I have a link for you. If you have any problems, remember to breathe. Click 'View Trailer'.
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Tuesday, May 25, 2004
Speed Bump Number One
So it looks like we may be without a bass for at least a little of the recording time. I think I may have to invest in three strings and string me up a git-ar. I know how to play the guitar, I just don't know how to cooperate with it. As it stands, me playing the guitar is like getting assigned to work with a hypothetical man named Klaus. All he wants to do is talk about how great he is and how valuable he is and how, at my hands, he's being wasted. I say, I'm sorry Klaus, but can we meet halfway and I pretend your a keyboard, because I don't own a keyboard that sounds good, so I have to play a bad guitar, and hope that the cult of the guitar listens in? And he has this embarrassing hat that he's ALWAYS wearing and whenever we go out in public people are pointing and chortling and puking. We're the original odd couple.
The optimist in me is thinking that, without a bass, things will be more fresh and invigorating, like one of the early popular recordings of the James Rabbit Song Machine. The way it goes now, its me and conner and a bass and a drums and me hitting my head and drinking some sort of sugary wonder until its time for an idea and then we bass and drums until someone interrupts us. But without a bass. Hmm. The idea is that I'd replace my instrument with a keyboard or a guitar, but it just never feels right.
The last time we didn't have a bass, we both played drums, which was a lot of fun to watch, and probably exciting as all get-out, but it didn't make for anything resembling a song. As I told Conner, I need the confidence and the comfort that a bass affords me. It almost feels like a percussive instrument, which makes everything feel uniform, as opposed to playing the guitar and drums which feels to me like I'm an army surgeon trying to perform a get-bullet-out-of-lungs surgery on a fallen comrade in the back of a jeep vehicle, speeding over dunes and such. Maybe this'll be my first trumpet and drums album. HA
I've been listening vigorously to Arthur Russell's "Calling Out of Context" CD and he does these wonderful wonderful things with little more than a keyboard and his goofy, endearing voice. This is a heartening thing. One problem with this though, is that I am the only person I know who would enjoy the kind of music he makes. Maybe I could trick others if I told them it was art rock instead of dance pop. I don't know how many more times I'll listen to the entire album, but certain songs will become part of my internal function, I think.
I'm writing up questions for my facilitation on "To the Lighthouse", which is one of the books this year that I feel I have down. Its also one of those books where anything goes, except for the embarassing thing about strict binary functions that I said the last time I talked about the book. So I'm staying away from emotion and concentrating on the more obscure and provable things. I'll be staying up late tomorrow night and tonight working on a Dante paper, but I dig Dante, and this paper's 'free choice', so I'm happy like a homeless squid on payday.
So it looks like we may be without a bass for at least a little of the recording time. I think I may have to invest in three strings and string me up a git-ar. I know how to play the guitar, I just don't know how to cooperate with it. As it stands, me playing the guitar is like getting assigned to work with a hypothetical man named Klaus. All he wants to do is talk about how great he is and how valuable he is and how, at my hands, he's being wasted. I say, I'm sorry Klaus, but can we meet halfway and I pretend your a keyboard, because I don't own a keyboard that sounds good, so I have to play a bad guitar, and hope that the cult of the guitar listens in? And he has this embarrassing hat that he's ALWAYS wearing and whenever we go out in public people are pointing and chortling and puking. We're the original odd couple.
The optimist in me is thinking that, without a bass, things will be more fresh and invigorating, like one of the early popular recordings of the James Rabbit Song Machine. The way it goes now, its me and conner and a bass and a drums and me hitting my head and drinking some sort of sugary wonder until its time for an idea and then we bass and drums until someone interrupts us. But without a bass. Hmm. The idea is that I'd replace my instrument with a keyboard or a guitar, but it just never feels right.
The last time we didn't have a bass, we both played drums, which was a lot of fun to watch, and probably exciting as all get-out, but it didn't make for anything resembling a song. As I told Conner, I need the confidence and the comfort that a bass affords me. It almost feels like a percussive instrument, which makes everything feel uniform, as opposed to playing the guitar and drums which feels to me like I'm an army surgeon trying to perform a get-bullet-out-of-lungs surgery on a fallen comrade in the back of a jeep vehicle, speeding over dunes and such. Maybe this'll be my first trumpet and drums album. HA
I've been listening vigorously to Arthur Russell's "Calling Out of Context" CD and he does these wonderful wonderful things with little more than a keyboard and his goofy, endearing voice. This is a heartening thing. One problem with this though, is that I am the only person I know who would enjoy the kind of music he makes. Maybe I could trick others if I told them it was art rock instead of dance pop. I don't know how many more times I'll listen to the entire album, but certain songs will become part of my internal function, I think.
I'm writing up questions for my facilitation on "To the Lighthouse", which is one of the books this year that I feel I have down. Its also one of those books where anything goes, except for the embarassing thing about strict binary functions that I said the last time I talked about the book. So I'm staying away from emotion and concentrating on the more obscure and provable things. I'll be staying up late tomorrow night and tonight working on a Dante paper, but I dig Dante, and this paper's 'free choice', so I'm happy like a homeless squid on payday.
Sunday, May 23, 2004
More Robot Envy
I'm writing songs in my head that feel like they could be hits. When I think hit songs, I mean songs where you may not know who wrote it, but its ubiquitous to the point where if someone says it you think 'ugh, THAT songs been in my head for days'. "Where's Your Head At?" for example, probably 1% of the people that have heard it know its by The Basement Jaxxes, but the other 99% have thouroughly been inundated with that song to the point where they want to buy Pringles and shop at Target and a lucky few of those have even seen the freaky video where the Jaxxes play at monkeys.
I think music advertising something is the pinnacle of pop music success. The marketers, who play at exploiting certain tendencies in people to buy their product, recognize a certain link between the subject matter of the song (lyrical or musical), and their product. This song has achieved a certain necessity, from a useless zap of electricity on the CD that a bunch of teenagers barely listen to while they're worrying who to try to kiss next, to a valuable piece of business communication. So if I wrote a good little song, with arbitrarily affirming lyrics, and some brilliant backing that makes you question your musical orientation, that's the ticket. And I'll give it a strong enough chorus and a verse that makes the chorus seem less like an island and more like a mountain, and BAM! Phonecalls and purchases and handshakes and commercial appearances.
I mean, that's a good way to make money. And a way to give the song a meaning, if only a legendary tune whistled in board rooms and meetings as 'that ditty that sold us a million Buicks' (or whatever popular car). Anyway, I'm not going to be selling my songs to commercials yet. First, they aren't that good. Two, I don't know any song-choosers for commercials. Third, I got to write some songs first. Everything I'm writing down is not only NOT commercial quality, but it isn't even James Rabbit quality. Wow. That's bad. Maybe I need the comfort of context in a pair of pounding toms and a half-tuned bass and the neighbor lady firing holy water over the fence to get me into the songwriting mood/zone. So far I have a bunch of little sentences written down, presumably those are going to fire the ol' synapses into genius mode come June 11th. And chord progressions, I've got some of those on paper. But chord progressions are stupid, and all you need anyway is the 1-4-5, and let's not kid ourselves, I'm not starting any harmonic revolutions anytime soon. BUT.
The Melodies! They aren't that hard! I can do melodies. Right now, I'll write five good melodies. Okay, honestly only one or two of those were any good. I did five though.
The Rhythms! This part I'm very confident about. Conner's got the beat, I've got the zazz, put that together, you've got Bizzazz! The family and I were watching Drumline at lunch today and it was the most distracting thing ever. Nobody could finish their sandwich because they were so enthralled. I was eating hot dogs though, so I was already done.
The Structures! That's right, I made mix CDs so I could listen for structure! And did I? No, I was too busy worrying about Cyndi Lauper's voice, or whether or not the next song would be The Pumpkins or not. Jeez Louise Tyler, let's get our head out of the pretty little whistley melody clouds and jump into the mucky robot world of writing songs. If your going to write like a robot, you've got to listen like a robot. You've got to walk like a robot, talk like a robot, DREAM like a robot! And drinking motor oil couldn't hurt.
I'm writing songs in my head that feel like they could be hits. When I think hit songs, I mean songs where you may not know who wrote it, but its ubiquitous to the point where if someone says it you think 'ugh, THAT songs been in my head for days'. "Where's Your Head At?" for example, probably 1% of the people that have heard it know its by The Basement Jaxxes, but the other 99% have thouroughly been inundated with that song to the point where they want to buy Pringles and shop at Target and a lucky few of those have even seen the freaky video where the Jaxxes play at monkeys.
I think music advertising something is the pinnacle of pop music success. The marketers, who play at exploiting certain tendencies in people to buy their product, recognize a certain link between the subject matter of the song (lyrical or musical), and their product. This song has achieved a certain necessity, from a useless zap of electricity on the CD that a bunch of teenagers barely listen to while they're worrying who to try to kiss next, to a valuable piece of business communication. So if I wrote a good little song, with arbitrarily affirming lyrics, and some brilliant backing that makes you question your musical orientation, that's the ticket. And I'll give it a strong enough chorus and a verse that makes the chorus seem less like an island and more like a mountain, and BAM! Phonecalls and purchases and handshakes and commercial appearances.
I mean, that's a good way to make money. And a way to give the song a meaning, if only a legendary tune whistled in board rooms and meetings as 'that ditty that sold us a million Buicks' (or whatever popular car). Anyway, I'm not going to be selling my songs to commercials yet. First, they aren't that good. Two, I don't know any song-choosers for commercials. Third, I got to write some songs first. Everything I'm writing down is not only NOT commercial quality, but it isn't even James Rabbit quality. Wow. That's bad. Maybe I need the comfort of context in a pair of pounding toms and a half-tuned bass and the neighbor lady firing holy water over the fence to get me into the songwriting mood/zone. So far I have a bunch of little sentences written down, presumably those are going to fire the ol' synapses into genius mode come June 11th. And chord progressions, I've got some of those on paper. But chord progressions are stupid, and all you need anyway is the 1-4-5, and let's not kid ourselves, I'm not starting any harmonic revolutions anytime soon. BUT.
The Melodies! They aren't that hard! I can do melodies. Right now, I'll write five good melodies. Okay, honestly only one or two of those were any good. I did five though.
The Rhythms! This part I'm very confident about. Conner's got the beat, I've got the zazz, put that together, you've got Bizzazz! The family and I were watching Drumline at lunch today and it was the most distracting thing ever. Nobody could finish their sandwich because they were so enthralled. I was eating hot dogs though, so I was already done.
