Baths

Terrible Cell Phone pic, sorry. There were fake candles all over the place.

This guy is a lot of fun. And that’s saying a lot considering I generally don’t think much of those electronic artists who might as well press the “play” button on iTunes when they perform live. Now, I’m not an idiot. I know that a lot of those artists do crazy things, mixing “tracks” with soundboards and… stuff, and I’ve seen some really sophisticated, fast-thinking music-makers get up on stage and impress the hell out of an audience, most notably at the Seattle Laptop Battle a few years ago (and DARNIT, I just realized I missed it this year — it was last night), but the fact remains that they could provide virtually the same experience by simply pre-recording the track, and then… dancing around on stage?

This is pretty much what one of the openers, Teen Daze, did. Peeling off layer after layer of ironic hipster attire a la Girl Talk (and yes, I’m talking about his clothes, this is not some weird metaphor about music), he could barely get himself enthused enough to tap a toe, and the beats he pumped out were decidedly too “chillwave” to provoke any kind of response in the audience.

Then Baths came out. First, I have to say that he is an attractive man. Becca, a girl I’m trying to impress, was, I hope, only slightly weirded out by my repeated remarks about how “I would go gay for him.” He is a little chubby, yes, but he exudes a self-confidence that allows him to reclaim that as part of his character, kind of like the Wife of Bath — haaaa, PUNS. In any case, his music is bomb: He makes kind of woozy beats with lots of falsetto, amounting to love songs tinged with electro-underpinnings. And on top of all that, it’s very pop-y and “listenable”; the experiment in genre-blurring doesn’t sacrifice the listener’s experience at all.

I first encountered Baths two summers ago when I was in LA; he got written up in the LA Weekly, and I went to a concert to investigate. I liked him enough to get his album, Cerulean, which was new at the time, but then I kind of forgot about him until Capitol Hill Block Party this last summer. Unfortunately, he was playing at the same time as TV on the Radio, so I only caught the last few songs of his set, but they were predictably dope. In retrospect, I might even have skipped TVOTR entirely to see the whole thing.

Then, a few days ago, when I heard he was coming to Seattle again (as a make-up concert for a gig he missed due to illness during Decibel Fest, apparently) and that he would be playing in the Neptune Theater — which used to be a favorite movie theater of mine, and was recently converted into a concert venue by Seattle Theater Group — I flipped shit. And, as it turns out, Baths delivered again. An all-around repeatable experience. The Neptune, by the way, was also excellent; kudos to STG for their work restoring the place.

Here are a few of his tracks:

• “Plea”
• “Indoorsy”
• “Apologetic Shoulder Blades”

Miss Representation

EVERYONE IN AMERICA NEEDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE. I mean this 100% literally. The film documents in excruciating detail the often ignored or trivialized problem of just how terribly the media in this country portrays women, and also delves deep into the assumptions and biases surrounding that portrayal. It is a massive and provocative indictment of phallocentric status quo in the entertainment industry today, and has the potential to bring about huge, important changes.

I first learned of the film a couple of months ago, when the trailer was going viral on facebook and tumblr, and while I was thoroughly shocked by the issues it raised, I remember thinking that in reality, I would probably be too lazy to actually get out and see it. I’M SO GLAD I WASN’T! (The trailer, by the way, is essentially a mini-version of the overall documentary–I’d highly recommend watching it RIGHT NOW).

The only problem with a film like this that makes its argument so cogently, that articulates so well what people have been trying for years to say, is that it makes for poor post-movie conversation. On the way out, I overheard a conversation that went something like this: “Well, shit. They already said it so well. I have literally nothing to add.” However, the more I digest the experience, the more I want to continue the dialogue it starts. The film is, more than anything else, a powerful call to action, and its Web site, missrepresentation.org, details specific steps you can take toward curbing the wildly inappropriate, demeaning, and counterproductive way that the mainstream media portrays women. Please check it out.

And now, since I can’t say anything else even remotely meaningful, I’ll leave you with a quote featured in the movie from Pat Robertson, ultra-conservative nut-job and host of The 700 Club:

“The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians”

And he said this in NINETEEN-NINETY FUCKING TWO! How long is it going to be until such bigoted viewpoints become marginalized enough that we don’t have to put up with them on TV? Sheesh.

(Okay, now I promise this is the last thing: a really interesting article about weird prejudices that still DOMINATE Hollywood).