Do you feel sad when returning to an old MMO? It's a good question. And some good answers, there.
Nortel and Mellanium are hosting a me-unfriendly (it's at nine ayem PST, I don't plan to be awake, then!) stress test of their virtual world this Friday. They're wanting to see if their engine really is robust enough to handle five hundred avatars at once. To help them with that, they're throwing registration wide open for their system.
Just download, install, and drop by during the stress test. See if you can break their system.
They dare you.
Eventually, we come around to music on the grid. And this one's going to be tricky.
Dear Lily Allen,
The rules for internet broadcast are labyrinthine and somewhat surreal. On the one hand, the RIAA exists to ensure that proper fees for product are paid by any broadcaster; but unbeknownst to many, they've been maneuvering to have more paid to them than is paid to artists, while starving the artists they're supposedly there to 'protect'.
Remember when you pretended, Lily,
that you were truly independent, Lily?
Faking like you made it all alone
but you were legally with Regal, part of Parlophone
oh yeah
While broadcasters and stations who use AM and FM channels to broadcast music do so legally, for set fees that are generally paid to them, internet broadcasters face an entirely different--and far more horrifying--stricture: the RIAA still wants royalties paid, but wants them paid under specific principles of the DMCA.
So when you lectured me,
I thought I'd fileshare my thoughts on your mp3, Lily.
Under those principles, every time a song is played, in any format (and they want to charge per song, per format change, which gets even more ridiculous), and each time a broadcast/podcast is downloaded, they want a cut of the profits.
Most internet broadcasters survive on donations only; SomaFM, one of the largest net broadcasters, nearly closed in the face of these restrictions, because their fees would have been $7,500 over what they made in donations each month.
Now first I must sing your praises -
I love your singing but I'll just say this:
I saw on your MySpace pages
saying file sharing's a new ice age,
but the industry's a recent innovation--
music's been alive, thriving since cavemen.
They're alive now, and still commercial-free, but it's a struggle each and every month--and it's not because fans of the service aren't paying in; it's because the RIAA-suggested fees for webcasting are so insanely high no one (barring big corps like AOL and Yahoo) can afford to pay them and keep broadcasting.
Folk songs so long have had a place in communities
that you should be amazed at it.
So where did music begin? Live performance. In caves, in stone circles, in forests, in meadows; moving to thatched huts and island beaches and castles and mansions, as the culture evolved. Soon stages were built, some temporary, some permanent, where performers of music and theatre could gather to present their art to the public. Sometimes the public paid for this; sometimes they didn't. Even back then, there was a division between those who could afford to support the arts, and the working poor who struggled to support themselves.
Then one day came intellectual property,
meaning if I think a thought, you can't copy me.
And if honesty's the best policy,
I'd say songs are better off without this monopoly.
And there were always private performers singing professional songs--maybe not always in professional fashion, but schoolchildren, church choruses, family members playing around the feasting table of an evening. Bar singers, private dancers, performers to one, performers to one hundred--on that scale, one doesn't think of paying royalty fees, and in general, one would be absolutely correct.
It'd blatantly be a major fail
if they'd patented the major scale.
And downloads don't equate to sales,
so taking them away won't make me pay up--
just precludes me from sending your tunes to my friends,
so we all lose in the end.
Let's talk about that fan/professional split again, because that's really the issue on the grid, not the absolutes (or even vague threats) of royalties and correct fees. You go out and ask most DJs on the grid, they'll tell you straight up--they were never DJs before Second Life, or if they were, it was just privately, on some chintzy little webpage broadcast service.
You lose potential fans
and we lose respect for the fact that you're desperate for cash.
But in the end, most grid-based radio stations (note: I said most, not all) have no interest in broadcasting on the web at large. But is Second Life the web? If a stream is tossed out, for the most part, it works in SL. Yet, if it doesn't, we're generally instructed to open WinAmp or iTunes (or local equivalent) and pull up the actual numerical or HTML feed.
And that does bring up a stream that is then broadcasting from the web, right? Which means that radio station is a web broadcaster. Isn't it?
But what do you expect from the lass
who's collecting a fat bank cheque from the man,
while her fans are collecting the glasses for minimum wage they'll spend on her tracks?
The problem, inherently, is the RIAA wants a cut, of whatever profits are being made (even if they're nonexistant), or for the "offending" broadcaster to cease operation. Fine, they're empowered to do that, more or less--if the broadcaster is using the existing AM or FM channels to broadcast music or protected media.
Dear Lily, why you being this silly?
Yours sincerely, Dan Bull--
But if they're on the net? Do the rules that apply to physical radio stations apply to web stations? No, and that's the problem--the RIAA aren't going after net stations using broadcast rules. They're going after net stations using portions of the DMCA--which, again, was never intended to be used like this.
Now please don't be offended, Lily;
I think your new CD's splendid, Lily.
Everybody's At It
and it's Not Fair,
I Could Say The Fear was Him but
He Wasn't There so let's
go Back To the Start, before 22--
all music's in the public domain, so Fuck You--
According to the DMCA--via the twisted ways it's been interpreted of late--any use is a use. So play a song once--that's one use. Play a song twice--that's two uses. Okay as far as it goes, but offer that song twice in an hour broadcast, and you're against the terms of service for approval. And gods forbid you should offer the podcast containing that song in any format, because that's another fee for that song. And if you convert it from .mp3 to .ogg or another listening format? It's another fee for that song, per use, per podcast, per format--and you can bet if they had a legal way to charge broadcasters per listener, they'd do that too.
It's never the amateurs
that reckon it's damaging us,
it's the major labels saying it's fatal;
like when Napster had to pack up,
wrecked by Metallica.
Even worse--it seems that, above and beyond web broadcast, most of the RIAA notifications to institutions of higher learning are almost entirely folder-based, not transmission-based. What's the difference? Simple: transmission-based violations purport to track that particular violation and respond to it; folder-based violations track each time that supposedly violating file in that folder is downloaded, or attempted to be downloaded, or accessed in any way.
The table's turned now--
the labels churn out
a new Jezebelinternetelevangelist--
and she's fit--
with a manuscript that was actually written by Mr. Michael Masnick.
With that, they can send out six cease-and-desist notifications to the same university because a student might have uploaded his personal copy of a song to his personal authorized folder--and then accessed that song on his laptop, his Palm, his iPhone, on a study machine at the library, at a coffeeshop box, and over at his friend's house so his friend could hear the song.
Can you get the irony?
And by the by, Lily, I like this beat--
I hope you don't mind me thieving,
'cause even doing a cover song's decried as stealing.
All of this from the same individual, who may well have bought the album in question, and has licensing to support that upload on his desktop in the dorm--but doesn't have the RIAA-specified right to listen to the song he owns on other machines.
But it's all right, still,
for you to plagiarise, and preach it--
Don't you believe it's maybe time to rethink, Lily?
And it's even worse with file-sharing at large--at times, legally available files--downloaded from the artist, or from the recording company--are deemed illegal copies because they were retitled. This is a lovely Catch-22 for the RIAA, because--according to their own internal rules in this matter--web stations have to title songs in a specific way to be compliant with the rules!
Put music back in the hands of the people;
make the majors and amateurs equal.
If anything labels strangle
the freedom you claim they're saving by banning this evil.
So let's take it back to personal issues again. If I have a party in my house, and I play five CDs in rotation at that party, I am not in violation of any broadcast rules. It's my house; they're my discs; it doesn't go over the airways.
That's the actual reason, you see;
and please don't compare sharing to stealing--
I've not took anything off you, I'm just spreading love for what you do.
Now, if I have a party in my house, and friends of mine have a party in their house, but, because we're in different cities, we can't attend each others' parties--but we have this keen idea to stream all the music played under WinAmp for both events and run speakers and microphones to talk to each other--well, it all gets sort of jumbled, for hearing people and music, but it's still private broadcasting.
Or is it?
Downloaded your songs for free,
then I bought my mom your CD.
She likes it too, she keeps telling me,
all because I pirated an mp3.
What if I take that further? What if I set up--under WinAmp (free), under SAM (paid), or other accessible net streaming program--a list of songs that I'm streaming to my parcel? It can be done, it has been done (both by me, when MediaMaster.com was alive, and by others who have better understanding of net broadcasting programs), but I'm not seeing wider net broadcast status, so what's the problem?
Now I've got Matt Bellamy belling me,
telling me I'm not a fan, I'm the enemy.
That's amusing, I've paid enough to see Muse in my time
I could buy them a museum.
The problem is the RIAA. And their narrow interpretation of the laws of broadcasting in the first place. And the fact that they want net broadcasters to be charged equal fees along with official major stations, when even small hobbyist radio stations are going under, because of the sheer cost of operation if you aren't one of the major players.
Did you see them on that programme miming?
Yeah, the "pirates" are "killing" live gigs.
Maybe we should have a ban CDs appeal -
then people would pay to see bands for real.
Okay, but seriously, most of the broadcasters on SL are not on the net; they're in Club X playing for, what, twenty people tops? For chump change, literally--a penny for every dollar that's spent, a dime if they're lucky, two thousand these days still works out to under ten bucks, most places (granted, the LindeX rates have gotten steeper, it used to be L$2500 for $5.00 flat, now it's L$2000 for $7.70, as of today). And yes, ten bucks won't even buy two drinks in a real-life bar, now, but it pays rent, buys outfits, supports art, architecture, performance and music on the grid--in world, L$2000 still means something.
Dear Lily, why you being this silly?
Yours sincerely, Dan Bull--
Why does the RIAA want a cut of the non-profits being made?
Because "on the grid" translates to "on the net"...and on the net, the rules are different.
Lily Allen went on record to say that file sharing was equivalent to killing music. Mark Bellamy went on record to say anyone who downloads anything from the net should be taxed for it. The RIAA says there are no hobbyist broadcasters, only professionals who will pay what's right, and thieves who'll be fined out of existence.
And the ones who are stuck in the middle just want to play music for their friends. When did that become a crime?
Fan versus business. It's going to become a very large deal, very soon.
P.S. - And I don't mean any offence or anything, Lily.
I just don't think the issue's
as clear cut as you're making out.
And I know you're going to carry on making music really.
But when you're between the devil and the deep blue sea,
you need to stop worrying about pirates,
and adjust
your
sails...
(Which, if you hadn't caught on by now, was precisely the reason I quoted the full lyrics of Dan Bull's excellent diatribe against Lily Allen. Who has apparently learnt nothing at all from her brush with file sharing and profit protection, and instead is flouncing off to act.
(Which, personally, I'm fine with her doing--go where your heart calls you, fight for your dreams, always--were it not for the fact that I strongly believe her stance against recording another record wasn't to foster artistic future expressions, but as a fit of pique against people saying she, also, was guilty of the piracy she claimed was killing music today.
(I guess, if one grows up as a child of privilege, and never struggled for anything in her life in the first place, it makes sense she wouldn't see the justice in the same laws she's propounding be emplaced to prevent other people from sharing files, being applied to her.)
(And if you haven't heard the song, you can do so here, with a link to download the freely shared protest song in .mp3 format itself. Or you can grab a version of Dan Bull's first album, Safe, on a variety of sources, from freely shared .mp3 versions to better-quality digital downloads on iTunes and Amazon. There are also links on that site to buy the album in full with case and cover art for £5, or $7.99 from CDBaby, if you're in the US.)
Showing posts with label audio recordings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audio recordings. Show all posts
12 November, 2009
10 March, 2009
I need your love the most when I least deserve it
We start again by going line by line through the third set of mentions I found, this one from KDVS Freeform Radio.
The Dandelion Junk Queens say of themselves this: "Dandelion Junk Queens is not a Jug Band, nor are we Pirates, nor Gypsies/Roma. Dandelion Junk Queens is a Junk Band. Sometimes Dandelion Junk Queens are from Bellingham, WA, and sometimes the road is our home. Dandelion Junk Queens would probably like to play in your basement, and would even more likely like to drink and dance with you."
You can hear some of what they do here, or on the MySpace link mentioned above.
The Hail Seizures are also mentioned. Apparently the Taxplayers have played with them more than a little, and admire them deeply.
You can hear what they do here or here, or go hang out on their page.
Reverend Glasseye sounds like more of the American roots revival, and they get even more intriguing descriptions from official press sources.
