the return of lo-fi

  • Thread starter Thread starter dr.colossus
  • Start date Start date
"Cyan, you sure come off like a total fucking snob and it seems unlike your usual intelligent posts. I mean where do you get the authority to dish out on who deserves to be called what?!?! And just cuz you don't like "lo Fi" doesnt mean it shouldnt exist. I HATE bands like A perfect Circle and so forth but I would NEVER come down on anyone who likes it because Im not a fucking music Nazi! "

well, I am a music nazi.
maybe i was a bit harsh though. I retract my comment about not being a musician but i stand by the fact that i hate lo-fi punk. or punk in general. and rap. rap is NOT music....in my opinion that is...and being a 19/m college student that is rare so I make lots of enemies on the music front.


bands like A Perfect Circle would sound great even if they recorded low-fi and were sloppy on their instruments, BUT the production enhances it all...alot. And its not like it was some big studio second hand producer deal. Guitarist, bassist, backup vocalist, drum programmer, and composer Billy Howerdel also produced the entire thing on pro tools. so it still has loads of the bands own personal touch.
 
I'll also take Surfer Rosa anyday. I feel the same way about Rid of Me. And what it is "that keeps their recordings sounding so 'new' even ten years after the fact" is Steve Albini. At the same time, I can't really put those albums in the "lo-fi" category. They are recorded with nice equipment, in nice rooms, and it's a production choice that they sound the way they do. And they don't sound bad.

I already argued in another thread that the Strokes album actually sounds bad, but that could just be because I don't like the music. To me, it really sounds like a band that just didn't take the time to get good tones.
 
Gotta put in another "hear, hear!" for Pixies, one of my all time favorites.

On a slightly OT point briefly mentioned by someone here, I'm usually wishing the live band sounded more like the recording than vice-versa. I saw Pixies and Love and Rockets once and was pretty disappointed. Not really surprised, since alot of bands sound shitty live. I should probably say the soundman or equipment rather than the band. You could tell they were tight but the levels were all off, all vocals and drums and hardly any guitar. It wasn't the venue- Love Rockets sounded great.
 
sometimes people forget that it is always about the music. the engineer is not important, the producer is not important, the band isn't even that important. it's the music. the song. i'll take it in 12 bits, recorded on one mic if i have to, as long as it moves me. in fact, i do take it in this form quite a lot cause some of my favorie music is being written by local bands that don't have the motivation or money to record anything....so i just got these mini disc recordings...

i'm not shitting on well produced albums. i believe that the engineer and the producer are artists. but this isn't really my point.

i don't think that bands should be crapped on for a lo-fi record (or hi fi record!) -- there are plenty of other reasons to dismiss them. cause it's not the fidelity of the vocals or guitar tracks that make my heart go a-pitter-patter. i'm not sure if this is my point either.

i guess where i'm coming from is "does the recording capture the song well?" does an avalon pre do it better than your mackie pres? maybe. maybe not. i think that the recording can do something magical -- it captures an ephemeral experience, the song, and makes it something that can be controlled, played, experienced, time and time again. pretty great.

now if you feel like the only way to capture your music is with the engineering equipment and techniques of a million dollar studio than, by god, save up and get in there! though i'd have to wonder whether the decision has to do with other factors outside the song like commercial viability and such. there's nothing wrong with that, but i guess we should try to separate the two.

two years ago i went into a million dollar studio and recorded three songs. i'll never spend my money doing that again. i like my home studio better -- more personal, more time, more space to breath. i can capture my song better even if it wasn't recorded on as many bits.

but what am i saying. i'm a gearhead like you. i guess this rant was focused more towards myself than towards anybody else! cause sometimes i need to remind myself that it's really all about the song. la la la la la....
-teddy
 
WEBCYAN said:

I guess crappy songs and recordings are the new rage.
I cant wait for A Perfect Circle's next release though. Now THAT is some well produced rock.
Click to expand...

I don't mean to offend, but could you please stop acting like APC and Maynard are the greastest thing since sliced bread? Yes, they are decent but could please limit your praise of them to 1 in every 10 posts, as opposed to your current ratio of EVERY OTHER POST! Thanks
 
That's funny, Blackburn... I just got home from the Red/Cubs game, and while driving back I was trying to think of their name so that I hopefully remember to order it. I was also wondering why men are so quick to anger in stadium bathrooms and why the Reds don't trade Griffey for some pitching, but the point is... I'll probably look them up and order a record of their this weekend. I'll give a full report after a few spins. Like I said, I've been so lazy the past few months (years?) with music that I'm dying for some fresh stuff! I haven't been happy with anything in months, which is why I sort of took a time out.
 
synergy said:


I don't mean to offend, but could you please stop acting like APC and Maynard are the greastest thing since sliced bread? Yes, they are decent but could please limit your praise of them to 1 in every 10 posts, as opposed to your current ratio of EVERY OTHER POST! Thanks
Click to expand...

but, can I still mention radiohead every fucking chance I get?
:(
 
the white strips album hasn't left the c.d. player since i started this thread, and i am completely ignorant to the production now, the songs are awesome, great band....

votaidiota; you can mention radiohead as often as you like as long as you don't mind me harping on about the white stripes!
 
dr.colossus said:
the white strips album hasn't left the c.d. player since i started this thread, and i am completely ignorant to the production now, the songs are awesome, great band....

votaidiota; you can mention radiohead as often as you like as long as you don't mind me harping on about the white stripes!
Click to expand...

white stripes, huh?
well, I'm not crazy about them, but.....

at least they're not the strokes.
:eek:
 
I like to keep it simple. I use as few effects as i can get away with on my own music, and I compress as little as I possibly can, and I like the way it comes out. It's not "low=fi", but I try for simplicity.

