ChordStrike

Animal Collective: A Perfect 10

This just in: Pitchfork has given the new Animal Collective song "What Would I Want? Sky," releasing on December 15 on the Fall Be Kind [EP], a perfect 10 rating. We wanted to mark the occasion since the music blog is stingy with its perfect rating (rightly so). And even though we at Chordstrike fawned all over the band and included them in our Best of the Year list, we're not quite sure if the favorable comments in the review fully justify the rarefied rating. Sure, "consistently different," and sounding like "new age or yoga or the 1990s" (things that make you go hmm), and the ability to "take a sound and turn it inside out to make something new, but something recognizable, even familiar" are all admirable if not altogether coherent qualities in a song. But are those really the things that merit a perfect 10? Indie bands take notice -- there's your new playbook for success.

--Lucas HIlbert

Les Paul 1915 - 2009

Instrumentalist, entertainer, and inventor of the guitar model that bears his name, Les Paul passed away today in White Plains, New York, at the age of 94.

Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915, Paul began performing in public as a "honky-tonk" guitarist at the age of 13.  In the 1930s and '40s, he played with bandleader Fred Waring and many popular singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrews Sisters. It was Crosby that gave Paul an early tape recorder that he began to modify, allowing him to pioneer the art of multi-track recording.

An electronics enthusiast since his youth, Les Paul began experimenting with new guitar designs in the ‘30s.  As ensemble sound levels were growing with amplification, his goal was to improve tone and sustain, while minimizing feedback, so he designed an instrument with a solid body, reducing vibration in the frame and concentrating it in the string.

His initial design was given the unflattering name "The Log" because of the solid construction.  It was 10 years before a manufacturer picked up a refinement of this design, and the first Les Paul was produced by Gibson in 1952.  Since that date the "Les Paul" has gone on to be one of the most recognizable sounds in rock, famed for its dominance and versatility of tone.

In 2008, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life, which culminated with a live performance by Paul himself. He is the only individual to share membership of the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Until recently he continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. -- Hugo Munday

My Professor - Kristin Hersh

Just about every morning, I walk to work, coffee in hand, partly through an area called Freeway Park, usually with my MP3 player on shuffle. Today while walking down some steps, I saw a gentleman navigating the steps backwards. As I kept walking and watching him, he looked up at me and started talking and gesturing. My shuffle at the time was playing “Spain” by Kristin Hersh, and I was hesitant to pull off the headphones, but relented because I did realize I could restart the song anytime I wanted. 

“Sorry, what were you saying?”

“I am re-tracing my steps”, he said with a big warm smile.

Now sometimes my brain is just a bit too logical, and I had to pause for a second while I thought about this.  The smiling face down the steps paused also, waiting for my response.

“I don’t think that phrase was meant to be taken so literally.”

With that the clouds rolled in across his face – there was definite confusion, like his world might crumble because of my statement, so his brain was refusing to process the remark. Not wanting to be responsible for ruining someone’s world view on my way to work, I quickly added, “But maybe that’s the best possible way to get where you need to go.”

That seemed to fix things. He went merrily on his backwards way, and I went back to “Spain.”

What does this have to do with anything? Kristin Hersh, that’s what. It was the perfect soundtrack for this small but wondrous event in my life, and no particularly great surprise that it was on at the time. 

If you have never listened to her music, or especially if you have never seen her perform live (she loves to tell stories between songs), this is exactly the type of world she writes about, and exactly the type of incident that would probably happen to her as well. Her songs are stories, many of which are told by characters that see the world in unique and eye-opening ways, characters that say things like “It’s not my fault you don’t love me/When I’m drunk”, “Next time I’ll be a lousy liar/Next time I’ll say when”, or “I’ll do the math for you/I’ll keep it back for you”. Things that may take a second to fathom, but when they ring true, they resonate deeply. This has always been the case--through Throwing Muses, solo work, and her latest band, 50 Foot Wave.  Everything is fair game: Random events, dreams, and fan conversations have all been reference points for songs and stories. She does what I think all great writers do in their work:  She shows common experiences from an uncommon perspective.

Some shining examples of this work are the Throwing Muses albums Hunkpapa and Limbo, solo albums Hips and Makers and Sunny Border Blue, and the eponymous EP from 50 Foot Wave. But this is just a small fraction of the amazing work from this woman who is a singer/songwriter, guitarist extraordinaire, mom, author, and veteran of the road.

And she’s a great teacher, as she gave me the tools to communicate with the backward-stepping people…

Check out the Kristin Hersh site for all things Kristin Hersh.

"... and with sweet melody."

Much of the Seattle area is covered with snow, at the moment.  It's rare for us living near sea-level to get this much white stuff prior to Christmas and the New Year.  So much snow has fallen, so early, that mass-transit is at a standstill and many flights in and out, canceled or delayed.  Still - the kids are having a blast and it does put you in a very traditional Christmas mood.  If I can get into town over the next few days, I can see trudging through the "deep and crisp and even" to a really traditional carol service, would be in order.
I've never heard the Northwest Boychoir and they've done the most traditional carol service format, as a concert, for thirty years now.  Tuesday night (December 23rd) at Benaroya Hall, but I'd check to make sure the weather hasn't altered their plans.
If you can't get out, you can hear the Northwest Boychoir on King FM (98.1) live, or you can go to the source.  King's College Cambridge came up with this format in 1918 and the BBC started broadcasting it about a decade later.  You can hear the whole service on the BBC World Service broadcast live at 3:02 pm local time, Christmas Eve. 
If you simply have to have a CD? - EMI re-bundled a lot of the traditional King's carols on a very well-priced CD called Classic Christmas Carols.  Stunning arrangements, flawless performances, but the real star of the show?  The Chapel.  One of the best acoustics you'll ever hear a choir sing in.

Happy Christmas from Seattle -- Hugo Munday

The YouTube Symphony

What could be more inclusive and equitable than a YouTube Symphony Orchestra, composed of successful applicants from all over the world? 

I love the idea of Tan Dun writing an Internet Symphony No. 1.  Calling it "Eroica” waves a flag for a brave, new era, even if we are more than 20 years into this revolution.  Also, what better conductor than Maestro Tilson Thomas, who has championed new works as a conductor from the podium of the San Francisco Symphony and other orchestras, even composing extensively himself?

This whole project looks to have a very bright future,if it doesn't get soiled by ugly mistakes we have made in the past.  For many years, anybody that wasn't male or white stood little chance of being hired by a major symphony orchestra, until blind auditions, conducted with a screen between the applicant and the audition panel, were instituted.  Some orchestras have brought on vitriolic criticism, because they adopted these practices late or half-heartedly, most notable among them, The Vienna Philharmonic.  Malcolm Gladwell uses the blind audition problem as a prime example of bias in his book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking."

In the competition rules and regulations, I can't find any language that says that YouTube have made a provision for blind auditions, and for a website whose mission is to allow people to discover, watch and share original videos, I think this is something they will need to address. 

Would it be that hard to do?  I think there are ways to demonstrate attempts to eliminate bias, even in a medium that begins with watching and listening.  Whatever they come up with, I fully acknowledge the need for YouTube to scrutinize the applicants, to make sure they're actually playing and not miming to a brilliant recording of "The Flight of the Bumblebee".  Actually that could become a competition in itself.  Who can spoof the audition panel?  I can see it now - "Eh-hem.  I would now like to perform the percussion part from "Fire", by the late James Hendrix..." -- Hugo Munday