|
|
||
Week 8: Guest Blogger Roberto CofresiThere are a few things I’m going to say, but I will preface it all by saying that, regardless of this incredibly long entry, I don’t particularly like talking about music, I’d much rather play it or listen to it. I prefer to learn about a band by hearing one of their songs. I prefer to learn the intricacies of the music business by booking a show, putting out a record, or actually engaging in some aspect of the business of music. I prefer to learn about the meaning of music or why some music is awesome and other music is not by writing music and seeing what happens when you play it. Otherwise I kind of get a headache. I like to play and I like to write songs. Pretty un-heroic, but that’s pretty much it. Maybe because it’s so mundane is the reason why it hasn’t been too difficult to figure out a way to do these things regularly, even under some pretty dire straits and in the face of gigantic disillusionments. And though it remains to be seen how it will fare under the expanded family situation, I’ve got every reason to believe that I’ll continue to play and write, though I’m sure the results will be very different in the new context. Music, as it turns out, is very flexible and will adapt in many contexts, not just the one that magazines, radio and television try to sell us, not just the one I might have thought was “the one” when I was a teenager. About 12 years ago I bought what turned out to be the last guitar book I ever bought. I could recommend the Advancing Guitarist, but I won’t. The basic premise of this method, explained in the first few pages, was to forget about chords, scales, modes, etc, and start by playing only on one string with one finger until you’ve exhausted all the possibilities. Needless to say the possibilities are infinite. But once you’ve mastered them you then move up to two strings with one finger and do this until you exhaust the also infinite possibilities now multiplied by two (infinity x 2 = ?). Then you continue with two strings and two fingers, then three strings and one finger, three strings and two fingers, and so on, until you get to six strings and all fingers, apparently several millennia into the future and deep into the realm of the impossible. In the face of this abyss, I decided that since the possibilities are as infinite within the simple as with the complex, that one finger and one string was enough for me in this lifetime and I closed the book on something like page 4. However, this got me thinking about minimalist music and even though I like some of it, it tastes too much like artistry, conceptualism and ultimately pretension – all flavors I am constantly trying to distance myself from (my success at this of course is highly debatable, this blog being exhibit ZZZZZZZZ). So simplifying turned out to be a very complicated subject. The more I tried to focus in on just one tiny spot, the more the spot became a universe. So I review some of my preferences: I prefer showing than telling, I prefer doing than talking. This excessive display of verbosity not withstanding, I prefer a suggestive sentence over a profound essay, a funny haiku over a heroic epic, a clever folk song over a mind-bending symphony, a witty joke over an incisive psychological profile, a story about what happened to you the other day over a groundbreaking novel. I tend to like these cause they tend to offer the simple, the fun, and the easy and I’m lazy and these are easier to share. But at the same time I realize I like a certain complexity within my simplicity. So I think about my music writing methodology: I try to write only super simple songs that my befuddled brain can remember without making any effort, if I have to try to remember it, then it’s almost always out of my range. And I tend to remember things that have a certain simple impossibility or paradox within them, like Möbius strips. And I write between the lines, what seems impossible, and what makes me smile, like a secret hidden inside a fortune cookie, and you see it in there, and you keep eating and seeing little bits of the secret, but you can never see the whole thing, even though its just a tiny fortune inside a fortune cookie you got with your Chinese food. And I never again worry about whether I’ve heard it before or not. It is what it is and it is ours, because I surely ripped some of it from something I heard (you often say or play very memorable bits). And I will never forget the quote under the picture of AC/DC playing live in Joe Carducci’s ‘Rock and the Pop Narcotic’. The caption read, “Perfect: not a brain cell to spare”. And since I have few brain cells to spare I review my equipment: One guitar, the one I’ve had since I was fourteen, and the one I always played at home even while I was playing with others in public (I also have another one just like it in training). It has one pick-up, and no knobs. I play it thru one amp (a Nashville 112 pedal steel amp, though I would prefer a Sho-Bud pedal steel amp, but the Sho-Buds are impossible to find) which is set to one setting (granted it took me a bit of time to figure out the setting, and I do make slight adjustments occasionally). So a guitar and and an amp, and no effects. And it’s still not easy enough. So I listen to music, and my ears give preference to friends and family music, to