I tried... and yeah (aka el chronical de Nick)

"today nothing is real, boxing matches, music is replaced by technology, some bands don't even write those."
-mcguffin/rogers

Well first off I have to admit I like to record in the most minimalistic ways possible. I have a tascam tape recorder, which may have been my father's from the 80's. And also there is a free computer program called audacity, and it is a multi-track recording program. I think the rawness of music, shows the truth and talent. Lo-Fi is really an amazing and under-rated form of art. (see roberts blog about technology) this is where music is going to be like the book 1984. Few people will be making music, though many models will be playing the "rock-stars". MTV= Big Brother. If you can write a song make the music and do that. Respect for you.
Its all a matter of personal preference, artisitic integrity and what ever motivates thyself.
Things change, popculture repeats itself. Well if the time's are a'changing who knows what the future holds though, pessimism fills me, but whatever.

Technology and music {Robert(a)'s post}

Roberta- In the world of music today, there are three types of musicians. The first type of musician is the naturally talented, well rehearsed musician. This type of musician may be called old fashioned or simple. They are very good at composing/performing music live and are usually equiped with lessons, as well as somewhat of a natural ability to learn the music easier than most. The second type of musician is the digital musician. These people are incredibly talented with computers and technology. They are able to make themselves sound extremely talented, even though they may not be, by editing the recorded music and possibly using an autotuner to perfect the pitch of every sound. The third type of musician is well abled in both categories. A great way to desipher between this type of musician and the digital musician is to listen to vocal effects. Typically, the digital musician will have some type of vocal effect that will occasionally sound somewhat robotic. This, however is a tough call due to the fact that many multi-talented composers are experimenting with vocoders in order to achieve a new, unheard of sound.

"Long live the tape player."
-Nicholas Danger Rogers

Favorite guitar technices

MKLANE

So, me.. Being the metal head I am. There are a few technices that i like to use when i play. The main ones are pinch harmonices and sweep picking.

Pinch Harmonics is playing a note and giving it a "squeel" sound. It's used mainly at the end of riffs and before the next riff in a song. How you do this is with your picking hand. Most people play with the pick slightly slanted while picking or strumming. In order to do this technice you must keep the pick parrallel with your thumb lowered on the pick. Then when you pick your thumb will gently brush the string RIGHT after the pick has hit the string. This is a very hard technique to master but once you do it sounds very good.

The sweep picking technique is a way to "shred". Bands such as the human abstract and solo artists like Yngwie Malmsteen use this sound. basicly what you do is create a chord (typically a bar chord). You finger each note and pick each individual one and beggin to pick up spead until you are able to do this quickly. Once you are able to move your finguring hand quickly you should be able to move to different bar chords. The motion you begin to have with your picking hand is similar to a sweep motion going up and down the strings. It's not a strum but more like a sweep. Now. After you get this down. YOu have to be able to mute each individual string right after you play it by releasing pressure off your fingure to deaden the note. If you don't then each note will bleed together.

Is Rap The New Rock?

N- I see many ways that rap could be considered the next Rock and Roll. I have heard much talk on this comparing. Personally I think rock will never die, but rap is quite popular, in its own way. I see how modern rap is as hedonistic amd indulgent as rock in the 80's. 80's rock was popular and all about being the biggest, big hair, big sound all of that. Rap these days is almost the same, except the tight spandex are very loose jeans or something like that. Bling and getting money all of that good stuff. Sex, drugs and modern rap, eh?

M- In some ways i believe that Rock will always be rock and will never be changed. Rock will always be popular. But, for many years since rock came around it was the leading genra of music for a long time and in my opinion it still is. But, with all the Rap atists and Hip-hop singers out now. I think it is easily possible that Rap/hip-hop could become more popular with it's growth in the music world. I personaly would not like to see this happen because not that the music behind some of their music they produce isn't bad but it's mainly the lyrics that i dislike. Mainly the rap. I don't mind the hip-hop because many of those artists can actually sing. But, I hope that none of the Rap artist get big because personaly i believe that they don't deserve it... Mheh.. Blah.. Roar... yup.. the end.

