file: 11 war.mp3
composition: war (failed 2013 remaster of 1998 cd demo)
status: completed mp3 file
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
welcome to oblivion, alright
i wrote a lengthy sort of psycho-analysis of trent reznor when this came out that has largely been rendered inaccurate by the new nin disc.
i think i'm developing a theme out of 2013: creative artists going back over some of the ground they developed around the same time as trends have developed around the sound they created once upon a time, but in a way that is more like connecting with roots than following trends. this is either reznor's attempt to sound like fever ray [although it never falls into a space that is nearly as poppy as fever ray] or it's pretty hate machine v 2.0, !now with ableton!.
i don't care about any of that.
it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between trent reznor and atticus ross mimicking trent reznor. that's also secondary, except to point out that the disc crosses the line to self parody. it's like...you've used that fucking sample in about 20 songs now, trent....maybe you should stop doing that now....
this could have been something, but it's too consciously structured as a marketable product. listening to it with a little space from it, and with better headphones, is still leaving me with the same basic reaction: this record is painfully constrained by a set of artificial boundaries that are far too limiting to capture the potential that the songs hint at, and it's enraging because what they hint at is an extrapolation of trip-hop into a level of abstraction that the genre never actually accomplished.
so, it'd be great to hear this remixed by some off the wall younger electronic musicians (doldrums, born gold, lingouf) but, nowadays, reznor is more likely to go after pitchfork picks than hang around the fringes looking for new shit. i'd expect remixes from mgmt and lopatin, if he were to bother. it's easy to forget that this is the guy that distributed warp records in north america, or that this band is named after a coil record. fwiw, it sounds more like cabaret voltaire remixing a collaboration between peter gabriel and kate bush.
i could go on; i'll stop. it's just frustrating....as has been the expectation for far too long...
i think i'm developing a theme out of 2013: creative artists going back over some of the ground they developed around the same time as trends have developed around the sound they created once upon a time, but in a way that is more like connecting with roots than following trends. this is either reznor's attempt to sound like fever ray [although it never falls into a space that is nearly as poppy as fever ray] or it's pretty hate machine v 2.0, !now with ableton!.
i don't care about any of that.
it's becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between trent reznor and atticus ross mimicking trent reznor. that's also secondary, except to point out that the disc crosses the line to self parody. it's like...you've used that fucking sample in about 20 songs now, trent....maybe you should stop doing that now....
this could have been something, but it's too consciously structured as a marketable product. listening to it with a little space from it, and with better headphones, is still leaving me with the same basic reaction: this record is painfully constrained by a set of artificial boundaries that are far too limiting to capture the potential that the songs hint at, and it's enraging because what they hint at is an extrapolation of trip-hop into a level of abstraction that the genre never actually accomplished.
so, it'd be great to hear this remixed by some off the wall younger electronic musicians (doldrums, born gold, lingouf) but, nowadays, reznor is more likely to go after pitchfork picks than hang around the fringes looking for new shit. i'd expect remixes from mgmt and lopatin, if he were to bother. it's easy to forget that this is the guy that distributed warp records in north america, or that this band is named after a coil record. fwiw, it sounds more like cabaret voltaire remixing a collaboration between peter gabriel and kate bush.
i could go on; i'll stop. it's just frustrating....as has been the expectation for far too long...
art cannot produce change; rather, it is a product of change that is occurring. marxists have never understood this properly. plato, on the other hand, understood it perfectly.
it follows that art is an end, and not a means. when we see movements of creative art, we know something has already changed and it is too late for reactionary forces to reverse it. it's celebratory; gloating, even.
but, it also represents the phase where the movement becomes decadent. every art-based counterculture movement has been co-opted. artists inherently seek to go beyond struggle and merely exist. so, it's not just a failed tactic but we can understand why it's a failed tactic. let's learn from this, not repeat the same mistakes again.
http://jacobinmag.com/2013/12/art-in-the-age-of-fatalism/
it follows that art is an end, and not a means. when we see movements of creative art, we know something has already changed and it is too late for reactionary forces to reverse it. it's celebratory; gloating, even.
but, it also represents the phase where the movement becomes decadent. every art-based counterculture movement has been co-opted. artists inherently seek to go beyond struggle and merely exist. so, it's not just a failed tactic but we can understand why it's a failed tactic. let's learn from this, not repeat the same mistakes again.
http://jacobinmag.com/2013/12/art-in-the-age-of-fatalism/
Friday, December 13, 2013
prematurely republishing inri (inri015)
so, post-production on this is complete, along with some minor changes - removal of awkward samples, basically.
i consider this a listenable release. the lyrics are not always great (although there's a few i like that i'll pull out for inricycled B), but they either express valid viewpoints as i was experiencing them or they pull of the shock rock thing well enough to be effective. less than half of this will be recycled, but i would only really like to actually strike out track 8.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-lp
i consider this a listenable release. the lyrics are not always great (although there's a few i like that i'll pull out for inricycled B), but they either express valid viewpoints as i was experiencing them or they pull of the shock rock thing well enough to be effective. less than half of this will be recycled, but i would only really like to actually strike out track 8.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-lp
Thursday, December 12, 2013
spent hours doing post-production, can't tell the difference between result and initial wave files.
grargh. let me try this again...
i'll never forgive myself for deleting all the source files for this ancient stuff. something as simple as boosting the guitars turns into a math problem about fundamental frequencies and harmonic overtones. ugh...
not to mention those samples. to be 17 again would be to understand what the fuck i was thinking.
the mastering process on this stuff consisted of compressing the wave files to mp3. the fraunhofer method, i suppose. hey, that *is* a type of compression and it was a valid best approach when mastering software was out of the reach of warez on home pcs.
btw, my take on warez is that if intellectual property is to exist at all then it should be very minimal in scope. ten years, tops. i don't tend to go after the newest releases, but i think previous cycle software should be treated as freeware.
anyways, this is long overdue to be run through some stereo imaging and harmonic exciters. but there's just a handful of places where the mix has come out fucked...
so, i'm running over the source material with parametric eqs trying to get just the right frequencies out. almost done. and it's almost painful, really.
^ only a perfectionist, huh? lol.
grargh. let me try this again...
i'll never forgive myself for deleting all the source files for this ancient stuff. something as simple as boosting the guitars turns into a math problem about fundamental frequencies and harmonic overtones. ugh...
not to mention those samples. to be 17 again would be to understand what the fuck i was thinking.
the mastering process on this stuff consisted of compressing the wave files to mp3. the fraunhofer method, i suppose. hey, that *is* a type of compression and it was a valid best approach when mastering software was out of the reach of warez on home pcs.
btw, my take on warez is that if intellectual property is to exist at all then it should be very minimal in scope. ten years, tops. i don't tend to go after the newest releases, but i think previous cycle software should be treated as freeware.
anyways, this is long overdue to be run through some stereo imaging and harmonic exciters. but there's just a handful of places where the mix has come out fucked...
so, i'm running over the source material with parametric eqs trying to get just the right frequencies out. almost done. and it's almost painful, really.
^ only a perfectionist, huh? lol.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
publishing inricycled a (inri002)
so, i just spent the last several months flooding everybody's feed with music that i wrote in the 90s as a teenager, criticizing both it and myself and more or less suggesting that you don't bother listening to what i'm spamming you with.
this inri material has been a problem for me for years because quite a bit of it is some of the music i've written that's closest to me (consider i was around 15 when i wrote most of it), but quite a bit of it is also absolutely terrible and unoriginal garbage and it's all intertwined with itself.
i've gone over it a few times and pulled out sections for listenable consumption. it's the only really workable approach. I had never done that for the cassette demos, though.
i wanted everything available for analysis in it's rawest form, that's why i uploaded. but, that's not the material i'd ever send anybody to go listen to. i'm actually really happy that this is finally put together because it gives me a document of myself in early high school (the tenth grade) that i can actually send people towards.
so, no, you probably don't want to listen to the other 90s stuff i was posting. the awful lyrics, the rip-offs, the sometimes terrible playing and other characteristics make those demos of historical value only.
this compilation i've just pulled out, though, is void of all of that and is really quite listenable. if you like noisy grunge/punk/doom/hardcore with a prog/fusion/jazz/blues flair (and can handle the odd ambient or psychedelic pop embellishment) then you might get some enjoyment out of it. i was a pretty talented little guitarist...
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inricycled-a
===
i've released a dozen different things with the title "inricycled", making it more of a concept than a release. it's not just the material i'm recycling, now, it's the idea of recycling material.
i hope this is the final iteration. the difference, here, is that i'm trying to isolate segments of songs that people interested in my more recent compositions would find interesting. these fragments aren't entirely void of lyrics, but they're very minimal. they're also quite short.
i've retitled most of the tracks to get a feel of what the music sounds like and/or what i was thinking as i was writing it.
the material in this volume is taken from the following cassette demos:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-1 (1996)
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-2 (1997)
this is the best possible absolute starting point for my musical material.
sequenced and mildly modified in dec, 2013. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards, tapes, found sounds, metronomes, digital wave editing, production.
released july 1, 1997
this inri material has been a problem for me for years because quite a bit of it is some of the music i've written that's closest to me (consider i was around 15 when i wrote most of it), but quite a bit of it is also absolutely terrible and unoriginal garbage and it's all intertwined with itself.
i've gone over it a few times and pulled out sections for listenable consumption. it's the only really workable approach. I had never done that for the cassette demos, though.
i wanted everything available for analysis in it's rawest form, that's why i uploaded. but, that's not the material i'd ever send anybody to go listen to. i'm actually really happy that this is finally put together because it gives me a document of myself in early high school (the tenth grade) that i can actually send people towards.
so, no, you probably don't want to listen to the other 90s stuff i was posting. the awful lyrics, the rip-offs, the sometimes terrible playing and other characteristics make those demos of historical value only.
this compilation i've just pulled out, though, is void of all of that and is really quite listenable. if you like noisy grunge/punk/doom/hardcore with a prog/fusion/jazz/blues flair (and can handle the odd ambient or psychedelic pop embellishment) then you might get some enjoyment out of it. i was a pretty talented little guitarist...
http://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inricycled-a
===
i've released a dozen different things with the title "inricycled", making it more of a concept than a release. it's not just the material i'm recycling, now, it's the idea of recycling material.
i hope this is the final iteration. the difference, here, is that i'm trying to isolate segments of songs that people interested in my more recent compositions would find interesting. these fragments aren't entirely void of lyrics, but they're very minimal. they're also quite short.
i've retitled most of the tracks to get a feel of what the music sounds like and/or what i was thinking as i was writing it.
the material in this volume is taken from the following cassette demos:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-1 (1996)
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-2 (1997)
this is the best possible absolute starting point for my musical material.
sequenced and mildly modified in dec, 2013. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards, tapes, found sounds, metronomes, digital wave editing, production.
released july 1, 1997
Sunday, December 8, 2013
i've wanted to do some projects with this sort of thing for a while, but i was thinking more along the lines of generating them in matlab.
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/december-2013/baryonic-acoustic-oscillations
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/december-2013/baryonic-acoustic-oscillations
Saturday, December 7, 2013
ok, so step one is to relisten to things closely. a lot of what i just uploaded was raw, and i may reupload. i won’t repost. i should be back to reposting deny everything material within about a week.
my goal was to be done remastering by jan 1. that was a full month with no headphones, so i'm going to need to work a little faster through it.
i have a rough outline of things. i'll be constructing several new releases to hold outtakes and alternate mixes. so there's a LOT coming...
...and then there's going to be a lot of new material coming, as i complete roughly 5 projects quite quickly.
my goal was to be done remastering by jan 1. that was a full month with no headphones, so i'm going to need to work a little faster through it.
i have a rough outline of things. i'll be constructing several new releases to hold outtakes and alternate mixes. so there's a LOT coming...
...and then there's going to be a lot of new material coming, as i complete roughly 5 projects quite quickly.
Friday, December 6, 2013
RE: Yes, All new homeowners can pick up their first recycling Red & Blue Boxes free at the Environmental Services Centre
From: Jessica Murray <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
To: city.windsor.on.ca
i picked some up at home hardware the other day....
thanks anyways.
j
To: city.windsor.on.ca
i picked some up at home hardware the other day....
thanks anyways.
j
ollie
I like going through my media chronologically, in all aspects. I started with wwi. After immersing myself in WWI media, docs, literature, art, etc for about a month, the joy of those early 20s jazz recording sprang to life and didn't seem trite in the slightest. I've actually been doing this for a couple of years now and I'm in the early 90s now. Its a fun experiment that I'd highly recommend.
I want someone to invent an app so people can build historical/chronological playlists with friends. It would be cool if people could have a best of 1990 cross media playlist to crowdsource
... or a best of 1782
jessica amber murray
i was building chronological playlists on youtube for a while, but have kind of let it sit since i moved here. 60s - 00s. plus one for "serialism" which i took a broad definition of to include any kind of abstract jazz. and i suppose i'm building something like that on my web page, slowly, although it's cross-linked to literature and other things as well. i think it's a neat idea, too. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIx9xafrMCgYqDYIp4SK6tA/videos?view=1
ollie
I have this book, its a historical atlas of world history. I think it forms an excellent template for how people should interact with their media. Sort of like a google earth with a timeline that media could be tagged to by date.
I'm meeting with someone in the next month to develop the idea. If you have any input I'd be interested to hear about it.
I want it to be a crowdsourced documentary organiser that can serve as a tool for historical schooling.
jessica amber murray
i think that sounds like a lot of programming! i've played around with geographical lists to organize bands in scenes (montreal post-rock, or seattle grunge, or whatever) and can see the appeal to approaching music this way, at least up until about 2000 when the internet sort of abolished the local music scene by opening up the spread of ideas. the kind of isolation that created the washington/oregon punk scene probably isn't going to happen again. what we've seen more recently are scenes jumping up around hashtags. a good example of that is "chillwave". it's interesting, but is it anachronistic? and, if so, if the focus is *history*, does that matter? i was actually thinking of building something like this for my programming project. i ran it by a bunch of people and they all questioned whether there was any kind of demand for it. my answer was always "well, i'd use it.". but after thinking about it, i sort of think they're right. i mean, i like the idea - i'd use the site. but it's hard to see why people would move from spotify (although i should point out that spotify didn't exist at the time, and my idea may have been interpreted as an alternate model for spotify that took in aspects of discogs, which also didn't exist, and timeline, which also didn't exist....) or last.fm for that reason, or why the media companies would license it. i've been slowly building up a timeline on facebook, though. just my own records. just a hobby. but i do hope that, one day, it's a large resource. having something like that opened up and crowd-sourced would definitely be interesting. but, again, why would people use it instead of wikipedia, besides the gui? so, i guess my input is it's a cool idea that's going to require a lot of work and will probably have a hard time sustaining itself. but i'd use it. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessicas-Music-Collection/505092896244390?ref=hl
ollie
I don't know a thing about programming, but the first step from my basic perspective is meta-tagging fields for detailed date information, so your date tag for Sgt. Pepper says June 1, 1967 instead of 1967.
