first liner note release for inri000

these are the first demos i recorded, written 1994-1996 and recorded in the second half of 1996. this corresponds to the end of my 15th year and the beginning of my grade 10 school year. on the one hand, it's an intriguing document of a socially maladjusted teenage punk. on the other hand, it's a 15 year-old kid learning how to use a recording studio (and how to play the drums). influences are displayed on my sleeve just a little too loudly at times.

i was attempting to create something that could be described by the words disturbing, schizophrenic, unique, bizarre, twisted. looking back, i think i succeeded more than i realized at the time. this is a difficult listen that would be appealing to fans of the obscurantist reaches of 80s punk and 90s grunge. i manage to maintain a strange sense of melody, though. in truth, my current adult self is somewhat impressed with my teenaged self at this current point.

that being said, it should not be forgotten that i was fifteen. i am at times rather crude, and i display a childlike understanding of certain issues. most poetry written at the age of fifteen is not particularly insightful. again, though, i surprise myself at points.

this is the first time i'm publishing these demos in any form. i've remained frighteningly self-conscious of them over the years. over the last seventeen years, the audience has been extremely limited. initial reactions suggested i take some time to perfect my performance skills, particularly my drumming skills. however, this indicated a lack of understanding of my intent in the overall sound. the playing is quite purposefully abstract with the aim of exploring mental illness.

the demos were initially dub-mastered onto a 110 minute tape that would have flipped after the eighth track. that tape was at some point recorded into a soundblaster and compressed very heavily; this is the only source of the material that i still have. so, i had to decompress the files from those 128 (or worse) kbps mp3s and run them through some digital mastering equipment in an attempt to "undo" the compression. what that is is a half-effective trick to recover data that is in actuality forever lost. nonetheless, i should point out that while these files were recorded entirely in 1996, they were substantially digitally modified in late 2013. finalized on june 26, 2016. first liner note release added on sept 30, 2019. as always, please use headphones.

i consider this an archival release with little direct listening value. i've pointed out repeatedly that i was 15. however, various segments have been isolated and pulled out for a higher listenability value over here:
jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inricycled-a

this release also includes a printable j-card insert and will also eventually include a comprehensive package of journal entries in doc & pdf from all phases of production (1993-1996, 2013-2019). as of sept 30, 2019, the release includes a 47 page booklet that includes journal entries from the remastering process over sept-oct, 2013. 

credits

released December 25, 1996

j - guitars, effects, bass, drums, vocals, keyboards, tapes, found sounds, percussion, production.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/inri-cassette-demo-1

the link to the 10/2013 archive of the dtk blog is up.

https://books.noisetrade.com/j/102013-deathtokoalas

unfortunately, noise trade did not work out as a hosting solution, and i never got a clear answer as to why. but, i decided in the end that the site was full of ads and unworkable, anyways.

the readable version of the october, 2013 archive for this blog is now available as a standalone in the music journal package at bandcamp:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/10-2013-music-journal

...or as a component in the half year archive at smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1026620

...or as a component in the first reconstruction phase archive, available in the following places:
https://www.lulu.com/en/ca/shop/jessica-murray/full-first-reconstruction-phase-deathtokoalas-blog/ebook/product-zrgr94.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10DbwOVdqWt73rHNzWJWgEfduzREogExX/view

the fourth entry in the music journal series, which is the month of october, 2013 and is 99 pages long. i am not going to summarize the story, but it is available on the web over here: musicofjessicamurray.blogspot.com/2013/10/.

this is a compilation of written correspondences that occurred around me over october, 2013. it includes facebook posts, messenger chats and emails with friends and family members, in an attempt to tell the story of how i set my studio back up in windsor after relocating from ottawa and republished my first demo, from 1996. the contents of this download are the dummy track, a word doc file and a pdf file, both written in a more readable, chronological ordering. i've also added the respective files for my other three blogs, for general interest, as well as 98 separate txt documents (essays, notes, scripts and web pages) that are referenced in the journal.

the events documented in this journal occurred in october, 2013 and were compiled into a narrative in several stages over the years 2014-2019. journal completed on sept 10, 2019. released and finalized in doc and pdf format on sept 28, 2019. doc201310.

credits

released November 1, 2013

j - editing, participant

esa (aka shelly teagan) - participant
mom - participant
the oldest aunt's wife - participant
the initial landlord - participant
teksavvy technical support - participant
cbsa technical support - participant

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/10-2013-music-journal

inri097

last one for the night.

================

inri086?

these are actually rock songs, albeit weird ones. i was shopping them around in the mid-00s, and nobody bit. we'll have a compilation demo up here as i found it, but i'm also going to need to actually finish them up.

i didn't want this to be a studio project, but what do you want me to tell you? i can't find anybody to jam with...and i've been looking for twenty years....

the cd-r from 2005 that i have consists of the first eight tracks, and i'm going to publish it that way, as is. i was considering adding a ninth track that i cut at some point, but decided against it - this will come up elsewhere. there is also a tenth demo in this collection that was dismantled into different tracks, and will eventually come up as a part of a similar collection dated to mid-2004.

there are two different types of tracks in this collection. some of these tracks will be worked into the trivial group or proverbs symphonies, whereas others will need to be completed as standalones in the 2004-2005 space, depending on where i think they best fit.

see, i'm tempted to label this proverbs, but don't actually want to. the tracks that weren't put aside for it don't have vocals. but, they weren't supposed to be trivial group, they were supposed to be a band project. i was using the pseudonym "whore to culture" for a little bit, but, in hindsight, i don't really like it - and i never finished anything under the label. i think that was mostly xenophanes, which is definitely trivial group, now.

on the other hand, were any of the trivial group tracks intended to be studio projects? no...they just all ended up that way...so that's less a difference and more a commonality...

and, are these tracks that different than trivial group? not in the form they're in. if i were to just play the trivial group tracks on guitar, they'd be sort of similar, wouldn't they?

