EQ Suggestions

 BY FREQUENCY

 50Hz
1. Increase to add more fullness to lowest frequency instruments like foot,  toms, and the bass.
2. Reduce to decrease the "boom" of the bass and will increase overtones and the recognition of bass line in the mix. This is most often used on loud bass lines like rock.

100Hz
1. Increase to add a harder bass sound to lowest frequency instruments.
2. Increase to add fullness to guitars, snare.
3. Increase to add warmth to piano and horns.
4. Reduce to remove boom on guitars & increase clarity.

200Hz
1. Increase to add fullness to vocals.
2. Increase to add fullness to snare and guitar ( harder sound ).
3. Reduce to decrease muddiness of vocals or mid-range instruments.
4. Reduce to decrease gong sound of cymbals.

400Hz
1. Increase to add clarity to bass lines especially when speakers are at low volume.
2. Reduce to decrease "cardboard" sound of lower drums (foot and toms).
3. Reduce to decrease ambiance on cymbals.

800Hz
1. Increase for clarity and "punch" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove "cheap" sound of guitars.

1.5KHz
1. Increase for "clarity" and "pluck" of bass.
2. Reduce to remove dullness of guitars.

3KHz
1. Increase for more "pluck" of bass.
2. Increase for more attack of electric / acoustic guitar.
3. Increase for more attack on low piano parts.
4. Increase for more clarity / hardness on voice.
5. Reduce to increase breathy, soft sound on background vocals.
6. Reduce to disguise out-of-tune vocals / guitars.
  

5KHz
1. Increase for vocal presence.
2. Increase low frequency drum attack ( foot / toms).
3. Increase for more "finger sound" on bass.
4. Increase attack of piano, acoustic guitar and brightness on guitars (especially rock guitars).
5. Reduce to make background parts more distant.
6. Reduce to soften "thin" guitar.

7KHz
1. Increase to add attack on low frequency drums ( more metallic sound ).
2. Increase to add attack to percussion instruments.
3. Increase on dull singer.
4. Increase for more "finger sound" on acoustic bass.
5. Reduce to decrease "s" sound on singers.
6. Increase to add sharpness to synthesizers, rock guitars, acoustic guitar and piano.

10KHz
1. Increase to brighten vocals.
2. Increase for "light brightness" in acoustic guitar and piano.
3. Increase for hardness on cymbals.
4. Reduce to decrease "s" sound on singers.

15KHz
1. Increase to brighten vocals (breath sound).
2. Increase to brighten cymbals, string instruments and flutes.
3. Increase to make sampled synthesizer sound more real.

By Instrument:
Drums
Kick
40 to 60 Hz - Bottom: The tone of the reverberation in the shell, sometimes too rumbly, can be undefined/indeterminate depending on the mic'ing/speakers

60 to 100 Hz - Thump: The "punch you in the chest" range of the kick

100 to 200 Hz - Body: This is the "meat," if you will, of the kick sound

200 to 2,000 Hz - Ring/Hollowness: Wide open bandwidth for ringing and muddy kick sounds. Happy hunting.

2,000 to 4,000 Hz - Beater Attack: This is the range to look for the "thwack" sound of the beater, critical for getting that "basketball bouncing" kick sound.

Snare
200 to 400 Hz - Body/Bottom: The central fundamental of most snares

400 to 800 Hz - Ring: The hollow "ring" in snare tone is oft unwanted but it may give life in the mix

2,000 to 4,000 Hz - Attack: stick on head "crack" often found around 8,000 Hz (Sizzle and Snap). The overtone sound of the snares themselves can be accented or dampened around this point. Gates/Compressors, Comb Filtering? Toms

100 to 300 Hz - Body: Tuning Matters... controls variations between "boom"  and "cardboard box"

3,000 to 4,000 Hz - Attack: Crack, stick on the head...

Cymbals
200 to 300 Hz - Clank: Here's where, especially on your hi-hats, the "chink" sound of the cymbal lives.

6,000 Hz and up - Sizzle: This range is where the "tssssssss" part of the cymbals can be brightened up to add some more life and "air" to a cymbal wash, or  bleeding from the ears

Synth "Kick"
If someone went to the trouble of synthesizing it,  they probably like the way it sounded.  Don't mess with it.

Bass
I think of Kick and Bass as one unit dancing with one another. High passing everything else to make these dominate... May be a good idea, maybe not.

