this is josh g

Saw Spiritualized at Terminal 5 last night with my sister, and every song was a different shade of epic, ranging from epic huge guitar slow burn song to epic big spiritual rock to epic over-the-top guitar freakout. They played a ton of new stuff, but luckily the new stuff sounded great, and I’m stoked to pick up the new album Songs in A&E…

Reminded me of this amazing video they did for "Do It All Over Again" off Let It Come Down…I couldn’t find hi-rez, but hopefully this is good enough that you get a sense of how cool it is…

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Apparently there’s no green-screen involved, it’s all Jason Pierce really doing it…

I hunted down the set list from last night’s show, and then cross-reffed the songs, because I was curious what albums they all came from…looks like they did play a bunch of old stuff (including some Spacemen 3 tracks!), but a lot of new, and a lot from Amazing Grace, which somehow I don’t have (how did I miss it?). We did miss the first 4 songs which is too bad, ‘cuz I’d have liked to hear "Electricity" especially…and looks like only the encore came from Let It Come Down. Set list looks like this:

you lie you cheat
 – AE

shine a light
 – LazerGuidedMelodies

cheapster
 – AmazingGrace

electricity
  – Ladies&Gentlemen

soul on fire
 – AE

sweet talk
 – AE

sitting on fire
 – AE

walking with jesus – Spacemen 3

oh baby
 – AmazingGrace

rated x
 – AmazingGrace

lay back in the sun
 – PurePhase

death take your fiddle – AE

she kissed me
 – AmazingGrace

come together
 – Ladies&Gentlemen

take me to the other side – Spacemen 3

encore:
lord can you hear me – LetItComeDown

Since I’m taking the subway again, it’s time to get reacquainted with books, magazines and podcasts. Luckily for me Fluxblog has just started doing podcasts (or fluxcasts)…it’s like listening to the best college radio DJ ever, good times…

From fluxcast 3, here is a track from the Scissor Sisters’s unreleased first demo album…when I first heard it, before I knew what it was, I def thought the ending sounded very Scissor Sisters, but the main body of the track kind of doesn’t…it’s a little more primitive, the electronics are simpler, the vocals are coming from a slightly different place — but all of these elements actually help it.

Lots of sunshine in the sound, lots of sunshine in the sky, the temp has come down to the 80’s, the weekend is nigh…could the Case be on the wane?

Scissor Sisters – Backwoods Disco

Adding to my Case: the fact that sometimes I feel like everyone else on the internet is some kind of damn genius. This guy worked out how to make a sequencer using paper, skittles and a webcam. The webcam picks up where the skittles are placed, and somehow software translates each position to a different drum sound. Moving the pieces around makes different patterns of different instruments.

Weird science.

I Eat Beats from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

On his Vimeo page, the author says:

Future directions may include: more sensor types (e.g., a slider for tempo control), note-sequencing mode, and assigning the different colors to different rhythms or instruments (purple as bassline, or yellow as "every other measure").

There is a cut in the middle where it transitions from solo improvisation to three people interacting simultaneously. Any out-of-sync audio/video is due to my frazzled camera.

One of the other big problems: people like to eat Skittles.

Are you familiar with the case? I know some of you are. The case shows up when you’ve had too much of a good time and haven’t given your brain a chance to catch up. Maybe it’s a massive weekend, maybe too many intoxicants, maybe too much mind-blowing good times. Come Monday morning, welcome to the case. It should probably have a capital C, welcome to the Case. Usage is like a noun: "I’ve got a huge Case." "My Case was evil and unstoppable" etc.

Well let me tell you about the epic Case I’ve got going on. We got back from our mind-buggling vacation yesterday morning after taking the red-eye back from San Francisco. Today I went back to work after a biggg break. And it’s evil hot, and the subway is disgusting, and after being West Coast for so long, everyone here seems so uptight.

Plus, how’m I meant to go back to regular life (bills, work, subway fares, taxes) after seeing what I’ve seen in the past 10 days (Shelagh in Portland, Roscoe’s Wedding, bonfire on the beach, the OR Country fair, the OR coast, a flock of feeding pelicans, sea lions, seals, elk, otter, the prehistoric Fern Canyon, the OR dunes, camping in the Redwoods, the CA coast, mud baths, Sonoma wine tasting, San Francisco partying with Z&G)?

My Case is epic. Nothing seems to matter. Nothing is good. Like Versus said, there’s tunnel at the end of the light.

The only things keeping me from bashing in my own head with a hammer are two tracks I got from the trip.

The first track we heard in a store in Portland, OR…just some random clothes place playing this dope track. It’s by Lateef and The Chief; Lateef from Latryx, and The Chief from Blackalicious. The bass is so solid, and the rap is so flowy in that Bay Area style (Lyrics Born, Latyrx, Blackalicious, Gift of gab, etc.)…

Ambush – Lateef and The Chief

The other track we heard right at the end of the trip, in San Francisco. Hanging with Z&G, and G telling us about how they go to all these parties where DJ’s are giving out free promo CD’s. They got this one from a DJ named Motion Potion (turns out he’s pretty well established and revered), and it was so good I ripped it from him on the spot. No clue what the track names are, but this one mashes up a vocal by Lyrics Born over some amazing, analog-sounding synths and beat. While we were walking around with Z&G, G kept saying "everybody move, nobody get hurt", and now I know why. This track is fantastic.

