The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, September 27, 2017 — 5A
Arts
With a freshly bleached
mullet mohawk and a distinct
nomadic-desert-hippie
vibe,
singer Nicholas Petricca bobs
along to the bubbly indie pop
that
Walk
The
Moon is famous
for,
as
cheery
as
ever
despite
the
relative
barrenness of the
desert landscape
behind him.
Petricca’s
wacky
dance
moves
dominate
most
of
the “One Foot” music video,
interspersed with a few shots
of a graceful dancer, the band
together as a whole and a few
shots of Petricca serenading
the sky. From the first few lines
of the song, it’s easy to figure
out where the inspiration for
the setting came from. “Not
a soul up ahead and nothing
behind / There’s a desert in
my blood and a storm in your
eyes,” Petricca sings as he
stares boldly into the camera,
a
geometric
stripe
design
running down each of his
cheeks.
Both the production style
and face paint are pretty
consistent with Walk The
Moon’s older aesthetic, seen
on songs like “Quesadilla”
and
“Anna
Sun.” Although
“One
Foot”
isn’t
terrible,
it isn’t exactly
groundbreaking,
either,
especially when
compared
to
more
bizarre,
story-centered
videos
and
even Walk The Moon’s own
“Shut Up and Dance.”
Although the music video
is lackluster, the song itself
is undeniably catchy, with
the same tireless energy that
pervaded
2014’s
uptempo,
positive Talking is Hard. The
track is similar to “Shut Up
and Dance” in terms of style,
composition
and
energy,
especially with respect to the
chorus — both tracks have a
memorable,
chant-like
line
that contains the song title —
though “One Foot” lacks the
harder riffs that set “Shut Up
and Dance” apart as more of a
party song.
With
Walk
The
Moon’s
consistent sound and release
style,
dependability
might
be the band’s greatest asset.
In an industry where artists
are
continually
redefining
their identities, Walk The
Moon fans at least know what
they’re getting.
“One Foot”
Walk The
Moon
RCA Records
SAM LU
Daily Arts Writer
NETFLIX
The surprising depth and
meaning in adult cartoons
Cartoons
are
often
a
childish, reductive medium.
They take the forms of people,
animals and places, break them
down to their bare parts, and
illustrate them. That being said,
plenty of cartoons are visually
appealing and stimulating —
but for the most part, they are
not considered high forms of
art. Often, cartoon programs
are directed towards children,
but a good deal of them are
directed
towards
adults.
These programs often air on
Adult Swim, the nighttime
programming block of Cartoon
Network. While adult cartoons
often lean towards irreverent
or absurd comedy, in recent
years, there has been an uptake
in high-quality content that has
a striking amount of purpose
and message. Programs like
“Rick and Morty” and “BoJack
Horseman” are changing the
reputation of adult comedy for
the better.
For the past decade or so,
adult cartoons had mostly been
directed towards the critique
and
lampoon
of
American
culture. The stock formula is
a middle-class family, with
one son, one daughter, a baby
and a pet or two. The longest
running thirty-minute series,
“The Simpsons,” does just that,
having cemented itself in the
hall of outstanding television
many years ago. Variations on
on the same theme, like Seth
McFarlane’s
three
shows,
“Family
Guy,”
“American
Dad”
and
“The
Cleveland
Show” have been met with
similar acclaim. The formula
is tried-and-true, which has
discouraged experimentation
and ingenuity.
Adult Swim’s “Rick and
Morty”
has
inverted
this
formula by changing some of
the roles. Instead of the dopey,
dumb father, grandfather Rick
is a genius scientist across
galaxies,
and
actual-father
Jerry is ineffectual and plain.
Rick is often paired with Morty,
his grandson, who is hopeful
and naive, but not stupid. The
duo is a reworked Stewie and
Brian from “Family Guy,” in
a way, working with the same
evil
genius
and
simpleton
dynamic that is referenced
in countless other programs.
“Ricky and Morty” also has a
remarkable amount of depth
in
narrative
and
subject,
taking place across countless
galaxies and timelines. The
blurring between real and fake
that takes place is thought-
provoking
and
poignant
without sacrificing too much
meaning.
Occasionally,
cartoons are great ways to
make
larger-than-life
ideas
digestible.