local music, to music in towns where I will be visiting, music from people that will be visiting my town. And maybe I’ve been lucky, but a lot of it is very good. So in short, if there is no chance of having two-way communication, then I’m not as interested in that music (like if you are dead). Just because it’s the most amazing thing ever is not good enough for me (unless it is the most amazing thing ever). And needless to say, I couldn’t care less how many records it sold or how many books are written about it. So don’t ask me to read about music (or about anything for that matter) if it’s longer than a few pages; I hardly ever even read liner notes on records, and most of the time I don’t know the names of the songs I like, just whether it’s somewhere around the beginning or the end of the record (or side A or B). All this I often use as an excuse to explain the huge gaps in my knowledge of music that “everyone should hear.” And it’s still not simple enough. So I realize that simplicity does not equal focus, but it also does not equal chaos. Simplicity is closer to randomness, which sort of describes much of my life – disjointed, unfocused, and in my defense I say, adaptable to the context, flexible to my environment, and open to exploring possibilities. Which might explain why music has been such an easy constant in my life, always around, never too difficult – because music thrives on adaptability, flexibility and possibilities. Music needs these qualities to survive, just like I do, because music is a social form by nature. Music is social by nature because it must have a listener and a performer. The performer can’t be the listener and the listener can’t be the performer (though the line can be dazed and confused as in drum circles). One of the greatest disappointments in being a musician is not to be able to ever experience what an audience member experiences when you are playing. Recording is at best an approximation but not the real thing. Listening to recordings as if they were the true experience of hearing yourself play would be like a painter looking at photos of his paintings and thinking that he is looking at the paintings themselves. The pleasure (or pain) of your playing is strictly reserved for others. So the audience (bandmates, friends, parents, even a vivid imagination might work sometimes) acts as a kind of auditory mirror and as such it can encourage or discourage a particular performance. Without the audience, the musician is about as good as a blind painter. Staying at home and playing by yourself, even if you are recording it and playing it back to yourself, just doesn’t cut it. So the only way to resolve questions about music is to get out there and do it. The answers are going to be different in every context and will change as we do. The answers for those who play children’s music are not the same as the answers for those who play TV music, or those who write for Nashville stars, or those who play at bars, or those who play at home for friends and family and so on and on thru all the many ways in which music is expressed (some better, some worst). So musicians should be flexible enough to adjust to the different contexts and be able to work within the society of their music. To paraphrase, it takes a village to make music. And for those of us in the DIY circuit, for example, it takes the support of dedicated musicians and clubs in every town we play, the support of dedicated soundmen, bartenders, engineers, studio owners, artists, and most of all audiences, and as much as I don’t like to talk that much about it, I have to admit that it also takes the dedication and support of people who talk about music trying to figure out what it all means. Now I need to go take some aspirin and play a C chord over and over on my guitar. 34 comments to Week 8: Guest Blogger Roberto Cofresi |
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009 NONALIGNMENT PACT - All Rights Reserved |
||
Roberto, I’m never letting you guest blog on my day again. What a bunch of crap.
I’m still not sure why this Blog always seems to subscribe to this notion of “Recording isn’t the real thing” or an “approximation at best”. I seem to be the only one who thinks that a recording is in fact a perfectly valid “real thing”. It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with a band playing live in front of an audience…it also has fuck all to do with how a band even remotely sounds like when they set up together and play through the music all at one time. Why? Because it is a recording. A complete entity all on it’s own, designed to be taken at it’s own merits and the people that have created the recording probably aren’t all that concerned with the fact that it doesn’t sound like they are just playing right in front of you. As a matter of fact, I’m sure we could name a ton of musicians who have completely lost interest in playing music in front of people and want nothing more than to express themselves with this art form known as music using a medium known as recording…the Beatles being the most obvious example. I just don’t understand this thing you guys seem to have with records not be a valid form of expression, or maybe a “lesser” form, one that doesn’t really capture something “better”, when in fact, it’s really it’s own thing. And a great thing, at that.
