Space Cadet

Minor Ep 7 spoiler: No worries, I've been keeping up. I couldn't wait if I wanted to. It's silly really, if anything, the record NA ratings this season has proved how much of the fanbase is willing to wait a day or so but not more. :lol: But they forgot the Badger. He's a time travelling hipster with a badger. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQg6k68Ux9U]YouTube - ‪Charlie the Badger‬‏[/ame]

The US and Canada is a week behind now because they didn't show anything memorial day weekend and Canada followed suit. :veryangry2: So everything in the Almost People is a major spoiler to people following that schedule.

Fun song. :D I can already see the big festival crowds singing and waving and jumping along to it. Makes me wish I could be there. It's definitely meant to mainly be a live song, and it's going to be one of the highlights of their show I would say. As a recorded single? Not their greatest and not their worst. Just really fun. :dance: :dance: :dance:

Hmm... on second watch,

Which type of rubber bracelet is it?

:hug: I'm really sorry about your friend. My cousin died of a heart attack a few years ago. He was the same age as me, so he would have been about 23 at the time. I went to a tiny school with him for a year, so I got to know him pretty well. He was a total jock, loved sports, very funny, gorgeous, a bit of a spaz, had a thing for wearing dorky sweater-vests when he wanted to dress up which completely clashed with his physique. His girlfriend was one of my best friends and as I understand it they were planning to get married. That's how I like to remember him. But when I think of him it always comes back that he was playing pick-up football with some friends one reportedly beautiful fall day. He was in peak health, but he just collapsed there on the field. Heart attack. Gone by the time the ambulance drove away. We though it was congenital at first, but I guess they found out later that he had caught a virus that had eaten away the lining to his heart. ....I wish I could tell you how to start dealing with it. But I'm on the verge of tears just typing this, sort of like I am every time I really start thinking about it again several years later. At first it hurts like mad, and you cry. Crying is good, but it's not for everyone. The funeral helped. It sort of set a marker for the end of the worst of it. I cried a lot at the funeral. After the funeral I went out for coffee with some mutual friends and relatives I hadn't seen in a long time. We talked about him, and about stupid geeky things, and we laughed a lot. And it felt like a bit of a dark veil had been lifted off of all of us in each other's company. I don't believe that time heals all wounds. Sudden deaths like that leave scars you carry with you and have to deal with for the rest of your life. But the more you live the smaller it gets relative to everything else in your life. It's kind of a pity we don't have a mourning process anymore, because you do mourn for a while. And then you live, and you learn to understand how fragile and finite and guarantee-less life is. So yeah, do what you need to for now. Hug people. Be in a group. Be alone. Cry. Write bad poetry. Laugh at stupid jokes. It helps. And then time passes.

What. The. Hooey. :freak: *picks jaw up off the floor, wanders off*

Nice. :cool:

They fixed the "E"

No, that's the layers of the gif going a bit funny when it's shrunk, nothing more. That's the yellow t in "the"

"Maybe the trees are gone" :( Maybe they're posting lyrics... :D

Ok, between the funky walking man and the funky sesame street letters, I'm definitely getting that 60's vibe now. Me likey. "Maybe the streets alight"... that would make such a great album title. :nice:

*looks at site banner* Anyone think Coldplay are going to just keep putting up weirder and weirder images to see how far they can go before we stop instantly making banners of it? :wacko: It kind of reminds me of this video: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCp_3zw-CxA]YouTube - ‪The Chemical Brothers - Swoon‬‏[/ame]

Yes, musically the brain starts to loose it's elasticity and ability to adapt to new genres somewhere around 35. But I'm not at that point yet, and I don't want to go back.

