May 2012
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On The Sounds Of Justice
A few weeks ago I was part of a jury for a criminal trial. The trial took nine days, and I had ample opportunity to listen–not just to all the legal stuff, the arguments, the evidence, but to the sounds of voices in the courtroom and in the jury deliberation room. Court proceedings are like musical… Continue reading
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On Beginnings And Anywheres: A John Cage Aphorism
I see the words on an inspirational magnet in a shop window. “Begin anywhere” the late American experimental composer John Cage (1912-1992) tells us. But what was the point of this telling? Cage in fact walked the walk of his talk, relying on rolling dice, consulting the Chinese I-Ching book of hexagrams, and even scrutinizing the… Continue reading
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On The Trickle-Down Of Electronic Dance Music Aesthetics IV: Usher And Diplo’s “Climax”
“We are in a place now where fans don’t have conviction to one sound.” – Diplo This song caught my ear the first time I heard it: I recognized Usher’s R&B falsetto singing, of course, but what really got me was the sparse electronic backing track comprised of little more than a sequenced bassline, kick,… Continue reading
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On Vintage Fetishism And Rustic Analog Appeal: From Urban Outfitters To Bon Iver
While waiting for some take out food I dashed into the clothing store Urban Outfitters to have a look around. Founded in Philadelphia in 1970, Urban Outfitters specializes in hipster aesthetics–specifically, making clothes that look vintage and of an older era. Originally a single store in lower Manhattan, the company now has retail outlets in… Continue reading
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“Look What I Found!”: On Music And Mushrooms
Having recently spotted some mushrooms that were growing in an unlikely place I thought (loosely) about some of the similarities between mushrooms and musical life. Here is what I came up with: Both mushrooms and musics grow in very particular conditions, thriving particularly well in cool, dark, and hidden places. Mushrooms are fungi and musics are fungi-like,… Continue reading
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Real/Fake Drumming On A Fake/Real Keyboard: Thinking About Virtual Musicianship
The photo is me–playing a percussion part on the keyboard. This is one of the stranger wonders of the digital turn in music over the past quarter century: triggering sounds with instruments or controllers that themselves have nothing to do with those sounds. I don’t mind playing drums on the keyboard though. In fact, I’ve… Continue reading
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On The Beastie Boys And The Hip Hop Enculturation Of 1980s Suburbia
With the news last week that Beastie Boy member Adam Yauch (aka MCA) had died, I thought about the seismic impact hip hop had when it first burst the bubble of kids living in suburbia all over North America and beyond during the 1980s. As the producer Rick Rubin noted in a recent interview, “The… Continue reading
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Free Of All The World’s Heaviness: Karl Pilkington On Sound And Listening
I recently watched a few episodes of the animated HBO series, The Ricky Gervais Show (based on the popular audio podcast of the same name), on which Gervais and fellow comedian and writer Stephen Merchant chat with their perfectly round-headed friend Karl Pilkington on any topic they feel like just to hear what Karl might… Continue reading
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