1/20/2009

O Richie, I'm almost blushing, My face shines after reading your comments So great we're connected although we're literally antipodes on this crazy planet. We must make a plan to collaborate. That's the real strength of Red Fizz to bring kindred spirits together. So very inspiring.

I tread VERY carefully here cos Ruud has gone from being a Fizz colleague and is venturing passed acquaintance into friendship territory...now the disclaimer is gone I can say I tend to treat a lot of Ruuds work as aural art and not just as musical entities,I am the sort of person who likes art that ISN'T bowls of fruit,airbrushes of dead guitar players or titty calendars..no I like unique,original and I like something different...am looking forward to working with you one day Ruud...you're one hell of an artist.

I've listened to this five times, and I'm just not hearing the goodness yet. At the same time, I can't say it's bad - it is interesting.

I certainly appreciate music that goes beyond "the 3 chord prison", takes risks, is bold to venture into unknown territory, etc., but it doesn't stand to reason that I'm going to like all music that does this. (I like The Contortions, for example, but not Teenage Jesus & the Jerks.)

I'll try it again later - maybe I'll feel it then.

Ascension is rough, but far from an orchestra tuning up, a very musically communicative record on a truly, purely spiritually, level, beyond the sonic, into the realm of the melding ether of the unknown, like being close to a death of some kind.

Ascension is an ocean of sound and rhythm. Scary to dive into, but overwhelming and fascinating.

The Ascension comparison is right. I first thought that was a 2 sided recording of an orchestra tuning up. Finally I just learned how to let the record happen. Then I started digging on Elvin Jones drumming and it was locked in after that.

I won't spoil the discussion by explaining myself, but I'd like to say something about this song. I'm proud it ended upfront. Yeah, I do care!!! That's why I like Red Fizz a lot, it doesn't promote just the obvious all the time. It saves some space for the weird.
And I thank you all for the passionate response.
The Mondays described it well in their first reaction, but in my opinion it's not about getting it, it's about feeling it. I've listened to all kinds of freaky stuff when I was a teenager, so that got a place in the way I listen to popmusic. And when the time was ripe, it peeped around the corner in songs like this.
I consider this still a popsong, just with a somewhat naive edge to it. If you compare this, for example, with Ascension by John Coltrane, this is a sweet soothing lullaby.
It's fogging great some of you dig it that much.

oh, btw, awesome sounds!

evidently none of us are very intelligent. . . and we are not particularly respectful to our fellow ameteur musicians (or professionals), especially if we should continue to speak to one another this way. This is supposed to just be for fun, it's not like any of us are going to be remembered. . . so why all the bickering on somebody else's song page?

Its that collage (not college) rock that messes with rhythm kind of like the Magic Band. The Deerfoot was cool and worth more investigating, but this is more magic bandy. The picture works because the rhythm of the song sounds like the loping gallop of a crazed and wounded mule. This has some of the coolest guitar licks ever and it may really be Ribot in disguise.

that'll teach me to share my IQ test theories with you guys eh
fags!

seriously...what a #@&%!ing moron.

As Frank Zappa said..."I don't want to spend my life explaining myself....You either get it or you don't". It's OK if you don't get it. Rude Ass Presents could care less I bet. We do what we do because it's what we are suppose to do. Or something like that.

i think "getting it" is overrated. you either like it or you don't, that's all. it doesn't mean you are smart or dumb or know the secret code or not. following the rules is ok but rules are meant to be broken.

it's funny

the iq song: if you don't like it you're dumb!
copyright that one

Maybe I took the comment wrong, but it seemed to me to be saying, if you dnb';t like this, you're just too dumb, which i found lame, and i agree with Babar, music has far more to do with the heart than the head, imho

or maybe i'm too dumb, who knows, i listened to this again, and i still don't get it

Mozart supposedly had an IQ in the range of Einstein. I think that some of those music dudes music is directly related to intelligence.

