Quotables

Guess What Season It Is?

It's our short lived azalea season!  Time to stop and smell the flowers while there's still time.

To paraphrase Zen Master Dogen, "The blooming of a spring flower is within the realm of fire and the time of flames. These sparks and flames and all sparks and flames occur within the space and time of the blooming of a spring flower. Know that in a single spark are hundreds of thousands of spring flowers, blooming in the sky, blooming on the earth, blooming in the past, and blooming in the present. Experiencing the actual blooming of a spring flower is to experience the space and time of this fire.  Do not idly drift by this time and place of the spring flower."

Unpacking Big Ears, Part II: The Japanese

Night One, after Avey Tare, we experienced two Japanese bands, neither of which we had ever heard before. Oh boy! New discoveries!  And sandwiched as they were between two bands we knew well: Avey Tare and Mercury Rev.  The Asian filling in our musical Oreo.

The first of the two bands was called Kukangendai, and we had literally no idea of what to expect from them.  Noise rock? Punk? J-pop? New age? All that we knew is that they were from Kyoto, but they could have been anything.  Nothing, though, could have prepared us for the mutant jazz/math-rock the trio played.

The genius of the music is that while the crazy off-rhythms are initially disorienting, after a while it starts to make sense, but once you get your mind around it, they pull the rug out from under you again by adding or dropping beats and then suddenly you're back in free-fall all over again. Yet somehow, they make it all sound pleasant and fun.

We've previously noted that the brain seems to have two systems for understanding music.  One is called the veridical system and responds to sounds and melodies that are familiar and can be identified.  That warm, fuzzy feeling you get when an old familiar song you haven't heard in a while starts playing is the brain's veridical system releasing some dopamine or serotonin or whatever to reward itself for recognizing the tune.

The other system, the one Kukangendai plays to, is called the sequential system.  The sequential system responds, and by "responds" we mean releases those neurotransmitters that signal pleasure or contentment, when the brain figures out or interprets a passage or a rhythm or a melody and can process something into "music." This is often experienced as the sudden, unexpected shudder of pleasure we get when some knotty orchestration or dense jazz passage finally snaps into comprehension.  It's probably also closely related to the satisfaction we experience when we solve a puzzle or ace a quiz.

The video below provides a pretty good schematic of Kukangendai's approach to music.  At first, it sounds "off," chaotic and random, but soon a pattern emerges and once we feel comfortable enough to predict when the next beat or note is going to occur and it does, we experience the rush of endorphins from the sequential system.  We often express it as a chuckle or giggle, but sometimes it's not far from the experience that we call "mind-blowing."  But Kukangendai, to keep that rush going, alter the rhythms and beats just as soon as they become predictable, leaving us to figure out the next pattern, on and on throughout their entire set.

We don't know how they do it, or how many hours of practice it must take to get to the point where they can do a whole show like that live on stage.  Of course, the Japanese seem to have a robust tradition of math rock.  Listen to the intro portion of this 2009 performance by Zazen Boys, also from Kyoto, where the rests between the bursts of music are far, far longer than the bursts themselves.  That laughter from the audience is more from the serotonin in their brains than any humor on the stage.

Anyway, we and the rest of the Big Ears audience loved Kukangendai's performance, and over the whole rest of the weekend we were asked and heard others ask, "Did you hear that Japanese band that played after Avey Tare?"

Another approach to the sequential is through psychedelic "outer-space" music, where the mind can translate the sci-fi sounds of bleeps and bloops and random washes of noise into the elements of music, and then, once that puzzle is solved, reward itself with a hit of dopamine.  This is the approach used by the Japanese-American band Yunohana Variations.

Yunohana Variations are an improv supergroup of sorts, consisting of drummer YoshimiO of OOIOO and the mighty Boredoms, the avant-garde percussionist Susie Ibarra, and artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, who performs as Lichens.   Parts of their set could have served as the soundtrack for a science fiction space opera, while others parts sounded like Sun Ra-meets-Elvin Jones, as evident from these two short clips we recorded of their set.

