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[greenkoolayd]

i cant get this* out of my head.


*take your momma-scissor sisters

[pmcd9]

i cant get this* out of my head.


*take your momma-scissor sisters

This song appeared on a CarlosDelvaca mixdisc a couple of years ago.  I was hooked.  They've got at least two albums and they both rock pretty good.

Ana Matronic loves my moustache

[theinevitable]

I hate how much I love the "california hipster bum" aesthetic. Pot and cheap beer and fuzzy guitars.

[KeithHernandez]

I liked wavves til I sw this  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Xt77uWUemY&feature=related

that is actually pretty decent, but just live clips in general, then this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs3-QS1RRTg

just turn the distortion up all the way in garageband basically is wavves.  I really like Best Coast and The Muslims/Soft Pack though.  I also still love the song So Bored.  I really still like most of it, just don't really "respect" it I guess.

[theinevitable]

it is really interesting/funny to me when people criticize Wavves in certain ways. It is like "he is not a real band" or "his music isn't ACTUALLY good."
a lot of this lo-fi stuff coming out now, well... I love it a lot. And it kind of brings me back to when I first heard punk music, or when some archetypal person first heard punk music (Mike Watt?) and thought "oh shit, I could do this. I could totally make this music. Fuck. I'm starting a band, right now."

which reminds me of this girl I have been hanging out with this summer (my friend's roommate). She aggravates me because she wants to get into these weird arguments which are based on things being... real?

""Chillwave" isn't a real genre, it was just a joke some blogger made up, it isn't real."
Like. There are some bands that sound a certain way, and a guy made up a word for it as a joke on how people make up stupid names for genres, and then people started actually calling those bands by that name. Hah.
I mean, genres are just shorthand ways of explaining what something sounds like. I do not really care about some sort of complex theoretical underpinning or historical basis if it is a word which tells me that certain bands sound alike. They all sound kind of boring but I guess I see why some people like them.

I guess what you are saying has nothing to do with that. I just don't get either of these things. This post makes me feel like linear.

[littlefallsmets]

"oh shit, I could do this. I could totally make this music. Fuck. I'm starting a band, right now."

Yeah. This line right here unnerves me.

The idea of music as a pose that really anyone can access, at any time, without really having to have talent or skill as long as you know what to fake when. Just find a pose you like, turn up the distortion and if your friends think you're cool enough, viola et voici, le band. Learn to play your instruments, learn how to sing, learn how to play as a band and write songs and...

Then, by all means, break all the fuck*ng rules you want later to do all kinds of crazy things. But starting off knowing how to do your shit gives you the artistic depth to know why breaking this rule or that rule is interesting or compelling makes playing with the medium REAL, not just some goddamned art-school Williamsburg hipster who thinks that having a band will really fit his lifestyle and his image. Music is great for projecting a cultural image, sure, but if music is ONLY a cultural image, it does nothing for me.

I've seen three shows in the last two weeks. Adrian Belew, Weird Al Yankovic and Zappa plays Zappa. This probably says it all about my internal conception of rock music.

[littlefallsmets]

And yes yes, my one exception is my love of Guns N Roses.

But if you don't understand how GNR is the exception that proves the rule, I don't know what to tell you.

[AugustWest]

I've seen three shows in the last two weeks. Adrian Belew, Weird Al Yankovic and Zappa plays Zappa. This probably says it all about my internal conception of rock music.

I'm jealous.  I should probably go see Belew, since he just lives up the road a little in Cincy.  How was ZPZ?

[theinevitable]

or, you know, maybe music is a fundamental part of being human that all humans have always done, forever, until in certain cultures it became a thing that only special people do, and it became wrapped up in this whole mystique of being "art" and something that requires special talent and training.


I'm not saying "anyone can be the beatles." they are obviously geniuses. that has nothing to do with what I am saying here.
I'm saying, it is not that hard to learn 3 chords and have fun with your friends. that is a fun thing, and almost anyone can do it, and that is GOOD.

and again you bring up this concept of something being "real." What makes it real? When you listen to it can you hear "oh, this guy really know the names of all these chords. That Asus2? He knows that he is removing the minor third and adding a second, and not just taking one finger off the chord." Who gives a fuck.

