We have discussed Modernism several times before primarily focusing on T. S. Eliot's iron-fisted domination of how it should look linguistically and James Joyce's growth during major acts of "stream-of-consciousness" writing. That same "automatic writing," as it was also known, emerged from the controversial poetry and prose of American Gertrude Stein. Stein is known for so many advances in society (the salons they held weekly in Paris welcomed some of the brightest minds and most creative, groundbreaking artists of their day) and culture. However, Stein was also a formidable writer and influence upon many from her Paris home with her partner of 39 years, Alice B. Toklas.
Stein's poetry was a force of nature, occupying much discussion among those who still did not understand Modernism for what it was. Stein was a huge admirer of painters like Matisse, Gauguin, and especially Pablo Picasso. She pushed Picasso to paint her self-portrait not entirely for her own selfish needs. Stein knew that Picasso would be seen as a major artist one day, and saw that an early self-portrait would verify that she was among the first to witness his talent. In addition, Stein collected multiple artists for her own love and to cultivate others (Picasso, having seen Stein's original work from Toulouse de Lautrec, was said to have stated "but all the same I do paint better than him").
Using her words, Stein was trying to "paint" like Picasso. Here at the beginning of the 20th Century, we were entering what Max Jacob dubbed "the heroic age of Cubism." So, Stein pushed forward with "Tender Buttons" which attempts to transform the everyday into works of art.
A LONG DRESS
What is the current that makes machinery, that makes it crackle, what is the current that presents a long line and a necessary waist. What is this current.
What is the wind, what is it.
Where is the serene length, it is there and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are black, only a yellow and green are blue, a pink is scarlet, a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes it.
Art? Perhaps. Or the debate over it could function as art as well. Stein eschews art's normal pursuit of beauty and poetry's need to assign just the right word, to simply write words that float in the breeze like - you guessed it - a long dress.
Stein's greatest subversion was to write her own biography in the guise of her lifelong partner Alice B. Toklas. Using prose to practice Toklas' level of "normality," made Stein a huge star following its publication in 1933. In "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" (originally published with no credit to Stein, except on the last page), Stein tells her own story.
This perspective gives Stein a different voice. Is it egomaniacal to write about one's self as a "genius?" "Toklas" gives you several choices to make your own decision in this matter. For instance, Stein has long been regarded as a "genius" by family, friends, and acquaintances. She is basically recruited to be one of the first women to attend medical school at the prestigious Johns Hopkins. Her position as a female physician could be a major breakthrough for the burgeoning women's movement. However, to hear Stein actually explain why she left medical school in her last year was because it was "boring." In the course of "Toklas," Stein is allowed to explain (with hindsight no less) that it was not that did not value the movement. It was that her standing as an individual was more important.
Another place where hindsight truly works in Stein's favor is the book itself. Written in some six weeks, Toklas thought it would never sell. However, when the Atlantic Monthly picked it up it became a success. Her contemporaries were not happy with how they were portrayed in print Hemingway was so unhappy, he chose to write his own account, "A Moveable Feast (written from his own journals and published posthumously in 1964). Now years later, "Toklas" stands as the true statement of life in Paris for The Lost Generation.
Even as you read "Toklas" which jumps backward and forwards in time, it feels like it is not necessarily real - but trying to make sense out of reality. Given a life that was largely unreal, Stein could only voice her opinions - no matter how abrasively they were received. In 1903's "Q.E.D.," Stein wrote about "a romantic affair" among her female friends. She then repeated the writing of another fictional tryst in the follow-up. However, given the timeline, it seems like the works of Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, and others presented her with a new avenue of self-expression. So, she took what she encountered in the weekly salons and made it her art.
It is only fitting that Stein was largely misunderstood until "Toklas." The seriousness (or some could say lack if you wish) of her work could distract. As well as her large, bold dominant personality. However, on the page, Stein began to answer questions about friendship, love, and even education. While her influence grows larger and she continues to look like a writer far ahead of her time, Stein's autobiography is here to answer questions. Its sole purpose is to record and recount. After contracting stomach cancer in 1946, from her death bed, she is said to have asked Toklas "What is the answer?" To which Toklas calmly replied, "There is no answer." As she passed away shortly thereafter, Stein's final words were "Then there is no question."
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New music this week
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - In Times New Roman [LP/CD](Matador/Redeye)
Eight albums later and Queens of the Stone Age are revitalized by returning to their original serpentine riffing and lone-biker-in-the-arid-desert snarling Rock. Not that the Queens have never had anything to say, ("Songs For The Deaf" is an entire album that predates the failure of radio to actually understand the needs of its listeners ahead of the lure of its market). "In Times New Roman" has a coded frustration always ready to break through the lyrics. The seductive "Carnovoyeur" toys acidly with loss and powerlessness ("There's nothing I can do/except enjoy the view") while achieving a thrilling Them Crooked Vultures-like conclusion. The Seventies-style swagger is even better displayed by the strutting "Emotion Sickness" which slings both the rawest recorded verses since "Desert Sessions" and a sleek Power Pop chorus whose slinky thrust leaves you thinking it's the Summer of '77 again.
And a word about those seven previous albums..
