auscultations

Space Invader

2012-03-04T00:33:00.000-08:00

Here is the awesome music video for Space Invader, a track from my 2009 online electronic album, Die Laughing!

The video was made by Icelandic filmmaker Thorbjorg Jonsdottir. I think it's great, and I'd love to hear what you think:

Die Laughing was released in 2009 as a free online album. Read the review of Die Laughing by Free Albums Galore.

Check out Thorbjorg's own website at thorbjorgjonsdottir.com

We've collaborated a number of times before, including the 2007 short film, EMPEROR

Reflections on Loutallica

2012-02-29T16:10:00.000-08:00

I would like to finally admit that I felt an uncontrollable urge to check out the Lou Reed/Metallica collaboration, Lulu. How could someone not be curious about an album widely regarded as the worst album ever?

I have heard some pretty bizarre music (EX: The Residents' Big Bubble, which I reviewed on Weirdomusic); what's the worst that 2 generations of rock n' roll burn-outs could do? It also seemed somehow unfair that Lulu be publicly judged only by moronic rock critics and youtube trolls that are probably oblivious to the fact that there was ever any other music title Lulu.

I grew up in the Great White North, where Metallica could be heard blasting through many a pair of junior high Walkmen headphones. To hear that familiar bonehead rock supporting the bad drug trip vibe of Lou Reed is truly surreal. With that in mind, the legacy of this album will not be to bring Metallica to the art-rock world, but to bring the wide world of weird to the backwater Metallica demographic. A small town teenager who buys this at Walmart thinking it's another straight up rock record will be severely surprised.

Lou Reed definitely makes Metallica his bee-atch on this one, and they really play their little Napster-hating hearts out for him. Who else could get these sultans of E-string minor-key down-picking to vamp on a major 1-5-4?

The overall vibe of the album is that of a menacing idiot beast being guided by a foul-mouthed little voice it's too dumb to ignore (with Metallica as the beast, and Lou Reed as the voice, if that's unclear). James Hetfield's gawdawful vocal contributions play the dramaturgical role of that bully beast's mouthpiece, reacting like an anime archetypal thug to Lou Reed's endless vitriol. It is undeniably comical to hear him declare that he is a table in "The View" (side note: sometimes riding on the crash cymbal is in such poor taste, it might be right... maybe?)

None of Metallica's own music could be described as a challenge to traditional gender roles or the listener's own masculinity, and in that dichotomy lies the unique charm of this album (in fact, if that part flies over your head, then you will undoubtedly miss the point of it - as must the people who download the torrents of Lulu without Lou Reed's voice). The lyrical content really does a thorough job of recontextualizing the Man-rock of Metallica. A fine example of this is in the song "Frustration," where Lars Ulrich pounds out a meat-headed drum solo while Lou Reed intones," Marry me; I want you as my wife; Spermless like a little girl; More man than I…" That juxtaposition of masculine roles is key to understanding what's actually going on here.

Lou Reed has largely succeeded in creating the repulsive, absurdist, self-abhorrent moods that he must have aimed for. Though his output of the last 25 years or so has been shaky at best, the ubiquity of the Metallica sound, mixed with Lou Reed's impression of Ken Nordine's evil twin reciting Burroughs, makes for a convincingly unsettling listen. Many albums of theatrical music suffer from a lack of context (Meredith Monk's Atlas?), but rarely does that seem to be the case for Robert Wilson collaborators, like Reed, Philip Glass, or Tom Waits.

The WTF factor of Lulu taken as a whole album is staggering. For Lou Reed to coax this level of sonic alienation out of a bland, washed up band like Metallica is a pretty amazing feat (maybe Reed and Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo revisited Trujillo's previous band, Suicidal Tendencies).

In his Musical Primer, Lou Harrison paraphrased Henry Cowell as saying, "don't underrate hybrid music, because that's all there really is." The kids that will buy Lulu CD's from dollar bins in 3 years will undoubtedly be creating their own bizarre, tasteless musical hybrids that will further boggle both Susie Vanilla-Consumers and music snobs alike. I can't wait.

Ligeti Hero

2012-02-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

In Rock Band 3, the player can use a 25-key wireless piano keyboard as a controller, which is what is going on in the video above. Though I could never get into the Rock Band games, the idea of a 20th century composer game pack intrigues me . How about a collection of Morton Feldman tunes for Rock Band?

