Mr. Moderator

Mr. Moderator

When not blogging Mr. Moderator enjoys baseball, cooking, and falconry.

I SUMMON HOMEFRONTRADIO TO FURTHER DISCUSS MATTERS OF COMPRESSION

 Posted by
Feb 122008
 

No disaster here!

In last week’s Carl Newman thread, our passionate and highly knowledgeable friend Homefrontradio, the Thunder Down Under, wrote about his disgust with modern-day dependence on compression. Among other things he wrote:

Basically, as you play the song loud, there’s a random noise field being generated on top of the song that’s a is physically-disturbing to how our ears are designed to hear music.

A digital waveform representation of Billy Corgan’s Look?

Maybe that’s not his most representative comment from this thread, but it struck a chord with me. It reminded me of our ongoing examination of Lou Reed…as his music was meant to sound! Seriously, I highly recommend going back and checking out what Townsman Homefrontradio has to say on these issues of compression. It’s great stuff that musicians and fans of new and old music can get into. And learn from. And trust me, Homefrontradio’s displayed a gear geek side, but he’s got a sense of humor about his quest and he’s what we call Good People!
Continue reading »

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Stevie Wonder’s Innerwretchings

 Posted by
Feb 112008
 

First, to gain your trust, one I like as much as the folks in the audience!

Last week my good friend HVB SUMMONED me to the floor of the Halls of Rock to explain what my problem was with certain Stevie Wonder songs. I explained myself promptly and clearly, or so I thought. Mwall clearly grasped what I was getting at. A poll supported the gist of what I was getting at. Only HVB failed to get it. He wanted examples of Stevie Wonder songs that bum me out and cause me to trash only one aspect of one of our national treasures.

As much as I dreaded revisiting some of these numbers, the first thing that came to mind was to pull out my copy of Innervisions. Here’s a classic Stevie Wonder album that contains some of my favorite songs by the man: the spine-tingling “Living for the City”, the supercool “Higher Ground”, and the always-fascinating helix-like structure of “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”! Unfortunately, it’s also home to “Visions”, “Golden Lady”, and “All in Love Is Fair”. I’ve skipped these songs for so long that I couldn’t be sure by title alone of which ones particularly offended my sensibilities. For the good of the Hall, I made myself listen to three examples from this one album. Following are my thoughts on each number. I hope this clarifies my feelings for you, Hrrundi.

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From the Mouths of Babes: Jimi Hendrix

 Posted by
Feb 102008
 


My 10-year-old son asked me a few days ago what Jimi Hendrix‘s music was like. I raved about his guitar playing, telling him of my belief that no one’s come close to playing guitar as powerfully and effortlessly as he did. “You’ve heard it before,” I told him, but my efforts to hum out riffs of songs he’d heard in the car while I played Smash Hits failed to ring a bell for him. I told him I’d play him some records this weekend. That was the end of our discussion.

Friday night, conveniently, VH1 Classics played the kind of great/kind of depressing documentary The Jimi Hendrix Story. I called my boy over to the TV during a performance clip. About halfway through the song he said, “His guitar playing is amazing, but his voice is just OK.” He watched another 10 minutes with me, making connections to that Guitar Hero game, which he’d just played for the first time at a friend’s house the day before. “Now I see why you get extra points when you do this,” and he jerked an imaginary guitar neck into the air while making a Rock Face.

This morning I showed him the above video, one of my favorite live clips of the guy. As it wrapped up he asked me if he could start taking guitar lessons this summer. Thank you, Jimi!

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Amy Winehouse Poised to Fall Flat on Her Face in a Puddle of Her Own Vomit at This Year’s GRAMMYS!

 Posted by
Feb 102008
 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Train wreck or triumph? Amy Winehouse, the soul singer whose messy personal life has ravaged her promising career, will emerge from a London rehab clinic later on Sunday to perform live via satellite at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

It is perhaps one of the most keenly anticipated appearances in the 50-year history of the music industry’s top awards show — and not just because she will likely sing her big hit, “Rehab.”

“I’m going to be glued to it,” said Howard Benson, a nominee for producer of the year. “She’s a real, true talent. Her personal stuff notwithstanding, her music definitely speaks from the heart.”

Truly, whether you like the music or not, does anyone share in Howard Benson’s mock-sincere anticipation about her heartfelt music?

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Poets Who Rock

 Posted by
Feb 062008
 

Giving new meaning to Beat Poetry…

I don’t profess to know a lot about poetry. I know it often rhymes and it’s got a meter. I know that it’s possible to memorize and recite it, although I’ve never been prone to such behavior. I know that when I was in school and had a teacher/professor practically holding my hand through the reading of a poem, I occasionally felt inspired. But not enough to give up reading novels and sports and music biographies in favor of poetry. William Blake‘s Songs of Innocence and Experience lead my small collection of poetry volumes. I wish more poetry hit me as directly as that stuff does. I can see why rockers and poets have tried to work together over the years.

Although poets have attempted to collaborate with rockers for some time, the difficulty of these forms merging hit me squarely when The Clash and Allen Ginsberg teamed to bring us “Ghetto Defendant”, from the as-if-it-was-not-already-disappointing enough Combat Rock.

The Clash with Allen Ginsberg, “Ghetto Defendant”

More on Mr. Ginsberg in a bit. Before moving forward, it’s important we distinguish between Rockers Who Poet and Poets Who Rock.

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