my friends call me 5 @sj5@witches.live

...

so idk if I have it in me—

maybe—

but there's an article to be written about:

"Leon Russell the autistic NB who fought the music industry to a draw over roughly 70 years of being a total freaking musical genius who refused to take any shit."

#Music #MusicIndustry #Neurodiversity #Gender

...
there's ALSO (& it's a reach but imo only slight) a gender-non-conformity subtext.*

this only comes up once, obliquely, in the penultimate paragraph,—
but I feel qualified to say I've felt it in his music all along.

* (where dude behavior outside strict masculinity = gender-non-conforming... & there's a LOT that can be said about those strict limits)

3/x

#Music #Gender

...

there's ALSO an important "neurodivergence" subtext to Leon's story which unfortunately isn't made explicit til the last third—in favor of the more common bipolar/"mental illness" narrative.

While chronologically accurate, of course I'd love to see this frame things early on....

... thus dispensing w/ the "Leon was crazy" narrative in favor of a "the music biz is corrupt & Leon saw through it & it DROVE him crazy" narrative, if anything.

2/x

#Music #MusicIndustry

(ok 1st thoughts on Janovitz' Leon Russell bio, which I'd say 98% of it was better than anyone could have expected or hoped—)

Not what I expected (or the author intended) to take from the Leon bio, but,

you *can* read his story as one musician's prolonged & semi-successful attempt to seize the means of production.

(in which case file w/ Zappa, The Dead, others?)

1/x

#Music

crucial tech.

https://thehardtimes.net/blog/how-to-tell-your-white-friend-you-dont-like-wilco/

#Music

k that was SUPER fun

magical shenanigans & oddball 'coincidences' & sweet dancing grooves & charisma & weirdness start to finish

geese, for some reason, were a theme

afterwards our usual late night burrito stop was closed (!?!?)
so we ventured into Seattle's U-District
(one of the few remaining Gibsonian/Cyberpunkian pockets of this existentially ailing city)

... & found a place called PIZZA TWIST.

they also sell tacos, noodles, rice.

all with toppings like chicken tikka, marsala, tandoori.

plant-based versions available so we got the medium spicy plant-based chicken tikka pizza.

delicious!!!
(good cold too! for morning after)

#Seattle #Music #Food

I've yet to see a Unified Theory Of Rock&Roll
that meaningfully addresses
queerness, otherness, & magic—
which may all be names for the same thing—
& without that,
there can imo BE no unified theory of rock&roll.

#Music #RockAndRoll #Queer #Magic

omg BOB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARBwwt62X7E&list=PLuXjTZrKVYZwHLaCQo5D0s0HuFjXxBt_X&index=19

#Music #BobDylan #RitaCoolidge

omg this tho, listen up Otis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlQwtAJik8w&list=PLuXjTZrKVYZwHLaCQo5D0s0HuFjXxBt_X&index=4&pp=iAQB8AUB

#music

welp we got a beautiful multi-track of Thursday's CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST's 41-minute performance of "Lightly Salted" at Tim's Tavern Seattle ... so jamband fans abate yer breath, I'll have it up somewhere for you soon!

#Music #Jambands #Recording #NewMusic #NewRelease #Bandcamp

as a fan of bootlegs, live recordings, & obscurities,
this strikes me as a loss.

I *love* hearing how an artist felt about the same song on a different day, different year, in a different state or country.

I suppose it's part of the 'folk music' nature of things that tends to get bulldozed....

... anyways,

what IS kinda cool
is the way my band, for example,
can livestream a rehearsal,
jam out random covers & post them to soundcloud or patreon or wtf,
& leave it up there for anyone who digs us to find.

in that way
social media can bring back folk traditions?

#Music #Recording #FolkMusic #MusicProduction #MusicHistory

thinking rn about how
waaay back when (1950s & before, mostly)
artists might record the same song a few times—

new label? record that one again that people like when you play it live.
new band? record that one again... etc.

if you dig into old rock&roll & blues you'll find a lot of this.

& as we've increasingly entered a world where everyone has access to everything,

it happens less & less.
two versions of the same song for the same global audience seem like redundancy.

but it isn't—
cos every performance is different,
as is every performance situation.

#Music #Recording #MusicProduction #MusicHistory

...

(I'm not SURE offhand,
but I MAY recall that

VILLANOVA JUNCTION,
a lovely blues variation
that Jimi recorded in a few different arrangements,
was named posthumously by manager Mike Jeffries,
as was PALI-GAP & a few others)

...

the solo guitar piece from L.A. Forum April 1969
that I THINK takes place during Spanish Castle Magic
is also interesting in that

the same ideas turn up more definitively
in August's "Woodstock improvisation"
between Star Spangled Banner & Villanova Junction

L.A. 1969 has an early Banner also.

#JimiHendrix #Music #Improvisation #ImprovisedMusic #ElectricGuitar

was semi-kidding last night that
I shd write a book called

An Unironic Rocker Girl's Guide To Jimi Hendrix

(honestly could be a whole series,
URG's Guide To Royal Trux,
The Velvet Underground,
Nirvana,
Les Rallizes Denudes,
etc)

anyway,
this thred contains some thoughts on

Jimi Hendrix: Epic Improviser

#JimiHendrix #Music #Improvisation #ImprovisedMusic #ElectricGuitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJ6Uq75g2g&list=OLAK5uy_l4hcx66te9un3mS5vcvyRwOC8RDOIo0EM&index=5

#Music #JimiHendrix

...

each stage of recording/production affords various opportunities for magic—

for the infusing of Intent into recorded sound & later perhaps into physical media.

in digital mastering,

one could call energy into the bounce.

idk tho—

vinyl cutting, magnetic tape—

they're wild physical processes!

#Music #Magic #musicproduction #Recording

...
maybe shd add,

I *definitely* think music,
live or recorded,
is powerful magic no matter what format brings it to you?

thinking about
'distilling into physicality'
as an extra step tho.

espesh vinyl mastering.

like Owsley focusing on good vibes during acid manufacture.

#music #magic

...
I *DO* tend to think of the thumb drives
I fill with mp3s for listening in the car,
as magical objects of a sort...

w/ the specific albums on each
as ingredients in a spell?

(& I actually need to re-organize them all w/ that in mind,
it's been a while & they're chaos rn)

#Magic #Music

this has got me thinking about physical media—

records, cassettes, wax cylinders, whatever—

as talisman.

many people's energy went into the music—

then it's distilled down into a Thing.

(MANY COPIES even... does that dilute or amplify?)

does a digital file lack in this way?

#Music #Media #Magic #Records #CDs #Talismans

...

my booking-agent partner—

a queer Asian-American woman, thus a few added levels of difficulty in most negotiations—

tries like hell to get merch cuts removed from the contract ANY time she sets up a show.

(people who won't remove it, she says, are "assholes")

she doesn't always succeed, but she always tries—

& she sure as hell REMEMBERS who was chill & who wasn't!

#Solidarity #Musicians #Merch #Music #LiveMusic