| what I found in the box in the shed |
[05 Jul 2009|10:52pm] |
* passport/Social Security card/other vital documents (lost for three years!)
* tape of Celesteville live at It's a Beautiful Pizza in 2000 - somewhat horrifying but a little less terrifying than I'd remembered - contains songs that I barely remember writing/recording
* the raincoat that I'd only worn once
* Hollywood Theater discount card - we'll see if they still accept it
* "Alter Ego" for the Apple II
* a cassingle that I did back in grad school that no-one ever got a copy of
* another cassingle that I did back in grad school that no-one ever got a copy of
* orange scarf
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| weekend shows and the obligatory celebrity-related mention |
[26 Jun 2009|07:35am] |
I'm playing three sets this weekend with three different musical units. Details:
SATURDAY:
5:30 pm: I've been deputized by the legendary Jennifer Robin to bulk up the Dead Air Fresheners, whose Washington wing is apparently unavailable? At No.Fest in St. John's, at Legong Gelato. Lots of other good stuff going on during the day: www.nofest.net ...
10 pm: Ross's semiannual party of incredible delights. The inimitable Beach House atmosphere, good times on the patio, apparently a hot-tub available. The classic lineup of me, Ross, and (T.)S. Brooks playing solo sets, plus also another appearance by the legendary Jennifer Robin. Address available by emailing me or through ESP.
SUNDAY:
Afternoon-ish: The shadowy corporate organization known as Activity Universal Associates plays at Eric and Maryrose's summer BBQ. It should be a good time. If you can't make this one, we'll apparently be playing at the St. John's Farmer's Market in August, no joke. I'm looking to play at other farmer's markets - did someone say Lents?
Okay, the obligatory emway-ayjay-related comment since everyone is doing it:
Dear emway-ayjay: I apologize for repurposing the bass line to a certain illuminated-footpath rock hit, your best rock hit, in more songs than I can count. I would like to encourage anyone reading this to corner me at any one of the three events this weekend and ask me to demonstrate just how thoroughly and shamelessly I have done so.
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| NEW SPIRIT DUPLICATOR ALBUM AVAILABLE VERY SOON |
[09 May 2009|08:43pm] |
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In secret I have been recording an album for Deathbomb Arc's CD series with master recordist and Activity Universal Associate/Taken Girl Eric Matchett. The album is called Tonight I'll Forget the English Language and it's prickly and rocking and a little more ridiculous than usual. Less austere than Cedes, less all-over-the-place than Duplicate Bridge, less fixated on bottled water than Fluid Duplicator. Brian had asked for a bass-and-drum machine summer party album (only part of this is true) and I obliged (only part of this is true.) 100% true story: the album contains not one but two songs entitled "Listening to Aphrodite's Child's 666 in the Parking Lot of the Tigard Babies 'R' Us at Night."
You can order this fine product as part of the Deathbomb Arc May CDR package at the Deathbomb Arc presale page. Not sure how soon I'll make it available for free download, so please order the presale batch - the price is right and the other stuff looks pretty intriguing as well.
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[29 Apr 2009|08:28pm] |
So the show at Dunes went pretty well, although I was a complete zombie for days afterward. We waited for hours for the show to begin; apparently the other bands were doing another show beforehand at a house? In any case, said waiting was not so bad since they were playing _Tron_ up on the projector. And being in a bar kind of nullified the dialogue of the movie, which is good.
When I played my show, it was energetic and much noisier than the other bands ended up being - for some reason, I felt like I had to live up to my "JAKE FROM GANG WIZARD" billing and played noisy noisy noisy stuff, rhythmic Soft-Rock-Is-Forevery Language Masterisms, plus a beyond-Yak-Brigade where-did-that-come-from moment where I burst into "Boy Soprano," you know, that song from _Albania Tonight._ Okay, perhaps you don't know?
The feeling of corduroy knees digging into the stage and moving left and right enthusiastically. The surprisingly enormous rumble of the beloved Duovox amp.
