Metal Machine Music.

Have you been listening to it exclusively, or whilst you're doing other things? (sub question- what _would_ MMM be the perfect accompaniment to?)

Personally, I prefer to only listen when I don't have anything else to concentrate on. Try sitting down and smoking a fag. To be honest, I'm not sure why I like it so much, but then I question my motives for listening to anything (especially because, like you, a lot of it is noise)... hmm...

xoxo

Needless to say I love it.

And besides, who cares what Lou's 'intentions' were (and I'm sure they were prob mixed/many/v. confused) - WE can take it seriously even if he didn't...

dudes i am listening to this now, and i should probably go hit the pipe, eh?

try going straight to side c. it is a great album but side a may be the least interesting side. i have the vinyl though and i've never heard the cd. it may be true that the cd is rubbish - it just struck me that most people i know who have the cd hate it.
― sundar subramanian, Thursday, 23 August 2001 00:00 (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Funny, I once put it on and was not 'feeling' it at all. Then I found I had accidentally put on side C rather than side A, so I corrected it, and found it was all right after all.

I have no idea why.

you were hitting the pipe, weren't you?

nyc: the fireworks ensemble is performing MMM in its entirety next week at columbia university:

http://www.millertheatre.com/Events/EventDetails.aspx?nid=1289

whoa so it's the precursor to punk and
a piece of classical music now? wow

Yeah, heck from the descriptions I always thought it similar to Terry Riley.

Recently, I got a copy of "In C", and I was right.

xp not for the first time...

http://www.zeitkratzer.de/mmm.html

I once listened to MMM reversed and at half speed. Which actually transforms it into quite a lovely ambient album.

I like that idea (except it already is quite a lovely ambient album).

Taking it to the streets or something:

Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio: MM3 will be performing what is being described as “A Night of Deep Noise” that features Lou Reed on processed and unprocessed guitars, Ulrich Krieger on tenor sax and live-electronics, and Sarth Calhoun on continuum and live processing – a collaborative affair that will see all three musicians improvise music and make soundscapes. The Metal Machine Trio originally debuted at the REDCAT Theatre in Los Angeles in October 2008.

Each concert will feature no songs and no vocals. The trio will utilise guitars, saxophones, continuum, plus an array of electronic treatments that will venture into deep acoustic space. The collaboration will draw on new music, free jazz, avant-rock, noise and ambient in a set of intense conceptual pieces and intuitive improvisations.

my friend saw the REDCAT Theatre show. said it was good! Lou would step on some pedals, make some noise, grimace at the other musicians, then motion to his roadie for a different guitar. repeat.

http://www.loureed.com/metalmachinemusic/

Re-mastered (sic)

Thoughts? Worth the $?

Well the diehard MMM fans (yes, they're out there) will tell you that all CD versions sound like complete shit compared to the original 1975 vinyl, so a remastered version is definitely welcome.

Sadly, it doesn't say anything about whether it has the original liner notes, which are almost as infamous as the music itself. (if anybody's got the original record and a digital camera laying around, I'd love to read them!!)

Sadly, it doesn't say anything about whether it has the original liner notes, which are almost as infamous as the music itself. (if anybody's got the original record and a digital camera laying around, I'd love to read them!!)

Copy/pasting from http://www.angelfire.com/ks/mmbsts/mmm.html

Passion--REALISM--realism was the key. The records were letters. Real letters from me to certain other people. Who had and still have basically, no music, be it verbal or instrumental to listen to. One of the peripheral effects typically distorted was what was to be known as heavy metal rock. In Reality it was of course diffuse, obtuse, weak, boring and ultimately an embarrassment. This record is not for parties/dancing/background romance. This is what I ment by "real" rock, about "real" things. No one I know has listened to it all the way through including myself. It is not meant to be. Start any place you like. Symmetry, mathematical precision, obsessive and detailed accuracy and the vast advantage one has over "modern electronic composers." They, with neither sense of time, melody or emotion, manipulated or no. It's for a certain time and place of mind. It is the only recorded work I know of seriously done as well as possible as a gift, if one could call it that, from a part of certain head to a few others. Most of you won't like this and I don't blame you at all. It's not meant for you. At the very least I made it so I had something to listen to. Certainly Misunderstood: Power to Consume (how Bathetic): an idea done respectfully, intelligently, sympathetically and graciously, always with concentration on the first and formost goal. For that matter, off the record, I love and adore it. I'm sorry, but not especially, if it turns you off.

