spring break breakthrough

Transcription

VO L . I | NO . 1 | FA LL 2012
FEEL IT. FOLLOW IT.
FINDING HER VOICE
MAGGIE PAKUTKA
13
SPRING BREAK B R E A K T H R O U G H
THE BEAT | Vol. I | No. 1 | Fall 2012
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF:
MANAGING EDITOR:
SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR:
FEATURES EDITOR:
NEWS EDITOR:
REVIEWS EDITOR:
PHOTO COORDINATOR:
SENIOR WRITERS:
VIDEOGRAPHER:
REPORTERS:
PRODUCTION EDITOR:
COPY EDITOR:
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
COMMUNITY OUTREACH:
PUBLISHER/FACULTY ADVISOR:
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/FACULTY ADVISOR:
Briana Rodriguez
Scott Duwe
Catherine Castro
Christie Rotondo
Rebecca Strassberg
Andrew Marinaccio
Meredith Jones
Rebecca Kaplan
Kevin Redding
features
UPFRONT
FOUNDED 2011
ART DIRECTION & DESIGN:
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
Michelle Huey
Roman Dean
Kellyann Petry
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
LOGO DESIGN:
COVER PHOTO:
Alyssa Evans
Kellyann Petry
Conversations with Purchase’s nationally-ranked beatboxer,
Spencer Polanco, and music professor, Dr. Joe Ferry.
A welcome from publisher Andrew Salomon... 4
UPFRONT WITH...
By Aurora Fowlkes & Meredith Jones ... 5, 6
Occupy Wall Street wanted to wrest power from the 1 percent, and to redefine power itself. On the cusp of its first anniversary, how much juice
does OWS still have, at Purchase and around the world?
By Rebecca Kaplan ... 12
SUNRISE ON SUNSET BOULEVARD
COVERING THE AGES
The Cover Show, with live tributes to 1990s bands,
is a new fave.
David Grimaldi
Aurora Fowlkes
Ashley Helms
Michael Kerwin
Lisa Eadicicco
Daniel Nation
Michael Andronico
Anthony Aquilino
Scott Interrante
12
16
20
23
25
FROM MIKE CHECK TO REALITY CHECK
By Jillian Lucas ... 7
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Scot Moriarty, Purchase’s producer of choice.
By Kevin Redding ... 8
Sean McVerry had a dream-like spring break, working and partying in
the Hollywood Hills with J. Cole. Now that it’s fall, all the senior comp
major has to do is prove it wasn’t a one-shot deal.
By Rebecca Strassberg ... 16
GAME CHANGERS
SHOCK & LAWN
Ecstasy, agony, splendor in the grass: a Culture Shock pictorial.
Photographs by Roman Dean ... 9
Ole Skaar
One of hip-hop’s last taboos—being an openly gay artist—is slowly
yielding to people like Purchase alum Andy Smart and underground
movements like sissy bounce.
By Christie Rotondo ... 20
FINDING HER VOICE
Andrew Salomon, Assistant Professor of Journalism
Robin Lynch, Associate Professor of Art+Design
Maggie Pakutka, of Maggie and the Hat fame, is a woman trying to make
it in the man’s world of music engineering. The Beat Q&A.
By Ashley Helms ... 23
ALL FUNK’D UP
Mokaad is blending hip-hop with old-school funk, and turning heads
while dropping the beat
By Kevin Redding ... 25
FOUNDING CONTRIBUTORS
The staff thanks all who generously give to make The Beat possible, including:
We apologize if you contributed to The Beat and we
forgot to include your name.
Please notify the editors at
THEBEATATPC@GMAIL.COM
In the subject line put
“ FORGOTTEN CONTRIBUTOR”
We will include your
name in our next issue.
2
Robin Lynch
Frank & Rebekah Ahrens
Michael Long
Diane O’Brien
Sheryl Huggins Salomon
Eric Kaplan
Richard Alfredo
Anonymous
Ross Daly
Larry Elkin
Meri Beth Jones
Janet Kelsey
Nancy Kaplan
Suzanne Kessler
Madeline &
Gerald Marinaccio
Michael &
JoAnn Marinaccio
Theresa &
Jim McElwaine
Tony Reid
George D. Reilly
Marisol Rodriguez
Charles Salomon
Robert Cook &
Kealy Salomon
In Memory Of
Marylee R. Salomon
Samantha Strassberg
Kenneth Tabachnick
Louise Yelin
Philip Kaplan
Gloria Castro
Dave Catuogno
Laurie Engemann
Tara George
Noel Holston &
Marty Winkler
Patricia R. Klausner
Kristin & James Luebbert
Nathan Lunstrum
Jeffrey & Peyton Marcus
Sheyla Navarro
Gail & Richie Porter
Dianne Rotondo
Julie & Anthony Rotondo
Tina Marie Rotondo
Maria Somma
StamptheBand.com
Stacey Strassberg
Rebecca Strassberg
Matt Semel
Tad Welch
Mary Alice Williams
Anonymous
Donald Beard
Virginia & Tom Breen
Donna Cornachio
Alexa Dillenbeck
Vinny Duwe
Mara Goldman
Paul Griffin
Bella Feldman
Charlie Fonville
Johnette Howard
Cheryl Kushner
Guara Narayan
Melissa Ortiz
Judy Hoffstein &
Joel Patenaude
Ronni Reich
Patrick P. Salomon
Laurence Sheinman
Stéphane Verlé-Smith
Kathleen Tolan
Tina Carletto
Andrew Marinaccio
Julian Rubinstein
Andrew Scott
Halley Bondy
Kathryn Churchill
Laura Chmielewski
Luke Crowe
Scott Duwe
William Franke
Leslie &
Tony Goldsmith
Harper Habbersett
Anna Helhoski
Scott Interrante
Harriet & Phil Janovy
Genetta M. Adams
Zack Berliner
James Bartha
Kyle Carrier
Sarah D’Andrea
Jordan Griffith
Steven J. Hamrick, Esq.
Daniel Holloway
Scott Interrante
Bill Junor
Ted Kaplan
Shomar L.
William A. Loeb
Jillian Lucas
Tiffany Lumsden
Christine Perner
Alexandra Pusateri
Gene Seymour
Lily Thrall
Chrissy Vitolo
Mark Waldron
the pulse of purchase
QUARTERNOTES ... 27
Michelle Charles: Misogynistic rap video turned on its head
Kelly Izzo: Alice out of Wonderland
Ariel Loh: Tonight, they are “The Young”
REVIEWS ... 28
Hannibal King: “The High Times of Don Chiesel,” reviewed by Andrew Marinaccio
Bryant Dope: “Queens Kids,” reviewed by Scott Interrante
Stone Cold Fox: “The Young,” reviewed by Michael Andronico
Wess Meets West: “Chevaliers,” reviewed by Anthony Aquilino
Mitski: “Lush,” reviewed by Anthony Aquilino
YEAR IN REVIEW ... 30
A look back at the 2011-2012 school year
Fall Fest 2011
PHOTO BY KELLYANN PETRY
By Lisa Eadiccico
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It’s common for professors to smile wryly when students have
ventured into the world, discovered that what we’ve taught them is
true, and return to relay their wonderment. “My editor hates quote
ledes just as much as you do.” “The producer scolded a staffer for
coming to work in jeans.” “The guy who always shows up late always
turns in the worst copy.” At least we know they were listening.
Between The Beat’s notional and physical lives was its virtual one,
and credit goes to Catherine Castro, who set up our Facebook page
and Twitter feed, which generated buzz and demand and helped fuel
our fundraising drive. Unfortunately, she screwed up in reverse, and
is now responsible for developing our website, the main project for
this year. Sorry, Catherine.
Truth is, the wonderment cuts both ways. We’re often amazed when
students show us how well they’ve listened in the work they do. Last
year I was editing a stack of profiles for my course The Beat of Music
Journalism. I was continually buffeted by compelling tales of people
yearning for unique and universal things, overcoming obstacles,
battling the odds. Suddenly, I wasn’t grading a stack of papers
anymore. I was reading the rough draft of the first issue of a magazine.
Meredith Jones had the unenviable task of coordinating our photo
shoots, which means trying to align the schedules of college students.
I would liken it to herding cats, if only college students possessed the
consistent pliability and sense of cooperation that one gets from cats.
Meredith also came through to do our Q&A with Dr. Joe Ferry.
A few weeks later, a student came to see me about her senior project.
When she finished I said, “I would like to start a print magazine at
Purchase that’s devoted to music and long-form journalism, and
I’m looking for an editor-in-chief.”
“I’ll do it,” she said.
As editor-in-chief, Briana Rodriguez wasn’t what I hoped. She was
better. As an editor, she spotted holes, pressed for rewrites, doled
out praise. She drove through rush-hour traffic each Tuesday night
for meetings, wherein she would provide graceful ballast to my
hyperkinetic, Tourettsean mien. What you’re holding in your hands
wouldn’t be there unless her professionalism and strength had
matched her enthusiasm.
The Beat needed more than Briana, and we got it. Scott Duwe is a
managing editor of unflinching honesty and unceasing drive. If Briana
is our heart, Scott’s our spine. Christie Rotondo and Becca Strassberg
will either be great reporters or great editors—my mind changes every
day. Their editing and leadership, as well as their stories on gay hip
hop artists and Sean McVerry, respectively, have helped to establish
our standard going forward.
So, too, has the work of Andrew Marinaccio, who is an uncommon
choice for reviews editor, because he’d rather his work prompt new
questions than stand as the final word. Would that all critics and their
editors were thus. Rebecca Kaplan (Occupy Wall Street) and Kevin
Redding (Studio A, Mokaad) are as talented as they are unflappable,
taking every assignment thrown their way
and delivering more than asked.
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
UPFRONT WITH
Spencer Polanco
The Beat is first and foremost a print publication, and we couldn’t
exist in physical form without a pack of students from Prof. Robin
Lynch’s Community Design class, led by Michelle Huey. Her and her
classmates’ artistry and patience have made the magazine what it was
intended to be—something you can hold as well as read.
In media, what we’ve gained in immediacy we’ve lost in intimacy,
and to have news that matters you need both. Not both in the same
outlet, but definitely both in the same informational ecosystem. We’re
losing our diversity of form, and form matters. If you don’t believe
me, look at what was done to transportation in postwar America—
the wholesale gutting of railroads has left us too dependent on the
automotive industry. Who knows—if we had more trains, we’d have
more time on our way to work to sit and think, or to read.
I’ve seen the numbers on print magazines and young people. It
ain’t pretty. Pew tells us the average age of print magazine readers
is 44, and that number is going up. I don’t care. I have two-dozen
people all under the age of 25 who have devoted time and energy
they can’t spare to make a magazine, a print magazine. They aren’t
representative of their generation, but they are the best of it, so why
not follow their example? Isn’t that what we’re always told, to follow
the best? So don’t just read and marvel at the work here. Listen to it.
You’ll be amazed by what you hear.
PUBLISHER
BY AURORA FOWLKES
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
Beat by beat, a 20-year-old bio-med major at Purchase is making a name for himself—
and helping America to reclaim an art it invented.
HOW DID IT FEEL TO BE RANKED THE SEVENTEENTH
GREATEST BEATBOXER IN AMERICA?
I felt really proud to be ranked 17th in the nation, but the
feeling of pride goes beyond a number. I was just happy
to be part of the leading movement of vocal percussion in
America. At first I was startled when I received the ranking
of 17th, because I came so close to the finals (Top 16). I
couldn’t believe I was the cut off. But this just inspired me
to practice my craft.
HOW DID ALL OF THIS START?
Two summers ago...I made a video for an audition to do
an event in Austria. It went viral on YouTube, and since
then many people have been contacting me to book
performances, and to collaborate with them. I’m on
someone’s mix tape, I’m gonna be recording with many
people at Purchase, and I have a lot of projects I want to
set up for beatboxing.
