Category Archives: Music

Musical Cells

An interesting subject I’ve been reading about is the presumption of how cellular life evolved. In theory, before cells existed, there were all these tiny quasi-alive things floating around and they ending up grouping together within a membrane and becoming single cells. These cells ending up dividing and changing and thus we have variation in cells, which leads to different forms of life.

It struck me this is a bit like the formation of music. You might have a couple snatches of music floating around but they have no structure. Eventually these snatches group together – one becomes a verse, another a chorus etc. – and form a coherent whole, like the formation of a cell. And songs also vary between being a lot alike (the entire blues canon) and quite diverse (rap versus classical.)

This indicates that music represents the core structure of life. With this knowledge I can cause people’s brains to melt out of their heads. I AM UNSTOPPABLE!!!

New Hobbit song

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Here’s a new instrumental tune set to the image of Hobbits enjoying a summer day. Soon they’ll be crushed by orcs, but for now they’re just having a pleasant day.

Rush Refuses Rush

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The band Rush has asked Rush Limbaugh to stop playing their music. Rush Limbaugh is, of course, embroiled in controversy over recent misogynistic remarks. Rush the band, is of course, a popular prog-rock band with a libertarian but not conservative bent.

Interesting.

The comments section has a good discussion on the control bands have over their music.

We saw a similar situation when Rush (the band) asked politician Rand Paul (son of Ron) to stop playing their music. I commented on it here.

Montrose

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Aww, man. Ronnie Montrose just died.

I loved his instrumental album Mutatis Mutandis

Death and Davy Jones

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So, Monkees singer Davy Jones is dead. I’m reminded of an acidlogic article I wrote over a decade ago, called “The Devil and Davy Jones.”

If I was to say whom my least favorite Monkee was, I’d have to say that is was Davy Jones. I mean, frankly, I detest all the Monkees, I think Danny Partridge could kick all their asses with one hand handcuffed to a transexual prostitute, but Davy was the lamest of the lame. That annoying optimistic grin, that nasaly limey accent, and that stupid, stupid fucking dance… like Axl Rose on valium or whatever medication they give Tourette’s patients.

It goes on from there…

Piano piece in G minor

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Here’s a new piano piece I recently finished. It exposes the deep, sensitive facets of my soul.

Van Anthony?

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If you go here, you’ll see a picture of the current line up of Van Halen which include Eddie’s son, Wolfgang, who replaced former member Michael Anthony on bass. You’ll notice something – Wolfgang is a big kid, kind of chunky. That’s a little weird since Eddie is pretty small and Wolfgang’s mother, Valerie Bertinelli isn’t all that big. You start to wonder – where did Wolfie’s fat genes come from?

I started thinking about this today and it struck me. Ousted Michael Anthony is kind of a beefy dude. Could he actually be Wolfgang’s father? It might explain things. Say that not long ago Eddie discovers he’s been raising Anthony’s sperm as his own kid. He can’t completely disown the child but he needs retribution from Anthony. So he forces Anthony out and replaces him with his bastard son.

It all makes sense now.

Conversational Carnage

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I saw the new Roman Polanski directed film “Carnage” this afternoon. I’m not quite sure how he directed the film since parts of it appear to have been shot in New York and everyone knows he is banned from the United Sates because he’s a perverted sicko who likes to fondle our young women.

Anyway, it’s an imperfect but interesting film and definitely generates some chuckles, though ones derived more from discomforting situations than jokes. (It’s the kind of humor director Todd Solondz specializes in.) It’s based on a play and has that “play feel” – the dialogue is a little too crafted for the mouths of real people. And everyone takes turns talking; there’s four characters and over the course of the film you see this character interact with that character, then this one with that one etc. There’s a flow to the conversation that you seldom find in real life which tends to be messier.

I found myself musing on this narrative devise – this idea of giving each of the characters a chance to converse with each of the others. It struck me that this could be an interesting structure for a musical piece. You get four instruments (characters) and have them perform melodies that weave in and out with the others. At times the instruments would be offering more of a supporting role; at other times they would be front and center (e.g. vocalizing like a actor would.)

You’re doubtless saying, “Wil, what you are describing is a four part fugue. (Here’s a nice example.) A single voice introduces a subject (melody), then a second voice appears and repeats the subject while the first voice offers a countersubject. A third voice then appears playing the subject, the second plays the countersubject and the first voice plays supportive free material. Repeat the pattern so all four voices are involved, and then the piece goes forward offering the different voices opportunities to converse musically with each other.”

Yeah, I guess it is a fugue. It actually makes sense that early musical forms would be based on conversation structure. Anyway, I think the idea of approaching music from this vantage point – that of theater, is interesting. If I mastered this technique I would be more powerful than a thousand gods.

Spotting Spotify

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Like most people who pay any attention to the web, I’ve had a general understanding of the Spotify music service. This is a service attainable either by viewing ads, or paying fairly cheap subscription fees, that gives you access to tons of music, including established musicians as well as unknown obscurities (for instance, my first album is available on Spotify. I have no idea how it got there.) Basically, it’s a legal Napster.

While I understood all this, I didn’t really “get” Spotify until my niece showed it to me this past weekend. I sat around browsing the available collection and discovered at least a dozen albums I’d been meaning to buy. I’ve, of course, since downloaded Spotify, so there’s no reason to purchase these albums.

To me, this is really the nail in the coffin of the career of an independent artist making original music. Music has become totally devalued.

Some idiots, and the Spotify company itself, object to that statement. They point out that every time someone streams your music, you (theoretically) get paid. The problem with this is that you’re getting paid nothing; 1 million streams is equal to about 1000 bucks or so. That just ain’t gonna happen for your average musician.

Instead, they argue you should use Spotify as a promotional tool to sell CDs of your songs or get people to come to your shows. Obviously, using free music to tempt people to buy CDs of the same music (which they’re getting for free) doesn’t even make any sense. As for getting people to come to your shows… that might kind of work, but most shows for original music pay next to nothing. Some people argue that giving away music for free will help populate shows when musicians go on a tour. The problem with this is that it’s impossible to hold down any kind of meaningful job and tour, so you basically have to commit to a life of poverty to be a touring musician (of original music.) On top of that, tours cost money for gas, lodging etc. so whatever revenue is being lost from CD sales has to be made up by increased attendance, and then some. I just don’t see that working for the vast majority of musicians I know.

The smartest thing for any musician to do at this point is to order hundreds of brain eating maggots off the Internet and then lure those maggots into your ear, nose and mouth holes and sit back as they devour your brain.

The Wil Forbis Blog

Groovy thoughts from a groovy guy