Monday, June 6, 2016
actually...
on second thought, it doesn't make any sense to use facebook at all if they're going to remove the timeline. it was the only thing i liked about it. but, it's going to take a long time for me to get all of the posts off of here. ugh. this site is fucking death.
um. i don't know what i'm doing. i'm going to want a public timeline somewhere or other. but, this page is going to get wiped down, and it's not going to be coming back. i'll probably just build my own at appspot.
for the alter-reality, it makes sense because it's coming in in real-time. but, the interface is just fucking trash. they bring in features, then they remove them. we have no control. it's just a garbage website...
on second thought, it doesn't make any sense to use facebook at all if they're going to remove the timeline. it was the only thing i liked about it. but, it's going to take a long time for me to get all of the posts off of here. ugh. this site is fucking death.
um. i don't know what i'm doing. i'm going to want a public timeline somewhere or other. but, this page is going to get wiped down, and it's not going to be coming back. i'll probably just build my own at appspot.
for the alter-reality, it makes sense because it's coming in in real-time. but, the interface is just fucking trash. they bring in features, then they remove them. we have no control. it's just a garbage website...
i had a final burst of show activity last week, and then needed the weekend to detox. i was planning on being back at it today, and then with very serious intent tomorrow.
however, unfortunately, facebook has just removed the ability to jump to posts in the past, which is just more of a reason to stop using it. but, it means i'm going to have to strip the page down from the top down rather than the bottom up. so, that's going to set me back at least a few days. i suppose the benefit is that when i rebuild the page, it will be total. it'll be more organized...
in the mean time, i've uploaded some very old pictures of me to the alter-reality page.
https://www.facebook.com/inri-1719120681676528/photos
however, unfortunately, facebook has just removed the ability to jump to posts in the past, which is just more of a reason to stop using it. but, it means i'm going to have to strip the page down from the top down rather than the bottom up. so, that's going to set me back at least a few days. i suppose the benefit is that when i rebuild the page, it will be total. it'll be more organized...
in the mean time, i've uploaded some very old pictures of me to the alter-reality page.
https://www.facebook.com/inri-1719120681676528/photos
Sunday, June 5, 2016
journeying to third man records, and then around the back way to ufo to see a couple of bands
this was actually somewhat of a long day at the end of a long month of too many shows, too much drinking and too much walking. by the end of it, i was dragging myself home to my couch, where my ankles gave out minutes before i passed out...
--
i'd never been to third man records before, but figured the free show was worth coming down early for. it was a combo thing. i probably wouldn't have gone to either set on their own.
i'm really not sure exactly what i was expecting; maybe, something like a chain store in a mall. i think i realized that it was going to be a little bit plastic. but, i wasn't expecting to be basically walking into the gap. well, they had a couch. with peppermint pillows. and a stage. with excellent sound. yet, it very much felt more like an apparel store than a record store - from the layout down to the staff. if they were going for authentic, they missed it by a very wide mark.
the sound in the store was incredible. i don't think i've ever heard an inside set sound that dynamic outside of a theatre; i don't know who he's got working there, but he knows how to separate the instruments. the drums had an open-air sound. the bass was kept out of the way out of the guitars. and, the result was a really excellently sounding set from a nice spot on the couch.
it turns out that the band got added to the second show, meaning i didn't have to come down there early. but, i don't feel it was a waste of time because i got introduced to the sound system in the building.
i hope that more people take advantage of the sound in the building. i'm going to guess that capacity is around 100, which is not much smaller than any other rock bar in town.
i walked from third man to the ufo factory, which took me around an area of detroit i hadn't been in before. i actually mostly felt ok along the walk. i'm not sure why it is, but it seems like there's a really long strip between mlk and temple that is sketchy for miles both ways, while it's more or less fine on either side. it might have something to do with the way the highways intersect detroit, which creates these large areas of dead space. poor planning or purposeful sacrifice? i don't know. but, i'm starting to learn that it's mostly cosmetic, or at least is in the day.
it didn't stop a lot of strange looks, both friendly and concerned. i walked by a young black couple that seemed surprised to see a lily-white thing walk through there, but in a good way. i was a pleasant surprise. an older white woman actually slowed down and rolled down her window to ask if i was ok, before she sped off on to the highway, clearly frightened. i got honks from middle-aged black men, followed by fingers pointing in safe directions, and then head shakes. more concerned looks.
it was truly only a few blocks from third to trumble - a very short march up mlk. but, it demonstrated a cross-racial perception: i was insane to walk through there. at 6:30 at night. in broad daylight. whites and blacks agreed. men and women agreed. i can't claim i fully understand, but i *do* think i should take the hint and go around next time, whether i think it's necessary or not.
--
i got to the bar around 7:00. doors were at 9:00. while i nearly tried an artistic hot dog (raspberry sauce? hummus? peppermint?), i was feeling a little bloated from too many dorito-nachos and refrained. next time.
it was a bit of a wait out in the back, but i can't really complain. beautiful weather. cheap beer. ziggy stardust. life seemed good.
eventually, some people showed up and they brought me what i like. there's a public thank you to the scruffy dude in the golf shirt.
