THE ELEGANCE FILTER

SKETCHES

2011-12-26T20:44:00.000-08:00

Going through the unreleased posts on the blog, here are some things I left in the draft stage, incomplete ideas. I'll flesh them out because I can't stand having incomplete projects.

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Original pending post title: "WONDERFUL"

I haven't been paying attention to "new" music lately, and I'm sure it's my loss, but each time I check out some critically acclaimed band (from vaguely trustworthy major media sources: Wire, Mojo, Record Collector, etc) I'm either disappointed by the mediocrity and lack of sincerity, or amused that the junk could be mistaken for something great in the first place. The machine needs products though, and new product must be touted... as opposed to critical assault and refinement. Luckily (inconveniently really) the same powers are interested in keeping their legacies productive, so the reissue market is booming... and that's where my focus has been.

Right now I'm indulging in the newly released four CD reissue of The Fall's The Wonderful And Frightening World Of The Fall. Still the coagulated mess racket. Love when Gavin Friday's voice jumps out on a couple songs, like some slippery dragwitch. I really like Virgin Prunes, but it's such intensely involved music, I can only really listen to em a few times a year.

Listening to "Craigness" really loud and clear is so satisfying, especially when it kicks at the end...

I finally tracked down a copy of the M.S.B.Я. / Speculum Fight - Stultification lathe cut 7". It wasn't cheap, but it was much less than the usual over $100 asking price, that may have had to do with the auction being listed as MSRB instead of MSBR... so I ended up with copy 1 of 120, which is pretty amazing. Unlike most copies I've seen, this one doesn't have wheels attached to it, but instead a large flexibile piece of wood attached by springs. Would be interesting to find out what the distribution was of "wheeled" versus "springed". I read about this record back when I first got into noise years ago and have wanted it forever, so it's cool to finally have it. Probably should have bought all the other ones from Artware when I had the chance... $35 for a 7" seemed like a lot back then.

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Original post title: "GLASS COLLAPSE"

I'm trying to watch this documentary, Collapse, about how the world is fucked, but the music is so horrifically embarrassing, I can't commit to it.

It's completely lame to use Philip Glass in a documentary now, unless you want to abuse stereotypical and unimaginatively overused sonic shorthand... it's even tacky for Errol Morris to resort to him now.

But to use FAKE Philip Glass music.. is just... horrific.... I always entertained the idea of fake Glass music for a mockumentary, but these guys really did it...

American Movie may have been a great documentary, entirely because of the fascinating subject, but there was nothing about the structure around it that seriously impressed, Chris Smith is really exposing himself here. Riding his subjects seems to be his only trick, and when he follows another caricature, things feel really revealed.

Didier Leplae and Joe Wong should be ashamed, unless they are just making fun of the way Glass rips himself off constantly.... if that's it, then they are I guess making a funny comment... but I feel like.... maybe they just suck.

Anyone have any insight?

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This last bit was untitled and vague, but still something I'm trying to figure out.

I find a contemporary recording imitating or explicitly influenced by Autechre, Aphex Twin or Boards Of Canada infinitely more offensive than most 90-95 mindless Detroit/Berlin/Acid variants.

There is such a clear personality in those big 3, that while artists like Mr. 76ix and Chris Clark are absolutely skilled craftsman, the textural quotations and what feels like lens flare distorted plagiarisms are much more annoying than recordings that attempt no more artistry than skilled chair building. I'll always go with a classic gear ride, the voice of the machines pointed in a direction by the human catalyst, over a carefully sculpted emulation of another's, already told more beautifully, story.

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Francesca Waddell is becoming my favorite... uh, fashion publications illustrator? Don't really know what it's called, but it's a great combination of 60s and 80s illustration finesse without resorting to outright imitation, there's a definite contemporary sense to her work.

Ok, see you soon.

FAILURE

2011-12-26T18:11:00.000-08:00

I lied, failed to follow through on my position of not posting more garbage.

Here's a collage I just slapped together of the best bits from a bunch of greeting cards I never used that I made a couple years ago out of trading cards.

And here are gaming heroes... where are they today...

More soon.

PAPER SCRAPS

2011-12-26T01:34:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the more interesting pieces of paper I've saved from recycled magazines. These are just a few pages from a foot tall stack.

Masonna from an old Terrorizer.

Article about the never released Super Nintendo CD Drive.

An early noise review I read before I ever heard noise that flipped me out and set me on a desperate path to hear the mysterious noise.

Mortiis talking about his house, I believe he was still an actual troll here making wizard music and not whatever he turned into.

William Bennett talking about DJing noise, not the expected Italo material.

Morrissey in Seventeen magazine.

And Wolf Eyes in Flaunt magazine from a few years ago, was weird seeing them so glossy, the Twig appearance is a bonus.

Ok, enough scans for awhile.

BATTLE TRASH MIND

2011-12-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

The surging waters of current disposable micro information are basically smothering and trying to get us to altogether forget older documents, perhaps more carefully constructed documents, that hold information regarding pillar construction and how to dismantle. None of my posted documents in any way support that position, but when looking through journal articles and old magazine articles I've got on file, you can't help but laugh when people suggest a google search will yield truth. That's some 101 shit, but it should be remembered.

That ego-maniacal nonsense aside.

Going through boxes of papers for disposal.

Here are some pre-trashing items.

I used to pretend I was maybe going to play card games with friends I didn't actually have, and begged my parent to buy me Inquest magazine so I could make plans for eventualities that never materialized.

I remember being ridiculously excited when I saw the Einstürzende Neubauten logo tattooed on this badass cyberpunk dude.

I felt like Tim Bradstreet and I were part of a secret club of knowledgeable industrial listeners. In reality I was a 14 year old loser with 2 Neubauten cds.

I never was "lucky" enough to play one, but I always wondered what it would be like to get in one of those Virtual World BattleTech simulators. I'm sure the graphics which would have floored me then would now be too simple. Theoretically the most important aspect would be the immersion in the pod, which would perhaps slightly balance the weakness of the game visuals. I'm sure I'll never play one, so it doesn't matter.

Here's an Inquest article about the game.

Here's some footage I found.

System 1.0

Ridiculous 3.0 intro video...

System 4.0

I had always wanted to play the BattleTech miniatures and paper game, and would look at the books whenever we went to a bookstore as a kid. When I finally played it ONCE in high school, I realized what an incredibly tedious nerd game it was. Having to roll dice for every single round of ammo, and realizing that an hour of game play translated to like 1 minute of "real time" in the game... ugh. I still think the mechs are cool looking and skillfully painted miniatures will grab my idiot attention.

Some mechs and a demo reel.

By the time the BattleTech cartoon came out I had pretty much lost interest, I still watched it, but it was no Exosquad. I barely even played the computer games when we got them, my brother took over the passion by then.

I have to admit that I do pick up the old novels at used bookstores now and then, not that I've even had time to read any yet.

Here's a quick article on those Jumbo Machinder toys from a few posts back.

I apologize for only posting the articles and blips I'm throwing away, I'll post selections from all the really good stuff I'm keeping later.

Here are scans from some "notecards" for finals for classes I hated, I obviously learned nothing, yet put my tiny writing to the test.

I scoffed at the people who only had 3 or 4 equations on their cards, but was quickly destroyed trying to find the right equation in my disorganized collage.

LOST GROUND

2011-12-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

Seems like all the shifts are towards depersonalized and dissipated energies under the guise of convenience and immediacy. I'm guilty of falling for these things and am often too lazy to work against them. Fighting towards some semblance of organization and refinement remains a primary goal.

Some various shards.

The photography of Lina Scheynius jumped out at me as being genuinely atmospheric and less disposable than most comparable imagery, especially when some pieces seem to be working within the potentially restricting fashion industry, I'm thinking in regards to expectations and clarity.

I'm progressing through my physical copies of the Studio 1 12" series. I have all but Rosa, and technically the Keep On Rockin 12". I'm annoyed by a few of them with skips that seem to vary between pressing flaws and frequency induced jumps combined with my perhaps damaged or worn needle. Of course due to the FUCKED nature of the internet, data presentation, and the google RAPE machine, upon which I am clearly running this dumb blog, it's impossible to find any discussion of potential pressing-flaw or playback issues online due to worthless result clogging. So instead of being able to ask an informed forum (not that I'd actually want to deal with a forum) or find an answer on already tread ground, I'll just type at my corner, and remain annoyed.

Gold and Hellblau are so messed up, I'm just gonna return them to the store and hope to find copies that play. I'm 99 percent sure these are weird pressing flaws. So I guess I'm 4 from a set. As much as I love Wolfgang Voigt, so many of these permutational exercises have so few plays in them.

I'm obsessed with Amanda Lear. Everything about her is awesome. The limited vocal range, style over substance, dated atmospheres and aesthetics, crazy eyes, creepy teeth... just perfect.

I love how everything is slightly sedate, the barely conscious dancers with their great outfits.

And here, tacky trash-pop faux Fellini world...

I'll have to track down original VHS and wax of everything, it's doubtful CD will be around anymore when any theoretical resurgence of interest in her could take place.

The artist Edolo Masci is a new one for me, some of his stuff is really nice. Here are some examples, a nice warmth and stillness, more like moments of reflection.

Marinella (1988)

Il Merlo (1986)

Il Mare (1980-1985)

Verdeombra (1990)

Casa Rossa (1980)

Tenerezza N.2 (1977)

I've never seen any of these in person, or even decently printed outside of maybe a few in magazines. I like them in a reduced and crunched state, so I look forward to at least tracking down a book. Plenty more super naked babes and houses where those came from.

I'm always shocked by what is and isn't hip and what is and isn't kept in print. Right now there are mountains of easily available and needlessly-plentifully created and produced fake Death In June worship bands, fake Broken Flag worship units, fake Tangerine Dream worship collectives, and fake 90's Death Metal cults going on, and unpretentious and awesome stuff like Mystic Force languishes in unavailability. Now isn't the time of dreamy 90's trance music being hip? Too close for comfort, though all other 90's is nostalgia fertilizer.

I find this kind of... "authentic", a big assumption on my part, wide eyed trance techno stuff more invigorating and rewarding than a bunch of mis-articulations of downloaded half impressions of actual lifestyles, as awesomely Gibsonian as that sounds like it should be.

Sdgsdfg

2011-10-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

What happens, when you are too lazy to give a meaningful name to a file.

All videos with the same timeless title.

It's better if you play a few at the same time.

One of them seems to be a particularly harsh sniper glorification video... with actual footage of people being shot for 8 minutes... "sdgsdfg" indeed.

Probably my worst post ever.

RESCUE

2011-10-07T06:03:00.001-07:00

Thinking of 80's kids and aircraft, reminded me of a movie I'd love to see again.

The Rescue from 1988.

American 80's teens have to save their dads from a commie prison. Awesome.

Or at least I remember thinking it was awesome.

Would like to see it once more before I check out of this place.

ALIEN DAD AND ROBOTS

2011-10-07T04:50:00.000-07:00

It's strange what bits of memory resurface when you re-expose yourself to something you watched as a kid.

I used to watch this dumb show "Out Of This World" about a girl with an alien dad and special powers. I can't believe I actually enjoyed it. I wished I could freeze time, used to think about what I'd do, which basically involved acquiring toys.

Here's the intro, it used to get stuck in my head all the time. I thought it was cool that there were spaceships, and was always hoping for more in the show.

Someone uploaded all the episodes on Youtube. Awful writing and jokes, and such awkward performances and plastic sets.

The first episode... ugh...

Used to watch this garbage too, wished I had a robot sibling.

Seeing D.A.R.Y.L. made me wish I were a robot.

He got to fly a jet.... a fucking SR-71 Blackbird...

Full movie!

I'll be sure to look back on these early pro robot sentiments and laugh as I'm being herded by mechanical overlords into a death camp.

FAILED LEGACY

2011-10-06T16:33:00.000-07:00

Tron: Legacy

Some thoughts...

The visual identity is interesting, a decent riff off the original, but it looks "cool" in a completely expected way like everything else today whereas the original Tron still looks totally unique. It feels like a blinged out image over content takeover, screwing with the mythology of the original.

That girl is moderately attractive and I like her hair at least. She's super hot when her arm gets destroyed. Though I think the hottest aspects are really just her hair, eye makeup and outfit.

The lead dude is boring, can't believe they didn't cram Shialabluff in there.

Short sighted mediocrity musically in opting for completely played out orchestral shorthand, should have let Daft Punk reign free. Crystalline sequencer fractals and sub bass melodics would have made more sense. All orchestra should have been replaced with string synths. There was some, but not enough.

I also completely hate the standardized over the top Hong Kong aerial Kung Fu battle physics and hairs width slo-mo dodges here and in basically any action movie today, they don't look cool at all anymore, and the absolute unreality of the physics forces a Brechtian disconnect from any immersion, which defeats the purpose of an 'immersive' environment.

The jet battle was pretty solid, and was the only interesting fight.

They made the grid world WAY TOO human, an argument could be made for the more complicated "lives" of modern day programs vs. 80's pong programs, but it's too easy a solution.

The mouth on the Jeff Bridges animation looks like shit, and the alcoholic floppy mouth on the real old Jeff Bridges is annoying too. Though, I would sacrifice a child to see him and Rip Torn drunkenly singing sea shanties.

There's no clever and quotable dialogue like in the original, and it's annoying how they quote the original film throughout.

There was one "Wilhelm Scream".

Oh, and the fake David Bowie should have just been real David Bowie, but with his old teeth "CGI'd" in.

NONSENSE

2011-09-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

Cleaning, destroying, cleansing, but all in a half-hearted effort. So much uselessness still preserved.

Books and records down to essentials, going through papers, what do I need.

Here's nonsense related to shards I'm disposing of.

Best scream...

The "Wilhelm Scream" If you've seen Star Wars you know it.

Here are a bunch more.

Chris Cunningham, where is Neuromancer? Are you just making tons of cash doing commercials? Can't blame you. Looking forward to Blu-Ray discs of whatever you've been working on.

I always wanted to play this game. Osamu Sato's "Eastern Mind", done by the guy who also made a game called "LSD" I've wanted to play but never have.

There is another user with lots of videos on youtube but he's annoying and talks through the whole thing.

Here's LSD, I'd love to play this.

My air conditioning vent smells like food and cleaning products, I wonder if I'm being killed.

Hajime Sorayama is awesome... airbrushed babes from an eternal 80's 2040. The more chromed out the better.

Party girl.

Check out her sweet jacket.

Here's a commercial with one of the Gynoids hanging out.

I can't stop listening to Joe Rogan's podcast... I'm almost caught up... I've done about 100 of 140 or so..

Been enjoying the Bjørn Fongaard – Elektrofoni: Works For Micro Intervallic Guitar 1965-1978 boxset. Spacious and pointillistic guitar environments.

What other really good werewolf movies are there? An American Werewolf In London, and The Howling are my standard, must be at least as good as those, any recommendations?

I should dig out my Rage cards and play those with someone. I think Wyrm is the last expansion I got any cards from. It's pathetic that I wanna buy a box of boosters.

Here's a game I always wanted to play, but never will, because there's no way I'm tracking down a Sega CD system or this game, which seems to run in the $100 range, Snatcher.

Looks awesome... I'm a big fan of absolutely shameless Blade Runner worship.

Here's an 11 part run through of the game, graphics look a little different, I haven't bothered to figure out why, guess I'll either watch this run through or play a ROM.

So sad I'm not playing that.

I really like Tom Hunter's "Dublin Bay Bathing Places" photo series. Click the link to see a few.

Gorgeous. Dreamy submersion potential.

Wanted to play this game due to all the controversy when I was little, I was so curious, for a game to be banned, how horrible could it be? I couldn't fathom what something would have to be like to be restricted, and seeing the game, I still don't understand... Night Trap.

I love that era of weird CD-ROM junk. Trying to figure out what it could be, and basically all attempts failing.

I only ever actually saw a print advertisement for this game, but when I was 11 or 12 really wanted to play it. I'm glad I had no access to money at that time. The best part of the video is the ridiculous voice-over during the "Star Wars" scroll.

What an embarrassing looking game.

Brian Cross AKA B+ is another interesting photographer. He gets a nice well worn and forgotten feel in his photos. He's probably best known for the Endtroducing..... artwork.

Would love a book of that stuff.

