Same as it ever was

What is your browser's default home page set to?
Submitted by Kelev T. Cat.

Of course I wrote a web accessable script that randomly rolls through a preconfigured list of sites weighted for how often I want to see them and immeditatly redirects the browser there.

So basically I have a different home page every time.  I created an administrative interface for adding and weighting sites as well as bookmarklets for easy adding of pages so that friends could use it.  Everyone has their own profile but there is no authentication so you could roll on someone else's site list if you wanted to.

What albums are in heavy rotation for you right now?

This only serves to reinforce my impression that Vox is following me around, that it knows my thoughts and desires and puts them into action before even I know what it is I'm thinking or wanting.

I was trying to come up with some reason to come here and talk about the albums I have on heavy rotation >.>...

This album, I recall, changed personality as many times as I did growing up listening to it.  It was once too-complex and disturbing, then an exciting conspirator in my classification of Metal as the "One True Way" (tm), followed by my disregard for its theatrics and shallow exposition.  Today it is my favorite album in the genre, Metal without overture.  Just some very loud rock songs about aliens and war, conspiracy and metaphoric pleas for peace.

Oh my god.  Who is this guy?  Wu-Tang, ok.. but still... wherethefuckdidthisguycomefrom?  He's good, real good.  The cut scenes are terrible but the lyrical content skips over 'gangsta' and 'intelligent' and goes straight for brilliant metaphor, rap's finest story telling.  It's a grasp for the roots of the genre and a damn skilled one.

I know there is a lot to know about this album.  It seems to have been a surprise hit at least as it became more and more prominently featured on the shelves at Tower Records.  Isn't she from Broken Social Scene?  Canadian then?  I don't know.  I fail at researching this album but I am in love with it.  Details would only distract me.  Complex and challenging melodies embedded in most unchallenging music.  For many this might be a relaxing summer soundtrack for your indie-rocker front yard BBQ but there is a lot of depth here for the singer songwriter.

What magazines do you subscribe to, and why?

TapeOp because it makes me feel less-inadequate about low budget recording.  Because it attempts to distill all the vinegar from the varied and profound experiences of those greatest minds of creative sound recording.

This book collects the impossible to find first many issues in to categorized sections.  I highly recommend it as well as a subscription to the magazine.  It is extremely valuable as well for musicians who aspire to themselves be recorded.

If you had a band, what would you call yourselves?
Question submitted by Zoot.

Well, I had a band called "Shadowplay" (2 members) for some time, performing in Gainesville, FL.  After moving to LA we called ourselves "Air Traffic Control" (3 members).   Now that I am planning on performing primarily alone I have been faced with just this question.

What does one call themselves when they shy away from self-aggrandizing yet require some representative moniker?

For too long the idea of a band name as a "brand" has been drilled in.  Even on the low end of an indie circuit, promoters and even your listening audience expect.. nay, require some thing to associate you with.  Preferably, you would provide many things, such as a name, an image (literal and figurative), a genre identification, a scene.  They should be able to guess the venues you will play at, estimate your success amongst your peers in contrast to popular music and identify with (and in subtle ways insinuate themselves into) the gestalt of your "brand".

Listening is a feeling!

These days, I perform as Jeremy James but only after asking everyone around me (mostly to their bemusment) what this meant.

A solo musician performing under a band-name-like pseudonym is a thematic decision.  I could perform as "Zoro" but I'd have to wear a mask and cape.. as an illustration.  As a group of musicians performing under the name of a single member such as "The Dave Mathew's Band" you might expect a faceless and changeable entourage.  The focus is obvious, intentional and in my potential case questionable.

To most people, the consideration is meaningless.  It doesn't matter what you call yourself.  It is like naming a child.  You have to do it, it does have meaning to you... but noone else really cares so long as they don't have to refer to it as "your kid" in perpetuity.

With that.. I'm promptly renaming my band "Billy".

