Saturday, May 2, 2009

luigi russolo


presented Russolo's music to my Italian 202-2 class at John Cabot University, lots of yawns from the Notre Dame section of the room, my professor asked me to spell his name in Italian and I was like 'uh...'

@Richard Teitelbaum

good old fashioned web design

ubu

Sunday, April 26, 2009

kurt vile 'freeway'

someone called this 'musings' which i hated

see eatersdigest

that is all

EDIT
JUST REALIZED THIS SONG IS ABOUT JESUS

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

jóhann jóhannsson 'odi et amo'

All of last post's ascribing narratives, lyrics that had been written years before a song is released, and a tradition of older men assisting talented younger men with their work got me thinking about Jóhann Jóhannsson's piece 'Odi et Amo' from 2002's Englabörn.

music

lyrics

1st inaugural, david byrne + dirty projectors 'knotty pine'

This whole thing was begun hundreds of times in my head, and not scrapped or allowed to drift away into nothing just this once, so that should count for something, I guess we'll see--

***

I've remarked to friends, mostly Talking Heads-heads, that I think Dave Longstreth of Dirty Projectors is the inheritor (of sorts) of David Byrne's unwieldy legacy--where it's skin-deep, you can see it in sparkly-clean guitar lines and performance tics. But it's more about talent, and getting the truly strange in there along with the catchy, and I guess what you might call "vision," which not many bands these days are accused of lacking but there it is all the same--

I have also been known to remark that Byrne should collaborate with the DP's, so when I first heard 'Knotty Pine' I felt for a second like patting myself on the back until I began to process 'Knotty Pine' and damn is that a good song. I was in a sunlit room and it was just the best thing. It was Amber's vocal first, and then the whole thing, and then Amber's vocal again, that really did it for me, if you can imagine.

Upon nerding out, I was delighted to discover on Byrne's blog his take on his role in the song's production: as lyricist ("I sent Dave some lyrics I had written in maybe '75 or '76"[!!!]); as guitar soloist; and, crucially, "straightener-outer" [sic]--as Longstreth's Brian Eno figure. I want to ascribe to this song this narrative of wise and successful artists recognizing the vital spark of genius in younger artists, and I want Longstreth to pay it forward someday when he's blogging and doing whatever the fuck he wants in comfort while some 6'7" pale guy drops out of MIT to record an album of him playing the lute over breakbeats and whalesong.

'knotty pine'
via stereogum

byrne's blog entry

www.myspace.com/dirtyprojectors