potatofarmer wrote:I saw Xiu Xiu open up for Swans a couple years back and as that guy was fiddling with a completely blank expression all I could imagine was him accidentally doing something totally wrong for the set he planned but keeping a straight face because who would know?
How do you get over that hurdle?
You just play.
It's not about "correct" - it's about the moment and the performance and chasing the muse.
It's not about picture perfect result, or even the "Desired" one.
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My pedalboard costs approximately 191 Metal Zones.
Yeah. I recently watched an interview linked in another thread here with Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), etc.), who does music that might be closer to what most people here are into. Someone asked him how he dealt with people's expectations of entertainment when playing live and his answer was that he was not there for that but just to play music. Same thing. Not all music has to be visually entertaining live.
SecretMachine wrote:people want new things. as much as i enjoy being in a band, i think you have to be so bloody original or so wholly derivate of another band that it makes them feel "oh my god, this band sound exactly like <insert band here>, IT'S GIVING ME NOSTALGIAAAAAAA", that it's hard to make an impact on people.
pretty much. i mean you can apply that logic to anything musical but bands certainly aren't new.
i think the format and instrumentation holds a lot of people back, too. i'd really like to see more people get out there with weird-ass combinations of instruments from the beginning rather than just substituting one or two into the regular guitar/bass/drum etc format. There's no reason you can't form a sick 3-piece band with someone on modular, someone on guitar and someone on clarinet, for example. The way people learn instruments playing 'normal' band stuff tends to make it difficult for a lot of people to improvise or compose too far outside that format, but it can be done.
Personally i'm not going modular anytime soon and probably never will because for whatever reason with how shit-crazy gear has gotten lately i've been more interested in using the barest possible guitar setup in the weirdest possible contexts, but i hope the people that are diving down that rabbit hole come up with new ways to integrate these things into collaborative and structured projects because there's a lot of promise here for collective musical 'progress'.
This is amazingly important I think, and I wish more people thought about it. I love it when bands eschew the "bass, drums and a guitar or two" format, and it's far too rare. I love jamming with an odd combo, because it makes me think and play whatever instrument I'm using in a different way than I would in a "normal" group.
I honestly didn't realize how tired I am of the standard guitar, bass, drums bands until I read this
Skin is cracked and I realize
That I hate the sound of guitars
This is a big inspiration for me, too. Minimal pedalboard, guitar, small drum kit, 3U x 104hp modular. That's it for me.
And some tasteful fretless electric bass. But that's it.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
Interesting perspective. I've gotta find my way to that mindset.
You sure just throwing more gear at it won't work? I plunked down the cash for a 5-string Ergo electric upright bass and I'm going to have to practice like nuts to learn how to intonate the thing. One of the big tips is to practice with drones - no problem! Seems like bowed instruments have a huge advantage over plucked ones for long sustained tones, and a lack of frets could make really odd harmonies the norm.
Got an idea for a pseudo-crossover pedal to run both a bass rig and a guitar rig. Just a pair of adjustable HPFs; traditional crossovers sound aren't really great for creating multiple signal paths.
oscillateur wrote:Yeah. I recently watched an interview linked in another thread here with Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), etc.), who does music that might be closer to what most people here are into. Someone asked him how he dealt with people's expectations of entertainment when playing live and his answer was that he was not there for that but just to play music. Same thing. Not all music has to be visually entertaining live.
I mean, that's all well and good but fucking fog machines and robes.
However I will use this as an excuse to post one of my heros doing some live performance in this vein. Motherfucker is on a laptop and he owns shit.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2qQVKnTsIs[/youtube]
What's that you say? You want more spam from this MVP? yeah no problem.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUGGw8ewZ3c[/youtube]
Karkowski actually lived in Tokyo and I've got some friends here who knew him but I never saw him play live (he also played quite often in Paris when I lived there). Too late for that, even though it would probably have been a bit too much harsh noise for me anyway...
Yeah I believe one of our rarely-active members did a collaborative show with him which he uploaded (I don't remember who it was but the 'band' was Jerk Kerouac [best name ever] and the set was really great).
Also this is the Stephen O talk, I believe. Lots of gems in there (including the shit eating grin at 29:00 when the interviewer starts talking about Robes, which is pertinent to this conversation if anyone's interested )
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ZdB7pEvAs[/youtube]
I perform in a duo with a singer. I play synth and piano. On some of our tracks, we use prerecorded beats.
One trick that I've found to not hating those beats is to create them entirely from scratch. Process sounds until they fits one of the general percussion roles like kick/snare/hat (or don't), and then sequence a beat out of them in Ableton (adding some subtle variation to make it not super rigid).
We literally play the beats as an mp3 off a phone/ipod. No drum machines needed.
A little follow up on my setup: my $20 four track only records to track 3
It works really nicely for making pre-existing full-recordings sound awesome, but sucks major dick as something I'd use live. Maybe I can shift more focus to vocals and use it in a Dan Deacon "backing track" type way, but it's pretty unfun to try and fix a super cheap garbage machine.
neonblack wrote:SELL IT!
Don't form emotional bonds with metal boxes.
Live like me. Flip everything. Romanticize nothing. Accomplish nothing.
I've been doing some electro/chillwave music over at https://parliamentlite.bandcamp.com
I kinda ditched the lofi approach when I started using soft-synths in Ableton. It's still pretty raw, and needs some work. When I get back home I plan on doing more with guitar and bass, but that's the music I've made so far!
neonblack wrote:SELL IT!
Don't form emotional bonds with metal boxes.
Live like me. Flip everything. Romanticize nothing. Accomplish nothing.
)
