Writing About Popular Music

In case anyone's still checking this . . .

2009-01-20T12:45:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Just to let you know--I removed you all as blog authors from this blog because there hadn't been any activity for quite some time and I thought that this blog had probably served its purpose. I'll probably leave this up for awhile, but will probably delete the blog at the end of the academic year--unless I hear otherwise from you. Also, if you think you'd like to post to this blog again, let me know and I'd be happy to add you back.

Also, consider signing up for my class this spring on the history of pop music (I forget the course number, but just look on the Fairhaven site.

Take care, all,

Jeff

From Japan

2008-08-12T21:56:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I hadn't checked this blog for awhile, and then I saw there was a new post, plus a comment to a previous post that I hadn't seen before--so thanks for keeping this blog in mind. I'm in Japan right now--we got here on July 3rd and will be back next week. We've done a lot of stuff, but one relevant thing to mention is my explorations of cd shops, mostly in Osaka. Probably the most noteworthy stuff (as far as I'm concerned) is a bunch of work by Haruomi Hosono, a really interesting musician who started off in a psych rock band called Apryl Fool, then to a West Coast rock style band called Happy End (who are great) and his solo work of the 70s which centers on his so called "Tropical Trilogy," which delves quite deeply into both the history of Japanese pop and the history of Western pop inspired by Asia. He's probably most famous for being in Yellow Magic Orchestra. A pretty amazing guy, all around. I also picked up a bunch of CDs that document Japanese pop music from 1928-1959--20 CDs of this. So, I've been having fun on that score.

One thing that really struck me this trip is exploring America Mura in Osaka. This is a maze of clothing and music shops, restaurants, and other stuff--the name came from a time when a bunch of shops opened here with vintage American clothes. You can still find those, but the thing that got me was how hip-hop and reggae focused this area is. It's just a huge presence here. I can say more if you're interested.

Enjoy your summer, all,

Jeff

New Girl Talk, folks!!!

2008-08-06T21:07:00.001-07:00

http://therapup.uproxx.com/2008/06/freebie-friday-girl-talk-feed-the-animals.html

Hey!

2008-06-03T16:13:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Cameron, Kaleb, and Liz for posting this quarter. I'm pretty sure you've all been super busy, and I've definitely been super busy. But I enjoyed each post. I wanted to let you all know that I will be teaching a class at Fairhaven next year, and it will be a pop music class (I originally thought that I'd be doing a film class, but that will probably be the year after next). I'm pretty sure that this time, it will be some kind of history of pop class. I'm even thinking of using a textbook for this class; it's by John Covach, whom you'll remember from our class. It's a pretty cool book, but I'm going to take a closer look at it before making a final decision. He covers a lot more ground than we can do in 10 weeks, so I'll have to think about what kinds of things to focus on. One of the comments that people made after our class was wanting to have more frequent and shorter writing assignments. I'll probably do something like that, in conjunction with a blog again. And, there will probably be one presentation, maybe as a final project. Anyway, there's lots to figure out, including the time and days; oh, did I mention it's going to be in Spring Quarter? So, I hope it will work out for some of you to take it. If it fills up and any of you want to get in, just let me know.

Good luck on the rest of your quarter.

SASQUATCH!!!

2008-05-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

IT'S THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!

I hope you guys are at least going to Folklife, if you didn't get the opportunity to go to Sasquatch this year.

Go! Listen to good music and be joyous!

Have a fantastic memorial day weekend!

Revisiting

2008-04-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

It's alive! Listen to this:

It's called "Royal Flush," and it's Outkast and Raekwon killing it over pretty whiplash worthy, thick drums and a bubbly but funky bassline. Andre 3000 is the standout here with the last verse. Raekwon second, Big Boi first. Big Boi definitely holds his own but Raekwon is kind of falling behind.

Now listen to this, it's called "Skew on the Bar-B" from their Aquemini album in '98.

Interesting to see how stuff changes in a decade. Raekwon sounds less invigorated nowadays. They really all delivered on "Skew," not so much in "Royal Flush." This is still better than a very large amount of stuff being played on the radio, though.

Hope everyone's having a good quarter.

my favorites right now....

2008-04-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

this first song 'Strange Times' is off of the Black Keys newest album "Attack and Release" produced by Danger Mouse (of The Gray Album and Gnarls Barkley fame) and I just can't get enough... plus you can't beat a video that is all about laser tag!

next up Justice - Genesis... its got such a nasty synth in it that just kicks so hard no video here, just the song

finally Chromeo - Tenderoni because you gotta love the talkbox

Welcome back

2008-04-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

I hope spring quarter is off to a good start for everyone. I was actually sick most of last week, but I'm doing better now. Anyway, I just wanted to say hey to everyone and to wish you a good spring quarter.

I thought I would post something "spring" related--a scene from a great movie from one of my favorite directors, Yasujiro Ozu. The movie is Late Spring. This scene won't make much sense in terms of plot, but it's amazingly shot. And, if you've never heard music from the Noh drama before, that's something worth checking out.

Final evaluation follies

2008-03-23T22:01:00.000-07:00

D'oh! So, after getting all of the evaluations done, I systematically, methodically, pushed the wrong button for each one, sending them all back to you for revision. You don't need to revise anything. Just send them back to me and I'll push the correct button this time to finish them up. Sorry about the confusion. Let me know if you have any questions. I thought I'd communicate via the blog as well as to your Western email account, just in case anyone checks here first.

Have a good break.

We Be Jammin' To Some Reggae

2008-03-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

I liked the idea of incorporating videos into the essay, so I decided to put mine up here too. Hope you enjoy--the rest I've seen are really nice :)

To discuss the popular music genre of reggae, one is inevitably swamped with the connotations, implications, and influences this style has generated; topics which span disciplines of thought as far flung as spiritual and political institutions as well as counterculture movements. The sound of reggae has been described to be a “celebration of life itself” however; the meanings that the music carries truly reach deeply into all elements of human life and history with possibly one of the most recognizable sounds on around the globe. This is quite impressive for a genre that seemingly leapt out of obscurity little more than half a century ago from a then little noticed third-world country.

Jamaica is one of the largest islands in the Caribbean, and was colonized in the sixteenth century, switching hands between the Spanish and the British in 1670. For more than a century and a half, the island was one of the most valuable in the world due to the high level of coffee and sugarcane cultivation that was performed then by African slaves. The sheer number of African slaves, a 20:1 ratio of slaves to masters, was significant enough that rebellions were numerous, and in some cases, successful: in the mid-eighteenth century, independent communities where established in areas of the island that were difficult to access by the British due to the escaped slaves’ efforts. These people were referred to as Maroons, and after many subsequent rebellions and military conflicts, slavery was abolished in Jamaica in 1838, but it remained an impoverished and repressed community under British rule. In the early nineteen forties, Jamaica gained a measure of independence, and on August 6, 1962 became an independent nation. Unfortunately, this independence was simply marked with further turmoil and depressing condition because of political violence and economic instability. Despite the political stability now present, this economically poor country has a history that has (and continues to) produce the reggae genre.

Contrary to some beliefs, reggae was not a genre that developed independent from any others, and it is actually closely tied with ska and rocksteady, other Jamaican genres that developed in the late nineteen fifties and early sixties. Early roots of all of these genres are a combination of African and Caribbean music as well as American rhythm and blues. In fact, one of the most easily recognizable bands that can be used to represent elements of reggae, the Wailers (established in 1963 by Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh), can also trace the transition and development from ska through rocksteady and ultimately to reggae throughout their career.

Ska, the earliest forerunner of reggae, has been noted as possessing offbeat accentuations of piano and guitar, a walking bass line (a style found most commonly in jazz and blues as well), and horn riffs with somewhat jazz-infused elements. American rhythm and blues music, which was actually a combination of both African and European musical elements, was brought over to the island in the 1950’s, and was then adapted and mixed with the popular street music of mento. Mento is a fusion of Latin, indigenous Caribbean, and African rhythms held together over a core central beat, which was derived from the Calypso music style of Trinidad. The fusion of these two genres, American rhythm and blues and Jamaican mento, led to the creation of what was to ultimately be known as ska. It was popular with Jamaicans with a “tough” image as well as being enjoyed by skinheads (the term originally applied to a subculture of working-class people that tended to have shaved or shortly-cut hair styles and did not gain any connotations of racial or political affiliations until much later) , and was highly fashionable with British mods by 1964. One of the biggest contributors and original founders of the ska movement, The Skatalites, released their first record, Ska Authentic, in 1967 after establishing themselves in 1964 as a group. Although they never intended to create such an impactful new sound, they have had tremendous force nonetheless.

Taking a look at one of their songs, in this case, “Guns of Navarone", one can easily hear the blending of all of the genres that have played a part in ska’s development. From the brass and saxophone infused introduction and the up-tempo use of snare, listeners get the feelings of Latin as well as blues sounds, and when the bass rhythms and drums kick in, the core beat gains a very heavy and cool African/rhythm and blues feeling. Also very evident in this core beat is the steady, flowing, and up-beat rhythms that eventually transformed into reggae.

Ska, nevertheless, did not conceive and produce a pure reggae sound overnight. Before reggae came about, ska had the influence of American Soul added to the mix around 1966, creating the genre rocksteady. Smoothing out ska’s driving, hard rhythms, rocksteady introduced a more relaxed pace and shifted focus from primarily horn instrumentation to vocal accompaniment. In an attempt to produce a musical style more closely related to the Philadelphian and Motown sounds, musicians altered the ska boogie-bass to be a more syncopated and bouncy “laid back roll”, creating a much more mellow sound. Musicians also shifted away from the standard twelve-bar blues pattern of progression found in much ska music, sometimes abandoning it altogether in favour of a simpler, more casual flow.

Delroy Wilson’s extremely popular song, “I’m In A Dancing Mood" ,which was released originally in 1966, is a prime example of rocksteady style. Still present is the central rhythm, but vocals are layered over the instrumentals as the focus of the song. A jazz style horn is employed as well, but in a very low-key manner rather than being a feature, wandering and feeling much more Soul-inspired than anything else. The lyrics themselves are mellow and attempt to inspire a relaxed feeling: they simply sound happy.

These chill rhythms and positive vibes eventually led to Reggae bursting onto the scene around 1968. Unlike its predecessors, which contained subtle messages about the culture and politics of the island, reggae was based almost entirely on the message within the music. Some musicologists do not believe that reggae had any direct connection in its development with ska or rocksteady at all, but many of the elements found in these genres are closely connected.

One of the first differences between ska and reggae is the lack of the “shuffling” beat, which was developed from direct influence of American rhythm and blues music and acclimatized to the more upbeat ska styling. Nonetheless, the upbeat rhythm of ska can be heard without difficulty in reggae. Due to increased awareness during this time period of the African heritage that many islanders possessed, reggae draws much more on the African and Caribbean rhythms present on the island rather than outside (and European) influences such as the rhythm and blues which ska had relied on so heavily. Reggae is often much more simpler in terms of other musical elements as well; most songs are performed in 4/4 time or swing time, as much of the pattern of the music is relatively symmetrical and difficult to adapt to another time measure. Although some artist do employ complex chords and harmonics, it is also very common in reggae that only very simple chord use and changes occur.

More so than the styles of musical influence, however, reggae was created as a response to the ideology of the time. It developed its own unique musical structure, but much of the focus in the songs was over issues that the people of Jamaica were being forced to deal with at the time. Stemming from this, there are many sub-genres of reggae, including roots reggae and dub, and many spinoffs of the reggae genre are present in today’s musical culture.

Two different artists hold claim to producing the world’s first official reggae album, and both produced their albums in 1968. Larry Marshal’s “Nanny Goat” and the Beltone’s “No More Heartaches” are the two earliest records released, however, The Pioneer’s (compromised of Sydney Crooks, George Dekker, and Jackie Robinson) song, “Long Shot Bus’ Me Bet”, released in 1967 and also known as “Long Shot Kick Me Bet”, appeared as the first recording possessing the distinctive reggae sound.

Most people that have only a basic awareness or a passing knowledge of reggae associate all reggae with the Rastafarian movement. Rasta is a religion developed in the nineteen thirties primarily within the working-class citizens of Jamaica from basic Judaic and Christian elements, and is based from a Biblical prophecy centered around the former ruler of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie 1. At the time, Ethiopia as an independent nation was the only African nation with an African monarch, and many Rastafarians saw him as Jah (God, in this case, incarnate), as well as a messiah. This ideology was spread through the influential music of Bob Marley and other reggae artists who supported the Rasta movement, giving rise to the thought that all reggae is associated with this movement. Reggae, though, deals with more than just religion; songs from this genre can deal with subjects as diverse as social commentary to personal lives, from sex to smoking cannabis to the injustice faced by the working-class people (primarily those that lived within the capital city of Jamaica, Kingston, where many people lived in abject poverty and terrible conditions).

Out of the two basic sub-genres of reggae, roots reggae is the genre tied most closely to the Rastafarian movement. Music produced within this genre carries large amounts of emphasis on praising Jah while providing social commentary on the issue surrounding Jamaican ghetto residents. Many of the most mainstream artists of reggae perform within this genre, including Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Lee, and Lee “Scratch” Perry. One can pick up a record to listen to from any of these artists and notice the prevalent themes without much difficulty. Here, we will take a look at a couple of the songs within this subgenre that exemplify the roots reggae themes.

Released in 1973 by the Wailers, the album Catch a Fire was their first release from a major record label. The song, “Concrete Jungle” was written by Bob Marley. The song carries both strong political and religious messages, directed mostly at those of the Rastafarian belief but not exclusively, as the lyrics address the conditions of the ghettos of Jamaica. After opening the song with several lines describing a state of darkness in [his] life, Marley then asks the listener “Where is the love to be found? Won’t someone tell me?”, relating to the oppression of the people. Marley then goes on to describe the conditions of the city and the fact that within the limits set by the city, it is difficult to find the joys of life. However, Marley then states that “I’ve got to pick myself off the ground/must be somewhere for me”, which gives back the hope to the listener that implies within the context of the city, there may be little or no good, but rising above your conditions by belief can improve your life.

(Note: This video is only the song played over a still picture.)

Another song that highlights the themes of roots reggae is the world-renown hit, “One Love”. Originally released in 1977 on the Wailer’s album, Exodus, it was named the song of the millennium by The BBC, and Exodus as a whole garnered the name “Album of the Century” from Time Magazine, undeniable proof of the ability of reggae to cause global impact, named the album itself. This song reveals the somewhat contrary concept of global unity, which some branches of the Rasta movement do not support. Nevertheless, the song’s lyrics convey a passionate belief in religion in being a factor for happiness, as can be seen in the lines “Sayin’give thanks and praise to the lord and I will feel all right/Sayin’ let’s get together and feel all right”.

