Prepare Yourselfes

From Oliver

2009-03-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

"this is dumb - but give it a minute - it has a lil' surprise... WHAT!? OK."

review: Larry Polansky's The Theory of Impossible Melody

2009-03-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

For those not familiar with Larry Polansky, The Theory of Impossible Melody, a collection that includes highlights of his many focuses since the mid 1970's, serves as an excellent primer for the composer's music.

On "(B'rey'sheet) (in the beginning...) (Cantillation Study #1)" (1985), Polansky incorporates text from the Torah (sung by composer, performer and Polansky's wife, Jody Diamond) with "live interactive computer". As the voice recites, the software interprets and outputs a set of rules to determine intervals and tuning, creating an intriguing series of intricate textural shadows that eventually unwind into a series of suspensions and sustained notes during the final section of the piece. "Epitaph (Four Voice Canon #21) (tmfg)" (1975) is a conversation between the composer's improvisations on fretless electric guitar (each voice in a different tuning) versus his MEAP software, all wrapped in a mensuration canon (a technique where each subsequent voice uses an augmented or degraded rhythmic duration and all end simultaneously). As per the tradition of this form, each subsequent sound file inspires increased, bristling tension via serialized panning, pitch, length and "spectral stability" until the argument finishes in a hard-right squeak. The 23-minute highlight of the disc, "Simple Actions/Rules of Compatibility" (1989), is a bi-formal work that merges an HMSL performance (software Polansky designed as a live A.I. style tool, one that morphs simple musical gestures into sophisticated musical forms) with a digitally enhanced narration by Australian poet, Chris Mann. The result is an FM synth-driven cacophony of glassy beeps, bubbling glisses and LFO sirens elided by Mann's tongue-twisting phrases at the 11:33 mark. Polansky uses Mann's voice as source material, "one of the (simple) musical 'actions'", which he feeds into HMSL, the program quickly morphing the artist's prose into a nervous sidecar of glitches, staccato screeches and legato bass tones. The disc's coda, "Psaltery" (1978-9), is, on paper, an incredibly complicated fifty-one pitch-based work for the one-string instrument of the same name. However, despite the complexity of the extra-musical processes (the graph in the liner notes is a head spinner), the system is transparent and the piece emanates elegance, beauty and a meditative aesthetic in the vein of Ellen Fullman's long-stringed instrument performances.

During a master class, Polansky once said, "Every composer has one, maybe two great ideas during his lifetime", but as evidenced on this album, Polansky has made a career of taking numerous intriguing yet difficult ideas and making them extraordinary. For example, he may not have invented the mensuration canon, but his three decades of dedication (see "Four-Voice Canons") earns him near-ownership of the genre. Likewise, Polansky's fervor for and exploration of Gamelan, computer-assisted composition, microtonal scales and just intonation translates into a mastery few possess on one of these subjects let alone all of them.

Dave Madden

http://www.squidsear.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=893

yes (Janes Addiction and Nine Inch Nails tour this summer -- together)

2009-02-27T15:08:00.000-08:00

NIN: Burn Live from on stage, Melbourne 2.25.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

NIN: 1,000,000 Live from on stage, Sydney 2.22.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Sometimes, I can't figure out what to say

2009-02-26T13:44:00.000-08:00

I start over at "Rambling background"

Chain and the Gang
Down With Liberty… Up With Chains!
K Records
Street: 04.07
Chain and the Gang = Mojo Nixon + Modern Lovers + D.N.A.
Rule of thumb: be very skeptical of anything that smacks of "No Wave", especially anything after 1984, as it is one of numerous genres that non-musicians hear and think "this is so easy, I can do this". But look back at any of the bands with substance during the heyday and you see musical geniuses such as Arto Lindsay and Glen Branca at the helm. After five seconds of the slinky "Chain Gang Theme (I See Progress), your mind screams "New York, 1980", but you notice Not some dumbshit with a borrowed Jasmine acoustic.
Describe what it is
Old school political messages which works, somehow "politics, you gotta throw a brick (July twenty-six)"
From rocking "interview with the chain gang"
Starts simple
Shows depth
Purposeful sloppiness
Reparations

Rambling background
Chain and The Gang is Nation of Ulysses, Weird War, The Make-Up etc. founder Ian Svenonius's latest punk outlet, and, knowing his penchant for anything goes, this project is exactly what you expect: anything goes! Rooted in a sloppy No-Wave aesthetic (the interesting, creative version of that crud), ___'s lackadaisical
He still hates indie rock and stupid interviewers (" America is still one big conspiracy ("Deathbed confession")

Pissed but cool vocal delivery
(You might mistake this for a re-release from 1980)

The line-up and style might change, but the song remains the same: Svenonius' 13-Point Program to Destroy America is still in effect.

Squid's Ear -- First Review!

