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You gotta check this out:
I found this today as a random google search -- some guy playing Toto's Africa on acoustic guitar solo. Like or hate the tune, it's an impressive arrangement.
From BoingBoing, here's Eddie Van Halen trying to play along with a keyboard that's so out of pitch, he just can't find the right notes...
Eppy has some good things to remember when considering music criticism. Some excerpts:
Over at Recording.org, there's a thread about a supremely clueless guy asking for advice on how to record.
I've been reading it for the last two or three hours, and I think I've hurt myself I've been laughing so hard. That, and I'm pretty sure my co-workers are going to have me committed.
Thanks to Tom for the tip.
We are going to be returning to Café Europa on October 1st. Hopefully, Lemmings will be done enough by then to be able to play it that night.
Remember Um, bop? Well, you (yes, you) can have the chance to open for them. Really, you can, if you want. It looks like they're trying to raise their profile by having a local band in each of their venues.
eSession is a website setting up the possibility of regular folk working with exalted music stars. Actually, I'm a little tired, but this might be a good idea. Right now, it's only in the vaporware stage, so it's too early to tell. But, they have a decent talent base (as of now):
Well, that's all the names that I recognized from the list (beyond ones-ee, twos-ees). Still, a start.
The three of us got together tonight, but we didn't play all that much. Rather, we went through some of the business things. Honestly, we should have had this discussion prior to hitting the studio, but we didn't and now we have to pick up the pieces and move on.
First, we talked about who was going to get credit for doing what on which song. Then we talked about how the money was actually going to be split (three ways, rather than by credit). We also talked about potential names for the album and some cover art stuff.
The new album will be called "World Tour" (at least, until either we change our minds or until we go to print); CD release party will be in late October/early November.
Some show ettiquette from Here's A Hint.
Now, there is the question of common courtesy during the non-performance parts of the evening. With 4 beats of your last note, you better be winding up cords, unscrewing cymbals and turning off pedals. Otherwise, you are sending a clear message to your fellows and the audience: "I hate you". And your shit had best be taken to the back or out of the club once it's offstage. There's nothing more distracting than watching a bunch of cheeseheads moving their amps in front of my while I'm trying to watch a band, and, in my opinion, they are free reign for the lead singer to snipe at.
Furthermore, when I said I'd give a band a chance, set up time counts against your chance. You have 20 minutes, so don't spend it twiddling with your guitar pedals or getting a drink while the bassist struggles with his 8x10 Ron Jeremy Edition Cabinet. Here's a Hint: You're not a rockstar, so get on stage and play. You have 2 minutes to soundcheck, after that start your fucking set. Either the sound guy knows what he's doing, or he doesn't. FUCKING PLAY. And don't waste my time between songs. Buy a tuner and be ready to go. I've never heard anyone complain that a local band didn't spend enough time mumbling weak jokes into the mic between songs.
This makes me think of a show that I played where the band before us did a sound check. For fifty-five minutes. After the first fifteen or so, I stopped caring about their show. Right around thirty, I just wanted them to play anything other than "okay, left tom...". At forty-five, I gave up and played pool for the rest of the night, pretty much ignoring anything they did from that point on.
Following on from the last list, here are another 10 completely bizarre death metal pictures.
David Valdez has put together some good thoughts on writing set lists.
- Vary the styles and tempos of the tunes- Mix it up!
- Don't play tunes in the same key back to back.
- Start out the set with something that is comfortable for the musicians, so things lock in.
- Be ready to change up your set on the fly depending how the crowd reacts. You may need to wake them up if they're getting too chatty.
- If you're playing a gig for wealthy older caucasions, play every tune at 160bpm (businessman's bounce tempo) and segue between every tune with a 3-6-2-5 vamp into the next key. Just kidding. This is exactly what many NYC high society bands do.
- Write sets that feature different instruments in the band and vary the solo order. Start with a bass solo or a bass melody once in a while. [preach it, brother!]
- Take the time to work on your set lists before you get to the gig and try to think them through in your head. Try to think about how you will feel after each tune. Keep old set lists that worked well for future reference.
- Ask your players if they have any tunes they want to play before the gig so you can work them into the set seamlessly.
- Consider changing the style or meter of an overplayed standard. You might try something like playing 'All the Things' as a waltz or the 'Nearness of You' as a double-time feel Samba.
I agree with David on almost all of these. I've written about set lists before, and it's always nice to find others with whom you share at least a few concepts.
The bassist for hire with a sardonic take on the rock scene said of Madonna:
"She was incredibly musical and could talk to musicians in terms they could understand as opposed to Tina Turner, who would say things like 'Could you make it more purple?"'
Having finished touring (and, presumably, not really wanting to work in the music industry anymore), bassist Guy Pratt has turned to stand up comedy.
An absolute great article on improvisation.
Communicating in Solos
Contrary to what some players think, the soloist is not the only one who is playing important ideas. The other members can greatly inspire the soloist, or in some cases can even join in as multiple soloists.
A successful solo is like a conversation among the group members. The soloist leads the discussion, and the group members are like the supporting actors who feed the leader ideas. When members of the group hear interesting ideas from the soloist (or from the other members), they can react in any of these ways:Important: The group can use any or all of the above methods at the same time. It’s not necessary for all members to copy or play against at the same time; variety makes an effective engine behind the soloist.
- Let the idea go by. This by helps the idea stand out, but does not necessarily build communication. Even when you let it go by, someone else may be communicating with it, so you’ll get your turn soon. Remember: the soloist may be in the middle of his or her own development and may play something even more interesting in a few seconds.
- Play against the idea. For example, if the idea uses offbeats, play against it with downbeats, or vice versa; if the idea is ascending, play descending, etc.
- Copy the idea (explained [in the article]).
- Alter or develop the idea (explained [in the article]).
I had no idea that Brian Eno wrote the startup music for Microsoft Windows.
Q: How did you come to compose ``The Microsoft Sound''?
A: The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, ``Here's a specific problem -- solve it.''
The thing from the agency said, ``We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah- blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,'' this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said ``and it must be 3 1/4 seconds long.''
I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.
In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.
Oddly enough, I was just thinking this. Not that I'm all that prescient, mind you.
The physics of playing a didgeridoo. Having recently returned from Australia, this is interesting to me.
Thanks to Skarlet for the tip.
A cousin of mine recently moved to the DC area. He wants to "make it" in the music business. When I asked him what he meant by that, he said, "I want to get a record contract, make records, tour the world, that sort of stuff." To which I answered, "Then you probably need to move either three hours North or thirteen hours West." [*] (NYC or Nashville, for those not familiar with the area)
I've thought about moving to NYC a few times myself. DC has a pretty decent jazz scene, but NYC is really where it's at. So, it's interesting to see what someone who's living that life has to say about it.
Andreas Steffen from Germany asked me to write about what the life of a New York Jazz musician was like. Most people have some glorified idea of what the NYC musician does to make a living. Adreas' idea went like this: sleep until noon, practice, studio job, gig, jam session, repeat from start. That's pretty much what I expected when I got there with five hundred dollars in my pocket. The economic realities of living in NYC have changed drastically in the last thirty years. Long time resident musicians have told me that back in the 70s you could pay your rent by working one or two gigs a month. Many musician had large lofts where they jammed till the wee hours of the morning. New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world and gigs still pay roughly what they did in the 70s. There are still tons of fifty-dollar gigs all over town. Of course now you could be playing fifty-dollar gigs every night of the week and still be starving.
* Yeah, I know that some people have "made it" from the DC area. Good Charlotte, Dennis Chambers just to name two off the top of my head. Still, most bands that make it aren't going to be found here. It's just the odds, as much as that might suck.
A great list to bear in mind:
Talent and/or being 'gifted' is the more important than hard work & tenacity.
.....
If you go to a karaoke bar, you'll see great talented singers wail out their impressions of their favorite singers. Most have no formal training, only some natural talent. These are not the singers who go on to get record deals. The singers who work hard at their art are the ones who go on to be great singers. There's no substitution for hard work, and in the long run that karaoke singer will be wishing they'd put a little more effort into learning how to sing.
Some high grade, ground up sacred cow (there are a few more through the other side of the linky...) from Cameron.
Cassie has some interesting observations about back handed compliments:
The most recent comment came from a fellow at a nice outdoor performance this past Thursday, after the band I was playing with, the Swing Daddies, concluded the first set. This man seemed to genuinely enjoy the music, and I was glad he said so, except his choice words were a bit annoying: "You're the best girl sax player I ever heard."
Ok. I realize this is a compliment. Sort of. I'm glad he liked the band...and my contributions to the music. But why stick the "girl" thing in there? That's like saying, 'You're the best black basketball player I've ever seen' or 'You're the smartest Jewish guy I know.' And I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best all-around sax player he--or anyone else--has ever heard, but what's wrong with a nice, neutral, 'I really enjoyed your playing'?
The one that most sticks out in my head was after a hip hop gig. This guy wanders over, shakes my hand and says something like, "You know, you're pretty good.... for a white guy."
To this day, I've never been able to figure out what the best response should have been. Probably not me cocking my head to one side and saying, "Umm... thanks?"
Written for Keter Betts, upright bassist for some true jazz greats.
It's possible that I might be playing at the Velvet Lounge soon. I have an offer, and I need to check around to see if things are going to work out or not.
Tomorrow, we go back into the studio to try and finish this album. I have yet to hear the rough mixes, and I'm more than a little apprehensive about it. During the last session, we had some issues with timeliness, and I'm concerned that it might be sufficiently noticeable to cause problems. I suspect that both Shahin and I will go over the rough mixes while Brett and Scott set up the kit.
Once that happens, we have four songs to get down -- Red Leaves, Soho, Brazilian Cafe and Snipe Hunting. Personally, I'm more than a little worried about it. These are the more rhythmically complex songs that we have on our plate (well, not Soho so much). I know that the bass line I've been playing on Red is probably too busy, so I might be backing off of the thumping to get a good take. We have consistently had problems hitting the ending stops on Brazilian when we play it live, so I have little reason to think that the studio will make those go any better. And (finally), Snipe is one of those songs that I've never liked what I play on it.
This promises to be interesting.
If you are a practicing musician, take this article, tape it right beside your mirror and live by just about every word in it.
No matter how eary or hard a part is to play, you must be able to play it perfectly.
It doesn't matter whether it's whole note chords or 32nd note arpeggios. Also keep in mind that any recording project has a fixed budget, which means that you have a set amount of time in which to put down your tracks. If you're struggling with playing your parts, in order to keep the project on budget, a producer will likely bring in a session player. Let me repeat that with more emphasis, in case it didn’t quite sink in the first time:
IF YOU CANNOT RECORD YOUR PARTS WITHIN A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME, THE PRODUCER WILL LIKELY BRING IN A SESSION PLAYER!
In my amateur naiveté, I used to joke to my bandmates that I'd like to see them try to find someone who could lay down my rhythm parts in any reasonable amount of time! After talking to Jeff, I am convinced that they could and would replace me if I were to give them a reason to. That’s when it really hit me that:
As a professional musician, you must be able to play consistently well under pressues.
Playing music is a lot more fun than working in an office, but let there be no misunderstanding, with potentially large sums of money at stake, you are expected to do a job and do it well. Now I don’t mean to imply that you have to be some kind of virtuoso. Far from it. To be successful in the studio, a musician simply requires a strong sense for what a song needs and be able to capture those ideas on “tape” in a timely fashion. Live, consistency is one of the key components for giving each audience a good show for their hard earned money. ...
It continues, and you should as well. Go. Read it now.
From a definitive source.
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
Apparently, mine's Gilbert O' Sullivan.
All I have to say is, who?
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
Ever held on to a ticketstub, just for the memories? If so, this site is for you.
Thanks to Andrew for the tip.
Anthony's put up his diary on the Funk Box show.
Yelling "Freebird!" has been a rock cliché for years, guaranteed to elicit laughs from drunks and scorn from music fans who have long since tired of the joke. And it has spread beyond music, prompting the Chicago White Sox organist to add the song to her repertoire and inspiring a greeting card in which a drunk holding a lighter hollers "Freebird!" at wedding musicians.
Bands mostly just ignore the taunt. But one common retort is: "I've got your 'free bird' right here." That's accompanied by a middle finger. It's a strategy Dash Rip Rock's former bassist Ned Hickel used. According to fans' accounts of shows, so have Jewel and Hot Tuna's Jack Casady. Jewel declines to comment. Mr. Casady says that's "usually not my response to those kind of things."
Others have offered more than the bird. On a recent live album, Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock declares that "if this were the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and you were going to die in 20 minutes -- just long enough to play 'Freebird' -- we still wouldn't play it." Dash Rip Rock often plays "Stairway to Freebird," a mash-up of the Skynyrd epic and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" that Mr. Davis boasts lasts "less than two minutes. ... You're finished before people get mad."
I think I've mentioned before how much I hate -- hate that @)(#%& song, right? Nice to know I'm not the only one.
The end-all, be-all list of strange band names. Some samples:
Okay, this is just funny. Music-Critic takes the lyrics of pop tunes and breaks them down in to what they really mean. Here's their take on Destiny Child's Bootylicious:
You gotta do much | I don't know where you learned to dance, but you're embarrassing both of us |
I don't think you ready for this jelly | So far, you've given me no reason to believe you're capable of living up to my sexual expectations |
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
I knew that people have written tablature for guitar and for bass, but I had no idea that there was such a thing for drums...
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
You know how some songs dwaddle about for awhile, and then try to "kick up a notch"? Well, the easiest way to do that is to throw in a key change -- otherwise known as the truck driver's gear change.
From the website's FAQ:
1. Who or what is a truck driver's gear change?
Many writers and arrangers feel that when their song is in risk of getting a bit tired, it can be given a fresh lease of life by shifting the whole song up a key, usually in between choruses, towards the beginning of a "repeat-till-fade" section. You may have heard this technique informally referred to as "modulation", but the correct ethnomusicological term for the phenomenon is the truck driver's gear change. This reflects the utterly predictable and laboured nature of the transition, evoking a tired and over-worked trucker ramming the gearstick into the new position with his – or, to be fair, her – fist.
Contrary to what many people seem to think, the truck driver's gear change is in no way inventive, interesting or acceptable: it is in fact an utterly appalling and unimaginative admission that you've run out of inspiration and the song should have ended one minute ago; but you're under pressure to make something which can be stretched out to the length of a single. The concept of the truck driver's gear change seems to transcend all musical styles, from Perry Como to The Misfits, although my investigations reveal that it's most prevalent in mainstream pop, and, let's face it, it's unlikely to feature in hip-hop. But who's to say.
This may perhaps all sound a little abstract. So for recommended initiation into the concept of the truck driver's gear change, I suggest you check out Crazy Crazy Nights by Kiss, which is a perfect example of the, ahem, oeuvre. Many experts agree that the single greatest gear change of all time is Michael Jackson's Man In The Mirror, though you should be aware that it may make you physically sick. In a subtler vein, gear changes like Gabrielle's Sunshine are for the experienced listener only.
Thanks to Chuck for the tip.
Anyone who writes lyrics needs one; now you have no excuse.
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
He has a name. If you haven't seen the clip, it's painfully funny (an overweight guy singing along to a techno track from Europe).
First, the NY Times takes a look at the returning 80's acts and how well they are not selling:
A raft of once-popular acts, from the danceable R&B group New Edition to the pop idols Duran Duran and George Michael to the more self-serious Tears for Fears to the standard-bearers of teenage angst, the Cure, all shook off the dust and signed new recording contracts in the past 18 months or so, releasing CD's of new music in some cases for the first time in 15 years. In the footsteps of Motley Crue's double album, the stylishly snarling Billy Idol, the dark darlings New Order and the famously burly rapper Heavy D will be releasing new albums as well.
All have returned with attendant fanfare, sweeping across red carpets and past screaming fans at radio station visits and showcase concerts.
Yet despite the grass-roots enthusiasm and VH1 dogma - not to mention millions of dollars in marketing - the 80's are not selling. People may be donning the once-again fashionable styles of the era (even leg warmers and Flashdance tops) and dancing to the bands of their youth, but they are not going to the store to buy the albums. For the industry that bet on the revival, it's mourning in America.
Then, Mr. Thorpe clocks in with his return glance:
Bell Biv Devoe – Poison
If you can’t identify “Poison” by the chattering drum intro alone, then you’re hopelessly ill-equipped to have any meaningful discussions of modern music. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. If someone says “never trust a big butt and a smile” and you don’t catch the reference, then you’re probably a complete square. These guys were destined to be big news in the New Jack Swing scene, since they cut their teeth in New Edition along with the esteemed Dr. Bobby Brown, who invented the genre mistakenly while trying to come up with a new material to make lighter tap shoes. I was delighted to find “Poison” included on the soundtrack to the latest Grand Theft Auto game, because it will introduce the song to a whole generation of twelve-year-olds who tricked their parents into buying a game about mulching officers of the law with a thresher. I don’t think I even have to tell you that “Poison” is still just as good as it’s ever been, or better. In fact, if anyone ever writes a better song than “Poison,” I’ll eat my hat.
Verdict: Caaan’t get it outta my heeaaad!
Band To Band is a service shows how any one band is connected to any other band by way of the changing members of the groups.
As an example, AC/DC connects to Blink 182 by:
Of course, the actual site makes it much prettier, complete with album covers.
Actually, there are quite a few reasons, but one of them is so I don't accidently record and somehow release a video of me singing and dancing along to a song that's way, way out of my range.
From the ladies at Suicide Girls, 100 albums to listen to while otherwise occupied.
For one thing, clearly these nice ladies have a rather inflated view of the average American male. For another thing, there are much better choices. Try Peter Gabriel's Passion as a far better accompaniment.
Thanks to Eppy for the tip.
In the "that's neat" category, humming can make a loud noise less painful. Who'd a thunk it.
If you're not from the DC area, you are probably wondering why someone is winning the bad guy from "Press Your Luck". Otherwise, you know that it's the local music awards. Here's A Hint has a rather scathing take on the whole affair. However, if you just want to know what did or didn't happen, check here.
I thought of my experiences at Bass/Nature Camp when I read this one.
Here’s Jim Nollman in action, playing guitar to a killer whale off the coast of Russia. An artist and environmental activist, he’s founder of Interspecies Inc, an organization promoting the artistic interaction of humans and animals.
At the camp, we spent a lot of time talking about the interaction of music and nature. this is a much more direct application of the concept. Could be interesting.
While the write-up is focused on recording voice-overs, it's a pretty good high level overview for recording the human voice in any fashion.
By the mid-Nineties female-led rock bands were everywhere. Sleeper, Elastica, Catatonia, Belly, The Breeders and Hole. Courtney Love was the new Janis Joplin, PJ Harvey was the new Patti Smith. We played as loud as the boys and partied harder. It felt potent. Liberating. Modern. For the briefest of moments, the genie was out of the bottle.
Fast forward 10 years and there's barely a female rock voice left. Of the 23 categories contested at this year's NME awards, a British female artist is nominated in only one: World's Sexiest Women. How has it come to this? Where is the female Alex Kapranos? Where are the female Razorlight? Didn't we make it easy for girls to become rock musicians and gain the respect of their male peers?
It's an interesting read from a former lady of the stage.
I've found this to be true time and time again when it comes to creating anything.
Software engineers know the feeling you get at a certain point in a project. You're getting to the end of the list of things, you have another seemingly short list of things that are "done" but need to be tweaked or fixed -- you're ninety percent done! This is known in the biz as the point you have completed the first ninety percent. The second ninety percent is yet to come.
Brad has an interesting article about musicians and their success.
It’s mostly anecdotes about famous or semi-famous musicians that have day jobs. It’s strange to me that this fact is still a mind blower.
Sometimes I wonder if artists being more up front about their earnings would impact file sharing. Something I’ve noticed is that many people exaggerate what they think musicians earn, which makes it easier to dismiss buying their albums after they download them. What’s $15 to an artist who’s riding around in a limosine [sic], right? What if you knew he took the bus? To work? Where he gets paid less than you?
It's not just a cliche. I have on good authority that a number of the guys from SR-71 work some fairly menial jobs in an effort to make ends meet. The funds from album sales and tour revenues just aren't enough to cover the bases.
Well worth the chuckle, from the nice folks at Your Band Sucks:
A collection of type fonts based on rock bands.
Thanks to David for the tip.
I don't know how accurate this is, but it does make for entertaining reading.
Thanks to Shahin for the tip.
A guy with whom I used to play contacted me about maybe doing a one week USO tour. More info on the way, when and if it materializes.
Anthony Wellington, bassist, teacher, all around good guy and friend, will be performing at this years BassQuake AfterShock this year. Occuring during the NAMM show in Anaheim, quite a few bassists will be there, including Norm Stockton as well as Drue Williams.
I've been studying with Anthony for about a year and a half, two years now. I've even had the privilege of seeing him play live twice, but I have yet to see him step out in front and let it all hang out. While I won't have the opportunity to check out this show for myself (I'll be in DC that night), if you have the opening, it will be well worth your time to check him out.
And congrats again, Anthony.
Gerd has created a magic 8 ball for music matters.
A "study" (whatever that means, there's no supporting documentation) indicates that married people are not as creative as single folk.
A study of 280 successful scientists found that their creativity tended to diminish once they got married. This also held true for musicians, painters and authors.
Thanks to Glenn for the tip.
Ya'd think that if 70,000 people boo you off the stage, that'd be a subtle hint that you are no talent waste of oxygen. Ya might think that...
Thanks to the recently resurrected TMFTML for the tip.
When Britney Spears writes about "True Masters" (her caps, not mine), you know the level of crap can only be rising.
My Christmas was wonderful and I had such a great break. I think I should rephrase myself from my previous letters when I was talking about taking a “break”. What I meant was I am taking a break from being told what to do. True Masters say it’s cool when you look at someone and don’t know whether they are at work or play since it’s all the same to them.
Unfortunately, it looks like her two year extended break from music is over. Dammit.
And let's not forget this little gem:
On a different note, I have a new dog named Lucky and I just bought her a new dresser for her room. Yes, she has a room, which she shares with Bit Bit. For Christmas, they got a baby chandelier to go in it. It’s the cutest thing in the world!
A baby chandelier for your dog. Words fail me.
A quest to call up all the 867-5309's in America, Via Andy.
An interesting article about the range of the human voice and the pieces written at the extreme edges.
The lowest note Mozart wrote however is low D for Osmin in Seraglio (Ha, wie will ich triumphieren). Monteverdi wrote also twice a low D, the first is at the death of Seneca in L'Incoronazione di Poppea. The second in the fragmentary opera Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria. ... More than these low notes and the high g3 - from the already mentioned KV316 - is 'normally' not possible, there's little room to manoeuvre for the human voice. ... Here you can hear Viktor Wichniakov, one of the famous Russian Basso Profundo, with a double low G (from the Contra-octave range, C1-B1, European notation) at the end.
And, here's another little detail:
Pop-diva Mariah Carey hits during two different live renditions of the song "Emotions" a G7#-note, the highest note in the history of recorded music.
At least all those ridiculous acrobatics have some purpose.
Thanks to Lynn for the tip.
While Ashlee can burp the entire alphabet (and is proud of that accomplishment), Jessica is still the belching champ of the family. Their parents must be so proud.
The bestest gift went to my mother. My father, my brother and myself picked up a keyboard for her.
See, there's a story here. My mother got her college degree in music education quite a few years ago. She went on to teach third and fourth grade for a few decades, retiring only last year.
While I was growing up, we had a piano in the basement. Every so often, my mom would go downstairs and play it. Generally, only when she thought no one else was around. I'm not sure as to why when no one else was there; maybe she didn't feel comfortable playing around others, maybe it was just for herself, I really don't know. In any case, it was an occasional thing, but sometimes I would come home and hear her playing some Mozart or a Bach piece.
About ten years ago, my folks got rid of the upright piano. It took up too much space, it was expensive to maintain it, the wood was starting to warp, etc. Ever since then, both my brother and I would say that she should get a keyboard, on the basis that if it was a big enough a part of her life to study it for four years in her youth, it's probably something that she might like to try again.
Well, earlier this year, she made an offhand comment to my father about how it might be nice to have a keyboard. So, Dad asked Mike and I to pick one up for him.
When we brought it out to her on Christmas, she was so surprised that she was completely speechless for a bit. After Mike walked her through some of the features of the keyboard, she started to play Moonlight Sonata -- from memory! There were a few wrong notes, but it was far better than I could have done.
Later on, she was working through the accompaniment part of the keyboard's programming. Built into the machine out of the box is Norah Jones' Don't Know Why, complete with score and lyrics. It just happens to be the first tune in the song catalog. My mom picked up the tune and sight read the music (at about 90% accuracy) on the very first try, without having played piano for 10 years and not being all that familiar with the song.
That's just simply impressive as all get out.
Merry Christmas again, mom.
Click on the face to find out who's who on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
Here's A Hint has a discussion about bass solos and why there shouldn't be any. If that's how he/she feels, here's to hoping that he doesn't catch any of the Canvas shows...
Only when you understand why almost no one wants to hear a bass solo, can you begin to understand what it would take to actually play one that was listenable (your first clue is that not even Flea works a bass solo into every song). Just because you can play in 11/14 doesn't mean it's creative or interesting.
This makes me think of something that I've heard both Victor and Anthony say a few times: "It's easy to play solos for other bass players; they're impressed by technical stuff. It's much harder to play for a kid; they only care about whether or not the music sounds good."
I actually have to write a solo for Sunday's show (the original plan fell through -- Sorry Rob). While I know I could just throw together a bunch of chops, that won't make anyone happy, least of all me.
This is just so cool. A visual representation of the chord progression in Giant Steps. There's also an explanation as to how the chords move.
I know that there have been a number of times when I just don't particularly feel the urge to go and play. Or, to be a bit more accurate, I don't feel that urge as strongly.
What was once fun and challenging feel stupid and annoying. Or perhaps the things that used to motivate or move you don’t resonate at all. You feel nothing for them. It all just seems like so much more crap to deal with. If this sounds familiar, or you fear that this day is in your future, this essay is for you.
Some more ideas on how to deal with burnout.
A dictionary of musical technology terms.
From the Guardian.
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
A few examples
- The time Elton John joined George Michael on stage for a surprise duet of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" was the Light FM equivalent of Woodstock and the Sun Sessions all rolled into one, and as such needs to be honored four times a day.
- By the same token, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack is the Light FM equivalent of Nevermind.
- There is some wish to listen to Barry White songs even at ten in the morning while hunched over a keyboard, trying to tweak the Excel spreadsheet.
- Phil Collins, Lionel Richie, and Hall and Oates are all still apparently still recording new material.
Thanks to Michael for the tip.
A motorcycle guitar. Or is it a guitar motorcycle?
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
Saturday asked me if I wanted to make a return trip.
Lindsey recounts the tale...
(Here is the story of the Biggest Douche I've Ever Met. Since he happens to be famous, I'm not going to say his name, but you'll know who it is.)
In Christmas of 2002, I went home to Tallahassee, Florida to spend the holidays with my family. As usual, I hung out with my good friend there who owns Tallahassee's best music venue. He told me about the show they were having that night, and rolled his eyes as he said who the band was "It's that guy from that (edgy drug movie). He has a band now."
"Omg, ___ ______ has a band?" I said.
"Yeah. They made us give them a $7000 guarantee even though nobody has ever heard of his stupid band. And get this - his booker called a couple weeks ago, after the deal was done, and told me that I can't refer to (Douche) in any way when I advertise the show. So, basically, I've guaranteed them $7000 for a show nobody is going to go to. Apparently, he wants to "make it as a band the traditional way without using his name as an actor"
With Band-Aid 20 coming out (resurrecting that hoary chesnut Do They Know It's Christmas), FreakyTrigger steps in to keep us all up to date with the goings-on since Band-Aid 2.
Anthony Wellington, bass player, teacher and friend, is the featured artist over at Bassically.net. Congrats, man!
It's hard to argue with this BBC poll. The major association I have with that song is Corky, which hardly helps.
I have two kinds of student writers. One kind is very good at style and atmosphere. They can talk about music in relation to their lives, tell how certain songs make them feel, relate their likes and dislikes. The other type knows musical terminology, and can describe music in intelligent detail. The first type of writer is entertaining to read, but ultimately merely subjective; the second is more persuasive, but a little dry and lacking in color and emotive effect. Almost none can yet combine the best of both worlds. The first type are almost all pop music aficionados; the second type tend to be classical and jazz musicians.
The big question for me is, is this an inevitable correlation? Are pop-music preferences necessarily subjective, or could they, given the criteria of a certain genre, be grounded in objective distinctions? Can one prove, if only on paper, song by song, that the Beatles were better than the Stones, or vice versa? What I sometimes love about the subjective pop style is its sense of how important music is to listeners. They really love the stuff, it’s crucial to their sense of self-identification. The classical/jazz people are better at proving they know what they’re talking about, but less good at making the music sound important to them. There is a rather obvious correlation here to the music business in general. Pop music accounts for something like 94 percent of all CD sales, classical and jazz for about 3 percent each - or at least, that was the case a few years ago. If classical and jazz writers worked harder at identifying with the music, making it sound life-consuming and identity-defining (as, God knows, it generally is), could those percentages improve? Do classical music and jazz stay under the radar because they inspire a technical, specialist sensibility? or just because we talk about them that way?
God knows I've thought about this on more than one occasion. It's been a while since I've written seriously about music -- I've been surpassingly busy, I haven't really heard a lot of music recently that makes me want to get up in the morning, writing (well, writing with any sort of quality) isn't my strong suit. Maybe I should get bakck at it...
Avril Lavigne comes out firmly against lip synching.
The New Yorker did an article on Enron on how they rewarded talented people in their organization. Buried in the article is an interesting observation:
...[Carol Dweck, psychologist at Columbia U] gave a class of preadolescent students a test filled with challenging problems. After they were finished, one group was praised for its effort and another group was praised for its intelligence. Those praised for their intelligence were reluctant to tackle difficult tasks, and their performance on subsequent tests soon began to suffer. Then Dweck asked the children to write a letter to students at another school, describing their experience in the study. She discovered something remarkable: forty per cent of those students who were praised for their intelligence lied about how they had scored on the test, adjusting their grade upward. They weren't naturally deceptive people, and they weren't any less intelligent or self-confident than anyone else. They simply did what people do when they are immersed in an environment that celebrates them solely for their innate "talent." They begin to define themselves by that description, and when times get tough and that self-image is threatened they have difficulty with the consequences. They will not take the remedial course. They will not stand up to investors and the public and admit that they were wrong. They'd sooner lie.
How many times have you played with a musician who has "a lot of talent." I know I've sat through quite a few times with musicians like that. I've also spent a lot of time with people who worked hard on their craft. Without exception, I would always prefer to work with a musician who has expended more effort on their art than one who has a mountain of talent but doesn't work on it. Always.
Thanks to Robert for the tip.
When I play with The Canvas, there's a small problem. Brett's behind his kit and Shahin sits to play (a traditional approach for his style and background). While both of them can project visually to an audience, it still leaves me to carry the visual load (since I'm the only one who's mobile).
So, I had an idea while driving back from NYC -- hang a large, taut, white sheet behind the band, then use a laptop and a projector to project images on them. Not a novel concept so far, I know. Here's where I'm going with it, though.
When I have seen bands use video back drops, there's an issue of making it look good. If what's on the back drop has motion in it, it needs to either have a wildly different tempo/pacing so as to not seem to conflict with the music or it needs to be in sync with the music. The later is extremely hard. It also should be vaguely related to the song at hand -- if the band is playing a song about love, war images probably aren't going to fit.
So, here's my idea. Take a song like Sahara Dance. Project stock footage on the back drop -- in this case, images of sand dunes, maybe with wind blowing across the tops. Just simple stuff like that. No need to worry about synchronization, no need to worry about the video upstaging the band. It's just an additional element of a show.
Perhaps I was spoiled by my experience as Bass Camp. Bass Player Live was nice and all, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The sessions and clincs were too crowded to really get much interaction with the instructors, and the overall atmosphere was alternatively more competitive and more sycophantic. While I did enjoy checking lots of gear, I don't know if I got as much from the clinics as I would have liked.
Having said this, I'd go back again. Next time, though, I'll plan ahead (instead of winging it) and stay for the whole weekend. Maybe the second day would have been more to my liking.
For my last session of the day, I made the time to catch Matthew Garrison. I had heard the name once or twice (he's a Fodera sponsored artist), but I didn't know much about him.
What a pleasant surprise.
Matthew plays with a must-see-to-believe right hand technique that uses his thumb and three fingers in very tight sequences. It's an amazing sound. But one of his suggestions that I really appreciated was how to keep a song fresh.