in fact, i could conceivably expand this collection by isolating some of the other guitar tracks in the other trivial group stuff, but i don't want to do that, either. i mean, i could take the style way back - this isn't my first demonstration of impressionist jazz punk. i may consider creating a second companion disc that just has the guitar parts from all of the trivial group material, but i want to leave this specific disc exactly as it is, which is exactly as i found it.

these specific tracks were written at various points between 2003-2005 and performed via a line-in directly into my soundcard, with no effects, in my apartment on prince of wales in ottawa on august 21, 2005. a handful of cds were then burned, and left out randomly at various places around town where i hoped a drummer would find them. ripped back to digital on april 12, 2014. uploaded and published without further modification on sept 19, 2019. as always, please use headphones.

cover art by sarah. 

credits

released August 21, 2005

j - guitar 

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/impressionist-jazz-punk

so, we'll need to re-publish this as physical media when the time comes, but the music is at least finished, so why not acknowledge as much and allow for download?

=============

an art show demo, uploaded as is. inri078.

it's not a complex story - sarah wanted to have a showing of some of her paintings in her apartment, so she asked me to write some music for it. i just took some of the things i was working on and put them together.

this would eventually become the core of the next symphony.

initially written and recorded over the second half of 2003 and the very beginning of 2004. compiled on january 23, 2004. ripped from cd-r on april 11, 2014. finally uploaded and published without further modification on sept 18, 2019. as always, please use headphones.

credits

released January 23, 2004

j - all sound

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/art-show-demo

inri091 and inri092 cover art

so, we've got some new cover art up on what will probably inri085:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-spontaneous-combustion-of-leonardo-pisano

leanardo pisano is fibonacci - leonardo of pisa. i might change that to a wrinkled shot of fibonacci, but that gets the point across for now.

...& also for what will likely be inri087:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/xenophanes

But if cattle and horses and lions had hands
or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,
horses like horses and cattle like cattle
also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies
of such a sort as the form they themselves have.
...
Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed and black
Thracians that they are pale and red-haired

inri101

inri090?

this is the introduction of a symphony i started at the end of 2006 and have since placed on indefinite hold.

this introduction is very noisy, and i'm somewhat impressed by myself listening to at the moment.

but, the second - incomplete and unreleased - section sounds like al di meola jamming with the aphex twin, and that's a better way to describe the overall intent.

this might end up as a tetris release and is probably the end of period 3.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-crash

inri093

inri088?

this is the upcoming ninth album. disc 1 is the first two tracks, disc two is the second two.

for now, just fast forward through the three minutes of silence. the lost symphony will be the fourth track; to an extent, xenophanes is just the introduction to it.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/e

inri092

inri087?

this extended ep will be a comprehensive exploration of all of the versions of this recording. i've never been fully certain if this recording is done or not, but i'll have to decide sooner than later.

for now, here is the newest version that exists, which is instrumental (there are vocals.) and from early 2007.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/xenophanes

inri097

inri086?

these are actually rock songs, albeit weird ones. i was shopping them around in the mid-00s, and nobody bit. we'll have a compilation demo up here as i found it, but i'm also going to need to actually finish them up.

i didn't want this to be a studio project, but what do you want me to tell you? i can't find anybody to jam with...and i've been looking for twenty years....

the cd-r from 2005 that i have consists of the first eight tracks, and i'm going to publish it that way, as is. i was considering adding a ninth track that i cut at some point, but decided against it - this will come up elsewhere. there is also a tenth demo in this collection that was dismantled into different tracks, and will eventually come up as a part of a similar collection dated to mid-2004.

there are two different types of tracks in this collection. some of these tracks will be worked into the trivial group or proverbs symphonies, whereas others will need to be completed as standalones in the 2004-2005 space, depending on where i think they best fit.

see, i'm tempted to label this proverbs, but don't actually want to. the tracks that weren't put aside for it don't have vocals. but, they weren't supposed to be trivial group, they were supposed to be a band project. i was using the pseudonym "whore to culture" for a little bit, but, in hindsight, i don't really like it - and i never finished anything under the label. i think that was mostly xenophanes, which is definitely trivial group, now.

on the other hand, were any of the trivial group tracks intended to be studio projects? no...they just all ended up that way...so that's less a difference and more a commonality...

and, are these tracks that different than trivial group? not in the form they're in. if i were to just play the trivial group tracks on guitar, they'd be sort of similar, wouldn't they?

in fact, i could conceivably expand this collection by isolating some of the other guitar tracks in the other trivial group stuff, but i don't want to do that, either. i mean, i could take the style way back - this isn't my first demonstration of impressionist jazz punk. i may consider creating a second companion disc that just has the guitar parts from all of the trivial group material, but i want to leave this specific disc exactly as it is, which is exactly as i found it.

these specific tracks were written at various points between 2003-2005 and performed via a line-in directly into my soundcard, with no effects, in my apartment on prince of wales in ottawa on august 21, 2005. a handful of cds were then burned, and left out randomly at various places around town where i hoped a drummer would find them. ripped back to digital on april 12, 2014. uploaded and published without further modification on sept 19, 2019. as always, please use headphones.

cover art by sarah. 

credits

released August 21, 2005

j - guitar 

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/impressionist-jazz-punk

inri096

is this inri085?

i don't know. i'll need to do something with this, but i may work it into one of the other pieces...

there's about another 15 minutes to this piece, btw.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/throatmotor-fragment

inri091

inri084?

the very beginning of a long paused project built around the idea of converting ratios directly into music using matlab.

i'm going to leave this as a one-track single dated to november, 2004 and finish the idea, for release in....2020?

this was created for the requirements of math 4822, a course on wavelet theory, at carleton university in the fall semester of 2004. programmed entirely in matlab over a weekend in nov, 2004. uploaded and published without further modification on sept 19, 2019. as always, please use headphones.

credits

released November 30, 2004

j - matlab programming, digital wave editing.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-spontaneous-combustion-of-leonardo-pisano

inri088

inri082?

this extended ep will be a comprehensive exploration of all of the versions of this recording.

for now, here is the maximal version, which contains a poem that was written in mid-2004 but not added to the track until 2011 (and will be removed for the album version).

