Combining Two Worlds of Sound (as published in the GW Hatchet)

It's 9:00 o'clock on a Tuesday night as the regular crowd of hipsters, stoners, and musically exploratory individuals shuffle out of the early show at the 9:30 Club. There is a buzz about this crowd- they haven't been sardine-packed with thousands of sweating and swaying teeny-boppers that habitually plague one of D.C.'s most frequented concert venues. Instead, they were treated to 90 minutes of pure audio-bliss. The Books, along with virtuosic guest violinist Todd Reynolds, have just left the stage after a stellar rendition of some of their electronic, sample-ridden repertoire.

A Books' concert is a true sensory experience. Not only have they mastered the art of electronic composing, live performance, and video editing, they have also done so without taking themselves too seriously. The band is constantly joking with each other and the crowd, keeping the atmosphere serious but informal. In return, the audience, for the first time in my experience at the 9:30 Club, is void of screamers and song-requesters. The elder-member of the duo, Dutch cellist Paul de Jong, speaks in an accented drone - if he speaks at all - a style that is mimicked by Reynolds, which is a significant departure from his normally talkative and jovial demeanor.

All quirkiness aside, The Books have managed to revitalize the craft of a quiet, classy performance that doesn't dry out. Most of their music is performed with alongside the accompaniment of a pre-recorded track. Now, I was admittedly skeptical about this tactic. How much talent can that show, after all? Apparently, a lot. Along with their audio tracks, The Books edit videos for each of their compositions that beautifully capture the essence of each piece, whether marveling at the universe or creating goofy wordplay. As was explained by guitarist Nick Zammuto during the show, the videos are edited to be played back at a very specific frame rate that synchronizes them perfectly with the beats per minute of the music.

Despite the impressiveness of their recorded and performed elements, not to mention their immense musical talent, there is something else about The Books that stands out as particularly remarkable: their sound placement. Every piece contains hundreds - if not thousands - of different samples. Each one has to be placed perfectly, as do their live-instrument sounds, to create a distinctive and unrivaled musical experience. In doing this, The Books are constantly toeing the line between what should be considered art and what should be regarded as rubbish.

The fine line between music and noise is constantly being blurred, especially these days, and The Books operate and thrive by successfully staying on the beautiful and creative musical side of that ever-thinning boundary.

American Idol My Ass

As Seinfeld would say...What's the deal with American Idol? 30 million viewers every week? 65 million votes? Season 6 is slowly (and painfully) drawing to a close and I am forced to wonder...Who cares? How is it possible that virtually 10% of the American population watch this piece of self-indulgent horseshit weekly, over 20% vote, and I still don't know one single person who watches it anymore. Well...I guess that makes a little sense. I probably couldn't even bear to associate with someone if I knew they spent an hour (two?) of their lives on that every week.

Admittedly, I did watch one season of Idol. I had my favorite contestant, who I rooted for until his all-too-soon dismissal (Constantine SomethingGreek), and when he was gone so was I. I think my most pressing aversion to this embarrassing manifestation of our consumerist, Coke-sponsored, Ford-driven popular "culture" is that nothing musically or socially redeeming has ever come to fruition from Idol despite its six years of painstaking existence. Kelly Clarkson, you say? Please...I said musically redeeming, not talentless hack. Taylor Hicks? The last name says it all. Who are these people...these second-rate singers who couldn't even make their way to a karaoke bar, let alone a major record label? Are we, as a culture (again, I use this term loosely), so obsessed with drama and sitting on our asses in front of the television that we are willing to sacrifice art and music for the poorly-conceived notion of "down-time"? Apparently, unfortunately, and sadly, the answer appears to be yes.

An Overlooked Innovator (as published in the GW Hatchet)

Popular culture leads us to see the world of music through filtered glasses. Oftentimes, these filters only let through the worst of the worst. Nickelback, Ja Rule, and pretty much anything featured on MTV (or the travesty of what VH1 has become) are forcibly shoved down our throats and our ears are constantly averted from the virtual ocean of spectacular music that is readily available for our listening pleasure. In the fray, many artists and even entire genres of music go overlooked.

