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It was about a year ago now that I was introduced to one Brandon Courtney. Brandon is –for the lack of a better term- “worthy” of his own blog…at some point I will have to write about him.
Brandon introduced me to a rare breed of music called “Lo-Fi.” Lo-Fi is simply the opposite of Hi-Fi. You still don’t understand me, do you? Okay… take any song you’ve EVER heard on the radio, no mater the genre, or performer it’s guaranteed to be Hi-Fi. Hi-Fi is when a musician records their music with a nice sound studio, and great microphones, and they have a professional mix/master the whole thing together so that it sounds great!
Lo-Fi is the exact opposite of this. It’s a performer singing into a cheap mic that’s rigged up to a boom box (or old 4-track recorder) that has the ability to record (line-in) and NOBODY mixes it at the end. Frankly Lo-Fi is annoying. Lo-Fi by definition is UNPROFESSIONAL.
I can hear you asking yourself, “Self, are there any redeeming qualities to Lo-Fi?”
And I reply, YES! And that’s a good word that you chose: redeeming. You see, when you first hear most Lo-Fi, you just can’t get past the total lack of quality that you hear. But give it a second. Listen to it for a few times, and it will redeem itself.
And the cow says, “Okay, I’m patient. I’ll give it a try. But why would anyone want to record in Lo-Fi?”
Let’s say that the artist only has one good quality about his music…we’ll use lyrics for this argument. He has no talent in the following areas: voice quality; the ability to write a long melody; the urge to pretend you’re friends with a bunch of people so that you can have a full band; the list can go farther from here. BUT THIS ARTIST CAN TELL A STORY THROUGH LYRICS LIKE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE. He knows it, and he wants you to know it. He doesn’t want to write lyrics, and sell them to Brittany Spears so that she will get the fake fame. He wants to publish his own works, like he hears it in his head.
Secondly, MOST artists don’t sell out and have money rolling out of their butts. I guess you could argue that if all the artist always makes is Lo-Fi albums, you never will earn enough money so that you can produce any Hi-Fi albums – based solely on the fact that most Lo-Fi albums aren’t popular enough to sell well.
This could be a problem for most artists, but not the artist that I saw perform at the best concert EVER.
To be continued…
I used to argue with Brandon about what music is good, and what isn’t.
(That’s one of the great things about music. There is so much out there, that it’s very difficult to decide what is the best, and what is the worse, and what you think someone else will like.)
Brandon HATES Radiohead, and I like Radiohead…I don’t love, love, love Radiohead, but I think they’re a neat band. Brandon loves The Cure, and I typically don’t like most 80’s music: The Cure. You get what I’m saying.
So, one day (it was a Saturday afternoon) we go down to the ZZZ (I call it the Triple Z) Record store in Des Moines, Iowa. …as a side bar this was very early in our short-lived friendship… We’re collectively bouncing off of each other musical tastes, and I tell him to pick out a GREAT album that most anyone would enjoy (so not as to choose a CD that only he likes – which could be really bad).
He shows me this CD called “Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” and immediately skirts off on this show he’s going to a show that night. He does that all the time. He’s like a stinkin’ ADD kid.
He’s going to see some retarded local band… and I’m all, “man I hate local bands. They all have crap-for-talent.” If I’ve ever had to eat my words, it would have to be then.
“No, man. This band rocks, and you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Brandon retorted.
“Well, I don’t have anything to do tonight, so if it’s okay I’d like you to prove me wrong.”
A few hours later he gets a signed note from his wife, that says that he can be out late that night, and we take his 1990 Chevrolet Geo Prism up to Ames. The drive is about a half hour long, and he plays all of the songs that he thinks are neat from this band that we’re about to see. His always drove with his windows down because he was a chain smoker, and so it was hard to really pay attention to these songs he was sampling for me.
I haven’t told you who they are yet because I don’t remember the name sticking to my memory just yet. You know what I’m saying? You hear about “Suchandsuch,” but until you have a healthy song to associate them with you wouldn’t be able to remember the name “Suchandsuch.”
Little was I to know that I would be attending the best concert I’ve ever been to.
Brandon and I meet up with a friend of his in Ames named Billy. Billy is already a die-hard fan of this band, so he’s very excited about the show.
We go down to the venue, The Maintenance Shop (sometimes referred to as the M Shop), and we get our tickets. Brandon buys mine because the guy makes money left and right (like I said in the first part of this discussion: Brandon is worthy of his own blog entry someday).
We’re here to see “the Mountain Goats.” Little t, big M, big G: tMG.