I guess what it comes down to for me is that alot of people like this "low-fi" because of the trend, not because of the music, and that pisses me off. If someone is sick of the overproduced, ultra-slick sound that is so prevalent now, and they record something trying to get back to the basics, you know some trend-licker is going to jump all over it, call it the next big thing, commercialize it, and destroy it. Sadly, its the way of the world...
 
VotaIdiota said:


white stripes, huh?
well, I'm not crazy about them, but.....

at least they're not the strokes.
:eek:
Click to expand...

well i think the white strips album is very honest, but the strokes album doesn't quite feel that way..... as i said in that "strokes" thread saga, i honestly thought the strokes album was made to sound lo-fi using really expensive equiptment..... yeah, anyhow i think that the w/s album is honest, meg white cant play drums for shit, and jack is an awesome songwriter, thats about it!

its interesting to see people writing about "the song" being whats important, but if you break it down what is a song? its a vocal melody, a bass melody, a particular beat, some guitars and keys, and production.... the production plays a huge undeniable part in making a song what it is

vota; your a radiohead fan right :D, just look at "life in a glasshouse" firswt thing that hit me about that song was the drop in fidelity on thom's vocal, it just made it seem more real

apc and tool aren't really all that "hi-fi" when you really look at it. the term hi-fi comes from high fidelty, highly honest or true to form. i mean seriously guys have you ever heard a band in the flesh sound anything like a tool recording? all this compression out there, its like engineers and producers are taking the truth and exagerating it.

so if you ask me its bands like the strokes and the white stripes (whose c.d.'s sound more to a live band), who are the true patrons of real high fidelity.

goddam i'm in the mood for stand ing on a soapbox right now :D
 
i just d/led some rye coalition, i had never heard of 'em. these guys sound a lot like at the drive in... i like it not as good as at the drive in, but i like it...

fyi; i downloaded "born a monkey..." and "fucking with beautiful posture"...
 
synergy said:


I don't mean to offend, but could you please stop acting like APC and Maynard are the greastest thing since sliced bread? Yes, they are decent but could please limit your praise of them to 1 in every 10 posts, as opposed to your current ratio of EVERY OTHER POST! Thanks
Click to expand...

what if I mentioned the beatles every other post? Would that be cooler? Because, you know the beatles have been around longer which automatically makes the music better than anything that ever has or ever will come out. Obviously old = the best. There can be no other way.
IN MY OPINION APC's Mer de Noms is THE single best album ever written, produced, anything....period.
And maynard and apc ARE better than any fucking sliced bread. So are NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, Manson, orgy(sorry if they aren't "legit" enough for you), Soundgarden, tool, etc...

I post about them alot because their music is fucking brilliant. There have been hundreds of posts this past month about shit "low fi" crap and i post just a few apc posts and you get all out of control.

tell you what, tonight im going to write, record, and mix my own low-fi song. Its going to be as high "quality" as any other crap out there. This is just to show you how fucking stupid the whole movement is.

Im not going to say I like it. I think its hardly even music. I think the same thing about rap. I'm the most non PC person you'll ever meet and I dont give a crap about saying rap or lowfi punk or anything else is shit. it is.
 
:( ... i know.

sometimes i get out of control, but seriously i just say whatever is on my mind and am fine if others do the same.
if you ask me how your new haircut looks and it honestly sucks, i will say "it sucks".

lowfi punk sucks. rap sucks. 90% of all punk sucks. 99% of all homerecordings really suck.

goodbye.
 
dr.colossus said:
its interesting to see people writing about "the song" being whats important, but if you break it down what is a song? its a vocal melody, a bass melody, a particular beat, some guitars and keys, and production.... the production plays a huge undeniable part in making a song what it is
Click to expand...

Dr.C, I agree in the role production makes, but to me the song is ALL that should matter. We're too quick to dissect a song beginnng with it's production for obvious reasons, but from the perspective of a music fan, that is WRONG, and I hate that I find myself dong that all the time. Before I began recording, I hardly ever listened to a record and gave it's production a seconds thought. Often I would wonder how they may have produced a certain sound, but that was that and it was back to enjoying the song for what it is, which is what the band (hopefully) intedned - the end product, idea to a listening ear. Everything else in the middle is irrelevant.

I used to get a lot of demos and live boots containing new material yet to be recorded, and not once has the finished version ever swayed my opinion of a song. If a song is good, it will be good on a boom box and 1 mic, and will translate to a well produced good song. If a song sucks, no amount of production can trick me into thinking it's good.

On another note, I really don't understand all the talk of the lo-fi "movement". Is there really one? Just because some bands with access to good studios are creating some stripped down records doesn't necessarily constitute a lo-fi movement. In the 80's and especially early 90's there definitely was, but I just don't hear it now.
 
WEBCYAN said:

tell you what, tonight im going to write, record, and mix my own low-fi song. Its going to be as high "quality" as any other crap out there. This is just to show you how fucking stupid the whole movement is.
Click to expand...

and tomorrow i'm gonna write, record and mix apc style :D

i mean really guys, if it was that easy, what are we all doing here and not out drinking champange and fondling groupies? because that would be selling out you say?

bullshit
 
oh, you're one of those...

i saw an interview with kid rock once. he said he had to be honest and admit he got into music to get girls and money. well, to that i say stone him to death. its shit people like that who give the world a bad name.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top