This Is Your Music, Our Culture (Or Why The X-Files' Original Tagline Will Doom Us All)

Why do we like the music we do?

How do we find out about new music?

In my experience growing up, the musicians and albums pivotal in shaping my musical taste were usually recommendations from trusted individuals. I think we're rarely bold enough to try totally new things without someone suggesting (sometimes insisting) we do it.

We like change to be slow.

I recorded the above three albums with my iRecord today, and I was thinking about how we as individuals assimilate new pieces of our collective culture.

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"Amorica" (Come and Save Me)

The Black Crowes' album is my wife's favorite album by her favorite band as a teenager. I got this copy from the lady who traded me for a painting of Van Halen. It's on white vinyl. Very cool.

Before my wife had me listen to the Crowes, I only knew the songs like "Remedy" that were played on the radio. I didn't know they played such kickass southern blues rock. I loved The Allman Brothers, and The Outlaws' "Green Grass & High Tides" was one of my favorite rock jams, but my musical collection had never veered into the 90's bands' take on southern rock. It was out of my element, especially as I had gotten more into jazz, industrial metal, and ambient electronica (read: intellectual music).

I certainly wouldn't have thought to listen to their albums on my own, but my wife had already done the research, as it were, and I opened up to a whole new group of music. She could tell me this was her favorite and I trusted her judgement.

"The Dreaming" (I Love Life)

Kate Bush was discovered by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and also sang backing vocals on Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up". I hadn't heard of her until I was in high school and my friend Michael played this album for me.

I was very picky about my music then, focussing on the prog rock I knew like Genesis and Pink Floyd, and the psychedelic and classic rock I was discovering gradually on my own by spending hours in used record stores. I also hesitated to listen to female vocalists at the time. Yet, Michael was the guy who'd figured out the second album to play over "The Wizard of Oz". And he'd introduced me to Jefferson Airplane's "After Bathing at Baxter's", my favorite album to this day.

So I listened. It was weird, but I gave it a chance because of who was playing it. I wouldn't have even listened to it at all if I'd seen it at a used record store, much less gave it enough time to grow on me. She's amazing though, very unique voice and musical sensibility.

Again, my friend had done the hard part of finding and realizing that, hey, this music was worth a listen. I trusted that Michael wouldn't play me crap, especially because he credits me for introducing him to Genesis, Peter Gabriel and all of prog rock in the first place.

"Penderecki: Utrenja, The Entombment of Christ" (I will praise thy passion)

In high school, I was a geek, proudly. Physics was my favorite subject. I even went during lunch to learn stuff Mr. Layton didn't teach in class. He had the most awesome sound system in his room with huge speakers up against the ceiling in racks he'd built. One lunch he told the group of us geeks that he wanted to play us some music.

Polish avant-garde classical composer, Krysztof Penderecki, wrote the music that would later be used as the soundtrack to "The Shining". Yeah, that music. This was similar: a wall of atonal sounds produced by an orchestra, chorus, and operatic vocalists. If you weren't specifically listening to it, you'd force whoever was to turn it off. It's an assault of sound. Beautiful painful passion.

I rarely ventured into the classical section, but this one album got me into all things modern classical. Just incredible piece of work. It vastly broadened my musical horizons. All because I trusted my teacher.

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Trust seems to be the uniting factor. I was open to it and I personally trusted the individuals sharing the new music with me. They knew, so while it was new to me I wasn't scared.

"Trust No One" will lead to the breakdown of society. Trust is the key to keeping humanity afloat and culture intact.

I know because it's a prerequisite to love. Agreed?

Peace.

The Pearl And The Mirage

Ah, Vegas. I wasn't sure we'd be up to going so I didn't post about our weekend plans until now. We drove up Saturday to see The Verve play at The Pearl at The Palms and drove back Sunday. We made it, though there were several moments we seriously thought about turning around. The sensory bombardment of Sin City probably was a bit much, but the gig was awesome!

Our time on the Strip started out terribly. We checked in to The Mirage to find it lives up to its name. From far away it looks beautiful, but that fades quickly. My wife stepped into the bathroom in her socks to find the shiny marble floor soaked with water from a leaky toilet. Two hours later we ended up in an older room with an $8 pair of socks comped by the hotel. What a runaround, so badly handled. Don't stay there. I have never been one to complain privately, let alone publicly, so this is serious. Don't stay there.

Then we drove to The Palms off the strip. It's the hotel with the Playboy fantasy tower attached where Paris parties. From an excellent parking spot we walked right to the Pearl, which is just off the casino. It also lives up to its name, a jewel of a venue. We had assigned seats, unlike in London, so we didn't stress about waiting in the line to rush down to the floor. That gave us a chance to check out the concession stand. In London, it had closed by the time we got to it, so we didn't get to even look at the shirts and such. At The Pearl, though, we had plenty of time, no line, and I was able to get one of the $10 keychains. I needed a new keychain to replace the mini Sharpie that Marc Ford previously of The Black Crowes had used to sign a ticket stub, which I had lost at the Phoenix airport a couple months ago. This was perfect. The show was perfect. Great seats at the back of the front section so we could stand or sit and not worry about people behind us. We could relax which was nice because we've been so exhausted lately. The acoustics are incredible too. It was such a treat to see Nick do his dance on the guitar pedals. We could hear him so clearly this time; his sound level had been low in London. Someone apparently shouted out up front that he was the "Picasso of guitar". Pretty appropriate.

I've been distracted by a Windows Vista glitch on our HP laptop the past week as well, so art doings have been sidelined, but I figured it out this morning thankfully. So I can get back to business. I've got a commission of Melanie to do, the Florida Music Festival coming up, and I'm in contact with another artist from San Francisco whose daughter is doing an art project partially inspired by my work. She might put me in contact with some places to sell my work in SF as well as some musicians who might want paintings of themselves!

I'll get back to work and soon I'll let you in on a cool promotional idea I have brewing.

Peace.

Blues Roots

John Lee Hooker is among the blues legends that influenced most of the musicians that I listen to regularly, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The White Stripes, The Black Crowes, and the Rolling Stones to name a few. So this is my painting from yesterday. Whad'ya think?

I also wanted to share some more important influences on me. Since I'm already talking music, let's talk music. It is my main passion other than my wife, so I have a lot to say about it. To start, though, I wanted to list the albums that had the biggest initial impact on my outlook towards music. In no real order:

"Revolver" by The Beatles

"After Bathing At Baxter's" by Jefferson Airplane

"Foxtrot" by Genesis

These albums formed the beginnings, the roots of my deep interest in music. My passion can be traced back to these albums and their creators. This isn't to say that all that I listen to relates to these in particular, but they are why I love music as much as I do. In future posts I will explore where my musical interests have meandered, but for now this is a start. If you haven't yet, you can see my painting of Peter Gabriel from his early solo career after leaving Genesis if you:

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