Dostoevsky was the Baddest Existentialest in Russia.

Dostoevsky
Originally uploaded by holoubek

My girlfriend's got me reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky right now, and I'm loving it. My favorite book is another Dostoevsky classic, Notes from Underground, which I'm currently having her read. It's a really short read, so I'd recommend it to light and heavy readers alike. If you like a good rant, both of these books are for you. Notes from Underground is entirely written as stream-of-consciousness (and I use the term "consciousness" lightly here) from an unnamed protagonist commonly referred to by Dostoevsky's readers as "the Underground Man".

The interesting thing about my love for Dostoevsky is how conservative he is. Dostoevsky wrote most of his famous works while Russia was under the rule of Alexander II (r. 1855-1881). Alexander was as reformist a czar as Russia had ever seen to that point, most famous for abolishing serfdom. Alexander's story is fascinating, especially that of his assassination. Alexander was probably one of the rulers that was the most interested in pleasing as many people in his country as he could, but he was also one of the most targeted for assassination. His case supports the theory that if you give the people an inch in an autocratic government, the flood gates open. I wrote a research paper on Alexander II and by the end sympathized with him immensely. But I digress. How does this relate to Dostoevsky?

Dostoevsky interestingly was very liberal previous to being sent into exile to Siberia for four years by the regime of Alexander I, who was notorious for his paranoia of uprising. Although exile often does more to enrage than pacify, Dostoevsky's views seemed to shift to that of a Slavophile, or someone who rejected Western ideals and wanted to return to ideals from Russia's early history. This change of view, however, also came at a time when Russia was moving in a liberal and "progressive" direction under Alexander II. Dostoevsky's writings show a man disillusioned by the fanaticism for change that seemed to be sweeping over the Russian intelligentsia. He does much to point out the flaws in the logic as well as the hypocrisies of these people. He speaks out against trying too hard to explain everything, and how a reliance on science dissolves individualism and often leads to faulty conclusions and pseudo-sciences. Dostoevsky almost pleads for people to see that they are convincing themselves that they are advancing as a society when really many people are worse off and more miserable than ever. The abolition of serfdom essentially put the burden of compensation for the owners of serfs on the serfs themselves, making it impossible for them to pay off their debts and create a meaningful existence.

This all sounds so depressing, but Dostoevsky's books are full of amazing quotes and very humorous moments. Though his main characters are always extremely smart, they are also seemingly mad, which is an amazingly entertaining combination. The opening lines of Notes from Underground are: "I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased." How can you not be hooked?! My favorite quote from the book is: "Suppose... that man is not stupid. (Really, it is quite impossible to say he is, for the sole reason that if he is stupid, who then is intelligent?) But even if he isn't stupid, all the same he's monstrously ungrateful!... I even think the best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful." What a rant, and what truth to the words! It also makes you want to write entirely in exclamation points if you can't tell...

Anyway, the parents and I are going out to Madison to pick up my things to prepare for moving into my new house, where I will go from living by myself to sharing a place with five other males. It's going to be a shock to the system, but it also has the potential to be super fun. The car ride will be spent with good ole Fyodor and some tunes.

I'm going to make the song of the day another Department of Eagles song, only to display how crazy of a transformation they made between their two albums. Half of their songs are trip-hop tracks on their first record, The Cold Nose, and the other half sound very Radiohead-esque. Daniel Rossen's voice is almost unrecognizable to those who know him only from Grizzly Bear and the second DoE album, In Ear Park. My friend Scott really likes the humorous track, Forty Dollar Rug, which is a good example of how this album really doesn't take itself too seriously. I'll leave you with the only music video of the album, Romo Goth.

Romo Goth - Department of Eagles

Alaska you a question... was that really the best decision?

Forgive the corny pun, and forgive the late discussion on this issue. Up until now I've kept politics out of the blog in the sense that I've rarely discussed specific players. But I have to question the strategy of Sarah Palin in stepping down as Alaskan governor. She's obviously getting ready to campaign for President. I think even Jessica Simpson could figure that one out. Now, I would think I'm posing the obvious question that's on everyone's mind, but maybe not since Mrs. Palin failed to consider it: If the biggest concern from the American public in the last election was her lack of experience in governments and a lack of knowledge of its workings and strategy, wouldn't it be detrimental to, oh I don't know, drop out of the government altogether?

I'll leave it at that.

Music of the day: I talked about a song I wanted to throw at you guys last time. The time is here and now, people. Lackthereof is the solo project of Menomena drummer Danny Seim. As in the case of Dan Rossen and Department of Eagles, it's not fair to call it a "side project" because, though less popular, he's been recording albums longer than Menomena's existed. Anyway, his newest album, Your Anchor, is genius, and Menomena fans will enjoy it immensely because it doesn't stray far from the band's signature sound. This video is my favorite song on the album (convenient, right?). Here's Lackthereof with "Ask Permission".


Lackthereof - "Ask Permission"

The Downloading Culture

So I'm lazy and I'm just going to re-post exactly what I wrote in a Facebook note. Please forgive me.



