The first Community Listening Project of the Fall 2008 season was held on October 17, 2008.  With much anticipation, twenty people, including four new participants, showed up armed with music and stories.  During our meeting, the themes of “anticipation” and “nostalgia” showed up everywhere. These days, whether we are looking into the past or into the future, maybe we are all looking for resolve–fighting for a seat in the game of musical chairs.  Whichever direction you are looking, it was a great to participate in the present with all of you.  Thanks so much for showing up and sharing your music and stories.

PRESENTER: Jim
ARTIST: Toots & the Maytals
SONG: “Take Me Home”
TALK: music on television-My Name is Earl-El Camino-”driving a low rider into the sunset”-ska-rocksteady-American soul-CLP anticipation-Jim has “been waiting all summer to play this song.”

PRESENTER: Arianna
ARTIST: Tim Grimm
TRACK: “Coyote’s Dream”
TALK: Local farmer’s market-Americana-environmentalism-Jason Wilbur-John Prine-”a long stretch of roads”-”rainy days”-sound as cinematic-coyotes.

PRESENTER: Jenna
ARTIST: Tori Amos
TRACK: “Silent All These Years”
TALK: Tori as a tool to connect with the opposite sex-”reeled in to Tori by the ladies”-”taking control of the noise”-Bonnie & Clyde-Nirvana-music as background-music as companion-”Y Kant Tori Read.”

PRESENTER: Edyta
ARTIST: The Postal Service
TRACK: “The District Sleeps Alone”
TALK: Dissatisfaction in Baltimore-friends-wine and music-back porch listening-awful employment experiences-music as therapy.

PRESENTER: Eric
ARTIST: Aphex Twin (Richard D. James)
TRACK: “4″
TALK: Music marking time-nostalgia-junior year in college-the unfamiliar-the familiar-record store purchase-scenesters-”…a vantage point into enjoying music”-gateway drug-IU school of music-body movement-trailing the rhythm-paradiddle-groove.

PRESENTER: Kristy
ARTIST: Kristiana Willsey
TRACK: “Honeybee”
TALK: no introduction-anticipation of author-presenter as author-lyrics-song writing-Scott and Sara-”how long is too long?”-recording-mixing-production-anticipation of feedback-song duration.

PRESENTER: Michael
ARTIST: StereoLab
TRACK: “Neon Beanbag”
TALK: Musical elements: trying to keep up with the rhythm-anticipation-”slow with intricacies”-”Fast fifths with slow beat”-’70′s-’80′s-Band description: no room for variations-analog instrumentation vs. digital instrumentation.

PRESENTER: Thomas
ARTIST: Jay Ungar
TRACK: “Ashokan Farewell”
TALK: “I don’t mean to be all academic on a Friday night but…”-music and nostalgia-musical materials for historical usage-”Does this really suggest nostalgia?”-”Why is this so sad?”-Civil war-waltzy-”sounds like music from the deck of the titanic”-soundtracking-traditional fiddle music-”Why is violin so sad?”-note duration creates anticipation-”sadness hiding behind a smile”-”attractive misery”-sentimentality-Jim’s “old Kentucky home.”

PRESENTER: Jennifer
ARTIST: Shigeru Umebayashi
TRACK: “2046″ Main Theme – Umebayashi, Shigeru
TALK: Longing and love-”like love-sad but not so sad”-music and film-Hitchcock-train travel-time travel-nostalgia and pleasure-music as wallpaper-”retreat to my memory”-forebodings.

PRESENTER: Chris           
ARTIST: Medeski, Martin, and Wood
TRACK: “Where’s the Music?”
TALK: anticipation-kids-music soothes the savage beast-controlling behavior-musical chairs-kids music vs. adult music?-power-family-children’s music-summer-New York City-family-friends.

PRESENTER: Bret
ARTIST: So
TRACK: “b”
TALK: “Sounds like the end of something”-somber-Fall-”rhythm-less”-lost-leaves on the ground-rain-breeze-”leaves all shuffled around making sense of where they are being pushed”-nature-nature associated with artificial sounds-Bret “laying it all out”-”an Eclectic struggle to hear the melody.”

http://archgfx.net/blog/2006/geek/blogging/social-bookmarks-on-wordpresscom

As mentioned in the last post, an important part of this project is to explore how we talk about music. In addition, it is also important to discuss how we listen to music. The comments section of last week’s post provided some really interesting conversation. In particular, Karen wrote:

On one side of this dichotomy, I argue, is the experience of music (and life) through the mind. On the other is the experience of music (and life) through the body. And I believe that we in the West (Western ethnomusicologists included and academics in particular) generally favor experiencing life through the mind.

