I am still bummed out of my mind over yesterday. *sigh*
I no longer feel an overpowering urge to attack her boyfriend, whomever he is, but I sure as hell hope he realizes (and deserves) what he has.
As far as "depression" music goes, I cannot conceive anything better than Godspeed You Black Emperor!. With a name fit for the blackest of death metal bands, GYBE! is actually a moody chamber-rock ensemble from Montreal. Their Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada EP is fascinating. The opening track "Moya" is 10 minutes and 51 seconds of absolutely perfect music to sulk to.
A few CDs arrived in the mail today:
Cul de Sac - Ecim
Xaal - On The Way
Ange - Au-Dela Du Delire
Can someone explain to me what exactly the super high appeal of Squarepusher is? I mean, I recognize that Squarepusher is electronica with a jazz influence, but at the same time, Hard Normal Daddy still seems to sink into boring "techno" realms too often. Maybe some more listening time is in order, but so far my experience has been only fleeting moments of enjoyment.
Saturday, March 17
Friday, March 16
A cute girl broke this poor ol' heart today by already having a boyfriend.
Thus, in order to remove my mind from it's current funk (i.e. wanting to slay her boyfriend), I decided to finally make my BMG jazz order.
Soon* on it's way from BMG:
John Coltrane - The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (4 CDs)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch
I'm also preparing another BMG account, under a family member's name. As soon as the first account gets "activated", I'll submit for the second. Most likely to be included in the second order are:
Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (4 CDs)
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
Ornette Coleman - The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
On an unrelated side note, I just listened to Bozzio Levin Stevens - Black Light Syndrome, and for probably the first time, it didn't seem to be 20 minutes too long. A review of the album I'm working on currently contains the line, "The album does outstay it's welcome a bit... there's just not quite enough ideas here to sustain 67 minutes of intent listening - at least from me." I wasn't listening very intently to it this time, but I sure did enjoy it in my somewhat passive listening state. I may have to edit that line of the review, but then again, I possibly still might find the album overlong if I listen closely. I'll probably listen to the album again tomorrow, because I'm quite curious about this new reaction to the disc.
A couple of CDs also arrived in the mail today:
Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste
Ui - The Iron Apple EP
Both were mentioned a couple of days ago, so no need to rehash the story behind these. :)
* - "soon" is a poor term to use when referring to BMG. The CDs "should arrive in 3-4 weeks" according to the BMG website. That's long enough, but the truth is, I expect it to be closer to 6 weeks. These guys just aren't very swift at all. Which is ironic considering how much they charge for shipping (of course, their shipping charges is where they make up a lot of the money from these "free" CDs).
Thus, in order to remove my mind from it's current funk (i.e. wanting to slay her boyfriend), I decided to finally make my BMG jazz order.
Soon* on it's way from BMG:
John Coltrane - The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings (4 CDs)
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch
I'm also preparing another BMG account, under a family member's name. As soon as the first account gets "activated", I'll submit for the second. Most likely to be included in the second order are:
Miles Davis - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions (4 CDs)
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
Ornette Coleman - The Shape Of Jazz To Come
Charles Mingus - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
On an unrelated side note, I just listened to Bozzio Levin Stevens - Black Light Syndrome, and for probably the first time, it didn't seem to be 20 minutes too long. A review of the album I'm working on currently contains the line, "The album does outstay it's welcome a bit... there's just not quite enough ideas here to sustain 67 minutes of intent listening - at least from me." I wasn't listening very intently to it this time, but I sure did enjoy it in my somewhat passive listening state. I may have to edit that line of the review, but then again, I possibly still might find the album overlong if I listen closely. I'll probably listen to the album again tomorrow, because I'm quite curious about this new reaction to the disc.
A couple of CDs also arrived in the mail today:
Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste
Ui - The Iron Apple EP
Both were mentioned a couple of days ago, so no need to rehash the story behind these. :)
* - "soon" is a poor term to use when referring to BMG. The CDs "should arrive in 3-4 weeks" according to the BMG website. That's long enough, but the truth is, I expect it to be closer to 6 weeks. These guys just aren't very swift at all. Which is ironic considering how much they charge for shipping (of course, their shipping charges is where they make up a lot of the money from these "free" CDs).
Wednesday, March 14
I'm messing around with the "look" of this blog. I'm far from satisfied at this point, but I don't have a lot of time to experiment around with different looks. So the visual evolution of the blog will be an ongoing process.
