Just like the title says kids, Alan Licht was at work last night, to discuss his new book (Sound Art, Rizzoli), “Ensemble” and the environmental elements affecting improvisational music. The talk culminated in a screening of Text of Light, an ongoing series of improv-music-meets-silent-film collaborations with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. (This particular piece involved Stan Brakhage’s The Text of Light.) While the talk was a little on the dry side, the discussion of incidental sounds in performance gave me something to gnaw on for a couple hours.

Later, I caught Kinski at Johnny Brenda’s. While there was a small crowd (emphasis on small), a couple of the audience members took it upon themselves to document the performance with their cameras. I don’t object to people photographing shows at all, but the flashes were constant through the duration of the set. Some photogs only shoot for one song, others stretch it out to two or three — but that’s pretty generous. Consider putting down the camera if you can’t grab any good shots after a few songs! Anyway, while it may not have been incidental sound, it became an element of the performance nonetheless. But unlike Licht’s thought about external influences matching up to performance at hand, the non-stop flashes did little to enhance the action onstage. In fact, it detracted from the show overall. Way to ruin the fun, dudes.

Kinski were pretty great and their new record is a personal favorite (in a year where I’ve been pretty disappointed with music). The new songs hold up well live, but Kinski’s always been quite good at translating their records to the stage. It never really hit me until last night but “Dayroom At Narita Int’l” sounds more and more like an outtake from Watery Domestic, especially the frayed melodic structure of the guitar solos. I rarely listen to Pavement these days (sometimes I wonder if I actually ever liked them in the first place), but it’s funny how pervasive their influence is — creeping up when I least expect it.

(While it’s still fresh in my mind: Licht’s argument that improv can match up to the experience draws upon the concept of inverse presence, coincedentally.)

I’m only a couple chapters into Marc Masters’ forthcoming book, No Wave (Black Dog Publishing), and it’s fantastic. For once, believe the hype. Every page turn has a new quote that resonates with me on an intense personal level. I’d go into more detail, but I’d rather finish the whole damn thing first.

Not sure of the exact release date, but it should be due out stateside very soon. You can reserve a copy through Amazon, or just wait for it to hit your local, independent retailer.

Nope, I’m not making this up. Thursday and Friday there is a symposium on James Brown (!!!) at Princeton, and Xgau is coming into the studio to talk about it tomorrow:

On Wednesday 11/28 at 6:30PM EST, Matt (host of “Rhythm of the One”) will interview Robert Christgau, Ferris Fellow of Humanities at Princeton University and the “Dean of American rock critics”. He’ll discuss his work at Princeton, and the upcoming symposium “Ain’t that a Groove: The Genius of James Brown” presented by Center for African American Studies.

Visit WPRB and tune in. Personally, I would like to hear Xgau rate the record reviews we put on all the music in the library. That would be hilarious/awesome.

Fun times today at WPRB! Ned was my special guest in the studio. This turned out to be a very good thing because there was no way possible I could have handled the station on my own. Earlier in the day I had consumed two GIGANTIC mugs of coffee — probably the equivalent of four cups at the Green Line. I was a mess, for serious.

Perhaps that’s why I lost my on-air bet with Ned over the proper way to pronounce “Sonic Unyon”. Two whole dollars were at stake, and we sent an email to our friend Sean over at the label. As it turns out, I have been pronouncing it totally wrong all these years and I am out one dollar. Bah! Ned, I’ll get you, I mean it. Next time around we’ll rematch with yet another frequently misprounounced band/label/artist/etc name.

Big thanks to all who called in, texted, emailed or instant messaged — it was certainly appreciated!

11/23/07 | WPRB 103.3FM | 15:00 - 17:00
Songs in italics are Ned’s contributions to this show. Thanks, Ned!

sea saw - stereo - sea saw
——————————-
ruby & the party gang - hey shut ruby shut your mouth - the sound of philadelphia - C
stormy - the devastator - eccentric soul: twilight’s lunar rotation - C
sarolta zalatnay - egyser - sarolta zalatnay - N
his name is alive - november cotton flower - sweet earth flower: a tribute to marion brown - N
simply saucer - mole machine - cyborgs revisited
lovechild - six of one - 7″
jay reatard - nightmares - blood visions - N
——————————-
jad fair with strobe talbot - daydreamy - twenty pop songs
the aristocrats - dont go - cold heat vol 1: 1968-1974 - C
arthur russell - a little lost - the world of arthur russell
the constantines - ride on - live on jon solomon’s show (8/17/2005)
red buckets - something else again - id rather be in philadelphia - C R
fire engines - everything’s roses - hungry beat - N
no age - boy void - weirdo rippers - N
——————————-
wreckless eric - semaphore signals - big smash - N
st thomas - the cool song - im coming home
georgie james - comfortable headphones - places - N
helium - oh the wind and the rain - the dirt of luck
lush - bitter - scar
——————————-
fiery furnaces - my egyptian grammar - widow city - N
edith massey - punks, get off the grass - 7
boat - illustrate the history - lets drag our feet - N
C.O.C.O - you think but you dont / tamara dobson - play drums & bass - N
lonzine wright - i’ve been searchin’ - this funky thing - C
——————————-
look blue go purple - safety in cross words - bewitched EP
yung wu - shore leave - shore leave

I lost a day of my life yesterday thanks to a sinus infection (Dear Weather: stick with one temperature PLZKTHX) but anyway, HAPPY THANKSGIVING. Hope it was a good one!