There was a lot of unity to this trio that held the band and the sound together like covalent bonds. YoshimiO and Ibarra were obvious compliments to each other on their twin drum sets. One of the audience's favorite moments in the set was when YoshimiO realized she didn't have a bean-bag shaker, and Ibarra tossed her a spare from one drum kit to the other, perfectly timed and aimed to land right in YoshimiO's hands at the exact moment it was needed.

But in addition to sharing percussion duties with Ibarra, YoshimiO also shared vocals duties with Lowe and each fed off each other beautifully.  Finally, Lowe and Iberra shared the electronic effects,  thus closing the loop and completing the triangle.  No one did anything solo and everything was a group collaboration. Each member was listening to the others and then playing something that augmented what the others were doing.

Here's a longer (and better) video from a year ago that should give you a pretty good idea of how this all comes together in performance.

This set was pretty much what we expected, knowing what we did about the performers, and while it wasn't as unexpected as Kukangendai (of whom we knew nothing) it was no less amazing.  

So, the first three sets for us at Big Ears 2019 consisted on a dreamy, laid-back set of songs by Avey Tare, followed by two innovative sets by Japanese and Japanese-American innovators that both blew our minds (in a sequential way, of course). And we still had Mercury Rev to look forward to.

Meanwhile In Sparta

We're now 178 hours and 56 minutes into Assassin's Creed Odyssey and at Level 58 (in a game we had thought only went up to Level 50), and earlier this week we thought that we had actually completed the game.  One of the main storylines in the game involves your character, the misthios (mercenary), trying to reunite their family during the ravages of the Peloponnesian War. We finally accomplished that the other night, followed by a homey scene in which our now-reunited family (mother, father, son, and daughter) finally has a meal together in their old ancestral homestead.  That was followed by a quick quest where we meet up with Socrates (who became an  ally/mentor earlier in the game for some reason) and we waxed philosophical on whether or not it was all worth it (is the loss of lives of a few worth the benefit to the many?), and even visited a graveyard to reflect on some of the colleagues we had lost in the course of the game.

That seemed like an apt and even slightly poetic ending to the game, but as it turns out that was only the end of one of several "odysseys" you play in the game.  We still have yet to complete The Hunt for the Cult of Cosmos, and we still have at least one major mythological beast to slay to complete Between Two Worlds, a somewhat convoluted storyline about Archimedes and Atlantis and, well, slaying mythological beasts (don't ask).  There might be more odysseys still in the works, and there's still a lot of undiscovered islands and mainland locales to be explored.  It's going to be well over 200 hours before we get through this game.

It's too early to think about what we're going to play next.  We like to play one game at a time - sort of like reading a novel, where you don't read a chapter of one book and then skip to a chapter of another.  We've been told (check out the comments to prior posts) and confirmed on line that the game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a difficult game and a real challenge, and frankly we have our doubts about whether we have the patience and skill to learn the difficult fighting techniques apparently necessary to thrive in the game.  Ideally, the designers of a game should make it difficult enough to provide a modicum of challenge and give you a sense of accomplishment when you defeat a boss baddie, but not so difficult that it becomes tedious and frustrating.  In other words, it's okay if your character dies one or twice in game during a battle, but not 10 times.  The designers of Sekiro may have overestimated the skill and patience of this old player.

What else?  We've seen trailers that indicate Borderlands 3 will be coming out soon - that should be good, mindless fun.  We loved Borderlands 2 and miss Tiny Tina.  Also, rumor has it that the wild-west game Red Dead Redemption 2 might be coming to PC later this year, so that's something to look forward to.

But we're pretty sure that we know what's on deck to play next.  The other night, we took advantage of a promotion and downloaded a free copy of the 2002 game Morrowind: The Elder Scrolls III.  It's a bit dated, 17 years is an eternity in game time, but having completed Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V, it's kind of a "must-play."  Again, going back to the literary analogy, it's kind of like reading an earlier novel in an espionage series that you've enjoyed, and after completing TES: III and TES: V, it also almost assures that at some point we'll be playing Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls IV.