In the CD player:
Runaway Totem - Andromeda
Tortoise - Standards
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Sonic Geology
Azigza - Azigza
Isotope 217° - The Unstable Molecule
Runaway Totem is pretty enjoyable. Word is that Universal Totem Orchestra's album is similar but even better, thus elevating it to a high point on my wantlist.
I have been scoping out concert schedules, and I think that in the next few months, I can see Low, Present, Tortoise, and Sigur Rós. I hope to catch at least two of those.
In the CD player:
Runaway Totem - Andromeda
Tortoise - Standards
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - Sonic Geology
Azigza - Azigza
Isotope 217° - The Unstable Molecule
Runaway Totem is pretty enjoyable. Word is that Universal Totem Orchestra's album is similar but even better, thus elevating it to a high point on my wantlist.
I have been scoping out concert schedules, and I think that in the next few months, I can see Low, Present, Tortoise, and Sigur Rós. I hope to catch at least two of those.
Monday, March 12
Currently listening to Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane - Monk/Trane. It's becoming obvious to me that I'm going to need to spend quite a bit more time listening to jazz before I can sufficiently form opinions on any. With "rock" music, even in it's most extreme forms (punk/metal on one end of the spectrum, prog/"avant rock" on the other), I have a solid enough base to form some decent opinions. But with jazz, it's clear that I'm wholly unprepared to make any decisions regarding quality. I don't know if this Monk/Trane is kicking ass or if it's totally pedestrian. My ears are so caught up in trying to discern the most basic of elements that I'm not able to recognize, understand, or appreciate the subtleties that make Monk and Coltrane "great".
Not that understanding the "greatness" of some progressive rock bands came easily. But jazz is just unexplored territory for me. Even "classical" is not so hard for me, partly due to the fact that I took two semesters of a music history course, and was exposed to a great deal of "classical" music. This class dealt with jazz as well, but only at the end of the second semester and not for a very long period of time (it wasn't a knock against jazz by the instructor, but merely a result of the fact that he had to cover over a thousand years of music in only two semesters).
I definitely have an interest in jazz, though. Free jazz will probably prove to be the easiest for me to get into, oddly enough. I'm already into "fusion", so to speak, thanks to the progressive rock community taking fusion under it's wing (as opposed to the jazz community that shunned it in the '70s - I don't know about now, as I'm not up to speed on the jazz community).
When I consider how much music I want to listen to, I take comfort in the fact that I'm only 20. Just scanning Gnosis (http://www.gnosis2000.net) is mind-boggling. Tons of obscure albums, many of which meet or exceed the quality of the less obscure ones. If I were to name my favorite progrock albums, there would be virtually no correlation between the album's obscurity and it's rank on my list. A Yes and a Crimson album would be represented somewhere in my top list, and probably Gentle Giant as well (depending on how large the list was). Then some slightly-obscure bands like Banco and Kenso would be found. Then, some very obscure bands like Atavism of Twilight and Dün (both of whom released one album in their careers, which has since been given only a small CD re-pressing) would get listed.
So, there's tons of progressive rock I want. Post-rock is also taking up a lot of my time, and who knows what will become of this movement in the future (maybe it will get a proper genre title, but the continuing Krautrock influence on new "art/avant indie rock" bands will no doubt lead to even more interesting music in the future, even if it doesn't immediately resemble post-rock). And then there's jazz and classical. Sheesh! I talked to Mike McLatchey (Exposé writer, Gnosis project guru, and all-around prog superfan) recently in the rec.music.progressive IRC chatroom that I started and help maintain, and McLatchey mentioned that he dare not get into classical music just because of the sheer volume of music... it would throw too large of a load on top of his already too large load. It's not that he's not interested, but there's just not enough time.
I'm lucky to be getting started in this Internet generation. Resources like Gnosis give me information that prog fans in the '70s could only have dreamed of. Lots of new rec.music.progressive members are people that listened to Yes and Gentle Giant in the '70s but didn't know about all these other bands "like them". Thanks to the myriad of progrock resources online, I won't spend 10-20 years listening to a limited catalog. I already have more (and more obscure) stuff than quite a few people that call themselves "prog fans". I can only imagine what I'll have in 10 years. My future career as a software designer will only help - people who sit at desks 8 hours a day tend to listen to a *lot* of music, especially if they're music collectors.
I figure if I can continue my pursued course in prog explorations, keep my eyes open to new "avant rock" movements, and hit the high notes and the "second tier" of jazz and classical, I can die a happy music buff. I'll need an afterlife to listen to everything that I want to, though. :)
Not that understanding the "greatness" of some progressive rock bands came easily. But jazz is just unexplored territory for me. Even "classical" is not so hard for me, partly due to the fact that I took two semesters of a music history course, and was exposed to a great deal of "classical" music. This class dealt with jazz as well, but only at the end of the second semester and not for a very long period of time (it wasn't a knock against jazz by the instructor, but merely a result of the fact that he had to cover over a thousand years of music in only two semesters).