As for local scenes being relevant or not, think of how this could be applied as an event promotion/ local media collection tool.
jessica amber murray
you'd probably end up storing it all in xml files with those tags and then putting a searchable interface over top of it for usability. the user would be able to construct a timeline of desired events by genre, individual, whatever so that timelines of 'john lennon, 1960-1980' or 'punk rock, 1976-1996' could be constructed.
ollie
Bring in the geographic tag and it becomes a historical media atlas. With a calendrical interface, people can contextualise their media historically.
Computer, what was happening in October 1962?
its already on wikipedia, just not the direct link to the media
First James Bond movie, first Beach Boys album, first Beatles single, Cuban Missile Crisis.
jessica amber murray
yeah. it's a neat idea. i wish you had asked me this five years ago, though, when i was in the right head space. right now, i'm personally more interested in building a personalized timeline that focuses on my own writing, reviews, interpretations, etc than opening it up to crowdsourcing and objective analysis. but i do think the latter would be interesting to see exist.
ollie
That's where it becomes a promotional tool.
A database for event footage so that people can familiarise themselves with a local art scene.
I'm looking forward to developing it. Know a couple of teachers who think it will be a good teaching tool for history.
I'll keep you updated.
jessica amber murray
i'll just point out that if you compare it to something like discogs or librarything, something that bogs those sites down is the user content. wildly inaccurate or borderline reviews by people that don't really know what they're talking about. i guess that's more something to worry about down the line. but i think the major usability challenge on the timeline is likely to be clutter. maybe another example to look at is the phenomena of the soundcloud comment.
ollie
I see it working more like facebook, where you add users based on the quality of their content. For instance, there would be some interest in having an Idle No More or an Oxford History department newsfeed for tagged media.
I like going through my media chronologically, in all aspects. I started with wwi. After immersing myself in WWI media, docs, literature, art, etc for about a month, the joy of those early 20s jazz recording sprang to life and didn't seem trite in the slightest. I've actually been doing this for a couple of years now and I'm in the early 90s now. Its a fun experiment that I'd highly recommend.
I want someone to invent an app so people can build historical/chronological playlists with friends. It would be cool if people could have a best of 1990 cross media playlist to crowdsource
... or a best of 1782
jessica amber murray
i was building chronological playlists on youtube for a while, but have kind of let it sit since i moved here. 60s - 00s. plus one for "serialism" which i took a broad definition of to include any kind of abstract jazz. and i suppose i'm building something like that on my web page, slowly, although it's cross-linked to literature and other things as well. i think it's a neat idea, too. http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIx9xafrMCgYqDYIp4SK6tA/videos?view=1
ollie
I have this book, its a historical atlas of world history. I think it forms an excellent template for how people should interact with their media. Sort of like a google earth with a timeline that media could be tagged to by date.
I'm meeting with someone in the next month to develop the idea. If you have any input I'd be interested to hear about it.
I want it to be a crowdsourced documentary organiser that can serve as a tool for historical schooling.
jessica amber murray
i think that sounds like a lot of programming! i've played around with geographical lists to organize bands in scenes (montreal post-rock, or seattle grunge, or whatever) and can see the appeal to approaching music this way, at least up until about 2000 when the internet sort of abolished the local music scene by opening up the spread of ideas. the kind of isolation that created the washington/oregon punk scene probably isn't going to happen again. what we've seen more recently are scenes jumping up around hashtags. a good example of that is "chillwave". it's interesting, but is it anachronistic? and, if so, if the focus is *history*, does that matter? i was actually thinking of building something like this for my programming project. i ran it by a bunch of people and they all questioned whether there was any kind of demand for it. my answer was always "well, i'd use it.". but after thinking about it, i sort of think they're right. i mean, i like the idea - i'd use the site. but it's hard to see why people would move from spotify (although i should point out that spotify didn't exist at the time, and my idea may have been interpreted as an alternate model for spotify that took in aspects of discogs, which also didn't exist, and timeline, which also didn't exist....) or last.fm for that reason, or why the media companies would license it. i've been slowly building up a timeline on facebook, though. just my own records. just a hobby. but i do hope that, one day, it's a large resource. having something like that opened up and crowd-sourced would definitely be interesting. but, again, why would people use it instead of wikipedia, besides the gui? so, i guess my input is it's a cool idea that's going to require a lot of work and will probably have a hard time sustaining itself. but i'd use it. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jessicas-Music-Collection/505092896244390?ref=hl
ollie
I don't know a thing about programming, but the first step from my basic perspective is meta-tagging fields for detailed date information, so your date tag for Sgt. Pepper says June 1, 1967 instead of 1967.
As for local scenes being relevant or not, think of how this could be applied as an event promotion/ local media collection tool.
jessica amber murray
you'd probably end up storing it all in xml files with those tags and then putting a searchable interface over top of it for usability. the user would be able to construct a timeline of desired events by genre, individual, whatever so that timelines of 'john lennon, 1960-1980' or 'punk rock, 1976-1996' could be constructed.
ollie
Bring in the geographic tag and it becomes a historical media atlas. With a calendrical interface, people can contextualise their media historically.
Computer, what was happening in October 1962?
its already on wikipedia, just not the direct link to the media
First James Bond movie, first Beach Boys album, first Beatles single, Cuban Missile Crisis.
jessica amber murray
yeah. it's a neat idea. i wish you had asked me this five years ago, though, when i was in the right head space. right now, i'm personally more interested in building a personalized timeline that focuses on my own writing, reviews, interpretations, etc than opening it up to crowdsourcing and objective analysis. but i do think the latter would be interesting to see exist.
ollie
That's where it becomes a promotional tool.
A database for event footage so that people can familiarise themselves with a local art scene.
I'm looking forward to developing it. Know a couple of teachers who think it will be a good teaching tool for history.
I'll keep you updated.
jessica amber murray
i'll just point out that if you compare it to something like discogs or librarything, something that bogs those sites down is the user content. wildly inaccurate or borderline reviews by people that don't really know what they're talking about. i guess that's more something to worry about down the line. but i think the major usability challenge on the timeline is likely to be clutter. maybe another example to look at is the phenomena of the soundcloud comment.
ollie
I see it working more like facebook, where you add users based on the quality of their content. For instance, there would be some interest in having an Idle No More or an Oxford History department newsfeed for tagged media.
on the inevitability of metalcore fans all eventually dying of catastrophic, stress-related heart attacks
all tension, no release.
studies will show that metalcore fans will have higher rates of stress related illnesses.
(deleted)
well, they will, once the audience reaches heart attack age. which is probably not that far into the future.
well, if anybody does the studies, anyways. there's a research idea, at the least.
(deleted)
hardcore is a type of music that developed in the late 70s and early 80s, mostly out of the punk movement. early hardcore bands included the likes of bad brains, the dead kennedys and black flag. it had some influence on thrash metal bands like slayer, which is what this sounds a lot more like, and a mild, roundabout influence on progressive metal bands like dream theatre, which provide the missing piece in the equation. yet, it lacks the political messaging that defines hardcore as a genre. i'm willing to concede that this isn't as bad as the modern "metalcore" that derives itself thematically from bands like limp bizkit, but it has essentially nothing in common with hardcore as a genre. labeling it as such is really highly disingenuous; thematically and conceptually this is metal, and not punk.
i stand by my hypothesis, however, and think you're providing more evidence for it than you realize.
(deleted)
i'm actually a middle aged schizophrenic weirdo with a masters degree and a good sense of misanthropic humour, but that's a nice try.
(deleted)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20013543
(deleted)
i'll still take beethoven over rossini, though, because it has that release. this doesn't. listening to this is like bottling your emotions up until you explode....
...and arguments otherwise are basically labeling that explosion as stress relief.
(deleted)
i think release could refer equally well to an idea from music theory and a reduction of volume and/or intensity. what you're getting at is the opposite of release. it's not my fault, it's just what the word means. but i sort of explained that already, too - what you're doing is creating high amounts of tension, watching it explode and then calling it release, when what that is is either tension (relative to the first meaning) or implosion (relative to the second).
i also have to admit i don't hear a lot of chaos in this. it's very ordered.
(deleted)
yet, none of these words express relative concepts. you're consequently spouting pretentious nonsense.
what you mean to say is that the record makes full use of the spectrum, which i can mildly agree with, and also that you enjoy the adrenaline rush and subsequent burnout.
the price of this disc is going to increase dramatically if heroin users find out it produces endorphins....
(deleted)
converge is a type of progressive metal. i've used the term thrash in this thread and would continue to. they don't draw much influence from hardcore (which preceded them by a good ten years) and never did.
certainly, converge and dillinger are more similar to each other than either are to black flag or bad brains or minor threat or....
studies will show that metalcore fans will have higher rates of stress related illnesses.
(deleted)
well, they will, once the audience reaches heart attack age. which is probably not that far into the future.
well, if anybody does the studies, anyways. there's a research idea, at the least.
(deleted)
hardcore is a type of music that developed in the late 70s and early 80s, mostly out of the punk movement. early hardcore bands included the likes of bad brains, the dead kennedys and black flag. it had some influence on thrash metal bands like slayer, which is what this sounds a lot more like, and a mild, roundabout influence on progressive metal bands like dream theatre, which provide the missing piece in the equation. yet, it lacks the political messaging that defines hardcore as a genre. i'm willing to concede that this isn't as bad as the modern "metalcore" that derives itself thematically from bands like limp bizkit, but it has essentially nothing in common with hardcore as a genre. labeling it as such is really highly disingenuous; thematically and conceptually this is metal, and not punk.
i stand by my hypothesis, however, and think you're providing more evidence for it than you realize.
(deleted)
i'm actually a middle aged schizophrenic weirdo with a masters degree and a good sense of misanthropic humour, but that's a nice try.
(deleted)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20013543
(deleted)
i'll still take beethoven over rossini, though, because it has that release. this doesn't. listening to this is like bottling your emotions up until you explode....
...and arguments otherwise are basically labeling that explosion as stress relief.
(deleted)
i think release could refer equally well to an idea from music theory and a reduction of volume and/or intensity. what you're getting at is the opposite of release. it's not my fault, it's just what the word means. but i sort of explained that already, too - what you're doing is creating high amounts of tension, watching it explode and then calling it release, when what that is is either tension (relative to the first meaning) or implosion (relative to the second).
i also have to admit i don't hear a lot of chaos in this. it's very ordered.
(deleted)
yet, none of these words express relative concepts. you're consequently spouting pretentious nonsense.
what you mean to say is that the record makes full use of the spectrum, which i can mildly agree with, and also that you enjoy the adrenaline rush and subsequent burnout.
the price of this disc is going to increase dramatically if heroin users find out it produces endorphins....
(deleted)
converge is a type of progressive metal. i've used the term thrash in this thread and would continue to. they don't draw much influence from hardcore (which preceded them by a good ten years) and never did.
certainly, converge and dillinger are more similar to each other than either are to black flag or bad brains or minor threat or....
Yes, All new homeowners can pick up their first recycling Red & Blue Boxes free at the Environmental Services Centre
From: the city of windsor
To: "death.to.koalas@gmail.com" <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
Hi Jessica.
I just wanted to let you know that you can come down to pick up your new boxes. We are located at 3540 North Service Road East (corner of EC Row & Central Ave.)
We are open from 8:00 am to 4:00pm. I will just have you write down your name and address and then you can collect your boxes.
Thanks,
Public Works / Environmental Services
To: "death.to.koalas@gmail.com" <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
Hi Jessica.
I just wanted to let you know that you can come down to pick up your new boxes. We are located at 3540 North Service Road East (corner of EC Row & Central Ave.)
We are open from 8:00 am to 4:00pm. I will just have you write down your name and address and then you can collect your boxes.
Thanks,
Public Works / Environmental Services
regarding the legacy of christian tonality in western popular music, and subsequent challenges to it
tomhulcelover
how are you gonna say the beatles ripped off of journey? haha didn't that beatles song come out before?
deathtokoalas
that's right. these are all rip-offs of let it be.
most shocking statement of the century, said nobody: all pop music is ripped off from the beatles.
...although the dude that pointed out that it's just a basic mathematically correct chord progression is also right, even though it just obscures the reality that pop music has been stuck in tonal stasis since the 1700s. people in mozart's time frame wouldn't have insulted you for your lack of originality if you had played something with a mathematically correct structure, they would have accused you of channeling satan and destroying music if you deviated from a proper chord progression.
the mathematics of tonality underlie the primary reason that creativity and popularity go together so seldomly and are often defined more by atmospheric changes rather than tonal shifts. if you want people to react well to your music, you need to conform to the mathematics underlying harmony. it's consequently us, the consumers, that drive a lack of originality in popular media.
that's all this is really pointing out.
tomhulcelover
umm ok
deathtokoalas
the channeling of satan part is historically completely accurate. chopin is one example. and beethoven was regularly accused of trying to destroy music (and, in fact, was.). let alone, you know, ozzy.
the intervals and shifts that we interpret as acceptable are precisely the intervals and shifts that the church declared to be acceptable. that's not a coincidence.
tomhulcelover
dude, im sorry but i dont really care
deathtokoalas
seems like you do to me. whatever.
