Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 10:27:19 EDT
From:         "Michael H. Bloom" <MHB@MITVMA.BITNET>
Subject:      Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home...

voy toy <woj@ROMULUS.RUTGERS.EDU> was privileged to witness:
> dust devils/the mad scene/television personalities @ maxwells
>
> saturday april 11th was the last night of the first american tour of the
> television personalities, a band that certainly deserves the adjective
> seminal, though seminal what is still in question.

Happens I played TV Personalities yesterday-- did a fillin appearance on WMBR,
on a show called "That Was Then, This Is Now," which is supposed to be about
how the psychedelic imperative has endured and mutated over time-- anyway, I
played "Apples and Oranges" as performed by TV Personalities on the Syd Barrett
tribute record _Beyond the Wildwood_. Nice-- cutesy but substantive. Does their
own stuff sound like that?

BTW, woj, glad to have you back (you and your caps-unlock key :-)

Gary <gmgettie@THAMA1.APGEA.ARMY.MIL> reports re: Queen
> Queen has a new album out called 'Classic Queen.' I checked out the list
> of songs and was delighted to see that the much overplayed 'We Will Rock
> You' and 'We Are The Champions' are not on there. Also, I don't think
> 'Fat Bottomed Girls' or 'Bicycle Race' are on there either. Anyone know why
> these songs were omitted?

Did you notice how much they're charging for that damn thing? Every local shop
wants at least $3 more than the normal going rate for a new CD. I also heard
the industry is trying to foist another price increase on us, to pay for all
those expensive contracts they signed with Michael Jackson; this is just the
proverbial camel's nose under the tent (what proverb was that, anyway?)...
Queen was also the spear carrier for one of the LP price increases of the
'70s; I can't remember whether it was the same one that Tom Petty fought his
record company over...

Ken Josenhans <13020KRJ@MSU.BITNET> discoursed on Cooking Vinyl (was Brand
Loyalty)
> Lessee, other CV artists who I didn't mention were The Ukrainians
> (folk-oid spinoff from The Wedding Present, which is a concept I
> still don't fully understand)...

There have now been two Ukrainians albums; the second is now available on the
Minneapolis label Omnium (who also just did the first two Boiled in Lead LP's
on one CD and the 3 Mustapha 3 _Friends Fiends & Fronds_ B-sides collection).
Unlike the first set, which is actual folk tunes from the Ukraine, this set is
songs they wrote in the Ukrainian language and style. The claim is that every
current member of the Wedding Present is on this record, but it doesn't sound
anything like the Wedding Present, it sounds like the garage music of my
ancestors. I admit to not being very impressed, but I'll listen again.

"not waving but drowning..." <watson@HG.ULETH.CA> spoke on RE: fear of music
> Children also have an immense fear of pain...  My 4-year-old freaks when I
> play dissonant or spooky music -- in fact, I was listening to Urban Ambience
> the other night while working in my office downstairs and my daughter came in
> to pay me a visit.  She headed right for my stereo and shut it off.  When I
> queried her as to the reason, she simply quipped, "cuz it hurts me".  My
> conjecture is that the particular audio patterns produced by certain types of
> music and sound actually cause her little ears some sort of pain.  Are the
> ears of children more sensitive?  I believe they are...

Certainly you lose high frequency response over time-- not just overexposure
to headbanging volume but the general loss of suppleness as the tissues age
and get creaky (speak up, sonny, and mind your elders). A fresh young human
ear can hear up to 20,000 Hz; grownups (even without environmentally induced
hearing damage) tend to roll off in the 17-18 KHz range, and of course all of
us on the ALLMUSIC list have scars on our tympanic membranes from excessive
exposure to our stimulus of choice (what's that? SPEAK UP, I say!)...

But I'm assuming you weren't turning up the volume that loud, so there must be
something inherent in the sound that was scary. In my last mega-post I started
to mention the laws of physics and Pierre Boulez's acquiescence to them, how
the sound of a perfect interval is very comforting because the waveforms tend
to coincide. If you look at it the other way, intervals that are not in tune
can be extremely irritating. A not-quite-unison will set up beat frequencies,
phantom pulses at the difference between the two frequencies-- and that can be
scary, in the sense that there's no discrete thing actually making that noise.
So maybe it's our casual approach to tuning up that's scary :-) In fact, there
are many musicians who feel the nearly universal practice of equal temperament,
where you make the perfect 5th come out 2 to the 7/12 power, compromising your
perfect intervals to make the cycle of 5ths come out right in terms of octaves,
isn't enough in tune, and have devised elaborate just-intonation systems that
are perfectly rational and intensely tied to specific keys. Harry Partch was
one of the most interesting, ending up with a 43 notes per octave scale, with
half a dozen distinct flavors of G#: the major third of E, the minor third of
F, the fifth above C# etc. I won't say more about this (I'll totally blow my
presumed infallibility if I go on) except to say that part of the reason bells
and metallophones in general sound so intense is that they make enharmonics:
their frequency spectra include tones that don't always relate in nice simple
ratios. That's a pretty bizarre sound, potentially scary, and maybe there's a
bit of that on the tape too. (I certainly hope so. I love gong sounds.)

> Yes... but consonance has it's place in the sheer fact that it is bland and
> goes down easy.  I tell you, when I have had a real shitty day at work and my
> boss is riding me, the hockey player is bitchy and I have a headache, the last
> thing I want to put on is something dissonant -- I'll turn to something more
> traditional or new-agie and less complex for a more soothing effect, like
> Loreena McKennitt...  :)  Otherwise, I would have likely done away with the
> hockey player using one of his Titans by now.  :)  Tell us, Mr. Bloom, what do
> you listen to after you have days like these?  Are you tough enuff to throw on
> something really fucking demented?  *grin*

Actually I go both ways on this issue. Sometimes I'll put on XTC and go for the
pop-induced trance state. Sometimes I'll put on King Crimson and get predatory,
the cat-kicking vibe that was spoken of a while ago (not that I'd actually do
that to my cats). When I'm real cranky is generally not the best time to absorb
totally new information; I usually play some flavor of blare I'm familiar with.
Standard new age almost always makes me itch, though: whether it's naughty or
nice, I require that my listening material present contrast.

I'll try some more arcane stuff and post the results, if they don't lock me up
first.
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