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/interplanetary-isomorphism

inri081

inri079. seventh record.

audio needs to be replaced, items need to close..

...except that i think i did replace the audio, already. so, i'm just looking at final sequencing decisions; this is just about done.

it's the sample-free, (mostly) instrumental reclamation of my seventh lp.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/ftaa

publishing inri079

an art show demo, uploaded as is. inri079.

it's not a complex story - sarah wanted to have a showing of some of her paintings in her apartment, so she asked me to write some music for it. i just took some of the things i was working on and put them together.

this is the sum total of material worked on in my mother's apartment, where i stayed from about december, 2003 to about may, 2004.

this would eventually become the core of the next symphony.

initially written and recorded over the second half of 2003 and the very beginning of 2004. compiled on january 18, 2004. ripped from cd-r on april 11, 2014. finally uploaded and published without further modification on sept 18, 2019. as always, please use headphones.

released january 18, 2004

j - electric & acoustic & classical guitars, effects, vocals, flute, synthesizers, electric air reed organ, drum programming, piano programming, sound design, noise generators, sequencers, generative synthesis, audiomulch, sounder, digital wave editing, sampling, composition, production

sarah - cover art photo, as taken from the top of the alexandra bridge in ottawa, ontario, during the winter of 2003/2004.

the acoustic guitar played on quantum psychosis belonged to heather.

inri079

an art show demo, uploaded as is. inri078.

it's not a complex story - sarah wanted to have a showing of some of her paintings in her apartment, so she asked me to write some music for it. i just took some of the things i was working on and put them together.

this would eventually become the core of the next symphony.

initially written and recorded over the second half of 2003 and the very beginning of 2004. compiled on january 23, 2004. ripped from cd-r on april 11, 2014. finally uploaded and published without further modification on sept 18, 2019. as always, please use headphones.

credits

released January 23, 2004

j - all sound

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/art-show-demo

inri077

inri077.

these are some demos that i recorded on my 4-track in sarah and heather's apartment on dalhousie in ottawa in late 2003. i still have the tape, but i haven't digitized, yet.

the only thing i transferred was a section that became "like divine amoebas", because i was using it, directly. the non-digitized sections were mostly for the lost symphony, iirc.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/bedroom-cassette-demoes

first inri078 upload

i will finally complete this symphony, soon.

for now, here's a demo that was recorded in the winter of 2007.

inri076.

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/the-lost-symphony

inri075

inri075.

i wrote this song on a beach in kelowna in mid 2003. it looked a lot like the picture...

there's a lot of space in the track, which is intentional. in the final recording, i filled it out with birds chirping, but the initial intent was something out of a john cage piece - listen to what's around you. relax...

that said, a live version of the track at the time would have featured me playing multiple parts at once, which were separated in the recording for tonal variance. i'm hoping that i find a fuller recording, but here's a background track, for now.


https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/kelowna

if you sort through the tour dates over 1996-1997, you can see their marketing direction change.

they were initially playing shows with punk-ish alt rock bands like filter, garbage, rancid, the offspring, the foofighters, etc.

then, they went on tour opening for metallica.

after that, they toured with limp bizkit and started doing shows with other bands of that sort.

again: they were signed to sony, they weren't indie rock. but, up until the metallica tour,  they were seen as a type of industrial band, with strong affinities with punk rock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Is_Peachy#Tour_dates

i want to clarify the record, if there was ever any misunderstanding.

the only korn record i got into in real-time was the second one, life is peachy. i picked the self-titled up a little later. i did have a copy of follow the leader, but i didn't like it very much, and didn't spend much time with it. and, when i dropped korn, i dropped them hard - i didn't even pay any passing attention to them. at this point, i am really not remotely familiar with the vast majority of their discography, and i don't think i've even heard any of their subsequent records all the way through.

i think it's generally agreed by their fans, though, that life is peachy is a fundamentally different record than anything else they did, to the point that it's almost unrecognizable. virtually any korn fan would rank it as their worst disc; the fact that it's the only one i ever really liked much is the proper way to understand me in relation to their fan base.

and, it was the changing fan base that was the biggest factor in me dropping them as hard as i did. it wouldn't be fair to suggest that korn was an underground rock band in 1996, but they weren't what they would become a few years later, and the truth is that i didn't actually know anybody else that liked them. before i got online, i would get most of my music recs out of american guitar magazines. ottawa is kind of the northern edge of american civilization in a lot of ways, and things were sometimes slow to get there, before the ubiquitous connectivity of the interwebs. so, i wasn't really exposed to much of what the band is, today, widely associated with.

once i became cognizant of the scene that was developing around them, and that i think was initially curated by a much worse band, limp bizkit, i retreated from it very, very quickly.

so, i had a few korn records, but i did not have a rap-rock or nu-metal phase and i can't think of anything else in that broad style that i listened to at all.

i was listening mostly to post-rock and idm over the 1999-2003 period.

so, it just decided not to bother warming up today - the temperature has been roughly steady since 2:00 this morning. i'm feeling like the better choice is to stay in for the night.

i took a gamble on the rain last night, deducing that the jet stream's retreat to just north of here would keep the humidity high and the storm path just far enough away to not bother me. i got that part right, but convection storms from the heat were stronger than i thought they would be and lingered into the early morning. it did clear up, but not before it rained pretty hard, and not until the bars were closed, and i didn't get my park party out of it. i had fun anyways, and have a few stories.

i left around 18:30 to try and catch a break in the rain - i knew it was going to rain again, but expected it to clear out around midnight. so, i expected the ride to hamtramck to need to be done in stints, kind of thing. it had been spitting off and on all day downtown (there were more serious storms elsewhere), but the convection finally broke moments after i got to the bus shelter. i checked today to see how much rain actually fell (it was a lot) and was reminded of the locality of it - i guess it wasn't raining at the airport, because the official record says it wasn't raining at all. but, a news report suggested there was 40 mm of rain in some parts of the city yesterday, which is a daily rainfall record.

