(500 Posts On) The Aesthetics Of Being Half-Assed

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500. laziness & willful incompetence in the arts: what are its peaks and valleys? what can full-assed music do that the 1/2-assed can't? and vice versa?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 7 November 2003 05:50 (twenty-one years ago)

it's kinda like, you know.. meh

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Friday, 7 November 2003 05:51 (twenty-one years ago)

498. is there a musical genre other than rock where sloppiness is valued?

497. is half-assedness a defining characteristic of indie? if not, name me a full-assed indie band... and cite eg's of full-assedness.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 7 November 2003 05:54 (twenty-one years ago)

497. we're going by posts here, not numbers, right?

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Friday, 7 November 2003 05:57 (twenty-one years ago)

495. is embracing the accidental and the incidental actually right as rain? isn't perfection inhuman? where does that impulse degenerate into half-assed territory?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 7 November 2003 05:59 (twenty-one years ago)

494. (the numbering is already half-assed, let's drop it)

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 7 November 2003 06:00 (twenty-one years ago)

name me a full-assed indie band

~~The Strokes~~ Flaming Lips?

― nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 7 November 2003 06:01 (twenty-one years ago)

If your music is half-assed then it is possible you can sell twice as many tickets for the same venue than if it is "full-assed", and I think this idea will catch on in the more "populated" areas. Although I hear James Brown prefers a more "large cake" approach and you can't argue with that (I, for one, could not, because I have some difficulty understanding his remarks), but if he would ease up on his end-requirements, he may find that he would not have to work so much harder than everybody else and find more time for himself.

― jazz odysseus, Friday, 7 November 2003 06:03 (twenty-one years ago)

i like half-assed, it's like i can identify with that, it seems like natural, less brainy.

― nathalie (nathalie), Friday, 7 November 2003 08:58 (twenty-one years ago)

My goal is to get by in life giving no more than 1/4 ass.

― Shaun (shaun), Friday, 7 November 2003 09:10 (twenty-one years ago)

name me a full-assed indie band
Umm, Matmos? Or hell, name any "post-rock" band.

The thing about 1/2-assedness lies more in its honesty and maybe even more in its accessability. Think about any time you sing along to (or air-guitar/drums/bass/whatever). It's this feeling of "this is honest, good, and I could do it". It's a positive enabling feeling, even when the music may not be positive at all. Look at the fookin' Sex Pistols. I mean Elvis Costello (supossedly) decided to try a career in music because of a Pistols show he went to. He really enjoyed it and thought if they can do that I can do it or better (it's Costello, so we have to assume he's an ego-maniac, although I love the SOB).

I could go on and on, and maybe I will later, as to the cycle between pop-crap and indie/alt/punk/garage/rock+roll/whatever, that has occured a few times since music became a mass-medium. But to summarize its (historically) the accessability and the honesty of the big forward-slash separated list that brings it into the budget frame where it can be "full-assed" and when it becomes such it (maybe) looses some of its accessability.

― Mike Salmo (salmo), Friday, 7 November 2003 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

So, yeah, it's not aesthetics, but semantics ;-).

― Mike Salmo (salmo), Friday, 7 November 2003 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

435...oh did we stop this, i wasn't really paying attention. Anyway, I don't know what's been said upthread, but I just wanted to put my two cents in. Ah, maybe I don't. Fuck it. Maybe later. Peace out.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 7 November 2003 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

434. Assthetics

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 7 November 2003 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

name me a full-assed indie band

Shellac

― Sam J. (samjeff), Friday, 7 November 2003 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

BINGO! Steve uses his whole ass, both cheeks. In fact Albini uses so much of his ass (and at least a little of several other people's) we should not even call his band "indie"

― Brandon Welch (Brandon Welch), Saturday, 8 November 2003 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

What I find ha ha funny is the bands that influenced current indie-rock, who were trying to record and release records with the little money they had (recording a whole lp for $800, one take per song, deal with the clams and the noise)ended up inspiring a genre of musicians who TRY to sound sloppy and lo-fi as an aesthetic.
I don't like post recording computer programs that try to replace talent, but why TRY to sound like the Mummies if you don't have to???
There is even a sug-genre of music that is totally recorded on micro-casette recorders and then pressed on records, just so you have maximium hisssssssssss. WTF?
Is it to much to ask bands, reguardless of how sloppy they like to play, to correctly position their microphones in a freakin' studio? Otherwise you might as well hook up a boombox in your basement and play around it.

― Brandon Welch (Brandon Welch), Saturday, 8 November 2003 15:05 (twenty-one years ago)

by 1/2 assed do you mean safe and polite unrisky singalongy hearditallbeforeness?

because i HATE that shit. on principle. fucking smug melodic arse-grape tunes designed to challenge/offend no-one, pack out stadiums and wallpaper dinner parties.

― P.Penn, Saturday, 8 November 2003 15:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Jazz?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 8 November 2003 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

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