Blog : Mother Of All Song Contests Approaches

mother of all song contests approaches

Apparently, it's mother's day.  This may send some of you scurrying off to the phone to call your mothers.  some of us, however, were brought up to "always be good to our mother", and don't have to bother indulging in crappy hallmark sponsored sentimentality.  Of course, some of us also grew up thinking the saying "meanwhile, back at the ranch, Batman, disguised as a door, gets his knob shot off" was one of those things people said, like "a stitch in time saves nine", and think of today more as only one week until eurovision song contest 2006!  Take what you will from that.  So, in the spirit of the day, such as it is, and the wake of the recent "mothers against noise" idiocy, here's an "invisible jukebox" style piece, with my mother.  Let's face it, who cares if Jim O' Rourke can tell the difference between Bernhard Gunter albums, what does his mum think? John Zorn's mum legendarily put young Zorn under psychiatric observation because of the music he was listening to & making.  A piece of self mythologising perhaps, but you get the point... For my mum's part, you could probably sum her up as "mother ambivalent towards noise".  Her own listening is pretty broad, but doesn't go much into "experimental music" beyong Glass, Riley, etc or the occasional thing i send her because I think she might get a kick out of it - After Dinner, for example.  So there's no expecting her to pick stuff for the artist or whatever, instead, I've sent her a cd with a 10 different pieces on it, asked her to pick when & how she thinks they were made, how she'd describe them, and whether she likes them or not....

and here goes...

#1: Brothers of the Occult Sisterhood "Birds of Interspace",
"this sounds relatively recent. It has a vaguely 'eastern' sound, but not overwhelmingly so.
Percussive stuff is predominant, and it has some kind of melodic 'hook' with electronic
undertones. I'd describe it as 'hypnotic sound movement'. It's a bit similar to some stuff of yours
I find it pretty easy listening, it drifts along nicely and I can work on drawings and stuff while listening to it..."

(kyogle's finest.  I wanted to know what my mum'd think of this, as she's heard lots of the type of 'ethnic' music that inform these guys to some extent..)

#2: Whitehouse "My Cock's on Fire"
"late 20th century, sounds american & mainly electronic, mixer type 'instrumental'/'screaming frontman vocal 'feedback'  soundwall.  I've heard stuff like this before & I dont like it much, it's a bit headachy, 'blokey' and boring-one to be endured rather than enjoyed..."

(I've always kinda felt a bit like this where Whitehouse were concerned, and i just wanted to see my mum call "bullshit" on them in a really yawning unoffended way, which she did.  Petty & juvenile , I know, but not as much as Whitehouse.  If you must have your noise "evil" and menacing, try Consumer Electronics "Teenage Nuremburg" or Runzelstirn & Girglestock "Asshole/ Snail Dilemma" , or if you want your well meaning socially positive perspectives 'challenged' through verbal insult, maybe Jim Roche's learning to count is for you.. consider yourself officially warned http://www.ubu.com/sound/roche.html )

#3: Sue Harding "Dot Matrix #7"
"can't nominate definitive time for this one. It's electronic pulses with changing patterns and rhythms & buzzy sounds.  I've heard stuff like this when you've visited & it's ok up to a point, but it doesnt 'change' quickly enough.."

(With this one I wanted to see if mother would pick up on the mechanical nature of the sounds, and relate them to the printing/ photocopying etc she does at her dayjob, having commented to me on the phone that one of the machines she uses there plays "they're coming to take me away ha haaa")

#4: Jim Denley "(live excerpt from nownow 2003 cd)"
"sounds recent.  percussive, woodwind type soundlines, a continuous monotonous stream of
sound thing, 'breathy' sounds like using familiar instruments in unfamiliar ways.  It's a bit like some of things Jim Denley does.  It's quite floaty and engaging, pleasant.."

(My parents went to high school in Wollongong with Jim, and have come to see him play a couple of times, so I was curious to see if my mum could pick his stuff by hearing it...)

#5: Dom "Silence"
"dont know why but I suspect this track is earlier than the previous four, & probably american (am i right?).  Maybe because it has a more coventional instrumental techique - fairly 'musical' in a conventional sense. It gets a bit hazy or evolving into 'soundscape'- buzzes walls of voices, little bites of sound etc.  It has elements of experimental 1960s 1970s stuff, zapparesque or sgt peppers, so some bits sound quite familiar.  I don't mind this, it's pretty floaty, not too aggressive, it carries you along."

(yes, older than the others - 1975, but no, mum, it's actually german.  A lost classic of "Krautrock", if the internet is to be believed.  Wanted to see where'd you'd situate it in relation to other things in similar vein you'd have heard at the time, but probably not much since...)

