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Post by Jeff on May 19, 2006 15:10:57 GMT -5
I am finishing up with Time. It's the only one that I've played with in the mastering process. I've added just a tiny bit of Reverb.
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Post by chris on May 19, 2006 15:43:16 GMT -5
In 1995 or 1996 (I think that was the year), when we burned the CDs for Amy B. Altered, I remember that we had to go to our friend Jon Campbell, who was a computer science prof at OSSM, and ask him to help us turn the digital files into a CD that would play in a regular CD player. And, of course, making those digital files in the first place wasn't a piece of cake either... It took a whole lot of time, a whole lot of effort, and a whole lot of floppy disks to transfer it all. How far we've come...
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Post by jtmx1 on May 19, 2006 15:59:52 GMT -5
We are on the air with A Bit Too Much. I plan to let it play all night. 68.203.212.90:8000 Chris, Justin told me about that. Crazy, huh!
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Post by chris on May 19, 2006 16:23:45 GMT -5
Holy crap, that Apple Pills be a good song.
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Post by Jeff on May 19, 2006 16:41:47 GMT -5
A note on the effects chain I used for compression and noise reduction. If you hate it, then this is what not to do:
1. Waves L3 MultiMaximizer --> 2. Waves X-Click --> 3. Waves X-Crackle --> 4. Waves X-Noise --> 5. Blue Tubes Stereo Imager --> 6. Waves L3 UltraMaximizer
The exact settings changed with every song, but the workhorse settings were on X-Crackle and X-Noise.
Jeff
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Post by chris on May 19, 2006 17:05:34 GMT -5
I just listened to the version of "Time" on here, and I have something to get off of my chest. At the very beginning of that recording, Justin snaps "What do you want?" at someone (who I hope is Amanda, since he later says, "I love you" to this person). But after he expresses his annoyance, what does he say??? "I thought you were Chris."
"I thought you were Chris."
Oh, but since it WASN'T Chris, you had no reason to be annoyed. It's only if it WAS Chris that you would have been annoyed.
I understand. I'm annoying. I get it.
8^)
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Post by ryan on May 19, 2006 19:36:04 GMT -5
Hey, I just got online for the first time since two nights ago, been doing some catching-up. Jeff: I have a copy of "A Bit Too Much" that may be in better condition than yours. But then, I'm not sure. It was a copy of Justin's master, I think, and I played it a lot in my crappy car tape-player. I have a sheet which Justin provided me that lists all the songs, along with a few notes on each song. I fondly remember reading these notes and thinking what a nifty idea Justin had, in giving a brief synopsis of each song. When Wayne Coyne started doing the same thing years later, I thought, "Hey, Justin did that first!" My favorites from the collection were pretty much anything that had vocals -- but especially Someplace Else, Crosslands, Shine On (Martian Mamma), and Heavensent. This is the only tape I have of Justin's material, and I've always wanted him to provide me with more -- but for one reason or another that has yet to happen (nudge, nudge). Chris and Jeff: We three are all excited about Indiginous Radio. I want to make sure we don't get carried away with ourselves, though, and sink a bunch of money into an enterprise that has shown no potential for return. I would like to start small, making our station accessible to others, but fully expecting only those in the Indigenous Circle to tune-in. In making the station more accessible, I still think Live365 would be a good idea. I think we could start with the P100 account, which is $14.95/mo. This account would give us 200mb of storage and 50 listeners (plus 10 "live/relay" listeners, but I don't understand what that means). This means that we'd pay $179.40 annually, we'd have about 50 songs on our playlist (assuming each song represents an average of 4mb), and everyone in the Indigenous Circle could tune-in, plus a few others. I think this is the most sensible way to get into it, provided everyone is willing to ante-up a share. But this raises a very pertinent question: How many people are interested in doing this, and how much is each person willing to pay? We should start a poll, Jeff. I'll leave this to you, because I don't know how to do it. Present a question like, "How much would you be willing to donate, per year, to keep Indigenous Radio broadcasting online?" Have categories like $25 or less, $26-$50, $51-$75, etc. This way, we can get an idea of how much money we can raise without embarassing anyone. We should let the results of this poll dictate what we do. If only Jeff, Chris, and I are willing to donate, then the three of us should discuss how much we'd each be willing to sink into the project, and reassess whether or not we really want to do it. Beyond that, I share Jeff's enthusiasm about promoting our radio station -- but I also share Chris's cynicism about it. Let's keep our feet planted firmly in reality. I don't even tease myself into thinking that we'll find ourselves averaging 50 simultaneous listeners anytime soon. Maybe not ever. But then, that's really a lot listeners, if you think about it. That doesn't mean that 50 people know about our station and tune-in sometimes. That means that 50 people are tuning-in at once. If we find our station topping-out at 50 listeners on a regular basis, I'll be ecstatic. Until then, I think we should take only the most sensible approach to promotion: The Free