May 2013
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Watchi finally got my hands on footage from geographies #1, which happened back in february. here is one piece from the performance. it feels a little strange to put it here without the context of the whole show, but i guess that’s how it goes.
i’m playing vibes, counterfeit madison is dancing. we’re at feverhead in february 2013.
It’s hard to find anything to say about life... →
The “crazy busy” existence so many of us complain about is almost entirely self-imposed.
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April 2013
3 posts
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Another piece using recordings of Lisa...
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March 2013
7 posts
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I saw the Breeders in Cincinnati on Wednesday...
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i’m trying to get back into the habit of...
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assorted metals, oddly-timed loops, and something...
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i want to be writing music, but it’s not...
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i haven’t done any impromptu recording in awhile,...
February 2013
4 posts
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why i compose.
i was just perusing Anti-Social Music’s submission guidelines, falling madly in love, and thinking about what i would say if i wrote a haiku about why i compose. there are many reasons of varying seriousness, but the main one is this:
growing up a classically-trained percussionist, and then going to college and graduate school for music, i was led to believe that composers were magical dead...
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“Not just in wartime but especially in wartime, and not just in hard economic times but especially in hard economic times, the arts get dismissed as ‘sissy’. Dance gets dismissed as craft, creativity gets dismissed as inessential, to the detriment of our country. And so when we fight for dance, when we buy art that’s made by living American artists, when we say that even when you cut education to...
erezhenya asked: Anywhere I can listen to Geographies?
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January 2013
4 posts
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zines and percussion.
zine pages are coming off the printer again. come get yourself a copy and see the concert that goes with it.
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“everyone’s got their own version of...
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December 2012
3 posts
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October 2012
6 posts
Sadybusiness: unbornwhiskey replied to your post:... →
gaysagainstgaga:
sadybusiness:
I don’t think we can just say “when the lyrics are bad, they don’t matter, and when they’re good, they do.”
…
I’m fine if we say it’s not her job. Because it’s literally not: Her job is to be a pop star. Her job is to be palatable to a huge audience. That relies on playing to some (I think) oppressive conventions of femininity, it relies on being excruciatingly...
Listen
Lies Writers Tell Themselves →
I do not think it would be unreasonable to substitute “composer” for “writer” in most of these examples.
nprmusic:
Since I often get requests about how to get into the “music writing” game, I like to point out what other smart writers (from all styles and beats) have offered when it comes to both “getting that paper” as well just getting things down on paper. Alexander...
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in threes.
“One chord is fine. Two chords are pushing it. Three chords and you’re into jazz.”
- Lou Reed
I have this funny little habit of creating these three-piece sets, totally unintentionally, and then going back later and realizing I’ve done it. The latest one is a set of three pieces for vibraphone and (real/fake) drums, all with two chords, all with titles that start with the letter S.
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Drum machine beat, lots of vibraphones, some of it...
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Vibraphone, some of it with effects, and a drum...
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“In today’s more vibrant version, though, the artist himself is the spectacle, the subject of the tour guide. His primary job is not really to produce art but to participate in a “scene”—in an act that is put on for well-heeled spectators. Indeed, this act is essential to the vibrant: in order to bring the economic effects that “the arts” are being counted upon to bring—attracting and...
September 2012
11 posts
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in praise of sketchbooks.
sometimes, you have to write some music for something, but everything you write is terrible. then, you realize you already wrote the perfect thing for your purposes, and all you have to do is pull it out and dust it off a little bit.
this is why we keep sketchbooks, people.
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i’m having fun lately with my guitar,...
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trash-picked vintage toy xylophone, triangle, and...
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Independents.
If you’re going to Independent’s Day, I’ll be playing a couple of times: first, at 1:00 with They Might Be Dancers on the Performing Arts stage, and then I’m drumming with The Quinn Essentials at 2:55 on the Pearl Alley stage. Independent’s Day is always a good time.
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August 2012
3 posts
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a little cloudy sketch to get the wheels churning....
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a question.
attention, artists of all kinds: i want to pick your brains a little bit.
what are some general habits and/or values of successful (however you define that) and productive artists?
July 2012
18 posts
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and now, the grand finale to the chromatic cricket...
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for some reason, crickets love my apartment;...
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WatchAbout two months ago, I was invited to play in a recording session on an album of spoken word poetry. I like to improvise music, and it sounded like a worthwhile project, so I agreed to do it.
The weekend of the session was one that had been a little frustrating, artistically, and was in the middle of busy-crazy time at work. At times like that, it’s really easy to say no to things, or to...
