why are humans constantly asking why ? 
Try Bud Dr… err nevermind:)
SeabladeSyd = Syd Barrett, founder and original genius behind the Pink Floyd. He was only musically active for 18 months or so really, but everything he recorded and wrote in that short period was just total genius. The first Pink Floyd album is pretty much all Syd’s songs and is arguably the greatest psychedelic LP ever, if not quite the first. Get all his (3) solo albmums - whilst not quite as coherent as the early Floyd (ha!) they are even more moving and every bit as worthy artistically.
“Cut Your Hair” is not representative of Pavements song writing greatness whatsover- Its one of their poorest tracks and should never have been considered for release as a single alongside the equally naff ‘Carrot Rope’. Listen to their Crooked Rain and Brighten the Corners albums to hear why they are regarded as one the the best American bands to emerge from the 90’s.
tRANSELEMENt - up-tempo ska guitar? Wha?? Sure you listened to the same band? I hate that sorta stuff personally and can’t think of anything by them that appropriates anything like that. If I think cream of 90’s English rock tE. are right up there alongside Radiohead in my opinion and they remind me of some of my favourite bands such as King Crimson, Beach Boys, early Floyd, Faust, Genesis and Sonic Youth in contrast to being NOFX copycats or whatever it is you are implying. You’re very welcome to your own opinion but don’t expect me to understand it! 
PS Great to see Ardour almost reach its financial goal so early in the month - I hope this continues up until and beyond the release of 3.0
Actually that was the financial goal for LAST month. Paul isn’t here to change it to match this month, sorry, I can see if I can but considering it is financial stuff would rather wait for him to do so. Lets just say we haven’t met the goal in a while.
SeabladeWhere do you... how do you... play... stage? How do you recreate songs in a live setting? How do you find people to at least begin playing with (ie a band)? Does anyone perform similarly sequenced stuff solo?
Up until 8 months ago, I'd been content to sit on XP and click around Reason 3, which very much babies you in many respects. These were my first mixes in a much less guided environment. At this point, the only thing I miss about Reason was the piano-roll (not loops!) interface for drum sequencing. I haven't found an equivalent on Linux. Thinking about writing my own.i use renoise for both composing and solo live performance. it has a good built-in sampler and sequencer (yet unusual, not for everyone i must say), can handle various kinds of synths/effects and has good midi mapping options. and, it runs nicely on linux.
personally, live performance means a lot for me, even if i have to make some compromises. it is something else than record-making and as such has different priorities. i’m usually not trying to “recreate” the songs in sense of imitating of what is on the record, i’m rather trying to create something new, unrepeatable, with interaction with the audience as an integral part of the piece. it brings important aspects of social contact, responsibility, courage and self-motivation into the creative process. it makes you THINK different about your music. the very fact you are able to enter the stage and say “this is what i do, take it or not” is important IMHO. much more important than if this or that part is as polished as it would be on a studio recording.
Is it more or less necessary to be a jack-of-all-trades in this industry? any time left to 'do your own thing'?i often hear that it is impossible to make a living from music etc. well, i can confirm that it IS possible - i'm still living. i do solo performances and i play/cooperate with couple of ensembles (broad range genre/sound-vise), i do live sound, i do recordings, arrangements and production, i do theatre, film and tv music sometimes. believe or not, i feel it all as "doing my own thing". for instance - every minute i spend mixing other people's music etc. helps me in my own stuff afterwards. it also makes sense financially - i'm not dependent on a single money source. when, in some part of the year, i have few gigs, i can do sound, etc. it also gives me great freedom to really choose what will i do (and anytime i feel my skills, experience, equipment or just mindset are not adequate for some job, i'm ready to pass it to somebody who can do it better).
i will probably never get rich from this, but, as i said, i can survive, which is actually sorta more than i expected:)
cheers,
tomas
@seablade: The correct answer is “Why not?”
@thisisquitealongname: As far as starting a band, I recommend that if there are any music stores nearby, put up posters in them with your phone number and influences. Also, if you know of any open-mic nights or jams (you can probably find them in the back section of the community or college newspaper, if not, then maybe online), hit them up. Even if you’ve never performed live, you can always just introduce yourself to others whose work you like, and I’m sure in no time you’ll have two or three people ready to start practicing.
Our brains might have a lot in common. When I was in my teens, I would see the notes of music I was in tune with on a piano roll… though it was a very elastic vision – it would warp and change as if it were all a dream. Ditto on the almost ‘seeing’ or somehow experiencing music.