As aforementioned, not all reggae is based upon religion. Dub reggae is a style developed by Lee Perry and King Tubby (birth name of Osbourne Ruddock), prominent producers and performers of reggae, which places emphasis on the drum and bass lines while using remixed material to produce a sound that has been described by King Tubby to be “jus’ like a volcano in yuh head”. Dub music employs the technique of dubbing (or mixing vocals and instrumental elements) in and out of songs, producing songs that can incorporate many different components. One of Lee Perry’s first releases from his independent record label, Upsetter (which he established in 1968), is both one of the first instances of reggae sound as well sampling for the song “People Funny Boy”.

Reggae has spawned numerous genres and subgenre influenced by the unique sounds and styles as well, from early hip-hop to dancehall. Despite its sometimes misunderstood development and messages, reggae as a genre is possibly one of the most influential of the age, and is certainly something that will be heard across airwaves, in the streets, and now digitally, for generations to come.

Tighten Up: The Short Story of Disco and Its Makers

2008-03-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

This took forever to format in html...i hope you enjoy this.

Thanks to: the Chicago White Sox; and radio DJs Steve Dahl and Garry Meier disco “official died” on July 12th, 1979 at Comiskey Park during a promotional disco demolition event. Local talk show hosts Steve Dahl-whom was fired from his previous radio station because it switched to a disco format- and Garry Meier encouraged disco hating baseball fans to attend the local White Sox game against the Detroit Tigers.
50,000 enthusiastic Chicago natives attended the event to watch and participate in the destruction of thousands of disco records. However, what seemed like a harmless record burning turned into a small-scale riot. With fires on the baseball field and the
flattening of stadium property, riot police were called in to break-up the drunken revelry.

Funny Fact: Associated Press (July 13th 2001)

“More than two decades after baseball's biggest marketing blunder, promoter Mike Veeck apologized Thursday night for the infamous Disco Demolition Night at Chicago's Comiskey Park.

Veeck, now a marketing consultant for the Florida Marlins, asked Harry Wayne Casey, better known as KC of KC and the Sunshine Band, to accept his apology on behalf of the entire disco world.

"I want to make it right," Veeck said in a brief ceremony before Florida's game against the Yankees. "I want to tell you right from the bottom of my leisure suit that I'm sorry."

Veeck's statement coming exactly 22 years after the original Disco Demolition Night was shown on the stadium's big screen and was part of the Marlins' Salute to Disco Night, in which they asked fans to dress up in disco-era attire.”

Although Comiskey Park will forever be known as the symbolic site where disco died, we can officially blame the popular success of the movie Saturday Night Fever as the real instigator. The huge exposure that disco received after the movie transformed record companies into factory assembly lines that churned out shitty dance replicas. However, with the mainstream obliteration of disco, other marginalized genres of music, like punk rock, which was then called new wave, fed off of the very danceable innovations that disco had fostered. Punk, which thrived on a marginalized community, saw macro-level parallels between their music and the alienated disco community. What better way to piss-off of the mainstream then to embrace what the public hated most, disco.

The artist, and future No-Wave co-founder, James Chance, consummated one of the first marriages between disco and punk. Although he was not out to confront social inequalities, Chance’s music was a blend between James Brown’s funk and Iggy Pop’s raw and often painful intensity. Growing up in New York, the birthplace of disco, Chance was heavily interested and influenced by the Manhattan jazz scene and later, the funk of James Brown. Featuring the furious rock drumming and funky syncopated saxophone “skronks” the angular single “Contort Yourself”, which was released in 1978, has been dubbed as the first disco-punk fusion. Chance’s experimental take on disco-punk should not be confused with Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”, which was an ironic and immensely successful regurgitation of stereotypical disco.

However, despite disco’s “death” in Chicago and its subsequent resurrection in New York, the official term and unsanctioned formation came from over the Atlantic. We can all thank and credit one man for the creation of disco, Adolf “The Wolf” Hitler.

‘T was 1930s Nazi Germany, staunch rules, which were enforced by Gestapo and SS, had been put into place in order to regulate the German fascist aesthetic. Codes standardizing the style of men and women’s hair, clothing, make-up, and musical tastes were commonplace. However, the Swing Jugend or “swing kids” broke these boundaries, they were some of the first punk rockers of their time. Sporting “Hollywood” hairstyles and Americanized make-up, the swing kids danced in insubordination to the rules imposed by Hitler; they stuck it to the man. However, during the 1940s, when European Jews were forced to wear the yellow Star of David, some chose to have the word “zazou” or “swing” scrawled onto their patches. It took the chief of police, Heinrich Himmler, to impose curfews on youth who were partaking in an “ethnically primitive” form of music and dance. But that only drove Swing into underground clubs. Discotheque-a term coined by the French in reference to the portable record players brought to the verboten dance gatherings-became a secret meeting place for the French Underground. The primitive Discos had grown into an important hub for the French freedom fighters. Starting with the German youth and then filtering down to the marginalized Jewish and French population, Hitler believed that the primitive dance would be the end of France. Ironically “disco” dancing had, in a way, undermined the Nazi occupation. Disco, one; Hitler zero. Oh, and did I mention that the disco ball was popularized during that era? I think it was called “mirror ball” back then.

Verboten Swing

If disco had a biblical creation story The Loft would be Adam, Studio 51 would be Eve, and Saturday Night Fever would constitute Satan. But what we now perceive as “contemporary” disco, evolved out of underground nightclubs in New York. During the early 70s, transformed churches, houses, and industrial storage complexes became safe havens for sexual minorities and the black community. The Loft, headed by the infamous DJ, David Mancuso, became an experiment in beat matching, pluralistic love (the first party was called Love Saves the Day), and was the prototype for all modern dance clubs. Mancuso started his DJ career by spinning danceable R&B and funk records to his friends in the mid-sixties. However, by the turn of the decade, Mancuso realized that by stringing songs together, creating a continuous mix of music, would keep dancers on the dance floor. He started hosting exclusive dance parties, aimed at the marginalized gay, black, and transgender community as well as women. Membership to the club was free and patrons who could not afford the small cover charge were simply asked to write an “IOU.” David was also known to be the first in terms of creating a promotional mix record, which featured a DJ’s dance set.

The Loft was an early example in terms of the diversity and cultural pluralism that proto-disco was trying to promote. Through music, dancing and more importantly sex, disco tried earnestly to open up a dialog between middle class white America and the marginalized gay, transgender, and African American communities. The club culture effectively “outed” the gay community in the New York bathhouses, bringing them into the Discotheques, and later, into mainstream America.
Up until 1973 disco, arguable, as a musical genre had not really existed in terms of what we think of think of the idiom. Although heavily influenced by funk, jazz, R&B, and Latin rhythms of the 50s and 60s, only a handful of artists really pioneered the sound that we come to associate with the genre.

Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes

Harold Melvin, a self-taught pianist, was born in Philadelphia on June 25,1935. Interested in the popular doo-wop of the time, Melvin decided to start the first incarnation of “Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes” under the moniker The Charlemagnes in the 1950s. However they scored their first major hit in 1960 with the song “My Hero,” but it was not till 1972, when drummer turned lead singer, Teddy Pendergrass joined the band, did the Notes really start making a name for themselves. This marked a significant change within the Blue Notes’ sound. Defined by lush string arrangements, and over the top horn sections, The Blue Notes transitioned from the doo-wop of the 50s and 60s to a more “produced” R&B Philadelphia sound.

Signing to Philadelphia International in 1972, The Blue Notes churned out the first real disco song in 1973. Although funk and R&B had been a mainstay within dance clubs, the Blue Notes’ single The Love I Lost, on the album Black & Blue, set the standard in terms of production and disco song writing characteristics. Pendergrass’ drumming pioneered the “four-on-the-floor” disco beat. Although different forms of “four-on-the-floor” can be seen within jazz and Merengue Pendergrass’ sizzling high-hat, back beat snare accents, and steady 4/4 drone on the kick drum really brought the rhythm to the forefront of dance music. The legacy that Pendergrass left on dance music is undeniable, influencing styles ranging from: house, afrobeat, no-wave, and post-punk; four-on-the-floor will forever be associated with dancing. Also, the steady 1,2,3,4 of the kick drum makes it easy for a DJ to count out the beats-per-minute and smoothly transition between two songs, creating a fluid continuous flow of music. The Blue Notes’ defining album ended up selling over a million copies, with the song peaking on the Billboard Hot 100 singles at number seven.

The Love I Lost: Defining dance beats.
(6:21)

“The Love I Lost” is in simple verse/chorus song structure. The song starts out with a six bar introduction, featuring a Rhodes electric piano, accompanied by a guitar, vibes, and organ, the six bars builds to the first verse.

The first verse is an 8 bar phrase in 4/4 with no vocals, which leads up to the next, 16 bar phrase.

The16 chorus introduces the vocal hook “the love I lost, was a sweet love” as well as the infamous four-on the floor drum beat.

The second verse is an 8 bar phrase as well, characterized by more a “free form” delivery in terms of lyrics

This is followed by the next “the love I lost” chorus, which reintroduces four-on-the-floor again.

The third verse is a change up from the second, with 16 measures for a chorus instead of 8.

Again, there is another 16 bars of chorus, followed by a 16 bar bridge, which is characterized by the repetitive bass line and the lyrics:

“I will never (never) no no never
(Never) love again (I'll never love again)
I will never (never) no no never
(Never) love again ooh ooh ooh ooh
I will never (never) no no never
(Never) love again.”

Finally, the song fades away, using the melodic ideas introduced in the verse. Although I’m not completely sure (I lost count/got lazy), but I’m guessing the song takes 64 measures to fadeout.

Donna Summer

It would be impossible to talk about Donna Summer’s career without first mentioning the disco guru and electro/Italo-disco grandfather, Giorgio Moroder.

Moroder, born in Ortisei, Italy, was one of the first disco producers to incorporate analog synthesizers, drum machines, and sequencers into dance music. Pulsating yet staccato synthesizers backed by the infamous four-on-the-floor beat characterize Moroder’s production style. Although his first success was in producing Donna Summer’s epic dance hit “Love To Love You Baby” and the groundbreaking “I Feel Love” Moroder made a name for himself as a composer by winning an academy award for best film score in the movie Midnight Express. Moroder has since worked with: Donna Summer, Falco, Berlin, Japan, Cheap Trick, Chaka Khan, KMFDM, David Bowie, Miami Sound Machine, Olivia Newton-John, Sparks, Bonnie Tyler, and Cameo; the list is endless. He has also scored soundtracks to: Top Gun, Metropolis, Flash Dance, A Never Ending Story, American Gigolo, and Grand Theft Auto III!

JAPAN:One of the least known of the New Wave era!

Donna Summer first meet Moroder in the early 70s, but Moroder’s work as Donna Summer’s producer did not start till 1975, when Summer’s asked him to work on her song “Love To Love You Baby.” The epic sixteen minute and forty-nine second song was marked by the mustached producer’s foray into sexualized dance music. The song featured an orgasmic Summer softly crooning, with a backing track characterized by four-on-the-floor drum lines, a string section, and funk “on-the-one” bass guitar riffs.

However Moroder’s production work with Summer’s next hit “I Feel Love” really put the disco diva into the history books. “I Feel Love” was the first completely synthesized dance track EVER! The track hit number one in the UK and peaked at number six on the American Billboard. The song has subsequently influenced many pioneers of dance music, including: Afrika Bambaata, Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Brian Eno; and has been covered by dozens of artist like: Bronski Beat, Marc Almond (Soft Cell), Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Klaus Nomi.

I Feel Love: Defining Electro

Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer’s dance track, which is another example of a verse/chorus song structure, sets the tone for its electro theme by starting the song with a 4 measure synth solo.

Followed by that is a 16 measure verse, which introduces the main synthesizer riff and the electroacoustic four-on-the-floor drum riff. There are no vocals.

The 24 bar chorus starts with an 8 bar progression C-G-A# then transitions to another 5 measures in the scale progression of D#-A#-C# (there are no flat characters on my keyboard so you’ll just have to settle for inharmonic partners). Then 3 measures of F-C-D#, then climaxing with G-D-F for 8 measures.

The song then proceeds to another 8 bar phrase, which introduces the hook “I feel love.”

The next chorus is another 24 bar phrase, nothing new here. The chorus leads into, what I assume to be a 32 measure instrumental bridge.

Finally there is one last 24 bar chorus and then the song slowly fades out on the vocal hook “I feel love.”

Public Image Ltd.

John “Rotten” Lyndon, the infamous lead singer for British punk band The Sex Pistols, recognized the parallels between punk and disco. He saw both, as then, marginalized counter cultures. Lyndon blended the two genres using edgy vocals, repetitive reggae influenced bass guitar lines, with the disco standard four-on-the-floor” beat made famous by the Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes. Fellow political post-punk rockers: Delta 5, Essential Logic, and Gang of Four would later assimilate the disco-punk drum riff. The product that Lyndon came up with was a dark danceable song, released in 1978, about the death of Lyndon’s mother entitled “Death Disco.” The song has now become a classic, the epitome of fusion between disco and punk. In fact, rather than referring to the genre as post-punk or no-wave, contemporary genreists will make references to the style in terms of the songs name, death-disco. It’s the song that all disco-punk influenced musicians hope to, in some way, emulate. “Death Disco” became so huge that it was played not only in the UK, but it would make its way across the pond into infamous American discotheques like the Loft.

Although the synthesis between both styles had a very danceable outcome, most punk-funkers were out to write about more tangible and meaningful topics. Unlike the early New York discotheques, which sought to create change through excess and dancing, post-punk groups like The Slits, Pop Group and Gang of Four sought to create change through politically charged lyrics and dancing.

Death Disco: Redefining Punk
(4:16)

Unfortunately, this song was really, really hard/next to impossible for me to count out. Lyndon’s free form delivery style and the single 8 bar bass riff made it hard to keep track of how often things were happening.

The bass riff through out the song is just a continuous drone of in the key of C on the notes E-B-G-F. Although the one and only riff in the song remained pretty steady, there are sporadic guitar riffs sprinkled throughout. Occasionally, the bass player will octave the G or play a C to D# chromatic octave progression.

The song really is simple and true to form in terms of punk rock.

