Tuesday, February 09, 2010 00:18

Re-inventing the Wheel

February 8th, 2010

I’ve been neglecting our blog and various other social networks-I can see why Twitter is so popular, because you can just fire off a soundbite and be done with it. But meanwhile, back at VWHQ, we’ve been doing stuff…like music stuff. With this in mind, i must resolve to do two things: Add more content to our web presence and in the process, not repeat myself.

So, at the risk of channeling one of my musical heroes…we develop the wheel, and look back and discover… well, you know.

If you’ve never heard of composer David Lang, consider him recommended. Specifically, we’ve been listening to his brilliant re-working of the Velvet Underground’s Heroin, for voice and cello. It very much has a we need to do THAT kind of feel.

So we keep writing, the world keeps turning, and we’re already rejecting songs we specifically have been writing for our next project. These things happen.

Past that, we’ll be reworking the website soon, in a way that will mean less journal entries, but more overall updates.

Ah, world domination. You elusive minx.

Trusting your Cognitive Bias…or, How I get Ideas.

February 1st, 2010

Misleading headline is misleading, sort of. This is more of a wrap-up of the recent activities of your resident ne’er-do-wells, and an observation on the Creative Process.

We’ve been snowed in, and we spent the time by rehearsing/writing/lathering/and repeating. We’ve made a huge list of show ideas we have, and once again, demonstrated the futility of the creative impulse against the realities of a budget. The overall shape of our next 2 projects is taking shape, in terms of both material and vision. This is a long winded way of saying you’ll have more material to listen to rather soon. We’re also working on absolutely packing our schedule with Valentine Wolfe shows…the only question right now is exactly WHAT will happen at these shows. And where. And with who. And with what. This is a byproduct of our desire to not simply stand there in our street clothes and stare at the floor while we play. You’ve plenty of other outlets where you can see that.

So onto ideas: I draw many parallels, happily and probably incorrectly, with science and the creative process (see the entry title). Two concepts I keep in mind are reproduction and natural selection, and they both shape how I create music.

We tend to think of ideas as rare and precious, the way animals that reproduce a relatively small number of offspring value their young. Since there are few, each one must thrive, so that DNA can replicate and be passed one. Other animals are very wasteful (more or less) when they reproduce-out of tens, hundereds, sometimes thousands off offspring, very few will survive.

I’ve begun looking at my ideas as wasteful. One thing that has held up Valentine Wolfe in the past is the notion each song must be a finished masterpiece. This is because I don’t want to write 100 songs for a project and pick the best 15. I only want to work on what I use.

However, this has made composing tedious and joyless. Hence, the shift to not holding every idea as sacred.

And Natural Selection? I hold that great artists steal and replicate, mostly. The trick is to steal from a large, varied, and exotic sample of source material. In other words, taking the best traits of that which inspires and making it your own thing. I could expand on it, but that’s the basic idea.

Not one I cherish above everything else, though.

It has been brought to our attention…

January 28th, 2010

That the post about our Atlanta show omitted details. Frankly, I’m to lazy to re-type or add them, because I very helpfully provided a link to the show.

If it isn’t showing up as red on your computer, the whole phrase “Corwyn’s 30th….etc, etc will take you to all the details…this is the link I speak of. Simply and frantically run your mouse all over the screen, and i’m sure you’ll run into it eventually.

No, I kid. But for reals, Click that phrase in the previous post.

Don’t make me beg.

We’re coming to Atlanta!

January 22nd, 2010

Check it out here!:

The Corwyn’s 30th Birthday Celebration Espectacularrrrr!

Also, I wish I could post the handwritten score to tease you all, because, well, for longtime fans of the band…

You know that waltz we’ve been saying we’re going to start working on?

An entry in which we ask a favor…

January 12th, 2010

When Love Decays has a very lonely looking play count. I’d like to think that’s because you all downloaded it from our website.

Even if that’s the case, could you head on over to our MySpace and push play about 100 times? Thanks!

Ah yes-doing the work for you: http://myspace.com/valentinewolfeband

A Discussion…At What Point Does A Consumer Say…

January 8th, 2010

I’ll pay for that?

