Might I Schill for someone else for a moment?

I know, I know I keep swearing in public how I hate music and such, and while that is clearly tounge and cheek, I do find it a very hard subject to talk about with most people. With all that said, can I maybe...just maybe implore you to go and give Damezumari a chance?

See I am not convinced that they are going to be the cup of tea that most of my friends would enjoy*, but I spend an unhealthy amount of time listening to them on the internets, and they have just made their entire catalog available for download. This makes me over the moon happy. Not because it's for free download**, but because their records are very very difficult to track down and they don't tour. Also they sound like some nice fellows who put some thought into what they are doing, and you can't really ask for much more then that.

What's that, you want to know my favorite songs by the band? Sure I can do that.

Gravity is a Choice
Second Chance
A Bitter Means to a Bitter End
The Mark on the Wall
Becoming Instead of Just Being.

Those are just a few of the bands many many great songs. So yeah, if you enjoy it great. If not...well OK, that's fair.

*I like a good Rooibos fruit infused tea or a nice mint tea should you want to buy me some.

**Truth be told every time I look at a record distro I look for their stuff, and would be more then happy to pay full price for all of it.

Song Lyric of the Day

"But sing not for their final outcome; sing a song of how they tried.
We live amidst a violent storm; leaves us unsatisfied at best,
So fill your heart with what's important, and be done with all the rest."

Courtesy of La Dispute from the album Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River

Inspiration

What inspires us is such an odd little thing. I can never completely figure out my own motivations let alone my friends. For me it tends to be the smallest things. The biggest events of my life rarely tend to inspire much in way of thought or action on my part. I tend to expeirnce them as if they are happening to someone else. It is usually some incredibly small and banial detail that I notice that causes me to really want to do something.

All of this is a long way of saying that the band Damezumari are just fucking brilliant and doing the exact kind of music that I think we need more of. The music is honest, self aware, rocking, pretty, slow, complex, simple, and oh so many more adjectives and adverbs that I don't have at the tips of my fingers.

The only thing that I know for sure is that, I must step up my playing.

The Math Rock

For as much as I love the harsh sounds of bands like Reversal of Man, Celeste, Isis, Mihai Edrisch, Torches to Rome, and other bands of that ilk, my true passion has always been for the more math rock oriented bands.

I feel a huge part of this has always had to do with their ability to change tempos and time signatures on dime, but all the while holding a grove and hook that can move you. So with that said, might I suggest the band What Price Wonderland? They are fast becoming one of my favorites. Their songs are catchy without being overly poppy. The songs are rocking without being over the top hardcore. The vocals are urgent without being shrill. In short they combine all the best elements of math rock.

A Communique From Safeguy

When I arrived at work today Safeguy gave me some really great news. The other day in my post on copyright laws I mentioned that the reason I don't listen to much major label music that most of the bands on majors that I like are broken up.

Well fear not kids we are getting a Cranberries tour and album. We can all sleep soundly.

There is actually a back to story to why he would tell me about this, but it's not all that funny and mostly involves me getting somewhat humiliated, so I think it best we not rehash it here.

On Copyrights

I stopped by one of my favorite blogs (The Dish) today, and noticed a fairly interesting discussion going on about copyright laws. The issues being discussed seem to stem mostly around the idea of fair use, and the duplication of media.

I have for the last ten years or so been on the side of more strict protection of copyright laws. A long time ago a friend got me to switch all of my computers over to Linux with this very compelling argument. "Do you really want to keep stealing software?"* Now it isn't that I was unaware of this concept, but it was something I had been doing for so long that I didn't even think about it anymore. It was simply part of my process. I started doing it when I was 12 (and certainly not thinking about fair use or copyright), and just continued doing it without a second thought.

My friends point really struck home, and got me to change the way in which I approached several other things. Most notable the way in which I consume music. Now I got out of the stealing MP3 game back when you had to long onto someone's BBS to get anything. I have never used Napster, Kaza, torrents, or any other form to get music.**

Now with that said I have long been a huge fan of making tapes/cd's/play lists for people of music they have not heard. I have gotten into countless band because of this practice. If not for a bus ride to school in 1994 when a friend let me hear Sky Scrapper by Bad Religion my taste in music could have easily gone a different way.

I suppose what I wonder about is where do others draw the line. If I had to guess I am a bit more draconian in my beliefs about these types of things then most of the people I know, but it's really hard to say.

Now one last thing I want to address real quick. I saw a few people trying to make the argument that the reason people pirate so often is the price. While I feel that is true with really expensive pieces of software and DVD box sets, I don't feel it's true with music. I am not sure what the average cost of a CD is anymore, but the average LP tends to run me about 12 bucks for a single LP and around 15-18 bucks for a double LP.*** Does anyone really believe these prices are super out of line. Is 99 cents really to much to pay for a single song? How much do people think these things should cost? They sure as hell shouldn't be free. That was someone's hard work and time that went into making that record. If people want to give it away for free, good on them, but I think your nuts if you expect it to be free.


*Note there a ton of technical reasons I also use Linux. It isn't a 100% altruistic love of not stealing. I am a fan of it as a technical platform first and foremost.

**I do have some music on my iPod that I have gotten off of friends computers. This was only done in cases where I was unable to buy the music on the format of my choosing. This isn't right. I just felt like full disclouser was in order.

***I talking about indie labels here. I don't really buy to much stuff on major labels. Not that it can't be good but that I simply don't know of any bands on major labels that I enjoy that are still together.