Crazy Noisy

back again

2006-02-06T16:14:00.000-05:00

so, it's been a very long time since my last post and to be honest i kinda thought this blogging thing was going to be over for me. but, hey. i'm giving it another go.

here's the rundown of what's happened to me over the last 5 months (in no particular order):

* got back from china
* my white bike got stolen
* my replacement bike broke down because it was a piece
* got a sweet track racing bike
* started racing
* got hit by a car and totaled my track bike (no permanent injuries!)
* still waiting form my replacement track bike to get off a boat from italy
* started a new band
* joined a new band
* quit drinking (just 'till v-day)
* quit smoking (hopefully forever)
* started lifting weights! (i know, this one scared me too)
* realized how bad i suck at being a corporate manager (ummmmmm yeeeeaaaahhhh)

well now that we're caught up i can start filling you all in with the mundane details of my daily life.

until then... rock on with your bad self.

in b-town

2005-08-21T04:00:00.000-04:00

just a little fyi for all of you that may not know already. i'm in beijing, china! i'm here visiting my brother who has been living here for the last year. it's crazy, he seems to be able to speak chinese very well. my body clock and my brain are so confused that i can't event tell if i landed yesterday or the day before. to get to china you have to fly over the international date line and i'm still trying to grock. i spent 24 hours in daylight the day i was flew and at some point crossed into the next day. well, i'll try to keep my posts regular with lots of pictures while i'm here.

oh, for some reason i can't view my own blog from here, so if the formatting is all funky, that's why.

hi dee ho

2005-08-07T12:36:00.000-04:00

all right. i know. i've been totally slacking on the blog this last week. i've been super busy- i promise. angus and i where in the studio (a.k.a the firey pits of hell) on friday and saturday. recording actually went very smoothly, but i think i lost about 10 lbs in sweat in the process. since we recorded everything live, i think we're going to be releasing this one soon (as soon as we can come up with the money to pay for duping).

anyhoo- i just ran across this fixie website and had to share it! i like it because it proves that i'm not that much of a bike geek (yet).

teeny-boppers beware

2005-07-29T11:23:00.000-04:00

check out this awesome glamour shot of me and angus. now that we have a real album to give people we are assembling a real press kit, one of the essential elements being a glam-shot. i think this one will tell the a&r guys over at warner bros that chamisa mesa is to be taken seriously.

p.s. got some new goods for ya'll today. freshly burned to the hi-md --> check it (it takes a few minutes to get going).

shameless...

2005-07-26T18:02:00.000-04:00

while qc had the camera out i couldn't let her get away without taking a picture of my bike! she made me take off my super cool cycling cap though.

unrelated, yet possibly interesting

2005-07-21T14:15:00.000-04:00

who would have thought that one of the earlier uses found for robots would be camel jockeying. apparently, it's true.

also, for all you jocks out there, this is a nice little app i ran across yesterday that uses google maps to track the distance you've walked (or biked, he he he ). it features a cool 'click marks the spot' ability that is very noticeably missing from the real google maps app. if sue and paul can do it, the guys over at google have no excuse, damnit.

and to change subject yet again. as further evidence of my increadably steap descent into cyclo-dork status, lay your eye's on my new cap.

antarctica the beautiful

2005-07-19T17:17:00.000-04:00

i'm doing everything i can to keep from passing out at work today. it's not because i'm tired, but because i'm between projects and have nothing to do. for a while, i was trying to occupy my time doing something that didn't appear like a complete waste of time. but by now i've given into surfing aimlessly on the 'information super highway'. i can't imagine how bad office jobs must have sucked before the internet. the picture displayed above is of antarctica, the continent with the highest IQ per capita, found here.

china and the eco cities

2005-07-18T11:17:00.000-04:00

i'm not sure how many of you know this, but i'm going to china this august. it's going to be my first trip off of the continent and i'm a little scared, but mostly very excited. my brother has been living there for the last 2 years so i'm making the trip before he has a chance to move back to the state without me visiting (i would feel like such a dumbass). well, now that i have china on the brain, i found this very interesting article on how china is commissioning this guy to build next-gen (and eco friendly) cities. very cool stuff! also, in the article is a reference to this app called 'google earth' that looks like it has tons of waste-time-at-work potential. check it yo!

