Will's Blog

Attention! I am Moving!

2009-11-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

Attention! I am Moving!
To http://astraptomusic.blogspot.com/
Because I am phasing out the immature username "fernsareourfriends" and introducing the username I've been integrating since February, Astrapto. I just need to switch Facebook (if that's possible) and YouTube.
Follow me on Twitter. Be grateful I'm not switching to Wordpress.
Thank you, the three people that may have read a post!

Right-Hand Shortcomings

2009-11-17T17:32:00.001-08:00

So over the past year I've thought a lot about right-hand technique for the bass. When I started playing in Bikers' Church, I realized that I always descended strings with my index finger, and always ascending strings with my middle finger. Hammer-ons and pull-offs raking with my index finger came easily and unconsciously for me. Rapid three note per string ascending scales while plucking every note are difficult for me because I can't seems to ascend with my index finger automatically. I don't have the muscle memory in that regard required to play at high speeds. The basic three-finger galloping came easy, but the sixteenth notes were harder. Billy Sheehan, Alex Webster, and John Myung repeat 321 in a polyrythm of sorts, but that requires automation and flies into chaos if you try to think about it. I think that it would take a ton of practice to not have to think about string skipping at all while using that method. Alex says to practice it until you can't tell the sonic difference between finger, which pretty much means build up a comparable callous on your ring finger. I have yet to do that. I need to try playing with 1 and 3 more, because John Myung suggested doing that on his VHS that I watched on YouTube. No wonder he practices for six hours a day; he practices one thing with an infinite variety of variations (redundant language) like left and right hand fingerings.
I started using the Steve DiGiorgio/Sean Malone method (both fretless metal bassists, although Sean is a composer and Phd) for sixteenth notes, which is 1232. I started with 3212, but that got old. In between this technique and the 321 approach, I tried 123 repeating like Stephen Fimmers (or it could be 132, I shuld check YouTube). Firefox isn't spellchecking for some reason, as you have already detected. Before all that, I tried Matt Garrison/Hadrien Freud/modern jazz virtuoso version, which uses the thumb and first three fingers. Honestly, I prefer 4321, but it becomes a problem because of varying tone and string tension within the last few inches of the string. Also I'm practicing double-thumbing, but only so I can use it in metal. I don't even call this slap, and I don't like the way Victor and Marcus use it. After three tracks on a Marcus Miller CD I got from the library, I was sick of "slap" bass. Speaking of which, I'm not even gong to try to slap publicly (good thing I proofread!) anymore, because I don't hold my thumb parallel to the string. I did this so I could do some muting, but it looks like I'll just do left-hand muting.
Just for fun: I can play decently with a pick, but I can pick way faster using a fake pick like Bernard Edwards.
So that's that. I think I'll work on sixteenth note triplets using double-thumbing and all fingers. Also I'll work on using 23, 24, 2343, 431, and 124.
Boring post for non-bassists.

Jazz

2009-11-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

So as it turns out, I'm a n00b at jazz. My teacher is the best in the area, and he's teaching me jazz. He talks about how he never wants to play the same thing twice, and being "free" and improvising everything in a set structure. I just have the wrong mindset. I like progressive metal, where you manipulate the structure and play the same thing every time, note for note. You could have a jamming section, of course, but all the harmonies, unison riffs, overlapping time signatures, dense chords, and dynamics are static. Dynamics are static? You play the song pretty much the same way every time. Because when you've got four time signatures and two keys happening at once, you don't decide to play out of time, or go into thumb position, or do tri-tone subs. But with jazz, oh no, you better play the song different every time, just keep spewing out ideas like a never ending fountain that never freezes up from boredom or nervousness. That's where my problem is; sure, give me five minutes and I'll make a sweet walking bass part that doesn't always land on roots and that uses little motifs and that creates a flowing line, but I will play that part every single time I play the song. If I want to get freaky, I'll add additional passing chromatics or muted upbeats. For Frog & Toad, I wrote out the lines where I just had slashes. I played those lines all eight shows, and they were awesome. But today when Ed busted out "My Funny Valentine" and said "Walk to this (n00b)", I definitely was just playing roots and fifths and I was lucky if I hit a chord tone on the beat, let alone make a fluid line. Registration for the spring semester is soon, should I take jazz band? I do not wish to be a n00b. And I will be. I was just utterly defeated my my lack of mastery today. It was pathetic. Jazz is not how I think, I'll find the best way to play a passage, then play it the best way every time until I think of a new best way. Floundering over and over? No, thanks, I'll prefer to sound good then "fresh."

Pillar

2009-11-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

So Pillar released a new album in September called Confessions. I got it from the library a couple of days ago. I've this band ever since hearing "Fireproof" on a Christian rock compilation and buying the special edition of Where Do We Go From Here. When The Reckoning and For The Love of the Game came out, I was surprised. For my favorite bands back in 2005 or so, which were Steven Curtis Chapman, KJ-52, Switchfoot and Relient K, I couldn't wait for new albums and checked for news all the time. But for bands that didn't mean too much to me, like Pillar, I'm surprised when I come back later and their discography has changed. Kind of like Kutless. They released To Know That You're Alive without my knowledge, and upon hearing it I was very happy that the average tempo seemed to exceed 100 bpm. Anyway, I liked The Reckoning a lot (I waited for the special edition of that, too) but was hugely disappointed with The Love of the Game. The album art looked cool, but it made me think that "The Game" meant being a gladiator. What kind of a title is that? It's supposed to be secret appeal-to-secular-market code for "The passion of the pursuit of Jesus Christ", but it sounds more like a documentary by Valeisha Butterfield to me. Well anyway, the "passion" part of the non-title sticks out disproportionatly, since almost all the songs are just tailor-made to pump up the crowd when playing live. I mean just look at the lyrics for "Turn It Up" (largely sampled from other artists in a Portnoy-esque manner): "Turn it up/Throw your hands in the air/All the people everywhere/Let me hear you say/Woah, oh, oh, woah, oh, oh/Yeah, Yeah" Genius, right?
When a band says stuff like "throw up your (rawk) fist" or "Whoooaaaaa" incessantly for the crowd to participate and feel happy (DragonForce), "Everybody jump" or some reference to "tonight" meaning "a concert" , they are eliminating room for them to improvise on stage. What if you don't WANT to have everyone "get crazy" at a certain part? Too bad, you've been playing this song for years and those are the lyrics everybody knows. In case you weren't already tired of playing the same songs on tour year after year, feel free to undercut yourself by scheduling spontaneous moments. My worship team schedules spontaneous prayer in services all the time. Anyway, Confessions has nothing too special on it. I don't like the ratio of metal to ballads, and "Shine" sounded like a cover even before I checked who wrote it. The bassist and drummer have gone off, perhaps to restart Seven Places. That's a bummer, because Lester gave the band a lot of personality. "Kal-el" I didn't like right off the bat because on the pretension involved in naming yourself after Superman (besides, who needs a stage name in Christian rock?). After seeing the Reckoning DVD and playing some of his parts, I grew to like him. Oop, there he goes, off with Lester to focus on Stars Go Dim. Maybe they'll win some Doves that way. So much for metal, you guys. So much for skill.
I leave now to type "homework". Actually I just typed it. So now I'll go complete it.

All right.

2009-10-30T14:06:00.001-07:00

I think you're due for another post. Not that anyone reads these.
Why do I not post? I blame Twitter.
So I need to interview some people for a podcast feature for my Audio Production class, I'm thinking a Young Musicians type thing with John Bradford and Grant Woell, maybe Will Mesler.
I've started trying to develop a career as a "professional" bass player, like independently playing for musicals and stuff. The worship pastor at my church recommended me to the local company- you know what, I linked to LCC in the last one so I don't even care if you know where in the world I am. You can find out from a Google search, and besides, no one reads this. Let's try some paragraphs.
The Holt/Dimondale Civic Players put on "A Year With Frog & Toad" October 15-17 and 22-24. You know the series of kid's books that no kid actually buys? Well it's a conglomeration of various adventures. My favorite actor was Toad. It was interesting to see what he would do differently every night. You know what? I think I was waiting to post until I had enough Twitter-sized snippets to make a blog. I forgot about my tendency to share ALL of my thoughts on a particular topic. Anyway, I could've posted a blog post every night with the summary of how the show went. I think that the best shows were the 17th (at night) and the 23rd (also at night). My bandmates are so awesome; should I say "are awesome", because they are still awesome? Except they aren't my bandmates anymore. Left to right on the picture: Me; The flute player, I forgot her name. Emails tell me it's Nicole Smith. I'll refrain from revealing email addresses, although I like doing mailtos. She had the flu on the 23rd, I think. Her sub was really good;
Kristin or Kristen the piano player. I could get their last names from the emails if I felt like it, but would they appreciate it? Would they care? I think that once you're a legal adult, you don't really need to worry about having your name inline. It is the future, after all. Kristen Choi is also playing at my church next week. This week we're playing some hymns with some sweet chords. Anyway Kristen is pretty awesome, she's actually my age. In the first rehearsal I was struggling to play some of the parts, but she was playing my part and other stuff with her left hand! She was used to playing by herself though, so she rushed a lot. Moving on;
Doug Wozniak is an awesome drummer that is also seventeen and plays in the LCC Jazz Band. I don't know if I should do that next term or wait until I'm better. I'm still pretty new at this jazz thing, and I don't want to be a royal no0b. Maybe I'll continue to take private lessons and take the lesson class at LCC, so I'll get twice as much instruction. The people in the band say that Ed Fedewa is the best bassist around here, so I'm in good hands. Like a good neighbor who loves saving you money. Anyway, he's very talented. I hope my grammar is not awful with these semicolons...In other news, I decided I like DragonForce. The key to enjoying music is to open up your emotions and adjust your expectations. Anyway;
Jeananne Nichols is the band director at Olivet College and was the music director for the play. It's incredible how effectively she coordinates, coaches, educates, and performs. She is really knowledgeable and generous and accomodating; she wasn't as mad as she should've been when I had to run home during a rehearsal to take the A string off my six string and put it on my Ibanez. That was extremely unprofessional of me. I will tell you about the six-string later. See that? I put a hyphen in it that time. Doctor Nichols hosted the band at her house and provided a delicious dinner and some awesome Wii action. I discovered I'm a good cow racer.
;
Seth Story is the trombone player. He's a great improviser. He goes to Olivet and he was one of the older musicians at 27.
Matt Meeuwse is a really nice guy, and a great trumpet player. He had so many mutes, it was crazy. He's somewhere in his twenties, also goes to Olivet, and he's student teaching for music. I wish I could provide more information, but when I start talking to people I tend to prattle on about annoying stuff that no one really cares about. So I'll leave all that to here. And Twitter.
So this is based off of my fernsareourfriends@yahoo account, but I'm trying to switch everything to astrapto@gmail.com. I downloaded winPenPack and I'm trying to use Thunderbird. Olivet is affiliated with the Reformed Lutheran Church, but it's pretty clear that they're not a Christian college.
Jay Briggs is an older dude who plays clarinet and alto sax. (I think) He's a cool guy, didn't talk with him too much. I respect his playing, his maturity, and modesty. Oh did you see that, I didn't include the "his" the third time. I've been listening to "Into Eternity" a lot today. I can't find my 1/8" cord that hooks my iPod to the car stereo, so I burned a Between the Buried & Me compilation on CD. Fun Stuff.
Kenny Lowe is a lot of fun. He's a very adept musician, with a lot of knowlege about bands and stuff. He was talking about jamming with Doug. He also likes Dream Theater and Rush, so you know, awesome dude. He's engaged and dyes his hair silver. Which is awesome. He plays tenor sax (I think it's tenor anyway; let's call it contralto).
I got a lot of compliments on my playing, but to be realistic, This was stuff I practiced for hours and read off of a music stand. It's not like I had it memorized (except for four of the hardest pages; after practicing them for two hours I liked to play them twice as fast), or I was doing walking bass just based on the chord chart. I was not improvising. I was just playing the part. So I sincerely appreciate those compliments, but I accept them in stride.
I wanted to go see Dysrythmia and STATS at Mac's Bar last night, but Mom wouldn't have it. She then proceeded to explain how even being near a bar is sinful (I'm exaggerating) but failed to provide a way to succeed as a band while avoiding bars. She also cannot explain exactly what commandment I would hypothetically be violating. But I will do her the honor of not ripping her opinion to shreds. My friend Grant Woell played there earlier. Really, I couldn't see much of either show because I finally returned to Bikers' Church after a month of rehearsing for the musical on Thursdays. I made some mad connections.
My pastor and his wife, who is one of the best musicians I know, is putting on the church Christmas play and a fundraiser for Riverwalk Theater. I will be in the movie and the puppet team for church, and I will be onstage as the house bassist in a 1953 radio variety show. My dad was also invited, but turned down the offer because of the time commitment. (He sings in the "Brown Bag Choir", our church's infantile moniker for the choir that sings on the two holidays. Guess) (So named because their practices conveniently occur right after church, so people must nring their own lunch to church with them, commonly in a brown bag. I hope my commas are properly sequestered. I don't care about that word choice.) I will finish this tonight!!
Also my dad detests secular Christmas carols. I don't mind them, I think they're legitimate. Some issues with being on stage as the radio show's band:
1) I have long hair. Everyone I know has been telling me to cut since around March. This does not bother me. In metal, hair is street cred. I want to be like James Lomenzo in that regard. However, I don't enjoy that my hair is the default topic of conversation. Since I don't see my old friends very often, there's a noticible difference in length, which they must in turn comment upon. ("upon"?) Happy Birthday to the GROUND!!! Check out Scale the Summit's Progressive Nation blog. (Oh how I wanted to go to that. But it will be a year or two before my parents let me go to a place which MAY SERVE ALCOHOL!!!!!!! by myself, and they won't go to a "headbanger" concert with me. My summary may be a bit harsh. But exaggeration generally represents emotion, not the facts. So the injustice administered upon me (there it is again!) is out of sync with my experience. I bore even myself. Suffice to say, the Beatles' hairdos were controversial in the sixties, and both length and time are altered in a disfavorable (?) direction here. Might I hide it in a hat? Hats were standard. I want a milkshake hat. As opposed to a beer one. I am boring once more.
2) Gear. Electric bassists in '53 were very rare, and only played single-coil P-Basses. Crossovers from guitar played with a pick, so I'll pretend to be an upright crossover. (That means "in good standing".) Elderly may sponsor us (fat chance, I say) which may prevent me from resorting to our drummer's Squier. Actually I'd probably use my pastor's P-Bass-Mustang hybrid that I played for my first year back in eighth grade. Speaking of the drummer for our worship team, he'll have to play traps instead of his electric set. ("Traps"? Why this terminology?)
Period clothing might be a problem. (the prequel to maternity clothing?) I'll just spend ten dollars (I refuse to say "bucks") at Hidden Treasures and call it good/let it be done with. Can you read this with all the self-referential parenthesis?
I tire of this post. Six string post sometime later (no hyphen that time).

