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JRP Moments - 07/08:

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Tuesday, June 27, 2006

mixed feelings...music...technology

So...i'm on the way home...listening to a new Feist 'remix' album. I dig her...her energy...playfulness. A few songs into it i start hearing 'loopy' tracks. I got mixed feelings about using loops. The musician in me is saying get off your ass drummers and play better...and lead the rythym for christ sakes....and producers...insist on good drumming. I think that camp still exists...but using loops and technology i imagine is fast, cost effective...bla bla bla...

Of course...using technology to create is hip...as in Bjork. I mean...everythings just a tool for her to be her.....that's it....she's really feelin it...exploring...livin' it. Dunno what i'm saying...i got mixed feelings. I dig technology when it's a tool to create art...like any advancement in technology...acoustic..to electric..... But i don't dig technology when it's not used 'creatively'...but out of lame ass copying (and pasting!!!)/ laziness. I mean...work harder on laying your shit down for real. I have seen the evils....like when you're not warmed up...or a little rusty...and you can use the technology to 'nudge' things into perfection. Of course usually that perfection becomes sterile and boring...cause there's no personality.

Folks...it's become a copy and paste generation. It's how i pay for my mortgage... but...let's be careful. It's gotta just be a tool...

dunno...really... it's like sometimes i listen to music...and all i can hear is the technology...like if it's just lazy loops.......and a lazy boring, useless melody with some lame ass whining from some lame ass suburban kid or a total corporate perfect rock protools band...who has been compressed and layered into oblivion. and then...there's artists that use the technology to create cool shit....Beck...Bjork..Jon Spencer (sparingly)....Beatles (except for Sir Paul who's turned into shite as i will explain later....)....

I do get the art of creating something...out of pieces...samples.....Kanye West is good at that....and others of course....he's on TV now....Generally speaking....he's all about energy...and knows a good hook...and uses it creatively...adds a slant...

Hell...it's just much easier to copy shit since sampling and digital technology. Nothing wrong with it...but the REAL FEAR IS THAT PEOPLE ARE TOO PREOCCUPIED WITH COPYING AND USING PAST ART AND CREATE NOTHING REALLY NEW AND THEN EVENTUALLY THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO COPY AND CREATE FROM ANYMORE... I think i saw the absolute worst of this when Jay-Z, Linkin Park and Paul Mcartney sang the shittiest version of 'Yesterday'.....it was absolute shite.....like absolute shite.....worst of current pop copy and paste protools laziness.

Whatever....time will tell....i think really....there's always cool art+music in every decade/moment. This is just another one....and really....you can already see kids goin' back to the old raw music thing...either rock+roll, folk, punk...whatever... Every decade's got good and bad shit....protools is good and bad...i have it ...i use it.....it's fast....it's great....but i try not to let it lead me....it's just a tool....i'd rather be the instrument...then let the computer be the instrument...

Kanye is playing that 'Jesus Walks' tune....don't know how much of it he wrote...but it works....
Feist...still feelin' her....the loops didn't hang around to long...they got tasteful soon enough...and the art took over again...

jackp

// posted by jackp # 9:21 PM

Comments: I hear yah jack.... I belong to ma many photo forums and all the chat is about how to make my photo look cleaner. More shine, crop this, tweak that. fuck you! I understand the need for digital art I follow current day progress and the skillfull attack of man on the future. But.... why not just take a good picture... why not get that shot and not edit the fuck out of it so that someone thinks it looks better or more like the shot they wanted. Sure I have photshop and neatimage sure they work great and make everthing OK. But.. why not just take that perfect shot to start with? WHy not work your art... why not make see the imgae before you take the shot. Nah not anymore well add this or stamp that out or fix it here with a little color balance and layer masking. Why not take a picture of a load that I droppe din my toilet and make the next super model with 100 layers of masking and rendering. Why not take the time to become more than and edit button or a click .. .why not .. why not...

- Switzer # posted by

Anonymous : 10:06 PM yes...yes...yes...

it's kinda like nuclear energy/technology...

we must be careful when we use it!!

jackp # posted by

jackp : 1:22 PM totally agree with your point that pop music in all its forms will die if it doesn't find people who can write new hooks. like you said, you can only cop the past for so long before there's nothing left to cop. dunno, maybe it's all just fallout from the integration of hip-hop/rap (and therefore sampling) into the mainstream, and eventually people will start creating from scratch again. the great thing about life is that there will always be bjorks.

i agree too about the digital sanitization of art. the problem now is that people are so used to seeing/hearing perfection that they can't appreciate the intensity of an imperfect but amazing performance.

i love people like bjork and beck who use technology to take me someplace organic. that's so f-ed up and so incredibly cool. i also love people like feist and the strokes who take old sounds and just apply the nostalgia for groove purposes, but do somthing new with the music. plus they just have a lot of talent and skill. # posted by

whyioughtta : 1:53 PM yes...yes...yes!!!!

it's like...sometimes you just hear beats and loops...more than the song itself. Other times you can feel them...but the song is still there...and the technology is just there to prop the song...help it along..convey...support it...like any other instrument.

A band that i think does a good job with this stuff is 'Postal Service'...the wife can't stand that arty stuff...but i get off on these dudes. Very creative...makes me feel good!...cool production...sounds from the 80's...but a nod to it...not a copy.

luv
jackp # posted by

jackp : 6:11 PM update...that Feist...diggin' it...more...good album's keep me comin' back # posted by

jackp : 7:39 PM ahh..good ol' switz...i like the dump and model...classic....polish a turd...that's what i wanna call my next album!!!

good ol' switz! # posted by

jackp : 9:33 PM or 'don't polish the turd'

or 'leave the turd unpolised'

or... # posted by

jackp : 5:39 PM you guys are like vitamins for my conscience. yet the energy-providing kind, not the crop-ya-til-ya-look-like-a-supermodel kind. you know? the good ones. i spent a long and rambling post a few weeks ago on the pursuit of perfection and the devastation and the auto-regulatory paralysis that ensues. whomever mentioned it above about digital photos was dead on.. i hear ya, peeps. i feel you!

havea GREAT day.
love ni # posted by

ni_de_montreal : 1:13 AM well..that was sir switzer...

switzer is the deal...we love switzee

jackp # posted by

jackp : 7:45 AM It's all good......The Artist should have the freedom to use or not use whatever he or she wants. If you don't like you don't have to listen, you don't have to look, you don't have to taste, and you don't have to feel. Art is everything and nothing all in one, but showing just a snippet at a time. Every snippet created from the ball that was is now part of the new ball that is, and so it continues.

But good luck with your idea of what should and shouldn't be, without the thoughts from Artists just where would this world be. # posted by

Anonymous : 4:13 PM hmmmmhmmmm

is this the nunas talking?

hehe

i'm trying to read between the lines here.

beauty...eye...beholder. It's just nice when pop art shows something new and exciting...it's been a while. Everything is always recycled...but i worry about this and the next generation....we seem to be regurgitating other generation's stuff...

i must go digest now...

jackp # posted by

jackp : 6:57 PM Post a Comment << Home

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