Alphabetically or Chronologically?

Clerical error in row 17

2011-05-01T22:22:00.000-05:00

I've been picking up the pace a bit again in the Great Listening Project™ and the other day I moved on to a very personally significant album, Too Much Sugar For A Dime by Henry Threadgill. This was one of, if not the first avant-garde Jazz albums I ever owned, and it showed me a new way of hearing music. Not only that, but I heard it for the first time on WRIU and it was a definitive moment in drawing me to the station. It was even the sort of disc that I listened to twice for the Project. But then I noticed something awry. I looked ahead in the collection and saw that They Might Be Giants were up next. Wait, what? That's not how the alphabet works. The part that troubles me about this is that this must have happened years ago. However, on the plus side, not only does this mean that I get to move on to TMBG, but it also means that I get to listen to the Threadgill disc again!

Long overdue Project update

2011-04-21T20:38:00.000-05:00

Well my friends, the Great Listening Project™ has been moving at a much slower pace these days however, I am pleased to announce that after one year, four months, and 21 days I am finished with the letter S.

Co-eds Darren, co-eds

2010-11-16T19:07:00.000-05:00

So, for those of you who might not have heard, ol' Uncle Jubb is finally back in school. About two years ago I enrolled at URI's Continuing Education campus (or Old People's College as I like to call it) in Providence, but never got around to taking any classes. This August I proposed a show to a radio station in NYC but never heard anything back from them. Rather then sit around and mope about it I took that as the kick in the ass I needed to get back to school. Since I was already in the system from two years ago, all I had to do was register for classes and go. Pickin's were slim getting into the game that late, but I was able to get into four classes, some of which are actually pretty cool. I'll refrain from commenting on which classes I like and which I don't since this is a public forum and I have shared this blog's URL with some of my professors, but here are some thoughts on my experience so far.

First and foremost, I absolutely friggin' love it. I am so glad to finally be doing this, and maybe it took a long time for me to get here, but maybe this was just the right time. Not only am I more focused as a student, but I'm also more focused personally. I now have a clear idea of "what I want to do when I grow up." Radio. Period. Now that may take several forms or have different possible career outcomes, it's the clear answer for me. When I got back on the air a little over a year ago the on-air light in my head went on. And while URI doesn't offer a lot in terms of audio or broadcasting classes per se, it does offer me some very cool opportunities.

The most obvious is the radio station itself. As a student (as opposed to a community volunteer which I was before) I am eligible to be on the Executive Board and I have already secured the position of Production Manager. This means that I am in charge of our live room and ProTools equipped recording studio. In addition to that, one of my Communications professors has set up a Sound Lab for students to use which is currently a small room with four ProTools computers and some basic recording equipment. I am also manager for this Sound Lab, which means that I am basically the resident ProTools expert on campus. These two things will give me lots of opportunity to work hands on a variety of equipment and will look excellent on a resume. Oh, and I get paid for both.

So, that's the gist of what's going on with me these days. Now if you'll excuse me, this place is just crawling with college girls... o.O

Two days I waited ten years for

2010-09-17T23:06:00.000-05:00

In 2000 I saw two bands I never expected to see again; Orchestra Morphine and Gil Scott-Heron. In early August I saw them both within the span of 24 hours.

Orchestra Morphine is the remaining members of Morphine along with members of Either/Orchestra performing the songs of Mark Sandman. At this point in my life I can pretty safely say that Morphine is my favorite band. No small statement. And to see this music performed live again is nothing short of mind blowing for me.

Russ Gershon has a tendency to send out emails about E/O performances mere days before a show. On a Tuesday morning I saw a notice he had sent out the day before about an Orchestra Morphine show the next day! I got on the phone and rounded up Kyle, Martin, and Linda and off we went. We get up to Boston with no problems, circle the block once and get a spot right in front of the club. To say the Lizard Lounge is intimate is to say Jimi Hendrix was a guitar player. Grab some seats, blah blah blah, they play. Oh. My. God.

These nine musicians both have this music in them and put themselves into this music. They are those songs. Which gives them the ability to explore while they're playing. Because no matter how far out they take these, well, Pop Songs, they can still turn the train right around and lock it back in. And I dare you not to dance. Go on. Don't dance.

Then the next day:

Erica & I picked up Harry & Bill and we headed to NYC. Pleasant trip down the Merritt (Harrison, You Are Here) got into the city no problem, found $10 parking, went to the MOMA, had awesome salads on 125th, then headed over to Marcus Garvey park in Harlem to see Gil Scott-Heron. Hoe. Lee. Shit.

Another group of excellent musicians, and at least from my perspective towards the back of the park, Gil looked fairly healthy. When I saw him in 2000, eh, not so much. I spent the oughts assuming I'd one day hear that he had died, so to see him perform live again is also mind blowing to me.

But the thing that *really* blew my mind was that fact that these two show were back-to-back. These are two of my absolute favorite artists, one of whom has been living with a crack habit for decades, and the other has been gone since '99. And they were both near perfect shows in every aspect that I can think of; personal importance of artist, performance, company, parking, over-all experience, etc ...

A listening crisis

2009-11-19T10:43:00.000-05:00

I never thought I'd say this, but I think I might have too much music. I currently have three main modes of listening which roughly fall along format lines. There's the Great Listening Project (compact discs), research for my radio show (digital/internet), and what I simply want to listen to for pleasure (vinyl). There's overlap obviously, and primarily in that I'm buying cd's under the pretense of it being for the show, and then listening to them for pleasure.

Anyway.

I feel like I've actually hit a point where I have more music than I have time for. In other words, my addiction to obtaining new music seems to have gotten out of hand, and it's due to the confluence of three forces.

First, my re-discovery of the beauty of vinyl has led to an enormous amount of record shopping. A large part of that is because I work in a well stocked record store, but even beyond that I've picked the thrift store habit back up. And when I see a sign that says "Records: $1 each or 30 for $20" you bet your ass I'm buying 30. The result being that I still have several Randy Newman, Duke Ellington, and Enoch Light records that I haven't even touched yet.

Then there's the radio show, which I feel deserves the majority of my attention. In doing this show and focusing on Classical music of the last 30 years I've put myself in a position of presenting a music that I was not all that familiar with before hand. This means I'm constantly learning new names, listening to works on websites, buying new cd's, rifling though the library at the station, etc.. Just last week, for example, I probably loaded about ten discs from the station library onto my hard drive, set aside a dozen lp's to listen to, received one disc that I bought online, and contacted several composers asking for music for the show. Additionally, I'm planning on ordering two or three more discs this weekend.

Third is the temptation of the internet. It's far too easy to grab a discography of, say Slayer, simply for nostalgia's sake, but how long is that then going to just sit there un-listened to? And this extends to "research" for the show. Sorry, Famous Name Composer™ I need my fifteen bucks more than you do. (If it makes you feel any better, Famous Name Composer™, now that I have 27 of your discs on my hard drive I'm sure to play you on my show with some regularity.) But again, when am I going to get around to listening to it all.

Finally, (yeah, I know I said "three forces") for approximately 40 hours every week I'm forced to listen to pop garbage that I would even know existed otherwise. One of the results of that is I often sit in silence after work, cutting into what would normally be listening time.

And this isn't even taking into account all of the music that I would like to explore simply out of my own insatiable curiosity. The Rough Guide to Africa & Middle East that I have on right now as Official Project Listening is reminding me that I need to explore various World Musics, and every time I go downstairs and my roommate is listening to some wonderful piece of music I'm reminded of how vast the Classical Cannon is.

So there's my crisis. I have no solutions or potential answers, except maybe relinquishing all obligations (other than my show) and just dedicating myself to sitting in front of the stereo for ten/twelve hours a day. Which sounds like heaven to me, but I suppose I still need to eat.

the new '92

2009-08-26T22:55:00.001-05:00

I'm officially calling it. 2010 will be the new 1992.

'92 was the year that Grunge became the mainstream music, however, it was really just that the mainstream media caught on to what most of us were listening to already. As I commented last year, when Nirvana became big, it was no great revelation. The sounds of Grunge were everywhere, down to the littlest local band.

And I'm getting much the same vibe now with the current Indie scene/sound. It's everywhere, and everyone I know who cares about their music is listening to it. There's also a sort of unification of sound with folk and country influences abounding, while at the same time each individual artist/band has it's own distinct approach. All it takes is a look at the rosters of the last two years of the Newport Folk Festival to get an idea of the bands I'm taking about. Deer Tick, Calexico, She & Him, the Low Anthem, Neko Case, Fleet Foxes, ... the list goes on.

Culturally we are in a similar place too. One of the beautiful things about the Grunge Moment was that it was a major sea change from the highly commercial crap we were being bombarded with. Much like now. Grunge, like today's Indie Rock, was an attempt to get back to something "real." And today's over-produced pop crap bears a striking resemblance to the over-produced pop crap of the late eighties. Even fashions are worth mentioning. Mainstream culture is filled with neon colors and spandex. Meanwhile the hipsters are wearing an awful lot of plaid these days.

Of course, there is a downside to Indie music becoming popular. It means that by 2011/12 we'll be seeing all sorts of Corporate Indie Rock™ And you know what else is supposed to happen in 2012? That's right, the end of the World. And if Corporate Indie Rock™ isn't a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is.

It's official

2009-08-06T12:34:00.001-05:00

I've run out of room on my CD shelves.

Justin H Brierley dislikes this.

Alphabetic musing

2009-07-21T21:53:00.002-05:00

At work I get to watch people trying to find music. In addition to the sometimes tricky questions of where a certain section is, what section something is filed under, or why does Mickey Hart warrant his own header card and Jerry Garcia doesn't, this also means observing people's interactions with the alphabet. Now personally, it would never even occur to me to look for an artist by their first name, but lots of people do. And what's more, I've noticed that kids in particular will even sneer and laugh that the discs are in "no order at all." I think this is a result of the iTunes Generation, where alphabetization by first name is the norm. It makes me wonder if that system will eventually win out, since all things computer are becoming the way of the world.

Yes, Gil, I could

2009-05-30T11:38:00.002-05:00

Last night as I walked home from work I was listening to John Coltrane ~ Kulu Se Mama. During the song "Vigil" I was thinking about an article that I scanned earlier in the day about sexism in indie hip-hop which mentioned Sage Francis. This lead me to think about the over-all anger in Sage's music towards, well, anyone who isn't him.

..and then the song "Welcome" came on..

And it was so beautiful that it literally slowed my pace, made me stop thinking about anger, and made me look around in wonder at the beauty of the world around me. I even had a minor hallucination that a box by the side of the road was a diorama with ballet dancers. (& let me point out that I was 100% sober at the time) It was truly transcendent.

Could you call on Lady Day?
Could you call on John Coltrane?
'Cuz they'll, they'll wash your troubles away.
~Gil Scott-Heron~

Lessons from the Project pt. 2

2009-05-06T17:37:00.004-05:00

The Collection is History
In a film, a well placed song can help guide us to a desired emotion. The same cinematic moment can also imbue that song with that feeling. This creates an external storage space for that moment, that emotion. When we hear that song again, if the connection is strong enough, the scene floats into one's mind as if the movie were contained in the song rather than the song being part of the film. As someone who has incessantly sound tracked his own life, my music collection serves as a vast reference library to all those moments, all those emotions, that make up a life. As I go through the project, scenes will leap out at me, sometimes unexpectedly, sometimes with warning. Other times I'll be reminded of a whole period, place, or person. But regardless of how minute or macro the memory is, it's as if it's 'stored' in the music. All I have to do is think the line "ridin' my bike to the depot" and I see Sophie in the kitchen at Gould St., crank the the Chili Peppers in the car and I'm back in high school, or hear the opening of Princess Superstar Is to evoke Renee the First. And it's not just extra-musical associations. Listening to say, the Primus catalogue in one day (not recommended) can lead to a deeper understanding of where I was at as a listener at the specific time that ___(fill in the blank.. band/artist/album/song)... was important.