After returning to print last year, their 1998 self-titled debut has again ascended the list of frequent jams. Muscular low end and Josh Homme's high-end vocals create a trance-y tough Rock (the pumping "Regular John") that is unstoppable and builds masterfully (the deep cut "How to Handle a Rope (A Lesson In The Lariat)"). 2000's "Rated R" was their commercial breakthrough. No longer purveyors of Stoner Rock, QOTSA define how everyone will do it with the pulsating punky "Feel Good Hit of The Summer," the first deceptively danceable Queens song ("The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret") and the simply slamming switch from simple to complex on the driving "Monsters In Your Parasol." If side one of "Rated R" is hard to compete with, then the entire 2002 "Songs For The Deaf" is a finely-tuned muscle car ready to take you on a Rock adventure. The first four-in-a-row (using that radio lingo) are high that is hard to come down from. "Six Shooter" is savage. "Hanging Tree" is high drama with smoky vocals from the late Mark Lanegan. When you arrive at the actual "Song For The Deaf" is it a bonecrusher backlit by the sweetest high harmonies.
Now a commercial force, Queens survived a lineup changes and managed to shuttle guests in and out without a loss in quality or noticeable reaches for "star-powered singles." 2004 "Lullabies To Paralyze" might be their darkest yet. The rumbling double-tracked madness of "Someone's In The Wolf" and the woozy blues of "You Got a Killer Scene There, Man" (boasting the line "I just curse the sun so I can howl at the moon") are unpredictable delights. The blinding speed riffage of "Little Sister," T.Rex-ian swagger of "Burn The Witch" and the buzzing magic of "In My Head" still make playlists. Three years later, "Era Vulgaris" might be QOTSA pulling out all the stops to prove their range. Julian Casablanca appears to help grind out the punishing "Sick, Sick, Sick," while the spartan banger "Into the Hollow" winds into a wild middle section that becomes Beatlesque. "Vulgaris" is a turning point where Queens can sound "metallic" without trying to be furiously loud. "Misfit Love" oozes its hooks inbetween both corked anger and sweetly caustic parts. With all its clanging almost-macho riffage, the classic ballad (for Queens) "Make It Wit Chu (borrowed from "Desert Sessions") ties it all together with a new strain of romanticism.
Six years passed, and Homme welcomed Nick Oliveiri back to the fold (and Dave Grohl returned on drums) for 2013's exotic "Like Clockwork." With the most guest stars ever (Arctic Monkey Alex Turner, Trent Reznor, Brody Dalle...and Elton John), "Clockwork" richly deserves credit for staying a "band" record and not flying off the map into relentless star gazing. If anything, Homme manages to get everyone to keep it impossibly heavy while sounding feather light (what will become the hallmark of this period). "I Sat By The Ocean" sounds like a hit from 1973. While the synth-based, Bowie-esque ballad "The Vampire of Time and Memory" is a true surprise. Proving they will not lose that initial 1998 thrust, "My God Is The Sun" peaks mightily as its end predicts the swish/sway coming on "Villains." Produced by Mark Ronson, "Villains" is QOTSA putting out a danceable record that is mines Glam ("The Way You Used To Do") Shockabilly/Punk ("Head Like a Haunted House,") and Synth Funk ("Un-Reborn Again"). Weirdly, "Villains" is Queens' most Seventies-like record presenting a depth of sounds that still sound raw and crackle like radio - which let's face it is where they have long belonged.
Reissues this week
SCORPIONS - Fly To The Rainbow/In Trance/Virgin
Killer/Taken By Force [BMG Rights Mgmt]
Before they rocked us all like hurricanes and helped return whistling to the Top 5, Germany's Scorpions found their place in the growth of Seventies Hard Rock (think Led Zeppelin) into Heavy Metal. After the first lineup fizzled, founder Rudolf Schenker lost his high-flying guitar-playing brother Michael to UFO. On his way out, Michael recommended his friend Ulrich Roth, a/k/a Uli Jon Roth to take his place. However, Roth did not want to join Scorpions and chose to stay with his band Dawn Road. So, Rudolf became part of Dawn Road too, eventually making them into the new Scorpions. 1974's "Fly To The Rainbow" debuts the new sound on the rockin' "Speedy's Coming" (to be released as a single in 1976) and vocalist Klaus Meine. Roth' "Drifting Sun" points at his definitive Hendrix-ian sound, while the bluesy anthem "Fly People Fly" (left by Michael) hints at their future powerful balladry. Hooking up with producer Dieter Dierks, 1975's "In Trance" is a crisp, Metallic album with the anthemic rumble of "Dark Lady," the yowling Kiss-like "Top of the Bill," the tense "Robot Man." While they are beginning to shed the Blues ("Sun In My Hand") for hard-driving Rock ("Longing For Fire"), Scorpions are refusing to follow the formula.
The overtly commercial "Virgin Killer" is the beginning of their morphing into Rock Stars. "Pictured Life" and "Backstage Queen" could have been American AOR radio hits. While the title cut gallops like NWOBHM with some outstanding Ritchie Blackmore-like wailing and riffing from Roth and Schenker. Fortunately, Scorpions found their success in Japan, so 1978's "Taken By Force" follows the same blueprint but begins filling in a lot of blanks. "Steamrock Fever" is a jackhammer-led (yeah, that's right) Judas Priest-ian slasher), "I've Got To Be Free" is another driving rocker sculpted for American radio. However, it is the mystical Rainbow-like force of "The Sails of Charon" that truly makes "Force" work. Roth's riffing is tough and almost funky, and the whole song sounds like what Led Zeppelin could have been doing at the same time. However, "Force" is probably best known for their first successful Rock ballad "Born To Touch Your Feelings." While it was not a hit, "Feelings" is the exact structure that both Scorpions hits ("Still Loving You") and hair-metal ballads (take your pick) will follow in years to come. Roth was not pleased with this commercial direction and left to be temporarily replaced by Michael Schenker newly freed from UFO. Their next album 1979's "Lovedrive" will be the first to chart in the US, with more to follow.