infinite puzzle

2005-07-14T15:28:00.000-04:00

i've been quite sidetracked these days with moving and bikes and finding funny pictures on the web and- oh yeah... work, but i must remember the reason i started this whole blogging thing in the first place. the shameless self promotion of my music. on that note, i've got some very exciting news. after a gruelling 6 week wait our first REAL album, infinite puzzle, is hot off the presses!!!!!!!!!!!! please let me know if you're interested in getting a copy.

also, i've got some new tunes for you to listen to. this is some of our best music if you ask me and will most likely be included in our next album we're recording in august.

i want one.

2005-07-13T15:12:00.000-04:00

check this shit out. can someone explain to me how they are reversible?

protest picture

2005-07-11T13:39:00.000-04:00

this picture looks like it's straight out of william gibson's imagination... amazing. here's the actual context.

(i just noticed that on any computer other than the one i have at work, this picture looks pretty normal. my monitor at work is super dark, fine for coding, but not so good for seeing pictures accurately.)

yet another reason why fort green rocks!

2005-07-11T00:14:00.000-04:00

as some of you may already know, i've been having a bit of trouble with my bike lately. i managed to break the bolt on what i've learned is called the 'seat post collar'. it's basically the piece that keeps your seat at the right height while you ride, and as i realized riding to practice on friday, it's a very important piece indeed. while i was riding the seat gradually dropped down to the lowest possible height, leaving me to pedal lowrider style and leaving me with almost no pedaling power. anyway, i spent all last week going to bike shops after work and asking them to help me out, of course none of them did (not without helping me part with a little money in the process though). luckily on saturday i found a place about 7 or 8 block from my apartment that's fucking amazing. not only did they help me fix my bike, but they're super cool and nice to boot and the owner is called magic-mike for very empirical reasons. the photo is a picture of one of the bikes this shop, bicycle station, makes.

where's the soul?

2005-07-08T10:59:00.000-04:00

it's not even 11am yet and i've already found 2 tell tail signs of the apocalypse.

1) this motherfucking robot that plays guitar!

ok, so this thing obviously has good time. but where's the soul? ... i'm guessing somewhere behind those LEDs.

2) this... need i say more?

remixo master

2005-07-07T16:04:00.000-04:00

Our culture no longer bothers to use words like appropriation or borrowing to describe those very activities. Today's audience isn't listening at all - it's participating. Indeed, audience is as antique a term as record, the one archaically passive, the other archaically physical. The record, not the remix, is the anomaly today... The record industry, though it may not know it yet, has gone the way of the record

-- william gibson, sci-fi author extraordinare, quoted from this article.

i found this article very interesting and thought i'd share it with you all.

podlishious

2005-07-07T12:39:00.000-04:00

to continue exploring the potential of that new website blinkx, i entered in some of my favorite keywords...

1) robotranic
2) metal core
3) crazy noisy
4) amish rake fight

shocker!

2005-07-06T11:09:00.000-04:00

so, as usual, i spent some time reading my favorite news publication, new scientist and found that article on blinkx. blinkx is a search engine for podcasts and video online. of course i couldn't resist a little search for lightning bolt!

moving

2005-07-01T10:03:00.000-04:00

thank fucking god it's over! i climbed so many stairs yesterday, it's going to take a year for my puny office job legs to recover. now we just have to unpack, but that's the easy part. big props to my boyz angus and harris for helping out.

boom boom

2005-06-29T14:17:00.000-04:00

ok, so after so much talk, i've finally found a reasonably cheap way to bring my guitar rig to the great outdoors. yesterday, i was walking downtown to meet my friend harris for lunch and saw this guy playing a violin though some effects pedals. - "wait!", i said to myself, "effects?". so i ventured a little closer and saw that he was playing through what looked to be a cheap ass boombox. fucking genius! so, i'm totally stealing his idea and getting a boombox this weekend and with any luck, i'll be happily contributing to the noisy background of nyc.

