Book reccomendation

I just got my order from Fantagraphics today.

I'm still processing it all, but one book has already stuck out, and I'm sure it's a book that I'll spend the rest of my life flipping through.

The book is called The CAT On A Hot Thin Groove. It's a collection of cartoons and artwork from Gene Deitch for the jazz collectors zine, The Record Changer.

The comics, one panel deals with a little caption, are loving jabs at collectors. And are obviously written by someone who knows the fanatic nature of collectors pretty damn well. I'll be honest, most of the jazz references sail by mean. Since I'm not that well versed, but even if I don't get the direct reference, I deffinetly understand the spirit and the affliction of being a collector.

Highly reccomended, not just for jazz fans, but for all collectors.

More props for Kate

Ok, so Kate gets more props. The sudden appearance of Radford got me thinking about some of the old jamband stuff I was listening to back then. So, I pulled out some CDs and started ripping them so I could put them on the old iPod. At this moment I'm grooving in my seat to the seductive sounds of The Beatroots. These guys were so damn much fun. African beats, mixed with Western European/Middle Eastern melodies. Can you create music that's more fun?

In the mid-90's, at the hieght of the "jamgrass" scene. I used to get really bothered over the fact that everyone seemed to be so caught up in bluegrass. I mean, I don't mind a little pick now and then. But, most of that stuff wasn't even new grass, much less bluegrass. And it's all anybody could seem to wrap their heads around. And there was me. Digging on the Beatroots and Baaba Seth. And listening to European groups like Afro Celt Sound System (now known simply as Afrocelts) and American groups like Material. Not to mention digging guys like Baba Maal and Alpha Blondie. And then don't get me started on Irish bands like Planxty, The Dubliners, Altan, The Wolf Tones, and Bothy Band, just to name a few. Or hell, even the fucking Pogues!

Anyways, my point is that there was all this great music. And all this great music to really dance to. I don't mean things you can sway to, or you can turn into dance music if you want to. I mean stuff you've gotta dance to. I mean stuff where it starts playing and you start moving, before you even know what's happening. But could these people get what I was getting at? Nope, they just looked at me with blank stares.

That was pretty much the point where I lost interest in the jamband scene. Just kind of realized that it wasn't my bag anymore. Somewhere along the line I'd gotten off that bus, and started hitch hiking. I get nostalgic now and then, but I don't regret the move. What's the chance that I would have gotten back into indie and punk if I'd stayed there? Hell, where would I have found the joyous sounds of Japanese Noise bands surrounded by a bunch of hippies?!?!?!

I'm starting to reapproach the scene these days. A little now and then. I'd be really surprised if I ever get back into the scene. But, I'm making peace with it. There was a lot of fun had by me back then. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But I'm to eclectic for that scene. The few people I've stayed in contact with don't get half the stuff I listen to. That's not their fault, of course, that's a better ratio then the one for normal people.

But, don't get me started on normal people. They're just to damn weird for me to understand. Why anyone would choose sanity as their life's path is just way beyond me.

afterword (or what ever the word I want is)

Baba Seth broke up after their sax player, Hope, joined Deep Banana Blackout, a jamband funk outift that are fun, so I won't begrudge her choice. But, it is to bad that it had to lead to the end of a really fun band.

The Beatroots apparently broke up as well. At least all signs of them on the web seemed to have vanished. Doesn't surprise me. They never really toured much outside of Maine. And the two vocalists had a kid to watch over. Guess they just decided to focus on other projects. I still remember the festival they put on in Maine though. Such a beautiful fun weekend.

The jamband scene flirted with getting into music from outside of the US. Homegrown carried a Material album, which I think Lee was very smart for doing. And Dr. Didj was getting big as I was stepping out. But, even he seemed to be approached as almost a novelty act. Any conversation about him quickly made mention of the didgeridoo (sp?) and never seemed to go past that. Who knows though, may be they got it. May be there's a band mixing African beats with melodies that spin Celtic and Middle Eastern melodies together, just like I always wanted. May be...

