- Okay so I was actually able to find a hard copy of the new How To Destroy Angelsat a major, corporate outlet. I know what you’re thinking: “what’s a hard copy??” I was there to pay bills, not to record shop. So it was a nice treat; because — and I might be in the minority here — I do like owning a CD much better than just having it on my computer. Granted, this will get thrown onto my computer at some point… I just have yet to do that cause I’ve been blasting it through the stereo for the past few days.
So how is it, right? Fucking awesome. I’m loving this album. And it’s scary because like I’ve said in the past… I think I like this stuff more than I ever did NIN. And I consider myself a Nine Inch Nails fan, too. Mariqueen Maandig, as she’s credited in the liner notes, does a miraculous job breathing more life into into an ever expanding body of Trent Reznor production. I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t enjoy this as much if it was a purely Reznor sung collection of music. Not that he doesn’t sing. He does, only a little. It makes his vocal appearances all the more exciting, and even haunting, when he’s not around all the time. To say this album is simply a showcase of Maandig’s etheral, spot-on vocals would be beyond misleading of me though. Indeed Atticus Ross and Reznor alike really bring their A games to the table here: using their illustrious pasts apart, their work together on David Fincher soundtracks, and something new and simple as a very like-minded production team. I guess when you go back and really listen to the soundtracks they’ve done — particularly The Social Network — it is pretty simple music, really. On the surface at least. Those more ambient leanings appear on “Welcome Oblivion“; they just sit behind some really catchy, borderline basic, Electro/Industrial beats that sound like they’ve ripped directly from a late 90′s MPC. Catching a theme here? This record manages to combine simplicity with a more organic brand of Electronic music, which oddly creates a forward-thinking sound. “A house on fire/burning all the past away.” Haunting, progressive, simple, organic… like the future. This is future music.
- Stained glass water-tower. Brooklyn. By Tom Fruin.
- “Iran shipping Chinese weapons to Yemen” sounds like a Tom Clancy novel’s starting point… but:
“As the article makes clear, the Iranians, via the Revolutionary Guard Corps, are accelerating the volume and sophistication of weapons supplies transferred to extent and potential proxies in the region. In the case of Yemen, that’s the Houthi rebellion. In all cases, Iran’s support is to Shi’a or Shi’a offshoot groups fighting Sunni government or groups. The qualitative escalation is symbolized by the presence of Chinese-manufactured manpads—the QW-1M. These weapons come from a Chinese state-owned company already sanctioned by the U.S. government for illegal arms dealing.
What are Iranian and Chinese officials thinking (and let me note that in neither case can we assume a monolithic government decision system)?”
- NPR wrote a piece just in time for “Dilla Day”, about the legacy of the late James Yancey.
Why J Dilla May Be Jazz’s Latest Great Innovator.
“Dilla’s reach stretches way beyond hip-hop: For one, he’s recently cast a long shadow over contemporary jazz. He never belonged to jazz’s inner circle, but since his death in 2006 from a rare blood disease, his legacy has helped pull the genre back into kissing contact with modern popular music.
The jazz world today finds itself swamped with young talent eager for reinvestment in the discourse of contemporary culture. The shift has roots that run in a lot of directions. It’s a reaction to the neo-traditional revivalism that capped the last century, and to jazz’s withered commercial infrastructure in the wake of the 1990s CD bubble. Add to that the simple fact that millennial jazz musicians grew up listening mostly to hip-hop, R&B and rock.”
- Women In Video Games (Damsels In Distress…), put in similar situations over and over andoverandoveroverover.
- Relatedly, The Hawkeye Initiative is pretty brilliant in calling out mainstream superhero shit for their years and years of blatant misogyny and sexism.
- COFFFFEEE!! It’s been a minute since I’ve been here.
