January 29ths

1/29/1999

Went to record store at noon and bought Mari Boine and Portishead live. Looking through the World section, I see so many discs that look Interesting: but it's so easy to get burned on these. Imports from Asia are interesting–their packaging is so much more alluring and inventive.

Disappointed with the Portishead CD. What they do doesn't translate to the stage. The DJ scratched thing sounds forced and overdone, but it's the only thing that makes it sound 90s. When we listen to it in 20 years, we’ll be able to trace the history.

[1/29/2025: A recent Album Years podcast on 1994 included Portishead. I liked the vibe and still revisit it sometimes. But ultimately, the vibe of a recording that relies only on the sound of recordings can’t easily be reproduced. This is the issue now with AI-generated music which sounds good as a recording but usually there’s not much actual music in it when you just play it manually or try to sing it with just a guitar

1/29/2007
            
Installation idea: “The Chair of Regret” (Sit and contemplate the things you will never accomplish, and could have).

1/29/2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Death of Music 

1/29/2025

Watched interview with David Gilmour and Polly Samson about their songwriting process. Sometimes David would scat a vocal line and Polly would write lyrics to it. That’s actually very hard to do because you are having to assign syllables to each note, which makes it very difficult to find words and phrases that have meaning. It’s better to start with words because they have music (and perhaps meaning) in them already. 

1/29/2046

(Tony Townes Diary)

Jon keeps moaning how music is dead, but it’s continued to thrive over the past several generations. Here we are still playing Life Metal.

Poe: What is Life Metal in 2046?