Netflix’s
“BoJack
Horseman” completely ignores
the stock formula and tackles
themes in American culture
that have often been ignored.
The eponymous, washed-up
sitcom star has to deal with
his life after fame, with his
then-contemporaries, like Mr.
Peanutbutter, and PR agent
quasi-girlfriend,
Princess
Carolyn. The show actually
carries
a
main
storyline,
which is a deviation from the
irreverence of adult cartoons,
and is not told in a linear
fashion. The audience sees
snippets of BoJack in the past
that inform the narrative that
is playing out in the present,
which leaves them without key
points of information. BoJack,
voice by Will Arnett (“Arrested
Development”), has no family
in the main characters, and
the show turns to the fear of
isolation more often than not.
The creativity and novelty of
“BoJack Horseman” shows the
power of streaming companies
to make content that is original
without being derivative as
other series. The genre of adult
cartoons is stepping forward
with its assistance.
Overall,
accessible
pop
culture
hasn’t
had
an
interesting adult cartoon in a
long time. At high points in the
arc of a television show, seasons
three and four, respectively,
“Rick and Morty” and “BoJack
Horseman” provide viewers
with an unforgettable, quasi-
trailblazing moment in the
history of television.
JACK BRANDON
Daily Arts Writer
TV NOTEBOOK
For the past
decade or so,
adult cartoons
had mostly been
directed towards
the critique
and lampoon of
American culture
RCA
Walk The Moon maintains
consistency in new video
Petricca’s wacky
dance moves
dominate most of
the “One Foot”
music video
Many argue that Skrillex
has not had a vital new song
in years — since either his
chart-topping
collaboration
with Diplo and Justin Bieber
(“Where
Are
Ü
Now”)
or
his
similarly
ambitious
crossover
effort
with
A$AP
Rocky
(“Wild
For The Night”).
Meanwhile,
others
believe
that Skrillex never created
vital
music
in
the
first
place, dismissing his wholly
American
translations
of
dubstep and dance music as
computerized noise — viral
fodder for the iGeneraton, sure,
but undeserving of that sacred
title: Art.
Both of these groups, of
course, are absolutely wrong.
Earlier
this
year,
Skrillex
released
his
highest-profile
single
in
years,
finally
returning to his electro-alias
after an oddly long hiatus
during which he focused on
running his label (OWSLA).
That single — “Would You
Ever,” a collaboration with
go-to pop writer Poo Bear —
is a melodious monster that
instantly insinuates thoughts
of sunshine and palm trees.
It’s also one of
Skrillex’s
most
beautiful tracks
to date, despite
not exactly being
representative
of
his
classic
sound. Now, as
if to compensate
for
his
recent
deviation from hardcore, the
mega-producer has returned
with a speaker-rattling remix
of the year’s biggest rap song:
Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble.”
Perhaps
Kendrick
never
needed to hear his words
reworked into an ear-melting
bass drop, but besides that
point,
Skrillex’s
“Humble”
slaps harder than Batman in
that
ever-so-perfect
comic
meme. For an artist whose work
is often recognized as noisy,
perhaps borderline obnoxious,
he makes effortless use of
empty space, teasing listeners
with a brief accapella lead-
in before employing anxious
high-keys to initiate his assault.
Eventually, jumpy snares and
an intense pattern of whopping
bass kicks arrive to foreshadow
the song’s chorus, but even
then, gaps between their kicks
somehow leave sufficient room
for Kendrick.
Obviously, once the drop
arrives, there is no secret who
the song’s remixer is: Listening
to Skrillex’s “Humble” can feel
something like standing next to
an airplane that’s mid-takeoff.
Yet, his softer, perhaps more
musical capabilities are still
ever-present in the production,
a point that’s driven home by
his inclusion of in-character
space-synths (think “Cinema”
or “All I Ask Of You”) within
Kendrick’s second verse. For
a moment here, one might
wonder if the song is about to
slow down.
It does not. Cue another
“Shut up, bitch! Be humble,”
and another drop. That is the
Skrillex we fell in love with in
2010.
“Humble”
(Remix)
Skrillex
Atlantic
SALVATORE DIGIOIA
Daily Arts Writer
ATLANTIC
Skrillex injects ‘Humble’
with an overdose of bass
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