Scott Walker: "Bish Bosch" Preview

Wow.  My primary interest with Scott's recent work is how he comes to record the sounds on his punishingly morose records (see The Drift)...I can't listen to him too much, but I am certainly very interested in his process.  If he didn't scrape these songs from the edge of some dark abyss, in some unlivable location, then he probably made them using knives, barking dogs and ancient instruments made from something which was once alive (or a rack of meat as he did on previously mentioned The Drift).

Brian Eno, Innovator..."Scape"

I'm actually kind of interested in this tool from Brian Eno and Peter Chilvers.  It's an interesting application in the sense that it appears that it takes little to no music playing ability to use, but the real art here would be the user's sense of texture and idea...the algorithm apparently composes the music (generative music)- this means that the curator of the sound has little to no say over the composition as the music plays, but can certainly change the inputs.  As the user gets more familiar with the tones and "scapes," more are unlocked- I like this idea.  It's tempting to just move on to the next option when there are so many, and easy to get overwhelmed.

 I'm warming up a bit to things like this.  Going only from the demo, the tones are excellent, and odd...lonesome in the sense of retrofuturistic film or mid 70's science documentaries- sounds I've always been a fan of.

Brian.  Eno.  

I(pad), Robot

Double by Double Robotics - Pre-order Now from Double Robotics on Vimeo.

I figured it would come to this. I'd dress mine up like me.

Old Spice: "Believe In Your Smellf"

I don't even know what to say...this is one of the greatest ad campaigns I have ever come across.  Well done Gold Spice, well done.

(Wieden + Kennedy, please take note of my pun in the above statement:  I want to be a part of your team.)

Jason Lytle: "Get Up and Go"

You can do it...everything's gonna be all right.  J.Ly keeping it inspirational.

Tim Hecker, Daniel Lopatin: "Uptown Psychedelia"

Check out this pretty interesting merger of Tim and Daniel's work which actually makes a lot of sense.  New record, Instrumental Tourist, out November 20.  LP art here.  Ok, cool.

"Zammuto - Shape of Things to Come"

Check out this excellent micro doc on the Books' Nick Zammuto.  Beside the fact that this makes me want to pack up and live his life for a while, check out a taste of how he produces some of his percussion sounds.

John Clayton, Slayer Fan.

Oh man, I would have killed to have been on the creative team that put this together!

New Jason Lytle Video: "Your Final Setting Sun"

Super stoked to check this new JL cut... and it's is the fastest tempo stuff I've heard from him since Grandaddy.  REALLY looking forward to this record in October!

I'm Changing: The Analysis of a Career Changer

[I've decided to start a mini-series of posts based on my current plight in life...CAREER CHANGE.  My motivation for doing this is mostly selfish in the sense that I am hoping that it will help define my mission, highlight my progress and help me to identify and validate where I'm going...but I also hope that it may help anyone who may read this.]

Growing up?

(Point of view taken from up until 2000, dating myself and assuming that not all that much has changed.  Also note: these are statements on public school- I am fully aware that privileged private schools may be different; however a majority of people do not have this as an option.)

 

There's something inherently wrong with our public education system, grades 0 - 12.  It's rigid and far too based on "core curriculum" with not enough opportunity for personal discovery. You've got your standard math, english, science pathways with some elective-like courses thrown in here and there (I'm looking at you middle school band, home ec (WTF), and if you didn't grow up in a small town in Virginia, maybe computer science). Yes, I'm exaggerating to some extent on course diversity, but I do feel feel strongly that this is no way to introduce students to discover what they are passionate about, excel at and how they may be able to contribute.  Sure, I excelled in school and graduated from a major university with a biology degree.  How did I get to that point?  My mom,who also graduated with a degree in the biological sciences, was a partial influence.  Other influences were classes I enjoyed in high school.  But not really.  I would have rather had 10 creative writing/film classes as compared to my courseload of organic chemistry, calculus, biology, etc...  I took these classes because I had to- literally.  Unlike college, there was no flexibility in creating a "major."  I took a course path based on what the state of Virginia thought I should take.  OK, cool.  I was 18 and kinda just accepted that because I thought that was "the way" or something.

Enter college and beyond:

The way our system is set up, every class, test, standardized test (lame) a student takes leads up to making a decision on a college, and even finer in detail, a major/minor.  Because I thought I excelled in biology, I landed on a biology degree at the University of Georgia...which I really enjoyed once I got the "core curriculum" out of the way and jumped into the biology stuff.  OK, cool. I excelled, graduated and now was expected to go out and find a job.  I landed at a major biotech firm in SF which was a great experience, moved to NYC and landed another gig at a major pharmaceutical company...but something wasn't adding up.  This 'something' I began to identify back in college.  As time passed, I realized that my personality may not be the best fit for the discipline I now had spent the last 10+ years involved in.  As more time passed, I began to sincerely despise the work and industry I was involved in.  There could have been multiple reasons for this, but the major issue could be summed up in one question and answer: WAS IT FULFILLING?  NO!  The area of work I had chosen was not fulfilling. The people I worked around were nothing like me.

...and then an amazing thing happened: I was laid off!

Next Post:  Big. Scary. CAREER CHANGE Part 1:  The Initial Concrete Internal Analysis.