Famous Last Words -- Cornered by Zombies

Figured I'd promote another Salt Lake City metal band, Cornered by Zombies, since I just posted about Visigoth. The two are very different brands of metal, but both quite fun. Cornered by Zombies is a nice two-piece act who play some nice and thrashy instrumental metal. My main praise has to go to the drummer, who is pretty remarkable. I saw these guys when they opened for Red Fang this summer and they put on an opening set that was even more impressive than what you hear on their EP, Famous Last Words. Their performance was pretty spot-on; they were totally in sync with each other and there really were no missteps that I could hear.

Unfortunately their bandcamp page only features two of the songs from their EP, but they're good songs, particularly "Heads I Win, Tails You Lose". My lurking suspicion, based on the guitarist's shrugging reactions during the show, is that the song names don't have much bearing on anything -- kinda like Mogwai has claimed about their own song titles. The names are just good, silly fun. The music is, too. But a different kind of silly; the kind that seems to just be part of heavy metal generally, and is the reason the genre is cool.

I feel like metal always has a lurking dash of humor about its own form, where it knows the who genre of metal is kind of ridiculous, but in a cool, sometimes even profound way. Some of the doom metal I've been listening to lately (Morgion, I'm thinking of you) would probably disagree with me on this point, but I hold to it right now. A little absurdity isn't any more wrong than a little melodrama, or a little bombast -- let's be honest, Led Zeppelin and Richard Wagner are kind of ridiculous, but they're still pretty sweet. Sometimes it's precisely this dash of overblown pomp that tips a band into brilliance. The Sisters of Mercy perhaps stand as my most fond example of this. Point being (and it's by no means a new point), metal's excesses aren't a good enough reason to dismiss it. Most great art is kind of ridiculous in some way, and that ridiculous element is often what makes it brilliant.

Give Cornered by Zombies a listen and see what you think. The songs are good. The whole EP is a quality effort from this young duo. How far they can take their two-person approach has yet to be seen, but for now I'd say they're doing just fine. A full-length album might start to reveal some repetition, but I'm hoping it wouldn't. I think these guys have the technical proficiency and I hope they have the creativity to carry their style forward for a while.

Be sure to admire the cover art for their EP, too -- it's pretty great, in an Army of Darkness way. And then think about just how great that band name really is. Cornered by Zombies. The zombies are everywhere, already, and the band is cornered by them, "because there's only two of us," joked the guitarist. No one wants to be cornered by zombies, but too often that's how it seems to be. Alas. The only solution is more heavy metal, so rock on!  

Final Spell EP by Visigoth

I just listened to Visigoth for the first time tonight and am very impressed. This Salt Lake City-based act has a very solid sound; nice and epic, with plenty of emphasis on power and heroics not uncommon to metal's long relationship with fantastic and mythological themes. Such thematic in metal might be pretty old hat and there are lots of bands out there that milk it for all its worth. For my part, I found Visigoth's treatment to be a good one -- genuine and sincere, without pretense. Their skill as musicians is obvious, but they also show the potential for something just different enough, or just well-executed enough, to set them apart from the pack. For anyone looking for a fresh, young band, Visigoth's Final Spell EP is a great primer, with "Seven Golden Ships" as the (current) stand-out track. Hopefully we don't have to wait too long for an LP. I wish these guys luck and hope they'll be around a while.

Joey's Guitar

Joey Burns of Calexico and his guitar. From Calexico's performance at the Urban Lounge, SLC, August 10, 2011.

Black Marble - Weight Against the Door EP

 If you haven't heard of New York City's Black Marble yet, give them a listen below. Their track "Pretender" is a real standout from their Weight Against the Door EP, which will be available on 12" vinyl February 14. You can already purchased a digital copy at iTunes.

"Pretender" shows a remarkably adept new waver synth style, with a driving beat and bass riff that is all function with no frills. If the track is showing off its in just how direct and focused it is, where nothing is extraneous and everything is substantial. The accompanying track, "On My Head", shows much of the same focus, while not quite matching the intensity of "Pretender". But a solid track all the same, with a lighter, more optimistic charm that explores slightly different territory, but keeps all the technical skill and restraint. This is a band worth paying attention to.

