scot hacker's foobar blog

I’ve posted before about how the file-based sterility of MP3 listening habits blot out much of the romance of musical discovery, and how the concept of an album as an indivisible artistic totality has all but been erased (I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing – there’s a whole lot of crap on a whole lot of good records, and I scuttle dud tracks without a shred of guilt).

Adding to the discussion, Dave Mandi wonders what shuffle mode is doing to the art of the segue — the ease (and the thrill) of letting a computer or an iPod choose tracks from a collection at random is diminishing the art of the well-selected transition. In Praise of the Segue:

With MP3s becoming the de facto currency of music listening and trading, and with shuffle mode becoming a more and more common way of programming an hour of music—Apple’s recent introduction of the iPod Shuffle is pretty clear evidence of that—the art of the set and the segue is in imminent danger of dying. … We have the opportunity to create greater meta-masterpieces than ever, tailored to people’s moods, or the time of day, or the weather. Why destroy all that by getting lazy and pushing the “shuffle” button?

It’s all true, but… I love shuffle mode, not afraid to admit it. Creating thoughtful transitions is something I make time for when burning the Christmas CDs. For daily listening, accidental random musical collisions charge me up.

In SNL’s famous “Behind the Music” Cowbell skit [transcript], Christopher Walken is the producer during a Blue Oyster Cult recording session. Will Farrell is hard-driving on the cowbell through “Dont Fear the Reaper” — a little too hard-driving, his bandmates think. But Walken insists: “More cowbell. I got to have more cowbell.” The piece has cult status for a reason — we all know deep inside that the cowbell has been woefully under-appreciated in music history.

NPR makes amends with their tribute piece: There’s Just Something About That Cowbell, while The Cowbell Project archives every song readers can think of that centers on that luscious, penetrating sound. The site even calls Christopher Walken “The Patron Saint of the Cowbell.” You can also get Cowbell T-shirts to proclaim your adoration.

It’s the cymbal’s evil third cousin. It’s the dark ring that pounds in the back of your brain and lets you know, it’s time to rock. The cowbell is an instrument that can’t be overused. It should never be underused.

I’m glad for the cowbell that it’s finally being recognized for its place in rock history, I really am, but also feeling sympathy for the even less-lauded Vibraslap. If the cowbell is underutilized in modern rock/pop, the vibraslap is all but forgotten. Once upon a time, the vibraslap was a staple of both big orchestral rock and high school bands; now it’s less than a footnote. (MP3 excerpt from ELO’s “Jungle”):

Granted it’s kind of buried in the mix there — someone point me to a more prominent sample please — I got to hear more vibraslap.

If you haven’t already, run — don’t walk — to rent Ray, the musical biography of Ray Charles. The cinematography is gorgeous, the story of his life honest and gripping, the history tragic and fascinating, the music… speaks for itself. Jamie Foxx perfect as Ray. We split this over two nights (it’s around 3.5 hours short), and wished it wouldn’t end. Neither of us have enjoyed a movie this much for ages.