Kaki King sent me a "personal" message today informing me of her new album "...Until We Felt Red".  The only way to preview the songs in full is to install ActiveX to which I am morally opposed.  I will find it on lunch and hear it properly (that is, through tiny headphones while distracted by the variety of workaday).

Realizing some of you may not have ever heard of Kaki King or the style of music for which she is both progeny and prodigy, I am using Vox's handy YouTube linkup to rectify that.

I just recently.. as in, just today.. discovered one of her sonic brethren Kotaro Oshio.  He's >10 years older than her but I still think we should introduce them >.>...

And their granddaddy, the late Michael Hedges, called the "Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar" in his time.  Beyond Bounderies is a good catalog of his music and I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in any of this.

I didn't know Neko Case had her turn on Letterman.  Here is the evidence.  I generally don't like these small stage late-night tv performances.  The environment is always too sterile to get any live energy while still allowing the fragile live performance. 

Neko is super-human though and -I am convinced- has never actually made a mistake.  This performance comes off well enough.  I don't think they mixed the backup vocals enough and there was that looming lack of live energy.

What is your current computer desktop image? Let's see it!

If I remember correctly, I saw the original (or a well framed print) at a gallery in L.A.

I should have bought it.

If you could open any sort of restaurant, what would it be like?

Everyone already has so many good answers for this question.  I feel like all my good ideas have already been taken so.. I'm going to go with my bad ideas.

Picture this:  Dimly lit ambiance cast off brightly contrasting, colored furniture.  I'm thinking modern design, plastic construction.  The swarm of colors involved would be dizzying.  I want it to be a place where people can feel like they can have an open conversation while simultaneously feeling like they need to talk no louder than a whisper.

The wait staff will be costumed but given to no absolute theme.  Perhaps I will let them choose and award bonuses for the most creative costume (or the best pirate).  They will be expected to embody the role implied by their costume at all times; in discussions with customers, other wait staff and myself the owner manager.  If they happen to speak a different (alien, ancient fantasy, etc) language, they will be expected to not once, for any reason deviate from their chosen vernacular.

The food would be French, very well prepared and extremely expensive.  I'm not a fan of French food.  This will keep me from scrubbing my own profits and gaining 200 pounds.

There will be a dance floor but no music.

Children under the age of 10 will eat free after 10pm on week nights during the Fall and Spring only.

I'm still working on this.. let me know your ideas.

I have been encouraged to use Myspace for the capability to act as a shoddy network, publishing and sales portal for musicians, or "bands" as they distinguish it.  This involved deleting my current account (the obligatory one we all get pressured into) and creating a special band profile.  I always envisioned a full website with all the trimmings as the best way to share this stuff but apparently, Myspace is the way -.-

I spent a long time debating what the Myspace URL should be... there must be several hundred musicians by the name Jeremy James - all of them with myspace accounts because every permutation I could come up with was taken.  I settled on thejeremyjames.. as in, "Don't F&#^$ with..." or "The one and ONLY!".  Actually, it was the only thing I could get with my name in it which.. it would seem is a good thing for someone performing under their own name.

It isn't clear to me what benefit you derive from doing something like this on that network.  There isn't an exact mechanic for making a playlist of your own music on Vox but in all other ways I would rather be able to share that here instead.  We shall see.

Anyway... the songs posted here will be rough draft for some time as I start deciding what I want to spend time recording for real.  Only one up for now.. it is lonely.

The Jeremy James

P.S. VoxpleasemakesomethinglikethissoIcancancelthisprofiletoo.

While eating breakfast on Saturday morning, when I least expected it, Jean tried this pagan dime ritual on me.  If you let your eyes relax and go out of focus while looking at her dime-laden face she gains control of your will, rendering you a mere puppet-like effigy of your former glory.

Lucky then that the food came out and broke the voodoo.  I feel almost conscious again, the coffee helps... apart from the legal bills and the surprise expense of a swimming pool sized tub of pudding I think everything is approaching normal.