It would also be shallow of me to not thank Jessy for putting me onto these guys. Thanks again, Jessy.

Find Your Note

My N65 is pulling the film through weirdly, resulting in some lines on my negatives, which often doesn't enhance the image in any way. Therefore, the N65 is taking a leave of absence while I consider my options. With Allen's Camera already willing to muck up my scans by not cleaning their scanner properly (they tell me it's really hard to keep it clean, which I don't doubt; but they're supposed to be pros, so I have no sympathy for their hardships), the lines are one challenge too many.

Still, despite the lines and dust, I thought this one turned out alright.

Nothing but You and Me

On flickr

I Will Break Your Fall

A Visit to Tiny Telephone

Tiff and I were fortunate enough to attend John Vanderslice's special performance with the Magik*Magik Orchestra at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. The concert included the entire White Wilderness album, a lovely collaboration between JV and Magik*Magik, just released this year. They also performed orchestral versions of many JV songs from his backcatalogue. It truly was a unique concert experience, and though I seem to say that with every Vanderslice show I see, this concert really did stand apart from those other fine shows. But the memories didn't end with the concert, for near the concert's end Vanderslice invited the audience to a free tour of his recording studio, Tiny Telephone, the following morning. Naturally, Tiff and I wanted to go, and since we had the whole next day available to us, we went. (Luckily, it didn't take much to persuade Mom to come with us.)

  John Vanderslice - Sea Salt by IndieRockReviews 

The tour of Tiny Telephone was a wonderfully memorable experience for a few reasons. First, it further solidified my deep admiration for John Vanderslice as a musician and person. He's a good person with remarkable talent; the genuine article, as they say.

Second, I learned a lot about sound and recording that I hadn't really thought about much before. Sound is cool and recording an album is a really complex process - at least it is when you wanna do it well. Tiny Telephone encourages analog recordings rather than digital, and for good reason: too much of digital recording is crap. New digital technology should be awesome, but most of it isn't. Unfortunately, our new technology has mostly made studio recording lazier, which only encourages lazy listeners - we get used to hearing poor quality recordings and lose our ear for good sound.

Third, I was charmed by Vanderslice's account of the development of Tiny Telephone and the small community of artists neighboring the studio. According to him, the neighborhood used to be a lot more dangerous than it is these days. The change came in part because of the small artist community that filled in the collection of shabby-looking back alley buildings where Tiny Telephone is located, inviting a much safer atmosphere. Additionally, the once-dangerous park next to Tiny Telephone received a skate park from the city, which has helped reduce crime. Maybe other parts of the country have gotten over the stigmas against skaters and the narrow beliefs that artists don't contribute to society, but in my community some of these naive beliefs still prevail. But the neighborhood where Tiny Telephone resides seems to show that artists can do a lot for a community and having skate parks (and other similar community amenities) doesn't increase crime, it reduces it because kids,and adults, have a place where they can gather and engage in constructive activities rather than wander around with nothing to do but get in trouble. This story was a modest example of community action to improve the neighborhood; something we could all benefit from.

There's much more I could say about my visit to Tiny Telephone. But for now I'll just show off some of the pictures I took while there. Vanderslice was kind enough to allow me to snap some photos and I was rather happy with the results.

Note how much the dude in sunglasses looks like T-Bone Burnett.

Thanks to Mom for taking this picture.

 

For more on our visit to Tiny Telephone, check out Tiff's post at The Art of Place.

Trent Reznor & Peter Murphy Kill It

Here's something I wish happened more often: Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy teaming up along with some fellow musician friends to do some radio performances. The match up of Reznor and Murphy is so perfect I'm almost puzzled why a collaborative album or EP hasn't ever happened. Guess it's just not something they've had time for. Simply doing these radio songs in 2006 was enough. But these four performances are so great that it would be really cool if they just compiled all the radio performances they did together for a CD/DVD package and let us have that. Course, then we'd have to pay money for it, and who wants to do that anymore?

