Comments on: Week 8: Guest Blogger Roberto Cofresi

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 13:53:00 +0000

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!

By: Roberto Cofresi

Roberto Cofresi — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 13:04:00 +0000

Matthew, does that mean I don’t get the Mini Cooper?

By: Electramummy

Electramummy — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 05:34:00 +0000

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.

By: John Cramer

John Cramer — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 05:23:00 +0000

Thank god, I fucking hate Christmas.

RC: Baby number two is due on April 11th. It will have been nice knowing all of you.

By: Matthew Thurman

Matthew Thurman — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 04:44:00 +0000

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.

By: Roberto Cofresi

Roberto Cofresi — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 01:11:00 +0000

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?

By: John Cramer

John Cramer — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:37:00 +0000

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?

By: Roberto Cofresi

Roberto Cofresi — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:15:00 +0000

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.

By: dd

dd — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 21:25:00 +0000

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.

By: Electramummy

Electramummy — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 20:29:00 +0000

ABSURDITY!