Merry Christmas

New bassist

So, as I've mentioned before, Miho, the founder and bassist for Lovebites, left them about a week and a half after I discovered them. They have now officially welcomed a new bassist into their band, named Fami. They had a live announcement video and because I'm such a freak show, I woke up at 5:00 in the morning the day of to see it. Here 'tis.

She's a) the youngest band member at 20 years old, and b) the tallest, looks like by a lot. I've read but can't verify that three band members are under five feet tall. Anyhoo, she's been putting videos of herself on YouTube for a few years, meaning she was doing it in high school. Below is the one I found most impressive, although the song is horrible -- just listen to the bass. Also, bear in mind, she records the audio separately in a studio. In some of her videos, her (five string!) bass isn't even plugged in.

This video is from two years ago when she was just 18. It's people like this that make you realize how little you've accomplished in life.

One more post on Asterism

I praised Asterism in an earlier post, but I wanted to share a reaction video from someone who actually knows what they're talking about. I watched another video where he reacts to Asterism performing a Stevie Ray Vaughn song and it actually brought him to tears. Below is his reaction to their live performance of "Dawn" which I have in an earlier post. Lately, I've been listening to their studio version of this song, which is beyond amazing. I don't think I said enough about this song, so I'm going to say it now.

Regarding the band, I am in awe of how perfect everything they compose is. Their music often doesn't go in the direction I anticipate, but wherever they take it then seems like the only way for it to possibly have gone. It's like each song is conceived as a whole, not something that was built up step by step. There's a line in Amadeus when Salieri is praising Mozart's music that summarizes my impression of Asterism: "And music, finished as no music is ever finished. Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase and the structure would fall."

Regarding this particular song, the last three minutes, after the best bass solo in music history, evokes in me the celebration when God steps in and redeems all suffering, conquers all evil, and everything negative is turned into joy. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes; there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Rev. 21:4). I'm a music person, primarily classical, but I can't remember the last time a piece of music had this effect on me. 

Sorry

OK, I'm currently writing up a fairly extensive philosophy post, and I'm sorry I've been focusing so much on Japanese heavy metal lately. But while you're waiting for the philosophy, let me say some more about Japanese heavy metal.

My first tier of bands that I absolutely love consists of just two: Lovebites and Asterism. I discovered Lovebites last August, about a week and a half before their bass player (and founder) left the band. However, they have publicly announced their search for a new bassist of any nationality, age, or gender. Having said that, from what I gather, the fan favorite so far is a Japanese woman. Anyway, here's a couple more of their songs. The first one, "Raise Some Hell," is odd to me, because for some reason I usually don't hear the verses sync up with the music in most performances. (The part where she sings, "Who is that? Who’s that chick? Shredding on guitar; Who is that? Who’s that chick? Heavy noise on bass ;Who is that? Who’s that chick? Pounding on the drums; Who am I? I’ve got a voice, it’s gonna knock you out"). But in the performance of it below, it syncs up for me without any problem. 

I absolutely love Midori, the blonde guitarist. The frame at 3:51 should be a poster. If I went to one of their concerts I'd hold up a sign saying, "Midori will you marry me? Shred for yes." I'd have to OK it with the wife first, though. Anyway, here's another video:

Now for Asterism. Everyone seems completely in awe of their performance abilities, and I am too, but I'm more overwhelmed by their original compositions. In all seriousness, I'd put them up against most classical music in terms of overall musicality, and 95% of what I listen to is classical. At the end of the following song, I just feel ennobled, something which almost no music ever does to me.

This next one really displays their originality and talent. If you love classical music, just listen with open ears and mind.

I was going to go over my second and third tiers too, but this post is long enough already. Just enjoy.

And yet more Japanese metal

There's a lot of crap happening in the world right now, so here's a little distraction. I found another band called Asterism. They do instrumental songs, so no singing. And they are insanely good. In addition, they are young. The guitarist and bassist are both 19 years old. This song was released when they were 13 or 14, and it's as good as Joe Satriani on his best day.

That's a six-string bass by the way, and I think he has a seven-string one too. And here's another song they just recorded a few months ago. This is absolutely brilliant.

