Recently, however, Artist/Composer Darren Solomen decided to test the limit and discovered that he could mix and sync up close to 20 youtube videos!  with this knowledge, he put out the call to his performer friends, requesting video clips of them performing on an instrument in a specific music key, in this case Bflat.  the endresult is a fascinating notion of asyncrhonous collaboration, “In B Flat.”

It’s 20 different videos on one page, each one a different instrument. You can start any instrument at any time, and it always comes out “right”.

“It should make a composition that’s pretty interesting,” Solomon says. “Sometimes, something comes up, and you just go, ‘Man, I could not have planned that better.’ ”

RootJam thinks this is a pretty interesting concept, and wonders about the possibility of launching multiple youtube clips in rhythmic synchronisation with each other.  with such a system, one could replace tracks at will, or re-compose their relationship to each other, providing a sort of non-realtime band, or perhaps arrangements of a specific band’s existing material.

it’s fascinating to think about music as being a component in something like a video clip, yet becoming the ‘center stage’ object when several video clips are combined.   if a large library of ‘tested’ clips were available per song, it’d be a simple matter to create many versions of the same song, and using the ‘member’ playlist privileges of a user account, these songs could be retrieved and shared with others.

in this way, youtube becomes a sort of musical instrument that just happens to provide visuals, and is yet another example of how our basic notions of media and sharing are constantly in flux these days!

-ferd

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/12/134436766/a-inventive-work-finds-harmony-in-b-flat

Photo by Trevalyan Markle.

Music is the great song of existence and it conjures forth complex visuals. One could view listening to music as taking a little journey to a psychedelic plane, without the drugs and the subsequent nasty come down. Consider music a good clean high, activating parts of the brain where pretty pictures accommodate the sounds that enter the ears.

I slipped Brindl’s second fabulous CD, Shine, into my stereo, adjusted my earphones to achieve a maximum flow of sound and I pressed play. As the sound flooded my ears and fueled my imagination I found myself transported to a sunny hillside in the middle of the time of year where Spring is transforming into Summer. The sky is blue, the clouds are wispy and I could see rabbits and dragons curling their ears and tails against the meadowy backdrop as the spirit of song gently wafted towards my from the inner recesses of my blissed-out psyche.

Shine is a languid river of beauty trickling past as you sit on this hillside. Shine is a warm breeze flowing over your sun kissed face. Shine is the sun, warm and stunning, bright and vibrant, opening you up to the possibility that someone understands your heart as much as you do and can put into lyrics exactly how you feel when you open your heart to loving yourself, fully and deeply.

Trevalyan Markle, Tenetphoto.com

Brindl’s powerful and heartfelt lyrics are showcased in this disk; the lyrics bring forth her excellent musicianship on the piano and guitar throughout all of Shine. Adding Steve Gardner on Violin (Cullen’s Hounds), guitarist Adam Roach (Jon Keigwin band) and bassist David Solari gives Shine an added depth of jazz and blues undertones that allows Brindl’s smoky-smooth voice to seduce you with a sound that is nothing but pure joy to behold.

“Mercy” open the disk with piano and violin, two instruments that seem innocent enough but when fueled by Brindl’s passionate blues/jazz vocals brings into focus the darker aspects of a relationship. “I am here” and “Rose and a Smile” shed a little joy on the lighter side of relationship.

Simplicity is the key to Brindl’s Shine. But within that simplicity comes a profound understanding of the heart. The simplicity of stark and simple music leaves us open to understand the music how we need to understand it. Brindl leaves the music open for us to determine how it should affect our lives, as all good songwriters can do with their words. Brindl’s voice brings to life the words she wants to convey. Her lilting and uplifting vocals dance and sway and take you on a ride into the clouds, to be stirred and tossed with soft femininity.

