Friday Free-Style

My number one favourite musician, Jim O'Rourke, has a new album coming out this year! He is also reissuing some old stuff. We will celebrate with some Videos:

Interview:


Performing "Not Sport, Martial Art" & "Fuzzy Sun":


Playing with a TENORI-ON:


With Sonic Youth doing "Rain On Tin":


An Atlanta DJ we heart, Treasure Fingers, is blowing up and Brooklyn Vegan has a TF post full of treasures. Amidst all his touring, he will be doing the FUCKYESSS this upcoming Thursday night at The Drunken Unicorn late with another great ATL DJ, Le Castle Vania. If you haven't been to one of the FUCKYESSS shows, you're missing out because they are really fun. Also, at the TF myspace page, you can download his 40 Minutes In The Champagne Room mix for free. We jammed it at the Ohmpark party a few weeks ago and it was off the hook.

One Hand Loves The Other : Tortoise (Treasure Fingers mix)


Saul Williams will be at The Loft on April 4th.

RJD2 will be at The Variety Playhouse on April 2nd.

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists will be at The Variety Playhouse solo April 10th.

Earfarm notices some trends in names of bands at SXSW.

Missy Elliott is about to debut the first ever 3-D music video next week. Sounds supa dupa fly.

Islands have new material floating around. Here's a taste:

Islands : The Arm


The Roots' next album will feature guest appearances from Mos Def, Common, and Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump. Really? Fall Out Boy?

Slipknot, Disturbed, Dragonforce, Mastodon, and a bunch of other metal bands will be at Lakewood Amphitheater on August 1st for The Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival (Mayhem Fest has a nice ring to it).

Thurston Moore just dropped an itunes EP called Live from SoHo, that is pretty much what the title says. I guess I have to finally go get an itunes account.

The new Death Cab For Cutie album is called Narrow Stairs.

Pretty much every single Of Montreal cover you could ever want can be found here.

Langerado has a full schedule coming sometime next week. We'll also have a Langerado preview super-post some time next week. On the festival tip, it is rumoured that the Bonnaroo line-up gets dropped next week too, so stay tuned for all the exciting festy news.

Dream Theater is releasing a digital EP on march 31st.

Peter Moren of Peter, Bjorn And John is releasing a solo album called The Last Tycoon in April.

Corndogarama 2008 at Lenny's will be going down June 26th-29th.

The New Pornographers and Okkervil River will be in Athens, Ga at the Georgia Theater on April 17th but no Atlanta date.

Witch, featuring J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr) on drums, is releasing their second album, Paralyzed, on march 18th.

Del The Funky Homosapien and Aceyalone will be at A3C 2008 hip-hop fest at the Midtown Music Complex March 20th-22nd.

Porcupine Tree is releasing an EP of a live performance featuring only Steven Wilson and John Wesley doing rare material from last year called We Lost The Skyline.

Here's another video from the kickass Yeasayer show two weeks ago at The Earl. "Sunrise":



The Whigs on Letterman:



The Selmanaires "Broken Mirros in The Mud":

Diatribe Of The Day: What Is A Musician?

The night after St. Patrick's Day a couple weeks ago, Me, Ichuda, and some other friends spent the night getting drunk in a dive bar on the beach at Tybee Island. We ended up getting in like a 5 hour discussion and argument about Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. I'm not going to rehash this tired debate here, but I am going to address a single element of the argument that has come out in previous music debates. There are certain phrases that people use when trying to make a point about particular music that always bother me. A simple example of this is: "Every *Insert artist or genre here* song sounds the same". When I hear someone make an argument like this, It translates into my head as "I don't know what I'm talking about". The phrase that came up in this argument that I've heard in similar arguments with many different people was "*Insert band or artist here* are/is a great songwriter(s), but not (a) good musician(s)."

I hate when someone says something like this. It really infuriates me because there are a lot of layers to this sort of thinking that I disagree with. First, somehow the word "musician" has come to mean something different to people than its actual definiton. Certain people in this mind frame think that there is a black and white dichotomy between being a song-writer and being a musician. Either you are songwriter, a musician, or both. Not only is this oversimplification lack an understanding of the evolution of music, but it totally redefines the word "musician" to only account for those who can play an instrument technically proficient according to conventional norms determined by some popular thought based in tradition. It basically boils down to, the faster you can play a scale, the better a musician you are.