As I've been getting rid of stuff, I've realized I really do not need to retain physical specimens of many toys. I still think toys are cool, but needing to possess and physically interact with them is just something I don't feel. I'm lucky to have a friend that collects Transformers, so that need is satisfied. I sold all my MS In Pocket Gundam figures, threw away a bunch of random stuff, tossed a bunch of Star Wars stuff. I often will see or read about cool stuff and have a twinge of collectors insanity, but pictures will do the job. These Jumbo Machinder toys are awesome, but there's no way I would want to store them or pay over $4000 for a plastic robot.

Super cool.... but alas, not all the cake is for me.

If I could find Kenner Mega Force toys I might buy those... but right now I'm satisfied with the idiocy of someone my age having a ton of Lego stuff.

I guess that's enough nonsense for now.

RESISTANCE FAILURE

2011-08-04T00:37:00.000-07:00

I tried to stay away from Twitter for as long as possible.

I definitely have issues with a lot of it, but I intend to provide "unique" content as opposed to re-posting messages and responding to a bunch of people in confusing shards of conversation.

Follow me if you want.

I'll probably start a stupid tumblr account next... yuck...

Eric Wareheim has some nice cloud pictures on his...

And to be perfectly transparent, I started a Twitter account so I could read Tim and Eric's "tweets"...

YEAR 2010

2011-03-24T19:56:00.001-07:00

Hop on over to the Intransitive website to see my top 10 of 2010 list.

Thanks Howie!

Nothing new here other than collecting a bunch of records for the....

The Northern Virginia Record Fair
Sunday, May 29 · 11:00am - 5:00pm
Location
The Soundry
316 Dominion Road
Vienna, VA

I will have tons of obscure vinyl, a distro worth of Black Metal cds, and a bunch of rare noise tapes...

See you there...

HONG KONG CRAB

2010-11-17T22:41:00.000-08:00

Just finished watching Fallen Angels after like 8 years. I started it and fell asleep, and just finished it finally. It reminds me of how much I love Wong Kar Wai (And how much I used to love Hong Kong films from the 80's / 90's). His depiction of spacial depth is really incredible in all three dimensions, you get a real sense of ceiling space. Just a very dreamy fluid movement. I also feel that he is leaning just to the acceptable side of "cuteness" something which I have literally zero patience for. I need to catch up on his newer films, see if he fell off or what. Hopefully Criterion will lease the rest of his films for nice tricked out versions.

Also re-watched Casino, and it holds up really well. Never boring. Funny I couldn't make it through 45 minutes of New York, New York.

Other than selling stuff on Ebay, I'm clinically obsessed with Deadliest Catch. Thanks to Netflix instant queue... AKA visual crack. I can make that informed comparison due to all the Intervention I've seen through it... though I have to say Obsessed is a more interesting show than Intervention, and it's got a very clever logo. I love the endless permutational nature of Deadliest Catch, it's the best possible wallpaper. The same thing with varying levels of intensity. Reliable, not terribly pretentious, just satisfying. I'm also quite pleased that I can endlessly rewatch episodes because they are barely distinguishable from each other, which I would usually consider a detrimental attribute, but in this case I make an exception. Another reason I love it is because I can listen to Mike Rowe's voice for hours (definitely listen to how he tries to sell that piece of junk, all of the Rowe on QVC videos are hilarious), he is one of the three kings of voices, along with Bob Costas and Al Trautwig.

Playing all three at the same time is like hearing the best song ever...

I don't know what I wouldn't do to have all three of them as commentators for Olympic Women's gymnastics...

IDYL CASES

2010-11-04T23:07:00.001-07:00

Getting together a package for a good friend, a decent portion of it is old National Lampoon magazines.

Looking through I'm reminded of how amazing Jeff Jones is (The Vaughn Bode stuff rules too, but in a different way). I wish there were a book simply collecting all the Idyl material. Not to give the impression I'm uninterested in the paintings / book covers Jones has done, because I love those too, anything with a Frazetta vibe and its own pulse I will probably love, but her pencil / ink work is so stunningly lyrical, I could just roll each page on my tongue...

The writing is cutesy and clever, but it's just an excuse for the perfect visuals.

It's weird, I'd never read a single issue of National Lampoon until very recently, but I swear I've seen a bunch of these long before, I'm probably thinking of her Heavy Metal work, which is also awesome... maybe it was in Cheval Noir... I'll have to dig them out and check.

I'm tired of the position taken when deriding CDs and championing LPs that the CD is too small and it sucks because it can't present visuals to a satisfying degree, and the LP is so big and perfect and the only valid way to present an album. We get it, you like records, you're so cool.

True, not all CD releases have amazing artwork and when they initially entered the market, the art from the records had to be scaled down to fit the jewelcase (we'll ignore longboxes), but plenty of LPs have boring as dirt artwork that fails on any scale. There is no right or wrong, best or worst. The same people that claim to hate CDs usually have a big hipster overdose on how awesome cassette tapes are, well, those are even smaller, you got a problem with that art scale, or in that case do you accept that it's just different and so no better or worse?

I love LP artwork, that scale is great, it's huge and a gatefold can be an incredible experience. This probably all has to do with programming related to scale and wonder in childhood, when we interacted with large colorful story books. That said, plenty of CDs have amazingly gorgeous artwork. Lots of the really exemplary design work I've seen has been in the Japanese market, an easy example is the experience of any Pizzicato 5 CD.

Here are just two I've got, the first is an example of dealing within the confines of the jewelcase, the second is expanding outwards, but still remaining within the expectations of compact disc scale.

First off, great cover, with the photo visible through the printed transparency.

Now how awesome is that... the cool transparency, a sticker of the cover photo and a massive circular booklet (there are awesome pictures on both sides and I folded it on itself, it's like twice as long)... this is masterful design within the jewelcase limits.

This is a really thick and airy package made of slightly soft clear plastic. Text is screened onto the outside, and the thickness combined with the reflective surfaces gives a really cool sense of depth. The use of the playing surface of the disc as a mirror is brilliant.

Again, the use of silver for reflective purposes working with the thick clear package confusing and enhancing the sense of depth

Hopefully this illustrates the thickness of the package. The booklet is super colorful and full of awesome pictures, contrasting with the stark exterior.

I'm just thinking about this now because earlier I was listening to the Cornelius 69/96 and 96/69 releases, and they are both wonderful and exciting designs and they are Compact Discs. If anyone could look at these and not at least grudgingly admit they are cool, then they are a liar.

Here's the cover of 69/96, I tried to bounce the flash off of it enough to show the texture of the printing on the cover. The cover is like a soft pink vinyl with thick ink. Super satisfying.

These are a bunch of shots of the inside of the booklet, which is 50 pages worth of cool pictures in all kinds of inks and paper consistencies (I didn't show any pages with glossy paper because they were just pictures of Keigo).

Finally, this is trying to illustrate how floppy the whole thing is.

Here's 96/69... totally awesome: silver obi strip, nice red sticker on the plastic, a sticker of the panicking guy on the jewelcase, a larger scene of panic on the disc, and a tiny booklet of disasters and monster attacks... If that isn't a cool package, what is?

Lots of situations are people trying to be cool and rejecting what they knew first, like teenagers acting out against their parents: I hate you dad! = I hate you Green Day CD! And I'm sure lots of people are really convinced the LP is the best most superior format (In my opinion, the best format doesn't mean me bumping into one of my Beverly Hills 808303 records and gouging a huge scratch in it, and I know the "treat your items with respect" argument applies to me, but it's not like I set the thing out like a coaster), probably because they are getting old and nostalgic and don't want to feel obsolete and close to death.

I wonder how the sheet music salesmen felt when wax cylinders came along...

"This is an idiotic inferior way to experience music! Who wants to sit by themselves and hear music! It is a social experience... a gathering of friends in revelry!"

A "truth" is that in most cases you just like whatever you are most familiar with, whatever you knew earlier in most cases. When the ignorant goons slamming CDs are dead, and hip older people are reminiscing about how great the CD was as a discrete and portable listening storage medium, and hip kids are buying old CDs for ridiculous prices to capture some cultural nostalgia, younger kids who grew up on MP3's exclusively will laugh at the materialistic embarrassment.

Remember when the only art was a tiny pixelated image to go with the crunch of the mp3... these newfangled streaming WAV's just don't sound as warm.

I'm sure to cover their asses, some will back-peddle and claim what they REALLY think makes vinyl better is the sound quality, and I'm sure an unplayed test pressing right off the master tapes sounds awesome, but you know what else sounds great if you have the eq set right, a CD. And it's all just depending on your needs. I personally like none greater or less. I find LPs annoying in that they are too big, and can sound like shit when scratched. I also love them for the same reasons. Some claim a CD is worthless when it gets scratched, the solution is to not treat your CDs like shit. I hate that my CDs will probably not last very long, but I love being able to play a song on infinite repeat, I like really long compositions... I also love the crackle on an old Enka record, so it all depends on the person and situation.

You can't be right.

NOTHING

2010-11-04T18:05:00.000-07:00

There is so much total fear in everything around me.

I'm embarrassed for the ways it's dealt with.

Ignorance even in the midst of an education.

It's buried deep, jokingly confronted, flat out denied... most disgusting is when it's dressed up as faith.

In what?

I'll give you something to believe in.

SOCIAL

2010-10-28T02:34:00.000-07:00

Problem: taught to be polite and following through. The necessary element is an ability to look clearly and balance.

ONE HUNDRED SHARDS

2010-10-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

I oftentimes start posts and never finish them.

Here are the useful sections of those abortions.

It is hypocritical, but I basically hate "bloggers" specifically the ones whose entire content is not their own but a series of download links and cut and paste wiki facts versus any kind of critical stance, all under the guise of some vague self congratulatory curatorial mission.

I have and probably will continue to post sets of images, but these are things I actually created, or have some critical perspective on, not just some definitively cool thing I posted with zero commentary or justification.

I just trudged through a series of precious blogs that are nothing more than endless scans from art books. It's like all those music blogs where the people posting the stuff have this annoying arrogant pride as if they had some hand in creating the uploaded content. I can't even bear the endless sycophantic commentary that goes with the deluge, I guess everyone wants to be cool or accepted. That whole system is boring.

I have ended up with a lot of useless stuff in my collection from trusting magazines or other people.

Avarus, and all that Finnish "everyone make dumb sounds together" stuff is not worth exploring. The Fonal Records label seems to be the only logical filter, and I will continue to support that outlet because all releases I've heard are great sonically and visually, but the world really doesn't need recordings of people banging on cardboard... unless it's some awesome sound art thing from the 60's. I can see how perhaps a heavily processed and layered soup of the group improvisations could be interesting, but raw room recordings of untrained people making a racket is the kind of thing that should not be immortalized as anything other than a download.

It's like a lot of that Sound@One stuff. Some is great, or at least one was great and I kept trying to find more fixes. Do not bother with Zashiki Warashi, because that project is terrible. I really should re-evaluate all that No Neck Blues Band stuff I have...

I have (had) two CDs by a band called Clearlake, who literally only have one good song. "Almost The Same"... everything else by them is forgettable. Well, "We All Die Alone" is ok. If they'd released one 45 in the 80's with "Almost..." on the A and the other on the B, they'd be a happily remembered band.

The Raveonettes, just a crap Jesus And Mary Chain rip off with a tiny splash of Suicide and some surf vibes. I'm sick of that whole thing. Staggering unoriginality.

Metallic Falcons.... What is this junk? The Antony contribution is good, obviously because he's a unique voice, but this fake direct and blatant Nico rip off is painful beyond belief. This chick is in that absolutely awful band CocoRosie that everyone thinks is so great. This is why I need to not trust anyone. Annoying cutesy knitting fetish art school hipster girls, Fuck off.

I decided that I will never watch any "true story" movie based on real people who have lived since the advent of film and audio recording. If some tale must be told of a real person, piece it together.

I hate dramatic reenactments. It was the most frustrating part about Unsolved Mysteries and Rescue 911... let's revisit those amazing intros...

The Unsolved Mysteries music is classic... always loved the "mysterious" sound of the whole thing.

Doing a movie about Julius Caesar is acceptable, or an American Civil War movie, things like that, but movies about Johnny Cash, Serge Gainsbourg, etc... Fuck OFF. One conundrum is that movies about real times and places, but using fake bands or people are totally lame.

I despise actors, and seeing them try to impress people with how much they can imitate something is a parlor trick and it should be rejected. Fucking Grey Gardens? Ridiculous, lets give these burnt out worthless actresses some roles where they can shine one final time. There are two entire movies of THE REAL PEOPLE...

I wrote the above before the "Facebook movie", but that infuriates me more. I completely reject this ridiculous immediate retroactive importance thing we keep inundating ourselves in. The fear of death, and the saturation of ego in this trend is so horrifically embarrassing... I even feel like an ass for having this blog. I look forward to the Friendster movie, how bout the Geocities or MP3.com movie? Obviously I realize that Facebook is a more pronounced and staggering cultural phenomena, but still... are we so desperate to ensure our place in history? You're not fucking important.

I keep finding myself becoming unreasonably obsessed with things that aren't really worth getting invested in. Luckily I've become aware of this fault and work against it now.

It usually comes about due to an overall unknown and a few clues of possible greatness. An example is that I have a decent sized collection of 1970's Japanese soft-rock pop-folk music... I don't need it, like 3 of the albums are worth keeping. I happened upon the Soft Fit and Elec labels and since I unfortunately heard a few awesome albums I decided to investigate... everything. A big reason for this is the fact that Japanese websites are inconveniently totally insular and there is no interest in non Japanese speaking / reading people being able to learn about or investigate the Japanese music. So it's a classic buy it to discover the secret situation. This secret pretty much sucks.

One benefit I've convinced myself of thanks to the exposure to all this saccharine and boring music is that I really understand why Kan Mikami, Kazuki Tomokawa and even Morio Agata are so significant. Real emotion and expression amid a plastic flowery wasteland really stands out. I think what I find most unacceptable is the abundance of "country" vibes, banjo, harmonica, wistful phony melodic tendencies... I actually prefer less artful Enka music to this stuff that actually tries to have an interesting sound palette, probably because the Enka exhibits less artificial posturing. It's straight forward and unapologetic in how sentimental it is.

Cutesy 70's pop-folk: Kimihiko Sato 佐藤公彦(ケメ) = NOT good.

Actually passionate 70's folk: Kazuki Tomokawa (友川かずき = VERY good.

Soullessly soulful 70's Enka: Hiroshi Itsuki 五木ひろし = SUPER awesome.

It's also helped me to realize that I really fucking love Japanese pop of all sorts from the 50's to early 70's (mainly the 60's), but after that it's basically all uninteresting. There are definitely exceptions and lots of the really trashy 70's stuff completely rules, but for straight ahead pop, it's all about the 60's with all the killer Group Sounds stuff.

There has to be a secret ingredient, that's it, there has to be something you can't quite explain. When no matter how thoroughly you dissect and examine something, in the end you throw your hands up and remain baffled. I feel like I shouldn't even be able to justify why something is great when it is...

This is my 100th post. Hooray for my chronic writing.

DISOBEDIANT JAZZ

2010-10-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

Certain things resonate so profoundly with everything I value artistically that they stand out in such stark relief to all else that they invalidate most of my record collection / knowledge.

Seven Minutes Of Nausea's "Disobediant Losers" 7" delivers absolutely everything I need in regards to blasting anger, but then goes far beyond by bringing odd atmospherics and the perfect amount of lo-fi and sloppy brutality to the equation, where some edits between tracks are standard tape deck pause slips and the music is awkwardly quieter than the samples... just a masterpiece of disjointed anger...

A SIDE-----------------B SIDE

Seth Putnam from A.C. on backing vocals / drums and a guitarist add some extra shrapnel to the usual, and the close up spoken female voice adds a delicate contrast to the blasting... Just a perfect 7"... Makes me question all other hardcore / noisecore and grind in my collection... do I need them, or should I really just toss on some 7MON when I NEED the attack.

I have basically zero interest in hardcore punk, and can't get excited by the sonics or attitude at all. Have never been interested in teenage boys preaching at me. Hardcore record sleeves look pretty cool, and reading about it or seeing documentaries is fun, but that stuff never ignites my fury... except for Siege.

Seriously, what more can you do... I guess it's just me... as far as I can tell, it's the sonic qualities of a young male voice yelling that turn me off... I'd rather listen to The Comsat Angels...

I guess I shouldn't be surprised...

