RIP: Jeremiah Green

45, yikes.

I first found Modest Mouse during a visit to Portland in 2001, just after 9-11. I was at Music Millennium and picked up probably one of the last CDs I ever bought, “The Moon and Antartica”. Back in LA, they became a soundtrack during skate sessions, backyard pool hunts, surf trips and many nights better left unsaid.

“Jeremiah Green, the longtime Modest Mouse drummer, has died, the band announced. Green’s bandmates had recently disclosed that Green was undergoing treatment for cancer. Jeremiah Green was 45 years old.

Green co-founded Modest Mouse with frontman Isaac Brock and bassist Eric Judy in Washington in the early 1990s.”

More Talking Heads and some new portfolio stuff.

Added some new stuff to the portfolio the other day, some renders and some serious color ups / product swaps. I really do not enjoy making those galleries for some reason, lol!

And for whatever reason, I am really digging early live Talking Heads. It’s so stripped down yet holds up as full songs. Some real artistry going on without just doing anything flashy.

Undetectable very-low frequency sound increases dancing at a live concert

Crank up those Subs people!

“We tested whether non-auditory low-frequency stimulation would increase audience dancing by turning very-low frequency (VLF) speakers on and off during a live electronic music concert and measuring audience members’ movements using motion-capture. Movement increased when VLFs were present, and because the VLFs were below or near auditory thresholds (and a subsequent experiment suggested they were undetectable), we believe this represents an unconscious effect on behaviour, possibly via vestibular and/or tactile processing.

People attending a performance by the electronic music duo Orphx at the LIVELab were recruited for the study. Participants gave informed consent, were fitted with motion-capture marker headbands, and completed pre- and post-concert questionnaires (see Supplemental information). We turned VLF speakers (8–37 Hz) on and off every 2.5 minutes over 55 minutes of the performance (Figure 1D), calculated head movement speed (the three-dimensional path length per sampling unit of time) for each participant in each of the eighteen segments, and compared average normalized movement while VLFs were ON vs. OFF. Our data show that audience participants moved more, on average by 11.8%, while VLFs were ON vs. OFF (t(42) = 5.32, p < 0.0001; d = 0.81; Figure 1E).”

Chicago's Metro club celebrates 40 years of rock, punk and metal

Spent a good amount of time in Chicago and was even lucky enough to play a few shows at the Metro which turns 40! Fun little write up on them from NPR. Imagine how crazy it is to try to keep a venue like that running for 40 years….

“Another memorable act was Iggy Pop, whose Blah-Blah-Blah tour show Ambo calls “one of the wettest, sweatiest, bloodiest shows” he’s ever seen.

“I remember I was just melting in my gym shoes,” Ambo says. “There was so much blood and sweat and beer on the floor.”

Shanahan remembers Iggy Pop trying to rip out the speakers on stage and throw them into the crowd.

“He actually lifts the cabinets off the floor!” Shanahan says. “I mean, he was trying to move something that's not quite movable. Plus it was strapped down, which he didn't know.”

Music Time: Deerhoof!

Been doing a bit of a deep dive into Deerhoof lately. This drummer is really interesting in what he does with a small set. This album is recorded live in one of their basements and he is using a snare, bass drum, rack tom and a ride. That’s freaking it. No hi hats, no crash, no other toms. Pretty crazy. If you buy it you get a video link to them playing, pretty cool.

Here is a live show from Brooklyn in 2015.

And a interesting interview with the drummer here.

Found VIA a post on the still amazing Metafilter.

Sam Prekop and John McEntire, “Sons Of”. Music Time!

Been a big fan of Sea and Cake and Tortise since I lived in Chicago way back in the day so I am pretty happy with anything these two folks do but I am enjoying this even though electronica is normally not my jam. Nice write up on Bandcamp as well.

“Whether it was inspired by Kraftwerk or Bitchin Bajas or a middle-aged desire to touch the canon of abstract dance music, it’s a pleasure to get lost in these pulses. They take all sorts of shapes: Some cascade as programmed keyboard textures, buoyed by keyboard melodies; others spring out of the kick drum, whose metronomic noise lays the groundwork even as the drum programming splinters it into a dubbed-out, polyrhythmic fantasia. (The dimestore presumption is that these bear McEntire’s fingerprints, but the album’s minimalist recording credits obscure the division of labor.) Among equals, the 23-minute “A Yellow Robe” rises to the fore: a sunrise dancefloor reverie, with its grand sweeping synth chords, and joyfully bouncing sequencer, all serving a steadily rotating, forever driving beat, taking its time getting to place but all-in on in its destination. Take that ride.”

Built to Spill. Music time!

Enjoy some new music here from Built to Spill on Bandcamp. For the love of satan, get the hell off of Spotify and use Bandcamp. Spotify not only rips off it’s artists but it also pushes alt right, faschist podcasts. What in the hell or you doing giving them money?

Have some drum fun in your day!

“Gregg Bissonette and I discuss the drummers that every serious drummer should know from Gene Krupa to Ringo Starr to John Bonham to Questlove. A comprehensive guide of styles from Swing, Jazz, Rock, Fusion, Hip Hop and Funk.”

Better late than never: Falling in love with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on its 20th anniversary

Cool write up on AV Club about Wilco’s YHF.

“His lyrics expertly capture conflicting feelings, often seeming like he’s attempting to make sense of them in real time. That sentiment is expressed in “I’m The Man Who Loves You,” with Tweedy struggling to find a way to understand his thoughts and put them into words, allowing him to explain to his partner how he feels:

All I can see is black and white and white and pink with blades of blue /

that lay between the words I think on a page I was meaning to send to you /

I couldn’t tell if it’d bring my heart the way I wanted when I started /

writing this letter to you

Can’t he just hold his partner’s hand and show her how much he cares and loves her, rather than go through the brain-wracking process of putting those emotions into words? It’s a relatable feeling.

The pacing of the song is arranged in a way that sounds like the way scattered thoughts trickle in, with a rapid, thumping beat. You can tell he knows how he feels deep down: It should be as simple as that. But the lyrics also come from an anxious source, that understands that love isn’t clear cut. It’s a sentiment delved into throughout much of the record, including songs like “Radio Cure” and fan-favorite “Poor Places.”

And here is a brand new track from them that came out. Happy Friday!

Happy Friday!

Have some music to lift your day and burn this past week to the ground.