Line Out - Comments on Dept of Corrections

Comment by danmohr

danmohr — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:11:08 -0800

Moreover, Prince is talented where Sals-Humara is, to my ears, attempting to make music so horrifically bad that humanity's only salvation will be to slaughter all non-deaf children at birth to prevent this plague from being spread any further and rendering the entire concept of music pointless.

In summary, I am not a fan.

Comment by gary gary

gary gary — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:55:01 -0800

too bad they missed d.m. in the slaughter

Comment by no-fi

no-fi — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:32:35 -0800

oh eric, we forgive you. you just got panther confused with no-fi soul rebellion. WE are the 'white-boy prince'(doesn't get much whiter than heimer) & they are, 'floor-dancing.' don't sweat it, happens all the time...

Comment by lar

lar — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:24:15 -0800

RACIST! Stop destroying all ages music!

Comment by wtf

wtf — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:52:04 -0800

i didn't mean to call eg racist. eric, thanks for the correction. here's what i said:
panther, charlie salas-humara, is cuban-american, not a "white-boy Prince." remember the deerhoof show and black black's black face antics? he was the only one who had something non-apologetic to say about it, and, if i remember correctly, he and leti angel boycotted hte rest of their booked dates with leti angel's dumbassery. didn't you write that column? i imagine he wouldn't appreciate being labeled a "white-boy Prince."

plus, panther is now two people. that's truly something worth blogging about. did the macy's cards scare you away from myspace research for good or something?

to not be a totally harsh bastard: true aih description.

and.... done procrastinating.
peace. just, well, part of the reason why people think "hipster music" is so predominantly white is because journalists never ask non-white hipster musicians about their cultural heritage or bother to make it relevant. ask? bother?

Comment by rkpetersen

rkpetersen — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:00:46 -0800

The kid looks pretty whitey to me.

Comment by Eric Grandy

Eric Grandy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:14:24 -0800

My bad for not scouring myspace first, wtf, but I only do so much research for a six word description. Having seen Panther a half dozen times, I figured I was all good. Oh well. Thanks for the heads up.

Comment by wtf

wtf — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:27:32 -0800

Figuring you're "all good" to go about assuming someone is white because you're seen them perform a half a dozen times is exactly the problem. You're part of the hipster establishment, they're part of the hipster establishment, you're white, most hipsters are white, so he must be. This logic speaks to your understanding the norm of hipsterness as whiteness. This might not be a problem for you as long as you profit from it, but the artistic/cultural movement with which you align yourself actually isn't entirely designed to maintain an assumption that only people who identify as white or who you identify as white can make music you like, what are you doing? If the music you write about doesn't privilege, at some level, real movements for social justice, the music scene you write about is little more than a country club. It's easy to call out overt racism in a column, but what about more pervasively subtle forms of racism? I'm not gonna chalk your name on the sidewalk or anything, but seriously: think about it. You have a lot of power to good as a journalist, and a lot of leeway to do the same old same old.

He looks pretty whitey to you, rkpetersen? Well, yeah... I guess Latinos don't have black skin, so they must be pretty whitey... Fuckwad.

Comment by Eric Grandy

Eric Grandy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:52:34 -0800

Clearly, wtf, I am thinking about it. For whatever it's worth, I used the term "white-boy Prince" intending to say that Panther is like Prince, only, you know, not black. Why does it even matter? Because there's something a little absurd or removed about Panther's r&b, his ahryhtmic gesticulations, etc. He's playing with some Sasha Frere-Jones notions of "blackness" in indie rock. I though, however misinformed, that it was somewhat germane to the description.

As for "the hipster establishment" and "the norm of hipsterness as whiteness": Hipster is a pretty meaningless tag, or at least one with a very loose definition. You say I'm a hipster because of, what, my job at the Stranger? You think I'm part of a fucking country club? Be serioius. It's silly to talk about hipsterdom like it's anything as powerful as a race or class, like it's some meaningful elite status�it's more like a state of hyperactive cultural consumerism, open to anyone who wants to waste time and money staying ahead of the trends.

Also, you might enjoy reading Hip: The History by John Leland. It's not perfect, but it traces some pretty interesting lines regarding hipness and race in American history.

Comment by rkpetersen

rkpetersen — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:07:19 -0800

@8: Bite me, self-righteous humorless prick.

Comment by rkpetersen

rkpetersen — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:24:18 -0800

AND, I would go so far as to say that, in the picture accompanying this blog post, and only based on that picture, knowing nothing else about Sals-Humara, not even his name, that virtually no one would positively identify him as Cuban-American, or even guess that he has any Hispanic ancestry at all. In that picture, he looks pretty much like any greasy-haired, too-tired, and probably strung-out indie musician with an attitude. Not that that's a bad thing.

Comment by liz

liz — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 06:57:58 -0800

This is fucking rediculous. How the fuck are you guys gauging the quality of music these days? How the fuck did panther get on a bill with a legitimate band? How could this be considered legitimate music? This is bullshit. It means nothing, and it has no business being mentioned in a music blog.

Comment by liz

liz — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 06:58:04 -0800