This type of stuff still happens, but not quite so intensely. Nobody I’ve met seems to really understand that I don’t simply hipsterhate ‘bad’ music – it’s actually slightly traumatic. [Recalling one day in the depths of McDonald’s, flanking a wretched grease-caked boombox. The only time I didn’t hate everyone in the room was for four minutes, when Ol’ Dirty Bastard offered a soothing respite from mileygagabieberihanna.]
On the flipside, certain melodies are bizarrely attractive. I’ve always wanted to deconstruct them for analysis and see if I can’t get to the bottom of it. I haven’t gotten around to it.
Notable examples:
Enon - Sold
http://flakmag.com/music/2002/tunes/sold.mp3
Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMzbiDV8IAg
GBV - Queen of Cans and Jars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHAvgxhoNO0
[Pursuit of the perfect melodic contour!]
Say, got any links to stuff you’re working on? :3
Heh. Philosophy. I’ve never really seen the purpose. I mean, there’s a point at which you’ve gotta stop trying to unravel endless layers of hypothetical compendia… for sanity’s sake. To speculate about the (incomprehensible) nature of existence is to construct an endless loop of postulation. To extrapolate 100 iterations deep towards an infinite matte of definition will have you no closer to its core knowledge.
Imho, it’s not possible to know the nature of reality (unless some real bizarre shit goes down…).
“Why?”
“Why bother?”
@danboid
Syd: Oh. Actually, Syd Barrett’s what first came to mind when you said Syd. All the others were 90’s bands, so I figured there was a 90’s band called Syd I hadn’t heard of. I’ve heard more about him than I’ve heard by him… for some reason or other I’ve always been spaced/tuned out when someone’s put on early Floyd
tE: You’re probably right on this one. Even though imo everything really good Radiohead did was on The Bends or is Karma Police. Buuut. I’ll take another peek.
[The only place I’ve heard of NOFX was on those obnoxious bandlogo patches goths around here would iron onto their blackpacks.]
@tomas
Survival would outstrip my expectations as well.
Renoise I sort of impulsively skipped over. Sounds like it’s worth checking out.
I think I get what you are saying about live performance. That actually makes a lot of sense. I was thinking things like “Perform with the computer? How am I going to stay in sync with the computer? That’s impossible enough in a quiet room! etc…” when most of these songs started out on acoustic guitar anyways.
==> social contact: D: ohshi-Heh about to head into a meeting, but whether you choose to believe it or not, that is a valid philosophical standpoint, and requires ahving some thought put in it to start with in order to reach it. I do agree for the record but to go into more detail would take more time than I have before this meeting(Which started 3 minutes ago technically) so I will have to come back to it;)
Seablade@ Thisisquitealongname
You are truly talented and innovative. Seriously, I really like your stuff. I like it lo-fi; the lyricism, melodies and complexities shine through easily and make a great counterpoint. You are a good songwriter.
To succeed you need self belief, persistence & creativity. You definitely have what it takes. But as others mention, still only 1 in a 1,000 with good talent gets anywhere. Often it’s for the wrong reasons like luck & chance meetings but there’s little you can do about that.
I was an indie booking agent in the 80s. I would’ve signed you like a shot had I discovered you buried in the pile of cassettes I used to get every morning and could only give a max 15" listen.
I’m not doing that now and pursue music largely as a personal creative outlet. So, even when it all comes together, for most, music stardom lasts just two or three years. That’s less than 5% of your lifetime. And unless you’re Arcade Fire lucky, even mild stardom is highly unlikely to make you rich. So keep going with it, but build yourself some sort of back up career meantime.
oh, and
Fender P-Bass I got as scrap. Was stripped of pickups so I cut the coils out of some also scrap electric motors and soldered those in.
You need to sort that P-Bass and get it into the mix IMO. Lo-fi is great, but your music would really come alive with bass in the right places.
@Thisisquitealongname
Say, got any links to stuff you’re working on?
Sorry, no. I won’t have links to my work until it is finished and I have thought about how to publish it. It will take a long while before it happens, I tell you, with now two kids (1.5 year and 2 weeks old) my time is very limited …
But by the way, I had not really listened to your stuff, so I just gave it an ear. Mmmm, lo-fi is not really appealing to me so I can’t really say anything. I can hear you put some effort into this but if I strip down all the effects, I don’t find much that can stand on its own (it’s just my composer’s opinion, highly subjective of course, so never mind the slight negative tone in my words). Maybe you or others like it this way but if I were you I would try to improve the voice / singing skill and explore a wider range. At 23, your voice should be fully mature and you would be surprised at what you can achieve if you practice. But again, if what you had recorded is how you want it to be, that is just fine. But all in all, I find your music hard to listen to so I can’t really comment further. And in any case, my opinion should not matter to you, just keep on experimenting and see where it leads 