rhetoric, writing, and technology

Ugly Mus-tard

I was talking to a friend on the phone the other day, and he asked what I’d been listening to, if I’d been into anything new. I thought for a moment a realized that since I’ve gotten my new (and bigger) iPod, that I’ve actually been going back to older CDs from the 90s and even 80s to fill it up. Nothing much has been coming out recently that has caught my attention. I’ve been thinking about all these bands that I want to blog on and post videos, and many of them are bands from the 90s.

This means a number of things. One, I’m getting old and out of touch. It happens to the best of us. I’m sure there is some good underground stuff out there now that I’m not in touch with that is good. Another possibility, however, is just that there was a lot of good stuff out in the 90s—a possibility that I don’t want to discount. A lot of the newer underground “metal” bands are doing the complex progressive thing (The Human Abstract, for example). This kind of stuff is what I was totally into in the 80s, and theoretically I should be able to identify with it now, but somehow the newer bands don’t click with me as much. What I liked about the 90s was the more stripped down song writing. I came to appreciate simpler structures and riffs as long as the songs showed craft and were catchy.

So, one of those 90s bands from Dallas that I loved back in the day was Ugly Mus-tard (surely a revision of Ugly Bastard so they could get their record in stores). UM was sort of a cross between Tool and Skinny Puppy with a tad of NIN. Their songs leaned a little more to the Toolish side, but their live shows were all Skinny Puppy. It was really clear that SP was their main influence. They really were the best live band at the time and drew great crowds. Apparently they've gotten back together for some shows in Dallas recently. I agree with the brief note in the Dallas Observer that these guys are very much rooted in a 90s sound, but good is still good. I'd go see them again if I were still there.

Here's a video of "High," their "single" from the first record. Very Toolish in the video as well.

Posted by: bhawk at 15:53 | link | comments (2)
music, video, texas

Social Networking Fatigue

This video has been making the rounds. Kind of jacks into JER's recent post on blogging fatigue. I think it is pretty clear that we are faced with an ever evolving rotation of sites and practices that will come into favor and fall away that will allow us to mark 1/2 decades at the very least the way music marks decades. It may ultimately run faster than that. More to say about Jenny's post if I get a chance.

Posted by: bhawk at 19:03 | link | comments
video, thoughts, blogging, new media

Music Over Mind

Monday March 2, 4:30 at GMU's Harris Theatre

Music Over Mind, an experimental sound art trio with Bobby Hill, Chris Downing, and GMU's Thomas Stanley, will be performing along with Luma 1.0, a film by GMU AVT alumnus Mike Sargent. There will be a Q/A afterwards. Should be of interest to anyone into music or new media.

• Performance Flier
• Harris Theatre

Posted by: bhawk at 13:03 | link | comments
music, announcements, new media

Remix Culture

While surfing around Youtube for something on DJ Spooky's Rebirth of a nation, which I ended up posting over on Blogora, I came across these cuts with Dave Lombardo (original drummer for Slayer) and DJ Spooky. I didn't know they had been working on stuff. Pretty interesting. A clear instance of remix culture in a variety of ways. The cut with Chuck D is good too.

Posted by: bhawk at 19:19 | link | comments
music, video, new media

Video Essay

Cheryl Ball just sent this CFP around. Perhaps a little heavy on the CN side for me, but might provide a good outside purpose for some of my student videos coming up this semester in 342. Now I just have to figure out how to teach it ;)

Posted by: bhawk at 14:24 | link | comments
video, cfps

Blogora

This month I've been invited to guest blog over at Blogora. Should be fun. I'll try not to double dip on entries too much. My first post riffs on how I'm thinknig about blogs/blogging at the moment.

Posted by: bhawk at 15:38 | link | comments
whatever, announcements, blogging