music

King Black Acid (Loves a Love Song)

Jacob Redding — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:12:00 +0000

This is the first of what will probably be two blog entries on my newly created Music page. I don’t have high hopes for this particular blog area, it is mainly a way for my to write about music I like and share it with the 3 or 4 people that read this blog. I do not want to advertise this page nor do I have any intention of ever having it show up on a search engine. In reality the only person that will read this will be me.. and I guess you ;)

The first entry is dedicated to one my favorite bands and albums.

King Black Acid - Loves a love song

I first saw King Black Acid playing live with Television Eye as the Satryicon punk bar in Portland, Oregon. Satryicon was a dingy, dirty, graffiti-ed and band-stickered punk-rock club that had a slight resemblance to CBGB in New York. Television Eye’s set was a very short, curt dirty punk-rock and it was an odd opener to King Black Acid’s more long, melodic crescendo-ing rock. King Black Acid knew exactly how to put on a show, their way. Instead of sticking to the 4-4 beats and the 2-3 minute poppy songs they created songs, and shows, that matched their style and the message that they were trying to get across. The CD track listing is a short 8 songs but they are not the average short 2 to 3 minute poppy song.

Butterfly Bomber is the first track on “Loves a Love Song” and it is a perfect opener. The song is roughly 8 minutes in length and doesn’t even get started until 2 or 3 minutes into the song.The song starts slowly and builds into an immense wall of sound. Other bands tend to fade the song once the high level of intensity has been reached (like, for example, The Comas with “Falling”*), King Black Acid, however, keep it going.

Watching them play live was the best, as Daniel (lead vocals and lead guitarist) would go crazy when the songs reached their high point. Guitar solos tended to be creative and atmospheric and although long they maintain your interest by their constant evolution throughout the song. Daniel goes crazy on his guitar with effects (delays, chorus and reverb mainly) and also with toys (usually a toy ray-gun placed very close to the pickups). Unfortunately King Black Acid has disbanded and is no more although Daniel has created a new band, which I have yet to see live.

Track Listing

1. Butterfly Bomber
2. Kiss the Beast
3. Into the Sun
4. Colorado (Wherever it is You Are)
5. Born to Sleep
6. School Blood
7. So I Heard You're Still Alive
8. Gentle Collapse (Feels Good)

*Side note: Check out the KEXP live version of Falling (MP3) (5-06-2005)

A circle of Steel, Swords and a bit of Pounding

Jacob Redding — Tue, 23 Nov 2004 07:39:00 +0000

Yesterday I was at Ozone records purchasing the latest Arcade Fire CD as a gift for Jennifer (she is turning 25 this Tuesday). At the counter there was a 2 disc compilation of local artists entitled ?PDX Pop Now!?. Since it had been quite some time since I last purchased a CD for myself (at least 5 days) I decided to splurge and buy it.

On my late night (8:45pm) drive to Petco to pick up mice for Jake I put disc 2 into my player and started flipping through the songs. Track 10 caught my attention as it sounded like a mix between Quasi, Death Cab, Helio Sequence and King Black Acid except completely different than all of them.
Artist: Swords
Title: Immigracion

The song is absolutely perfect. It begins with the elongated sounds of a slowly played violin or possibly cello. The drummer introduces the vocalist by softly tapping the cymbal into a soft crescendo. The male vocalist is reminiscent of Death Cab or Elliot Smith, melodic and definitely emo. The drums continue in the background with a very basic beat essentially just keeping time while a guitar slowly fades in. All the instruments are simply providing background noise for the vocalist for the first two minutes of the song.

Even though the song had not gained any complexity in the first two minutes I found myself tapping along with the beat and following each of the highs and the lows of the song. Two minutes into the song the band brings the song together. After a short crescendo the violin stretches out a single note while all the other instruments fade out and a very simple chord progression is plucked out and strummed on an electric guitar. Once the guitar fades the violin is left stretching out a single note and a few seconds later the guitar fades back already in progress of a big crescendo and the singer brings the song back to life with the single phrase:

?I can?t get to you and I?m terrified?

