Two good alba
The new Lozenge album
The new USAISAMONSTER album
Unrelated but true update: earlier this week I heard a woman who is apparently Sarah Cahill announce on what is apparently her radio show that there would be a concert of Terry Riley's music today at Mills, and that he would perform an improvisation with Fred Frith. So I went to it, mostly for that reason—I had meant to go to a concert Frith was playing two weeks ago, but the whole wrist thing sort of put a spanner in the works. The concert was good! Riley has a perfect Santa Claus beard, and he seemed very jolly, all told. With one exception—a very Feldman-influenced string quartet—all of the pieces were good (though I don't think the improv came off very well; Riley was playing a prepared piano but his style is completely different from Frith's, who was moreover able to overpower him volume-wise), and one of them, possibly because of the involvement of a choir, strongly resembled Anthony Moore's "Jam Jem Jim Jom Jum" (though the resemblance should probably go the other way, what with Moore's piece having come after Riley's). I saw Aram Shelton, late of Chicago, there as well, playing in the ensemble.
There was a drum solo in one of the pieces, which made me smile.
Also, tons of attractive women at Mills. (But of course being a musician gets you an attractiveness bonus, by me*.) One wonders: how did a women's college, formerly a seminary, set out to acquire the academically extremely odd music department it has?
Comments
on 2005-10-29 13:58:40.0, Standpipe Bridgeplate commented:
This is just to say, I have eaten the pla that were in the icebox.
and, further, on 2005-10-29 16:58:17.0, ben wolfson commented:
Do you think "White Album" is supposed to be a bilingual pun?
and, further, on 2005-10-29 20:05:33.0, Standpipe Bridgeplate commented:
More likely it acknowledges the work's frequent allusions to The Elements of Style.
and, further, on 2005-10-30 7:55:24.0, Standpipe Bridgeplate commented:
Omit needless band members, etc.