A Special Aesthetic
The incomprehensible A2 music scene explained: “There’s a special aesthetic to Ann Arbor, especially for musicians. It’s nice to have relationships where someone can be like, ‘Could you play tambourine or glockenspiel for us tonight?’ and there are so many people who’ll just come along with you,” says local musician Elliot Bergman in a story from the Daily Weekend Magazine’s local music issue. Well, there you go.
Right, cuz musicians don’t hang out and know each other in other towns? It’s too early in the morning for me to be expressing opinions anyway.
posted by Alex on March 26th, 2004 at 5:42 amEh. I think in, say, Detroit, it probably is hard to find a musician to play glokenspeil in an afro-beat band on short notice. What that says about the local music scene? I dunno. That aside from five or six bands, it’s pretty fucking boring and once you’ve seen those bands ten or fifteen times, its hard to motivate yourself to come out for a Wednesday show? I don’t think it says that, but that’s about how it is. And without people willing to come out every night of the week, there’s never really gonna be a “scene”.
posted by js on March 26th, 2004 at 8:28 amjs
I know I’m being nitpicky, but is he talking about the aesthetic, or is he talking about the ethos? I read his comment to mean that there was a community of participatory and active musicians who will pitch in–which I’ve personally witnessed any place I’ve met a musician. Or was he talking about there being a community of musicians who were all into the same (obscure)style? No offense to tambourine players intended, but can’t anybody play the tambourine, does it really require a special aesthetic?
posted by Alex on March 26th, 2004 at 8:53 amI beg your pardon!
posted by Davy Jones on March 26th, 2004 at 9:33 amEvery night of the week, js? Who has time to go out every night of the week? Not the AAIO core demographic of grad students, that’s for sure.
There’s a lot of music to be heard in ann arbor. I end up missing a lot of good stuff. This weekend there’s two shows at the Halfass, the Digital Music Ensemble is premiering a Philip Glass piece, Robert Newcomb is at Canterbury House, and my klezmer band is playing a dance with some salsa DJs. All of these shows are unique. And that’s just the stuff I know about.
I’d be hard pressed to find something interesting every single night of the week, but… I have a life, you know? And three to four interesting things a weekend is plenty for the vast majority of people, unless you are a megadedicated scenester or jaded music reviewer.
And I suppose these aren’t all “shows” by technical definition, they might not be considered “cool” by a committee, or they may be “incomprehensible” to you. Sure, if you don’t like jazz or folk or indie or electronica or classical or klezmer or hip-hop or et cetera, then yes, you won’t find much here to interest you.
But then I have little sympathy for you. If your idea of a vibrant musical scene is a place where Interpol or The Strokes or (insert band du jour here) tours more often, then I look forward to your departure. You’re contributing nothing to the scene here.
(Who is the “you” I’m talking to? I’m not sure. Probably a nonexistent amalgam of all AAIO readers and/or AA citizens.)
I don’t know, Elliot says a lot of dumb (but honest) things in this article, but the one that rings true is the last one, about there being a lot of good music, but nobody interested.
posted by speicus on March 26th, 2004 at 11:25 amThat is the bane of the music industry as a whole: more talent than anybody has the time or resources for. It’s as true in New York as it is here.
And I refuse to apologize for liking rock. If loving three chords and good rhythm is wrong, I don’t wanna be right!
posted by Alex on March 26th, 2004 at 12:43 pmi want donkey punch to re-unite!
posted by stephen santos on March 26th, 2004 at 5:34 pmWalk with me here…
A year before the Summer of Love, I did some promotional materials for a Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs concert (to be held at the Hill).
When we all showed up that Saturday night, the place was locked up and signs posted, directing us to the Union.
Because they hadn’t sold enough tickets and because Sam didn’t want to give us ticket holders our money back, the “concert” turned into a sock-hop and we all made the most of it and bopped for hours.
The Beachboys (with Brian Wilson) played the Hill that year, as I recall.
Once again, long before AAwO.
Another bit of useless trivia, brought to you by
Ilya
posted by ilya on March 26th, 2004 at 6:09 pmIs the Halfass trying to be stealth with their shows, or what? I can never find out what is going on over there– it isn’t in Current or even the Daily. Ass indeed.
posted by Brandon on March 27th, 2004 at 12:37 amJS, Alex, Brandon, Murph,
Long Winters are playing at the Pig on the 6th of April. IMHO they are a must see…
Buy you a round if I see you there.
todd
posted by todd on March 29th, 2004 at 9:20 amBlind Pig? Isn’t that where New Kids on the Block play when they’re in town?
posted by detrOIt on March 29th, 2004 at 10:20 amThanks for reminding us that detrOit is the hippest place on earth! Why would any band in America want to play anywhere else?
How could we all forget?
My plan is to hold my breath until Ann Arbor is half as cool as Detroit.
Here’s hoping.
posted by todd on March 29th, 2004 at 11:00 amMy God, you’re right. Detroit sucks too.
Good thing I’m moving this afternoon. Hereafter I shall be torONTo. With ONT being the postal abbreviation for Ontario. Clever, eh?
All future commentary will be written on little scraps of paper tucked into my TRASH. You can pick them up at BFI in Salem–which also sucks, and will suck more each day as my Molson XXX bottles are interred there.
