4B — Thursday, March 12, 2015
the b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

By AMELIA ZAK

Daily Music Editor

Who is the coolest teacher 

you’ve ever had? Maybe they 
were well versed, well traveled, 
or even just very well dressed. 
Many favorite teachers are 
described as more relatable, 
or able to inspire interest or 
personal 
immersion 
into 
a 

typically academic topic.

Imagine 
an 
instructor 

who 
teaches 
only 
in 
the 

summertime, dictates writing 
techniques and the lessons to 
be derived from literature on 
the side of a mountain in the 
American northeast. He loves 
John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut 
and holds garnered experiences 

from the real-world application 
of inspiration derived from 
literature 
in 
the 
form 
of 

lyricism. This is because you 
have a teacher who also leads 
a double life as a celebrated 
indie folk singer-songwriter of 
especially potent fame in the 
Ann Arbor community. He’s the 
coolest teacher you’ve ever had; 
he is Chris Bathgate.

Though 
some 
University 

students may know Bathgate 
from his role at the University’s 
New 
England 
Literature 

program, his career extends 
far beyond the depths of the 
forrests of New Hampshire. 
Bathgate 
attended 
the 

University back in the early 
2000s and with the gained 

support and from the school’s 
community of musicians as well 
as the nurturing warmth of the 
general Ann Arbor music scene.

“Ann 
Arbor 
helped 
me 

the 
most 
in 
providing 
an 

infrastructure 
that 
allowed 

emerging 
musicians 
to 

grow;that’s 
probably 
the 

number one thing I can thank 
Ann 
Arbor 
for,” 
Bathgate 

said. And musical growth is 
what followed his collegiate 
experience.

In 
2006, 
Bathgate 

simultaneously released two 
albums, A Detailed Account of 
Three Dreams and Throatsleep, 
in addition to an EP. This 
excessive 
deployment 
of 

music was ultimately deemed 

ARTIST
PROFILE

IN

VIRGINIA LOZANO/Daily

When not performing, Chris Bathgate is an instructor in the University’s New England Literature Program.

STYLE RECAP

Strobe lights and a rock ‘n’ 

roll stage defined the envi-
ronment for Saint Laurent’s 
Fall ready-to-wear 2015 col-
lection at Paris fashion week. 
The show opened with the 
rise of a Courtney Love wan-
nabe model popping out of 
the ground and stomping her 
pink high-low prom dress 
down the runway. Unfortu-
nately, this tacky opening 
was a grim indication for how 
the rest of the show’s collec-
tion would appear. The punk 
theme was carried fairly lit-
erally throughout the entire 
collection. So much so that 
the workmanship of Hedi 
Slimane’s more constructed 
pieces was completely ignored 
in favor of the cliché styling. 
The shredded tights, up-to-
here leg slits and questionable 
cut outs pushed the collection 
into garish costume territory. 
There was also a lot of boob 
in the show, including a solo 
boob appearance from a dress 
that was supposedly intend-
ing to cover only half of the 
model’s chest.

As is usual for Saint Lau-

rent, the collection’s decent 
range of outerwear ended 

up being this season’s sav-
ing grace. By and far making 
the coolest statement at the 
show, the outerwear varied 
from structured blazers to 
furry oversized coats to long 
trenches, all of which played 
into the oversized androgy-
nous theme. The highlights 
of the outerwear pieces were 
of very contradicting styles: 
a silver, thigh-length trench 
coat and a flowing leopard 
print cape.

If this collection is any 

indication for the future of 
Slimane’s creations at Saint 
Laurent, the label may be in 
trouble of becoming the next 
overrated fashion house. A 
serious 
reconsideration 
of 

styling is in order for next sea-
son, as without the reckless 
overkill of bad girl clichés, 
this collection could have 
been a top performer at Paris 
fashion week.

-KATIE CAMPBELL

YVES SAINT LAURENT

THE D’ART BOARD

Each week we take shots at the biggest 
developments in the entertainment world. 
Here’s what hit (and missed) this week.

