Battles (3-30-07, Empty Bottle, Chicago - ENTIRE CONCERT)

RAINBO VIDEO presents

BATTLES
Live
3-30-07
Empty Bottle
Chicago
*ENTIRE CONCERT*

Camera: Rainbo Video & Chris Prost

Directed & Edited by Rainbo Video

http://bttls.com
http://myspace.com/battlestheband

http://youtube.com/rainbovideo
http://myspace.com/rainbovideo

Category:

Music

Tags:

• battles
• rainbo
• video
• empty
• bottle
• chicago

[melosmtd]

why dont people just accept the music for the way it is? stop labelling it. no point. it doesnt matter if its "technical" or not. its not a matter of how fast or crazy you can play something, but how you evoke emotion from their own original melodies. if its simple...then its simple...if its crazy...its crazy. let the musicians make the music and stop evaluating with such ignorant criticisms.

[bransinanderson]

Too bad this entire clip is out of sync.

[saosao77]

@jokoboarder sure I am!

[jokoboarder]

@saosao77 stop bitching and be thankful you found such a great talent

[NutterBuff]

anyone knows the setlist for this show?

[chunster9]

Best thing on the internet!!

[treadsuit]

i hate long comments

[saosao77]

...I'm here 'cause I read BEATLES...

[ryanke07]

@TheRedHutt However, I think valuing Battles's importance based on "innovation" and "instrumental skill" is both an illusion and mistaken. I disagree with the notion that what is essentially pop music can push musical boundaries. Maybe on a small level, but the 20th century has already pushed music farther than pop can realistically go. If I would fault Battles for one thing, it's not presenting a more concrete message. Pop's terseness and simplicity is its advantage, why not embrace it?

[ryanke07]

@TheRedHutt I would never claim Stravinsky does own them. Plenty of his contemporaries, later jazz musicians, and early pop composers used them all the time. They used them so much that they've started to become something easy to fall back on to create intrigue. I only use Stravinsky as an example because Tyondai has acknowledged his debt to him. I wouldn't fault Battles for using those chords though, and I do think it would foolish of them to search for some innovative harmonic material.

[TheRedHutt]

@ryanke07 You could say using those chords to get an emotional response is cheap and easy, but you probably wouldn't unless you thought all music was cheap and easy in that way since there's not much else at the musician's disposal but noise from a finite instrument. Surely you won't deny that some music requires more innovation and instrumental skill than others to create. Battles is only derivative in the way that modern music must be, but Stravinsky doesn't OWN so-called Petrushkian chords.

[TheRedHutt]

@ryanke07 Genre is of no use to me, and while this isn't avant-garde, it's more artful and adventurous than your average pop song. You're right in that the effect of an emotional appeal is, by its nature, subjective, and there is no absolutely right or wrong aesthetic. However, the conscious state this music puts me in isn't precisely emotional. Mainstream pop songs about love and having fun are cheap and easy in a way Battles isn't. Average pop musicians couldn't play this, let alone create it.