Au Revoir from the Danforth.
posted by torONTo (formerly detrOIt) on March 29th, 2004 at 12:02 pmHey, Isaac, try thinking about someone other than, say, what music school grad students might like to listen to.
posted by js on March 29th, 2004 at 3:04 pmWhat makes a good scene? Having musicians who are able to make a living as musicians. And not just ten or twelve of them, and not just old fuckers who happen to own the Bird or Firefly. A set of bands that are able to cross polinate outside of their cliques (something that used to happen a lot in Ann Arbor, and doesn’t much anymore). And hey, much like how gays aren’t a cause in Florida’s cool cities, they’re an indicator, having national bands isn’t a cause, it’s an indicator that things are going well. Those national bands mean locals get to open up for them and get paid, and ideally get to tour with them outside of Ann Arbor. I know that classical musicians may not have the same touring considerations as rock bands, but that’s how you both get better as a band and make a name for yourself. And hey, is it too much to ask that bands from Ann Arbor don’t have to list themselves as from Detroit to play outside of Michigan?
Oh, and Isaac, you’re totally right- I hate jazz and electronic music. With a passion so great that I try to go out of my way to talk about EdgeFest and shows at the Canterbury, in hopes of making people’s tastes a little more ecclectic.
And what I was saying with having something going on every night of the week is two-fold: One, it doesn’t mean that I need to be able to go out every night of the week. I can’t; I have night classes and work often enough. But my schedule isn’t the same as everyone elses, and there should be something that’s excellent every night of the week so that people who have their weekends on Monday and Tuesday can still see great music. Two, having a scene means having people whose primary activity is making and hearing music. Call ‘em mega-dedicated scenesters or whatever, but you can’t have a scene without scenesters, and that level of dedication should be rewarded with more than just open mike nights and the promise of more Phillip Glass twiddling.
Ann Arbor has some amazing musicians, and a lot of good music, but it doesn’t have the critical mass required for a scene. And without that, it’s pretty damn easy to get bored. No matter how many kids with homemade electronics or Eastern-European-inflected-free-jazz-emo-jam bands there are.
To reference another local blog, 90% of music anywhere is crud. We just don’t have enough quantity of the other 10%. How that will be solved is pretty much a damn mystery.
js
More places to play in AA might help. Having lots of garbage to sift through is inevitable in any local music scene - for good bands to get noticed and attract a following there needs to be more than a couple of venues at which they compete for a very small number of slots opening for national acts, they need the chance to play regularly both for the following and the experience. But JS’s point is well-taken - you won’t have a lot of places putting on shows if people don’t support them, and AA doesn’t seem like the kind of town where people will go out night after night and pack bars and clubs to see their favorite bands.
posted by Nick on March 29th, 2004 at 8:08 pmI do think about what people other than me would like to listen to. And I think they would like a lot of the stuff I like, but that often they just don’t know about it or have some bad preconceptions of it. But maybe I sound like one of those evangelical Christians who think that just because I don’t go to church that I’ve never heard of a guy named Jesus.
I certainly don’t think anyone needs to apologize for liking rock. And it seems to me there is a lot of rock to like in ann arbor/ypsi/detroit. Okay, yes, I have to add ypsi and detroit to make that a valid statement.
(A lot of klezmer has three chords and a good beat too. But no guitars.)
You’re right, js, about ann arbor lacking the critical mass for a scene, sort of… but then I think about how big avant-jazz was here a few years ago and how weird that was and what happened to make it go away. Maybe what we lack now is strong leaders in the music scene, people that somehow motivate and galvanize people to come out in droves. Right now all we’ve got in that category is, I guess, Fred Thomas. But we’ve already got lots of people whose primary activity is making and/or hearing music. I just don’t understand how that’s equivalent to going to a show every night of the week. When you say that I think of that sidebar in the Onion, “That Guy With the Glasses at Every Show.” Sure, maybe if we had THAT GUY we’d have a real happening scene.
It’s problematic here but it’s not the wasteland that people make it out to be and I get a little pissed off when people act like there’s absolutely nothing interesting going on. It’s very eclectic which I guess could be a bad thing if your musical diet depends on copious amounts of a few staples instead of a sampling of various styles. I do wish people had a little more curiosity about music they’re not already intimately familiar with, but I’m a pretentious fuck and I’d feel that way anywhere.
And I’m sorry if anyone was clipped by my inspecific rhetorical “you” — I’ll drive more carefully next time.
posted by speicus on March 30th, 2004 at 11:47 amKlezmer is the new emo.
posted by Nick on March 30th, 2004 at 5:43 pmHeh. He might be the new Ilya. Nick, can ya do that in free verse?
posted by js on March 30th, 2004 at 8:24 pmjs
Um, AAIO and Anna, that most recent post was not me.
posted by Nick on March 30th, 2004 at 9:16 pmStill, though I may not be as cool as (a) an academic with nothing better to do in New Haven than reminisce about Pittsburgh on a blog about AA; or (b) a hipster following a nonexistent music scene for a third-rate paper, you have to admit I try hard.
posted by Nick on March 31st, 2004 at 1:08 amWho said I was cool?
posted by js on March 31st, 2004 at 10:56 amjs
Ummm… Nick, that comment above — about you not being Boris — wasn’t really me (AAIO, could you please delete that? Thanks….). No wonder you think I’m more prickly than usual.
posted by Anna on April 1st, 2004 at 11:05 pm