those numbers can't be for downtown, where it was mostly dry before the skies opened, and the downpour only lasted twenty minutes. but, for those twenty minutes, it rained about as hard as it can rain. i wasn't in it; i actually found myself enjoying the after-rain air. detroit continues to have some serious air quality issues due to industrialization, so a good rainstorm is that much more refreshing when it hits. it's actually one of the better times to enjoy playing outside.

the ride to hamtramck was through thick humidity and sweaty as fuck, but the rain restrained itself until i got there - when it promptly started back up again. it mostly cleared out before the show was over, but the ride to the second bar was a little drizzly.

the first band, not ok, was actually pretty much ok. ok? ok. they did a style of generic emo-core. i'm going to leave it at that.

the savage seven seemed to downplay their silliness a little in the live setting, partly because the singer was a little less confident than i expected him to be. there's a swagger on the recording that is central to the presentation and was perhaps missing in the show. i'd encourage him to try and capture that better when he's performing. they're a kind of novelty act style rock band with a bit of a very early detroit rock feel, and they pulled it off at points in the set.

wizard rifle, a two piece guitar & drum duo, were on point, even if i was hoping for a longer set in a bar that cleared out before midnight. the mix was dominated by their powerful drummer, who, name-dropped influences aside, actually sounded most like dave grohl going to town. the guitar work is mostly riff-based, but it has an angularity to it that gives it a dose of manic energy, and he makes liberal use of an effects chain to scuzz up the sound. they wear their influences prominently, often jumping into sections that sound like they were taken directly from king crimson or lightning bolt tracks, but that's alright, because they mix it up and rip it apart. they appear to be from portland, and have relocated to detroit; this was the first night of a us tour, so they had some sound issues with the mix. basically, they need to turn the guitars and vocals up in order to compete with the muscular drumming.

as mentioned, the ride to the next bar was a little bit drizzly, but not too bad. i missed the actual event, some kind of industry mixer, while lost in a bit of my own drama: somewhere, somehow i lost a $20, which was also my last $20 for the night.

i strictly carry cash when i'm in detroit, because the banking system is a messy situation. i took money out of a machine in detroit for the first time a few weeks ago, but my debit card won't work. nor do i carry a credit card. so, if i run out of cash, i'll at least need to find a machine, and that machine will need to be on the right network. i'm also looking at around $10 in service charges because it's an international transaction. so, i'm generally fairly paranoid about this, because i know that if i run out of cash in detroit that i'm more or less shit out of luck until i get home.

it was around 1:00 or so when i went to the washroom and checked my pockets to see how much i had left; i had a vague idea that it was around $20, but i don't usually do my accounting until later. so, what's in my pocket?

- keys? check.
- lighter? check.
- three cards: nexus card (border), debit card, health card (ohip.)? check.
- ziploc bags (to protect things in the rain)? check.
- bus fare in cdn dollars? check.
- american money? nope.

wait.

- american money? nope.

that can't be right. let's try this again...

- american money? nope.

fuck.

now, i admit i was a little bit drunk - i was fully conscious and coherent and capable of walking in straight lines and stuff, but even a simple amount of accounting would have benefited from some kind of ledger, and wasn't likely to happen strictly mentally at that point, or at least not correctly. i was also a little flustered. if i had sat down and centered myself and worked out each transaction that had occurred over the night, it would have been immediately clear that i dropped it somewhere. all that i was able to process entirely right there was that i knew i came to detroit with three 20s, and i knew i'd only broken two of them. so, i knew i was missing a $20.

well, it didn't evaporate. it didn't develop locomotion and run away. i guess it might have been pick-pocketed, but what are the chances, really? so, when you lose something you retrace your steps, right?

i had made two transactions at the bar, to that point. i thought i had given the door a $5 bill for cover, and i thought i had given the bartender three one dollar bills for a beer. i'm usually a pretty good bean counter; if i'm going to screw up, it's because i'm going to drop something out of my pocket when i'm rummaging through, but everybody fucks up sometimes. so, maybe i gave one of them a twenty by accident. i can ask, right?

the bartender was pretty certain - he'd have remembered it, because he'd have been surprised by it. and, i had to make the point - i'm not being confrontational, i'm not making accusations, i've just lost some cash and am trying to figure out if i can find it.

the door person was a little less certain - she claimed she couldn't remember, but insisted that if she did then she'd have given me change. her honesty opened a window for me, because if she'd just had said "no. you gave me a $5.", i would have shrugged and walked off. the fact that she was like "i dunno. maybe you did give me a $20.", left me prodding her to remember, to be certain, to be sure; but, as that was happening, i remembered that i gave her a $5, so i had to apologize and walk off.

well, what's next? i might have dropped it near my bike...

nope.

by that point, i'd gotten over the initial shock and sobered up a little due to necessity (it's funny how that happens), so i was able to think it through a little better. i had $61. i spent $9 at the 7/11, $12 + $12 = $24 at the rock show, $5 on cover and $3 dollars on one beer at marble. so i should have.....$20. i should have had a $20, a $5 and three $1s on my way into the bar. if i had accidentally given the door person a $20, i'd still have the $5. if i had accidentally given the bartender a $20, i'd still have the $1. so, i lost the $20; this is my fault.

i made sure that the relevant people were aware of this fact, that i was taking responsibility for losing the cash and not blaming or accusing anybody, when i got back into the bar, went out for a smoke and started cruising for pot, instead.

but, then, something kind of cool happened: somebody tapped me on the shoulder and gave me the $20. it was found by bar staff on the ground.