daily schweetness [6/28/05]

2005-06-28T16:40:00.000-04:00

my boy, mo wiser, hooked me up with this old skool ditty. also, if you hunt around a bit you can find some cool houdini stuff.

crazy week

2005-06-28T01:17:00.000-04:00

things are really crazy for me this week, so i thought i'd enpart unto you a little bit of noisy.

storm trooper

2005-06-24T12:24:00.000-04:00

i found this cool picture here. also, i've got some music to accompany the picture.

emo stalker

2005-06-23T10:28:00.000-04:00

good morning, how do you do?. so... lately i've been putting keywords into google that i think my return interesting/funny results. yesterday i entered 'robotronix' that yielded that awesome robot dude website. this morning i entered 'metalcore' and what i found after a few clicks was some poor guys all too obvious attempt at appearing straight while scouring the web for pictures of cute little boys.

daily schweetness [6/22/05]

2005-06-22T13:47:00.000-04:00

what's the only thing cooler than a website devoted to the robot? this is damnit!!! -- p.s. make sure you have the sound on.

b a d d

2005-06-22T11:37:00.000-04:00

i'm realizing that my blog is losing it's focus. initially it was intended to be a music related blog, but now it's pretty much about any random shit i find interesting. which i think is fine, and honestly probably more interesting to you (i hope).

fallowing are some entirely unrelated, but possibly amusing things...

1) first of all here's some music for ya, it's an excerpt of some improvisation done during our last practice.

2) my friend ivan sent me this link the other day, challenging me to find a group of bigger dorks.

3) look out psp, your ass is about to get handed to you old skool style!!!

schweetness

2005-06-21T12:21:00.000-04:00

man, i have total blog envy. this guy has one of the coolest blogs i've ever seen.

-- oh yeah, check this out too.

photos of new mexico

2005-06-20T23:58:00.000-04:00

as promised, the photos of the trip to new mexico are here. thanks to quite contrarian for the slide show. btw- my dad's house is in some of those photos of the mountains.

graffiti music

2005-06-19T02:39:00.000-04:00

i've been thinking a lot about graffiti and the idea of subversive art in public spaces. playing music in public spaces seems to correlate very nicely. i'm not really talking about the whole subway musician thing, because that is mainly another form of pop music (playing music deliberately to get people to give you money). i'm talking about inserting music into the public environment. not meant to impress people, but merely there.

cycling to the bridge

2005-06-16T23:34:00.000-04:00

well... i'm still in new mexico. quite contrarian and i went to the gorge bridge today. the gorge bridge is a bridge that goes over a canyon in the desert just outside taos that's got to be about a thousand feet deep. quite contrarian was too scared to walk to the middle of the bridge. i will admit it is pretty fucking scary, especially because the whole bridge shakes when cars drive by. we've got pictures, but we can't get them onto the computer, so you'll just have to wait to see. i know it's hard, but you'll manage.

something that always comes as a bit of a surprise to me is the meditative quality of driving around these roads. they're all long and straight and you can really just get into a zone very easily. it's not like driving on the east coast (or the west coast either, for that matter) at all. anyway... while i was zoning out this afternoon i was thinking about the many cycles that are always in rotation in life, i know it sounds all hippy dippy and shit, but please just bare with me. the cycle of the seasons, the days, your moods, the good times and the bad times, the economy, etc. so, i was thinking about cycles and realized that music is in essence an expression of these cycles that we are always experiencing and the subtle differences of each iteration. i would like to start thinking of my music in this way at least. why the fuck not.

internet in the sticks

2005-06-16T00:24:00.000-04:00

tonight i'm signing in from my dads house in new mexico. after living in big cities for the last 9 years, all this open space seems so strange. i'll post some pictures later so you can get an idea of how remote my dads house really is. it's amazing to me that they even have internet out here, not to mention that it's a better connection than i get in brooklyn. they have this crazy satellite wireless thingy out here. as much as i love living in the bk, i must say it's really nice to get away.

