The Problem With Nostalgia

Brassland is 10: A short attention span essay on publicity, intimacy & the community behind the label's anniversary.

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:46:37 -0700

Here are some more-poised than usual thoughts on the first ten years of this record label-like thing I've been running. To cover the entire bodily spectrum in a single mixed metaphor, I'd like to think this piece is a bit less of a gut-level kneejerk response than I usually muster, a bit more of a heady, meditative deep thought.

September 12th, 2001 to September 12, 2011

Alec Hanley Bemis — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:06:43 -0700

On September 12, 2001, I wrote a thing about the day before. (Though I was living in Brooklyn at the time, that week I just happened to be in Los Angeles.) Here it is with some pictures I took when I returned to New York.

A short attention span essay about electric outfits, SXSW, odd futures & punk rock boys

Alec Hanley Bemis — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:23:24 -0700

Last week !!! played a semi-private show at New York University where they debuted this LED jacket, created by the creative and technically minded folks at Van Adams Technologies.

The Power of a Song, Pt 2

Alec Hanley Bemis — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:10:20 -0700

This one, sung by James Blake, but written by Feist.

A short attention span essay on pop history, real history & their relation to “blood & treasure”

Alec Hanley Bemis — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:15:54 -0800

So you've heard Kanye West talking shit like he's the next Michael Jackson, no? If not try this one on for size: "As far as rapping goes, how can I say this? Jordan, Michael Jackson - it's what I do."

Two Christmas standards (Sufjan, Ian Axel, Julia Nunes, the Dessner Bros.)

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:24:02 -0800

Generally speaking I find Christmas to be a bummer time of year. Quiet too quiet. Friends have headed home. Not enough ambient buzz to distract me from...

A few months ago I began advising a young pop musician from New York named Ian Axel. He's recorded a holiday song with an equally young YouTube phenom named Julia Nunes.

Take it Sleazy

Alec Hanley Bemis — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:57:49 -0800

Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson was a co-founder of Throbbing Gristle, partner of the amazing graphic design studio Hipgnosis, and a video director for artists as likely as Sepultura and Nine Inch Nails -- and as unlikely as Yes.

Q: "What, after all, does a serious artist get out of being famous other than money and distraction?" A: Trips to Dubai

Alec Hanley Bemis — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 05:57:41 -0800

Terry Teachout's love of theater, his leisurely pacing, and his old-fashioned-ish musical tastes sometimes leave me with the impression that he's a bit out-of-step with contemporary culture. But then he contributes a column that's so on it snaps into focus just how with it he is, how much he understands the pulse of contemporary life.

Thxgiving, 3 portraits, pointless anecdote

Alec Hanley Bemis — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:05:43 -0800

Five years ago was a crazy time. Lots of artists I knew on the cusp of this and that. Below is one of the boys, below that ma' boy, and farther down still is the boy -- all of them in photos from half a decade ago, long before anyone cared.

The Revolution will be Advertised: brief thought on political art

Alec Hanley Bemis — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:25:05 -0800

I won't pretend like I trust or respect political art. I think it's inherently suspect. Which is not to say that art cannot have a powerful galvanizing effect on politics, or that it cannot be great art.

Deep thoughts about the election (before & after)

Alec Hanley Bemis — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 20:25:32 -0800

I have an idealistic view of what it is to have a career. I like to imagine that people are careful about choosing a life's work. I like to think that pointless activities -- while key to recreation -- are banished from the world of work. Unfortunately there is a sharp rebuke to this idea. In a word: Politics.

Video art post-Gaga: Short attention span snippets on Kanye, Bjork, Bob Dylan, NIN & ICP

Alec Hanley Bemis — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 09:56:24 -0700

It used to be easy to understand the difference between Pop Music and Art Music. Pop Music was awesome (but kind of slight) and Art Music was awesome (but kind of tedious).

Some quick thoughts on the death of the record as object

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:24:51 -0700

I can attest to the fact that it's rough out there for recorded music. As some of you may know, I founded and run a record label. As of about six months ago I was running another one as well. And about two months before that I was still lending a hand on a third label.

Girl Talk vs. the internet filtered through the brain of one Evan Roth: A brief thought on internet culture

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 07:03:58 -0700

When people say that the internet doesn't have any culture, I respectfully disagree. i.e...

I published my first review in Bookforum. It's about Kristin Hersh's Rat Girl.

Alec Hanley Bemis — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:53:59 -0700

Apparently it's the 90s nostalgia week here on Teenage Kicks. This month I published my first writing on paper in quite awhile, this brief(ish) review of 80s/90s rock figure Kristin Hersh for Bookforum's autumn edition.

