TIcket Stub of the Moment #1

My attendance at the show was unexpected, though welcome—A chance call from a friend with an extra ticket sealed the deal. I went with low expectations: one cannot expect a man in his late sixties to sound the same as he did forty years ago. From what I’ve been able to glean from reports of his recent live work, Dylan shows can be somewhat hit or miss affairs. One night might be transcendent, the next abysmal. We got neither. The Halifax show was a solid, workmanlike show from a professional band, led by a singer who, if not the dynamo he once was, at least presented an interesting, if ultimately detached, persona in performance. As one would expect from his last few albums, Dylan’s touring outfit is primarily a blues-rock affair, and the set-list was heavily weighted towards songs from his last couple of albums. I’ve enjoyed his recent material, but the long, sometimes repetitive, jams don’t quite pack the same punch as his earlier forays into the genre (think Highway 61 Revisited). On the whole, Dylan was best on the quicker numbers—the roughness of his voice was almost distracting on the slower ones (Nettie Moore in particular). The older material in the set (Watchtower, Highway 61, Rainy Day Women, Positively 4th Street) was largely in line with the new direction. I can’t say that I liked the new versions, at least not as much as the originals, but they were at least interesting (even if I had trouble figuring out what song was playing until it was almost half-over). A possible exception was the version of Like a Rolling Stone that closed out the night. The song has been slowed down, such that it sounds almost like a ballad, but Dylan has rephrased the vocal lines in such a way that the words come out in sharp bursts, oftentimes out of synch with the original melody line. This maneuver had the practical advantage of avoiding the sustained notes that plagued him during the other slow numbers, but also produced an added dimension to the song. The mocking quality of the original is still there, but it has been softened by time—the accusations and recriminations delivered with a knowing wink, as though Dylan is well aware that time is passing him by as well.

Pre-History of a Commonplace #1: The Trombone Glissando

From a description of Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole--

In the penultimate bar, in the midst of a quick rush of sound across the entire orchestra, the trombones make a gloriously rude noise-- a glissando, a slide from one note to another. This effect was first popularized by Arthur Pryor, the virtuoso slide trombonist in John Philip Sousa's band, who featured it in such numbers as 'Coon Band Contest' (1900) and 'Trombone Sneeze' (1902). As it happens, the Soussa band toured all over Europe in 1900 and 1901, just before glissando effects spread through classical composition. Schoenberg and his brother-in-law Zemlinsky were the first to notate true trombone glissandos in orchestral works, in their symphonic poems Pelleas und Melisande and Die Seejungfrau, both from 1902-3.

-Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, 2007

Ear and Eye #1

Paganini- Caprice for Violin #24 (Jascha Heifetz)

Current Covers #1--An Emergent Sound

Feist! The Constantines! The Beegees! Dolly Parton! Kenny Rogers!

This sounds like none of these. And yet, they are all involved somehow.

Playlist- Spring 2008

1. Lake Michigan- Rogue Wave
2. This Lamb Sells Condos- Final Fantasy
3. San Bernadino- The Mountain Goats
4. Romulus- Sufjan Stevens
5. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight- The Postal Service
6. The Underdog- Spoon
7. Back for Good- The Concretes
8. Dead Sound- The Raveonettes
9. Before The Money Came (The Battle of Bettye LaVette)- Bettye LaVette
10. Song to Bobby- Cat Power
11. Blue Alert- Madeleine Peyroux
12. Party's Over- Nicole Atkins
13. Shirin- Jens Lekman
14. Student Carve Hearts Out of Coal- Destroyer
15. Little Liza Jane- Elizabeth Mitchell
16. The Bones in The Ground- Robyn Hitchcock
17. I Came Here to Say I'm Going Away- Okkervil River

Compiled: April 3, 2008

Webbage: Its Gonna Burn Right Up Your Sleeve

Here's a link to the new-ish video for what is probably my favorite song of last year.

And here's the YouTube version:

Webbage: Working out the concept of recorded sound

Here's a New York Times article (you may need to register) about the recent discovery of a 'phonautograph' an early attempt to record sound. The recording dates from 1860(!) and contains a short snippet of 'Au Clair de la Lune' (you can hear the recording here). For me the most interesting part of the story is contained in the following passage from the article:

The recordings were not intended for listening; the idea of audio playback had not been conceived. Rather, Scott sought to create a paper record of human speech that could later be deciphered.

But as it turns out, scientists were able to use a laser stylus to 'read' off the date stored on the sheets and reconstruct the audio. I guess what throws me is the notion that audio recording could be conceived of separately from audio playback. It makes one wonder about the as yet unconceived applications/extensions of our present technology.

Webbage: Music To Eat Nibs By

To describe an album  as 'comfort food' might seem to damn it with faint praise, but it seems rather appropriate in the case of Plans. I've recently come to appreciate Ben Gibbard's songwriting, and Plans is a great sounding album, but I wouldn't describe it as 'challenging'. I will, however, say this-- As someone whose tastes tend to gather at the (perhaps not all that opposite) poles of the obviously commercial (70s Gordon Lightfoot) and avant guard (whatever side project Mike Patton is onto these days), I like to think that producing good music of either type should be counted a significant achievement. Having said that, I have no clue as to what metrics would be helpful in deciding what 'good' might be in either case. This clearly requires further thought.