Links to new music Wednesday February 8, 2012

@@  Check this CNN video of Bootsy Collins talking about his early career as a musician.  Make sure you watch the end starting at 2:40 where he gets into some deep shit about being one with the funk.

He’s right, we all funked up.  Speaking of funked up, after the Bootsy Collins video you can watch another CNN video about obese pets.  Ain’t that the shit?

@@ Vadislav Delay Quartet: Vadislav Delay Quartet (Honest Jon’s)

Pocket review:  I’m a very finicky jazz listener.  It doesn’t take much for me to disqualify a session as not worth my time.  I listened to the tune above and another on Spotify and I felt it.  No New Age sound, no fusion bullshit, a lot of noise and weirdness.

This is a really good session, I haven’t heard anything this good in a couple of weeks and I listen to 5+ albums a day.

@@ AUTECHRE & THE HAFLER TRIO ah3e0 & a3oe (ae3o3)

Pocket review: No videos on Youtube, no Spotify action, I had to download it off one of those sites that will get me locked up in the near future.  Fear not, music industry, I was not going to spend $14 on it without hearing it first.

It’s a movie soundtrack without the movie.  I dug it, it chilled me out.  I’m not recommending it to anyone but it’s cool.

@@ Dadavistic Orchestra: Dokument 02

Pocket review:  Here we have some pretty deep headphone music.  No beats, clouds of sound, this is pretty hip shit.

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Thad Jones Mel Lewis Featuring Miss Ruth Brown Side 1 (MP3)

 

Side 1:

Yes Sir, that’s my baby
Trouble in Mind
Sonny Boy
Bye, Bye Blackbird
I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town

https://thecrosspollinator.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/joneslewisbrown_1.mp3

Kanye West vs. Curtis Mayfield

Curtis in a first round knockout.  When you put the music of these two gents side by side Curtis takes him out.

Who else would rock a creamsicle colored suit on the cover of their first solo record?
Who else would start the first tune with “N-word”, and “Whiteys”, if there’s a hell below we’re all gonna go?

Let’s get some perspective here.

Lady Gaga goes crackers

“Music is a lie, art is a lie.  You have to tell a lie that is so wonderful that your fans make it true.”  — Lady Gaga

Wow.  Kookie talk.  Crackhead logic.  The last line is absolutely breathtaking in its sheer idiocy.

What lie is Lady Gaga telling?  That she has anything to do with music?
And what are her fans making true?  Pretending she has anything to do with music by paying up for her nonsense.

Lady Gaga is a cultural trainwreck.

Are faithful reproductions in music good enough?

I was listening to the Free Energy record Stuck on Nothing after seeing the blurb about them in the latest issue of Rolling Stone.  I can see how this would be a very entertaining live show and I see that their love of ’70s arena rock music is thorough.

Can the band’s devotion to that era be faulted as a faithful reproduction of records that have already been made?  There is a certain soul outfit from Brooklyn out this week with a similar faithful reproduction.  Well engineered, strong musicianship, but nothing pushing the genre forward.

I can see how records like this will sell well, but I can also see how it hurts music in the long term.  There’s less creativity and certainly less risk in making faithful reproductions.  Something conservative is being marketed as super hip.

Why most musicians are progressives

From Musicophilia by Oliver Sachs:

Music drawn from memory, he writes, “has many of the same effects as real music coming from the external world.”  It has the additional bonus of drawing attention to otherwise overlooked or repressed thoughts, and in this way may serve a function similar to that of dreams.

(page 40 quoting Anthony Storr)

Me:  Have you ever wondered why musicians tend not to be on the right?  When I read this in Musicophilia, I thought about that.  All the repression of conservatism is not compatible with music and its effect on the brain.  Did it seem like George Bush was a funky cat?  Mentally ill, but not funky.

There you have it from a ghetto philosopher.  It is my contention, completely unquantified but verified by my own life experience that music makes you less repressed, and really repressed people tend not to like music.

Responding to a comment

Comment:

also, the music business, unfortunately, does bear this out. pop sells many times better than free jazz.  neither the author’s theory, nor the industry numbers, suggest one type of music is better than the other, just that there is a natural disposition to simpler melodies.  any baby would show that preference too.

Response #1:   The labels are not looking for the best music, just music they can sell. – Bob Lefsetz, internet music honcho guy.

Me:  I’m only responding to this comment as it is an interesting debate, and my side is so under-represented in this discussion.  A natural disposition to simpler melodies?  There are so many exceptions to this statement it’s not even funny.  Why does Madonna outsell John Coltrane? That’s a complicated question.  She appeared almost naked for a period of years?  She is willing to relentlessly market herself to as many people as will have her?  She’s a good business woman who knows how to put together an effective team to manage her music and her image?  I guarantee you 100 years from now, people will be listening to John Coltrane and not Madonna.

any baby would show that preference too?  I have a seven month old.  He is beautiful, but he is not fully evolved.  He fills his diaper, he breastfeeds, he puts sharp things in his mouth.  Are you really saying that because a baby prefers simple, stupid music that simple stupid music should rule the day?  Or that we must feed all adults simple stupid music so they’re not uncomfortable or deal with anything substantive?

Finally, attacking my grammar and my spelling is a bit pissy.  I’m doggin’ your ideas, not your spelling or your bad breath.  Raise your game a bit, you’re embarassing yo self.