A short post, but I have to post it. ‘The Complexity of Songs’ is a short communication Don Knuth wrote back in the 70s which is really quite interesting. It’s also a pretty funny joke.

The article capitalizes on the tendency of popular songs to evolve from long and content-rich ballads to highly repetitive texts with little or no meaningful content.

[...]

“…our ancient ancestors invented the concept of refrain” to reduce the space complexity of songs, which becomes crucial when a large number of songs is to be committed to one’s memory.

[...]

Finally, progress during the twentieth century—stimulated by the fact that “the advent of modern drugs has led to demands for still less memory”—leads to the ultimate improvement: Arbitrarily long songs with space complexity O(1), e.g. for a song to be defined by the recurrence relation.

We’ve really taken the concept to heart in modern popular music haven’t we? See here for explanation and here for the original paper.

Cheers.

I know vdov doesn’t usually go for the “hey look at this cool thing on the internet” type of posts but, hey look at this cool thing on the internet. It is clearly the greatest music video that has ever existed. It also dominates the field of “zombie Stalin” videos as well. It’s by a Russian metal band called ANJ [their myspace page].

While I was studying 20th century music at the end of my music major at Bowdoin, I was shown (by someone, I have no idea who) a painting (i.e., on canvas, not a musical painting) that Shostakovich did, entitled “Self-Portrait”. Or at least I think it was called “Self-Portrait”, regardless that is what he considered the painting to be. As Shostakovich has for some time been one of my favorite composers (if not my favorite — his string quartets are among my favorite music ever written or played; Even now I am listening to the 4th movement of no. 11, and some of my fondest memories as a violist stem from the playing of these quartets), I sometimes go on long searches to find whatever book this came from or some reprint online or *something*. To date, though, I have never found it, and any search for “Self-Portrait” coupled with Shostakovich returns a series of his musical compositions which bare that name. If anyone out there knows anything about this painting, please post something about it here!

The painting is very somber, almost depressing. It depicts a man with very little definition walking away from the point of view of the painter. The color palate is very dark, as I remember. I would estimate that only 15% of the frame is taken up with the walking man and the rest by his surroundings on the street he is traveling down. This is how I remember the painting, though I never fully studied it and my memory could be very flawed. But, he’s definitely walking away from the point of view of the painter.

If I could remember who showed that painting to me (over 4 years ago now), I would just email him/her. My memory is not that good.

Cheers.

You have all probably forgotten that once there was a podcast on this site. The podcast isn’t coming back but something very similar is! That’s right, the Rt. Rev. Fischer, like Lazarus himself, has risen from the tomb. I am now an official DJ for Brown Student Radio (BSR). They liked me enough to give me a 1.5 hour timeslot on Saturday starting at 5:30. You can listen to it streaming live or you can get after the fact at my very own archive of the show. The on air radio station is WELH Providence 88.1FM. However, you are not going to hear my show on the actual radio airwaves. This is because BSR shares their station air time with The Wheeler School, a very nice private high school in Providence. So Wheeler broadcasts from 6:00am to 7:00pm and BSR gets the rest of the time. My show inconveniently ends at 7:00, just shy of actual airtime. Hopefully, I can get a real on-air slot over the summer (who knows?). There are a lot of things that are nice about BSR compared to my former radio home WBOR Brunswick 91.1FM. It is a more tightly run ship, their website is much better, and their internet broadcast is much superior. The drawbacks are a meager 150W broadcast tower (compared to 300W at WBOR), the fact that they share the air time with the Wheeler School and a Spanish language station, and they really make you work to be a DJ (8 hours of service a month… not that bad really). However, BSR is trying to get a license for a Low Power FM station under the official call letters “WBSR.” Low Power FM stations are something that I have wanted for a long time and in my opinion would radically change the US music scene if they proliferate. For more information check out The Prometheus Radio Project and the Wikipedia article on LPFM. I am planning on generating a good rant on the FCC and its problems, corporate radio, LPFM, and various related topics, but for now just know that the Rt. Rev. Fischer is back on the air.

Tonight I was surfing around the internet trying to find something interesting to read (one of my favorite activities) while the pseudo-sweet sounds of Amunblane and the Electrocustics (Lucas & Nate playing everything under the sun on what has become a 6-guitar collection in my house) wafted through the hallways and into my office. Amazingly, something I saw made me think — a lot. I initially dismissed the title “Publisher Tests Selling by the Chapter” in my RSS feed from the Wall Street Journal. After some introspection on the idea, I came back to the article, and was disappointed by my inability to read the full article as, of course you know, WSJ requires a subscription. So I didn’t read it. Instead I’ll go on a major rant about this and many other things tie into a general theory of how we as a society consume content through technology, and offer a historical perspective on the subject. I may be very wrong about all these things, though I think it brings up a number of interesting issues that are worthy of consideration. (more…)

First off starting around January 28th (I still don’t know the official day/time) I am back on the air. You can hear me on BSR Live either on the internet or the radio in Providence, RI on 88.1 WELH. That being said I have been trying to drag myself back into the wretched world of music review. Luckily, there are some good projects in the works. I will try to write up some reviews of what I have found clanking around the internet or the radio station. To start off I wanted to mention “Murder Mystery” and their new and lengthily named album “Are You Ready for the Heartache Because Here it Comes.” This is their debut and it hits stores very soon. It is a fun little jaunt through the world of twee indie rock. It never really sinks into the realm of “precious kitsch ” but comes absurdly close while still being most excellent. In their pre-release promo material they claim a grand heritage ranging from Lou Reed to early Beatles to Magnetic Fields. While that is all well and good their sound definitely seems to hew more closely to The Jesus and Mary Chain and Beat Happening. They have more contemporary pop sensibility than either of those but follow in that more narrow tradition than anything else they have been hyped to be. It has an intimate lyrical quality while giving a nod to the more rock-a-billy elements of American music while dabbling in pop sounds. The overall effect is quite pleasing. They definitely make memorable splashes on a couple tracks and the rest are not bad at all. I have a feeling that people will be eagerly awaiting a second album. (more…)