The show opens with two bands… which is kind of funny because all the ads for this show said that there were JUST TWO bands playing. Therefore, I thought that the second band was actually the Mountain Goats, and they weren’t especially neat. The second band is done, so I ask Brandon if we’re ready to go, and he says that the Mountain Goats haven’t even played yet. …this thoroughly confused me. I got over it, and waited for the Mountain Goats to perform.
A well-dressed, tall and lanky white man approached the stage. He had short black hair and narrow eyes. He was wearing a button-up maroon dress shirt with black slacks, and business shoes.
This man picked up the acoustic guitar that was sitting behind the stool in the center of the “stage.” He plugged the amp cord into the back of the instrument, sat down on the stool, and leaned forward toward the mic.
“We’re the Mountain Goats,” he said quite seriously. There was no one else on stage but this guy. So everybody laughed, and he laughed with them.
He sang about two songs before I was completely hooked. THIS GUY IS A BRILLIANT STORY TELLER. All of his songs are about 2-3 minutes long, but that’s all it takes to write a masterpiece. He paints this picture in your head, and then he shows you what happens from there. I am not doing him justice – I encourage you to find out more about this guy.
Well, he’s getting pretty passionate about his songs, and one of his strings break. So he swaps the guitar out for another guitar while Billy has the privilege of replacing the string. Billy is going nuts at the opportunity. The Mountain Goats are like Elvis to Billy, I KID NOT. Billy gets done replacing the string, and hands it back to the guy.
The guy plays two more songs with the repaired guitar before TWO other strings bust out during ONE song. He remarks, “I’ve been all over the word this last year, and never had to replace one string.” So he ditches this guitar altogether, and goes for the backup.
Here’s where it gets REALLY good:
The backup guitar isn’t connecting to the sound system properly. So he does something that I would never expect.
Let me recap for just a second before I spend any more time on the rest of what happened. We’re in Ames, which is the Mountain Goats current hometown. Ames is a relatively middle-sized college town. It’s home of Iowa State University, and the Maintenance Shop is on the University campus. Believe it or not, the Mountain Goats are recognized around the globe. If you were to check out the tour spots at the web site at the bottom of this entry you will see that he travels EVERYWHERE for his live performances.
The Maintenance Shop isn’t the biggest place to hold a show at all. I would venture to say that it’s about 50 feet by 30 feet (at the VERY most) with about 12 foot ceilings. There’s a bar in the corner and the “stage” is just a platform that rises about 6 inches from the floor. The place is packed, because this is the Mountain Goats on their own turf. People are here to root for the home team.
But if you’ve ever been to ANY concert anywhere you know that there is always a dull murmur from the crowd. This is due to that fact that when you put people together in a room they want to talk with each other. I’m going to call this “Tim’s Law of Concerts.”
Let’s get back to the story.
As I was saying: he does something that I would never expect.
He unplugs the guitar, gets off of the stool, and sits at the edge of the “stage.” He’s not plugged in, and he does not have a mic. Do you know what this means? Do you understand the repercussions of this dynamic?
1. This made all of the people that were crowding the front of the stage move back.
2. Because of number 1, The entire crowd shifted so that there were people on the stage behind him. The crowd circled him completely. Some musicians would not be able to handle this.
3. The “Tim’s Law of Concerts” already has an exception to the rule: In order to play an acoustic guitar without amplification while singing without amplification you need absolute silence to even hear the performer. This means that even the people who were there specifically to drink and not listen to the band have no alternative but to SHUT UP AND JUST LISTEN.
He took requests from everybody. A lot of people sang along to his songs.
There are some other unspoken rules about concerts as well. One of them is that if you haven’t heard the song before, as in the radio or CD or otherwise, you’re probably not going to fully enjoy the show. We’ll call this one “Tim’s Law of Foreknowledge.” This rule was also broken that night. I can’t honestly say that I had given a Mountain Goats song my undivided attention before the show, and I was totally enjoying the songs without this foreknowledge.
(in case you were wondering, another unspoken rule of concerts is that you never wear the band t-shirt of any of the bands that you’re going to see that night. This rule is called “Tim’s Law of Fashion Fop A.” And, just like the other rules before this, there is an exception to this one as well. It’s okay to buy a t-shirt at the show, and then wear it while the show is still going on. This is only okay because someone might gank it if you leave it hanging out of a pocket, or leave it on a coat rack or whatever.)
He converted me. I bought his latest album, Tallahassee, after the show and he signed it for me. It read, “NO AMPLIFICATION! John Darnielle.”
Now, I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my time: Tool (twice), Radiohead, Waterdeep (four times), Cold (before they sucked), Staind (right before they sucked), Bright Eyes, Cursive, Five Iron Frenzy (three or four times), Out of Eden (twice) (remember them?), and a lot more!