Now, I do not disagree that in assessing how good a musician someone is, its fair to take into account how technically proficient that person is. But that is only a part of the greater picture. These classical-rock fundamentalists rob the word of every other meaning and dimension it possesses. Here's some definitions of the word 'musician' that i can find on the web:

Answers.com:

One who composes, conducts, or performs music, especially instrumental music.

Websters-online-dictionary.org:

1. Someone who plays a musical instrument (as a profession).

2. Artist who composes or conducts music as a profession.

But I think I like Wikipedia's best:

A musician is a person who plays or composes music Musicians can be classified by their role in creating or performing music:

• A singer (or vocalist) uses his or her voice as an instrument.
• An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.
• Both singer and instrumentalist can be improvisers, who create real time music.
• Composers and songwriters write music.
• A conductor coordinates a musical ensemble.

Musicians may also dance or produce choreography. The concept of the musician and the status of the musician in society varies from culture to culture.

You will notice that by definition, song-writing is musicianship. The song-writer is not a separate sphere outside of the musician, but one flavor of musician. You'll also notice that "conducting" is included in all three definitions. A conductor doesn't even actually make any music or sounds, but it still considered a musician. The conductor manipulates the music using the musicians as his instrument. Music is making art with sound. You have to think on that raw, fundamental level to really understand what a musician is. To better illuminate my perspective on these two types of musicians and their importance I think in terms of comic books, The song-writer is the penciller and the technically proficient are the inker. The song-writer creates art and the technically proficient perfect it but there's lots of different dimensions, and variations, and combinations. So arguing about who is a better musician between some who is purely a song-writer and someone who is purely a master of their instrument is impossible on a certain level. That's not to say that value judgements don't exist. The musician who can combine both as well as each of those clearly is a better musician.

Another problem with this argument is the limited conception of what passes for being a master of an instrument. There are classical musicians who believe that jazz and blues and rock 'n' roll aren't "real music" and that musicians in those genres are not as good as classical musicians because they don't do specifically what they are used to. Assuming that particular styles are objectively better than others is something that i will never agree with. As music evolves, styles evolve and just because a particular guitarist hasn't been practicing a particular old style of music over and over again does not necessarily mean they are any less proficient at their instrument. They may be inventing a new style of playing the guitar that the rock dinosaur guitarists could never do. Also, as technology is moving more and more rapidly, what constitutes an "instrument" is changing and a particular musician doesn't have to even touch classical instrumentation. Mastering making music from a computer is just as important as mastering music on a drum set.

The best way i can illustrate how i conceive what makes a great musician is to give an example. I consider Jim O'Rourke one of the greatest musicians of all time because he can play any instrument as good as the best and each with a distinct sound unmatchable, he can write brilliant songs, some of the best lyrics I've ever heard, he has a good and distinct voice, he can improvise at high levels, he has created some of the best pop songs and some of the most challenging and innovative experimental music I have ever heard, he has produced some of the best albums of the last decade, he mixes, he collaborates constantly with great musicians, and he is insanely prolific. The truly great musician to me is the one than can master as many different dimensions of music as possible.

So, I'm taking "musician" back. The next time someone is going on and on about some dude who can shred on a guitar in his sleep but couldn't write a good song, tell your friend "yeah, he's really good at his instrument, but he's not a good musician." and wait for that reaction.

Your reward for reading all of that garbage is a few Jim O'Rourke tracks:

Jim O'Rourke : Insignificance : Memory Lame

Sonic Youth : Murray Street : Rain On Tin

Loose Fur : Loose Fur : Carnival Knowledge

Jim O'Rourke : Terminal Pharmacy : Terminal Pharmacy

Torrent of the Day

In keeping with the Jeff Tweedy Theme:

Loose Fur(J.Tweedy-J.O'Rourke) St.Anne'sWarehouse Brooklyn,NY 2002 dec 7

Loose Fur
St. Anne's Warehouse; Brooklyn, NY
December 7, 2002

Stereo Audience Mics > DAT>??>Net>Dime

Recorded by Larry

Laminated Cat 15:10
Millionaire 5:04
Elegant Transaction 8:12
Answers 5:29
You Were Wrong 4:45
Chelsea Walls Theme 20:01
Be Not So Fearful 3:04
Stage Talk 2:04
So Long (Tweedy gets heckled) 10:56
Street Success 7:34
Chinese Apple 6:53