Helen Nianias muses art, the student stereotype and our supposed intellectuality...
To choose the high life, the low life, or somewhere respectable in between? Helen Nianias pontificates.
Music blogs! The home of music and opinion on the internet - a global force for people's listening tastes and something we dip our toes into every Wednesday. This week it's the sublime and the ridiculous (although not necessarily in that order) with Pop Justice and Music Is Art.
Music! Blog! An very old word and a fairly new one. What happens when old meets new? Find out in our weekly look at two of the internet's receptacles for music and opinion.<br />
Gorilla vs. Bear was possibly inspired by ‘Animal Face-Off’, an American series on the Discovery Channel in which two animals are sized up as opponents and eventually fight it out in a computer-animated grudge match. According to Wikipedia there has not yet been a Gorilla vs. Bear fight, but Gorilla vs. Leopard ended with a victorious gorilla biting the leopard’s shoulder, then breaking its spine with a punch, despite the advantage afforded to the big cat by its night vision. A Brown Bear vs. Tiger battle had a strikingly similar result; although the tiger sunk its claws into the bear, the animal was able to retaliate by breaking the tiger’s back, before biting it on the throat (surely not that necessary in a broken-back situation, but it does demonstrate a mercifully quick kill).
With barely a difference between opponents and the method of victory it is difficult to extrapolate a result for a Gorilla vs. Bear fight, with both animals preferring back-breaking punches they surely would be well prepared to defend themselves against that kind of attack from their own species. It is possible that this would cause a stalemate, with the animals circling each other endlessly but it is more likely that the equal matching would result in a tension-filled battle royale, with thrills and spills galore as each gladiator attempts to get the upper hand. This tension underlies the Dallas-based blog. Posts contain a larger than average amount of images, either of flyers, artwork or fantastic live gig photography. Here the power and majesty of the battles of the natural world is represented by human performance and the ecstasy of producing music, and the flaunting of mating rituals reproduced in poster-art for gigs and clubnights. The music posted treads the beatsier side of the US indie scene without seeming too underground and cliquey. Heavy disco-funksters !!! are particular favourites, but new bands feature regularly, and there is a good amount from the more inventive end of hip hop.
While the battle rages around them and trees, bushes and bystanders are flattened by the unstoppable onslaught of the brawl the Gorilla and Bear continue heedlessly, fighting to an incessantly pounding drum beat.
Popsheep has a much gentler name and a much gentler approach to music. Doesn’t that seem to be the way for all Canadian music blogs? I find reading them to be like wandering into a new, slightly older friends house wearing a big knitted jumper and leafing through seven inch singles while they provide you with a few facts on each one, interspersed with little stories, some memories and some made up.
The posts are big on small personal revelations and pieces of advice: “According to my friend Anna, the brown Pelican is an endangered bird found only in the estuaries and lagoons of Southern California and Baja California. However, if you spend any time in the water, just beyond the surf, chance encounters are frequent” and “Do you know what your friends are up to? You need to start asking them and showing interest” are a couple of choice examples. This kind of environment is the perfect setting for the sometimes whimsical and occasionally jokey mp3s that are posted. Each song comes across as an anecdote, sometimes eager, sometimes profound and sometimes funny and entertaining. It’s as if the Popsheep has volunteered itself for a shearing in a frontier town and its coarse wool has been made into a long scarf, ready for a longer journey. Sometimes it’s nice to be the spectator at the big fight, but sometimes it’s just as nice to sit in front of the fire and reminisce.
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