It's funny. I feel like Ed Droste of the band Grizzly Bear stole these words from me in an interview with Pitchfork. People ask me why I buy all my music legally. I tell them that when you don't buy an album chances are that you are going into it with a detached attitude. If you don't enjoy it from the get-go you dismiss it and dispose of it because you have nothing ride of it. But because of that, the music isn't given a chance. Some of my favorite albums and bands I despised at the start. But because I bought the albums I didn't want to give up on them. After multiple listens, I'd notice new things, pick the music apart a bit, hear genius in the lyrics and/or their delivery, etc. I've listened to certain albums and songs hundreds of times and no two experiences have been alike.

I'm not saying it's wrong to download or obtain music from friends. I get music from friends all the time. If you have never gotten music from friends you either don't like music that much or you are a much, much better and stronger person than me. Getting music from friends, however, one tends to also give the music a chance because they want to be able to relate to the person they obtained it from.

This is also not to say, however, that I force myself to like music just because I've purchased it and want to make my money worthwhile, or because someone's given it to me. I have obtained my fair share of stinkers. I'm just saying we tend to give music a closer look when we aren't able to dispose of it without anything lost. It's kind of like anything in life. If we've invested a lot in something, we'll take a closer look at it. That doesn't necessarily mean we'll like it, but we'll learn from it.

Honestly, if I wasn't so unlucky and convinced that I would get caught, I would probably download albums. But in a way I'm glad I don't have every album at my fingertips because it makes my music experiences that much more enjoyable. The first listen to an album that I've bought is exciting because it's almost like being a general manager of a sports team: You obtain the music based on your general knowledge of the band, but you never know if you're going to get a result that you think is worth your money. There are going to be disappointments and there are going to be albums you wouldn't give up for almost anything. There's a huge satisfaction in finding a gem of an album in a used CD store that I cannot even explain (Although, to the many of you that I've taken to CD Max, especially Jenny, I'm sure some of you can relate). New music just makes my day amazing, and I think it's something I'd begin to take for granted if I could just click and get any album any time I wanted.

I guess I don't know what the point of writing this note was. I tagged mostly people that I know are really into music, and I guess I wondered how you felt on the subject. I think for most people the need for money outweighs their desire to have a truly satisfying music experience, so I'm probably in the minority here, but maybe you still treasure the music you buy more or give it more of a chance. I read this article and was like, "Yeah! Everyone should read this!" This is only like, 10% of the article, but the other 90% is only really relevant to Grizzly Bear fans. If you want to read the rest, here's a link: http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/7670-grizzly-bear/



ED: Remember that feeling of buying an album? And you didn't have a lot of money so you bought one album and you had that album for like, two months or something until you bought another album? This really cool thing that would happen where you would be forced to only have that album because you couldn't just download a million more, and you may not have liked every song on it, but then as you started listening to it more and more you'd be like, "Oh wait, I do like track nine." You lived with an album, and that doesn't happen as much anymore. I'm sure some people do have that experience still, but it's a little bit harder to get to that place because you can easily just switch gears and go off to something else if it's not tickling your fancy at that moment.

I haven't had that kind of experience with an album for awhile, either. And I sort of miss it-- that feeling of not necessarily settling for an album but just of having an album and having your initial favorites, then listening to it and listening to it and discovering new things and being like, "Whoa, I really like this part now." Just the feeling of "This is what I have for the next six weeks or so until I can buy another album."

Pitchfork: There was time to develop that relationship. Now I feel like it's so hard to develop a relationship with anything because music moves so fast.

ED: There are so many more releases that people have access to. I don't know, maybe there were this many releases when I was growing up and I just didn't know where to look for them. That's probably very much the case. But it just feels like there are a billion [new records] every year. A lot of people are curious and excited about stuff, and one of the great things about the Internet is that people are excited about music and wanna hear a random album from a band somewhere in Romania or something, and to listen to all sorts of stuff from around the world. They have access to new stuff that they would have never had access to [before]. But sometimes I feel like it's a total overload. Where you're like, "I can't even focus anymore." You know?

Pitchfork: Sure. Everything feels disposable.

ED: It is definitely much easier to feel that an album is disposable-- to dismiss an album or delete the tracks you don't like or to just throw it into shuffle or whatever. But that being said, it's a case-by-case situation and that's the way it is and there's nothing we can do about it. People digest and process music differently, and I'm sure that was the case even when I was a kid. I'm not critiquing the general public, I'm speaking from my own experience of being guilty of deleting a track that I didn't like. Then I'm like, "Wait a second, that's not fair. Why am I doing that?"



I initially read this article because I've been obsessing over a Grizzly Bear song, which I'll make the song of the day. It's called "Two Weeks" and the video is insanely creepy but amazing as well. I don't even want to describe it, you just need to watch it.



You know what? Screw it. Two songs of the day. Yeah, I'm doing it. I haven't written in over a month anyway. It's somewhat related to Grizzly Bear anyway. Not even somewhat, it is. Daniel Rossen is one of the four members of Grizzly Bear, and he has another band, Department of Eagles. It's not even fair to call it his side project because it existed before Grizzly Bear. He's having success with both bands at the moment. I can't stop singing this song either. All four members of Grizzly Bear have amazing voices, and their music just gives off an air of superiority that I can only compare to (tourmates) Radiohead. Anyway, the song is No One Does it Like You, and it also has an eerie, amazing video.



Man, I want to do one more song, but I don't want to make your mind explode with amazing music. So I'll save it. Until next time.