40 to 80 Hz - Bottom resonances

80 to 200 Hz - Fundamentals: The primary fundamental of the bass. Right around
180 to 200 Hz is where you can try to cut in on a bass that is too "boomy" to clean it up while preserving fundamentals

200 to 600 Hz - Overtones: These are the upper harmonics of most bass tones, depending on the sound you're interested in. If you're having trouble getting a bass to cut through in a mix, especially a low-end heavy one or one that's getting played back on smaller speakers, this can be where to look

300 to 500 Hz - Wood: Particularly in upright basses, it's that distinctive, woody bark
800 to 1,600k Hz - Bite: The growl and attack of most basses can be either emphasized or toned down around here
2,000 to 5,000 Hz - String noise: Pretty straightforward here, I think

Guitar
Acoustic
120 to 200 Hz - Boom/Body: This is where you'll find most of the explosive low end on a mic'd acoustic that tends to feedback in the live world or be disruptive in the studio. A little bit here adds warmth and fullness on a solo performance, but in a dense band mix, it's probably better to get it out of the way

200 to 400 Hz - Thickness/Wood: Core"body" of most acoustic tones. Too many cuts here, and you're going to lose the life.

2,000 Hz - Definition/Harshness: This double-edged sword band will give the definition to the acoustic tone to hear intricacies in chords and picking, but too much will make it harsh and aggressive

7,000 Hz - Air/Sparkle: A touch, and I mean a touch, of a shelf boost here can help open up an acoustic sound acoustic pickups (piezo) are a wild card. Huge cuts are completely normal. Season to taste.

Electric
Be Gentle that tone is often carefully chosen

80 to 90 Hz and below - Mud: High pass it.  Nothing useful down there.

150 to 200 Hz - Thickness: "guts" of a guitar normally come from, but can quickly cloud a mix. Use sparingly, perhaps automate to beef up a solo and tuck it away when everything else comes in.

300 to 1,000 Hz - Life: I call this the "life" of the electric, as many of the things that make an electric sound like an electric live in this range. So attenuating needs to be taken into consideration carefully. Too much though, and you start fighting with your snare and things like that, so take note.

1,000 to 2,000 Hz - Honk: This is where honky and harsh characteristics can usually be smoothed out with a wide cut centered somewhere in this range.

3,000 to 8,000 Hz - Brilliance and Presence: shimmer and mix cut through when boosted. It can be cut to keep a guitar from conflicting with a vocal overtones. Boosts in this range may cause noise from distortion/effects pedals.

Piano
Mic technique is everything: Strings (low, high) hammers,  resonator, close, distant... because it covers almost the entire range of perceivable sound you might need to dip it in places to make room for other things. Particularly human voice.

100 to 200 Hz - Boom: This can be a great place to add a little warmth to a solo piano in a studio environment, but more often than not will be the first place to cut some of the girth in a piano in a mix or help reduce feedback potential in a live situation

3,000 Hz and above - Presence: Adding a little "air" here can be great to brighten up a dark piano tone, depending on mic placement. Be careful not to bring out the noise of dampers on strings (particularly in the

3,000 to 5,000 Hz range), as this can quickly become distracting and jarring
If we're dealing with a real electric piano over a sample, things can be very situational as amp, mic'ing, and condition of the instrument itself can play such a huge role

100 to 200 Hz - Boom: As with its acoustic counterpart, the low end can go from lush to overgrown Jurassic underbrush quickly. Particularly with the rich, dense harmonics of something like a Rhodes, cutting "mud" is usually your first order of business
800 to 1,000 Hz - Bark: Managing the "bark" and damper noise can sometimes be an issue, but if things are cutting through too much, odds are it's somewhere in this range

Organ (B3)
good mic placement and drawbar settings.  EQ should be applied only as a corrective measure. Look for clashing with the bass (80 to 180 Hz), if it's feeling a "chubby" in the middle or fit with other mid-heavy instruments or guitars, make cuts somewhere between 300 to 500 Hz.

Synths
This tone was a choice… Little more to do but make it fit in the mix.

400 to 600 Hz - Thickness: Many synth sounds can get kind of muddy in this range and mess with the clarity of the sound itself, especially when you start layering multiple synths. Searching somewhere in this range is a good place to start.

1,000 to 2,000 Hz - Cut/Bite: This is where you can usually find the attributes of a synth patch that are going to help it poke through the mix. Cut here to help tuck something back and out of the way, from guitars to vocals.

3,000 to 4,000 Hz - Presence/Clarity: Also like voice and guitar, this range helps add excitement to a sound. possible pain point.

Horns
Saxes
300 to 400 Hz - Honk/Woof: This somewhat depends on what type of sax we're dealing with, soprano to baritone. As we go lower, this point is also going to move lower.

1,000 to 2,000 Hz - Squawk: Again, the type of sax itself may cause this point to float a little more, but you can cut the "parrot on a 'roid-rage bender" tendency of some instruments here.

6,000 Hz - Reed noise: As saxes generate sound from a thin piece of wood vibrating in an air stream, there's a noise that sometimes accompanies this. Right around this point is where to start looking for that vibration.

