The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday, A pril 14, 2009 - 5 ALBUM REVIEW Are we the post-originality generation? 11 original thought is effectively dead." I would attribute this quote to a face, but this little zinger has been spit out and reprocessed so many times it has become about as dead as the original thought it's supposed to JOSH represent. Well, not dead maybe, but it's at least become a household idiom (that is, if said "house" is situated in the angsty nihilism of the college campus). Ever since the modernist boom of the early 20th century, which was a cultural movement that called for a wholesale coup d'9tat of tried-and-true artistic conventions in favor of outside- the-box experimentation, the knights of the intellectual round table have segued into discussing postmodernism. And, in short, postmodernism is the belief that all fathomable modes of formal innovation have already been deflowered, and that all we can do now as artists is play mix-and- match with the modernist devices our artisanal forebears have so generously handed down to us. Of all the art forms, music has probably had the longest shelf life in terms of legitimate inno- vation (that is, if you boot video games out of the equation). This is largely due to technology's inextricable role in sonic evolu- tion - with the invention of each new instrument, a new genre (or two, or five) has followed. The electric guitar? Hello rock'n'roll. The synthesizer? Late '70s New Wave and electro-pop. The drum machine, the music sequencer and any other techno-apparatuses of the digital age? The birth of elec- tronic music. The sampler occupies a para- doxical spot on this timeline of musical modernization, as it paved the way for a "new" genre (bastard pop, mash-up, Girl Talk- ianism, whatever you want to call it) comprised of noises that have already been made by other peo- ple, serving as a sort of ambiguous hinge between modernism and postmodernism. Theater's implicit niche as the "timelessly nostalgic art form" prevents it from being too developmentally dependent on technology, and relatively recent technological advances in film (like CGI and digital rotoscop- ing) have served to evolve aes- thetics rather than create new genres (unless you count "the Pixar movie" as a genre). But the perpetually shapeshiftingastate of music technology kept it a rela- tively fluid art form up until about the mid-'90s. Suddenly, computer programs and digital sound pro- cessing have given us the ability to synthesize any noise our hearts desired. And I guess my question to the future of formal innovation in music is this: What's next? Technology has bestowed upon us a sort of platonic dream machine - a wish to end all wish- es. And while digital audio pro- grams can (and will) be infinitely . revamped, it's hard to imagine any device that could drastically revolutionize the course of music history (barring the idea of a contraption that enables us to hear in a new dimension and/or induces synesthesia). It seems, at this point, that we've sufficiently emptied our bag of tricks. Just look at the past few years: All of the major musical "move- ments" have been little more than WANT TO REVIEW BOOKS? Work for our Fine Arts Staff. E-mail battlebots@umich.edu. mass pilgrimages to the nostalgia bank. Last year, it was the rootsy folk-rock revival, with rustic- minded artists like the Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and The Dodos dropping name-making records. A few moments before that, it was the disco revival, with dance- punk babies like LCD Soundsys- tem and The Rapture adding a Gen-Y edge to the bouncy synth- pop and post-punk of the late '70s. Hell, at this rate I wouldn't be shocked if 2009 ended up going down as the year of the "revival revival." Postmodernism seems to have reached such full swing in the field of music that we're even getting what are fundamentally "pastiche bands" - bands that harness their appeal by subjecting us to a giant game of spot-the- influence. Indie rock outfit Tapes 'n Tapes wears its patchwork quilt of influences on its flannel- wearing, counterculture sleeves, functioning as a sort of walk- through museum of the college rock circuit. Like Quentin Taran- tino. flicks, these quintessentially postmodern bands specialize in Using old sounds to create new music is all we can do anymore. the flattening of musical history, compressing decades of formal innovation into one nifty little MP3 file. As an artist, this notion that original thought is effectively dead is particularly alarming. What's the point of calling myself a creator when all I'm really doing is making club