#{Boontdusties.com}

Just learning about this piece of music that will be performed in Seattle in May. It’s not a particular long piece of written music, however, it’s apparently supposed to be played 840 times in succession; to actually perform it could take anywhere from 18-24 hours. In an article about the piece I found this quote which I thought was interesting to think about in relation to current ‘noise’ music:

The repetitive nature of the piece raises fundamental aesthetic questions, in particular about the function of boredom in art. “Boredom was mysterious and profound” for Satie. But it was also an effective way of mystifying and irritating the bourgeoisie, as Satie suggests in Sports et Divertissements [1914], which opens with a Chorale into which “I have put all I know about Boredom. I dedicate it to those who don’t like me.”

Also, this bit about how the piece was written was particularly interesting as well:

Satie’s carefully crafted ‘illogicality’ removes all association, expressive or otherwise, from harmonies which, taken individually, are mostly commonplace: familiar chords seem strangely unfamiliar. Stripped of conventional meaning by the context, a series of simple triads becomes a vehicle for spiritual revelation. Important to the concept of Vexations is the relationship between the repetitive form of the piece and the forgettable nature of its material. Vexations lingers in the memory as a vague impression, the details effaced as soon as heard: it is difficult to imagine anyone walking home whistling the ‘tune’ after a performance. Perhaps it is only because the music is almost literally self-effacing that extended repetition becomes tolerable. Above all, it must not be ‘interesting’; it must not draw attention to itself as music, otherwise the listener – or performer – might attempt to discover meaning, expression, thematic development or any of the other qualities which the intellect is accustomed to seek in music.

-From: Serious Immobilities:
On the centenary of Erik Satie’s Vexations

You’ll note in the video how John Cale says he hasn’t memorized the piece although he has played it hundreds of times. The one participant who sat through the entire performance could not even hum a piece of the tune back.

Also, here is a a note exchange between two players of the piece who communicated via a piece of paper while the other played: Vexations and its Performers

I’m in a new noise band called “My Printer Broke,” and I have a bunch of free music you can download here: myprinterbroke.com

Epic Like Beowulf

Last night we had a performance at New Crompton which was our first experiment to improvise music using chatroulette.com as a springboard. The whole night had chatroulette going for all the other bands but once we took the stage the internet cut out. Ah well, we’re doing it again on April 1st.The whole point is to be sort of a noisy version of this:

Here are some pictures of our setup at New Crompton – click for full size.

This kid thought we sucked.

Half-naked dude.

This night we played w/ Rachel, Matt Fu, Jared, Kenny, Garrett & Kaz. Some girls after the show who had their hands in their ears during the set said it sounded like ‘acidic noise rage’. Some dude reciting Robert Frost poems after the show said we sounded ‘Epic Like Beowulf’ and/or something ‘Starring Crispin Glover’. Alright.

There are a series of videos from the event, taken by Clyde of your heart breaks.

The AM Radio 530 recording was done on the drive home from the show. On the way there Garrett turned on the AM Radio and cranked the volume all the way up on a channel that was not getting any signal. We all rolled down the windows and let it blare out the car. On the drive home we recorded a bit trying to sing along with it.

• Epic Like Beowulf – Full Show
• AM Radio 530

I was flying a helicopter over the border into Iraq. These were the rules I knew: You fly directly over the border, turn right, and land in the American patrolled quadrant. Declare that you want to visit Iraq. I think because you had already crossed the border they had to allow you to go to the VISA office or something. Now that I think about it, there was a vague resemblance to the episode of LOST I watched the night before – where Sawyer has to row a boat to another island to do ‘Recon’.

So I am sent to the VISA office to stand in line. The room has tall cielings, checkered patterns and lots of brown. Outside I can see tan & heat. A lot of the people working behind the counters are women fully covered in hijab, but it’s more ornate than I have ever seen – exotic to its extreme, actually almost ‘alien’. I believe there is even a black woman who is wearing three sets of sunglasses and loose scarves.

Two german teenage travelers are standing behind me and I sort of cling to them because I start getting a little scared. I hadn’t really planned on what I was going to say or knew if I was following the proper procedure. The two german guys at least speak some english and tell me they are in Iraq to watch some American bands for the weekend. That idea calms me down a little bit thinking maybe the place is not as scary as I first imagined. When I get up to the counter I see that my uncle is working behind the counter. He quickly snatches me away from the woman who was going to help me, but he does not exchange any words with me about the fact that he is my uncle. I can tell he wants to pretend we don’t know eachother. He asks me a few questions and fills out my paperwork. He hands it to me and I notice two female guards watching the door leading back to the US base. He tells me that this is my formal paperwork. I squint and try to read the writing but it’s very poorly written – I can’t tell if that is partly on purpose. I remember that at least one of the declarations on the paperwork said that if needed I could ‘bake bread for troops’. My feeling is that the list of things on the paper include skills I have that could be eventually used by the Iraqi military in case I was ever arrested or needed in a time of war while on a stay in Iraq. My impression was that it was just a formality of the Iraqi bureaucracy but would never be enforced. Although, I also felt like my my uncle was hiding the fact that I had other skills that the Iraqi military might immediately want. This would ensure me safe travel.