^#1 haven't stopped looking. #2 Different yes, weird, no. (And not difficult either. So often the arty blog music can be purposely difficult for it's own sake in an attempt to be different.) I suppose it may be because the next wave of hipsters coming through have reached such a critical mass of obnoxiousness that it's hard to like any sound I associate with them at the moment. Which isn't fair, I know, but it's not like they're trying to not fit into the approved hipster indie bubble either. Or maybe because after years of listening to at least one song from most of the new artists in the albums of the year poll every year, (so say a taste of about 100 unknown to me groups a year) I've started to notice the patterns more, and wish there were more genres available for the less well known bands to stretch their wings in rather than sounding like a studied combination of hipster-approved musical inspirations. Or maybe I just need to stop listening to anything for a while, find something involving to do so my brain can reset. But I already tried that once this spring. But I am being too grumpy. Maybe I've gotten too old an cynical? Hit 28 and suddenly everything is less fresh? But here's what I think it really is for me: It's Doctor Who's fault. The music industry kept certain styles going beyond their best before date because they were easier to market. High school was musically traumatic for me- I was there when boy bands, girl groups, Britney Spears and too-tight too-short tops were in vogue to the point of being social law. It was nasty. When the net started getting all this new stuff noticed and the record companies started to crumble, it was like this massive breath of fresh air. So many new things started to surface and I hoped it meant that things could finally start shifting into something new. But it didn't happen. There was a burst of creativity and great new bands between about '04 and '06 and then they stabilized. The new, less commercial music world organized itself into about 15 or 20 loose subgenres enforced by label-happy music bloggers and everyone got in line. And that is REALLY DISAPPOINTING. It's a missed opportunity. I want to know what comes next. I want to know what the next big shift will sound like, and I can't jump in a box to find out. I certainly can't live my way to the end of this century to find out. But you know what? Rather than focusing on the negative, I made a list of what my idea of what would be good and different and not weird would sound like. I'm not a musician and anything I attempt will probably suck and not achieve anything I want it to at all. But as C.S. Lewis once told J.R.R. Tolkien, "You know, there's far too little of what we enjoy in stories. I'm afraid we'll have to write them ourselves." And so they did. (And so I'll shut up and stop ranting and try to write something.)

I'm not sure I'm capable of forming an opinion on that last one until I've seen part two. It certainly seemed to have more going on than just what was on the surface... but we'll see.

^The guy at the beggining there was so cute, like he was trying not to grin ear to ear so he could keep going. And yes I probably should start listening to more Bjork. But man she really is weird. Weird just that little tiny bit beyond my weird limit... which can take some doing. Sorry if I'm starting to sound preachy, but I think something can be different and still be pop. (Pop in my definition here meaning it's accessible and you can hum it afterwards.)

Ugh... that video gave me motion sickness... :sick2: Liked the music well enough, though. :dizzy:

Well Kelsey can't be gone for good, I've finally almost finished that lullaby I promised her. :P

I won't say I know what you're going through, but I think I have a pretty good idea. I think the only thing that saves me from having moods like that all the time is that I can be such a loner sometimes so it doesn't really matter to me then. But no one's meant to be a loner. The thing to remember is that we're all fallible human beings. We all have issues. We all screw up. We all have things we're not proud of. There is no such thing as 'perfect' or 'normal'. Any human who goes into a relationship without being willing to take that into account and even accept that in both themself and their partner is a fool doomed for quick disappointment. And we all have dark nights of the soul. But the sun always comes up in the morning and we get on with living life. :sunny: (Which happens to be the best way to meet the right someone- being out there living, doing what you love, willing to meet new people in the process.)