The Project becomes History
One of the points of the Project is conscious listening. As such I frequently have a heightened awareness of what else is happening. This means that Official Project Listening takes on the memory of the moment it happens in. For example, in a previous post I mentioned how the Oranj Symphonette version of A Woman & A Man reminded me of a painful time. Now, as I think back on the Project I have the memory of painting the stairs, listening to that song as Official Project Listening and of having that painful memory. In essence what it does is create yet another map or outline by which I can recall events, only in this instance they are the very specific events of a specific time in which I listened to a given album.

Numeric predictions

2009-03-14T09:48:00.003-05:00

In the last year or so the Listening Project has been moving rather slowly. During the last six months I have progressed by merely one shelf. At that rate it will take me another three & a half to four years to finish. So I've decided to kick start this thing a bit and will be making the effort to listen to at least one disc per day. I have about 300 discs actually in the collection to go and I'll most likely be adding 100+ titles to the project. Which means I'm currently predicting a much more reasonable year and a half until the project is complete.

While my synth virtually weeps

2009-03-01T11:23:00.002-05:00

Greetings from the other side of February. In short: I did it! I basically stuck to my original plan of one new song a day for the first ten days (with one skipped day for good reason) and then edited for the rest of the month. I even finished a few days early. The first draft was done on the 21st, the first printing was done on the 26th, and the discs got mailed to rpmchallenge.com on the 28th. w00t! Also on the 26th I built The Chicken for the upcoming CockSlap show. Over-all a busy and successful month.

So, the new album.
It can be heard here at last.fm,
and there's a Facebook music page here.
Physical copies will be limited and, for now at least, only available in person.

Hopefully you can take the time to give it a few spins and don't forget to leave me a comment letting me know what you think.

Until next time, sleep tight and don't piss on the electric blanket,
<3 Uncle Jubb

Feb-tastic!

2009-01-30T18:43:00.004-05:00

Well my dears, it's been awhile since I've talked about my music here, and oh so much has happened that I need to step into the way back machine to recap. Last July I ended Banter/3.1 as I reported here. Soon after I began working on a new live show entitled Horses Changed My Life which was to be part music, part storytelling, with some sort of film in the background. Then, as many of you know, in November my Mac crashed, leaving me with access to none of the work I had done for that show. As of this writing the data issue is still unresolved (anyone got a spare two grand for recovery?) Then along came xxxmas, and despite always striving to be naughty, santa brought me the new version of Pro Tools that I asked for. However. It requires 1gb of memory and my old pc only had 512mb. At that point I had a bit of extra scratch from working my ass off over the hollandaise, so I bought a barebones kit and built a new computer. And just in time, because February is going to be a busy month.

First, I am taking the Recording Project Month Challenge. The idea is to write and record an entire album in the month of February. I ain't scared. After all, I did record Beyond Beautiful Mountain in only three weeks. My plan is to write a new song every day for the first ten days, and then edit the shit out of them for the remaining 18 days. A tease of the new sound can be heard here. It's the last song in the player, appropriately called A taste of what's to come. The resulting work will be the first album by Something Like Banter & the Cybernetic Inevitable All-Stars.

In CockSlap news, we have a show coming up at AS220 on March 4th. Be there. Trust me. We are currently building The Chicken which is an interactive beast controlled by you the audience! You won't want to miss this exciting opportunity to be a part of the CockSlap experience.

"Well, what about the horses?" you may ask. Horses Changed My Life is now going to become a feature length silent film with an all original soundtrack. In many ways it is going to be the sequel to Sweeping up the Popcorn only this time set in a record store. Pre-production will begin in March after I get past the enourmous amount of work I mentioned above.

So, as you can see, I've got quite a bit of work ahead of me. But, that's the way, uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it.

Dear Mr. President

2009-01-20T19:40:00.004-05:00

In honor of our new leader I was able to get away with an all black playlist at work today. This was actually more difficult than it would seem, but keep in mind I have a very limited palette to work with, and loose guidelines about current popular music being played at certain times of day. Again, seems easy right? However, we basically do not play rap at all, so as popular as say T-Pain may be, it would never get played in the store. (Not that I'd want to, it's just an example.) The mornings are a little easier, and to my liking, because we can play a bit of Jazz and Blues. So here, with commentary, is the list:

Herbie Hancock ~ The Joni Letters It's Herbie, what more need I say?
Buddy Guy ~ Skin Deep An excellent disc, and the message of the title track made all the more poignant by the significance of today.
Tracy Chapman ~ Our Bright Future I haven't had much chance to absorb this album yet, but what I've heard has been decent.
Al Green ~ Lay It Down My biggest coup of the day, the Reverend was playing as Obama was being sworn in.
Keyshia Cole ~ A Different Me This is where things start to get crappy.
John Legend ~ Evolver Although, for some inexplicable reason, I really like this album. I think it might be because it doesn't have the standard lame guest rapper thing. (correction: Andre 3000 is on Green Light, but I'm ok with that)
Beyonce ~ I Am... Sasha Fierce Dear Mrs. Z, please go away.
Seal ~ Soul The man can sing, and is surprisingly well suited to this type of material, but the song choices are mostly horrible.
Jennifer Hudson The fact that I'm qualified to say that this is one of the worst Idol related discs out there scares me. "Ima hit you with my pocketbook"!!?? Seriously? Are you secretly 85?
Alicia Keys ~ As I Am Gotta say, I don't mind this one. I'd never go out of my way to listen to it outside of work, but she's ok. On a liner notes aside; pictures of a pretty lady in a tight Miles Davis t-shirt surrounded by top-notch keyboards are ok by me.

If I had more control over the music I could have put together a bangin' list, but I worked with what I had.

p.s. Mr. President, I hope you do an excellent job. I wish you the best.

Top 9 of 8

2008-12-24T17:51:00.004-05:00

2008 has been odd. The first two months were spent living in NYC, raising my lifetime out-of-RI living to nine months. The last eight months have been spent working at a record, nay, toy store that I've had a twenty year history with. Along the way I've seen some shows, listened to some records (presently side 3 of Exile In Guyville), and generally thought about music, as I tend to do. And since this tends to be the time of year for lists, here's mine.

First, my criteria. The list is mostly recordings purchased in '08, but not restricted to recordings that came out in '08, and performances attended and I stayed away from anything I've typed about before. So..

9) The Police & Elvis Costello ~ Great Woods, July 31st
tie
9) David Byrne & Brian Eno ~ Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

The Police/Costello show was epic for many reasons. For starters, I don't think I've ever known six months in advance that I was going to a particular show. Ever. Kyle texted me in January saying "Clear 7/31" He then informs me, by phone at this point, that the show is a birthday gift. So, the months pass, the show is thought about, forgotten, and suddenly here. I was in the situation of being the least responsible person, so I drank myself silly and got to see an artist and a band that I'd never seen before. Hot Damn!

Dear Brian,
Thank you for throwing us your scraps.
p.s. Tell David he did a pretty good job too.

8) The Residents ~ at the Fucking Mall!!!
As if my third Residents show wasn't a strange enough event on it's own, the show was at Showcase Live at Partiots Place. Yup, the giant fucking mall around the stadium formerly known as Foxboro. The notion started to really sink in upon hitting the parking lot and driving past all the huge brand stores, looking for the cinema multiplex.

7) East Village Opera Company
This disc was in the first employee purchase I made at my job. I adopted it for awhile as a pet record to sell at work. They (EVOC) then put out a new album this year. The combo of me selling the first album and having a new one earned them a header card in our mostly laughable classical section.

6) Dinaresade ~ Traditional Syrian
This one song from the box set Time of the Templars has been an iPod staple. There was a stretch this summer where I listened to this song almost everyday on my walk home from work, whistling out loud and drumming on my man purse.

5) Banter/3.1 ~ Medicinal Reverb
Oh no you didn't! Oh yes I did. While putting your own album on a year end best of list can seem a bit hokey, MedRev earns a place here for many reasons. First was the amount of time and effort that went into recording and mixing. Second, it is one of my proudest accomplishments ever, and certainly the best "album" I've recorded. And lately it has become an album that I simply enjoy listening to. One of the pleasures of making music is creating something that you enjoy.

4) My Morning Jacket ~ Evil Urges
Generally speaking, if someone tells me I should check out a certain band or album I don't listen. And yes, that sounds snobby, but I tend to be very good at discovering music on my own. However, Al mentioned My Morning Jacket and after listening to one and a half songs on MySpace I bought Evil Urges on vinyl. What a simply delicious album. Anyone who sings about sexy librarians and the interwebs is ok by me.

3) Mudcrutch ~ Mudcrutch
Of all the LP's I bought this year, this one is hands down the best object. Simply holding the thing is a pleasure. The artwork gives it the look of a lost album, which in a sense it is. Mudcrutch broke up in the early 70's without having recorded, and got back together to make this album. And the music kicks ass too. A bunch of old guys who know what they're doing layin' it down live in the studio. Sign me up!

2) An Evening of Charles Ives' Music ~ Central Presbyterian Church, NYC
Anyone who makes the mistake of mentioning Charles Ives in my presence is likely to get an hour long lecture. To say that I'm obsessed with Charlie is perhaps the understatement of the year. In January I got the chance to see an evening of his music at the church where he used to be the organist! Not only did that fact make it a special evening, but the performance was the best live Ives I've seen yet.

1) Patti Smith ~ Horses
One day at work Al handed me a pin that said "Horses changed my life." I deemed this most excellent and proceeded to wear it to work on a regular basis. Since this would frequently cause people to ask how horses had changed my life I came up with a series of mostly true stories involving horses and my life. This became the basis, or glue if you will, of a new, Banter related performance that I bagan working on. Now the truth of the matter, of course, is that the pin was a promo item for the Patti Smith album Horses which I don't believe I had ever heard. So a dl and an LP later I can say that is a truly outstanding record.

Well, there it is. The moments that effected me the most this year. Happy Listening.

Lost in the supermarket

2008-11-13T19:05:00.002-05:00

or at least in the comfort of my own home. Lemme 'splain. Like a refugee, I'm writing this from my old PC because my Mac won't turn on. I'm taking it in to the Apple store on Sat, but in the meantime I have no idea what to do with myself. The whole ordeal is scary in a few ways. Obviously there's the potential data loss, including basically all of the data for the new show I've been working on, but it's also scary how at a loss I am. I mean right now I'm doing exactly what I would be doing if the Mac was working; smoking, listening to music, & blogging/interwebbing. Yet I feel lost doing it. Part of that must be the anxiety over what the end result of this may be. Oddly, the PC which has been f*'ed for years, is behaving fine. So, I'm listening to Zeena Parkins ~ The Opium War. It's a radio play about well, opium, in NYC during the teens. Delicious Avante-Garde Over-the-Topness.

A journey of a couple of discs

2008-11-08T10:21:00.002-05:00

Two very good friends of mine currently live in an apartment that I once inhabited. A lotta shit went down in that apartment, and it's more than a little surreal visiting them. ("See that nail in the chimney? That was there when I lived here. I had a picture of Zappa hanging on it.") The other day they stopped by my house and ended up borrowing a few discs, including some Bowie and Sebadoh. I realized after they left that those discs were all in my collection at the time I lived there, and are now making a journey into an apartment where they too once lived many years ago. I find it interesting that those same discs will fill the air within the same walls some thirteen years later.

*a note about the title: When I first started the Project I made an attempt to keep a journal about every single discs I listened to. Needless to say, that task failed. However, the first entry started like this: It began with Rabih Abou-Khalil. Theoretically, it will end with Zuco 103. A journey of a thousand plus CD's. The Great Listening Project.

Lessons from the Project pt. 1

2008-10-22T14:43:00.004-05:00

Over the last two years, three months, and seven days since I started the Great Listening Project I've learned a few things. Some of them are completely inconsequential, others have had profound philosophical impact. This new, semi-regular series will highlight those insights.