Garrison took the tune Giant Steps and then started to move around the time signatures. First, he played it (using a drum machine for rhythmic assistance) in 7/8, cutting off an eighth note where he could. Then he played it in 9/8, extending notes where he could. By approaching the song like this, new aspects are opened up.
As a side note, I know quite a few musicians who couldn't play Giant Steps in the original time signature, let alone messing around with it like this. Very impressive.
Mike Pope gave a talk about radically reharmonizing music. I've talked to Mike a few times before (mostly in the Fodera shop), but this was the first time I had ever heard him really expound on music.
What he did was to take two notes (one treble and one bass). Then start to move the bass note in an orderly progression (say, diatonic) down, and then play a treble chord on top of it that includes the initially chosen chord.
For example, take high C and low C in the key of C (just to keep things simple). Right off the bat, you can play Cmaj on top of the low C. Move the low C down a half step to B, and the top chord becomes B9. A whole step drop (A) changes the chord to A-7. And so on.
But the main thing to keep foremost in mind when doing this exercise is to keep melody as the primary item. Harmonies must be subordinate to the melody.
To be honest, there were more things that I wanted to go and check out than I had the time -- four of five sessions all at once.
First up, I decided to go and listen to Reggie Hamilton speak. Reggie's played with a "who's who" of people -- Stanley Clarke, Boyz II Men, Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand just to name a few. I figured he'd have some good insights.
Two of the main things I took away from his talk was two just be yourself -- learn from other people by mimicing their chops, but respect their privacy enough to not take their tone or their licks. The otherthing was to leave space open in the song, to let the tune breathe for itself.
After consideration (and talking with a few people), I've decided to stay in NYC for the night, go through one day of Bass Player Live! and then head home. I've got work to do (as well as a rehearsal) on Sunday, so I can't stay for the whole thing, but one day is better than none.
I'm here anyway; I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't go. Another factor is that work started for me about a 2:45am when a server crashed. So I don't know if I would be good to drive home tonight anyway.
While I was heading up to NYC, I ran Anthony's M-Bass up to NYC (the one with the Om inlay). John Maghini was exhibiting at Bass Player Live, so he was going to be in the area. Anthony wanted some details on the bass changed, and John wanted to be able to display the workmanship for the crowd.
So, after Fodera, I wandered into Manhattan, hooked up with John, gave him the bass and then we talked for a bit.
Coolfer, I love ya, buddy, but I think you're overreacting on this one.
...[I]f you write about computers and technology, you think the music industry is filled with idiots. And, of course, because you write about computers and technology, because you know a thing or two about laptop battery life and open source programming, your alternative business stategy blows away that of the music industry.
I went to the article. and checked it out for myself.
The record industry continues to simultaneously regard the Internet as a threat to its existence and the key to prosperity.
While the industry clings to the argument that file sharing hurts sales because people won't buy what they can get for free, record labels have begun to offer free, high-quality streams of soon-to-be-released albums in hopes the exposure will stimulate sales.
The contradiction couldn't be more striking, nor more puzzling. In its continuing campaign against sharing copyrighted songs, the industry has filed lawsuits against thousands of people, rejecting the notion that exposure to free music helps listeners identify what they like and may later buy.
Apparently the record industry believes access to free music does indeed boost sales - but only if the music is shared by a label, not by a music fan with a home computer and Internet access.
Perhaps I'm just missing something here, but what's so staggeringly wrong about this observation? The first paragraph lays out a premise. The second paragraph points out two actions which the labels (taken as a broad grouping) have done (links to sources would have been nice, but it doesn't appear that the Richmond Times is operating in a web world yet). The third para opens with an opinion, pointing out the way in which the two statements from para two are seemingly in opposition to each other. This followed by an additional fact (lawsuits are filed) and an inferred opinion (since the labels are suing, the writer assumes that they are rejecting a notion which he/she puts forward). He/She then throws in a new summarization of the prior sentences.
Is this spot on reporting? Not at all -- it's a local paper in a small market city. I was hardly expecting Edward R. Murrow. But the sarcasm's a bit much. It might even shock you, but some techies might just be able to contribute to the music industries travails.
Find out the real names of your favorite music figure.
One musician thanks his fans:
I don't say it enough so I'll say it here: I love my fans. I worship them. (I don't really feel comfortable calling them "fans" — I like to call them "listeners." But for now it's easier to type "fans.") It's the fans that encourage me to continue writing and recording, to keep trying to get gigs, to continue pursuing some sort of music career. Fans encouraged me to put out a record, fans bought the record, and fans spread the word. Right now, fans are helping me find gigs and giving me great ideas on what to do next.
My mailing list is pretty small, only a few hundred names. But it means the world to me that handful of people are interested enough in my musical dabblings to trust me with their email address.
In the end, fans are really all I've got keeping this whole music thing afloat. It really is that simple. And if I don't show proper appreciation for them, well, I just suck.
Winning fans is hard work, and fans will hold us accountable and keep us on the path. True fans will let us know when we're hot and when we're making mistakes.
Losing fans will do more damage to your music career than any P2P pirate. A fan should be far more valuable to us than a sale.
Hear, hear.
And, as a side note (combined with shameless self-promotion), if you'd like to join my mailing list, I'd be all sorts of appreciative.
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
The advent of quality, inexpensive recording hardware/software available for home use has revolutioned the face of the music industry:
Digital technology has changed everything about the process of making music: From the way artists compose and record their songs, to the way these works are distributed. Apple Computer's GarageBand, Sony's ACID and other powerful yet easy-to-use software programs let professional musicians write and record music whenever and wherever the muse strikes. On the tour bus. In the dressing room. Even on the plane.
"Recording with Pro Tools made me feel more like a 14-year-old punk rocker than I have in years,'' said [Tim] Quirk [of Too Much Joy], 39, who by day is RealNetworks' executive music editor in San Francisco. "There are no rules and no restrictions. Even if you wanted to do things before, you were physically limited in how much you could pull off.''
Now, he says, ``If you can think of something, you can pull it off.''
Speaking as one of the people with a home setup, it's a lot of fun, too.
Thanks to Gerd for the tip.
Almost as hard as starting a band is naming it. I can remember big white boards full of words as each member of the band tried to come up with something that was clever (but not too clever), hip (but not too trendy), etc, etc.... Here's some help. Here are a few names that I got from the random generator:
What do these names mean? I dunno. It can't be worse than Hootie and the Blowfish, though.
Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll -- it's a cliche. So, it's probably no surprise that the rock lifestyle has claimed a few lives. The NY Daily News did a story on the subject. They list the deadlist bands in rock (the bands which have had the most members die), the worst day in rock (when Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash) as well as those who have "outlived expectations" (Courtney Love, David Crosby, Ozzy Osbourne).
Then you have the list of the most dangerous jobs in rock:
Thanks to David for the tip.
So, there's this opinion piece, talking about how jazz is being more and more opaque in the digital age without all the liner notes and attendent documentation to explain what's going on with the music. I've written a little about this before, but this article is a different (and very pessimistic) approach to a similar topic.
When I first read the article, it bothered me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Luckily, Mwanji (back up to his usual posting greatness) dissects the writing sentence by sentence.
One of the many reasons why Mwanji is a must read if you are into jazz.
A gallery of such stalwarts at Steven Seagal, William Shatner, Catherine Bach, Farrah Fawcett, David Hasselhoff, John Travolta, Burt Reynolds, Jeff Bridges and Clint Eastwood.
There's been a lot of writing going on lately, all of which were focused on the difficulties of trying to put music subject into words. Scott has the master list, compiling all the contributions from Kyle Gann, A. C. Douglas, Scott himself, Lynn S, Fred, Alex Ross, Helen Radice and Charles T. Downey. It's an interesting read, and things that I have been strugging with for some time. Hell, it's part of the title of this blog (the smaller text underneath).
As a musician, I am nearly constantly using my hands. Keepnig my hands and wrists healthy is obviously a big concern. While at camp, I learned some tendon exercises from Sifu, which have been a big help. Here are a few more.
From a DC area music critic (who's really funny to read), a list of things not to do. A quick sample:
On that last one? Amen, brother, whoever you are.
-- Update --
Now with correct links!
It was once "All Things Strat", but apparently the folks over at Fender had an issue with that name.
Stephen Hawking, rapper extrodinaire. Got love the title: "A Brief History Of Rhyme". Even more of the Hawkman can be found at his website.
In response to the court decision, Downhill Battle wants you to try create a thirty second song using only a given sample.
No, that's not quite right; there were at least one category where someone who wasn't from the US won.
- World's Best Male Artist: Usher
- World's Best Female Artist: Norah Jones
- World's Best Group: Outkast
- Best Pop Male Artist: Usher
- Best Pop Female Artist: Norah Jones
- Best Pop Group: Outkast
- Best Pop/Rock Artist: Avril Lavigne
- Best Rock Artist: Evanescence
- Best R&B Artist: Usher
- Best R&B Female Artist: Alicia Keyes
- Best Rap/Hip-Hop Artist: Outkast
- Best New Female Artist: Hilary Duff
- Best New Male Artist: Kanye West
- Best New Group: Maroon 5
- Diamond Award: Celine Dion
- Outstanding Contribution to the Music Industry Award: Clive Davis
- Best-selling Artist by country: Australia, Delta Goodrem; United Kingdom, Dido; Ireland, Westlife; Netherlands, DJ Tiesto; Ukraine, Ruslana; Russia, Philip Kirkorov; Germany, Sarah Connor; Africa, Latifah; Scandinavia, The Rasmus; Italy, Eros Ramazzotti; Switzerland, DJ Bobo; Spain, Alejandro Sanz; France, Kyo; China, Jay Chou; Japan, Hikaru Utada.
Lemme get this straight. All of Africa is one culture? I suppose all those Latin countries just don't count, either. And what group of mouth-breathers voted for this lot anyway? Usher as the world's best? Surely, we can do better than that.
Coolfer comes up with another great article about some things to consider when buying music. This is really a must-read. Here's an example:
Understand the Economics of Music. A CD does not cost $1 to make. The manufacturing cost may be around $1, but the costs involved in finding, recording and marketing that music are considerable. Also, consumers should consider that musicians have muliple revenue streams. If you really care about supporting a particular musician, go to the live show and buy a T-shirt.
Really. Go read the whole thing now.
Tonight's the Bass Extremes show at the Birchmere. I got down to the venue about four hours ahead of the performance to try and get a good seat (festival seating and what not). While I was waiting, Anthony came out and saw me in line. He asked me if I remembered to bring my bass (which I had). Then he invited me into the hall to listen to the sound check. Not a bad way to cap off a week of Bass Camp.
Really, he does.
''I'm sorry,'' he says, from his home near Geneva, Switzerland. ''I'm sorry. You know, the amount of people who have grown up hating me, and it's no fault of mine. I wrote the songs. I didn't ask the stations to play them so much. I remember they were advertising a guaranteed Phil Collins-free weekend in Milwaukee. People all over the world are sticking pins in effigies of me because they hate 'Another Day in Paradise' or 'Sussudio.'''
Thanks to David for the tip.
Judakiss penned a little ditty asking, among other things, why did Bush knock down the Towers. The Morning News hollas back.
Thanks to Simon for the tip.
I was leaving work today when I heard one of my co-worker's cell phones go off. Her ringtone was set to Lynard Skynard's Sweet Home Alabama. To put it mildly, I was shocked. She's hardly the stereotypical fan of that particular tune. I asked her why she had that as her ringtone, and she said "I liked the movie."
For starters, man, do I feel old. Secondly, she had no idea as to why I was as shocked as I was. (and finally we get to the point of this post)
I grew up in a small, redneck, Southern town. We're talking Dixie flags all over the place, gun racks in the back of the truck windows, an Appalachia kind of area. Sweet Home Alabama was the soundtrack of so many racist idiots from my youth that I have an automatic association of that song to bigotry. And I don't think I'm the only one to make that connection. It seems to be rather commonplace for Lynard Skynard to backfill the introduction of a new character in film and TV, a shorthand way to ascribe lots of unsavory characteristics to a person. If you think I'm wrong, please, suggest an counter-example.
Perhaps this is a function of both age and location. J had no idea of any of the connotations of the tune, but she's fairly young and from upstate New York. I got it right away (I'm both older and from the South), as did another one of my co-workers (older than both J and I, as well as a native of DC). In any case, my distate for Sweet Home is hardly a revelation for those who know me.
It's been a while since we had a list here at the Musings, so here's one detailing the most hated men in rock. And, yes, I know there are twenty people in the list below, but the title of the article is the ten most hated. Don't blame me, I'm just reporting.
On top of this, there's the comment
Sting, meanwhile, is another story. This turtleneck-sweatered Jaguar shill has so desecrated his Policeman legacy that we're not entirely convinced the current soft-rock incarnation isn't the original Sting's evil twin. He is, without question, the most hated man in rock."
I don't particularly agree with all of these people, but I'll give him Durst, G.E. Smith and Scott Stapp.
Thanks to David for the tip.
I believe that Bartók, Feldman, and many others never meant that you cannot teach someone to compose but rather that you cannot teach imagination, creativity, and natural musicianship—in other words, the basic talent (tools) needed to be a composer.
An interesting article ruminating on how to teach writing music to his students.
This site takes whatever worlds you give it, parses through the string and matches the individual words to sounds clips on file. Not what you would call the smoothest of things, but it can be entertaining.
Mandonna, an all male Madonna tribute band. Before you clicky on the linky, be forewarned that there is music (obnoxious music, natch) on every page. But, if you just want to see the videos, go here. Their take on Like A Virgin has to be seen to be appreciated.
Thanks to PlanetKyoto for the tip.
A good list.
- Jaco Pastorius -- "It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up!"
- Miles Davis -- "Those songs to me don’t exist, you know? So What or Kind of Blue, I’m not going to play that shit, those things are there. They were done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It’s over; it’s on the record."
- Thelonious Monk -- "I say, play your own way. Don’t play what the public want — you play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doing — even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years."
- Oscar Peterson -- "We’re not like pop musicians who have to perform the same top ten tunes every night of a tour."
The 9th annual World Air Guitar Championships hope to yield the best imaginary instrumentalist. While it would be appropriate for the winner to get imaginary prizes, they actually get an electric guitar to take home.
Thanks to Rob for the tip.
Townsend, some boy band that I've never heard of before and never want to again, has released a cover of the Def Leppard classic Pour Some Sugar On Me. To say their version of the song sucks would be to insult all those songs out there that really do suck. Just when you think it can't get any worse and they can't suck out anymore groove from the tune, they add a white boy rap in the middle.
But the video introduces even higher degrees of suckage. The lead singer from Smashmouth is in it for some reason, as is Teck from MTV Real World Hawaii. The only thing that kept me from ripping my eyes out while watching this dreck was the scene where the lead singer is glammed up and is nearly the spitting image of Hedwig from The Angry Inch. It's unintentional, of that I'm sure.
Thanks to Jonson for the tip, I think.
-- Update --
Oh, darn. Townsend has broken up. Whatever will do, wherever will I go, blah, blah, blah.
-- Update 2 --
I tried to find Townsend's album on Amazon, but no luck. Apparently, they're not even worth stocking, which makes it harder for me to mock them appropriately.
This strikes me as a rather self-inflicted problem.
But my iPod addiction harbored a darker, more disturbing side. With more than 1,000 songs at my thumb tip, I could satisfy any desire, any time. My iPod was like a drug. I lived in my own self-imagined movie, instantly tailoring the soundtrack to fit, or inspire, my emotions. Some days unfolded languidly, similar to a Wes Anderson film, filled with nostalgic post-punk songs and the occasional Nico track (yes, Nico). Other times, I blasted on the treadmill at the gym to thumping techno beats. This winter, after a girl I briefly dated abruptly announced that she was "still in love with her ex-boyfriend," I spent the night trudging through the Arctic air of Greenwich Village with Conor Oberst’s wallowing voice on repeat. More recently, when an evening with romantic overtones ended on a positive note, I boozily left the bar amplified by the hopeful lyrics of Death Cab for Cutie front man Ben Gibbard. The music lent some kind of dramatic import to what I was experiencing. Without it, I felt empty. Mostly, I now realize, it just made my days feel like some cheesy Dawson’s Creek episode.
Personally, I've started to travel more and more without music on at all. I know that my last three ideas for songs came when I was on a long trip, just singing to myself.
Having seen a few bellydancers over the years, I would have never married the dance with heavy metal. What do I know.
A website dedicated to observations on shows. The particular events skew towards the UK (and classical music at that), but it's an interesting idea.
A huge page of drum solos. All the greats are there -- Chambers, Peart, Krupa, Bonham, Gadd, Rich, Weckl -- you name them, they're probably on the site. Also check out the list of killer grooves or the pile of videos -- actually just spend some time on the whole site!
Well worth the time for any bass player who wants to learn some great grooves. To me, the more a bassist knows about drums, the better he/she can lock in with them.
How to fake your way through being, say,
- a juggler -- the end of your act has to look impressive, not be difficult. Build up tension by "missing" the finale once or twice before "getting it right"
- a lounge pianist -- Never agree to Christmas sing-alongs if there is alcohol involved. Your singer will only remember the first two lines of his favorite tunes, or you’ll waste a half-hour on a drawn-out, stumbling, “12 Days of Christmas.” The singer will be forgiven when he sobers up, but you’ll look unprofessional.
- a street performer -- In street performance, it’s possible to make money without really knowing how to play your instrument. You can pick up a cheap accordion at a thrift store and simply make stuff up on the street corner. Most people usually won’t stick around and listen for long if you are on a sidewalk where there’s little room to stand, and you can play the same thing over and over and still make money.
- even an attorney -- Do whatever it takes to fit your contracts onto a single page: Format with single-spacing, use a 10- or 9-point font, and reduce the margins to less than an inch. Most people assume any contract that fits on one page will be simple and straightforward, and even sophisticated negotiators can be charmed by the lack of a staple.
To which I'd like to add bass player. You can never go wrong rooting the chords. And, if you can't find the beat, you'll always get into trouble playing ahead of the beat. Hang back and play behind the beat.
An interesting article in the Washington Post about the dearth of prominent female guitarists. While I do agree that women guitarists do not get anywhere near the same kind of attention as their male counterparts, the sad part about the writer is that they ignore some very good players (like Jennifer Batten, just off the top of my head).
One of the odder comparisons I've ever read.
Both groups are as close as one can get to being cult artists while still releasing Top 10 albums on a regular basis. And both attract an audience that comes primarily to gawk at the musicianship. In Rush’s case, the response is a little more literal: instead of circle-dancing or staring wide-eyed at the band, fans play air drums along with Neil Peart (whose amazing dexterity and stone-faced Vulcan look make Rush the only power trio whose undisputed star is the drummer). And in an era where obvious backing tapes and flat-out lip-synching have spread well beyond the Britney circuit to rock bands like Creed and Korn, it’s telling that two bands who are all about live playing, warts and all, drew some of the summer’s biggest crowds.
Thanks to Tim for the tip.
A site with lots of sound and video clips of Spinal Tap.
I do like listening to old jazz albums (Dizzy, Louie, the like), but sometimes the language can be a bit opaque. Now, there's help.
American Idol calls out to DC. Thousands respond. I'd be willing to bet that a few well placed claymore mines would do wonders to clean up the gene pool.
Greg's train of thought is very clearly pitched towards classical music, but there's something here for any musician.
Instead, I want to ask why people in the audience don’t get more deeply involved with music itself. Someone, very likely (and of course understandably), might reply, “But we can’t do this—we’re not musicians!”
But I think the audience really isn’t given a chance. Here’s a small but telling example. Once, at the New York Philharmonic, I read program notes for some large-scale piece—I think it was a Bruckner symphony—that among much else told me that the work was scored for four horns. But right up there on the stage, in plain sight, were five! Any musician could tell you why that was. The horn is a difficult instrument, and the principal player has a sovereign privilege, to not play everything in his or her part. Thus a fifth horn sits in reserve, to fill in when needed.
But do people in the audience know this? Not likely, and the Philharmonic—along with just about every other orchestra—wouldn't think to explain, even when they face a stark contradiction between their program notes and what they put on the stage.
Greg Sandow talks about perform an opera from Handel in the fashion that Handel intended it to be.
A ramp should be built from the stage out into the middle of the audience, so that singers can walk down it, stand in the middle of the opera house, and entertain. (That happened in Handel's time.) Think of a Handel opera production almost like a cabaret show. The singers should perform more as themselves than as their characters; since a long series of da capo arias makes no sense unless the singers are showing off, showing off is the best way for singers to bring their characters to life.
The lights should be on in the opera house. (As they were up to the middle of the 19th century.) The audience should be free to talk, to come and go, to take breaks from the performance, to walk around. That way, the performers would have to grab our attention; if they didn't, we'd stop listening.
A really interesting compare/contrast between the information found on the label of a record and the info in iTunes (and, by extension, the data found in almost any mp3 tag).
Jazz has remained a very accessible art form partly because fans are educated by their own music collections. Albums employed text, photographs and graphic design to illustrate how a network of artists created a musical language together.
Without the physical album, online music stores will play a much larger role in teaching new listeners about jazz. While institutions, educators and preservationists will soon face the same challenges, music stores will be the first to use digital interfaces to educate the listening public about jazz.
Really a must read. As I was reading, it got me to thinking about the change in information over the last few years (digital media and no). Shrinking the package from vinyl to CD gave artists less real estate to work with when they were projecting their ideas to the public. I don't know if a modern day label would justify the expense incumbent to cover art of any magnitude (think Bitches Brew).
At the same time, the explosion of virtual real estate would seem to expand the horizons of people, but that doesn't always seem to be the case. I know that I get lazy when it comes to this sort of detail. A DVD can hold more information about almost any artist than most people will ever want to know -- 99% will never put it in the player. I'm making up that stat, but I have good reason to think it.
Case in point -- Oteil Burbridge's Family Secret. It's actually much more than a CD -- it's a double disc release, both a CD and DVD. I love Oteil's work and his playing. I listened to the CD nonstop for about two or three weeks before moving on to other things. It was only a few weeks ago that I got around to dropping the DVD into my player, and even then it was on as background while I did other things. And, not to toot my own horn, but I'm both a fan and serious about music. Couple that with my techno-geek nature and you might think that would pre-select me to be exact kind of person that would be enthralled at the availablility of a DVD, but I didn't do it. From that, I would suspect that more will not be looking at online offerings than will.
While he was in Ibiza, P Diddy tried to perform.
"He was getting the crowd going and singing over some tracks. But when he tried to rap the crowd turned on him, shouting and jeering until he left the stage."
And a visit to underground club DC10 for after-hours party Coco Loco the following day was equally disastrous.
The insider continued: "He got on stage and everyone cheered - but once he started rapping there was another chorus of boos. He persevered but the crowd reaction was so bad he was forced to leave the stage.
"He looked very hurt and was heard asking one of his flunkies: "Why don't they dig me?""
Because you're an overrated hack with delusions of grandeur?
The lads (and lass) of Nickelcreek and the former frontman of Toad the Wet Sprocket will be playing together next week at the Birchmere. I was interested in going, but I dwaddled and now it's sold out. A friend of mine is going (hope you have fun, Patrick -- drop me a line and let me know how it went), and this is what he can expect to find.
They are really bad. The saddest part is that the people in the photos are probably completley sincere about it.
Thanks to Rev Bob for the tip.
The Washington Post has a good write-up on Prince before his show at MCI this week.
With the possible exception of Brian Wilson, no one in pop has been called a genius more often than Prince. It started in the early '80s, as it dawned on everyone that this tiny kid from Minneapolis wasn't just writing all the songs on his albums but playing all the instruments, too. And then he started writing hits for everyone else, for acts including the Time, Wendy & Lisa, Apollonia 6. It was strange. All this choppy, racy, synthed-up fusion of rock, soul and R&B pouring out of Minnesota, of all places. And one guy is the Svengali of it all.
One of these days, I'm going to stop with the lists. Really, I will. Is there a 12 stop that can help me?
This is aimed more at rock critics, but the points should apply pretty broadly.
Thanks to the indispensible Coolfer Glenn for the tip.
I'm taking the idea from Frank:
First Record Bought: I'm sure it was something Rush.
First Concert: I think it was Stryper (and man, am I embarassed about that)
Favourite Music Movie: Spinal Tap or Standing In The Shadows Of Motown
Favourite Music Book: Jaco
Favourite Songwriter: Richard Bona
Favourite Record Label: Real World
Favourite Magazine: I usually avoid the rags.
Favourite Bassist: Wow, there's a long list. If I have to say one and only one, I've got to go with Victor.
Favourite Album Cover: Schroeder's Greatest Hits -- so retro.
(In a new category)Least Favourite Album Cover: Boys For Pele -- Tori Amos
Favourite Teen Idol: Umm... Hillary Duff. Sure.
Artist Who Broke Your Heart: Jimmy Buffett. I used to like his stuff until I realized it was all the same. Every last note of it.
Artist You Will Always Believe In: Prince. Miles of talent, always worth paying attention to.
Singer Who Makes Your Skin Crawl: Kenny G. and Courtney Love.
Singer Who Makes You Swoon: Norah Jones. And the Indigo Girls (Emily if solo, but together, their harmonies usually stop me cold).
Favourite Sound: Well played, correctly intonated fretless bass.
Album You Will Always Defend: Moving Pictures -- Rush. Yeah, it's their most commercial, but it's still got some great work on it.
Album You Own That No One Else Does: Let The Kid Play -- Isaiah Williams.
Classic Album You Own but Don't Like: The Very Best -- 10cc.
Artist You're Supposed to Like but Don't: Wilco. Maybe I just haven't given them enough of a chance, but I don't quite get all excited like others seem to do.
Song You Can't Stand by an Artist You Like: Volare by Gipsy Kings. The first 30,000 times, it was okay....
Band That Should Break Up: Um, the Stones?
Band That Should Re-form: Just for my 80's nostalgia, Van Halen
Guilty Pleasure: Backstreet Boys, I Want It That Way
Favourite Music DVD: Spinal Tap or Standing In The Shadows Of Motown
Concert You Wish You'd Seen: Any with Jaco Pastorius.
Dream Collaboration: Richard Bona and Victor Wooten.
Three words on Usher: money making machine. I assume the guys are all okay with him under the Girls' Pants-Loosening Amendment to the Constitution of Manliness.
I worried about taking the 10 and 12 year-old flares to this show, but it was successful in every way possible that doesn't end with me on top of one of Usher's dancers and the entire RBC Center yelling, "Go Sun, it's your birthday -- not really!"
I am the King of the Niche Dwellers, and I had forgotten how fun it is to connect to the Biggest Thing on the Planet at its peak. That is Usher right now. If I could only have touched the hem of his garment, I know I'd have been made whole.
A dad goes with his daughter...
A few ideas to consider:
Those crazy college students.
One student was describing Glass's life in Paris as a young composer, where he was hired to transcribe Ravi Shankar's music into Western notation. Ravi Shankar, hero of classical Indian music; the man who taught John, Paul, and George how to play the sitar and the tabla. That Ravi Shankar. The student's description of Shankar? "He's the dad of Norah Jones." So much for the "godfather of world music." (George Harrison, for you damn youngsters.)
It seems to me that many of the CDs I pick up these days tend to have a hidden track (or two) on them. Sometimes, the hidden song is the best one on the disc. Other times, it's best viewed as a diversion. In any case, a website out there is dedicated to uncovering these hidden gems.
This is one of the stranger ones I've ever heard. Signing a dead dog?
Now we have a few people submitting their CD track list for the most hated CD ever.
Thanks to Cider Woman for the tip.
Kyle Gann has been participating in the critic's conversation over on Arts Journal. One of the things he has been talking about is musicians and use of terms.
Of course, artists don’t like thinking about terms. Nothing is more fatal to creativity than to already know the answer before you frame the question. Artists have good reason to be suspicious about what terms you yoke them to, because terms wield power.
It's an interesting digression.
At least this list had me laughing a few times. Some highlights:
- Magic Man by Heart (Soloist: Roger Fisher. Album: Dreamboat Annie. Year: 1976) -- I shouldn't even have to explain this one. God, who on the planet hasn't been subjected to this grating instrumental break? As we all know, the heavy rockin' Wilson sisters influenced a legion of equally- feminine '80s copycats: Bon Jovi, Poison, Motley Crue, etc. ...
- Sucker In A 3-Piece by Van Halen (Soloist: Eddie Van Halen. Album: OU812. Year: 1988) -- Sure, ol' Eddie has had his moments: he flaunts his nimble fingertips on early VH instrumentals like Cathedral and Eruption. Yet he's probably one of the worst group players in history. To anyone whose higher brain functions have developed beyond a sixth grade level, these aforementioned instrumentals must seem like empty, childish pleas for attention. Eddie is all about showy technique that elicits a lot of "Wow, dude's" from hyperactive, misguided suburban adolescents. But at least this kind of technically- obsessive masturbation was somewhat original for its time. On Sucker In A 3-Piece Eddie relies on hyperbolic whammy-bar hijinks without really "playing" much of anything. Unable to break out of the stylistic prison he locked himself in years before, he's seen here as just another aging rock virtuoso making stale rock- god gestures on yet another incredibly forgettable Van Halen album.
- Do You Feel Like We Do by Peter Frampton (Soloist: Peter Frampton. Album: Frampton Comes Alive. Year: 1976.) -- I think this one's pretty obvious. Is it a guitar, a voice, or a combination of the two? Whatever it is, it just won't shut up. Didn't Babe Ruth use one of these devices for his famous farewell speech at Yankee Stadium? As far as failed experimental effects go, this voice- box gadget is the biggest loser of them all.
- Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd (Soloist: Gary Rossington, Ed King, Allen Collins. Album: Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd. Year: 1973.) -- Unless you're Forrest Gump, this isn't much of a surprise. This impotent three- pronged hillbilly guitar attack is exhausting to say the least. "Well, damn, bitch! They fingers bled on that thar solo," Junior Samples says. Well, I slammed my fingers in a car door when I was seven. They bled. That wasn't too bright, and neither is the soloing on one of the most revered rock compositions in history. For a solo that's supposed to be akin to a spontaneous "backyard jam," it sounds forced and phlegmatic as hell. A couple of years before, Neil Young (Skynyrd's arch enemy) recorded the ideal blueprint for long- playing guitar sparring matches on Down By The River. The more you hear Free Bird the more evident it becomes how bereft of ideas these bloated, attitudinal hickoids really were.
Okay, I included the gratuitious Free Bird becuase I completely HATE that piece of garbage song. If I saw it walking across the street, I'd speed up.
Thanks to Shahin for the tip.
MTV did for music what KFC did for chicken. -- Lewis Black
From Danny.
Yet another list, this time aimed at stadium rock anthems.
Thanks to David for the tip.
Honestly, I thought that he was dead. But, fortunately, that's not the case. He's alive and well, still playing guitar once a week in a NYC jazz club. Les Paul is probably best known for inventing a style of solid body guitar, but what I didn't know (before this article) is that he invented the technique of multi-track recording.
Not too long ago, I played around a bit with a guy named Clint Crisher. He was trying to throw together a funk band to do dance/pop music. We had been in contact a few times, trying to work out a time when I could get together with him and the other musicians he had found, but nothing ever really came together.
A few days ago, he rang me up to let me know that he was a bit frustrated with the DC music scene. It seems that he liked what I did, as well as the drummer that he found, but he couldn't find either a guitarist or a keyboardist that were both good enough and stable enough to create a band. So, he's heading out to LA to try and throw something together out there. He was also kind enough to invite me along.
If you couldn't guess, I'm not heading out to LA anytime soon. I'd be all for playing a sit in with Clint here and there, but I'm not quite willing to pull up stakes at this point in time. But I do wish him well...
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Frank, we have both segments of Stylus magazine retrospective of major music producers and why they matter. Brian Eno, Phil Spector, Rick Rubin, Timbaland, Joe Meek, Max Martin, Glyn Johns -- just a few of the people covered.
Several of the writers over at Arts Journal are having a conversation as to the future of classical music. Some of the ideas are completely applicable to any form of music.
I'm doubting it is playable, but still kinda cool. Now with a working link!
Thanks to Reen for the tip.
Eppy, who's always got something thoughtful to say, weighs in on the pluses and minuses of jam bands:
Really, if you're indie, there's no reason not to like jambands. Well, aside from the music, of course. But there are a host of things the indie mentality values that the jambands scene has in spades. A non-corporate business structure: check. A community-based promotion and distribution model: check. No sell-outs: check. Being totally "for the kids": check. Bands form organically, make the music they want to make uncompromisingly, get signed and distributed by independent labels, tour relentlessly in largely non-corporate venues, build up a fanbase through hard work, get written up in grassroots publications as well as independently-owned ones, and maybe find wider fame and success. What's there to complain about? They've acheived amazing popular success without much of any compromise to either the mainstream or corporations. Jambands constitute probably the largest independent music movement in our time. Why wouldn't you want to emulate it?
