Music
Audio Killed My Video Stars
Jan 7th
I really wanted to give something personal for the holidays this year. I don’t knit and my last best drawing involved portraying a space battle between the Millenium Falcon and the USS Enterprise, so I settled on creating videos of the kids. I had a backlog of photos and moving pictures (“talkies?”) that needed forcible eviction from various digital devices, so the project was motivating on multiple levels.
In the process, my videography jones got kicked into high gear. Pinnacle 7 got dusted off (quirky, but workable in Vista), the camcorder got a workout, and the clutter of tedious videos got transformed into something moving and timeless, set to a couple songs I like. Nice.
Delivery became a dilemma. Gifting a link seemed a bit too virtual, so I planned to put them onto SanDisk MP3 players (the Fuze plays video) and send them out to my parents. The retrospective montages were guaranteed tear-jerkers, plus everyone got a great little music player for the gym. The wins were racking up.
This is supposed to be the era of user-generated content (formerly known as “crap you waste your time on”), so I felt compelled to share my creation with others. My Facebook page had fallen into disrepair over the holidays, so I uploaded my shiny new vid … uh, wait … “violation” … “privacy” … what?
Facebook froze the upload and threatened to remove all my content should I try again. My mash-up creation had morphed into copyright infringement, and threatened to transmogrify into social media banishment.
So, this is the world we live in. The RIAA has convinced a lot of people that music is a finite resource that cannot be borrowed or bartered without harm. In our system, my creative application of music can only be perceived as a threat to the artist’s well-being.
And yet the reality is nearly the opposite. With few exceptions, music is a sprawling, fungible commodity that has multitudes of substitutes. Yes, there is (was) only one Michael Jackson singing Billie Jean. But hearing a “free” version of Billie Jean hardly ever replaces a “paid” version, rather it is more likely to replace a “free” version of something else. And that replacement is likely to promote future purchase of Michael Jackson’s music, movies, shirts, breakfast cereals, and commemorative plates.
Creative uses of copyrighted media put the source material into circulation in ways that it would not have otherwise, helps it break through the sensory fugue. If anything, the artists should thank me, and present me with royalties for future sales that would not have come without my help.
Transcendent Moment
Oct 22nd
We’re sitting around the dinner table, eating lemon pepper chicken that’s perfectly cooked right off the grill. You know the kind, with the fat slightly crispified around the edges, but the middle is perfectly white and juicy.
The Cardinals are playing on TV. Unbelievably, the Cards are leading the heavily-favored Tigers one game to nil, and Game Two is currently scoreless. After the post-season letdown from some high-powered Redbird teams of recent years, there’s a refreshing underdog spirit emanating from this squad. And it somehow makes the chicken taste that much better.
Instead of listening to the usual Tim McCarver droning commentary, we have the Rolling Stones playing in the background. Not a CD. The actual Rolling Stones are playing in Zilker Park tonight, and strains from The Glimmer Twins are intermingling with the chicken aroma and Cardinals spirit in quite a sensory smorgasborg.
Later in the evening, the Cardinals may have fallen behind by three, but Keith unleashes the buzzsaw riff leading into Jumpin’ Jack Flash. It is a sublime evening in Austin, TX.
best zep
Dec 2nd
I will go to my grave insisting that the best song Led Zeppelin ever recorded is Boogie With Stu. That gem, followed by Black Country Woman, winds down Physical Graffiti with some much needed mandolin and root-oriented stomp fun to offset the pre-metal crunch featured throughout the album. It also has that pre-drum machine autobeat quality that is just crying for a dance party mashup somewhere down the line. Or not.