Roberta Jackson- Ok...whew...here we go: upon hearing and trying desperately to comprehend the question, "is rap the new rock?", I have come to the conclusion that it is purely ignorant. If having to do with popularity, the answer lies in racial biasness. There are certain races that I will not name in order to avoid complication, that will only listen to certain types of music it seems. As far as rap being the next rock, what exactly do you want to know? Are you asking if rap is as popular or even more so than rock? In order to give you a clear answer, I must first recieve a question that is not so vague. There are many components associated with your question. So, are you asking about popularity? Are you asking about which will outlast the other? Or, are you asking if I am going to start seeing posters of Kanye West with a mohawk and tight leather pants? The power is yours. It's morphin' time. Peace. All those who are wanting to know...Matt...Nick...others...not especially Doc....

We're not webster or merriam...

but we define a cover song as another band replicating a song made by another band or artist, sometimes it will be an attempt at an exact copy, other times the coverers will take the song in a new artistic direction.

EXAMPLES:
Run-D.M.C.'s cover of Aerosmith's Walk This Way
Johnny Cash's reworking of Nine Inch Nails's Hurt
Devo doing The Rolling Stones "I Can't Get No Satisfaction"
I guess Mark Wood covered Hendrix, the Beatles, and many others

it's cool man, i'm just barrowing, not stealing.

M.K. Lane - So Apparently covering a song these days is pretty popular. Artists such as Madonna covering American Pie or Britney Spears covering I love Rock'n'Roll can be opinionated into a good or bad thing. I personaly think that it is ok to cover a song live, but i do not think that it is right to put it on a CD, even if credit is givin to the orginal artist. I believe it is their song and they have every right to it and that it should not be used as a filler to create a full length CD. Not to discredit Madonna or any other artist who has covered a song and put it on a CD, I believe they are talented but I do not think that that song belongs on their CD. If you play the song live then it's only a one time thing and giving credit to the orginal composer is needed. I think that playing a song live shows respect to the creater and showing them that they enjoy playing their song and that it is still a hit among the people. But, putting it on a CD can make people think that it was written by artist and not the orginal artists. It can be deceiving. I know for me I was like oh wow that alian ant farm song is cool, ooh yea smooth criminal..thats a good song, then I found out it was a cover by Michael Jackson. And, it just didn't seem as cool to me anymore. Not because it was by Michael Jackson but because i thought that they had written it. But, if i ended up going to an AAF concert and they randomly started to play this song, i bet the crowed would go crazy.

N.D. Rogers- Cover songs... not gonna lie, generally I like them. Not so much a like but at first listen they interest me. I like it when a band does a song completely out of their style for covers the best. As enjoyable as cover songs are, it disappoints me when the cover becomes the bands hit song. That tells me, "as a band we make awful songs, but we can make an enjoyable cover." Cover/Tribute bands are another thing i have a problem respecting. Yes you can play instruments, but you're no better than those guys in Las Vegas who dress up like Elvis. But cover songs do have their secondary benefits, if a popular band covers a lesser know artist work, more people may check out the original. That tends to be a good thing.

Roberta McNershA- About those covers...um...well I generally am just neutral about it. As long as the origional writers are given credit, I think it is ok. I don't have very strong opinions on the topic but, it is totally cool as long as the origional band gets credit. I have covered a few songs myself and it is a good way to find your own sound when you are a musician. It is a great tool.

An idea that we would like too...

Bring to your attention.

Nicholas "danger" Rogers was curius to know if the class would like to have any questions or comments about we are doing in this cold little nook where we type away.

If we could have the class write down a question on a peice of paper (annonamysly) and then we would look at the questions and pick the best ones that we see and answer them to the best of our ability or see what they have to say about what we are doing.

Radio is a go go? or a no no?