Well...because the music's bad, right?
Me personally, I either really like jambands or I hate them. There's not a lot of in-between for me. A good jamband (and even one of my favorite bands -- The Flecktones -- can go that way from time to time) takes something that works, gives to a crowd that wants it and both the band and the crowd feed off of each other's energy in a big ol' feedback loop. Jambands get in trouble when they keep a groove alive for too long, losing the crowd as they go.
Another great way to think of harmony.
Tonality was based on a simple gag. Get the ear to "buy" that the four notes that make up a tonic chord are a four note mode. That the top and bottom notes are the same isn't material - we recognize that it is a four chord. When all of the other chords are heard as being the same mode, with flexes. This means that when we buy that the V7 chord is really the one chord flexed and transposed, we buy the tonality.
Thanks to Chris for the tip.
NYPLM considers the legacy of the 80's stalwarts:
It's A Sin was all over the radio at the same time Def Leppard were equally everywhere thanks to the monstrously beautiful sculpture that is Hysteria, and the two were really related, glam-influenced away-from-the-beautiful-people-and/or-London UK music obsessives who drew on their inspirations specifically to conquer them. Slam up It's A Sin or One More Chance or I Want To Wake Up from Actually next to Gods Of War or Rocket or Pour Some Sugar On Me and the effect is transcendence in an echo chamber light years across, hotwired energyflash in ways often now displaced or hovering on fringes.
Honestly, just scroll and read for a while.
But, if you want particulars, check out his thoughts on the major leagues of sports as compared with the music industry:
Of course, one of the reasons labels don't do [operate as a league] currently is because it's to their advantage to sign acts that a) don't know much about the business and b) negotiate from a position of almost total weakness so they accept terms that are sort of punitive of success. But if there was a league, that would make a non-studio musician's union a viable propositon, because there would be a unitary entity to negotiate.
Or his take on the Metallica documentary.
Specifically, [the movie] show[s] not only the introductory talk when [Metallica tells Robert Trujillo, who's joining the band] that he's going to get a million dollar advance (!) against future profits (!), but they also show the meeting between the four band members (in beanbag chairs, if I'm recalling correctly, although maybe this is just wishful thinking) and their lawyers to hash out the new corporate agreement that incorporates Trujillo. The lawyers are clearly very uncomfortable having the cameras in the room, and, fuck, no wonder: for me, at least, it was absolutely shocking to see those kind of closely-guarded details on public display. I want to go back and watch it again and again and nail down exactly how they worked that shit out.
To be totally fair to Eppy, he didn't much like the movie, but I'm still interested in seeing the film. Now even more so, if I can learn the negotiating secrets of a bass player who seemed to have made one hell of a positive career move.
A one stop shop for all things musical about African music in general and Zimbabwean music in particular.
Thanks to Tim for the tip.
Today, when I was studying with Anthony, he lent me one of this basses (the Fodera I took up the other day to NYC). While we were playing, Anthony's wife dropped in to talk with Anthony for a bit. I tried to get out of the way of the door, and ended up bouncing the headstock of his bass off of a rack in the room, chipping the top of it.
I'm an oaf.
A look at the asshats of rock shows:
- The Singer -- He wants to the world to know he's got a great voice. So he sings. Really, really loud, during the lulls, during the shrieks. All the time.
- The Reckless Smoker -- A cigarette is a dangerous weapon around people packed together tight.
- The Angler -- They arrived late, and they don't want to stand in the back. So the Anglers connive to get close to the stage, which is tricky -- and rude -- at a show that's sold out.
- The Requestaholic -- They came for one song, and they're going to hear that song if it kills them.
- The Talker -- The bane of nearly every show. A shocking number of ticket buyers regard rock concerts as ideal moments to catch up with friends.
- The Stander -- Ordinarily, this is not a big deal. But if everyone else is sitting, it can lead to violence.
Please, please. Don't be one of these people. Mass beatings will ensue.
Thanks to Lynn for the tip.
Okay, I have an idea. Over on Richard Bona's website, I've asked him if he has any plans to drop by the DC area as a solo artist. If you've got a bit of time, drop by and chime in with your two cents worth. I figure that if there's enough people pestering him to come, he just might do it. And that would be a good thing.
Just what we needed and didn't know about -- the search for the best "guitar face". Perhaps this one might be it.
We can only hope.
Two people playing the game Soul Cailbre, getting the characters to dance in time with the music. Again with the too much free time.
Thanks to Cory for the tip.
On the heels of John Moe and Richard, here's my list of follow-up songs to one hit wonders (with the song it's following, just in case I'm being way too obscure):
Original Hit 2nd try Get Here Get Lost People Are Still Having Sex People Are Now Having Kids I'm Gonna Be 500 Miles I Got Really Tired And Sat Down For Awhile Tubthumping Let's Just Drink A Lot Afternoon Delight Tomorrow Hangover Turn Up The Radio Get Your Hearing Checked Beds Are Burning And Now The House Kung Fu Fighting Then He Got A Gun Video Killed The Radio Star Internet Killed The Video Star
Thanks to Xeni for the tip and the ideas.
Remember way back when? You know, when Eddie Van Halen was the "best guitarist ever, man!" ? Well, if you smiled when you read that, here's a photo history of his guitars.
A graphical analysis of various songs, demonstrating the repitition of the parts. You can even listen to the music, albeit in a crappy MIDI format. But still kinda interesting.
You'll love this site. Such things as masterbation songs, criteria for perfect 80's video and a comparision between the German and English lyrics in 99 Luft Balloons.
Thanks to David for the tip.
If you're heading out to see Rush in concert, this is what you're probably going to get.
On the Rush album Grace Under Pressure is a song called Red Sector A. It's one of the more downbeat Rush tunes, with the lyrics focusing on survival. Geddy Lee talks about it's actual origin.
The seeds for the song were planted nearly 60 years ago in April 1945 when British soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. Lee’s mother, Manya (now Mary) Rubenstein, was among the survivors. (His father, Morris Weinrib, was liberated from Dachau a few weeks later.) The whole album Grace Under Pressure, says Lee, who was born Gary Lee Weinrib, "is about being on the brink and having the courage and strength to survive."
Though Red Sector A, like much of the album from which it comes, is set in a bleak, apocalyptic future, what Lee calls "the psychology" of the song comes directly from a story his mother told him about the day she was liberated.
"I once asked my mother her first thoughts upon being liberated," Lee says during a phone conversation. "She didn't believe [liberation] was possible. She didn't believe that if there was a society outside the camp how they could allow this to exist, so she believed society was done in."
In listening to the tune, I had gotten the concentration camp metaphor, but I hadn't realized that it was a historical look as well as a nihilistic look forward.
Thanks to Marty for the tip.
They come to the US seeking to escape the onslaught of Britney Spears and decadent Western music.
There are many like Mr. Zhang, established musicians from China who perform daily in the city's bowels. Convinced that the best music, Western or Asian, is truly borderless and that their own talents are sufficient to make ends meet anywhere, these artists have converged on New York like the philosophers and poets who swarmed to Athens in classical times. They feel not just lured, but pushed; China, in their view, has turned its back on traditional music in favor of the pop dazzle of Britney Spears.
"I want to try my luck in New York," Mr. Zhang, 42, said, speaking in Mandarin. "In China serious artists like us aren't as respected as pop singers. That's not right. Maybe Americans can see the true appeal of Chinese music, and I can make my way to the grand concert halls in New York."
While I'm glad they're around (I rather like traditional Chinese music), I don't know if the US will be all that more a hospitable place for them.
If ever there were any doubts, they've been erased now. From Scott over at Stereogum, who's obsession with Britney (and her decline) might just be crossing over into stalking land...
To celebrate the 20th year anniversary of Purple Rain, Prince held a concert in New Orleans (at the Superdome) that featured Shelia E, Morris Day and the Time, as well as Lisa Coleman (of Wendy and Lisa and The Revolution fame), Larry Graham, Chaka Khan and Doug E. Fresh.
Greg Sandow revisits his original thoughts on the Concert Companion.
The Concert Companion, though, is aimed mostly at people who haven't gone to many concerts. My working theory goes something like this: For some, at least, of these people, classical music seems something like a blur. It all sounds very nice, but at first it's hard to separate one moment from another. The more I describe the essence of each moment, at least as I feel it, the easier it will be for people to get some handle on the music, and begin to hear what's going on as the sound flows and changes. The people using the Companion don't seem to object to this. What some of them did object to, at the New York tests, was me telling them that certain moments were wonderful or dazzling. That struck them, I was fascinated to learn, as either gushing or patronizing. So I learned (with thanks to all the people who spoke so honestly about their objections) to write more calmly, but still with plenty of personal feeling.
The point, after all, is to call attention to those background woodwinds, so that people hear more than just the surface of the music. And I can't see any way of doing that without saying something about what the woodwinds are doing. I can't just say, "Listen to them." Because then people might ask, "Listen to them doing what?" A precise technical description of what they're doing in that passage would be very hard to write, very verbose (far too long for a single Concert Companion screen), and also, come to think of it, not precise at all, because there aren't any technical terms to describe what's going on. The winds don't play a counterpoint, but are something more than an accompaniment -- which, by the way, I can't say in Companion commentary, because the people the Companion is for won't know what these words mean. (Or even the concepts. The idea that there's material that stands strongly on its own, even if it's subordinate, and other material that simply fades into the background to accompany the things it's subordinate to -- you need a fair amount of musical experience just to think in these terms.)
So I find the Concert Companion very promising. And useful, too, based on the simplest of criteria -- the people it's designed for (orchestras, and the audience) find it useful. What its future is, beyond all this, is hard to say. I'll just repeat something I've suggested before -- as classical music starts to change, it's not helpful (and maybe even dangerous) to try to guess how the changes will work, or which of them will turn out to be lasting. We just have to try things, and see what happens.
Towards the bottom of this article on the current spate of music documentaries comes a list of rare documentaries on music luminaries. These movies sound like they'd be fairly interesting:
Eat the Document (filmed 1966)
Bob Dylan's 1966 British tour was a flashpoint in rock history: he had "gone electric", and nightly faced baying mobs of livid folkies. Yet the film of the event - directed by DA Pennebaker, who was responsible for 1965's acclaimed Dylan documentary Don't Look Back - has rarely been seen, thus denying the public the chance to see a drugged-out Dylan attempting to interview John Lennon in the back of a limousine. Dylan is verbally decimated by the unimpressed Beatle, then throws up in the back of the car.
Cocksucker Blues (filmed 1972)
It was Mick Jagger's idea to film the Rolling Stones' 1972 US tour, his enthusiasm undaunted by the fact that the last time the Stones had been filmed, at their 1969 Altamont concert, the cameras had captured the murder of an audience member. However, even Jagger was horrified by Cocksucker Blues: a parade of debauchery that includes Keith Richards nodding out on heroin and telling Jagger about how to snort coke properly, and an orgy in a private plane. Suppressed by the group, the film has gone on to become perhaps the most infamous rock documentary in history.
And, if anyone knows where I can find a copy, please feel free to share the love.
Thanks to Coolfer for the tip.
Unfortunately, I was not selected to attend Bass Camp this year. For those that did make it, congradulations. And I hate you all, so very much (said in my best Cartman imitation).
And a special congradulations to Rob, who was accepted.
This is great! The Guardian, a British newspaper, sends a seventeen year old kid out to review some of the biggest acts in rock from the 60's and 70's.
I think my music taste has always been eclectic, but, until three months ago, the closest I had ever come listening to a Beach Boys album was when I wrestled Pet Sounds from the arms of a tipsy middle-aged woman at a New Year's Eve party in 2001. I thought that Kraftwerk was a low budget German airline and that Abbey Road was John Leslie's ex-girlfriend.
He goes on to review Brian Wilson, The Who, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross and Kraftwerk.
...[D]espite Mr. Smith's punchy guitar patterns, pleading melodies and melancholy grandeur, he was considered a dreamy lightweight compared to serious-minded contemporaries like Michael Stipe of R.E.M and Bono of U2. And though Mr. Smith remained a black-clad pied piper of adolescent depressives around the world, no one had him figured as a major rock influence. But now, Mr. Smith's yelp is everywhere.
I wouldn't have made this connection, but that's just me.
A great article for non-guitarists on how to write music for the specific needs and abilities of an electric guitar.
Let's start with the obvious: the electric guitar is not just a loud acoustic guitar. The electric guitar is a three-part instrument comprised of the guitar itself, effects pedals, and the amplifier. Each of these contributes to the sound produced, and the possibilities encompass an enormous sonic range. Like any acoustic instrument, each electric guitar has its own soul that depends on the wood of its body, neck, and fretboard. Unlike an acoustic instrument, its tone is transformed into an electronic signal that can be altered downstream by the assortment of devices it encounters on its way to the speakers and shake up the air.
A great article, one that got me thinking of some new directions (using small wooden dowels under loosened strings for a koto sound? that's an interesting concept....). Read it all.
An analysis of the archetypical gospel singing style.
[Aretha Franklin's] singing of the anthem was great not because it was unprecedented but because it epitomized and revitalized a vocal style that has grown so ubiquitous that it's become a cliché. That is the inflection of basically straightforward tunes with all manner of extra notes per syllable (melisma), ornaments and shouted exclamations. ...
[Mahalia] Jackson's renditions of gospel favorites and, especially, Christmas carols shocked me as a boy; they reoriented my whole way of hearing music. The carols were familiar to me in the four-square versions still sung in churches today, white churches anyway. Jackson twisted and bent them, just as Ms. Franklin bent "The Star-Spangled Banner," but never in a way that did them any disrespect. She took those tunes and jolted them to new life.
A retrospective on Rush.
The band, currently celebrating its 30th anniversary with a summer tour stopping in Utah Wednesday, had some early success with its first albums and a commercial failure with its third, yet was given another chance by its label -- a chance that turned into "2112," one of the group's benchmark albums -- and a platinum success.
That was the late '70s. In 2004, the band probably would have had its contract canceled by the record label after one decent-selling album. In reality, a new experimental, free-form band like Rush would probably have a hard time getting a record deal at all these days.
"We were never the kind of band that was easy to sign or easy to figure out," concurs bassist, keyboardist and singer Geddy Lee. "We were always so weird, compared to the mainstream and what [music industry] people are looking for. Most people in the music industry don't know what they're looking for anyway. There's maybe two percent of the people who sign bands who really have an idea. The rest are just following the trends."
The article goes on to talk about the live show on this year's tour. Lots of visual components and a three hour and twenty minute run time.
Thanks to Coolfer Glenn for the tip.
I got 7 out of 10 right. I don't know if I'm proud or embarassed.
Some thoughts on the structure of scales.
...[I]n a white note collection (C D E F G A B) that uses triads as the main harmonic referents, C or A will have a head start over other notes in being heard as tonic. One suggested reason for this priority is that the C major triad and the A minor triad are the only triads of this diatonic collection that do not contain a note a tritone away from another note of the collection. In this collection, B and F form the tritones, so any triad with B or F would not be prioritized to be tonic.
Worth reading, if you're into that sort of thing.
One of the lines that I can remember from Almost Famous is the argument between the lead singer and the lead guitarist. "We had this worked out; I was going to be the front man, and you were going to be the mysterious guitar player." Sometimes that mysterious thing works; I know that piqueing my curiousity can heighten my interest in something that I might have otherwise skipped over. Other times, it just annoys me and I tend to ignore it (Slipknot for example).
I'm not the only one, it would seem; Eppy really doesn't like this kind of carrying on.
Goddamn but I hate mysteriousness.
Well, I guess I mean that I hate mysteriousness as a behavior creative types engage in. (I kind of like the mysteriousness of the universe, but that's probably not a positive trait.) For one thing, it allows said types--especially musicians, who are not that bright--to get away with shit they couldn't in a million years if you actually called them on it. The whole technique of representation-v.-statement is riddled with opportunities for deception, but as long as there's not a point of view (just, rather, some free-floating imagery that seems meaningful or straight realism that merely depicts instead of setting in context), what can you get mad at? Well, a lot. And this isn't even getting into the musical issues involved. But as long as they're allowed to get away with being "eccentric" (see below post on romantic images of mental illness) then, hey, they're just kooky artists! Judge the output, man!
The Museum of Boomboxes. I'm old enough to remember when it was cool to have the biggest one possible (like large enough to cause significant spinal damage if you were to walk around in ultra-rad mode with boombox on your shoulder, the speaker blasting directly into your ear). But I'm rather glad those days are over.
Thanks to Max for the tip.
Here's the latest one from AFI. AFI! Aren't they the film people? So when is the RIAA going to produce their best books of the decade list?
Some highlights:
6. Mrs. Robinson, The Graduate (1967).
10. The Sound of Music, The Sound of Music (1965).
22. Everybody's Talkin', Midnight Cowboy (1969).
38. Theme From 'Shaft', Shaft (1971).
40. Fight the Power, Do the Right Thing (1989).
41. New York, New York, On the Town (1949).
As a side note, I'm starting to get a bit tired of the profusion of lists.
More humor from Something Awful:
Well you know what, Robert Smith? You’re not getting my cash, you money-grubbing, wooly gothic bastard. You can’t release three crap albums in a row and then expect everyone to come running back whenever your accountant/muse dangles a solid-gold carrot in front of your fat, pallid face. Not only am I wary of your motives, but I’m entirely fed up with comebacks in general. They’re never any good, despite what initial reviews will always tell us. You Are the Quarry is Morrissey’s best work since The Smiths? Hog fucking wash. After that fiasco, I’ve absolutely had it with washed-up 80s tearjerkers clamoring for my dime.
Dennis Chambers, one of the best drummers in the business today, will be presenting at a drum clinic at the University Of Maryland (College Park) on the 29th of July. Cost is $30/per. He'll be holding forth at 2pm on a Thursday. If I didn't already have too many obligations, I'd take off from work to go.
While talking with Darryl last night at the Marcus show, he giving me an update on Norm Stockton. Norm's just finished up two more DVDs of instructional videos and is getting ready to hit the road doing promotional work for MTD. If you get a chance to catch him play, you should really make the time.
People are shocked -- shocked!, I say -- about close dancing at high school proms.
Most of the dancing is not of the cheek-to-cheek variety, a fact that has caused controversy in some quarters. Though the dancing varies in intensity, the partnering position of choice, back to front, is at once less intimate and more sexual, and the couplings, even at a formal event like the prom, constantly shift.
Called grinding, freaking or "backing it up" in its most brazen form, this kind of dancing is not flirtation. It is war.
"It's like a battle between you and the guy," said Candy Javier, 18, a senior at Monroe Academy for Visual Arts and Design, one of five South Bronx high schools that had a joint prom earlier this month at the V.I.P. Country Club in New Rochelle, N.Y. "They're pushing forward, and you're pushing back." She shrugged. "You're not doing it," she added. "You're just dancing."
I know the guitar tech over at Hot Licks; he's a good guy named George. He and I have talked a number of times, mostly when he was looking for a bass player.
So on Tuesday, the store gets a call looking for their guitar tech. This lady on the other end of the phone starts asking George a bunch of questions, like "I've got this problem with my amplifier, how can I fix it?", "If my guitar was doing ____, what steps should I take". After a few of these questions, she then introduces herself as Marcus Miller's manager, tells him that Marcus' normal guitar tech can't continue on the tour and would he be available for a show that weekend?
Of course, George lept at the chance. He went down, proved his mettle by wiring up the rig (which can be no small feat, as I can attest from my own experience with my own rig -- a rig that is rather simple by comparison) and diagnosing problems on the fly. George has since been invited to go on the rest of the US tour and over for the European tour. He's the guy in the middle of the photo to the right, kneeling and repairing a faulty cable.
George is about 23 or so, working at a day job in a music store and then gets a call up to the major leagues (so to speak). The dream really does come true. Good luck to you, George.
Driving home from Harrisonburg (about a two, two and a half hour trip), I started to think about a conversation I witnessed a few days ago. Okay, a conversation I sort of eavesdropped on (they were in the same bar I was, a few stools down).
These two people were arguing over... something. Something that seemed to be pretty inconsequential (like who didn't fold the morning paper back on to the table that morning), but neither one was willing to give even an inch. Furthermore, as they got agitated, they would lapse from English into their own native language (I wasn't really paying enough attention to determine if they were each speaking their own language or both speaking the same).
As I was driving back, I thought this might be a good idea for a tune. Something in a minor key, dark and moody. The song would be about an argument with the subtext of "you don't respect me, you ignore me, you think I'm a fool" -- and we've all had that sort of argument with our lovers where the actual topic of discussion is just the vehicle for the underlying issue.
The twist that has highly caught my attention is to have two singers, each singing in their own language. For example, one in French, the other in Italian (since both are romance languages and derived from Latin, so they are somewhat similar in sound quality to each other but with different aspects). With this setup, you have the immediate contradiction and confict between two sides of the duet. They can sing together, in turn, to each other, even in harmony with each other, but neither can understand what the other is saying. Even if the notes and phonetics match up, each partner is in a different world. I'm really liking the imagery that brings in.
Unfortunately, neither my French nor my Italian is anywhere near good enough to pull this off. I'm going to poke around for awhile to see if I can find anyone to help out with the language side of the coin(and I'm open to suggestions if you know of anyone who can speak/write both French and Italian) while I go ahead and write up the music to frame the words.
Today, a large group of us gathered over at Anthony's. I think that most of us were bass players, but I can't be completely sure. Maria was there, as was Francis. Rob also came out and I met a few other bass players in the area (always a good thing). We hung out, had some food, did some socializing (which, inevitiably led to bass players comparing gear and talking shop) and then check out some basses.
John Maghini (from M Basses) came down. He made a 7 string bass for Anthony awhile back, and he came down to meet the students, talk to people, answer some question on making basses and show some of his wares.
He also brought down a new 9(!!!!) string bass for one of Anthony's friends. 9 strings, sheesh! I tried playing it and pretty much wanted a "You are Here" map to find out where I was doing anything. I thought Anthony's 7 string was hard to play; this was a whole new world. For the technical minded out there, it was strung F#-B-E-A-D-G-C-B flat. The top two strings where actually lead guitar strings adapted for a bass extension.
All in all, a good time. I didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked (I had to drive to Harrisonburg, VA to meet my folks), and hopefully next time will be longer.
I know that quite a few people don't much care for Dido (I found one or two of her songs on her first album to be a guilty pleasure), but the NY Times damns her with faint praise:
If it occurs to you that total silence might have produced the same blissful feeling, then you're on to something. Dido Armstrong (she uses only her first name), from Britain, has figured out a way to make music that is no better, but also no worse, than silence.
Jacob Slichter was the drummer for Semisonic. They had a charting hit with Closing Time back in 1998, and their album went platinum. They also got dropped by their label after the follow-up album went nowhere.
Slichter has taken his experiences and written a book about it all.
''At 32, I imagined I was the oldest tenderfoot in the history of rock 'n' roll.'' Slichter is the rookie in the band, the other two members having been in another popular Minneapolis band, Trip Shakespeare. Initially, he is scared and alienated by the road. At the group's first McDonald's stop on its first tour, Slichter is surprised to find his bandmates and their sound man sitting at three separate tables eating in silence. He later asks Dan [Dan Wilson, the lead singer/guitarist/song writer of the group]:
'''Dan, do you find the road to be an emotionally cold place?'
'' 'Yes.'
'' 'What do you do about that?'
''Without lifting his eyes from the page, he spoke. 'Eventually, you'll grow to enjoy that coldness and learn to crave it.'''
From this write-up in the NY Times, it looks like it will be an interesting read.
Thanks to Mwanji for the tip.
Tonight, PBS will broadcast a show called Keeping Score about the San Francisco orchestra gearing up to do a performance of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. If the website is any indication, the show should be excellent.
This is really one of the best music websites I've ever seen.
Thanks to Alex for the tip.
We've all suspected it from time to time. That artist that you think you like (say, for example, Nickelback) has just came out with a new song, and it sounds surprisingly like one of their previous outings. "They're just keeping true to what their fans expect," you say to yourself, "They can't be that cheesy/arrogant/lazy to rip off their fans like that."
Phil Collins explains himself to his fans.
I, perhaps mistakenly, hoped that this set list would be looked at as a celebration of my music, covering a lot of what's been enjoyed by MOST people over the last 25 years or so. I have changed a few things around, contrary to some opinion, arrangement wise, and brought some songs back to the way they were originally, as well as adding some new pieces altogether.
Some people have been complaining that Phil Collins' set list has been dominated by his radio hits, and this is bothering them. To those people, I'd have to say, "Have you been listening to Phil Collins for the last two decades or so? He's been about nothing but radio friendly, middle-of-the-road pap for quite some time; where have you been?". Or something like that.
Thanks to David for the tip.
Kelly Clarkson, winner of the first American Idol contest, has been voted the most talented off all the American Idol contestants. Which is a little like being voted the best fry maker at the local McDonald's. Great, but is being the least sucky an actual accomplishment?
Whitney, honey, I know that you have a good voice. And you have to keep up that whole diva image thing. But this is a bit much (3rd item). Going through 3 private planes? Who do you think you are? Britney?
The year that rock 'n roll finally broke through all the noise and clutter and captured the attention of America's youth. The year that teenagers all across this great land discovered the joy of loud guitars. The year will probably be 2004.
Why do I think rock music is about to break again? I think I see a shift in people's tastes. People don't know exactly what they want, but they want something different. Witness last year's critical and commercial success of The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. This year we have seen Dashboard Confessional do some damage on the charts. We have seen Thursday succeed with their major label debut. We have also seen bands like The Postal Service and Modest Mouse emerge from their underground status'. Modest Mouse hit the charts with their latest release and Ben Gibbard of The Postal Service and Death Cab for Cutie was recently featured in an article by Newsweek. I think it is safe to say that something new has started to take shape.
As with some other articles from the last few days, the interesting part for other musicians can be found here:
The major labels have looked at quality of the music secondarily in the past because they could always rely on their connections and marketing abilities to make almost any band they wanted popular. Now with the change in the industry due to the Internet and the radio and TV industries, the major labels have lost much of their advantage. As a result I think you will see more and more bands make decisions like Ben Gibbard and his Death Cab band mates who decided to stick with the independent labels that gave them their first shot. As a result of all these changes, I think we will start to see the whole industry start to look like the indie market. Major labels have already started cutting their rosters and their staffing levels.
It looks like this kind of trend might just be yet another nail in the coffin for the majors.
Sam Bisbee did his You Are Here video almost entirely in still photography. I didn't care for the song all that much, but the video is well done and entertaining. It reminds me of Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer in some ways, but at what had to be a very small fraction of the price. This is definitely something to remember, should I ever get around to making a video. A great example of how the DIY spirit is not only alive and thriving, but pretty darn creative as well.
Thanks to Eric for the tip.
Another person bemoans the loss of such a great band. Well, actually, he doesn't. But it's still an amusing read.
For the past ten years, Creed has been speeding down rock and roll’s steep decline like Calvin and Hobbes in a rickety toboggan. When they stumbled upon mainstream rock in the mid-nineties, it was still in stable condition but yearning for fresh air. Creed came to rock and roll with smothering-pillow in hand, dispatched it with surprisingly little struggle, and took over its identity like a glassy-eyed pod person.
If you're a jazz fan, does that mean you enjoy the "hot jazz" of the '20s, the swing of the '30s and '40s, the bebop of the '40s and '50s, or the free jazz of the '60s? Whatever your answer, it's significant that there's an assumption of linear development and, for lack of a better word, purity inherent in this familiar succession of styles. Not so for the fusion that followed in rock's wake, or for what's commonly termed Latin jazz, which I'd argue is really a complex array of styles, sounds, and approaches that have been elemental to jazz since Jelly Roll Morton invoked the Spanish tinge back in the '20s—and, if Morton is right, before. In any case, sometime after the middle of the 20th century, jazz's rapid formal mutations led naturally to crossbreeding that took the music further from its insular community with each passing decade. ...
The most eloquent spokesman for jazz's crossover mandate was Duke Ellington, who usually buried the issue beneath his assertion that there were only two kinds of music—"the good kind, and the other kind." Yet in a 1947 interview, he told readers of the music-education journal Etude this about jazz: "It requires, basically, two separate kinds of awareness. First, the thorough musical awareness that 25 years of steady development have brought in jazz. And, in the second place, an awareness of the contemporary scene with all its shadings of feelings."
Actually, what I most enjoy about jazz these days is how it takes a little from here, more from there and still a touch more from way over there. To me, the combination of jazz and world music is the most interesting area of music today. I can't wait to hear the next artist bringing new polyrhythms from Africa, new scalar/meters from Micronesia, all the sort of stuff that you just typically don't find in the everyday.
Thanks to Mwanji for the tip.
From Tom Ellard (of Severed Heads) by way of Eppy, the seven steps of writing music:
Just speaking for myself, I spend a lot of time in steps 1 through 4. Five seems to surface after a few months have passed and I don't know if I have anything I have written that has graduated to step 7. But hopefully one day....
The search for the next guitar great goes on.
A listing of one person's best song parts. Not the whole song, just the best parts.
Some highlights:
Thanks to Karen for the tip.
Fitehouse is making waves with their open source approach to making music.
Fitehouse's choice weapon in this particular war is the Bomb, otherwise known as open-source music, Cohen said. Open-source music does not inhibit the listener from file sharing or creatively changing the sounds. Rather, it invites listeners to build upon, collaborate and redistribute. As the innovators of this concept, Fitehouse solicits its fans -- or nonfans if that be the case -- to do the same, Cohen said.
In a press release, members of the band said "Fitehouse's Bomb campaign was undertaken to counter the stream of misinformation coming from the RIAA and to help return music to its rightful place in our cultural heritage."
The group states in the preamble to the Fitehouse General Public Music License, "By making music free for all its listeners and performers, the Fitehouse GPML can help re-orient songs from their current role as simple marketable commodities or entertainment products, and assist us to guarantee music's survival as a vibrant form of expression of the human condition."
What do you mean that some rabbis might be a little unhappy with Madonna as their spokesperson? For more details, we go to Simon:
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach isn't very impressed by Madonna's "embracing" of Kabblah, railing that no good will come of it all in an article "Perverted priorities", no less, for somethingjewish.co.uk:
You know your religion is up a creek when [...] the most famous representative of your mystical tradition is simulating lesbian sex with scantily clad pregnant dancers.
Earth to Phillip Berg: Do us all a favor and dump Madonna as your principal spokesperson. Sorry to be so crass, but Madonna is a slut. Yes, she may sing, and she may dance. But she is famous for being a slut. And no religion dare have a slut as its principal representative [...] I realize that Madonna has brought the Kabbalah Center great notoriety and is, according to reports, a contributor to the tune of millions of dollars. But is the Kabbalah Center really so desperate that it is prepared to promote itself through a vulgarian whose main contribution to the culture is porn rock?
Added to which, you know, she's not done a decent album for over half a decade...
Then, her PR steps in, issuing a counter-statement:
"I find Rabbi Boteach’s comments regarding Madonna frightening. His vile attacks on her character and as an artist are staggering for someone who professes to be a religious person. . . . I suggest this man take a look at his own character and what problems he may have that would make him feel that he should make statements about a truly beautiful human being that he does not know in the slightest. . . . Madonna’s relationship with the Kabbalah and her commitment to (their) teachings has been a beautiful experience for her and the fact that Madonna wants to share her lessons . . . is yet another example of her truly generous and loving spirit."
Which, is all nice and everything, but sort of misses the point of what the Rabbi was getting at - which seemed to be "What sort of religion associates itself with a woman whose image is one of a shaggarama on legs?", which would mean that Madonna being a lovely lady he doesn't know in real life would be kind of beside the point. We're just astonished that someone working in PR is suggesting that a Rabbi might have some character flaws.
The Rabbi, of course, strikes back:
"For Madonna to put herself forward as a spiritual spokesperson while continuing to degrade women by simulating sex acts at music concerts, portray full nudity in her movies, and to ridicule lesbians by performing same-sex kisses merely for TV ratings, is a mockery of her claims to a life of spiritual renewal based on the teachings of the Kabbalah. Women like Liz Rosenberg especially, who heave [sic] greatly distinguished themselves professionally through their brains rather than their busts, should be at the forefront of criticizing Madonna’s assault on feminine dignity."
Yeah, wouldn't be holding my breath for Madonna's PR woman to launch an attack on Madonna's behaviour. Now, let's just leave them to it...
