Live from Austin!

Last night I dreamed that I met Bev Bevan. I tried not to be a fanboy. I mentioned that I really didn’t like "Discovery", except for the final track–which of course is dominated by his drumming. He replied that the album had been a difficult time for the band, and that that one track had been the one where it actually seemed like they were working together again. I wanted to ask about whether he had patched things up with Jeff Lynne, but knew that would be a bad idea. In the end he autographed my copy of "Out of the Blue". And then I woke up.

Back in reality, the dream was obviously the result of my finally buying the remastered limited edition release of "Out of the Blue". I had held off for a long time, because I didn’t think there was anything wrong with the previous CD. Then a 40% off coupon at Border’s tempted me… and I was wrong. The remastered edition is far better than the previous remastering, which was in turn better than the original 2 CD release… which, of course, was better than my vinyl copy.

So yeah, I’ve bought this album four times now. That’s a new personal record, beating the three official releases and one bootleg of New Musik’s "Warp". And apparently there’s a $25 Japanese 2CD release that sounds even better…

For anyone who doesn’t know, Delia Derbyshire is the woman who created the original Dr Who theme. Last week, the BBC revealed that she had kept an archive of 267 tapes in her attic; archivists are now analyzing them.

Amongst the recordings is a piece from the late 60s, which sounds exactly like it was taken from a recent Aphex Twin album–preceded by the comment "Ah, forget about this, it’s for interest only."

Amazing. If it wasn’t the BBC reporting, I’d think it was a hoax.

Today I was listening to "Every Man Got Dreaming" by Sandoz (aka Richard H. Kirk). At some point I noticed that each time the rhythm loop went around, Chester the parakeet was tweeting at the same point. I listened more carefully. Not only was he tweeting with the music, he was alternating between "cheep" and "cheep cheep".

A few days back I was listening to The Beatles’ "Abbey Road". All was quiet until Paul McCartney started singing on "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer", and then suddenly there was an angry sounding squawking. Things calmed down again after Paul shut up and Ringo took over for "Octopus’s Garden". At the time I thought it was coincidence, but maybe not.

The bird also seems to like King Crimson.

We went out in search of some music on Saturday night.

8bitpeoples were having a label party at Molotov’s on 6th. When we got there, it became readily apparent that the best sound was available by standing on the sidewalk outside the venue, and looking through their open windows. We had a pretty good view of the stage too.

Later we went in search of Chris de Luca vs Phon.o, the former being half of Funkstörung. Sadly, it appeared that they had canceled or changed the date to 3 days earlier or something, and the venue denied all knowledge of them.

Until he mentioned it in an interview, it had never occurred to me that Ira Glass might be related to Philip Glass.

Pete Green: “I don’t have a MySpace, because MySpace fucking sucks.” ADLTS obviously.

I just picked up some more Christmas music from the Amazon MP3 store. For all that I like the iTunes Music Store, the Amazon MP3 store is better in every way.

First off, the selection is far, far better. I say that because I don’t buy DRM I can’t easily remove, so the iTMS’s rather anemic selection of “iTunes Plus” albums compares badly to Amazon’s library.

Secondly, there’s the format issue. For all that 256kbps AAC is theoretically better than 256kbps MP3, in practice I tend to encode with LAME’s standard preset, which averages less than 256kbps and is practically indistinguishable from CD in my personal testing. I think it’s easy to be too picky about digital audio. If I could approach my vinyl-buying self of 1983 and offer him his record library in 160kbps MP3s on an iPod, he’d leap at the chance. So given that the quality is good enough, I’d rather have MP3s I can play anywhere than AAC files I can only play most places.

Amazon have the convenience angle sorted too. In fact, it’s a little bit too convenient–it’s one click to buy an album once you install their downloader. The downloader automatically files everything neatly in folders by artist and album, and adds the tracks to iTunes when it’s done.

But enough about the technical jiggery-pokery. The actual music is what counts. First of all I picked up the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s album of music from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I’m not a jazz fan, and I’m not a big fan of the TV adaptation of Peanuts either, but somehow the soundtrack is perfect.