I know what you’re thinking:
a) Boogie with who?
b) Wow, that song is almost as bad as something off Coda.
c) I only listen to Zeppelin IV, and that song ain’t on it, so it sucks.
d) Led Zeppelin is old. You’re old. And stupid.
e) [insert droning "flatline" sound]
Yeah, well, thanks to all you voices in my head for the feedback. But it’s a testament to a great band that they can basically noodle some crappy song on the spot that’s better than anything in most bands’ entire oeuvre. And it’s stuck in my head, for no reason …
iWedding
Sep 21st
Everybody’s had their experience with a wedding or special event that is marred by a truly horrid band or DJ. For me, there was the bar mitzvah where the “band” (an older duo crooning a la Marty and Elayne from Swingers) drove me to drink, which led to an extended chat with the 19-year-old coat check girl that is often recalled at family gatherings. These embarrassing consequences are slowly being eliminated as more people replace DJ’s with an iPod, pre-programmed with their own set list.
That’s exactly what we did for our wedding six months ago. We weren’t necessarily trying to low-ball the whole affair, but a band was way too pricey and we didn’t want some up-with-people DJ jackass trying to “pump up” Grandma with Sir Mix-a-lot. I knew a handful of songs I wanted for dancing or ambience, and figured I could pound out a song list that would represent us and still entertain the crowd. The iPod was the perfect resource, and we only had to spend another $50 for a PA system. Genius!
Except, of course, it really wasn’t that easy. Predictably, I waited until the last minute, programming the song list the day of the wedding. Some songs I had envisioned as “perfect” turned out to be too long, too harsh, too dumb, or (cruelly) not even available through iTunes. Then I not only had to figure out the perfect progression, but also how to force the iPod to play it in order. Finally, there was the moment of dread when we hit “play” and nothing came out of the PA; Larry quickly figured out that the iPod volume was too low, but not before a few bullets were sweat.
All of our struggles were vindicated when, in the middle of Wilco’s “I’m the Man Who Loves You,” the photographer ran by yelling “this is the coolest wedding, GREAT MUSIC!” Perhaps the only regret was picking “Tupelo Honey” as our opening dance number … 7 minutes is way, WAY too long to make everyone sit around feigning enchantment.
son volt and the melody of quiet
Sep 17th
Son Volt played at Stubb’s last night. Two concerts in three nights is a feat I haven’t accomplished for awhile, but I couldn’t have asked for a better confluence of favorites than to have Jay Farrar’s new band follow up Thursday night’s Wee Fighters show.
Jay Farrar is an earnest, talented musician that I revere. At his best, he is the poet laureate for the common man, finding beauty and glory in the places most people ignore on their way to somewhere else. But there are times when Jay fails to temper sincerity with joy or enthusiasm, and his musical demeanor settles like a fog of somnolent folk depression. His solo performance at the 2003 ACL Festival seemed to herald the impending rain; an unfortunate yet appropriate coincidence.
Thankfully there was obvious enjoyment coming from the stage on Friday night, albeit in a subdued Farrar-esque celebration of his remarkable catalogue. The set list favored the new album, which translated into strong live performances, while offering a great selection of Son Volt and solo tunes. An Uncle Tupelo tune is always welcome, and the band ripped up the closer in tremendous fashion.
It might not have been the nuclear explosion of Dave Grohl screaming “Monkey Wrench,” but it amply demonstrated that renewed energy is coursing through the reconfigured Son Volt v2.0.
6 String Belief (Okemah)
Who (Okemah)
Bandages & Scars (Okemah)
Atmosphere (Okemah)
Gramophone (Okemah)
Back Into Your World (Straightaways)
Joe Citizen Blues (Okemah/iTunes)
Medicine Hat (Wide Swing Tremolo)
Ipecac (Okemah)
Damn Shame (Sebastopol)
Loose String (Trace)
Chaos Streams (Okemah)
Live Free (Trace)
Picking Up the Signal (Straightaways)
Jet Pilot (Okemah)
Endless War (Okemah)
Route (Trace)
Straightface (Wide Swing Tremolo)
Caryatid Easy (Straightaways)
Driving the View (Wide Swing Tremolo)
Medication (Okemah)
World Waits For You (Okemah)
Tear Stained Eye (Trace)
Windfall (Trace)
Drown (Trace)
Afterglow 61 (Okemah)
[ENCORE]
Armagideon Time (Cover-Clash/Willie Williams)
Chickamauga (Anodyne)
[Original list courtesy of JayFarrar.net]