Music and Sports

In the texts accompanying the music in the Top 100 2009 I elaborated on the awkward relationship between art and music. A complicated relationship where only the avant-garde, the most advanced cultural thinkers and doers manage to pull off a meaningful co-existence between the two. In music the topic of art is usually avoided. The only characterization that comes to mind discussing the more popular or less advanced musicians (culturally speaking, their music being just as meaningful and exciting —or even more so— than that of the avant-garde) who do tackle the subject of art is anxiety.

Currently a brand new topic concerning the cultural position of music has come to my attention. Upon seeing a video clip of the New Zealand rugby team in their game preparation, I decided it was due time to investigate the relationship between sports and music. Another motive for tackling the subject now –not rugby but soccer– is the upcoming spectacle called the World Cup, in which the team I support, the Dutch, have an outside chance to win it. It’s more than a month away but it’s starting to itch.
Sports and Music: Several situations where they cross paths come to mind immediately:
1. Music as a competitive activity: In many parts of the world there exist competitions between rivaling bands. There are also competitions in modern popular music (i.e. American Idol).
2. Music surrounding sports games: Music by fans to spur on their sports team, but also national anthems and sports that are choreographed to music.
3. The musical identity of certain sports: Some sports have a very distinct musical counterpart, think of surf-music.
4. Musicians that also play competitive sports or vice-versa.

The relationship between sports and music is much less complicated than music’s relationship with art. It is in fact very simple, basic, even base. Through various examples I will attempt to provide a sketch of the world of sports and music. The first example being that of the New Zealand rugby team whose ‘haka’ pre-game war chants cover all of the four above aspects of sports and music.

In preparation for their games the New Zealand national rugby team performs a ‘haka’, a traditional Maori war dance, before kick off. All members of the team chant and perform a synchronized dance all in order to intimidate the opponent. Copy the address below and paste to your browser to watch the ‘All Blacks’ do their thing right before kick-off against Tonga.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eGCsEQ15L4
Interesting part about this particular match up is that the opposing team, Tonga, perform a ‘haka’ themselves and compete with New Zealand to gain the first psychological advantage. This is sports in their most rudimentary form (I assume these ‘haka’ traditions are age old). From rugby to soccer: New Zealand has qualified for the World Cup, they will be playing Italy among others in their group. Don’t expect the 'All Whites' to perform a ‘haka’ on the biggest stage in the world but wouldn’t it be nice if they did (and beat favorites Italy in the process)?

In a conversation I had with Jason Misic, bass player for Mother of Fire (see entry 2) we discussed the competitive character of a ranking system such as I use for the Top 100. The nature of music, according to Jason, is non-competitive while I use statistics and charts as if music were sports. Certainly, the nature of his music is non-competitive, it is peace, it is sustainable culture, but there are also many competitive modes of music making. Commercial music is about outselling the other, the aforementioned ‘haka’ —a war dance— is about power, and marching bands have a strong militaristic character.

The Saddest Music in the World is a film (2003) by the Canadian film maker Guy Maddin. The film, a fictitious story set in Winnipeg in 1933, documents a competition between all countries of the world to determine who plays the saddest music. There are several elimination rounds and the final at the end plays between the US and Serbia with the latter winning the title. If I were to rank movies, this one would, if not number one, be surely in the top ten.

Mashindano! Competitive Music Performance in East Africa is a book by Gregory Barz and Frank Gunderson. From MSU press: “Local dance contests, choir competitions, popular entertainment, song duels, and sporting events are all described.” I never read the book but I do own a copy of Gregory Barz’ Music in East Africa: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Barz dedicates a chapter of this book to competitive music performances. The image below is a painting for the Top 100 2006 based a photograph by Barz depicting members of the Bana Sesilia group performing Bugóbogóbo during competition in Tanzania.