Hey, I never said any such thing bucko. I’m the guy that always knocks live music, remember? Besides, don’t listen to Roberto, he seely.
I got something very different from this post. It appears to me that maybe Mr. Cofresi, doesn’t enjoy the position of being critical of music. Critical in a way that takes away from the enjoying of music, which may be what he predominantly needs music for… IT. I felt like I understood him clearly, maybe because I can relate to some of his points. I am not a music journalist and I am not a hawk. I don’t have the patience or interest frankly, to argue the validity of one person’s art. They made something, and I am in no position to challenge its purpose or even quality… because, well, honestly AT LEAST THEY FUCKING DID SOMETHING. I could tell you what I think about it, but who the hell am I anyway, even if I had a doctorate in the field. I don’t necessarily prefer live to memorex.. its all relative. I also can be foggy when it comes to random statistics about artists, musicianship, and the theories behind the application and reception of it. But who cares? I know that Bedhead wasn’t my favorite band from the nineties without a doubt, but more than anything it makes me instantly tired to have to break my reasons down for a group of people who have such very different investments and experiences with music. Today I may enjoy listening to it more than making it, but tomorrow may yield something different from me, which reinforces the statement that music is flexible… because we are flexible in how we use it. Always using it to compare or dissect it, can be fatiguing and a bit depressing. I liked the post. I thought it gave some balance to the blog.
I think a recording is what a musician wants to sound like. A live performance is what they really sound like. Hopefully what they managed to do in the studio is a clear reflection of what they can really do. Live.
What in the world? I don’t think I know what “Seely” means? Oh, wait…are you doing a Ramon impersonation of Ren and Stimpy saying “silly”? This is so embarrassing…Christ, I just looked through some old posts, and somebody…I think it was Nick mentioned Jim Brown’s cheese spread. I worked at Bookstop before Kurt Cobain even had a band, and there was an incredibly uhm…well, individual…is this the same Jim?
EM thanks for the support, though I’m not sure balance has quite been achieved, this blog still seems to weight ton (and I’ll refrain from adding a direct object here).
Matthew, I think you misunderstood my point. It had little to do with the live vs. recorded music argument. Although I prefer live music, I consider recording a separate form of musical expression just as valid as any other. My point had more to do with the difference between music as a solitary endavour that nobody but yourself hears and music as a social endavour that only really lives when someone listens to what you created (whether recorded or live or livestreamed, which is a weird combination of both). I’m sure that even the ton of musicians you mention who have lost interest in playing music in front of people, have not lost interest in having their music heard by other people. And though i’m sure there are those that live the hermit’s life and have a closet full of recorded cassettes that no one has ever, and probably will ever hear, I really believe that somewhere in their mind there is someone listening that is not them (their abusive father, music critics in the year 3000, etc).
And John, I hope you don’t only listen to people who are not seely. That would make me sad, but if i eat my tears then i’m happy again.
Matt, I was indeed using the Stimpy style. And yes, Nick is referring to Jim Brown, the same guy you are thinking of. In fact, he’s still there, and still totally insane.
Is this blog out of balance? Isn’t it supposed to be?
And RC, I am only kidding, I have no problem listening to you; whichever voice you use.
John, you mean keeding, right?
Anonymous said…
I think a recording is what a musician wants to sound like. A live performance is what they really sound like. Hopefully what they managed to do in the studio is a clear reflection of what they can really do. Live.
