so, imagine if richard wright (from pink floyd) joined sonic youth, around 1986 or so.
i bet you never imagined that one.
yet, here it is.
it's a simple idea, and only bizarre due to the cultural contradiction, which we should actually all be happy is dissolving. but, they need to do more with it.
https://blankscreen.bandcamp.com/album/century
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
this is just a tad too boneheaded for me, but it's dynamic and varied enough to keep my attention, anyways. if they could de-boneheadify just a little...
specifically, i like the idea of starting with these jazzy deleo-style chord shapes and then jamming on them out to post-rock territory. that's an accidental stumble, no doubt, but it works. but, like early stp, and late stp for that matter, they need to focus...
https://quietearthtoronto.bandcamp.com
specifically, i like the idea of starting with these jazzy deleo-style chord shapes and then jamming on them out to post-rock territory. that's an accidental stumble, no doubt, but it works. but, like early stp, and late stp for that matter, they need to focus...
https://quietearthtoronto.bandcamp.com
Monday, April 29, 2019
this is more along the lines of the kind of thing i'd have actually wanted to go out and see, although i doubt i'd have taken the trip to toronto for it - or at least not on first contact. nor am i likely to end up a big fan of this, either. but, this is the kind of experience i want out of a show - thumping drums, noisy guitars and tortured screams. i don't care that's it out of style right now; what's trending right now, this arms-distance faux intellectual bullshit, is just tired and boring. this sounds like it would actually be fun.
remember that? fun?
they skipped right from kalamazoo - which is really more a part of chicago - to toronto. no detroit date.
not cool enough for detroit, i guess.
https://tunicband.bandcamp.com/
remember that? fun?
they skipped right from kalamazoo - which is really more a part of chicago - to toronto. no detroit date.
not cool enough for detroit, i guess.
https://tunicband.bandcamp.com/
Sunday, April 28, 2019
i've bumped into this band a few times, and you can tell from looking at them that they're trying to be the mars volta who, in hindsight, never really developed the potential they were hinting at. i want to say something about how the genre is littered with all of this unrealized potential nowadays, but wasn't it really always the case? weren't you really always lucky for bands in this genre to fluke out on that one great record?
maybe they'll accidentally fall over it one day.
but, this isn't it.
https://atsukochiba.bandcamp.com/
maybe they'll accidentally fall over it one day.
but, this isn't it.
https://atsukochiba.bandcamp.com/
so, where did corgan's often-used pentatonic pedal tone come from?
it might sound kind of "eastern". sure.
but, where it actually came from was hendrix's inhumanly large hands, and his sloppy mix of open guitar chords with killer blues licks. few people can really do what he did. look at the size of his hands, kids. but, corgan just took a small aspect of that and made it his own.
it might sound kind of "eastern". sure.
but, where it actually came from was hendrix's inhumanly large hands, and his sloppy mix of open guitar chords with killer blues licks. few people can really do what he did. look at the size of his hands, kids. but, corgan just took a small aspect of that and made it his own.
this is a good example of how hendrix worked...
this is a cover song; it's iconic, but he didn't write the track.
the original author was no slouch himself:
but, in working through this understood cover, in comparing these versions, you get a good understanding of how hendrix worked - he would often start with white music, country music, as a foundation, and then funk it up with blues, r 'n' b, funk and jazz.
this is a cover song; it's iconic, but he didn't write the track.
the original author was no slouch himself:
but, in working through this understood cover, in comparing these versions, you get a good understanding of how hendrix worked - he would often start with white music, country music, as a foundation, and then funk it up with blues, r 'n' b, funk and jazz.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
so, be careful about pointing fingers around when it comes to
"appropriation" because it's only a matter of time before somebody walks
in the room that actually knows what they're talking about.
if we gave property rights to cultures, lawyers would get rich very fast - because we're all basically the same.
if we gave property rights to cultures, lawyers would get rich very fast - because we're all basically the same.
i was just reading an article that assigned the smashing pumpkins' use of pedal tones to an influence from middle eastern music, and i know that is nonsense.
they were no doubt referring to what corgan variously called the "pumpkins chord" or the "hendrix chord", in differing guitar publications through the 90s. corgan was a guitar magazine staple for about five years or so, tossing out bits of tabs all over the place, and providing a running commentary on them. and he did, in fact, use a lot of pedal tones in this period - something he was clear to attribute directly to hendrix. anybody familiar with both guitarists will not have difficulty drawing the influence, in regards to the use of open strings: compare purple haze with silverfuck.
and, where did hendrix get these ideas from? well, these are actually strumming techniques. there might be a very surface similarity between these open chord strumming tactics and sitar music, but it breaks down instantly on any basic analysis. where hendrix picked the idea up was from white country & bluegrass musicians. the song structure of purple haze, minus the tasty solo, is actually a hoe down. get yer jugs out. and pick up yer fiddles.
but, i mean, if you didn't know any better, you might have fucked that up - it's a pentatonic scale on an open string, and middle easterners write pentatonic music using open strings all the time so, duh, right? except that every culture does that, in varying degrees. what would the solo in purple haze sound like on a chinese flute, at half speed? fairly traditional, in fact.
they were no doubt referring to what corgan variously called the "pumpkins chord" or the "hendrix chord", in differing guitar publications through the 90s. corgan was a guitar magazine staple for about five years or so, tossing out bits of tabs all over the place, and providing a running commentary on them. and he did, in fact, use a lot of pedal tones in this period - something he was clear to attribute directly to hendrix. anybody familiar with both guitarists will not have difficulty drawing the influence, in regards to the use of open strings: compare purple haze with silverfuck.
and, where did hendrix get these ideas from? well, these are actually strumming techniques. there might be a very surface similarity between these open chord strumming tactics and sitar music, but it breaks down instantly on any basic analysis. where hendrix picked the idea up was from white country & bluegrass musicians. the song structure of purple haze, minus the tasty solo, is actually a hoe down. get yer jugs out. and pick up yer fiddles.
but, i mean, if you didn't know any better, you might have fucked that up - it's a pentatonic scale on an open string, and middle easterners write pentatonic music using open strings all the time so, duh, right? except that every culture does that, in varying degrees. what would the solo in purple haze sound like on a chinese flute, at half speed? fairly traditional, in fact.
it is true that there were some pretentious rock bands in the late 60s and early 70s - the byrds, led zeppelin and, briefly, the beatles, amongst them - that attempted to integrate an aspect of eastern culture into rock music, with varying and mostly middling results.
i am not a fan of led zeppelin. at all. that's not why; the reason i despise zeppelin is that i think the vocalist was a pretentious twat. i'm a punk, remember. i like genesis and floyd, but zeppelin is in my black list with yes and rush and the doors. there are a few high points, but it's mostly unlistenable trash.
the reason they did this was that they were worried that rock music - an existing form with a history, already, in the 60s - was getting stale and boring. they were trying to shift the direction elsewhere and ultimately open up new audiences in asia. and, this was in fact one of the things that people didn't like about the turn these pretentious bands took, and part of the reason we had a punk rock movement; yes, there was an attempt to integrate middle eastern ideas into rock music in the 70s, but the audience didn't like it, rejected the bands that did it and demanded that rock musicians return to making rock music. and, some of them, did, too; others kind of disappeared, while still others sought larger markets in disco.
however, it is widely understood - and nowhere contested - that the reason that the pentatonic scale is central to rock music is that it evolved from blues, which was itself a combination of celtic and african traditions, which developed in the lower classes of the united states in the early part of the last century (and the tail end of the previous one). as both celtic music (which is ancestral to the structure of a "blues song") and african music (which is ancestral to the polyrhythms in rock music, as well as the vocal tradition) use pentatonic scales, it is not clear which one is the source of the pentatonic scale in blues music, although i might argue that the structural component introduced from the celtic tradition is probably more relevant, in terms of defining tonality. regardless, the most important point is probably that the traditions were compatible precisely because they shared a concept of tonality, which is probably why the combination was successful.
i suppose that a listener from the middle east with little understanding of the history of rock music may be tempted to hear a pentatonic scale and claim it as their own, but this would be a reflection of their own ignorance, as the same concept of tonality has always been dominant in european folk music, both celtic and german (and also slavic). there is a tendency outside the west to equivocate western culture with christianity, which is a poor way to understand the west; the west was in fact colonized by christianity (a jewish religion.), largely against it's will, and is more often defined by western intellectuals as a struggle against the hegemonic influence of christianity, from the collapse of rome to the french revolution and beyond. what people outside of the west equivocate with western music is actually in fact church music, but this never succeeded in displacing the (pagan) folk traditions anywhere in europe. if you really understand the history here, the more pertinent question is actually whether what we call middle eastern music is fundamentally galatian, that is gallic, or celtic, in origin, via a byzantine intermediary. westerners might not realize that it is not under any dispute, at least, that what we call middle eastern music is actually fundamentally greek music, in terms of construction, even if the tonality (probably phoenician in character) was named by the greeks rather than invented by them. pentatonic scales exist in most cultures, and it would be rather presumptuous for any single culture to claim them as their own; what is being mistaken as cultural familiarity is actually cultural uniformity.
one of the components of blues/rock music often misinterpreted as "arabic" or "eastern" would be the use of open strings, which easterners may interpret as "sympathetic notes" or "drones". but, this idea has a long history in western music, where it is called a pedal tone. you can hear it in everything from traditional celtic music to wagnerian opera. there's nothing inherently "eastern" about it, even if easterners might instantly recognize it as familiar.
so, i don't want to deny the similarities - it's not as though they aren't there. but, the process of assigning ideas across cultures, and then claiming "appropriation", is often done in ways that are quite shoddy and quite lacking.
i am not a fan of led zeppelin. at all. that's not why; the reason i despise zeppelin is that i think the vocalist was a pretentious twat. i'm a punk, remember. i like genesis and floyd, but zeppelin is in my black list with yes and rush and the doors. there are a few high points, but it's mostly unlistenable trash.
the reason they did this was that they were worried that rock music - an existing form with a history, already, in the 60s - was getting stale and boring. they were trying to shift the direction elsewhere and ultimately open up new audiences in asia. and, this was in fact one of the things that people didn't like about the turn these pretentious bands took, and part of the reason we had a punk rock movement; yes, there was an attempt to integrate middle eastern ideas into rock music in the 70s, but the audience didn't like it, rejected the bands that did it and demanded that rock musicians return to making rock music. and, some of them, did, too; others kind of disappeared, while still others sought larger markets in disco.
however, it is widely understood - and nowhere contested - that the reason that the pentatonic scale is central to rock music is that it evolved from blues, which was itself a combination of celtic and african traditions, which developed in the lower classes of the united states in the early part of the last century (and the tail end of the previous one). as both celtic music (which is ancestral to the structure of a "blues song") and african music (which is ancestral to the polyrhythms in rock music, as well as the vocal tradition) use pentatonic scales, it is not clear which one is the source of the pentatonic scale in blues music, although i might argue that the structural component introduced from the celtic tradition is probably more relevant, in terms of defining tonality. regardless, the most important point is probably that the traditions were compatible precisely because they shared a concept of tonality, which is probably why the combination was successful.
