Around the world in a column

[imomus]

Momus
Playground column, July 2009
Travels of a Chameleon

My beloved readers! How are you doing? What have you been up to? It's been too long -- almost three months! -- since last we met.



I'm not quite sure how it happened, this gap in communications. It's partly because I went traveling. I spent a month in New York with only an iPod Touch to keep in touch. I imagined I'd have something to tell you about the music scene in New York, something I could tap out on the iPod's tiny keyboard. But in the end I was so busy doing other things that I hardly saw any live music.

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The only new band I discovered this time in New York was Twi The Humble Feather, a trio who play acoustic guitars and sing in ways that remind me of the Animal Collective (though they're a bit tired of that comparison). In the video lounge at the back of Monkeytown in Brooklyn I saw the Twi trio play a refreshing, relaxing set accompanied by the quirky projected animations of Nobuko Hori, one half of the Matsuri-kei girlband Groopies.



When I got back to Berlin, a funny thing happened. Kyoka, the other half of Groopies, brought the touring guitarist from the metal band Korn round to my house. It turned into a real-world re-enactment of my last column, in which I attempted to scandalize my own internal "good taste Taliban" by listening to music I wouldn't normally tolerate.

Shane Gibson sat on my sofa and politely watched the Mower videos I cued up for him, before taking control of my bluetooth mouse and showing me songs by (ahem!) "progressive metal" bands Sikth and Meshuggah. I made polite noises, but my inner Taliban hated them.



Metal music out of context doesn't have to be a bad thing, though. I heard a nice example when I attended Dexter Sinister's "documents opera" True Mirror Microfiche at the ICA in London in late June. Hunched at overhead projectors or standing stiffly at podiums, actors and art world personalities performed press releases and read pages of text, interrupted occasionally by a guitarist and drummer who played very short, very loud phrases from a Napalm Death song. The dryly cerebral texts were beautifully counterbalanced by the aggressive spurts of grindcore; the dream collaboration of Apollo and Dionysus.

But the music that's touched me most over the last couple of months hasn't been Western, and hasn't been rock. I heard street musicians in the Athens district of Kerameikos playing the most beautiful Balkan mountain music on accordion and clarinet. I held a pajama party at my flat in which we played only Greek Orthodox church music and the music of the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey, and it was the most fun party I've ever had; we whirled till our skirts spun high!

Most of all, I was impressed by an American called Jonny Olsen, who's become a big star in Laos and Thailand singing his own version of the local folk music. As the No Age blog explains, Jonny was a skate kid in California who started working in a Thai vegan café and, through it, fell in love with Thai culture.

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Jonny Olsen moved to Thailand, mastered the language and several traditional instruments, and began making records. He's now a pop star there and in neighbouring Laos -- an incredible cultural chameleon, and an example to us all. With love and dedication, anything is possible!

Translated from the original Spanish by a robot chameleon. Tip of the hat to the Pulled Up blog for putting me onto Jonny Olsen.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Here's the best thing I've heard lately, they play the ICA on July 3oth if you are in town.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jeremy Reed! I like his work a lot, and he's a great performer of his writing. This is a nice video, something rather Colour of Pomegranates-like about it:

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[(Anonymous)]

that is dreadful, gives pretentiousness a bad name

[(Anonymous)]

that jonny olsen is straight up gangster shit, man.

NY bands

[(Anonymous)]

I've been really liking Dirty Projectors lately. They do ride the JuJu music rend a bit, but I can't get enough of Dave Longstreth's falsetto. It has vague semblances of Ariel Pink, David Byrne, and Nina Simone as well.

-David
trumpery.tumblr(dot)com

[(Anonymous)]

i do not like johnny olsen

[(Anonymous)]

but really, what's inspiring about moving to a foreign country and making a career of being an awkward foreigner performing kitchsy replica of the local culture? i'll admit that he seems to play the instrument well, but that seems to be all that sets him apart from william hung (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_hung).

likes/dislikes

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

ok, so, Meshuggah is good. You may not like them but the are good.
I really rarely listen to them but they are really fun. And like all good bands, they get better, and try different things with each new album.
but yeah funny mr.Korn had the, lets refer to it as gall, to put you through his little 'lets show mr.momus the cool metal bands that are out there' time... wtf, people are too predictable.
twi this humble feather, is also good, but ah, hmmm, I cant dis them, but not the most exciting thing on this planet.
Jonny Olsen... I"m using a computer right now that doesnt have sound... that is I cant cue up his sound right now, so... no idea, but the general story about him falling in love w thai blah blah blah... is sooo cool. Really just cool. He decides thats what he wanted to do, and did it. Awesome. Plus, you know... Thai girls are VERY HOT! thats cool too.

the picture w you and mr. Korn HAHAHAHA that is funny. try that one again now that you have a shaved head... you'll be jumping up and down, pulling him off of the dj console and playing him your most insane cool music... Yeah! lets see how much mr.Korn likes it when the tables are turned!!!!!!

