. . .
Something magical happens when you see a band play live for first time. Sound becomes three-dimensional. Instead of the flat interface of an LP, CD, or a computer screen, sound comes at you through space. You hear and feel the music as it is – in the case of metal, instruments amplified at earth-shaking volumes – not as a studio assemblage piped through headphones. If you didn’t know the band’s music before, you get to know it unmediated. No blogs or friends or opinions get in the way. It’s just you and the music. You must make up your own mind.
That’s the ideal, anyway. That’s why fans say, “I can’t wait to see that band live”. They want to establish the personal connection that only comes with face-to-face contact.
But live music so often falls short of that ideal. The sound is bad, the performers are all too human, or other fans ruin the experience. Concerts are both the best and worst settings in which to experience music.
In fact, some music shouldn’t ever be performed live. That might sound strange, as all recorded music was performed at some point in order to be recorded. But just because music sounds good on record doesn’t mean it would sound good live. Metal fans speak of mythical gigs in which Darkthrone and Burzum would emerge from hermitry and attain a real-time presence. I hope those gigs never happen. Darkthrone most certainly would suck performance-wise; Fenriz has openly said that he does not practice the drums. And Burzum at its best is music not of this earth. Even if Varg Vikernes somehow assembled a band (watch your back!), it would be a bunch of hired guns, one of whom would conduct the Casio Symphony Orchestra. You don’t want to see the Casio Symphony Orchestra; you want to close your eyes and let Burzum take you to the stars.
Hence my mixed feelings upon seeing the above video that Karen Mann took of Horseback live in February this year. (See her full post here.) I fell in love with Horseback’s Invisible Mountain in late ‘09; it was my second-favorite record that year (review). It’s very introspective, something made for headphones and late nights. That was indeed the only setting I knew for the album for over a year. Then I saw the video above, and suddenly the music became mortal. It was performed well, and the video is of high audio and video quality. (My only complaint is an out-of-tune guitar string, which still bothers me intensely until about the 10-minute mark, at which point I resign myself to its presence.) But the mental images that the music evoked in me were replaced by the sight of indie rock-looking dudes playing instruments that annoyed me. (I have an irrational loathing of Les Paul guitars and Fender headstocks.)
Looks shouldn’t matter, but they do. Take, say, Marduk. Much of their live presentation is how they look. They look like their music. It wouldn’t work if Marduk looked like your company’s IT department. (That would actually be more disturbing – too bad bands aren’t brave/crazy enough to look like the opposite of their music.) Horseback are sort of screwed in my mind, because any look, indie rock or not, would elicit the same feelings. When I heard Invisible Mountain, I heard humans, but I didn’t see them. I saw great clouds of smoke billowing through inner space. Lifting the curtain to reveal the humans behind it was bound to disappoint.
I’m actually not disappointed in the Horseback performance above. It’s really good. If they came through here, I’d see them without hesitation. But my relationship with their music has reached a new understanding that’s more complex. It’s like meeting people in person after corresponding with them on the Internet. They inevitably satisfy some expectations, but dash others.
So now Horseback are mortals channeling what to me is immortal music. They’re out now on the road playing some rare live dates (see below). If you can see them, I encourage seizing the opportunity. Mortals can’t continue to make immortal music without help from other mortals. But if you want to just hear the sounds, I’d completely understand. You can stream Invisible Mountain below. Close your eyes and lose yourself in the music, or open them and meet its human conduits. Both choices are right.
. . .
THE INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN
. . .
HORSEBACK – REMAINING TOUR DATES
6/10 – Indianapolis, IN – Vollrath
6/11 – Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club (as part of Utech Festival)
6/13 – Iowa City, IA – The Blue Moose
6/14 – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone
6/15 – Asheville, NC – The Get Down
. . .
I’m driving up to Indy tonight to see the show. Maybe I should try to keep my eyes closed (during the show, not during the drive).
Incidentally, anyone here heard of/ a fan of Journey to Ixtlan? Weirdo, sun-bleached, desert-doom soundscapery that puts me in the same headspace as _The Invisible Mountain_.
a bit off-topic, but what is an “indie-rock Looking dude” exactly. Metalheads, who all tend to dress in the same color palate, seem to be pre-occupied with this description. Is it meant to refer to guys who have short hair and wear shirts that aren’t black?
Also, any fear of Gibsons and Fenders is definitely irrational. Those are THE classic instruments and, frankly, sound better than most anything else that has come after. It is no mystery why so many players from Sabbath to Vitus to Zappa to Ludicra to Maiden to Yob to Scorpions to Negative Plane use them. Just sayin’
backed!I used to have the same attitude towards Strats. Now I play one. It might be “Joe Guitar,” but that neck profile is, for me, the dream…even on my Mexi-Strat.
I kinda have the reverse irrational dislike: pointy BC Rich stuff.
