( A ) LIVE celebrating live music memories
During my formative years , I liv ed in Montreal . I worked at the Marvin Duchow Music Library on Sherbrooke Street as par t of a w ork-study program through the university I was attending . Some of my daily tasks included filing LP r ecords in alphabetical order , sewing musical scores together with thread and needle , opening rehearsal rooms for musicians , even disinfecting headphones . I spent hour s listening to people practicing classical and jazz and occasionally electroacoustic music — and I got paid to do it ! It was a pretty good gig .
( A ) LIVE celebrating live music memories
During my formative years , I liv ed in Montreal . I worked at the Marvin Duchow Music Library on Sherbrooke Street as par t of a w ork-study program through the university I was attending . Some of my daily tasks included filing LP r ecords in alphabetical order , sewing musical scores together with thread and needle , opening rehearsal rooms for musicians , even disinfecting headphones . I spent hour s listening to people practicing classical and jazz and occasionally electroacoustic music — and I got paid to do it ! It was a pretty good gig .
At the time , live music shows were relatively inexpensive , between $ 8 and $ 20 for co ver charge . Suffice to say I was a music glutton during this per iod . I was a bit of a m usical chameleon , adapting to whatever musical landscape I encountered , not wanting to be loyal to any particular genre . Here are just a few of the bands / artists I saw : Bjork , Portishead , Stereolab , Shonen Knife , Sloan , Billy Bragg , The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion , Boss Hog , Ani Difranco , The Planet Smashers , Moxy Fruvous , Kid Koala , DJ Vadim , The Violent Femmes .
One of my most unforgettable live shows was DJ Shadow . The Californian DJ was signed to the UK record label , Mo ’ Wax . Music purists might scoff at the idea that a DJ show can be considered a “ live ” performance . But I would say it takes tremendous musicianship to pull off a show that consists only of sampling various genres , vocals , and instruments in shifting sonic textures and styles . A DJ is more than a human jukebox that mixes and scratches ; great DJs are soundscape ar tists who have the ability to transcend musical boundaries into something ne w and worthwhile to listen to . DJ Shado w was considered a musical innovator . Nothing else w as being produced at the time that had the hallmark traits of his unique multifaceted music .
My boyfriend at the time , Rob , borrowed Entroducing , DJ Shadow ’ s debut album , from his older brother , Brad ( whom w e both secr etly idolized as the epitome of cool ). Brad had every hip new LP imaginable , including Massive Attack , DJ Food , Funki Porcini , Amon Tobin , DJ Vadim , DJ Krush , Herbaliser , Coldcut , and , of course , DJ Shadow . We ’ d listen to Entroducing for hours on end — never getting tired of it .
DJ Shadow was only about three or four y ears older than us , in his mid-20s , but he was being hailed as a sampling genius . It was rumoured that he had 50,000 LPs in his personal collection . His debut album was the first of its kind — an alb um that was made entir ely by using sampled sounds . The style of his music was labelled “ triphop ”. Trip-hop combines jazz , funk , psychedelia , soul , experimental , and hip-hop , to cr eate a do wn-tempo , moody mishmash of genres that , when made well , results in a “ trippy ” effect .
Brad got Rob and I tic kets to see DJ Shadow at a small , relatively obscure club . I r emember being
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