http://www.wbur.org/2009/08/20/basement-musician
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Where is Art & Entertainment headed?
Where is Art & Entertainment headed?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thom Yorke and Flea... didn't see that coming.
in the past couple of weeks i've been getting a band together for fun to play the eraser stuff live and the new songs etc.. to see if it could work!
here's a photo.. its me, joey waronker, mauro refosco, flea and nigel godrich.at the beginning of october the 4th and 5th we are going to do a couple of shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles.
we don't really have a name and the set will not be very long cuz ..well ...we haven't got that much material yet!
but come and check it out if you are in the area. we've also got locals Lucky Dragons playing.
all the best
Monday, September 28, 2009
The xx Live in Brighton
Still loving this record, check the link for all 7 parts of the video.
Light Peak transfers at 10 Gbps & could be the only connector your need.
So you're telling me that I could have one cable that handles handles everything? Cool, Bring it!
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Drum processing with Depeche Mode
I found this interesting, especially since I just saw Depeche Mode a few weeks ago. What's most interesting is the number of processes the drums will go through before it reaches your ear.
When I saw the band I thought for sure the drums were sampled, meaning the drummer was triggering the drum sound from a sampler every time he hit the drum. From a live performance standpoint using ableton in this way is certainly a better option than playing triggers. To be able to have that processed sound with a live kit is really the best of both worlds and allows a drummer to have a much more expressive palette to play with.
Of course now this means I have to tear down my electric kit, set up my acoustic, plug in bunch of mics, run them to an interface feeding Ableton and then run the signal out to a PA. Sounds like a lot of work... "Hey John..." :)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
5 Crappy Musicians Whose Music Will Get You Laid
Kick ass music and having sex do not go hand in hand. Any guy whose high school girlfriend would not let him so much as touch her without Boys II Men crooning their cardigan-flavored R& B in the background can attest to this fact. Face it; you just can’t coax a lady into your carnal thunderdome (aka your parent’s basement) to the strains of Black Sabbath. But here are some horrific “music makers” who’ll get the job done.
Jimmy Buffet
Why You Hate Him
If you’ve ever walked into a room where Jimmy Buffet music was playing you may have asked yourself, “Did a dog just shit in here?” Finding Buffet music is exactly like finding a pile of poo in the middle of the living room carpet. Also, very much like dog crap indoors, Jimmy Buffet music is a shameful act perpetrated by a creature who should know better.
Buffet is a self-described “pirate”, “beach comber” and super easy going dude. He’s also a two-faced, money-grubbing, baby boomer jerkweed (a rarity, we know). While Jimmy’s wailing on about the pleasures of the simple life, he’s about as corporate as you can get. His turned his song “Margaritaville” into a chain of restaurants. He partnered another restaurant concept, “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” with the Outback Steakhouse people. He has a beer made by Anheuser-Busch. Got a company retreat coming up? Jimmy will play it, bringing that slightly salty taste of laid back oceanic breeze to your corporate gathering. It’s the perfect way to wrap up your day long lecture on how to use Twitter to market cigarettes to 14-year-olds.
How He Will Get You Laid
Jimmy Buffet encourages drinking, which fits because Buffets’ music is the kind you’d only consider stomaching if you were really drunk. Plus research shows traumatic experiences bond people to each other. Once that special lady has had enough of Jimmy’s blunt force trauma delivered to her ears. All she’ll want to do is get drunk, cuddle and try to forget. At that point, you’re well on your way to wasting away in Coochieville, if you know what we mean. (We mean you’ll be fuckin’.)
Jack Johnson
Why You Hate Him
Before you kids get too cocky about how much the Baby Boomers suck, take a good hard look at Jack Johnson, because he’s our Jimmy Buffet. The guy is so damn chill he won’t even wear shoes. He comes from Hawaii, a place only fictional characters like Magnum P.I. or Dog the Bounty Hunter come from. Not quite rocking, not quite funk, Jack’s music aspires to nothing more than background, like audio wallpaper. The kind of music that insidiously slips it’s blandness into your subconsciousness while you’re dining at Red Lobster. Like Mad Cow Disease, it gestates in your brain over decades until one day in your middle age you have an unstoppably psychotic need for Tommy Bahama wear. “I NEED SILK PALM TREES AND HULA GIRLS ON MY BODY NOW!” you’ll unexpectedly scream in the middle of the mall, your teeth bared, mouth foaming and eyes wild. “THAT WAY EVERYONE WILL KNOW ABOUT MY ‘NO WORRIES’ ATTITUDE!!!” you’ll cry, right before sinking your teeth into a puppy.
