Category: music

…or at least a complete side.

That’s how you listen to music when you are listening on a turntable.

I’ve always loved putting on an album, laying on the floor, and listening to the whole thing. When you are listening to a nice vinyl LP you tend to listen to the whole side, because changing songs is a pain in the ass.

You can do that with a CD too, but the remote makes it real tempting to skip songs.

And of course, iPods and other mp3 players make listening to an entire album more unlikely. Too easy to hit the skip button. Hell, you may not even listen to an entire song. You don’t have to worry about scratching the album, or even the CD. The mp3 file is the new patron saint of the short attention span.

The problem with this is that sometimes the better songs, the ones with staying power, take time to grow on you. I think the best songs challenge you a bit. They don’t want to be your immediate new best friend. They want to spend some time with you, before you use and degrade them.

This weekend I’ve been listening to a lot of my old albums on vinyl. I’ve finally listened to the Big Boys reissue I ordered a couple of months ago. Today I went to an actual record store, with actual real physical records (Good Records) and picked up two authentic physical LPs – Fugazi’s 1993 “In on the Kill Taker” and Dinosaur Jr’s “Bug”.

Both sound fantastic, but what’s even better is I’ve heard the entirety of both albums. The Fugazi album came with a code for a free download of the mp3 from Dischord’s website, so it’s nice and easy to get it on my iPod. I wish the Dinosaur Jr. LP did the same thing. But having it on the LP is fine. I can deal.

You owe it to yourself to listen to the whole album from time to time. And if the album is good, you’re morally obligated to do so.

For someone who didn’t play any musical instrument, and who never sang an audible note to my recollection, my dad sure loved music.

When I became musically aware, and started buying music, first in the form of 8-track tapes, my dad began acquiring music too. For my 10th birthday I got a small stereo from Sears. No turntable. A radio and an 8-track player, and two small speakers were the setup. It was good enough. I’d come home to find my dad laying on my bed, listening to music.

This started a nightly ritual for my dad. Almost every evening he would lay down and listen to music for about an hour. As I went through junior high and highschool, once a week we’d go to a nearby music store and each buy a cassette tape. We ended up with a lot of cassettes. They are still at my mom’s house, I think. Eventually he bought a similar but slightly nicer Sears stereo for their room. Nothing too great, but it got the job done.

Though his musical tastes expanded over the years, country music and bluegrass were my dad’s primary preferred genres. Occasionally I’d find him listening to a rock band if the song sounded like country or bluegrass. Once he was listening to Led Zeppelin. He had no idea it was them.

I’ve been remembering this stuff for a few hours now. You see, a few days ago I got a new stereo. Not super expensive, but not a cheap one either. A nice Yamaha amp and some Klipsch floor speakers. After almost 10 years of listening to music mostly on headphones and an iPod, having the BIG sound filling a room is fantastic. I think a lot of people have forgotten how great that is. While I wait for a new phono needle to arrive for my turntable, and wait to get a nice new CD player, I’ve had my iPod plugged into the system a lot and running it on Shuffle.

Last night, for the first time, some Willie Nelson came up. I’m not a country music fan at all, but I do love Willie. Over the nice big speakers, turned up loud, it sounded so good. Just beautiful. My dad listened to a lot of Willie.

I wish that at some point I had given my dad a really nice stereo as a gift. He would never have gone out and bought a nice system. Before he died, he and my mom had a small compact system. It doesn’t sound horrible, but it isn’t a rich sound. Dad would have enjoyed a good stereo so much. I really regret not thinking of this 15 years ago.

Willie Nelson deserves a rich sounding stereo.

And so did my dad.

When I saw DEVO perform on the TV show Fridays in 1980, I’m pretty sure that changed my world view forever. I was into some somewhat innovative music at the time, like the Cars. Of course, the Cars weren’t really “out there”, but they sounded different and were played on the radio. Being a skateboarder, I was aware of DEVO, but really didn’t get it.

Then I saw this performance on TV.

BLAM!

I was instantly a weirdo, and happier for it.

This week, the longtime drummer of DEVO, Alan Myers, died of brain cancer. I am so sad for him, his friends, and family. You see, three years ago my father died of extremely aggressive brain cancer. It is not a good way to go.

In fact, the day my dad was diagnosed, I went to see DEVO for the first time here in Dallas. Alan wasn’t with the band then, but kind of weird, eh? I was bumming hard, but dad was asleep in the hospital, mom was finally asleep at home, and I figured what the hell, I might as well go. I’ve got the tickets. It was fantastic.

So I’m posting this video in memory of Alan. It is worth sitting through the commercial for.

While I occasionally bang on an electric guitar, last year I decided to experiment with making some electronic music. I’ve been a fan of Gary Numan, Kraftwerk, etc, for along time.

I have a lot of friends who are excellent musicians. Sometimes we get together and play, so I decided to get a stand to put my stuff on.  I’m working on it. This is Phase 1 — a sheet of plywood on an inexpensive keyboard stand.

The instruments are, from left to right…

• Korg Kaossilator Pro – a synth and looper controlled by touchpad.
• Korg Kaoss Pad KP3 – effects processor, looper, and sampler, also controlled by touch pad.
• Akai MPD26 midi-based pad controller, running samples from my MacBook’s Ableton appliction.
• Trusty MacBook 13″ – 6 years old. Yikes!
• Korg Monotron Delay – sitting in front of my laptop.

I really haven’t figured out how to use the Akai too well yet, but a friend is coming over this weekend to give me a kickstart on it. After that I’ll be good to go.

I’ll be cutting some of the depth off the plywood, but keep it this wide. Paint it, apply dozens of skate stickers, and it’ll be good to go.