Next I picked up a couple of Cocteau Twins Christmas singles from a compilation. This is where digital downloads really shine–I can buy two songs for 89¢ each rather than a 4-CD compilation I don’t want.

I then went looking for quirky Christmas music, and found Tis The Season For Los Straitjackets.  I already have a Tijuana Brass Christmas album and a two different Moog Christmas albums. I’m kinda disappointed that Señor Coconut hasn’t tried his hand at a Kraftwerk Christmas album yet.  Ah well, at least there’s the 8bits of Christmas.

Also in my collection are Mark Mothersbaugh’s Joyeux Mutato, and the Illegal Art A MUTATED CHRISTMAS release. Plus, of course, a hefty dose of bootleg/mashup Christmas tracks downloaded from the web.

If anyone has any other recommendations for quirky but listenable Christmas albums, please post ‘em.

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area and can spare some time Friday, Negativland need help moving several pallets of stuff up some stairs. Peter Conheim has a back injury, and Don is getting on a bit and can’t shift all the stuff himself.

If you can help, e-mail peter@negativland.com. They’re offering free CDs and stuff from their back catalog in return for assistance. Plus, you get to meet Peter and Don.

Today’s the big day. The iTunes Music Store has started actually selling DRM-free music. I decided to vote with my wallet and go find and buy something. I’m hoping that in a few weeks we’ll see a press release stating that EMI’s music sales tripled, or something like that, and the other labels will get that clue they’ve been missing.

Unfortunately, it seems as if everyone else has had the same idea, and Apple’s Internet connections anre buckling under the strain. In a way that’s a good thing, but it’s a bit frustrating.

Well, at the weekend I had my first SXSW experience, and it was a good one. Last year I managed to miss John Watts, but this year I was prepared. We went to The Hideout downtown about an hour early, and waited in line. The rule was SXSW badges first, then wristband holders, then if there was still space in the venue proletarians could pay $8 each to get in.

The band before Watts was Asakusa Jinta, a kind of psychedelic heavy metal marching band from Japan. They apparently had a lot of buzz, as the venue was full to capacity and there were 20 or 30 people lined up in the hope of getting in. From what we could hear from the corridor, Asakusa Jinta are indeed pretty awesome, but not necessarily a band you want to share an enclosed space with, even if you have earplugs.

Eventually the band stopped, and lots of people left. John Watts wandered past with his promoter handing out flyers. The line thinned out, and we were left standing with some Germans, and two local girls who were apparently hosting Mr Watts during his stay, but were unacquainted with his music.

Back in the late 1970s, John Watts founded Fischer-Z. At the time they were compared to Talking Heads and XTC, but for some reason they never had the commercial success of those bands. The original band broke up after 3 albums, but Watts then reformed Fischer-Z with a new lineup.

The style of music is the usual pop/rock range, but sprinkled with the musical twists that keep my interest. The lyrics are sometimes melancholy, occasionally angry, but there’s always humor there that prevents things slipping into punk (or Depeche Mode) territory.

It all strikes me as very English, but for some reason their biggest fans were in Germany. If you want to hear some Fischer-Z right now, your best bet is either to switch the iTunes music store to think you’re German (using the drop-down at the bottom of the front page), or to head to FineTunes Music Shop, a German MP3 vendor. [Update: Fischer-Z albums also available from Audio Lunchbox.]

Anyhow, John Watts has now moved into solo performance, and seems to have taken on a kind of “wandering troubadour” role. For his latest album, he bought a 30 day railcard and traveled around Europe talking to random people—and then wrote songs about their stories.

His SXSW performance was just him with an amplified acoustic guitar. I particularly appreciated that he was picky about the sound, and insisted on getting it to a loud-but-comfortable level, with the vocals clearly audible. If only all artists were prepared to argue with venue sound guys.

So all in all, one of the simplest—yet also, one of the best—live music experiences I’ve had. Hopefully he’ll be back next year.