office chair wheel kick

do you feel like you're just a broken wheel getting kicked around by society?

0907272348 Allison's Birthday Office Chair Wheel Bash by zronnyz

well now's your chance to hear the way you feel.

imagine it's nearing another lonely midnight in a summer that's been nothing but resting, lying, waiting for somebody with a laptop and a mission come pick you up.

instead, a group of hooligans arrives and kicks the shit out of you. there is no god.

burnt thumbs

this isn't my guitar-playing.

0907142050 Burnt Thumbs by zronnyz

but it's my recording of a good friend of mine performing a short opening set at a friend's apartment in the Mission. he is a one-man show. one man, one guitar, one amp, and many, many pedals. with these devices on his side, he leads us on an epically dark journey through sonic seas and beating bloodbaths.

as you'll hear, chris starts the show with a reading of a passage from The Old Man and the Sea. around 6min in, you can barely hear him read a short passage from Blood Meridian. he continues through this back and forth of readings, but each time the wall of sound rises higher above his voice, drowning out any possibility of intelligibility. is this how either Hemingway or Cormac McCarthy is meant to be read?



note: i've included about two minutes of what one might call superfluous recording, where people talk, sit around, and wait anxiously for the performance to begin. except i don't consider it superfluous. a live performance is an organic experience. that's why it's called a LIVE performance. when you go see an orchestra perform a symphony, they do not merely start at the first note of the piece. no, long before you hear that first note, you hear thousands of notes emanating from every instrument in the orchestra, as the virtuosos tune their weapons. not only that, but as it is here, you hear the quacking of human conversation from every side.

enjoy.

up on the shelf

had to get this one off of my chest

up on the shelf by chriscaceres

neon indian

i don't plan on publishing too many of these posts...but...i just came across this band while browsing through xlr8r. i guess this post is about the importance of musical/band names. i think i was drawn to listen to this group's music because of the name...neon indian. it's so...modern sounding...india always strikes such images of sacred, ancient traditions and neon is like dirty, bright, glitchy, static electric bursts...i guess you get the picture. check out neon indian's single - 'terminally chill'

computer blue

hard drive, router, laptop, reciever, modem. data, wireless, computer, sound, internet. information, air, brain, voice, network. DNA, O, mind, expression, virus.

until i find a righteous one, computer blue.

chuecatown, madrid

Good Night

this neat little description is featured on the last page of the booklet for my copy of the Beatles' White Album, which i'm about to sell to a random guy through Craigslist for $10:

The Compact Disc Digital Audio System offers, on a small convenient sound-carrier, state-of-the-art sound reproduction. The Compact Disc's superior performance is the result of laser-optical scanning combined with digital playback, and is independent of the technology used in making the original recording.
For best results, apply the same care in storing and handling Compact Discs as you would with conventional records. No cleaning will be necessary if the Compact Disc is always held by the edges and is replaced in its case immediately after playing. Should the Compact Disc become soiled with fingerprints, dust or dirt, it can be wiped (always in a straight line, from center to edge) with a clean, soft, dry, lint-free cloth. No solvent or abrasive cleaner should ever be used. If you follow these suggestions, your Compact Discs will provide a lifetime of pure listening enjoyment.

i guess i just wanted to officially say goodbye to CDs. though my very first albums were cassette tapes, CDs were definitely my preferred music medium for many years. i didn't build up an absurdly immense collection, but over the years i did eventually gather about 100 of my favorites. i played them on my little aiwa CD player, which i took absolutely everywhere (making sure to turn up skip protection all the way). when i started driving, i always had 5-10 constantly changing CDs in my glove compartment.

eventually though, sometime in high school, i switched exclusively to playing digital files on the computer. still, i always loved and still do love owning a physical copy of my favorite art. but guess what, vinyl packaging is vastly superior to CD packaging. so i started buying used records.

to this day, i militantly encourage everybody to illegally download like fucking crazy and then support the artist by either a) attending shows or b) buying vinyl.

goodbye CDs. you treated me well, but i don't need you anymore.