Good Readin'

Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-84. London: Faber and Faber, 2005.

Shapiro, Peter. Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco. 1. New York, NY : Faber and Faber, 2005.

2008-03-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

Anything But Modest:

The Life and Legacy of Modest Mouse

By Darren Marino

The Puget Sound region definitively Seattle, has produced phenomenal musical acts such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. A band from the Seattle area has recently gained world success over the past few years that have once again put our fine rainy region back on the music scene. This band is Modest Mouse. Even though the success of the band is relatively recent, Modest Mouse has been around since 1993. Modest Mouse was originally comprised of Isaac Brock on vocals and guitar, Jeremiah Green on drums, Eric Judy on bass and finally Dann Gallucci on guitar. Their name derives from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story "The Mark on the Wall" which reads "...and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people..."[1] This band which is now the ripe old age of 14 years old has been a major force in the landscape of alternative music that has entered into popular media. In 1994, the band released their first EP Blue Cadet-3, Do you connect? This album recorded on K records, received little success. After that the band decided to move to Up Records. When the move to Up Records happened, Dann Gallucci decided to quit the band for artistic reasons, but this would not be his last appearance in the band, as he returned again in 2003. So they stuck with Up Records and would stick with for there first two Albums.

Modest Mouse’s first studio album to be released in 1996 was, This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About. Just as the title sounds, this album had an overarching ominous and melancholy disposition that infests every sound. It has some very nice instrumentals that can make you feel very alone though. This quote I think sums up the album in its entirety very well, “The instrumental arrangements on This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About are at times hollow and ghostly and at others full-bodied and rich."[2] A majority of the song’s basic themes are basically about how hard it is to get through life, and how optimism is really just self delusion. For this band pessimism has suited them quite well, for they prefer a hard dose of reality over sugar coated feelings any day. I feel this album is somewhere between Indie and Grunge. As mentioned before Modest Mouse, being from Seattle area it is clear that any album being released in 1996 is going to be riding on the coattails of the end of the grunge era. So being from Seattle this might of had some play on the reason why there first album was as depressing as it was, not to mention the rain. The album starts off the amazing song called Dramamine. It has amazing instrumental with a little bit of airy sound to it. The album stays fairly slow with the occasional small pick up until you reach Beach Side Property. Beach Side Property sounds like your typical faster pace Indie song with some yelling thrown in, but is still a very good pop song. The next six songs are slow again with a jump in pace for a song called Exit Does Not Exist. After this upbeat song, the album goes back to the slow melodies that echo the Pixies, and ends that way. There is not a lot of variety on this album, but it does have some very good moments that are very entertaining for the listener. After this album Modest Mouse released a now out of print EP Interstate 8, mostly unknown to most pop music fans.

Modest Mouse’s sophomore album was released in 1997. Still staying within the vein of the disheartening theme, they named the album Lonesome Crowded West. The album stuck pretty true to their first album, but with a few slight changes that made the album distinct from the first. It contained gloomy songs that were composed of great melodies, but it also contained harder hitting songs. There is not really one song that can encompass this expansive album. The album starts off with hard hitting drum and guitar rhythms, but then halfway through the album the song Trailer Trash appears which is reminiscent of the first album, and is in my opinion the most extreme depressing songs that Modest Mouse has ever created. Trailer Trash relives a meaningless existence that speaks of the hardships of just trying to get by. Even though it has such dismal sound, I would have to say it is still one of my favorite songs by Modest Mouse. Then the album takes a swift 360 degrees and comes right back with Shit Luck, the reason that this is even significant to mention is that it really shows the range and the vibe that the band is trying to give off with their music and albums. To put a loud rocking song right after a set of slower songs shows that the band likes to keep their audience guessing and on their toes. After that the album slowly builds back down, the last song, Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice, which really is composed of two songs, as is apparent by the name, decides to hit you more time. Halfway through the song, a raucous set of hard hitting drums will definitely wake you up if you are not paying attention. The shape of the album is like multiple shark fins. It starts out loud and hard then slowly tapers off. Then it gets loud and hard again then slowly tapers down again. Then at the very end it hits you hard one last time, as if it can’t resist. After the release of The Lonesome Crowded West, the band released another EP, the third in this category entitled The Fruit that Ate Itself.

In 1999, Modest Mouse returned with another more refined album that was more of a mix of EP’s and rarities. The album was called Building Nothing Out of Something. In my opinion this is an amazing album and could work easy as the next album in the band’s discography. Comprising of the mix of songs that it is, it is unclear why they did not include some of these songs on later more impressive albums. I think the number of albums produced regardless of media success, shows that Modest Mouse is committed to releasing music that is important to them. With their 3^rd major release, this album makes a surprising compromise of upbeat tracks as well as their notable low-key tracks. There is one twist on most of the upbeat songs that are littered throughout Building Nothing Out of Something though, if listened to very carefully one will tell that Isaac Brock is still pouring out his pessimistic lyrics and his disgruntled attitude with the world. Even though the lyrics are distressing, the up-beat instrumentals are a nice change from what the average listener/fan of Modest Mouse to might come to expect from the band. A breakout song would have to be the first track Never Ending Math Equation that begins with one of the best/most ironic lines in music history. “I’m the same as I was when I was six years old. And oh my god I feel so damn old I don’t really feel anything.” These first lines encompass the type of lyric genius that this band has. Isaac Brock has never been lyrically more on par with the greats of music history, than on this album.

After the turning point of the last album, in 2000 Modest Mouse put out their third studio album, which is personally my favorite, The Moon and Antarctica. More importantly than just a thirds studio album, that very few bands make it too, the band switched labels to Epic Records. I feel the change in contracts had a lot influence on the band. The Moon and Antarctica album displayed a shift in the band’s direction. This was their first major debut album, and it had all the qualities of a regular cold desolate album (as suggested in the title) but this time Brock’s truly creative and entertaining lyrics were accompanied by rich melodies that were easy to listen to . This album was rated number three for best album of the year, behind Kid A by Radiohead and Ágætis byrjun by Sigur Rós, by Pitchfork Media, which suggested this to be the best Modest Mouse album to date. A majority of the album focuses on the band’s acoustic side, as well as using melodic melodies to transcend the listener to another planet. Some stated that this album was Modest Mouse’s selling out point, but I feel that the sound of this album is completely original. The first three songs, 3rd Planet, Gravity Rides Everything, Dark Center Of The Universe, have a lot of the same characteristics. They start with a slower acoustic sound that breaks into a faster beat with a lot of repeating lyrics. Another highlight in the album is the song Tiny Cities Made of Ashes. The songs starts off very poppy sounding, but then when the vocals start you hear a normal voice backed by a low octave rant. In the chorus, the voice changes to a higher yelling, almost shrieking sound. While this is a short summary of a very complex song, what pulls everything together is the constant drum beat that is near impossible not to tap your toe to. Near the middle of the album there are three songs that nearly throw off the momentum of the album. The Cold Part, Alone Down There, The Stars Are Projectors are much more like children’s stories that went horribly wrong. These songs are very slow and can put chill down your spin. The rest of the album has a couple small ups and downs in momentum and end with a very hard hitting song called What People Are Made Of. Overall this album with its media success was able to raise this Seattle-area band to a new status that they had not obtained up until that point. It was even successful enough to get the band a spot on a commercial. The song Gravity Rides Everything, was featured on a Mazda commercial, which Brock claims was not exactly selling out, but rather to gain financial credibility.[3] While this may not have been exactly what the band was going for, as a band that makes music for a career, it is possible to make compromises in order to live. The B-sides and rarity from this amazing album are contained on an almost equally but noticeably shorter EP entitled Everywhere and His Nasty Parlor Tricks, which is an excellent entity within itself.

Studio album number four was called Good News for People Who Love Bad News, and was released in 2004. Before the album was released drummer Jeremiah Green decided to quit to go work on his side project band, Vells. After that, Benjamin Weikel, from the Helio Sequence, came to replace him and play drums. This transition in band members also marked the return of original guitarist Dann Gallucci. Upon first listen to Good News, especially to that of the single Float On, an avid fan has to ask, is this the Modest Mouse we know and love? The vocals were there, but music was so different. When I first listen to the album, I was very much thrown for a loop. I did not like it because it did not resemble the Modest Mouse from previous albums. I feel that the addition of Benjamin might have had a big influence on the rest of the band. The Helio Sequence is a very happy poppy band and they sound nothing like original Modest Mouse. After Benjamin joined the band, the sound changed to an every thing is good optimistic sound and less of the sad sound that had defined the band for their entire history. Eventually the album grew on me and I learned to love it like the rest but this shows that a major shift in genre for a band can either be very detrimental, or successful. It is full of very inventive rhythms and great lyrics. The first song, The World at Large, feels almost like warm-up to the album. It reminds me of old Modest Mouse but with a feel of something new. The second song, Float On, is so astonishingly up beat. This is probably the most up beat poppy sounding song they have produced. Followed by the incredible Ocean Breathes Salty you can not stop feeling the wave of positivism. After song four the album takes a turn to some slower and the more depressing songs that a fan should be used to from the band. The next waves of songs in the album have new sounds entirely to them. The first is The Devil’s Workday. It contains stimulating horns and a banjo and that’s it. Two songs after is Satin in a Coffin. The song has almost a western feel that is obtained by using a banjo. This song still shows that Isaac can yell his brains out, and I imagine that teeny-boppers who bought this album for Float On, are probably heading to change the dial, since it is such a departure. After that the album slows back down until the end, when you reach a great song called The Good Times are Killing Me. I think what makes this song so great is that it is so simple. It is a simple beat with fun harmonies suggesting that the good times we love to love may in actuality be the reason for our downfall. With this album Modest Mouse had great mainstream success and was even nominated for Grammy in Best Alternative Album the same year the album came out.

In 2006 Modest Mouse had another change in their line up again. Guitarist Dann Gallucci left and Johnny Marr from The Smiths came to replace him. Johnny Marr had obvious influences, in September 2006 Johnny Marr made this comment to Rolling Stones Magazine, "Isaac (Brock) contacted me and asked if I'd help Modest Mouse write the new album. I was intrigued and played with the band in Portland a couple of times. We hit it off and wrote three great songs straight away, something clicked, it felt right from the off. I have a new Healers album pretty much done, but we've been having such a good time playing these new Modest Mouse songs. When people hear the record they'll see why, we're very good together."[4] Also Jeremiah Green decided to come back to the band and Modest Mouse would now run double percussion. With this new change in the line up, there came even greater music success. Their next album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank was released in 2007 and debuted as number one in the Billboard 200. In my personal opinion this is definitely Modest Mouse’s most well rounded album. It was the first album that I could sit all the way through and listen to. They have advanced past the dreary live journal lyrics and found a more upbeat side that has done them good. I think the reason for this is that the mood changes on the album are much less dramatic then on all their pervious albums. The first song March Into The Sea has almost a choppy but catchy feel to it, while Isaac sings in almost crazed sounding voice. Next song is Modest Mouse’s biggest hit up to now, Dashboard. It is very poppy and catchy and extremely enjoyable and you will always find yourself singing along. Once again the band has achieved lyrical hilarity with the first line. “Well it could have been, would’ve been worse than you would ever know. The dashboard melted but we still had the radio.” The pace slows down for Fire It Up but it defiantly keeps the very catchy beats that keep the album in forward motion. Then Florida goes right into a fast pace, loud almost angry sound. Then Parting of the Sensory just completely drops off. The song starts off very slow and then slow turns into a very intense almost Irish sounding song. After those five songs the album has a more noticeable structure. The structure is like a set of rolling hills. No steep incline or declines, but rather gently sloping hills and valleys that carry the listener through the ebbs and flows of the mind of Modest Mouse. The songs just slowly build back up from song to song then slowly build back down then repeat. One of the notable highs would have to be We’ve Got Everything and a notable low would have to be Little Motel. Even with an ironic disheartening title, the band still manages to keep the mainstream audience as well as keeping their loyal fans that have been tried and true throughout the last 14 years.

Modest Mouse’s musical style/genre has changed a lot from their first album to their last. So I thought it would be interesting to do an analysis of a song from their first album and an analysis a song from their most present album. So from the, This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About album I choose Doin’ the Cockroach and from the We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank album, I choose Fly Trapped In A Jar.

Doin’ the Cockroach starts out sounding slow then goes into a loud hard hitting song, then at around midpoint the direction of song changes but it still follows the structure of the first half. The structure of the song looks like AABC. Then it is followed by a transition section D before it goes into EEFC. There is nothing that separates verses from choruses in this song. At first you might think that the parts where he begins signing, “Doin’ the Cockroach” is the chorus, but that line never gets repeated later in the song, so it is clear that it is not the chorus. More interesting though is that the structure of the song shows that it can be broken into two separate songs. Each half has the same structure of AABC. So if you look it that way you could guess that B and F work as a kind of rough chorus for the song.

In Fly Trapped In A Jar many changes occur, so it is a little harder to follow, but the song can also be broken into two like Doin’ the Cockroach. The first half is a slower but hard hitting beat. The second half really speeds up and feels almost dance hall. The first half structure looks like ABBC DBC’D were A is the intro, B could be the chorus for this half of the song, C would be a transition section and C’ is just a derivative of C. Finally D would be the verse of this half of the song. The next half follows the structure of FEFE FE’C’’B’A’. F would be the transition; E would be the Chorus of the second half of the song. C’’ is just another change in the original C, and A’ and B’ are just changes in A and B respectfully.

It is amazing how different these two songs sound when you listen to them. If you look at the structure of these two songs they have a similar structure. The obvious similarity in structure is that each song takes the form of almost two different songs in one. Less obvious is that at the beginning of each song, it follows the structure of an intro, chorus then verse like form. Then after the songs change they sound like they both follow a verse and chorus structure again. A big difference between the two is that Fly Trapped in a Jar comes back to it original sound that it started with, where Doin’ the Cockroach sounds completely different from the beginning to the end. Even in song analysis it appears that some basic forms have stuck with the band, as they do not want to entirely go to a different genre, but that newer songs are willing to take some new risks that enhance the older sound of the established band.

The life and times of Modest Mouse has proven that they are anything but Modest and mouse-like as their name entails. Modest Mouse has worked hard to gain commercial and media success and now that they have they are happy to be recognized for it. This is not necessarily a downfall, but it shows the range and also impact that the music industry can have on a band and how they come to craft their sound. Modest Mouse is a band that fought off the constraints of grunge and the Seattle music scene to arise as a prime example of alternative music. They have had an incredible run that still proves that they may be around for many more years to come, pessimism and all.