Brass
100 to 200 Hz - Boom/Mud:  particularly trombone, non- compete clause with bass and rhythm section. Getting it out of the way is usually best, as this range will serve little except to cloud most mixes.

4,000 to 10,000 Hz - Brightness: This top end can brighten up a dark horn section. However, trumpets can nearly take someone's head off in this range with a good blat, so managing this band is key here

Vocal
Male voices, though typically lower than female, have more complex overtone structures, meaning that at least equal attention needs to be paid to the high end of a male vocal as a female.

100 Hz and below - Rumble: For most vocals, all you'll find down here is mic-handling noise, stage/floor vibrations, air conditioners, etc. Get rid of it.

200 Hz - Boom: This frequency is usually where you'll find the "head cold" sound. The female voice may run a little higher, but this is the ballpark. Anyone with allergies or sinus issues knows exactly what I'm talking about.

800 to 1,000 Hz - Word Clarity/Nasality: Not enough and intelligibility of some lyrics may be unintelligible, too much and you get the teacher from Peanuts

3,000 Hz- Presence/Excitement: This is right around the point that tends to add some energy, or some "buzz" to a vocal. Not enough, and the vocal may sound deflated, flat, and dull. Too much, and your listener will feel like he or she is getting poked in the ear canal with a chopstick every time the vocalist opens his or her mouth.

4,000 to 8,000 Hz - Sizzle/Sibilants: Typically this is the range a de-esser is handling. If your vocalist sounds like meat hitting a hot pan at the end of any word ending in "s" or a similar sound, this is where to hunt

10,000 Hz and up - Air: Want to "open up" your vocal a little? Apply a light shelf boost around here and that should do it. This is not always necessary, though, and simply adding "air" for the sake of it can make things harsh, brittle, and introduce noise to the sound

Basketball With Animals

Making animations with Dave Quion is one of my most rewarding undertakings. The following has pretty much been our routine since we were Suite mates at CalArts and worked on our first short "Lobster Shmobster" together.

Day 1. 
He comes to me with some absurd script and we spend hours in my studio recording voice overs and Improvising around the theme, laughing at our own silliness.

2 Months later.  
I get the animatic and seeing the characters shape and form start to lump together a sonic landscape. 

8 Months Later. 
Receive Dave's meticulous one man hand drawn animations and starting cutting in sound effects.  The overall process and collaborative element of our projects together is truly one of the most rewarding working relationships I have.

The fruit of that love and labor has resulted in one of our most polished and sleek shorts to date. "Duckhammer and Beavkid Get Buckets",  Is the story of two roommates,  a slacker Duck, and an average Beaver.  In their Universe all problems are solved with Basketball.   In this first Episode Duckhammer Learns how to dunk and Beavkid coerces him into face off against Rhino and Iguana for a futon.

Dave's rendering of 2D into 3D camera moves is particularly of note.   We intend to continue this as a web series,  or get a deal with one of the networks.  If you like it, help spread it around.  We are all grassroots here, doing this Independently as a labor of love.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

   

Song of the Open Road - Walt Whitman

82. Song of the Open Road
by Walt Whitman

1
AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,   
Healthy, free, the world before me,   
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.   
 
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;   
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,  
Strong and content, I travel the open road.   
 
The earth—that is sufficient;   
I do not want the constellations any nearer;   
I know they are very well where they are;   
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.     
 
(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens;   
I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go;
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them;   
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)   

Mesquite Treason Releases Etudes In Construction Of Timbre

Etudes in Construction of Timbre is a study in layering recordings of building and experimenting with a series of new instruments, including a guitar turned cello, aluminum pipes turned chimes and bowed children's toys and a microtonically tuned Autoharp.

The Bluebird - Charles Bukowski

The Bluebird

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that he's in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess me up?
you want to screw up the works?
you want to blow my book sales in Europe?

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him die
and we sleep together like that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man weep, but I don't weep,
do you?

Charles Bukowski

Tears of the Moosechaser - Pioneering Spirit For the Future of Country Music

Cried the voice in the wilderness.

Because of the last 14 years of country artists with bleached or high lit hair playing disney type pop songs, it was only matter of time before the creative youth began to rebel and return to roots.  Which means, if you are looking for a better type of country music, the kind that hearkens back to the good old days, modern reproductions of olden style are popping up across the Great States and even being imported from the outside. Less common, however, is the forwarding of the genre especially in radical new ways.  In some parallel universe, County evolved naturally from the 60s picking up along the way a portion of what Coltrane contributed to Free Jazz and dabbling  in the forward thinking of the British Invasion groups like Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd's influence on America's popular rock, eventually allowing rock to step away from itself and bring something like Radiohead into the mainstream creating something all together new.   Country Western Roots music now offers the intellectual and yet approachable Tears of the Moosechaser. 