Tom Alma
Bear in mind that Waltzing Matilda was around a long time before The Beatles...
deathtokoalas
sure. and celtic folk, as we know it, came from renaissance lute music. most of the songs in the list, though, are let it be, including the journey tune. i was more drawing attention to the background that it all has in sanctioned christian tonality (itself derived from pythagorean number mysticism).
babalooey100
Cool I thought the Pythagoreans only played triangles .
deathtokoalas
except that pythagoras (who was head of a philosophical school that fused number theory and music theory into a kind of buddhist mysticism) stole his theorem about parallelism (which is actually wrong in the geometry we live in) from chaldean sages while he was stumbling through babylonia searching for wisdom, and they themselves probably ripped it off from the egyptians, who probably stole it from atlantis and/or aliens, at which point our history currently begins and we can't go back any further.
Jimmy Greer
Uhhhh, dumbass....the reason Mozart and them could be more creative is because they've got about 60 more instruments to use than your average rock n roll band.
deathtokoalas
yeah, that makes perfect sense, you illiterate nincompoop.
in terms of creativity, the beatles blow mozart out of the water, and it's precisely because they're on the other side of the abolition of a set of rules that mozart was expected to follow. nobody talks about mozart's creativity - because he was not a creative artist. rather, people hold him up as the finest example of a dullard who followed the set of proper conventions, as they were pushed down from the hierarchy above.
if you're going to bother, try and keep up. but i'd rather you just shut the fuck up.
Aussie Dave
Mozart was amazing
deathtokoalas
you could create a computer algorithm, call it "mozart" and lose nothing of value from the original. i suppose there will always be those that praise form over function, but creative is not the correct way to describe his music.
Matthew Joseph Harrington
Too many notes for you?
deathtokoalas
you don't even realize that you have no idea what you're talking about....
i mean, i'd like to produce a witty come back, but it just doesn't make any sense. it's, like, not even wrong.
BryanPiekarski
You're crazy. "All pop music is ripped off from The Beatles." Unless this statement was satirical, in which case, I retract my comment.
deathtokoalas
i don't even think it's controversial.
BryanPiekarski
The Beatles definitely did have a lasting impact on popular music, their music spawned a lot of copycat bands trying to copy their sound and success throughout the 60s, but The Beatles were pretty much gone by the 70s. Besides, The Beatles were no where near as influential to even rock n' roll as the likes of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry.
deathtokoalas
i don't see any use in arguing with hipster revisionists about something that is not considered controversial by anybody with the slightest bit of understanding on the topic.
you probably don't realize that the beatles actually changed the rules of music theory when it comes to harmony, which is what the video is about. there was music before and after the beatles. there are very few artists that can make that sort of claim. you can talk about bach, beethoven, debussy....and the beatles are next in line. there hasn't really been a shift away from this yet, but there have been a few near misses (kurt cobain's concept of harmony was radically different, but he didn't have enough of an effect on what followed to cause a shift. reznorian tonality has been recently seeping into pop music (see the most recent avril lavigne song for an example) but it is repackaged impressionism.).
i mean, you don't even seem to realize that buddy holly and chuck berry existed about ten years before the beatles did anything worth listening to, or pushed through the changes that i'm talking about. 50s, 60s...same thing, right?
BryanPiekarski
I don't understand your last paragraph. You seem to agree with me but you're also berating me?
deathtokoalas
chuck berry and buddy holly belong to the era that existed before the beatles. they were both influential on the beatles, chuck berry moreso, but trying to compare their influence is basically a category error. it's like comparing michael jackson to kanye west.
in terms of direct influence, it's a joke to suggest either one of them even come close to the influence the beatles left. in terms of their influence on music, they are only important in terms of the artists they influenced, which would also include the rolling stones and the who and pink floyd and many others. and, if you want to play the game of stringing things backwards, you have to string it back further than the 50s, and you have to consequently conclude that neither one of them deserves more than a footnote in history - neither did much more than market traditional folk and blues arrangements that were written well before they were born.
the beatles transcended all of that, and in the process changed the very fabric of what pop music actually is.
BryanPiekarski
is 1957 to 1964 really a huge cap in time? "neither deserves more than a footnote in history" lol. What did The Beatles really change? Their impact doesn't seem to resonate today as it did throughout the 1960s.
deathtokoalas
you think that because you don't understand the changes they made.
the britpop movement aside, every time you hear a string section in a pop song ballad, that's the beatles. and, as i've mentioned they're responsible for a shift in tonality. shifting tonality is gigantic. there's only a handful of artists that can state that, and i listed them already.
you admittedly have to stretch a little to pull metal out of helter skelter, or techno out of tommorrow never knows, but the blunt reality is that these were the beginnings of those genres. and, they of course hold a central place in psychedelic and progressive music; you can hear their influence still across that spectrum, from tame impala to radiohead to the mars volta.
but, in terms of chord progressions, the key is that shift in tonality that they pushed, with the help of george martin.
speaking of michael jackson and the beatles, most people don't know that michael spent a good deal of his childhood living with paul mccartney. it's known they collaborated a bit, but paul did a lot of ghost writing and michael mostly relied on his producers so the extent of his involvement in michael's work is a bit of an open question, in my mind.
the influence of those five dudes is really just immeasurable.
...and as for lennon's work in the 70s, it's worth noting that he wrote what is probably david bowie's biggest hit (fame), amongst other things.
how are you gonna say the beatles ripped off of journey? haha didn't that beatles song come out before?
deathtokoalas
that's right. these are all rip-offs of let it be.
most shocking statement of the century, said nobody: all pop music is ripped off from the beatles.
...although the dude that pointed out that it's just a basic mathematically correct chord progression is also right, even though it just obscures the reality that pop music has been stuck in tonal stasis since the 1700s. people in mozart's time frame wouldn't have insulted you for your lack of originality if you had played something with a mathematically correct structure, they would have accused you of channeling satan and destroying music if you deviated from a proper chord progression.
the mathematics of tonality underlie the primary reason that creativity and popularity go together so seldomly and are often defined more by atmospheric changes rather than tonal shifts. if you want people to react well to your music, you need to conform to the mathematics underlying harmony. it's consequently us, the consumers, that drive a lack of originality in popular media.
that's all this is really pointing out.
tomhulcelover
umm ok
deathtokoalas
the channeling of satan part is historically completely accurate. chopin is one example. and beethoven was regularly accused of trying to destroy music (and, in fact, was.). let alone, you know, ozzy.
the intervals and shifts that we interpret as acceptable are precisely the intervals and shifts that the church declared to be acceptable. that's not a coincidence.
tomhulcelover
dude, im sorry but i dont really care
deathtokoalas
seems like you do to me. whatever.
Tom Alma
Bear in mind that Waltzing Matilda was around a long time before The Beatles...
deathtokoalas
sure. and celtic folk, as we know it, came from renaissance lute music. most of the songs in the list, though, are let it be, including the journey tune. i was more drawing attention to the background that it all has in sanctioned christian tonality (itself derived from pythagorean number mysticism).
babalooey100
Cool I thought the Pythagoreans only played triangles .
deathtokoalas
except that pythagoras (who was head of a philosophical school that fused number theory and music theory into a kind of buddhist mysticism) stole his theorem about parallelism (which is actually wrong in the geometry we live in) from chaldean sages while he was stumbling through babylonia searching for wisdom, and they themselves probably ripped it off from the egyptians, who probably stole it from atlantis and/or aliens, at which point our history currently begins and we can't go back any further.
Jimmy Greer
Uhhhh, dumbass....the reason Mozart and them could be more creative is because they've got about 60 more instruments to use than your average rock n roll band.
deathtokoalas
yeah, that makes perfect sense, you illiterate nincompoop.
in terms of creativity, the beatles blow mozart out of the water, and it's precisely because they're on the other side of the abolition of a set of rules that mozart was expected to follow. nobody talks about mozart's creativity - because he was not a creative artist. rather, people hold him up as the finest example of a dullard who followed the set of proper conventions, as they were pushed down from the hierarchy above.
if you're going to bother, try and keep up. but i'd rather you just shut the fuck up.
Aussie Dave
Mozart was amazing
deathtokoalas
you could create a computer algorithm, call it "mozart" and lose nothing of value from the original. i suppose there will always be those that praise form over function, but creative is not the correct way to describe his music.
Matthew Joseph Harrington
Too many notes for you?
deathtokoalas
you don't even realize that you have no idea what you're talking about....
i mean, i'd like to produce a witty come back, but it just doesn't make any sense. it's, like, not even wrong.
BryanPiekarski
You're crazy. "All pop music is ripped off from The Beatles." Unless this statement was satirical, in which case, I retract my comment.
deathtokoalas
i don't even think it's controversial.
BryanPiekarski
The Beatles definitely did have a lasting impact on popular music, their music spawned a lot of copycat bands trying to copy their sound and success throughout the 60s, but The Beatles were pretty much gone by the 70s. Besides, The Beatles were no where near as influential to even rock n' roll as the likes of Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry.
deathtokoalas
i don't see any use in arguing with hipster revisionists about something that is not considered controversial by anybody with the slightest bit of understanding on the topic.
you probably don't realize that the beatles actually changed the rules of music theory when it comes to harmony, which is what the video is about. there was music before and after the beatles. there are very few artists that can make that sort of claim. you can talk about bach, beethoven, debussy....and the beatles are next in line. there hasn't really been a shift away from this yet, but there have been a few near misses (kurt cobain's concept of harmony was radically different, but he didn't have enough of an effect on what followed to cause a shift. reznorian tonality has been recently seeping into pop music (see the most recent avril lavigne song for an example) but it is repackaged impressionism.).
i mean, you don't even seem to realize that buddy holly and chuck berry existed about ten years before the beatles did anything worth listening to, or pushed through the changes that i'm talking about. 50s, 60s...same thing, right?
BryanPiekarski
I don't understand your last paragraph. You seem to agree with me but you're also berating me?
deathtokoalas
chuck berry and buddy holly belong to the era that existed before the beatles. they were both influential on the beatles, chuck berry moreso, but trying to compare their influence is basically a category error. it's like comparing michael jackson to kanye west.
in terms of direct influence, it's a joke to suggest either one of them even come close to the influence the beatles left. in terms of their influence on music, they are only important in terms of the artists they influenced, which would also include the rolling stones and the who and pink floyd and many others. and, if you want to play the game of stringing things backwards, you have to string it back further than the 50s, and you have to consequently conclude that neither one of them deserves more than a footnote in history - neither did much more than market traditional folk and blues arrangements that were written well before they were born.
the beatles transcended all of that, and in the process changed the very fabric of what pop music actually is.
BryanPiekarski
is 1957 to 1964 really a huge cap in time? "neither deserves more than a footnote in history" lol. What did The Beatles really change? Their impact doesn't seem to resonate today as it did throughout the 1960s.
deathtokoalas
you think that because you don't understand the changes they made.
the britpop movement aside, every time you hear a string section in a pop song ballad, that's the beatles. and, as i've mentioned they're responsible for a shift in tonality. shifting tonality is gigantic. there's only a handful of artists that can state that, and i listed them already.
you admittedly have to stretch a little to pull metal out of helter skelter, or techno out of tommorrow never knows, but the blunt reality is that these were the beginnings of those genres. and, they of course hold a central place in psychedelic and progressive music; you can hear their influence still across that spectrum, from tame impala to radiohead to the mars volta.
but, in terms of chord progressions, the key is that shift in tonality that they pushed, with the help of george martin.
speaking of michael jackson and the beatles, most people don't know that michael spent a good deal of his childhood living with paul mccartney. it's known they collaborated a bit, but paul did a lot of ghost writing and michael mostly relied on his producers so the extent of his involvement in michael's work is a bit of an open question, in my mind.
the influence of those five dudes is really just immeasurable.
...and as for lennon's work in the 70s, it's worth noting that he wrote what is probably david bowie's biggest hit (fame), amongst other things.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
on the question of cultural appropriation in the nutcracker suite
has there been a discussion around cultural appropriation and the nutcracker suite? is it even really christmas music?
dunno. but this arrangement for classical guitar is a personal favourite.
in all truth, the spanish dance sounds like german music. i'll give tchaikovsky free reign with the russian dance. the arabic dance should probably be called the chechen dance or something; it might not sound like something from the heart of the arab world, but russia has a very large muslim population with it's own culture and you can sort of hear a synthesis between russian and muslim ideas in a way that kind of makes sense, if you only assume that the composer had no real understanding of anything south of the caucasus mountains. and, likewise, tchaikovsky's concept of "chinese" probably relates more to mongolian settlement in central russia than to anything legitimately sinic. russian/mongolian as a hybrid culture is also a pretty real thing.
but, i'm missing the point. i don't want to comment on the actual ballet other than to concede any points about trivialization as entirely valid.
the thing is that the composer was probably mostly working with scales, modes and tonalities. we can debate the value of doing so, but starting off on a specific note is said - within western music theory - to have an ethnic character. so, there is a "spanish mode" and an "arabic mode". and there is a real correlation there. that's probably the extent to which tchaikovsky made any attempt to sound genuine.
that's how davis got the name of this jam. it's not spanish in any way, it's just phrygian.
dunno. but this arrangement for classical guitar is a personal favourite.
in all truth, the spanish dance sounds like german music. i'll give tchaikovsky free reign with the russian dance. the arabic dance should probably be called the chechen dance or something; it might not sound like something from the heart of the arab world, but russia has a very large muslim population with it's own culture and you can sort of hear a synthesis between russian and muslim ideas in a way that kind of makes sense, if you only assume that the composer had no real understanding of anything south of the caucasus mountains. and, likewise, tchaikovsky's concept of "chinese" probably relates more to mongolian settlement in central russia than to anything legitimately sinic. russian/mongolian as a hybrid culture is also a pretty real thing.
but, i'm missing the point. i don't want to comment on the actual ballet other than to concede any points about trivialization as entirely valid.
the thing is that the composer was probably mostly working with scales, modes and tonalities. we can debate the value of doing so, but starting off on a specific note is said - within western music theory - to have an ethnic character. so, there is a "spanish mode" and an "arabic mode". and there is a real correlation there. that's probably the extent to which tchaikovsky made any attempt to sound genuine.
that's how davis got the name of this jam. it's not spanish in any way, it's just phrygian.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
gorgeous day. took advantage of it by finally taking the hour long trek out to get a blue bin and a red bin. i wasn't expecting them to be so big (well, i could have grabbed tiny ones, but that seemed silly - no middle or 'normal' size was the weirdness). so i looked pretty odd hauling these two giant bins around for 5 km. not sure if the honks were sarcastic or in solidarity...
