I first heard Explosions in the Sky when I say the movie Friday Night Lights. I looked them up later, and bought Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever, probable a couple of years ago. At first, I like just small parts of the album, but over years, the more I listened, the more it grew on me.

I’ve just picked up The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place. It’s fantastic. buy it now.

I’d sworn off Bob after seeing him do his live solo act back in 2004 or so. It was a horrible thing with recorded music and video on a big screen behind him, and left me depressed about my own creative future as I, like Bob, plunged toward mid-life.

After all, Husker Du changed my definitions about music, and seeing Bob do a solo acoustic guitar show in the early nineties was one of the best shows I’ve seen. Ten years later, I left that disaster in 2004 wondering how Bob could go so far off the rails.

Well, having listened to some more recent stuff, I feel better. District Line wasn’t good enough to justify buying the whole album, but I picked off three songs I liked the best having listened to samples, and bought mp3s: Stupid Now, Who Needs to Dream, and The Silence Between Us. These songs are nice and comfortable, like seeing an old friend from long ago.

From doing a bit of reading, it seems Bob Mould is a DJ, and into House and other forms I’m not interested in. That’s fine with me. He’s still searching, and that’s all any of us can do. I think he was just lost for a bit.

I’ve spent a little more time with POD Farm, and I’m pleased with it. I got it via a free upgrade with my Line 6 Tone Port UX2. Most of my experience with guitar sound is from my Digitek 2101, which has a tube tube preamp followed by a digital signal processor. I would either record direct from the line outputs with it’s speaker simulator on, or run a solid-state power amp and mic the speaker.

With POD Farm includes amp, speaker cabinet, and room simulation (early reflections). In short, this gives you control over distortion (non-linear amplification) on both sides of the effects processing, allowing sounds that just aren’t possible with the 2101.

On the other hand, POD farm can’t match the flexibility and control of the 2101’s signal processing, which allows you to create completely novel effects. POD Farm’s effects are simulations of “classic” and popular discrete effects stomp boxes. What would be really cool is the ability to create your own models from scratch.

A minor annoyance with POD Farm is the blatant up-sell: it installs numerous patch (called “tones”) definitions that refer to device models you don’t own. This means that 70-80% of the factory presets you get can’t be played on a stock install of POD Farm. Fortunately, customized presets can be stored in directories on the file system, so as soon as I pick the factory presets I like, I can move them in my own directory and ditch the upsell/broken ones.

My Tone Port UX2 came in last night. I’m pretty impressed with it. The amp/cabinet modelling stuff is really cool; I’d never tried it before. It’s not going to replace my GSP 2101, but it’s great at its intended use: getting guitar tracks on to a computer.

I ran it with Garage Band – it pretty much clobbers my poor little Mini, the UI is pretty sluggish, but all the real-time stuff (getting the audio recorded without latency issues) works flawlessly.

Here’s a little sound test I did with a GarageBand drum loop and a couple of tracks of guitar:

quick test for Tone Port/Gear Box/Garage Band

Now for the hard part: I have to start writing.

Maybe it’s because times are feeling apocalyptic, or maybe it’s because I just found my old cd and ripped it, but I’ve been listening to an old project, Apes.

Apes came out of a standing get together of friends back on the early nineties in my home studio. We wrote and recorded music one or two times a week. At one point were thinking in terms of a bigger project. Tom suggested we do something around a movie. I suggested Planet of the Apes.

This was 1994, long before references in The Simpsons, and long before the remake. Over the next year, Tom and I used some of the more compelling ideas and imagery from the movie to write an albums’ worth of songs.

We started with the finale, Lamp. Thirteen years later it seems the strongest and most relevant.

700 Years
Crash
This World
Round Up
Wrong Species
Brain Surgery
Orangutan’s Orders
Trouble
Climb Down
The Trial
Beach Fight
Dr. Zaius’s Confession
Lamp

(Just AAC for now).

Tom Dube’: bass, vocals
Keith Lundberg: drums
Me: guitar, vocals

I just picked up Giant Sand’s latest album, proVISIONS, which meant I spent a lot of last night listening to their other albums.

I first heard them on the radio back when I lived in Tucson, more than 20 years ago. Giant Sand became the sound that defined the place. A broad mix of styles, lots of air and space and contrasts, clever and thoughtful lyrics. I’d say they’re my most favorite band. They’ve evolved, yet the good stuff is always there.