- Last night I had this amazing dream about my wife and I. It kinda felt like a second honeymoon. We were in this very 21st Century, borderline futuristic city… like Tokyo looking. Except it wasn’t Tokyo because there was an abundance of white people and everyone spoke with a vague European accent. Let’s just call it 2064 Kiev. But we were frolicking through this city from a home-base of this beautiful penthouse. We went to see this band play in an underground club. Somehow we got to dancing at the side of the stage then the band invited us up to dance on stage and sing backup for the rest of the show. After the show we went back to our place and got up onto the roof. There was a small, traditional movie theater across the alley from us. Even with the neons of the city the stars burned bright. I found a piece of wood we used to walk across and get onto the theater roof. We made our way inside and found the projection room. We dug through reels and reels of film until we found an old, dusty copy of Inglorious Basterds (so yes, this must be a future occurrence). I put it on the 35mm projector and got it working. We brewed up some popcorn and watched the film all by ourselves in this tiny, historic theater. Balcony and all. When it was over we put the reels back how they were and darted out to the rooftop. The sun was just coming up.
“They came for him on October 23, 2008. Eight medical staff, corrections officers, and guards took William Coleman out of his solitary cell, down a bright hall, and into a medical examination room. The officers stood guard outside while a medical internist told Coleman to get on the vinyl-covered examination table. They were going to feed him. Coleman told them he did not want to be fed. But they weren’t asking for his consent; he had no choice.
It had been more than a year since Coleman had chewed anything.
He’s not suicidal; he’s in prison for something he says he didn’t do. Like 2.2 million people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the U.S., his body is not his own. The only way for him to protest his conviction, to exercise his first amendment rights, he says, is to stop eating solid food.”
“In 1956, with the guiding support of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the U.S. Department of State sent the nation’s finest jazz musicians abroad as goodwill representatives in a conscious effort to symbolize America’s commitment to freedom. The Jazz Ambassadors program was launched at the bitterest point in the Cold War to bring the best of American culture to the rest of the world. The program not only focused on Iron Curtain nations but also the Third World, where many developing countries were exploring Marxism as a possible political identity. The first Jazz Ambassador was trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and two years later Brubeck joined the ranks that would eventually include Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Benny Goodman and Miles Davis. These musicians reached audiences in the millions, not only performing but also meeting with heads of state as well as thousands of everyday citizens through the international language of music.”
I can’t help but think this would never be something we’d invest in today’s world. Even with a surplus.
- I got Mixed Blood Majority tickets this morning, along with Cecil Otter’s first solo show in some time. MBM is a super group of sorts, at least when it comes to the Twin Cities music scene. The group features vocalists from both No Bird Sing and Kill The Vultures, and production from Doomtree‘s Lazerbeak. Pretty excited, as all three members are some of my favorite local musicians. Here’s the latest thing they threw up on their Soundcloud page:
If you preorder their album right now you’ll get the album, a shirt, a poster, and a random CD from either of their other bands for just 12 bucks (without shipping). Good deal.
It was a real pleasure just so sit and talk with you. I listened very carefully to what you had to say about this compelling history, and I’ve since read the script and found it in all the detail in which it describe these monumental events and in the compassionate portraits of all the principal characters, both powerful and moving. I can’t account for how at any given moment I feel the need to explore life as opposed to another, but I do know that I can only do this work if I feel almost as if there is no choice; that a subject coincides inexplicably with a very personal need and a very specific moment in time. In this case, as fascinated as I was by Abe, it was the fascination of a grateful spectator who longed to see a story told, rather than that of a participant. That’s how I feel now in spite of myself, and though I can’t be sure that this won’t change, I couldn’t dream of encouraging you to keep it open on a mere possibility. I do hope this makes sense Steven, I’m glad you’re making the film, I wish you the strength for it, and I send both my very best wishes and my sincere gratitude to you for having considered me.”
Last night I had the opportunity to go and see the legend of Minnesota music legends, the spiritual successor to Woody Guthrie (Arlo not withstanding), Bob Dylan. Bob Zimmerman. Robert Milkwood. Whatever you wanna call him. He lived up to that status. His presence was definitely felt from front to back, and he seemed glad to be in his (original) home.