Bana Sesilia Group
14" x 37"
charcoal, ink, oil on canvas, 2007

For now I will close the discussion on music and sports with a top 10 made up from music listed in my Top 100 archive.
1. Rugby: New Zealand – Tonga, haka
2. Bana Sesilia group – Bugóbogóbo (excerpt)
3. Vojnin Lubic (Serbia) - Siroko Lisce Borovo (from The Saddest Music in the World)
4. Suite Aymara (Colombia, from Frozen Brass: Africa and Latin America), Rivaling marching bands from two different villages march towards each other and meet halfway in a cacophony of sounds
5. Italian national anthem; it’s my favorite anthem even though I hope Italy will not win the World Cup (again)
6. Rice University Marching Owl Band – Louie Louie (accompanying that other kind of football, from the album The Best of Louie Louie on Rhino Records featuring all covers of that song)
7. European countries compete every year with songs, really hokey but I must have liked Italy’s contestant in 1984 because it scored 7 points. One of my first live music TV memories is that of ABBA winning the 'Eurovision' song festival in 1974, jump starting their impressive career.
8. Wolverhampton Wanderers fans – We are Wolves
9. Henk van Mokum – Een Amsterdamse Jongen (a song about my soccer hero Johan Cruijff)
10. Harmonites Steel Band – Play Mas (during carnival time steel bands compete for an audience)

Varg and Vark

Varg Vikernes (Burzum)
8" x 5.25"
oil on wood, 2010

A little premature, maybe a bit compulsive, certainly against my own criteria, the 2010 painting of Burzum is a fact. Burzum is not (yet) part of this Top 100 yet the image is. The painting, a little ditty illustrating my Varg story (see post 7), yet an illustration of mythological proportions. There are three sets of twos; the two ears of the vark, repeated as two vark-ear like forms behind Varg's head, and the two white dots in the lower part. Maria (my wife) likes for everything to be in pairs; she'd plant two trees, buys two coffee mugs, and places two identical lamps on either side of our bed. For me however three is the magical number, being raised on father, son, and holy ghost, things ring magical when they appear as part of a triptych. In writing things rhyme for me in threes. You may or may not have noticed this lean towards the three in writings in earlier posts but it's there. My poetry also revolves around the threefold nature of things (I should explain here that I write on average one poem per decade starting when I was fifteen. I've written three poems in my life thus far and I'm proud of each of them. This year I'm due for number four, I'll keep you posted while the poem slowly starts to take shape in my head). This painting of Varg Vikernes contains both the pairs as well as the triplets, resulting in a version of the six-pointed star in which two reverse triangles are superimposed. Much less spiritually guided is the painting I did of Sekouba Traore. Below, finally, the final version of it. Voila.

Sekouba Traore (3)

Sekouba Traore
9" x 5.5"
oil on wood, 2010

Finally the Traore painting is coming to a close. I skipped photographing a few stages as I was going back and forth in some areas of the painting. Eight hours of painting divided over three days. I will probably pick it up once more to add some slight color and value changes, plus the hand I've been struggling with now needs to grow about one eight of an inch after it has been in various positions, places and in various sizes. Enough said now about this painting, time to move on.

Even after more than 2,000 top 10s in over 27 years there are still on average two bands or musicians that had never been listed before. In my last blog I commented on my own surprise that the Yardbirds were never before in a top 10. First time entries are usually pretty obscure or brand new to me but it still happens quite often that very well known musicians gather their first points. That Marie Osmond now, after my latest top 10, has entered the archive for the first time, is not nearly as surprising as the Yardbirds last time around. I usually stay clear of the biggest names in popular music. Michael Jackson for example never had any of his songs listed ever. The Marie Osmond song that tops the latest top 10 is quite remarkable and certainly worth to sketch the background for it. In 1984, at the height of her popularity, she was the co-host for a show called Ripley's Believe it or Not. In one of the broadcasts she did an item on Dada, and more specifically the sound poetry of Hugo Ball. In it Marie Osmond recited one of Ball's poems called Karawane. Ball had originally performed the piece in the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916. Marie Osmond does an amazing job performing it. For a moment she seems to have lost herself in -what must have been for her- the otherworldly existence of Ball's nonsensical poetry. A recording of it is included on the audio CD companion to Greil Marcus' book Lipstick Traces. Follow the following link to hear and see Osmond's performance at the Ripley's broadcast.