--
rabble rabble came on again, and the sound was nowhere near as good. but, i guess that made the set more real, too; they're not normally going to have a jack white funded sound stage to play on. what they're doing is a kind of an update on the concept of alternative rock, taking in bits of punk, psych and metal and swirling it around into something vaguely epic. the musicianship in the band is fairly high, which kind of takes it up a notch. definitely worth the $5.
the second band was a bit noisier than i was expecting, and there were some definite upsides. my solipsism senses went haywire when they did a cover of soundgarden's dusty, as it just came up in the alter-reality. it's only a wild coincidence, slothrop. see, the guitarist tended to get himself stuck in what cornell would call "guitar trances" when describing thayil, which is not inherently bad, it's just that he didn't have the chops to pull it off. there's two options, here: up your game, or tighten up. either is acceptable. but, it's a necessary choice. really. it wasn't at all bad, i wouldn't skip it, but it just dragged a little - and i like me my lengthy post-rock, too, you know that.
here is a full set:
i was already done by the time heron oblivion came on, and it consequently acted as somewhat of an anti-climax. the way i describe this in my day-after video review is that the band is walking a delicate line that the slightest push off balance is bound to instantly unravel. now, this band has two members of comets on fire in it (including the guitarist). it seems to me that he felt like he was getting mildly upstaged by the previous two bands, who both wanted to push their guitars in your face (with varying actual results). this mild push blew the entire thing up. but, what i'm getting across is that it was inherently unstable in the first place.
it's hard to take these loud psych guys and force them to behave while the drummer gets out these kind of delicate, fragile vocals. that's the draw to it - it feels like it's about to explode, but it doesn't. except that it actually did on this night...
the other thing i should point out is the song selection. in hindsight, it's not surprising that the picked the more upbeat tracks to perform. but, it's the darker and slower ones that are actually more compelling to listen to. i've been guilty of this repeatedly: i flip the filler with the substance. well, it's relative, right. but, i show up expecting them to perform what they think of as filler (and what i interpreted as substance), then get kind of bored with what they're calling substance (and i'm interpreting as filler). again, i think this goes back to the reality that this musical configuration is inherently unstable. a bad isotope. the sound of gamma decay.
hey, they got one record out, and that's probably more than should be expected. i think catching this band is going to be hit or miss - if you catch them on a good night, they could be mesmerizing. that wasn't this night, though. overall, it's probably worth the gamble.
i left a few minutes early to catch the bus, only to have the bus come in a half-hour late. see, i don’t want to complain, exactly. i just wish that the schedule was more clear. if i had known the bus was going to be a half-hour late, i would have stayed later…
when i did finally get home, i more or less collapsed. my ankles were not happy with me. at the end of it, i lost my train of thought in mid-sentence and just found myself knocked right out. at least i got some sleep.
here is the day's vlog:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/06/02.html
--
i'd never been to third man records before, but figured the free show was worth coming down early for. it was a combo thing. i probably wouldn't have gone to either set on their own.
i'm really not sure exactly what i was expecting; maybe, something like a chain store in a mall. i think i realized that it was going to be a little bit plastic. but, i wasn't expecting to be basically walking into the gap. well, they had a couch. with peppermint pillows. and a stage. with excellent sound. yet, it very much felt more like an apparel store than a record store - from the layout down to the staff. if they were going for authentic, they missed it by a very wide mark.
the sound in the store was incredible. i don't think i've ever heard an inside set sound that dynamic outside of a theatre; i don't know who he's got working there, but he knows how to separate the instruments. the drums had an open-air sound. the bass was kept out of the way out of the guitars. and, the result was a really excellently sounding set from a nice spot on the couch.
it turns out that the band got added to the second show, meaning i didn't have to come down there early. but, i don't feel it was a waste of time because i got introduced to the sound system in the building.
i hope that more people take advantage of the sound in the building. i'm going to guess that capacity is around 100, which is not much smaller than any other rock bar in town.
i walked from third man to the ufo factory, which took me around an area of detroit i hadn't been in before. i actually mostly felt ok along the walk. i'm not sure why it is, but it seems like there's a really long strip between mlk and temple that is sketchy for miles both ways, while it's more or less fine on either side. it might have something to do with the way the highways intersect detroit, which creates these large areas of dead space. poor planning or purposeful sacrifice? i don't know. but, i'm starting to learn that it's mostly cosmetic, or at least is in the day.
it didn't stop a lot of strange looks, both friendly and concerned. i walked by a young black couple that seemed surprised to see a lily-white thing walk through there, but in a good way. i was a pleasant surprise. an older white woman actually slowed down and rolled down her window to ask if i was ok, before she sped off on to the highway, clearly frightened. i got honks from middle-aged black men, followed by fingers pointing in safe directions, and then head shakes. more concerned looks.
it was truly only a few blocks from third to trumble - a very short march up mlk. but, it demonstrated a cross-racial perception: i was insane to walk through there. at 6:30 at night. in broad daylight. whites and blacks agreed. men and women agreed. i can't claim i fully understand, but i *do* think i should take the hint and go around next time, whether i think it's necessary or not.
