WRONG NOTES: a blog of ear reverence
Wrong Notes collects posts on music, art, culture and fun stuff. Also included: news about the Ear Reverends.
What’s up, site anniversary, and podcasting music
What's up: I've got a couple dozen or so unreleased tracks that I've worked on this year, and I've been thinking about doing something with them (excerpts?, mashup-medley?) as an end-of-the-year thing for this blog.
During this period at the end of the year, I definitely look back and look forward at my life. And, I'm not sure yet whether I'll release / post a lot more soon, or incorporate it all into the full "new year" plan.
One thing to say: I'm encouraged to have been able to release more than twenty-five pieces / songs over this last year, and to have received so much positive response. I'm frustrated that I haven't released more, but I hope that these pieces / songs I'm still keeping in the oven will be better for it.
~~~
It was a little more than a year ago that I put up this site's home page, and posted a link to Joi vs. The Burtonator (mp3), also today's musical wrong notes I've include with these textual wrong notes. It's seems weird to me now that I chose that song to have been the first one I released, but c'est la vie.
~~~
Podcasting, depending on how you look at it, may or may not be what I'm doing here by including audio with every post. (Trivia note: I contributed some of the history write-up to the Wikipedia entry on podcasting, and coined the term: proto-podcasting used in that entry.)
For most folks, podcasting seems to be about creating or listening to an online talk radio show or audio blog post—i.e., a program centered around someone (or a group) speaking. And, as such, it's interesting to hear how folks are using music as part of these.
I was flattered to find out that my song, Plastic Toys (mp3), was featured in a recent Cone 11, Forced Air podcast (mp3) by John Norris, whose blog covers the topics of "Art, Information, Ceramics, and You". (Thanks John!)
But, upon listening to it myself, I started to wonder how musicians like myself could contribute more than just longer music recordings to the overall production of these 'casts.
Since listening to John's 'cast, I've made a point of listening to a variety of others'. And, it seems like there is an assumption-technique being used like: I like this song and think it'll be cool to have in the background while I talk over it.
Music is so much about space (or, silence), which is emphasized through the dynamics of musical tones (or, sounds). And, a recording of your voice (e.g., radio) is also very dependent on space / silence— more so than folks often realize, as their normal context for speaking is one which includes visual cues and bodily gestures that don't appear on the audio recording at all.
So, music can add to the dynamic of your voice, and also help mark the progression of your "story". And, a first suggestion to podcasters out there is that you might consider your podcasts as being made up of several segments / stories that are more in the 30-90 second range of length, rather than as a single 3-4 minute segment / story.
Music can then be used to delineate these 30-90 second segments. So, speak for 30-90 seconds, then take a break (let your listeners absorb what you just said) and play a musical interlude for 20-30 seconds. These interludes then can have qualities that reflect (and emphasize) the feeling of what you just said, and also act as a segue to your next segment /story.
So, this is a pattern of: voice only, music only, voice only. And, one can use cross-fades (the first notes of music and the last words of the voice occur at the same time, etc.) with a great deal of nuance as well.
Another pattern is to have voice over the music. And, in this way, I think, the speaker really needs to be "singing" in a rhythmic, if not melodic sense (as in recitative). In other words, the music is not so much in the background (albeit, it's low in volume) but is an integral component of your vocal expression, and you're conscious of a groove between your speech phrasing and the musical phrasing.
Looking forward, I think it might be interesting for musicians to create and release music specifically for these kinds of patterns. (And, actually, one idea I've had is taking my un/released pieces of 2004 and producing a bunch of short musical excerpts that could be used in this way.)
I'm really excited about having my music used in podcasts, but, at the same time, I'd like to make more of this podcast-talk + music format. I mean, it's kind-of like early radio before recordings were dominant vs the development of recordings that "play" to the traditional radio format. What music recordings can we make that play to the podcasting radio format?
Also, I'd find it fun to write and record theme music for folks podcasts. That's another suggestion to podcasters: have a theme song for the intro and end of your show. But, again, it's got to be 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds long?
Linear communications, like spoken stories or, in general, musical pieces, have a start, middle, and an end. Blog posts often do not have so much structure.
