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Post by Kapitan on Jan 13, 2021 19:55:43 GMT
jk in particular might find this interesting: five ex-Zappa percussionists got together to play, and mostly to talk about their experiences in his band. First is a roughly 4-minute performance, then we hear dialogue between Terry Bozzio, Ralph Humphrey, Chester Thompson, Ruth Underwood, and Chad Wackerman.
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Post by jk on Jan 13, 2021 21:32:01 GMT
jk in particular might find this interesting: five ex-Zappa percussionists got together to play, and mostly to talk about their experiences in his band. First is a roughly 4-minute performance, then we hear dialogue between Terry Bozzio, Ralph Humphrey, Chester Thompson, Ruth Underwood, and Chad Wackerman.
Most certainly! Thank you, sir. I have it bookmarked for when the appropriate occasion presents itself.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 15, 2021 17:27:05 GMT
The brilliant bassist (both brilliant in general and a brilliant bassist) Ron Carter was interviewed in 2013 for the Library of Congress. What a talent, what a mind, what a person. I really enjoyed this interview in which he talks about education, music, the music business...
Carter is probably most famous for being the bassist in Miles Davis's "second great quintet," with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Tony Williams. But he's far more than that: Carter has both a B.A. and a M.A. in music and has worked with seemingly everyone, from Chico Hamilton to Miles to Monk to McCoy Tyner to Freddie Hubbard to Andrew Hill to Horace Silver ... even on a Billy Joel song.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 19, 2021 20:19:05 GMT
(...to be continued in another thread!)
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 21, 2021 21:46:10 GMT
I'm curious whether people here have any opinions on this topic ... and considering the styles of music most here are into, I think I can guess what their opinions might be.
This feature article in Pitchfork discusses how some (mostly hip hop/rap) artists are getting hit with legal trouble because they have used unlicensed samples that are then discussed online. One position--a position apparently taken by at least several artists quoted in the article--say the solution is "stop snitching." They say discussing who is being (possibly illegally) sampled hurts those artists. From the article's lede:
I could not more firmly stand on the other side. That label owner says "shake my head" over the OWNER of the music being sampled profiting someone? So this owner presumably is fine with people stealing the music he's selling?
If you are screwing around for fun, no, I don't think you ought to be sued for your little hobby. But if you are selling music, and that music includes samples of someone else's copyrighted music, you owe that person money.
(And besides, the idea of "stop snitching" or "no snitching" in its original, more notorious (gang violence-related) context is absolutely idiotic and should not be considered a good guideline for or by anyone. When people are causing harm, SNITCH.)
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 25, 2021 17:58:53 GMT
Here is an article about the new flurry of songwriting catalog sales, as well as an overview of how it all works. One comment. Take a look at this paragraph from the article.
I think the time for pearl-clutching about capitalism's influence on popular music is, oh, about 75 years (or more) too late. I'm not saying it isn't a valid topic, or even concern. But there was some degree of panic in the 80s, as Michael Jackson and Madonna shilled for Pepsi, Jackson betrayed the Beatles' intentions by selling the rights to "Revolution" for use by Nike, etc. The multinational, multimedia conglomerates already came into existence in the decades prior. And even "the good old days" of rock's innocence were shaped by profit motives, such as the ad sponsors for old variety shows on radio and TV (think Hank Williams' "Mothers Best" shows).
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 27, 2021 18:23:22 GMT
I don't know if any non-musicians on the board would find this interesting, but I suspect maybe some would. From time to time, jk, B.E. and I refer to chords and notes in the context of some music theory.
This is a 30-minute video by Rick Beato (whom I think both B.E. and I have referenced and shared videos from) discussing basic chord progressions. It covers some really fundamental things that I don't think would be hard to understand, and that I think will really be useful and interesting to those who haven't heard it before.
Don't worry: it doesn't get into reading notes on a staff, etc., but rather mostly focuses on the kinds of shorthand you see in some posts here: I, V7, iii, etc. Basically it is an overview of the building blocks of pop songs across all subgenres.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 28, 2021 21:28:36 GMT
I swear, I DO read and watch other people... But this video caught my eye because KDS and I discuss this event relatively often: the sea change in popular (rock) music that really began in late summer to early fall 1991. But there are six weeks in there where the change wasn't (as is commonly thought in hindsight) just toward grunge, but rather saw big albums from Nirvana, GnR, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Soundgarden. (This is a wider range of musical styles than we think of when we think of the changes in rock in the early '90s.)