[1] http://www.isound.com/modest_mouse

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_a_Long_Drive_for_Someone_with_Nothing_to_Think_About

[3] Keith Harris. “Modest Mouse: Biography”. Rolling Stone. 2004.

[4] http://www.morrissey-solo.com/article.pl?sid=06/09/15/1654222

NEED A BREAK?

2008-03-19T13:32:00.001-07:00

When we were discussing hip hop in class weeks (and miles) ago, Night Ripper was brought in. My natural sway towards curiosity was peaked, and so I looked through the track listing and was interested enough by the names of the songs that I went home and got the album. Jeff, THANKS. Love it. Love love love it.

SO! I was just distracting myself for a little five minute break and while I was listening to my iPod on shuffle, one of my many Mashups came on! I just love this whole concept (especially because it's about the sound (holy cow, the internet recognizes ctrl+i here) of the songs all mashed together, not just the key signatures and whatnot. However, they don't always mix well through the WHOLE song (see: Madonna v. Kelis, Milkshake Holiday). Anyway, an article to share.

http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/music/feature/2003/08/09/mashups_cruger/

Happy typing, everyone!

Extended Genealogy and Analalysis of Lostprophets

2008-03-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

Laura L. Belanger
Writing About Popular Music
Final Paper
Winter ‘08

Lostprophets were formed in 1997 in Pontypridd, Wales by former Public Disturbance members Ian Watkins, who played drums for the band, and Mike Lewis who played guitar. Their name, which was taken from a bootleg Duran Duran album, is often improperly cited as The Lostprophets, The Lost Prophets, or Lost Prophets; however, the original spelling of their name was actually Lozt Prophetz as they were a part of southern Wales’ hardcore scene.
Their first demo, “The Fake Sound of Progress,” consisted of three tracks which were later re-recorded and re-released through Visible Noise in July 2000. The album was recorded in just two weeks for only £5000. Within a year, the band decided to sign to Columbia, a division of Sony Records, and recruited producer Michael Barbiero to remaster the album, which was then re-released in October of 2001. After the first release, DJ Stepzak, who did turntables, was replaced by Jamie Oliver, who currently plays keyboard and provides backup vocals for the band. At this point, the band lineup consisted of lead vocalist Ian Watkins, lead guitarist Lee Gaze, rhythm guitarist Mike Lewis, bassist Stu Richardson, who joined in 1999 transitioning Mike Lewis from bassist to rhythm guitarist, drummer Mike Chiplin, and of course, keyboardist/backup vocalist/screamer Jamie Oliver.
The band drew from several influences, most notably the band Refused’s album “The Shape of Punk to Come” which was released the a year prior to the writing of material for “The Fake Sound of Progress.”
The track list of “The Fake Sound of Progress” is as follows:
1. Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja
2. The Fake Sound of Progress
3. Five is a Four Letter Word
4. …And She Told Me to Leave
5. Kobrakai
6. The Handsome Life of Swing
7. A Thousand Apologies
8. Still Laughing
9. For Sure
10. Awkward
11. Ode to Summer
A short turntable tune is found at the end of most songs as a transition, providing an interesting and characteristic flow between tracks. This technique is not evident in Lostprophets’ following albums. “The Fake Sound of Progress” featured several references to 1980’s pop culture, not limited to the Duran Duran reference in their band name. “Kobrakai” was named after Cobra Kai from the movie “Karate Kid.” Two of the three tracks from their demo were “MOAC Supreme,” which became “A Thousand Apologies,” and “Stopquote,” which became “Awkward.” The third track on the demo kept its original name: “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja.” The first track on the full version of the album, “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja,” corresponds to the first, and only, single from the album. It borrows its name from the arcade games “Shinobi” and “Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja.”

“Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja,” which was featured on the video game ATV Offroad Fury 2, is a loud upbeat track complete with screaming, crunchy distortion and noticeable punk influences. The track starts off with a four-measure bass riff which becomes a common theme throughout the song. The next eight bars consist of the same melody, though with a fuller sound as drums come in and guitars provide the power chord version of the riff.
Here is the guitar tablature:
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--0--0-15-14--0-0-0-15-14-|-0-0-0-15-14--0-0-0-15-14--|
|------------------|-------------------| x2
|------------------|-------------------|
|-------0--------0-|-------7--------7--|
|-------5--------5-|-------5--------5--|
|------------------|-5-5-5----5-5-5----|
|-3-3-3----3-3-3---|-5-5-5----5-5-5----|
Vocals then enter as a straightforward, staccato rhythm is played for the eight measures of the first verse. The eight-measure bridge comes next, as the music in the foreground is made up of Lee Gaze playing a more delicate, note-by-note riff on his guitar in contrast to the fat power chords of the verse. Now the chorus is played just as measures five through 12 of the intro with a two measure instrumental part followed by two measures of lines from the chorus with the last word of the line, “friend,” being extended over the next two instrumental measures and blending into the next two lines of the chorus.
CHORUS - HEAVY DISTORTION
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--------------------------|---------------------------|
|--0--0-15-14--0-0-0-15-14-|-0-0-0-15-14--0-0-0-15-14--|
p.m-- p.m-- p.m-- p.m—

|------------------|-------------------| x2
|------------------|-------------------|
|-------0--------0-|-------7--------7--|
|-------5--------5-|-------5--------5--|
|------------------|-5-5-5----5-5-5----|
|-3-3-3----3-3-3---|-5-5-5----5-5-5----|
As you can see, the chorus is played exactly the same as the intro. The second verse comes in immediately after the chorus structured just the same as the first verse though with different lyrics, followed by the bridge, which is exactly like the first and the chorus which is also exactly like the first. Here is where a bit of a change comes in. It’s like a second bridge which consists of a seven-measure vocal over instrumentation, followed by an eight-bar, instrumental, bass and turntables buildup to the climaxing outro of the song, which is similar to the first five through 12 bars of the song in the intro, only heavier, louder, and with no lead guitar providing the melody which signals chord changes in a progression. The song concludes with a single measure, exactly the same as measure five in the song. So in other words, the song takes on a structure like this: Intro - Verse - Bridge (1) - Chorus - Verse - Bridge (1) - Chorus - Bridge (2) - Outro. One could also interpret it as not having two separate bridges, but rather a coda instead, with this sort of structure: Intro - Verse - Bridge - Chorus - Verse - Bridge - Chorus - Coda - Outro. In both of these cases, the difference between Bridge (2) and Outro and Coda and Outro are a bit ambiguous. Does the Bridge/Coda end right after the lighter instrumental part and the Outro picks up where the rest of the instruments come in? In this case, is that last measure being tagged on as a part of the Outro, making it nine measures instead? Or are both parts--the seven-measure bass and turntables combined with the eight measure part similar to the intro--considered to be the Bridge/Coda, and the last measure would be labeled as the Outro? Or is the entire instrumental end to the song just one long Outro? This almost makes more sense, as the sum of the different instrumental measures adds up to 16 (seven bar drum and turntables plus eight bar full instrumentation plus one bar staccato part) whereas counting each section separately leaves for awkward amounts of measures. Perhaps, then, the structure of the song is actually: Intro - Verse - Bridge - Chorus - Verse - Bridge - Chorus - Outro. The bands’ later work appears to become a bit more straightforward.
Bands are often criticized for their first albums being considered their “best.” An explanation provided for this is that bands have their entire lives to write their first albums, yet only a comparably short and set period of time to write their following ones. Lostprophets released their sophomore album, “Start Something,” in 2004, four years after the first release of their debut. The first single from this album, entitled “Last Train Home,” was released in November 2003 and seems to be their most recognizable hit, despite what’s said about first albums. “Start Something” peaked at number 4 in the UK charts and 33 in the US charts; however, it is their only album to date to go platinum (though this was only in the UK.) The album features a fairly wide dynamic range, from the aggressive tracks “To Hell we Ride” and “Burn Burn” which exhibit loud, distorted guitars and screaming vocals, to the completely instrumental 10 minute and 32 second ending track, “Sway.” The album is also set up so that the first song, “We Still Kill the Old Way,” is very loud and energetic and seems to sort of get listeners pumped for the album, then “Sway” eases them back down again. Lostprophets again released their album through Columbia Records. The United Kingdom and Japan releases of “Start Something,” however, included tracks not available on copies sold in the United States. These were “We are Godzilla, You are Japan” on the UK version, and “Lucky You,” on the Japan version.
This is the track listing for the American copy:
1. We Still Kill the Old Way
2. To Hell We Ride
3. Last Train Home
4. Wake Up (Make a Move)
5. Burn, Burn
6. I Don’t Know
7. Hello Again
8. Goodbye Tonight
9. Start Something
10. A Million Miles
11. Last Summer
12. Sway
In 2005, before the band began creating material for their next album, drummer Mike Chiplin left Lostprophets saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. Lostprophets then began writing and recording “Liberation Transmission,” their first album to reach number one on the album charts in the UK. Their third release on Columbia Records it came out on June 26, 2006 in the UK and June 27 in the US. Josh Freese of The Vandals and A Perfect Circle recorded 10 tracks. Current drummer, Ilan Ruben, also known as “Yankee,” as he is the only member of the band from the States, recorded the remaining two: “Everyday Combat” and “For All These Times Son, For All These Times.” The first single from this album is “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast).”

“Rooftops” begins with a six-measure, clean guitar introduction. Ian Watkins’ vocals actually come in on the third beat of the sixth measure with the lyric “When our…” and “time” comes in on the downbeat--the first beat of the seventh measure. Completing the line, Watkins sings, “When our time is up, when our lives are done, will we say we’ve had our fun?” Following the eight-measure verse, as he begins to sing the next line, beginning the bridge, “Will we make our mark this time?” the band begins to build up with more instrumentation and volume. Watkins’ vocals build up along with the band in the next lyric, with accent on “always,” “Will we always say we tried?” The drums pick up here, during the eight measure of the bridge, leading into the chorus. The chorus actually acts more as a three-times repeated refrain, plus a variation of the refrain for the fourth line. The melody is the same for the first line as it is for the third and second line as it is for the fourth. “Standing on the rooftops, everybody scream your heart out! Standing on the rooftops, everybody scream your heart out. Standing on the rooftops, everybody scream your heart out! This is all we’ve got now, everybody scream your heart out.” The second verse blends in immediately after the chorus, with the first word, “All” overlapping the last bit of “out,” the last word of the chorus. It isn’t until the second half and second note of the word “love” that the lyric “All the love I’ve met,” lines up with the first beat of the measure. After the eight bars of the second verse, the bridge comes in again, this time a bit more fortissimo than the first complete with harmonies and a chorus effect on the vocals. The chorus comes in again, of course stronger than the first. Eight bars of an instrumental break follow, then a coda comes in as a sort of variation of the chorus, complete with what’s known as “gang vocals,” or a shouted or sometimes sang/shouted response by the band to a line sung by the lead singer, building up even more energy until the climax.
Watkins: Standing on the rooftops
Band: Wait until the bomb drops
Watkins: This is all we’ve got now
Band: Scream until your heart stops
Watkins: Never gonna regret
Band: Watching every sunset
Watkins: Listen to your heartbeat
Band: All the love that we felt
This is again repeated with more gusto and crescendos into the four times repeated line, “Scream your heart out,” with the last “heart out” being cut off and replaced with a heavy drum beat to bring the song back into the chorus, which is sung one more time before an instrumental fade out. The lyric, “scream your heart out,” must be a favorite of Lostprophets, as it is also found in “Goodbye Tonight,” from their album “Start Something.”
Here is the track listing of their most current album:
1. Everyday Combat
2. A Town Called Hypocrisy
3. The New Transmission
4. Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)
5. Can’t Stop, Gotta Date With Hate
6. Can’t Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won’t Save You This Time)
7. Everybody’s Screaming!!!
8. Broken Hearts, Torn Up Letters and the Story of a Lonely Girl
9. 4:AM Forever
10. For All These Times Son, For All These Times
11. Heaven for the Weather, Hell for the Company
12. Always All Ways (Apologies, Glances and Messed up Chances)
There is a pretty strong dynamic range of songs on this album, as well, as you compare the heavier track, “Everybody’s Screaming,” to the mellow ballad, “Always All Ways,” which follows suit of “Start Something,” where Lostprophets ease the listener back down at the end of the album.
Speaking of dynamic ranges, though, there is quite a contrast between Lostprophets’ first single, “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja,” and “Rooftops,” their first single off of “Liberation Transmission.” “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja,” in both the vocals and most especially in the instrumentation, made evident the band’s punk, hardcore, and metal influences. This was harder to find in “Rooftops.” “Rooftops” was very much more melodic, and the distortion effects, when there were any at all, weren’t as crunchy and raw as they were on “Shinobi.” There are, of course, some similarities, with the most evident being in song structure: “Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja” -- Intro - Verse - Bridge - Chorus - Verse - Bridge - Chorus - Coda/Outro and “Rooftops” -- Intro - Verse - Bridge - Chorus - Verse - Bridge -Chorus - Coda/Outro.
In reference to change, the band has been criticized by fans, as they were accused of “selling out” on “Liberation Transmission.” Song titles such as “Can’t Stop Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won’t Save You This Time)” and the overall sound of most tracks on this album gave it a more “scene” feel and made the band appear to be following trends, rather than staying true to their “original” (“The Fake Sound of Progress”) sound. The band denies allegations. In response to this, Watkins had one time stated something to the effect of the fact that bands grow and change--responding to what’s current in music is not necessarily selling out--the band is allowed be interested in more than one genre or sub-genre of music. However; Lostprophets recently stated that their next album will have more of the same feel of their first album. Band members also stated that it will be darker and have more energy than any other song they’ve put out before. They had been playing a few of their new, unreleased songs on tours across the UK in 2007, and have so far proved their depictions to be right. Ian Watkins, in the January 5, 2008 issue of Kerrang!, listed the following tracks to be included in the new album: "It's Not The End Of The World But I Can See It From Here," "Credible vs. Incredible," "Next Stop Atro City," "The Mourning Reign," "What Seems To Be The Problem Officer?" "She's With The Banned," "Save Yourself," "If It Wasn't For Hate We'd Be Dead By Now," and "For He's A Jolly Good Felon."
Other than their main three albums, Lostprophets have released several singles containing demos, covers, and other songs that simply did not make it onto the commercial albums. Some of these include “Every Song,” from the single “4:AM Forever,” “Dead to Me” and “No Way Out” from the “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)” single, “Distances” and “What You Do” from the single “A Town Called Hypocrisy, Pt. 2,” the demo versions of “Love” and “Still Falling” from the single “Can’t Catch Tomorrow (Good Shoes Won’t Save You This Time),” and “Push out the Jive, Bring in the Love” from the “Burn, Burn” single. Covers include, not surprisingly, “A View to a Kill” by Duran Duran and “Boys Don’t Cry” by The Cure , surprisingly “Cry Me a River” by Justin Timberlake and “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, and also “Reptilia” by The Strokes, “Davidian” by Machine Head, and “Shoulder to the Wheel” by Saves the Day.