So, if you’ve not heard them, here’s some videos to give you an idea of what they’re about.

From the latest album: Increment of Love:
Increment of Love

From a couple of years back, Remote:
Giant Sand – Remote

One of my favorite songs, Happenstance:
Happenstance

One from way back – Searchlight:
Searchlight

If you’re interested, here’s a couple albums you might start with:

I don’t like movie reviews – they’re best seen with as few preconceptions as possible. So don’t read this until you’ve seen Once, which you must.

Warning: SPOILERS!

I’ve described Once as a low-budget musical, but it’s way more than that. Most of the music is about people you don’t see. The raw emotion in Glen’s songs are about betrayal and loss of his girl friend that happens before the movie begins. Similarly, we don’t see Marketa’s husband until the ending montage.

This makes the movie mostly about the music as an expression of emotion and connection. Also, it’s a romance but not fulfilled in the obvious way. Glen goes to his girlfriend, and Marketa’s husband goes back. I’m referring to characters by the actors names because they’re not named in the film. Like Lost in Translation, there’s something wonderful about romance that isn’t ground down by getting together and trying to live happily ever after as the credits roll. A contrast is drawn between romance and relationships rarely seen in movies.

I also liked seeing a movie devoid of cynicism about music or the industry. The banker pulls out his guitar and sings after hearing Glen’s tape. The recording engineer quickly gets on board once things get rolling. Glen’s dad says it’s “brilliant” after hearing Glen’s work, and says that he’s proud of him. Music isn’t a prop or plot device to serve the story, it IS the story.

I’ve bought a CD from MC Frontalot, and artist I’d never heard of a couple of days ago.

I was on Seasoned Gamers, where a member asked, “is anyone else into nerdcore?”. I had no idea what nerdcore was, so I did some web searches on the artists listed as examples of the genre. I landed on the Pitch Black video, and I was sold. From there, I went to MC Frontalot’s site, listed to some samples, and several complete tracks from the CD, then bought it via his paypal set-up.

In this story, you’ll notice the total lack of:

• The Record Industry
• Advertising
• DRM
• Retail Distribution Costs

The essence of the transaction was covered by one of the “teaser” audio files on the CD, which was simply MC Frontalot’s hushed voice stating that you’d have to buy the CD to hear this particular track, and that you should think of it as “buying me lunch”. This is exactly how I like to think of it.

This situation is no longer new, and many artists have become financially successful this way in the past ten years. The people earning a living via my bullet list above are finding financial success more difficult.

Jaleeb Caru had gotten me thinking about playlists, and I though it be fun to list songs that
were the keys to your musical tastes over your adult life (roughly age 18 and up). The idea
is a collection of 15 songs that aren’t necessarily the best songs ever, but those that developed and
defined your taste in music, or better yet, and some impact on your life in general.

So here’s my list:

1 Aerosmith – Back in the Saddle (Rocks) 1978
I have to start with Aerosmith. When I was 18, I listened to them constantly,
and my band covered a number of their songs.

2 Elvis Costello – Radio Radio (This Year’s Model) 1979
I saw Elvis’s performance of Radio Radio either when it happened (1977), or
perhaps on a rerun. I still think his first two albums are some of the best ever,
combining Elvis’s writing with the Attractions’ great playing.

3 Rush – Red Barchetta (Moving Pictures) 1981
Looking back, this is a fairly embarasing period in my musical tastes. I listened to
a lot of progressive rock, with mid-career Rush being one of the less painful examples.
I was impressed by how well they played together, and I’ve always thought a 3-piece
was the best rock format independant of style.

4 Thomas Dolby – The Flat Earth (The Flat Earth) 1984
This is probably the first electronic music that I liked and listened to a lot, not counting
Rick Wakeman. Dolby did a great job of sound design and put them into some
fun songs.

5Giant Sand – October Anywhere (Valley of Rain) 1985
I heard this song on late night radio when I lived in Tucson. It was
unlike anything I’d been listening to, but I started buying up Giant Sand
albums. It was at least ten years before I owned a recording of October
Anywhere. Giant Sand remains my all-time favorite band.

6 Husker Du – Something I Learned Today (Zen Arcade) 1986
I had always assumed music was supposed to make you feel good,
and it was that simple. Husker Du was a powerful expression of negative
emotion that made me rethink what music could be about.

