Willie Nelson Makes Me Happy

When I think of just sitting to listen to music as your primary focus, I think of how Dr. Huxtable used to sit and listen to jazz. Or how David Helfgott's father would do the same in Shine. I guess that means I associate the notion with old guys. And I still like to think of myself as not an old guy. That's debatable, however, due to my recent onset of back problems... but that's neither here nor there for this forum. New Vinyl! I came home today to a nice little vinyl-sized package, which I came to discover was the bearer of the two records I recently picked up from cduniverse.com (<--great prices for vinyl): Radical Face's Ghost, and Willie Nelson's Songbird. So instead of busying myself with stuff to do around the house while I checked out the new tunes, I decided to just sit and listen. This is actually really tough for me, since I'm so used to at least reading through my Google Reader feeds, but I did it. So since I have Ghost on mp3 already, I decided to check out Songbird first. Now, one of my goals for this blog is to not be a site for reviewing all of the new music that I check out, then pass on recommendations. It is, rather, a forum where I can blab about music and aspects of music that move me in some fashion. I can't say that the whole album did that, but it was definitely a pleasure to sit, stare, tap my foot, and soak in. My Review Just kidding. But if you weren't in the know, this is a Willie Nelson album--but just as much a Ryan Adams and The Cardinals album. Ryan Adams produced it and played guitars all over it, and The Cardinals do all kinds of great filling out the gaps. For the Ryan Adams fans out there, there's a number of tracks that are unmistakeably branded by his work. The Stuff That Makes Me Happy For me, the alt-country thing is really hit or miss--and more so on the miss side. But when it hits, I really really dig it. It's just that there's sooo much of it out there now that it all starts to sound the same. This song, however, is on the hit side--nothing really groundbreaking about it--it just has that right blend of the ol' good-music formula to do the trick. ...that's actually a Ryan Adams song. Cheaters. This next one--an old Grateful Dead tune--has some reaaally cool stuff going on in it. First, you get that nice baby-rocking slow shuffle-y ballad-y feel. Awesomely subtle overlaying dissonances. They play minors when you expect majors. Some really great dirty electric guitar bends. Great, easy resolving chorus. Electric, distorted tremolo guitar. Yummy major 7 chords. With Willie Nelson doing his Willie Nelson thing. On 180 gram vinyl, this sounds phenomenal:

1. They cover Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"
2. They cover Gram Parson's "$1000 Wedding", which is phenomenal
3. They redo Willie's "Sad Songs and Waltzes"
4. They do an interesting rendition of "Amazing Grace"

Stuff About The Album That's Annoying:

1. "Songbird" is a Fleetwood Mac tune

Music, Culture, and Coltrane

Ok, so I've been busy and away from posting for a bit. But in my business, I've had a moment or two to do some thinking. At some point in the past 14 days or so, I started pondering on what aspects make one say "I like that song"--or even more poignantly, "I don't like that song." Autoanalysis After thoroughly listening to Dr. John's first album and discovering that it was a Rolling Stone Top-500 album, I started questioning myself: "Why can't I get in to this? Is it me or the music?" I made myself listen again. Nope. And again. Still nope. And again... a couple more times... Still. Nope. There were a couple cool moments in a couple of the songs, but they were just too hippie for me. So, I'm imagining that Rolling Stone's Top-500 list isn't just the result of one person's opinion; it's got to be made up of a bunch of people's opinions. So, some large group of people seriously thought that this Dr. John album was some of the best music of all time--so why don't I think so? I know I can see why people might think so; but I can also see why some other group of people might seriously think that a Helicopter String Quartet is amazing as well (Stockhausen was awarded for this piece, apparently, in 2001; check part of it out on YouTube). As a sort of art form, both the album and the string quartet are impressive, but in neither case do I find them aurally pleasing. The latter, I actually find to be bizarro/cool; the former, really just bizarro. Analysis So I started thinking of the people I know and pondered about what stereotypical social groups they fit in to and what music they might say they like. When one says "I can't stand opera," for example, I really have to wonder if they really "get" opera. Or replace 'opera' with 'punk' or 'rap' or 'country' or 'jazz' or 'reggae'... Sure, there's some aspect of whether or not some song may be aurally pleasing or not, but I really think that a lot of us who just dismiss a whole genre of music really "get it" before we do so. The thing I really think is interesting though, is the intertwining of the desire to like something because of reason X (my coworkers listen to Country and I want to relate to them. Or: people that listen to Goth Rock really express the things that I feel, so I should listen to that), and the idea that you like something regardless of the reason--you like it because it effects your emotions in a way you deem positive. I think it's interesting because the "regardless of the reason" reason seems to really be just the result of the first desire, which merely happened at an earlier time in your life. Maybe you didn't consciously make a decision to listen to what you listened to as a kid, but that effected you, and now represents certain events in your life; you probably listen to some music today that you hold some fondness for due to listening to it earlier in life. You probably also avoid listening to music that represents something negative that happened in your life (unless, of course, you enjoy reenacting the crap parts of your life). [2 day break from writing...] After Some More Thinking So before the above, I took a few more days (unintentionally) to ponder the whole idea, and I really just came back to the not-so-profound idea of how art, in general, is really just a catch-22 type of representation/influence on the culture or subculture you belong to. You listen to something because you identify with it--or you want to identify with it. You listen to the subculture music that you feel at home with when you want to feel at home; you listen to the subculture music that you don't feel at home with when you want to branch out--and as a result, there's a good chance you might learn something that has nothing to do with music at all. Well, if you pay attention, that is. There's a good chance that you (yes, you) don't listen to Classical music on a regular basis because you don't "get it"--you weren't raised in a family that spent much time with the genre, or weren't ever educated in a way that made you take a step outside of your music culture home, so to speak. Just like I don't listen to the music from Noh theatre because I was never around it, nor ever taught about it. On the flip side, if you fall in to that no-Classical-whlie-growing-up boat, maybe some unexpected occurrence in your life drew you in to some particular Classical piece or composer, and little by little your palette for Classical grew. That's what got me in to Jazz. John Coltrane's Ballads. The stars alligned, or whatever it was that day, and I felt the spirit move me to buy this album back in 2000. And it's beautiful. It was easy to palatte for me at the time. I was living in France, so I felt I should try to investigate the French fascination with the genre. And now, I look forward to finding new Jazz jewels to add to the collection. Previous to the discovery of this album though, Jazz bored my pants off. "It's Easy To Remember (But So Hard To Forget)", John Coltrane, Ballads: En Somme I think all of this pondering has done a couple of things for me. First, it makes me take a step back and consider how sheltered my ears are. There is so much music outside of the Western Pop (read: Pop, R&B, Folk, Metal, Indie, Jazz, Rap) that I listen to every day--maybe I should take a step out of the box and check out some Noh theatre music, or some more North African oud music. This Anouar Brahem album is gorgeous (yes, that's a piano, an accordion and an oud): "Leila Au Pays Du Carrousel", Anouar Brahem, Le Pas Du Chat Noir: Next, it really encourages me in to the whole music making process. If music is representative of who you are and who you want to be, there's sure lots of me that I need to figure out in order to make music again. Lastly, it encourages me to encourage all of you to take a step back from your regular music allottment (or cycle, as I find for myself), and pick up something really off the wall, but something that's tied to some subculture that intrigues you for some reason. Think about it. People in Papua New Guinea, Namibia, and Tahiti probably all fall in love and get their hearts broken too. Ponder it for a while. Then just give it a shot. It might change your life.

