Tuesday Morning Update #15
Dec 2, 2003 myMusicShare/Save
It’s been a long time since I did one of these. And I’m sick today, so the best I can do is hope this comes out more than just garbled nonsense. Or maybe that would be apropos.
The first thing to mention is The Nonsense Album. I’ve probably told some of you about it, but for those that I haven’t, here’s the scoop. You may have noticed that I have a hell of time writing lyrics. If We Were was the first set of lyrics that I completed in literally 10 years. And the ones before that were crap that I threw out a long time ago.
But I write music all the time, and sometimes I do even “finish” things. And sometimes I’ll write vocal parts over them, and I’ll just sort of sing syllables over them which turn into words, just cause they sound right, not cause they mean anything.
So I figured, why spend another 10 years trying to write lyrics just so I can fit into the singer/songwriter mold? They’d clearly just be frosting anyway.
The ideas crystallized when I went to see Susan Marshall’s dance troupe at BAM about a month ago. In both the pieces they did, the dancers did an amazing job of not quite telling a story, but evoking the same sorts of feelings, abstractly, as if they had been explicitly acting out understandable scenarios. The pieces sort of hinted at broader ideas of human interaction, but through, especially in the second piece, Other Stories, these nonsensical little vignettes. It was brilliant.
With that in mind, I’ve begun work on The Nonsense Album. Evan aptly described the concept as “neo-soul Sigur Ros.” I like to look at it as giving Bobby McFerrin a much-needed dose of Sturm und Drang stirred up with some of that old boom-bip. Or some equally ridiculous The-Claws-meet-Soul-Academy-meet-Edgar-Allan-Blow sort of nonsense. 
I’ve got a bunch of ideas for it, but it’s all still in research and development right now.
The Monday night open mic at the Village Underground has closed. It’s really too bad – it was an amazing and really supportive place. I’ve been talking about checking out Groove, and I may even do so this week, if my scratchy, painful throat returns to normal some time soon.
I’m trying to start a regimen of practicing piano half an hour a day, because my skills have fallen to shit. Seems to be working pretty well, not necessarily for my skills, but for stimulating new ideas and whatnot, and helping provide some kind of structure to daily life. External structure is one of the key points to ADD treatment.
Of course, so is actually seeing a psychiatrist and getting a diagnoisis. Mbee.
December 2nd, 2003 at 11:32 am
Maybe you will become a master producer.. like me! Producing hot tracks for others to write the lyrics to and sing over. representatum–socetew
December 2nd, 2003 at 4:58 pm
To be fair to Sigur Ros, they don’t actually sing in nonsense. They supposedly made up their own language called “Hopelandic” that they sing in. It may be nonsense to you and me, but I assure you it is quite meaningful to the people of “Hopeland”, wherever they might be.
December 3rd, 2003 at 10:12 pm
Actually, it looks like what Sigur Ros has been doing is frightfully close to what I’ve been talking about.
From the Sigur Ros FAQ:
“what language does jónsi sing in?
“On the first three albums (von, von brigði, ágætis byrjun), jónsi sang most songs in icelandic but two of them (von and olsen olsen) were sung in ‘hopelandic’. all of the vocals ( ) are however in hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska in icelandic) is the ‘invented language’ in which jónsi sings before lyrics are written to the vocals. it’s of course not an actual language by definition (no vocabulary, grammar, etc.), it’s rather a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument. jónsi likens it with what singers sometimes do when they’ve decided on the melody but haven’t written the lyrics yet. many languages were considered to be used on ( ), including english, but they decided on hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska) got its name from first song which jónsi sang it on, hope (von).”
Evan, looks like you were totally on point with that one. Nice!
December 6th, 2003 at 12:02 pm
Hey, Don’t forget Monday nights, 10pm, Bowery Poetry Club, at Bowery and 1st street. $3
Incredibly supportive and fun open mic. Open to anyone doing anything on stage. Musicians, actors, poets – all hang out. Also open mics at Collective:Unconcious 7:45 sign up, Wed and Sun $3.
December 8th, 2003 at 11:18 am
OMG, I will go to both the BPC and CU open mics really soon!! I’ve been dying to go to them.. just haven’t gotten around to it. Thanks so much for reminding me
December 9th, 2003 at 2:07 pm
Well, this raises a serious question about what makes a language. Is a series of nonsensical gibberish words a language if someone intends it to have signifying value? The answer is…no.
December 9th, 2003 at 7:10 pm
I’ve got a question. How did the name queiza come about anyway, ya crazy haitian frobocop?
December 9th, 2003 at 7:21 pm
It’s Queixa, brother. Kay-sha. (Click on the little phonograph picture next to the title for pronunciation. Or right here.)
Anyway, I mentioned this in one of my first entries, but I’ll tell you again cause I know you don’t read this shit.
When I first signed up for AOL Instant Messenger back in high school, I tried every fucking name I could think of, but nothing worked that didn’t have a string of numbers next to it. In desperation, I reached for my copy of “Learn Portuguese In Three Easy Weeks” and flipped to the glossary. The Portuguese word for “complaint” has been part of my online identity ever since.
Now ya know.
December 10th, 2003 at 12:24 pm
OMG, that is so sweet! I was in tears when “Scoe” was taken, as well as “Scoe1″, “Scoe2″ and so on.. I had to resort to using “Scoe000000″ out of frustration, and that has been my AOLIM name ever since.