i suppose that a listener from the middle east with little understanding of the history of rock music may be tempted to hear a pentatonic scale and claim it as their own, but this would be a reflection of their own ignorance, as the same concept of tonality has always been dominant in european folk music, both celtic and german (and also slavic). there is a tendency outside the west to equivocate western culture with christianity, which is a poor way to understand the west; the west was in fact colonized by christianity (a jewish religion.), largely against it's will, and is more often defined by western intellectuals as a struggle against the hegemonic influence of christianity, from the collapse of rome to the french revolution and beyond. what people outside of the west equivocate with western music is actually in fact church music, but this never succeeded in displacing the (pagan) folk traditions anywhere in europe. if you really understand the history here, the more pertinent question is actually whether what we call middle eastern music is fundamentally galatian, that is gallic, or celtic, in origin, via a byzantine intermediary. westerners might not realize that it is not under any dispute, at least, that what we call middle eastern music is actually fundamentally greek music, in terms of construction, even if the tonality (probably phoenician in character) was named by the greeks rather than invented by them. pentatonic scales exist in most cultures, and it would be rather presumptuous for any single culture to claim them as their own; what is being mistaken as cultural familiarity is actually cultural uniformity.
one of the components of blues/rock music often misinterpreted as "arabic" or "eastern" would be the use of open strings, which easterners may interpret as "sympathetic notes" or "drones". but, this idea has a long history in western music, where it is called a pedal tone. you can hear it in everything from traditional celtic music to wagnerian opera. there's nothing inherently "eastern" about it, even if easterners might instantly recognize it as familiar.
so, i don't want to deny the similarities - it's not as though they aren't there. but, the process of assigning ideas across cultures, and then claiming "appropriation", is often done in ways that are quite shoddy and quite lacking.
i just want to add a little bit to the point i was making about this record back at the end of august, 2013.
this record was massive in canada. it was a few years later, but i saw this band headline a festival in canada that included foofighters, collective soul and green day as opening acts. on the same night. it was a pop music phenomenon, up here, with multiple high charting singles...
i remember seeing the video for hope on muchmusic over the summer of that year and being smitten by it.
it follows that if you were a teenager in canada in the mid 90s, and you started a rock band in the late 90s or early 00s, then you were probably massively influenced by this disc - and that runs across a large spectrum of music, from the pop bands of the period right to the post-hardcore bands of it.
given the importance of canadian rock music during this period, the influence of the record really cannot be understated.
if you're outside of canada, you may have never heard of it. but, it's an incredibly important disc.
this record was massive in canada. it was a few years later, but i saw this band headline a festival in canada that included foofighters, collective soul and green day as opening acts. on the same night. it was a pop music phenomenon, up here, with multiple high charting singles...
i remember seeing the video for hope on muchmusic over the summer of that year and being smitten by it.
it follows that if you were a teenager in canada in the mid 90s, and you started a rock band in the late 90s or early 00s, then you were probably massively influenced by this disc - and that runs across a large spectrum of music, from the pop bands of the period right to the post-hardcore bands of it.
given the importance of canadian rock music during this period, the influence of the record really cannot be understated.
if you're outside of canada, you may have never heard of it. but, it's an incredibly important disc.
"i makes me feel, like, minus something"
i've spent a lot of my life listening to these varesian or zappaesque montages of heck, and have even created a few of them myself. they're hard to rank, as they are objectively unmusical by design. this one is a little disjointed and messy, but if that's your thing then you might like it.
https://coherentstates.bandcamp.com/album/convicted-felon-adjusted-for-inflation
i've spent a lot of my life listening to these varesian or zappaesque montages of heck, and have even created a few of them myself. they're hard to rank, as they are objectively unmusical by design. this one is a little disjointed and messy, but if that's your thing then you might like it.
https://coherentstates.bandcamp.com/album/convicted-felon-adjusted-for-inflation
i saw life in vaccuum at phog a few years ago, just as an excuse to get out of the house. they're kind of moving sideways, in that they have an interesting aesthetic but aren't doing enough with it. if you're going to do this drive like jehu kind of thing, you need to go over the top with it and make it just completely off the wall ridiculous; otherwise, it's just retro, and you're just rehashing a thirty year old sound.
the thing is that these guys aren't boring, though. they just need to go next level.
https://lifeinvacuum.bandcamp.com/album/all-you-can-quit
the thing is that these guys aren't boring, though. they just need to go next level.
https://lifeinvacuum.bandcamp.com/album/all-you-can-quit
fuck grammar. solidarity!
i'm actually happy to hear that the lee renaldo, or lou reed, style of vocal delivery is making a bit of a comeback, as it had maybe reached the level of sacred cow for a while, there, and that's never appropriate. kill yr idols. but, what sonic youth did was a little harder than it sounded. i wouldn't skip this...
i doubt that plotkin is mixing their live shows, though.
https://bikethiefs.bandcamp.com/
i'm actually happy to hear that the lee renaldo, or lou reed, style of vocal delivery is making a bit of a comeback, as it had maybe reached the level of sacred cow for a while, there, and that's never appropriate. kill yr idols. but, what sonic youth did was a little harder than it sounded. i wouldn't skip this...
i doubt that plotkin is mixing their live shows, though.
https://bikethiefs.bandcamp.com/
Friday, April 26, 2019
this is a mix of familiar influences, but i'm not sure it really comes together well. in the sense that it sounds like a mash-up of sonic youth and fucked up at points, with dashes of la dispute, it seems somewhat cultivated as a lost art form, in the sense that these are kids sorting through old records. maybe they'll develop something more original as they age a little.
https://torontospoils.bandcamp.com/
https://torontospoils.bandcamp.com/
i was late to a shipley hollow show in windsor in october, 2016 and ended up missing it; i fully intended to attend the show, i just missed it. they played early...
at the time, i was interpreting it as a kind of mellow emo rock band with a math-y flavour, but i was fresh off seeing caddywhampus in a record store in detroit so i may have had skewed perceptions. at the time, i missed the proggier aspect, which seems to be taking over the band. i'm pulling out explicit influences from the likes of mike keneally and the uber-seminal, if mostly forgotten, english post-punk act, magazine.
i think the material from around 2015 is a little stronger then the newer material. but, i intended to see it then, and i'd plan to see them again if they came through.
https://shipleyhollow.bandcamp.com
at the time, i was interpreting it as a kind of mellow emo rock band with a math-y flavour, but i was fresh off seeing caddywhampus in a record store in detroit so i may have had skewed perceptions. at the time, i missed the proggier aspect, which seems to be taking over the band. i'm pulling out explicit influences from the likes of mike keneally and the uber-seminal, if mostly forgotten, english post-punk act, magazine.
i think the material from around 2015 is a little stronger then the newer material. but, i intended to see it then, and i'd plan to see them again if they came through.
https://shipleyhollow.bandcamp.com
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
this is another recording that manages to almost be interesting. but you have to listen carefully to be sure, because everything about it is interesting, except, arguably the thing itself. so, you expect it to be interesting. & yet...
https://animatist.bandcamp.com/album/face-club
https://animatist.bandcamp.com/album/face-club
another strange rock experiment with a squeaky female vocalist. this one veered a little too far into folk for my tastes, but it at least kept my interest up.
https://freedombaby.bandcamp.com/album/how-youll-grow
https://freedombaby.bandcamp.com/album/how-youll-grow
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
this is clearly heavily influenced by early autechre, but it's not succeeding in being interesting at this time, mostly because it's too constrained. if they open the sound up a bit, they could have something interesting here.
https://ortiz.bandcamp.com/
https://ortiz.bandcamp.com/
i would not be likely to attend a show like this, but i think it's worth an acknowledgement, nonetheless.
https://thanyaiyer.bandcamp.com/album/thanya-iyer-on-audiotree-live
https://thanyaiyer.bandcamp.com/album/thanya-iyer-on-audiotree-live
Monday, April 22, 2019
kind of psychotic, but potentially interesting.
there was a detroit date at a venue i've been to but have kind of ignored recently. if the weather was nicer, i could have bicycled out to this.
this is why i'm doing the research, i know i need to catch up.
https://editrix.bandcamp.com/releases
there was a detroit date at a venue i've been to but have kind of ignored recently. if the weather was nicer, i could have bicycled out to this.
this is why i'm doing the research, i know i need to catch up.
https://editrix.bandcamp.com/releases
there actually appears to be enough of an instrumental rock scene in toronto right now to hit some shows in.
https://pioneeranomaly.bandcamp.com/album/algorithmic-existence
https://pioneeranomaly.bandcamp.com/album/algorithmic-existence
Sunday, April 21, 2019
this was at that same show in toronto, which i bet was a good one.
this is exactly the kind of composed, left-field pop that i like, actually. i'd like to hear more of it...
they appear to have penciled in a detroit date on their tour poster, but they don't appear to have actually found a venue. somebody couldn't get this in at ufo or something? it's quite promising. they had a second date penciled in for ann arbour, and they did play a coffee shop in ypsilanti.
so, it's what i said - we're in a down period, which means you need to do a little more research in figuring out where things are happening, away from the flashing lights.
this is something i would have gone to see, i think.
https://calyxpgh.bandcamp.com
this is exactly the kind of composed, left-field pop that i like, actually. i'd like to hear more of it...
they appear to have penciled in a detroit date on their tour poster, but they don't appear to have actually found a venue. somebody couldn't get this in at ufo or something? it's quite promising. they had a second date penciled in for ann arbour, and they did play a coffee shop in ypsilanti.
so, it's what i said - we're in a down period, which means you need to do a little more research in figuring out where things are happening, away from the flashing lights.
this is something i would have gone to see, i think.
https://calyxpgh.bandcamp.com
Saturday, April 20, 2019
there's now a link to a consolidated rss feed, the 6 blogs + 4
youtube sites, which is the best i can do. i will update this link as it
improves itself.
but, i cannot get rss feeds from bandcamp, noise trade, patreon or facebook, unfortunately. in a sense, that is irrelevant, as i should cross-reference everything to the blogs; this feed will give you everything, and double or triple a lot of it.
http://www.rssmix.com/u/8317252/rss.xml
but, i cannot get rss feeds from bandcamp, noise trade, patreon or facebook, unfortunately. in a sense, that is irrelevant, as i should cross-reference everything to the blogs; this feed will give you everything, and double or triple a lot of it.
http://www.rssmix.com/u/8317252/rss.xml
this is from london, and i'm liking it as yet another variation on an old theme, a slightly more temperamental kind of post-metal. it's fitting my mood right now. this might have been a good local show in toronto last week.
https://elusivebynature.bandcamp.com/album/regathered
https://elusivebynature.bandcamp.com/album/regathered
i also attended a yamantaka // sonic titan show on monday night, before i left for toronto early on tuesday morning. i knew this was coming, but didn't want to commit until the last minute, because i didn't want to put missing the bus in question, and i knew it would be a long day. in the end, i decided i wasn't sleeping anyways, so i'd might as well go.
also, i hadn't been to a show in windsor in a long time and have reason to think i might not be to another one here in a long time, as well. there's just not much happening in the city that i'd be interested in...