But his was the best concert I have ever been to. He broke all the rules, and it rocked.
Brandon introduced me to a rare breed of music called “Lo-Fi.” Lo-Fi is simply the opposite of Hi-Fi. You still don’t understand me, do you? Okay… take any song you’ve EVER heard on the radio, no mater the genre, or performer it’s guaranteed to be Hi-Fi. Hi-Fi is when a musician records their music with a nice sound studio, and great microphones, and they have a professional mix/master the whole thing together so that it sounds great!
Lo-Fi is the exact opposite of this. It’s a performer singing into a cheap mic that’s rigged up to a boom box (or old 4-track recorder) that has the ability to record (line-in) and NOBODY mixes it at the end. Frankly Lo-Fi is annoying. Lo-Fi by definition is UNPROFESSIONAL.
I can hear you asking yourself, “Self, are there any redeeming qualities to Lo-Fi?”
And I reply, YES! And that’s a good word that you chose: redeeming. You see, when you first hear most Lo-Fi, you just can’t get past the total lack of quality that you hear. But give it a second. Listen to it for a few times, and it will redeem itself.
And the cow says, “Okay, I’m patient. I’ll give it a try. But why would anyone want to record in Lo-Fi?”
Let’s say that the artist only has one good quality about his music…we’ll use lyrics for this argument. He has no talent in the following areas: voice quality; the ability to write a long melody; the urge to pretend you’re friends with a bunch of people so that you can have a full band; the list can go farther from here. BUT THIS ARTIST CAN TELL A STORY THROUGH LYRICS LIKE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE. He knows it, and he wants you to know it. He doesn’t want to write lyrics, and sell them to Brittany Spears so that she will get the fake fame. He wants to publish his own works, like he hears it in his head.
Secondly, MOST artists don’t sell out and have money rolling out of their butts. I guess you could argue that if all the artist always makes is Lo-Fi albums, you never will earn enough money so that you can produce any Hi-Fi albums – based solely on the fact that most Lo-Fi albums aren’t popular enough to sell well.
This could be a problem for most artists, but not the artist that I saw perform at the best concert EVER.
To be continued…
I used to argue with Brandon about what music is good, and what isn’t.
(That’s one of the great things about music. There is so much out there, that it’s very difficult to decide what is the best, and what is the worse, and what you think someone else will like.)
Brandon HATES Radiohead, and I like Radiohead…I don’t love, love, love Radiohead, but I think they’re a neat band. Brandon loves The Cure, and I typically don’t like most 80’s music: The Cure. You get what I’m saying.
So, one day (it was a Saturday afternoon) we go down to the ZZZ (I call it the Triple Z) Record store in Des Moines, Iowa. …as a side bar this was very early in our short-lived friendship… We’re collectively bouncing off of each other musical tastes, and I tell him to pick out a GREAT album that most anyone would enjoy (so not as to choose a CD that only he likes – which could be really bad).
He shows me this CD called “Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea” and immediately skirts off on this show he’s going to a show that night. He does that all the time. He’s like a stinkin’ ADD kid.
He’s going to see some retarded local band… and I’m all, “man I hate local bands. They all have crap-for-talent.” If I’ve ever had to eat my words, it would have to be then.
“No, man. This band rocks, and you have no idea what you’re talking about.” Brandon retorted.
“Well, I don’t have anything to do tonight, so if it’s okay I’d like you to prove me wrong.”
A few hours later he gets a signed note from his wife, that says that he can be out late that night, and we take his 1990 Chevrolet Geo Prism up to Ames. The drive is about a half hour long, and he plays all of the songs that he thinks are neat from this band that we’re about to see. His always drove with his windows down because he was a chain smoker, and so it was hard to really pay attention to these songs he was sampling for me.
I haven’t told you who they are yet because I don’t remember the name sticking to my memory just yet. You know what I’m saying? You hear about “Suchandsuch,” but until you have a healthy song to associate them with you wouldn’t be able to remember the name “Suchandsuch.”
Little was I to know that I would be attending the best concert I’ve ever been to.
Brandon and I meet up with a friend of his in Ames named Billy. Billy is already a die-hard fan of this band, so he’s very excited about the show.
We go down to the venue, The Maintenance Shop (sometimes referred to as the M Shop), and we get our tickets. Brandon buys mine because the guy makes money left and right (like I said in the first part of this discussion: Brandon is worthy of his own blog entry someday).
We’re here to see “the Mountain Goats.” Little t, big M, big G: tMG.
The show opens with two bands… which is kind of funny because all the ads for this show said that there were JUST TWO bands playing. Therefore, I thought that the second band was actually the Mountain Goats, and they weren’t especially neat. The second band is done, so I ask Brandon if we’re ready to go, and he says that the Mountain Goats haven’t even played yet. …this thoroughly confused me. I got over it, and waited for the Mountain Goats to perform.
