220222

220222, originally uploaded by madduane.

Chinese Whistle & Drum Toy

Chinese Whistle & Drum Toy, originally uploaded by madduane.

fwiw

I posted a new song at macidol. I got this chinese toy whistle that also has a drum and made a song using it as the only sound. I toned it down some in the mix -- added some distortion, left it pretty dry, but darkened the tone some. The toy is designed to be loud & piercing and to stand up to the way little kids treat such things, but I also find it a beautiful object. I will link to photos of it from flicker later.

Does Anybody Know...

Of music, art, film, etc. made by youthful (say, in their twenties) artists currently that is vital, well made, sincere, not celebrity-obsessed, not status-quo upholding, fun, positive, meaningful, poetic, subversive...

In other words, are the youth of today making art? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. I'm kind of despairing at the moment. Everything I'm seeing seems like recycled fashion magazine fodder. No new ideas. No thought for the future. No imagining of anything that doesn't already exist.

Show me something, please. I need to know it's out there.

Michael Rother, my favorite guitarist

Michael Rother, my favorite guitarist, originally uploaded by madduane.

Here's a video of him playing live a year ago this week, in collaboration with former fellow Harmonia member (and Cluster member) Dieter Moebius.

Twilight Walk 10/11/08

I've been realizing lately that I like taking pictures in low light. My camera does really interesting things with light, I think, and there's something about twilight (magic hour) that just makes me feel like I'm on another planet. These three shots were taken the same night.

1.)


2.)


3.)

Magic Hour 10/30/08

Magic Hour 10/30/08 #5, originally uploaded by madduane.

I think I was fortunate to find the exact best moment for leaves in my neighborhood...

Bô

Bô, originally uploaded by gertrudramones.

this is the lead singer of Naive New Beaters, who I blogged about below.

One thing that annoys me about this blog template is that it is not quite big enough to show photos at normal size without cutting off the right edge. I'll try to figure out how to fix that soon...

Naive New Beaters

So, I have a contact at flickr who takes pictures of electronica concerts in (I think) Paris, named Gertrudramones. I like her photos, she's good at capturing the excitement of a good concert, gets shots with lots of wild colors... And most of the bands she photographs are new to me. I'll see something in her photostream that looks interesting & go check it out & I am almost never dissapointed. Latest example is Naive New Beaters, who have a couple of really interesting videos up at youtube, including the example I've posted here.

John McCain is so Suave

Jux

"I'm For Fighting"

Sent to me by Karen. I think the puppet itself is kinda brilliant!

I Keep Waiting

My friend Peter has a bunch of whacky noise music he recorded over a mess o' years, mostly in the '80s and into the '90s. Really unique stuff. It should be here, but as you can see on the flip, he's got everything pulled down to "remix".

I should maybe take a little blame for that. I convinced him that garageband is easy to use, so I think he's really going back and remixing everything in GB. I hope it comes back someday. I miss "Lenny, Lenny", and Sludge Mountain, and bunches of other stuff he's done.

Truly, Pete is one of my favorite people, much less one of my favorite musicians.

Jessica Simpson -- Two Tracks From Do You Know

I am a cheesehead.

I admit that from the start. I love Abba. I love Will Smith movies. I like Dixie Chicks, especially Home.

But I am not into celebutards. Oh, no. Not me. Except that a couple of 'em might be growing up to be kinda cool. I loved that Paris Hilton for President video.

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

I also have to admit I am loving the two tracks I've heard from Jessica Simpson's "new country" album. I am afraid to buy the whole thing, but maybe over time, I'll grab some more, because the two I've got are pretty great. I first downloaded Sipping on History, because I loved the title and because it was the least popular track. I figured if I was going to like anything on the record, that would be my best bet. The preview was very nice, having kinda a six-eight swing and some very cool guitar sounds, and really tasty pedal steel. Hearing the whole track was slightly less satisfying. At the start of verse one she compares herself to June Carter Cash. I thought that a little bit presumptuous, especially as written, but as the track progressed, I found it to be an engaging enough song for me to try a second track. I picked the most popular track, Come On Over. More of a stomper, this one echoes all those seventies chanteuses like Loretta and Lynn. So far, the public is right, this one is definitely a keeper.