...and, i needed the fresh air....
i decided to try an experiment with my new drink on the way in. i had already determined, through careful measurement, that the volume of a pill bottle (that is, the area of the circular opening of the cylinder as a cross-section of the imaginary plane that intersects the cylinder orthogonally, multiplied by the length of the cylinder itself) is roughly the amount of vodka required to emulate a mix of my now unavailable rock star vodka, and that simply dumping a pill bottle of vodka into an empty bottle of mountain dew, and then filling that bottle up with mountain dew, would be an easy way to rebuild the drink. while my sense of smell has it's limitations, i was not able to sense the slightest indication of the alcoholic nature of the drink, nor was i able to remotely taste the alcohol in it. success...
the walk was a little longer than intended, and i wasn't sure i was going to get in. the initial request was in fact denied, so i took a walk around the corner to think it through and came back with a compromise:
i know you're sold out, but i'm here, and i was actually just looking to see the first band, anyways. so, would it be possible to let me in for the first set, and then we can figure out who is staying and who is leaving?
"yeah, that works, just find me after the first set."
i'm not sneaky, i'm just rational. honest.
in fact, i wasn't sure if i was going to stay for the whole show or not; it was an honest claim of intent, due to the scheduling concerns around the bus ride out. i think i had decided that it was going to depend on whether i found some drugs or not, and of course i did, and rather fast.
it's legal, but you can't buy it anywhere.
"yeah. never stopped me before."
i had seen yamantaka // sonic titan previously, at zaphod's in ottawa, back in early 2012. i remember the show being kind of intense in a noisy kind of way, even while delving into this kind of japanese opera that just came off as kind of strange. i remember not fully understanding it, and not being particularly driven to; it was a strange cultural synthesis in the sense that it was a japanese noise rock band (something i thought i understood.), albeit from canada, that came off as more traditionally japanese than any japanese noise rock band i'd ever heard before, and i was really willing to just leave it at that. i've missed them several times since, but never at this small venue here in windsor, which is itself a draw when it gets the right acts in.
listening to the new(est) record a few times before the show led me to the conclusion that they'd toned their sound down a lot, and by incorporating a kind of syrupy pop layer that, to be consistent, almost sounded k-pop or j-pop in origin. but, the band the new record reminded me most of was actually ghost, in it's combination of prog-metal type guitar riffs with keith emerson style organ masturbating and sappy pop hooks, right down to the face-painting. i might normally write something like this off as silly, but i decided on this night that it was good enough for the walk...
it's a small venue, capacity less than 100, so you literally can't be more than ten feet from the stage. as such, an aspect of the show was the rawness of it. i must say that i wasn't expecting to get the full vocal treatment with the handheld drum and the whole bit, but that the first singer (they have two singers.) really managed to fill the room up with her voice, including for the tracks that i am presuming are traditional japanese chants, but could be easily mistaken for native american singing. the show was otherwise a competent working through a sampling of the slicker, glossier and proggier side of their discography.
i needed to get out of the house, and it was worth it....
i will eventually upload the last track they did, which was a cover, but there's a recent set here, for now:
as expected, i was allowed to stay for the second set.
i had seen the acid mothers temple before as well, and i'm really not much of a fan, although i do have a fond memory of the show as i got to watch a band i'd never heard of, mammatus, completely blow them off the stage. so, i remember that acid mothers show in ottawa as the night i found mammatus. if i weren't for the mammatus set, though, i would not remember the night so well, as the acid mothers were just kind of prodding and largely boring, terms i would use to describe them in general.
i will acknowledge that they were in truth better on this night than they were on that night in ottawa, more than ten years ago, and that a lot of it had to do with their drummer doing this kind of keith moon routine, where he demonstrated his displeasure with the mopiness of the singer by descending into these cacophonous outbursts, and then got visibly scolded and even drowned out by the guitarist for it. while i think that the routine was actually real - that there is a legitimate conflict over musical direction between the singer and the drummer - it could have just as well have been an act, and considering how frequently this band cites legacy rock cliches, nobody would have questioned it, either. as it was, intentional or not, i got the reference and a bit of a kick out of it on that level. but, the basic boringness of the act remains clear, and had the drummer not repeatedly misbehaved, i would have walked away from it without much to say.
this appears to be the set from the same show as above:
the walk home was pleasant, and while i told myself i'd get everything ready before i napped, i had to succumb to the intoxicants and get some rest. but, this was actually useful to me, as it ensured i got some actual sleep before i went into toronto.
also, i hadn't been to a show in windsor in a long time and have reason to think i might not be to another one here in a long time, as well. there's just not much happening in the city that i'd be interested in...
...and, i needed the fresh air....
i decided to try an experiment with my new drink on the way in. i had already determined, through careful measurement, that the volume of a pill bottle (that is, the area of the circular opening of the cylinder as a cross-section of the imaginary plane that intersects the cylinder orthogonally, multiplied by the length of the cylinder itself) is roughly the amount of vodka required to emulate a mix of my now unavailable rock star vodka, and that simply dumping a pill bottle of vodka into an empty bottle of mountain dew, and then filling that bottle up with mountain dew, would be an easy way to rebuild the drink. while my sense of smell has it's limitations, i was not able to sense the slightest indication of the alcoholic nature of the drink, nor was i able to remotely taste the alcohol in it. success...
the walk was a little longer than intended, and i wasn't sure i was going to get in. the initial request was in fact denied, so i took a walk around the corner to think it through and came back with a compromise:
i know you're sold out, but i'm here, and i was actually just looking to see the first band, anyways. so, would it be possible to let me in for the first set, and then we can figure out who is staying and who is leaving?
"yeah, that works, just find me after the first set."
i'm not sneaky, i'm just rational. honest.
in fact, i wasn't sure if i was going to stay for the whole show or not; it was an honest claim of intent, due to the scheduling concerns around the bus ride out. i think i had decided that it was going to depend on whether i found some drugs or not, and of course i did, and rather fast.
it's legal, but you can't buy it anywhere.
"yeah. never stopped me before."
i had seen yamantaka // sonic titan previously, at zaphod's in ottawa, back in early 2012. i remember the show being kind of intense in a noisy kind of way, even while delving into this kind of japanese opera that just came off as kind of strange. i remember not fully understanding it, and not being particularly driven to; it was a strange cultural synthesis in the sense that it was a japanese noise rock band (something i thought i understood.), albeit from canada, that came off as more traditionally japanese than any japanese noise rock band i'd ever heard before, and i was really willing to just leave it at that. i've missed them several times since, but never at this small venue here in windsor, which is itself a draw when it gets the right acts in.
listening to the new(est) record a few times before the show led me to the conclusion that they'd toned their sound down a lot, and by incorporating a kind of syrupy pop layer that, to be consistent, almost sounded k-pop or j-pop in origin. but, the band the new record reminded me most of was actually ghost, in it's combination of prog-metal type guitar riffs with keith emerson style organ masturbating and sappy pop hooks, right down to the face-painting. i might normally write something like this off as silly, but i decided on this night that it was good enough for the walk...
it's a small venue, capacity less than 100, so you literally can't be more than ten feet from the stage. as such, an aspect of the show was the rawness of it. i must say that i wasn't expecting to get the full vocal treatment with the handheld drum and the whole bit, but that the first singer (they have two singers.) really managed to fill the room up with her voice, including for the tracks that i am presuming are traditional japanese chants, but could be easily mistaken for native american singing. the show was otherwise a competent working through a sampling of the slicker, glossier and proggier side of their discography.
i needed to get out of the house, and it was worth it....
i will eventually upload the last track they did, which was a cover, but there's a recent set here, for now:
as expected, i was allowed to stay for the second set.
i had seen the acid mothers temple before as well, and i'm really not much of a fan, although i do have a fond memory of the show as i got to watch a band i'd never heard of, mammatus, completely blow them off the stage. so, i remember that acid mothers show in ottawa as the night i found mammatus. if i weren't for the mammatus set, though, i would not remember the night so well, as the acid mothers were just kind of prodding and largely boring, terms i would use to describe them in general.
i will acknowledge that they were in truth better on this night than they were on that night in ottawa, more than ten years ago, and that a lot of it had to do with their drummer doing this kind of keith moon routine, where he demonstrated his displeasure with the mopiness of the singer by descending into these cacophonous outbursts, and then got visibly scolded and even drowned out by the guitarist for it. while i think that the routine was actually real - that there is a legitimate conflict over musical direction between the singer and the drummer - it could have just as well have been an act, and considering how frequently this band cites legacy rock cliches, nobody would have questioned it, either. as it was, intentional or not, i got the reference and a bit of a kick out of it on that level. but, the basic boringness of the act remains clear, and had the drummer not repeatedly misbehaved, i would have walked away from it without much to say.
this appears to be the set from the same show as above:
the walk home was pleasant, and while i told myself i'd get everything ready before i napped, i had to succumb to the intoxicants and get some rest. but, this was actually useful to me, as it ensured i got some actual sleep before i went into toronto.
this is a local toronto band that played a few shows in toronto last week. all of the math rock bands sound like tera melos, nowadays - there's really no way out. it's a disturbing state of affairs, as it has dragged one of the few creative genres left down into monotony. there's not much here that transcends this.
that said, it might be a worth a beer, if it's across the street. i'll keep an eye out.
https://futuremachinesfuturemachines.bandcamp.com
that said, it might be a worth a beer, if it's across the street. i'll keep an eye out.
https://futuremachinesfuturemachines.bandcamp.com
Thursday, April 18, 2019
i almost never vomit, actually. but, i was feeling it all morning; it
was inevitable, and probably not entirely caused by the vodka, but also
contributed to by my diet and the travelling and even the coffee. it
could have happened hours earlier, really. as it is, it was the tums
that triggered it.
i often bring antacids with me when i'm drinking, because the things we drink alcohol with are so inherently acidic. how many of us assume that that stomach ache you get after your third drink is because you've had too much alcohol? in fact, it's probably acid reflux, because you've consumed a litre of carbonated pop or whatever else in the process. maybe you want to take it as a cue to quit drinking, or maybe you don't - maybe you just want to pop a few grams of calcium to balance it out, and keep going. i find the latter usually works just fine...
so, i didn't think much about it when i started to feel it in my gut - i just got some tums at the corner store, scarfed them down and went back to browsing in the coffee shop. it was a little before 18:00, when i had to run outside...
i didn't take it seriously, at first. i put a shot in my coffee on the way in, but it was a tall cup, tall enough that i could have put in two. further, it took me five hours to drink it. so, i was only on my third drink in 10 hours. sure, i just had a big cup of coffee; sure, i hadn't eaten since early in the morning. but, i wasn't going to puke on three drinks in 10 hours was i? that would be lame.
so, i just sat outside the shop for a minute and waited. it's not going to happen...
...but, yes. it is going to happen.
i made it just past the band's vans for the first iteration, which was unfortunately directly on the sidewalk. well, i wasn't taking the situation seriously. i was able to get across the street into an alleyway for round two, to the concerns of some onlookers that were smoking something in the back.
"i'm alright. just a little too much vodka. nothing serious. i'll be fine in a few minutes. sorry for freaking you out."
this was met with some visually cautious skepticism, but at least the concern faded to indifference.
but, was it really too much vodka? i've never had difficulty with such little vodka, before. while i'll acknowledge that i hadn't had any alcohol at all since last may, it still seems like an absurdly low tolerance level. so, i'm going to reject the claim that i drank too much, and rather assert quite sternly that i wasn't even drunk. rather, i suspect that the coffee and the extra strength tums may have created an acid-base reaction that actually stimulated vomiting as a pressure release; this was more like a volcanic eruption in a grade school science fair project than alcohol poisoning.
i needed a third round before i was done and able to walk off.