Tears of the Moosechaser has embraced the Wild West fiber of anarchy in Outlaw Country lost in the days since country turned sterile and cross pollinated it with the chaos propelling 20th Century Classical, Free Jazz and Industrial Music for the last 50 years. They define themselves as Avant-Americana.  It is not clear whether they are trying to salvage or obliterate the splinters of country western music, but It is nice to see a group of classically trained musicians knock at the door of something so home grown.  It holds no irony that a band like this would form in the west.  Los Angeles has been budding for some time now with both alternative country and experimental.  TotM holds a cast covering a huge demographic of the US. The primary songwriters Blanton Ross and Antony DiGenarro hail from Texas and Connecticut.  Other members of the band bring with them the character of Kentucky, Alaska,  California,  and Missouri.  They also have a token German, Ulrich Krieger who holds some notoriety playing with Lou Reed, and his Metal Machine Music trio. 

For Country music with a modern blending old with something forward thinking here are a few videos From their debut album "Songs for a Sinister Woman" to introduce Tears of the Moosechaser

 

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for more see:

www.moosechaser.com

Orion Variations on Circ5 Glitch

I have been on an all acoustic tangent for the last little while.  Partially due to Tears of the Moosechaser and partially due to a failing Macintosh Powerbook G4.  The G4 has been replaced by an all new Macbook monster which has meant all new software or at least all those updates I couldn't get because of antiquity of my tools.  I usually hold to the idea that tools are just a means to an end and it is the user that creates but I am not going to lie the toys really open up new doors.   

So here is a little experiment with Max6 which has completely swallowed MSP and Jitter into one behemoth which after using a while has become quite a delightful change from the old version.

The idea was to create a custom controller using the Circle of Fifths.  Of course it was inevitable to build an autopilot to play it with and the first and easiest was random chord and scale variations of the chord playing into perpetuity.  

 I used an object called urn to hold all the possible keys major and minor (24 total) and output them randomly with out repeating.  Using the same object I built a melody engine to play notes of the scale selected.  Some kind of autonomous 12 tone cycling music that is not 12 tone at all rather 24 tone.  I had to cut out 7th notes because they made the transitions from chord to cord funny about half the time.

Basically all the program outputs is midi information.  I connected it to a synth for a sound source like Bladerunner or some other Vangelis 1980s sci-fi movie so thus the name.  The bug in the code though is the really interesting part,  If Miles Davis says there are no mistakes in music just happy accidents this is definitely no exception.  I haven't yet figured out what causes the notes to stick but it is in the MIDI send out to the synthesizer somewhere. Irrelevant to the chord playing or how long the cycle goes on. 

Funny thing though was my computers almost aware willingness to play along I have the screen saver set to dictionary(considering myself the occasional wordsmith) and the computer went to sleep while I was filming the patch with my phone. Just after I got up to deal with the glitch.  The word it chose was:

INJUNCTION

Happy to have this captured pretty much makes an entire conceptual performance piece out of an experiment.

Whale and Bird Song - The Biological Music of Sea and Air

The social ties of whales are strangely similar to those of a community of humans.  Humpback whales continuously migrate thousands of kilometers throughout their life times back and forth, north in the summer for food and ever south towards the equator in the winter where they breed.  They accompany their journey by singing elaborate group improvisations that actually seem to be the same songs over and over.  The songs are usually 5 to 35 minutes and range from 30 to 4000 hertz.  A song contains up to ten themes that are always sung in the same order.  A pause that lasts over a minute is considered a cycle.   The longest song cycle recorded (by Howard Winn) lasted 21 hours.   The Choir of whales with no leader will change phrasing, often staying on a certain phrase for a long time or shortening others.  Phrases evolve over time a phenomenon known as song drift which is closely related to language drift discussed in  "A Language" by Edward Sapirs.   Over time portions of the whale group songs will become completely different, sometimes unrecognizable from their earlier versions.   However, the main context often remains the same. It has been observed that the song cycles have start and stop themes for the most complex songs.  So why do the whales sing, maybe they just like the sound of it swelling in the water bouncing off under water mountains.  Perhaps whales make aesthetic choices. It has been speculated that the chorus of whales sing for the purpose of building bonds between pods of males,  but honestly no one knows why they sing the songs. Some think its for mating reasons but no one has observed those particular songs while mating.  instead in the tropics during the mating time the whales will sing territorial songs. 

     This is about as close as I think the songs of whales come to those of birds, which sing to repel males and to attract females.  Males sing songs to other males as a competition an alternative to going to physical war over territory or any other resources that could be used to attract mates.  The reason that the singing wars work is because signals that are more costly to produce are likely to be "honest". A weaker bird will be outclassed on every front physically and intellectually and instead of chancing injury will just leave. The intimidations of song rivalries can be seen through increases in intensity which take more energy & show the male condition. Overlapping another bird is a very aggressive move.  It has been learned from territorial playback and observation that territories brodcasting song stay unoccupied longer. 

    The other reason birds sing is to attract mates.  The number of songs that a bird knows shows the ability of the birds survival because an older bird will live longer and thus be able to learn more songs. Birds that match their neighbors songs are better breeders because we all know "chicks dig the songs they hear over and over again" (thats why Pop Music works) My real interest is in song switching which serves to confuse both birds and human observers.  Different birds use song switching differently.  Often birds will just sing a going through song where they say "hey I'm a robin, hey I'm a robin, hey I'm a robin"  According to the Sarah Collins "vocal fighting and flirting"  the song sparrow switches more frequently when aggressive, Redwing Blackbirds and Banded Wrens switch less.  In other birds the female is more likely to switch to attract males.  It all depends on the default non-aggressive state of each bird.

Valentine - Blanton Ross

I'll share with you a sad sort of Valentine, off the album Gray.  The Visuals are blamed on T.S.Nestor as a front for LogicalCurl, but I could say its my very first attempt at frame by frame animation. 

Edward Ruscha

Most noted as Pop Artist, Ruscha has created a great deal of work from the Southern California area where he has taken up residency.  He received training at the Chouinard Art Institute which would Later be joined with Ahmonson by Walt Disney to become The California Institute of the Arts.  A large percentage of his works contain text as a prominent feature,  California itself has also made "a few" appearances.  There is no shortage of work by Ruscha, most of them are large and he has been extremely prolific. Here are a few works

The Future of Noise Music and Childrens Rebellion

In this time of Miley Cyrus, Beiber boinking Selena Gomez, American Idol, Rhianna getting beat up over a herpes incident,  Lady Gaga's fashion use to gain stardom,  Green day getting old and political,   Chocolate Rain and the Double Rainbow Song blasting to insane YouTube heights, remixed and remashed media overload,  shortening attention spans,  the flooding of the markets by the amateur,  the birth of indie music.  the death of indie music, a label driven genre called indie.  Where are we headed?  Blending backwards and round we go again, shifting each pass with a new hue to collide with the old.  Musical trend cycling has placed us in an 1980s shit warp.  The music industry has been shaken in so many ways by technology since the early nineties, the advent of digital music,  freeing up the market to the underdog.  What began as an assault on the damage already done by the big record labels has backfired by the the "Do It Your Selfers" flooding the market with thoughtless mediocrity.  The recording of music was once difficult when proper facilities and the knowledge of their operation was required... now any Joe can do it with programs that come standard on a MacBook or in an iPhone app.  Quality control right out the window.
So now the trick is to get noticed amongst the rubble... somehow... and the musical revolution has been reduced to a media manipulation popularity contest.  To have the time to create quality creations often means the neglect of the realities of the day: kitten comments,  Chuck Norris,  drunk babies and the ruthless recycling of media on and on, though the concept of Memes has become a digital virus, its not really a new idea is it?  Warhol was doing it and now you can too with the war hole preset on Mac Photo Booth.   Complain about it as much as we can,  this reality is here to stay.  What is? What is just stupid?  Indifference and small thought.  It has all been said before.

There is rumor on the wind of Americana bursting through the earth and back into the mainstream, but  the nature of revisionist roots music is inherently reproducing a much further back past. So we wait for a movement, in which something unique will bubble its way into the Echelons of Popular culture. 

But there is hope, Ruscha knew it 40 years ago.

There is possibility the future must be opening towards, and rebellion must certainly play its part in the midst of the brainwashing seeking to render us all thoughtless at the mercy of Murphy's Glee recycling.  Some massive cataclysmic shift away from the American Idol prototype of stardom.   Thought is hoped to prevail,  but it is rebellion which is unavoidable.  If you like the music your parents like, most likely it's not cool.  For those fortunate enough to have parents with good taste, there will probably be a period of rebelling into something else in between.   So that you can come back to it with a mature mindset shaped and renovated before being allowed to think its cool.   Noise is the path, the disturbance in the status quo,  like Obi Won Kenobi It's our only hope.  Just wait and see.  The pure opposite of pop... but as pop? 