You can hear them here or here or on their MySpace page.
The Dust Collectors might have been mentioned in part one or part two of this, I can't recall currently--but they're back due to the mention on KDVS. They also have a MySpace page.
Helena Espvall sounds very, very, very odd. Did I mention the very odd? It sounds to me like someone gave Diamanda Galas a cello, and told her to play what she felt. It's not pleasant.
She has a MySpace page, and she's apparently part of the "folk-psych" (folk-psych?? Bwuh??) band, the Espers (who have their own MySpace page) and can be heard playing Riding on Youtube.
Serendipity Musik has a MySpace page, and that is all I'm able to discover about them. Anyone else know more?
The Neotericz seem all about the arcade music, but what precisely makes them steampunk? To me they seem nearly defiantly plugged in. You can check out their micro site, if you want.
Random as a band name turns up nada, absolutely nothing of use. In fact, looking up by song titles does nothing either. There likely is some mention of them when accessing the later pages in the Google search, but I sheerly don't have the patience to pore through 45,200,000 entries.
Wingzar gets interesting, though--no YouTube or MySpace presence I can find, but no less a presence than Warren Ellis has a separate link (though on the same site) for them, and a mention of the sound of their music: "The strangeass Balearic Electroclash of Wingzar! was sent via its human representative Margaret Killjoy, who says: 'Wingzar, who sings with the help of voice-synthesis, is on a crusade to eradicate humanity for the sake of robots and nature. The attached song is titled Robot Army and is the lead track of its CC-licensed EP What We Lack In Subtlety We Compensate For In Number Crunching."
Venom8888's only mention is right there; let alone Jokr8888's only mention being as a nested side note. Who are these people? What do they sound like? Why does KDVS consider them steampunk? Got me.
Matt Bleak is a noisecore artist from Australia, apparently. I abhor noisecore, I will admit, I've never found a single likable thing about it--and I think it has less than no connection to steampunk. Still, it was on the list. And according to whomever set the archive.org page up, Matt Bleak is "Something different from the usual speed/noise core". We'll see.
And an initial search for Little Mack produced another page on archive.org, and little else.
In Scary Stereo has a discography; and that seems to be it.
Nearly the same thing with Click Click Boom--the first cursory search lists the Saliva song, and nothing else. Same for the Colonists.
Naked on the Vague is in a slightly better position to be heard. In fact, Dualplover.com has this to say on the band:
You can find them on MySpace and Last.fm.
The Ministry & Co-Conspirators mention seems to refer to their cover album, Cover Up; the song in question is their cover with Megaforce of Bang a Gong.
Sulaco, from the initial mention on Braingell.com I found, is another heavy noise band; Modern Creatures from the YouTube link I found, is yet more noisecore; the Blank Its seem a tad more melodic, but also overdriven on guitars; and Nice Smile becomes the most approachable of the lot only by virtue of being punk.
All right, let me go out on my own little limb here and state something, after this bit of research. Ready? Vintage is not steampunk. If that didn't get through, let me make it plainer: electronics aren't steampunk. Overamped guitar, banging on the Casio, using stripped-down synth to create sound--none of this is steampunk.
I agree with the accessibility concept, and I'm not saying automatically, no electronic music need apply. But it needs to meet that criteria; it can't sound like arcade sounds, like existing punk or grunge or ska, like acid house or dance techno. It can't just be noise; most importantly, it can't be noise that makes us remember Space Invaders and PacMan.
We still may be no closer to defining what steampunk music is, but I'm damned sure a varied collection of punk and noisecore bands is not it.
The Dandelion Junk Queens say of themselves this: "Dandelion Junk Queens is not a Jug Band, nor are we Pirates, nor Gypsies/Roma. Dandelion Junk Queens is a Junk Band. Sometimes Dandelion Junk Queens are from Bellingham, WA, and sometimes the road is our home. Dandelion Junk Queens would probably like to play in your basement, and would even more likely like to drink and dance with you."
You can hear some of what they do here, or on the MySpace link mentioned above.
The Hail Seizures are also mentioned. Apparently the Taxplayers have played with them more than a little, and admire them deeply.
You can hear what they do here or here, or go hang out on their page.
Reverend Glasseye sounds like more of the American roots revival, and they get even more intriguing descriptions from official press sources.
You can hear them here or here or on their MySpace page.
The Dust Collectors might have been mentioned in part one or part two of this, I can't recall currently--but they're back due to the mention on KDVS. They also have a MySpace page.
Helena Espvall sounds very, very, very odd. Did I mention the very odd? It sounds to me like someone gave Diamanda Galas a cello, and told her to play what she felt. It's not pleasant.
She has a MySpace page, and she's apparently part of the "folk-psych" (folk-psych?? Bwuh??) band, the Espers (who have their own MySpace page) and can be heard playing Riding on Youtube.
Serendipity Musik has a MySpace page, and that is all I'm able to discover about them. Anyone else know more?
The Neotericz seem all about the arcade music, but what precisely makes them steampunk? To me they seem nearly defiantly plugged in. You can check out their micro site, if you want.
Random as a band name turns up nada, absolutely nothing of use. In fact, looking up by song titles does nothing either. There likely is some mention of them when accessing the later pages in the Google search, but I sheerly don't have the patience to pore through 45,200,000 entries.
Wingzar gets interesting, though--no YouTube or MySpace presence I can find, but no less a presence than Warren Ellis has a separate link (though on the same site) for them, and a mention of the sound of their music: "The strangeass Balearic Electroclash of Wingzar! was sent via its human representative Margaret Killjoy, who says: 'Wingzar, who sings with the help of voice-synthesis, is on a crusade to eradicate humanity for the sake of robots and nature. The attached song is titled Robot Army and is the lead track of its CC-licensed EP What We Lack In Subtlety We Compensate For In Number Crunching."
Venom8888's only mention is right there; let alone Jokr8888's only mention being as a nested side note. Who are these people? What do they sound like? Why does KDVS consider them steampunk? Got me.
Matt Bleak is a noisecore artist from Australia, apparently. I abhor noisecore, I will admit, I've never found a single likable thing about it--and I think it has less than no connection to steampunk. Still, it was on the list. And according to whomever set the archive.org page up, Matt Bleak is "Something different from the usual speed/noise core". We'll see.
And an initial search for Little Mack produced another page on archive.org, and little else.
In Scary Stereo has a discography; and that seems to be it.
Nearly the same thing with Click Click Boom--the first cursory search lists the Saliva song, and nothing else. Same for the Colonists.
Naked on the Vague is in a slightly better position to be heard. In fact, Dualplover.com has this to say on the band:
Naked On The Vague, fell into existence with a found organ, broken bass guitar, borrowed drum and some old doom poetry. Lucy Cliché executes distorted keyboard melodies, while Matthew P Hopkins plays psyched out bass guitar. Diving deep into a world of apocalyptic pop and psychedelic weirdness... their disparate vocals grip onto stabbing keys and menacing hook-laden basslines, pushed on by an unrelentling drum machine far past the end of its warranty period.
You can find them on MySpace and Last.fm.
The Ministry & Co-Conspirators mention seems to refer to their cover album, Cover Up; the song in question is their cover with Megaforce of Bang a Gong.
Sulaco, from the initial mention on Braingell.com I found, is another heavy noise band; Modern Creatures from the YouTube link I found, is yet more noisecore; the Blank Its seem a tad more melodic, but also overdriven on guitars; and Nice Smile becomes the most approachable of the lot only by virtue of being punk.
All right, let me go out on my own little limb here and state something, after this bit of research. Ready? Vintage is not steampunk. If that didn't get through, let me make it plainer: electronics aren't steampunk. Overamped guitar, banging on the Casio, using stripped-down synth to create sound--none of this is steampunk.
I agree with the accessibility concept, and I'm not saying automatically, no electronic music need apply. But it needs to meet that criteria; it can't sound like arcade sounds, like existing punk or grunge or ska, like acid house or dance techno. It can't just be noise; most importantly, it can't be noise that makes us remember Space Invaders and PacMan.
We still may be no closer to defining what steampunk music is, but I'm damned sure a varied collection of punk and noisecore bands is not it.
02 March, 2009
don't walk away, oh when the world is burning
Play dress-up. Steampunk style. (Tip o' the hat to Edward, thanks for finding that!) Though to be honest, it's less "steampunk" and more "geared Flapper"; even so, it's nicely done.
And this from Roleplay Secrets may be the heart and soul of my objection to kids on SL. I hate to admit it, but they're dead-on for this one. They're absolutely right. Typical children may mess up the letter order, or not get every single sound right--that happens. Children lisp, they wander in telling stories, they can get confused--but that whole demi-babytalk angle? I didn't speak like that when I was five, so it really gets under my skin when purported adults, playing children on SL, play them so badly.
I want to talk a little bit about steampunk culture, and evolving foundations. Part of our struggle to properly identify steampunk music is the same problem that goth music struggled with at first: as a culture predominantly based upon the look, and not an evolving musical tradition, it was tricky at first--hells, it's still difficult now, on occasion--to define exactly what goth music is.
Marilyn Manson, for example; he's gothic to some, metal to others, dark industrial to still more, and where does his music slot him? He goes back and forth on the issue, as does Trent Reznor, which is ironic as they've worked together, off and on, as the years go by. The touches of fascism in image and lyric Manson toys with, he does out of political motivation; but even that is seen by some as core to the goth oeuvre.
The lead singer of Sisters of Mercy, Andrew Eldritch, denies to this very day the Sisters are gothic; and Sisters, they're almost the band (Sisters, Siouxsie, and Bauhaus) people point to to answer the question: "Just what is goth music?"
So. Steampunk means many things to many different people. For most it's still a fashion thing, the new ideal; in world or out of world, toss gears on something for no reason, it becomes steampunk. While I disagree with this interpretation (I want even the broken machinery to have worked once), it has become largely the symbol: the gear, gleaming or rusted, shattered or whole.
Russia had the hammer. And some of the same spirit of industry moves through steampunk, in literature and in expression. But what does it mean, when the parties are over, when the airships are safely in their bays, when everyone goes home for the night to tea and conversation?
I think we can safely turn to the Russians to tell us how this alternate future may have evolved.
I would point to César Cui (music for the salons where inspirations are thrown like confetti into charged air), Modest Mussorgsky (for those stirring moments where we are convinced we can be more, reach higher, than we think we can), Sergei Taneyev (the music for every skulking evildoer, every mad scientist climbing to the clock tower cackling), Alexander Scriabin (the music for every airship disaster, every experiment gone awry, every shambling horror unleashed into the clockwork world because a scientist had tampered with Things Man was Not Meant to Know), Reinhold Glière (stirring background for all moments where nationalistic ferver matches rhetoric) and Sergei Prokofiev (railway music, sound of the engines working, propelling travel and national dreams) to start, though there are so many others, I can't even remember to name them all.
Keep in mind, that for our retro-futuristic sensibilities, none of these composers would be considered "classical" ones: these were the new kids. These were the shining, rising stars of music, the ones with fresh outlooks and ideas, the ones that the people always looking forward, experimenting, tinkering, would have found fresh, bright, and relevant.
This becomes our foundation, then. From my perspective, this is the music the steampunk population would have turned to, to power the dreams that fueled the engines. This would have been the songs that set the tone of national innovation. From here, then, I'll try to wander forward, and see where it goes.
Other brief news. Though I'd had minor hints before this point, this was the moment I knew the Twisted hunt had fallen far, far from its aspirations. We had such hopes going into it, that this grid-wide would be different, because of who chose to enter into it. But so far, it's been...just pathetic, and depressing. There are so many stops where we pause, and wonder: what does any of this have to do with the 'darker side' of the grid?
I have to finally shake my head and give in: this is not a "hunt for the rest of us", this is the same exact hunt we've been doing for the past six months.
I now declare--unless the prizes, or the stores participating, are amazing--NO MORE GRID-WIDE HUNTS. There is no joy in it, it's arduous, unfun, boring, tedious, and disappointing in the end. I have more than enough tedious things to do and quite enough disappointment. No. More.
