By Shane Hisner
“The hip-hop scene here is fucking taking off.” –Rene Kamm ‘12, a.k.a. Anti-Thesis
The ‘Sco was packed last Thursday for the Wilder Hip-Hop Collective’s first show of the semester and the second of the year. Andrés Feliciano ’12 (a.k.a. Rican Havoc) made it all happen. The night consisted of something like 20 rappers collaborating with some of Oberlin’s finest beatmakers. Continue reading
By Shane Hisner
This is a memo to all of you Obies that shiver at the sight of the quadratic equation and grow uneasy when the terms meiosis and mitosis are mentioned in conjunction. There is no need to fear. There is a simple, easy, and—god forbid—interesting path through all this. And along the way you will have had the privilege of being taught by three of Oberlin’s finest professors. I know, it sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Without further ado, here is a step-by-step guide to knocking out 9-9-9 and quant in one school year.
By Shane Hisner
Inevitably, many of us will be driving home these next few days. There are certain albums that just hit the spot when you’re trucking down I80 at about 85mph. Here are a few to keep you company on that long, lonely toll road.
Maps by Tunturia
For the contemplative night driver. These Canadian post-rockers mastered the concept album in their first attempt. If Explosions in the Sky is thunder and lightning, Tunturia is a steady rain on the roof of your house. The album’s third track, “Satellites,” samples transmissions from astronauts in space. Listening to Tunturia, I find the road before me somehow becoming more than a road, and everything I look at seems to contain some metaphorical value I can’t quite sort out.
Willy and the Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Survival
For the southbound driver. CCR’s 1969 release starts things off with radio classic “Down on the Corner” and never loses speed. Tom Fogerty’s rhythm guitar plays something like a ’69 Mustang–a little kick here and there, but you just know she ain’t breaking down anytime soon. This is the sort of album I find myself setting the cruise for and jamming along on harmonica.
Exile on Main Street by The Rolling Stones
Please, take your foot off the gas petal, set the cruise at 70, and quit treating your steering wheel and dashboard like it’s a drum kit. You’re going to kill someone acting like that.
The Rolling Stones – “Rip This Joint”
Sing! by The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank
Really this one may actually be music for hopping a train, but most people that find themselves in such a situation don’t have the liberty of setting a playlist on their iPods. In 2007, this was the Hobos breakout album. Breakout, of course, is a relative term, but gaining recognition within Minnesota folk-bluegrass circles has to count for something.
Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank – “Go On Back Home”
The Rhythm of the Saints by Paul Simon
The beats are impeccable. This one somehow got forgotten in the wake of Graceland, but you could argue that with the 1990 release of Rhythm, Paul perfected what he was going for in 1986 with Graceland.
By Shane Hisner
To me, it seems odd that I would even have to make a case for this. Tickets to most good orchestras cost more than any of us would be willing to pay, yet, about once a month in Finney Chapel, a fleet of musicians that could be appropriately called the future of American classical music plays for free. This post comes a little late for those hoping to catch them this semester; they played just last week. Listed below are a few reasons you should go see them every time they play:
By Shane Hisner
It is that time of year again. When each Oberlin student gathers up all his or her necessities—MacBook, headphones, several packages of Sour Patch Kids, and a case of Starbucks frappuccino—and stakes out some remote corner in Mudd Library as their own. A flag is planted, a written statement read, and the hours of facebook creeping and iTunes sorting are ahead. From time to time, this ritual procrastination is interrupted by brief periods of study.
Whether studying or just chilling out like the worthless slacker you are, you should at least do it to good music. Below is a list of albums that, during my time at Oberlin, have proved to be great study music:
Specifics by Midwest Product
This 2002 release is prescribed to the student on a deadline. Subdued yet danceable electro-rock from the now defunct Ann Arbor band. Coupled with the 40mg’s of Adderall you just snorted, your heart rate should have no problem staying above 100bpm (ideal for studying) for the rest of the night. Here’s the opener:
Midwest Product – “Still Love in the Midwest”
Machinarium Soundtrack by Tomáš Dvořák
Machinarium is a puzzle/adventure game available for download here. It comes highly recommended—an artistic masterpiece, really. The visuals are out-of-this-world, and the music is the dopest—maybe somewhere between Four Tet and Bjork. I have no idea who Dvořák is, except for that he’s Czech and that at the time of his last photoshoot he was sporting a bowl cut.
Tomas Dvorak – “Mr. Handagote”
Dreamcatcher by Andy Mckee
Mckee is the artist behind one of the first viral videos in the history of Youtube. His video for Drifting has claimed over 35 million views and has been on the tube since 2006. He plays his guitar almost exclusively open-tuned, and gets more noise out of it than one would guess is possible. For some reason the sound of harmonics being played on a guitar makes me feel like I should be thinking. It’s the natural soundtrack of the active brain. Here he is playing some mass of an instrument beautifully:
Self-titled, 13 & God
This album is for a long night when the lights go out on the fourth floor, and you’re pretty sure there’s something living behind the wall you’re propped up against—something large.
