...[T]he next exploration is in the area of amputation and condensing of music into smaller, plastic, micro-explosives. rush and styx were roman candles, total shutdown and burmese are 3 m-80s duct taped together. 
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by cactus dan Play something short!" -Nathalie, heckling Big Techno Werewolves
face it: the temperature on the face of the sun is 15 million degrees, and it's rays are lethal. I vastly prefer dj-ing at night, when you can hear the building creak in the wind. nonetheless, I've been doing a bunch of morning shifts for nathalie, who is away in france, recording sound at the tour de france for her new collage record. one caller called up and played me a loop that he had made on his computer from a bootleg tape of nathalie heckling big techno werewolves from the audience. her astonishment that the genius local trio was not adhering to the now mandatory 15-minute set length limit in san francisco was illustrative of the new ethic of brevity. back in the junior high days, we always marvelled at bands like rush and genesis and yes that played 3 hour concerts. these days, if a band starts going longer than 20 minutes, people start unrolling the fire hose. could be that the local underground noise bands play music that combusts violently, sooner. maybe attention spans are shrinking due to media oversaturation and faster cultural editing and absorption rates. whatever the reason, bands are realizing that speed limits in music have been reached due to physics and now the next exploration is in the area of amputation and condensing of music into smaller, plastic, micro-explosives. rush and styx were roman candles, total shutdown and burmese are 3 m-80s duct taped together. same goes for records. most of the best records that have come out recently are about 25 minutes long. 80 minute cds are just asking for it. double and triple cds are for columbia house. cd-r only labels are the coolest thing these days, like a return to the home tape underground oddball scene of the 80s. the other thing that now seems inevitible is bands just jettisoning the idea of selling records at all, and just putting all of their music up on their websites for free, and then making their copper of live gigs and t-shirt sales at said gigs. far underground noise bands (and jam bands) are realizing that they can save themselves the cost and stress of diy production and distribution this way, just making a few hard copies for radio and press. of course this is completely at odds with those who view records as unique physical artifacts and not just musical transport devices. all that said, 99% of all the music I am buying these days comes from the $1 vinyl bins at goodwill on geary. so it's a complicated matter. good afternoon, comrades. |
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