https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/01-wish
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
you have to remember: stipe is a wry guy. and, he tends to come at things from multiple angles at the same time.
what he's getting at is the unrealistic nature of the expectation, but he's balancing out the selfishness of suicide with the right to it.
are those the eyes that the narrator really wants the listener to remember?
eyes that shiver and fold?
is the narrator truly not creating a burden?
truly holding these things inside?
and how can you look the narrator in the eye, when these words are coming out?
should the narrator be surprised that the listener is shivering?
but, the sum total is simply an exploration of how difficult the situation is.
i don't think he really comes to a total conclusion.
what he's getting at is the unrealistic nature of the expectation, but he's balancing out the selfishness of suicide with the right to it.
are those the eyes that the narrator really wants the listener to remember?
eyes that shiver and fold?
is the narrator truly not creating a burden?
truly holding these things inside?
and how can you look the narrator in the eye, when these words are coming out?
should the narrator be surprised that the listener is shivering?
but, the sum total is simply an exploration of how difficult the situation is.
i don't think he really comes to a total conclusion.
i think people are mostly getting the point, but they're missing the device. and, i think that getting the device ties a lot of the ideas here together. this is one of stipe's smartest tracks and analyzing it does a lot to point out that his language is often very carefully put together, even when it may not seem like it is.
"it's 10:00. do you know where your kids are?"
this was often something you would see on tv during the reagan years, generally during a newscast. it was also widely ridiculed by young people at the time. you still hear it from time to time. it's meant to ask the question: are your kids on drugs?
what stipe is doing is ironically putting himself in the role of the adult, here. he doesn't exactly want to be the adult. he doesn't want to be the "downer". but, he's also seeing this world first hand, and he's reflecting that the news reports are not entirely frivolous. that the kids are on drugs. or, at least some of them are. and, the ones that are on drugs need a bit of help with it, too.
he's trying to establish a perspective that exists in some kind of middle ground.
he's then taking that middle ground to reflect on the real value of freedom, and how he feels about getting in the way of the freedom of others. the car is the american symbol of freedom.
the drug lingo is consequently entirely accurate, but it's a giant double-entendre about feeling caught between the counter-culture and a feeling of responsibility to help people. to stipe, this is a very stern moral dilemma that pits two equally valuable ideals against each other. he's struggling with this moral dilemma.
the language about bush & ollie north is also accurate. you just have to understand their connections to drug smuggling, even as they're rounding people up for it. freedom?
what that does is set the tone for a record that is broadly about feeling powerless to change things, and the futility of getting lost in it.
it's really a fucking lyrical masterpiece.
but, through all of it, remember: a working class hero is something to be.
"it's 10:00. do you know where your kids are?"
this was often something you would see on tv during the reagan years, generally during a newscast. it was also widely ridiculed by young people at the time. you still hear it from time to time. it's meant to ask the question: are your kids on drugs?
what stipe is doing is ironically putting himself in the role of the adult, here. he doesn't exactly want to be the adult. he doesn't want to be the "downer". but, he's also seeing this world first hand, and he's reflecting that the news reports are not entirely frivolous. that the kids are on drugs. or, at least some of them are. and, the ones that are on drugs need a bit of help with it, too.
he's trying to establish a perspective that exists in some kind of middle ground.
he's then taking that middle ground to reflect on the real value of freedom, and how he feels about getting in the way of the freedom of others. the car is the american symbol of freedom.
the drug lingo is consequently entirely accurate, but it's a giant double-entendre about feeling caught between the counter-culture and a feeling of responsibility to help people. to stipe, this is a very stern moral dilemma that pits two equally valuable ideals against each other. he's struggling with this moral dilemma.
the language about bush & ollie north is also accurate. you just have to understand their connections to drug smuggling, even as they're rounding people up for it. freedom?
what that does is set the tone for a record that is broadly about feeling powerless to change things, and the futility of getting lost in it.
it's really a fucking lyrical masterpiece.
but, through all of it, remember: a working class hero is something to be.
obligatory influential...
this is my last post for the day.
automatic for the people, and rem in general, is one of those ubiquitous influences for me. i've told this story before, about checking green & document out of the public library when i was about eight or nine. mom was into sabbath & zeppelin. dad was into floyd & genesis. i grew into some of that as i aged, but the public library was a useful resource for me at the time in finding what i really wanted to listen to, beyond the standard beatles records lying around. i've described michael stipe as a kind of a weird, distant uncle. automatic for the people dropped when i was eleven, and was at least as defining as any other experience in my life. by early 1998, i was waiting patiently for up - which is the last rem record that i was able to connect to strongly.
i'm not citing this record as a direct influence, so much as i'm citing it as an aesthetic one. it's a feeling, not a thought. and, i'm leaning more towards the instrumental tracks and the string arrangements. there's a little new orleans instrumental in there. there's a bit of that cello from drive.
about a year later, i would do a cover of drive that is in a similar style to this.