Here's a tangential free idea: Gamification of practice for musicians (on real instruments). You could draw from Rock Band's Skittles-ish display, Organ Muse's MIDI pageturning, and some sort of time management software, to create a program that actually boosts practice productivity. Of course, it would probably have to block Wi-Fi to actually get anything done...

auscultation mix #1

2012-02-08T00:33:00.000-08:00

I'm going start posting a sort of mixtape/podcast about once a month. Here's the first one. I'd love to hear what you think of it.

Daniel Johnston - Get Yourself Together
James Tenney - Collage #1 (Blue Suede)
Idiot Flesh - Dead Like Us
Christian Marclay - Martin Denny
Van Dyke Parks - Palm Desert
John Cage - Credo In Us
Julee Cruise - Rockin' Back Inside My Heart
John Zorn - The Noose
Ensemble Modern - Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America (Zappa)
Richard Hapogian - Soode Soode 4/4
Sound in Brass - The Girl With the Flaxen Hair (Debussy)

Eclipse Quartet on Feb. 4 @ LACMA

2012-01-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

I wish I could go! I will be performing in Who's Hungry - Santa Monica, as I mentioned in my last post.

The Eclipse Quartet will perform music by Ruth Crawford Seger and Meredith Monk in the Bing Theater as part of LACMA's In Wonderland exhibit.

Ruth Crawford Seeger might be best known as the progenitor of both Pete Seeger and dissonant counterpoint with her husband Charles Seeger. After being inundated with children (OK, and a lot of other things), she worked with Alan Lomax collecting, transcribing, and arranging American folk songs. I really like her music, particularly her earlier, more dissonant music.

I've never heard any non-vocal music by Meredith Monk, so I assume that the quartet will be joined by their guest, Perla Batalla, for the Monk music on the program. They will also perform a commissioned piece by Ms. Batalla for voice and quartet. What I want to know is: when are they going to commission ME to write something for them?

Last year the Eclipse Quartet performed Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet with pianist Vicki Ray, first at Zipper Hall and later at Royal-T. I was sad that I couldn't make the Zipper Hall show, but was soon soothed by the announcement of the performance at Royal-T. I would say a performance like that is best heard in a more intimate setting, so I won in the end. It was a wonderful performance - "spellbinding" as I believe the LA Times review said repeatedly.

If you weren't able to get a ticket for the sold out Who's Hungry - Santa Monica, here's a plan for a perfect evening:

Who's Hungry - Santa Monica just added a 5pm show on the 4th, so you can get a ticket for that and still make it to the Eclipse Quartet show later at LACMA!

Who's Hungry - Santa Monica

2012-01-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

This weekend and next I'll be playing accordion, toy piano, and percussion in Who's Hungry - Santa Monica, a puppet piece by Dan Hurlin and Dan Froot at Highways Performance Space. I saw the previous installment in the series, which took place in West Hollywood about 3 years ago, and I'm excited to be a part of this one! Come down and see it - here's TICKET INFO

The music was written by Seattle native Amy Denio, a mixture of Americana nostalgia, Eastern European time signatures, and vintage L.A. punk energy. It will be performed by her, Mike Flanagan, and myself. Last weekend I convinced these two wonderful musicians to join me at the Accordion Babes Revue at Fais Do Do as the Amy Denio Trio, and I'm so glad they decided to do it! The puppeteers are Sheetal Gandhi, Darius Mannino, Rachael Lincoln, and Zach Tolchinsky

From the Highways website:
"This installment in the series tells the oral histories of five very different homeless and hungry Santa Monicans, through five 15- to 20-minute segments, woven together much as a chef weaves a succession of flavors into a cohesive multi-course meal. Overall, the project incorporates a range of puppetry styles in order to give each of the five stories its own aesthetic treatment. Presented on a specially built 24-foot dinner table, the audience views the action from one side, as if they are banquet guests. Incorporated into the evening are Delft china, Matchbox cars, televisions, rod puppets, as well as puppets inspired by Japanese Bunraku, and much more."

Accordion Babes Revue LA

2012-01-18T00:12:00.000-08:00

Jan 21, this Saturday night, all of your favorite accordion-tinted LA bands will swarm at Fais Do Do for the Accordion Babes Revue!