The Structures! That's right, I made mix CDs so I could listen for structure! And did I? No, I was too busy worrying about Cyndi Lauper's voice, or whether or not the next song would be The Pumpkins or not. Jeez Louise Tyler, let's get our head out of the pretty little whistley melody clouds and jump into the mucky robot world of writing songs. If your going to write like a robot, you've got to listen like a robot. You've got to walk like a robot, talk like a robot, DREAM like a robot! And drinking motor oil couldn't hurt.
Friday, May 21, 2004
The song of the year for 2003:
"Mahgeetah" by My Morning Jacket
I had to look up the band's name. Their album is lame and boring, but this song is pretty special. Yeah, its a Beach Boys attempt, but its so epic. Its like an indie band took every trick they knew and sandwiched it into a wonderful six minutes (that just keeps coming up with new and great ideas). It soundtracked many magical moments, from first feeling the sun in Santa Cruz, to flying off an icy mountain and pulling my friends to safety in a dream. I'm sorry this is late. I hope this adds to it being the song of the year, rather than a rushed decision I made in December. I just heard it in a beer commercial.
I think the song of the year so far for 2004 is "On Parade" by Electrelane, but that could change.
"Mahgeetah" by My Morning Jacket
I had to look up the band's name. Their album is lame and boring, but this song is pretty special. Yeah, its a Beach Boys attempt, but its so epic. Its like an indie band took every trick they knew and sandwiched it into a wonderful six minutes (that just keeps coming up with new and great ideas). It soundtracked many magical moments, from first feeling the sun in Santa Cruz, to flying off an icy mountain and pulling my friends to safety in a dream. I'm sorry this is late. I hope this adds to it being the song of the year, rather than a rushed decision I made in December. I just heard it in a beer commercial.
I think the song of the year so far for 2004 is "On Parade" by Electrelane, but that could change.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
The Smartest People in the World
When I am rehearsing, I pretend I am on stage. Someone's listening, someone's watching, I've got to be important and in the moment and singing the lyrics and playing the bass like all the umbrellas in London are pointed my way.
This should apply doubly when recording this album. Other songs were an academic exercise, this is a social exercise. I'm not recording this to be another solipsistic B.S. adventure where it's a 10 in my mind, but a 4 in everyone elses. But you guys! Don't you get how the keyboard drums are overdriven??!!?? And how the lyrics mirror the plot of a book you may have read? Where'd everybody go? And why didnt they take a free copy of my album?
I want as many people as possible to like this album. I want this to be the backseat jam album of the summer. Or the Fall, depending on how long it takes us to record it. I want people I don't know to come up to me and say 'I liked your CD' and then I'll look at them and say 'thanks, do you want another one?' even though I know that no other one is as good. I'm afraid we'll have to rely on guitars. The Heart that Ate New York sounded too thin, even the guitar parts sounded too thin. There has to be a way to bulk up the sounds without using guitar, or keyboards, or the mountains of other stuff. I think its funny that my idea of selling out is everyone else's idea of keeping it real. I honestly don't think the answer to a good album is guitars.
Speaking of me honestly not knowing things, I don't know what I want to do with this whole music thing. Obviously, I'm not fit to be a musician of any sort, and I don't want to play this making albums game any longer. Sometimes I think people in bands are the smartest people ever. First of all, you have three friends. You are a smart person if you can find three friends that will get along. Second of all, you have to be smart enough to ignore that everything you are playing isn't gold. There's a certain sting to music, where you hear something good, that it stings double when you don't hear yourself coming up with anything that good. Third, you get to play shows and tour and not have to stress out about music being a competition. When you play the show you secretly don't care if it went well or not, because YES that girl in the third row with the red hair WILL date you and NO you are NOT the second Beatles but YES you DO play that guitar like a madman and YES we ALL felt that vibe but sorry, NO you didn't make enough money to get back home but YES you WILL make it back eventually.
When I am on stage, I pretend like I'm in my backroom. The audience will never be the audience I want it to be, so they just as well may not be anyone.
When I am rehearsing, I pretend I am on stage. Someone's listening, someone's watching, I've got to be important and in the moment and singing the lyrics and playing the bass like all the umbrellas in London are pointed my way.
This should apply doubly when recording this album. Other songs were an academic exercise, this is a social exercise. I'm not recording this to be another solipsistic B.S. adventure where it's a 10 in my mind, but a 4 in everyone elses. But you guys! Don't you get how the keyboard drums are overdriven??!!?? And how the lyrics mirror the plot of a book you may have read? Where'd everybody go? And why didnt they take a free copy of my album?
I want as many people as possible to like this album. I want this to be the backseat jam album of the summer. Or the Fall, depending on how long it takes us to record it. I want people I don't know to come up to me and say 'I liked your CD' and then I'll look at them and say 'thanks, do you want another one?' even though I know that no other one is as good. I'm afraid we'll have to rely on guitars. The Heart that Ate New York sounded too thin, even the guitar parts sounded too thin. There has to be a way to bulk up the sounds without using guitar, or keyboards, or the mountains of other stuff. I think its funny that my idea of selling out is everyone else's idea of keeping it real. I honestly don't think the answer to a good album is guitars.
Speaking of me honestly not knowing things, I don't know what I want to do with this whole music thing. Obviously, I'm not fit to be a musician of any sort, and I don't want to play this making albums game any longer. Sometimes I think people in bands are the smartest people ever. First of all, you have three friends. You are a smart person if you can find three friends that will get along. Second of all, you have to be smart enough to ignore that everything you are playing isn't gold. There's a certain sting to music, where you hear something good, that it stings double when you don't hear yourself coming up with anything that good. Third, you get to play shows and tour and not have to stress out about music being a competition. When you play the show you secretly don't care if it went well or not, because YES that girl in the third row with the red hair WILL date you and NO you are NOT the second Beatles but YES you DO play that guitar like a madman and YES we ALL felt that vibe but sorry, NO you didn't make enough money to get back home but YES you WILL make it back eventually.
When I am on stage, I pretend like I'm in my backroom. The audience will never be the audience I want it to be, so they just as well may not be anyone.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
I'm very excited. I only have two and a half papers to go and its summer. I'm very happy and a little bit suspicious. I'm suspicious of things not working out and basses not being in the studio and people not having enough time and all etcetera.
I was getting to sleep last night and I couldn't. I mean, I couldn't get to sleep. It was one of those terrible nights where I slept for like an hour at a time and finally at one pm, decided that I wasn't going to stop feeling tired. And now my back hurts like I'd been prizefighting with a golden gloved champeen.
I got really excited at the Zappa and Beefheart videos. I think I could really start liking Zappa. I don't know if I'll be able to harness his meaty goodness, but I've got a pretty good grasp on that wacko tangent. And the rhythms. Not playing them, but 'getting' them. And a marimba sound is always welcome. Marimbas. They're always on the list of 'things I would buy if I had any money'. Everybody was so rich in the seventies. And also rock stars.
Also I just watched a Lightning Bolt video and it was the best thing to ever happen. I really wish we had that kind of power. I think we should play some live shows. Just to get the experience of playing live, I don't even care if people like us. We'll need a band, we'll need promotion, we'll need funky posters. I wish I had that kind of Lightning Bolt skill and amps and etcetera. Man, that's the best band anyone's ever seen. My watch is four minutes behind, but apparently everyone elses is also.
I'm smelling like college.
I was getting to sleep last night and I couldn't. I mean, I couldn't get to sleep. It was one of those terrible nights where I slept for like an hour at a time and finally at one pm, decided that I wasn't going to stop feeling tired. And now my back hurts like I'd been prizefighting with a golden gloved champeen.
I got really excited at the Zappa and Beefheart videos. I think I could really start liking Zappa. I don't know if I'll be able to harness his meaty goodness, but I've got a pretty good grasp on that wacko tangent. And the rhythms. Not playing them, but 'getting' them. And a marimba sound is always welcome. Marimbas. They're always on the list of 'things I would buy if I had any money'. Everybody was so rich in the seventies. And also rock stars.
Also I just watched a Lightning Bolt video and it was the best thing to ever happen. I really wish we had that kind of power. I think we should play some live shows. Just to get the experience of playing live, I don't even care if people like us. We'll need a band, we'll need promotion, we'll need funky posters. I wish I had that kind of Lightning Bolt skill and amps and etcetera. Man, that's the best band anyone's ever seen. My watch is four minutes behind, but apparently everyone elses is also.
I'm smelling like college.
What I meant was 'getting rid of the labels, coming children'
So my non-canon thing ended today at around 3am when I found a bunch of Captain Beefheart videos online. I'd been pretty good, too, listening to plenty of new but not that great stuff. I think my favorite thing I listened to today was the Thermals, despite the fact that I hate them. Mclusky was too uneven and The Hold Steady CD was not working too well, well not playing the first two (the best) songs.. I think the goal from now on is to intersperse the classic with the current.
I wrote down a couple good mental notes regarding some songs and have a great B-side practically completely written out already. I'm ecstaticly ecstatic, considering I only have three more papers and a section facilitation (and 1.5 finals), well BLAH. Schools a fine adversary, but none of my stress is going to be wasted here. Its all about summer. And maybe finding an outlet for money making. Which I'll have to admit is secondary to recording this awesome album.
See what time it is? I'm afraid that I'll be unable to catch any decent sleep. Yesterday (the fifteenth) my neighbors were awake one-ish, trying to find an affordable duplex and having to switch phones and swearing and then making an entire christian rap album. I still have twenty chapters of Great Expectations to read, which I am not looking forward to. I tend to obsess about where people are in books, because I read with a certain manner that I'm concentrating on character more than location, so I'm freaking out now, because I'm not completely sure where Pip and Magwitch are staying. I got the impression that it was a kind of run down inn, but I thought Pip was rich? See, this is why I should have read the book three weeks ago, when the class was discussing this kind of stuff. Stupid, stupid.
I have this tendency to talk to myself a lot, especially when I haven't had any human interaction for a couple days in a row, here's some samples from today:
"I didn't mean to do that" < said numerous times in reference to knocking something over
"My rap is long and boring, and my listeners are snoring, and my beats are lame, and my phone's got game(s)" < that was me rapping while the guys next door were rapping
"Ch-ch-ch-changes / time to turn the page" < sometimes sung as I would force myself to move on.
Its hard for me to read. They don't care in school if you read, so long as you write. Its less hard for me to write, but its hard for me to write if I don't know what to write about. I'm kind of happy at how much writing we have to do, because that gives me a chance to (theoretically) hone writing to a needlepoint thing where I thesis and refer to the thesis and etcetera.