How He Will Get You Laid
Sensitivity by association. A woman hears you cranking Jack Johnson in your hybrid and assumes you are a gentle and conscientious lover instead of the twice convicted sex offender you are.
Maroon 5
Why You Hate Them
There is something about the music of Maroon 5 that makes you want to punch your penis. Repeatedly. It’s a sensation you can’t really describe, but you suddenly just hate your penis so much you can’t stop punching it, which strangely enough makes your voice approximate the tenor of Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine. But you can’t argue with Maroon 5’s success. After Ellen DeGeneres, Adam Levine is the most successful lesbian in showbiz.
How They Will Get You Laid
Maroon 5 is the ultimate suburb rock; suburban girls draw to it like America Eagle moths to Jamba Juice flames. You see, the typical “suburban girl” may have all the same parts as a regular girl, but she’s far more skittish than a regular lass. Safety is this girl’s ultimate aphrodisiac. She wants some soulful rock that’s not as hard as Nickleback and not as ethnic as Stevie Wonder. Something you can crank in your PT Cruiser convertible after a meal of BONELESS SWEET CHILE GLAZED WINGS™ at the TGIFriday’s in the Galleria. Back in the Cruiser, you two park outside the Target and talk. She opens up her deepest secrets– like this one time she came in contact with a homeless person and how even thinking about it now still really scares her. She’ll fall asleep as Songs About Jane makes its 127th spin on the car player. You won’t have sex but back at school on Monday you’ll tell everyone she totally gave you a BJ and when she gives up denying it she’ll tell everyone you tasted like Axe body spray.
Justin Timberlake
Why You Hate Him
Remember when Michael Jackson was in every teenager’s bedroom. Stop; let me try that one again: do you remember when Michael Jackson was in every teenage girl’s bedroom…in poster form. Ever since Billy Jean, a jaunty tune about child abandonment, a generation of Swatch-wearing, Blossom-dressing, converse wearing girls wanted to toss away their chastity like losing scratch tickets.
Then Michael Jackson became well, Michael Jackson and the world’s female population thought they’d never love another white, thin-boned, falsetto singing, non-threatening dancer again.
Then came Justin Timberlake.
You can’t hate on JT too much. After all, he had the good sense to suck all of the talent out of Britany Spears and discard her on the side of the road, leaving Kevin Federline in his Geo Metro convertible to find her deflated, lifeless carcass and declare, “I’d like to put my penis in that!” A pro for JT: his music definitely gets your girl hot and bothered. The downside: he’s probably having sex with her right now.
How He Will Get You Laid
Justin Timberlake can’t stay and do your girlfriend forever. Eventually that tour has got to move on to Buffalo, and when it does your girlfriend will be totally crushed. JT’s absence will leave a great sucking hole in her heart, a hole you can fill with delusional pity sex. Ah yes, sweet pity sex.
Van Morrison
Why You Hate Him
The first time you heard Van Morrison’s “Moondance” coming over the car radio your dad said, “your mom and I used to be into this song,” which was dad’s way of saying, “I used to get into your mom while we listened to this song. Bottom line: I fucked your mother.” Now you can’t listen to “Brown Eyed Girl” without imagining your pasty parents smashing their doughy bodies against one another while conceiving your brother, whom you also hate. Also, he used to be a Scientologist.
How He Will Get Laid
Van Morrison songs, or audio ruffies as they are also known, have long been a sure fire way to cajole young women into salty, awkward sex. Every teenage boy once owned a Van Morrison Greatest Hits CD placed strategically within his domicile so when his chaste girlfriend came over to “study” old Van was spinning in no time. Like magic, Mr. Morrison’s spongy Irish-soul would have Missy NoSex clawing the guy’s back in procreative fervor. “Oh my God,” she’d scream right before biting into his bare shoulder, “this is the kind of inoffensive soft rock everyone at the office can agree on. I need you inside me NOW!” Van Morrison acquires so much tail for young men in the English speaking world, if you never pitched woo to a girl over the strains of “Moondance” you’re a gay Eskimo. Morrison creates the kind of sweet memories of high school and college sexual conquests you’ll pine for once you’re married and your wife has refused you sex for leaving a wet towel on the bathroom floor. Still that Scientology thing blows. Once you know the best erotic experiences of your life were powered by L. Ron Hubbard, it kinda sucks the joy out of it.
Read more from Cole Gamble at his site, Fun With Cole.
Just ridiculously funny.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Music: The xx - Crystalised
Kristen and I are loving this record. It's like Tricky meets all of your favorite 80's and early 90's goth/progressive bands (The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, Sisters of Mercy, Siouxsie and The Banshees, etc.) The Songs are relatively simple and some show signs of modern R&B influences on the vocals which raises a caution flag for me, but all in all it works together alarming well. It's passed the repeat listen test and is now moving into the obsessive listening phase.
Pitchfork has a review and the whole record streaming via Lala: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13400-xx/
more on the band can be found here: http://thexx.info/
Enjoy!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Place a phone call -- via Twitter... This could get interesting.
I'm not sure how this will play out with the Cell providers, but I kinda like the idea of being able to reach people in so many different ways using one handle. more at the link above.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Music: The Hidden Cameras - In The NA
Heard this one this morning via the KEXP song of the Day Podcast
It seems there are plenty of bands out there who still want to produce interesting videos. This one is pretty well done, it's well off center and worth a view or two. The intro really doesn't do much for me as stand alone audio, but with the video it adds a creepy 70's "art" feel.
What I love about the song is the Analog synth right from the get go and the strings that fly in and out of the mix almost like seagulls at the beach. Lyrically there's not much there, but musically the song is fun and exciting, Like something from the early 80's but still very 2009.
The Radio Edit minus all the intro wank is below.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Music - Jim O’Rourke, Once an Insider, Worked Alone and on the Outside for ‘The Visitor’
SINCE 2005 Jim O’Rourke, the once perennially busy American musician and producer, has lived in a small apartment in Japan, keeping to himself. He had flown there for work at least 50 times in earlier years; every time he returned to the United States, he said, his mood sank. At first his relocation was on and off, during the long process of acquiring an artist’s work visa. Now it seems pretty permanent. “It’s the only place I’m happy,” he said during a recent telephone interview, with a perfectionist’s mordant cackle.
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Drag CityThe American producer and musician Jim O’Rourke, whose new album “The Visitor” was made in his home studio in Japan.
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Official Web Site: Jim O'RourkeBlog
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Mr. O’Rourke, 40, is about equally known for his own music — albums like “Eureka,” “Insignificance” and his remarkable new one, “The Visitor” — as for his work for other people. For about 10 years, starting in the mid-1990s, Mr. O’Rourke, based in Chicago and then New York, saw his craft, knowledge and legendarily selfless work ethic connect some far-apart poles in music: pop, improvised music, contemporary classical and noise.
Sure, most music connects over time. (This is where people start talking about hive-minds and the genius of the marketplace.) But Mr. O’Rourke put in the work for those connections to happen faster and deeper. During that period he produced, engineered or wrote arrangements for rock bands like Wilco and Superchunk, as well as acts with more cultish followings: U.S. Maple, Smog, Aluminum Group. He worked with some of his older heroes, including John Fahey, Tony Conrad and the Red Krayola. He recorded a new version of the composer Toru Takemitsu’s 1962 “Corona for Pianists” for Columbia Japan.
He toured as a musician with Merce Cunningham’s dance company. For four years he was a full-time member of Sonic Youth. He played on the soundtrack of Werner Herzog’s documentary “Grizzly Man,” sharpened the musical skills of the child actors in Richard Linklater’s “School of Rock” and wrote a soundtrack to Koji Wakamatsu’s “United Red Army” for no pay.