ATP Festival & Large People Crowdsufing: Some thoughts on 90s nostalgia

Alec Hanley Bemis — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:35:18 -0700

I remember the underground pop culture of the 90s. Indeed, I prefer to think of that time as an archive now -- albeit one consigned to a series of digital files, not actual libraries. This recent Twitter stream from my friend Brandon serves as a good encapsulation.

Some Weekend "Relief" by R. Kelly, Sam Amidon & Cee Lo Green

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:50:43 -0700

Question: What do you do when you love a cover so much that you search out the original -- BUT YOU CANNOT FIND IT? That, my friends, is why YouTube was invented.

Public utterings from two of my favorite "recluses": Crass & Mary Margaret O’Hara

Alec Hanley Bemis — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:42:19 -0700

In the overmediated age we find ourselves in, I have a kind of kneejerk negative reaction to the entire notion of the recluse.

Isn't this insane?: Cutty Ranks freestyle (?!?)

Alec Hanley Bemis — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:26:15 -0700

The short answer to that question is: "Yes, yes it is."

Tigers & spiders & dreams, oh my! Some words about The National's "High Violet"

Alec Hanley Bemis — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:55:42 -0700

As a brief preamble to this piece of writing about The National's new album "High Violet," I should offer this full disclosure: I've worked in close association with the band since 2001 when I put out their first album on my label Brassland.

Two young bands worth hearing: Givers & Mountain Man

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:51:51 -0700

Two quick recommendations of younger artists I've been enjoying of late. What they lack in polish or a full-on musical philosophy they more than make up for in terms of freshness.

Scott Williams starring in “Nirvana on ice”: a worthy internet meme & some thoughts on web commentary

Alec Hanley Bemis — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 06:32:24 -0700

I've been sitting on this internet meme for awhile. I've done the research. It's not an internet parody, a YouTube vid equivalent of Blades of Glory. Nope, rather this is figure skater Scott Williams' championship effort to revolutionize skating.

Jimmy Fallon's music booker Jonathan Cohen rules

Alec Hanley Bemis — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:46:34 -0700

Today, just a pointer & a "hell yes" to this Austin American Statesman article which gives props to Jimmy Fallon's music booker Jonathan Cohen.

Quick thoughts on the iPad (from other people)

Alec Hanley Bemis — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 10:42:12 -0700

From butts to technology, never let it be said my interests are narrow. So, let's talk about the iPad for a second.

"I have felt the pulse of modern art and know that it will die!"…just like neck beards.

Alec Hanley Bemis — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:29:58 -0700

"I have felt the pulse of modern art and know that it will die! This knowledge, however, fills me not with despondency but with joy, for I know at the same time that it is not art in general which will perish but only our own particular type of art—which stands remote from modern life—, whereas true—imperishable—constantly renewed art is still to be born...

Die Antwoord transcend & transgress (NSFW): A (particularly) short attention span essay on one strand of South African culture

Alec Hanley Bemis — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:14:58 -0800

Read this interview with Die Antwoord. Or this one. Or, better yet, catch up with them by reading this informative, catch-all post.

Some thoughts on Black Mountain College & the nature of communities

Alec Hanley Bemis — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:39:21 -0800

If you know nothing about Black Mountain College, where the photo below was taken, start here. Its teaching ranks were populated not by academics but practitioners. Among those who taught there during its brief, 24-year lifespan were Josef and Anni Albers, Alfred Kazin, John Cage, Harry Callahan, Robert Creeley, Merce Cunningham, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Walter Gropius, Franz Kline, Charles Olson, Aaron Siskind, and Robert Motherwell. (I'll let you Google the unfamiliar names.)

The world-wide visual culture industry

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:35:42 -0800

"The art world, which used to be a community, is now part of the world wide visual culture industry, which includes film, fashion, television, and advertising, and works overtime to trample down the boundaries that used to keep them separate."

Nanoculture aka “Douglas Coupland has no Facebook or MySpace page.” (But he does have a Twitter.)

Alec Hanley Bemis — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:25:10 -0800

Excerpt from one of Deborah Solomon's infamously condensed interviews in The New York Times Magazine. (I like them.) With Douglas Coupland, famous Canadian, infamous coiner of the term Gen X.

Ultimate effacement

Alec Hanley Bemis — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:03:30 -0800

"The only recent photograph of him (taken many years ago) is of him wearing a furious face as he fends off an intruding cameraman."

Indeed. His name is J.D. Salinger, and now he's dead.