it was a nice walk, though. and it'll be nice to get these four month old juice cartons out of here.
and now i'm kinda sleepy. so i think i'll get back to deconstructing this so-called history of the norman invasions of italy as a bunch of mythical nonsense.
you got all these people trying to convince the world that their mythology is history. i'm more interested in convincing the world that history is mostly mythology.
it was a nice walk, though. and it'll be nice to get these four month old juice cartons out of here.
and now i'm kinda sleepy. so i think i'll get back to deconstructing this so-called history of the norman invasions of italy as a bunch of mythical nonsense.
you got all these people trying to convince the world that their mythology is history. i'm more interested in convincing the world that history is mostly mythology.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
"All new homeowners can pick up their first recycling Red and Blue Boxes free at the Environment Services Centre"
From: Jessica Murray <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
To: pubwork@city.windsor.on.ca
hi.
i'm just wondering how stringent they are about "home owner". i'm living in a rental unit that isn't currently recycling. can i pick up a blue and red box myself or do i need to convince my landlord to do it?
j
To: pubwork@city.windsor.on.ca
hi.
i'm just wondering how stringent they are about "home owner". i'm living in a rental unit that isn't currently recycling. can i pick up a blue and red box myself or do i need to convince my landlord to do it?
j
washing machine
From: Jessica Murray <death.to.koalas@gmail.com>
To: the initial landlord
hi.
things are good in here. shower's working. heat's working. happy about things.
i'm just wondering what the deal with the washing machine is? i do laundry infrequently. i can wait a few weeks for it to come back up. but if it's going to be longer than that, i think i should hit a laundromat.
j
To: the initial landlord
hi.
things are good in here. shower's working. heat's working. happy about things.
i'm just wondering what the deal with the washing machine is? i do laundry infrequently. i can wait a few weeks for it to come back up. but if it's going to be longer than that, i think i should hit a laundromat.
j
Monday, December 2, 2013
thoughts on the new autechre ep
the ep has a lot of shape to it. always the best autechre. this is the climax/conclusion. it's really gorgeous as it is, in a way that only autechre is capable of, but it makes more sense if you listen to it in context.
this is sort of peripheral to the argument (which i think is not
existing in this reality; middle america is not in any way represented
by wall street), but why does the bourgeoisie get interesting music
while the rest of us are stuck with boring folk garbage? this is a
strain of thought that has long bothered me about leftists, this desire
to avoid any kind of art that might be engaged with intellectually.
instead, why can't we abolish folk as primitivist snoredom and embrace
serious music for all?
i mean, the whole point of reducing labour through socialism is to free up time for learning and art. without art, we'd might as well just throw ourselves into the machines as sacrifices to the production process...
http://jacobinmag.com/2013/11/the-end-of-classical-music/
i mean, the whole point of reducing labour through socialism is to free up time for learning and art. without art, we'd might as well just throw ourselves into the machines as sacrifices to the production process...
http://jacobinmag.com/2013/11/the-end-of-classical-music/
Sunday, December 1, 2013
are the arcade fire substantive artists?
Nor Easter
Arcade Fire are an embarrassment to art. They copy, they imitate, and they do it with disgusting pretension. They have NO new ideas. Hope they all die in a fire soon.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
The Beatles started up copying some of the american rythm & blues, the same with the Stones. Madonna ripped off some of Blondie'S stuff and most of the disco era. Gaga is stealing her (?) ideas from just about everyone.....Motown sound came from a blend of blues and rock, Jazz came from Blues and on and on.......so, tell me what in this is true original music without any influence at all?
deathtokoalas
+Parhasard57 the same criticism applies to all that crap, though. there's been heaps of original music released in the last 50 years (some of it by the beatles, after they grew out of their mop top phase) but it contradicts the logic of capitalism to try and sell an unfamiliar product so it gets virtually zero promotion. case in point: madonna actually came out of a really creative music scene. the second most popular band in that circle of people was sonic youth, who you've probably heard of. have you heard of swans? jim thirlwell? lydia lunch? glenn branca? john zorn? it was all there at the same time, it all could have been marketed, but one was an easy product that appeals to base desires and the rest challenged people to reconsider their preconceptions of what music even is.
but, the great composers all die penniless and unknown. so it's not like this is anything new.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
+deathtokoalas I agree with most of what you wrote; and I know and/or heard some of the bands and artists you mentioned, heck you could have included many more but the point being about Art. I never thought someone would get up one morning and say: hum, today, i will write music that is Art. All those musicians do what they feel and wish to play, with basically one goal in mind: go further as a musician, or explore the limits of what they like. It is not easy for me to explain my train of thoughts since I speak French usually. And let's keep i mind how Art is not objective but rather subjective, in music as well as in painting.
So, all this to say that, although there are forms of music that are tasteless and formated that will please some, but there is also some music that MAY not achieve the status of true or pure art but may contain a vast sum of qualities. You see, many are praying Warhol as a genius but to me, it's «meh».
The bottom line being: nobody will never come up with a bunch of songs that will please each and everyone because as i said, it is a subjective medium, what is art to you may be shit to someone else. It's an endless debate.
oh, as far as «the great composers all died penniless», yeah some did but I believe Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, RAchmaninoff, Liszt and a few more did not do so bad.....Or Zappa for that matter.
Robert DeCreon
+Parhasard57 It's interesting you say that, because I think Beatles and Floyd were actually pretty original, altough of course they had their inspirations, they took it all from LSD and their incredible mind. Why do you think Beatles is considered the best artist ever? Because of their inventions to the music.
deathtokoalas
that's right. the arcade fire do not belong to the same category as the beatles or floyd. their early material is better compared to something like the beegees, and they seem to have recently entered an abba phase.
you're allowed to enjoy the product, but it's not art. and it's not fair to artists to think of it as art.
Trevor Johnston
+deathtokoalas I am sick of the beatles as "the best band" Best band of their time but they were basically pop themselves with there melodies and simple playing. Its music, its what you like, every body has their favorites. I listen to Floyd but I find most of the beatles stuff simple, except there later experimental stuff.
deathtokoalas
+Trevor Johnston i pointed out a few posts back that i mean the material after and including revolver. early beatles up to that point is not creative and does not qualify as art. it qualifies as a successful product, but the reason it was a successful product is that it wasn't challenging.
but, no, it's not subjective, and i'm really fucking sick of fucking lazy capitalist idiots refusing to have the intellectual courage to acknowledge what is creative and what isn't. it's not interchangeable. it's not equivalent. it's not all fucking product designed to turn a dime to trickle it's way up the supply chain. it's not simply what butters your toast. there is a very clear, objective difference between producing for the sake of creativity and producing for the sake of profit.
again: if you want to listen to bland, cloned-over capitalist garbage then there's a million bands like arcade fire out there for you to explore. just don't call it art. please. it's not worthy.
Robert DeCreon
I'm not saying that Arcade Fire shall belong to a category like Beatles and Floyd belong to, but they are not like the Beeges or ABBA. Do you even know the meaning of the whole album? It's art, specially in this awful time that songs have no emotion or lyrical meaning.
deathtokoalas
i think the beegees/abba comparison is pretty good, actually. these bands were massively popular in their time and are mostly forgotten today. that will be the legacy of the arcade fire.
but if you want a more precise comparison, i'm going to draw attention to two bands: u2 and my chemical romance.
a few years ago, mcr swung out of being a bon jovi cover band and released this awful thing that was some kind of attempt to merge sgt peppers with the smashing pumpkins. reflector draws heavily from the black parade in the sense of stealing it's concept from sgt peppers.
musically, though, they've pulled a sort of ultra-paradoxical phase on u2's post-modern 90s phase. when u2 did the zooropa tour, it was a tongue-in-cheek parody on popular culture, a satire of over-the-top consumerism. the arcade fire have taken that sound and stripped it of it's irony. on one hand, it sort of makes bono look brilliant, in hindsight. but it all draws together the conclusion that this is designed solely to move units, rather than to say anything worthwhile.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
+deathtokoalas Dear Koalas.....I have to say I've rarely read such self-indulging comments. According to you, only you and a few others are capable of real Art! Wow, talk about being full of yourself . If I follow your saying, anything that is not like what you do is shit! You sound more like a jealous musician envying anybody's success. Here's the thing: Art is not restrain to sheer creation...it is also a matter of perceptions, communication and expressions. Visual arts are so diversified, it would be prententious to point only one form as being THE one. Same goes with music. The very first goal of music is to communicate either a message, or a state of mind, or an opportunity to explore some personnal ideas. To negate anything not complying with your own taste, is a proof of a limited mind....the same applies to those pissing on anything they don't get. All you,ve been writing here is a total lack of respect for anything YOU don't like......no wonder your band is not doing much.......talking TO people will bring you more than talking DOWN to someone. Good luck, anyway.
Robert DeCreon
+deathtokoalas Please don't take this as rude, but I'm glad your opinion it's just minority. You're saying like it's fact but it's acutally just a selfish declaration that you try to convince other it's a fact. Again I have to ask you: Do you know the meaning of this or the whole album? ABBA, Beeges, MCR, Bon Jovi or whatever other band you cited there (no ofense to someone who likes them) aren't capable of doing such thing. You're only showing at every comment you say that you're wrong and that you have no idea what art really is. You're thinking that art is the same that POPULAR, and POP things these days are only shit. So if Arcade Fire made sucess these days I would be surprised, because people have no capacity to recognize this as art from so much shit they have in their minds. Please don't think i'm a cunt after all these things I have said, I'm trying to be lovely at best way possible. If Arcade Fire weren't popular in a past time then you could say they are equal as Beeges and ABBA.
You're seeing the music in a intelectual level. Don't do that, music isn't supposed to be seeing that way, yet feeling it with passion. AF doesn't need to a new Beatles to change people's life or something. I'm just happy that they have the courage to put something like that in market against all others pop artists and still being considered in the top 10 albums of 2013.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
+deathtokoalas One last thing: your self-indulging mind seems to confuse taste with critics.....Your point of view is one about taste not what is Art. I cannot beleive you pose yourself as a music «critic» on your post.....to do so, you need to be impartial and able to recognise qualities in most musics made. Anything else is a matter of personnal taste and yours seems rather limited.
deathtokoalas
+Parhasard57 you've misunderstood me. i can cite a lot of art i don't really like. early kraftwerk would be an example. stockhausen, to a lesser extent. schoenberg, for sure. i find this stuff prodding and boring, but i realize it was created to push boundaries and not to move units. it consequently qualifies as art; my reaction to it is secondary. your reaction is pretty standard, though: conscientiously or not, you've taken the capitalist perspective of leaving the value of art up to markets and then accused me of trying to restrict the market. no. i'm rejecting the concept of art as a product altogether by separating out that which is meant to make money from that which is meant to be creative.
in broad terms, my perspective is closer to the historical norm whereas you're conforming to the existing neo-liberal anomaly of reducing everything to a price tag. i don't want to really think in those terms, though. i want to think in terms of a post-capitalist paradigm where the exchange of currency for art is abolished. in this proposed future post-lefist understanding of art, collectives like the arcade fire would for the most part cease to exist because they'll have lost their profit motive.
deathtokoalas
+Robert DeCreon if i was criticizing a robert johnson track, i could see your reaction making sense. i could even see it making sense in reaction to something like nirvana. but, this is hardly gut-wrenching music that is going to move anybody on an emotional level. i mean, that's ultimately the basis of my criticism: this is a cold, emotionless product. it exists purely on an intellectual level in the first place, so that's the right way to deconstruct it.
Robert DeCreon
+ deathtokoalas Your comments are just... idiot. You keep citing Robert Johnsonn, Kraftwerk, Schoenberg, and many others things that it seens like you're trying to show that you're a badass intellectual who studied music and knows what you're talking about yet you are just playing fool here. If you were only saying "I didn't like this album" or "I don't like Arcade Fire" it would be okay, but you keep saying nonsense things instead of just speaking, let's say, casually. Youtube it's not a fucking professional critics...
Arcade Fire are an embarrassment to art. They copy, they imitate, and they do it with disgusting pretension. They have NO new ideas. Hope they all die in a fire soon.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
The Beatles started up copying some of the american rythm & blues, the same with the Stones. Madonna ripped off some of Blondie'S stuff and most of the disco era. Gaga is stealing her (?) ideas from just about everyone.....Motown sound came from a blend of blues and rock, Jazz came from Blues and on and on.......so, tell me what in this is true original music without any influence at all?
deathtokoalas
+Parhasard57 the same criticism applies to all that crap, though. there's been heaps of original music released in the last 50 years (some of it by the beatles, after they grew out of their mop top phase) but it contradicts the logic of capitalism to try and sell an unfamiliar product so it gets virtually zero promotion. case in point: madonna actually came out of a really creative music scene. the second most popular band in that circle of people was sonic youth, who you've probably heard of. have you heard of swans? jim thirlwell? lydia lunch? glenn branca? john zorn? it was all there at the same time, it all could have been marketed, but one was an easy product that appeals to base desires and the rest challenged people to reconsider their preconceptions of what music even is.
but, the great composers all die penniless and unknown. so it's not like this is anything new.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
+deathtokoalas I agree with most of what you wrote; and I know and/or heard some of the bands and artists you mentioned, heck you could have included many more but the point being about Art. I never thought someone would get up one morning and say: hum, today, i will write music that is Art. All those musicians do what they feel and wish to play, with basically one goal in mind: go further as a musician, or explore the limits of what they like. It is not easy for me to explain my train of thoughts since I speak French usually. And let's keep i mind how Art is not objective but rather subjective, in music as well as in painting.
So, all this to say that, although there are forms of music that are tasteless and formated that will please some, but there is also some music that MAY not achieve the status of true or pure art but may contain a vast sum of qualities. You see, many are praying Warhol as a genius but to me, it's «meh».
The bottom line being: nobody will never come up with a bunch of songs that will please each and everyone because as i said, it is a subjective medium, what is art to you may be shit to someone else. It's an endless debate.
oh, as far as «the great composers all died penniless», yeah some did but I believe Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, RAchmaninoff, Liszt and a few more did not do so bad.....Or Zappa for that matter.
