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Culturegasm: What is it with Post Rock?

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      CommentAuthorJaredRules
    • CommentTimeFeb 1st 2008
     (618.1)
    I think the pet genre name for M83 is "Nu-gaze" which I haven't decided if it's clever or just obnoxious.
  2.  (618.2)
    Oh, other Steve Reich recommendation - Music For 18 Musicians.


    @alastair - the German folks came to mind quickest, especially as they seem to have had the most influence down the years on the newer folks... but "Krautrock" is just another one-size-fits-all category I try to avoid.
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      CommentAuthorAlastair
    • CommentTimeFeb 2nd 2008
     (618.3)
    fair enough really but as you said its better than making can and yes the same genre
  4.  (618.4)
    Well, our brains need these little niches to operate efficiently... It's just a twitchy reflex I have over categories. I used to write dozens of little capsule reviews for Op and Option magazines way-back-when, and scrapped it when I realized that all I could do was pack a paragraph or two with name-drop references to other bands and hyphenated sub-genres. They didn't really describe anything about the music I was reviewing, only tipped off the folks who knew the trigger words.
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      CommentAuthorAlastair
    • CommentTimeFeb 3rd 2008
     (618.5)
    oh i hate sub genres. a lot but sometimes they are easy. kerrang are the worst case of genre invention post emo-core was on i read recently
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      CommentAuthorliquidcow
    • CommentTimeFeb 3rd 2008
     (618.6)
    I heard one definition of Post-Rock which is that it's the use of rock instruments for music that is not typically rock. I guess when you have post-punk (although I'm not entirely sure what that is) and post-metal thrown into the equation, it becomes more like, rock/punk/metal bands that stray from the conventions of their genre. Hence you get Neurosis who are a metal band but stick to very few old-school metal conventions.

    Does anyone else think that post-rock is finding its way into the mainstream somewhat? I went to see Kings of Leon, and even apart from the fact that their new album has some post-rock influences on it, the support band were some band called Snowden, who were alright for a bit, but I couldn't help but think, especially when they went into these big dramatic noisy crescendos, 'this is watered down post-rock'.
  7.  (618.7)
    I guess when you have post-punk (although I'm not entirely sure what that is)


    Post-Punk is a loosely defined genre/movement that arose in the wake of Punk's rise and fall in 1977. It generally includes musicians who rejected Punk itself (after the initial rush of novelty) as conservative Hard Rock just played faster and louder, but incorporated Punk's rebellious, no-rules, and DIY concepts in creating what they considered more innovative music.

    Bands often considered as belonging to postpunk include Public Image Ltd., Gang of Four, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Pere Ubu, Joy Division, Talking Heads, and many, many others. Like Warren said, it was a big tent.

    Also as Warren said before, Simon Reynolds' book RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN is a great source of postpunk history.
  8.  (618.8)
    Brent: As abkosher notes, it was turned to its current useage by Simon Reynolds. The Wikipedia entry points towards some original points, but I prefer to go straight to the source, though there's a really fun run-down of the scene which made him coin it over at Pitchfork, including a load of Reynolds quote.

    In Reynold's defence, like in most things he does, he had a very specific sort of things in mind when coining it - as someone else has said, using traditional rock instrumentation in a non-rock fashion (i.e. against the idea that records are fundamentally a recreation of the live "rock" experience). There was a lot of studio-as-instrument stuff (Disco Inferno), and indie bands i) not really wanting to be indie bands and ii) indie bands looking for inspiration primarily from non-rock sources, but without actually just trying to replicate those sources directly (i.e. Not being indie-dance).

    In practice, the influence of the pre-post-rock neologising Spiderlands by Slint tended to overwrite all that, with Tortoise being the other half of it. Slint's certainly a heavy influence on the big-three post-rock-cross-over bands in the late 90s - that is, Mogwai, Godspeed and Sigur Ros.

    And as others have said: Raise your skinny fists is the place to start with Godspeed.

    (And, in passing, Godspeed live remain one of the top 5 gigs of my life. I think Mogwai gets in there too.)

    KG
  9.  (618.9)
    ... the use of rock instruments for music that is not typically rock


    This is a good definition, and probably as close as anyone's going to get to a workable one.

    My point's been that the definition applies to a lot of music done since at least the late-60s -encompassing quite a lot of "progressive-rock" and "post-punk" along the way.

    "Post-rock" is a cool term and useful shorthand. But it's also exceptionally vague when you take a closer look.
    So I'll stop trying to define it... Frankly I'm more interested in finding the music itself. Godspeed is on order, and I'm enjoying the new Sigur Ros.

