Monday, August 25, 2008

On this spot nothing will ever happen-and nothing ever has Part 2

A post-script to the last post. I read these in Paul Ginsburgs outstanding "A History of Contemporary Italy."

The first is in relation to an absent post office in the Milanese neighbourhood of Quarto Oggiaro. The area had grown massively during the period of mass migration from the South from 7,200 in 1959 to 80,000 in 1972. The area was in need of a post office amongst other public services.
In 1964, the local section of the Christian Democrats (DC) promise to investigate the problem.
In 1967, The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications claimed that the plans for a post office were at "an advanced stage" and that building would take place shortly. In 1968, the provincial director of posts claimed that the neccessary paperwork had been completed. In 1970, the regional director of posts announced that various buildings were under consideration to house the new post office; at the same time DC deputies talked of the new post office as "a concrete reality". By late 1973, there still was no post office in Quarto Oggiaro.

The second is in relation to the massive amounts of money spent on regional development in the South. The Cassa di Mezzogiorno was established in 1950 to distribute the vast funds earmarked for investment in Southern industry and infrastructure. Throughout the South, massive "Cathedrals in the Desert" were constructed. Massive heavy industrial projects built far from major cities like metalworks or petrochemical plants that would often close after a short period, especially during the 1970's when the bottom fell out of the steel market. Infrastructure projects would be built on a similar basis: One example was after an earthquake in Sicily in 1968. The government promised immediate aid and vast sums of money was assigned for reconstruction. Nine years later, not one house had been assigned to a local family. However, massive and unused infrastructure was built: roads that led nowhere, massive bridges only used by shepherds and livestock, footpaths that had no pedestrians etc.

These examples evoke the same images of empty structures and stagnation as the buildings I saw in Greece. The main difference would be that I'm not sure whether the "Cathedrals in the Desert" are still standing (and been re-appropriated by people in the same way.) Maybe thats a task for when I get to Italy!

Monday, August 18, 2008

A Minor Band




Music, like so many aspects of life under capitals thumb, is the site of injustice and contestation.
Bands, genres and approaches that seek to subvert or at least renovate musics lucrative role in the spectacle are maligned and ignore while music that is boring/lazy/alienating/shit is showered with gifts and favour from well wishers. One of the victims of this situation is the brilliant US Maple.

US Maple are the band that are nothing-but should be everything. They were formed in early 1995 by veterans of several Chicago area punk bands. US Maple were, for most of their life, were: Pat Samson, Todd Rittman, Mark Shippy and Al Johnson.

The most widely quoted statement of intent is that they collectively sought to banish rock and roll from their minds. The best evidence of this project are their two masterpieces: Talker and Acre Thrills.

They both proceed in polydirectional courses: everywhere but nowhere all at once. Loose and haggard, pulling every which way to the point of apparent incoherence. But these records still deal in songs and structures, however loose and unconventional.

Its tones are muted and compressed. Todd Rittmans "low" guitar defines large stretches of their minor rock and roll, working circles of strangled flourish in and around the fits and starts of Pat Samsons drumming.

Unlike the usual indie rock tension and release template, Talker builds and subsides/collapses without climax. This void could be said to be the defining feature of Talker and Acre Thrills: songs without release, loose structures without dissonance, punk rock without rocking out.

Their arcs of stop and start and lax structures, however, cant hide the viruosity at play here, more of a punk Captain Beefheart than a debt to any idiot-(s)avant tradition. Al Johnsons vocals are a lurching wheeze sung through clenched teeth that take the form of riddles and poems of unknowable intent.

The paradox of this band, the thing that makes them so enticing and interesting is all these contradictions at play. The fact that they can sound like a glorious mess but have at their heart a sense of control and absence that cant be grasped instantly. They can sound sprawled yet compressed, free yet constrained, contorted yet natural.

P.S-There is a documentary film in the works about US Maple as well.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

On this spot nothing will ever happen-and nothing ever has

Greece is littered with Ruins, both Ancient and Modern. The Ancient Ruins were the homes and temples of people from an imagined glorious past. They were born, they lived and they died in these spaces, assigning them an ongoing significance. The Modern Ruins are the exact opposite. They are buildings that have been half-built but never completed either because the money for construction has run out or bureaucratic delay has led to their abandonment. No one has ever lived or worked there and its unlikely that anyone ever will. They are anti-monuments, signifiers of what has not happened rather than what has.