Sekouba Traore (2)

Sekouba Traore
9" x 5.5"
oil on wood, 2010

Once you start messing with a painting the end of it is a long ways away. That's just what I did; depicted above are snapshots of the Sekouba Traore painting after the third and fourth hour (see previous post) into the process. I moved the right (left in the picture) hand down as I wasn't pleased with the overall feel of the pose. This decision was made against the information from the photograph. Since this change I went on to substitute the unidentified straw-like object for a drum and I moved his left hand into a position above this drum. Trivial anecdotes can change the whole of a painting. The only thing I'm after really, is to capture Mr. Traore's likeness and spirit. I hope the final result will be worth the wait. To be continued in the next entry...
In the meantime I added psychological ballast to the process by promoting Traore's song Walinyumadon to the #1 spot for the time being. For the top 100 year of 2010 I have now made 10 top 10s. Throughout the year I will post every tenth top 10. This list of ten songs is a reflection of music I've listened to over the past five days.

1. Roberto Carlos Lange - Amazonian Pacific (from the LP Music for Memory I bought after a concert in Cincinnati)
2. Sekouba Traore - Walinyumadon
3. Vampyre Corpse - Dogs of War (the very last song from a CD tucked in the Metal magazine Zero Tolerance #33)
4. Julianna Barwick - Anjos (from Florine, as with Lange's LP I also bought this after her concert at the Country Club in Cincinnati)
5. Fort Shame - Avalache (because of work I unfortunately missed Record Day 2010, one of the most important days of the year. Fortunately my friend Sue Harshe, who sings it and wrote it too, saved me a copy of their Record Day freebie EP)
6. Burzum - Belus' Død (see blog entry 7)
7. No Gods No Bastards - No Gods No Bastards (after Country Club's Philip Valois already gave me a demo CD of his band, he forwarded me this link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX6abUkdp0M
8. The Yardbirds - Train Kept a Rolling (I couldn't believe my own archive when I saw that these were the first three points ever for the Yardbirds in the 28 years of making top 10s. The recording features both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, legends from our beloved history of Rock and Roll. I heard it on WCBE, the local NPR station.)
   
9. Mary Gauthier - Another Borrowed Day (same station, another day, heard it on The Global Village)
10. Helado Negro - Dahum (saw it on YouTube: one of Roberto Carlos Lange's bands)
    

Sekouba Traore

Sekouba Traore
9” x 5.5”
oil on wood, 2010

To document the process of making a Top 100 painting I took a snapshot of the painting after about an hour’s worth of work, and then again after another hour (see above). Usually I can’t finish a painting until the second or even the third day but with this one I’m hoping to get it finished after one more one hour session. I won’t do it until after it dries though, probably later tonight. I will keep making one hour snapshots until it’s done, even if it will take me ten hours (as it sometimes does). I use oil paints cut with liquin, a fast drying medium. Typically I start with yellow because that color is hard to get back into a painting late in the process. After the yellow I pick up white, then red, then white again, then blue, then brown, and finally black. I don’t follow this process as a rigid schedule: In the early stages of the painting I don’t put much new paint on a palette, I just use what’s there from the last one and just add the yellow and white to it –those colors need to be clean at the start, they will get muddy soon enough. The first focus of the painting is to get the dynamics of the pose right –as with yellow this aspect is hard to get into a painting later on– then the proportions and the likeness. The concern for clothing, background, and props comes later. Please feel free to compare the stages of the painting with the original image found on http://awesometapesfromafrica.blogspot.com/
And while you’re there you may as well listen to the music right away. It’s the blog entry of March 21, 2010. The artist’s name is Sekouba Traore and the song that will be featured in the Top 100 2010 is Walinyumadon, the second track of side A from the cassette with the same name. Credit due to whom it belongs: Brian Shimkovitz is the proprietor of Awesome Tapes From Africa. He has been collecting these tapes for a while. If you are like me and still work with audio tapes; click on Shimkovitz' image of the cover for the tape, set your print preferences to 64%, print, cut, and fold and it will fit nicely into your audio tape cassette box.