"i'm fine. really. i'm sorry."
that was apparently more convincing, as i got a laugh and a wave.
the reality is that i wasn't feeling drunk before i puked, and i wasn't feeling drunk after i puked, either; the nausea faded a little, if not totally, but it didn't really make much of a difference at all, in terms of how i was feeling.
i made a choice, however, to stand outside, just in case - and to put my coffee away. it was about an hour's wait until doors.
there were some kids lined up early, so i just got in line behind them and waited.
"my friend is convinced he's in a coma and everything is just a dream."
"that's so ridiculously stupid, really. obviously false."
"i agree, but, like, how do you prove to him that it's wrong?"
"actually, maybe you can't do that, can you?"
*ahem*
that's right, kids. what you'd say is that that's not even wrong, that you could never disprove it and that it is therefore worthless as a hypothesis.
"makes sense."
the fact is that i've been to lots of shows with knapsacks, and nobody has ever given me a hard time about it before, so i couldn't imagine anybody giving me a hard time about it here. i expected there would be some kind of mosh pit, but moshing (or really dancing at all) to la dispute is like dancing at a funeral - it's inappropriate, in context. they're technically a hardcore band still, but they've always leaned towards beatnik poetry, and they're coming up on a flip over the cusp, to the point that i do suspect that there will be a time in a few years when the shows are almost entirely abandoned by hardcore fans. i didn't expect that to be true of this show, but my intent was to stand a little further back, out of the pit, while sipping on a beer and listening to the lyrics.
this isn't a rejection of the pit, it's just that la dispute is not really body music, it's more of an intellectual kind of thing, something that might even be better experienced at a seated venue than a general admission punk show. if you're showing up to a la dispute concert looking to dance it up and have a good time, you're kind of missing the plot.
so, in my mind, it wouldn't be much of a problem if i brought my bag in, considering i was going to be standing in the back, anyways. but, i wasn't able to get the point across to security, who just insisted they were sold out. well, they couldn't be that sold out; surely, they're not being reasonable. but, i simply wasn't getting in with the bag, so i had to relent and leave it at coat check, along with everything in it. they insisted it was safe...
so, i get in and learn it's $9 for a beer at the opera house in toronto. it was at least a big beer, but i only got one...
the place was about half full for the first act, called slow mass, which didn't make much of an impression on me. what they sound like is a parody of mopey 90s alt rock, without even the minimal amounts of tension that you got out of a genre that was intended to town done. there were some unnecessary outbursts of noise by the drummer and guitarist, but it just kind of added to the buttoned up feel of the show by telling the audience that the band itself recognizes that they are actually boring, and are even bored with being boring. while the self-awareness is perhaps a positive step, i don't have much else to say about this, other than to point out that this is indiscernible from any of the other thousand bands that have sounded exactly like this over the last forty years.
i let them finish, downed my beer and then went to retrieve my marijuana
from my bag, which i had absent-mindedly left in there when i was
unexpectedly coat-checked. i wasn't sure if it would be a hassle or
not...
"sorry, there's just too many bags."
and, there were, indeed, a lot of bags.
"listen, i could understand if there was a long line-up here and i was in your way, but it looks like the place has mostly filled up, and you're just kind of sitting around, so..."
"were you in recently or near the start?"
"i was one of the first people in."
"so, i'm going to have to sort through this to the bottom. there's no way."
"well, you're going to have to do this eventually, right?"
"what?"
"well, i'm going to eventually pick the bag up."
"but, that's only if you're here at the start of the line."
"i need to catch a bus out."
"so, i'll have to do it anyways. ugh. fine. i'm making you pay to recheck it, though: $4."
it was a good night for logic in toronto, at least.
i've rolled up a lot of marijuana in a lot of toilet stalls in a lot of cities, but this was the first time it was actually legal.....
a few minutes later, and i'm overhearing some lesbians talk to each other, as they're standing a few feet in front of me.
"my grandmother thinks we're all monsters. like, she seriously thinks we're evil. it's crazy. i love my grandmother and everything, but it kind of scares me. so, i'm just never telling her. ever. we're just not having this talk. she'll die thinking i'm straight."
i had to interject.
until she starts bothering you about having kids, then you're going to have to bring it up.
laughs from the crowd, as always.
"she already bugs me."
it's just going to get worse.
"well, it's not like i don't plan to have kids. i'll have kids, just not with a dude."
you're still going to have to bring it up.
"well..."
listen, studies have been done on this. your grandmother is an individual, but homophobic people often find themselves with a change of opinion when they are confronted with queer family members, as it presents them with a reality rather than an abstraction. i mean, she's going to go to some church or something..
"mosque."
right. whatever. so, she's going to go to that mosque, and they're going to say all kinds of hateful, damaging things about queer people as though they're some distant other, as though they don't actually exist as human beings, but then she's going to go home and see somebody she loves, and she's going to have to make a choice to trust these words that are thrown at her abstractly by this stranger on a podium, or a person in front of her that she know and loves and trusts.
"i'm not telling her."
that bad, huh?
a passing homeless person then interrupted the conversation with a request for change, of which neither of us had any. but, the other lesbian was upset about it.
"i wish i had some change. i once gave somebody $20."
the male member of the group that included the two lesbians is upset about this.
"you gave him $20?"
"i'm a generous person."
"but, they're all drug addicts. it's really hard to be homeless in canada, you know."
ugh. not on my sidewalk.
poverty does exist, you know. i mean, it might be true that there's a high percentage of drug addicts in the homeless population, but you can't just jump to the conclusion that if you're homeless then you're a drug addict. that would just be wrong.
(some applause on the street)
but, he didn't want a debate; he went inside, and i followed not far behind him.
the fiasco with the bag, and subsequent detour rolling and smoking, meant i actually missed most of the second band's set. the place also filled up to the brim in the time i was gone, forcing me to watch from the landing, which was actually the plan anyways, but perhaps not in the space i ended up in. gouge away are named after a pixies track, and sounded like it. the following audiotree set has some generic pixies-type tracks and some noisier hardcore; the bit of the set that i caught was in the generic pixies-type track style, and didn't appeal much to me. in fact, i decided to find somewhere to sit and take a rest...
i went directly back to the floor when the set was done, trying to
measure the size of the crowd and how to set up and came to the
conclusion that the place was packed as tight as possible; they weren't
exaggerating about the place being sold out, and there really wasn't
room to stand with a bag. that said, leaving my bag in coat check didn't
all of a sudden make me want to go into the pit - i was still hoping to
hang back a little and just watch. but there was barely even anywhere
to stand. so, i decided i'd wait the pit out a little and then try and
work my way in.
they started off with some less intense tracks, so i couldn't really get a feel on the size of the pit, or what was going to happen when they clicked in. if i could get some separation so that i could stand on the edge of the pit, it could work, but there just didn't look like there was much space. i was hoping to wait a little longer, wait for them to tire themselves out, so i could move up. but, the opposite happened: i saw the train of frat boys walk by me from the back a few songs in, and realized i was going to need to hang back.
if i had a chance to escape the back at that point, it closed pretty quickly, as this annoying teenage girl decided she was going to dance in front of me all night. i've been through this before; the girl wants to dance, but she doesn't want to get molested at the punk show, so she parks herself directly on top of the obvious fag, after testing it first to make sure it's safe. it's then my instant responsibility to make sure she's safe until she walks off, whether i asked for it or not and she inevitably gets pissy when i don't react, which is really quite the contradiction. if you check my reviews, you'll see me point to this happening repeatedly, and pretty much always at punk shows. in general, i can handle this - i can even enjoy dancing, and often do - but the lack of space on this floor, combined with the nature of the music, just made the scenario comical. even if there was space to dance, i would not have wanted to on this night - i wanted to watch the band. a lot of these lyrics are really quite morbid. and, this girl wanted to dance too - bumping into me repeatedly, flipping her hair around and just generally trying to get me grooving. nope...
in order to get by her, i would have had to shove her out of the way, and i wasn't going to do that. i didn't see any obvious space, anyway, as the pit seemed to take up most of the floor, and nothing was opening up. so, i spent most of the concert trying to dodge tassled hair flying into my face from this hyperactive kid that was hopping all over me, apparently desiring some kind of response.
if they had played for another hour, i would have moved up. alas...
and, what of these moshers? is it not somewhat perverse to mosh to la dispute? if anything, they ate it up. it was lines like "we buried our son today!" that got the pit in motion. i'm not going to pretend i understand that, but so be it. i'd rather be a little bit more sombre about such things and watch quietly from the side...
how was the show, though?
this is the third time i saw la dispute, but the second time was an acoustic set in detroit. the first time i saw them was with touche amore & balance & composure at maverick's in ottawa in 2011, and what i remember about the show is that the songs were unrecognizable when compared to the recordings. at the time, i decided that i hadn't listened to the material that much, and i was just not following it because i didn't know it. but, the same thing happened in toronto, on this night - i could sort of make out the songs, but not really. i mean, some of them were clear, but some of them seemed radically different and hard to follow.
i'm left to wonder if the band radically rearranges it's studio material for performance - or perhaps radically rearranges it's live material in studio - and if there's an entirely parallel discography that i'm not aware of. the other option is that the sound tech is terrible, but this seems unlikely, given that i experienced the same thing in two different bars, in two different cities and separated by 7.5 years.
a quick run through the setlist suggests that it may have mostly been tracks from rooms of the house that were rearranged, and i guess i can get my head around that, even if it threw me for a bit of a loop. there's some bands you go to see just expecting something new, and there's some that you go to see with the discography burned directly into your cortex, and la dispute are really in the latter category.
i don't want to play the show down; i enjoyed the components that i recognized, even as i was spitting the hair out of my mouth and craning my neck around to get a view. but, there were tracks i only half-recognized, and it left me wondering what was really going on.
i can't currently find a recent show on youtube and don't want to post an old one, so we'll leave this space open until one appears.
(insert youtube link)
i wasn't first in line, but i was near the front of the line, and the coat check had it ready for me.
"see, this is actually better, right? 'cause the line moves faster."
"oh, shut up."