--
i got to the bar around 7:00. doors were at 9:00. while i nearly tried an artistic hot dog (raspberry sauce? hummus? peppermint?), i was feeling a little bloated from too many dorito-nachos and refrained. next time.
it was a bit of a wait out in the back, but i can't really complain. beautiful weather. cheap beer. ziggy stardust. life seemed good.
eventually, some people showed up and they brought me what i like. there's a public thank you to the scruffy dude in the golf shirt.
--
rabble rabble came on again, and the sound was nowhere near as good. but, i guess that made the set more real, too; they're not normally going to have a jack white funded sound stage to play on. what they're doing is a kind of an update on the concept of alternative rock, taking in bits of punk, psych and metal and swirling it around into something vaguely epic. the musicianship in the band is fairly high, which kind of takes it up a notch. definitely worth the $5.
the second band was a bit noisier than i was expecting, and there were some definite upsides. my solipsism senses went haywire when they did a cover of soundgarden's dusty, as it just came up in the alter-reality. it's only a wild coincidence, slothrop. see, the guitarist tended to get himself stuck in what cornell would call "guitar trances" when describing thayil, which is not inherently bad, it's just that he didn't have the chops to pull it off. there's two options, here: up your game, or tighten up. either is acceptable. but, it's a necessary choice. really. it wasn't at all bad, i wouldn't skip it, but it just dragged a little - and i like me my lengthy post-rock, too, you know that.
here is a full set:
i was already done by the time heron oblivion came on, and it consequently acted as somewhat of an anti-climax. the way i describe this in my day-after video review is that the band is walking a delicate line that the slightest push off balance is bound to instantly unravel. now, this band has two members of comets on fire in it (including the guitarist). it seems to me that he felt like he was getting mildly upstaged by the previous two bands, who both wanted to push their guitars in your face (with varying actual results). this mild push blew the entire thing up. but, what i'm getting across is that it was inherently unstable in the first place.
it's hard to take these loud psych guys and force them to behave while the drummer gets out these kind of delicate, fragile vocals. that's the draw to it - it feels like it's about to explode, but it doesn't. except that it actually did on this night...
the other thing i should point out is the song selection. in hindsight, it's not surprising that the picked the more upbeat tracks to perform. but, it's the darker and slower ones that are actually more compelling to listen to. i've been guilty of this repeatedly: i flip the filler with the substance. well, it's relative, right. but, i show up expecting them to perform what they think of as filler (and what i interpreted as substance), then get kind of bored with what they're calling substance (and i'm interpreting as filler). again, i think this goes back to the reality that this musical configuration is inherently unstable. a bad isotope. the sound of gamma decay.
hey, they got one record out, and that's probably more than should be expected. i think catching this band is going to be hit or miss - if you catch them on a good night, they could be mesmerizing. that wasn't this night, though. overall, it's probably worth the gamble.
i left a few minutes early to catch the bus, only to have the bus come in a half-hour late. see, i don’t want to complain, exactly. i just wish that the schedule was more clear. if i had known the bus was going to be a half-hour late, i would have stayed later…
when i did finally get home, i more or less collapsed. my ankles were not happy with me. at the end of it, i lost my train of thought in mid-sentence and just found myself knocked right out. at least i got some sleep.
here is the day's vlog:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/06/02.html
thoroughly confused by lunch cult
i wasn't able to get footage of the show, and rather than present a narrative (which would not be very interesting), i've decided that it's better to just point out some of the things that confused me to the point where i avoided footage.
to begin with, i really wasn't expecting a keyboard player. the samples suggested that the band was operating roughly somewhere in the space of the pixies, with a bit of an odd sense of humour - think butthole surfers, maybe. there was no hint of keyboards, whatsoever. so, when they came on and started playing some kind of love song, i actually thought it was a different band and nearly went out for a smoke, instead. but, i found the drumming a little bit interesting, so i came back in.
i'm not sure why they played the set they did, but the drumming largely saved it. the drummer had a tendency to go into contextless temper tantrums, like a bad caricature of animal from the muppet show. see, here's the thing: i know my phil collins. well. even when the rest of the band was being ironic or stupid (there was a confluence of ironic into stupid, here), listening to the phil emulation was worthwhile.
otherwise, i wish i would have realized what i was going to see. i would not have paid customs and then brought booze to detroit to see what i actually saw, which was operating on some kind of level of satire in a way that summed to a gigantic waste of time. they did a few tracks that were recognizable, but most of the set was actually done in the form of a parody of a crooner band. the bulk of it was purposefully lame lyrics, sung purposefully out of key over purposefully bad music. you could have told me you were going to do that before hand, guys. i would have saved the cash for something else. jerks.
i would normally say something like "it's worth the $5.". i will very rarely dissuade somebody from seeing something i've taken the time to go to. by trying to be ironic, and just ending up being really stupid, lunch cult have earned my rare ire to the point of an active non-rec. save your money, don't go to the show.
that said, i have to point out that i didn't have a terrible time. i mean, i would not have gone to the show if i know what it was going to be - i've stated that twice now, and i want to be clear of it. but, i'm not easily confused, either, and they managed to spin me around pretty good. is this really them? do two of the bands have the same members? are they combining sets?
it was nothing like that: they were just taking the piss. and, piss taken. but with a consequence: not recommended. at all.
