he got soul......

the cruel sea once had a song called ‘she got soul’ and i used to quote this song in reference to a woman i once knew and had a brief romance with. she was the type of person who had her own style, was very comfortable with her place in the world, had a passion for people, art, and music, and was as real as any person you would ever come across. i’ve currently been reading the keith richards autobiography and whilst i’ve always thought this about the guy, he definitely got soul

when you hear keith talk it becomes apparent his life is all about the music. he never joined a band to become famous, rather he just wanted, in his words “to be a bluesman”. he’s obviously known and admired for his drug addled ways and being the outlaw we all wish we could be, but when you dig deep into his words you realise his real interest and passion is in living life his way, and his way was to pursue the music

as for his playing, well he aint the most technically gifted guitarist around but jeez he came up with some killer riffs. he is “the riff master”, even if he says so himself. and the open G tuning he uses is the shit. listen to “honkey tonk women”, “street fighting man”, and “start me up” and tell me he aint got soul

great kanye quote

from his latest album 'my beautiful dark twisted fantasy'

"the same people trying to black ball me, forgot about two things.......my black balls"

love it!

award shows – celebrating mediocrity

a few friends of mine have mentioned the lack of talent and good music at this years ARIA awards, and I have to agree. i had absolute no interest in the awards this year, or any other year for that matter

it reminded me of a quote that I read by paul arden stating that awards ceremonies only celebrate mediocrity. if you think about it he’s absolutely correct. awards are usually voted by the public or by a committee, and whenever something appeals to a mass amount of people, more often than not it isn’t very good. i’ve always said “if there’s something everybody likes, its probably something I don’t want to be involved with”

there is so much great music out there, both in Australia and internationally and i for one have trouble keeping up. unfortunately the stuff that sells is what the masses want. they want to hear the same old song, see the same pretty faces, and listen to the same old rock clichés. that’s not to say that some popular acts aren’t worth listening to but i’d much rather see an award show congratulate innovative and excellent performances rather than the usual mediocre crap they’re been peddling for years

i’ll get around to it when the time is right

in my life of listening to records i’ve often found myself disliking an album and putting it way for a while. on plenty of occasions i’ve revisited the album. days, months, or even years later, to come back and realise how great a piece of work it is. why didn’t i realise this when i first listened to the work?

i’ve come to realise there are times in your life to accept new music, art, lovers, friendships. we move through cycles in our lives and there are times when something makes the most perfect of sense, and other times where a thought or an idea can seem so ridiculous

these days rather than dismiss a piece of work, i put it away for a while with the idea of rediscovering it at another time. some of my most favourite albums i hated on first listen. but somehow over time i gave them another chance and was in the frame of mind to understand the art presented to me

its all about timing

tortoise and a little shout out to andy the music mystic

having breakfast this morning at my local cafe and heard tortoise being played through the sound system. what a delight it is to hear such sounds. the album being played was TNT, an album that used to be on my pre-bedtime playlist

andy the barista has great musical taste and anyone who listens to tortoise is worth his salt in regards to musical taste

if you like experimental jazz wrapped up in a post punk ethos you might like to check these guys out. as andy pointed out they also did an album with bonnie prince billy, another creative genius

check out TNT for their most accessible album

steve albini on john peel

lifted from GQ magazine. one of the best quotes i've ever read. highlighted in bold

Is there anyone who can fill John Peel's shoes today as a cultural arbiter of music?
No. One of the things that made John Peel so valuable was that he had decades of archived material and sessions of bands that had played live and were only ever heard on the John Peel show. His work ethic was absolutely incredible. He made it a point of pride to listen to every record that anyone sent him. He would listen literally to dozens of records a day. He said something once that I thought was really profound: He said that no one would bother making a record and sending it to him if he thought it was shitty. Obviously, to the people making those records, they are important. If he doesn't get it as a listener, if he didn't like it in some way, that's his fault, not the fault of the people who did something important to them. That's a pretty amazing, humble insight for someone like him to have. A lot of radio professionals kind of feel like they know the game, they know what's good. His way of looking at it was much more selfless: there was this culture of bands creating music and he was getting to audition some of it. Then he could spread it out to the rest of the world if it struck his fancy. Just because he didn't like something didn't mean it was bad. He was just deaf to it.

