Advanced Session Recording

I chose albini mostly because of my enjoyment of one particular recording, that of Where is my Mind, by the pixies. The recording and sound of this song is so pleasing, that I partially must assume that Albini (despite what I have heard about his personality) is the engineer/producer that I prefer. I also chose him because he has an interesting past, and kind of grew into the recording scene.

Thank you for listening, now go listen to some Steve Albini music!

I did use wikipedia as a reference, however, I also used wikipedia's cited references directly.

http://inmyroom.org/writing/albini.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Steve_Albini%27s_recording_projects
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Albini

Podcast Project #2

Here is a link to the mp3 file hosted on my server.

On my peer's blog posts

I have actually returned to your blog to comment again because I was so impressed by the previous entry I had commented on. And I must say you have impressed me again. While I am not a personal fan of the Telecaster, I still can appreciate its adaptability and tone. I totally agree that the telecaster had played a crucial role in the evolution of “that guitar tone” and its wide use is purely evident of such. Again your writing is clear, and demonstrates your mastery of critical and descriptive writing styles. If this were to be a blog you continued to write after this course, I would continue to read it regularly.

On Joan Jett

Joan Jett, born Joan Marie Larkin, is an American musician, actress and songwriter best known for her group Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. She didn’t release music under the stage name Joan Jett until 1980, with her self-titled album.

Arguable, Joan Jett has had a very large impact on pop, rock, and modern punk music. The stand that Joan Jett made as a woman opened avenues for future artists to pursue. Joan pursued an intimate, yet powerful and climactic musical style that combined raw punk power with popular melodic structures and feelings. Common lyrical topics consisted of dealing with the world’s issues as a youth looking to make changes. She also covers topics such as Love, authenticity, struggles for resolution and middle class America.

Joan Jett arguably made it possible for later acts to come to fruition, as previously mentioned, opening a pathway for a genre of female power rock/pop to hit the masses. This is evident with musicians such as Avril Lavigne, popular in the early 2000’s who filled a similar niche. Avril Lavigne is a musician I would deem comparable to Joan Jett in a sense that Avril was the 2000’s answer to Joan’s powerful and emotional music of the 80’s. She may have quite possibly never seen much popularity without Joan’s previous effects on the industry,

Another comparable example would be The Pretty Reckless fronted by Taylor Momsen, a recent rock act similar to Evanescense. Again, I feel that this group was made possible by Joan’s actions. Female fronted harder rock bands were jump started by her production and now-famous attitude. Joan didn’t have to reinvent rock, all she had to do was give her own style of furious eye-opening music a chance in the star light.

As a listener I find Joan Jetts music on the top of my playlist and often listen to her older pre-re-master songs. The music is very well produced, had a great one and was mixed spectacularly well; especially for the genre it resided in (Which was not necessarily known for its sonic qualities). As a professional my opinions lie much in the same court, the mix and production was superb. One of the most fascinating things I have found is that she has continued to produce and support her role even to this day in both film and music. She has collaborated with new musicians and even allowed her music to evolve and merge with other genres.

On my colleagues's writing

Eduardo Lopez's Blog

Your coverage of the advancement of Moog’s work is spotless. From the birth of an idea to the founding of an empire. Without Moog’s influence, no single genre of music would be what it is now. Your’ writing is impeccable, detailed, and conveys the history very well. I honestly could provide no criticism, as you seem to have the details and the writing skill. Moog’s recent death in 2005 was a world-wide shocker, and many people mourned the passing of such a great man who had come to shape the worlds sound. He is, and will be missed, and will go down in the history books as a defining factor in human expression.

On Kraftwerk

Kraftwerk (German for Power Plant) rules the 70’s and early 80’s with their very distinctive, revolutionary sound that would come to shape the world of electronic music. Their music was initially simple, utilizing the tools they had to their then-limited potential. But with the advances in technology, Kraftwerk followed. Their music was often themed, and their albums bordered on the electronic version of a rock opera. Often containing one arching theme presiding over the rest of the content.
The release of Autobahn in 1974 began the evolution of Kraftwerk towards a more modern, solid, disciplined sound. The addition of the minimoog synthesizers to their repertoire aided this progressive change. In 1975, they received financial support from Phonogram, and this allowed them to tour promoting Autobahn. On this tour, the group began making other changes as well. The use of Schneider’s flute diminished, and they began using vocoded vocals on stage. With the end of the Autobahn tour, the group decided to begin work on a new album, with a centralized theme, based around the groups shared interest in radio communication. Radio-Activity was released, followed by Trans-Europe-express and The Man-Machine. Their album Computer World brought them finally into the 80’s.
Kraftwerk’s advances, and wide acceptance gave electronic music a foot hold to grow from. The song format, repetitive vocals and driving rhythms helped bring electronic music to the forefront of the world’s eye, and much like the music itself, they evolved.
As a listener, I find Kraftwerk enjoyable and entrancing. Although I consider it “cheesy” compared to more modern music, I still find some gems that I will add to my usual play lists. Professionally I find the music masterfully done, and the recordings top notch. This is another era of music that I would have loved to have taken part in.

On other bloggers

My comment on Danielle's Blog

Your post is excellently written, and you wonderfully describe how I feel about Revolver myself. The effect drugs had on the Beatles in this center point of their career was obvious, and in some ways, beautiful. One thing I must comment on, however, is that ADT stands for Automatic Double Tracking, rather than taping. But I wouldn’t worry, as the meaning is still conveyed accurately. While listening to the album and putting my professional ego in a box I found the music to be wonderfully unclean. The sound of old studio technique is something that has been lost in the modern era. Even as a professional, I find myself wishing I could have worked alongside Emerick in the days of the Beatles.