JSngry

That would suck.

Didn't EMI have a similar "fiasco" (and that "only" 600,000 sales should be considered "poor sales" should say something both about the scale of - perhaps unrealistic, what with downloading now destroying mothers and children like William Calley at My Lai - expectations of this biz at this level) a few years ago with Mariah Carrey? Didn't they famously drop her and didn't heads famously roll? And didn't she come back on a different label and have a big smash hit record?

Along ths lines, what wth Varese, Stockhausen, Cage, AACM, and all the other sonic explorers of the 20th century asking the question "What is music?" for so long now, it's only natural that such a question would filter into the "mainstream", and it's only natural that different people would arrive at different answers. It's also only natural that we, the "elite" (HA!) would not like a lot of those answers and that we would ridicule some people for having the temerity to assume that they were "qualified" to ask the question in the first place. I mean, is it really ok for Cage to have some guy sitting silently at a piano and presenting it as music and we all ponder the "meaning" of it all and not ok for some cat to create a sonic collage of samples for some other cat to rap over? Seems to me that in both cases, the question of what music is is being asked and answered in distinctly personal terms, and in neither case are the "old rules" being seen as set in stone. Sorry, but the genie got let out of the bottle last century. Too late to put it back in now. So let's start dealing with reality instead of Rambo-esque retro fantasy-wish-fulfillment.

Where the problem, if any, exists is with too many of these new musicians with these new instruments not having the vision to think beyond their immediate discoveries, discoveries with which I certainly have no issues whatsoever. But at some point, I hope that somebody/sombodies comes along and moves things along to the next (dare I say higher?) level of creativity & vision. There's defintiely shot happening underground, but it's waaaaay underground as best I can see. Absolutely no reason why it (this growth of vision & potential) shouldn't happen other than a failure of spirit, and if one can concede a potential for failure, then one must also conceed the potential for triumph. But who's there to offer the "moral support" for any of these cats to consider those potentials, and who's there to offer encouragement for them to keep pumpin'/pimpin' out the same old same old so the $$$ can be gotten while it's there to be had? And even worse, who's cynically exploiting all this raw talent from the POV that that's all "these people" are really good for? If you're not part of the solution... Seems like the classics never go out of style.

Joe - check your email tommorow.

Hey, screw Da' Bastids on this one (unless you got a J-import fetish). They got it at Amazon for $16.98, and you can order it through the O-Boards link.

Let me reinforce - this is not a "house" or "dance" album. This is first and foremost and old school descarga album that you can dance to (just like the old ones). But if you know Louie Vega's (and/or his MAW partner Kenny Dope's) work, you know that more and more of this type thing has been infiltraing their house work (and marvellously so) over the last 10 or so years. This album, though, is pretty much pure early 21-st century Nuyorican/Afro/Brazillian/etc. jamming of a very high quality with state-of-the-art recording/production.

Well, they don't play themselves. I've been conducting an experiment for 10 years now. Bought me a drum machine back then and decided to see if it was an "instrument" or not. Figured that if it wasn't, it wouldn't need to be "played" by a "player". So I took it out of the box, plugged it in, turned it on, and waited for it to start doing something by itself. Sitll waiting... Funny, my clarinet's the same way. Haven't touched it in something like 20 years, and it's not made a sound either. You know who's not an instrument? Tony Romo, He's a tool.

Quite possibly! http://www.dustygroove.com/browse.php?kwfi...1&incl_cs=1 Yeah, that's about it. Old school descarga meets new school pan-global dance music. If you're a stone Latin freak, you should dig it. If you like "Latin-Jazz", you should dig it. If you like good danceable grooves with music of substance on top, you should dig it. If you don't like any of that stuff, you probably won't dig it. But if you do, this puppy is coming highly recommended. Replay-for-listening value is off the hook, as is the fun factor. Instant classic it just might be!

I hear the big bands are coming back any time now.

That just about sums it up - in a positive way, I'd say. What's wrong with combining these musical elements? Nothing at all. I compress files I don't use much any more all the time. It's useful, beneficial, and frees up some much-needed space.