So now I'm back to real life again, and the job is making me a little bonkers - it's one of those situations where there is no conceivable way that I could ever finish the tasks I have at hand even if I were to stay late for two to four hours every night. I like what I'm doing, but having this much of it to do is making me cranky and dull, and more than a little frustrated. Especially because the time that I spend wrangling with translations is time that I could be spending writing songs, energy that I could have to write songs, and I've got an album due by mid-month. Thankfully, Eric has offered to record things and stay on my case - both of which are incredibly appreciated - but still!
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| last-minute show announcement!!!!!!!!! |
[15 Apr 2009|08:37pm] |
DUNES 4/16/09 THURS
SPIRIT DUPLICATOR (in ads as "Jake from Gang Wizard," which I guess is technically true)
CONNCET9 -or- JERKAGRAM
TALIBAM! (? maybe)
CARSON MCWHIRTER
I really have no idea what's going to happen. It should be great. It's the only show I have scheduled for the next few months (or thereafter)...
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| Thrift odyssey 4/15/09 |
[15 Apr 2009|08:33pm] |
As I entered a certain thrift store near my work, I saw some distinctive TI-99 4/A cartridges in the display case, and I went to work searching for the mothership, aka the actual computer itself. Jackpot! Computer, fancy upgrade joysticks, speeeeeeeech synthesizer, all in the box, cheap.
I took my haul back to the counter. The guy at the counter noted that he had worked at Toyz Arrrr Usss a while back, and that he'd sold the "Atari Adam," the Commodore 64. I used to know everything about those, he said. But one of those came in (to the thrift store) a few months ago, and you know what? You forget it all after ten years! It's like learning a foreign language, I said, as I prepared to head back to the translation job that supplies so many of my metaphors these days.
I put the sleek 80's computer box on the rack of my bike, all wide and visible behind me, and prayed that no bullies would make fun of my intensely nerdy moment that was, in fact, so beautiful.
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| warning: contains a reference to a song you don't want stuck in your head |
[11 Apr 2009|08:30am] |
Last night, with Aileen and Matt up from CA in a Pearl District fancy-pants cocktail establishment:
In the middle of the loud-but-inobtrusive dance music to drown out the blah-blah of the cocktail crowd, either a DJ or some malevolent god dropped in Huey Lewis and the News's "Hip to Be Square," and I have to admit that it kind of brought my mind to a complete halt - said song, made by square artist to redefine square as new hip, dropped as presumably hip gesture in presumably hip bar that appears to be full of people who would probably be considered hip but who appear to me to be overgrown square versions of the LO teens I tutored for ages, and meanwhile me in my square clothing (legendary green thrift-store "TIGARD TUALATIN SHERWOOD INDOOR" t-shirt, still stinky from bike commute!) on the periphery, looking out at the fancy-schmancy-cocktail crowd, wondering who else is unpeeling this particular onion.
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| drawn during all-staff meeting |
[28 Mar 2009|11:23pm] |
Two ladies were going on and on about the Quality! the Freshness! Did you know that we have Designer Handbags? You won't believe the seafood! You can even buy coffins! (wait for awkward laughter from crowd) It was a little cultlike and I was more than a little sleep-deprived.
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[28 Mar 2009|07:47pm] |
It's Saturday night, I'm in my pajamas, and we're on disc 3 of 5 of Faust's The Wümme Years, 1970-1973, thank you Multnomah County Library, eating mousse. Ultimately I think that's ultimately what I have always wanted, to be able to sit at home on a rainy Saturday night listening to Faust with a fine woman who also enjoys listening to Faust.
But despite my attempts to sit at home all the time in my pajamas listening to arty German lunatics, social activity gets in the way sometimes. We got to go to The Minor Thirds Charlotte's baby shower today, and that was pretty sweet and cute. She asked for books for the little as-yet-unnamed boy, and I figured I had to make sure that this child of two sturdy Nordic parents had to grow up exposed to the Moomin books. If only I had had them myself in my formative years!
