Trivial.
Thursday I took the bold step of leaving my apartment and going out to an Insound-sponsored music trivia contest at an American Apparel "pop-up shop" in Tribeca, and while I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to criticize an event that I enjoyed (albeit one that I didn't win1), I was disappointed, if not especially surprised, that "music trivia" really meant "indie rock trivia (2000-2005)." The email I got regarding the event said that the folks at the fine Dusted Magazine were going to be submitting questions, and I figured that'd keep all the questions from involving Clap Your Hands Say Yeah2, but when I got there it turned out that Dusted sadly wasn't involved after all.
But whatever, complaining that an event sponsored by Insound is too focused on indie rock is like complaining that The Source never writes about electroacoustic improv. When I was going over the event in my mind, thinking about how I'd improve it, it wasn't the focus on indie rock that I homed in on so much as the frequency of questions that weren't really about music at all, but rather about nonmusical minutiae that are the province of the trainspotting psychopath. Questions like "What video game-themed movie starred Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley?"3 (which I answered correctly), or "How many shows did Art Brut play when they first came to New York in November 2005?"4 (which I didn't) are outside the realm of what I consider "music trivia," although I'd never argue that such questions are invalid inclusions; that's just my personal preference, and I feel that the event would have been better without them. Someone competing in a music trivia contest shouldn't be penalized for not watching The OC.
I also would have made the questions harder, dependent on having a knowledge of musicians who predate Modest Mouse and genres other than rock, and in some cases even subjective. Examples of questions that are by no means impossible, but in my humble opinion better than a lot of the ones we got Thursday night:
- Name two Black Sabbath lead singers besides Ozzy Osbourne.5
- Which famous blues musician admitted to having soiled himself after accidentally being locked inside a coffin?6
- Name five singers whose voices are less annoying than the singer from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.7
- The magazine, Uncle Tupelo album, and alt-country movement No Depression all took their name from a song by which country act?8
- What does "S1W" stand for?9
- What is Paul McCartney credited as playing on the Beach Boys song "Vegetables"?10
- Name either of the two people who have done tape loop manipulations in Mission of Burma.11
- What primitivist garage band covered The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street in response to Sonic Youth's never-carried-out threat to cover the Beatles' White Album?12
Okay, I admit that the Clap Your Hands question was kind of a joke. Still, I'd get a laugh out of it.
1 My grief is tempered by the irrelevance of the questions I failed to answer correctly to any aspect of that which I consider either worthwhile music or worthwhile knowledge. A representative example is "The lead singer of Art Brut got into a fight with the lead singer of which band?"
2 In fairness, I'm pretty sure only one of the questions involved Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
3 The Wizard, perhaps best known for containing the line "The Power Glove. It's so awesome.
4 Four.
5 Acceptable answers include Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Dave Donato, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen, Tony Martin, and, arguably, Jeff Fenholt. I would probably also accept "the guy from Deep Purple."
6 Screaming Jay Hawkins
7 Acceptable answers include John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, Mark E. Smith of The Fall, Billy Corgan, Tiny Tim, Jandek, Jean Smith of Mecca Normal, John Flansburgh and John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, Calvin Johnson, and Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu.
8 The Carter Family
9 Security of the First World.
10 Carrot and celery.
11 Martin Swope or Bob Weston.
12 Pussy Galore.
But whatever, complaining that an event sponsored by Insound is too focused on indie rock is like complaining that The Source never writes about electroacoustic improv. When I was going over the event in my mind, thinking about how I'd improve it, it wasn't the focus on indie rock that I homed in on so much as the frequency of questions that weren't really about music at all, but rather about nonmusical minutiae that are the province of the trainspotting psychopath. Questions like "What video game-themed movie starred Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley?"3 (which I answered correctly), or "How many shows did Art Brut play when they first came to New York in November 2005?"4 (which I didn't) are outside the realm of what I consider "music trivia," although I'd never argue that such questions are invalid inclusions; that's just my personal preference, and I feel that the event would have been better without them. Someone competing in a music trivia contest shouldn't be penalized for not watching The OC.
I also would have made the questions harder, dependent on having a knowledge of musicians who predate Modest Mouse and genres other than rock, and in some cases even subjective. Examples of questions that are by no means impossible, but in my humble opinion better than a lot of the ones we got Thursday night:
- Name two Black Sabbath lead singers besides Ozzy Osbourne.5
- Which famous blues musician admitted to having soiled himself after accidentally being locked inside a coffin?6
- Name five singers whose voices are less annoying than the singer from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.7
- The magazine, Uncle Tupelo album, and alt-country movement No Depression all took their name from a song by which country act?8
- What does "S1W" stand for?9
- What is Paul McCartney credited as playing on the Beach Boys song "Vegetables"?10
- Name either of the two people who have done tape loop manipulations in Mission of Burma.11
- What primitivist garage band covered The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street in response to Sonic Youth's never-carried-out threat to cover the Beatles' White Album?12
Okay, I admit that the Clap Your Hands question was kind of a joke. Still, I'd get a laugh out of it.
1 My grief is tempered by the irrelevance of the questions I failed to answer correctly to any aspect of that which I consider either worthwhile music or worthwhile knowledge. A representative example is "The lead singer of Art Brut got into a fight with the lead singer of which band?"
2 In fairness, I'm pretty sure only one of the questions involved Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.
3 The Wizard, perhaps best known for containing the line "The Power Glove. It's so awesome.
4 Four.
5 Acceptable answers include Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Dave Donato, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen, Tony Martin, and, arguably, Jeff Fenholt. I would probably also accept "the guy from Deep Purple."
6 Screaming Jay Hawkins
7 Acceptable answers include John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, Mark E. Smith of The Fall, Billy Corgan, Tiny Tim, Jandek, Jean Smith of Mecca Normal, John Flansburgh and John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, Calvin Johnson, and Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu.
8 The Carter Family
9 Security of the First World.
10 Carrot and celery.
11 Martin Swope or Bob Weston.
12 Pussy Galore.
posted by Dktr. Blasphemy at 2:25 AM
1 Comments:
How seriously can you really take these 2 guys? http://www.insound.com/images_etc/triviasm.jpg
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