    Bands often considered as belonging to postpunk include Public Image Ltd., Gang of Four, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Pere Ubu, Joy Division, Talking Heads, and many, many others. Like Warren said, it was a big tent.

    You could argue that Pere Ubu predated punk rock, having started in what... 1975 in Cleveland? Devo, too (who despite what they turned into were way out on the cutting edge in 1973 or so...)

    As an aside, which may not exactly be on topic here... as a veteran of the 80's DIY indie surge (when absolutely anyone could and did put out their own 7" and EPs and cassettes and there were ad hoc distribution networks to spread them around), I've belatedly discovered that I can do the same thing via MySpace and have virtual global availability. This beats the hell out of having boxes of vinyl sit in the closet for decades... I'm not selling anything yet, but I never made a dime on all that vinyl either.
  10.  (618.10)
    Punk's rise and fall in 1977.


    yeah.....please see the other thread about this. thanks.
  11.  (618.11)
    Brent: Yeah - Reynolds was aware of earlier stuff, but it was coined about a particular moment in time to describe a specific response of creators to the general cultural churn they were responding to: as in, an acceptance that Rock was *over* in any meaningful sense.

    And then Britpop, which proved them right but also buried them alive.

    KG
  12.  (618.12)
    Got the Godspeed CD today, and it's brilliant! And uncategorizable (meaning I don't immediately think of five other artists when I listen to it - normally an automatic reflex). Thanks to all for the recommendations. I'll definitely be working it heavily on the radio show, too - my continuing quest to wean Alaskan locals off a diet of bluegrass and hippie jam bands...


    (Also received in the mail today:
    Robert Wyatt - Comicopera
    Faust/Nurse With Wound - Disconnected
    Fripp & Eno - Beyond Even)
    • CommentAuthormunin218
    • CommentTimeFeb 4th 2008
     (618.13)
    ....The Residents.

    *shiver*

    a friend of mine creeps me out occasionally by playing them in the car.

    a swear, it's what going crazy must sound like......
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      CommentAuthorwilliac
    • CommentTimeFeb 4th 2008
     (618.14)
    Mouth of the Architect is in the same heavy vein as Neurosis.

    They take the stage and don't come up for air until they're done. Every song bleeds into the next. The crowd just stands there as if in a trance. The bar has to hate this. Seconds after the last note, everyone in the audience inhales and exhales deeply and looks around like they don't know how they got where they are.

    I've seen other bands try this, but MotA's the only one I've seen who could pull it off. Their show is an event you have to see through to the end. If you left halfway through, you'd want to start a fight, 3/4ths of the way through and you'll feel like you're dying, but if you wait until the end, they'll pick you up and set you back on your feet.
  15.  (618.15)
    ....The Residents.

    Changed my life.
    Got me through the '80s.
    For a while (peaking with Mark Of The Mole), they were the Greatest Band in the Whole Freakin' World. (I'm not kidding...)

    Talk about "fringe", they were a glorious leak from a parallel universe.
  16.  (618.16)
    MOTA plays phoenix like 4-5 times a year, but its always with terrrrible locals at shitty venues, so i can never force myself to go. i might go see INTRONAUT this friday with my pals LANDMINE MARATHON-while not exatly similar, intronaut is kinda mining the same inspiration...kinda.
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      CommentAuthorARES
    • CommentTimeFeb 5th 2008 edited
     (618.17)
    Okay this thread just reminded me I have never heard The Residents, only their name in passing. So I just ordered the Mark of the Mole / Intermission reissue thingy.

    Also the new Silver Mt. Zion and Kayo Dot albums are both coming in March. Yay.
  18.  (618.18)
    @Warren "I think the most important postrock album is probably still "Raise Yr Skinny Fists To Heaven" by Godspeed You! Black Emperor."

    That's such an amazing record...

    Would you still consider that "contemporary" though? I wouldn't. We move fast fast fstr these days...
    • CommentAuthorSPM
    • CommentTimeFeb 5th 2008
     (618.19)
    I have to agree with Kieron, Mogwai owns a couple of my top five shows, number one is still Burning Airlines (circa Mission Control!).

    Also, it's been mentioned already, but I'll say it anyway: These categorizations tell us as much about the listener(s) as they do about the music.
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      CommentAuthorwilliac
    • CommentTimeFeb 5th 2008
     (618.20)
    @joe.distort I haven't seen them in a while, but unless something drastic happened (besides losing their original bassist), it's worth it. I don't even remember who I saw them with.

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