--
the other bands weren't particularly memorable. i barely recall what the beverly tenders sounded like, other than thinking it was a little better than i was expecting due to some thick guitar effects work. the last thing that came on was literally karaoke.
vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/31.html
to begin with, i really wasn't expecting a keyboard player. the samples suggested that the band was operating roughly somewhere in the space of the pixies, with a bit of an odd sense of humour - think butthole surfers, maybe. there was no hint of keyboards, whatsoever. so, when they came on and started playing some kind of love song, i actually thought it was a different band and nearly went out for a smoke, instead. but, i found the drumming a little bit interesting, so i came back in.
i'm not sure why they played the set they did, but the drumming largely saved it. the drummer had a tendency to go into contextless temper tantrums, like a bad caricature of animal from the muppet show. see, here's the thing: i know my phil collins. well. even when the rest of the band was being ironic or stupid (there was a confluence of ironic into stupid, here), listening to the phil emulation was worthwhile.
otherwise, i wish i would have realized what i was going to see. i would not have paid customs and then brought booze to detroit to see what i actually saw, which was operating on some kind of level of satire in a way that summed to a gigantic waste of time. they did a few tracks that were recognizable, but most of the set was actually done in the form of a parody of a crooner band. the bulk of it was purposefully lame lyrics, sung purposefully out of key over purposefully bad music. you could have told me you were going to do that before hand, guys. i would have saved the cash for something else. jerks.
i would normally say something like "it's worth the $5.". i will very rarely dissuade somebody from seeing something i've taken the time to go to. by trying to be ironic, and just ending up being really stupid, lunch cult have earned my rare ire to the point of an active non-rec. save your money, don't go to the show.
that said, i have to point out that i didn't have a terrible time. i mean, i would not have gone to the show if i know what it was going to be - i've stated that twice now, and i want to be clear of it. but, i'm not easily confused, either, and they managed to spin me around pretty good. is this really them? do two of the bands have the same members? are they combining sets?
it was nothing like that: they were just taking the piss. and, piss taken. but with a consequence: not recommended. at all.
--
the other bands weren't particularly memorable. i barely recall what the beverly tenders sounded like, other than thinking it was a little better than i was expecting due to some thick guitar effects work. the last thing that came on was literally karaoke.
vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/31.html
Friday, June 3, 2016
i've explained this in my vlogs, but it's a hard thing to find. i have reasons for posting this here.
i do not monetize show footage, nor do i include it in the vlogs. the reason is that it would give the copyright owner on the footage the ability to steal my vlog.
i think that people "out there" may be a little confused about youtube. youtube is not a system where people can post and make money from whatever they want. facebook video largely is exactly this. but, youtube is actually a very controlled system of content management.
here is one example. i was walking through detroit a few months ago, talking into my camera. i happened to walk by a bar that was playing a michael jackson song for a few seconds. understand that this is incidental audio - neither captured with intent, nor inserted consciously. it's not even "fair use"; i had no intention of even using it at all. it was just random background sound. however, sony was then able to take control of the entire half hour vlog and i had no ability to argue against it. i'm left to conclude that the same thing would happen if i recorded myself talking in a mall, a restaurant or anywhere else with background audio.
is that legal? of course not. but, there's no legal mechanism in place to have this discussion. the system is designed to benefit copyright owners at the expense of content creators, with no exceptions or caveats.
now, as it is, i don't really care about recording your band for the sake of recording your band. there will be some exceptions, but i go to a lot of shows and i'm only really deeply interested in a small fraction of it. rather, i'm recording a vlog. take yourself down a notch. it's not about you. it's about me.
but, what that means is that i have to abide by the rules - which not only do not allow me to monetize songs i didn't make (if i'd want to....but it's not what it's about...), but actually would give the artists i'm recording the ability to claim copyright over my entire vlog.
so, please be cognizant of the actual reality, here: in order to prevent record labels and other rentier capitalists from copyrighting my vlogs, i am required to separate performances out of my vlogs. not only am i not cashing in on their performances, but i need to take steps to prevent them from cashing in on my vlogging!
the system is unsustainable; it will have to be changed to take power away from copyright holders. but, for now, it is what it is.
