[Dixielandjazz] Where is the Music Going? - one more time

[Steve barbone]

A while back we had a thread about the changing presentations of music. The
below article points to some trends we discussed.

A duo performance in NYC.  Performers from two different countries in
Europe. Backed by canned accompaniment, using a thereminlike device and
switching music genres.

Hey Boondockers & Festival Promoters, are you listening? ;-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

New York Times - By JON PARELES - May 14, 2005

If there's a droll side to the European Union, it's in Stereo Total, the
French-German duo from Berlin that performed at the Bowery Ballroom on
Wednesday night. 

Stereo Total is the alliance of Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring. Onstage,
she was matter-of-fact, and he was manic. She wore horn-rimmed glasses and a
business suit; he was in and out of a leather jacket. Her guitar was
heart-shaped; his was rectangular. They sang in English, French and German,
although their albums have also tried Turkish and Japanese. And with their
recorded backing tracks and live instruments - drums, guitars, keyboards and
a thereminlike device that Mr. Göring used to make science-fiction swoops
between songs - they hopped through genres from disco to punk,
mock-rockabilly to metal.

Their songs are conceptual. A title ("Forever 16," "Automatic Music," "I Am
Naked") and lyrics that follow through on it are set to two or three chords
and a synthesized, stripped-down version of a recognizable genre. It's all
just pop to Stereo Total, whether it's the brisk punk of "Vive le Week-end,"
the minor-key rock of "Mars Rendez-Vous" or the blippy synth-pop of "Do the
Bambi." Sometimes it was pop about pop icons like "Supergirl" or
"Cinemania," a list of movie stars and directors.

Ms. Cactus does most of the singing, in a chipper voice, while Mr. Göring
bursts in now and then with a growl or a comeback. When he's playing
keyboards, he also mimes to the backing track with video-ready moves; he
knows every automated handclap and hip-hop sample by heart. Ms. Cactus and
Mr. Göring have been recording together since 1993, and while there's a very
Continental sense of parody in their act, there's also a lot of affection
for what a simple pop song can do. Like many a self-aware sophisticate
before them, Stereo Total can't resist the charm of the primitive.