I definitely have an interest in jazz, though. Free jazz will probably prove to be the easiest for me to get into, oddly enough. I'm already into "fusion", so to speak, thanks to the progressive rock community taking fusion under it's wing (as opposed to the jazz community that shunned it in the '70s - I don't know about now, as I'm not up to speed on the jazz community).
When I consider how much music I want to listen to, I take comfort in the fact that I'm only 20. Just scanning Gnosis (http://www.gnosis2000.net) is mind-boggling. Tons of obscure albums, many of which meet or exceed the quality of the less obscure ones. If I were to name my favorite progrock albums, there would be virtually no correlation between the album's obscurity and it's rank on my list. A Yes and a Crimson album would be represented somewhere in my top list, and probably Gentle Giant as well (depending on how large the list was). Then some slightly-obscure bands like Banco and Kenso would be found. Then, some very obscure bands like Atavism of Twilight and Dün (both of whom released one album in their careers, which has since been given only a small CD re-pressing) would get listed.
So, there's tons of progressive rock I want. Post-rock is also taking up a lot of my time, and who knows what will become of this movement in the future (maybe it will get a proper genre title, but the continuing Krautrock influence on new "art/avant indie rock" bands will no doubt lead to even more interesting music in the future, even if it doesn't immediately resemble post-rock). And then there's jazz and classical. Sheesh! I talked to Mike McLatchey (Exposé writer, Gnosis project guru, and all-around prog superfan) recently in the rec.music.progressive IRC chatroom that I started and help maintain, and McLatchey mentioned that he dare not get into classical music just because of the sheer volume of music... it would throw too large of a load on top of his already too large load. It's not that he's not interested, but there's just not enough time.
I'm lucky to be getting started in this Internet generation. Resources like Gnosis give me information that prog fans in the '70s could only have dreamed of. Lots of new rec.music.progressive members are people that listened to Yes and Gentle Giant in the '70s but didn't know about all these other bands "like them". Thanks to the myriad of progrock resources online, I won't spend 10-20 years listening to a limited catalog. I already have more (and more obscure) stuff than quite a few people that call themselves "prog fans". I can only imagine what I'll have in 10 years. My future career as a software designer will only help - people who sit at desks 8 hours a day tend to listen to a *lot* of music, especially if they're music collectors.
I figure if I can continue my pursued course in prog explorations, keep my eyes open to new "avant rock" movements, and hit the high notes and the "second tier" of jazz and classical, I can die a happy music buff. I'll need an afterlife to listen to everything that I want to, though. :)
Digging through all those new vinyls and CDs that I bought. I just ordered 5 more CDs and an LP (thanks to a CDNow gift certificate birthday present and some good used stuff at Half.com).
Soon to arrive in the mail:
Ange - Au-Dela Du Delire
Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste
Uz Jsme Doma - Ears
Mogwai - Ten Rapid
Ui - The Iron Apple EP
FM - Black Noise (used LP - 99 cents from Half.com)
Those first two CDs are among the top 100 rated albums at Gnosis (http://www.gnosis2000.net). I'll have the whole top 100 eventually (save the ones that are out-of-print). The Uz Jsme Doma is... I dunno. I've heard good things about UJD, but I've not heard them myself. But for $6.99, it's hard to ignore the praise. The Mogwai and Ui add to my building "post-rock" collection (which will be further bolstered with an order from Kranky and Constellation Records in the near future). And the FM is a prog album that I almost bought the CD of from CDNow (but the general consensus opinion is that it's not as good as the other things I bought). When I stumbled onto the vinyl for 99 cents at Half.com, I was quite glad I didn't buy the CD.
Playlist:
Brand X - Product
King Crimson - Lizard
Kansas - Song For America
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
PFM - Cook
Höstsonaten - Mirrorgames
Fly Pan Am - Fly Pan Am
Höstsonaten is such a flirt. The album keeps acting like it's going to be really good, and then stumbles a bit. It's a little frustrating because it could be so much better. Höstsonaten is a side-project of Finisterre's, so maybe I should look info Finisterre. A couple of their albums are supposed to be really good.
Fly Pan Am will probably be included in my Constellation order (which I'll likely make later this week). I need to listen to the MP3s more, but it seems pretty good. One track goes on for entirely too long, though (I believe the third, which eclipses 17 minutes despite not having quite enough interesting material to sustain that long period of time).