(and, no, gay people are not recruited. but, i think you'd be being daft in taking that skit too seriously)

by that time, the bar was nearly closed, and the music had shut down, so i only got one more in before it was time to go - no dancing, not much talking, even.

nobody at the park...

i stopped at the gas station at trumbull & warren to get smokes, and lit one up before i got back on my bike. a car full of dudes screeches to a halt an inch from me, and a couple of them get out.

"how much?"

what?

"i said, how much?"

*pause*

no.

"but you're standing right there."

in front of my bike?

"i'm a go into the store, you stay right there."

i was gone before he came back out, and finished my smoke up at the benches on cass, just south of warren.

i had had 10 drinks and been gifted some pot at that point, so i was inebriated, but i was in control and the night was crystal clear until i got to the diner; i just got a coffee, but i seem to have dozed off, and it gets a little blurry for a bit around 4:00. i vaguely recall getting yelled at by a homeless person, but i don't recall the context.

i dozed off a second time at the bus stop, and had to be honked at by the driver to wake me up. but, i'm ok, clearly.

i got me some pasta.

i took me a shower.

and i slept most of the day.

so, what do ride even sound like in 2019?

not quite what i expected.

q: are we not ride?
a: i'm not sure, actually.

https://rideox4.bandcamp.com/

have i posted about asklepius, yet?

they get a fair amount of shows, and i've almost seen them several times, now. and, i'd probably enjoy the set, should i catch it.

but, the honest truth is that i'm not going to go out of my way to see a band without a guitar player. i'm just not.

if you liked the third 65daysofstatic record, the destruction of small ideas, imagine it without the guitars, and that's roughly what you've got, here.

https://asklepius.bandcamp.com

i'm feeling a little more social this morning.

and a little more keen on the hot snakes show, after all.

the really hot night is tonight, but i don't see a good show to hit....

bandcamp is an interesting system, though, because it lets you see who actually buys the records.

and, who is buying this lingua ignota record? mostly creepy looking dudes, apparently.

but, from a distance, as a non-religionist, i just can't relate to it. what i can do is hold it up as an example of why you shouldn't raise your children inside of a religion - it's the perfect demonstration of how religion can really fuck people up.

so, i tried to listen to this, and it's...

...you might think i'd like this. i really don't.

first, i should point out that it's essentially a nine inch nails remix record, in terms of actual music. but, nobody is really interested in the music in itself, and it's not like trent hasn't borrowed a few parts, himself

i like a lot of demented music, it's true, and i've never hidden it. but, there's a huge class of stuff that i can't relate to, and don't really go anywhere near. let's remember that i was born and raised an atheist, so this christian imagery is really a foreign culture, from my perspective. it's not shocking to me. i don't have any catholic guilt. etc. so, you'll notice that i like music that makes fun of christianity more than i like music that tries to subvert it or spin it around or whatever. sure: there's a psycho-analysis of this, too, but it's very different. i'm perhaps trying to protect myself from something that i recognize is dangerous by shielding myself from it with satire, as well as perhaps reacting to a level of alienation stemming from not being a part of the dominant cultural group, but i'm not working through the trauma of being damaged by a system of systemic child abuse that begins at birth. so, you won't see any satanic metal in my music collection, and you won't see any of this demented christianized goth, either. i'd rather listen to pagan music like coil than much of this catholic guilt that gets labeled goth music.

that said, what this actually sounds like is a kind of watered down version of a singer named diamanda galas, who started off doing experimental opera in the early 80s that drew from sources like xenakis and some of the more abstract opera that came out of the 20th century. but, it's almost tragic to put these things in the same paragraph: diamanda galas was a true virtuoso, with a seven octave vocal range and a tendency to draw on what are today considered european literary classics as she constructed absolutely frightening sound collages around deep literary cuts. diamanda galas is/was truly european high art.

while her earliest work is often cited as seminal, this is questionable; rather, you can hear exactly where lingua ignota is coming from if you check out diamanda galas' second record, panopticon.

but, if you were to do that, and even come close to understanding it, you'd see the deep sin behind what lingua ignota is doing, here. first, she's discarded the deep literary component for some kind of victim porn, and i'm being explicit in how i'm describing it: i don't know how you approach this, if not as pornography. there's really not another way to analyze it. you can talk about empathy, you can talk about expression, but in the end this is vicarious, and because it's vicarious, it's pornography. second, while i'm not going to exactly doubt lingua ignota's vocal abilities, i don't hear any indication that she has the range or training that galas had. third, the music has, as previously mentioned, been reduced to a series of samples, coming from pop artists like trent reznor, which is just the one that i immediately recognized. i'll let you find some more lifted riffs on your own.

i guess that if you've never heard of diamanda galas before, and you find something exciting about the porn, then my deconstruction is just bursting a bubble - you might think this is more creative than it is, and you might not realize why you're excited by it. but, we all know i'm next level.

i'm just seeing right through it.

and, i'm not sure that telling you to have fun anyways is the right thing to do, either.

https://linguaignota.bandcamp.com/album/caligula

to be clear: there are still smaller rock shows in detroit, and i've been to several of them. i think the deficit of underground rock shows is more of a reflection of a quiet scene, right now.

it's more that mid-size shows don't have anywhere to play anymore. they had the magic stick, but they converted it into a techno bar (and it never really did well as one). then there was el club but it's been turned into a hip-hop club. and, st. andrew's has just been very mainstream since the day i moved here (and it's also a heavily policed space, which kind of sucks. they'll throw you out for smoking pot.). so, the closest thing left to an affordable, mid-size rock venue is the loving touch in ferndale - a nice space, but an hour bike ride from downtown. i mean, it's at tenth mile, meaning it's ten miles up. what that means is that a lot of bands end up playing in grand rapids or kalamazoo or ann arbor or lansing and then expect you to drive from detroit to see them there. it's not a particularly expensive bus trip out to these places if you buy ahead online, but dedicating the time to do it isn't always reasonable, either. i mean, i'll do it if it comes up, but it hasn't in a while; boris, for example, is something i'd check out if it wasn't complicated, but isn't worth the headache when it is.

