Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
The threshold of recognition
I play in a cover band. We play live less than 6 times a year. That makes for a lot of fun at gigs because they occur so far apart. For us, one of the pinnacles in performing is that exquisite moment when someone in the audience recognizes what you are playing. Usually this moment is punctuated by a "yeah!" or on occasion "dude! That's [______] (insert artist/song name)." Whenever it happens we all get a little jolt of pride in our playing and a little bit of confirmation that we are playing to "our crowd."
I call that moment the threshold of recognition.
I also listen to a lot of music - sometimes live music. On quality live recordings I often enjoy hearing that moment on a macro level: the crowdsourcing version. One in particular that I like is from Underworld's Everything, Everything Live album. Underworld is a group that has been around since the 1980s and for the past 16 or 17 has been making excellent music that sits somewhere between indie rock and electronica. They play live as a duo these days - one singer who plays guitar and sings and one mixer/producer who controls the loops and effects and beats. Doesn't sound like much does it?
They combine the music with nothing less than spectacular graphic support that is as interesting as the music: still photos, video, film loops, lasers. A little bit of everything (everything). Nearly all of it is synchronized to the music which makes for a sensory smorgasbord. Hearing the recordings on Everything Everything Live makes me remember the 4-5 times I was lucky to see Underworld live. The best part of that record is when they play Rez - a relatively unknown song that was the B-side to Cowgirl - arguably their biggest hit of the early 1990s. On the live record they play Rez (which is really just another instrumental version of Cowgirl) and after 3 minutes or so transition into Cowgirl. The moment when the crowd recognizes the intro to Rez is great but falls short of the delerium that takes over when they recognize Cowgirl.
That's the Threshold of Recognition. Dude.
I call that moment the threshold of recognition.
I also listen to a lot of music - sometimes live music. On quality live recordings I often enjoy hearing that moment on a macro level: the crowdsourcing version. One in particular that I like is from Underworld's Everything, Everything Live album. Underworld is a group that has been around since the 1980s and for the past 16 or 17 has been making excellent music that sits somewhere between indie rock and electronica. They play live as a duo these days - one singer who plays guitar and sings and one mixer/producer who controls the loops and effects and beats. Doesn't sound like much does it?
They combine the music with nothing less than spectacular graphic support that is as interesting as the music: still photos, video, film loops, lasers. A little bit of everything (everything). Nearly all of it is synchronized to the music which makes for a sensory smorgasbord. Hearing the recordings on Everything Everything Live makes me remember the 4-5 times I was lucky to see Underworld live. The best part of that record is when they play Rez - a relatively unknown song that was the B-side to Cowgirl - arguably their biggest hit of the early 1990s. On the live record they play Rez (which is really just another instrumental version of Cowgirl) and after 3 minutes or so transition into Cowgirl. The moment when the crowd recognizes the intro to Rez is great but falls short of the delerium that takes over when they recognize Cowgirl.
That's the Threshold of Recognition. Dude.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Schizofriendia
I am hoping that I am the first person to use this term but I am sure that is not true.
Schizofriendia (SKIT-zoh-frend-ee-ah)
The common affliction amongst digerati that causes one to respond to a message received on one social platform with a message on a different social platform.
Ex. She pinged me on Facebook but I replied on AIM
Schizofriendia (SKIT-zoh-frend-ee-ah)
The common affliction amongst digerati that causes one to respond to a message received on one social platform with a message on a different social platform.
Ex. She pinged me on Facebook but I replied on AIM
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Holiday Cards - why?
For the past 15 odd years, my wife and I have diligently designed, created and posted holiday cards to our family and friends. It started the year we got married and has snowballed a bit since we had kids. Every year around September we started having conversations like this:
Me: "Do you think we should start our card for this year?"
She: "I told you that last week - you were going to start it..."
Me: "Right. Do you have any idea what you want to do?"
She: "YOU are the creative one - you had all these great ideas last week when we were out drinking..."
You get the picture.
I say holiday because we have a number of Jewish friends and a number that don't acknowledge religion or holidays. Making a non-denominational card was the thing to do. The first few years they were made by hand and posted by hand. That led to store-bought cards, followed by spreadsheets with Avery labels and ultimately to electronic cards designed online and the iTunes store. When our son was born in 1999 that really threw a spanner in the works. Now I had to be creative AND funny AND endearing AND adorable AND timely. Needless to say it took a lot of effort. The first baby year saw a 4x6 tipped into a Pottery Barn card. Genius in its simplicity.