This is a bit of a dated article (originally published in '95), but it's still a great reference for anyone interesting in playing Latin style music.
The clave pattern is two measures in length "in which each measure is diametrically opposed. The two measures are not at odds, but rather, they are balanced opposites, like positive and negative, expansive and contractive, or the poles of a magnet. As the full pattern is repeated, an alteration from one polarity to the other takes place creating pulse and rhythmic drive. Were the pattern to suddenly be reversed, the momentum within the rhythm would be destroyed…" (Cornelius, 1991: 15-6). The clave found in salsa, also known as son clave is notated in example 4. How a song begins determines which measure of the clave will be played first. The phrasing of the melody is the determining factor (e.g. where the accented rhythms of melody occur). This is referred to as either 3-2 or 2-3, meaning either the measure with the three strokes is played first with the two stroke measure following, or the two stroke is played first followed by the three stroke measure. According to tradition once a song begins the clave does not change its measure order. For instance there could never be a 3-2-2-3 clave sequence. Once the song has begun it functions similarly to the continuous bell patterns found in West African musical traditions by providing a rhythmic formula which serves as the foundation. As Roberta Singer states "Clave is a rhythmic time line that… functions as a rhythmic organizing principle for the entire ensemble" (Singer, 1982: 168). The rhythm may be overtly played or implied. Competent musicians in salsa must develop a "clave sense" similar to what Richard Waterman labels a "metronome sense" where a subjective pulse is felt by the participants which may not be overtly heard and functions as an ordering principle (Waterman 1952).
Jim's Big Ego uses the Creative Commons licensing to distribute their music online.
Creative Commons, cofounded and run by Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig, aims to find a balance between the extremes of strict regulation and unchecked exploitation. Creators can mix and match from a menu that helps express the terms under which they'd like to share their work. Infantino, for example, allows the public to copy, distribute, perform, and sample from his songs as long as it isn't for commercial purposes, the author is given credit, and any derivative works are distributed under an identical license.
This could be an interesting avenue to explore. I've thought about throwing up something I've written under the CC license, letting anyone take it and extend it, just to see what would happen and if anything that I thought was good would result. But I've been reticient as of yet. I've already been cheated out of credit on a few albums on which I have played, so I'm a touch reluctant to open myself up to that again.
Thanks to Brad for the tip.
And, in more Harry Potter news, the star of the films would like to become a rock star. Hey, um, Danny boy? So would a lot of us...
I can't think of a better summation of Avril Lavigne than her exegesis of Alanis Morissette's "Ironic": "I love how this song was written with all the different examples Alanis uses of things being ironic."
I just wish I had written it myself.
A list of albums that one writer would like to never hear again in college dorms. Some items on his list:
Some of Phillip's reasoning for not playing, say Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon --
Alright, we get the next point. You like to smoke weed. I'm not going to stop you from doing so, but you're, like, so going to get busted if the RA hears "Us and Them" coming out of your room. I mean, people have been lighting up to that song for, oh, I don't know, only the last 30 years. Just giving you the heads up, man.
-- Update --
I suppose that I should say that I don't agree with all of the items on this list (I rather like DMB, mostly because of Beauford's drumming), but I threw it up here for the amusing chuckle.
Thanks to Karen for the tip.
Yes, you read that right. Cookie Mongloid is a speed metal band from the Bay area that plays speed metal with a cookie monster as the singer. He even sounds a bit like Cookie Monster. It's not my cup of tea, but you have to give points for originality.
Thanks to Xeni for the tip.
From a fellow bass player, Max Valentino (I can't find his own home page, but here's some press for him), some well written suggestions on how to approach reggae. Note: this article has been reprinted from the TBL mailing list with Max's permission.
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I have played a lot of reggae and other Caribbean styles in the past (I was born in Martinique), and have toured with a number of high profile Jamaican acts. Reggae is in essence a very simple form, but as with all simple music forms, there is great complexity in the nuance. The key to making it all work is feel. This is not just from the bass point, but from all the instruments involved.
The classic guitar rhythm, or skank, is counted as 16ths notes even at incredibly slow tempos. This is very important as the guitar rhythms fall on the "e's" of each beat, not the "ands". A common mistake many guitarists make when playing reggae is to apply this rather simple rhythm on the "ands" of the beat, which, in essence, turns it into a slow polka.
The classic "one-drop" rhythm is where the bass lays out on the initial down beat of each measure, following it by a 16th or sometimes even an 1/8th note away. This is also applied in many African and Latin music. The concept of "rhythmic displacement" although quite easy to explain, is quite difficult to master. And, as a sidebar, this concept is creeping right into the musical vocabulary of contemporary R&B via the work of D'Angelo , Raphael Saddiq and others.
Yet, the one-drop can be applied the other way around; where the drums lay out on the one, with the bass playing that downbeat, which applies another twist to the syncopation.
Other reggae rhythms, such as popular dancehall grooves, "steppers" and such, feature a more traditional 2 and 4 backbeat, but offer a great deal of give and take 'tween the bass and kick drum; with the drums laying back on the beat and the bass pushing -- or vice versa.
This sort of interplay between the kick and bass is very important, as rarely will you want to phrase with the kick, as is so common in rock, but rather engage in a dialogue with it; perhaps a dance with it would be a more appropriate metaphor.
Notewise, roots (hmmm, is that a pun?) and chord tones play a major role..........as does space. Lots of space. This provides room for the sublime rhythms of the style to take place. Add to this the very heavy and deep tone of the bass... well, those notes, though being few, occupy a lot of sonic space. I have found it important to have some treble on the bass for articulation and definition. Rolling the tone back by a half, on a passive instrument, works well. The tone needs to be deep, yet defined. A lot of this also comes from placement of the right hand. Try plying softly up by the neck for a really "dubby" tone.
Feel is very important. Robbie Shaklespeare, for instance, has a feel which sits very much at the back of the beat, even on up-tempo dancehall stuff, which creates that laid-back sort of feel we all associate with reggae. Family Man Barret, whose work with Bob Marley is a must study for reggae lines, on the other hand, tends to play way up on the top of the beat, in essence following the vocals (which are also phrased on top, or even ahead of the beat), and this created the classic Wailers groove; the other instruments would lag behind the beat while the bass charged on the topside.
Often players performing Marley tunes, will play behind the beat with a laid back feel, and then wonder why the groove doesn't quite work. Therefore it is really important to work with a metronome of drum machine and learn to feel the placement of the beat (behind, on or ahead of), as well as the concept of rhythmic displacement -- which are actually good practices for all bassists -- not just exclusively for those trying to cop the reggae vibe.
You know those people who "play" music by the subway entrance? We have them around DC. There's the guy with the trumpet at LeFlant Plaza who can only play two patriotic tunes (Yankee Doodle and America, The Beautiful) as well as the bucket drummers around DuPont. There's also the more mobile ones: the guy with the Ibanez guitar, drum machine, mike and amp who plays a hammer-on/Stanley Jordan style of tapping constantly, the three/four guys with pan flutes and guitars....
For the most part, I ignore these people. I'm a struggling musician, and more power to them for trying to make it, but I haven't heard much from them that really gets me going. It would also seem that I'm not the only one who feels this way.
Just speaking personally, I love world music. I own quite a bit of it and play in a world band. So, hearing world music in movie soundtracks has (frequently) been the only thing about some films that I have enjoyed.
However, some have noticed (Salon link, registration/ad required) a trend in having a single female perform a plaintive wail in the background.
The story really took off in 2000 with a quiet indie release called "Gladiator." Ridley Scott's Oscar-winner opens over a golden wheat field through which strides a haggard but homebound Russell Crowe. Slowly, a low female voice begins to separate itself from the murmuring strings. In lilting half-steps, the exotic melody rises skyward. It's foreign, but comforting. The woman's words are unidentifiable -- Arab? Indian? Bulgarian? -- yet speak clearly of home and family and long-awaited happiness just beyond reach. Throughout the film, each time Crowe dreams of this far-off resting place, the plaintive vocal returns, even as he finally joins his family in the afterlife.
Hans Zimmer wrote the "Gladiator" soundtrack, and is credited, along with vocalist Lisa Gerrard (formerly of Dead Can Dance), with delivering the vaguely ethnic wail to the masses. Five years later, the wail now makes more appearances in Hollywood "epics" than the requisite heat-of-battle beheading. Any movie with a foreign setting is a shoo-in for a wail or two -- "Tears of the Sun," "Black Hawk Down," "The Four Feathers," "The Passion of the Christ" -- although stateside flicks aren't immune. Probably the oddest recent wail sighting came in Danny Elfman's score for "Hulk," which featured the jolly green giant skipping through the Nevada salt flats to a quasi-Arabian rhythm section and a spirited female screamer of dubious descent.
John Debney, composer for "The Passion," admits that the wail is a full-blown fad, like many other movie music trends that came before it. Television and film music from the 1980s was stuck on the "Miami Vice" sound: repetitive, synthesized riffs over repetitive, synthesized percussion. In the 1970s, it was the saxophone (think "Taxi Driver"). In the '50s, the UFOs massed overhead to the eerie squeal of the theremin. Now, Debney says, the sound "du jour" is the exotic, warbling, ethnic "female vocal" ("wail" is so ugly). Has it been overused? Sure, says Debney. Has it become a cliché? Probably. Should it be banned from movies forever? Let's not get carried away.
A great post/riposte between McWhorter and Ezana. Worth some time to browse, if you want to learn something about musical construction in American music.
A new rivalry, perhaps?
Simpson instantly became a household name for her many ditzy quips, including her failure to identify chicken from tuna - which AMERICAN IDOL judge Cowell believes was staged.
He says, "The odd thing about the music industry is that here's a girl who's career wasn't exactly on fire and then she goes on television, pretends that she thinks that CHICKEN OF THE SEA is actually chicken and on the back of that sells two million records. It's weird, isn't it?"
I'm rather tempted just to let the two twits have at each other for a few rounds and then shoot the victor.
Thanks to Simon for the tip.
Just a PSA for any singers out there. It happened to the dude from Darkness....
I was driving back to work tonight (yes, there are times when my day job really sucks) and I caught a little of the local smooth jazz station on the radio. There was some sax player working through a tune. It had a decent enough driving thump to it, so I thought I'd give it a bit more time. If only I had changed the station.
It turns out that it was Eric Singleton (remixed by XL) doing his version of Take Five. I don't know if it was Singleton's treatment or XL's, but they made the song 4/4. Jeez! That completely defeats the point of Take Five; one of the major accomplishments of the tune was the breezy and grooving way that it made a 5/4 time feel both normal and natural. Making it 4/4 throws away Brubeck's genius.
And therein lies one of the major reasons why a lot of jazz cats dislike the smooth variant.
Britney Spears rushed off of stage in Berlin even before the last song was finished in tears. Hopefully, everything's okay, and it was only her realizing that she's ripping her fans off by denying people the privilege of hearing her sing, as opposed to lip synching.
I think I've finished stringing together the solo piece for Friday's show. So far, I've got a tap opener, which bridges into Pachelbel's Canon in D. From there, it transitions into a thump/tap section and then returns to the theme of the opener. It's rather sloppy right now, as my technique isn't quite up to what I'm playing yet. Now that I've written the piece, though, I can work on improving my hand motions.
I'm planning on playing this for Anthony tomorrow to get his criticism and suggestions for improvement.
How would you like this little gem affixed to your name:
Lionel Richie, the father of the reality star Nicole Richie, appears on ABC tonight to introduce "Motown 45," a celebration of the 45th anniversary of that Detroit label.
Not that he was all that great once he left the Commodores, but still, give the man some credit for what career he did have....
It's actually an interesting read. And it's always good to understand from whence we came.
Thanks to David for the tip.
The UB40 official website has a wonderful picture of the band's severed heads roasting in Hell - this is the only good thing I can say about them. UB40 were a testimony to the unifying power of reggae - as in their hands any song, be it country, rock or AOR, sounds basically the same. A mid-tempo shuffle ornamented with Campbell's graceless Brummie whine, the music of UB40 brings to mind fag ash floating in half-drunk cans of stale Red Stripe and joints made out of tea leaves.
Thanks for the laugh, Tonya.
Eppy lets a pompous critic have it who is making "The Case Against Rock And Pop" (you can hear the capital letters as the guy writes). I've been sitting on this for a few days, trying to come up with something intelligent to add to this, but I can't. He's pretty much covered the bases (and did a darn good job in the process).
One or two shows have been added as well as one or two dropped. Hope to see you out at one of them.
Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) plays bass, in addition to his other accomplishments.
Thanks to Neil for the tip.
I'd be all over these. Just like the SL-1200 MK-II's that I used to use (being a vinyl kind o' guy).
Here's a web page listing some of the more interesting scales. I'm using some of these when I play with Shahin. The scales as written are for guitar, but they can be applied to a bass with a minimum of effort.
Jim Henley's approach won't necessarily be apt for anyone, but it's not a bad starting place.
Don't take this wrong, _____, but fuck your own voice. Your own voice will take care of itself as your craft matures. Your own voice will, if you're going to have one, insist on emerging. In the meantime, learn the craft. Learn the vocabulary and practice of meter. Learn rhyme schemes. Learn the ways that free verse gets written that yet contains music. Reread poets you admire, read about them and then read the poets they get compared to.
Thanks to Cory for the tip.
I was outside with the pallbearers from the undertaker's. I gave the nod to the crem attendant. He pressed 'play'. Well, it was Celine Dion, it was 'My heart will go on' ... but it was the dance remix.
As a thumping drumbeat massacred the gloopy song, one of the pallbearers turned to me and said, "So are we meant to take the coffin in at this pace?"
"No," said one of his colleagues, "it isn't a drum, it's the deceased knocking on the coffin, trying to get out!"
It became one of the challenges of my ministry to maintain dignity and not burst into hysterics during the funeral.
Today's episode of amusement comes to us from Simon.
A nice recap from Reuters on one of my favorite bands.
The complexity of Rush's songs led some critics in the '70s and '80s to accuse the band of being pretentious. But the innovation that sustains its career commands deep respect from fellow musicians. For some, the members of Rush have been personal mentors.
And few accomplish what Rush does onstage. A band that built its following with hard touring, Rush is most alive in front of an audience. Its stage productions, while entertaining, never overshadow its performance. The onstage grandeur belies the group's small size.
From Rasputin:
Perhaps the artist who recorded you is expressing a desire for his fans to come to his house and rock with him. Knowing what I know about the gentlemen, I would politely decline and offer instead to rock with him and several other attendees at a certified music concert venue.
Tim "the Ripper" Owens is the actual true story on which the rather bad movie Rock Star was based. Today's Washington Post has a good write up on his experiences.
This wasn't 'sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.' It was a job, and if you don't treat it like a job, you won't last." (Ripper takes naps before every gig, and all day long chugs not booze but odd teas that he's heard are good for the vocal cords.)
But Hollywood got the biggest thing right. "I had a dream, and my dream became my job," he says. "I got to live it."
For seven years, he toured the world with Priest. But last year, Ripper was -- well, defrocked.
Some interesting thoughts from a Belgian guy.
It made me think (not for the first time, but with the kind of focused clarity that only seems to happen while driving, for some reason) about how unimportant pitch is compared to phrasing and intonation, in making a solo funky: a handful of notes, repeated over and over, but in consistently wonderful, groovy patterns and with fittingly greasy attacks.
Early this week, I was studying with Anthony and we were working on soloing; how to approach the individual notes, ways to lay back across the bar lines and the like. One of the more important things that Anthony kept trying to get me to focus on was to stay in syncopation with the beat, working the pocket a little before and little after the beat. Mwanji's writing is on the same wavelength as what Anthony was saying.
Thanks to Eppy for the tip.
Just in case you were wondering.
Thanks to James for the tip.
NGB joined up with Stoked.TV to produce a video for one of their tunes. Check it out.
A list of bands that almost could have gone somewhere slightly different.
| Actual Name | Discarded Name |
|---|---|
| Radiohead | On A Friday |
| The Cure | Goat Band |
| Chuck D | Chuckie D |
Thanks to Frank for the tip.
JP Tropicale is a pretty darn hot band; I've caught a few of their performances on CD and I hope to catch them play sometime soon. I'd recommend you check them out.
Britney gets a tattoo on the back of her neck. It's just too bad that the Hebrew letters she put there say complete gibberish. Then again, maybe that was intentional; a reflection of what's on the inside.
-- Update --
Just to compound the issue, the Torah forbids getting tattoos.
Diane Warren, writer of such sappy love songs like Unbreak My Heart and I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, apparently is a bit of a boorish jerk in real life.
Before meeting Warren, I'd been warned not to expect a gushing, poetry-spouting sweetheart; instead, think a Beavis and Butt-Head-type who favours four-letter words that aren't "love". "She's liable to eff and blind, and come out with words that would make men blush, let alone women," laughs EMI UK's chairman Peter Reichardt, who's known Warren for almost 20 years and handles her songs outside the US.
Thanks to Emma for the tip.
Mr. Haimovitz closed his eyes, put bow to string and laid into the Prelude of Bach's First Cello Suite. He did not stop at the end of the movement but went on to play the entire work, about 20 minutes of music. It was some of the most moving and soulful playing heard by this listener in a very long time. The music seemed to pour out of his cello and wash over the huddled group, over the sea of empty tables and flimsy plastic chairs, over the bar and over the television flickering quietly in the opposite corner of the room.
What came through in that moment was the simplicity of the basic musical connection, and how it requires so little of the glittery packaging that can often pass for the concert experience itself. Ultimately, Mr. Haimovitz's tour may be proving the under-recognized value of new music in attracting new audiences. But the enraptured faces in the semicircle suggested an equally important insight into the power of smaller numbers, the richness of direct contact.
Perhaps classical music's audience problem could be solved if there were more living, breathing, palpable moments of exchange like the one that took place in this beer-drenched corner of a Mississippi pizza parlor. "It's so simple," Mr. Haimovitz said when happily back on the road, "to just take out your cello and start playing."
This sounds like a very good thing.
Total Guitar magazine in the UK has compiled a listing of the 20 best guitar tracks in rock.
Some of these I haven't heard of (Muse?), and some of these are being overpraised (No One Knows is a decent enough song, but not quite the top twenty ever). Take it for what it's worth.
No, really, he does.
This is one of the reasons I'm really loving Courtney these days. These are the kind of complaints artists make all the time: I lost creative control, the label isn't doing enough to promote it, etc. But you'd usually either make it in private, to friends, or make it in public, but quietly. Courtney does it in a Rolling Stone story while she's promoting the CD, and says she's going to follow it up with a press release. Now, don't get me wrong: this does happen. I've certainly been on the semi-receiving end of a few of these sorts of missives, but it was never quite in this context. There's something different about it, and what's different about it is everything else.
Kylie Minogue says she deliberately made herself feel faint so she could sound raunchy on her new track.
The 35-year-old singer starved herself of water and fresh air to reach a near orgasmic state on the track entitled Chocolate.
Wow, I guess she was trying to suffer for her art sales.
-- Update --
The inimitable Simon has something to say on this as well.
Apparently Kylie confuses 'orgasm' with 'choking', which is, in itself, interesting - that's what you'd get after dating [Michael] Hutchence [from INXS]: It was all about timing - how long I could go with little oxygen. I think it was worth it. It sounds really beautiful.
We'd really suggest that you don't try this for yourself. Unless you're Dannii, of course, in which case: it's gotta be worth a try, hasn't it?
It got a snicker from me, excepting the whole making fun of a dead person thing.
A couple of thoughts on how to revive a dead band successfully.
So now MoB [Mission of Burma] offers another template: how to resurrect a long-gone band.
First off, keep the initial breakup fairly civil. "There was no bad blood," Prescott says. "It was just time for people to move on and try something else. And Roger [Miller, guitarist] had tinnitus, which was the biggest factor."
Second, keep working. Prescott has stayed active with three different bands...
Furthermore, don't rest on your laurels. "Another big factor was Roger was completely uninterested in playing again unless we wrote new songs and were active like a band," Prescott says. "Otherwise it's kind of stale."
But nothing else matters if you can't deliver both the old and new material live. ...
Digging on cool music isn't about bowing down to it ten years later. It's about moving on, making your own, and finding the next geniuses to stack the canon. Even if you have to plow through the old geniuses first.
Thanks to Frank for the tip.
Chris Ullman can whistle.
None of that paltry squeakiness, and no using those fingers to bend that tune. Ullman is strictly a professional.
As the Alexandria resident heads south to North Carolina this weekend for the International Whistlers Convention, he's optimistic that he will walk away with the top prize, and it's not as if he's whistling in the dark.
This story comes from today's Washington Post. It feels like one of those "gosh, aren't people sorta silly" articles that sometimes make the human interest sections of the local news. I, for one, didn't know that there was an international whistling competition to win. But I wouldn't mind hearing Mr. Ullman's work.
Thanks to Lynn for the tip.
An visual way to see how the music of one bands is related to another. It just might lead you to find a new, cool group.
Some tips that might come in handy, should the crew from MTV's Cribs drop by. Some examples:
- It's not a "room". It's an "area". Ex: "Dis here the pool area." or "Here go the kitchen area."
- They are not friends. They are dawgz.
- On the day of taping, you must have a minimum of 8 to 10 dawgz kickin' it in your pool, studio and theater areas.
- Consider trading a Lexy for a pit bull, Rottweiler or other menacing dog.
- If possible, breed or buy a chrome Rottweiler.
Thanks to Frank for the tip.
A random site full o' trivia. Some examples:
There a website that can help you find the art work that graced the covers of most albums over time. It's quite nifty, if you're into that kind of thing.
Thanks to Simon for the tip.
For those who can find the time, applications to Bass Camp for 2004 are now available.
Tampons, which I have foolishly thought were just for, well, women, seem to be branching out:
"Foxy Lady" Harisu will be the first transgender individual to appear in an advertisement for menstrual pads.
From the middle of next month, Harisu will be appearing as a model in television and magazine ads for imported "UFT" sanitary napkins.
She'll get a guaranteed W100 million an ad for three months. The selection of Harisu, a transsexual, as the model for menstrual pads is setting the advertising world on fire.
Up till now, male stars like Go Su and Gam U-seong have appeared in sanitary napkin ads, but never has a transgender individual appeared in an ad for such a feminine product. The Taiwanese firm UFT really tried hard to cast Harisu in its ads. In fact, when the singer first learned what the company wanted her to market, she was quite hesitant to agree to the project.
The part that really strikes me is not that a transgender person is hawking tampons, but rather than male stars have been selling them for sometime. I can't quite see this one. Maybe it's just me, but I'm not going to buy something for my prostrate that Britney Spears or Janet Jackson flacks, no matter how good a job they're doing at it.
Thanks to Mark for the tip.
For all of those who thought the only place in the music business for hamsters was indulging strange sexual needs, here's a new story about using six hamsters to create music via a MIDI sequencer.
Guided by inputs based on hamster movements, Markov chains were used to perform such beat and note computations. In culmination, 3 simultaneous voices were produced spanning 3 octaves and 3 rhythmic tiers. Each voice was controlled by two hamsters: one that was responsible for adjusting the rhythmic qualities of the melody and another that modified the note sequence. With all of these elements in combination, an output was produced with very musical qualities
I would be scared for my job, but not quite yet. Medical science and genetic engineering haven't quite been able to create the hamster big enough to play a bass guitar.
Thanks to Mark for the tip.
For those who might have thought otherwise, playing your instrument while driving might get you in trouble.
Real Networks and Apple computers might be joining up.
RealNetworks made a direct appeal last week to Apple Computer, its Internet music rival, suggesting that the two companies form a common front against Microsoft in the digital music business.
And, in a related story, Apple is now selling more iPods than iMacs.
Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, [said] "We sold a lot of Macs, but we've sold more iPods in the quarter than all the Macs put together."
Off the top of my head, that kind of change in Apple's focus should have some pretty interesting implications to the industry.
Eppy over at Clap Clap is heading into the studio to do his own spot of recording. Drop by and check out his experiences. If you want to see some of mine, go here
SLim and I hooked up tonight to do some writing. She's got some ideas for a tune or two that she wanted a little bit of help with. The last time that we got together, we worked out the chords for her words, but what we came up with was so truly bizzare that I don't know if anyone would have been able to play it (lots of inverted chords in the key of A flat).
Here's the strange thing. Courtney's daughter -- the one that she's so concerned about -- is far more mature than her mother, even when allowing for the 28 years in difference in their ages (11 and 39, respectively).
"Janet Jackson was inappropriate," Frances Bean tells Love during an intimate mother-daughter chat published in the May issue of Blender.
"But I've shown my t - - s in front of people, honey," the blond rocker tells her daughter.
"But [what Janet did] was in front of children," Frances Bean replies.
In the bizarre give-and-take that's bound to get Love, 39, in even more hot water, she also laments to her only child that she's man-hungry and fantasizes about getting a new squeeze.
"Sometimes, mommies need to get laid, too," Love tells her daughter.
"But Mommy," the girl shoots back, "You intimidate men!"
Strange, but it's remarkable which one is the voice of reason.
From yesterday's Washinton Post, a few questions and answers about tinnitus.
This is something that I presently suffer from -- a tribute to my own misspent youth as a DJ in 120 decibel bars four nights a week for ten years. No one to blame here other than myself. I got myself checked out a while ago, and things are going as well now as I can expect them to be going. The custom earplugs I picked up a while ago are helping things stay that way, too.
Thanks to Lynn for the tip.
While I was at work today, I had an idea for a drum groove. I've had more than a few of these segments plop into my head over the years, but they tend to scurry away before I can do anything about them.
This time, I scored out what was in my head on a sheet of paper. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to hold the idea. When I got home, I used my drum machine to capture the pattern.
Having finished the loop and listened to it quite a bit, I don't think that it would be a good rhythm to use for the basis of an entire tune, but I think it could be a pretty cool groove for a B section to a tune.
Something Awful's own Your Band Sucks solicited demos from struggling bands.
Firstly, I’ve learned that I’m very, very glad I’m not a recording industry talent scout or A &R Man, because if the demos people sent me were any indication, their job must be a lot like digging through septic tanks in search of gold nuggets. Secondly, I’ve learned that people who can sing are at a goddamn premium. 90% of the demos I’ve heard have singers that make Mark E. Smith sound like Celine Dion. Thirdly, I have found that if a band has no talent, they often think they can make up for it with either good-humored cleverness or atonal “experimentation.”
Being one of those people who does demos, I don't know if I'd want to send him anything that I've played on. Not that I think what I've done sucks, but he has rather different tastes that I do.
I recently picked up a copy of the DVD Rush: Chronicles (it was on sale for $9.99). I'm glad that I didn't pay full price for it.
This DVD is a collection of various Rush videos from over the last few decades. The earlier videos are either live shoots (more or less) or studio footage. The latter ones are at best average (from today's perspective), with some being downright embarassing -- Time Stands Still in particular.
It never ceases to amaze me how little the music business has changed in the last 20 years. Independent labels have been around forever. The godfather of guerilla music marketing, Russell Simmons, has taught well to those who are willing to listen. We independent minded folks learn and innovate. The majors buy... and well, they just buy. No matter how many records you sell, your business plan is just a fad and can be bought, or so they think.
I don't know when it started... It probably was Russell Simmons, but now independent labels are stronger than ever. In the last decade they have become a force to be reckoned with. They embraced the Internet revolution and pinched their pennies while majors squandered their fat bank accounts on lawsuits and competitive startups.
Good advice from a good source.
Tonight was one of the better performances I have had with JoS since, well, joining up with Rich.
Load in was uneventful, and the venue was pretty nice (a clubhouse at an apartment complex). The first set was a complete loss; we were basically at a paid rehearsal. Some party goers milled around, talking amongst themselves and pretty much ignoring what we were doing wholesale.
The second set, however, that was a completely different issue. We led off with the Commodores' work horse Brick House. People got on the dance floor and started to groove. Well, to be more accurate, the ladies got on the dance floor, dragging a few men with them. Once they were up, and staying up, we started to cannibalize the remainder of both sets, looking for upbeat, danceable tunes that would keep them dancing. And we pretty much succeeded.
Nights like this one show me one of the reasons why I play music. The three of us were locking together pretty tightly, and we started to produce some good energy. The dance floor filled up, and they picked up on our energy, which made brought them higher. That in turn fed back to us -- a feedback loop of sorts.
All in all, one of the better nights I have had playing out recently.
Tonight, Jar of Souls returned to Classic Café for the first time in some months.
Set up was an interesting event. We had probably three or four times the gear that we need to do this show (not an entirely unheard of thing with JoS), so I didn't load in as much as I might normally use (leaving the fretless and the six string in the car). Mark took up a good bit of real estate to my left, Ryan on my right with Rich far over to my right.
But the entertainment had already started. There was an abyssmally drunk girl on the verge of her own wardrobe malfuntion who was very eager to get the attention of each and every member of the band. To the point of offering total strangers fifty bucks if she could just sing one song. I found it rather amusing, for about fifteen minutes. Then it was just annoying.
The show was pretty good. We had a little difficulty getting the levels set appropriately for the room. The first set of the night went rather well; we had a number of people up and dancing through some of the songs. We ended the set on the Rush tune Freewill, one of my favorites that I used to play in college.
About two thirds of the way through the first set, we had lost a number of people (for whatever reason -- it's late, music too loud/didn't like it, had to be somewhere else, etc.). However, we pretty much finished off the rest of the crowd with the opening number to the show. 2112: Overture/Temples of Syrinx is one of those tunes pretty much for the diehard Rush fan and/or serious musician. And it would appear that we didn't have all that many of either in the audience tonight. We worked our way through the rest of the set and then called it a night.
I think that Mark will be rejoining us for a few shows in the future. I hope so, it was fun playing with him. Rob also sat in on a few tunes. I'll upload the photos from the show (and the set lists) sometime later. After pretending to get at least some sleep.
From the NY Times:
We were in a Brooklyn basement full of artists and sound-poets gathered to watch musicians throw down extreme noise improvisation. One performer played records with two customized tone arms on his turntable; the discs broke and scratched, creating shards of hyperfractured beat play. He was followed by a quartet of young women scraping metal files across amplified coils mixed through junk electronics. I was to perform a spontaneous guitar/amp feedback piece with a stand-up bass player on loan from his teaching post at Berklee College of Music and a free jazz percussionist who had traversed through New York's downtown underground in the 60's. Not your typical night of alternative rock.
I like weird. I like avant-garde. "Scraping metal files across amplified coils..." that doesn't sound like the result is going to lean towards music (other than the fact that it will presumably play something in the frequency range that can generally be considered notes).
Sometimes, a boring old 1-4-5 is good enough, you know?
I guess all the controversy that she generated just wasn't worth it. Her latest CD isn't doing all that great.
He would hate this. Oh, would he hate this.
He would hate the fuss and the tributes, the psychoanalysis and the pity.
He would fume at the five-in-a-row rock block of Nirvana on "classic alternative" radio stations. He'd be sickened by this essay, sickened by everything that marked this tragic occasion. Actually, the words "tragic occasion" would set him off. He'd find them solemn and empty and he never had patience for solemn and empty.
Kurt Cobain would detest all the re-eulogizing prompted by the 10th anniversary of his suicide. It was 10 years ago today that he put a Remington 20-gauge shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger, and it's impossible to imagine the scene without also imagining him begging us to imagine something else. Anything else. "Just move on," you hear him plead, wearing a shabby wool sweater, his blue eyes moist with fatigue. "Shut up, please, and just move on."
An interesting take on all the morbid fascination.
A whole host of independent music labels are joining together to provide an alternative to the RIAA.
Executives from more than 150 independent music companies have discussed a preliminary framework for the association, which has a working title of American Music Independents.
Those labels account for almost $2.5 billion of annual music sales in the US, or 19 per cent of the country's near-$13 billion music sales. But they have a far larger proportion of online music retailing at closer to 30 per cent of the small but growing market, executives involved in the negotiations said.
Hopefully, the addition of this new group will allow for a more representative view of the music industry, instead of bought and paid for allegiance to the majors.
We just got booked! JoS will be returning to Main Street Bar & Grill in Stafford VA for a show on the 30th.
I was recently asked by a reader (check the comments) what it is that I want from my music. I've been thinking about it for awhile, and here's my stab at an answer.
For starters, I'm going to answer this from a standpoint of what I want professionally. What I want from the music in general is to be able to express myself, to share what I have and to have fun while doing it. What I want artistically is to play challenging, tuneful music and to grow into new styles and idioms of playing (jazz, reggae, world, etc.) as well as improving as a player. However, I can do both of these independently of any professional goals. But, when a reader asks for something, I do my best to try and make good on the request (and, to stop anyone with a bright idea, this is not a carte blanche offer for you to be asking me to do stuff). Although what I want artistically may follow on as a later post.