An assemblage of blather

2009-08-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo sorry for not posting in over a month! College starts on Thursday and I'm excited. I got department approval to take a private lesson class even though I'm not a music major, but that would exceed the credit hours allowed by my scholarship. I'm primarily at this community college to get free liberal arts credits for transfer to Berklee in two years. I'm pretty excited about my Audio Production class. Yes, DT's attendance to B3z3rkl33 may have been the back-breaking straw.
Anyway, I haven't updated in a while. It's not because I don't think about music, because it's almost all I think and talk about, much to my sister's chagrin.
So James LaBrie can hit an F#5 in "Learning to Live", right? but my dad despises his voice above an E4. Like in "Solitary Shell", his voice starts getting bad when he sings the F#4 in the middle of the chorus. Great song, it influenced a little organ rhythm I wrote alternating between 13/8 and 12/8. Of course, it's based off of "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel.
Stu Block of Into Eternity is now my favorite vocalist, because he can death growl and he has a Bb5. Myles Kennedy can do at least a D5 and played guitar for Sadus on the road, so he's way better than his work with Alter Bridge indicates. (I also like his voice a lot)
Will Shaw is a YouTube singer of the band Athem, who is pretty awesome. We sings on this cover of Metropolis, and hits a G here.
"Beyond this life", "Home" (a song by dad reviles because of the singing...I love the composition) and "The Test that Stumped Them All" have majorly influenced this song I'm writing that starts in 9/8 with a metal feel (I'm picturing "Awake"-style vocals for this part) and then does some other stuff. I often write away from my instrument because a notebook is more portable, so that results in rhythmic ideas being jotted down. When I'm with the instrument I often write out tab and such, for riffs. But unless I get a dash of inspiration, my music is composed with a more cerebral process. Thinking rather than feeling. But I'm working on it. And playing with the instrument (ok, we'll call it "my bass", shall we?) isn't really inspiration, either, just what comes naturally. But that can be a better vehicle of emotion than a pencil. Listen to me, I'm incoherent and I don't care! I'm thinking about doing "The Test that Stumped Them All" as an audition to Berklee It's hard to find one that's the ideal length.
But Ian Gillan has been recorded singing a G#5! Okay, stop and watch this video now. The description is what's really important.
Andy Kuntz of Vanden Plas was in Jesus Christ Superstar also, and can sing an F#5 like LaBrie. He's involved in all kinds of theater stuff.
Gyorgy Szomor did a great job in the Hungarian version, and the lead singer of Khallice was in the Mexican and Brasilian one. Portuguese and Spanish are very related. I can get an F#4 if I'm lucky. My bottom note is usually a D2, which is as low as Gillan has been recorded. His range might be larger than that. Actually I've tried pretty hard to find the extremes of my singing. One day I could do a shaky B1 and a squeaky D5. I'm just saying I produced the pitch, not that it sounded good. Alfred Romero of Dark Moor hits a high G#5 at the end of "The Silver Key," which is incredible. He doesn't do it live though, at least in the two videos I could find that doesn't cut off the end. I'm starting to think that John Myung is a drag on Dream Theater, like a robot: sure he can play those shredding unison lines, and rock those octaves with his weird tone, but what does he do for the band creatively? His lyrics are cool as poetry, but they aren't accepted by the other members because they don't fit the prearranged melodies (which seem to be getting suckier of late). I find that writing lyrics first is easier. You can tell most of his compositional contributions because he plays them solo. The beginning of "The Glass Prison" and "A Rite of Passage", and "Lifting Shadows off a Dream" are just are just effects-drenched lameness; the riffs aren't even cool! He tries to be harmonic with his harmonics i.e. adding 11s to the chord- he never cares about anything but the root and the octave most of the time! His solo part (an introduction of a riff) later on in "The Glass Prison" is a flurry of pentatonic drivel, and his solo in "Dance of Eternity" is laughable! No musical value. His solo in Metropolis Pt 1 is bland; once again it consists of roots, octaves of roots, and a 11th, just for fun. Oh, then he moves is up! How inspiring. Whenever Mike Portnoy does one of his crazy behind-the-scenes videos, Myung is in a secluded background, practicing diligently. He doesn't contribute that much to Dream Theater's music at all- he says he focuses on mastering his instrument....why? So he can feel happy and not release anything worthwhile to the general public? Sure, he can play faster and cleaner then he could back in Berklee, but his parts have actually gotten worse- and they weren't much to speak of then! His tone is still reliably weird, when he's actually audible. He doesn't have a solo career or anything to showcase his "mastery" attained by a fanatical devotion to practicing- even going so far as to warm-down after a performance! Chris Squire was inspirational to bassists for being a musical equal among his band members, and Geddy Lee is obviously a huge contributor to Rush. I think the verse part for "Learning to Live" is his finest moment: odd rhythms, interesting harmonic structure....the line he uses to introduce the final section is kind of cool, but it seems like he improvises his parts because, they aren't developed at all. And his intro to "Medicate" in the song "Octavarium"? (That song is a must-listen) Ungood! Not only is it pentatonic, it's minor pentatonic! While we're at it, shall we hit every bass moment? The beginning of "Panic Attack": cool, even if it uses the ultimate polyrhythm a little extensively. Sure, he can keep up with Petrucci's riffs....but what does he do to harmonize them? Boring. I can't remember hearing him on the new record very muchl....the bass instrumental track must be laughable! He has mad endurance- check out Dark Eternal Night, Constant Motion, or In the Prescence of Enemies Pt - but he doesn't give the music any personality, he just doubles the guitar forever. He plays like a session musician. But Dave LaRue's playing is way more creative! Listen to "New Millenium": here we have an odd-time bass part with a not-too-unusual tone, but harmonically it consists of...a root...its octave...and the minor seventh below the root. Interesting. He should trade places with Nathan East. The "Home" line is okay, but not ideal. In all these songs, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy make the lame bass thing awesome, like the the beginnings of "The Glass Prison" and "Voices." Plus Petrucci just completely dominates that "Home" riff. I think Petrucci is the best in that band, followed by Mike. I like Jordan's piano, as in "One Last Time" and other songs. He plays like a musician during piano solos, not a baboon brandishing a stick. "Burning My Soul" is cool because he outlines the diminished scale, even though the rhythm is sad. His tone is reminiscent of Alex Webster, a far better bass player. John Myung just does too much supporting and not enough thinking on his own.
Disclaimer: I don't actually think the part in "Lifting Shadows Off a Dream" is dumb; just the choice of the 11th. His grasp of harmonics is inspiring. I have an unfortunate habit, you may have noticed, of viciously cutting at any part of something I don't like. All in all, John Myung is a great bassist (although overrated by association) and I admire his dedication, choice of basses, and overall appearance. I heard that the band's battle with EastWest Records in the mid-nineties affected Myung's stage presence severely. His video Progressive Bass Concepts helped me with playing huge continuous scales, but I think the whole arpeggiation ordeal was droll. I wonder why he doesn't talk very much. Quick side note: I find it doubtful that Geddy Lee could keep up with Blotted Science's experimental technicality, so why would Ron Jarzombek want to work with him? Ron Jarzombek seriously might be my musical hero. We think so alike- he's just got more knowledge and experience. I can't wait for his DVDs- I may buy them even though I don't play guitar. I need to learn how to write twelve-tone music- I still need to listen to more. There are 479, 001, 600 different ways to arrange the chromatic scale. I should be like Ron and turn that into a riff. I wonder how many Schoenberg and Bartok and those guys have used already. It seems that I have a bad habit of linking to things the second time they are mentioned.
So now I forgot about why I originally posted. Oh, cool band. I've been looking for Christian Deathgrind, but the musicality just doesn't compete with, say, Origin. But death metal lyrics are just so satanic and disgusting, I can't be associated with that evil even if nobody can understand the lyrics. Christian deathgrind bands have good lyrics, but where is technicality! Yes, that is important to me, and it's important to properly execute the genre. Living Sacrifice has a lot of odd-meters, and their vocalist is sweet. He reminds me of the dude from Demon Hunter, my first Christian metal band. The dude from Arsis is an acquired taste. I'm happy at Spencer Chamberlain's improvement. Wow I am a rambler. Check this and this and this out.
Spiral Architect is sweet. They remind me of Spastic Ink, only they have a regular singer. I think you have to be a little bit crazy to regularly sing for one of these bands when you don't play any instruments. Well their first singer didn't, but I guess they fired him for being too insane before recording their only album. Like Blotted Science and Outworld, they have one album but many lineup changes. Their recording quality isn't too good, but the bass is actually audible. (Like Spastic Ink or Between the Buried and Me (which is a great band, their new album comes out soon (it features Google Earth album art (I edited this post on October 14th because it was really mean))))
I want to make an album named "Ecstasy of the Hideous", named after a phrase said by a critic of the revolutionary atonal composer Schoenberg. Maybe quote one of his melodies, make it conform to a tonality, add a thirteenth note. Which would be a C. Guess how long the song would be?
I could start a prog metal band named EOTH (as an acronym), but how would you pronounce? "Oth" sounds too much like Dååth, and I'm not sure if I like "ee-oth." Maybe "yoth."Plus, whenever I do something creative I imagine trying to explain it to a certain elderly woman at my church: could I explain it to her satisfaction? Does "Ecstasy of the Hideous" make for a good band name, with its possibly inferred drug reference and uncalled-for adjective?
Because of my dumb computer and wavering Internet connection, I redid all the links for this post like three times. I want to check out the Gigantour and Summer Slaughter DVDs. Man, I wish death metal was not all evil & stuff, because I love the music! My new favorite: Cephalic Carnage. I guess I'll try Extol.
Check out this dude named Trevor T- he's full of sweet links and advice for aspiring independent musicians. Click on a bunch of them. They are cool.
See you later, h0mes.

