Music

The Bad Plus - These Are The Vistas

2006-01-15T13:51:00.000Z

I first came across the Bad Plus on Jools Holland's Friday Night show. At the time they were an obscure piano trio, unknown to the masses. Looking back now, all I can remember about that performance was that I liked them - but then again I liked a lot of the music on Jools' show. They were good, but I didn't jump out of my skin and run to buy a CD the next day (and had I tried, I would have probably failed to find it).

But some months later, something happened. Suddenly everyone was talking about them. They have become, in my mind, a symbol of young modern Jazz. Whilst some hardcore critics shun them, and claim that it is not "proper" Jazz, I disagree. The music is soulful and musical, despite the apparent chaos, lack of rhythm and dischords. Now I don't know exactly what Jazz is - this certainly is not comparable to the likes of Davis and Coltrane - but to me, this qualifies. After all, what else could it be? I'm not one to categorise music under a million different g
enres, and it doesn't fall into my staple set of Rock, Pop, R+B, Country or Classical.

In describing the music, chaotic is the first word to come to mind (hence I've already used it in this review). The pace is oft fast and furious. Driven by Dave King's powerful drumming, which for the most part is a display of seemingly random chops and hitting as many drums as possible in a given time - possibly the personification of "overplaying", but yet the majority of the time it works.

The chaotic tone is also brought about by Ethan Iverson's atonal piano playing - in his solos it often seems that he hits the "wrong" notes, which to me is an integral part of the sound. Some have claimed that this is becuase of his incompotence and lack of skill. Yet I know for a fact that if I (a non-pianist) were to sit down and try to play these tunes, the wrong notes I would play would sound much worse than Evan's. In fact, I am quite confident that every note played is
intentionally so, and judging which "wrong" note to use is an important part of this music.

The covers are excellent - truly original interpretations of the songs (actually, I can only speak for Smells Like Teen Spirit and Heart of Glass, as I have no knowledge of the original Flim). They have "lovingly deconstructed" them, and piece together their own arrangements which truly epitomises their style.

That is, with the exception of Flim. As I said, I am not familiar with the original, the the Bad Plus version differs from the rest of the album. It is more cheerful, less chaotic, and dare it be said - maybe even beautiful?

I'll let you be the judge of that. This track does however show that the playing and style can be varied, and in the future I would like to see the two styles mixed slightly more readily - the contrast would work well.

Anyway, this is just my Sunday morning ramblings on the subject. Your opinion can, and most probably will differ. Buy the CD and make your own mind up.

Amazon

New Music

2006-01-12T20:25:00.000Z

I wanted some new CDs for my birthday/Christmas, but unfortunately my family and friends didn't deliver. However I treated myself by purchasing the following:

Steely Dan - Aja
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Dave Brubeck - At Carnegie Hall
Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow
The Bad Plus - These are the Vistas
Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall
Chick Corea - Friends

Buying second-hand stuff (Ebay, Amazon Marketplace) has been a real help in cutting costs. I also bought a hopefully nice pair of earphones to use on the bus, since I lost mine and have had to resort to a poor quality set where only one works.

I might write some reviews of these CDs, I've been feeling in the mood for writing lately.

A New Song

2005-09-11T15:40:00.000+01:00

You're Jealous
That I ask for someone else's advice
It's so petty that you fight
over this

You raise your voice
And begin to shout
You've already lost
The fight

-CHORUS-
You cannot stop me
I will prove you wrong
You cannot stop me
I will live strong
I refuse to give in
To your finanacial blackmail
I refuse to give up
You can't make me fail

I will live on the streets
I will sell all my clothes
I will beg, I will borrow
And steal

My spirit is strong
I know I am right
I don't need support
From you

It's inspired by an argument I had with my dad, where he threatened to not give me any money for university, just because I wanted to show my personal statement to my teacher a couple of days before him. It's the first time I've just sat down and written a song in 5 minutes. Needs a bit of work, maybe tweak some of the lines, and do some music, but I think it's pretty good.

[EDIT] I've now completed a very low-budget recording of the song. Very poor quality of recording (it was all done on my computer with a very cheap mic) and poor musicianship (the guitar part is played on an old guitar with a string broken, and it's played by me (i.e. badly)). But I reckon the harmonica solo is pretty cool. If I had anywhere to host it I would, but maybe it's better that noone can listen to it.

