Rock Town Hall • Rock Music Discussion

iTunes, the Ultimate Mastering Engineer

Nov 132013

iTunes Radio has taken it upon themselves to put an end to the Loudness Wars.

iTunes Radio now includes a new Sound Check algorithm, which limits the volume level of all tracks. In other words, it lifts the level of the quiet tracks and lowers the level of louder ones so they’re all the same. What makes this a threat to hypercompression is the fact that Sound Check can’t be defeated by the listener, the mastering engineer, the producer or the record label. What’s more, if a song is dynamically crushed, Sound Check might turn in down in a not exactly pleasing way, causing all parties involved to possibly rethink about going for so much level in the first place.

Read more: http://bobbyowsinski.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-beginning-of-end-of-loudness-wars.html#ixzz2kYhUTQ00
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

My gut feeling is that it’s not iTunes’ business to determine how loud or quiet anyone’s music is mastered. Screw iTunes! I like loud records. Sometimes I like quiet records. I bet Lou Reed’s turning over in his grave, because this doesn’t respect the way artists are meant to sound.

RTH Glossary: Miller’s Crossing vs A Matter of Life and Death Albums

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 132013

I had been a fan of all the Coen Brothers movies leading up to Miller’s Crossing, the brothers’ Irish mob genre-bender. The first time I watched that movie I sat there for over an hour thinking, “When the fuck is this thing going to go anywhere?!?!” Suddenly, one thing happened, then all hell broke lose. In the final 20 to 30 minutes I was dazzled. I walked away saying, “That movie was excellent!” My close, personal friend E. Pluribus Gergely, who I believe was sitting alongside me that night, couldn’t believe I was able to change my mind so quickly, so definitively. He still teases me about my ability to “do a Miller’s Crossing.”

I had a similar experience with the movie Lost in Translation. It was a total waste of my time until the party scene, with Bill Murray singing along to “More Than This.” From that point on the movie clicked, and I did a Miller’s Crossing. Patience has its virtues.

Sometimes the opposite occurs for me: I’ll be enraptured by a movie only to have it crash and burn in the final 20 to 30 minutes. The other night I found myself in this enraptured state as I watched the first hour-plus of a 1946 ghost-love story, A Matter of Life and Death (originally released in the US as Stairway to Heaven). I’d long heard about one of the co-directors, Michael Powell, who is name-checked by my favorite director, Martin Scorsese, at every opportunity, but I’d never actually seen any of his movies. This movie got off to a fantastic start! It simply looked amazing, like The Wizard of Oz‘s reverse twin sister, with earth scenes in color and heaven scenes in a pearly B&W/sepia tone. I’m a sucker for sepia tone. Plus it’s a ghost-love story, a genre I am a huge sucker for: all variations on Here Comes Mr. Jordan/Heaven Can Wait, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, even Ghost itself… (I know, hard to believe considering how damn manly I am.) Anyhow, the movie was fantastic until the final act, which I don’t want to spoil but which worried me as soon as it got underway, introducing a device I’m highly skeptical of in movie storytelling. The movie crashed and burned over the final 25 minutes. It went from being one of the most spectacular pieces of futuristic film-making I’d ever seen to merely a brilliantly executed concept that ultimately fell apart and left me highly disappointed.

Let’s Join Together in a Hippie Spirit of Peace, Love, and Unity to Trash Woodstock

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Nov 112013

Hey, gang. Mod’s impertinent commentary about Jimi Hendrix’s late career — and specifically his disdainful dismissal of Jimi’s performance at Woodstock — got me thinking about the original big ‘do at Yasgur’s Farm. A quick search on the web for basic set list information on the event led me to conclude that there was a lot of shit that went down there I had no idea about. CCR? Johnny Winter? Neil Young? Mountain? The Incredible String Band? It got me thinking.

Mainly, it got me thinking: is there a snowball’s chance in hell I would have ever braved the traffic jams, the weather, the stench, and the bad acid to check out this show? And if not: how would the show have to have been edited to get me up there?

Of course, I’m just as eager to understand your opinions on the subject. Have a look at the following set list, and let me know your thoughts.

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

All-Star Jam

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 112013

Liaise with us, won’t you? The All-Star Jam is the place to do your thing!

American Masters Documentary on Jimi Hendrix Confirms That Post-Experience Career Was Pretty Much a Waste

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 072013

Despite oh-so-reverential commentary by eternal rock dude-scholar David Fricke to the contrary the recent PBS American Masters documentary on Jimi Hendrix confirmed that the guitarist’s post-Experience career was pretty much a waste. Did you watch it? The trailer, above, is pretty cool in its own right, and even if you don’t care for Hendrix you will get a quick look at modern-day Steve Winwood‘s brilliant and unexpected muttonchops!

Dugout Chatter: Post-Lou Reed Edition

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Nov 072013

Lou Reed…as E. Pluribus Gergely likes to remember him!

It’s the beginning of a Lou Age. Some questions remain in the balance following the death of Lou Reed that, following a respectful period of mourning, perhaps Rock Town Hall is best qualified to answer.

If his album with Metallica is the last batch of new recordings to have been released does that mean that that album was, definitively, the final word on how Lou Reed was meant to sound, or will the ghost of Lou emerge to proclaim that each new set of posthumous recordings that emerge is actually how his music was meant to sound?
Who will play Lou in the biopic? Assuming that a dearth of opportunities for badly glued-on facial hair will keep Oliver Stone out of consideration as director, who should direct this film?
Who do you predict will be the least-appropriate musician to appear in a sure-to-be-star-studded tribute to Lou held at Madison Square Garden or the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame? What song will said artist butcher or, shockingly, make work? What song will a hip-hop artist cover? What song will a contemporary country artist cover? Will Arcade Fire back Bowie or Springsteen?
Will we ever get the real story on Reed’s teenage or post-Velvets shock treatment? Is that a rock myth along the lines of Dylan’s motorcycle crash and ZZ Top performing with buzzards and buffalo on stage?

I look forward to your answers.

Please Help Me Decipher the Video for Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”

Posted by hrrundivbakshi

Nov 062013

We all have our favorite trainwreck songs and videos — bits of musi-cultural flotsam that we remain fascinated by, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that they repel us. One of mine is the song “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake. Man, this song has everything: an idiotic lyric, a singer who gloriously over-sings every line (my particular favorite: “I ain’t wastin’ no more taahhhm”), the wailing “here I goooo agaaaain” just before the tasteless solo; it’s just awesome.

But it’s the video I ned your help with today. I watched this for, like, the 500th time this morning, as marital get-back on my wife for making me listen to some awful Asia song she YouTubed in a fit of high school nostalgia. And, once again, I fell under its spell.

So many questions: why is the girl sprawled across two cars, when David Coverdale only ever drives one of them? Why is Coverdale’s glorious blonde mane always back-lit, making it look smaller? How is Coverdale able to drive with that girl literally crawling all over him? Why does he only smile once in the whole video — and why at that precise moment? What makes David Coverdale happy?

Though I’m looking for something a bit deeper than just a laundry list of “wait for it moments,” I would like to call a few out for your review, in the hopes they may shed some light on the intended meaning of this film.

First, Coverdale’s blatant crotch-stare at 2:00:

Now, his sweet and tender butterfly kiss, at 2:54:

Note that David’s fellow band-mates also may play important roles in the deciphering of this filmic mystery. Here’s the bass player licking his bass at 4:15:

… and don’t forget to catch the lead guitarist stumbling to his feet after falling to his knees during his fiery solo.

The question for all of these things is: why? What meaning can you find in this short film? I want — no, I need — answers.

I look forward to your responses.

HVB

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