30th Anniversary Concert of Einstürzende Neubauten

Here's a great concert by avant-garde industrial rockers Einstürzende Neubauten. I kinda think that Einstürzende Neubauten are the industrial band, creating a sound that was truly industrial. They build a lot of their own instruments out of industrial materials - power tools, sheet metal, pipe, rebar, basically whatever you could possibly find on a construction site. Somehow they make this blend of industrial instruments and conventional instruments sound musical - at least I think so. Sure, sometimes it's just cacophonous noise, but sometimes it's surprisingly beautiful. But you can watch the concert below and decide for yourself what they sound like.

Political World

In the wake of another election, I recommend four albums that seem particularly relevant to the occasion:

• The Ghost of Tom Joad - Bruce Springsteen  
• New York - Lou Reed 
• Year Zero - Nine Inch Nails 
• Oh Mercy - Bob Dylan

I think these get at how I'm feeling pretty well. And below you can watch Bob tell us how it is, which is fun. Yahoo! provided the best visual quality version of "Political World", but of course we gotta watch an ad before getting to the video, which actually amuses me. An ad before "Political World". It's not quite as good as when I watched Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story in the Visa Screening Room of the Elgin Theater during the Toronto International Film Festival, but it's getting there. Enjoy the video.

 

Song of the Week: "Everything was Black and White Except the City Lights" - I Hear Sirens

So, a while back me and some chums attended a chill little concert at the ever-charming back alley venue, Kilby Court. We were there to hear Eluvium, one of the more wonderful ambient bands that I know of. Eluvium was really great and the whole concert experience was really unique - it has been a good year for noticeably new concert experiences (i.e. Gene Loves Jezebel & Eluvium). Anyway, preceding Eluvium was a Salt Lake original called I Hear Sirens. Their opening set was quite nice and I sacrificed getting an Eluvium T-shirt so I could get I Hear Sirens' self-titled EP, which is quite good.

"Everything was Black and White Except the City Lights" wasn't played at the concert, but it is my current favorite track on the EP and a good example of what this post-rock band is about. The song isn't overly complicated. Even in the soft piano opener, the song drives forward with a purpose and intensity that isn't interested in doing anything frilly or elaborate, but seems always focused and controlled. The emotion and feeling in the song is nice and impassioned, but never to the point of boring melodrama. It's just a really nice song that probably sticks with me so much because of their seemingly simple and direct approach, which keeps the track strong and meaningful, whereas a more elaborate, flashy approach might have sent the song soaring, only to deflate at the worst possible moment. (Sidenote: I might get stoned for saying this, but Depeche Mode's "One Caress" flops in this way. I think Martin Gore shoulda cut his last repeated chorus to let the orchestra swell and crescendo; as is, Gore's vocals flatten the whole finish, creating an anti-climatic song that boasts some nice lyrics, but ultimately dull music). I Hear Sirens come close to going over the edge, but maintain a firm hold on the pace and tone, knowing when to pull up and rely on less to be more.

At the risk of getting this band wrong by inappropriately inserting characteristics I perceive them to have, I'd say that I Hear Sirens sound like a group who (obviously) like playing music, are a bit introverted and uncertain about some things, while holding to some personal beliefs that mean a great deal to them. They feel things in a way that they believe can be best expressed through music. If they succeed or fail at accurately communicating what they feel is, for me, the lesser goal; the primary objective being more to have felt something at all and to have expressed it - basically, to have done something, gone for something. Maybe sometimes the act of going is far more profound and valuable than whether or not you got anywhere.

Here below is the audio for the song with an image of an old line-up of the band in the studio. Below that is a grainy picture I took at the show.

Enjoy.

 

I Hear Sirens at Kilby Court, SLC, 5/31/2010

Also, if you like what you hear, there are more tracks to be heard on their myspace page.

Summer Reading 2010

Now that summer has passed and those of us (un)fortunate to be taking classes begin another semester, I thought I'd spotlight a few of my summer reads. It'll be like watching the Emmy's, but a lot less interesting.

