2003 had plenty
of standout CDs
Whether it's because of a sorrowful
moan, a bowel-shaking scream, or
perfectly syncopated hand claps, there
are moments in music when the fre
quency of the sound waves creates a
certain energy. What's created is the
exact energy required for sound parti
cles to enter the ear canal, vibrate off
the eardrum, and send the noise
straight to the heart, tickling the back
of the throat, before finally being
pumped through the aorta.
Helen Schumacher
Notes from the underground
On that note, here is a recap of
some of the albums from 2003 that
possessed those moments.
Last year, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs came
dangerously dose to being over-hyped.
Singer Karen O's ripped fishnet stock
ings had the band receiving pages of
press long before they had even released
their full-length debut, "Fever To Tell."
However, the band was still able to im
press audiences with the album, one of
the most energetic releases of the year.
Karen O, along with guitarist Nick
Zinner and drummer Brian Chase,
made a beer-stained album that's equal
parts glamour, sleaze and guitar lick The
best songs on the album are the last
three: "Maps," "Y Control" and "Mod
em Romance." These songs have an inti
macy that differs from the rest of the
charged dance numbers on the album.
Another new band to make a name
for itself this year was Broken Social
Scene. The Toronto-based collective's
album "You Forgot It In People" begins
far away with a distant, airy drone, but
doesn't quite reach its destination until
the galloping percussion of the second
song, "KC Accidental." This draws the
listener toward something more elu
sive with each swell of music. By the
third track, you're unself-consciously
clapping your hands and shaking your
head. On the song "Anthems For a Sev
enteen Year-Old Girl," Emily Haines'
vocals, although hushed and childlike,
sound sinister as she repeats the lines
"Park that car, drip that phone, sleep
on the floor, dream about me" over vi
olin and banjo instrumentation. Al
though "You Forgot It In People" is
overall an outstanding album, there
are a couple of tracks where it's hard
not to feel embarrassed for the band.
This past year, two seasoned folk
sters released noteworthy albums.
Bonnie "Prince" Billy came out with
"Master and Everyone," a recording
that almost sounds like an Appalachi
an lullaby. Although "Master and
Everyone" comes up short when com
pared to some of Billy's previous
work, it remains a beautiful album —
a sparse meandering through a back
woods of comforting timelessness.
Similarly, last year's "You Are Free"
by Cat Power is a great album, but not
their masterpiece. From her twisting
and contorting lips behind a curtain of
thick bangs, band leader Chan Mar
shall's voice manages to produce goose
bumps. However, there are moments
that are lost to a more radio-friendly,
straightforward singing style and slick
production. As a musician, Marshall's
greatest asset is her aching warble,
which sounds best on the track "Good
Woman," a breathtaking song that per
fectly fuses all the best elements of
"You Are Free" into one melody.
Rounding out the list is The Shins'
graceful second album, "Chutes Too
Narrow." It's nearly impossible to sep
arate the perfectly blended parts and
describe them. This proves just how
talented the band is.
All of the aforementioned albums
have a way of inducing a psychosomat
ic effect on me. But The Shins' release
produces the most dramatic response.
In the song "Mine's Not a High Horse,"
the way lead singer lames Mercer's voice
drops and sings "You want them all on
your side/ that just makes more for
doubt to slaughter," makes the space
around my eyes well up. As Mercer qui
etly sings "But your memory is here and
I'd like it to stay warm light on a winter
day" in the song "Pink Bullets," a feel
ing of nostalgia chums my stomach.
The tracks "Kissing the Lipless" and "So
Says I" make my heart strings shiver
with delight.
Contact the Pulse columnist
at helenschumacher@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily
represent those of the Emerald.
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Fitehouse promotes music
using ingenuity, not industry
Using creative marketing
and ‘open source music/
the band aims to resist
major industry conventions
By Ryan Nyburg
Senior Pulse Reporter
For some bands, promotional
material is a way to sell albums. For
the Baltimore-based band Fite
house, the promotions are part of
the message. Performing a number
of self-styled "media blitzes," the
band has attempted to get its music
out to the general populace without
the assistance of the music industry.