In response to this comment, I would like to point you towards the video posted above. It is called “Evelyn Glennie: How To Listen to Music With Your Whole Body.”

In this soaring demonstration, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie leads the audience through an exploration of music not as notes on a page, but as an expression of the human experience. Playing with sensitivity and nuance informed by a soul-deep understanding of and connection to music, she talks about a music that is more than sound waves perceived by the human ear. She illustrates a richer picture that begins with listening to yourself, and includes emotion and intent as well as the complex role of physical spaces — instrument, concert hall and even the bones and body cavities of musician and listener alike.

If you have time, please watch the video and share your thoughts.

I used to be fun at parties, but those days are gone.

It was a cold New Year’s New York City Eve in 2007. I was riding the rails from Brooklyn to Queens to celebrate with friends. The subway was crowded with dressed up strangers who were going to the same place, but in a different location. I hung both my hands on a strap and stood my ground and read the black marker commentary written on top of the advertisements. The windows were etched with the graffiti tags that I don’t understand. The placards above reminded me that “if I see something” I should “say something.”

It was good to be home.

The party served up a mix of hipsters, artists, educators, graduate students, thespians, pretentious assholes, writers, graphic designers, and filmmakers. They were young adults chasing their dreams while wrestling the harness of credit card debt, procreation, and some lady named Sallie Mae. They were young people that have not given into the suburbs–not yet. They like to talk, drink, smoke cigarettes, dance, smoke marijuana, and most importantly, they like to laugh. It is these eclectic drug fueled gatherings that empowers their urban dwelling. The conversations are in the deep end but remain on the surface.

In New York people don’t necessarily “talk to each other” they “talk to top each other.” This occurs in a variety of ways. One which I particularly enjoy is called “playing the dozens” or “banter.” Someone starts a thread of conversation and the group riffs off of it. Belly laughs are usually the end goal. It is a game of wit. Carried out correctly, the conversation can push the boundaries of a subject like John Coltrane pushing the boundaries of “My Favorite Things.”

As midnight approached, I found myself in a circle of several semi-intoxicated friends. The banter was flowing. Suddenly, I was interrupted by an Armenian musician who wanted to know about ethnomusicology. So, I abandoned “the banter” and shifted gears to talk to (this is the moment where I became the pretentious asshole at the party) the first person I have met who could pronounce the word ethnomusicology. I felt myself talking with my hands, rolling my eyes into my head and using words like problematic, polyphony, meta-language, intertextual, genre, classification, communitas, contextual, detextualize, social construction, folkloristic, and diasporic. It was like I was in a trance. My friends and Queens colleagues rolled their eyes at me and cleared the room as I dropped jargon like a hammer. In the empty kitchen, with my jargon, my confused and bored audience of one, I became the terrorist of fun.

This jargonization when talking about music is something that has been happening at these music listening groups since their inception. It is not unique to the transient “Hoosieratti” of Indiana. Back in Boston, there were some people who just loved to deconstruct the music put in front of them. Meanwhile, there were those who found this analysis offended their sensibilities; it sucked the life out of the experience. This worked both ways. It took people out of the conversation and experience. These two sensibilities went to war.

At the past few Community Listening Project happenings I have paid particular attention to this phenomenon. There have been references to modulation while listening to Sheena Easton’s “My Baby Takes the Morning Train.” The term duple-meter has been applied to a Metallica song. Sometimes, it is not only jargon but theoretical analysis that moves the conversation towards the cerebral. For example, while discussing an Elvis Costello cover of a Beach Boys song, a discussion ensued about Costello’s hidden agenda in aligning himself with the Beach Boys and the pop music elite. In these situations, I have seen the same rolling eyes and mutters of frustration that I saw in Boston and witnessed in that Queens apartment which I terrorized.

I would like to emphasize that there is nothing wrong with either of these approaches. While at the same time, it makes me wonder…

Are we lecturing or communicating? Who are we talking to? Are we aware of whom we are talking to in a group setting? What, if any, are the motivations of our comments? How do we meet in the middle when communicating? Are we aware of our audience? Are we just “playing the dozens?” Are we riffing off of each other? Are we talking to top each other?

Are we the terrorists of fun?

