Forgetfulness = Happiness

At some point one must become OK with not knowing everything.  In fact, one must become OK with the idea that much of what they come to know, they will eventually forget. Sounds like a silly statement, probably, but it was something that popped in to my head this weekend while at the Brewer's cabin.  I was sitting on the patio about 9:15am and trying to soak up the silence and enjoy the nature before heading back to dirty, smokey, mucky, grimy, sticky, hot Fresno, when I started pondering silly questions. The Question(s) I noticed these two trees (don't ask me what kind--I don't know a cedar from a fir from you name it, unless it comes to fruit) and how perfectly straight they seemed, but yet they weren't perfectly perpendicular to the ground.  If they were so straight, what made them get like that?  Why is it, again, that trees grow in different directions?  ...and then how do some end up so straight like these two?  That, of course, led to other silly questions... I know somebody knows the answer to that question about the trees, but why don't I know it?  Maybe somebody told me why trees might grow like that, but I guess I probably just forgot. So why do I forget?  Why can't I know all of the stuff I was once told?  Why couldn't I remember why trees grow the way they grow? My (Completely Unfounded) Answer It's too much for my brain.  As a kid, I learned things, then for some reason, my brain dismissed them.  So... at some point in my life, I must've realized that I can't remember everything I read or heard or saw...  I must've then decided that it's just OK to never know it all and that I'll continue to forget all kinds of things for the rest of my life. But why?  Why is it OK that I forget? Because that's how it is.  No choice in that matter. My Refreshing Conclusion (well, at least to me) While all of that may sound like a downer or even a "who cares", I think it might point to the opposite.  Maybe bad memories serve us well.  Maybe they allow two of us to have the same conversation over and over again and it's OK.  Maybe they allow us to dismiss the ways that we've been wronged without realizing we've dismissed them. When it comes to music, forgetting how that one note in the Rach #3 can bring me to tears every time I hear it, is really priceless.  That, in fact, drives me to listen to it again, and again, and again...  but only after I've forgotten it just enough to make me long to hear it again.  And when I do finally hear that note again (in context, of course), my heart flutters, the corners of my eyes dampen a little, my teeth show a little, and I'm satisfied all over again.  (Sometimes I want to punch Mr. R in the face for being so damn good to me.) I'm thankful for my forgetful brain.  It helps put smiles on my face time and time again.

Mind Blowing Radiohead Covers

Pop Music To many people, I just blasphemed.  To those people, the words "Radiohead" and "Cover" should not be in the same sentence.  I was one of those people at one point in time; I might still be one of those people, actually.  The reason for this, for me at least, is due to the amazing result of what comes about when those 5 guys get together with a bunch of guitars, crazy weird synths (I got so excited when I saw Johnny G playing the Ondes Martenot live), and some percussion.  Sure, many people say that Radiohead is not pop (and pop is dead), and I would heartily disagree with them--Radiohead, while not getting much radio play since the early 90's, is a pop band. But man do they do some interesting stuff in their pop music.  Maybe they're sorta pop pioneers--I don't know, and I don't really care.  While Thom Yorke's voice is great, the thing that really gets me is how they seem to have their instruments mastered, which allows them to play with music, so to speak.  5/4 (in "Morning Bell"), 7/8 (in "2 + 2 = 5"), 3/4, 6/4, 7/4, 9/8... they play in all sorts of meters, mix meters, and even mix 5's and 3's to make a regular 4/4 sound interesting.  Remember, this is pop music... The Cover But I really love how jazz pianist Brad Mehldau (on Nonesuch) does their "Paranoid Android."  He does a version of it with his trio on his Largo album, but the version on his Live In Tokyo album completely blows me away.  In order to be allowed to cover a Radiohead tune, you really have to be as good or better at the instrument you play, or at least offer some amazing creativity in what you do with their stuff (check Radiodread out... Reggae is really hit or miss for me, but somehow this hits for me.).  Mehldau's version of PA makes my eyes wanna pop out of my head.  You have to put your patience hat on to listen to this one if you're not one that grins at 20 minute versions of tunes; for me, this is cake though.  If you know PA, you can easily pick out the various melodies when Mehldau plays them, which is always a plus for me when it comes to jazz.  The thing that blows me away is the range of dynamics and emotion that he gets out of this tune, all by himself, on a piano, over such a (relatively) long period of time.  In order to keep a piece interesting over such a period, you have to keep it breathing (so your listeners can breathe!); he grows this thing in just the right places. And then I marvel at his strength to pull this off.  If you've ever played a concert grand piano for more than 10 minutes, you know that it's a tad different than playing on that spinet in your living room; it really takes some finger strength to get tones out of those 7' or 8' or however long strings that you've got in your bass register.  If you really listen, once the piece gets going, he's playing 8th's or 16th's on these huge strings forEVER.  I'd pass out if I tried to do that. This is a great tune in general, and Mehldau dominates it.  For me, this is one of those sacred pieces--one of the ones you don't really wanna listen to too much, because you'll ruin it.  Please... enjoy... "Paranoid Andriod", Brad Mehldau, Live In Tokyo