"ok. have a good night.."
i had to step into the bathroom for a few minutes, again.
i was out before 11:30, so i just walked back to the greyhound. the subways were all closed, unfortunately, so no late night sub on the bus. it was a short wait, meaning i have a working model, even if this is not a frequent trip.
the migraine and the rain started almost immediately, and almost simultaneously, leaving me crunched up in pain and kind of freaked out, at the same time. i tried to sleep the migraine off, but it wouldn't come. the rain was so heavy that you could barely see the streetlamps, making it hard to tell where i actually was. yet, the driver of this express bus was not interested in slowing down, regardless of visibility, of the slippery roads or of the potholes that the bus was ripping through. but, it actually seemed like a short ride, somehow. and, i was in windsor and off the bus in no time - and home by around 6:30 in the morning.
so, would i do that again? yeah, for the right act. i just wish the weather was a little nicer.
i often bring antacids with me when i'm drinking, because the things we drink alcohol with are so inherently acidic. how many of us assume that that stomach ache you get after your third drink is because you've had too much alcohol? in fact, it's probably acid reflux, because you've consumed a litre of carbonated pop or whatever else in the process. maybe you want to take it as a cue to quit drinking, or maybe you don't - maybe you just want to pop a few grams of calcium to balance it out, and keep going. i find the latter usually works just fine...
so, i didn't think much about it when i started to feel it in my gut - i just got some tums at the corner store, scarfed them down and went back to browsing in the coffee shop. it was a little before 18:00, when i had to run outside...
i didn't take it seriously, at first. i put a shot in my coffee on the way in, but it was a tall cup, tall enough that i could have put in two. further, it took me five hours to drink it. so, i was only on my third drink in 10 hours. sure, i just had a big cup of coffee; sure, i hadn't eaten since early in the morning. but, i wasn't going to puke on three drinks in 10 hours was i? that would be lame.
so, i just sat outside the shop for a minute and waited. it's not going to happen...
...but, yes. it is going to happen.
i made it just past the band's vans for the first iteration, which was unfortunately directly on the sidewalk. well, i wasn't taking the situation seriously. i was able to get across the street into an alleyway for round two, to the concerns of some onlookers that were smoking something in the back.
"i'm alright. just a little too much vodka. nothing serious. i'll be fine in a few minutes. sorry for freaking you out."
this was met with some visually cautious skepticism, but at least the concern faded to indifference.
but, was it really too much vodka? i've never had difficulty with such little vodka, before. while i'll acknowledge that i hadn't had any alcohol at all since last may, it still seems like an absurdly low tolerance level. so, i'm going to reject the claim that i drank too much, and rather assert quite sternly that i wasn't even drunk. rather, i suspect that the coffee and the extra strength tums may have created an acid-base reaction that actually stimulated vomiting as a pressure release; this was more like a volcanic eruption in a grade school science fair project than alcohol poisoning.
i needed a third round before i was done and able to walk off.
"i'm fine. really. i'm sorry."
that was apparently more convincing, as i got a laugh and a wave.
the reality is that i wasn't feeling drunk before i puked, and i wasn't feeling drunk after i puked, either; the nausea faded a little, if not totally, but it didn't really make much of a difference at all, in terms of how i was feeling.
i made a choice, however, to stand outside, just in case - and to put my coffee away. it was about an hour's wait until doors.
there were some kids lined up early, so i just got in line behind them and waited.
"my friend is convinced he's in a coma and everything is just a dream."
"that's so ridiculously stupid, really. obviously false."
"i agree, but, like, how do you prove to him that it's wrong?"
"actually, maybe you can't do that, can you?"
*ahem*
that's right, kids. what you'd say is that that's not even wrong, that you could never disprove it and that it is therefore worthless as a hypothesis.
"makes sense."
the fact is that i've been to lots of shows with knapsacks, and nobody has ever given me a hard time about it before, so i couldn't imagine anybody giving me a hard time about it here. i expected there would be some kind of mosh pit, but moshing (or really dancing at all) to la dispute is like dancing at a funeral - it's inappropriate, in context. they're technically a hardcore band still, but they've always leaned towards beatnik poetry, and they're coming up on a flip over the cusp, to the point that i do suspect that there will be a time in a few years when the shows are almost entirely abandoned by hardcore fans. i didn't expect that to be true of this show, but my intent was to stand a little further back, out of the pit, while sipping on a beer and listening to the lyrics.
this isn't a rejection of the pit, it's just that la dispute is not really body music, it's more of an intellectual kind of thing, something that might even be better experienced at a seated venue than a general admission punk show. if you're showing up to a la dispute concert looking to dance it up and have a good time, you're kind of missing the plot.
so, in my mind, it wouldn't be much of a problem if i brought my bag in, considering i was going to be standing in the back, anyways. but, i wasn't able to get the point across to security, who just insisted they were sold out. well, they couldn't be that sold out; surely, they're not being reasonable. but, i simply wasn't getting in with the bag, so i had to relent and leave it at coat check, along with everything in it. they insisted it was safe...
so, i get in and learn it's $9 for a beer at the opera house in toronto. it was at least a big beer, but i only got one...
the place was about half full for the first act, called slow mass, which didn't make much of an impression on me. what they sound like is a parody of mopey 90s alt rock, without even the minimal amounts of tension that you got out of a genre that was intended to town done. there were some unnecessary outbursts of noise by the drummer and guitarist, but it just kind of added to the buttoned up feel of the show by telling the audience that the band itself recognizes that they are actually boring, and are even bored with being boring. while the self-awareness is perhaps a positive step, i don't have much else to say about this, other than to point out that this is indiscernible from any of the other thousand bands that have sounded exactly like this over the last forty years.
"sorry, there's just too many bags."
and, there were, indeed, a lot of bags.
"listen, i could understand if there was a long line-up here and i was in your way, but it looks like the place has mostly filled up, and you're just kind of sitting around, so..."
"were you in recently or near the start?"
"i was one of the first people in."
"so, i'm going to have to sort through this to the bottom. there's no way."
"well, you're going to have to do this eventually, right?"
"what?"
"well, i'm going to eventually pick the bag up."
"but, that's only if you're here at the start of the line."
"i need to catch a bus out."
"so, i'll have to do it anyways. ugh. fine. i'm making you pay to recheck it, though: $4."
it was a good night for logic in toronto, at least.
i've rolled up a lot of marijuana in a lot of toilet stalls in a lot of cities, but this was the first time it was actually legal.....
a few minutes later, and i'm overhearing some lesbians talk to each other, as they're standing a few feet in front of me.
"my grandmother thinks we're all monsters. like, she seriously thinks we're evil. it's crazy. i love my grandmother and everything, but it kind of scares me. so, i'm just never telling her. ever. we're just not having this talk. she'll die thinking i'm straight."
i had to interject.
until she starts bothering you about having kids, then you're going to have to bring it up.
laughs from the crowd, as always.
"she already bugs me."
it's just going to get worse.
"well, it's not like i don't plan to have kids. i'll have kids, just not with a dude."
you're still going to have to bring it up.
"well..."
listen, studies have been done on this. your grandmother is an individual, but homophobic people often find themselves with a change of opinion when they are confronted with queer family members, as it presents them with a reality rather than an abstraction. i mean, she's going to go to some church or something..
"mosque."
right. whatever. so, she's going to go to that mosque, and they're going to say all kinds of hateful, damaging things about queer people as though they're some distant other, as though they don't actually exist as human beings, but then she's going to go home and see somebody she loves, and she's going to have to make a choice to trust these words that are thrown at her abstractly by this stranger on a podium, or a person in front of her that she know and loves and trusts.
"i'm not telling her."
that bad, huh?
a passing homeless person then interrupted the conversation with a request for change, of which neither of us had any. but, the other lesbian was upset about it.
"i wish i had some change. i once gave somebody $20."
the male member of the group that included the two lesbians is upset about this.
"you gave him $20?"
"i'm a generous person."
"but, they're all drug addicts. it's really hard to be homeless in canada, you know."
ugh. not on my sidewalk.
poverty does exist, you know. i mean, it might be true that there's a high percentage of drug addicts in the homeless population, but you can't just jump to the conclusion that if you're homeless then you're a drug addict. that would just be wrong.
(some applause on the street)
but, he didn't want a debate; he went inside, and i followed not far behind him.
the fiasco with the bag, and subsequent detour rolling and smoking, meant i actually missed most of the second band's set. the place also filled up to the brim in the time i was gone, forcing me to watch from the landing, which was actually the plan anyways, but perhaps not in the space i ended up in. gouge away are named after a pixies track, and sounded like it. the following audiotree set has some generic pixies-type tracks and some noisier hardcore; the bit of the set that i caught was in the generic pixies-type track style, and didn't appeal much to me. in fact, i decided to find somewhere to sit and take a rest...
they started off with some less intense tracks, so i couldn't really get a feel on the size of the pit, or what was going to happen when they clicked in. if i could get some separation so that i could stand on the edge of the pit, it could work, but there just didn't look like there was much space. i was hoping to wait a little longer, wait for them to tire themselves out, so i could move up. but, the opposite happened: i saw the train of frat boys walk by me from the back a few songs in, and realized i was going to need to hang back.
if i had a chance to escape the back at that point, it closed pretty quickly, as this annoying teenage girl decided she was going to dance in front of me all night. i've been through this before; the girl wants to dance, but she doesn't want to get molested at the punk show, so she parks herself directly on top of the obvious fag, after testing it first to make sure it's safe. it's then my instant responsibility to make sure she's safe until she walks off, whether i asked for it or not and she inevitably gets pissy when i don't react, which is really quite the contradiction. if you check my reviews, you'll see me point to this happening repeatedly, and pretty much always at punk shows. in general, i can handle this - i can even enjoy dancing, and often do - but the lack of space on this floor, combined with the nature of the music, just made the scenario comical. even if there was space to dance, i would not have wanted to on this night - i wanted to watch the band. a lot of these lyrics are really quite morbid. and, this girl wanted to dance too - bumping into me repeatedly, flipping her hair around and just generally trying to get me grooving. nope...
in order to get by her, i would have had to shove her out of the way, and i wasn't going to do that. i didn't see any obvious space, anyway, as the pit seemed to take up most of the floor, and nothing was opening up. so, i spent most of the concert trying to dodge tassled hair flying into my face from this hyperactive kid that was hopping all over me, apparently desiring some kind of response.
if they had played for another hour, i would have moved up. alas...
and, what of these moshers? is it not somewhat perverse to mosh to la dispute? if anything, they ate it up. it was lines like "we buried our son today!" that got the pit in motion. i'm not going to pretend i understand that, but so be it. i'd rather be a little bit more sombre about such things and watch quietly from the side...
how was the show, though?
this is the third time i saw la dispute, but the second time was an acoustic set in detroit. the first time i saw them was with touche amore & balance & composure at maverick's in ottawa in 2011, and what i remember about the show is that the songs were unrecognizable when compared to the recordings. at the time, i decided that i hadn't listened to the material that much, and i was just not following it because i didn't know it. but, the same thing happened in toronto, on this night - i could sort of make out the songs, but not really. i mean, some of them were clear, but some of them seemed radically different and hard to follow.
i'm left to wonder if the band radically rearranges it's studio material for performance - or perhaps radically rearranges it's live material in studio - and if there's an entirely parallel discography that i'm not aware of. the other option is that the sound tech is terrible, but this seems unlikely, given that i experienced the same thing in two different bars, in two different cities and separated by 7.5 years.
a quick run through the setlist suggests that it may have mostly been tracks from rooms of the house that were rearranged, and i guess i can get my head around that, even if it threw me for a bit of a loop. there's some bands you go to see just expecting something new, and there's some that you go to see with the discography burned directly into your cortex, and la dispute are really in the latter category.
i don't want to play the show down; i enjoyed the components that i recognized, even as i was spitting the hair out of my mouth and craning my neck around to get a view. but, there were tracks i only half-recognized, and it left me wondering what was really going on.
i can't currently find a recent show on youtube and don't want to post an old one, so we'll leave this space open until one appears.