Enal Ttam- I believe that the Radio industry is only alive still because of howard Stern. Actually, I don't think that. That was a joke. I think it is only alive because of people like Lil Jon' how scream YAH into a microphone. I hate to say this but i think it is going to stay a live in more urban areas due to the lack of ownership of famous artists CD's and Ipods. Urban areas are typically areas who listen to rap and/or R&B which are what most of the main radio stations are. I'm not trying to make a political map of poverty VS. radio. I just think it's an educational guess as to why it is this way. The radio stations of Downtown Kansas City are able to be heard here in the southern suberbs. So basicly, no, i do not think that the radio stations will be going away anytime soon.

Knee-co-lass Dane-jer Raw-jers- I believe that the radio will not go away, as long as it is a a free thing. However I am would assume that it will soon be all satelite. Which may make the radio a "not so free" thing anymore. Which if that does indeed happen could lead to the death of radio, though I believe that it would be a very long and slow death (30 years or more). People will always turn on the radio, if you forget your CD's or your ipod it is an adequete way to beat silence (heavens forbid people in an automobile converse). So I believe that the radio will be around for sometime longer, depending on howpeople want to play business, will depend on how much longer they want it to live.

Roberta- The radio serves many purposes in my own, personal music world...hmmm... I honestly feel like the radio is necessary in today's world, at least for me, that is. I can only stand listening to my ipod for so long, then I MUST turn on the radio to hear what is new in the industry. In my opinion, and in the wonderful land of music, the radio serves as advertisement, as well as the news. It is a great way to find out what is going on around you. If one is consumed by their own music, they will never be able to find out what they do and do not like, within the whole world of music that lay before them. I think that if and when the radio dies down in popularity or becomes less common, those who have abandoned it, will eventually see the true beauty of it and come back from time to time, and those who will have never experienced it in its entirety, will and will grow to appreciate it, as I have. I love the radio...sometimes. ;)

Recording recording reboring!!!

enal ttam- The recording buisness is going to the caputts....Basicly It is so easy these days to find many new equipment to record your own music and make it sound so good that the major recording labels are going to go down the can. To me, personally, being a huge fan of the underground music. I see no problem to this because i believe it is up to the band to get their music out there. Not the label, they are just the middle man making the music sound as good as possible on a CD. There are some labels that are needed because there is a skill in being able to mix and edit tracks and all that jazz. But, if you know how to do it yourself, it's so much more benificial to buy the few thousand dollars worth of equipment and do it yourself for much cheaper. Sure, it might take you some more time, but in the long run you will feel like you have accomplished much more and done with more benjamins in your pocket, and not in the recording labels.

Robert McGuffin- I have heard this mentioned before and then as well as now, I believe fully that the statement "The music industry is falling," is completely true. What has lead me to this conclusion is that there is simply no point in even being on a record label. Record labels take most of the money for the music that is sold, leaving the bands who actually create the music close to nothing. Today, bands are able to get famous almost without even playing a show via myspace. Pro-Tools, the industry's number one audio production program is made available to the public for as low as a couple hundred dollars. Pretty much all an artist needs to produce their own music is a computer and a recording program, with a way to upload their music to the internet. There you go. Peace.

nicholust danger rogers- well i ampart of me is somewhat convinced that the record industry is going the way of the dinosaurs, but i'm not sure. I mean, we have itunes, and the friendlyer priced limewire, but at the same time the record industry won't be an easy thing to kill. People, will stick to their traditions, and to what ever is the easyest thing to get so with out manystream record labels being buddy buddy with radio stations and MTV, what will happen? Also if the "industry" is taken out of music, does that mean that the money is gone too? This may make many things more difficult, though with all our internet, telephones, and all that it wouldn't be that difficult to talk with bands from anywhere asking them to do a show or buy one of their albums. So is the music industry/ era of great record companies going to die? Probably, but no time soon.

yes

roar?

Close your eyes!!!

Please vote for close youe eyes in the new band showcase at the cornerstone festival in Bushnull Illinois.

They are currently ranked second after slipping from first place over night.

www.cornerstonefestival.com

takes two minutes to register and vote!!!

thanks!