So my non-canon thing ended today at around 3am when I found a bunch of Captain Beefheart videos online. I'd been pretty good, too, listening to plenty of new but not that great stuff. I think my favorite thing I listened to today was the Thermals, despite the fact that I hate them. Mclusky was too uneven and The Hold Steady CD was not working too well, well not playing the first two (the best) songs.. I think the goal from now on is to intersperse the classic with the current.
I wrote down a couple good mental notes regarding some songs and have a great B-side practically completely written out already. I'm ecstaticly ecstatic, considering I only have three more papers and a section facilitation (and 1.5 finals), well BLAH. Schools a fine adversary, but none of my stress is going to be wasted here. Its all about summer. And maybe finding an outlet for money making. Which I'll have to admit is secondary to recording this awesome album.
See what time it is? I'm afraid that I'll be unable to catch any decent sleep. Yesterday (the fifteenth) my neighbors were awake one-ish, trying to find an affordable duplex and having to switch phones and swearing and then making an entire christian rap album. I still have twenty chapters of Great Expectations to read, which I am not looking forward to. I tend to obsess about where people are in books, because I read with a certain manner that I'm concentrating on character more than location, so I'm freaking out now, because I'm not completely sure where Pip and Magwitch are staying. I got the impression that it was a kind of run down inn, but I thought Pip was rich? See, this is why I should have read the book three weeks ago, when the class was discussing this kind of stuff. Stupid, stupid.
I have this tendency to talk to myself a lot, especially when I haven't had any human interaction for a couple days in a row, here's some samples from today:
"I didn't mean to do that" < said numerous times in reference to knocking something over
"My rap is long and boring, and my listeners are snoring, and my beats are lame, and my phone's got game(s)" < that was me rapping while the guys next door were rapping
"Ch-ch-ch-changes / time to turn the page" < sometimes sung as I would force myself to move on.
Its hard for me to read. They don't care in school if you read, so long as you write. Its less hard for me to write, but its hard for me to write if I don't know what to write about. I'm kind of happy at how much writing we have to do, because that gives me a chance to (theoretically) hone writing to a needlepoint thing where I thesis and refer to the thesis and etcetera.
Friday, May 14, 2004
Things I listened to today:
Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands
I was looking forward to this. A couple songs I knew from putting on compilations and stuff. Anyway, his wobbly wavery art school kid voice gets on the nerves, but you can forgive it as long as he's saying funny clever things. He runs out of those, I think about halfway through. I don't think the 'frail guys singing pretty things' genre has much to offer me. I'm going to avoid having to listen to the Sufjan Stevens album if I can. Yeah, Devendra, you can play guitar better than me, and that 'this is the beard that I'm always growing' line is pretty funny, but I don't want to listen to your album anymore, really. 4/10
Wilco - A Ghost is Born
I've always thought that there has been something missing with Wilco. Even in the dense, delightful mush of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the songs sound like half-songs. I made a compilation of representative songs from my favorite albums of 2002 and "War on War" was on it and it was the most flimsy song, I swear. Even flimsier than the Plush song I had on there. Anyway, they're still sounding kind of safely avant-garde, like a Radiohead for people who have outgrown Radiohead. Stuff feels tacked on, and the little 'oh those pretty songs' song at the end feels like an insult to our intellegence. I think the problem is that Wilco is a band shooting beyond their means. You guys gave us 'Outta Sight' already, that was pretty good, but I think that some bands just can't pull off the 'pushing it thing'. Its one thing to boast an 11 minute track, where you lose us is by filling it with arty radio station sounds. Jeff Tweedy, get over yourself. 3/10
Ratatat - Ratatat
This was the album I was most excited about listening to today. There are a couple things that bother me about it though. After a while, every song starts to sound like its an intermediate piano level exercise, a nice little etude. After listening to the album I thought 'these guys can't possibly play live' but they do! You can go to their website and see that they have tour dates! The other thing that bothered me was the guy that would pop up at the end of these guitar-techno instrumentals and say stuff like 'that blew the roof off of this place', as if the voice qualified this for hip-hop horizons. There's a couple moments I'm sure I'll subconsciously rip off. 6/10
Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue
Another pretty singing kind, except Sondre sings with power. He also has arrangements with power. I think given enough time I could come to like two or three of these tracks, I remembered one part from having listened to it once through before. A few times I caught the lyrics being way too heavy-handed, which is kind of endearing given the whole not-American thing, but it gets hard to wrap your head around lyrics that just keep on going. 5/10
Air - Talkie Walkie
I liked this more than I thought I would. I actually listened to this late last night (3-ish), so it wouldn't get in my way today. Anyway, there's some nice anthemic choruses that don't mean anything, and I'm sure if you had a girl over, this would be some nice smooching music, and everything sounds like those 70% synths where its like 'wow, cool synth sound' but not like 'oh hell yeah! Freakin sweet synths!'. I don't think this record applies to me, but its a good Air record. 6/10
Electrelane - The Power Out
There are at least two really good songs on this album. A few, especially near the end, run out of ideas completely and spectacularly. All of the guitar parts and everything are really pentatonic, like ridiculously so. Its pretty cool to hear a band have a gimmick like that, its like playing every chord with an added seventh. They build things up well and do some medium-level magic with what they've got. 7/10
What I'm most satisfied with today:
"Time Reveals its Plan At Poison Falls" by Frog Eyes
I read that this band has good lyrics or something. I can't pay attention to the lyrics. Its good being angry at everyone music. All I know is that my flatmate came in a while ago and I didn't want to deal with him and I was angry at him for no other reason than sometimes the bathroom smells like cologne. And sometimes my Mountain Dew Live Wire goes missing and I come home from a Dante section that didn't go so great (thanks to a woman's rally going on right outside), so we got distracted from our already not-riveting discussion as to whether Robert Durling was giving a sexually biased translation, and Hey! Lookit that! My Mountain Dew's gone!. Anyway, I swore with my headphones on. So this is good angryness music. A good angryness album.
Devendra Banhart - Rejoicing in the Hands
I was looking forward to this. A couple songs I knew from putting on compilations and stuff. Anyway, his wobbly wavery art school kid voice gets on the nerves, but you can forgive it as long as he's saying funny clever things. He runs out of those, I think about halfway through. I don't think the 'frail guys singing pretty things' genre has much to offer me. I'm going to avoid having to listen to the Sufjan Stevens album if I can. Yeah, Devendra, you can play guitar better than me, and that 'this is the beard that I'm always growing' line is pretty funny, but I don't want to listen to your album anymore, really. 4/10
Wilco - A Ghost is Born
I've always thought that there has been something missing with Wilco. Even in the dense, delightful mush of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the songs sound like half-songs. I made a compilation of representative songs from my favorite albums of 2002 and "War on War" was on it and it was the most flimsy song, I swear. Even flimsier than the Plush song I had on there. Anyway, they're still sounding kind of safely avant-garde, like a Radiohead for people who have outgrown Radiohead. Stuff feels tacked on, and the little 'oh those pretty songs' song at the end feels like an insult to our intellegence. I think the problem is that Wilco is a band shooting beyond their means. You guys gave us 'Outta Sight' already, that was pretty good, but I think that some bands just can't pull off the 'pushing it thing'. Its one thing to boast an 11 minute track, where you lose us is by filling it with arty radio station sounds. Jeff Tweedy, get over yourself. 3/10
Ratatat - Ratatat
This was the album I was most excited about listening to today. There are a couple things that bother me about it though. After a while, every song starts to sound like its an intermediate piano level exercise, a nice little etude. After listening to the album I thought 'these guys can't possibly play live' but they do! You can go to their website and see that they have tour dates! The other thing that bothered me was the guy that would pop up at the end of these guitar-techno instrumentals and say stuff like 'that blew the roof off of this place', as if the voice qualified this for hip-hop horizons. There's a couple moments I'm sure I'll subconsciously rip off. 6/10
Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue
Another pretty singing kind, except Sondre sings with power. He also has arrangements with power. I think given enough time I could come to like two or three of these tracks, I remembered one part from having listened to it once through before. A few times I caught the lyrics being way too heavy-handed, which is kind of endearing given the whole not-American thing, but it gets hard to wrap your head around lyrics that just keep on going. 5/10
Air - Talkie Walkie
I liked this more than I thought I would. I actually listened to this late last night (3-ish), so it wouldn't get in my way today. Anyway, there's some nice anthemic choruses that don't mean anything, and I'm sure if you had a girl over, this would be some nice smooching music, and everything sounds like those 70% synths where its like 'wow, cool synth sound' but not like 'oh hell yeah! Freakin sweet synths!'. I don't think this record applies to me, but its a good Air record. 6/10
Electrelane - The Power Out
There are at least two really good songs on this album. A few, especially near the end, run out of ideas completely and spectacularly. All of the guitar parts and everything are really pentatonic, like ridiculously so. Its pretty cool to hear a band have a gimmick like that, its like playing every chord with an added seventh. They build things up well and do some medium-level magic with what they've got. 7/10
What I'm most satisfied with today:
"Time Reveals its Plan At Poison Falls" by Frog Eyes
I read that this band has good lyrics or something. I can't pay attention to the lyrics. Its good being angry at everyone music. All I know is that my flatmate came in a while ago and I didn't want to deal with him and I was angry at him for no other reason than sometimes the bathroom smells like cologne. And sometimes my Mountain Dew Live Wire goes missing and I come home from a Dante section that didn't go so great (thanks to a woman's rally going on right outside), so we got distracted from our already not-riveting discussion as to whether Robert Durling was giving a sexually biased translation, and Hey! Lookit that! My Mountain Dew's gone!. Anyway, I swore with my headphones on. So this is good angryness music. A good angryness album.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Some other stuff I listened to:
Les Savy Fav - Inches
I said that I wasn't going to listened to any canonical stuff, and this is pretty close, but it doesn't count because I don't like Les Savy Fav. I mean I didn't, I do a little bit now. There's more self-referential lyrics and posturing than I would like, but I found myself zoning out into the rock znoe a couple times. I also withdrew some hope from the simple guitar parts and a bad bass tone on at least one song. The skit was too long, but it was pretty funny. 6/10
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
I was ready to go on a rant about how this is NPR listening and useless. She has a good voice, and there's a couple of quirky tunes on the album. Lynn's lyrics are charming and sometimes funny, but other than the indie-cred, there isn't a lot to differentiate this album from one she would have cut with a typical Nashville band. I thought the drum tone in a couple places to be sacreligious, but I guess this album has more good than bad. It isn't groundbreaking, but parts are nice. 4/10
Phoenix - Alphabetical
I like the song 'If its not with you', and a little bit of the title track, but after a little while, the sparkly guitar schtick and plunky drums get grating. I don't know if this is an indie band pretending to be a pop band or a pop band pretending to be indie. Some of the bass parts are too precise, making me think they were played by a robot or a keyboard. Anyway, there's a lot more sparkle than there is depth and listenability. 3/10
Les Savy Fav - Inches
I said that I wasn't going to listened to any canonical stuff, and this is pretty close, but it doesn't count because I don't like Les Savy Fav. I mean I didn't, I do a little bit now. There's more self-referential lyrics and posturing than I would like, but I found myself zoning out into the rock znoe a couple times. I also withdrew some hope from the simple guitar parts and a bad bass tone on at least one song. The skit was too long, but it was pretty funny. 6/10
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
I was ready to go on a rant about how this is NPR listening and useless. She has a good voice, and there's a couple of quirky tunes on the album. Lynn's lyrics are charming and sometimes funny, but other than the indie-cred, there isn't a lot to differentiate this album from one she would have cut with a typical Nashville band. I thought the drum tone in a couple places to be sacreligious, but I guess this album has more good than bad. It isn't groundbreaking, but parts are nice. 4/10
Phoenix - Alphabetical
I like the song 'If its not with you', and a little bit of the title track, but after a little while, the sparkly guitar schtick and plunky drums get grating. I don't know if this is an indie band pretending to be a pop band or a pop band pretending to be indie. Some of the bass parts are too precise, making me think they were played by a robot or a keyboard. Anyway, there's a lot more sparkle than there is depth and listenability. 3/10
What I listened to Today:
A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder
The New Pornographers lead singer and leader does a record without the New Pornographers. Sometimes the melodies and lyrics are stretching it, considering he no longer has Canada's finest behind him. At one point I thought 'oh, cool, trumpets', and at another point I thought 'does he always sing this high?'. I've started listening to this CD four or five times, so I'm pretty familiar with the first song, but after that, its just kind of lesser Pornographers. 5/10.