But something in him changed over the past few years. Back in Chicago he was the most animated advocate for little-known or underrated music that I’d ever met; he knew everything and connected the dots for you. Now, he said, “I don’t know that guy anymore.” He feels he’s learned what he wants to learn. He works mostly for and by himself and doesn’t hang out with many musicians in Tokyo.
“I don’t think they’re interesting,” he said. “I don’t really listen to music much anymore. I haven’t had a stereo for the last three years.”
It was 1 a.m. in Tokyo when we talked. He’d just come home from playing a concert with Alan Silva’s 18-piece, free-jazz Celestial Communications Orchestra. “Music-wise all I do are these improv things,” he said. “I have so many old friends here, and now we can just play together, casually.” He’s been spending more time, he said, working with filmmakers and writing film criticism for Japanese magazines like En-Taxi, Expo and Studio Voice.
That, and working on “The Visitor,” released this week by Drag City. It’s a nearly orchestral, fully instrumental album, his first in eight years. He made it alone in his home studio — except for the piano tracks, which he recorded in a rented rehearsal space — so it takes its place alongside the small number of other high-level pop records made completely or mostly by one person, including Todd Rundgren’s “Something/Anything?” and Stevie Wonder’s “Music of My Mind.” Mr. O’Rourke gives the sense that its gingerly dynamics were dictated by thin walls and respect for his neighbors.
“The Visitor” is so easy on the ears that it disguises its density. “There are parts where there are almost 200 tracks of instruments, but I didn’t want it to sound difficult,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be virtuosic.”
Consisting of one 32-minute track, “The Visitor” took three years to make, including a year to mix. Mr. O’Rourke had exhausted his savings, and for one of those years, he said, he was prevented from earning an income in Japan because he didn’t have a work visa. (It finally came through early last year.) He lived off royalties from his past albums, some of which have sold upward of 50,000 copies in America.
“The Visitor” runs through chapters of folk, chamber-pop, progressive rock and jazz bucolia, and it’s crazily broad: a Leo Kottke fan might like it, a Pat Metheny fan might like it, a Morton Feldman fan might like it. As the piece moves along, holding together with its long-form logic, it can be difficult to discern that most of the music relates back to the album’s simple opening chords and theme. That theme develops through different rhythms and arrangements for an array of instruments — piano, pedal-steel guitar, organ, cello, banjo, clarinet — some of which he learned how to play for the purposes of this record.
The trombone, for example, which comes in after about 20 minutes, took six months of practice before Mr. O’Rourke could play the lines he’d written for it in a perfect take. (He kept a no-edit rule.) The trombone is mixed low, but it’s the loudest instrument he used; when he was ready to record it, he waited until his next-door neighbor left for her grocery run.
Mr. O’Rourke’s production style is precise and dry; he creates a sound picture in which tiny sonic details matter. But where his Drag City records are concerned, everything matters: the pacing, the length, the sound, the cover images. For this reason he won’t allow “The Visitor,” or any of his albums, to be sold as downloads, on iTunes or anywhere else. He’s taking a stand against the sound quality of MP3s; he’s also taking a stand in favor of artists being able to control the medium and reception of their work.
“You can no longer use context as part of your work,” he said, glumly, “because it doesn’t matter what you do, somebody’s going to change the context of it. The confusion of creativity, making something, with this Internet idea of democratization ...” he trailed off, disgusted. “It sounds like old-man stuff, but I think it’s disastrous for the possibilities of any art form.”
His record company approves, perhaps a reflection of his being one of Drag City’s best-selling artists. “Frankly I’m really pleased about it,” said Rian Murphy, the label’s director of sales. “It may affect the way we’re able to promote it, and it may affect the wider range of listeners that come to get the record — if they can’t point and click to it — but it’s good to have someone standing up for that.”
Mr. O’Rourke’s music is full of sly reference and disguised intention. On his albums with vocals, the lyrics drip with misanthropy, which has upset some listeners. He loves the concept of the unreliable narrator, though he thinks many listeners aren’t ready for it. (“People want to believe that music is coming out of the creator’s soul and all that nonsense,” he complained. “I mean, I’m going to express myself whether I want to or not.”)
