Chalkhills Digest Volume 10, Issue 23
Date: Saturday, 29 May 2004
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 10, Number 23
Saturday, 29 May 2004
Topics:
Re: Garageband (was: Wake Up!)
Re: Training Wheels
Goosey goosey is cool...
Outtakes and the like
Re: Mike Viola and Candy Butchers
XTC new album
The Dukes and psychedelia
BarageGand
The Word
Gilmore Girls
Administrivia:
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the Chalkhills mailing list, send a message to
<chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org> with the following command:
unsubscribe
For all other administrative issues, send a message to:
<chalkhills-request@chalkhills.org>
Please remember to send your Chalkhills postings to:
<chalkhills@chalkhills.org>
World Wide Web: <http://chalkhills.org/>
The views expressed herein are those of the individual authors.
Chalkhills is compiled with Digest 3.8b (John Relph <relph@tmbg.org>).
Who put that nail in your eye?
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 12:23:04 -0400 From: Steve Dockery <sdockery@mac.com> Subject: Re: Garageband (was: Wake Up!) Message-ID: <CCD44C0E-AE67-11D8-993F-0003938AC4BC@mac.com> If you buy a new G5, it will come with Garageband. Garageband accepts audio and MIDI inputs - I have a 2-channel USB audio interface I use to get sound in, and a two-octave MIDI keyboard (with an integrated MIDI-to-USB interface) to get keyboards in. The rest of it I programmed directly in Garageband, note by freakin' note. It has instrument loops built in (which are useless for completely original songs, except for the drum loops which come in really handy, but they're fun to play with and possibly compose something around them), and a bunch of built-in synthetic instruments (you can add more, such as with Apple's "Jam Pack"). Everything you hear on my Garageband songs so far that isn't voice or guitar is using the built-in Garageband instruments (except for the orchestra stabs in "Wake Up"). Somebody's even written a plugin to get MIDI out of it, so it can control an external MIDI device (haven't tried this). There's lots more info on Apple's website, so I'll return this forum to XTC-related discussion. Like, when's another studio album coming out? Fuzzy warbles, etc. are great, but I want a new studio album!
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 13:04:45 -0400 From: "Krys Olsiewicz" <kolsiewicz@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Training Wheels Message-ID: <BAY1-F54P1qMHwwpK7V0002d1d1@hotmail.com> Paul Culnane wrote: "The song Andy submitted was "My Train Is Coming", and, like Rudgren or Neil Innes' efforts, it's an eerily accurate pastiche of 1964 British beat music - or as Andy himself describes it, it's all of "A Hard Day's Night" rolled into one song. " As Mr. Innes so succinctly put it, "To rutle is a verb." It's always fun to spot musical influences. My S.O. and I also like to call the psychedelicizing of a song a "Dukes" factor. p.s. Paul--You brought up the "Monarch of the Glen" which has just started showing here in the States on public TV. Haven't spotted the Uffington Horse shirt yet. The best part of the show is the incomparable Richard Briers. Here's the imdb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238793/ Cheers, Krys Olsiewicz
------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 15:36:03 -0500 From: <xtc@verizon.net> Subject: Goosey goosey is cool... Message-ID: <20040525203603.CVOT5247.out014.verizon.net@outgoing.verizon.net> "*Hobbes *" <hazchem25@hotmail.com> wrote... >> But this song is a natural born b-side (like the equally ploddy and lifeless "Goosey Goosey"). It's trying to be a big party but sounds more like an uninvited nerdy kid watching the next door neighbour's party for the more popular through a window while letting that air out of a slowly deflating balloon. << Check out the way the lyrics balance the themes in "Goosey Goosey"... http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/s_Goosey.html Red vs blue Morning vs evening Coming vs going Crashing vs breezing Daytime vs nighttime "Playtime" vs "frighttime" Life vs death I like it. Your "nerdy kid" analogy. Now *that's* ploddy and lifeless chum.