Also, these are my goals right now. As many musicians (and other people, for that matter) can no doubt relate to, one's goals change over time. When I was sixteen, my musical goals were to be a really big band and meet lots of girls! Once I hit 19, my musical goals were to make it big and pick up lots of babes. Right around 22, all I really wanted to do was break into the majors and get with lots of chicks. These days, hitting the charts sounds really appealing, while the other part just sounds tiring.
And, with no further ado (because I know that some of you are just begging me to shut up already and get the point), here -- in no particular order -- are some of my professional goals.
Be On A Recording Distributed By One Of The Major Labels
It doesn't even have to be my own, or even the whole album. I would love to be able to walk in to a record store, see a CD that I have played on and know that my playing has been recognized by other people as worthwhile. I really don't need the affirmation that someone else has judged me worthy (I like what I do, even while I know it can be better), but it's still nice to hear.
Having one of those recordings distributed by a major just adds to it. I've played on a number of albums already, but they were onesie-twosies for local bands, either for a demo or for a friends and family release (more on this later). Anyone willing to spend some money can make a CD. You can make one yourself in the comfort of your own home for a few hundred dollars, if you want.
Having the backing of a label means that someone other than the artist thinks that the work is good enough. Good enough to put up some hard cash in what amounts to a bet that enough people are going to be willing to buy the CD to make back the sunk cost. Once the CD is made, though, the label has to be able to distribute the CD to the actual stores. Most of the time, they do this through the majors.
The major distributors pretty much only care about one thing -- will this release make more money than it is going to cost us to send it out? When a musician is asked to play on a release at that level, it's because the producer in question thinks that you are good enough to play the song(s) in a minimum of studio time and with the sound that he/she wants.
Play A High Profile Venue
In the same vein, I'd like to play at least one high quality venue. For all my comments about playing at Jaxx, it was probably one of the better quality stages I've played on in quite some time -- good lights, lots of real estate to move, average sound (for that night, at least -- I've been told they normally do a better job). I'd like to do more of that. The 9:30 club, Wolf Trap, the MCI Center in the DC area, the Blue Note in NYC, somewhere like that. Those places have so much history there that I think it would be an honour just to share the same stage upon which some of the legends stood.
There's also something about being able to say, "Yeah, I played Blues Alley a few times." ::sniff:: "It was okay."
Be On A Recording Played In A Major Market
And, continuing along the same train of thought, I've been told by quite a few people that there is nothing like turning on the radio one day and a song on which you played just happens to come on. I'd like to experience that for myself, please (if everyone else wouldn't mind). And not just any radio (your brother's cousin's pirate radio station that he runs from his tree house doesn't quite count), but a prominent station in one of the major US media markets.
Tour With A Recognized Act
I'd love to hit the road with an act that's made it. I know, I'm not asking for too much, now am I? I don't think I'm ready for Stevie Wonder or anything (but, if he's reading, call me).
I have done some touring, and I'm sure that I'll probably do a few more local/regional tours with the occasional band. But, as a goal, I like to head out on the road for awhile with an established act. I know that if I achieve this goal, it will probably be as a result of working with a band consistently for a while, doing the regional tour thing and then graduating with them to the next stop of the train. But, the end goal is to do a major tour.
I think I'd really like to do the sideman thing with a jazz act. Now that would be nirvana for me.
Part of this is my age; I'm sort of past the point where the idea of sleeping in a van and eating baloney sandwiches for four months would be quite the romantic notion it would have been for me before. Another part is, like I said before, I'd like to play a major venue. You sorta have to be established to do both of these things.
Put Out My Own Material On An Album That People Who Aren't My Friends And Family Would Want To Buy
Yeah, it's a long title. Sue me.
I know -- with utter certainty -- that if I were to record a CD of eight songs tomorrow, I have a pool of people who would pony up some cash for a copy, no matter how bad it was. And, most of them would be kind and gracious, telling me how wonderful the music was, even if there was the sound of a cat coughing up a hairball during the middle of a pentatonic run of the big solo. While I know they mean well, it just wouldn't amount to all that much.
When someone goes out and plunks down their hard-earned money to buy a CD of some musician that they've never met, don't know and probably never will, they are basically saying that they think well enough of their work that they are willing to pay for it. If you think that doesn't mean something, well, you're very wrong.
All this to say that I want to be able to present a CD full of music that I have written, with my own expression and thoughts, and then I'd like to have people welcome it into their lives.
Grow As A Musician (Not Just As A Bass Player)
I do a decent job as a bass player. I can even manage to find my way around a drum kit when I have to. What I want to be able to grow into a better understanding of all the other instruments in a band better. Not to mention developing a better feel for the support side of the show (live sound engineering, producing albums, etc.). I've done a bit of this already, and I'd like to do more. Also, I am fully aware that the better feel I have for the other aspects of the music, the more appealing I am to potential producers and artists.
I think that anything insights that I can gain from these other influences can only improve my approach my instrument better. Getting a better feel for how the trumpet sits in the mix will help me select the best way to play my line. Knowing how sound carries in a room allows me to fine tune my effects and amp settings for the best possible performance.
Well, I think this is probably enough for right now. Sheesh, if I were able to accomplish any two of these, that would be pretty darn good.
I was recently asked by a reader (check the comments) what it is that I want from my music. I've been thinking about it for awhile, and here's my stab at an answer.
For starters, I'm going to answer this from a standpoint of what I want professionally. What I want from the music in general is to be able to express myself, to share what I have and to have fun while doing it. What I want artistically is to play challenging, tuneful music and to grow into new styles and idioms of playing (jazz, reggae, world, etc.) as well as improving as a player. However, I can do both of these independently of any professional goals. But, when a reader asks for something, I do my best to try and make good on the request (and, to stop anyone with a bright idea, this is not a carte blanche offer for you to be asking me to do stuff). Although what I want artistically may follow on as a later post.
Also, these are my goals right now. As many musicians (and other people, for that matter) can no doubt relate to, one's goals change over time. When I was sixteen, my musical goals were to be a really big band and meet lots of girls! Once I hit 19, my musical goals were to make it big and pick up lots of babes. Right around 22, all I really wanted to do was break into the majors and get with lots of chicks. These days, hitting the charts sounds really appealing, while the other part just sounds tiring.
And, with no further ado (because I know that some of you are just begging me to shut up already and get the point), here -- in no particular order -- are some of my professional goals.
Be On A Recording Distributed By One Of The Major Labels
It doesn't even have to be my own, or even the whole album. I would love to be able to walk in to a record store, see a CD that I have played on and know that my playing has been recognized by other people as worthwhile. I really don't need the affirmation that someone else has judged me worthy (I like what I do, even while I know it can be better), but it's still nice to hear.
Having one of those recordings distributed by a major just adds to it. I've played on a number of albums already, but they were onesie-twosies for local bands, either for a demo or for a friends and family release (more on this later). Anyone willing to spend some money can make a CD. You can make one yourself in the comfort of your own home for a few hundred dollars, if you want.
Having the backing of a label means that someone other than the artist thinks that the work is good enough. Good enough to put up some hard cash in what amounts to a bet that enough people are going to be willing to buy the CD to make back the sunk cost. Once the CD is made, though, the label has to be able to distribute the CD to the actual stores. Most of the time, they do this through the majors.
The major distributors pretty much only care about one thing -- will this release make more money than it is going to cost us to send it out? When a musician is asked to play on a release at that level, it's because the producer in question thinks that you are good enough to play the song(s) in a minimum of studio time and with the sound that he/she wants.
Play A High Profile Venue
In the same vein, I'd like to play at least one high quality venue. For all my comments about playing at Jaxx, it was probably one of the better quality stages I've played on in quite some time -- good lights, lots of real estate to move, average sound (for that night, at least -- I've been told they normally do a better job). I'd like to do more of that. The 9:30 club, Wolf Trap, the MCI Center in the DC area, the Blue Note in NYC, somewhere like that. Those places have so much history there that I think it would be an honour just to share the same stage upon which some of the legends stood.
There's also something about being able to say, "Yeah, I played Blues Alley a few times." ::sniff:: "It was okay."
Be On A Recording Played In A Major Market
And, continuing along the same train of thought, I've been told by quite a few people that there is nothing like turning on the radio one day and a song on which you played just happens to come on. I'd like to experience that for myself, please (if everyone else wouldn't mind). And not just any radio (your brother's cousin's pirate radio station that he runs from his tree house doesn't quite count), but a prominent station in one of the major US media markets.
Tour With A Recognized Act
I'd love to hit the road with an act that's made it. I know, I'm not asking for too much, now am I? I don't think I'm ready for Stevie Wonder or anything (but, if he's reading, call me).
I have done some touring, and I'm sure that I'll probably do a few more local/regional tours with the occasional band. But, as a goal, I like to head out on the road for awhile with an established act. I know that if I achieve this goal, it will probably be as a result of working with a band consistently for a while, doing the regional tour thing and then graduating with them to the next stop of the train. But, the end goal is to do a major tour.
I think I'd really like to do the sideman thing with a jazz act. Now that would be nirvana for me.
Part of this is my age; I'm sort of past the point where the idea of sleeping in a van and eating baloney sandwiches for four months would be quite the romantic notion it would have been for me before. Another part is, like I said before, I'd like to play a major venue. You sorta have to be established to do both of these things.
Put Out My Own Material On An Album That People Who Aren't My Friends And Family Would Want To Buy
Yeah, it's a long title. Sue me.
I know -- with utter certainty -- that if I were to record a CD of eight songs tomorrow, I have a pool of people who would pony up some cash for a copy, no matter how bad it was. And, most of them would be kind and gracious, telling me how wonderful the music was, even if there was the sound of a cat coughing up a hairball during the middle of a pentatonic run of the big solo. While I know they mean well, it just wouldn't amount to all that much.
When someone goes out and plunks down their hard-earned money to buy a CD of some musician that they've never met, don't know and probably never will, they are basically saying that they think well enough of their work that they are willing to pay for it. If you think that doesn't mean something, well, you're very wrong.
All this to say that I want to be able to present a CD full of music that I have written, with my own expression and thoughts, and then I'd like to have people welcome it into their lives.
Grow As A Musician (Not Just As A Bass Player)
I do a decent job as a bass player. I can even manage to find my way around a drum kit when I have to. What I want to be able to grow into a better understanding of all the other instruments in a band better. Not to mention developing a better feel for the support side of the show (live sound engineering, producing albums, etc.). I've done a bit of this already, and I'd like to do more. Also, I am fully aware that the better feel I have for the other aspects of the music, the more appealing I am to potential producers and artists.
I think that anything insights that I can gain from these other influences can only improve my approach my instrument better. Getting a better feel for how the trumpet sits in the mix will help me select the best way to play my line. Knowing how sound carries in a room allows me to fine tune my effects and amp settings for the best possible performance.
Well, I think this is probably enough for right now. Sheesh, if I were able to accomplish any two of these, that would be pretty darn good.
Previously on the Complaining Record Industry channel, the Austrailian version of the RIAA cried loudly and longly with regards to their falling music sales. Small problem here is that they are, um, slightly stretching the actual truth of the matter.
The Australian record industry has just had its best year ever. But it doesn't want you to know about it. This month ARIA announced its sales figures for last year. In its press release, it talked about Delta, it talked about falling CD singles sales, it talked about the rise in DVD sales, but at no stage did it tell us it was the industry's best year ever. Why bury the good news?
Record industry types aren't usually shy about success. But this time their success is a little embarrassing. For the past few years the industry has argued that file-sharing and CD burning is having a negative impact on sales. But, unfortunately, their own sales figures don't back up their arguments.
Hmm. Imagine that. The record industry is telling a tall tale to try and get people on their side.
I have heard a rumor that Guitar Center may be purchasing Fender guitars. More on this later.
I would have never thought this, and I still don't think that I do think it, but here's an love note to Fleetwood Mac.
A California-to-the-core studio obsessive with a permanent case of the jitters (Buckingham), a dreamy mystical type with a gift for ornate, languorous melodies (Nicks), and a veteran British rhythm section with roots in raw electric blues (Fleetwood and the McVies): Try faking that combination.
It seems that the BPI (Britian's version of the RIAA) is going to be heading down the same road with suing their customers.
-- Update --
Simon has a great analysis of this turn of events from a British perspective (which is probably a bit more accurate than me sitting over here on this side of the pond).
Tonight, the four of us went to Agua Ardiente to play a charity show for both Children of Persia and the International Club of DC.
I had been to Agua once before, to catch some friends of mine playing there. It's an interesting club, with a heavy Mediterranean/Spanish feel to the establishment. Lots of people wearing black there, for some reason. The layout of the club is very similar to a large "U", with the band being set up in the lower left-hand corner of the shape.
We were only on the hook for a single short set. Unfortunately, we had no real sound check -- actually, that's pretty much par for the course anymore. The configuration of the club does not particularly lend itself well to live music; the walls have lots of flat surfaces, and you're basically playing to two thin halls. But we tweaked the sound as best we can, mostly trying to not have a repeat of the feedback issues we had at the last show.
We breezed through our sets pretty well. We had some time issues, along with the usual blocking concerns. As with our last show, we each had difficultly in hearing what the other was playing. When that is the case, having a consistent blocking of song segments is critical.
The other issue with the set was the time in between songs. We would get up some good energy, but then lose it with several minutes of dead air between each tune (either that, or having a guitarist noodle around for a few minutes). IN any case, it hurt the overall performance.
Still, for as short a period of time that we have been playing together, we did a pretty good job. The crowd (and it was a pretty good size crowd) seemed to enjoy what we were doing. After loadout, I worked the crowd for a bit, chatting with various people. They were pretty supportive and appreciative of the music we had played. A few even inquired as to our availability for future shows.
An interesting article on sampling and how these new techniques are changing and challenging the existing copyright structure. Worth reading if you're into recording (and getting paid for it...).
Some might say that this is the logical conclusion of all the technical wonkiness present in a lot of pop music.
The world music industry has it's own awards show in the UK. Some people are wondering why.
Any record label executive worth their salt will tell you that you can have as much critical acclaim as you like, but if an album sells next to nothing then it counts for very little. And the reality is that most world music albums do indeed sell next to nothing.
Want to start a new band in the US? You'll probably end up in the West End of London while you're paying your dues.
The blueprint for breaking US bands [in the UK] includes a 12-date tour, a limited edition single, a PR campaign and some specialist radio. "It's still not cheap," says Dave Bedford, who manages sensitive British crooners the Tindersticks, "but it's cheaper than America because the UK is smaller. If you do have success in the UK you're more likely to get a better budget from your label when they do finally decide to launch you back home."
This is an interesting twist on globalization, I suppose. It's odd, though, because the cultural tastes of Britain hardly mirror the US. What's the old saw; "...two countries divided by the same language?" Given some of the popular items in the UK that just never quite made it here (Robbie Williams, AbFab just off the top of my head), this seems like a huge bet. But, at the same time, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Survivor have both been runaway hits, so maybe there is something to this after all.
Ever since the Strokes breezed into Britain and left six months later, suitcases bulging with rave reviews, executives in the States have started to eye the UK as a test market for its alternative bands.
"It can cost upwards of $300,000 [£165,000] to take record to radio in the States," says one US Radio Promotions representative, "so going to Britain is a more cost effective way of building a band's reputation."
The Strokes, who played New York's Bowery Ballroom for two years without success, returned to America to find a queue of major labels at their door. Oddly, while the Stateside media has become suspicious of British press hype, their own tastemakers look to us as a type of buzz barometer for US bands.
At the SXSW conference in Austin, TX, more and more industry professionals are begining to accept the coming nature of digital media.
Digital music and its availability over the Internet has opened the door for entrepreneurs who can make the best use of online resources, panel members said.
"The whole physical aspect of the business is going to cease to exist sometime in the future, and there's tremendous opportunity there because you can your lower your costs," McDonough [a lawyer with Washington-based Future of Music Coalition] said.
I recently finished up Moses Avalon's Confessions Of A Record Producer not too long ago. I would highly recommend this book to any one who wants to enter into the shark tank known as the music industry. Enough so that I made it one of my essentials.
Not quite as detailed as Passman's book, the writing style is very approachable and informal. Both Confessions and All You Need To Know focus on how things are supposed to be and both the legal and financial sides to that, with All You Need To Know not going quite so far in depth. Confessions, however, drills more into the human side of the business, with all the delight and detrius that implies.
Avalon spends a great bit of time detailing the various scams and myths that are ran in the industry, some of which are:
All in all, it's a good perspective on some of the less savory segments of the music industry, pitched with enough humour and good graces to make you want to stick with it.
The industry bigwigs at the SXSW conference have spoken with regards to online music:
All that content is out there but nobody's telling people what to listen to, what's next, what to buy, what to download," he [Don VanCleave, president of the Coalition of Independent Music Stores] said. "You can have millions of choices, but without some kind of a filter it's very tough to get turned onto anything new.
Why, they're right! If only there was someone (other than yours truly) who could dare suggest to readers music to listen to. As Simon puts it, "Perhaps the RIAA and its friends has got such strong filters to ensure there's no bad file sharing happening within the music industry, it takes, like, five years for pages to download."
"(Artists) are going to computers and they are not really playing the music," Little Richard says. "I think they need to stay with the craft so they can learn the real theory, the real thing. You want to be a real musician, not just somebody pushing a button."
Preach it, brother.
One of the thing that I rather dislike about a large swathe of popular music these days is how sterile it all sounds. The tunes have been Beat Detective-d to death, everything's perfectly in pitch and on meter. There's no humanity there.
Here's an interesting article on the state of radio these days.
When you tune in to radio today, at best you’ll listen to a live DJ reading song lists off of a computer monitor, at worst you’ll listen to a recording of a DJ reading song lists off of a computer.
The creation of computerized programming and voice tracking technology made live radio obsolete. A music director picks the songs, a technician programs them into a computer, and a DJ comes into the studio, looks at a computer screen, sees the song list, and records—or voice tracks—the talking breaks into the computer. It might take half an hour or less to voice-track a four-hour show, which can be run at a later time. The computer inserts the commercials as well.
I can recall my days as a DJ. This fits with what I remember as being the direction of the industry, and it goes a long way towards explaining why most radio stations have a depressing sameness to them (right now, Evanescence's My Immortal will be playing on at least one or two DC radio stations pretty much any time of day).
Thanks to Bat Boy for the tip.
Tonight, I'll be rehearsing with JoS for the first time in a week. Actually, tonight will be the first time in a week that I have played at all. I took a week off from playing just to try and regroup a bit.
I've started to get bored with what I'm doing. JoS plays lots of different songs from a number of genres, but they're not always the most challenging of things to play (1-4-5, with the occasional 2 or 6 thrown in for grins). I understand why we play what we play there (it's what the people want), but it doesn't make it all that much more enjoyable. I'm starting to not play as well as I know I can, and I think it's because I'm starting not to care about what I'm doing. Playing Blink-182 songs over and over again is not quite my dream job.
A&S is also starting to not be as much fun as it used to be. It's fun enough, but it seems that the originals are stuck in a rut -- Key of F, Phrygian mode, three stop breaks (on or about 1:15, 2:40 and 4:05) and about 102 bpm. I was hoping to learn more unusual things, like Arabic scales, Persian rhythmic patterns and the like. I do enjoy what we are doing, I just wish it was more.
And then there's NGB. They are probably going to have a decent amount of success. One of my goals musically is to tour with a successful band. This would seem likely to fit that bill, but I'm balking. The music that they play is pretty good, but not much from a bass point of view (lots of straight sixteenth notes).
I think I might need to find something new for inspiration.
I dropped in on Nick tonight. It had been two weeks or so since the last time that we played, and we had a few details to discuss.
We talked about what kind of bass player for which NGB is looking. They have a pretty strenuous practice cycle -- twice a week during off weeks, every night when playing out. Since they hope to be playing out at least once a week, which basically means rehearsing every single night. That's just a bit much for me (particularly when rehearsal would run through 10pm or so and I would have an 80 minute commute home). I know that this doesn't mean they would be doing this every single week, but the odds are high that it would work out that way.
While I was there, we talked about their pipeline; NGB has quite a few gigs on the books over the next few months, and they have pretty good paychecks associated with them. Definitely a mark in their favor (if you're going to play out, better to be well paid in the process).
NGB is going to continue looking for bassist (which they should, no matter what happens between us), and I'll probably try and help them out from time to time. I like the guys personally and I enjoyed playing with them, but I don't know if things can be worked out there or not.
As a side note, though, Nick will be starting his own music academy in Southern Maryland. He has asked me to teach electric bass there. To put it mildly, I'm very flattered.
I don't know if I would be a good teacher, though. I think I have the temperament for it, but I'm not sure as to what I would teach to a beginner. From what I remember about learning to play the bass, I futzed around on the fretboard, learning how to find things by ear. I studied with a cokehead named Richard Jesse for about four months when I was fifteen, and he managed to show me the very basics (open 4th string is a G, 5th fret is the same as the open above it, etc.), but I mostly flailed around, learning the fundamentals in a haphazard way.
I've been studying with Anthony for about eight months now, and it's really improved my playing. He's also both a great teacher and a good guy; I'd kind of feel rather presumptive to say that I can teach now, why should anyone go to Anthony (which, by the way, I would never do)?
Nick and I will probably talk about this a few more times, but I have to say that I'm pretty interested. It would be a good chance for me to stretch my muscles (so to speak), as well as a nice source of income.
After a few articles on downloading, I thought an alternate take on the subject would be worth a read:
At some point in the future – maybe in 15 or 10 years, maybe fewer – some of those young people will become musicians and start producing music of their own. Although there has been plenty of debate about the legalities of downloading, one important question has so far gone unasked: will downloading affect how pop music sounds in the future?
In other words, will the way that people access music have an effect on the content of that music?
The example of blogging provides a useful parallel. Before the internet became commonplace, blogging as a form of literature did not exist. Gradually, however, it has emerged as a distinct way of writing with its own conventions separate from other literary genres. Blogging is a very clear example of technology shaping the manner in which people communicate ideas and emotions to others.
Will the same thing happen with music? The short answer is that no one can say for sure how the evolution of music will be changed by any given technology.
The lead singer of Disturbed is awfully upset that The Darkness (you know, that glam group with the really ridiculous singing) is getting so much more attention than they are.
The world wants rock bands to be idiots. The world wants rock bands to be these bumbling buffoons, these morons who made fun of themselves and their music and their art and don't take themselves seriously in any way.
Well, as a matter of fact, David, that is what quite a few people in the world do want. Just remember this: "It's that fool on television getting paid o play the fool." (Rush, Big Money).
Thanks to Simon for the tip.
Tonight, Chris and I did the final mixdown on the demo tracks. We went over each track in painstaking detail, focusing on trying to keep each instrument balanced.
It's a hard thing to do; you have to go over each track quite a few times, listening to how each instruments shares audio space. Having two guitars makes it somewhat harder -- they have the same voicing and the same frequency range, so getting them to sound sonically distinct can be rather difficult. You also have to pay attention to the bass (not too muddy, not too rumbly) and the drums (need to be crisp without cutting). And even when you get the mixes to balance well, you have to take note of the EQ settings -- the bass line might be at the right volume level but with too much resonance at 220 Hz (which will cause it to be really thick on lower A's).
Faena and Persian Ballad went pretty well. Chris had spent some time working on the mix on his own, and he had mostly already taken care of my concerns -- bringing the conga more present in the mix, opening the low B of the bass into a big room and bring Aref more in line with the rest of the mix. In fact, that was pretty much my blanket comment -- Aref needed to sit back a bit in the mix.
Aref's playing style is very percussive, and his dynamics aren't quite as tight as they need to be. More often than not, we had to pull him down in the mix so as to keep the tunes balanced. Hopefully things will improve on this count, though.
Waiting For Rain took a good bit of time to try and work out the issues with both guitar lines. But the problem child was unquestionably Soho. As I have said before, Soho is way, way too busy. There's so much going on in the tune that it was nearly impossible to mix. The lion's share of the mixdown was spent on this one song, trying to get everyone to sit well in the mix, bringing people up for some sections, dropping them down for other sections.
After we finished getting the levels and EQs set for all four tunes, then we started to work on picking the right room(s) for each song. For the most part, I decided to use a very similar room for each song -- the entire purpose of this demo is to attract business from local establishments. Having each piece sound like it was played in a similar (if not the same) room only helps in that regard.
Chris taught me a few little tricks while I was there; one of which is that the human ear hones in on sound best at 90 dB. Another thing we did was listen to the final mix (after the tracks had been bounced down to just a stereo mix) playing over some main speakers through a wall in the next room. The point of listening that way was to focus on the bass sound, making sure that things flowed well from track to track without any large scale changes.
Overall, I think that we did the best we could with mixing the tracks as recorded. There are quite a few performance issues with the tracks, but it should be more than sufficient for the intended purpose. I'll probably upload some of the tracks to the site later on this week.
A local author writes of his joy of going to concerts solo.
Maybe there was an occasion when we couldn’t persuade any friends to check out this glitch-pop trio from Iceland or that noise-rock outfit from Texas. Maybe our taste in music was so hopelessly cool that we couldn’t always find willing accompaniment to shows.
I can understand his point of view. I've been to many a show by myself (it can be hard to scare up people to go to hear some obscure band that only three people in this zip code have ever even thought about). I think it cuts both ways: Sometimes it's nice to go to shows with other people to share the joy and fun, other times, it's nice to just relax and enjoy the show for what it is.
If you ever wondered what the career of a roadie might be (particularly in the nutso days of the 80's), check out this article. I was reading large part of the article laughing to myself, wondering how this guy is still managing to draw breath.
He’s contracted gonorrhea (six times), crabs (four times), syphilis (three times) and herpes. For more than a decade and a half, with lab-rat consistency, Hickey carpet-bombed his cortex with enough pills to stock a hypochondriac’s medicine cabinet. At 15, he established himself as Boston’s hardest-working rock serf, unloading equipment for bands like Motorhead and Twisted Sister at almost every club in town. At 17, he lived a louder, crueler, dramatically less uplifting version of Cameron Crowe’s rock ’n’ roll heartwarmer Almost Famous, joining Megadeth on tour as a roadie...
There's a movement afoot to try and get Elvis' drummer inducted into the Rock 'N Roll hall of fame as a sideman. I think this is a worthy goal, as the backbeat to the Elvis sound has been incredibly influential.
If you're going to one of the new Prince shows, you just might get a free CD in the process.
Everybody's heard the factoid that 50 percent of all marriages end in divorce, but with rock bands, the percentage seems closer to 100: sooner or later, just about every band splits up.
The NY Times weighs in with their thoughts on VH1's Band Reunited. If you want mine, here it is.
With the proliferation of websites (such as this one), what is the purpose of professional music critics? Is there a purpose anymore? The Journal Sentinel wants to know.
Today, A&S played their first show in quite a while. As a side note, also the first time since the studio session. We played for as part of the entertainment as a fund raiser for Children Of Persia.
First, a little about the fundraiser itself. Almost the entirety of the event was held in Farsi. I don't speak Farsi. At all. A few hours of poetry reading and speeches spoken in an extremely alien language makes for a rather surreal situation. The dancing numbers were interesting to watch, though.
We got up to play cold; no sound check, not really any warmup to speak of. We led off with Waiting For Rain and that went fairly well. The next three tunes were all on the slower side, and I think that choice hurt us -- the drop in pace and energy lost what part of the crowd we had. We also couldn't hear each other (the usual monitor problems). One of us did his usual invent-on-the-spot thing (a trait I thought we had addressed already), so things did not go so well.
Hopefully, the next show will go better than this one.
Tonight was the first time I have ever set foot in Jaxx. I think I know why that is the case; I was easily one of the older people in the room by probably ten years. The bouncers gave us a little static before the show -- I usually bring a bottle of water and a bottle of soda to every show I play. Apparently Jaxx does not allow anyone (even the performing artists) to bring in outside food or beverage. Needless to say, that kind of petty hassling doesn't put me in the best of moods.
We got up on stage late; Quazi played way over their time line. So, management asked all the following bands to cut their set by one song. We got up on stage, did the song check and started to play.
Things went pretty well as we started; there was good energy on stage. Something like the second or third song into the set, all three guitars started to no longer be in tune. I tried to compensate on the fly, shifting my fingering around and retuning by ear, but I could never quite find where either Chris or Nick were. A completely muddy monitor mix didn't help much in that department either.
Still, there was some good energy from the crowd and it seemed like they were having a good time. I enjoyed playing with NGB; hopefully there will be another time.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo (most familiar to people in the US as backup singers on Paul Simon's Graceland cd) has made the news a few times as of late. Not only do they have a new album out, they are presently touring North America.
The founder of the group, Joseph Shabalala, is rightly revered for his contribution to the musical landscape has been through quite a bit in his career. The group has collaborated with a whole host of musicians (Paul Simon to Michael Jackson to the Corrs), and Shabalala himself has recently experienced an almost unimaginable personal tragedy (his wife was murdered outside of a church, and his oldest son is somehow involved in the crime). Still, their music grows and improves with each passing year.
I caught LBM playing out at Wolf Trap a few years ago; it was a sublime performance that I would highly recommend to anyone.
Come one, come all to the bass player mecca in September...
On September 13th, Bass Extremes is coming to the Birchmere in Alexandria. Bass Extremes happens to be Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey playing on some bottom heavy CDs. The two of them are going to tour with Oteil Burbridge and Derrico Watson. I've seen three of these guys playing live before (here, here and here), and I'm really looking forwards to this show. Me and probably every other bass player in a 200 mile radius...
Aref & Shahin has picked up a new gig, playing for another charity show on the 25th of March. More details to come in the near future.
Last night, JoS played at the Barking Dog Lounge in Bethesda. This was our first outing with Ryan, and I was looking forwards to seeing how he did (it's one thing to play well in practice, it's another thing to play out).
First, a comment on the venue. Load-in was up two flights of stairs. Two long, steep flights of stairs. And bass rigs are both big and heavy. I'm pretty sure that my back will be killing me tomorrow morning. Particularly since we also helped Ray schlep his gear up those same stairs (I'm not complaining; Ray was doing us a favor).
Breakingform opened for us. We've known these guys for a while, and Ray's ran sound for us a few times before. This was the first time I've heard them play. Ray and the guys did a great job; really tight, together, a lot of fun. If you're into harder rock, I would recommend checking them out sometime.
We went on and started out decently enough, but things never really came together for me. A lot of the songs felt rushed, there were lots of wrong notes, it just never felt all the way there. I tried to throw myself into a few times to no avail. Hopefully next time will be better.
Ryan did well, though. Only two rehearsals and he was pretty spot on with most of the tunes.
-- Update --
Actually, something I forgot to put in here before. One of the nice things about playing in Montgomery County is that the bars are smoke free. So I can walk out without reeking of cigarettes.
Last Second Comeback will be playing a special show on Friday at Common Grounds in Clarendon as a part of the Six Points Music Festival. Also playing will be Cerulean Groove. I think that a guy I know will be sitting in with them on bass....
As a Christmas gift (yeah, it's a bit past Christmas, but I've been busy), I got a copy of Marcus Miller in Concert. I've seen Marcus play live once or twice, so I had my hopes up for this DVD.
The DVD is a recording made for some German TV show (Ohne Filter Musik Pur) in 1994, and the production values are right in line with a mid-90's TV show. Accordingly, the camera work is sometimes off (one person is soloing and the camera angles switch around until the producer finds the actual soloist), and the sounds is hardly the best musical DVD I've ever heard. The crowd is very laid back, to the point of seeming nearly sedated.
Only six songs are included -- Rampage, Panther, Steveland, Scoop, Tutu and Ju Ju. The total play time of the disc is about 60 minutes. Marcus has his usual supporting cast (Poogie Bell, Michael "Patches" Stewart), but no guitarists. Instead, he uses two keyboard players. This produces a rather synthetic sound. I prefer hearing him with another guitarist; the energy is different and more full of life.
It's enjoyable to watch Marcus play; he's one of the best and it shows. I wish that the quality of the DVD was better. This isn't so much a DVD to take notes to, but something to enjoy from time to time.
It looks like I will be playing with NGB at Jaxx next weekend. Given that I have rather full dance card between now and then, there probably won't be as many rehearsals as I would like, but I think that we'll probably be alright.
This is an interesting clip of a some guy doing the beat box thing while simultaneously playing a harmonica. Not something that you see every day.
-- Update --
Now with a better link!
Thanks to Divya for the tip....
JoS has booked a gig for Thursday of this week. Breakingform will be opening for us; I haven't caught them live before, so I'm looking forwards to their performance.