Fennesz - Venice
I think if any of my friends said to me 'hey, you know who I like? that Fennesz fellow!' I would stop being their friend. I'm going to reread the pitchfork review that gave this a favorable number. I'm going to agree with a lot of the points in the review, okay, its just that none of it makes for a compelling listen. This is like every other easy-listening album out there, except you'll never find yourself humming along. The melodies in here are nonexistent, kind of depressing little figures that wobble around like a junior ballet recital, where everyone is thinking 'is my mom here? No? then nobody look at me!'.
Here's my British Literature teacher listening to it:
"Okay, let's see, there's some nice keyboard, its kind of buzzy. Oh, its skipping. Oh, no, that's part of the song. Some more sounds, that one sounds like someone rubbing their finger over a champagne glass. These chords aren't really doing the right thing. Hmm, is it over already? Was that a soundtrack of some kind?"
No, Mr. Jordan, it wasn't a soundtrack. People purchase this and listen to this independent of any movie-going experience. My first instinct was to skip ahead to the next CD, but I figured it would be some sort of concept album where it starts off sucky and then something happens, like a gong and then the CD starts rocking and your like 'oh, so there was a reason for those six sucky songs!'. There was a song with singing, but the singer was trying to downplay his involvement with the song, and there was a song with electric guitar which thought about rocking, but decided against it. 2/10
Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash
Moments of this are certainly intriguing. Its one of these mix-em-up deals, where there's samples from all over the place and some of them are recognizable but most of them aren't. The person behind this, perhaps Jason Forrest, sometimes sequences things in an almost iconoclastic manner, making one little part repeat itself over and over and over and over and over and then switching one beat after you've given up hope for it to switch. There isn't a lot of good timing with any of the little devices he uses, but there's a lot of little cool moments. My favorite moment came after "An Event" where there's a little drum thing but it ends an eighth of a beat after the four, so there's a tom hit, and it repeats enough times that you can nod your head to it and know that its coming up and feel cool. And there's marching band drums somewhere in here. 7/10
A.C. Newman - The Slow Wonder
The New Pornographers lead singer and leader does a record without the New Pornographers. Sometimes the melodies and lyrics are stretching it, considering he no longer has Canada's finest behind him. At one point I thought 'oh, cool, trumpets', and at another point I thought 'does he always sing this high?'. I've started listening to this CD four or five times, so I'm pretty familiar with the first song, but after that, its just kind of lesser Pornographers. 5/10.
Fennesz - Venice
I think if any of my friends said to me 'hey, you know who I like? that Fennesz fellow!' I would stop being their friend. I'm going to reread the pitchfork review that gave this a favorable number. I'm going to agree with a lot of the points in the review, okay, its just that none of it makes for a compelling listen. This is like every other easy-listening album out there, except you'll never find yourself humming along. The melodies in here are nonexistent, kind of depressing little figures that wobble around like a junior ballet recital, where everyone is thinking 'is my mom here? No? then nobody look at me!'.
Here's my British Literature teacher listening to it:
"Okay, let's see, there's some nice keyboard, its kind of buzzy. Oh, its skipping. Oh, no, that's part of the song. Some more sounds, that one sounds like someone rubbing their finger over a champagne glass. These chords aren't really doing the right thing. Hmm, is it over already? Was that a soundtrack of some kind?"
No, Mr. Jordan, it wasn't a soundtrack. People purchase this and listen to this independent of any movie-going experience. My first instinct was to skip ahead to the next CD, but I figured it would be some sort of concept album where it starts off sucky and then something happens, like a gong and then the CD starts rocking and your like 'oh, so there was a reason for those six sucky songs!'. There was a song with singing, but the singer was trying to downplay his involvement with the song, and there was a song with electric guitar which thought about rocking, but decided against it. 2/10
Jason Forrest - The Unrelenting Songs of the 1979 Post Disco Crash
Moments of this are certainly intriguing. Its one of these mix-em-up deals, where there's samples from all over the place and some of them are recognizable but most of them aren't. The person behind this, perhaps Jason Forrest, sometimes sequences things in an almost iconoclastic manner, making one little part repeat itself over and over and over and over and over and then switching one beat after you've given up hope for it to switch. There isn't a lot of good timing with any of the little devices he uses, but there's a lot of little cool moments. My favorite moment came after "An Event" where there's a little drum thing but it ends an eighth of a beat after the four, so there's a tom hit, and it repeats enough times that you can nod your head to it and know that its coming up and feel cool. And there's marching band drums somewhere in here. 7/10
Okay, I've gathered a supply of recent albums. I'm going to listen to them. I'm going to be damn current. People will once again look to me for information. They'll say 'what to listen to, dude?' and I'll say 'not the Modest Mouse!' and they'll say 'yeah, they sold out' and I'll say 'if by 'sold out' you mean 'lost their charm', and they'll say 'booyeah'. And then they'll say 'what about the new Magnetic fields?' and I'll say 'its decent, but inessential'. And they'll say 'do your Dante reading' and I'll say 'dude, I was just about to start'.
Now listening to - Something recent!!!!! Probably rap!
Now listening to - Something recent!!!!! Probably rap!
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
I think the goal from now on is to deprive myself of the musical canon. I say this because today I found myself listening to nothing but safe, played-out Talking Heads today. It was good, but not the kind of stuff I need.
Criteria for Canonhood:
1) It has been frequently cited as 'influential'
2) One would call it a classic
3) I'm going to be really harsh and say that re-issue counts as canonical.
From here on out, its obscurity city. Let's see how long this lasts. I guess I could just listen to new music.
Criteria for Canonhood:
1) It has been frequently cited as 'influential'
2) One would call it a classic
3) I'm going to be really harsh and say that re-issue counts as canonical.
From here on out, its obscurity city. Let's see how long this lasts. I guess I could just listen to new music.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
I find hope in that music-made-in-New-York-after-punk-was-initially-popular. I think my favorite first five seconds of any punk song comes in "Design to Kill", where the guitar goes 'da na na na na na' and then the drums do their thing and then the sax comes in. Its pretty great. James Chance has a way with these song structures.
However, after about three minutes (which is one pop song or two and a half punk songs), it begins to grate. This became especially clear as the Lizzy Mercier Descloux CD segued into the Mars retrospective. I don't know if I'm feeling the noise less, or if I'm just listening to inferior noise.
A few dozen minutes, I found myself reaching for the CD player to skip ahead to my safety album (Fear of Music, which I have recommended to Conner), but unfortunately it only had "I Zimbra" in the folder (the song that I play to introduce people to the Talking Heads). Anyway. I think I'm going to use this music more as a reference point for burgeoning guitarists rather than a holy grail for songsmithery. Also I'm beginning to realize the importance of the electric guitar. Just listening with a set of optimism ears, it seems easier, and almost like religion. Your taking a leap of faith between the fingers and the speakers, you've got to adjust everything right. The problem with the religion analogy and the guitar is that it isn't enough to just believe. Although faith might help.
This is a stressful week because I'm getting back my mid-term essays. One today, one tomorrow and one Thursday. So far I have 100% A's. The grade on the Dante paper depends on whether or not my TA is willing to forgive my zoopy zany asides and look towards the shambling, but lovable thesis.
However, after about three minutes (which is one pop song or two and a half punk songs), it begins to grate. This became especially clear as the Lizzy Mercier Descloux CD segued into the Mars retrospective. I don't know if I'm feeling the noise less, or if I'm just listening to inferior noise.
A few dozen minutes, I found myself reaching for the CD player to skip ahead to my safety album (Fear of Music, which I have recommended to Conner), but unfortunately it only had "I Zimbra" in the folder (the song that I play to introduce people to the Talking Heads). Anyway. I think I'm going to use this music more as a reference point for burgeoning guitarists rather than a holy grail for songsmithery. Also I'm beginning to realize the importance of the electric guitar. Just listening with a set of optimism ears, it seems easier, and almost like religion. Your taking a leap of faith between the fingers and the speakers, you've got to adjust everything right. The problem with the religion analogy and the guitar is that it isn't enough to just believe. Although faith might help.
This is a stressful week because I'm getting back my mid-term essays. One today, one tomorrow and one Thursday. So far I have 100% A's. The grade on the Dante paper depends on whether or not my TA is willing to forgive my zoopy zany asides and look towards the shambling, but lovable thesis.
Monday, May 10, 2004
I was listening to the wrong Abba album. Anyway, Abba makes me think a lot about the sounds that they tweak out of those instruments. Basses seem so vibrant, synths seem so expensive, they're the quintessential pop sounds. I've been giving too much credit to this mom-pop though, so I'm going to try and be passionate about something punk for a while. And not fake passionate.
