Geekoid's World of Music

Anteater · 07-30-2012, 07:39 PM

Wow Geekoid, I'm really diggin' your World Of Music here, lol! You've already covered quite a bit of interesting ground in such a short time, particularly Hauntology and talking about your background a bit.

Writing, no matter where you do it, is a lonely process. On top of that, it requires discipline. I know I've had trouble maintaining some of my past threads here on MB, that's for sure.

Still, this is a great journal, so keep it up!

PS: In regards to Christian artists, here's one guy who's in a world all his own. Enjoy.

Terrible Lizard · 07-30-2012, 07:55 PM

Dat Hauntology stuff is darksome, and quite wonderful. Would've included it in my scariest albums of all time list had I'd known about it back then.

Blarobbarg · 07-30-2012, 11:38 PM

Damn, Geekoid! This thread is awesome! I loved reading about the music of your childhood, the post on Hauntology was enlightening and fascinating, and as a Christian, I sincerely appreciate your post on Christian music. Most of it sucks. But, as you said, there is a lot of good stuff out there that goes unnoticed, for the reasons you stated. I'll have to look into that Alexia band, they sound pretty interesting.

Keep it up!

Geekoid · 07-31-2012, 11:51 PM

....
I don't really know what to say but, well, thanks

As much as I'd like to pretend it isn't true, I tend to go into "panic mode" with blogs and journals after a few posts, and I start doubting my direction/ self-confidence. But if I want to be a professional writer one day, I'm going to have to keep pressing on.

So, yeah, thanks for the boost, guys

Anteater- Thanks, man. More to come in my "Roots" section. I'm hoping those entries will take shape over time to provide a complete and detailed picture of my background in music, which is still a kind of fuzzy framework in my mind, begging to be solidified.

Ole Borud is pretty much exactly the kind of thing I like! It calls to mind your Muzak blog. Just when I think I'm about to reach the extent of underrated CCM, something new always pops up. Awesome. Thanx.

Terrible Lizard- Glad you like it. And indeed, darksome is certainly the word to describe it. I really loved your Scariest Albums of All Time thread, and was hoping there might be some Hauntology in the mix (even though it's fairly obscure, I suppose). But yeah, I checked it out a little while ago when I was trying to find some old threads that piqued my interest. Did you get around to finishing it? I don't remember.

Blarobbarg It's always nice to get your input, and I'm glad you've been enjoying my posts so far. More Sunday Posts to come (hopefully there will be one for every Sunday I'm online).

I'm currently dreaming up my next post, which should make its appearance some time tomorrow. Stay tuned

Geekoid · 08-01-2012, 04:01 PM

_____________________________________

A Tribute to My Mom
The introduction continues...

As I mentioned before, both of my parents have had a strong impact on the kind of music I'm into. But while my dad is more into music than my mom, I think she ended up influencing my tastes just as much as he did. I seem to be one of the rare few that has as much in common with one parent as the other, even though in temperament, people say I reflect more of my mom's quiet, passive and melancholy nature.

My parents are opposite in so many ways, but where they meet in the middle in terms of music is their mutual love of Jazz and R&B. When we were still only a family of four and we all had more free time to spend, they would sometimes dance together (my dad is a very good dancer); accompanied by slow, romantic vocal Jazz; Ella Fitzgerald, Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr., Frank Sinatra... It was like watching a scene from a movie, but with a chemistry that no TV screen experience could ever match. My sister and I would sit and read quietly together on the couch before bedtime, humming along to whatever melodies we knew, and commenting on the songs we liked the best. We were never really the kinds of kids that cringed when a couple shared long stare and a kiss. Romance, it appears, is in our blood. My parents never sing or dance in public, and they haven't had the time or energy to for years now, so those memories are very special to me. This was their favorite song to dance to...

My mother's vocal jazz has carved itself a home in my musical taste,
and has become one of my deeper roots. Some examples...