Following off of the 7MON gauntlet, I have to re-evaluate everything... I still love World, Gerogerigegege, Final Exit, early A.C., CSSO... Noise (Brazil)... Minch... ok, there are a solid like 20.. but still, what more is necessary... like REALLY necessary??? Any educated suggestions are welcome...

It's frustrating that 7MON seem to have fallen off... not having the full discography, and not being interested in downloading I can't pinpoint it, but I can say for sure that their material on the split CD with Yesmeansyes is embarrassingly empty and by the numbers. Luckily the Yesmeansyes material absolutely kills, so it's not a waste of plastic.

I've been watching the Ken Burns Jazz documentary series the last few days. Finally, thanks to netflix instant... never wanted to shell out the hundred or so bucks... I'm enjoying it a ton. I definitely like Jazz and find it fascinating, but my ears have been so slow to acclimate across the years... I really don't understand it, which is a shame. I think actually playing a real instrument would affect how I hear jazz immensely. The closest I get is hearing any of the pianists... and being awed / pained by their fluidity and complexity... vague muscular awareness and comprehension...

I also think that due to being obsessed with so much music, I've been hesitant to get into Jazz because it's such a massive ocean of material to explore... daunting to say the least, at least I know some points to investigate more closely now.

I know I'm like 10 years late to the party, but definitely watch it if you're interested in the Jazz art form, it's generic Ken Burns in execution and convinced of its own importance, but those aren't really problems.

TELEVISED

2010-10-08T02:37:00.000-07:00

There are very few television programs I keep up with or even enjoy. I usually have to politely feign interest when people go on about whatever show they are into due to the social and professional expectations and restrictions of the workplace. Naturally there are always exceptions, some people I legitimately trust, and their recommendations have exposed me to great shows.

These select few "greatest" shows are the ones I feel like I can watch more than once even, due to their refinement and unique characteristics. I'm not interested in getting caught up in new programs that imitate previous successful shows, I like endings, so I don't need a new X-Files. If I need that same feeling I can re watch the instigator. If I actually find myself having the time to search out another show to recreate the experience of another, I'm doing something (else) wrong in life.

Usually when I see heavily recommended programs they feel like potato chips, they're not exactly terrible experiences, they're more or less actually enjoyable, and I know I don't need them almost immediately. I only want the truly GREAT, nothing "clever" or just entertaining.

I hate writing that is too snappy and artificial. Therefore I am not into House, I've seen a few episodes and I was entertained, but I will never seek it out.

I'm biding my time till Madmen season 4 is on DVD by re-watching My So Called Life, which still holds up as the ultimate expression of 90's teen angst.

I think these are the best shows ever, in no order (semi documentary educational programs don't count nor do "reality" programs which are the ULTIMATE representation of the addictive and disposable. I'm not going to consider US shows which were explicitly marketed as a Miniseries... I'm also not thinking about animated shows... but if I were, South Park...):

01. Madmen
02. Degrassi: Jr. High / High / TV Movie
03. Iron Chef Japan (it is a continuing drama)
04. 30 Rock
05. Arrested Development
06. No Reservations
07. Baywatch
08. Tim And Eric Awesome Show (anything they do)
09. The Day Today / Brass Eye
10. Star Trek: OG / TNG / DS9 / Voyager (To be determined)
11. Dexter
12. My So Called Life
13. Frasier*
14. Seinfeld*
15. X Files / Millenium (I need to re-watch)
16. Scrubs*
17. Adventures Of Pete & Pete
18. Eerie Indiana
19. Twin Peaks
20. Sandbaggers

I guess there are some I need to watch that people claim are so amazing, like The Wire and Sopranos, I don't want to invest money into those so I'll figure something out.

I'm gonna add to and fine tune this list continually. I know I'm missing a few. There are a decent amount I need to see, and some I know would be on the list if I saw them all: The Prisoner, Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Band Of Brothers... Deadwood... Dr. Who... probably a bunch of BBC stuff.

There are also some that I enjoyed, but they aren't immortally great, like Big Train.

I'm open to any suggestions...

*At some point I'm gonna have to watch all of these to determine which is the ultimate sitcom... I think Seinfeld has a great rhythm, the show is like a song... Scrubs is pretty damn funny, and Frasier feels like a complete universe...

QUICK KILLERS

2010-10-06T05:20:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, everyone use IXQUICK, fuck Google (Yes I know my blog is run off of Google and I have three Gmail accounts). I'm lazy. At least this thing doesn't track and analyze ALL of your searches. If you run Firefox, I would also recommend installing NoScript, it's fun and it's free and it blocks like everything.

Ok, back to The Killers (1964). Watched A Woman Under The Influence last night... fucking incredible... so I'm goin' off the Cassavetes vibe.... This version of The Killers has him, Lee Marvin and Ronald Reagan... woah.. 70's TV movie meltdown...

Oh and the new IMDB interface is shit.

SLEEP SKILLS

2010-10-05T20:20:00.001-07:00

I like CoH, but if I really need that kind of sound I'll be better off with Pan Sonic. Their textures and tones are more satisfyingly precise and rich compared to the digital click overload of Ivan Pavlov's project. Despite my position, CoH is definitely a project of the highest quality / focus and if someone is fanatical about glitch-infused rhythmic minimalism he would be in the top 5 recommended artists, I just don't have that much time here. To be fair Pan Sonic and CoH don't sound violently similar, but enough that when I need this flavor, I can go to the Finns. It's not often that I feel like listening to more or less atonal rhythmic robot music. I'm much more concerned with listening to stuff like The Hit Parade.

I just watched Skills / Faces, a DVD of two films by Jan Van Hasselt. I wanted to like it because my friend Graham put it out on his label Blossoming Noise, and it features artists I follow very closely. Unfortunately, while the actual artistic content is pretty awesome, the execution seems sloppy and unfocused. There are two primary complaints. First, if I wanted to see poorly filmed digital junk I could just watch youtube videos, second, the interviews aren't as in depth as they could be, and come off as brief chats as opposed to in depth interviews for a documentary.

While Zbigniew Karkowski seemed passionate and animated, all his featured sonics were incredibly stale and boring. He said that he evaluates his sounds by how much adrenaline they get pumping in him. Well he must be some kind of alien, because I adore boring sounds and those presented were totally uninteresting. I'm going to assume Van Hasselt is at fault in the selection process over Karkowski not making interesting sound (His work with Masami Akita is good from what I've heard, and I liked the collab with Damion Romero that Graham put out). Karkowski's explanation of "Noise" by way of Masami Akita's thoughts on noise as "voodoo" also seemed rushed and poorly articulated. The explanation assumes a programmed and dominant position from which to judge and determine a "correct" answer, which I think is stupid when used to try to define "what is noise". It's just a lazy term used to pigeonhole a bunch of music. As he said there is no chaos, along that path I believe noise is just sound that is far too complex for humans to percieve as "music", but it's still created and edited (hopefully) as a focused structure, so claiming some huge philosophical difference between NOISE and MUSIC is pointless. It's all sound, the words are the prison. The Rudolf Eb.er segments were far too short, he was very interesting as was expected, but Van Hasselt's need to mess with all the performance footage ruined what could have been an illuminating set of visual documents. The choice to use the fucking Star Wars light-saber Youtube kid to illustrate a point about the physical timing of the music was also an embarrassment. Did he even think about this? The little computer collage bit and the "Vampiresquid" bit felt masturbatory and pointless. One of the best comments was Lucas Abela saying how someone should ask themselves if they are a performer or composer (though they are not mutually exclusive) when determining whether or not to play live, an inquiry which would affect live shows to the point where they would be something I'd actually want to go see if I knew people had thought about what they were going to do, and even if they should do it as a performance. A final annoyance was that Van Hasselt was too lazy to feature footage of Lucas delivering his glass eating finale in something greater than horribly pixelated youtube compression. I believe that if you can't do something well, you shouldn't bother, it feels like Van Hasselt just found out about noise and wanted to be FIRST to get a documentary out there, well, it's a mess.

This bit of youtube video ironically has better skills and faces presented for Mr. Lucas Abela than the DVD:

The Faces portion was an annoying gimmick. Basically just peoples faces listening to noise. I never need to see it again, and don't even care to show anyone else. I'd have loved to just watch footage of MSBR tweaking his gear instead of a bunch of annoying people, I don't even want to look at the audience when I'm at a show, so why would anyone need to immortalize the act of them watching a show on a DVD? I get it, but it's fucking stupid.

The whole thing feels like a sloppy sketch, except for the physical product which looks awesome because Graham is amazing at producing things. I absolutely recommend it for Eb.er fanatics because any footage of him is important, so I'm glad I have it.

STATION LAST FIVE

2010-09-30T23:20:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I discovered that David Bowie's masterpiece album Station To Station was getting an insanely over the top reissue treatment.

I experienced something strange when I saw the tiny picture of it in Record Collector, a feeling that I thought had been cooked out of me, I think it was excitement. As I remarked to a few people, it was the first time in forever where I saw a record and was filled with anticipation for its arrival and was unconcerned about price or anything. I wasn't even worried about forgetting when it was gonna come out and missing it (I had to set an alarm in my cell for when Ryoji Ikeda's Dataphonics was due, and I have one set for the reissue of the Sorrow's Hatred and Disgust, which includes the Forgotten Sunrise EP similar to the rare Japanese CD issue), or if I'd have enough money... it was simply something I knew I'd have to experience because it was actually important, not just another obsessive thing where I have to buy the new tape spewed out by X noise guy (please everyone, no more sketches).

But I digress.... this reissue is clearly a desperate attempt by the record industry to generate interest in a physical product (while still offering a DL), and if the trend is going to keep heading towards this over the fucking top lavish fetish object type reissue thing, I'm happy to be hooked like a fish. I sincerely hope they make a massive load of cash off of this and are greed pumped into doing ridiculous boxes like this for all the great Bowie albums... say the whole run from Space Oddity (1969) to Let's Dance (1983). Some have remarked that all the little paper extras included in this box are overkill, to them I say YOU DON'T KNOW HOW AWESOME BOWIE IS... or I'd say that if you're indulging in an object edition for fanatics, go all the way. Anyways I love seeing any little picture of Bowie and it's made for psychos like me. I would kill for that From Station To Station photo book, but I don't have $500 for a book... so reproductions of press kits and publicity shots are totally cool in the meantime. I'll hold out for a reissue, hell, that $700 Vanessa del Rio book was reissued in an affordable edition finally, so hopefully there will be enough demand that they'll do a plebs edition.

While I was waiting for my pre-ordered box set (a $149.99 edition captured for a mere $71.30 thanks to coupons and pre order price reductions) I decided to finally check out the 5 most recent Bowie albums. I had Earthling before and was less than impressed, but figured $43.72 for a 10XCD set of Bowie was worth it to flesh out the contemporary story*. True 5 discs of these are what I assume are (and hope to be proven wrongly about) frivolous 90's remix splurges. Here are some brief thoughts on these albums, bear in mind when gauging my perspective that I LOVE Bowie.

OUTSIDE (1995):

I remember when "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" was on the radio... I liked it at the time, but I was confused about how that could be the Labyrinth guy... Hearing this now... meh, it was ok, had 3 or 4 REALLY good songs, and then a bunch of mediocre songs, and then all of those tracks with the spoken stuff in the stupid voices were a huge disappointment. Definitely have to give it more listens, but the tiny voices and goofy "surreal" stories are definitely not wanted... "I'm Deranged" stands out as a great song. Definitely want to listen to that more. I think the best way to explain how this album sounds, is that it's like trying to navigate one of those crappy interactive CD-ROMs, where you clicked on shit and dumb animations would play and there were little video clips and maybe like 4 cool things out of the whole experience. I would like to hear the complete unedited sessions, and I have to say that the cover painting is worlds better than most of the visual art Bowie does (from what I've seen, a lot looks like photoshop doodles).

EARTHLING (1997):

Didn't bother listening in this session, last time I listened to it was like 2 years ago?? Heavy 90's ELECTRONICA (I always consider that a derogatory term, I use it here more respectfully, but it is appropriate) feel as I remember... a few decent songs, but it didn't feel grounded. I was really into the song "Dead Man Walking". When this came out, my brother and I would listen to it while we played video games... but yeah, the whole drum & bass thing is VERY dated...

HOURS (1999):

Better than Outside... I wish these tracks had been produced by Eno. Hate the useless SOULFUL backing vocals on the first track, I'd rather hear Bowie multitracked... The whole album has the semi bittersweet atmosphere of viewing a sunset through the window at the wrong end of an internet cafe in a 90's dream of the future. The track, "The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell" was pretty annoying... I would have loved to hear acoustic demos or something of these tracks... the glossy production is a little heavy... Reading more about this album, I guess it has tracks that are the result of WEB CYBER-SONG writing contests... awesome. Remember the future?

HEATHEN (2002):

I really think the production here works (it's Tony Visconti, finally back...), since Bowie at this point seems unable to let go of the odd "technoid" properties, I think this is a good balance. His slightly deeper voice is awesome... um.... this album is fucking GREAT.... he NEEDS to do another album... just a big pile of ballady sunset tracks like "Slip Away" would be perfect... The whole thing is wonderful, except for "I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship" which feels like a frivolous, 'oh hey remember the alien thing' type track, and "Everyone Says 'Hi'" sounds like it should be for a commercial... I guess I need the SACD version of this album... supposedly 5 of the songs are longer versions.... frustrating. Finally, Bowie looks awesome on all the artwork here, though the typography is abysmal...

I decided to check out disc 2 for this one, since it was only 2 remixes and a bunch of b sides. A great selection, lots of different flavors, I am excited to get to know these songs better.

REALITY (2003):

First off... visually.. WORST Bowie album cover EVER... What is the reality? A bad photoshopped faux manga alien??? Any of the photos of him in the booklet would have made better covers... and the typography and general graphic work are a disaster... Sound: AWESOME, equally as good as Heathen... more of this would be nice... there's much less useless "electronica" atmosphere, it's more refined and mature... The flow of the album is also very well done, no jarring annoyances or pointlessly overbearing textures. The jazzy final track was unexpected and a nice wind down, yeah, really great album.

I desperately hope Bowie releases new music soon... people have the tendency to write ROCK stars off after they reach a certain point, and honestly I do constantly, but I feel that (as an insanely biased fan) Bowie is so much more than a simple nostalgia leech like Jimmy Page or David Crosby (why don't you guys go collaborate with fucking Sheryl Crow or something equally dignified). It takes a long time to reach total mastery, think of Indian Classical musicians, those guys study for decades, and play till they're ancient... basically I'm hoping the chameleon is learning from dated indulgences like Earthling, and is observing and absorbing, and is going to unleash some kind of majestic new phase... he just has to copy the right newer people... just rip off recent Scott Walker, and Antony and Sigur Ros (citing high profile cultural stuff that isn't total crap)... please David... refined future chamber pop... get Eno to produce it and have it be a sprawling atmospheric ballad fest... PLEASE... spaced out harpsichord and NO guest singers, just Eno on backing vocals... PLEASE......

I guess it's time to delve into Station To Station...

I'm only going to listen to the new remaster for now, it's getting late. I'm sure the live set is a coked out delight, but it will have to wait for another day.

First off, the box is annoyingly huge.. I already have a few massive box sets like this, and storing them is hell. But it is justified due to the fact there are 3xLPs in here, so whatever. Upon opening the box I noticed the fine touch that the foam echoes the structure of the room Bowie is seen entering on the album cover, very cool.

I don't have to explain this album, you already know it's one of the greatest ever, and is timelessly perfect. The new remaster is stunning... clear... SO clear, it sounds the same as it always has, just fresher and better... more alive... I know it's basically the textbook thing people say, but I'm hearing little details more clearly, and it's not distracting, just revealing in subtle ways and very rewarding. If you're not a crazy obsessive, I would recommend you get the standard 3xCD version just so you have this incredible album in your collection...

Ok, enough over the top Bowie love for now...

*One of the few Bowie items I am still trying to track down is the 2XCD+DVD version of Black Tie White Noise which I'm hoping all sounds like Wonderful Life by Black if the little bits I've heard are any indication... with maybe some "hip hop" beats thrown in... a video from that album I've seen has the awesomely dated 90's style just shy of slow motion, footage of shit like: people running holding sheets, people on beaches on stilts, white horses running down city streets, and like close ups of old guys faces in cityscapes.

