The Nostalgia Factor

No, its not a televised talent show about cover songs.

I often talk about nostalgia and its powerful effects when triggered by music here on this blog; its pretty much the only reason we all still fondly headbang to Limp Bizkit and sing along to some of the awful stuff we grew up listening. That power to take you back to a specific time and place, even a specific emotion you were feeling at the time, has a great effect on our minds when we hear nostalgic music.

However today I want to discuss a particular side effect of this nostalgia - rather than its effects on looking back, what are its effects on looking forward?

More Autotune...it ain't so bad really

Someone linked me a song this morning by a band whose singer is a dude but looks and sounds like a woman, and I ended up liking the song so much I checked out their other songs and they were all so catchy that I ended up spending all day listening to them. Anyway, the point is that, aside from being whiny angsty emo (Oh Vinnie, why do you listen to this crap? That's a topic for another post) its autotuned through the teeth and I found myself not really caring.

Y'know, Autotune isn't all a bad thing.

Review: Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid (Also, a rant about the Hype Machine)

The hype around this band has always confused me. "Innovative", "Best", "Fresh" and so on and so forth; these are words constantly thrown out in adverts and from other people. But everything I ever heard from them has just been...standard. What's so good about them?

Well somebody told me there's some brilliant songwriting etc etc etc so I decided FINE I WILL GO AND DO AN ALBUM LISTEN. I've done this before, because I don't like having an uninformed opinion and if someone keeps annoying me to have an opinion on something, or to change my opinion on something, then I usually cave in after a while and go FINE.

I've done this for Linkin Park's latest (and still rubbish) album (and may do a write up later on) and I also did it for Avril Lavigne's latest in the vain hope that somebody will have at least written ONE good song on there (There wasn't). So I shall do it here.

Important things I learnt from last night's gig:

From our set:

1) Just because you're not stuck behind a mic all the time doesn't mean you don't have to pace yourself. Going mental in the first song will mean you're half dead by the last song. Stamina is the name of the game.

2) Sweaty fingers + Fingerstyle bass = a new challenge. This challenge must be mastered.

3) Vocal warmups really are all they're cracked up to be.


From other people:

1) Do check that everything is plugged in. Especially just before you play. Last minute idiot checks are vital.

2) Stop bringing Line 6 Spiders to gigs. They sound horrible.

3) Don't ever, ever, EVER gig without a bass player. You lose 100% of the punch and impact from your sound. ESPECIALLY if you are a metal band.

4) If you didn't bring a big enough crowd with you, don't complain that the room is empty and people can't be arsed headbanging to your standard unoriginal sounding metal and would rather chill at the back of the room than come to the front, as you've spent the last 5 minutes trying to get them to.


And lastly...be a good band. Practise, practise, practise, write some better music, then practise some more.

Most of all, love what you do ;)

Vinnie

Another apology to my followers!

Hey guys

Thanks for being patient! Still ill and now got a bloody wisdom tooth coming through which is causing intense amounts of pain, so the schedule for my daily rounds seems to be off and thus the blog is being ignored at the moment.

I will aim to have some insightful stuff up soon, in the meantime feel free to look through the archives and comment on some of the older posts!

Also, got a gig tonight, the first gig playing bass with my new band. Wish me luck!

Vinnie ;)

Posting will resume soon!

Sorry, been ill all weekend. Sucks! Gonna try and get some rest so I can post something interesting in the next few days!

Another post on "Sound Quality"

Those that have been following WAS for a long time may remember a post I did last year on Sound Quality. I thought I'd address the topic again; its been a year, I've learnt more and I still enjoy discussing it.

So what's changed? I've got more Vinyls, overpriced Monster headphones are popular (My little brother bought some! Gah) and now online retailers are talking about 24-bit downloads (which I will discuss in a later post). mp3 quality is getting better, but hard drive space is also moving to a point where we can have higher quality lossless formats on our iPods.

So where is this all going to go in the next few years?

Do you have a 'favourite' song?

Its weird, for years and years I didn't subscribe to having a 'favourite' song. After all, I listen to so much music, from so many different genres, styles, eras and cultures, that how could I pick one measly little song over all the others? It didn't make sense to me.

But then again, I realised the other day that I do have a favourite song. Want to know what it is?

Lovely bit of sound design

I don't normally post random videos, but this one was too good to pass up!