Design by Gaby Vasquez

Her father will hear about this

Kim K dyes hair platinum blonde, 
Draco Malfoy comparisons ensue. 

Han Yolo

Harrison Ford 
crashed a plane, is 
doing fine.

He turned left!

‘Zoolander 2’ stars Ben Stiller 
and Owen Wilson crash 
Valentino Paris Fashion Week 
runway. 

Bran Eater

Hall & Oates sue granola 
maker Haulin’ Oates.
Got to Give It Up

Robin Thicke and Pharrel to pay 
Marvin Gaye estate $7.4 million, 
putting the entire Hot 100 at risk 
of being sued. 

successful, grabbing for him 
the 2006 title of “Best Solo 
Artist in Michigan” from Real 
Detroit Weekly. This young 
initial fame launched his career 
forward, as far as overseas, and 
placed him as the opening act 
of the experimental indie pop 
band, Saturday Looks Good to 
Me, in their European tour. He 
signed on to numerous labels, 
including the famous European, 
Björk-approved, 
One 
Little 

Indian. The opening track of 
his 2007 album A Cork Tale 
Wake, “Serpentine,” earned the 
acclaim of the NPR’s Song of the 
Day back in 2008. And since his 
accomplishments of the ’00s, 
and his gorgeously melodic 
most recent album, the 2011 Salt 
Year, Bathgate has remained, to 
the uneducated eye, relatively 
dormant.

“I 
took 
a 
hiatus 
from 

performing live for about two 
years and in the interim in that 
period of time I’ve been working 
on a record that’s actually tracking 
this week. And then I’ve also been 
working on a collaborative project 
titled SKULLLS, which is another 
record that will be coming out 
hopefully by the end of the year.”

All this while bouncing from 

a film set in Baton Rouge to a 
recording studio in New Orleans, 
Bathgate hasn’t abandoned his 
musical post. With his newest 
music 
venture, 
SKULLLS, 
a 

collaborative 
project 
that 
he 

admits gained more influence 
in the jazz and hip-hop world, 
and an upcoming tour for his 
nearly 
complete 
upcoming 

album, Bathgate’s creativity and 
musical advancements have not 
dissipated. Rather, as a riper 
musician, Bathgate holds the 
temperament and wisdom of an 
experienced artist. He holds a 
practiced process of inspiration 

that is still dictated in his most 
recent work: solitude, location 
and poetry.

“For the landscape I spend 

a lot of time on the coast, on the 
East and West, and in the South 
most recently, but whether or 
not the cultural music identity of 
those locations makes its way into 
the music—the landscape surely 
advances my state of mind,” 
Bathgate said. “So in the South 
there are these beautiful bald 
cypress groves and swamp land 
that are incredibly beautiful.”

Bathgate 
dissected 
himself 

further, explaining, “I don’t know 
if you could pinpoint one specific 
note or lyric that is directly 
connected to those landscapes but 
they definitely change my state of 
mind.”

“Solitude is always a neces-

sity, you just need time to work 
through your ideas and it’s diffi-
cult to create with people in that 
space, but with poetry, it’s kind 
of always been there,” Bathgate 
said. “With SKULLLS, this pres-
ence is definitely traceable.”

Unsurprising, isn’t it, that 

a 
jack-of-all-trades 
musician 

who holds skill in the complete 
spectrum of instruments, also 
assimilates the English language 
and his literary experience into 
his music. The Renaissance man 
himself bashfully implied it too.

“As the sole lyricist for my 

music, and in order to sustain 
this role, I think I will always 
find this to be true.”

And how exciting it is, really, 

for those individuals most apt 
to find indie folk inspiring are 
also likely to find inspiration in 
the words of some of Bathgate’s 
favorites, like Steinbeck and 
Vonnegut.

