Blog Now With My Music!

So I was able to navigate the complexities of Reverbnation, and have added a little sidebar widget to my blog that will allow any visitor to listen to my music!  It may also allow for it to be downloaded, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, just look to your left to see the little player, and you can now listen to "Dissolve" right on the same page!  How easy is that?

BIG NEWS!

Well, I think it's big news...

I've put together an EP of some of my best music!

My official bandname is "Baldanders", after the character of the same name in Gene Wolfe's brilliant "Book of the New Sun" Tetralogy.

The EP is called "Dissolve".  I selected that title because it seemed all of the songs are about someone losing their own self in some manner, whether it be for good or bad.  Although two of the tracks are instrumental.  (The last track is a bit different from the rest...though it is still about losing something.  But it rather takes the position of trying very desperately to hold onto the thing that is being lost.)

I created a reverbnation account that I'll try to build up on in the coming weeks.  I'm hoping I can find someone out there who would be willing to design for me some visual pieces relating to each song on the EP, so that I can create a real hardcopy version of the disc.

In the meantime, you can listen to it fully at the link below, and download it too for free.  I'll try to figure out one of the reverbnation widgets also, so that I can imbed the EP in the blog permanently.

Listen to "Dissolve" here: http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/2702532

Music Super Friends

It's time for another entry.  I really do want to update this blog more often.  I should make more of an effort; I am sorry.


Anyways, I joined Twitter some time in 2008 (I think...).  Soon after I joined, I met a musician from Bristol, UK named Rossanne Hamilton.  I listened to her music, and I really enjoyed it.  She's very talented, and we've corresponded quite a bit over the past year.  It's been a great experience.  I don't know many musicians, so it's fun to talk to her about music.


She has a new website, and I thought I'd mention it here.  Not many people read this blog, but every little bit helps!  I've added a music player to my sidebar that plays a selection of her songs.  I recommend listening!


Her website is located at: http://rossannehamilton.bandzoogle.com/fr_home.cfm


Check it out!  Spread the word about her!


Speaking of music, I've recorded a new song.  It's maybe a bit too short...but I'm quite happy with how it turned out.  You can listen to it in the embedded video right here!  It's called Voyager.





My birthday was not that long ago, and my parents gave me a 50 dollar credit for the iTunes store, so I've been downloading music lately.  What I have purchased so far:


The song "He Hit Me" by Grizzly Bear.  It's one of my favourite songs ever.


The self-titled album from Them Crooked Vultures.  Awesome stuff.  Josh Homme really knows how to play with song structure.  I wish I could write music as varied as him.  So many different movements.


The album "Victory Garden" by Laura Barrett.  She plays the Kalimba.  I saw her open for the Magnetic Fields back in February, and really enjoyed her music, so I thought I'd buy her album.  I like supporting new artists.


The album "The Charm of the Highway Strip" by the Magnetic Fields.  Always a good choice.


And finally "Get Color" by HEALTH.  They are pretty amazing.  Give them a listen!


I still have about 11 dollars to spend on the store, but I'm not sure what else to get.  I'll have to do more surfing.  I am always very reluctant about buying music for some reason.  I always want to make sure I'm getting the best possible music for the best possible price.  I rarely buy individual songs, you see...I like buying whole albums.  I'm traditional that way.  

Realism

You think I'll run, not walk, to you

Why would I want to talk to you?

I want you crawling back to me

Down on your knees, yeah

Like an appendectomy

Sans anaesthesia.

Last night, at midnight, I rushed to my computer, logged in to iTunes, and purchased the new Magnetic Fields record, entitled "Realism."  I am a huge Magnetic Fields fan, and have been since around 2001 or 2002.  My sister was a fan to start with, and I heard a few of their songs that she had downloaded, namely "Take Ecstasy With Me", but I gave them very little thought.  However, I soon discovered that one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, was a very big fan of theirs as well (he thanked Stephin Merritt in the acknowledgments section of "American Gods".)  Seeing as how my life-long dream is to somehow transmogrify into Neil Gaiman, I decided to give The Magnetic Fields a second chance.

