When did we start listening to pre-pubescent white girls? I must’ve missed that meeting. We have at our fingertips the greatest minds of all-time, the knowledge and history of the greatest thinkers of ALL FUCKING TIME…but no, what’s that little white girl saying? Let’s go put Debbie Gibson’s thoughts on compact disc so they’ll never be destroyed.
Is it me? I mean, goddamn it, I remember when music had balls, man. Does anybody remember that at all? Jimi Hendrix? Any question about that guy? “Well, I stand up next to a mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand.” This guy had a dick……..like an anaconda……blowing in the wind.
“Don’t ever wanna make you cry, never wanna break your heart, Diet Coke foreverrrrrr!”
We’re the new rock stars, we’re the ones who drink Diet Coke and shop in your malls! Woo!
-Bill Hicks, as relevant in the 90s as he is posthumously in the 2000s and beyond.
Steven Wilson - “The Raven That Refused to Sing” | Feb 25th
The Dear Hunter - “Migrant” | April 2nd
This year is already going to be awesome for music.
Steven Wilson; “Deform to Form a Star” (live in London, 31 October 2011)
A week from today, SW’s going to be playing at Park West, in Chicago. I’m trying to forget that since I don’t have a way out there/money for tickets. I’m glad some of these songs are being recorded, because they sound absolutely lovely live.
(via swhq)
Here’s my Opeth display in chronological order, including the brand new “HERITAGE” DVDA I got earlier today!
I wish my album displays could hold more than 9. I have two, and the same thing happened with Porcupine Tree back in 2009 for their 10th album. I guess I’ll just start stapling these to the wall. Or…maybe buy a more appropriate display, which is what a sane person would do.
*grabs stapler*
For anyone curious, my favorite of the 10 is easily 1999’s “Still Life”, followed by 1998’s “My Arms, Your Hearse” and then 2001’s “Blackwater Park”. Still gotta let “Heritage” sink in, although I’m digging the new sound.
My earliest musical influence was video games. The one that guided me to where I eventually wound up is Donkey Kong Country 2. David Wise composed the soundtrack, and it stands up as some of the most beautiful music ever recorded for a game or otherwise. Considering the hardware limitations of the Super Nintendo, this is no small feat.
When I was a kid, I’d often play through the game just to hear the music. The internet back in the late 90s mostly just had programmed midi themes, and not the real deal. Of course nowadays you can hear the whole thing in crystal clear from front to back. Luckily though, the game still holds up both visually and in terms of level design, so dusting off the old SNES cart every few years isn’t uncommon for me.
You’d never think a game like this would be so incredibly beautiful, you really wouldn’t. There’s a certain melancholy atmosphere throughout, and I can consciously recognize how much that influenced my musical appreciation and taste.
As a young adult, I wanted more. I desperately wanted more out of music. I wanted to feel something similar to what I felt with so many old games. I wasn’t going to get that with anything targeted to my demographic. I’m 24, how in the world am I supposed to appreciate the work of John Coltrane and the like? I had to first become accustomed to longer songs, songs without vocals, songs that had quiet interludes, songs that focused on emotional response rather than fun hooks. This took YEARS until I could approach ‘source’ music and truly appreciate it like I can now. And I’m STILL only scratching the surface of it all. But I have so many more years to discover, and that’s motivating me creatively speaking.
The older I become, the more I find. That’s the great thing about music - there is so much out there, waiting for you to discover. And it’s like a chain reaction in a way. You learn about one artist, you learn about an artist associated with that artist, you find the influences of these artists and learn about them, so on and so forth. That’s how you sort of branch out and discover who you are musically, and who you can potentially become if you keep searching.
They say satisfaction is the death of desire, and that is so true.
I love this man. If not for everything else, for the ominous tonal change towards the end of this song that really hits it home. Good songwriting can make something so simple so much more.
‘cause all that matters disappeared when I lost you…
This is “Postcard”, and it was played live in-studio during a radio interview for WNYC Soundcheck. Beautiful song. Steven Wilson’s “Grace for Drowning” comes out September 27th. Already have my signed copy coming in the mail. :-)
