A couple times a month I'll leave /daily/ and actually browse other threads on Sup Forums. Recently, I found one that was pretty interesting: Artists' "Bacon Number" or "Degrees of Separation". You think of two artists, then try to link the two together by artists they've either collaborated with or been in the same band with. It's pretty interesting when you have RYM as a tool. It's pretty surprising when you find out who
For example, would it be possible to link Merzbow and The Offspring? Actually, it's pretty easy.
Merzbow collaborated with Jamie Stewart on MERZXIU, and Jamie Stewart collaborated with Oxbow's Eugene Robinson on Sal Mineo. Eugene Robinson did the backing vocals on The Dead Kennedy's Frankenchrist, and the Dead Kennedy's member Jello Biafra did the backing vocals on The Offspring's Ixnay on the Hombre.
So in order
Merzbow -> Jamie Stewart -> Eugene Robinson -> Dead Kennedy's -> Jello Biafra -> The Offspring
Not actually that many steps only 5 degrees of separation.
Naturally, I tried applying this to Fishmans. How can we relate Shinji Sato to other artists using the fewest degrees of separation?
Well, Fishman's drummer, Kin-Ichi Montegi played percussion for Buffalo Daughter's album New Rock. A couple of the members in Buffalo Daughter were in the Doopees, and Yann Tomita from the Doopees, who arranged/produced Boredoms' Super Roots 8. From there, using Yamatsuka Eye, the possibilities are endless. We can use him to connect us to John Zorn through Naked City to Electric Masada, Mike Patton, and the plethora of jazz musicians he's collaborated with.
Alternatively, we could've used EYE to draw a connection to Otomo Yoshihide, who collaborated on an "untitled" EP in 1996. From him, we can draw a line to Keith Rowe from their collaboration on "Thumb" to Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, to Sonic Youth, to Thurston Moore, to Beck, etc etc etc.
Kinda pointless, but it's something I thought I'd talk about real quick, because I think it's kind of fun.