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 00:11:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Poison Jeremy <poisonjeremy@yahoo.com> Subject: Outtakes and the like Message-ID: <20040526071156.60841.qmail@web13307.mail.yahoo.com> I am not sure if this is the right place to post this or not. I have been a fan for around 5 years and an someone I know used to be part of the list. He received some great outtakes, unreleased material, etc. from someone on here. It was some great early stuff, covers (was it Gregory who did a whole lot of them), etc. I don't have anything to trade currently, because I'm just starting up trading. Can anybody help me? I'd be willing to provide discs, or the cost of them, etc. Please let me know. Take care, Jeremy
------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 08:55:06 EDT From: DanAbnrml9@aol.com Subject: Re: Mike Viola and Candy Butchers Message-ID: <105.4781cd21.2de5edaa@aol.com> In a message dated 5/25/2004 11:04:07 AM Eastern Standard Time, someone wrote: >Now if I could just find their new album "Hang On >Mike" which i've been looking for since January... has anyone seen this? Really? You've had that much difficulty? It's funny because it's actually on Sony, though Mike himself has said that Sony isn't bothering to promote it (despite a Conan O'Brien appearance the night it was released). I work at a Newbury Comics outside of Boston and we have two on the shelf... actually, they've been there awhile because they're not selling. Try www.newburycomics.com, you can probably order it from the site at the very least. --Jason
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 00:29:42 +0000 From: "WAYNE KLEIN" <wtdk12@msn.com> Subject: XTC new album Message-ID: <BAY3-F11yLridnGiAw80002bc98@hotmail.com> While I'm all for bugging the guys for a new album, I'd prefer that they take their time and get it right. For a band that used to pump out a new album every year (or couple of years) four might seem a long time but it might well be worth the wait. Speaking of Joe Jackson (somebody quite kindly pointed me in the direction of the live album recorded at the Filmore which, sadly, I had wanted to go to but was unable to attend), the Joe Jackson Anthology boxed set has the entire "Mike's Murder" album as a third bonus disc. I never did understand the "Deluxe Edition" CDs. Most of them have the entire album, a handful of demos, some life stuff all of which (for the most part) has been released before. "Night and Day" is a particular waste. I would have much rather had the original album remastered vs. a second disc of material I already own (although to be fair the songs from "Mike's Murder" are included but,also, curiously side 3 of the "Live 1980-1986" album--why there's no live version of "Cosmopolitan" or other stuff that wasn't released on the album is beyond me. Perhaps Joe has the original master recordings for all the concerts the album was pulled from). All this repackaging bugs me. I don't mind purchasing something when the sound is greatly improved or there's a lot of material that hasn't been released before (a la "Coat of Many Cupboards") but the way that the conglomerates have been repackaging stuff lately has been shameless and smacks of desperation. Worse yet, the prices still haven't become as reasonable as they should be (although they're not going through the room they were before). I personally felt that the record industry got what it deserved to some extent after growing fat and happy on inflated prices while many artists barely got by. Unfortunately, the first people that suffered when all this occurred were the artists. So typical. Any word yet on the rest of Fuzzy Warbles? Anyone? Anywhere?
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 11:43:09 +0000 From: "Paul Culnane" <paulculnane@hotmail.com> Subject: The Dukes and psychedelia Message-ID: <BAY7-F76WIxd3SiSkCs00033e62@hotmail.com> For those of you with a penchant for classic British psychedelic music (and sometimes "Oz-psyke" too), I thoroughly recommend you go on a magic carpet ride over to a splendid online magazine -"Sweet Floral Albion". The latest issue # 30 contains, among many other flavoursome sugar-lumps, a neat little item that briefly quotes Andy & Dave from an interview they did in 1988 for "Strange Things Are Happening" fanzine. Just scroll down to the item headed "Pub Psych", but don't forget to let your kaliedoscope eyes dwell on some of the other fascinating articles, interviews and reviews while you're there. Back issues are certainly worth more than a cursory look too, and I'm proud to have been invited to occasionally contribute to what I consider the finest of the very few websites devoted to this musical genre. Here's the link to the latest issue. A splendid time is guaranteed for all! http://homepage.ntlworld.com/marmaladeskies/sfa30.htm ~~ p@ul-of-oz
