Yodeling at Cthulhu
Listen. I'm not a critic or a musician, but I listen, and this has to be said.
Some music is difficult.
Difficult in the sense that I don't want to hear it. It's going to be boring. It's funny. It threatens me. The band's name is awful. They yodel. They're super into Cthulhu. The album cover couldn't win in a fight with office park posters. The artists responsible are too young, too old, too earnest, too aloof, too metal, too soft, too orthodox, too fey, too into something I'd hide away in Room 101. They spend their legends at side 1 track 1. They suck. We're talking Platonic forms of difficulty, here: created by God as eternal exemplars of difficulty, the music I think of when I think of music for people who don't love music the way I love music.
Or so my ego demonically accuses, and I give in and ignore music deemed too difficult to bother with. It's never permanent, of course. I'm not that principled. Being difficult is a transitory state, as I learned when finally seeing my way clear on the matters of krautrock, The Fall, Joni Mitchell, the entire history of jazz, and even the Grateful Dead, who were for two decades THE band to ignore, the essence of difficult music. (It was the Jerry worship and the "dancing.")
So therefore this. We'll do this together. Each week (or whatever, don't crowd me), I'll tackle difficult music by listening and telling you about it.
For this, we need rules:
Some music is difficult.
Difficult in the sense that I don't want to hear it. It's going to be boring. It's funny. It threatens me. The band's name is awful. They yodel. They're super into Cthulhu. The album cover couldn't win in a fight with office park posters. The artists responsible are too young, too old, too earnest, too aloof, too metal, too soft, too orthodox, too fey, too into something I'd hide away in Room 101. They spend their legends at side 1 track 1. They suck. We're talking Platonic forms of difficulty, here: created by God as eternal exemplars of difficulty, the music I think of when I think of music for people who don't love music the way I love music.
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| In case anyone's wondering... |
So therefore this. We'll do this together. Each week (or whatever, don't crowd me), I'll tackle difficult music by listening and telling you about it.
For this, we need rules:
- Explain the difficulty.
- Avoid not.
- Write about it.
- Go on to the next thing.
Listen. This will be difficult.
First up: "Blue Line Swinger" by Yo La Tengo
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