A well-dressed, tall and lanky white man approached the stage. He had short black hair and narrow eyes. He was wearing a button-up maroon dress shirt with black slacks, and business shoes.
This man picked up the acoustic guitar that was sitting behind the stool in the center of the “stage.” He plugged the amp cord into the back of the instrument, sat down on the stool, and leaned forward toward the mic.
“We’re the Mountain Goats,” he said quite seriously. There was no one else on stage but this guy. So everybody laughed, and he laughed with them.
He sang about two songs before I was completely hooked. THIS GUY IS A BRILLIANT STORY TELLER. All of his songs are about 2-3 minutes long, but that’s all it takes to write a masterpiece. He paints this picture in your head, and then he shows you what happens from there. I am not doing him justice – I encourage you to find out more about this guy.
Well, he’s getting pretty passionate about his songs, and one of his strings break. So he swaps the guitar out for another guitar while Billy has the privilege of replacing the string. Billy is going nuts at the opportunity. The Mountain Goats are like Elvis to Billy, I KID NOT. Billy gets done replacing the string, and hands it back to the guy.
The guy plays two more songs with the repaired guitar before TWO other strings bust out during ONE song. He remarks, “I’ve been all over the word this last year, and never had to replace one string.” So he ditches this guitar altogether, and goes for the backup.
Here’s where it gets REALLY good:
The backup guitar isn’t connecting to the sound system properly. So he does something that I would never expect.
Let me recap for just a second before I spend any more time on the rest of what happened. We’re in Ames, which is the Mountain Goats current hometown. Ames is a relatively middle-sized college town. It’s home of Iowa State University, and the Maintenance Shop is on the University campus. Believe it or not, the Mountain Goats are recognized around the globe. If you were to check out the tour spots at the web site at the bottom of this entry you will see that he travels EVERYWHERE for his live performances.
The Maintenance Shop isn’t the biggest place to hold a show at all. I would venture to say that it’s about 50 feet by 30 feet (at the VERY most) with about 12 foot ceilings. There’s a bar in the corner and the “stage” is just a platform that rises about 6 inches from the floor. The place is packed, because this is the Mountain Goats on their own turf. People are here to root for the home team.
But if you’ve ever been to ANY concert anywhere you know that there is always a dull murmur from the crowd. This is due to that fact that when you put people together in a room they want to talk with each other. I’m going to call this “Tim’s Law of Concerts.”
Let’s get back to the story.
As I was saying: he does something that I would never expect.
He unplugs the guitar, gets off of the stool, and sits at the edge of the “stage.” He’s not plugged in, and he does not have a mic. Do you know what this means? Do you understand the repercussions of this dynamic?
1. This made all of the people that were crowding the front of the stage move back.
2. Because of number 1, The entire crowd shifted so that there were people on the stage behind him. The crowd circled him completely. Some musicians would not be able to handle this.
3. The “Tim’s Law of Concerts” already has an exception to the rule: In order to play an acoustic guitar without amplification while singing without amplification you need absolute silence to even hear the performer. This means that even the people who were there specifically to drink and not listen to the band have no alternative but to SHUT UP AND JUST LISTEN.
He took requests from everybody. A lot of people sang along to his songs.
There are some other unspoken rules about concerts as well. One of them is that if you haven’t heard the song before, as in the radio or CD or otherwise, you’re probably not going to fully enjoy the show. We’ll call this one “Tim’s Law of Foreknowledge.” This rule was also broken that night. I can’t honestly say that I had given a Mountain Goats song my undivided attention before the show, and I was totally enjoying the songs without this foreknowledge.
(in case you were wondering, another unspoken rule of concerts is that you never wear the band t-shirt of any of the bands that you’re going to see that night. This rule is called “Tim’s Law of Fashion Fop A.” And, just like the other rules before this, there is an exception to this one as well. It’s okay to buy a t-shirt at the show, and then wear it while the show is still going on. This is only okay because someone might gank it if you leave it hanging out of a pocket, or leave it on a coat rack or whatever.)
He converted me. I bought his latest album, Tallahassee, after the show and he signed it for me. It read, “NO AMPLIFICATION! John Darnielle.”
Now, I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my time: Tool (twice), Radiohead, Waterdeep (four times), Cold (before they sucked), Staind (right before they sucked), Bright Eyes, Cursive, Five Iron Frenzy (three or four times), Out of Eden (twice) (remember them?), and a lot more!
But his was the best concert I have ever been to. He broke all the rules, and it rocked.