(insert youtube link)
i wasn't first in line, but i was near the front of the line, and the coat check had it ready for me.
"see, this is actually better, right? 'cause the line moves faster."
"oh, shut up."
"ok. have a good night.."
i had to step into the bathroom for a few minutes, again.
i was out before 11:30, so i just walked back to the greyhound. the subways were all closed, unfortunately, so no late night sub on the bus. it was a short wait, meaning i have a working model, even if this is not a frequent trip.
the migraine and the rain started almost immediately, and almost simultaneously, leaving me crunched up in pain and kind of freaked out, at the same time. i tried to sleep the migraine off, but it wouldn't come. the rain was so heavy that you could barely see the streetlamps, making it hard to tell where i actually was. yet, the driver of this express bus was not interested in slowing down, regardless of visibility, of the slippery roads or of the potholes that the bus was ripping through. but, it actually seemed like a short ride, somehow. and, i was in windsor and off the bus in no time - and home by around 6:30 in the morning.
so, would i do that again? yeah, for the right act. i just wish the weather was a little nicer.
it's now thursday afternoon, and i'm typing from home in windsor. i
wanted to do some typing on the bus on the way home, but the migraine
hit as soon as i sat down, and i was really just done for the ride; i
wasn't able to sleep it off as i like to, but i nonetheless didn't want
to do anything except roll up in a ball. as mentioned, i was nauseous on
the way in as well, so i'm thinking it was partly to do with the air
quality on the bus. the third hand smoke was noticeable - even after i'd
smoked a few myself - but i'm wondering if it was more about a lack of
circulation. it was also raining very hard through a lot of the ride,
and i know i'm sensitive to the weather. whatever it was, it actually
made the trip seem very short, as uncomfortable as it was.
i wanted to eat and shower first, but i was passed out within minutes of coming in on wednesday morning. i've tried to wake up a few times since yesterday afternoon, but it hasn't really succeeded; i've mostly been asleep since i got home. well, i'm up now, so i'm going to pick up where i left off...
i wanted to eat and shower first, but i was passed out within minutes of coming in on wednesday morning. i've tried to wake up a few times since yesterday afternoon, but it hasn't really succeeded; i've mostly been asleep since i got home. well, i'm up now, so i'm going to pick up where i left off...
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
so, i'm in toronto, at the opera house grill, a small coffee shop directly beside/below the venue in toronto.
i believe that i'm listening to the drum tech doing sound check upstairs, and it's pretty intense in it's monotony.
the ride in was fairly uneventful, if a little bit cramped and a tad long. but, i spent the ride evaluating the band's discography, and i think there's a chance that this is their most substantive record so far, which is not to say it's their best necessarily, but that it is their most mature and consistent one. there were very strong tracks on both of their first two records, but they had different levels of inconsistency - there are some plodding hardcore tracks on their first record, although the vocals are really next-level throughout; the second record is bloated by lyrical filler that probably should have been cut off as bsides, if done at all. the first record needs to stand as it is, regardless of any flaws; it's too unique as a cohesive whole to split up. but, the second record could have been cut in half.
i think that the third largely missed the mark on both fronts.
this new record is a movement in a different direction, musically, if not too radically so, as the pieces of it already existed. but, it is for the first time a record that doesn't have some cringey tracks on it. not only is this so, but the lyricist seems to have returned to the kind of flow that existed on the first record. it's really a huge step forward for the band, and i'm excited about hearing them develop what they're doing further.
something else i'm noticing is that la dispute is in some ways very similar to my own dead project, rabit is wolf. sean didn't have the chance to write anything profound as la dispute, and i don't know if he could, but he has a very similar voice to the singer for the band, whose name i am not entirely sure of. jordan something, i think. i'm not going to look it up. but, some of the more plaintive guitar & vocal work strikes me as a very plausible end goal for rabbit, should it have carried forwads. and, it's interesting to me that you can hear sean and i play around with the same ideas that la dispute do/did, but way back in 2002. the record is too musically different, but you could probably trick somebody into thinking that acoustic demo ep was a lost la dispute demo.
i actually felt a little sick for much of the bus ride. stale air combined with third hand smoke and little bit of vodka in my stomach combined to get me a little oozy. the person that sat down beside me then added to that by eating an oiniony sub and a bag of doritos, which just had me on the verging of vomiting. it wasn't one thing but all of them...but i made it through....
i got off the bus and walked in the wrong direction, then corrected myself after a block. i had the map memorized, but i had to properly orient myself first. first stop was the marijuana store.
am i feeling over the permabuzz enough to get back to moderate use again? well, i want to go to the show, and that's what i do at the show, so it's like i have to move on with life, regardless. i may run the risk of imagining a more coherent state of existence than is realistic; i don't have a control, in the question of measuring the coherence of consciousness. it shouldn't take this long to wear off. this is probably as good as it gets.
but, my habits are likely to change now that i'm not worried about getting it out of the house. i'll likely hang on to the small amount that i bought for quite a while, just bringing it out occasionally.
i was there at about 1:30 on a cloudy, grey tuesday afternoon, and they were lined up around the corner, and carding people at the door. patrons were allowed in slowly, and asked to meet with a "budtender" who was supposed to help you find what you wanted. i knew that i was in search of a high thc:cbd ratio at the lowest price on offer, and informed the "budtender" of this fact. he proceeded to bring me to the sativa area, and sell me on a 15:9 ratio hybrid. i asked him repeatedly if that he was the highest ratio he had, and he said it was. this seemed unlikely to me, but he insisted. he then sold me an 1/8th, told me to go to the counter to buy it and said "but, feel free to look around". i then walked into the indica section and found what i actually wanted.
i'm not sure what the purpose of the detour was, but it's of little concern in the end, other than to put out a warning to be careful about these so-called budtenders. if he works on commission, he may have been trying to squeeze out a sativa sale; if true, the misdirection would be management's fault. but, i should have looked at a menu coming in, and will next time.
i picked one of the cheapest options, and it was still at the highest end of an acceptable price. when you buy in bulk from your friend, it's $5-7/gram. when you make a business transaction with your dealer, the expected price is $10/gram. and, when you're forced to find a pusher on the street, you pay $12/g for something you're afraid to actually smoke.
the cheapest option in the store was $11.99. to me, that is a warning shot to what should now be called independent growers - the corporate growers aren't planning on competing with them over a free market. when the government charges you $12/gram, that broadcasts that they're planning on enforcing the laws.
fulton street blaring at me from next door.
the transaction took roughly an hour, in total, and it was then less than an hour's walk up queen street to the venue, which is where i am right now, having a coffee. i of course made a detour to try out the product.
i'm kind of fried right now, regardless. i had a restless weekend, with little solid sleep. i then caught yamantaka // sonic titan and the acid mothers temple at phog last night, after having barely slept all weekend. this experience was at least enough to stimulate some actual sleep in me early this morning, but i was up at 5:30 to catch the bus for 8:00, and then sat on the bus for almost six hours. but, i bought a high thc strain because i like an uplifting buzz rather than a draining stone, and because i like to smoke pinners, infrequently - a small amount should last a long time. i may have sampled slightly too much. i'll be fine soon enough.
i think doors are at 7:00, so i've got some time to waste...
i believe that i'm listening to the drum tech doing sound check upstairs, and it's pretty intense in it's monotony.
the ride in was fairly uneventful, if a little bit cramped and a tad long. but, i spent the ride evaluating the band's discography, and i think there's a chance that this is their most substantive record so far, which is not to say it's their best necessarily, but that it is their most mature and consistent one. there were very strong tracks on both of their first two records, but they had different levels of inconsistency - there are some plodding hardcore tracks on their first record, although the vocals are really next-level throughout; the second record is bloated by lyrical filler that probably should have been cut off as bsides, if done at all. the first record needs to stand as it is, regardless of any flaws; it's too unique as a cohesive whole to split up. but, the second record could have been cut in half.
i think that the third largely missed the mark on both fronts.
this new record is a movement in a different direction, musically, if not too radically so, as the pieces of it already existed. but, it is for the first time a record that doesn't have some cringey tracks on it. not only is this so, but the lyricist seems to have returned to the kind of flow that existed on the first record. it's really a huge step forward for the band, and i'm excited about hearing them develop what they're doing further.
something else i'm noticing is that la dispute is in some ways very similar to my own dead project, rabit is wolf. sean didn't have the chance to write anything profound as la dispute, and i don't know if he could, but he has a very similar voice to the singer for the band, whose name i am not entirely sure of. jordan something, i think. i'm not going to look it up. but, some of the more plaintive guitar & vocal work strikes me as a very plausible end goal for rabbit, should it have carried forwads. and, it's interesting to me that you can hear sean and i play around with the same ideas that la dispute do/did, but way back in 2002. the record is too musically different, but you could probably trick somebody into thinking that acoustic demo ep was a lost la dispute demo.
i actually felt a little sick for much of the bus ride. stale air combined with third hand smoke and little bit of vodka in my stomach combined to get me a little oozy. the person that sat down beside me then added to that by eating an oiniony sub and a bag of doritos, which just had me on the verging of vomiting. it wasn't one thing but all of them...but i made it through....
i got off the bus and walked in the wrong direction, then corrected myself after a block. i had the map memorized, but i had to properly orient myself first. first stop was the marijuana store.
am i feeling over the permabuzz enough to get back to moderate use again? well, i want to go to the show, and that's what i do at the show, so it's like i have to move on with life, regardless. i may run the risk of imagining a more coherent state of existence than is realistic; i don't have a control, in the question of measuring the coherence of consciousness. it shouldn't take this long to wear off. this is probably as good as it gets.
but, my habits are likely to change now that i'm not worried about getting it out of the house. i'll likely hang on to the small amount that i bought for quite a while, just bringing it out occasionally.
i was there at about 1:30 on a cloudy, grey tuesday afternoon, and they were lined up around the corner, and carding people at the door. patrons were allowed in slowly, and asked to meet with a "budtender" who was supposed to help you find what you wanted. i knew that i was in search of a high thc:cbd ratio at the lowest price on offer, and informed the "budtender" of this fact. he proceeded to bring me to the sativa area, and sell me on a 15:9 ratio hybrid. i asked him repeatedly if that he was the highest ratio he had, and he said it was. this seemed unlikely to me, but he insisted. he then sold me an 1/8th, told me to go to the counter to buy it and said "but, feel free to look around". i then walked into the indica section and found what i actually wanted.
i'm not sure what the purpose of the detour was, but it's of little concern in the end, other than to put out a warning to be careful about these so-called budtenders. if he works on commission, he may have been trying to squeeze out a sativa sale; if true, the misdirection would be management's fault. but, i should have looked at a menu coming in, and will next time.
i picked one of the cheapest options, and it was still at the highest end of an acceptable price. when you buy in bulk from your friend, it's $5-7/gram. when you make a business transaction with your dealer, the expected price is $10/gram. and, when you're forced to find a pusher on the street, you pay $12/g for something you're afraid to actually smoke.
the cheapest option in the store was $11.99. to me, that is a warning shot to what should now be called independent growers - the corporate growers aren't planning on competing with them over a free market. when the government charges you $12/gram, that broadcasts that they're planning on enforcing the laws.
fulton street blaring at me from next door.
the transaction took roughly an hour, in total, and it was then less than an hour's walk up queen street to the venue, which is where i am right now, having a coffee. i of course made a detour to try out the product.
i'm kind of fried right now, regardless. i had a restless weekend, with little solid sleep. i then caught yamantaka // sonic titan and the acid mothers temple at phog last night, after having barely slept all weekend. this experience was at least enough to stimulate some actual sleep in me early this morning, but i was up at 5:30 to catch the bus for 8:00, and then sat on the bus for almost six hours. but, i bought a high thc strain because i like an uplifting buzz rather than a draining stone, and because i like to smoke pinners, infrequently - a small amount should last a long time. i may have sampled slightly too much. i'll be fine soon enough.
i think doors are at 7:00, so i've got some time to waste...