2009-02-21T07:21:00.001-08:00

http://www.squidco.com/cgi-bin/news/newsView.cgi?newsID=866

I is famous

2009-02-20T09:48:00.001-08:00

http://www.unplggd.com/unplggd/flickr-finds/flickr-finds-organized-workflow-or-a-messy-production-076943

Bit Blob

2009-01-23T10:45:00.001-08:00

"The Bit Blob is a digital noise maker that's controlled by connecting its contacts together, allowing you to bend your way through unlimited sonic madness. You can also connect LEDs, audio outputs, or other Bit Blobs between control pins!"

I LOVE KORG!

2009-01-19T09:22:00.001-08:00

Electro-Harmonix Voice Box: $200, Fun Voice and Instrument Effects, Gender, Vocoder

2009-01-13T11:52:00.000-08:00

I love the voice box, but I'm really posting this for the video.

Mixtape for my Boo

2009-01-08T10:40:00.000-08:00

To be played on your last day, whenever that is.

Heliocentrics "Beyond Repair" Because it seems that way, and this is a good intro.

Public Enemy "Lost at Birth" "The future holds nothing else but confrontation."

Techno Animal "Cruise Mode 101" It's about driving fast and running from the cops. The music sounds like a bulldozer.

Fugazi "Song #1" "Song #1 is not a FUCK YOU SONG", but it really is

Bauhaus "Kick in the Eye 2" 'Nuff Said.

Radiohead "Bangers & Mash" “I'm standing in the hall/I'm puking on the wall/I'm takin' you down"

Quasimoto "Bullyshit" Assholes abound.

The Birthday Party "Release the Bats" You really, really want heroin days Nick Cave and his bats on your side.

Marilyn Manson "Irresponsible Hate Anthem (Cycle 1, The Heirophant)" “I wasn’t born with enough middle fingers.”

Beastie Boys "Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun" This leads to…

Joy Division "Dead Souls" Well, more looking down the barrel of a moral gun leads to dead souls.

Spank Rock and The Chemical Brothers "Keep My Composure" Gotta do it, then...

Battles "Race: In" This sounds like a hurry and leave the building, jump the bushes, run run run song.

Juliana Hatfield "What A Life" This doesn't have much to do with anything, but she clears her throat and hocks a loogey, and I figure it's at something she doesn't like.

The Stooges "Search and Destroy" I don't need to explain this. If I do, please see Life Aquatic and Bill Murray" heroics during a hostage crisis for proof of why you want this song playing when you kick down a door.

Melt Banana "Shield Your Eyes, A Beast In The Well Of Your Hand" It's loud, so loud. Just total destruction and piercing arrows into hearts (in a bad way).

Racebannon "Satan's Kickin' Yr Dick In, Part V" The title says it.

Prefuse 73 "The End of Biters-International" No bitch-ass-ness.

Dalek "Bricks Crumble" Boom!!

Ministry "Thieves" “Thieves, thieves and liars/murderers/hipocrites and bastards/in laughter.”

Atari Teenage Riot "Your Uniform (Does Not Impress Me!)" Lots of screaming and "you don't impress me...FUCKER!"

MDFMK "Rabble Rouser" Lots more screaming, and rabble rousing.

KRS-One "Sound Of Da Police" Fuck the police.

Dizzee Rascal "Sirens" Fuck the Police!

J Dilla "Fuck the Police" What did I just say???!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GZA "Swordsman" Swagger-inspiring music and "I'm not caught up in politics".

GZA "I Gotcha Back" Because I do.

Missy E with Lil Kim "Hit Em Wit Da Hee" "Nightbox filled with benjamins."

DJ Gyngyvytus "The National Headbustaz Anthem" Because it says headbustaz, it’s a Radiohead cover and it's ridiculous.

Robot Ate Me "Every Nazi Plane Has a Cross" Because that place is full of Nazis.

ADULT. "In My Nerves" Because they got in your nerves.

David Bowie "Running Gun Blues" Well...it's about Viet Nam, and what happens after you kill them all. So don't do that.

MC Paul Barman "Anarchist Bookstore part 1" Because it rips on pseudo-intellectual assholes.

Method Man "What the Blood Clot" Because I say that every time I hear something new about your job.

Top Music of 2008

2008-12-24T10:29:00.000-08:00

Top stuff

Tobacco Fucked Up Friends: melotron strings, talk boxes, chugging shit-beats, short songs, a strange collaboration with Aesop Rock. Just perfect.

Flying Lotus Los Angeles: mangled percussion mixes with swooping sounds, tore-up samples, simmered in hyper compression.

Chris Corsano The Young Cricketer: junk percussion meets gamelan meets the freest of jazz drumming.

Autechre Quaristice: The duo goes back in time, again and again, visiting their past works and updating them. So many ideas – I will make time for them.

Nine Inch Nails The Slip: In a review, I said "A brief drone and we're off: '1,000,000' growls with Stooges riffs and hypnotic, distorted dive-bombs; the broken, unquantized swagger of 'Letting You' drips with overdrive, reaching near Atari Teenage Riot proportions before gradually peeling off with some skewed pop tracks, the bi-polar pedal-screwing solo on 'Head Down', a piano/vocal interlude, two atmospheric instrumentals and the hyperactive closer, 'Demon Seed'."

