So Many Roads

Yesterday I stumbled across a website called The Magic Victrola.
Obviously I clicked through.

As it turns out, the site hosts an online book in eight parts by Sunnie Day. Aside from the fact that it's about a time-machine Victrola leading to a 1920s incarnation of George Clooney (what more do you really need), it's also blog-worthy thanks to the medium: because this is an online book, Day is able to insert picture slideshows of relevant images and embed youtube videos of the songs that she writes about directly into her prose.

On some level, this is becoming de rigeur for major print books about music: Alex Ross' (non-fiction) The Rest is Noise and Listen to This have a companion website featuring snippets of the music he describes; and Wesley Stace's novel Charles Jessold Considered as a Murderer refers readers to the author's website - which leads to other informational sites including the Charles Jessold homepage. Academics have also been getting in on the action: check out Marcel Cobussen's awesome interactive dissertation.

But all these last examples still store the material in two separate locations: text v. sound, print v. web. Day's novella may not be a book for the ages (whatever that means), but she does such a wonderful job using the internet medium to its fullest potential.

I'm Sittin' On Top Of The World

This is a today-only kind of blog post, friends, because Today Only google is celebrating what would have been Les Paul's 96th birthday with a guitar logo you can strum with your mouse. Even better: using the little black box, you can record thirty seconds of your very own Les-Paul-inspired guitar(computer) song.

Also courtesy of google: everything you ever wanted to know about Les Paul.


Oh, there he is.

(Forever link - to prove it really happened.)

I Could Wait A Thousand Hours / Just To Be Quiet

Today is No Music Day?

"NO MUSIC DAY EXISTS FOR VARIOUS REASONS, YOU MAY HAVE ONE"

Would it even be possible? Even if I were to barricade myself in my room, I'd still hear the bass from undergraduate-filled jeeps at the stoplight down the block. And does reading about music count?

Intriguing, but I think I'll go watch an opera now.

(via largeheartedboy)

Sit Down / Stand Up

I'm sending you to a ten-minute interview with Matmos that is worth every precious second. I mean, how many times have you heard someone say: "So I went out and recorded a chin implant, three nose jobs, liposuction..."? Or how about: "We chained a piano to a truck and dragged it around the desert until it was destroyed"?

These guys are my heroes.

Check out more music projects at Snapshots Music and Arts Foundation.

Preview Of A Screening / Flashback Of A Feeling

While I realize most of my readers will not be attending the AMS conference (hey Dad and Maureen! KIDDING.), I think everyone* will appreciate this Special Bonus Twice-In-One-Day Just-Can't-Wait-Till-Tomorrow post.

2'23" presents: Sarah Palin's Guide to AMS!



*And by "everyone," I mean: those of you who will be attending the AMS conference.

I Choose To Celebrate The First

The NPR classical music blog Deceptive Cadence just finished up a week devoted to "First Loves" - stories by famous musicians about the moment when classical music grabbed on and wouldn't let go. Tim Munro on Ives, Nico Muhly on Byrd, Zuill Bailey on Rostropovich, Nick Cords on Nadien, Jason Vieaux on Villa-Lobos, and Marian Alsop on Brahms.

That's quite a line-up - but maybe my favorite part of this feature is the invitation extended to blog readers to post their own "first loves". It'll warm the cockles of your heart.

All I Hear Is Noise

Turn Me Up! is a non-profit organization "campaigning to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records." There's nothing wrong with loud music, they say, but artists should have a choice - and many feel like more dynamic music will get lost in the (ipod?) shuffle.

Check out Matt Mayfield's video demonstrating the effect a loud, less dynamic aesthetic is having on the music:



Just something to think about; plus, music dynamics in the news.

Stormy Weather

QUOTE:

"Recently, I have begun translating weather data collected in cities into musical scores, which are then translated into sculptures as well as being a source for collaboration with musicians. These pieces are not only devices that map meteorological conditions of a specific time and place, but are also functional musical scores to be played by musicians. While musicians have freedom to interpret, they are asked not to change the essential relationship of the notes to ensure that what is still heard is indeed the meteorological relationship of weather data."

UNQUOTE

Nathalie Miebach works across disciplines like it's her job. You can see more scores, sculptures, and hear the music realized on her website.

Tiny Dancer / In The Sand

Have you guys heard of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts? And if so, why didn't you clue me in sooner?

They're mini-concerts video-recorded live in the perfectly cluttered office of "All Songs Considered" host Bob Boilen. Indie, gospel, hip-hop, jazz, classical, reggae, gypsy punk: there's something for everyone. Most artists play a set of three or four songs, every now and again there's a little talk, some bring friends along for the ride. What a lovely idea!