And this from Roleplay Secrets may be the heart and soul of my objection to kids on SL. I hate to admit it, but they're dead-on for this one. They're absolutely right. Typical children may mess up the letter order, or not get every single sound right--that happens. Children lisp, they wander in telling stories, they can get confused--but that whole demi-babytalk angle? I didn't speak like that when I was five, so it really gets under my skin when purported adults, playing children on SL, play them so badly.
I want to talk a little bit about steampunk culture, and evolving foundations. Part of our struggle to properly identify steampunk music is the same problem that goth music struggled with at first: as a culture predominantly based upon the look, and not an evolving musical tradition, it was tricky at first--hells, it's still difficult now, on occasion--to define exactly what goth music is.
Marilyn Manson, for example; he's gothic to some, metal to others, dark industrial to still more, and where does his music slot him? He goes back and forth on the issue, as does Trent Reznor, which is ironic as they've worked together, off and on, as the years go by. The touches of fascism in image and lyric Manson toys with, he does out of political motivation; but even that is seen by some as core to the goth oeuvre.
The lead singer of Sisters of Mercy, Andrew Eldritch, denies to this very day the Sisters are gothic; and Sisters, they're almost the band (Sisters, Siouxsie, and Bauhaus) people point to to answer the question: "Just what is goth music?"
So. Steampunk means many things to many different people. For most it's still a fashion thing, the new ideal; in world or out of world, toss gears on something for no reason, it becomes steampunk. While I disagree with this interpretation (I want even the broken machinery to have worked once), it has become largely the symbol: the gear, gleaming or rusted, shattered or whole.
Russia had the hammer. And some of the same spirit of industry moves through steampunk, in literature and in expression. But what does it mean, when the parties are over, when the airships are safely in their bays, when everyone goes home for the night to tea and conversation?
I think we can safely turn to the Russians to tell us how this alternate future may have evolved.
I would point to César Cui (music for the salons where inspirations are thrown like confetti into charged air), Modest Mussorgsky (for those stirring moments where we are convinced we can be more, reach higher, than we think we can), Sergei Taneyev (the music for every skulking evildoer, every mad scientist climbing to the clock tower cackling), Alexander Scriabin (the music for every airship disaster, every experiment gone awry, every shambling horror unleashed into the clockwork world because a scientist had tampered with Things Man was Not Meant to Know), Reinhold Glière (stirring background for all moments where nationalistic ferver matches rhetoric) and Sergei Prokofiev (railway music, sound of the engines working, propelling travel and national dreams) to start, though there are so many others, I can't even remember to name them all.
Keep in mind, that for our retro-futuristic sensibilities, none of these composers would be considered "classical" ones: these were the new kids. These were the shining, rising stars of music, the ones with fresh outlooks and ideas, the ones that the people always looking forward, experimenting, tinkering, would have found fresh, bright, and relevant.
This becomes our foundation, then. From my perspective, this is the music the steampunk population would have turned to, to power the dreams that fueled the engines. This would have been the songs that set the tone of national innovation. From here, then, I'll try to wander forward, and see where it goes.
Other brief news. Though I'd had minor hints before this point, this was the moment I knew the Twisted hunt had fallen far, far from its aspirations. We had such hopes going into it, that this grid-wide would be different, because of who chose to enter into it. But so far, it's been...just pathetic, and depressing. There are so many stops where we pause, and wonder: what does any of this have to do with the 'darker side' of the grid?
I have to finally shake my head and give in: this is not a "hunt for the rest of us", this is the same exact hunt we've been doing for the past six months.
I now declare--unless the prizes, or the stores participating, are amazing--NO MORE GRID-WIDE HUNTS. There is no joy in it, it's arduous, unfun, boring, tedious, and disappointing in the end. I have more than enough tedious things to do and quite enough disappointment. No. More.
18 February, 2009
and now her heart beats time like clockwork
Couple short mentions for this entry, and then on with my day.
First, the Steampunkopedia is now compiling a list of "steampunk music videos" on their site. Note, this is not a list of steampunk music; but I have to admit I'm somewhat perturbed their list doesn't include Abney Park, Vernian Process, or even Dionysos' Tais Toi Mon Coeur.
So I wrote them:
Greetings--I love that you now have a section for steampunk music videos, if not steampunk music, but I'm puzzled that you don't list anything by Abney Park, Vernian Process, or even selections from Dionysos' "La Mecanique Coeur", which was nearly start to finish rife with steampunk-inspired visuals.
Abney Park:
Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll
Sleep Isabella
Airship Pirate (or the first thing that hit the 'net airwaves', their studio version)
Vernian Process:
Behold the Machine
Noir
The Last Express
Dionysos:
Tais Toi Mon Coeur (Shut Up My Heart)
Neige
L'homme sans Trucage
And, in an odd case of life crossing virtual, the Masquerade Project apparently lives and works in Second Life, the online game, making steampunk visuals to go along with their music.
Masquerade Project (I wasn't able to find a good link for them):
Steamed
Keep up the good work!
Emilly
(Now follows my terribly translated Polish:)
Powitaninia kocham co wy teraz macie rozdział dla "steampunk" muzyczny wideomagnetofon, jeżeli nie "steampunk" muzyka, ale JA jestem stropione co wy nie wymieniacie kolejno coś przez "Abney" Zakładać park, Vernian" Proces, albo nawet wybory od Dionysos' "La Mecanique Coeur", który był prawie rozpoczynać wykończenie "rife" z "steampunk-inspired" widoczny. "Abney" Zakładają park: "Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll", Śpią "Isabella", Statek powietrzny Rabują;
"Vernian" Obrabiają: "Behold" Maszyna, "Noir", Ostatni Ekspres;
"Dionysos": "Tais Toi Mon Coeur, "Neige", "L'homme san Trucage";
I, w nieparzystym wypadku kycia przecinający faktyczny, "Masquerade" Projektować: życia i pracuje w Drugim Życiu, operatywna gra, wyrabiający "steampunk" widoczny udawać się razem z ich muzyka. "Masquerade" Projektować: Parował.
Podtrzymują dobrą pracę!
Does anyone know more about the Masquerade Project, while we're on the topic?
Tired of YouTube? Try YouKinescope, instead.
And for the last bit, you'll now notice to the side a list of labels, 'tags' in any other format: it's in alphabetical order, so if you wish in future to find this, or any other post, dealing with "steampunk music", say...scroll down to the S section and it'll be there.
Cheers!
First, the Steampunkopedia is now compiling a list of "steampunk music videos" on their site. Note, this is not a list of steampunk music; but I have to admit I'm somewhat perturbed their list doesn't include Abney Park, Vernian Process, or even Dionysos' Tais Toi Mon Coeur.
So I wrote them:
Greetings--I love that you now have a section for steampunk music videos, if not steampunk music, but I'm puzzled that you don't list anything by Abney Park, Vernian Process, or even selections from Dionysos' "La Mecanique Coeur", which was nearly start to finish rife with steampunk-inspired visuals.
Abney Park:
Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll
Sleep Isabella
Airship Pirate (or the first thing that hit the 'net airwaves', their studio version)
Vernian Process:
Behold the Machine
Noir
The Last Express
Dionysos:
Tais Toi Mon Coeur (Shut Up My Heart)
Neige
L'homme sans Trucage
And, in an odd case of life crossing virtual, the Masquerade Project apparently lives and works in Second Life, the online game, making steampunk visuals to go along with their music.
Masquerade Project (I wasn't able to find a good link for them):
Steamed
Keep up the good work!
Emilly
(Now follows my terribly translated Polish:)
Powitaninia kocham co wy teraz macie rozdział dla "steampunk" muzyczny wideomagnetofon, jeżeli nie "steampunk" muzyka, ale JA jestem stropione co wy nie wymieniacie kolejno coś przez "Abney" Zakładać park, Vernian" Proces, albo nawet wybory od Dionysos' "La Mecanique Coeur", który był prawie rozpoczynać wykończenie "rife" z "steampunk-inspired" widoczny. "Abney" Zakładają park: "Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll", Śpią "Isabella", Statek powietrzny Rabują;
"Vernian" Obrabiają: "Behold" Maszyna, "Noir", Ostatni Ekspres;
"Dionysos": "Tais Toi Mon Coeur, "Neige", "L'homme san Trucage";
I, w nieparzystym wypadku kycia przecinający faktyczny, "Masquerade" Projektować: życia i pracuje w Drugim Życiu, operatywna gra, wyrabiający "steampunk" widoczny udawać się razem z ich muzyka. "Masquerade" Projektować: Parował.
Podtrzymują dobrą pracę!
Does anyone know more about the Masquerade Project, while we're on the topic?
Tired of YouTube? Try YouKinescope, instead.
And for the last bit, you'll now notice to the side a list of labels, 'tags' in any other format: it's in alphabetical order, so if you wish in future to find this, or any other post, dealing with "steampunk music", say...scroll down to the S section and it'll be there.
Cheers!
06 February, 2009
from where I stand, you are home free, the planets align, so rare
If you are looking for a safe place for your kids to play online while having fun sans supervision, Freaky Creatures is the game for you. Correct me if I'm wrong--I am profoundly not a parent--but isn't this the kind of thinking that leads to bad things? "Abandon your kids with us, guys, they'll be safe enough!" I'm not saying the opposite is required--keeping kids "safe" to the point that they have chips implanted so their parents know where they are, 24/7, between home (with the bars on the windows) and school (where they're patted down every morning like they were terrorists). But still--doesn't that statement just scream "parental irresponsibility"?
Or maybe just "game irresponsibility".
In other news, steampunk Legos? Because plastic goes so well with brass, steam, copper and wood. But they are fun to peruse. (And thank you, Lady Seraph, for the tip.)
Now then, I've been meaning for some time to discuss Abigail Washburn, as part of the erratically continuing steampunk music series. Her work with the Sparrow Quartet (composed of Béla Fleck's banjo, Ben Sollee's cello, and Casey Driessen's fiddle) could easily be lifted entire and played as the backdrop for any episode of Firefly. But that's only part of the story.
She plays clawhammer banjo, which describes a particular style (also, amusingly enough, practiced by such notables as Bob Carlin, Steve Martin and Joseph Bethancourt--though, to be fair to Joe, he plays every style on the banjo, and well) of banjo-picking, which essentially transforms the picking hand into a "claw" (hence the name) to only pick the strings in a 'down' motion (as opposed to up and down picking motions). It's certainly not the only way to play banjo, though it is one way that's largely identified with the roots music movement.
While she had musical interests as a child, as Miss Abigail grew to adulthood, different things called her heart. One of these things was China, and Asian culture at large (in fact, she was the first Asian studies major at Colorado College). Another was the practice and the principles of law. Between one thing and another, she ended up in Beijing on a travel Visa and fell in love with the culture, and the country. She made the decision to return home only long enough to pack, and then go back and finish her work towards her international law degree.
This is where the story gets interesting.
When she came home, friends of hers invited her out to listen to various and sundry, and, without clear intent, she ended up on stage, playing. This eventually led to her joining the Uncle Earl band and recording two albums with them.
She was still intending to go back to China.
Along the way, she entered a songwriting contest in North Carolina, and this brought her to the attention of her current label--and Béla Fleck. Fleck produced one solo album with her, and then, part planned, part simple musical cohesion, ended up as part of the Sparrow Quartet.
Now, she splits her time between the states, and China, her chosen homeland. Only she returned with a banjo and a backup band, not a law degree. In China, she plays to small packed houses who cheer and stomp when she sings in Mandarin, songs formerly only sung in English.
She hasn't given up; but she says the music fills her heart now, and there's always later for law. We're very grateful the music's there for her, because that means it's there for us.
Listen to Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet perform "Danwei Music" with Hanggai, a Mongolian acoustic band, in China.
Or from another live performance, "A Fuller Wine", a song showcasing her style in English.
Or have a taste of my favorite of hers so far, "Kangding Qingge", in that recording performing live--and yes, that is Miss Abigail singing in Mandarin. She speaks it fluently, which always seems to amaze and delight Chinese people (and a fair number of people in other cultures, considering).
She's also on MySpace.
Now, why do I consider roots music (and not just artists from the American roots movement, but the growing international roots music movement) part and parcel of what's evolving into steampunk music? Because it's not all Abney Park airships and Vernian Process soundscapes; a large part, I firmly believe, of what steampunk music may be, must be, relies on what's near to hand--just as a scattering of tools and some stretched canvas can, in the right hands, be turned into a flying machine so mortalkin can ascend the air, so too must music be made from what's available.