Trevalyan Markle, Tenetphoto.com

Recorded locally at A Room With a Vu studio in San Anselmo, California throughout most of 2010, Brindl has taken the words and truths that live in her heart and manifested them into a beautiful album. She bares her soul and tells you her experiences in her life, telling stories of her heart so we can all learn from her mistakes and her personal lessons on love.

Moonmama Tells It Like It Is!

Thanks again to the Fabo-Rama Daniel Rauck for taking my words and making them clean and pretty. OXOXOX

I am writing to you today in order to let you know that I want to be a writer, that I am a writer. I guess that means I also wish to have a career in writing. What the heck, I may as well apply a career for something I think I am very good at. Writing. So here I am.

I must let you know that I flunked out of college and therefore have found my own voice without the aid of institutionalized institutions. I write outside the box, as it were. I write with emotion and feeling, plus I can write about anything and make it sound professional and/or pretty. You name it, food, cars, clouds, garbage cans, and shoes, all of it I can make into words to inspire people to read about it.

My main focus and passion is writing about music and my local music scene in Marin County. In my two years as a Loud Voice for my music community, I have befriended over 100 bands and a couple of hundred musicians and industry people of all ranks. I have attended hundreds of local music gigs and taken probably well over 2,000 photos and posted them online on my 4 main blogs, on my Facebook Profile Page and Facebook “Moonmamasmusicalmusings” Fan Page. I have written dozens of reviews and stories on locals bands or their CD’s as well as their live gigs. Plus I am getting airplay for 12 Bay Area bands on a weekly radio show in Brisbane, Australia all because of two boxes of Organic Pop Tarts. I am kind of a mover and a shaker and I am working this business as a writer and photographer in order to fulfill a dream I have had to be a part of the music for over 20 years.

Writing for me has been a way to find my voice, quell my inner demons and bring my sanity to the forefront of my being. I love writing more than any other talent I have (and that does include making jam and baking cookies). I wish to make a living on this talent of mine, and I wish to try to work for you. Hence this long and drawn out story on my self-made writing career.

I am sending you 3 links to recent stories I have written on various music oriented shindigs. The first is a profile story on Jeff Pehrson, a lovely friend and also a backup singer for the band Further. The second link is my personal story on how Organic Pop Tarts have made me somewhat of an International Music Promoter in Australia. The third is a profile story on the Sonoma based band Luvplanet (I also did a review of their new disk Luvolution). I will gladly send you the text in WORD format if you wish, but the links to the stories all have photos embedded into them that I myself have taken to give you an idea of my photography skills as well.

1) http://moonmamasmusicalmusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/jeff-pehrson-fall-risk.html

2) http://moonmamasmusicalmusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/operation-pop-tart-cds-to-aussieland.html

3) http://rootjam.com/2010/10/a-note-on-peace-through-music-luvplanet

I have also attached my resume that shows all my other skills, experience and that I can actually hold down a job. Thanks for reading me and I hope to hear from you soon.

Carolyn McCoy

Luvplanet, the Sonoma County, California band with a big heart and even bigger sound reaches out to me with messages of positivity, love and some serious shredding. Their 4th album, Luvolution, makes my heart thump with every song I listen to, making me smile and move my legs to the rhythm like I just can’t sit still.

Nicole Sutton-Left
Mark McGee-Right

When I mention a BIG sound, in regards to Luvplanet, I mean that there is a depth to the music, a thickness to the sound that seems to fill me. Each of the 12 songs on Luvplanet’s new CD are so dense and juicy with layers of texture. Whether it’s Nicole Suttons soaring and powerful vocals, Mark McGee’s vocals and sweltering guitar licks, the solid back beat laid down by Scott McKenzie or Tommy Sisco’s thumping, driving bass, the result is inevitably HUGE.

The stand-out songs on Luvolution tend to be the ones that beckon the listener inside the structures of the songs so that they are encircled in sound and words that give greater understanding of what life is about. Isn’t that how it should be with music? A song should take us places within our own psyche and help us express who we are and why we are alive. At least, that’s what I think. And Luvolution, in both music and lyrics, brings me to that place in my mind where positivity thrives and understanding of the human experience is given light through song.