in music related news. i've started putting together my thoughts on a few subjects. mostly related to experimentation in popular musical forms, but i'll have to get back to you on that when i have something actually interesting to say about it.

oh yeah- i totally miss my bike right now...

more bike stuff

2005-06-14T22:52:00.000-04:00

check out this badass motherfucker:

as i'm sure you've figured out, i just got a new bike. now that i've actually had some time to ride it, i have to say that i feel like i'm 10 years old again. i also can't believe that i've lived in nyc for 5 years with out one. brooklyn is so much smaller now! -- tons of thanks to martin for helping me find an awesome ride. -- check out this video... i know you love it.

bikes bikes bikes bikes bikes bikes

2005-06-13T15:00:00.000-04:00

here in nyc, the summer has definitely arrived and quite contrarian and i are moving to a new neighborhood at the end of the month, creating the perfect conditions necessary for me to justify buying a bike. something i've been wanting for a very long time. well, apparently all i needed was a little coaxing to drop some serious coin. this is the bike i got. i really wanted the steal frame but i found a store in manhattan that had the aluminum frame in my size and i figured it was either that or paying for the shipping, which i can only imagine being quite expensive. the bike weighs less than one of my cats!!! granted my cat xander is a massive beast weighing in at 21 lbs.

lo-fi electro funk

2005-06-12T01:19:00.000-04:00

still nothing to report that's incredibly interesting these days... the production of the chamisa mesa cd has been delayed, but angus has been on top of the problem so it's back on track now. i'm still SUPER excited about having 1000 copies to distribute around the world.

i've been working on a remix for my good friends purple crush which has lead to some unexpected material. i think they are expecting me to do some electronic styled thing, but my keyboard is on loan and all i have is an old windows machine and my guitar and bass to work with. so, i've been doing kind of a lo-fi rock mix. i shouldn't give too much away before i play it for them, because i'm sure they're going to be surprised.

for this post i'm going to give you an mp3 of naifian (the name for my electronic music), because this is probably what the purp is expecting.

orangutan

2005-06-10T13:42:00.000-04:00

i don't have too much to say about anything at the moment. but, i do have a bunch of music from this weekend to share with ya'll. here's an mp3 of a song called orangutan (with a little improvised intro) from chamisa mesa's sunday night show.

chamisa at pete's

2005-06-09T13:31:00.000-04:00

i'd have to say that one of my biggest downfalls as a musician is that i'm a horrible promoter. i'm going to try to rectify the situation a bit, but i'm always so damn afraid of annoying people with 'look what i'm doing' kind of shit. so, you'll be hearing more about upcoming shows and all that stuff on this blog from now on.

last weekend chamisa mesa played 3 shows on sat, sun and mon. the last show was really interesting because we were unable to perform at our usual ear blistering volume. we played at a place called pete's candy story which is a regular venue for the alt country acts in the neighb, so needless to say we were already out of our element. before the show we decided to play a quietly as we possibly could, angus was playing with brushes most of the time and i was using my practice amp. this is part of what happened.

ramble on

2005-06-07T16:02:00.000-04:00

dragon songs and mythical elements mixing one and all, all and one. one is. one is the same. one time time stands for one. one time the two have stopped filling in the gaps for me to fly. fly away in the time it takes to say a mean thing to a good person. don't do that, actually do don't-do that is much better. therefore there is no karmic baggage for giving bad advice. that is advice after all. after one. all is the same. all is. all and one, all and one mixing elements mythical and dragon songs.

the mad scientific method of improvisational lyrics

2005-06-03T15:57:00.000-04:00

in a number of bands i've been in since i started playing in them at age 15 i've ended up being the lead singer. not from any special interest on my part, but usually just because i'm the only one available/willing. in my current band (chamisa mesa) i am yet again the default lead singer. which works for me, i think i'm actually ready this time to develop something on vocals that will really work well for the group. the thing about chamisa mesa is that we write all our songs through the improvisations of our rehearsals, therefore it's not a conducive environment for writing out lyrics ahead of time. so, i've just taken to yelling out any random word that pops into my mind and focus more on melody and rhythm. which, up until now i always thought was kind of a detriment to the music. but now, i'm ready to embrace the improvisational elements of the lyrics and try to develop some ways to help add identity to each song while maintaining the random word blurting.

here are a few thoughts i've had so far on how to create improvisational lyrics. as always, i'd love you hear what you have to say about it.

