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