I like to think that summer reading is a time to catch up on all those fine things we couldn't read while taking those stuffy university courses where only the serious stuff got read. With summer, we can (perhaps only temporarily) set aside the serious reading, let our hair down, put our feet up and lounge in the bathrobe, enjoying a light read. Leisure reading isn't supposed to be hard, after all. If the point was to think, we'd stay in classes. No, summer is a time for "something I can ignore." But sometimes this weird thing happens where I just can't let the serious stuff go. Basically, I'm often still too uptight and humorless to indulge exclusively in the light and fluffy stuff. And then there are times when words are too hard and I just want pictures - for that there are photography books to look at and admire, though I know nothing about photography. I guess summer allows for anything. Whatever your taste, summer is a time of personal indulgence - at least, it is for me, since I still live at home and avoid any real responsibilities.

Because I'm a geek, I have a list of everything I read this summer, to give a little context to the selections below. There were several nice reads, but only five will receive special recognition here. The winners are:

BEST PICTURES: Ordinary Lives - Rania Matar

Rania Matar's photos of contemporary Lebanon and the people who live there are some of the coolest shots of modern Islamic culture that I've yet seen. These portraits of Muslim women (and some men) living their lives in the bombed out, war-torn cities of Lebanon are hardly the images you find on Fox News - most of Fox's viewers don't know where Lebanon is anyway. Ordinary Lives shows something that, when you think about it, should be quite obvious: the ordinary citizens of Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon are living their lives, in the same general manner that anyone does; you work, have a family, have fun together, go shopping, go to church, listen to iPods, and anything else that the average person might do. But these ordinary lives are living amidst piles of rubble and destroyed, yet still occupied, buildings. Her photos always seem display more than one possible story, which is a helpful reminder to those of us (meaning all of us) who are prone to forget that life and people are complicated. They contain more than one story and deserve to be seen and treated as human beings rather than as just faces in the crowd, or worse, collateral damage.

BEST MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT: The Wilco Book - Wilco & Dan Nadal

What's better than a book with soundtrack included? The Wilco Book is an example to all books about artists and bands in how to really please your audience (or just to get them to buy your book): Include a disc of otherwise unavailable material. This doesn't seem like such a bad move since some musicians (i.e. Elvis Costello) have made claims that there's nothing more useless than writing about music. If the music is the center, then stop talking and just listen. While I appreciate the passion behind such statements, I think there's a place for writings about music. However, I still feel that the disc of outtakes and experimental recordings from the A Ghost is Born sessions really is the best part of The Wilco Book. The pictures, interviews, and essays are also interesting and worthwhile to any Wilco fan. But if turning the pages does seem like too much effort, then just hit 'play' on your cd player and enjoy the reason you wanted to read this book in the first place.

KYLIE AWARD: Then There Were None - Martha H. Noyes

Kylie was responsible for four of this summer's reads, either because she lent me her copy (Goth Girl Rising and The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead), chose it for our monthly reading selection (Howl's Moving Castle), or gave it to me (Then There Were None). All four are very fine reads, but Martha Noyes' short book about the disappearance of native Hawaiians due to American colonialism was the most affecting. It blends photography, historical information, quotes, and poems to give a short, concise, and substantial account of this under-addressed event. The book is more interested in illuminating and expressing the emotions that surround the event, than in presenting a dry historical account that points fingers and demands justice. Its intention is not to stir up anger or controversy, but more to give voice and feeling to a people and culture that have been diminished, overlooked and forgotten, left now to serve only as a tourist attraction. Despite its size, Then There Were None, packs one hefty punch. It contains enough information that I felt completely satisfied, while hoping that someday I could learn even more about Hawaii.

REAGAN AWARD: Don't be Afraid, Gringo - A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart: The Story of Elvia Alvarado - Medea Benjamin & Elvia Alvarado