Lots of New Music

2005-09-11T15:37:00.000+01:00

...Well, not new. It's from my mum/dads vinyl/tape collection. I spent a weekend recently recording lots of stuff onto my computer so I can mp3ify it. There's still lots more to do though.

How did I not listen to Santana before now? It is seriously good.

And a cool Eric Clapton tape, with a very funky Knockin' on Heaven's Door. I was wrong when I said all solo Clapton is crap, clearly it's just the recent solo stuff.

Lawrence Arms

2005-06-26T10:36:00.000+01:00

The Lawrence Arms are a punk rock band hailing from Chicago. Download the demo songs and if you like it, buy the album(s).

Prog Rock Composition

2005-06-23T21:55:00.000+01:00

So I'm writing a progressive rock song.... God knows what I've gotten myself into.

It started when one of my band's started to move in a Prog direction. It was kind of inevitable since we have a talented pianist with a keyboard with thousands of voices. We started with Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, and went from there, getting more and more crazy.

Well, I'm not much good at music theory, so I left most of the composing to the others, who sat in a small room jamming for a couple of hours playing weird stuff in 13/8 and other ridiculous time signatures. Meanwhile I popped in every now and again to hear stuff and comment on how good it was.

But then the other day I was plonking away on a piano, and by some fluke I came upon a series of notes that I quite liked, and a minute or two later I had a bassline. And guess what... it's in 13/8 (actually alternate bars of 3/4 and 7/8, but it lasts the same amount of time).

Since then, I've come up with a few other ideas, both based around the bassline and just random other stuff using the same scale (F# melodic minor). Eventually I will piece it together, write/steal some lyrics and have me a song.

Cool Free Music

2005-06-19T17:44:00.000+01:00

Here are a couple of very cool bands, which both allow downloading of all of their music. Enjoy!

Greenwood All*Stars - Very cool funk/rock type band. Sounds like they're really having a blast.

JAR - Progressive rock. Lots of odd time stuff and cool stuff. I particularly like Pandemonium Clockwise (how the hell does he play that opening drum groove so fast?)

A List of CDs

2005-06-18T16:25:00.000+01:00

Here's some CDs I own. It's not a comprehensive list, but it should give you some idea of my taste in music until I can get a comprehensive list up. In short, I like just about everything, but I'm not so keen on hip-hop, dance music, country or pop.

AC/DC - Highway To Hell
Barefoot Revolution - Never Again
Barefoot Revolution - Tourettes Song/California Dreaming
The Beatles - Best of 1962-6
The Big - Last Chance
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
David Bowie - Best of Bowie
Helmut Brandt's Mainstream Orchestra - Chez Pep
Brentwood School Big Band - Big Band On The Run...
Buzzcocks - Entertaining Friends
Eric Clapton - With Yardbirds & Jimmy Page
The Clash - From Here to Eternity
The Clash - London Calling
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Jamie Cullum - Twenty Something
The Darkness - Permission to Land
Deep Purple - Made In Japan
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP
Eminem - The Eminem Show
Foo Fighters - One by One
Foo Fighters - Foo Fighters
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
Greenday - American Idiot
Guns n' Roses - Greatest Hits
Hijinx - One Imaginary Faith
Jools Holland - Small World Big Band Volume 1
Jools Holland - Small World Big Band Volume 2
Jools Holland - Hop the Wag
InMe - Overgrown Eden
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
The Lawrence Arms - Apathy and Exhaustion
The Lawrence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever Told
Led Zeppelin - Early Years
Led Zeppelin - Pysical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin - How The West Was Won
John Lennon - Lennon Legend
Less Than Jake - Anthem
Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
Bob Marley - The Very Best of the Early Years
Muse - Origin of Symmetry
Muse - Absolution
Nirvana - Incesticide
Nirvana - Nevermind
Nirvana - In Utero
Oasis - What the Story Morning Glory
Oasis - Be Here Now
The Offspring - Americana
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Queen - Greatest Hits II
Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Lou Reed - Transformer
Buddy Rich Big Band - The Buddy Rich Collection
Rush - Roll The Bones
Rush - Vapor Trails
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks
Sum 41 - All Killer No Thriller
System of a Down - System of a Down
Tool - Aenima
Tool - Lateralus
Various Artists - Born to Be Wild Compilation
Various Artists - Hits 99
Various Artists - Classic Jazz Masters
Various Artists - World of Drums and Percussion
The Who - My Generation
The Who - Quadrophenia