I was downtown today watching my GF finish up a 5K run and at the finish were throngs of people "partying" as the runners came across. I stood several hundred yards up from the finish line and observed. What I observed was sameness.
They had a DJ from a local Clear Channel station who played such things as Bryan Adams and the "We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" song. Same music, same event, same people, everything exactly as expected. No wonder people drink and do drugs trying to shake off the sameness.
I had my mp3 and headphones and tuned into Mr. Cloudy (who may be more prolific than even bvdub) and noticed that the beats of his music seemed to flow with the rhythm of the runners' feet hitting the pavement. It was perfect, almost surreal.
I felt strangely - and happily - out of place, a reminder that sometimes we're not meant to go along with the crowd, and that it's ok. That's probably why music is a constant companion.
Lately my journeys have been going through various universes of recorded sounds and music. From wire sounds to drone to field recordings of the Waveform Transmission variety to the otherworldy analogue of the guys from Echospace, deeper and deeper I go. But I'm not sure where I'm going...
Currently listening to Alva Noto's Resident Advisor mix, contemplating dropping some cash on his new Univrs LP. From the samples I've heard, it sounds intense.
It's such a far cry from the music I was surrounded by growing up and I'm not sure how this applies to the daily routine but I look to music for escape and, ideally, as fuel for stepping out and creating something new.
Not sure how I got here but I know I can't go back. The future beckons...
Can anyone relate?
Reminds me of the classsic "When the music's over" by The Doors.
ReplyDeleteFor the music is your special friend
Dance on fire as it intends
Music is your only friend
Until the end
Until the end
Until the end
I follow your blogs for the last two years and i feel the same way.
Music is very personal and it's quite difficult to share it. But what you're sharing is almost "halfofmyipod".
I will follow.
Thank you. That means a lot to me.
ReplyDeleteNever really thought about those lyrics that way...
This blog has become more than just a place to post music...it's about making a connection and providing a place where others can do the same.
I've felt the way you felt watching those revelers rejoicing in their sameness. It can sometimes plunge me into a real alienated mood. To me, though, there's something redemptive in listening to oddball music that the masses ignore. It's this: I'm not the only oddball in the world. When I listen to, say, Burial I feel like I'm not just listening to music. Rather, I'm on the receiving end of a communication and an affirmation that I'm not alone. I know it's odd to think of someone like Burial as life-affirming, but that's the way I feel.
ReplyDeleteJeff Tweedy wrote a song for Mavis Staples called You Are Not Alone. Here's what he had to say about it in Mojo: "That came out of a conversation with Mavis, where I told her my theory that all music basically says the same thing, which is: you're not alone. Even a kid in his room listening to the most abrasive punk rock or heavy metal, what they're really getting out of it is, 'We're in this with you.' Somewhere down deep there's a communication happening that's sustaining."
Not a big Wilco fan, but that's cool.
We're in this with you...
ReplyDeleteI really like that.
Always kind of viewed music as each individual's expression of their place on The Path.
Thanks for sharing. Very well expressed.
I was half-watching a horror movie that was also kind of funny (Slither, 2006) the other day, without the sound. But I was listening to something completely unrelated & different. It might have been some minimal experimental techno, or weird ambient, or dubstep, I don't remember. But it struck me one moment how well it fit with the visuals on screen, it was like the perfect soundtrack - and yet something that the studio NEVER would have selected. Too bad!
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Life - The Remix.
ReplyDeleteLike it...