The summer of Miley, Kanye and Deerhunter

Hipster drivel: Mainstream is magic on Ivies weekend

“If music be the food of love, play on,” quoth the Bard: “Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die.”
Shakespeare never met a Bowdoin College student on the brink of Ivies, did he? Indulging appetite to excess is our job this time of year, and judging by how much brainpower we devote each semester to yearning for these few days, I doubt it ever dies. We’re made of sterner stuff than Duke Orsino.
I’m not at all ashamed to say that the debauched spirit of Ivies has even corrupted the heretofore unblemished hipster cred of yours truly. The ivory tower of the music snob gets lonely, my Buddy Holly glasses have become unwieldy, and my vinyl has stopped playing properly. This week, I will retire my cardigan and take up a pinny. Instead of hipster, I shall Guster.

Hipster drivel: Chvrches’ new LP shows promising synthesis of recycled sounds

I first put on “Gun,” a single from the band Chvrches’ new LP “The Bones of What You Believe,” over breakfast on a bright August morning some weeks ago. This was the first time I’d heard the oft-hyped electro-pop outfit of bright-eyed Glaswegians. They had released their debut EP, “Recover,” to modest fanfare back in March after a string of appearances at Austin’s South by Southwest music and arts festival. Although I was there, Vampire Weekend and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s had kept me from catching a performance.
But after listening to “Gun” while munching my Wheaties, I was furious at myself: I had chosen to see established stalwarts instead of taking a chance on an up-and-comer. Now, Chvrches are making good on the initial promise of that EP—and it sounds fantastic.
Not that Chvrches are the making of a generation-defining band. No, their rise to fame is as curious as it is unlikely. How many bands toting synthesizers has this post-LCD Soundsystem decade spawned—and how many more of them are actually any good? Contemporary pop music is drenched in sounds leftover from ’80s pioneers like Eurythmics; Stereogum recently posted an article heralding the decline of guitar-based rock (citing Chrvches, no less, and of course Thom Yorke’s gloomy statement in 1993, “pop is dead”).

Hipster drivel

The summer of Miley, Kanye and Deerhunter

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Matthew Goodrich

Columnist

September 12, 2013

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New summer music is like a crisp beer on the beach—a welcome break from the Bubble. We may, now again, be facing the tribulations that another year at Bowdoin brings—Moulton or Thorne, Mac or Quinby, writing that paper or getting drunk—which is all the more reason to remain awash in nostalgia for summer 2013 through the tones of Pharrell’s velvety voice.

It was an everyman’s type of summer, wasn’t it? For the frat boys, Robin Thicke supplied “Blurred Lines,” laced with the lyrical equivalent of roofies, as much hackneyed as it was rape-y. For the fans of Miley Cyrus (alas, I cannot pinpoint which demographic that is anymore), “We Can’t Stop” galumphed its way to the top of the radio charts. Even that key constituency housed in the overlapping Venn diagram of Miley fans and errant pedants was appeased when the Oxford English Dictionary snuggled “twerk” between “‘twere” and “twerp” on its hallowed one-thousand-and-eighty-sixth page.

But for us—we purveyors of fine taste—this summer was especially fruitful. With the one-two punch of Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” and the National’s “Trouble Will Find Me” dropping in the midst of finals in May (my grades sank while my spirit soared), this knock-out of a summer began. Here’s what was blasting through my speakers.

“Weight” by Mikal Cronin

“I’ve been starting over for a long time,” this Ty Segall wizard begins, trying to shed the titular burden of who-knows-what (a difficult year at Bowdoin?). It’s the perfect sentiment with which to greet the summer, a quiet optimism on a road with “a golden light for miles” mixed with understandable doubt for what’s in store. Cronin breezes his way through fuzzy guitars on this power pop tune, like Voxtrot in sunshine, bringing the flighty horizon just a little bit closer.

“Monomania” by Deerhunter

It’s aptly named, since it’ll demand a singular presence on your stereo. Stripped down from their “Halycon Digest” days, Deerhunter shows what it can do in garage-rock furor on this song. Bradford Cox has described his band as “ambient punk,” but he sounds more Ramones than Aphex Twin intoning “mono, monomania” with more and more malice. If self-loathing and frustration is your thing, then this is your jam.

“Good Ass Intro (So Good)” by Chance the Rapper

Rumor had it back in 2010 that Kanye West’s original title for “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” was “Good Ass Job.” What seemed like a valedictory pat-on-the-back to Kanye, however, becomes one of the greatest salutations in rap music on “Good Ass Intro.” Has there been a more self-assured entrance onto the music scene than this song? It bubbles with frenetic energy, while Chance free-associates between watch jewelers and late night TV hosts, while the gospel-influenced production vaults the momentum forward. Although he parts ways with, “this your favorite f*cking album and ain’t even f*cking done,” we were already convinced.

“I Am God” by Kanye West ft. God

I mean really, I could have chosen any song from Yeezus. But I was at the Governor’s Ball Music Festival when he debuted this one, and it was a religious experience. This isn’t Yeezy at his angriest (that’d be “Black Skinhead”) or at his preachiest (“New Slaves”), but “I am A God” does feel like a mission statement. “Soon as they like you make em unlike you,” he spits, manipulating the fickleness of the media that he distains. He is not beholden to anyone but himself. He thinks he’s the greatest rapper alive, and he’s going to compare himself to a god. And you don’t agree?

“Reflektor” by Arcade Fire

Okay, so it’s September and school has started. I’m not pretending that history is going to clump this in with “Blurred Lines” in competition for the song of “Summer 2013.” But it marks the return of the most important band of the last decade, with a shiny new sound under the production of LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. The lyrics describe a narrator trapped in a disco ball-like world, where the “way to enter” and the sole “connector” turn out to be “just a reflector.” Consider it a not-too-guilty pleasure to listen to during these first few weeks of school.

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