Music that pisses me off (that probably shouldn't)

There aren't a lot of songs that can evoke so much negative emotion from me (well, save from Josh Grobin or Celine Dion).  I have this Bebel Gilberto album that has a bunch of cool Brazilian electronic-y modern-y stuff on it.  This one song, however, makes me want to scream and run around the room punching things: "Bananeira", Bebel Gilberto, off of Tanto Tempo I noticed, though, that if you play two of this track at the same time (which would normally drive me nuts), it gets better:

Musicovery is web2.0neato for finding new music

Biz sent me a link to musicovery.com the other day, and I was instantly intrigued by both the way you tell it to find stuff you want to hear (by your mood, rarity, era, and genre), as well as how it presents it to you (spacial links, sorta like a Mind Map).  I haven't got the chance to really use it for a while, but I did sign up and am planning on seeing if I score any new music as a result.  It looks promising...!

The New Boléro

The Bolero To quote Wikipedia's article:

Bolero is a 3/4 dance that originated in Spain in the late 18th century, a combination of the contradanza and the sevillana.[1] Dancer Sebastiano Carezo is credited for inventing the dance in 1780[2]. It is danced by either a soloist or a couple. It is in a moderately slow tempo and is performed to music which is sung and accompanied by castanets and guitars with lyrics of five to seven syllables in each of four lines per verse. It is in triple time and usually has a triplet on the second beat of each bar.

I'm sure I'm not the first to think this, but I always think Ravel's Boléro is so evocative (I hate that word, but can't think of a better one for this case). It's so simple, so elegant, yet so mechanical and complex at the same time. Some say this is his most famous work.  I'm curious as to how a piece like this ended up influencing guys like Philip Glass and Steve Reich, due to the blatant minimalistic characteristics it possesses. I've always loved Ravel's Boléro. I love how it builds intensity without letting you realize it's building intensity. I love the simplicity of the melody. I love thinking about how much control the players must have in order to keep the same time for 15 minutes, and yet only grow in dynamic just ever so slightly as each second goes by; you'll ruin the whole thing if you let yourself go, lose control, and just go to town even for one little tiny note... it must be so tempting at times.  And the cathartic end just gives this sort of balls-out, classical-music distortion fulfillment...  It's like all of this careful and beautiful work was done for 14 minutes, and then everyone just shouts through their instruments for the last minute.  Awesome. Today I've recently realized, however, that there are a few pieces by a few of my favorite bands that sorta fit a modernized mold as the Boléro:

• Mogwai's "New Paths To Helicon, Pt I"
• Mono's "Halcyon, Beautiful Days"
• Sigur Rós' "Olsen Olsen"

Now, they might not sound anything like the Boléro, but they each share the ideas of a simple, repetitive bass line, a simple counter-melody, a simple melody, and a slow build to an explosion of cathartic goodness; and they're all in a meter that could almost feel like a triple time. I realized at one point back in my electronica days that all of my songs seemed to try to emulate this formula--it was totally unintentional--but they didn't even approached the result that all of the pieces I talked about here do. Take a gander... "New Paths To The Helicon, Pt. I", Mogwai, Government Commissions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 "Halcyon (Beautiful Days), Mono, Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined "Olsen Olsen", Sigur Ros, Agaetis Byrjun This stuff harkens to both the minimalist and the romanticist in me, capturing two very opposite concepts and meshing them together in to something great. Even if these pieces aren't Boléro-esque, I like to think they are. And that makes me happy too.

A little time...

I never sit in the quiet anymore.  Never just sit.  There's always something to read, something to watch, something to listen to.  I allow myself to be inundated with information and stories.  Today's days seem full of info coming in, but no time to process it all. I need a little 4'33" in my life...