Barack Obama on the Current Economic Crisis

This is yet another issue that Obama has been way ahead on (warning against the crisis we're currently facing as early as February 2007), and that McCain still hasn't caught up to.

Saucerful of Secrets

I'm listening to SOS and thinking about how much I love it. It's my favorite Richard Wright record. It has his song "Remember a Day" on it, which is my favorite Floyd tune. They were breaking in a new guitarist (who aquitted himself very well, thank you) but because he was the new guy, this was a chance for Wright to fill a lot of space, and he absolutely rises to the occasion. I love the organ sound in "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun". The whole album is wonderful.

I don't know many stories about Pink Floyd. I can give impressions, things I thought about them at various phases in their career. The first album is cool. I love all the Syd Barrett stuff. But I think they got better after Syd left. The whole period before they got stupid famous is to varying degrees wonderful, odd, humorous, freaky, spooky, and fun. I loved their sense of melody, and I loved the way Roger Waters played bass. One of the big distinctions of early Floyd is that Waters played a lot more than he did on the later records.

I think Dark Side of the Moon is their absolute worst album (in large part because it's so soporific) and I'm no fan of The Wall, either. But Obscured by Clouds, which is the first album in their later, more morose style, is actually a great record, imo.

But I count Saucerful both Wright's finest moment and Floyd's best record.

Damn it! John McCain took my advice!

Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, originally uploaded by J Medkeff.

That guy is such a "maverick".

Edit: If McCain gets elected & dies in office, this is who he expects to be able to run this country.

Say yer prayers, folks.

Edit 2: Did you notice that the Palin pin is bigger than the sparkly flag pin? Do you think that means anything?

Latest Bad Political Idea

I think Barack should pick Jaime Pressly as his running mate.



Sorry, no explanation is forthcoming. It just seems like the last 10 minutes where you could possibly suggest that obscure but brilliant name no one else is thinking.

Something Live Podcast

My friend PJ Shapiro does a podcast called Something Live. Once a month he compiles a "greatest hits" of the Cantab open mike (hosted by the inimitable and intrepid Geoff Bartley), does an interview with an artist and records performances of two of their songs for an mp3 podcast. There are lots of really gemmy performances in these podcasts, from songwriters you've probably never heard of. The new one is just up -- fifth one; front to back awesome as is every installment in the series.

Talkin' 'Bout Summa My Fave Elpees

This is actually just me testing out my camera for making videos. Next, I need to figure out how to make iMovie do what I want it to. I think there is probably more of me talking about my record collection coming.

My Most Recent Song

Came out pretty well! Here's a link (works best for macs): Life On The Line. Hope you like it!

What the Frak is Going On?

Galactica is probably my favorite television show ever. It's Space Opera, with a capital "O", but it's very human scaled at the same time.

I am continually amazed that they were able to whittle the late 70s bombastic Glen Larson albatross down to a beautiful, story-driven show about the power of love.



Here is a short film recapping the first 3 seasons, hitting all the major arcs of the show, in 8 minutes. It's very compressed, as indicated by the sped-up narrator, but it is amazingly mostly there. All you're missing is the details.

Rachel Maddow is Brilliant

The fact is, though, that she is just professional and organized and remembers recent political events well. Some of this stuff seems so obvious when she reports it. She just does the thing we all should be doing -- paying attention.

This is F'in Genius

A lovely song about Bob Barr... Seen on samsedershow.com.

Beetle Bokeh, Spectacle Island

This little guy just flew up to me as I was sitting on a bench near the summit of the south drumlin of Boston's great midden, better known as Spectacle Island. If you're ever given the opportunity, you really ought to go see the sights at Spectacle Island...

