my death of "rock"

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I saw a picture in some guitar magazine of a young five-piece rock band. 2 x guitar, bass, drums singer. Not again, I thought. I had no interest whatsoever in hearing them, in fact I actually actively did not, and do not want to hear them.

I picked up my copy of the chills' "soft bomb", an album I really like, intending to put it on, but horribly, the thought of actually listening to it made me feel physically sick.

I remember when I went to Belgium, to do the FOH sound for the Sunflowers, they were supporting Gallon Drunk, and I remember watching gallon drunk play, and thinking, the birthday party already did this, and they strip-mined this sound, every possible meaningful musical gesture w/this sound has already been done by the birthday party, so why the fuck are this band bothering? I felt bad about this b/c GD were really decent and nice. I feel the same way about "beat" music now, and have done for a while. The last record I got excited by was missy elliot "work it". Since then, nothing. I'm just not interetsed. I don't give a shit. If it's rock music, or anything w/"repetitive beats", I just don't want to know about it or hear it right now. I cannot imagine any new rock band or beat-driven artist of any sub-genre producing anything I would like or even be faintly interested in at this moment in time.

Last night I looked at all of my classical CDs, which lie on the floor under a shelf set b/c of lack of space. I realsied that I haven't listened to any of these CDs in at least a year. I picked out Josquin Desprez' "L'Homme Arme" mass and listened to it. It was like looking at a tapestry, and picking out the golden threads as the wove through the cloth. It was the fucking shit.

To-day, I went to one of my 2 big my CD shelves, and pulled out every rock/contemporary/wtfe you want to call it album by artists starting w a-k, and put all of my classical albums there instead. Out of the rock albums I picked out music by the following artists:

Angalgard
Shirley & Dolly Collins
Julian Cope
The Enid
Broadcast
Dagmar Krause
Fairport Convention
IQ

and the rest of it I put in the place where the classical albums had been.

I kind of feel really upbeat about this.

What do you think? (nb I put this here in ILE on purpose)

(PS ned if yer reading this, I have a couple of chameleons CD "rarities" you might not have, email me plz)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Been there before Pash. My worst problem is live bands, I can't watch bands with guitars/bass/drums anymore, it's just impossible.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i went through a similar thing a few years ago, i couldn't listen to any bass/drums/guitar band, my brain would switch off cos it had heard it all a million times before - i listened to classical & electronic music almost exclusively. its only in the last year or so that i've found myself loving guitar bands again. i had put this down to
1. a preponderance of lousy britpop bands strumming the same bloody chords over and over at the time
2. people doing interesting things with guitars again
but now i'm not so sure, maybe i just needed to rest my ears for a bit.
martin whitehead, shitehead, na na na.

― zappi (joni), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:34 (twenty-one years ago)

YEah, it's not just b/g/d, it's also "fours" in club music. the minut I hear the fours kick in, I just want it to stop. I'll see how I get on, it's nice to know that others have felt the same thing, thx.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, I just sussed the last line of zappi's post. I haven't got that one, I'm afraid.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:40 (twenty-one years ago)

(someone made me a tape about 15 years ago with that song on it!)

― zappi (joni), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:45 (twenty-one years ago)

http://home.btconnect.com/howejam/dadsarmy/images/discography/lp_permis_2.jpg

― ian lavender (elwisty), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

The few rock songs that I listen to nowadays are from groups who get out of it, through noise or what I think is creative use of electronic music, to get back into it better.

― Sébastien Chikara (Sébastien Chikara), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Um, listen to jazz for awhile?

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

You see, I'd rather hear that Clive Dunn album than Pete Doherty any day of the week

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 13:50 (twenty-one years ago)

they're pretty similar when you think about it

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd rather hear that Clive Dunn album than jazz any day of the week.