Spoiler for ...more vocal jazz...:

If there is one reference I could use to describe my parents' relationship, it could surely be likened to Beauty and the Beast. In fact, Beauty and the Beast is one of my mom's favorite movies. She loves musicals and old Hollywood films with a sophisticated feel. Dramatic art that really stirs the emotions. To me, my mom was most certainly Belle; she has that same kind of delicacy, the same thirst for adventure, and an enthusiasm for books and etiquette. Her favorite movie (and soundtrack from a movie) is probably "You've Got Mail." I keep on wishing that she'll be able to have her own Shop Around the Corner one day.

The one other influence that stems from my mom's taste is probably the female singer-songwriters of the late 80s and early 90s, like Suzanne Vega, Sinead O'Connor and Alanis Morissette. I really got into the female vocalists that dominated 90s Top 40 radio, and it's mostly due to her influence. I was brought up with the values of compassion, honesty and emotional strength. These artists were the backdrop to these values.

It seems to me that I have this kind of perfect ying & yang, Anima & Animus balance between my more "masculine" taste and my more "feminine" taste, with my parents being the archetypal examples of each, and myself falling somewhere in between. I've always found it to be the case that I've never really had this urge to exaggerate my "manliness" that I noticed in other boys; although I've always thought of myself as being masculine anyway; just more of a dreamer and romantic than is usual. Because I was always so close to my mom, and talked about nearly anything and everything with her, I think I always had an easier time having conversations with girls and women than most of the guys I grew up with.

_____________________________________

Terrible Lizard · 08-01-2012, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geekoid

....
Terrible Lizard- Glad you like it. And indeed, darksome is certainly the word to describe it. I really loved your Scariest Albums of All Time thread, and was hoping there might be some Hauntology in the mix (even though it's fairly obscure, I suppose). But yeah, I checked it out a little while ago when I was trying to find some old threads that piqued my interest. Did you get around to finishing it? I don't remember.

Left it with blue balls, planning to finish the motherfucker this October.

Geekoid · 08-03-2012, 12:53 AM

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

Part 1
I realized that in all the time I've been seriously listening to music, I've never really thought much about my 'relationship' with one of my top favorite artists. So, here it is. I've been adding to this little by little over the past few days, so this is going to be a two parter (I want it to be complete). Pt. 1 will be a sort of overview; Pt. 2 a sort of album review section.

OK, so my dicovery of Bjork’s music dates back to 2007 when I still had LaunchCast radio (before they defunced it for copyright reasons), and I remember thinking; “wow, she’s a bit intimidating." and then "This must be the kind of music those super ultra-modern people listen to at big expensive parties. How pretentious.”

Her music kept coming up, despite my reservations. And so, as I started to grow familiar with the melodies, the instrumentation, her distinctive, unforgetable vocal style; I started to catch the bug. So many artists that seem strange and alien at first end up not being so different from myself, and throughout the 5 years I’ve been getting to know Bjork, I seem to have found in her something of a kindred spirit.

In many ways, Bjork is actually a muse for me in my artistic pursuits. Her emphasis on concept, genuine self-expression, and her one-of-a-kind style remind me that people are interested in looking at things in new ways, maybe even the iconoclastic ways that I like to look at things.

As I mentioned before in the Bjork thread, and from my own experience with her music, I feel she is often misunderstood by the masses. Much of this distorted impression seems to come from the normative view of the media, in which anything beyond a certain point left of center is something to be analyzed by means of simplistic deduction. Bjork herself has said that there is often some creative liberty that journalists take with her life story, (a fact that she's actually proud of).

I agree with the notion that genius comes with more than a just hint of eccentricity; and most people don't really know what to make of eccentric personalities, especially in the art world. Therefore, they often risk missing the genius for the idiosyncrasy. But sometimes it takes following an artist into their own personal rabbit hole to discover their curious and impressive imaginary world. Music is an incredible medium in which to do so.

