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.

On the topic of The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground & Nico were not immediately popular, in fact they were called “Disgusting” and “Terrible”. The music was folk inspired, with a spectrum of rock and dissonance. They were met with disdain, and heavy criticism.
Lou Reed and John Cale both frowned upon conforming, and would rather break away and write music the world was not ready for than adhere to what people recognized as rock. They were purposefully evocative, and frequented less savory social circles. They attacked the meaning of rock, and attempted to push it to the very boundaries it had expanded itself. Lou Reed lent the initially shocking and barrier-defining lyrics, and Cale supplied the the haunting vocals that composed multiple tracks over their history.
Andy Warhol, a pop producer supported and produced The Velvet Underground after having lost his interest and faith in painting. He wholly supported them, and was a part of the entire process of production. He found their music to be fresh, edgy, and unknown, which are arguably properties that Andy Warhol was best known for. Andy Warhol acted as the catalyst to The Velvet’s success in the long run.


The Velvet’s music was dark, and brooding. It rejected the proper way of the world and brought to light the lives of the underworld (or people who lived day to day lives). Being produced and promoted by Andy Warhol injected them with an essence of the pop scene, adding to their image a mystifying airy attitude that confounded early listeners. The style of music, and lyrical progressions went on to influence the punk generation, taking wholly from the Velvet’s total disregard for what was considered the building blocks of music.
As a listener, I find Velvet’s music rather enjoyable. It reminds me of many bands that I enjoy such as Violent Femmes. The music is accessible, haunting and discordant sometimes but that is also enjoyable. As a professional, I found the recordings to be masterfully done, able to pick out the entire assembly with ease. The vocals laid over the musical tracks like a cherry on an ice cream cone. The sound is crisp, muddy rarely and over all an enjoyable experience.

On Marvin Gaye

Prior to What's Going On, Marvin Gaye had limited success, starting off with rather lack luster stable of songs. He had a few minor successes with songs such as Ain’t no mountain high enough. His music consisted generally of duets with female singers, until Tammi Terrell's death. He went about working on What’s Going On fueled by the Vietnam war, drug abuse, and world events. Marvin ran into many issues with the label, Motown, over disagreements on album content. Motown CEO Berry Gordy did not agree with Marvin on the songs he wished to include on the album, fearing the impact of Marvin’s reputation on Motown. Due to some success he received by going against Gordy’s wishes, he decided to record What’s Going On and release it. The album departed from Motown’s known sound, and experimented with jazz and funk, and quickly shot up the charts. The album was recorded using the top session musicians known as the Funk Brothers, and was often confused with protest songs because of the nature of the lyrical content. The release of the album led to a flourishing of Soul music, and set the template for similar music to follow. As a listener, I did not enjoy the music very much, but that is solely because I am not much of a soul listener. There were a few tracks that I did enjoy, but as a whole I just did not enjoy the feel and pace of the music. As a professional, however, I acknowledge the quality and production value of the album and Marvin’s skill in producing a solid record. I respect the effort and soul Marvin put into producing the album, and can hear his distinct ‘touch’ on the sonic quality it has. As a professional I enjoy the quality of What’s Going On.

On Revolver

Prior to the recording of Revolver, the Beatles had a solid sound. However, they had not had that band-defining break through moment. As their relationship with their producer George Martin, and his awareness of the sound of different studios grew, so did their sound and potential. With Martin selecting studios based on their own sounds, and utilizing things such as a doubled string quartet to fill the sound, the roof was no longer high enough. In particular, the song "Tomorrow Never Knows" which is known for using processed vocals, looped tape effects and reverse guitar. The song Tomorrow Never Knows was inspired the Timothy Leary book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead, while the title was developed by Ringo Star.

On Pet Sounds

Until the Beach Boys went in a different direction with Pet Sounds, they had a happy mythical fun-in-the-sun sound. The music was solid, and their harmonies defined the sound of the era. This was largely due to Brian Wilson, who directed their musical path. He co-wrote or wrote many of their songs, hired session musicians, and produced the music with a heavy hand. Pet Sounds was a direct response to the Beatles` Rubber Soul. The Beach Boys utilized the Wrecking Crew session musicians, which propelled the album music forward. They also focused heavily on Brian's song writing and studio precision to set themselves apart. As an industry professional, listening to Pet Sounds, I often wish I had been able to participate in the era of recording. While recording quality is obviously not up to todays standards, I feel the production value is greater. I often find myself not caring that it is not as sharp or distinct as modern recordings.

On the topic of myself

I am a student at Full Sail University, studying within the Recording Arts Bachelors track. This blog was create for the Music History 2 course, which I am currently in. I work regularly in the live sound industry both subcontracted and freelance.

My musical tastes are varied, but are rooted heavily in the early 1900's through the 80's. Everything from Benny Goodman, Pink Floyd to R.E.M. can be found in my collection either on Vinyl or Disc. I intend on eventually working in Game Audio as a career, being it is the reason I changed from Gave Development when I enrolled, but the work I have found and the contacts I have made are mostly in the live sound industry.