samuraijohnny
Songs You Should Be Listening To
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I've recently gotten in Jonathan Coulton's music and I must say that I have become a fan. My journy to Jonathan's music was a culmination of the fact that I have gotten pretty tired of most "serious" music with lyrics. It just seems like most music with lyrics that I have been listening to lately are just trying too hard to be deep or on the opposite end, I find a lot of lyrics contrite. I can't write lyrics to save my life, but I think I've just gotten tired of hearing the same themes (love, heartbreak, getting over somebody, wishing someone was dead, etc.) over and over again.
So, through the magic of YouTube, I have discovered various other artists, mostly comedic in nature. I especially love MC Frontalot, Notorious MSG, and Flight of the Conchords. All of them satire some other genre with some incredibly clever lyrics. However, they seem to come from more of the comedy side of things and while the music is pretty good, it's not always spectacular.
Enter Jonathan Coulton. I first was exposed to his music by Veronica Belmont when she posted a video of her Rock Band performance with Jonathan of his song "Still Alive." I thought it was a cute song, but I didn't understand the context at the time that it was for a videogame.
Even more recently, I've started listning to Podcasts of Leo Laporte's network TWiT. Jonathan was a guest on show #133 and I found the discussion fascinating enough to start checking out Jonathan's music through YouTube videos. Needless to say, I was hooked after hearing his cover of "Baby Got Back" and his other more famous songs "Code Monkey" and "Skullcrusher Mountain". I went on to buy Jonathan's $70 complete mp3 collection from his website. I haven't made it through all the songs yet, but I like most of what I'm hearing. "Womb with a View" has become a favorite of mine, along with "Mandelbrot Set" and "You Ruined Everything."
What I like so much about Jonathan is that the music itself is great, but his lyrics are filled with so much imagery. His stuff is funny, yes, but it's almost like he's intentionally taking his funny lyrics seriously (whereas the groups I mentioned before are serious about being funny, if that makes any sense). It's the same effect on me as the short story author Gogol. Both Jonathan and Gogol write from the point of view of the "crazy" narrator. Gogol writes as if he was a mental patient. Jonathan writes as if he was an evil genius. In both cases, you tend to laugh at first, but then the imagery is so strong that you start to empathize with the narrator. With Jonathan's music, he can really make you feel as if you were a giant squid who is depressed. To me, that's what the best songwriters can accomplish: they make you feel exactly what their character is feeling.
I hope Jonathan gets bigger because there's no way everyone shouldn't know how good he is.
I was watching a videocast on Tekzilla on the Revision3 website and there was a question someone sent in asking about what mp3 player to get for listening to lossless audio. The hosts mentioned what exactly lossless files are and then talked about what players actually sound good. The iPods, of course, were mentioned as not being as good as other players, such as those offered by Cowon (spelling?). They didn't address the issue of quality of headphones, which I think they should have, but the videocast got me thinking about my experiences with "hi-fi" gear and compressed audio.
Audiophiles are interesting to me, because they're all about getting the best quality gear to hear everything that's in musical recordnings. There's nothing wrong with getting good quality gear, don't get me wrong, but how much does it really matter? My sister can't hear details in music that I can, so what would getting audiophile gear really matter to her? She can't even hear the difference between 128k and 192k mp3's.
Since I got my Grado SR60's, I've been enjoying great quality sound, and especially since I got my home studio KRK V6 speaker monitors, I can really hear the details in all music. BUT, you know what's interesting to me? I thought going back to listening to music through lower quality gear, I wouldn't be able to hear the same details. What I've found, actually, is that I can still hear most of the details in my music even on cheap gear. What gives?
What I've found is that the higher quality gear makes details EASIER to hear. The details are still there no matter what gear it's playing through . . . I just didn't hear it as easily before. Getting the headphones and monitors allowed me to hear the details, but then going back to lower quality gear, I can still hear the details. I've found this actually helps with my mixing because understanding how music translates from gear to gear helps me mix correctly so the music sounds good on all equipment.
What's my point? I'm not sure. Maybe, the rate of return on high quality musical gear is lower than what an audiophile thinks. Maybe there's a point where hi-fi gear stops being hi-fi and it just gets gratuitously expensive. That point is different for each person, but I think most people have better hearing than they think they do. Don't let your gear take away your musical enjoyment!
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Or, as a famous Rock musician had to say about the subject after decades of high decibel performances: "Eh? What did you say?"
Amen, brother! I remember having the same experience about 20 years ago. I went to a local audiophile dealer who designed and sold his own brand of speakers (can't remember the name) that were about twice as expensive as standard stuff.
He did this little demo where he sat me in the middle of the room, equally spaced between the speakers, and played a Pink Floyd CD while I had my eyes closed. I remember hearing "new" stuff, and feeling like I was 10 feet in front of the actual band. Then when I got home and did a similar thing with my cheap Fisher speakers (which I still own, BTW) I heard all of the same things.....so I never bought those pricey things....and I've never regretted it.
It's a lot less expensive to have less discriminating tastes! ;-D
Okay, so I just found out New Kids on the Block are getting back together. Wow. Does anybody remember when VH1 tried to get them back together a couple years ago? I think it was around the time Jordan Knight was popular. I remember that it didn't end up happening back then because one of the members (I forget which, but it was one of the lesser known ones) didn't want to do it.
So what changed? Why are they getting back together now? Other than the obvious play for regaining some of their former glory, I'm wondering if any of them are in some financial trouble. As you may know, Jonathan Knight is a real estate agent and with the economy how it is (especially when it comes to housing), do you think he may be a little strapped for cash? Remember that the Pixies, even though they are one of the most influencial bands of all time, got back together for financial reasons. And really, if you think about it, musician's livelihoods hinge on their ability to stay relevant enough to sell records, so perhaps reunions are really just attempts to get out of unemployment.
I must confess that I was a fan back in gradeschool when NKOTB was popular. Many years later, after going through my own musical development (which I'm still going through, btw), I listened to their albums for kicks and actually found some well written songs. I don't know if I'll actually go out and get their upcoming album, but I'm definitely going to keep my ears open for the "kids."
Comments
sounds interesting... that is always my problem with funny/comedic music...it's like they're only funny because they can't actually play their instruments. this sounds promising though.
haha! this post reminded me of when a jazzy punk band called Beastie Boys made an album that was supposed to be a hip hop satire. It was called License To Ill. ; ) Satire is sweet.
Ha! I remember that Beastie Tour - went to it 'cause Fishbone opened for them. JoCo has my same admiration. Especially because one of my buddies is a Code Monkey and his manager's name REALLY IS ROB!
Fiction mocking reality? Nawww.... reality is only a matter of perception!