[petit-paradis.livejournal.com]

is johnny olsen the new jero?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I had the same thought, and when Emma and Joe were round the other day, went straight from watching Olsen videos to Jero videos.

But I think there's also something of a Zelig about him. I think he's probably a very bright Jewish-American nerd who's able (or perhaps it's a compulsive disorder and he can't help it) to replicate whatever cultural environment he finds himself in -- a "human chameleon".

cultural CLOWN

[olamina.livejournal.com]

I can only hope that they are having a long international laugh at this Johnny Olsen clown.
" I worked in a Thai restaurant and I am enamored by your women yer kullll-chur. "

This THIS!! is the endgame of fetishizing Asian women. You are exposed for the culture-appropriating little sniveling swine that you are.

I hope this dude gets beat down by a gang of real Thai pop stars. Fall in love with that! Get your butt back in the kitchen!

Re: cultural CLOWN

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

ah, most people (as in most people) do what they do for or started doing what they do... for very silly reasons... like that... but anyways.thaigirls are way hot... so what ever!!! I'd go become a thai pop star if I got to be in videos with cute thai girls boping around...

just saying...

Re: cultural CLOWN

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

I think I had one too many cups of tea before bedtime....

but I just wanted to add here...
that there will be no ENDGAME for this fetishizing Asian women... that you speak of... it will just keep going... growing and growing in your head, and everywhere... until... no. there is no until... it will just keep becoming more... this is just the start... asian women will slowly... (in a slight of hand trick 'they' often pull) will suddenly, out of what appears to be a fetishized coffin... will suddenly take over the world... and thats that. just you wait. you will by law, need to prove that you have, and activly are, fetizhizing asian women... in the future.

Re: cultural CLOWN

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I hope this dude gets beat down by a gang of real Thai pop stars.

I have to say I find this odd. What are "real Thai pop stars"? Do they have to show their birth certificates, passports and blood groups? A little cranial measurement thrown in for good measure? Or how about some paperwork to show they've "paid their dues" on the Thai club scene?

The big message I get from Olsen isn't really about Thai women at all. It's that an American patiently and skillfully learned, adopted and disseminated someone else's culture rather than merely evangelising for his own. I think it's very praiseworthy, but he's being treated in some quarters like a cultural version of the American Taliban (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_Lindh).

Re: cultural CLOWN

[subalpine.livejournal.com]

and you know what ELSE got me really burning up?

this CD cover that i recently spied in the local thrift shop:

what he needs is a BEATDOWN by some real Spaniards, eh?!

hmm

[(Anonymous)]

Jonny Olsen is very big in the Laotian community and even became fluent in all 5 dialects.
He has a song called "Gued Pit Bon" (Born in the wrong place).



Laotian and Thai woman love him.. but I find him a bit corny. A good Khaen player though!

Re: hmm

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Laotian and Thai woman love him

Which is to say that we should expect a single called "I've won at life" from him any day now.

blimey!

[(Anonymous)]

a Korn between two roses (guffaw/wince!)
that is, utterly, utterly, a post-post-modern gathering
would he be welcome back chez toi again?

Dale

Re: blimey!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure! It's well known that I welcome "the other".

[(Anonymous)]

try i.e. 'sleepytime gorilla museum' and 'the book of knots' for interesting metal out there
not to forget mr. bungle, boris and kayo dot!

[(Anonymous)]

is there a recording of the dexter sinister session at ica?

Takeo Ischi - a Japanese Jonny/Jero

[brokenjunior.livejournal.com]

Have you ever heard about Takeo Ischi (http://www.kuenstler-agentur.de/index.php?id=160)? He is a Japanese MeisterJodler and seems to be quite famous in the traditional German folk music scene.

Here he is, performing a song called "Ich fang den Tag mit einem Jodler an" (I start the day with a yodeler) ... and then goes on singing: "es ist so schön, daß ich hier leben kann" (it's so nice that I can life here)

Re: Takeo Ischi - "cultural CLOWN"

[subalpine.livejournal.com]

"He is exposed for the culture-appropriating little sniveling swine that he is!!

I hope this dude gets beat down by a gang of real German MeisterJodlers. Fall in love with that! Get your butt back in the schnitzel kitchen!"

kidding.. (see above)

[akabe.livejournal.com]

this one made me spill my coffee. good one kyoka :-)

[akabe.livejournal.com]

the dude does match the the iconographic lenin in the background much better than you could ever hope to.

[(Anonymous)]

I prefer Nellie Olsen

[(Anonymous)]

And let's not forget Johnny Olson:

[(Anonymous)]

I felt a sense of that metal de-/re-contextualizing aesthetic in Birchville Cat Motel's "Bird Sister Blasphemy"... not sure if that's what they were going for, but the campy title and flattened textures where you could almost make out aggro riffs and vocals was strangely intense and appealing.