IS THERE A CERTAIN NUMBER OF SOUNDS YOU CAN
MAKE?
What’s interesting about beatboxing is that you can make
just about any sound you can think of. If you break down
words, they’re just different letters combined. If you break
down beatboxing, it’s just different noises combined. It’s
like talking, almost, but with sounds instead of words.
[Spencer demonstrates: drinking water, bird calls, zipper
sounds, and helicopter sounds, as well.] There are a lot
of different things you can do, and that’s what I really like
about beatboxing and stage performances. I can make the
crowd visualize whatever I want.
WHAT INSPIRES YOUR ART?
I think the community of music here at Purchase is really
inspiring. If it wasn’t for the hip-hop club, I wouldn’t have
performed here.
WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO BEAT BOX?
I didn’t realize this before, but beatboxing is kind of like
an underground collective; America is kind of late with the
wave of beatboxing. Although we founded the art, we kind
of died out. Now, it’s coming back up and I hope to be one
of the people in this movement that really does something.
I feel like it’s an unrepresented art. It’s the most manmade, organic instrument that someone can have, and
if someone wants to express their artistic ability through
it, I feel that’s fantastic. I still have a long way to go from
where I see myself being in beatboxing. But I have dreams
and I know how to get there. And until I reach that goal, I’ll
just do what I do best, and beatbox my heart out.
Of the 2012 American Beatbox Championships which took
place in August, Polanco said, “This year, I’m ready. The
competition is going to be a lot harder as the beatboxing
community has grown more in the U.S., but I am confident
and plan on being on top of my game.”
Aurora Fowlkes is a staff reporter for The Beat.
ANDREW SALOMON
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5
Dr. Joe Ferry
BY MEREDITH JONES
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
“There are a million hats you wear as a record producer,”
says Dr. Ferry, and the same can be said for his work at
Purchase. Since 1976 the Grammy-nominated producer
has worked with major artists like David Bowie, Barbra
Streisand, Mel Tormé, and Rhonda Vincent; he’s been
playing bass even longer. Recently, Ferry spent a year
and a half touring with alter-ego artist Uzimon, who
combines comedy and roots-rock-dancehall reggae with
stellar performance integrity. He just wrote a book called
Connected: Mob Stories From My Past, and teaches studio
production at Purchase.
WHAT KIND OF MUSICAL EXPERIENCE IS YOUR IDEAL?
If Michael Jackson were alive today and asked me to play
in his band and all I needed to do was stand there and
play, that would be it. I’m a performer –
I’m a shoegazer, I don’t move when I play bass, I pretty
much just stand there, watch my shoelaces, and try to get
a fat groove goin’. It’s not that I’m afraid, I can’t. I can only
play bass. I can’t even walk and play bass.
WHAT ABOUT UZIMON’S PERSONA AND MUSICIANSHIP
APPEALS TO YOU?
Daniel Frith could walk into the room and you wouldn’t
know that’s Uzimon. It’s all makeup; the beard is fake.
When he becomes Uzimon he puts on the Jamaican patois
and you’d never guess that. He’s a perfectionist and wants
every show to be different, but when you’re on the road
that’s really hard to do. The idea is to hit a groove–you
do the same show, same moves every night. That’s what
makes the band tight. He doesn’t want that, which meant
rehearsal every single day. That was why I ultimately had
to leave the group. I can’t be here teaching, doing all my
other bass and production work and working with Uzi
seven days a week. But we’re still great friends. Uzimon
enabled me to confront a lot of my fears. I became a real
reggae bad boy. He forced me to do things I wouldn’t
normally do, like get tattoos, play in huge reggae clubs–
places I would frankly be afraid to go by myself. I’m
making a record called The Dub Album that’s going to be
a compilation of different artists. He’ll have two or three
tracks.
WHAT IS YOUR MISSION WHEN YOU RECORD A GROUP?
The first thing is that the artist needs to be comfortable.
I work now only with artists that I can connect with
cerebrally. I’m an old-school producer, so I don’t do
any engineering; I bring in terrific engineers like Peter
Denenberg and Phil Moffa. I think about, Is the band
gelling? Is the artist happy? Is the song coming together?
Literally, Is the temperature of the room okay? There are a
million hats that you wear as a record producer.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO PRODUCING?
In 1976 I recorded in RCA Studios and it was gigantic, like a football field. It had baffling
that lowered and raised from the ceiling so you could actually change the contours of
the room. The floor was gorgeous oak. Then we started doing the tracks and I heard
them coming out of these 600-watt Big Reds, there was this 24-track Neve console, and
I was like, “I love this! This is where records come from?” Finally the engineer Joaquin
Lopes said to me, “You know, you’d make a good record producer.” And I said, “What does
a record producer do?” He said, “What you’re doing! You’re guiding the session–don’t
you realize you’re telling the guitar player he’s out of tune, saying, ‘Let’s do this take
over again,’ you wrote the saxophone parts, you wrote the charts up, you’re leading the
band.” That’s what I always do–I just thought I was being pushy. And he said, “No, you’re
producing this record!”
WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON?
I produced a live EP for this singer named Joey Ray and we’re going to make a full-blown
album together. The other thing I’m really excited about is my book. It’s about my life with
my father. He’s sick now – he has Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, so he’s only a shell of his
former self; but he was a tough guy in his day, and I’m used to that guy.
BY JILLIAN LUCAS
PHOTOS BY KELLYANN PETRY
THE
COVER
WHAT GENRES ARE YOUR FAVORITES?
I love Reggae, Ska, R&B. I’m not really into singer-songwriter stuff; stories of lost love,
I’m not interested in that. I just like a big beat.
HOW HAVE STUDENTS OR MUSIC AT PURCHASE CHANGED SINCE YOU STARTED
WORKING ON CAMPUS?
They’re coming into our program almost engineers already; some of them come in with
credentials. I find that an 18-year-old guy thinks he’s God’s gift to the world. But they
mature over the four years; I see people going from clueless little brats to mature adults
that I’m really proud of. In that sense I find that nothing has changed.
HOW DO ALL OF THE HATS THAT YOU WEAR RELATE TO ONE ANOTHER?
Everything in life informs everything else in life. I teach my students what I love, but
I think the main thing that I embed in my teaching is how to live and be happy. I have
students who have been consulting me for 20 years. That comes from, hopefully, teaching
them not only the mechanics of what they’re studying, but the fact that we’re here to be
loved, to spread love, and to be happy, and that’s where it’s at.
Meredith Jones is a senior writer and photo consultant for The Beat.
SHOW
The Cover Show, with live tributes to
1990s bands, is a new fave at The Stood.
The siren song of memories gone by is hard to ignore as a
college student. Reminiscing about the past, especially when
you reach the age that is truly the blending of child and adult, is
almost a rite of passage.
Some colleges take this into consideration and attempt to
rid their budding co-eds of their desires to relive their golden
days, but others, like Purchase, manifest these desires into
something great. With that manifestation, comes the semiannual Cover Show at The Stood.
Elise Granata, the 20-year-old arts management major and
former General Program Coordinator, is one of the numerous
students that helped set up the last Cover Show. “The Cover
Show is an opportunity for greater access. It’s an opportunity
for people to play in bands who may not have bands, and for
people to come out to shows who don’t normally,” she said.
While Zombie Prom and Purchase’s two major “festivals,”
Fall Fest and Culture Shock, are usually the main attractions
when the school year begins, the Cover Show has developed
something of a cult following. There is one each semester, with
this semester’s scheduled for sometime in November.
Students that participate start preparing months in advance,
practicing and choosing the right band to cover, along with
song choices, and even costumes. Even attendees plan out
their night to catch the band they really want to see.
“I think that there’s more support and excitement for the
Cover Show,” Granata said. “People come out to it that don’t
come out to any other event; people who may not be interested
in the type of music we bring in otherwise, or the level of
music.”
The Cover Show combines reliving nostalgic musical acts
and the illusion of seeing those big name bands, into one event
more easily accessible to Purchase students. “It’s always really
validating to be able to sing along to bands in a smaller setting
that you never dreamed you’d see in any setting,” Granata said.
With the chance to play music that brought back memories
of growing up, and the ability to dance to your favorite song,
students jumped at the opportunity. Patrick Linehan, the
drummer for the Green Day cover band this past spring said,
“I’m most excited about it because of the bands. It’s the music I
kind of grew up with and I’m excited to play.”
The Green Day cover band, which went on third to last this
past event, was one of the highlights of many of the students’
nights, with popular songs from arguably the band’s most
popular album, “Dookie.” “This was spur of the moment,”
Patrick Hyland, the bassist said. “We wanted to do it, and
wanted to do a band that lots of people would like.” While the
hype this past show was on Green Day and Blink-182, other
bands like the Pixies garnered dance parties and mosh pits
as well. Bands from previous shows who covered Weezer and
Brand New, and a band that played a melody of 1990s covers,
were among the bands that brought the biggest buzz.
“Kids were coming up to the bands after the show,” studio
production major Brendan Williams said. “They thanked them
for playing, like, ‘You just played my middle school years.’”
With the list of acts expanding every semester and the turn
out and response growing, the Cover Show is ever-evolving.
More and more students are becoming attached to the music
they grew up with as the years spent as a kid seem farther
and father away.
Jillian Lucas is a staff reporter for The Beat
and a Purchase alumna, Class of 2012.
COVERING THE AGES
THE COVER SHOW
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7
Ecstasy, agony, splendor in the grass:
some highlights from Culture Shock 2012
Waiting in the lounge, bands and artists watch as Scot Moriarty, 25-year-old studio
engineer at Purchase, tweaks their songs to perfection. He’s just finished a session
with Max Hendrickson, a studio composition major, and is listening back to his
guitar track with concentrated ears.
Moriarty’s been here for only three semesters but he’s already recorded, mixed and
engineered albums, EPs, recitals and ensemble pieces. He is the go-to guy if you want
to get your music sounding tight, finessed and big for listeners.
Always a lover of music, he grew up focused in on specific records and recordings
of his favorite bands, where there was a certain distinct sound.
“Whether it be the bass tone, or the drum sound, or the doubled vocals and reverb,”
said Moriarty, “I realized all these years of going to shows locally and being friends
with bands, I started to get curious, and asked myself ‘how the fuck do they do that?’”
He stands tall behind the computer screens filled with audio and wave files, and
a desk with a huge 16 channel API board laid on it, which is used for mixing and
getting the right amount of bass and volume for each instrument recorded. He is
concentrated, but not confused. Though intimidating to those outside the program,
Moriarty is fluent in the functions of this equipment.
BY KEVIN REDDING
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
There’s an open guitar case, a stack of amps, and a
mish-mash of cable wires decorating the red-carpeted
floor in Studio A.
The studio is broken down into two sections:
the lounge-like control room with couches, a giant
HD-TV hovering over all, and the main mixing equipment conveyed on two computer screens. Standing in
this room, you can look right through the glass and
see the recording room, aligned with acoustic walls
and ceilings, an old Rhodes organ, a grand piano, a
drum set and a few guitars, all mike’d and hooked up
for recording.
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
SCOTT MORIARTY
8
“For my first session here at Purchase, I was recording a jazz group, and I ran into
problems,” he said. “I couldn’t get signal for things.
I didn’t know how to put a click on. I didn’t know how
to give someone more volume in their headphones.
Any studio that I go into, I have to do a bunch of
sessions to know my way around. But it’s important to
figure these things out on your own. That’s what I did;
you get better and you learn.”
It didn’t take him too long to find his groove in the studio, adjusting very quickly to
the hectic schedule and pressures of engineering.
Last semester while recording studio composition major Mitski Miyawaki’s album,
the two worked for about a month and a half to get things just right in the studio.