However, we don't think we'll ever go back any earlier than TES III; anything  released earlier than Y2K is hopelessly outdated and may not even run on today's computers.  It's kind of like if the earliest novels in that espionage series were still on papyrus, in Latin, and located somewhere on the bottom of the Dead Sea.  Not gonna happen.

Anyway, the Games Desk was quiet for a while and their patience was rewarded with this little post.  We'll be back to unpacking Big Ears again shortly.

Unpacking Big Ears, Part 1: Avey Tare

The Big Ears festival, in addition to being a terrific fan experience and just plain fun, was also an education in new music and art.  There were many new discoveries and it's going to take us a while to unpack and process everything we heard and saw. 

It was the 10-year anniversary of the festival and the biggest yet.  It was only our second year, but it seemed like the lines were longer than last year, the venues more crowded, and more events were full and operating on a "one in, one out" basis.  Success is a good thing, but it's also a little disturbing to see our little secret get so busy.

We're not going to recap the festival on a set-by-set basis, but there's no place to start like at the beginning, so our first post in this unpacking will begin with our first set of the festival, Avey Tare's 7:00 p.m. set at The Mill & Mine on Thursday night.

Actually, our original plan was to see Roomful of Teeth during that time slot and catch Avey Tare later, but for some I'm sure very necessary and appropriate reason, the festival rescheduled Avey to an earlier hour and in direct conflict with Roomful of Teeth.  The good news was (and this is one of the many nice features of Big Ears), Roomful of Teeth were scheduled to play other sets later in the weekend, giving us other chances to experience them so we opted for Avey's show as our opening set instead.

Not that we haven't seen Avey Tare before. A founding and constant member of the band Animal Collective, we saw Avey just last summer with his band-mate Panda Bear when they performed their 2004 album Sung Tongs in its entirety at Symphony Hall, in addition to numerous Animal Collective shows over the years.  But the restless members of the Collective are always doing new and interesting things, and Avey has a new solo record that came out just last weekend during the Big Ears festival, so we were looking forward to seeing and hearing what he was up to lately.

Avey will be touring in support of the new album, titled Cows on Hourglass Pond, starting with a set tomorrow night at The Mothlight in Asheville, Tennessee.  Avey's band for the tour will include fellow Animal Collectivist Deakin as well as drummer Jeremy Hyman, who was once in Ponytail with Dustin Wong and in Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks, and was the touring drummer for Animal Collective for a while.

But last Thursday night in Knoxville, Avey took the stage alone, solo, just an electric guitar and his voice. No light show, no projections, no visual or electronic effects, no stage banter, just Avey singing quietly, barely audible at times over his amplified guitar.  He covered songs from Cows as well as 2017's Eucalyptus, but didn't cover any Animal Collective songs.  The total effect was a little dreamy and intimate, sort of like having a friend singing some songs to you around a campfire (in fact, the songwriting was not dissimilar in many regards to Animal Collective's 2003 Campfire Songs).  While one of the hallmarks of Animal Collective shows are their creative stage sets, lighting, and electronics, without any of that Avey was still able to sustain the audience's interests.  These weren't folk songs - the guitar was electric, not acoustic - but it would not have been out of line to call it a singer-songwriter set.  Imagine the song HORS_, below, without the percussion and electronic effects and just guitar and voice.  

Big Ears by its nature is experimental and daring, a place where artists can extend themselves and try new things, and Avey Tare, ever the iconoclast, stood apart by stripping away stagecraft and electronic effects and innovation for the sake of innovation, and just played some pretty, crooning songs about horses and cows and koalas and eucalyptus.  Or maybe the tour bus broke down somewhere and the rest of the band and the lighting equipment and the special effects couldn't make it to Knoxville.  Whattya you think?

From The National Affairs Desk

According to all of the news we've been reading since the Mueller report was completed, we're supposed to be sad to learn that the President of the United States didn't collude with the Russians.

