Running the musical genre gauntlet

Dominion Post

Prominent Momedians include Kiwi group Flight of the Conchords.

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Attempting to put music in a box is like trying to put a jersey on an octopus, writes VICKI ANDERSON.

Punk and rock 'n' roll always make me feel good. I turn to metal when I'm grumpy, sugary pop when I'm in love, some sorts of jazz find me in elevators. Indie makes me smile, rap simultaneously revs me up and makes me want to send rappers dictionaries. Trance helps me clean the house. Country and western makes me projectile vomit.

The word punk probably made you instantly think of mohawks and body piercings; country and western of big- bearded men whittling something on a porch and crooning of their lament at losing their sheila but joy at not having to write a Deere John to their tractor.

Gone are the days when music was pushed kicking and biting into a few boxes – ie: rock 'n' roll, pop, country, crunk etc. Now music mags are dripping with pencil- shaped-pant-wearing music geeks conjuring up new ways to describe music genres faster than my imaginary country guy could plough a paddock.

Some say it is impossible to classify musical styles without somehow hindering music's progression – that setting boundaries and putting it into neatly ordered boxes is not what music is about. Others argue that your average punter needs a yardstick to go by when he's hovering at the record shop wanting to know what some band he's never heard of will sound like. How would our youth sub-cultures identify themselves without music labels?

Most people will have heard of the genres pop, rock, country etc but I thought it was time you were exposed to a few genres outside the square that might make you smile (and country guy head for his tractor).

ANTI-FOLK: The music sub-genre known as anti-folk features earnest sounds subverted in a raw or experimental way. Generally anti-folk sounds mocks itself. In New York the Anti-Folk Festival held annually has spawned a number of well- known artists including: Beck, Michelle Shocked and Regina Spektor. In the United Kingdom the anti-folk scene (known as AFUK) started with lo-fi musician Filthy Pedro and the funny anti-folk that make up London-based group David Cronenberg's Wife. They write sounds with titles such as: Oh Anorexic Girl, I'm On the Booze, Mama and My Ukranian Girlfriend and sound vaguely like Dylan with a cold (if Dylan sang about toilet rolls and the like). The first anti- folk UK compilation album (Up the Anti) was released this year. David Cronenberg's Wife: www. myspace.com/22346700

BASTARD POP: Known by many different names (mashups, smashups, blends and cutups – a term coined by William S. Burroughs) Bastard Pop is the art of creating new songs from elements of other songs. Eminem's album The Slim Shady in 1999 is a classic example. Bastard Pop utilises a technique informally known as "a plopper" – a mash-up or bootleg where the vocal from one track has simply been "plopped" over the instrumental of another. In the UK, for example, a group called the Pop Bastards have taken a song from the nausea-inducing tunes from S Club 7 and bastardised it into S Clubbed to Death. www. myspace.com/ theghostofpopbastard

BURGER HIGHLIFE: A German musical style distinctive to Ghanaian immigrants to Germany that was first popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s is enjoying something of a revival. It is a fusion of reggae and highlife created in a so-called "Westernised way". Popular artists include George Darko and the Lumba Brothers. McGod – a Ghanaian musician – headlined a "Burger Highlife Concert" held in Ghana earlier this year. www. mcgod.de

COWPUNK: Country meets punk. Pretty self-explanatory really, sort of. Combining the revolutionary fiesty spirit of punk with country/blues bands like The Gun Club and The Cramps were, er, trailblazers in the early '80s for other so-called cowpunk or punk blues bands that have developed in their wake since such as The White Stripes, The Starvations and the Starlite Desperation. www. myspace.com/thestarvations

CRUSTGRIND: "Grind" is really a genre in itself with crust being a sub-strata of numerous grind genres. Crustgrind is typified by its less frequent use of blast beats and metallic riffing than other forms of "grind" core but has harsher vocals than most crust punk. Other axes to grind include: Deathgrind (a grindcore/death metal hybrid); Cybergrind (extreme electronic music); Goregrind (death metal combined with gory themes – is there any other kind?); Pornogrind (sexual themes). www. myspace.com/cattledecapitation

EMO RAP: The genre that is emo has, for most, a bad, er rap. Emo rap somehow manages to combine hip-hop with intense emotional lyrics comparable to emo music. Enough said. Closed Heart Surgery from Orange County in the United States have a perfect example of this with their version of the Plain White T's song Delilah. Theirs may be called F... You Delilah but it is just as emotive. myspace. com/closedheartsurgery