One record for us and it. I'd harbored hope that the intelligence that once inhabited novels or films would ingest rock, I was, perhaps, wrong. This is the reason Sally Can't Dance--your Rock n Roll Animal. More than a decent try, but hard for us to do badly. Wrong media, unquestionably. This is not meant fo the market. The agreement one makes with "speed". A specific acknowlegment. A to say the least, very limited market. Rock n Roll Animal makes this possible, funnily enough. The misrepresentation succeeds to the point of making possible the appearance of the progenitor. For those for whom the needle is no more than a toothbrush. Professionals, no sniffers please, don't confuse superiority (no competition) with violence, power or the iustifications. The Tacit speed agreement with Self. We did not start World War I, II or III. Or the Bay of Pigs, for that Matter. Whenever. As way of disclaimer. I am forced to say that, due to stimulation of various centers (remember OOOOHHHMMM, etc.), the possible negative contraindications must be pointed out. A record has to, of all things Anyway, hypertense people, etc. possibility of epilepsy (petite mal), psychic motor disorders, etc... etc... etc.
My week beats your year.

Lou Reed

And from http://www.discogs.com/release/310645

SPECIFICATIONS
Sony 1/2 track
Uher 1/4 track
Pioneer 1/4 track
5 piggyback Marshall Tube Amps in series
Arbitor distortor (Jimi's)
Marantz Preamps
Marantz Amps
Altec Voice of America Monitor Speakers
Sennheiser Headphones
Drone cognizance and harmonic possibilities vis a vis Lamont Young's Dream Music
Rock orientation, melodically disguised, i.e. drag
Avoidance of any type of atonality.
Electro-Voice high filter microphones
Fender Tremolo Unit
Sunn Tremolo Unit
Ring Modulator/Octave Relay Jump
Fender Dual Showman Bass Amp with Reverb Unit (Pre-Columbia) white
No Synthesizers
No Arp
No Instruments?
--10 db + 57db
--20 hz--+30,000 hz
--12 kz--+28,000 kz
Distortion 0.02 bass and treble ceilings
Combinations and Permutations built upon constant harmonic Denstity Increase and Melodic Distractions.
STRICT STEREO SEPARATION
No panning
No phasing
No

x-post I think Lou was in, ahem, an altered state when he wrote that.

The perfect holiday gift for your loved one

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/arts/music/09fireworks.html?ref=music

had no idea that was happening. so pissed. i even interviewed the guy that arranged it like 3 years ago

I'm listening to this for the first time. It's pretty.

yeah this is really really great

slowing it down by 800% would be totally redundant

it's like a bunch of star trek sound effect stacked on top of each other

It sounds like a vacuum cleaner.

http://imagemacros.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/gangsta_dyson.jpg

endeavoring to listen to this entire thing for the first time in my life

this is kind of boring

I used to put it on at night and go to sleep. Like a cheap white noise generator.

You kind of have to do nothing and let in envelope you. It can be very zen.

I find it kind of peaceful.

yeah at high volume I can see how it would be abrasive but really what it reminds me of most are some of those toy japanese noise generator things that are supposed to "soothe" you to sleep... it's not bad per se, but it's kind of monotonous

I saw Neil Young on the tour that Arc was taken from and the recording of it just doesn't capture the immersiveness of hearing That Sound in a big arena.

lou namechecking lamonte young on the sleevenotes to MMM makes me think the rec was in part an attempt to say "hey, Cale isn't the only VU dude who knows their minimalism"

... and spelling his name wrong of course

yeah but would you say the same of other stuff in this vein? i mean that is probably both accurate and too dismissive.

Not sure, but I don't think Xenakis was shooting up speed and downing bottles of whisky like they were soda pop when he composed "Bohor"

this album is fine in small doses, but in my view, it's fairly monotonous in the grand scheme of avart-garde experimental music. i think the love of this album has more to do with 1) people's love of lou reed, 2) the album as a 'statement', and 3) good ol' fashioned contrarianism. I can go with 1) and 2), but there's no way you're gonna tell me this is amazing and indispensable music.

I'd take issue with that ^ but then I feel the same way about loads of stuff beloved of ILXors, so live and let hate I guess

this album is fine in small doses

I hear it as Lou's version of Tony Conrad's violin pieces in that it has to be this long for it to work. And it does.

everyone should listen to this in its entirety in between listening to other records, as a sort of palate cleanser.

Would really love to hear the quadraphonic mix of this, but I lack the system/speakers. Kind of amazing, though, that RCA even made a quad edition of this.

this album is fine in small doses, but in my view, it's fairly monotonous in the grand scheme of avart-garde experimental music.

Well, it's not really top notch experimental music, let's be honest. Still great though. In small doses.

Used to think this album was dope but I guess I was just lying to myself, should have realised that a bunch of things that sound nothing like this would better serve my desire for things that sound like this

For me, it shifts from affecting to intolerable and back again in waves, and the waves are never the same from listen to listen. An inverted 4'33", more about the listener than the composer.

