I went live with my Trex site today: http://tripalot.com/trex/
What does this mean?
It means that I am now treating my practice recordings with the same respect as my "official" Tripecac releases. It means if I go and chant "Trex launch, trex launch" twenty times into a dictaphone, I will eventually give that "song" its own XML file, mp3, m3u, and notes, just like I do for a carefully crafted Tripecac song.
Why waste time documenting drivel?
Well, some of that "drivel" is dear to me. Some of those spontaneous recordings resulted in a few seconds or minutes of music which my ears regard as "cool" or at least "interesting". Sometimes, a Trex recording will sound better to me than some of my Tripecac efforts.
So why not just keep the good bits and throw away the rest?
Good question. I guess I just hate throwing stuff away. I've learned over the years that although I don't value something highly on one day, I might become more enamored with it over time. Also, sometimes a bad creation with good documentation (e.g., dates) will help me more accurately and thoroughly place other creations in context.
For example, the fact that I recorded a piano song on a specific date means that I was then in a location with a piano. If I deleted the song for "quality control" reasons, then I would lose that piece of information. This would make it harder to nail down the dates and locations for photographs and journal entries from the same time period.
Okay, but why publish the junk? Why not just keep it buried in your own personal records?
Well, ummm… I think I just like to be consistent. It's easier to be consistent than to have to apply judgments… and the inevitable amendments.
If I were comfortable making judgments about the quality of my music, then I wouldn't bother uploading any of it, not even Tripecac. Heck, I'd probably cut my losses and never record another note in my life. My entire body of music is one big pile of dung compared to, say, Miles Davis or The Fall or any of those "real" bands. So, judgment schmudgment. I'll save that for you guys.
Happy judging!