-
R.I.P. LAUSD Music
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zespLK9ujpU] As a musician, and a classical one at that, I don’t feel like the world is obligated to support me. But it’s hard to watch videos like this and not think that the world doesn’t value what I want to spend my life doing.
-
Jónsi Go
Most of the reviews of Go that I’ve seen in passing mention how different it is from Jónsi’s work with Sigur Ros. I thought that I would have fresh ears because I’ve only heard like one of their albums (()? Vekatimest?). Still, this album is a big contrast from the music journalist shorthand for Sigur…
-
Real Estate Real Estate
The New Jersey band Real Estate’s self titled debut album mines some of the same ground that we can also hear in the work of Fleet Foxes and Animal Collective. It’s too simplistic to call this music “surf-rock revival” or to limit their musical forebears to The Beach Boys, but there are grains of truth…
-
Malcolm McLaren is dead.
I’m not going to fake being too torn up about this. I’m no particular fan of his, or the Sex Pistols, but after seeing Kill Bill, I’ve always liked his cover of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There:” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUs0O81n9-A]
-
Arvo Pärt – Fratres
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FukUz9z9HkY] Fratres for Violin and Piano. Arvo Pärt (1935-) is an Estonian composer who developed his minimalist style and compositional methods in isolation behind the Iron Curtain. His music incorporates elements of Gregorian chant and modes; religious ideas; and minimalist textures. When he began composing, he experimented with neo-classical techniques, following Prokofiev, Bartók and Shostakovich.…
-
A couple essays…
1. Tom Bissell writes about being addicted to video games and cocaine. I’ve never tried cocaine. I wouldn’t, at this point in my life, dismiss the possibility entirely, however one of the things that goes through my mind when I think about it is that I am afraid that I would like it very much.…
-
Broken Bells
My music listening habits have greatly changed in the last couple of years. I last blogged about it almost one year ago to the day. At the time, I was expressing frustration with the internet culture that values acquisition over appreciation, and consensus over quality. Although I didn’t know it then, I was expressing the…
-
I just found out…
…that WordPress.com supports embedding Vimeo clips. Wow. That’s good news. In honor of my discovery, here’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen: [vimeo=http://vimeo.com/10173262] Description of the project is here.
-
The kind of performer I want to be…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoTyDD0C93U] Harpo Marx playing Rachmaninov’s C# Minor Prelude.
-
Modest Mouse
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Ca_edg6RE] There’s video up at the Disney Parks blog of a scoring session for one of their new live shows at California Adventure in Anaheim. It’s a reworked version of “Night on the Bare Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky, which was used for one of the segments in Fantasia. That piece has always fascinated me because…