cee lo..........he understands the great depression

i was in a whiskey bar the other day in a hipster part of brooklyn, drinking crazy amounts of whiskey with pickleback chasers, when i got talking to a peculiar fellow who decided to sit next to me. being in a hipster bar the conversation turned to all things creative and then we started to delve into the realm of music and various artists

i was surprised that a guy who was a jazz aficionado and seemed like bit of a music snob mentioned that his favorite band was gnarls barkley. we all know that danger mouse is one mad producer and this is agreed upon by most music fans but i was particularly surprised to hear about his fondness for cee lo. i've been a massive fan of cee lo and i've always had a certain idea about where his lyrics come from but it was nice to have this idea consolidated by another intelligent person. actually when we started talking about how great his lyrics were and how we both loved what he sang about the guy then asked me "you've been through depression haven't you?"

funny enough i always felt that cee lo was a guy who explored his brain and emotions more than most. i've always been a fan of his ability to make the most depressing lyrics sound fun. unlike most other introspective artists he has an ability to create a pop song that the whole world can sing along to

the guy is true genius, disguised in a pop format

brendan o'brien

so right now i'm sitting here listening to rage against the machine and marvelling at their sound and it occured to me that brendan o'brien (producer/engineer) has been responsible for either producing, recording, or mixing a tonne of the great music that i spent my teens listening to

now i'm always going to love this guy cause he recorded and co-mixed 'blood sex sugar magik'. he made that album, which was recorded in a house sound fucking great and unique. one of the great qualities this album is that it sounds like no other that came out around that time, the rawness that comes from non-ideal recording situations makes this album come alive like so many of the great punk albums before it

now if you were in your teens during the 90's and you loved bands such as pearl jam, stone temple pilots, rage against the machine, the offspring, incubus, soundgarden, red hot chili peppers then you owe brendan o'brian your left testicle. this guy has some mad skills

i suggest checking out any of the pearl jam or rage against the machine albums that brendan was involved with if you want to hear the epitomy of the nineties rock sound

compress and compress again, and then again for volume

i'm a little concerned with the current trend to over compress music lately in order to make things sound loud. it is getting to a point where it is sucking the life out of the song

what are the main elements we look for in sound to stimulate our ears? we look for frequency response, dynamic response and clarity, amongst a bunch of other factors. when you compress a mix and squeeze the shit out if you are reducing the dynamic response and also creating distortion, thus messing with the main components that stimulate our ears and subconscious. when a musician plays his instrument and puts his energy into performing, this energy is audible to us via the dynamic range between the notes we can hear and feel. when you take this dynamic range and reduce it so much that everything almost sounds the same volume, you effectively take out the emotion that the musician was putting into the playing. and whilst distortion can be good, distortion caused by over compessing a mix can ruin it, and is only subtly heard, thus affecting our subconscious experience of the music

too many audio engineers and producers are giving into the pressure to create a louder mix which in my opinion is fucking up modern music. there are some great artists out there, producing highly creative and entertaining music. unfortunately we are giving into what the punter thinks he wants rather than guiding them into an understanding that louder isn't necessarily better. its like letting your three year old kid convince you that mcdonalds is good for them

how absurd is that idea?

delving between the arts

i was just doing some reading on françois truffaut today and how his work has influenced filmakers etc. my thoughts then meandered to other films he has had an influence on, which in turn brought my mind to artists who've delved into film but specialize in other disciplines. when i think of artist turned film maker i think of one guy, my favourite guy julian schnabel

for the record i am going to say that julian schnabel is a better film maker than any mutherfucker out there. he gets to the sensibility of the character and is able to create a beautiful aesthetic for the film to relish in. basquiat, before night falls, and the diving bell and the butterfly are all great. and if you look at how much he progresses as a director with each film it's astounding. i love this guy so much. i love his smart mouth, i love his intelligence, and i love his art. he learned french just so he could make the diving bell and the butterfly in french. that's some pretty cool shit. and if you've ever seen his pink mansion you'll just think he's crazy mad

