DIGITAL TO ANALOG CONVERSION, getting the bits to my speakers
Banner

Day 66. Frank Sinatra.

Posted on Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 at 10:29 pm in Celia, Jazz, Mira by josh

While continuing on with the complete Bach set I ripped a couple of Frank Sinatra collections tonight. I don’t know what it is, but I tend to respect a business more if I occasionally hear Frank Sinatra playing in it. Our favorite grocery store has Ol’ Blue Eyes playing over the speakers every now and then, I always felt like I was cooler at Tower when Frank Sinatra was playing over the speakers, and I will always remember Rod at Wall Berlin singing along with ‘Witchcraft’ at 12:30am. Unlike a lot of the CDs I have done so far though, I can’t really think of a time that these have fallen out of playing rotation… even when the CD player was unplugged, these discs were probably in my computer at least once and listened to. Mira and Celia have both heard Frank Sinatra a good amount, and why not? So beautiful love ballads here and there, so up tempo swinging tunes as well. And I don’t think they can listen close enough to the words of ‘South of the Border’ for me to be concerned yet.

Around the time that Sinatra died, there was a joke I heard once that I modified a bit to make it seem more like a personal family story… it was something like:

“Ah – Frank Sinatra is gone, god-bless his soul… he saved my grandfather’s life once you know! Grandpa had run up a pretty high debt at a casino in Vegas in the 50s once, and the owner had him taken out and beat up since he couldn’t cover the debt… and Frank, god-bless his soul… steps in and says ‘OK boys, he’s had enough!”

If you know about the possibly shady sides to Frank’s past (and if my timing was right) this joke would get a very serious ‘Really?’ from almost everyone I told it to, followed a few seconds later by a pretty good laugh once someone realized they had been had. If you’ve been reading any of the other blog entires you might remember that I mentioned that my grandfather DID once say to me that ‘sure, if you’re Italian you have to like Frank Sinatra, but REAL Italians like Louis Prima more’. While I did hear much more Louis Prima and my grandparents house, Frank Sinatra was on quite a bit there as well (especially after they got their first CD player). So while I do associate Frank Sinatra with cool places to shop / have coffee, mostly I think of Frank Sinatra when I’m cooking since he was often the soundtrack at my grandparents as well. Frank on the speakers, red sauce on the stove… mmm…

Day 65. More Bach.

Posted on Friday, April 2nd, 2010 at 8:16 pm in Classical by josh

Back to ripping some CDs finally, but sticking with the Bach box set in hopes of finishing it up this weekend and putting it away. Plus it is Good Friday, and while I am in no way a practicing christian, there is something I like about throwing on a recording of one of the Bach passions every year. So I am hoping I can get to those discs after I finish up these last few discs of cantatas.

I’ve tried to alternate between the two Bach passions every years since my Bach class at Berkeley with John Butt. I know both of those pieces pretty well, and there is something very enjoyable about how dramatic these pieces can be, and also how beautifully melodic. So I’m not sure why I am so surprised that the cantatas are as well. I haven’t listened to all the cantata discs by any means, but I have been having lots of fun this past week throwing random ones on. These are pieces that Bach basically wrote as part of his weekly duties to the town church, and were performed by the town’s musicians. And the writing isn’t dumbed down… these must have been some pretty talented musicians that got to work with Bach in his church. And the vocal writing is just beautiful. The passions are really the closest thing we have to a Bach opera, but the cantatas show a lyrical side of Bach that can be overlooked if all you listen to is his instrumental music.

My friend Don (also a composer) and I were talking just the other day about ‘melodic’ music, and were in agreement that writing great melodies has always been difficult. Some composers had no problem with this and would just turn them out like it was nothing. Mozart was like this especially – so much so that sometimes it seems like he would create a beautiful melodic line that wouldn’t get developed… sometimes just to connect two sections, and that was it. He could afford to – there were more waiting. Beethoven struggled melodically, and often turned to motivic development instead. Not that there aren’t some great Beethoven melodies, but in general once he hit a good one, he worked it and got as much out of it as possible. Today, I think most composers just don’t know how to deal with it (myself included). I fall back on texture and dramatic tension, but there isn’t much I write that is singable… and when there is, I don’t think it reaches the level of even the lowest level of acceptable melody that Mozart would consider. And I know this, and find other ways to compose. So it is really quite amazing to hear these weekly works by Bach… this isn’t the academic Bach (that put together ‘Art of the Fugue’, nor is it the flashy Bach of the Brandenburg Concertos (applying for a job). This is the Bach that sat down every week to compose music for his church. It wasn’t entertainment, but it was for the people he lived with, and I get the sense that they appreciated the work he did. What a gig.