The second year is below:
As the years progressed and we had a daughter too, the pictures became more involved, the text wittier and wittier until this year.
This year we decided that we would not send out cards.
Not because we are cheap, not because we don't care. We are not cheap and we do care.
It is simply too much work and expense for something that is tossed out a week or two later. Personally I get a kick out of saving family cards and looking at them years later. I am not going to say we are popular - but thanks to family, school, work, sports, the band etc. our list grows every year. Its not a like a wedding invitation list (which begat our original list) where there are levels of friendship. We send cards to everyone we know - that is simply lots of people. We used to send them to X people and keep a number of extras aside for those people we forgot about (or whose addresses we could not locate) and send them out one by one. With every new computer came the inevitable search for "The List."
Enough I say! I communicate with a staggering percentage of that list by email as it is. If and when we decide to do a "card" this year - it will be electronic.
And you can be damn sure it will be adorable.
Me: "Do you think we should start our card for this year?"
She: "I told you that last week - you were going to start it..."
Me: "Right. Do you have any idea what you want to do?"
She: "YOU are the creative one - you had all these great ideas last week when we were out drinking..."
You get the picture.
I say holiday because we have a number of Jewish friends and a number that don't acknowledge religion or holidays. Making a non-denominational card was the thing to do. The first few years they were made by hand and posted by hand. That led to store-bought cards, followed by spreadsheets with Avery labels and ultimately to electronic cards designed online and the iTunes store. When our son was born in 1999 that really threw a spanner in the works. Now I had to be creative AND funny AND endearing AND adorable AND timely. Needless to say it took a lot of effort. The first baby year saw a 4x6 tipped into a Pottery Barn card. Genius in its simplicity.
The second year is below:
As the years progressed and we had a daughter too, the pictures became more involved, the text wittier and wittier until this year.
This year we decided that we would not send out cards.
Not because we are cheap, not because we don't care. We are not cheap and we do care.
It is simply too much work and expense for something that is tossed out a week or two later. Personally I get a kick out of saving family cards and looking at them years later. I am not going to say we are popular - but thanks to family, school, work, sports, the band etc. our list grows every year. Its not a like a wedding invitation list (which begat our original list) where there are levels of friendship. We send cards to everyone we know - that is simply lots of people. We used to send them to X people and keep a number of extras aside for those people we forgot about (or whose addresses we could not locate) and send them out one by one. With every new computer came the inevitable search for "The List."
Enough I say! I communicate with a staggering percentage of that list by email as it is. If and when we decide to do a "card" this year - it will be electronic.
And you can be damn sure it will be adorable.
Friday, November 07, 2008
Top 10 1980s tunes and why
I created a box set of 1980s songs for my brother for Christmas a few years ago. It was broken up into themes: Cool Kids, American Rock, Soundtracks, Anthems, Synth Pop, Hair Bands etc. I had a lot of fun making it and even more enjoyment listening to it with him.
The 1980s, for all it is maligned as a musical era, gave birth to a lot of things: the CD, the cassette single, the music video (this is debatable) as a commodity and visual marketing as a whole. Prior to 1979 (the year I consider the beginning of the 1980s musically), marketing and production were formulaic: go into the studio, make a record, release the record and tour in support of the record. If it failed, you went back in and made another - this time with a big name producer and spending months at a time. In the 1980s, musical technology came of age too: MIDI was formalized as a technology and it allowed for all sorts of amazing musical advances: songs could be sequenced, tempos could be set - for an entire song!?! This control simultaneously created freedom - freedom for people to make records faster and more economically.
Thus artists and labels in the 1980s made more records of more types in more genres and sub-genres than ever before. This led to an explosion of product in the market and a need for a different type of marketing - visual marketing. No longer was musical style the single defining characteristic of an artist. The hair, the clothes - the ensemble were now part of the public consciousness. I blame MTV.
We didn't have cable at my house until I went to college. Thus I didn't see MTV with any regularity until 1986 or 1987. My exposure to records to this point was framed largely by college radio (WDCV FM, 88.3 - the bottom of the dial but the top of the charts) and by my several tiimes per week visits to the local record stores. I credit much of what I know about music to reading record sleeves. Rolling Stone played a bit part but nothing beats the source.
On to the list. My favorite ten songs of the 1980s with occasional reasoning and commentary (in no particular order):
1. REM - So. Central Rain (Reckoning - 1984)
How much more can you say than "I'm sorry" and sum up so many things?