FADO: Fado roughly translates to fate. This is a genre which is most popular in Portugal and is thought to have began in the 1800s. It is characterised by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. Fado is an emotional kind of music full of passion, sorrow, jealousy, grief, and satire. www. myspace.com/fadomariza

FREAK FOLK: Freak folk is a genre of contemporary folk music and is associated with such artists as Joanna Newsom and Animal Collective. It is folk but not as you know it, folks. Definitely freaky, it has links to the Anti-Folk genre and is also related to, but distinct from, the historical genre psych folk. www. myspace.com/ theanimalcollectivetheband

FURNITURE MUSIC: Furniture music is background music originally played by live performers. The term was coined by classical musician Erik Satie in 1917. Satie was commissioned in 1923 by Mrs Eugene Meyer jun to write something for a small orchestra. Satie created "Tenture de cabinet prefectoral" which roughly translates to "wall-lining in a chief officer's office". Satie had little respect for money and liked to call a spade a spade. A forerunner to minimalism his sounds, furniture music, were created to be in the background rather than listened to. He composed music to be listened to at different angles, similar pieces divided into several parts. www. myspace.com/eriksatie

MATH ROCK: Math Rock incorporates odd and/or mixed time signatures, not simply the "Mama's Heartbeat" regular 4/4 which is common in mainstream music. It also sometimes incorporates sudden stops/ starts. The music is progressive, but not in the typical sense. The musicians are usually very skilled, but riffs have more to do with note patterns than a show-off in tight leather pants. Math Rock music is often very melodic, but it can be heavy as well. However, if it is too heavy it would then be considered Mathcore or Tech-Metal – you do the numbers. Battles is possibly the most popular recent Math Rock group to emerge, but others such as Brutally Handsome Gentlemen, Unwed Sailor and the Conformists are also excellent examples. www. myspace.com/battlestheband

MOMEDY: The term Momedy is a combination of the words musical and comedy. Prominent Momedians include Kiwi group Flight of the Conchords and the Scared Weird Little Guys and Eddie Perfect. To some extent the genre includes any entertainer, comedian or comedy group who often include musical instruments as part of their routine. www. myspace.com/conchords

* NERDCORE HIP-HOP: Nerdcore hip- hop is pretty much as you'd suspect it to be although some call it geeksta rap. Performed by nerds or geeks it features subject matter of excessive interest to nerds – science fiction (including all things Star Wars), science, computers et al. Nerdcore is usually used by artists who take pride in being a nerd. www. myspace.com/karlrolsen

* OBSCURO MUSIC: Obscuro music is a term for music that cannot neatly be classified into other genres which makes it hard for me to define here. The website www. allmusic.com says it is: "a nebulous category that encompasses the weird, the puzzling, the ill-conceived, the unclassifiable, the musical territory you never dreamed existed." www. myspace.com/48412744

* SADCORE: Not to be confused with Emo, sadcore and its best friend, slowcore, are generally assigned to groups known for their full-on rockouts who suddenly surprise you with a downbeat ballad comprised entirely of depressing lyrical themes and slow tempos. Too depressing to list here.

* SHOEGAZING: Sometimes also referred to as Nu-gaze, shoegaze or shoegazer refers to musicians in bands who adopt a motionless performing style, standing on stage and staring at the floor while playing their instruments; ie, looking at their shoes. Few shoegazers are dynamic performers or interesting interviewees. Described as The Scene that Celebrates Itself, shoegazers of the '90s are back and those acts are now referred to as nu-gazers. Mechanism for People is one self-described bunch of trainer viewers. www. myspace.com/137593109

* TROLL METAL: I didn't believe such a genre existed until I interviewed someone recently who had just played a festival in Germany which included many troll-metal bands. Troll metal refers to bands with lyrical themes revolving around trolls; eg: Fintroll, Trollfest, Mortiis, Trollzilla, Trollheim's Grott and and other "dark evil black metal folk troll kult forest metal bands". Like Viking metal, it often contains anti-Christian themes, and as I couldn't make out too many of the lyrics I can't really tell you what exactly they were banging on about. Anyway, they made me look under every bridge I've been across since. www. myspace.com/trollfest

* ZOMBIE HIP-HOP: The Gorillaz are numerous things – a "post-apocalyptic zombie hip-hop band", a virtual phenomenon and an evolving musical art project. A collaboration between brit-pop band Blur's lead singer Damon Albarn and underground comic artist/ Tank Girl-creator Jamie Hewlett. The sound is a totally eclectic genre mix-up. The video for their first smash single, Clint Eastwood, showed the animated band members battling a resurrected army of red-eyed zombie gorillas. Enough said, really. www. myspace.com/gorillaz