I also think the ramones are brilliant, and they are definitely of the "we are a couple of idiots who bought instruments and started a band" variety.

also, I hate all of the music you like, so I guess we're never going to agree on this.


wait, and what does GNR have to do with anything? they aren't good enough at their instruments for you? isn't slash considered one of the best guitarists by people who like that kind of guitar playing?
man, fuck this noise.

[pmcd9]

Chill out Inev., you're gonna have an aneurysm.

[AugustWest]

or, you know, maybe music is a fundamental part of being human that all humans have always done, forever, until in certain cultures it became a thing that only special people do, and it became wrapped up in this whole mystique of being "art" and something that requires special talent and training.

Can't it be both?  I mean, I think that's one of the great things about how the internet is changing the distribution model for music.  Music is becoming less of a spectator sport.  Until the phonograph, music was pretty much a participatory activity.  You either sat around the parlor and played the piano and sang, or went in person to a performance. 

You know, it's OK to enjoy playing music without expecting it to be your profession.  It's fun to play music and to listen to your friends play.

On the other hand, I have great respect for talented, accomplished composers and players.  I never will understand the disdain for technical achievement or sophistication in music.  I mean, It's OK to like playing the guitar unless you want to play it really well?  WTF?  People who have great ability and who put huge amounts of time and effort into their music are to be admired, not sneered at.

Music is here to be enjoyed, not analyzed.  Quit overthinking and start listening.  You are not who you listen to.  There's great music everywhere if you open yourself to it.

[pmcd9]

What August Said.

[littlefallsmets]

Zappa Plays Zappa was... pretty fuck*ng incredible.

Being a person who is only familiar with parts of Frank's catalogue, a good half of it was unknown to me and... you could tell at points where Dweezil was "keeping up" with his father's material not through having his dad's talent but through sheer years of practicing those individual songs...

But, Christ, the other guitarist and the drummer were outstanding, the male and female vocalists brought on to cover some of the distinct voices were spot-on and the rest of the band was at-least-competent.

Having gotten second row seats comp-ed through an old LA connection helped, of course.

As for Belew, he's doing this Northeastern mini-tour where it is just him and a guitar and a shitload of effects and delay pedals and... it was insane how much sound he could fill between his talent and judicious use of technology. Absolutely insane.

[theinevitable]

honestly, I just don't enjoy listening to a lot of people who are considered technically skilled.

unless it's jazz.

I have no problem with the idea of getting really good at an instrument. it's just that most of the time people who are "really good" play music that I really, really dislike.

I guess, upon further thinking, what it boils down to for me is:

-being really really good at your instrument does not mean you make good music. maybe you're a great improviser, maybe you can do great covers, maybe you can play 500 notes a minute, but you just write shitty music. that is OK. i just don't want to listen to you.
-it is really easy to make music. it is pretty hard to make good music or great music.
I mean, I am not arguing "anyone who can play 3 chords is a genius who can make great songs." I'm saying, there are people out there who make great songs, in my opinion, and are not technically proficient at their instruments. at all.

it's not about saying X category of person (technically accomplished/not, has played for 30 years/hasn't) can or can't make great music. It's about the idea that, contra LFM, it is OK and fine to make music when you aren't some sort of extra-special super-trained artist. that's all.

on a personal level, for whatever reason a lot of the time the music I like is not technically proficient. Especially when it comes to rock music.

I just get mad about this attitude where Wavves or whoever gets dismissed because he's just some loser bum who records music in his bedroom. Do you like listening to it? why do you care whether he knows the name of that one weird chord in that song? do you know the name of that chord? good for you.



also I am perpetually enraged by LFM's thing where he doesn't like X, therefore X is made due to some sort of horrible malicious force.

but really, I don't understand why anyone has anything invested in the idea that it should be really hard to start a band. I can buy a canvas and throw some paint on it, but that doesn't make me Jackson Pollock. What Jackson Pollock does isn't hard to do, technically, and from a certain perspective "my five year old could do that." But that doesn't diminish the fact that, you know, he does it really damn well and it's awesome. The fact that the barrier to entry to saying "I am a painter" is pretty low doesn't mean that good painters aren't good.

[robot_god]

BIG ELECTRIC CAT.
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