Edit: I watched the video, it's not as abstract as I went on about, but it's still a distinct and distinctly dated style I'm making fun of... I will have to do a blog post about those kind of videos.

MASK

2010-09-29T05:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a gross mask I made.

I'll post some drawings later.

REFINEMENT

2010-09-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

My writing is too flowery and informal.

I need to work on that, it's all trash trying to cover up the fact I haven't much to say.

I can't stop the tendency to ramble, but I'm working towards making the rambling more concise and useful.

Getting rid of more records. It feels weird getting rid of things by people I know. Then again the artificial sense of connection enabled by so much of the internet confuses the issue of people I know / know of / actually care about. It's weird when you are genuinely interested in someone and their perspectives etc, but their music just doesn't do anything for you, even after you've tried really hard to get into it. I have to let these feelings of polite behavior (holding onto a bunch of music I don't really like) go, there is too much stuff I have by "people I know" and hopefully no great offense is taken, but I don't have the time or place in my life for mildly considered works or one off free flowing jams or whatever. You have got to be pretty trained to deliver something in an improvisational setting and have it matter, for endless example, Keiji Haino can produce incredible and rewarding spontaneous works. The problem is that so many people releasing or approving of and enabling the release of improv based or more off the cuff products are basically untrained listeners, so they can't really tell if something is crap / good / amazing / redundant / imitation. I've been fooled plenty of times by serious looking artwork or "nice sounding" mp3 samples, but from now on, it's gotta be a moment of stunning and visceral greatness for me to invest in anything, time or money.

It's not even that all this stuff I need to sell is bad, it's all PRETTY GOOD but with the clenching fist of mortality tightening around me, do I have any fucking time for Pretty Good? Fuck no.

Now I just need to liquidate these piles of decent, but ultimately unnecessary recordings.

I've been running two simultaneous marathons, a films of Yasujirô Ozu and Iron Chef Japan. Both have been incredibly rewarding. They've been a nice way to spend time while I've been sick... dealing with the filth of the consuming public keeps exposing me to corrosive agents that are destroying my happiness... body and mind and spirit are merging into a concrete gray mass.

Iron Chef is simply one of the greatest things to ever happen to television. So many great battles in the last few days... just watched the Pineapple battle... woah... and it's always weird when Nagisa Ôshima is a guest commentator.

Tokyo Twilight has really been resonating in my head for a few weeks... I think I'm gonna watch it again and see if I can articulate why exactly it's sticking with me. It's just so quietly depressing... in a great way. Disconnection, family, defining your reality... and I love when he has music just quietly playing in the backgrounds of scenes... giving a weird sense of the life and world happening all around your tiny life and world.

Here's the full film on Youtube if anyone wants to check it out, I have no idea if any chapters are muted, or even how long this will be up.

I think I'm going to watch Tokyo Story now...

BORING NOISE

2010-09-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

Noise is fucking boring.

Except for a few shining gems and classics. There's no energy or excitement.

I was just listening to one of the discs from the Hijokaidan 30XCD box and it was completely great. Savage, energetic but still strangely numbing, it was, dare I say it, emotional. In a good way.

I used to be way into experiencing as much as possible, but I've been so horribly let down by... everything, that I'm going to just have to start having cruel standards. You must be this tall, or this great. I know it's all relative, and I could be infinitely more eloquent, but that's ok, I'm usually right. Well, unless you're at least as good as Hijokaidan in your own way, I have no time for you.

Noise is a sunk ship and the only interesting artists are those on their own boats, or were on their own boats and now have their own islands, you can't even call them NOISE because they have so much of their own thing going on.

COMBINED CYCLES

2010-09-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Various mixtures of Rum and Brandy combined with spices and milk products always yield incredibly delightful results.

Dangerously delicious stuff...

I'm trapped in a horrific cycle of selling things and then buying more things... I feel like I can't stop... I keep getting rid of useless junk and getting more cool stuff... I just need to come up with a definitive list of that which is necessary... if I were a normal person I'd be happy with my full set of Beatles stereo reissues and the Mono Box... but I'm insane...

Right now I'm checking out a Brandy Alexander... very nice.

Nothing is truly enjoyable. Everything feels like a task. Fine.

DUCHAMP REALITY

2010-09-18T18:29:00.000-07:00

Actually seeing Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even, and Étant donnés was a very strange, surreal and invigorating experience.

I have seen so many images of these masterpieces, that physically seeing the real thing, as close as humanly possible was oddly dreamlike. The fact I'd been ill the previous night and didn't feel great that day either put me in a less alive state, but all I can say is that I feel inspired.

The whole experience focused me even more fully on my life realignment to stay directed towards the present and realities of now and the future.

Reject imitation.

READ

2010-08-02T01:48:00.001-07:00

I don't like to realize I'm reading.

I don't want to read anything that feels like it was intentionally written.

I hate dialogue that feels like it was written to be classic dialog.

I hate clever.

FAILING LOST

2010-05-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

I'm working on writing descriptions for a series of EBAY auctions I will be starting soon. I need to get back into the groove of dispersal. Discogs seems to have slowed down, I guess whatever I have for sale isn't HOT enough to rush sales, so I'll place it all in the forced race of EBAY to see what happens. It's all good stuff, I guess nobody is interested in endless noise anymore, I know I'm not. Hopefully rare Government Alpha CDRs will have an audience somewhere.

I finished Mad Men season 2, and have started on season 3. The show continues to be completely amazing. As one of the few people whose aesthetic opinions matter to me noted in his comment on the last post, the sense of color and texture in the show is astounding. The tones of color and lighting are so perfectly evocative of the entire 50's / 60's "feeling" that I can't help but get a mediated sense of the time. The footage has a feeling of LIFE magazine photo spreads which I find compelling. The acting and character development continue to shock with their subtlety and depth. Each episode is a treat of narrative, character and atmosphere. The restraint and simultaneously painfully revealing honesty are impressive.

I recently finished that series LOST, and have to say that it was a disappointment. I think most people were drawn into the show because of the interesting premise which captures the fascination exemplified by Survivor of the modern day "normal" Americans stranded in a dangerous and savage environment. It's the same type of obsession this culture has always had, a lust for Exotica, just adapted to now, a need for more danger and more gimmick. So LOST had that, it had a variety of people stranded in the fantasy danger theme park, where we can get away from our pasts and our jobs and have a real adventure land. The first two seasons were really absorbing and you couldn't help but be drawn in by the fantastic acting and interesting mysteries and naturally you were curious about the characters so the back stories hadn't become tedious yet.

Things started getting annoying with season 3 and lots of people gave up, myself included (obviously I caught up with the aid of commercial free DVD sets). Those that stuck it out felt like a dedicated elite and now make up the legion of apologists for a basically poorly written bullshit show with a lukewarm feel good message.

People keep arguing that it is a positive aspect of the show that there are so many loose ends and unanswered questions, and that it will generate thought and intrigue. I usually just rely on something being well done and intelligent to generate continuing thought and intrigue, I don't need sloppy writing and unresolved plots to help me feel excited. Look at something like Raiders Of The Lost Ark, a perfect movie, do you come away annoyed at how many plot points were left dangling? No. There is just enough mystery and things that don't need to be answered without it being a disaster.

People that keep making the excuse that they watched LOST because of the characters they came to love are inexcusable. The characters were actually irritating and boring. And I found myself sighing with annoyance when I had to sit through another episode of Kate and her ridiculous past, or basically any of them but Sayid. I suffered through that tedious slop to get to hopefully understanding that cool time traveling Egyptian island.

Seriously, the show is about a mysterious island, and I believe that was the intent until something happened where the writers realized they couldn't pull off what they wanted. They tried to distract from their lack of vision with an "every possible direction make it up as we go along and heap on more junk to distract from the last unresolved issue" writing style. This cutesy little internet video does a nice roundup of some flaws. They would lead you along a path that was getting interesting, have something extreme happen, and abandon it without clearing it up. It seems like as they went along they just kept adding things to give themselves ways out of narrative dead ends later, in this way a few things mentioned earlier in the show would reappear as the answer to some other mystery which would distract from the fact there were ten times as many unresolved issues. Not just general mysteries as would never be explained in a story, but things they hinted that answers were available for. So each interesting new plot point was just evidence of bad writing.

The final insult is that the ending of Lost was fucking stupid and beyond tacky. A total Oprah fat lady hugs and tears and don't think fucking garbage festival. Blind self congratulatory comfort for a heavily religious and timid viewing audience. Exactly what they fucking wanted. To save you the trouble, basically they all meet up in heaven and have a teary reunion. Ultimate failure.

Lost was created by comic book dorks. If you look at the background of most of these assholes, that's what they did, and that style of writing doesn't work in a filmed medium. If they didn't have great actors this show would have been some canceled Sci Fi Channel joke nobody would remember. As far as network television goes, a decent ride, and due to the weight of the opinions of the easy answer starved masses, it will go down as a legendary show, but critically, it's a saccharine disappointment.

Ok, back to Mad Men.

MAD DESTRUCTION

2010-05-17T02:16:00.000-07:00

I finished the first season of Mad Men. It's really good, justified hype for once. I usually avoid whatever everyone is excited about because most people have shit taste and whenever I check out some heavily recommended thing I'm horribly disappointed, (Inglourious Basterds anyone?), but this one actually works. Strong characters and a compelling environment. I'm told it's a very accurate representation of the time and place. Also love the sets and costumes. Fascinating social dynamics and tensions. I'm gonna have to put this up with original Degrassi and My So Called Life in the appreciation rating.

Starting on Season 2, so far so good. Nice seeing dynamics continuing to develop, and characters emerge from background positions to become more fully fleshed out.

Also, this woman is super hot.

Just saying. Super stoked about the dead pale vibe and crooked nose. Her dad bought Entertainment Weekly from me at work when she was on the cover, he was like "This is my daughter." I could only reply with "Congratulations."

Listened to a stack of CDs by the group Bandulu. I'd say %98 percent total success on their part. Brilliant dark electronics, solid heavy minimal techno vibes with lots of Jamaican Dub accents, tranced out and tribal... really fucking good. Doesn't feel like one of the endless militia of Basic Channel imitators, feels like they are definitely on their own tip. Only one or two instances of a cheesy vocal sample across 5 discs, pretty good fucking job in my book, especially recognizing the tendency towards cheesy samples in 90's techno... fuck I can't say enough good stuff about these guys. Really fucking solid.

I've been spending a good portion of this evening feeding memories and "accomplishments" to the paper shredder. It's kind of giving me fleeting senses of regret, but there's no point preserving all this junk in the total mulched data heap of now. Destroying my carefully maintained playlists from my old radio show feels weird. it's just lists of songs from transmissions nobody listened to, but I do remember spending a long time planning those out. Whatever, no point to most of this, just finding more excuses to occupy space and time.

Back to the destruction.

FRAZETTA

2010-05-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Frank Frazetta died today. I was just rambling for a few hours about how awesome he is two days ago. Things like how he completely understands what makes a chick hot and how he destroys all other fantasy artists, especially Boris and Julie.

What a badass...

I'm sure he's killing some demons or something right now.

CHILD TREASURE

2010-05-10T02:07:00.001-07:00

All now discarded.

MISC PAPER 001

2010-05-07T21:53:00.001-07:00

Here's more random interesting bits of paper.

An old Urb feature about drum machines:

A nicely dated article from a magazine called Revolution about electronic music, this is a look BACK circa 2000:

Does anyone know who did this? I can't remember and I threw away the rest of the magazine.

Just leave a comment if you know.

ALIEN CRYSTAL

2010-05-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

I was always annoyed by fake H.R. Giger art as a kid. Of course it continues to be an annoyance, but here's a classic offender.

I also found this. Totally unrelated, but lame. I like their sales pitch.

More junk later.

NICE COVER

2010-05-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a sequence of album covers I've encountered at work where I like the cover, think it's great design, but the music is abysmal shit. Each time the nice cover tricked me into previewing the music, hoping for an equivalent experience, only to be let down and assaulted with something terrible. I have been known to get rid of moderately decent albums because they have shit artwork, but I refuse to buy a shit CD even if it has a great cover.

There are plenty of great covers by mediocre bands, but this list is specifically covers I like on music I absolutely fucking hate.

So here are the winners:

I notice looking at these that it's mainly color usage that draws me to them. That and crisp sans serif typefaces. Also a few of these might have had stickers on the shrinkwrap that really add to the impact, and it looks like they may not have been scanned in the pics I stole.

If you like any of these bands, don't try to argue their side or try to convince me I'm missing out on some real magic. This is all fucking dogshit.

God, there's so much more HORRIBLE music with decent covers that I want to trash, but that would fill the entire blog and be tedious.

OIL DESTRUCTION

2010-05-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

I really want to see the Jan Fabre dance piece Quando l'uomo principale è una donna. For a few reasons, the main one being that I like the idea of flooding the stage with olive oil. The naked girl dancing around on it is a bonus I guess.

Just seems like something that shouldn't be done. I assume the stage is lined with some plastic material to keep it from getting ruined.

Reminds me of how it almost seems surreal when as a kid you learn that the lanes of a bowling alley are covered in oil.

Stage destruction... also recalls stories of Einstürzende Neubauten destroying stages in shows, like the ICA one in '84. If a band actually tried to destroy a stage now, I'd be embarrassed for them. Seeing it as an act of what I could only interpret as, trying too hard to be cool.

Desecration and destruction of "sacred" space. Real or suggested. I think my musings are entirely missing the point of the Fabre piece, but i haven't actually seen it, so whatever.

CONNECTIONS

2010-05-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

A series of addresses. Typographical interest mainly. Not arranged in any order. Some are really beautiful, and the plain ones set up a nice system of contrast.

Connect the dots if you can. Do these spaces exist with the same purpose, same people.

This sort of un-art: a totally functional and most likely obsolete data set fascinates me. Nothing will last.

DEAD STADIUM

2010-04-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

This is a really cool film of a stadium being destroyed.

That's all...

FANTASY LORDS

2010-04-19T22:02:00.001-07:00

Ever since I was a very young child and was told Dungeons & Dragons was satanic and dangerous I've been obsessed with it. I remember seeing an episode of The 700 Club when I was like 7 and it had a segment about kids playing live action D&D in a forest and murdering each other and I was just like I WANT THAT.

The visual aspect has always been pretty major since I never really played it as a kid because I had ZERO friends. And since it was evil I was not allowed any access, so it was always just thinking it was cool and evil and having NO idea how it worked as a game. I'd flip through the books when I got a chance, and would encounter advertisements like this...

So close, yet so far, and SO awesome...

What I'm really into is the early art, the piece above is too well done.

The almost stiff and slightly amateurish art in the original books carries a bizarre untainted mystery to it. No flashy computer perfection, a structure that needed imagination and youthful energy to enliven it.

The masters of the original art as far as I can tell, are:

David A. Trampier

David C. Sutherland III

Jim Roslof

Erol Otus

That shit is fucking awesome.

I'm also obsessed with the box art and sculpts on the original Grenadier Advanced Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. All made out of fucking LEAD. As far as I can tell, Ray Rubin, the vice president of Grenadier did all the cover art.

The italicized ones I've got, the rest I need, please contact if you have any I'm missing:

Boxed Sets
2001 Wizards and Illusionists
2002 Halflings
2003 Dwarves
2004 Hirelings
2005 Fighting Men
2006 Specialists
2007 Female Characters
2008 Thieves
2009 Wizard's Room
2010 Denizens of the Swamp
2011 Orc's Lair
2012 Dwellers Below
2013 Adventurers of the Golden Quest

Large Introductory Set

5001 Dungeon Explorers
5002 Dungeon Monsters
5003 Woodland Adventurers
5004 Tomb of Spells
5005 Dragon's Lair

Action Art Sets

8001 Dungeoneers
8002 Monsters
8003 Mythological Creatures
8004 Fantasy Fiends

And I need all the Blister Pack sets.

Dungeons & Dragons rules.

CARDS

2010-04-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

In the continuing mission of disposing of everything I have that isn't essential to reach the streamlined state of material burden I can deal with, I'm taking the blade to all my trading cards...

Yes, as a lower middle class American child in the 90's I amassed a decent sized collection of useless pieces of paper with comic characters printed on them.

I'm basically destroying everything, yet combining any odd images onto these ugly WOLF greeting cards I found in a box, so eventually people will get poorly collaged greeting cards.

