My wife and I threw a party last Saturday to celebrate our birthday.  Its always a wonderful experience to see people you are close to who have never met get along well and become friends themselves.  

Anyway, the next morning I realized Burning Man started in one week and I was more excited then I've been in years.

I leave for Burning Man in two days.   I've been obsessed with preparations and fighting a cold.  Worried about the new camp I'll be staying with (Lustre Village).  Mostly though, I've been having fun being focused outside of my normal work/play/relax pattern and doing something that is pushing my comfort zone.  

This year promises to be completely different then last for me, and I love that. 

What does this have to do with music?  Well Burning Man is about community and art, and music is art and great music builds communities, well.... there is a pretty cool article about the music at burning man here:
http://www.opulenttemple.org/archives/000139.php

The build of Black Rock City is chronicled here with some amazing photographs:
http://blog.burningman.com/?cat=30

Tod Machover talks a bit about guitar hero and expresses great angst.

http://fora.tv/2009/07/02/Transforming_Music_Tod_Machover#Is_Guitar_Hero_Dumbing_Down_Music

To be fair, this is only a short clip of a much more extensive speach, but I'm personally annoyed by music snobs.  I think Tod agrees that Guitar Hero provides a means for individuals to connect with music in a new way.  Tod alludes to how simplistic the interface is and how it undermines the "true" musical experience and how we as a music community need to pressure companies to move these interfaces forward.

I suppose he suspects that people that would have otherwise bought a guitar and took some lessons are instead playing a game and as such are cheated out of a far more rewarding experience.   Fine, that might happen, but I suspect if we actually looked into guitar sales we'd find a significance increase, and by people that otherwise would never have considered taking up an instrument. We might also look at the millions of neglected guitars that were used only a handful of time and are only kept out of the trash bin by a faint sense of guilt.

I'm not a player of guitar hero, and DJ Hero doesn't look appealing because of the simple interface and the memorize by rote philosophy.  However, I think that exposing people who never knew the magic of Eric Prydz, or Bennassi will bring more people to our music and this will eventually be a very good thing.

Yes it will change things in both good and bad ways.  Yes, an entire generation of wanna-be DJs are going to think they have the ability to beat juggle.  We're going to see a bit too many mashups of old 80s rap songs in future sets.   We'll see some corporate producers/DJs gather great fame and possibly cross over Moby style into mainstream music.   We'll see girls in heels show up to warehouse parties and whine about their hurting feet. 

On the good side is that we'll have more people in the community buying music, going to events, and bringing passion to a form of music we love.   We'll also see some amazingly talented kids become proper DJs and producers as they advance the sound in unexpected ways.  There will be more money and more people will be able to pursue their passion and get paid for it.  We'll also see stuff we never expected, and it will be great.

Remember when we switched from Vinyl to CDs?  It was supposed to result in a catastrophic change in electronic music. Instead we've seen some dramatic changes.   Bedroom producers are producing revolutionary work and publishing it far cheaper then in the days of white label Vinyl.   DJ's often remix tracks before each performance to test different ideas and further optimize the sound for indoor/outdoor venues.   And we're seeing far more music then ever before... this is a great thing and points to the vitality of our community.

I don't think people realize that music forms are threatened more by stagnation then by change.  So I say "Yay for DJ Hero!"  When I see someone say "that Panjoo track is pretty cool" I'll point them to Beatport and mention 16 Bit Lolitas.  Who knows? maybe I'll help bring some more talent into something I care deeply about.

Looks like this was downtown right on the lake with the skyline in the background.   Deadmau5 represented loud and repetitive music very well and judging from the youtube comments I'm seeing a couple of converts.

Anyway I've been thinking alot about festivals and several people I've talked to just don't seem to like them.  Invariably those who don't like festivals are usually fans of various non-house/techno forms of music.   When I've seen regular bands play the audience is usually just standing... listening and often drained of all energy.   Between sets it often takes as much as 30 minutes to tear down and build the stage and people get bored.  Occasionally a hit song (often a band's only hit song) comes on and people jump around for a few seconds until they realize they're still not having a good time.

Bands can be great at a regular concert where they have control over the tempo and sets are usually a couple hours long but I think DJs simply do festivals better.  Smooth transitions from one artist to another, a gradual increase in energy, and frankly I think the crowds are better at partying.  

I'm still gathering evidence but I will say there is a world of difference between Ultra pre-band and post-band.   Bands have completely screwed up the flow of the event except for Carl Cox's tent (where they don't allow bands.) 

This is the Carl Cox tent at around 9pm.

At around the same time at the main stage the black eyed peas were performing.  Note the complete lack of energy during the last song of their set.  This lack of energy carries forward to other artists on this stage.  What you see in the Carl Cox tent is the culmination of 6 hours of great music without any pause.   Here, people had to wait 45 minutes for the Peas to start stinging and by then they were simply bored and ready to sit down and relax.

pre-2005 at 10pm on the main stage it was the most insane amount of energy I've ever seen... now its like a really loud morgue.  Perhaps the Carl Cox tent needs to be expanded (it was packed from 5pm onward for both days). 

I looked at Coachella, but unfortunately you just don't see the energy like I did in the Carl Cox tent.  There was an electronic music stage but they had setups and tear downs for various sets (DJ AM and Etienne de Crecy).  Drugs you say?  possibly, but keep in mind the Ultra examples were at the same festival at about the same time.   I don't think that's a factor... in this case.

I really think its about flow, and bands could be successful at festivals but they must figure out how to eliminate the gaps between sets.  Anyway, its worth thinking about and if I ever change my career and start organizing festivals its going to be the first major change I push for.

-Travis