Great Albums you discovered on PA

Dean wrote: ... You said that you "tend to allow music to come to me" yet that is as nonsensical as it is incomprehensible because hearing music isn't a passive act. The days when you could browse the racks of LPs in your friendly local record store and buy albums on-spec and unheard because you liked the cover or where intrigued by the song titles are long gone. The music we like to hear cannot be heard on the radio or seen on the telly (unless it's Sigur Rós's music being used as incidental music a documentary or Jónsi's solo work being used to advertise cream cheese or HSBC bank...). ...

I can not say, that when i walked into Rasputin's in Berkeley, that I would find in one afternoon the following ... Pole/Bezombes et Rizet/Roger Chapman- Hyenas/New TD and new KS.

In those days, I walked into a lot of stores, and looked, and more often than not did not find anything that stood out. Guy and I, for example, had, I would suggest, a lot ... A LOT of good intuition on choosing stuff and eventually playing it, specially him for his shows. For me, it was more about also having the music, and augmenting his shows if possible. Trust me ... there was more than one album that hit the trash can because it was simply played because it was better and all that.

That the music came to me, is a way of saying that ... the album was there, and I noticed it, and I got it ... because if I had not noticed, obviously the album would not have "come home".

I have never looked at any of the arts, as a "passive" or "active" engagement. For me, that is almost way too clinical a thought and direction to take and discuss things. I do not "predict", nor do I go out ... thinking that ... ohhh let's stop at Rasputin's and maybe find 3 albums! Or Tower on the strip, or Westwood in the other side of things, and all that ... ohhh, gotta stop by that book store to get the Melody Maker ... and the like.

I, STILL, live by that "uncertainty" these days, and sometimes, just because Dean or Snow Dog said it, I will listen to it, since I tend to be so internal and inside my own person to always be able to hear what you guys say, and sometimes, it is just that ... I didn't hear it!

Music and all the arts, for me, is an active thing, you could say ... but I get emotionally excited about a painting, but it does not make me go out and paint it! Same for music ... I can love it, but I am not capable of going out to play it ... and writing is a different story, but I do not wish, or care to, copy other styles ... that simple ... but I'm not sure that any of this is "visible", anywhere to anyone!

The "freshness" and "excitement" comes ONLY when the music appears and it is just like brand new and it surprises you. BUT, you have to have an open ear for it, or it won't catch you at that time, and might take 25 listens to get you anywhere with it, but for me, other than things that are very hard to read (too much stuff in them) are the only ones that I have a hard time reading ... I can read Huxley just fine, but had to read 10 pages at a time of Castaneda ... and they both have wonderful "stories". But the only "excitement" that works is the one that "takes you away", or the whole experience becomes nothing but a very simple mind exercise ... that you practice once in a while in rehearsal. Might be so for a musician, for you are one, but that is not the case with actors, theater and film, in general, when you can ween much more than just one thing out of it all!

I like the open style of today ... but it makes it really hard to make a call since everyone has an opinion, and sifting through all that to find yourself and your view gets a bit harder than otherwise. It's easy to say that there are no coincidences, and I might, still, one of these days, visit London or Paris (sister in Paris, another in Luxembourg), for the first time in my life ... here I am talking about some art and culture ... and I have never been there! But I read, study and see a lot of movies, listen to a lot of music, and check out the local arts ... and not many folks do that!

For that reason alone, I do not "expect" anything, and I allow things to arrive next to me, if they do. I am not asking, or expecting anything ... it's impossible to do so!