Jimi's alive?

So I don't believe in God(it pains me to capitalize that word)

But I do believe in Jimi Hendrix being the closest thing the human world will come to experiencing(no pun intended) a higher power.  Don't believe me?  Just listen to Machine Gun off of Band of Gypsys or Hear My Train Comin' from Live at the Fillmore East for proof.

Its no secret that Jimi loved to bang women...........lots of them.  It got to the point where he needed a women to be in bed in order to fall asleep.

Jimi has been dead for 38 years now....that is until now.

Apparently some time ago Jimi was videotaped having sex and now some dumb fuck at Vivid Entertainment, makers of quality adult entertainment, wants everyone to see Jimi's choco fucking some broad for money.  

The most bothersome part is that the NY Times reported this story.  I don't even know why that's the worst part?  Maybe its because I consider that publication to be somewhat respectable.....whatever, it doesn't fucking matter.  Here's the link to see it yourself.  The second worst part is that you have to pony up 40 bones just to watch 11 minutes of him getting his rocks off.......fuck that shit.........he's still God

I finally popped my cherry!

So I finally did it.

It only took me 5 weeks but I got one under my belt.  Albeit its nothing special, but I think i've come a long way in 5 weeks.

Its basically a random repeater.  I bring in audio, loop the sound, then turn on the repeater which cuts the sound in random intervals set to my liking which I can control in real time.  If I turn off the effect, the sound will repeat itself exactly at the point I turned the effect off and will not decay, which is good and bad at this point.  The end result  though is a perfect glitch sound.  Although i'm not completely done with it and it does have some kinks ( i'd like to add some delay and a phase effect eventually) its a start.  The bad part is that I don't quite know how to use it effectively yet but thats not the point.  In the near future i'll post the patch in a text file so ya'll can mess around with it if you've got the program.

Cheers

Getting in touch with the woman inside of me

I always thought it would be "fun" to have the opportunity to dress in drag for an occasion.

This past friday KWVA hosted "Drag Queen Bingo" at the Downtown Lounge.

I had my occasion.

Let me say this: being a woman is harder then it looks.

Wearing heals is a challenge in itself. I almost broke a leg just putting them on. Walking is a whole other story. Regardless it was a ton of fun and we made a little money on the side. P.S. if you ever go to the Downtown Lounge to eat, try the Cedar Plank Salmon.



Portishead has a new album out, its called "Third," its the groups first album in like 12 years. I wanted this record to be more of the same and its not, which is a good thing. Going along with what I said about the new Dosh album, Portishead still sounds like Portishead but something is different, the hip hop element is almost completely gone, again, not a bad thing, but different. Beth Gibbons still has a great voice after all these years, she must be in her mid 40's. I've never had a chance to see them live, but i'm sure it would quite a show, although i'd rather see them in a small theatre instead of a massive festival, their music isn't suited for it. Its really great listening to a record before Pitchfork gets a hold of it, they makes people(me included) completely biased against music before even hearing it. It will be interesting to see what they give it. I hate rating records, but i'll give it a 7.5, i'm sure they'll give it an 8.2. Check it out when it drops next month.

The Sopranos might be the greatest show t.v. will ever have, I dare anyone to challenge me on that. Lindz and I are working our way chronologically and its fucking addictive. I suggest everyone do the same.

Its hard to be consistent these days

It must be really hard being a band.

You make a record.  It gets good review.  It does well.  People catch on.  You tour.  People come. You sell merch.  Make some money.  Tour Ends.  Take time off.  Record. Repeat.

I'm sure there is a lot of bullshit entwined in that mess but for the most part its consistent.

Its all fun and games the first time around but the real challenge comes when you try to do it again.  This time there is a standard.

You make a record.  You try something new.  It has a different sound.  It gets mixed reviews.  You get new fans.  You lose some fans.  You tour.  People somewhat come.  You sell less merch.  Make less money.  Tour ends.  Take time off.  Record label doesn't want you anymore.  Your back to working at Starbucks.

Point is that it's hard to please everybody.  You make a great record.  That establishes your sound.  If you try and do something different, 9/10 times you'll get ridiculed for it.  You do something similar, 9/10 you'll get ridiculed.

There are, of course, the exceptions.

Martin Dosh is one of them.

His new record, Wolves & Wishes(pictured below), is great, not amazing, but great.

He's a fellow Minnesotan and has been making music since 2000 with his drum kit, Rhodes piano, and his trusty Akai E2 Headrush pedal.

Like many before him and I'm sure many after, his first record laid the groundwork for his sound.  Four records later Dosh still sounds like Dosh..........but doesn't at the same time, and that's the great part.  His music has slowly evolved into what it is today.  Each album his built upon the last, adding subtle elements (be it a new piece of equipment or a few guests etc) to get a fuller sound.  Its also possible to say that his albums now have themes, almost concept like for christ sake.  Regardless, Dosh's musical progression should be the model for bands who want longevity in business that is extremely fickle.

For those who might not know who Dosh is, check this vid out to get an idea.

SIDE NOTE: Rock the Bells line just got announced: ATCQ, De La Soul, Mos Def, Nas, 3/5 of Wu Tang, Pharcyde, Spank Rock........I think live hip hop is extremely hit or miss, its either really fucking good or super fucking bad.....this, in theory, should be amazing.

I got grease on my kaki's damnit

A few years back I was at a "Festival" in northern Minnesota.

I awoke from a hard night of drinking and doing random drugs on the second day or something and proceeded to take my time with the morning.

I walked into the festival grounds mid afternoon with lady friend of mine in search of a decent bloody mary that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg.

20 minutes later and bloodymaryless we decided to drop in on Tulsa's finest avant jazz group Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey.

