Review Rodeo: Venus Isle, Sumomomo Momomo Vol. 2
This is a very personal review post for me. As I’ve mentioned previously, over the course of the year my taste in music has changed radically. Before I get into this though I just want to warn you that I say some harsh things below and I wouldn’t want anybody to think that it’s somehow directed at them. The venom primarily comes from what I consider some of my own failures and chagrin these many years on at having ever been into something which was ultimately unrewarding.
Anyway, about a year ago it seemed I was losing interest in music in general. I’ve never been die hard about buying the latest albums and primarily got into stuff through friends, but the orbit of my interest I’d say was very much within various alternative music scenes. As I inevitably found myself wanting to be free of all of that dead weight I mistook it as a loss of interest. However, I think I had to go through that period of doubt to bring into closer alignment what I say I like with what I actually like. You don’t really notice it when you’re following what’s in your heart, in a way that’s partially invisible to you (because, obviously why would you be doing anything else).
So I guess that’s it, music stopped being a chore. And for me, that’s what the whole indie music scene is. To be as up front as possible, I’ve got a mountain of resentment for the entire indie music scene but I don’t think it necessarily prevents me from giving an honest take. For all of the crap that people talk about major labels, corporate music, and greed it’s actually indie music which is the most commodified form of entertainment ever. It’s all about what you buy. Let’s face it, as far as music goes some adolescent kid taking piano lessons is infinitely more credible than the most happening indie music doofus. Ultimately what counts for credentials for indie music, basically knowledge of a bunch of tiresome people and branding and the nerve to want to serve yourself up a bunch of sterile listening experiences.
Anyway, this all coincided with a growing interest in anime. So right around the time I was checking out Eric Johnson videos on youtube I was reading Sumomomo Momomo in yen plus (the yen press anthology). I really felt it listening to the song ‘SRV’, playing guitar like that and the characters in the pages of Sumomomo Momomo didn’t necessarily have to be separate.
Manga Review
Sumomomo Momomo Vol. 2 (Shinobu Ohtaka): To me, the cover of the second volume of Sumomomo Momomo is one of the most deeply moving images I’ve ever seen. It is a picture of Momoko, the female lead, smiling. Her’s is a face of pure happiness and joy, and everything that is good in humanity and the world…basically everything that’s missing in my own life. 
The plot of this manga is as follows. Momoko and Koushi are heirs to leaders of two martial arts clans whose parents arrange their marriage. While Momoko is a very strong martial artist and eager to wed, Koushi can’t stand martial arts or martial artists, has no interest in marrying Momoko, and just wants to do good in school and become a lawyer. Koushi becomes the target of an assassination plot and Momoko must use her skill’s to not only protect him but to woo him as well.
Instead of a regular review I thought I’d share some of my favorite panels. bwahaha.
What's Momoko Doing?!
Miyamoto deciding maybe she doesn't want to kill Koushi.
The class rep! Just after Koushi tells her that she's his best friend
Album Review
Venus Isle (Eric Johnson): If you listen to rock radio you may have heard the song ‘Cliffs of Dover’ by Eric Johnson which appears on his album ‘Ah Via Musicom’ which precedes the album I’m talking about ‘Venus Isle.’ This album was released in 1996. It was one of those years in the making projects due to Johnson allegedly being quite a perfectionist in the studio. In recent interviews I’ve seen he seems to have some measure of regret about losing the sense of fun in music and piecing songs together. Notwithstanding there are some great tracks on Venus Isle. Not only is there some great guitar tone and playing but Johnson has a pretty unique rock voice. My favorite tracks are ‘SRV’ and ‘When the Sun Meets the Sky’ which I’d recommend anybody to check out.
You can find the latter track on youtube. I think this song has the single greatest “yeah” in all of music which you can hear at about 1:19.
Like I said above, I was getting into some of the songs on Venus Isle and Sumomomo Momomo at the same time, and I think they’ll be forever linked in my thoughts. I can’t hear ‘SRV’ without thinking of Momoko’s face, or try to learn ‘When the Sun Meets the Sky’ without in some way imagining who I’m really wanting to play it for.
December 13th, 2009 at 8:54 pm
mark,
sumomomo momomo sounds pretty good when you describe it – but i can’t get past the manga-weirdness going on in the pages i read at your place.
anyway the music thing – i think your points are well taken. obviously getting bogged down in the cred race or in out-obscuring the next guy in line is a quick trip to nowhere. and there’s also a pitfall you can fall into where you’re willing to overlook flaws in a band because you’re the only person you know who likes them.
but i do think that the whole idea of credentials in music is all-pervasive. in indie rock it amounts to your touchstones and namedropping, in metal/shredding it’s all about how technically adept and ridiculously filigreed you can make your solos. and for mainstream music it’s all about album sales. i think the cure for that sort of all-pervasive mentality is to just wall yourself up from it as much as possible, and experience the music you like as authentically as possible. obviously nobody can truly separate themselves from how other people view them. but i think there should be no such thing as a guilty pleasure.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
What about the Blownload/Grey Atlas split 7″?!