I’m on the air today at WPRB 3-5PM EST with a special guest (Ned of No Love For Ned). So if you’re trying to reverse the effects of tryptophan, cope with Black Friday, I’m here for you.

http://www.wprb.com/ or 103.3 FM

Contact: 609 2580 1033 / requests@wprb.com / aim: wprbdj

Chunklet on what’s probably the first public appearance of long standing comedic favorite, Philly Boy Roy.

If Philadelphia’s as bad as we make it sound, why weren’t we placed higher in the new “Most Dangerous City” rankings? This what happens when questionable data is made available….

Experts say ‘most dangerous city’ rankings twist numbers

DETROIT, Michigan (AP) — In another blow to the Motor City’s tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the
nation’s most dangerous city, according to a private research group’s controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics.

The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as “an irresponsible misuse” of crime data.

The 14th annual “City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America” was published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional
Quarterly Inc. It is based on the FBI’s September 24 crime statistics report.

The report looked at 378 cities with at least 75,000 people and their per-capita rates for homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and auto theft. Each crime category was considered separately and weighted based on its seriousness, CQ Press said.

[...]

“Every year this organization sends out a press release with big, bold lettering that labels a certain city as Most Dangerous, USA,” Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said in the release.

“It really makes you wonder if the organization is truly concerned with evaluating crime or increasing their profit,” said Bully-Cummings, who noted the complete report is available only by purchase. “With crime experts across the country routinely denouncing the findings, I believe the answer is clear.”

The mayor of 30th-ranked Rochester, New York — an ex-police chief himself — said the study’s authors should consider the harm that the report causes.

“What I take exception to is the use of these statistics and the damage they inflict on a number of these cities,” said Mayor Robert Duffy, chairman of the Criminal and Social Justice Committee for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

The rankings “do groundless harm to many communities,” said Michael Tonry, president of the American Society of Criminology.

“They also work against a key goal of our society, which is a better understanding of crime-related issues by both scientists and the public,” Tonry said.

Critics also complain that numbers don’t tell the whole story because of differences among cities.

“You’re not comparing apples and oranges; you’re comparing watermelons and grapes,” said Rob Casey, who heads the FBI
section that puts out the Uniform Crime Report that provides the data for the Quitno report.

The FBI posted a statement on its Web site criticizing such use of its statistics.

“These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region,” the FBI said. “Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents.”

Read on for the whole article, as well as CQ’s defense of their report. Additionally, I’m just terribly amused that there’s a city police chief with the name “bully” — that must make for some hilarious local headlines.

Thanks to Idolator, I was tipped off to the NYT article on “No Music Day”, which occurs this Wednesday, 11/21. I already participated in Shutdown Day 2007, so I think I’ll give it a shot.

Diehard/crazy/insane fans of the Constantines may remember that the “Young Lions” video never reached the public eye. According to someone on the Con’s LJ group (oh yes, I’m that nerdy), the band was unsatisfied with the ending of the video. Have a look — the animation’s pretty fantastic, but I think I understand why they might have not been too into it. Like someone said, it’s a fairly bleak treatment for a seemingly freewheelin’ song:

The end of the semester draws near and I find myself buried under a couple of huge projects (which I’ll discuss at a later point). Anyway, I wanted to jot down some thoughts about recent events:

» About 2 weeks back my job hosted a panel discussion (”Music Writing in the Age of Convergence”). The usual suspects of the Old Guard decried their dethronement from the critical pedestal (for the record, some of us lowly bloggers can distinguish between D-sharp and D-flat, thankyouverymuch), alternative weeklies are still fumbling around in the dark, and the lone representative from an online site held its cards close to the chest. For the most part it was unsatisfying, leaving me thankful that I went back to school.

» In academic nerdom, Pew Research Center recently released a report on the growing gap between the values of lower and middle-class African-Americans [via ProHipHop] that’s raising some eyebrows. I’ll definitely give it a closer look soon enough, but a couple of quick thoughts upon first glance: 1a) It appears to be number-crunching of a survey with very little qualitative analysis. 1b) Some of the survey questions may be a bit murky (”Rap” and “Hip hop” are used interchangeably.) 2) There’s a lot of effects theory guiding the report, putting a nice amount of blame upon the shoulders of rap music and other media. But it’s there if you want to check it out and share your thoughts.

» Despite the lameness of the World Café Live, Pylon totally brought the rock Saturday night. Vanessa said there more people dancing here than at the NYC show, so score one for us — both shows were pretty heavy with the audience participation, however. Openers New Sound of Numbers sound like a cross between Delta 5 and ESG, sprinkled with psych influences. Yup, I approve.

The New Sound of Numbers, “Tuning the Air”
Buy: Cloud Recordings or Myspace (via SnoCap)