Posts by robbery
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
I tip my hat to everyone, including the Exponents, who carved out a “career” in NZ Music during these times. They should have inducted the whole band.
Interesting point. i wonder who the first non singing drummer or bass player to be included in this popular choices fest will be.
No discredit to Jordan and his crafty way with pop music. Even us alternatives like the guy.Career in NZ music :) that's a good one. hobby would be a better term.
They've all got day jobs. -
the superstar UK DJ who, two minutes before he was about to earn his $40k fee in Auckland,
shit, that kinda dosh would buy you a seriously good gig that would actually use a lot of that money in production costs.
more fool the punter who pays the high cover charge for something that doesn't represent the cost of entry, ie high profit to cost ratio.(still just jealousy though, I wish I could pull the wool over a large markets eyes and milk them dry of their middle class cash)
-
the really funny thing about MV was how surprised the Americans were
those americans are great at not seeing the bleeding obvious and then getting all upset when it's 'uncovered'
can't wait to see what they do when they 'uncover' that their govrernment has been doing a milli vanilli on them. -
the people in the Gorillaz videos were different from the people who recorded the music
that whole virtual band bollocks. give me a break please. it just saddens me how shallow and gulible the consuming public are.
god on the project administrators for getting the public to buy their bollocks and bad on the public for thinking that a project called a virtual band really 'means' anything beyond the fact that they may have good songs or not.
we must be very bored as a species for that stuff to float our boats -
SNAP!!
I saw Fatboy Slim do the very same thing.its milli vanilli with turntables.
I guess we've eased up on that whole mime thing these days,
maybe fab wouldn't have taken his own life if he'd lived in the age of DJ.I wouldn't mind it so much if they didn't make so much damn money for substantially less effort than it takes to put on a rock gig. jealous. you bet. :)
-
Are we to write off Grandmaster Flash as simply a guy playing tunes or elements thereoff (and he only used turntables and a mixer),
Really though, I think you know I'm not saying that.
dj in its purest form is someone who plays records.
it has been acquired as a term by people who don't just play records, they use turntables as maluable samplers and create new soundscapes.The old dj who does just play records manages to ride on the back of this creative dj, using the same title and asks for 'credibility' for playing one record after another without a gap in it.
its not the same as DJ shadow who adds a million miles more creativity to the mix.
its a matter of definition, and the term dj is used too broadly.
There's a big difference between a guy who strings 10 of his fav dance tracks together, comes out of the booth to calls from his mates about great set man, and someone who physically molds chunks of sound in new and amazing ways. both pull the groupies but one deserves them more than the other. -
Well, there's the term turntablist.
That's a different thing again.
I've had the good fortune to see a couple of turntablists at play.
The japanese guy who came through and used the turntable and various apararti to make all manner of weird noises.
one trick that really impressed was he had a record sitting on the turntable with stylus resting on the vinyl not spinning. he got a violin bow and strocked it across the edge of the record which was picked up through the stylus and made an amazing noise.
downside was a couple of DJ's were there and sampled it and put it in their next track claiming credit it for it (kidding)I'm pretty bored with the sound of a record scratching these days, very few people do anything with it more than a knowing nod to the one trick pony of a sound it is.
I did have the good fortune to catch a live set by dj shadow in NYC about mid 98. now that as interesting, really messed up, hardly cohesive mixing of sounds from all sorts of sources. not dancable in the slightest, more like collage work, I'd call that creative and artistic use of other peoples music (excluding his own fine musician ship) leading to new and original works. if only they all could be that innovative.
-
Take Carl Craig for example (whom I deem to be perhaps the greatest electronic artist ever), his live performances are his djing (and his gig in Auckland a few years back where he was running from turntable to synths was an example
They really should come up with another term to describe this sort of performer.
if he's playing synths he's a musician, that he incorporates turntables into his set..... depends on if he's playing stuff from his own output or someone else's music.
Its a bit confusing to use the term DJ because originally a DJ was someone who just played records, and not their own.
but what you're describing is definitely performance art. lets called them mix media artists. (yeah, right, like that's as cool as calling yourself a dj. I won't hold my breath for that to catch on)an aside
I worked on a Grooverider gig in CHCH managing the pa. it was a laugh. not much to do really once its all been set up.I stood behind the guy and got to watch what he was doing.
yes he was playing a lot of his own recordings (I think) which is fine, and he was hunching over his decks and impressing the crowds, but being technically savvy I could tell when he was actually doing something and when he was making movements to look like he was doing something. it was mostly the later, and fair enough to I suppose, its a bit boring to watch a guy put on a disc and stand with his arms folded for 5 mins while he waits for the disc to finish,
but a lot of the 'show' which was impressing the punters ("loved it when he dropped the bass in there", um, that was on the record he was playing, he did it in the studio 6 months earlier, not live) was in the audiences imagination.The MC guy was retarded, stood right next to his monitor put his head (and the mic) into and said,
-louder without the feedback,
- then don't put your mic into the monitor speaker and it won't feedback,
-yeah, but I want to hear it so I'm standing as close as I can to it,
-yeah, but just don't shove your mic into the speaker
-ok, yeah but I want to stand closer to it so can you turn it up louder, -not if you put your mic into the speaker,
-yeah, but louder, (and so on) not that some musicians are any smarter. -
and there is an alternative performance stream for non live-performing acts.
Do you mean alternative income stream?
with piracy downloads aside from the cliche evil record companies not making anything off it thing, there is no income from royalties to the artist so the current trend to using the excuse "its ok to have a free for all piracy of recorded works because the artist can pick up income from live performances" falls down if live performances aren't part of the plan.It was interesting in the Eskow article on Rick Rubin he correctly identified the need for artists to receive fair recompense for their efforts or they would eventually have to give up their art in order to sustain themselves. Agreed, no artist worth their salt makes art strictly for money, but if they don't get enough to sustain them and their art then they'll eventually have to stop.
You and I both know hundreds of artists who have had to stop or tone back making art in order to survive and although I like new artists coming through I often wonder what kind of material we've missed out on because our favourite artists had to give up on creative exploits and devote their time to working a day job plastering or delivering post in order to feeding themselves instead of focusing their time energy and talents on what they excelled at.
on the dj thing I've never seen DJs as performing artists in the sense that Greame Downes or Michael O'Niell is a performing artist.
I see them more as taste advisers, which is a valid roll, but its nowhere near the level of creative some would wish to take credit for for what they do.Those that do write their own tracks to perform with are a different ball game obviously though.
-
I haven't seen the live upkick thing but that may just be a matter of location. some cities are dead, some are possibly thriving.
its interesting what you say about the emphasis for income shifting to live performance. thats great for musicians, especially live ones but for the swell in home recordists who don't play live and record things that can't be done live cheaply with the trad gat bass drums thing.... Those are the people that are left out of the current trend, along with the back catalogue artists, of whom you and I know many.
I'm personally a little indifferent about live gigs these days. there aren't many bands that deliver much above standing on stage and playing thier songs. Not that music should be theatrics but some thought in that area (lights, visuals) would certainly make the whole standing in a pub for 3 hours thing a bit less of an endurance competition.