Seconded. And yet so often it's textbook Dubstep which as much as I love it can be pretty formulaic. :confused: I guess the difference is that he's a real true romantic in the old fashioned sense of the word. He really listens to the sounds and moods of a place and then tries to express them through his music rather than trying to write 'that type of music'. Which is good and needs to be done more. I have been doing exactly that for over 6 years now. I will grant you, you have the width and breadth of what's popular in the indie world right now just about pegged. But those artists in spite of excellent quality still generally fit quite neatly into their respective genres. Or combination of genres in LCD Soundsystem's case. And that isn't a bad thing at all. (I would say the one big exception to that is Owen Palett, who is definitely does his own thing, right down to a structural level on occasion, though interestingly when it's really unique he's using the same technique as Zoe Keating with the string instrument and the loop pedals. So it's a technological shift.) My point is that all that is not enough. There should be more. There is the possibility for more, but no one can seem to thing outside of the modern paradigm. Exactly. Modern music exists the way it does because black american music finally got a foothold to cross racial lines, triggering a massive paradigm shift. Recording technology also played a really big role in the shift. The first wave reveled in what was new but didn't feel the need to change it much (the 50's) the second wave got to explore the limits of it and really innovate with it (the 60's) and the third wave settled into it's strengths (the 70's) or looked at the roads not chosen (70's punk through to the early 90's grunge scene). Now it's been thoroughly explored, so everything is stuck in it's form, and no one has come up with a new paradigm yet. That rap thing was great in a bonkers sort of way. But both of those kind of prove my point. It really is pretty typical for rap- the celtic sample is just a sample used in a rap way. The rhythms and structures that make celtic music the way is is aren't there at all. Most classical crossover music has a very generic (dare I say bland) modern beat with some classical-ish sounds thrown in. They're borrowing from other genres, but nothing that makes up the structure of the music has changed. *scratches head* :confused: Well, that definitely fits the bill. I can't say I have ever heard anything like it. :nice:

I've been trying to think of a way to explain what I mean all weekend, so here goes. I am not talking about style or genre (although they are both affected), but the underlying structures they share that form sort of the skeleton of the music. Take Sigur Ros for example (or Explosions in the Sky or post-rock in general). The whole definition of post rock is music that uses typical rock instruments in a non-rock, more ambient way. They still have guitars and drums, but could you even imagine a punk band trying to cover one of their more unique songs? [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6LCbJe1dmg]YouTube - ‪Sigur Rós: Von‬‏[/ame] Could you imagine strumming Von around a campfire? If you tried, each chord would be a single note, which would kind of defeat the purpose of strumming, wouldn't it. THAT'S what I'm talking about. That's what I mean by underlying structure. I just happen to think that it's possible for immediate, accessible music to exist with a different structure without it having to be slow and ambient. Every era shares a philosophy on what that structure should be, but vastly different sounds and styles can exist within that structure. In the Baroque era it was counterpoint- pieces of music built by playing several melodies that complimented each other. Classical era music built pieces out of a single frilly sort of melody. Romantic music mapped out a story first and then built a shifting dynamic piece of music around that story to act it out. In folk and celtic music most of the poor people who wrote the songs couldn't afford any instruments at all, so they wrote songs with nothing but their voices which emphasized a single, simple, powerful melody. In modern music that structure is first and foremost a heavily accentuated beat, usually 4/4, and chord-based melodies. Chords have always been a lesser aspect of music, but it took on a different significance when rock came along. It was great for a while. Bands like the Beatles who came across interesting ways of using chords first came up with amazing signature sounds. But all the new chord sequences are used up now. There are still some great new songs out there written with chords, but because there is no real alternative to it in any modern genre with a melody, modern music as we know it has hit a dead end. Anything both fresh and chord-based is usually retro for a reason. As for that beat, it unites almost all the various modern genres. Outside of traditional African music, playing music with a heavy beat the way we do in everything right now is a very modern thing. Currently, especially in the urban genres, it is taking over from chords as the main thing defining a piece of music. This isn't a bad thing- there's some amazing stuff coming out of this new philosophy. Look at what Radiohead and TV on the Radio are doing. Look at some of the stuff coming out of the Hip Hop or Dubstep scenes. There's a lot of room left for innovation there. BUT there are only so many practical ways to divide up a 4/4 timing into a rhythm. We will run out just like with chords. Think of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life". It's a great beat, but it's an obvious beat you can do lots of interesting things with, like Travis' Selfish Jean for example. But if you use that beat you're using the Lust for Life beat. How much more true is it for a Timbaland beat? There's an added level of tyranny to a heavy modern beat, though. There are two main ways to use it, either come up with it first and fit the song around it, or come up with a song and place the beat on top of it. When you write to the beat, the song will have to fit within the bounds of that beat. There will be a rigidity to it. Everything is chopped up into precise pieces. And the sad thing is that people who grew up listening to nothing but beat-heavy music probably don't even realize that they are missing anything. I miss the style of the folk songs I grew up with that could flow to their own internal rhythm. Sometimes the pace could vary quite a lot from verse to verse, but it gave the song the room to breathe, and that elasticity of tempo and ability to flow could be used to incredible dramatic effect. This song was modified to fit the story of the tv show, but it's a good example of what I'm talking about. There is a heavy internal rhythm going on, but because it is internal the song can slow down and speed up and have little dramatic pauses in it. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-SfqTwU9MY]YouTube - ‪Alfie's Song‬‏[/ame] Now something happens with old songs (and new songs with old styles like Country) where because the song was written in a melody-based way, there is only room for a very simple beat to fit over top of it. But because they modern structure dictates that song even old songs must at least have a standard drum kit playing over top of it, on it goes, and then every song played that way starts to sound the same. (See: anything rock or country you would hear in an elevator.) Here's an example of that gypsy song again with a drumkit involved: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0znZ-IoZtm4]YouTube - ‪Irish Descendants - Raggle Taggle Gypsy‬‏[/ame] The drums kick into typical mode at 1:38 and great song gets really boring from that point on because they don't traditionally belong there. It's less obvious in music written to have drums over it, but it can still take away from the music. Or if you want the really crass modernized version of that song, compare this one to the first example: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phAO0ts2VYM]YouTube - ‪Take Me Home - Raggle Taggle Gypsy‬‏[/ame] Chords and rhythm will always be an important part of a song, but the question is how important? Do they come first or second? A song written by working out a single melody on a violin will out of necessity have a different structure than a song written by strumming chords on a guitar because it will have that back and forth motion built into it, and the musical phrases will fit the length of the bow. Keyboard-written tunes can be flowy because you have access to every single note at once, but they can also be plunky and disjointed because you are hitting single keys. Soundtrack music can be very different because the images existed first and then music was built to suit it. Songs that tell stories rather than stating all the ways I love you or I hate you can end up quite different. My point is, there are so many elements to music that you can chose to emphasize. There are so many ways that music can come together into something new. Why only rely on (and exhaust) two of them? I want more.