1) generate a list of random words before the execution of each song (would require some sort of programmable pda/cell phone/computer to have on stage).
2) create a theme or title for each song and use that to 'riff' off of during the tune.
3) create a short piece of text to read/memorize for a tune. i guess this is really just a more complex version of 2.
4) fuck the organization and just go for it. this has been my method up to this point and i've noticed that i always say the same damn things (for every tune). maybe with more deliberate practice and experience this will change.

the inevitable devolution

2005-06-01T17:38:00.000-04:00

ok, like a dumbass, i didn't realize that the picture i posted last week of the guy with the crazy hair was actually phil spector. oops, he's not my future self at all. live and learn... live and learn. also a friend accused my blog of devolving. true again, but it's inevitable i suppose and i don't care anyway.

all right, now on to the serious stuff... chamisa mesa is playing 3 shows this weekend! and we sent our album out to get pressed last week. i'm about to pee i'm so excited. if you're in the hood (i.e. new york city) come check out a show, info is posted here: www.chamisamesa.com.

peekaboo, the hankies are from the gap of course.

my future self

2005-05-26T16:02:00.000-04:00

improvisation and allergies

2005-05-24T15:15:00.000-04:00

just in case you where wondering (i'm sure you weren't), that last post was actually entered by my girlfriend who thought she was updating her own blog. although, my allergies have been acting up a bit these days, so it might as well have been me.

as far a music related stuff is concerned, i haven't found a lot of new things to talk about. although i did just buy a book by derek bailey about improvisation. i bought it today at lunch before i went to stand in line to get my passport. probably the last thing i want to do during lunch, but hey- if it means i get to visit my brother in china, it's a small price to pay. this derek bailey book does seem to be very promising, the first chapter is all about indian music and how it utilizes improvisation. now, i'm not a 'world music' guy by any stretch of the imagination, but there is some really cool shit going on there. did you know that they cut the octave into 22 parts and those parts aren't even equal-- coooooool. i'll point you at my new favorite website for more information.

mouth breathing

2005-05-22T19:09:00.000-04:00

sniffle sniffle cough cough allergies suck.

names anyone?

2005-05-20T11:58:00.000-04:00

so, the chamisa mesa record is almost done. and as a result i've decided to start a label (or at least make a pretend label) to release the chamisa mesa record. i've also been thinking about releasing some of my old electronic music that's been lying around for the last few years and maybe releasing some of the more 'out' stuff that angus and i have been doing.

i figure in order to have a label i need 2 things 1) a website and 2) a good name. making a website is no problem, but the name thing has been giving me a bit of trouble. any ideas? this is what i have so far: wolf-rayet or maybe (wr123) records, galactus records, or maybe firelord records.

mixing present and past to the future

2005-05-18T12:55:00.000-04:00

I have no opinion of what I want to do with my future work. I'm making new CD's, doing more projects like that. I'm always mixing my present and past to the future.
-- Merzbow

this is a quote from an interview i found online. i'm particularly interested in this quote because it brings together some things that i've been thinking a lot about lately. the rest of the interview is really good too, very inspiring for any musician not interested in fallowing the mainstream.

free from the prospective of noise

2005-05-15T13:24:00.000-04:00

i've found that most of the time when i don't like a certain kind of music it's just because i don't have the right point of view. the other day i discovered the awesome power of the wikipedia. in the process of digging all the information i could out of it i found all this great information on japanese free jazz. now, as far as i can tell, japanese free jazz and japanese noise music are intimately intertwined and i realized that when i approach free jazz form the prospective of noise it's makes a lot more sense.

