Comments on: SWINGING MODERN SOUNDS #22: Son of Interactive Playlist

By: Sam McDermott

Sam McDermott — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:09:28 +0000

Do you accept submissions from other McDermotts?

By: Rick Moody

Rick Moody — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:17:41 +0000

Harry, more primitive is always welcome. I have been doing ART lately just by happenstance. But I consider my primitive bona fides to be reasonably strong. I can get down with the Alan Lomax/Harry Smith stuff, to be sure. If you have suggestions, please feel free to share.

By: Harry

Harry — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:19:56 +0000

To Rick Moody-Your anthropological “postmodern” democratic collecting and sharing of music is stimulating. I am just wondering if you are leaning towards “art” music (based on some samples of your suggestions I found at you-tube), or if more primitive forms are valid in this sharing experience. You know–the Alan Lomax trip… Thanks for starting this forum.

By: Rick Moody

Rick Moody — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:29:49 +0000

P.S. Everyone please note corrected photo of Kid Millions, with thanks to the folks at Secretly Canadian, whose vinyl arm, I am now told, is going to be releasing the MAN FOREVER lp.

By: Rick Moody

Rick Moody — Sun, 09 May 2010 03:03:37 +0000

Fred Thomas, either a) you don’t exist, and Ted just used all those lower case letters in the post shown above to try to make it SEEM like you exist, which is very nearly convincing, but if you can’t produce your birth certificate, and not a photocopy but your actual birth certificate, I will never believe it, or b) I knew all along that you actually exist, and I was simply being facetious, to try to stress the eccentricity of the choices on the “guest mix.” If b, then I actually didn’t miss the point of the “guest mix,” I was just being facetious. I confess that it is a frequent event in my life that people don’t get the jokes, because they are delivered in long sentences and without smiling. I thought it was a very interesting “guest mix,” and even understood the leprous appearance of “Jerry Garcia or the Grateful Dead,” as homage to the way in which your source material was collected. And, as I say, I have been in Ypsilanti, and I am always glad when somewhere like that town has a “noise scene.” Cinci, OH, I have been given to believe, has a very excellent analogue electronica scene. Who would have believed this?

Will look forward to your producing the birth certificate, you figment.

By: fred thomas

fred thomas — Sat, 08 May 2010 03:16:50 +0000

i exist! nice piece of writing, though i think you missed the point of the mix i made. it was a bunch of fragments from various cassettes i’d come across, made or traded with peers over the past twenty years. in this internet age when you can get files of pretty much any record you want just by thinking of it, cassettes are a little harder to grub sound from. the mix also featured lots of bands that were either part of my town’s noise scene or musicians that i’d played shows with all over the states. this mix was meant to foster some sort of support within the community and be fun. i had fun making it, and enjoyed the randomness and diversity of following the sludgy, stoned noise of strangebrew with a red hot chili peppers song. i stand by the mix and still like every song on it. you can asses my character however you want, i will still exist and you will still not be able to believe it.

By: David Breithaupt

David Breithaupt — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:28:31 +0000

Man, Rick. I’m still laughing from Kathy Ackers and Erica Jong! Thanks for this list of mixed brews, I’ll sample it over time.

By: kate flaherty

kate flaherty — Sat, 08 May 2010 00:50:08 +0000

Why yes, Pitchfork Records does still exist, as does Greenlaw’s Music in Laconia, NH one of the other places I spent hundreds (thousands?) of hours and dollars in a few decades ago, flipping through the entire alphabet one record at a time as I looked for something new. As you’d suspect, there are not nearly as many records as there used to be in those stores, but I like seeing the Pitchfork storefront whenever I happen to drive up North Main. It’s true that we had to buy records then by cover or feel or instinct (and yeah, sometimes by word of mouth), if only because radio didn’t reach that far north and the Rolling Stone had already been stolen from the library before we got to read it. . . and the album covers were what we looked at, the liner notes what we read, when we listened to the music in our basements or our bedrooms. I’d like to keep from saying something stupid like “it’s not the same anymore,” but I can’t help it–it’s not. We all know that. And in some ways perhaps it’s better, because we can resurrect a guy like Nate Wooley and check out his MySpace Page if we try hard enough, but still, I miss being able to hold something in my hands that’s more real than a laptop. Sigh.

By: Amy Denio

Amy Denio — Sat, 08 May 2010 00:24:16 +0000

Dearest Rick
I was very happy to see you again, the Stone. The place was filled with old friends from around the world, very willing to play along, what a delight!
A little clarification:
Die Knodel were an Austrian chamber octet I composed for & brought to Seattle for concerts & recording, really lovely folks. I’d gently suggest that my project Danubians (http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/danubians.html) is the more experimental Eastern European project, with Csaba Hajnoczy & Gabi Kenderesi from Kampec Dolores (H) & Pavel Fajt on drums (CZ). And, well there’s Kultur Shock (http://www.kulturshock.com) to sate my hunger for balkanic explosion.
Let’s keep talking about face transplants and such (driving home from surgery today, my friend from Mexico City told me he read such an article about that today, in La Jornada!).
The libretto’s going to be good…

By: Alec Bemis

Alec Bemis — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:18:49 +0000

Rick,

Thanks so much for this very thoughtful review of Clogs. The story of why their chose songs for their new album is fairly separate from their connection to The National. (The music was actually written by Padma on a fellowship to a kind of artists’ retreat in Italy 3 or 4 years ago & I’d credit the change of scenery for the change in format more than anything else; Stick Music is, to my ears, very much an album resulting from a country man forced to live in urban areas, and a reaction to exposure to both urban avant-gardes and “progressive” academic music circles.) Regardless of quibbles it’s nice to read you going on at length about them. The opportunities to read music criticism that is anything but an extension of the publicity machine is too rare these days — and you’ve been such a great long-haul advocate for Clogs.

Also, YESSSS to Daniel Higgs. “Not for everyone,” I guess but insanely underrated & bracing. I like this performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjWjV4rUv98

- Alec