Tastes change. And of course I mean the obvious "I used to like Anthrax, now I like Radiohead," but I also mean that how we react to and interact with music changes. The criteria by which we deem something "bad" or "good" evolves as well. One inevitable result of listening to music all the time is an increased knowledge of at least the basics of theory and how music works in general, which leads to an appreciation of more technically sophisticated musics. But mood plays a part as well. Think of the way a specific song, album, etc.. can attach itself to a specific life event, be it "good" or "bad." And that opinion can change as one's feelings towards said life event change. Sometimes too it's just a general feeling. As I mentioned here, I've been feelin' the rock on vinyl vibe which means I'm more receptive to the Clash and Olivia Newton-John than I am to the William Parker disc I'm listening to right now. Another factor is surroundings, what you're being exposed to, voluntary or otherwise. Also, the process of discovery adds to a personal database of information, including who got what ideas from whom. "I used to think So & So was great till I heard Such & Such." And sometimes you just wonder "What the fuck was I thinking?"

Tastes remain the same. Some opinions really are forever. There are songs, albums, artists, etc.. that I will just plain dis/like for the rest of my life. Some of them because of their association with less than pleasant life events. For example. And all of the above factors (knowledge, surroundings, life events, etc..) can also influence the permanence of an opinion. Knowledge can reenforce an initial feeling. "See, I was right. This is good/bad." Same goes for being surrounded by people who share similar tastes. "We both, all, etc.. dis/like this. See, we're right."

Personally, my opinion seems to change from "bad" to "good" more than the other way around, and once something is considered "good" it tends to remain that way. Which could mean that I have no taste and think everything is ok, or that I seek the good in what I'm listening to.

A list, a bird, a days listen

2008-10-06T23:11:00.003-05:00

Today I started Charlie Parker. I have 3 CDs, 5 discs worth of digital, and an LP, and started with the digital on my walk to work. Once there my boss told me that it was "oldies day" and I got to pick. What this meant was having about 150, mostly classic rock greatest hits discs to choose from. He was really just throwing me a bone because he knew I was going to end up staying open to close. Be that as it may it was still like blessed relief from the norm. The list starts with his selection, and eventually is taken over by the assistant manager. I bet the astute among you can figure out where DJ-ship starts to change.

Van Morrison
Grateful Dead
Dire Straights
Buena Vista Social Club
the Police
David Bowie
Led Zeppelin
No Doubt
Bob Marley
the Who
Now 7
Sheryl Crow

Then some more Bird on the way home, followed by Sun Ra & Eno records.

Clerical Error in Row 13

2008-09-23T07:39:00.002-05:00

Sunday night I listened to most of William Orbit's Pieces in a Modern Style. By the time I turned it off I had three songs left so I put them on my iPod for the walk to work Monday. Last night I planned to (and did) paint the stairs while listening to the two Oranj Symphonette albums. Ooops.

The Orbit disc defines boring. Light classical pieces programmed (not performed) into MIDI and played back with lots of washy pads. No need to listen to that one ever again. Oranj, however, was a real treat to hear. I haven't heard the first one, Plays Mancini, "since the divorce" as the saying goes, but it was as fresh as if I had just heard it last week. Both albums did carry a certain flashback factor though. They were in such heavy rotation for me (and certain others) during a very specific time that listening to them brought up all sorts of memories. And as saccharine as Francis Lai's theme for A Woman and a Man can be, the Oranj version was like a tiny dagger in my heart reminding me of a long forgotten moment of pain.

It's funny 'cuz it's true pt.2

2008-09-16T09:32:00.004-05:00

I find it interesting that my recent vinyl obsession and my return to smoking (no, not cigarettes) have led me to a renewed interest in not only rock in general, but rock that is psychedelic and/or textural and/or expansive. As I've joked, less than 24 hours after I bought a bag for the first time in over a year and a half I also bought a Grateful Dead record. And while that certainly has the greatest comedic value, largely due to this post, a quick run down of recent purchases and acquisitions reveals this trend. On vinyl: My Morning Jacket, Apollo Sunshine, Pet Sounds, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (on the turntable right now), and digitally: Silver Apples, Spacemen 3, Can (I mean really, Can fer chrissakes!) Now, if I start to listen to Phish again you'll know I've really lost it.

Dual discos, and a potential new start.

2008-09-03T13:09:00.005-05:00

When I first heard Pretty Hate Machine (probably '91) it was a revelation. Not only did I not know that you could make music that sounded like that, but I didn't know that one person! could do that. However, by the late nineties I wasn't really interested in anything but Jazz and lost track of what Mr. Reznor was up to. For the project I "got" and listened to the entire discography. First of all, it re-enforced my belief that re-mix albums blow. Take a decent song and make it go dikka-tsa, dikka-tsa? No thanks. As for the regular albums, the first two I enjoyed, although probably as much out of nostalgia as anything else, and the rest I thought were ok. I feel like NIN is a band I should like more, but I just can't get past the goth-esque "I'm so afraid of God" thing. There are moments here and there of musical or textural beauty, but the over-all impression (for me) is that I just don't care. That being said, I did really enjoy Ghosts (perhaps because it is instrumental) and am seriously contemplating buying it on vinyl despite the $45 price-tag.

Last week I went to Maine for a few days, and my entire ride up was the Nirvana discography. Even after this recent listening I have such mixed feelings about this band. Because they were good, but they were also overrated. And while Kurt was saddled with that "voice of a generation" tag, he was very much the embodiment of that moment. It's not that he, or his band, were extraordinary visionaries, more like they were the absolute stereotype of what was happening at the time. The first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was over the loudspeakers at a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert (openers: Smashing Pumpkins (who I hated) and the completely unheard of Pearl Jam) and while I had been hearing buzz about Nirvana by then (Nov. '91) it was just another new good band, not some out-of-the-blue bolt from heaven. Now, in 2008, the still-played hits from these albums have the feel of classic rock chestnuts, which I guess they are. And none of my impressions of individual albums changed. I've always thought Bleach was overrated by people who wanted to pretend they were on the bandwagon earlier than they were. Nevermind is as poppy as they get. Incesticide, being a b-sides & rarities collection, has some hidden gems and some throwaways. In Utero is still my favorite, noisy and angry. And Unplugged revealed that some of their songs were actually good.

On a completely different subject, it looks like I'm going to be moving to Providence and going back to school. A confluence of forces have conspired to lead me to these decisions. The first is that Chris not only sort of has to sell the house, but also wants to move to someplace warmer. (He is, after all, old.) That made me look at my life and think about where, physically, I wanted to be. As he talked about Florida as an option I looked into Full Sail University, which has certain benefits, but then I'd have to move to Florida. As I started to think about school, I decided to look into URI, specifically the Continuing Education (or Old People's College as I like to call it) up in Providence. Then there is a social element. With Harry starting college this semester I'd have a sort of school buddy, even though we'll be at different campuses. Next is the fact that I'm now in the system at as220 and have the opportunity to grow that a bit more. And finally, Kyle has been dating someone who lives in Providence so he spends most of his time up there anyway. The other night he and I met after work and when I asked if he wanted to move to PVD he said sure.

All the chips are in place. Let's proceed.

So, I have. The other day I met with an advisor to get the ball rolling. He told me some things that I might have figured out on my own, but it was useful to hear from someone in an official capacity. And yesterday I filled out my application, mailed it along with my CCRI transcript and called my high school to have them send that transcript. Next week I plan to meet with a financial aid advisor, and perhaps the heads of a couple of departments. So things are moving forward. Future, here we come!

RI's premiere dance band! (clap, clap)

2008-08-17T23:48:00.005-05:00

I'm not really sure when I first met Harry, but I do remember the first time we really talked. It was at a bonfire at Jon's and we started talking about music. We liked a lot of the same music and in that regard at least he reminded me of myself as a teenager. Eventually he uttered a phrase that can strike fear into the heart of any music snob such as myself, especially when coming from someone in their teens. He said, "I'm in a band." Oh shit. His father, who I've known for a long time, was standing there and just so happened to have a disc of said band. Fucking great. With a physical disc in my hand I'd have no excuse for "forgetting" either the band name or the MySpace address. This disc sat on top of my stereo for at least a few weeks before I got around to putting it on. I expected to have to be diplomatic the next time I saw him saying something like "Not bad. Not my thing, but not bad." When I finally worked up the courage to listen to the disc I discovered that not only was is not bad, it was in fact good and is was my thing. Drums, bass, guitar, and ... saxophone? No vocals? Hot Damn! Sign me up!

My initial reaction to a Troop of Echoes was that they were on the right path, but weren't quite there yet. I debated with myself quite a bit as to whether I should jump in with a million suggestions or just sit back and watch them develop on their own. I like to think I've done a bit of both over the years.

They hate being called a Jazz-Rock band (mostly because, well, they're not) but it is an all too convenient starting point for describing their music. They're more like a somewhat noisy post-rock band that fired their singer and replaced him with a sax player with some serious skills. Add the occasional bit of synth for texture and you start to get the idea. The songs range from the beautifully melodic to screaming sonics to ass shaking grooves. The influences of several local RI bands from Hircine to Mahi Mahi are abundant without ever sounding like imitations. More like this is what they are listening to and absorbing.

Last Saturday was (I believe) the 15th* time I've seen them live and in an over-all sense easily the best. It was definitely one of, if not the biggest in terms of attendance and people actually paying attention and digging it. Over the course of those shows I've been able to watch them grow and mature into a truly amazing and original band. I can honestly say that while I started out as a friend of the bass/synth player, I've become a dedicated fan of the band as a whole. For starters the music has gotten tighter. The complex interplay between all four of them has more noticeable definition. The balance of sounds is distinct and nobody gets buried in the mix. The biggest difference though is that they have all become much more sure of themselves, both as a group and individually. They've become confident but not cocky, and they are clearly enjoying music they are playing.

*(I can count 14 shows with certainty, but feel like there's at least one more. They are far and away the band that I've seen the greatest number of times, but they still have awhile before catching up to the amount of stage time of the six times I saw the Grateful Dead.)

So far it has truly been a pleasure watching the band grow and watching their fan base grow along with them. On the eve of their "excursion" as they're calling it I wish them the best and look forward to hearing them develop even more in the future. I feel honored that I've been along for the ride.

Drinking with Harry

2008-08-13T21:50:00.003-05:00

Sometime around '87 I went poking around in my father's record collection. There were some things that I listened to a few times but never really cottoned to (Quicksilver Messenger Service) some things I wasn't quite ready for (200 Motels) and some things that I loved and continue to listen to to this day (Klaatu, Harry Nilsson.) So what is it about Nilsson that caught my ear over twenty-one years ago and still delights me today?

The two albums that drew me in were Nilsson Schmilsson and Son of Schmilsson with their funny titles and strange songs like "Spaceman" and "Coconut." Add to that the fact that he *gasp* _swore, and since they were my father's albums it was ok for me to listen to them. So, I would pedal around on my bike delivering newspapers with my walkman on humming "You're breakin' my heart." Twenty-one years later, not much has changed. I was able to get the majority of the Nilsson catalogue and listened to it on my iPod while walking to and from work.

Listening to Harry was like getting back in touch with an old friend you haven't seen for over a decade and discovering that you not only still like the same things, but have all sorts of new things to talk about as well. The two albums mentioned above, and to a lesser extent The Point, were the only ones I was really familiar with and they delighted me just as much as they ever did. But the real discovery for me was the rest of the catalogue. There are so many songs throughout that I found so completely wonderful. And there are some low points to be sure, (Pussy Cats, A little touch of Schmilsson in the night) but they were easily overshadowed by the good stuff.

Now to see if I can find the other few albums I couldn't get ahold of.

The Banter is dead, long live the Banter!

2008-07-30T08:15:00.004-05:00

As I start this entry I am sitting at AS220 about two hours before performing what I'm considering to be my last Banter/3.1 show. Harry has already weighed in on the subject, so here are my thoughts, etc..