Ride. We should create an "Indigenous Radio" myspace site, featuring a selection of songs that are regularly in-rotation (downloads disabled, please -- people should have to go to the artists' pages to download the songs). There should be a link on the MySpace page, which would direct casual browsers to our station on Live365, so they can tune-in just a couple of clicks away from our MySpace site. I think we should also have a "real" website. I've designed several sites, but my skills are a bit outdated. I know HTML 4.0 Transitional and CSS 2. I'm deeply interested in learning how to create dynamic websites using PHP and MySQL. This is the modern way to do it. In fact, if we wanted to keep the station's website very simple, we could use a program like Wordpress (www.wordpress.org) to make the creation and adminisration of the site easier. If you haven't checked-out Wordpress, you really should. It's a fantastic program, and it's free. I have a blog I created in Wordpress. It's located at www.collapsiblefortunes.com/imwithstupid. It's pretty bland right now, because I'm still using a slightly modified version of the default theme. I've been planning a major facelift, but I haven't had the time to sink into it yet. The upshot is, Wordpress makes it very easy to create a website that any one of us could administrate; its back-end is very easy to use, and different users can be granted different levels of access. Some of us could be authorized only to write articles (content); others could be authorized to edit the form of the website, delete or archive old articles, re-organize content, etc. This is the definition of a "dynamic website" in a nutshell. In technical jargon, a dynamic website is one which stores all the content in a database, so that it can be fetched by server-side scripts and built into HTML pages on-the-fly, which are served-out to the end-user. From the end-user's perspective, it looks like you just have one of those fancy websites which lets you search all its articles in a staggering number of ways. Amazon.com and Musiciansfriend.com are two of the most well-known dynamic websites. Of course, there are others, like Pitchforkmedia.com, and IMDB.com which are not storefronts. So, to sum everything up: * We need to find out how much money we're likely to gather for Indiginous Radio. The results of this poll will inform our decision about what kind of account to get. * After we've gathered and analyzed our poll-data, and come to an agreement on what kind of account we should get, we should appoint officers (not to get too corporate, but just to have a definite way of doing things). We will need an administrator, and a treasurer. This could be two different people, or it could be one person. The administrator would be in charge of establishing the account, keeping it online, and making updates as necessary. The treasurer would be in charge of receiving and keeping track of everyone's donations, and keeping a running total of donations somewhere on the Indigenous forum. * Those who actually do donate money should be "shareholders" in Indigenous Radio, meaning that they get to have some sway over the station's business decisions. I would define a "business decision" as any decision which involves the expenditure of shareholders' money. One such decision would be: "What kind of account do we want to purchase?" I think this is a good idea, since it ensures that those with the most personal and financial interest in the station get to call the shots. But I don't know how all the details would work. This is an area that needs further brainstorming. * Once the Live365 station is off the ground, we should immediately set-up a Myspace site, since that's a free and effective method of advertising our station to the outside world. * We should build an Indigenous Radio website, which I envision as a dynamic site focused on us, our music, and our station. I think it should be a dynamic website, allowing all of us to contribute content about ourselves, our songs, our music, etc. Hell, we could even post our music reviews and stuff there, if we want. The site should provide a link to our Live365 station -- or, even better, should contain a "play" link right on the page (I wonder if that's possible?). We should also have links to all our "band" sites on the Indigenous Radio website. And, with each artist's permission, we should have some MP3's available for download. * We should solicit feedback from others -- both on our MySpace account and on the Indigenous Radio homepage. * If we want, we can also promote the station through other free/cheap methods, such as flyering (as Jeff recommended). * After the radio station and the MySpace page are off the ground, and we've at least got a good start on the Indigenous Radio website, we can discuss ways in which the station might be used to turn a profit. I'm all for making some money off our music, but it's going to be a complicated matter. Aside from the big stumper of, "How can we get strangers to send us money?" there are other, more complicated questions, such as: How are we going to handle the business side? What are we going to do with the money we earn? Sure, some of it will go back into the station, but what if we start making more than the station itself requires? Of course we should each draw a profit in this scenario, but how much, for which people? I pose these questions not for immediate debate, but rather to suggest what a complicated matter the "profitability" of our station will be. If we want to make money off our station, it's a matter we'll have to discuss, when the time comes. Or, perhaps we'll all agree that we'd rather not dip into these waters, and we'll remain nonprofit.