Random Links to Random Things

I guess we'll start with the newest finds and work back, figuring in threads of thought as I go along.

I acctually was in the process of getting some work done today, at work no less, when the president of the company and our HR person stopped by. Thier in town for some big gala thing. And since I've never met either, I figured I'd talk to them. Nice women, and I don't regret the conversation, but little work got done when they left. Instead, I started wondering around web sites. In the process I came across an interesting little comic called, Business As Usual. It's fun, you should go read it. There isn't much, but may be there'll be more.
Something about the comic reminds me of Ein Stuck Natur. And that's another comic you should read.
Back to BAU though, Kate also gets props for attending Radford Univ. Which was the first college I went to. I only lasted three semesters and only got 15 credits out of it, but oh well. I was still there.

On the tech front, Lisa Rein has video footage of Alan Kay's presentation at the Emerging Tech Conference a few weeks ago. His presentation was broken up into three areas:

1) Pointing out how little has changed in software over the last 40 years. This was depressing. Basically, we still don't have access to software that the people at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center invented back in the 60's. People just forgot about all the cool things that PARC invented and decided it wasn't important. Well, damn them!

2) A demo of kids (around 10-11 years old) working with Small Talk. Building little systems and playing with them. The point was to teach these kids about science in a way that wasn't just memorizing facts. This was cool as hell, and instilled in me, being a systems geek, a need to get a copy of Small Talk, or Squeak, the updated version of Small Talk, running on a machine. I need to investigate that.

3) A demo of Croquet, which is Alan's new product. This looks cool as hell. And it's funny that I see this now, as I'm in the middle of reading Neuromancer. I'm not sure what this could be used for though. Not that that's a bad thing. I'm a believer in the old ethos of "invent it, then figure out what to do with it." It's just not high on my priorities of download right now. Maybe once it's in beta stage.

A few days ago I was poking around some news sites, and came across the The Religious Movements Homepage @ The Univeristy of Virginia. I really need to play around with this more, but they list Discordianism, so they get props.

And speaking of religious links, I rediscovered The Gnosis Archive after the post around the Wandering Bishops, and what a fine archive it is.

OK, that's enough for tonight.

Writing in Public

Cory Doctorow and Charlie Stross are collaborating on another short story together. This time though they're doing it online. So far the story is great. Highly reccomended.

Death of Ego In Music

I keep thinking about Shava's post about the rituals revolving around the death of the ego. In particular I keep coming back to music, specifically movements like noise, no wave, and similiar experimental artists.

There is an idea that I came across somewhere, I think while reading up on the old no wave scene, that describes this style of music as the destruction of preconceived notions about music for the purpose of taking music to a new level. My interpretation of what I read was that the artists are trying to force themselves to take things to a new level, and to accomplish this are purposefully avoiding the standard cliches of structure in their music. Forcing themselves into a free fall where things work or don't, but chances are always taken. This is similiar to some of the ideas behind free jazz, which probably should have been mentioned in the genres above.

One of the things I keep coming back to is the violence that is inherent in this style of music. When I say violence, I do not neccisarily mean lyrically or in an image sense, though this is common. But, instead I refer to the approach. The music that is created, by it's very nature, appears violent. As if the very idea of stripping the cliches from the music is a violent act in and of itself.

Probably the best example of this is earlier Boredoms. Unfortunetly, I don't have any at work. I do have Super AE with me though. And perhaps this is the example that I'm looking for. Super AE is refered to as the begining of the Boredoms "sun worshipping" phase. And elements of the album reflect this. This is not a violent album in image. Yet, the style, with thier trade mark neck brake changes and tape manipulation, seems violent and celebratory at the same time. As if it is the music's ego that we are watching die in front of us.

I'm probably completly missing the point that Shava was trying to make, but this is where my thoughts keep going.

