I've been pretty busy with school work recently.
don't really have time to write anything now since I still have to study a bit and catch up on sleep, but I've listened to some nice bands.
She & Him is a band with M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel, a pretty popular actress, which is awesome, since movie stars who try to sing usually fail. The music is folky, and I'm slightly in love with it right now. I think she sounds a bit like Regina Spektor.
The Submarines are a duo who I heard about from Drew today. They have some really good tracks, though some of them remind me of some other bands. Not necessarily in a bad way.
Anyways they're good.
check them out. They both also feature female vocalists. yay!
Murder By Death and my birthday on Saturday!
22 October 2008
16 October 2008
mindmelting
1 word to describe Ravi Shankar. UF invited him here somehow to play, and with student tickets being $10, who could resist seeing such an important figure in music? Not I, said the dog. For those of you who don't know (he was before our time), Ravi Shankar is a sitar player who has made a huge impact in musical history. He is associated with George Harrison of The Beatles, who learned sitar from him and helped introduce him to Western music. He's got crazy music cred for introducing the sitar to the West, and also for composing the soundtrack to Gandhi. Oh and he's the father of Nora Jones and Anoushka Shankar. He's won all sorts of musical awards and national honors for his ambassadorial work, such as the Bharat Ratna (Jewel of India). So yeah, he's pretty famous.
At the concert I was seated pretty much in the back, due to my student ticket. Actually scratch that, all the way in the back of the orchestra section. I was against the wall. And to my left was a huge setup of computers and stuff for the sound and lighting. Not that that was bad. I got a pretty clear, if small, view of the stage; I'm not complaining. Ravi Shankar, his daughter Anoushka, and Tanmoy Bose were the most important figures at the concert. Anoushka also plays the sitar, while Tanmoy Bose plays the tabla, which is a small drum set sort of thing. There were also 2 tanpuras to provide drone in the background. Anyways Ravi is now 88 years old or something, so he's pretty fucking old. When he walks in he gets a standing ovation already.
I admit, I vastly underestimated Ravi's ability due to his age, especially since the concert started off with a slow raga. He looked old, but still in good health. He didn't play any of the really virtuoso stuff that I had seen in a video in the first piece (which still came out to like 25 minutes...), and it seemed like Anoushka played much stronger than him. The first half of the program (2 pieces, about an hour long) was pretty trippy. From just the mood and tone of the music I could imagine all sorts of scenery. And since ragas don't exactly resemble modern music, the transitions from the slow beginning to fast ending was very gradual. It was a long journey to be taken, instead of multiple steps. The sitar has very spacey, drawn out chords with vibrato all over the place, thus the notes would almost visibly trail out into the atmosphere. The tabla doesn't come in until the pace picks up, so for about 5-15 minutes (I completely lost track of time during the concert) the sitars would just create crazy paths and layers. With the tabla included structure was added, and usually it became faster and with increased beats. At this point it seemed that Anoushka had the virtuosity that Ravi used to have, while Ravi focused on more emotional sounds.
During the intermission all I could think of was how crazy Ravi and Co. was, and how crazy a "Sitar Hero" game would be, with a sitar remote with like 12 million buttons and tablas, which require fucking intense rhythm to be able to play. Also I thought of how funny it would be if Anoushka suddenly pulled her sitar vertical to activate star power. At this point my thoughts were still more or less coherent, and I could sit there and soak in the epic-ness of what I had heard.
The second half promised to be more lively, as Ravi bantered a bit with the audience and promised a "tabla solo" which I was crazy looking forward to, since Tanmoy Bose was already insane just laying down beats for Ravi and Anoushka. Little did I know that the second half was just 1 piece, about an hour long. I've only heard 2 pieces that long ever, this and a Tchaikovsky piece that was played by 3 Russian musicians, Piano Trio in A minor, op. 50 "In Memory of a Great Artist". Both of them were the pinnacle of epic. The piece started slowly, which wasn't a bad thing. After a while (no sense of time, remember?), it escalated slowly and only then did Ravi and Anoushka's sitar skills really come out. It turns out that Ravi Shankar still has enough sitar skills to put every guitar shredder to shame. And Anoushka? omfg. As Wilson said, "The student has surpassed the master". Anoushka learned sitar solely from Ravi, so it makes sense that she's even better than he was.