We'll be bringing Ryan along for an outing. By that time, he will have practiced with us three times. This won't be the first time that JoS has used the "throw 'em in the deep end" method of trying out a new musician. The first time I ever played with JoS, I had three rehearsals and about a week of time. So, we did three sets (forty songs total) off the cuff. It went okay, but I'd still rather have more rehearsal time.
Last night, I got a call from Nick; he's looking for a new bass player, and Anthony passed my name along to him as a reference. I had hoped to make it down for an audition today, but things just didn't work out. I had to go in to work for my day job, and things didn't clear up until it was too late. It's too bad, I kind of liked some of their originals.
-- Update --
After speaking with Nick and letting him know that I wouldn't be making it out to the rehearsal, I decided to drive out anyway and apologize in person. Tonight marks the first time in seventeen years that I have ever flaked out like this, and I wanted to let these guys know that it was the exception. As I was heading out there (and, by the way, I think that MapQuest is probably wrong just as often as it's right), Nick rang me up, saying that their 7 o'clock cancelled on them.
So I went on out and sat in with the three guys of NGB for a while. We did a warmup, went through two newer pieces that they are working on and then rolled through some of the existing originals. Afterwards, we just hung out for a while, talking about music and other sundry things. They're a pretty cool bunch of guys.
They have a gig on the 5th of March at Jaxx out in Springfield. I've so far managed to avoid setting foot in that place, but things might change.
I don't watch American Idol; to me, it's just like karoke, but sappier. However, there does seem to be a celebrity of sorts (despite himself) arising from the dreck. He really can't sing, nor can he dance, but he does have fun and he's completely guileless and sincere about it.
-- Update --
Here's a story on the Hung phenomenon.
Taking the heavy metal motif just a bit far, one guy has built his own heavy metal band.
The usual timing variations that exist in most music (the guitarist is a little ahead of the bass player who's a little behind the drummer) works well enough in live situations when everyone can be in contact with each other (that contact should keep each other from running too far away from one another). This doesn't fly in a studio situation.
Recording in a studio is far more stressful than playing out live. If you screw up (okay, to be a bit more accurate, when you screw up), no one else other than the people in the audience might be aware of it, and then only if they are paying attention. Even if they are paying attention, they can't go back and try to catch the boo-boo again. Making an album changes that; everyone who listens will be able to catch every mistake made, no matter how large or small. And not only will they hear it, they'll get the golden opportunity to hear it again and again. And since the cliché is true -- no one is a harsher critic than yourself -- when recording, there is an acute awareness of any error whatsoever.
So, in a studio situation, there's lots of stress and pressure and emotions tend to run high (particularly after re-recording the same f-in' song for the seventeenth time). Any natural meter variations that might have already existed between the members of the band will only be exacerbated. Couple that with isolation rooms and the odds of the band staying together quickly decrease. And if the music lines are rhythmically complex in anyway, then things fall apart in very short order.
As a quick digression, when playing in a studio, it's common to have the different members of the band in completely separate rooms (to isolate one person's sound from anothers'). All in all a good thing, as it allows one musician to go back and clean up a flubbed note without affecting any other instruments in the song.
As you might guess, keeping everyone together during a recording can be a challenge. One of the most common ways to do this is to pump a click track into everyone's headphones so they can hear a clear deliniation as to where the beats are at any given time. Most click tracks are produced by an electronic metronome that has some kind of output that can be processed as a signal.
Two primary purposes are met with a click track. Everyone stays together (or close to being together) and a consistent meter allows for a musician to revisit a part and be able to pick up the beat very quickly.
The first time a musician plays with a click track can be rather embarassing. No matter how good someone's internal metronome is, a machine never fails. If there's anything I can suggest to people who are preparing to enter the studio, if you are planning on using a click track, practice with a loud metronome a few times before you walk in the door. It's much cheaper to be flustered at home than at fifty dollars an hour (if not much more).
However, click tracks are far more useful than they are annoying. If you do any kind of studio work for any length of time, you will almost certainly encounter the track fairly quickly. Should the recording project be using any kind of sequencer, click tracks are required (to keep everyone in sync with the machine).
The business of creating soundtracks for video games is becoming more and more lucrative for composers.
The video game music revolution is both a product of and a reason for the larger gaming boom. According to the NPD Group, the leading market-research firm tracking gaming, the industry took in $11.7 billion in domestic revenue in 2002 -- more than the $9.5 billion in annual U.S. boxoffice receipts reported by the MPAA. According to the Electronic Software Assn., more than 221 million computer and video games were sold in '02 -- enough to put two in each American household.
Many game scores also have been recognized at international awards ceremonies, including the Grammys and the BAFTA game awards. Their enjoyment and development are the focus of dozens of fully dedicated Web sites, and they are performed worldwide in recitals by the likes of the Czech Royal Philharmonic.
Having played one or two video games, I can attest that the music (as well as other production values) have clearly improved over the last few years, but I don't quite think that it's gotten to a point where I would want to pick up a soundtrack just yet.
There's an interesting article on Tech Central Station about innovation with regards to guitars. The major premise of the author is that
...[M]ost guitarists buying an electric guitar want to buy instruments that resemble, as closely as possible, those guitars and amps used by their heroes: Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Pete Townshend. So radical attempts at redesigning the instrument's technology often make an initial splash, garner some press and trade show coverage, but rarely succeed long-term at being incorporated into the musical vernacular.
It seems to me that the success of amp sim modelers like Line 6 provide more evidence to this; since the actual vintage hardware is both expensive and hard to come by, people are spending lots of money to try and emulate the old sounds.
The same holds for bass as well. Anthony has told me on more than one occasional that the ideal funk bass is a 21 fret Fender P bass from 1957 (i.e. Jamerson's bass). Ampeg has been riding their halycon days of the massive SVT for decades. There has been some innovation in bass guitars, but not much. Ibanez has a bass made out of Luthite (a composite material). I owned one for a while; it was bright and loud, but not very warm, so I traded it for a bass with a more traditional wood body (and a warmer tone). Synth-Axe tried to reinvent the guitar as a MIDI controller, but failed to materialize into anything other than an odd looking curio (well, excepting Futureman).
I'm not sure what the next innovation in guitars will be; I don't think that the Gibson MaGIC will take off as anything more than a special effect. I suspect that most of the changes in guitar technology will be small and discrete (a slightly better speaker cabinet, a mildly more responsive pickup, things like that).
The DC area music association has announced their best of 2003.
Tonight, Rich and I did another acoustic show, opening for the Wrecking Crew. I had never been to this club before (Stafford's a long hike from DC). It's a nice club, though; laid out well with two levels (although the cow bell over the bar might tell you this isn't the most urbane of places).
With the Wrecking Crew's gear on stage, there wasn't a lot of room to stand, and that did affect the set. We played pretty well -- the biggest problem was in my new wireless unit. I had tried it out with Rich in a rehearsal, but this was the first time for the unit in a live setting. It did pretty well, up until I tried to use two different transmitters (one at a time to the same base unit). Once I tried the switch, neither unit worked for the rest of the show. Good thing that I always bring a cable for backup.
After the show, a number of people came up to us, telling us how much they liked the set. It's always nice to get good feedback. A few of them told us that they'd rather her us play than the Wrecking Crew (which isn't necessarily fair; JoS and WC play two very different styles of music). But, hopefully we'll go back to Main Street for a full set.
I was spending some time in Guitar Center today, looking for a good used bass (I'd like to find either a high end five string, or a mid tier one that I can turn in a MIDI controller). While I was there, this young kid came up to me and started asking some questions. He was thinking about picking up bass as an instrument, because "...guitar was boring, even if his dad wanted him to play it." He said that he wanted to learn how to slap like Flea, so I handed him the bass I was playing and showed him the basics of slapping.
Who knows, he could be the next Flea. In any case, it's nice to see a new convert to the bottom end.
In Anthony's tour dairy for the show in Eugene, OR, Anthony tells about how Victor invited an alumnus of the BassCamp up on stage to play.
The highlight of the show was when Victor whispered in my ear to invite Jonathan Chase to come up and play with us. During one of the songs I waved for Jonathan to come to the front of the stage, but I was pretending like I just wanted to talk to him. At the end of that song, Victor thanked him for bringing Joe's mic stand and then invited him up to play with us. Jonathan & I had played 'Thankyouforlettingmebemyself' during jam night at the bass camp that he attended. I had mentioned to Victor that it would be a good choice to get him to play with us. I handed Jonathan one of Victor's basses to play - I thought he was going to pass out at one point! He had that 'deer caught in the headlights' kind of look on his face. Even though he was nervous, he wasn't too nervous to break out into the groove. Jonathan was 'holdin it down'.
For what it's worth, I can so understand what Jonathan must have been feeling. I have met some really amazing musicians through Anthony. More often than not, I spend most of my time just hoping that I don't say or do anything stupid. My powers of speech fail me and I probably drool a little.
A few months ago, Anthony was joking with me that Victor had called him to ask for some lessons. I started to laugh, and I think that Anthony was a little offended, because he asked me, "What, you don't think I could teach Vic anything?" (see, there's the saying something stupid thing rearing it's head) I told him "No, I would just be too intimidated to even touch a bass while in the same room as Victor, let alone play a note." Anthony kind of smiled a bit at that, saying that it's can be a bit much for him as well. I can't imagine what it must be like for Wooten, to have that kind of affect on people.
Last weekend, I was down in Richmond, visiting with my family. While I was there, I dropped into a Sam Ash shop to pick up some Fodera strings. The sales guy told me about a bass boot camp to be held in Philly in March.
Gerald Veasley hosts the bootcamp just outside of Philly. This year will have Gerald Veasley (obviously), Victor Wooten, Gary Willis and Adam Nitti as instructors (as well as some other folk), and the plan is to cover quite a few topics.
I think that this would probably be a pretty interesting experience, but I question how much can be gained from three days of study, no matter how intense. I know that I saw a marked improvement in my playing after studying with Anthony for a very short period of time, but I don't know if the same kind of improvement would occur here. The cost isn't small, either. Not only is the fee about $600, there's also the missing a day of work thing.
Blender, that magazine of high tea and scones, claims they can predict when rock stars are going to die.
Whitney Houston loses six years for being a Black female, gains five for being married, but loses four for being married to Bobby Brown. She's expected to die in 2022.
Clay Aiken is expected to live to be 82 because he lives so squeaky clean. Courtney Love earns five years for having new breasts, which increases her self-esteem, but loses eight for enjoying "the occasional truckload of cigarettes." She's projected to live to be 62.
Dr. Demko figures Ozzy Osbourne will live another nine years, but he's determined Keith Richards should have died in 1995.
You'll forgive me if I don't place wagers based on this info....
With the benefit of hindsight, it all seems quite obvious. MP3 players, like Apple's iPod, in many pockets, audio production software cheap or free, and weblogging an established part of the internet; all the ingredients are there for a new boom in amateur radio.
While I fully intend to post a few mp3s when I get the chance, I don't think I'll be doing any audioblogging anytime soon.
The NY Times reports on the many companies that are attempting to knock the iPod off it's throne. Some of the contenders:
And the also-rans:
• Dell DJ15
• Gateway DMP X20
• Samsung YP-910
• Creative Labs Nomad Zen
A&S will be performing at a charity benefit. It's for a good cause, so try to make it out if you can.
The Christian music community has announced their awards for 2003, as has Canada. Hopefully, there is someone that will care about these awards more than I cared about the Grammys.
Some of the musical performers at this year's Oscars have been announced.
Sting, Annie Lennox, Alison Krauss, Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett will be on hand to perform nominated songs
Apple's Garage Band software is growing in popularity amongst musicians of all stripes. I haven't used this software myself (I use ProTools myself). Aref has been waxing enthusiastic over it for sometime, though.
When most people think about concerts and playing out live, the things that lead to mind are the musicians – the singer, the drummer, the guitarist. This is not a bad thing; the band is the primary reason why the concert is happening in the first place. But, it's not only the band that puts a show together.
No band is successful if the team consists only of the musicians. Every band needs support staff: roadies, agents, managers, accountants, lawyers, vendors, etc. And, while all are important, necessary and deserving of respect, I'm going to take some time to single out a few of them (the ones that most people will encounter during their musical career) for special attention.
Sound guy:
This is probably the single most important member of the support staff; he (and for some reason, almost all of the sound people I have encountered are male) is arguably more important than some of the members of the band. He has final control over how the band sounds to the audience. No matter how hot the band is -- you could have Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius, Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin and Dennis Chambers on stage, all on fire, in sync together, everything’s perfect, but the band will sound like garbage if the soundman’s zoning out, not paying attention to things with the 2k Hz rolled all the way down and the 500 Hz all the way up on the master parametric EQ. A good soundman can make a bad band sound good, while no band will sound good with a incompetent moron running the desk.
If you happen to find a great sound guy with a good ear, hang on to him for all he’s worth. Buy his gear if you have to, but soundmen with golden ears are irreplaceable. Which brings me to the next point….
While it's generally a good rule of thumb to be as nice to people as you can, it applies even more so the sound guy. No matter how much of jerk he might happen to be, no matter what has happened to you, never take it out on the sound man. Or, at the very minimum, wait until the performance is over and you don’t have to deal with the guy anymore.
When a band performs live, they typically find themselves in one of three scenarios:
• the band runs their own sound,
• the venue has a soundman on staff that the band uses (sometimes by choice, sometimes not), or
• the band has their own soundman.
Of the three setups, the first is usually the least desirable -- while it is true that no one will know what kind of sound the bands wants more than the band itself, generally, the members of the band are far too occupied with the actual playing of music to worry about the overall mix, the overall balance and all the moment to moment adjustments that are required during a show.
When the venue provides their own sound guy, it can be a good thing. He’s likely to be familiar with the acoustics of the venue, as well as the house equipment. In my experiences, a good indicator of the ability of the soundman is whether or not the venue makes his working optional. If it's optional, then they are confident of his skill. If it's not optional, he may still be competent, but the experience level will vary from place to place and time to time. The downside to this arrangement is that the sound guy's loyalties will be to the venue, not the band, and he is less likely to be as familiar with the material the band will be performing.
If the band can afford to bring their own soundman, this tends to be a better solution. He will be sufficiently familiar with the band's material and playing style that he will be able to anticipate changes and cues during the show, and he will understand that his success is directly tied to the success of the band. On the other hand, he'll probably be winging it when it comes to the acoustics of each venue. Good sound guys can figure out the acoustics during sound check relatively quickly, but that's only going to go so far.
The optimal solution is when the band brings their own sound guy and he coordinates with the venue to best fit the band's sound to the acoustics of the venue. In many higher end places, this is the norm, but not always.
Roadies:
Roadies get the grunt work of a show. Loading in gear and loading out gear is probably the worst part of any gig. When bands are starting out, they are their own roadies (with whatever help they can find). This is usually par for the course until a fair amount of success has been attained.
I know that I cannot wait until I get to the place where I can afford to have someone else do this bit of the work for me. Even still, even the most successful of bands typically don't have simple muscle as part of their traveling crew. Instead, these bands have contract riders which specify a number of people at each venue to help (item #10, paragraph 2) with loading and unloading. The roadies that travel with the band usually have multiple duties (security, gopher, support system) and extra skills (electrician, instrument tech, amateur psychologist). And speaking of extra skills....
Techs:
Techs are the unsung heroes of a show. They are the people who ensure that the band's setup and instruments are right. It can be a pretty thankless job, as some musicians tend to be a little bit picky when it comes to their setup and the horror stories of abuse rained down on techs from various musicians are legendary (Buddy Rich quickly comes to mind). If you ever go to a show and you see someone dressed in black run up to a musician and hand him a new guitar, or switch snare drums for her, then you've just seen a tech in action. It's part of the tech's job to make sure that all the instruments on stage work correctly throughout the entire show.
Most bands don't get to the level where they have the luxury of techs; rather, the band acts as their own techs. And, most techs typically pull double duty as roadies for the gear on which they work. If you are lucky enough to have a tech, try to keep in mind that they are probably as passionate about the music and the instrument as you are and treat them accordingly. And, sometimes the techs play on stage when a member of the band gets hurt (see #23).
Agents:
When a band is just starting out, the hardest part of the business is getting anyone to listen to them. And even harder still is getting anyone to pay for the privilege of listening to an unknown band. The primary job of an agent is to get bands work. Once the work is available, the secondary job of the agent is to get the best deal possible for the band at the specific gig. During the earlier part of a band's career, this is a hard slog, with lots of frustrating phone calls and unreturned messages. When a band is very successful, an agent may get overwhelmed with people wanting the band to come to their venue and perform. In the middle, the agent will typically have both ends -- lots of lower tier venues requesting the band and frustration of not being able to get into the top tier venues.
Managers:
Managers have some of the same duties as agents, but that doesn't really begin to scratch the surface. Managers are more involved with almost all business decisions of the band -- the promotion and marketing, producing of CDs, touring, handling personnel, interacting with other businesses, working with record labels, fielding requests for the band's time and that's just a small list. Good managers take a massive load of a band's shoulders. Bad managers can bankrupt you (just ask Billy Joel).
Others:
The above people should hardly be considered an end all-be all listing; it's just a start. Successful bands need accountants who are familiar with the music industry so as to hunt down every cent buried in royalty agreements; entertainment law is it’s own arcane specialty that most lawyers do not understand well enough to represent a band’s interests with sufficient zeal (not to mention that lawyers tend to know everyone in the business and are good intermediaries through which to make connections); lighting engineers who work the lights during a show (which can either greatly heighten a performance or dash it to bits); even merchandisers who help the band make a few extra bucks by selling CDs and such.
The long and short of it is to remember that there are a small army of people involved in a successful show. No matter how big anyone gets, they didn't get there alone, and they surely do not stay there alone. So, if you're a musician, be appreciative of their work; if you're a fan, just keep the supporting staff in mind.
You gotta read this. Had me laughing out loud at work. An example:
"Owner of a Lonely Heart." Hmm: it's by Yes, a group about which I always thought, well, no. Too much noodling. The singer made the guy from Rush sound like James Earl Jones.
Both the NY Times and the UK's Guardian proclaim the near supremacy of Norfolk VA's musical producers. Timbaland and the Neptunes seem to be able to do no wrong.
Pop seeks transparency, a language that will read quickly and clearly everywhere. Over the last decade, hip-hop has become that common tongue for global pop, and what we might call Timbatunes [their word, not mine --C] are establishing how that language is spoken right now. The collapse of larger categories like pop, hip-hop and R&B is partly a result of their innovations, which are now the default moves for much of pop music. Neptunes and Timbaland tracks fit into D.J. sets alongside German techno, popular Jamaican dancehall and the Asian-British hybrid dance music bhangra. The biggest-selling rock band in America, Linkin Park, uses the kind of sampled beats and keyboards Timbaland and the Neptunes use. At the top of the food chain, the Rolling Stones hired the Neptunes to do a remixed version of ''Sympathy for the Devil.'' Jagger was an early adopter of country rock, disco and rap; his papal nod is, at the very least, an indication that something or someone is not going away.
I'm actually a fan of both of their work from a production point of view. The actual music itself I can usually take or leave.
There's a coming battle for file standards in the online world. Think VHS vs Betamax.
An emerging version of this conflict is being fought out now over standards for music purchased online. It boils down to this: will Apple support Microsoft's "Windows Media Audio" (WMA) format for purchased music on the iPod music player? Or has the Apple-preferred (but not Apple-owned) "Advanced Audio Codec" (AAC) format that it uses through its own iTunes Music Store become a de facto standard that others - including Microsoft - will have to adjust to?
To me, this seems to be somewhat of a strange argument. I know that on those rare occasions when I have gone on to Kazaa and it's ilk (just for research, officer), the predominant standard has been mp3s, not WMA or AAC. Mp3s have good sound, aren't encumbered by the somewhat ridiculous rights management overhead that WMAs are (I can't speak to AAC) and pretty conclusively have the mindshare of the general public when it comes to online music.
...[M]ost people listening to music on digital players have most of it in MP3 format. I'd also bet that every music player out there now has at least one MP3 file on it. People who've got into digital music assume that MP3 is the default format. The challenge for Apple, and Microsoft, is to join MP3.
JoS was possibly going to have a gig this Friday, but it fell apart (no confirmation from the venue). There are a few more possible floating out there, but they haven't come through as of yet.
An article in the Chicago Tribune (registration required, but free) talks about the way in which digital media has been influencing both record sales as well as royalty payouts. Basically, people have more freedom now, and the labels aren't all that happy about it.
"This explosion of options is giving consumers more choices, and more control over those choices than ever. 'The labels were selling five-pound bags of flour to people who only wanted to bake one cake,' Flanders says.
"'Consumers have never been more informed, have never had more opportunity, have never had this many tools at their disposal ... I'm 43, and I've seen video games, computers and cell phones all evolve in my lifetime. I think back to when I was 16, and the options available to someone of that age now. You're in your room with a laptop and an iPod, and the world is your oyster. In music, it's a new world order: The audience is controlling the marketplace instead of the other way around."
Tonight was not one of the best rehearsals we have had. Both myself and Shahin got there late, and Brett wasn't feeling 100%. We went through the five tunes for the demo and then pretty much called it a night. Hopefully, things will be better all around next time.
SLim called me and let me know that a JoS original might just (maybe, possibly, you never quite know) happen to make it on to airplay on 104.1. During the afternoon sometime.
SLim sat in with us at Willie And Reed's, and she brought some friends out with her. And one of those friends knows someone who knows someone who dated someone who's mother's brother's cousin knows someone at 104. And that's how things sometimes work in this industry...
I didn't find any of the musical performances particularly motivating or all that interesting. The main issue with musical performances at an event like the Super Bowl is that the producers try to cram so many diverse musical acts in a rather short period of time that no performer can make any kind of impact. They only perform shortened versions of songs before the focus shifts, and then usually to a different style of music. As a result, the pacing is uneven and the overall feel doesn't flow.
Aerosmith -- If there was more of a pre-game show, I didn't see any of it. These guys sounded okay as they went through a medley of their songs (as well as a one or two blues songs), but man, they are starting to look their age. Joe Perry should have kept his hair long; it's a better look for him.
Josh Groban -- He performed a truncated version of one of his songs to honor the members of NASA space shuttle Columbia. It's the first time I've ever heard him sing. I think that he was lip-synching, but he sounded okay.
Beyonce -- She sang the national anthem. Singing-wise, she hit all the notes, but her performance would have been much more apropos at some Destiny's Child concert than at the Super Bowl. She did some small gyrations, hand waving and the usual vocal flip-flops of the Britney set. I suppose you can dress her up, but she's still a teeny bopper singer.
Jessica Simpson -- What did she do to earn a credit other than scream "Houston, choose to party!" Minute thirteen and counting...
Janet Jackson -- Very produced and heavily choreographed. Again I suspect lip-synching since her voice never flagged, no matter what dance move she was doing or how her mouth was facing in relation to her headset mike. After Kid Rock, the focus returned to Janet as she reprised Rhythm Nation, both the music and dance steps from the video, for some reason. After the song, she went to a breakdown with a drumline -- easily the best part of her act.
P. Diddy -- Didn't do all that much in the first three seconds he rapped. Came back just for a bit after Nelly's Hot In Here.
Nelly -- He did the "Hot In Herre". Clearly lip synching -- he dropped the mike away from his mouth at the end of his first verse and the words still came flowin' on.
Kid Rock -- Thankfully, he was clearly not lip synching; the vocal line matched his exertions. He did the first verse from Bawitdaba as well as the initial verse and chorus from Cowboy
Justin Timberlake -- Came out after Janet's Rhythm Nation, did his Rock Your Body tune. Also did a lot of close freaky dancing with Ms. Jackson -- possibly a little dig directed towards Britney?
-- Update --
Apparently, Janet and Justin also had a little pseudo-nudity during their act that I just completely missed. Probably because I was more listening than watching. It's kind of sad when you have to do pull those kind of stunts to get sales.
-- Update 2 --
Drudge is now reporting that the whole Jackson thing was pre-planned and CBS knew about it in advance. If this is true, then I'm just shocked -- shocked I say!! -- that this happened. Of course, it is Drudge, so take it with a grain of salt.
-- Update 3 --
The FCC is investigating the Jackson incident for indecency. More to come...
-- Update 4 --
A reader has pointed out to me that I made an error. Joe Perry plays guitar for Aerosmith. Steve Perry sang for Journey. My apologies.
-- Update 5 --
BlogCritics has lots and lots of coverage about Janet and her, um, Super Bowl publicity stunt here. Note that some articles have been cross-posted both here and there.
Clear Channel, the nation's largest radio chain, has been fined $755,000 dollars for indecency. Apparently, some of the stations in the chain's family aired Bubba The Love Sponge a few times, totalling up to twenty-six times altogether. The FCC issued the maximum fine ($27,500) for each pop and then added $40,000 on top "because [Clear Channel] failed to keep proper records of the possible violations". And yes, the amount of the fine is a record.
Having not heard the actual violation itself, I can't really speak to it. I have, however, found a description of the particular transgression:
In the July 19 broadcast, skits in which Bubba show members imitated cartoon characters and discussed drugs and sex were inserted between Cartoon Network advertisements. In one instance, a cast member portraying George Jetson began by saying he no longer needed Viagra because he got a "Spacely Sprocket (bleep)ck ring." Another bit featured a show member imitating the voice of cartoon character Alvin The Chipmunk, in which "Alvin" complained that he hadn't "been laid in almost six weeks." Another chipmunk responded that the problem was due to the "f(bleep)cking pussy music we play" and sang a "kick ass" song directing a "filthy chipmunk-whore" to "suck on my [inaudible] chipmunk (bleep)s." The FCC determined that all seven segments reviewed for indecency "unquestionably involved on-air discussions relating to descriptions or depictions of sexual organs, excretory organs and/or activities of a sexual nature. The broadcasts involved conversations about such things as oral sex, penises, testicles, masturbation, intercourse, orgasms and breasts."
It seems, though, that Bubba is attempting to out-Stern Stern. By focusing on strippers and sex, the lowest-common denominator theory of radio will pretty much guarantee him an audience.
My general response to this kind of protest is to tell people that if you don't like what you hear (or are offended by it or whatever), then turn it off. The Supreme Court has carved out an exception in the 1st Ammendment to allow some supression of free speech via radio because
"Broadcast mediums (TV, radio) are uniquely pervasive presence in our lives – hard to avoid and easy to accidentally come upon harmful material, and uniquely accessible to children...There is (was) a limited spectrum of radio/TV frequencies and gov’t was justified in monitoring/regulating this spectrum"
--FCC v Pacifica(1978)
That particular exception does not seem all that compelling to me, though; if you happen to turn on the radio and something comes on that you are not expecting (no matter how vile), you can always change the station or just turn it off. But that's just me.
It looks like Yes is going to go back out on tour. I've liked a lot of Yes' work over the years, and I caught them out at Wolf Trap a few years ago when they were touring with a full symphony. That show was definitely for the hardcode Yes-heads, as the shortest (and most mainstream) song they played for the evening was Long Distance Runaround (mostly they strayed towards their longer, more baroque songs like Gates Of Delirium). If this tour is a more stripped down version, I think I'd be interested in catching it.
As many of you know, VH1 has been running a series called Bands Reunited show. I've now seen the entire series, and I think I may be able to pass along some wit and wisdom. Let's see....
Overall... It's a good idea to hang on to the contact information of your former bandmates and to try and keep current with the info. And it's a good idea to play your instrument occasionally so that at the twenty year reunion, you don't have to look at the camera and say "I haven't played the drums in nineteen years. Jeez, I hope this works..."
A Flock of Seagulls -- You know, I don't think there was much to learn there. Maybe if you're going to be a band with your brother, you shouldn't stop speaking to him. Your family is far more important than the band.
Berlin -- It's important to establish the way in which credit will be handed out in the band earlier, as opposed to later.
Dramarama -- Try not to break up with your bandmates publicly on the radio. And, if, after you reunited with the band (saying how wonderful it was to be playing again), you are then offered to play a "huge California music festival", don't break up the band over it. Again.
Extreme -- When the other members of the band tell you to walk softly around the guitarist, it's probably not a good idea to surprise the guitarist with a camera crew in public while he's eating lunch. In fact, the whole "ambush interview" thing probably should be reconsidered.
Frankie Goes To Hollywood -- Keep some perspective on your work. No matter how good or bad your one hit was, it's only one song and it's only music.
Kajagoogoo -- Know what the strength/asset of your band is, and don't fire said strength/asset.
Klymaxx -- It's important to have legal contracts between members of a band regarding ownership and intellectual property.
Romeo Void -- I'm still not sure as to who this band is; but the lesson here is that record companies tend to place more emphasis on image than sound.
Squeeze -- I didn't get much of anything from this one; don't know what to tell you.
The Alarm -- It's probably not a good idea to quit your band. On stage, in front of an audience. Without warning your bandmates.
Tonight, JoS brought a YAD for kicks. During setup, we talked about influences and what we each would like to play (if we had our druthers). He seems to be more oriented towards classic rock, so things were shaping up to be somewhat interesting.
We started going over some covers, and it seemed like he had a decent feel for the general gist of the tunes, but not quite getting where all the interesting parts should be. But that's not necessarily a bad thing; I don't do everything 100% each time through a song. Tempo was back as in issue, though. Out of the seven or eight covers that we went through, the tempo increased for at least half. Not sure as to why the rushing occurred, but it occurred none the less.
After the covers, we talked, discussing different approaches to the music business. Then we started improving our way through two different ideas. The first one had me playing noodling some semi-ambient chord structures. After goofing on it for awhile, we abandoned the idea for a snippet that Rich has been working on for sometime now. After working through some possible structure for a bit, we called it quits for the night.
I think that we'll probably play with him again.
Chick Corea has been added to the list of performers at the Grammy Awards. Also on the list are 50 Cent (yawn), Celine Dion (the horror, the horror), the Foo Fighters (could be decent), Alicia Keys (also could be interesting) and Richard Marx (did someone lose a bet?).
R. Kelly and Michael Jackson are not going to be allowed to be in contact with each other at the upcoming Grammys. Apparently, there's some concern that they might share tactics on luring children into their, um, embrace.
James Brown has got himself arrested. Again. I wonder how long it will be until the "Free James Brown" t-shirts of the late 80's will make a recovery?
--Update--
Wow, I think that James has been to the Nick Nolte school of grooming.
Starpolish has an interview with accomplished bass player Billy Sheehan. Regardless of your opinion of Sheehan's playing (I think he's good, but overhyped), the interview is an interesting and worthwhile read. Some good points about the music business in general:
"I think the rule still holds true that if you're a good live band and you... if you live by the record deal you die by the record deal. So if you live to make a record and that happens and you don't sell 20 million for each of the next five releases -- which is pretty unlikely -- then you're doomed. But if you depend on your live show, your live performance and what you can do live and what people come to see you for, then you're generally going to be OK. ... [They] remember me performing -- not so much as a recording artist, but as a performing artist. So I like to urge players to really develop that aspect. I remember when Van Halen got signed in California -- as the story goes, Warner Bros couldn't not sign them because they were selling out 2,000- and 3,000-seat venues. So they were thinking, 'If we don't sign them, someone else will.' "
And bass playing specifically:
"...I grew up a club player in Buffalo, and that's my most natural element. It's easier to translate that to a stadium than it is to translate that stadium vibe to a club. I can go nuts onstage and have a riot in a stadium a lot easier than I could do my stadium shtick in a club. I can't do it without eight roadies and 50 racks of gear."
Something that he and I will agree upon: Roadies are good things to have.
80's band Tears For Fears are coming back with a new album in April. Their biggest hit probably would have been either Shout or Everybody Wants To Rule The World (both from the Songs From The Big Chair album). For me, though, their best tune was Woman In Chains.
Since Alex's little incident with the police down in Florida, the promised Rush tour of 2004 is starting to look a bit in doubt.
Florida state prosecutors this week said they would make a decision on whether to charge the guitarist in two weeks time. Among the charges he could face are aggravated battery on deputies, resisting arrest with violence and disorderly intoxication - if found guilty of all three he could face a jail sentence.
Depending on the speed with which charges went through court that could affect Rush's up coming 50+ date world tour due to start in May.
Commenting on the case Brent Batten - crime writer with Florida newspaper Naples Daily News, commented: "Any felony conviction could jeopardise [sic] the tour scheduled for this year. The reality of the situation serves as a cold slap in the face to Rush fans confident a rich rock icon with a clean record and top-notch defence lawyers would get off with a light sentence, possibly in the form of a community service concert in our own back yard."
Thanks to Marty for the tip.
I found this in a local music shop; just thought I'd pass it along for local DC bands.