More on Subsonic.

Posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 11:25 pm in DAC Project by josh

So – for the time being Subsonic appears to be the way to go. And to get it to organize the way I want it to, I figured out that in iTunes, setting the ‘Album Artist’ field places items into folders with that name. So, setting it to a composers name (for instance) will place all works labeled that way in a folder, then a folder inside that will have the albums name. I got through the composers tonight… tomorrow I will label other genres in the ways I want categorized. But streaming today (even with a couple people streaming at a time) worked like a charm!

Simplify Media is dead… Subsonic!

Posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 10:53 pm in DAC Project by josh

I spent most of my time tonight ripping more Bach cantatas, and looking for replacements for SimplifyMedia. I think I have found something promising called Subsonic:

http://www.subsonic.org/pages/index.jsp

So far – it does a good job of transcoding the Apple Lossless down to a 256k mp3 stream, and thanks to Chris, I know a couple of us can listen to different things at the same time. Still some organizational issues (it uses the folders iTunes creates – not playlists) that I need to work out… but there is hope again for remote access!!!

Day 64. MTV 120 Minutes.

Posted on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 at 9:51 pm in Rock / Pop by josh

I can’t think of the last time I turned on MTV. I’m pretty sure we have it on our cable package, but a few years back it seemed like the thing that WASN’T on there was music. Just reality crap followed by more reality crap.

This makes me sad.

I remember as a pre-teenager BEGGING my parents for cable, and the only thing I wanted was my MTV. Well – our house wasn’t wired for cable. Then one way day, construction crews dug a trench up Bernal Rd. and finally cable was available in our area. But my parents still wouldn’t have any of it (pay for TV???). We finally got it just before moving to Roseville, and I think I packed in a few good years of watching MTV in those months before the move. I remember having MTV on and doing 7th grade homework. I felt so hip and cool. And what told me that I was REALLY cool? 120 minutes did.

I loved staying up late to hear stuff on 120 minutes that wasn’t playing on KSJO. This is where I discovered New Order, Jesus and Mary Chain (a band name that I wasn’t sure I could mention around my parents) and probably most significantly for me, I discovered the ‘Birdhouse In Your Soul’ and the two Johns from Brooklyn. I still remember the first time I saw They Might Be Giants – in all their geek glory and – and feeling a little comforted. They were quirky and smart and I wanted to learn the accordion. I don’t know if they made me feel less geeky, but I suddenly didn’t mind being as geeky.

Anyways – 120 Minutes put out two compilations in the early 90s, and I think they provide an amazing snapshot of 80s alternative music (pre-Nirvana / grunge). After spending most of the late 80s listening to Guns-N-Roses and learning every Led Zeppelin record (what was on the radio in San Jose mostly and at the Tower in Campbell) 120 minutes showed me the alternate universe of rock music, and these two discs are (while corporate and released on Warner Brothers) two of my favorite

mix discs’ in my stack. It jumps around in style (Faith No More => Violent Femmes), yet makes some beautiful (even though obvious) connections at the same time (Joy Division => New Order). These discs were my first introduction to the Cocteau Twins and The Stone Roses, and at the same time there are tracks on here by The Ramones and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (covering Stevie Wonder). In other words – it feels like a mix disc made by a friend for a friend in a strange way, a little bit familiar, as well as the harder to find stuff that they know you are going to like. Some Camper Van Beethoven, then some Modern English. Some X, and some XTC (and can I say – I first heard ‘Dear God’ while asking some of the same questions to myself… ah, teenage angst).

Day 63. Mahler.

Posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 9:05 pm in Classical by josh

I grabbed my front row stack of Mahler for tonight (then diving back into the Bach set). I like Mahler quite a bit (not love, but really like) but I mostly came to this appreciation through performing his work. I have had the chance perform the 1st, and read parts of the 2nd and 5th. I had a great time playing Mahler, and now when I listen to his music I tend to think about that point of view. He really could write well for the different parts of the orchestra. So conscious of color and dynamic! Even when playing in such a huge orchestra, playing Mahler often felt more like playing chamber music. Every part seemed to have such significance, and there is a sense of counterpoint in much of his music that seems to stand out to me. One motivation for getting back into double bass would be the hope to play Mahler again (I would love to perform ‘Das Lied on der Erde’).

