{"id":52,"date":"2006-08-19T13:20:50","date_gmt":"2006-08-19T12:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/?p=52"},"modified":"2024-07-04T09:32:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T15:32:44","slug":"and-now-it-has-a-name-post-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/and-now-it-has-a-name-post-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"And now it has a name: Post-Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few years back I heard a rash of tracks on 3WK.com<\/a> that were unlike anything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come across before.\u00c2\u00a0 These included Montherfucker = Redeemer (Part 2<\/em>) by Godspeed! You Black Emperor<\/strong>, My Father My King<\/em> by Mogwai<\/strong>, Auberge Le Mouton Noir<\/em> by Do Make Say Think<\/strong>, and Com (?)<\/em> by Mono<\/strong>. \u00c2\u00a0These tracks were long (some clocking in at 20+ minutes), all-instrumental, and generally intense and kind of epic-sounding.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember thinking that I couldn’t believe people were actually making the kind of music that I wanted to listen to. \u00c2\u00a0I didn’t think it existed.<\/p>\n

I didn’t know what to classify this type of music as, but I knew I liked it. \u00c2\u00a0So I started picking up the CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Not knowing the genre, this was fairly difficult – you can’t wander into a record store and look for the “Y’know, that long, drawn-out instrumental stuff” section.\u00c2\u00a0 Even quoting the names of bands I knew was usually met by blank stares (this is – or at least was at the time – real niche listening), but I persevered. \u00c2\u00a0Amazon didn’t stock a lot of this stuff at the time, but I found you could usually order it direct from the record label (which 3WK handily tell you for every track) or the bands themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 Gradually I built up a collection, starting with the stuff I heard on 3WK.com, then other stuff on the same record labels, or stuff with the same musicians. \u00c2\u00a0I also read up on the bands where possible, checking out the bands they name\u00e2\u20ac\u2018checked (or accused of ripping them off…), and searched the Internet for listener recommendations.<\/p>\n

Over the next couple of years I, built up a bit of a collection of similar stuff. \u00c2\u00a0I still didn’t know what genre it was (iTunes classifies most of it (along with 95% of what I own) as “Alternative”), referring to it myself as “that Constellation sound” (because several of the bands were on the Canadian-based Constellation<\/a> label).\u00c2\u00a0 But I did notice that awareness of this type of music was on the increase (led largely by Mogwai who are now dangerously close to widespread recognition). \u00c2\u00a0The music press started reviewing the CDs, and more and more of them were being stocked by Amazon (or one of their ‘partners’).<\/p>\n

So last week I was paying a routine visit to Amazon when it came up with a “Recommendation” of the new Explosions in the Sky<\/strong> CD, (probably because I bought their last one from Amazon) . \u00c2\u00a0I checked it out, along with the usual “Customers who bought this also bought\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6” blurb (which is another reason I use Amazon), and saw the usual list of CDs I had already. \u00c2\u00a0But what caught my attention was the “Browse similar items by category: Styles<\/span> > <\/em>Indie<\/span> > Post-Rock<\/span>.\u00c2\u00a0 Post Rock!\u00c2\u00a0 I checked it out, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Hey hey the gang’s all here! \u00c2\u00a0– Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Mono, Mogwai, Sigur Ros<\/strong>, Explosions in the Sky, Do Make Say Think, A Silver Mount Zion<\/strong> – plus a handful more I didn’t know.<\/p>\n

So there it is.\u00c2\u00a0 Mystery solved. \u00c2\u00a0After 5 years I now know I’m a Post-Rock fan. \u00c2\u00a0I am found! \u00c2\u00a0But what does “Post-Rock” mean<\/em>? \u00c2\u00a0Who cares\u00e2\u20ac\u00bd<\/span> They could have called it “Skzzzshhcht” music for all I care. \u00c2\u00a0Labels mean nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 And everything.\u00c2\u00a0 Next time a buddy asks me what I’m listening to I don’t need to mumble “…some different stuff…”, but can proudly announce that I’m listening to a lot of “Post-Rock” at the moment. \u00c2\u00a0I’ll still be met with the same blank stares, but at least now I know that when I go to Amazon I can check out the “Post-Rock” category and find stuff I’ll probably like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years back I heard a rash of tracks on 3WK.com that were unlike anything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come across before.\u00c2\u00a0 These included Montherfucker […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-music-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1744,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/1744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.planetmanuel.com\/dirk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}