Session 3: October 11, 2007

1. Song: I Can’t Be Trusted
   Artist: Holly Golightly
   Album: Unknown
   Presenter: Jeremy

2. Song: Angry All the Time
   Artist: Bruce Robison (feat. Kelly Willis)
   Album: Self Titled
   Presenter: Jim S.

3. Song: “I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight”
   Artist: Jerry Jeff Walker
   Album:
   Presenter: Rebecca

4. Song: “Dog Problems”
   Artist: The Format
   Album: Dog Problems
   Presenter: Elise

5. Song: “Someone to Share My Life With”
   Artist: Jens Lekman
   Album: Oh You’re So Silent Jens
   Presenter: Kristy

6. Song:  “I will Survive”
   Artist: Gloria Gaynor
   Album: There are many versions
   Presenter: Maria

7. Song: “No I’m Not Crying”
   Artist: The Flight of the Concords
   Album: from the television show The Flight of the Concords
   Presenter: Arianna

8. Song: Hard Way To Fall
   Artist: Ryan Adams
   Album: Jacksonville City Nights
   Presenter: Aaron and Selina

9. Song: I We Had Our Time Again
   Artist: John Hartford
   Album: Live from Mountain Stage
   Presenter: Thomas

10. Song: The Name of This Thing Is Not Love
    Artist: Elvis Costello
    Album: The Delivery Man
    Presenter: Chris

11. Song: Hanging by a Thread
    Artist: Nickel Creek
    Album: This Side
    Presenter: Grace

12. Song: Life in a Glasshouse
    Artist: Radiohead
    Album: Amnesiac
    Presenter: Alec

Dear Friends of the Community Listening Project,

Our illustrious Master of Ceremonies, Chris Mulé, has given me the honor of selecting the theme and writing up the invitation for this week’s meeting.  What is that theme, you ask?  . . . Wait for it . . . Wait for it . . . Drum roll please . . . BREAK-UP SONGS!

Now before you decide to revert to Plan B for your Thursday night plans, hear me out on this.  My idea was inspired by a recent episode (08/27/07) of the NPR show “This American Life” in which one of the segments is devoted solely to a fascinating analysis of break-up songs.  TAL contributor Starlee Kine, who has recently suffered a break-up herself, sets out to with a little bit of humor to understand what makes break-up songs work and, more importantly, what makes them feel so good when you feel so bad.  In search of catharsis, she decides to write a break-up song herself even though she has no songwriting abilities whatsoever.  So she does what any one of us would do if we found ourselves in a similar situation: She turns to Phil Collins for help.  Yes, /that/ Phil Collins.  As you might expect, what results is a darkly amusing deconstruction of the music genre we all hate to love.

If you’re interested in checking out this episode of “This American Life,” you can hear the entire show for free by clicking here.

So, back to the CLP.  Surely you have a favorite sappy, emo-esque break-up song that you’d like to share with the rest of the group when we meet this Thursday.  We promise that the evening won’t be maudlin and melancholy.  If anything, we’ll have many good laughs as we cry out into the cold, dark night, “I wanna know what love is!  I want you to show me! . . .”

So bring a break-up song to share, bring some munchies if you’re feeling generous, and bring yourself to Chris and Gabi’s house at 8:00 p.m. this Thursday night.  Don’t stay home and organize your sock drawer.

Your perpetually lovelorn pal,
Jim “If You Don’t Know Me By Now, You Will Never Never Never Know Me, Oooooooh” Seaver

Some folks spend their Thursday evenings catching up with friends, watching the T.V., driving while intoxicated, or talking on the phone.  At the second installment of “The Community Listening Project” we listened to metal; over twenty minutes of it.  This wasn’t your grandmother’s Metallica.  It was heavy metal from South Carolina (see above), it was heavy metal fused with Bach, and it was awesome.  There was so much more music played, and more importantly, some great stories surrounding them.  It would be foolish of me to think that I could tell those stories better than you all did.  Please comment on what you played…it’s so easy.

The first session of the group formerly known as “The Bloomington Music Club” took place on September 13, 2007.  The T.V. has taught me that conflict and controversy bring ratings.  So I sent out an email with “instructions” about sign up sheets. People had a lot to say about how “community building” and “tyrants” do not mix? I absolutely agree. This just proved how much people care about these gatherings.  I promise not to suck the life out of these sessions.  Please understand that I am just trying to get the most out of our time together.  Therefore, I say thank you for the feedback and please keep it coming.   We had around 22 participants and we played 10 songs.  Please add comments about what you played and what you heard.  Just as important as the music played are those who it resonated with.  What did you hear?  What did you play?  What didn’t you get a chance to play?  Why did you come? I will start it off, because I am a tyrant…see my comment below.