Hmm...ramblings...

I am having trouble focusing on another assignment, so I thought it would be best if I were to get some ramblings out of my head.

First off, I decided to forgoe the music video topic, it was too taxing, and I don't like having a set outcome for my blog. It's just not fun. Second off, I did get a comment about treadmills, in case anyone was wondering how efficient they were with exercise, etc...

And now, on to more pressing issues. The last day to register to vote is October 6th (I believe), see this link for answer to questions. The sooner you apply to vote the better. Also, don't forget to apply for absentee ballots! This election will probably end up being a very messy election--and one to go down in history.

On that note, I leave you with a couple of songs. The first is Bright Eye's "When the President Talks to God" and the second is Sage Francis's "Slow Down Ghandi." Music has and will always be a formative tool in getting the word out to the masses.

Video Kill the Radio Star...

Last time I mentioned that 1980s gave birth to the music video, increasing the creative license of the artists and in some cases adding a new dimension to the song. As most things go, the 1980s music videos were slightly over the top. New technologies were being developed and used in everyday life, and people were just getting the hang of digitally adding in images for whatever purposes.

Truth be told, the 1980s videos were as over the top as their songs were. Most of the videos that are remembered today include zany battle scenes with over obvious digital add ins. Now-a-days musicians still add the awkward out of the ordinary digital images, however, the graphic designers have learned how to scale down the "cut out" effect, or even blend the colors into the live action shots a little better.

Still, though there are the songs that are more remembered for their music videos than their songs, or even their entire album or career. What songs of today are outlived by the music video?

My first thought goes straight to OK Go's "Here We Go Again," where the band does an elaborate and very well practiced rutine on a bunch of treadmills. The band won a Grammy for the video, as well as being voted the most creative video on YouTube. A few of my friends cannot even remember the band name, the song title, or anything else outside of the treadmills.



One of my favorite music videos is the Red Hot Chili Pepper's video for "Can't Stop," the video goes through various montages of crazy arts, crazy antics; the standard Chili Pepper style. At the end of the video there is a sign recognizing the video as being made in honor of Erwin Wurm, and his "One Minute Statues."



What I find so refreshing about these kinds of music videos is how simplistic, yet complicated they are. Additionally, the musicians seem to be having the time of their life--which is one of the main factors of music.

On the other spectrum we have music videos that speak with a message, a clear cut example of what the musician finds wrong in the world, possible ways to fix it--or even just explicitly stating that their are issues in the world.

I'll continue on that note tomorrow, or the next day. Seriously, though, yell at me when I don't post frequently. Sometimes throwing your anger in my face is the only thing that gets me working.

1980s, music videos, and general ramblings

As I was getting ready for the day yesterday I tuned into Bob Biolen's "All Songs Considered," which turned out to be one of the more humorous episodes to date. It was entitled, "The 1980's: Were they really that bad?" I was tempted to say, "Yes, of course. Why even discuss this issue?"

But as the guests reminded me there were the certain 80s rockers that broke away from the glitter scratch-n-sniff sticker that came out of every vending machine record label--such as The Cures's "Friday I'm in Love," Journey's "Anyway You Want It," or "Don't Stop Believin'," The Starship's "We Built this City," Simple Mind's "Don't You Forget About Me," among others.

But even these classic titles forever held in our minds as a solid representation of "good" music from the 1980's have been reduced to headphones since the introduction of iPods; where guilty pleasures are taken to a new height. Excluding, of course, Journey--which can only be brought out once the BAC level reaches an extrodinary high, knowing full and well that you will not remember it the next day.

So, what was it about the 1980s that made the music suck? Was it the synthesizers? Was it the keytar? Was it the cloud of hair spray that followed everyone? Was it George Micheal's white t-shirt with big, black, bold "Choose LIFE" in his video for "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"?

More to the point...what did the 1980s leave us with? The 1950s up until the mid to late 1970s are strife with emotion, change, demand, and most importantly a voice. The 1980s are fueled by drugs, sex, and hair spray; leaving the end result emotionless and tacky.

