Virtual Fools

Kanye West’s new album, 808s & Heartbreak, is available streaming on his website. You have to click on the album cover in the MySpace player so that it brings up the album specific tracks, but give it a listen. I’m actually really impressed with the way Kanye has used technology to promote his album. This is especially true of his iterative releases of the album’s first single.

The first time I heard Love Lockdown was a video of him performing it live at the 2008 EMAs. I couldn’t understand what the hubbub was all about, but assumed the video recording quality was what was getting in the way. Then I heard that version of the song linked from his website and still wasn’t that impressed. Little did I know that the song was just not finished.

Finally, Kanye posted an mp3 to his blog of the final version of the song and damn is it good. It was especially awesome that he was releasing the song for free to create a buzz. The blog entry’s title is also interesting: “AFTER PERFORMING AND HEARING THIS IN THE CLUB I DECIDED 2 MIX IT AND MASTER IT AGAIN…”  He used technology as a testing ground and confirmed that music doesn’t have to be made in a black box. He even released the stems for the remix inclined. After a long discussion with my friend, I’ve come to realize this isn’t all about marketing–rather it’s a genuine desire to produce the best material possible. Have other artists done this before? Absolutely. But I think it’s still an interesting example of iterative artistry and I hope we see more of it in the furture.

I don’t listen to much popular radio. In fact, I pretty much listen to no popular radio. I love entertainment talk, but I don’t listen to music on the FM unless there are no other options. At about 9:30PM I hit one of those “no other options” moment and flipped through the FM stations. I came upon the big pop station and heard Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London. Or so I thought.

What I was actually listening to is the third single off of Kid Rock’s most recent album “Rock n Roll Jesus.”  And by most recent I mean from last October. Three singles in 9 months? Pretty good, Kid Rock.

So basically this piece of garbage is Kid Rock singing inane lyrics over top of Werewolves of London with a little Sweet Home Alabama mixed in. What you get in return is a song that offends the sensibilities. I don’t even like Werewolves of London nor do I really even like Sweet Home Alabama before. But let’s examine a snippit of Kid Rock’s brilliant songwriting:

We didn’t have no internet
But man I never will forget
The way the moonlight shined upon her hair

Whenever I think of the Internet, I think about the moonlight in a woman’s hair.

And we were trying different things
We were smoking funny things
Making love out by the lake to our favorite song

Pretty talented to rhyme “things” with “things”!

Now, Kid Rock says that all these events took place in 1989. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that 1989 was a really popular year for the 1974 release of Sweet Home Alabama. Correct me. PLEASE, CORRECT ME.

I’m glad you found a softspot in your heart for that song, Kid Rock. But it sounds to me like you REALLY prefered Werewolves of London, as that is what you so heavily sampled. Or did you basically just want to gank a catchy guitar rift and piano medley so that you had all that time to write those really GREAT lyrics?

I just can’t believe people listen to this drivel.

I have been kicking around ideas for a new “Notes on One Song” column for a while now, and finally decided on Donald Byrd’s “Fancy Free.” Byrd is a famous jazz trumpeter and probably doesn’t much appeal to many VF readers, so I decided to write the column my personal blog.

Though long neglected, my blog and I just celebrated two years of at least monthly updates. If you have never visited, Notes on Culture is mainly my hub for various projects I’m working on or for writing that doesn’t quite fit into my other projects. Take a look back at the two+ years worth of material, including book reviews, film notes, and writings on arts policy.

Notes on One Song: Donald Byrd’s “Fancy Free”