I have to agree with Zach on the all-pervasiveness of annoying one-upsmanship in the music world. As far as indie music goes, one of the nicer aspects about aging is that I’m sufficiently out of the hipster loop so that I can never get all of the references anyway. This means that even if I wanted to use the (ultimately false) criterion of hipness to determine what music I’m into, I’m now pretty much incapable of absorbing music on that level. So I’m free to judge indie music (or any kind of music) mostly on the merits.
But beyond that I’ve definitely gone through periods of thinking that most of the music I was listening to was subpar. There was a period in college when nothing was doing it for me, and then I got “The Hot Rock” (Sleater-Kinney), which restored my faith in unpretentious rock music. I’ve recently been into Japandroids for a similar reason. And of course there’s Blownload and Sexrat…
December 13th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
zach: I was going to do a review of a shojo manga in the future. doesn’t really have any of that manga craziness, it’s very low key. but I won’t stop trying to bring you into the fold. hehe
another aspect of metal one-upsmanship are all the different genres. obviously electronic music has the most genres but metal seems to have a lot too.
lol, I can’t think of too many bands where I was the only one I knew who liked them. there are some. I could picture andre doing that though maybe.
but you guys are right though about these sorts of issues applying to all types of music, additionally, I think a classical music snob would likely be more insufferable than an indie snob. that’s the worst
rob: is there really such a split 7″, that will be my xmas present to myself, although I’m not really sure what kind of music it is. I just imagine all of those sacramento rock bands you talk about sounding like a crappier velvet revolver. lol
agree on that benefit of aging, when he was here zach and I were talking about how screamo was the last thing to happen in popular music that we could have understood. what you say about ‘unpretentious rock music’ definitely sums up a large part of what I was trying to get at.
December 14th, 2009 at 1:24 am
lol sean newhouse.
but can there be a crappier velvet revolver?
December 14th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
mark: you just haven’t read the right shojo comics! that shit is crazier than any shonen stuff!!! read Paradise Kiss or Marmalade Boy or Kodomo no Omocha or Peach Girl or something, everything is so intense and abstract and surreal!! it typically doesn’t have the hyper-detailed vaginas and giant boobs, which i’m guessing is part of your “manga craziness” definition, haha.
i don’t think Momoko looks that happy in that cover image, she looks more devious, look at her eyebrows! i guess taking pleasure in deviousness is definitely a type of happiness, though.
i think once you get far enough into ANYTHING there becomes some kind of one-upmanship among the scenesters/fans, whether it’s music or movies or comics, etc. everything gives a person some kind of cred, like what movies (or excuse me, “films”) you’re into, or, speaking of which, there’s even all sorts of manga and anime purists if you get into the scene, who would scoff at “corporate” editions and translations, blah blah blah. it’s everywhere.
i guess i’m surprised you felt that way about music, though, mark. it’s so easy to divorce yourself from the “scene” or what other people are buying and listening to and how it affects things… i’ve been into metal for a while but i’m totally divorced from any kind of scene or community of metal-hipsters/purists, i still don’t know the differences between all the subgenres, i wouldn’t even know where to go to get involved with that if i wanted to. i guess i didn’t know you were that involved with any kind of scene. :\
maybe it’s easier for me since i 1. don’t really have many friends, and 2. the friends i have don’t listen to the stuff i listen to and vice versa, XD. i’m glad you’re getting past all this, though, you seem like you know what to do. \m/
besides in high school when everybody was all about one-upping people with music choices (“omg the latest 4AD release!”), i think the closest i’ve gotten to what you’re talking about here, mark, and tying into what zach is saying about technicality in guitar-playing, is there was this guy i talked to briefly online after i bought his self-produced metal album; after he asked what other bands i was into he scoffed and sent me a couple mix CDs of stuff to “convert” me or whatever, because i guess the bands i was into had shitty musicianship and their riffs weren’t good enough. dude was such a metal snob.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I’m not sure what zach meant by manga weirdness, but that’s what I assumed. I watched some of the peach girl anime but it didn’t grab me as I recall. I’ll definitely check out some of those titles though.
maybe ‘pure happiness’ was not the best way to describe it. I guess it’s a more complex emotion being indicated but I still think she looks really happy. it’s like unbounded happiness in addition to youthful exuberance. but I think devious is too strong a word because it implies some sort of nefarious motive.
and I don’t think I could claim to be involved with any kind of scene. more like, I had adopted a certain framework for evaluating, and sort of looking at all music through that indie prism. it’s not so much about having friends who are into stuff, but more of a personal way you evaluate things. I agree that all sorts of interests can devolve into oneupsmanship and elitism. I guess I have a special hatred for it in the case of music for two reasons 1) that I find I actually enjoy music a lot 2) it’s a way of thinking I feel I was indoctrinated into and the ultimately didn’t do right by me. it’s just like an emperor has no clothes moment.
December 14th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Hey, don’t knock 4AD! Unfortunately there’s no such split 7″, but you can check out Blownload on Myspace. Apparently they have some sort of relationship with Revolting Cocks – shame on Al Jourgensen!