2. The Smiths - How Soon Is Now - (Hatful of Hollow - 1984)
The most ubiquitous guitar riff of the decade. Never gets old. Makes the fact that Johnny Marr is now in Modest Mouse even more meaningful.
3. U2 - Sweetest Thing (B-side to Where the Streets Have No Name single - 1987)
4. Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - Perfect Skin (Easy Pieces - 1984)
Lloyd Cole wrote the soundtrack to a lot of NYC lives. I just didn't know it until I lived there.
5. Felt - Primitive Painters (Ignite the Seven Cannons - 1987)
We all wanted to be shoegazers in 1985-1987. We wore leather jackets and tried not to smile. This song sums up that feeling. Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins singing made it perfect.
6. Shriekback - Nemesis (Oil and Gold - 1985)
I used to know I was at a good party when this song came on. It was - like "Groove Is In the Heart" by Deelite in the 1990s - THE party song of 1986-1987. At least where I was.
7. The Feelies - Slipping (into something) (The Good Earth - 1985)
I wrote a post about this record somewhere along the line. May be the most fun song to play live. Ever.
8. Oingo Boingo - Not My Slave (Boi-ngo - 1987)
This song was on the Something Wild soundtrack (with Melanie Griffiths - and the Feelies as the prom band). I helped my friend Kate move out of the freshman dorms to the soundtrack. We listened to it on her boombox (an 80s artifact to be sure!) over and over. Love cassettes.
9. The Stone Roses - Waterfall (The Stone Roses - 1989)
Most people who know me know this is my favorite record of all time. I had to choose one.
10. Modern English - Melt With You (After the Snow - 1983)
The song that sums up all my 1980s experiences - and probably yours too? This song is timeless - despite the frequent appearances in television commercials etc.
The 1980s, for all it is maligned as a musical era, gave birth to a lot of things: the CD, the cassette single, the music video (this is debatable) as a commodity and visual marketing as a whole. Prior to 1979 (the year I consider the beginning of the 1980s musically), marketing and production were formulaic: go into the studio, make a record, release the record and tour in support of the record. If it failed, you went back in and made another - this time with a big name producer and spending months at a time. In the 1980s, musical technology came of age too: MIDI was formalized as a technology and it allowed for all sorts of amazing musical advances: songs could be sequenced, tempos could be set - for an entire song!?! This control simultaneously created freedom - freedom for people to make records faster and more economically.
Thus artists and labels in the 1980s made more records of more types in more genres and sub-genres than ever before. This led to an explosion of product in the market and a need for a different type of marketing - visual marketing. No longer was musical style the single defining characteristic of an artist. The hair, the clothes - the ensemble were now part of the public consciousness. I blame MTV.
We didn't have cable at my house until I went to college. Thus I didn't see MTV with any regularity until 1986 or 1987. My exposure to records to this point was framed largely by college radio (WDCV FM, 88.3 - the bottom of the dial but the top of the charts) and by my several tiimes per week visits to the local record stores. I credit much of what I know about music to reading record sleeves. Rolling Stone played a bit part but nothing beats the source.
On to the list. My favorite ten songs of the 1980s with occasional reasoning and commentary (in no particular order):
1. REM - So. Central Rain (Reckoning - 1984)
How much more can you say than "I'm sorry" and sum up so many things?
2. The Smiths - How Soon Is Now - (Hatful of Hollow - 1984)
The most ubiquitous guitar riff of the decade. Never gets old. Makes the fact that Johnny Marr is now in Modest Mouse even more meaningful.
3. U2 - Sweetest Thing (B-side to Where the Streets Have No Name single - 1987)
4. Lloyd Cole & the Commotions - Perfect Skin (Easy Pieces - 1984)
Lloyd Cole wrote the soundtrack to a lot of NYC lives. I just didn't know it until I lived there.
5. Felt - Primitive Painters (Ignite the Seven Cannons - 1987)
We all wanted to be shoegazers in 1985-1987. We wore leather jackets and tried not to smile. This song sums up that feeling. Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins singing made it perfect.
6. Shriekback - Nemesis (Oil and Gold - 1985)
I used to know I was at a good party when this song came on. It was - like "Groove Is In the Heart" by Deelite in the 1990s - THE party song of 1986-1987. At least where I was.
7. The Feelies - Slipping (into something) (The Good Earth - 1985)
I wrote a post about this record somewhere along the line. May be the most fun song to play live. Ever.