“I’d stress out about little things,” he said, regarding mixing a project like that;
spending hours late at night in the studio. He’s also had to juggle recording projects
required of his major, recordings done as a favor to musicians, and recordings
done for himself, like when he’s in the studio with his band, Levels.
“Sometimes you feel more passionate about certain things you’re recording and
working on than something else,” he says. “I’d much rather record with my band
because I love that music and I have an idea for it, but I try my best to keep a positive
outlook on whatever I’m working on. It’s best to make sure the client is happy and
it’s always a learning experience no matter what.”
A transfer from County College of Morris in New Jersey, Moriarty has a lot on his
plate and intends to keep busy. Hendrickson is happy with the guitar track. Moriarty
plays him a Levels song. Heavily distorted guitars and loud, crashing drums blast
through the speakers of Studio A, and Moriarty strikes a smile.
much anticipated
Friday night hit, Tycho
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
10
SHOCK+LAWN
CULTURE SHOCK
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
EMA; Tycho; Felice Brothers; Big Freedia;
Islands; students dancing at the main stage;
EMA PHOTOS BY KELLYANN PETRY
ALL OTHER PHOTOS BY ROMAN DEAN
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:
Coyote Campus; Idle Warships; Cloud Nothings; the crowd at Idle
Warships; 2012 MEC Alicia Santiago; Big Freedia’s dancer; Nina Sky
PHOTOS BY ROMAN DEAN
SHOCK+LAWN
CULTURE SHOCK
11
On the cusp of its anniversary, how much power does OWS have?
BY REBECCA KAPLAN
PHOTOS BY JESSICA LEHRMAN
In the fall of 2011, a group of protesters pitched a tent
outside, forgoing the warmth and safety of the indoors to
make a political statement, to open a dialogue. They did so
to the general confusion of those around them and managed
to spark an overwhelming anger in others. They each had
varied reasons for their actions and no specific plans beyond
a desire to raise awareness. They had no unifying cause
other than a general angst—the financial climate in the first
quarter of the 21st century was bad and somebody should do
something to fix it. They were a group of young adults with a
message to send, but no idea how to do it.
That may sound like a critique of Occupy Wall Street
(OWS), but these protesters were a mere microcosm
of OWS—the haphazard, catch-all movement which
sprung up in the summer of 2011 and has lurked in our
minds and in our parks ever since. These protesters
were part of Occupy Purchase, an activist circle that
spawned out of the Wall Street movement, but quickly
fizzled. A year later, the Purchase movement is now
defunct, along with the original and now mostly silent
Occupy Wall Street. So what, for both OWS and Occupy
Purchase, went wrong?
Communication, for one thing. Occupy Purchase
started out with a simple goal: to provide a place for
open dialogue, according to Purchase alumnus Zach
Brady. “We took that space in the Mall, and for a week…
or maybe four days, in reality,” he added, seemingly
chagrined, “we turned it into a meeting space. We
turned it into a space where people could come up
and say, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And we would talk
to them.”
The group of about 10 to 14 students camped in the
space between the library and Student Services with a
tent and a few sleeping bags from Sunday night on Nov.
13, 2011, to Thursday afternoon on Nov. 17, 2011.
About two days into the occupation of the mall, junior
Ava Monske distributed a flyer titled “DON’T FALL IN
LOVE WITH THE REVOLUTION,” a piece of paper
stapled to all bulletin boards throughout campus
offering a blistering critique of Occupy Purchase.
“The physical occupation of the mall by the Occupy
Purchase ‘movement’ is, at best, a waste of time and
energy which could be put to better use,” she wrote.
“At worst, it blatantly undermines the original Occupy
movement, and the ideologies associated with it, by
(unintentionally) existing as a caricature of all the
negative stereotypes.”
The culture of Occupy Purchase was part of what
bothered Monske. She said that on the first night
they slept outside, “a cop had come by and told them
they weren’t allowed to be there, and they were like,
‘Well we’re gonna be here anyway!’ The cop just sort of
walked away and didn’t pursue it at that point. They
were all like, ‘Yeah!! We won a victory!’
“That was kind of galling, knowing how dire the
situation was at Occupy Wall Street, with the cops,”
she said. “UPD isn’t going to do anything to harm
students who are just sleeping outside. To be honest, it
almost seemed like some of [the students] were doing it
because it was a trendy thing to do.”
However, alumna Melanie Mac Caskie, an organizer
of Occupy Purchase, disagreed, saying the occupation,
however brief, was meaningful.
“[Monske is] assuming that because not a lot of people
saw us that it didn’t mean anything. No, it meant
something,” she said. “I teach small children in the
museum for a living, and if I get one child to remember
a vocabulary word, I’ve done my job. I know that that
occupation did something because it did something
for me.”
OCCUPY WALL STREET
13
Do I think the goals, this broad list
of goals, will succeed or the idea that social
justice, economic justice will prevail?
In my mind, it better.
– ZACH BRADY
Despite the informed dialogue, Levy, who did informational work for OWS, said he
had a hard time accepting the balance between work and partying: “The culture of
[the occupations] are really lively and can be really lovely and invigorating and I
think that’s great for people and that’s wonderful, and I don’t want to sacrifice that in
any sense, but I do think it’s really helpful to try to focus on change rather than just
trying to maintain occupations.”
He added that while occupations may be inefficient, it’s better than doing nothing. “If
80 percent of that energy is wasted, and 20 percent of it is channeled into something
that they believe in, that’s not really a terrible thing considering that a lot of us were
doing nothing with our anxiety. It’s better than punching the pillow.”
Alumna Brittany Bollenbach, who participated in the
OWS movement, said she too thought local occupation
groups were useful. “I think it makes it more accessible
to the people who, for various reasons... can’t get to the
city. It brings a sense of community and togetherness
wherever. It creates a stand.”
Despite its good intentions, Brady felt the local
occupation of Purchase, like its parent, fell victim to
lack of communication. “We had occupied in solidarity
with college campuses across the nation,” said Brady.
“We never made that explicitly clear, and that was
an issue. A lot of people thought we were doing an
aggressive act against the school, which at that point
we had not considered aggressive.”
The conflicting voices around Occupy Purchase mirror
the larger movement it stems from. Almost a year after
OWS, depending on whom you ask, the movement still
hasn’t gone very far beyond talk and many feel it’s not
a bad thing. “The reality is, expressing our voice is the
best thing we can do right now,” said 26-year-old OWS
protester Aaron Waters.
Jesse Cooper Levy, a Purchase alumnus, said he felt
personally responsible for how difficult it has been for
people to plug into the voice of the OWS movement.
He had volunteered to work as a greeter in Zuccotti
Park but pulled out in November when the park was
raided. The raid made camping at Zucotti impossible
OCCUPY WALL STREET
14
and transportation to the location unfeasibly expensive. On top of that, he says
it was “butt cold.”
Outside of obstacles like communication issues and police raids, weather became a
heavy factor that worked against the movement. Brady agreed, saying, “It’s hard to
get people out there when it’s cold. It’s a lot easier when you can get out there with
shorts and a T-shirt,” when explaining the lull in OWS action over the winter.
But just because OWS is taking baby steps rather than moving in leaps and jumps
doesn’t mean it hasn’t been successful. Connie Lobur, a political science professor
at Purchase said, “I don’t think there has to be one big event that makes something
worth it or not. The student movement and civil rights movements were things that
lasted decades. These were not things that happened in one confined period of time
[or with] reactions to just one thing.”
Indeed, Mac Caskie said that one thing that drew her to the movement was its ability
to empower people to express issues that historically haven’t been brought to light.
She highlighted “problems like unemployment and student loans, lack of health
insurance, health insurance that doesn’t cover cancer—like, what the fuck?”
“People are saying political change is the only kind of change, but I think social
change is much more important at this present moment,” she added. “The law will
follow, but if we change the culture first, it won’t be as important to have a law to
force the culture to change.”
Bollenbach said that she was sick of hearing so much criticism from the media
against Occupy Wall Street. “It did take a lot of criticism for not having a focus, like
‘Oh, they’re just a bunch of hippies with a lot of demands.’ No, that’s actually not it.
Why don’t you go down there and find out what they’re talking about? They’re really
intelligent people down there talking about interesting systemic changes and options,
and working toward that. What are you doing? You’re sipping on a Mochachino thing
at Starbucks and checking your Facebook.”
As Occupy Wall Street moves forward, things may need to change. “Some of its
uniqueness, though in the end some of its problem, might be its being leaderless in
the conventional sense,” said Professor Lobur. “I think in the end for movements to
grow, there needs to be sort of a centripetal force to that, for people to know who to
look at, and toward.”
And to some, the Occupy movement is stronger without goals. “It doesn’t need focus,”
said Bollenbach. “And I think that’s its strength, because there is no obvious thing we
can point to, like Obama, or capitalism. It’s a whole bunch of different things in the
whole entire world that’s connected.”
Levy agreed, saying that in the future “I believe there should be hierarchy circles to
make up for the fact that the need for hierarchy has arisen in OWS.”
Brady estimated that it would take about 15 years to see some kind of change come
out of Occupy Wall Street. He said, “Do I think the goals, this broad list of goals, will
succeed or the idea that social justice, economic justice will prevail? In my mind, it
better.”
Mac Caskie said it would take a while to “convince [Americans] that socialism isn’t
a dirty word, to convince people that capitalism is a dirty word. To convince people
that the American dream as we’ve painted it for the past 200 years does not exist.”
She was hopeful, however, that things would improve with the 2012 election and
“Obama’s second term.” (Optimistically, she did not even consider the chance that a
Republican candidate would win, “just because I’m scared that if they did win, there
would be mass riots, because people would be that angry.”)
Another thing that may change is the physical occupation of land as a means to an
end. “We risk being self-obsessed, being interested in preserving the occupation
rather than actually being interested in direct actions and moving toward goals that
we care about,” said Levy.
Photographer Jessica Lehrman with a protester in NYC
But even if they continue to garrison our parks, how
much longer will they occupy our minds?
“The problem is, whenever you’re not being reported on,
especially given how focused our culture is on visual
imaging and all the rest, things that are going on are
treated as though they’ve disappeared,” said Lobur.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s all gone.”
No, it’s not gone, not yet. And as long as they’re still
active, the Wall Street fat cats should do their best to
take notice.
“Occupy Wall Street is a warning,” said Brady. “The first
thing you do when you’re angry is you complain about
what’s making you angry. And that’s the stage we’re
still at.”
Rebecca Kaplan is a senior writer for The Beat.
OCCUPY WALL STREET
15
HE SAT TRANQUIL ON THE
BACK PORCH OF A HOUSE
in Hollywood Hills. Although it
was later in the afternoon, and
presumably many of the city
residents had already begun
their days, Sean McVerry had
just woken up.
From the far distance, he could see the entire Los
Angeles skyline, and it was the first time he had ever
seen it. When he wasn’t making music in the studio,
he liked to spend his time out here, listening to music,
reading J.D. Salinger, and writing down ideas. Though
he had left the clear, unseasonably warm weather in
New York, the air in L.A. carried more than warmth.
This trip wasn’t quite a vacation for McVerry, a senior
studio composition major, but rather the opportunity
of a lifetime: he was flown out by the record label, Roc
Nation, at the suggestion of rapper J.Cole, and friend,
Anthony Parrino.
When Los Angeles was proposed, McVerry was in
disbelief. “I wanted to keep it to myself. Off the bat I
was more nervous than I was excited,” he said. “Then
when the anxiety finally went away I just remember
thinking, ‘Wow, this is really happening, and I’ve got to
take advantage of it.’ ”
Parrino, a Purchase alumnus who studied studio
production, met McVerry in a master class set up by
Prof. Jim McElwaine, and said he was blown away by
what he heard.
“I set up a class for my very best students and best
alumni,” said McElwaine. “As soon as Sean started
playing, Anthony turned to me and said, ‘I got to have
him.’”