I was looking at a list of important albums of the year for this year and I was going down the list thinking 'nope, nope, no, no, nope' and all of the albums I didn't like were primarily for bad voice reasons. The Thermals seem like a good idea, but when the singing comes in and its just a snobby guy talking, that's no good. Even the Hold Steady who do a cleverer kind of talking just seem like someone doing the wrong lyrics to a kareoke version of a Minutemen song. I don't understand whats with all of these not-singing bands, give me Kevin Rowland anyday. I already know that I can sing better than them, I just have to bring it out. The pitch also, I should probably start getting the pitch right.
I just had a milk and coke. It was only about forty percent milk, but it didn't seem like there was any coke in it at all! It wasn't as gross as I thought it would be, it was just like drinking odd milk. Or flat, grey soda.
This summer I'm planning on baking some. I don't care if its 120 degrees outside. It'll be pie time in the big raisin.
I was looking at a list of important albums of the year for this year and I was going down the list thinking 'nope, nope, no, no, nope' and all of the albums I didn't like were primarily for bad voice reasons. The Thermals seem like a good idea, but when the singing comes in and its just a snobby guy talking, that's no good. Even the Hold Steady who do a cleverer kind of talking just seem like someone doing the wrong lyrics to a kareoke version of a Minutemen song. I don't understand whats with all of these not-singing bands, give me Kevin Rowland anyday. I already know that I can sing better than them, I just have to bring it out. The pitch also, I should probably start getting the pitch right.
I just had a milk and coke. It was only about forty percent milk, but it didn't seem like there was any coke in it at all! It wasn't as gross as I thought it would be, it was just like drinking odd milk. Or flat, grey soda.
This summer I'm planning on baking some. I don't care if its 120 degrees outside. It'll be pie time in the big raisin.
I'm going to try and play a random song to try and help me feel better. Update: It was Abba and from a sad album, so it didn't work. One of my favorite songs of the past week has also been one of the saddest songs of the past week, "The Rain Came Down on Everything" by Roy Wood. I tried to learn it on the keyboard today, but there's a really tough chord in the chorus that my stupid ears couldn't find.
I went shopping today and didn't take any music with me. I got milk, coke, yogurt, bread, and fruity pebbles. Friday night I had Cap'n Crunch and it reminded me of Christmas because of cereal promotion reasons.
Middlemarch. It feels like I know what's going on well enough to not concern myself with the remaining six hundred pages. I have a note taped to the computer telling me otherwise. I feel like I worked really hard on these last couple essays, but they didn't really take me any time. I'm struggling on whether or not I should get a job over the summer. This leads me into the struggle on whether or not I should EVER get a job. Careers seem so final, its like admitting that the essence of your existence is high school english teacher, or commercial jingle writer.
As much fun as all of this is, I'm pretty confident that I'm not going to be a music person. As nice as it feels to have people tell me I'm a musician, I don't know. Musicians are coordinating band trips and trying to make rent and pay for a busted amp at the same time. Musicians are writing tour diaries and practicing solos. Musicians are waking up with hangovers and reacting to criticism. Musicians are shaking hands and restringing guitars in the middle of sets. Musicians are recording follow-ups and shrugging off cigarettes. Musicians are playing acoustic sets and writing out horn charts. I am currently terrified of acoustic guitars. Musicians play with picks. Musicians are in bands.
I'm sitting here with the playlist of a dilettante, trying to listen to things to inspire. I've got a pitiful text document titled 'to rip off', that I'm half-kidding about. I could have sworn I felt something during the 8-Eyed Spy live album, but it just seemed like pentatonic philandering upon second listen. I really want a salad right now. I'm incredibly self-conscious of my writing, I mean I know you're reading this (is it your or you're - something a lit major should know) and thinking 'oh god, this guy's a lit major?' especially if you are a lit major yourself. You know they teach us how to read and write in elementary school, or at least they are supposed to. My mom has told me twice that Mansfield Park is an easy read, this is not the case for my music-addled mind. Maybe its easy if you are in a vacuum. I've got the internet at my fingertips and a ukelele by my side. A's and B's people. That's pretty good for a major that I'm only jokingly doing.
Most of the time I'm not even thinking about music. I'm just thinking blanks. Its like I'm holding down Bb on the keyboard in my mind and humming drones. The other day I took an internet ear testing test and scored about fifty percent. Is that the score of a musician? I kept on getting sixths and sevenths messed up and minor thirds and perfect fourths messed up. Those are not the kind of intervals that a person that understood rock AT ALL would miss. Pentatonics, Tyler, you hum them all the time.
I made three mp3 compilations. One was titled Girl Pop, and I wrote about that. I think the criteria for that was to find pop music sung by girls. The pop music on the compilation that was written exclusively by girls, I did not enjoy. Liz Phair, Throwing Muses, you are just in a different league. The compilation titled Boy Pop was more like 'embarassing bands that you are afraid to admit you like', and these are things like Green Day and Weezer, bands whose fanbase would not allow you to call them pop, and yet at the same time they don't really rock. The rock compilation I made didn't really sound like rock, the only Zeppelin song that came on wasn't really rock, and Roy Wood doesn't rock so much on "Boulders".
Led Zeppelin is a band that I pretend to understand and take great pride in that fake understanding. A few of their songs I get very much into, like "Kashmir" and "Over the Hills and Far Away", but others I zone out completely. I try to follow the bass, cause I know I have no hope of understanding the guitar and the vocals are like listening to a soul singer almost, except with dorky lyrics. The drums are good, but the drums are the only thing anybody pays attention to. I'm happy that people like Led Zeppelin, but so far I've been able to connect with anybody as Zep-fan to Zep-fan. Maybe they can smell the fear. and the fake.
Whenever I'm interacting with people it feels like I'm running a sociology experiment. The problem is that they are usually better than me. They've got things figured out so that their existence is smooth, which my brain misinterprets as 'simple'. But then blam, I say something and look like an idiot. I'm feeling really paranoid right now and the fact that my apartment feels like a ghost town on weekends doesn't help at all. There have been no signs of life since I left the Andrew WK concert last night. As far as I know everybody on campus is dead. Even the ants have left.
The thought that Love Drums might fail hasn't occured to me yet. Its not so much 'is it going to fail?' as 'how well will it succeed?' and I don't mean in terms of how much it will sell (though that is important, as I'm finding). Its more in terms of how well can we do. With past James Rabbit albums, it was like I wasn't learning anything in between. If you listen to Archeological Bloopers and then listen to Distracted, it seems like a step backwards. What is that, three years apart? But since Trauma Season, I've been learning. Lessons learned - Trauma Season - use Drums. Le Fou - too many tylers spoil the album. Radio Rodeo - no matter how many friends you get to sing, its still a keyboard album and therefore worthless. The Heart that Ate New York - keep the drums, double your vocals. So it stands to reason that I'll learn during this album. I think we may use some California Adios songs as B-sides for the real songs. That is how confident I am that these songs will be completely devestatingly wonderful.
Did you see the movie "Sympathy for the Devil" where the Rolling Stones are working so very hard on this one song? And how the song went on to live forever? I didn't see the movie, but I know what its about and I know that I've heard the song and you have also. We're going to concentrate on songs. I'll know what the song is going to sound like before we hit the record button. Sometimes I think Love Drums is going to be a world hit, like the Baha Men or something. I don't think that I have what it takes to be a global superstar. I need some sort of gimmick or something, or at least a bunch of keyboards. We have one keyboard right now. The other ones need adaptors, different adaptors.
I realize that I probably sound crazy. Or disorganized. Or a bad writer. Well I certainly am two of these things. We've got the music in us, we just have to translate it to you.
I went shopping today and didn't take any music with me. I got milk, coke, yogurt, bread, and fruity pebbles. Friday night I had Cap'n Crunch and it reminded me of Christmas because of cereal promotion reasons.
Middlemarch. It feels like I know what's going on well enough to not concern myself with the remaining six hundred pages. I have a note taped to the computer telling me otherwise. I feel like I worked really hard on these last couple essays, but they didn't really take me any time. I'm struggling on whether or not I should get a job over the summer. This leads me into the struggle on whether or not I should EVER get a job. Careers seem so final, its like admitting that the essence of your existence is high school english teacher, or commercial jingle writer.
As much fun as all of this is, I'm pretty confident that I'm not going to be a music person. As nice as it feels to have people tell me I'm a musician, I don't know. Musicians are coordinating band trips and trying to make rent and pay for a busted amp at the same time. Musicians are writing tour diaries and practicing solos. Musicians are waking up with hangovers and reacting to criticism. Musicians are shaking hands and restringing guitars in the middle of sets. Musicians are recording follow-ups and shrugging off cigarettes. Musicians are playing acoustic sets and writing out horn charts. I am currently terrified of acoustic guitars. Musicians play with picks. Musicians are in bands.
I'm sitting here with the playlist of a dilettante, trying to listen to things to inspire. I've got a pitiful text document titled 'to rip off', that I'm half-kidding about. I could have sworn I felt something during the 8-Eyed Spy live album, but it just seemed like pentatonic philandering upon second listen. I really want a salad right now. I'm incredibly self-conscious of my writing, I mean I know you're reading this (is it your or you're - something a lit major should know) and thinking 'oh god, this guy's a lit major?' especially if you are a lit major yourself. You know they teach us how to read and write in elementary school, or at least they are supposed to. My mom has told me twice that Mansfield Park is an easy read, this is not the case for my music-addled mind. Maybe its easy if you are in a vacuum. I've got the internet at my fingertips and a ukelele by my side. A's and B's people. That's pretty good for a major that I'm only jokingly doing.
Most of the time I'm not even thinking about music. I'm just thinking blanks. Its like I'm holding down Bb on the keyboard in my mind and humming drones. The other day I took an internet ear testing test and scored about fifty percent. Is that the score of a musician? I kept on getting sixths and sevenths messed up and minor thirds and perfect fourths messed up. Those are not the kind of intervals that a person that understood rock AT ALL would miss. Pentatonics, Tyler, you hum them all the time.
I made three mp3 compilations. One was titled Girl Pop, and I wrote about that. I think the criteria for that was to find pop music sung by girls. The pop music on the compilation that was written exclusively by girls, I did not enjoy. Liz Phair, Throwing Muses, you are just in a different league. The compilation titled Boy Pop was more like 'embarassing bands that you are afraid to admit you like', and these are things like Green Day and Weezer, bands whose fanbase would not allow you to call them pop, and yet at the same time they don't really rock. The rock compilation I made didn't really sound like rock, the only Zeppelin song that came on wasn't really rock, and Roy Wood doesn't rock so much on "Boulders".
