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In a year rocked by terrorism, accounting scandals
and a lingering recession, the view of the world that
popular culture chooses to reflect back to its public
seems to bear little resemblance to the day-to-day reality
of most Americans’ lives. As the encroachment of ever-increasing
media consolidation threatens to further constrict the
information we receive and the discussions we have;
as the threat of war looms on the horizon and our civil
liberties are ripped to shreds amidst jingoistic fervour;
and as the link between advertising, consumerism and
our apathetic disinterest in playing a role in governing
our own cities and towns becomes increasingly clear,
it seems proper to ask what role our artists should
play in helping us choose and frame the issues that
inform our lives and how we might respond to them.
 On
the other hand, it can be argued that pop culture is
nothing if not a release from the heavy issues that
burden us all, and that looking for answers to philosophical,
social and economic problems from women and men armed
with guitars and easy rhymes may not be the best way
to proceed.
But didn’t Plato both entertain and enlighten with the
Allegory of the Cave? Didn’t Blake counsel us in From
the Everlasting Gospel that Jesus was not actually meek
or mild and that it would be Satan who would try to
pacify us? Didn’t Bob Dylan electrify our synapses with
Chimes of Freedom?
Somewhere in between these poles fall the Apples in
Stereo. Like the Impressionists who evoked wondrous
sensations which hinted at half-realized truths buried
in the recesses of our souls, the Apples create blissful
harmonies wrapped in effervescent melodies which tug
on the heartstrings and call out the universal names
for the ineffable nexus of emotions, thoughts and feelings
which govern our existence.
Robert Schneider, the man behind the Apples’ genius,
studied both music and philosophy at the University
of Colorado at Boulder, so he is no stranger to such
esoteric notions. And given the prodigious amount of
exceptionally beautiful music he and his wife Hilary
and their band of friends have created over the last
nine years, he could easily turn his attention toward
any number of issues and codify them into elegant anthems
summing up the most crucial elements, and all in 4/4
time. Fortunately or not, though, he’s not interested.
“I hate topical songwriting, I think it is artless,”
he explained responding to a question about Village
Voice critic Robert Christgau’s recent suggestion that
Schneider could be a major force if he had anything
to say. “[Christgau] is right. For somebody who talks
a lot, I really don’t have much to say. But it is not
by accident—I want to make music that is timeless, which
from my perspective is the opposite of timeliness. I
want to evoke without coming out and stating what I’m
talking about.”
In contrast to most of the Apples previous records,
the new album Velocity of Sound (Spinart), borrows more
from the Ramones than the Beatles. Where its previous
efforts seemed to tread the path between the groovy
and the twee, Velocity simply rocks. One reason for
the the discs’ newfound sound, Schneider said, is that
he imposed a strict mandate on himself to eschew the
use of acoustic instruments, partially because the last
album took a year and a half to make and partially because
he wanted the album to sound more like a real band.
“In the past I was so hung up on high fidelity, I wanted
this one to be more raw,” explained Schneider. “I wanted
to take off in a direction that wasn’t retro, and the
more stuff you put on a record the more it dilutes the
feeling of a real band.”
However, to get to the real source of the record’s sound,
you have to go back 20 months. Between moving from Denver
to Lexington, Ky., where Schneider said he and Hilary
could afford to buy a house, and the birth of their
son, Max, the band experienced a break in its continuity.
The break gave the band time to think about exploring
new directions, which then led to Schneider’s decision
to try to capture the band’s live sound. In order to
do this, he said, he decided to get rid of all the usual
pre-conceived arrangements and production flourishes,
which, as often as are not, were in-joke references
to his favourite albums. “I started to realize that
maybe if we were going to do something really great,
we should be doing something that isn’t referential
to other people’s stuff,” recalled the native South
African. “So we decided to use the eight-track instead
of the 16-track because I wanted it to sound fuzzy and
because I didn’t want to have as many choices.”
Despite the lack of whistles, horns, acoustic guitars
and all the other stuff that make Apples in Stereo records
so much fun to listen to, Velocity hits the nail on
the head. Instead of the breathy bedroom melancholia
of tunes like “Pine Away” or “About Your Fame” or the
watery psychedelia of “Strawberryfire,” or the funky,
blue-eyed soul of “The Bird That You Can’t See,” the
Apples’ seventh full-length simply grinds raunchy chords
against trash-can drums to create a cornucopia of old-fashioned,
angsty rock ‘n’ roll.
If Velocity sounds decidedly less retro, perhaps it
is because Schneider purposefully avoided writing in
his typically dreamy, wistfully introspective way. In
an effort to distance himself and the band from its
back catalogue, Schneider said he tried to be direct
and anti-poetic instead of pretentious and faux-deep.
Furthermore, with the proliferation of so many retro
bands, especially the kind that fetishize the 60s rather
than create new music, Schneider said he wanted to rebel
against the revolution he helped to start. “I am sick
of retro. I am sick of oldies. I want to make new sounds
and sing with my own voice,” he declared. “I want to
burn down the past and say “fuck you” to current trends
and do our own thing for the future.”
As artists should. But what about addressing current
events? What about Christgau’s question? With such an
abundance of talent it is interesting to think about
what the Apples could do if they tackled such timeless
issues as war, greed and corruption. Still, when you
think about it, who really needs another “Biko” or “Farm
on the Freeway.”
While great art can illuminate and crystallize the salient
points of important issues with a degree of clarity
unknown in politics—Picasso’s Guernica or most of Max
Ernst’s work come to mind—the Apples, though not nearly
as grim, are, perhaps, more like Edvard Munch’s The
Scream. Vivid yet impressionistic. You infer through
feelings what the Apples’ music is saying from its textures
and sounds rather than actually understanding it literally.
So maybe Christgau is wrong. Maybe the Apples do have
something to say. They’re just not going to spell it
out in big, block letters.
“My music is about expressionism, not statements,” Schneider
insisted. “I don’t want to say anything. I want to evoke
without coming out and stating what I’m talking about.
That is how we experience life. It doesn’t come with
commentary.”
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