Obscurity without the "Indie" label?

2009-07-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

All right, first I am going to type out a paper on indie culture that I wrote about a year ago, then I will compare it to my musical tastes.

Technically "indie" means "independent," which means an artist that is self-managed, or are managed by a label of any size calling themselves "indie." Since the music, lyrics, pitches and rhythms, don't change (maybe the production quality), it shouldn't be called a genre.
In other words, with today's accessible technology, you can't tell from listening whether or not it's independently made.
"Indie" is more about the culture than the music. It's all about obscurity: If you like stuff no one's really heard of, you win! So it's not about the music at all, the music is just a veil to hide the agenda behind. Oh no he said the word "agenda" that must mean he's an evil haterrrr
Progressive and experimental music, on the other hand, is not obscure because it's lacking in musical skill or creativity. On the other hand, it has too much of those attributes for the general public to handle! Thus, it's about the music, and it just happens to be obscure. If a progressive band can achieve popularity without altering their music, that's great. (See Yes, Pink Floyd and Rush.) But since indie culture revels in obscurity and the music doesn't matter too much, an indie band becoming popular (See Death Cab) is no longer attractive because they no longer bring sought-after glory for liking something obscure.
So progressive and indie- they sometimes overlap. Both are generally obscure, but for different reasons. Both tend to be elitists, but for different reasons.
Indie: Must like stuff no one else does so as to look cool. The actual music they listen to, as long as it's unpopular (for any reason), could be any genre.
Progressive: Likes really good music. Unfortunately most people don't, so the bands are sometimes obscure.

Jordan Rudess Interview

2009-07-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I just found this on Digg. Here's the text with my commentary added in red.

DREAM THEATER - Jordan Rudess
12.05.2009

The Berklee College of Music graduates (not all of them) have become the most commercially successful progressive metal band worldwide (w00t). With over 8 million audio and video releases sold so far, Dream Theater have spread the word about their masterly (it should be 'masterful', an adjective. The adverb based off of that is 'masterfully', anyway) instrumentalism (what is that, a genre? A discipline? A condition? Just say "their instrumental skills") and musicianship to every (populated) corner of the globe.

Now with their 10th studio effort (hopefully a succeeded effort)-'Black Clouds & Silver Linings' the five American (one Canadian) virtuosos are about to confirm their leading place in the pantheon of contemporary rock music. (I bought this and will review all of the songs soon and very soon.)

It was produced by drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci (as usual). And we are talking to their keyboardist - Jordan Rudess.

an interview conducted by Vassil Varbanov

LET’S START WITH YOUR NEW ALBUM ‘BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS’. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT? ANY GOOD? ("no it's crap")
Ha ha ha, yeah. I think it is OK. Actually I think it is one of our best albums (what!?! Fo sho???) and I’m very proud of it. I had to listen to it a lot because I had to learn everything I play on it for the tour because I’ll have to play it again. (Why not just refrain from being so unprofressional as to forget what you just recorded?) And listening to it I’m feeling very good about it. (that's a given)

HERE COMES A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION. FOR LOTS OF PEOPLE PROGRESSIVE MUSIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN SOMETHING FOR THE ELITE (Probably) AND SOMETHING BORING. (NEVER!!! The Contrary!!! My Caps look weak amongst this perturbingly formatted question) BUT YOU GUYS SOMEHOW MANAGED TO MAKE IT FAR MORE ACCESSIBLE. (Accessible=Selling out_ in my sarcastically idealistic realm. The underscore is to indication of the equation's end. I almost said "realm" instead of "world" and "termination" rather than "end." I guess I can be an elitist snob upon occasion. Also I didn't know if "sardonically"is a word, because Firefox's spell check is acting up. I'm sorry.) AND AFTER ACHIEVING SUCH A THING, WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR THE BAND NOW?
Wow! I don’t know. I guess the challenge is to keep coming out with really great music, music that is not only true to Dream Theater, our spirit and soul, but also music that people are really gonna like. This is not necessarily hard for us, because this is what we do. (Plus we're sweet.) But because this is a crazy world and there’s so much music out there so everything is possible. (Random sentence there) And the goal is to keep producing really good music and make it something that's successful, but also really true to ourselves. (w00t)

THE NEW ALBUM IS ONCE AGAIN PRODUCED BY PORTNOY AND PETRUCCI. DID YOU EVER HAD THE DESIRE TO GET MORE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION? (Well technically the whole crew is involved with making the product.)
Well, the way that Dream Theater works right now is that there are three main writers of the music – myself, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy. (Portnoy works on the big picture and buisiness side of things, the other two come up with the riffs.) So I feel very comfortable in the role of a composer and also keyboardist in the group. The production I also feel comfortable letting John and Mike do it (Nice sentence, you middle schooler. That's right, I saw that use of 'gonna' earlier. And you also habitually say "I'm doing good." I struggled with that one extensively, so....on second though, why don't I fell empathy? I'm like Teddy Roosevelt.) . They are very good at guiding the Dream Theater ship. And what I mean by that is that they have a really firm grasp of what a Dream Theater album should and could sound like. And I really trust them to make those calls. They have been here since the beginning and they know what made the group successful in the first place. (Good answer. Swell, not swill.)

And I think they have a really strong feeling with the kind of direction that will continue to make the group successful in the real world. (No matter what kind of music you actually want to make, right?) So this is how I feel about it. (As a concluding remark, it should've been "that." You know, I mess up too often to nitpick.)

OBVIOUSLY GUITARIST(S) STEAL THE SHOW IN A ROCK BAND AND SINGERS (DO)TOO. DID YOU HAVE MOMENTS IN YOUR (INSERT NOUN HERE) WHEN YOU HAD THE BURNING DESIRE TO GRAB THE GUITAR?
Yeah. I had a really strong moment to grab the guitar kind of recently when we were out doing the Liquid Tension shows, that’s the side project of Dream Theater. My keyboard went broken during the show and I went to John Petrucci and I grabbed his guitar and I played some solos. So, I had the desire and I took some immediate action. (Stoooooopid! We're talking about the big picture here! At least he didn't try to market "When the Keyboard Breaks" which is an obvious Led Zeppelin reference.)

THE KEYBOARS (Run! The wild hogs will unlock your innards!! Did you see the Caps inflation above? All for continuity's sake. Now this little interlude is nulliffying its efforts. Also, Keyboar rhymes with Ybor, a part of Tampa, FL where Christian rhymer KJ-52 grew up. I was a big fan back in 2004-06) ARE YOUR BIG THING AND OBVIOUSLY THE GUITAR TOO. (Obviously? Since he's worked with it to a comprable extent & everything...) BUT IS THERE ANY OTHER INSTRUMENT YOU THINK YOU ARE GOOD AT? ALL OF YOU AT DREAM THEATER ARE THE EPITOME OF AMAZING INSTRUMENTALISTS... (nice sentence there)
I also play an instrument called the continuum (oh please, that hardly counts as a different instrument) – it is something that’s seen with me on recent Dream Theater tours, sort of a fretless keyboard. I have practicing on it for quite a while. (He pretty much sucks- My theory is that being a classical pianist for years caused him to rebel and seek electronic pitch-bending instruments and explore their facets instead of making music. The sweet main theme to "Nightmare" is the only cool thing he's done. At least do some chords or shred or do something besides randomly slide around like you're a toddler in a PlayPlace) The other instrument that I am very involved right now is the iPhone – you can do amazing musical things on that. (The pinnacle of human technology, perhaps. By the way, Jordin Sparks sucks.)

MEANWHILE PEOPLE CONTINUE TO SAY THAT THE MOST PERFECT INSTRUMENT IS THE HUMAN VOICE. (It might be. The computer is getting pretty close though) TO WHAT EXTEND (you're looking for the noun, not a verb here, dude) DO YOU FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT SINGING?
On my first rock solo album which was called ‘Listen’ I sung a lot of stuff. And if you go back and research my catalog you can hear me sing. Well, I’m not James LaBrie, I’m not what you call ‘a singer’, but I can sing correctly. (I'd adopt that qualifier also.) Of course it is not something I have ever done with Dream Theater and part of the reason is that when I joined the band they were a very established group in a business point of view and in terms of their ways, so it was never a topic in the group. (What the heck?) But I do love to sing and probably will sing in the future in my own albums and other places. (I did not know about this, nor had I though about it.)

PLEASE TELL US, WHICH IS YOUR CLOSEST FRIEND OUT OF ALL THE OTHER FOUR PEOPLE IN THE BAND. BUT PLEASE DON’T BE LIKE ‘OH, WE’RE ALL FRIENDS, WE’RE LIKE FAMILY’ AND SO ON…(I love this question!)
You want to know but you don’t let me tell you. (hurr good one...)

YEAH, BUT IT’S NOT LIKE CHOOSING BETWEEN YOUR KIDS HERE, YOU CAN SAY WHO YOU’RE CLOSER WITH THAN THE OTHERS.(This interviewer knows what's up.)
Lets pot it this way (like a plant?)– when we’re out on the road, which we are a lot, I hang out most of the time with James. We get along very well and go to dinner and do stuff together. We have a similar kind of social feel out on the road. It’s wonderful about Dream Theater, and I’m not just saying it, is that we get along very well. It is one thing that helps the band together and moving forward. It is an unusual situation because we’re not people who are involved with a lot of partying and drugs. I’m sorry to disillusion any of the fans out there who are imagining that we’re having some amazing parties after the show in the bus, (who would do that?) but we are a very stable type of people that work hard on our music and care about it a lot. (woot)

OK, WE GET IT, YOU’RE NOT MÖTLEY CRÜE. AS FAR AS I REMEMBER OUR PREVIOUS INTERVIEW WITH YOU WAS TEN YEARS AGO, SO NOW WE WILL DARE ASK YOU THE FOLLOWING QUESTION – WHICH ONE OF THE TWO PREVIOUS KEYBOARDISTS IN DREAM THEATER’S HISTORY DO YOU PREFER - KEVIN MOORE OR DEREK SHERINIAN?
Ha-ha, that’s funny. I think I have said many times that they are both very good players. And it is hard to pick one instead of the other, but I know that Derek is still much more involved with playing the keyboards than Kevin, who is more involved in sonic stuff, working with synthesizers and very interesting ambiences and also singing. He is a very talented musician. They are very different. (Okaay, howz about we answer the question now?)

