[wcgraham@shaw.ca]

I like odd time signatures not because they impress me with their prowess, but because they are often catchier than a plodding 4/4, and provide variety to the music.

I tend to wonder if there's any special reason 99% of western music is in 4/4, or if it's just because it's what we always hear, and most people don't tend to break from what they know.

IIRC, there are folk musics in very odd times, and it doesn't seem to be for the purpose of impressing... and people dance to it.

Many bands use limited time sigs, limited scales, lmited chords, limited counterpoint, limited song length, limited sounds, and on it goes.  Didn't seem you could sell records with anything different on them.

I'm glad that the Oils saw fit to try many different things over the years.  Even though they had a lot of important things to say, they weren't afraid to say it in a way that wasn't lowest-common-denominator.

I am heartened that a lot of interesting "post-rock" and electronica is getting attention nowadays.  Complex music may get a bad rap for being "thinking" rather than "feeling" music, but I think that our brains and our imagination could use the exercise, to get out of the box.

Too much of our society is based on feeling without thinking, and especially on feeling good without thinking too hard about what the point of it all is, what we should be doing, and what we should be concerned about.

Now, I know that "progressive music" is not directly linked with "progressive politics", but democracy only works if people will think.  And that requires attention spans and flexibility.  And so, often, does art.  I'm sick of critics and a public who demonize music that isn't merely in the service of butt wiggling by the simplest means possible.

That said, I have spent many years shying away from formal music instruction, because I didn't want any accepted theory closing my mind to making the music that I would otherwise have come up with.

Now, as to why bands like the Oils, King's X, and the Rheostatics "mature" out of some of their earlier experimentation, I'd like to hear from the bands themselves.  Were they trying to prove something before that they now think foolish?  Did their tastes change with age?  Or was it, heaven forbid, a concession to popularity?

[Some of the Oils mentioned that they wanted to get back to "Head Injuries" roots with the last album, but I don't hear any Profiteers on it!]

>   Run By Night 4/4 last bar 6/8
>    Stand In Line 4/4    2/4  and 6/8
>    No Time For Games 7/4 and 2/4
>    Read About It   7/4     6/4 and 4/4
>    Tin Legs  4/4   and 6/4
>    Short Memory  3/4

Profiteers must have 4 or 5 time sigs in it.
[Maybe I missed an earlier post that pointed this out.]

Chris