But, the 1980s did give us something to look back on and appreciate: music videos. In some cases the music videos were more popular than the song itself, causing the listeners to be more aware and excited for the video than the actual song.

A good example is a-ha's "Take On Me," which is a really great video and if you're 16 years old, cruzing around in your newly bought freakishly old beat up used car, it's a good listen too. More popular was Devo's "Whip It"--which gained such a noteriety as a music video that cheap shops started making the emphamis red hats, and college kids across the nation can still be seen pulling out the hats and re-inacting the music video.



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This post was supposed to transition into the modern day music video, but I rambled more than I anticipated and got distracted by other music forces outside the blogging world. So, look out for it later on!

Schools back...

Summer has end. School is back in session. It feels as if it never ended, as it always does. The teachers are assigning work, and I'm procrastinating. Not matter how many semesters go by I always do the same song and dance.

"This year I'm going to be ahead of the assignments. I'm going to read ahead and stay on top." Well, two days into the semester I've already begun to procrastinate and push off doing my homework to a later time.

On the bright side I did get a couple of cool things over the summer: first and foremost a new 35 mm digital SLR. So look forward to better and more frequent band shots. Second: a greater appreciation for the John Butler Trio.

I spent a month in Australia, doing volunteer work and backpack along the eastern coast of Australia. It was pretty amazing, while I knew who John Butler was before going to Australia I did not have nearly as great of an appreciation for him. Perhaps it's because Australia radios either play really crappy annoying songs, such as the highly repetitive and attention craved "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry, or John Butler.

While I as in Australia I didn't manage to make it out to any shows or to buy any CDs a new bands. I wrote a couple of bands down that I'm going to have to check out; such as the Waifs, the Sunpilots, among others that I can't recall off the top of my head. One night in particular stands out as an amazing night of fun, life, and definitely music.

The night started out in a cheap tourist packed bar aptly named The Cheeky Monkey. At the Cheeky Monkey there were grotesque and degrading games to win prizes; the prizes mainly consisted of alcohol. The worst game of all was strip musical chairs, where the same 30 second carnival tune was played on repeat. If you lost your seat, you simply took off clothing to stay in the game.

The bar was fill with beckoning men and a slew of half clad women in no time, and I was out the door. I probably lasted about 5 minutes of the game before I had to get out. On my way home my friend Ryan and I passed by a bar which was blasting some amazing sounding acoustic guitar.

There was no cover charge. The drinks were stronger (!!!). And there were few, very few tourists. The guitarist played a rang of music from the late 1960s to present day, covering all the essentials: Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Oasis, early Green Day.

And now, I am back here. Half way around the world, and a good 32 hours of various plane rides to get to the bar. Here's the new semester. I haven't exactly set out what I am doing this semester, yell at me when I don't post frequently. I give in easy to anger.

Oh schnickeys, I missed my cue....oh, wait, did I?

From my previous experiences with musical performances—especially with musical performances for my school, I knew that appearance was just as important as our musical quality. For performances from 6^th grade and on, I stressed over every detail on my outfit; the outfit only became more impertinent once I reached high school, where students were denied their right to perform if they showed up to competitions wearing the wrong color socks. So, during our interview about a week ago when I agreed to play “iPod 2” in Dr. Jesse Guessford's concert I was a little taken aback when he told me to show up in street clothes; just as long as I had my score, iPod, and a stop watch.

On my drive back to my apartment all I could think was “Wow, seriously. This is going to be awesome, I love casual performances.” And then came the email with the aptly titled PDF file “Safety Guide,” and my thoughts immediately changed to “Um, what? How? ...?!!” And all I could think of was what did I get myself, or more importantly, what did I get my iPod into? And how was I going to be able to pull off this intricate development of skipping, playing, and pausing all at once?