Before that, I got to hang out with another former (though to be fair the band never officially broke up) bandmate Amy. I went with J. and V. and other J. to a Blazers game (! - for the first time in twenty years no less - and they even won!) and it was surprisingly really fun. I think experiences like that are a lot more fun when you are next to a really enthusiastic 9-year-old. I also felt awfully triumphant being able to park my bike at the arena and ride it home on a clear beautiful night along the waterfront, one of those rare triumphant moments In Town.
We hung out in the hotel room. Joanie's allergies were in hyperoverdrive due to pollen and pet dander, but we had a lot of fun anyway talking about ridiculous things. Silliest neologism I came up with: "geront-emo," as in emo made by or for the elderly.
Ah.
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| playing catch-up for six weeks |
[16 Mar 2009|10:56pm] |
(1) Playing a show at Ross Beach's place the night after the show in the previous post. Having an unexpected impromptu backing band in the form of Dr. Something and a Poppin' Fresh Love Engine. Fusing two ill-advised obsessions by doing an Armony of the Spheres version of "Eye of the Tiger."
(2) Biking in the depressing rain every day, work and back. Thinking about the luv(sic) song "Mad Skills of Sadness," or at least its incredibly great and apt title. Avoiding certain doom every morning at 92nd and Powell, creeping down the hill past the cruel eye of a giant rodent.
(3) Thinking about doing things. Not necessarily doing things.
(4) On the bright side, some pretty awesome thrifting has been done. Boardgaming. Reading. Playing nerdy videogames. Hibernation exercises.
(5) Feeling the need to record a solo album that is pretty out there. Not necessarily doing so. Recording great Activity Universal Associates stuff, including some pretty pleasing fusion of wank-guitar and dub-language-master that actually worked.
(6) Feeling the need for spring cleaning. If anyone out there is looking for some guitars, amplifiers, incredibly large boomboxes, etc. etc., tell me! I'll try to get a list out there soon.
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| show report #1 |
[31 Jan 2009|07:37am] |
I played a show at Reed last night, and, as usual, pretty good times in the majestically dilapidated Student Union. I brought a semi-random handful of language-master cards, and there wasn't much in the way of fun happy songs, so I kind of played a dark set, which wasn't really what I had wanted, but, looking back at Friday as a whole, it kind of makes sense: I got up early, went to the staff meeting, never once got to take a break before I dashed home into completely psychopathic must-kill-bicyclist-at-all-costs Friday rush hour traffic, yaghhh. It was a little maddening, but sometimes it's good to have shows like that. People seemed to like it, so it wasn't a total fiasco.
Afterwards: John whose last name I will never remember but who is a fantastic drummer and Doug T. played a really quite great drum-and-prepared-glitch-noise guitar set. I hadn't seen Doug play in many years, I think, and it is interesting how time can change one's opinion on things like that. I think the last time I saw him play, I had been thrown off by his very very calm demeanor, coming, as I do, from a place where extreme sound = extreme gesticulation. This time, I felt like I almost caught a touch of deadpan? More than anything, I admire those people who can just do their business without hamming it up. Speaking of which:
Treasure Mammal! The combination of loony party songs about the Internet and "broughmance"* plus the endless enthusiasm of a flock of undergraduates was pretty perfect--conga lines, wild dancing, square dancing, spandex, BO. It felt pretty good. Afterwards, I realized that at some point, I should try doing some sets where I work with prerecorded backing tracks, disposing of playing instruments live altogether. Hmm!
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| Guitar successfully unlearnt |
[15 Jan 2009|11:17pm] |
This evening, Alison came over so we could practice some songs for the show at Ross's place on the 31st.* I played bass just fine on her songs but was completely unable to play the guitar on my own songs. It's funny, but I think I may have succeeded in my plans to unlearn guitar. Sometimes I wonder if I should throw together a band that will play my songs for me while I act like an idiot on stage. It's hard to imagine any band-member being willing to put up with my inconsistency and unwillingness to book shows, however. On the bright side, "I Left the House Today" sounded pretty good with Alison on accordion and Joanie on bucket.