nor do i claim copyright over material i do not own. should that be discovered, i would face punitive measures. the second picture demonstrates what happens when you upload something by an artist in a relationship with a large rentier: sony claimed ownership of the son lux video, whereas universal claimed ownership of the julia holter one.
i do not monetize show footage, nor do i include it in the vlogs. the reason is that it would give the copyright owner on the footage the ability to steal my vlog.
i think that people "out there" may be a little confused about youtube. youtube is not a system where people can post and make money from whatever they want. facebook video largely is exactly this. but, youtube is actually a very controlled system of content management.
here is one example. i was walking through detroit a few months ago, talking into my camera. i happened to walk by a bar that was playing a michael jackson song for a few seconds. understand that this is incidental audio - neither captured with intent, nor inserted consciously. it's not even "fair use"; i had no intention of even using it at all. it was just random background sound. however, sony was then able to take control of the entire half hour vlog and i had no ability to argue against it. i'm left to conclude that the same thing would happen if i recorded myself talking in a mall, a restaurant or anywhere else with background audio.
is that legal? of course not. but, there's no legal mechanism in place to have this discussion. the system is designed to benefit copyright owners at the expense of content creators, with no exceptions or caveats.
now, as it is, i don't really care about recording your band for the sake of recording your band. there will be some exceptions, but i go to a lot of shows and i'm only really deeply interested in a small fraction of it. rather, i'm recording a vlog. take yourself down a notch. it's not about you. it's about me.
but, what that means is that i have to abide by the rules - which not only do not allow me to monetize songs i didn't make (if i'd want to....but it's not what it's about...), but actually would give the artists i'm recording the ability to claim copyright over my entire vlog.
so, please be cognizant of the actual reality, here: in order to prevent record labels and other rentier capitalists from copyrighting my vlogs, i am required to separate performances out of my vlogs. not only am i not cashing in on their performances, but i need to take steps to prevent them from cashing in on my vlogging!
the system is unsustainable; it will have to be changed to take power away from copyright holders. but, for now, it is what it is.
nor do i claim copyright over material i do not own. should that be discovered, i would face punitive measures. the second picture demonstrates what happens when you upload something by an artist in a relationship with a large rentier: sony claimed ownership of the son lux video, whereas universal claimed ownership of the julia holter one.
02-06-2016: two shows in detroit and a hard crash at the end (last day out for a while)
show footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqebb8PH9ac
more footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsorZklwtpY
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/06/02.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqebb8PH9ac
more footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsorZklwtpY
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/06/02.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
31-05-2016: thoroughly confused by lunch cult
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/31.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/31.html
tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1
Monday, May 30, 2016
first time walking up the cass corridor on a nice night to see a math rock band at marble
the most exciting thing about the day was walking an hour up cass from rosa parks, and trying to time the length of the walk for future use. the weather was finally co-operating in throwing out a nice, hot, humid night. i've been here three years and this was really the first nice night walking through detroit.
palm was on first and they were most notable for being able to actually pull off what they put down on record, which was not obvious walking into the show. i remarked at some point during the night that this is the kind of band that exists for a few years, disappears with little notice and then gets discovered a few years later. you should probably see them the first time, while you have the chance.
here is a full set:
ought was on second, and i wasn't very impressed. i was expecting something generic, in the broad scope of the kind of fruity "indie rock" that has been popular for the last few years. a danceable beat, with some broken chords and some synth stabs. *yawn*. but, they ended up more schlocky than fluffy, navigating through that minimalist-guitars-with-gruff-vocalist post-punk space. it came off as a kind of vanity pick by ian ilavsky. check out new era building, compare and you'll see what i mean.
the walk back in the dark was really not bad at all. you can imagine that this big, collapsing city remains a little bit scary to this shy, polite canadian. but, i'm getting used to it. it was really mostly through campus. apologies to anti-gentrification activists, but it'll feel that much safer when they finish with the hockey arena. that couple of blocks between mlk and temple is really the only creepy part of the walk.
here is the vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/26.html
palm was on first and they were most notable for being able to actually pull off what they put down on record, which was not obvious walking into the show. i remarked at some point during the night that this is the kind of band that exists for a few years, disappears with little notice and then gets discovered a few years later. you should probably see them the first time, while you have the chance.
here is a full set:
ought was on second, and i wasn't very impressed. i was expecting something generic, in the broad scope of the kind of fruity "indie rock" that has been popular for the last few years. a danceable beat, with some broken chords and some synth stabs. *yawn*. but, they ended up more schlocky than fluffy, navigating through that minimalist-guitars-with-gruff-vocalist post-punk space. it came off as a kind of vanity pick by ian ilavsky. check out new era building, compare and you'll see what i mean.
the walk back in the dark was really not bad at all. you can imagine that this big, collapsing city remains a little bit scary to this shy, polite canadian. but, i'm getting used to it. it was really mostly through campus. apologies to anti-gentrification activists, but it'll feel that much safer when they finish with the hockey arena. that couple of blocks between mlk and temple is really the only creepy part of the walk.