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Post by jtmx1 on May 19, 2006 22:02:06 GMT -5
Ryan,
1. I will put up the poll in just a second.
2. Wow, you have a lot of good ideas about how things should work with the radio venture. In my world that means that you should be the leader. So I vote for Ryan to hold the combined office of administrator/treasurer.
3. Should we bundle the radio idea with the independent website idea? Justin has suggested more than once that we ought to have our own webspace. I agree. The folks at Proboards can take us down any time they want and for no reason at all. The one time I backed up the board--back in January--they banned my IP for a day. We have no control here, and the day may come when we wake up and all our work for the last year is just gone. If we had a website for the radio station, then we could easily make the forum a part of that.
4. If we ever do make any money off this stuff, I will donate 50% of my take to Indigenous Nonprofit, the philanthropic arm of our quest for world domination, which is run by Justin and Cory.
Jeff
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Post by Jeff on May 19, 2006 22:54:24 GMT -5
For anyone listening to the audio stream tonight there is a mistake in the labels for the songs.
1. The song called "Separated (by Leo)" is really "Circumstances (2.0)" 2. The song called "Expatriate Theme" is really "Future Hymns (I Just Fell Down)" 3. And the song called "Circumstances (2.0)" is really "Bailey's Bed"
Only the titles of "Separated (by Leo)" and "Expatriate Theme" appear in tonight's broadcast.
Do I have it right now, Justin?
All Apologies,
Jeff
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Post by Jeff on May 19, 2006 23:18:42 GMT -5
Shit! I found Separated (by Leo) and Expatriate Theme. They are--as a reasonable person might have guessed--recorded on side 1 of the tape. There is a little space after Program No. 1 and then they start up.
In my defense, there are 30 songs on this tape, so I never memorized the titles. But as I think back, now I remember Justin standing in the doorway to my bedroom in my Savanah Ridge apartment in 1997 telling me that he put the first two songs of side 2 at the end of side 1. I do remember, so I've not lost too much to the suds and the years. Just enough to be dangerous. I'll rip these songs tomorrow with the others from El Simple.
Jeff
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Post by Betterout on May 19, 2006 23:40:40 GMT -5
Well, I tuned in to our radio station tonight and started listening to all these old tunes from "A Bit Too Much." I figured I ought to say something about them.
I used to want to be the proverbial Rock & Roll Warrior Prince, and so I spent a lot of my freetime writing and recording songs. That was basically all I did for fun for about several years of my life, specifically between ages 18 and 25 (the college years, I guess). I peaked at around age 21...very productive back then. I didn't have a lot of equipment. Perhaps I should say that I didn't have a lot of NICE equipment--with the exception of our Tascam 464 4-track known lovingly as Cecil. As it turns out, Cecil was exactly what I needed.
A word or two about Cecil and how I came to know him well is in order. Four of us--Warren Hsieh, Darren Thomas, Chris, and me--had chipped in on his purchase in the fall/winter of 1993. We also bought Jeff's old Alesis drum machine at the same time. We first worked with him, if I remember correctly, for our big Stillwater weekend (which Ryan attended--he sang and played guitar, and blew us away... we were still learning how to play B and F without our fingers hurting). Anyway, we each had a share of the equipment, but since we lived all over the globe (at least for a short while), we had a rotating schedule of use. Chris had Cecil first, I think, as he had made the purchase, and because he was going to be heading to France soon and had some ideas he wanted to get recorded. Then came Darren's time. Darren had Cecil during the fall semester of 1994. In that whole time, I don't think he ever took any of the equipment out of the box. My time didn't come until January of 1995, I think. In the meantime, I had been working the most intensive writing sessions of my short life. When Cecil arrived at the door (a funny story by itself), I was so full of music I was ready to burst. Cecil became my creative lens of sorts, allowing me to think and express myself in ways I hadn't even dreamed of prior to getting my grubby paws on him. I must admit, I had gone into my semester with him thinking of the 4-track as a notepad, not realizing that it was actually a musical instrument itself. When I came to realize that, it really opened up the windows in my brain. Lotsa fresh air does a body good.