sandwiches from unconsciously pilfered fragments of shaved ham and stagnant culture? When my film history GSI told us we're nothing more than passive receptacles of a consumerist society, my artistic ego flipped a shit. I went down the whole "I'm just a genetically predisposed bundle of automatic responses to stimuli, caught in the pinball machine of natural law" rabbit hole - and that's never any fun. But then I thought about some of my favorite bands - bands that continue to produce (in my opin- ion) seminal records after this postmodern hump. The Flaming Lips may not have invented psy- chedelic pop, but I think it can be unanimously agreed upon that no album in existence sounds any- thing like The Soft Bulletin. And while Animal Collective hasn't technically invented a genre, the band has managed to craft an exotic sound that's undeniably its own. Cynics and theorists can con- tinue to hammer out proofs that original thought is effectively dead - in a way, I agree with them. But in the end, music is all about the x-factor; something much less tangible than any Sony Acid Kit. And if I can create anything that gives people the same kind of shivers I get while listening to a song like "Phantom Other" by the Department of ,Eagles, I'm not going to give a fly- ing fuck that I'm ripping off Paul McCartney a little bit. Bayer's column is really a pastiche of writing from other writers. tell him how po-mo he is at jrbayer a umich.edu. Going Home? 1*3 When it's time to pack up and movesatcal as We specialize sn packing and shipping small loads. Computers, skis, bikes... youa eit >URTESY OF PLUS ONE Before and after the bull attack. Most I Upbeat 'Playground' is the perfect album for ringing in the spring sunshine By DAVID RIVA Daily Arts Writer The snow has thawed and the sun shines bright - the annual winter depression has faded just ***J in time for the sophomore release of indie's cheeriest The Boy duo, The Boy Least Likely To. Lead According to some, spring is a time for picnics, long walks LikelyTo and a renewed sense of opti- The Law of the mism. The Law of the Play-P ground, lined with playful Payground melodies and lighthearted Plus One lyrics, is the perfect sound- track for the season. A band with an odd name like Boy Least Likely To must be difficult to pin down con- ceptually and musically. The band attempts to define itself in one song in particular, "The Boy Least Likely To Is a Machine," which play- fully alludes to the band's conception ("I made a machine / called The Boy Least Likely To") only to follow with the confusingly immature "It feeds me shortbread biscuits / and it makes kely to my little dreams come true." The juvenile antics persist throughout the album and force a question: How does a band that creates such happy-go-lucky songs gain the respect of the highly pretentious scene in which it resides? To answer this question, one must take time to understand the band's music. The song structures are relatively simple, but the band's pop sensibility and creativity produce a consistently vivacious soundscape bursting with energy. Employment of unconventional instrumentation, including a banjo and wash- board combo ("When Life Gives Me Lemons, I Make Lemonade") and a violin solo inject- ed with buzzy synth chords ("Every Goliath Has His David"), is vital to keeping the band's sound interesting while avoiding staleness and redundancy. Ultimately, TBLLT's ability to match its lyr- ics to the overall feel of its songs distinguish- es Playground. "The Boy With Two Hearts" reflects the manner in which the band craftily connects its narrative lyrics with its music. The track tells the tale of a young lad who is too full of love. The "oom-pah" of the trombone evokes the image of a boy with an awkward and unat- tractive demeanor, but the gentle glockenspiel line reveals his charming personality and good intentions. Playground's witty yet immature lyrics are equal parts self-deprecating and self-assured. Frontman Jof Owen sings with a severe lack of confidence, always pondering the prospects of love and heroism. Owen sums up this sen- timent in "Stringing Up Conkers" when he exclaims, "I just want to change the world in whatever little way I can," which is followed by an appropriately understated harmonica solo. Some may deem this bashful optimism refreshing while others may find it bother- some and annoying. Still, the presentation of the subject matter is tasteful and flawlessly falls in line with the album's many lush melo- dies. TBLLT's cheerfulness is never forced and never oblivious in a Pollyanna-ish sort of way. The closing track showcases the way TBLLT retains its