Washboards. Sticks on walls, on pipes, on barrels. Hand-manufactured instruments--steam-powered organs, copper harps strung with pulled steel, pulling arpeggios out of tension wires, tapping out strange code on untested machines. The rarefied shining flutes and elegantly polished violas are not, in this light, steampunk in the least--but the well-worn banjo, the untrammeled variety of vocal expression, and the sheer desire, the need, to make music however we can--that is as vital to steampunk music as the unimaginable devotion to art and craft for the rest of steampunk.
So I add in Abigail Washburn into the growing multifaceted image of what steampunk music, at its heart, is. Give her a listen. You might like it.
Or maybe just "game irresponsibility".
In other news, steampunk Legos? Because plastic goes so well with brass, steam, copper and wood. But they are fun to peruse. (And thank you, Lady Seraph, for the tip.)
Now then, I've been meaning for some time to discuss Abigail Washburn, as part of the erratically continuing steampunk music series. Her work with the Sparrow Quartet (composed of Béla Fleck's banjo, Ben Sollee's cello, and Casey Driessen's fiddle) could easily be lifted entire and played as the backdrop for any episode of Firefly. But that's only part of the story.
She plays clawhammer banjo, which describes a particular style (also, amusingly enough, practiced by such notables as Bob Carlin, Steve Martin and Joseph Bethancourt--though, to be fair to Joe, he plays every style on the banjo, and well) of banjo-picking, which essentially transforms the picking hand into a "claw" (hence the name) to only pick the strings in a 'down' motion (as opposed to up and down picking motions). It's certainly not the only way to play banjo, though it is one way that's largely identified with the roots music movement.
While she had musical interests as a child, as Miss Abigail grew to adulthood, different things called her heart. One of these things was China, and Asian culture at large (in fact, she was the first Asian studies major at Colorado College). Another was the practice and the principles of law. Between one thing and another, she ended up in Beijing on a travel Visa and fell in love with the culture, and the country. She made the decision to return home only long enough to pack, and then go back and finish her work towards her international law degree.
This is where the story gets interesting.
When she came home, friends of hers invited her out to listen to various and sundry, and, without clear intent, she ended up on stage, playing. This eventually led to her joining the Uncle Earl band and recording two albums with them.
She was still intending to go back to China.
Along the way, she entered a songwriting contest in North Carolina, and this brought her to the attention of her current label--and Béla Fleck. Fleck produced one solo album with her, and then, part planned, part simple musical cohesion, ended up as part of the Sparrow Quartet.
Now, she splits her time between the states, and China, her chosen homeland. Only she returned with a banjo and a backup band, not a law degree. In China, she plays to small packed houses who cheer and stomp when she sings in Mandarin, songs formerly only sung in English.
She hasn't given up; but she says the music fills her heart now, and there's always later for law. We're very grateful the music's there for her, because that means it's there for us.
Listen to Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet perform "Danwei Music" with Hanggai, a Mongolian acoustic band, in China.
Or from another live performance, "A Fuller Wine", a song showcasing her style in English.
Or have a taste of my favorite of hers so far, "Kangding Qingge", in that recording performing live--and yes, that is Miss Abigail singing in Mandarin. She speaks it fluently, which always seems to amaze and delight Chinese people (and a fair number of people in other cultures, considering).
She's also on MySpace.
Now, why do I consider roots music (and not just artists from the American roots movement, but the growing international roots music movement) part and parcel of what's evolving into steampunk music? Because it's not all Abney Park airships and Vernian Process soundscapes; a large part, I firmly believe, of what steampunk music may be, must be, relies on what's near to hand--just as a scattering of tools and some stretched canvas can, in the right hands, be turned into a flying machine so mortalkin can ascend the air, so too must music be made from what's available.
Washboards. Sticks on walls, on pipes, on barrels. Hand-manufactured instruments--steam-powered organs, copper harps strung with pulled steel, pulling arpeggios out of tension wires, tapping out strange code on untested machines. The rarefied shining flutes and elegantly polished violas are not, in this light, steampunk in the least--but the well-worn banjo, the untrammeled variety of vocal expression, and the sheer desire, the need, to make music however we can--that is as vital to steampunk music as the unimaginable devotion to art and craft for the rest of steampunk.
So I add in Abigail Washburn into the growing multifaceted image of what steampunk music, at its heart, is. Give her a listen. You might like it.
30 December, 2008
out of the morning mist and thro' the silent snow
While on the hunt for all the songs I found (or failed to find) on YouTube (I'm now searching alternate sources, because I want to know), I found an intriguing forum question on the Metal Archives board.
Here's some lovely new finds from there:
Eluveitie is variously described as "folk metal" and "Celtic pagan metal". They're what's becoming an expected metal off-branch--sweet female voices, overdriven guitar, solid drumming, and traditional instruments filling in the bare spots--creating a hard, powerful wall of rippling chrome for your ears, that still possesses light lyrical moments.
Siraxta
Giamonios
Inis Mona (harsher than the others, but just as good for metal fans)
Slania (from their latest album of the same name)
They also have a MySpace page.
Taisgeal Clachan also have a MySpace page, which says they're currently on hiatus. Damn. But they still have songs up on that page you can listen to--they seem heavily inclined to moody instrumentals, blended traditional/wired instruments.
Omnia is again one of those quirky groups: they're Dutch, but they're drawn to Celtic music. Well, the Celts did go everywhere...This is from their web page:
"Playing self-composed 3rd-millennium Folk and world-music with a sprinkling of traditional melodies and dance tunes from places like Brittany, Ireland, Scotland and Afghanistan, OMNIA's music is 100% acoustic - no synthesizers, no electric instruments, no programming, just pure honest music."
Neat. Some examples:
Wytches' Brew
Tine Bealtaine
Morrigan (performed live)
Stille Volk comes from France, and is also drawn to Celtic music. They seem more traditional in their approach, but do have power instruments, and tendencies towards hard rock and metal that surface occasionally:
Invocation a Pan
Maudat, from the album of the same name
Espris des bois
Ode aux lointains souverains
They have a MySpace page, too.
Corona Borealis is unique in their commitment only to use acoustic instruments. Of course, they also have only one album, that I've been able to verify. Here's to the release of their second.
Cantus Paganus
Loss of an Exception (harder, and live)
La Rotta
They also have a MySpace page.
The Elders are fully a decade old as a band, and came out of Kansas City to Celtify (it's a word!...sort of) American roots music. And they've done a damned good job:
Men of Erin (live in Dublin)
1849 (live in Illinois)
Lucky One Time (live in Wilmington)
They have a MySpace page.
Planxty is a given, and if you've never heard Planxty, then have you heard Silly Wizard, Silly Sisters, Steeleye Span and/or Fairport Convention?
(For that matter, if your answer to any of the above bands is "No, never heard"--then get thee hence to the feet of Jethro Tull, and begin learning!)
If it helps at all, that scattershot mention-all-at-once had a purpose--all of these bands were foundational to the evolving of Celtic music, as all these bands are variously interpreting it. Fairport Convention led the way, either concurrently or just before Jethro Tull; Jethro Tull went biggest, but Fairport, Silly Wizard, and Steeleye were huge amongst afficionados. Silly Sisters was comprised mainly of women who'd sung with Steeleye and Fairport, and Planxty is the thread that runs through them all.
The one thing that all of these, barring Silly Sisters, were known for was developing the unique fusion of modern instruments playing traditional songs--be they traditional Irish, French, or English ballads, it was still a shock in the late sixties clear through to the late seventies for such a melding to sound anything but unnatural for devotees. Conversely, non-fans of Celtic or folk music found themselves drawn in because of the modern sounds they were able to recognize, and learned to love traditional folk music along the way.
It really was the best of both worlds, in a sense. And it's continued, in one form or another, until now.
Which brings us to Cruachan:
Over a decade of moving from a closely traditional sound towards the evolving 'folk metal' category; they still plan on retaining touches of the traditional, but have always infused it with electronic riffs and heavy modern drum beats. As we've seen with many, many other bands, this is no bad thing.
Ride On
The Death of a Gael
The Children of Lir
Lothlorien is a little harder to find information on. Based out of New Zealand, they have all of one album out, Greenwood Sides. But their sound is plaintively traditional, and I have no fear they'll keep recording.
Turning in another direction entirely, the site also brought up Flogging Molly, the bastard boys of Los Angeles. I'd also toss in the Dropkick Murphys out of Boston, and the godfather of them all, the gentlemen behind the Pogues. If there are three bands that define Celtic punk, these men are it (though you can have fun with Blood or Whiskey as well)
A little taste of Celtic punk:
Workers' Song, Dropkick Murphys (live)
I'm Shipping Up to Boston, Dropkick Murphys
The Dirty Glass, Dropkick Murphys (live w/Stephanie Daugherty)
If I Should Fall From Grace with God, the Pogues
Fairytale of New York, the Pogues (live w/Kirsty Macoll)
Dirty Old Town, the Pogues
Drunken Lullabies, Flogging Molly
What's Left of the Flag, Flogging Molly (live)
If I Ever Leave This World Alive, Flogging Molly
Swagger, Flogging Molly
And just for fun:
They Say No, Blood or Whiskey
And we're going to start winding things up with Lúnasa, which brings us back to the heart of traditional Celtic music, in lovely, simple ways.
Lunasa, for the whole of their decade-plus in the industry, has made their claim to fame by stripping old standards and original work alike down to the bare bones: what drives the beat? What is the heart of melody? What is the simplest crossing harmony? And they determinedly hold to that, keeping things close, clear, and clean.
Some examples:
Black River
Inion Ni Scannlain
The Last Pint (live)
And thank all of you who read through this for putting up with a music post that had no SL references, nor steampunk ones. I promise, I'm working my way back.
(Also mentioned on that metal forum were the Chieftains, in a very odd reference indeed:
"This may sound strange, but The Chieftains have made some wonderful traditional celtic music as well."
Um. Yes, that would be...because they're a Celtic band.)
Finally, always remember: Rick Astley will have his revenge. Hee.
Here's some lovely new finds from there:
Eluveitie is variously described as "folk metal" and "Celtic pagan metal". They're what's becoming an expected metal off-branch--sweet female voices, overdriven guitar, solid drumming, and traditional instruments filling in the bare spots--creating a hard, powerful wall of rippling chrome for your ears, that still possesses light lyrical moments.
Siraxta
Giamonios
Inis Mona (harsher than the others, but just as good for metal fans)
Slania (from their latest album of the same name)
They also have a MySpace page.
Taisgeal Clachan also have a MySpace page, which says they're currently on hiatus. Damn. But they still have songs up on that page you can listen to--they seem heavily inclined to moody instrumentals, blended traditional/wired instruments.
Omnia is again one of those quirky groups: they're Dutch, but they're drawn to Celtic music. Well, the Celts did go everywhere...This is from their web page:
"Playing self-composed 3rd-millennium Folk and world-music with a sprinkling of traditional melodies and dance tunes from places like Brittany, Ireland, Scotland and Afghanistan, OMNIA's music is 100% acoustic - no synthesizers, no electric instruments, no programming, just pure honest music."
Neat. Some examples:
Wytches' Brew
Tine Bealtaine
Morrigan (performed live)
Stille Volk comes from France, and is also drawn to Celtic music. They seem more traditional in their approach, but do have power instruments, and tendencies towards hard rock and metal that surface occasionally:
Invocation a Pan
Maudat, from the album of the same name
Espris des bois
Ode aux lointains souverains
They have a MySpace page, too.
Corona Borealis is unique in their commitment only to use acoustic instruments. Of course, they also have only one album, that I've been able to verify. Here's to the release of their second.
Cantus Paganus
Loss of an Exception (harder, and live)
La Rotta
They also have a MySpace page.
The Elders are fully a decade old as a band, and came out of Kansas City to Celtify (it's a word!...sort of) American roots music. And they've done a damned good job:
Men of Erin (live in Dublin)
1849 (live in Illinois)
Lucky One Time (live in Wilmington)
They have a MySpace page.
Planxty is a given, and if you've never heard Planxty, then have you heard Silly Wizard, Silly Sisters, Steeleye Span and/or Fairport Convention?