One of my first big projects was to record a song cycle I'd been working on for a year or so about the Ten Commandments, those that would eventually become the first ten tunes of "ABTM." The thing is, I recognized early on that my lyrical and vocal skills weren't the greatest on the planet. Darren & the minorities (or perhaps an embryonic form of Cadmus Park) was still a going concern at least at the beginning of the semester, so I had intended to collaborate with Chris on the words and vocal melodies. I almost never sang anything at all back then, and even the lyrical themes that supposedly linked these tunes to the Decalogue were no more than just conceptual plans. Kinda like this: "Note to self. Write a song about a guy who draws an unflattering picture of God on a napkin at a coffee shop after his girlfriend breaks up with him. Call it 'Cafe Curtains' for now. See Chris for details."
When I finished recording the first rough drafts of those ten songs--I went through several drafts of most of them, although you wouldn't know it by the poor qualities I eventually accepted as "done enough"--I noticed that I had filled up a lot of the blank space on the tapes with other material. Some of them weren't really anything at all, and others were things that I just kept coming back to for whatever reason. I began to think of these fragments as unclaimed ideas. Well, I mean, I had a claim on them, but my so-called band didn't. Oh... and there was that...
At some point, it became obvious that D&m wasn't really a band anymore. Was it the fact that the most active member of the band lived in Europe? Could be. Was it that Darren wasn't really involved at all? Maybe. And where was Warren? He never came to pick up Cecil and the Alesis for his semester. Was Dave really "in" the band? Still not sure. And even if we were a band, would we ever do a whole album that I wrote all the music on? I doubted it seriously. I think the popular thought about the band by the band members (or Chris and me, at least) was that we were probably going to do little more than mix down our old stuff, reworking some of it as we went. We'd call it a CD and a day. In the meantime, Dave and I were talking a lot about music back then, and recording as much as we could. But I was also talking to other folks about music a great deal and playing with them as often as possible. These folks included Ben, Jeff, Jennifer S., Jess, Joe, Jon, Matt, Pete, Scott, all the guys from Mazzeppa, and a few others. But when we played, were we going to jam on D&m stuff? Well, no. I needed a way to play with those guys and not feel guilty about what we were playing. I needed a bunch of other stuff, hence the "unclaimed" ideas.
By the time fall of 1996 rolled around, things had changed a great deal in my life, and even more had changed in the lives of my friends and family. D&m seemed like ancient history. I was ready to get serious about playing with others, and about staking out my own musical ground. See, my "sound" had emerged. When I got started, I didn't really have a clue what my music sounded like. Was it rock & roll? Could I make the claim that I actually could play the bass guitar (which Ben had gracious left with me for years at a time)? Was my guitar work more like Peter Buck or Dave Gavurin? Did my just-beneath-the-surface Depeche Mode and New Order influences shine through too much for a post-grunge age? Did my voice sound like Andy Partrige's would have had he spent too much time visiting the Midwest? No idea. I simply had no idea at all when I started. But by this time, I had come to realize that most of my musical statements had some degree of identifiable cohesion in scope, design, and instrumentation, for better or worse. Now that I knew what kind of music I played, and had enough material to issue a final word on the songs of mine that I felt comfortable playing with others, the next task seemed obvious: Make a tape and give it to everybody. And I guess part of the idea was also to get my friends to be able to identify this sound of mine that I felt I could spot fairly easily. That way, if they were ever working on something, they could maybe say, "Hey, Justin's capable of writing this kind of song; maybe we can work on it together."