It has begun rising up through the Cracks especially in Electronic music like Mr. Oizo, The Books, Matmos, Lexanculpt, Hrvatski, The dirty synthesizer,  the Digital Concréte manipulation of audio files.  Despite being ideas Explored By Pierre Schaeffer, Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis in the early 1900s they have not fairly found their way into the public sight.  Merzbow with his monstorous forward thinking, leads Japan as a beacon of hope to the underground success of noise followed by such names as Melt Banana, The Bordoms and then the much more highly musical Worlds end Girlfriend who pulls no punches when it comes to being noisy.  Add this all to The Underculture of Industrial, Einstürzende Neubauten, Diamanda Galas, Skinny Puppy, Wolf Eyes, Yellow Swan, this stuff makes the Ultimate act of musical rebellion of the 70s seem like kids with guitars.  Not to subtract from Punk music in any way,  It has most definitely paved the way. And is probably the greatest example of how a countercultural movement can swing its way into becoming a Pop culture phenomenon. 

Mark my words, It will not be too long before noise rises.  The economic situation is ripe, people feel unsettled, it leads to needing an outlet, something aggressive perhaps they will take to the streets perhaps they will burn things. We can hope that a creative outlet overwhelms the destructive one.  Street art carries the poetic terrorism inherent in boundary pushing, and doesn't something so underground rising to popularity deserve its own special soundtrack.  New is needed, something is going to have to give,  Kids will only put up with so much of what they are fed. The standard quality of music has become flaccid, There is just not enough time to practice being a real musician. The tools exist to turn everyone into a walking sampler. And this will truly be the failing and breaking point of the noise movement.  The copy cats who think that noise has no shape or form.  The limited mind space to look at the abstract painting and say I could do that and regurgitate with out the background.  But none the less this is the nature of Pop, and the blanket it will weave will ever grow. and in the end perhaps computers will make music only for other computers to hear.

The Making and Breaking of Woodstock 1969

Who could have possibly imagined that a "Music and Art Fair" dreamt up by four young men would become one of the most talked about events in recent history?
Many skeptics believed that an event supported by a bunch of drug crazed youths would inevitably turn violent,  after all the organizer were advertising a gathering of about 60,000 people.  However, as a slap in the face to dumbstruck elders, the festival now known world wide as Woodstock, turned out bigger and more peaceful than anyone could have ever imagined.  Not to say there were no problems, but considering that an estimated 500,000 people from many different walks of life were mixed together for almost four days with a limited food supply, few restroom facilities, an abundance of drugs and alcohol,  a show stopping rainstorm,  and don't forget the evil loud music, things were basically positive.  Elliot Tiber referred to Woodstock as,  "a Counter-cultural mini-nation in which minds were open, drugs were all but legal, and love was 'free."      Although Woodstock was not the first outdoor festival it set the stage for all outdoor festivals that have since followed.  Woodstock can not be acurately imitated ever again, but it sets an extraordinary example for those who would try and follow.

In 1968 at the age of twenty-three Michael Lang got into show business after running one of Florida's first head shops.

What Exactly Is Americana music?

I think its time to face it...  Country music has failed us (at least the label).  There are a few artists trying to redeem the genre but most are just riding that horse into the ground.  One can see the trajectory, and our favorites are amongst the culprits as Country music mutated from Bill Monroe, Hank Williams,Woody Guthrie, and Carter Family, to Johnny Cash, Ray Price, Waylon Jennings, Dave Dudly, Merle Haggard, then Barbara Mandrell, Alabama,  George Strait, to Garth Brooks(We will just Pretend Chris Gaines never happened), Clint Black,  Shania Twain, Kenny Chesney, Keith Urban and then to Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift.  Country has pushed towards rock ever since it was put on the radio,  and taken out of the hills and barns, Rockabilly,  the world influenced by Buddy holly,  and Elvis Presley,  It was a sign of the times the wash of the conglomerate on everything. Honky Tonk lead to Rhinestone Cowboys and disco slipped its hand into the faded blue jeans of the dance hall.  Popular means plastic despite the substance underneath.   The interesting paradox of the migration of the genre "Country" to the Viacom stereotype of pop music phenomenon (complete with rock guitars, highlit hair,  and perhaps a cowboy hat and an embroidered plaid)  has left many artists struggling for a way to label the music of the current underground (and soon to be very popular) movement returning to roots directions.

 "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" was perhaps the turning point where mainstream culture breathed a new breath of past into a young generation, resetting the trajectory at the mark. Some artists were there before but, only a small contingency of people were into it. I think the revival that injected the old bluegrass or hills blues soul back in a big commercial way hails back to the Coen Brothers who made that world relevant in a huge way.  The ripple has been spreading ever since spawning the birth of a huge contingency of artists  who are now creating western themed "Americana" Music, yet are having a hard time trying to define themselves, There seems to be this huge revival of Roots centered music,  as is supported by sites like No Depression,  and a random splattering of blogs.  It seems to be leaking out into the mass media and mainstream.  and becoming fashionable once again but we can't really call it "Country Music" anymore. The thousands of roots country variations unsure of what to call themselves have turned to labels like Roots Music, Americana,  Folk,  Alternative Country,  Insurgent Country, Folk Noir,   there is even a contingency advocating a genre called XXX after moonshine bottles of yore.  The greater harm here though is that "Country"seems to have been clamed by the Nashville camp, who redefined the genre with a steady evolution into bleached hair, designer clothes, pop rock music with a drawl etc. and somehow lost itself In the process.  

It all goes back to Tin Pan Alley

Songwriters handing over songs to big name producers, producers polishing,  artists into the cookie cutter cutout of "What Sells." the remaining struggling CEOs pushing last ditch efforts to make sure their artists get the exposure on the last of the dying radio airwaves.  Since the 90s the distance between R&B Radio and country Radio has been growing smaller and smaller,  Granted there is still a difference,  I heard a country song that felt the need to claim it was country music lyrically because it was obscured in the timbre and production( i think it was called "This is a Country Song".   Songs like "I swear" by Baker & Myers pounded the charts in 1994 crossing genres and released by both John Micheal Montgomery and All-4-One. Take Townes Van Zant, writing from the rough he may just be considered folk though he wrote Pancho and Lefty which turned out to be a huge country hit in the hands of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.  but the Willie and Merle version is pretty electric. That should set the stage for where things are coming from and how they are sold. 

Now that "Americana" is becoming popular, it is finding itself in a similar identity crisis as its older relative, "Country".  But to be fair,  Americana is a lot more ambiguous.  Technically all things made in america are "Americana".  Not really fair because hip-hop, jazz and blues have their own genre,  folk too i suppose is its own thing.  Furthermore there are a lot of European bands knocking on the door of the american sound and doing it well where america is faltering.  So the American sound, must captivate the american Pioneer spirit,  perhaps the popularity exists because economically we the hipsters like to think of now as our own great depression.  Perhaps we are hung up on the Idea of the wild west, outlaws and anarchy but that comes from the Italians.  Is "Americana" defined by instrumentation, using acoustics or sounding old?  No matter what we end up defining this as, It is happening, it is growing and it is a counter-cultural phenomenon.  It is also a repetition of the past and where the Noughts reminded us of the 80s, I am pretty sure we are gearing up for some mixture of this and 90s grunge for the Teens.  I would continue to speculate but I am interested to see how this plays out.

Angels of Light - How I Loved You

Micheal Gira ranks high on my list of all time greats,  gaining a great deal of stature through The Swans while refusing to budge on artistic stances.  He is no stranger to experimentation and forward thinking.  With Angels of Light, Gira moves into melodic territory, soft croonings, lazy days on the beach, spaghetti westerns, and maybe even church, while remaining firmly grounded in dark post rock and noise origins.  Droning and pounding as if in a slow motion heat with a low only slightly toned voice broken and swelling, spilling out dark text like a twisted lover.   Each song carries a sense of growth and forward motion as acoustic instruments combine with electric guitars and the occasional percussive elements, pianos and organs and strange electric textures weave their way around each other.  There is a definite place for lyrics and the voice as the chords slowly strum along yet the music insists on reaching higher as if searching for heaven and always expanding.  It's a serpent in the sky that lifts you up and leaves teeth marks on your skin, but left to one word Angels of Light is... lingering.

 

Mesquite Treason's Audio Tribute to Cormac McCarty's Dark Western Blood Meridian

The first Release by the Apocalyptic Country project Mesquite Treason is a tribute to poetic violence of Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian or The Evening Redness in the West".  It is a sonic atmosphere of folk instruments winding their way into landscapes of horror and endless brooding night.

Faun Fables - Family Album

With an acoustic pagan sound well versed in the lore of old, Faun Fables trespasses on ground reserved for Pan's dark forest dances in seduction of witches.  Upon first hearing "Eyes of a Bird" I incorrectly assumed that the group hosted a single singer, Equating the voices to that of Yes frontman Jon Anderson, but on PCP.   I later learned that Dawn McCarthy was singing with Nils Frykdahl of Sleepytime Gorrilla Museum and the brilliance of Faun Fables and particularly "Family Album" began to become fully understandable.

 

www.faunfables.net

Bjork's new App/Album - Biophillia

It looks like Bjork has been busy, and just to show the world she hasn't lost her touch for pushing the industry forward,  she is releasing her newest musical work as a complete album/application for iPhone and iPad.  In addition to stop motion videos, 

Biophilia as a 3-D multimedia collaborative effort made possible through a large group of artists, scientists, designers and instrument building programmers.  Some notables are Scott Snibbe and Michael Gondry and M/M design in Paris who she has worked with many times before. Science Icon David Attenborough narrarates the opening introduction.