Robert DeCreon
+Parhasard57 It's interesting you say that, because I think Beatles and Floyd were actually pretty original, altough of course they had their inspirations, they took it all from LSD and their incredible mind. Why do you think Beatles is considered the best artist ever? Because of their inventions to the music.
deathtokoalas
that's right. the arcade fire do not belong to the same category as the beatles or floyd. their early material is better compared to something like the beegees, and they seem to have recently entered an abba phase.
you're allowed to enjoy the product, but it's not art. and it's not fair to artists to think of it as art.
Trevor Johnston
+deathtokoalas I am sick of the beatles as "the best band" Best band of their time but they were basically pop themselves with there melodies and simple playing. Its music, its what you like, every body has their favorites. I listen to Floyd but I find most of the beatles stuff simple, except there later experimental stuff.
deathtokoalas
+Trevor Johnston i pointed out a few posts back that i mean the material after and including revolver. early beatles up to that point is not creative and does not qualify as art. it qualifies as a successful product, but the reason it was a successful product is that it wasn't challenging.
but, no, it's not subjective, and i'm really fucking sick of fucking lazy capitalist idiots refusing to have the intellectual courage to acknowledge what is creative and what isn't. it's not interchangeable. it's not equivalent. it's not all fucking product designed to turn a dime to trickle it's way up the supply chain. it's not simply what butters your toast. there is a very clear, objective difference between producing for the sake of creativity and producing for the sake of profit.
again: if you want to listen to bland, cloned-over capitalist garbage then there's a million bands like arcade fire out there for you to explore. just don't call it art. please. it's not worthy.
Robert DeCreon
I'm not saying that Arcade Fire shall belong to a category like Beatles and Floyd belong to, but they are not like the Beeges or ABBA. Do you even know the meaning of the whole album? It's art, specially in this awful time that songs have no emotion or lyrical meaning.
deathtokoalas
i think the beegees/abba comparison is pretty good, actually. these bands were massively popular in their time and are mostly forgotten today. that will be the legacy of the arcade fire.
but if you want a more precise comparison, i'm going to draw attention to two bands: u2 and my chemical romance.
a few years ago, mcr swung out of being a bon jovi cover band and released this awful thing that was some kind of attempt to merge sgt peppers with the smashing pumpkins. reflector draws heavily from the black parade in the sense of stealing it's concept from sgt peppers.
musically, though, they've pulled a sort of ultra-paradoxical phase on u2's post-modern 90s phase. when u2 did the zooropa tour, it was a tongue-in-cheek parody on popular culture, a satire of over-the-top consumerism. the arcade fire have taken that sound and stripped it of it's irony. on one hand, it sort of makes bono look brilliant, in hindsight. but it all draws together the conclusion that this is designed solely to move units, rather than to say anything worthwhile.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
+deathtokoalas Dear Koalas.....I have to say I've rarely read such self-indulging comments. According to you, only you and a few others are capable of real Art! Wow, talk about being full of yourself . If I follow your saying, anything that is not like what you do is shit! You sound more like a jealous musician envying anybody's success. Here's the thing: Art is not restrain to sheer creation...it is also a matter of perceptions, communication and expressions. Visual arts are so diversified, it would be prententious to point only one form as being THE one. Same goes with music. The very first goal of music is to communicate either a message, or a state of mind, or an opportunity to explore some personnal ideas. To negate anything not complying with your own taste, is a proof of a limited mind....the same applies to those pissing on anything they don't get. All you,ve been writing here is a total lack of respect for anything YOU don't like......no wonder your band is not doing much.......talking TO people will bring you more than talking DOWN to someone. Good luck, anyway.
Robert DeCreon
+deathtokoalas Please don't take this as rude, but I'm glad your opinion it's just minority. You're saying like it's fact but it's acutally just a selfish declaration that you try to convince other it's a fact. Again I have to ask you: Do you know the meaning of this or the whole album? ABBA, Beeges, MCR, Bon Jovi or whatever other band you cited there (no ofense to someone who likes them) aren't capable of doing such thing. You're only showing at every comment you say that you're wrong and that you have no idea what art really is. You're thinking that art is the same that POPULAR, and POP things these days are only shit. So if Arcade Fire made sucess these days I would be surprised, because people have no capacity to recognize this as art from so much shit they have in their minds. Please don't think i'm a cunt after all these things I have said, I'm trying to be lovely at best way possible. If Arcade Fire weren't popular in a past time then you could say they are equal as Beeges and ABBA.
You're seeing the music in a intelectual level. Don't do that, music isn't supposed to be seeing that way, yet feeling it with passion. AF doesn't need to a new Beatles to change people's life or something. I'm just happy that they have the courage to put something like that in market against all others pop artists and still being considered in the top 10 albums of 2013.
Futur Incertain UncertainFutur
+deathtokoalas One last thing: your self-indulging mind seems to confuse taste with critics.....Your point of view is one about taste not what is Art. I cannot beleive you pose yourself as a music «critic» on your post.....to do so, you need to be impartial and able to recognise qualities in most musics made. Anything else is a matter of personnal taste and yours seems rather limited.
deathtokoalas
+Parhasard57 you've misunderstood me. i can cite a lot of art i don't really like. early kraftwerk would be an example. stockhausen, to a lesser extent. schoenberg, for sure. i find this stuff prodding and boring, but i realize it was created to push boundaries and not to move units. it consequently qualifies as art; my reaction to it is secondary. your reaction is pretty standard, though: conscientiously or not, you've taken the capitalist perspective of leaving the value of art up to markets and then accused me of trying to restrict the market. no. i'm rejecting the concept of art as a product altogether by separating out that which is meant to make money from that which is meant to be creative.
in broad terms, my perspective is closer to the historical norm whereas you're conforming to the existing neo-liberal anomaly of reducing everything to a price tag. i don't want to really think in those terms, though. i want to think in terms of a post-capitalist paradigm where the exchange of currency for art is abolished. in this proposed future post-lefist understanding of art, collectives like the arcade fire would for the most part cease to exist because they'll have lost their profit motive.
deathtokoalas
+Robert DeCreon if i was criticizing a robert johnson track, i could see your reaction making sense. i could even see it making sense in reaction to something like nirvana. but, this is hardly gut-wrenching music that is going to move anybody on an emotional level. i mean, that's ultimately the basis of my criticism: this is a cold, emotionless product. it exists purely on an intellectual level in the first place, so that's the right way to deconstruct it.
Robert DeCreon
+ deathtokoalas Your comments are just... idiot. You keep citing Robert Johnsonn, Kraftwerk, Schoenberg, and many others things that it seens like you're trying to show that you're a badass intellectual who studied music and knows what you're talking about yet you are just playing fool here. If you were only saying "I didn't like this album" or "I don't like Arcade Fire" it would be okay, but you keep saying nonsense things instead of just speaking, let's say, casually. Youtube it's not a fucking professional critics...
on the question of srv’s actual talent level
Panglos
You can close your eyes, and as soon as you hear this, you know who's playing. (You might think it could be Albert King, but not if you're sharp-eared.)
What that tells you is that this isn't the "best guitar player." It's a very one-dimensional guitar player, one who has basically one style, and one style only. A guitar player who's very overrated, by people who apparently don't know too much about guitars or guitar players.
Joris van Dijk
I don't think you know very much about guitars if you don't consider him as one of the best ever. He just liked one style most and mastered it like nobody could. If you watch his performances you'll see why people consider him as one of the best. I'm not saying that he is the best, but he sure is one of the best ever.
And further more I can also easily recognise Hendrix, B.B. King, Clapton, Guy, etc. with my eyes closed. And those weren't one-dimensional guitar players.
Panglos
Being limited and being recognizable aren't mutually exclusive. In your list, some of those artists are unidimensional (I love the guy, but exactly how many styles does B.B. have?), and some are multidimensional. Having worked with some of them, I have a pretty good handle on that.
deathtokoalas
your error is trying to rank guitarists in the first place. there is no total ordering on the set of all guitarists. how does one compare srv to al di meola? one was a self-taught prodigy working entirely on intuition, the other was a berklee academic. the guitar is a completely different instrument to these people.
rather, the question - in this case the definition of the set - needs to be restricted to something more specific. srv was a self-taught, "feel" guitarist that focused purely on raw emotion. the question you need to ask is not "how diverse was srv in comparison to other players"; that would be as silly as asking "how punk rock was al di meola?". the question you need to ask is "how real, powerful and fucking gut-wrenchingly emotional was srv in comparison to other players?".
i hesitate to place him at the top. i think dislodging hendrix from his acknowledged place of righteousness is very difficult. i'll throw the curve ball of a young billy corgan (90-95) in there that most people would probably think is pretty left field, but i'll argue the point. check out 'starla' or 'drown'. yet, the number of 'feel' players that can overpower srv is very small indeed. no more than can be counted on one hand.
....even if he'd tell you that you're speaking greek if you brought up the concept of modes.
Joris van Dijk
+Panglos You can't say that when somebody prefers one style above the others he's an unidmimensional guitarist. The thing is that he was a blues man and didn't feel like doing another style. His blues are unparalleled by anyone else. I'm sure Stevie could have mastered Rock or something like that, but why should he? He is one of the best blues men ever. Stevie is not unidimensional, but he had his own style he prefered. Those are two different things.
Panglos
+deathtokoalas It wasn't me who said "best guitar player;" I responded to the claim, and denied it. So "my error" is your error. I agree that it's ridiculous to rank artists as if art is competitive. The great thing about art is that, unlike sports, it's all positive and not a zero-sum game: you get A and B, not A or B.
But I have to differ about the point about SRV being self taught (as if that makes him unique) and a "feel" guitarist. The ability to emote is IMO the best attribute of a guitarist. I think we agree on that. But there gets to be a point at which it's too much, where the player represents the out-of-control sort. The type of trailer-dwelling person who loses his cool and beats his wife/girlfriend--sure he's unusually expressive, but we don't count that as being expressive in a way that we admire. And that's the kind of person SRV and his music remind me of.
There are lots of guitarists who have so much "feel" they can--and do--bring tears to my eyes. For the right reasons. I can do without SRV.
Joris van Dijk
+Panglos But even if you keep the "feel" (From which I think SRV has the best blues feeling, but that's an opinion matter) aspect out of sight and just take a pure look at his technics, you can't deny that SRV was technically one of the best, he always hit the right notes at the right time, he has extremely quick hands and the songs are greatly constructed. Even if you put the "feel" away you can say is one of the best.
Panglos
+Joris van Dijk Using the video here as an example (and it's one of many), it sounds really sloppy to me. Not tight at all, hardly "hitting the right notes at the right time."
There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. I love Albert Collins' style, for example, even as I refer to his playing as "bad hair day guitar." Mistakes—and recovery from them—are sometimes my absolute favorite parts of blues solos (witness Johnny Winter at about 4:44 in Third Degree). It's like the charred bits in a plate of barbecue.
But somehow SRV just doesn't do it for me. It's more like meat that's not cooked exactly to my liking, and prepared much the same way every time.
I'm going to have to get off this topic. It's not my purpose to denigrate someone on a site/video dedicated to him. I only wanted to offer a differing opinion to a specific post. I'm happy for you that you get enjoyment from SRV that I don't get. Fortunately for me (and all of us), there are plenty of other places to get pleasure from blues players, and music in general!
Joris van Dijk
+Panglos Well after all music is all about opinions, so I respect yours, evenhough I don't agree with you. And just as you say there a plenty of other nice blues players and some of them we probably like both, was a nice discussion and enjoy the blues!
deathtokoalas
yeah. srv was not a technically gifted guitar player. that's why i brought in the di meola example. if you want to judge guitarists on that scale, you need to be looking into jazz and prog (and, to a much lesser extent, metal). srv sounds like an amateur in comparison to zappa, keneally, mclaughlin, holdsworth, etc. but it's a meaningless comparison to make because they're not playing the same instrument.
that being said, i don't understand how somebody could deny the raw emotional power of his playing and still manage to breathe on a regular basis.
Joris van Dijk
+deathtokoalas I don't entirely agree with you, SRV was also technically a good musician.
deathtokoalas
+Joris van Dijk stevie only really knew how to play pentatonic blues. he then got really good at it by practicing playing the same patterns over and over. so, he sounds fast, but there's no technical understanding of music underlying the sound. if you take him out of that context, he's entirely lost. he made the most of it, though - in the same way that a one-note solo can often be more powerful than a barrage of notes. really, i'd argue that it's his slower pieces where he really wails.
You can close your eyes, and as soon as you hear this, you know who's playing. (You might think it could be Albert King, but not if you're sharp-eared.)
What that tells you is that this isn't the "best guitar player." It's a very one-dimensional guitar player, one who has basically one style, and one style only. A guitar player who's very overrated, by people who apparently don't know too much about guitars or guitar players.
Joris van Dijk
I don't think you know very much about guitars if you don't consider him as one of the best ever. He just liked one style most and mastered it like nobody could. If you watch his performances you'll see why people consider him as one of the best. I'm not saying that he is the best, but he sure is one of the best ever.
And further more I can also easily recognise Hendrix, B.B. King, Clapton, Guy, etc. with my eyes closed. And those weren't one-dimensional guitar players.
Panglos
Being limited and being recognizable aren't mutually exclusive. In your list, some of those artists are unidimensional (I love the guy, but exactly how many styles does B.B. have?), and some are multidimensional. Having worked with some of them, I have a pretty good handle on that.
deathtokoalas
your error is trying to rank guitarists in the first place. there is no total ordering on the set of all guitarists. how does one compare srv to al di meola? one was a self-taught prodigy working entirely on intuition, the other was a berklee academic. the guitar is a completely different instrument to these people.
rather, the question - in this case the definition of the set - needs to be restricted to something more specific. srv was a self-taught, "feel" guitarist that focused purely on raw emotion. the question you need to ask is not "how diverse was srv in comparison to other players"; that would be as silly as asking "how punk rock was al di meola?". the question you need to ask is "how real, powerful and fucking gut-wrenchingly emotional was srv in comparison to other players?".
i hesitate to place him at the top. i think dislodging hendrix from his acknowledged place of righteousness is very difficult. i'll throw the curve ball of a young billy corgan (90-95) in there that most people would probably think is pretty left field, but i'll argue the point. check out 'starla' or 'drown'. yet, the number of 'feel' players that can overpower srv is very small indeed. no more than can be counted on one hand.