Vinyl vs. MP3 and Piano Snobbery

It's amazing... I never thought I'd really be able to tell such a difference. Background After buying my first turntable (Thorens TD-125 MKII) about a month ago now, then picking up some audiophile-ish speakers (Dynaco A-40XL) (I like to call em "speaks"), I've indulged in to the world of the plastic-y, music-y stuff. More on this in another post... Anyway, I just popped on the Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Dave Digs Disney" album (ripped as 160Kbps mp3's) and was amazed at how digital the piano sounded in the intro. I've listened to this album probably 30 times and I'd never noticed this before. I mean, it always just sounded like a piano--this sounds aaalmost like a modern electronic stage piano. It seems that listening to the vinyl goodness at home has effected my music listening. Piano Snobbery I'll openly admit that I'm a piano tone snob. I have a great piano at home (although a tad out of tune), but I won't play it because the tone bores me. And for anything that claims "piano", the further you get away from real piano sounds, the greater my emotions heighten towards detesting the sounds being made from that instrument. It generally causes me to turn the music off. Of course there are exceptions though. But hearing this recording after being battered by mp3 compression almost makes me want to turn it off. Weird. Maybe it's time to jump on the bandwagon and use AAC instead of MP3... or buy an external HDD and rip everything as FLAC...? I really hope that listening to vinyl won't taint my life with music like learning Music Theory in college did (fat chance though, it seems). I don't regret, by any means, taking those Theory classes (kinda had to since they were required for the major, but still), but they changed every music listening experience I've had since; sometimes I'm happy for that, and sometimes it frustrates the crap out of me. (Once again, ignorance really is bliss, I suppose) In any case, here's that Brubeck tune: "Alice In Wonderland", Dave Brubeck Quartet, Dave Digs Disney

I'm finally going to a show

I'm not quite sure, but I think the last big-name show that I went to was when I saw Radiohead at The Shoreline, back on their Hail To The Thief tour (geez, was that really 5 years ago?), with my good friend Doug (was that a 12er of Bass that we "quenched our thirst" with in the parking lot beforehand?).  In any case, Sigur Rós should be a good way to break that streak; I'm excited to see what kind of presence they bring in a live setting. Althoooough... Peter sent me a link to NPR interviewing them, and I have to say that it evoked some interesting emotions, that might have changed my opinion of them.  Sometimes ignorance really is bliss when it comes to my perception of bands and their music (one reason why I've usually stayed away from watching music videos--well, back when MTV actually had music videos on).  Here's that interview:

Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Loving You (Live @ Blueberry Hill)

Here's a recording from someone's bootleg tape, which isn't quite as yummy, but still ain't too shabby...

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Led Zeppelin: Since I've Been Loving You (BBC Sessions)

Well, I don't have the original track on my laptop for some reason, but found this awesome recording of the track recorded for their BBC Sessions album. This is what that Raconteurs song reminds me of--and once again, I friggen love it. I'd never heard this recording of this tune, and damn it's yummy. Bonham gets a little silly with the double kicks and the like, but does some real tasteful stuff here--super awesome. (Funny how I always drool over Bonham's drumming before anything else, when I don't even play)  The hint to the culmination @ ~4:55 is soooo niiice--totally one-up's the studio version.  And what a nice sound they get from whatever room they were in when they recorded this... Bastards. Oh, sorry about the funky slideshow--I really wanted to find a music-only version online somewhere, but no juice.

Blue Veins - The Raconteurs

A couple weeks ago, Scotty turned me on to The Raconteurs (w/Cat Power) on Austin City Limits 2006 show that was on PBS in HD. I'd never really been a huge fan of The White Stripes (probably as a result of not really listening to them much), and hadn't heard anything really of The Raconteurs since their first album--and even then, it was maybe one track, one time. Decent, I thought. Holy merde though. I hadn't expected to be so impressed--which is probably partially why I was so impressed. Totally money. They did a few tracks which were good (I think off of "Broken Boy Soldiers"); the cover of "Bang Bang" was freaking great; and then this tune--"Blue Veins". I'll let it speak for itself, but man did I dig it. I couldn't stop flashing back to Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Lovin' You", which just so happens to be one of my favorite tunes, period. Check it...

What is my purpose?

Why did I start this blog? I started it because I need an outlet for music. Then why not go do music? Because I'm stumped. The History This music thing has always been a big part of my life, but lately (the past few years) it's been a huge roller coaster. I don't seem to encounter huge inspirations like I did in my early 20s. And consequently, I don't find myself getting that big urge to sit down and just play like I used to. Getting time alone with a piano or guitar used to be the ultimate. I found fulfillment in sitting for hours on end, playing things I knew, learning new things, and creating new things. But those times are few and far between these days. It seems that in order to create, I have to logically force the issue--but the effort is like I'm climbing a mountain when I've lost the love for the outdoors. A few weeks ago, I realized that maybe it just has to do with my mindset. My main goals and thoughts over the past few years have revolved around careers and relationships and finances, and making decisions based on logic rather than emotion (that was a big turning point for me :-)). I thought that perhaps that shift in mindset sort of buried that part of me that does music. The Future So as a result, I created this blog to try to stimulate some creativity in hopes that things will change again; not necessarily to revert to the old, but rather to combine the old and the recent in to something new. I look forward to brain-dumping about the topic, sharing new music, sharing old music, and investigating new creative inspirations. I hope this is worth putting on the web... :-)