My cousin who I was with hit it right on the head when he said, “he’s no nostalgia act, is he?”. Suffice it to say after having trouble getting to our seats on the floor due to sheer volume of people, I think the entire row ahead of us emptied after about 3 songs. It went from claustrophobic feeling to just plain bare. I should make it clear that I was told (“warned” seems like too strong of language) what a modern Bob Dylan show was going to be like from several people before going. I knew what I was in for; that being said, I honestly think I still would have the same reaction had I not been aware of the style in which Dylan and his always marvelous backing band present some of the best songs of the 20th Century. I would. Cause I was fairly baffled when I heard people complaining about it for the first time, it seemed a little unjustified. Here’s the deal: none of the songs are very recognizable, especially to an untrained ear (musically, that is). Sure… if you know the lyrics to Bob Dylan songs you’ll figure it out, or if you can recognize a key instantly you definitely will. But if you have neither of things you damn well better be going into the venue with an open mind or you will be disappointed. From the look if it, this happens at his shows with some regularity. Which is such a shame. If you do go in with an open mind, you concede to him that he’s the artist and you’re the patron, you will be in for a very memorable experience.
This was the first time I had seen him, so this could be all in my head… but he felt particularly loose last night. Spry I would even say. There were numerous times where he was playing the piano, getting more fidgety and fidgety until he finally had to pop up off his bench, grab a harmonica and walk to the front of the stage to jam. Indeed some of the best moments of the night were songs that Bob was not playing an instrument during, waltzing around the stage and pointing at his metaphors and imagery before delving into another harmonica solo. Now I know where Craig Finn gets his swagger from. His voice was surprisingly good. Again though, I’m well aware of how his voice has changed with 50 some odd years of cigarettes and red wine under the weight of being “a generation’s spokesperson”. That kind of thing has got to wear on you. Like the song rearrangements though, if you think his voice is gonna sound the way it does in the 60s or 70s, you will be dissatisfied. But I thought he sounded great, and dare I say a little bit cooler with the now trademark rasp. On “Tangled Up In Blue” for example, the long drawn-out words before the chorus hits he didn’t attempt, but he hit the chorus notes pretty well. But he’s a story teller; he’s at his best when he’s rambling on about Highway 61 or not fitting into anywhere you go. “Ballad of A Thin Man” was one of my highlights of the night: the band played a pretty heavy version of the song and Bob seemed to really be feeling the lyrics (this was one of the songs he walked around to). That song — an indictment of the establishment from a confused anti-hero who, no matter what he does (including read all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s books) cannot seem to become accepted by society — ironically probably feels as personal to him in 2012 as it did in 1965. Add to that the irony of some people wanting to hear that song the way it sounded in 1965, and thinking this old version of Dylan is just too weird to enjoy, and you’ve got accidental (or perhaps intentional) brilliance.
Before the single-song encore of “Blowin’ In The Wind” (a version I didn’t even recognize initially), Dylan and co. played two of his most famous songs back to back: “Like A Rolling Stone” and “All Along The Watchtower”. It was a great one-two punch. I had heard previously a version of “Like A Rolling Stone” from earlier this year (I think from Europe gig?), so that song wasn’t too much of a surprise. And actually they don’t change it all that much, not comparatively to some of the other material. But the rendition “All Along The Watchtower” was amazing. Carefree, bluesy, even with a little snarl and attitude for good measure.
This may have been my last chance to see Dylan, and boy am I glad I did. He’s easily one of the greatest song writers — or maybe poets — of all time.
I’m giving this a second full listen right now. I had heard the whole thing a few weeks back through the NPR full album stream, then bits and pieces sporadically after that. I still need to get a hard copy of this from my local record shop next time I get there. It’s definitely worth owning. That should give a pretty good indication of how I feel about it, but let me elaborate eh? I own 1983 and Cosmogramma on vinyl, they each get quite a few spins when I’m mixing things in my basement. I do not own a hard copy — only digital — of Los Angeles. I will not mention who Steve Ellison is related to, that’s getting repetitive and tedious. However I will say that the free flowing nature of Jazz certainly existed in his previous work, peaking with his last album (2010′s Cosmogramma). Until The Quiet Comes is more accessible than that album, but it is not any less artistic and that free flowing vibe hasn’t gone away. It’s just been refined. Refined to the point where it feels like this guy could keep up this pace — putting out very high quality LPs every two years — for decades to come. He knows what he does, and he does it well. The features here are done brilliantly, as each very distinct voice (Thom Yorke to Niki Randa) approaches singing on a Flying Lotus track the same way: their voice is just one of the instruments, one of the many layers, present on the track and album. They are not there to make a song stick in your head, or to be the star of any one moment. They are a small piece to the very complex puzzles this guy creates. And they treat their job(s) as such. Just like the songs are pieces to the album as a whole, and the album as a whole is a piece to the discography as a whole. Layers built on top of layers creating sediment for new layers.
Dan Deacon – America
I heard this for the first time a couple days ago but have been wanting to check it out since I heard Dan Deacon would be releasing a new album this year. Right off the bat this album will knock you on your ass. And you will only want to make it louder… and louder. Then that opening track (“Guilford Avenue Bridge”) will settle down a bit, and your stereo or headphones will still be cranked, which means you will hear all the little complexities of the quiet parts before diving into the very catchy second track. The whole of America is setup this way, calculated and structured so cleverly that by a third of the way through you will realize nothing is accidental. It’s a little strange to review and listen to these two albums back to back, in fact. They are stark opposites: one a premeditated, structured work and the other a free-form, loose album. This can be most easily explained and attributed to each person’s background. Dan Deacon went to school for composing. On top of that he also has composed numerous film scores and has even made modern classical music. On this album he really shows off his chops, his knowledge of scales and progressions… programmed into a laptop or analog synth the way a composer laid out sheet music for a 64-piece orchestra in the 1700s. “Pretty Boy” shows this off immensely. But before you know it you’re knee deep in heavy, and I mean heavy, synths that get you turning up your stereo for a second time. Once the “USA I-IV” series of tracks comes knocking on your door you will surely agree that this guy is a modern day American composer first and foremost. This is his best work.
- First up, a gorgeously stunning picture of the Perseids Meteor Shower in beautiful high definition. This was taken on the Snowy Range of Wyoming, a composite of 20-some pictures into one. Awesome:
- Wait, there’s a chance that Will.I.Am will be quitting music to focus on computer coding?? A very plausible chance? Right the F on! Now all we need is for one more member of Black Eyed Peas to do something else with their life and maybe we’ll never hear from them again.
- Really insightful post from my guy PEESHE (over in Australia) about using the MPC for live shows. Specifically the MPC2000XL. Number 5 is something I always try to remind myself of. This is where he blogs now, mostly. What an excellent collective site. Dang. Beautiful design.
- And speaking of collectives, the new Minneapolis/St. Paul collective F.I.X. (“F to the I to the X”) is giving away three free albums in one nifty package until their debut collective show Friday the 17th: No Bird Sing’s “Theft of Commons”, Kill The Vultures’ “Ecce Beast”, and Kristoff Krane’s “Hunting For Father”. The last I’ve spoke of on here before. Probably multiple times. It’s an awesome album. The other two are as well. And hey, the shit is FREE. Here’s the Bandcamp stream:
- Hey, independent comics retailers/press… wanna know a good way to not sell your shit? By ripping on any of Warren Ellis’ friends in the public net-square. This includes blogs, Facebook, in this case Twitter. His wrath will be swift and severe. And I’m betting his site gets more views than yours. Not to mention that is just being an asshole. Saying that shit on Twitter.
The social, cultural, and political turbulence chronicled by such off-radar newspapers as Rat Subterranean News, Screw, San Francisco Oracle, East Village Other, Black Mask, and Los Angeles Free Press, to name only a few, is commonly overlooked in mainstream histories. As a result, what often remains is the same scattershot of familiar imagery from the late 1960s/early 1970s that’s lingered in the nation’s collective memory: hippies dancing with flowers in their hair at the Monterey Pop Festival during the Summer of Love; Timothy Leary at the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park in 1967, urging the Haight-Ashbury crowds to “Turn on, tune in, drop out”; U.S. military tanks on city streets during the race riots in Detroit and Newark; the rise of the Hell’s Angels as the new American outlaws; and the Kent State University shootings and Mary Ann Vecchio’s haunting scream.
- Check out this Photostream on Flickr; guy calls himself/herself OM2 Urbx. Specializes in urban photography for the 21st Century. This one is called “Clane Crimber” (and no, I believe that is not a typo):
- These Verve Remixed albums are brilliant. Damn. The idea is to take old songs from the history of the label, and have modern Electronic and/or Hip-Hop produces remix them. So they’re both for fans of the history of the label and the artists associated, AND modern music fans to serve as an introduction to said artists. Awesome idea, and something more labels with 25+ years of history should do. And big ups to The Current for playing something I wasn’t familiar with and piqued my interest more than “oh, this is pretty decent indie rock”.
BitTorrent has a new plan for getting money into the hands of content producers — and it’s putting its method to the test with a handful of new tracks from turntable maestro DJ Shadow.
The file-sharing hub released a “bundle” of three tracks on 24 July from Shadow’s upcoming Total Breakdown: Hidden Transmissions From the MPC Era, 1992-1996. The torrent, which also includes photos and archival footage from Shadow’s early years, will come with free software from BitTorrent’s advertising partners — like, for example, RealPlayer. If downloaders install the software, the DJ will get a share of the revenue.
The DJ Shadow bundle is the first of many new content experiments BitTorrent has in the works, the company said. Finding ways for artists to make money from file sharing could be a significant shift in the perception of the practice among artists and music labels. It seems to have brought around Shadow (aka Josh Davis), who in an interview with Wired last year lamented that peer-to-peer file sharing had “removed music sales from the equation.”
- Paul Pope did a drawing of Luke at the gate’s of Jabba’s Palace for shits and giggles:
- I’m a member of Blueprint’s online community/message board over at Printmatic.net. I joined when he decided to start a forum exclusively for producers, to discuss equipment, technical aspects of hard and software, and everything production related. Well, someone started a brilliant and challenging thread for the board where you post what you could muster up from a straight-forward challenge: cut-up a song into samples, rearrange it without adding anything or supplementing it in any way, and try to make a new song/beat out of it. It’s a great exercise in sampling, because without the ability to look ahead to the FX chain or the hits or soft-synths you’re going to add, it forces you to think exclusively in that particular song’s terms… and as a result you get a little better at sampling.
Sampling sounds so fucking easy. It really does. Well, let me tell you, it really is not. It is a fine art. Sure there are lazy ways to do it, just looping a measure of a song without cutting it up at all, but even that takes a bit of skill. Anyways, I saw this and took it as a challenge considering the guys who had posted, including Blueprint, are way better samplers than I am. I come from the school of instrumentation. So I went digging through my records. I was originally going to do an Earth, Wind, and Fire song from 1978, but opted for something a little more down-tempo and Jazzy since the previous entries were funky as hell. Which brought me to my newest Sun Ra album, also from the late 70′s, called “Lanquidity”. This is the title track, and the first song on the record. I probably would have went farther with this, but the idea was to keep your sample to around a minute long. This is what I came up with:
Again, nothing great on it’s own. And clearly I took those snares from the track itself. But like I said, for anyone looking to get into sampling, or get better at it, this a great exercise in the art itself. It will keep you on your toes and force you to get more creative with your chopping (where and how and when), and also how you’re presenting and arranging each part.