here's a great page i found with some free jazz mp3s on it.

scramble the cats

2005-05-13T00:02:00.000-04:00

scramble the cats because they live in the hat that was owned my another cat who couldn't find it's way to the other side. the river is hard to cross, sometimes there doesn't even seem to be a river. a place to be or to have come from. why is there always somewhere to go... not sure i like the sound of that, not sure i even know what i'm talking about. actually, i don't know what i'm talking about. that's it.

civil disobedience

2005-05-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

as i've said before i'm not super political, but this article makes some interesting points about the state of the music industry (as of 2003, at least).

It comes down to a basic American sense of fairness. People want a fair deal when they buy music and they want to know that they're supporting artists, not executive salaries. That's what makes copying music a principled decision, not a selfish one.

-- civil disobedience, p2p

i also found this site while looking around for related material. and i'm checking out this program featured on the site that could end up being really cool.

the theory of viseral music

2005-05-11T10:47:00.000-04:00

throughout my life i've always liked hard music. and to be honest, i don't really know why. i was never a metal head, i never went through a major rebellious phase, i was never that into moshing, i was never super political, for some mysterious reason i just always dug the harder stuff. therefore, i've decided to explore the idea of hard music and what makes it appealing.

the question of why i've always been drawn to hard music is not really new for me. but i've never actually tried to sit down and put it into writing. as with other things, this process has brought to life some pretty interesting realizations. the main thing i discovered is that what i like so much about hard music, is not so much the hardness of the music, but that it is visceral.

this is my first entry on my theory of visceral music:

the main thing that i believe sets visceral music apart from other music is this: visceral music creates an intense experience that persists in the listeners mind. whereas, other music is focused on giving the listener something familiar to latch onto, visceral music is focused on creating an experience that the listener will remember. in order to do this, visceral music makes much more use of sounds unfamiliar to the listener. unfamiliarity forces the listener to react to the music, it forces the experience to move to the foreground of consciousness in order for the brain to analyze. regardless of whether the listener likes the music, the music has impressed itself in his or her memory. this sort of shock that the listener experiences may influence why hard music is generally associated with anger and rebellion. for example, there were riots at the opening of stravinski's rite of spring and in hindsight it is clear that this music was not composed for shock value.

today i will ramble

2005-05-08T21:57:00.000-04:00

today i will ramble. bringing down the house has never been easier, the scent of the city was nice today and the breeze was easy. don't really know what i'm talking about today or yesterday for that matter. bring me something to do, that's what i say. say to me that there is something out there that i will never find, but have a great time looking for. quit everything and move to the forest, then remember why you love the city. then move back to the city and remember why you hate the city. do this over and over and over and over and over until you die. then you will be a happy motherfucker.;.

the world in all ten directions is one bright jewel, a wise man says. in my humble experience i've found this to be true. no matter where you are, there you are. and therefore there is no reason to search for anything. anything you say or do will simultaneously be of utmost importance and no importance. think of the moment. that's where you are, so stay where you are and be happy. just try it. it doesn't always work, but sometimes it does. it's really funny when it does.

the bridge

2005-05-08T12:12:00.000-04:00

the bridge that i live under, the williamsburg bridge, was the place of choice for saxophonist sonny rollins to practice when he took a hiatus from performing in order to refine his musical skills. at the end of this 2 year break he recorded an album aptly named 'the bridge'.

the idea of making a public space your practice room is very interesting. the other day angus and i were talking about figuring out an outdoor rig and starting to play outside. we wouldn't play for tips or even play in a place where people would be forced to pay attention to us. although, we are a noise rock band, so we will probably be met with some enthusiastic criticism. but, i guess that's life.

relating jazz and punk

2005-05-07T12:10:00.000-04:00

i found this article about jazz being at the root of punk music linked to on the bbc john coltrane page and couldn't resist checking it out. while i found the article itself a little dry, it does cover a topic that has been running around my subconscious for quite some time.