FREE Studio Time!! The Studio Recording Technology Program at the College of Southern Maryland is in search of bands for our students to record.
Here's the deal, we need rock, blues, country, and jazz bands with good attitudes, very solid players, original music and a lot of patience to be recorded by our students. In return you will receive a CD of your session mixed by one of the course instructors about two weeks after your date.
The studio is in Waldorf and you will need to be available all day on either a Monday or a Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm.
You will need to provide us with a rough tape or cd of the song you want to record. The instructors will evaluate it to determine if you fit what we are looking for.
If you are interested, contact me, and I'll give you the info you need (I didn't want to put the guy's phone number on the web...).
Actually, it was me this time. I was driving out to Manassas for a rehearsal with JoS. We were planning on trying out a potential lead guitarist. As I was driving down 66, noticing that the interstate is covered with white stuff, the forecast was for one to three inches of snowing turning to freezing rain and the temperature was already at 26 degrees (and heading south), I decided that driving out might be okay, but back would probably be dangerous. Hence, I pulled the plug. Maybe I'm a wimp, but why take chances?
Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno have announced a new way to let artists sell their music online rather than only through record labels.
[Gabriel and Eno] call the plan the "Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists" - or MUDDA.... "Unless artists quickly grasp the possibilities that are available to them, then the rules will get written, and they'll get written without much input from artists," said Eno.... By removing record labels from the equation, artists can set their own prices and set their own agendas, said the two independent musicians, who hope to launch the online alliance within a month.
I'm glad that they're getting on the bandwagon; hasn't Prince (or whatever he's calling himself these days) been doing this for a few years now? In any case, more avenues and options are almost always a good thing.
Last night, VH1's Band Reuinted show put Kajagoogoo back together to play their two hit songs. For one thing, I had no idea these guys had any other hits beside "Too Shy". For another thing, I still like the bass line from "Too Shy". It was interesting and really pedalled the song forwards.
I think that once the series is complete, I'll probably do a post on all the things I learned from watching 80's bands get back together....
Looks like I won't be studying with Anthony today; the weather's sufficiently bad in Waldorf, MD that the stores in that part of the world are closing down. Too bad, it would have been nice to go to lessons today (particularly since Anthony's going back out on tour for a few weeks), but safety comes first.
I also would have liked to have picked up another set of Fodera strings, but I suppose I'll have to go online for that.
Due to ice, snow and general nastiness, I'll not be rehearsing with DH/CC tonight. Oh well....
Neil Peart (the amazing drummer of the band Rush) speaks about his process for writing lyrics. Some of Neil's thoughts:
Writing lyrics is a tremendously demanding form of discipline; it requires precision. I don't like lyrics that are just thrown together, that were obviously written as you went along, or the song was already written and the guy made up the lyrics in five minutes. I can tell. Craftsmanship speaks. I'm not happy with spontaneity musically either. ... We do have improvisational periods during sound checks and we record them and at the end of the tour we sift through them and look for anything that happened that was magic. And there are ideas that we can mine out of that, taking advantage of the spontaneity of one day's mood. But to go on stage and expect people to indulge you; that doesn't work. I prefer organization.
The craftsman in me likes the thought here (take time to make it right, plan out the progress of the tune in advance), but the jazz guy in me screams bloody murder at the thought of removing both improvisation and winging it. To me, part of the excitement of live music is that it does change from night to night. Too much of either extreme tends to be a bad thing.
The NY Times has an interesting article about the decreasing ability of radio to create new musical stars. Yep, the Buggles were right, and video has killed the radio star.
"Every single time [Josh Groban] goes on television, you can bank on the fact that the next day his album is No. 1 on Amazon," said Diarmuid Quinn, the executive vice president of Warner Bros.
While this surprise one or two people, it seems that more poeple in America tune into TV than they turn on a radio. Although, I would hazzard a guess that particular turning point came a decade or so ago...
With Mike Stern's upcoming show at Blues Alley looming, I've been trying to familiarize myself with more of his repertoire. I've been listening to his prior album Voices for a few days, and I do like what I'm hearing. The overall feel of the album is reminiscent of Pat Metheny's work -- much more so than Stern's earlier outings.
Stern is pretty clearly walking down the world music street; and that's just peachy with me, as I rather like world music. Featured heavily in the first two tracks on the disc is Richard Bona, an artist from Cameroon who is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Elizabeth Kontomanou and Phillip Hamilton round out the vocal work for the remainder of the album.
Some highlights:
It looks like JoS's last performance is going to end up paying out quite nicely. Rich rang me up to tell me that we will probably be getting three to five gigs as a result of Saturday night. More to come as things firm up.
Today, we went over the five songs for the upcoming demo, just working on tightening them up. One of the more recent songs is getting most of the attention (naturally). Structure is a good and necessary thing, since it helps everyone know what's going to be happening and the plan accordingly. We as a group haven't been playing together long enough to be able to feel when each of us are going to do something; until that time, we need the structure to be able to keep things together.
Tonight, Jar Of Souls opened for Harlen Simple and Oddbox at Sharpshooters. This was the first time I had ever set foot in this particular establishment, and it was a pretty decent place. The crowd was good -- young, energetic and open to the music.
The show was a fundraiser for a friend of Harlan Simple's that passed away earlier this month. I think that enough money was raised to cover the bills and expenses. I do hope that is the case.
We played pretty well (excepting two songs for which we pretty much completely checked out). It seemed like we were getting a good reaction from the audience. Afterwards, I heard quite a few compliments as I was working the crowd.
I went through yet another set of strings on Thank You This is the third set in a rather short period of time; this one didn't last nine days. It's always the G string, too. I'm thinking that either I'm plucking way too hard or I have something physically wrong with the bridge on my Fodera. I suspect that it's probably the former in this case.
And, just to finish out the litany of woes, I tore off part of my finger nail. And I did it on our reggae version of Feel Like Makin' Love. Lately, I've been trying to play it more palm-mute style, to get a better reggae feel. That results in my hand being at a strange angle to the strings. Tonight, the end product was tearing off the outside half of my index finger nail. I got lucky, though; it didn't bleed during the show and I could tear off the ripped portion fairly easily.
Tomorrow's show is actually a benefit for a friend of Harlen Simple's who died recently. The proceeds will go towards helping defray the funeral costs.
Tonight, we're taking the night off. We're going to try and get some rest and relaxation before tomorrow night's show.
All in all, this is probably a good thing. I starting to think that I've been overplaying these last few weeks. Burnout may be setting in. Playing with the variety of people that I do helps, but I'm starting to wonder if that's not part of the issue. One of the concerns that I have is that I don't feel like I have enough time to focus on my own playing and my own writing.
Rich just rang me up to let me know that JoS was just on DC101 (in a commerical, not as a song). Not quite cause for a ticker tape parade, but it's still nice when it happens....
Tonight, we just ran through a few doubters before the show on Saturday. One of the nicer things about playing with the same people for a long period of time is that not as much work is required to maintain the same level of performance. All in all, that's a good thing; it should free us up to be able to focus on newer and better things.
As a side note, Joe will not be joining us on Saturday. Which is too bad, I would have liked to have played with him.
Eric has put up an interesting post about the web, the music industry and live music. I think that this could be a good trend, and one I would like to encourage.
Just speaking personally, I tend to prefer live recordings over studio recordings. It's been my experience that someone can Pro Tool their way to perfection in the studio (Jennifer Lopez/Brittney Spears anyone?). But live, there's nowhere to hide. Not only is the performance more honest, there tends to be more energy to the music itself.
VH1 is running this series where they track down defunct bands from the 80s and try to get them to reform for a one night stand. Yesterday, VH1 "reunited" the 80s band A Flock Of Seagulls. It had probably been twenty years since the original members played with each other, and it showed. But the main thing was the singer. Apparently, he's still touring with a band called A Flock Of Seagulls (he's the only original member). If you get the chance to see them, don't. His voice (never all that strong to begin with) sounds completely ragged out and worthless. I was embarassed for him, listening to him mangle "I Ran" and "Space Age Love Song".
Tonight, Matt rejoined us for a rehearsal and a new guitarist sat in as well. It's been almost a month since we last played with Matt, so there were definitely some cobwebs to knock off. Joe (the new guitarist) sat in and pretty much picked everything off the cuff (either he already knew it or faked his way through it). We closed with an Alice In Chains song (No Excuses, I think) that he knew and Matt and I just faked our way through. A fun time, though. Hopefully, we'll all get tighter before the show on Saturday.
Richard Bona's latest release Munia: The Tale has been on almost constant play in my CD player for about the last two weeks. I'm only now getting around to writing about because I've just been enjoying it too much to try and put things into words.
Much like his last work, the album opens with an acapella invocation and then leads into a joyous Kalabancoro (which also has Salif Keita sitting in on vocals). Actually, the whole CD brims with joie de vivre. Engingilaye is another tune that resonates with sheer exuberance, and Balemba Na Bwemba drives home a strong groove. Bona has been a good (if underrated) bass player for years, and on this album, he finally opens up in the closing track (Playground) to let some of his ability shine through.
Sung almost entirely in his native language of Douala, Bona sings, arranges, composes and plays his way through a melange of world styles (rumba, bossa nova, even a little rock). Not jazz for the hardcode be-bop folk, but high quality jazz nonetheless.
In today's Washington Post, there was an article about the legal online music file trading sites. It seems that lots of people aren't all that happy with the legal alternatives, since one site won't have the same selection as the other site, site A will only sell the entire album, site B has Public Enemy, but only the B sides.
"It is fairly easy to buy a song, but it can be much harder to find a song worth buying. That is why unauthorized services, such as Kazaa and LimeWire, still have millions of users, despite the music industry's lawsuits designed to stop unauthorized sharing."
Throw this in with the normal business wrangling (royalities, advances against sales, etc.) and it's small wonder that this is not going anywhere and the less than legal places are flourishing.
-- Update --
And just in time to help muddy the waters, the RIAA files another smattering of lawsuits today.
Something that I learned from Anthony yesterday; Victor's shows at the 9:30 and the Funk Box both sold out. Congratulations, guys.
We had one of our rare weeknight rehearsals tonight. We mostly went over the songs for the demo, as well as fleshed out one of the newer songs. Working on the structure of the tunes is always a fun time.
Tonight was the first time in something like a month that I rehearsed with Douglass and Christine. Tonight, we had another guitarist sitting in. He added an interesting dimension to the music. We had to stop a few times and deconstruct the songs to find the best way to fit in his approach to the tune, but I think it was largely worthwhile.
After we played for a bit, we talked about business for a while. I suggested that they start to look around and see if they can't get an opening slot or two, just to try and play out, get a bit more known.
Dennis Chambers has finally released his own solo CD. I was completely blown away by his playing when I saw him at Blues Alley last year. I have been looking to get a recording of his playing since then, so when I saw his solo CD Outbreak, I jumped at the chance to pick it up. I have not been disappointed. Chambers is a master of his kit and it shines through on every cut of the disc.
I've gone through the disk about three or four times now, and it's got a good funk/jazz groove going on. The tunes have a very strong late 70's funk feel to them. Some stellar people sit in on the disk (Gary Willis, Will Lee, John Scofield and others).
The stand out song on the disc has to be Groovus Interruptus. Within two measures of the start, the urge to nod your head to the beat cannot be denied. Other standout tunes are Roll Call (which has a nice drum break by Chambers towards the end), Paris On Mine (great groove and laid back feel) and Baltimore, DC (nice go-go like groove to it). In Time is a good walk through time signatures (4/4, 9/8, 17/8 are there, maybe one or two more).
Outbreak is a well titled album. Chambers has been famous for years with jazz musicians; maybe this CD will help his popularity grow to a wider audience.
The Indigo Girls (one of my favorite groups) are about to release a new cd. Their last one was one of the best they have put out in years, so expectations for this next album are running pretty high.
Norah Jones' cd completely blew me away when it came out; while it was sort of a throwback to halycon torch song jazz days, it was an extremely well down throwback. She also has a new album in February, and I'll looking forwards to picking it up as well.
Tonight, we had a really good night at Firehouse. We got good crowd response, made some new friends, and generally had a good time. To be honest, it was one of the better times that I have had playing with Jar of Souls.
Keith sat in with us on drums, and Rob joined us (again) as well. When Rob got up, I went back to do a little drumming. It had been about fourteen years since I played drums out in public, so I was just a little bit rusty. Actually, I'm being kind. If I drum out again, I really need to practice more. To top it off, Keith's left handed, so I had to try and translate in my head to a left handed kit.
Rob played well, and Keith was rock solid. There were a few small problems -- the monitors (or lack of usefulness from them) chief on the list -- but nothing beyond a typical night. We ended up repeating a few songs from the first set. I really don't like doing that, but it does happen from time to time.
All in all, it was a good show. Thanks to everyone who came out!
Anthony put up his review of the Baltimore Victor Wooten show, and I think I'm blushing as I read parts of it. I'd just like to thank Anthony for his kindness, his inspiration and just him being him.
Tonight was our last rehearsal with Keith before our show tomorrow night. We went through about 23, 24 songs that we'll play tomorrow night. Rob's also going to sit in for a bit, so it should be a decent show.
I had a good time at practice tonight. Although I did go through a set of strings (the @#(*$# things only lasted a month!), Keith and I were starting to lock into each other. It's just a lot of fun to play with someone who's professional and together.
For the second time in three days, I went to see Victor Wooten. Tonight's gig was at the 9:30 club. I haven't been to the 9:30 club in about a year and a half, and I think I remember why now. Not in the best of neighborhoods, really expensive food and drink (for what you get), unusual acoustics and standing room only facilities. And on that note, parquet flooring over cement makes for very hard floors; pick shoes accordingly....
Just because I'm human, I'll be spending some time comparing this night with the Monday show in Baltimore. I think I liked the Funk Box show more; much more intimate, better acoustics (I don't know what the difference is between the two shows, but the kick drum in Baltimore hit like a sledgehammer), and the spring loaded floor definitely helped with the comfort level. Working in the 9:30's favor was a stage about twice the size (so more movement and more things on stage), a venue about six times the size (and pretty darn packed, too) and a much more robust lighting rig (which definitely helped the show out).
The band this time had the same members (Regi, Derrico, Joseph, JD, Divinity, Anthony, Victor), but this time they had enough room to set everyone up. So JD had a small percussion kit set up on the opposite side of Derrico. Joseph has his Theremin out for this show. Since DC is near where the Wooten's grew up and where JD went to college, they had lots of friends and family in the place.
The show was rather similar to the Baltimore show (not a big shock) and different in others. Some highlights:
I'm going to include the photo of JD and Victor in the body of this blog (which I normally don't do) just because it's such a great picture. I actually took about 143 photos at the concert. I'm not that much of a photo person, but where I was (front row, dead center) I had such perfect lighting that I found myself taking lots and lots of photos. Check em out! Annie Liebowitz I'm not, but some of them are pretty good.
-- Update --
I was on my way to rehearsal tonight when I was thinking about this show. It was just an embarassment of riches at this show. 4 top flight drummers (JD, Derrico, Isaiah, Futch) and 4 bass players (Victor, Anthony, Divinity, Isaiah's dad). What a night for the rhythm section!
-- Update 2 --
Anthony's put up his review of the show.
Tonight, Isaiah Williams opened up for Victor Wooten at the 9:30 club. This makes the third time that I have seen him play, but this was the first time that I have seen him play a full set on his own. Actually, tonight was the first time that anyone has seen him play a full set on his own -- that's right, tonight was the professional debut of the Isaiah Williams Project. On his own, Isaiah got his start four years ago on Showtime At The Apollo when he was five years old.
Futureman (Victor's brother and bandmate in The Flecktones) joined Isiah on stage, as well as Isaiah's father (Drue Williams) on bass and his uncle (James Dudley) on keys. Man, that kid can solid play. He has solid time, good groove and great stage presence. His dad and his uncle are pretty solid as well. Futch played a kit this time out, instead of his usual Drumitar. Victor also came out and sat in for a song.
After the show, I picked up a copy of Isaiah's CD. Both he and his father were gracious enough to sign it, but the experience reminded me that for all his brilliance, he's a nine year old kid. He just seemed to be really tired and cranky (it was a bit shy of 1am at the time).
Isaiah and Futureman are touring in February. Check him out. So long as he keeps his head screwed on straight, he's going to be an absolute force to be reckoned with.
-- Update --
Anthony's put up his review of the show.
Tonight, Victor Wooten and his band absolutely killed at The Funk Box in Baltimore, MD.
The band was comprised of Regi Wooten (guitar), Joseph Wooten (keys), Derrico Watson (drums), MC Divinity (vocals, alt bass), Anthony Wellington (second bass), J.D. Blair (drums/percussion) and, of course, Victor Wooten (bass). I had never seen Derrico play before, but he was amazing. He started out the show by himself by just laying down a thunderous groove. Regi was his usual self, Joseph's playing has become a bit more restrained (which is a good thing), Divinity's performances have gotten stronger since the last time I saw her play and Victor was, well, Victor. J.D. didn't play a kit tonight, because the stage was too small to support two kits. That should change at the 9:30 club.
One of the things that I was most looking forwards to for this show was seeing Anthony play on his own. Tonight, Victor introduced Anthony and let him have a long, extended solo. Anthony played very well; his solo was very tasteful with great phrasing. After he was done, he gave a very touching and heartwarming thanks to his wife. She's a great lady, and they are a wonderful couple who very much so deserve each other.
The structure of the show was interesting; there was no opening band. Instead, about halfway through, Divinity played three or four songs, and Isaiah Williams came up for a tune. Regi and Joseph also had a solo piece on their own.
Some highlights of the show:
If you ever get the chance to catch Wooten playing live, I'd recommend it -- particularly if you like funk and jazz. If you're a bass player (like I am), it's just about a religious experience.
I had never been to the Funk Box before, but I really like this club. It's very small and intimate, with great acoustics. The floor there is also wood, mounted on springs. I'd absolutely love to play there someday.
Tonight, I'm heading up to Baltimore with a few friends to catch the Victor Wooten show in Baltimore. I always look forwards to see Wooten play live, but I've been really wanting to see this latest tour. Anthony's on tour with Victor. While Anthony has played from time to time on previous tours that I have seen, it seems that he is taking a larger role in the performance, having his own solo as well.
I've seen and heard Anthony play on a few CDs, as well as listening to him noodle around while I'm struggling through a lesson, but those are both very different things than him playing out live with a tight band like the one Victor has.
I'll let everyone know how it goes...
This week, Rich and I went back to Keith's place to playing around again. Keith and I also had a nice chat about approaches and philosophy to music. We went through something like twenty, twenty-five songs or so in about four hours. Things went rather well. Once or twice, the tempo issue reared it's head, but I'm pretty firmly convinced that unfamiliarity with the tunes is the reason.
Keith took a good bit of time to work on some of the songs from last week, and it really showed. The songs were rock solid with a good feel. So Rich and I asked Keith if he'd be willing to sit in with us for the upcoming show on Friday, and he agreed. I'm looking forwards to playing out with him.
Today, the four of us went through three new songs ("Persian Suite", a Gipsy Kings song called "Faena" and a new piece that is untitled as of yet). So, that brings the total up to five songs for the demo. Together with "Soho" and "Waiting For Rain" from last week, things are starting to come together nicely.
Aref invited a young lady out to join us, possibly to do some vocal work on some of our tunes. She didn't sing, and I can't particularly blame her; it's a bit hard to walk in and try to pick up an original song in an unfamiliar style cold. She may come back again; I suppose that we'll just have to see.
We also decided that we are going to go into the studio on the last weekend of February. We are going to Chris Patry's studio, as I trust his ear and his engineering expertise. Stay tuned for some samples when we have them ready.
JoS is currently on the lookout for a lead guitarist to join the band. Some of the thinking here is to thicken out the sound as well as expand the opportunities for the band.
One person who responded to a City Paper ad that I placed played a show with his other band in Olde Towne Alexandria tonight. So, Rich and I decided to drop in on his performance and check him out.
He played pretty well and did a decent job with his vocals as well. The band (their name is slipping my mind) had a really nice vocal harmony thing going. Apparently, the bass player also plays with The Joe Chiocca Band and the drummer plays in something two or three other groups as well.
Rich and I chatted with the guitarist for a while; we'd like to bring him out for a go 'round one time and see how things go.
I finally finished up Donald Passman's All You Need To Know About The Music Business (where's the subtitle "but you were afraid to ask"?) this morning on the Metro. If you ever wanted to learn about the business side of the music industry, this book would be a great place to start. Walking through the more common aspects of record contracts and how advances and royalties are determined all the way to the arcana of negotiating underscore arrangements in film, this book gives a good leg up to non-lawyers, pointing some areas where attention should be paid.
Two things that this particular book made rather clear –
I would highly recommend this to any musician who is interested in the financial side of the industry.
Anthony's out on tour again. He's the primary bass tech and backup bass player for Victor Wooten and has been touring with him for the last few years. A while ago, Anthony started keeping a diary of life on the road. It's interesting to read about coping with the road -- both the good and the bad. It's also as close to actually going on tour that most people will ever get.
It's lookin' like Saturday's show will just be me and Rich, swinging for the fences acoustically. All of our normal backup drummers fell through (see! This is why it's good to have backups!).
Rich and I have played acoustically like this before. It's a lot more work for me; I have to carry the tempo as well as supporting the melody lines. Rich has to try and pick out the tempo from my rhythm playing. Still, it can be fun.
The Instapundit has commented before on the RIAA and their Quixote-ish campaign to sue anyone who's ever downloaded anything. Well, he's back with some contrarian thoughts on the subject. It's worth your time to take a read of the whole thing.
It seems that Apple computers is starting to focus more and more on music these days. This seems to be a logical extension for Apple; the iPod is a "hip" accessory these days among certain groups of people, iTunes largely dominates the legal music download arena (and everyone who reads this is downloading music legally, right?), Apple really needs a new revenue stream, so this is probably a good strategic move for them.
The bad news is that they probably won't have this niche all to themselves for very long. Rio has a good mp3 player, Archos has some neat toys, and Sony is almost certainly looking for a way to sell not only some hardware but to leverage their existing library of music into an iTunes-like solution.
As a side note, I'd recommend the Cowon iAudio -- I bought one last year and I'm rather enjoying it. 256m holds enough music for a day at work. Throw in a voice recorder (which I use to make mp3s of things from time to time) and it's hard to beat it.
I'm already doing some reselling for Amazon for a while (and let me tell you, I think retirement is just around the corner...) Today, I signed up for a reselling deal with zZounds. They're a good online music shop; I've bought quite a few things from them and have been rather happy with their operation. So check them out!
I finally found an X-Wire wireless unit on EBay. I've been looking for one of these for about the last year or two; they are supposed to be the best wireless units ever made. Unfortunately, the company that put them together went bankrupt, so EBay is pretty much the only place to find them anymore. Sennheiser bought the leftovers once X-Wire collapsed, remanufactured the product into a much smaller, lower quality unit, but it didn't do very well (particularly for the price -- ~$800!) and they have since dropped the product. You can still pick them up here and there, and I recently did (as I was begining to dispair to ever find an X-Wire and the price was down to about $300). But, if I can get this X-Wire, then I'll happily pack the Sennheiser back up and return it for a refund (even a partial one would be cool).
-- Update --
I didn't get it. I'm hoping another will come around some other day and then I'll bid on that one. So, if anyone happens to know of one for sale, please let me know.
One of the DVDs that I got for Christmas (thanks Mom & Dad) featured Victor Wooten and Carter Beauford (of the Dave Matthews Band).
The main focus of the DVD is the studio and creative process in which Carter played drums on two songs (Zenergy and Resolution) on Victor's Yin-Yang album. While it was interesting (having been through a number of studio sessions, seeing the pros do it was an fascinating contrast), it was not the most appealing segment. The conversations that both Wooten and Beauford would have about maintaining groove and feel, musicianship and ways of playing together (instead of just with each other).
The bonus material of the DVD are even better. Beauford talks about most of the songs on the Busted Stuff cd and how he created his part. He talks about his influences, his general approach and how he works with the other members of the band. What's left of the drummer in me really enjoyed his commentary.
Wooten's extras consist mostly of him doing Q&A before Bass Day '01. His answers are quite enlightening. Capping the bonus material is Victor's solo from Bass Day '01. Basically, he plays what would become the Flecktones song Reminiscence (from the Little Worlds album). Part of the way through the tune, he begins to radically detune his bass, resulting in all the strings basically hanging completely slack on the neck. He slaps and works the bass in that condition for a while and then begins to slowly bring the tension back to his strings. AFter a minute or two of working the strings, he pauses for a second, and then picks back up the song, completely in tune.
I saw Wooten do the same feat at the Ram's Head about two or three years ago. That time, he did it to the song "Joe's Journey" (also from the Yin-Yang cd). When he did this live, I was completely blown away. Tuning a bass by ear -- not so impressive. Tuning a bass by ear/feel/I-don't-really-know-how-he-did-it without stopping to actually tune the instrument? Damn impressive.
I finished up the book version of the documentary on the Metro home today. While the film was about all the musicians with an emphasis on Jamerson, the book was all about Jamerson.
I'm glad I read this; it helped flesh out the man who was so wildly influential on so many people. Towards the end of the book, there are pieces from a veritable Who's Who of bass players (Geddy Lee, Anthony Jackon, Will Lee, among many, many others) talking about how influential Jamerson was to them and their rendition of some of Jamerson's work, as well as some exercises and transcriptions of Jamerson playing.
It seems to me that learning about the history of a chosen avocation can only help the comprehension of the craft. Books like Standing in the Shadows can only assist in this process.
I was thinking more about the meter of the drummer that Rich had brought out to play and why meter is so very important for musicians to have. And why it is a good thing for drummers to have it in copious quantities.
For starters, I should probably make mention about some musical terms like "meter", "tempo" and "rhythm". Music is charted in a structure (called a time signature) that lists the how many beats are allowed per measure over what kind of note should be considered one beat (i.e. 3/4 indicates that each measure will have three quarter notes per measure, whereas 7/8 says that there will be seven eighth notes per measure).
Rhythm is how the all of the notes and pauses are organized in a set pattern. Individual rhythms expressions can span measures or can be contained wholly within a measure and while the rhythmic patterns may or may not be repeated throughout a song, they typically are regularly repeated.
The tempo of a song is how many beats elapse in a given period of time. A typical measurement of tempo is beats per minute (bpm). A measure with a time signature of 4/4 (four quarter notes per measure) at a tempo of 120bpm should take 2 seconds and the same measure at 100bpm should take 1 and two-thirds seconds. While neither ones of those examples may not seem like a lot of time, songs are tend to consist quite a few measures (typically three digits worth).
Meter is the length of one measure of music. In the first example, about two seconds.
Hopefully, that should satisfy the sticklers for vocabulary. Technically, this particular piece of writing is more about tempo than meter, but it has been my experience that most of the musicians that I encounter have tended to use "tempo," "meter," and "time" interchangeably when talking about a musician's ability to play at a constant pace.
Some of the people I have played with call me the "Meter Nazi." Typically, it’s because I tend to point out exactly where in a song we either sped up or dragged behind. In fact, I used to think that I had good meter, until I started to study with Anthony. Then he sat me down with a metronome and had me play a few things, letting me know that I was pretty consistently rushing the 3rd beat of most measures that I was playing and most of the other beats in some of measures. My, that was humbling. Well, humiliating may be a more accurate way of putting it.
Anyway, bass guitar is a somewhat unusual instrument in music. It's both a rhythm and a melodic instrument, so it has to hold down the rhythm while supporting the rest of the instruments. While there are some musicians who seem to favor melody over rhythm and others who tend to focus on maintaining the rhythmic structure, both are essential for good grooving basslines. The ones who can do both are rightly fully considered to be masters of the instrument.
One of the things that I really appreciate about good drummers is how well they are able to hold down the meter. When a bass player has a solid drummer supporting the rhythms, it frees him up from having to do all the maintenance that is required to keep the rest of the band in time. Now, that doesn't mean that the bass player can just wander off into space, playing notes in whatever tempo happens to pop into his pretty little head, but a strong drummer can build out a tight pocket. And then the bass line can sit just a bit behind the beat or ahead of it, and that breathes depth into the music.
And here's a little observation that I have made over the years. Good drummers understand time, meter and rhythm. Great drummers understand that drums are not only a rhythm instrument, that they are melodic as well. From something simple as tuning the toms to minor 3rds for a darker sound to choosing an array of cymbals and using their different tonalities to color the sound (as opposed to hitting the whichever cymbal happens to be most convenient to the drummer's hand at the time), the drummers that I go out of my way to play with are the ones that have rock solid time and approach their instrument as more than just backbeats.
When the drummer is locked on to the tempo, she and the bass player can start to work together. Her pattern on the kick drum will set up the rhythmic choices for his bass line. He can double up the same pattern (which will bring a lot emphasis to the bass line and groove – check out this one hit wonder from the 80’s for an example), build on top of the pattern (accenting the doubled notes while growing the feel – the examples are too numerous to mention, but here’s one anyway), he can play against it (doing a counterpoint to add complexity to the overall song – the rhythmic intricacy of this song beggars the belief to start with: that Jamerson played the entire line with one finger while lying down on this back is just astounding) or the bass player can do a combination of these three techniques at the same time. The typical bass line tends to heavily favor the first two approaches, while almost all bass lines utilize all three combinations at one time or another.
Most of western music is built around a 4/4 meter. I can't speak that much to Eastern music -- as much as I have listened to it, I know that I'm only scratching the surface. For most of us, 4/4 time is deeply ingrained into our psyche. Turn on the radio and listen to almost any song. Find the beat and count it; there will almost certainly be four beats in between the first emphasized beat you hear and the equally emphasized beat.
Still, not all music is in 4/4. Waltzes are traditionally in 3/4 time (think of the Blue Danube from the scene in 2001 when the shuttle docks with the space station), flamenco is traditionally in 12/8 and Celtic music leans towards 7/8. And, of course, in American jazz, any time signature is up for grabs.
Counting out the meter can be an exercise all in itself. Speaking for myself, I don't like to count in my head much past five. Once I go past five, I break the count down into smaller numbers that add up the way I want. For example, a song in 11/8 might be counted as 4-4-3 (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3), 4-3-4, 3-4-4, 3-3-3-2, 4-2-3-2 or any other of the various pernumerations that would still produce 11.
The break down is important because it changes the way in which I approach the music. Playing 11/8 as 4-4-3 makes the song feel like a 4/4 groove with a truncated third measure. Playing it as 3-3-3-2 brings a strong triplet feel to the tune. And 3-4-4 takes the 4/4 groove and keeps it off balance from the outset.
Once the tempo and the feel have been decided and all the musicians are on the same page (or all in agreeance about the individual pages they are all on), the music can take shape. While it is possible for a song to be coherent with each musician playing a different meter (I can recall a jazz composition from years ago that had the drummer in 3/4, the bass line in 4/4, the keys in 5/4 and the guitar in 7/4, but that’s far and away the exception), in most circumstances, everyone starts and ends in the same frame of time. Each segment of the song needs to have at least one instrument holding down the tempo so the rest of the musicians can key off of that part. More often than not, it’s the drummer that everyone else uses as their reference point, but this is not always the case. When the drummer’s not holding down the fort, the role almost always falls to the bass line. But, most of the time, it’s the drummer hold keeps time for the entire group throughout the entire song.
Speaking for myself, I have played a number of shows with musicians of less than perfect time. When I was studying with Kai, I asked him pretty much point blank how he deals with other musicians that have meter issues. He commiserated with me, relating to me a few stories about how he has had to deal with it over the years. But basically, we both try to solve the same problem in a similar fashion: If other people are rushing, simplify the bass line and drive home the beat; if they drag, add in some more notes to make things feel faster. Do this for a while (like three or four measures) and if they don’t catch on, go with it as best you can for the song and then have a chat with the other musician(s) when you get a chance.
If the band is comprised of people with innate good meter, the tempo issue doesn’t automatically go away – each member of the band has to be able to listen to the other musicians to make sure the meter is in sync. When that happens one of the more critical housekeeping elements of making music takes care of itself. The more in tune each member of the group is to the shared tempo, the more relaxed everyone is and the more organic the music becomes. And that’s when the joy of playing begins to shine through.
Goulet has observed that it's a bit harder for a seventy year old to appeal to a younger crowd. This is a clear case for Obviousman!
It dawned on me this evening that I have played with four different bands in the last thirty-six hours. I'm pretty sure that this is a record for me. Although it's been fun to play with a wide range of people and styles in such quick succession, I can't say that I would recommend the experience. I'm really ragged out and I think I'm developing a brand new blister under the calluses on my thumping thumb.