I have kept a few full sets, a Star Wars one, two Marvel ones, some Maxfield Parrish cards, some The Maxx cards, all my Wildstorm Series 1 cards (which are probably the best looking set of chromium cards ever because they aren't totally fucking over the top and still LOOK LIKE comic art, not shitty computer glossed bullshit, AND you can play a simple combat game with them based on stats on the backs of the cards... everything awesome about Wildstorm comics without having to waste time reading them...) and random cards with hot chicks. Basically anything with some vague sentimental value. Anything where it was just my insane pre teen self descending into collector madness has been mulched.. Marvel Masterpieces anyone? Yuck... That and I have kept all my Magic The Gathering and Rage cards... in the off chance I ever play those games. I would have kept the Jihad cards, but there weren't enough after the great Mom purge of 1994 where all evil things were thrown out.

Looking through the uh.. Magic The Gathering cards, I remember what a great painter Anson Maddocks was.. is? He definitely should have done art for death metal albums instead of trading cards. Can't find much of an active web presence, and I haven't interacted with these cards since like 1996 so I'm not sure what that community is up to, if anyone has good info, or a database /website of Maddocks' work, let me know.

I'm also reminded of how much it must suck to be one of those artists that tries to copy another more distinctive one in such a way that the work functions as a horrible caricature of something great. I think a perfect example is Mutant Chronicles, as a pathetic fake version (at least visually) of Warhammer 40K and Simon Bisley.

Warhammer 40,000:

Mutant Chronicles:

I'm not taking issue with actual gameplay or anything, never having played either game, but merely the visual identity... fucking embarrassing... I'm sure if anyone read this blog I'd be inundated with corrections on how i don't understand gaming, or that 40K sucks and MC is way better or whatever. But the fact is, it's lame they ripped off the look instead of creating their own unique style. I also understand that this is probably an incredibly common criticism, but I don't hang out with gamers, so I dunno.

Oh, and this Tim and Eric "Father And Son" piece is fucking HILARIOUS:

Brilliant...

And finally, one of my best friends made this:

I'm really impressed with her noodle blender. She's a genius.

OBJECT

2010-03-30T01:01:00.000-07:00

It's addiction.

You taste perfection once, and you will pour your life and money into reproducing those moments. Trying to hit different but hopefully equivalent targets.

Just return to the originals, relish the memories, and experience the power in its diminished form.

Don't forget to LIVE, because if you do, you'll always find more moments, let it happen, just don't try to extend that which is meant to vanish.

There's only one Court Of The Crimson King.

OBSERVATION

2010-03-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Dear everyone walking around with a bluetooth earpiece;

YOU LOOK LIKE A TOTAL FUCKING ASSHOLE.

FUCK YOU.

I also hate when you wander around talking really loud like your fucking conversation is important.

Fuck you.

You're NOT cool.

You're NOT important.

Thanks.

FINAL EXIT

2010-03-15T00:33:00.000-07:00

Final Exit is the coolest (more or less) active Grind/Noise-Core band from Japan...

That's all there is too it... they are the perfect balance of extreme brutality, stupidity, weird juxtapositions, and fun. And none of those elements are ever so abundant that they overpower another.

They are perfectly balanced.

Here's some rare live footage...

So fucking awesome...

I also love their completely atypical visual identity on their releases, very crisp and clean UN-metal imagery, abstract and sparse shapes... lots of negative space...

Their song title standards are also pretty funny, stuff like "5 minutes worth of live songs"...

Besides them, the now extinct WORLD of course reign supreme...

Two vocalists and a drummer.. what else do you need?

Now that I'm throwing down gauntlets, I must acknowledge the god...

Gerogerigegege... remain one of the greatest bands EVER... probably the only real punk band ever... that vid is a nice collection of some amazing cover versions...

Regarding Final Exit... if anyone has any of these, I need them to complete my collection, get in touch, I could arrange incredible trades...

Final Exit Reh '94 cs
Final Exit demo #1 cs
Final Exit/Oral Climax CS
Final Exit/Violent Headache split tape (Y Records) / IRONIA 003 ? has bonus tracks
Final Exit/None Of Your Fucking Business split 7" (Agitate 96 Records)
Final Exit/Straight Edge Kegger split 7" (Blastcore Records)
FInal Exit/Deche Charge 7"
Final Exit/BOLLOCK SWINE / ?????? / CROVAC (Lofiordie rex : 2007) CD
Any old comps w/ F.E.

Also...

World - Why Who What 7"
World / Yesmeansyes 7"
V/A - Snarl Out 7"

Also looking for any non F.E. Y Records stuff... any OPS-PSF and any Quill...

Finally here's a link to the F.E. side project, OPS-PSF, it's pretty amazingly ridiculous noisecore.

RAMBLING MEMORIES

2010-03-08T13:50:00.000-08:00

Reading more stuff by that guy Tim Rogers I mentioned in the last post. Dude is totally right on, and really intelligent in a 4 dimensional way. I enjoy his writing because he definitely sees and gets connections that are incredibly subtle, and he gets them all at the same time.

Too bad his band isn't really my thing. it's cool if you're into junk rock No Wave type avant garage angular punk shit. But I'm over that, was never really into it. Afrirampo fans would probably love it, and anyone into like "classic" Steve Albini and Skin Graft type shit would probably be down.

That aside, when you have like 2 hours to read one of his articles, DO IT, the man is on the level.

Right now I'm working on remixes of some insane improvisation sessions at RTX with the Twilight Memories band. Basically two of my favorite people in the world Damian L. and Jenny T. and a network of totally out there operatives... just total open improv. Words don't really do a good job in explaining them. They are basically the only interesting BAND in America right now. There are still a handful of interesting solo performers, but when it comes to "noise" or "avant garde" shit... NOTHING beats them... one of the, if not THE only band I'm ever surprised by, or excited to see.

They are just.... so fucking weird... no way to explain it. At first I was confused by them, there was like, no concrete "identity", but eventually I realized THAT was why they rule so hard, they aren't following ANYTHING but themselves... not trying to impress anyone or fit in anywhere, no compromise... They are also hyper critical of everything they do, which is cool, they know when something's not a success (to them, I've loved some shit they hated), but at least they fucking try... anything... The last show I saw, Damian was in some weird full body suit sorta standing there, a guy was playing guitar, Jenny was in a corner doing god knows what and two other guys were like stretching a massive rubber band....

Get their tape on Hanson for an example, or if you can find one of their... what? 12 self released LPs with handmade sleeves! That they give away for FREE!!! Get one... a few are recorded in weird caves and tunnels.

Here's some video.. I can't explain it...

Here's a totally bizarre outdoor thing that I missed because of work (And not wanting to sleep outside)...

Twilight Memories of the Three Suns from Thomas Moore on Vimeo.

Just free flowing sound mulch... technique is no concern, only movement. I love that they aren't trying to impress anyone with "COOL" attitude and "BADASS" artwork, just doing what they want. THAT is why they rule.

EDIT: They HATED the remix versions I did!! I guess those are never coming out! What a fucking waste of my time!

MAGS

2010-03-06T17:25:00.000-08:00

I've finally finished a release I've been working on for the last two or three years... it's not even an important one, just something I needed to finish, probably the most painfully minimal thing I've done...I really need to focus on the more important releases, instead of these micro edition more or less private editions.

Just read this really interesting and fun article about Japan. Not that I've ever been to Japan, but I have always wanted to visit and mine some cool stuff out of it, but I like how he explains lots of the really annoying cultural things, and clearly illustrates that it isn't some Anime nerd heaven for fucked up furries. It's an uptight hell hole, that has had some AWESOME entertainment and arts things in the past. I figure all places really suck, so I still want to go there for awhile, just hopefully wouldn't have to have a normal job.

The magazine Mirage, which is basically just a book, is easily the BEST fashion magazine out there (I'm sure there are Japanese magazines that are superior, but I haven't seen them, so they don't really exist)... it's basically just cool shit and hot girls in swimwear... but at a totally elite level... amazing photos, really tasteful layouts and typography and fonts. This is no Sports Illustrated wank bullshit... this is sun dripped sexy in a total lazy holiday-for-life form. There are only like 6 ads in the fucking thing and it's MASSIVE.. it smells good, the textures are perfect... I'm telling you, even the borders are really nicely done..

The only other magazines I buy to collect are The Wire and Retro Gamer. The Wire mostly as a gossip rag of sorts, seeing who's "in" and who gets mentioned, when Goodiepal drops another brutal ad, what dumb fake genres Keenan tries to jump in front of next (Hypnagogic Pop? New Weird America?... fucking hell...). And then true surprises like the recent interviews with Robert Henke and Moritz Von Oswald. It would be nice if they'd have Savage Pencil just draw portraits instead of writing a not that funny or clever comic, and it'd be really nice if they'd STOP letting Byron Coley write nonsense reviews. I guess before the internet, when people smoked pot and read Bananafish, some stupid bullshit was ok, but this is now, and reviewing some jerk off screen print No Wave 45 with shit like "True vibrations from a Ketchup saturated helix. The sound of a truck full of pianos stopping next to a cactus and the driver falls asleep" Really dude? Did you even listen to this shit? I know most of what he reviews actually IS total fucking garbage, but at least describe it to us. I dunno, I stopped reading his section, maybe he's gotten better. It's annoying cus he's obviously intelligent and knows shit, it'd be nice to actually get an opinion out of someone other than them just showing off and endlessly referencing The Stooges, Les Rallizes Denudes and Albert Ayler.

And Retro Gamer is just awesome. Continuing the proud UK tradition of printing BIG FUCKING FULL PAGE PICTURES OF STUFF... I remember as a kid picking up Empire magazine and being so stoked to see MASSIVE pictures as opposed to tiny blips of blurry screen shots like in US magazines... Retro Gamer always has gargantuan insanely crisp images of totally obscure and weird games, and then articles like, the history of After Burner in a recent issue. Over the fucking top. Total purity, beats the hell out of old game mags. Though Nintendo Power 'level maps' are absolute dedication. Another nice thing about Retro Gamer is that I get to check out games I don't really want to play to the point of actually making progress in the game, I additionally don't want to waste time with a game I can't beat, hence my position of FUCK GHOULS 'n GHOSTS, I find I have a very "romantic" notion of gaming, I feel that I love games, and find them fascinating, but the idea of sitting down and playing for hours till I've memorized a level structure and enemy attack patterns really is totally unappealing to me... I once sat in a dirty apartment with a bunch of dirty uptight boys (There may have been one chubby chick there) as they drank beer, all of us gathered around a TV, or at least I was near the TV, the conversations about swords and paintball were un-engaging, I watched as some fat grizzle faced slob EXPERTLY beat and got all secret bonus shit in the fucking DuckTales game.... that was amazing... I asked him how often he played it, and his response of "days" shocked me... I mean, it's fucking DUCKTAILS... but the game is really well designed... and thanks to Retro Gamer, I can read about it for like 15 minutes, and then go about my actual life.

I'll also flip through any of the music magazines at work, The Word usually is pretty well written, oh and Record Collector is always interesting, but I don't really collect those. They basically never have articles about anything I'm really passionate about, but I'll be glad to flip through 6 pages of pictures of rare Morrissey singles or some other ridiculous bullshit.

Right now listening to The Legendary Pink Dots Chemical Playschool 11,12 & 13 3 x CD set... as is to be expected, incredible atmospheres and composition. Masters of drifting versus surrealist goth song forms... I love basically everything they do, and it's always nice to have one of those tracks where Ka-Spel just sorta talks about grocery shopping or something eventually to fade into another soundscape of dreamy psychedelia.... I had to arbitrarily impose a limit on how far I'll follow The Dots though due to an irritating proliferation of stupid limited Beta-lactam Ring related bullshit... same way I cut off Current 93 and Nurse With Wound.... 2001 seems to be my end date for these bands, though I'll grab something if I see it chbeap. Pissy attitude aside, this is a really great collection and even though it's absurdly long and each disc is just indexed as one track (Technically disc 1 has a gorgeous three minute ambient loop thing as track "2"), it's totally iconic and perfect enough that it could work as a first exposure. Just dim the lights and drift off.

HOSPITALIZED SYMPATHY

2010-01-30T17:52:00.000-08:00

Sitting here, snowed in more or less. Guess I'll listen to some music.

Hair Police - On Dark And Bloody Ground CS Hospital HOS-254

Quiet intro piece: burbles and dust, and as I look at the art, see it's titled 'Crumble To Dust'. There's a silence, then more subdued and muffled clipping and rubs. Nice lo-fi space.

Second track 'Sharpening Behind' opens with gross overloaded clipping feedback and buzzing. It eventually opens up into signals and controlled freakout structures reaching a nice cyclical plateau which crumbles into more weird Hair Police sounds and some kind of elephant guitar near the end.

Side B opens with the title track 'On Dark And Bloody Ground' drumming is audible here along with some nice bass gurgles and blown out static. It's very satisfying when the vocals cut in louder than everything else, a serpentine rasp through the rumble. It continues to sound badass for the rest of its duration.

'Dogs Circling' is next and it has a wet squelch tempered by bassy barrel drones and static hissing. Monstrous moans rear up now and then. The whole tape is very cool, very good, very Hair Police.

As usual with Hospital, totally great artwork and printing. Looks like Dom is still raiding horse magazines and history books for his symbolically awkward collages. I can't help but hear him explain the collages in my head. Great style, many attempt to copy and just come off looking like assholes.

Exploring Jezebel - She Extracts... CS Hospital HOS-256

Ridiculously titled tape, and with ridiculously titled pieces. Sketchy domination theories. The last two tapes were good minimal scum if I remember properly.

Side A is some low bubble synth loop sound and eventually some tape manipulated loop comes in. It kinda slowly develops in textural prominence but stays more or less unchanged a long time, eventually a new loop comes in and a high synth buzz blasts out while the other stuff stays audible and it ends. A couple of times there are some room ambiance artifacts that give the track a weird space, like you're watching something and having to keep quiet.

Side B some cyclical static. I really liked that and wished it'd stayed the whole side. Eventually some more lo fi noise loops in, and then an annoying vocal loop and some more synth stuff. A decent tape, definitely not a classic. If the both sides had been more restrained and with more carefully matched loops on the B side and maybe not such a sudden change near the end of the A side it would have been much stronger. But that said, this is a total scumbag project and the almost sloppy characteristics kinda work.

It's pretty easy to speculate that this project is Dom, since it's totally extreme and the project name follows the pattern of every other awesomely named Hospital mystery band.

If anyone has either of the first two tapes HOS-229 or HOS-228, get in contact, I need them... more than you, they're just fucking C-10's anyways.

River Magic - Spring Thaw Brings The Fever CS Hospital HOS-263

A new, maybe one time project by Dom, it's about some horrible rapist murderer or something. The first side is some hot synth buzzing, the highest tone in a stretch of duct tape pull as a continuous sound. Then there's some bashing sounds, present but not very powerful. Other disturbances in the pattern take place, tension in the squelching. A second track starts rumbling static and some smudges... maybe some whispers. Spoken vocals come in eventually, can't really understand anything. Some nice gasps, sounds like one of those things where the vocals were recorded in whispers and strained exclamations to keep it from getting too loud so as to not annoy neighbors.

Side B is some siren synth... feedback... already better than the A side... more quietly spoken slightly down pitched vocals.... I hate when it sounds like the vocals are pitched down. Maybe that's just how Dom sounds when he growls. Can't really understand what he's saying. Sounds evil, has a delay all over it, or echo or something. Very whispery. This second side is actually pretty damn good. Traditional, but effective. The vocals eventually become truly sinister sounding. Some excellent dynamics in the build of vocals and the tonal backing near the end of the track.

I prefer when he screams his brains out, but fuck you gotta give Dom credit for TRYING whatever weird idea he comes up with, that's why I'm always fascinated to hear what he's done. A fleshed out vision, and fearless pursuit of whatever the hell he wants. Fuck, I'm fairly concerned this Burden thing is Dom too, if anyone knows, let me in on it so I can find a fucking copy. When I asked him, he was naturally non-forthcoming. As far as I can tell, K.P. and Age Of Enlightenment are definitely NOT him. Which is a relief.

Now I've got a stack of 45s I wanna weed through, maybe review a couple on the way through...

