Gowhere

Two of my friends died this week.
One drove off an exit ramp and hit a utility pole.
The other--consumed with grief and negative emotions stemming from our friend's death--shot himself in the head last night.

The news is full of violence.
I want to leave.

...

let's go to Pluto the atmosphere's clear
we'll be really cool there with nothing to fear
let's go to Pluto it's cold and it's damp
where children are heroes death is high camp

I want to see Pluto I want to have fun
I want to turn blue under an alien sun
oh let me see Pluto it seems such a gas
with oceans of methane and petrified grass

let's go to Pluto
lets live on the dot
see the bad moon rising
in a lunacy knot

come on let's do Pluto it's really not far
an unleaded dream drive to the prettiest star
I want to see Pluto but maybe I'll wait
til the world turns to meet its plutonium fate
the days will be long here the years will be more
let's go to Pluto like we did before

let's go to Pluto
let's live on the dot
see the bad moon rising
in a lunacy knot

...
The Creatures - Pluto Drive

Final Days Of Loneliness

Are these the last days because I'm suddenly going to have friends and feel loved?
Or because I'm not going to exist any longer?

...

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

...
exc. from Charles Bukowski's The Genius Of The Crowd

Sad News

I received news today that Andy Hughes passed away this month.
He was a collaborator with the Orb, involved in mixing and engineering albums like Live 93, Pomme Fritz, and Orbus Terrarum.

He will be missed.

Vinyl Wins Again

Excerpts from The Care and Handling of Recorded Sound Materials


Vinyl discs

Vinyl discs are adversely affected by ultraviolet light and thermal cycling (heat fluctuation). The consequence of thermal cycling is that each cycle of temperature results in a small irreversible deformation, and these deformations are cumulative. Vinyl discs are resistant to fungal growth and are unaffected by high humidity levels.

CDs

The compact disc is a laminate of 4 different materials. The bottom of the disc is made of polycarbonate onto which the pits containing the digitized sound information are stamped. A thin layer of aluminum is then applied, covering the pits. A thin lacquer coating (which becomes the top of the disc) is then applied to cover the aluminum layer, and finally the ink for the labeling.

As with any laminated products, one must wonder how the aging characteristics of each material will interact with, and affect adjacent layers.

..............................

Thus far, vinyl has proven to be the most stable of the materials that have been used in the manufacture of sound recordings. However, although stable, its life is not indefinite. Pickett and Lemcoe, in Preservation and Storage of Sound Recordings, states that "failure by chemical degradation of a vinyl disc in ordinary library environments should not occur in less than a century".

..............................

by Gilles St‑Laurent - Music Division - National Library Of Canada

A Fellow

I recently sent a message to Mountain People because I noticed that Butch - Muskatnuss samples from Mountain 003. Not just a sound but an entire loop. A really obvious one. It's the raw, incredible groove that runs through the entirity of Mountain 003.


-------------------------------------------------------------

From: [Me]
To: mountain people
Date: Jun 17, 2009 11:40 PM
Subject: you're probably already aware of this, but...

(url to track)

I normally don't care about 'appropriation' like this.
But Mountain 003 is one of my favorite records. EVER.
Did you get any credit for this?
Money?
Fillet Mignon?
A high-five?


~ Love


-------------------------------------------------------------

Then this conversation took place :
(url to blog no longer exists. It was basically an e-mail conversation between MP and Butch, wherein the latter denies using the sample then admits he may have forgotten to remove it before finishing the track.)

-------------------------------------------------------------


I hadn't intended to start any kind of dispute. And I really don't know what is being said because I can't read German. But, I have to be honest, something about this kind of appropriation just rubs me the wrong way.
An artist like Girl Talk doesn't bother me; he samples popular music and runs the sample for 4-16 bars, creating new compositions from several sources. It's like hyper sampling. It's smart. It's Steinski.

But Butch uses the Mountain 003 sample(s) throughout Muskatnuss because those samples are the bulk of the track. Take out the MP samples, and what's left? Some unneccessary textures and extra sounds?

I love Mountain 003 because of its simplicity, its deadly beatcentric accuracy. This track cannot be improved. You can't improve upon perfection.
So why try and then pass it off as an original production...?

Intro That

He wanted respect but he found fear.
He wanted wealth but he found envy.
He wanted love and he found himself.

Quitters Never Win

Where did dancerecords.com go...?
I'm not terribly upset since they stopped stocking new vinyl, but I did have $200+ in my cart. Older, discounted records that I wanted to buy.

Dumb.