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Archive for category Music

Seeking a Song

Feb 2

Posted by Zero in Music | No Comments

Okay, so I lost the retired Droid that I’ve been using as an MP3 player. So, for the first time in — well, as long as I can remember — I listened to FM radio.

And KNDD served up a Gotye song that I loved and CAN’T FIND. Help me!

It sounds contemporaneous with this track (notice the cool cut-out video):

(If that link dies for some reason, you should be able to find it here: http://youtu.be/Jwekc5qgVeA)

It has moderately distorted lyrics and a sparser arrangement than this. Any ideas? Because sometimes the right music is the only antidote to life that works.

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Silversun Pickups

Jan 12

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Silversun Pickups from god knows when

I’ve really developed a taste for Silversun Pickups. Pay attention especially to the precision of the opening riffs of “It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone”, which are unusually precise by Silversun’s standards. For some reason, this reminds me of some of the alt-rock that flirted with the edges of grunge back in the early 90s, but that could just be senility creeping in.

Brian Aubert Smiles Upon The World!

The one thing I’m a little conflicted about is Aubert’s voice. It seems more limited in register and tone than the band is as a whole. Likely, he’s just an unrepentant negative Nelly like myself, but I like my music to have some frenetic happiness from time to time, to express a complete emotional range, and Aubert keeps Silversun from doing that for me. (Brian, if you do happen upon this — I’m sorry, but it’s generally true!)

But look — despite his Corganesque fugue expression in the band line-up, he can look happy!

UPDATE: Substitution is actually a reasonably cheery song — check out the video here.

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What is WRONG with these people?

Jan 10

Posted by Zero in Bad Personal Philosophy, Music, Nonsense | 1 Comment

Idiots in Bad Stage Make-up

Okay, so I made the mistake the other day of googling Gwar. I’m not sure what made me think of it, really, but once it was there I had to look. Surely they weren’t as bad as you remember them! And the pictures — well, they’re hilarious! Nothing wrong with a self-respecting metal band dressing up like fantasy monsters with…  obscene codpieces and drawn-on abs, pracing around on stage, scattering fake body fluids over the audience…  right?

Well, then I checked out a video.  Not some videos.  ONE video.

It was this one.  Don’t watch it if you’re easily offended, like me.  Or if you’re my wife, or if you’re under the age of 13 without the written consent of your parent or guardian.  In triplicate. And please, if you are my significant other, DO NOT WATCH THIS VIDEO.

 

They are sick bastards. I mean, really, WHY? They’re worse than I remembered. ICK. It’s not realistic at all, but it arouses in me the same visceral nausea (cold palms, cold sweat, descending stomach as my transverse colon contracts in horror) that I felt when I made the mistake of watching the opening sequence from La Terza Madre. This isn’t art, it’s depravity.

I’d like to think that the big, dramatic, glory-drenched flash-mobs would be a perfect antidote…

…but I know too well that at least one of the people sitting at those tables, smiling and nodding as the universe breaks out with a glorious fruit of unexpected order and cooperation, is probably thinking about how best to stage a fake disembowelment at a concert.

So instead, I will cure myself with Goldfrapp and FC Kahuna. That is all.

Mainspring

Oct 30

Posted by Zero in Music | No Comments

Old piece of music, recently touched up.  The vocoder segments are Cathy reciting numbers in French — one through eight.

The Mainspring of a Clock

The title is derived from a 1950s era “libertarian” history entitled “The Mainspring of Human Progress.”  I thought it was full of crap when I read it in 1993, but definitely interesting.  As to the specifics of how the phrase worked its work into this, such questions are probably best not asked.

Mainspring

 

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Writing Soundtracks is Hard Work

Jul 14

Posted by Zero in Cinema, Family & Friends, Music, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Bad ComposerMy friend Michael asked me to take a stab at putting together some soundtrack music for a film he is working on (in fact, he just locked the script — which deserves enormous congratulations).  Being a basically foolish person, I agreed.

Here’s what I have so far:

Far Trader – Title Theme

I have a long to-do list for it: the tempo fluctuations need to feel more natural throughout; the flute can NOT vibrato like that, it’s just NOT natural!; and the synthesizer in the middle really just sounds kind of bad. But I am rather proud of the general shape of the confoun — err — composition. Another dozen hours of work should yield something almost bearable to listen to.

Remind me not to apply for Hans Zimmer’s job when he dies — may he live forever making beautiful soundtracks.  I think that his Time theme from Inception was actually a large part of the reason why I liked the movie.

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Abandoned Elevator

Apr 20

Posted by Zero in Music | No Comments

Okay, so I confess here (as I’ve confessed elsewhere) that I have downright lousy taste in music. On occasion, this extends to horror movie soundtracks… in particular, I’m a huge fan of the band Goblin, whose work fueled Dario Argento’s Giallo works in the 70s and 80s. Goblin was an awesome band, no matter what anyone else says about them and their gross excesses (no pun intended). The main theme from Profondo Rosso is one of my personal favorites.

That said, the following snippet just came off the press — pardon me if it’s a bit rough. It’s very un-Goblin-ish, but it might do as transitional mood music for one of Argento’s movies.

Abandoned Elevator

I don’t know if “Abandoned Elevator” constitutes a permanent title — it’s just the phrase that came to mind 10 minutes in.

P.S. Yes, Michael. I do love dissonance a little more than I should.

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