See…this is why I get so uppity about these recorded music/live music blogs. Please explain to me why you’ve included the word “Hopefully”. Because I could really give 2 fucks if they can play it live or not. And I have never in my life listened to a record and thought “There’s no way that they really sound like this…therefore I feel differently about them as musicians, and/or this music”. I just listen to the records. Period. That’s where it begins and ends for me, and how it was created is of course, extremely interesting to me, as well, seeing how I’ve also made records and they can be really tough to nail down, but this whole notion of “hopefully they can really play this, live” stuff…I’m sorry, I just can’t get with that. If they slap 2 goat tits together and then run it through 18 harmonizers while the microphone is up my ass whilst sitting on the toilet, and a thunder clap is heard in the distance, as well as a scream because some chick was being murdered in the studio next door, does that make it a “lesser” form of musical expression, just because they could never duplicate that moment? If it’s happening, and it sounds cool, I’m all over the moon about it, and I just don’t care what they “really sound like”. They way they sound live is just that: LIVE. Why is it required to have anything to do whatsoever with making a record? Francis Davis wrote a book about Free Jazz entitled “In The Moment And Outcats” where he explains that most Jazz musicians also feel a bit put off by recordings, because they really live for the moment and once it’s gone, it’s gone…but he also compares recording to a situation where perhaps “the musicians are playing for one another, with no crowd exerting to even if so inclined.” I like that, and I agree with Roberto that ultimately if you have recorded a real hot one, you definitely feel like you have to share it, that’s just the nature of performance…but I really get my hackles up when I read these remarks about records not being the “real thing”…there is no “real thing”. There’s someone making music right in front of you, or someone making a record of whatever in the hell they want, which you can enjoy later, and both are completely separate entities and art forms, equal to one another and both worthy of mutual consideration…oooohhhh, my blood is boiling. I have to go listen to Tubular Bells or something.
I just had my brain rotted out and my spirit soiled by the bloody hands of morbidly obese, ignorant, judgemental and decrepit civic leaders with their overtly Baptist puppet show at the school Christmas program. 23 people were in attendance. My kid got a Dora Big Wheels from Santa the Maintence Man and she can’t reach the pedals..
Balance really isn’t my speciality. I just use words.
And sometimes I use them FOR people and sometimes I use them AGAINST. I usually pick nice people to receive the FOR accolades, and bad people for the AGAINST ones. This blog is terrifically imbalanced, from one entry to the next.
The only Ren and Stimpy line I ever had stuck in my head was ” mmm… A glazed ham” and “You covet my icecream bar.”
NAP’s 2:47 is my 10:57. That is a disclaimer.
“I’m still not sure why this Blog always seems to subscribe to this notion of “Recording isn’t the real thing” or an “approximation at best”.”
(shoot myself in head because nobody reads my blog posts.)
I would link but the archives seem to have died. Suffice it to say that I have posted passionately against this idea previously.
How is it that Roberto writes a blog about nothing that has to do with the difference between playing live vs recording and it gets hijacked into exactly that discussion? Oh yeah, thats right this blog is unbalanced. so in the spirit of unbalancement, Matthew, I blame you. Next time make sure you understand what you are reading before you jump to commenting. and dont get upset when someone responds to your misguided comment and then don’t comment back on his misguided comment about your misguided comment. I suspect maybe the line that gave you trouble was this one: “Staying at home and playing by yourself, even if you are recording it and playing it back to yourself, just doesn’t cut it.” The key in that line is “playing back to yourself” which emphasizes the previous point raised in the paragraph that music has to be heard by someone other than the person who played/recorded it. If you’d like i’ll give you a guest spot on the blog one week and you can let all your demons out about live music, recorded music, or whatever. This blog was about music being flexible, social and simple. This is exactly why Roberto doesn’t like to talk about this crap. But don’t blame him, see, english is his second language.
dd – I’ve read your blogs, and everyone elses. I am quite aware of the variety of opinions in this blog regarding the issue towards which this blog has been hijacked.
It’s 7:49am. Please Lord bring a mormon stranger to my door trying to sell me salvation so I can kick their ass up and down the block til at least 9:00am. EM I’ll kick him a few times for you too.
Isn’t Stimpy the pupeteer behind Triumph the Insult Comic Dog?
