too much else on my mind

Currently listening to Beck's Guero and QOTSA's 'Lullabies to Paralyze.'

My Cuban Journals are on hold. So is my surprise.

Still re-working that song, 'Umbilical.' Have completely changed one of the progressions, which means coming up with a new 2nd guitar part. All of the other guitar parts are worked out and need to be recorded. Have been rehearsing the song with the new part.

not much else.


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Drinking Coffee, Chewing Chlorophyll

Well, well, well. So much to listen to, so little time. If we went to a 4 day week I could use that extra day to listen to more music, to write more music, to write more about listening and writing music. This week, my birthweek, as I like to think of it I continue to listen to 'The Mars Volta' and now I have the new 'Queens of the Stone Age' with the special time-limited extra DVD, not free mind you.

'Lullabies to Paralyze' is a good, solid QOTSA album. Some surprises, like Billy Gibbons playing lead guitar on 'Burn the Witch' and the beginning of 'Everybody Knows that You Are Insane' that sounds like it could have been written by Chris Cornell. Even the vocal sounds like CC until the chorus. Another surprise was the song, 'In My Head' which was on last years, 'Desert Sessions 9&10' which is another Josh Homme project. Looking forward to days and days of continued listening.

Also on the playing list this week has been Itzhak Perlman's 1972 recording of Nicolo Paganini's 24 Caprices, Op. 1 for solo violin. I'm hoping to cop some licks from a Yngwie Malmsteen transcription of No. 5 in A minor. Extremely daunting as the piece is meant to be played at 168 bpm, much faster than my heart tends to beat even under duress.

And last but not least is the copy of 'Hero and Heroine' by the Strawbs I found this week. An old favourite of mine from 1973 when I was listening to CHOM-FM in Montreal and they would play the whole album because they weren't restrained by an overarching, economically, principled playlist regime, motherfucker train discharge every hour on the hour.

And of course, later this weekend, as promised, my Cuban Journals and a surprise. hehhehheh.

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Shame-free promotion; apply this lotion.

Listening to Rush: The Spirit of Radio, Greatest Hits 1974-1987.

It's all good.

In other news: I've decided to go ahead and type up my Cuba Journals and I may include a few photos. Look for it here easter weekend. You know when that is, eh?


Oh, and I hear that the new Queens of the Stone Age album will be available soon and a new Beck album by the end of the month, bojibbety!


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What's good listening today?

Tool Undertow

Material Hallucination Engine

Tabla Beat Science Live in San Francisco at Stern Grove

The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Rheostatics The Story of Harmelodia

These are not singles from albums but albums in their entirety. Though a good single may pull me in to listen to the rest of a group/performer's output, I will not continue listening if all they can create is one diamond in a latrine of zircons. That's what all these albums have in common, their respective concepts go beyond crafting a single that will gain airplay and pull the kids out to their concerts.

Now, I would go to a concert put on by any of these groups though I have only seen, 'The Rheostatics' live, on multiple occasions actually, here and in Toronto. I remember seeing them in the winter of '91 at a friends warehouse party. All I really remember of that performance was that one of the guitarist's played a Steinberger guitar, which I thought was exceptionally cool. Of course their songcraft was exceptional as well. I didn't see them again until a show at Richard's on Richards in the fall of 1997. A show which sparkled and led to a renewed interest in their recorded output.

So, when do I get to see the rest of them? hmm?


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Larks' Tongue In Aspic

That's right, I'm listening to another King Crimson album from the 70s. From 1973 to be precise. And why would I be listening to such an ancient album. Why do people still listen to Beethoven? Mozart? Bach?

Because the music still resonates, particularly when the opening piece, LTIA, Part One, at the 4 minute point goes from delicate vibraphone percussion by Jamie Muir to David Cross' violin riff to the flanger driven guitar of Robert Fripp's into full-blown metal madness back to violin back to metal and then...there's really no drift to get other than that of mind-blowing genius, and did I mention this opening track is over 13 minutes! Bo-nanza!

On the same album is a LTIA Part Two. Then in 1984 on the 'Three of a Perfect Pair' album there is a LTIA Part Three. Then in the year 2000 with the album, 'The ConstruKction of Light' came LTIA Part Four.

Will there be more LTIA parts? Who knows, not even Fripp would claim to know. But if the music presents itself to whatever variation of King Crimson is present at the time then perhaps there will be a part five. Some say that Level Five from the 'Power to Believe' is part five. I won't accept that.

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Red

Red by King Crimson is now playing. If I had to go to a desert island and there was electricity there and a CD player and food, of course and I was required to bring 10 discreet albums, no mp3 collections; then, I would choose this as one of those 10 albums. And, being a desert island I would crank it cuz who knows when Noriega is going to wander out of the jungle.

Red

for musicians who dig musical theory:
Red: An Analysis by Andrew Keeling.


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Who won the Frances the Mute contest?

In conversation with my friend Don I came to think that perhaps I should reconsider posting my Cuba journals. It's a matter of typing them up and revising them. And I thought well if I can type those up then why can't I type up the text to 'The Princess and the Honey Pot.'

So those are things that may be seen, here, in the future.

And the winner of the Frances the Mute contest is... that's right there is no winner. There was no contest and no prize. But not to fear you may continue on with your lives as if none of this ever happened.


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Frances the Mute Part Two

Surprise and drawing a smile to the lip is the name of the game when it comes to finding and listening to music. Of course, right now I am listening to 'Frances the Mute' and it's danceable and smile provoking and suitable for headbanging and the tapping of the foot.

I was once asked by my friend, Chris MacDonald, if music ever inspired awe in me or elicited memorable, emotional responses. Being a cut and dry sort of fellow I told him at the time that I merely analyzed the music and decided on it's quantifiable elements whether it was something to listen to again. Not in those exact words but you get the drift, don't you? I was asserting my status as scienceman, holder of no subjective POV and without any provocative, biochemical response to speak of. That was me then, in that conversation, HA!

In a nutshell I long for music, she is, how you say, machen Sie zu den Sternen zugänglich, or something like that. I do love playing with, Babel Fish Translation. Go there now!

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Frances the Mute

Lucky for me, the new album from, 'The Mars Volta' was only 9.99! Incroyable! Yes it might say that about the price, combined with the muscular musicality, murderous guitar solos, mood, tempo, and language changes and sheer scale of the concept, which I've read is based on the 'found' diary of a man in search of his biological parents.

Alex Lifeson of Rush led me to 'The Mars Volta' which led me to review my Yes albums 'Fragile' and 'Closer to the Edge' and now back to.... Though I enjoy well crafted short pop songs I also love albums which cohere and reward the listener many times over the course of 45-60 minutes, like rereading 'Gravity's Rainbow'. 'Frances the Mute' rewards over the course of 76 minutes and there are no sharply defined song endings or beginnings. Put it on repeat and the last song blends seamlessly into the first song. I look forward to discovering and rediscovering this album for a long time to come.

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