I mean, holy crap. I can't think of anything to compare that to, it's its own genre. I'm just in awe. They're musical geniuses.

And to conclude, here's a glorious Lovebites song from last year's EP.

Update (5 March): When I posted this I had wanted to include another Asterism song that has an official video, but it wasn't embeddable. You can watch it here, and I highly recommend it. The bassist has that 7-string bass, and now I'm thinking the video above might be the same 7-string instead of a 6-string. But I just found a live version of the same song they did when -- get this -- the guitarist was 12, the bassist was 13, and the drummer 15. (The drummer and bassist are brothers).

And because the focus is going to be on the bassist and guitarist, I wanted to show a cover they did of Rush's YYZ to showcase the drummer. If you can do Neil Peart, you're at the top of your game.

The future of metal is Japanese women

I promised not to update my post on Lovebites, so I'll have to make a new one. The following song is my new favorite song of theirs. It has a long keyboard intro, then a prerecorded guitar intro, then it's just glorious. Actually, the guitar intro is pretty glorious too. But what's especially noteworthy in the song proper is the bass. That's Miho playing who left the band in August. Her move at 6:15 is one of the greatest things I've ever seen.

Having said that, I found a new bass player for them. I'll send them a bill for my commission. Seriously, watch her right hand as she plays. It looks like it's a glitch or like it's going at double speed.

This bites

I've always found it frustrating when a rock band's guitarist learns to punch a few chords on a piano, and then suddenly they're a guitarist/keyboardist. You're not a keyboardist, you just know how to play Chopsticks. Or Jump. Here's an example.

Yes I'm being sarcastic. That was incredible. The band is Lovebites and I'm absolutely astounded at their overall musicality. They have two of the best guitarists I've ever heard, and I love how they both have solos in each song. That wasn't even their best one: this is. (If you want to skip the intro, go to 1:25)

So, two of the best guitarists I've ever heard, and the freaking drummer is insane. I don't know how many beats per minute she's putting out but holy crap. Their instruments just seem like extensions of their bodies, I can't recall seeing metal musicians that gave me that impression so strongly. I'm worried that I'm being too impressed by them because they are women, since metal just sounds hyper-masculine to me and it's not something I expect from that direction. But the upside is that Lovebites is correcting any such latent sexism.

This song is a close second.

So . . . did I mention the singer? My first listen I thought she was excellent, but not my particular cup of tea. Then I played it for my wife (who hates metal) and she said she sounds a lot like Ann Wilson from Heart. I don't know why that changed my perception of it, but now I love her.

Here's another song that they just released a few months ago:

I'm not into symphonic metal that much, but I am amazed again at their musicality. Here's another:

Yeah. Every single one of these musicians could front their own band and be the premiere performer, but instead they banded together (ha!) for the sole purpose of overwhelming me.

Now you'll notice I didn't mention the bassist. I'm not confident I can judge bass playing. But she is the founder and leader of Lovebites, and she writes a lot of their songs, though not all by a long shot. So she is the cornerstone; the band is her vision. And she just quit. I discovered the band three weeks ago and one week ago they announced she was leaving. The rest of the band says they're not breaking up but they'll take a hiatus. I stopped keeping track of new bands and popular songs a few decades ago, so this is the first time I've become emotionally attached to one for a while. I'm not saying it's my fault the bass player left, but . . . well . . . it's kind of a coincidence, don't you think? Groucho Marx said he wouldn't want to belong to a country club that would have someone like him for a member. Maybe the bassist didn't want to be in a band that would have someone like me as a fan.

Anyway, here's another Japanese all-girl metal band:

Update (Sep. 21): OK, sorry, this is their best song.

Ho. Ly. Crap. That first guitar solo is insane, and the second one is just haunting.

Update (Oct. 5): Sorry, darn it, sorry, this is their best song:

I'm starting think their best song will just be whichever one I listened to last.

Update (Nov. 16): Wow, here's yet another all-girl Japanese metal band.

