Rants By Topic

Take A Picture (Second Progress Snippet)

09.27.2016

We interrupt our multi-part rant on ‘Criticism’ for the second snippet from the new album, Progress, called Take A Picture. Famous fretless bass players with two syllable names. Pino. Jaco. Jon Anderson and Olias of Sunhillow. The Roger Dean planet. Unconventional finger picking. Bach. Superbia. Catholic sin. Satan. The usual.

Roger CortonI was going to publish the other parts of our mega-chat on (cough) ‘criticism’ but this site is supposed to be about your music and not ‘Humanities 101’. So I made an executive decision to get this up. ASAP.

JCHWhat’s that old business joke about ‘asap’?

RCIt makes a sap out of you and me. Us oldsters really know how to tell a joke, eh sonny?

JCHNo doubt. Probably nobody under thirty has even heard that knee slapper. But in reaction to your ‘executive decision’, allow me to be a bit more with the youth of America. “What…ehhhhhver, dude.”

[…]

Priceonomics: The Economics Of Selling Out

09.18.2016

Culture, Music Business

Another great article from Priceonomics: The Economics Of Selling Out. A discussion on the tipping point between authenticity and popularity in music and politics.

It’s Not That Simple

09.16.2016

Culture, Music Appreciation

A two-parter on the notion of ‘criticism’. More on the Onward cover. Nobody cares about Hillary’s damned pneumonia. Prince. Blue Angels. George Van Eps. Old school gymnastics and the Olympics. Simplicity. Easy vs. hard. Simple vs. complex. Loops vs. clicks.

Roger CortonNo new Snippet this week? I thought you were going to throw up at least one new something every week.

JCHLook, don’t hassle me, man. It’s been a crappy week. Everywhere I go I just run into too much recession, man.

RCNo man, you mean he ran into too much repression (laughs). I haven’t heard that in a long time. So what’s going on?

JCHTo paraphrase Bernie Sanders, nobody cares about my damned whatever. The point is, I couldn’t get it done. Come to think about it, that’s what Hillary should tell people when she got sick last week. “Nobody cares about my damned whatever. Now fuck off!” It just amazes me that she can’t take a day off to be […]

Courage?

09.8.2016

Culture

Trying out Apple’s fully wireless AirPods

At the introduction of the new Apple Airpods, marketing chief Phil Schiller suggested his firm had been motivated by “courage”.

I’ll tell ya what takes courage. You’ll need real courage to where these things in public most of the places I congregate.

The target market seems to be either:
a) Hi-tech cross-dressers

b) Star Wars Cosplay

Apple could be somewhat forgiven if these 70’s rejects actually sounded decent, but the reviews have all highlighted sound quality which is less than the current abysmal earbuds.

My grouchiness is only because in spite of it being a mediocre yoke, Apple will still sell about 5 squillion of these Airpods at $150 a pop. Because they can. And I’m kinda sick of that disregard for market forces which seems to be so prevalent these days.

We definitely need high quality wireless […]

Onward Cover

09.7.2016

Gigs, Songs

Live snippet. Cover of Yes/Chris Squire’s ‘Onward’ from Tormato. Why we hate looping. Alfalfa and learning to croon. Simple things that are hard to do. Dick Van Dyke’s Recurring Nightmare. Tempo maps. Why do classical conductors make the big, big money? Astoria, OR is great in the autumn.

Roger CortonWe have that rarest sighting in the wild. You doing a cover song.

Onward (Cover) (Snippet)

JCHWell actually one verse, but yeah. As background, I finally got round to listening to that boxed set of Yes re-masters.

RCWhich came out, what, three or four years ago now?

JCHDo you actually listen to those door stops? I get these ‘gift boxes’ for Christmas pressies and…

RCI confess. I’ve gotten a few of those. Never listened to most of them.

JCHIndeed. Who has the time or patience to listen to the fifth outtake of whatever? Anyhoo, I listened to ‘Tormato’ again and… by the way, did you know, […]