(For that matter, if your answer to any of the above bands is "No, never heard"--then get thee hence to the feet of Jethro Tull, and begin learning!)
If it helps at all, that scattershot mention-all-at-once had a purpose--all of these bands were foundational to the evolving of Celtic music, as all these bands are variously interpreting it. Fairport Convention led the way, either concurrently or just before Jethro Tull; Jethro Tull went biggest, but Fairport, Silly Wizard, and Steeleye were huge amongst afficionados. Silly Sisters was comprised mainly of women who'd sung with Steeleye and Fairport, and Planxty is the thread that runs through them all.
The one thing that all of these, barring Silly Sisters, were known for was developing the unique fusion of modern instruments playing traditional songs--be they traditional Irish, French, or English ballads, it was still a shock in the late sixties clear through to the late seventies for such a melding to sound anything but unnatural for devotees. Conversely, non-fans of Celtic or folk music found themselves drawn in because of the modern sounds they were able to recognize, and learned to love traditional folk music along the way.
It really was the best of both worlds, in a sense. And it's continued, in one form or another, until now.
Which brings us to Cruachan:
Over a decade of moving from a closely traditional sound towards the evolving 'folk metal' category; they still plan on retaining touches of the traditional, but have always infused it with electronic riffs and heavy modern drum beats. As we've seen with many, many other bands, this is no bad thing.
Ride On
The Death of a Gael
The Children of Lir
Lothlorien is a little harder to find information on. Based out of New Zealand, they have all of one album out, Greenwood Sides. But their sound is plaintively traditional, and I have no fear they'll keep recording.
Turning in another direction entirely, the site also brought up Flogging Molly, the bastard boys of Los Angeles. I'd also toss in the Dropkick Murphys out of Boston, and the godfather of them all, the gentlemen behind the Pogues. If there are three bands that define Celtic punk, these men are it (though you can have fun with Blood or Whiskey as well)
A little taste of Celtic punk:
Workers' Song, Dropkick Murphys (live)
I'm Shipping Up to Boston, Dropkick Murphys
The Dirty Glass, Dropkick Murphys (live w/Stephanie Daugherty)
If I Should Fall From Grace with God, the Pogues
Fairytale of New York, the Pogues (live w/Kirsty Macoll)
Dirty Old Town, the Pogues
Drunken Lullabies, Flogging Molly
What's Left of the Flag, Flogging Molly (live)
If I Ever Leave This World Alive, Flogging Molly
Swagger, Flogging Molly
And just for fun:
They Say No, Blood or Whiskey
And we're going to start winding things up with Lúnasa, which brings us back to the heart of traditional Celtic music, in lovely, simple ways.
Lunasa, for the whole of their decade-plus in the industry, has made their claim to fame by stripping old standards and original work alike down to the bare bones: what drives the beat? What is the heart of melody? What is the simplest crossing harmony? And they determinedly hold to that, keeping things close, clear, and clean.
Some examples:
Black River
Inion Ni Scannlain
The Last Pint (live)
And thank all of you who read through this for putting up with a music post that had no SL references, nor steampunk ones. I promise, I'm working my way back.
(Also mentioned on that metal forum were the Chieftains, in a very odd reference indeed:
"This may sound strange, but The Chieftains have made some wonderful traditional celtic music as well."
Um. Yes, that would be...because they're a Celtic band.)
Finally, always remember: Rick Astley will have his revenge. Hee.
15 August, 2008
so I'm glad I got burned, think of all the things we learned
Friends and neighbors, I believe I have finally seen them...the fugliest pants ever seen on the grid, to descend to the vernacular.
Think I'm kidding?
Meet Alfredo Zapatero! Mr. Zapatero is an Italian gentlemen--seen with his lovely girlfriend/sister/diversion of the moment, she of the suntanned-to-burnt skin tone and the open-fly jeans--I don't know who she was, all I know is that she and Zapatero had matching shoulder iguanas--and really, the concept of matching shoulder iguanas, it's just so baffling...
Anyway...here he is. In cow pants. In baggy cow pants. In baggy puffy cow pants with the HUGE belt buckle that blings and says PLAYA and truly--do I need to go on at this point?
Terrifying. Truly terrifying.
You can see me lurking in the background of this shot, actually, captured as I was running for the door. I'm the green wench, obviously. I don't truly fit in on the mainland, anymore...not that I ever really did.
Anyway, onward.
I blame Edward for this one, too.
(The main plaza. It's very...pink.)
Welcome to Stella. Or at least her island.
For some reason, I never heard of this paragon of crystalline femininity before tonight, but Edward, dear, marvelous friend Edward, potentially soon to be kicked Edward...pointed me towards the island in terms I could not refuse.
(Miss Neome came armed, but not even her most impervious armament survived unshaded by the gentle rose glow over all surfaces.)
[21:42] Edward Pearse: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stella/126/127/200
[21:42] Edward Pearse: Scary place for you to visit
[21:42] Emilly Orr: Oh?
[21:42] Edward Pearse: Actually this is the landing spot
[21:42] Edward Pearse: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stella/79/128/37
[21:43] Edward Pearse: Just west of Caledon Sound
[21:43] Edward Pearse: Barbie's Victorian sim or something
(The very large yacht berthed beside the island.)
This was...stunning. In that sense of, impending-damage-to-my-frontal-lobes, stunning. Everything was pink. Or nearly. There were brief glimpses of other colors, but mostly, everything on that island is pink, seashell blush, strawberry-cream, coral, deep burgundy, magenta, faded rose...you get the idea.
(Outside the Romeo and Juliet Restaurant on the ship.)
There's more clarity on what the sign actually says in the larger version, but what really confused us was--for all that it was a lovely little romantic dining nook, none of the chairs were scripted, and second--and this was key--their wine selection? Okay, I give them points for having Benden red wine, but their wine rack was broken. They even listed a decent mead in there, but nada!
(An enormous sculpted sculpture of a (fuschia-pink) seashell, complete with pearl, and eternally-pouring iridescent water in streams over the shell's edge.)
I will say this. In spite of all the florid florals, the motes of cherry-blossom snow on the air, the gleaming faery-lights on the trees--the waterworks were phenomenal. The water in spots was actually bright teal, and the fountains either spouted mist and silver glitter, or opalescent streams of fluid, butterflies hovering nearby.
Overdone? Indubitably. But pretty? Yes. I can't deny that.
(Riding the butterfly.)
I made the mistake of taking Stella's "music video tour". Apparently, it's designed to take you through each of the "music video" sets--that explained why the insanely pink two-story Victorian was completely phantom--because I flew right through it--and then the bug kept rising, afterwards.
(Stella's "virtual stage" for performances. Apparently it was used, at least once, back in May of 2008...I don't know if it's been used since then.)
I'm trying to imagine any band I know performing on this stage. Admittedly, the Spice Girls come to mind...but that's truly about it. Though, at least on the grid, if Stella wanted a back-up band of pixies with fluttery wings...she could get it.
(The end of the butterfly tour, high up in the castle beyond the clouds, wherein is related--yet again--that Stella was discovered by Kitaro, and that she sang on one of his albums, before releasing her own album of music on Domo Records. In 2007.)
Apparently her to-date-only album sold fairly well, because she had enough set aside, or acquired from profits, to fund an island...it just seems oddly empty. I have no idea when or if she plans to visit SL again, and no idea when or if the chairs in the restaurant, for instance, are going to be fixed.
But then, as I'm not her target audience, per se--my tastes run more to heavy metal and Celtic folk than New Age shimmer--I doubt she'll be concerned if I never come back.
She has a MySpace page wherein you can hear her sing in all her overdubbed, ethereal, glimmering majesty.
Or you could just go to the island. I can't tell you if you can hear her there, though, because...we had the music stream off.
And the Amenouzume in the claw game stymied me all day, until half an hour ago, when Miss Neome won it for me. Huzzah, you have been BEATEN, claw game of evil!
...Now I just have to finish getting the other 16 pieces of the 24-piece Manekata avatar....ARGH...
Think I'm kidding?
Meet Alfredo Zapatero! Mr. Zapatero is an Italian gentlemen--seen with his lovely girlfriend/sister/diversion of the moment, she of the suntanned-to-burnt skin tone and the open-fly jeans--I don't know who she was, all I know is that she and Zapatero had matching shoulder iguanas--and really, the concept of matching shoulder iguanas, it's just so baffling...
Anyway...here he is. In cow pants. In baggy cow pants. In baggy puffy cow pants with the HUGE belt buckle that blings and says PLAYA and truly--do I need to go on at this point?
Terrifying. Truly terrifying.
You can see me lurking in the background of this shot, actually, captured as I was running for the door. I'm the green wench, obviously. I don't truly fit in on the mainland, anymore...not that I ever really did.
Anyway, onward.
I blame Edward for this one, too.
(The main plaza. It's very...pink.)
Welcome to Stella. Or at least her island.
For some reason, I never heard of this paragon of crystalline femininity before tonight, but Edward, dear, marvelous friend Edward, potentially soon to be kicked Edward...pointed me towards the island in terms I could not refuse.
(Miss Neome came armed, but not even her most impervious armament survived unshaded by the gentle rose glow over all surfaces.)
[21:42] Edward Pearse: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stella/126/127/200
[21:42] Edward Pearse: Scary place for you to visit
[21:42] Emilly Orr: Oh?
[21:42] Edward Pearse: Actually this is the landing spot
[21:42] Edward Pearse: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stella/79/128/37
[21:43] Edward Pearse: Just west of Caledon Sound
[21:43] Edward Pearse: Barbie's Victorian sim or something
(The very large yacht berthed beside the island.)
This was...stunning. In that sense of, impending-damage-to-my-frontal-lobes, stunning. Everything was pink. Or nearly. There were brief glimpses of other colors, but mostly, everything on that island is pink, seashell blush, strawberry-cream, coral, deep burgundy, magenta, faded rose...you get the idea.
(Outside the Romeo and Juliet Restaurant on the ship.)
There's more clarity on what the sign actually says in the larger version, but what really confused us was--for all that it was a lovely little romantic dining nook, none of the chairs were scripted, and second--and this was key--their wine selection? Okay, I give them points for having Benden red wine, but their wine rack was broken. They even listed a decent mead in there, but nada!
(An enormous sculpted sculpture of a (fuschia-pink) seashell, complete with pearl, and eternally-pouring iridescent water in streams over the shell's edge.)
I will say this. In spite of all the florid florals, the motes of cherry-blossom snow on the air, the gleaming faery-lights on the trees--the waterworks were phenomenal. The water in spots was actually bright teal, and the fountains either spouted mist and silver glitter, or opalescent streams of fluid, butterflies hovering nearby.
Overdone? Indubitably. But pretty? Yes. I can't deny that.
(Riding the butterfly.)
I made the mistake of taking Stella's "music video tour". Apparently, it's designed to take you through each of the "music video" sets--that explained why the insanely pink two-story Victorian was completely phantom--because I flew right through it--and then the bug kept rising, afterwards.
(Stella's "virtual stage" for performances. Apparently it was used, at least once, back in May of 2008...I don't know if it's been used since then.)
I'm trying to imagine any band I know performing on this stage. Admittedly, the Spice Girls come to mind...but that's truly about it. Though, at least on the grid, if Stella wanted a back-up band of pixies with fluttery wings...she could get it.
(The end of the butterfly tour, high up in the castle beyond the clouds, wherein is related--yet again--that Stella was discovered by Kitaro, and that she sang on one of his albums, before releasing her own album of music on Domo Records. In 2007.)
Apparently her to-date-only album sold fairly well, because she had enough set aside, or acquired from profits, to fund an island...it just seems oddly empty. I have no idea when or if she plans to visit SL again, and no idea when or if the chairs in the restaurant, for instance, are going to be fixed.
But then, as I'm not her target audience, per se--my tastes run more to heavy metal and Celtic folk than New Age shimmer--I doubt she'll be concerned if I never come back.
She has a MySpace page wherein you can hear her sing in all her overdubbed, ethereal, glimmering majesty.
Or you could just go to the island. I can't tell you if you can hear her there, though, because...we had the music stream off.
And the Amenouzume in the claw game stymied me all day, until half an hour ago, when Miss Neome won it for me. Huzzah, you have been BEATEN, claw game of evil!
