y’all-
well, the roots remix contest finally came to a close…and while vosotros won’t be recording a new song with them, they did bestow my remix with an award all its own- Most Abstract! There were over three hundred entries, so i was pleased to be recognized at all…
have a listen here
g
p.s. thanks to everyone who voted for me in the first round, and ?uestlove and co. in the second…I couldn’t have not done it without you!
As the new year approaches, Palabra has been wrestling with time, which is to say wrestling with illusion. We know the past only by the things that represent it— by pictures, or stories, or recordings, or by our memories. We know the future only by the hopes and fears of what may become our present. In either case, past or future, what we experience is merely the production of our minds. The representations of the past show us “facts” through the lens of our personality; the hopes and fears of the future show us more about ourselves than about what is. If we think that we live “in time” we are living in a dream because the past and the future trap us in a reflection of ourselves; and if the past and the future are merely dreams then how can time exist? Furthermore, how do we escape the illusion of time, the house of mirrors that we live in when we think time is real? …Only by losing ourselves to the present. When life is at its best, there is no time because we are so swept up into the moment that there is no past, no future, no self. But when there is no time and no self, who or what is acting in these, our best moments? What is playing music, what is painting, what is saying words that are unplanned but resonant in truth? When we are not “self” but only present, what have we become? In The Odyssey, when Menelaus is wrestling with Proteus, he discovers that the “Ancient of the Sea” is a shape-shifter. As Menelaus tries to hang on, his opponent turns into a lion, a snake, a tree, a boar, then water… until eventually the contest is over. When it ends, Proteus gives up and tells Menelaus the truth. When we wrestle with time we must contend with illusions until at last we are left only with the present—and within the present we find the truth we are seeking—the truth that we are. The present isn’t for you all, it is you all.
-Palabra.
On the morning of my eighteenth birthday I sang with the birds. As the sun rose over my parent’s back yard I ran in circles with the perfect knowledge of why the birds were singing. It may be true that I had eaten a small piece of paper that completely changed what I heard, what I saw, what I smelled…but I don’t think I was living a delusion (and Aldous Huxley, who is deeper than anyone I know, doesn’t think so either). I sang at the top of my lungs knowing what the birds knew: that the morning was a miracle, that the dawn was god, that the air around me was a plenum vibrating with life and knowledge. Since then I have learned that the whole world sings. The music of birds follows inherent and predictable patterns; the songs of whales reach across the depths of the seas; the oscillations of the earth on its axis can be rendered into music and it’s beautiful! Our very speech is music and I believe that one day a genius will run a staff across the heavens and demonstrate that the stars are the notes to a symphony. Poor Prufrock cried, “I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each./ I do not think that they will sing to me.” But that doesn’t have to be your fate. You choose my friends. Either the world is a silent cacophony, or there is song ringing through the soles of your feet, melody in the eyes of those you love, and harmony in the rhythm of your days. The music of the universe is for you all.
-Palabra.
hey you-all.
im still in hong kong until tomorrow, where the internet dips in and out, so i haven’t been able to surf, let alone check my email…but i finally got online, and checked this remix contest I entered for the roots…and im in 2nd place! it features a sample of a song from the upcoming vosotros release, The Years. This particular track features Sam Barsh on keys, Gene Coye on Drums, and myself on bass. I took a day between shows to create the remix, only to find in the fine print that it couldn’t contain any samples…so i had to take them out. so i decided to post the original here: criminal_vosotros_remix
it features samples from michael jackson, KRS-1, Public Enemy, and Biggie…
hope you enjoy it, and i’ll see you-all back in LA on sat.
gaib
• RCRDLBL.com is featuring Learning Music on their site today! They’re offering 4 exclusive downloads from the band’s recent “Greatest Hits So Far” compilation, so grab em all … ps they are FREE…
“these experimental sound scientists don’t just make a pot-and-pan racket … the output is energetic but soothing … and it’s cheaper than Tylenol, folks”
• intoinfinity.org (read my previous post about the project) just added our audio contribution to the site. The loop was produced by Gabe Noel and features the smooth vocal stylings of Mooey Moobau … ¡viva moo-sotros!
[vosotros @ intoinfinity] (click refresh to see new art each time)
[learning music @ rcrdlbl]
I’m headin to Dublin this weekend to attend the Hard Working Class Heroes Festival. Not only will I get to see over eighty Irish bands in 3 days, I’m honored to be representing vosotros as an international delegate at the festival. I’ll be speaking on a panel about innovative music companies plotting “alternative routes” and participating in some mentoring sessions with local artists. I leave this afternoon and I’m getting pumped up. After the festival, I’m going to London to eat massive amounts of kebab and explore some opportunities to bring vosotros to you-all overseas. Stay tuned….
In other news, I want to give a massive shout out to Cord Phillips, an incredible recording engineer and close friend of vosotros. Cord engineered the current #1 song on the country charts – “Do You Believe Me Now” by Jimmy Wayne. ¡Boo yaaaaa! Cord’s tearin’ it up on the Nashville studio circuit right now, so hit him up if you’re looking to do some work down there. [He's also a good candidate if your Twisted Sister cover band is looking for a drummer].
Finally, John Wood’s Learning Music continues their residency at Tangier this Sunday. Joining Learning Music will be vosotros cohort Bobb Bruno, Tom Brosseau, and …. vosotros. plus … the show is FREE if you know the password …. “your glasses match your hair”.
see you-all in a few weeks…. johnG