So, it's interesting to consider the podcast to be like a blog post, because, I think, the audio program (in order to be enjoyable) may have many more structural requirements than the blog post. But, that can be advantageous: you can design a structure or two that can be your podcast formats, and then that structure helps you keep your 'casts focused.
And, I'm imagining that music can not only be used to help build these program structures / formats, but that music can be created specifically for this kind of use such that the music and the talk format become more interesting / enjoyable in their combination.
Anyway, we'll see what else the Ear Reverends do with music for podcasts. And, if you use the Ear Reverends' music in your podcast, please let me know so I can keep track (and I'll probably create a page of links to podcasts that use my music).
Thanks so much for all of your support, link love, and for listening to these things we call music! Have a great new year!
Music again
Sorry for the absence from new posts and music, 'til now. This post introduces the Ear Reverends' latest Wrong Notes, called "The 33 1/3 Commandment (for Anastasia)".
Please check it out an enjoy. (Oh, and in case you notice, yes!, that is my Memorymoog in the background—it's out of storage now for the first time since 1988 or so, and boy is it in need of major repair!).
As a way of explaining the absence of new posts and music here: Since releasing a song in the Practice series (in late June), I've traveled with Anastasia and my family in Jamaica (in July, made some sound recordings that might appear here too!), decided to move from San Francisco to Seattle (July), quit my day job (August), packed and moved (August), unpacked (September), and also had to adjust to the effects from being in a car accident (August), the death of my maternal Grandmother (September), and starting up in my new day job (October).
But, I'm back writing and recording new music. In fact, yesterday, I created a sound sculpture / installation for our Halloween party—it was a huge, albeit, very local, hit!
A call to fight against the INDUCE act
What follows is a message that I've been emailing to my friends and family in the USA (where I live too), asking them to join me in fighting the INDUCE act by joining the Save Betamax campaign. Please consider joining in too!
~~~
As you know, I don't send out many messages about political issues, but I am very concerned about a law that may be passed by Congress that would basically make it illegal to create technologies like the ones I use every day to record and distribute my music (and other things, like family photos) over the Internet.
This bad law is known as the INDUCE act, and I'll include some links below where you can find a lot more background information. But, basically, what the law says is that you can be considered liable if you create technology that could be used to violate copyrights. Basically, this means that the makers of any electronic device or software program that can make a "copy" of something (digital camera, video, audio, text) could be threatened with millions of dollars in copyright liability.
This law was virtually written by the record and movie industries, and it very much continues along the lines of their past efforts to effectively outlaw the cassette and video recorders. Essentially, these industries are now trying to outlaw Internet and electronic tools that they think might undermine their current business models, which are tied to older technologies.
(I'd hate to be a kid today wanting to make and distribute music or movies with this technology and see it made illegal—I can't imagine what I would've done if cassette tape recorders were made illegal when I was a kid!)
So, we've had tape recorders and digital cameras because, a couple decades ago, the Supreme Court ruled in the "betamax" case that the makers of video recorders were NOT liable for copyright infringements made with video recorders—there were also substantial ways to use video recorders that did not violate copyrights (like fair use home taping, and making videos of your family).
That ruling has allowed many technologies to flourish including camcorders, digital cameras, and all manner of digital music devices, including the iPod.
So, the other nasty bit of this current situation is that some members of Congress are trying to push INDUCE into law ASAP without public hearings or open debate. They probably figure that this law's issues are too obscure for most people to worry about, and it's better to just pass it and make the record and movie companies happy.
For me, this law has immediate impact: it will both cut off my access to technologies I use to make my music and to make my music available on the Internet, and it will also inhibit my ability to build my Internet project, the iCite net.
INDUCE is designed to allow the big RIAA record companies to control how music is distributed, and, with INDUCE, they will be able to legally sqaush (as they did to Napster) the alternative distribution channels that I use—even though my use of these channels is legal!
And, if you're like me and imagining the evolution of tools you use like digital cameras or iPod like devices or TiVo—new features that give you more control and ease by which you create images and music, or enjoy the images and music of others, then I hope you'll consider that INDUCE will totally slow down or altogether stop the development and availability of these tools.