― Johnney B, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Johnney B hates Jazz

― Masked Gazza, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:09 (twenty-one years ago)

one of the benefits of starting w.v.odd and ahem unfashionable taste as a nipper is that you have plenty o'stuff to return to that's untainted by repetition - listening to and thinking about stuff you used to like long ago but forgot about (w.the benefit of what you learnt since) is a good way (in the long run) to reignite interest in stuff you got tired of more recently

(ie i become interested now in why on earth i wz interested back then)

i have always been more fickle and faddish as a listener than most ppl i know, so i have really a LOT to retreat to and reinvest in

alsi i have never been even slightly a completist: i get bored quickly = i maintain (a different kind of) interest long-term?

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Korean opera.

Korean opera will cure you of all your western beat music woes.

Instead of using the relaxed heartbeat as the center of the tempo metric, the Koreans use relaxed BREATHING.

Then they take that (10-15 BPM?) and compose everything in three or five or seven or so. Not as if you can tell at that speed.

Instrumentation: One old man or woman singing, sort of, one old man or woman playing a drum, and occasionally - OCCASIONALLY - some folks drop in with a stringed instrument or a flute of some sort. Not often.

Listening to that once in a while is a lot like switching to a diet of strictly white rice and fresh fruit eaten only using your hands for a week. Or possibly like when you get up really really fucking early in the morning but you still feel well-rested and you don't even need coffee.

I think perhaps I will listen to some tonight while I clean house!

― TOMBOT, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:13 (twenty-one years ago)

this thread reminded me to pull this blog entry out, wz reading it yesterday: - http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/archives20041201.shtml#93558

not all rock is straight beats, do you still listen to drones?

(the problem with no-wave is that there's not enough of it)

(I did a thread on pekinese opera on ilm - i only gt 2-3 ans but no recommendations)

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes I get a feeling of satiation with respect to rock/pop and the like - kind of like the feeling one would get after eating a bowl of cookie dough. You want to listen to something that's not so insistent and doesn't wear all its colors on its sleeve. That's when I usually put on a jazz (or classical) record. Sometimes this feeling might last for up to a day, but generally by the next day, I'm ready for more cookie dough.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)

One thing. If you're off rock, why are you reading guitar mags?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, guitars needn't mean "rock". I've been thinking for a while about buying a Cittern, and there was a feature on early instruments in it.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Start with a Bittern and work your way up.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I know that guitars /= rock, but guitar mags usually do.

I've almost stopped listening to music at all lately, for much the same reasons. I think part of it is that at various points in my life, I was heavily invested (emotionally, lifestyle-wise, etc) in the idea of music, and when those stocks failed to produce any real dividends (aside from a few free t-shirts, but fewer than I would've gotten had I merely joined a bowling league or softball team), I'm just kinda like, fuck. Silence. Sounds good.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

This happens to me periodically too, i've been into electronic music mainly for a good 15 years or so but in the last 3 years or so i've been getting progressively more bored and then frustrated by it - i only very occaisionally hear something that excites me. Variety is always the answer though, that and Dub Reggae.

― jed_ (jed), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I think this happens to a lot of people, Pash. Don't sweat it. When I get sick of all the bullshit "rock," I listen to stuff like Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson's "Blue Skies," and Ella Fitzgerald. Stuff that makes me hold my breath, ya know?

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

half the brotherhood of breath are on that clive dunn album!

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Willie Nelson's "Blue Skies,"

there you go.

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:13 (twenty-one years ago)

CITTERN WORLD

- 100 Renaissance Licks That SCORCH
- Hot Gear: Kustom 11-String CT5512
- Interview: Roger Landes Gets Wild Backstage

― Paul Eater (eater), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:24 (twenty-one years ago)

i married a hip hop and drum'n'bass loving man. yum yum. it immediately cured me.

― nathalie doing a soft foot shuffle (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Cured you of what? Tanglefoot?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Is tanglefoot even something to be cured of? Or is it a plant?