Flower Blur 2

This one is from a series of intentionally blurred photos I did over the same weekend as the previous entry. It was a really bright day out, and nearly noon, so shadows were really stark. These little flowers were sitting in deep shadow, but I noticed they were picking up every bit of light that was coming their way. In the series is a photo I took of these same flowers, but without the blur. You can barely see them. It was only when I lengthened the exposure and started moving the camera around that their amazing blue color comes up.

Trollshot 2

Taken over Memorial Day weekend. We took the Harbor tour out to Spectacle Island. Really beautiful out there. I have a lot of pictures I like from this set. I'll post a few of them

Jobriath

This guy tanked, and if ya hear of him at all, you hear of him as a joke. Gotta say though: Though he owes a huge amount to David Bowie, I think he's got his own musicality and a nice Lou-meets-Mick style to him. Wish I'd known about him back in the day. This was right up my alley, taste-wise.

The other thing about him is that he was the first openly gay national rock act. With a $500,000 (mid-seventies, US dollars: probably multiple millions today) record deal. They got him everywhere you got a rock act in those days, media-wise. People really wanted this to work, but it was way too much, way too soon for this neanderthal country. And the Bowie thing did hurt him. Died of complications due to aids in 1983, but he was out of rock 'n' roll long before that.

O Nothin (polerticks)

The way it's done is this: Children walk up to the escalator, wave their hands in the air and yell "Pomade!" Never really does much, but it does reshape the metal lining the ventilator ducts, but only on a molecular level.

Yah, Gibson, Yaaahhh!

Cool little song by Soulja Boy. It's not a pure rhyme, but it's close, and ya gotta love the scan -- preposterous / Stephanopolis...

Creepy admission of the day

This morning I imagined myself with the same hairstyle as those women from the flds church in Texas.

Bill Plays the Abbey Lounge this Thursday

Bill is a band. Bill's lead singer, Bill, is my friend John's brother. John has been playing and recording with Bill for over 20 years, and they've released 2 albums. Here's a video for the song Steve Pepper:



I love Bill's music, and I will be attending this show. Maybe I'll see some of you there?

Hillary's Words, This Time.

I originally wasn't going to comment on these, but I feel I should. I chose an example where I feel she used poor judgement at a really crucial time. I suppose that shows me to be an Obama supporter, (I am), but the fact is that I find much to appreciate about her speech, even though I so completely disagree with her conclusion. I can believe that she thought what she said was true. That said, you can see her intelligence, her consideration, that she's trying to do right. In the end, she says she will support Bush (eeg), but you understand why she did it.

Hillary Clinton's address on the Senate Floor for the Iraq War Resolution, Part 1



Hillary Clinton's address on the Senate Floor for the Iraq War Resolution, Part 2



Hillary Clinton at the DNC Winter Meeting, 2007.



This is Hillary in top form, early in the campaign, before the big mud storm. Here, she states that were she president in 2003, she wouldn't have gone into Iraq, which I appreciate, but the way she presents the information just kinda slides right by the Senate Speech above.

I like Hillary. If somehow she won the nomination, I would support her.

But it would be support qualified by her lapse in judgement.

Let Me Be the 10,000th

to post this video. Such an amazing speech. I got more out of it the second time I listened to it. I appreciate Obama's ability to see the race issue from two sides of the divide, and both from a very personal viewpoint, and I was struck that he sees race as a familial issue, which of course it is.

The Big Come Up

This is the first full-length from The Black Keys from Akron, Ohio. I am currently somewhat obsessed with this band. They are a two-piece blues/indie rock hybrid that manages to stay true to both impulses simultaneously. The thing that first won me over about them is a song from their third full-length CD Rubber Factory Stack Shot Billy, which is a stripped-down rewrite of the traditional blues song Stack-O-Lee.