....even if he'd tell you that you're speaking greek if you brought up the concept of modes.
Joris van Dijk
+Panglos You can't say that when somebody prefers one style above the others he's an unidmimensional guitarist. The thing is that he was a blues man and didn't feel like doing another style. His blues are unparalleled by anyone else. I'm sure Stevie could have mastered Rock or something like that, but why should he? He is one of the best blues men ever. Stevie is not unidimensional, but he had his own style he prefered. Those are two different things.
Panglos
+deathtokoalas It wasn't me who said "best guitar player;" I responded to the claim, and denied it. So "my error" is your error. I agree that it's ridiculous to rank artists as if art is competitive. The great thing about art is that, unlike sports, it's all positive and not a zero-sum game: you get A and B, not A or B.
But I have to differ about the point about SRV being self taught (as if that makes him unique) and a "feel" guitarist. The ability to emote is IMO the best attribute of a guitarist. I think we agree on that. But there gets to be a point at which it's too much, where the player represents the out-of-control sort. The type of trailer-dwelling person who loses his cool and beats his wife/girlfriend--sure he's unusually expressive, but we don't count that as being expressive in a way that we admire. And that's the kind of person SRV and his music remind me of.
There are lots of guitarists who have so much "feel" they can--and do--bring tears to my eyes. For the right reasons. I can do without SRV.
Joris van Dijk
+Panglos But even if you keep the "feel" (From which I think SRV has the best blues feeling, but that's an opinion matter) aspect out of sight and just take a pure look at his technics, you can't deny that SRV was technically one of the best, he always hit the right notes at the right time, he has extremely quick hands and the songs are greatly constructed. Even if you put the "feel" away you can say is one of the best.
Panglos
+Joris van Dijk Using the video here as an example (and it's one of many), it sounds really sloppy to me. Not tight at all, hardly "hitting the right notes at the right time."
There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. I love Albert Collins' style, for example, even as I refer to his playing as "bad hair day guitar." Mistakes—and recovery from them—are sometimes my absolute favorite parts of blues solos (witness Johnny Winter at about 4:44 in Third Degree). It's like the charred bits in a plate of barbecue.
But somehow SRV just doesn't do it for me. It's more like meat that's not cooked exactly to my liking, and prepared much the same way every time.
I'm going to have to get off this topic. It's not my purpose to denigrate someone on a site/video dedicated to him. I only wanted to offer a differing opinion to a specific post. I'm happy for you that you get enjoyment from SRV that I don't get. Fortunately for me (and all of us), there are plenty of other places to get pleasure from blues players, and music in general!
Joris van Dijk
+Panglos Well after all music is all about opinions, so I respect yours, evenhough I don't agree with you. And just as you say there a plenty of other nice blues players and some of them we probably like both, was a nice discussion and enjoy the blues!
deathtokoalas
yeah. srv was not a technically gifted guitar player. that's why i brought in the di meola example. if you want to judge guitarists on that scale, you need to be looking into jazz and prog (and, to a much lesser extent, metal). srv sounds like an amateur in comparison to zappa, keneally, mclaughlin, holdsworth, etc. but it's a meaningless comparison to make because they're not playing the same instrument.
that being said, i don't understand how somebody could deny the raw emotional power of his playing and still manage to breathe on a regular basis.
Joris van Dijk
+deathtokoalas I don't entirely agree with you, SRV was also technically a good musician.
deathtokoalas
+Joris van Dijk stevie only really knew how to play pentatonic blues. he then got really good at it by practicing playing the same patterns over and over. so, he sounds fast, but there's no technical understanding of music underlying the sound. if you take him out of that context, he's entirely lost. he made the most of it, though - in the same way that a one-note solo can often be more powerful than a barrage of notes. really, i'd argue that it's his slower pieces where he really wails.
yeah, these things are freaky.
my grade 5/6 teacher (i went to a very small elementary school that had one split 5/6 class with the same teacher both years) had a thing for playing old time radio. we got to listen to the original war of the worlds and a bunch of other things. one of them was a story of fire ants advancing on a village in south america from a first person perspective, and the carnage that ensued when they ravaged it. that's something i won't forget....it was both educational and scary as fuck....
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bizarre-fire-ants-create-rafts-survive
my grade 5/6 teacher (i went to a very small elementary school that had one split 5/6 class with the same teacher both years) had a thing for playing old time radio. we got to listen to the original war of the worlds and a bunch of other things. one of them was a story of fire ants advancing on a village in south america from a first person perspective, and the carnage that ensued when they ravaged it. that's something i won't forget....it was both educational and scary as fuck....
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bizarre-fire-ants-create-rafts-survive
Saturday, November 30, 2013
i'm just looking at listening stats for some of the stuff i've been posting recently and, god, people have short attention spans nowadays. a desire for instant gratification.
pro-tip: when a song is five, ten, fifteen minutes long, it's hard to get an understanding of it from listening to the first 10-20% of it. that's just the introduction. i mean, we don't usually judge books by covers do we? with a large piece of music like this, there's usually a process in listening to it. the music has a shape: a start, a middle and an end. often, the song shifts dramatically through those ten minutes, incorporating radically different genres throughout it's length. sometimes the climax comes halfway through, and sometimes you've actually gotta even listen to the whole thing to get to the high point.
and, no, a solution is not to cut out the atmospherics and just focus on the intense sections. music that is meant to be digested as an art form cannot be reduced to an advertisement jingle. a cat is not a dog. when music is written with a process, the climax often *doesn't make sense* without the process that leads up to it.
i mean, if somebody wants to accuse me of not being an exciting rock artist, or a viable pop musician, i'll plead guilty to that. i'm not trying to be that, and never have been (except maybe for a few delusional moments around '97/'98). people that are looking for that kind of thing are going to be disappointed. but, that's why i'm not tagging any of this stuff with 'miley cyrus'. i'm tagging it with 'kosmische', 'post rock', 'glitch' - genres that generally attract people with longer listening spans.
i guess what i don't understand is why people bother pressing play at all if they don't intend to actually listen to it. i mean, what are they really doing? looking for something they've already heard? rejecting it the moment they don't recognize it?
grargh.
the flip side is that it seems to be that when somebody actually does listen to a full song, they listen to several. i'll go two or three days with nothing but partials, then get 30 full listens in a row - clearly all by the same person. that's encouraging...
i just wish i understood the psychology behind the partials. it doesn't make sense to me.
i mean, i sort of get that some people are going to grow bored of a four minute ambient intro. fine. they're not going to enjoy my music. that's ok.
what i don't get is why they'd click through the progressive rock tag to get there, notice the song is seventeen minutes long and then expect to understand what's going to happen at 12:37 after listening to the first four minutes.
am i being presumptuous to think that clicking on the prog tag, noticing the lengthy track length and then pressing play anyways pre-supposes an understanding that one needs to let the track finish before judging it?
i'm hoping this might help.
the music here has shifted dramatically over many years, from roots in punk/grunge through to experimental synth pop and into a type of kitchen sink post-rock with heavy electronics. the only consistency throughout is a lack of consistency, guitars and an impressionist aesthetic. "blender rock"
blender rock is what i've been calling myself for a while (check page description). no google hits except me. i like that.
"kitchen sink post-rock" brings up an article about trans am, who were a pretty neat 90s act. could have worse company.
pro-tip: when a song is five, ten, fifteen minutes long, it's hard to get an understanding of it from listening to the first 10-20% of it. that's just the introduction. i mean, we don't usually judge books by covers do we? with a large piece of music like this, there's usually a process in listening to it. the music has a shape: a start, a middle and an end. often, the song shifts dramatically through those ten minutes, incorporating radically different genres throughout it's length. sometimes the climax comes halfway through, and sometimes you've actually gotta even listen to the whole thing to get to the high point.
and, no, a solution is not to cut out the atmospherics and just focus on the intense sections. music that is meant to be digested as an art form cannot be reduced to an advertisement jingle. a cat is not a dog. when music is written with a process, the climax often *doesn't make sense* without the process that leads up to it.
i mean, if somebody wants to accuse me of not being an exciting rock artist, or a viable pop musician, i'll plead guilty to that. i'm not trying to be that, and never have been (except maybe for a few delusional moments around '97/'98). people that are looking for that kind of thing are going to be disappointed. but, that's why i'm not tagging any of this stuff with 'miley cyrus'. i'm tagging it with 'kosmische', 'post rock', 'glitch' - genres that generally attract people with longer listening spans.
i guess what i don't understand is why people bother pressing play at all if they don't intend to actually listen to it. i mean, what are they really doing? looking for something they've already heard? rejecting it the moment they don't recognize it?
grargh.
the flip side is that it seems to be that when somebody actually does listen to a full song, they listen to several. i'll go two or three days with nothing but partials, then get 30 full listens in a row - clearly all by the same person. that's encouraging...
i just wish i understood the psychology behind the partials. it doesn't make sense to me.
i mean, i sort of get that some people are going to grow bored of a four minute ambient intro. fine. they're not going to enjoy my music. that's ok.
what i don't get is why they'd click through the progressive rock tag to get there, notice the song is seventeen minutes long and then expect to understand what's going to happen at 12:37 after listening to the first four minutes.
am i being presumptuous to think that clicking on the prog tag, noticing the lengthy track length and then pressing play anyways pre-supposes an understanding that one needs to let the track finish before judging it?
i'm hoping this might help.
the music here has shifted dramatically over many years, from roots in punk/grunge through to experimental synth pop and into a type of kitchen sink post-rock with heavy electronics. the only consistency throughout is a lack of consistency, guitars and an impressionist aesthetic. "blender rock"
blender rock is what i've been calling myself for a while (check page description). no google hits except me. i like that.
"kitchen sink post-rock" brings up an article about trans am, who were a pretty neat 90s act. could have worse company.
publishing warning (inri029)
this was my grade 12 final project in electronic music design. the assignment was something along the lines of creating a piece of music with a social message.
the message is part dystopian, but focuses more on the idea of identifying certain threats that would become a problem in the upcoming century. remember that this was the end of 1999. how close was i?
1) intro
2) war
3) noise pollution, or pollution in general
4) conformity (or the collapse of individualism)*
5) chemical warfare
6) global warming
7) outro
*i was thinking in terms of personality/uniqueness, rather than something political. and i think the extreme conformity underlying gen y social attitudes have played this out frighteningly well, actually. it's a reaction to the radical mindset of anti-conformity that dominated gen x, but it's still a very real thing that will have very real ramifications in the upcoming decades. if you thought the 50s were creepy, wait until you see what these kids grow up into!
i should have included something about inequality. i also removed a vegan track, partly due to time restraints. besides that, i think i got all of the broad ideas right.
most of the tracks are slightly remixed/resequenced versions of tracks from inri or inriched. track 5 is brand new, and recorded on the school's synthesizer (part of the project requirements).
noting that this contains a section i've title "symphony #0", i'm going to label this piece of music my zeroth symphony.
recorded over 1997-1999. constructed in this form in june, 1999. as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - guitars, effects, bass, synthesizers, drum programming, sequencing, sampling, digital wave editing, cool edit synthesis, tapes, production, found sounds, strategies
released june 20, 1999
1) this is track 1 from the original inri cd demo.
2) this is a combination of tracks 5 & 11 from the original inri cd demo.
3) this is a combination of tracks 3 & 7 from the original inriched cd demo.
4) this is track 19 from the original inriched cd demo.
5) this was an original track recorded on the school's synthesizer to fulfill the requirements of the project, but becomes track 7 on the original inridiculous cd demo.
6) this is track 19 from the original inri cd demo.
7) this is track 1 from the original inriched cd demo.
the message is part dystopian, but focuses more on the idea of identifying certain threats that would become a problem in the upcoming century. remember that this was the end of 1999. how close was i?
1) intro
2) war
3) noise pollution, or pollution in general
4) conformity (or the collapse of individualism)*
5) chemical warfare
6) global warming
7) outro
*i was thinking in terms of personality/uniqueness, rather than something political. and i think the extreme conformity underlying gen y social attitudes have played this out frighteningly well, actually. it's a reaction to the radical mindset of anti-conformity that dominated gen x, but it's still a very real thing that will have very real ramifications in the upcoming decades. if you thought the 50s were creepy, wait until you see what these kids grow up into!
i should have included something about inequality. i also removed a vegan track, partly due to time restraints. besides that, i think i got all of the broad ideas right.
most of the tracks are slightly remixed/resequenced versions of tracks from inri or inriched. track 5 is brand new, and recorded on the school's synthesizer (part of the project requirements).
noting that this contains a section i've title "symphony #0", i'm going to label this piece of music my zeroth symphony.
recorded over 1997-1999. constructed in this form in june, 1999. as always, please use headphones.
credits
j - guitars, effects, bass, synthesizers, drum programming, sequencing, sampling, digital wave editing, cool edit synthesis, tapes, production, found sounds, strategies
released june 20, 1999
1) this is track 1 from the original inri cd demo.
2) this is a combination of tracks 5 & 11 from the original inri cd demo.
3) this is a combination of tracks 3 & 7 from the original inriched cd demo.
4) this is track 19 from the original inriched cd demo.
5) this was an original track recorded on the school's synthesizer to fulfill the requirements of the project, but becomes track 7 on the original inridiculous cd demo.
6) this is track 19 from the original inri cd demo.
7) this is track 1 from the original inriched cd demo.
jack and the bean...
psyche.
life there is..........?
*crickets*
life's been weird here. haven't been drinking or smoking basically at all. that's been good for me; my head seems clear. but kind of empty.
i dunno. i'm swinging wildly between "life is perfect" and "life is meaningless".
perfectly meaningless. meaninglessly perfect. both, maybe, even.
still thinking of you. strangely. still a loose end. a splayed wire. a loose thread. a hair out of place.
a noodle hanging off the plate. yes, one of those long ones that just won't follow proper table etiquette. grrrrr.
i'm 10 hours away. in a different clime, even. consider this: there's no snow here yet. that's how far away i am. so it's safe to talk...
if you'd like.
j
life there is..........?
