Up From Genre City

Live From Somewhere III: Panna Panna

Out Of 3076

1. "Let Me Fix My Weave" Missy Elliott
Let me just say, this is my official jam off of This Is Not A Test, solely for Missy's authoritative "PANNA PANNA."
2. "Acony Bell" Gillian Welch
3. "Allure" Jay-Z
"...Hovito's Way..." Hehe.
4. "Tooth Picks And Horses" Push Button Objects
5. "Blue Hawaiian (Live)" Pavement
6. "Life's Ill" Cannibal Ox
7. "Last Hit" High And Mighty

Lunch Intermission: I just saw Patrice O'Neal at the Pizza place by where I work. He's just as funny as you'd imagine he would be ordering lunch.

8. "90% Of My Mind Is With You" Prefuse 73
9. "At The Bar" Fat Jon
Note To Self: Hook-Up Playlist Featuring The Above
10. "Datablend" Mr. Lif
11. "A Day To God Is 1000 Years" RZA
How can people say he fell off? Have they heard this?
12. "Spiderman Vs. Batman Vs. Wonder Woman On The Rag" David Cross
13. "Drunk Game (Sweet Sugar Pie)" Ol' Dirty Bastard
14. "Strip Club" Jaylib
15. "Jugular Vein" Mr. Lif
Dr. Boskonavich Represent.
16. "2 Far" Dizzee Rascal
17. "Pass You By" Gillian Welch
18. "Dollars & Cents" Radiohead
19. "Meaningless" Jon Brion
Strangely enough, this song perfectly captures the essence of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, even though it was recorded quite a while, presumably, before Jon Brion was ever asked to score it.
20. "Shit Brown Eyes" Caustic Resin
Once again it seems that iPod has chosen to keep the Hip Hop away from everything else. Oh, dear iPod. J'accuse. J'accuse.
21. "Faceless (Prefuse 73 Remix)" Five Deez
22. "Crayon Sharpener" Them
23. "Waitin' For A Superman (WXPN Version)" The Flaming Lips
24. "Got Damned?" Murs
25. "Atom" Cannibal Ox
26. "Plug It In" Basement Jaxx
27. "Bugman" Blur
28. "Be My Lady Intro" Party Fun Action Committee
29. "Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell (Self Admiration With Blow-Up Mix)" The Flaming Lips
30. "Dirty & Stinkin'" Ol' Dirty Bastard
31. "Velvet Waltz" Built To Spill
32. "Glocko Pop" Bobby Digital
33. "Benjilude" Basement Jaxx
34. "Certified" Diverse
35. "Claire" Morphine
36. "Make 'Em Pray" Gang Starr
37. "Sao Paulo Arkansas" Prefuse 73
38. "Fulcrum (Insight Mix)" Mr. Lif
39. "Friend Vs. Friend" Company Flow
40. "Names" Cat Power

Another day, another extremely pleasant combination of songs. You can also get a nice look at the iPod's stranger tendencies. Not only does it have long stretches of musical intolerance, but it also once again tends to hover around the same artists or genres. Observe the omnipresent Mr. Lif and Wu-Related tracks.

Live From Somewhere II: God In The Machine

Out Of 2936

1. "Double Trouble" The Roots
2. "Come One Come All" Visionaries
3. "My Name Is Jonas" Weezer
4. "Go With The Flow" M.F. Doom
5. "Showtime" Jon Brion
6. "Mr. Blue Sky" Electric Light Orchestra
Heh.
7. "I Know You, Part I" Morphine
8. "Car (Live)" Built To Spill
9. "Master Plan" My Morning Jacket
10. "99 Cent Garden" Caural
11. "Casiotone Nation" Soul Coughing
12. "Push Up Ya Lighter" The Roots
13. "Tical" Method Man
Wow. It's like one song performing a function for another.
14. "Let My Niggaz Live" Wu-Tang Clan
15. "Good Times Roll, Pt. 1" Rjd2
16. "A Change Is Gonna Come" Swervedriver
17. "Jus' A Rascal" Dizzee Rascal
18. "The Big Game Is Every Night" Songs: Ohia
19. "Atom (Instrumental)" Cannibal Ox
Note To Self: Remember That Segue
20. "Fin" Pavement
21. "Show U Love" Bobby Digital
22. "Worry Wort" Radiohead
23. "Problem Child" Squarepusher
Note To Self: Name Calling Playlist
24. "Talk III" Mike Doughty
25. "Why I Love You" Prefuse 73
26. "Intro" Ol' Dirty Bastard
27. "4th Chamber" GZA/Genius
28. "Pony Ride" De La Soul
29. "L.A. Fresh" Visionaries
30. "Death Of A Thespian" Them
31. "Buck 80" C-Rayz Walz
"I'm nice around the mic/Like the Wizard players." (Think about it.)
32. "Preview" Built To Spill
33. "Caught" Saturday Looks Good To Me
34. "Hey Ya!" Outkast
If it doesn't sound played out by now, it never will.
35. "The Violet Hour" The Clientele
This song, courtesy of Barbelith's Todd and his Wandering Notebook Mix, conjures up the strongest sensation of being at school. I've never really listened to it before now.
36. "I've Had It" Aimee Mann
37. "What Goes On Pt. 7" The Roots
38. "Squeegee Man Shooting" El-P
39. "Kicked It In The Sun (Acoustic)" Built To Spill
40. "Super Fluke" Aesop Rock
"It's like asking the cast of Watership Down to fuck slow."
41. "Act Too...The Love Of My Life" The Roots
42. "Rob-No-One" Visionaries

All in all, not a bad run.

And He Wept, For There Were No More Worlds To Conquer

'"Indian Sumner" signals the return to the forefront of one of music's most gifted chameleons, DJ Record Player (nee young cartoonist Benjamin Birdie). Without a release since 2000's embarrassment of MTV Music Generated riches, "Indian Sumner" is both a return to familiar territory and a complete and total reimagination of DJ Record Player's style and sensibilities. Made completely with Apple's newly minted GarageBand software, he mercifully avoids the use of any of the three oft-repeated "RnB Horn Section" samples that have plagued the work of so many users of the program. Evocative, haunting, and melodic, "Indian Sumner" is once of January's most remarkable homemade singles.

Half Star.'

- Anonymous Fictional Music Reviewer
Music Reviewing Quarterly

Kitty Pryde, And Nightcrawler Too

So. First impressions of the all-new all-different GarageBand. (Now you guys "get" the post title, right? Get it? Anyway.)

I love this shit. That's for starters. My experience with MTV Music Generator definitely gave me a head start and within an hour of really sitting down with it, I had the foundation of a bad ass Bollywood/Starsky & Hutch freak-out. Some observations:

a) The Software Instruments, That's Your Problem
If you're having lag issues with GB, without a doubt, it's because you've either piled on too many Software Instruments or a Software Instrument based loop with an ass-load of simulataneous notes in it. My first track was made up of about 15-20 distinct Real Instrument loops and the arrow never went out of the white. (For those of you wondering what that means, the little arrow on top of the red line that follows the course of your song as you replay changes color from white to yellow to orange to red depending on how badly it's maxing out your hardware). I'm running GB on an 800mhz iMac G4 with (if I recall correctly) 512 Megs of RAM and (if I'm not mistaken) a 5400 rpm Hard Drive. Incase you were wondering. Currently in my coat pocket is a new set of strings for both of my guitars, some new picks, and a 1/4 to 1/8 adaptor so I can plug my guitar into my PowerWave. Once I do that I'll let you people know how my trusty little guy handles some real six string power. Or rather, some guitar noddling from someone with marginal talent.

b) Put Down The Funk Band Horn Section Loop
I've already decided to take three of the Horn based loops out of my first song, mainly because there are only three Horn based loops pre-loaded into (onto?) GarageBand. And I've already heard one of them on a posted GB Creation. Not to mention the fact that while they worked theoretically in my song, I kept feeling like they detracted from the overall groove effect. Stuff like horn samples are probably never going to be an option because they're so distinct and there are so few of them in the program. Beats, there are plenty of and you can build a thousand different songs off the same beat. Even the more esoteric string loops I used I'm not too worried about because they're layered into five or six other sounds, forming a nice sort of marketplace vibe. A vibe that is obliterated once those horns come in. I don't know what I was thinking. No, that's not true. I wanted a bad ass Curtis Mayfield flavor to my song. But it just doesn'tfit. The rest of it has an honest to goodness Timbaland feel that I'm completely enamored with and then the second half of the song goes into what my roommate described as a Thomas Newman feel. Now, this is no small compliment. I love the Newman stizz in his slower moments (and much less-so when he breaks out the xylophone and gets "jaunty"). What I discovered is that layering in a bunch of acoustic guitar loops (about six all told) and a nice Funk Upright Bass Loop gives this occasional dissonant hum that sounds exactly like a few violas playing softly. Very cool. It all works very well over the tight beat I picked out. Very Four Tet. I know, I know. I'll post a link to the song tonight so you can all hear what the hell I'm talking about.