The evening is brought about by Renee de la Prade's Accordion Babes Pinup Calendar. If you don't know, the Accordion Babes Pinup Calendar is exactly what it sounds like: a cool calendar of great female accordionists posing with their instruments. You can pick one up at the show when you come!

The last time Mrs. Hobbs (of Ketchup Soup, also Miss January in the 2012 calendar) organized an Accordion Babes Revue at Fais Do Do, only bands with women accordionists performed - as well as Dorian Wood in a fabulous wig and dress.

This time there is a whole mess of great bands with both male and female accordionists. I'll be busting some 1930's Russian tangos with Timur & The Dime Museum, and jamming with The Amy Denio Trio later. Accordionists Renee de la Prade and Amber Lee Baker will be coming down from SF, sharing the stage with the following LA bands:

• Timur & The Dime Museum: Dark glam opera, profiled in LA Weekly's Best Of People Issue 2011 www.timurandthedimemuseum.com
• Dorian Wood: Avant-garde troubadour www.dorianwood.com
• AK & Her Kalashnikovs: International — Opa! www.facebook.com/AKandHerKalashnikovs
• Seeing Thingz: Rock-gypsy-experimental-punk-funk www.SeeingThingz.com
• Salt Petal: The Smiths meet Os Mutantes in a dark alley in Buenos Aireswww.saltpetal.com
• The Shpil: A cosmopolitan klezmer quintet www.theshpil.com
• Cat Hair Ensemble: Dada Cosmopolitan www.cathairensemble.bandcamp.com
• Demonite Na Khaosa: Bulgarian vocal & accordion harmonic beautieswww.facebook.com/demonitenakhaosa
• princessFrank & the Killsisters: Accordion & drumming frenzywww.facebook.com/pages/_princessFrank/200185170025845
• Rattlesnake Charm School: Old-Time Revival, Sea Shanties, Murder Balladswww.facebook.com/rattlesnakecharmschool
• Two-Bit Opera: 1 bit, 2 bit…Cabaret! www.twobitopera.com
• Count Smokula: 496 year old Smokesylvanian musical comedianwww.countsmokula.com
• Danny Kopel: Blues www.facebook.com/danny.kopel1
• Amy Denio's Trio: Experimental www.AmyDenio.com

Get tickets HERE

Ornithophilia

2012-01-16T00:38:00.000-08:00

It's always great to see people you know making exciting work. The wild Up show last Saturday at the Armory night is a good example. The show had a theme of ornithology. There were pieces by Messiaen, Ferneyhough, Mark Menzies, and Chris Kallmyer. There also were arrangements of music by Haydn, Charlie Parker, and Andrew Bird. The Menzies and Kallmyer were premieres, while the arrangements were made by members of the ensemble.

There were real standout performances by clarinetist Brian Walsh and pianist Richard Valittuto, who blasted through Ferneyhough's La Chute d'Icare and Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques respectively. The Ferneyhough sounded appropriately hairy, while the Messiaen was appropriately raucous and/or sensitive in the right ways and places.

My favorite arrangements were by Archie Carey and Richard Valitutto. Carey stretched out the first few bars of Charlie Parker's Bird of Paradise into a nice spectral sounding orchestral piece. Valitutto's arrangement of an Andrew Bird song filtered it through Messiaen's gestural and harmonic tenacity, occasionally reverting back to the plain harmonic language of the singer/songwriter/whistler. Conductor Christopher Rountree's arrangements of "Hayden" and Parker bookended the evening, brimming with personality. The arrangements by Mike Shapiro were more straight ahead, you might say indie pops.

Kallmyer's piece involved field recordings of birds, over which the ensemble played intriguing post-ambient textures. Menzies' Double Tui (named after a bird from New Zealand) used the same instrumentation as Oiseaux Exotiques, augmented by rain sticks, boom boxes, and some theatricality involving players walking on and off stage. There was a lot of interesting attention paid to sonic detail.

Overall it was a very fun concert, though the seating arrangement at the Armory left something to be desired. Looking forward to hearing more.

Big Beautiful Dark and Scary

2012-01-10T22:15:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen it already, the new Bang on a Can All-Stars album is up on their website, and you can download it for free for a few more days!

I like it - there are some really great moments (which I'll let you find on your own).

There's also an interesting Nancarrow arrangement, too. If you're into Bang on a Can (which I am), you'll like this double album. All of the usual suspects are represented: David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, Louis Andriessen, Evan Ziporyn...