But “The Visitor” has no vocals — partly because he was tired of the reaction to his sense of humor and partly because, as he put it, “I had nothing to sing about.”
The titles of his four albums for Drag City refer to films by Nicolas Roeg, one of his favorite directors. “Bad Timing,” “Eureka” and “Insignificance” are actually titles of Roeg movies, but “The Visitor” has a more subtle connection. In Mr. Roeg’s science-fiction film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” it is the name of an album made by Jerome Newton (an alien played by David Bowie) as a kind of goodbye message to be sent by the radio back to his dying planet.
Even after the lecture about unreliable narrators, one has to ask: Does the title signify that this is Mr. O’Rourke’s message from exile to those he’s left behind?
He cackled again. “I do enjoy that interpretation,” he said, “because it seems so pathetic.”
Sign in to Recommend More Articles in Arts » A version of this article appeared in print on September 6, 2009, on page AR19 of the New York edition.
I've loosely followed Jim O'Rourke's career since "Eureka" and I must admit his NO MP3's policy does make me more curious to hear what this new record sounds like. Brilliant Marketing! :)
Saturday, September 12, 2009
No Impact Man
An Entertaining Look at making little to no impact on the environment.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Nine Inch Nails - Get Down, Make Love (Queen Cover live w/ Danny Lohner @ the Henry Fonda 9/8/09)
The set list and guest appearances from this show are ridiculous!
From the NIN Hotline
"Gary Numan, Mike Garson (who played piano for David Bowie and on The Fragile), Eric Avery of Jane's Addiction, Greg Puciato from Dillinger Escape Plan, opening act Health (joining NIN, Numan, and Avery for a cover of Gang of Four's Anthrax, "one of the most unique and interesting songs of its time"), and none other than prodigal son Danny Lohner"
Set List (From Echoing The Sound):
1. Head like a Hole
2. Terrible Lie
3. Sin
4. March of the Pigs
5. Piggy
6. Echoplex
7. Reptile
8. I'm Afraid of Americans
9. Survivalism
10. Head Down
11. 1,000,000
12. Letting You
13. Burn
14. Gave Up
15. Eraser
16. Just Like You Imagined (with Mike Garson)
17. The Becoming (with Mike Garson)
18. I Do Not Want This (with Mike Garson)
19. Mike Garson solo Down in the Park piano version
20. Down in the Park (with Gary Numan & Mike Garson) [Gary Numan song]
21. Metal (with Gary Numan & Mike Garson) [Gary Numan song]
22. Cars (with Gary Numan, Eric Avery & Mike Garson) [Gary Numan song]
23. Anthrax (with Gary Numan, Eric Avery & Health) [Gang of Four cover]
ENCORE
24. Heresy (with Danny Lohner)
25. Get Down, Make Love (with Danny Lohner) [Queen cover]
26. Mr. Self Destruct (with Danny Lohner & Greg Puciato from Dillinger Escape Plan)
27. Wish (with Danny Lohner & Greg Puciato from Dillinger Escape Plan)
28. The Hand that Feeds
ENCORE 2
29. Atmosphere [Joy Division cover]
30. Dead Souls [Joy Division cover]
31. The Day the World Went Away
32. Hurt
Link to Audio of the Show
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Friday, September 04, 2009
Wrecking Shop!
See and download the full gallery on posterous
Joe Shockley
Sent from my iPhone
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Fat Kid Loves Bacon is Today's BIG Thing - AUG 31, 2009
This just blows my mind. The kid is simultaneously super cute and ridiculous all at the same time. Amazing! "You WILL NEVER... SEE... MY FACE Again!"
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Hungry for a new Computer or Phone? Where's that old one going?
Interesting piece by 60 Minutes called The Wasteland. Doesn't quite stop me from lusting after a New MacBook Pro but it does make me wonder what are truly the best ways to recycle our old Technology... with out completely ruining a town & the people who live there or with out it just ending up in a land fill anyway.
Hmmm....
-Joe