No, to find out that whatever other weaknesses and faults he has, the fact that the President isn't a treasonous felon should actually be considered good news.  We should be glad, not angry or sad. And it's normal for the President not to be a traitor - this shouldn't be confusing or disorienting to us.

In these polarized times, a great many people (including your humble narrator to be quite honest) already have pretty strong ideas about the President's guilt or innocence in this matter.  We know that he asked the Russians for assistance in finding Hillary's "lost" emails on Wikileaks - we know because we heard him ask them for help, live on television, during a debate.  What we don't know is how much - if at all - he and his campaign actively participated or at least aided and abetted in the Russian's large-scale manipulation of social media and attempts to influence the election.  Reportedly, Muller's conclusion is that he did not collude, and we have to accept the results of the 2-year investigation for what they are.

However, for whatever he might not be guilty of, plenty of his closest advisors and campaign managers have by now been arrested if not already in jail.  The Muller report did not exonerate the President from obstruction of justice, but left that decision to the Attorney General.  The Muller report does not exempt him from violations of the Emoluments Clause, does not clear him of financial fraud and misrepresentation, does not mean he doesn't have deep financial ties to the Russians and is thereby compromised.  It doesn't clear him of accusations of sexual assault (about which he bragged in the Access Hollywood tapes),  it doesn't tell us whether hush money paid to a porn star was or wasn't an illegal campaign contribution, and doesn't or clear up who allegedly peed on whose bed one night in the Moscow Hilton.  

The man is as crooked and dirty as any President since the Reconstruction Era.  At least he wasn't actively involved on a day-to-day basis with aiding and abetting in the Russian electoral interference.  We hope we can all agree at least that's not bad news.

Big Ears - Day Four

Not that any day at this year's Big Ears Festival was "normal," but yesterday was particularly unusual, being dominated and bookended by two long performances that demanded sustained concentration and attention by the audience, and with two of the principal composers present well over the age of 80.  Anyway, a quick rundown of who and what we saw on Sunday.

THE ROEDELIUS CELLS PRESENTED BY TIM STORY

A sound installation at the Knoxville Museum of Art (hence, the festivities at the top of the page) by Tim Story and based on the music of Hans-Joachim Roedelius (who we saw perform at The Mammal Gallery back in 2017).  Very calming and meditative, and a great opportunity to practice kinhin (walking meditation).  A good way to prepare for the performance that followed. 

THE EVER PRESENT ORCHESTRA FEATURING STEPHEN O'MALLEY AND OREN AMBARCHI PERFORMING THE WORKS OF ALVIN LUCIER

More at the Museum of Art, this time a two-hour set of various presentations of long sustained notes, sonic overtones, and phase interference, with the 87-year-old iconoclastic composer Alvin Lucier present and wearing a very cool Black Lives Matter sweatshirt.

NIK BARTSCH'S RONIN

Nik Bartsch calls his quartet's jazz fusion music "Zen Funk," which is not a bad description of the set.  An energetic pick me up at the Tennessee Theater after the austere performances at the Knoxville Museum of Art.

WADADA LEO SMITH

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith performing his 1978 LP Divine Love with original musicians Bobby Naughton and Dwight Andrews.  For reasons not apparent to the audience (at least not to us and those around us), the 60-minute show ended after about 20 minutes with no explanation.

HAROLD BUDD

This was the Harold Budd set we came to Knoxville to see.  His Friday show was fine, but it was short recitals of various pieces by different musicians.  This was an extended version (almost two hours) of his composition As Long As I Can Hold My Breath from his 2005 album, Avalon Sutra.  It was lovely, meditative, and exactly the Harold Budd experience we had wanted.  The 82-year-old Budd even took an on-stage bow at the end of the piece.

And that was the day!  Fewer acts than on previous days, but it felt just as satisfying.  Two long performances of minimalistic music that challenged the listener's attention but also rewarded that attention when given.  All at seated venues all day (our feet appreciated that).   Extra bonus points: we saw Harold Budd and Tim Story at breakfast this morning.  