Works Cited

Lostprophets - Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lostprophets. Accessed March 18, 2008.

Lostprophets’s Biography - Last.fm. http://www.last.fm/music/Lostprophets/+wiki. Accessed March 18, 2008.

Saves the Day Lyrics. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/savestheday/shouldertothewheel.html. Accessed March 19, 2008.

Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja Tab by Lostprophets @ Ultimate-Guitar.com. http://ultimate- guitar.com/tabs/l/lostprophets/shinobi_vs_dragon_ninja_tab.htm. Accessed March 19, 2008.

"Over analyzing separates the body from the mind....."

2008-03-19T03:05:00.000-07:00

Tool’s 2001 release Lateralus (pronounced “ladder-alice”) is one of the most complex and varied progressive metal albums to ever achieve commercial success. To better understand the complexities of the album, some prior knowledge of the band, the band’s influences, and the band’s prior releases are needed.
The Band:
Tool was formed in the late 80’s in L.A. The original line-up included Maynard James Keenan on vocals, Danny Carey on drums, Adam Jones on guitar, and Paul D’Amour on bass. Together the group recorded a six song EP entitled Opiate, stemming from Karl Marx’s statement that “religion is the opiate of the masses”, a theme that would continue throughout Tool’s subsequent releases. Opiate was six songs of heavy, in your face metal. Traditional verse-chorus forms comprise most of the song forms. Heavy guitar riffs and angry, screaming vocals were the norm. The track “Cold and Ugly” is the most representative of the entire album. (Available on the blog) A hidden track entitled “The Gaping Lotus Experience” follows the end of the title track, and is indicative of the later, psychedelic, experimental tracks that Tool would release on subsequent albums.
Following the EP, Tool released their first full-length album, Undertow. Undertow continued upon the heavy themes and sound of Opiate. Following Undertow’s release; Paul D’Amour, citing creative differences, amicably parted ways with the band. D’Amour was replaced by ex-Peach bass player Justin Chancellor.
It was with the release of Aenima in 1996 that the band’s sound and album flow began to change and take on a new shape. The hard guitar riffs were still present, but were balanced by a more abstract feel. This was not the same type of metal as the music contained in the previous albums. Interjected between the songs were tracks abstract and experimental in nature (Intermission, Cesaro Summability, Ions, Die Eier Von Satan, etc.). The lyrics, while still primarily angry, took on a decidedly more introspective tone. The songs were also longer and less easily defined in terms of form. These longer, more sweeping songs would prove to be the direction that Tool would head in subsequent releases.
This proved to be true in Tool’s next release, a boxset of (mostly) live tracks entitled Salival. Among these were three tracks that showcased the progressing sound of the bad: a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter”, a cover of “Merkaba” originally performed by Chancellor’s old band Peach, and a re-imagining of the band’s own “Pushit”. The band’s next album would be a complete embrace of this newer sound.
The 12 track Lateralus is widely considered to be Tool’s most technically complex album. What follows is a breakdown of the three of the most representative songs of the album, “The Grudge”, “Schism”, and “Lateralus”.

THE SONGS:

The Grudge:

The album opens up with a track entitled “The Grudge”. A whirring, sort of wind-up noise begins the track for all of about seven seconds. (0:00-0:07) Afterwards, honestly, I’m not really sure what’s going on. I have a terrible ear for this sort of thing, so what follows is mostly a guess. I’ve done some looking on the internet, but met with no great success. It sounds like the bass provides the main body of sounds with single notes being struck on the guitar. This continues with variation in the guitar for approximately 1 minute and 5 seconds (0:07-1:12). Maynard James Keenan’s (MJK) vocals begin 53 seconds into the aforementioned 1:05 (at 1:00). This first segment of vocals is vastly different from all of the vocals found on the previous albums. Abandoning the sweeping, melodic techniques he employed in previous releases, MJK instead delivers the words in a chanting, almost rap-like manner. This type of delivery, however, proves to be the exception rather than the rule in the way the rest of the vocals in the song are performed. For six or so seconds after the vocals cut out, the guitar rises to the front and sort of hammers away until the next section begins (1:13-1:19). For the next 25 seconds or so, the guitar, bass, and drums get softer and seem to queue up for the vocals again (1:19-1:44). Upon the beginning of the vocal section, the grating guitar/bass riff returns complimenting the softer stylings of MJK’s voice. The guttural, chanting type of technique is abandoned (temporarily) and the traditional, melodic type of singing that Keenan is known for is employed (1:44-2:10). The guitar changes again 24 seconds into the vocals at approximately the same time MJK begins to sing “Saturn ascends, choose one or ten. Hang on or be humbled again.”(2:10-2:34). After “again”, the guitar/bass fades out and the cymbals become the focus...for about 5 seconds (2:34-2:40). MJK sings the “Clutch it like a cornerstone….” passage for 37 seconds with a steady riff and drum beat backing him (2:40-3:17). As MJK holds the last note in “…the damage done”, the guitar reverts back to the riff from the beginning of the song. This continues, along with the revival of the chanting delivery of the initial “Wear the grudge like a crown…” for 23 seconds (3:17-3:40). Afterwards, the riff continues with slight variations, interpolated with some sort of mini-drum breakdown (3:40-4:12). What follows is a break comprised of drums, guitar, and a talkbox (?) of some kind (4:12-4:24). The chanting/singing style is reprised once more, as well as the guitar riff that had accompanied it beforehand (4:24-4:37). Afterwards, the guitar/drum interpolation continues as it had in the previous section (4:37-4:45). From 4:45 to 5:12, the drums, bass, and guitar grow softer and MJK sings “Choose to….choose to let this go….” Following this break, Adam Jones solos with Chancellor and Carey backing him on bass and drums, respectively (5:12-6:00). MJK sings again from 6:00 to 6:25, with what seems like a new riff, stemming from the solo, behind him. Upon the completion of MJK’s vocal section, the guitar returns to the hammering theme first encountered from 1:13 to 1:19 (6:25-6:30). Afterwards, the song returns to the initial sound from 0:07 to 1:12. This lasts from 6:30 to 6:43 at which point the guitar seems to become the focus. This continues with the guitar rising to a crest and then cutting out at 6:55. Upon the absence of the guitar, the bass continues alone for about two seconds until you hear the guitar come in again, building quickly until MJK’s scream at 6:59. This scream lasts 24 seconds (6:59-7:23). After the scream is over, the riff continues unchanged and MJK begins gasping “let go” over and over again behind the guitar, bass, and drums. A guitar solo begins at 7:48, with “let go” still being repeated and lasts to 8:00 at which point MJK screams “let go”. This section, specifically 8:00 to 8:30, represents the crest of the song. The guitars, bass, and drums promptly cease at 8:31, and the track ends five seconds later.
So ultimately, it appears that there are a couple of repeated sections in the song. The very beginning sound (0:07-1:12) is repeated at (6:30-6:43). Secondly, the “hammering” guitar sound is first heard (1:13-1:19) and is later heard again at (6:25-6:30). It’s worth noting that the order is reversed. Where the hammering guitars were heard after the initial sound, later they precede that repeated section. If I were to place the song in a form, it would be ABCBADEADF.

Schism:

The first 20 seconds of Schism are all Justin Chancellor on the bass guitar. Indeed, this bass line serves to become the anchor of the song, and is held onto throughout almost the entire song. At the 20 second mark you first become aware of the guitar rising in the background. The guitar rises until the 27 second mark at which point it sounds like the guitar is playing a piece that seems to simultaneously sort of mirror and accent the bass line. This continues until the 40 second mark at which point MJK begins singing and the guitar seems to take on an understated, fuzzy sort of sound. This doesn’t change until the 1:07 mark, where the guitar reverts back to the complementary role it held during the time frame 0:27-40. The guitar continues in this role until the end of the verse at 1:20, where it become fuzzy again and seems to serve as a backdrop for the bass’ primary sound. It actually took me several tries to even find out where the guitar went after 1:20. I know, I know, I’m a n00b. This “guitar backdrop” (a term I coined on my own) continues until the beginning of the next verse where it serves to once again function in a complementary role, until 2:01 where it recedes into the background again. At 2:16, the guitar blazes back into the forefront coinciding with the introduction of a B section. The B section ends at 2:30 and the guitar, bass, and drums revert back to the sounds heard in the previous two A sections. The beginning of the third A section is marked by a sharp spike in the guitar before settling into its normal routine. This section continues in almost exactly the same fashion as the two preceding A sections, but with an extension of the fuzzy guitar sound towards the end (2:30-3:30). At 3:30, the bass drops out and the guitar (at least I *think* it’s the guitar) seems to take the forefront for the first time in the song. This seems to, in my opinion, marks the beginning of a C section. The bass comes back in at 4:32, while the guitar continues to do its thing. This lasts until about 5:05 when the guitar begins rising coinciding with MJK’s vocals “Between supposed lovers…”, seemingly marking a D section. This section lasts until about 5:59 where a modified A section begins and MJK repeats “I know the pieces fit” over and over, culminating in a scream at 6:24. Jamming continues until the song ends at 6:48.
I’m terrible at meter changes and would never be able to even comment on the time changes in this song, but thankfully wikipedia has my back. This, directly from the wiki:

“A possible analysis of the meter changes is found in the August 2001 issue of Guitar One magazine. As transcribed by Adam Perlmutter, the song starts in 5/4 for one measure followed by 21 measures of 6/4 (or 5/8 and 7/8 alternating), up to the first interlude, which is a bar of 3/8, three bars of 13/8, and a bar of 10/8. (This can be also interpreted as four 13/8 bars, but played with a 3/8 upbeat.) The next verse is eight bars of 6/4 followed by another interlude that fits the same pattern as the first. The next section is four bars of 6/4 followed by one bar of 11/8. Another eight-bar verse in 6/4 follows, with an interlude containing the same as before, except the final 10/8 bar is replaced with an 11/8 bar setting up the middle section, which is four bars of 7/4 before settling into a pattern of alternating 12/8 and 15/8, one bar each, twelve times. Following this, there are three bars of 4/4, a bar of 2/4, and four bars of 4/4 setting up another section, which is two bars of 9/8 followed by a bar of 10/8, that pattern again, a single bar of 9/8 followed by a 13/8 bar. This leads to an alternating set of 9/8 and 5/8, appearing four times before a bar of 9/8 and a bar of 6/8. Near the end, there is a 6/4 meter for eight bars, followed by eight bars of 4/4 to end the song. In all, the song changes meters 47 times. The band has comically said that the song is in ‘6.5/8’.”
This song seems to follow a AABACDA form. It is possible that the C & D sections could be combined to form a single C section. It’s tough to decipher with the change in vocals from “Cold silence has a tendency to….” in the C section and “Between supposed lovers….” in the D section.

Lateralus:

Before even delving into the song form analysis, it’s worth mentioning that the boys in Tool are insane. Both Maynard Keenan and Danny Carey have a pretty intense interest in numerology, sacred geometry, etc. and it shows in this song. If you count the syllables in between the pauses in the first two verses, you get the beginnings of the Fibonacci sequence. The youtube clip posted above addresses it in a much more eloquent manner than I am capable of doing. Furthermore, “987” the original title of the song (so conceived because the time signature of the chorus happens to be a section of 9/8, followed by a section of 8/8, followed by a section of 8/7), happens to be the sixteenth step of the Fibonacci sequence. Again, check out the clip for a better understanding.
The first 50 seconds or so is composed primarily of Adam Jones on guitar. At about the 50 second mark, we hear the base begin to come in, slowly rising in volume until the 1:12 mark where the guitar riff goes from sort of subdued to very much in your face. This main riff continues for 26 seconds or so, until the 1:38 mark, where MJK begins singing “black then white…” The guitar and bass drop out completely at this point and it’s just Maynard and the drums for about 13 seconds (1:38-1:51). At the 1:51 mark, the bass comes back in, followed by the guitar at 2:03. MJK continues with the verse, his vocals ending at the 2:16 mark with “watch it bend.” The drums, bass, and guitar continue to follow the same pattern until 2:30 when the bass and drum begin building up to something. This something happens to be the chorus, and it begins at the 2:32 mark. The riff during the chorus is the same as what was heard from 1:12 to 1:38. The chorus continues until 2:56 where it promptly stops and the next verse begins immediately. The first half of the second verse is identical to the first, but at 3:12, a second part is added, lengthening the second verse. MJK’s vocals end at 3:35, but as in the first verse, the music continues and the bass and drum gradually build to the chorus. The chorus enters at 3:50 and seems to be separated into two parts by a guitar solo. At 4:31, MJK sings the second half of the chorus, finishing at 4:48. From that point, the very beginning riff (the subdued one) is repeated on the bass, with interjections of guitar intermittently. MJK’s lyrics enter at 5:21 on top of this riff and continue until about 6:40. The riff is repeated with steadier sections of guitar and steadily increases until the 6:40 mark at which point, Adam solos until 7:17. At 7:17 a new riff is introduced and Maynard begins singing the last section beginning with “With my feet upon the ground…” and culminating in repetitions of “Spiral out. Keep going” until 8:36. Afterwards, the guitar, bass, and drums slowly fade out until silence at 9:24.
It seems that this song pretty closely resembles a modified verse-chorus structure. The verse (the “black then white…” section), is broken up by a chorus (the “over thinking, over analyzing…” section), and then repeated. The last two sections seem to be verses in and of themselves, so I think the form looks something like verse-chorus-verse-chorus-verse-verse.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, Lateralus is an album full of songs that are difficult to fit into one specific form. These three songs are fairly indicative of the entirety of the album. Lateralus consists of a lot of technically complex, sweeping, epic sorts of prog-metal songs. Hopefully, despite my vast musical shortcomings, you managed to grasp that.

Wednesday Morning, 3 AM...

2008-03-19T03:00:00.001-07:00

...do you know where your paper is?

Just finished mine. How 'bout you guys?