Many things simply won't be developed (like my iCite net project—because I can't afford the risk of being sued for millions of dollars just because I want to experiment with ways of distributing information and content).
So, tomorrow (the 14th), I'm participating in a campaign called Save Betamax where I'll be calling members of Congress and asking them to drop their efforts to pass the INDUCE act. (Now is definitely the time to do something!) This effort is organized as a national call-in day at this site: Save Betamax.
The organizers of this also have two other sites about INDUCE, which I suggest you look at:
Save the ... and (it's predecessor): Save the iPod.
I hope you'll consider signing up at Save Betamax to call members of Congress and ask them to stop INDUCE. But, a less intensive way to participate is to send a FAX to your Congress person by simply filling out the form at Save the iPod (scroll down the page).
At the very least, I hope you'll send a FAX this way. And, I think it'd also be great, if you know of anyone else who might be interested in helping stop INDUCE now, whom you could ask to send a FAX or call-in.
For some more background on INDUCE, I recommend you take a look at the EFF's mock complaint against the iPod (i.e., why the iPod would be illegal) under INDUCE: Fake Complaint against Apple, Toshiba, and C-Net for Inducing Infringement of Copyrights.
Also good is Ernest Miller's Hatch's Hit List (named after Orrin Hatch, the main sponsor of INDUCE).
This is a list of things that probably would be legally liable under INDUCE. Some highlights: LEGOS, portable hard-rives, disaster relief communication systems, and scanners.
Also, if you want it, there is even more from Ernest Miller in his INDUCE posts archive.
Thanks for listening!
Moving to Seattle
Hope you'll excuse my infrequent posting here lately: Anastasia and I are moving to Seattle in a few days, and the last month or so has been busy with deciding and planning to do this move (and packing!).
I have a bunch to blog about here, but have too little time to do so (packing!). So, I'll have to save it for later.
Also, Anastasia and I have a new blog, Fine and Full for our family and friends, which we are currently (when we aren't packing!) using as a journal of our move.
And, as Anastasia details here, we're inviting our friends in the Bay Area to join us for drinks tomorrow (Friday) evening—I extend our invitation here: please feel free to drop by and say hi/bye to us!
“Deluxe Memory Man”, latest song ~ downloads ~ dump the MiniDisc ~ fight INDUCE ~ hear Joanna Newsom
"Deluxe Memory Man" is the latest Ear Reverend's song in the Practices series, and is now available for stream and/or download. It combines piano, guitar, vocals, birds, crickets, Indian child's rattle, ambient pet auctioning, and some stylings of the classic Deluxe Memory Man effect pedal.
Please listen and enjoy. One listener typed both Harry Partch and Elvis in IMs on first hearing: try it yourself, and you might too!
~~~
Another milestone: all of the Ear Reverends' current songs / pieces are now available for download on the site's home page. Hope that helps more, especially with peace, love and understanding (in any order).
~~~
"Deluxe Memory Man" makes use of my last field recordings on my Sony MiniDisc player. I am dumping this in frustration over Sony's idiotic restrictions to purportedly protect artists' copyrights.
Sony was so important in creating devices that enabled people to enjoy more music. But, since they now own a bunch of artists work through Sony Music, they cripple their digital devices with lame "features" which interfere with all kinds of obvious and desirable uses, like making a recording and digitally copying it to a computer.
Sony's devices are now substandard. They've got some new MiniDisc "hail mary" or something coming out, but it's still got convoluted restrictions—and, otherwise, it's too little, too late.
So, I now am recording on the groovy iRivier iHP-120. Direct to a portable 20GB disc, in WAV or MP3 format (64k - 320k adjustable too). It works great.
At the end of the day, I just plug the thing into my computer with USB 2, and I copy the files and/or import them directly into Digital Performer. No problemo! My first recordings with it are also in the new song.
~~~
While I'm ranting, be sure to check-out Ernest Miller's Hatch's Hit List post about the awful INDUCE act Sen. Hatch introduced, and which, if passed, would probably bring about the end of devices like the iRiver.
You can help stop INDUCE by taking action via the EFF. See also the EFF's Will the Inducing Infringement Act Kill the iPod? and Ernest Miller's extensive INDUCE act posts.
