Aquatic Entering Fashion

Behold one of Anthropologie's Late Spring/Summer Looks. The outfit category is "aquatic."
& Of course the theme behind Alexander McQueen's (RIP) Spring '10 Collection was Waterworld. Basically. See?

fish eye burroughs mary

"There was something boneless about her, like a deep sea creature. Her eyes were cold fish eyes that looked at you through a viscous medium she carried about with her. I could see those eyes in a shapeless, protoplasmic mass undulating over the dark sea floor."

JUNKY

I CALLED IT (mgmt hopping on the wave)

Above is a screen-grab from MGMT's website. If this is not proof of the complete permeation of modern music with beach and aquatic aesthetics, I don't know what is. In starting my now defunct show Thalassique I swore to everyone that I was on to something that music journalists would refer to in retrospect as an aquatic, or if I may leave my mark in any way, a thalassic sonic movement.

According to a recent interview with SPIN.com, a lot of MGMT's forthcoming album was inspired by Andrew Vanwyngarden recently learning how to surf, and that the activity is a resounding "thread throughout the record." These 2 psychedelic, art-spective kids could have lain their sights on anything for their latest compositions' thematic direction. But they chose this one. It's really general, I know, (water, the sun, the sand) and so it's easy to try to pigeonhole people into relying on it aesthetically or having something in common with other musicians who do, but the fact is that this aesthetic is something that exists independently in the world and is not born in anyone's mind. It is something that brushes people by and infects them, or leaves them a little damp, salty, tanned. Curiouser and curiouser people start to come together and make the same kinds of things.

That Vampire Weekend album? Everyone was saying they'd gone from Ivy-League Africa to California, but the addition of bells etc and cooler melodies definitely didn't produce a uniquely California sound--it was more tropical than dry and easy-going. But everyone jumped to call it California because 1) there is a song with the state in the title and 2) that's just what you think of when you hear something that sounds like a warm-climate vacation and you're stuck in a Northern Hemisphere winter. Though 'beach' is synonymous with California for many, whether you want to call Contra 'Californian' or 'tropical' still proves it is riding on this same wave, and like everything 'aquatic' out there, is a product of [the influence of] the independently existing aesthetic that paradoxically is a product of the collective efforts of many, who autonomously dreamed up its features.

I'm just pointing this out because it is something that first rolled in on tape decks and tiny shows on coastal capitals in this country and now it's coloring the work of the most propitious indie rock heavy-weights that have already got their breaks in national music publications.

So it's probably a good idea that I don't do this show anymore, because wnyu is no place for mgmt or vampire weekend.

BACK BETWEEN SOUND

hear ye hear ye

i am hosting the sound between until further notice. same place, new time:

SATURDAY 2-4PM


all the same sort of stuff i like, but all new

I have been on winter break and have not been in town during my time slot to host. Will be back soon, classes start this week.

DO YOU EXIST?

Happy Holidays, all. There was no Thalassique last week; I can explain. See, sometime Sunday afternoon I went to the library to write papers, and some time Wednesday afternoon I left. But on that account, I have a question for you:

Does anyone listen to my show?

I only ask because, well, I really don't know. Occasionally I hear from people but there is no way for me to track listenership on the internet. The other reason I ask is that I will probably be switching to the Sound Between next semester, which I used to host until this September. I invite you to follow me over to my new 2 PM slot, on whichever day that ends up being, but I may try to keep doing Thalassique if people are listening. They all say net radio has no future. But does this show?

If you have ever listened to Thalassique, send an email to pier@wnyu.org or stick something in the comments section.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

WUT U BEEN MISSIN

I have a paper due tomorrow on love triangles in 19th Century Russian literature as related to the tragedy Andromache, but I would like to let you know that if you did not tune into Thalassique this evening, you missed:

-a Suzie Q reference
-storm sound effects played over (under?) all 19 minutes and 35 seconds of "The Diamond Sea"
-several 7+ minute jamz
-an encore of a song from the Beach Fossils set
-the sacrifice of an infant
-7" version of "Barbarism Begins at Home" - - because spitting in the face of people who don't want to be cool begins at home with spitting in the faces of infants.

AND NOW BACK TO ... STARTING TO WRITE MY PAPER
...WHICH I HAVE BEEN PLANNING
IT'S NOT LIKE I'M PROCRASTINATING OR STARTING IT AT THE LAST MINUTE
OKAY?
thalassique sundays 6-8 pm on wnyu.org