“Everyone was playing songs from their iPods, and Sean
just sat down at the piano, played live, and was better
than everyone else,” Parrino said. “I knew immediately
that I wanted to work with him.”
On the plane ride over, McVerry felt especially nervous.
“Once I sat down in my seat I thought, ‘Well, this is it.
It’s really happening,’” he said. “It felt like a dream.”
He flew Virgin American Airlines, which he described
as “this swanky fucking plane, with purple lights down
the aisles, and cool cartoons illustrating the safety
precautions.”
SEAN MCVERRY
16
BY REBECCA STRASSBERG
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
When they landed in California, McVerry, Parrino, and a few others drove from
Englewood to Hollywood. Driving down Sunset Boulevard, McVerry recalled passing
legendary venues like The Roxy, and Whiskey A Go Go. The house was up in the
mountains, overlooking the Los Angeles skyline. With a pool in the center of the
living room, McVerry said, “It was a stereotypical L.A. house; just walking in there
was a trip.”
The house had three bedrooms, but accommodated fourteen guys during this
particular week. On the ride there, Parrino told McVerry they would be roughing it a
little bit. “I told him that I didn’t care; that I’d sleep in the bathtub. He told me to be
careful what I wished for,” McVerry said.
“It was just a bunch of guys sleeping in a living room filled with air mattresses,” he
said. “I slept on a mattress that deflated the first night.”
McVerry said he was so exhausted by the time they went to sleep, that it didn’t
matter. The exhaustion came from the 15-hour-day spent making music in the studio.
Most of the week was spent at Record One, a one-floor studio on Ventura Boulevard,
fully equipped with an outside barbecue pit and ping-pong table, an indoor lounge,
television, and Xbox 360. There were beats pumping out of every room at any given
moment, McVerry said.
“In Studio A, the guys would press this button that would set off a disco ball, a laser
light show, and a black light,” he added. “It was like, okay, let’s see how this beat
would sound in a club.”
Next door was the studio where McVerry and Parrino spent most of their time; a
room furnished with a brown Steinway baby grand piano and speakers. It was the
nicest thing he had ever played, but every time anyone came in the room they were
astonished that McVerry got stuck playing “that old piece of shit.”
From 5 p.m. until sunrise the next morning, the two worked without pause. McVerry
would play something on piano, whether it be a scrapped idea he once had for his
band, “Coyote Campus”, or just a hook he had stuck in his head.
“I’d treat whatever he played like a sample, and
throw a beat behind it, and we’d just go from there,”
said Parrino.
“Guys would ask how old he was and whenever someone would say ’21,’ no one
could believe it,” Parrino said. “It was a funny situation, to be thrown into a hip hop
lifestyle, and to sleep on the floor in a huge place with guys he didn’t know, but he
showed his ability to take any situation and just run with it. Everyone was really
impressed with how he handled himself.”
Parrino said working with McVerry was special in that
it was two genres coming together. “I’m more hip-hop
influenced, and he’s more rock and pop. Every time we
made something, it was like nothing either of us had
ever done before, and some stuff got big responses.”
When his week in L.A. was done, McVerry came home dignified. “People seemed
genuinely upset to see me go,” he said. “One thing that stuck out to me was that
people were saying ‘See you soon’ and ‘See you in New York.’ It wasn’t goodbye
forever, and I kind of realized that it was just the beginning.”
One of the songs that got a big response from the group
in the studio, came at an unexpected time. After the
only night of partying, several guys made their way over
to the studio. McVerry remembered a slow start, and
remembered feeling like he couldn’t write a single thing
that day. The studio was quiet, and guys were laying
down, taking naps. McVerry’s track woke them up.
“I just couldn’t think of anything, so I played this
little hook on the piano, and all of a sudden Anthony
was like, ‘Whoa, that’s amazing. Let’s go,’” McVerry
said. “It ended up being the best thing we wrote over
there. Everyone was so dead and then all of a sudden
engineers and musicians were just popping in wanting
to know what it was.”
Though there’s nothing definite planned for the tracks
they made, Parrino said there are a lot of possibilities.
“Cole’s interested in a few of them, but you really never
know. The thing about this industry is that nothing’s
definite until the moment it’s done.”
This was a defining moment of the trip for McVerry,
along with talking to record producer and vice
president of Def Jam Records, No I.D., and just
hanging out with “an incredibly talented group of
“I was out in California for two months,” Parrino said. “The week Sean was there was
my favorite time.”
Back in New York, McVerry returned to Purchase, and his band “Coyote Campus”
gathered in his music room with some of the band’s songs written on staff paper,
tacked up on the red walls. There were shards of broken drumsticks scattered on the
floor, and a single lamp, to set a mood that the harsh overhead light couldn’t. Though
still on a high from the trip that he just returned from, and optimistic toward his
future projects, McVerry’s mind is focused on his band.
“Sean has spent his time at Purchase learning to write larger, and expand his ideas,”
said McElwaine. “I think we’re really seeing a career take off, and the kicker will be to
check back and see what he’s doing in two or three years.”
Coyote Campus, Battle of the Bands winner, performing at Culture Shock
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
engineers, producers, and musicians,” including, of
course, J. Cole.
Though he was exhausted, McVerry was determined
to make the most of his trip. Jogging down the palm
tree-lined Sunset Boulevard in the heat of Los Angeles
in March, he collected his thoughts. “Running past
all those venues and realizing where I was, I just
felt incredibly blessed and incredibly lucky. In that
moment I couldn’t help but think about how crazy it
was that I was there.”
Parrino didn’t share the shock and disbelief that
McVerry did. “Flying him out to L.A. was an idea me
and Cole had talked about for a while. Cole knew I was
looking to work more with Sean, and he was really
interested in his music. We just wanted to get his foot
in the door, and now hopefully get him a deal at some
point,” he said.
McVerry’s level of maturity, both in his music and his
attitude, was something that shocked the group out in
Los Angeles.
McVerry noted that this opportunity was not just about him. He feels “Coyote
Campus” has started some great chemistry and really found its sound. “Everything I
do is for the band. I never want it to be ‘The Sean Show.’”
“We’re working on his music, and his music with Coyote Campus,” Parrino said.
“We’re working on a huge variety of songs so we can shop him around and hopefully
get him a deal.”
“I try and make sure he understands his value. Someone who’s talented holds
the power. People might come at you with what they try and convince you is the
opportunity of a lifetime, and the only one you’ll ever get,” he added. “I want to show
Sean that he has the power to create his destiny, to show him that he’s young in the
industry, but he’s talented, and he, as the artist, is the commodity. If he’s patient,
he’ll get the deal he really deserves.”
Parrino is planning to start up a company called Lead Through Music, for which he
was hoping to have McVerry as his first artist on the label.
McVerry confessed to thinking the week in L.A. would be filled with chaos, that the
studio would be a wreck, and that he wouldn’t be able to think of anything good, but
“it just felt natural,” he said. “It felt like it was the right place, that it was the right
place for me, and that it was really only the beginning.”
Rebecca Strassberg is the News Editor of The Beat.
“I had this idea that these guys knew how young I was
and were just going to think I was some little punk,”
McVerry said. This was not the case.
McVerry’s band Coyote Campus; FROM LEFT: Andrew Cowie, Jonathan Sacca, Dean Torrey, Sean McVerry, Brendon Caroselli, Andrew Russell
PHOTO BY KELLYANN PETRY
SEAN MCVERRY
19
BY CHRISTIE ROTONDO
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
ANDY SMART DOES NOT LOOK
LIKE THE STEREOTYPE OF
A HIP HOP ARTIST. WHEN
HE TAKES THE STAGE TO
PERFORM HIS DEBUT ALBUM,
“HELLO, MY NAME IS ANDY,”
HE ROCKS FLAMING RED
HAIR WITH HORN-RIMMED
GLASSES, LONG BEADED
NECKLACES, AND A BASEBALL CAP.
“When people come see my shows, it takes them like ten
minutes to be like, ‘Oh, he can rap well for a white guy,’”
Smart said. “And then 20 minutes into it, somebody
would be like, ‘Oh my god, home dude’s gay.’ By that
point, you look to your right or left and no one gives a
fuck because my music just stands for itself.”
Smart, 24, is a Purchase College graduate with a BFA in
dance who now lives in Rotterdam, the second largest
city in the Netherlands. Originally, he traveled there
to find more opportunities to dance experimentally;
instead, he released “Hello, My Name Is Andy,” late
last year. The album sports pink cover art with a space
vibe. He’s been working as a “freelancing gypsy rapper”
ever since.
Openly gay
hip-hop artists
like Purchase alum
Andy Smart and
Big Freedia are
dismantling the
genre’s last taboo.
“I think why I decided to rap is that I always found that hip-hop is a medium for the underestimated or the
underappreciated,” he said.
Smart is just one of a handful of artists who are tackling one of mainstream hip-hop’s last taboos: being an openly
gay artist. When straight rapper Lil’ B announced at Coachella in April of 2011 that he would title an upcoming
album “I’m Gay” as a gesture to encourage his fans to be more accepting of those who are gay, the artist received
death threats on Twitter.
“A lot of them are on Twitter, saying that they’re going to kill me for being gay, and they’re going to kill me for being
homosexual even though I’m not homosexual. I don’t like men,” he told CNN in May 2011. “They’re saying they’re
going to bash my head in. They’re calling me faggot. That’s all right, because I did this with the pure intention in
my heart to help people, and I didn’t do this for promotional reasons. I did it because there needs to be someone
brave enough to do it, brave enough to speak up and have the right reasonings of doing it.”
Shaka McGlotten, a media, society, and the arts professor at Purchase, who focuses on queer media convergence,
said that one social force pushing reactions like this to openly gay artists is hyper-masculinity.
20
“In a culture that has denied black men their
masculinity, a form of hyper-masculinity has arisen in
response,” he said. “The question here really has to do
with how the culture at large defines masculinity—as
hard and impenetrable. Some black male rappers
exaggerate these qualities.”
Outside the mainstream, though, McGlotten said, are
artists that are breaking down this stereotype.
“I think hip-hop is way more diverse and idiosyncratic
than an attention to the mainstream affords,” he said.
“There are local sub-genres that form and proliferate
and influence hip-hop but operate outside the
dominant flows of economic and cultural capital.”
With a response as fierce and hate-fueled as Lil B’
received, it is almost no surprise that there are few
openly gay artists in mainstream hip-hop. However,
small underground movements are taking place at
clubs like New York City’s Ghe20 Goth1k, as well
as within a rising genre of queer hip-hop, “sissy
bounce,” that recently exploded in New Orleans. These
movements are pushing the envelope and developing
their own flavor within hip-hop.
In Rolling Stone’s Nov. 10 issue, a 100-word bit titled
“Hot Rap Scene: NYC’s Gay MCs” claimed that hip-hop’s
last taboo is crumbling at Ghe20 Goth1k, a club that
featured cross-dressing rapper Mykki Blanco, as well as
other openly gay artists like Leif and House of Ladosha.
The club is a dance scene where feather headbands and
spandex are the uniform of choice.
So where does sissy bounce fit into mainstream hip-hop? If you ask Chapman, it
doesn’t.
“I don’t know if it fits into hip-hop today or not, or if it has to or wants to,” he said. “I
think that it has the potential to transgress and complicate the way black masculinity
is seen in hip-hop.”
While some sissy bounce artists have performed alongside rappers like Snoop Dogg,
Chapman said, these performers are normally found on line-ups with indie and
alternative-rock groups. The best example of this is Purchase’s own Culture Shock,
which features bounce artist queen Big Freedia for the after party in the Stood.
i’m a lot of things, i’m
androgynous, i’m a man, but
i’m a little bit of a lady too,
because that’s the way my
momma raised me
– ANDY SMART
Overall, however, Chapman said genres like sissy bounce are making the mainstream
audience rethink how they view hip-hop.