To begin with, the reasons (yes, pun intended.) I've long since felt that the b/3.1 format has had some limitations about it and I've wanted to expand into other areas. Over the last year the b/3.1 style has been greatly refined, but working in it seems like just more of the same. Lately my attention has also started drifting back towards filmmaking, and in particular to the idea of creating an integrated art work (or works) which combine film, music, and possibly even acting. And then came the "Big Coincidence." Last year I started work on the 114 Song Box Set, releasing two new songs every week for fifty-seven weeks. At the outset I stated that as soon as I was finished with the 114 songs that I was going to stop working as Banter/3.1. Now I "pressed pause" on the box set a few months ago, however, today (July 28th) was supposed to have been the last day of the fifty-seven weeks and therefore the last day of Banter/3.1. Seemed like a sign to me.

The first major downside to ending b/3.1 may not be a problem at all, and is directly related to tonight's gig. I got this specific show through no effort of my own. Having played here before I was simply asked to play tonight. This is such a major change from a year ago where it seemed like I wasn't one of the "cool Providence people" and therefore couldn't get booked.

(At this point in writing my friends started to arrive so it is now a few days later)

In one sense it seems a shame to throw away this foot-in-the-door as it were, however, hopefully by the next time they come a-knockin' at my e-door I'll have a new project in the works (more on that later.) Another downside is that the current presentation is at a pretty refined point and can be done at a moments notice. But, I'm not particularly interested in doing that. I would rather make myself scarce for a bit while I work on the new thing and then roll that out when it's ready. (And I promise, I'll talk about "the new thing" before this blog is over) And finally, I'm starting to get some recognition as "Banter/3.1"* and moving away from that may be unnecessarily confusing. But, this is a chance I take. (*two days after I wrote that I got recognized as Banter while at work)

I was very pleased with the show. One thing that struck me as funny was that the first three acts (myself included) were one guy with a keyboard and a laptop. I'm going to refrain from writing about them because I liked one and didn't like the other and I'm going to leave it at that. The final band was a duo from Amsterdam called Controllar who really need to be seen to be appreciated. There was a decent turn out for a Monday night and a good time was had by all. Yeah.

So, what's next you ask? Well, the current show is the jumping off point for the next phase of the Banter Cycle. Basically what I'm thinking about is taking all of my talents/interests, throwing them into the blender, and searching for the balancing point where it all emulsifies. It will most likely include not only music and film, but acting, narrative story telling, and perhaps even DJ-ing. I plan on taking my time developing this, so don't expect to get any previews any time soon. Perhaps if I get offered a gig before "the new thing" is ready I'll see if CockSlap can play instead.

Now, who wants to join Banter the Band! ?

Is she asking me to look at her tits?

2008-07-13T23:27:00.004-05:00

To wit.

Heterosexual men tend to qualify themselves as being "leg men" or "breast guys" as a way of identifying which physical characteristic they find most attractive in the opposite sex. I will now use this as the basis for an imperfect metaphor for what people look for in music. Bear in mind that all my choices in this analogy ultimately reflect my sensibilities more than they unravel some deep human mystery.

So.*

"Breast Guys" are people whose primary concern is the lyrics. It's the most obvious, in-your-face asset, and the hardest to deny. I mean really, who doesn't like a good, um, lyric. Although many will disagree about what makes for a good, um, lyric, there is fortunately enough variety to keep everyone happy.

Now "Leg Men" are a more rarefied lot. I liken them to those for whom the music is most important. Legs are, after all, the support upon which we stand. There is a more subtle beauty to be found here, one that can speak to a deeper place.

As for me, the most important thing is the face, which I will liken here to the over-all sound. Why, you ask, does the face equal sound? Because it's my damned metaphor, go get yer own.

So.*

Yesterday I was listening to Joanna Newsome's Ys. The first thing I noticed was the lovely sound of the work. The way her voice weaves through her playing coupled with the wonderful support of Van Dyke Parks' production makes for a beautiful disc. However, the words, and there are a lot of them, seem to be the real focus of this work. And as I pondered this music, and this bizarre metaphor, I was left with one question. "Is she asking me to look at her tits?"

*used with acknowledged debt to K.V.jr.

Alphabetically speaking

2008-06-19T18:04:00.001-05:00

I'm exactly halfway through the project. I finished "M" this morning.I have no idea where that puts me in terms of disc count or over-all real time.

Woke up this morning...

2008-06-19T10:09:00.002-05:00

..with Hannah Montanah stuck in my head. Life's just not fair.

Nominal Coincidences

2008-06-08T00:01:00.002-05:00

Most of my free/thinking time has been about the new film idea. While doing some research I came across some interesting name coincidences. First, I discovered a Colonial Era composer by the name of Justin Morgan. Also, since the film may involve some form of time-travel (due to the anachronistic notion of the colonial synth-rocker) I decided to read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, whose central character is Hank Morgan. Additionally, the book I'm reading about the history of music in New England makes several references to the Newport Mercury, which has been in publication since 1758 (albeit with a rude interruption for the American Revolution;-) and in whose pages I have appeared on more than one occasion. Several of the Mercury citations are taken from a book by Henry M. Booth. (Henry M.? Hank Morgan?)

An interesting snag

2008-06-07T00:50:00.002-05:00

After filing a decent chuck of new-ish stuff I noticed that the next disc up is the newly purchased Nico Muhly disc, and not the Gordon Mumma, as previously reported.

All I hear is

2008-05-29T21:59:00.003-05:00

Here's a potentially not-so-little update on what I'm listening to these days.

To start, the actual "Listening Project" proper, as it were, has been dragging its heals. One reason, mentioned previously in this blog, has been the presence of so many artists that I want to take my time with. Along side that, is that time has been short what with working and all. The other, and possibly bigger, problem has been the lack of a system. When the project started I was commuting to Providence, so I had my car time as project listening. Then last summer I was painting a house in the woods and had all that time to devote to the project. I currently have no system, so things are moving slower. Next up: Gordon Mumma.

Today (or yesterday if I don't publish this before I go to bed)* I basically bought and/or ordered 17 discs. Here's the break-down: 2 I had ordered awhile ago via Amazon and they hadn't come in yet. I called and they are re-sending them. They are Nico Muhly~Speaks Volumes, and Joe Jackson~Rain, the latter of which is the only non-classical disc. Through work I ordered two new releases from Naxos, an Ives and a Varese. And what really kicked things into over-drive was the fact that B&N brought back their buy two get one free sale. So. Online I ordered Time of the Templars (3 discs set) a Lou Harrison disc, and a Ruth Crawford Seeger disc. At the store I bought, Monteverdi (2 disc) Carl Nielsen (2 disc) Steve Reich~Early Works, Kronos Quartet~Early Music, Terry Riley~The Cusp of Magic, and Philip Glass~Symphony #2. The Monteverdi and Templars discs are really representative of my increased interest in early vocal music.

And now, for what I'm being forced to listen to.

ay ya yay ya ay....

At work we listen to mostly crap. I knew this going in. I mean, god forbid we should be a music store that plays cool music. And we listen exclusively to full albums, so you know within a few seconds what the next 40-60 minutes is going to be like. There are a few discs we play that I like, mostly leaning towards the old-guy-rock category. Mudcrutch (Tom Petty's old band) Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, the new Bruce Springsteen. Although some in that range are pretty boring. Steve Winwood sounds like he's been dusting off his old Dead records, and Van Morrison sounds like a Cialis commercial. The most telling moment on the Van disc is when he literally sings "Blah, blah, blah..." for about a minute. The biggest, and most annoying, category we listen to is the female pop singers. Musically, most of them are just a highly produced beat and female voice with very little music. Almost all of them have these moments where the singer hits the highest, loudest, longest note she's capable of. Why? Why is that necessary? Most of them I find to be indistinguishable, except for the fact that I'm starting to learn which songs are certain singers. And the worst offenders are the old broads. Mariah? Who let the dolphins out? Madonna? Hard Candy is basically an admission that her music no longer gets played anywhere other than gay night clubs. The disc I probably like the best right now (at work) is Duffy. She's exploring the same 60's territory as Amy Winehouse, but without the drunken bad girl attitude. I just hope I don't get burned out on it, like I have with Amy (which I like, but we listen to too much.) Now if I could just get Hannah Montana out of my head....

*So I started writing this on Thursday, and I'm just finishing and publishing it on Sunday. Most of the discs I've gotten are pretty damn good, but I have to say that the Nico Muhly disc is quite possibly the most amazing thing I've heard in quite some time.

A little past, some present, and a bit o' future

2008-05-22T21:51:00.002-05:00

Last Friday was an interesting gig up in New Bedford. It started out as a double gig with both Banter/3.1 and CockSlap on the bill. Also on board was a noise band called Chaos Character. About a week before the show, Harry texted me to say that House on Fire had been added to the bill. A few days later I got the poster from the promoter and it listed a band called Cyanide Dependency, but no HoF. The day of the show Harry talked to Jason (the promoter) and C.D. had dropped out so they re-added HoF. We get to the show and it's a slowish night. The guy from C.C. was whining to Jason about the attendance, saying he didn't want to play, wah, wah, wah... Harry goes on first and during his set Jason and I decided that b/3.1 will go next and then CockSlap, and that he's making the other guy wait because he's pissing him off. Somewhere during either my set or the CS set the other guy just left, so the entire night ended up just being me and Harry.

As far as the performances were concerned, over-all pretty solid. Harry's House on Fire set was good. A few lost moments, but some interesting surprises as well. My Banter/3.1 set felt very comfortable, but not so much so that it became boring. And CockSlap was way more fun than we had anticipated. I wish we had gotten pictures of Harry in his spelunking head-lamp.

Skipping ahead to the future, I have decided what my next big project is. For right now all I'm going to say is that it is a five part silent film with an all original soundtrack. It will most likely revolve around the character of the Colonial Synth-Rocker.

And now, for now. What may be the most interesting thing for me currently is working on a children's website. Eh? Lemme 'splain. Through work I've re-met this guy Chris who lives above the store next door. Chris is an old punk rocker and a graphic designer. He's currently working on a flash animation website for kids, but funky, like for kids whose mom's have tattoos. The site will have a musical element to it as well. We met the other day in his studio and he wants me to help him out with the project. We didn't discuss any specifics about what I'd be doing (composing? engineering? both?) or about financial compensation, but I figure that stuff will work itself out eventually. If nothing else it will give me a way to keep my skills active. Additionally, this will give me the opportunity to learn Logic. He has a Pro Tools set-up, but he also just got Logic which has a very nice set of integrated virtual instruments. and since you can use Reason inside of Logic, but can't use Logic's instruments inside of Pro Tools I'm suggesting that he just keep it all in Logic and I'll learn that program.

So there you have it. Soon I'll try to post a blog about what I'm listening to.

...the Musical!!

2008-04-26T09:32:00.003-05:00

So, the work report. Since the beginning of the month I've been working in a record store. It was not without hesitation that I applied for this job. I've had a love/hate relationship with this particular store for about twenty years now, but I knew when I saw their ad that I could walk in and get hired. When I "interviewed" my boss actually said "You've worked for us before, so you know what you're getting into." How's that for an admission of being impossible to work for? Another downside is working for a retail wage again (oof) but still don't think I'm ready to go into a restaurant job yet. And of course, there's the fact that I would much rather be doing something related to what I just spent nearly six thousand dollars learning. (more on that some other post) However, there are some positive aspects to my job.

To start with, I really like most of my co-workers. I'll refrain from discussing any of them by name or in detail in this public forum, but suffice it to say that they are good people. Another thing that I really enjoy is the standing-around-talking-about-and-selling-music part of the job. It feels good to put my knowledge to some degree of use and to maybe turn someone on to something they've never heard before. Plus I had forgotten how much of a good salesman I am. I can often tell a complete stranger "You should buy this" and they do. And yes, people do still buy music. In fact, we have a vinyl section and that sells quite a bit. On the other side of things, we have all sorts of Krap with a capital K. That part gets really annoying because it's the kind of stupid small junk that you have to constantly straighten out and watch over kids as they sit there and play with it forever (with no real intention of buying it.) And some of that junk sells, but mostly it distracts me and the other sales people from actually helping customers who want to buy music. I consider it a wasted 15-30 minutes if I'm hovering over the wig section, making sure people don't take pictures, knowing they're not going to buy one, when I could be helping someone find a Hawkwind album, or turning someone on to Django instead. Another down side is the majority of the music we listen to in the store. Again, this was something I knew going in, but boy-oh-boy is there a lot of garbage. I just take comfort in the fact that the moment I punch out, the iPod goes on and I can listen to something good.