God bless Fred Rogers

How the late Mr. Rogers, fair use hero, saved the VCR

Ruins - Hyderomastgroningem

Amazon.com: Music: Hyderomastgroningem

I ordered this disk back in Jan. I had ordered the Boredom's Super AE in the same shipment though and so the order didn't arrive till last week. At that point I was in the middle of a basic rock kind of kick and so I put the two albums on hold untill I was more prepared to take them in. Apparently, that day is today.

I'm listening to this album for the first time right now. The album opens with an interesting short little piece (Hyderomastgroningem) that's acctually starts off as quite a funky little number. Not what I expected at all from the heros of japanese prog/noise. Then comes the turn on a dime time change and the whole thing starts to quickly shift in and out of moods, sometimes returning to the original phrases to ground the piece before shifting into a different area. The whole thing doesn't loose focus though, and none of the track seems out of place. The opening track quickly cements that this is going to be an experience like none other. Not bad for a minute and 25 seconds.

The second song is much more like what I expected. The drums and bass play a precise arrangement. Or acctually two arrangements. After a short intro these two pieces come together for a short period before dropping out, and bringing the band's lyrics forward.
All lyrics are written in a language that the band made up, reminescent of Eye's vocal/sreaming, but a little less intense. Not to say it isn't effective though. Since I don't speak Japanese the lyrics have the same effect as if they were acctually japanese.
After the opening salvo of chaotic playing, the band vaults back in forth between a slow laid back sound where the vocals slide across fuzzed out bass and delicate drumming, and a catchy snappy chrous that brings the drumming up in the mix and pushes the vocals into doing a little jig. The song then slips into a funky little bridge as the laid back fuzzed out bass is propelled forward by an increased intensity in the drumming, before it drops back into the laid back figure and fades out.

Third song is short and noisey.

Economic Mond Possa is hard to describe. Needless to say it solidifies the band's modus operandi of introducing two juxtiposed sections of music and then jumping back and forth between the two of them untill the pieces, which originally feel incompatable, feel perfectly natural next to each other.

Good noise/experimental music will redefine how you perceive music. This is good noise/experimental music.

Instead of hitting every song here, how about I just keep the window open and jot down notes as things grab me.

One of the great things about the Japanese underground is how dense the songs can get. Zurna Taksim is 35 seconds long, and there's about six cool little fragments that any other band would have felt forced to turn into a whole song. Ruins though drops the fragment and then moves on. Perhaps they touch on it again later. But, they don't seem to feel the need to expand on it.

Gravestone has an interesting gimmick of tieing the bass and the vocals together through out the piece. Each mirroring the other. The first section of the song is all energy as the drums propel the fragment along. Then the drums drop down to a laid back vibe and the bass/vocals follow suit. The drums are deffinetly driving this piece and its done masterfully. Switching back and forth effortlessly with just two beats to join the two vibes. It fits together seamlessly.

Pontemcorary Music #2 is an interesting little monster. It starts with a 30 second noise intro before falling into it's dualism. One a typical noise piece that's only a few seconds long. The other a hauntingly delicate vocal with a xylaphone sounding background accompined by a bass that mimics the vocal. This dualism lasts for about 45 seconds before returning to the opening piece to play the song out on. The song is short. I almost wish it has been longer.

And now, at the end of my first full listen through, I'm impressed. Sections of the album I found myself listening to a couple times before moving forward. Other times my interest waned. Right now, I prefer their instrumental stuff. But, I've found that my opinion of the bands in the Japanese underground changes with my moods. When I first heard Melt Banana and The Boredoms, I wasn't impressed. Later, when I listened to them in the right frame of mind, I was blown away.

I had expected something in my mind, and was giving something else. Reminescent of what I had expected, but also very different. I need time to difest this album and learn to appreciate it on it's own terms. I need to take the time to understand Ruins' musical language. Only then will I be able to truely give me thoughts on this album. I'm willing to bet though, that my current enjoyment of the album will turn to a love of it.