So – while I love to think about performing Mahler, I don’t get much chance to listen to him. Usually I feel the need to find time to listen to a piece uninterrupted, and with Mahler that is just a little more difficult. I can’t imagine listening to the beginning of the 9th and not getting to the end of it. I think it would throw off my day. I also love how differently conductors seem to treat his work. I feel like there is a good amount of space in his scores for interpretation, and love comparing different approaches. As a result, I have many different complete Mahler recordings, though none of them are making it onto my drive tonight. I think I have explained before that I have all my CDs in two layers on my shelves. In an ideal world (and at one point) I figured out a way to have the back layer line up with the front layer (so layer two of Mahler would more or less correspond with layer one) but after our move to Tacoma this never really happened again. The front layer tends to be the recordings I would go for more often, and in the Mahler section there were recordings of the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth symphonies, and Song of the Earth. And this isn’t to slight the others (in fact, I think the 7th is my favorite) but I have a huge chunk of other Mahler recordings in box sets in the second layer – and they are easy enough to access. But as I started ripping the discs tonight, I remembered one of the great reasons for doing this project in the first place: I won’t have to get up in the middle of a two disc set anymore to change discs. Now a good chunk of my Mahler discs are spread across two discs, so I am now really looking forward to getting to the rest of the discs. So I think that tomorrow night I may need to move one of the Mahler sets to the ‘front layer’ in hopes that Mira will see that there is another box-set to reach for.

The recordings tonight are all pretty fine ones though. Rafael Kubelik doing the first, Herbert Blomstedt and San Francisco doing the second (what a GREAT recording!), Andre Previn and Elly Ameling on number four, Karajan on 5, 6 and 9 (and what a great recording of the 9th… the first minute is simply stunning) and Otto Klemperer with Christa Ludwig and Fritz Wunderlich on ‘Das Lied on der Erde’. I haven’t heard the Klemperer recording in some time and I love how Christa Ludwig sounds on the recording. I listened to the recent Michael Tilson Thomas recording a few weeks ago with Stuart Skelton and Thomas Hampson performing the vocal parts. The Tilson Thomas is a fine recording, but Christa Ludwig’s mezzo-soprano voice is just perfect on ‘Der Abschied’. Really looking forward to hearing this recording again.

Day 62. Curtis Mayfield, Mazzy Star.

Posted on Sunday, March 28th, 2010 at 7:52 pm in Rock / Pop by josh

Curtis Mayfield and Mazzy Star tonight. I’m a little ashamed to say that I only have a Curtis Mayfield greatest hits disc. I really should about everything the guy did. It would be a great catalog (and in general, I think I should always have more soul and r&b). I could say that the catalog is harder to find now (which in some ways it is) or that no one really carries as much of it anymore (which is also true) but that is also giving excuses since I will search out a rare Ravel disc for years to find it. The real reason is that it is just a gap in my knowledge. And it is an expensive one to try and fill. Most of the Stax catalog is on eMusic now so I think that is a good place to start, but also I think I need to dive back into some serious vinyl buying to do it right. I know that the songs on the Curtis Mayfield greatest hits disc are great, but I also know there are going to be more gems to find. So I need to get on it. When people would come into the classical department at Tower and ask how to ‘get into’ classical, I would suggest getting a couple samplers then coming back in to find more of what they liked. Then I would pick out a couple discs with those tracks on it by a certain composer, that way there was familiarity on a couple tracks, and exploration at the same time. So what I really need to do is go out and find which Curtis Mayfield record has ‘Move On Up’ on it and go from there.

So – imagine two minutes in between this paragraph and the last… I think ‘why wait’ and go to eMusic and look up the song, and it turns out Rhino is on here, and so is the re-issue of ‘Curtis’ and I’m downloading it right now. Damn, it is crazy what we can do know.

Which leads nicely into Mazzy Star. I saw the cover for ‘So Tonight That I Might See’ (a wispy purple on black) and between the cover and the name just had to hear it. Something about it made me think about the Velvet Underground meeting Jesus and Mary Chain with waaaay too much reverb, and I really liked it. I mentioned it the next day at work to a couple friends who were surprised that I hadn’t heard it yet and everyone else was suddenly the biggest Mazzy Star fans in the world as to make an even bigger point that I was a loser and how could I have worked with them for so long and not like Mazzy Star? I of course recognized the hyperbole (having dished it out myself to feel a little superior to others when they discovered a gem that I had known about). And when the next record came out ‘Among My Swan’ it was my job to atone for my sin and buy it that day so we could play it in the store. We played it loud. It sounded great. And I think that is one of the secrets to listening to Mazzy Star – it sounds like soft music, but there is so much subtle detail in it that playing it loudly benefits the music beautifully, and envelops you in a lush world of sound.