New Mogwai

New album out in the Fall, which is exciting. This track puts a smile on my face.  Its like one of those everything-is-gonna-be-alright songs.  "The Sun Smells Too Loud", off the new album The Hawk Is Howling: You can download it from Matador's site. http://www.mogwai.co.uk/ I'm excited.

Dr. John and Bizarro Liner Notes

So, on Benji's recommendation, I've been checking CDs and DVDs out from the County Library.  So far I've been able to discover some good jazz and check out some Criterion Collection flicks--good times.  Last weekend I checked out some Charles Mingus, the Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim album (which I think is gonna become part of the weekly jazz staple), and this album from Dr. John (or his full pseudonym: Dr. John, the night tripper). I'm not really sure where my long-time desire to actually check out this guy's stuff came from--I think I'm leaning towards seeing him on The Muppets as a kid?--but I know that ever since hearing him do "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" with Harry Connick, Jr. (on the album 20), I've had a curiousity.  Here's that track: So last weekend, I check out his debut album, Gris-Gris (or GRIS-gris as stated on the album), #143 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (in case you were wondering, Dr. Dre's The Chronic is #137 *shrug*).  It is iiiiiinteresting though.  I expected some bluesy, New Orleans jazz.  NEWP.  When I say "iiiiiinteresting", I mean it.  Really atypical stuff; it ain't today's pop music, that's for sure.  I thought about posting an example--something that really is inspiring--and I might, later on.  After reading the liner notes though, I thought that that might better describe (and entertain) what this album is like:

Who? My group consists of Dr. Poo Pah Doo of destine tambourine and Dr. Ditmus of Conga, Cr. Bourdreaux of Funky Knuckle Skins and Dr. Battiste of Scorpio in Bass Clef, Dr. McLean of Mandolin Comp. School, Dr. Manm of Bottleneck Learning, Dr. Bolden of The Immortal Flute Fleet, The Baron of Ronyards, Dido, Chine, Goncy O'Leary, Shirley Marie Laveaux, Dr. Durden, Govenor Plas Johnson, Senator Bob West Bowing, Croaker Jean Freunx, Sister Stephanie and St. Theresa, John Gumbo, Cecilia La Favorite, Karla Le Jean who were all dreged up from The Rigolets by the Zombie of the Second Live.  Under the eight visions of Professor Longhair Reincannted the charts of now. What? I will mash my special fais deaux-deaux on all you who buy my charts.  The rites of Coco-Robicheaux who, invisible to all but me, will act as a second guardian angel until you over-work him.  All who attend our rites will receive kites from the second tier of Tit Alberto who brought the Saute Chapeau to Chieu Va Bruler up to us from The Antilles to the Bayou.  St. John and my Aunt Francis who told me the Epic of Jump Sturdy and Apricot Glow.  Mimi, who in silence, says the lyrics to Mamma Roux in Chipacka the Chopatoulis, Choctaws without teepees on Magnolia Street and wise to the Zulu Parade and the Golden Blade, the sun-up to sun-down second liners who dig Fat Tuesday more than anybody and that's plenty.  I have also dug up the old Danse Kalinda to remind you we have not chopped out the old chants and the new Croaker Courtbullion to server battiste style of Phyco-delphia.  We did the snake à la Gris-Gris Calimbo to frame our thing into the medium of down under, younder fire.  We walked on gilded splinters to shove my point across to you whom I will communicate with shortly through the smoke of Deaux-Deaux, the rattlesnake whose forked tongue hisses pig latin in silk and satin da-zaw-ig-day may the gilded splinters of Auntie Andre spew forth in your path to light and guide your way through the bayous of life on your pirogue of heartaches and good times... Push and the shove that you need to get your point across no matter what the cost.

