Julien Bayle can instruct you how to make a monome clones which is good because the monome always have a waiting list.
Music might have stopped me from being a misanthropic criminal so maybe this will change some that are ready are. Jail Guitar Doors is Billy Bragg’s initiative to provide inmates with musical instrument. I believe in personal responsibility so I have to believe in punishment. But locking people up and doing nothing to change there behave other than punishment never made much sense to me. I like this idea. Johnny Cash would approve.
Audiotuts has a list of affordable mics. It is a pretty good list me thinks. But you might want to check out Studio Projects which lower then mics I think are a good value.
Audiotuts also had this link below there mic list but it is a good link that you might have miss to Jake Ludington’s guide to making you own pop filter. Anyone could do this one.
Frank Zappa is not everyones cup o’ tea but he sure is damn quotable read for yourself.
I use Reason and Ableton Live together. Reason is the most incredable sound bank rewired into Live. Here is a good video on using the 2 together.
I always in the mood for a good Rock Doc. Below a collection of music documentaries that I have enjoyed recently.
1. Dig!
Even though I am not really a fan of either the Dandy Warhols or The Brian Jonestown Massacre(or clever references to overrated 60’s artist in your band name for that matter) I this found this a very good watch. It is billed as a story of 2 bands one finding success and one not but it is really more of the the story of the one that does not. That is the interesting part especially band leader Anton Newcombe. Aton is referred to a genius through out the film. He is painted as kind of a mad eccentric genius. I doubt the genius part but the mad part is certainly there. I wanted to smack Aton and the tambourine player(yes The Brian Jonestown Massacre have a full time tambourine player) for there pretension. If you love ‘em or hate ‘em it is fascinating to watch a band that had a good chance to make it just not get along and stay sane long enough to make there chances count. The last of those chances when they get a showcase they blow it in the most spectacular and rock ‘n’ roll way. A must see.
The Film:
2. Scratch
It is a history of DJ and Turntablism and a good one but it is deeper than that. It is about culture and art. DJ Shadows in an amazing basement of records gets down right deep in the philosophical sense. And of course there are performances form the best turntablist out there.
This documentary follows the Ramones from start to finish. There was the epic struggle of personalities between Dee Dee and Joey in band that just wouldn’t quit. Through the CBGB days, Phil Spector, line up changes, a mountain of animosity and Dee Dee attempting to bend the world to this will what strikes you most is how the just kept going because it was the only thing they knew to do. They played music and lived the same way they played.
This is one of the better documentaries I have seen. I someways it reminds me of the excellent Crumb. In some ways it is because Robert Crumb’s bother Charles reminds me of Daniel Johnston. But in both films you feel like you get to know and artist even part of the knowing is the understanding that you’ll never fully understand them. And wonderful unique art work mix with a love of unique music. Daniel Johnston is not eccentric like Robert Crumb. Daniel Johnston is possessed by madness. To fragile and mixed up for really life he goes crazy. It is interesting to ride the ups and downs with him for a while but you’ll be glad you can get off the ride.
These new tiny tiny controls from Korg seem pretty damn cool. I am sure the is a market for these with all the mobile muscians out there. What took so long.
Desktopvibes same how nice images of some cool desktop areas. So if you workspace needs some work take a look.
I have been listening to quite a bit of 8-bit music lately. I get all nostalgic think about old video games. I must have rubbed off on my buying habits because I brought a CD for the first time for ever. I used to spend all my money on music in my starving dropping out of college days. I used to wait in line at midnight to get new releases. I kind of miss CD’s but the digital download is just to easy and practical. What inspired this purchase was Unicorn Dream Attack’s Love Bits. It is a damn good album if you like chiptune and 8-bit music. I don’t mind at all giving a little notice little artist in the big bad music world.
Oh, here is a vid of Les Paul & Mary Ford having a laugh and performing a little just because I think Les Paul is awesome.
