The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Friday, November 10, 2006 - 5
A little 'Dedication'
goes a long way
By BRIAN CHEN complement.
DailyArts Writer In "Goin Hard," C-Rayz Walz,
best known for his freestyling
Hip hop today isn't a pretty skills in the Bronx, proves he's just
scene. For every genuinely tal- as comfortable in the studio and
ented star like Li' Wayne and delivers a riveting affirmation of
T.I., there are the album's titular theme: dedica-
still dozens of *k*k* tion. "I'm going hard, I believe in
insignificant my soul / I will take control, I will
entertain- Dedication not fold / I'm going hard, Belief /
ers like Yung Belief Everything that they showed me /
Joe and D4L Worker B Had me chasin' that yellow brick
crowding the road."
airwaves. As if to galvanize the doldrums
Needless to say, this shouldn't of rap, he reminds us that the
sit well with any self-respect- product of hard work is always
ing rap connoisseur, not least of progress.
all with up-and-coming produc- Meanwhile, in "Runs the
er Belief. Born in Los Angeles, World," Wordsworth lambastes
schooled in New York City, he's the current state of society, rap-
lived in the diametrical hearts of ping: "The strongestnation doesn't
hip hop - rationally, he should be have options to lose / It's beyond
the first to lament rap's fall. But his searching for arms /As they plant-
debut album, Dedication, is at once ed the bomb / It's ticking at home
a remembrance of rap's better days / And now it's too late for them to
and a buoyant hope for the genre's try to defuse."
future. Instead of targetingthe govern-
Belief makes no attempt to hide
Broken Social Scene: Um, or broken sausage fest?
Ain't Scene nothi
EVER-EVOLVING INDIE COLLECTIVE TO END TOUR
By KIMBERLY CHOU
AssociateArts Editor
It's 15 minutes into a hastily arranged phone
interview with Broken Social Scene founder
Brendan Canning, shooting
par-for-the-course, and the Broken
expository questions have Social Scene
been covered ("So, how's
the tour?" etc.). There's a Tomorrow
lull in dialogue, and just at 8 p.m.
before the mild unease of $25.50
forced interview familiar- At The
ity sets in, Canning starts Michigan Theater
talking about synchronism
and happenstance - travel occurrences, tour-
stop fortuities, pretzels. Giant jars of pretzels.
Sometimes, when you've been out on the road
all season, staring out of your nth hotel window
or out at industrial buildings as they zip past
your bus window, you start seeing things.
"You know what's strange?" Canning said.
"There's a big Utz tower right over the side of
here by the expressway."
He revealed his approximate position (seated,
close to a formidable jar of sourdough pretzels)
and location (back of the tour bus, downtown
Baltimore).
"I'm looking out the window here and there's
this big building with Utz written on it and a
little girl is their little symbol - and there's a
big four-pound jar of Utz pretzels," Canning
continued. "I think they call that synchronism."
There's a beat. He surmises "you would have to
be here" to comprehend the holistic depth of the
situation. if
"Here," for the last several months, has
been the road for Canning and the many other
members of Broken Social Scene, the indie-
rock supercollective of which Canning is the
co-founder and core. Almost as well known for
their sizeable lineup as for their heady, layered
experimentalism, Broken Social Scene origi-
nated as duo Canning and Kevin Drew. Unable
to achieve the desired effect in concert as they
could in the studio, the pair invited its friends to
perform with them. Veterans from the Toronto
indie scene - Andrew Whiteman, Bill Spearin,
Jason Collett and Leslie Feist, among others
- began guesting on stage and on releases, too;
Broken Social Scene has expanded exponential-
ly ever since.
After barnstorming through the majority of
the European festival giants (Berlin's Zitadelle
Spandau, Reading, Leeds) late this summer, BSS
set off on its fall American tour; the Toronto
group finishes its string of stateside dates at The
Michigan Theater tomorrow night.
"It feels good to be back down here," Can-
ning said. "It feels like we really only went out
for a few weeks at the beginning of this record's
release ... like we neglected coming down here a
little bit this year."
The band's return to the United States has
been pleasant overall, Canning said. Broken
Social Scene discovered a surprisingly large,
reverent fanbase in Florida. They played with
the Melvins. They went to Dallas and Austin,
ate some memorable Mexican food.