Tommy Sisco-Left
Scott McKenzie-Right

The opening track, “Luvolution” sets the fast and furious pace for the entire album as Mark McGee’s slicing guitar clears the way for Nicole Sutton’s soaring vocals to start to tell the story of Luvpanet, “Without Warning, it comes in and I feel alive again…”

My Favorite songs on the Album include “Forever”, “Live”, and the track “Be Myself” for it’s inspiring lyrics about creating and vowing for self-love, “All I can I do is be myself, it’s gotta be good enough, no more or less than who I am”. Its words like that that we all need to hear a lot more often.

Luvplanet’s music thrives on the cohesion within the band. Even though most of the songs are written by McGee and Sutton, bassist Tommy Sisco and drummer Scott McKenzie each bring their own style and grace to the songs, so it never feels like Luvolution has the focus on just the primary songwriters, but each member carries their respective weight. On the track “All For You”, one can hear Sisco’s bass warming us up for the mounting pleasure to come within the song. With “Virtual Life” & “C’mon” the pace is set, giving Scott McKenzie’s technical and fluid drumming a chance to shine.

Luvplanet recorded Luvolution at Audio Voyage Studios in Livermore, California with Mark McGee as producer. “Mark is an amazing producer and we have worked with some great engineers at great studios.” Nicole Sutton, on the preparation and recording of Luvolution says, “We try to go in totally prepared but we usually end up having a few songs that we write or finish writing in the studio. That’s always fun because it’s fresh and exciting to capture the moment….
The (songs) are usually inspired by a feeling or a moment, it could be anything, and then we just try to listen and stay true to the song and what it wants to say.”

One thing that is truly to love about Luvplanet is that every song on Luvolution will inspire singing out with harmonies, even if you are not even a singer. I sometimes feel that I myself am part of the album as it taps into what I think about the world and how love and positivity can go hand and hand with rocking rock and roll.

Moonmama Says: YES!

Thanks forever to my dear editor Daniel Rauck, who is a hard rocker himself and makes my words so clear and pretty! THANKS DAN!

This is probably one of the most famous crosswalks in music history, and now the studio nearby http://www.britainexpress.com/London/abbey-road.htm been made into a National Monument http://www.examiner.com/x-4732-Celebrity-Travel-Examiner~y2010m2d23-The-Beatles-Abbey-Road-Studios-declared-a-historic-building .

But that’s not the reason we’re blogging it today.  RootJammer ‘curvaceps’ has forwarded something very thought provoking about the Beatles’ activities at Abbey Road Studios to us!

These days, we take for granted that commercial music is  made using expensive, complex tools.

When we think about music that’s as important as the Beatles’ music, we assume they worked in studios like this:

…but the reality was far humbler, as stuff like the above simply wasn’t invented yet.  voila:

"John, how can we make the vocals clearer?"

Rootjammer “Curvaceps” and her friend Len were looking around the Web at Abbey Road stuff when they found out about the monument thing above, and found a link to a blog with several audio interviews describing how The Beatles actually _did_ work in the studio:

http://waxy.org/2009/10/audio_analysis_of_the_beatles_multitrack_masters/

The EMI tape recorders in the studio had only 4 tracks, and oftentimes the band had to work very economically, recording entire ensembles onto a single track, carefully bouncing material from track to track, or even manually synchronizing recordings with help of an engineer, using tape recorders and mixers more like musical instruments than documentation devices http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_double_tracking .

This was a very interesting link for us to find out about.  The work we can’t talk to the public about just yet [shh!] involves _exactly_ this sort of  idea about media creation, but we hadn’t really thought too much about how those wonderful old Beatles songs were created, or how similar the work was to what we hope our users will be doing.