Blasphemy

Drauglin of Tsjuder
11" x 8.5"
acrylic on paper, 2009

Blasphemy by the Norwegian band Tsjuder is the next song to enter into the Top 100 2010. It will be its third consecutive year. I have not made a new painting yet but plan on using the same image as for the one above I did last year. I also used the same photographic source for my 2008 painting. The following text is a shortened version of a lengthy statement I wrote in 2008 explaining my sudden jump in the murky waters of Norwegian Black Metal. The text will be used to accompany Tsjuder in the forthcoming book The Top 100 2009 available through Country Club Projects in Cincinnati in a month or so. I'll keep you posted.

Burning churches, murder, Satanism, Nazi ideology, Viking mythology, testosterone unbound, very loud music, names like Trelldom, Taake, Tsjuder, and Nattefrost: I became intrigued with the story of Norwegian Black Metal. As a teenager I would have eaten-up this story, and realize—minus the Nazi ideology, the testosterone, the church burnings, the murder, and Satanism—that I’m still that same person. I haven’t listened to metal much since I was 16 or so, but last year I suddenly got into Norwegian Black Metal. It may have been teen angst back then that originally got me into heavy metal, now, I guess, it is my midlife crisis.

Varg and me

Every once in a while some peculiarity appears in the Top 100, some odd new feature that then is kept in the project for years to follow. A new tradition seems to take root that started two years ago when I painted several chickens in the background of certain musicians. 2008 became the year of the chicken. A rather intuitive choice but I’m a firm believer in intuition as the means to learning archaic truths and mythology. 2009 I designated the year of the wolf as there were bands in it like Wolf Eyes and Aids Wolf. What I didn’t mention in my explanatory text for the wolves that year was that Burzum’s Varg Vikernes first name means wolf in Norwegian. This year I already designated as the year of the pig as I took a big intuitive leap in linguistics and associated the Norwegian word ‘varg’ with the Dutch for pig ‘varken’, or the Afrikaans ‘vark’ as in aardvark ‘earth-pig’. It is interesting to me that two such opposing animals have names so similar. When associating words, opposites often come across, think of black and blank, or word and sword, womb and tomb. But more often than at opposites, intuitive word associations hint at a more esotheric equivalent, such as haven and heaven. This holds especially true for the English language. The 19th Century Russian occultist Helena P. Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophy movement, was instructed by her Indian guru to learn English, as this language was to become the universal language of the future. My move to America was of very little significance but yet the same. Back to Varg Vikernes: I didn’t mention the wolf in my paragraph on Burzum but what I did mention was his release from jail. “I have not heard of new projects, but I doubt if they have the well being of humankind on their agenda”. Well now, just a few months later, I did. A new CD is released called Belus. A friend supplied me with a copy of it, I listened to it and read Vikernes’ statements concerning the album and the lyrics. To my surprise his intentions with the album are non political. I could not even find the slightest trace of his infamous racism. What he wants is basically the same thing as what I want, and many others too; to come in touch with the mystery of human existence, one’s culture, and one’s spirit. In my label for Burzum in 2008 I confessed that, if circumstances had been different, I could have been a Varg Vikernes myself. Varg’s adopted middle name is Quisling, after the Norwegian politician who collaborated with the Nazis in Norway’s darkest days, and with whom I share the same birthday –July 18. As I adopt this year’s animal again as my alter ego, like a carnival’s mask that you work on all year, just to put it on for one day to become that what is signified, I am becoming a little mini-vark (that would be a 'big' in Dutch).