Having never experienced the group live I was pleased to see a band that kept its foot in traditional jazz yet pushed its boundaries in another direction.  Plus it didn't hurt having Bjork's Isobel as an opener.

Sidenote:  I started writing this about 4 days ago and never finished my thought so a lot of my built up anger and pointless details are now gone.  This tends to happen a lot when I do this shit.  You start off with an ok idea then you get sidetracked by getting high or watching tv or whatever and all is lost.  This post is kinda like a fuck you to forgotten thoughts.

ANYWAYS

I ended up attending JFJO at the WOW Hall last thursday on a whim hoping that I was going to see a quality jazz act and have my faith restored in live music.

None of that happened.

Right off the bat shit went downhill.  The band is supposed to be a 3 piece(bass, piano, drums) and there was a guitarist on stage with them who BLEW FUCKING ASS.  I mean really, this guy was terrible.  And to rub salt in my already gaping wound I found out that they don't play jazz anymore.  Instead I got treated to shitty fucking indie rock.  If I wanted that I could have just walked down to Cosmic Pizza and watch some pimple-faced fuck cry about how he cuts himself and can't get laid.  I mean I could go on about what went wrong that night but I don't have the energy and don't really care that much either, i'm just bitching for the sake of bitching.

Are there any live acts that are worth seeing anymore?  If there are please tell me.

If i've learned anything this weekend its this: Don't mess with large black women with dreadlocks and the sight of seeing Scott naked on the toilet, while very funny, makes me want to vomit and die.

I'm trying to lean Max/MSP

For those who don't know the software, Max/MSP by Cycling 74, is basically a blank canvas where a person creates "patches" from scratch that can do whatever is mathematically possible.  The program is so simple but yet so complex that I can't even begin to explain what it actually does; I tried explaining it to my roommate tonight and all that came out of my mouth were jumbled words and broken sentences.  To be completely honest I don't even know the point of the software to begin with, but what I do know is that its way cool and the possibilities are endless for music of any style.  The software is predominately used by electronic musicians who feel that conventional hardware and software won't allow them get what's inside of their head out into the open.  With Max/MSP they have the ability create whatever they want, whether it be a sound modulator or sequencer, all the parameters are set to the musicians liking and can be modified on the spot.  I'm not even doing this program justice so I'll shut up now.  You all can do your own research on the shit, trust me though, its way cool.

BTW: The pic at the top that looks like chaos is a Max patch.......it's Autechre's....word

There is a piece of musical gear called a "monome."  It takes the same concept of Max/MSP and applies it to hardware.  In fact, they work perfectly together.  When and if I ever learn this program I'd love to own one.  Too bad they cost like 500 bucks and sell out in minutes when they are released.

Check out what a monome is here:  http://monome.org

Fans of Daedelus can check out an article with him and his use of the monome: 

http://monome.org/here/reup_007.pdf

P.S.  I said today that no matter how hard I tried that I couldn't get myself to like M83.  His/their new album is pretty damn good.  Its hard to pin the sound to one certain genre but I guess that's a good thing.

Maybe I'll start doing full album reviews at one point in time cause I know that you guys and gals value my humble opinion so highly.

I need some money to buy shit I want.......i'll give you handjobs?

Until next time........

Fuck my mouth

I just had a root canal.

It wasn't a pleasant thing to go through.

I highly recommend that people do whatever it takes to avoid having the need for this procedure.

The doctor, excuse me, the DENTIST, said that there was a lot of pressure built up in my jaw.

When he drilled in to release it, tons of puss came out.

It smelled foul, I mean pretty bad to the point where I had to stop him and ask what the hell was that smell.

My jaw is fucked for the next few days.

THE END

I love the white powdery stuff

Just got back from a dope weekend at the mountain.  Can you believe that its snowing pretty damn hard in April? El Nino or La Nina or whatever the hell its called is really doing wonders for people who love to go down a mountain super fast with pieces of wood taped to their feet.

Pitchfork--- i'm talking about the website for those of you who have been living under a rock for the past 5-6 years-- has finally gone online with the state-of-the-art online T.V. service in an attempt to bring back the music video.  It seems like a great idea and should net the online publisher a ton of cash.  I'm not going to hold my breath for too long because good ideas never last very long and eventually turn to shit.  Just look at MTV.  They were cool......25 years later they blow massive dick.....you can't even watch a decent video anymore during the daytime hour, and if you are lucky to catch one, it will most likely feature a scantily clad afro-american women drinking a 40oz beverage being hovered over by a thug with shitty teeth....Anyways today marks the beginning of the end for Pitchfork Media......they represent a typical business living the american dream.......they had a great idea and it worked out well, now that it made them some money, they want to expand.  The company will eventually get too big for themselves and their performance will start to squander.  Granted this won't happen overnight, but TRUST ME, it will happen.  However, until then i'm going to watch and read everyday like a good little audiophile cause where else am I going to find out when DEATH CAB FOR LAMMIE is going to come to town?

Check the beta website here:  http://pitchfork.tv/

So this shit actually takes some effort

Ok, so, i'm a bit lazy in some area's of my life, blogging being one of them.  This shit takes some effort, hence posts might be few and far between but chill....i'm working on it.

I saw American Hardcore last night and its a great flick.  Now i'm not the biggest punk or hardcore fan, but I do like a few bands in the scene namely: Black Flag, Bad Brains, and Fugazi.  If your a person who doesn't really care for punk music, much like myself, I don't think this movie will turn you into a "hardcore" fan but it will give an open-minded person a glimpse into a scene that was actually legit........watch the movie punks.

On a side note, everyone should listen to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, its a great album from the best Beatle.