The bass and the drums jump in between ?terr? and ?ified? and bring the song to its climax. The drummer shows off his talent and reminds me of the drummers from the Helio Sequence and King Black Acid. He had the awesome ability to utilize the crash symbals and the snare to whip the song into a furry while keeping it incredibly tight.

At this point I was beating my steering wheel along with the music. My left hand was tapping the bottom of the steering wheel with every snare hit and my right hand was literally pounding the top of the steering wheel with every major cymbal crash. My head was flailing around all around as I mouthed every 5th or 6th word. Those were the only ones I could catch and even then I was still saying ?watermelon? or some other nonsensical word that made?my mouth appear to be?making the proper motions. The song was amazing and I was really into the song.

And then with no one else in the car, windows rolled up and cruising down the street at 45mph I yelled:

?FUCK!!!!?

I yelled it out at the top of my lungs and then pounded my steering wheel again. I repeated this about 2 times yelling and pounding my steering forgetting about the song but just yelling. The song didn?t make me angry, if anything the song would be a great depression song but I suddenly got incredibly pissed off and I just wanted to pound on something. Luckily for me I had a circle of steel right in front just itching for abuse.?

?Why did I yell? There had been nothing in my head, I was not fuming about anything nor did I just come from a fresh fight with anyone. 1 second before I screamed out I realized that type of drumming crescendo displayed in this sword?s song was the exact type that Chris would employ when he and I would play together. This, of course, made me think of picking up my guitar driving up to Shelton and jamming with Chris again.?

Oh wait?.

That?s right now I remember.?

There are people in this world that believe that they need our equipment more than we need it. Yes why would Chris need or want a drum set that he has had since he was a child and that he has spent thousands of dollars on. Of course he doesn't need nor want it so why not steal it from him. Oh and while they were stealing Chris? drum set they asked themselves why would anyone need/want a nice PA system or a Marshall Half Stack. Who need?s that stuff?

Yes Chris? drum set, Tom?s Marshall Half stack and my entire PA system. Gone. No more.

I have known this for over a week now and since I have grown very accustomed to having stuff stolen from me it had not bothered me until that second. I am, however, more upset that Chris? set was stolen because we can jam without a PA we can not jam without a drum set.??

Small Town Portland tie in:

While writing this entry I did a quick google search on the ?Swords? and found out that the Swords is really ?The Swords Project?. My quick tie to the Swords Project is that Brandee (Tina?s best friend) dated the drummer for the Swords Project for quite sometime. Before I heard this song I never liked his band but this song is very good and ironically it is the drumming that made me like the song. He is a very good drummer.

Music for America [dot] org

Jacob Redding — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 19:18:00 +0000

A week or three ago I was poking around on the internet looking for George Bush's cover of U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. I was able?to find George Bush's cover song and in the process I also came across this song (click)?by the artist?Rethuglikan.?I just liked the first sentence.?

"Yo this is Rethuglikan CPA, checkin' in"?

That is so good, a CPA rapper. Oh so funny. The song is somewhat decent for a political song, I like the words.

You should also listen to George Bush's cover of U2's song "Sunday Bloody Sunday"?It is VERY good.

Newport Jazz Quartet

Jacob Redding — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 17:18:00 +0000

The Newport Jazz Quartet on Sunday night wasn?t very good but it was still a concert and I did have a bit of fun. In other concert news I have finally found two punk/metal/alternative concerts here in Salamanca. On Thursday night I am going to go see a Portugese alternative metal band from (guess...) Portugal. They are playing at a local underground venue here in Salamanca and I am freakin?excited to finally go see a show. On friday night there is another band playing here in Salamanca at a local bar.

It is getting easier and easier to find show to attend. At each show there is usually a flyer or something advertising for future shows. So far in the past 2 1/2 weeks I have attended about 10 shows and I have 5 more scheduled up to next wednesday. Tonight I am going to a Flamenco show, that should be fun.

In other news..

