want, as long as they add the word “slutty” to the costume description. Now, I’m all for expressing yourself, but what happened to good, clean Halloween fun that focused on ghouls, goblins, and witches instead of sexy nurses, teachers, and police officers?
This past week, I went to an event that embodied my idealized image of Halloween. Tucked away in Lawrenceville, Arsenal Bowling Lanes hosts a weekly college night on Tuesdays, complete with cheap bowling, booze, and a live band. This week, the bowling alley was decked out with skeletons, cobwebs, and the usual Halloween fare. The red velvet walls, the skeletons atop the alleyways, and the live band made for a great evening.
The band, aptly called The Graveyard Rockers, played psychobilly and surf rock tunes focused on zombies, Frankenstein, and all your favorite monsters. The tongue-in-cheek references to science fiction, horror, violence, and sex were quite a relief from the bevy of electronic dance music I’d grown accustomed to hearing during “Halloween” parties.
As soon as Thanksgiving comes, our ears will be assaulted with Christmas music; why isn’t this the case with Halloween music? If you dig around, you’ll find that there are some great Halloween anthems out there that bring together the dark, fun, and ultimately over-sexualized aspects of Halloween. Take a break from your usual playlists and crank up some psychobilly. I would recommend you start with the compilations Halloween Hootenanny and Halloween A Go-Go.
(Originally published in The Tartan)
Monday, October 1st, 2012 // Blogs,Paperhouse
If you haven’t left campus recently and aren’t Facebook friends with any of the coolest people in Pittsburgh, you might not be aware that VIA is happening this week.
“VIA? What the hell is that?” you may ask. Allow me to explain. Back in 2010, a couple of Pittsburgh friends decided that it was time for the city to have its own cutting-edge music and new media arts festival. Since then, VIA has presented collaborative performances, installations, mobile projects, lectures, and workshops through a yearly festival, as well as sporadic events throughout the year.
While you may be familiar with Electric Zoo, Movement, Mutek, Coachella, or some other big-name music festival, VIA is a little more unique. According to the VIA website, this event focuses on enabling Pittsburgh as a “nexus for young artists working at the borders of music, art, and technology.” This year’s festival brings a variety of artists you may not have heard of, such as Moodymann, Tiger & Woods, Nadastrom, Girl Unit, Julia Holter, and Andy Stott, to name a few. Even your esteemed author isn’t familiar with every band in attendance.
What I can tell you is this: If you’re truly interested in the intersection of sight and sound and like to get your groove on, VIA is the place to be. VIA has already gained all sorts of international acclaim and press for its festivals in the past, and has secured the top spot for a U.S. festival on Resident Advisor’s Top October Festivals list.
This is not an advertisement for VIA; rather, it is an unsolicited endorsement from your campus radio station. Like any festival, there are mistakes as a result of too much experimentation or poor foresight, but it looks like VIA has learned a lot from its two first years and has planned a wide variety of music. Get ready for some deep house, bedroom pop, cold wave, Moombahton, dub techno, UK Bass, nu disco, and so much more.
(Originally published in The Tartan)
Monday, September 17th, 2012 // Blogs,Paperhouse
During the summer, superstar EDM DJ deadmau5 caused a bit of controversy when he wrote a Tumblr post that called out fellow DJs (and himself) for the lack of skill involved in DJing. He wrote, “I think given about one hour of instruction, anyone with minimal knowledge of ableton and music tech in general could DO what im doing at a deadmau5 concert.”
As one might expect, throngs of DJs lashed out at deadmau5 for his oversimplification of their performances. While aspects like song selection are undoubtedly important when DJing, the more relevant point deadmau5 brought up is the lack of improvisation in the EDM world.
Most major EDM DJs show up to a venue not only with their DJ equipment, but also with a massive light and sometimes fireworks show — shows that are planned out, moment by moment. Although the DJ may be twisting knobs, triggering effects, running loops, and making dramatic gestures, these movements are all pre-planned.
I’m not saying lights and fireworks are a bad thing, but when it comes to the point when an artist lets his live act dictate his musical performance, I have a problem with it. Deadmau5 and most other EDM DJs are like pop stars who lip sync their shows because actually singing would interfere with their dancing.
The creative tools that modern DJs have at their disposal are endless, and part of being a DJ is reaching beyond your comfort zone. Don’t plan out your sets track by track and don’t script out your knob turning. There are scores of DJs who follow this, still have fancy flashing lights, and still lead the crowd into a dancing fury.
So go home and start DJing. You’ll be a professional within the hour — unless it really isn’t as easy as the man with a flashing mouse head makes it out to be.
(Originally published in The Tartan)
