Zio – Demo 1 from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo.
Glenn Marshall has designed generative/reactive video art for Peter Gabriel. That’s really all I need to know. And very soon, he’ll be doing the same thing on your iPhone. Technology * (sound +vision) = higher consciousness.
Notice Uncle Leo hiding behind the guitar in the picture above.
[audio:http://mpomy.com/Music/Powerless.mp3]Powerless – this is more musical microblogging, very much in the spirit of Hector & Achilles, but with better software. I’m not sure if it’s a better result. Anyway, the goal was to get both Guitar Rig and Reason running through Logic. That worked great, except I couldn’t quite figure out how to use the Logic instruments without triggering the Reason stuff. And the video tutorial I was working from sucked, so there was still a lot of trial and error. And Uncle Leo kept walking on the laptop – big surprise there.
So this is a pair of Dr Rex rhythms coming through Reason (first one then both patterns), acoustic piano from the Reason NN-19 sampler (but using reverb and chorus from Logic) and a Thor patch called Alan Turnig’s Dream, also through Reason.
Guitar was supplied by my old Travis Bean, still in need of some cosmetic repair work. Sadly, it was too late at night to run live out of the Lab Series amplifier, so I settled for a cheezy preset from Guitar Rig. You have to hand it too Native Instruments, even the feedback from the Bean’s high output humbuckers is faithfully modeled. Basically this is supposed to be a Vox AC-30 (2×12) with a bit of delay. I don’t like these digital models for guitar, but they are damned convenient, especially after hours.
All other sounds were played on the Axiom 25 keyboard, which had to have its first hard reset because when I started all but three of the keys were non-functional. Fortunately the reset solved that problem.
Hopefully there is decent volume. My old GarageBand efforts are usually pretty quiet. This may be quiet too because the meters on Logic weren’t peaking. To my ears, though, it sounds OK. I haven’t tried to automate any panning or really doing anything left-right at all. Sorry – no spacial dynamics this time. I try to learn that as I get more comfortable with the recording, mixing and mastering.
This was really just an exercise, but I’m very pleased about it’s faithfulness to the original musical microblogging concept from Fretbuzz.net – almost exactly one minute.
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If you are a regular reader of DailyKos, then you probably know of Bill in Portland Maine and his extremely entertaining and informative “Cheers and Jeers’ feature. Today, he is interviewing one of the regular contributors to the DailyKos community – Malacandra a/k/a Miles Kurland. He’s a web developer and designer with strong political feelings and, apparently, great taste in music:
What kind of music makes you feel invincible to the GOP horde?
Progressive Rock, of course! These days, it’d be the Decemberists. As luck would have it, they were doing a gig in Pittsburgh during Netroots Nation, just a few blocks away from the conference center. I had the unforgettable experience of seeing both a rousing speech by Howard Dean and a kick-ass Decemberists concert all in one evening.
Two great tastes that taste great together!
(via UK70sProgRock and it’s kick ass twitter feed)
And I appreciate it, but Cousin Steve and I got totally fuckt over by the weather last night. About eight songs into their headlining set of what was described as an ‘all-weather event’, the Flaming lips were forced into a rain delay that eventually became a cancellation. I have never been so wet.
When we left the house, Em asked, “are you going to take a umbrella?” It had rained earlier, but wasn’t raining when we left. “Nah,” I replied, “we’ll just get wet.” And Steven added, “As Peter Gabriel said, ‘It’s only water.'” Oh, what fools we were.
OK – so what did we see? Of course, there was not a speck of rain for either of the two opening acts. A word about such beasts – they generally irritate the shit out of me. There are several reasons for this reaction. It could be one or all of the following:
Stardeath came out first. They had a retro-hipster look that went nicely with their alt guitars, a Jazzmaster at stage left and a crazy looking SG knockoff, possibly a late 70’s Yamaha, with tremolo, decals and a pointy protrusion on the headstock, perfect for popping balloons. That came in handy, because this outfit is fronted by Dennis Coyne, whose Uncle Wayne appeared to be encouraging the crew to shoot various projectiles at his nephew Dennis. Despite their earnest attempt to bring the psychedelic noise, it ended up sounding more like a Muppet Babies version of The Flaming Lips.
We were next treated, however, to a wonderful pallet cleanser in the form of Explosions in the Sky. This Texas quartet is a no frills (no light show, no costumes) instrumental space rock jam. Thirty minutes of drones and delay pedals, beginning with two guitars, bass and drums, and then switching to a three guitar attack with no bass. The attitude reminded me of The Battles but achingly simple, instead of mathematically intense. They clearly had a set and the songs and progressions varied in dynamics with great agility. They moved as one. I don’t know that I need to hear all their studio albums (there are six), but I was very impressed by the satisfying sonic meditation.
And then we have The FLips. I had tickets to one of their shows a few years back and it was simply canceled a few days before. I think there was a refund, but we never got an explanation. I love the progtatsic tendencies of this band and I know from video clips that they are a sight to behold in person. But the charismatic Mr. Coyne knew that we might be in for some measure of disappointment and told us, so gently and lovingly, that we might get screwed. Rain was coming. The hope was that they would be able to stop and the storm would blow through and then they’d start back up. The amount of lights and video and equipment make it obviously impossible to manage the performance in heavy rain. Even though the stage has an awning, the rain was expected to be blowing all over. They were apparently also concerned for the safety of the crowd.