Led Zeppelin is a band that I pretend to understand and take great pride in that fake understanding. A few of their songs I get very much into, like "Kashmir" and "Over the Hills and Far Away", but others I zone out completely. I try to follow the bass, cause I know I have no hope of understanding the guitar and the vocals are like listening to a soul singer almost, except with dorky lyrics. The drums are good, but the drums are the only thing anybody pays attention to. I'm happy that people like Led Zeppelin, but so far I've been able to connect with anybody as Zep-fan to Zep-fan. Maybe they can smell the fear. and the fake.
Whenever I'm interacting with people it feels like I'm running a sociology experiment. The problem is that they are usually better than me. They've got things figured out so that their existence is smooth, which my brain misinterprets as 'simple'. But then blam, I say something and look like an idiot. I'm feeling really paranoid right now and the fact that my apartment feels like a ghost town on weekends doesn't help at all. There have been no signs of life since I left the Andrew WK concert last night. As far as I know everybody on campus is dead. Even the ants have left.
The thought that Love Drums might fail hasn't occured to me yet. Its not so much 'is it going to fail?' as 'how well will it succeed?' and I don't mean in terms of how much it will sell (though that is important, as I'm finding). Its more in terms of how well can we do. With past James Rabbit albums, it was like I wasn't learning anything in between. If you listen to Archeological Bloopers and then listen to Distracted, it seems like a step backwards. What is that, three years apart? But since Trauma Season, I've been learning. Lessons learned - Trauma Season - use Drums. Le Fou - too many tylers spoil the album. Radio Rodeo - no matter how many friends you get to sing, its still a keyboard album and therefore worthless. The Heart that Ate New York - keep the drums, double your vocals. So it stands to reason that I'll learn during this album. I think we may use some California Adios songs as B-sides for the real songs. That is how confident I am that these songs will be completely devestatingly wonderful.
Did you see the movie "Sympathy for the Devil" where the Rolling Stones are working so very hard on this one song? And how the song went on to live forever? I didn't see the movie, but I know what its about and I know that I've heard the song and you have also. We're going to concentrate on songs. I'll know what the song is going to sound like before we hit the record button. Sometimes I think Love Drums is going to be a world hit, like the Baha Men or something. I don't think that I have what it takes to be a global superstar. I need some sort of gimmick or something, or at least a bunch of keyboards. We have one keyboard right now. The other ones need adaptors, different adaptors.
I realize that I probably sound crazy. Or disorganized. Or a bad writer. Well I certainly am two of these things. We've got the music in us, we just have to translate it to you.
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Andrew WK in the Upper Quarry
Today was the KZSC festival. Since noon, bands have been playing just north of the bookstore. Here's a list of bands that played: Ancon and the Sex- rap/rock with violin and sax, The Gross Gang- crunchy post-punk, Radio Vago- lesbian keyboard pop, Ilya- cutesy metal, No Motiv- pop-punk minus the pop and the punk, The Locust- 'we have costumes and pedals', and then Andrew WK.
It was Andrew Wk's birthday today. He was pumped, and so were the mix of bros and hepcats that came out today. There was a surprisingly small amount of security for such a hype dude. As soon as people figured this out, there was no shortage of stage-divers and stage-stayers-on, and this became a problem for those of us that came to SEE Andrew. Anyway, the band was very metalled up and rocked well enough and Andrew yelled and did high kicks, so yeah!
I was sitting for seven hours. The drummer for the metal band was pretty good. Everybody besides the Gross Gang took too long to set up their stuff. Guys, it doesn't make any difference. We didn't even come for you, No Motiv, so stop testing each drum. Pretty much every band had five or six members, which makes me paranoid as to whether or not Conner and I sound okay with just bass and drums. Then I think, oh yeah, I can't actually work with any other people.
I've been listening to a lot of Roy Wood, he has a certain way.
Today was the KZSC festival. Since noon, bands have been playing just north of the bookstore. Here's a list of bands that played: Ancon and the Sex- rap/rock with violin and sax, The Gross Gang- crunchy post-punk, Radio Vago- lesbian keyboard pop, Ilya- cutesy metal, No Motiv- pop-punk minus the pop and the punk, The Locust- 'we have costumes and pedals', and then Andrew WK.
It was Andrew Wk's birthday today. He was pumped, and so were the mix of bros and hepcats that came out today. There was a surprisingly small amount of security for such a hype dude. As soon as people figured this out, there was no shortage of stage-divers and stage-stayers-on, and this became a problem for those of us that came to SEE Andrew. Anyway, the band was very metalled up and rocked well enough and Andrew yelled and did high kicks, so yeah!
I was sitting for seven hours. The drummer for the metal band was pretty good. Everybody besides the Gross Gang took too long to set up their stuff. Guys, it doesn't make any difference. We didn't even come for you, No Motiv, so stop testing each drum. Pretty much every band had five or six members, which makes me paranoid as to whether or not Conner and I sound okay with just bass and drums. Then I think, oh yeah, I can't actually work with any other people.
I've been listening to a lot of Roy Wood, he has a certain way.
Friday, May 07, 2004
Of Montreal In the Cowell Cafeteria
My favorite part of Santa Cruz so far is that a zillion bands come through here. Bands that you've heard of.
Here's a typical Fresno conversation:
Dude - 'who's playing tonight?'
Dudette - 'Sapphire Water'
Dude - 'are they cool?'
Dudette - 'no'.
Here's a typical Santa Cruz conversation:
Dude - 'who's playing tonight?'
Dudette - 'well, there's the Of Montreal show at Cowell and the Old Time Religion(sp) show downtown'
Dude - 'wow! Of Montreal??!!???'
Dudette - 'yeah, dude'
Anyway, Of Montreal, one of music's shining stars played here tonight and it was pretty spectacular. The opening band was all types of sucky, which makes me feel both bad and good. Bad in that I don't want to listen to bad music. Good in that I could have made them better with a few suggestions: 1) think like a band 2) lose the keyboard player 3) write some lyrics. So I had to stand through a thankfully short set where the entire band decided they would all play at the same time these teeth-grindingly normal garage-rock riffs. Their keyboardist was playing on a lovely electric piano, but playing these completely crappy lines that either aped the bassline or got in the way of the guitar. Some places it would have been nice, but like I said, everybody was always playing.
Of Montreal set up quick and launched into their set right away. They played the first four songs from "Satanic Panic in the Attic" in order, INCLUDING all the parts you wouldn't think they would be able to do live. Like the end of track two, with all the ba ba ba vocals, THEY DID THAT! And then they had costume changes! The lead guitarist donned a funny mask, and Kevin donned a powdered wig and then he donned a skin tight latex skeleton suit, and then the third guitarist put on a referree uniform, and they had these adorable seventies get-ups. It looked good and it sounded good.
My only problems were: the bass player messed up a couple of my favorite bass parts, they didn't play "City Bird", but Kevin broke an acoustic string in the first song, so maybe that's why, they did a couple of songs from earlier albums I think that were very choppy and messy that I couldn't get into at all. Anyway, that's not a lot of bad stuff.
The best parts of the night were Kevin raising his hands during the delivery of the line "Try to find a way to spike the senses, till everything goes white" and all of a sudden, he's transcended the 4-track bedroom pop world and he's the leader of this band and he can get through to us and I thought I saw a couple people over in the corner raise their hands, like they were supposed to. The lights throbbed, though they hadn't done anything before, or since, and it was pretty amazing. Another part was when the extra member, I think his name was Jason, would just play these straight 8s on the extra low tom, it added SO MUCH. You don't know. And when they did "Vegan in Furs" at the end, it seemed like Kevin had everything figured out.
I'm happiest that it felt like everybody there understood what was going on. Maybe people were singing along during "Chrissie kissed the corpse", maybe they weren't, they very well could have been. I was excited for this all day and almost didn't go, but I'm happy I did, this is one of those memories I'm going to be excited to have later.
My favorite part of Santa Cruz so far is that a zillion bands come through here. Bands that you've heard of.
Here's a typical Fresno conversation:
Dude - 'who's playing tonight?'
Dudette - 'Sapphire Water'
Dude - 'are they cool?'
Dudette - 'no'.
Here's a typical Santa Cruz conversation:
Dude - 'who's playing tonight?'
Dudette - 'well, there's the Of Montreal show at Cowell and the Old Time Religion(sp) show downtown'
Dude - 'wow! Of Montreal??!!???'
Dudette - 'yeah, dude'
Anyway, Of Montreal, one of music's shining stars played here tonight and it was pretty spectacular. The opening band was all types of sucky, which makes me feel both bad and good. Bad in that I don't want to listen to bad music. Good in that I could have made them better with a few suggestions: 1) think like a band 2) lose the keyboard player 3) write some lyrics. So I had to stand through a thankfully short set where the entire band decided they would all play at the same time these teeth-grindingly normal garage-rock riffs. Their keyboardist was playing on a lovely electric piano, but playing these completely crappy lines that either aped the bassline or got in the way of the guitar. Some places it would have been nice, but like I said, everybody was always playing.
Of Montreal set up quick and launched into their set right away. They played the first four songs from "Satanic Panic in the Attic" in order, INCLUDING all the parts you wouldn't think they would be able to do live. Like the end of track two, with all the ba ba ba vocals, THEY DID THAT! And then they had costume changes! The lead guitarist donned a funny mask, and Kevin donned a powdered wig and then he donned a skin tight latex skeleton suit, and then the third guitarist put on a referree uniform, and they had these adorable seventies get-ups. It looked good and it sounded good.
My only problems were: the bass player messed up a couple of my favorite bass parts, they didn't play "City Bird", but Kevin broke an acoustic string in the first song, so maybe that's why, they did a couple of songs from earlier albums I think that were very choppy and messy that I couldn't get into at all. Anyway, that's not a lot of bad stuff.
The best parts of the night were Kevin raising his hands during the delivery of the line "Try to find a way to spike the senses, till everything goes white" and all of a sudden, he's transcended the 4-track bedroom pop world and he's the leader of this band and he can get through to us and I thought I saw a couple people over in the corner raise their hands, like they were supposed to. The lights throbbed, though they hadn't done anything before, or since, and it was pretty amazing. Another part was when the extra member, I think his name was Jason, would just play these straight 8s on the extra low tom, it added SO MUCH. You don't know. And when they did "Vegan in Furs" at the end, it seemed like Kevin had everything figured out.
