April 9, 2011
Spring Carnival is right around the corner, which means that live coverage of the Buggy races is returning to WRCT! Once again, Buggy comes to you live in cooperation with cmuTV and the CMU Buggy Alumni Association. If you’re coming to watch the races, remember to bring a portable radio and listen in!
Live raceday coverage will air on 88.3 MHz for listeners on the Buggy course and in the Pittsburgh area, as well as streaming live at wrct.org. Coverage begins 8am Friday and Saturday morning. Regularly-scheduled programming will be pre-empted during this broadcast.
Listeners tuning in to hear the Saturday Light Brigade this Saturday can find a list of SLB affiliate stations and live online streaming at slbradio.org.
March 21, 2011
In recent years, post-rock has been losing the innovative spark that had been its driving force. Though first rebelling against the vocally dominated, verse-chorus-verse song structure of rock, post-rock bands have now adapted the very sameness they hated. Every band I find seems to adhere to the same tired formula of constant intensity, wailing guitars, and an emotional need that rivals the cheesiest emo band. Instead of trying to recreate the canon, newer bands should focus on replicating the creativity of their predecessors.
Look at Godspeed You! Black Emperor. When you first hear their album Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, it’s impossible not to cringe. The album has four songs that are divided into movements with names like “She Dreamt She Was a Bulldozer, She Dreamt She Was Alone in an Empty Field” and “Edgyswingsetacid.” There are multiple guitarists, bassists, drummers, and horn players plus a violinist and a cellist. You can’t help but expect the level of bombast that killed bands like Genesis and Yes.
But that fear never comes true. Like most post-rock bands, Godspeed You! Black Emperor focuses on aesthetic. But instead of the emotional hammer-over-the-head that much of post-rock has turned to, it opts for a more minimal approach. It is easy to forget that this is a nine-piece band, since few instruments play simultaneously. They proselytize with a restraint that is almost non-existent in post-rock, yet beneath the sparseness lies a frantic tension that festers and at times explodes with a force made even more astounding by its suddenness. It disappears as soon as it arrives, letting your mind try to figure out what you just listened to.
I’m not saying that all post-rock bands should become a nine-piece minimalist influenced musical leviathan. But post-rock needs to stop relying so much on the motifs that originally propelled it to the fringes of the mainstream. In order to establish a future, post-rock bands must look toward the past to shed their current shackles of conformity.
-Matt Mastricova