8. Oingo Boingo - Not My Slave (Boi-ngo - 1987)
This song was on the Something Wild soundtrack (with Melanie Griffiths - and the Feelies as the prom band). I helped my friend Kate move out of the freshman dorms to the soundtrack. We listened to it on her boombox (an 80s artifact to be sure!) over and over. Love cassettes.
9. The Stone Roses - Waterfall (The Stone Roses - 1989)
Most people who know me know this is my favorite record of all time. I had to choose one.
10. Modern English - Melt With You (After the Snow - 1983)
The song that sums up all my 1980s experiences - and probably yours too? This song is timeless - despite the frequent appearances in television commercials etc.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Rob succumbs. Again.
In an effort to be fully compliant, I admitted several years ago that I was not an iPod owner and then when I got one, I gave full disclosure. Same goes for Facebook. I was not using it, resisting using, very happy with LinkedIn etc. Then I started working on Facebook applications and suddenly I needed to be on Facebook. For the articles - as it were.
Long story short, I have been using it for a few months now and I am hooked. I have communicated with friends I haven't spoken to since high school and college. I went from a few friends to a lot of friends - and I mean friends. These are people I genuinely am friendly with. I have a distaste for people on LinkedIn (and probably Facebook too) that have hundreds and thousands of connections. Honestly - what do you do with all those people? I have almost 400 connections on LinkedIn and I think that is too many. How someone can have 4,000 is beyond me. The tools to find and contact people on LinkedIn just aren't there yet. maybe I need to be patient.
Facebook on the other hand has tremendous tools and applications. I created a page for my band, for the record store I used to work at in college and became a fan of several artists I like. Dig it.
Long story short, I have been using it for a few months now and I am hooked. I have communicated with friends I haven't spoken to since high school and college. I went from a few friends to a lot of friends - and I mean friends. These are people I genuinely am friendly with. I have a distaste for people on LinkedIn (and probably Facebook too) that have hundreds and thousands of connections. Honestly - what do you do with all those people? I have almost 400 connections on LinkedIn and I think that is too many. How someone can have 4,000 is beyond me. The tools to find and contact people on LinkedIn just aren't there yet. maybe I need to be patient.
Facebook on the other hand has tremendous tools and applications. I created a page for my band, for the record store I used to work at in college and became a fan of several artists I like. Dig it.
Monday, November 05, 2007
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America
Why have I become obsessed with The Hold Steady? Is it because they are a band of guys on the far north side of 30 who rock out? Is it that their songs "speak to me?" Craig Finn and his crew from Brooklyn (by way of Minneapolis) write songs that repeat phrases like "kicking it," "separate trips," "getting high" and other staples of high school life. Or are they?
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America (2006) takes its title from a Jack Kerouac reference that somehow winds its way to Minneapolis and John Berryman. The songs are amateur sociology at its finest: girls, drunken escapades, winning at the track, taking drugs at an outdoor concert and that staple of everyone's teen years: the all-ages hardcore matinee show. And girls. The endless girls vs. boys allusions carry every song to a peak that leaves you wondering what you did wrong.
Beyond the epic quality of the lyrics, the songs are musically very Springsteen in their construction. Most of the songs have two if not three distinct parts - not just your typical whole note modulation but key changes and resolutions that make you want to cry because you didn't write them. Pure freaking genius.
This is the third full-length from The Hold Steady - released in October 2006. An updated Special Edition will be released in the UK on November 12 (next week) that includes second CD with 8 live tracks. Previous releases include The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me (2004) and their "concept album" The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday(2005).
The Hold Steady will be playing in NYC on November 21 at Terminal 5. See you there. Man.
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America (2006) takes its title from a Jack Kerouac reference that somehow winds its way to Minneapolis and John Berryman. The songs are amateur sociology at its finest: girls, drunken escapades, winning at the track, taking drugs at an outdoor concert and that staple of everyone's teen years: the all-ages hardcore matinee show. And girls. The endless girls vs. boys allusions carry every song to a peak that leaves you wondering what you did wrong.
Beyond the epic quality of the lyrics, the songs are musically very Springsteen in their construction. Most of the songs have two if not three distinct parts - not just your typical whole note modulation but key changes and resolutions that make you want to cry because you didn't write them. Pure freaking genius.
This is the third full-length from The Hold Steady - released in October 2006. An updated Special Edition will be released in the UK on November 12 (next week) that includes second CD with 8 live tracks. Previous releases include The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me (2004) and their "concept album" The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday(2005).
The Hold Steady will be playing in NYC on November 21 at Terminal 5. See you there. Man.
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