and dont forget he made the cover for the red hot chili peppers second best album 'by the way'

ernest ranglin..........a real guitar hero

back in 2001 whilst listening to 'tourist' by saint germain i was confronted with some of the greatest guitar playing i have ever heard. this was an electronic lounge album and i never expected to hear guitar riffs that would stay with me forever. there were two guitar greats playing on two different tracks here but the one that struck me the most was the second track on this album titled 'Montego Bay Spleen'. up until that moment i dont think i had ever heard such creativity on a guitar, and to be honest i dont think i've heard anything like it since

the guitar player in question is ernest ranglin. ernest grew up in jamaica and pretty much made a name for himself as a jazz guitarist during the 50's and 60's. apart from being a jazz guitarist he's played on a tonne of regae albums and rumour has it he taught bob marley how to play guitar. not a bad reputation to have. he's worked with lee scratch perry and jimmy cliff and on his solo albums has fused jazz with regae and made it sound totally cool

i love the way ernest plays the instrument. he plays with a smile on his face and does things with his fingers you wouldn't think are possible. it's almost as though he's finding a new way to make the guitar make a noise but it always sounds musical. he plays creative scales that dont sound wanky and has the technical proficiency of a master. he's a true doyen in the musical world

i suggest if you love jazz, regae, or even just groovy international music you check this guy out. later

the album ruined by heartbreak

there are albums that have a special place in my heart, alongside some movies and great books. these albums are so special that i only listen to them on special occasions or limit how often they are played. recently i went through a dark period after a break up and i played a certain album over and over again for the catharsis it provided. but you know what? i've now spoiled any enjoyment i will get from future listens because it will always remind of that time. i wish i never tainted this perfect arrangement of music, fuck that girl for spoiling the life long pleasure i should be receiving from this album. fuck her right in the face!

ennio morricone

so today i've been listening to the soundtrack for the movie 'there will be blood' composed by johnny greenwood. its a series of beautiful pieces that according to some critics, really creates the mood which gives this film it's dark and sombre mood

it got me thinking of other film composers and one guy whom i especially love, and that is ennio morricone. ennio is probably most famous for his compositions for "the good, the bad, and the ugly" and "fistful of dollars", although he has actually composed music for over 500 film and television productions. whilst reading about this guy i found a very interesting quote in regards to the instruments he used for his scores, thus creating his unique style. "Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).[8] As budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, guimbarde (jaw harp), trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.[8] Though sonically bizarre for a movie score, Morricone's music was viscerally true to Leone's vision."

so as you can see he used all these different sounds out of necessity due to budget restraints. its actually the use of these sounds and the way he used them musically that distinguished ennio morricone from a tonne of other film composers. i absolutely love this guy and i also love his use of the fender electric guitar, an instrument close to my heart haha

anyway if you love interesting music and composition i suggest you find some soundtracks that he's worked on and i'm sure you'll hear some truly amazing pieces

CBGB's

a couple of years ago i was living in new york city and somehow couldn't escape the influence that a place like CBGB's had on the city, or on the world of music and fashion for that matter. i've always been a fan of bands like blondie, the ramones, and talking heads, but living in new york just brought it all to life. music is part of the movement of new york and every hood has it's preferred style of music. jazz, hip-hop, punk, no-wave, it all comes from here. there is such a culture of sound and style here that you cannot help but feel inspired just by walking down the street

when i first arrived in new york i didnt have any friends so i'd spend my time just walking the streets and soaking it all in. one place i was continually drawn to was the lower east side. for some reason this place felt like home to me, and no wonder, it's the birthplace of punk and all that's good about music

probably the most iconic landmark in this area is CBGB's. CBGB's is where a tonne of my favourite, and very influential bands started out. bands like the ones mentioned above, bands like television, patti smith, bad brains, the misfits, suicide, all got there start or made their name at this venue

my friend miles green's band played there when he was young and according to him the place was a haven for interesting acts, artistic freedom, and a good vibe. i'd go as far as to say that without this venue and the acts that started out in it, music might not have evolved as it has