This is the only album on this list that is not strictly instrumental. Generally I find studying to music with lyrics intolerable. Once, after turning in a paper that I never bothered to proofread, I got it back with question marks surrounding an errant Springsteen lyric. 13 & God is somehow different. It’s a collaboration between the German recording wizards from The Notwist, who you may know for their 2002 cult-classic Neon Golden, and California-based hip-hop group Themselves. Here’s a strange video:
Music Has the Right to Children by Boards of Canada
My absolute go-to in a crunch. If you are searching for inspiration for your surrealist fiction final, this is it. Some music has a way of inspiring writing’s creative process. Boards of Canada falls into this category. The Scottish duo changed the path of electronic music forever when they emerged in the 1990’s. Eerie vibes, eerie vibes.
By Shane Hisner
Check your ticket stub and it’ll tell you that the Chick Corea Trio played this past Thursday at Finney Chapel, but if you went to the show you might have guessed you were watching the Christian McBride Trio.
Corea was brilliant, as one would expect. Center stage on the upright bass, though, was McBride. He seemed to be the crowd favorite, drawing generous applause one funky solo after another.
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All three members of the trio–Corea on the keys, McBride on the upright, and Brian Blade on the drums–exercised quite a bit of artistic freedom throughout the show. Solos were generally long, free form and high energy.
Blade’s high point certainly came in the middle of the show during Corea’s 1968 classic “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs.” Much to the audience’s approval, the drummer broke from the periphery and made some serious noise in a solo that navigated something like Magellan’s trip around the world. The dude was feeling it.
The trio played just one song penned by Blade, the closer “Alpha and Omego,” but it was one of the highlights of the night. They left the stage with a bang.
On the Finney Steinway, Corea never missed a step. Early on, he soloed to open “Homage,” putting his skills on full display. All night, he was smooth. It was a clean run, a thing of beauty. Piano aficionados have really been spoiled here at Oberlin lately–in addition to Corea, 1990 Oberlin graduate and piano virtuoso Jeremy Denk played with the Oberlin College Orchestra this past Saturday.
But the night was owned by McBride. The bassist, who has played with everyone from Herbie Hancock to Sting to The Roots, showed why he’s considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of our time. He worked the scales to their edges, and then took them places you wouldn’t have expected them to go. Every moment you thought he was heading down the wrong road on a solo he’d convince you otherwise within seconds.
It wasn’t one of those synesthesia-inducing jazz gigs, the kind that lead your mind to somewhere in the asteroid belt; what was on display in Finney Thursday was an ocean of straight-up talent. It was a little clunky at times, as far as this jazz philistine could tell, but impressive and worth the ticket for sure.
By Shane Hisner
Photo by David Roswell.
Josh Ritter ’99 had everyone in Finney Chapel on his side Saturday night. The show was full of good songs, facetious one-liners, and remarkable showmanship—and that’s only accounting for bassist Zack Hickman.
The third installment of Oberlin College’s convocation series was a doozy. A blue-jeaned Marvin Krislov gave a brief introduction before Josh and his band played a full two-hour set.
To start things off, Ritter took the stage solo and under dimmed lights softly picked and howled “Idaho,” an ode to his home state. The rendition was no less than haunting—the kind of song that sets one to reflecting. Finney was motionless, dead silent.
Photo by David Roswell.
Photo by David Roswell.
Then the band came out. Sam Kassirer on the Steinway and the ‘01 graduate Hickman on the upright. Those bigger, fuller ballads swelled from the stage—songs like “Rumors,” “Wolves,” and “Kathleen.” Oberlin was clearly watching a trio that knew how to feed off of each other’s energy.
The concert ebbed and flowed all night. Every run of high-energy anthems was answered by a subdued, reflective psalm. Ritter trolled triumphantly about Kathleen only to cry longingly for Anabel Lee a song later. He left the nostalgia of “Me and Jiggs” for the desperation of “Lawrence, KS.”
Ritter’s ability as a lyricist truly makes his songs worth hearing, and Saturday night he put on a clinic in storytelling. The songs he played from his May release So the World Runs Away were perhaps the most intriguing—songs about mummies and archaeologists and polar explorers—but it was certainly nice to hear those good ol’ American folk tales that made Josh Ritter a name to know in the folk music community.
Ritter called upon charm and an array of concert tricks to keep things fresh from start to finish. In “Wolves,” he had crowd members howling at the moon. “In the Dark,” another Animal Years track, was appropriately played in a completely dark Finney Chapel. He even dedicated a new song, titled “Sarah” after the former Alaskan governor, to Tuesday’s speaker Karl Rove. Ritter sang over the laughing crowd. “I won’t forget the night we spent / when you stole my leather reindeer jacket.”
Hickman’s performance on the bass was something to marvel at as well. His sonorous rendition of Chris Isaak’s 1989 classic “Wicked Game” was a high point in the concert. He wooed the crowd all night with his impeccable style and stage presence. By the end of the show, one was left wondering what comes more naturally to him—his slick bass skills or his world-class mustache.
