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FROZEN_SOUND


                                              September 10, 2006

Burning Man has become a
festering pit of some of
the worst music imaginable.

It's largely a populist event,
and combined with the common            And there are apparently
kitsch esthetic, that leads to          many people around ready
things like the camp "Where             to engage in radical
pancakes are served when soft           self-expression by
rock is heard."                         blasting "Sweet Home
                                        Alabama" at high volume.
   It is, admittedly, funny
   hanging around with a
   tent full of hipsters                   ("Goddamn it, KFOG
   doing ironic sing-alongs                 is what I'm about!")
   with Billy Joel
   music... but a little of
   this goes a long way.

Then there's the endless
techNO-techNO-techNO-techNO,
which is complained about         I have a higher tolerance
so often that they make           for this music than many
an effort to create a             people do -- I used to
ghetto over on the                listen to it voluntarily
two-o'clock side of the           back in the mid-90s when
horseshoe.                        it was new.
                                                     VISION
  Then you get to
  listen to it blasting           Back then the styles
  all night from the              of techno-house were
  roving party-mobiles            constantly shifting.
  (I mean, "art cars").           You wouldn't hear the
                                  same track two weeks
                                  running.

     We were hiding out           But here we are ten years
     on the 9 o'clock side        later and nothing could be
     this year, but we            more generic...
     were in the chaotic
     outskirts where any                Deeet deet-deet deet-deet
     one could drive up.                Deeet deet-deet deet-deet


         Next door someone
         set-up a bar, with
         a sound system         The sound system:
         across the street      an ipod pushing
         and a small sign:      the limits of something
         "Camp Loud".           barely better than a
                                car stereo.

                                   What's better than
                                   loud, bad music?

                                   *Distorted* loud, bad
                                    music, without any bass!

                                                           DEATH_OF_HIFI

                The techno is not
                the worst of it...          Funk music parties
                                            by people who've
                                            never heard of
                                            George Clinton.
But still:

   Once again we didn't get to
   do "Death Guild/Thunderdome",
   and they were presumably                And we were doing a quickie
   doing their usual okay                  4-5 day run.  Arguably we
   80s/gothic-industrial mix.              should've been there longer,
                                           and stayed away from the
   There was a chill space                 party-party weekend scene
   playing Chopin Nocturnes this           surrounding the burn of the man.
   year, which we went looking
   for but had trouble finding.

   I was considering trying to get into
   Hookah Dome, which often plays some
   good middle-eastern music -- but the
   long lines, and the inevitable smoke
   held us off.

        I used the computer
        system at Center Camp
        to do searches on            Quip from a friend:
        "Morrocan": found a          "It would be funny if
        few hits, but didn't         an underground scene
        get to follow them up.       developed at Burning
                                     Man."

                                     Places you can go
                                     to get away from
                                     the mainstream...

                                        It's a thought:

                                            The Ice-Man


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And to close on a                                  ||||
positive note                                      ||||
(much as it always                                 ||||
pains me):                                         ||||

  We did hear some
  good good live music:

    o  female/male vox (with throat singing)       (Center Camp)
    o  kid with a tiny casio and lots of filters   (Center Camp)
    o  guy on an acoustic guitar                   (Spirt Wind Cafe)



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