here is the vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/26.html
Saturday, May 28, 2016
unpublishing the bandcamp page
i've cleared this down to almost nothing (those three eps are second period eps and have prior downloads, so i can't set them to private.)
don't worry. it's just so i can organize the finalization process more cleanly. they will come up one by one. and, in fact, i'll post here when they do.
expect an average of one release/day until i catch up around the end of the summer, starting tomorrow. i'll lose a few days due to shows or groceries or whatever. that will push me through, one last time, from 1996 back to 2003, where i stopped last year. it will also let me generate the tree of the content for the alter-reality for the next eight years.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/
don't worry. it's just so i can organize the finalization process more cleanly. they will come up one by one. and, in fact, i'll post here when they do.
expect an average of one release/day until i catch up around the end of the summer, starting tomorrow. i'll lose a few days due to shows or groceries or whatever. that will push me through, one last time, from 1996 back to 2003, where i stopped last year. it will also let me generate the tree of the content for the alter-reality for the next eight years.
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/
i've finally managed to circle myself back around to where i was about this time last year, which was finishing the aleph-0 disc. but i'm feeling that i need to throw myself back to the ground and carefully start from the beginning. that means i'm going to be posting absolutely final updates to the discography as they are completed. that should probably start tomorrow and continue forward for the next two-three months. when it's done, i'll finally be able to start working on the third period material (2003-2007).
starts rock band. cancels tour because he has to work.
so, i went to the trouble of ensuring i had both sufficient intoxicants and a colourful babydoll, and then the band i went to see decided not to show up.
"apparently, the drummer had to work."
"hey, it's a thing that happens."
(pause)
"he had to work?"
"yeah."
(pause)
ahahahahahaha....
ahahahahahahahaha....
--
i had already paid customs, so what would be the use of going home without getting drunk? the reviews will be terse, though.
--
this was the second time i've seen river spirit. last time, i suggested the rhythm section was kind of funky, but the singer wasn't really paying attention and the result was disjointed and discombobulated, but not in a good way. the suggestion was that maybe there's some divergence, there. on this night, however, the band was actually pretty tight. she often took a step back from the mic to just rock out on the bass, instead. i don't know what changed between november and now, but it's just a more coherent and unified presentation.
--
nokomis were a pleasant, but generic, indie/post-rock thing. they were having fun. it wasn't bad, either. it was just entirely forgettable.
--
i didn't stay for much of the sax & violence set - the first fifteen minutes, or so. there was an electronic violin looking thing and a saxamophone of some variety. they took turns jamming aimlessly over some pre-programmed loops; they were really literally just fucking around. in theory, you could do something with that idea. but, see, you have to write some music first. by playing at the same time. i know. life is complicated.
here is the day's vlog:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/23.html
"apparently, the drummer had to work."
"hey, it's a thing that happens."
(pause)
"he had to work?"
"yeah."
(pause)
ahahahahahaha....
ahahahahahahahaha....
--
i had already paid customs, so what would be the use of going home without getting drunk? the reviews will be terse, though.
--
this was the second time i've seen river spirit. last time, i suggested the rhythm section was kind of funky, but the singer wasn't really paying attention and the result was disjointed and discombobulated, but not in a good way. the suggestion was that maybe there's some divergence, there. on this night, however, the band was actually pretty tight. she often took a step back from the mic to just rock out on the bass, instead. i don't know what changed between november and now, but it's just a more coherent and unified presentation.
--
nokomis were a pleasant, but generic, indie/post-rock thing. they were having fun. it wasn't bad, either. it was just entirely forgettable.
--
i didn't stay for much of the sax & violence set - the first fifteen minutes, or so. there was an electronic violin looking thing and a saxamophone of some variety. they took turns jamming aimlessly over some pre-programmed loops; they were really literally just fucking around. in theory, you could do something with that idea. but, see, you have to write some music first. by playing at the same time. i know. life is complicated.
here is the day's vlog:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/23.html
Friday, May 27, 2016
Thursday, May 26, 2016
why not...
jessica
2 attachments — Scan and download all attachments
01. complete mix.mp3
7353K Scan and download
04. to spin inside dull aberrations.mp3
17924K Scan and download
cjammd
Hi Jessica,
Is this for the singles club compilation? Are you a Windsor-Detroit based artist?
jessica
yes and yes.
i dunno. i guess it's not really radio music in the traditional sense.
except it kinda is, too, in the fm radio sense.