#6: Beta Erko "My Headphones are Deadtones"
"I can't pinpoint a time for this one but it sounds manic! Is it ultra fast english? spanish? chinese? english!  There's some jazz done fast. very fast. It reminds me a bit of some zappa stuff, I dont mind this, actually"

(I just had to know what my mum would say about this, to see if she'd be able to decipher any of the lyrical content ("I understand the world soley as a system for cultural competition among nations" (for example)), and just well, everything...)

#7: Ruth White "Spleen"
"1980's & American.  There's vocal track with other 'backwards' tracks in the background.  I'd call it poetry evolving into soundmovement, electronics & sound bites, getting stretched/distorted etc.  This is ok if a bit pretentious, or 'heavy'."

(From an electronic treatment of Baudelaire's "flowers of evil".  Actually from 1969, but she's right, it is pretentious & heavy.  Curious to see what my mum'd say about such a text heavy piece)

#8: Josef Anton Reidl "Nr 3"
"1970s or so.  It's recordings of familiar things - cars, pianos, doors, percussive use of everyday bits and pieces.  It's like a "day in the life" or "revolution number nine" type track. I dont mind the 'changing visions' of this, the sounds are fairly picturesque.."

(1967, actually, but i guess "or so" covers that.  This is pretty much as it's described here, actually, an excellent piece of tape collage manipulation...)

#9: Snawklor "Moths Dissolving"
"I have no idea when this is from.  It sounds like plucked piano random other string instruments. percussive & electronic elements too. It's very restrained.  I must have heard (or even played) stuff a bit like this because it has a fairly familair feel to it.  It's a pleasant track, I quite like it."

(I wanted to see what my mother would make of Snawklor's mysterious sounds, how she'd think they were made...)

#10: Hototogisu "Floating Japanese Oof! Gardens of the 21st Century (side c, track 1)
"is it european? maybe 1970s, I don't know.  It sounds like percussive chimes & electronic mixer type sounds with melodic instruments.  It's got random music patterns juxtaposed to others that tend to a more 'shaped' format.  There's bits of birdsong in there, which is always a nice touch.  I dont mind this track, it builds to a nice intensity fairly smoothly & gets pretty hectic towards the end.  I can't draw to it, though."

(again, I just wanted to see what my mum'd make of this beautiful, swirling druggy mess...)

so there you have it.  Whitehouse, my mum says you're blokey & boring, give it up.  The rest of you, keep going.

My mum made the picture at left, also.  It's on painted silk, with sewn/ embroidered texture, and is a tiny detail from a huge quilt she made featuring the wildlife of northern nsw, for one of my younger cousins.  She's having her first solo exhibition in Toowoomba towards the end of the year.  My sister will be doing one around the same time, (seperately), and familial duty obliges me to plug them here, even several months in advance.  

Before you can get to those, however, you've got to survive EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2006!
Eurovision's always a big winner at half/theory HQ, especially when you get to watch it with actual Europeans - the cringe they get when they have to face their own country's entrant is priceless, because none of these idiots is representing US, as australians.  So we just get to sit back and soak in the glitz & glamour.  Huzzah!  Those of you who can't wait, might like to refresh your memory with some of the following high/ low lights of the last couple of years, along with my brief take on the directions eurovision's been taking over the last couple of years.

Greece was an especially unworthy winner last year - easily the unworthiest since "alf" (singing for austraia) was robbed in 2003 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB5QGWsffSQ . - with a terrible, bland, typical eurovision song that should have gone nowhere.   Of course, Eurovision is the accepted international home for that "Disco Will Never Die" spirit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m-TrK-orhs but this was quite a different case.  Thanks to the magnificent stage performance of Ruslana, for the Ukraine in 2004 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x7CatMaINE audiences were split between several attention grabbing stage shows, ranging from the hilariously ridiculous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4BBZWkCOdQ to the hilariously retardedly ridiculous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiV5QtEy4FA . so anyway, lets hope for a return to the stage spectacular this year.  I've quite studiously avoided watching any previews of the songs, and won't be watching the heats, having seen Ruslana at them in 2004, and instntly realising there wasn't going to be any real contest in the final.  I've hear the rumours about a certain scandanavian country and have high hopes, but really, my eyes are on Germany, who seem to have decided that Angry Anderson & the guitarist with the frizzy hair from Faith No More aren't good enough for their eurovision ticket this year.  Not even if they dress up as the snow monster
from "the empire strikes back" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2ekZ0cSWYA
and who the fuck do these cunts think they are calling this quarter arsed shit 'Nox' ?????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoInba_F048

Added by jpeatt on 14 May 2006