That said I'm not sure that you have to be that smart to listen to it, but hey- there's a probably a reason that Babies and mice that listen to classical have higher IQs and that a symphony can give you a temporary boost in IQ points.

I'm caffienated and obnoxious, so I'll shutup as well.

I think Willbur meant pretentious in terms of connotation, rather than the angle that the mondays presented. Maybe too smart for some though.

moron

Intelligence has absolutely nothing to do with music....I repeat...nothing. Each and every one of us listen to music based on our experiences with music, from what we have heard over the years, to what we compose or play as artists, to how mommy and daddy told us how the world is. I don't understand many things. That may be partly due to the fact that I have little experience or knowledge of what I don't understand. Or it may be the fact that what I have been presented with is total bull#@&%!. But my intelligence or lack thereof has nothing to do with how I listen to music. I hear music with ears that have been influenced by my experiences....as we all have. It does not make any of us less or more than who we are. I've been drinking....so I will shut the #@&%! up.

it's to intelligent for me but I proudly listen in defiance

Too intelligent for some ? what a lame ass comment. Thats VERY similar to the snooty comments at the art gallery...If you don't like a particular peice, it must , of course, reflect poorly on you in some way. To me, music that is inaccessible to many or even most is not automatically superior to something that can appeal to a wider range of tastes..to me, the emporer has no clothes here, but to each his own.

it's simply the antithesis to formulaic popular music of all genres. that's what makes it cool to some and perplexing to others. freedom of expression and expressiveness, while still managing to include the elements of melody, rhythm and structure. dig it if you can. and if you can't, that's cool too. maybe you will dig it later. i'm sure i would not have appreciated this as much 20 years ago. not that i couldn't have, but it may not have interested me enough to give it enough attention because it didn't have a clever hook or a dancy beat. but that was then and my interests have evolved somewhat. i strongly support qc's recommendation of deerhoof. excellent stuff there.

i can see how this may be too intellegent for some, but i find it to be a musical gem, a work of true audible art. This escapes from the 3 chord prison that most music has been chained to in recent generations, this artist is not afraid to pull out his wanker and wave it to the world and say " hear this, like it or #@&%! you".
Yep, great feature here..........a 5 wanker fer sure.

just listened again....my ears are still happy....gotta love happy ears

deerhoof rocks, as does Ruud!

i highly recommend the album apple o' by them, which includes such awesomeness as this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrzcMGpZRbM

checking out some videos now....thanks QC

i bet you'd enjoy deerhoof, babar, if you don't already.

It's all in how we listen and what experiences we have with music I guess. I found this to be quite listenable.

Holy #@&%!, I'm with themondays on this one. I don't get it. Yet, oddly enough, I'm still listening to it. Maybe it should be tighter, and then the crazy disjointedness of it would feel easier to listen to.

I am a fan of disjointed guitar ala Marc Ribot, Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser. This fits right in with those players. Though maybe not for all ears, the playing here makes my ears happy.

really ? what specifically about the guitar parts are superb ? is this a cover of a wyld stallions tune ? 'splain

I am missing nothing and I am certainly mad. The guitar on this is superb.

This is the sort of tune that appears a lot on the fizz, and i have that same feeling i get when i am at the Whitney museum and everyone is ooing and ah'ing about a painting that to me, seems like a 5 year olds fridge etching or a bad accident involving a paint can and a hand grenade... and i feel like either i am missing something, or everyone's gone mad ...i won't rate because i clearly don't get it, whatever "it" is.

Yes feature for mee.Cool toon!

"is everything alriiiight?" Funny. i like the title too. sounds like early pavement, which means i have to feature it

Winged Eel Fingerling or Marc Ribot on guitar? This floats my boat big time. Feature

beefheart vibe. distinctly. feature by association.

dig it with the heaviness. I'll download this and study its effects on my brain.

way feature.

this remindes me of frank zappa and the mothers of invention, and for that i give you a feature, and i hope to hear more from you, this is truley grand!

oh ya
love the screams to

This is #@&%!ing great.