(For those of you that didn't catch it, the title of this post is a Simon & Garfunkel album.)

Karawane!

2008-03-18T16:46:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, I thought about posting this after seeing the video Ray embedded of Alannis Morrisette odd send-up of the Black Eyed Peas. I guess they both fit under the category of "unexpected covers." First, a bit of setting up: some of you may know about Hugo Ball and his Dadaist poetry experiments at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in 1916. He would make up some nonsense words and make sound poems out of them. This website has some rare examples of Ball and his cohorts doing their thing.

But the weirdest thing is the last item: Marie Osmond reading one of Ball's sound poems. You can read on the website about how this came to be, but it doesn't remove the strangeness of it all. It's strange enough that she did it in the first place; stranger still that she did it from memory; but strangest of all is the fact that she gives it such a dramatic reading. It's like she's reciting "The Charge of the Light Brigade" to some British officer's club.

There are many other wonders on the website (both sound and otherwise) so follow the links and wander away.

WHAT THE F????

2008-03-18T14:00:00.000-07:00

seacrest out!

So.

2008-03-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

I was taking a break from writing (hope everyone got their self evaluations done) and happened to notice a pretty cool example of sampling (it is listed on Wikipedia but I didn't realize that until I went to post this. Oh well).

This is Dusty Springfield's song "Son of a Preacher Man", which was originally released in 1968 (tip: listen really carefully to the first five seconds of the song.)

and this is Cypress Hill's "Hits From the Bong", released in 1993 on their album, Black Sunday. (By the way. The first two minutes of this video don't have the song playing at all, but after the song does kick it it's the best one I've found higlighting the sample.)

Enjoy the videos :) Good luck on finals for those that have them and happy spring break for the rest of you!

Peace

Self-evals!

2008-03-17T15:36:00.000-07:00

Quick reminder--be sure to fill out those self-evaluations on Web4U. You'll feel better. Or maybe I'm thinking about when your last final is done.

Over already?

2008-03-17T12:42:00.000-07:00

What a shame. Never before have I been glad to be up at 7 a.m. on Friday. Ah well.. I suppose I can use the time to sleep now.

So like everyone else said, I had an amazing class with all y'all. Thanks for letting me show you how I get down and not rolling your eyes every time I did something to do with hip hop. 'Cause that's all I know how to do.

Here's some random Knowgooders shit for you guys:

http://myspace.com/knowgooders - the obligatory Myspace page. I just put up two newer joints, one some of you heard in the studio. The other was recorded at my apartment. It's good, I promise.

http://myspace.com/chancematic - the other obligatory Myspace page. This is my solo page, I throw up my more experimental stuff that hasn't found homes yet. Check out "Serious Business," it's serious business.

http://myspace.com/recreationroom - non-obligatory Myspace page. This is Rec Rm, local hip group extraordinaire. I'm working with them on an 8-track EP due some time before summer. Watch out now.

I'll see you all sometime, somewhere. Oh, and Jeff, you're the man now, dog!

Hey, KUGS kids...

2008-03-14T21:20:00.001-07:00

Class is over... as made apparent by the last few posts.

I don't have much to add to the "I'm gonna miss you guys," sentiment, so I'm just going to skip it. Besides, we can stay in touch on here. So let's move on, shall we?

So, I'm trying to be a DJ at KUGS, but that is proving difficult, since my schedule has not yet taken form. BUT, I'm looking for a job, and from what I hear from Jenn, the AS is hiring...

So all you KUGS kids--you should tell me about your jobs. Cause I want them.

Thanks

2008-03-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

Once again--thanks for a great class. I've never enjoyed a class as much before. It was totally successful due to what you all brought to it. So, as we talked about today, I'll leave this blog up for people to post to. Let us know about local shows, particularly those you are playing/participating in. I'll try to make as many as I can. And, if any of you want to grab coffee (or beer, if you're over 21) sometime, just let me know. Also, let me know if I can ever be of help to you here at Western.

See you around.

If you want to keep in touch.

2008-03-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hey this is Ray from class... I just wanted to leave some contact info in case anybody in class wanted to keep in touch. I really enjoyed taking the class with everyone, and it was awesome to be exposed to so much sweet shit, i never even knew existed. It was also awesome that everybody in the class had different taste, it made everything really interesting all the time. Anyways, if you want to ever know what I'm up to you can look me up on Facebook with my name (Ray Stewart). Or you can email me at raystewart@hotmail.com (if you have any newsletters about yourself you can forward them there... My band's myspace is myspace.com/thebreakersusa my personal myspace is myspace.com/rayandtheclones (my lame-ass solo-project music). So please check out my stuff, and please say Hi! Good luck to all, and I hope we meet again.

LAST DAY

2008-03-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

I hate to kick Kevin's sweet post down from the top, but...

Soooo somewhere along the line, some wires got crossed and my tracks didn't get added to the master list. Here they are, in all their glory:

Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube
The dBs - We Were Happy There
Guided By Voices - My Valuable Hunting Knife
Maceo and the Macks - Cross The Track
Arthur & Yu - There Are Too Many Birds
Slowdive - Silver Screen (demo)
Animal Collective - Loch Raven
Boards of Canada - One Very Important Thought

There you have it. This class has been really sweet - thanks for sharing all of your stuff, duders. I can't imagine being as psyched for any other class at 8:15 in the morning.

Shine on, you crazy diamonds.

First post, last day

2008-03-13T23:43:00.001-07:00

For some reason I've been sort of reluctant to post on this blog. It could be part laziness and part not thinking I really had anything of importance to add.
But now I will give it a try.

I started getting into hardcore music around 10th grade. I had already been going to punk and rock shows for a few years, so I had been exposed to the music on occasion. But just hearing the music on a record or CD never really hit home with me. What it took was seeing the sweaty, raw destruction before my very eyes. Kids stage dived harder and screamed louder than I had ever heard. The music was hard, fast and wild. I was hooked.

So that, to me is something that really stands out about hardcore music. You can heard the music and listen to the bands, but if you don't see it live, you can't really GET IT.

Here are some live videos that I think really display what hardcore shows are all about. Of course the sound quality will probably suck and the band might not be spot on. And of course, watching these videos from your computer screen is a lot different than seeing it up close, but you get the idea.

Trash Talk- Babylon, CA: Trash Talk is one of my current favorite hardcore bands. They play super fast, pissed off hardcore and are on the road 95% of the year. They are currently recording a full length album that is being produced by Steve Albini.

Champion- The Decline: This was one of the first hardcore bands I ever really got into. Champion was a great melodic straight edge hardcore band from Seattle and this is a video from their last show. Try and spot me stage diving.

No Justice-last show: I actually don't know much about this band other than that this is a semi-infamous clip from their last show in Washington DC. Wild stuff.

Bad Brains- Banned In DC: The first innovators of hardcore music. I wish I was in this audience watching them.

Minor Threat- It Follows/Screaming at a wall: This is a late Minor Threat video a little while before they broke up. Minor Threat are one of the most influential bands in hardcore and punk. Check it out if you haven't already.

Trial- This is not a trend: I love this clip because not only does the band rule, but it shows how supportive of a scene Seattle hardcore has. Great band R.I.P.

The Knife: Heartbeats

2008-03-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to get this song out of my head lately. It's just so damn catchy. I put it on my 26 1/2 minutes CD, so I thought I would post it. I think the music video for it is pretty good too. Maybe a little repetitive with the skateboarding, but still good.

HoW

2008-03-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

I've name-dropped this a couple of times, but here's a link to the online journal I've co-edited for the last few years, Habits of Waste. I'm not sure if it will continue or not--our submissions have kind of dried up. But take a look through the archives and let me know what you think. Hours of enjoyment await. Or, as George Sanders' character (as a theatre critic) in the movie All About Eve says when he hands someone one of his articles "the minutes will fly by like hours."

Bob Dylan is just a crazy person who happened to get famous

2008-03-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

I really like Bob Dylan's music, but trying to understand where he's coming from a personal standpoint proves to be a confusing and futile exercise. Though that's not to say that it's not entertaining, his cryptic nonsense is still as frustrating and thought provoking as it ever was. To prove my point, here's an excerpt from an interview he did with Playboy in 1966, concerning his switch to electric music.

PLAYBOY: Mistake or not, what made you decide to go the rock-'n'-roll route?

DYLAN: Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a "before" in a Charles Atlas "before and after" ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy - he ain't so mild: He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I'm in Omaha. It's so cold there, by this time I'm robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain't much to look at, but who's built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything's going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say?

PLAYBOY: And that's how you became a rock-'n'-roll singer?

DYLAN: No, that's how I got tuberculosis.

If that peaked your curiosity, the full interview is here.

I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona

2008-03-05T13:45:00.001-08:00

...actually they are Swedish, but it doesn't matter where they're from because the music sounds good.
The people in the video are all band members with various roles, there are quite a few of them (over 20 i think)

"No, I'm not drunk today!"

2008-03-05T11:24:00.000-08:00

Here's MY favorite Serge clip on youtube:

God, what a bad-ass. The only similar comparison I can think of recently is when Amy Winehouse was drunk and heckled Bono at the Grammys. Classic.

Bored of Ghost Ridin'? Hokay.

2008-03-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

Here's something cool to watch.

"Tonto" by Battles. (This is something I was going to put up to correspond with my music form analysis, but better late than never. Plus this is a really fun song.) The story behind this video is pretty cool--apparently the band played for eleven hours in a cave! Full info here: Linky linky

L'Anamour

2008-03-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

Apropos of nothing (except that I was tired of seeing the ghost ride the whip video), here's a Serge Gainsbourg video of a great song, "L'Anamour." There are many more fab videos of Serge on YouTube, so have fun exploring. There's something about his diffident manner here that captures Serge's essential coolness for me.

Hey! My computer's working, woo :)

2008-03-04T19:35:00.000-08:00

I was going to attempt to put up the thizz examples from Friday I didn't get to play, but I don't really know how.

Instead, I decided to send who ever is interested on their merry way over to Pandora Radio (check out the new page element).

Pandora (for those who haven't yet experienced it) is a free online radio based of off the Music Genome Project. Some history for ya'll Basically, this site is a really snazzy way to discover cool sounds, or just listen to some old favourites. You don't really need an account to enjoy it, but it's kind of handy (think social gatherings) to have.

Ghost Ride the Whip

2008-02-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

Ha, I'm sorry, this doesn't really have much to do with music, I just think it's hilarious.

Enjoy.

(Hint: Watch till the very end.)

Making Fairhaven's studio the best!

2008-02-29T15:12:00.000-08:00

Hey kids, here is the link to the Student Technology Fee Proposals that the Fairhaven studio is hoping to get:

http://www.wwu.edu/stf/proposals.shtml

It's proposal #18. It's a bit long but basically what the studio instructor Chris has told my class, is that as it is right now, the Fairhaven studio is decent in what it is intended for. However, as students we don't go to college and pay a lot of money to get a decent education, we go to college so that we can get the best education in our chosen future profession. Chris would encourage anyone currently in, or wanting to get into any of the audio recording classes, to leave a comment in regards to this grant. Your comments will help to determine weither or not the grant is given to the fairhaven studio.

You Are About to Get Schooled

2008-02-29T10:08:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone needed a little help on how to get Hyphy! =o)
Heres a link to this if you want to see it bigger:
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h206/lilone1979601/hyphy101-1.jpg

Go! Team are go

2008-02-28T16:54:00.001-08:00

I can't get enough of the video of the song that Sam played in class yesterday: "Ladyflash" by The Go! Team. I've watched it like 10 times today.

David Byrne is a Weirdo

2008-02-27T14:06:00.000-08:00

Since I did my genealogy project on Talking Heads, I thought I would post a couple videos on them. The first one is the classic music video for "Once in a Lifetime." I'm sure plenty of your have seen it, but it never really gets old for me.

This next one is a promotional interview for the Talking Heads concert movie Stop Making Sense that Carolyn mentioned in class today. If anyone is wondering, David Byrne is interviewing himself. Yeah, he's a weirdo.

I Know I'm Insane, But Bear With Me

2008-02-26T21:24:00.001-08:00

Okay... so I've never considered myself a metal head, not since 4th grade anyway (I thought the term meant owning more than one Metallica album... bleck). Anyways, lately I've been really into this band Mastodon. I'm sure many of you are familiar with them. They have been described as Math Rock, Progressive Metal, and Whale Core (it's an inside joke among Mastodon fans based on their 2004 album cover for Leviathan).

On the other end of the spectrum, I have been really into Romantic Period Classical Music (Especially Debussy, Ravel, and Chopin).

Now I know this is a bit of a stretch, and I'm not saying that the members of Mastodon are comprable to Debussy, Ravel and Chopin in virtuosity, but I think there is a connection. There are a couple of Romantic Period pieces that really strike me as having the potential to be fucking awesome Prog-Metal songs. The two main examples I will give are Debussy's Mazurka (which I tried to figure out on electric guitar utilizing a lot of sweeping/tapping stuff) and Ravel's String Quartet in F Major Part 2. See below.

I know I'm crazy, but some of the pizzicatto hits in this piece, just remind me of the hits and breaks that Mastodon does. I guess all I'm really saying is that I really want somebody to help me realize my dream of doing Metal tributes to string quartet music.

Grateful Dead Video Yo

2008-02-26T00:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIA8H8AkbyA

A great song which really highlights all the members, espically my favorite, Pigpen.

Hella _____.

2008-02-25T02:33:00.000-08:00

I’ve always had an appreciation for speed metal. When I was a little kid my older brother, Eric, of six years would often get into arguments with my parents. It’d usually be about curfew or grades, but in general it was about some stupid high school emotional shit. He would then proceed to run and scream into his room, throwing a general baby tantrum, while blasting the hell out of Entombed, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, and of course, Metallica. When I was transferring to middle school Eric, thankfully, was on his way to college, but by then he had slowly transitioned out of his metal and punk stage and was really thirsting for hip-hop. His new found interests were really a blessing in disguise for me, as he saw that I was getting into bands like Marilyn Manson, Fear Factory and Machine Head, he nicely (for the first time!) bequeathed all of his metal CDs to me – “listen to this shit instead.” I was blown away by the pure energy and the crunchy guitar timbres, but mostly I could not fathom the speed at which their drummers played. I’ve always joked about how ultimately “brutal” double bass kicks are, but I think that stems from my own personalwonder.