2 attachments — Scan and download all attachments
01. complete mix.mp3
7353K Scan and download
04. to spin inside dull aberrations.mp3
17924K Scan and download
cjammd
Hi Jessica,
Is this for the singles club compilation? Are you a Windsor-Detroit based artist?
jessica
yes and yes.
i dunno. i guess it's not really radio music in the traditional sense.
except it kinda is, too, in the fm radio sense.
yet another quick walk to phog and back to see another canadian band
i was planning on this show being an in and out on a holiday weekend in canada that you generally want to avoid cars, and really roads altogether, on. the ideal was to show up halfway through the local band's set in order to catch the math band....and maybe stay for the third set. instead, the math rock band played first and came on a little late, even by phog standards. i ended up catching the first two acts and skipping the third.
this was the second of three lengthy combinations; it happens to have been the least interesting of the three. you can hear plenty of evidence here that these are capable musicians that like to play acrobatic parts. so, why are they retreating into repetition for these long periods?
but, this is kind of a pointless critique, in some ways, too. i mean, there's more than enough going on, here. it's just that if you're accustomed to this hyper-adhd style of math rock, the reliance on repetition comes off as a crux. a faux pas, even.
but, i mean, listen for yourself and see what you think.
i wasn't really intending to stay for this set, but i decided i was feeling pretty relaxed and, hey, why not? the output surprised me quite a bit...
the impression i got from their bandcamp page was a kind of poppy post-punk, maybe with gazey leanings. i was expecting something fairly timid that i'd get bored of quite quickly. however, the actual show was fairly noisy and riff-oriented, and seemed to exist somewhere in that nice intersection of grunge and math rock that happened in the mid 90s. think polvo, for example. now, see, i suspect that they were playing mostly new material, or at least mostly material not accessible online, so there wasn't really any way to get a grasp of things ahead of time.
the drawback is that they seem to want to hold to a kind of traditional emo framework. in 2016, you only do this because you never really thought not to. it's just what you've always done, kind of thing. but, the genre is beyond dead, it's already been reincarnated as farce. there's nowhere to go with this. not even with kids, who are nowadays actually mostly going to interpret it as dad rock. they'll be better off if they can drop this. but, they'll probably have to redefine themselves to do it, and unknown bands tend not to survive such a thing.
but, the upshot is that they were legitimately tight and legitimately interesting. the bassist is unusually loud, given the genre, and it's a positive.
so, i guess the honest assessment is that while i wouldn't expect this precise configuration to go anywhere, this band may have the seeds of a successor project that is able to let go of the songwriting formulas they're accustomed to and expand a little more in that polvo-style direction.
dropping or muzzling the vocalist is going to be key in evolving the sound.
and here is the vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/22.html
this was the second of three lengthy combinations; it happens to have been the least interesting of the three. you can hear plenty of evidence here that these are capable musicians that like to play acrobatic parts. so, why are they retreating into repetition for these long periods?
but, this is kind of a pointless critique, in some ways, too. i mean, there's more than enough going on, here. it's just that if you're accustomed to this hyper-adhd style of math rock, the reliance on repetition comes off as a crux. a faux pas, even.
but, i mean, listen for yourself and see what you think.
i wasn't really intending to stay for this set, but i decided i was feeling pretty relaxed and, hey, why not? the output surprised me quite a bit...
the impression i got from their bandcamp page was a kind of poppy post-punk, maybe with gazey leanings. i was expecting something fairly timid that i'd get bored of quite quickly. however, the actual show was fairly noisy and riff-oriented, and seemed to exist somewhere in that nice intersection of grunge and math rock that happened in the mid 90s. think polvo, for example. now, see, i suspect that they were playing mostly new material, or at least mostly material not accessible online, so there wasn't really any way to get a grasp of things ahead of time.
the drawback is that they seem to want to hold to a kind of traditional emo framework. in 2016, you only do this because you never really thought not to. it's just what you've always done, kind of thing. but, the genre is beyond dead, it's already been reincarnated as farce. there's nowhere to go with this. not even with kids, who are nowadays actually mostly going to interpret it as dad rock. they'll be better off if they can drop this. but, they'll probably have to redefine themselves to do it, and unknown bands tend not to survive such a thing.
but, the upshot is that they were legitimately tight and legitimately interesting. the bassist is unusually loud, given the genre, and it's a positive.
so, i guess the honest assessment is that while i wouldn't expect this precise configuration to go anywhere, this band may have the seeds of a successor project that is able to let go of the songwriting formulas they're accustomed to and expand a little more in that polvo-style direction.
dropping or muzzling the vocalist is going to be key in evolving the sound.
and here is the vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/22.html
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
there's a post up here, now. the other profiles will take some time
to catch up - first music releases in september 1996/2016. it gets the
point across...
http://therealinri.blogspot.com/1996/05/really-enjoying-new-soundgarden-record.html
http://therealinri.blogspot.com/1996/05/really-enjoying-new-soundgarden-record.html
first alter-reality post
May 22, 1996
i guess this is my new blog. wow.
i should be asleep, but it's a saturday night and my parents don't really force me to go to sleep. well, how can they, really? they need to sleep, too. fatalism is actually pretty rational, in context - it's an unresolvable problem. and i'm a bit of a hard-headed little punk rascal.
i just find that i only need a few hours of rest, not something crazy like eight hours. who sleeps that long? wow. i'm ok with four hours, really. so, what should i do for the rest of the night, then? toss darts at the wall? count sheep? lying in bed when you're really not tired is just simply being unproductive. if i'm going to be awake anyways, i'd rather stay up and read something, or listen to some music. i guess it's a good time to do some blogging, too.