According to the program “Safety Guide” was inspired by the actual Safety Guide included with iPods, warning new iPod users of all the “dangers that can befall someone during the operation and maintenance of an iPod.” Keeping that in mind, I could only think back to the time where I was fiddling with my iPod in class; excessively clicking next on my playlist just to see what random songs would come up when my iPod froze. And it remained frozen until the battery wore out, which took about 10 hours. During our interview I asked Dr. Guessford what would happen if the iPod froze, he replied that it would become part of the song.

According to Dr. Guessford the beauty of this piece is the unexpected, which admittedly eased my tension about not performing up to par. The iPod players are given a score, which has endless possibilities and outcomes; it would be impossible to predict what would happen next. The score is, in essence, a map of boxes each containing three numbers, each box breaks off into two different paths. The boxes build up four levels to the climax before dwindling back down to a single box, where it repeats back to the beginning. The best way to explain it is, it's kind of like a choose your own ending novella, only with the beginnings of songs. Bret Rushia, who played iPod 1, said that the piece was interesting because it brought so many different musical spectrums to the table, and opened the piece up to any generation, genre, or medium of music.

Aside from “Safety Guide,” the concert featured seven other experimental pieces, not including the “this is just background noise,” created by Rushia during the 15 minute intermission. “Sound Exploration Compositions,” was with out a doubt one or the more interesting and intriguing concerts I have attended in awhile. The first piece “i have found,” took the e.e. cummings “i have found what you are like,” read by choreographers Joy DiLillo and Meghan Tornai. The readings were then mixed and arranged to create a modernistic reading of the poem, creating an array of feelings and emotions within the text—but also creating a history and background of the voices.

The crowd favorite was, by far, the third piece “Within,” Where, according to the program notes, Dr. Guessford was asked to tell the story of his life, which he chose to do using a variety of musical genres and textures of music. “Within,” proves that not all stories need to be told through words, sitting in the back of the auditorium I began matching up the growths and falls of the song with the standard growths and falls of life, and wondering what parts of the songs were parts of Dr. Guessford's musical life. Even minutes into the songs I lost count of all the possible musical influences and styles; only to surmise that Dr. Guessford must have one amazing musical library and a history to backup the tracks.

In contrast to Dr. Guessford's “choose your own ending” scores, Theresa Ashley presented her score for “Blut und Ere.” “Blut und Ere,” is a 20 minute short film by Aaro Keipi, Ashley wrote the soundtrack for Part 1 of the film. While the piece is more traditional in the score, Ashely broke away from the normal to have a string quintet play the score to a movie live. Which may sound a lot easier than it actually is, the musicians must have impeccable timing and phrasing, otherwise the music won't match the movie. Additionally, the musicians must pay close attention to the conductor's cues if they happen to get off beat.

The evening only got better after intermission, while one piece “Create” was not performed, it was replaced by another “choose your own ending” score of sorts. The skills of the composers and musicians kept rising with each piece performed, nearly every piece sounded as if it had been tediously rehearsed and penned to the very last note. I was almost in complete shock when I heard the musicians had just gotten their pieces Friday, three days before the concert. Even more in shock to learn that Matt Richardson would be making his debut on the Viola. However, in the spirit of the unexpected, everything sounded flawless. During intermission, Brandon Harris, who played Double Bass, joked that as long as he and Richardson almost began and almost ended together the piece will be well played.

The last piece instrumental piece was “Space Between Bullet and Target,” featuring a Violin (Matt Richardson), a Vibraphone (Dan Heagney), and a Double Bass (Brandon Harris). In the program notes Heagney adds that the piece is unique because is has the players both playing together and separately within the piece.

The concert also featured visual and sound performances, which for me were a little more abstract than I am normally used to, though it was intriguing. “Debatable,” took clips from of all the presidents (or all that I counted) since the birth of the debate on television and played them over top of each other. Some of the clips appeared to have been speed up, some may have been slowed down. Either way the clips, the repetition within sound, and the similar setting and structure within the presidential debates led to personal questions, though none as poignant as the program notes; “[Ask] not what that they can say in a sound-bite, but what we should say to them.”