It's weird listening to PFM in English (on Cook, a live album recorded from US/Canada shows in 1974). I much prefer them in their native Italian. I've avoided "English versions" of Italian albums, due to the overriding consensus that these albums are typically inferior to their native Italian counterparts (and due to the fact that I have no ridiculous "must be in English!" bias). In fact, that brings us back to the Höstsonaten album, which is sung in English (Finisterre usually sings in Italian). The vocals are OK most of the time, but there are those moments when it's clear that these guys aren't native English speakers. Those moments are annoying and detract from the overall listening experience. The fact that the Finisterre albums aren't in English (and thus avoids one of Mirrorgames's pitfalls) is further motivation to pick one up.
Brand X is interesting. When I first became a progrock fan, it was a shock to learn that Phil Collins (*the* Phil Collins) used to play in a band like Genesis (and I mean the '70s art-rock version with Peter Gabriel on vocals, not the '80s/'90s pop band that mirrored Collins's solo career). It's even more shocking to hear Collins in Brand X, a fusion (jazz-rock) band. This is even less related to "pop" than Genesis (which still turned out a few singles despite not focusing on that sort of pursuit). It's a pretty decent album, despite being only the 5th highest rated (out of 9) at Gnosis. I hear that some of their earlier material smokes, so I'll keep an eye out for those. I think I might have seen a different Brand X LP at the store I bought this one from. I'll look closely for that next time.
Soon to arrive in the mail:
Ange - Au-Dela Du Delire
Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste
Uz Jsme Doma - Ears
Mogwai - Ten Rapid
Ui - The Iron Apple EP
FM - Black Noise (used LP - 99 cents from Half.com)
Those first two CDs are among the top 100 rated albums at Gnosis (http://www.gnosis2000.net). I'll have the whole top 100 eventually (save the ones that are out-of-print). The Uz Jsme Doma is... I dunno. I've heard good things about UJD, but I've not heard them myself. But for $6.99, it's hard to ignore the praise. The Mogwai and Ui add to my building "post-rock" collection (which will be further bolstered with an order from Kranky and Constellation Records in the near future). And the FM is a prog album that I almost bought the CD of from CDNow (but the general consensus opinion is that it's not as good as the other things I bought). When I stumbled onto the vinyl for 99 cents at Half.com, I was quite glad I didn't buy the CD.
Playlist:
Brand X - Product
King Crimson - Lizard
Kansas - Song For America
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
PFM - Cook
Höstsonaten - Mirrorgames
Fly Pan Am - Fly Pan Am
Höstsonaten is such a flirt. The album keeps acting like it's going to be really good, and then stumbles a bit. It's a little frustrating because it could be so much better. Höstsonaten is a side-project of Finisterre's, so maybe I should look info Finisterre. A couple of their albums are supposed to be really good.
Fly Pan Am will probably be included in my Constellation order (which I'll likely make later this week). I need to listen to the MP3s more, but it seems pretty good. One track goes on for entirely too long, though (I believe the third, which eclipses 17 minutes despite not having quite enough interesting material to sustain that long period of time).
It's weird listening to PFM in English (on Cook, a live album recorded from US/Canada shows in 1974). I much prefer them in their native Italian. I've avoided "English versions" of Italian albums, due to the overriding consensus that these albums are typically inferior to their native Italian counterparts (and due to the fact that I have no ridiculous "must be in English!" bias). In fact, that brings us back to the Höstsonaten album, which is sung in English (Finisterre usually sings in Italian). The vocals are OK most of the time, but there are those moments when it's clear that these guys aren't native English speakers. Those moments are annoying and detract from the overall listening experience. The fact that the Finisterre albums aren't in English (and thus avoids one of Mirrorgames's pitfalls) is further motivation to pick one up.
Brand X is interesting. When I first became a progrock fan, it was a shock to learn that Phil Collins (*the* Phil Collins) used to play in a band like Genesis (and I mean the '70s art-rock version with Peter Gabriel on vocals, not the '80s/'90s pop band that mirrored Collins's solo career). It's even more shocking to hear Collins in Brand X, a fusion (jazz-rock) band. This is even less related to "pop" than Genesis (which still turned out a few singles despite not focusing on that sort of pursuit). It's a pretty decent album, despite being only the 5th highest rated (out of 9) at Gnosis. I hear that some of their earlier material smokes, so I'll keep an eye out for those. I think I might have seen a different Brand X LP at the store I bought this one from. I'll look closely for that next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)