“It’s got to make people question: ‘Is the shit that we’ve been doing just getting a little
bit old and cliché?’ Because I think there are a lot of the same representations of
masculinity in hip-hop,” he said.
Carlos Martinez, president of the Purchase Hip-hop Club, agrees.
“Gay people show up,” Leif told Rolling Stone in regards
to the Ghe20 Goth1k parties, “But I’m conscious about
making my music accessible: It’s for anyone who is
liberal in 2011.”
About 1,300 miles away from New York City, “sissy
bounce,” the loved and hated moniker for a queer subgenre of bounce music, has become an intrinsic part of
the black community in New Orleans. Alix Chapman,
a graduate student from the University of Texas at
Austin who has studied queer performance, focused his
dissertation on the phenomenon.
According to Chapman, “sissy bounce” is like other
bounce music. It features the same style of dancing,
accompanied by sexualized lyrics and, quite literally, a
beat you can bounce to. However, its performers are
particularly gay men or transgendered men. He said
that this genre has become so tied to the New Orleans’
black community that he first heard it at a community
block party–where families and senior citizens
gathered with the queer community to enjoy the party.
“I honestly feel like homophobic lyrics are a thing of the past,” Martinez said.
“Although, the reason why some artists still use them is because they still want to
adhere to the image of a heterosexual, masculine male gangsta that rap used to be
about in the late 1990s, early 2000s.”
Martinez said with the variety of diverse artists currently leading the hip-hop chartslike Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and Kanye West, the image of the hyper-masculine is no
longer appealing to hip-hop’s audience.
“The negativity in hip-hop is so outdated, seeing that there’s not as much as there
used to be in the market,” Martinez said. “Even now you can see the foundation being
laid down for the future of rap.”
Perhaps Smart is the beginning of the “future of rap.” His style pays tribute to 1990s
hip-hop, with a mix of influences like Nicki Minaj and Biggie Smalls. While he is
proud of his sexuality, he said his goal is more to fill a spectrum with his music that
his audience can relate to, whether they are gay, straight, male, or female.
“I’m gay. Clearly. But if you take a second to listen to the lyrics, yeah, I’m queer but
it’s not the focus,” he said. “I’m a lot of things, I’m androgynous, I’m a man, but I’m a
little bit of a lady too, because that’s the way my momma raised me.”
GAME CHANGERS
ANDY SMART
21
One track on the EP, “Ray Ray” exposes Smart’s
sexuality explicitly. It is a love song, about a real
person whose intellect inspired Smart, he said, but the
character of Ray Ray is imagined. The lyrics are: “The
kind of man that’s blessed by African priests/The kind
of man that makes me proud to hear him spitting these
beats…My heart be racing to the sound of your voice/
And life has got me sweating all these difficult choices/
And maybe if you quit calling me baby/ I could run
away because these feelings are crazy.”
BY ASHLEY HELMS
The song, while about a gay love affair, reaches even his
straight fans, Smart said.
Sitting in a room with Maggie Pakutka might feel somewhat tense. She speaks slowly
and quietly, taking long pauses to think carefully about her answers, her back straight
against the white wall of her apartment bedroom. Her hands play nervously with a
purple guitar pick, flipping it over end to end.
“It was romantic, and enough to reach everybody,” he
said. “If you’re really listening, all of a sudden, nobody
hears the ‘he’ or ‘she.’ It’s the content that sort of
stands for itself.”
While his sexuality wasn’t the focus of his EP, Smart
said it’s still an intrinsic part of his style, and he may
receive some sort of backlash for it in the future.
“Mainstream hip-hop is a little bit more vulgar, it’s very
hyper-masculine, there’s an archetype definitely to
follow to be successful,” he said, admitting that being a
gay hip-hop artist might damper his success.
“People are very homophobic. People are very scared.
But it’s not just in the industry, it’s worldwide,” he said.
Evan Davis, a junior at Purchase and fan of Smart’s, is
working on a documentary about openly gay artists. He
said he wanted to show the gay community that being
queer and a hip-hop fan can be harmonious.
“This part of hip-hop is unknown for a lot of people, and
I want to showcase that,”
Davis said, “My being gay and love for hip-hop don’t
really coincide with each other,
so I wanted to create something that said I’m gay, this
is hip-hop. There are people
out there.”
Big Freedia
Davis said he essentially grew up on hip-hop, and
its homophobic lyrics made being a fan difficult. By
spotlighting gay artists, he said he has found a voice for
himself and people like him.
Sometimes she will pull away from the wall, sitting at the edge of her bed when she feels
more passionate about a certain topic, like DIY recording and taking a strong stance
in what can be described as the “man’s world” of music engineering. Although she
writes and performs her own music, she doesn’t want to be known as another “singer/
songwriter girl who writes about their feelings.”
Andy Smart IMAGE BY LUIS ALONSO RIOS ZERTUCHE
With her acoustic guitar in hand, Pakutka’s music might be described as a catchy
tangling of indie, pop, and rock. She plays under the name Maggie and the Hat and is
also a member of a newer, more electric band, Tiger Death.
“We don’t have a voice, for people who love hip-hop and
love hip-hop culture and homosexual culture. I want
something that can voice both of those together, but is
still genuine,” he said.
She has recorded homemade CDs and made her own website, drawing from her skills as
a new media major at Purchase. She also had an internship at a large record company
in New York City, but according to Pakutka, she faced a road block that kept her almost
entirely out of the studio: her gender.
McGlotten felt the subculture of queer hip-hop would
most definitely influence the mainstream over the next
decade, and that this will make it more accessible to
the queer community.
Drawing from this experience, Pakutka has made a zine dedicated to helping women
produce, write, and record their own music, DIY style.
The guide–available on her website maggieandthehat.com–she hopes, will help other
women in her position push back against the boundaries in the music business.
“My sense is that as the culture at large embraces its
queer communities, you’ll see this reflected in all kinds
of public cultures, including hip-hop,” he said.
Smart hoped because his music represents a spectrum
of his different beliefs and ideologies about being gay,
that it might influence those who would have avoided
listening to an openly gay artist before.
“Maybe if people listen close enough, it might change
the way they think,” he said.
“Or maybe not, maybe they’re just fucking drunk at a
party and want to vibe out.”
Christie Rotondo is Features Editor of The Beat.
HOW DID YOU START PLAYING?
HOW DO YOU WANT TO DO THAT?
When I was little, I think I was 7 or so, my parents asked me if I wanted guitar
I’m not sure yet; using more electric though. And playing with
lessons. I started taking them and then I got more into music and I wanted to
the band has helped me experiment with other styles.
start writing my own stuff, so I took a couple of singing lessons where I got myself
coordinated with playing guitar and singing at the same time, which is really hard
ARE THERE ANY FEMALE MUSICIANS THAT YOU LOOK UP TO?
especially when you’re young and just starting both. In early elementary school I
Yes, Jenny Owen Young. I found her music at a really important time in my life,
started writing my first crap songs, and then I got more okay and I started finding
around age 15 or so, right when I just started to write my own songs and make
more friends who were into playing music. Then I just started getting shows, and
my own music. She’s a singer/songwriter, but she’s also a total badass, and her
it just happened.
lyrics and delivery were really inspiring to me at the time. She’s also kind of
local so I got to go see her every month.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR MUSIC, AND THE NEW BAND YOU’RE IN.
My music is the Maggie and the Hat thing. Historically, acoustic, solo acoustic
DO YOU PLAN ON RECORDING SOON?
singer/songwriter stuff, but I’m trying to break away from that now. I don’t want
I don’t have any super official records of any of my songs. I’m working on that. I
to become just another one of those acoustic singer/songwriter girls. So, I’m
have ones that I’ve done and I like a lot, and they sound pretty good, but they’re
going electric and experimenting and I also have a new band, Tiger Death.
not awesome quality.
WHY DON’T YOU WANT TO BE ONE OF THOSE SINGER/SONGWRITER GIRLS?
DO YOU HAVE ANY PERSPECTIVES ON HOW YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE MORE
GAME CHANGERS
I think the industry is oversaturated right now, and I don’t really associate
OFFICIAL RECORDINGS? DO YOU KNOW ANYONE?
ANDY SMART
myself with a lot of those people. I get lumped in with them anyway, girls
Yeah, I had an internship in a recording studio last year. This semester I’m
singing about their feelings. I want to make something different that people
taking a studio production class and I’m also becoming friends with more studio
look at differently.
production majors, so I want to do some stuff here while I still can for free.
22
DID YOU GET THAT INTERNSHIP SO YOU COULD DO THIS RECORDING?
WAS YOUR INTERNSHIP YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH
No, that wasn’t the only reason. I totally wanted to learn more about the music industry and how
THIS?
it is right now. And also I just wanted an internship in general and I figured doing anything for a
It was definitely the most profound. I’ve been playing music for
record label/recording studio would be really cool.
a while with guys and they’re usually always more into taking
the reins in a band and having all this cool equipment and
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING THERE? DID YOU LIKE IT?
knowing how to make a certain sound. The girls I’ve played
I liked it, but I wasn’t doing what I wanted to. The recording industry is really gendered. I
with before are way more lyrically and musically driven.
applied to this place to work in the recording studio, but when I got there they told me I would be
working with the record label part of it. I didn’t even like the musicians that they had on the label.
HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED THIS IN TIGER DEATH?
No, not quite. Esteban and Jon are really chill guys, and
ANY SPECIFIC STORIES?
everyone is pretty equal. For a “Riot Grrls” class that I’m taking,
When I was first interviewed, the guy interviewing me who would be my boss was really
as a final project I’m making a zine that’s a DIY for girls who
impressed with my résumé and knew that I was into learning how to record, but he also knew I
are looking to make their own music, produce it, distribute it,
was a new media major and liked arts management. A lot of girls who applied there just ended
and market themselves so they don’t have to deal with all the
up working in the label department instead of audio engineering. Then one day a couple months
bullshit in the industry.
down the road, it really hit me. I was sitting in this one room with all girls on laptops, doing
separate things, not directly music related. Marketing things like scheduling meetings and
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE BULLSHIT IN THE INDUSTRY?
making Excel spreadsheets. I was staying kind of late that night for some reason and so I hung
There was a time–or a few times–at my internship where
out with the guys that were in and out of the studios. I was talking to one and I asked him what
my bosses would ask me to do something, and it would be
the deal was, if there were ever any girl recording engineers here. He kind of laughed. He knew
to design something for an artist; their album or website or
what I was talking about. He was like, “We had one once.”
something. I would do it, but I would feel really weird about it
THERE WERE NOT MEN ON THE LABEL SIDE?
music and I had no interest in listening to it. How impersonal it
No, except for the bosses. Everyone who was in charge of scheduling meetings and taking care
is, and how much control it takes away from the artist.
because I didn’t know anything about this artist or about their
of secretarial work were all women. My last few nights interning there I just hung out with the
recording studio guys and made friends with them and helped them break stuff down. That was
HOW WILL YOUR ZINE GIVE LESS POWER TO THIS SEXIST
what I wanted to do the whole time.
SYSTEM YOU TALK ABOUT?
Letting people, mostly girls, know that in order to get your
music out there and project your image, you don’t need to
pay anyone to do that especially today with the Internet. All
when you do everything
yourself people notice that
and take it more seriously
– MAGGIE PAKUTKA
you really need is access to a computer with the Internet,
determination, and some like-minded friends. I just feel like
when you do everything yourself rather than rely on faceless
companies, your work is way more personal and people are
going to notice that and take it more seriously.
DO YOU THINK YOU’LL HAVE AN IMPACT ON OTHER WOMEN
BY KEVIN REDDING
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
IN YOUR POSITION?