For the aforementioned reasons, there is only one high quality interview that I've ever seen Bjork give; and that's because - for once - the interviewer seemed genuinely interested in her artistic perspective, instead of her artistic persona- she asked the right questions. If you watch most other interviews available online, there is usually a sense that the interviewer is treating her as a novelty- neither taking her seriously nor caring about her seemingly left-field ideas, dismissing them as mere quirky statements spoken in a charming Icelandic accent. For someone with well-developed and complex philosophies about their art, a brief appearance on the Conan O'Brien show in front of an audience expecting some witty back and forth isn't really the ideal situation.

There might be some good that comes from being an artist ahead of her time. It allows Bjork to maintain a sort of enigmatic, legendary status, in which people never seem to have a good grasp on who she is. After all, most of us will never know her personally anyway. It probably also means that she can enjoy much more privacy than other artists of similar celebrity; although I could be wrong about that.

In this interview, which is probably one of the longest and most scintillating I've seen her give, you get to see Bjork open up in a way she rarely ever does. There are so many insights shared, and a lot of things she says, I've been able to relate to throughout most of my life. It has become one of my favorite interviews of all time.

I was particularly interested in her reminiscence about her 10 years in music school. It called to mind my own rebellious stance toward the schools I went to. Really, our upbringings were somewhat similar. I essentially lived at my nan's house on the next street over, where she taught a school for kids with learning disabilities. (I don't have a learning disability, so I went as an alternative to public school). My grandpa, who taught me about astronomy and geography, is a scientist, a former "hippie", and an environmentalist who is resolute that capitalism will be our demise. The school had a somewhat utopian setup; everyone I went to school with was either a friend of the family or a cousin. As far as we knew, there was no such thing as bullies, there was practically no schedule, and learning was almost as fluid and natural as breathing. Up until I was nearly 7 years old, I had already learned high school level geography, art theory and astronomy.

The switch over to public school was rough. I had to deal with all the pressure to conform, "behave" (act like all the other kids), and stay structured. I didn't, though. I was a "good kid", but hopelessly abnormal. And teachers didn't like it. Like Bjork, I spent some time in the principal's office for my insubordination. I think one of the reasons I got so into Bjork's music is that we are both people of intuition, who like doing our own thing in our own way, even when some people don't understand, and sometimes when it's against the "rules".

I realized also that both of us like to build bridges between the same kinds of opposites. In art, I like to feel that there's a sense of harmony between feelings and knowledge; the self-expressive aspect and the conceptual aspect; what is accessible and what is alien; between the ideas of technology and nature, the urban and rural, the electronic and acoustic. Like I explored in the second part of the tribute to my dad (in regard to electronic music), I've never felt a sense of alienation from the electronic world; but rather a sense of harmony with it; it sparks my imagination, and hightens my creativity. If Bjork is right, each up and coming generation will likely feel more comfortable with those more electric elements of life, which are inherently a part of our very nature.

Like Bjork, I too am late to the game when it comes to breaking away from my family life and finding those people that I can identify with and learn from. It's really an act of courage to stake out your own life, and embrace maturity and adulthood in that way. Hopefully in the coming years, my art will develop into something that means as much to other people as it does to me, and expresses who I am as a free standing entity. And who knows, maybe they'll take notice in bigger ways than I could expect.
_____________________________________

Geekoid · 08-03-2012, 08:42 PM

Umm, just wondering if my latest post got deleted somehow; or maybe wasn't approved for some reason. I hope not, since posting part 2 wouldn't be very beneficial without part 1. It's ready and waiting in the wings.

...Moderators? Any word? Thank you

Trollheart · 08-04-2012, 06:13 AM

I think the whole site had a problem yesterday: my own posts took about a day to be approved, and last time I came here the site was taking literally ten minutes to load, and then only partially. So I'd say the guys had more on their plate trying to fix the site, and our posts just got (rightly) pushed to the side.