*crickets*
life's been weird here. haven't been drinking or smoking basically at all. that's been good for me; my head seems clear. but kind of empty.
i dunno. i'm swinging wildly between "life is perfect" and "life is meaningless".
perfectly meaningless. meaninglessly perfect. both, maybe, even.
still thinking of you. strangely. still a loose end. a splayed wire. a loose thread. a hair out of place.
a noodle hanging off the plate. yes, one of those long ones that just won't follow proper table etiquette. grrrrr.
i'm 10 hours away. in a different clime, even. consider this: there's no snow here yet. that's how far away i am. so it's safe to talk...
if you'd like.
j
Friday, November 29, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
oxykitten as inspiration for chiptune project
i should point out that some of these chiptune things i'm cleaning up are from as far back as '97. i hit an apex in the style around '02, and then sort of faded out of it in favour of building a sort of guitar-driven electro sound, as explored in my 'tetris' project. i also had to x a bunch of the stuff under pressure from collaborators, as they thought it sounded 'too cheesy'.
the reason i'm doing this now is that i'm realizing i have enough material in the style to put together into an lp. it's a convenient way to order things.
that being said, here's a recent act in the style that's had an effect on me.
the reason i'm doing this now is that i'm realizing i have enough material in the style to put together into an lp. it's a convenient way to order things.
that being said, here's a recent act in the style that's had an effect on me.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
inridiculous (original album mix) (inri033) now fully uploaded
i've decided not to alter this in any way.
i was moving, conceptually, to more serious styles of music. i wanted to write these epic 20-minute trips that reached into every genre imaginable. you can hear that shift over the last few things i posted, and it really accelerates moving into the year 2000. this is my last kiddy recording...but it isn't really a kiddy recording.....
see, i had a bunch of noise tracks that i'd been putting aside for a third demo, trinri, that was meant to carry on with the same concept as the first two: "songs" and "collages" would alternate over 19 tracks. the problem i ran up against with trinri was that i was no longer interested in writing songs. what was coming out, instead, were these fifteen minute journeys. that's ultimately the driving reason that i switched things up: the format had worn itself thin.
so, i pulled the noise collages together (along with some older collages that i had pulled from various sources as far back as my first demo tape) into this thing. i became aware at some point, very suddenly, that the whole idea and product was sort of ridiculous. hence the title.
this recording is consequently void of actual songs. it isn't easy to listen to, and offers few reprieves, but if you're a fan of the genre that includes bands like coil, psychic tv, dvoa, nurse with wound and hafler trio (i hesitate to use the i word in context) then you may find something of enjoyment here.
cover art is from 1999. how the hell did the greeks think mesopotamia was an ocean, anyways? surely, they had contact with babylonians, if not indians. that's never made sense to me.
recorded from 1996-1999. this is my third record. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, keyboards, tapes, synthesizers, live drums, drum programming, hammerhead (909 emulator), sound raider, sampling, cool edit synthesis/sequencing, loops, digital effects processing, digital wave editing, flute
released dec 10, 1999
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
i was moving, conceptually, to more serious styles of music. i wanted to write these epic 20-minute trips that reached into every genre imaginable. you can hear that shift over the last few things i posted, and it really accelerates moving into the year 2000. this is my last kiddy recording...but it isn't really a kiddy recording.....
see, i had a bunch of noise tracks that i'd been putting aside for a third demo, trinri, that was meant to carry on with the same concept as the first two: "songs" and "collages" would alternate over 19 tracks. the problem i ran up against with trinri was that i was no longer interested in writing songs. what was coming out, instead, were these fifteen minute journeys. that's ultimately the driving reason that i switched things up: the format had worn itself thin.
so, i pulled the noise collages together (along with some older collages that i had pulled from various sources as far back as my first demo tape) into this thing. i became aware at some point, very suddenly, that the whole idea and product was sort of ridiculous. hence the title.
this recording is consequently void of actual songs. it isn't easy to listen to, and offers few reprieves, but if you're a fan of the genre that includes bands like coil, psychic tv, dvoa, nurse with wound and hafler trio (i hesitate to use the i word in context) then you may find something of enjoyment here.
cover art is from 1999. how the hell did the greeks think mesopotamia was an ocean, anyways? surely, they had contact with babylonians, if not indians. that's never made sense to me.
recorded from 1996-1999. this is my third record. as always, please use headphones.
credits:
j - guitar, effects, bass, keyboards, tapes, synthesizers, live drums, drum programming, hammerhead (909 emulator), sound raider, sampling, cool edit synthesis/sequencing, loops, digital effects processing, digital wave editing, flute
released dec 10, 1999
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inridiculous
inrimake (initial 2013 expansion) (inri032) now fully uploaded
something that happened in the late 90s, when fans of bands started getting together and talking on the internet, was the phenomena of the unauthorized remix. schemes were hatched all over the internet to create remix records, tribute discs, fan collaborations and whatnot. in hindsight, given what the internet turned into, it was actually a refreshingly productive use of networking.
different artists have reacted in different ways. i got yelled at by the now deceased singer of god lives underwater for one of these. trent reznor, on the other hand, eventually went so far as to set up a competition (which i didn't take part in, as i'd moved beyond the idea by that point).
once i'd put a few remixes/recreations together, and received more positive feedback doing it than with any of my own songs, i began to realize that if i could get somebody's attention then i could construct myself a launching pad. it seems like that's what a lot of people were thinking; it didn't work out, but i did end up with a number of remixes.
unfortunately, i've lost a lot of them. about a third of them ended up on a cd-r i threw together at the end of 1999. a third just sat on my hard drive, and a third disappeared into the internet. i'm putting them all together here under the title of the 1999 release, 'inrimake'. the initial release ended after "the day inri messed the world up"; the last five songs are 'bonus tracks'.
i was very much going for the *abstract* remix sound rather than the club-friendly mix. you can't really dance to these. you're not supposed to. you're supposed to blare them through headphones and trip out into them.
in terms of my own work, this record very much extends a bridge from the inri period into the deny everything period, to the extent that it arguably realizes the goals of both phases better than either phase does.
recorded sporadically, and without cohesive intent, over '98 and '99. originally compiled in the fall of '99. augmented and minimally edited over november, 2013.
HEADPHONES ARE MANDATORY TO EXPERIENCE THIS AS INTENDED.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synths, drum programming, digital wave editing, cool edit synthesis, sampling, sequencers, loops, remixes, reconstructions, reinterpretations
released october 15, 1999
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrimake
different artists have reacted in different ways. i got yelled at by the now deceased singer of god lives underwater for one of these. trent reznor, on the other hand, eventually went so far as to set up a competition (which i didn't take part in, as i'd moved beyond the idea by that point).
once i'd put a few remixes/recreations together, and received more positive feedback doing it than with any of my own songs, i began to realize that if i could get somebody's attention then i could construct myself a launching pad. it seems like that's what a lot of people were thinking; it didn't work out, but i did end up with a number of remixes.
unfortunately, i've lost a lot of them. about a third of them ended up on a cd-r i threw together at the end of 1999. a third just sat on my hard drive, and a third disappeared into the internet. i'm putting them all together here under the title of the 1999 release, 'inrimake'. the initial release ended after "the day inri messed the world up"; the last five songs are 'bonus tracks'.
i was very much going for the *abstract* remix sound rather than the club-friendly mix. you can't really dance to these. you're not supposed to. you're supposed to blare them through headphones and trip out into them.
in terms of my own work, this record very much extends a bridge from the inri period into the deny everything period, to the extent that it arguably realizes the goals of both phases better than either phase does.
recorded sporadically, and without cohesive intent, over '98 and '99. originally compiled in the fall of '99. augmented and minimally edited over november, 2013.
HEADPHONES ARE MANDATORY TO EXPERIENCE THIS AS INTENDED.
credits:
j - guitars, effects, bass, synths, drum programming, digital wave editing, cool edit synthesis, sampling, sequencers, loops, remixes, reconstructions, reinterpretations
released october 15, 1999
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inrimake
k. so, i'm pausing for a little bit.
1) my headphone cords should be in the mail early next week. that means:
(a) i need to wait for them for the deny everything material, which exists in multiple ways.
(b) when they get here, i'm going to have to closely listen to what i've uploaded, which may mean some track replacements. the songs won't change, but the sound of them probably will.
2) while i'm waiting, i'm going to work on converting some old stuff into chiptune tracks.
i've uploaded a huge amount of stuff over the last two months. 3 demo tapes, 5 cds, 3 eps, 2 singles. all of it before the beginning of 2000. it's in listenable form. so, while i'm pausing, feel free to stream the records as records.
1) my headphone cords should be in the mail early next week. that means:
(a) i need to wait for them for the deny everything material, which exists in multiple ways.
(b) when they get here, i'm going to have to closely listen to what i've uploaded, which may mean some track replacements. the songs won't change, but the sound of them probably will.
2) while i'm waiting, i'm going to work on converting some old stuff into chiptune tracks.
i've uploaded a huge amount of stuff over the last two months. 3 demo tapes, 5 cds, 3 eps, 2 singles. all of it before the beginning of 2000. it's in listenable form. so, while i'm pausing, feel free to stream the records as records.
superhappyfunsong & drumk (original album mixes)
these were rescued from the initial demo tape and slightly modified to segue better into the noise aesthetic.
recorded in the spring of 1999. edited in december, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/drumk-2
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/superhappyfunsong
recorded in the spring of 1999. edited in december, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/drumk-2
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/superhappyfunsong
tribute (original album mix)
through '99 and '00, and generally very early in the morning, i could often be found recording very long ambient guitar sections into my machine. really, i was just expressing myself. my first proper symphony ended up built around this concept.
when i went to construct this demo, i needed an extra few minutes of ambience to segue between tracks. so i pulled one of the files off the drive and shaped it a bit...
recorded in the fall of 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/tribute
when i went to construct this demo, i needed an extra few minutes of ambience to segue between tracks. so i pulled one of the files off the drive and shaped it a bit...
recorded in the fall of 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/tribute
book it! (original album mix)
this is another lost track that exists in a sort of an ill-defined alter-reality. the track mixes idm, new age, jazz fusion and progressive rock into a ridiculous, hyperfruity masterpiece. it's a mash-up of return to forever and mike oldfield, as remixed by coil.
it came out of a jam in my basement that fall. i was feeling a little more lonely than usual. see, i was quite literally the only person in my social group that bothered doing grade 13. so, school was converted from my only real social grounding (and i was always an extremely introverted loner) into a place of isolation and alienation. i skipped a lot of classes, actually, in a desire to escape the people. looking back, i sort of regret not reaching out to the people around me a bit more; it would have helped in more than just a social context. but, in hindsight, i'm also able to understand the separation better as one of class; as much as i regret keeping myself isolated, i think i would have been better off not carrying on with school at all.
i mean, i did well. my average was over 90. but i felt hopelessly out of place. i knew i didn't belong there....that they would never accept me unless i became the kind of pretentious jerk i despised. nor did i want anything to do with them, anyways. i really hated the superior attitude that i found myself immersed within. so, i just kept my physical distance and my mouth shut, hoping the condition was temporary (it wasn't).
the flip side of this is that i was also working a part-time job in a fast-food restaurant and i hated it just as much. i didn't fit in any better there, amongst the kids with no aspirations in life except to work in order to exist.
so, i found myself stuck between worlds, not wanting anything to do with either. in both cases, though, what i found the problem was was the people. "i don't mind the job, but i'm repulsed by the staff".
what i really wanted was just to be able to lock myself in a room and never have to engage with anybody ever again. i think that i'm the only person that could have written this. it exudes my idiosyncrasies in surreal, tongue-in-cheek humour. but it's also dead serious.
"i'd rather have a book than a friend.
it's loyalty will never end,
doesn't succumb to fashion or trend,
and all the information it sends,
will never get lost along the way.
when things get as tough as they may,
it will always know exactly what to say,
'cause books don't hurt...
...or do they?"
musically, there's some fancy playing here. everything is completely live: no loops (except the drums, programmed into a 909 emulator). that guitar part is sort of tricky. and check the bass part in the breakdown.
the thing i really like about this the most, though, is the gorgeous kosmische ending section, which is built up on overlapping sixths and is just the most dreamy thing to escape into ever. dramatic ending chord care/of a day in the life.
and, indeed, this is the dramatic ending chord for inri.
recorded in the fall of 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/book-it-raw-mix
it came out of a jam in my basement that fall. i was feeling a little more lonely than usual. see, i was quite literally the only person in my social group that bothered doing grade 13. so, school was converted from my only real social grounding (and i was always an extremely introverted loner) into a place of isolation and alienation. i skipped a lot of classes, actually, in a desire to escape the people. looking back, i sort of regret not reaching out to the people around me a bit more; it would have helped in more than just a social context. but, in hindsight, i'm also able to understand the separation better as one of class; as much as i regret keeping myself isolated, i think i would have been better off not carrying on with school at all.
i mean, i did well. my average was over 90. but i felt hopelessly out of place. i knew i didn't belong there....that they would never accept me unless i became the kind of pretentious jerk i despised. nor did i want anything to do with them, anyways. i really hated the superior attitude that i found myself immersed within. so, i just kept my physical distance and my mouth shut, hoping the condition was temporary (it wasn't).
the flip side of this is that i was also working a part-time job in a fast-food restaurant and i hated it just as much. i didn't fit in any better there, amongst the kids with no aspirations in life except to work in order to exist.
so, i found myself stuck between worlds, not wanting anything to do with either. in both cases, though, what i found the problem was was the people. "i don't mind the job, but i'm repulsed by the staff".
what i really wanted was just to be able to lock myself in a room and never have to engage with anybody ever again. i think that i'm the only person that could have written this. it exudes my idiosyncrasies in surreal, tongue-in-cheek humour. but it's also dead serious.
"i'd rather have a book than a friend.
it's loyalty will never end,
doesn't succumb to fashion or trend,
and all the information it sends,
will never get lost along the way.
when things get as tough as they may,
it will always know exactly what to say,
'cause books don't hurt...