And one final thing, which is, as Uncle Bill once said, "Neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so," is the fact that this puts me in a noticeable position within the community once again. I had spent the last two plus years slipping from the view and even trying to escape this town, and now I'm back in a fishbowl where anyone who happens to wander in can see me. But that will have to wait for another post, as I now must get ready to go see Pete's recital. And beside, two posts in twelve hours after two weeks of nothing... what more do you want from me people!!???

Do not go quietly

2008-04-25T22:20:00.003-05:00

So I've spent the last couple of weeks listening to lots of Morphine. Which is not to say that there is a lot of material, but that I listened to all of it multiple times. It's basically impossible for me to be objective about this band. They were a huge part of my life during some very significant times, were one of the best live bands I've ever seen, and since Mark Sandman died nearly a decade ago, that moment in time is gone, thereby making it an even more treasured memory. I really shouldn't even be writing about them, all I'll end up doing is gushing. I will say this one, non-musical thing: the very next disc in my collection, Joe Morris Quartet ~ A Cloud of Black Birds, features Jerome Dupree, the original drummer for Morphine.

Thoughts on the AS220 gig. Over-all I was very pleased. There were about 30 people there, which wasn't bad for a Monday night with four bands that nobody's ever heard of. A good turn out from my friends, and I think more people watched my set than any other that night. The positive reception seemed to be genuine, (including direct feedback from said friends) and the video element worked as well as I had hoped. Which has actually gotten me thinking about what my next step is, both in terms of output and performance. The biggest question I'm looking at right now is "What exactly is a b/3.1 performance?" As I move towards a more integrated film/music experience, I wonder if I'm creating a film to be marketed as such, or am I creating a live musical performance that happens to have a visual. To create something that I present as a "film" is not such a bad idea. Lots of people in this community know me as a "filmmaker." In fact tonight at work someone asked me if I was working on any new films. On the other hand, music gigs are a way to gain new audience. Another thought that has been in my mind lately is that perhaps I should concentrate more on the studio music than the live music. As a solo performer I have to either work with backing tracks (as I've primarily done up till now) or create systems for triggering, looping, etc.. in order to make a passable "live" performance. With a film, I can take my physical self out of the picture, as it were, and ask the audience to just concentrate on the images and the sounds. I think ultimately (or, at least right now) I'm less interested in sound that can be re-created every night, and more interested in sound that can be perfected to the best of my current abilities. Which is somewhat ironic, considering my love of improvisation, but perhaps that love was meant to open the doors to different sound worlds. Perhaps what I love the most, what I strive for, is to start with the freedom of improvisation, to capture it as the fleeting moment it is, and to then manipulate and massage it into something even more beautiful. In other words, I want to be Wah Wah, with an accompanying film.

Film at Eleven

2008-04-09T23:12:00.003-05:00

Just a few snippets about what's on the horizon.

Project-wise I'm about to do Morphine. I do not go lightly into this territory. The importance of this material in my life both past and present can not be overestimated. The likely ensuing review will be anything but objective, although may contain some interesting personal insights.

On the Banter front, I have my first as220 show in less than a week. I had been trying for the better part of a year to get a gig there to no avail. Recently, Harry mentioned that they have a new booker and I should try again. So, I filled out their stupid online form again and, surprise surprise, they got back to me within a day and offered me a spot on April 14th. One of the other funny aspects is that my friend Daniel, who I've played shows with before, was already on the bill for that night. Aside from the fact that this show might be good exposure for me (crosses fingers) there are some other factors in my looking forward to it. For starters, it will be my first Reason-based gig. And the other main thing is that I will be adding a visual element to my performance. For the last few weeks I have been working on an ambient video that will be projected behind me as I play. Today I sat down and watched the video while listening to a mock-up of the set and I have to say, I think it works. And not to get too far ahead of things, but I think this might be the next evolutionary step in the Banter Cycle. What I'll be presenting on Monday is sort of random, but next on the plate is to more tightly integrate the music and the images.

And finally, I'm back to work. ...yeah... Not crazy about it ("it" in this case being both the place and the idea) but it will suffice for now. Perhaps as I get deeper into that particular mud I'll give a more detailed report.

Oh what sounds!

2008-03-31T21:49:00.003-05:00

Here are some miscellaneous musings on some musics I've been listening to.

First up, the main project. I'm one (eighteen minute) track away from completing Mood Processor, which was me and Kyle. There were two main varieties of MP, Mood Processor proper which was Kyle on acoustic guitar and me on tenor sax, and The Electric Mood Processor which was fun with the four-track and whatever/whomever we could get our hands on. In either instance we played what we called "Plook Grok," so you can see that my love of made up genres goes back a ways. The one definitive statement I can make about MP is "We sure did get the good drugs back then." Yowza.

I also just recently finished Thelonious Monk, which I really took my time with. I've always been a big Monk fan and it was nice to spend some time with that particular crazy man. I think the biggest surprise for me was the solo piano stuff. Listening to that I got a sense of the entire history of Jazz. It swings, it's often based on popular tunes, and yet it's deconstructed, dissonant, and somehow entirely listenable. At one point during January I went into a Starbucks and they were playing a Monk track and I thought how odd it is that this music, which is really quite challenging if you really listen to it, is being used as background music for my corporate coffee experience. What's next? Ives at Dunkin' Donuts? Messiaen at Petco? (extra nerd points for anyone who can identify the logic in those two examples)

And now, to work my way through commenting on some choice-based listening, yet going about it chronologically in terms of the technology.

You spin me 'round like a rekkid baby
For the first time in years I have a) easy access to my vinyl collection, and b) a turntable in my office. Let the Easy Listening begin!! A huge portion of my records came from thrift stores at a time when I was very interested in lounge music. And I have to say, I will freely admit to actually liking 50's and 60's Easy Listening. Enoch Light, Bert Kaempfert, Dick Hyman, Jackie Gleason... Oh yeah, bring it on. I also seem to have a sizable collection of Moog albums such as Switched on Country and Everything you ever wanted to hear on Moog but were afraid to ask. And I've been listening to a fair amount of quote good unquote albums/artists such as Joe Jackson, Eric Dolphy, Wayne Horvitz, the afore mentioned Monk, and (right now) Joni Mitchell.

I meant it when I said I got "all kinds" a' tapes
It's back to the Soccer-Mom-Mobile for me for a bit, which means (oh the horror!!) cassettes. Among these terrifying little plastic creatures we find my collection of Rhode Island death metal bands from the early nineties. So far I've listened to two of the five such tapes I have. It made me realize why I roll my eyes and get immediately bored with current hardcore/metal type bands. 'Cuz this shit was boring over fifteen years ago, and hasn't progressed much since then. Does that make me a grumpy old man? I don't care if it does.

Totally 'pod-dular!
As mentioned in the previous post, I've recently "gotten" some things. Some of this has been music I used to have/listen to (R.E.M., Led Zeppelin, etc..) but some of it has been filling in gaps in my knowledge. For example today I listened to the Genesis album Trespass for the first time....ever. As I did I realized that I was/am only familiar with Selling England by the pound and The lamb lies down on Broadway for Gabriel-era Genesis. Likewise, I've had a renewed interest in Pink Floyd and only really know Dark Side and the Wall. So sad. And I've discovered that it's a bad idea to listen to "sing-along" albums (i.e. albums that I like to sing along to) on my iPod as I end up looking like a crazy person as I walk along mouthing the words and/or mumbling them and/or straight-up signing them. (although I use the term signing loosely) Oh well, maybe I am just one of "those people."

Honor among thieves

2008-03-26T09:49:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking a lot about the download issue. To start on the personal level, I would like to sell CDs to people. However, is it better to let people simply have the music for free (such that they are actually listening to it) and to then make money in some other way? At my upcoming shows I will be trying out the "Pay-what-you-think" approach to selling the new disc. (On a side note, the new disc, Medicinal Reverb, is going to be the only one available.) And while the idea of earning some cash from CDs is very appealing, ultimately I think it would be better to have more listeners.

Another thing that got me on this issue was reading The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen. It's been quite some time that I've enjoyed reading a book based on the fact that I totally disagreed with the majority of what the author had to say. Throughout much of the book he comes across sounding like "We can't let the serfs have too much of anything, they don't know what's good for them! We need mainstream media to tell us what is right and good!" You know that anyone who uses the terms "cultural gatekeepers" and "Fox News Group" in even the same paragraph is an asshole. (oops, it looks like I just did ;-) And when it come to downloading, he takes the hardline "It's stealing" approach. But sometimes the more important question, at least to me, is from whom?

To illustrate: I've recently managed to, um shall we say "obtain," some music. Specifically, Brahms, Stockhausen, and Led Zeppelin. To work backwards, I did at one time years ago legally own the entire Led Zeppelin catalogue, so they've gotten my money. Additionally, the approximately $150 not spent probably means a hell of a lot more to me than the couple bucks of that that would trickle down to Robert Plant. Among the Stockhausen, I got a copy of a recently released version of Stimmung. This disc I will buy soon because a) I want the liner notes, and b) it will help support the performers. Had I not had the opportunity to hear this work before purchasing, I might have put my money elsewhere. And lastly we come to the Brahms.

The other day Chris and I were in the kitchen, talking before dinner. He mentioned that there was a particular recording of Brahms Piano Concerto no.1 by Leonard Bernstein and Glenn Gould that he wanted to hear. As it happened, that was one of the albums I had "obtained" recently. Now obviously, the work itself is in the public domain, but the performance may still be under copyright. Which made me ask, "What's more important? That I get to hear this, or that some grandchild of Bernstein gets 40 cents from my purchase?" This in turn led to another question, which is why is there no equivalent to the museum or the library for music? Now granted, libraries do tend to have music sections, but they are small and unreliable in terms of stock. I can walk into any library and most likely be able to get a copy of Norbert Weiner's Cybernetics, yet if I want to hear Carl Ruggles' Sun Treader I'm probably not going to be able to get it there. (incidentally, I can't even find a torrent of that work)

And as with all things lately, this leads me back to good ol' Charlie. Ives was very much against copyrighting his material, even flying into a rage when Henry Cowell copyrighted one of Charlie's pieces for him, saying "This music is not to make money but to be known and heard. Why should I interfere with its life by hanging on to some sort of personal legal right in it?" Exactly. I want to hear and know the music. All of it, or at least as much of it as I can absorb in a lifetime. And since there isn't a resource that I can reliably (and legally) simply hear whatever I want, I am forced into a life of crime.

Got a minute?

2008-03-16T19:12:00.004-05:00

About a year ago I joined an organization called the Electronic Music Foundation (EMF) I'm still not quite sure what the benefits of being a member are, but it was a one time lifetime fee, so whatever. A couple of months ago I noticed, via their mailing list, a call for entry for sixty-second works. The 60X60 Project by Vox Novus, is a touring concert presenting sixty, one-minute long recorded works by sixty different composers. I thought, "Well shoot, I can do that!" And so today, I did. I sat down around 3pm, launched the Tool as I like to say, and started working. A few hours later I emerged with an almost stereotypical b/3.1 piece. Synthesizers? check.. Pattern sequencer? check.. Dulcimer? check.. Mellotron flutes? check.. Improvisation? check.. I have about two weeks before the disc has to be in the mail, so perhaps I'll make another minute long song or two before then. Or perhaps not.