Slub - Burning Immigrant 7" Sympathy For The Record Industry 60

I started on the B side. I think I got this when i was insanely trying to get all the SFTRI 7"s... there are a few INCREDIBLE ones like both the Satan's Sadists ones, though the one Satan's Cheerleaders CD I had sucked shit. If anyone has any NON-SFTRI Satan's Sadists 7"s, get in contact, I know there's one with a topless chick with a swastika armband and I shoulda bought it but it was like 20 bucks, and I've never seen it since.... sorry for that, so yeah, this band is some Australian band, and it has John Murphy (aka Krang and in every other band at one time from SPK to Whitehouse) in the band. Well the B side is like annoying witch vocals and clattering sounds and feedback, pretty cool. The A side is a dumb Led Zeppelin cover... I guess the B side makes it kinda worth it.... maybe.... maybe not...

Slub - Comic Stellar 7" Sympathy For The Record Industry 26

Might as well listen to the other one. A side is like "doom" rock... slow building rambling like Sonic Youth kinda everyone make weird noises bullshit, then it jumps into the "song" part, it's actually pretty good. Way stronger than the A side of the other 7". For nobody nowhere rock bands, this is pretty cool. Then there's a tiny little like folky blip on the end. B side is way more annoying... her voice is really irritating and the music is really generic... man, fuck these 7"s... I don't need them, decent, but not mind blowing at all..

Fuck, while I was shredding those 7"s I realized these don't warrant full invested review... I'll just muse on them as they enter the sale pile... There's a decent band called Sacred Miracle Cave that I'm gonna ditch all of them... god knows why I have this crap... by decent, I mean well played for some sort of early 90's retro 70's trad-classic-rock band with a perm-and-leather-jacket husky voiced female singer. Decent songs, but I get annoyed by her vocals, and it's bland. Artificial soul, but not in a cool plastic way. Then there's a couple 7"s by The Loafin' Hyenas... and I like the T. Tex Edwards dude... but I think he might only have a few good songs in him and far too many bands... cus these are too dumb.. like everything he does is goofy, but these two 45's just don't do anything for me... his solo Smitty 7" is great, but that's gotta be it. I can't stand anything that sounds like an older man, who may very likely be a "colorful local character"... I fucking hate the fat guy with the Banjo and straw hat who tries to chat up girls trying to study at cafe's. He's a piece of shit. Not saying Edwards is, but I hate any guy like that. Anyways, this La Secta 7" is ok garage rock, but very standard.. I need more venom or ROCK.. when faced with "I'm in the mood for Garage Rock", I'd rather just throw on Guitar Wolf and be safe in the knowledge that I'd get fucking rocked. Pleasure Fuckers are more of the same by the numbers and OK, but not shredding my skull garage rock. It's obvious that this Skullflower 7" fucking rules and is staying in the collection. I don't wanna like this dumb Sludge 7", but it's pretty good for like melodic rockin music... although the band looks like some kinda White Zombie rejects... good, but doesn't need to live in the collection. Well, that took longer than the meandering stream of text would suggest...

In conclusion... The Hospital tapes were decent, and that pile of 7"s sucked.

BARRIERS

2010-01-26T22:36:00.000-08:00

So I'm still tearing apart my record collection...

Trying to sell as much of it as possible... and what I can't sell to crazy collectors I'm bringing to my friends record store, Record And Tape Exchange for exchange credit. It's working out nicely, I just gotta hope people bring in other cool shit I want. Also have to fight my tendency towards impulse acquisitions, part of the reason I have such a needlessly huge collection in the first place.

I'm thinking about how much something means or will mean, and what it's saying... if I'm really going to interact with it or if it's just going to sit on the shelf. I'm fighting my collector urges, and trying to only have a collection that constantly jumps out at me as opposed to a massive wall of records and cds and tapes where i have to dig to find something I want to listen to at that moment. There are also many things I did like a lot at some point, that do absolutely nothing for me now, like Bogdan Raczynski and lots of Digital Hardcore stuff... these are sonic spaces that spark memories, but I need to determine how useful these memories are. Do I cling to the access opportunity, or do I just let it go. Some of the DHR stuff still packs a punch that works for me, but the goofy A.D.D. riddled antics of Raczynski don't really call out to me.

There was a powerful "And Another Thing" piece in the October 2009 issue of The Word by David Hepworth that really sparked my urge to truly refine and cut down my collection. It was titled "What you can learn about music by just looking at your record collection?" A brilliantly written piece summed up with the quote "I have six Simple Minds albums because I liked one single." What I pulled from it is basically that most bands only have one or two great songs or moments, and you end up trying to find similar moments, getting trapped in an endless search. I'm just facing up to the fact that lots of bands I have "collected" in a romantic search to find more instances of brilliance, I only ever return to for those one or two key songs, and frankly don't need the endless extra albums and permutations. Without a doubt, some bands are brilliant and I feel I can discover something deeper through focused study, but a vast majority of my collection is a series of failed attempts to reach vague illumination and transcendence...

There is also so much junk that is supposed to be good, that just falls flat.. painfully so. Like this em:t compilation... really bad "ambient" music... but not good bad. Like birds chirping and synthetic tabla with heavy digital strings bad.

Then there's stuff where I just basically like the design better than the music... like this:

But no matter how great the design is, they still fucked up and used an R instead of an S in the word "Sequins" on the cover which ruins the whole thing... and it's just boring minimal tech house... I'd rather just listen to Maurizio tracks for the millionth time.

Subtleties... masterful originality... VERSUS... passable, but ultimately imitative emissions....

The sad fact of the last few months as I've been cutting this library down is that I've listened to a LOT of mediocre music, so much so that I barely have time to listen to good stuff.. and that in effect screws up my immediate recall standard and I make more and more exceptions... to clarify, as i've been evaluating all of this PRODUCT, I've been dumbing myself down... I need to remember to take King Crimson or Skinny Puppy breaks.

It's difficult, and the imitations sound pretty good, but in a finite existence, I'll focus on reality, the pulse.

I used to be a pretty big fan of Force Inc. and related label albums, but I've found that as my ear has become more trained those albums really do not stand up, and it's the Tresor albums that are better produced and more carefully considered (To be fair, I'm talking about ALBUMS, there are insane loads of fucking brilliant Force Inc. 12"s... many of which I still NEED). I think one of the major sonic details that bothers me about a majority of the Force Inc. albums are the little glitchy click elements in all the rhythms from more subdued works to the "tech-house" stuff. Of course the Wolfgang Voigt GAS releases stand as some of the most important albums in my life, and they are on Mille Plateaux, which is more or less Force Inc. but on average it seems the Tresor discs with overall solid production and meatier beats are lasting longer. So many of the Force Inc. albums sound like dated pretentious cafe music... or heaven help me, book store music.

A bunch of Rephlex material also seems pretty weak. The first Ovuca album, particularly bad. Well, it does have some clever melodic moments, but nothing is fleshed out in a way that makes it necessary. I guess the junk wiggle room should be expected from the very "British" label, even SKAM has some crap joke releases, it seems to be a cultural thing. Always havin' a laugh. Wevie Stonder? Fucking hell, total crap. Maybe the ultimate expression of the funny British attack, is the band name Pee In My Face With Surgery.... What? It's supposedly pretty good.

Back to musing over my collection.... So many disappointing items. Like Frederik Schikowski, who rules when he does cute tinny video game music, fucking dropped the ball on his CD.. it has ONE decent song, the rest is totally distorted bullshit. I'm completely hesitant to buy anything else he's done. If anyone can let me know which releases sound like what, I'd be very appreciative.

Ok, back to culling, taking a nice break now with the Cripple Bastards 4XCD set. Total noisecore bliss... 1,036 songs...

DUNKER

2009-12-21T02:48:00.000-08:00

This dude Chris Dunker is really good at taking pictures of machines and industrial factory spaces... his site has more extensive examples... though it's slightly annoying to navigate, more clever than functional.

Kinda reminds me of the stark artificial light enriched architectural beauty of Keith Kin Yan's photography. His photos perfectly serve and enhance the aesthetic atmosphere of those Distance releases on Planet Mu.

There are better examples of their similarity in lighting and perspective, but I don't feel like scanning them, hopefully these pics get the idea across.

Great albums, definitely recommended for minimal night time cruising, NOT as good as Burial, but still good "Dubstep".

JELLY COOP

2009-12-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

After much consideration, I've decided that Rockin' Jelly Bean.. is... MORE awesome than Coop!...

They are both good at drawing hot devil chicks and other assorted retro babe trash art... but the Jelly Bean just has a total hotness that Coop! only glimpses through a haze of sleaze.

COOP!

ROCKIN' JELLY BEAN... the champ...

If anyone knows where I can get a Rockin' Jelly Bean book... or series of books... please notify me immediately.

Bean also gets extra points for being in a cool band... Jackie & The Cedrics...

Woah...

A final bonus image from Rockin' Jelly Bean...showing the kind of amazing concepts he peddles... hot girls RIDING frozen desert treats?!?!?!?!

Yes please...

FREILAND KLAVIER

2009-12-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

This Wolfgang Voigt 12" Freiland Klaviermusik from August 2008 basically sucks.

It feels like such a letdown because it's been so long since a focused W.V. release. While it feels like a failed experiment, absolute praise is deserved for Voigt's continued willingness to take chances. The A side is a pounding simple beat with piano meanderings on top. The B side is a series of beatless piano sketches. The kind of bullshit you'd expect from some avant college grad student in the late 70's. NOT interesting. I'd much rather listen to a Cage prepared piano piece, or an early Feldman or some sort of jarring Galina Ustvolskaya event.

Glad I heard it, but underwhelmed to put it kindly.

Have to cleanse the palette with some Jeff Mills 12"s.

STILL WEEDING

2009-12-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't done much lately but go to work, talk to a few people, work on a single Silvum release that will only make it out in 10 or so copies, watch X Files, and try to reduce my collection to absolute essentials only.

I've taken to getting rid of basically anything that doesn't deserve heavy rotation.

There are even things I was a long time internal apologist for that I'm just cutting off. That means LOTS of Laptop era Merzbow albums are going in the trade pile. I used to think that I was so tied to the "Analog era Merzbow sound" and that the change in texture was just too drastic, and that if the material had surfaced under a different name that I may have accepted it more. To say, that it does have an equivalent, but different value, and the negative reactions were due to a form of brand loyalty that was disrupted by a change in ingredients. Well, I now think the situation is that a lot of the material is just shit. When you bang on a bunch of metal and churn EMS synth noise and cut and paste with distorted loops.. it's gonna sound fucking awesome. Playing digitally recorded guitar riffs on loop with computer generated waves of white noise.. just sucks. There are some of the laptop Merzbow albums that I do enjoy on their own terms, but when you listen to say, the S.C.U.M. material, and then listen to Frog... it's obvious that Frog fucking sucks. It may not universally suck, but I just get very little joy from listening to computer produced noise textures. It's a very flat sonic experience, and I realize that I'm just never gonna dig out Frog from my collection to listen to when I have the entire Merzbox, or singular masterpieces like New Takamagahara or Space Metalizer at my disposal. If any labels think they have put out some amazing laptop Merzbow, go ahead and send it to me, I'll review it for As Loud As Possible, but I'm just not gonna take many more chances on the junk. I'm sure I'll get no offers though, because the entire noise scene is founded on guys not saying anything when something sucks.

I'm not writing off "digital noise" in general. John Wiese absolutely dominates, and plenty of "IDM" is a total digital beast that I love, there's just something about the laptop Merzbow that leaves me unsatisfied.

I may check out the recent Japanese Birds series on Important Records, hoping he's finally figured it out. I feel that eventually he will figure out how to make amazing laptop noise, but each step of the process in this era doesn't appeal to me as much as each step of the analog era does.

I think I will update this post eventually with a list of Laptop era Merzbow albums that don't suck. But of course I'll get annoyed that I haven't heard all of them.

It could be that I just arrogantly "get" noise so much that I can hear how Satanstornade SUCKS, where other people might just like it because it is noise, and they haven't heard enough to formulate an aesthetic perspective on analog era noise vs newer computer aided noise.

Of course there's no real answer because there are almost definitely people who think laptop Merzbow is awesome, they grew up computerized and those tones and frequencies must be pleasing.

Most (American) people's genral conceptions of Merzbow in the 90's/early 00's were based entirely on the few Relapse albums, so he was only known as a total ear shredding death machine, where the truth is, there's LOTS of space and dynamic beyond furnace waste on many works. A widespread example of course is Music For Bondage Performance (of which I still don't have volume 2...) a basically ambient album of incredible quality. Just an example of how initial exposure and repeated exposures can bend a perception. Luckily I just kept buying tons of Merzbow so I never was really programmed for a certain approach, though it's very clear I love the analog stuff, since that's all I was exposed to.

Seeing how much money labels will blindly dump into Merzbow projects... like the fucking Houjoue box set.. which I remember being less than impressed with (Though it's in my re-evaluation pile), it's a seriously overblown 6XCD box set of Laptop Merzbow.. why doesn't someone put up the cash to do a couple 10XCD archival reissues of old tape releases. Merzbox wasn't the whole story, and there is plenty of material that needs to be investigated.

As can be seen in a sliver of the Merzbow discography I pieced together from different websites over the years, there's plenty to choose from:

SOLONOISE (Cassette)* Lowest Music & Arts on Merzbox???
SOLONOISE 2 (Cassette) Lowest Music & Arts on Merzbox???
YANTRA MATERIAL ACTION (Cassette) Lowest Music & Arts on Merzbox???
DYING MAPA TAPE 1 (Cassette)* Aeon on Merzbox???
DYING MAPA TAPE 2 (Cassette)* Aeon on Merzbox???
DYING MAPA TAPE 3 (Cassette) * Aeon on Merzbox???
PORNOISE EXTRA (Cassette)* ZSF Produkt on Merzbox???
VRATYA SOUTHWARD (Cassette)* ZSF Produkt on Merzbox???
SCUM/STEEL SCUM (Cassette)* ZSF Produkt on Merzbox???
?????? - K Product KOP-02 '85
Aka-Meme / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt or V2??
Chant / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Collection 001 / Japan / CT / ylem
Collection 002 / Japan / CT / ylem
Collection 003 / Japan / CT / ylem
Collection 004 / Japan / CT / ylem
Collection 005 / Japan / CT / ylem
Collection 006 / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Collection 007 / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Collection 008 / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Dadavida / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Dadavida 1984 (Live 84 “Alternation For The Rock Structures)
Das Konzentrat '93?
Enclosure (ZSF Produkt 1987, hand-numbered 41 of 50)
Erotograph / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Escape Mask / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Expanded Music / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Expanded Music 2 / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Flesh Metal Orgasm / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Fuckexercise / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Fuckexercise 2 '81?
Fonctionnarisation - 3RioTape (Belgium)
Hotal Acoustic Music (ZSF Produkt 1989 remix)
Junk Pop '81?
Lampinak / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Le Compt / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Le Consinior / Japan / CT / Stratosphere / ???
Live at I.C.O.N.E / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Live Drum Ensemble - ZSF Produkt ARS-1 1989 CS Remix of Sonic Command
Live Performance Series Vol. 1 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Live Performance Series Vol. 2 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Live Performance Series Vol. 3 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Live Performance Series Vol. 4 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Live Performance Series Vol. 5 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Lowest Music / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Lowest Music 2 / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Mechanisation Takes Commando (ZSF Produkt)
Mechanization Takes Command C90 ZSF Produkt 83 /45? '89 Lowest Music & Arts
Merztronics '81?
Musick for Screen / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ??? '83
Musick from Simulation World / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Normal Music / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Paradoxa Paradoxa CT /ZSF/ Lowest Music & Arts first release as 'Live At Kid Airak Hall
Pestis '83
Pornoise / 1KG / USA / 5xCT ZSF /RRR
Recycled / USA / CT / RRRecords / no credit
Sadomasochismo / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ??? 84 86?
Sexplan Project 3 / Belgium / CT / Magisch Theatre Production / ???
Sonic Command ZSF Produkt 1984 CS
Tridal Production / Japan / CT / Lowest Music & Arts / ???
Ushi-Tra / USA / CT /Cause and Effect / 1984
Worker Machine / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Yahatahachiman / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
+Con-Dom + Haters + THU20 Live Recordings: "0607131089" 2xCT SFCR 006
+NORD - Vol.1 CS ZSF Live Performance 84.2.5 at ????????
+NORD - Vol.2 CS ZSF
+NORD - Vol.3 CS ZSF
+Secrets / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
+The Hanatarashi / Mail Collaboration CT / ZSF Produkt or Condome Cassex
+The Haters / Japan / 60mCT / ZSF Produkt / ZSF-0B or banned prod
+Kapotte Muziek / Japan / 60mCT / ZSF Produkt / ZSF-0C (ltd. 40)
+Kapotte Muziek / c60 / Kolm Plastics /Therapie Organisatie(ltd100)
+S. Core / Mail Collaboration / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
+John Hudak / The Time Stream / USA / CT / Sound of Pig Music / SOP-272
+The Haters, Amk sniper / USA / CT / Banned Production / no credit
+The Haters, Amk / USA / CT / Banned Production / no credit A1: ?????
+XEROSX / Aerovivanda.I '83
+XEROSX / Aerovivanda.II '83
+LOTUS CLUB / Le sanc Et La Rose '83 Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / no credit
Merzbow Null Darh Eroc Evil CT / ZSF-01or NUX Organization / NUX-03
Merzbow Null Babilonia / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ZSF-07
Merzbow Null Falso 800 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Merzbow Null + Tetsuo Furudate / Mondo Bizzaro / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Merzbow Null Live Documental 3 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Merzbow Null Nanashokuinko c/w Tibeta Ubik / Japan / 90mCT / ZSF Produkt / ZSF-08
Merzbow Null + Nord / Live Performance 84.5.25 at / CT / ZSF Produkt / Live Tokyo 83
Merzbow Null Zeekfeeds Akme / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Merzbow Null Das / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Merzbow Null + Hideharu Suzuki / Sonic Command & Sculpture CT / ZSF
Merzbow Null Tokyo 260384 / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
Merzbow Null + Nord - B Semi Live ZSF CS
Merzbow Null Produktion CT / ZSF (two 84 live shows on oz label)
Merzbow Null & The Hanatarashi / Disembody Japan CT ZSF / NUX-06
Tibeta Ubik / Merzbow Nul-Punka Overie-Numen Quad Habitat Simulacro c90 ZSF-08
Scum / Axx / Japan / CT / ZSF Produkt / ???
SCUM - Axx/Spooning SPH (C45 Cassette) sph 057 (credited as 'Merzbow/Scum')

