way by katharine eastman
I am happy to admit that even by my slapdash amateurish standards this is very much the sound of someone just treading water. That's not to say it is terrible. It might be brilliant - the best thing I've ever done - the best thing anyone has ever done. But really it is just the sound of someone who is constantly astonished that with only the world's cheapest battery keyboard and a mic and using the most basic level of free music software it is possible to make something that sounds a bit like "music". And even though in 2025 it sounds so lazy, if you are old you will know that if something like this had come out in 1963 it would still be hailed as part of the musical canon, a landmark piece of music right up there with The Velvet Underground & Nico, and Yellow Submarine.
That's all right. I allow myself moments when I just do something lazy. Those moments actually join together seamlessly and make up my entire life. One of my longest-standing friends tunes in from time to time and is always sending me emails telling me how my latest masterpiece is poor and how it could be improved. And because I know that no friendship is ever perfect, I let it go.
But I must admit that she does annoy me a tiny bit. I think that giving advice to creative people is fine-fine-fine if that person wants to be famous and rich and needs feedback from ordinary people telling her which bits are crap and which bits work - it's like the way that big-budget films get sample audiences in during the edit and notice when they all go to sleep and when they laugh etc and then chop the film up accordingly.
I would love to be rich and famous, and this sort of advice should be exactly what I need and want. The problem is that I am not a musician and can't even give you middle-C, let alone tweak this thing so that it leaps out of your speakers like Lou Reed singing I'm Waiting For The Man. And even if I did know what I was doing while I was doing it and was able to do it differently/better, I don't think I'd want to, because then this would become like a job and I prefer to sound like a non-musician on the skive.
recorded this morning
