Wednesday, May 25, 2011

C2AR=0 "Klimt"



It has been a long time since I have participated in this endeavor. I just spent what it costs to deliver a baby to have my computer repaired after spilling wine on it a couple of months ago... The first night back with me, I have already had a bath with the thing and now I am attempting to listen to Daniel's recent postings and write a post for the NAP... before the music dies. Currently, King Crimson is playing, and I recognized the song at the first note... and I gotta say- I can't stand this song. It reminds me of when I prank called someone on a landline at 13 and they told me they liked YES. I thought they were exciting until I sought ought an education about YES (at the time a joke without technology, I know) and realized that I had probably prank called the most boring person with the sexiest voice in the entire RedNeck swamps of Magnolia Texas... Before Kingwood featured a Gondola at their Mall... I mean, Universe.

I am aware that I have poor grammar. Moving onto the second song.

"Coming down from a rock show music..." Yes. I can see how this would be a good choice. I like that tinny/guitar high end fuzz that doesn't get drowned out by the horns. Ahhh, yes. It really is all about the singing on this one. It's one of those songs that never feels dated even though there is a ridiculous kind of over production that pegs it's time stamp square on it's head. Socially, I think about the way color television of the era was pretty much like a cloudy day on every station. Was it the clothing? Is it the years later? Is it that, television now totally lies to us and feeds us ultra saturation and contrast? Is Hollywood lighting how an apartment complex sells you their shithole, because they have tricked the eye by making you look more saturated than you actually do when natural sunlight hits your factory outlet smile? Ending with the strings in this song really makes me feel like an asshole for ending up thinking about balding denim and pocket conveniences instead of following Curtis into the woods and being there for him from beginning to end.

Song Three.

I like the song starting at about 2:43. That's when they finally caught me up in it. I listened to it more than once to be sure. At 2:43- it just worked for me. The bass, the rhythm, the snare... the phrasing is perfect. Made me want to hear it again. Then at 3:52- smoky, confident, and flowing. The chorus bores me to death to be perfectly honest though.


FOUR ( first GZA track)

I am not looking into any of the music I am hearing for the first time as I listen to these. I miss what it was like to listen to radio, before video came along. I could actually HEAR music then. Much like my daughter. She can hear a song twice and know the chorus and the melody and switch gears right into the song as soon as she hears a couple of beats. I liked the way this song started, but I just feel like the artists are privileged. The poetry comes across as forced. The song structure has no surprises. Maybe it's a great song. It started that way with the static and samples and melancholic piano. They lost me with the spoken stuff. All I could picture was some kids with buffed nails treating their girlfriends like crap because they had made this song. Disclaimer: I said I wouldn't educate myself about the music before listening.

Five. GZA SECOND CHANCE

I see poets reading from a piece of paper and one of them hits the same key on a keyboard over and over again. The greatest accomplishment is the hand off from one vocal to another. The rest is totally unforgettable for me.

Dirty Projectors track:

The mistake I have made with this one is that I can see some of the video. But, I think even if I hadn't seen the video, I would have the same reaction to this song. It makes me uncomfortable. Hearing every nuance is not always a good thing. I have some recordings of myself singing and playing guitar with a friend a century ago in Austin. How painful it is to listen to it now and it would be horrifying if there were a video to accompany it today. It's like having a psychic imprint of a depression clinic's group hug. There's talent in the room in so much that they all get behind some patterns and melodies... but for the most part, all I can think about is how it must be a total pain to talk to the male singer about shit basic like... stop staging the coffee table with books you want people to think you have read or worse than that- books you HAVE read.

Sleeping People song. I am tired, so maybe this will wake me up. This music is just not committed enough for me. The interesting time signature work almost halfway in is good, but there is a tightness in the room sort of sound to this work and it isn't exactly one that is absorbable. It's the kind of music I would try furniture polish out to. It would keep me interested and going and I wouldn't be emotionally attached enough to sit down and think about anything that mattered to me. Maybe when the vocals kicked in I'd actually dust and beat the rugs on the patio. This song is called "Stay Up" and they'll have to do better than that mellow and tone tight Crimson sound.


Pinback:

Like the vocal phrasing. Why do bands have to film themselves? Shit... If you have a decent song, why screw it up by boring me with footage of you staging a performance where you probably aren't even hooked in to actual sound for the video. This music is dormitory peaceful and uncomfortable to watch. You miss me, Touch & Go, because I left your ass.

Crap... another Pinback song. I was just outside on the patio, trying to understand why I just can't like any kind of music. This band and this song in particular don't do anything necessarily to make me dislike it STRONGLY, I just do. I feel like I am in the middle of a pharmaceutical love scene on set and this music is being played out of the Buffet stand, and the drug company funding the infomercial/video put up a 30 something couple coloring in an insurance policy in a tightly manicured back yard with everything to lose and no chance of losing it. Just not buying the plan.

That completes my first post on this site in a million years. I would like to rate this piece on how it makes me feel or how the music inspires me to paint, by giving it an C2AR "Create 2 Ability-rating". I would not paint to this music very easily. It is distracting and does not flow in the kind of direction that frees me to lose myself in the music enough to want to respond to it by reflecting and working at my own craft without changing the dial. The CTAR rating on this one is kind of KLIMT-ish, which is just above mediocre in influence. Successful in standing out, but really just makes me uncomfortable looking at it- trying to act like it's amazing.

C2AR= 0 if 0= Mediocre Effect.



The C2AR assessment is just something that I pulled out of my ass. It represents my reaction to my environment as a whole. When listening to music, I find myself wanting to learn or create or break things. There is rarely a tuning out or neutral zone. The forces in nature that drive me to learn or create in a way that is meaningful to me have been the same my whole life, I think, and I find comfort in knowing that regardless of any new music I hear, I am still touched by the same type of sounds. This post made me want to learn about music and also break things.