And while we're at it, how bout a DVD of some of this stuff:

Live at Middle East Cafe Boston 21 Sep 1990 VT / Vanilla Records / Vanilla-31
Yumenoshima Video w/ John Duncan +Kenichi Takada AQM Japan
True Romance Brood Orgy of the She Doll / Japan / VT / ZSF Produkt / RITUAL-1
True Romance Live at Mandala 2 / Japan / VT / ZSF Produkt / RITUAL-2
True Romance Live at Moma / Japan / VT / ZSF Produkt / RITUAL-3
True Romance Live at Nice, France / Japan / VT / ZSF Produkt / RITUAL-4
True Romance Pleasure Room of Anti Education / Japan / VT / ZSF / RITUAL-5

Labels just seem to have endless money to dump things out, so why not throw the idea out there again.

What would be really nice is a box set of ALL the old Merzbow comp tracks. Probably an impossible dream, but still.

Credit needs to be given to Graham Moore and his Blossoming Noise label for doing a tape reissue of the E-Study tape. Brilliant move, hopefully the first of many such releases of analog era material.

It's funny how noise has really hit a wall and ghettoized itself where I'm only excited about archival releases these days.

Speaking of Graham, the material by Artbreakhotel on his split with that guy is AMAZING. Artbreakhotel is the poorly considered name for a project of Nobuo Yamada who did a recent collaboration with The New Blockaders. I don't have that, but this split material absolutely hits the spot. Very carefully recorded and beautiful metal manipulation. It's so reserved and understated that it has the atmosphere of a bizarre filed recording. I'd love to hear more of his work, but I don't really want to buy CDRs from Japan. Maybe i'll ask him for a DVDR of all his tracks... just a very interesting artist. His graphic design work is unexpectedly retro too, check out his site.

I guess I'm just in a bad mood about music because there are SO MANY terrible or at least underwhelming releases out there that serious money was put into to get made.. I guess that's the constant state of things. Oh well.

I was hoping this post would ramble into different directions, but it seems to be almost exclusively about Merzbow. Sorry.

More on pulling weeds later.

SAMPLES

2009-10-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

It's weird... I've been reprogramming myself, trying to hit closer to what's real, and I've found that a lot of sample based music really is total shit. DJ Shadow and some oldschool tactful "trip hop" from the early 90's and original hip hop are excluded, but most stuff is total shit. I used to be into Felix Kubin, and I can't really figure out why. This album Filmmusik is total shit (ok, not entirely, there are brief moments of melodic or textural satisfaction, but not enough to justify an album, and most are definitely reliant on the integrity of the source samples). Poorly employed samples in tedious uninspired compositions, I guess this is all the sort of thing whrere the people pressing the records and the public are uneducated, like "oh, that's kitschy and interesting", but with a little education and taste you'd see that listening to old French film soundtracks would be infinitely more rewarding and structurally inventive. It's all the situation where not knowing the source can make the thief exciting. like Nurse With Wound, of cousre an extreme example because he's one of the few thieves to deliver in his imitations, but the point stands.

More on this later.

Random thought.

Man the Cologne techno scene fell to shit when those idiots stopped doing Acid and Gabber tracks. See ANY of the UMO albums, or any later Khan or Dr. Walker works... It was better, more magical and rewarding when the machines were leading the way. As soon as those stupid fucks started to try to bust trip hop vibes and samples, and singing whatever, it all fell apart. Give me 16 minute Acid tracks over any new Cologne shit. Of course Kompakt is excluded and is basically one of the three pillars of solid German electronic music (Kompakt, Tresor, Basic Channel network) with the surroundings drowining in swamps of mediocrity once they either figured out or abandoned the more primitive machines. Expanded opportunities and options can reveal limitations in brutal ways.

LONG RESERVATIONS

2009-09-15T02:00:00.000-07:00

The thing that first grabbed me about Anthony Bourdain was not that he's a "badass" or an irreverent celebrity chef / author. The main thing that drew me to him was that he reminds me of Elliott Gould.

For some reason I really like Gould, and that has conditioned me towards really liking Bourdain. The fact that he's not impressed with Bobby Flay and he's critical and kind of a jerk help. Of course I don't know if it's accurate, but he also seems fairly honest which I value greatly.

If you're not familiar with Gould or aren't sold on him yet, watch The Long Goodbye. If that doesn't make you a fan, opening you up to his dry, not entirely cool, thus fucking awesome vibe, then nothing will.

Here's the trailer...

A great scene where he's feeding his cat...

Sterling Hayden (The crazy General in Dr. Stangelove... who I heard in a Psychic TV song before I ever saw the movie...) and Henry Gibson also rule in that movie.

Due to a nice sale at work, I've been watching DVD sets of Bourdain's No Reservations. I love shows like that, just more or less personality driven meanders, but this one has an extra level of intelligence and life that's lacking in most travel jaunt look at the natives programs. Just finished season one. The episodes in Malaysia and Iceland stand out as favorites, but they were all enjoyable in that cable marathon, stuck on the couch way, except I didn't have to schlep through a bunch of fucking annoying commercials.

Here he is talking about Baguettes...

The theme song of the show sucks, but I guess it serves its purpose.

Looking forward to the 9 or so hours each of seasons 2 and 3. Season 1 was a treat, but 4 or so hours wasn't enough. And watching an episode always puts whatever worthless fucking baloney sandwich I'm eating in context, and makes me want to dine out more often than my abysmal track record shows... must remember to do that.

Oh, and I realize this show has been out for like 4 years, but I don't watch TV or have cable, I'm late to the party yeah fuck off.

ECM COVERS

2009-09-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

I'm no expert on ECM, I've got like 30 of their over 1000 releases, but I do love their cover art and general design aesthetic. Not really groundbreaking today, but reliable and beautiful.

I would like a full collection of their releases, in this the best of all possible worlds, but am just not that into modern comfort Jazz. That said, there are always exceptions, all of the mellow snow Jazz I do have by the label is really beautifully recorded, and greatly enjoyable, just not viscerally thrilling.

I most fully enjoy their ECM New Series releases (again, of those few I've heard), which are more along the lines of pretentious Avant Garde classical composition than mellow Norwegian coffee Jazz vibes... well, comfortable Modern Avant Garde, nothing actually fucked up... just stuff like Arvo Pärt.

I also am obsessed with any of their "ancient" music, any choral or chanting stuff. Any Trio Mediæval stuff is great.

Here's a great website featuring a gallery of their gorgeous designs. An alternate version is here, which provides more information about each release along with the covers.

It's all vaguely pretentious college graduate atmospheres, but I don't care. I love it.

There's a book of the cover art published that I'd like to track down called Sleeves Of Desire, and supposedly another coming out soon called The Cover Art of ECM.

So much stuff, so little time.

Here's a forum, I haven't registered, or read much, but it seems pretty good.

TOY WORLDS

2009-08-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

It's rare to find artful videos or pictures using toys in non-ironic ways. I know there are tons of revolting old women collecting realistic baby dolls, and ultra nerds obsessing over action figures in some dark closet, but I'm interested in open unashamed creativity, employing the tools at hand. As a kid I always wanted to make films using all my toys, but never had access to a camera. Oh well.

I'm going to use this post as a growing specimen collection of toys or dolls used in artistic endeavors, where the artist isn't trying to be a clever little shit, by knowingly using something "low brow". Attempting to show how funny they are by using toys, trying to distance themselves from the materials. Just admit you like toys you stupid fuck, put yourself on the line and make something real.

Looking around more, I realize there are massive amounts of totally serious toy freaks out there, I guess I just usually bump into stupid viral joke videos if anything, I'll still use this post to talk about things that seem to stand above the norm.

For an indirect example.

I won't be celebrating things like this (dedicated yet unimaginative reenactment endeavors):

But I will be looking for things like this: Jeff Wall's Dead Troops Talk (A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol, near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986) 1992

As a tangent, other cool artists that do set pieces are: Christoph Draeger and Gregory Crewdson, check them out.

This toy video is fucking awesome. I guess it's no surprise it was assembled in the early 80's, before internet culture and the need to be cool and ironic forced everyone into sarcastic shells of artificiality. It seems this kid just wanted to make an epic combat video, using Lego's. Well done.

Due to the more or less intrinsically endless creative possibilities of Lego, I can see this being a Lego heavy post.

Probably the best known example of highbrow Lego manipulation is Zbigniew Libera's set of concentration camp Lego models.

Here's one of my favorite examples of shameless toy creativity. It's a Japanese site, and I unfortunately don't know what this dudes name is, but I feel he is most well known for his briliant Tarkus piece, an unforseen fantasy come true for most E.L.P. fans I'm sure.

He's got hundreds of other incredible creations, here's just one random example. No. 444

I remember being stunned as a very small child, pre first grade age, by a large diorama scene in a glass tank of G.I. Joe figures someone had assembled at a local library, it included water and dirt and small trees, really impressive as a memory, I'd love to see it now, I wonder if it lives up to the memory. Those early 3 and 3/4 inch G.I. Joe figures were pretty incredible though, so I'm confident it would be at least very cool.

It's a given that truly dedicated doll collectors (Specifically ball joint doll obsessives) and model train freaks would fall into this area of investigation, as well as scale model builders, but I'm going to try to stay focused on more general "toys" ... which of course is causing an internal semantics argument... ug.

PAPERHOUSE

2009-07-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a movie I saw years ago, Paperhouse.

It's pretty wonderful, if you're into childhood loneliness and surreal environments, you must watch this film.

This is the only film the girl ever made, and the little boy killed himself jumping from a window a few years later.

As far as I know, the theatrical version is not available on DVD. Hopefully Criterion will grab this and do it justice.

SCREW STYLE

2009-07-15T03:15:00.000-07:00

This is the weirdest manga.

I'm in love with it.

TRUTH

2009-07-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

This quote rings rings out clearly amidst my frustrations with most current "avant garde" sound "artists"...

"Those who live in the present but who harbour no doubts about the structure of authority, about the extreme dangers of our society, including the estrangement of man and nature, those whose anger does not drive them to delve into the essentials, and those whose approach to their art raises no questions, all of these must renounce their status as artists."
--Masayuki Takayanagi

ANOMALY

2009-07-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

This visual and narrative qualities of this video are really cute, but the inclusion of Jingle Cats lends it a horrible American standard quality. The camera movements and length of the shot are clearly Japanese, but the song inclusion is a distinct aberration of the Japanese Youtube form.

Fennec foxes are cute, but I didn't think you could really have them as pets.

I can only justify the presence of the Jingle Cats song as an enhancement to the annoyance the Fox is going through, in that it points out the ridiculous nature of cats and their pop song form, something to be endured.

Here's a bonus classic video:

FAILURE 01 + 02

2009-07-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

KINETIC

2009-06-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here's another fun internet time drain.

You basically make shapes that leave color traces and react to "gravity and physics".

I guess it's called Kinetic Sketch.

AMS + MASO

2009-06-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think Japan is a mysterious joke that doesn't exist, like it's my dream world, and when I get there, it's gonna be an empty lot...

Like the circus just left town, dust and trash, sorry you missed it...

Bonus...

TOMOMAMA

2009-06-22T11:30:00.001-07:00

My friend Mike posted a link to this amazing filmmaker today...

I must say that I'm please they are documenting their pets.

I find that in general Japanese people post the best Youtube videos. They are never needlessly narrating or giggling through the whole video. They don't force punchlines, and most importantly they don't add stupid music to everything. I wish the rest of the world would learn how to shut the fuck up.

Some short examples of the quiet vignette style of Japanese pet focused Youtube.

First an incredible beast.

The A or B series.... brilliantly understated.

Some rabbits...

Cats in boxes... anyone who knows cats knows they fucking love boxes...

Cat in other stuff...

A tiny Scottish Fold.

And finally, the amazing cat we started with.. sleeping.

Silence, can be wonderful.

Remember, we weren't all born with the narrative brilliance of Bob Saget, who has truly influenced the tactless, un-funny foundation of modern American humor and voice-overs more deeply than I think many of us realize.

Tangentially if you pay attention to anything you'll realize American humor is so fucking worthless we've taken to stealing British humor styles in recent years.

Note: Also, be sure to read this blog post by Momus about cat Youtube videos, very funny.

POWER

2009-06-19T16:53:00.001-07:00

Didn't bother reading the story, but this blog has a fun little sloppy UK PE history blab (useless for all the non UK info).

I'm really happy with the two double CD reissues I got today.

Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief 2XCD

and...

Molested - Blod Draum 2XCD

The F.C. - L&L is just gorgeous, very nicely remastered, and killer bonus stuff on the extra disc, and I'm happy to be finally listening to this brutal blast of 90's Norwegian death. I won't pretend I've loved it for years through a shitty download. Just hearing it for the first time right now. Fucking kills, excellent atmospheric folk bits tossed into the slaughter.

TOMOYA TAKAISHI

2009-06-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

I love saccharine nostalgic Japanese folk music...

Right now listening to Tomoya Takaishi's brilliantly titled "Folk Songs" from 1967.

The cover is a dude with a guitar, standing on a pier alone, lighting a cigarette.

The music makes me want to walk, and smell the sea.

Though this album is definitely an American / European "folk" influenced Enka album, it makes me want to listen to lots of raw straight up Enka stuff too...

I think I will have to buy truck loads of Enka 3"s when I go to Japan.

CELEBRATION OF THE BREEDER

2009-06-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

Multiple birth ART... assisted... reproductive.. technology...

Beauty tapped out.

What next?

You're a fucking animal.

Get the highest score.

Army from one.

Breeding stock.

Life is a competition.

Icosuplets next on the agenda.

TINY SYNTH

2009-06-17T08:44:00.001-07:00

Here's a fun online synthesizer called the ToneMatrix. Simple and engaging.

YOU HIM AND ART

2009-06-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

I think it's funny when an artless and insipid network of cultures tries to distance itself from Hitler by trying to point out his "bad" taste in art / architecture. Look at your surroundings, your media, the shit that's championed by the common man? Just as horrible, if not staggeringly worse, it's just too hard for you to see past the present, to see what you're really surrounded by. I've yet to see any "government" or whatever official art works or projects that rise above his shallow inclinations towards the romantic and traditional. Look around Washington DC, what an unimaginative cesspool of passionless structures and spaces. Be critical, but be realistic and honest.