The Big Come Up (2002) is their first full-length CD, and it does, indeed, rock. I hear tons of different influences, which I won't list here, but essentially this band sits comfortably in the tradition of blues rock. They're both great players, they know the blues. I look forward to tracing their evolution as a band. They have four more full lengths and a couple of ep's (one of which I have) and a brand new one in the pipe for April 1st. They're also playing at the Orpheum May 17th, but the show is sold out.

Maybe next time...

More Blue Stars

rObOtrOn

Natureb0t

This was in my links from a year or so ago. r0b0tr0n is a fairly prolific recordist who posts at my favorite music site on all the web, macidol.com. I guess I meant to call it out at the time – I’ll check to see if I ever did. I think it’s amazingly beautiful. Because I liked it so much, I went through and listened to four more of his tracks, and decided to write about them all.

Homegatr0n

Another lushly beautiful track. This is at the top of his jamroom right now, and well it should be. So seventies funk.

Blacksploitatr0n

This one, I think, contains a genuine recording of THE MAN. Also has a really cool bluebeat feel, for all you ska fans out there.

Spacey McFaceb0t

So, yeah, my means of picking what to listen to is what had an interesting title. Love this title. The beats are beauteous as well.

Ghidrab0t

I love the bit of dialogue at the beginning of this. Guest vocal by THE MAN again. This has samples from the Ghidra soundtrack, I think. I believe this means I must download his entire jamroom now.

What I did in February.

I took the RPM Challenge and failed.

But I feel really good about it! I reconnected with a bunch of different musician friends and made, I think, some great music. There's something about a collab with someone you know well but haven't worked with in a while. It almost always produces something great.

The reason I didn't finish is that the tracks were a little more detailed than they probably should have been for efficient completion. Last year I worked with a set instrumentation and a formatted recording approach, but this year, all that went out the window because I wanted to do mostly collaborations, and each song on the record is totally different. I'm still working on it. I have 3 more songs planned for the project, "sound collage" is going to get split in two, and I haven't decided if I'm replacing "Golden Burger", editing it, or leaving it as it is.

So anyway, here are links to the songs. They are all downloadable as 192kbps mp3s on the flip:

Patent Leather Robots Will Get Us First

This is a collab with P. J. Shapiro. I had originally envisioned it as chopped up into a single track of instrumentation and a single track of vocals, and I may get there yet, but as I've listened to and massaged the tracks, I'm hearing it very differetly now.

Turn Away, Yesterday

I love the whole idea of collaborating with someone I have never met, especially when it turns out this well. I think slumbering is awesome, and making this song together was a real treat for me. They say it's wrong to choose between your children, but... This one. This is the one...

Talkin' 'Bout Words

This was a really fun day. Susan, Karen, and I spent the whole day together, Malcolm, Susan and I came up with this recording and Susan and I did the next one down the list. TBW is full of very important information. Please study it carefully for the secret message.

Golden Burger of the Great Goddess Lakshmi

This is pure, in the moment improv. I played my lap dulcimer and Susan played banjo, perhaps for the first time, though it doesn't sound like it.

Medisin

is it 1978 again yet?

Sound Collage

this was fun to do. As I said, this will get split in two and placed at the beginning and end of the sequence.

Lost in the Woods

This collab with Josh Russell is probably the closest thing here to my 2007 CD for RPM, but it's also one of my faves of the record. Josh has studiously avoided getting hisself on the interwebs, so sorry, no link. But if you're ever in Damariscotta Maine, look him up!

Gee, that looks kinda cool, let's take a picture of it!

I had to test this whole bin full of pens the other day. I saw potential for some interesting photos in ithe resulting scribbles, so, since I pretty much carry my camera everywhere with me these days, I dragged it out & took a few shots. I've posted four of them at flickr.com: this is the one that's gotten the best response so far.

France Gall -- Ne sois pas si bête

I was turned on to France Gall by Henry from macidol.com. I am becoming a huge fan, and youtube is a treasure trove for her.

This one is lo fi but full of great cheezy sixties video effects, and some really cool lighting and editing. I really like the high close harmonies.



There is good later France Gall, too:


Also recommended: Francoise Hardy.