(relevant tracks: wish, drive, symphony 0, anything in the ambient list and really anything at all)
this is my last post for the day.
automatic for the people, and rem in general, is one of those ubiquitous influences for me. i've told this story before, about checking green & document out of the public library when i was about eight or nine. mom was into sabbath & zeppelin. dad was into floyd & genesis. i grew into some of that as i aged, but the public library was a useful resource for me at the time in finding what i really wanted to listen to, beyond the standard beatles records lying around. i've described michael stipe as a kind of a weird, distant uncle. automatic for the people dropped when i was eleven, and was at least as defining as any other experience in my life. by early 1998, i was waiting patiently for up - which is the last rem record that i was able to connect to strongly.
i'm not citing this record as a direct influence, so much as i'm citing it as an aesthetic one. it's a feeling, not a thought. and, i'm leaning more towards the instrumental tracks and the string arrangements. there's a little new orleans instrumental in there. there's a bit of that cello from drive.
about a year later, i would do a cover of drive that is in a similar style to this.
(relevant tracks: wish, drive, symphony 0, anything in the ambient list and really anything at all)
obligatory influential...
in some ways, this is pretty weak. i mean, i'm not claiming i'm doing much on the guitar with this track. but, the thing is that the hendrix signature is pretty obvious - even if it's all rhythm work. but, you can't find hendrix on youtube. so, srv is the next best relevant option.
in fact, the truth is that i had spent as much time doing srv parts in the mid 90s as i had spent doing hendrix parts. my guitar teacher was somewhat of an srv wizard. and, while stevie really only knew how to play two songs, he played them both really, really well.
(relevant tracks: i'm not always a flashy guitarist, but hendrix/srv are really at the core of my guitar style, and it comes out in various ways over various periods. when i get fancy, you can hear it pretty clearly.)
he tends to lose the plot. it's...he's drunk...
i'm sorry. it's true.
whoever was in charge of editing this should have cut out the part in the middle where he didn't know what day it was.
in some ways, this is pretty weak. i mean, i'm not claiming i'm doing much on the guitar with this track. but, the thing is that the hendrix signature is pretty obvious - even if it's all rhythm work. but, you can't find hendrix on youtube. so, srv is the next best relevant option.
in fact, the truth is that i had spent as much time doing srv parts in the mid 90s as i had spent doing hendrix parts. my guitar teacher was somewhat of an srv wizard. and, while stevie really only knew how to play two songs, he played them both really, really well.
(relevant tracks: i'm not always a flashy guitarist, but hendrix/srv are really at the core of my guitar style, and it comes out in various ways over various periods. when i get fancy, you can hear it pretty clearly.)
he tends to lose the plot. it's...he's drunk...
i'm sorry. it's true.
whoever was in charge of editing this should have cut out the part in the middle where he didn't know what day it was.
obligatory influential...
it may be almost pathetic, in context. but, in trying to figure out what i was thinking regarding the synthetic strings, and trying to put it into the context of early 1998, i can't ignore this tea party record. it's really a pretty big, if somewhat muted, background influence through a lot of what i was doing at the time, in terms of integrating blues-based guitar music with electronics. i mean, i tend to point more cleanly to various types of electronic music or various types of guitar-based music. this is because, at the time, the ideas were still broadly disentangled. i guess they still are, but there's at least a bigger pool to draw on, now. there's not really any good reason for this; listen to a late 60s beatles record. but, some kind of taboo developed in the 70s and it took decades to really break it down. the result was that guitars and electronics only really mixed in the fringes of technical music, in a bit of high-end pop and in the realm of industrial music. blues-based musicians universally avoided all electronics.
it really started opening up about 1998. in that sense, the tea party were just a hop ahead of the curve. if they had shown up just a few years later with the energy they started off with, they'd be as big as muse or radiohead. they were really blazing a path just ahead of them, but they got muffled by the glaciers up here or something.
but, canadians, at least, recognized them for the talent they were. and, one could not have been a canadian teenage musician in the 90s without being influenced by them - both in their "morrocan roll" stage and in their truly rather pioneering electro-rock world phase. or, just simply as a guitarist.