Purchase’s main stage at The Stood is
Yeah, I’m probably going to make more than one edition of the
crowded with people, caught in a blend
zine because I can’t fit everything into this one, but I’m going to
WERE YOU NOT ALLOWED TO?
give overviews on how to make a website, how to raise money
of soul singing, hard-hitting drums, and
It’s not that I wasn’t allowed to. I didn’t think I was supposed to. I thought it was a totally
online, how to put together a CD, and how to book shows. Just
different thing. I was also kind of intimidated because I had never been in that professional of a
like a page or two or three on each thing just to give people a
rhythmic guitar licks, with a shirtless
recording situation. I don’t think they purposely intimidated me—I think they just didn’t expect
taste and let them know they can totally do it. They just have to
lead singer, Gabriel Garzón-Montano, at
me to step up and do recording studio stuff, so in turn made me not want to do it, except toward
sit down and work.
the forefront who seems possessed by
the end. I was like, “Fuck it, I’m going to do what I want to do.”
DID ANYTHING IN YOUR UPBRINGING INFLUENCE THIS
the surrounding sounds. Through the
HAVE THESE EXPERIENCES INFLUENCED YOUR MUSIC AT ALL?
FEMINIST DIY STANCE YOU HAVE?
Not yet, but soon. I haven’t recorded much really since my internship, but I plan on recording
Not having a lot of money. I was never poor, but I always
darkness of the crowd, a huge wave of
soon. I want to be totally involved in the entire process and not go into a studio and pay someone
wanted to get my music out there and play shows, and I’d have
hands raised high in the air can be seen,
else to do all of the work. I learned that I can totally do it. I just need to put in the work and not
to get all my shows by myself and I would make all my CDs at
be afraid.
with piles of people gazing at the band
home and give them to friends and whoever was at shows. I
while swaying their hips to the contagious
think it just grew out of necessity.
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO THAT?
I have a lot of friends who are really into recording. Friends here, friends from home, and friends
HOW ARE YOU GOING TO COMBAT THESE SEXIST IDEAS IN
from that internship, so I’m going to get all my stuff together and see if they can work with me
THE FUTURE IF YOU DO END UP RECORDING IN ANY SORT OF
for a while. I’ll also look into buying some of my own equipment for doing things on my own.
ENVIRONMENT LIKE YOUR INTERNSHIP?
singers, the lead singer and the guitarist’s
bright guitar. Garzón-Montano lets out
think I have to do. I’m not going to not do something I want to
I don’t have experience at other labels. Girls are understood typically to not know a lot about
do just because somebody doesn’t offer it to me.
working for weren’t mean; I liked them as people, it’s just the way everything seems to
subconsciously happen.
24
strikes down on two of the three back up
I would do exactly what I think I should be doing and what I
DO YOU COME UP AGAINST SEXISM IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN OTHER PLACES?
equipment and the technical side of things and they’re kept out a lot. The guys who I was
rhythm. The lighting above the stage
a Sly Stone scream and disappears into
the background of musicians on the stage,
with the guitarist taking his place with a
slow-paced guitar solo.
Purchase’s own Mokaad is blending hip-hop with old school funk,
and turning heads while dropping the beat.
This is Mokaad.
“The whole band is centered around a live show,” says Garzón-Montano, 23.
“It always has been. We made a record out of that.”
“We definitely try to make it a live show,” says guitarist and co-founder Davy Levitan.
“Give it an art, give the audience a real show. With the strength of the music, we’re
right where we should be. Everybody’s on the same page. Everybody’s there and
ready to play. We know we’re going to bring it. We’re doing it the right way. We’re
putting the work in. If nothing ever happens, at least we made it this far.”
“We get way better and understand what it is to put together a band like this,” says
Garzón-Montano. “That’s all we’ve ever wanted to do.”
On the brink of releasing their debut EP, Booty,
Purchase’s 11-member funk band Mokaad has set out
to prove that they can bring back the sound of old
records like James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone,
while adding a fresh hip-hop touch, to ensure that funk
music is still alive and that people still want to hear it.
The band has garnered a reputation on the Purchase
campus and New York City venues as a live show band,
first and foremost. With trumpet and sax players on
the right, back up singers on the left, drummer in the
back, guitarist at the forefront and Garzón-Montano
center stage either behind a keyboard or with a guitar
ALL FUNK’D UP
MOKAAD
25
strapped on, the sound on the stage is electrifying, like
a celebration of music every single gig.
Having played at Culture Shock in 2010, as well as
various venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan, including
Brooklyn Bowl and Crash Mansion, Mokaad has drawn
huge crowds of people to their shows, giving them
covers of old songs verbatim to the original records,
never glossing over details or missing a beat, as well as
their original tunes.
The first taste of Mokaad’s EP, the band’s six-track
step into the recording studio, is a vibrant, bubbling
and contagiously energetic sound. The first sample of
the EP, “The Stomp,” has been released on the band’s
websites and YouTube page. Even though it’s only a
36-second teaser, the band is able to show off their
ferocious approach to recording and precision in that
amount of time: The horn section is sharp as a knife,
the drums and bass are locked in with each other,
with the bass trailing off only to leave behind groovy
and tasteful riffs in the backdrop, and the light guitar
blends in with the rest to make a fully pure sound,
making it reminiscent of Prince’s funky “Musicology”
and Galactic’s “From the Corner to the Block.”
But the sound and the feel of the recording is fully
credited to the band’s primary songwriter/lead singer
and one of its founding members, Gabriel GarzónMontano, who worked tirelessly to make it sound as
funky as it does.
“It’s tight as balls,” says Garzón-Montano. “We recorded
it to a click. It was made in anguish. I was really stiff
during the recording and I was concerned, because we
wanted to make a record and call it funky and if it’s
not funky, that’s the worst shit ever. There would be
nothing more shameful than to contribute something
half-assed. It took a year of delays and procrastination,
but we got it right.”
Inside Garzón-Montano and Levitan’s apartment
on campus, a huge surround system on high volume
blasts hip-hop, while pictures of Jimi Hendrix, Bob
Marley, Biggie Smalls and The Beatles cover the walls,
as well as banners from Mokaad’s gigs. The bass of
the speakers fills the room, making it no question that
the beat and rhythm in a song is the most important
piece of the puzzle for Mokaad. For “Booty,” the band
was meticulous in the studio, making sure every single
instrument was laid down perfectly, spending up to
twelve hours a day recording until everything sounded just right.
“We record the rhythm track first and foremost,” says Garzón-Montano. “Bass, drums,
guitars. When I’m writing songs for the band, I always start with the beat. The
lyrics are a total afterthought. It’s important to get the drums and bass really tight
and everything else comes after that. Then you find cool things to say, a positive
philosophy with a sort of swagger to it, an arrogance.”
“We didn’t fake it,” says Levitan. “The rhythm section had the time to devote to it.
Everything we did on the record was done live, in studio.”
Garzón-Montano, whose mother was a singer and multi-instrumentalist who played
in churches and was featured with Philip Glass on recordings, grew up with music all
around him. There was always singing and piano playing in the house, so, it became
natural to him to pick up on a variety of instruments.
“I would always imitate her and sing and play the piano,” he says. “She took me to
music school and I chose the violin because I thought it looked so badass. I was like,
five. Then she let it be, and I started doing the rock and roll thing and then that was
all me. Violin at six, drums and guitar at 12 and a little bit of piano, which got more
intense later on and then singing forever. But at 15, I started getting serious about
singing and specifically, singing for people.”
13
Mokaad & The Flex Points at Gramercy Theater
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
To be the leader of a band like Mokaad, with its wide range of instruments and
musicians, intricately written charts, and execution of the songs with little to no
changes between the recorded track and the live performance, it’s important to have
an understanding of a lot of different styles of music and instruments.
“In order to really control the outcome,” he says, “you have to put on a lot of different
hats.”
“I started playing guitar when I was thirteen,” says Levitan. “It really changed
everything because I developed a love affair with the instrument. The way it felt, the
way it sounded, what I could do with it, that’s what I’ve been doing since then. I
didn’t do it for anybody, or anything. I’d just come home from school everyday and
play and then when I got to college, I realized I wanted to be a musician but I had
very little experience with a lot of essential things so one thing led to another, I took
time off from school to get into a program somewhere and ended up coming here.”
Through mutual friends, the two ended up meeting and playing together, both with
the same mindset of the kind of music they wanted to play. “When I came here,” says
Levitan, “I was looking to play something funky so once I found out somebody else
was down, and who was a singer, I was on board.”
Music has come a long way since the glory days of funk and R & B in the sixties,
where a band is picked up by a label and shipped off on a worldwide tour. Now, with
a majority of famous musicians being heard from the Internet, it’s up to the artists to
get their names out there and to tour themselves. Essentially, getting your name out
there is the most important part. And that’s exactly what Mokaad intends to do with
this record, pushing it to see where it takes them.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL LAMBERT
PHOTO BY ROMAN DEAN
MICHELLE CHARLES
ARIEL LOH
MAJOR New Media
MAJOR Studio Composition
MAJOR Studio Composition Major
HOMETOWN Queens, NY
HOMETOWN Chicago, IL
HOMETOWN Brockport, NY
FAVORITE CAMPUS VENUE The Stood
FAVORITE CAMPUS VENUE Loh prefers to go offcampus to the Music Hall of Williamsburg
FAVORITE CAMPUS VENUE The Dance Theatre Lab
BIGGEST POST-GRAD CHALLENGE
Where to go with her studies and artwork.
“The resources to make art.”
Kevin Redding is a senior writer for The Beat.
MAGGIE PAKUTKA
Quarter Notes
“We tried to make a record that sounds like it’s supposed to be sitting in this
contemporary environment.”
“Hopefully with our fans’ help, our promotion, and the record itself, we’ll have lots of
opportunities,” says Levitan. “But at the end of the day, we know our music is good,
so nobody gives a shit, we’re still gonna be happy no matter what.”
FINDING HER VOICE
KELLY IZZO
His band, Stone Cold Fox.
FAVORITE SONG “Right now, embarrassingly
enough … ‘Love Shack’ [by The B-52’s]. How
could you not be awake when ‘Love Shack’ is
on?”
BIGGEST INFLUENCE Video Artist Lauren Kelley.
“I hadn’t been familiar with other black female
video artists at all. I just didn’t think that
existed. It was nice to see that I could put some
of myself into video art and have it be accepted
and considered art.”
THE STATE OF THE ART (MUSIC TODAY) “It’s great
if you can make pop that’s meaningful, because
then it will reach wider audiences and then
you have a real chance of changing culture.
But if you’re going to make pop music that’s
really catchy—that cool earworm—you’re
also going to fool people into thinking that
maybe you are supposed to be some kind of
revolutionary character. You’re going to cause a
lot of confusion and you might end up polluting
culture, too.”
SENIOR PROJECT Song and video, “I Love My Boo”
(part of her thesis, “Representations of Black
Women in the Media”).
FAVORITE ALBUM Strange Mercy, by Saint Vincent.
“A lot of times when I listen to music, it’s almost
about the production and how it works with
the songwriting. I think that album really hits.
It’s so unique, fresh, and the composition and
arrangements that go with the songwriting are
just absolutely incredible, totally different, but
at the same time work so well.”
BIGGEST INFLUENCE Torches, by Foster the
People. “Before I started listening to the Saint
Vincent stuff, the Foster the People album was
on my rotation. It was so fresh, and super poppy
and catchy, but had a lot of intricacy with the
programming, and little nuances—really cool
attention to detail.”
THE STATE OF THE ART “I think it’s pretty good,
actually. People are always saying there’s no
money to be made in music anymore, this and
that, everything’s free... but I don’t know. It
almost makes the playing field more difficult
than it was in the past, if that’s possible. And I
think that really drives people, motivates people,
and really brings the best of the best out.”
SENIOR PROJECT The Young, by Stone Cold Fox.