My sunburn is gone for the most part. I went for another run today but I only did about 4-5k I?m getting lazy. I had a ton of homework to do for tomorrow. In conversation class we are talking about the influence of models and fashion on youth and in my other class I have to present a short story about all the concerts I have been attending. It is quite fun writing stories in Spanish when you can barely create sentences, my stories usually go like this (except in Spanish)

I like music. The concert was great. The singer was very good. I go to many concerts.

and so on and so on.

Welp until next time.....

Ray Gelato...

Jacob Redding — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 16:30:00 +0000

Last night Jenson went to the Ray Gelato concert (Jazz en la Calle), it was another great concert put on by the city of Salamanca. Honestly, I could live here this place is simply awesome I love it. There is another concert tonight and I believe it is another Swing band although I am not quite sure because I don?t have the schedule in front of me.

This morning Jenson, Irene and I went out to the big city market. If you have ever been to a flea market in California it was just like that except with a huge emphasis on clothing and less emphasis on electronics and other items. The market was ok, nothing to write home about though (oh wait I just did). After walking around the market for an hour or two I headed over to the local pool which was across the street. Jenson was to lame to go to the pool, he opted instead to watch the Tour de France on TV; lame.

The pool is awesome. The have two waterslides, two small water ramp thingies and a shallow pool with two fountains that is perfect for laying around in. I stayed at the pool from 1pm until 6:30pm or so before I left. I?m a bit burnt, oh well.

Tonight

Newport Jazz Quarter, Jazz en la Calle. 10:30. These things are so much fun.

I still have not had a chance to upload any picture but I will spend some time here at the internet cafe later this week and attempt to upload them. Although you may just have to wait until I get back to the states. Internet cafes are everywhere but getting my USB to work has been quite a pain in most places due to security restrictions on the computers.

Until my next entry... I have to get to my homework now.

Friday Night/Saturday morning

Jacob Redding — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 13:45:00 +0000

On friday night Jenson and I headed out to go see "The Ladybug Transistor", i am not exaclty sure where they are from but they sing about Virgina alot so my assumption is Virgina. We weren?t sure what to expect but I assumed the best and expected a crowd. It took about 20 or 30 minutes to walk to the Domus Atrium 2002 where the show was being held and when we got there we didn?t see anyone. I figured that it was just really early but nope there just wasn?t a crowd at all.

The entire crowd consisted of about 70-100 teenagers and mid to late 20s somethingers. outside the gates another 20-30 people were hanging around. The cost of admission was only 3 euros but you could see the entire show from outside the gates and hear it just as well. Wanting to support this type of activity I bought a ticket even though I only went in for a few minutes. It was neat though, those that showed up knew the band and they were singing along with the songs.

The Ladybug transistor plays a soft independent style music with a definite roots in old country (not new country pop crap), beach boys and ventures. The lead guitarist looks exactly like the early beach boys or Venture. He had bleach blond hair the swayed over his eyes and played a red rickenbacher with a white stripe down the middle. Each riff he played you could hear the influence of the beach boys and ventures on it.

Even though they were decent I wasn?t that into the music and neither was the people we ran into. When we arrived at the theater we met up with the Dutch group. They are called the dutch group because the group seems to grow. It started out with Judith (my roommate) and a few of her friends (Danielle, Sander and Vincent) but it is now like 15 people. They are a fun bunch though and we run into them everywhere.

Ok so we were all a bit bored with the concert so we decided to walk back to town and go to the dance club med-evio. That started a big trend, we went to a bazillion more clubs all night long. Club hopping in Spain, quite fun. I?m not quite sure what time I got home but I do know that most clubs don?t close until 5:30am and now I know the reason for the Spanish siesta. I needed one today. :)

Oleg

Jenson would prefer me to not talk about his adventure here in Spain, which should say a lot. He is doing well isn?t that sick anymore and is going out almost every night. I, however, go out only once maybe twice a week that boy can just party to no ends. As for spanish senoritas for Jenson, he hasn?t kicked me out of the room yet so maybe he?s not doing that well in the clubs. I don?t know though I?ve ran into him at a few clubs (he hangs out with the Dutch group and I tend to hang out with a few people from Sweden and Brazil) and is always full out pimping. He dances like Snoopy Dog?s sidekick (minus the jewel encrusted suit).

