hipsters

I Could Get Used To This (Cross Talk Ep. 17)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

 

You may or not be familiar with a band called The Veronicas. I wasn’t initially, not until I stumbled across a Virgin Records store in New York City back in 2006. I intentionally hit up the store hoping to find some local New Yorkers on the rise, thinking I could beat the fame train and know some “cool” music ahead of my Edmonton hipster friends back home. I grabbed  Arctic Monkeys and the Veronicas, amongst a couple other picks.

I When I left the store, I immediately popped the Veronicas into my CD player, because people still had them at this time, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had landed across a couple of Australian identical twins that made a healthy mix of pop music. Electro, punk, rock, dance, prog, you name it, these chicks mixed with it.

Suffice to say, it was not my typical fare at the time. I was listening to mostly hip hop, punk rock, and the occasional foray into indie rock. Mostly because of my hipster friends.

I had some preconceived notions.

cpa-dog

Thankfully those notions didn’t hold me back for too long, and before I knew it, I was a The Veronicas fan. After all, pop music can be just as powerful as any other form of music, especially when artists explore the genre and bring something new to the table.

Which is why today, Chris and I explore the importance of looking at films you expected not to like, but ultimately did, so that we can break down some of these weird ideologies, get outside of our realms of influence, and experience excellent films. Examples for us as two white dudes that grew up in the 80s, watching animated movies and romantic comedies, but even within genres we are “supposed to” like, there are examples which break the mould.

I’d give you some direct examples, but I think it’d be best if you just watched the episode, reader readers.

This is episode seventeen of Cross Talk, and we at the timotheories team know that you’ll enjoy it. It’s an excellent topic and one that I’m personally stoked to share with you. So grab some popcorn and some candy, and figure out with us how to challenge these stereotypes! Plus Chris looks crazy in that preview thumbnail, so I fully expect that will serve as satisfactory clickbait.

Before I wrap up my thoughts on this post, I just want to remind you all of how important you’re support of this website is for me. I operate timotheories out of my own pocket, and exchanging ideas with creative professionals like you are one of the major reasons why this thing even exists in the first place.

So thank you.

Another day, another theory realized my friends. I look forward to hearing your feedback on the episode, and I’m so ready to dig into this week and share some reviews on the new Train album, the blu-ray release of Queen of Katwe, some thoughts on Facebook, and a digital download of my experience at a concert.

As The Veronicas, like to say, I could get used to this.

Please comment, subscribe, and share this video with friends. We want to hear your feedback!

Tim!

Good, Not Great (Bon Iver, 22 A Million)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

I’m glad I went to art school. I was exposed to a lot of people looking to impress, but without anything real to offer up. The struggle of the artist isn’t one of employment, it’s whether they can commit to a purpose and authentically represent it.

Too many posers walk around pretending they suffer, when they should put their nose to the grindstone and be affected for once. Yeah I’m feeling salty on this one.

Bon Iver – 22 A Million
released September 30, 2016
****** 6/10

jv1

Bon Iver is a multi-instrumentalist group headed by Justin Vernon, one that focuses on indie folk and which has been around since 2007. They’ve put out 3 full-length studio albums at this point, but it has been five years since their last album was released.

22 A Million is more of an experiment then anything. Lots of the songs go into unique directions, ascending and descending, depending on the song, but often cutting short before we see a real resolution. I think I may have been spoiled this year dear readers, there have been so many great album releases that Bon Iver didn’t really have a chance.

I should be more clear with my intent – it feels like the songs have lost all interest in established forms of songwriting, and they don’t really help us to whatever atmosphere the group had strived for; thanks Justin and friends. It’s a challenge against convention, a battlecry against form, but the other team didn’t want to show up.

Folk music is in a difficult place these days it seems. While pop music has continued to explore what’s possible and even make conceptual decisions that are exciting, especially this past year, folk artists that dabble in pop should be uniquely poised to come out ahead. And yet, this album feels a lot like the late oughts. I find it very confusing. We’ve explored these themes already.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed parts of this album and it sounds beautiful, but as a professor of mine once said, I’m grading you based on your own ability and not on a preset standard, because that’s the only way you’ll grow. After all, I think it can be exciting when we reject tradition in favour of exploration, but exploration for explorations sake? Come on Bon Iver, wake up.

This album is a complete mess in terms of it’s composition. I might as well be listening to a 35 minute solo track in long form.

Literally every song on this album features some sort of dichotomy, good vs evil, up vs down, I could go on, but the point being made is one of tension. Even the song titles are written with symbols and avant garde grammar, it’s pretentious and we’ve seen that trick before too – leet speak is dead. Maybe I’m completely off my rocker here folks, but 22 A Million is not groundbreaking, it’s evocative, haunting, and a great jazz session. We should look at this as more of a mixtape then anything, and hopefully when the rest of the world wakes up, Bon Iver will have put their pants back on.

 

 

 

Maybe that was a harsh criticism, but I really do believe these guys are capable of a lot more than we saw on this record. I want to believe that this was just a misstep, but the flourishes and fawning of the masses over this record are driving me nuts friends. Listen to this one at your own discretion, but don’t for a second fall into the hype. It’s good, not great.

Tim!