At this point I was just sitting, not thinking, letting the music take control of my being. I could definitely hear more Western elements in the last piece, and Ravi and Anoushka often traded melodies back and forth. I remember that they were all happy and seemed to be having fun, which is what I think music should be. It should truly be from the heart and done with great joy. Eventually it reached a point when both sitars were going crazy and the tabla was laying down some sick beats in the back. And then the tabla solo comes up. the sitars went to playing a simple chord progression, while Tanmoy Bose increased his efforts about tenfold. At that point I don't think time existed. I cannot say with any clarity how long that solo was, it was just a blur of hands and fingers hitting drum heads. At one time when he was sustaining gawd knows how many beats per minute, someone decides to shout "YEAH", and everyone just goes nuts. Ravi holds up his hand, the crowd quites, and Tanmoy continues. About then was the point of about complete mindmelting. As he ends the solo by somehow hitting a low droning note, the crowd erupts again. They actually stop playing so he can acknowledge the applause. I can only imagine how much my hands would hurt if I had tried playing that. Then they go right back to the piece. Which by this time is not really registering anything except "epic" in my mind. At the very end Ravi gets another standing ovation, this time for much longer, and we stumble for the exits.
So yeah, probably the second greatest concert I've ever been to, first being Stars because I've got more of an emotional connection with them. Ravi's skills outstrip those of Stars, but his style is not my style, and his time is not my time.
I'll blog about the stuff I've been listening to later, since this is a pretty epic post about a pretty epic concert already.
At the concert I was seated pretty much in the back, due to my student ticket. Actually scratch that, all the way in the back of the orchestra section. I was against the wall. And to my left was a huge setup of computers and stuff for the sound and lighting. Not that that was bad. I got a pretty clear, if small, view of the stage; I'm not complaining. Ravi Shankar, his daughter Anoushka, and Tanmoy Bose were the most important figures at the concert. Anoushka also plays the sitar, while Tanmoy Bose plays the tabla, which is a small drum set sort of thing. There were also 2 tanpuras to provide drone in the background. Anyways Ravi is now 88 years old or something, so he's pretty fucking old. When he walks in he gets a standing ovation already.
I admit, I vastly underestimated Ravi's ability due to his age, especially since the concert started off with a slow raga. He looked old, but still in good health. He didn't play any of the really virtuoso stuff that I had seen in a video in the first piece (which still came out to like 25 minutes...), and it seemed like Anoushka played much stronger than him. The first half of the program (2 pieces, about an hour long) was pretty trippy. From just the mood and tone of the music I could imagine all sorts of scenery. And since ragas don't exactly resemble modern music, the transitions from the slow beginning to fast ending was very gradual. It was a long journey to be taken, instead of multiple steps. The sitar has very spacey, drawn out chords with vibrato all over the place, thus the notes would almost visibly trail out into the atmosphere. The tabla doesn't come in until the pace picks up, so for about 5-15 minutes (I completely lost track of time during the concert) the sitars would just create crazy paths and layers. With the tabla included structure was added, and usually it became faster and with increased beats. At this point it seemed that Anoushka had the virtuosity that Ravi used to have, while Ravi focused on more emotional sounds.
During the intermission all I could think of was how crazy Ravi and Co. was, and how crazy a "Sitar Hero" game would be, with a sitar remote with like 12 million buttons and tablas, which require fucking intense rhythm to be able to play. Also I thought of how funny it would be if Anoushka suddenly pulled her sitar vertical to activate star power. At this point my thoughts were still more or less coherent, and I could sit there and soak in the epic-ness of what I had heard.
The second half promised to be more lively, as Ravi bantered a bit with the audience and promised a "tabla solo" which I was crazy looking forward to, since Tanmoy Bose was already insane just laying down beats for Ravi and Anoushka. Little did I know that the second half was just 1 piece, about an hour long. I've only heard 2 pieces that long ever, this and a Tchaikovsky piece that was played by 3 Russian musicians, Piano Trio in A minor, op. 50 "In Memory of a Great Artist". Both of them were the pinnacle of epic. The piece started slowly, which wasn't a bad thing. After a while (no sense of time, remember?), it escalated slowly and only then did Ravi and Anoushka's sitar skills really come out. It turns out that Ravi Shankar still has enough sitar skills to put every guitar shredder to shame. And Anoushka? omfg. As Wilson said, "The student has surpassed the master". Anoushka learned sitar solely from Ravi, so it makes sense that she's even better than he was.