It’s really inspiring to think about how the limitations of the 1960s technology were pushed aside by creativity, persistence and talent, and how this could relate to the humble little media tools we currently have in development here at RootJam!

“Out In The Back Of Some Cafe, we’ll hold the night a million miles away and wrap our hearts around one point of view. I might not be an author, but I’ll write the book of you.”
Jeff Pehrson

Timeline: 1991.

Almost 20 years ago I was a struggling groupie in the San Francisco music scene, trying to find my way into the forbidden folds of rock and roll. I was trying to find a reason to be a part of the music. That was, in addition to the musicians I dated or the music I was unable play. I started to hang out in the mildly popular San Francisco Folk scene, hitting weekly open mics, house concerts and acoustic jam sessions at the local cafes and bars around my neighborhood, the Inner Sunset. The famed Owl and Monkey Café churned out Folkies like it did lattes and bagels. Within that small, steamy venue I met many an aspiring folk singer/songwriter and I made headway into my now chosen path of music junkie.

Of all the lovely people I met, during that time I befriended one Jeff Pehrson, a golden throated songwriter. Jeff, who sang solo as well as with others, kicked my ears into gear with his amazing tunes. With his bud keyboardist Matt Twain he formed Twain & Pehrson. He also achieved low altitude stardom with the band Box Set, which he formed with his long term “musical wife” Jim Brunberg.

Nowadays, this old school Folkie lends his golden throated voice to some band called Furthur. Furthur is made up of bunch of old rocker dudes from some little band called The Grateful Dead, namely Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, maybe you have heard of them. In any case, Mr. Perhson has been keeping busy in many ways, all musical, since I met him. I am here to tell you his story.

Photo By Moonmama


Fast forward: 2010

I, Moonmama, am now an aspiring rock n’ roll writer, having given up Groupie-dom some time ago when I realized I wanted to get into the flowing vibes of the music and not necessarily the tight pants of musicians. Following one’s dreams with integrity and manifesting those dreams is really what this story is all about. As I sit in the beautiful garden of The Bazaar Café in San Francisco’s foggy Outer Richmond District, reminiscing about the past, present and future with an old friend, still very much the same golden-throated singer/songwriter he has always been, just a bit more famous.

Jeff Pehrson-Right
The Fall Risk-Left

Despite the notoriety that Jeff has found from his gig with Furthur, his main focus and inspiration is his new band The Fall Risk which he started in 2009 by gathering his musical friends of bands past. With Twain & Pehrson duo partner Matt Twain on keyboards and vocals, Mark Abbot (of Box Set fame) on Drums, monster bassist Dave Moffat (of the Megan Slenkard Band) and with Jeff Ballard on harmonica & percussion The Fall Risk is an almost finished product. The recent additions of Rich Goldstein on lead & slide guitar and multi-instrumentalist Sammy Johnston (also of Box Set), lending his golden touch on accordion, pedal steel and organ makes The Fall Risk a band with one hell of a HUGE sound. Jeff agrees, “If I could not play with such a great group of musicians, I wouldn’t have my own band. The reason I enjoy The Fall Risk so much is because playing with this particular group of guys is incredibly fun. As a songwriter, when you find a group of players whose main interest is simply serving the song as opposed to any individual heroics, you’re golden. Mark, Matt, Dave, Jeff, Sammy and Rich have done that for me.”

As for the name of the band, Jeff’s story is priceless, “Mark Abbott’s (our drummer) mom had been in the hospital, and thankfully she is fine. Upon her release, she was tagged with a “Fall Risk” bracelet as she had been medicated and was at risk for a fall if she walked. Mark thought it a totally appropriate name for a bunch of 40-somethings trying to play rock-n-roll. I mean, no doubt one of us will eventually fall down due to a bad hamstring!”