i don't have internet access in my room, though, so i need to sneak into the spare computer room when i want to use the internet at night. i do have a computer in my room, but it only has windows 3.1 on it. i need windows 95 to use internet explorer. so, i probably won't be able to do this blog every night.
i've been up all night playing civ2 and listening to this new soundgarden cassette on my walkman. i skipped the afternoon class on tuesday (computer class, and i already know it all, anyways, so it's just a waste of time) to go down to the hmv at st. laurent to pick it up. i get a free bus pass from school, so i can go wherever i want in the city whenever i want, which is actually very liberating. much easier than bicycling. there's a music world at billings, too, but it's always over priced and under stocked. the hmv at st. laurent is only a few minutes up the transitway and always has what i want.
it's a little different than superunknown, a bit poppier, but it's still pretty good. parts of it remind me a lot of the beatles, and i really like the beatles a lot. parts of it are sort of weird, and i like that, too. i always like to hear things that i haven't heard before. i think i'd like to teach myself how to play some of these songs, too, but i'm wondering if maybe they're in weird tunings. i know soundgarden likes weird tunings. my ibanez has a locking bridge so i try to avoid weird tunings. maybe, i can figure out how to play them in normal tunings, anyways. when songs are in weird tunings, it's sometimes helpful to find tabs on the internet, because then i can figure out how to play it with normal tuning. sometimes, that means transposing the song up a key or two but it's all relative so it doesn't matter.
i've been playing civ2 ever since i got home last night. dad says i'm totally addicted, but it's a video game, not a drug, so i think that's a weird thing to say. but, i do sometimes play it all night, until the sun comes up and the dogs come running in and i have to pretend i'm sleeping. i like to change the civilizations i play with so that i can learn the names of the cities in different parts of the world. tonight, i am catherine the great of russia. i always liked to learn about geography, ever since i was very small. i knew all the capital cities in the whole world, almost!
i found a tab for burden in my hand, and it is actually in a weird tuning. i should try and convert it to normal tuning when i wake up tomorrow.
i should sneak back into my room now. shhh.
really enjoying the new soundgarden record
i guess this is my new blog. wow.
i should be asleep, but it's a saturday night and my parents don't really force me to go to sleep. well, how can they, really? they need to sleep, too. fatalism is actually pretty rational, in context - it's an unresolvable problem. and i'm a bit of a hard-headed little punk rascal.
i just find that i only need a few hours of rest, not something crazy like eight hours. who sleeps that long? wow. i'm ok with four hours, really. so, what should i do for the rest of the night, then? toss darts at the wall? count sheep? lying in bed when you're really not tired is just simply being unproductive. if i'm going to be awake anyways, i'd rather stay up and read something, or listen to some music. i guess it's a good time to do some blogging, too.
i don't have internet access in my room, though, so i need to sneak into the spare computer room when i want to use the internet at night. i do have a computer in my room, but it only has windows 3.1 on it. i need windows 95 to use internet explorer. so, i probably won't be able to do this blog every night.
i've been up all night playing civ2 and listening to this new soundgarden cassette on my walkman. i skipped the afternoon class on tuesday (computer class, and i already know it all, anyways, so it's just a waste of time) to go down to the hmv at st. laurent to pick it up. i get a free bus pass from school, so i can go wherever i want in the city whenever i want, which is actually very liberating. much easier than bicycling. there's a music world at billings, too, but it's always over priced and under stocked. the hmv at st. laurent is only a few minutes up the transitway and always has what i want.
it's a little different than superunknown, a bit poppier, but it's still pretty good. parts of it remind me a lot of the beatles, and i really like the beatles a lot. parts of it are sort of weird, and i like that, too. i always like to hear things that i haven't heard before. i think i'd like to teach myself how to play some of these songs, too, but i'm wondering if maybe they're in weird tunings. i know soundgarden likes weird tunings. my ibanez has a locking bridge so i try to avoid weird tunings. maybe, i can figure out how to play them in normal tunings, anyways. when songs are in weird tunings, it's sometimes helpful to find tabs on the internet, because then i can figure out how to play it with normal tuning. sometimes, that means transposing the song up a key or two but it's all relative so it doesn't matter.
i've been playing civ2 ever since i got home last night. dad says i'm totally addicted, but it's a video game, not a drug, so i think that's a weird thing to say. but, i do sometimes play it all night, until the sun comes up and the dogs come running in and i have to pretend i'm sleeping. i like to change the civilizations i play with so that i can learn the names of the cities in different parts of the world. tonight, i am catherine the great of russia. i always liked to learn about geography, ever since i was very small. i knew all the capital cities in the whole world, almost!
i found a tab for burden in my hand, and it is actually in a weird tuning. i should try and convert it to normal tuning when i wake up tomorrow.
i should sneak back into my room now. shhh.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
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