How to react to a difference in opinion

Trolling, argument, disagreements...all to common with music, eh? I'm sure we've all had that lengthy argument with someone who won't back down from their opinion, or perhaps you felt very strongly about something and refused to give in?

These differences in opinion can lead to interesting debate, but they can also lead to hurt feelings; some people feel very passionately about the music they love, so insulting their music is like insulting them. I've had outbursts that have stopped people from talking to me for a while, I've also had some really good discussions with people where we've identified that we disagree and both for very good reasons.

So is there a way to control or avoid the arguments and keep it all to intellectual discussion?

Back!

So its been almost a year since I posted here.

Why did I stop? I thought being an opinionated elitist was a bit 'mean' of me - hypocritical and self-defeating in its purpose. Then I decided that...y'know what? I enjoy it, and at the end of the day its still my opinion. So what if it offends people? I like writing this stuff, even if nobody reads it.

So expect more rants, reviews and words about noises and maybe some music.

Keep lovin' music ;)

Vinnie

Music as Meditation - Introspective and Dedicated listening

Do you ever use music to relax? I'm betting most people do, in the form of some background music whilst they read a magazine or work on their computers. But do you ever really focus on what you're listening to, getting lost inside it and using it as a form of meditation?

In this post I'm going to share some of the methods I use when I really want to relax or listen closely to a piece of music. I'm not saying that this is how it should be done, or that this is the best way to do it, but its just what works best for me and what I like doing.

I made an Ambient album, and its completely FREE to download

If anybody wants to hear the kind of music that I make, this is a sample from my more relaxed side. Its a collection of pieces I've made over the past year, some structured and others experimental exploration. I've divided it into two 'EPs' so to speak - The first one (Windowledge Doll EP) is shorter, more relaxed and consisted mostly of Pianos, keyboards and string arrangements. The second (The Red Noise EP) is darker and, despite only having two tracks, is longer than the former (mainly due to the first track clocking in at 30 minutes!). The title track was made mostly using iPhone apps as instruments, whilst the second is based on my favourite JFK speech.

The link is HERE if you want it.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think ;)

Any form of competitive music is complete and utter bullshit

I'm not just talking X-Factor/Idol and Eurovision, I'm talking Battle of the Bands as well. Little things like this have absolutely no meaning with regards to quantifying the quality of music, as is well demonstrated by the almost universal hatred of all the "winners" of competitions such as these, despite how many thousands of people there seem to be who cause them to "win" this pretty much useless competition.

Poetry vs Prolapse - what defines "good lyrics"?

Lyrics are traditionally a central part of the song. After all, how else do you know what the song is about? The title can sometimes be an indicator but its quintessentially the lyrics which are telling the story.

And just like music, there seem to be categorically "good" lyrics and definitively "bad" lyrics. Whats the difference between the two?

New Music Review - Darko

Todays review is a high-energy punk band with heavier riffs, technical influences and a whole lot of attitude. Their EP is streaming now on their Myspace page, have a listen whilst you read!

Tapping into the teen market - what are the kids listening to today?

Its a good market to tap into, if you think about it.

There's been grunge, theres rap, there was Nu Metal, there's all this goth stuff and now theres that "Emo" thing. If there's one fact they all have in common, its a huge, fanatical teenage audience. Also, there's an equally large group of slightly older haters. Haters gonna hate.

What makes a great album truly "great"?

We've all got a few albums, maybe a lot of albums, maybe just one, which you keep coming back to. Or perhaps you only come back to it once in a while, but it still surprises you when you listen to it again or it just never 'gets old'. You always enjoy listening to it when it comes on, sometimes you hear one song from it and you instantly have to reach for that CD (or vinyl or mp3 folder!) and listen to the whole thing through.

What is it about these albums which is so good? Is it something we can pinpoint and quantify?

Do you think that arguing about music is actually really pathetic?

Even though I love doing it on a daily basis, as do millions of people around the world, its really quite funny how silly a pastime it is. Loads of people are passionate about the music they love, and are equally passionate about denouncing the music which they hate, music which is awful and should be wiped off the face of the earth.

But again I have to ask the question: What is music? What exactly are we arguing about when we argue about music?

New Music Review - Blind Image

Another new band from India, this one goes under the moniker of Blind Image.

http://www.blindimage.net/