------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 14:25:42 EDT From: Hbsherwood@aol.com Subject: BarageGand Message-ID: <a3.5a49e9b0.2de78ca6@aol.com> ...And we all know that "My Train Is Coming" was also short-listed for Oranges and Lemons, and that one of the three recorded versions floating around is from the O&L sessions, with a rather awestruck Mike Keneally sitting in on guitar, thus completing the circle quite nicely, don't you think? So I don't have to mention it. > From: Burly Jim <burlyjim@yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: Wake Up! > > > From: Steve Dockery <sdockery@mac.com> > >...I've completed another XTC cover using Garageband > > Please tell us (me) more about GarageBand. > Is it entirely on the Mac (ie no Midi, no other sound > input?). I have absolutely no musical background but > had immense fun a few years ago playing with various > PC based drum machines and composers (possibly > Q-Base?? i forget the name) and I'm about to buy a G5 > so would love to find something to play with > musically... Well, then, you lucky old burly individual, you'll definitely have something to play with, because GarageBand comes preloaded on all new Macintoshes now. You'll definitely want to drop the extra $99 on the add-on Jam Pack, which broadens your palette quite a bit. First things first: GarageBand is a toy. It's a wonderful toy, it's a thrillingly comprehensive toy, it's a brilliantly designed toy, it's a toy that, unlike anything from the Hasbro/Mattel/Microsoft Crap Factory, you will play with and play with and play with until Mom absolutely forces you come down to dinner, and you'll bolt your Sloppy Joe in two bites so you can get back to playing with it until you fall asleep clutching its weird wood-grain UI to your jammies, dreaming of the moment when you can wake up and start to play with it again. But it is a toy. It lacks certain things -- like MIDI Out, like tempo mapping, like simultaneous multiple-track recording, like channel busing -- that will always doom it to toyhood. Apple's product strategy is to get you hooked on the GarageBand freebie until you start to bump up against its limitations, at which point they will point out (the playground smack-pushers) that the full-featured, robust, industrial-strength Logic Pro is available at the Apple Store for a mere $999.99 (http://www.apple.com/logic/). They're not fools, these Cupertino Kewpie Dolls, and their acquisition of EMagic (Logic's creators) in 2002, along with the development of the loss leader GarageBand, is all part of a master plan to reestablish Apple's dominance in audio production. More power to 'em, sez I. The minute they wrap GarageBand's user interface around Logic's powerful engine, I will cheerfully drink the Kool-Aid. But it's quite possible that you may discover that you don't actually *need* those pro-level features. For my everyday purposes -- idea-capturing, light demo work, practicing guitar -- GarageBand fills a need that has been sorely lacking. I struggled with Cubase's terribly overpowered interface for a long time -- and before that, God help me, Deck -- and my productivity really suffered. An idea for a song would enter my head, and by the time I got Cubase booted, a new file started and the right tracks configured and armed, the idea would be gone. GarageBand is a great little notebook -- sit down, turn it on, play your thing, and out. Almost, but -- I laugh to type! -- not quite as effective a note-taking tool as a portable cassette recorder from ca. 1971. To your questions: GarageBand is a MIDI sequencer, a loop-manipulation tool, and a sound-recording application. Typically, you plug in a USB MIDI-controller keyboard to play onboard "virtual" software synthesizers through MIDI (and quite good they are too), you loop samples that are supplied with the app or from third-party vendors, and you record "real" instruments through an input device of some kind -- sound card, audio breakout box, etc. Many are available at a very reasonable price. You can make fairly effective non-vocal music using GarageBand entirely without any of these extras, but if you want to really have fun, you'll need them. And you really, really can make good original music with it. Easily. Frighteningly easily. As a user-interface designer by trade, I am absolutely floored by Apple's audacious design choices. Everything that makes Pro Tools and other industrial-strength DAW apps so incomprehensible has been hidden -- not removed entirely, but hidden -- so that the primary task, that of arranging musical notes in time, is to the front. As an example of Apple's audacity, the word "MIDI" never actually appears anywhere in the application. You have "real" instruments (i.e., audio, represented visually by waveforms) and "virtual" instruments (which are represented by classic MIDI piano-roll-style notation, but never called such). This is the sort of thing that just makes me slap my forehead: "Of *course!* Why didn't *I* think of that?" Yeah, but they have to live in Cupertino, California. Suckers. Harrison "With the bees and spiders" Sherwood
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 09:32:47 -0400 From: John Relph <relph@tmbg.org> Subject: The Word Message-ID: <16567.16255.388806.306791@f5.idiot-dog.com> Greetings Fellow Nebulans, Earlier this year The Word magazine in the UK had a long feature on Andy Partridge. Is there any generous reader out there who can transcribe, photocopy, scan or digitally photograph the article and send it to me? I would really appreciate it. -- John
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 13:53:55 -0400 From: John Relph <relph@tmbg.org> Subject: Gilmore Girls Message-ID: <200405281753.i4SHrtT19924@f5.idiot-dog.com> Equi Albi, Apparently DVDs have been released containing The Complete First Season. We know that XTC songs were used on the soundtrack. Does anybody know if and/or which episodes with XTC songs are on these DVDs? For more info: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001CCXZW/chalkhills Thanks for your help! -- John
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #10-23 *******************************
Go back to Volume 10.
29 May 2004 / Feedback