ideas/reccomendations

[emilyrose]

so i am in the predicament of having to write a paper about music. specifically, "audio culture." i don't like writing about music. but i like passing classes. i'm supposed to use this one book that talks about dj culture and studio production and shit, but i don't really know anything about that at all. so fuck it.

unless i change my mind, i'm going to write about xiu xiu in comparison with antonin artaud's ideas about the theatre of cruelty and the balinese theatre. i'm supposed to use some sort of world music, but i'm probably just going to use the artaud thing and pretend like a french writer counts. the only things in the book i might use are from adorno and john cage. i don't know, i'm probably just going to have to b.s. whatever is from the book.

the aspect of artaud that i'm going to be focusing on is his idea about theatre being something that should jolt emotion through the phrasing, gesture, and tone of the piece, not through the actual words and story and such. i have to write about a specific song, i think. does anyone have any suggestions? i was sort of thinking buzz saw, but mostly the way that is performed live, rather than the album version. what do you all think?

[head not full of deathvisions]

i think songs like ian curtis wishlist, i broke up, or saturn would work better! those jolt emotion through "phrasing, gesture, and tone!" i think buzz saw IS more emotionally jolting BECAUSE of the story and because its about a specific person, so maybe it wouldn't be as helpful for you to make the point yr trying to make? maybe?

[dr. strangelove]

when i used xiu xiu in my theatre senior seminar, i played "i broke up" - the delivery of the "worst vacation ever" line works perfectly with Artaud because while the audience has no idea what he's talking about, we all understand the emotion, which fits your focus on "being something that should jolt emotion through the phrasing, gesture, and tone of the piece, not through the actual words and story and such"

[head not full of deathvisions]

strangelove said:

when i used xiu xiu in my theatre senior seminar, i played "i broke up" - the delivery of the "worst vacation ever" line works perfectly with Artaud because while the audience has no idea what he's talking about, we all understand the emotion, which fits your focus on "being something that should jolt emotion through the phrasing, gesture, and tone of the piece, not through the actual words and story and such"

yes.

[kevin]

or "ian curtis wishlist".. would the jolt of the klaxons at the end apply?

[emilyrose]

'the sighing of a wind instrument prolongs the vibrations of vocal chords with such a sense of identity that one cannot tell whether it is the voice itself that is being sustained or the senses that have absorbed the voice from the beginning.' -artaud

i don't know if 'jolt' was the best term for me to use originally. i mostly meant that music/performance should be non-dialectic, non-didactic. i think 'i broke up' is good, and i might use it. the main reason i was thinking of 'buzz saw' was because of the way he performs it, hitting the cymbal so hard and such. the first time i saw it performed i definitely almost fell over. 'ian curtis wishlist' works too, but it is something that was mainly recorded (not ever really performed live except maybe once or twice) i'm not sure if i can tie it in. i'm going to talk about artaud's usage of the 'metaphysics of gesture' and 'immediate psychological neccessity' also. i don't know. i wish i had more time. it's due thursday. lame!