April 4, 2018
Miracler
S.T. (you know how he has that weird job, so kinda has to be nameless here)
Location
Santa Fe
A cool thing
about my mixed-college education (like our president, I was a transfer student) was spending the first 2 years at an engineering-heavy university, where I lucked into meeting some smart/cool/fun people who were definitely left-brain-endowed but who were also really into art and music. (The mixtapes of some now live in a box under my bed!) And a cool thing about music and math, we know, is that some people are really good at both. Take for instance my freshman year roommate's boyfriend. We'll call him ST! Creator of 2017's Gemini and 2012's Vacunado / Inmunizado and 2011's 2 Minute Warning and Welcome Spring and 2010's Rocket Sled, ST clearly considers the music/math line a fuzzy, if not non-existent thing. He once turned me on to this video demo of guilty pleasure chord math, and I get the feeling that like those guys, he listens to music through overlays of patterns and stuff. Here's how I know: read on!
Liner Notes from ST
Alix put "Summer of '69" on her "Crush on the Lifeguard" mix and I spent an embarrassing amount of time calling out chords ("One! Four! Five!" etc.) as I listened along on the drive to work. Then a friend texted DID YOU EVER REALLY NOTICE DRIVER'S SEAT IS JUST A THREE-CHORD VAMP WITH NO BRIDGE? So I made this mix. Oh and the 3MPM site was hacked so I didn't have the miracle reference list so mea culpa.
1. Coconut / Harry Nilsson is often held up as the canonical one-chord song example just being a vamp around a seventh. Go Harry!
2. Chain of Fools / Aretha Franklin is another one. It's amazing how much variation and suggestion of key change you can get out of a blues scale and a well-arranged backup chorus.
3. Papa was a Rolling Stone / The Temptations is the third all-one-chord thing. Again the blues scale does amazing things for this song that happens to be the song that would be my go-to were I ever called upon to choreograph the Ms. World pageant.
4. Tomorrow Never Knows / Beatles is built around the I with a bVII making brief appearances. The melody in the tonic part (e.g., "Turn off your mind relax and float downstream") just plays around on the tones of the open chord and is in fact probably a bugle call.
5. Funky Fire / Agrolites just goes I IV and I think it's pretty good. Just in time for warm weather. Have a beer.
6. I Can Change / LCD Soundsystem also just goes I IV and I think they do a nice job of it. Does iv also make a short appearance? I think so.
7. Small Stakes / Spoon is neat because it's basically just a tonic and then modulates to the II in my hack-ass music theory thinking but it has that neat little fifth-fourth-third countermelody that you could argue gives you a feeling of more dynamic structure than is really there, no?
8. Driver's Seat / Sniff 'n' the Tears was on a K-Tel compilation my undergraduate roommate had and it felt like an oldie then and I still love it now. The aforementioned three-chord vamp (iii-II-I is how I'd note it).
9. Queen / Perfume Genius is maybe I'd argue the most structurally varied song on this mix, but still manages to stick to a I - IV foundation with just the occasional subtonic bVII popping in to eat all the biscuits and create some drama.
10. On Some Faraway Beach / Eno - As complicated as any song on this mix gets. I / V / IV / II / V repeated, really all about that I-IV tension people go on about in theory class.
11. 2020 / Suuns - Kind of all just banging around on the tonic and then all of a sudden some modulation but then more weirdness I didn't chart but believe me it's better live.
(I hope you like this)
Mix is now up, our original place. Check your email for the current password. Thanks for your AWESOME commenting on our last mix here—let's keep up that trend for this one!
See you back here or on our members-only Facebook page soon. XOK
8 comments:
woot woot! so many tunes from ST's mixes are STILL on regular rotation Chez Stork, and I'm certain this mix will have some jewels to join them. The way he listens to music is so rad and different from my own. Love the both-sides-of-the-brain angle. This is gonna be tonight's soundtrack. NICE
Coconut is such a good song. One of the older guys at Tracks tired and tried to convince me of the importance of Nilsson, but I was having none of it at the time. It was a mistake. I made lots of mistakes in college.
Chain of Fools is one of the great songs of all time. This is the first time I’ve thought of it in terms of structure. I like where this mix is going.
Papa is another one that I grew up with, but never thought of how the structure is so simple. By the way ST, if you ever do choreograph the Ms World Contest, I will be watching. It’ll be my first time.
God, the Argolites are delicious. If it ever stops raining in Seattle this year, I’m going to blast this one out my windows. Neighbors be damed.
I find Spoon fascinating. I agree that this one masks a simple structure. I’m happy that they’ve managed to stay relevant for all these years.
Sniff n’ The Tears, wow. This song still sounds so fresh to me.
Perfume Genius is one of Seattle’s bests recent exports. This is a great song. “Eating biscuits”, that’s hilarious.
Wait, did Bob Seger steal the chord progression for Still The Same from this Eno song? It’s remarkably similar. I’m gonna send Bob a letter demanding my money back for that show at Market Square Arena in 1980. Bastard.
Suuns is a great band and this is my favorite of their songs. ST you are right, they are an amazingly good live band.
A great mix. Thank you.
This was an interesting idea for a mix -- it's a way of thinking about songs that I don't usually engage in! The happy surprise for me in this mix was the LCD Soundsystem song. I hadn't been pulled into this band's orbit before even though I heard them here and there in the last few years. I love the bouncy, synthie groove on this tune! And Sniff 'n' the Tears! I've always loved this song, and it's a prime example of shifting chords providing the payoff that you are waiting for as you sing along. Thanks for a cool mix!
Yes! I was hosting a small get together and needed the right background mix and wa la! up show this great mix. Particularly welcome tracks were LCD Soundsystem and Spoon, the later I need to really delve back into.
and as former engineering major that now works in the arts and bangs regularly on the piano in my living room I love the math=music approach.
Thanks!
Six years of piano lessons and I still don't pick up on what the hell is going on here. Or not going on here. Sheesh. That's okay, I still like the songs. The Eno track is spare, yet really challenging. I started listening to "Queen" thinking it was some track I'd never heard BY Queen and how ahead of its time it was. Perfume Genius delivers a dirgey, dreamy sound. With Suuns, I kinda get it. But still, not really. I almost failed math several times, so maybe that explains things.
Thank you, ST!
Yay a themed mix plus music theory!
A groove is best employed live and dance-y or for psychedelic raga purposes, george harrison.
I'm making these mixes into spotify playlists & then using the playlists as seed for 'radio stations' & then thumbing down songs and adding & deleting playlist songs to drive evolution. The mixes live!
Here's another groove for you all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQOsUMbU9n4
Thanks for sharing, ST!
~ Sam
PS: the beginning of drivers seat sounds like all along the watch tower
Wes's Bob Seeger / Brian Eno observation above made my day!
While I have zero ability in understanding musical structure,the similarities of 'Still The Same' and 'On Some Faraway Beach' have long messed with my mind. I say "Messed with" in part because I strongly dislike Bob Seeger and strongly love Brian Eno. Like the super-puke Eagles, Seeger is undoubtedly a genius at song-smithing... and I just can't stand his songs.
I CAN, however, very, very much stand LCD Soundsystem and Spoon. Love those two songs, ST! The 'I Can Change' song has an eighties British synth sound, only it's better than the stuff that came out back then, at least to my ears.
Thanks for the great mix, ST!
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