MOTHERBRAIN

Wednesday

Telephono

Listening to NPR the other day, I came across an interview with a guy by the name of David Matysiak talking about a music project he put together called Telephono.  Knowing that most of his musician buddies now had access to home recording software and the Internets, he decided to see what would happen if he sent some basic song ideas out to friends for them to add whatever they wanted to it, and then had them forward the songs on through a whole chain of musicians to see what it sounded like when he got it back. 

"Telephono is an audio experiment that allows musicians to communicate with one another by manipulating audio files. Inspired by the classic children’s game “Telephone,” my interpretation involves sending a unique audio file to a musician via the internet. That musician then chooses whether to edit the piece or simply pass it on to the next person in the chain."

"Telephono is about the process, not the product."

I love it because it's "about the process". I worry sometimes that we as a culture have become so used to mashing things together that we have lost touch with the craft that goes into bringing original ideas to life.  Technology has made it easier than ever for anyone to make stuff, but usually it does so by eliminating the need to understand the bits and atoms that go into making original creative things. It's usually done using some kind of shortcut web app, which naturally have their own limitations.  Some people have done great things with what is out there, but I think it can be a bit limiting.  

What you don't often hear about is Web software designed to help the masses of prosumers.  You know, people who actually know how to make stuff.  I'm a little surprised about the lack of attention, especially from music recording software companies, paid to trying to make the internet more readily useful for people who already know how to make music.  I would love to have some kind of collaborative Web based recording or writing tool good enough to go mainstream ... and I'm hoping that things like Telephono inspire companies to start moving in that direction. 

...this one goes to 11

I've always loved how ridiculous the marketing of guitar paraphernalia can be.  There's probably never been a cool guitar company poster or ad EVER, despite how hard they try or the celebrity they have access to.  One thing that some companies have mastered though, is standing out from the cornucopia of gear for sale with incredible product designs and names. 

One of the guys that plays guitar in my band had seen an amplifier featuring a setting called "Ninja Boost". Which is hilarious, until it almost becomes your band name.  He actually found one for sale, and sent pictures as proof that he was thinking about buying an amp for its ability to boost a guitar's ninja:

Luckily he didn't buy it, and I'm not in a band called Ninja Boost.  But it reminded me that I haven't actually looked through the guitar section at a music store in a long time, so I thought I'd see what kinds of strange and absurd things companies are trying to sell to the real life guitar heros. 

Here goes...

 

First up is the SNARLING DOGS.  While I think it would've been more effective if they had used a Z to pluralize DOGS, I do love the "Attack Control" on this one.  Do you want all SNARL and no BITE, or are you going to shove your boot down the audience's throat by going all BITE and no SNARL?  Well, luckily for guitarists everywhere, you don't have to choose anymore.   There is a knob for both.

And who can forget the Big Muff.  No clever named knobs here, just a really great/absurd name. 

It turns out there are a number of Muffs out there...including the METAL MUFF.

Its often hard to get the correct amount of Inject, Bleed, or Filth from the typical, less ostentatious effects pedal.  Luckily there is the Blood Drive.  Never before has giving blood rokked you so hard. 

And if you find that your guitar's tone isn't using women as objects quite enough for your liking, you can always switch on The Womanizer.   

 

Genius. 

I would be interested in doing the Pepsi Challenge with these pedals to see if guys that swear by them could tell the difference between them and their less ostentatious counterparts. 

 

Rock Band and the Curse of Knowledge

Down in DC over the weekend, I was able to spend some time playing Rock Band at my friend Matt's place.  I've often wondered what its like to be a professional or college athlete playing yourself in a game where your skills are vastly underrated.  Rock Band gave me that experience. 

I've been drumming for nearly 20 years, and while I'm no Neal Peart, I can hold my own.  However, as Rock Band was designed with non-musicians in mind (probably?), they had to translate the actual music into a notation system that non-musicians could understand.  This involves simplifying the music so that its possible for people to actually play it (below), and in order to create a drumming controller, they had to simplify the idea of a drumset (above).

If you haven't played it, it's essentially electronic whack-a-mole with a rock and roll setting.  The notes stream down the guitar necks depicted at the bottom of the screen, and when they cross the bar at the bottom you have to hit the correct note.   If you miss or hit the wrong note, you hear a little scratch noise and the part that you are playing stops...and if you do it enough the crowd starts to boo, you get kicked stage and (although this part isn't depicted in the game) you end up working in advertising.

So here's the problem for those who are well versed in actually playing music:  as the music is simplified for non-musicians, the notes the game wants you to play are slightly different than the actual notes of the song.  A fill that is four 8th notes on the snare might be one note on the red plastic drum.  This causes confusion, and mistakes and the loss of sanity as your screaming "but I played the actual pattern correctly!" as you're run out of town on a rail for actually knowing how to play Wave of Mutilation.  Meanwhile, the 10 year old who has never heard any of these songs outside of the game, let alone ever even seen a drum set in person, rokks a perfect score every time.  The curse of knowledge indeed. 