This leg of the tour conveniently coincides
with the theater run of "Half Nelson," an indie
film that's received a limited release but also a
i '"
in' yet
AT MICHIGAN THEATER
healthy smattering of accolades. Ryan Gosling is
the primordial cause behind much of it for his
performance as a 20-something white junkie
teaching junior high in Brooklyn. The Michi-
gan Theater showed "Half Nelson" through last
month, and BSS fans will notice the presence
of the band's material in the film and its corre-
sponding soundtrack album.
"With this particular (film), we were intro-
duced to the directing/writing team, Ryan
Fleck and Anna Boden," Canning said. "It was
kind of strange at first, you know, because you
just watch this movie and it's like 'Oh my god, I
think there are 17of our pieces in this film.'"
Previously, the members of Broken Social
Scene have scored entire films (see the U.K.
flick "Snow Cake," starring Carrie-Anne Moss
and Sigourney Weaver), but with "Half Nelson,"
instead of expressly composing for the movie,
BSS served in more of a "music supervisor"
capacity, Canning said.
"(Fleck and Boden) came up to Toronto and
we hung out and we all watched the film togeth-
er," he said. "It was sort of 'Maybe we can take
that in there, take that in there or replace that
with something else' ... it ended up coming (out)
in a different kind of way" than the norm. Parts
of more than a dozen songs appear in the movie;
the soundtrack features "Da Da Dada," "Sham-
poo Suicide" and "Stars and Sons."
While Canning and his band have been
involved to a greater degree with other films,
such as "Snow Cake" and their next project
after the tour's culmination (a score for an
his love for rap's beginnings. He
taps into hip hop's early develop-
ment, sampling Afrika Bambaata's
"Looking for the Perfect Beat" in
"Let's Go." The same sample was
used in DJ Khaled's "Holla at
Me Baby," but whereas Cool and
Dre modernized the sample into
an energetic club banger, Belief
preserves its retro charm. It's an
unfair comparison, seeing as the
producers are worlds apart in both
approach and popularity, but it's
an important distinction: Belief
isn't aiming for a mainstream
audience. He's trying to resurrect
America's last grassroots move-
ment by bringing it back to where
it began.
The attempt is admirable, but
ultimately futile, especially when
the MCs steal the spotlight away
from Belief.
Logically, it makes sense -
when you have underground stars
like Murs, C-Rayz Walz, Word-
sworth, and Vordul Mega (of Can-
nibal Ox), it's always going to be
difficult to make your presence
felt. Not surprisingly, Belief's pro-
duction is relegated as the lyrics'
Working hard
against the
popular grain.
ment, he forces us to look at our
own hypocrisies. At last, political
commentary from a rapper with
more thought than an off-hand
"George Bush doesn't care about
black people."
The past is gone.
It's an obvious statement, but
acceptance is still hard. The hip
hop of yesterday has been replaced
with self-deification and an obses-
sion with cars, the chocha, the
corner, etc. So for Belief, born and
raised in the hearts of rap, accep-
tance must be especially hard. In
his debut, however, he not only
accepts the harsh reality, but also
demonstrates his love and hope for
the genre. To admit that hip hop
sucks? That's tough. To continue
to love a rap game that isn't worth
shit anymore?
That's dedication.
See BSS, Page 8 I
Prof earns top gov't award
By ANDREW SARGUS KLEIN
ManagingArts Editor
For an average musician, a
Pulitzer Prize and three Gram-
mies would normally equal a full,
highly successful career. But for
the University's own William Bol-
com, a Music prof. since 1977, such
awards are only part of a continu-
ously growing list of accomplish-
ments.
Yesterday, in Washington, D.C.,
amid the turmoil of a congressio-
nal change-over and the resigna-
tion of former Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush
presented Bolcom along with nine
others with the National Medal of
Arts. Traditionally, 12 medals are
awarded each year.
The award is backed by the
National Endowment for the Arts,
and is the highest award given to
a single artist by the government.
Meant to recognize artists from all
fields, past winners include Robert
Duvall, Ray Bradbury and Buddy
Guy.
Perhaps his best known work,
Bolcom's interpretation of Wil-
liam Blake's "Songs of Innocence"
and "Songs of Experience," earned
him the aforementioned Grammy
hat trick in 2006 in the categories
of best choral performance, best
classical contemporary composi-
tion and best classical album - a
resounding victory.
Bolcom told the Detroit Free
Press he was "so numb that I
haven't sorted out my feelings
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