Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Dancing with the Architects

It's hard to write well about music. Translating into words what one senses with the ears is a task as elusive as "dancing about architecture", as Frank Zappa (NOT Elvis Costello) famously observed. When a good piece of music writing reaches the Underneathica HQ, deep within our prefabricated concrete coal bunker, we must take note; especially when the subject of said piece is a neglected band from decades past. Michael Keefe's article on the Sound, contemporaries of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, is well worth the visit to the online music zine PopMatters.

This week a jillion new bands will be blogged about from SXSW. I briefly considered attending, but who am I kidding? I guess I thought they might offer daycare. Among the many new groups are a few notable reunions, including Austin band Glass Eye (led by K. McCarty) and SF band Translator. I googled around and discovered that Steve Barton of Translator had a solo album last year that was well-reviewed. I also found out (through a customer review on Amazon) that Translator co-leader Robert Darlington is now a masseur in Baltimore. You can't make up stuff like that: you must trust in the truthiness of the internet. I was going to post some Translator mp3's, but my stereo and CD burner have me all frusticated. I'm sitting on a HOT SCOOP that I will share soon with you loyal readers (i.e., those of you who have read this far despite finding nothing to download). Sorry for the lack of posts lately; I've been working a lot of extra hours to save money for my trip next month to New Yawk. Plus my four year old has taken a sudden and passionate interest in playing computer games, so that ties up the home PC. I'll get back on track soon.

4 Comments:

At 3/15/2006 5:16 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've been working a lot of extra hours to save money for my trip next month to New Yawk

yay! And we're gonna see The Hold Steady, right?

 
At 3/16/2006 4:22 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

tell them the joke.

 
At 3/19/2006 11:19 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you sure it was Zappa? There's an entire page devoted to that quote, and I thought it was kind of interesting:

http://www.pacifier.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm

 
At 3/20/2006 10:36 AM , Blogger jonder said...

The website you mention is an interesting exercise in trying to track down the origin of a famous saying. The quote has been variously attributed to Zappa, Costello, John Cage, Laurie Anderson, and Martin Mull. Costello himself denies that he originated it. I am convinced that I heard it before 1983 (when it was attributed to Costello in print). I'm no fan of Zappa's music, but I think the quote is similar in character to some of his other aphorisms.

 

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