Update (Nov. 21): OK, I'll stop updating after this. The last band above is Nemophila, and here's another song of theirs that just came out:

And here's another band:

And now back to Lovebites. I was telling my brother-in-law earlier tonight that I haven't been this excited about a band since high school. I think what gets me is the two guitarists. The solos and duets just absolutely overawe me, even in the songs I otherwise think are just OK. This is the video of one of the first songs they released. It stops in the middle to advertise their first album and their first Japanese tour, which is kind of weird. But it's still amazing, so stick with it.

Finally, here's a song they just released that will be on their upcoming Best Of album.

Transcendent

Once on this blog I wrote that the second movement of the New World Symphony is what got me into Dvorak. Similarly, the first movement of Piano Concerto #1 is what got me into Rautavaara. It's not completely atonal, but it's not exactly tonal either. The glorious NOISE at 0:53 makes me hyperventilate and my heart starts beating faster. Calling a piece of art transcendent is cliché and artificial, but I don't know another word that will do the trick here. This is one of the greatest pieces of music I've ever heard.

I love the YouTube phenomenon of putting these great pieces of music on with the accompanying video following the sheet music. But when I got to 8:52 and saw that it said "Untertasten Cluster mit den Arm" I thought, no. No way. They don't pound their entire forearms into the piano to play this piece. So I looked for a live performance of it and . . . yes; yes they do.

Theme and variation

 Here's the theme:

And here's the variation:

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

This is the most metal thing I've ever heard

Amazing!

Just watch these two videos. My favorite part is the top staff at 4:21 in the second one.

New world music

I love the music of Antonin Dvorak (or Dvořák if you want to be fancy), and the piece that brought me into the fold is the famous Largo from his New World Symphony.



I never thought much about what was "New World" about it -- if I thought about it at all I probably figured it was originally performed in the States or something. Well, I recently discovered that the haunting and simple melody the Largo begins with was meant to sound like a Negro spiritual. And not only was Dvorak successful in capturing that sound, one of his students eventually wrote lyrics to it and made it into an actual song, "Goin' Home." Of course, the "home" in question is heaven.



I still can't believe how beautiful all of this is. It captures the yearning for heaven as good as anything I've ever heard.

Linkfest

-- This is amazing. It is the oldest piece of music known, dating from about 1400 BC. Obviously there is a lot of interpretation since it wasn't written in our musical notation, but it's still incredible. I'm linking to it instead of embedding it because you need to read the comments section.

-- I've written before about the book Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence by philosopher David Benatar. I've always asked, jokingly, "Did he dedicate it to his parents?" Well, a new article in the New Yorker reveals that he actually did. Bill Vallicella comments on Benatar's position, called anti-natalism, and actually points (here and here) to Christian anti-natalism: that is, that the Christian position should be to not bring any more people into existence.

-- "Flows of 'water' on Mars may actually be sand, new study reveals". I thought we already knew this. At least, I remember linking to a study that suggested it, but I can't find the post now, so it may have been on another blog.

-- The inestimable Edward Feser reviews the inestimable Daniel Dennett's most recent book, the inestimable From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds. Feser's review is entitled One Long Circular Argument. It begins thus:

How do you get blood from a stone? Easy. Start by redefining “blood” to mean “a variety of stone.” Next, maintaining as straight a face as possible, dramatically expound upon some trivial respect in which stone is similar to blood. For example, describe how, when a red stone is pulverized and stirred into water, the resulting mixture looks sort of like blood. Condescendingly roll your eyes at your incredulous listener’s insistence that there are other and more important respects in which stone and blood are dissimilar. Accuse him of obscurantism and bad faith. Finally, wax erudite about the latest research in mineralogy, insinuating that it somehow shows that to reject your thesis is to reject Science Itself. 

Of course, no one would be fooled by so farcical a procedure. But substitute “mind” for “blood” and “matter” for “stone,” and you have the recipe for Daniel Dennett’s From Bacteria to Bach and Back.

I haven't read the book yet, but that description sums up Dennett's whole oeuvre so well it's a little disturbing.

-- J.R. Lucas, "The Gödelian Argument: Turn Over the Page", Etica e Politica 5/1 (2003).

-- Peter van Inwagen, "The Compatibility of Darwinism and Design", in Neil A. Manson, ed., God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science (New York: Routledge, 2003).