Also partially related: I saw Negative Plane in NYC last week, and holy hell do those riffs cut and sound great live. Crazy techniques all over a gorgeous red SG.
Fenders are for suburban dads. That said, I’ve been warming more and more to them and have been seriously thinking about getting one of those Teles with the P90s.
That said, Fenders are way better than Gibsons. One of my guilty pleasures is looking at the Gibson website to see what new horrid shit they’re coming out with. It’s all nonsense. The flying V came out in what, 1958 or something like that? That was their last good idea.
He said Les Pauls…just sayin’…
Iommi and Zappa were SG men.
Zappa and Iommi both played Fenders at various points and Zappa also rocked sunburst and gold top Les Pauls.
http://www.lespaulguide.com/images/frank_zappa.jpg
Iommi had a quick white Strat moment when he was in Jethro Tull.
http://dmme.net/pix/interviews/ia4.jpg
I don’t really see your point. You say they perform very well live, so what’s your problem with them? The fact that they’re just normal dudes? What, did you expect mythical space dragons or something?
huh. big time mixed feelings on this myself haha. I think they should invest in a hefty smoke machine or something, at least. Like you said, I would still see them in a heartbeat though. Very well performed, but they look like, uh, yeah, not much. (I was expecting mythical space dragons) I think the indie rock look thing usually involves thick glasses, short hair usually waved to one side, allergic reactions to lifting weights/exercise in general, hot jailbait girlfriends haha etc. Think I’m guna check out that Journey to Ixtlan though.
lol @loganarchy
i guess the reaction is oppostie for “ghost” killer look but lame ass music
Agreed!
I felt the same way about this band! I really liked “Invocation” a lot when I heard it, I didn’t want to stop listening to it! I even liked that their name was indicative of their pace. But when I looked up some live footage of them, I was like “Ugh!” and I felt so guilty about it! It shouldn’t matter what these kids look like – but for some reason it does! One kid looks just like this king of the hipsters I know, and that was really unsettling to me.
As shallow as it is, I haven’t listened to them as much since I’ve seen what they look like. Isn’t that horrible?! I’m such a jerk!
@MusicalSnob Ghost is an excellent example of the exact opposite. I saw pictures of Ghost before I ever heard them. Once I heard what they sounded like, I was thoroughly repulsed. But I don’t feel at all guilty about that!
I’m completely with Fenriz on this particular point. I have no use for live music. I get what you’re talking about, and I think a live performance might ruin a band for me too (I suppose it could make them, but then that’s just a temporary experience that I can’t go back to by replaying it–the value is diminished. As a child, I never spent my money on candy, because it didn’t last. I saved it for toys.)
But for me the larger issue is I don’t want to be stuffed in a room with a bunch of humans. I would make an exception if just the right band came to town, but only because I haven’t seen any live music in 7 years. I think a locust breeding interval is about right.
That said, I’m glad everyone else seems to like it. I don’t want to see my favorite groups give up music because it doesn’t at least come close to paying for itself.
@metalcakes, me thinks if ghost had to change thier sound up, i mean if a producer or what have you saw the potential to make money off thier image they would take em up and put em in a studio with some known producer who would give em a edgy sound i bet they might be really fuckin big (think slipknot retarded big).
its 2011 and thier arent many bands doingthe whole imagery shctick(besides blackemetal that has run its course)anywho image really dosnt register to me.
I’m not sure where my opinion fits in, since I match dunkelheit’s indie description to a tee — including the hot girlfriend, but sans glasses — but I get what Cosmo is saying.
Avoiding the “look” component altogether, I think atmospheric stuff rarely satisfies in a live setting unless there’s a well-integrated visual component that can keep pace with the mental imagery you conjure when you listen on your own. But it’s also a fine line between visually badass and hokey schtick. I don’t blame Horseback for keeping it simple, but it’s pretty goddamn dull to behold.
In fact, some music shouldn’t ever be performed live. That might sound strange, as all recorded music was performed at some point in order to be recorded.
Doesn’t sound strange at all, given that recorded music is often (usually, in fact) not performed all at once in a cohesive take.
Some of it’s not even performed as individual cohesive tracks, just assembled during production.
Which I have absolutely no problem with, unlike various internet people or traditional-music-production fetishists, but it sure as hell indicates that there are some things I’d never want to see attempted live*.
(* Well, at least not by the people who produced them originally. I can’t think of anything that would be inherently impossible to reproduce live, but at some point it’s Not The Same when you have a completely different crew making the noises, is it?)
(Also, if I ever had a black metal band, we would absolutely perform in business attire.
Hell, yeah, suits.
Tropical weight for practical reasons, but still.)
I think Akercocke do the suits thing, though they’re only loosely black metal, I suppose.
Irrational hate for certain guitars is human nature. I like fenders, gibsons, and solid colored pointy guitars, but generally despise anything with flame, quilted, Birdseye, or spalted maple. Basically anything that looks like Santana would play it. Exotic, to me = gaudy.
Just curious, what kind of guitars do you all play? I’m mainly a Rickenbacker and Fender bass player but my next instrument will be a 6 string SG.
My guitar tastes are similar to yours. I’ve owned 2 Fenders (Jazz, Pbass Special), Gibson (Ripper), Ibanez ATK 700 and currently have an ‘81 Ibanez Roadster…all basses. My guitar is a Mexi Strat. I just like the weight and feel of older classic instruments. My ‘81 Ibanez is basically a heavier version of a Fender Pbass with better tone. I’ve tried to switch to BC Rich and newer Ibanez, but they don’t have the same feel or tone for me. If I had the cash, I would definitely go with a Gibson Thunderbird.
I’m primarily a bass player as well– I have Rickenbacker 4003 I adore and a custom 4-string fretless I built with the help of a local hippie in high school. Guitarwise, in addtion to my Mexi-Strat (which has Lace Sensor pickups and Schaller locking tuners), I also have a Jazzmaster with a Mastery bridge, Seymour Duncan P-Rails bridge pickup, and Schaller locking tuners. Just today, my early ’90s Roland JC-120 amp came! So stoked.
As many may guess, I don’t really play metal music at present, haha.
/gear nerdiness
I keep trying to strategize a “versatile” guitar rig for metal and non-metal, but with the massive volume differential it seems pretty impossible. Bass rigs seem so much easier in comparison.
Agreed that it is easier with bass. I tried to upgrade to metal gear in my old band…RBI rackmount for overdrive, additional poweramp, pedals, active pickups, etc. and it kept fucking with the tone. A 40 year old Acoustic head with passive pick-ups was a perfect fit for pretty much everything I want to play from jazzy prog to metal.
I have a Strat that came with a Floyd Rose bridge. I got tired of unscrewing the locks at the top of the headstock and tuning it every fifteen minutes, so I replaced the floating tremelo with a Gibson fixed bridge. And no, I’m not a suburban dad.
Dude have you heard their split with Locrian? Their track on it is very cool. So is locrians too
Well funny you mention the Fender/Gibson thing and Marduk, doesn’t Morgan usuall rocks a white strat? For me it’s telecasters that would be just really weird to see in a “metal” band, granted going over the top like that dude from Vital Remains with that ridiculous guitar he’s like the Bootsy Collins of BROOTAL Death Metal.
Yeah, teles are odd when they pop up in metal. I’ve seen other post-metal bands rocking Tele ‘72 reissues (with humbuckers), but traditional single coil teles would probably be too noisy and unfocused at high volumes to be much use in brootal metal. I could imagine it working for lo-fi black metal, and didn’t Unsane originally use them for all that squealing feedbacky stuff? Somebody should drop some blade humbuckers and a floyd rose in a tele and build an absurd looking shred guitar…
But Swans is a Tele and ES-335 band, and they are heavy as fuck, so who knows. Then again, that’s more solid blocks of noise without the dexterity of metal, but I won’t argue against the fullness of their sound.
Cosmo, thanks for posting the video. I think you have to keep in mind that watching a video of a performance can’t possibly give you the same reaction as watching the performance itself. I can think of a few stellar live band videos (U2’s Live at Red Rocks, James Brown live in Zaire and much of The Last Waltz immediately come to mind), but I guarantee you that they pale in comparison with what the audience members at those shows experienced themselves.
I can tell you that the live performance of those songs was absolutely spell-binding. You don’t realize it while watching the intro, but that room was packed (at 5 p.m. too!) and yet everyone was silent, transfixed by what the band was doing.
Your points on appearance aren’t new. I’d like to tell you that you’re wrong, but I’ve been guilty of making judgements like that too. Is your disappointment tied to the fact that the band members don’t look traditionally “metal” or that you didn’t get a good visual show during this particular performance?
And jumping into the guitar debate, on night one of this fest, I posted a photo to Facebook of Music Hates You guitarist Noah Ray playing a Tele. Several guitarists on my friends list immediately chimed in about how weird it was to see a metal band playing a Tele.
i highly recommend the journey to ixtlan CD that came out on aurora borealis about 3 years ago or so. it was my soundtrack on many a drive through the desert, very eerie feel, really cool stuff.
this was a bit of a strange posting i must say. if you picked me out of a crowd you would probably not pin the ‘metalhead’ tag on me unless i wore a band shirt that day. this endless hipster/indie rock dude tagging is very lame i find. we can’t all walk around in patched vests and wearing bulletbelts, for some of us it just does not feel right… i’d look like a right twat trying to sport that.
That’s the CD I have too (do they have another?). I thought of them when I read this post, as they’re a band that would likely be disappointing to “see” live, unless the show took place around a campfire in a deserted canyon with everyone there stoned out of their minds on peyote and buzzards circling ominously overhead.
Ended up missing the show last night, dammit. I’ve seen more than my share lately (including Revocation last weekend, which was a lot of fun), but I think I’m going to be kicking myself for a while for having to miss this one.
And yeah, for whatever reason, thick black glasses are to indie rock shows what black band t-shirts are to metal shows. I think indie rockers must have bad eyesight from all that time they spend gazing at their navels (heh, heh). All kidding aside, I’m too old and uncool to care much about what I’m wearing, so, unless they go whole hog with elaborate costumes (which is always fun), it doesn’t make much of a difference to me how metal bands dress.
re: journey to ixtlan – there are a bunch of cd-r reissues of the desert lotus label stuff that were released last year have a look at this thread on dffd, i haven’t heard any of it as i got tired spending money on cd-r’s but i’m sure there is some great stuff in there.
http://www.foreverdoomed.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=211&start=30
i have thick rimmed glasses, i wish i had better eyesight— one day i’ll get that shit lasered but for now i just don’t want to look like the guy from anaal nathrakh, i’d rather look like a hipster.
Yep, I was standing about 3 feet away from Karen when she shot that & I concur that it was absolutely amazing. Even though Jenks lives near me, it’s exceedingly rare for Horseback to actually play live, so I’d spent a *ton* of time listening to these songs without any expectation of ever hearing them live. And honestly, they’re at such a measured pace & go in such mystical directions that I wasn’t really expecting them to be able to pull them off live.
But they totally nailed it. It was outstanding.
I find myself with eyes closed at a lot of shows that I go to, and I suspect it does have something to do with the environment in general being distracting, though that’s usually more about nearby audience members, or the fact that I’m in a bar with lighted exit signs & bathrooms & people talking in the back & etc, as opposed to what the band looks like.
I don’t think I care all that much what people look like or how they dress onstage, though. One of my favorite bands (and another band who totally rule live, pulling off sounds that I never thought they’d be able to pull off live) is US Christmas — and while Nate is a total metal dude with long hair & leather pants, the rest of the band look like they just got off work at the furniture factory or something. And they’re epic.
i’m hoping to go see USX in asheville on teh 18th, definitely the single best discovery i made last year.
Thanks for the tip re: the Journey to Ixtlan re-issue. I’m similarly disinclined to pay $10 + shipping for a CD-r, so I’ll probably wait for someone to give at a proper release.
My point, which I didn’t make clearly, was that any human manifestation of the music would have been disappointing. The fact that it took a form that doesn’t please my eye didn’t help. But if Horseback had looked like a conventional metal band, it wouldn’t have worked, either.
If we were to devise some sort of “appropriate” stage getup to embody Horseback’s music, for Invisible Mountain at least, it might be a Sunn O)))-type anonymous hoods deal.
But you make an important point that a video is still a 2D representation of a 3D live performance. I don’t doubt that it was enthralling to those who witnessed it in person.
“If we were to devise some sort of “appropriate” stage getup to embody Horseback’s music, for Invisible Mountain at least, it might be a Sunn O)))-type anonymous hoods deal.”
That’s one of the first thoughts that entered my head after reading this piece!
Seen Greg Ginn? Looked like the busboy at your local Denny’s but played in one of the most devastating bands of all time.
Ad guitar choice: I got two Warlocks, an 80’s Ibanez superstrat and Gibson SG. The latter gets the most play by far. If I ever got a Fender it would have to be a Tele, though I don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon. Also I got the fat black rimmed glasses, but I’m practically blind and a Roy Orbison fan, so…
Pseudonymous: If you needed to retune your Floyd every fifteen minutes you didn’t set it up it right to begin with. A properly tuned and set up Floyd is a fortress, but with a failing setup it’s a horrible piece of shit.
The guitar came with the bridge installed, and my various attempts to tinker with it to get it to stay in tune were to no avail. Honestly, I just got tired of messing with it, and I hardly ever used the whammy bar anyway, so changing out the bridge was no big deal.
One of the things I like the most about my strat is its heft. There’s a physicality to holding it and playing it that I don’t get out of lighter guitars.
My first guitar ever, bought like 15 years ago, was an Ibanez S470… I just wanted to play sloppy punk stuff, yet I somehow wound up with a total shred guitar. It had a floyd rose which thoroughly frustrated my 16 year-old self. Had I known better, I would have got the nut properly slotted so the strings wouldn’t bind every time you wang on the whammy, instead I had the tremolo blocked. I miss that guitar.
Are these guys indie rock looking? They just look like regular dudes to me. Don’t most of the population wear jeans and a t-shirt when they’re not at work. Aren’t you allowed to be a regular dude in metal anymore?
The only other possible thing that makes them look indie rock is thick rimmed glasses. What kind of glasses are you allowed to wear in metal?
I feel sorry for anyone who needs a band to look a certain way for their enjoyment. I think I’m the opposite. Theatrics and stage outfits often seem silly to me. It works for some bands – Sunn 0))) and Master Musicians of Bukkake. But for me, I’ve cringed a little at Watain and Immortal – Kiss isn’t my bag.
I don’t think these guys sound that different from how they look. Bands like Isis and Cult of Luna could be mistaken for an alternative looking band couldn’t they?
I get it that you might picture a band a certain way when you listen to them – but in the google age, how often do you rock up to a show without kind of knowing what they look like.
And if you like the sound coming out of the instrument who cares if its your favourite guitar or a fecking glockenspiel?
I have the wide-rimmed glasses. I don’t think that makes me indie rock. I could barely even name an indie rock band. Fuck, I’m wearing plaid shorts and flip flops right now. I think I’m at a point in my life where I don’t feel I need to impress anybody anymore. If they’re like that, I think I’d like them.
You stop caring about looking like the music you play/listen to when the music stand on its own and no looks could get in its way. Cut the hair, trim the beard, drop the black clothes and tell me if you’re still metal at heart!
Some will never be able to drop the look.
It’s not like I don’t still wear black band shirts a couple days a week!
Well spoken Cosmo. I…like live music. I like learning the little details when watching a band pull it off–what kind of kit, guitars and pedals, and so forth. As I’m sure many here can attest to, a venue/and or soundman can make or break a show–although a crappy PA can really put the soundman at a severe disadvantage. Alot also depends on your expectations…and your BAC haha.
I’m not familiar with Horseback, but it sounds like they’re firmly in the camp of bands whose music is ‘difficult’–by that I mean not straightforward rock. Sunn O))) and Isis and Earth plus alot of doom metal are hard to pull off live. I understand the difficulty when people say “headphone music.”
Lastly, guitars–I don’t think it matters much–it’s what they can pull out of an instrument. There has been a resurgence in Strats it seems, and less on ‘metal guitars’–there will always be shitloads of Jacksons and Gibsons, but its refreshing to see others creep in. I remember seeing Unsane and his Telecaster scrape brain pans collectively and Weedeater bring the sludge with fucking Squiers. Or Matt Pike and his behemoth First Act.Its not the meat its the motion haha. Personally, I own an Ampeg Dan Armstrong, and I noticed Man Sir’s comment about Greg Ginn–that was his instrument, the plexi with the removable pickups (altho GG modified his severely) and I like it. It’s superthin like an SG and fast. I like it, altho the pickup situation is limiting and I’ve only heard them through solid state amps (another Greg Ginn trademark) Downtuned with heavy strings, it can get fairly nasty.
Video-2D vs LOUD-Live-3D is a valid argument.
Couple months back I saw Atriarch at 3 Clubs; one of the best shows I can remember. But I doubt it would translate to video. They incorporated a simple but distinctive bit of schtick which worked perfectly: before the set, they lit some smudge (indian sage), wafted the fragrant smoke across the stage, and while the guitars slowly came to life, they made it into this ritual-like experience. Incorporating the power of sense-memory elevated an already awesome set into something intangibly more awesome. (Atriarch has an album coming out on Seventh Rule this summer and I can’t fucking wait–doomy with a little crust and death rock mixed in, rad stuff.)
This is one of the reasons why I rarely attend concerts these days. The humans performing on stage rarely stand on par with their recorded music.
Only Tom Warrior managed to make me appreciate his music even more after meeting him. The guy is a true artist dedicating his life’s energy to his creations. Hearing Tryptykon now is an experience; I can’t even think to play this as background music.
I think that I can sympathize with the sentiment expressed here. It is perhaps related to a quote from Glenn Gould which I quite like:
“I believe that the justification of art is the internal combustion it ignites in the hearts of men and not its shallow, externalized, public manifestations. The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity. Through the ministrations of radio and the phonograph, we are rapidly and quite properly learning to appreciate the elements of aesthetic narcissism — and I use that word in its best sense — and are awakening to the challenge that each man contemplatively create his own divinity.”
I mean, the quote may seem a bit cheesy or out-of-place when one is talking about heavy metal, but I think that that’s more a matter of heavy metal’s public image, which is generally only a skin-deep impression which sees growls and distortion and riffs and reduces metal to mere visceral stimulation, than heavy metal’s reality, as in actuality heavy metal can be as stimulating mentally as almost any other music (excluding perhaps Bach and such). That’s not to say that it’s ‘intellectual music’, which has connotations which I don’t find very appealing, simply that it can be engaging on more than a purely instinctive level; this doesn’t mean that it is only accessible to a few people in principle, or only to ‘intelligent’ people, as indeed the universality of the human emotion depicted and evoked is precisely its strength, but rather that it can appeal to humans for reasons other than the musical analogue to Socratic ’sight-love’. Even from its beginnings, the track ‘Black Sabbath’ was hardly dance music, and that heavy metal can conjure rather than simply impulse is also quite clear in albums like ‘Precious’ by Seer’s Tear, with the power of the last track in fact taking this as a premise.
Of course, some metal bands are primarily just for having fun as such, and that’s alright too. I do tend to find that such bands often don’t tend to have as much longevity as others, nor do I find them as powerful or find myself as attached to them (my top-rated albums would probably be made up of bands such as Fates Warning, Psychotic Waltz and Holocaust), but nonetheless they are capable of providing some degree of pleasure, and can probably be quite enjoyable to listen to with friends, sing along to while drunk if one does drink, and so on. I tend not to listen to them that much, as they generally don’t seem worth taking time out from other activities to listen to them, but they can be worthwhile at times. It would certainly be reasonable for these bands to have concerts, and even for other bands, inasmuch as, finances aside, they are able to communicate with their fan-base, interact with other bands, and see for themselves that people appreciate their music. In a few cases they may even be able to conjure up a collective vision for the fans, although generally the intimacy and communication with the audience, as well as applause and so on, doesn’t generally allow this to as great an extent as with private listening (imagine an author reading you a book and pausing every few pages to thank you for listening and chat for a bit, as well as introducing the next section. It wouldn’t really allow for as much sustained suspension of belief. Some post-modern authors do try things like this, but metal is not a post-modern artform per se, and when it gets self-conscious it often gets diluted into ’safe’ emotions, if any). Of course, they could always limit interaction with the audience, but this generally simply tends to be part of creating a spectacle, when the last thing which metal needs is a spectacle, which will usually simply weaken the effect of the music through unnecessary bells and whistles, as well as reducing its intimate personal connection to an individual of the audience.
Given this, I think that it’s quite reasonable to say that some songs shouldn’t really be played live; or, rather, playing them live takes away from their virtues. This is especially applicable to some more personal and introspective songs, as the article states, where the whole set-up of a concert can deduct from the actual meaning of the song. The song ceases to be a voice in one’s head and becomes a person, or indeed a crowd, hence becoming mortal. I think that ultimately the most powerful heavy metal is the kind which forms a part of one’s everyday life, in a sense, rather than being set apart to a separate slot labelled ‘Music’, and this effect comes about as a result of repeated private listening and contemplation, so that the album becomes entrenched in one’s mind rather than existing only insofar as it is used, and the one-time and public nature of a concert generally means that this effect is evoked only in private listens, with ‘headphones and late nights’. Concerts are generally events and spectacles in themselves, and hence their effect is quite different from that of private listening. Of course, that’s not to say that they are without purpose, and indeed I wouldn’t generally be averse to going to a concert, while they also occasionally allow bands to experiment a bit with their established formulas in ways which they couldn’t in the album.
So yes, sometimes when one knows a band it can be a bit jarring to see them live, as an external entity rather than an internal one, although on the other side of the coin sometimes the public context can subconsciously lead one to seem to like a band which one hasn’t heard before even if, on private listening, they actually turn out to be fairly ordinary (in this sense, it’s not completely without mediation). In addition, the one-time nature of a live concert can lead to artists who write for concerts to go for more superficial emotional cues rather than subtlety and the sorts of things which are only noticed on repeated listens, and one can probably see a similar effect on how Alders-era Fates Warning ended up changing styles completely once they decided to put out an ‘anti-radio’ record purely for themselves (APSoG), which in my opinion constituted a significant improvement.
On reflection, that last sentence was essentially me repeating the fairly hackneyed, if true in a sense, adage that musicians should write for themselves rather than to impress others. If I’m becoming that trite at this point, I should probably stop.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment that far outclasses the original post!
This excerpt from the Glenn Gould quote strikes me:
The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but is, rather, the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity.
Does that negate entire genres of music like grindcore and punk?
Thanks for the reply. That’s an interesting question, which I hadn’t given that much thought, so thank you for bringing it up. I think that there’s two points to be made on this subject. In the first place, I would suppose that even music which does not function in such a manner could possibly have some purpose, for example a social purpose. This could be the case with some punk, for example. Ultimately, I don’t think that such music would fit per se into the overall scheme of music, that is, it wouldn’t fill the facet of life which I would identify with music as an artform, but I suppose that while this is in some sense a negation, it wouldn’t prevent it from having some purpose for some people. While I would think that somebody couldn’t only listen to such music if they are to appreciate music as such, this doesn’t mean that they can’t be useful in other ways, albeit not as music. So in a sense it does negate them, but in another sense their purpose is, insofar as it is simply adrenaline and such, not that of art, and as such it does not so much reduce it to purposelessness and nothingness as exclude it from a field which it didn’t necessarily try to belong to in the first place.