I found this on the very cool Retro Thing. When I heard about Radiohead’s remix contest for Nude I was excited. Then when I heard the track my enthusiasm waned a bit. Radiohead were having some fun with the song they selected. If Radiohead was a Shakespearean character the their fatal flaw would be being too clever. I am not discounting their musical talents somethings they have done musically and other wise have suffered a little form being a little to clever. At least I think so which is odd because that special British brand of cleverness I never can get enough of in the forms of comedy and literature. Still a great band. And how often do you get access to each track of a song by a great band. That was my attract to it rather than any contest. I bought the stems and plan to have go at it despite 6/8 time and 63 bpm. Normal remixes are made for the clubby dance numbers. Which seemed impossible if you were going to use most of the music made available to you. So, I though I will just make it in to something else unique and not dancy or hip-hoppy. Stretching the sounds to a normal tempo the sounded well stretched and found it pretty hard to work with do to the songs structure. I don’t claim to be a talented remixer. I was falling miserably when The Great Hard Drive Disaster of ‘08 hit. Then I learned things like the also very clever Apple doesn’t let you download purchased music again. So, I was doubly defeated.
I was glad to see someone succeed at doing something original and generally awesome. Just give the video a minute to get going and you will see Radiohead’s Nude created on old computer parts and gear. You have to love a dot matrix rhythm sections & unintended purposes.
This is a great story. Henry Rollins can be a little repetitious in a telling and he makes it seem like almost an athletic competition which I am not sure even high energy Rock n Roll qualifies but still a great story. I am not sure I am into “spoken word” but I certain like good stories especially if they are about people like Iggy that live in a different world than the rest of use.
There should be Iggy Pop the movie. But who the hell would you cast as Iggy.
I ran in to this stuff on accident tonight. They are nspired by The Blue Man Group(ripoff of the Smurfs -HJS) of course. I realized a year ago at this moment I was watching them in Vegas. Ah, Serendipity. Anyways, any instrument you can build from parts at Home Depot is cool by me. These are cooler than the PVC flutes I posted earlier. Here are some vids and links to PVC instruments:
I am a Wilco and Jeff Tweedy fan so I am biased but I think that this is great. I am sure others would disagree. There seems to be more and more self centered people. They are too absorbed with self to have any regard for those around them. I am all for rock and roll but seriously if the performer at an acoustic show can hear you on stage talking in the back of the house you are an asshole. It is to bad the communal experience of being a member of a group feeding off of each other emotion has to be explained.
The argument that paying your hard earned money listen to music not a lecture doesn’t fly with me. I did not pay my hard earned money to listen to a few jerk talk over the music. If intervention is needed I am all for it. It is no different than talking during a movie. But I am not stodgy. If it is a horror movie and someone spontaneously yells, “don’t go it there.” Fine. OK. If you talk all the all through the film you are just an ass.
If it is a loud rock n roll show and you are talking who cares no one is going to hear you 3 feet away. The is a different code of conduct but there still is a code of conduct. But still people can ruin it and send out a bad vibe. Being a stick in the mud at a kinetic loud show is as bad. I have seen some get mad at people for standing or dancing. It is as bad as being a loud mouth at a quiet show. I have seen people get mad that people are pogoing or when mosh pit breaks out at a hardcore show. You have to go with the flow. At more aggressive shows intervention is still needed sometimes. I hate crowd surfing but at giant summer rock festival you might have to live with it. But people take it to far. Still I always remember the show being stopped to tell some serial crowd surfer that being a giant of a man (he was something like 6′4″ 300 lbs.) that he was simply too enormous to except for people to keep him aloft and people were going to get hurt. I have seen acts ask at least that the pass people back away from the stage so people did not get there necks crushed. I have been to other shows where they have put an end to crowd surfing, fighting, over zealous security guards. Most of the time I haven’t had a problem with it. Yet others do. I don’t think purchase a ticket is license to do what ever the hell you want. The artist have the respect and and a mic plugged into the PA which gives the a voice and power. Who else at a show is going to lead the sheep when the need to be lead.
Jeff Tweedy can come to the movies with me anytime.
I caught this video. I don’t really have cause to use a interactive white board. Or track eye movement. But it has has the potential to track anything. And by doing so control anything. Music and video performance came to my mind. A less than $40 dollar piece of hardware connected to a PC via ubiquitous blue tooth opens a myriad of possibilities. It is a wonderful when a mass produced(read as cheap) hardware can be co-oped into a whole bunch of unintended applications.
