From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V13 #698 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Thursday, January 1 2009 Volume 13 : Number 698 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- must . . . stop . . . hitting repeat . . . [Steve VanDevender ] Derivative, but good [neile ] Re: Derivative, but good [birdie ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:34:42 -0800 From: Steve VanDevender Subject: must . . . stop . . . hitting repeat . . . I came across this earlier today and I just can't stop watching/listening to it. http://www.offworld.com/2008/12/things-we-lost-in-the-snow-p5.html In which some Swedish guy performs his own arrangement of a theme I'd never heard before from a video game I'd never heard of before ("Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker") on a bunch of acoustic instruments he all plays himself (including an accordion and a baking pan), along with his own voice, all multitracked together (like how Happy did her early songs). Musically it's charming and quite competently played and arranged. He also took video of himself while playing and singing each part and edited it all together to show each part as it's playing (at its height, twenty-some little copies of him, including nine voices), so it's also fun to watch. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:53:21 -0600 From: "Amy-Collected Sounds" Subject: RE: must . . . stop . . . hitting repeat . . . That is by far the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. Thanks so much for posting it!! ~Amy Steve VanDevender said: . I came across this earlier today and I just can't stop watching/listening to it. http://www.offworld.com/2008/12/things-we-lost-in-the-snow-p5.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:46:25 -0600 From: Doug Subject: Re: Favourite albums 2008 :-) I dunno...I'd like her, but I've already heard Regina Spektor, with flashes of Deathcab for Cutie thrown in, too. If I hadn't heard them I might like Hello Saferide, but as it is, the keyword is, well, derivative. Oh well. - --Doug ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:08:27 -0800 (PST) From: neile Subject: Derivative, but good This whole issue of being derivative can be such a bear. When Tim recommended Emily Jane White I went and listened to her MySpace samples and said, yeah, he's right, Cat Power. But oddly enough I kept listening to those samples enough that I said yeah I understand why he likes her enough to recommend her--I have to buy that album, so I did, and now the songs are stuck in my head. I still hear the strong Cat Power influence in my head, but the strength of the album itself and especially the songwriting has somewhat eclipsed that. I went through the same process with Bloem de Ligny years ago. I mean, she sounds like early Bjork, she even *looks* like Bjork, she even has a similar tattoo in a similar place to one of Bjork's, and yet the album _zink_ has a special place in my heart. I suspect _Dark Undercoat_ is heading to the same place. A couple of times that happened with Tori soundalikes, like Sarah Slean's _Universe_. When I first got Regina Spektor's _11:11_ I couldn't stop hearing Fiona Apple in it--now of course I wonder that I heard any similarity. And of course Happy and Kate. "When the Rain Came Down" sounds so Kate-like, and yet it's so Happy. Just thoughts as I'm thinking about my favourites of 2008. - --Neile ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:27:38 -0800 From: birdie Subject: Re: Derivative, but good Derivative can be good - but, it can be very bad. Original artists having their style ripped by others....often, the one who comes along and rips it and makes it more mainstream, winds up making more money than the original or they create a glut in the market so then that style or scene gets run into the ground.....or the knock-off's will sell to TV/Film for much cheaper than the original artists (this happens quite a bit - if you see someone has sold a lot of songs to TV shows, it is usually cos they ripped off another artists trip but sell it on the cheap).... So, Derivative can mean faux inferior ripoff and they can cause problems for the original artist if they are aggressive hustlers, which a number of them are. Still, sometimes, if an artist is truly a great songwriter - they can weave strands of things - inspired by others and make something equal or refreshing of an old style, and that can be good for everyone. But, bad knock off's and musicians that are copy cats, are usually a sign of immaturity or lack original talent...and they can be completely annoying. neile wrote: >This whole issue of being derivative can be such a bear. > > > I agree!!!!!! Birdie ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V13 #698 ***************************