(relevant tracks: wish, schizoid, on sexual confusion in adolescence....anything with a guitar, and anything with string arrangements, however primitive)
it may be almost pathetic, in context. but, in trying to figure out what i was thinking regarding the synthetic strings, and trying to put it into the context of early 1998, i can't ignore this tea party record. it's really a pretty big, if somewhat muted, background influence through a lot of what i was doing at the time, in terms of integrating blues-based guitar music with electronics. i mean, i tend to point more cleanly to various types of electronic music or various types of guitar-based music. this is because, at the time, the ideas were still broadly disentangled. i guess they still are, but there's at least a bigger pool to draw on, now. there's not really any good reason for this; listen to a late 60s beatles record. but, some kind of taboo developed in the 70s and it took decades to really break it down. the result was that guitars and electronics only really mixed in the fringes of technical music, in a bit of high-end pop and in the realm of industrial music. blues-based musicians universally avoided all electronics.
it really started opening up about 1998. in that sense, the tea party were just a hop ahead of the curve. if they had shown up just a few years later with the energy they started off with, they'd be as big as muse or radiohead. they were really blazing a path just ahead of them, but they got muffled by the glaciers up here or something.
but, canadians, at least, recognized them for the talent they were. and, one could not have been a canadian teenage musician in the 90s without being influenced by them - both in their "morrocan roll" stage and in their truly rather pioneering electro-rock world phase. or, just simply as a guitarist.
(relevant tracks: wish, schizoid, on sexual confusion in adolescence....anything with a guitar, and anything with string arrangements, however primitive)
obligatory influential...
i'm just trying to figure out what the best way to document the obvious eno influence on the track is. and, while the influence is obvious, it's not obvious to source. it's a process of getting my brain around the time period, mostly.
see, i'm in that age group where eno was sort of ubiquitous, and i have a dozen paths to claim him. i was a big u2 fan when i was a young child, and it stuck with me until i was about 20 (i couldn't get into all that you can't leave behind, and have tried some of the later material a few times, but it's just void of anything). so, that string of records from unforgettable fire to zooropa (and also pop, but there was no eno on pop) is one way. then, there's not one but two swaths of bowie (late 70s and mid 90s). there's the work with fripp. plus, there's his own material. but, it's more than that. it was every time you heard a synth part on the radio. it was the massive influence he had on "intelligent" electronic music in the 90s. it was every time you turned on your computer, even.
as such, citing eno as an influence is a complicated thing because it doesn't necessarily have to sound like anything eno did, despite eno doing so many very diverse different things. in some ways, the more recognizable it is, the less valid it is. rather, it's more about an idea.
i do remember listening to this record quite a bit around the right period. there's little causal connection. but, i think it's the most relevant thing, nonetheless.
(relevant tracks: wish, symphony 0 - everything, really)
i'm just trying to figure out what the best way to document the obvious eno influence on the track is. and, while the influence is obvious, it's not obvious to source. it's a process of getting my brain around the time period, mostly.
see, i'm in that age group where eno was sort of ubiquitous, and i have a dozen paths to claim him. i was a big u2 fan when i was a young child, and it stuck with me until i was about 20 (i couldn't get into all that you can't leave behind, and have tried some of the later material a few times, but it's just void of anything). so, that string of records from unforgettable fire to zooropa (and also pop, but there was no eno on pop) is one way. then, there's not one but two swaths of bowie (late 70s and mid 90s). there's the work with fripp. plus, there's his own material. but, it's more than that. it was every time you heard a synth part on the radio. it was the massive influence he had on "intelligent" electronic music in the 90s. it was every time you turned on your computer, even.
as such, citing eno as an influence is a complicated thing because it doesn't necessarily have to sound like anything eno did, despite eno doing so many very diverse different things. in some ways, the more recognizable it is, the less valid it is. rather, it's more about an idea.
i do remember listening to this record quite a bit around the right period. there's little causal connection. but, i think it's the most relevant thing, nonetheless.