realistic perspective while toying around with fanciful ideas. "A Fairytale End- ing" twists the conventional happily-ever-after tale by viewing it with a much more rational perspective. The song introduces themes of gallantry and childish bravery before snapping back into the harsh truth of reality. The closing line, "Limping off into the sun- set / with our tails between our legs / Mutter- ing quietly to myself / and wondering if this is the way that / my fairytale ends" seems to come to the conclusion that valiant ambitions may not always come out as one intends. In this sense, TBLLT puts into practice the lessons it sings about: It takes valiant stabs at creativity without sounding too ambitious, which, fortu- nately for them, results in songs that contain meaning that is deeper than it first appears. An unusually nuanced cop show By CAROLYN KLARECKI Daily Arts Writer It seems like too many TV pro- grams have been avoiding the unusual. There are about five tele- vision genres and - with the excep- tion of a few The Unusuals Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ABC standouts - they all have the same predictable plots. ABC's new crime-comedy "The Unusuals," however, merges genres in an attempt to break with often-used molds. When off-duty NYPD Detective Burt Kowalski is murdered, Casey Schraeger (Amber Tamblyn, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants") is promoted and paired with Kowalski's former partner, Detective Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner, "28 Weeks Later") to find the killer. However, Sergeant Harvey Brown (Terry Kinney, "Canterbury's Law") reveals to Schraeger that the department is corrupted, and her real job is to uncover the detectives' many secrets in hopes of nabbing the infiltrator. "The Unusuals" doesn't just feature gritty murder crimes. In fact, its best moments come from smaller cases that ordinary crime shows would never think to feature. In the premiere, Detec- tives Eric Delahoy (Adam Gold- berg, "Saving Private Ryan") and Leo Banks (Harold Perrineau, "Lost") tried to bring down the man responsible for a number of cat thefts. First disappointed to be stuck with such a dull assign- ment, they ended up taking it too seriously, and humor ensued when the detectives gave the cat thief a hardcore interrogation, Flight down to shoving a bright light in his face. One particularly original ele- ment of the show is that it comes back from commercial breaks with amusing broadcasts from dispatch - one instructed officers to watch out for a man dressed as a hot dog who "may or may not be yielding a samurai sword." The dispatches also provide an excellent example of the level of detail in "The Unusuals": The hot dog-samurai-swordsman as well as the other suspects described by the dispatch can be seen in the station's back- ground throughout each epi- sode. These clever moments give "The Unusuals" a style distinct from other crime shows. "The Unusuals" is com- prised of an impressively tal- ented cast, and its characters have well-defined, bizarre personalities. Banks is a safety freak who never removes his bulletproof vest, but his part- ner Delahoy seems a bit eager to get himself killed in the line of duty. Their opposing natures lead to a genuinely comical relation- ship, and each actor plays his role commendably. The most disappointing aspect of "The Unusuals," though, is that it's not really that unusual (apart from the wacky subplots). It even has a hot-dog ninja. There weren't many surprises in seeking out Kowalski's mur- derer - the romantic chemistry between Schraeger and Walsh is pretty predictable, and the corrupt detective is revealed in the first episode. It's all a huge letdown for those who like to theorize along with the protago- nist. The show's promotional ads boasted "a different kind of cop show" and shoved the idea down everyone's throats, but, while "The Unusuals" is definitely not boring, it's also not the ground- breaking masterpiece ABC makes it out tobe. Still, the characters' wit and intelligence and the strange cases they try to solve compensate for some of the show's predictability and unoriginality. These qualities may be lost on those who are put off by the show's reliance on sub- tle cleverness and weird subplots rather than its main storyline. Hopefully, new twists will be pre- sented as the series continues and "The Unusuals" will earn a spot among TV's best. *ucrnu m i I Clementa a novel Jim Martin in 3 future world where hcrumnkind has learned how to thrive in harmony with a flourishing Nature, an oppressed People awakens to its rage. Mi1353navoav.com 2Pleas visit cletmentais'vel.coms.