I'm happiest that it felt like everybody there understood what was going on. Maybe people were singing along during "Chrissie kissed the corpse", maybe they weren't, they very well could have been. I was excited for this all day and almost didn't go, but I'm happy I did, this is one of those memories I'm going to be excited to have later.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
I Heard and Liked Today
Abba - Chiquitita - The choruses words dont fit the chorus, so the way they sing them doesn't quite fit into anything, but when it resolves, DAMN. Its like something the cocteau twins would have done, if they had ever been to Oktoberfest.
Cyndi Lauper - Time after Time - They refrain from the chorus for so long, that when it finally comes its like 'oh yeah, this song'. I've always found the male harmony to be incredibly creepy. I don't like the production or anything, and also the song makes me sad.
Bow Wow Wow - Louis Quatorze - There is something in the spirit of these lyrics that makes me want to write like that. I made a mental note to explore who wrote the Bow Wow Wow lyrics, but I"ll probably give up on that. They were all probably a part of Malcom McLaren's global perversion plan. Perverse wise, I come from more of the Elvis Costello school, where the dirty lyrics are written in such a way where you think 'that ISNT dirty', a line like 'I hang around dying to be tortured, you'll never be alone in the bone orchard', (Beyond Belief, Costello) as opposed to 'Louis, serious, I'm delirious, he never plays favorites, doesn't care, louis quatorze starts to undress me, with his gun in my back I start to undress. He's my partner in this crime of happiness, cause i'm just fourteen!' (Louis Quatorze, Wow) By the way all of these lines are delivered in a wonderful, breathless fashion, impossible to sing if encumbered by an instrument.
Blondie - Fade Away and Radiate - It sounds like they are trying to write a bunch of different serious slow songs at the same time. In my opinion they don't succeed, but that's the interesting part. I couldn't figure out who this was for a while, because on this particular compilation there are a lot of similar sounding things, and I haven't really listened to the best of Blondie very much.
No Doubt - New - Another song that keeps the chorus from you, especially because they play the chorus at the beginning and you know its the chorus, but then they have the two verses and the prechorus and then another verse. I think I wind up being concerned that the chorus is never going to come back. When the chorus finally hits, though, the guitars are moving too slow. I think No Doubt would have benefitted in the Return of Saturn album, had Tom Dumont pushed himself more on the guitar, or held back. They don't really seem like a rocking band, and sometimes the guitarist has to recognize that either they should rock incredibly hard or don a keytar, as is the case with Rocksteady, their best album.
These were from my compilation entitled "girl pop". The artists I didn't mention were: Kim Wilde (none of her songs came up, the cd was in random play), Throwing Muses who just can't hold a torch in the pop category, and Liz Phair, who I think I don't like. I think I'm going to replace the Muses and the Phair with Dolly Parton and Wanda Jackson.
Abba - Chiquitita - The choruses words dont fit the chorus, so the way they sing them doesn't quite fit into anything, but when it resolves, DAMN. Its like something the cocteau twins would have done, if they had ever been to Oktoberfest.
Cyndi Lauper - Time after Time - They refrain from the chorus for so long, that when it finally comes its like 'oh yeah, this song'. I've always found the male harmony to be incredibly creepy. I don't like the production or anything, and also the song makes me sad.
Bow Wow Wow - Louis Quatorze - There is something in the spirit of these lyrics that makes me want to write like that. I made a mental note to explore who wrote the Bow Wow Wow lyrics, but I"ll probably give up on that. They were all probably a part of Malcom McLaren's global perversion plan. Perverse wise, I come from more of the Elvis Costello school, where the dirty lyrics are written in such a way where you think 'that ISNT dirty', a line like 'I hang around dying to be tortured, you'll never be alone in the bone orchard', (Beyond Belief, Costello) as opposed to 'Louis, serious, I'm delirious, he never plays favorites, doesn't care, louis quatorze starts to undress me, with his gun in my back I start to undress. He's my partner in this crime of happiness, cause i'm just fourteen!' (Louis Quatorze, Wow) By the way all of these lines are delivered in a wonderful, breathless fashion, impossible to sing if encumbered by an instrument.
Blondie - Fade Away and Radiate - It sounds like they are trying to write a bunch of different serious slow songs at the same time. In my opinion they don't succeed, but that's the interesting part. I couldn't figure out who this was for a while, because on this particular compilation there are a lot of similar sounding things, and I haven't really listened to the best of Blondie very much.
No Doubt - New - Another song that keeps the chorus from you, especially because they play the chorus at the beginning and you know its the chorus, but then they have the two verses and the prechorus and then another verse. I think I wind up being concerned that the chorus is never going to come back. When the chorus finally hits, though, the guitars are moving too slow. I think No Doubt would have benefitted in the Return of Saturn album, had Tom Dumont pushed himself more on the guitar, or held back. They don't really seem like a rocking band, and sometimes the guitarist has to recognize that either they should rock incredibly hard or don a keytar, as is the case with Rocksteady, their best album.
These were from my compilation entitled "girl pop". The artists I didn't mention were: Kim Wilde (none of her songs came up, the cd was in random play), Throwing Muses who just can't hold a torch in the pop category, and Liz Phair, who I think I don't like. I think I'm going to replace the Muses and the Phair with Dolly Parton and Wanda Jackson.
Procrasti-nation
3.5 pages through a 4-5 page paper. I'm moving through it like you would if you suddenly found yourself walking through snow with tennis shoes and then you turn around to find that you are being chased by wolves. You've got to get away, but you don't quite know where, and time is of the essence. And your afraid of MLA.
I've found myself getting quite distracted from this paper, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm getting excited. I'm making a bunch of compilations and am involved with that, but at the same time I'm way too into minuate that I would have hoped to be past by now. I was in the middle of a sentence when I heard an ELO song and I thought 'did Roy Wood play on this album? I HAVE TO KNOW!', so I stopped and found out. He did.
Though we still have four weeks after this week, it feels like summer already. I'm going to plan this whole freaking album out with charts. I'm going to show up with this crazy-insane notebook and wow everybody. The parts that I'm just writing down in class I'm remembering, which is weird, because usually I'll find something and think 'whatever, weirdo'. I think as long as I stay away from trying to write melodies (it doesn't work for me unless I can physically hear the notes and I think too slow to connect the names to the relative pitches of the other notes), yeah, I'll be fine.
I'm rolling over the idea of working with more people on this album. We've already agreed that it is going to be sparser than Le Fou (which I believe takes 15 listens on average to 'get'), but a bit denser than Trauma Season. So, while we won't have any brass band armies or string gangs, I'm rolling over the idea of an extra percussionist, at least one guitar, and some auxilliary auxillaries.
Also I've reached a vague epiphany in the shape of what an album is supposed to be like. We have to have a personality. Also, for any of this to make any sense, I think we should have sold a million CDs. Lets pretend we did. Anyway, there has to be a personality behind the album, think "Electric Warrior", think "Ziggy Stardust", you immediately picture Bolan and Bowie sitting there on an expensive chair and looking at you with their wildly different wacky stares and outfits. You see in their eyes that they have ideas enough to change the world. If you think "Le Fou", you picture me waking up on my couch next to a clarinet with a list of overdubs to do for the day. If you think harder, you'll see Conner playing on the wrong parts of drums. Those aren't the images I want to connect to "Love Drums". I'm not sure about what I actually want you to see. But I want it to be marvelous. I want it to transcend our backroom. I want you to see angels when you put it on. I want you to be moved to mountains when you hear how wonderfully the songs move, and move into each other.
So what does personality need? Context. Let's context. Okay, the actual James Rabbit discography is too vast to unravel here, and it makes me look like a schizophrenic, (with which I'm only minorly inflicted) so let's start lying to ourselves. So for pretend, let's say that "Heart of Gold" was James Rabbit's first album, that "Trauma Season" was the energetic second, "Le Fou" the difficult third, and so "Love Drums" can be the triumphant its-all-coming-together fourth. If we make a fifth album, I want it to have the word "Cannon" in the title.
I'm very happy that we are not a bland band. I mean, with so many bands I encounter, you picture everybody in the band being bored and wanting to die and kill themselves. But with us, we're happy with what we do, and we're happy to move on from territory that we've already covered. I'm not going to write another "Dinosaurs and Aliens", as my many 30-second trips across the room to the keyboard can tell you. I'm not going to do any more concept albums about pianists or painters or politicians, because that's stupid. I'm not going to write any more nonsense lyrics that I disguise as 'witty' or 'obtuse', no. You guys, those were fake lyrics. Not anymore though. I'm legit. I'm pumped.
I'm jumping out of my seat, but I've got nine and a half more hours only to write. Andrew WK and the Gross Gang are playing on campus this Saturday, which I'm excited for. Of Montreal are playing here tomorrow night, which I'm fairly positive I'm going to miss, unless the show starts at nine.
3.5 pages through a 4-5 page paper. I'm moving through it like you would if you suddenly found yourself walking through snow with tennis shoes and then you turn around to find that you are being chased by wolves. You've got to get away, but you don't quite know where, and time is of the essence. And your afraid of MLA.
I've found myself getting quite distracted from this paper, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm getting excited. I'm making a bunch of compilations and am involved with that, but at the same time I'm way too into minuate that I would have hoped to be past by now. I was in the middle of a sentence when I heard an ELO song and I thought 'did Roy Wood play on this album? I HAVE TO KNOW!', so I stopped and found out. He did.
Though we still have four weeks after this week, it feels like summer already. I'm going to plan this whole freaking album out with charts. I'm going to show up with this crazy-insane notebook and wow everybody. The parts that I'm just writing down in class I'm remembering, which is weird, because usually I'll find something and think 'whatever, weirdo'. I think as long as I stay away from trying to write melodies (it doesn't work for me unless I can physically hear the notes and I think too slow to connect the names to the relative pitches of the other notes), yeah, I'll be fine.
I'm rolling over the idea of working with more people on this album. We've already agreed that it is going to be sparser than Le Fou (which I believe takes 15 listens on average to 'get'), but a bit denser than Trauma Season. So, while we won't have any brass band armies or string gangs, I'm rolling over the idea of an extra percussionist, at least one guitar, and some auxilliary auxillaries.