Matthew thurman, I guess it’s up to the discression of the musician not to go over board in the studio. Obviously there is a big difference between that and doing it live. I’ve witnessed the recording process and I remember take after take after take just to get one particular sound right. They finally get it sounding perfectly and then someone like me eventually buys the record, enjoys it, sees them live, and is dissappointed because they really sound like shit outside of the studio. I’m aware there are groups out there that only do studio work and never tour. Perhaps they see the art shouldn’t be poorly reproduced live because it may ruin the mood, experience, and messege originally intended on the recorded version. One can only hope that if a musician does enter the studio that they can somehow to some degree manage to replicate that sound live if they plan on taking it on the road. Otherwise, don’t give me something that is well pollished and beautifully produced complete with layered keyboards, quitars and numerous sound samplings on a studio album and then give me some garage band sounding shit live. That’s misleading.
Carlos, I agree. I’m sorry I got off the subject as well. After all, everything is relative.
Matthew thurman said… I seem to be the only one who thinks that a recording is in fact a perfectly valid “real thing”. It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with a band playing live in front of an audience…
I agree 100% that a recording is a “real thing”. But you can’t say playing live has nothing to do with it. You’re promoting that recording by playing live. So you can move more records off the shelf, or make your fans aware that there is a new record out there. Don’t live performances often drive the sales of their records? How else are you going to get your product out there? The two have to go together.
It’s the waiting for your comment to be approved that causes all these side subjects. While you’re waiting for your post to appear for that quick rebuttle your thoughts can stray and then you start posting about other shit entirely. This forum entails loose conversation about a casual subject. Who cares if we get that occasional stray comment or spam? I think the conversation would go a lot more smoothly if we didn’t have to wait for it’s approval.
Anon, I dont mind the convesation straying off the subject, as long as its about music, its all related. What bugs me is when the post is misinterpreted and a whole debate ensues about the misinterpration. Is like debating a point that was never in contention. But obviously more discussion is needed about the live vs. recorded bit so post away about it. Maybe we could go back to Celine Dion too.
And also, I agree with you about the moderating of comments. I say to hell with it, there’s a lot of us that can delete comments, if we see an innaproriate comment (personal attacks, complete wiki entries, spam, etc.) we can just delete it, without having to put the honest commentator thru the waiting for approval. I would vote for trying that, however, I’m not the only vote.
Anon, Ramon wants to moderate because he is in the process of warding off some guy who attacks his family on a personal level. I respect that. The flow issue is a real one. Maybe Ramon will change his mind in a while. It’s really up to him.
Okay, once again…anon just said 87 fucking things that I completely disagree with, just like the first time…and quite honestly, the line that really got me started on all this was “only as good as a blind painter”…I have to go to work, now, so i can’t comment at the moment, but I will be glad to defend myself further if allowed, otherwise I’ll just play along and say “Okay”. Is that what you really want from this thing?
Again, Matthew, if you read the whole paragraph you will notice that the audience referred to in the sentence “Without the audience, the musician is about as good as a blind painter” is not necessarily an audience listening to someone play live. It’s the general audience as in the listening audience. Which earlier in the paragraph, is defined “bandmates, friends, parents, even a vivid imagination might work sometimes.” So ‘ok’ won’t work, what I want for RC is a lenghty written apology for misreading his blog, a written apology and $50. no wait, $75 ($25 for me for having to defend the bastard). Oh and a new car, yeah, a new car would be nice. Maybe one of those mini cars in Red with black stripes on top. Did you know RC has ballooned to some ridiculous weight? Something like 280lbs or something. Its uncanny! A mini would really drive his weight problem home.
ABSURDITY!
maybe back on topic …
… I think there’s a balance between presenting your music in public (in whatever way you prefer, live or recorded) and honing your music in private, and I think that for every band or musician that surfaces too late or not at all, there’s just as many that surface too early. There’s nothing wrong with taking a little time to get your band working, find your voice, and basically ensure that you’re not wasting the audience’s time and goodwill towards you.
Thats a very good point DD. I had forgotten about my first year playing guitar, which I spent trying to learn the bass line to ‘25 or 6 to 9′ on my one string guitar (there really seemed no point in buying the rest of the set at that point). At that point I’m sure I couldn’t think of anyone hearing what I was playing. Though I did use to imagine crowds of screamming teenage girls (beatlemania-style) cheering as I made the difficult transition from the open E back to the incredibly distant 5th fret.