P.S. Expect to hear the same three horn loops over and over again in your travels among the thousands of new GarageBand composers. Me? I'm already tired of them.

c) Buffer Your End
I've noticed that if you've got an echo effect on the last thing in your song, when you mix-down, it's going to cut the song off at the end of the loop, thus losing any echo that would've tapered off. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to see if I can just make a short Software Instrument loop with nothing in it underneath the echo so that the song doesn't get cut off. I'll keep you posted.

d) Lacking Direction
Spreading your tracks all over the left/right spectrum is critical. This might have been a no brainer to everyone else, but my first mix of "Indian Sumner" (temporary title) had every track mixed right in the middle. After I went back and spread things out, the track sounds 810% better, the loops sounded clearer. Ah, it was beautiful.

I'm still waiting on the 49e, which ought to be another significant test to my current setup's capabilities. We shall see. Overall, though, GarageBand was tailor made for someone like me. Rhythm, but no ability to play drums. Good taste, but without the financial wherewithal to replicate the multi-layered and dense sounds of my favorite artsists/producers (Jon Brion, Prefuse 73, El-P, Tchad Blake, etc). In just a few hours I had several track levels of incredible shit laid down, some fantastic breaks, and a wicked shift in mood and tempo, all in a 5:30 song that I've already listened to (on my iPod, natch, praise be to iLife integration) like five times already.

Once I ditch the horns, you guys'll be the first to hear it. Check back tomorrow morning.

The iPod mini Fallout: Reason In Action

This is amazing.

It's like watching a microcosm of the actual buying public in action. The thread goes from out and out, bile-laden tirades about the immensity of the boner Apple just pulled, to well reasoned examinations of the markets that the miniPods are aimed squarely at (and, after reading this thread, I am convinced they will absolutely own them).

Lot's of good stuff up there, and it provides a much clearer view, once all the Barron's Doomsayers are through skewering ol' Stevie, on how well the miniPods will do in the long run.

"You're only as big as I let you be, and don't forget it ever."
-Leo
Joel & Ethan Coen's Miller's Crossing

"Oh, And One More Thing."

As far as the iPod minis go? Undoubtedly sexy, but the price point is a little too high, especially considering the fact that a huge step up is only fifty dollars away. Pre-keynote, I was convinced that this was going to seal the coffin on every other online music store, simply because now everyone would an iPod. Now, I'm not so sure. But, hey, get these things in the right high-profile hands and in the right high-profile places, they could be hotter than hot. If they had been 2 Gigs at a hundo and 4 Gigs at two, they most assuredly would have been. Although by Christmas 2004, they'll probably be at just that exact price point.

The iPod has such a huge buzz now, though, and with the Pepsi Super-Bowl promotion coming awfully quickly, they just might be able to pull off the un-pull-off-a-ble. But the Buzz Vultures are already circling over the price point, and when you're Apple, you have to be perfect just to stay afloat. The brand is 110% perception, and tomorrow's business headlines are going to all be pointing at one thing: $250 for 4 Gigs, $300 for 15. Prompting America's buying public to say:

"Hey, why don't I just get the regular sized iPod?"

Well, either way, Apple wins. But whether or not the iPod mini wins is a completely different story. I'm curious to see how the pre-orders are on it. With the regular iPod carving out a serious niche as a Home Audio Provider (at least in my house: that Dock jack is super-fab), the iPod mini could conceivably be, as ridiculous as this sounds, someone's "On The Go" backup iPod. I'm going to go check out the local boards and see the fallout.

"Bad play, Leo."
-Tom Reagan
Joel & Ethan Coen's Miller's Crossing

Bazooka Tooth, Baby!

GarageBand, baby! GARAGEBAND!

Definitely the highlight of Steve Jobs' Keynote this afternoon.

Intrestingly enough, I was just discussing the band I was in for a few weeks in college, named Triple Lutz, for all you Genre City fan(s), at work today. I could now conceivably re-record all of those songs, all by myself (Alex Herrlein, Nate Calkins, my humblest apologies). While it's unclear if it has the functionality of my old standby, The MTV Music Generator, most importantly in terms of sampling, the ability to dump tracks directly into iTunes is critical for a noise fiddler like myself. I never really used the sampling function much anyway. Unknown as of right now is how much editing you'll be able to do to the built in samples. This may all be irrelevant if I pick up a USB keyboard while am at it. Regardless, I will definitely be plugging in my old Fender Blaze, one way or another. Finally, a use for the old girl, who has sat dormant in the corner of my basement while only my acoustic gets the occasional chop.

Plus, my classic MTV Music Generator tracks, like "The Baroness Loves Destro" or "Exodus 8:2" (built mainly around frog samples, natch) could be rebuilt and reimagined, turned immediately into crisp AAC tracks, and disseminated.

January 16, I am there.

"Cougars. COUGARS!"
-Skippy
Noah Baumbach's Kicking And Screaming