June 2012
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Content, Form, And Versioning A Song Everybody Knows: Gotye’s “Somebody I Used To Know”
Sometime not overly long ago, Gotye’s song “Somebody I Used To Know” went very viral–becoming a song meme that was (and still is) hard to escape, whose video on YouTube has been viewed an astonishing 259 million times (or by some 518 million ears!). At least two or three of those views were mine, the… Continue reading
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On The Filtering Of World Music: A Nexus Percussion Performance
Formed in 1971, Nexus is a Toronto-based percussion ensemble that has been making hard to classify music using a massive array of instruments for over three decades. Their repertoire spans experimental free improvisation, West African and North Indian drumming, contemporary classical pieces (including commissioned works from the likes of Toru Takemitsu and Steve Reich), original… Continue reading
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Still Centers: On Harold Budd’s Piano Music
“I realized I had minimalized myself out of a career. It had taken ten years to reduce my language to zero but I loved the process of seeing it occur and not knowing when the end would come. By then I had opted out of avant-garde music generally; it seemed self-congratulatory and risk-free and my… Continue reading
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On Amateur Cultural Critique
In the Sunday New York Times magazine a few weeks ago there’s an article by Sam Anderson, “How Roland Barthes Gave Us the TV Recap”, that explores the pioneering work of French literary critic Roland Barthes (1915-1980) as well as the importance of consumer-generated cultural critique. Anderson writes: “To my mind, the thing that’s exploding… Continue reading
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On The Strange Sources Of Blog Traffic
One interesting thing about keeping a blog is that as you post on various topics and include keywords relating to those topics in your post headings, your material gradually enters the ocean of searchable data on the Internet. So when someone is looking for something that you’ve posted on, there’s a decent chance they could… Continue reading
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On The Nature Of Blogs II: Matching Form And Content To Capture Meaning
As I have said elsewhere, practically speaking this blog is more for me than for you, sure, and tries to ask questions about musical things as I encounter them. And by things I mean: musical sounds, instruments, artists, aesthetics, technologies, codes and systems of signification, compositional techniques and performance practices, and so on. But metaphorically… Continue reading
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On Running, Time, And The Flow Of Non-Thinking Thinking: Running With The Kenyans
Among the joys of Adharanand Finn’s Running With The Kenyans, a succinct and engaging tale of the author’s experiences long distance running training at high altitude in the East African countryside, is the realization that there aren’t really any secrets to East African running prowess besides constant training, continuous pushing of body boundaries, as well… Continue reading
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Musical Appropriation Or Just A Shoe That Fits? : Dirty Loops’ Pop Reversioning
“Hey, we’re on to so much knowledge and the music industry won’t let us use it in a creative way.” — Aaron, drummer for Dirty Loops “Could you please make a cover of every song in existence?” – Dirty Loops YouTube viewer comment There’s a lot that’s interesting going on when you watch and listen… Continue reading
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