After tiring out Rage Against the Machine’s catalogue during middle school talent shows a couple of friends and I decided to start a “metal” band. I played an Ibanez bass, which I find really embarrassing now, and my good friend Woody had a double kick on his kit.We played a few shows at my high school’s campus and around Honolulu’s smarmy punk scene; I don’t think we really impressed anyone. However it certainly wasn’t because we weren’t playing loud enough. The shear amount of skill needed to play the metal we thirsted after was too much for our pubescent bodies to handle.

Here’s a video of George Kollias, who plays with the Egyptian themed death metal band Nile. Although he’s not the fastest drummer in the metal scene he comes really close. Kollias is also a purist, as a lot of newer drummers will use midi triggers or digital quantization on their kicks, but Kollias is strictly against them. If you look closely at his double kick rolls you can see his feet, when they’re not just a blur of motion, pivoting left and right as if he were “putting out a cigarette.” This is called “swivel technique.” It allows a drummer to hit the kick pedal twice, with each side of the foot, in one downward or upward motion, doubling the amount of bass drum hits in one stroke. His blast beats, which are just an alternation between the kick and the snare drum, are also very impressive; he does it with one foot. He’s clocked in at over a thousand hits per minute. Brutal.

One more P5 video

2008-02-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

I just can't stop myself--I was thinking about the visual nature of Pizzicato Five, and I remembered this track. It's a dj workout using all P5 material. Not sure who the dj is. The video is also a "remix" of video and still images from about the 1991-1997 period of P5. It's a nice overview of their interest in graphic art.

Abandoned Places

2008-02-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

Per's post on the Disintegration Tapes and Kaleb's awesome production lesson had me thinking about how the medium is often just as important as the message. It's exciting (to me, anyway) to think about how the options are nearly infinite when it comes to production. I've been listening to stuff lately and finding myself nerding out over tiny elements of the music - a particular hi-hat sound for example, or even a tape hiss. It's really satisfying, in a pocket-protector, coke-bottle glasses kind of way.

Anyway. I've been thinking a lot about the aesthetics of sound, and one piece that's been sticking with me lately a piece by electronic artist Matmos. The album this piece is off of, A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure, is interesting in of itself - each piece samples medical procedures like liposuction and lasik eye surgery. In a piece called "Momento Mori", beats are made off of fragments of skulls and teeth.

The standout piece, though, is a track called "For Felix (and all the rats)", an elegy for Matmos mastermind M.C. Schmidt's pet rat who recently passed away. Every sound on this track is made by bowing or plucking the metal wires of Felix's old cage; the result is a really haunting ambient piece which resonates pretty deep, if you give it the chance.

I've been listening to it when I go to bed; it reminds me of abandoned places.

sim salabim bam ba saladu saladim

2008-02-20T10:03:00.000-08:00

After the comment was made about Klaus Nomi being "dictator-pop". I immediately thought about the song "Die Eier Von Satan" (The Eggs/Balls of Satan) by Tool. The vocals are from a cat named Marko Fox of ZAUM (this bit of info thanks to the gods of men & women at Wikipedia). I'd love to see a mash-up of Nomi and this song. Maybe I'll get Girl Talk to work on that......

ps. This video is ri-dic-ul-ous. Yes, that's Emeril.

P5 vids

2008-02-19T21:39:00.000-08:00

So, last week, I went through a whirlwind tour of Pizzicato Five music--but I didn't have any visuals to share, and they're a very visually-oriented band. So, here are some videos of theirs. Several of their periods aren't represented here, because any video documentation of those periods is not available. In any event, you'll get a sense of what they're up to, music video-wise.

Amazingly, their very first video is available. This is with the original lineup. Sadly, the album that followed this material ("Couples") doesn't seem to have any video documentation, and it's perhaps my favorite work of theirs. Anyway, here is their first single, which I played this in class: "Audrey Hepburn Complex":

That was 1985. The next several albums don't have any available video. Now we're at 1991, with their third major lineup. This is a live performance with a jazz combo, "Lament No. 5":

And, from the same year, "Twiggy Twiggy/Twiggy vs. James Bond":

From 1992, "Tout va bien"--possibly my favorite P5 video:

From 1993, "Sweet Soul Review":

From 1996--and with the final lineup, consisting of just Konishi Yasuharu and Maki Nomiya, "Triste":

Lastly, from 1997, another favorite video, "It's a Beautiful Day":

Some of the interesting later stuff also doesn't seem to have any video representation. So, that was a whirlwind tour through YouTube's holdings on P5.

Final Project

2008-02-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

The title of this post sounds vaguely like a video game, albeit a boring video game . . .

So, here is the final class project. It's a two-parter, but I'm going to focus on the final paper before talking about the final presentation. Basically, for the final paper, you need to discuss a song, band, artist, genre, or other musical issue in a way that incorporates an analysis of musical form. In other words, formal analysis will be the centerpiece of your paper. There are several approaches you could take:

1. Analyze a song in detail. This will require you to take into account other songs in the same genre, or other work by the artist in question--in other words, you will need to consider artistic norms. One model for this could be the article on "Close to the Edge" by John Covach. In addition to form, you can discuss the lyrics, the band or musician's career, and other related aspects. You can also thematize the musical form if you wish (again, Covach provides a model).

2. Provide an overview of the genealogy of a band's or musician's career. In this case, you will need to focus in on one or two (or maybe three, but no more) songs to analyze. You should show similarities and/or differences in the examples.

3. Pick a pop genre and, using two or three examples to analyze, show what makes the genre different from other genres. Why do the examples you provide belong together as a distinct genre?

4. Choose a musical practice, like sampling, and describe ways in which this practice has been employed by various artists. You'll only be able to use a few examples.

5. Choose a year, and try to describe the range of music produced in that year (or rather, a portion of that range--you won't be able to capture everything).

6. Write about an album/CD as a cohesive unit--how do the parts fit together? Is there an overall pattern?

7. Your own topic--but clear with me first.

The paper should be 10-12 pages.

For the final presentation, you'll pick an aspect of your paper that you want to feature and that can fit into 10 minutes. Audio examples are necessary; visual examples are welcome if you wish. Since the presentations will happen before the paper is due, you can get some feedback on a part of your paper before it's due.

Let me know if you have questions!

FGTH Video

2008-02-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if we'll get to the article on "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood or not, but here is a video of the song. It's the "banned" version, which basically means that it was probably too gay for MTV at time, or possibly now as well. Although, the "shower" scene may possibly have played a factor as well.

And, apropos of nothing except that I was listening to the Delfonics tonight, here is a really cool live performance of their biggest hit, "La La Means I Love You."

The Beatles Eras--What do you think?

2008-02-11T17:34:00.000-08:00

After Per and I discussed what bands we were going to do for our genealogy projects (the Beatles, for me), we began discussing the two basic eras of the Beatles, which basically come down to pre- and post-Rubber Soul.

It came down to this:

Per thinks the later Beatles (post-Rubber Soul) are more familiar and recognizable. I think the older Beatles (pre-Rubber Soul) are more familiar and recognizable.

Now, I'm not saying that I like the older Beatles better or anything; trust me, I think their later stuff was some of the most influential and ground-breaking music of all time. And Per made some good points, such as their later stuff is more culturally significant, mature, and pretty much just better all-around music, as their later hits consisted of entire albums of hits as opposed to three or four songs.

However, I said that their earlier stuff (their singles and such), were more "radio-friendly," and were therefore played on the radio more often; which, not only introduced the later, more avid listeners of their music to the magic that is the Beatles, but made their earlier stuff more accessible to the public and thus made their stuff generally more familiar.

But, Per and I are a little biased in that his parents were the avid-listener type that better knew and liked their later music, while my mom was the radio-listener type, that better knew their earlier music. Therefore, we are each better acquainted with what our parents knew, and thus have separate biases on each era.

So, I'd thought I'd ask the music aficionados of Fair 397Q--What is your take on the two Beatles eras? Which do you think is the more familiar era, both back in the 60s and today?

Presentations next week

2008-02-11T10:14:00.000-08:00

As mentioned on Friday, next week (so, February 20 and 22) we'll have another round of presentations. They're to be on what I'm calling "musical genealogies." That means basically a couple of different things:

1. Charting the changes in a band's sound over time by noting personnel changes and the effect those changes have on the sound. So, for instance, you could show how Fleetwood Mac changed from a being a blues rock band to a mainstream pop outfit by showing how adding or dropping members changed their sound. You could also do the same with individual musicians; in this case, you could talk about how Bob Dylan's sound changed based on whom he collaborated with.

2. You could also show how specific influences on a band shaped its sound. In the Fleetwood Mac example, the fact that John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, and Peter Green were all members of one of the iterations of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers indicates a pretty direct line of influence that shows up in their early sound. Less directly, you could explore how Stereolab's fascination with Krautrock (like Neu!), French pop (like Les Yper-Sound), and vintage electronics (like Georges Jenny's ondioline) helped to forge their sound.

For the presentation, plan on 10 minutes. You'll only be able to play a few selected bits from the band's music, so choose brief examples that demonstrate your argument about influences/personnel changes and the band's sound. In many cases, you won't be able to cover everything; in that case, decide which aspect or time period you want to focus on. And it really will be 10 minutes--one thing I learned from last week's workshops is that if they go long, we'll have to take 3 days to get them done. So, rehearse!

Let me know if you have any questions.

The Making of Us and Them...

2008-02-10T22:39:00.000-08:00

When Carolyn presented Us and Them last class, she mentioned that the Floyd hadn't had any plans to release the song at the time it was written. I automatically thought about this clip, and turns out the song was written for a soundtrack to a movie called Zabriskie Point (I've got all the floyd tracks from that film if anyone is intrested). The clip says it all. It's part of a whole series that goes into the making of The Dark Side of the Moon. Great stuff.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jfGdHJ9jIR8

I also thought the clip was a cool way to show what goes into making a great song, on a great record. I hope you all dig this as much as I did.

A Glimpse of Something Greater

2008-02-06T03:52:00.000-08:00

Hey folks. I'm awake when I shouldn't be.

So, for whomever is interested, I uploaded my group's EP, A Glimpse of Something Greater. You can download it here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/d96d3f

See y'all in four hours or so.

The Disintegration Loops

2008-02-04T20:52:00.000-08:00

So in our last class we were talking about looping and sampling. Listening to Steve Reich's works like "Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain" reminded me of this guy named William Basinski who recorded what he titled The Disintegration Loops.

The story behind these tracks is that in 2001, Basinski was transferring analog tape recordings of loops he made in the 80s to digital, and he discovered that the tapes were so old and worn, that during the transfer, the tapes began to actually fall apart. So, he decided to do this with all his loops and compile them. It's pretty fascinating stuff if you have the patience to listen to a single loop for an hour straight. You can literally hear the tape slowly disintegrate. It's eerie.

Even eerier is that one of the loops (dlp 1.1) was being transfered on the roof of Basinski's apartment building in New York as he watched the World Trade towers fall apart on September 11th. So as you listen to the tapes disintegrate, the same thing is happening to the buildings. Pretty powerful. If anyone can tell me how to post music on this blog, I can put it up.

More about Wednesday

2008-02-04T17:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, lots of good posts to catch up on--I've been reading the posts daily, but I haven't found time to watch all of the embedded videos--I'll be trying to do that tomorrow. However, I just wanted to say that you're all making this a very fun blog to read.

About Wednesday--I wanted to ask for some volunteers to bring in a song to talk about. We need 8 or 9 people to do this. You can leave a comment for this post or you can email me to volunteer.

Thanks!

Fusion Jazz...

2008-02-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

So,

When I first awkwardly introduced myself to the class, I believe I mentioned that my two current musical fixations were in progressive rock and fusion jazz. Sometimes these two overlap, but typically fusion jazz is a less popular genre of music and is usually categorized in music stores as jazz. I figured if anybody was curious about fusion jazz (which is commonly known as a fusion of rock and jazz, but can really be a fusion of any two genres)a really good example is Al Di Meola.

Al Di Meola got his start as guitarist for fusion jazz pioneer Chick Corea, but broke off to do his own material in the mid-70's releasing his debut album Land of the Midnight Sun in 1976. He is one of the main influences of neo-classical shredmaster and certifiably insane person Yngvie J. Malmsteen.

I believe at one point in his youth Al Di Meola actually lived in Poulsbo, so yay us.
Anyways, his music is very flamenco and jazz influenced, fused with a sort of progressive metal sort of sound. Hard to describe so here is a video of that.

I'll also I'd like to be the first Al Di Meola fan who will willfully admit this guy looks like a total douchebag.

I give you "Race With The Devil On A Spanish Highway"

Live Environments

2008-02-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

This is a video of Bassnectar (Lorin Ashton) talking about feeling, stages, and the relationship between listeners and live sound and the different energy's that go around, verses like the normal open stage design.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-J-lJaU7mY&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

and yes, he says orgiastic oasis. but keep listening

Keller Williams

2008-02-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

This is a video of the weird and talented Keller Williams who I played in class the other day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofmV7LrhpA

He Would've Been One Helluva Postman

2008-02-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

We've discussed Brian Eno and the huge impact he's had on pop music a little in class already. I've always seen him as the guy who makes good bands great and great bands even greater. He produced some the best stuff ever recorded by David Bowie, Talking Heads, and U2, to name a few. Not to mention he's made some great albums of his own (I have a hard time reading in my dorm without having Music for Airports playing in my headphones). But this guy has always been a bit of a mystery to me. Despite his impact, I've never had a good sense of who this "non-musician" and producer is. I think this funky interview from 1992 provides some insight into what Brian Eno is like. At least I thought it was interesting. Enjoy.

Okay one more...

2008-02-02T13:32:00.001-08:00

This is a song by a band I'm actually going to see in early March. This is Mute Math with their song "Chaos." It is most evident in the verses that the vocals purposely don't entirely line up with the beats of the song. I found it annoying at first, then grew to love it.

Okay... first post... here I go.

2008-02-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I'm trying to get over my irrational fear of posting on this blog. Well, I guess my fear is that I'll be judged for liking different (and by different, I mean modern, mainstream) music. Eh. I guess this is getting over it.

Anyway, I had this song stuck in my head and then realized it reminded me of talking about chopping in class the other day, so I figured I should share it with you. I'm only familiar with the remix, but I've heard the original once and decided I should share it with you, too, so we can see where the remix came from. Also, ignore the video... this was the only one available on youtube.

Here's the Styrofoam remix of "Drugs or Me" by Jimmy Eat World:

...and the original:

Whew! Okay that wasn't so bad, I guess!