Classes

Oh boy, two weeks down and I have learned quite a bit. I really, really want to stay here another month or so. You can learn so much in so little time by living in Spain and attending 5 hours of instruction a day, it?s just insane.

Tonight

Tonight I am trying to do two things. The first is a bull fight at 6:30 (in one and a half hours so I?ve gotta get going) and the other is a Ray Gelato concert. I have no idea who Ray Gelato is but the concert is free and check out the website. That guy is a straight out pimp. It is going to be another interesting night.

Alright I have a ton of homework to get done before the concert and tomorrow is going to be chock full of homework. I have to write a story about "mi fin de semana" it?s only a page long or so but umm.. I?m in the beginner class I can barely form a sentence, let alone a whole story. Additionally past tenses in Spanish are freakin?ridiculous I barely have present tenses down and now I have to figure out past tenses. My story is going to be quite interesting (and quite grammatically incorrect).

By the way, current music for the week: Fangoria and some Paulina Rubio. I had both of these album before I came to Spain and they play them all the time, Fangoria is quite good. (Neither group is from Spain but they are both Spanish, Fangoria is Mexican I believe)

Spanish Music

Jacob Redding — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 13:29:00 +0000

Last friday the 16th(?) I was finally able to attend a concert. After doing some search around the town I was able to find a concert list and now I?m slowly making my way down the list seeing as many concerts as possible. The first concert was Stanley Jordan an American jazz artist. The concert was held on the street Patio Chico at the footsteps of the city?s cathedral. The concert was awesome.

Ok Ok, so I know someone is going to chime in and say "Hey what are you doing watching an American artist in Spain". Well let me tell you. The city of Salamanca is HUGE into American Jazz, HUGE! The city put on this concert and they sponsor many concerts and streets parties throughout the summer, this is what the people of Salamanca listen to. At the concert foreigners made up about 5-10% of the crowd and the rest lived in the town. Throughout the town the city also puts on Jazz en la Calle?Fiestas,?roughly every other day there is a jazz concert going on in the town. It may not be the stereotypical Spanish music but it?s what they listen to.

Stanley Jordan is awesome. He plays his guitar by tapping the strings and rarely strums them. He only strummed periodically so that he could get a different sounds or just to get the strings moving. The Notes are played with both hands (i.e the left hand plays one note and the right hand places a different note) so essentially he is placing the bass and treble portions of the song. When he came on stage he played three songs without a backup band and I spent the entire time through the first songs looking for the second guitar and then I realized that he was playing both parts. It was pretty amazing.

The best part, however, is when he played a covered of Led Zepplins Stairway to Heaven but with a heavy heavy Jazz enfluence. If you weren?t listening carefully you could not tell the difference. The crowd was really into it but then he went a bit crazy and switch over to some distortion, oh man the crowd immediately gasped in awe. Think of the movie "Back to the Future" when he Michael J. Fox turns up the distortion at the high school dance and the entire crowd has no idea what?s going. That is exactly what it was like. Luckily he turned off the distortion after having fun for about 2 minutes and finished the song with a clean guitar song, the crowd loved him again.

The next day, saturday. There were two concerts, another one at patio Chico and a second one two or three blocks down. The first concert was an African drum band and the other concert was, again, jazz. We checked them both out. I can?t really say much about either of them, they were good and exactly what you would expect them both to be like. They were fun.

I am still looking for some punk rock, rock, alternative or hip-hop shows here in Salamanca. I am getting close and I know that a scene must exist. I have seen fliers looking for singers and a few signs for a band that states that they are playing out and need a bass guitarist immediately. There is?a scene I just have to find the right bars/clubs.

Class are going great I?m starting to learn more. We are getting into future and past tenses and then it?ll be all about talking talking and more talking past then. I?ve got a long way to go...

Current Weather temp: 30 C

Check out the Weather temperature in Salamanca here

I?ll upload pictures as soon as I can, it?s hard finding an internet cafe with accessible USB ports.