The tape might also contain a not-so-subtle suggestion: JOIN ME. I don't mean to be an asshole in saying that. Let me explain. In the movie Magnolia, the older quiz kid, the one played by Bill Macy, gave a crying testimonial to John Reilly's cop character that he had a lot of love to give but no one to give it to. Wow. I know that pain. I was actually kinda proud of the kind of stuff I was working on musically, and I thought that the core ideas were probably something that someone else within my little circle might also be interested in. And yet I had no audience, because I had never honestly made a statement about what it is that I was like. In that way, th tape was supposed to be my debut of sorts, but to people I already knew and loved instead of strangers.
I felt that the songs I selected for the tape worked pretty well together. They were hit and miss at times, but, hey, they WERE rough drafts. I saw potential in many of them, and I just wanted to convey that potential. That's why I had a couple of versions of the song "Circumstances." A before-and-after to demonstrate that I could at least develop some of these ideas from an early, messy state to a later, slightly-less-messy state. But as I started the actual work of recording the master, it became pretty obvious to me that the cohesiveness that I had hoped an intentive listener might be able to spot was showcased a little too prominently; the tape was becoming hard for me to listen to 'cos it just sounded like an hour or so of just me. I think the title was supposed to reflect that. "A Bit Too Much." It was a Lindsey Buckingham (or was it Gene Simmons) quote about the self-absorbed excesses of 70s pop that had been used in a "History of Rock" videotape that Scott and I had won on a radio contest a few months earlier. It summed up my tape very well. No one could listen to this thing from start to finish, I kept thinking. Heaven help these poor souls.
I'll never get over how receptive everyone has been to the tape over the years. Thanks, guys. I love you all, I hope you know, and I'm glad you've cared enough to listen to my stuff. I'd especially like to thank Jeff for ripping these songs today and providing a very nice intro blurb. Oh, and for setting up the radio station in the first place! Tonight has been a fun tour down memory lane with songs I've not heard in years and years and years. I've really enjoyed it. I'm honored to have been the first Friday Featured Performer in the short history of the station. With any luck, we'll all get a chance to listen, as I have, beet red but beaming.
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Post by ryan on May 20, 2006 0:51:28 GMT -5
Justin, your humility cracks me up. You are a liar of the most ingratiating sort, and I cannot fault you for it, but the truth is, I remember attending that weekend jamfest in Stillwater, and it was at this very jamfest that you first showed me how to tune a guitar. It was your playing and your band which blew me away, and not vice-versa. I remember I wanted so badly to learn to write songs and play guitar, I was kind of in awe of you and Darren and Chris. You asked me to try programming some beats on the Alesis drum machine, and so I took it and sequestered myself in your room for, like, an hour, just programming beat-patterns, thinking maybe I might come up with something that would impress you guys, but to no avail. And then, later, you were looking for something to use as a shaker on "The Nestling," and I felt honored to partake in the decision to use a box of Quaker Oats. You even let me shake the oats on the recording, as I recall, but I don't remember the song now, and I never did get a copy of it. But for what it's worth, I've always considered that weekend in Stillwater to be the day I first picked up a guitar and felt that I could write music. You instilled that idea in me that day, Justin. You gave me the confidence I had been lacking.
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Post by ryan on May 20, 2006 1:02:20 GMT -5
Jeff, I'll be glad to be the administrator/treasurer of the radio station, if everybody's down with it. I was thinking earlier about how we should actually collect everyone's donations, and it hit me -- we should just set up a PayPal account! That way, anyone can donate whenever they want using any major credit or debit card. The money would then be left in the account and withdrawn when necessary to pay the station's overhead. At this point, I'm thinking the overhead would just be the cost of the Live365 account at first, and then the cost of hosting the Indigenous Radio website once it's launched. If you guys would prefer to do an entire Indigenous website as a replacement for the forum (as has been proposed), I can certainly see the logic in that, but I personally would prefer to focus on developing Indigenous Radio first.
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Post by jtmx1 on May 20, 2006 2:30:09 GMT -5
Musings on the first Friday Featured Performance:
Two Blue Murders—One of the four songs from ABTM that I remastered in 2003. I worked for 2 or 3 hours on each of these original remasters. I built new effects chains for each one. I worked from 24/96 samples; I was even careful with the dither. The original rips still sit on my harddrive. If anyone wants them I can send them to you. The reason I started this project is because when I bought my Mazda 626 in 2002 Justin’s tapes were among the first to go in. And the tape deck tried to eat ABTM. I realized that I probably needed a new copy. But when I phoned Justin to ask him for one, he said he didn’t even have the MASTERS anymore. That was the moment that I became protective about these recordings.
Café Curtains—This song always reminds me of 10cc’s “I’m Not In Love.” It’s the bassline of course. The break is what I love most about it. It sounds like being in pain and watching a clock. Slowly the shock is turned to a dull throb, a transition which is itself another pain.
Heavensent—She “casts nets” and lots of other things that aren’t so friendly. I always thought Justin was ironizing here. “People don’t believe me; how easy to deceive we never know.” Isn’t he making fun of the speaker? Why the “only you” after “I love you”? Is there some question? The key words are “I’ll never know.” This song is a companion to “Lucky Stars.” Am I completely wrong, Justin?
A Shorter Story—I don’t think there is anyone working in music today who can convey subtle emotion in guitar work like Justin can. Hear how the guitar sounds itchy and yearning in the long break. Then it changes in to a kind of cry of honest declaration…of what? Of itself. At the very end a clean guitar line enters to clear things up. Justin is the nicest guy in the world. But this is demanding music. If you don’t sit down and clear your head you won’t understand it. Much of it is uncomfortable and sometimes even discordant. But there is a logic.
Apple Pills—Justin calls this song one of his triumphs. If you don’t hear that when the distorted guitar enters at about 2:00, then you are never going to understand this music. It overpowers in a way that adds to the subtlety, if such were possible. Listen to the ending guitar line: Suddenly the whole song (that you’ve already heard) becomes a conversation and you are hearing an ending statement.
Janitorsong—One of my personal favorites. When Emily heard it today she said, “Dad, that is pretty scary.” Then comes the second act. And it feels like drudgery disguising glory. The second half of this song is such a clear statement of the image I have of Justin. My favorite bit is the ending. So thoughtful. When I was in graduate school I used to listen to this tape into the wee hours while I wrote papers on Epistemology and Metaphysics. Justin was pushing his brooms through my mind.
Destruction of Sennacherib—This is glory. God destroys and we are happy. Paradox! How can it be? Justin claims that the minor second is an accident. But God destroyed and it made me happy.
Inaudible—A bit Lou Reed and something else. The chords here do not settle. It reminds me of Wagner, who hated resolutions of any kind. One unresolution moves to another.
Lucky Star—There is a faint discordant guitar that plays throughout this song. It dominates my attention. And I think Justin wants that. The thread of the song is pretty clear, obvious even. But this little plinky guitar gets in the way of the obviousness. Then comes the wonderful descending chords in the break, where the obviousness of the main thread “gets” the plinks. And the final section, a recapitulation of the core problem.
Be my wife—This is a moment of joy, ending, happily ever after. But see how short it is. More than anything, this expresses Justin’s dissatisfaction of easy victories. And he does it using opposite means. Brilliant!
No Place Like—I love my sister, and I know she is an excellent sax player. But this song does not do her justice. More than anything it sounds like Justin and Jessica trying to find a way to work together. I am most pleased by the descending notes that end this song.
Shine On—David Redcorn should take music more seriously. His contribution to this song is immeasurable. But he needs Justin. It is strange to hear Justin as the representative of reason and control; often his music is a reaction to the overbearing conclusions our psychology demands. Justin is as skeptical as David is, but he is also a standard-bearer for the culture he critiques. David, on the other hand, carries the axe and the fire. These two were made for each other.
Not Coming Home—This is another of my favorites. I have no words for this song…other than the fact that I always sing “Good Evening Friends” at the appropriate time.
Someplace Else—Shock and Awe. I have nothing to say about this song. When I heard this song I realized that I would never be as talented as Justin. I’ve played this song for everyone who will listen. I remember playing it for Chip/Clint. He dismissed it, and when he did, I dismissed him. If you don’t like this song, I am sure that I’ll find something suspect about you, too. I feel guilty about that. But I can’t help it.
Maelstrom Test—Wondering. Justin’s music is cool because he takes you with him as he is just thinking about things.
Basil’s Theme—British comedy. But it isn’t funny. It’s distorted and nauseating.