THESE (this?) SHOULDN’T NECESSARILY BE A LOGICAL EXPLANATION – WHICH OF THE TWO PLAYING STYLES DO YOU FEEL CLOSER TO YOUR OWN?
Let’s put it this way – I think Kevin had a greater keyboard influence on Dream Theater. He established more in the role of keyboards in the band. Derek did a wonderful job but never put it as a statement in the band, he made a statement for himself after he left the band in Planet X and stuff like that. (Another avoidance.)

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING SECOND SHOW IN KAVARNA. DO YOU HAVE A DIFFERENT SETLIST FOR FESTIVALS AND OTHER SHOW? I MEAN, OF COURSE YOU DO, BUT TELL US WHAT THEY ARE.
We will definitely have a different setlist. When we play a festival the amount of time is shorter, so we have to be conscious about it when we put together our setlist. And Mike, who puts together the setlists, puts a lot of effort into that and they are very thought out. And there is nothing random about it at all. He checks what we played at the same place the previous time we were there. I think you can expect a nice balanced combination of our albums even for the shorter amount of time we will play. (dumb question)

YEAH, BUT YOU’RE LIKE THE HEADLINERS OF THE LAST DAY OF THE THREE-DAY FESTIVAL.
Oh, so the length will pretty much stay the same. (Yeah you idiot)

THESE MEET ‘N GREET PACKAGES THAT YOU SELL TO FANS FOR THIS TOUR – DO THEY SELL WELL?
That’s a good interview question for my manager. I have no idea how the sales go at this tour.

OH, WE ALMOST FORGOT TO ASK YOU (:) (and this isn't an emoticon)WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE CLASSICAL COMPOSER?
Well, if I have to answer from a piano player’s point of view my answer would be Frédéric Chopin. (not Liszt?)

BECAUSE HE IS REALLY ROMANTIC?
I think that it is because he really understood the piano and the way it resonates. (umm ok) And I can really relate to his music when I play it on the piano.

rights Tangra Mega Rock

And that's that.

My Future Plans

2009-06-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

I have two years for free from LCC, so I'll get a certificate in Digital Media while collecting credits to transfer to Berklee College of Music in Boston. I will spend $100,000 on tuition for the next two years and actually graduate, unlike Derek Shernian, the founding members of Dream Theater and Dååth, John Mayer, and Steve Vai. I will get into a Christian Progressive Metal band (perhaps Cprog Applecore?) and eventually release the music I'm writing now under a side project called Astrapto. I will be in control of it. Guest musicians will come an do my bidding. My first album will be called Self-Titled Debut, with a song called "Title Track." Then my second CD will be Sophomore Release, my third will be That One Album. My domain name will be astrap.to, with astrapto.com and other domains redirecting to it. I may also release a single-song concept intrumental album about the Crucifixion featuring a deathgrind intro as the torture, an undetermined genre as the time on the cross and a dron doom period in the grave that will just be the deathgrind part slowed waaaayyyy down and will comprise most of the album, Then, a literally orchestral resurrection. Any drums solos in my music will be exactly 2:19.
There's a Christian group and a Dream Theater ensemble at Berklee. I will endeavor to participate and recruit bandmates from both.

Random stuff

2009-06-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

Dream Theater should pitch Jordan and Kevin James and get Jens Johansson and Geoff Tate. They're both older, but so is Jordan!
Or they could just fire James and hire Les Claypool as first chair bassist/singer! That would sure transform their sound. A lot. Metallica rejected him in '86 because...wait! I need to do a complete auditioning blog post! Hold that thought.
Mike Portnoy should form a deathcore band and play rhythm guitar and growl (like in "Nightmare to Remember"). Masaki can play bass with Gene Hoglan and Jeff Loomis. Maybe Janne Wirman too, but I'm pretty sure keyboards would make this supergroup less cool. Their name should be a lyrical reference to Train of Thought or the new album. Which comes out in 4 days 8 hours W0OT WO0T You know, despite the suckiness of "Rite of Passage," (I'm warming up to 'Nightmare') the description on Wikipedia looks like it will rule.
Exuce me as I go check on Relient K. They were my first favorite band, and I need to update myself on them. There's a lot of things I like about them and a lot of things I don't.
But I'll save that thought for another time.
Currently listening to: "March of Mephisto" by Kamelot. I'd rather listen to "The Glass Prison." More on that later.
Hahaha "Facebook Markup Language." Just WYSIWYG.
The Jonas Hellborg Group is really like the Jonas brothers because Anders & Jens Johanssen are brothers. Plus Jonas is named Jonas. .... It'sa meee!!
Pullmeopolis!
Who else thinks that the singers of The Rocket Summer and The Mars Volta should collaborate? "The Rocket Volta" is a sweet name!! They'd better keep Juan though.
A band that I literally just discovered now: Garaj Mahal! (like the Taj Mahal). Their 2008 album is named w00t (I looked it up after my usage above), they allow their music to be downloaded on torrents, and they have "technical virtuosity"! Plus, they're a funk band, which is a genre that I've gotten into because of Bass Lines at Berklee. More on that later. I should probably keep track of when I say that. Their bassist founded the John McLaughlin Trio!!

Iris Divine

2009-06-13T17:10:00.001-07:00

Hello all who read my blog!...which consists of me!!
Sorry I haven't posted in forever, I've been busy doing end-of-high-school-career things.
I wrote back and forth on Myspace to a progressive metal band called Iris Divine, at first criticizing them for not truly being progressive, but then encouraging them for their progressive aspects in other songs. They can be pretty progressive, but just don;t have a commitment to it the way I do. Here, I'll paste my original comment on the video for their single:
"Let's see...standard pop structure, less than five minutes long, short bridge section, horrible piece of noise solo, 4/4 all the way through......
Completely progressive. "
Sounds pretty harsh, right? I expected a single from a progressive metal band to be a condensed form of an awesome song, like Dream Theater, not a pop/rock song that hopefully doesn't represent the band at all. Of course, they forwent good things about the genre and kept the annoying aspects, such as a horrible-sounding solo that isn't "accessible" like the rest of the song. (I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the word 'accesible' usually means prog hypocrisy or selling out.)The drummer/spokesman for Concrete Prophet, who promoted the band in their newsletter, replied back, There's another guy named Brian Dobbs in Iris Divine, and I'm convinced they're the same person.
"Patience WCR4. Even Dream Theater has 4/4 songs. Check these guys out on their MySpace page. You'll find some odd-times there, but even more live in person.

;-)

Brian "
Apparently he forgot my name, even though we were messaging back and forth for a while there. Oh well. Maybe I turned him off with all my negative reviews of his band's songs. (I have yet to see evidence of being progressive.)
He has a point though.
The remainder of today's post will be my words reviewing their music on Myspace, cut from the messaging back and forth between me and Iris Divine.

The only indication that that song was associated with the word "progressive" is that it featured a horrible, unmusical, noisy solo that mirrors the very unfortunate sound that Dream Theater is devolving into. Seriously, the solo sucks.
I guess singles should be treated with more leniency, even for strict prog fans. The thing is about solos like that is it just sounds like the musician is putting more emphasis on the instrument and the technique than the musicality of the solo. Maybe I just haven't learned to appreciate it yet. "Rite of Passage" is Dream Theater's newest single, and the keyboard solo is like that. Which is weird because keyboards don't have whammy bars. (If I'm repeating stuff from earlier posts, it's because I'm pretty much just pasting stuff from my Myspace messages and altering subjects and stuff.)
Iris Divine's response to that:
"dude, funny you should mention...I actually share your sentiments about latter-era Dream Theater, and DEFINITELY prefer Kevin Moore's atmospheric/ melodic contributions to Rudess' widdly-widdly nonsense.

The solo in Broken was intended specifically to convey a chaotic vibe or texture, rather than function as a traditional solo with an emphasis on note choice, melodic development, etc. Almost like an effect. If he wanted to just 'shred' mindlessly, he would have at least done it in key :) We actually avoid shred-for-shred's sake as much as possible.

I really do hope you check out our other jams...we definitely love getting feedback from educated music fans! The other tracks have more musical guitar solos and prog hallmarks, and I suspect you will dig them more overall."
I like Kevin Moore a lot too, although I like what Derek Sherinian has done in Planet X and solo. (Now I definitly agre with him about Jordan Rudess. Dream Theater should reinvent themselves with a new singer and a keyboardist. Get a singer who can growl, since apparently that's the direction they want. Derek Sherinian now would be better suited for them, but he wouldn't accept)
Your other songs are more progressive metal, and I like them.
I noticed that they did two sets of two eighth notes and a set of three in order to accomplish 7/8 and sometimes used syncopation to make it 7/4. That might be the lamest way to do seven ever. I wrote about it in my music blog. http://z.pe/8AG (that of course, leads to the post about 7/4)
I like their style though- especially the vocals. They took some getting used to, mainly because they are neither operatic or death growling as progressive metal sometimes features.
He replies:
"sometimes in a progressive-type band, the challenge is to simplify, rather than rely on complexity just because we can. Musical mind-benders are OK, but unless used sparingly, they become tough to listen to (in our opinion at least). Conventional does not always = bad.......Our songs are ALWAYS written with vocals as the top priority, which probably sets us apart from some other prog bands." I agree that most progbands, including myself, don't care too much about vocals. It's just that instruments are so much cooler! But I have to have a vocalist so people will listen....I would tend to be less of a conformist than these guys.

I know what they mean about simplifying, in my music I sometimes go overboard with polyrhythms and stuff...although if you go overboard enough, you're labeled "innovative, groundbreaking," etc. It really just matters what kind of music you want to make, and if you want to experiment in a way people don't like, that's your right, just don't expect people to like it! I also know what they mean about gratification gained from people thoroughly listening...I would hate to put out such great music and not be acknowledged for its subtleties (to non-trained ears). Their vocal approach is sorely needed among progressive metal bands, and makes the music more accessible. Dream Theater is my favorite band, so uncredited songs below are theirs. Sean Malone is the bass player for Cynic- he's insane! (Although I don't think they have too much to offer for Cynic fans, but that's speaking from only two Cynic songs I've heard)

Ok, let's give 'Unspoken Tragedy' a try...is it like 'Fatal Tragedy'?
Nice 11/8 6/4 alternation! It's not 12/8, obviously because it's not a compound beat. Five against six on the verse- it's difficult to play the five while still grooving in the six, (I know because I tried it) but you have to in order to change at the same time. Reminds me of the beginning of 'Take the Time' where it's four against six then four against 12/8, which is easier than a prime number. (Prime numbers are the stuff of life)
Sweet bridge! Reminds me of a part in Metropolis Pt. I.
Bass solo! I like his tone a lot better than what he played.
I like the little switch to duple time in the last verse.
This is the stuff! The awesome stuff!! (Let me remind you that this is my letter to them and parentheses are added comments, not little annoying things. Okay maybe they are.)