Motion Potion – Track 6

If I were in a normal frame of mind, these tracks would make me dance around the room. As it is, I’m lucky to be able to nod my head to the beat. There will be a bigger post about our trip coming, right now I’m in no mood.

Case.

In the summer of 2006, before I went out to Burning Man solo, JG & JW gave me this track that they promised would blow my mind. I put it on my mp3 player and took it out to the desert, not knowing a thing about it…oh, and it came with instructions. While digging though camping gear to get ready for the OR trip, I recently came across the print-out of the instructions…they read:

Suggestions from Jon and I

1. Don’t force it

2. HOWEVER, need to have a good place to listen, solid sound system needed, high volume needed, 13 minutes of focus needed, YOU MUST GO FROM START TO FINISH and music heads a must.

3. Don’t let losers in, you must prepare for a ride and people can’t be borrowing you or the others listening.

4. It is A LOT to wrap your head around so be ready to travel

5. Thank the lord for music

6. Be someone

Now let’s face it, these are powerful instructions. I obeyed them to the letter and ended up listening to it in the middle of the desert, sunrise after the man burned, headphones pumped, watching a giant flower-crane machine on wheels drive around the desert in the early morning sun. My mind was totally blown.

And here’s you chance to share in the joy. Normally I would put it on the blog so you could play it right here, but that would sort of fly in the face of the instructions, wouldn’t it? But here’s a link to download it. Obviously, I won’t be around to make sure you follow the instructions, and maybe you’ll just download it and play it right on your PC, or in your car on the way home from work, but I’m telling you, follow those instructions and a good time will be had by all.

Instructions number 1 and number 6 are the keys here…enjoy!

Ultimate 13 Min Track from Jo(h)ns

(right-click to download, then follow instructions above)

Oh, also if anyone knows what this track is, we’d love to know!

(photo from redteam’s Flikr)

Sometimes you hit a dry spell where you don’t find any good music for a while. And then sometimes you hit a vein of gold and for a little bit you find track after track after track. Coming right on the heels of that fantastic Flying Lotus track, check out this good summer vibe, courtesy of Motion Man, from Cocaineblunts‘ muxtape…

Motion Man – Mo Like Flows On (12" Remix)

Don’t worry everyone, I’ve been to the future, and everything’s fine. I recently returned from the year 2117, and I can tell you that you don’t need to worry, Li’l Wayne is still recording, only now his beats are all glitched up and shimmery. I don’t know how they make that future music, but it sure is grandiose…

Flying Lotus feat Li’l Wayne – Robo Tussin

Beautiful animation done to sync with a semi-legendary interview with John Lennon. According to the youtube post:

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it.

Hi-er-res so may take a moment to load. Good stuff. Time to piss for peace.

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Well the story is a little complicated, and I didn’t do too much internet research, but it seems that in the 80’s, this animatronic band called The Rock-afire Explosion was manufactured for use in a chain of pizza places called Showbiz Pizza Place. The band was life-sized and huge, and they would play popular songs of the day.

Wikipedia says the band’s merchandise is still popular and shows up on ebay…

Recently some guys have gotten ahold of one of the bands and have been re-programming it to play contemporary songs…they have a page where you can "bid" for what you want the next song to be, which is a little weird, but hey, it’s the internet…if you really care, there’s a little mini-doc about the band (and their battle with a certain Chuck E. Cheese) here…

The band’s performances range from so-so to super sweet. I can’t stand this Usher song but somehow when it’s performed by a bear, gorilla, dog and bird it really cooks…

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This is how the web works. Dana Desko — who has a pretty badass blog of his own — shoots me a link to the ultra-modern new site for design firm Modernista. It’s amazing, all meta and web 2.0 and so on, check it out, it’s really smart, if a little tough to figure out. From there I check their work on youtube. Turns out they did a music video, "Window in the Skies", for U2, which is pretty darn amazing. It came out in 2006, but I’ve never heard of the song, or seen this video. There’s something about that fluid feeling of clicking links, moving seamlessly from one idea to the next and then suddenly arriving at the sublime…it’s a feeling only made possible by the net…

I wonder if future artists will find a way to use that feeling to really move us, the way a book or a film or a poem or a painting can. Perhaps we’re still analagous to the era when films were just movies of plays.

Well, until then, at least we’ve got U2.

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I mean really, only a band like U2 could afford to license all that, right? It’s cool that they went ahead and did it though.

Why do I like musicals? Is it simply because my parents bombarded my sister and I with soundtracks to Cats, Les Miz and a dozen Gilbert & Sullivans? Is it something bigger, like my general love for old-timey things, or the nostalgia for an age before I was born? Does it have to do with the innocence that musicals have, the general tone of joy that fills acting when it has to break into song?