Yes, another mediation on music as a product, and I hope to illicit a good discussion here. We at Valentine Wolfe feel that as of right now, the enemy isn’t piracy, it is obscurity. We give mp3s of our work away free. I’ll keep doing that, pretty much for as long as there is a Valentine Wolfe. I want you to hear this music, and if giving it away is what it takes, fine.

However,  we also hope to make a living doing this. Which, without income, is impossible.

Now, I’ve been very wrong on this before, and I’ve come full circle-in many ways, but I don’t believe piracy is totally stealing. Mostly because I think that income lost or recovered doesn’t and will never benefit the people that actually make it. So this isn’t the tired “Is downloading stealing?”discussion…this also encompasses merchandise, tickets to live shows, dvds…in other words, media.

In my day job, I’m asked to give out free tickets to performances because they are of vital educational importance. This, to me, is a deeply disturbing and contradictory view…it says that to me that education is vital, so long as I don’t have to pay for it.

So I wonder…people seem to think music in 2009 sucks compared to the music of say, the 1960’s (I’m inclined to agree, sort of). But if we don’t value creativity and artistry enough to pay for it, isn’t that our fault?  If music shouldn’t be paid for, in any form, doesn’t that mean we should lower our expectations? If you hate Auto tune so much, are you prepared to accept imperfections in a recorded or live performance? Current observation says right now, No, you’re not. Putting it another way…is the music we get the music we deserve?

I’m, for once, not really wanting to be a self righteous prick for either side of the issue, and I’m asking most of these questions because I don’t have an answer. I’m someone that likes to make things for people, but I like to sleep inside as well.

Hmm. Weigh on in. I’d love to read what you have to say.

Music, Life, Links, and other stuff…

January 5th, 2010

So, When Love Decays is up and available. Candidly, I feel a bit guilty because I think it turned out better than Kissing Twilight, and I think Kissing Twilight is a better overall song. Mixing and production work on When Love Decays convinced me of its merits…I do like it, and this that is an example of us being on the right track-every song we do gets better and better. This makes it hard for me to think about making an album-I’d be afraid we’d end up with 2 amazing songs, 2 pretty good ones, 3-5 ones that need work, and 3-4 that sound have never been released.

So, if nothing else, you should realize I think a Valentine Wolfe album should have 11-13 tracks on it.

For the curious, the song is pretty much just one giant d minor arpeggio (the saddest of all keys, according to Nigel Tufnel). The bass was run through the Marshal JCM 800 sound on my Line 6 Pod. The drums are heavily edited loops. Sarah’s vocals are angelic, and the lyrics deal with love between vampires, juxtaposed against the implied vampire connotations of communion. Communion, incidentally, was the working title of the song.

I think of Kissing Twilight and When Love Decays as two songs in a song cycle, but I’m not sure if we’re done with the cycle or if there are more parts. Personally, I’d like to add 2-3 more song and make a nice suite of vampire love songs out of the lot.

We have so many cool ideas on the table right now that I’d be stoked if we managed to bring 10% of them to life. We’d have an awesome year then.

We miss playing, so look for us to start scheduling shows again VERY soon.

And finally, The Oatmeal is the mad notes. It might not be the best site ever, but it is in the discussion.

When Love Decays…the newest song!

January 3rd, 2010

Happy New Year Everyone! Start things off with a new Valentine Wolfe Song… When Love Decays. Feel free to download the mp3. from our website.

And if that weren’t enough to cause great joy and excitement…
We have more copies of Five Nocturnes available. If you’re nursing a broken heart over the fact you didn’t get any Valentine Wolfe for Christmas (or other applicable winter celebration), let not your heart be troubled. We have plenty of copies for you to get your hands on.

But this time, it’s going to cost you.

We’ll accept your undying devotion, your immortal soul, and $8.00 a copy. Send us an email if you want one. But don’t kid yourselves…of course you want one.

A Message from both of us…

December 31st, 2009

Valentine Wolfe would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! We’ve been enjoying a well deserved vacation, but we’ve been working on all kinds of new Valentine Wolfe stuff for you to enjoy. We appreciate you all for your support-it means more to us than we can say. Thank you all!

Twas the Night Before Christmas…

December 24th, 2009

And this article made me LOL. Astute readers know we’ve been held hostage living happily in South Carolina for sometime now. So this article is relevant to out interests.

(obligatory disclaimer): Seriously, we like living in SC, but some days are better than others, and we did so enjoy Athens.