Good stuff. Maybe not $20.00 worth of good, but your mileage may vary there.

WHOA! FUTURE SHOCK! Dude, I watched that show religiously. For as long as it was on... Low-budget Soul Train knockoff, but with the incomprable Godfather egotisity overflowing from start to finish, done when his slide in popularity was more than slightly underway. Most vivid memory was of one regular dancer who, well, ok, you know how back in the 80s the thing was to wear a Benz hood ornament as a necklace? Yeah, well this cat predated all that shit by a decade, except instead of the Benz thing, he wore a JB 45 (for all you uber-kids, that's a record, not a gun...). I kid you know. Cat would be dancing all around with a freakin' 45 dangling around his neck from a chain. You can't get TV like that anymore. And you couldn't get it but for a few months back then. But them was the daze.

Music doesn't die. People do.

Gotta respectfully jump to the defense of #9. That band did three albums for hat label, and this was on the second one. The first two were the product of the same arranger, and the first of the two albums was in fact mostly pretty lame. Some of that lameness carried over to this second album, but it's got several moment of fineness, of which I think this is one. Most of the lameness on those two albums I blame on the arranger, who treated too much of the material like adult easy-listening/Sunshine Pop fodder. But for this second album, he got into a bit more funk/soul material and tailored the charts accordingly, and those charts, of which #9 is one, copped a nice groove, I think. Looking at the rhythm section, you can't say that it's old guys trying to play out of their league. Anything but. And the arrangement is so basuc that all the band has to do is lay it in the pocket, which I think they do just dandily. The soloists just play the blues as they know it, so it's all good with me. The only problem I have is w/the mix. You know that the brass was roaring on those shout choruses, but they're mixed at background level. Would that this album had been recorded perfectly like this leader's first Fantasy album, Brand New, which is really a case of an old guy trying to be hip. But this one's long been a favorite, sounds like a party, and not for nothing did I include it on my first BFT. Just my opinion.

If you're really serious about making money from music, start learning arranging, keyboards, and midi/sequencing. Can't have too many tools these days. That stuff kinda passed my by, and now what used to take lots of players to make can be done by one person, and I ain't one of 'em. You might as well start thinking about becoming one of those ones. I don't know about Arizona, but in Texas, there's still money to be made writing arrangements (either for "real" bands or else in digital form) for churches, demo sessions, and things like that. In fact, it's church gigs that are keeping many people around here afloat. We got all these big mega-churches that hire 10-15 piece orchestras, and they pay them $300 & up for 2-3 services on Sunday plus one rehearsal. And they do pay for arrangements! I played one service for one mega-church and felt so dirty that I put the word out not to ever call me for another gig like that again. I can, have, and will whore myself out for many things, but god ain't one of 'em. But plenty of my peers don't feel that way, and are actually networking thru these church gigs to get a lot of what little work is left elsewhere. So if you got no issues with doing that type gig, start early. If you can read halfway decent and get in w/a good gig, there's definitely money to be had. Just one thing - don't let anybody vibe you because you're a chick. There's still a lot of sexism in this business when it comes to "non-glamor" positions like horn playing, arranging, conducting, etc. Much better now than it used to be, but be ready anyways. Old habits die hard...

Sorry to hear about your mom. Hope things get better.

The Chemical Brothers The Chambers Brothers The Smothers Brothers

Or should I say 奇貨可居 [きかおくべし] ? I think I should!

Yeah, but he did it in English. ¤³¤Îñ¸ì¤ÏÅÐÏ¿¤µ¤ì¤Æ¤¤¤Þ¤»¤ó¡£!

Dr. Rat Ratt Poison

Sorry I'm late.

I always thought that "he shoots, he scores" was backassward...

Yeah, it was a fad that had its moment. But you can still find bands gigging w/it. Just not as many (bands or gigs). One thing it did was create a "niche" market for a general style that hadn't had one in quite a while. Oughta be good for another 5-15 years or so, depending on who we're talking about. As long as there's school clinic gigs to be had, maybe even longer. Disco is still around, believe me. It's just evolved and grown and gone back underground. Serious dancers & serious clubbing will never go away.