Whatever the reason, if it’s a good musical, I’m into it. When it was fleet week a little while back, every time I saw a sailor in manhattan, I thought he was gonna break into a tune from On the Town. Sometime i wanna go out in New York, and do like that On the Town poster says: "Paint the town with joy!"

Now don’t get me wrong, I won’t like a film JUST because it’s a musical, it has to be good as well. And just like there are relatively few good dramas, or comedies, or action films, there are relatively few good film musicals. But c’mon, you can’t knock Singin’ In the Rain, West Side Story, Les Miz, or Sweeney Todd (that Depp/Burton one was great!)…

Tonight in the park across from our house they’re going to be doing a sort of Screen on the Green thing where they will show 1776, a two and a half hour musical about the founding fathers. One of them is played by that guy who was in Magnum and is the voice of K.I.T.T. on Knight Rider. Maxine was all set to come see the film until she heard what it was going to be, and I have to say, I don’t blame her — if you’re not into musicals at all, this doesn’t sound like it would be a good time.

But I thought you should get a little taste of it to see what you think…I’ve never seen it, so I can’t wait…in case you hate musicals I’ve spared you the singing in this clip…and it’s short…

Maxine can’t believe that I’m posting this at all…wants to go on the record that she thinks it is "boring as hell."

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There’s a proliferation these days of music videos that fairly grab you by the lapels and scream "look how clever! forward on to all of your friends!! post it on your blog!! now!!!" And while it often comes off as a blatant marketing move, when it’s done with style, and actually is, you know, clever, I have to appreciate it. And then, you know (again), forward it on to all my friends. Or post it on my blog.

This video, Naive New Beaters "Live Good", comes from a metafilter post, and the comments on it hint at both sides of this equation — from "how neat!" to "I’m so tired of this kind of crap." Many metafilterites hate the song, and I will say watching it without the audio is just as effective (though maybe not for the band).

Much as our parents’ generation derided the effect that MTV had on editing (faster cuts, more eye candy, louder), I can imagine a future in which we deride the way artworks become more and more "look at me!!!" in an attempt to stand out on a crowded playing field. And the kids of today will all say "are you kidding? that’s what makes it awesome!" Or whatever they say instead of "awesome". Maybe the new word will be "grandiose".

"That’s what makes it grandiose, yo!"

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I recently saw the excellent film by Penelope Spheris, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II. Part I was a documentary about the early LA punk scene, and it was unbelievably good. Hunt it down, the performances are stunning and seeing burnt-up stars like Darby Crash at their zenith is so energizing. Great great film.

Part II takes a look at the 1988 metal scene in LA. It’s a lot funnier than Part I, because hair metal is just naturally more hilarious than raw punk. Poison have become big stars, Ace Frehley of KISS is interviewed on a bed full of girls, everyone talks about how intensely they’re into drinks, drugs and sex, Aerosmith talk like they’re the biggest thing ever. Guns n Roses get a random mention at one point, but it’s in the context of all the bands currently playing LA trying to make it big.

And that’s one of the most poignant aspects of this doc — that there are so many bands profiled or mentioned who are so determined to make it big, and now, with the hindsight of history, we know that they won’t. Where are these folks now? There’s a sadness, and an irony, but also a strange sense of maturity that comes from seeing so many bands play out variations on this conversation:

PENELOPE: So what if you don’t make it?

BAND: That’s not an option. I will make it. There’s no alternative.

Maturity because I think, well, they didn’t make it, so they must have had to change that dream, or realize that the exuberance of youth is sometimes not enough to make the dream come true. You also need a healthy amount of luck. Rock is for the young, as others have been noting.

I wanted to show one of the bands so you could get a sense of what I’m talking about. For a bunch of reasons I chose this band called Odin. They seem to have it all, poised to break big. They’ve got the look, the girls, the Budweisers in the hot tub, the awesome old-school manager in a suit, oh yeah, and the ASSLESS CHAPS. The only problem is that their music is terrible…

…but somehow it’s still fun to watch them.

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Penelope Spheeris would go on to direct Wayne’s World, Beverly Hillbillies, Black Sheep and many other weak films.

It is now summer. Let us celebrate in two ways:

First, by song,

(yo la tengo – the summer)

and then, by poem (this poem is amazing! the ending is so fierce!):

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver   

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung

herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating

sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws

back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with

her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale

forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings

open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what

a prayer is.

I do know how to pay

attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to

kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and

blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been

doing all day.

Tell me, what else should

I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at

last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you

plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Yes, I have had a job where I had to blur out the naughty bits. It is both more and less fun than you would think.

This is genius v. clever.

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The track is "Toe Jam" by The Brighton Port Authority (BPA) feat. David Byrne and Dizzy Rascal.

Wow, that’s quite a "featuring" section, huh? The BPA myspace has more songs on it, with witty titles like "Should I Stay or Should I Blow". Nice.

EDIT – my first sentence refers to a job in the past…I didn’t actually make this music vid, as much as I would love to lay claim to it…