Consciously Streaming #1

Jorge Dalto - Theme in Berlin - Chevere (United Artists 1976)


Steve Reich - IV. Full Orchestra - The Four Sections: Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ (1973)


Cougars - Close to Fast, Loud & Big - Nice, Nice (Go Kart 2003)


Consciously Streaming is a occasional stream-of-conscious commentary influenced by the shuffle of my full 60gig Ipod. The songs appear in parenthesis (artist - song - album) at the exact point they started as I was writing. No editing is done to the article.

Shuffle starts… (Jorge Dalto – Theme in Berlin – Chevere) graces my tiny speakers… I work in a small office in the southern most part of the Loop in Chicago among the bustling brokers and business people of the Board of Trades. Though I work in the same building, I have absolutely no idea what that entails except they have to wear these colorful mesh vests with large cards in their front breast pocket. I’m sure it’s pretty boring, but not having a vest really makes me want to be part of their clique. So on the 7th floor, in my cramped half-cubicle I watch them come racing in and out of the mysterious room across the hall with a sense of amazement… those damn vests are so awesome. They always return my glances (Pit Er Pat – Nick Those Prawns and Burn Them – Emergency) partly because I am staring at them with such awe and partly because an unidentified and eclectic stream of music swirls out of the room evoking the occasional intriguing glance but mostly just hollow looks that say “poor unambitious college grad, he’s too wrapped up in his music to find a real job like me and my hot broker self.” (Sonny Boy Williamson – Good Morning, School Girl – Worried Life Blues). And to that I say “pshhthh” with emphasis on the psh. I spend just about every waking hour listening, researching, writing, thinking about and loving music; you leave your job after 8 hours of 5 days of week and leave most every thought about it with your precious vests hung on the back of your desk chair. My music follows me everywhere commanding every second of my attention. Now who’s unambitious. (The Coup – Head (of State) – Pick a Bigger Weapon) One of the three co-workers that work in my unassuming office begins to giggle at Boots Riley’s chorus “Bush and Hussain together in bed giving each other head…” mostly because I have the edited version (a product of working in independent broadcast radio, damn FCC) and it’s more a reversed slur than anything. (Medeski, Martin & Wood – Note Bleu – The Dropper) Leave it to Boots, who I happily experienced performing the Wicker Park Street Festival a couple weeks ago though I did not care too much for his rap-rock tendencies, to combine humor, politics and feel good hip-hop jams. I’m curious why the neu-hippy-jam band crowd embraced MMW so much but never seemed to explore their free jazz-funk roots; their following turned me off from the band for a while, even though I enjoyed their music… that’s weak but a part of life. (Steve Reich – Full Orchestra – The Four Sections: Music for Mallet Instruments…) Yes! I just got the Reich via Seattle Public Library care of my west coast friend, and it is something that I have been looking forward to for a while. I’m very big into the more textured, laid-back instrumental bands like The Dylan Group, HiM and Four Tet among many others that are so obviously influenced by Reich and his amazingly progressive classical compositions, and I make it a point to always dig up a favorite band’s influences because I should obviously like them as well. This album, as well as Music for 18 Musicians did not let me down one bit. I am curious if my acceptance for classical music comes from listening to it every night at dinner growing up or that I recorded so much of it in college. It almost seems like a lost art these days. (Cougars – Close to Fast, Loud & Big – Nice, Nice). On the complete opposite side of the spectrum is the large and raucous rock collective that is Chicago’s Cougars. 2003’s Nice, Nice was one of my favorite albums that year and it still is a wonderful listen every time flypod shuffle throws it into the mix. So beautifully crunchy and abrasive, but the melodic yelps of horns always keep it grounded… it’s everything skacore wanted to be but was not ballsy enough to achieve. (Cody Chesnutt – If We Don’t Disagree – The Headphone Masterpiece) Whatever happened to Cody? He was everywhere in 2002, then completely fell off… maybe The Headphone Masterpiece was too deliciously weird for The Strokes clique that embraced him for his retro Sly Stone look. It’s a shame, his off-the-wall humor and sloppy soul-rock was truly and individual voice and a DIY success if you ask me. It’s Monday, I need sleep and still have 3 hours of work left… oh shit! That guy has a bright green vest! No fair.