Oops

I guess this is supposed to be a music blog, yet somehow all I've wanted to write about was pseudo-philosophical meanderings about the nature of sound and what sorts of relationships people form to music. How it affects creativity and movement. I think the movement of sound has always caught my attention most of all. Try painting to it - the swirls and dots and splashes..it's all very Van Gogh meets Pollock. But there I go again nerding out about feelings. I guess I'm not sure where I stand on the formal end of maintaining a music blog.

Canada Music Week happened. It's hard to be objective about it as I was intimately involved, volunteering as a Stage Manager at Free Times Cafe but here goes. I've read a few articles regarding the festival and I think I agree with most of what they say.

Fucked Up on CMW being the most interesting and truthful.

First off, the bands were great, the venues accommodating and the almost full access pass a definite bonus. But ultimately the organization of CMW is just...well they're doing it wrong. Disregarding the miscommunication behind official lines, I think we have to rethink who festivals are for and how they can better achieve their goals. Considering that the festival boasts the ability to create relationships between bands and members of the industry it seems to want to foster connections between music makers and listeners. Sure, industry folk are pretty much the fastest line dodgers when it comes to reaching a contract or any other promotional perks but the chances of locating and identifying these delegates is low.

The larger demographic for manufacturing fame and fortune includes The People; as in the people going out to see the shows. These are not paid delegates here on business to meet a select number of bands but the general public, hungry for music and willing to provide support. I've seen audiences stay strong past 2am on Sunday for the final performance of the festival. If bands were given more promotion and exposure and put in showcases that have some flow of coherency regarding their lineups more people would be able to recognize acts.

It can't be easy planning the schedules for the 900+ artists who play this fest and let's face it, March is really not the most ideal month to get people out to bars [cue personal university sufferings] but seeing the commitment and energy all the volunteers brought to their posts gets me really inspired. So whose to say the organization could not be improved, the communication made clearer and promotional focus turned to the showcases?

Cue, action!

The Curse of 27

Amy Winehouse.
Another tragedy of the curse. Is it the 27 year curse? Maybe. But what i want to write about is another curse. Is it really true that an artist must give up something of themselves in order to properly and truly convey their art? Sacrifice anything asked. Of all the people who have contributed amazing and "out of this world" art, how many have succumbed to madness, lost limbs, killed themselves? Sylvia Plath, Vincent van Gogh, Jimi Hendrix...the list is almost infinite. Can artistic creation really be so potent as to drive their creators to madness and death, like a powerful child killing its mother?
Amy Winehouse had soul and sang out of sincere feeling. Her life was laid out for the public eye. Interviews were tinged with sadness and honestly people should have seen this coming. But to make something so beautiful out of so much tragedy and pain...her last gift to the world.
Rest in Peace Amy.

Wishing my university offered majors in music history and culture

Grades just came in and the difference between my music class and all the rest is beyond perceivable.

If anyone happens to go to u of t and is interested in popular music and the cultural significance behind it consider taking music, violence and war.

Otherwise I suggest you go elsewhere for your music interest.

In other news I've been listening to Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown after basically ignoring it for the time it's been out. Well it's definitely a themed rock opera. Pretty decent of its genre, whatever that may be.[contemporary cultural commentary via post punk rock opera?] It's interesting how some bands base their whole careers on criticizing certain politicians. Green Day was big prior to Bush but boy did they capitalize with American Idiot. Then the Dixie Chicks scandal. Bush was a horrible and is a horrible politician and human being but at least his stupidity inspired so many groups and artists. Protest music has come a long way since Bob Dylan.

Words In Song

I was afraid this blog might sound too academic, but I guess there's nothing wrong with that. I'm listening to the new Peter Bjorn & John album in preparation for their appearance at Sonic Boom tomorrow 7pm and thinking about lyrics as well as song titles. Do people listen enough to lyrics to actually identify with their ambiguous poetic meanings? Obviously they[we] do, there are books and books about this. But why do we feel a special connection to words when someone sings them out as opposed to reading them off the page? A song can perfectly capture someone's mood if the theme and tone of the musical accompaniment fits the lyrics being sung, and the song becomes a symbol for one's mood. But we do more than use it as a symbol, we act as if it were made for us and in this specific instant we feel a kinship with it. We posses and befriend the music. Even a song's title can bias our interpretation of the song, instantly granting us a preconception of the song. It's as if our minds cross reference the name to see if it can possibly relate to an experience we've had in the past. So in a way we validate our emotions and experiences through the more physical aspect of music and song. In this physical representation of our emotions we try to communicate to others what we feel and how we perceive the world.

Next point of question, do song titles/and songs themselves create an artificial atmosphere in which emotions are created even if they are not warranted for the occasion? Can music create and control our experiences? Listening to certain types of music will affect your mood accordingly, whether to improve a bad day or to power an angry rant. But as everyone is affected by music differently, this is a power which is barely controllable and often unpredictable.

Anyways, enough of troubled me going off on philo-musical sidetracks..

Listen to the new Peter Bjorn and John. Song of worth[and probable single] : click to listen