Digital music has new blogger kvetching

• Mike Barris' trenchant look at digital music (#1)

How does music fit into your day?

With the digital boom, integrating your favorite tunes with your lifestyle has never been easier. You can multi-task ALL YOU WANT NOW, endangering motorists, pedestrians, animals and Barry Manilow fans.

(Ah, that was a cheap shot. Barry’s fans don’t deserve that. He does, though, for his music, which was the worst kind of nauseating, commercial ’70s treacle. But ever since I saw him coaching, in a nice, musicianly way, contestants on “American Idol” – a show I am embarrassed to admit I like watching, because of the way it encourages acceptance of a lung-power-first singing style and devalues vocal panache and grace – I have newfound respect for the man who gave us “You Deserve A Break Today,” the former McDonalds theme song. But I never will forgive him for “I Write the Songs.”)

(Listen to Barry Manilow [if you dare] here:) 

That is my roundabout way of welcoming you to Open Mike, my blog on the digital-music scene. In the weeks to come, I will veer wildly between stirring up controversy and snickering at the foibles of the music biz. I can promise you this: You will approve of some of my notions, despise others and get an opportunity to give your thoughts on all of them.

Hey, why don’t we put on some tunes right now? A little Howlin' Wolf, maybe? There! Pandora is hooked up.

You know I'm a crawlin' kingsnake baby, and I rules my den
You know I'm a crawlin' kingsnake baby, and I rules my den
I don't want you hangin' around my mate,
Wanna use her for myself

Man, Howlin’ Wolf tells it like it is!  (Listen to the bluesman here:)




(See him perform on television in the mid-1960s here:)

I’m admittedly a glass-empty kind of guy (the Yiddish word “kvetch,” used in the blog sub-title, means, literally, to complain). For instance, I think it’s terrible that I’ve put only 7,000 songs on my iPod. I spend so much time meticulously crafting these precisely sequenced, themed playlists, milking each little track for all its worth, it will take me years to get to the 30,000 max - if the iPod lasts that long. Thanks to my incessant use of it, I fried my first one in three years.

You know you caught me crawlin' baby
When the, when the grass was very high
I'm just gonna keep on crawlin' now baby until the day I die,
because I'm a crawlin' kingsnake baby, and I rules my den
Don't you go hangin' around my mate, wanna use her for myself

A somewhat befuddled technology user I may be, but Pandora, or Pandora Radio, the technology that is bringing us Howlin’ Wolf, is terrific. If you don’t know, it’s an automated music-recommendation website. You just enter the song or artist you want to hear, and Pandora comes back with a playlist composed of tunes that are similar. If you’re inclined to give the list a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, Pandora factors that in to future playlists. Of course, the website makes it convenient for you to buy the tune, right there and then, at iTunes and other vendors.

It’s yet another of those digital-age innovations which manage to impart human characteristics to a machine. The software sorts tunes by thousands of musical traits, such as vocal harmonies, rhythmic synocopation, and instrumental ability. So when I put in that I want to hear songs by jazz pianist Monty Alexander, I get an amazingly well-matched set of songs not only by Alexander, but also by other pianists and jazz artists who embody Alexander’s ebullient spirit and muscular keyboard gymnastics.

(See Monty Alexander in action here:)

You know I'm gon' crawl up to your window baby,
wanna crawl up to your door, you got anything I want baby,
wanna crawl up on your floor
Because I'm a crawlin' king snake baby, and I rules my den

Which brings me to the question: Does anyone really pay attention to all those music channels on TV? They do play some good stuff, I have to admit. It’s like everything else media-related nowadays. I want to be mobile, I don’t want to be chained to the damn TV. I don’t even bother listening to the living-room stereo, anymore.

For an idea of what my well-used childhood family stereo system back in Canada looked like, go here: http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/view_images.php?cat=Vintage%20Equipment&catnick=vintage_equipment&cfid=132206&image_id=1053211

For a rough idea of what my now-neglected non-portable home-music system in New Jersey looks like, go here:
http://img169.imageshack.us/i/nadavec4155pq2.jpg/

Heh. Funny story:

This summer, Bonnie and I were meandering around in the trendy, upscale Grove Shopping Center in L.A. - next to the Farmer’s Market where the movie stars sometimes eat breakfast? We had just finished spotting Paul Mazursky – again – like, for the sixth time, or something in the last 15 years of going to L.A. – that guy is a Market legend – and we were looking at all the incredibly expensive stuff for sale in the mall. Personally, I find the mall kind of loathsome. This wonderful, charming, quaint, open-air farmers market has been around since 1934, at Fairfax and 3^rd, selling fresh produce and groceries, and they messed up its relaxed ambience by putting a giant mall next to it, just so rich Angelinos could have more places to spend their dough.

(See the Farmer's Market here: http://www.you-are-here.com/location/farmer_market.html. See the Grove Shopping Center here: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/hercwad/2761748919/.)

Anyway, as we’re strolling around, the loudspeakers are pumping out a really kick-ass song. I want to know what it is. So Bonnie whips out her iPhone and turns on the Shazam app – the one that lets you identify the tune merely by pointing the phone in the direction of the song. And man, if it doesn’t work! There we are, strolling through a damn open-air shopping plaza, and suddenly, I know that the artist who catches my ear is none other than …Vic Damone? (I meant to buy the song on iTunes when I got home, but I didn’t get around to it, so now I forget the name of the song. Truth is, I’m not a big Damone fan, but I’ve viewed him with greater respect ever since I read that Sinatra thought Damone had the “better pipes.”)

(Listen to Vic Damone performing live on the Hollywood Palace TV show in the '60s, introduced by Elizabeth Montgomery, star of TV's "Bewitched":

Anyway, the point is, there are a lot of ways to hear and manage music nowadays. We’ll look at some of them in this blog, if I ever get out of bed.

In blogs to come, I’ll try to expand the discussion by holding forth about a jazz-music downloads website, a gospel-music radio station, the status of music left “marooned” on vinyl, an amazing discovery of supposedly lost pop music, and much, much, more.

I'll post podcasts of my interviews with some of the central figures in these stories. For a taste, go here:
www.box.net/openmike101.

Wolf, take us home.

You know I'm gon' crawl up to your window baby,
wanna crawl up to your door, you got anything I want baby,
wanna crawl up on your floor
Because I'm a crawlin' king snake baby, and I rules my den