~~~
Finally, on a lighter and brighter note, I highly recommend you listen to Joanna Newsom and get her latest album, The Milk-Eyed Mender from Drag City.
Watch this great and beautiful video of her song Sprout and the Bean (QuickTime) and then go see her on tour. Sadly, I will miss her show on Sunday in SF at the Great American Music Hall. If you're in SF, please go for me!
World is music, but the brain figures itself
Interrupting this post to pay my respects to the greatest of Americans, who just died: the all-time great ambassador of the beautiful, Ray Charles. I love Ray and am very sad to hear of his death
I also just learned that Elvin Jones died a few weeks ago. Learning of these two deaths in one day, I'm basically in shock. I don't have anyone to jam with tonight, so I'm holding a blue wake here by myself (6/10, late).
~~~
Ok, some linkage. Followed by some of my music philosophy.
I just started reading Rhythm Science, by Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid. So far, I love it and am finding it inspiring and important. (It's a beautifully designed and printed book as well.)
(Also, check-out the Dj Spooky website, and Lisa Rein has these audios and videos of Dj Spooky speaking at the Creative Commons launch party—look for files with djspooky in the filename).
~~~
Monolith is a software project that (intentionally) reveals some very weird properties of digital music, especially in relationship to copyright.
If you've got some tolerance for computer technicalities, the project description is a fascinating look at the relationship between music and sound recording and the digital representation of sound and sound files and what gets copyrighted. (I also posted some similar words about this on the iCite net blog.)
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Anatomy of a Song with David Byrne is a cool interview in which David Byrne describes his song writing, arranging, and recording process for the song "Like Humans Do" (which I like—Look Into the Eyeball, the record it's on, is one I enjoy a lot).
~~~
The article How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop is interesting, and some good comments on it appear on the Creative Commons weblog in and after the post Copyright and the death of Public Enemy's sound. I added some comments myself.
~~~
In my final comment there, I talk about smoke and mirrors illusions created in the recording studio that make overdubs appear like musicians playing together in the room. The thing is though: music itself could be said to be a smoke and mirrors illusion that makes physical sound waves appear as invisible worlds.
That is: music is actually an invisible world. The physical sounds we create aren't the music, but are the smoke and mirrors trick through which we experience the actual music.
(Our world, while physical and visible on the surface, is also music and invisible at a deeper level. And, we deeply desire the direct experience wherein our physical / visible / flesh world and our music / invisible / feeling world are commingled.)
So, because this is all a kind-of sleight of hand, real music can be made from sampling, random sounds, and means other than by traditional musicianship. Traditional musicianship is just a (very powerful) traditional way to do the trick—but there are other ways to do it (and, it can totally happen without humans: you know you need to give the birds some props today, OK?).
Part of the art is the surprise at new ways the trick is done and still works its magic.
Part of the art of the sample / remix is the surprise at going over the old tricks that everyone has already figured out, slipping in that slightly different spin right before everyone's eyes, and whamo!, something else: the trick is new again, and you've never figured it out again.
The future of music playback
Some future junk I needed to get off my brain:
The future playback of recorded music will not be tied to physical media (e.g., compact discs) or singular virtual players (e.g., iPods), but to many objects with shapes and sizes designed to appeal to our tactile relationships with music and, at the same time, to have the features of a virtual music device. I imagine these being called Playbacks (not really, but just to give them a name).
(So, this post follows on my earlier notes on physical music, the business of music, more than CDs, and CD symbolism.)
Playbacks may look like CDs. Many will cost about the same cost as a CD. But, Playbacks will be everywhere, appearing as all kinds of things. Some will look like traditional recorded media (CDs, tapes, LPs), but some will look utterly different.
Imagine something that maybe looks like a CD, costs $10, but has most or all of the features of an iPod, radio transmitter and receiver, and more. But, because it's cheap and compact, it can be molded into all kinds of shapes and sizes.
Playbacks will have three important sets of features: 1) physical style and symbolism. 2) wireless receive and transmit. 3) virtual music libraries and playlists.
