Strange Tunes

I always considered myself to be a pretty mainstream type of guy.  I watched a lot of mainstream movies and I listened to a lot of mainstream music. I accepted that I was mainstream and I was adamant about accepting anything that wasn’t mainstream. 

Main · Stream: noun (the mainstream) - the ideas, attitudes, or activities that are regarded as normal or conventional; the dominant trend in opinion, fashion or the arts.

Then, something happened to me.  After I graduated from college, I started to see things a little differently.  I am not quite sure what happened, but something did in fact happen.  I had three years of law school on the horizon and I started to feel my attitude towards popular culture descend to the depths of disapproval.  No longer was it acceptable to play 50 Cent or Eminem on my iPod.  No longer was it okay for Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle or Armageddon to grace the precious real estate on my television screen.  No longer would I tolerate these “dominant trends” - I decided to BACKLASH!

One evening, during the first month of my first year of law school, I decided to peruse through IMDB’s (Internet Movie Database) top 250 movies.  As I made my way through the list, I found myself rolling my eyes at some of the films that made the top 20 on this list: The Shawshank Redemption, The Terminator, The Matrix, etc., films that I previously held so close to my heart.  However, in the corner of my eye, I saw a film that I did not recognize that was placed within the top 10 on this list.  The film was directed by a man named Akira Kurosawa and was entitled “Seven Samurai.”  I quickly typed the title into Wikipedia, a website that I knew would not fail me, and I was amazed to find that this movie was praised and loved by almost every critic and film director ever.  I immediately went to Amazon.com and purchased the film.  A week later it arrived at my house.

I distinctly remember the night I first watched “Seven Samurai.”  I was at my girlfriend’s house (who later become my fiancé and then my beautiful wife) and we (more like I) decided to watch “Seven Samurai” in her family’s television room, which in retrospect was a huge mistake.  For anyone who is not familiar with this film, it is Japanese, it was filmed in black and white, it is over three hours long, and it is entirely in subtitles.  I soon found myself not being admired for my sophisticated taste in films, but being made fun of for my “strange” and “weird” choice in movies.  Comments such as “What the hell are you watching,” and “What is this crap,” and “Can we put on something normal, please,” were flying wildly throughout the room by everyone around me.  I stood my ground, watched the entire film and went home that night, proud that I made one of my first forays into Japanese cinema, but completely embarrassed for being “that guy” who thinks he is freaking awesome for watching something first year film students watch the second day of class.

This  series of events has continued ever since, especially since my movie and musical tastes have become more and more strange and experimental as I have gotten older.  While I have discovered so many terrific directors, movies, musicians and songs, I have had to withstand criticism by 97% of the people who come my way, asking me “How can you possibly like this stuff?”

Over the past month, I have more-or-less abandoned my movie watching routine, and have become completely infatuated with music, specifically discovering new bands and songs.  Several individuals in my life, whose names will be withheld for confidentiality purposes, were primarily responsible for introducing me to the independent music industry.  Thanks to these people I have been exposed to the likes of Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, Camera Obscura, LCD Soundsystem, The National, PJ Harvey, among others.  Simply put, I was hooked and spent hours of my day downloading and listening to music.  I was determined to leave no stone unturned and to become “that guy” who knows every song by every band ever formed.  I swore to keep an open-mind to all genres and to not be overly critical if I didn’t like a song or an album the first time I heard it.

One evening I was introduced to the band Animal Collective.  I had never heard of this band, nor did I ever hear of the genre they were classified into, affectionately titled “Hippie Rock.”  Genuinely curios, I once again looked to the always-reliable Wikipedia.com where I found that not only was this band critically lauded, but had produced albums that were voted Album of the Year by publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine and Pitchfork.  I was intrigued.

I went to iTunes and began to listen to Animal Collective’s most recent and most critically praised album to date, “Merriweather Post Pavilion.”  Upon pressing the “play” button, I could not prepare myself for the music I was about to hear.  If I had to describe in words what “Merriweather Post Pavilion” sound like, I would describe it as being a cross between an air horn and the sound a person probably hears when they are experiencing a brain aneurysm.  And in the background behind all of these noises was the faint sound of a person singing in the same vein as Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.  I was perplexed.  I thought to myself, “How can anyone possibly listen to this with a smile on their face?”  I thought, “Is this what my fiancé’s (now wife) family thought when I was watching “Seven Samurai?”” I decided, to turn off this “music” and go to bed.  Maybe I would feel differently about it in the morning.

Oh, how wrong I was.  Not only did “Merriweather” seem louder and more irritating to me in the morning, but also I thought that I soon would suffer from a brain aneurysm if I continued listening to it.

I still have “Merriweather Post Pavilion” in my iTunes library in addition to three other Animal Collective albums and a solo album by one of the musician’s in Animal Collective.  I have absolutely no reason or justification as to why I still have these albums on my computer besides the sheer hope that one day something will click for me and I will understand how Rolling Stone and other music publications thought these albums were worthy of critical praise.

And just to make sure that I am not crazy for thinking this music is awful, moments ago I played the single off of “Merriweather” entitled “Brother Sport” (a song title that grammatically and logically makes no sense) for my wife.  For the record, this song is comprised of a siren going off for 85% of the song.  As I played about 20 seconds of it, my wife looked at me with a face of sheer confusion, disgust and hilarity and asked me what I was playing for her.  I responded, “It’s Animal Collective’s most recent album, hunny…Rolling Stone voted it Album of the Year.”  With the same look she gave me when she initially heard the sounds of “Brother Sport” she remained silent and turned away.  I assume she was trying to get her ears from stop ringing.  I honestly don’t blame her…

Until tomorrow, my friends.

Prepstarr