*House party at Beach House on 1/31 - contact me if you want to attend and can promise to behave decently - Ross's parties are great, great, great. And I'm usually in complete cheeseball party mode.
I got the blue bike back after a week and a half on various other bikes, bikes without tire-liners that were constantly getting flats in the rocky glass-strewn remnants of the storm. Oh, I felt like a champion in the saddle of the smooth smooth blue bicycle.
This weekend Joanie and I are actually going to go see the Oregon Symphony. It's a double-bass concerto show and they're playing Charles Ives. Nosebleed ahoy!
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| weather and samplers |
[22 Dec 2008|09:00pm] |
Obligatory weather-related post! Today to fight off cabin fever and to get a certain something from a certain retail establishment, I traipsed out through the white stuff. I waited for a bus for about forty minutes across from the Sav-A-Lottt on Foster, listened to a code-switchy Spanish-English conversation behind me, alternately swearing up and down in both languages about the fact that five buses passed going the other direction, talking about her kids, her attempts to recover them from foster care, Section 8 housing, how this is "el fin de tiempo, como en la Biblia." I didn't say anything, just stared into the blank eastbound void of Foster.
The bus came and I went to a certain music store. I'd seen an Akai S01 sampler there on Saturday, put it on hold, but then they shut down for a couple days and I was left to wait. Anyway, they were open today, so I grabbed the sampler, put it in bags, and headed out the door. I waited again as multiple buses passed going the other way, tried to do a crossword against the sampler, but my hands weren't up to the task with mittens on, nor was my mind. People struggled with chains and spun wildly out of the Plahd Pahntry and eventually the bus came and the moody busdriver took us home.
The sampler is pretty amazing--it's been years since I've owned a sampler, and it's great to pitch down kalimba samples and play a million clanky sounds at once, "Victoria 1 & 2" style. And I haven't even found my MIDI cable yet so I can play it the way God intended. Joanie is very patient to put up with it. It's amazing how cheap hardware samplers are, too. I'm psyched. Clanky experimental-ish album and live shows coming up soon?
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[17 Dec 2008|09:52pm] |
In days previous a certain substance solidified and covered the flat expanses that lead me to a building where I sit and look at a glowing flat object for eight hours per day thus making it difficult for me to direct my two-wheeled conveyance to said building without losing my sense of equilibrium on said low-friction-coefficient solid but today said solid has reverted to its more typical liquid state but unevenly, lumps of previously mentioned solid being interspersed with mixture of liquid and solid in the pathetic narrow strips of flat expanse devoted to two-wheeled conveyances rather than faster four-wheeled conveyances. Bah! On the bright side, I haven't fallen over or gotten myself killed yet.
I was listening to some stuff kind of at random on a certain digital-music-organization program and discovered some semi-lost Celesteville tracks: an original "Joe Zeal" that is smoother than the version on Malmo, the ridiculous "Wisecracking Computer", and a 10-minute freakout version of a Norwegian folksong called "Bendik og Arolilja" featuring S. Brookxks on drums and Dan Cohoooooon on Language Master (the old, bad-sounding Bell & Howell rather than the smoooooth Califone). It was kind of strange to remember that I had done these songs, and it made me want to redouble my efforts to find either the tape masters or the minidisc mixdowns of the songs that were going to go on this album about Suburban Life that is now more-or-less never going to be finished now that I live inside of 82nd, but still!
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| show report and _Matching White Suits_ |
[07 Dec 2008|06:14pm] |
I played a show at the Nice House last night, and at some point I wish some of my approaching-middle-aged friends would show up to one of these Reedie house parties, because they are officially the best. The bands are usually really good, and last night that was definitely the case. The scene is good and there's usually free homebrew or what have you, and that was the case last night. And I play shows that are officially unhinged, and that was 100% the case last night. I got to debut "Song Sung Forever" and "Ash Tree" and "I'll Go Quietly" from Cedes, and I got to make lots of jokes and jump up and down, sing on top of my bucket, talk about Vietnamese phonology and the emerging popularity of the ukulele. It was really, really fun. And after I played for some time, I got called back for an encore of "Small Houses!" Then one of the attendees told me that she came from the same neighborhood as Walter Mondale, and that her dog was good dog-friends with Walter Mondale's dog, and then a jug-band called the Dapper Cadavers played and I could not help dancing. Washtub bass and banjo-uke? I'm there!
