websurfer
Joined: May 14, 2007
Posts: 1753
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Posted on Apr 02 2011 10:37 AM
wooza wrote:
Wow! I thought that was phenomenal! That seems about as
difficult as it must get to arrange as a surf song, but
I think they pulled it off pretty well. I think if you
want to cover a piece like that, you can choose to
treat it as a fugue or you can choose to treat it as a
surf song, and the guys sorta leaned towards the
latter, but it worked for me. They did make a good nod
to the whole fugue form while Yolanda was playing
counterpoint on that one verse (I don't know the
technical terms for how this piece is broken down),
which I thought was pretty tasteful.
It's hard to keep a forward flow with a piece like
that, but the song maintained a good sense of tension
and mystery throughout, and that latin groove kept
things cohesive. Whoulda thunk!? By arranging it their
own way and by throwing in their trademark latin flair,
it was totally original. I'm stoked by it!
Every time I watch this (several times now) I'm more impressed. I think it's brilliant. Ben analyzed it for me the best.
Alex takes total command up there. Watching it, I never feel like he's in over his head. He's just a really confident player. Interestingly for me, it had a lot of what I like about surf music in it--sense of mystery, drama and dynamics. Well done!
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DeadRanchHands
Joined: Apr 15, 2008
Posts: 1281
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Posted on Apr 02 2011 10:52 AM
crumble wrote:
The Twang Marvels always surprising us with fine
musicianship but to be honest if i'd paid to see them
and they pulled too much of this out of the bag i'd be
looking at my watch, thinking about walking out. I'd be
thinking geez if i wanted to hear music three million
years out of date i'd go to the Royal Albert Hall or
something.
As opposed to surf, which is only 50 years out of date ;)
— http://www.reverbnation.com/thedeadranchhands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZEW74mHjQk
Last edited: Apr 02, 2011 10:52:48
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Ruhar
Joined: Jun 21, 2007
Posts: 3909
San Diego, CA
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Posted on Apr 02 2011 11:09 AM
wooza wrote:
I'm just gonna say it: Alex is the finest surf
guitarist alive  , if not the best the genre
has ever seen. In my opinion, our silly little genre is
lucky a guy that talented decided to pursue surf at
all.
Completely agree Ben! I'd be hesitant to label him a surf guitarist though. The guy is a monster on guitar and this video demonstrates his range waaaaaay beyond surf guitar.
— Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook
Last edited: Apr 02, 2011 11:14:49
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IvanP
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 10331
southern Michigan
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Posted on Apr 02 2011 11:43 AM
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crumble
Joined: Sep 09, 2008
Posts: 3158
Guildford England
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Posted on Apr 02 2011 11:45 AM
DeadRanchHands wrote:
crumble wrote:
The Twang Marvels always surprising us with fine
musicianship but to be honest if i'd paid to see
them
and they pulled too much of this out of the bag i'd
be
looking at my watch, thinking about walking out. I'd
be
thinking geez if i wanted to hear music three
million
years out of date i'd go to the Royal Albert Hall or
something.
As opposed to surf, which is only 50 years out of date
;)
That was a couple of years back  before i fell in love with Los Twang! Marvels. But when all said and done it's as close to 1970s classical progressive rock as damn it is to swearing. I've spent two thirds of my life getting away from Rick Wakeman and Steve Howel "Close to the edge, down by a river"!! lol I didn't expect to find it in surf music!
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SurferBill
Joined: Dec 20, 2009
Posts: 611
Jax, FL
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Posted on Apr 02 2011 12:53 PM
Alex...that piece is brilliant! (two years hence). My daughter Ellie is heavy into Bach piano concertos at the moment, and we had been playing around with a surf version of CPE Bach's Solfeggietto...thinking nothing like it had been done before. I say, stretch the boundaries of surf. Your playing is amazing.
Bill and Ellie
— Shoot the Pier on Bandcamp
Shoot the Pier on Reverb Nation
Shoot The Pier on Facebook
We are on Instagram under "@shootthepiersurfband"
My Country EP ... Florida Dirt Fire
https://floridadirtfire.bandcamp.com/album/florida-dirt-fire
My French Love Songs ... I really needed a change...
www.lonelyrose.bandcamp.com
Last edited: Apr 02, 2011 12:55:30
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DeadRanchHands
Joined: Apr 15, 2008
Posts: 1281
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Posted on Apr 02 2011 01:03 PM
crumble wrote:
DeadRanchHands wrote:
crumble wrote:
The Twang Marvels always surprising us with fine
musicianship but to be honest if i'd paid to see
them
and they pulled too much of this out of the bag
i'd
be
looking at my watch, thinking about walking out.
I'd
be
thinking geez if i wanted to hear music three
million
years out of date i'd go to the Royal Albert Hall
or
something.
As opposed to surf, which is only 50 years out of
date
;)
That was a couple of years back before i fell in
love with Los Twang! Marvels. But when all said and
done it's as close to 1970s classical progressive rock
as damn it is to swearing. I've spent two thirds of my
life getting away from Rick Wakeman and Steve Howel
"Close to the edge, down by a river"!! lol I didn't
expect to find it in surf music!
I hear ya. I'm not a fan of prog either.
— http://www.reverbnation.com/thedeadranchhands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZEW74mHjQk
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IvanP
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 10331
southern Michigan
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Posted on Apr 03 2011 07:58 AM
I can see why some people would think of this as 'prog', since '70s prog did incorporate a lot of classical music. But personally, I just find it really interesting to hear how these elaborate and beautiful pieces could be arranged for a surf band, and I think it works surprisingly well. I also LOVE to see Alex's virtuosity on full display!
I always felt that surf music doesn't just have to be one thing - for example, a 3-chord garagy-type music - which many people, especially those that don't know very much about surf music, seem to want to relegate it to. Surf music is a genre so maleable and open to personal expression that I find it not whatsoever surprising that it attracts the talents of Alex's (and Shigeo's and Wronski's, etc.) stature. Of course, why it is surprising that guys like these play surf is that there's no money in surf, and all of them can make money playing music - but this is why every one of them has other gigs to make money, while playing surf for satisfaction.
Back to Bach  : I asked Alex just a few weeks ago about this album (LTM Play Bach) and whether it will be coming out, and he said it's still in progress, being mixed and cleaned up, and maybe they'll record some more for it (though I'm not sure I understood this last part right). He sent me a few other tracks in addition to Tocata & Fugue: C Minor Prelude, Adagio, and Goldberg Variations. All three are completely astounding, mindblowing even. Alex's phrasing is so remarkable on Adagio that it brought tears to my eyes after the first note. Unbelievable. So, if you have any contact with him, please encourage him to get this album wrapped up and released ASAP!
Finally, a lot of people here may not be aware that LTM did have a release last year, a 7" "Hey Monstro". The title track is a garagey vocal, while the flip is the amazing Virgenes Del Sol, a Peruvian classic made popular by Yma Sumac. I have not found this single for sale anywhere, which is a real shame, but maybe some of you will have more luck.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG-oZilyD7Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9m_WB3oMSg
— Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube
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JakeDobner
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 12159
Seattle
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Posted on Apr 03 2011 10:56 AM
A number of Bach's Chorales would be perfect for surfish treatment. Wachet Auf Ruft Uns Die Stimme, all seven movements, really needs that treatment.
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HallmarkSweptWinger
Joined: Jul 27, 2006
Posts: 1284
Berlinesia, Germanifornia
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Posted on Apr 03 2011 11:08 AM
I love to hear and see those Twang Marvels Bach vids also a lot!!!
Great feeling in playing!!!
If Bach would be still alive, he would work together with Alex I guess!
Sometimes I like classic covers in surf sound. (or other stuff...)
Do you remember the Takeshi Terauchi Classics album?
...anyway, I discovered a video from surfingmatze. He played guitar together with The Kilaueas for 2 years. He`s also a very good "spider finger"!!!
Here he is playing also some very nice bach stuff! Watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FzF1Gmx3Nk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
— Twang cheers!
Ralf Kilauea
www.kilaueas.de
https://kilaueas.bandcamp.com/album/touch-my-alien
Last edited: Apr 03, 2011 11:11:25
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websurfer
Joined: May 14, 2007
Posts: 1753
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Posted on Apr 03 2011 11:33 AM
Thanks for that video, Ralf! It's obvious to me watching these, that even if the goal is not to play "classical" music, Bach is a gold mine for riffs and musical ideas. (Not to mention great for working out those hands.)
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crumble
Joined: Sep 09, 2008
Posts: 3158
Guildford England
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Posted on Apr 03 2011 12:13 PM
I have this picture in my mind of Ivan booing to Alex's guitaring now! oh man, that's soo sad!  But seriously, there's a couple times when my eyes have uncontrollably exploded into tears while listening to music. Once at a show with full orchestra and once at my dad's brass band (ha! feed the birds tuppence a bag) Apologies if my comments was out of line, i'm just teasing. I read the Baronics - Get Bach was a great success, maybe LTM will do as well, i hope so.
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IvanP
Joined: Feb 27, 2006
Posts: 10331
southern Michigan
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Posted on Apr 03 2011 12:42 PM
crumble wrote:
I have this picture in my mind of Ivan booing to Alex's
guitaring now! oh man, that's soo sad!
 No blubbering, just a very occasional single manly tear. 
Apologies if my comments was out of line, i'm just
teasing.
out of line? Absolutely not, we're all just conversing!
— Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube
Last edited: Apr 03, 2011 12:55:15
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Tuck
Joined: Sep 02, 2006
Posts: 3166
Denver, CO
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Posted on Apr 05 2011 02:23 PM
SurferBill wrote:
Alex...that piece is brilliant! (two years hence). My
daughter Ellie is heavy into Bach piano concertos at
the moment, and we had been playing around with a surf
version of CPE Bach's Solfeggietto...thinking nothing
like it had been done before. I say, stretch the
boundaries of surf. Your playing is amazing.
Bill and Ellie
You call it, of course, Surfegietto?
I think Bach is only about 300-350 years out of date, though being out of date never hurts music much.
Folks, if you ever hear music you know for sure is over 300 or so years old, freeze and memorize it. You are hearing a miracle. Much over 150 years ago there was no recording at all and much over 350 or so years ago modern notation didn't exist either. There are older systems. Apparently the ancient Babylonians had a way of writing tab for lyres. The Classical Civilizations had some tab systems and we have a few samples the Greeks thoughtfully chiseled onto public monuments. Most of the time from the fall of the Western Roman Empire to Bach was spent reinventing notation in a rough and then a superior form. Some of the post-Classical experiments are undeciphered. There were some systems in use in the Far East and in India, at least, too. The Indian versions were initially memorized for recitation instead of written. This is just random stuff I've run across. I don't know if there are any books on the subject. It would be interesting if there were.
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morphball
Joined: Dec 23, 2008
Posts: 3324
Pittsboro, NC
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Posted on Apr 05 2011 03:09 PM
Tuck... leave it to you to come up with a really fascinating angle on this, that none of us even thought about.
— Mike
http://www.youtube.com/morphballio
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Tuck
Joined: Sep 02, 2006
Posts: 3166
Denver, CO
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Posted on Apr 05 2011 04:11 PM
Thanks! Of course, the current high point in the evolutionary trend here is Ferenc's "Have Cat, Will Video" instructional approach.
St. Isidore of Seville:
Nisi enim ab homine memoria teneantur soni, pereunt, quia scribi non possunt ...
A quotation I ran across in a history of Spanish music I bought in Huntington Beach (or maybe it was Westminster) that sent me down this road. It means something like "If man cannot hold music in his memory, it perishes, for it cannot be written." Some later authors thought he had some sort of philosophical absolute in mind, but apparently his concern was probably purely practical. He says sounds, but he means music, and he is worried about the problem of accurately preserving and maintaining the standardized Catholic liturgy he was developing to replace the heretical Arrian system prevalent previously in Visigothic Spain.
The Visigothic notational scheme (Visigothic neumes, undeciphered) may rise from this concern. Ironically 700 years later the Inquisition burned most of the material in and on Visigothic neumes, because they considered them heretical Mozarabic things that needed to be replaced by the latest authorized version of the Catholic liturgy.
Other systems of neumes (breathings) elsewhere are still understood and led eventually to modern notation around 1600, just in time to preserve Bach (aided by all those niche musicians who keep playing it), bringing us full circle to the Twang! Marvels. We are lucky to have Bach still with us, not to mention the Twang! Marvels whether they are rearranging J.S. Bach or the (Glendora) Surfaris.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_notation
And, yep, I bought the book during an SG101 convention in hopes it would clue me in some on the Spanish thing in surf music. It didn't but there's another book I found that mentions the origins of the Zorongo (known to us as Exotic) as an early 18th Century dance craze. Apparently like the Macarena, the Twist, the Charleston, and the Morris (Moorish) Dance it will never die. Not as long as there are wedding parties or Morris festivals or surf concerts somewhere ...
Last edited: Apr 05, 2011 17:35:30
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SurferBill
Joined: Dec 20, 2009
Posts: 611
Jax, FL
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Posted on Apr 05 2011 04:42 PM
I sang in the chorus in college to see the world and meet chicks. Our director had this dream to sing the Song of Seikilos (the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition) on the steps of the Acropolis. So, the next year we flew to Greece and did it.
From Wiki on the tune...
The Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world. The song, the melody of which is recorded, alongside its lyrics, in the ancient Greek musical notation, was found engraved on a tombstone, near Aidin, Turkey (not far from Ephesus). The find has been dated variously from around 200 BC to around AD 100.
Also on the tombstone is an indication that states in Greek "Εἰκὼν ἡ λίθος εἰμί.Τίθησί με Σείκιλος ἔνθα μνήμης ἀθανάτου σῆμα πολυχρόνιον" , "I am a tombstone, an icon. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance".
While older music with notation exists (for example the Delphic Hymns), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition.
Although the material is sparse, it indicates that the Greeks had developed a musical system in the third or fourth century BC. It was probably only used by professional composers and choir leaders, while others learned the tunes by listening to them. Texts of plays, regardless of type, were often copied without music, so the lyrics with music like that of the Seikilos epitaph are extremely rare. There is no evidence that the Greek musical system survived into the Middle Ages, but texts from Byzantine times and the early Renaissance have added notations after the Greek system.
— Shoot the Pier on Bandcamp
Shoot the Pier on Reverb Nation
Shoot The Pier on Facebook
We are on Instagram under "@shootthepiersurfband"
My Country EP ... Florida Dirt Fire
https://floridadirtfire.bandcamp.com/album/florida-dirt-fire
My French Love Songs ... I really needed a change...
www.lonelyrose.bandcamp.com
Last edited: Apr 05, 2011 16:43:51
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Tuck
Joined: Sep 02, 2006
Posts: 3166
Denver, CO
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Posted on Apr 05 2011 05:40 PM
IvanP wrote:
Back to Bach : I asked Alex just a few weeks ago
about this album (LTM Play Bach) and whether it will be
coming out, and he said it's still in progress, being
mixed and cleaned up, and maybe they'll record some
more for it (though I'm not sure I understood this last
part right). ..
Really cool! I've been impressed by some of the more recent stuff posted for them, too, of course! It would be nice if they could tour some major classical music venues with this. Underpaid on the classical musicians' scale might be a nice change.
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Tuck
Joined: Sep 02, 2006
Posts: 3166
Denver, CO
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Posted on Apr 15 2011 12:43 PM
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Tuck
Joined: Sep 02, 2006
Posts: 3166
Denver, CO
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Posted on Apr 15 2011 01:09 PM
And something on the Mesopotamian System c. 2000 BCE.
http://128.97.6.202/urkeshpublic/music.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurrian_song
For some reason their scale lacks the 7th ...
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