2 Clarinetes y una Tambora

Clarinets and drum from Linares (anon.)
9" x 10"
oil on wood, 2010

The list for the Top 100 is established through a ranking system based on top 10s of music that crosses my path. With every top 10 points are awarded to the songs: 10 for #1, 9 for #2, and so on. At the end of a year (which runs from –the date I started in 1983– February 23 through February 22 the next year) all the points are added up and the one with the most points will be #1 in the Top 100. When a song gathered more than ten points it is pretty much guaranteed a spot in the list of a hundred. The tune El Gallito Giro by Clarinetes de Linares is the third this year to gather more than ten points and is thus for sure part of the Top 100. Unlike the first two (see entries below) the identities of the musicians from Linares are unfamiliar, another time, another place, another language. The 'Clarinetes de Linares' have no presence on the world wide web. What I did learn on the web is that the combo of two clarinets and a drum is a most common one in the Mexican province of Nuevo Leon, and more specifically the region of Linares. For you who read Spanish I will quote the part of the liner notes that deal with the group in question. I can kind of grab the content but shouldn't paraphrase: "Entre los conjuntos más distinguidos están: ‘Los Clarinetes de Linares’ y ‘Los Tamborileros de Linares’ Adrian, Don José y Don Pedrito Hinojosa cariñosamente nombrados ‘Los Conejitos’." Let me know if there's anything in there I should know about. Oh yeah, the text was written by Jaime Guerrero Hernández, Por la Danza is the name of the LP.

Dance Party Top 10

The CD is the European/Asian revenge to the American LP format. The Dutch/Japanese invention was first produced in Germany and can hold up to about 80 minutes of music, twice as much as the LP. This duration, I was told, was established by the length of a certain Beethoven symphony. I forget which one but for sure considered by some as one of the most important pieces of music ever made (naturally from Europe like all important musical works.) The size of the CD –12 cm, as opposed to the 12 inch LP format– is a further sign of the Europe vs. America competition. Americacentric music history starts with Jazz and Blues while Eurocentric history starts with Bach and Beethoven. Even though I'm European I'm an Americacentric music enthusiast. I never gave up on the LP format and I still, and always did, buy more LPs than CDs. The Top 100 2009 closing dance party was to be a celebration of the vinyl record. A celebration it was. I've been wanting to be a DJ for a while now and this was my chance to try it out. (I've also been wanting to become a truck driver for a while now but that project is on hold indefinitely.) DJing is a blast and the following top 10 is from music I played that evening. It reflects both the music I enjoyed playing and the audience's response to it. Here it is:

1. Nina Simone - Ain't Got No – I Got Life
2. Jimmy Smith - Hobo Flats
3. Moussa Doumbia - Keleya
4. Clarinetes de Linares - El Gallito Giro
5. Carlos Malcolm - Bonanza Ska
6. Sir Douglas Quintet - She's about a Mover
7. Les Shleu Shleu - Cé la ou yé
8. John Coltrane - Dakar
9. Fonseca et ses Anges Noirs - El Monte
10. Henry Stephen - Limon Limonero
    

Time + Temperature

Time + Temperature
7.5" x 8.5"
oil on wood, 2010

After The Beast And I by Mother of Fire, Time + Temperature's Havana is the second song to clinch a spot in the Top 100 2010. Valerie, who is Time + Temperature, gave me the brand new – and her first – single Havana, after her performance at the opening of the Top 100 2009 at Skylab in Columbus. Listen to the track on http//www.myspace.com/grayfavorite and be amazed. I just went there myself, not to listen to the song (I have it already on vinyl, right), but to check the correct address. I noticed a very busy performance schedule; things are going just fine. Time + Temperature and Mother of Fire are friends. Valerie told me to come see their concert and it was a blast. Wouldn't it be great if a whole Top 100 could be made up from friends. I don't have a 100 friends though and most of them don't play any music, and of those who do there's only a handful that I really like. The above painting of Valerie Glenn was done from a still of the video Maria (my wife) made during this concert at the Top 100 opening. I just had to paint the picture in reverse because Maria's camera records everything in reverse and I did not want Valerie playing guitar left handed in my painting of her.