Primus

Jacob Redding — Wed, 02 Jun 2004 16:57:00 +0000

Last night I attended the Primus concert. Tina purchased two tickets as a birthday gift for my birthday, she and I attended the concert together. This was the fourth or fifth time that I have seen primus but it has been many years since the last concert. I believe I was 17 or 18 at the time. It's interesting, as you grow up you assume that other people in your age group will also grow up, but that was not the case last night.

We showed up early to get a good place in line and to assure ourselves of being as close to the stage as possible. This is standard policy for general admission shows. Once the show started, the usual moshing/pogoing (this generation likes to call it moshing, but in reality it is no different than the standard pogo from way back when). What I found interesting was that many of the people in the mosh pit were from the expected younger generation (ages 16-18) but those that were crowd surfing were not but rather they were my age.

Ok, when I was younger 15-18 and attending shows similiar to Primus I crowd surfed and kicked back in the mosh pit regularly but I only weighed 110 pounds and I was a teenager!! Now I am 25 and I weigh more than 110 pounds, which translates into "You an older fogie and you're too heavy to crowd surf". These guys, who were 25 years old or older and weighed well over 150 pounds, were crowd surfing or rather attempting to crowd surf.

When is my generation going to wake up and realize that they have aged! The time to crowd surf is when you are younger, once you hit 21 you have to start acting and behaving like an adult (18 is a better age to start but I'll give my generation a small break). Hold on, let me spell that one for those of you in my generation that haven't?graduated from high school yet, A-D-U-L-T. Yes you are an adult and now is the time to start behaving like one. I swear, if a single person in my generation complains about high oil prices and the fact that the U.S is becoming the laughing stock of the world I'm going to hold up a mirror and tell them to grow up, go to school and help get the U.S out of the rut that we (as in my generation) put it in. Stop complaining, go back to school and most of all stop crowd surfing?you are heavy and you are crushing the?younger kids. ?

24 hours...

Jacob Redding — Wed, 10 Mar 2004 08:19:00 +0000

Current Date/Time: Wednesday March 10th, 2004? 12:19am
Last time I was home: Monday March 8th, 2004 2:30pm
Where I have been sleeping:?? pppwwwfffffttt sleep is for the weak the library is open 24 hours...
When I plan on going home: Probably thursday or friday late afternoon. The library is NOT open 24 hours on friday or saturday.. I know, I know I am sad too, but we'll make it through this one together.

Today's Song:
Artist: Snow Patrol
Title: Spitting Games

?? The song is available free if you download the latest Winamp. As weird as it is, the song is actually pretty dang good. The other songs that Winamp has available for download all suck.

Today's Music Mood: Drum and Bass, Jungle

Current status of homework: Presentation on a financial valuation of Nordstrom due tomorrow. A 2-3 page paper due for my accounting ethics course (paper and presentation were completed tonight). A 10-30 (or more?) research paper on the changes implemented by the AICPA Exposure Draft, Sarbanes-Oxley and the PCAOB recommendation (as per Sarbanes-Oxley) on the auditing standard AU 319 and AT 501.? Once I finish with all that I only have to study for my finals in advanced auditing and econometrics. Whoo Hoo... I Love school...

Take the Skin Heads Bowling

Jacob Redding — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 07:12:00 +0000

Artist: Camper Van Beethoven..
"Some people say that bowling allies have big lanes"?

? I have been staring at my Stats book all day long because I haven't been able to concentrate on the material. I think my sickness is preventing it from happening. Eh, oh well. I'll just drink some more Chai.
? Speaking of Chai, I discovered something today. I actually like Chai and tea when?I am sick. I'm sure that once I am feeling better tea and chai will taste like the dirt it is made up of but until then the stuff is actually good. Oh and by the way I'm talking about Cocoa Chai (from Oregon Chai of course) and tea with so much honey in it that it's opaque (analagous to honey with a dash of tea for color).

? That's all I got for now. Oh, go listen to Camper Van Beethoven, it'll make you want to go bowling.