It's all the same bullshit and sentiment, don't pretend it's not.

I'm sure there are some awesome weird crumbling futuristic Communist structures in the middle of Russia, or a weird Zaha Hadid hotel in some "exotic" city, but to criticize his "unimaginitive" tastes or whatever is desperate paddling to feel safe.

You're a bunch of fucking button pushers.

All able and willing.

Don't believe you're better and stronger.

You're not.

You're the same.

NAOKI ZUSHI

2009-06-16T09:45:00.000-07:00

Naoki Zushi is basically the perfect guitarist. Epic and soaring when he needs to be, restrained with just the perfect balance to contrast the electric tracers. Bittersweet and nostalgic tones without bursting over into saccharine artificiality.

I'm sad I don't have his three solo albums. They are always insanely expensive when they appear... one day I will track them down.

FILM

2009-05-25T15:39:00.001-07:00

There are plenty of excellent movies, or films I really like. Most I only need to see once. A truly incredible film generates an environment, a place I return to, safety, a cell, I don't even have to pay attention. That's what makes a great movie.

More later.

PERFECT STONE ROSES

2009-04-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

I like The Stone Roses, but I definitely don't think they are a perfect band.

Their second album basically does nothing for me.

I think if they had released one 7" with "I Wanna Be Adored" on the A side, and "Made Of Stone" on the B side, it would be the greatest 7" ever.

Here's a cool video of them playing "Made Of Stone" and there's a power outage before the song really gets going.

I hate technical difficulties.

GRISTLE NOW

2009-04-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

It's weird, I consider myself a big Throbbing Gristle fan, but I had absolutely no desire to see them play any of these US shows, and don't regret not going. I just don't care.

ASTRONOMY PIC

2009-04-22T01:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick link to the Astronomy Picture Of The Day site, where they have really interesting and often times beautiful pictures... a new one every day! wow.

FALL OF NATURE

2009-04-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to the Bodychoke "Mindshaft" disc almost every day for the last few weeks. it's really an incredible album. I remember when I first got it years ago I was shocked and amazed at how different it was from all the Sutcliffe Jügend material I had been exposed to, primarily the Death Mask CD.

I played it a few times at first, and it didn't do all that much for me, but over the years it's wormed its way to the top of my standard rotation piles. I'm not entirely clear if they're happy with how it turned out, referencing it as sounding "gothic", which I don't consider a bad thing in the least. Overall a wonderfully atmospheric dark dirge-rock assault with a patina of exhausted elegance. I guess a slightly shoegaze Swans vibe if you need a relational description.

Finally decided to listen to this Sutcliffe Jügend "The Fall Of Nature" album, and I must say I'm pleased. It's primarily a slightly harsh and fluctuating 58 minute drone / ambient piece with a psychotic conclusion. It sounds like manipulated guitar and electronics with a constant flow of new details and slight changes. Some work better than others, some of it sounds very "digital multi effect pedal wall of sounds", but these moments merge with the flow easily enough. About half way through the drone falls away and there are weird dry blip blip noises and reverbs, it slowly deforms and transforms... digitally processed it seems... which doesn't sound that great, but the composition is interesting enough. With 18 minutes to go, the maniacal voices start fading in... sound poetry S.J. It almost sounds like slower Masonna, but without the psychedelic attitude.

Here's their official write up:

The release of The Fall of Nature brings us a new level destruction using sounds almost unthinkable ambient yet no less disturbing. The Fall of Nature is a epic, grandiose drone piece almost one hour of pure electronics that echoes the masters of the form. The album grows in intensity throughout the recording making for an unexpected release. There are many sides of darkness and many ways to express it. The Fall of Nature is the balance of sound, in a listenable format. The initial feeling is that of an almost holy, heavenly sound, the skies opening in tribute to the nature which is falling. Yet fans of classic SJ will be plenty pleased at the psychotically manic conclusion that will not disappoint any fans of PE terror. This music takes aim at several nerve centers at once. This is not just noise, drone or PE but something new that mixes various elements of each together for the first time.

I guess in the end I'm just really happy that S.J. continues to challenge itself and listeners expectations. A band that is actually exciting to explore (as are the other bands /projects). I should also realize that the percieved diversions and drastic stylistic changes only seem so odd due to the outsider status of everyone not close to the band (duh). Changes and approaches that make total sense to the individuals, might not make sense to the idea of the S.J. project in the context to traditional power electronics in general. So while "Fall Of Nature" may seem bizarely divergent, it makes perfect sense when considering the droning rock and academic avant electronics interests of the guys.

I really should check out the Between Silences disc, and all those other random Tomkins and Taylor "academic" works on their Between Silences Records label. Wish they weren't all CDR releases though.

LAND OF MY DREAMS

2009-04-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

I think this Anna Domino song and video are amazing... perfect even.

I love everything about this. I love when women sing with delicately restrained voices, but when there's a visceral sense of traumatic emptiness behind it as opposed to faux uncaring attempts to seem detached. I love the simple looping music, nothing superfluous. A skeleton on which to drift threads of her voice. I think it's funny I love it so much because i have little to no interest in Aretha Franklin, and this is a cover of one of her songs.

The video is also perfect, she's so insanely gorgeous that showing anything besides, would be an insulting effort towards missing the point.

If you look like Anna Domino, don't hesitate to get in contact with me about getting married immediately.

I'm serious.

CLEANING / HURTING

2009-04-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

I've been busy cleaning up my living space at any chance I get lately. I've thrown tons of stuff away, lots of useless papers, and have gotten things more organized. Need to cut away parts of my life.

Finally found my Tears For Fears "The Hurting" CD ... been searching for the damn thing for weeks. It was in a hidden box. Happy to be listening to it again. While I think "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" from "Songs From The Big Chair" is definitely their crowning achievement (and my favorite song of all time, excellently used in the Pirates Of Silicon Valley movie, a classic cable TV flick), this album definitely flows more subtly than "Songs", it has a darker more unified mood across the duration. It is most likely I feel this way because the singles really blast out of "Songs..." due to their subconscious cultural entrenchment as solitary energies.

As a lover of bonus tracks of all types, I appreciate the inclusion of the 4 bonus tracks on the "Hurting" reissue, but they definitely alter the perfectly chiseled mass of the album... The extended "Pale Shelter" is really tasteful for an 80's extended version, with no painful drum machine solo (but nice hand clap accents), just expanded instrumental sections, really nice to have an extended version of such a great song... and the video rules too...

While I'm happy to have "The Way You Are" included for convenience, I'm just not into the song, and it definitely stands out from the other material in that it's not as good and really disrupts the atmosphere. The "Mad World" remix actually goes so far as to suck... unfortunately, and the "Change" one feels kinda bland and pointless... but it's not bad... fuck, this music makes me want to go to Outback Steakhouse.... I love 80's music in mediocre restaurants.

I'll get into the double CD deluxe version of "Songs" some other time... all I'll say is that it is amazing... worth it for the cover of Robert Wyatt's classic "Sea Song" alone...

Here's the full Pirates Of Silicon Valley movie on Youtube... as long as the links are up... (it's broken into 10 parts, with the 10th muted due to bullshit Youtube fuckery, so either download the movie or buy the DVD if it exists)

A more organized living space is making it easier to filter through possessions, determine internal and external values, and decide on how to dispose of them. I wish there were a more reasonable way to get rid of things for fair prices. I don't feel like dealing with EBAY, and I hate getting ripped off at used CD and book stores... and Craigslist doesn't seem like it's worth it.. but I might try. I just think that audience is trying to find deals as opposed to a higher spending EBAY audience.

Disposing of things makes it easier to accept that nothing will remain, just let it go. Collecting is a waste of life.

RANDOM PAPER 003

2009-04-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

This is the last random pictures thing I'll post for awhile.

First, a nice illustrated list of kitchen utensils. I have no idea how little I was when I made this. At least young enough to not know how to read / write.

Some nice WWI trench doodles on top of notes for some Junior year of college history class (3 different pages).

This was from high school English class. I'm proud of my employment of the Paranoiac-critical method before i even knew what it was. Some boring hand out on New England poets and a picture of some sails turned into Interzone top hat agents.

Here's from my college lab job. We used to order pizza, or I guess, the scummy lab moderator guy would use lab funds to order pizza, and I would call one of the girls the "Pizza Huntress" when she would go get the pizza.. this was her logo... it also involved a full body black cat suit and goggles, but those were never built.

Ok, enough of that foolishness.

TRAJECTORIES 02

2009-04-01T19:02:00.001-07:00

I think one of the things that got me interested in falling debris and vapor/smoke trails was this. I loved the movie as a kid, and it was one of the first VHS tapes we got. I just remember being captivated by the poster / cover. I used to draw falling burning wreckage all the time.

And then as a kid thinking about dying inside a burning vehicle really bothered me.

Note: It's difficult to find online footage not chopped into saccharine montages with Creed songs playing over the whole thing.

Less tragic debris:

Also, the end of Koyannisqatsi with the exploding rocket and the piece of falling metal burning out. Start at 1:16:39 (If you've already seen the film, if not, watch it from the beginning, hopefully on DVD or film, not this compressed file).

Now it's all just a heavy handed metaphor I'm using in my art.

RANDOM PAPER 002

2009-04-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some more weird drawings I did as a kid. I must have been like 12. I remember I wanted to play war games like Battletech or Warhammer, but couldn't afford any kind of tabletop strategy stuff, so I used the little dots of paper from my hole puncher as the figures, drew environments, and had completely arbitrary dice rules... and then I drew the aftermath. It goes without saying, I played this stupid game alone.

Be sure to click the pictures to see them in all their blown up glory. All environments were penciled in lightly so I could draw them after they were destroyed, and shell casings for every round fired were drawn. I kept track of ammo counts on a separate piece of paper.. which I can't find... I also had drawings of what the different teams looked like. Some were alien, hence the green blood.

I hadn't seen Taxi Driver at that point, but recently a friend pointed out the unintentional similarities.

I also used to draw video game levels and pretend to play them, and other similar things like Alien bug extermination missions, and very complex spaceships getting shot up by mechs, inspired by the game Cybernator.

ROCKPOMMEL'S LAND

2009-04-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Unless someone lets me in on the secret behind this album, I'm going to assume that the Grobschnitt album Rockpommel's Land is a brilliantly executed piss take on the whole Yes symphonic prog aesthetic, as opposed to an attempted sell out. Knowing how annoyingly goofy this band is, and to be able to listen to an album that seems so focused on telling the tale without lapsing into ridiculous comedic areas, tells me they are definitely being forcibly different. Obviously they are a spacey progressive band and diverting from the narrative within a concept album is counter productive, but there is usually such an overbearing amount of stupidity cushioning the serious performances, that listening to them is not a sought out experience.

This album is just so streamlined and focused, that I can't help loving it, and it annoys me thinking about what other great albums they could have made if they'd tried to be less funny. I guess that's why I have Yes, and then these guys exist as a counter.

First off, the cover is a total Roger Dean parody. Obviously there were many Dean imitations in the 70's, but this cover was done within the band, by Volker "Mist" Kahrs, the keyboard player, not outsourced to a design firm who decided to give them a Dean cover to boost sales, it's a calculated attempt to poke fun at the aesthetic. Especially the pic on the inside of the bird offering the kid a plate of sunny side up eggs...

The album definitely doesn't have the insane virtuosity of Yes, but the range of textures and the whole expansive progressive approach yields some really beautiful music. Once again, the restraint shown is impressive for Grobschnitt, with only the most subtle sarcastic details carefully placed throughout. The narration and singing is also pretty straight forward, but with that twitch of a smile that makes you feel like there's something going on... and obviously it's a joke... Howard Johnson's references, and the dumb elf voices at the end?

The whole story of the album is so painfully stupid, it's about a little boy named Ernie, and a giant bird called Maraboo. The whole mystical bird thing reminds me of the Jean (Moebius) Giraud creation Arzach, which was created in 1974 for Métal Hurlant (known to most as Heavy Metal magazine).

Therefore, I guess it isn't too much of a stretch to assume some influence from Moebius in at least a germinal form since this came out in 1977. Anyways, the story is about this kid who flys out his window on a paper airplane, he meets the huge bird, chills in its nest. Learns about this guy called Mr. Glee who was kicked out of the city because he made people laugh, the kid climbs down the tree, and he's in this mean fascist city where fun isn't allowed, and he runs away, eventually he escapes and gets to this big wasteland, and the bird helps him and leads him to Mr. Glee, who they free, and all return to the city to make it better. There are more details, but that's generally it.

I guess i'm just going off about this because the album is viewed by some as a sort of sell out move to do a symphonic concept album, but I think it's pretty clearly a parody of the whole thing, which is entirely in keeping with the ludicrous trickster vibe of the band (which is what keeps me from wanting to listen to their other work, even though I acknowledge that it's following the whole Germanic tradition of Cabaret parody). It's just them saying, "Oh yeah, we can do that too." For people to miss the point that this whole thing is a fucking joke is hilarious and just underlines how uptight and stubborn most prog dudes are.

Oh yeah, the vocalist sounds like a manly Antony at times.

RANDOM PAPER 001

2009-03-31T01:19:00.001-07:00

Here's some random stuff I found in my old papers...

First up is what I consider a very confusing paper that makes less sense the more I look at it... first it's typed, and that was when I was in 4th grade, so like 1991, which means this was probably a "big event" in the computer lab. Then the two sets of numbers don't match up, there are 5, and 6, so attempts to see how the two sets of written.. answers??? are unsatisfying... evidently I got both parts correct, as is seen with the "C" and to top it off, I got %198 ... which makes no sense since percent means per 100. And then I only get a "Good Job"... how bout, GREAT FUCKING JOB.

Next is my half assed book report on The Return Of The Jedi... which I didn't even read, even though I had the book... so I based my report on the movie, and spent forever on the drawing, which does rule...

Finally some college era Statistics notes doodles of Pizza Mice... because it's a cute idea.

More random stuff to come...

YUM YUM

2009-03-31T00:17:00.000-07:00

If anyone out there can give me any info on this game, please do. I would love to play a ROM. I'm not sure if this "Yum Yum" by Bandai for Super Famicom ever even came out... I hope it did, but all my searches have yielded nothing. I think that character is super cute.

Please help me find Yum Yum.

UNCONTROLLED TRAJECTORIES

2009-03-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

Each new radiant shard falls more beautifully than the last.

SPACEMEN 3

2009-03-17T04:13:00.000-07:00

Listening to the Spacemen 3 Singles release on Taang! Records... probably the first "psych" album I ever bought.. got it when I was 14 or so at a used CD store in downtown Newport... It's been with me forever, listened to hundreds... thousands? of times. I love everything about it, from the way you can switch the covers around (it has 3 variants) to the fact that it's so packed with music it's something like one second shy of 80 minutes.

Right now listening to "Starship"... tied with about 6 other songs as my favorite on the CD, I'm noticing those dreaded tiny pops... I believe the disc is decaying... 100 years CDs? Indeed.. I am relieved that it's an elegant death, with a subtle vinyl pop decay to it (If anyone can correct me and tell me that I'm just clueless all these years and the pops were always there and that it's just sourced from a vinyl copy... please do).

I can't help but be horrified that my baby is dying...

Each song is perfect, and the flow of music is masterful. Of course I may feel this way merely because it's been with me for so long, but I'd like to think that there is an ingrained perfection that stretches beyond emotional attachment and familiarity. From the punkish drive of "Walkin' With Jesus" into the zoned out stare of "Rollercoaster", fading into the post crash come down of "Feel So Good"... Then the floating on cotton and fiberglass numbness of "Transparent Radiation", to the aforementioned meltdown of "Starship"... Stomping fits of "Take Me To The Other Side" to one of my favorite songs of all time... the dreamy drift through a stood up date at a night fair... bleary/blurry eyed watching the carousel flash by, a thousand smiling faces that aren't yours perfection of "Soul 1"... when the drums kick in.. fuck it, and you take a bite out of the cotton candy and head home. The credits on a perfect CD rolls with "That's Just Fine" .. I hope they're fucking right.

Fuck, I even awkwardly sampled "Walkin With Jesus" on one of my first tapes.. some edition of 5 or 10 that nobody has, thank god.

I will update this post with further Spacemen 3 musings from time to time... also anyone who wants to hate on Spacemen 3 can just fuck right off to the no soul / no ears death pit.