The Man In Black
What could we possibly say about the passing of Johnny Cash? No doubt you've seen the papers recounting his near infinite contributions to music and culture, and rehashing them here wouldn't serve much purpose. Instead, we thought we'd put together this week's newsletter and dedicate it to one of our favorite musicians. It's a shame we don't have any of his music, but hopefully, his influence upon these artists will be enough.
On a lighter note
We have a pal named Roman who produces a show for San Francisco's KALW Public Radio that's along similar lines as This American Life entitled Invisible Ink. There are about 40 shows so far (starting in January) and each one is a jewel. They are each about 30 minutes we'll be posting 3 or 4 every week until we're caught up, then it'll be a weekly addition to the site (always a week behind air time).
The key focus of Invisible Ink features is zines but they often stray. As a matter of fact, Epitonic's own Aaron Newton has a 10 minute spot on the 7th show about the resurgence of 80's music and 80's culture (which will be posted soon). Each segment is scored with bands like Mates of State, Enon, Milemarker, and others.
We encourage you all to go listen to a show or two. You can find it featured on the home page and listed in fishwrap. You'll also note the new box here in the newsletter featuring the most recent show posted. For the next few weeks this number will jump by 3 or 4 every week as we post the previous shows, so if you like it, be sure to visit the Invisible Ink section on the site to catch the ones in between.
5th Graders Sound Off on Radiohead
This is too good for us to just leave tucked away over in the "What We're Into This Week" list. This week's East Bay Express (the weekly free paper in the Berkeley/Oakland/Emeryville, CA area) features an article with an ingenious approach at writing music reviews. The subject was Radiohead and the critics were 5th graders. The point? Everyone over the age of 15 has read and heard so much about the band that forming an opinion solely on the merits of their work is all but impossible. The solution here is to expose the music to those who have never, ever heard the band. The results are, well, they're a lot of things. Asonishing, beautiful, puzzling...
The forum for this 'critique' was a class of fifth graders, blank paper, and some magic markers. The class listened to the band for a while, and then just drew whatever it made them think of it. Besides the astonishing drawings, there was this tid bit:
The kids consent to this experiment, if only because Mitsi tells them to. They do, however, immediately request that we play Sean Paul or 50 Cent instead.
"This is not hip-hop," Mitsi says. "I'm not asking if you like it."
She doesn't have to ask. They don't.
We'll leave you to your own opinions on the drawings, but here's the two things that are on our mind:
What they would have drawn to 50 cent or Sean Paul had they never heard of those bands? And we wonder what we would have drawn to Simon and Garfunkle, Elton John, Dylan, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, or The Cure.
New content
One last note. We've only got a few new postings for you this week (stuff from Saddle Creek Records). We've got a ton of stuff in the works, but we're somewhat handicapped because a large percentage of our staff is off galavanting across the country working at resfest, which just opened its 7th year in San Francisco. This weekend it heads to LA, then to DC, then it ricochettes all over the globe. Most of us, the staff, have had a chance to see the material and can't endorse it enough. Big highlights include the Michel Gondry retrospective, both Cinema Electronica and the Videos that Rock, and all three of the Shorts programs are excellent. If it's coming to a town near you, get your friends off the couch and go!