if you like any punk, post-punk, post-hardcore, indy, electronic, folk, anything at all thats cool then chances are there has been some influence from a band that's played CBGB's, especially the early days. unfortunately the venue is no longer there in the original form but the music that permeated from that place will live in forever

four tet....that dude was born in 1977

last night i put on 'late night tales' by four tet (keiran hebden) and it reminded me of how sick this guy is. it also dawned on my that he is the same age as me and has been producing phenomenal music and remixes for well over ten years now. in that time i've been fart-arsing around, tinkering here, playing about there, and mostly daydreaming about the day i produce some magical shit

four tet has done remixes for the likes of madvillain, aphex twin, bloc party, etc, which goes to show you his skillset is appreciated by some great acts, but also his original stuff is pure class. i say if you like stuff along the line of tortoise, or anything jazzy and experimental then this guy is definitely worth checking out

holly miranda - the magician's private library

just a quick note to say how much i'm loving this album at the moment. i'm a big fan of anything producer dave sitek (tv on the radio, yeah yeah yeahs) is involved with and this is no exception. there are some familiary sounds in the production to some of dave's other projects but it's definitely fresh and sounds luscious

holly's voice is incredible and as you've probably read kanye west has been giving her big ups. pitchfork gave it an ok review but sometimes i wonder with those guys, personally i hate pitchfork's reviewers, i think they're dipshits but hey i'll leave that for another blog

i suggest you check this album out if you like moody female vocals, good production, and a mellow vibe. kinda reminds me ever so slightly of goldfrapp's felt mountain as far as the mood is concerned. there you go, two albums worth checking out

on another note holly is playing show's in sydney as part of the vivid festival, not sure if she's done but if you get a chance try to check her out. she's way cute too

ode to the digitech whamy

ever wonder how guitarists like tom morello, johnny greenwood, and jack white get their guitar to squeal? i used to listen to them and think "boy they must bend those strings hard" until i find out their secret. its called the digitech whammy and it's got to be one of my favourite pedals at the moment

the digitech whammy has a bunch of effects like dive bomb and drop tune but i think the raddest sound comes from the 2 octave up effect. this is the effect that you hear on all those white stripes albums and it makes the guitar squeal like a pig, and as unattractive as that may seem, i for some reason love it!

now if you want to hear the digitech whammy in full glory you can listen to 'elephant' by the white stripes and you will hear this effect all over the album. on 'seven nation army' you'll hear the drop one octave down setting and most of the guitar solos you'll hear the one or two octave up settings. and if you want to hear it mixed up with a thousand other effects until the guitar no longer sounds like a guitar anymore go and listen to anything ever done by tom morello. not only is tom one very intelligent individual he flipped the meaning of guitar playing on its mutherfuckin head

bang!

downloading music? you're ripping yourself off

you know when i was a young man i used to put a lot of research into my music, as a matter of fact i still do. i would read interviews with my favourite musicians and see what they were listening to, i would ask the guy at the record store what he was getting into, i would demo out CD's at the store, and then i would pick out what i thought were going to be the best albums. every album i bought was with my hard earned cash. there were times a friend burned a CD or recorded a mix tape, and there's nothing like a good swap with your friend, but most of the time it was me getting excited about a band, then going to the store and buying the CD

there were plenty of times i bought a CD and on the first listen would be incredibly disapointed. i once bought 'the very best of marvin pontiac' from amazon.com and it cost me $75 after delivery fees etc. i nearly cried when i heard it first, thinking this is absolute crap. but because i paid $75 i made myself listen to it over and over till i liked the album. actually i was working a bar in london once and a famous DJ and i started talking and he mentioned the album and i told him i had it. he was very impressed and then i thought to myself "that wasn't such a bad purchase was it?"