A Garden Song—I love how Justin isn’t afraid to reduce his songs to a single melodic line. This tune is mostly just one thought that goes from one part to another. I think of communication when I hear it.
Circumstances (2.0)—I get distracted by the EQ work here. Not that it is bad. It’s just that's what I always think about.
Future Hymns—Longing and moving toward a goal. I can never decide if it is pessimistic or optimistic. I get the feeling of hope, but it seems redirected, sublimated, and turned into something else. Is that optimism? I don’t think so. Justin tells us over and over again that our hoping is vain. Not that it is futile, but that it reveals more about our personal inadequacies than it does about anything transcendental.
Bailey’s Bed—This is another of my personal favorites. Not much to say about it, other than I hum it a lot.
Inspired—We all know this song is a paean to Amanda. I love you, Amanda, but the dedication aspect of this song sometimes works against it, in my opinion. Lryically this song is simple. Musically, it is brave and wonderful.
Iris (Original Lyric)—This is genius. Everything comes together here. The Depeche Mode/New Order side of Justin, the guitar side, the loss, and the sense that even despite everything reality still stuns us.
Crosslands—I love this one, too, but it bothers me that Justin seems to hate himself so much here. “Shadows of what I couldn’t do.” I always see a field swarming with locusts.
Circumstances (3.0)—Not as good as 2.0. This song scares me more than anything. I am always telling Justin, “I wish you would let me record you. I would love to clean up your basic ideas and help you state your case clearly.” “It’s a Mistake.” (The MaW song this one reminds me most of.) Justin is such a distinctive voice I think he has to record himself, at least on his first Platinum selling CD. After that let the fanbois emulate.
Fine Tuner—This song is still ahead of its time. I called it complex when I first heard it. I have a better response now: sui generis. If Justin ever records seriously again, I think he should start here.
Dear Cherie—Justin makes his guitar sound like an old piano. Something is old and giving way to something new.
Poor Richard—Always seemed a bit happy-go-lucky to me given the seriousness of the theme. I don’t think I’ve ever really grasped this song.
Time—Many times when I hear Justin’s songs I think he is critiquing my life, which is fine since I know nothing about anything but pretend like I do for a living. I walk away thinking he accuses he of killing time and talking myself to sleep. This is a good thing for me to think since it makes me avoid just the kind of error that he worries about.
"A Bit Too Much" is a great recording. If you didn't hear it tonight, then you missed out. In a big way. It could have changed your life, as it did my own. (Oh Jeff is being hyperbolically in love with his family and friends, again. We have to forgive him. Hardly.)
I am not stretching anything to say that, for me, this recording is as important as Billy Joel’s Glass Houses, NIN’s Pretty Hate Machine, and Radiohead’s OK Computer. I would only add that perhaps the most poignant line from a Disney film applies to Justin's inclusion in this distinguished list, "This is my family. I found it, all on my own. It's little, and broken, but still good. Yeah, still good." Jeff
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Post by jtmx1 on May 20, 2006 4:05:29 GMT -5
Good night, all. It’s about 4am. Tonight 5 of us listened to Justin’s work. (You know who you are.) There were also two people from the rest of the world who tuned in, each of them for about 1 minute. And again, our station popped up in about 100 searches on the SHOUTcast site. I don’t know what we should take this to mean. Maybe nothing. This is only our second night of broadcasting.
Jeff
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Post by Jeff on May 20, 2006 14:47:50 GMT -5
I guess I am paranoid about people stealing our names. I am in the process of making hotmail, gmail, and myspace accounts under the name "indigenousradio". I will email the password out to all of you through PM on the board.
Are there any other accounts we need?
