Alumni Love

A hearty thanks to GW English for publicizing The Politics of Post-9/11 Music: Sound, Trauma, and the Music Industry in the Time of Terror. Brian Flota and I very much appreciate the love.

Judging a Book by Its Cover

I know that I'm not supposed to do it. But if I were to do it, I'd say this book looks awesome.

Nevermind that Price Tag

The edited collection that I compiled with the assistance of Brian Flota of the PoMo Jukebox and The Fiddleback has a presence on Amazon. This development is all very exciting despite the fact that most people will probably prefer to drop $100 on one of the many super-deluxe reissues of Nevermind that are hitting store shelves. I just ask that all of you consider that purchase very carefully. Really, do you need those boombox mixes?

It's Déjà vu All Over Again

If I hadn't already used up my quota of "coincidence" titles, I'd employ one for this post. As you'll see, Explosions in the Sky have yet again caused a controversy over the thin connections between their band name and 9/11. Of course, my sentence construction is a bit off, since the band didn't actually do anything to incite this uproar.

The bigger story is that my edited collection, The Politics of Post-9/11 Music: Sound, Trauma, and the Music Industry in the Time of Terror, dismantles these connections via a conversation with Chris Hrasky, Explosions' drummer. The book will be out soon, I can assure you.

Good Vibrations

So I stole the title of the last "unit" in our class from the band Explosions in the Sky--specifically from their album The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place. Released in 2003, the same year that Sherman Alexie published "Do Not Go Gentle," the album suggests, to me at least, a certain amount of hope--life--in the post-9/11 era. And that's why I used their title as an organizing scheme for the last few of our classes--adding the question mark to encourage all of you to interrogate whether or not the final literary selections present us with a world that is not cold and dead.

Given our vibrator discussion today, I think it's appropriate that you all listen closely to the drumming (and opening guitars) on EITS's "First Breath After Coma," the lead track on Earth. After listening, use the comments section to do some wordplay, to stretch out our discussions from class, or to comment on my good taste in music.

"First Breath After Coma" (you can ignore the visuals)

I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more pharmakon

The following clip is simultaneously moving and deeply, deeply troubling. What you’ll see is a montage of clips, the first third of which depict stock images of Americana—football and such. Then, at roughly the 1:35 mark, you’ll see 9/11 footage of United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the World Trade Center. All of this is set to the track “A Song for Our Fathers” by the post-rock group Explosions in the Sky.

What’s moving about the clip is that it does a fair job of making a fairly sophisticated political statement about American foreign policy. It also, according to the gloss on youtube, was apparently a class project (grade unknown—to me, at least). In that context, I’d happily give the students credit.

What’s troubling about the clip is that it frames its politics in terms of 9/11—that event is literally and grotesquely the catalyst here—and in doing so soundtracks those politics with EITS’s music. Explosions have been notoriously linked to 9/11 in ways that are flat out wrong. Absolutely wrong. Click here for the poison. And here for the antidote. Sure, the band’s name absolutely demands this type of historicizing, but it’s still unsettling to see how even in an era where nearly open access to media—and the ability to manipulate it—doesn’t always seem to result in increased awareness of what information is actually being manipulated—in short what is true and what isn’t. Certainly there are larger theoretical questions circulating here about the nature of truth and representation, and I’d be happy to see people put pressure on those questions in the comments section. But in this case, the tendency to mythologize EITS as a 9/11 band does them and 9/11 a disservice, I would argue.

What brought all of this up was an attempt to look for a clip of Explosions performing “Catastrophe and the Cure,” a song that presents a dialectical clash between opposite musical dynamics. The title obviously does the same. I intended to place that clip up here as a way of inciting discussion about social and class conflict, and the ways that these issues are at the heart of virtually any discussion of 9/11/01, whether its anniversary remains a day of mourning or a day of service. My general academic interests lie in the ways in which cultural concerns like class conflict weave their way into the sonic fabric of popular music. However, once I typed Explosions’ name into youtube’s search bar, I got a hit for this video, the image of the burning Trade Center ominously gleaming outward from my computer screen.

Despite my initial frustration, I persevered, and I ultimately found the clip for which I was searching. I’ll be curious to hear what people think about it in light of this broader context. Does the song—musically and performatively—provide a corrective to the tensions of the class project clip? Does the band seem particularly political? Does the song seem political? What conflicts—cultural or otherwise—are presented here (if any are)?

Explosions In The Sky- Catastrophe and the Cure
Uploaded by meurglyse. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

Significances

Speaking of Saussure, now seems as relevant a time as any to examine how the Obama Administration is attempting to change the meaning--the significance/signification--of 9/11/01. Click here for the official Presidential word.

As Saussure reminds us, the relationships between signifiers and their signifieds are arbitrary and are subject to human convention. To date, the convention has been to commemorate 9/11 by mourning--publicly and privately--frequently in front of the broadcast of 9/11 footage. Thus, Obama's attempt to upset this convention represents an opportunity to gauge exactly how easily certain conventions and significations can be changed. 9/11 is obviously a charged date in America's very recent past; as such, there could be a great deal of resistance to this particular change. Either way, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

(BTW, I have yet to find any significant, rationally sound arguments against Obama's plan. Most of the criticism is coming from far right outlets that, to a degree, seem fanatical in their own right. Below is just one example:



For my own part, I'm conflicted about all of this because I'm actually working on a project on 9/11 at this very moment. In doing so, I've had to revisit a ton of media concerning that day, including The 9/11 Commission Report, United 93, a variety of news articles and recorded broadcasts of the attacks, and an assortment of audio clips of the 911 calls made during the attacks. As a result, I'm finding 9/11 more tragic and sad these days than I think I have since the actual day itself. All of which is the reason why I'm not passing judgement on Obama at this moment: I'm a little too emotionally bound up in the event to type things out just yet. I'd be interested in hearing responses to all of this, though.)