  

 The listener is invited to wander through constellations in order to access Album art, games, notation, lyrics and music.  The interactive approach allows full multimedia immersion in the entirety of the ideal presented in the work, primarily How nature music and technology interact.   The album presents itself as an instrument to be played, toying with organic ideas exploring space and microscopic environments alike.  The games allow the listener to become involved in actually creating the music building rhythms chord structures out of the earth, and fighting mutating viral rhythms.  Then of course you can also just listen Bjorks above par music. In a world where pop artists try and try to be different but still make mediocre cookie cutter songs Bjork shows up and shows Mother Monster she has a lot to learn about being an artist.

A Few More Images That Make Browsing For Stupid Stuff Stimulating

2nd New Los Angeles Folk Festival

The social networks have all been a buzz in the weeks leading up to the event held at the amazing Los Angeles hide away, "Zorthian Ranch", and it was in fact quite a day.   Daiana Feuer and the rest of the gang did an amazing job of setting this all up and making it effortless fun for all of us in attendance.  I need not say too much as the event organizers  have their elite team spreading word of the success through the blogosphere and press.  Be sure to check out lafolkfest.com for a rundown of the events and for some links to recordings of the performances.  
As for my thoughts and impressions,  We all know what I think of TSK,  further to be expected were the singer/songwriters traditionally expected at this type of event.  Some stand outs were Ana Caravelle, perhaps because this was my introduction to her music, perhaps due to the harp.   I should avoid comparing her to Joanna Newsom with a more soulful voice and sensitive style, but there is that similar meandering song structure.  Dust bowl Revival I may have to side with as my favorite of the day, with their old New Orleans folk jazz sound, collective musical talent (so tight) and instrumentation combined (I have more to say and certainly will in time).   I have also come to redefine Folk in the last day,  into an all encompassing cloud involving world music (it wouldn't quite be Los Angeles if the powers that be didn't sneak it in),  The Psycho-Spaghetti Western group Spindrift left a really good impression with their Ennio Morricone gone rock style. All in all it was a great party with some great artists.

Amanda Jo Williams (11:05-11:40pm),
Ana Caravelle (10:15-10:50pm),
Cowboy And Indian (8:10-8:45pm),
The Djin Aquarian Band (11:15-11:50pm),
Dustbowl Revival (2-2:35pm),
Emily Lacy (6-6:35pm),
Fabiano Do Nascimento Trio (7:35-8:10pm),
Ferraby Lionheart (3:30-4:05pm),
Frank Fairfield (7-7:40pm),
Ghiant (2:35-3:10pm),
Julia Holter (8:45-9:20pm),
Jenny Luna And The Moondogs (4:...05-4:40pm),
Matt Taylor And His Laurels (2:15-2:50pm),
Nasambu And The Mystic Nomads (6:55-7:30pm),
Radical Face (5:50-6:25pm),
Ramona Gonzalez (9:20-9:55pm),
RT N' The 44's (10:30-11:05pm),
Ruthann Friedman (5-5:35pm),
Space Comes Soft (7:50-8:25pm),
Spindrift (11:40-12:15pm),
Stone Darling (4:40-5:15pm),
The Stevenson Ranch Davidians (10:25-10:55pm),
Tommy Santee Klaws (9:55-10:30pm),
Triple Chicken Foot (9-10pm),
Very Be Careful (2:55-3:30pm),
Yellow Red Sparks (5:15-5:50pm)

Tommy Santee Klaws

 

"In Formation" is one of those soft sanguine songs that grabs the listener and leaves them hooked on it like a drug.  It's the type of song that ends up breaking charts for a band and getting played 20+ times a day.  I've seen often a great song becoming a definition,  but Tommy Santee's music lives in much deeper places and demands a look at the overall picture.  The Depth of sound is refreshing and unique,  eerie with a dirty undercurrent of western influence juxtaposed with violent beauty in the lyricism.  Furthermore, Tommy just has a haunting voice that seems completely honest, not to mention the well executed harmonies.  I find myself bouncing back and forth between "Rakes" and "Gloria" Trying to figure out which I like more.

"Rakes", Tommy's eighth record, is being distributed by Imaginary Music, a label started by The Cure's Lol Tolhurst, and has a tightly polished sound and immaculate instrumentation as well as host of great songs.  "Gloria" comes from a more raw place with dirty prominent melodic lines and a home grown character that might make it seems less perfect than "Rakes",  but things like the children singing harmonies on the last track("Lame Dude") prove that the depth and the grit has always been a perfect part of the picture. They may, in fact, be the greatest of saviors to the blooming Los Angeles folk scene.