-- Ted Chiang, "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling", Subterranean Press (this last one is science-fiction, if you're wondering).

Crud

Malcolm Young died. Here are some reactions from various rockers.

"Tu sei morta"

A few years ago I linked to a video of an aria from Monteverdi's opera L'Orfeo. I linked to it because I couldn't embed it. Now I can, so here it is. Monteverdi was, depending on how you look at it, either a late Renaissance composer or an early Baroque composer. He died before any of the Baroque composers we all know and love were even born, but he was clearly developing music beyond Renaissance concepts. L'Orfeo is about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the aria below is after Eurydice has died and Orpheus vows to go to the underworld and sing to Hades to try to convince him to let her return to the land of the living. I chose a video that translates his words, but for some reason doesn't translate the last line Orpheus sings before leaving for the underworld: "Goodbye earth, goodbye sky, and sun, goodbye." I find it heartbreaking.

Claim:

Mendelssohn, at his best, is at least as good as Mozart, at his best.

Evidence:



I heard this piece in my car during a long drive and was just in awe. Then I heard the last minute and a half -- starting at about 30:10 -- and my jaw dropped. Who does this? Who writes music like this? It's insane. (Don't skip to it, you have to hear the whole thing in order to get the full effect of that last minute and a half.) That's when I planned to write this blogpost. And when I arrived at home and looked up the piece in order to write about it, I discovered that Mendelssohn wrote it when he was thirteen years old. Thirteen. I was absolutely amazed by this piece before I learned that it was written by a thirteen-year-old. Go ahead, suggest some counter-evidence in the comments, and I'll just bring in more evidence for my claim.

Update (8 November): OK, no one has commented to propose a counter-example from Mozart so I guess I'll have to do it myself. Here's his piano concerto #20 in D minor. The first movement is simply one of the greatest things ever written, and the other two are outstanding.



And then, as my counter-counter-example, I submit Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E minor.

Pleyel it again Sam

I was reading the Wikipedia entry for Joseph Haydn and it included this little tidbit about one of his visits to London:

Another problem arose from the jealously competitive efforts of a senior, rival orchestra, the Professional Concerts, who recruited Haydn's old pupil Ignaz Pleyel as a rival visiting composer; the two composers, refusing to play along with the concocted rivalry, dined together and put each other's symphonies on their concert programs.

I don't recall ever hearing of Pleyel before, so I typed him into YouTube and started listening to one of his 41 symphonies. It's pretty darn good, and it sounds a lot like Haydn. Here 'tis for your listening pleasure.

Bassoon partita

I've never heard Bach's Partita in A minor played by a bassoon before, but man it sounds good. What a gorgeous-sounding instrument.

Concord Sonata

I studied music and developed an appreciation for nontonal music. It's an acquired taste and it wilts if I don't feed it. But whenever I want to get back into it, I listen to The Concord Sonata by Charles Ives. I don't know why, but I'm always able to enjoy it. I understand if you don't like it, or even if you loathe it. Like I said, I can't explain why I find this piece so attractive, so listenable. I love the performance below, but there's another performance on YouTube that tracks the sheet music here. That's just to the first movement, the other movements are separate videos.

Two more pieces

This arrangement of this piece of music just devastates me. It's Ave Maria by Vladimir Vavilov, a 20th century Russian composer. Apparently, Vavilov's schtick was to ascribe his music to earlier composers. This one he ascribes to Giulio Caccini, a late Renaissance early Baroque composer. The piece is actually less than 50 years old. You can hear it sung here, but the cello arrangement floors me, even moreso than Barber's Adagio for Strings. In fact, unless you're much less affected by music than me, if you're going through a difficult time right now, I strongly suggest you don't listen to it. It will break you.



OK, that's one piece; here's the next. The other day my wonderful six-almost-seven-year-old daughter was picking out a melody on her keyboard, which she does quite well and quite often. I wasn't listening. Then my son, who was doing something else, suddenly said to her, "Oh, I LOVE that song! That's my favorite song!" to which my daughter replied, "Mine too! That's my favorite song too!" I realized the song sounded familiar, but because it's not usually played on a child's keyboard, it took me a few moments to realize what it was: