The little-known instrument heard on many famous songs

The Mellotron is a little-known and often misunderstood musical instrument that is getting some love courtesy of a new documentary called "Mellodrama."

WNYC's excellent "Soundcheck" program provided a nice overview of the Mellotron and its enormous impact on music over the past 50 years. The Mellotron, which was sold in the States as the Chamberlin, was the first electronic sampler, using a variety of keys to trigger prerecorded sounds on strips of tape. Crude technology, yes, but it was good enough to serve as the foundation for tons of classic songs, including "Strawberry Fields Forever," Nights in White Satin," "2112" and "Kashmir." Today, the Mellotron is relatively ancient technology, but even Kanye West has just discovered its magic.

I've known of Mellotrons for years, after first reading about them on the liner notes to "In the Court of the Crimson King."  But I never really knew what they did or how they worked or that it basically sampled the sounds of other instruments. Or that its use was so widespread, and not just to add quick textures to songs. I've been inspired to go back and listen to lots of old music with a near ear.

So, we have documentaries on the Mellotron and the Theremin (see previous post). What's next? The E-bow, as suggested by a Soundcheck reader? Naw. My vote goes to the Linn drum machine, which for better or worse, dramatically changed drumming with its robotic precision but flat sound.

Some amazing Seattle museums

Just got back from a short trip to Seattle (business and pleasure) and was able to stop off at two really cool museums that focus on some of my favorite things – music and aircraft -- as well as a library that features some spectacular architecture.

The interactive Guitar Tree, aka "If VI Was IX" is a centerpiece of the Experience Music ProjectLet’s talk first about the Experience Music Project, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a billionaire and amateur musician who was able to build the museum of his dreams. I’ve visited better pure music museums – I haven’t seen one that tops Soulsville, the tribute to Stax southern soul and R&B in Memphis – but EMP is something completely different. It truly is an experience, with a strong focus on interactivity and visuals. The building itself – said to be in the shape of a guitar – was designed by famed architect Frank Gehry and is said to be devoid of any 90-degree angles. Some elements, including an interactive “sculpture” called “If VI was IX” that comprises more than 500 instruments, add to that sense of “over the top.” It’s as if Allen went out of his way to NOT be a boring museum your folks might like.  That’s not to say there aren’t traditional displays of artifacts on narrow topics: Northwest rock bands of varying degrees of success, Seattle’s Jimi Hendrix, and an incredible gallery of guitars through the ages. The lighting throughout these displays is dark, placing an emphasis on accompanying video clips of relevant artists (lots of clips I had never seen before).  That multimedia component preps one for the real “Experience” of the museum: hands-on stations where you can play drums, guitar, keyboards, bass, even scratch turntables You can also sing lead or backing vocals, or remix songs. And there are dozens of computer stations with video interviews of artists big and small discussing a wide variety of topics, such as production, stories behind famous songs, the craft of songwriting, and more. It was exhilarating to hear Jerry Wexler discuss how his production differed from that of Phil Spector, or to hear Graham Parker describe the mixed emotions of hearing David Bowie for the first time, and, feeling like Bowie had stolen his niche, subsequently turning to soul and R&B as his artistic outlet.

 I’m also a big fan of air museums, and the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field is superb. The depth and detail of the exhibits is stunning, but the presentation is a perfect fit for people who have 2 hours or 2 days – or 2The main gallery of Museum of Flight features a stunning collection of military, civilian and commercial aircraftweeks – to tour the museum. There are several top-level themes at play: Boeing’s rich history, tributes to heroes of World Wars I and II, and space, military, and private and commercial aviation. I shot several dozen photos on my phone that are posted elsewhere on my site but I’ll mention just a couple things that are really cool:

1. The Boeing Stratocruiser was a four-engine beast of an aircraft that was well ahead of its time in terms of bringing luxury to travel in the 1940s and 1950s. There’s no Stratocruiser on display – not sure if one exists, frankly – but there’s a great video that documents the panache that the Stratocruiser brought to the skies: two passenger decks, roomy cabins, private sleeping berths, four-course meals prepared on plane by a chef, a bar and gaming tables, long haul flights. Singapore Airlines and Virgin Airways are upping the ante when it comes to flying in luxury these days, but it’s fun to think that we’re nowhere close to equaling the extravagance first seen more than 50 years ago. It’d be interesting to find out what an average Stratocruiser fare might have been. I’d guess $5,000 once you factored in inflation.
2. Did you know the Wright brothers built their own wind tunnel to test aerodynamics of their aircraft? To think they were using that technology more than 100 years ago is amazing. The Red Barn portion of the museum has a working model of the wind tunnel that you can play with. Cool stuff.
3. The Red Barn portion of the museum features a Norden bombsight, which I’d never seen in person. Along with cracking the Japanese and German ciphers, the Norden bombsight was one of the most important American developments in World War II. For the first time, American airmen had a tool that effectively compensated for air speed and winds so they could deliver their bombs on target. That not only maximized destruction of important targets, but minimized civilian casualties. The Norden was such an advantage that airmen were instructed to destroy the sights should their bombers be shot down.
4. The museum has a British Airways Concorde on display that’s a thing of beauty, particularly now that all Concordes have been retired. I was bummed to learn that the museum’s DeHavilland Comet airliner – a 50-plus year-old jet that gets my vote for the most beautiful airliner ever --  is still undergoing restoration and is not yet open for public view. Crud.

Lots of angles give the Seattle main library a very modern lookFinally, a friend suggested I check out the main branch of the Seattle Public Library, which is housed in a radically shaped building. Lots of cool stuff, including an automated book-return machine that also sorts books for reshelfing. But the coolest thing may inclined flooring on the 6^th through 10^th floors, allowing you to walk up four stories or non-fiction books without ever having to use stairs. I haven’t a clue how much the building cost taxpayers, but many areas were packed, so people seem to find it worthy.

The rest of the city is loaded with great museums, bars and restaurants, but if you’re a fan of music, airplanes and offbeat architecture, set aside a few hours to check out EMP, Museum of Flight and the library. 

Remember Avantgo?

Old-timers may remember Avantgo, one of the first web companies to serve content to the handheld market.

In my case, I used a Palm V and Palm VII to sync with Advantgo, which hosted feeds from a variety of news outlets. It was the early days of the mobile web, with mostly text and grayscale screens.

I stopped using Avantgo years ago, and stumbled across their name only periodically when I'd dive into bakersfield.com's metrics and see one or two users reading our content from an age-old unregistered feed we created to circumvent Avantgo's pay-to-play wall. It officially died this summer, although its last sign of life was long before that.

Avantgo lives on Wired.comMy reason for this post, is that while Avantgo died six months ago, Wired magazine's "Wired News On The Go" page is living in the past. My guess is the only Wired readers still using Avantgo are the same folks who still use betamax video recorders. 

Thanks, Wired, for a nice blast to the past.