At this point I was just sitting, not thinking, letting the music take control of my being. I could definitely hear more Western elements in the last piece, and Ravi and Anoushka often traded melodies back and forth. I remember that they were all happy and seemed to be having fun, which is what I think music should be. It should truly be from the heart and done with great joy. Eventually it reached a point when both sitars were going crazy and the tabla was laying down some sick beats in the back. And then the tabla solo comes up. the sitars went to playing a simple chord progression, while Tanmoy Bose increased his efforts about tenfold. At that point I don't think time existed. I cannot say with any clarity how long that solo was, it was just a blur of hands and fingers hitting drum heads. At one time when he was sustaining gawd knows how many beats per minute, someone decides to shout "YEAH", and everyone just goes nuts. Ravi holds up his hand, the crowd quites, and Tanmoy continues. About then was the point of about complete mindmelting. As he ends the solo by somehow hitting a low droning note, the crowd erupts again. They actually stop playing so he can acknowledge the applause. I can only imagine how much my hands would hurt if I had tried playing that. Then they go right back to the piece. Which by this time is not really registering anything except "epic" in my mind. At the very end Ravi gets another standing ovation, this time for much longer, and we stumble for the exits.
So yeah, probably the second greatest concert I've ever been to, first being Stars because I've got more of an emotional connection with them. Ravi's skills outstrip those of Stars, but his style is not my style, and his time is not my time.
I'll blog about the stuff I've been listening to later, since this is a pretty epic post about a pretty epic concert already.
11 October 2008
upcoming concerts
Murder By Death at Common Grounds Oct 25 (my birthday!)
HEALTH at Club Downunder Oct 27
Broken Social Scene at The Moon Nov 20
Of Montreal at The Venue Dec 5
yay!
much better bands than the beginning of the year. I was going to be very disappointed if there weren't better bands. Broken Social Scene should be amazing, even if they play mostly new material. I'll try to get them to play Almost Crimes. I might also be going to A Place To Bury Strangers, since it's at CDU and Ethan is offering me a ride, so it's free.
Still listening to much of the same folk stuff. listened to specifically The Mountain Goats for a while and now Murder By Death. I've got a music listening test coming up so I'm going to be listening to a lot of "classical" music. Actually it's not classical, it's Baroque and Medieval, but the classification is colloquially classical (alliteration much?), so that's what I'll call it.
I've got to identify a bunch of stuff about the composition and composer, so I'll be studying a lot this coming week.
HEALTH at Club Downunder Oct 27
Broken Social Scene at The Moon Nov 20
Of Montreal at The Venue Dec 5
yay!
much better bands than the beginning of the year. I was going to be very disappointed if there weren't better bands. Broken Social Scene should be amazing, even if they play mostly new material. I'll try to get them to play Almost Crimes. I might also be going to A Place To Bury Strangers, since it's at CDU and Ethan is offering me a ride, so it's free.
Still listening to much of the same folk stuff. listened to specifically The Mountain Goats for a while and now Murder By Death. I've got a music listening test coming up so I'm going to be listening to a lot of "classical" music. Actually it's not classical, it's Baroque and Medieval, but the classification is colloquially classical (alliteration much?), so that's what I'll call it.
I've got to identify a bunch of stuff about the composition and composer, so I'll be studying a lot this coming week.
02 October 2008
the glaciers made you
and now you're mine. Seriously, listen to that song (Your Rocky Spine, by Great Lake Swimmers). That's another song that I'm going to listen to obsessively, since it's just so amazing. Unfortunately the rest of the album isn't as good, which is disappointing, because I haven't gotten to the rest of the album yet and I would have liked it to be just as good.
Recently I've listened to a lot of more Folk music. I've always listened to some, such as Eisley, Okkervil River, The Decemberists, etc. Recently I've also acquired Fleet Foxes, some Shearwater, The Dodos, Iron & Wine, and now Great Lake Swimmers. I haven't had much opportunity to listen to The Dodos or Shearwater yet, but The Dodos sound good. I never really listened to Folk as a genre, and instead listened to artists individually, but the right kind of Folk (I guess Indie Folk) is actually quality. Folk appeals to me because of the banjos, which I love despite the hillbilly stereotype. In the right settings and the right style the banjo is actually a lovely instrument, having a warm tone and flowing rhythm. It's unfortunate that banjo is only present in more "backwards" genres. Another quality of Folk music that seems to be less prevelant elsewhere is vocal harmony. While other genres tend to put differing melodies together, Fleet Foxes and Eisley harmonize the same melody very well. It might be because harmony is one of the defining qualities of Folk music, though I saw no reference on Wikipedia.