And that was the festival!  It's back home today - we have cats a-waiting and miles to drive.

Big Ears - Day Three

Once again, no rest for the exhausted.  No time today for anything other than a brief recap of who we saw yesterday, Saturday, March 23, 2019, during Day Three of Big Ears.

After running all around downtown Knoxville yesterday and covering some 4.7 miles,we selected our performances today based mostly on proximity of one venue to another, and still wound up with a pretty good lineup that required a lot less energy to take in.

MEREDITH MONK VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Joyful, magical, and insightful, this is exactly the type of performance that should, in a perfect world, enjoy much wider appreciation, and is a large part of the reason that Big Ears exists and is so important to the international musical experience. (0.3 miles)

CARA-LIS COVERDALE:  PIPE ORGAN CONCERT

While interesting, Cara-Lis Coverdale's performance on the Church Street Methodist Church pipe organ didn't solve the problem of how to present the musician to the audience in that setting: she wasn't visible to most of the audience, who could only gaze at the empty pulpit and stained glass windows while she played.  Sharp-eyed readers may recognize her face as that spot of light color amidst all the oak-brown woodwork beneath the window near the center of the photograph. (1.0 mile)

LONNIE HOLLEY

Another church, another performance.  We were questioning our decision to see Lonnie Holley a second time this weekend at Big Ears, when it's generally not very hard to see him perform in his hometown of Atlanta, but we were rewarded with what was the best performance by Holley we've seen yet.  His improvisational sets always seem to be a search for, if not quite redemption than transcendence,and yesterday he achieved that transcendence and brought the audience along with him. (1.3 miles)  

CARLA BLEY TRIO

Not that age matters, but Carla Bley is now well into her 80s.  In the 1950s, she was a cigarette girl at Birdland in New York, and has been composing and performing important and groundbreaking music of her own since at least the late 60s.  In the 70s, her big band toured almost like rock stars, and we saw them play at Boston's Paradise Theater (a rock venue) and at a free show on a Sunday afternoon in Copley Square.  Now, lo these decades later, she's performing heartbreakingly intimate ballads with her trio, including her long-time partner, the exceptional bassist Steve Swallow. (1.7 miles)

THIS IS NOT THIS HEAT

Time for a change of pace, and uptown to The Mill & Mine.  This Heat was a cutting-edge British post-punk band, who now give their reunion shows the Magritte-like title, This Is Not This Heat. Quiet then loud, lyrical then dissonant, they were a great kick in the ass for a late Saturday afternoon. (2.4 miles) 

MAKAYA McCRAVEN

Modern, post-bop jazz the way it was meant to be played.  No gimmicks, no concessions to popular trends, just straight-ahead, hard-blowing jazz.  The flame is still alive as long as we have torch-bearers like the talented drummer McCraven and his sidekicks, including guitarist Jeff Parker. (2.5 miles)

SONS OF KEMET

The second set of the weekend by British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings (The Comet Is Coming was Friday night).  High energy dance music, with repetition favored over improvisation and only the faintest of similarities to "jazz."  Still, the bro-heavy audience seemed to love it.  We caught the full set, and then took the long  walk back to the hotel (3.2 miles).

Back into the frey again for us soon for the final day of the festivities.

Big Ears - Day Two

Not much time to post - barely time to eat, sleep or bathe.  But here's a quick recap of what we saw yesterday during the second day of Big Ears:

LONNIE HOLLEY

Atlanta's own Lonnie Holley, backed by the DC band The Messthetics (former members of the punk band Fugazi) at The Mill & Mine.

HAROLD BUDD

All the way across the festival area, over a mile from The Mill & Mine, we saw the legendary ambient composer Harold Budd (one of the main reasons we came this year), directing with his back to the camera on the left, and the harpist Mary Lattimore, in an Episcopal Church.

THE COMET IS COMING

All the way back to The Mill & Mine again, this time for The Comet Is Coming, one of the two bands fronted by the saxophone colossus Shabaka Hutchings performing this weekend.