Skylab

From 2000 through 2003 my wife Maria and son Emil lived in a downtown Columbus loft called Skylab. We ran Skylab as a gallery serving mostly the Columbus art student community. My first Top 100 exhibit as public event was the Top 100 1999 held at Skylab in March 2000, a half year before our family moved into it. Skylab still exist and in the last three or four years it evolved into a center for experimental music and occasional art shows. With the exception of 2007 and 2008 Skylab hosted all of the Top 100s since that first one in 2000. I am not a regular but their musical programming is quite spectacular. Occasionally I check out some shows but during a few weeks this past March, right around the dates for my Top 100 2009 exhibit I saw a whole bunch of bands passing through Skylab. The following Top 10 is of musical acts I saw at Skylab and from their recordings I either bought there or received for free. All in the span of less than two weeks (with the exception of the Sword Heaven/Biff Boff Barf show).

1. Mother of Fire: Live, 03/14/10
2. Mors Ontologica: Live, 03/14/10
3. Time and Temperature - Havana (single given to me 03/13/10)
4. The Murder Party - Demo (Cd given to me 03/14/10)
5. Sword Heaven, Live, 02/16/10
   
6. Time and Temperature: Live, 03/13/10)
7. Wolf Eyes: Live, 03/06/10)
   
8. Mother of Fire - Lambs (LP, bought 03/14/10)
9. The Murder Party - Live, 03/14/10
10. Biff Boff Barf: Live, 02/16/10
    

Naomi Joy (Mother of Fire)

Naomi Joy
(second version)
oil on wood
9" x 6", 2010



Naomi Joy
(original version)
oil on canvas board
10" x 8", 2010


Early start painting for the Top 100 2010. I promised Locust Projects in Miami a brand new painting for their spring fund raiser. The first music to qualify for the 2010 list is a group from Minneapolis called Mother of Fire. They performed at Skylab, the space exhibiting my paintings of the Top 100 2009, a day after the opening reception. Their presence and lights looked so beautiful in front of the paintings. Music was great. I asked someone who took pictures of the concert to send me copies but this person never did, I don't think anyone else took pictures. The picture I used for these paintings was quite difficult to paint from. But the challenge I liked and after I sent the original off to Miami I started a second version right away. The second one was to keep (the first painting to be included in next year's Top 100 2010 exhibition). Painting was difficult both times, the original is on the bottom, second version on top, I don't know which is better. Maybe neither painting is very good but at least I think I captured the spirit of Naomi Joy, singer and violist for Mother of Fire.

Top 100 2009

In 1983 when I was eighteen, I compiled a list of ten songs I had enjoyed listening to in the previous days. That list was to have a major impact on my life. Ever since February 23, 1983 I have been compiling a top 10 list every couple of days–I've made over 2,000 by now. At the end of a year's worth of list making the top 10s compile into a Top 100 and the process starts anew. The very first top 10 I make in a given year is usually a top 10 from the music of last year's Top 100. As soon as a Top 100 ends I play the whole list so this becomes my first musical event in the New Year. I've recently finished the Top 100 2009. Here's the top 10 for it:

1. Tsjuder - Blasphemy
2. Trelldom - Sonar Dreyri
3. Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
4. Time and Temperature - Havana
5. Alela Diane - White as Diamonds
6. Burzum - Dunkelkeit
7. Anonymous (Laos) - Pamahei
8. Karen Dalton - Sweet Substitute
9. Jolie Holland - Goodbye California
10. Sir Douglas Quintet - She's About a Mover