I can remember quite well back to my days of youth listening to children’s albums (they were tapes back then). I am sure I could still belt out a rough sketch of ‘Baby Beluga’ or ‘Bananaphone.’ I remember going to see ‘Sharon, Lois, & Bram’ at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum (the largest in the world no less). However, children’s music was always kind of odd for me. I can remember happily listening to children’s tunes on Nickelodeon but I also started watching MTV when I was about 6 or 7. This was when they still played almost exclusively music videos. There was an odd likeness between these two channels. The kids songs on Nickelodeon (i.e. ‘The Cat Came Back’ and pretty much everything on Sharon, Lois & Bram) were always coordinated with cartoons or video essentially making them into the children’s equivalent of MTV music videos. The real counterpoint was the child like nature of a lot of MTV music videos. I remember being enthralled with ‘They Might Be Giants’ and ‘Ah Ha’ music videos. So I have always been a big believer in the Disney and Pixar philosophy that just because its for kids doesn’t mean it has to be dull or simplistic. The converse also being true. Music listeners often time forget that even ‘adult’ tunes can be quite whimsical and even… childish. Therefore, enter indie rock children’s CD’s. ‘For The Kids 3‘ is clearly not the first stab at this (it is 3 after all) but it does an excellent job. (more…)

Since I have been meaning to punch out some quality posts for vdov I thought I would wrap up a couple odds and ends here. I have a couple mini reviews on the topics of music, religion, a book, movies, and some updates from the vdov crowd and those over to the right of the page in our blogroll. (more…)

One of the most stunning aspects that Akron/Family brings to the album and the live show is the fact that they are completely engaged in their own sound. This comes through most noticeably in their completely unabashed devotional Raise the Sparks (definitely watch this video… it is the band at their finest… only problem is the vocal recording is not mixed quite right). They have no problem wandering into gospel territory with a kind of tribalistic sound because they are so sure (or at least nonchalant) in their own sound. This was especially pointed in Chicago where their gospel blues influence stood out as a historical thread (something they explicitly mentioned). This made it that much harder to switch gears into a different kind of scene and sound for acosta and my second night of music. We somehow stumbled on a South by Southwest (the world’s premier indie music festival in Austin, TX) pre-game show at the Hideout. The show rampaged from noon until midnight miming the style of SxSW. Bands played 30 minute sets, back to back to back. Acosta and I were there a little late (say 7:00 to 11:00) to see The M’s and Maritime specifically. The music was fine and the venue was great but there was a palpable difference in the two nights of music. (more…)

Living in the City By The Lake has many perks and a vibrant, independent music and art scene is one of them. Hardly a week goes by without new contemporary music of all stripes played in every place from concert halls to seedy bars. Last weekend was especially fine since acosta and myself were able to take in some culture and finally get a chance to see the much loved vdov favorites Akron/Family. We also stumbled into the official Chicago SxSW pre-game send-off for the Midwest bands that are now hitting the stages at the country’s most venerable independent music festival. Both shows were quite interesting but quite different. The venues are seemingly similar but it belies their differences. It gave a good insight into the strange topology of the independent music scene in Chicago and elsewhere. (more…)

Somewhere, once, and I don’t remember where I read a review of Scotland Yard Gospel Choir and I was immediately interested. However, I was not able to get my hands on an album and they didn’t have any music online (this has changed… they now have a great website with wonderful links and a lot of media at sygc.com). So they have been on my back burner for a long time. Luckily, the band is local to Chicago and they played last night at The Empty Bottle. As an added bonus it turned out to be the record release party for their new single “Then and Not a Moment Before” (also “In Hospital” and “Lamppost”, a demo, on the single). Even better it turns out that a friend knows about the band and between shots of Makers Mark (him not me) related some back story. Apparently they have had some rough times and member of the band left for other venues but now they are playing better than ever (or so the story goes). They also recently shopped deals with some major record labels and if the show was any indication it won’t be long. (more…)

I mentioned that Of Montreal has a brand new album that is just leaking all over the internet. The leak’s not a bad thing it’s a good thing. Everyone loves it! The name is Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? The so-called-single is “Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse” and it now officially has a music video. The only problem is that this video is the worst parts of the 60’s all rolled into one. It is everything awful in the protein hippie synthesis video. However, the song is quite good. The only problem is that the video cheapens the song by making the concept of the album completely explicit in the irony of the video, destroying the fragile layer of belief suspension that allows you to listen to the intensely personal ravings of Kevin Barnes and come out the other side seeing the beauty. The introversion of the album is painted with a silliness that is the hallmark [of] Of Montreal and the what strings it all together is the belief that underneath it all Barnes really means it and isn’t just taking us all for a ride. There is a small hope that artistically the album is not just glam-rock doused with feelings and that it is really feelings dusted with glam. The video would work with something more pat and disposable as an ironic statement but in the context of Hissing Fauna it falls far short of what it could be. That being said, it is still fun and maybe that is the weird beauty [of] Of Montreal. You can’t completely love or hate it and there is a certain art in that. Well, take a peek and enjoy the music even if it means blocking the visual. (more…)