― Huk-L, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. So you've lost interest in the music you've been listening to, so what? Read some books or something.

I haven't bought many records over the last six months and it's nice not to feel that I HAVE to keep finding good new music. I work on my own music and listen to my records that I enjoy and if I happen across something that sounds great, all the better.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

btw yo p (n) did you happen to get my random email about the likelyhood of me being able to figure out "repackaging" a midi keyboard?

― ronny longjohns (ronny longjohns), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 16:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Silence. Sounds good.

It does! That was my revelation of two years back in particular, though I had always appreciated just sitting and thinking in general.

it's nice not to feel that I HAVE to keep finding good new music

That it does. It's been a good year for it so far but I'll be damned if I get on the treadmill fully again.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

YOU KEPT IQ???

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Cured you of what?

a sexless life. ;)

― nathalie doing a soft foot shuffle (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I kept the IQ albums out, and put the Genesis ones under the shelf. Go figure (shrugs)

Ronny, sorry, I forgot to reply, I'll write a reply tonight, after the little terror has gone to sleep.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Pash, I didn't listen to much 'rock' for years until I met my present gf who is a glam/punk/pop afficionada diehard. After years of only listening to french chanteuses, lieder, opera, 19th Cent. French composers, jazz, blues, and whatnot, I find I actually enjoy the stupid enthusiasm of many of the bands now 're-discovering' rock. It's cute and reminds me of a time when I was more naive.

― Michael White (Hereward), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I do get a little tired of the "My God, this is all been done before by band Y... this sounds EXACTLY like band J..." or whatever. Rock has consistently recycled itself almost since the inception, folk as well. CCR, Flamin' Groovies, etc. were almost like rockabilly revivalists 35 years ago. I'm frankly amazed that so many good singles emerge out of the same four chords (though very few albums are worth a shit anymore...).

― andy ---, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM. I know it happens to me. My affinity for the 5-piece rock band you describe comes in waves. It's a sound, and sometimes I'm in the mood for it and sometimes I'm not. There's a lot of music in the world, fortunately.

I announced a few weeks ago that I am done with sad-ass indie rock forever, spurred by listening to The Arcade Fire and finding myself getting angry at the stereo, and maybe I am done with sad-ass indie rock forever and maybe I'm not. Maybe I just don't like music that depresses the shit out me anymore?

Life goes on. Music is an accessory. Don't sweat it.

Anyway

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

the arcade fire sounds sad to you? please don't listen to any red house painters any time soon, you will kill yourself for sure.

I go through these moods all the time, going totally cold on one type of music. It never lasts. Can't expect your tastes to stay static your entire life.

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I still like Red House Painters. Not that I pull it out anymore, but still. It's weird, my reaction to Arcade Fire -- no one else seems to have it, certainly not my girlfriend who still inflicts it on me constantly. But every time I hear that guy's voice, something deep in my gut tells me that life is not worth living and I should kill myself in the messiest possible way. It's a terrible feeling.

― Fish fingers all in a line (kenan), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

My default setting for seeing pictures of bands in magazines is "I don't care", which feels like it's my default setting for music in general. Somehow, though, I love lots and lots of music. Sometimes I wonder if it's my age that makes me generally indifferent, but then I remember I was the same when I was younger. "Oh yeah, yet more of that." One factor may be that I have never really played in a band, barely see any concerts, and don't have any sustained involvement with music promotion or industry, scenes, etc.. I listen to lots of recordings, research what I'm interested in and occasionally talk to people about different music. I make music, too, of a rudimentary sort, but rarely publicly. I think as far as rock music goes, I admit I don't much understand it close up but do appreciate it at a distance. I never find myself geting tired of musical forms, but neither am I as involved or as concerned with a larger picture as some people. I guess, to me, musical shapes have much less impact than other kinds of social shapes.

― Pangolino again, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"You'll catch your death of rock!"

― RS, Wednesday, 23 February 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Golly people.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

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