If you're not, it's at least worth checking out the Nancarrow.

the wulf. @ MOCA

2012-01-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a great video from July 3, when the wulf. took over MOCA for a day! All of the usual wulf. suspects are in there, masterminded by Madison Brookshire. It was an exciting day of experimental music everywhere, surrounded by art.

I had 2 pieces involved: my accordion ensemble, Free Reed Conspiracy, played my piece Neotrope. I also displayed my two 100-movement music boxes. Though the music boxes didn't make the video, Free Reed Conspiracy did.

From the youtube video description:
"On July 3, 2011, MOCA Sunday Studio invited downtown experimental arts organization the wulf. to organize an afternoon of performances and interactive sound pieces in the museum in order to highlight the use of sound in the exhibition William Leavitt: Theater Objects. For 3 hours, 32 composers and performers associated with the wulf. transformed the permanent collection, Reading Room, ARCO Court and Sculpture Plaza with 20 different performances and installations ranging from an accordion octet to a dry ice percussion ensemble.

Featuring performances and pieces by Casey Anderson, Dicky Bahto, Matt Barbier, Ezra Buchla, Eric KM Clark, Scott Cazan, Daniel Corral, Corey Fogel, Carlos Inderhees, Heather Lockie, Liam Mooney, Larry Polansky, Alan Nakagawa, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Mark So, Laura Steenberge, Luke Storm, Christine Tavolacci, Tashi Wada, Colin Wambsgans, Michael Winter and Harris Wulfson.

More information about the the wulf. can be found at thewulf.org

Video by Benjamin Rodkin."

On Sleigh Bells

2011-12-23T22:19:00.000-08:00

I've been trying not to hate the sound of sleigh bells.

I can't help but equate sleigh bells with Christmas music and the Boston Pops. Are they forever doomed to be a tiny jangly demon in a Leroy Anderson christmas nightmare?

Prokofiev uses them to similar effect in Lt. Kijé, which is better, but still a bit too Christmas-y for me.

I am always amazed by artists who use sleigh bells in their music without seeming to care about this elephant-in-the-room musical reference. Brave. We need to reclaim the sound of sleigh bells! I'm sure there is some great, gnarly piece of 20th century modernist music that uses sleigh bells in a startling way, but I can't think of any right now. Below are some examples of sleigh bells in the right hands, though I'm sure there are plenty more.

Carl Orff's usage in Carmina Burana is much more secular - an ode to women's use of makeup to lure men (skip to 5:00 to hear them):

John Coltrane - sleigh bells seem to start every song throughout Interstellar Space:

or The Beach Boys - sleigh bells permeate God Only Knows:

Then there's the rock band Sleigh Bells, who sound to me a lot like The Ting Ting's (who sound a lot like the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, but I digress...). I don't think there are any literal sleigh bells up in here, but because of their name it seems worth mentioning:

I don't want to dilute a popular meme by saying "occupy sleigh bells," but let's re-appropriate them.

The CD Re-Issue is the Massage

2011-12-21T09:43:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media, so my curiosity was picqued when I read on Boing Boing that a label called Five Day Weekend will be re-issuing the 1967 LP based on McLuhan's Medium is the Massage.

Some of text is from The Medium, while other bits are definitely from Understanding Media (and some is in both). McLuhan's ideas may have been prophetic in 1967, but they are an eerily accurate description of our relationships with technology today. I was initially shocked at how dense McLuhan's writing is in Understanding Media compared to The Medium is the Massage, but that's probably why The Medium is the Massage and this album, were made...

It's an interesting collage - though more Beatles than Stockhausen, it's a bit Robert Ashley, a little Schaeffer, some Cage, a touch of Oswald... You can listen to the whole thing as MP3's on Ubuweb. It was an LP, and so is divided into 2 sides.

There are also YouTube "videos" of the audio!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Entering Blogosphere!

2011-12-19T12:18:00.000-08:00

This is the beginning of Auscultations, a blog about music!

I'll be posting videos, music, articles, etc. that I find interesting and hope others might as well. I'll occasionally put in my own rants or promos, too, but don't worry - I promise not to go overboard.

To start things off right, here's some Louis Andriessen! His Symfonie voor Loss Snaren (Symphonie for Open Strings) is for a 12-person ensemble of scordatura (retuned) strings.