August 2nd, 2009
Singer Bobby McFerrin demonstrates how hard-coded music is into our brains at the 2009 World Science Festival:
World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo.
Thanks to Chicagoist for the link.
July 31st, 2009
In 1948, George Orwell wrote a novel envisioning the year 1984 as a dystopian future ruled by a totalitarian regime.
While said novel did inspire a film adaptation that year and a legendary advertisement for the first Apple Macintosh, those of us that actually remember 1984 know it didn’t quite turn out that way, as much as people feared Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher would make it so.
Politicians were hardly the only dominant force on the cultural landscape. If you would like, you could consider the mid 1980’s to be the Time of the Rock Gods, a time when the most powerful rock and pop icons ruled the scene like dinosaurs during the Jurassic.
In January 1984, Van Halen released the aptly titled “1984,” their last album with David Lee Roth. The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard charts. The number one album of the time, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” not only ended up being the best-selling album of all time, but it featured guest guitarist Eddie Van Halen on “Beat It.”
If you were alive at this time, you or an older sibling had one or both of these albums. This was the sountrack of that year:
Play the first few bars of that for anyone alive at that time, even your grandma, and you’ll induce instant nostalgia.
But the point of this flashback isn’t I’m Old And This Is What Used To Be Popular. It’s really a case study in WTF Happened?
First of all, both of these artists were ludicrously popular in their day. Think of the most popular artist you know today. Multiply by ten. Still not even close. The most die-hard pop-hating metalhead would recognize “Beat It,” and even your mom knew the words to “Jump.”
No one has been that popular since - least of all those guys. Sometime in the mid 1990s, both of these artists suddenly dropped off the radar completely. There was no formal breakup or retirement, they just … went away. They each tried several times to regain their former glory, only to draw attention by how little attention they were drawing. Michael Jackson ended up being known mostly as a freak-faced alleged pedophile, only getting attention for his legal trouble up until his death a few weeks ago. Eddie Van Halen slowly turned into a sad parody of an aging rock star. While ex-Van Halen members have drifted off to help form one of the most insane ideas for a supergroup ever, Eddie and family have yet to get it together long enough to put out a new album. [Latest rumor is that they're working on one right now!; too bad Chinese Democracy is taken.]
So what happened? Did these artists play King of the Mountain too long? Or did they simply crush the mountain? Maybe that level of superstardom is just unsustainable - the time of the dinosaurs is over, and it’s time the smaller, more nimble mammals (for example, us) to take over.
July 27th, 2009
The dads in this band thought we were cool for being rock stars. We were wrong. Observe:
July 24th, 2009
In honor of this week’s 40th anniversary of the moon landing, we’re headed back to 1969 to take a look at David Bowie’s contribution to the space age.
Released as a single in July of 1969 to coincide with the moon landing, Space Oddity managed to tie together the astonishing achievements and optimism of the space program with the general ennui and unrest of the late 1960’s.
Though this original video is pretty dated by today’s standards, it’s nice to take a step back to when “space age” still meant “the future” and not “several decades in the past.” It also serves as an important lesson on how to express desperate isolation and confusion without coming off like a little whiny emo punk.
July 18th, 2009
Thanks to everyone who came out to last night’s show at Quenchers. We had a blast!
Thanks also to Grun-Tu-Molani and MBConn for putting on a great show with us.
We’ve got more shows coming up in August; check out the shows board for info.
If you happen to have photos of last night’s event, post them in the comments section. We always love to be able to see just how amazing (i.e. silly) we look.
June 14th, 2009
We’ve got three new shows on the horizon.
First off we have a post-Pitchfork party at Quenchers July 17. Following that we’re headed to one of our favorite hangouts, Reggie’s, on August 9th. Then we’re back on the North side August 27th at Silvie’s Lounge.
As always, details are posted on our shows page. See you there!
May 16th, 2009
I’m spreading my blogging wings over at Euphony Productions, writing about music basics and how we do things here in Veipa Cray. Check it out, and don’t just read my stuff. There’s lots of good information out there.
I’ll be posting stuff often, so keep checking back!
March 18th, 2009
We’ve finished production on our new 7 song EP, “Who is Veipa Cray?”
Join us Thursday night at Zella, 1983 N. Clybourn Ave. We’ll be playing songs from the album as well as the rest of our repertoire. Cover is a measly $3.
We’ve got CDs, T-shirts and a whole bag of swag for our fans. You don’t want to miss this.
February 27th, 2009
Our first EP is set to drop March 19.
We’re very excited to have it this near completion; all we need is a title, cover art and some songs and we’re finished!
We’ll debut it with a show at Zella in Lincoln Park. Details will be posted as they become available.
February 17th, 2009
We’re back at Reggies this Thursday, Feb. 19, at 8:30 p.m. Reggies has a killer bar and we can’t wait to hit that place up again. Reggies Music Joint is at 2105 S State Street, right next to Reggies Rock Club.
Meanwhile, we’re putting the finishing touches on a few new songs to add to our collection. Keep your eyes peeled for a CD Release party coming up late March or early April. Details to come.
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