Elvia Alvarado loves Ronald Reagan. Really. She's a big fan of the man who supported a corrupt government that repeatedly oppressed the peasant population of Honduras by taking away their land, denying them jobs and food, and imprisoning, torturing, and killing numerous lower class citizens who spoke out against this foul abuse of power. Alvarado is an impoverished Honduran woman who, through grassroots education and social activism, became a principle player in the lower class movement to reclaim stolen land and begin empowering women and working class citizens with the tools and know-how to survive in a country where all the wealth went to the upper class landowners. Don't be Afraid, Gringo is her story, in her words. The language is clunky and I guess what you would expect from someone who didn't make it past the fifth grade (there was no money to go on further). But the language also has a simple eloquence and straight-forward honesty that transforms these clunky thoughts into brilliant insights on the struggle for survival, recognition, and dignity. Alvarado is a voice from the working class Honduran - a voice that most Americans, including Ronald Reagan, have never heard. As a result of Alvarado protesting and peacefully fighting for the impoverished masses, she has been branded a Communist, arrested multiple times, and even tortured by her police captors. But still she has survived and continues to work towards establishing her vision of democracy. Some of the book's best moments are Alvarado's  thoughts on what a real democracy is and how she doesn't think Reagan is interested in establishing real democracy in Latin America. Ronald Reagan not interested in spreading democracy? Isn't he supposed to be the All-American President and poster-boy of all things Democracy? Not for Elvia Alvarado, and her observations are great and her use of real life experiences to show the injustice of the American-backed Honduran government are some of the best I've read. The book was first released in 1987, while Reagan was still President, but looking at conditions in Honduras (and all through Latin America) today show that there is still a lot of work to do to improve the conditions of the working class citizens. America's destructive involvement in Latin America is a shameful example of contemporary colonialism, and while I'm sure America has done some good down there, accounts like Elvia's show that, most of the time, America's self-interested intervention into Latin American affairs has hurt most the people who deserve it least.

BEST BOOK NOT ABOUT COLONIALISM: Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynne Jones

For whimsical young adult fantasy, Howl's Moving Castle is one of the most charming stories. It often doesn't feel like there's much of a story at all, rather it just ambles along, often sitting back and taking its time, simply enjoying watching Sophie interact with these humorous characters. I liked just watching her interact with Calcifer, Michael, and Howl so much that I didn't really care if the story ever went anywhere. Almost like Sophie herself, I kept forgetting that she actually wasn't supposed to be an ornery, yet endearing old woman, and that there really was an obstacle for her to overcome. Jones' style is light and fun, but never void of substance. She has a point to this novel, but she has a rather round-a-bout, light-hearted way of expressing herself. My only issue is one of taste: she uses too many adverbs, especially in the first half of the book. By the latter half, she reigns in the adverbs pretty well. This is a small complaint, and one that I'm very willing to overlook so as to spend more time thinking about all the great things about this book. I know this is a popular book, and I'm aware that I'm a late-comer to Diana Wynne Jones' work - so how good this book is might only be news to me. But it's a fast read, and a fun read; so, if you have the time, I'd recommend revisiting this lovely world.   

David Bowie & Trent Reznor: The Performance I Never Could Have Seen

Here's a performance that woulda really been something to see. Though I never would have had the chance, as it happened in 1994, and I was only 11 or 12 at the time. At that age I don't think I'd even discovered David Bowie yet. I did, however know about Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails, as my brother, Michael, had the Pretty Hate Machine album and, through my 11/12 year old lens, would enjoy tracks like "Head Like a Hole", "Terrible Lie", and "Ringfinger". (I think about that now and can understand why my Mom was bothered and annoyed that Michael would even listen to that album himself, let alone let me listen to it.)

So when David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails hit the stage together during NIN's Downward Spiral tour, I had no idea it was taking place. Now a lotta years have passed and my love of both Bowie and Nails has solidified into a pretty intense amount of love. So it's a real treat to see this footage of these two artists sharing the stage for an impressive performance of the NIN staple "Hurt".

*Thanks to Aaron for sending me the video link.

Coming to Salt Lake

So, you all remember that the Twilight Concert Series starts this week, right? Right? Well, here's the line-up just in case anyone has forgotten what goodness is Salt Lake bound this season. Hope to see some of you there.

More on the series.

Hear That Sound

I've been listening to the new National album, High Violet, a lot this week - thinking about it a lot. I like the album. Not as much as 2007's Boxer, but much more than 2005's Alligator. High Violet has some of the same charm as Boxer - nice drums, (mostly) nice lyrics, and a general feeling of anxiety laced with hope that I guess I connect to.