it would be great if there was a venue like that closer to downtown, but there seems to be an array of forces that doesn't want it to exist. so be it.

but, i don't think i'll have another summer like this, either. i'll be 39 next summer...this is probably it.

so, i'm pretty sure about the wizard rifle show on tuesday. this is actually a pretty interesting act that i'm just getting my first exposure to.

i've surveyed their discography at this point, and it seems like they're coming off of a lacklustre sophomore effort, after starting off with a pretty solid first record back in 2012. the new record is more similar to their first record, but also seems to be...there's certain stylistic traits that demonstrate that the age difference is substantive, even down to the huskier vocal tone.

i'm pretty picky about rock music nowadays, and there are times when they wear their influences a little bit strongly. but, it's a good mix of influences, and i'm looking forward to it.

i've been out a lot this year, but i think that the closest i got to seeing a solid rock show over the summer proper (that is, since the last solstice, when i saw pelican, earth & helms alee) was the missed screaming females show. i've seen a few random bands here and there, but they've been in odd places, and they haven't really been in the genre of 'loud and complicated rock music'. and, i've missed a few, like, punkish shows but, none of them were really loud like that, either. i skipped loma prieta because i didn't feel like it, and i skipped torche because i didn't want to pay for it. it's rather been a lot of artier local stuff, a lot of jazzy stuff and a lot of techno parties.

i think i needed to get out and have fun, but, the summer's almost over, and it's just kind of like - why didn't it rock? and, the primary answer is because there mostly wasn't much to rock out to, unfortunately. so, i'm hoping this show hits the spot, kind of thing.

i'm less certain about hot snakes. it's just a little too simplistic, sadly. i find these guys frustrating; they almost seem ashamed of their talent. i may end up at the classical show downtown, instead...

...and, the solstice weekend looks like it's going to be a giant dance party, followed by fly pan am and blank mass - neither of which are really rock bands, either.

there's some older acts floating around here, but they seem to want to avoid detroit proper and i'm not traveling to see them. boris won't play here anymore. sleep is around. cloud nothings cancelled their tour date this month. cursive is playing in ann arbor. the city has just kind of fallen off the circuit, in that way.

but, then again, i'm not entirely sure what i'm looking for, either. is there even anything being released?

whether it's next week or the week after, the weather's about to turn, and i'll be a lot more selective. i think you can see that i'm already being a lot more selective - if it was warmer this weekend, i probably would have seen the shows i ducked out on. and, if the selection doesn't turn for the better, i could be in for most of the fall.

so, we're in. final choice.

it's headphone music....

so, i'm still toying with this band tonight, which is...

it seems like it's a five piece, with bass, drums and three guitars. but, if you listen to them, it sounds like there's a horn player and a synth player. so, is one of the guitarists using a guitar synthesizer? are they running tapes?

if i listen closely, i can hear a few places where there are three guitars, and a few places where there are two guitars and a synth or horns, but nowhere (yet) where i can pull out three guitars and a synth/horn.

the polyphony suggests that the synth parts are probably not coming from a fret board. it's not a certainty, but it's a balance of probabilities.

so, one of the guitarists could be bouncing back and forth between synth and guitar.

these things are important when trying to determine whether i'm going to enjoy the show or not, as while i do like more reflective sounds, i actually would rather listen to them through headphones at home. a live show is best when it has a lot of energy. if i'm listening to a lot of backing tapes, or sound that is otherwise just triggered via a controller, it's going to get kind of tiring pretty quick.

i kind of wish that the lead parts were a little more the focus.

i'm 88% sure that i'm not going. but i should get through a chunk more of october and then stop to eat and then make a final choice.

i do hope that nova scotia gets off ok. and, i feel for the people of the bahamas.

but, i think i want to plan for one weekend, mid-week, instead of two.

that would be wizard rifle on wednesday and hot snakes on thursday, both in far away hamtramck.

at least the buses are relatively early on weekdays.

like, what is an actual setlist going to actually be?

are they even going to do an old jehu song or two?

or are they going to attack me with their guitars if i ask?

"she was yelling so loud, i thought she was an amp. sorry."

and, should i go see hot snakes?

well, $25 is a lot less than the $60+ that massive attack is charging, so it's hot snakes or bust.

but, i was really more of a fan of the bizarre, abstract song structures that drive like jehu erected. and, in terms of later stuff, i would have taken rocket from the crypt over hot snakes.

but, i've never seen them.

let me give the newish thing a listen....

this is a little on the silly end in terms of recordings, but i suspect it'll be entertaining in a live context.

https://thesavageseven.bandcamp.com/

is he ok, though?

https://notok.bandcamp.com/releases

so, it's not that this isn't enjoyable, it's just that i actually don't want to go all the way out there to see it in less than pristine weather.

there's some chance i could change my mind. but, i suspect it's going to lose some kick, live, and come of a little flat; it's probably better through headphones, and that's actually ok. of course, i might be wrong....

if you like the tortoise sound, this is somewhere close to it, although i actually think it's drawing more from dmst. they need to think a bit more about ways to transcend the repetition, though, as they get stuck repeatably.


https://haptikos.bandcamp.com/releases

again: a festival downtown is a good place to smoke drugs. i don't have a problem with that.

but, an apartment complex in a residential area is not a good place to smoke drugs. i do have a huge problem with that.

they've been handing out special licenses for some of these events.

it's just the easiest thing for me to do. but, if there's licenses for this event, they're not broadcasting them.

ok, no. if i'm going to do this, it makes more sense to do it the other way, because there's late shows.

they may have special licenses at dally, which will let me pick up some pre-rolls. i should look into that. if i go down early, that would be the better reason.

but, do i want to go to the math show or not? let's work that out.

so, i'd be looking at something like:

11:00?-19:00 - dally in the alley @ cass corridor. free + beer/pot.
---->20:00-00:00 - math show @ new dodge. $10 + beer.<--------
00:00-02:?? - i'd rather try the industrial night at the high dive. but, it tends to be empty whenever i go. free + beer.
3:00?-8:00? - there's two very late shows downtownish that are the better spots for me to try. $10.

and, if i'm feeling completely insane, i could always bike to ann arbor for snarky puppy.

as you can see, it's pointless without the math show. and i don't know if i actually feel like it or not.

so, the way they set this up doesn't make any sense. they put all the djs on at the same time (there are also two dedicated stages with local djs, but i'm not dancing in an alley in the middle of the afternoon), all the rappers on at the same time, all the hipster pop bands on at the same time and the more interesting stuff stacked to the front of each stage.

why wouldn't they set the stages up in terms of genre? it doesn't make sense to play people off against each other like this.

so, if they spread some of the stuff that is earlier in the day out a little bit, it might make more sense for me. conversely, it might make more sense for other people if they didn't put the hip-hop on all at the same time. as it is, i'm not going to enjoy the r n b or the hip-hop and will not stay for it and, given that the show in hamtramck doesn't start until mid-evening, it doesn't really make sense to go down early.

i'm up, though. it may make sense to leave early, if i can find something else to do for a few hours in the afternoon.

Garden Stage
11:15 Ch'i Machines
12:15 BAVE
1:15 Black Shampoo
2:15 LuFuki and Divine Providence
3:15 The Band Mint
4:15 Copper Thieves
5:15 WHO BOY
6:15 Pet Psychic
7:15 Crimson Alchemist
8:15 Leaf Erikson
9:15 Light Scene Factory

Alley Stage
12:00 Avatar Mode
1:00 Warhorses
2:00 Bryan Hugo Iglesias
3:00 Coastwilde
4:00 BAD FASHION
5:00 Alexis Allon
6:00 Cullen Emadrey
7:00 The Stools
8:00 Cleveland Thrasher
9:00 DUANE D313
10:00 Tony Nova

Forest Stage
11:30 Remnose
12:30 Apropos
1:30 After Dark Amusement Park
2:30 Alyssa Wettlaufer
3:30 Jack Oats
4:30 JAKDD
5:30 Dani Darling
6:30 The Muggs
7:30 Jibs Brown & the Jambros
8:30 Strictly Fine
9:30 Octavia

actually, i heard that otzi's band was fucking sick.

stated another way: it's a good drummer with a lot of simple, and sometimes boring, riffs. there's nothing happening in the middle or the top of the mix.

but he's actually a bassist, right?

when something like lightning bolt did this, they made sure to fill up the whole spectrum. that's what they're missing here...

now, you could argue "but, they have singer!", as though this guy's guttural caveman yelping is any substitute, right?

i think they recently had a guitarist. they need to get another one.

i suspect that what you actually saw in front of you was probably a two-piece band that was struggling to fill up the room, both with sound and with people.

i just want to add an addendum on the big business show that i missed tonight.

i listened to the record a number of times over the last few days, and they kind of ultimately only really do one thing. yes, the record's a little mixed up, but if you sit down and work it out, almost all of the songs are pretty much identical.

a few listens brought out a bit more of a melodic feel that blunted the cockiness of it - it's admittedly not as dumb as it comes off on first or second listen. but, there's just not that much actually happening in the mix - it's just being saturated by needless drum fills.

in some other set of circumstances, i may have worked it into a longer day. as it is, i suspect that the show was actually quite lacklustre. but, i wasn't there. i don't know.

so, of the bunch of heavier bands coming in this week, and there's quite a few, this is the most interesting, to me, so far.

i can hear the lightning bolt and sonic youth that they're citing, but would be more likely to suggest king crimson than black sabbath. but, the key thing to me is that it's dynamic: there's lots of stuff happening, and there's lots of stuff changing, and they don't need to be evil and scary in order to do it.

wednesday may also end up being the nicest day this week.

https://wizardrifle.bandcamp.com/

the album version was a little longer, but didn't have the silly start and end.

so, there's maybe 90 seconds worth of interesting noise interspersed here amongst a lot of boring garage rock.

and, some of it - "bad man" - is pretty cringey. i mean, do we need to go through a discussion of whether bad people actually exist? 'cause i don't think they do. i think we have a bad system, and that system creates damaged people, and then sometimes doesn't take responsibility for itself. but, i don't think there are "bad people".

anyways.

if they could take those 90 seconds of noise, right? but that's not where they're actually coming from.

https://meatwavechicago.bandcamp.com/album/the-incessant

again: this is a genre that i'm only going to dip mildly into. and, there's lots of image here, but are they actually any good?

the focus of the band actually seems to be the singer, and if you like a heavy blues sound (this isn't metal, it just plays it on tv), with a sultry singer, there's something here for you. along with the all-image presentation, they're pretty atmospheric, so you get dramatic interplay of bass and drums in the quieter moments, leading to nifty drops and whatnot. it's not bad, exactly.

but, i need more guitar if i'm going to get hooked into the sound, and the guitars here are often entirely superfluous, just doubling the bass parts.

https://heavytemple.bandcamp.com/album/chassit

this is a genre that i can get into a little bit when it's rough around the edges, as this is. they shouldn't be calling themselves a grunge band, but it's messy enough to pass as math-ish. more to the point is that it's high energy, and kind of manic.

it's just hardly worth going all the way to hazel park on a random sunday for an hour to see it.

tell them to try to find a venue closer to downtown next time.

https://vermontbandohio.bandcamp.com/album/i-didnt-think-wed-make-it-this-far-ep

so, big business is in town soon. are they actually any good, though?

when were they here last? last year? i can't remember, exactly, but i remember that, the last time we went through this, i decided they were a little too cock-rock for my tastes, and without many redeeming qualities. contrary to the popular misconception, which appears to have been constructed by sheer idiots, i actually have a pretty strong aversion to rock music that originates in the male gonad area. maybe it's because i'm not particularly interested in compensating, but it just leaves me bored. i digress.

the thing is that there's enough of an intersection here with adrenaline-driven noise rock that i may find some reason to go, if i listen to it a few times. i doubt it, though; this is a stretch for me, from first principles, and something i would, under most scenarios, actually prefer to avoid. it's only very loosely peeking into my sphere of interest.

i'm at track five, and, in fact, pretty bored by it. but, we'll let it run.

if i don't comment further, you can be pretty sure it's a no.

https://bigbigbusiness.bandcamp.com/

i would never actually identify as goth, though.

i'm at most a "cherry goth", which is a term that has largely fallen out of use, and refers to a softer, gentler and girlier type of goth.

i'm really just a punk.

and, it's funny...

...because when i first started listening to swans around 1998-ish, that's what everybody said: they didn't get good until jarboe came in, don't listen to the stuff from the 80s, everything before burning world is just noisy shit, etc. their fan base was mostly goth/industrial types, and that was more or less the consensus position.

nowadays, the swans fan base seems to be mostly composed of like bro-ish dudes that think their high point was raping a slave.

it's a total reversal.

people are confused on this point.

when i say i'm a big swans fan, and i am, i mean the period from about 1990-1997.

i actually have very little interest in 80s swans.

i posted about this earlier and called it generic, but the thing i'm drawn to about it is how swans-y it is.

i don't expect to make it all the way to hamtramck tomorrow. but, if it was a little closer, it might be more likely to get to it.

https://silenceinthesnow.bandcamp.com/album/levitation-chamber

so, i can confirm that the record sounds more "like tool" at 1.5x, on youtube.

which has got me wondering.

the popular way to do this nowadays is to write slow, menacing riffs and then label it "stoner rock". that's not what tool were ever about - they were a kind of a straight-edge punk band, and i wouldn't be surprised to hear that most of the band has actually never done psychedelics before, and might even label drug users as hapless idiots. it's just not where they're coming from, culturally.

their fan base would require a different analysis, in terms of drug use.

but, is it possible that somebody at the label pushed them into slowing the tape down? is that why the record is 86 minutes?

if you speed it up in the youtube player, the sound gets a lot more definition, all of a sudden. the guitars get their attack back, to start with - which is a bit of a smoking gun. but, the bass gets it's punch back, and the drums get their drive back. it just sounds more "like tool", all around.

this doesn't solve the record's monotony problems; they're still repeating the same riffs over and over again, and it's still farcical, at best. but, it's a little less tragic, because it's not quite as boring.

i just wonder if i'm actually right....

ok, i'm halfway through the last track, and i do promise that i'll at least try to listen to it one more time, but i don't expect to write much more.

if lateralus was a hollowing out, and 10,000 days was a step in the wrong direction, this is merely self-parody. if i say "history repeated..." enough, am i repeating myself as farce or tragedy?

this is more of a tragedy than a farce.

and, with that, don't expect much more from me on the topic.

and, yes - i'm sure that i'm listening to it at the right speed.

but, i might actually listen to it at the wrong speed on purpose, next.

*sigh*.

i'll give it a few more listens.

but, my first impression is that they took a couple of six-seven minute songs and played them at half speed. so, every song looks like an opus, when it's actually just an average-lengthed tool song slowed down from six minutes to eleven minutes.

and, the way i'm feeling about it is that, because everything is happening so slowly, it's, overall, sort of boring.

like i say: i'll give it a bit longer, but i can tell if something's a grower, and this is not a grower. this is just played too slowly to be compelling.

see, like...

as soon as you start talking about tool as a metal band, you lose me, which was why it took so long for me to get into them in the first place. yes, i remember sober, the animated video, the late night play, the whole thing. i thought it was dumb. i thought their fans were dumb...

my opinion of them did not change through the initial release of aenima.

a few years later, i guess in '97 or '98, i got ganged up on by some people on the skinny puppy list about it. it was the two marks - meddle and robinson. they insisted that i stop referring to tool as a dumb metal band, because they were better than that. in fact, given my general tastes, i ought to like them. they insisted that while the band did take some musical cues from metal, they took more ideas from progressive rock (which they knew i liked) and they took more lyrical ideas from punk rock (which they knew i liked). it was more like rollins fronting king crimson than some dumbass satanic metal band. so, i needed to shut up. i needed to get over my aversion to metal, and listen to it more carefully.

and, i relented - i picked up aenima at the second hand store, and it took me a few tries, but i was able to get into it, eventually. and, they were right - this wasn't actually a metal band at all. this was a band that talked hardcore and sounded prog.

over time, they've kind of collapsed into themselves. somebody else may claim that they grew up. they might argue that the band has grown. but, i just think they got boring. lateralus is not terrible, but it's 50% filler; 10,000 days is mostly terrible. i didn't find their newfound spirituality to be very compelling; they were never able to get me again in the way they got me in the more misanthropic tracks at the start of their career.

so, the media is claiming that they're these metal icons, or something. ask an actual metalhead - they'll disagree with you, but they'll probably claim they're a pop band before they claim they're a punk band. then, ask some old punks. ask some grunge fans. tell me what they think...

i've actually started listening to it, and is it playing at the right tempo?

i don't think i've been to a concert with more than 5,000 people at it since i moved here in 2013.

i really, really prefer the smaller venue kinds of shows.

and, there's a <1% chance that i'm going to pay a small fortune to go to a tool concert in a hockey arena.

i am in fact aware that there's a new tool record out.

i am not very excited about it.

it might be alright, musically, but i expect the lyrics to be horribly cringeworthy, as they've been now for some time. let's not forget that the last really good tool record was in 1996. maynard has really not had much interesting to say, since.

i'll get around to it, eventually.

but, i very strongly suspect that i'm going to wish it never happened.

this is a side project from a crappy metal band called wolves in the throne room, and while it doesn't succeed in transcending the generic, it's a lot more promising than their main project. let's hope this is their future.

https://silenceinthesnow.bandcamp.com/album/levitation-chamber