God Damn Maria

2008-03-15T22:00:00.002-05:00

I spent about nine hours today trying to get the mix right for Good Night Maria to no avail. Tomorrow I'll work on my entry for 60X60, which is a call for sixty second long works.

New Directions in Blogging

2008-03-12T21:50:00.005-05:00

This year has already been off to an interesting start, but before I delve into that, I have an announcement regarding this blog. This will no longer be just about the listening projects. While I will continue to make the occasional post about that (currently Thelonious Monk, for those who care) this spot on the interdial will be more of a catch-all blog for me. Now, to re-cap the year, and illustrate what has led to this decision.

The year started in NYC. I was there to take a Pro Tools certification course (which I did) and to find a job (which I didn't). So, it was back to RI. This was obviously not an easy decision to make, since I really liked the city and was hoping to stay. I guess I had unrealistic expectations about being certified. Like "Here's your piece of paper and here's your job." More like "Here's your piece of paper and here's your t-shirt."

But, I did learn some things about my craft. I also realized that yes, I do want to live in NYC, and that what I really want to do is just make music all day. (Well, maybe go for a walk in Central Park every so often.)

So here I am, back in the Shitty-by-the-Sea, jobless and broke. What's a bloke to do? Step one is obviously to find some form of employment. Currently I'm looking at a dazzling lack of options. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I can find a job somewhere as a butcher. (I'm actually not kidding.) I have absolutely no experience in this field, but I've been interested in developing a more personal relationship with the food I eat, as well as learning more about animal raising/slaughtering practices and making better choices about the food I subsequently eat. And besides, I really don't want to wait tables ever again. Of course, I'm also looking into RI studios. So far most seem to be run by the one or two people who own them. I have gotten one "Thanks but no thanks" message, and one studio does want me to send them a demo reel. One advantage RI does have for me is that I can better afford to take a low-to-no pay position, provided I am getting some income somewhere.

What does this all add up to and what does it have to do with the alphabet? Well, to answer the second question first, nothing. I just happened to already have this blog. The biggest thing to come out of all of this is I've decided to finally get serious about having a music career. The over-all quality of my music has made such improvements over the last four months and I feel like I can put out a product that is uniquely me while at the same time being something that people might actually want to listen to. I've been working hard on my new album, Medicinal Reverb, and should have it ready within a month, and I have to say, I'm very proud of it. Also, I've been making a renewed effort to get gigs, which has already resulted in two upcoming shows. I've also been thinking a lot about promotion and different things I can do to get my music out there. The new focus of this blog is a result of that thinking. Here I will track the ups and downs of this journey. Who knows, maybe some day you can say "Dude, I've been reading that blog since he only had four readers."

A milestone

2008-02-26T09:34:00.002-05:00

Having been away from my physical cd collection for a few months, I didn't notice right away that I hit a milestone recently. My cd's are held in two shelf units, and as of the second Mingus disc I moved on to the second shelf! Zoiks.

It's a shiny day and the dog shit smells like strawberries

2008-02-24T08:02:00.002-05:00

I think it may be true that every line in 50 Gallon Drum by Buck 65 may make for a good blog title.

Anyway, last week I spent several sunshiny days wandering around Central Park listening to the dozen or so Charles Mingus albums I own. To say that Mingus made some good music is like saying that sex can feel good. "Gee mister, are you some kinda rock-it scientist?" No great surpirses for me, Mingus really has it all. From the raw power of Haitian Fight Song to the heart-crushing beauty of Self Portrait in Three Colours, and sometimes all within one song (Scenes in the City.) The only real discovery for me was realizing how little I knew the album Mingus Dynasty. I was left with one question; How is it that I relate so strongly to the music of a mentally disturbed black man from half a century ago?

Side project

2008-02-13T11:12:00.003-05:00

So for a few months I've had a side project that I haven't even mentioned here, but I'm almost done with. This post will be a review of the whole bloody thing.

I got all kinds a' tapes
When I was at WRIU I would frequently tape my shows. As a result I have literally hundreds of hours of these shows. In 2001 I created a show called Last Century in Jazz, the idea being to present a chronological review of the first one hundred years of Jazz. I organized the show by decade, spending a few weeks exploring each before moving to the next. One of the great things about these tapes for me is I used a lot of music from the 'RIU library, so there's a ton on music that I don't have otherwise.

Goodbye Sunny :(
Late last summer, my car died. I was able to borrow a car that only had a tape deck, so I decided to listen to Last Century in Jazz since it represented the chronological approach that I find so interesting. I found it fascinating to listen to the arc and growth of the music over the years. The one thing that seems to expand the most is the over-all variety. Earlier Jazz does have variety, but one needs to listen at a very fine level to hear the differences between artists or sub-styles. Casual listening will only reveal a general rikky-tikky-tik sound. Similarly, as the music drifts towards noisier, free jazz styles, the same subtlety of listening is required to hear more than just skwonk-skweedly-squeal.

To pat myself on the back, I played lots of good shit on that show. That's been the main treat in listening to these tapes. In a world where time is not an issue I would love to back-up and catalogue these shows, if for no other reason than creating a cd/record wish-list. (author goes in search of Marzette Watts...) There have been so many times that I've been blown away by a particular piece of music and then thought "Oh yeah, so-and-so" when I heard the announcement saying who it was.

"Apparently there's some chaos going on out there in the world, so you want to watch out for that.."
My show was on Tuesday mornings, 9-11am. This meant that I was on the air the morning of the Sept. 11th attacks. I had no idea what was happening and went about my show in the usual fashion, i.e. getting stoned at 8:30am on my way in and making inappropriate wisecracks on air "What would a guy with a name like Steve Swallow want for someone to hold against him?" Even after I had some idea of what was happening I still made cracks like the one in bold. This is the show that I listened to most recently and it was extremely hard to listen to. That's pretty much all I can say about that. There are only two more shows before the infamous "Mutha-Fucka" incident, and then this side project is over.

OK, that's all for now. Two blogs in one day after four months of silence should be enough.

What a slacker...

2008-02-13T10:21:00.002-05:00

Jeez, it's been awhile. I'm not even going to attempt to talk about any of the music I've listened to since my last post, but I will give an update on where the project is and make a renewed attempt at maintaining this blog, once again!

Prior to the holidays I listened to Olivier Messiaen, including all the discs that Christopher has. I also managed to *coughs*get*coughs* a seventeen disc Messiaen set around that same time. Now, one of the problems with classical-type stuff is ordering things chronologically. It's not as easy as rock records where, say for example, Rubber Soul comes before Revolver, period. First of all individual discs may have compositions from across a number of years. Also, there's the problem of revisions. For example, does one listen to the Turangalila Symphony in 1948 when it premiered or in 1990 when its final revision was published? I ultimately decided to do Messiaen in three chronological sweeps. First up was the four disc organ works set. These disc represented his complete organ works up to the point they were recorded, presented chronologically, so they had their own logical time sequence. Next I went through all of the discs Chris and I have, doing my best to organize them in a reasonable order.

At that point it was mid December and I knew I was a) getting an iPod for xxxmas, and b) moving to NYC but not bringing my cd collection for at least a few months. I decided that I would move the project to the digital realm, starting with the Messiaen set. Since I had a bit of time between finishing the physical Messiaen discs and when I moved to the city I pushed forward with the actual collection. I made it up to Paul D. Miller (better known as DJ Spooky) After I finish the Messiaen set I will resume with the Miller disc, Viral Sonota. (and I'll try to review that one here)

As for Olivier: wow. Truly amazing all the way through. Yesterday I listened to the entirety of From the canyons to the stars.. while wandering around Central Park in the snow. Interesting to listen to music that at times imitates the sound of wind blowing while being outside on a windy day and having to wonder if it's the music or reality. There's also something wonderfully surreal about riding the subway with the sound of organ music blasting directly into your skull. Oh I'll stand clear of the closing door please! Of course, sometimes that doesn't work out so hot, like the time I was trying to listen to a particularly quiet and beautiful passage and a two piece mariachi band set up right next to where I was sitting.

The good Judge Robert presiding... (pt. 5.7 of 5)

2007-10-08T12:34:00.000-05:00

(Hey man, I'm a Douglas Adams fan, I know how many books are in a trilogy ;-)

The oughts.
(or: When PRO-gressive becomes RE-gressive)

The first post-Bruford Crimson disc, The ConstruKction of Light seems to say "Hey, we were cool back in '74!" Even to the point that a couple of the songs are updated version of pieces from that era. The ep Happy With.... seems to start things looking up again, but is nowhere near as mind blowingly different as VROOM was. And finally, The Power to Believe, while being the best of the three, is not going to be making it into my heavy rotation anytime soon. At this point "danger" seems to be just a well defined setting on a rack of effects. That being said, I wish I had seen them on that tour and would certainly go see them any time.

Perhaps Prog Rock is like Punk Rock in that if you become too good at it the music loses the chaotic edge that is essential to its definiton.

Anton (another Interlude)

2007-09-28T18:53:00.000-05:00

The other day I decided to take a break from the project and listen to the Complete Anton Webern box set, 'cuz that's just how I roll, yo. At one point Christopher was out on the porch and the four year old who lives across the street told him "This music's silly." I don't know if those are the exact words I would have use to describe Webern's music, but I also don't know that he's wrong.

The good Judge Robert presiding... (pt. 5 of 5)

2007-09-28T18:40:00.000-05:00

90's Double Trio

Talk about the return of the Crimson King!! VROOOM, THRAK, B'BOOM!!!! Say it loud, say it often. This band is so intense that they have to use all caps for their album titles. I do have to admit that I have a special place in my heart for this specific incarnation of Crimson since I got to see them live (once under, shall we say, interesting conditions), but even still I was blow away on this listen. And once again, the live material is where it's at. Interesting that for someone who usually doesn't particularly care for live recordings I've been tending to prefer them for every period of Crimson. My only regret is that I didn't have a copy of THRaKaTTaCK to listen to.

note: I was originally going to treat 90's to present as one entry, but upon listening decided that the material from this century is so significantly different that it warrants its own post.

Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1995 (an Interlude)

2007-09-23T08:51:00.000-05:00

I've been reading "A Year with swollen appendices, Brian Eno's diary." He kept this diary during 1995, at which time he was working (to varying degrees) on David Bowie~Outside, James~Whiplash, Passengers~Original Soundtrack & Eno/Wobble~Spinner, all of which I've owned since they came out. I decided to take a day to listen to these four discs.

Outside Wow. This album truly keeps getting better and better. In the midst of the peaceful idyll of the mid-nineties, Bowie taps into an Orwellian paranoia that doesn't seem that far fetched today. The band is spectacular, and Eno's influence is abundant.

Whiplash Of these four albums, this is the one that Brian was the least involved with. It's chock full of great songs, and the band is tight, but in the context of an Eno review it hardly qualifies.

Original Soundtrack Essentially U2+Eno, this disc is going into heavy rotation for me. In terms of the diary, there is a rather detailed section when they are working on this album. As such it is excellent to be able to read about the in studio process, and then hear the end results.

Spinner This album has been, and continues to be an influence as a way of working. Essentially Eno handed a bunch of tapes over to Jah Wobble, who then added his own work. Oddly enough, even though all four of these albums remind me at least somewhat of specific times in my life, this disc gave me the strongest flashbacks as it were.

So in conclusion, most of my non-listening-project listening has been Eno-based. I am, after all, the fourth deadly Finn.

The good Judge Robert presiding... (pt. 4 of 5)

2007-09-19T14:18:00.000-05:00

1980's: Discipline era.

What was it about the 80's that made everyone suck? Now, to imply that The Mighty King Crimson was ever less than stellar could earn you a black eye (or at least a scathing e-mail) in the nerdy circles I run with. However, if Discipline, Beat, and Three of a Perfect Pair were the entire recorded output of the King I don't think I would count myself as a Crim Head. The great irony here is the one line liner note in the first album which reads "Discipline is never an end in itself, only a means to an end." Listening to the studio albums, all I hear is the discipline. "Gosh, that sure sounds hard to play." It wasn't until about halfway through Three of a Perfect Pair that I realized what was missing. There was no danger, no edge. Particularly in contrast with the Larks' Tongue era. That band always seemed as if it was about to crush the listener by shear force of sound. And then I got to the live set Absent Lovers. It's almost as if before the show Fripp said to the guys "Ok, I want you to go out there and play this show like King Crimson!" The power and the beauty is there in these songs, but it only seemed to come out live. Perhpas there was something in the water in recording studios during the 80's that rotted the brains of great artists.