WHAT IT IS A hip-hop track lampooning the
misogynistic tropes of the modern rap game.
Inspired by what Charles calls Nelly’s “multimillion dollar wankfest” of a music video, “Tip
Drill,” “I Love My Boo” reverses roles by having
women fully garbed in macho thuggery while
men act as scantily-clad human gyrators.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT “If you’re going to spit back
things pop culture is selling you, do something
really funny with it, do something crazy with it,
and think. Don’t just consume it.”
Andrew Marinaccio is Reviews Editor of The Beat.
WHAT IT IS An EP that expands upon band
mate Kevin Olken’s acoustic song sketches.
Recorded on campus and at Manhattan studio,
Stratosphere Sound.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT “The comfort of knowing that
everything is good will slowly go away. It’s about
departure. But the thing is, with the record we
didn’t want to make it a sad and gloomy album,
but rather we wanted to make it a little more
upbeat and have a lighter spin on it. Because it’s
not really a sad thing, necessarily. I’m actually
really excited to leave, graduate and everything,
so I think it’s something to be celebrated.”
FAVORITE SONG “When I’m Gone” by Phil Ochs.
“The melody’s kind of normal, but the words…It’s
about how when you die you can’t do anything,
so when you’re here you should make the best of
what you do, or do all the things you want to do
and you think are all right to do.”
BIGGEST INFLUENCE Joni Mitchell; Paul Simon.
“I really like their lyrical style. They kind of take
the poetry and sculpt around it with the melody.
I like the way that they’re free … to go where the
lyrics go.”
THE STATE OF THE ART “It’s weird because the
stuff that’s on the radio I don’t think is really
a good sampling of what people actually listen
to. There’s all these kind of semi-big bands on
the Internet, and playing around locally. I don’t
know how good that is for making any money,
but it’s interesting to see what people listen to in
different demographics. I don’t know how I feel
about it yet, but it’s interesting.”
SENIOR PROJECT “Alice Unraveled,” a musical
inspired by Izzo’s past and Lewis Carroll’s
“Wonderland” series.
WHAT IT IS Originating from the titular song
she wrote after the sexual assault of a close
friend of hers, “Alice Unraveled” follows a girl
emotionally paralyzed after the traumatic events
of a local party, attempting to balance the reality
of her condition with the impeding doubts of her
unchained imagination.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT “How everybody struggles,
and overcoming. You have to find yourself,
be satisfied with yourself, and be confident
enough to just keep going, even when things
push you down.”
27
HANNIBAL KING
THE HIGH TIMES
OF DON CHIESEL
(MIXTAPE)
S
OR’
T
I
ED ICK
P
DOING IT AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME
BY ANDREW MARINACCIO
Hip-hop DJs and producers have established sampling as high art and one of the
genre’s greatest virtues. They confirm for us, through a digitized blend of dissected jazz
records, fringe electronics and good old-fashioned noise, that the spirits summoned by
Coltrane, Davis, and countless lost legends can find new life in the postmodern online
realm. In many cases, these DJs and producers act as the historians of their eras,
combing the Internet’s bottomless cultural compendium for old instrumental relics
to repurpose within their music. More so than ever, the modern beatsmith makes
his influences literally present in every note, bass kick, or organ chord reverently
purloined from past inspirations.
Purchase alumnus Hannibal Jones, adopting surname King for his musical
endeavors, contributes to that curatorial spirit on the latest addition to his mixtape
series “Villians Gone Bad,” The High Times of Don Chiesel, by setting his own distinct
interests within the throwback reconstructions of today’s hip-hop.
Digging into a sunny flow of Motown verve, High Times opens with an
appropriately sampled Cheech & Chong skit, set to lax key noodling and vinyl fuzz
before snapping into place with the track “Mellow,” whose title sets the eased mood
of the mixtape. Even as it fluidly segues into the blossoming horns and cascading
guitar of “Organic,” then the diced soul wails and tense string samples in “Do It
Again,” King keeps a steady, dignified pace and refrains from cluttering the choice
loops of his songs.
King’s marriage of technique and taste render beats that evoke the urbanity of
Madlib in his dreamily looping Motown selections, hemmed in by cool, leveled high
hats and backbeats. On “Places” he channels the late jazz amalgamator Nujabes with
propulsive drum work and airy sax cycles. He shows his production savvy of knowing
where the oddest detail can lift a song, positing a left-field trill between “Sour’s”
nostalgic big band horns to drive it forward.
Turning those unexpected fragments into underpinning hooks defines King’s
mincing of soul not as a reductive slaughter, but a meticulous-yet-breezy ode to
comfort music. High Times richly retells a genre’s story with all the familiar bits but,
even more important, with relatively new wrinkles that storytellers and listeners alike
may have forgotten.
With The High Times of Don Chiesel being so lithe, infectious, and deftly informed
by an artisan’s ear, it’s no wonder that King has been a rising producer sought
after by his MC peers. He’s a win for young rappers looking for more distinction
than just sanitized electro beats, which often seem to be the best that this day and
age can muster.
Andrew Marinaccio is Reviews Editor of The Beat.
28
WESS MEETS WEST – CHEVALIERS
BY ANTHONY AQUILINO
To the post-rock savvy
ear, Wess Meets West’s
gently plucked, slowly echoing guitars at the start of
their latest LP, Chevaliers,
sounds more than just a bit
like a certain Austin guitar
quartet. That band may
or may not have soundtracked a certain teenage
melodrama that may or
may not have opened up the long-existing post-rock genre to
millions of uninitiated ears in the early 2000s.
And this may or may not cause some listeners to take an early
pass on Chevaliers under the assumption that it’s but another
Stetson in the well-hatted ring of records made by mostly nonvocal, semi-ambient, primarily guitar-driven bands—many of
whom borrow quite heavily from Explosions in the Sky.
This is something of a shame. Though the White Plainsbased Wess Meets West openly tears a page from Explosions’
better-loved efforts in Chevaliers, WMW allow these borrowed
elements to explode in ways their Texan progenitors generally
don’t, can’t, or won’t.
Call it a regional influence. Wess Meets West’s particular
position in New York state puts them well within reach of two
of the nation’s more active post-hardcore scenes: Long Island
and Poughkeepsie. On tracks like album-opener “The Mountains Are Shaking at Their Roots,” they pair ambient noodling
with searing, metal-edged guitar licks and forward-thrusting
drumming that nod to post-hardcore acts like Refused, Thursday and Saosin.
Still, Chevaliers makes good on its post-rock promise, punching out crisp crescendos and high-squealing, cathartic peaks
underpinned and punctuated by patches of lilting guitar echoes,
twinkling electric piano, and slithering ambient noise.
And though Explosions in the Sky are an easy first association,
WMW’s deeper knowledge of post-rock history seeps through
on “Leaving Behind a Whaling Economy” and the album-closer,
“The Wars of Men.” Both play with the twinkling electro-experimentation of genre-bending pioneers Tortoise, while “Deadlock
Arms” finds WMW exploring the sort of crunchy, propulsive
riffing that made Chicago instru-metal outfit Pelican’s City of
Echoes so refreshing and engaging.
One might argue that the overt genre-reference that kicks off
Chevaliers is attention-suicide. But as digital media continues
to drive listener habits to track-picking over whole-album listening, the long-player format is in constant need of hearty advocates. Post-rock’s requisite patience makes it a perfect idiom for
such advocacy, and Wess Meets West seem well aware of this:
Chevaliers is undoubtedly intended to be consumed as an album. Accordingly, an overt statement of purpose seems almost
necessary, especially against the backdrop of Wess Meets West’s
electronics-heavy, occasionally danceable back-catalogue.
Chevaliers isn’t without its faults, many of which can be levied against the genre as a whole. While its peaks-and-valleys—
loud-quiet dynamics—are often satisfying, most of the record is
spent rising or releasing, sometimes predictably so. Of course,
both Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor
have been guilty of similar crimes, but on parts of “Deadlock
Arms,” you can almost count on first listen the number of beats
left before riff changes, the mid-song lull, and the late-song
climax. Most listener impressions of structural predictability,
though, are likely to fall along pro- or anti-post-rock party lines,
and WMW bring enough originality and transcending influence
into Chevaliers’ seven hulking tracks to implore forgiveness
from skeptics.
While Chevaliers bears some resemblance to Wess Meets
West’s earlier work in its embrace of electronic percussion
and ambient noise, and nods to less-cosmopolitan rock idioms
like emo, screamo, and hardcore, the band’s back-catalogue is
historically fidgety, and we may well see them reemerge on the
next go-round as something entirely different. For now, though,
we’re left with a solid and unique take on a still-evolving genre.
MITSKI – LUSH
BY ANTHONY AQUILINO
“I’m at my highest peak/
I’m ripe, about to fall/Capture me,” singer-songwriter
Mitski coos over crawling
cabaret piano and a quietly
clanking boiler-room beat
on the chorus of “Liquid
Smooth,” the opening track
to her debut album, Lush.
It’s an apt beginning to a
record that spends much of
its nine tracks contemplating the artist’s own emerging womanhood––and in parallel, her emerging maturity as an artist.
Much of Lush plays like a test course for Mitski’s snaking soprano to ramble and meander about while she refines the details
of her artist-character-narrator persona. When it works, this
looseness in both melody and lyrical content lets Lush’s finer
tracks seethe with danger and desperation. “Eric” tells of nervous intimacy in snaking, tremulant lines laid over quivering
electric piano, brooding vaudeville strings, and prickling synths
that chirp and skitter like a failing heart monitor––all recorded
with a perfect surgical starkness that emphasizes her conflicting
swagger and anxiety, evoking loose seams ready to burst.
While Mitski’s swagger and her melodic restlessness both
stand behind Lush’s finer moments they sometimes render
songs either too postured or too nebulous to be memorable. Her
sole attempt at a rocker, “Brand New City,” plods along, recalling some of the more regrettable millennial radio rock, while
“Real Men” aches for a real chorus, and spends most of its under
three-minute run grasping for a melody worth repeating. Paired
with a weakly realized lyrical concept that compares the actions
of “men” and “little boys,” the song feels too stilted to pronounce
any genuine assertion of confidence.
Such posturing, though, can often mask a certain vulnerability, and Lush’s high points come when Mitski acknowledges this in both lyrical content and melodic delivery. “Liquid
Smooth” deftly realizes both the power and instability of young
adulthood through the lens of blossoming femininity. The
almost entirely a capella “Abbey” explores a youthful, misdirected spiritual turbulence in a near-hymnal of gorgeously layered
harmonies. Its content is vague on paper––“I am hungry/I was
born hungry,” she intones in the opening verse––but in context,
it begs the listener to give pause to its platitudes.
Mitski is perhaps at her best when she allows herself to be
someone else. “Wife” plays with that time-and-place trick Fleet
Foxes do so well, using an archaic accent and subtly dated
language to lend an ancient urgency to timeless conflicts of love,
fidelity, and fertility. And on the album-closer “Pearl Diver,” she
projects her own well-tread restlessness onto characters driven
to seek treasure despite obvious peril.
While Mitski occasionally falls prey to the peril of her own
ambition, her hunger and willingness to explore, experiment,
and refine lets Lush sparkle most of the time, and hints at an
artist-in-flux rapidly growing into her own talents.
Anthony Aquilino is a contributing writer for The Beat and a Purchase
alumnus, Class of 2011.
STONE COLD FOX – THE YOUNG (EP)
BY MICHAEL ANDRONICO
Every so often, a budding young band comes along that
sounds so refined, it’s familiar. You’ve never heard Stone Cold
Fox on the radio, in a Starbucks, or at Coachella, but their
breezy brand of smart indie-pop could easily find its way to
those places in the future. Composed of Purchase studio composition majors Kevin Olken and Ariel Loh, there’s something
strikingly professional about this group of guys who haven’t
entirely finished college yet.
