moon traveller herald

In Keith Richards' " Life ," he offers much incisive musical commentary, especially about the blues. He definitely studied it at great length, but not like many British blues buffs… his reading is from a totally practical perspective. "Life" discusses "the magic art of guitar weaving" [p.145]. What he describes is his and Brian Jones' emersion in the Chicago Blues music of Jimmy Reed. That music in its best form was underpinned elegantly by the second guitar of Eddie "Don't Call Me Little" Taylor. It is very hard to discern the two guitar lines. But that is what Richards and Jones studied. They studied it carefully – in its simplicity and monotony – and focused on the two-guitar set-up, and the subtle, though 'primitive', interplay thereof. The basic blues guitar and the rock lead and rhythm guitar duo are pretty well known. It is killing what passes for blues these days as it uncreatively recreates itself years after the fact...

He came out of the Los Angeles desert like a Merc chopped and grueled on airplane fuel. Like Big Daddy Roth in a refrigerator graveyard. Put an apple on the head of an insect lawn trophy. Wore and intricate Troutmask replica, and blowed the tropical hotdog night blues til dawn. Heard the news this afternoon that Don Van Vliet was dead. Where do we find words for Capt. Beefheart's passing? I don't know more than to say what a great surrealist brilliant and unique! Saw him at Town Hall in N.Y . in early 1970s. I cannot think of a greater concert of rock music I ever saw. At that point it was rock for Beefheart - but counterpuntal and baroque unlike any other, at least up to that point. How big was he then? Well, Bob Seeger opened. Because of schoolmate Harry Duncan got to meet him - that was in the 70s. Very much an artist, constantly creating. Worrisome though too because he was always jumping around. Talking til dawn. Putting you on. Through Harry in a way the D...

At Moogfest, a North Carolina musical event honoring the work of analog electronic musical instrument pioneer Robert "Bob" Moog, there were many Korgs, Yamahas, and laptops loaded with Moog samples, writes able NY Times' critic Jon Pareles. One purpose of the event is to raise money for a Moogseum archiving the work of Moog, who died a few years ago. Neon Indian, Omar Souleyman, Van Dyke Parks and Devo were on hand. Pareles sets the scene. It is a glance at the reign of the once and future King d' Synthesizer Analogue: From their sometimes-unstable oscillators, filters and amplifiers, Moogs and other analog synthesizers produced sounds that more reliable digital synthesizers would not: buzzes, swoops, whooshes, scrapes, gurgles, screeches, burps, crackles and countless other onomatopoeia-worthy noises … Analog sounds are a funky corrective to sterile digital tones; colliding waveforms make a beautiful noise. New York born electrical engineer and physics PHd Bob Moog...

Jeff De Mark has a beautiful take on a great universal conflagarative event in our ongoing deracination. My mostly templative recollection is here .... This Wheels on Fire. They used to play it on the radio in Milwaukee. And the all of us got excited about that and wanted to go to the East... and for more Jeff DeMark...

I'm so gla d to be here tonight I'm so glad to be in your wonderful city And I got a little message a friend told me a few months back Talking about the Re verend Solomon Burke , you all know him dont ya? And these were the very words that he told me, children. He said Everybody needs somebody Everybody needs somebody to love... also see 2005 note on passing of Wilson Picket

Labored this weekend on Electronic Bard System Monograph on work of Ed Sanders. Always encountering news stuff... the Ondes Marento , the Mellotone, Harry Parch. In conversation with Ed I was introduced to Parch. He is noted for a tuning system with 43 notes in an octave. Most especially, Parch created his own instruments (see Jelly fish-like glass bell example above), to get the sound he wanted. Friday's NYTimes discussed Parch: "In the Forest of Instruments, Signs of Evolution." Parch is in a pantheon with John Cage, Robert Moog, Leon Theremin, Raymond Scott. With Cage, I'd venture that Parch influenced the Performance Art movement in New York in the '60s - a formative mileu for Sanders. New York in those years was a mesh for sure. This mesh including Dylan, Tiny Tim, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Cage and Glass, Andy Warhol and Phillip Guston. Several times Sanders pointed out he did not go as far as Parch - Sanders used 31 notes - or 'cents' - on his M...

I may kill this blog if Google does not improve its support of basic MS commands and functions.