And I may not have ever gotten around to hearing it if it wasn’t for browsing through the store and looking at record covers. Sure, I was just now able to find Curtis Mayfield and download it within minutes, but I miss browsing through racks. I miss spending an hour going through a store section by section seeing where it will lead me… In some ways, Wikipedia serves that purpose now. Maybe I’ll head over there, type in Mazzy star and start clicking links and see where it takes me.

Day 61. Elvis Costello and the Attraction, Sonic Youth.

Posted on Sunday, March 28th, 2010 at 11:27 am in Rock / Pop by josh

I continued the Bach extravaganza yesterday and today, finishing the first 30 CD volume of cantatas, with another 30 staring at me. Needed a bit of a break from it though so I went and grabbed a couple Sonic Youth CDs and some of the Rhino Elvis Costello re-issues.

I have a few Sonic Youth albums on vinyl (which sound great), but ‘Washing Machine’ and ‘Thousand Leaves’ both do quite well on CD. The 20-minute ‘Diamond Sea’ is a particular favorite. Great song that turns into some pretty out there stuff. I remember playing this around closing time at the Tower in Berkeley every now and then. It would shuffle certain kinds of people out of the store, and those that were left new that the music was telling them it was closing time. As things would start to loop and drone, people would bring their discs to the counter and be gone with the last few notes. Worked about every time, and it was good music. I still put these on every now and then (much more then then now actually) and I’m always surprised how good these albums are. I remember some hard-core Sonic Youth fans trashing them a bit when they came out, but I think they are a couple of my favorite albums by them. And it amazes me that they have been together for over 30 years. They have reinvented themselves a few times while always being loud, forceful and very musical. If there is a rock group that works itself into the 20th century classical avant-garde I think it has to be them. Their two-disc set ‘Goodbye 20th Century’ (featuring music of Steve Reich, John Cage, Yoko Ono and James Tenney) shows this influence well. I didn’t rip that one today, but the recording on that disc of ‘Having Never Written A Note For Percussion’ is on a mix disc of mine that I was playing the other day. I love how much the recording sounds like Sonic Youth (having a Johnny Marr about of jangle in the sound of the guitars) and at the same time is a great performance of Tenney’s piece.

Equally impressive to me is the 30 year career that Elvis Costello has put together. From the earlier punk influence to working with Brodsky Quartet to his tribute to Burt Bacharach, Elvis has also grown beyond his influences to create a unique and creative voice. The discs I ripped today (just the beginning of what I have) were ‘My Aim Is True’ (his only pre-Attractions album, though it really is mostly with the as yet to be named Attractions), ‘This Year’s Model’ (probably my favorite album of his, especially since Steve Nieve’s organ is turned up to full volume finally), ‘Armed Forces’ and ‘Get Happy’. I love early Elvis Costello. While I was talking about my ‘angry young man’ phase a couple days ago, there is one thing I left out. While I was listening to the Violent Femmes and The Cure, I realize now that it is Elvis Costello I should have been listening to. Better late then never though… while the others did the trick when I was 17, I realize now that Elvis Costello may have suited my geekier ways a little better.

‘No Action’ is SUCH a great side one track one. One of my favorite starts to an album ever. But one thing that I really appreciate about the Rhino re-issues is the second disc of goodies each comes with. The second disc of ‘My Aim Is True’ has an outtake of ‘No Action’ that didn’t have the recording desk levels correctly set, so the whole thing is terribly distorted. But it sounds great (and the engineers realized this as well – since they left the tape running). Of course, it couldn’t be released on the album that way, but as a bonus track it is lots of fun.

Day 60. Bach, The Clash and Cat Stevens.

Posted on Thursday, March 25th, 2010 at 10:15 pm in Celia, Classical, Mira, Rock / Pop, Tamiko by josh

I ripped both of the Cat Stevens greatest hits tonight as well as the ‘Clash on Broadway’ box set. A few weeks back I heard ‘If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out’ at Joe Bar cafe in Capital Hill, which of course made me think about ‘Harold & Maude’. Such a beautiful movie, and I think that as a result, I tend to associate rather ‘live life’ feelings with hearing Cat Stevens. He’s also someone that I know both Tamiko and I associate with our early childhoods. What surprised me a little tonight though was that I only had these two collections on CD. After a little looking around I realized that ‘Teaser And The Firecat’ and ‘Tea For The Tillerman’ are on vinyl. One of the things that sounds a little strange about the CDs is that this is music I really got to know on my dad’s record player (and I think I can even hear where the cracks and pops are supposed to be in ‘Moonshadow’). I don’t have any specific memories about Cat Stevens though… they all seem more distant and fuzzy to me. The almost seem like they are someone else’s memories in some ways (maybe because we are supposed to, at 35, be different people then we were at 5). But his music has been in my subconscious for probably most if not my whole life, and I tend to associate that feeling of being young (though not necessarily childish) with his music.