In 1988, a young 23-year-old in Rochester made a name for himself as the principal second violin of the Rochester Philharmonic playing music by the likes of Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky, among others. Almost twenty years later, Todd Reynolds is a self-described “hardcore avant-garde musician.” Reynolds founded the Kronos Quartet-inspired Ethel in 2000 (from which he is now two years removed), with the goal of creating an independent project that would allow him to musically and artfully express himself, while at the same time would also support composers and fearless improvisation. For almost six years, he was a main contributing performer and composer, but Reynolds says those times have “run their course.” Now, having moved on from Ethel, which is still thriving even in his absence, he is cultivating a budding solo career. His first EP release, aptly titled “Todd Reynolds,” come out this April and he will be joining experimental group The Books on their upcoming tour (which, coincidentally, stops at the 9:30 Club on April 17).

Reynolds’ new solo path has helped him learn a lot about composition, and his exploring has led him to discover his “single voice.” Though he is happier now with his musical path, he still looks forward to playing with ensembles because he is “an improviser at heart.” It is his exploratory nature that led Reynolds to befriend The Books.

Having toured with them once before, Reynolds seems youthfully excited about the unique opportunity to “bounce” his work off of a younger audience. “There is a particular kind of listener for The Books,” says Reynolds, “Last time, I knew I liked these people.” Though he and The Books have only been close friends for a year or so, Reynolds was a long-time fan of the unique sampling and mixing techniques used in the production of their music. It is this originality that Todd Reynolds shares most in common with The Books.

When Reynolds listens to his music now, he says to himself, “I don’t know what style that is” (though his friends have labeled it “quantum ambient”). That’s just in his nature . . . to be different. “I just can’t emulate styles anymore to fit in,” says the Steve Reich-ian violinist, who is proudly steeped in minimalism. Reynolds’ passion and giddy excitement are contagious, and the prospect of experiencing his real-time composition in person in the coming days fills me with a similar feeling. So why, oh why, is Todd Reynolds not a well-known musician? Is it his dedication to the classics, or his incessant strive to drive music forward? He is a true innovator, and if he continues to explore new musical paths he will no doubt open new ones for all of us.

I'm Ron Burgundy?

Well, it's a brand-spanking new post for my shiny, brand-spanking new "blog." I don't know much about these newfangled technologies, but as a 21-year-old hopeful staff writer of magazines and newspapers, I feel like I should try to involve myself in this crazy system. It's funny...all this time trying to avoid Facebook and Myspace, and I end up here, starting my own lame-ass online journal about music.

I'll try not to bore anyone, and I'll try to be as opinionated and hilarious as possible...along the lines of Bill Simmons for those of you who read ESPN.com (yes) or ESPN the Magazine (no). As Ron Burgundy says, "I didn't have a mountain...I had a camera and a newsroom." And I don't have a camera or a newsroom, but I do have the internets, the Google, and a computer...so enjoy.

I greet you on this fine wintry-spring of a Tuesday in DC with good news...music is alive and well! The problem is discovering the right places to discover it (a bit redundant, I know). Luckily, I have some help from some very musically conscious friends that allows me to stay up-to-date on all the new stuff, both good and bad, that's hitting the shelves or, more likely, not hitting the shelves and just being illegally downloaded from torrent sites.

I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to the by-no-means-new band Do Make Say Think. Now, you may be thinking, "Why is this guy talking about a band that's ten years old?" Well, their new album "You, You're a History in Rust" is breathtaking. I mean it...every track is better than the last. It moves more than their older stuff, has more character, and still maintains their "experimental" nature. Of particular interest to me were tracks 2 and 3, which seemed to both get the album moving and subsequently throw it into orbit.

I've got much much much (etc) more to talk about, but I should probably save something for another day...maybe day 2?