"Intension Experiment", is that supposed to sound like Liquid Tension Experiment? (I think it is, because they didn't spell Intention correctly.(
7/4 6/4 7/4 8/4, great work here. Nice E diminished riff. (Key is C# minor) I would have the drummer just play in 7/4 through it. It reminds me of "A Pistol to my Temple" by Scary Kids Scaring Kids, which is 6/4 7/4 6/4 8/4. That is a really cool song, I think it's about not killing yourself. The bridge to that song is sweet! (I say 8/4 rather than 4/4 because it's way easier. For one thing, it's closer to 7, and also 7/4 4/4 4/4 is way more confusing and space inefficient. Just so you know, when I have two or more time signatures written right next to each other like that, I mean that it's alternating between those. I learned that from 'Let the Light Shine', a sweet song I played in band my junior year of high school. Notating time signatures like this is annoying! I don't like the term 'meter', but it's way less annoying to type and say than 'time signature' over and over. Similar to 'prog'- I thought it was annoying [a word I've used for the past three sentences], pretentious, and confusing to non-nerds, but writing progressive over and over gets old. I don't really like people who proclaim that their music is 'ethereal' and 'atmoshperic', probably because I don't really know about that, probably because it has to do with keyboard patches more than tabs.
To make a subject plural in the English tongue: Move the 's' from the end of the verb to the end of the noun. I never did like the idea of "dropping the 'e' and adding 'ed' to the end" from elementary school. It's inefficient, but I guess it's a generic rule applying to verbs that don't end with a silent 'e', a letter that only changes the pronunciation of the preceding vowels.)

Anywaaaayyy, this guitar tone reminds me of the Awake album by Dream Theater. I wonder if they have several backing vocalists. I like the different effects they put on the singing. Hooray for a 5/4 bridge, even if it is just two measures of 5/8 causing syncopation. It's kind of lame in that regard. Ha! The drums in the guitar solo almost got me! I've used that trick myself to fool people into thinking that it's an odd meter. It reminds me of the bridge to 'YYZ' by Rush and 'Take the Time' by Dream Theater. Nice solo. The main riff sounds like Flyleaf a little bit. That's not a good thing- listen to 'Fully Alive' and then we'll talk. (Very pattern-based, pentatonic gimmicks that n00bs come up with [I know because I came up with several when I first started out]) The ending is sweet!
There's a similar band called Sun Caged, they're on Myspace. More on them later.
Speaking of YYZ, the Morse code ratio between short and long is actually one to three, I think, which would make the time signature 7/4 instead of 5/4!
Or if it's 4:1 (I'm too lazy to look it up right now) it would be 9/4.
Yeah anyway, I've majorly updated my Priffle sheet, and I've got a bunch of sweet peeps. Maybe I'll talk about the most promising one in a little while.

Mr. Venn is at it again

2009-05-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't posted in a while.

Jon Anderson is the singer of Yes.
Ian Anderson is the flautist/singer of Jethro Tull.
Ian Gillan is the singer of Deep Purple.
I think a Venn diagram is in order here.

We need Jon Gillan, the progressive rock flautist. He doesn't sing.
Really, you could say "Anderson (or Jon or Gillan) means singer, Ian means flute player," but that would make Ian Gillan only a flautist. He's only a singer. So if neither Ian nor Anderson is present in the name, it means flautist. Jon Gillan switched logical places with Ian Gillan.
Remember, Ian=flute, Jon/Gillan-singer.

I want Tim Storms as the singer for my band.

Greatest Hits and Communism

2009-05-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

I was shopping in Family Christian today for Mothers' Day and saw that Greatest Hits albums of famous Christian artists that actually deserve it are being produced under one uniform label (not record label, but title). Similarly, I saw several two-for-one packs of CDs under one standard formatting. I decided to buy the Petra double pack instead of a Stryper DVD.
This is an example of the Great Dichotomy. The artist in me thinks that total creative freedom is intrinsic and necessary to a good life and culture, while the logic side of me regards uniformity as very convenient and organized. Thing is, these Christian artists have both. Steven Curtis Chapman has released a few Greatest Hits albums (he is certainly entitled to with all his hits) and this uniform format released the most popular songs for people that have heard that name and a few songs on Smile.fm but want more. The library often buys Greatest Hits albums in parallel economic spirit, and I have borrowed many. The logic part of me loves monopolies, and the spirit of Uniformity Makes It Easier, but the creative side is about freedom and no rules and the philosophy of Variety Makes Life Worth Living. I will write a progressive metal epic on this bipolarity. I've been writing the music for nearly a year now.

"Rite of Passage" by Dream Theater

2009-05-06T06:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Roadrunner Records released a free download of "Rite of Passage" off of Dream Theater's album "Black Clouds and Silver Linings" coming June 23rd. Click here to download the song.
The opening riff, which could be a heavily effected bass (most often when the bass plays solo these days it is drenched in effects) is boring and cliched, and the rest of the intro is nothing remotely special. Then the key goes up a half step when the verse hits, which is a peculiar technique Dream Theater uses. But the end of the phrases are back in the original! Perhaps it is to make it easier to play or sing, or just to be inconsistent and annoying. The beginning rythm guitar tone is thin and awful. Dream Theater has always done an ostinato bass line while the other instruments mess around over it, but lately it's been a simple guitar rhythm repeated indefinitely. (See "Constant Motion"as compared to "Learning to Live.") The chorus melody is nothing creative, although the voluminous harmonies add a full sound to it that is quite appealing. Dream Theater claims that their compositional skills are improving, but subtle variations and transitions have disappeared, and solos are now self-indulgent and horrible. This is a band that is not improving. I also have heard "A Nightmare to Remember" and they both remind me of the simple blandess of 2003's "Train of Thought." The chorus key is up a fifth from the verse, probably to accomodate James LaBrie's perishing voice. So of course, the transition from chorus back to verse is just static and callous, like a caveman. It takes a while to switch tonality in the mind, so of course they repeat the riff a few times before the singing starts and they repeat it some more. After the second chorus comes a band hit with a continuing guitar rhythm a la thrash or power metal. The rhythm is boring, but the way they play around with the rhythm harkens back to a couple songs on Awake, I wish I could remember. I now yearn for the progressive sound of Awake, which upon initial listening I deemed quite mainstream compared to Images & Words. Dream Theater used to have cool instrumentals with harmonized parts and progressive unision riffs, like in "Metropolis Pt 1" and "Take the Time." Now they do what every other band does, which is play chords while the guitaist solos. John Petrucci's solo shredded like "Stream of Consciousness," but with a wah-wah tone that made it sound nauseating. Later on in the solo, after he gets the self-indulgent note-playing out the way, he does ome cool stuff reminiscent of "Under a Glass Moon" but without the sweeteness. The subsequent keyboard solo was simply awful. He started with his traditional lead sound reminding me of "The Ministry of Lost Souls" then used a different tone and did a weird tone that reminded me of "Constant Motion." Then he played random, horrible sounding noise that sounded like a Continuum with a robotic, mechanical sort of timbre. Then we repeat the chorus and play some more riff that a middle schooler could improvise. Then Bam, there goes a sixth of their upcoming album. I'm not sure I want to buy it anymore. "Stream of Consciousness" does not compare to a different instrumental like "Dance of Eternity." Now that I think of, this whole soung is a lot like "Constant Motion." See the video for Rite of Passage here. It's actually pretty sweet. The Constant Motion single video cut out most of the sweet stuff- Dream Theater took the initiative this time and didn't put any in. Mike Portnoy says in this interview that they prevented themselves from doing sweet stuff so the song could be focused, like a single. For me, the chorus and stuff are usually just filler that they need for many people to like the song- the real good stuff is the instrumental passages (which pretty much makes Dance of Eternity the ultimate song).
An email I received yesterday offering the free download (which is now expired by the way; it's streaming on their artist page) had this to say about the piece: "It's a great song - very different from other DT music." Different as in it SUCKS!!!!

"Someone Like Him"

2009-05-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

The first movement of the title track off of Dream Theater's 2005 CD Octavarium seems to follow the same "carpe diem" theme explored in "A Change of Seasons." Some theorize that it's talking about John Petrucci's musical career- he never wanted to be a musician. That is stupid. Very dumb thing to speculate. No grounds in reality. Just dumb. I use the word "dumb" because I've been trying to eliminate my use of other words. Read this hugely in-depth analysis that I love.

Timpani Symphony!!!

2009-04-27T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today I attended the second-to-last MMYS rehearsal that I'll ever participate in, and the last time I'll ever be inside that room again. We're playing the Wharton tomorrow in front of a bunch of elementary kids. I get to miss the first four hours of school!
Anyway, I had the idea for a timpani concerto played by Neil Peart with dozens of timpani (almost akin to the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony) and Matt Stumpf the trombone player sitting next to me added that an entire symphony of different-pitched kettle drums could play orchestra music!! Something to think about.

Pop Music Pie Chart

2009-04-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

I made this picture after this larger picture given to me by StumbleUpon. It's distorted to reflect perception.

Nerdcore

2009-04-22T13:58:00.000-07:00

Nerdcore- Hip Hop concerning nerdy things like computers and science fiction. It's sweet.
Here's some links to check out:
MC Lars' "True Player For Real" was NPR's song of the day today. See the article, listen to the song.
Weird Al was a pioneer of this genre by parodying popular rap songs- see "White and Nerdy", "It's All About the Pentiums", and "I Can't Watch This."

PRFLE

2009-04-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

For the Progressive Rock Fantasy League I'm co-founding with Livingston, here is my fantasy band (with a salary cap of $150,000- salary is determined by Google results and will increase with time) :
Mike Donehey- vocals- Tenth Avenue North- $1,410. Really, why drop a bunch of cash on a singer? It all comes down to whether or not you like the voice) See him here.
Giuliano Savona- keyboard- No band that I know of- $984. Check this guy out! He pwns n00bs on keyboard and guitar! See him here and here
Ron Jarzombek- guitar- Spastic Ink & Blotted Science- $33,200. He costs a ton, but he sure is worth it!!!)
Domenico Citriniti- bass- Citriniti- $660. This guy is a monster slapper! Not my favorite, but a good buy. Thing is, all these Google results will probably increase...
Damon Che- drums- Don Caballero-$14.300

Well that's it, and it totals to $50,554. Let's see what happens.

I've got a ton more for the future, but I can't give those away to the only other player. :)

Mysterious Edguy song review

2009-04-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

My friend Livingston burned me a copy of Anchor Drops by Umphree's McGee, and he included an Edguy song without the name. Here's my review:

Guitars have bad tone, low in the mix, doing that same old tired 3+3+3+3+4 rhythm. Bass is inaudible.
The drums sound huge, but with low volume. Like the 80's or something. The singer sounds like a cross from the guy from Sonata Arctica and Geddy Lee of Rush. Eew. His background vocals on the chorus were very often out-of-tune.
There are various vocal breaks right before the chorus, whereupon he leans really close to the mic suddenly, or something. Nice guitar solo, almost as good as Angra. I don't like the drummer. The lyrics, while being about "flying away together" or something (I tried half-heartedly to Google them to determine the song title) are generally of higher quality than the standard power metal fare. I like their other songs better.