For the confused, my favorite long-loved example of what I'm talking about would be Zoe Keating: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYrcXX4nWOA]YouTube - ‪Zoe Keating Plays"Escape Artist"‬‏[/ame] But lately I've mainly been finding glimpses of what I'm talking about in various soundtracks, since they shouldn't fit in the pop mould. But then they aren't satisfying as stand-alone pieces either. This is what I was listening to while writing the last entry: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT3_EzeOL1Y]YouTube - ‪Bye and Stuff- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Score by Nigel Godrich)‬‏[/ame] I love how fresh it feels. It's been a long time since a typical rock song made me feel like that can. But even that is still just putting familiar elements together, and it's not a song. (Have drum kits even changed at all in the last 60 years?)

Am I the only one who has been finding the whole range of popular 'indie' music a little sameish lately? Or just modern music in general? Or maybe I've caught up to everything? Not to knock some of the wonderful stuff out there, but I'm bored. (Rant ahead) ...The two main things that exist outside of the modern paradigm are classical and ethnic music. I grew up listening to classical music. I'm not asking for classical recommendations. I like a lot of types of world music in small amounts, but that's not what I'm asking for either. What I miss is the heady joy I got when I started exploring the range of world of music and found all these styles that I hadn't known about before. (Wasn't allowed to listen to pop or rock as a kid.) I loved the way something as simple as a Franz Ferdinand song could turn my head inside out because I just hadn't heard anything quite like up to that first moment. My question is what out there is both good and new? What sounds completely different? What stretches your minds in new directions? What defies comparisons to other groups? What makes you think 'this must have been beamed in from another planet because I've never heard anything quite like it on earth'? What's going to save the music world from going around in circles? I'm all ears.

Neil Gaiman is a genius. *nods* :D