The good Judge Robert presiding... (pt. 3 of 5)

2007-09-06T18:42:00.000-05:00

Mid-70's:
I don't even know where to begin with this incarnation of Crimson. This has always been my favorite era, and I don't predict that that willl change during the current listening. Talk about a monster band. Bruford ('William' as he's credited on Starless) is amazing as always. No offence to any of the other fine bass players throughout the King's history, but nobody had the monster tone that Wetton had. And Cross and Fripp dance around one another while piercing into your brain. Not only is the song writing top-notch proggy-type goodness, but the improvising is so tight that all improvising rock bands should be forced to sit down and listen to the Great Deceiver box-set before they are allowed to jam again. My only regret is that the incredibly talented Jamie Muir is only present on Lark's Tongue. His various precussives add a level to that album that I think the other two studio albums and the live set lack. Perhaps I'll just have to improve my Music Improvisation Company collection before I get to M.

The good Judge Robert presiding... (pt. 2 of 5?)

2007-09-05T08:56:00.000-05:00

So last week I started King Crimson. After listening to the first two discs I have (In the Court of the Crimson King & Lizard) I decided that I owed it to Crimson to listen to the complete discography. A phone call and a disc later and, voila, I have the complete studio recordings and assorted live releases. Since I had inadvertently skipped over In The Wake of Poseidon, and I now have the early live discs of Epitaph, I decided to start again. After re-listening to Court at home the other day I got down to some serious Fripping out as it were yesterday. As it happens, with adding in the live material I now have between six and nine discs for each of the four major periods of Crimson. That means that I can listen to each period in a single work day. As a result, I will be publishing a brief post on each period.

Early years ('69~'72)
The live material from this era really points out how jazzy they were at the time. During several of the improvisations one could easily speculate that this was a jazz rock band, particularly during some of the woodwind solos. A lot of the studio material from this time seems hopelessly dated to me. With the notable exception of 21st Century Schiziod Man, there is no doubt that this band was still dealing with the hippie influence. One can almost imagine Fripp in the studio saying "Ok, seriously, when are we going to stop playing this hippie music. Will someone please wake me up when all of you are out of the band and we can play something with balls again?" Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy listening to these discs. There are some delightfully weird bits here and there, and I must admit that I love the sound of a Mellotron (are you listening Santa?) However, as beautiful as a song like Cadence & Cascade may be, it seems rather weak after the fury of Schiziod Man. Additionally, with having the perspective of knowing what lies ahead for Fripp & Co. I have to conclude that King Crimson would probably not be as important to me if this had been their entire output.

The good Judge Robert presiding...

2007-08-28T17:51:00.000-05:00

Contemplating the confusion of my epitaph
I dream in Mellotron
visions of Buffalo 66 dancing in my head
I have safely landed in the court of the crimson king

Perhaps when I'm done I'll have enough discipline to make an actual post.

Random bits in reverse alphabetical order

2007-08-24T19:50:00.000-05:00

How to act like a thirtysomething year old asshole.
Take one (1) (out)dated disc you used to love as a teenager, like oh I dunno say, the Judgement Night soundtrack, crank it to eleven (11) and a) sing along, b) dance around, and/or c) generally rock-out like it's the freshest thing you've heard since Bring The Noise. Guaranteed to make you feel like a jerk. (though I did enjoy it...)

Brian's on line one....
I've often stated that Brain Eno is a major influence on my music, but sometimes even I forget how far this goes. Listening to the Eno produced James album Wah Wah the other day reminded me that I lot of my sound and texture choices are based on sounds and textures from Eno albums.

Oh, but for a few hours
At the end of March of this year I went down to NYC for a few days. Before going down I looked into things to do and found that Andrew Hill was playing the day I arrived. I got there at around 6pm only to discover that he played at 2pm that day. Three weeks later he died. I very much enjoyed listening to the few Hill albums I have and wish, wish, wish I had made it to the city a few hours earlier that day.

It's funny 'cuz it's true

2007-07-12T19:04:00.000-05:00

What did one Dead Head say to the other when the drugs ran out?

"This music sucks!!"

I just had to listen to two studio discs and thirteen live discs by the Grateful Dead, including three complete shows from 1990 that I went to. I wanted to shoot myself. While they may have been fun to see live, listening to the shows was pure torture. And contrary to traditional Dead wisdom, I actually enjoyed the studio albums and wished that I still had more of them. A friend of mine once said (talking about cocaine) that any drug that could make disco seem good was not ok. The same can be said about the various drugs that made the Dead seem ok.

Other things
This Sunday, July 15th, the Listening Project will be one year old. It looks like I will be right at the end of "G" for the anniversary.

Coming Soon: About a month ago I started to write a blog about Sage Francis that I never finished/posted. Since I am seeing him live tomorrow I will finish and post that blog soon.

A band that quit at the right time

2007-05-23T12:36:00.001-05:00

Let's face it, most bands don't call it quits at the right time. Some drag on endlessly, becoming parodies of themselves (The Rolling Stones.) Some foolishly ignore the departure of their true creative driving force (Genesis.) Others stop abruptly during the peak of their musical outputs due to personal and/or creative differences (Mr. Bungle, the original Jane's Addiction.) And countless others are halted due to death (too many to name.) It is a rare thing that a band stops recording and/or performing at just the right time, when their output is perhaps of just a touch lesser quality than their earlier work, but not so much so as to be embarrassing. Such was the case with fIREHOSE.

After the death of guitarist D Boon ended the post punk band the Minutemen, Ed Crawford (aka Ed fROMOHIO) gathered up bassist Mike Watt and drummer George Hurley to form fIREHOSE. They immediately recorded the superb "Ragin', Full-On" for the SST label. Crawford's sometimes delicate singing and clean guitar playing wove in and around Watt's powerful bass and Hurley's often intricate drumming. The band had the technical facility to wander through different musical styles; sometimes straight rock with a bit of folk tinge, the occasional spanish sounding guitar, and was that a bit of disco I heard in the bass? Upon listening to his album the other day I was amazed at how much it continues to 'wow' me more than fifteen years after I first heard it.

Unfortunately for myself and the sake of this post I do not own "If'n" or "fROMOHIO," the two other albums they recorded for SST. In the early Nineties they were signed to Columbia and released "Flyin' the Flannel." My initial reaction to this album (now, not then) was that it had been recorded in the Post-Nirvana Grunge Craze of '92 when every major label was signing any indie band they could get their hands on. However, upon examining the liner notes I discovered that the album was recorded in January of '91, a full year before the explosion. What seems interesting to me about this is that it points out the fact that "grunge" or whatever you want to call it, was happenning all around in the few years before the mainstream media got ahold of it. Incidentally, I saw them live around this time, and before they played the title track from this album Mike Watt asked the crowd "Who here thinks that flannel was invented in Seattle?" which was met with a hardy "Boo!"

Finally we come to "Mr. Machinery Operator" which was produced by J Mascis. By this time, grunge was everywhere and the unique sound they had in the beginning is starting to melt into the soup of the times. Watt sounds more like Les Claypool and/or Flea, Crawford sounds more like any number of guitarists from that time, and the presence of Mascis obviously gives the whole thing a bit of a Dinosaur Jr. feel. However, the songwriting is still very good throughout. One track in particular that struck me was "Hell-Hole" which features a guest female vocalist and a sax player. While not necessarily the best song on the album, it pointed towads a direction the band could have taken had they stayed together. However, this was to be their last album, and it turned out to be a good place to stop. While it lacks the unique sound of their early work, it remains a solid effort that is far from being an embarrassment to the good name of fIREHOSE.

Let's try this again

2007-05-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

So apparently, my answer to "How much time ya got?" is "Not enough to maintain a blog." I think I got a bit daunted by trying to choose from the hundreds of discs I had already listened to. So I am now going to take a slightly different approach. Starting today I will try to post once a week and I will randomly discuss one or more of the albums I've listened to within the last week. So, without further ado...

Fantasia Soundtrack. In the last few months I've been listening to more classical music than ever, so this was interesting to hear again. This two disc set was one of the first classical recordings I ever bought. Rite of Spring, for me, was a very early "Wow, I didn't know music could sound like that!" moment. I still enjoyed that piece, but my increased knowledge has diminished the "Wow" factor. At least a dozen works spring (no pun intended) to mind that can floor me to a degree that the Stravinsky no longer can. Bach's Toccatta & Fugue in D Minor has always been a favorite of mine. Now, I'm no purist about Bach being played on certain instruments. Hell, I practically wet myself when Apollo Sunshine played a synth-rock version of a Bach tune. However, listening to this fully orchestrated version made me think that this piece really should be played on organ as it was intended. Unfortunately for Dukas, the Sorcerer's Apprentice is so tied to those images of Mickey Mouse that it's impossible to consider the music on its own terms. Similarly, Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours is so tied to Allen Sherman's "Hello Mudduh, Hello, Fadduh, Here I am at, Camp Grenada" that I can't help but sing that as the tune plays. I've never particularly cared for Ave Maria (a bit too over played in my opinion) and I've always hated the Nutcracker so that part was painful. Hearing Beethoven's 6th made me want to listen to more Beethoven, although that particular symphony doesn't really do much for me. And finally, the piece that I'd say surprised me the most was Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain. This was always one of my favorites in the set, and I was surprised at how much I still enjoyed it. Perhaps I need to explore the Russians a bit more.

Another A,B,C...

2007-03-08T17:23:00.000-05:00

An die Musik ~ Timeless Tales & Music of Our Time (w/Dr. Ruth Westheimer)
Here we have one of several very strange entries in the collection. Classically oriented musical interpretations of two children's stories with narration by Dr. Ruth. Yes, that Dr. Ruth. Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks. Very Strange. How or why this disc is in my collection is somewhat of a mystery, although I'd wager a bet that I got it while at 'RIU. The music is very predictable in a "this is what's happening" way. The words have bizarre modern flourishes here and there. For example, Red is bringing her grandmother "Plain, poppy, and sesame seed bagels and macadamia nut cookies that mother made." Not exactly a top ten hit, but something I think I'll reserve for those late night after hours parties when everyone's seven or eight sheets to the wind.

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic ~ faultline
Ah, Birdsongs. Electronic, acoustic, classical, rock, jazz, etc... I hardly have words to describe this amazing band. Anyone with even a passing interest in electronic music and/or 20th century composition should look into this group. I've had the fortune to see them live two and a half times (don't ask about the half) and the sheer power of this music is overwhelming live. The clip below will give you a much better idea about them than I ever could.

My only regret is that I only have one album by them.

And now for something a little more 'normal.'

Holly Cole ~ Temptation
On this album from 1995, the Holly Cole Trio (H.C., vocals; Aaron Davis, piano; David Piltch, bass) pays tribute to none other than Tom Waits. Personally, I've always enjoyed hearing the signiture growl of Mr. Waits' lyrics re-worked with smooth female vocals. If fact I'll even say I prefer hearing a woman cover Tom. I guess it's just more 'different' than a man could ever achieve. Certain lyrics take on new meaning when sung by a woman. For example in Jersey Girl, and Invitation To The Blues the perspective switches from the observer to the observed. Some songs (Take Me Home & Little Boy Blue, both from One From The Heart) were written for a female to sing. A song like Soldiers Things, while making sense sung from either perspective, takes on a new level of sadness in the female voice. Holly's interpretation of I Want You makes it sound as if it came out of the Great American Songbook. Perhaps the one song that gets the most radical re-working is I Don't Wanna Grow Up. In the original Tom, at that point in his early forties, sounds like a petulant child. In the much slowed down version by Holly, then in her early thirties, she sounds like a tired old soul full of regret.