Will's Favorite Power Metal Bands, in order
1. Angra (but how to pronounce it?)
2. Sonata Arctica
3. Theocracy (Christian, one guy actually; you should listen to their Christmas stuff)
4. Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody, and before that Thundercross. What a sweet name!)
5. Dark Moor
6. Twilightning (Gotta love this name)
7. Helloween (Old school)
8. Edguy
9. DragonForce (or StudioForce, or the one that I made up, DragginFarce) Click here to see what I think of them.
I would like the genre as a whole better if everything didn't sound the same.
ATTENTION: This is an edit of this post executed on April 29th. My favorite Power Metal band is actually Kamelot, but I didn't include it on the list nor even think about it because I have it files in my brain under progressive power metal, although a few bands listed above could also be described as such.
Wow, lots of links in this one. Click on them all!

PDQ Bach

2009-04-19T13:29:00.000-07:00

This guy is funny. Here's a video of him doing a sports commentary thing of Beethoven's Fifth.

Check this post out on my other blog.

Left Foot Foreword

2009-04-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

Left Foot Foreword is a band (kind of) based in Michigan that writes creative, genre-busting music. The incredibly talented leader is proficient at multiple instruments and is a really awesome person. I know her personally, actually. So click the link and absorb her tunes.

Keyboardists are friendly

2009-04-16T21:34:00.000-07:00

I have tried to get into contact with several progressive rock musicians on Myspace, but only Matt Guillory and Tomas Bodin have responded. Matt is a producer, singer, and songwriter who has worked with James LaBrie of Dream Theater and many others. He graciously responded to my heckling that he didn't even say he was a keyboardist on his headline. Tomas Bodin is a Flower King who sticks out in my mind for a funny yet awesome solo in "Minor Giant Steps" off of Paradox Hotel. He seems very nice. John Myung did not respond to my lenghty heartfelt message. :(

My Nerdiness

2009-04-11T11:53:00.001-07:00

"Call this Number"

2009-04-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, is this my third post today? That's what happens when you're on Spring Break and have nothing to do except sit around on the computer. Anyway, I just received an email from Musician's Friend telling me to call a number and say "Sharp" to receive juicy phone-only specials. I refuse. That's dumb. You want me to call a number and say a special word to some person I don't know so I can know how expensive stuff I don't want is? Why do they do that? Why can't they just tell me? I'm signed up for their email and catalog!!! I have a friend who called in once. It was a very exciting experience. Not. They do this all the time and it's stupid.
Click here to read it.

A fictional band

2009-04-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

Go here to see what's up with this.

A GRAND DIGIMON WAR

2009-04-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

Between ZeedMilleniumon, Apocalymon, Imperialdramon Paladin Mode, Armageddemon, Omnimon X, Susanoomon, Alphamon Ouryuuken, Diaboromon, Daemon Super Ultimate, MaloMyotismon, GranDracmon, Lucemon, Chaosmon, UlforceVeedramon, and Snatchmon.

Man, I used to be so obsessed with Digimon, when I was in first grade or something. I think the third generation wrecked it, just like Pokemon.

Debbie Stab-You-Now!!!! She hates babies.

2009-04-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Coldplay vs. Joe Satriani

2009-04-08T13:17:00.000-07:00

Coldplay, a pathetic pop band, ripped off "If I could Fly" by Joe Satriani (one the the world's most talented guitar players) for their Grammy-Award winning song "Viva la Vida." He sued them, like he should have. They're saying that the similarity is not enough to warrant charges, and besides, Satriani's music "lacks originality" and therefore should not receive copyright protection. Excuse me, Coldplay? What do you know about music? Joe Satriani has been creating complex and challenging instrumental rock for decades, and you want to come in here with your ripped-off formulaic pop fluff and say he's not original? Besides, their arguments are pretty much, "We shouldn't be prosecuted because the song sucks & we didn't rip it off too much." Hey Coldplay, if it lacks originality and you plagiarized it, what does that make you? Apparently they liked it enough to record it. Again. Without permission. And win a Grammy for "Most Popular Piece of Crap." Seriously, who judges the Grammys? Anybody with any musical knowledge? The public isn't qualified to judge musical superiority, as evidenced by the charts these days. Right now, "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga is Numero Uno- I heard it on the radio this morning, and one of my friends played on the way to Higher Ground a couple of days ago. Dumb song "about sex and gambling." Oh, to return to the days when Kansas, Foghat and Yes were popular.....I am disgusted by this pathetic band. GO JOE SATRIANI!!! Since he composed much of it, he deserves a slice of that Grammy. Check out his new band Chickenfoot.

Animal on the Muppets

2009-04-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

Animal on the Muppet Show is part of the fictional band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem and in Episode 38 he dueled Buddy Rich, who some call the greatest drummer in history. I'd just like to see him duel Neil Peart or Mike Portnoy.
Watch the video here.

Elton John

2009-04-05T15:33:00.001-07:00

It's incredible that Elton John wrote the music to Lion King- that's fabulous! I went to see it last might at the Wharton and woooowwww!!!!!
I might have to give him a listen now.

A Bass Post

2009-04-04T09:13:00.001-07:00

Les Claypool, Cliff Burton, Flea, and Victor Wooten are the most talked about bassists on YouTube. I will state my opinion:
1. Les Claypool is a monster slapper with great stamina and coordination (he sings at the same time)!! Everything about his playing is different and groundbreaking, he's just a joy to listen to. But the best? No. Few people can do all he does, but I have a feeling that he can't play like Victor Wooten.

2. Cliff Burton was the bassist for Metallica in the 80's. People herald him as groundbreaking, but he was not that groundbreaking really. He's seen as a "bass shredder" but Billy Sheehan would make him cry. Metallica was and is a popular band, so people think he's the best because all other popular music has poor bass representation.

3. Flea is like a modern-day Cliff Burton. He's excellent, no doubt, but the only reason he's heralded as the best is because people a. think showiness=quality and b. the Red Hot Chili Peppers are very popular. A few months ago my friend who plays keyboard challenged me to find a better bassist than Flea. Of course I pulled up Victor Wooten on YouTube, knowing that he would never appreciate Jaco Pastorius (or James Jamerson). What I quickly garnered from his reaction to Victor was that he sought the flashiest player. That eliminated Stanley Clarke also. So I brought up Stu Hamm, whose intricate tapping was not perceived as more difficult than rapid slapping. I figured out that my friend pretty much only liked bass and thought it was awesome whilst slapping- like most of the population. Forgetting about Les Claypool, I brought up Jonas Hellborg, but he still didn't concede. I knew he would hate Alex Webster and Billy Sheehan, so I just let him drown in ignorance and self-righteousness. I didn't know about Franck Hermanny back then. Here is a list of bassists that I believe I could surpass in my lifetime:
John Myung, Flea, Alex Webster, Juan Alderete, Chris Squire, Cliff Burton, and Paolo Gregoletto.

New Almost Favorite Band

2009-04-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Spastic Ink is an amazing progressive metal band that sounds like a cross between Citriniti and Blotted Science, and overall much more coherent than Behold...the Arctopus. I heard their song "Multi Masker" during the credits of this video, and went over to Project Playlist to hear some other songs. They are way more technical than Dream Theater usually is. It makes sense that it sounds like a less-heavy version of Blotted Science, because it's the same guy running both trios: Ron Jarzombek. He's an incredible player - he might be the most progressive musician I've found. His songs are incredibly complex, but he also does concept albums and writes music to go along with video clips. They're so awesome!!! The bass gets at least one long solo per song, and the rest of the band doesn't insult him by dropping out.

Unique Web Site

2009-04-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

Search for "semmai serkil" in Google, and I guarantee that this is the only website to contain those two words. It's like "Semi Circle", except spelled differently. I now officailly reserve it for an album title, Google searchers.

Good Ideas of mine

2009-03-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

1. A glass ketchup bottle with a valve in the back.
Seriously! How many times have you tried to slather ketchup all over your delicious Freedom Fries and wonderful burger, tapped thrice on the label and everything, and nothing comes out? You know how gas cans have valves in the back to allow air in? Well if resteraunts insist on inconvenient yet spiffy glass bottles for condiments, I propose valves in the bottim. More ideas later.

Progressive Finances

2009-03-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

In Econ class, it sounds like there are two main financial companies in the area: Edward Jones and Charles Schwab. My initial bias was towards the former, but my teacher uses the latter, so now I'm confused - except for about an hour ago, when I was watching 30 Rock and a Charles Schwab commercial came on - the music was in 7/4!! Granted, it was the completely lame syncopation thing that every simpleton prog band does - a 7/8 rhythm twice, so the syncopation makes it resolve better. Cheap and common! Seriously, I've heard Dream Theater, Yes, Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, the Flower Kings, Umphrey's McGee, Between the Buried & Me, Scale the Summit, and I think Fantomas do it - and that's only off the top of my head, I've heard abut twice that. Seriously people!!
Anyway, I will talk to Chuck then.

Fates Warning

2009-03-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

Fates Warning has consistently listed along with Dream Theater, Symphony X and Queensrÿche as pioneers of progressive metal, but today was the first time I've ever actually listened to them. It turns out that the quality of bands decrease as you move further along: Dream Theater is the apex of all that is good; Symphony X has sweet power metal symphonic neoclassical prog, Queensryche is more like Iron Maiden diluted by Led Zeppelin (cool and powerful for sure, but scarcely prog), and Fates Warning is like an annoying rock band with an occasional time signature change. Disappointment. See for yourself.

2009-03-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

Personal Blah Blah

2009-02-27T10:00:00.001-08:00

So I was pretty depressed today. Why? I am no good at Spanish and have a test tomorrow, I am wasting time in Advanced Computers (apparently a project without a due date can be late) because I'm not motivated by competition, creativity, subject interest, or a deadline...I'm going to live by myself in Boston in a couple of years at an intimidating college that charges $30,000 and doesn't get academic scholarships (I got a 32 on the ACT, I was leaning pretty heavily on a scholarship) my mom is annoying and never agrees with me, I want to do a song for an English project with Kyle and Joe but don't really have the time to write it (we'll only get one day to record at Liv's house, and that's assuming I finish my dumb project on tables tomorrow in Avd. Comp.), I don't know how to be depressed without calling attention to myself (but bottling things up is bad; I just hate being pathetic and having people baby me), I have not liked Gym class in weeks (I have this sudden urge to get in shape that I have no time to pursue outside of gym, where we no longer really exercise), I still have a missing assignment in English, I haven't finished my Bible project due tomorrow yet, I am blogging like some pitiful emo scum, my awesome girlfriend tries hard to cheer me up and I can't give her the satisfaction of victory, I have to answer questions all day because I'm acting differently (lethargic, apathetic, sluggish). Something about me: I tend to broadcast my emotions. If I'm happy or mad or depressed, everyone around me can tell. I just don't have a poker face I guess, and hiding them is dishonest I think. Man, my writing skills go down the tubes sometimes. My mom grounded me from church today. I always had to go to church when I got grounded before! "This is extracurricular." Well, now I have to call the worship leader and tell him I can't make it, on short notice. Then I'll get questions next week from the congregents. And I knkw that I'll probably lie. Do you know how that feels? I know that I'll probably lie to them to save face, but I can't resolve to tell the truth. And I call myself an honest person, or even a Christian? Man, this sucks. And why am I even showing this to people? Nobody will get this far anyway. Am I just attention starved? No, this is an explanation. So when I tell Mom that's it's selfish to ground me from church, because other people are affected, she says, "I think you're overestimating your value. Besides, you should have thought of that before you slacked off in Computers." Those have got to be the two most stupid sentences I've heard in a long time. First of all, who says that to their kid? "You don't matter." Just don't even bother showing up next week. In fact, kill yourself, because you're worthless. Oh yeah, and I completely thought, "I better get cracking on my work, because otherwise my mom won't let me go to church." What is this, the Dark Ages? Oh wait, people there went to church because they sinned. I didn't even think I was doing anything wrong. I have no due date. C'mon, is it really such a big deal? So I went in my room, listened to some songs, then took a nap. My mom left for work, and I have to stay home and write a song. Oh yeah, "why do all your projects have to be songs?" It's what I'm good at, the only thing I'm good at!!!! The only thing that I really like doing, the thing that makes me feel like a person and not a failure. The only thing I can be a leader at, excel at. Blah blah, I'm sick of bellyaching. Blah blah blah blah, none of this matters to you. You just clicked the link and didn't know what you were in for. By the way, don't expect me to give you some insight or props or anything if you talk to me in person. Yeah, whatever.

Everything is meaningless

2009-02-25T13:36:00.000-08:00

What's the point of music? What's the point of all these millions of people learning, working, and obsessing about things that don't even matter that much? When I write music, just like most professionals, I deliberate, consider and hone every line, harmony, chord, melody, rhythm, tone, and structure. But why? Music isn't art in our culture anymore; it's entertainment. People don't care about the thousands of no-name artists who try to make something they feel strong about, just the formulaic garbage force-fed to them like sheep by the media. It doesn't matter how hard you work on something; people will just throw it away and conform. Why should I learn to perfect my craft? People don't care. It's not going to make a difference in the world. If it's entertainment, it's a temporal waste of time. But I want to make my career out of this! It's the only thing I can be good at! But it doesn't matter, because people don't want to listen to your artistic expression. It's a distraction from real life, what really matters. It's just a temporary cure for escapism, not worth more than a few minutes a day and especially unworthy of critical perception. What if I want to make the music how I want it, and who cares about any standards you might have? Well then I will have fun being a poor loner who nobody likes. Who wants to dedicate their lives to being able to form a distraction? Sure, music gives people emotions, but so does everything else. It's not worth it all just to give people emotions. As far as giving God the glory: there are too many other songs out there. I'm too naive to write some compelling piece searching the depths of God's heart; I'm just not good enough and too immature. But why do I have this desire? There must be some way that I can honor God and somehow give my life a little meaning. Right now it seems like I'm a big bag of juices walking on this big ol' world, just a huge waste of good food. If music really is meaningless, I'm screwed, because I have so little proficiency at anything else, and nothing else makes me happy. Not just a temporal giddyness, but happiness that's strong and true, throbbing and enduring in my heart. Maybe I'm describing the joy that comes through doing the Lord's will for me. Thing is, that is so hard to tell! Like really, who cares about the band I'll form? Who will listen? Will anybody like it who doesn't know me? How will I support myself, let alone a family? Is this what my life is for? Am I capable of actually doing a good thing? God I need your help!!!!

Progressive Rock Keyboardists

2009-02-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

My friend Livingston and I have been going back and forth on this- who is the better keyboardist, Rick Wakeman of Yes or Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater? We both were strong advocates of our favorite bands, and exchanged links on youtube.
Rick Wakeman video
Jordan Rudess video
What do you think?

Song Quotes

2009-02-17T20:55:00.000-08:00

So we all know that Keith Emerson from ELP used classical songs all the time, and that "Octavarium" by Dream Theater quotes Jingle Bells, but I just discovered that "Only Ash Remains," an intensely difficult song by a German technical death metal outfit called Necrophagist, contains a part from the Romeo and Juliet Suite by Prokofiev. How do I know? I played it in the Christmas concert with the Orchestra I'm in!!! I was disappointed to learn that someone had already spotted it and put it on Wikipedia. I wonder how many metalheads would've gotten that reference! Also, around 6:30 of "What if God Is Alone" by the Flower Kings, I can hear, very faintly, the "Close to the Edge" theme by Yes being played by the guitar. Now that's aweome! That's a tasteful and tributary (like paying tribute, not like a river) quotation, not like Coldplay ripping off a Joe Sartiani lick and getting a Grammy for it. When I write music, I sometimes throw in an allusion to a band or song - for example, if the lyrics are talking about a raven, I'll play something in the style of Nevermore or actually use one of their lines. Not many people will get it. Jazz artists do this while improvising to get the audience's attention, or if they're out of ideas.

I invite you to read all of my posts from the past!!

More Concrete Prophet

2009-02-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

OK, this song was posted on Feb. 3, and I am the fifty-fourth viewer. Here is the youtube link. A video of the doubleplusgood drum tracking in the studio was recently posted, but I thought I'd review the whole song live. I mean, a studio album represents the band's ideal image of themselves within their resources of cash, time and talent, but a live performances reveals the band as they truly are, provided they aren't stupid and use backing vocal, guitar, sampling and keyboard tracks played back live. Anyway, Elegy by Concrete Prophet: an elegy is a song mourning the dead. We learned about this in AP Lit not too long ago. Unlike the last review, I did not watch the video before writing, so here's the song falling upon virgin ears:

0:00 - Clapping and "whoa"ing to rouse up the crowd. Key of Bbm. The crowd cannot keep up with the singer's prowess. Sweet drum part! "Bum bum bah!!" I like it!!

1:00 - Double-time and shredding! I like it! This is some hardcore stuff. I can't hear the pitches too well over the drums, but hey, it's a youtube video.

1:35ish - Sweet bass solo. Almost as cool as "Only Ash Remains" by Necrophagist, although doubtlessly more sensical. Verse! More double-time shredding- this is awesome. Not exactly a depressing funeral dirge, but I guess it's irony. Was that a scream?!?!

1:50- Headbang!! The singer is showing off his versatility. It sounds like the song's in Bm? Maybe the previous song was in Bbm.

2:30 - After another bass solo, it sounds more like F#m.

3:00 - Noooiiice snare part! The singer reaches out with claws of death.... Guitar solo now. Given the style here, I find it disconcerting that he only shreds while tapping. He starts off with melodic lines like perhaps a solo should, but can't build it up any farther with picking!?! Oh well, the solo's really short, anyway. In both these songs, I saw both the fretted guys tap. Maybe it's a motif. Awesome to be sure, but be wary of dependence.

4:00 - Breakdown....almost. Nice break, and contrapuntal bass action. I like the tempo feel here.

4:30 - ....and out with a last bass flourish.

Final Evaluation: I like this song a lot better, because I like metal music. These guys already showed that they can play softer rock, and now bustin' out some metalcore. I wish I could see the lyrics. Overall: 8.5 out of ten. I don't really have anything bad to say about this. Very well done guys, I cannot wait to buy the album. You know what, I take it back - the drumming, although really killer, is not really double-time. It's nowhere power metal speed. Although it's a standard song length with few progressive elements, this song is a nice one. This band really knows what it's doing. That snare-driven fill was too fast for me to get an accurate count, but I think it was 9, then 10, then 9, then 10 with three extra beats of rests. If they had a keyboard player, it'd be time for a dueling solo section while the bass plays that little riff that reminds me a lot of "Dance of Eternity" by Dream Theater. The drummer (from now on known as Brian) could play seven measures of twelve-eight over it. Wow, he actually uses all of his cymbals! I've been watching this new video for the past few minutes, which is the drummer laying down the studio track for this. Man, he's good. My drummer could not do this. The bass tone sounds more trebly in the studio - I liked it live. Great job, Concrete Prophet!

Concrete Prophet- Phreeze Phrame

2009-02-16T11:10:00.000-08:00

This is a real-time review of "Freeze Frame" by Concrete Prophet, a really cool progressive rock band. The video can be found here. It took me forever to post this, because it sort of slipped out of my mind I suppose. I will pause the video at certain points and type thoughts. OK, here goes:

0:13 - the opening riff. With a snare hit from the drummer and a declaration of love from the audience, the opening riff is introduced. It consists of four power chords (F#, E, B, A) that contain notes only found in the F#m pentatonic scale. The rhythm is the three-against four polyrhythm found in almost every piece of music. Creative, huh? Once I realized that progressive music was supposed to be creative, I swore off that sure-fire endorphin generator in my songs.
0:20 - Visual aspect of the band: being part of the extended audience, I can form an opinion about the band from its visual appearance. The singer looks powerful, and the guitarist looks like that guy from Two and a Half Men. The bassist is tall, has what appears to be a six-string bass that sounds like John Myung's from Dream Theater.

0:30 - I see the bassist has started playing a nice little high line that sounds like an arpeggio of an A, an E, and a B major chord. There's some harmonic sensibility. The cameraman appears to know the song.

1:00 - The guitarist has been playing a slow tapping thing focusing on the C#m chord, and the drummer's hanging out on what sounds like a rimshot; he starts doing some cool cymbal work. The singer comes in; I can't discern the lyrics or his ability at this time. The bassist stops, the cymbals continue in a subtle example of layering. My favorite kind of layering is by people like Neal Morse and Phil Keaggy-you never actually think "Oh, it's quiet now," because there are no sudden changes. I still can't accomplish that.

1:20 - the bassist now plays a rhythm guitar part- an E chord with an F#m on the pickup. This is starting to reinforce the C#m/E tonality laid down by the guitarist.

1:30 - The bassist plays an A, an E, and an D (chords still- not there's anything wrong with that) and the singer's melody helps remind us of the A key. The singer's volume overall decreased, meaning he overcompensated for the increasing volume of his voice. The bassist taps some inaudible note, complementing the guitar switch from fingerpicking to an actual chord, like with a third and stuff. It looks awkward and possibly just for show. More three-on-four polyrhythms. I like the singer's operatic voice.

2:00 - Back to the verse and ambiguous tonality.

2:30 - The singer is very engaging. The drummer is like, "Yeah, I know what's up."

3:00 - Big chord! Distortion! The singer has fun for a while then the guitarits resumes his tapping, only starts a beat earlier. It sounds pretty cool.

3:10 - The drummer and bassist start rocking out a little. The pattern changes...the singer dances around a little...then some faster tapping! Sounds good. Bassist doing sweet stuff. Head banging! Main riff again!

4:05 - Chorus again! This time, it's intense. Everybody's letting it loose a little. Near the end of the chorus, the bassist and singer are being awesome.

4:30 - Main riff again, little one-beat drum solo, the half-time for a bit. The singer joins in. Lots of applause.

Debriefing: Nice stage presence by everybody. The singer's doing a killer job, he's the AV master. The bassist is doing chords and runs and supporting parts and tapping and the works-I tawt I thaw thome thwapping in the final chorus. The guitarist is like Phil Keaggy or Steve Howe - he knows Howe to shred and Phil up space, but is more musical than that. I did make that up just now. OK, enough adulation, this is what could be better. I can't really see how this is progressive metal- it has one time signature, standard structure, no keyboard player (thus, no dueling solos, although I'm sure the bassist could handle it) and a five-minute length. All-around great job, if you classify it as straight-up rock. Expect more to come.

