Poll Time!

I must confess my great need to elicit some discussion in my blog; it's been lonely here in MV&AE lately. I too can have blogfriends, right?

Is new music important to you? Really think about this. Would you be content with an endless recycle of classics or current faves you already own or are familiar with?

There are all sorts of corollary discussions ready to squirt out from betwixt my fingers. For now, I'll just start with that.

Bass is a highly underappreciated instrument. On the one hand, most listeners can identify the low frequencies and when they're in tune and in rhythm. On the other, there seems to be a slight predilection against bass players really stretching out nowadays. Sure, the Gospel and R&B players are pretty slamming. Pop and rock players, however, are not doing as much work as they should be.

The extremes of the argument are:

---Too few cats are really using truly great virtuoso bass lines. Some truly wonderous, magical stuff has been composed for bass and cello.

---Not enough cats know how to use empty space correctly.(I am guilty of this more often than not, I'll wager.)

The range extends from one end(Jaco Pastorius, Dominique diPiazza, Victor Wooten)to another(that cat in Radiohead for that first fucking song on OK Computer, James Jamerson, Chris Wood).

Consider bass to be the glue that holds drums and guitars together. Guitars have rhythmic considerations but are more accustomed to presenting chords and their qualities. Drums are tuned but the chief concern is keeping the time down. Bass players must be doing both at all times- they don't get much of a rest at gigs.

In short, practice your bass chops!

Though this blog contains the word "verbosity" I remain amazed at the prolificness(have I done this correctly?)of many wordsmiths who can render a not particularly relevant or prescient topic entirely readable and enjoyable. As I get back into the swing of reading more stuff I will tag, link and such.

Thought for the day: To instantly add "jazz" to your already continental stir-fry, substitute a jazz melodic minor(melodic minor ascending)scale 1/2 step up from the dominant you are replacing...

Example: C - G7 - C...To stay "in," just use C major and avoid the C note during the G7. To go "out," over G7 use G#melodic minor(G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#, F##(F double sharp)- essentially G# major with a flatted third). To stay out, when going back to the C use C Lydian(G major)for a nice half-step resolution to F# from F##. Or play some weird-ass twelve-tone rows. Highly recommended for impressing artsy cosmopolitan folks. Sprinkle lightly enough and I'll bet it can become a vernacular sound in pop music(again- Police, Steely Dan, Old School Metallica(with Cliff, of course- though it wasn't pop at the time), some 70's funk acts(P-Funk, Sly, EW&F), etc.)

It's time to redefine "pop."

The label "pop" has come to connote predictable, safe(sometimes the safety is in the moral misadventures of lyrical content)and bubblegummy. Realizing that "pop" is simply short for "popular" and that popular is as popular gets, it should be obvious that a combat to expand the definition of popular music becomes a patriotic duty ambitious or conscientious musicians would do well to realize.
There are simply too many good musicians writing good music for all the suck we are forced to endure. Listeners have a special bond with music we musicians cannot enjoy. Both factions, as according to human nature, will continue their search for meaning through sound- because they want to. Stronger musical ammunition becomes more incendiary against the status quo it replaces. Both parties will be forced to think more, work harder. I should hope such a form of subversion(one which incites to informed action)just sounds plain fun. I know I can't wait to change the world. And I'm 30. Am I an idealist, a revolutionary, or just an overgrown kid? Can I be all three? And when can I finally get sweet revenge on the city snowplow?

My Dead Pool is nearly finished. I may make an adjustment or two. Share in a moment of dis corporeal prestidigitation and make a guess or criticize mine. Or play.

I've got a smashing new pair of cement overshoes to go with my assassination attempt.

For x amount of time I had been driving all over the universe with one lug nut on my left front tire. The prevailing professional opinion is, seeing as how I had not had the tire serviced since August, someone would have had to undertake a rather difficult operation to remove four of five lug nuts from a tire with an enclosed rim cover. Mr. Professional Opinion also states a two-three week maximum for that tire staying on. The question is, who did I REEEEEEAAAALLLLLLYY piss off recently?
Furthermore, from the word "universe" in the previous paragraph on, all of my text is highlighted in yellow. Computers scare me.

I have not posted in quite a while. Part of the issue may be the Sisyphean task of using the new Blogger. I mean, it's just such a pain in the ass(though admittedly, I am a third-rate technodunce).


The other?...well, the entire gesture of blogging started to get a bit scary for me. I suppose I became dissuaded from what seemed like throwing my thoughts or intellectual property into the gallium wall that is the internet. This wall seems so mind-bogglingly big it couldn't possibly worry about or take notice of you...until you became food. So, there they are...my bits of thought slowly digesting for a thousand years suspended in a gallium bath available for scrutiny by all. Why does it bother me? Good freakin' question.
Maybe I didn't want to deal with the conflict. Antiprincess' blog(hey- I can still do it!)generates some of the foulest vitriol there is to be bottled. Granted, she's more than a hell of a person, but that just goes to prove the point. If one takes time to post thoughts past personal anecdotes they feel strongly about he or she will invariably start a shitstorm at some point. I guess I used to care. No longer.

I'm resuming bringing to the great nobody my unadulterated ideas about why things suck or do not suck(sometimes musically, sometimes culinary, and fuck the Colts). As I'm getting involved in playing live music again I feel it is time to get my nerve up. So there. Up, nerve...up.