The physical design of Playbacks will be focused on either the symbolic value of an object, or the utility of a user interface, or both. If you want to listen to music when you are going to sleep, you may well use a Playback that looks like, and actually is, a pillow. If you want to listen to mid-1950s rock n roll, you might use a Playback that looks like a 45 rpm single.
People will collect Playbacks because they are nice, physical, objects to associate with music. Some people will have what looks like a CD collection of ten CDs, but each will be a Playback with massive storage of digital audio (and, why not, video too).
Playbacks will appear in all different shapes and sizes to match all kinds of rituals associated with listening to music. These will be both personal / individual rituals and social / community rituals.
People will produce "branded" Playbacks—you'll be able to play Spinal Tap on any Playback, but when all of your friends get together, you'll want to bring out the 18" Stonehenge Playback. Musicians and artists make some money designing and selling Playbacks to go with specific music.
People will have more than one Playback because each one's physical difference will make it easier to organize one's music collection. All of your Polynesian music might be on a Playback that looks like a hibiscus, while your funk Playback might look like a pair of Bootsy's glasses.
Individuals and communities will evolve shared meaning in these kinds of symbols. We'll create things that remind us of the music we enjoy, and those things will represent our own categories of music.
People will not simply trade files / songs, they will trade whole Playbacks with tens of thousands of songs on them.
Of course, any Playback will be able to play any music, and people will have music "libraries"—these just won't need to be tied to either a physical media collection or a singular music player.
Not all Playbacks will have amps, but they will be able to broadcast digital (wifi, Bluetooth, etc.) signals to other units with amps, including personal players listened to with headphones and large, "public address" systems.
Playbacks will function as peer-to-peer radio stations, and people will also take multiple Playback signals, mix them, and transmit their mixes in both playlist and mash-up styles.
Concerts will mix live music and remixes of local Playback broadcasts, including everyone singing along (imagine a recording of your favorite concert with you signing along, ala karaoke). Concerts will be instantaneously recorded and transmitted to every playback in the room.
Musicians will release incomplete music to be remixed. But, the ever increasing pervasiveness of recorded / digital music will continue to spark interest in live and even specifically acoustic music.
Having the latest recording will be so commonplace, that what will be exciting is being the first person (or among the first people) to record a performance, get it on a Playback and broadcast it to others. And, ironically, the less digital and less pre-recorded a performance, the greater value in being the first to add it to a Playback and broadcast it.
We can look at our role as musicians and see a quantum shift eighty or so years ago with the popular embrace of recorded and broadcast music (which, of course, killed the music business of prior eras). Playbacks will be another such shift: at last, there truly will be no physical connection between the mediums through which we hear music and how that music was made.
And so, we will re-create the physical connection by making Playbacks specifically physical. We will find ways to project the subtle abstract dimensions of music to aesthetic and evocative physical symbols of our desire to playback. And, we will relish and share those symbols as our portals to worlds of music.
***
While I've been dribbling this post out over the past couple weeks, I've also seen some things that I thought were relevant to all of this:
The Digital Music Weblog on a new wireless music hub (via Marc Canter).
An article on Promiscuous BluePod file swapping (via BoingBoing.)
Think of it as Radio Simply Sydicated from Doc Searls, and Jeff Jarvis' response, Explode your radio.
(In case it isn't obvious, I think CDs and the current record and radio businesses are literally history—at least from the near future!)
Monty Python the FCC (and Suw on CC)
Eric Idle, the bringer of so many Monty Python ditties great and small, has delivered a new and oh-so timely sing-along for all of us kids at heart: The FCC Song (mp3).
I've been humming it all day, occasionally singing the chorus quietly outloud on the elevator and train and such. It is just a matter of time before everyone is singing along.
I came across this via On Lisa Rein's Radar, where she also has the song lyrics and this mirror download (mp3). Lisa is someone whom I've had the pleasure to meet and see rock on!—check out her music.
Basically unrelated, but I wanted to mention it: Suw Charman (whom I've observed in online chat rooms offering insights on the Welsh language) just posted a great article, Something for Nothing: The Free Culture AudioBook Project (via BoingBoing). It's about why it makes sense (and business sense) to use Creative Commons licenses and freely give away creative works online. Check it out!
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