(relevant tracks: wish, symphony 0 - everything, really)
for those making comparisons, let's remember that bites was released in 1985 and this could be as old as 1983. there's some similar outtake material on the third volume of brap, which was 83-86.
it's not entirely without parallel at the time. but, puppy pretty much invented what we today call idm - and more or less as throwaway experiments, before moving on to something else.
also, dwayne was not in the band yet. this is all cevin. dwayne joined the band in 1986.
it's not entirely without parallel at the time. but, puppy pretty much invented what we today call idm - and more or less as throwaway experiments, before moving on to something else.
also, dwayne was not in the band yet. this is all cevin. dwayne joined the band in 1986.
obligatory influential...
it wasn't conscious emulation. iirc, i just made a loop and started jamming over it. but, i would have likely never thought it sounded musical without interfacing so heavily with this track. listening to it, one might hear eno or maybe even joy division. there's hints of autechre. but, it was really this disc that i was enamored with.
(relevant tracks: wish & symphony 0, specifically, but fdts was pretty intensely formative)
it wasn't conscious emulation. iirc, i just made a loop and started jamming over it. but, i would have likely never thought it sounded musical without interfacing so heavily with this track. listening to it, one might hear eno or maybe even joy division. there's hints of autechre. but, it was really this disc that i was enamored with.
(relevant tracks: wish & symphony 0, specifically, but fdts was pretty intensely formative)
obligatory influential post.
there's something about those lyrics that i connected to. i don't actually remember the cause and effect, and the bit of evidence i have suggests i actually may have written a song with similar lyrics a little bit beforehand (my file is dated jan 13, 1998 - yield was released feb 6, 1998). but, it's kind of neither here nor there. yield was fixed in the player over 1998.
but, i do remember that i took the lyrics out partially due to the similarity, and partly because mine were....a little less profound, let us say. it kept the track name.
yield is the band's only complete document. that's not to say some of the others aren't pretty good. but, yield is the one you "accidentally" leave on the counter, and hope somebody decides to explore.
(relevant tracks: wish, symphony 0)
there's something about those lyrics that i connected to. i don't actually remember the cause and effect, and the bit of evidence i have suggests i actually may have written a song with similar lyrics a little bit beforehand (my file is dated jan 13, 1998 - yield was released feb 6, 1998). but, it's kind of neither here nor there. yield was fixed in the player over 1998.
but, i do remember that i took the lyrics out partially due to the similarity, and partly because mine were....a little less profound, let us say. it kept the track name.
yield is the band's only complete document. that's not to say some of the others aren't pretty good. but, yield is the one you "accidentally" leave on the counter, and hope somebody decides to explore.
(relevant tracks: wish, symphony 0)
obligatory influential...
i noticed i was here before, but didn't leave a post. strange, that. i went looking through my posting history, and realized i left one on a now deleted video of this disc well over a year ago, when i was just doing daily rotations, before i settled into my existing alter-reality algorithm in real-time (current date in the alter-reality april 11, 1998). and, i'm thinking i skipped over the inrisampled obligatory, waiting for a better moment. i think i was waiting, specifically, for the period 1.3 transition, which was the beginning of 1999. the influence really becomes more obvious at that point. another year before i get there.
but, the track i just switched into is too dominated in influence by the ambient sections on this disc to wait. the coil and aphex mixes, specifically, but the thirlwell ones, too. which isn't to say i'm stealing ideas, so much as it's to say it's where my head was. listening to it, one might hear eno or maybe even joy division. there's hints of autechre. but, it was really this disc that i was enamored with.
it wasn't conscious emulation. iirc, i just made a loop and started jamming over it. but, i would have likely never thought it sounded musical without interfacing so heavily with at the heart of it all.
i've done a bunch of obligatories on these nin remix discs between fixed and the perfect drug and they're still nearly unparalleled in terms of abstraction. i wish i could find something contemporary that exists at this level of quality. i can aspire. but, it's not the same thing as finding it out there. alas...