For me, it's challenging to say that the concert was a success, which I think it was, but it is hard because of the theory of the unexpected. If everything is a part of the piece, and unexpected portions or add-ins are welcomed to the piece, how do you rate the performances of the night? Well, for one, had I not known that the pieces were learned mostly during rehearsal and that the musicians were playing unfamiliar instruments, I would not have been able to tell. All of the musicians approached the the unexpected with full force and turned it into the most intricate pieces of music. Additionally, there was only one technical problem with all of the electronics, which for someone like me, who encounters problems checking her email, is a huge success. And looking back on the technical problem, I find it ironic that it happened in the middle of Dr. Guessford's biographical “Within.” Thus proving that the unexpected within songs is truly warranted and can be turned into a pivotal point within the piece. 

Photos by Lexi Soya. 

Spring Break?

Spring Break is drawing to a scatter and quick halt, is there anyway to make time stop? I'm trying to get back into the whole school/writing mode, so here is the second installment of Name that Tune.


Hopefully this one will be a little bit harder than the last one. Thou, it's still one of my favorite songs so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

"Formulate affinity
Stored deep inside me"

Just a reminder the scores are:
Nelson: 3
Rebecca: 3
Juankoogai: 2

Experimental Expose at the Bistro...

March 8, 2008: Free show at the Bistro (bottom level Johnson Center)

The show starts around 6:30, is completely free for anyone (student, faculty, random person roaming the JC for no reason) and is set to continue until midnight.

The show is featuring five different bands mainly from the Fairfax/Washington D.C. area, with one band from New York.

Dark Sea Dream, who describe themselves as "Psychedelic/Experimental/Zouk." Zouk is defined as, "a style of dance music that originated in Guadeloupe and Martinique, featuring Caribbean rhythms over a disco beat and played with electric guitars and synthesizers," by dictionary.com. The band only has two songs feature on their myspace, though the songs feature a enjoyable fusion of many styles of music, proving that maybe it's a good thing to revive disco beats?

Say No! To Architecture, who describe themselves as "Experimental, Abient, Psychedelic," on their myspace. Though the bulk of their music could be easily mistaken for noise, the band weaves beautiful harmonies in between the noisy stanzas. Say No! To Architecture's is the type of music that tells epic stories through their intricate use of noise and static.

Hume, who describes himself (and sometimes themselves?) as "Regional Mexican," whatever that means. After listening to the music it seems that the only way to describe Hume is as "Regional Mexican." Though you may try to, it's hard to stop yourself from becoming consumed by Hume's mix of voice overs, experimental instrumentations, and awkward lyrical work. It some how works in their favor.

Micah Shot A Hole in the Sky, who describes himself as "experimental/ambient/folk." I have to admit that this is the favorite of the five bands. I am not normally one for instrumental music, though there is something magical about msahints. The songs have an extremely beautiful flow from beginning to ending, additionally, there is an obvious admiration for space, time, and infinite possibilities within the songs.

Telegraph (Cloud drop in jars, azure), who describes himself as "Classical Opera and Vocal/Healing and Easylistening/Acousmatic/Tape Music," in addition to Textural Meditation. I think "textural meditation" sums up the sound of the band better than the five, plus other genres. While listening to the music I found myself drifting in and out of different moods as the songs progressed.

Judging from the songs available on their myspaces, I have to admit that the five bands have proven to me that there is a lot more to instrumental and experimental music than I have been giving it credit for.



Don't forget, it's FREE.
Saturday, March 8th, 2008.
Johnson Center Bistro (Bottom Floor)
George Mason University
4400 University Dr.
Fairfax, VA

_____________________________________________________________
And now for the results of yesterday's game: (drum roll, please!)

"The Past Recedes," John Frusciante from his Curtains album.


The scores are:
Nelson Culley: 3
Rebecca Gagliostro: 3
juankoogai: 2