...Now I just have to finish getting the other 16 pieces of the 24-piece Manekata avatar....ARGH...
08 August, 2008
mother will they put me in the firing line?
Another day, another gig at Tribute Island, but this one...this one was different.
There was a bit of confusion between notecard sendouts, the Riel calendar, and the actual time of the concert--I was in world by noon, to ensure I got everything done I needed to before the start-time of one pm SLT. Save for it started at two, because Mankind Tracer couldn't make it before two. So off we went--after two sim restarts--to an hour of live music!
He sent shivers down my spine, he really did. There were times he sounded so much like David Gilmour wandered in to someone's spare studio with an acoustic guitar, it was uncanny. Absolutely amazing concert, I was so glad I came early.
He brought four women with him, the Tracerettes. They danced in choreographed perfection behind him, the entire time. That? That was very cool.
Afterwards, Radio Riel DJ Elrik Merlin spun the discs while I worked the floor. For more than two hours, he played Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett rarities, b-sides and alternate versions, along with a smattering of covers.
He was brilliant. Start to finish. It was an amazing few hours, between him and Mankind Tracer, and I think few better tributes to Syd Barrett have been presented. It was wonderful.
Several hours later, two of us wandered through Caledon Eyre for a bit this evening, searching for new wildlife. We found two antelope fawns.
At first moving forward seemed to startle them extremely. So we thereupon sat on the lawn beside Miss Robbiani's House of Alexander, I do believe. And we waited.
One of the fawns would approach us, stand and watch us, then flip and walk away. The other one would take a step, turn and bolt, turn back, take a step, turn and bolt again...he finally ended up hiding behind the house.
That's when things got strange.
Apparently, something in his young fawn's mind told him that walking farther away from the source of "danger"--namely, the neko in the petticoats and Carmen della Muse, clockwork chanteuse, both sitting on the grass. Sadly, there's not much for land behind Miss Robbiani's large blue shop. As a result, he backed himself into a corner between the impenetrable wall, and the sea.
I suppose he did what any mystically inclined creature might--he took to walking on water.
And then graze underwater.
For a moment we thought he might be in need of rescue--we had already nicknamed him Anchor, for his prediliction for water--when the oddest thing happened.
He sank to the bottom.
And his head fell off.
At this point, we were quite thoroughly convinced that this was no ordinary antelope fawn. No, indeed, this was quite the marvel indeed. This, in fact, might possibly be--counting in the breathing sans gills and the walking on water--Anchor the Jesuslope, to be frank.
He spent a good half hour roaming around, idly grazing (on what, we kept wondering), vain little pushes towards the far shore, and then...another completely baffling thing happened.
He walked off the edge of the sim and died.
I figure, three days later, we can come back, see if Anchor rises from the depths. If so, we've found the antelope Messiah.
Alas, I have few additional images, but I would point out two more things: they can walk through trees, and they tunnel.
Which was rather surprising, to be sitting on the lawn and suddenly be eye to eye with an equally startled fawn--peering out of the ground!
Will this be the future of SL?
And this is CGI.
Not convinced yet? Okay, how about this one? (By the way, neither of those images are precisely, erm, safe to view in traditional employment settings, let us say. No actual nudity, per se...but an air of the provocative.)
All in all, though, a wonderful day. I'd like more of those now and again.
There was a bit of confusion between notecard sendouts, the Riel calendar, and the actual time of the concert--I was in world by noon, to ensure I got everything done I needed to before the start-time of one pm SLT. Save for it started at two, because Mankind Tracer couldn't make it before two. So off we went--after two sim restarts--to an hour of live music!
He sent shivers down my spine, he really did. There were times he sounded so much like David Gilmour wandered in to someone's spare studio with an acoustic guitar, it was uncanny. Absolutely amazing concert, I was so glad I came early.
He brought four women with him, the Tracerettes. They danced in choreographed perfection behind him, the entire time. That? That was very cool.
Afterwards, Radio Riel DJ Elrik Merlin spun the discs while I worked the floor. For more than two hours, he played Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett rarities, b-sides and alternate versions, along with a smattering of covers.
He was brilliant. Start to finish. It was an amazing few hours, between him and Mankind Tracer, and I think few better tributes to Syd Barrett have been presented. It was wonderful.
Several hours later, two of us wandered through Caledon Eyre for a bit this evening, searching for new wildlife. We found two antelope fawns.
At first moving forward seemed to startle them extremely. So we thereupon sat on the lawn beside Miss Robbiani's House of Alexander, I do believe. And we waited.
One of the fawns would approach us, stand and watch us, then flip and walk away. The other one would take a step, turn and bolt, turn back, take a step, turn and bolt again...he finally ended up hiding behind the house.
That's when things got strange.
Apparently, something in his young fawn's mind told him that walking farther away from the source of "danger"--namely, the neko in the petticoats and Carmen della Muse, clockwork chanteuse, both sitting on the grass. Sadly, there's not much for land behind Miss Robbiani's large blue shop. As a result, he backed himself into a corner between the impenetrable wall, and the sea.
I suppose he did what any mystically inclined creature might--he took to walking on water.
And then graze underwater.
For a moment we thought he might be in need of rescue--we had already nicknamed him Anchor, for his prediliction for water--when the oddest thing happened.
He sank to the bottom.
And his head fell off.
At this point, we were quite thoroughly convinced that this was no ordinary antelope fawn. No, indeed, this was quite the marvel indeed. This, in fact, might possibly be--counting in the breathing sans gills and the walking on water--Anchor the Jesuslope, to be frank.
He spent a good half hour roaming around, idly grazing (on what, we kept wondering), vain little pushes towards the far shore, and then...another completely baffling thing happened.
He walked off the edge of the sim and died.
I figure, three days later, we can come back, see if Anchor rises from the depths. If so, we've found the antelope Messiah.
Alas, I have few additional images, but I would point out two more things: they can walk through trees, and they tunnel.
Which was rather surprising, to be sitting on the lawn and suddenly be eye to eye with an equally startled fawn--peering out of the ground!
Will this be the future of SL?
And this is CGI.
Not convinced yet? Okay, how about this one? (By the way, neither of those images are precisely, erm, safe to view in traditional employment settings, let us say. No actual nudity, per se...but an air of the provocative.)
All in all, though, a wonderful day. I'd like more of those now and again.
01 April, 2008
when this is over, give me your shoulder, I need a place to wait 'til morning
You know, something odd's occurred to me. In this seemingly endless search to identify what separates "steampunk music" from other identifiable genres, I suddenly realized--no one but me has mentioned Thomas Dolby as a potential influence.
Why not?
I'll leave it to the Wiki to cover who he is and where he's been, what he's doing now--between that and his own website, you'll gain everything you need to know. I more want to talk about why I'm thinking including him in this becoming-eternal debate is of value.
Thomas Dolby has always been interested in how music and electricity interface. What sounds can be drawn from machines, how machines make music, and how the human element interacts. He was one of the first synthpop musicians, but more than that, more than recording on his own, is how often he pops up working with other musicians--writing, remixing, rescoring, playing backup on various instruments. It sometimes seems that if you heard a song during the decade of the 1980's, about half the time you're hearing something that Dolby had a hand in.
So let's ask this again: what is steampunk music? After a day of reading over everything I've put out there to date, and running through the lists of influences and current creators of music, I will say this:
Steampunk music does not exist. Because steampunk depends on an alternate reality to exist.
HOWEVER, with that, we can then say: we can make educated guesses as to what steampunk music would sound like, if we existed in that alternate reality.
Vernian Process is making his best guess. Abney Park is making their best guess. Other bands are doing the same thing. Bands and artists like Emilie Autumn, Beat Circus, Legendary Shack Shakers, White Ghost Shivers, Tom Waits, Tori Amos, Dresden Dolls, the Residents, the Clockwork Dolls, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson--and so many more--they have all touched down, briefly or more permanently, into this zone of musical sound from which we identify the thematic identity of "steampunk music".
Call it what you will--"steampunk music", "chamberpunk", "cinematic darkwave"--or any other term you personally prefer--we are merely in the infancy of identifying what it is, what it comes from, what it might be--in a very disconnected effect-preceding-cause fashion.
We are learning what this alternate reality would sound like. We are envisioning what it looks like. We are beginning to categorize and label what is definable, from what's even more nebulous, at this point, in our own timeline.
So. Thomas Dolby. Thomas Dolby lives in the forefront of technology of this age, while looking--through much of his career, and still occasionally today--as if he lives and exists in a more steampunk reality. Videos, interviews, movies he's been in, music he's made--I think he is a huge unrecognized influence on the "genre that does not exist" of steampunk music.
Europa & the Pirate Twins
Windpower
Airwaves
She Blinded Me With Science
I Scare Myself
Five videos to view as defense of this claim. Five small films, segments frozen in various moments in time, to examine as potential assertions that Thomas Dolby is one of the backbone musicians for this music that does not fully exist, purely exist, in our own time.
He also has a blog, which is well worth reading, because he's still at the forefront of music technology, and still recording, remixing, remaking, revising, the music of his time, our time, and all the time in between.
Now, you'll excuse me, but there's this pair of steampunk goggles I'm contemplating making.
Why not?
I'll leave it to the Wiki to cover who he is and where he's been, what he's doing now--between that and his own website, you'll gain everything you need to know. I more want to talk about why I'm thinking including him in this becoming-eternal debate is of value.
Thomas Dolby has always been interested in how music and electricity interface. What sounds can be drawn from machines, how machines make music, and how the human element interacts. He was one of the first synthpop musicians, but more than that, more than recording on his own, is how often he pops up working with other musicians--writing, remixing, rescoring, playing backup on various instruments. It sometimes seems that if you heard a song during the decade of the 1980's, about half the time you're hearing something that Dolby had a hand in.
So let's ask this again: what is steampunk music? After a day of reading over everything I've put out there to date, and running through the lists of influences and current creators of music, I will say this:
Steampunk music does not exist. Because steampunk depends on an alternate reality to exist.
HOWEVER, with that, we can then say: we can make educated guesses as to what steampunk music would sound like, if we existed in that alternate reality.
Vernian Process is making his best guess. Abney Park is making their best guess. Other bands are doing the same thing. Bands and artists like Emilie Autumn, Beat Circus, Legendary Shack Shakers, White Ghost Shivers, Tom Waits, Tori Amos, Dresden Dolls, the Residents, the Clockwork Dolls, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson--and so many more--they have all touched down, briefly or more permanently, into this zone of musical sound from which we identify the thematic identity of "steampunk music".
Call it what you will--"steampunk music", "chamberpunk", "cinematic darkwave"--or any other term you personally prefer--we are merely in the infancy of identifying what it is, what it comes from, what it might be--in a very disconnected effect-preceding-cause fashion.
We are learning what this alternate reality would sound like. We are envisioning what it looks like. We are beginning to categorize and label what is definable, from what's even more nebulous, at this point, in our own timeline.
So. Thomas Dolby. Thomas Dolby lives in the forefront of technology of this age, while looking--through much of his career, and still occasionally today--as if he lives and exists in a more steampunk reality. Videos, interviews, movies he's been in, music he's made--I think he is a huge unrecognized influence on the "genre that does not exist" of steampunk music.
Europa & the Pirate Twins
Windpower
Airwaves
She Blinded Me With Science
I Scare Myself
Five videos to view as defense of this claim. Five small films, segments frozen in various moments in time, to examine as potential assertions that Thomas Dolby is one of the backbone musicians for this music that does not fully exist, purely exist, in our own time.
He also has a blog, which is well worth reading, because he's still at the forefront of music technology, and still recording, remixing, remaking, revising, the music of his time, our time, and all the time in between.
Now, you'll excuse me, but there's this pair of steampunk goggles I'm contemplating making.
31 March, 2008
never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down
So, more things I've found along the way...plus yes, more endless commentary.
Courtesy of Vernian Process...
The Clockwork Dolls (who are currently running a HYSTERICAL bit of Aprille foolery) have a Myspace page. It seems to be their only web presence.
Also, the Honkytonk Dragon discusses the Stroh Violin. Quite intriguing.
And also, I've been thinking, well, theramin music, that might be steampunk--save what I've been thinking of as the theramin is actually the glass harmonica, and the theramin is the precursor of the Moog which leads to modern synthesizers.