Are you implying RC that there’s no point to creating only for your own ultimate benefit? It seems that way when you say this: “Staying at home and playing by yourself, even if you are recording it and playing it back to yourself, just doesn’t cut it.” Do you mean just for you, because I personally find that it cuts it quite often. And also, if you dislike writing about music so much, uhh… why do so? I mean, it’s not like you’re no good at it.
By the way, how’s the little one doing? And speaking of fatherhood, getting any sleep?
It seems to me John, that creating for oneself is most often what we do, I’d almost venture to say that ultimately it is what we always do – even those who totally “sell out” ultimately do it for themselves. However, in creating for ourselves, we need a listener. Recording can be a bit of a tricky subject cause if one removes oneself far enough from what one has recorded (in my case, it often takes years, though not always) one can sort of become one’s own listener. I just think that there is always an implied listener somewhere in the process, even if I lived in an island all alone and there was no chance of anyone ever hearing what I record, I imagine a certain trick of the mind would take place so that I could become both listener and creator (probably not completely unlike Tom Hanks and Wilson in that island movie). It seems in the act of playing by yourself one has to simultaneously place oneself in a listener position which is separate from the one playing/recording, but maybe i’m just schizo. And extreme situations like the desert island aside, the more common situation I’ve encountered when I meet people that have hordes of cassettes they’ve recorded at home and never played for anyone, is that they have an audience in mind somewhere out there when they are making these cassettes. Maybe their dad that never really appreciated them or something.
As for writing about music. I love to write. I love to play with words. I live by paradoxes, like the aforementioned Mobious Strip. Saying I dont like writing about music and then writing is just a way of expressing that, in a non-too-clever way. But the truth is when I say I dont like writing about music, i mean, in the conventional sense, where one takes a band or record and gives an opinion about it. Certainly if someone was paying me to do it, i would immediately change my tune, and slam or praise away, but as a hobby in a blog, i prefer to write tangentially, implied, contradictory, impossible, meaningless, fun, retarded, silly stuff that makes me smile like the fortune inside the fortune cookie, etc etc.
In general, I’d rather write music, but at present its easier to work on this blog when I’m taking care of little Marina or at work. I have a backlog of music that is just sitting on paper and in my head that no one has heard and until i can record some of it or play it for some kind of listener, its hard to write more of it, so i’m kind of backed up as it where. Though I am improvising at least 2 lullabies a day. Fatherhood is AWESOME! But sleep is scarce, as you might have gathered from this ridiculous ramblings, though i have to say, all that training staying out late at night and then waking up at 8am to go to work, is coming in handy. I’m sure I’ll be asking for you expert advice soon enough. When is your second due?
Okay, now…I’m not going to go ballistic or anything but if you’re going to imply that I can’t read properly or I’m misguided, well then I obviously have to defend myself, yes? Let me start off by showing this:
Anon wrote:
“One can only hope that if a musician does enter the studio that they can somehow to some degree manage to replicate that sound live if they plan on taking it on the road. Otherwise, don’t give me something that is well pollished and beautifully produced complete with layered keyboards, quitars and numerous sound samplings on a studio album and then give me some garage band sounding shit live. That’s misleading.”
Am I the only one that actually sees problems with a statement like that? Misleading how, exactly? Are you going to tell the people that made “Sgt. Pepper’s” that they have misled you? Because when the Beatles played live, they were definitely a garage band sounding group. A fucking great one, at that. Are you going to tell Brian Wilson that “Pet Sounds” is misleading, because the music was actually performed by a group of LA sessioneers who called themselves “The Wrecking Crew”, and then the Beach Boys played it live, but I’m not sure that they “faithfully” replicated it. Frank Zappa used to play concerts of songs no one ever heard before, record the whole thing on a multi-track, and then construct studio recordings on top of different live tracks, and THAT became the album. Has he mislead you, somehow, because remember, the musicians might not have been playing together in real time…ever. Miles Davis made his electric jazz records with musicians that often times could never hear what anyone else was doing, because he wanted it that way…they didn’t even know what Key they were in! Is this misleading? Because the finished albums, finished complete works of art, meant to be taken entirely of their own merit, are, in my opinion, fantastic.
