New York City's experimental artist Noah Wall stretched this idea to a conceptual limit with the release of "Live at Guitar Center," a series of secret recordings he took during strolls through a Guitar Center over three days in Manhattan.
On one hand, Wall concedes that the album is basically an unlistenable mishmash of clipped, self-conscious melodies and chords on guitars, keys and synths. They had no clue Wall was walking around with tiny microphones planted in his earbuds.
On the other hand, it sounds a bit like a continuous collection of those treasured outtakes tucked into the crevices of certain albums, when artists are just fooling around and showing a lighter side of the recording process.
What Wall found most enlightening about the experiment was the way it revealed the unspoken rules of a music store. In his interview with NPR, he described the courteous interplay between shoppers of different skill levels:
"It kind of reminds me ... of a watering hole where all these different animals go from different levels of the food-chain, and while they're there they suspend trying to eat each other."
The best/worst part of "Live at Guitar Center" is the way it takes an in-store experience that's usually a bit maddening and turns it into something that can be appreciated simply for the enjoyment of testing out instruments.
Here's a sampling.
Check out the rest of Wall's otherwise enjoyable song craft at his website.