Love,
Laura

Get (more) Happy

2008-02-01T21:18:00.000-08:00

So I already left a comment on Laine's post sharing Vampire Weekend. Basically, her post title (Come on, Get Happy) made me think of this killer Judy Garland number from the musical Summer Stock. There's no real relation to the class other than this being an example of pop music. That and me liking Judy Garland.

By the way, some great posts today. I haven't caught up with all of Chris' post yet (haven't watched all the videos). But the thing I'm enjoying is people picking up on things that are suggested by others in the class and going with it.

Have a good weekend, all.

Zaireeka

2008-02-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

So, after trying to post this once and failing, I'm gonna try again.

Like I said in class today, there is this awesome album by the Flaming Lips called Zaireeka. It consists of four discs that all have different parts of the same songs on them. All four discs are meant to be played at the same time on four different stereos to create a stereo effect.

As someone who has done this multiple times, I have to say, it's pretty kick-ass.

When the Flaming Lips were originally toying with Zaireeka, they got a TON of cars in a parking garage and gave each of the cars a tape. When Wayne Coyne gave the go-ahead, each of the cars were supposed to start the tape at the same time. It created this amazing synched up effect... it's indescribable how cool it is.

Unfortunately, I could not find any video of this on YouTube. HOWEVER... it is on their movie called Fearless Freaks, which is basically a documentary on the Flaming Lips. It's a really good movie, and it will give you a whole new respect for the band that is the Flaming Lips. I'm sure they have it at Film is Truth or something. I highly recommend you watch it.

Also, on the Flaming Lips website (flaminglips.com), there is a page that discusses the different ways you can play with Zaireeka so it syncs up in different ways. It's a flash website, so what you have to do to get there is go to the MUSIC tab, scroll down and hit ZAIREEKA, then somewhere toward the bottom of the page it has a link under the word IDEAS about what you can do with Zaireeka... and voila. You're there.

And, sorry Jeff, but if you go to that site, you'll see at the bottom of the page it specifically says, "...if anyone offers you a single CD of Zaireeka mixed down from its four parts, remember to laugh in their face."

Of pianos, duels, and guitars......

2008-02-01T13:50:00.000-08:00

The movie I was talking about in class today is called "The Legend of 1900". It stars Tim Roth as a ship-born piano virtuoso. In these scenes he duels Jelly Roll Morton (played by Clarence Williams III). The clips are a little long, but well worth it, especially the second one.

Part 1:

Part 2:

And then there's this. The music I wanted to bring in to share with you is another duel (this one in guitar form) from the movie Crossroads....not the Britney Spears movie. This is a classic "sold my soul to the devil for fame" story, starring Joe Seneca as Willie Brown, a.k.a. Blind Dog Fulton and Ralph Macchio (the Karate Kid himself) as classically trained guitarist Eugene Martone a.k.a. Lightnin' Boy. The actual guitar parts were played by Steve Vai and Ry Cooder. The first part of the duel is entitled "Cuttin' Heads Duel" and the second is called "Eugene's Trick Bag" both tracks can be found on Steve Vai's album "The Elusive Light and Sound: Volume 1".

I get goosebumps during the last part....

Come On, Get Happy

2008-02-01T11:35:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is enjoying a little bit of sunshine in your day today! The weekend is almost here. Time to get messed up and listen to music, yes?

On that note,

I want you guys to meet my dad. He is actually a pretty cool guy, and he always sends me info about bands that are up and coming, only to predict who's actually GOOD. (I am still interested about the distinction we discussed today about good music vs. POPULAR music. Hmm.) Anyway, he did the M.I.A. thing before I did, he's all over a lot of international stuff that's coming in, and he's awesome. He sent me the link to this band, Vampire Weekend.

http://www.vampireweekend.com/

The listening is kind of limited, sorry. You definitely have to check out the track M79. The little riffs at the start make me think of a Northeastern version of any sort of the new California-Indie scene(in the sense of simplicity....maybe Beluah?), but I really appreciate that they incorporate other sounds (the strings do a little Baroque thing for me) to really advance the sound of the band. So, not only is it catchy, but it's just complex enough that you don't feel trashy listening to something that your 7th grade brother would enjoy TOO much.

As a lady, I don't have to apologize for being mushy, but I did really enjoy class discussion-ing (?) today. I feel like we got some stuff out. Lots of laughs. Good times had by all. Seriously though? It was fun.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

the Cave Singers/Vinyl Madness

2008-01-31T22:33:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to thank Sam for recommending the Cave Singers. For those of you that went last night, you saw that they put on a pretty good show; I had a lot of fun.

And for those of you interested, I saw the Cave Singers' vinyl at Everyday Music (for those of you not [yet] into vinyl, perhaps they have their CD...?).

SPEAKING OF VINYL... also wanted to thank Kaleb for recommending Aladdin's Lamp Antiques. Dude, that place is AWESOME for old vinyl. If you're a vinyl enthusiast already, or just getting started out in the vinyl world (such as myself), it's a pretty good place to go to find some good quality older vinyl.
And, did you know that Avalon will look out for vinyl for you if it's still in print? Which is pretty cool for the newer stuff.

...I don't know, maybe I'm saying stuff that everyone already knows, but hey, I thought it was pretty cool.

Tomorrow's reading--plus, next week's workshops

2008-01-31T13:42:00.001-08:00

I meant to mention this in class, but forgot--for tomorrow's reading, you don't need to come into the library to get it. It's on electronic reserve. What that means is that you should go to our course reserve page (from the library catalog). Once there, you'll see that the first item says something like "click here for electronic reserve materials." Once you click on the link, it will be the only option--just click again, and you'll see a PDF of the article.

For next week, choose one song that you'll play for us. After playing it, spend a few minutes trying to account for its form; is it in verse-chorus? AABA? Something different? Get precise about the overall song form: if it's verse-chorus, then how does that pattern work out? You may want to post a song on the class blog and try out what you think the form is (in order to get feedback from me and others in the class). I'll ask you tomorrow in class to indicate which day you can go so that we can get about half the class on Wednesday and half on Friday. Plan for no more than 10 minutes. This will help determine which song you choose. Also, I call it a workshop rather than a presentation, because I want to generate conversation about the songs you bring in. This is not about whether you get the song form "right" or not; instead, it's about how choices that we make in describing form affect our understanding of a piece of music and its relation to other songs. Be sure to let me know if you have questions or need help.

Lastly, I made this observation in the comments section to Kaleb's MPC post, but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate Kaleb bringing in some music and his sampler to show us how to construct a beat. I went home and listened to my meager few hip-hop CDs last night and was definitely hearing them in a new way. I also wanted to encourage anyone else to bring in music tools of whatever kind (instruments, technology, or even your voice) to show how you work with those tools. I love tapping into the expertise of the class.

As Kaleb said, enough mushy stuff . . .

Since the subject is MPCs and hip-hop....

2008-01-31T09:38:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite MPC performance EVER. This is DJ Shadow, DJ Numark, and Cut Chemist performing "Pushing Buttons". For those of you interested, Shadow and Chemist (the guys most left and most right on your monitor, respectively) will be spinning at The Showbox on February 10th. Unfortunately, the show is sold out. Personally, I'm still on the lookout for Craigslist tickets. Enjoy!

MPC Craziness

2008-01-30T15:56:00.000-08:00

Hope you guys liked my little presentation today. I had a lot of fun doing it; it was a pretty rare experience.

Anyway, enough mushy stuff... I came here to school you guys on the MPC. That's the gadget I was playing with when I made the beat in class.

First up is Jel, part of Anticon Records. His drum work is crazy. Also, listen closely for the sound of his finger hitting the pads, that's crazy rhythm in and of itself.

Next is Just Blaze, who you've probably heard of. This is what I'm talking about when I say a producer can make a banger in 10 or so minutes. He also gives a tour of his gear at the beginning.

And here we have a French producer by the name of 20syl. Here's some great musicianship, and it also shows off the recording and sample import capabilities of an MPC.

Lastly, a little bit of humor. Enjoy yourselves responsibly.

2008-01-29T19:29:00.000-08:00

Did you know, that i can go to Japan and back?
I just wanted to share, because I love this song.

2008-01-29T19:11:00.000-08:00

For the Chris Brown fans. I know I'm one.

Bellingham Live Music Scene (or lack thereof)

2008-01-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

We'd chatted about this a bit in class last Friday, but here is an article in the Bellingham Herald that does a pretty good job of laying out the difficulties faced by club owners here. It's worse than I thought. The city seems intent on killing authentic local culture. Weird.

What soul is really all about (to a middle class white kid)

2008-01-23T22:53:00.000-08:00

Today in class when Jeff was playing that Japanese "soul" music, I couldn't stop thinking to myself about how it didn't really grab me. There was nothing wrong with the musicianship in my mind, the band was tight and the singer wasn't out of tune. It just seemed like it was lacking the key element of "soul". I won't claim to be an authority figure on soul music, but I was heavy into soul for most of my life since I started playing the trumpet at the age of 7. Anyway... getting back to the point... To me real soul music sounds like this (if you're a Mayfield fan I apologise for choosing the most cliche Mayfield song [not to mention a pathetic radio version], I just figured it was the best example to illustrate my point):

To all of you Kanye West fans out there, this is some of the stuff he has sampled.

I dare you to listen to this song and not feel better about yourself, I DARE YOU!

Slow Hand

2008-01-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

The whole while Jeff was speaking of the 12 bar blues and AAB form, this song was playing in my head. It's not quite as classic as Jimmie Rogers, but it does the trick for me.

ISP

2008-01-23T00:26:00.000-08:00

As a WWU senior and a Fairhaven vet i just wanted to let all of you know the possibilities you have by being part of this wonderful alternative college. I'm currently writing another blog for Jeff as an independent study project and i totally get credit for this! It's pseudo personal because there are some inside jokes, but mainly i try to write short blogs reflecting the new music thats being filtered through your college radio station, KUGS. If you're interested fly on over to www.spiritquesting.com/fasterthanlight

This is my synth hero.

The Fairlight CMI

2008-01-22T23:56:00.000-08:00

I'm a tad late with the timing on this one, but I had it in mind when I was reading the blurbs about synthesizers in pop music in the reading...

Here's Herbie Hancock showing off the Fairlight CMI, an early synthesizer and sequencer, in 1983, with Quincy Jones hanging out. Pretty cool shit.

Video Grab Bag

2008-01-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a bunch of embedded videos of songs referred to in John Covach's "Form in Rock Music: a Primer." Some of them aren't proper videos, but you'll get to hear the tunes at least.

Here's one to illustrate the twelve-bar blues: Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle, and Roll":

Eight-bar blues: Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel":

Sixteen-bar blues: Elvis again, with "Jailhouse Rock":

AABA form: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow":

Verse-Chorus form (the Ronettes, "Be My Baby"):

More verse-chorus--the Beatles, "Penny Lane":

Verse with no chorus--Santana, "Evil Ways" (this is not a real video--someone just uploaded the song with the album cover art displayed):

Compound form--Boston, "More Than a Feeling" (another fake video):

More on compound form--the Police, "Every Breath You Take":

These will make the most sense if you follow along with Covach's text and are meant to simply illustrate what he's talking about. Covach refers to additional songs that I haven't embedded, and most of them should be available through YouTube--feel free to seek them out. I'll bring in alternate examples to class tomorrow.

The Holy Ghost Ain't Always Pretty

2008-01-20T13:20:00.000-08:00

In our last reading, there was a discussion on how a lot of pop exists as a "mixed-media" form and on how the image and music go hand in hand. That reminded me of this little gem here: "Dancing on Our Graves" from Seattle band The Cave Singers.

Man, this video just nails it. The song itself already has an almost possessed momentum to it, and when you add the visual element, it's hard not to get swept away. I can almost taste the air at the revival when I see this video; it's thick with sweat, tension, and just a little bit of menace.

The Cave Singers are actually coming to the Underground Coffeehouse on January 30th. This is by far their most raucous song, but the rest of their stuff ain't bad at all. Maybe I'll see you there.

David Bowie Was Weird?

2008-01-18T18:56:00.000-08:00

Too bad Klaus Nomi died before he knew the impact he had on pop music. In the video that Clark posted you can see Klaus Nomi doing back-up vocals for Bowie. I'm not completely sure but i think Bowie found Klaus in New York's East Village and was intrigued by his appearance. You can check out a really sad documentary on Klaus Nomi called "The Nomi Song."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402406/

His real name is David Jones.

2008-01-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

David Bowie. After exposure to 23 albums I'm left amazed and confused. Known as a musical cameleon, Bowie has done it all. This clip for me hits the top ten.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=q4CJgygSRSU

Now when viewing this clip you maybe asking yourself one, if not all of the fallowing questions: Why is Bowie performing a song that he released in 1976 on a Saturday Night Live episode that aired in 1980? Why does he have those wierd backup singers? And for God's sake, why is he dressed like Janet Reno? I've pondered all of these questions for years and have finally settled on one simple answer: He's David Bowie, and he can do what ever he wants.

STS9

2008-01-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

This morning, when reading the Seattle P-I over breakfast, I was surprised to see a big, splashy story about Sound Tribe Sector 9. Thanks to Carolyn, I had a vague idea of what they were talking about. Now I've just got to hear some of their music.

Yes (the band).

2008-01-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know the band Yes (or for those of you who dig the band), here is an early '70's documentary I found on the band.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hUGwrYWV-uA&feature=related

This link is only part one of a four part feature. It features the "classic" line up of the band, with each member giving interviews on their role in the band, and the state of rock music at that time.

Enjoy.

Boop Beep Bop

2008-01-14T23:54:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting new video from an up-and-coming electro artist.

Dandi Wind are a Canadian electro duo originally hailing from Vancouver BC, but are now currently rocking in their new hometown of Montreal. This track reminds me of a lot of the artists being steam rolled out of France's electro scene thanks to Ed Banger and Kitsune'. Enjoy.

Welcome to class

2008-01-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

Hello, and welcome to Fairhaven 397q: Writing About Popular Music. This blog will be the main communication tool for our course. I'll use it to convey information about upcoming classes. I'll also embed videos from YouTube for some of the music we'll be listening to, as well as forwarding articles of interest relating to the course.

You'll all have posting privileges as well. So, that means that you can embed videos that you want us all to look at, share articles, etc. I'm hoping that this blog will generate some lively discussion and that we can use it to brainstorm about the things we read and talk about in class. You'll all have to help me dress this blog up a bit, too, since I've left it pretty plain.

See you soon.