But there are some notable differences, too. Matt Berninger's vocals often have more echo to them and the general sound of the album is more open, which I guess makes sense since they recorded it in Aaron Dessner's garage. These changes are fine, except that part of the charm of Boxer was how soft, close, and intimate the album felt and sounded. Boxer sounds like it was recorded in your living room; like they're playing the album right there in your room and Berninger is talking to you. With the rather personal, albeit cryptic, nature of Berninger's lyrics, I think the closer sound serves his voice and lyrics better.

And the music? Well, songs like "Terrible Love" and "Lemonworld" feature a noticeably more grungy sound. As simply a taste issue, I prefer their smoother sound - again, Boxer, excels at this. But some discussion among some friends of mine wondered whether this grungy sound was a conscious musical decision, or just a crappy recording. I'm not a skilled enough listener, nor do I have the hi-fi system to really make such a judgment (though my Sennheiser PX 100 headphones are a respectable way to listen to the recording quality of an album - at least for a layperson like myself). I tend to think the gritty sound was a conscious decision rather than an ignorant blunder. Whether or not High Violet's recording contains blarring flaws doesn't change that there's more to the album than just the quality of its recording, and, in the end, I think the pros outweigh the cons. When I listen to the disc, the thing that really frustrates me is the album's rather limp conclusion; the last two tracks, "England" and "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks" just aren't that interesting to me, regardless of how good or bad the recording is. There's more to a song than its recording, but the quality of the recording is still interesting to think about sometimes, and I feel like writing about that for a few paragraphs.

I like a good recording as much as anyone, but I'm willing to forgive some poor production, mixing and mastering if the songs are strong. There are a number of poorly recorded albums out there that are still really great - I'm thinking of things like The Sisters of Mercy's First and Last and Always, Redemption (Bound)'s Home (Again), Skinny Puppy's Rabies (though that was a pressing error, more than a recording flaw; the album was later remastered and reissued), Metallica's ...And Justice For All and Death Magnetic, Simple Minds's Reel to Real Cacophony; even my favorite album, The Cure's Disintegration sports some rather murky recording (lucky for us, in less than a week that will hopefully be rectified, as it has been for The Sisters and Simple Minds albums).

The issue of an album's recording has become more of a thing after indulging in a long(ish) Metallica binge. During this heavy metal indulgence, I read a less than impressive book on Metallica's songs, which drew my attention to ...And Justice For All's (poor) recording quality. I've always really liked the Justice album. It appealed to me much sooner than Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and even Metallica (the Black Album). But I didn't notice the crappy recording. I knew it sounded different, but seeing how I was in jr. high at the time, an album's recording quality wasn't the thing I was most interested in when it came to listening to music. Anyway, after recently listening to the disc a couple times, I can see the problems that people have been talking about - the biggest issue being that you can hardly hear the bass, which you think I'd have picked up on since I am such a fan of the bass guitar.

Recently, while reading some reviews of the Metallica documentary, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, I stumbled across some posts on the recording quality of Metallica's most recent album, Death Magnetic. They weren't very nice, complaining about how loud the album is - meaning how loud the album is recorded. Again, I had noticed the album sounded different and was loud, but I failed to notice that it was how loud the recording was, not just how high I had the volume. This explained why I've often found myself turning Death Magnetic down more and more while listening to it. The disc is too loud, and it's really too bad, because the songs are really good (except for the closer "My Apocalypse", which is just kinda there). I could argue that part of the reason why I missed the recording issue on Death Magnetic is that I've been listening to a 192 kbps mp3 rather than the CD or vinyl, but the truth is I just missed it.

So what does it matter that Death Magnetic is recorded too loud? Well, it's a matter of compression, as was explained in a very enjoyable article in the now canceled magazine Stylus. Writer Nick Southall explains how the new thing in recording is compression. The more you compress a disc, the louder it gets; if you compress it too much the album will be so loud that it clips (basically, the sound is shot and sounds bad). Even if you don't compress an album to the point of clipping, it still pushes all the volume levels on the album to one average level, which is unnatural and weird to listen to. Variation in sound levels is a natural thing to music and the ear likes it much better - listen to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, to see what I mean. In the case of Death Magnetic, the whole album sounds like it's being played at maximum volume, so maximum that the instruments begin to blend together and the sounds distort, which make the album less appropriate for your headphones and more appropriate for a Gitmo torture cell. When I don't even need to drive my speakers beyond their limits to get clipping, there's a problem.