Jeff
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Post by Jeff on May 20, 2006 15:26:19 GMT -5
Um, bad news. Our name has been pre-empted: www.indigenousradio.com/home.cfmSo, what should we do? I got the hotmail and gmail accounts under indigenousradio@______. It was when I tried to set up the myspace account that I ran into trouble. What should we use for our myspace name? Should we be Indigenouscircleradio? That is rather long. If we set up the yahoo account we will have some free webspace for a makeshift website. A for now kinda thing, but I thought I'd tell you guys before I made any more moves. Jeff
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Post by ryan on May 20, 2006 22:01:57 GMT -5
Jeff, I have some webhosting space I'm not using. It was supposed to be for my Collapsible Fortunes website, but I never have gotten around to starting that. My webhosting account is through Kmet Hosting, a company owned by a good friend of mine, Wassim Metallaoui. I get 1gb of space, 10gb of bandwith, and an unlimited number of email accounts for $9.95/mo. Plus, I talk to Wassim several days a week, and do some copy-writing for the websites he builds, so he's always good to respond about any concerns I have with my service. If you want to check out the webhosting accounts he offers, go to www.kmethosting.com. But what I'm saying is, we really don't need to purchase another webhosting account. I already have a great one. And also, Wassim can register any available domain for us for $14.95 (although there are places that can do it for as cheap as $7). None of which addresses the issue of what our domain-name should be. I dunno. Did you check "www.whois.com?" They're the place to go to find out if a domain-name is already registered. Just typing the URL into your browser and seeing if anything pops up doesn't really mean much, because even if you get "server not found," the URL could still be registered by someone who just hasn't set-up a webhosting space yet. Here are a few Whois results: indigenousradio.com: Not available. Domain Name: INDIGENOUSRADIO.COM Registrar: ENOM, INC. Whois Server: whois.enom.com Referral URL: www.enom.comName Server: DNS1.SITEZOOGLE.COM Name Server: DNS2.SITEZOOGLE.COM Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK Updated Date: 27-mar-2006 Creation Date: 31-oct-2005 Expiration Date: 31-oct-2006 indigenousradio.net: Available. indigenousradio.org: Available. indigenous.com: Not available. Domain Name: INDIGENOUS.COM Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC. Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com Referral URL: www.networksolutions.comName Server: B.NS.INTERLAND.NET Name Server: C.NS.INTERLAND.NET Name Server: A.NS.INTERLAND.NET Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK Updated Date: 24-oct-2004 Creation Date: 25-jun-1996 Expiration Date: 24-jun-2008 indigenouscircle.com: Available. indigenouscircleradio.com: Available. As far as a MySpace account URL is concerned: www.myspace.com/indigenousradio: Not available. www.myspace.com/indigenous: Not available. www.myspace.com/indigenouscircle: Available. www.myspace.com/indigenouscircleradio: Available. My thoughts on the matter are this: While the name "Indigenous Radio" is good, and has historical value for us, we might want to consider something else for our radio station, just because "Indigenous Radio" is a phrase that's already in circulation. The phrase "indigenouscircleradio" is a bit more specific -- but it is rather long, as Jeff pointed out. And furthermore, imagine telling someone about the radio station: "Just go to indigenouscircleradio.com," you'd say. And then they'd go, "Huh?" And you'd eventually have to write it out for them on a cocktail napkin. But depending on how well you can spell, and how many drinks you've had, it's anybody's guess how you might spell "indigenous." I can't spell the word half the time when I'm sober. Of course, all of this is coming from a guy who chose "collapsiblefortunes.com" as his own domain name. How many people know to spell that mouthful correctly? Everyone thinks "collapsible" is spelled "collapsable," or "colapsable." Nobody gets it right. I can see the same thing happening to a much larger degree with "indigenous." But then, I don't like the idea of choosing another name any more than you guys do. I like the name "Indigenous Radio." In fact, the name "Indigenous Circle Radio" seems too long and conveys a sense of exclusiveness, like it's saying: "We're a circle of people of which you are not a part." While the name "indigineous circle" is perfect for the forum, the word "circle" would not be right for a public platform. Do I have any ideas? Not really, not yet. I'm thinking maybe we could use a play off the word "Indigenous." Either some kind of near-anagram, or something linked to the meaning of the word.
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Post by jtmx1 on May 20, 2006 22:15:43 GMT -5
Maybe it's the "radio" part that needs to change. After all, it's not really radio at all. We used to be "Indigenous Publications." But that sounds too much like books. Indigenous Media? Indigenous Communications? Transmissions (he he)?
Or we could break away from all that and do something suggestive like: Indigenous Wave or Indigenous Beacon or Indigenous Fire (which I kinda like).
Anyway, lots of ways we could go here.
Jeff
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Post by jtmx1 on May 20, 2006 22:24:18 GMT -5
Indigenous Gathering
Indigenous Drum
Indigenous Initiative
Indigenous Network
Indigenous Web
Indigenous World(s)
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