Matt Twain-Left
Dave Moffat-Right

The Fall Risk wraps its acoustic-jam-rock sound around Perhson’s fine song crafting. When he was with Box Set, he shared songwriting credit with then musical partner Jim Brunberg. Both musical men shared a bond of creating a narrative within their songs and using strong melodies coupled with soaring harmonies to match the words that were the heart of some great stories. Pehrson, of his long, musical relationship with Brunberg and Box Set says, “Jim and I were huge folk music fans and part of the SF folk scene that re-emerged in the late 80′s early 90′s. Therefore, lyrics and storytelling were always in the forefront of our minds when writing songs. This has never left me, even as electric music became more of a calling. At the core, my songs are still folk songs with a backbeat. The lyrics carry more weight than the music…the story is the thing.”

In 1997, Capricorn Records signed Box Set to a sweet deal, allowing them much creative control over their music. Sadly, Capricorn went under after a massive buy-out, leaving Box Set other opportunities to go for bigger stakes. Sony Music tried to snatch the band, but loss of creative control over what Jeff wanted for his music made Box Set turn down the possibility of making that big hit.

Rich Goldstein-Left
Mark Abbot-Right

“Box Set held off signing other record deals so we could keep complete ownership of our songs, that was the only move for us. Again, we came from the folk music world where the thought of relinquishing control over our songs was blasphemous. There was no other way to approach it as far as we were concerned. It’s a rare thing to have a number 1 hit and not have to compromise many things, so I have no regrets. Obviously, the record industry is reaping the karma they have sewn as the Internet slowly pushes them closer to irrelevancy,” says Jeff.

Box Set ended up creating their own record label, titled “TherOwn Records”, setting them up for full creative control of the band and selling a lot of their music via the Internet. It worked well in their favor and to this day they still make a good profit off of their music, and it gave them touring opportunities to open for big name acts such as Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz and Ratdog and creating connections with these big named bands that will later produce more amazing opportunities for Jeff Perhson to make a name for himself.

Just recently, after Jeff’s stint with a 3-night run of The Furthur Festival at Angel’s Camp, California, his voice and knowledge of how things can flow within the endless improvisational nature of Grateful Dead Songs Jeff had secured the job. By learning all the parts of 85 songs in about a 3-week period, Jeff proved he was ready for something really big.

Sammy Johnston-Left
Jeff Ballard-Right

“More than anything else, touring with Furthur has changed the way I look at live performance,” states Jeff on how the Further Festival has altered his ideas of his own music. He adds, “I’m a lot more interested in giving the guys (in The Fall Risk) a great deal of space to solo. Giving them enough room to build a solo as opposed to having a set space that in many ways dictates what has to happen thematically. Being able to share in The Grateful Dead’s philosophy on jamming has really opened my eyes to those possibilities. As Bob might say ‘you have to leave some sport in it’.”

However, the fame has not gone to his head. Jeff still has the same old heart of gold. His amiable personality comes out in all his performances, playing off the audience and bringing them all deeper into the embrace of his music. He has not forgotten how it was to be a struggling musician and keeps the music at the forefront of his mission on the planet. “The music community is literally my family. Many of my oldest friends are folk musicians I met at the old Owl & Monkey Cafe in San Francisco in the mid 80′s. Those guys are my peers and the guys I still look to impress when I write a new song. Musicians group together for the same reasons as plumbers do, shared experience. It’s easier to talk to another musician about having writers block, or how lonely it gets being away from friends and family for months at a time…they know what you go through because they’ve been there. It’s a lifetime bond.”

MOONMAMA & Jeff Say, “Keep ROCKIN’!”

Big thanks to my beloved editor Daniel Rauck, with whom I worship for the fine tuning of my words and streamlining of my ideas. OXOXO

PECK THE TOWN CRIER

Peck the Town Crier is a musician and performance artist who divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City.

His output includes albums (“Groundhog’s Day”), video (“Underwear”, see below) and live performance art.

After a 5 year stint in New York, studying Jazz and radical politics, Peck returned to the SF Bay, and honed his skills as an MC and performer.

read more…