With the release of their "The Bomb
EP," the band has taken things a
step further.
The songs are not only free to
download, they are also free to sam
ple, remix and build upon. Called
"open source music," the idea is that
the music, right down to the individ
ual instrumental and vocal tracks, is
free for others to use and even to sell.
All the lyrics, chords and recorded
works are available on the band's
Web site, www.fitehouse.com, and
the band even invites people to send
in remixes
- to post on
their site.
As a
REW1EW band, Fite
- house is an
odd assem
bly. Founded by guitarist Josh Cohen
and vocalist Gabe Gilligan — who
formed the band after "doing the
corporate thing" for a number of
years — the band also includes
bassist Edward Plant and drummer
Eduardo Cecena. Plant is a jazz/fu
sion veteran, while Cecena, the
band's third drummer since its for
mation, previously played in a funk
band in Mexico.
Combining a mix of publicity
stunts, accessible music and market
ing experience, the band decided to
take a route outside the music indus
try after some poor experiences with
radio and recording outlets.
"Even when I was in college, if you
had some music and wanted to get it
on the air it wasn't too hard to take it
down to the local radio station and
have some friends call up and request
Courtesy
it," Cohen said. "If it was a local
enough show you could get airtime.
Then we had the Telecommunica
tions Act of 1996, which allowed a lot
of consolidation in radio and that re
ally changed things."
Further consolidation of the radio
industry, particularly through com
panies such as Clear Channel Com
munications — which owns more
than 1,300 radio stations nation
wide according to the company's
Web site — meant less focus on lo
cal music and more on nationally
popular acts, Cohen said.
"We had a fairly good-sized fol
lowing, but we just couldn't get air
time," Cohen said. "We sent CDs
and stuff to local radio and realized
we didn't know who we were send
ing it to and who could make the de
cisions. We were trying to figure out
how to crack that nut and we decid
ed we had to be creative about it."
Through such creative arts, Fite
house acts less like a band and more
like an example to other bands.
"We started to think of ourselves
as more than just a band, though I
know that sounds like a cliche,"
Gilligan said. "But we started think
ing that maybe we can bring our oth
er influences into the mix, such as
marketing, rather than just playing
bars all the time."
Fitehouse has been adept at self
marketing since the beginning. One
of the band's original projects was the
creation of an official rock anthem for
the city of Baltimore, leading to a
song named after the city that was in
spired by "a night of drinking beer
and listening to Journey," Cohen said.
While the song got little airplay and
only a lukewarm endorsement from
Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, it
did get the band rolling on some oth
er projects.
One of these projects is an ongoing
campaign against the Recording In
dustry Association of America, partic
ularly the RIAA's fight against music
file sharing. Through a series of serio
comic postcards mailed out to a vari
ety of media outlets, the band pro
moted themselves while
simultaneously attacking the RIAA's
practice of filing lawsuits against file
sharers. Cohen also self-published his
own manifesto against the recording
and radio industry entitled "Com
mon Musical Sense," and the com
parisons to Thomas Paine's famous
pre-Revolutionary War tract "Com
mon Sense" are not accidental.
"I find great inspiration in the
colonial period," Cohen said. "Then
the issue was not necessarily being
part of England, but England dictat
ing to us without sufficient represen
tation of our citizens. I see an analo
gy in our cultural life, with really
only five large record companies that
dictate our cultural options and tell
us how we're going to get it and how
we're going to pay for it."
Fitehouse's efforts are starting to
attract the attention of others in
volved in the fight over large record
company dominance. Among these
is the Electronic Frontier Founda
tion, a legal organization that has
been providing defense for people
sued by the RIAA for file sharing.
"I think they have an inspiring ap
proach," EFF Senior Staff Attorney
Fred von Lohmann said. "What they
recognize is that for bands that aren't
well known, the record labels don't
offer many options. They're finding
a new way to be noticed."
The band hopes that others will
take up the example they are trying
to set, that musicians can make mu
sic outside the regular music indus
try. Or, as Gilligan said, "If we can do
this, you can do this as well."
Contact the senior Pulse reporter
at ryannyburg@dailyemerald.com.
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