(relevant tracks: medicated to the one i love, jesus gets fucked on robitussin, symphony 1, curious george, wish, why, symphony 0, many others - almost everything, really.)
i noticed i was here before, but didn't leave a post. strange, that. i went looking through my posting history, and realized i left one on a now deleted video of this disc well over a year ago, when i was just doing daily rotations, before i settled into my existing alter-reality algorithm in real-time (current date in the alter-reality april 11, 1998). and, i'm thinking i skipped over the inrisampled obligatory, waiting for a better moment. i think i was waiting, specifically, for the period 1.3 transition, which was the beginning of 1999. the influence really becomes more obvious at that point. another year before i get there.
but, the track i just switched into is too dominated in influence by the ambient sections on this disc to wait. the coil and aphex mixes, specifically, but the thirlwell ones, too. which isn't to say i'm stealing ideas, so much as it's to say it's where my head was. listening to it, one might hear eno or maybe even joy division. there's hints of autechre. but, it was really this disc that i was enamored with.
it wasn't conscious emulation. iirc, i just made a loop and started jamming over it. but, i would have likely never thought it sounded musical without interfacing so heavily with at the heart of it all.
i've done a bunch of obligatories on these nin remix discs between fixed and the perfect drug and they're still nearly unparalleled in terms of abstraction. i wish i could find something contemporary that exists at this level of quality. i can aspire. but, it's not the same thing as finding it out there. alas...
(relevant tracks: medicated to the one i love, jesus gets fucked on robitussin, symphony 1, curious george, wish, why, symphony 0, many others - almost everything, really.)
obligatory influential...
i remember picking this disc up in the summer of '97 on a rec from the store clerk at the local disc-go-round and listening to it on the bus quite a bit for the next few months. i was familiar with smg, but wouldn't have at all called myself a fan. i think the accusations of his work up to this point being derivative are fairly accurate, but even that isn't so much of a drawback as the fact that it's all fairly bland. the high points are due to collaborations with dwayne goettel (night returning) and solidly written cover material (strange days). it just doesn't stand out as worthwhile.
but, the guy at the counter was insistent.
"i see what you come in here and buy", he said. "this is way better than anything else he's ever done, and i think you'll like it for sure. it should be called chris randall and the die warzau backing band. and it's got reeves gabrels on it.".
it was the gabrels drop that hooked me. really.
and, i must say that this record really was a huge leap forwards in terms of songwriting and instrumentation. he's finally using the supporting cast of chicago musicians and engineers around him to their full potential, and manages to combine the city's various sounds into what is arguably a lost psychedelic pop classic. but, it's also the kind of disc that alienates people because it's too good. in the end, it's a shame that it's really the only solid disc he ever made, because you can hear the potential here. sadly, this is an often-told story in the modern era: the problem of making a record that is too good and can't move units, which leads to getting dropped.
the whole record was an influence on me over this period, but it's usually subtle and lost amidst the bowie and the reznor. i'm picking out this track today because there's a part about 3:53 where a blast of noise segues the track. it's a technique ultimately traced back to haus der luge. but, the way it's used here is not just completely unpredictable but also completely irrational and i took some influence from the absurdity of it.
i remember picking this disc up in the summer of '97 on a rec from the store clerk at the local disc-go-round and listening to it on the bus quite a bit for the next few months. i was familiar with smg, but wouldn't have at all called myself a fan. i think the accusations of his work up to this point being derivative are fairly accurate, but even that isn't so much of a drawback as the fact that it's all fairly bland. the high points are due to collaborations with dwayne goettel (night returning) and solidly written cover material (strange days). it just doesn't stand out as worthwhile.
but, the guy at the counter was insistent.
"i see what you come in here and buy", he said. "this is way better than anything else he's ever done, and i think you'll like it for sure. it should be called chris randall and the die warzau backing band. and it's got reeves gabrels on it.".
it was the gabrels drop that hooked me. really.
and, i must say that this record really was a huge leap forwards in terms of songwriting and instrumentation. he's finally using the supporting cast of chicago musicians and engineers around him to their full potential, and manages to combine the city's various sounds into what is arguably a lost psychedelic pop classic. but, it's also the kind of disc that alienates people because it's too good. in the end, it's a shame that it's really the only solid disc he ever made, because you can hear the potential here. sadly, this is an often-told story in the modern era: the problem of making a record that is too good and can't move units, which leads to getting dropped.
the whole record was an influence on me over this period, but it's usually subtle and lost amidst the bowie and the reznor. i'm picking out this track today because there's a part about 3:53 where a blast of noise segues the track. it's a technique ultimately traced back to haus der luge. but, the way it's used here is not just completely unpredictable but also completely irrational and i took some influence from the absurdity of it.
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