General Music Talk

[Raxivace]

Go to about 13:00 especially and you can hear what she sounds like when she moves between/around the mics. You can tell how she has to move pretty far away before you hear a major volume difference. There's also very little processing here otherwise (no reverb/delay) unlike the SNL performance, so you can hear her actual voice even clearer.

Oh yeah, I can hear what you mean.

That's one of the few shows I've been to that was so powerful it seemed to generate that same kind of transcendental connectedness I used to get from church when I was a kid.

I'm glad you had a good time!

That kind of "connectedness" you mention...I don't think I've ever felt that once before. I guess that's why I've always been kind of a loner.

Sorry to hear about your dental troubles! I've been lucky in that I've never had any dental problems in my life, not even a cavity.

Man I knew it was going to be a clusterfuck when I finally went in for a checkup about a month ago and the dentist looked at my teeth and straight up said "Wow this is weird!". When I went in last week he told "Man these cavities are even worse than I thought!". He's kind of a goofball like that. He thinks I might just have naturally poor enamel, though I did let things get out of hand for these last few years between poor hygiene and not visiting the dentist when I should have and that's my own fault more than anything.

Still, I'm getting myself back on the right track. I had another visit yesterday and I have at least three more in the coming weeks- including a root canal. What a joy that will be!

[Eva Yojimbo]

That kind of "connectedness" you mention...I don't think I've ever felt that once before. I guess that's why I've always been kind of a loner.

I've always been a loner too, but it's not really a kind of individual connection, more like a cosmic one. The kind of thing people report when they try certain drugs is pretty similar, I'm guessing. That's why I love music as it's the only art-form that can do that for me, even if it's really rare.

Man I knew it was going to be a clusterfuck when I finally went in for a checkup about a month ago and the dentist looked at my teeth and straight up said "Wow this is weird!". When I went in last week he told "Man these cavities are even worse than I thought!". He's kind of a goofball like that. He thinks I might just have naturally poor enamel, though I did let things get out of hand for these last few years between poor hygiene and not visiting the dentist when I should have and that's my own fault more than anything.

Still, I'm getting myself back on the right track. I had another visit yesterday and I have at least three more in the coming weeks- including a root canal. What a joy that will be!

Man, that sucks, but good luck! I hope it's as painless as possible and everything's fine afterward. Though I haven't had dental problems I've had my share of health problems, and they seem to be much harder to ameliorate than dental problems.

[Eva Yojimbo]

This post will be a little scattershot, so pardon the randomness.

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First, to Rax, I forgot when mentioning Tool that you might dig this song as I know you've mentioned the Fibonacci sequence before and this makes use of it:


See if you can spot where it is!

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I happened to catch Chvrches on James Corden performing their new song from Death Stranding and it's pretty fucking awesome:


^ A kinda funny story about this. So I've had health problems my whole life--not stuff I generally like to talk about because it's mostly under control now, but the downside is I live life on opioids. Knowing they're bad news, I recently looked into medical marijuana because it's legal here now, and my dad was actually able to get off opioids completely and he's doing much better. So pretty much my very first time getting high as a kite (damn edibles sneak up on you!) was the night this came on, and watching that was quite the experience!

***

I have a hunch I may have found a new favorite for both maz and I. Just listened to FKA twigs the first time yesterday, and it's an awesome mix of Bjork, Radiohead, and Portishead with like really avant-garde noise/r&b stuff. Absolutely fascinating stuff, and can't wait to hear the rest (I've only heard the first two EPs and first LP):


***

Another recent obsession is The Replacements. Listening to them is one of those "aha" moments where I figured out another key influence on later music. In their case they sound like the predecessor to a huge swath of 90s alternative rock--perhaps Goo Goo Dolls were the most direct successors. Anyway, the songwriting from Let it Be onward (Tim is my favorite) is just phenomenal. Really too many great songs to mention, but here's a few:




***

Also checked out the new albums from Flower Kings, Big Big Train, Roine Stolt, and his supergroup The Sea Inside; all basically modern prog with a classic sound. Flower Kings have been a favorite for a while. All of them have some good stuff, so here's a couple of favorites:

^ The jazz breakdown in that is stellar


***

OK, I'm done flooding the board with YouTube links. :)

[Raxivace]

But Jimbo I hate the Fibonacci sequence!!! It's evil!!!!!