Then today I went over to Eric's place and we sequenced and entitled the next Activity Universal Associates album. Eric had added some great keyboard parts to the songs, and I think it holds up really well. It's a little spazzier and weirder and less dubby than the previous one, but it's just as good, I think, possibly even better. Less an album to be listened to while dishwashing, more an active-listening album, which is, of course, also an option. Plenty of Casio CZ-101 usage. It will be called "Matching White Suits."
Have I gone on about how great El Nutri Taco (at, hmm, 87th and Woodstock) is? I want to write a punk rock anthem about them. One thing I discussed at the show last night was forming a punk rock band so I could play a basement show at the Nice House. I got some offers to play in this punk rock band. I'm considering it. Any thoughts?
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| I think I might be done |
[29 Nov 2008|10:35pm] |
Two songs down tonight:
Unborn Fawn
My Typewriter (alternate title: Bad Idea Factory)
plus a gentler rerecording of I'll Go Quietly
I am pretty sure that this will put me over the top of 30 minutes!
It's a weird album, this one. The Language Master is almost completely absent--I was busy enough wrestling with other unmasterable instruments and concepts, plus I'm trying to keep things a little less dense in most cases than, say, the sprawly packed mass of _Duplicate Bridge_.
I'm also not sure what to call it. I think for a while I was going to go with _Cedes_ but now I'm not entirely sure. I'll listen to it a few dozen times and see what sort of spirit name reveals itself.
In any case, congratulations to me!
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| One more minute down |
[26 Nov 2008|10:25pm] |
ALBUM IN NOVEMBERRRRRRRRR
Plus: I wrote a song, title either "I'll Go Quietly" or "Planetary Gears." It's the pop hit. It is one minute long.
Plus: I'm at about 28.5 minutes if I finish this one crazed jangle song I did back in the beginning of the month.
Minus: The month is coming to an end.
Minus: I'm out at the beach until Nov. 29, without my 8-track or any instruments except one highly unusable small instrument. I might be able to make something work on this laptop, though.
I'm very very close!
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[24 Nov 2008|07:57am] |
I sold some records at a sale organized by J. Euphonius Mulvey on Saturday, and it was pretty heartening. I showed up right at opening time, a crowd of enthusiastic vinyl predators ready to pounce, and I was pretty excited that this particular batch was REALLY INTO my weird old swap-meet punk rock and no-wave records. I now regret not seeding the mixture with a Gang Wizard record to see if someone would bite.
Then there were five subsequent hours where things were quiet. John played a Spinners record and I did crosswords on a swivel stool. It was pretty blissful and I bought the record. I also learned that I like the Bee Gees' _Horizontal_. There was a heated discussion over which Seals and Crofts hit was superior, "Diamond Girl" or "Summer Breeze". Yuma Nora or Speechless Brothers fans will know that I favor the latter, but Brian was pretty adamant about the superiority of the former. We played John's dollar-bin copy of Seals and Crofts' Greatest Hits. Advantages:
DIAMOND GIRL: guitar solos, sweet is-the-record-skipping breakdown at the end
SUMMER BREEZE: toy piano, impossibly catchy
In the end, there was unanimous agreement about the superiority of "Summer Breeze."
NASOALMO UPDATE: I'm on it. I now have probably about twenty-five minutes, maybe more, of new material. Songs I have finished (or nearly so, pending application of Language Master magic):
Cedes
--- (possibly to be titled at some point)
Stay (please no references to horrible identically titled songs this time)
August 2006
Yields
(An) Ash Tree (not sure about this title either)
Song Sung Forever
So far the songs are a little melancholy, surprise surprise, but I can deal with that. I think I need one sweet number in there for balance's sake. I'm almost done!
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