Monday, March 1st, 2010 // Paperhouse
Music and visual art have always shared a connection, but in this modern age, art and music are meeting on different terms. In the past, it has often been the prerogative of the visual artist to interpret the musician, but today, more musicians are realizing their own visual interpretations.
Radiohead’s 2009 single “These Are My Twisted Words” was released with a series of images that could be overlaid to produce a variety of different album covers. The Arcade Fire’s music video for their single “Neon Bible” was made completely interactive on the band’s website. Depending on where a person clicked on the page, he or she could interact with the music video character in different ways.
These combinations of art and music have expanded to large-scale art performances and installations as well. Last year, the BAM Next Wave Festival commissioned Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, and Matthew Ritchie to produce a musical about the dawn of time that would go hand in hand with their gallery of sculptures and images. The performance was radical and the art exploratory. To date, I cannot imagine a more inspiring collaboration of music and art.
On March 4, the realms of music and art will once again blend when Animal Collective opens their new installation and musical performance at Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum. The project, entitled Transverse Temporal Gyrus, will feature the works of artist Danny Perez and promises to be a stunning blend of sounds and art as well as a truly psychedelic experience. It is one of the most anticipated collaborations between art and music, and with the success of Animal Collective’s recent album, Merriweather Post Pavilion, the show is guaranteed to be spectacular.
These advances in the combination of visual art and music are allowing artists to truly explore the boundaries of their medium. We look forward to seeing future collaborations in this arena.
Stephen Epple
Monday, February 15th, 2010 // Paperhouse
The house lights of Mr. Small’s Theatre & Funhouse come on and I notice a couple of facts: First, Mr. Small’s does not seem ventilated enough for a smoking venue; second, the Arctic Monkeys are fantastic; and finally, this crowd is terrible. Maybe it was the $30 ticket price, but almost everyone seemed over 40 and more concerned about the babysitter than the music. The crowd that night, from the bar to the stage, never moved. So where was the young and gunning college crowd? Where were the people known for kicking up musical storms?
Sadly, everyone was just hanging around campus. Chalk it up to price and distance, but no one was making their way out to Millvale. Even worse, most of the people I talked to thought Pittsburgh just didn’t have a very good music scene. Well, Pittsburgh may not be New York, but we certainly get good music.
The Arctic Monkeys were one of the biggest bands to tour Europe back in 2006. They played chart-topping hits at world- famous venues. Why they bothered to come to Pittsburgh I don’t know. I just felt lucky. When the tickets were only $30, I was grateful. Those tickets were nowhere near the $90 I’d be paying for the Ben Folds concert the next day.
I flash back to all of this because once again, the house lights are coming on and once again the crowd is older. I can appreciate their taste in music now, but the lack of enthusiasm is a thorough buzz kill. I need a younger crowd and a girl I can dance with.
-Stephen Epple
Monday, February 8th, 2010 // Paperhouse
Last Wednesday, rock journalist Chuck Klosterman lectured on the media’s influence on how we, as individuals, perceive reality. The topic itself was broad, so even Klosterman had trouble getting to his point. Still, Klosterman has proven himself to be a powerful commentator on popular culture, and his point was probably all the more poignant in its ambiguity.
No one knows how media (especially new media) is affecting our reality. Film and television are assailing us with information at 24 frames per second. Computer multimedia and video games are even faster. Our brains struggle to store, much less interpret, this massive amount of information.
When Klosterman was in high school, he had six cassette tapes of music that amounted to roughly 70 songs. Looking at my iTunes library, I have 5000 songs just on this computer. Klosterman struggled to interpret half of his music library. I’ll be lucky if I fully interpret 1 percent of mine. Right now, I’m telling myself I can generalize — I don’t need to know every detail of every song. But I’m struck by the fact that I hardly know anything about my music other than that I like the sound.
I wanted Klosterman to make me feel better, to tell me good music was still good music. I took down a poster for his lecture and got in line to have it signed. I’m going to ask him if he likes a band called The National. If he does, somehow I won’t be bothered. The media can keep using me as it pleases.
He signs my paper, and I don’t ask anything. The man just spent the last hour telling me the media has the wrong idea. People like Britney Spears are different in person compared to on television. Even Klosterman is putting on a show. Why would I ever want to ask him if he likes The National?
Chuck Klosterman, I have been thoroughly impressed.
-Stephen Epple