Tonight, A&S decided to go into the studio and cut a demo EP. We'll probably do about four songs -- three originals and one by the Gipsy Kings. Tonight, we drilled and drilled over and over on two songs. While it might not seem like a lot, I think tonight was a good practice. We went a long way towars nailing down the structure and feel of two of the originals. I figure that next week, we'll work on the other two, and then we'll start tightening things down as much as possible. Sort of on the theory that it's much cheaper to fix boo-boos outside of the studio that on the clock.
Today, Rich and I packed up our gear and headed over to the domicle of yet another drummer (which I'm going to abbreviate as YAD to save myself some keystrokes). The drummer in question has quite the pedigree. On the one hand, I was rather looking forwards to playing with someone who has the experience(s) he has; on the other hand, why is someone with this kind of resume looking for work?
So we load in, tune up and start to play. Keith has a good ear, nice pocket and a good feel for what he's doing. There were some tempo issues, but I do not know if they were due to unfamiliarity with the music at hand or some other reason. Rich and I will probably play with him again.
Jay Bushman and I got in contact with each other through the DC Bass Players mailing list. After a few false starts, I went over to his place/studio this morning and we went through a bunch of songs that he has written. For the most part, they were pretty straight-ahead blues tunes. He plays with a drummer and a keyboardist/guitarist. The arrangements reminded me of well, kind of generic blues and Jay's vocal stylings immediately made me think of a friend of mine.
I initially agreed to play with these guys to do some tracks on their album they are trying to put together, but I get the feeling they are looking for a more durable commitment. To be honest, I don't think I have the available bandwidth to take on another project. A recording project is a two, maybe three weekends -- counting rehearsals. Playing in a band is a whole different animal.
I had played with the two guitarists of Last Second Comeback back a few weeks ago. Today, I got back together with them as well as their drummer/percussionist, Chris. We went over most of the same songs that we did the last time, as well as a few more. Chris as a interesting style of playing hand percussion. It goes well with LSC's style. I'll probably play with these guys a few more times in the future.
Rich rang me up earlier tonight; we may have an opening slot down at East Coast for some band next weekend. More on this as it develops.
-- Update --
Yep, an opening slot. The schedule has been updated accordingly.
I just noticed that Mike Stern is going to be at Blues Alley in early February with Richard Bona, Dave Weckl and some poor guy on sax that most people aren't really going to care all that much about.
I have really been thrilled with Bona's albums (and am looking forwards to when I can pick up his most recent one). Weckl has been a long standing drum great, so I might just drag myself down to Blues Alley again to catch Stern play with two of the greats in contemporary jazz.
I caught Stern play at Blues Alley back in May, with Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers on drums. Chambers is an absolute monster to see play -- if you ever get the chance, it's worth your time. I went mostly for Vic (and he was his usual greatness), and it was interesting to see him perform in an almost completely supporting role instead his normal supporting/melody/lead style of playing he does with the Flecktones.
But Chambers was just a revelation. I had heard of him, but only in passing. He did some of the most amazing things with time and meter that I have ever seen all while maintaining rock solid groove -- one of the things he did during one of his solos (while the other members of the band were hanging back, holding down the groove) was to keep his right hand in time and then alter the tempo of his other limbs back and forth, faster, then slower. And he did changed the tempo of each foot, each hand independently of the other limbs without losing the time on his right hand -- and looking completely bored in the process (literally chewing gum). I was completely floored.
It's a good idea to have backups, just in case things don't go as planned (and, in other news from the Obvious Department, chocolate tastes really good, but if that's all you eat, you'll probably not be all that healthy). I take the position that every band member should have at least one backup musician that can step in and fake their way through a set or two if needed. Not because the guitarist just doesn't want to show up that night, but because bad things just happen.
Take JoS's most recent show at Firehouse Grill. I was sick as a dog, both from the flu and from strep. A band can get away with canceling a show when they have enough of a draw that lots of people will still come to the next show. When they don't have that kind of draw, canceling shows quickly gets around to other bar owners, and a bad reputation is established (actually, even when they do have that kind of a draw, too many cancellations makes the band too much trouble to deal with, no matter how many people you bring in to the bar).
So earlier that week, I rang up a good friend of mine (Rob) and he came out and sat in with us for about half of the night. That gave me enough rest that I wasn't completely ragged out by the end of the show, and JoS (hopefully) kept the reputation intact. Back in the summer, a good friend of mine (B-Nice) sat in with us for a few shows while Matt was away on his vacation.
All in all, having backups gives more flexibility to a band. It's not always possible, though. If there is a person in the group that is the clear crowd draw (local band Quazi comes to mind) and they can't come, then you're probably better off canceling than trying to muddle through. Lead vocalists tend to fall in this camp, unless there is enough vocal talent in the band to eek by.
It should go without saying that if the group situation is a single person and their backing band, things are different. Take Shania Twain as an example. Her backing musicians are pretty darn good, but most people really wouldn't notice if the drummer was a different guy than the show before (which would be too bad -- her main drummer's really tight), but there would be mass unhappiness if she couldn't set foot on stage and they tried to have the show anyway.
Two new dates for JoS on the books.
Today is going to be a long day. I had to be in at work at 6am this morning, and I will sitting in with some friends tonight. It's going to be a private party, and two people that I used to play with in college rang me about sitting in with them for a few songs. I haven't played with these guys in over ten years, so this should be an interesting experience.
And everyone out there have a safe and enjoyable holiday.
-- Update --
Well, things didn't work out quite the way I'd hoped. I spent about thirty, fourty minutes driving over hill and dale in the middle of Maryland and never found the place where this party was being hosted. Then I just pulled the plug on it. It's too bad; I would have liked to have sat in with these guys, but it seems that wasn't meant to be.
Today, we gave the same guy his final shot. He had said that he would work on learning a few originals and covers, and we would have another go at it. He and I had talked after our last go round, and I pointed out to him that there were already enough meter problems in the band -- We really don't need to add another one. Working against him is that he doesn't have a kit on which to practice.
I can understand and be sympathetic towards that kind of predicament; it's not the easiest thing for me to learn a bass line just by listening. Still, if I listen to a piece of music enough times, I should be able to internalize the construction of the song, so I know where all the transitions are, how many bars long the bridge is, etc.
So I picked him up on the way to practice. We weren't going to have much time today (about an hour before I would have to go up to Montgomery Village to rehearse with A&S). On the way down, he told me that he had learned about ten songs. Well, two of them were iffy. Maybe four weren't quite solid yet.
Rich and I set up, and then the three of us started to play. Initially, things went well. The first two or three songs, he was clearly more familiar with the tunes and his meter was in check -- maybe even a little slow. But then we got to the more upbeat kinds of songs and the style of music that he favors, the meter got away from him.
One song in particular that was causing problems was "Plowed" by Sponge. It's a pretty driving song, very straight-ahead harder rock. The tempo is somewhere around 210bpm. Just as with the other two times we played, at each transition point, things jumped 4, 5bpm -- enough so that it was very noticeable. After Rich and I both made a comment about the tempo, the drummer caught wise to something I was doing.
Whenever I play using a delay effect, I use a button on my Lexi footboard to set the rate of delay. Sometimes I want the delay to fall just a bit ahead of the beat (which produces a rushed, almost claustrophobic kind of feel), sometimes I want to set the delay behind the beat (a more open sound) and other times I want it right on the beat. So, about the third time through, the drummer noticed the blinking light on the Lexi unit in my rack that was keeping time. For that song, his tempo never wavered, but he spent the entire tune staring just over my shoulder at my rig. Personally, I found it rather amusing. I left the tempo unset for the rest of the rehearsal (no need in giving out more help than I should. He wouldn't be able to see my rig during a performance anyway).
Anyway, he did an okay job as far as being familiar with the songs. He had about six and a half out of ten. But his tempo was all over the place. And tempo is such a huge issue with drummers.
Just speaking for myself, one of the main things that I want in a drummer is rock solid time. When I have that, then I don't have to worry about holding down the meter, and I focus a bit more just playing, letting the groove breathe and the music flow. I can do both at the same time (I have on many occasions and I'm sure I will again) and I should always be keeping good time, but it's nice when it's not my full time job.
If you haven't read any of Clay Shirky's writings, you really should make some time for it. He's a really insightful guy when it comes the impact of technology on society.
One of his latest posts is about how the RIAA is inadvertently spreading the gospel of encryption to the masses through their rather ham-handed legal strategy.
Now, as a musician, I'm all in favor of musicians getting paid royalities for their efforts, but the approach the RIAA is taking is alienating people right and left who would otherwise might be fans. CD sales have been declining for a few years? Just maybe that has a bit more to do with the economic downturn than a bunch of fifteen year old kids trading Lincoln Park mp3's. The RIAA needs to find a way to co-exist with the file trading services before they completely tick off enough people that they stop buying CDs altogether and only trade tunes.
For rehearsal tonight, a friend of mine came out to play drums with us. Brett and I used to play together a few years in another guy's jazz project. That project went nowhere (long story), but I really enjoyed playing with Brett. He's a nice, tight drummer who has a good feel for the rhythms of world music. He tends to lean more towards Latin style playing (samba, salsa, etc) -- which is neither good nor bad.
And what a difference playing with a drummer makes. Brett held down the meter and pedaled the songs along, which freed me up to do more melodic support and groove maintenance. I didn't have to worry about percussively playing (so as to keep the motion of the song going), which was a rather nice change of pace.
I think the rest of the guys enjoyed playing with Brett, and he seemed to enjoy playing with them. I'm hoping that everyone works things out and he can start to play with us on a more regular basis.
A radio station contacted Rich, looking for unsigned bands to tour Florida the second week on March (basically Spring Break). For many reasons, this sounds far too good to be true, so I'm not exactly waiting with baited breath for this to come through. I suggested that Rich get a contract faxed over, and then we'll take it from there (after having a lawyer check it out, natch).
-- Update --
Well, they didn't quite send a contract. They did send a two page advertisement/blurb. Some of the details:
I have suggested that Rich contact them and get a contract. No contract, then this is the scam is so clearly seems to be. Oh, well.
-- Further Update --
They have thus far (12/23) still refused to send a contract. And I misread what they did send -- it's $200 per band member. The smell of scam is getting stronger and stronger....
After Matt couldn't make it out, we invited the same drummer from last night. Tonight was more of the same; improv-ing our way through some songs and playing by ear, but the same problems were still hanging around. The tempo issue was bad enough that I had to call a few songs off to point out the increases. I'd be willing to play with him again, just to see if the metre issue is ingrained or due to rust.
-- Update --
Rich called me and told me that the drummer had been given a CD of music to learn about a month or so ago. That little bit of info changes my opinion somewhat. I can understand faking your way through a song; I can understand having a tempo issue. But not learning music that you agreed to is just unprofessional. There are enough drummers out there that I don't particularly want to put up with that level of commitment (or lack thereof).
Rich invited a new drummer to sit in with us and noodle around a bit. He told us he hadn't played for awhile, and there was clearly some rust on the hinges. But, he had a nice feel, clearly has passion for his playing, improv-ed his way through a bunch of songs and we even did a bit of writing. That's the good news. Here's the bad news -- the meter was a consistent problem. Things started out at one pace and then almost invariably sped up as we went along.
All in all, it was a okay evening.
"They played on more #1 records than the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and Elvis Presley combined…”
I watched Standing In The Shadows Of Motown tonight at home. I was familiar with the story, but the documentary was rather good. I would recommend it for anyone who appreciates the work that it takes to create good music, or for anyone who's interested in the Motown sound.
These are guys who really worked hard making the distinctive Motown sound and they were some of the truly original and creative geniuses on their instruments. They didn't get the recognition that they deserve, but just about every musician should be able to tell you who James Jamerson, Benny 'Papa Zita' Benjamin, Earl Van Dyke, Joe Hunter, Eddie Willis and Joe Messina are. But particularly Jamerson.
Motown is pretty much about all about the bass line. Jamerson's groove drives everything about the songs. Take "My Girl" for instance. It's instantly recognizable within three notes. Jamerson’s style is highly distinctive and his influence on other bass players is almost incalculable.
One of the more amazing stories is how he played the bass line to Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On" lying down on his back because he was afraid that he might fall off of his usual stool. Toss that on top of Jamerson's playing style (everything was done with a single finger), and you have a feat that most bass players couldn't do today on their best day.
Part of the extras on the DVD tell how the author of the source book was originally writing only about Jamerson. But, as he interviewed the musicians with which Jamerson played, the author realized that there was a bigger story here. Jamerson remains the focus of the film.
The guys of Last Second Comeback asked me to come out and jam with them. I've caught them playing once or twice before; they have a good acoustic sound. So when they asked me to sit in with them, I agreed. Jeff, Pete and I sat around, going over a few songs, talking about the emotions behind their writing and the technical structure, and then we played through each song once or twice. It was a good time.
"It was a dark and snowy evening." Actually, it was. And cold as all get out, too. Add to that the strep that I am currently trying to get over, and things weren't looking all that good going into this evening.
The last time we played at Firehouse, it was not one of our better shows. Well, actually it sucked. And the owner remembered us and our suckiness from the last time. So when I walked through the door, he asked me how many people I thought were going to be coming out that night. I told him few, if any, given the weather report I heard on the way over (WMAL had basically said "for God's sake, if you love your children, please, please, please don't go outside tonight."), So the owner offered to cancel the night for us, or just pay us some flat rate instead of the door.
Rich had been playing a Toys For Tots gig earlier that night (I didn't particularly want to go, for obvious reasons. After all of us grouped up, we decided to play a short set for the night, to honor our obligation. The bar community isn't all that big, and canceling (even when it would legitimately not be our fault) wouldn't bode well for future bookings.
So we did our show. Rob sat in for me, playing about half of both sets, and that really helped me out. We played pretty well, all things being equal. We only had one vocal (didn't help), and I was sick (also a downside), but we had pretty good energy (a plus) and things gelled nicely (also a bonus).
Rob really came through. He had great time and good feel for the tunes. He didn't quite perfectly fit in, but we pretty much threw him in the deep end without any rehearsals. All in all, he did great.
Rehearsal tonight was an ordeal in pain. The playing was okay, but any sort of talking was moment after moment of unpleasantness. So, for obvious reasons, not much singing happened tonight.
But that wasn't the bad part. It was the load out. Loading and unloading gear is probably the worst part of any gig (I will gladly pay a roadie for his services, just as soon as I'm in a place where I can afford to do it). And loading and unloading when you're not completely healthy is even worse. Add to it walking in and out from a townhouse (a toasty 70 degrees) and the outside (a nippy 30), and whatever sickness you might have been kicking will come roaring back for more.
I can't wait until Friday.
JoS is on the books for Friday, and I can't speak more than fifteen words without my throat feeling like it's going to bleed; I haven't even thought about trying to sing anything. I'm really hoping that I will feel better before Friday. That would be a good thing.
I caught the Oteil Burbridge show tonight with his backing band, the Peacemakers. I had really never heard the band before; I had caught Oteil playing on a Victor Wooten DVD once upon a time.
They put on a rather good show. It had a heavy jazz feel to it, as well as a good funky groove (not that those two idioms are incompatible...). If I had to classify it, I would probably say it was "funky bohemian Southern jazz." The band really had a high level of energy. They were really tight and together. Everything had a great groove, and the crowd really got into the show.
Having said that, the crowd was something like twenty, thirty people. That had to be a let down for the band. I can understand; I've played my butt off for empty rooms before -- it just goes with the territory -- but that doesn't mean it's a lot of fun. My hat's off to the Peacemakers for keeping their energy up anyway -- particularly after having driven 9 hours from Connecticut.
The Peacemakers featured Oteil on bass (of course), Paul Henson on vocals, Mark Kymball on guitar, Jason Crosby on keys and Chris Fryar on drums. Paul had a really good voice for the kind of music they were playing.
While I was there, I picked up their latest CD Family Secret while I was there. I had thought about ordering it from Amazon (which is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly since I resell for them from time to time), and I found a copy of the disc in a Border's the other day. But I decided to buy the CD at the show. I figure that way the artist gets most of the money.
Tonight, we played as an opener (of sorts) for a wedding reception. There was a main band in the room for dancing; we were in the lobby as more or less atmospheric music for cocktails.
The evening started off a little bit off-kilter. Due to various miscommunications, we were a bit on the late side of starting. Once we got going, though, things were pretty good. In my opinion, we carried out the songs a little longer than we should have, and there was one tune that was just a bloody train wreck from start to finish. Still, most of the audience seemed to enjoy themselves and we had a good time.
I had never been to a Persian wedding before. Since I wasn't an invited guest, I suppose that I still have not, but it was an interesting experience from my perspective. Everyone seemed to be having fun, the bride was beautiful and the groom handsome and there was lots of music, food and dancing. Compared to the drudgefests/wakes that were some weddings I have recently attended, this seemed to be quite the improvement.
Rich rang me up today, wanting to know if I would be available for a gig on Friday next. I like to play out -- particularly when I get paid for it -- but not this time.
I'm going down to visit my folks for Thanksgiving. It's about a six, seven hour drive one way. Coming back for a show (and, for the rate that was quoted) just wasn't worth it this time around. If I had been going to Richmond, if there was a lot more money on the table or if I would be sitting in with some really hot musician, then maybe it would be different.
But I think I'd rather spend the time with my family. I don't get to spend as much time with them as I would like to (the distance and all), so I do try to see them as much as I can.
So, I have a question for anyone who might want to step up and answer it. Why is there no equivalent of the Internet Move DataBase for music? I think it would just about be better than sliced bread to be able to enter a CD, find out all the people who worked on it and then lookup any other projects that, say, the keyboard player did because he had such good feel. Or anything else the recording engineer worked on just because you liked the way he did the mix and you just might want to hire him for your own project. Now wouldn't that be a good thing?
So I picked up Sarah McLachlan's new album Afterglow on Wednesday. And I'm just now getting around to listen to it. Yes, it's been a busy few days, and having to pull a 6am to 2pm shift at work on a Saturday morning isn't helping anything. I do so love monitoring a production system.
But, back to the actual point of this posting. I had read a few other reviews of this album, and they had given it less than glorious marks. My own take on it is that she has made a safe, album, several good songs, nothing too risky. She seems to be growing more towards the mellow side, which would make sense, since she's getting older (aren't we all), not to mention being a mother now.
Instrumentation-wise, this album's gotten away from some of the more free ranging guitar work that was somewhat prominent in Surfacing . I think that's a good thing. Her voice held it's own against the loud, feedbacking guitar, but she's better suited towards a piano backdrop, with the guitar as spice, not as the main course.
Some of the better tracks:
Some of the not so good tracks:
This was one of the better shows that JoS has had for a while. We had a better crowd than many of the recent ones have been. That always helps. SLim was kind enough to sit in with us for a few songs as well.
I decided that I was going to have a good show despite anything anything else that might happen. And I did. I ended up doing more singing than I usually do. My back was killing me after the show, though. I think it was because we had a really small stage (good thing I'm not claustrophobic), and I had to stand in the same spot for three hours or so. Not the best of circumstances.
I picked up the Rush in Rio DVD a few weekends ago when I was down in Richmond visiting with my family. Things have been rather busy lately, so I only recently finished watching the whole thing. A few comments on it (in no particular order):
As a side note, I feel like I'm on a first name basis with these guys, since I’ve been listening to them since I was about three or so.
I was just working on adding to my bio, when I started to think of some of the people that I have encountered while playing music. In my experience, musicians have a bad reputation -- being a diva, making unreasonable requests, one ego-maniac and glory-hog after another. Unfortunately, I've ran into a number of people that seem bound and determined to keep the reputation alive. But what just struck me as I was typing is that I have been rather lucky as of late.
Most of the people that I have met through music have been really quality people. Nice people, the kind that you want to help out and that would help you out in return. I really have been blessed in this regard. I know that playing music with, well, jerks, tends to suck the joy of what should be an otherwise peachy experience.
The other weekend, I was at Bassists In Front. Which, by the way, was a great time. A dozen or so bass players hanging out, making music. They even talked me into getting up and playing for a bit. Anyway, after we all played individually, we did a jam session with about four bassists at a time. And it struck me: bass players are almost uniformly willing to share, to reach out to other musicians. In my experience, much moreso than other kinds of musicians. Maybe it's something about being primarily a supporting musician, maybe it's something completely unrelated, I don't know. Just my observation.
Back to PJ Skidoo's. The bar didn't advertise at all (their flyer mentioned a band the night before and the Halloween part the next night, but no mention of anything happening on Thursday), and we only did a mailing list. So, we pulled a crowd of about 3. Adding that to the people who were already there, and we played to a whopping total of ten people.
Still, we did our best. But, as the song says, I guess our best wasn't good enough. Another short night, two sets and out.
A return engagement for me at Firehouse Grill. The place was a dive the last time I played there, and it's still a dive now.
We started with a small crowd, and it steadily dwindled away along the night. Even so, we did get some people up and dancing, so that was nice. The other bars in the area (TT Reynold's, Ned Devine's) were completely dead as well. We made it a short night, only playing two sets.
This was a decent show; we did it acoustically. There was a built-in crowd and some old friends arrived as well. We had good crowd response and met some nice people.
The bar mamager is a big West Virginia fan, and they pounded Va Tech the night before in football. So we decided it would be a good idea to try and learn the John Denver song "Country Road". It didn't go all that well, and let's just leave it at that.
Spent most of this weekend in the studio with Douglass and Christine. They wanted a demo CD. The two of them were amazing, particularly for their first time out. They had never been in a studio before and were rather nervous about it. In getting ready, they rehearsed the hell out of their songs. As a result, they showed up and basically did every song in no more than two takes. Most of them were in one. Their scratch track was good enough that a number of bands that I know would have been happy to use that as a working demo. They then went back and redid some parts, punched in on others. Each time, they pretty much got it in one. If you've ever done studio recording before, you can probably appreciate just how uncommon that is.
Just speaking personally/selfishly here, things went pretty well from my point of view. Not the best work I have ever done, but not too bad either. 7 tracks in a little under three hours: 90 minutes doing scratch tracks with all the instrumentation and vocals, 90 more minutes of me listening to what I had played and then either punching in or retaking the entire track. Even with that, I didn't have to redo anything more than twice, and most of them were fine after the first time through the punch-ins/retakes. One of them was just about perfect on the first take, so we took that one. Hopefully, a sample or two should be uploaded before too awfully long.
Maybe this is just is just me, but when I play on other people's CDs (particularly when they are paying me for my time), it's important to me to get it right -- and get it right sooner rather than later. Not only are they paying me for my time, they are paying the studio for the amount of time it takes me to get it right. It's been my policy for a while that if I screw it up four times, then I don't charge any time for that track. (Of course, that's within reason. Complex bass lines will take me more time to get right; it's kind of hard to come in to a studio cold, pick up a strange piece of sheet music that is written with several different time signatures, densely packed rhythms and a few key changes thrown in for good measure, and then nail it in two or three tries. But most songs aren't like that -- I should be able get them pretty quickly.) If I can't, then I don't charge. It's bad enough that a someone has to shell out money to the studio for me to blow the song, trying to learn it on the fly; they shouldn't have to pay me for my own incompetence as well.
This was my first time at Willie & Reed's. Matt, the owner, is a pretty nice guy and was very accomodating. We probably had about four or five times as much amplification as that place actually needed. Add to that wooden floors, steel ceilings, glass walls, and it was probably not the best of places acoustically.
Our sets were decent enough, though. SLim sat in on vocals for a few songs, and a friend of mine (Chris Patry) hopped up on guitar for a bit. Chris is a really hot lead guitarist; one of the best with whom I have played. It's always a real pleasure to play with him. He brings a great energy to the stage.
I went to see the other Flecktones' show at GWU tonight. It was a completely different show than the night before, and there were two special guests. Sandip Berlman sat in on the tabla drums; he's a hell of a player. I have seen Sandip play with the Flecktones at the Birchmere several years ago (that time he also had a sitar player as well as a flute player). And the other player was Isaiah Williams. He's a new kid onto the scene (I think that Victor discovered him). He's a drummer with lots of talent. It's a bit raw now, but that's understandable. He's eight. Sheesh, he's going to be a monster in about five years or so. Anyway, outside of Isiah's sit-in, the show was very reminiscent of the Live at the Quick DVD.
Afterwards, I went up to some of the members of the band. After seeing Jeff Coffin being such a class act to that kid from the night before, I had gone out earlier in the day and bought JC's solo CD. So I wanted him to sign it. He did, and while he was signing it, I noticed the same kid from the night before. He had gone out and bought three Miles Davis CDs.
I also got another photo with me and Bela, since someone pointed out to me that the photo from the night before looked more like a Photoshop job rather than a real photo. And, having gone through all that, the new one isn't all that much better. @#()*$@#! !!
I took Rich and Maria to the Flecktones show at GWU; Rob brought some friends went as well. It was a great show, much like Tuesday. Rich and Maria both really appreciated the show; there's just something about watching four good musicians who are in complete mastery of their instruments, have really good chemistry and are having a good time in the process. I paid for them to go. It's worth it to me to turn people on to really good music, particularly for the very first time.
Somewhere along the way, Bela had picked up a vocal effect of some sort. He was having great fun playing with it. You could tell that it was still new, because the band was still finding the jokes funny -- one thing that Bela did had Victor laughing so hard he had to walk off stage for a bit.
Here are some photos from that night.
Afterwards, a few of us met the members of the band. Jeff Coffin (the sax player) is a really nice guy, genuine and just a really cool cat. One of the crowd was this young kid, maybe ten or so. He was telling Jeff that he played trumpet. So Jeff started talking to him, and he asked the kid who his favorite trumpet player was. The kid thought for a bit and Jeff joked with him "Just say Miles Davis...". The kid told him that he had no idea who Miles Davis was and had never heard of him. Needless to say, that answer got a reaction from a jazz crowd. But, here's the cool thing. Jeff took about fifteen, twenty minutes to explain to this guy who Miles Davis was, what his impact was to music, how he has been influential -- basically giving an impromptu jazz history lesson. Then, he told the kid if he went out and bought a Miles Davis cd -- any Miles Davis cd -- Jeff would comp him tickets for the next night's show. Now that's a cool guy.
Bela Fleck is quite the gentleman, very warm. And Victor Wooten, well, he's Victor. For someone as monumental as he is, he's really centered, down-to-earth and just a solid guy.
Anthony was there as well, and he introduced both Rob and I to Victor. We talked for a bit, but mostly listened to Victor and Anthony tell us about their last tour together and to Victor talk about some of his philosophy of playing bass. He was telling us about how to play when someone else is soloing so as to get applause for them. Anthony also talked to us about "two through ten" -- of all the things that make up music, notes are only one part of it. There are so many other things that go into the art. It was really fascinating to hear, and I'd think I might have learned a thing or two as well.
Rob and I decided on the spur of the moment to go down to Fredricksburg to watch Bela Fleck & The Flecktones at Mary Washington College. I tried to get my brother to join us, but he couldn't make it on such short notice. We drove down, got there and started talking with some of the students who were hanging out, waiting to get into the auditorium. Most of the people that we talked to had never heard of the Flecktones at all and just came by because there was a band playing. A few of the people were already fans, but most of them didn't seem to understand just what they were getting into.
We managed to finagle our way into front row seats for the first show of the tour. For $20 a pop. That didn't suck. This was their first show of their latest tour. There were still some bugs for them to work out, but they had a great energy. They are also starting to use lights as a part of their show more, and their lighting engineer was doing great work, very powerful.
This show was not one of our better ones. Java Jack's is a small little coffee shop in Olde Towne Manassas. The owners seem like pretty good people, and there was some sort of street fair going on in Manassas that day. Lots of people milling around, but mostly families with young children -- not exactly the target demographic. The intention was to play mostly for exposure, but I don't know how useful it is to expose the music to people who aren't likely to come out and see the band. We did meet some really nice people, though.
Tonight, Oracle threw a party for all the people who are attending the conference. Live music, open bar, open buffet. It was held down at Pier 48 (and when I say that, I mean the entire pier. The food was decent enough and the wine was okay, but I really wasn't expecting all that much for free.
The opening band was some local SF band. They played this kind of trance-Latin thing. It was interesting enough, but they never drifted beyond a rather small set of playing. I also don't know if it was the most appropos of bands to book, given the demographics of an Oracle conference.
The next band was Train. To be honest, I was rather suprised that they were booked for a private party. They aren't the hugest of bands, but they have had a few hits and seem to be up and coming. They played much better than I had expected, and they have a pretty good live sound. It doesn't hurt that they have a good front man (not pipes-wise, but good presence/looks).
And then the "headliners" came on. I couldn't believe that the Violent Femmes were the headliners. I know they've been around forever, and they might even have more "hits" than Train, but it's been, what, a decade or two since their last release to chart? Anyway, I couldn't believe that they were 1) still touring, 2) still together and 3) still alive!
I spent about two hours studying with Kai Eckhardt tonight. I wasn't really sure as to what to expect from this. It's kind of hard to really learn a lot when you're only going to study with someone once. The first time that I sat down with Anthony, I really did learn a lot the very first time, but we were mostly focusing on fingering exercises and mechanics.
Anthony and I talked a few times about what I should and should not do with Kai. His suggestion was to learn as much as I could from Kai about spritiual issues, general approaches to music and playing rather than any particular mechanics.
So, before I arrived out in SF, Kai had sent me a few questions to answer. Here's what he asked, and how I answered:
What do you think your strengths are in music?
I think I have a pretty ingrained sense of rhtyhm. I can usually home in on the beat, regardless of what other people are or are not doing. In most ensembles, I am usually the 'meter Nazi'. I usually know when the group has sped up or slowed down.
Before I started playing bass, I was a drummer for eight years or so. I think that gives me a better understanding of the rhythm section than a bass player who switches over from lead.
I think I have a good sense of rhythm and of what "fits". I used to be a DJ spinning dance music, and I developed an ability to hear the phrasing of one song and how it was both similar and different from other songs. From that, I could make various songs blend together accordingly.
What do you think are your weakness in music?
I am very ingrained in a 4/4, 6/8 and 3/4 mindset. Odd time signatures (particularly beyond 5/4 and 7/4) are very challenging for me.
I have trouble with composition -- either in trying to write and/or arrange a full song (guitar, keys, bass...) or in playing a solo on top of an existing song. It's getting better, but I have a concern about playing the wrong notes at the right time, the right notes at the wrong time or both bad at once.
I am trying to expand my ability to play well in alternative musical idioms. I have been mostly playing rock, blues, some jazz, some funk with the occasional country-ish type of playing. I'd like to get into Indian, African, Latin or Reggae styles (just to name a few).
I do rush from time to time, particularly when excited or under stress.
When I play out with people and they start to rush (or slow down), I tend to struggle with the best way to bring them back to the right tempo. Oft times, I try to simplify my playing and play a bit late or a bit ahead of the beat as a way of trying to bring them back. In some bands, that works; other times, they persist and I just shrug my shoulders and go with them on it.
Are you happy with your practice habits?
For the most part, yes. Since starting to study with Anthony, I have been spending more and more time with a metronome, doing fingering exercises, arpeggios and scale exercises. I can see these activities getting to be old hat, though, so any suggestions on how to keep them fresh would be greatly appreciated.
this far, i have not been focusing on my right hand. I am trying to get my left hand working the way I want it to be working. Once that gets to be automatic, I intend to go back to work on my right hand.
What do you want to accomplish over the next 3 months?
I want to write some songs over the next months, so I'd like to make a good start on that.
I would like to begin to feel as if I could reasonably play one or two alternative styles comfortably.
I would like to be able to get that sudden call from the bandleader for a bass solo of the next eight bars without starting to curse to myself.
I got to Kai's place a little early. Well, about forty minutes early. So I misjudged the time to get there by cab. And his studio is not in the best of neighborhoods. I went ahead and rang the bell, and Kai let me in while he was working with another student.
We talked for a bit about my background and where I want to go musically. We talked about some of the things that I want to work on, and then got to the main focus -- some suggestions on how to write. Kai made a suggestion for a rational, left-brain kind of way to approach writing using somewhat of a random number approach. It's interesting; I think that it would be a good way to get around writer's block, but I'm not so sure as to how useful it would be as a way of writing a complete song from scratch.
As far as working on tempo, he shared some of his pain that he has experienced with other musicians. Amongst a lot of the bass players, there seems to be a consensus that musician who focus on melody tend to have better time than the supporting musicians. Which does seem to make sense; supporting people have to hold the song together while the melody people bring out the primary emotion and focus of the song.
It seems that the consensus on learning new idioms is an immersion approach -- just listen to as much of it as you can, and you'll start to pick it up unconciously.