...or do they?"
musically, there's some fancy playing here. everything is completely live: no loops (except the drums, programmed into a 909 emulator). that guitar part is sort of tricky. and check the bass part in the breakdown.
the thing i really like about this the most, though, is the gorgeous kosmische ending section, which is built up on overlapping sixths and is just the most dreamy thing to escape into ever. dramatic ending chord care/of a day in the life.
and, indeed, this is the dramatic ending chord for inri.
recorded in the fall of 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/book-it-raw-mix
Monday, November 25, 2013
let freedom ring (original discarded outtake)
so, this is an interesting thing to have sitting on my shelf. it's the 'i have a dream' speech, orchestrated with some soaring guitars.
i should point out immediately that i got a lawsuit thrown at me by the king estate when i tried to upload this back in early '00. i thought that was really trite, but it's not really a legal battle i want to have. i would react more or less the same way should i be threatened a second time, except to point out this time that it's fair use so long as i remove the price tag and basically just do that.
the story behind the song is not very remarkable. the working title for the track was just 'progblues thing'. it was intended to be a structured instrumental guitar track that mixed the flair of hendrix with the minimalist structure of steve reich. the speech sort of came to it by accident.
it was also the result of my dad getting himself a drumkit for christmas that year, which my step-mother promptly placed in my bedroom as a disincentive for further use. score, i guess. but it didn't survive the move a few months later. in the mean time, i got some recordings out of it - as well as a few moderately crazy drunken weekend jam sessions.
i'll note that that christmas also produced a grand piano a few feet outside my door. it's intended recipient was my sister, but she wasn't around much. me? new pc, with a convenient recording interface, and some more functional microphones. despite talk of family jam spaces, one might suspect my father was actually conspiring in my favour. there is probably a great deal of truth in this suspicion. these conditions held for less than a year, but i made the most of them.
so, the idea of the track was initially about experimenting with the new reverb system built into my new soundcard interface, by triggering it with the drumkit that had recently magically appeared out of good fortune. it had been a few years since i'd played the kit much, and, unfortunately, it kind of does show. i had spent a little time practicing along with "nevermind" and "siamese dream" for a few weeks to get back in shape, but i wasn't really "there" yet at the time of this recording. i didn't want to program loops into the song, so i compensated by splicing the track up. of special interest in this wave editing is the backwards cymbals, and especially how they intersect with the soaring guitars.
and of those soaring guitars? a fairly simple blues pattern. sure is lovely, though, isn't it?
the speech became attached to the track when chance managed to have them playing simultaneously for me. i had cnn on in the corner. it was doing some kind of special on mlk, perhaps related to an anniversary that is related to a yearly holiday. placed together, it knocked me flat on my ass.
the idea in my mind from the start was integrationist, if not really consciously so. on the one hand, the guitar part is raw southern blues. on the other hand, the structure is sterile white minimalism. i didn't just realize this juxtaposition, i was trying to exploit it, even if the racial context hadn't occurred to me. when king's speech was played over it, though, the idea really exploded; the context became much deeper. it was an instant exponentiation in profundity.
i also thought it would work well as a foil to the doonesbury sample that is in the track that follows this one [entropy (original mix)].
in hindsight, there are some problems with this. i was a moderately wealthy white kid from canada. there was never much chance of me turning a profit on this, but if i did it would be a type of appropriation. this track does appear on the deny everything demo (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/deny-everything) but under the title of "a commercial break" - and without the dr. king samples. that's probably for the best.
that doesn't change the feeling i got when i first heard the two things together, or take away any of the power that the pairing produces.
i think this is worth sharing.
recorded in january, 2000.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/let-freedom-ring
i should point out immediately that i got a lawsuit thrown at me by the king estate when i tried to upload this back in early '00. i thought that was really trite, but it's not really a legal battle i want to have. i would react more or less the same way should i be threatened a second time, except to point out this time that it's fair use so long as i remove the price tag and basically just do that.
the story behind the song is not very remarkable. the working title for the track was just 'progblues thing'. it was intended to be a structured instrumental guitar track that mixed the flair of hendrix with the minimalist structure of steve reich. the speech sort of came to it by accident.
it was also the result of my dad getting himself a drumkit for christmas that year, which my step-mother promptly placed in my bedroom as a disincentive for further use. score, i guess. but it didn't survive the move a few months later. in the mean time, i got some recordings out of it - as well as a few moderately crazy drunken weekend jam sessions.
i'll note that that christmas also produced a grand piano a few feet outside my door. it's intended recipient was my sister, but she wasn't around much. me? new pc, with a convenient recording interface, and some more functional microphones. despite talk of family jam spaces, one might suspect my father was actually conspiring in my favour. there is probably a great deal of truth in this suspicion. these conditions held for less than a year, but i made the most of them.
so, the idea of the track was initially about experimenting with the new reverb system built into my new soundcard interface, by triggering it with the drumkit that had recently magically appeared out of good fortune. it had been a few years since i'd played the kit much, and, unfortunately, it kind of does show. i had spent a little time practicing along with "nevermind" and "siamese dream" for a few weeks to get back in shape, but i wasn't really "there" yet at the time of this recording. i didn't want to program loops into the song, so i compensated by splicing the track up. of special interest in this wave editing is the backwards cymbals, and especially how they intersect with the soaring guitars.
and of those soaring guitars? a fairly simple blues pattern. sure is lovely, though, isn't it?
the speech became attached to the track when chance managed to have them playing simultaneously for me. i had cnn on in the corner. it was doing some kind of special on mlk, perhaps related to an anniversary that is related to a yearly holiday. placed together, it knocked me flat on my ass.
the idea in my mind from the start was integrationist, if not really consciously so. on the one hand, the guitar part is raw southern blues. on the other hand, the structure is sterile white minimalism. i didn't just realize this juxtaposition, i was trying to exploit it, even if the racial context hadn't occurred to me. when king's speech was played over it, though, the idea really exploded; the context became much deeper. it was an instant exponentiation in profundity.
i also thought it would work well as a foil to the doonesbury sample that is in the track that follows this one [entropy (original mix)].
in hindsight, there are some problems with this. i was a moderately wealthy white kid from canada. there was never much chance of me turning a profit on this, but if i did it would be a type of appropriation. this track does appear on the deny everything demo (jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/deny-everything) but under the title of "a commercial break" - and without the dr. king samples. that's probably for the best.
that doesn't change the feeling i got when i first heard the two things together, or take away any of the power that the pairing produces.
i think this is worth sharing.
recorded in january, 2000.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/let-freedom-ring
missed connection (original discarded outtake)
this was initially written to be the first track of my third record, which i was calling trinri as a working title. yet, it was written about the same time as i was finishing up my covers disc. i wanted to add at least one more track to the disc to make it a bit longer. for whatever reason, i ended up using it as an introduction to the hummer cover, rather than as it's own track.
i've pulled it out here, in instrumental form.
recorded in sept. 1999. isolated on nov 25, 2013.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/missed-connection
i've pulled it out here, in instrumental form.
recorded in sept. 1999. isolated on nov 25, 2013.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/missed-connection
hummer (remix/cover for inrimake)
this is two things.
the introductory synth section was created independently as the introduction to a theoretical third demo (which became deny everything). i had also already decided to compile the covers disc and ended up using it for an introduction to this cover of hummer, instead. so i "lost" the section. i've regretted letting the part go a few times since. and, going this route factored into the decision to include the first two tracks (which are not covers). anyways...
the rest of it is actually two different approaches to the same thing. i ended up using them both by stringing them together rather than one or the other.
i was also feeling trapped in the covers project, generally. this is something that took a huge amount of time and energy. why wasn't i applying that towards original material? the samples at the end are meant to represent me breaking free of myself, and letting myself loose to get back to my own ideas. so i could live again. i plead guilty to all counts of being a drama queen.
i also ended up co-opting the song, mildly. i focused solely on the instrumental part in the second half of the track, which has a very carefree quality to it. it's not explicitly about rejecting war. but it fits.
musically, for the second part, i need to weight two tendencies. first, it was consciously meant to have this silly fake-jazz strut to it. second, i was clearly more interested in free jamming than composing anything with structure. it's a weird juxtaposition that sounds kind of dorky. sometimes, you have to begin analyzing something by determining whether it accomplished it's goal or not. i feel this did, but the intent was admittedly unusual.
this is so dramatically different from the original that it's reasonable to say something like that it's "inspired by" the original rather than a remix or a cover. it does contain creatively reinterpreted samples of the original.
created in sept & oct, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/hummer
the introductory synth section was created independently as the introduction to a theoretical third demo (which became deny everything). i had also already decided to compile the covers disc and ended up using it for an introduction to this cover of hummer, instead. so i "lost" the section. i've regretted letting the part go a few times since. and, going this route factored into the decision to include the first two tracks (which are not covers). anyways...
the rest of it is actually two different approaches to the same thing. i ended up using them both by stringing them together rather than one or the other.
i was also feeling trapped in the covers project, generally. this is something that took a huge amount of time and energy. why wasn't i applying that towards original material? the samples at the end are meant to represent me breaking free of myself, and letting myself loose to get back to my own ideas. so i could live again. i plead guilty to all counts of being a drama queen.
i also ended up co-opting the song, mildly. i focused solely on the instrumental part in the second half of the track, which has a very carefree quality to it. it's not explicitly about rejecting war. but it fits.
musically, for the second part, i need to weight two tendencies. first, it was consciously meant to have this silly fake-jazz strut to it. second, i was clearly more interested in free jamming than composing anything with structure. it's a weird juxtaposition that sounds kind of dorky. sometimes, you have to begin analyzing something by determining whether it accomplished it's goal or not. i feel this did, but the intent was admittedly unusual.
this is so dramatically different from the original that it's reasonable to say something like that it's "inspired by" the original rather than a remix or a cover. it does contain creatively reinterpreted samples of the original.
created in sept & oct, 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/hummer
Sunday, November 24, 2013
the day inri messed the world up (remix/cover for inrimake)
alt.music.nin is a thing that existed, and you can imagine that the release of the fragile was a pretty big deal there. it was the first nin record released in the internet age - the first chance to discuss something new.
in fact, it hit the place like an explosion from friendly fire. giant arguments erupted, quickly giving way to a strange kind of silence. people that had been posting regularly for years couldn't even be bothered to post an opinion. i realized later that it was the first of what were several generational shifts in trent reznor's following. it actually seems to happen after every record. my shift out was "with teeth".
personally, i have a complex relationship with the disc, but this isn't a review of the fragile. it's an explanation of my remix of the track's first single, the day the world went away.
the single was released a few months before the record. people were posting remixes almost as soon as it was released. i actually didn't want to, but i had a few requests so i approached it on that level.
i wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the record, which it seemed like i had been waiting for my whole life. trent had been obfuscating and coy. it was hip-hop. it was orchestral music. it was prog. it was pop. i was just waiting with an open mind. the single didn't help form expectations: two versions of a mopey ambient thing, and a frighteningly awful tongue-in-cheek stadium rock dig at marilyn manson (who i gave zero fucks about, except in the context of him reducing reznor's songwriting quality). how does one approach this?
no. i didn't want to. "c'mon, i wanna hear your interpretation". fuck. fuck. no.
i listened a few more dozen times. i had aged five years, but the lyricist hadn't. i wasn't really connecting to it. but, the musician had aged fifty years and i was connecting to this. the production was.....actually really thin.
strangely.
musically, he had a good idea, but the execution struck me as completely botched. or, maybe, just minimized by record executives? either way, i decided i could make this thing bigger, more epic and more powerful.
that's the central idea in my reconstruction. i just wanted to take the idea in the original track and make it more dramatic.
i got a better response from this than i've ever gotten from anything else. randoms accused me of leaking a track, or even secretly being trent reznor (ok, those accusations were mostly not serious). many people admitted they liked my version better than the single version. i had such a huge spike at my mp3.com page (remember mp3.com?) that some of the tracks hit the top ranking in their categories. inri: mp3.com industrial rock superstar.
my plan was working! finally!
i can't tell what kind of feedback i got on the site. i had forgotten my password, and the site didn't have a mechanism to recover it. they got bought by some huge company soon after (i think it was vivendi) and all the indie artists got kicked to the curb.
drats. foiled....
recorded in the summer of 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-day-inri-messed-the-world-up
in fact, it hit the place like an explosion from friendly fire. giant arguments erupted, quickly giving way to a strange kind of silence. people that had been posting regularly for years couldn't even be bothered to post an opinion. i realized later that it was the first of what were several generational shifts in trent reznor's following. it actually seems to happen after every record. my shift out was "with teeth".
personally, i have a complex relationship with the disc, but this isn't a review of the fragile. it's an explanation of my remix of the track's first single, the day the world went away.
the single was released a few months before the record. people were posting remixes almost as soon as it was released. i actually didn't want to, but i had a few requests so i approached it on that level.
i wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the record, which it seemed like i had been waiting for my whole life. trent had been obfuscating and coy. it was hip-hop. it was orchestral music. it was prog. it was pop. i was just waiting with an open mind. the single didn't help form expectations: two versions of a mopey ambient thing, and a frighteningly awful tongue-in-cheek stadium rock dig at marilyn manson (who i gave zero fucks about, except in the context of him reducing reznor's songwriting quality). how does one approach this?
no. i didn't want to. "c'mon, i wanna hear your interpretation". fuck. fuck. no.
i listened a few more dozen times. i had aged five years, but the lyricist hadn't. i wasn't really connecting to it. but, the musician had aged fifty years and i was connecting to this. the production was.....actually really thin.
strangely.
musically, he had a good idea, but the execution struck me as completely botched. or, maybe, just minimized by record executives? either way, i decided i could make this thing bigger, more epic and more powerful.
that's the central idea in my reconstruction. i just wanted to take the idea in the original track and make it more dramatic.
i got a better response from this than i've ever gotten from anything else. randoms accused me of leaking a track, or even secretly being trent reznor (ok, those accusations were mostly not serious). many people admitted they liked my version better than the single version. i had such a huge spike at my mp3.com page (remember mp3.com?) that some of the tracks hit the top ranking in their categories. inri: mp3.com industrial rock superstar.
my plan was working! finally!
i can't tell what kind of feedback i got on the site. i had forgotten my password, and the site didn't have a mechanism to recover it. they got bought by some huge company soon after (i think it was vivendi) and all the indie artists got kicked to the curb.
drats. foiled....
recorded in the summer of 1999.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/the-day-inri-messed-the-world-up
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