Apart from that, Of Montreal's new album Skeletal Lamping has leaked, though a few days still remain until its official release. Musically it is much more diverse, with a constantly changing sound and style, a lot of which is really fun, like the R&B stuff in St. Exquisite's Confessions. Also Okkervil River released a new album (The Stand Ins), which I completely didn't hear about. It's still inferior to the early albums, but much improved over The Stage Names, which, except for Unless It's Kicks, lacked emotion and basically sucked (ohNOES, Roland is being a pretentious music critic).
I also got a harmonica, partly because I have to bring an instrument to music class on Friday, partly because I've been needing an instrument, and partly because my uncle is pretty baller at harmonica. He's this sorta skinny guy (everyone in Taiwan is skinny) with a huge philosopher beard, he smokes, he's a professor in Taiwan, and he has epic harmonica skills. He also has a really cool harmonica. I don't know if it's just because he's not a parental, but he seems like a really cool guy. I think he also does calligraphy and random philosophical awesomeness. He also told me not to get worked up about my parents. Cool points for him!
I've also ordered a Kalimba, which is similar in layout to a piano, though the mechanism and sound are completely different. The first time I saw it was a video of Architecture In Helsinki, where some guy was just plinking along, looking awesome all the while. When I read about it in some article I recognized it and finally knew what it was called. Anyways this is an instrument of African descent, and it comes with pickups! I'll actually have reason to bust out that amp that I've had under my bed for a while.
Recently I've listened to a lot of more Folk music. I've always listened to some, such as Eisley, Okkervil River, The Decemberists, etc. Recently I've also acquired Fleet Foxes, some Shearwater, The Dodos, Iron & Wine, and now Great Lake Swimmers. I haven't had much opportunity to listen to The Dodos or Shearwater yet, but The Dodos sound good. I never really listened to Folk as a genre, and instead listened to artists individually, but the right kind of Folk (I guess Indie Folk) is actually quality. Folk appeals to me because of the banjos, which I love despite the hillbilly stereotype. In the right settings and the right style the banjo is actually a lovely instrument, having a warm tone and flowing rhythm. It's unfortunate that banjo is only present in more "backwards" genres. Another quality of Folk music that seems to be less prevelant elsewhere is vocal harmony. While other genres tend to put differing melodies together, Fleet Foxes and Eisley harmonize the same melody very well. It might be because harmony is one of the defining qualities of Folk music, though I saw no reference on Wikipedia.
Apart from that, Of Montreal's new album Skeletal Lamping has leaked, though a few days still remain until its official release. Musically it is much more diverse, with a constantly changing sound and style, a lot of which is really fun, like the R&B stuff in St. Exquisite's Confessions. Also Okkervil River released a new album (The Stand Ins), which I completely didn't hear about. It's still inferior to the early albums, but much improved over The Stage Names, which, except for Unless It's Kicks, lacked emotion and basically sucked (ohNOES, Roland is being a pretentious music critic).
I also got a harmonica, partly because I have to bring an instrument to music class on Friday, partly because I've been needing an instrument, and partly because my uncle is pretty baller at harmonica. He's this sorta skinny guy (everyone in Taiwan is skinny) with a huge philosopher beard, he smokes, he's a professor in Taiwan, and he has epic harmonica skills. He also has a really cool harmonica. I don't know if it's just because he's not a parental, but he seems like a really cool guy. I think he also does calligraphy and random philosophical awesomeness. He also told me not to get worked up about my parents. Cool points for him!
I've also ordered a Kalimba, which is similar in layout to a piano, though the mechanism and sound are completely different. The first time I saw it was a video of Architecture In Helsinki, where some guy was just plinking along, looking awesome all the while. When I read about it in some article I recognized it and finally knew what it was called. Anyways this is an instrument of African descent, and it comes with pickups! I'll actually have reason to bust out that amp that I've had under my bed for a while.
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