Unfortunately, Metallica isn't the only sinner when it comes to high compression recordings. It's actually becoming the norm amongst the big music industry studios. Pop in an older disc and then compare that to a more recent one and it's almost guaranteed that there will be a noticeable difference in recording volume. A little compression isn't bad, but like anything there's a threshold that shouldn't be crossed.

The problem basically boils down to laziness; studios want an immediately attention-grabbing record. And listeners don't wanna turn the volume up anymore and aren't really paying attention to what they're listening to. Music wallpapers our lives - it's everywhere, and we've kind of stopped listening to it (if we ever really did). It's now just a sensory thing - a stimulant - rather than an art form, or even an entertainment. The lazy listener isn't interested in what is really going on in what they're listening to, just that they're listening to something that appeals to the most superficial needs of the listener - a beat, a melody, even just an image rather than a sound. The lazy recording artist wants their record to appeal to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible; enter high compression and botched music.

This seems another example of how the lazy, yet mainstream, use of modern technology actually creates a poorer quality product and a poorer quality experience with that product (even if we don't consciously notice, our body can tell). It's like crappy cell phone cameras being used as the primary camera rather than the emergency camera for those out of nowhere moments you just gotta have a picture of. Or watching movies on iPods, and rubbish quality YouTube videos. Again, sometimes the quality is gonna be shot and there's nothing to be done about it; but for somethings (i.e. movies; music videos; heck, even many digital cameras for home movies shoot a decent picture - is uploading them at decent quality too much to ask?) ruddy quality is rather inexcusable, especially when we dismiss cassette tapes and VHS as obsolete and poor quality - my VHS music videos look and sound better than most of the videos I've watched on YouTube.

The digital age and the mp3 explosion have saturated the music world with poor quality mp3s - they take up less space; naturally, when you cut out all those frequencies that really fill a song out, your file sizes will be smaller, but so will one's listening pleasure (give Dead Can Dance's Within the Realm of a Dying Sun or Mike Oldfield's Light + Shade a cd vs. 192kbps mp3 comparison and it becomes really obvious how much is lost in the conversion). We absorb all these things because they're easy and convenient, not because they're better. It also doesn't help that we're often listening to our music on junky speakers/headphones - iPod and Skullcandy headphones are good for wasting resources and feeding landfills, not for listening to music; that single miniature speaker in our laptops is also hardly a listening device, but it can be temporarily useful when it's all you have available.

Perhaps this all sounds a bit pretentious, elitist, and preachy. Fair enough. Sometimes we should be a little elitist about things. I happen to feel like talking about music recordings this time. It's what has my interest at the moment. As one with some technology issues and a perhaps unhealthy love of music, I've just been thinking that we could stand to pay attention to what we're listening to a little more, and paying attention to how the music is recorded as well as the music itself. It's good to sometimes sit down and just listen to an album and really focus on the album - like we would (hopefully) focus on a movie we're watching or a book we're reading.

Photo by Mothslayer

How to Destroy Angels Gets It Right

I already blogged about this on that other blog that no one reads. But I felt like quickly doing so again here, so this news can reach my entire reader fanbase.

All week I've been enamored with the EP from How to Destroy Angels. I kinda think they have one of the best band names in recent times. And it only gets better when you see the music video for opening track "The Space in Between." Like the band name, this video is so goth, especially when you notice that the dead couple is Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) and his wife Mariqueen Maandig, who, with Atticus Ross (the smoking guy), comprise the band. That Reznor and his wife have now done a nice, gothic, industrial rock album together is cool enough, but to then do this video is just really awesome to me. Though others may find it to be a bit much.