Anon later writes:
“I agree 100% that a recording is a “real thing”. But you can’t say playing live has nothing to do with it. You’re promoting that recording by playing live. So you can move more records off the shelf, or make your fans aware that there is a new record out there. Don’t live performances often drive the sales of their records? How else are you going to get your product out there? The two have to go together.”
Why exactly, can I not say that once again, playing live has nothing to do with it? Mike Watt used to say that he made the records to promote the Tours, not the more common other way around, so…are you going to argue with him and say he’s wrong, he’s doing it all backwards? You’re implying that people play live to promote records, which people do, but it’s not the only reason, and I guarantee you that there are a number of bands out there that do hope they can duplicate the live sound and vice versa, but there are just as many that don’t care for that way of thinking at all. Have you ever seen Royal Trux, Ween, or EN play live? Man, it ain’t too much like the records, I’ll tell ya…and it’s obvious that they are doing that on purpose. Have you ever listened to Dylan’s “Hard Rain”, or Lou Reed’s “Take No Prisoners” or “Rock and Roll Animal” live albums? They don’t exactly duplicate the studio stuff, either, in fact, in Lou’s case, it becomes almost an entirely new subgenre of Rock. Tell him that you feel misled, tell Dylan that his records are misleading. I would absolutely love to be there for the reply that they would undoubtably give you. Look, if someone wants to faithfully document their “Just us, in a room-ability/sound”…then great. I’ve got a ton of those records, and I love ‘em to death. And I’ve got a ton of records that have never even been attempted live by the same performers, and I’ve never felt let down or disappointed by those actions. I’ve played a ton of shows where I used to put my hand through the wall afterward, because what was inside me just didn’t “come out”, and I was upset about it. I’ve also left the stage thinking “Yeah, I can live with that, that was happening”…but recording for me will always be an art form that has taken on the physical manifestation of my own private Moby Dick…a metaphorical leviathan that I just can’t seem to get a hold of, and it’s probably going to tear me to pieces if I continue to chase after the damn thing, but that’s my lot in life, so there you go. I walked away from a pretty popular local band at the worst possible time, but it was all I could do, because the music didn’t make sense to me, anymore…I no longer believed in it, and I didn’t want it, so I let it go. Granted, I left on fairly bad terms, which I regret, but I think, ultimately, I made the right decision. But since that time, I’ve recorded by myself, and some of it I will never share with anyone…and I’m being honest when I say that I never will share it with anyone…it’s mine, and it’s just for me, and I hate it, and love it, and I listen to it, and It makes me cry, and it makes me laugh, but the original blog wasn’t exactly clear regarding anything about an implied listener, perhaps in the future, perhaps in my own mind, or that “I” will be the listener after a spell…this has only been stated recently, so yeah, I took offense to someone telling me that what I do with my own music in private just “doesn’t cut it”. I’m sorry, but I just can’t get with that. And I’m also cancelling Christmas.
Thank god, I fucking hate Christmas.
RC: Baby number two is due on April 11th. It will have been nice knowing all of you.
I am on the Cancellation Validation Committee and I am the sole member. I will let applicants know if this request is valid when I return to work on December 27th.
Matthew, does that mean I don’t get the Mini Cooper?
Matthew, please don’t cancel Christmas!! Thanks for the education. I’m not sure if what you told me is boardering more on the exception more than the rule, but who cares? Both recorded works and live material have their place in the music universe. It’s for the individual to decide where. I enjoy both but lean slightly towards the recorded offerings. If I were a better musician I would probably live in the studio and overly produce my albums. I can’t wait to get my guitar out of the closet and have jam sessions in someone’s garage with people that are similar in age to me and just generally relax and fuck around. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Merry Christmas!!! Oh, and I have one request. If any of you musicians ever decide to cut a Christmas album, can you please do the more obscure songs or perhaps make up new ones? The radio station at work is killing me with their rotation of two, maybe three songs sung by a multitude of different artists!