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Why I cover Motörhead and AC/DC
Jun. 18th, 2008 12:05 pmOne of Vostok Lake's missions is to destroy the "synths = rose-water easy-listening Lifetime-channel music" ideology that has grown up in the post-Enya era. (Enya's first couple of albums are pretty cool, but she really should has stopped there.) I like analog or distorted synth sounds because they are harsh and nasty, because they are "difficult listening", and because they sound like electricity, like something that's not human or animal but from another world or even from another cosmos. Yes, I grew up reading and watching sci-fi.
Electric guitars are also harsh and nasty and can sound pretty intense and otherworldly, but what I don't like about them is the macho/phallic rock'n'roll mythology which has become attached to them. Okay, let me rephrase that - I think that kind of music is fun and exciting when done right, and usually inherently hilarious ("This is Spinal Tap" is the greatest movie ever, and any 80's rock band would tell you it really was a virtual documentary in places). But to take hard rock mythology at face value would mean buying into myths about gender/sex in general and masculinity in particular which I don't find particularly liberating.
This is why I love doing synth-based covers of heavy metal anthems. I love the sheer animal drive of the music, but a queer woman doing them on synths rather than a manly man on guitar takes that and "alienates" it, in the Brechtian manner. I don't think any other form of music is as heavily "gendered" as hard rock (with the possible exception of gangsta rap, but I'm not going to pursue a subject which I'm ignorant of). So when you take the masculinity and the supremely masculine instruments, the electric gee-tar and the drum kit, out of hard rock, what is left? I'm not doing it because I hate the music (I have a shamefaced love for it), but because I want to strip the music of its mythology. It's funny, but I also hope it's fun to listen to - it's certainly fun to play.
(Depeche Mode got really pissed off that they were considered a "poofy" band, but then Martin Gore should have thought of that before he started wearing dresses and bondage gear on stage. The reaction to this led to "Songs of Faith and Devotion", which not only musically disappoints by reintroducing RAWK cliche to the Mode's sound in a disturbingly straight-faced manner, but just about led to Dave Gahan killing himself with smack to prove he was a real ROCK'N'ROLLER. Contrast this to Judas Priest, whose lead singer really IS gay as a tree full of parrots, and no-one got the point when he wore bondage gear on stage because "macho" was naively read as "heterosexual".)
Electric guitars are also harsh and nasty and can sound pretty intense and otherworldly, but what I don't like about them is the macho/phallic rock'n'roll mythology which has become attached to them. Okay, let me rephrase that - I think that kind of music is fun and exciting when done right, and usually inherently hilarious ("This is Spinal Tap" is the greatest movie ever, and any 80's rock band would tell you it really was a virtual documentary in places). But to take hard rock mythology at face value would mean buying into myths about gender/sex in general and masculinity in particular which I don't find particularly liberating.
This is why I love doing synth-based covers of heavy metal anthems. I love the sheer animal drive of the music, but a queer woman doing them on synths rather than a manly man on guitar takes that and "alienates" it, in the Brechtian manner. I don't think any other form of music is as heavily "gendered" as hard rock (with the possible exception of gangsta rap, but I'm not going to pursue a subject which I'm ignorant of). So when you take the masculinity and the supremely masculine instruments, the electric gee-tar and the drum kit, out of hard rock, what is left? I'm not doing it because I hate the music (I have a shamefaced love for it), but because I want to strip the music of its mythology. It's funny, but I also hope it's fun to listen to - it's certainly fun to play.
(Depeche Mode got really pissed off that they were considered a "poofy" band, but then Martin Gore should have thought of that before he started wearing dresses and bondage gear on stage. The reaction to this led to "Songs of Faith and Devotion", which not only musically disappoints by reintroducing RAWK cliche to the Mode's sound in a disturbingly straight-faced manner, but just about led to Dave Gahan killing himself with smack to prove he was a real ROCK'N'ROLLER. Contrast this to Judas Priest, whose lead singer really IS gay as a tree full of parrots, and no-one got the point when he wore bondage gear on stage because "macho" was naively read as "heterosexual".)