And just for kicks and giggles, Wikipedia defines both steampunk fashion and steampunk music as vague and undefined things:
"Steampunk" fashion has no set guidelines, but tends to synthesize punk, goth and rivet styles as filtered through the Victorian era. This may include Mohawks and extensive piercings with corsets and tattered petticoats, Victorian suits with goggles and boots with large soles and buckles or straps, and the Lolita fashion and aristocrat styles. Some of what defines steampunk fashion has come from cyberpunk, and cyberlocks have appeared being used by people adopting a steampunk look...
"Steampunk" music is even less defined, and tends to apply to any modern musicians whose music or stage presence evokes a feeling of the Victorian era or steampunk. This may include such diverse artists as Abney Park and Vernian Process.
Well, gosh, that helps everything so much. Basically leaves us with music made by people wearing goggles and/or corsets. *facepalms*
And of course a lot of people are pointing at "steampunk" on one hand, and meaning neo-Victorian.
So okay, what about individual songs? I think some of the background ambiance, the clanking noisy bits of Depeche Mode's People are People sound steampunk/industrial. Winter Ventura says, steampunk to her is equivalent to the instrumental version of Doubleback played by ZZ Top (track specifically starts at 4:14 for those wondering) in Back to the Future III. And Mr. Allen mentioned a bit from the musical strangeness that is Across the Universe, a cover of For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, sung by Eddie Izzard--which is again that synthesis of battered marching band instruments, the sort of stripped-down calliope-on-acid music, and in that instance, specifically, Eddie Izzard doing some frontal-lobe-bruising imitation of Rex Harrison.
And honestly, I think a song like Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails is only 'steampunk' (or even neo-Victorian) because of the video, not the music at all. But by the same extension, I think--visually, musically--a song like Thomas Dolby's Europa & the Pirate Twins does qualify.
At this point, I've identified several different strands feeding into the "genre that doesn't exist":
Emilly Orr: Okay--I've been boring people all morning trying to verbally analyze this
Emilly Orr: Essentially--
Emilly Orr: We have 'steampunk music' as defined as coming from goth/industrial, and hence 'darkwave'--Vernian Process goes so far as to identify (if he doesn't say 'steampunk') what he does as 'cinematic darkwave'
Emilly Orr: Which tracks back to bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode, the Damned, Massive Attack--dark industrial, oldwave, darkwave
Emilly Orr: We have 'steampunk'-as-neo-Victoriana, which gives us influencing bands and artists like Tori Amos, Emilie Autumn and Rasputina, which also gets us into so-called 'faery music', which I'm trying like hell to avoid entirely, but at the same time, the fae were big in Victorian culture, but I think it wouldn't be good to explore that out
Emilly Orr: And then we have people like VP again, pointing out other 'contemporary steampunk bands' like Legendary Shack Shakers and Beat Circus, which leads us back to people like White Ghost Shivers and Tom Waits (for Legendary Shack Shakers) and the Dresden Dolls (for bands like the Beat Circus) and...
Emilly Orr: this is when I sit in stunned amazement, wondering why I'm now considering early electronica, wave music, goth/industrial and American roots music as equivalent influences for one genre that doesn't sound like any of these
Fawkes Allen: Because again, you're thinking of Steampunk in the wrong way. Which is the issue of saying "Steampunk Music"
Fawkes Allen: I mean, maybe you can. But personally it sounds like you're trying to define "Cyberpunk" Music, or "Fantasy" Music. They are very general catagories. What works for Girl Genius, is not going to work for Wild Wild West, but both *are* Steampunk. What works for a darker goth Steampunk, like let's say Dark City, (Which though low on Steam definitely has a lot of Steampunky style) won't work for Skies of Arcadia.
Fawkes Allen: In the end, there's a lot of styles in Steampunk. Steampunk is a Timeline. You have to imagine our world, having followed a line of Steam over Gas. So we'd have Rock & Roll, Goth, Grunge, Rap, Hip-Hop, and so on and so forth. What would make it Steampunk, would essentially being from that Steampunked world, using technology they developed that we didn't.
Fawkes Allen: So you need to focus on bands that go for unique sounds. Things less "Electric Guitar" and more The Osciliating Guitar. Which uses Crystals and you run your finger up and down the strings versus plucking them. Which again, makes Steampunk more a state of Mind or style, rather then an actual *sound*. Though it can be sound as well.
Which means, there's never going to be that moment of realization--that, "A-HA! Steampunk music is [X]!" statement. Because it's a style, not a genre. It's like Visual Kei for Japan--while it ties in to J-rock as a 'genre' (progressive Japanese metal/orchestral electronic balladry, in a broad sense), it's mostly a clothing/cultural thing.
(And how do Japanese bands and artists fit in, anyway? I mean, Mizerable by Gackt seems to fit the tone, sort of, but not musically--and songs like Shima Uta fit the sort of sound of deconstructed semi-acoustic music, but fly much farther back than neo-Victoriana would allow...plus the additional complication of the fact that first, Japan did not so much have a Victorian period, and that as a folk song, of sorts, Shima Uta is also used as sort of a tribute song, or allusion, to the devastation visited on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII....
(We're getting lost again. And the problem on that is one of culture, not genre, anyway--because of the other part, the "visual" part of Visual Kei--because it leads us into pathways of exploring Loli/EGL and Aristocrat/EGA fashion movements, and how they have influence on the modern neo-Victorian styling seen in Europe and America, but how does that influence steampunk in general and steampunk music in specific?
(And just when did we become so goddamn narrowly defined that everyone, almost every single person I speak with about steampunk, nods sagely and says, 'Goggles'. I mean, W.T.F.? It's like, goggles and a top hat and you're steampunk? Since when?!?)
We're getting lost again.
Okay. We seem to have three thematic feeds into the larger pool:
Å What I call 'roots revival', or 'American roots' music, as typified by the White Ghost Shivers and Legendary Shack Shakers: essentially, music drawn from disparate places, but mostly from jazz, blues, and Appalachian hill-country music, which originally came from Elizabethan caroling traditions, when the original English settlers first came and colonized the East coast of America, and thence moved inland;
Å Neo-cabaret, or what I've started calling the 'Opheliacs' movement, for lack of a better term--as typified by Emilie Autumn, Dresden Dolls, Rasputina, Tori Amos and even Evanescence, to a certain extent: generally, bands that are voiced mainly by women who also create their own clothes, create art, and play modern music on more traditional instruments;
Å Goth/industrial/darkwave--which could and in some cases does include Abney Park and Vernian Process, but also includes bands from the Cure, Massive Attack and Clan of Xymox to Apocalyptica and Apoptygma Berzerk: dark, driven repetitive music with similar themes of loss, pain, and dystopian deconstruction;
(and I'd started to toss in:
(Å Progressive metal, varying from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Royal Hunt, Yngvie Malmsteen, clear up to some of Opeth and Luca Turilli...but you know, they're not really steampunk....so I'm retracting and stopping here.)
So...
*sighs*
I get to stop again, saying, tired of thinking now. I'm going to walk away from this for a few days. Trying to label a musical style by identifying what its antecedents might have been...GAH!
Courtesy of Vernian Process...
The Clockwork Dolls (who are currently running a HYSTERICAL bit of Aprille foolery) have a Myspace page. It seems to be their only web presence.
Also, the Honkytonk Dragon discusses the Stroh Violin. Quite intriguing.
And also, I've been thinking, well, theramin music, that might be steampunk--save what I've been thinking of as the theramin is actually the glass harmonica, and the theramin is the precursor of the Moog which leads to modern synthesizers.
And just for kicks and giggles, Wikipedia defines both steampunk fashion and steampunk music as vague and undefined things:
"Steampunk" fashion has no set guidelines, but tends to synthesize punk, goth and rivet styles as filtered through the Victorian era. This may include Mohawks and extensive piercings with corsets and tattered petticoats, Victorian suits with goggles and boots with large soles and buckles or straps, and the Lolita fashion and aristocrat styles. Some of what defines steampunk fashion has come from cyberpunk, and cyberlocks have appeared being used by people adopting a steampunk look...
"Steampunk" music is even less defined, and tends to apply to any modern musicians whose music or stage presence evokes a feeling of the Victorian era or steampunk. This may include such diverse artists as Abney Park and Vernian Process.
Well, gosh, that helps everything so much. Basically leaves us with music made by people wearing goggles and/or corsets. *facepalms*
And of course a lot of people are pointing at "steampunk" on one hand, and meaning neo-Victorian.
So okay, what about individual songs? I think some of the background ambiance, the clanking noisy bits of Depeche Mode's People are People sound steampunk/industrial. Winter Ventura says, steampunk to her is equivalent to the instrumental version of Doubleback played by ZZ Top (track specifically starts at 4:14 for those wondering) in Back to the Future III. And Mr. Allen mentioned a bit from the musical strangeness that is Across the Universe, a cover of For the Benefit of Mr. Kite, sung by Eddie Izzard--which is again that synthesis of battered marching band instruments, the sort of stripped-down calliope-on-acid music, and in that instance, specifically, Eddie Izzard doing some frontal-lobe-bruising imitation of Rex Harrison.
And honestly, I think a song like Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails is only 'steampunk' (or even neo-Victorian) because of the video, not the music at all. But by the same extension, I think--visually, musically--a song like Thomas Dolby's Europa & the Pirate Twins does qualify.
At this point, I've identified several different strands feeding into the "genre that doesn't exist":
Emilly Orr: Okay--I've been boring people all morning trying to verbally analyze this
Emilly Orr: Essentially--
Emilly Orr: We have 'steampunk music' as defined as coming from goth/industrial, and hence 'darkwave'--Vernian Process goes so far as to identify (if he doesn't say 'steampunk') what he does as 'cinematic darkwave'
Emilly Orr: Which tracks back to bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode, the Damned, Massive Attack--dark industrial, oldwave, darkwave
Emilly Orr: We have 'steampunk'-as-neo-Victoriana, which gives us influencing bands and artists like Tori Amos, Emilie Autumn and Rasputina, which also gets us into so-called 'faery music', which I'm trying like hell to avoid entirely, but at the same time, the fae were big in Victorian culture, but I think it wouldn't be good to explore that out
Emilly Orr: And then we have people like VP again, pointing out other 'contemporary steampunk bands' like Legendary Shack Shakers and Beat Circus, which leads us back to people like White Ghost Shivers and Tom Waits (for Legendary Shack Shakers) and the Dresden Dolls (for bands like the Beat Circus) and...
Emilly Orr: this is when I sit in stunned amazement, wondering why I'm now considering early electronica, wave music, goth/industrial and American roots music as equivalent influences for one genre that doesn't sound like any of these
Fawkes Allen: Because again, you're thinking of Steampunk in the wrong way. Which is the issue of saying "Steampunk Music"
Fawkes Allen: I mean, maybe you can. But personally it sounds like you're trying to define "Cyberpunk" Music, or "Fantasy" Music. They are very general catagories. What works for Girl Genius, is not going to work for Wild Wild West, but both *are* Steampunk. What works for a darker goth Steampunk, like let's say Dark City, (Which though low on Steam definitely has a lot of Steampunky style) won't work for Skies of Arcadia.
Fawkes Allen: In the end, there's a lot of styles in Steampunk. Steampunk is a Timeline. You have to imagine our world, having followed a line of Steam over Gas. So we'd have Rock & Roll, Goth, Grunge, Rap, Hip-Hop, and so on and so forth. What would make it Steampunk, would essentially being from that Steampunked world, using technology they developed that we didn't.
Fawkes Allen: So you need to focus on bands that go for unique sounds. Things less "Electric Guitar" and more The Osciliating Guitar. Which uses Crystals and you run your finger up and down the strings versus plucking them. Which again, makes Steampunk more a state of Mind or style, rather then an actual *sound*. Though it can be sound as well.
Which means, there's never going to be that moment of realization--that, "A-HA! Steampunk music is [X]!" statement. Because it's a style, not a genre. It's like Visual Kei for Japan--while it ties in to J-rock as a 'genre' (progressive Japanese metal/orchestral electronic balladry, in a broad sense), it's mostly a clothing/cultural thing.
