September 30, 2010: The Mars Volta - Drunkship of Lanterns (live)

The Mars Volta - Drunkship of Lanterns (live): youtube.com/watch?v=nNDPAlRJCFg

I feel weird about the term "rock and roll." Or "rock 'n roll" or "Rock 'n Roll" or whatever. It never feels right coming out of my mouth. I appreciate the distinction between "hip hop" and "rap" but rock has no alternative. Maybe "alternative"? but that feels pretentious.

When I think "rock and roll" I think of Elvis. I think of Chuck Berry. I think of Buddy Holly. Rock and roll became a genre defined by what is now considered to be a pretty tame form but was then exciting and unpredictable (though it was based on pretty predictable blues structures). So that's what defined rock and roll, right? The exciting, the unpredictable, it became less a genre and more a style. But then what does rock and roll sound like if it's a style and no longer a genre? I always think back on the landmark, blues based (tame) form when I think of the sound of it.

But it seems quite different when we think "rap" and "hip hop." Rap is the act, like singing, it's a lyrical form where hip hop is the overall presentation; when a song focuses more on the rap aspect it's rap but when the music aspect is on par with the rapper(s) it is hip hop. 50 Cent is rap, The Roots is hip hop. Or so I see things.

I'd like some distinction in rock and roll. And I don't mean classifying genres but laying focus on the sound rather than the style. What would be the word? I don't know if we (white people, the youth, the lower middle class, etc) are truly capable of keeping a pure genre without making it a style. Look what happened to the term "indie," though it be short for independent; a lot of "indie" bands are on major labels, it's become a distinction of style. And look at "grunge." Remember how they were selling grunge shirts in Sears catalogs?

But it's all bullshit laymen garbage anyway. All these genres are really about marketing products, aren't they? It's all music. The Mars Volta is no different from Elvis is no different from 50 Cent is no different from John Cage. Do we have to dumb it down for the layman sake? I guess I don't really care about the terms.

I guess all I wanted to convey, really, is that this performance of "Drunkship of Lanterns" by The Mars Volta embodies what I think is best in Rock and Roll.