ABSÎNT

All-star lineup assembled at The Standard (not far from The Mill & Mine) by Aurora Nealand, who for some reason played the whole set sitting on the floor and not visible in the photo above, and including, from left to right, guitarist David Torn, alto saxophonist Tim Berne, the top of Aurora's head in front of the posts, and guitarist Bill Frisell. Abstract-expressionist free jazz.  Afterwords, we finally ate some barbeque, our first meal since breakfast. 

PETER GREGSON

As a change of pace and to get to sit down for a while, we split the distance between The Standard/The Mill & Mine and the Episcopal Church for Bach's Cello Suites, performed by a chamber ensemble fronted by British cellist Peter Gregson.

ROOMFUL OF TEETH

Still the same seated venue as before (the fabulous Tennessee Theater; think The Fox in the Smokies) with the new-music vocal chorale Roomful of Teeth, performing Triptych, composed by Bryce Dessner of The National, featuring the writings of Patti Smith and Essex Hemphill and the photography of Robert Mapplethorpe. 

JLIN

Back up to The Mill & Mine again.  Despite the distance, we only stayed a short while for EDM producer Jlin, because we realized that the simultaneous set by Kara-Lis Coverdale over at The Standard was more to our liking.

KARA-LIS COVERDALE

Quieter and more melodic than before, the electronic music of Kara-Lin Coverdale was more to our liking than the dance music of Jlin.

FIRE! 

Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson is a powerhouse on the baritone, and we ended our long day at The Standard with an exhilarating set by his band Fire!.  The set was as loud and raucous as Harold Budd's earlier set was quiet and meditative.

According to the pedometer in our iPhone, we walked 4.7 miles yesterday.  It's going to be a long (and far) weekend!

Big Ears - Day One

It's Friday, but please excuse us for not posting our usual Dreaming of the Masters or New Masters, New Dreams videos, as it doesn't seem necessary nor appropriate to post any samples of the Masters, either Old or New, as we're sharing physical space with them right now, eyeball to eyeball, nostril to nostril, in the city of Knoxville, Tennessee.

To put it another way, yesterday was the first day of Big Ears 2019.

There's lots to unpack and a lot more to hear, see and do today, so let us first just state that yesterday we were delighted to run into several of the friends that we made here last year and picked up our conversations and show-going right up as if a year hadn't passed in the interim.  That, and we've already met several new fellow music fans and soon-to-be new friends - the audience at Big Ears is as diverse and singular as the music.

Here's who we did see yesterday:

AVEY TARE

Animal Collective's Avey Tare, solo, playing songs from last year's Eucalyptus and his forthcoming Cows on Hourglass Pond.

KUKANGENDAI

Crazy (fun crazy, not weird crazy) math rock from Kyoto.

YUNOHANA VARIATIONS

Collaborative project among drummers YoshimiO (The Boredoms) and Susie Ibarra with Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (Lichens) doing electronic stuff.  Improvisational jazz-rock outer-space music.

MERCURY REV

For about three months in 1998, we were totally obsessed and in love with the album Deserter's Songs by the upstate New York band Mercury Rev.  To be quite honest, we hadn't heard much from them since that time, although they did recently release a tribute album re-recording songs of the great Bobbie Gentry (Ode to Billy Joe, you know, "and then Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge").  They didn't play any of that and stuck mostly to Deserter's Songs and other older material, which is pretty much what we wanted.  Can't believe it took us 20 years to finally see them.

Bl_ANK

We closed out the night with the end of a set by the Nashville percussionist Bl_ank at the tiny Pilot Light club.  We got there late and couldn't quite figure out what was going on, although it seemed to involve him playing a solo drum set on stage and periodically running to the back of the tiny club to do something that elicited strange electronic sounds from what appeared to be a fluorescent light fixture, and then running back up on stage to drum some more.  Like we said, we got there late and didn't get the chance for any more context to the set.

Anyway, that was all Thursday evening, the first day of Big Ears 2019.  We have three full days ahead of us, and will try to post updates as we can.