Monday, April 15, 2019
i frequently complain about the dead arts scene in detroit, but i do bump into something interesting once in a while, only to have it disappear or collapse almost immediately. everything in detroit is like this; you have to catch it quick before it evaporates, or otherwise gets shut down, because it doesn't tend to come back or reappear. and, the city, despite it's immense size, is in truth so amazingly small; if you spend time here, you'll bump into the same few dozen people over and over again, whether you happen to like those people or not.
i've skipped this act a few times, mostly because it doesn't sound conducive to an exciting live performance. if it shows up in the right context, i'm sure i'll end up there, but the truth is that this might never happen. while this is music that may work in a specific kind of glow room in the midst of a saturnalia orgy or something, the truth is that most people are probably going to want to interact with it through a pair of headphones rather than in an auditorium. there is a mix of 80s and contemporary influences on the disc - i can pull out specific references to coil and gang gang dance - but what's more noteworthy on the record is it's attention to detail, which is something that you want in electronic music, but that you don't often get.
she's quite young, which is becoming the norm in what i'm finding; this generational overturn is long overdue, but it may be finally here. that is, we're finally starting to hear some more forward thinking music from younger people, rather than this continual recycling of retro ideas and obsolete fashion. so, the real suggestion here may be that there's some potential displayed on the record, and you want to check in on this space a little later.
but, analyzing this for what it is, it's a more than competent delve into somewhat ambient contemporary techno, and worth a few plays on the bus.
https://wingvilma.bandcamp.com/album/safe-by-night-2
i've skipped this act a few times, mostly because it doesn't sound conducive to an exciting live performance. if it shows up in the right context, i'm sure i'll end up there, but the truth is that this might never happen. while this is music that may work in a specific kind of glow room in the midst of a saturnalia orgy or something, the truth is that most people are probably going to want to interact with it through a pair of headphones rather than in an auditorium. there is a mix of 80s and contemporary influences on the disc - i can pull out specific references to coil and gang gang dance - but what's more noteworthy on the record is it's attention to detail, which is something that you want in electronic music, but that you don't often get.
she's quite young, which is becoming the norm in what i'm finding; this generational overturn is long overdue, but it may be finally here. that is, we're finally starting to hear some more forward thinking music from younger people, rather than this continual recycling of retro ideas and obsolete fashion. so, the real suggestion here may be that there's some potential displayed on the record, and you want to check in on this space a little later.
but, analyzing this for what it is, it's a more than competent delve into somewhat ambient contemporary techno, and worth a few plays on the bus.
https://wingvilma.bandcamp.com/album/safe-by-night-2
Sunday, April 14, 2019
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 july, 2013 archive for this blog is now available as a standalone in the music journal package at bandcamp:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/07-2013-music-journal-2-2
...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
i first decided to remove myself from facebook some time around the end of 2013, not due to any kind of security concern but due to being fed up by the terrible interface and incredibly slow servers. a few years later, i found myself with a similar desire to extricate myself from the youtube comments section, as the interface changes made it almost impossible to actually use. but, old habits die hard, and it took several attempts before i could really pry myself off, not having any kind of permanent success until i designated the migration as a time-wasting tactic while i successfully kicked the tobacco addiction, in the first half of 2016. this left me with thousands of pages of writing that i was going to need to eventually repost to a more user-friendly platform, which ended up being the blogger interface on google. faced with the need to build liner notes for my very first recording at the end of 1996, it was at the beginning of 2017 that i first sat down with the intent to rebuild my music journal as a singular whole, with the eventual plan of cutting it up and appending it in installments within the discography.
my life hit a roadblock in the middle of 2017 as a consequence of a shift in ownership of the building i was living in, which led to multiple legal battles (still ongoing) and two separate moves. the situation eventually worked itself out for the better, but it slowed me down dramatically and left me with a very large back log in working through the loose ends around closing my first two period discs that i am only finally beginning to clear in the spring of 2019. this added period of reflection has allowed me to think this through over and over, and add increasing levels of detail to the journal, and subsequent pending liner notes. while not every month is going to be equally exciting, the level of detail in what was initially a journal is now more like a series of novellas. the first entry, which is only the second half of july, is 222 pages long.
i am not going to summarize the story, but it is available on the web over here: musicofjessicamurray.blogspot.com/2013/07/.
this is a compilation of written correspondences that includes facebook posts, messenger chats and emails with friends and family members, in an attempt to build the context around my move from ottawa to windsor in early august, 2013. this was a pretty heavy two weeks, and the narrative consequently has an arc of it's own, but the story being told here is how i rebuilt my studio over the second half of 2013. 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.
the events documented in this journal occurred in july, 2013 and were compiled into a narrative in several stages over the years 2014-2019. journal completed on mar 31, 2019. released and finalized in doc and pdf format on april 14, 2019. doc0713.
my life hit a roadblock in the middle of 2017 as a consequence of a shift in ownership of the building i was living in, which led to multiple legal battles (still ongoing) and two separate moves. the situation eventually worked itself out for the better, but it slowed me down dramatically and left me with a very large back log in working through the loose ends around closing my first two period discs that i am only finally beginning to clear in the spring of 2019. this added period of reflection has allowed me to think this through over and over, and add increasing levels of detail to the journal, and subsequent pending liner notes. while not every month is going to be equally exciting, the level of detail in what was initially a journal is now more like a series of novellas. the first entry, which is only the second half of july, is 222 pages long.
i am not going to summarize the story, but it is available on the web over here: musicofjessicamurray.blogspot.com/2013/07/.
this is a compilation of written correspondences that includes facebook posts, messenger chats and emails with friends and family members, in an attempt to build the context around my move from ottawa to windsor in early august, 2013. this was a pretty heavy two weeks, and the narrative consequently has an arc of it's own, but the story being told here is how i rebuilt my studio over the second half of 2013. 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.
the events documented in this journal occurred in july, 2013 and were compiled into a narrative in several stages over the years 2014-2019. journal completed on mar 31, 2019. released and finalized in doc and pdf format on april 14, 2019. doc0713.
credits
released August 1, 2013
j - editing, participant
esa - participant
illuminous - participant
mom - participant
sister - participant
nana - participant
step-mother - participant
the youngest aunt - participant
jeff - participant
dad - participant
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/07-2013-music-journal-2-2
j - editing, participant
esa - participant
illuminous - participant
mom - participant
sister - participant
nana - participant
step-mother - participant
the youngest aunt - participant
jeff - participant
dad - participant
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/07-2013-music-journal-2-2
Saturday, April 13, 2019
i'm going to guess that this is probably a fake band and that the parent(s) are probably directly involved in not just the business aspect but also in creating the music. the intent was probably to try to appeal to a younger audience by getting the kids to front it, but the irony is that this really isn't a style of music you'd expect kids to listen to - it's adult contemporary pop. it's not the complexity or the quality that i'm grappling with in assigning this to the kids, it's the style; it sounds like somebody in their 40s or 50s trying to morph an appeal to a young audience out of a pre-existing musicology degree, rather than something actually written by young people.
and, it's kind of weird to have a brother-sister duo collaborating in this way, as well.
i actually think there's some potential for some more abstract writing in some of the fragments, rather than in the pop pieces, but it's not obvious that the project is going to move in that direction.
you might find it a little bit bland, but your mom might like this....
https://tennyson.bandcamp.com/album/uh-oh
and, it's kind of weird to have a brother-sister duo collaborating in this way, as well.
i actually think there's some potential for some more abstract writing in some of the fragments, rather than in the pop pieces, but it's not obvious that the project is going to move in that direction.
you might find it a little bit bland, but your mom might like this....
https://tennyson.bandcamp.com/album/uh-oh
i tried to get into dream theatre quite a few times, but i'm just not a fan of heavy metal, and by that i mostly mean i just don't like the lyrical component of it. i was actually eventually able to convince the old man that i was right about the vocalist being terrible, and that the records would be more listenable, as instrumentals.
on that note, a few years ago, i was able to find a totally instrumental version of their complete discography, taken from japanese imports, and i can report that i was finally able to enjoy the records, even if i never went back to them.
there's actually a large amount of music in the intersection of prog and metal that i have this view about.
on that note, a few years ago, i was able to find a totally instrumental version of their complete discography, taken from japanese imports, and i can report that i was finally able to enjoy the records, even if i never went back to them.
there's actually a large amount of music in the intersection of prog and metal that i have this view about.
plini reminds me of something my dad would listen to, which isn't necessarily disqualifying, but sort of is in this scenario.
this isn't the first time i've bumped into plini; he's come through detroit repeatedly over the last several years, often opening for some kind of instrumental metal band that i've mused about checking out, but in the end never have. it's a space that i can delve into, but only sparingly, and that i have next to no patience for cliches in, which is what often does it in.
my dad had a tendency of buying records he didn't like on a whim, and i'd often end up with copies of them. so, he'd pick up the new bozio-levin-stevens supergroup collaboration thinking it's a lineup that can't miss and it must be the greatest thing since relayer, only to find himself bored by the technicality of it, and wonder if maybe i might like it better. he never said it directly, but i think he thought to himself that i would inherently have the ability to appreciate whatever he couldn't, and he was actually sometimes right; one example is that i ended up with a stack of keneally records that he didn't want (they were 'weird') and that i'm actually quite fond of.
this record has a muted holdsworth sound to it, especially in the tone, but it's really 98% dream theatre, or 98% dream theatre side project. that was the liquid tension experiment, when levin joined dream theatre. haven't heard that one? it was one of the cd-rs i got, and i'm sure young plini had one, too. ask him about that, i'm sure he'll tell you a bit about it.
as is always the case with these things, i find them mildly interesting, but they break down after a few listens because they're written in blocks. it's a thing that happens when you get these people together and ask them to jam, without actually writing anything, and without any intent of getting back together again. so, it's all very nice and correct and everything, even with a little tension in the textbook places, but it doesn't transcend beyond the expectation.
and, it's often a bit cheesy.
i will no doubt eventually end up at a plini show, and i'll probably enjoy it, at least passively. but, i need him to take it to the next level in every way - i need it to be more abstract, more emotional and more technical all at the same time.
don't skip it, anyways. i'm sure it's worth a beer.
https://plini.bandcamp.com/album/sunhead
this isn't the first time i've bumped into plini; he's come through detroit repeatedly over the last several years, often opening for some kind of instrumental metal band that i've mused about checking out, but in the end never have. it's a space that i can delve into, but only sparingly, and that i have next to no patience for cliches in, which is what often does it in.