I haven't looked back since.  For my money, Stephin Merritt (front man and songwriter for the band) is one of the finest songwriters and lyricists on the planet today.  His songs are beautiful, ironic, heart-breaking, and joyous, usually all at once.  The melodies take unexpected turns, and there is usually a hidden level of malice in the lyrics (just listen to "California Girls" for an example of this).  He's also mastered the art of storytelling through song. 

His songs are highly identifiable too.  I don't think there's one song of his I haven't identified with in some way.  Well... maybe "Zombie Boy".

I've been really anticipating this new release from them because I'm going to see them in concert in just under two weeks.  They are coming to Toronto and will be playing at the Queen Elizabeth Theater.  I've never seen them play live, so I'm very excited about that. 

Anyway, back to "Realism" (released by Nonesuch Records).  This record seems to be a bit like their 2004 release "I", in that it is heavily focused on acoustic recordings with a folk flavour.  Though it is also quite dissimilar to "I".  Whereas "I" had a consistent melancholy streak in it (the first song on it is "I Die"), "Realism", at least on the first few listens, seems more flirtatious and free.  Though of course, this flirtatiousness often plunges sadly and suddenly into dark pits of despair.  You should always anticipate this in a Magnetic Fields song.  Even up until the last line.

Songs like "We are Having a Hootenanny", "The Dolls' Tea Party", and "Everything is One Big Christmas Tree" exemplify this free-spirited attitude.  For example, on "Everything is One Big Christmas Tree", for no discernible reason Stephin starts singing the second half of the song in German, and with as big and over the top a voice as if he were suddenly performing in a Bavarian beer hall.  It makes the song just as playful and silly as its title.

But perhaps the best way to describe the record is that it is a marked contrast to the band's previous release "Distortion".  "Distortion" was an album where every melody, every emotion, was crushed ruthlessly under heavy, mind-swimming, headache-inducing feedback.  It was a very difficult record, and certainly the band's greatest experiment (and one I've found to be very rewarding after multiple listens). 

"Realism", on the other hand, is an entirely acoustic record.  The liner notes proudly proclaim NO SYNTHS (though Claudia Gonson is credited with playing "leaves").  The melodies are given free reign to grow and stand up on their own.  Thus we are given a musical experience free of artifice and confusion.

Or are we?

The title, after all, is "Realism", not "Reality".  And Realism is just as much a lie as anything that is distorted; only it doesn't have the courtesy to tell you it's a lie.  

I'm looking forward to listening to "Distortion" and "Realism" back to back, as I think there will be unexpected results.  The two records are certainly intended to be linked together as companion pieces.  Stephin Merritt has said this publically, and the album artwork for both records shares the same design concept: bathroom door symbols ("Distortion" has the man, while "Realism" has the woman). 

I won't pretend that I understand what the point of it all is: what these records are meant to be saying.  Maybe they aren't saying anything.  Art never needs to have a point to it.  In fact, art is often stronger when there is no point.  That way the art can be appreciated for the thing itself, and not just be seen as some kind of vehicle to pass on a veiled meaning or message.

I will spend more time with the record over the next few months and years.  I'm interested to see how my attitude towards it changes as I become more familiar with it.  My first listen to any record is always an awkward experience, as I find I often allow myself to get distracted while listening, and my main desire is usually to get through the whole thing as quickly as possible.  Only over time, when I have listened to the songs many times, do I usually gain a true appreciation for what is going on in any given record. 

"Realism" is a pretty short one, running just over half an hour.  I do wish it could have been a bit longer, but the album still manages to fit in 14 songs.  And, as with all their records, it never runs short of ideas.  After almost 20 years of releasing music, The Magnetic Fields are still vibrant, relevant, and surprising.

See you in two weeks!  I can't wait.