Category: Music

The Dresden Dolls are on a grueling tour right now, and Amanda is writing about it in her blog, which is wonderful and a great example of why we should always trade quantity for quality.

There’s an entry this morning which touched a nerve with me. She’s talking about the new album:

I
had a lot of frustrations with O’Reilly and the release of Just A Geek,
but the worst thing of all was that they classified my autobographical,
narrative non-fiction story as "Science Fiction," because I was once on
a Sci-Fi show. That’s as idiotic as comparing the Dresden Dolls to
Marilyn Manson, and a great way to limit the potential audience.

When someone doesn’t like my work, there’s not a lot I can do about
it; I try to dig something constructive out of it, and move along.
But when someone just doesn’t get it, and uses an entirely
inappropriate comparison or categorizes me with another artist based
on something as stupid as what kind of makeup I wear on stage (ahem), it
makes me want to deliver the cockpunch.

I don’t know what it is about artists, but so many of us can’t ignore
the bad reviews. It’s almost like we think that they know something
real, something secret, something that nobody else is willing to tell
us. I think that, deep down, we all know that this thing we’ve created
really doesn’t suck, so we listen to all the people who want to
convince us that it does. It’s like we have a dysfunctional,
battered-person relationship with some invisible force called The
Critics.

I’m looking to add a Charlie Parker record to my Jazz collection. I already have The Essential Charlie Parker, and Diz ‘N Bird at Carnegie Hall.

Anyone have a suggestion? Bonus points if I can get it on iTunes Music Store, for instant gratificiation.

I‘m not sure how many people are listening to Radio Free Burrito, but a bunch of you wrote in asking for a stand-alone MP3 of my ambient tune Lakeside Shadow.

Look, you’re totally not the boss of me, but I did sort of say that if enough people asked for it, I’d put it here on its own.  I’m proud of the composition, and I’m happy to put it out there for anyone to listen to, or use in a creative way.

If you like it, you’ll probably like some of the artists who influenced me over the years: Woob (especially 1194, and especially the track strange air) Dedicated (especially Global Communication, also called 76 14), and Solitaire (especially Ritual Ground). Also, Instinct Records (still alive) and Silent Records (sadly, tragically, defunct since 1996) released an amazing number of genre-defining ambient discs in the 90s. And now, just to prove how hardcore I am, I’m going to throw out Pete Namlook, and the FAX Label, but their stuff is far more experimental than the rest of my list, and isn’t what I’d use to introduce a new listener to Ambient music.

Finally, if you can find it, Silent Records put out an incredible record called Earth to Infinity (I think in 1994) which was pulled shortly after it was released, due to some sampling issues. I think it’s one of the greatest ambient recordings of all time, and don’t ask me for it because I’m not going to jail for you, Chachi.

Anyway, here it is. The file is 4.9MB, and is a 192kbps MP3, at 44.1kHz. It’s 3:30:  Download lakeside_shadow.mp3

Lakeside Shadow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. If you decide to do something cool with it, let me know and I may just
link it up. If you want to pretend we’re really in the radio business,
you can send me some money and a hooker to help influence my decision.

The photo in this entry, which is the photo I’d use if I’d made this into an actual record or whatever, was taken by jpmatth. I found it at flickr (using the tags winter and lake) and is used according to his Creative Commons license. Pretty cool, huh?

After reading my post about the Ditty Bops, jwz (yes, that jwz. Because I am totally that cool. Shut up! I am! Jeeze!) pointed me toward videos by The Dresden Dolls, specifically Coin-Operated Boy and Girl Anachronism.

Holy shit. I immediately went to the iTunes Music Store and bought their album.

This is another reason I’m so happy to be living in this age, with access to this technology. As recently as five years ago, I never would have heard of this band on my own, and even if I was fortunate enough to accidentally stumble upon them, I’d have to drive to a music store that not only carried their album, but would let me preview the album before I bought it. Instead, Jamie told me, "they’re your new favorite videos ever, you just don’t know it yet." and he was totally right. [I could put a huge rambling dissertation about the Long Tail and the
value of word-of-mouth marketing here, but I’ll spare you.] The thing is, the Dresden Dolls and the Ditty Bops sound nothing alike, and the only thing they really have in common (in this instance) is the visual style of their videos.But the music they make together, and the passion in Amanda’s lyrics grabbed me by the cerebellum and wouldn’t let go. The last album I had this sort of visceral oh-my-god-i-have-to-listen-to-it-over-and-over-and-over-again reaction to was Mike Doughty’s Skittish / Rockity Roll.

You’ve got to go to their website right now and read Amanda’s bio. Wow.

This is not music for everyone, but if it hits you, holy shit will it hit you.

If you like:

• olde tyme music
• louise brooks
• girls who look like louise brooks
• squirrel nut zippers
• asylum street spankers

and you’re not on dial-up, you simply must go watch this video from The Ditty Bops.

(via grapeJuiceplus)