I was going to relate this to how planners are supposed to stay dumb, but I think it reminds me a little bit of the effects that open source culture is having on the "professionals".  So I'm going to go way out on a ridiculous limb here.   Feel free to stop reading when your eyes achieve full-rollitude. 

<crackpot theory> As it becomes simpler for people to create things (music, videos, art) thanks to technology, the less and less we're going to need people with expertise in the creative fields ... presumably.  And as the output norm becomes more closely aligned with the aesthetics of the masses  and their simplified tools rather than the refined professionals with expensive "pro-gear", it could be that all of that time invested in learning how to make proper creative things actually end up just making people into bumbling fossils from another time.  Sort of the way Nirvana's sloppy authentic noise made every technically complex Van-Halen guitar solo seem tacky and dated. </crackpot theory>

College Football, 50 Cent ... and Perry Ferrell?

After ESPN made a theme song with Big and Rich for their College Gameday show, everyone else decided that they needed to make a spectacle out of their game broadcast.  Although I'm not sure why.  Probably a case of doing something just because someone else is.  They are all pretty terrible and don't really add anything to the game ... especially given the pageantry and passion that surround every college football game.  Its not necessary to add production to get people excited like it is with professional sports.  (my corporation is better than your corporation!)

For me, ABC's prime time Saturday night game theme is the biggest question mark.  It's not only annoyingly bad, but it has nothing to do with the games, college football, or anything else.  But even more strange is the choice of cast.  Its filled with the typical rappers and r&b people that can be found wherever there's a buck to be made, but then there is Perry Ferrell.  Perry Ferrell is the guy from Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyro's.  Unlike 50 Cent, he's not a product, he probably would consider himself to have some artistic integrity.  Or so I thought.  I still can't figure out what was in it for him to do it, and I can't figure out why the network thought they would get out of having him in the production.  He doesn't even really do anything. 

Bloc Party

Thanks to Gareth for using his mafia ties to get me in to see Bloc Party play a small room at First Act Guitar Studio.  It was really good, and it was interesting to hear their stuff acoustic with no effects or drums.  They stuck around and took pictures with radio station contest winners and then bought some guitar pedals, which made me wonder how many guitar pedals they must have.  They are currently number one on my "bands that I wish I were in but I'm glad I'm not because I'd screw it up" list. 

Rhythm Nation, The Next Generation (sans Janet)

I've been waiting for this day for a long time.  After not being able to play drums in my own home for the past 6 years or so out of consideration for my apartment neighbors, I was finally able to pick up an electronic drum-set.  Between going to to store to find out about buying it, actually buying it, and building it, it was probably a 5 or 6 hour endeavor. 

Stand by for rokken. 

Band 2.0, Part II

Another reason why I'm so excited about the music making experiment that I posted about yesterday, is the redefinition of the traditional roles of the musicians in a modern band.  For the first time, we're not merely going to be drummer, guitar player, vocalist, etc... we're going to be music creators.  Our disciplines will come into play again once we sit down and translate whatever songs we write into live music adaptations, but until that stage we are all music generalists.  I'm a drummer, but now I can write music, and the guitar player (also Kevin) can write drum parts.  We all have the tools to create music outside of our traditional roles, and that is exciting.

My old canvas for creating music:

My new canvas:

Of course computers can't replace the fun of making music, or the dynamic that exists when people get together and play, but this will help to get us to the point of being able to play live together. 

It also reminds me of what a lot of blogging planners and ad people have been predicting about the future of the ad agency.  A place where ability to use Photoshop or write well aren't pre-requisites to being allowed to have ideas.  Of course each discipline will have to exercise their craft at the end of the day to bring these ideas to life, but everyone who works at the agency will need to be a creative.

Band 2.0

One of the big draws of coming to North Carolina after Adcenter was the lingering members of my undergraduate college band.  We initially moved here after graduating from college to be idealistic and try to play music for a living.  It was a spectacular disaster.  Three years and some maturation later, it's time to try again.  The problem is that now we've all moved on to career type jobs, new relationships, dogs, and the lives that have been built in the last three years.  We're too busy to spend multiple hours over multiple days of the week to write music together.  That's where technology is going to come into play. 

We all have high-speed internet, Powerbooks, professional recording software, some electronic instruments in addition to the standard issue garage band instruments you'd expect.  This setup is (hopefully) going to allow us to make music Postal Service style, eliminating the need for hours of wasted band practice time trying to write songs.  Collaboration over the internet, passing files back and forth, and eventually translating the music into a live adaptation featuring real instruments, it seems like the perfect way to ease back into making music.   

Brilliant

Gnarls Barkley meets Star Wars. I probably wouldn't like this song nearly as much had I not seen this.