the point i'm trying to make is, because i paid for the album i made myself listen to it. if i've paid for something i will generally listen to it until i start to like it, otherwise it was a waste of money. thats not to say that you must like all the music you buy, but the dollars spent make you value the product a little more

now i have a problem with people downloading music for free. i'm not going to jump to the stealing argument but rather i'm going to say that when you get something for free you tend to value it less. i know people who download so much music, listen to it once, dismiss it without giving it a real listen, and then proceed to move on. i think this really diminishes the value of what the artist spent weeks, months, or years creating

i believe if you really value music, art, film, etc you try to contribute to it, but also you really try to delve into what you have before you. by downloading excessive amounts of music how can you really value what you have? it just becomes a cheap commodity that is easily expendible. you know i have a deep connection with every music purchase i've ever made and for this i am eternally thankful

now i'm not trying to preach to anyone and i'm not saying that swapping music with friends, or even the odd free download is wrong. i just think that being greedy is really cheating yourself. some of my favourite albums took over ten listens or even more to really get into and i couldn't imagine my life without these little gems. its all about respecting yourself and your love for the art, along with respecting the individuals who make a living from giving us this joy

later

the big pink vs kevin shields

about eight months ago i bought 'a brief history of love' by the big pink and instantly fell in love with the album. the sounds are amazing, great guitar tones, curious lyrics, and beautiful use of distortion. the album was mixed by rich costey and i reckon this would've been a tough job due to the layering of sounds on the album. however rich seems to blend the frequencies together perfectly and it's still banging when the volune is turned up

after the first few listens though i couldn't help but ask myself how this album would've sounded if kevin shields of my bloody valentine never existed? i mean to me the album is very different to anything my bloody valentine did, but then again the first thing that comes to mind when listening is kevin shields must've been a big influence on the sounds here. now here's the thing with influences, or as i like to call them subconscious influences. sometimes you have no inclination to sound like anyone in particular but the sounds you produce, the way you play, or the notes you use seem to be very similar to a particular person or sound. i'm not sure if this is because somewhere in our subconscious mind we keep refering to this or if somewhere in our mind we like what we hear

eitherway if you're a fan of the big pink i would suggest checking out anything by my bloody valentine. to me kevin shields, with limited technical ability has probably influenced the guitar world more than someone like slash has. not to say slash isn't rad but there wasn't anyone who sounded like kevin before, however there are many who sound similar to him after. he is a frequency master of the highest order

Neu!

imagine you had a band that had been cited as an influence on artists such as joy division, david bowie, brian eno and even radiohead. imagine the music you made had a direct influence on many of today's musical styles and genres. that would be pretty cool huh?

neu!, formed in 1971, was comprised of guitarist michael rother and drummer klaus dinger, both of whom had performed with electronic music pioneers kraftwerk. anyway you look at it these guys come from good pedigree and were destined to be influencial in the music world. the funny thing to me is that experimental music from germany (also known as krautrock) never really made it big anywhere else except for maybe britain. thus probably the artists listed above as being influenced by neu! are mainly english

jam music, post psychedelic, and progressive rock is making a comeback these days with bands such as tame impala, the mars volta, and the horrors selling plenty of records. if you listen to neu! you will here the DNA of this music being passed on. i cant help but hear their influence on a tonne of other music too, bands like tortoise, autechre, and even coldplay in some aspects

check out the track negativland of the album neu! and tell me you dont hear a peter hook baseline here. as a matter of fact i hear this groove a lot and i like it

flying lotus - cosmogramma

just been listening to the new flying lotus album 'cosmogramma' and as conrad told me "this album is beyond what he accomplished on the last"

i'm nearly through my first listen and i'm already super impressed, but hey we all knew this guy was special right? well we do now. oh how i wish i worked at the warp label, these guys know music

check the album out, i'm sure you'll love it

a belated introduction to this blog

When a band or artist records an album, they are actually capturing a moment in time. Microphones are used to capture the sound which essentially are the frequencies present in that room. These frequencies are then translated and stored on a medium such as wax, magnetic tape or digital recorder. When the music is played back the speakers are recreating the frequencies that were present at the time of recording. Not only are the musical frequencies captured but i believe microphones have an ability to capture the frequencies we as humans transmit. This in turn explains why you can feel a vibe on certain albums, both through the energy of the music being played and the frequencies that were being transmitted by the humans present.

The ‘will to life’ could be defined as an inherent drive within human beings to stay alive and reproduce. I believe the reproduction of sound also contributes to this. I can listen to Robert Johnson play the Cross Road Blues and immediately i’m transported back to 1937, as a matter of fact whilst i’m listening you could say i am in the room with Robert Johnson himself. For that moment in time, he is immortal.