Very well said WilliamC, pretty much agree with that. I really love it, but I am definitely wired hard for this kinda thing.

It's also, in its own way, earwormy. I have those sounds stuck in my head right now.

Oh definitely.

i think the live thing is cool. cool idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv8cJneLJkU

The live thing is insane, I cna't believe they did it. Hadn't seen video of it, definitely cool in its own way.

That's impressively close, especially given the instrumentation.

I mean, when Lou plays the guitar for the first time and the whole band suddenly drops out, that is some A+ showmanship .... Not to spoil this for anyone if you haven't watched it.

yeah, the live MMM is pretty amazing, made me really re-consider the album as a whole. my friend saw him do it in LA and said it was one of the most intense concert experiences of his life.

I bet, with the right live sound and room I am sure it was amazing (which they must have had, cause why bother with that kinda thing unless you are going to do it right).

When I was going through a really bad psychological phase a few years ago, I would "hear" all these metal-grinding, scraping, polyphonous, chaotic, yet somehow beautiful sounds in my head all the time & wished I had the musical/technological chops to somehow set them to tape. When I finally heard Metal Machine Music I was like; "AHA! No need."

xp yeah i think it was at the disney hall in LA iirc? which is pretty amazing.

Would really love to hear the quadraphonic mix of this, but I lack the system/speakers. Kind of amazing, though, that RCA even made a quad edition of this.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, October 30, 2013 10:00 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fixed

Supposedly, his RCA contract stipulated that they had to release whatever he gave them.

that explains a lot.

so among other things this was a kind of fuck-you to RCA

Yeah. The story is that they put a lot of pressure on Lou to make a quickie follow-up to Sally Can't Dance. So Lou was all, "No problem! In fact, let's make it a double!"

Lol

Well, it's not really top notch experimental music, let's be honest.

yes it is

While listening to MMM this morning, I kept thinking of Ian MacDonald saying that "Revolution 9" was informed by Lennon's "pop-bred sense of texture and proportion." I think the same applies to Reed here. It's not so much that Nono (among others) couldn't have approached it this way as that he wouldn't have.

It's top-notch music. "Experimental" is a marketing term.

Experimental music in 1975? Huge market. Record companies were slapping that label onto everything.

McCartney/Wings "Wild Life" = Experimental Music

While listening to MMM this morning, I kept thinking of Ian MacDonald saying that "Revolution 9" was informed by Lennon's "pop-bred sense of texture and proportion." I think the same applies to Reed here.

I think that's otm. MMM isn't as conceptually rigorous as a lot of minimalist compositions but it makes up for that with pop appeal.

a lot of experimental music is concerned with process above all else, but you could say that MMM is primarily concerned with the gesture or gimmick which is like the purest essence of pop. and then incidentally it sounds great too.

those are interesting thoughts

maybe MMM began to some extent as a gesture of defiance or whatever but also because (as with the young comparisons) it was natural for someone interested in feedback dissonance within pop contexts to abstract that from songform and focus on it as an end itself

even if not in the programmatic fashion of avantgarde composers etc

but it makes up for that with pop appeal.

i completely see what you mean, but you have to admit that for many this is probably an I've-just-passed-through-the-mirror moment on ILM.

also it IS programmatic by rock music standards, it IS about methodology as much as result. or rather to a great extent methodology = result. it's just not as "rigorous" as serial music or whatever.

For all that it's cast as a 'fail' in terms of "sales of a Lou Reed album", I'd bet that it was the biggest seller that year in the 'experimental music' category.

The mp3 album is selling for $3.99 at amazon. Get it while it's hot.

this thread reminds me of this exchange:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcPoZZVm3Dk&feature=player_detailpage#t=85

(1:25 seconds into it)

what do you guys mean by programmatic? like process-based? or systems music? not program music right?

i completely see what you mean, but you have to admit that for many this is probably an I've-just-passed-through-the-mirror moment on ILM.

haha yeah. but I thought that "pop-bred sense of texture" quote was otm. it's not just a long, sustained, seemingly featureless drone but is full of little baroque details and melodies.

Clever, I suppose:

http://youtu.be/17AiDQ2b0ww

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17AiDQ2b0ww

I can't decide which one gets in the way of the other more.

Faintly crude way of saying what we all knew in our hearts and ears.

I wrote a little thing about Maiden.

http://www.stereogum.com/1667509/iron-maiden-albums-from-worst-to-best/list/

This is the only thing I've found to listen to this morning that hasn't made me feel edgy or irritable or distracted. White noise on a loop has a similar effect, I find. Sometimes my brain just feels like it needs to be defragged, y'know?