Probably the most impressive thing about Ritter’s performance was the fact that he brought the house down without playing many of his most popular songs. Perhaps even more impressive was the fact that a die-hard fan like me didn’t even realize these omissions until the day after the concert. Fan favorites like “Thin Blue Flame,” “Girl In the War,” “The Temptation of Adam,” and “Golden Age of Radio” didn’t even make the set list.
But it’s that time in his career now. He’s 33 and longer removed from his time at Oberlin than his energetic temperament would suggest. 2010 saw the release of Josh’s seventh album. Some songs are inevitably going to get skipped over.
Luckily, Ritter and his band won’t be long before they circle back around to our neck of the woods. They’ll be in Cleveland on November 15 at the Beachland Ballroom, a show that will conclude their North American tour. It would certainly be unreasonable to hold him to the standard of Saturday’s show at Finney, but, damn, anything close would do.
Shane wasn’t born; he emerged from an auspicious pile of moist, sun warm grass clippings at the edge of a bean field somewhere in Indiana. Shortly thereafter, he forged a flying machine from fallen shingles and bailing wire. He crash landed in Oberlin during an April snowstorm. Shane is a senior now, and enjoys writing poetry, hiking, and celebrating the Fourth of July.
By Shane Hisner
Thomas Perez. Photo by Shane Hisner.
Thomas Perez, the Assistant Attorney General of the United States’s Civil Rights Division, delivered an explosive Constitution Day speech in West Lecture Hall on Thursday. The longtime civil rights lawyer had no shortage of things to talk about in his speech titled, “Why we need a Civil Rights Division in the year 2010.” From immigration to LGBT rights to the Americans with Disabilities Act, Perez eloquently laid out the causes that he has spent a career in public service fighting for.
President Krislov, whose friendship with Perez dates back to their time together in the Civil Rights Division over 20 years ago, introduced Perez as “the very model of a selfless public servant and an engaged and active American citizen.”
From the beginning, his tone was commanding. Perez was quick to lay out his position on the Constitution. “It is a document that is very near and dear to my heart.” He went on, “If we were to poll test some of the provisions of the Constitution today, they probably wouldn’t poll very well.” This assertion became the underlying theme of Perez’s address.
“There are times in our nation’s history when we are sailing into headwinds. Right now we are sailing into a significant headwind,” declared Perez. To drive his point home, he spoke primarily about cases he and the Civil Rights Division have worked on in the last year–cases that shed light on the pressing, even scary, issues confronting civil rights today.
He told stories of heinous racially-driven hate crimes–a father-son duo assaulting an African-American with a chainsaw in South Carolina, the police cover-up of a racially-driven murder of a Latino in Pennsylvania, a mosque burned to the ground in Tennessee, a re-segregated school district in Mississippi. “This isn’t America in 1969 and 1970. This is America in 2009 and 2010,” Perez emphasized after every story.
He spoke about the less blatant issues the Civil Rights Division addresses, such as predatory loans targeting African-Americans, an issue that strikes a chord for Clevelanders especially. His compassion was palpable as he spoke of the families “under water because of these toxic loans.”
Perez directly addressed the issues surrounding immigration in the Southwest, damning Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona as unconstitutional. “There is one quarterback when it comes to immigration, and that quarterback is the United States Government…because immigration decisions have foreign policy consequences, law enforcement consequences, humanitarian consequences.”
Perez, who has worked in the Civil Rights Division for the last four presidential administrations, had much to say concerning the traditional non-partisanship of the judiciary. “I was on the hiring committee (of the Civil Rights Division) in 1992 under the elder Bush, and in 1993 and ‘94 under President Clinton. Our mission was identical, and that was, ‘Hire the most qualified people.’”
That non-partisan tradition “broke down” under the second Bush. “The process was hijacked,” disclosed Perez, who emphatically expressed satisfaction in the Obama Administration for returning non-partisanship to the Civil Rights Division.
As to the question of why we need a Civil Rights Division in the year 2010, he was quite frank. “The first time I was asked that question, I didn’t take it seriously. Quite honestly, for me it was self-evident…I couldn’t understand why people would ask that question.” When the question continued cropping up in conversation, Perez says, was when he began considering it “part of his job to educate people about why we still need a Civil Rights Division.
“We have indeed made a lot of progress, and we should be proud of the progress we have made as a nation, but we have indeed so much longer to go. The journey to equal opportunity is a long journey and a hard journey, but it’s a journey we must go on to give meaning to the Constitution,” Perez asserted.
There was, perhaps, one hiccup in his otherwise inspiring presentation when a gentleman from the American Civil Liberties Union asked about Guantanamo Bay during the Q&A. Perez spoke vaguely. “We are attempting to move forward as fairly and constitutionally and expeditiously as possible.” He cited the contentious political atmosphere surrounding the issue as one roadblock concerning this issue.
His message to Oberlin students was a clear one. “We need people like you that are going to turn headwinds into tailwinds. I hope you use this university campus to have that robust debate about the meaning of the Constitution…We’re going to need people fighting for civil rights in the future. I hope you will be those people tomorrow.
Perez ended his speech with a dose of humor. “I’m getting old, I need a knee replacement, I’ve got no hair, and I need your help.”