On the other hand, genres are quite wide, and as such I would suppose that it would be hard to negate an entire genre unless it is defined teleologically rather than by style of music, which is not the case for either of these. A fairly well-known example in grindcore would be Lykathea Aflame, who, while I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of their music, certainly tried to transcend the limitations of their genre, or even use these limitations to create a particular and individual form of music transcending it through the contrast itself, and hence mean that they are not negated as such but can be judged as music. I suppose that that’s actually a fairly common trait in heavy metal, namely the conscious contrast between beauty and ugliness, or as it were the attempt to achieve beauty through ugliness. This probably predates metal by quite a while, though, and I’m sure that one can find it in many tragedies, where, as Aristotle famously noted, it may form a means of catharsis. Every beautiful sculpture has a shadow.
Likewise, in punk, I wouldn’t say that bands such as The Mob, or even Black Flag on ‘Damaged’, can be described per se as simply aiming for simple forms of stimulation. Indeed, for example in the case of The Mob, the use of the relatively ‘humble’ and unpretentious music form of punk, in fact serves to emphasize the human factor in the music in such a way as to enhance the fairly bleak atmosphere of some of their songs; for example, in the fairly straightforward vocals, with a fairly visible accent, which make no attempt to elevate themselves to heights of expression precisely because what it’s expressing is not rising, but a subversive form of submission, where the vocals neither pretend that things are alright nor decry it without anger, because they are human and tragedy and suffering does not please them. That, at least, is how it could work out in theory, although their execution can be inconsistent; nonetheless, it does show that there is room in the punk style for using its tropes to achieve something higher. Some prog metal bands who seem to think that bleakness and sadness must entail high vocals going on incessantly could perhaps learn from this. The vocals on ‘No Doves Fly Here’ are probably far more appropriate to a stark, dead battlefield than a Geoff Tate clone. Life has its ugly sides, and one can’t expect to gain serenity by ignoring them. Serenity is not, one could say, found in inaction, and wonder is not simply passive, but can be just as much wonder at one’s own essential powers as an active subject, including the power to fight against ugliness, and indeed to see it as such in a true sense rather than superficially (that is, not the kind of repugnance that people can have from slugs).
Likewise, Black Flag, for example, aren’t really that far departed from many metal bands thematically and stylistically. Indeed, even when it comes to more ‘conventional’ punk bands, without a great amount of attempted atmosphere, it is possible, although not generally the case, that they can also reflect a part of us. After all, all of us have an indignant, adolescent punk rock vocalist shouting about injustice within us, and indeed this keeps us human. If one faces the world with an unconcern that sees nothing really problematic, then it’s not clear how one is to have real wonder either. You would rather fall into the trap of some more modern metal bands, who, influenced perhaps by a post-modern self-consciousness, just kind of amble around not really having any emotions of note and falling into nothingness.
To some degree, music can thrive on a form of immaturity, which simply lives in contrast to a ‘maturity’ which does not let in serious emotions, and while this can be hidden when music takes ‘mature’, sophisticated forms such as in progressive bands or Bach, nonetheless even this music generally thrives on an extremity and honesty of emotion that would generally never be manifested in everyday life if lived in the name of conventional maturity. While the labyrinthine riffing of technothrash is far departed from punk music in terms of complexity, nonetheless this expression of a powerful, confusing force twisting around above us and reducing us to machines is simply the other side of the coin to the simplistic, indignant shouting of punk which forms a protest against this in its very simplicity. This is, perhaps, one reason why I really like the album ‘Labyrinth’ by Sider, which combines the very accomplished technothrash riffing with the more humble vocalist, not in the sense of being bad so much as simpler and more straightforward than that of, say, C&R-era Watchtower (Watchtower’s vocalist, of course, is very good for Watchtower, but would be less so for this album), and hence represents the conflict of humanity and an overpowering society, and at the same time a protest against the latter. Of course, it doesn’t simply shout about things being wrong, indeed it doesn’t do that at all, but nonetheless it does seem to play on both sides of the aforementioned coin, both the complexity and oppressiveness of technothrash and the simplicity and honesty as a human protest against it.
Of course, this is simply a theoretical possibility, and one rarely realized (I’m not sure many bands could be said to do anything like that on an at all consistent basis). Many punk bands are probably simply attempts to gain some notability without having to learn much music, or simply to have a bit of fun with mates or convey some, generally trivial, political message through shouting about it (which is not the same thing as the simplicity which I described above. Simplicity can have depth, so to speak, but sometimes it’s just simple because it has no real content, just as some people are silent because their thoughts are more fitting for a book or song, while others are silent because they have nothing to say, and still others loud because they have nothing to say). A political polemic is not necessarily literature.