As you can no doubt see now, all has been restored, and normal service has been resumed.

**Janszoon** · 08-04-2012, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Geekoid

Umm, just wondering if my latest post got deleted somehow; or maybe wasn't approved for some reason. I hope not, since posting part 2 wouldn't be very beneficial without part 1. It's ready and waiting in the wings.

...Moderators? Any word? Thank you

What was the content of the post you're missing? I don't see anything that wasn't approved.

07-30-2012, 07:55 PM	#12 (permalink)
Terrible Lizard **ER OF HOLES Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Butt**, Nebraska Posts: 1,211	Dat Hauntology stuff is darksome, and quite wonderful. Would've included it in my scariest albums of all time list had I'd known about it back then. __________________ “YOU ARE SCUM SLUT.” -John Martyn

07-30-2012, 11:38 PM	#13 (permalink)
Blarobbarg Do good. Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Posts: 2,065	Damn, Geekoid! This thread is awesome! I loved reading about the music of your childhood, the post on Hauntology was enlightening and fascinating, and as a Christian, I sincerely appreciate your post on Christian music. Most of it sucks. But, as you said, there is a lot of good stuff out there that goes unnoticed, for the reasons you stated. I'll have to look into that Alexia band, they sound pretty interesting. Keep it up! __________________ https://rateyourmusic.com/~Blarobbarg ｡･::･ﾟ★,｡･::･ﾟ☆　^my RYM^　｡･::･ﾟ★,｡･::･ﾟ☆ (◠‿◠✿)

08-04-2012, 06:13 AM	#19 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,992	I think the whole site had a problem yesterday: my own posts took about a day to be approved, and last time I came here the site was taking literally ten minutes to load, and then only partially. So I'd say the guys had more on their plate trying to fix the site, and our posts just got (rightly) pushed to the side. As you can no doubt see now, all has been restored, and normal service has been resumed. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

07-31-2012, 11:51 PM	#14 (permalink)
Geekoid Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 171	.... I don't really know what to say but, well, thanks As much as I'd like to pretend it isn't true, I tend to go into "panic mode" with blogs and journals after a few posts, and I start doubting my direction/ self-confidence. But if I want to be a professional writer one day, I'm going to have to keep pressing on. So, yeah, thanks for the boost, guys Anteater- Thanks, man. More to come in my "Roots" section. I'm hoping those entries will take shape over time to provide a complete and detailed picture of my background in music, which is still a kind of fuzzy framework in my mind, begging to be solidified. Ole Borud is pretty much exactly the kind of thing I like! It calls to mind your Muzak blog. Just when I think I'm about to reach the extent of underrated CCM, something new always pops up. Awesome. Thanx. Terrible Lizard- Glad you like it. And indeed, darksome is certainly the word to describe it. I really loved your Scariest Albums of All Time thread, and was hoping there might be some Hauntology in the mix (even though it's fairly obscure, I suppose). But yeah, I checked it out a little while ago when I was trying to find some old threads that piqued my interest. Did you get around to finishing it? I don't remember. Blarobbarg It's always nice to get your input, and I'm glad you've been enjoying my posts so far. More Sunday Posts to come (hopefully there will be one for every Sunday I'm online). I'm currently dreaming up my next post, which should make its appearance some time tomorrow. Stay tuned

08-01-2012, 04:01 PM	#15 (permalink)
Geekoid Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 171	_____________________________________ A Tribute to My Mom The introduction continues... As I mentioned before, both of my parents have had a strong impact on the kind of music I'm into. But while my dad is more into music than my mom, I think she ended up influencing my tastes just as much as he did. I seem to be one of the rare few that has as much in common with one parent as the other, even though in temperament, people say I reflect more of my mom's quiet, passive and melancholy nature. My parents are opposite in so many ways, but where they meet in the middle in terms of music is their mutual love of Jazz and R&B. When we were still only a family of four and we all had more free time to spend, they would sometimes dance together (my dad is a very good dancer); accompanied by slow, romantic vocal Jazz; Ella Fitzgerald, Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr., Frank Sinatra... It was like watching a scene from a movie, but with a chemistry that no TV screen experience could ever match. My sister and I would sit and read quietly together on the couch before bedtime, humming along to whatever melodies we knew, and commenting on the songs we liked the best. We were never really the kinds of kids that cringed when a couple shared long stare and a kiss. Romance, it appears, is in our blood. My parents never sing or dance in public, and they haven't had the time or energy to for years now, so those memories are very special to me. This was their favorite song to dance to... My mother's vocal jazz has carved itself a home in my musical taste, and has become one of my deeper roots. Some examples... Spoiler for ...more vocal jazz...: If there is one reference I could use to describe my parents' relationship, it could surely be likened to Beauty and the Beast. In fact, Beauty and the Beast is one of my mom's favorite movies. She loves musicals and old Hollywood films with a sophisticated feel. Dramatic art that really stirs the emotions. To me, my mom was most certainly Belle; she has that same kind of delicacy, the same thirst for adventure, and an enthusiasm for books and etiquette. Her favorite movie (and soundtrack from a movie) is probably "You've Got Mail." I keep on wishing that she'll be able to have her own Shop Around the Corner one day. The one other influence that stems from my mom's taste is probably the female singer-songwriters of the late 80s and early 90s, like Suzanne Vega, Sinead O'Connor and Alanis Morissette. I really got into the female vocalists that dominated 90s Top 40 radio, and it's mostly due to her influence. I was brought up with the values of compassion, honesty and emotional strength. These artists were the backdrop to these values. It seems to me that I have this kind of perfect ying & yang, Anima & Animus balance between my more "masculine" taste and my more "feminine" taste, with my parents being the archetypal examples of each, and myself falling somewhere in between. I've always found it to be the case that I've never really had this urge to exaggerate my "manliness" that I noticed in other boys; although I've always thought of myself as being masculine anyway; just more of a dreamer and romantic than is usual. Because I was always so close to my mom, and talked about nearly anything and everything with her, I think I always had an easier time having conversations with girls and women than most of the guys I grew up with. _____________________________________

08-03-2012, 12:53 AM	#17 (permalink)
Geekoid Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 171	_____________________________________ _____________________________________ Part 1 I realized that in all the time I've been seriously listening to music, I've never really thought much about my 'relationship' with one of my top favorite artists. So, here it is. I've been adding to this little by little over the past few days, so this is going to be a two parter (I want it to be complete). Pt. 1 will be a sort of overview; Pt. 2 a sort of album review section. OK, so my dicovery of Bjork’s music dates back to 2007 when I still had LaunchCast radio (before they defunced it for copyright reasons), and I remember thinking; “wow, she’s a bit intimidating." and then "This must be the kind of music those super ultra-modern people listen to at big expensive parties. How pretentious.” Her music kept coming up, despite my reservations. And so, as I started to grow familiar with the melodies, the instrumentation, her distinctive, unforgetable vocal style; I started to catch the bug. So many artists that seem strange and alien at first end up not being so different from myself, and throughout the 5 years I’ve been getting to know Bjork, I seem to have found in her something of a kindred spirit. In many ways, Bjork is actually a muse for me in my artistic pursuits. Her emphasis on concept, genuine self-expression, and her one-of-a-kind style remind me that people are interested in looking at things in new ways, maybe even the iconoclastic ways that I like to look at things. As I mentioned before in the Bjork thread, and from my own experience with her music, I feel she is often misunderstood by the masses. Much of this distorted impression seems to come from the normative view of the media, in which anything beyond a certain point left of center is something to be analyzed by means of simplistic deduction. Bjork herself has said that there is often some creative liberty that journalists take with her life story, (a fact that she's actually proud of). I agree with the notion that genius comes with more than a just hint of eccentricity; and most people don't really know what to make of eccentric personalities, especially in the art world. Therefore, they often risk missing the genius for the idiosyncrasy. But sometimes it takes following an artist into their own personal rabbit hole to discover their curious and impressive imaginary world. Music is an incredible medium in which to do so. For the aforementioned reasons, there is only one high quality interview that I've ever seen Bjork give; and that's because - for once - the interviewer seemed genuinely interested in her artistic perspective, instead of her artistic persona- she asked the right questions. If you watch most other interviews available online, there is usually a sense that the interviewer is treating her as a novelty- neither taking her seriously nor caring about her seemingly left-field ideas, dismissing them as mere quirky statements spoken in a charming Icelandic accent. For someone with well-developed and complex philosophies about their art, a brief appearance on the Conan O'Brien show in front of an audience expecting some witty back and forth isn't really the ideal situation. There might be some good that comes from being an artist ahead of her time. It allows Bjork to maintain a sort of enigmatic, legendary status, in which people never seem to have a good grasp on who she is. After all, most of us will never know her personally anyway. It probably also means that she can enjoy much more privacy than other artists of similar celebrity; although I could be wrong about that. In this interview, which is probably one of the longest and most scintillating I've seen her give, you get to see Bjork open up in a way she rarely ever does. There are so many insights shared, and a lot of things she says, I've been able to relate to throughout most of my life. It has become one of my favorite interviews of all time. I was particularly interested in her reminiscence about her 10 years in music school. It called to mind my own rebellious stance toward the schools I went to. Really, our upbringings were somewhat similar. I essentially lived at my nan's house on the next street over, where she taught a school for kids with learning disabilities. (I don't have a learning disability, so I went as an alternative to public school). My grandpa, who taught me about astronomy and geography, is a scientist, a former "hippie", and an environmentalist who is resolute that capitalism will be our demise. The school had a somewhat utopian setup; everyone I went to school with was either a friend of the family or a cousin. As far as we knew, there was no such thing as bullies, there was practically no schedule, and learning was almost as fluid and natural as breathing. Up until I was nearly 7 years old, I had already learned high school level geography, art theory and astronomy. The switch over to public school was rough. I had to deal with all the pressure to conform, "behave" (act like all the other kids), and stay structured. I didn't, though. I was a "good kid", but hopelessly abnormal. And teachers didn't like it. Like Bjork, I spent some time in the principal's office for my insubordination. I think one of the reasons I got so into Bjork's music is that we are both people of intuition, who like doing our own thing in our own way, even when some people don't understand, and sometimes when it's against the "rules". I realized also that both of us like to build bridges between the same kinds of opposites. In art, I like to feel that there's a sense of harmony between feelings and knowledge; the self-expressive aspect and the conceptual aspect; what is accessible and what is alien; between the ideas of technology and nature, the urban and rural, the electronic and acoustic. Like I explored in the second part of the tribute to my dad (in regard to electronic music), I've never felt a sense of alienation from the electronic world; but rather a sense of harmony with it; it sparks my imagination, and hightens my creativity. If Bjork is right, each up and coming generation will likely feel more comfortable with those more electric elements of life, which are inherently a part of our very nature. Like Bjork, I too am late to the game when it comes to breaking away from my family life and finding those people that I can identify with and learn from. It's really an act of courage to stake out your own life, and embrace maturity and adulthood in that way. Hopefully in the coming years, my art will develop into something that means as much to other people as it does to me, and expresses who I am as a free standing entity. And who knows, maybe they'll take notice in bigger ways than I could expect. _____________________________________

08-03-2012, 08:42 PM	#18 (permalink)
Geekoid Music Addict Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 171	Umm, just wondering if my latest post got deleted somehow; or maybe wasn't approved for some reason. I hope not, since posting part 2 wouldn't be very beneficial without part 1. It's ready and waiting in the wings. ...Moderators? Any word? Thank you