The band’s EP, The Young, kicks off with the relaxed guitars of “Pictures,” a track that stays calm until a sudden explosion of “ahhs” that become hard not to sing along to. The
delayed guitars and galloping drums of “American” follow suit, as the smooth drawl of frontman
Kevin Olken is simultaneously effortless and tellingly emotional.
The layered harmonies of the chorus of “Give Up the Kids” make for one of the EP’s most memorable moments, as you’ll likely be tapping your toes while admiring the subtle catchiness behind
the track. “Father Spirit” ups the energy a bit, with a jumpy guitar solo from Olken in the bridge.
The Young closes out with the acoustic “Wildcats,” a barebones track that lets Olken’s voice
have the spotlight. He’s not entirely alone, as subtle percussion and trumpet help drive his words
even further into your ears.
Producer/keyboardist Loh did an excellent job behind the boards, making all five tracks sound
radio-ready without being drowned in fancy effects.
Catchy, familiar, yet refreshingly unique, Stone Cold Fox has delivered an accessible debut that
hints at tons of potential. This is the sound of real people making real music, and it’s well worth
your ears’ time.
Michael Andronico is a contributing writer for The Beat and a Purchase alumnus, Class of 2011.
BRYANT DOPE – QUEENS KIDS
BY SCOTT INTERRANTE
Bryant Jacques is a sophomore arts management major
at Purchase College, but he is much better known as Bryant
Dope, an up-and-coming MC from Queens. He’s been making a name for himself on the East Coast and hip-hop blog
circuit with his latest mixtape Queens Kids and his 2010 tape
The Chronicles of Dope. The self-proclaimed “New Voice of
Queens Hip-Hop,” this rapper is doing a good job at proving
he has the ability to live up to a name like “Dope,” focusing
on keeping the tradition of East Coast and Queens hip-hop
alive while moving it forward by integrating new styles and
original flow.
He makes Queens the focus of most of Queens Kids, and speaks directly about living up to its
rich hip-hop history. Like the title song, produced by fellow Queens kid Hannibal King (Mac Miller,
Children of the Night, Sene), Bryant proudly proclaims, “My religion is A Tribe Called Quest.” This
influence comes through over the course of the mixtape both in the fantastically produced beats
and Dope’s carefully calculated flow. Even though there are six different producers that contribute
tracks to the mixtape, there’s a shared sensibility throughout that echoes the jazz-heavy sampling
of Q-tip’s early A Tribe Called Quest productions as well as J-Dilla’s smooth and intricate beatmaking.
Bryant Dope’s rapping follows his borough’s lineage with a focus on where he stresses his rhyming and extends his phrases over bar lines. Where he deviates, however, is what brings an asymmetrical element to his music. Most classic Tribe verses utilize consistent rhyme patterns with rare
irregularities throughout a verse. This kind of restraint gives their rhymes maturity and class. But
20 years later, hip-hop has moved away from that style. Dope makes a game out of his asymmetrical phrases and uses their varying pulses to propel the verse forward. His avoidance of regularity
doesn’t come across as a lack of restraint or maturity, but rather it is used effectively enough to
show that his work is that of a true craftsman.
Dope’s fascinating rhythms and productions, however, don’t apply to every track on this tape.
There are a few songs, particularly “Young People’s Anthem,” produced by Long Island beat-maker
Courtney Hall, which fall more into a club-hit style and lose a lot of the rhythmic and musical
diversity found on the rest of the album.
This mixtape may not be enough to solidify this 19-year-old rapper as “The New Voice of Queens
Hip-Hop,” but it absolutely puts him on the right track.
Scott Interrante is a contributing writer for The Beat.
29
MOVE OVER LARPERS,
NEW NERD CLUB TAKES OVER
PHOTO jessica lerhman
Each academic school year at Purchase marks a new chapter for
its ever-changing student body. The 2011-2012 academic period is
no different, from Purchase making its presence at one of the most
prominent American economic rallies of our generation, to the
dissolution of a landmark campus service that has been around
since the school’s inception. We’ve survived a hurricane, been
arrested for what we believe in and struggled with being stranded
in White Plains for an entire semester. Here’s a glimpse at some
moments students will remember when reflecting on this year.
MORE STUDENTS HOUSED IN
WHITE PLAINS THAN EVER BEFORE
ALTERNATIVE CLINIC CLOSES
AFTER OVER 30 YEARS OF SERVICE
This year 102 students were housed in the AKA Hotel in
downtown White Plains, occupying six floors of the luxurious
extended-stay suites. Compared to previous years when the
number of students housed in White Plains was 64, according
to Residence Life, almost twice as many students could say they
were AKA Hotel residents. Due to the large amount of students
living there, hotel management also implemented new policies.
Students were required to sign an addendum prohibiting
alcohol, even for those over the age of 21. The paperwork also
restricted students from smoking on the premises. This is the
fourth year Purchase has housed students off-campus, but the
presence of hotel-dwellers was more prominent this semester
than ever. Overhearing students’ gripes and complaints about
the Purchase Loop schedule and scurrying out of evening
classes to catch the last shuttle bus was commonplace.
At the end of February the school announced that the
Alternative Clinic, a service provided by students and for
students on campus, was shut down because of legal liabilities.
The service began in 1979 and provided a nurse practitioner
offering women’s health services. The Alternative Clinic had
been a safe place for female students to seek medical help.
Six student interns and a faculty advisor also aided in running
the clinic, which provided services such as free pregnancy
tests, STD testing, and pelvic exams. The SUNY Counsel,
the lawyer for New York State, made the decision to “disband”
the clinic, according to Health Services. The service does not
have medical malpractice insurance for students, leaving it
open to legal risk if anything were to go wrong. The “Save the
Alternative Clinic” petition started on campus currently has
537 signatures.
PHOTOS posterize; scottchan
C’MON, IRENE. REALLY?
As Purchase students began to pack their bags in anticipation
of move-in day, Hurricane Irene swept across the Northeast,
pushing back some students’ return. Residence Life student
workers and various others opted to move in before the
storm, which seemed relatively subdued initially. However,
on August 28th students in Alumni Village began to feel Irene’s
wrath, with numerous trees downed around the apartment
complex. Those living in apartments one through six were
forced to evacuate until the trees were removed. But for one
group of female students living in the Olde, the inconvenience
persisted long after the storm was gone. In apartment J5-2,
the hurricane tore through the duplex’s ceiling, leaving a giant
gap above the common room. Facilities didn’t fix the ceiling
until November.
With Live Action Role Players taking over the Humanities
Building by night, Purchase has become renowned for its
nerd culture. In 2009 former student Ben Bookbinder, known
for spearheading the LARPing community, was arrested
for committing campus arson-related crimes on three
separate occasions. Now it seems the role-playing society
has diminished with its figurehead, making room for a new
iconic geek union. Last year the Nerd Guild was officially
named a campus club, and in the fall 2011 semester the new
organization began to rise in popularity. The club has launched
campus-wide ongoing games, such as “Humans vs. Zombies,”
in which Undead- infected players marked with red bandanas
scour the school searching for other participants to zombify.
The objective is to “stay alive” for the game’s week-long
duration. Each Wednesday evening, at least 30 students show
up to the Humanities building to engage in Nerd combat.
The club has 100 members on Facebook and counting.
ILLUSTRATION michelle huey
BY LISA EADICCICO
PTV RE-CHANNELED TO NORTH
FALL FEST WHITEOUT
In September, protesters in New York City started the
movement known as “Occupy Wall Street,” originating in the
heart of the financial district near the iconic charging bull. The
movement intended to incite a cry for help, urging for a change
in the economic climate of the nation. Purchase students were
quick to make their presence known with students meeting
regularly in Campus Center South to plan and organize trips
to Wall Street. On October 1, senior Zack Brady was arrested
for marching across the Brooklyn Bridge alongside 700 other
protesters. He was released from jail the following day. “It was
amazing,” wrote Brady in his account of the movement. “We
had taken the bridge, one of the biggest actions in New York
State in a very long time. We marched, danced, and cheered
almost halfway across the bridge.”
YEAR IN REVIEW
30
PHOTO kellyann petry
STUDENTS TAKE A STAND DURING
OCCUPY WALL STREET
Enduring snowstorms during the school year is familiar to
Purchase students. Anyone remember the blizzard in 2010 that
transformed the campus into a snowball-flinging battlefield?
However, the flurries don’t usually fall until the second half of
the school year’s wintery months. October’s unprecedented
snowstorm shocked students when the wacky weather swept
through this year’s Fall Fest event. Norwegian metal act
Kvelertak arrived at the festival two hours late, and the chilly
conditions resulted in a bleak student turnout during the day.
Purchase Television, an integral part of student life on campus,
was forced to halt its broadcast of Purchase-run shows when
the television network switched locations. The station was
disconnected from the end of the fall semester through March,
and is now situated in Campus Center North. The studio had
found its home in Campus Center South for the past four
years and those who have grown well-acquainted with the
television station’s location were forced to adjust to the new
spot. Campus construction in the Humanities building was the
deciding factor behind moving the PTV location.
The class of 2012 may be gone, but for those feeling nostalgic, the upcoming year is sure to
bring more student budget cut protests on the academic mall, disruptive construction that
has made the campus an ever-changing maze, and the usual Culture Shock complaints.
But underneath all the jokes and student gripes, Purchase has a defining element that separates even the most cynical of students from other collegiates (even if they won’t admit
it): we are a community of artists, leaders and innovators, and the Purchase community is
sure to continue to uphold its eccentric yet admirable reputation.
Lisa Eadiccico is Production Editor of The Beat and a Purchase alumna, class of ’12
31
WORKING FOR THE BEAT
________________________________________
ADVERTISING
_____________________________________________________________
The Beat is looking for reporters, critics,
editors, photographers, page designers, and ad
sales staff. Contact editors at TheBeatatPC@
gmail.com and type “Working for The Beat”
in the subject line. Include your name and
number.
The Beat is accepting ads of various sizes for Issue #2. For rates and
other information, please contact Andrew Salomon, publisher and faculty
advisor, at TheBeatatPC@gmail.com, or call 914.251.6598. Include your
name and number.
SENIOR PROJECTS
________________________________
The Beat seeks seniors in the Music
Conservatory who are interested in having
their projects profiled for Quarter Notes. Please
contact editors at TheBeatatPC@gmail.com
and type “Senior Project: Quarter Notes” in the
subject line. Include your name and number.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
_____________________________________________________________
The editors welcome reader comments about our inaugural issue and/or
anything that is remotely relevant to our work. Please send your letters to
TheBeatatPC@gmail.com. Please include your first and last names and a
phone number. You can also comment on Facebook (/TheBeatatPC) and
Twitter (@thebeatatPC), and we’ll run selections in Issue #2, set for Spring
2013. Letters and comments may be edited to fit The Beat standards and
practices. Please limit your letters to 250 words or less.
SUBMITTING WORK FOR REVIEW
STATE OF THE ART
_____________________________________________________________
________________________________________
Have a LP, EP, mixtape or concert coming up that you would like
reviewed? Please contact editors at TheBeatatPC@gmail.com and type
“Submitting Work for Review” in the subject line. Include your name
and number.
The editors welcome brief essays (500 words or
less) from the Purchase College community on
issues related to the world of music, on campus
or off. Contact editors at TheBeatatPC@gmail.
com and type “State of the Art” in the subject
line. You do not have to submit a completed
piece; a brief description of your topic will
suffice. Also: please include your name and
number.
DONATIONS
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The Beat is an independent magazine printed twice a year. If you’d like to
contribute, please contact Andrew Salomon, publisher and faculty advisor,
at TheBeatatPC@gmail.com or call 914.251.6598. Include your name and
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GRAPHIC DESIGN • PHOTOGRAPHY
WWW.MICHELLEHUEY.COM

spring break breakthrough

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