Skillet is awesome

2009-01-27T18:12:00.000-08:00

Skillet is a Christian rock band that has stepped back from their electronic approach of old and is now leaning more towards metal. Their album Comatose, released in 2006, contains hugely detuned guitars, majestic strings, captivating vocals and huge choruses. Skillet's skill has set them apart from the pack. Their lead guitarist Ben Kasica has really impressed me with his solos. They aren't lame like half of Christian rock, and they aren't mindless shredding. They have a female drummer, Jen Ledger. She's not incredible, but does her job well. The keyboardist/rhythm guitarist Korey Cooper relies on a string trio on tour to replicate many of her parts while she backs up Ben.
John Cooper, Korey's husband, is the singer and bassist. He really is an awesome singer, with gritty intensity. Although I applaud him for remaining steadfast against the pick, his bass plays almost no role. The only time I've actually heard it is during a trio of slides for a brief second in the intro to "Savior," their popular 2005 release. In an interview in the one-time only magazine Christian Guitarist/Bassist, he said that he only likes GMC basses, a rather ugly purple beast reminiscent of a Les Paul with green sparkly flames. In recent years, however, he has played a Traben Pheonix. This bass company, promoted by the great Bootsy Collins, prides itself in cool designs and huge metal bridges that supposedly increase tone. John has a five-string because the guitars are tuned to drop B. Anyway, he randomly stops playing in the middle of the song in favor of waving his arms- I don't think his bass is even on.
Honestly though, he really has a cool voice, and he writes sweet songs too. In the CD I got from the library that prompted this post (Comatose Comes Alive) his voice got really tired around "Those Nights," one of the ony major songs on there. He began it with the whooping that can be found later on in the song, but failed miserably. For that song, Caleb Oliver played bass while John walked around. Caleb is the former bassist and lead singer of Decyfer Down, a parallel Christian rock band. I see no point in having aother bass player stand up there, but it happened.
Anyway, this band is making honest, thought-provoking, and intense music that is definetly worth checking out. Yup.

New Hit Song

2008-12-11T06:41:00.001-08:00

"You raze me up."

The Killers on SNL

2008-11-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

A Saturday Night Live episode aired on October 5th featuring the Vice Presidential debate with Anne Hathaway hosting. I have been a partial fan of the Killers for a while, struggling to dechiper their lyrics and comparing them against the members' dubius profiles on the almighty Wikipedia. The musicians are skillful, but doubtlessly bored. This rides dangerously close to pop music, which is unusual for me, but then again it was a year ago when I first investigated them. I saw Weird Al, my other favorite artist, at Commion Ground last year and heard the song "Polkarama!". The chorus of "Somebody Told Me," the Killers' breakout single, is polkafied in that gloious pop medley.
Anyway, vocalist Brandon Flowers put on an erratic and robotic appearence during the first song, "Human." He looked rather frightened. Bassist Mark Stoermer showed promise in 2004's Hot Fuss by busting out the slap line on the first track, but the popular "When You Were Young" on the sophomore release Sam's Town (featured on Guitar Hero II) had a dismally boring bass line. When you have musicians that are this good, why wouldn't they want to actually utilize their skill? The non-band member in the back sang most of the background vocals and rhythm guitar, but wasn't allowed a space in the photo. Brandon Flowers was looking kind of skinny in his feather-shouldered jacket, and his performance was jittery and spastic. He didn't shift into performance mode until the end of the second song, "Spaceman", cracking a few smiles. The drummer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr., was very impassioned. He played an old-school kit and reminded me of Stanley Clarke. After many hours of pouring over their music and imaginative, cryptic lyrics, I've developed a fondness for his strange voice. It's got personality.
Let the flak rain in..

Review of Death Magnetic

2008-11-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

I recently got Metallica's new CD from the library to see if their new bassist, Robert Trujillo, had the same positive impact on this washed-up metal band as he did on hardcore act Suicidal Tendencies (who has a song on Guitar Hero 2) and funk-metal band Infectious Grooves. Their songs are longer, which I like: Seven-minute songs are way cooler than the three-minute fluff dominating the hierarchical regime known as radio. Only the past glory of Metallica from the Cliff Burton years is the only thing that propelled this record to the top of the charts when it debuted a couple of months ago. The bummer is that their sound hasn't evolved much since the eighties. The riffs could've been conceived by a guitarist of a few months- whereas James Hetfield has been playing for thirty-one years. Kirk Hammet's solos are lame, pattern-based, unexciting, lacking musical value, and only express that their creator didn't put any thought into them. Also, Trujillo's monstrous skills are buried in the mix. Hetfield's vocal melodies insist on being tonic based. That means they focus on the root of the chord. This wouldn't be a problem if Metallica's songs changed chords with any kind of regularity. I don't pay attention to the words, but they probably suck. Kaitlyn, the girl sitting next to me right now in study hall, thinks that Britney Spears' music is better than Dream Theater. Unfortunately, this kind of unnerving ignorance is fatal. Yes, I am slightly kidding. The only treatment is to listen to the Britney Spears discography, taking several doses of Pepto-Bismol along the way. Then listen to just one song by Dream Theater. My case is rested.
*Disclaimer: I didn't listen to the whole thing, since the first four tracks were so bad. If there's a gem later on, my ruling stands. A band with so much experience has no business crafting these kinds of songs.

2008-11-02T19:20:00.000-08:00

I've got about three posts almost completed, so detain those equestrians.

The Marine Band is amazing

2008-11-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

Last Monday the U.S. Marine band played at the Wharton Center and it was an incredible concert. It was directed by Colonel Michael J. Colburn with Major Jason K. Fettig as the Assistant Director.

"The Fairest of the Fair", march by John Phillips Sousa- Apparently this awesome band leader wrote this after spying on some lady. It's a nice march, but not genius.

"A Fugal Overture, Opus 40, No. 1"- by Gustav Holst. I've played "First Suite in Eb" and "Mars" in band class.

"Colloquy" by William Goldstein. Trombwnage!! The nation was in the throes of Depression and this twenty-year old composer wrote a piece featuring trombone to lift spirits. Master Gunnery Sergeant Bryan Bourne made it look easy. The piece was not one of my favorites, but was delivered standing without music. It involved seamlessly stratospheric notes. He became the principal trombone in '91, I think, but he's not the section leader for some reason. Gunnery Sergeant Chris Clark is.

Now here we come to the highlight of the concert, and one of my new favorite pieces for band. "La Fiesta Mexicana" was written by former Director of Composition at MSU H. Owen Reed. He wrote it in 1949 after staying in Mexico for half a year. It's a phenomenal work of art. The arranging is so creative, the transitions so seamless, that I was prepared to denounce every other genre for its lack of artistry and creativity. I've only had that sensation twice before: In my younger years I shunned all secular music; and now as I come to realize that progressive metal is the greatest type of music being produced today.
After that musical onslaught, John Phillips Sousa sounds like an idiot. They played the official Marine Corps. song, written by JPS in 1889. "Semper Fidelus" was obviously going to be in the lineup.
After a short Intermission, the group returned with my second-favorite piece: “Three Dances from The Three-Cornered Hat.” Pablo Picasso designed the sets and costumes for The Three-Cornered Hat. Isn’t that something? Stephen Sondheim is evidently important, because the announcer lady that the audience presumed to be an orator and doter upon the group’s talent actually gave an admirable vocal performance. I didn’t actually know any of the songs though…
Following the obligatory national march and stand-up-veterans-anthem thing, my family departed, glad we didn’t stay home to watch Chuck that night.

Why DragonForce Sucks

2008-10-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

A lot of people like DragonForce because they sound awesome and godlike on their guitars. Too bad, they suck. All of DragonForce's songs sound the same. Their solos are mostly unmusical. The only bass contribution is a horribly out-of-place slap bombardment in "Body Breakdown". There aren't enough guitarists to pull off the songs live, they use Whammy Pedals instead of pinch harmonics, they always have a "whoa" section, they suck live, their drummer plays in double-time almost exclusively, they pride themselves on producing noise, not in a musical way like Hendrix. Their lyrics are homogeneous and devoid of real meaning, they can't stop wanking even in a slow song. They repeat riffs, always use the same tone, and are always in 4/4 except the intro to one of the songs on Inhuman Rampage. Their verses always contain single-note tremolo picking and their songs are formulaic. Sure, they sound perfect in the studio, but fail live.

Let's pit them against the best band ever, Dream Theater.

Dream Theater, on the other hand, has chops to spare and knows when not to use them. They are incredibly tasteful and groovy, and know how to compose long songs, concept albums, clever lyrics, and fast and slow passages. Every single member is incredible on their instrument. Oh, yeah, they aren't crap live. They're awesome. Their singer occasionally has difficulty, but their songs are miles from predictable. They know what they're doing and fans appreciate that. Instead of a Samus rip-off among Tetris blocks for cover art, Dream Theater's art is full of symbolism. http://dt.spatang.com/octavarium.phpThat's why Dream Thetear will endure and StudioForce will fade away into the annals of Tasteless Wankers history. Compare "Through Fire and Flames" with something like "Octavarium", "Take the Time", or "Dance of Eternity". Here's a dialogue:

Sam: "Hey Herman, do want to do 'Cry for Eternity' tonight?"

Herman: "Is that the one with the melodramatic intro, frantic verse, chorus-like prechorus, endless solos, 'Whoa' section, vague lyrics, and dramatic end?"

Sam: "I don't know, you just described about fifteen of our songs. I can only remember our solos from 'Fire and Flames', the song that made the world worship our scales. How about we just repeat the solos for the whole night?" Then there's Dream Theater.

Mike: "Hey Jordan, want to do Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence as a whole tonight?"

Jordan: "Sure, I practice for six hours a day to memorize our whole setlist so you can change it to provide a unique concert experience each tour stop."

Which do you think is better?

Pandora- The Best Online Radio Ever

2008-10-22T18:29:00.000-07:00

OK, my first post in the all-new music blog.
Pandora is a free online radio that is tailor-fit to suit your musical preferences. Just enter any song or artist and a station will automatically created containing music that matches it. You can then customize the output by giving feedback to the songs, indicating your preference with a raised or lowered thumb. There are premade genre staions you can listen to, as well as stations created by other users. The variety of music is amazing. They have bands not present on Wikipedia, which is an uncommon experience for me. Although they continually add new songs toi the database, I was disappointed that the International House of Prayer artist Misty Edwards as well as the Christan progressive metal band Touriniquet didn't exist. I've discovered so many new bands on there, it's cool. They analyze each track for characteristics, i.e. time signature, solos, structure, arrangement etc. and find songs with simliar traits. This site is an interactive part of a larger project called the Music Genome Project, which attempts to find the reasoning behind musical taste. Although their music liscenses don't permit rewinding or selecting a particular song, it's possible to bookmark interesting songs and purchase them through iTunes. My profile is here. Some sweet bands I've discovered include: Citriniti, The Third Ending, Behold...the Arctopus, Kamelot, the Black Mages, Guapo, Fromuz, Circus Maximus, King's X, Arena, Racer X, Nightwish, Vanden Plas, Sonata Arctica, Enchant, Blind Guardian, Andromeda, Derek Sherinian, Pravda, Ebu Gogo. Many are obscure and you probably will dislike most of them. Some people rave about iTunes' new Genius thing...Pandora's far superior. Sorry, Apple geeks.
Yeah, so anyway, check it out, you'll be glad you did. That's all the time we have for today, folks.
Until next time, God bless!
-Will

Introduction

2008-10-19T16:44:00.000-07:00

Hello, Internet community! My name is Will, and I like music. Hopefully you like music too. So let's talk about it!!
I'll write about a venue, album, artist, composer, song, instrument, or genre, and you'll give me feedback and suggest new topics. I'll try to update this more than once a week so it doesn't get stale and crusty with nobody paying attention anymore. I'll also attempt to give you an informed opinion, because nobody likes idiots. Hopefully a new post is coming soon. I don't have time at the moment. Thank you!!

2007-02-11T09:15:00.001-08:00