what my thesis is about

From 1960s Jamaican dance hall culture to today's contemporary plunderphonics, music has relied on the sample. Sampling is the act of taking a portion of an existing piece of music and using it within a new piece of music. Sampling crosses all genres of music. Sampling has also been an area of contention from a legal perspective.

I would like to do more research on sampling culture. This would include interviews with music experts and the creation of both analog and digital samples. This research would culminate in a performance where I present a piece chronicling the history of the sample from its early roots to the now established culture.

Nudge....addictive

The thing about learning is that you have to feel pretty stupid sometimes...

School is going okay. I have made it my goal to teach myself Ableton Live - I would like to play my drumpad in front of people in the next 3 months. I do not think I have any sort of innate musical ability, mostly it confuses me. I get really mixed up in the basic mathematics of it and also do not know very much about music theory. I have some advantages though - I have a wide variety of musical influences to draw from and also like to read. Plus I have friends that know way more about music than I do.

Tim Exile

tiny paper boats

Latest tracks by tinypaperboats

Pink "Glitter in the air"

whiplash girlchild in the dark

now let me see you do the tightrope

no ordinary love

happy valentine's day. here are some handsome rock stars to look at.

Am I into music? What do I listen to??

It's a hard set of questions to answer. Mostly I lie and act like I'm not into music. I've done the same thing with art before. Mostly I don't want to talk about Salvador Dali. Or look at watercolors. Oh and If your favorite author is Chuck Palunik, I do not want to read your short stories. Put them away. Let's do something else.

I would say so yet I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite all time band. I'm like, a schizophrenic music fan. I'd say nine inch nails would be up there. And The Smiths. Oh I adore Morrissey. And the insanely talented Butch Walker.As well as Elliot Smith. And REM. Probably Bright Eyes and Rilo Kiley as well. Those are long time ones though. Older music I like includes The Clash, The Who, and Roy Orbinson. Those are musicians I could listen to on repeat forever.

It takes me a long time to get into new music.I suppose Kimya Dawson (from The Moldy Peaches) is a newer favorite. I remember liking the Moldy Peaches but I really just got reintroduced to her sweet music after seeing Juno. And I adore Vampire Weekend's CD. Oh I guess you could put Raine Maida's solo CD up there too. Check The Hunter's Lullaby out. It's great. I also enjoy The Decemberists.

I also believe that while you can like both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, you truly only belong to one or the other. I think one claims you like it or not. And as much as I admire the Beatles, especially George I am a Stones kid. "Wild Horses" gets me every time.

As far as hip-hop goes I like my Kanye. Don't hate. Katy got me into listening to Flobots. I also enjoy Aesop Rock. So I tend to like clever lyrics with a bit more social commentary.

I can't stand Dave Matthews Band, most Radiohead*, Pink Floyd, and songs with incoherent mumbling.

* Okay, I like "Fake Plastic Trees" and "Creep". Whatever.

I wish I lived on Sesame Street.... especially when fiest comes to visit!

Sidewalk Fiction "Hillside"

Adorable talented local band makes equally adorable music video. I cried. It's so cute:
http://www.youtube.com/v/_e6cFSxcu4I&hl=en&fs=1

How you choose your words, that's how I judge you darling

What's currently influencing my art/life:

1. Nirvana
2. Shout out Louds - Especially Our Ill Wills. Listen to my favorite song on that album.
3. Elvis Costello
4. Sylvia Plath - Especially Ariel
5. Robert Lowell

I wanna be your…car or why we already know hot topic is not punk rock.

So I was watching television the other night and I heard a bit of a catchy song. The chorus was haunting. It sounded like Iggy Pop doing a cover. Well, it turns out it was for a new Cadillac ad. The original song is by The Teddybears, a Swedish pop band. The original song is sorta this techno-y thing with the line “cause I’m a punk rocker yes I am” used ironically. I think this song is a perfect example of metadiscourse. Iggy Pop is pretty punk rock. He is perhaps the only living person who could sing such an audacious line and give it gravity. You feel it in his voice that he really is a tough punk rocker. He’s not even bragging. He has nothing to prove.

BUT the song is used in a Cadillac commercial. It’s what a lot of elitist would consider being a “sellout”. You just picture them seething in the background thinking, doing commercials isn’t punk rock. So that adds another level of depth to it. Then, the music video for the song portrays Iggy Pop as this sad, ruined, aged rock star being chauffeured around in a big black Cadillac wearing a designer suit. Usually I hate music videos for really great songs because I like to have my own images and form my own ideas for songs. But this fit the song so perfectly. In fact, it enhances the song. That made me sorta sad. The local radio station that plays “indie” music sometimes plays what I think of as the most annoying song in the world. It’s by MC Lars and is entitled “Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock”. I don’t think we needed a song to illustrate this point. I don’t think anyone buys things to look “punk” in Hot Topic. And I think people into punk already KNOW Hot Topic is not punk rock. So shut up. You aren’t as clever as you think you are.

Seeing a man who rose to prominence with his youthful exuberance and raw songs and smearing peanut butter on his chest and cutting himself with glass bottles as the elder statesman, the king of a starlit city inhabited by alien beings, a man no longer young in a world that is no longer right for him. What a perfect metaphor for the world we live in.

So much better than an inane song cataloging a store that no one cares about with only passable lyrics.

So continue to shop in hot topic. Buy the tinkerbell lunchbox.

watch the video: