August 10, 2010: The Locust - Moth Eaten Deerhead

The Locust - Moth Eaten Deerhead: youtube.com/watch?v=Puf9K9bNL9k

I attended a lecture yesterday, an introduction to contemporary dance. It was meant as a means to make others in the artistic community interested in this art form which is, arguably, quite neglected. One example of its neglect was presented in the description of a performance from the early 1900s where the names of the artistic director and the composer were familiar to most in the room where the names of the dancers and the choreographer were unfamiliar, though they are major names in the dance community.

One thing that stood out to me during the lecture was mention of language and its use in describing a performance. I've been to contemporary dance performances, I've liked them generally but can't describe why. I don't know the names of body movements that are used, I sometimes don't understand the structures but I know how it makes me feel when it happens. The same applies for paintings; I know what I like and what I find unattractive or offensively bad.

After the lecture I went to see some noise bands. All of this applies to noise bands strongly, more than any other form of music I experience; sometimes I love noise bands, sometimes I hate them, I never know why exactly. Why is it that one person creating walls of feedback with a guitar is more appealing to me than another person screaming into a microphone with heavy delay? It's all just noise, generally unstructured, not necessarily beautiful or pleasing to the senses, typically abrasive. One thing I noticed, particularly, last night was that with noise music what is most important is not what you hear but how you feel. How do the sound waves flow through your body? How do they affect your insides? How does that make the rest of your body feel? I think most who hear noise music, not knowing how to talk about it, what language to use, would dismiss it as simply bad music. I had thought it all shit, before, until I saw some people I respected in the music community perform as a noise band. Then it was cool. Even before then I'd heard of The Locust and listened to them, the first noise band I'd before heard, and was completely turned off but felt something that stayed with me.

And music isn't about structure, for typically it can be very rigid and conservative. We need noise music for our freedom. It might not be beautiful or pleasing but so what. It's as necessary as any other form.