8 posts tagged “music”
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.
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 JamesP.S. VoxpleasemakesomethinglikethissoIcancancelthisprofiletoo.
I had the pleasure of seeing Neko case on Friday night at the The Music Box better known as the Henry Fonda Theater (Does anyone know why they changed the name?). Narry a sour note, I was utterly impressed with the capability of everyone on stage. Neko Case, herself, performed to what I can only percieve as complete perfection while those backing her up performed their individual magic. The slide player, in particular, performed with the subtlety and musical conscience of a master.
I've been to quite a few shows... and I've really just never seen one come off this well. I forgot how bad my feet hurt until the lull before the encore. That is impressive.
If you are a singer, there is an abundance of material in this world purporting to help you maintain your instrument. Most of it barely escaping the realm of motherly anecdote. The most valuable advice you have found is rumor such as "If your voice fails on stage, take a shot 'o whiskey. It will get you where you need to go." This particular rumor is true but it has nothing to do with your voice.
I have relied on an obscure resource on WomenRock.com for nearly all of my personal vocal maintenance issues. It is impossible now for me to predict how I ever found myself not only visiting this site but digging at it for the articles that I've found so valuable. From their main site today I don't think I could find them again. Hail bookmarks.
Articles from Gainesville Florida's most successful DIY artist Amanda Garrigues:
Opening the Heart and Soul (Proper Vocal Technique)
In the Booth: (Getting a Good Vocal)
I have played more music in Gainesville than anywhere else and it was a complete coincidence that these articles were written by someone from that same "scene".
These articles are just my very focused interest from the resources but there are so many good subjects expounded on in their Music Resources page, informative and practical advice on touring, recording, gear, theory and business.
Here lay the modest remains of our recently way-too-#$@&ing-expensive practice space just along the scenic 405 in the heart of nowhere Los Angeles. A noisy concrete bunker with a perpetually under-supplied coke machine. We actually paid almost half a grand a month for the cracked out manager, the machismo LA rockers and the peaceful desolation of an improvised warehouse district.
For all this luxury, clearly you would expect them to raise our rent 40% and shut us out.. to make way for those more affluent musicians. Just the next victims of the long-running gentrification of LA's rock scene? And where is our next slum? 'Cause I suspect they will at least fill their coke machines.
I couldn't resist seeing it unfold like a folk song... the blue jeans, the carefully folded bandana, the eviction notice with only a guitar and amp in hand. The road ahead, a masonry of limitless possability. The 405, that is..
The photo features a cased Gibson ES-335 and SG, a Dr. Z Route 66 head with 2x12 cab and among the stacks on the pedal board a Z. Vex SHO, Fulltone Fulldrive 2, Menatone PleasureTrem 5000, MXR Phase 100 and a Russian EH Small Stone. Admitedly a lot of modulation for someone who doesn't use any. What you can't see are the Z. Vex Fuzz Factory and a Mr. Echo.