7 Half Japanese – Money to Burn (Songs to Strip By) 1989
A friend played some Half Japanese songs for me, and I thought it
was the stupidest amature crap I’d ever heard. A few days later, I heard
“Money to Burn” on the local college radio station, and found myself smiling,
and later couldn’t get the song out of my head. Their cover of Ball and Chain
cracks me up every time.

8 Jawbreaker – Gutless (Unfun) 1990
I saw Jawbreaker live, one of the best shows I’ve seen. I wasn’t into the whole
hardcore thing kids were listening to in those days, but Jawbreaker could write songs
and play them. It’s kind of painful to me to see Green Day hit mainstream big ten
years later in contrast.

9 Trans Am – Access Control (The Surveillance) 1998
I heard on the radio – Great retro-synth sound, along with
the acoustic drum set and simple guitar riffs. Since then I’ve
listened extensively to every album they’ve put out.

10 Swervedriver – Rave Down (Raise) – 1998
I heard Rave Down on college radio – I liked the thick guitar texture.
It took me a while to catch on – Raise was release about 8 years earlier.

11 Mr Bungle – Pink Cigarette (California) 1999
Kind of a cheat here – it’s really the whole album that made
and impression. It seemed a perfect expression of the happy insanity of
the dot com boom I had been sucked into. California is probably
the best album that I’ve ever heard.

12 The Dave Mathews Band – #41 (Crash) 2000
Perhaps in reaction to the difficult and somewhat painful things I was going
through at the time, I started looking for calmer, easier listening. Crash
resident in my CD player for quite a while, and my kids have been subjected
to my singing along with #41 countless times.

13 Giant Sand – Shiver (The Chore of Enchantment) 2002
I have to add another Giant Sand song, as 15 years had changed them and me.
I’ve learned to play this one myself. Shiver’s lyrics are about exactly the kind
of thing I think about now.

14 Interpol – Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down (Turn on the Bright Lights) 2004
Interpol seems old and new at the same time – a vocal sound from 80’s pop, low-fi production,
but the songwriting seems brand new.

15 ?
I’m not sure what’s next, but I’m looking.

I’m not a believer in music reviews, but that hasn’t stopped me from writing this one. I’ll start by admitting that my motivation is to get you to buy it, but there are other things on my mind as well.

I first heard Swervedriver in the early nineties on college radio, then went out and bought Raise, their first CD. Back then, I liked the thick texture of the guitar layers, and the interesting twists and turns in tone and modulation.

Flash forward ten or more years, and the CD fell off my bookcase onto the floor when I bumped into it. I started listening to it again, and wondered what happened to Swervedriver, and if there were any more albums out there.

It turns out, there are a few, including a two-CD anthology, “The Juggernaught Rides, ‘89-’99″. This is what you must buy. Following Raise, the production got a bit better, with more breaks in the guitar wall to let more quirks and contrasts through.

Swervedriver is a guitar band, the most obvious characteristic being two or three layers of guitar, and vocals that are so far down in the mix that it’s hard to make out words, particularly on earlier recordings. Beyond this, they avoid beating riffs and hooks to death. Some tracks start one way, then switch it up completely a few measures in. This process makes it accessable, but keeps the interest going by changing textures constantly.

The style of production is perhaps a lost art. Current guitar bands are so technically focussed on tone and sonic image that textures seem simplistic. Swervedriver tracks particularly from Raise, have thick textures that are constantly in flux.

I find myself wishing they had more confidence in the vocals. Perhaps it’s just the practice of mixing them low to make guitars sound loud. Some layered vocals beg for elaboration.

I’m not sure who to compare them to. Some tracks sound a lot like Archers of Loaf. It’s also hard to avoid comparisons to Bob Mould, though I think Mould’s solo work has no where near the depth. They do share the guitar-wall approach in many tracks. They’re also comparable to The Smashing Pumpkins, but only a bit.

But it’s as though Swervedriver listened to music from the 60’s, and perhaps has too much of an attention deficit to make any song about one thing, expressed in one way. I’m also reminded of Live Skull, a NYC band from the early ninties, notable for layered guitar lines.

Some of my favorite tracks:

Planes over the Skyline
Duel
The Other Jesus
Kill the Superheros
Never Loose That Feeling

Go buy the album now.