This blog is about some of the artists i love. Hopefully you'll check some of them out and get turned onto something new or hear a piece of music from a different perspective. For me, music helps us remember moments in life, i know i’d be lost without.

Enjoy

hank marvin - guitar hero

when i was a kid my dad used to drive me to guitar lessons every thursday after school. on the way we would listen to the shadows, and although at the time i thought the music was kinda lame, i couldnt help but fall in love with the songs and eventually learn to play them myself. the shadows were originally cliff richards’ backing band and were known for their dance moves whilst playing their instruments. supposedly these dance moves made the crowd go wild. and the shadows played some tight tunes

to me, hank marvin, the shadows lead guitarist is the benchmark for what a guitarist should be looking to achieve. he had a way of getting the most out of the instrument without working it too hard. he played some wicked sounding stuff, had a distinct guitar sound, played complex yet clean riffs, and was able to be a showman all at the same time. he could play within the minor pentatonic scale yet you would never think blues, he would then play a little harmonic minor riff and you would never think jazz. he made the guitar sound like he just invented something new

music has progressed, regressed, expanded, changed and developed in a billion ways since the shadows were making records, yet i still find the essence of what hank was doing all those years ago in some of our modern guitar heros. ian mackaye (fugazi) plays the guitar with an intense honesty and power , nick zinner (yeah yeah yeahs) is ferocious on the instrument but keeps it clean and simple, and don't get me started on johnny greenwood (radiohead). these guys are doing what hank did, letting the guitar speak. no need for bullshit filler notes, no need to over complicate things. just play simple riffs, bring some melody into the equation, and create a sound that is you. this isn't as simple as it seems. making something simple, rather than complicated requires sophistication and intelligence, but you also need the feel and artistic sensibility that makes these guys so special. this is guitar playing on another level. this is art! making you feel an emotion with the pluck of every string. hank marvin is still around and still playing guitar. he is and always will be an influence in the guitar world. i suggest you find some shadows records and check them out for yourself

ps. when i was 19 i bought myself a coral pink hank marvin signature strat, just so i could sound like hank. if only i could master all his techniques

Monday......a tribute to DOOM!

i was cruising in my car one day with my buddy thom and i said hey "you gotta check this out". i put on "born like this" by non other than the masterful DOOM. thom loved this shit so much he stole the CD from my jeep. seriously, thats how good this guy is

check out dangerdoom, a collaboration with danger mouse (purveyor of fine beats and samples), check out "born like this" a tribute to my man charles bukowski, then check out the fortet remixes if you can find em

what can i say but there aren't many guys that can spit out a rhyme like DOOM! and he rocks the badass metal mask

funkadelic vs john frusciante

in 1971 funkadelic recorded an album called "maggot brain". the first song on the album "Maggot Brain" is a beautiful ten minute guitar solo by the great eddie hazel. eddie hazel was a guitar badass and in this track uses swirling guitar effects created by use of feedback and mad crazy reverb/delays, coming in and out of both left and right stereo speakers. this to me is guitar playing in the same vein as jimi hendrix and buddy guy



now after you've given maggot brain a healthy listen get your hands on a track by john frusciante called "before the beginning" from the album "the empyrean". you may say this is maggot brain in the year 2009. recently voted best guitarist of the last thirty years what makes this song amazing is his use of the studio and effects rather than the guitar playing itself. here john frusciante sits around the Em pentatonic scale but makes it sound much more complex than a study in the blues

at their simplest, both pieces are raw with emotion felt by the range of frequencies coming from the speakers, sounds that are produced by feedback, effects, and phenomenal gear. both guitarists manage to create an excitement in the music through the pushing and pulling of frequencies, creating walls of sound that rise and fall and swirl around your head

both these tracks must be played in stereo with the speakers spaced widely apart (not too wide otherwise the bass will be thin). the panning and effects are amazing through headphones but you will be missing out on the movement of air the speakers create, thus allowing the delays to move around the room
enjoy