my first encounter with jazz music was the record collection of my parents. this included records from ornette coleman, pharoah sanders, eric dolphi, and pat metheny. therefore, i thought of jazz as being music that was about pushing the boundaries of what the common person called music by focusing on the 'here and now' of the creation of music and saying fuck all to the establishment of common methodologies. after going to music school i realized that my conceptions about jazz music were not the norm, most people seemed to think of jazz as something kinda like this. in high school, i used to listen to lots of jazz, hardcore, punk and ska music. in my mind at the time this made perfect sense, it was all music that made you 'feel' something when you listened to it. music that 'rocked', 'swung', 'kicked ass', whatever you want to call it, it made you want to jump around or at least tap your foot or bob your head.

well, i'm not writing a dissertation on the subject and i'm not even a good writer. so, i'll leave you with this: music is way to complex to categorize into one taxonomy, so make your own.

spam that will change your life

2005-05-06T11:32:00.000-04:00

just a minute ago i got a spam in my inbox at work. the subject read "information that will change your life" and in the body was a short paragraph about some shit of little interest. but, then at the end there was a message the could change my life (i promise i'm not making this shit up)...

"strawberry doodle zurich tip dire nation birthday tenderloin"

holy shit that's good!

the bbc is awesome

2005-05-06T10:22:00.000-04:00

while searching the web for inspiration on my next blog topic, i ran into this bbc site that's really amazing. below are a few things that really stood out for me. i'm sure there is a lot more there, but i'll let you explore further.

the complex polyphony of the individual parts is embodied in a harmonic-musical flow, in which the harmonies do not change suddenly, but merge into one another; one clearly discernible interval combination is gradually blurred, and from this cloudiness it is possible to discern a new interval combination taking shape.
-- györgy ligeti on his use of "micropolyphony".

i want the music to be as much as possible a continuous condition of the environment…in the same way as a painting is.
-- brian eno the quote is from this.

...maybe it sounds angry because i'm trying so many things at one time...i haven't sorted them out...
-- john coltrane talks about trying to get the music out.

monkey chant

2005-05-03T12:35:00.000-04:00

during the last practice angus broke into this ranty chanty kinda thing and we had a pretty interesting jam on it for a while. at the end of practice, we were talking about it and i said it reminded me of balinese monkey chant. there was a guy at calarts (wynton, i think) that taught it. monkey chant is this really interesting form of music that involves two groups (as far a i can remember) that are in competition with each other. they face each other in 2 rows and kinda yell and jump around while trying to outdo each other. it's really cool to watch and even cooler to listen to.

kick ass drummers

2005-05-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

let's face it, drummers are the most important part of any rock band. if the drummer sucks the whole band sucks. now, when i talk about a drummer that sucks, i'm not talking about good or bad in the "music school" sense, but good or bad in the "does it fucking kick ass?" sense. therefore... in this posting i would like to examine some of my favorite drummers.

jon bonham of led zeplin: the mother fucking god of metal himself! this guy is so bad ass he died behind the kit (if my memory and teenage lore serves correctly). when i listen to a zeplin record, even on low volumes, i can feel the air moving from his drums into my head. i mean without jon bonham led zeplin might have become a crappy white guy blues band like say... the rolling stones.

jabo starks of the jbs: possibaly the funkiest man to have ever graced our good green earth. he's been sampled more than... uh... anyone else. and he is the man behind one of my favorite songs of all time, payback (links to the track are at the bottom of the page).

brian chippendale of lightning bolt: the first time i heard this guy i said to myself 'holy fucking shit man!' and i keep repeating it every time i hear him play.

jeff nelson of minor threat: this guy rocks so fucking hard it knocked the desire for drugs, alcohol, sex, and coffee out of me for almost a month when i was in high school. trust me, this was a huge deal.

earl hudson of bad brains: holy fucking fast. need i say more?