Recommended sampling:
Ana Tijoux
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
The Tallest Man On Earth

Chopper City

In my German class this summer, we were asked to present on an influential figure tied to Deutschland - and I chose Stockhausen. Obviously.
My classmates (though wonderful) were perhaps not people, um, steeped in the classical music tradition, and it took a good bit of talking to convince them Stockhausen was even a real person - much less an influential person. On the other hand, part of that was my own fault: shouting "Hubschrauber!" and miming a cello probably wasn't the most coherent way to introduce the Helicopter String Quartet (1995). I was just so excited about it, guys!

Here we are now after the fact, and Ubuweb just posted a documentary showing bits and pieces of "Helikopter Streichquartett" rehearsals and performance with the Arditti Quartet. Four string players in four different helicopters with the music piped down to the audience below - apparently the idea came to Stockhausen in a dream. This documentary is fascinating.

(CD at Amazon)

Around The World / Around The World

World Music on BBC Radio 3

Organized by country, these radio programmes (I mean, they are English after all) are a little bit explanation, a little bit music, and entirely recorded on location by the BBC. Zanzibar, Cuba, Turkmenistan, the first ever radio broadcast in North Korea - more than 40 countries are represented.

(via openculture)

Summer Lovin'

Billboard.com has a new summer playlist every week. This is the equivalent of eating cheesecake for breakfast.

This Is My United States Of Whatever

I practically inhaled Susan McClary's Feminine Endings on the plane ride home last week. And if I had a dollar for every time McClary mentioned Laurie Anderson, I would have - a chapter's worth of dollars.

The point is: I was pretty excited when metafilter pointed out this great Introduction to Laurie Anderson on the Awl's Difficult Listening Hour. Great selection of videos, great performance art, great intro.

In Your Eyes (In Your Eyes) / Forbidden Love

The Impossible Music Sessions.
Tagline: you are not supposed to hear this.
Why not?
Because these performances feature the work of musicians who are not allowed to play or promote their music in the countries they call home. Instead, IMS gets American cover bands to do it FOR them.

Along with the concert, every IMS session includes conversation with the original artists about music, about musical conditions - about all sorts of things. So far there have been two, both of which have pictures and video posted on the website: The Plastic Wave (Tehran), and Baloberos Crew (Guinea Bissau).

The Center for Inquiry gives you a feeling for the New York-based performances:



(via metafilter)

Honky-Tonk

The 2010 World Chamionship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest

It was held in Peoria May 28-30, 2010. Meaning: we just missed it. On the upside, that means we get to watch a trailer (soon to be made into a documentary) featuring performances from the weekend!



(via metafilter)

All These Buildings and Mountains

What major work of Alban Berg are you?!?!?

*Please note: that is the actual title of the quiz.

*Please further note: I am the Chamber Concerto.

(I was pointed in this direction by therestisnoise)

Listen To The Sound From Deep Within

YOU WORK-IN-THE-OFFICE-ALL-DAY-TYPES SHOULD KNOW:

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has a free and on-demand listening page supplemented with videos, listening guides, composer interviews, feature articles, and web links. Still a work in progress, but a couple interesting pieces (see: Stravinsky and Schneider).

Someday We'll Find It / The Rainbow Connection

The music world is notoriously small. Which is why EchoNest has created a 6-Degrees style database devoted to tracking relationships between musical figures/groups/songs. Ch-ch-check it out:

Philip Glass
-who collaborated on Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso
-who was a member of Mandingo
-that has member Bill Laswell
-who was a member of Praxis
-that has member Bryan "Brain" Mantia
-who was a member of Cobra Strike
-that has member DJ Disk
-who was a member of Invisibl Skratch Piklz
-that has member Mix Master Mike
-who was a member of Beastie Boys

Success! Another, you say?

Bob Dylan
-who created the track Huck's Tune that was performed by Tony Garnier
-who was member of The Million Dollar Bashers
-that has member Nels Cline
-who was a member of Wilco
-that created the track You and I that has vocal performed by Feist
-that is a performance name for the person Leslie Feist
-who was member of Broken Social Scene
-that has member Emily Haines
-who was a member of Metric

(Find your own: 6 Degrees of Black Sabbath; via metafilter)

Dream The Impossible Dream

Matt Manos (who, as it turns out, was also the design intern for the Bravo Gustavo online/iphone game) learns how to to play a mandolin and ride a unicycle at the SAME TIME: The Mandolin & Unicycle Project.



Now THAT is a senior thesis, you know? The practical application may be a bit fuzzy, but you could say the same about musicology.

(For the more advanced team: Unicycle with Tuba and Trombone)

(via metafilter)

Married To A Mermaid

Here's to the grog, boys, the jolly, jolly grog
Here's to the rum and tobacco
I've a-spent all my tin with the lassies drinking gin
And to cross the briny ocean I must wander

That one's from the sea-shanty classic "Here's To The Grog." Hey, Ho!
Lesley Nelson has a fantastic website dedicated to Songs of the Sea. Information, lyrics, and midi files - SoftheS has got it all.

Oh, Lovely Molly.
Don't let my long absence be a bother to you, dear
Don't let my long journey cause you any pain
Although we are parted I will be true hearted
And I will return in the springtime again.