9 posts tagged “music”
My day job as an interaction designer involves a lot of user research. I recently did a project for an online music distribution service where I talked to a bunch of "music junkies" in the SF Bay Area about the way they listen. I was surprised to find that most of my participants (all btwn 18 and 35) were still pretty album-focused - even though they're mostly listening on computers or iPods, where other sorting methods (artist, genre, playlist) are easily accessible. It's a listening paradigm that's deeply entrenched in popular culture.
I made myself a promise when I bought my shiny new ESP. It's a "real" guitar (the first I've owned, really) and I'm going to learn to play it for real. I've been faking my way through with power chords, a couple of scales, and a handful of open chords for years. I've essentially treated guitar like a bass with teeny strings that are close together. My technique is terrible. That was OK for recording (ah, the magic of digital editing) with my cheap Les Paul and Strat knockoffs, but I've reached the point where my lack of ability is really starting to hurt my songwriting.
I've been working on mixes for two of the 13 songs I have earmarked for the next record. Composition, arrangement, and primary recording don't generally take me that long - maybe 40-50 hours per song, soup to nuts. Sounds like a lot for four minutes of music, but it starts to look more reasonable when you consider what's involved: drums, bass, two or more guitar parts, synth parts (sometimes none, sometimes as many as five or six), main vocal melody, harmonies, and lyrics.
Funny...I was going to post about this anyway. Timely Vox Hunt.
Esp
Just got a new ESP Viper 400. EMG 85 at the neck, 81 at the bridge. It's about half the weight of my old guitar (a Gretsch Electromatic Jet Pro) and the neck is a lot more comfortable. Slightly wider string spacing for my big ol' fingers but not as bulky front-to-back. The EMG 81 doesn't sound all that different than the Duncan humbucker in the Gretsch, but the 85 is just beautiful - warm and round, without much of a humbucker twang. Grover tuners, too, which are a big step up.
I'm also replacing my ancient (in music technology years) Pod Pro with Native Instruments' Guitar Rig. Amp modeling technology has come a long way in the last six years. Hooray for good guitar tone!
Been listening to the new Rise Against record. I liked Siren Song of the Counter-Culture a lot so I picked up S&W on iTunes right after it came out last week. I dig it. The melodic hooks that made SSCC such a great record are present in full force, the energy is there, and the musicianship is more accomplished all the way around. Yay new music!
PS happy birthday to Mr. The Slider.
Editors are my new find of the week. Vox reminiscent of Ian McCulloch, instrumentals from the same school as Interpol. Dig it.
Blood was the track that grabbed me. The whole album has grown on me over several listens. Editors work with texture and dissonance so the first couple of times through were a little tiring. Now I can't get enough of 'em.
Music's a huge part of my life. I write it. I record it. I listen to it constantly. Sometimes I select albums or playlists to reflect my mood. Sometimes I use my selections to affect my mood...
...all of which is a long-winded way of rephrasing the old "but I can't pick just one !" complaint.
Top of the list is the Specials' cover of Pressure Drop . "Drop" is right...as in drop whatever I'm doing and skank around my living room with a big goofy smile.
Honorable mentions, in no particular order:
- Bad Brains, She's Calling You
- Soft Cell, Sex Dwarf
- Fischerspooner, Never Win
- The Primitives, Thru the Flowers
- Veruca Salt, Volcano Girls
- Indigo Swing, How Lucky Can One Guy Be? - this was the first dance at my wedding back in '98...sigh :)
- Rush, Spirit of Radio
- Tsar, The Teen Wizards
- Bouncing Souls, Punks in Vegas
- The Toasters, East Side Beat
- Louis Armstrong, It Don't Mean a Thing
My first album: The Smiths, "Hatful of Hollow". 1987, my junior year of high school. I wore out the tape; then I bought it again and wore out that tape; then I bought the CD; now I listen to the mp3s and it's still my favorite Smiths album.