meg white of the white stripes: meg is the shit because she can play a drum solo by hitting the rim of the snare drum a few times. and her playing also says "hey! you guys hanging out in guitar center watching neal pert videos. yeah you. and you too. get over it!".

there are of course many other awesome drummers out there that are playing the real shit, and helping their ego maniacal guitar player friends get laid. so, to all of you, i salute.

the merz

2005-05-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

check this out: merzbuddha. (you can listen to the tracks at the bottom of the page).

as you may or may not know merzbow is one of the most insane (and might even be the original) japanese noise musicians. so... when browsing though the cd store the other day i couldn't resist buying a cd that claimed to be merzbow's version of dub. once i got home and gave it a listen i was very happy. this record is simultaneously pure noise and motific music, fucking genius if you ask me. i was pretty from wild exploits of the night before, so i took a nap with it on in the background. while i was nodding off i noticed that my mind was picking out sounds and making melodies from the extremely rich spectrum presented in the music. just in case you don't already know, noise (or what we call noise) is just sounds with very complex harmonic structures. here is a page i found that explains the physics behind it a little.

birds & messiaen

2005-05-02T11:07:00.000-04:00

In my hours of gloom, when I am suddenly aware of my own futility, when every musical idiom—classical, oriental, ancient, modern, and ultra-modern—appears to me as no more than admirable, painstaking experimentation without any ultimate justification, what is left for me but to seek out the true, lost face of music somewhere off in the forest, in the fields, in the mountains or on the seashore, among the birds. That is where music dwells for me, free, anonymous improvisations, sung for the sheer pleasure of singing, to greet the morning sun, charm the beloved,...soothe a tired body, or bid farewell to a bit of life as evening falls.

-- Oliver Messiaen
from: http://www.the-improvisor.com/web%20ARTICLES/sound_changes.html.

i found this quote while doing a little research about david rothenberg, a guy that improvises with birds that angus told me about (check out the 'Slowing Down the Sounds' page) and found it very inspiring. personally, i've felt like messiaen quite a few times. i don't really have anything very meaningful to say about it. so, i'll just let messiaen do the talking...

creative evolution

2005-05-01T19:08:00.000-04:00

in this posting i would like to talk a little about our (chamisa mesa's) method for creating music. it's a little something i've dubbed 'creative evolution'. basically the idea behind it is to allow the creative process to grow naturally without too much deliberate intervention.

the way creative evolution is implemented with chamisa mesa is this:

1) we always record our rehearsals and gigs when it's possible.
2) we try not to tell each other what to play.
3) we write all our songs together (this follows directly from 2).
4) we improvise a lot during rehearsals.
5) we practice a lot (3 times a week).
6) we listen to our recorded practices and gigs for new ideas and feedback.
7) and we don't deliberately copy other bands (although, traces of our musical influences are unavoidable).

inside out

2005-04-29T17:26:00.000-04:00

back when i was a young lad in music school i made a decision. i decided to learn how to program computers so i could get a decent job (e.g. not waiting tables, working for peanuts setting up mics, catering, or pimping my own sweet ass *i know people that have resorted to all these things*). hrrrrrm--- back to the point at hand: the idea was that i would be free to make the music that i really cared about, crazy noisy music of course. i'm not too concerned about how it's made, with guitars, computers, found objects, or whatever. there's just something really amazing about turning sounds inside out and calling it music.

sitting here listening to a practice

2005-04-28T21:36:00.000-04:00

just wondering if this blogging crap is going to be something i enjoy. to be completely honest, it's a little scarry. well, fuckit.

check this out: chamisamesa_practice1

that's my band, chamisa mesa. it's just me and my good friend angus. our practices basically consist of fucking around (improvising, in musician terms) until we come across something that can either be turned into a song or attached to one of the songs we already have. i don't think there is really any 'keeper' material in this jam, but it serves as a great example of what we usually sound like. oh- actually i'm hearing some shit that i like now... the fast shit kinda in the middle. angus says it goes into something that kinda sounds like 'love will tear us apart' (i think that's the title) by joy division.