(And how do Japanese bands and artists fit in, anyway? I mean, Mizerable by Gackt seems to fit the tone, sort of, but not musically--and songs like Shima Uta fit the sort of sound of deconstructed semi-acoustic music, but fly much farther back than neo-Victoriana would allow...plus the additional complication of the fact that first, Japan did not so much have a Victorian period, and that as a folk song, of sorts, Shima Uta is also used as sort of a tribute song, or allusion, to the devastation visited on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII....
(We're getting lost again. And the problem on that is one of culture, not genre, anyway--because of the other part, the "visual" part of Visual Kei--because it leads us into pathways of exploring Loli/EGL and Aristocrat/EGA fashion movements, and how they have influence on the modern neo-Victorian styling seen in Europe and America, but how does that influence steampunk in general and steampunk music in specific?
(And just when did we become so goddamn narrowly defined that everyone, almost every single person I speak with about steampunk, nods sagely and says, 'Goggles'. I mean, W.T.F.? It's like, goggles and a top hat and you're steampunk? Since when?!?)
We're getting lost again.
Okay. We seem to have three thematic feeds into the larger pool:
Å What I call 'roots revival', or 'American roots' music, as typified by the White Ghost Shivers and Legendary Shack Shakers: essentially, music drawn from disparate places, but mostly from jazz, blues, and Appalachian hill-country music, which originally came from Elizabethan caroling traditions, when the original English settlers first came and colonized the East coast of America, and thence moved inland;
Å Neo-cabaret, or what I've started calling the 'Opheliacs' movement, for lack of a better term--as typified by Emilie Autumn, Dresden Dolls, Rasputina, Tori Amos and even Evanescence, to a certain extent: generally, bands that are voiced mainly by women who also create their own clothes, create art, and play modern music on more traditional instruments;
Å Goth/industrial/darkwave--which could and in some cases does include Abney Park and Vernian Process, but also includes bands from the Cure, Massive Attack and Clan of Xymox to Apocalyptica and Apoptygma Berzerk: dark, driven repetitive music with similar themes of loss, pain, and dystopian deconstruction;
(and I'd started to toss in:
(Å Progressive metal, varying from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Royal Hunt, Yngvie Malmsteen, clear up to some of Opeth and Luca Turilli...but you know, they're not really steampunk....so I'm retracting and stopping here.)
So...
*sighs*
I get to stop again, saying, tired of thinking now. I'm going to walk away from this for a few days. Trying to label a musical style by identifying what its antecedents might have been...GAH!
29 March, 2008
open arms, empty hands
I dragged myself from cold limbo back to the grid, arriving at the same time in-world, in Antiquity, that my aether connection opened to begin sorting through missives sent to me through the long night.
Imagine my surprise, then, when a comment from Vernian Process unspooled before my wide eyes.
He gravely pointed out certain errors I'd made in the post on Abney Park; for some few hours henceforth, I listened to offerings on his Myspace page, among others. I listened to more of his work.
"I must state that I find it quite odd that you feel that instrumental music can be any less steampunk influenced, than vocal music," he said in his comment, and I read back through my words, and it very much does read as if I'm implying such.
Such was not my intent.
It also doesn't help that at the time, I had hurriedly found The Approach of Dawn, I think, and The Curse of Whitechapel, both very gothic and moody in feel. Very atmospheric, yes, but very darkambient, very not steampunk--as I've been interpreting it personally.
But Rust Part II for instance, with or without the visual element created for the music, is most definitely steampunk in feel and execution. And Behold the Machine nearly relies on metal-on-metal sounds to advance the progression.
(He's got others; in addition to the MySpace page, he's got his own channel on YouTube.)
(Vernian Process [Joshua Pfeiffer]; Image taken by Pasha Smith, Tristan Cane, or Joshua Pfeiffer himself.)
All right, so who is Vernian Process? Well, you could always go to his web page and ask that question, and I'm more than half tempted--as he's leaving me comments--to ask him directly for an interview, but--to preserve something of that "people don't notice this blog" mystique (I know, I know, we're blown six directions on that one already)...I decided to see if I could find out on my own.
Under an ominously flashing red sky, I began to research.
Let me mention the web page again, first: he's put up very nearly the whole of his back catalog up for free download. Some may see this as a desperate act. I do not. I see it as the first step towards a possible breakthrough, for both him and the genre in general. Because keep in mind, the more ears listening, the more minds become educated, the more demand ensues. First law of something, I'm sure, but in the meantime, you can listen to what he's produced before, and get a good idea as to where he's going.
Secondarily, in a Sepiachord interview from 2006, he says he was the first one to tag "steampunk" onto the music Vernian Process put out. He prefers the term "Cinematic Darkwave", and Sepiachord advanced "Scientific Romance" (sounds headily like Gaslamp fantasy, Studio Foglio's term for Girl Genius, doesn't it?), and he agreed there was some of that as well.
In that same interview, he advances influences as disparate as Danny Elfman, Clan of Xymox and Massive Attack. I'd also suggest there's more than a little Peter Murphy in his vocal intonations.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say, before artists like Vernian Process and Abney Park decided to move forward with steampunk-as-music, we could name bands like Frontline Assembly, Front 242, and Leftfield, or solo artists like Laurie Anderson, as substantial guiding influences. In this sense, it's a direct path of evolution for machine-assisted, human-guided sound...but the rise of steampunk as a genre, and its growing acceptance in the goth/darkambient music communities specifically, leads us here.
One channel feeds across territory that spawned Joy Division, the Damned, and the Cure, dragging us through broken-eyeliner scribbled landscapes of post-apocalyptic dread; another channel leads us back to Vernian Process, Abney Park, and all the others, just starting out in copper-clad ruin, arrowing in reverse to the cobblestone paths one century before last.
(Another view on Vernian Process [Joshua Pfeiffer]; Image taken by Pasha Smith, Tristan Cane, or Joshua Pfeiffer himself.)
He mentioned he also runs post-punk.com, where there are more compilations for download he's participated in or remixed, including one called An Age Remembered he specifically wanted my attention drawn towards (and oh, boy, am I going to have fun listening and researching through that grouping of mass talent).
But in addition to bands/artists on that compilation I already knew, like Emilie Autumn, Rasputina and Chris Vrenna, he mentioned bands like the Clockwork Dolls (who actually seem to have a negative web presence), the Legendary Shack Shakers (which I don't see as steampunk, really seem more American roots performers, rockabilly unplugged at best, though they're a whole lot of fun and very good), and the Beat Circus (though I was torn between linking that one, and the video for the Mime Gag just for oddity, but...again, I see them more as American roots musicians, possibly edging into the burlesque territory that the Dresden Dolls so capably scamper through).
And then I sat stunned for a moment, realizing I'd been accessing aetheric music records for the past six hours. I was dizzied by all this and needed time to let it settle.
At the end of everything? I still don't know who Vernian Process is, other than talented; and I desperately want to see if he ever gets the "chamberpunk" project off the ground; and I'm again more than halfway tempted to see if he'd be interested in playing live on the grid...
...but it's also four in the morning now, and this kitten must sleep! Digesting this much musical food for thought will take time.
We will come back to this, I think. In the meantime, have fun wandering through the back alleys of YouTube, hearing faint strains of history, absinthe-soaked in harpsichortical array, for your viewing and listening pleasure.
[17:38] Scandaroon Beck: My mind is dirty because it has been busy working. A clean mind, like clean hands, is a sign of inactivity.
Indeed it is.
Imagine my surprise, then, when a comment from Vernian Process unspooled before my wide eyes.
He gravely pointed out certain errors I'd made in the post on Abney Park; for some few hours henceforth, I listened to offerings on his Myspace page, among others. I listened to more of his work.
"I must state that I find it quite odd that you feel that instrumental music can be any less steampunk influenced, than vocal music," he said in his comment, and I read back through my words, and it very much does read as if I'm implying such.
Such was not my intent.
It also doesn't help that at the time, I had hurriedly found The Approach of Dawn, I think, and The Curse of Whitechapel, both very gothic and moody in feel. Very atmospheric, yes, but very darkambient, very not steampunk--as I've been interpreting it personally.
But Rust Part II for instance, with or without the visual element created for the music, is most definitely steampunk in feel and execution. And Behold the Machine nearly relies on metal-on-metal sounds to advance the progression.
(He's got others; in addition to the MySpace page, he's got his own channel on YouTube.)
(Vernian Process [Joshua Pfeiffer]; Image taken by Pasha Smith, Tristan Cane, or Joshua Pfeiffer himself.)
All right, so who is Vernian Process? Well, you could always go to his web page and ask that question, and I'm more than half tempted--as he's leaving me comments--to ask him directly for an interview, but--to preserve something of that "people don't notice this blog" mystique (I know, I know, we're blown six directions on that one already)...I decided to see if I could find out on my own.
Under an ominously flashing red sky, I began to research.
Let me mention the web page again, first: he's put up very nearly the whole of his back catalog up for free download. Some may see this as a desperate act. I do not. I see it as the first step towards a possible breakthrough, for both him and the genre in general. Because keep in mind, the more ears listening, the more minds become educated, the more demand ensues. First law of something, I'm sure, but in the meantime, you can listen to what he's produced before, and get a good idea as to where he's going.
Secondarily, in a Sepiachord interview from 2006, he says he was the first one to tag "steampunk" onto the music Vernian Process put out. He prefers the term "Cinematic Darkwave", and Sepiachord advanced "Scientific Romance" (sounds headily like Gaslamp fantasy, Studio Foglio's term for Girl Genius, doesn't it?), and he agreed there was some of that as well.
In that same interview, he advances influences as disparate as Danny Elfman, Clan of Xymox and Massive Attack. I'd also suggest there's more than a little Peter Murphy in his vocal intonations.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say, before artists like Vernian Process and Abney Park decided to move forward with steampunk-as-music, we could name bands like Frontline Assembly, Front 242, and Leftfield, or solo artists like Laurie Anderson, as substantial guiding influences. In this sense, it's a direct path of evolution for machine-assisted, human-guided sound...but the rise of steampunk as a genre, and its growing acceptance in the goth/darkambient music communities specifically, leads us here.
One channel feeds across territory that spawned Joy Division, the Damned, and the Cure, dragging us through broken-eyeliner scribbled landscapes of post-apocalyptic dread; another channel leads us back to Vernian Process, Abney Park, and all the others, just starting out in copper-clad ruin, arrowing in reverse to the cobblestone paths one century before last.
(Another view on Vernian Process [Joshua Pfeiffer]; Image taken by Pasha Smith, Tristan Cane, or Joshua Pfeiffer himself.)
He mentioned he also runs post-punk.com, where there are more compilations for download he's participated in or remixed, including one called An Age Remembered he specifically wanted my attention drawn towards (and oh, boy, am I going to have fun listening and researching through that grouping of mass talent).
But in addition to bands/artists on that compilation I already knew, like Emilie Autumn, Rasputina and Chris Vrenna, he mentioned bands like the Clockwork Dolls (who actually seem to have a negative web presence), the Legendary Shack Shakers (which I don't see as steampunk, really seem more American roots performers, rockabilly unplugged at best, though they're a whole lot of fun and very good), and the Beat Circus (though I was torn between linking that one, and the video for the Mime Gag just for oddity, but...again, I see them more as American roots musicians, possibly edging into the burlesque territory that the Dresden Dolls so capably scamper through).
And then I sat stunned for a moment, realizing I'd been accessing aetheric music records for the past six hours. I was dizzied by all this and needed time to let it settle.
At the end of everything? I still don't know who Vernian Process is, other than talented; and I desperately want to see if he ever gets the "chamberpunk" project off the ground; and I'm again more than halfway tempted to see if he'd be interested in playing live on the grid...
...but it's also four in the morning now, and this kitten must sleep! Digesting this much musical food for thought will take time.
We will come back to this, I think. In the meantime, have fun wandering through the back alleys of YouTube, hearing faint strains of history, absinthe-soaked in harpsichortical array, for your viewing and listening pleasure.
[17:38] Scandaroon Beck: My mind is dirty because it has been busy working. A clean mind, like clean hands, is a sign of inactivity.
Indeed it is.
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it's just your shadow on the floor
(This section was written on July 11th...) Great. Sat myself down today after oversleeping, and told myself sternly I was not going to log...