my dad had a tendency of buying records he didn't like on a whim, and i'd often end up with copies of them. so, he'd pick up the new bozio-levin-stevens supergroup collaboration thinking it's a lineup that can't miss and it must be the greatest thing since relayer, only to find himself bored by the technicality of it, and wonder if maybe i might like it better. he never said it directly, but i think he thought to himself that i would inherently have the ability to appreciate whatever he couldn't, and he was actually sometimes right; one example is that i ended up with a stack of keneally records that he didn't want (they were 'weird') and that i'm actually quite fond of.
this record has a muted holdsworth sound to it, especially in the tone, but it's really 98% dream theatre, or 98% dream theatre side project. that was the liquid tension experiment, when levin joined dream theatre. haven't heard that one? it was one of the cd-rs i got, and i'm sure young plini had one, too. ask him about that, i'm sure he'll tell you a bit about it.
as is always the case with these things, i find them mildly interesting, but they break down after a few listens because they're written in blocks. it's a thing that happens when you get these people together and ask them to jam, without actually writing anything, and without any intent of getting back together again. so, it's all very nice and correct and everything, even with a little tension in the textbook places, but it doesn't transcend beyond the expectation.
and, it's often a bit cheesy.
i will no doubt eventually end up at a plini show, and i'll probably enjoy it, at least passively. but, i need him to take it to the next level in every way - i need it to be more abstract, more emotional and more technical all at the same time.
don't skip it, anyways. i'm sure it's worth a beer.
https://plini.bandcamp.com/album/sunhead
the first thing that i ran into may turn out to be the most interesting, and if i had had some more time to plan for it, i may have very well attended it. anomolie is a francophone artist from montreal and recently played in toronto, but skipped detroit. he'll be somewhere near here for electronic forest in the summer, and i'm hoping somebody lures him into the city for a smaller set.
the composer behind this is apparently a classically trained pianist, and it's really quite easy to hear the french tonality in the writing, be it directly from chopin or debussy or potentially even from trent reznor. this is really where the root of the sound is, rather than in jazz or fusion; it may go through some kind of filter of corea or hancock, but it begins firmly in the francophone tradition of classical piano music - that is where the ideas ultimately begin, and ultimately exist. the fade out, fin is practically a prelude, perhaps bringing to mind blonde women in sinking churches, floating away over the horizon through the montreal river. it's actually a bit of a rough patch, there, where the ottawa slams into the st. lawerence. don't fall in. that said, this is also firmly in the genre of electronic music, even if it sounds more like jan hammer than it sounds like deadmaus...
on the electronic side, i could be stretching in pulling out specific influences from the likes of plaid, rustie, slugabed and lingouf; the point is that it exists in this kind of post-dubstep x idm crosssover space that hit a bit of a high point around 2011-2013 and then sort of disappeared. remember that first hudson mohawke record where he actually messed around with the gear a little? or that rustie video with the scenes from trains, planes and automobiles? that's a good starting point to work outwards from, and splice that francophone piano into.
the writing is also rather expertly orchestrated, all of it apparently written into the keyboard and sequenced back over midi, a now old tactic that has never really taken off but that has always had such enormous potential. if i were to make a criticism of the disc, it is that it is only a tease. he's still young, though - and this is an introduction.
highly recommended.
i wish i got out to see it.
the composer behind this is apparently a classically trained pianist, and it's really quite easy to hear the french tonality in the writing, be it directly from chopin or debussy or potentially even from trent reznor. this is really where the root of the sound is, rather than in jazz or fusion; it may go through some kind of filter of corea or hancock, but it begins firmly in the francophone tradition of classical piano music - that is where the ideas ultimately begin, and ultimately exist. the fade out, fin is practically a prelude, perhaps bringing to mind blonde women in sinking churches, floating away over the horizon through the montreal river. it's actually a bit of a rough patch, there, where the ottawa slams into the st. lawerence. don't fall in. that said, this is also firmly in the genre of electronic music, even if it sounds more like jan hammer than it sounds like deadmaus...
on the electronic side, i could be stretching in pulling out specific influences from the likes of plaid, rustie, slugabed and lingouf; the point is that it exists in this kind of post-dubstep x idm crosssover space that hit a bit of a high point around 2011-2013 and then sort of disappeared. remember that first hudson mohawke record where he actually messed around with the gear a little? or that rustie video with the scenes from trains, planes and automobiles? that's a good starting point to work outwards from, and splice that francophone piano into.
the writing is also rather expertly orchestrated, all of it apparently written into the keyboard and sequenced back over midi, a now old tactic that has never really taken off but that has always had such enormous potential. if i were to make a criticism of the disc, it is that it is only a tease. he's still young, though - and this is an introduction.
highly recommended.
i wish i got out to see it.
so, i've recently decided to take the possibility of transiting back and forth from toronto to see shows a little more seriously. this is partially a result of consequence (i'm apprehensive about testing my luck crossing the border while i am awaiting the destruction of fingerprint records by the rcmp, as a consequence of what i believe was an illegal arrest on already dropped charges of "repeated communication for the purposes of renting an apartment"; see the rants archive for more on that, but note that i am retaliating, legally) and partially the result of detroit being in somewhat of a downturn when it comes to concerts, right now. touring seems to be slow all around right now, but toronto might have a better local scene. insofar as rock music is concerned, there's almost no local scene in detroit at all, and the style of techno that is dominant here is really not well aligned with my tastes. it's a hip hop & house town with an extinct jazz scene and a dying punk scene - and i'm wondering if it's time to look for a way out.
in terms of size and influence, the rock/punk scene in detroit may be more on par with ottawa than toronto, at this point. even the classical scene is moribund.
if i'm going to find like-minded musicians, i need to find a bigger, more experimental scene than this that is willing to take more chances on people being weird, and is more interested in creativity than fashion or retro. so, detroit kind of sucks.
as such, i've been sorting through show listings in toronto, recently, with the intent of planning some trips. and, i'm going to document some things that i've found in this space.
in terms of size and influence, the rock/punk scene in detroit may be more on par with ottawa than toronto, at this point. even the classical scene is moribund.
if i'm going to find like-minded musicians, i need to find a bigger, more experimental scene than this that is willing to take more chances on people being weird, and is more interested in creativity than fashion or retro. so, detroit kind of sucks.
as such, i've been sorting through show listings in toronto, recently, with the intent of planning some trips. and, i'm going to document some things that i've found in this space.
Friday, April 5, 2019
la dispute is a very vocal-driven act, so the value of the music is
unlikely to reveal itself on immediate listen. these types of records
consequently don't lend themselves to first impression reviews. these
are the kinds of songs that you come back to at random places, that
reveal themselves to you at the least expected....
you could hear the power of a line like "we are but hopeless lovers, we are the last of our kind, and if we let our hearts move outward we will never die." more or less immediately, but it took time - years - for the story to unfold itself, and the climax to actually present itself as such. the second record was certainly less ridiculous, all around; i wouldn't have guessed on first listen that it would be the clever language in harder harmonies that comes off as the high point on the record, i had to live it and digest it and experience it first. and, while i didn't spend very much time with the third record, i'm sure that somebody else has some similar stories about it. so, i'm not going to pretend i've digested this over a handful of listens - i haven't, and i don't know what's going to click over time, or if anything is going to click at all.
but, that third record. it seemed like a death blow; i didn't think there would be a fourth one. i saw them do a little acoustic set at the masonic temple in detroit, and they just came off like a third rate rem knockoff. i am a gigantic rem fan, and the singer, at least, has some obvious lyrical ability, so i wasn't opposed to the direction, but it just didn't execute. the record itself seemed flat and just kind of boring, and i want to take a minute to explore the point because the contrast here is what's most exciting about the new record...
i'm sure that a lot of their fans recoiled at the record by claiming it was "soft", or something. my tastes are too diverse for anything that gauche - i like "soft" music as much, if not more, than i like "heavy" music, whether it is hard or easy. these are qualitative terms, but they don't speak to the quality of the art. so, yeah. the record was kind of "soft". so what? a more poignant critique is that the band seemed like a fish out of water; they toned down too far too fast and in the process lost the plot, just kind of meandering on without much of a musical point. the record needed some kind of foil to itself, but the correct idea is not that it needed "heavier" outbursts, but some kind of tension and, when you use the right language, it's all of a sudden easy to understand why so many of their fans got kind of scared away by a la dispute record that had no tension in it - as the band is all about tension.
i can actually make the argument that i love la dispute for the same reason that i love rachmaninov. but, i'll spare you that.
but, what they needed here was not to bring back the heavy but to bring back the tension and they have actually done that. so, this is a return to form, in that sense.
however, the band is also clearly in the process of completely altering it's sound, and if you need the heavy rather than merely the tension then maybe you might want to check out something else.
is this going to work out in the long run, after all? well, michael stipe was a huge ian mackaye fan boy, you know. it just might.
https://ladispute.bandcamp.com/album/panorama
you could hear the power of a line like "we are but hopeless lovers, we are the last of our kind, and if we let our hearts move outward we will never die." more or less immediately, but it took time - years - for the story to unfold itself, and the climax to actually present itself as such. the second record was certainly less ridiculous, all around; i wouldn't have guessed on first listen that it would be the clever language in harder harmonies that comes off as the high point on the record, i had to live it and digest it and experience it first. and, while i didn't spend very much time with the third record, i'm sure that somebody else has some similar stories about it. so, i'm not going to pretend i've digested this over a handful of listens - i haven't, and i don't know what's going to click over time, or if anything is going to click at all.
but, that third record. it seemed like a death blow; i didn't think there would be a fourth one. i saw them do a little acoustic set at the masonic temple in detroit, and they just came off like a third rate rem knockoff. i am a gigantic rem fan, and the singer, at least, has some obvious lyrical ability, so i wasn't opposed to the direction, but it just didn't execute. the record itself seemed flat and just kind of boring, and i want to take a minute to explore the point because the contrast here is what's most exciting about the new record...
i'm sure that a lot of their fans recoiled at the record by claiming it was "soft", or something. my tastes are too diverse for anything that gauche - i like "soft" music as much, if not more, than i like "heavy" music, whether it is hard or easy. these are qualitative terms, but they don't speak to the quality of the art. so, yeah. the record was kind of "soft". so what? a more poignant critique is that the band seemed like a fish out of water; they toned down too far too fast and in the process lost the plot, just kind of meandering on without much of a musical point. the record needed some kind of foil to itself, but the correct idea is not that it needed "heavier" outbursts, but some kind of tension and, when you use the right language, it's all of a sudden easy to understand why so many of their fans got kind of scared away by a la dispute record that had no tension in it - as the band is all about tension.
i can actually make the argument that i love la dispute for the same reason that i love rachmaninov. but, i'll spare you that.
but, what they needed here was not to bring back the heavy but to bring back the tension and they have actually done that. so, this is a return to form, in that sense.
however, the band is also clearly in the process of completely altering it's sound, and if you need the heavy rather than merely the tension then maybe you might want to check out something else.
is this going to work out in the long run, after all? well, michael stipe was a huge ian mackaye fan boy, you know. it just might.
https://ladispute.bandcamp.com/album/panorama
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