To round off, then, I don’t think that it necessarily negates the genres as a whole, but rather even genres which started out to some degree as a way to shock people and so on (and I’m sure that this even played a part in the spreading of heavy metal itself) can end up being appropriated by others as a form of thoughtful self-expression, where indeed the ‘crass’ form of the music (by the way, Crass would not fit into any of the above categories of punk which could be worthwhile as art. In fact, they don’t fit into any categories of anything worthwhile at all. That is all) means that thought is necessary if it is to even be wielded in such a manner. In fact, the sheer rarity of such bands indicates that if a band manages to do it with any degree of success, they’re probably pretty genuine about it (a similar thing applies to good ballads by metal bands). Of course, there is music which is negated as art by this, but then it’s usually music which never tried to be. I won’t listen to it, but perhaps it has some use, and so long as it has a use, it’s not completely negated, perhaps. It’s just not nearly as important.
Wait, wait, wait… the length and content of these posts is awfully familiar… repeated mentions of Fates Warning…
Helm has a spiritual twin!
I saw Horseback the other night in Indianapolis. I’m not going to wax philosophical here- I thought they ruled. Unfortunately, I had to leave half way through their set. Fortunately, myself and a friend had a smoke and fog show of our own in the parking lot before they played, so it was just one of those perfect live music moments.
Also- when I saw Assuck, Steve Heritage was playing a telecaster.
LIFE IS A VISUAL
Interesting.
I play guitar on two tracks on Invisible Mountain. If my memory serves me correctly, nobody in the studio was particularly under the impression that any specific style of record was being made. In fact, I remember it seemed to me like some sort of heavy Lungfish album at the time (which totally changed the first time I heard what Jenks did to it in his home studio). Then after the album came out it was pretty cool seeing it embraced by people from so many different and disparate scenes; it seemed fitting somehow. Like a microcosm of the scene down here. There are so many bands and side-projects in the Triangle (Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham) that it’s pretty normal and natural to see a band comprised of people who’s other bands range from folk-country to southern sludge. I guess we’re a little used to it down in our little corner of the world.
When I was 13 I remember getting ridiculed by the preppy kids for my Anthrax and Metallica shirts while simultaneously taking shit from the metal kids for having short hair (as much as I tried to protest, Ma was having none of it). I suppose not much has changed and that, really, is just fine with me. Ha!
*ahem*
I mean “Macrocosm”, rather.
As a fellow Triangle rock musician and someone who’s been listening to Kate Bush AND Slayer for 25 years, I couldn’t agree more. I suppose originally coming from the tiny microcosm of one record store and about five friends in the bowels of Southeast Missouri in the mid-80s I was actually shocked and saddened when I went off to college and found out that the punks, college rockers, metal heads, hippies, etc. were all equally bigoted against one another. I mean, I just never knew as a teenager.
I saw these guys live at the Utech Music Fest in Milwaukee and they were amazing! I personally didn’t really have any expectations in mind before seeing them, plus it’s not like they were looking completely out of place, only one dude had black rimmed glasses and none of them wore skinny jeans or bright-colored shirts. The other guitarist even had a metal shirt on, although it wasn’t black. Not everyone can pull off long hair or a bald head and a battle jacket, even though I personally like black band shirts and have a bald head I don’t necessarily always like conforming all the time.
Liturgy’s appearance shocked me more when I saw them but after seeing Horseback I realize it wasn’t their look so much as their vibe. I always felt something off when listening to Liturgy and seeing them live did nothing to change my mind, their performance felt empty and emotionless almost as if they didn’t give a shit- but not in a good way, more like an ironic/vapid I don’t give a shit way. Horseback’s performance was full of passion and you could tell they were genuinely into the music and their show.
There is merit to the performance aspect of dressing up, it helps to be hooded like Bloody Panda or Sunn O))) or to go completely all out like Ghost or Portal. Creating an atmosphere or adding that little “extra” like a video makes it feel more like “a show.” I personally hear a lot of Americana/Classic Rock influence in Horseback’s playing so I don’t think I would have wanted to see hooded druids or whatnot, plus Locrian already filled the room with fog and candles that night so it would’ve been anti-climactic for Horseback to do the same.
All in all unless you’re doing it for the theatrics (corpsepaint, spikes, costumes etc) I feel that thinking about what you wear too much or putting that much effort into it has always been a hipster/indy rock/douchebag quality to me. It’s amazing how much appearance can color someone’s opinion of you and your music however. I agree with Cosmo though, if some sort of effort was made on Horseback’s looks (like say all black suits or something) it would have added to the experience, although it didn’t diminish my enjoyment whatsoever.
I’ll resummarize Idol Threat above, also having been at Utech Fest:
YOU SHOULD GO SEE HORSEBACK LIVE.
THE END.