Also I've reached a vague epiphany in the shape of what an album is supposed to be like. We have to have a personality. Also, for any of this to make any sense, I think we should have sold a million CDs. Lets pretend we did. Anyway, there has to be a personality behind the album, think "Electric Warrior", think "Ziggy Stardust", you immediately picture Bolan and Bowie sitting there on an expensive chair and looking at you with their wildly different wacky stares and outfits. You see in their eyes that they have ideas enough to change the world. If you think "Le Fou", you picture me waking up on my couch next to a clarinet with a list of overdubs to do for the day. If you think harder, you'll see Conner playing on the wrong parts of drums. Those aren't the images I want to connect to "Love Drums". I'm not sure about what I actually want you to see. But I want it to be marvelous. I want it to transcend our backroom. I want you to see angels when you put it on. I want you to be moved to mountains when you hear how wonderfully the songs move, and move into each other.
So what does personality need? Context. Let's context. Okay, the actual James Rabbit discography is too vast to unravel here, and it makes me look like a schizophrenic, (with which I'm only minorly inflicted) so let's start lying to ourselves. So for pretend, let's say that "Heart of Gold" was James Rabbit's first album, that "Trauma Season" was the energetic second, "Le Fou" the difficult third, and so "Love Drums" can be the triumphant its-all-coming-together fourth. If we make a fifth album, I want it to have the word "Cannon" in the title.
I'm very happy that we are not a bland band. I mean, with so many bands I encounter, you picture everybody in the band being bored and wanting to die and kill themselves. But with us, we're happy with what we do, and we're happy to move on from territory that we've already covered. I'm not going to write another "Dinosaurs and Aliens", as my many 30-second trips across the room to the keyboard can tell you. I'm not going to do any more concept albums about pianists or painters or politicians, because that's stupid. I'm not going to write any more nonsense lyrics that I disguise as 'witty' or 'obtuse', no. You guys, those were fake lyrics. Not anymore though. I'm legit. I'm pumped.
I'm jumping out of my seat, but I've got nine and a half more hours only to write. Andrew WK and the Gross Gang are playing on campus this Saturday, which I'm excited for. Of Montreal are playing here tomorrow night, which I'm fairly positive I'm going to miss, unless the show starts at nine.
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
I tried hosting an mp3 via Geocities but it didn't work. Because its Geocities.
That same guy that lives next door was talking on his phone this morning and he has a voice that carries so it seemed like he was standing at the foot of my bed, which was incredibly freaky. He must have gotten a lot of mileage out of the few hours of sleep he got. Also my television was turned off and at first I blamed him, but then when I saw the remote control lying naked in my bed, I knew my problems were greater than a loud conversation.
That same guy that lives next door was talking on his phone this morning and he has a voice that carries so it seemed like he was standing at the foot of my bed, which was incredibly freaky. He must have gotten a lot of mileage out of the few hours of sleep he got. Also my television was turned off and at first I blamed him, but then when I saw the remote control lying naked in my bed, I knew my problems were greater than a loud conversation.
I am convinced that the guy that lives next door to me is recording a rap album. He currently has his posse in his room and they are all saying the same thing really fast and occasionally stopping and laughing. There are beats too. Note what time it is: 2:11 am.
I, on the other hand, am trying to write a paper about the dichotomy between Dante the pilgrim and Dante the scribe. Its called "Too Many Dantes!"
I, on the other hand, am trying to write a paper about the dichotomy between Dante the pilgrim and Dante the scribe. Its called "Too Many Dantes!"
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
I'm getting into obsessive territory. I'm sorting things into lists and folders and listening to bands I think are important to conquering the globe. I'm worried about overdoing things. I'm going to start keeping notes here. I've got a paper to write, but I've decided to push that back to tomorrow night. I shouldn't. I should start it now. I should get food because my milk and bread have gone bad. I ate a can of sardines for dinner. I burned my mouth at lunch. I walk at about twenty miles an hour. I'm denying myself what I really want to hear right now: The Cocteau Twins. Sorry The Cocteau Twins, you just don't fit into what I'm looking to listen to tonight.
There has to be a reason for people to want Love Drums. Not even buy, I just want them to download mp3s and trade them with their friends and one day I'll hear my music coming out of the car of somebody lame. See, because I only give my CDs to cool people, and since they are cool, they'll only have cool friends, therefore, there will have to be some sort of jump in CD-giving, which requires a lot of copies to change hands. I want somebody to go into Target with intent on purchasing a CD-R so they can get a copy of 'that cd that brad has with that one song on it', and then they'll burn the cd and pop it in their bitchin' Camaro and discover that Love Drums is so much more than 'that one song'.
There is no reason to resort to The Style Council.
I need to do less sorting and more listening.
There has to be a reason for people to want Love Drums. Not even buy, I just want them to download mp3s and trade them with their friends and one day I'll hear my music coming out of the car of somebody lame. See, because I only give my CDs to cool people, and since they are cool, they'll only have cool friends, therefore, there will have to be some sort of jump in CD-giving, which requires a lot of copies to change hands. I want somebody to go into Target with intent on purchasing a CD-R so they can get a copy of 'that cd that brad has with that one song on it', and then they'll burn the cd and pop it in their bitchin' Camaro and discover that Love Drums is so much more than 'that one song'.
There is no reason to resort to The Style Council.
I need to do less sorting and more listening.
Monday, May 03, 2004
Okay, midterms are kind of over. I went to Fresno this weekend and Conner and Vanessa and Megan and I played on percussion instruments. Things look promising except that there was no form.
I think the thing I was looking to create with Le Fou was an album full of stuff. You know when you're listening to an album and then the person that made the album comes up to you and says what did you think about it and you say I liked the part in track seven where guitar three makes that funky noise? That's what I wanted you to say to me. And maybe you did. Anyway, where Le Fou was about sounds, I think Love Drums is going to be about songs. Each song I'm thinking of I'm thinking 'single one, single two... etc...' Like they are going to be different kinds of bombastic. Kind of like the Tragic Kingdom album for No Doubt, where it was with me from like seventh to ninth grade because they KEPT ON PUTTING OUT SINGLES. What was it, like six singles from that album? Hold on, I'm going to check so I don't embarass myself. Okay, five. Anyway, the point is I want it to be like that. Where there are clearly at least five hit singles. Another good album for singles is Songs from the Big Chair by Tears for Fears, like half the songs on that album were huge hits. I'm not a big fan of that album, but if you just look at that tracklist, you know half of those songs.
We were planning on making Love Drums a groove album earlier, like songs with grooves. And that's fine, but grooves don't sell. I mean we can do fake litttle thirty second grooves but I was thinking seven minute grooves earlier. I think a big problem with the whole grooves thing is that if you are going to do a groove you have to do a groove live. And I don't know if we can manage that yet. But since I am the only one besides Conner that can do funky drum rolls and other things, I may have to do some instrument switching in the middle of songs.
Also I have a lot of ideas, I'm writing them down. I still haven't been able to write write anything, especially on the keyboard or the uke. But my brain is a rich wonderland. I'm going to start doing that thing where I make compilations and write about them. Actually I have been making compilations, just not writing about them. I think this will force me to make better compilation decisions. I've (re)discovered the Cocteau Twins and am in love with one of their albums so far.
I think what happens is June 11th I'm going to walk in the door and say "hey conner, bass here?" and he's going to say "yeah!" and I'm going to be like "okay, this is how track one goes" and he's going to be like "track one?" and I"m going to say "Yeah, I don't have a name for it yet, because I don't really have any lyrics, and I don't want to call it 'Love Drums' like we did with Le Fou" and he's going to say 'cool, how does this sound?' and I'm going to stop in the middle of plugging my bass in and say "Conner, less Sugar Ray, more Sister Ray" or "less Sugar Ray the band and more Sugar Ray Leonard the boxer", cause that's the kind of stupid crap I say.
The important part is that I write good lyrics and good choruses and choruses that move in ways you wouldn't expect them. So far I've just been writing verses. I'm going over to the keyboard to meditate for a while and embarass myself. Having thin walls means if you are going to sing something, you'd better not sing something stupid. The problem is as soon as you write something approaching an actual chorus people cry 'foul!' and 'pop!'. I assure you, friends, that this is no foul pop.
I think the thing I was looking to create with Le Fou was an album full of stuff. You know when you're listening to an album and then the person that made the album comes up to you and says what did you think about it and you say I liked the part in track seven where guitar three makes that funky noise? That's what I wanted you to say to me. And maybe you did. Anyway, where Le Fou was about sounds, I think Love Drums is going to be about songs. Each song I'm thinking of I'm thinking 'single one, single two... etc...' Like they are going to be different kinds of bombastic. Kind of like the Tragic Kingdom album for No Doubt, where it was with me from like seventh to ninth grade because they KEPT ON PUTTING OUT SINGLES. What was it, like six singles from that album? Hold on, I'm going to check so I don't embarass myself. Okay, five. Anyway, the point is I want it to be like that. Where there are clearly at least five hit singles. Another good album for singles is Songs from the Big Chair by Tears for Fears, like half the songs on that album were huge hits. I'm not a big fan of that album, but if you just look at that tracklist, you know half of those songs.
We were planning on making Love Drums a groove album earlier, like songs with grooves. And that's fine, but grooves don't sell. I mean we can do fake litttle thirty second grooves but I was thinking seven minute grooves earlier. I think a big problem with the whole grooves thing is that if you are going to do a groove you have to do a groove live. And I don't know if we can manage that yet. But since I am the only one besides Conner that can do funky drum rolls and other things, I may have to do some instrument switching in the middle of songs.
Also I have a lot of ideas, I'm writing them down. I still haven't been able to write write anything, especially on the keyboard or the uke. But my brain is a rich wonderland. I'm going to start doing that thing where I make compilations and write about them. Actually I have been making compilations, just not writing about them. I think this will force me to make better compilation decisions. I've (re)discovered the Cocteau Twins and am in love with one of their albums so far.
I think what happens is June 11th I'm going to walk in the door and say "hey conner, bass here?" and he's going to say "yeah!" and I'm going to be like "okay, this is how track one goes" and he's going to be like "track one?" and I"m going to say "Yeah, I don't have a name for it yet, because I don't really have any lyrics, and I don't want to call it 'Love Drums' like we did with Le Fou" and he's going to say 'cool, how does this sound?' and I'm going to stop in the middle of plugging my bass in and say "Conner, less Sugar Ray, more Sister Ray" or "less Sugar Ray the band and more Sugar Ray Leonard the boxer", cause that's the kind of stupid crap I say.
The important part is that I write good lyrics and good choruses and choruses that move in ways you wouldn't expect them. So far I've just been writing verses. I'm going over to the keyboard to meditate for a while and embarass myself. Having thin walls means if you are going to sing something, you'd better not sing something stupid. The problem is as soon as you write something approaching an actual chorus people cry 'foul!' and 'pop!'. I assure you, friends, that this is no foul pop.
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