Expressed Interest

I’ve listened through most of the Owl City songs, and I finally figured out what’s been bothering me about the sound, and it’s not auto-tune.  Surprising?  I thought so.  It’s easy to point at auto-tune as the culprit for formulaic pop music sounding bad because it’s distinctive; when you modify voices in post-production, it’s the first thing music fans are going to notice.  But auto-tune works here, so what’s the problem?

 

Issue #1: Lyrical content

This is a slightly-altered version of my rant to Kyle about Owl City lyrics.

To make an Owl City track, add:

• One part “Calllliforrrrnia” or another whimsical locale
• One part mountains/hills/sky
• Two to four parts metaphors for love
• Two parts description of “seeing her” or “meeting her”
• One part weather
• One to three parts normally obscure everyday object(s)
• Mix the above with pared-down background beat and auto-tune

You can test your favorite Owl City songs, you’ll see a pattern developing.

Issue #2: Emotion in the sound

This is a more important issue, and don’t confuse “emotion” here with “emo” music and the like.  Most songs I listen to have built-in emotion in the swelling and shrinking of background music, the energy in the lead’s vocals, and quick changes of rhythm and pitch at key moments.  Obviously not all songs have all of the things above, but in general, you can identify where the substance of the work has been established.

Owl City missed this, plain and simple.  The vast majority of the songs start at one volume and end at that volume.  They start with the same auto-tuned, happy-go-lucky sound of Adam Young’s voice that stays exactly the same tonally for the duration.  The only change might be the addition of an extra synth or layer of electronic drums to indicate “this is the chorus now.”  In general, listening to this stuff might make great background music, because it doesn’t stand out on its own.  It’s also no surprise that Fireflies elicited a “that’s not bad” response from me when I first heard it; it might be the most emotional song the band has produced.

I guess it’s just not my style.

 

Fireflies Video: http://bit.ly/7wLaqk

Owl City On Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_city

It’s time for the second half of my impressions from Sundance, which includes my other “try and see this” recommendation from the week.  At least there wasn’t another “Splice” in this group.  (The photo above is from a bar up in Park City; we were there for the last day of our trip.) Also, this may be an obvious point, but if you get a chance, try to get to a music or film festival, even if it’s not Sundance.  It’s cliché to say “it made me appreciate what I was watching so much more.”  It’s also true, and if you’re a movie fan, make it a vacation.  You’ll have plenty to discuss.

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Sundance was an amazing experience, and it won’t be my last time at the festival.  I saw the six movies above, and they were all wildly different and mostly entertaining.  Seeing these with Patrick and Nick added another dimension (mainly, someone to chuckle at my insensitive jokes.)  And don’t forget director/actor Q&A after the film, which might have been my favorite part of the festival.  Everyone in the theater had genuine interest in the proceedings, and the people who dedicated themselves to the film wanted to impress the audience.  Usually, this ended well. I’ve got my take on the first three movies (the left side of the tickets).  I’ll save my second round for later.  Let’s start with a bang…

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Give me that cliché, Johnny! "Back in the old days, life was simpler." No really, it was.  There was less TO DO.  The emphasis is, of course, my own here.  Consider this: every conceivable measurement of time available to us (minutes to centuries) from the current time has at-or-near exponential information growth.  We are inundated with stuff, most of it garbage, that simply wasn't available to previous generations because they hadn't built the circuit boards to handle its flow yet.  Well now, we have it all, and it has positive and negative aspects.  The potential for learning is literally unbounded; we can never learn it all anyway, so we get to pick and choose to the nth degree.  But we have to get smarter, we need to evolve even, to make sense of the "news" overload that is now commonplace in the developed world. Genetically, I have my doubts on our ability to handle the data that we are being hit with now (See "migraines").  But we are sentient beings, so hit me with another cliché: "Fight fire with fire." Done.  Below are software tools to help you fight the personal information crisis caused largely by software.  If you can't taste the drip, drip, drip of irony falling in to your drink of choice, use a palate cleanser and retry.  Or not; it's really up to you. ---

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Halftime adjustments (or lack thereof) cost the Broncos
The NFL season has been an up-and-down affair for me.  Last week was no exception, and luckily (for you, the reader) this post will not discuss the epic collapse of the Patriots this past Sunday night.  It was front-page-of-the-paper material in many parts of the country, so you probably heard about it anyway.

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I had the wonderful gift of Talan's help during my move to Boston in August.  He drove 8 hours with my Dad just to lend a hand.  Fantastic.  And naturally, on the drive back, we had plenty of time to talk.  Topics varied, including political philosophy, education, and the good ol' days of high school.  The last of the three rarely yields particularly scintillating conversation, but nostalgia struck (and struck hard.)  You see, we reached a discussion of the most delicious meals from our hut lunch program at Blue Mountain Union. It had to be documented.  I present to you (in no particular order) the BMU Hot Lunch Hall of Fame.

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First, two tenets:

1. I really enjoy cooking.
2. I enjoy eating more.

Now that we understand the priorities, it's clear that the timing of cooking is important.  If there is limited time, there is a clear precedence.  Those of you who have seen this in action know that I transform into a fearsome beast that must eat now or else the consequences are, at best, uncomfortable for those around.  At worst is a bottom-shelf-dwelling B-movie that has literally never been rented.  And there are B-movie fans. At least, I think there are.

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Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds
I have two modes of preparation.  In some situations, I fully research and understand an event I'm going to attend.  Essentially, the who/what/where/when/why of an experience in detail, so that I can accurately define my expectations.  No need to be disappointed if you know what's coming.  A defense mechanism?  Sure.

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Cesc scores during Everton vs. Arsenal (8/15/09)
You've heard the buzz.  There's this soccer thing.  It's a sport, everyone plays it overseas, the World Cup is great, but really, it's a little daunting.  Even if you know the rules, you know you're not one of those crazy fans you see on TV with a flag and face paint.  After all, in the 'States, there's the MLS.  But you've heard it stinks. I'm here to tell you that once you're hooked on the English (read: England, not America) game, you won't go back.  I'll give you a few reasons why you should take the plunge.  Need a team to cheer for?  Viva La Arsenal!

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Is it really a moot point?
I've been alerted to some serious word massacre/ambiguity involving moot.  You see, the first definition, the historical definition, and in my opinion, the correct definition (as of five minutes ago), is "open to discussion or debate; debatable."  Is that how most people are using this word?  Not in my experience.  It's use is heavily slanted towards the second definition, which boils down to "academically relevant but practically irrelevant."  Cheap, easy, and "Americanized", this derivative has to go. Get on the case and fix the plight of moot immediately!