Ui: C or D?

For starters, here are the Ui comments from the above thread:

earlier today and elsewhere one of my pitchfork colleagues (mr. hogan) responded to this article with what amounted to "oh hai remember jams murphy" and i kinda felt like that was all that needed to be said in response. like i wondered if that arcade fire show sfj talks about was one of the co-headlining shows with lcd soundsystem, and if so how he just completely, willfully shut out the existence of that strain of "indie" in order to make his "point." like, dude, you're the one that recently wrote the slob job over friggin vampire weekend, and i cant think of a whiter goddamn band out there despite their much vaunted "deep appreciation" of "african music." sometimes you can be head-over-heels in love with "black" music and still come out sounding like a goddamn musical j. crew ad. (as with a band like, i dunno, ui. o snap.)
-- strongohulkington, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 03:01 (Yesterday) Link

SFJ blog post from when that stupid EMP paper about white DJs playing black music and "minstrelsy":
PS: Let me be clear—if this piece feels like some kind of "calling people out" routine, you've got the wrong end of the stick. I would gladly include myself or Ui in the representative sample I am using Shadow and Diplo to outline, except for two things: 1) I've DJ'd less than ten times in my life; and 2) not very many people bought Ui records. We weren't part of the popular conversation, so it would be silly to insert me or Ui just to sound "honest." But if you insist on reading guilt into this formulation (which is not its intent in any way, shape or form—pop isn't like that), then please make me more guilty than anyone.
did a bunch of people buy Ui records in the past 2 years or something?
-- Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 15:49 (Yesterday) Link

guys:
is UI banned from discussion here? huge elephant in the room imo...
-- Steve Shasta, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 19:20 (Yesterday) Link

I own a Ui album, I don't think it's an elephant per se, but it's pretty indicative of the politics of crowds.
-- mh, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 19:22 (Yesterday) Link

I also don't think " so many white rock bands retreat from the ecstatic singing and intense, voice like guitar tones of the blues, the heavy African downbeat, and the elaborate showmanship that characterized black music of the mid-twentieth century" as he suggests. Again, music is an ‘expression’ and there is no definition of what is proper. Music should unify and get people excited, and on common ground. It does not have to have 'funk' to be soulful. A 'white' band does not need to collaborate with a 'black' band to be 'soulful'. It should be passionate, as well. The songs, need to be great enough for people to care. I think some of the bands he mentions in his thread do that in spades, which is more then I can say for UI back in the day.
-- JM, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 22:18 (Yesterday) Link

So piling on someone misquoting a musician by inferring they're racist is a "rowboat" while attempting an analysis of how a handful of indie bands aren't especially rhythmic is "the QEII." This has me more confused than anything in the New Yorker article. (Well, except "a funk band called Ui," which hit me the same way as reading someone call Sarah Vowell a "humorist" a few years back: not necessarily wrong, per se, but not something I'd have even imagined to be the case beforehand.)
-- Matos W.K., Tuesday, 16 October 2007 22:30 (Yesterday) Link

I liked them just fine myself, based on one show and one record, though I was also surprised to learn from the article that they are a funk band.

We released our first record in 1993—a vinyl EP available only in England, the first in a series of dubious marketing decisions—and the handful of reviews that it received were factually accurate, citing the bands I’ve mentioned as influences and recognizing that we were primarily interested in making instrumental funk, not in singing.

I wrote about that Hemiola release for a fanzine and certainly didn't mention the word funk. I think that post-rock would have been mentioned many, many more times. In fact, I can't think of ANY time I've seen them described as funk, except in their own press gubbins that comes up in Google. They were more down w/Stereolab and that kinda stuff.

I liked that track 'The Grand Piano' they did

You might argue that in the mid-90s when Ui started getting noticed, funk hadn't been sufficiently rehabilitated among indie rock types for reviewers to be keen to toss it around in a review

about half of Lifelike is ace. especially the first track.

the uilab -- ui and stereolab -- cover of eno's "st. elmo's fire" is sort of classic. don't know how funky it is though

nearly certain that nick sylvester started the "funk-rock band ui" thing as a gag.

nice to know that back in the 90s when indie was losing its sense of rhythm, SFJ was still keeping it on the good foot.

Ui really were that decade's Royal Crescent Mob.

He used to write for the Voice, but more famously played in freak-nasty heavy-metal funk-rock band Ui

ha wonder when that disclaimer went up

how do you say the name of this band?

OO-ee
oo-EE
WEE

oui?

I guess they're so funky because they had two bass players on stage at once? On reflection, his little description actually helped consolidate how I feel about Ui: more of a record collection than a band. The Meters, Miles' band, Jamaican rhythms, Zep, Can: five great tastes (for those with great taste) that sound OK together. Bands trying to pull off a lot of disparate influences at once are more likely to produce gruel than gumbo. But I can hear the Can and dub in their sound, and the 70's Miles texture, and finding the links between them was a neat trick, but more in a record store nerd way than a you gotta hear this way. I don't remember any Meters or Zeppelin in their sound, but then again my exposure was limited. The record I heard (and despite all the above, quite liked) was called 2-Sided EP.

Ui really were that decade's Royal Crescent Mob.

I have been laughing WAY too hard since reading that.

how do you say the name of this band?

OO-ee

That's how I say it, because that's how they pronounced it in the production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui that I saw, and I assumed that's where they got the name. Though when I was digging for a thread like this one this morning I found tons of references instead to "User Interface" and it also alludes to YOU and I ... an OK band, but a great band name.

I really liked Ui back in the day, but I must concur with the folks who are a bit stumped at them being (self-)described as a funk band. Whaaaaaaat?

(Oh, and Uilab = better than Ui alone)

Uilab "St. Elmo's Fire (Snow)" is one of my favorite tunes of the 90s. I have Ui *Iron Apple* on vinyl somewhere and I can't remember a thing about it.

I have several Ui records that I played once or twice then left on the shelf. I remember at the time they were compared to Tortoise / Stereolab etc far more then Miles Davis or whatever, but I guess that was when "post-rock" menat something other than "let's build up to, like, a massive crescendo, then have a solo cello part". Did they get into all that indie drum & bass remixes Soul Static Sound malarkey? Anyone remember Rome?

i saw a bunch of their vinyl for sale in princeton. probably a reaction to The Article.

anyone want to buy a pile of Ui records?

http://www.lyndonirwin.com/wbcem47.jpg