There's just no morally defensible reason to put numbers in a pattern like that.

Anyways best of luck with your transformation into 420_Yojimbo. I never did marijuana because I had no medical reason to do so and I'm the squareist square to have ever been shapened so I have no idea what that's like.

[Lord_Lyndon]

So I saw the 'Wheel of Musical Impressions with Ariana Grande' on Jimmy Fallon show.
I loved Fallon's impression of Sting. It was great.
I hope that Ariana fixed her poor eyesight. It was more than obvious she had trouble seeing. (She probably fixed it by now since this was from 2015.)

[Eva Yojimbo]

I doubt anyone here watched The Grammys, but apparently it ended up being a pretty emotional night, especially given that it coincided with Kobe Bryant's death. Anyway, the emotional climax had to be this performance from Demi Lovato. Knowing she wrote/recorded the studio version of this less than a week before her overdose really gives it an even greater sense of poignancy. This is one of those rare songs that's so raw and nakedly emotional that's it's almost hard for me to listen to, especially considering she begins the thing by crying and having to start over:

[Cassius Clay]

I still can't believe Kobe Bryant is fucking dead. And died in such a horrific way with his little girl and 7 other people. What the fucking fuck.

[Eva Yojimbo]

I still can't believe Kobe Bryant is fucking dead. And died in such a horrific way with his little girl and 7 other people. What the fucking fuck.

Indeed. :(

[Raxivace]

My father has worked has worked in restaurants his whole life. He often mentions about how he got to serve Kobe Bryant one day, maybe 10-15 years ago. Said he was a real nice guy, real class act.

Its still weird that he's just gone now. I always thought of him as one of those public figures that would just always be around too, but to go out in such a weird way and with his daughter and others too like that is just unbelievable.

[Raxivace]

Bob Dylan put out a new song that is ostensibly about the JFK assassination.



I say "ostensibly" because it pretty quickly expands beyond that, from references to other tragedies (Altamont, Tulsa Massacre etc.), to plenty of music and musicians (Too many to list), to film figures (Marilyn Monroe, Buster Keaton, Nightmare on Elm Street of all things etc.).

I enjoyed the song but I found it to be a pretty mysterious hodgepodge that I don't quite know what to make of.

[Eva Yojimbo]

Someone posted that on IMDb the other day and I gave it a listen. It is indeed a "pretty mysterious hodgepodge," and it's odd for Dylan because his "mysterious hodgepodges" tend to be "visionary" stuff influenced by Blake, Ginsberg, etc., but when he's dealt with RL social issues (I'm thinking mostly of The Hurricane here) he tends to be pretty direct. So this might be the first example I can think of where's combined RL social/historical issues with his "visionary" method of writing. It's also pretty odd for being so musically droning/suspended. Dylan typically prefers a stronger backbone. Just for comparison, here's one of his early "visionary hodgepodges:"

Here's one of his "social commentary" songs:

[maz89]

I doubt anyone here watched The Grammys, but apparently it ended up being a pretty emotional night, especially given that it coincided with Kobe Bryant's death. Anyway, the emotional climax had to be this performance from Demi Lovato. Knowing she wrote/recorded the studio version of this less than a week before her overdose really gives it an even greater sense of poignancy. This is one of those rare songs that's so raw and nakedly emotional that's it's almost hard for me to listen to, especially considering she begins the thing by crying and having to start over:

That was powerful, reminded me of another one of her live performances:



Ok, so the 10-minute version of All Too Well is perfect (although I could have done without the video). Some of the new lyrics in the song cut like glass and resonate. I was a Jake in someone's life and have heard all of these attacks before. It's eerie just how much TS gets it.

FWIW, I loved folklore and evermore. In a ranking of her 9 albums (excluding the re-releases), I would try to place them in the top 4. Folklore could be #1.

Last year was rough in a number of ways, and TS' albums helped. I will forever associate folklore with summer and evermore with winter.