Over-all a fine effort. Some truly stand out interpretations, and no noticeable duds (a remarkable feat for any cover album.) I wouldn't say that any of these tracks outshine their originals, but they each offer a unique take on some really wonderful music.

An A, a B, & a C

2007-02-27T16:10:00.000-05:00

Since I'm now seven months and over three hundred discs into this project I'm obviously not going to go back and review all of those albums. I've already, though briefly, covered the Beatles and I'm planning on a major, multiple post write up about David Bowie (51 discs, took me a month). In the meantime I will post some reviews of a few high lights, in of course, alphabetical order.

The Apes of God ~ Edge of Arrival
I first discovered the Apes of God while working at WRIU. The unusual packaging of this disc made it stand out from the scores of other discs at the station and when I listened to it I was thrilled to find this wonderfully bizarre music. The vocals (primarily Gilbert Marhoefer) are almost entirely spoken word owing more to sprechtimme than to beatniks or rappers. The highly poetic lyrics tend to have an apocolyptical flair to them. For example, "You have been ruled by a warthog, but it has always been this way." in Starting Over In Purity or the angry growling of the title line in "Why can't Lansberry get his mail?" Musically the group is even harder to pin down. The overall texture is that of an electronically created music, although sprinkled thoughout with various woodwinds (clarinet, sax, bassoon). They seem to be less concerned with writing songs as with creating moods. It seems to me that the lyrics always come first and that the music is there a) to reinforce the words and b) because people don't buy poetry albums. Definitely an odd-ball disc, but worth it if you like outsider music.

The Bad Plus
When I started my listening project I also tried keeping a journal with a review of every disc I listened to. Didn't last too long, but I had this to say about the Bad Plus.
"Everyone needs to listen to the Bad Plus now. They are a jazz piano trio that functions more like a rock band than a jazz group. David King's rhythms are certainly closer to rock than jazz, Ethan Iverson absolutely pummels his piano to elicit sounds I didn't think were possible, and Reid Anderson grounds the whole sound while giving it yet another set of balls. Their choice of cover tunes reflects the rock-like approach, notably Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit and Black Sabbath's Iron Man. But hearing jazz versions of heavy metal and grunge songs is not a mere novelty. They delve into the heart of these songs to find the spirit (if you will) that makes the originals so exciting. And these covers are not the only points of interest on these albums. Their original songs carry the same energy and power. This is a truly amazing band that is obviously working hard at what they do."
I don't have much to add to that. All of their albums are amazing so I'm having a hard time recommending one over the other. My only other comment is that Prehensile Dream (first track on Suspicious Activity?) will kick you in the nuts, and I mean that in the good way.

And for C, a touch of the absurd..

If I Were A Carpenter A tribute to the Carpenters
Now, all sorts of arguements could be made about the "proper" filing of this disc. As a "Various Artists" disc it could go under "V." I also have other compilations filed by name in which case this would go under "I." I chose to file it under Carpenters, because that's where I would most likely look for it. Anyway...

First of all, a tribute to the Carpenters is a funny thing. Most of the songs they were famous for were covers. Richard Carpenter recieves writing credits on only three of the fourteen songs here. However, this disc contains several excellent versions of these songs by some first-rate alt-rock bands from the mid-nineties (wOOt - high hyphen count - wOOt!) Although as with any compilation, they're not all gems. Shonen Knife's version of Top Of The World ends up as a novelty because of the whole can't pronounce L's thing (world=worrd). I've always hated The Cranberries and their version of Bacharach's Close To You does nothing to change this opinion. And anyone who has only ever heard either the Carpenters or Babes in Toyland perform Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft should do themselves a favor and hunt down the original Klaatu version. (In fact, I think I'm going to take a break from my main listening, currently Miles Davis ~ Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel and put on the first Klaatu album. Ah, there now that's better...)

On the plus side: Matthew Sweet ~ Let Me Be The One, Sheryl Crow ~ Solitaire, American Music Club ~ Goodbye To Love. Cracker's version of Rainy Days & Mondays really gets at the heart of the inherent sadness of this song. The one song, however, that is worth the price of admission alone is Sonic Youth covering Leon Russell's Superstar. This is an example of a cover that not only surpasses the original, but becomes the definitive version. Period. End of story. I dare you to find a better version of this song. This song has been giving me shivers since this album came out almost thirteen years ago.

Well, that should do it for today. Happy listening!

Some British group...

2007-02-24T17:09:00.000-05:00

The first group that I was able to listen to a complete discography by was the Beatles. Now, a lifetime could be spent hunting down every scrap of tape in which one of the lads may have farted into a microphone, so let me make some clarification. I used the official discography as stated at thebeatles.com, and only up through Let It Be, subsequent releases, while official, were after the group disbanded. I did make one slight variation from their list (which is based solely on UK releases) which was to add Magical Mystery Tour (technically a US only album). Counting the so-called White Album as two, the band released fourteen albums in seven years. Not a bad rate of production. It is also a very interesting arc to follow, in part because it was such a short period of time. So, here's my impressions of that catalogue (in chronological order, of course).

Please, Please, Me & With the Beatles. One of the first things my research clarified was the ordering of these two albums. I had always thought of Meet the Beatles as being the first album. Turns out that while it is the first US release, the title is a bastardization of the second UK release, With the Beatles. The two albums (Please.. & With..) seemed interchangable, and not all that revolutionary. Both are solid Pop-Rock albums strongly rooted in the music of the era. They still have a fairly large pecentage of cover songs on each (both contain six covers and eight originals). One thing that did strike me (if you will forgive the pun) was the power of Ringo's drumming. He is often ridiculed and over-looked because of his later flamboyances, but these early discs show that he truly was the "beat" that helped make the "Beat"les so popular in the beginning.

Next up is the soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night. This is the first album comprised of all original songs, and starts to point towards things ahead. The writing is more sophisticated than on the first two albums. It also shows the Lennon/McCartney team finding their own voice, rather than imitating other artists.

The next two albums, Beatles For Sale, and Help! see a return to more cover material (in fact Sale contains the same 6 to 8 ratio of the first two albums). The originals continue to mature, reflecting the exhaustion of being super stars. And then things get interesting.

Nobody who's going to read this needs me to tell them that Rubber Soul & Revolver are two of the most beautiful Pop-Rock albums of the 1960's. Scratch that, of all time. Again the lads return to all original material, and the songwriting is so solid that one might start to think they could do no wrong.

I had a funny reaction to Sgt. Pepper's. My reaction was, "OK lads, take Pet Sounds off the turntable..." Upon this listening it really struck me just how much they were influenced by that album. Certain songs (Mr. Kite springs to mind) sound as if they snuck into Brian Wilson's studio, stole some master tapes and slapped their own lyrics over the backing tracks. This album also marks a new lyrical direction for the group. Allow me to back-track a bit..

Overall I identify three main lyrical approaches for the Beatles, which evolved over their seven years together. Early on they were writing essentially "Teen" lyrics. Songs like Seventeen & I Wanna Hold Your Hand are prime examples of this. Teenage love in all its glory. As the band matured they began writing more "Adult" lyrics. In My Life, For No One, songs of disillusionment, lost love, the ennui of growing older, of trying to understand your place in the world. The third stage, which begins with Pepper's, and comes to it's ultimate conclusion on Yellow Submarine, are songs that have essentially become "Children's" music. These are the songs we first glom onto when, as youngsters, we discover these funny looking records in our parents music collections, and we hear these funny little songs about walruses and submarines. It should be noted that these eras do overlap, and that by the end they returned primarily to the "Adult" lyrics.

Not much to say about Magical Mystery Tour. Goofy psychedelia. Funny costumes. A few good songs.

The so-called White Album has always been my favorite Beatles album, which is kind of like cheating since it's two discs. The entire scope of what makes the Beatles great is contained on these discs. Four lads gettin' down to some serious business in one of the best recording studios of the times. I'll end my comments here so as to refrain from gushing.

Yellow Submarine. Yawn. Don't bother.

Abbey Road can no doubt be seen as the top of the arc. The band are at their peak as an ensemble, the songwriting is superb, the performances are spot-on, the lyrics are heart-breaking. But you probably already knew that.

And finally, Let It Be, which is advice they should have taken. Had they left us with the previous album as their last they could have ended on a high note. Instead they chose to show us a band coming apart at the seams. One thing the album does illustrate is that had they continued as the Beatles through the seventies they would have really sucked bad. They would have become overblown stadium parodies of themselves (gee kids, can we think of any other sixties bands that fit this description?) While there are some good songs from these sessions, all in all it's a good thing the boys did decide to "Let It Be."

So, after all of that, what do I have to say about the Beatles? For one, they wrote some of the catchiest songs of all time. During the time I spent listening to their catalogue, and for weeks after, I had nothing but Beatles songs stuck in my head. Overall I found the ride fascinating. I highly recommend taking the time to listen to all fourteen studio albums in order. It's an amazing journey that will only take you about ten hours of your time. Hell, take the day off work and do it all in one sitting!

Listening Project(s)

2007-02-23T15:34:00.000-05:00

Last July I was looking over my 1200+ cd collection and realized that I owned discs that I didn't even know what they were, discs I had forgotten I had, discs I had never listened to, and discs that simply hadn't been listened to for many years. So, I decided to attempt to listen to them all, in alpha-chronological order. Seven months into the project and I just hit "D." (As I write this I'm listening to Miles Davis ~ Miles Ahead) My current estimate is that this will take me three years to complete. Many interesting things have happened as I've inched my way forward in this project. There's the re-evaluation of artists: "I can't believe I used to like Anthrax!" " Why don't I have more Add N to (X)?" There has also been an educational aspect to the project. I've always been pretty good about keeping chronological order within artist, but this has made me take the time to research and re-organise my collection. And in the process of doing that I've learned numerous things about these musicians. Also, hearing an artist develop over a period of time has been fascinating to me, but more on that point in a bit. The biggest change this listening project has brought about is it has created a whole new way of life (or at least listening) for me.

"What is this guy talking about?" you may ask. Well, I have decided to primarily eliminate what I'm calling "choice based listening." I have decided to set up multiple listening projects, in addition to the main one mentioned above, and virtually all of my listening will be one or the other of these projects. Each project will have its specific guide lines (ex: my car listening is all local, Rhode Island, bands in alpha-chronological order). I will be allowing myself up to five albums per week that are not part of any given project. This creates a space where I can listen to new discs and accommodates those times when I just have to listen to Charles Ives or Sol.Illaquists of Sound. I will also have some degree of "choice" regarding which project I listen to at any given time, but not as to which album is next in its particular queue.

So, here's a run down of my current and proposed projects:

Current:
The Main Project: is the one mentioned above. Listening to my entire CD collection in alpha-chronological order. (begun 7/15/06)

Leonard Cohen (completed): This project was done with my roommate Christopher. We listened to all of Cohen's albums in chronological order. I'll post on this later...

Elvis Costello: Again, this project is with Christopher. Listening to Costello's catalogue in chronological order. Currently on Armed Forces.

Local (RI): As mentioned above, all of my car listening is dedicated to local bands from Rhode Island (with some southern Mass included)

Proposed:
Classical/Opera (chronological): This one is a beast that will require some serious research before it can get underway. Christopher has a 400+ disc classical & opera collection that I'm planning to organize chronologically. Gregorian Chants to Pierre Boulez. wOOt! wOOt!

Bob Dylan: I've never liked Mr. Zimmerman, however I've heard tell that some people do. I feel that if I'm going to undertake all of these projects I owe it to Bob to listen to his music, although I must say, I'm not quite sure why.

My Vinyl: Can I really make it though nine Jackie Gleason Presents albums?

iTunes: currently 37.5GB worth of music. Alphabetical by song perhaps?

After all I've said so far, I will simply end with this statement:
This blog is dedicated to chronicling my listening projects. Enjoy!