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Post by kds on Jan 28, 2021 21:58:53 GMT
That's an intriguing time for rock music. Unfortunately, I'm not able to listen at the moment, but I wonder if the change had different effects in different regions.
Here in Baltimore, I recall "hair metal" was still getting a lot of play on active radio well through 1992 and even into 1993, with big releases from the likes of Bon Jovi, Vince Neil, and Damn Yankees (yeah, the latter wasn't hair metal, but they very much adopted the sound).
From personal memory, I really feel like the alternative / grunge thing really took a stranglehold on the rock scene when I was in the 8th grade, which would've been late 1993 going into 1994, with bands like STP, Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, and The Breeders being very strong on active rock. The writing really seemed to be on the wall in early 1994 when Motley Crue released their self titled album with John Corabi on vocals that sounded absolutely nothing like Crue.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 28, 2021 22:03:44 GMT
Yes, you're right: the change took a couple of years. The video actually focuses more on the strength and relative diversity of hard rock (with some mentions of not-so-hard rock of the same time frame, including U2 with Achtung Baby, REM, etc.) right then.
More than anything, he really contrasts rock's dominance on the charts in late '91 to the kind of pop that dominates it now. His key points on that won't surprise you: the bands he's talking about were all competent (or better) players; they all had experience playing live and often even recording before getting major-label deals; their studio work was actually played, by them, on instruments, through amps, to tape; there wasn't the wholesale, simple digital correction and editing we have now. That kind of thing.
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Post by kds on Jan 29, 2021 20:13:20 GMT
Yes, you're right: the change took a couple of years. The video actually focuses more on the strength and relative diversity of hard rock (with some mentions of not-so-hard rock of the same time frame, including U2 with Achtung Baby, REM, etc.) right then.
More than anything, he really contrasts rock's dominance on the charts in late '91 to the kind of pop that dominates it now. His key points on that won't surprise you: the bands he's talking about were all competent (or better) players; they all had experience playing live and often even recording before getting major-label deals; their studio work was actually played, by them, on instruments, through amps, to tape; there wasn't the wholesale, simple digital correction and editing we have now. That kind of thing.
I think I need to watch some this guys videos as, from what you're saying, he agrees with that about the problems plaguing the quality of mainstream music. But, going back to the early 1990s, you're right, that era of 1991 through 1992 was probably the last time the rock landscape with really diverse. I could turn on my active rock station, and hear new music from Metallica, GNR, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, U2, Van Halen, REM, Extreme, Kix, KISS, AC/DC, Eric Clapton, Ozzy, etc. But, somehow in the next couple years, everything became homogenized. And it's only gotten worse from there.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 29, 2021 20:56:49 GMT
It's interesting, because I am just watching a few-months old video of his (coincidentally: I don't actually watch that many of his, though it seems like it recently!) in which he goes through the Spotify Top 10.
His approach reminds me of when I taught guitar in the mid-to-late 90s and was being asked to teach kids the kind of grunge or later nu-metal that I didn't like at all: you find something to like, or appreciate, while you listen and learn. So you'll hear him pick out things like "that's a good keyboard tone" or "the compression on the kick drum is great," even as you can see plainly it isn't to his taste at all.
So it definitely isn't a good place to commiserate "everything sucks now!" even though I think it's clear he leans very strongly toward live musicians playing instruments well, and ideally together, over "laptop music." But I do think his channel is cool just for general, accessibly presented views on what happened to (or is happening to) the music world at various points in time, as well as more technical discussions at times about specific bands, songs, sounds.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 14, 2021 17:10:59 GMT
A promotional film by Van Dyke Parks (working for Warner Bros.) about Ry Cooder, circa 1970.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 21, 2021 17:10:15 GMT
I've never been a particular fan of Rush, but I came across this Rolling Stone retrospective feature on the late Neil Peart from last month, and thought it was interesting. Thought some of you might enjoy it.
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Post by Kapitan on Feb 23, 2021 16:43:05 GMT
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