I got an e-mail from CD Japan announcing some interesting releases. First, Sony is releasing a best collection for ACO, titled ACO BEST ~girl’s diary~. It’s a 2-CD set pretty much split between the two eras of her career. If the track listing is any indication, those early years seem to need a bit more padding than her post-absolute ego work. The album arrives on Dec. 19. Did you know ACO has a blog?
Speedstar Records recently celebrated its 15th anniversary with a concert in which artists on its rostered pair off. Cocco and Quruli, of course, brought out Singer Songer, while The Back Horn and Tsuji Ayano teamed up. Now the label has put together a compilation featuring artists who have recorded for the label. Eh? No WINO? I can’t say I’ve been very impressed with Speedstar’s more recent signings, but this site owes a lot of its content to Speestar artists — Cocco, UA, Quruli, Kicell, the Back Horn …
I always wondered what happened to Kicell. At some point, I noticed the Speedstar web site put the band in its artist archives, which is an indirect way of saying they were dropped from the label. Now comes word from Bounce.com that Kicell is releasing its first new album in 2 1/2 years on Jan. 23, 2008.
The album, titled magic hour, contains 12 tracks and will be released on Kakuba Rhythm, which includes Sakerock and Your Song Is Good on its roster. A preview will be available from the later half of November till the beginning of December at a special website to be determined.
When I finally took the plunge to get an iPod in April 2007 — knowing I’d need it for 12 hours of traveling time from Austin to Honolulu — I went for small and cheap. I didn’t like the Shuffle’s lack of an interface, so I went with a 2GB iPod Nano instead. 2GB is chump change in the portable music player world, but I like the space limitation. I’m often paralyzed by too much choice, so the cramped confines of 2,147,483,648 bytes forces me to focus. (No, I don’t know that figure off the top of my head — I used a calculator.)
I just loaded new music in the iPod for the daily workout, so I’ll comment on those the next time. Here’s what was on the player before.
Bounce.com posted three articles today announcing new album releases by Yaida Hitomi, Oblivion Dust and Quruli in 2008. Yaida’s new studio album is schedule for March, while the Quruli release, which is a live album, is expected in February. Oblivion Dust starts things off with the Jan. 23 release of its newest album in six years. The band originally split up in 2001 but announced a new album was in the works at a reunion show. Titles for all three releases have not yet been determined.
National Novel Writing Month has become so popular, it’s inspired other events of the same ilk — write or create a full work of something in 30 days. Last year, I participated in National Solo Album Month — write a 37-minute album in one month. I opted to go for a bunch of solo piano pieces.
I’m not participating in anything this year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not working. If November has been deemed such a productive month, I figured I’d head back into the studio and hack out a few more things. So that means fewer posts here.
That doesn’t mean the site will be at loss — I might be able to squeeze in writing and recording of the podcast’s second season. If I can get a few shows in the can, I can start thinking about a potential premiere date.
Now that the first season has aired, I was wondering what you all thought about the podcasts in general. Does the format still feel too short, or does it make sense as a whole? (I doubt I’d be changing the length, though.) How was the sound quality? Do I need to speak faster or more slowly?
More importantly, did you like what you hear? Did it get you interested in something you probably wouldn’t have explored before?
I don’t usually solicit feedback for this site, but the podcast has a bit more overhead than the usual Musicwhore.org post. So I’d like to get a sense of how much value it adds to the site. (That’s the polite way of asking, is it worth the effort?)
SEASON FINALE! I imagine a lot of people will shut off their players right after the “You are listening” bug at the start of this show. Nothing like a screech of amplified violins …
I immediately fell in love with Black Angels (the piece and the album) the first time I listened to it. I was 18 years old at the time, and the pieces were so alien, I couldn’t help but be fascinated. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quartet for Strings No. 8 spurred me to try my hand at writing a quartet. (And no, it’s not a very good one.)
Black Angels is one of my desert island discs, and it’s an album I can go back to again and again. Usually, though, when I’m in a very dark mood.
Some notes:
“Jewish” can a pretty hard work to pronounce when your mouth is full of cotton. The Thomas Tallis piece is originally a vocal work.
Dmitri Shostakovich wrote the Quartet for Strings No. 8 in 1960. The script makes it sound like he saw Dresden getting destroyed during World War II. Rather, he was working in Dresden when he wrote the quartet, and he was moved by the ruins from the bombings.
Pieces featured:
George Crumb: Black Angels
Thomas Tallis: Spem in Alium
Charles Ives: They Are There!
Istvan Marta: Doom. A Sigh
Dmitri Shostakovich: Quartet for Strings No. 8: II. Allegro
Dmitri Shostakovich: Quartet for Strings No. 8: V. Adagio
At times, it seems as though [Glass] had launched Microsoft Arpeggio on a computer and gone off to have tea with, say, Richard Gere.
I would have thought Glass would use iArpeggio on a Mac, but then I realized I was mixing it up with iPulse, which I imagine Steve Reich uses. The rest of us could probably use the free versions: OpenArp and ChugChug.
This show is by far the most rushed of the season. I didn’t write much of a script, and the music excerpts really stretch out. I’m not sure what I could have really said about this album aside from “I like Wendy and Lisa, and this album is good.” So that’s pretty much all I say.
Still, I wanted to feature Wendy and Lisa because I really do like their work. These days, they do a lot of film and television scores, most recently for the NBC show Heroes. I never really could get into Prince, but I got into Wendy and Lisa. Go figure.
Some notes:
My voice broke while I was saying “high expectations”, so it sounds like “a high expectations”, which is bad grammar. I didn’t feel like rerecording it.
I didn’t intend to sound so sinister when I say “Jonathan’s death“.
The next show is the season one finale for the podcast. I haven’t started working on the next season yet, but I do have an idea of what I want to cover. Any premiere date would have to happen after SXSW.
It seems to happen every year — when I go to the Waterloo Records storewide sale, I can’t figure out what I want to get. So I end up wandering the aisles hoping something will grab me and leaving when nothing has. After the sale is over, I’ll remember all the things I wanted to get.
So I’m making my shopping list now. And I’m going to remember to print it out and carry it with me come Thursday night.
[UPDATE, 11/05/07 08:48] The sale is done, and I came away with most of what I was looking for. This list has been updated accordingly. Additional comments in italics.
Anytime I go to the Austin Record Convention, I end up buying something — even if I’m going just to see what’s there. Last year, I had a strange hankering to find Turn Back the Clock by Johnny Hates Jazz. Yeah, I can’t explain it either.
I have yet to listen to Nena’s second US album, which I bought on vinyl about three years back. Yes, Nena of 99 Luftballons fame. That was purely an impulse purchase.
The record convention usually happens twice a year, but the spring show was canceled because the Crockett Events Center was under going renovations. (Not sure, really, what was renovated.) I usually try to limit my attendance to one per year anyway. This time, I actually made a mental list of things I wanted to find: