Tim Krauss

on corruption in the music industry

Wed, 10 May 2006 02:19:24 GMT

rock, and popular music for that matter, will be ultimately passe and comodified (as they have been for some time now), until the curent incarnation of the music industry is destroyed, and entertainment truly turns into a form of manipulation.

then hopefully, in a wonderfully science-fiction esque scenario, the desire to create non-derivative music and destroy the oppresive structure of one's own country will meld and we'll get rock bands doubling as terrorist insurgent squadrons with gun barrels instead of guitar necks.

commercial noise

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 02:38:21 GMT

I saw one of those internet ads today. the ones that ask you a question and tell you that if you know the answer, you win something. the question was: what is the name of paris hilton's dog? I was REALLY glad i didn't know.

this is kinda funny

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 08:10:37 GMT

crouching tiger, hidden dragon and brokeback mountain have the same director.

speaking of vapid, ill-concieved, and useless moralistic movements...

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 21:24:57 GMT

http://www.mothersagainstnoise.org/

WHAT IS WRONG WITH NOISE?

Plainly put: Noise music causes ear and brain damage!!

NOISE MUSIC EMBRACES:
1. Rebellion
2. Violence
3. Nihilism
4. Escapism
5. Drugs / Alcoholism
6. Perversion
7. Dissonant / Offensive Sound
8. Paranormal / Occult Activities
9. Anti-God / Anti-Authority
10. Cult-like Organization

check out some music I've written

Thu, 29 Dec 2005 18:50:41 GMT

www.myspace.com/timofthepls

these tracks aren't very good quality and they are just piano parts to unfinished songs, but... well, they're the main core idea to those songs so I felt they were ready to be heard a little bit.

12Rods YSI repost

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:27:59 GMT

for anyone who still wants it
http://s64.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1O415WPO00U3B0S767CBWN87KY

here it is

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 22:29:41 GMT

The 12 Rods - Gay? EP (i'd post one of their albums but I don't have any of them completely downloaded yet, this band is REALLY hard to find online)

http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2Y4AAN6QMFEL028XDIKZF207ST

New Music

Sun, 25 Dec 2005 21:11:47 GMT

12 Rods

They are a band and they are called 12 Rods.

They sound like new wave/80's college rock/shoegaze, but were recording music between 1993 and 2003. So they also sound a bit at home in the mid nineties alternative rock area.

I heard them last night and they're one of my favorite bands already.

If anyone wants me to post them for download, let me know.

Sat, 24 Dec 2005 05:04:13 GMT

You Are 35% Normal

(Occasionally Normal)

You sure do march to your own beat...

But you're so weird, people wonder if it's a beat at all

You think on a totally different wavelength

And it's often a chore to get people to understand you

How Normal Are You?

the chronic-WHAT-cles of narnia

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 21:56:04 GMT

yes... a rap about going to see the chronicles of narnia...
staring Chris Parnell
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=zLElfJ9YCh0

putney swope

Mon, 19 Dec 2005 07:54:57 GMT

I've been watching too much TV lately. Escapism isn't all it's cracked up to be because you can't really escape menial things. So it's wallowing.... wallowing in apathy or depression.... but you don't escape anything. Just enslave yourself to the world of relevance for relevancy's sake.

well

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:35:09 GMT

NOW, I am REALLY cured. Because after I posted last... well... my fever went back up to 101. But it wasn't as bad as it had been before, and even though I wasn't able to sleep a whole lot last night, I got rid of my fever (just took my temp with one of those neat digital thermometers and it was 98.7). uhhh... coming home today... probably sleeping a lot, and I need to finish a project I was doing on which I was already given grace by the teacher but got pushed back farther b/c of my fever.

well

Fri, 16 Dec 2005 00:14:24 GMT

I'm out of bed after being in it for 20 hours. I came down with a fever last night at about 11pm. I was delerious for about 4 hours this morning and my temp got up to 102 throughout the whole fiasco. During probably the worst of the fever I recorded a freestyled hate rap-track about Peter Jackson. It's good to be alive again.

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 21:32:43 GMT

The Expatriate
Achtung! You are 23% brainwashworthy, 27% antitolerant, and 9% blindly patriotic

Congratulations! You are not susceptible to brainwashing, your values
and cares extend beyond the borders of your own country, and your Blind
Patriotism does not reach unhealthy levels. If you had been German in the 30s, you would've left the country.

One bad scenario -- as I hypothetically project you back in time -- is
that you just wouldn't have cared one way or the other about Nazism.
Maybe politics don't interest you enough. But the fact that you took
this test means they probably do. I'm gonna give you the benefit of the
doubt.

Did you know that many of the smartest Germans departed prior to the
beginning of World War II, because they knew some evil shit was
brewing? Brain Drain. Many of them were scientists. It is very possible
you could have been one of them.

Conclusion: born and raised in Germany in the early 1930's, you would not have been a Nazi.

The Would You Have Been A Nazi? Test

- it rules -

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 12% on brainwashworthy
You scored higher than 37% on antitolerant
You scored higher than 3% on patriotic

Link: The Would You Have Been a Nazi Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Coldplay still Radiohead light

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 21:20:13 GMT

Here's a little bit from this months Q magazine. An interview with Coldplay's Chris Martin & Ricky Gervais:

How will Coldplay develop? You've mentioned you'd like to work with Timbaland.
RG: What, the boots people?
CM: Yeah, the people who make boots.
RG: Bruce Foxton's got a brand new pair of Timberlands.
CM: Yeah, I thought what we need to do next is a CD that comes in a pair of durable walking boots, so you can listen to it when you're hiking.
RG: You're going for the working class vote now aren't you? [Thinks] Who are your fans?
CM: Ah, man, it's tricky. I don't think we'd be anywhere if Radiohead didn't exist. I think we're like why Diet Coke was big. Because some people couldn't handle Coke. That's how i see Coldplay.
RG: That's very humbling.

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 23:58:29 GMT

List ten songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your Livejournal along with your ten songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

1. Talking Heads - The Great Curve
2. Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
3. Haemoth - (something off the album 'Kontamination')
4. David Bowie - Suffragette City
5. Xiu Xiu - Apistat Commander
6. Radiohead - Dollars & Cents
7. Deerhoof - Spirit Ditties of no tone
8. Animal Collective - Purple Bottle
9. David Bowie - Belway Brothers
10. Xiu Xiu - Fast Car

This has nothing to do with the matrix, by the way, that's just the picture the test used

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 17:08:25 GMT

Androgynous
You scored 63 masculinity and 70 femininity!

You scored high on both masculinity and femininity. You have a strong personality exhibiting characteristics of both traditional sex roles.

My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 53% on masculinity

You scored higher than 73% on femininity

Link: The Bem Sex Role Inventory Test written by weirdscience on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

OZ

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:46:15 GMT

I saw most of the first season of OZ (that old television show about some kind of experimental prison). And tonight I watched the first two episodes of the second season and... they sucked. They were almost completely terrible. All the characters have become unrealistically irritable or maniacal... I hate television. It was like a Tom Clancy novel written for middle schoolers.

oddities

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 16:05:54 GMT

I saw the first eight parts of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet," yes, I watched them, and I enjoyed them. In retrospect I can't but think they could have been a lot better, what with him being the only one singing, there not being any distinctly laid out alternating melodies, and every track sounding almost completely the same; but, though I probably would have turned this hip-hopera off it had been on the radio, watching the videos was actually very entertaining. The plot is rediculous and engaging because the acting is great and the direction is quite good as well. R. Kelly really does have a nice voice, and I guess I just never noticed because I was too busy hating his flacid r&b songs with vocals that only stress superlatives in strained pleas and explanations while noodling around modern r&b style voice sliding like those awful, awful versions of "The Star Spangled Banner" that everyone was in a huff about in the late nineties. I don't think I would want to listen to the album by itself, but I think that if every character actually sung their own part (rather than R. Kelly affecting his voice to sound like a woman when he's singing for one (while it is humorous... I just can't quite "get that dirt off my shoulder" about it)), the songs didn't all sound the same, and the project didn't seem like a tribute to its lead character and pop star, it could be a real modern opera, and maybe be good. I guess, not this story specifically, would be good... but then again, these kinds of things (cheating, guns, making fun of white people) are prevalent in rap and hip-hop, and so maybe they would be appropriate for a black, urban opera.
Of course, there are some rediculously hilarious things about this whole project of R. Kelly's. The first being that he calls it an urban drama while it all clearly takes place in the VERY rich suburbs (i guess R. Kelly didn't want to play a poor character... i mean, what 15 year old girl wants to get micturated on by a pop star who gets his kicks pretending he's poor? I know I wouldn't accept that golden compliment). The second being that when the story finally reaches someone's home that IS in the ghetto (or, at least, not in "_______ hills"), it's a cops house and he's married to an unatractive fat white woman with a southern accent! So I guess the class commentary here is hot tempered, gun toting rappers are more favored in society than black cops who have a thing for corpulent women... but I mean, I could have told you that. The third HILARIOUS thing in this video is the "accidental shooting." R. Kelly's brother in law walks in right as he and the cop are wrestling for a gun as part of a big misunderstanding, and the gun goes off by accident, hitting (you guessed it) R. Kelly's brother in law "Twan." They think he's dead at first, but then he gets up, coughing (though he's only been shot in the shoulder.. why would he be coughing??), and the cop says "we need to get you to a hospital," and he's like "no man, it's just my shoulder, all I need is a bathroom." Ok, first of all... this guy just got out of jail, so I guess he's the video's "gang-banger" or whatever, and the dude is so baddass that he thinks he can give himself proper medical treatment for a gun wound in a suburban bathroom, except--wait--he can! The very next camera shot after he says this is him in the bathroom standing next to R. Kelly patting a bandage over the wound on his arm, which only has a small little circle of blood in the middle, and though, while clearly not being a graze wound (the bloodstain is right in the middle of his bicep, he is fine... because, as they say "dudes a gangsta'"). So...... this whole thing is incredibly stupid and rediculous, while being entertaining and catchy... even though I'm pretty sure R. Kelly wasn't trying to be self-effacing through ludicrous histronics, he is, and it makes the whole thing more entertaining. But the truth is, I still liked it, which I'm suprised at, and I would now actually like to see a REAL hip-hopera (by which I mean, more than one distinct song, more than one person singing, and no fat white women from the south).
aduei

siddhartha is a good book... is it dogma? it seems to simple to be dogma.

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 15:21:05 GMT

Govinda said: "But what you call thing, is it something real, something intrinsic? Is it not only the illusion of Maya, only image and appearance? Your stone, your tree, are they real?"
"This also does not trouble me much," said Siddhartha. "If they are illusion, then I also am illusion, and so they are always of the same nature as myself. It is that which makes them so lovable and venerable. That is why I can love them."

a thought

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 21:24:31 GMT

a good name for a queercore band would be shadowfax

the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 06:33:32 GMT

the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads the talking heads

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 03:33:16 GMT

i had a good weekend, but I'm still tired of academic responsibility. All I can say is I can't wait for winter break and ample time to spend with good friends and books.

it's funny

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 07:00:53 GMT

when I posted yesterday I meant to post this:
I am returning to the greater lansing area tuesday night at around 11pm. See you all when I do.

week, week of papers

Mon, 21 Nov 2005 23:08:18 GMT

Well, I've got three papers to write by tuesday. One of them a rough. AND a presentation to do. Sheesh. Talk about the fruits of procrastination. Well, I've started on one of them already (the longest), so it's not too bad.

I realized today that "best band in the world" is a rediculous title for anyone. I realized this because, as I have been writing music lately, I've begun to become a little confident... OCASSIONALLY (not frequently)... about the prospects of my work and the work of my collaborator (the notorious I.A.N.). At other times I despair and hate what I've written. YET, in VAST majoriaty, people who have heard me, us, or him, have liked what I, we, or he was doing. There have been no negative responses that I know of, but there have been a few so-so's. So, what does this have to do with "the best band in the world"? Well, I'll tell you. Radiohead, is my FAVORITE band, in the world. I would usually say 'the best,' because I have pretentions of objective merit, but those pretensions are ultimately wrong. And though this is all so obvious to probably anyone reading this, it has dawned on me with such force (probably for... oh... say, the 20th time!) because I came across something in a Radiohead interview. It was about OK Computer... basically, they thought, at first, from the response they were getting, that they had ruined their career with the album. And now it holds the title of one of the 'best' albums of all time by many largely circulated magazines and other various media sources. But really, it's just that it happens to be accessible, for some reason or other, to a lot of the members of my generation.
THEN, my world was shattered by an admission from members of the band (in the same interview), that they were not very optomistic during the LONG recording session that birthed Kid A and Amnesiac, two of my favorite albums of all time.
And with such a normal statement of insecurity from people who I have often reveered much too highly, I realized that they were not the best band in the world, just some really lucky guys with guitars (and other strange instruments).
Which, if people like my band's music, is all we'll be.
And it feels nice to know that there isn't some objective PLATEU or plane of musical perfection that I might be able to reach. Which, as a perfectionist, is an idea that I have often subconsciously applied to myriad tasks in my life, causing much stress, fear, procrastination resulting from the fear, and unhappiness.
So, now I'm a little more 'Optomistic' about my art, because "the best [I] can is good enough."
(yeah... that was cheesey, get over it)