And so they began. They entered by coming through a vagina and just started rocking like their lives depended on it. Wayne got in the Hamster ball and headed out into the crowd. Confetti and balloons were everywhere. Dancers on either side of the stage were dressed in either white mini-skirts, bustiers and capes, or as giant fuzzy white bunnies. And, despite my expectation to the contrary, there was very little ‘piped-in music’, due in part, I think, to the presence of an additional guitarist in stage.
After about 8 songs the rain started. As the first big drops fell, it was simply a drizzle. It was cooling and refreshing. Then, just as the band got into ‘Vein of Stars’, the onslaught began. I was soaked to the skin instantaneously, and even though I knew what was going to happen, it was a total shock to be that wet that quickly.
We tried to stick it out, hoping it would pass, but it did not. The rain would slow for a moment and a bandmember would appear on stage, and then it would come down twice as hard. The crowd stayed remarkably composed, but it was a mess, to say the least.
In response to demands from the audience, Wayne got back in the hamster ball for a few minutes and went crowd surfing once again. That was mighty big of him. After that, I had a feeling we were done, and I started the trek home. Steven inexplicably tried to tough it out a little longer, but showed up at my door sopping wet soon after I got back. I actually could hear the show being cancelled as I headed to Columbus Blvd and Spring Garden Street, where there was six inches of standing water in the intersection.
It was a night to remember, and not for all good reasons. I know I’ll get another chance to hear ‘Do You Realize’, ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ and maybe even ‘Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung’. But last night I had to have a glass half full of good live music, and overflowing with rainwater.
Harrisburg took a big step to letting the city raise sales tax and restructure (*shudder*) pension plan payments (assigning a portion of pensions for new employees to *ulp* 401k plans). Plan C is still set to go into effect on September 18, effectively dismantling large portions of city government (including the Court system?). The unions are not too psyched about the pension plans that will be avvailable for new employees, but its hard to see how we can quibble over details with so much on the line. The revised bill HB 1828 now goes back to the House for another vote. they’re still analyzing, but if we can get through that, we’re pretty much there and we can put Plan C back in the drawer.
What is unclear is whether this is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I know that the sales tax increase has some potential, but I also know there is a lot of fat in city government. Maybe we don’t need to eliminate 3000 jobs, but we do need to do something.
So let’s try a 77 minute track! That’s right, proggers! One disc, one song. That’s what we’re in for with the new Transatlantic album ‘The Whirlwind’ slated for an October 27 release this fall. We knew from back in April that the band had gotten together for a new record, but a project of this scope was not anticpated, nit by me, at least. Plus, there will be a 2CD version where the extra disc has four more originals and four covers. Oh, you know, what, that’s OK – I didn’t want to hear Mike Portnoy play Return of the Giant Hogweed, anyway. I mean, in these trying economic times it’s better for me not to know what that’s going to sound like.
Get the details at Transatlantic’s homepage, and mark your calendar for a very proggy Fall.
The good news people are reading Blogerantz! The bad news is that one of them is Dave Meros of Spock’s Beard.
Thanks for the nice words. Not so many thanks for offering our CD up for illegal downloading, though.
You P2P and Bittorent guys are killing us. .. literally.
Dave Meros / Spock’s Beard
Sorry about that, Dave. I thought the title (Live at Whiskey and Near Fest) was unavailable through conventional means, but I have since confirmed that it can be purchased directly at Radiant Records on CDR.
I’m pleased to say that I did purchase this item back in the day, as opposed to getting it from bittrorrent or P2P. My original vision with Blogerantz was to share music the way I did back in high school when I would copy Steve Hackett’s Defector for one friend and they would copy Tony Banks’ Curious Feeling for me. Behavior like that generally did not lead to cease and desist letters, even though it was technically in violation of copyright laws.
But I understand Dave’s point and I am very sensitive about posting ‘official’ releases for artists who are young or independent. Despite my deep and abiding love of Beardfish, I’m not posting any of their studio records at Blogerantz, no matter how much I want to spread the word. Those guys really need the money.
Another important piece of the puzzle is in place for HBO’s upcoming adaptation of the George R. R. Martin’s fantasy epic ‘A Game of Thrones.’ Jamie Lannister will be played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who had the lead as the doomed captain of the doomed starship in the doomed series Virtuality. You may recall that I loved Virtuality, even though I’m virtually the only person to have seen it. Anyway, Coster-Waldau did a nice job in the lead role and I’m very excited for his take on Jamie. This is a meaty part of the Game of Thrones series, but gains much more depth as you get a few thousand pages into the epic. Since HBO is currently only planing to adapt the first book (understandably), we’ll have to wait and see if the series survives long enough for Coster-Waldau to really get crazy with this character.
In the meantime, it’s very encouraging that the thing is moving forward. Its amazingly ambitious project, but HBO is already in too deep to turn around. Shooting begins in Ireland in October.
I would have thought, “No way!” Apple likes to be in its own little world, with its own little file protocols and its own OS and everythings locked down nice and tight. Of course, given the success of iTunes, maybe Apple is not too worried about letting me buy songs from Rhapsody while I’m strolling around town. It’s bold, and it looks like its actually going to happen.
Not that it’s supposed to, but with the second rape in as many weeks in our beautiful and sprawling city park, I wonder how bad it will be when (if?) Plan C goes into effect next month. Remember, Plan C provides that the Fairmount Park Commission ceases operations.
Whether or not the doomsday budget scenario goes into effect will be decided by a series of votes over the next few days. This is exciting, but not in a good way.
