MUSIC
Busdriver: The Avatar of 'Less Yeses, More No's' in the Era of 'Yes, We Can'
/ Ben Bush
04.10.09
One of its more memorable lines is the lilting bridge, in which Busdriver, accompanied by ambient major chord synths and a squelching beat, asks, “Now that we’ve painted the White House black from the inside/can we paint the combustible engine green/and replace verses of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ with the theme of The Jeffersons/ know what I mean?” The song’s conclusion is a series of questions about what Obama will do culminating with “Will he change us?” which in context seems to be a hope for the undoing of some of the more destructive attitudes of the American electorate.
One of Busdriver’s strongest tracks is “Less Yeses, More No’s” from his 2007 album RoadKillOvercoat. Refracted through imagery of unitards, dried blood globules on dog tags and enormous cactus needles injecting Botox onto the faces on dollar bills, the song’s primary target is neoconservative policies but the most stinging lines are jabs at the ineffectiveness of the left. Producer Elvin (DJ Nobody) Estela’s beats neatly mirror the odd triple stressed ‘ess’ sound of ‘less yeses,” exactly the kind of interplay between rhythm and language that Farquhar excels at. The song also seems like something of a statement of principles, lamenting that “every emphatic ‘no’/is now an ambivalent ‘yes;” better to be fervently opposed to everything than to be half-heartedly in favor of anything. In a type of verbal enactment of this support of negation, Farquhar at one point in the interview used the word ‘not’ seven times in eight sentences while describing his position on Obama.
“I’m against everything,” Farquahar said, “so I can’t really zero one thing out.” One is tempted to interpret each of Busdriver’s recent LPs as ‘diss’ concept albums, each aimed at a different target. His loose jazz-inflected mini-album Cosmic Cleavage (2004) satirizes real or imagined ex-girlfriends and his own romantic failures; Fear of a Black Tangent (2005) mocks the rap establishment and his own lack of prestige within it; RoadKillOvercoat belittles trust fund liberalism and indie-rock posturing.
And yet, appropriately or paradoxically, it’s clear from our conversation that hip-hop, independent music, politics and relationships are among the things that matter to him most.
One of Busdriver’s strongest tracks is “Less Yeses, More No’s” from his 2007 album RoadKillOvercoat. Refracted through imagery of unitards, dried blood globules on dog tags and enormous cactus needles injecting Botox onto the faces on dollar bills, the song’s primary target is neoconservative policies but the most stinging lines are jabs at the ineffectiveness of the left. Producer Elvin (DJ Nobody) Estela’s beats neatly mirror the odd triple stressed ‘ess’ sound of ‘less yeses,” exactly the kind of interplay between rhythm and language that Farquhar excels at. The song also seems like something of a statement of principles, lamenting that “every emphatic ‘no’/is now an ambivalent ‘yes;” better to be fervently opposed to everything than to be half-heartedly in favor of anything. In a type of verbal enactment of this support of negation, Farquhar at one point in the interview used the word ‘not’ seven times in eight sentences while describing his position on Obama.
“I’m against everything,” Farquahar said, “so I can’t really zero one thing out.” One is tempted to interpret each of Busdriver’s recent LPs as ‘diss’ concept albums, each aimed at a different target. His loose jazz-inflected mini-album Cosmic Cleavage (2004) satirizes real or imagined ex-girlfriends and his own romantic failures; Fear of a Black Tangent (2005) mocks the rap establishment and his own lack of prestige within it; RoadKillOvercoat belittles trust fund liberalism and indie-rock posturing.
And yet, appropriately or paradoxically, it’s clear from our conversation that hip-hop, independent music, politics and relationships are among the things that matter to him most.
