Tuesday, November 4, 2014

i love evil

Morty.



I mean what is there to really say about Morton Feldman? A lot of things. American composer, BFF's with John Cage, changed the way people read and listen to music, thrived in obscurity, yeah, that Brooklyn boy that said FUCK Rachmaninov, I bet he did lines with Johnny while Webern's Symphony played in the background. How else can you stay awake for a six hour string quartet?

Still, something's to be said about this work, dedicated to Frank O'Hara in 1982 as a "thanks bro" for dedicating a poem to Morty himself called "Wind." Is this supposed to sound like wind? I mean, yeah, it sounds like wind, mainly because he only uses like two sentences of the original text. I like how he experiments with stereo sound. Where the audience is sitting matters- there exists a left right and center channel- you gotta be right in the middle of it to experience its full effect. His graphic score was organized into cells, where the performer is given specific approximations. The piece can last from between 45 minutes to almost two hours, depending on how fast the soprano decides to take it. When Joan la Barbara performed it first, it took almost 90 minutes. She practiced the fast spots to make the recording half the length. Here's what she thought of it.

I personally like the way that "snow falls" sounds like "narwhals" starting around 22:10.





There's a discussion about this piece tomorrow in Rogers Park moderated by the Morton Feldman Chamber Players founder and fellow Columbia alum, Andy Costello. I wanna go, but it's soooooo far.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

delicious

take all that heartbreak, put it in a food processor, add some salt and pepper to taste, maybe some serrano peppers and cumin, a little sugar, all the fixins, make it something you'd want to dip these chips into:

1. the way he says "flower" in the bridge of the second verse




2. the "conversation" in the beginning, and conversions of like-minded souls at bars on dearborn



3. when the beat kicks in



4. the candid non-seriousness that adds to the tiredness of this song



5. at 1:24, where you're left suspended in mid-air, gasping over the horizon, waiting and questioning the inevitable sweet release of everything beautiful about this whole world


sometimes you have to puke out your guts to stay hungry.





Sunday, January 19, 2014

My Favorite Bass Lines of 2013

I meant to post this before it became 2014. Oh well.
I listened to a lot of Arcade Fire last year.
I saw Atoms for Peace twice.
Nope, three times.
I saw Sigur Ros twice.
I solidified my flirtatious little lover's tryst with dance music. Not necessarily dance music. I'd say house music.
Matt Berninger wore my Blackhawks hat in Milwaukee.
And honestly didn't really write any music in 2013.
It reminds me of a conversation I once had with female extraordinare, Aviva Jaye. Words and music are two completely different things, and to marry them is a delicate art; for the precise musician, I mean, you just can't settle for okay.
I started performing my poetry in 2013, and subconsciously, it was the solution to this quicksand sorta problem.
Bass lines have nothing and everything to do with this. So, here are my favorite, or most accessible at this time of me being drunk, bass lines of 2013.


5. Cage the Elephant - Take it or Leave it

I don't know nothin about this band.



4. Cut Copy - In Memory Capsule

I gave Cut Copy a chance and it left me dancing. I just love the feel Daniel brings to a simple, beautiful track. So sad you can't see him in any of this video.



3. Arcade Fire - You Already Know

Reflector is my way of pretending James Murphy came out with an album last year. Some really, really great stuff. I love it all. The costumes, the walking bass line, the precision, the weirdness that isn't so weird, the living fantasy of an artist's nourished intentions, all of it.



2. Strawberry Girls - Agua Verde

This is mainly, like 72% because of my favorite narcissist of 2013, Zac Garren. Who knew Dance Gavin Dance's merch boy could whip up a gem like this?



1. Atoms for Peace - Before Your Very Eyes (live)

When Gina and I saw them at the Daily Show, Thom said he wanted to tour with Flea because he plays the bass like a melodic instrument.

THIS version. Shit gets real around 4:50. Flea pretty much stole the year. I had the most fun watching him beat the fuck out of the bass.




Next: New York City.



Friday, January 3, 2014

in retrospect...

yeah. i suck.

i will say, though, the muses filed out of my skin like little G.I. Joe characters digging through the mud into the always forgiving arms of spoken word. 2013 was all about the severe (and i mean severed) disfigurement of the notion that denotation destroys art's purity, in the sense of, well, my favorite one. hearing. 

it's that little corner where you have to climb onto (never end a sentence with a preposition but)

you know, it's kinda hard. at some point you just have to get used to your own version of sociopathy.



you hold your desires in your hand because fear outweighs all the bullshit ideals you'll ever think you never had in the first place.