My new video will be 51 seconds long when it debuts at 3:30 PM ET today.
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Paranoid Friend
I like these words as a potential band name or album title:
Paranoid Friend
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Retreat not defeat
The name “there is only” does not work and did not work. I have retreated to my given name.
The hierarchy of band names:
- Unacceptable: an invented name that is bad
- Non-harmful: a person’s name
- Helpful: an invented name that is excellent
I will have to re-issue the Bandcamp/streaming release.
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Shout out to Frank Wakefield
The excellent – raw, messy, soulful, but whip smart – mandolin player Frank Wakefield has died. It was a musical life well lived.
The NY Times has a warm obituary. Frank Wakefield, Who Expanded the Mandolin’s Range, Dies at 89: “an innovative bluegrass mandolinist whose sweeping musicality led to collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and Jerry Garcia, and whose unique voicings and technique expanded the parameters of his instrument”
I think they miss the mark, though. His playing was awkward and red hot, more like the blues mandolinist Yank Rachel than next-gen newgrass virtuosos like David Grisman. He DID a sharp mind and wasn’t afraid to go highbrow, like with his Bach recordings, but his touch was always earthy.
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Tribulators by Ear Reverends
Steve Reich-ish pulsations from Ear Reverends:
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In flowstate
If you’re a Flow State subscriber, you’ll find the thereisonly tune “Black Water Fell” in today’s mix.
Mix: https://www.flowstate.fm/p/flow-state-episode-219
Tune: https://thereisonly.bandcamp.com/track/black-water-fell
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Minwhi Lee: Do You Want to Listen
This foundation of this tune is well-worn 1960s-70s schmaltz, but the bent pitches and thick shoegaze rock in the second half take it to a new place.
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Junto 0635 round the bend
Disquiet 0635 ‘Round the Bend is about train sounds.
That sound took me to the memory of going to a punk rock squat after school in 8th grade. There were Cheech-and-Chong-sized piles of locally grown skunk weed in the basement. I bought some (cheap!), smoked it (ew!), and took the L2 bus home. High, the sounds of driving were enveloping. Sub-bass throb from the engine. Volume swell as the bus pulled out of a stop. Squealing of brakes. Chatter.
I had dirty subways in the 1970s in mind at first, but as I went deeper images of railroads in the old west came up. Adding resonator guitar drew that out, and I doubled down on the Fistful of Dollars vibe with whistling in the far distance.
Process:
- train field recording by Todd (@Toaster) Elliott (Disquiet – Train-source-1)
- six tracks of autogen drumming in Logic
- bottleneck + resonator guitar + Hologram Microcosm
- lonesome whistling