His perfectionism is another 

concurrent 
constant 
for 
the 

Bathgate process, one that he 

admits “maybe it’s at the dismay 
of fans who are waiting for an 
artist’s newest art but you can 
only release a record once, so 
sometimes it just takes me more 
time.”

His complete rejection of 

any half-ass job, coupled with 
the seemingly endless amount 
of hats Bathgate wears, would 
obviously produce a man who 
just can’t release new music on 
an incredibly regular basis. With 
age and experience, he’s learned 
to allow himself more liberties 
with his work, letting “patience 
play a key role in composing and 
restructuring a song.”

Time and gathered influences 

have funneled his music into 
numerous pathways and styles, 
and so the perfectionism takes 
its positive toll – one that the 
fans like myself must dutifully 
endure.

Bathgate returns to the stage 

this spring with an initial set 
of shows in Michigan before 
continuing 
onto 
a 
larger 

audience on the East Coast. 
This long set of shows begins 
this Saturday, Mar. 14 at the 
Blind Pig where Bathgate will 
be performing with The Go 
Rounds and the Antivillains. 
The cyclical return of watching 
an Ann Arbor musician, a 
man 
so 
well 
versed, 
well 

traveled, and perhaps even well 
dressed, return to his original 
foundation of inspiration. His 
musical roots never feel far 
from his present self, a musician 
who once found inspiration 
in the accessible solitude of 
North Campus, surrounded by a 
landscape of student musicians, 
allowing the ebb and flow of 
literary academia impact his 
sound – everything now has 
changed, but everything has 
stayed the same.

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW

An alarm beeps at 5:00 a.m. 

and an arm covered in blue paja-
mas swings over and snoozes 
it. 
Wait, 
I 

have 
that 

clock! WAIT, 
that 
arm 
is 

attached 
to 

Tom 
Hanks! 

Yes, “Call Me 
Maybe” song-
stress, 
Carly 

Rae 
Jepsen, 

managed 
to 

cast Tom Hanks as the star of 
her newest (and bestest) video.

As Hanks sits up in bed, the 

beat slithers in through his 
penthouse windows amid the 
morning darkness. Holy shit. 
In the middle of a five-in-the-
morning-stare-at-the-carpet-
in-distress moment he begins to 
lip-sync the first verse. He rubs 
his eyes, stretches and the magic 
begins. As he looks into the bath-
room mirror, his demeanor and 
performance gain some more 
energy and, BOOM, as he lifts 
his head from spitting up some 
mouthwash, he is walking along 
a street in NYC high-fiving and 
fist bumping anyone who walks 
by. I really want a fist bump from 
Tom Hanks at this point.

As he jumps into a cab, an 

emojiful conversation between 
Carly and him appears on screen; 
it’s time for them to meet up at 
the real video shoot. Walking 
the last leg of the trip, bystanders 
are seen swiping right on Hank’s 
Tinder profile (who wouldn’t??). 
During final touches, Hanks 
pauses to recite the song’s short 
conversation.

Hanks: I’m pregnant.
Jepson: Okay
Hanks: Just kidding.
YES. Now the duo, along with 

a crowd of back-up dancers, 
perform a thriller-esque street 
dance. It’s brilliant and infec-

tious. Hanks’s moves are dad-
meets-boyband. Wait, who is 
that dancing next to Jepsen? Oh 
wow, that’s Justin Bieber. And 
for a total of 21 life-altering sec-
onds, Bieber manages to not be a 
tool and Hanks follows Jepsen’s 
carefree choreography.

Hanks gives a humorous and 

uplifting dub of “I Really Like 
You.” His stagnant upper-lip just 
adds another layer of awesome-
ness. It’s not supposed to be seri-
ous, and Jepsen certainly knows 
how to put on a good time. I real-
ly really really really really really 
like this video. And you do too.

-CHRISTIAN KENNEDY

SCHOOLBOY/ INTERSCOPE RECORDS

A+

I Really 
Like You

Carly Rae 
Jepsen

Schoolboy/Inter-

scope Records