I'm not sure if I missed some punctuation, but I don't really think it matters. :-)

New Music? ...Or Old?

I somehow found myself internet wandering this eve and ran across a band called Parachutes that sounds very Sigur Rós-ish.  Maybe part of that is due to the fact that they're from Reykjavik... but in any case they might be worth a listen. Theeeen... I got pointed in the direction of Iceland, and found this cool blog on Iceland's music scene.  ...where the Icelandic Song of the Week was "Under The Influence of My Bloody Valentine" by bob; their songs on MySpace totally remind me of Benji (interesting changes, interesting rhythms, interesting chord dissonances): (You can download that track here for free.) A nice night of discoveries.  Too bad iTunes is all jacked for me now; ruins my end-the-night-on-a-good-note note.

RANT: I'm Sick of iTunes.

There's nothing more frustrating in going to sit down and listen to your mp3 collection and then realize it's not there. Well, that's not quite exactly what's going on, but sorta.  I use 2 separate iTunes libraries to a) manage the goods on my MBP and b) manage the goods on my server.  It's neat that iTunes offers this functionality.  Except that it doesn't work.  Every time, now, I switch from one library to the other, iTunes re-references all my files to the last source.  I.e.: I use the iTunes library that points to all the stuff on my server, quit, then launch the library that points to my laptop stuff, and voilà!--nothing works because iTunes thinks all of those songs are physically located on my server.  And of course there's no easy way to make iTunes switch all the files back--it makes you think it does when you change back your preferences (that it so conveniently changed for you), but it doesn't fix anything.  So, I either have to delete all songs out of my library and re-add them (but then you lose all of your playback metadata--count played, rating, etc--I actually started rating things a couple months ago and have enjoyed this feature for filtering out crap that I, for some reason, won't delete even though I don't listen to it), or use Doug's Bring Out Yer Dead script to fix all 3060 songs, one-by-one. FIX YOUR CRAP APPLE. {end}

1s and 0s

I just got Reason 4 installed on the MBP. And that's exciting. Back in the day, I found Reason 2 to be pretty easy to make some electronic tunes with, so I went with it and ended up with some of the stuff at my "loveless" MySpace site.  According to Luke D., it doesn't produce the most well-rounded and full music, even after mixing--and I'd have to agree--but I'm hoping it's improved in the past 5 years or so.  I'm also hoping I've improved in the past 5 years... Now, if I only had a MIDI controller so I could actually use the program... *sigh*

Hooray for Thrift Store Vinyl!

Amanda and I took a trip to Yoshi Now! on Saturday and I was quite happy to score some new vinyl.  Besides being cheap, the great thing about buying used vinyl is that you sometimes find treasure: I found a personalized & autographed sketching of Willie Nelson inside the Greatest Hits (And Some That Will Be) album I picked up: I also scored Steve Reich's Tehillim (which is interesting in that there's no fixed meter for this piece, yet is quite rhythmic; very cool how the percussion accents the Hebrew text): Volume 1 of Glenn Gould playing Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (already had Vol. 1, but in mono!): Van Cliburn and Fritz Reiner (+ Chicago Symphony Orchestra) doing Brahms' Concerto No. 2, and an old school (on 78!) recording of The Boston Symphony Orchestra doing Ravel's Bolero (too bad I didn't realize they were 78's until after I got 'em--my record player doesn't do those :-( ). While looking for album cover pics for these, I also finally registered for discogs.com--a cool site for buying, selling, trading, displaying and finding info out about albums--especially vinyl.  I actually found out that the copy of Abbey Road that I picked up from Amoeba in May is actually an original pressing, and that a couple other thrift store finds somehow made their way to Fresno from Canada at some point in time.  If for some reason you feel the urge to take a gander at the collection, check it here.  Unfortunately, they don't have a lot of classical stuff up there that I have, but it's still cool nonetheless.

Whiskey Drinkin' Music

Thanks Scotty.

Music Is Not My Everest

I've tried to pretend that it's not. I've tried to make it what I wanted it to be. I've tried to to use it to say things I don't believe. I've used it to say things I don't feel. I've made it something it's not. Oh, but it is. "Gagging Order", Radiohead, Go To Sleep (EP 2)