My Clash discs are definitely on the front part of my CD shelf, but it was the box-set that got picked for tonight. ‘Clash On Braodway’ is a great collection… and seeing this set is one of my first memories of working at the Tower in Roseville. We had a very small box-set section (for two reasons – first that box-sets weren’t a huge item yet, and second because we were a small store) and I remember seeing this set on the shelf, prominently facing out (one copy) the first week I was working there. Well – the first week I was working in the record store (new employees generally started out in the video side). It had come out just in time for Christmas and I was hoping to buy the set. But money was short. So I figured I would wait for a couple weeks. Then it sold. Then it came back in and I was broke again. Then I got some money for my birthday, and when I went to pick it up, it had sold again… and I think this went on in one way or another for close to two years. I finally got it in ’93 (I am pretty sure I got it for myself for high school graduation… but definitely had it for the summer). And I’m pretty sure the discs rotated through my old 77 Corolla until I moved to Berkeley. One bit of irony – ‘Police on My Back’ had just finished one night coming home from Tower on Watt (a couple nights before I moved to Berkeley). ‘The Magnificent Seven’ was on and I get pulled over for the light being out on my rear license plate. I am given a warning, and don’t think much more about it (what are the odds of getting pulled over again for this?). Well, two nights later (two nights before I move to Berkeley) I get pulled over again… same cop! And she remembers me! “Are you going to get that thing fixed?” she asked.

“I get paid tomorrow!”

“OK – just make sure you fix it” and all I get is another warning. I figure I’ll take care of it on my lunch break at work the next day and plan on walking over to an auto-parts store around the corner from Tower. I get to work (listening to The Clash again) and park… then have a few minutes before work is supposed to start, so I decide I’ll go get the light. I turn the ignition and hear a terrible crunch. I look under the car, and my starter is sitting on the ground. So I wind up walking to the auto parts store, get a light AND a starter, then fix both in the parking lot during my lunch break. I got the car fixed, but decided at that point that there would be no more Clash in the car until I got to the Bay Area with the car in one piece.

I also continued the Bach box today. Was able to finish ‘Volume 2’, the works for keyboard. Nice performance of the Goldberg Variations and I also listened to the Partitas. All good so far. I also started Volume 3 (the first part of the cantatas).

‘Where Do The Children Play?” was just playing on my computer and Tamiko just told me her memory of the song. In first or second grade she had an advanced reading class and they were given the lyrics to read and figure out. Another kid memory.

Will Celia or Mira hear Cat Stevens in elementary school? We’ll see… Tamiko and I just finished registering Celia for kindergarten… I wonder what songs she’ll hear.


Day 59. J.S. Bach and Robert Johnson.

Posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 9:04 pm in Classical, Folk / Blues / Country, Mira by josh

Two more box-sets tonight. Mira pointed to my complete Bach (the Brilliant Classics 155 disc set) and I figured why not… I need to start it at some point, and I figure I’ll get a few discs of that done a night for the next few weeks. Of course – there are some usual mid-level expectations that come along with a set of 155 discs… they can’t all be amazing. And with Bach in particular I can be very picky. I got the set though because (when I bought it at $99) I was able to find what would be at least a hundred dollars worth of performances that I would want. Andrew Manze and La Stravaganza performing the Orchestral Suites for instance, and Jaap Ter Linden’s cello suites. Once I found these, I thought ‘hey – and I’ll have all the cantatas finally’ and this for some reason appealed to me so I picked it up. What surprised me was that I haven’t come across a disappointing disc yet (though I have only listened to maybe 30 of them). And there are some really nice touches in the set… a number of the harpsichord concertos have been reconstructed into violin concertos (there is ample evidence that these pieces existed in this way). Overall they aren’t top-notch performances (though a few have been), but none are mediocre so far. Now that I am ripping them, I look forward to going through more of them. I am a Bach fanatic after all… so I think this will be fun. I’m going to see if I get through the Orchestral / Chamber Music part of the set tonight, but that may be a tall order.

The other box-set is the complete Robert Johnson recordings. After hefting the Bach box the Robert Johnson set is nice and light. And though his complete recordings barely fills two discs, it is pretty amazing how influential the music on these two discs are. And they are amazing – mostly recorded on a portable field recording kit in a hotel room, there is something intense and sad about these recordings and the story behind the man making them. Any serious collector of music probably already has these discs or has at least heard them… and I guess all I can say is that if you haven’t then find them, take a couple hours out of your life and listen them. You’ll be amazed how much is familiar, yet so different and haunting at the same time.