The video is rather intense and gruesome, but effective and well put together. I can't get over how fabulous it is that Reznor and Maandig, married as of last year, decide to be the dead married couple in their video. It's pretty awesome in that suffocatingly or masochistically gothic way that really intrigues and amuses me. Reminds me of that great Buffy line: "When you kiss me, I want to die." As dark as this video may be, there's something really charming about this married couple collaborating on a project like this. Paradoxically, it seems to dispel some of the darkness, if that makes sense. "The Space in Between" lays the darkness on thicker than many of the other tracks on this EP, and is a track that deserves to be performed by a band called How to Destroy Angels. With a band name like that I expect their music to blot out the sun. They come closest to achieving supreme darkness on "The Space in Between" and "A Drowning." The others seem to sport a touch less of that really dark Reznor edge found in some of his Nails work. But then I remember that this is Reznor working on an album with his wife, and then it seems to make sense that the songs here would be dark, but not suffocating; they're just darkly charming, which is a really nice thing.

If you dig what you see and hear, you can download the EP for free. How to Destroy Angels has released this EP as a free download, winning them big points. Offering free downloads of albums is a really fabulous and ultimately financially successful move, as proven by Radiohead's pay-what-you-want initial release of In Rainbows, and Nine Inch Nails's, post-record label releases Ghosts I-IV and The Slip. Giving your music away for free doesn't mean you lose money. Radiohead and Nails have both made plenty of cash off the CD and vinyl releases of those free albums, not to mention the people who then went to their concerts and bought other merchandise. Yeah, these two bands are doing alright. Granted, they were both already successful and basically able to do whatever they wanted, but the principle behind file sharing and offering free music still seems sound; I've attended many concerts and purchased many CDs of bands far less successful than Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails that I discovered through "illegal" means. I have CD versions of all the aforementioned albums, because I not only like to have a tangible copy of the music I love, but also because I like to support the artists I love. What I don't support are music industry executives controlling an album's cost and the profits, keeping most of the cash for themselves instead of letting most of the cash go to the artists who made the album. The music industry has been wringing everything they can out of consumers for a long time and it has only gotten worse with the digital iTunes age.

But for now I can thank Reznor and his band mates for releasing How to Destroy Angels's EP as a free download and later offering a CD issue for me to buy (which will sound even better than the 320 kbps downloadable version). Reznor has pretty well figured out how to succeed as a musician while also pleasing fans, as evident by advice he offered last year to new/unknown bands. A band who is generous to its fans is much more likely to receive a bit of money, not just from me, but from fans at large. Aren't we all more willing to support someone who we feel is considerate of us as fans and not just as numbers to suck money out of? Such a band is much more likely to get a bit of my money through a CD purchase - or a vinyl purchase, if I could ever get a functioning, quality record player (vinyl still sounds the best, too). How to Destroy Angels, working outside the industry, is succeeding where the industry continues to fail; they've released a good EP of songs made with complete creative control, they've released it for free, and will then release a purchasable album version of the disc so that those who wish to pay - and there are many - will do so. Only the industry loses on this one, and that's fine with me.

In the Cathedral

The Choir of the Cathedral of the Madeleine put on an exceptional carol service Monday night. Every year my family tries to go up and hear at least one of the carol services. We've often tried to go to the Christmas Eve service, but this year it worked out better to go on Monday, which I have no problem with because it seems that the Madeleine Choir is incredible any time they perform.

The choir entered singing "O Come, O Come Emanuel", which the audience is invited to sing along with during the fourth, fifth, and seventh verses. A couple behind us failed to note this detail and began belting out the first verse at full volume. I felt momentarily annoyed because "O Come, O Come Emanuel" is one of my favorite carols and the choir's performance is always about the most overwhelmingly gorgeous thing in music. But I couldn't be annoyed with this couple, even if they weren't the best singers and certainly couldn't harmonize with each other, because they were so happy to be there and singing and you could tell they loved that song and the opportunity to sing it in the Cathedral of the Madeleine with the choir. So it was still a lovely experience.

This service included several songs I hadn't heard the choir perform before, like the "Coventry Carol", "Myn Lyking", and "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree". Beautiful, all of them. "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" was particularly wonderful to me and I wanted to share the text with you here.

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.

His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all: but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

- poem set to music by Elizabeth Poston (1905-1987)

If you haven't yet been to the Cathedral of the Madeleine, I'd recommend visiting. It's a lovely place; one of my favorite in Salt Lake.

Douglas & Bon

Douglas McCarthy