Honorable mention

Steinski put out his What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective, the mix-tape dreams are made of; an equal blend of humor, cool and certifiable badass collage-work by the master.

Matmos worked their magic (Supreme Balloon), eschewing microphones in favor of all manner of synths (with a guest spot by Terry Riley!)

Power Pill Fist’s (bassist of Black Moth Super Rainbow) Kongmanivong is a terrific display of crappy programming and audio engineering. So many do this crunchy, loud 8-bit aesthetic, only a few get it right – he got it right.

Odd Nosdam released a collection of remixes and b-sides with Pretty Swell Explode, all really atmospheric/hip-hop/dusty.

Head Resonance Company’s 19 Tracks for Unknown People is "Scrappy drum machines crackle under walking basslines, synth bells and bit-reduced news reporters ('4'), delay pedals feedback wildly with horn fragments, thunderous brass and "warning!" sirens ('6') and robots make they own version of jazz via Moogs and energy stabs ('10')."

Pink Skull Zeppelin 3 (dance music for people who don’t want to dance, and the Ghostface/Spank Rock/Amanda Blank remix is still on repeat)

Christian Weber Walcheturm Solo (38 minutes of upright bass)

A Place to Bury Strangers S/T (Joy Division and early The Cure goes loud, so loud they broke a 10" vinyl press)

New things to me:

Can – what took me so long to find this band? I always knew I would worship at their musical feet (esp. the albums Monster Movie, Soundtracks, Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi.)

Black Moth Super Rainbow – obviously (see all the numerous references above), I’ve taken this and run run run.

I'm trying to win stuff

2008-12-23T07:58:00.000-08:00

This is for a contest for music stuff.

"How to WinTo win the whole lot, tell us about the lamest holiday gift you ever received in less than 200 words. Winners will be chosen based on the best (or lamest) answers. "

My answer:

It’s a tie: 1) my drunken step-father laughing and yelling “there is no Santa!” at me as my mom is leaving him on Christmas day (I was nine) and this other thing.

My grandmother used to offer a lot of charity to people in her church. One lady in particular, a blind woman, always hit up the congregation for favors. At age twelve, my grandmother commissioned this woman to craft my Christmas present. As I ripped apart the wrapping, I could feel and see an ungodly fabric emerging – something akin to a bedspread in some creepy 1960’s psychedelic lair. Inside was a two foot stuffed orangutan doll. The limbs, loose and misshapen, probably belonged to a dilapidated Raggedy Ann; the aforementioned patchy fur was a rash waiting to happen; at the end of each arm, a pasty, plastic left hand (you read that correctly). But the worst part was the jarring smile and eyes which opened as I laid the ape down, closed when I picked it up. Just haunting! (Note: Poltergeist came out the summer before I received this gift and, despite my grandma’s feelings, I kept this thing buried in the bottom of my toy box at night.)

And lest we forget (this has nothing to do with anything, but today I was thinking about the first time I saw this and how it blew me away)...

This doesn't work with my library

2008-12-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

1. Put your Music on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?def. rmx - Thomas Korber

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?Days in Thirds - Parts & Labor

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?Wild International - One Day as a Lion

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?May this be love - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?Electric bear - The Notwist

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?Satan's Kickin' Yr Dick In, Part V - Racebannon (I couldn't make that up)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?Le Isole Dell'amore From Le Isole Dell'amore - Piero Umiliani

WHAT IS 2+2?Ponytail - Panda Bear

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?Querulanten - Einstürzende Neubauten

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?Resonants 3 - nonnon

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?Caravan - Wes Montgomery

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?Life Changes - Wu-Tang Clan

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?Arvio [Long Edit] - Pan Sonic

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?All In Love is Fair - Stevie Wonder (that is one sad wedding)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?Tough Guy - Beastie Boys

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?Something I Can never Have - Nine Inch Nails

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?You Can Do it Too - Pharrell Williams

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?Boundless Boundaries - Onra

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?They Get it From an Elf's Head - nonnon

HOW WILL YOU DIE?Who Wants to Die? - Dub Trio

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?The Hands of Small Children - Marilyn Manson

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?What do we mean by coaching? - Chris Corsano

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?Miles Runs The Voodoo Down - Miles Davis

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?Track One - Günter Müller (from Reframed)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?Astrakhan - The Bowling Green

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?R.U.O.K? - KMFDM

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?1850 (Icy Demons - Pink Skull Remix) - Pink Skull

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?Turning On - Echoboy

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?K'vakarat - Osvaldo Golijov

2008-11-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

"Meanwhile, all this business about the gay New Hampshire clergyman makes the Episcopalians sound like marketing representatives: their fear (at least from the antigay contingent) is that electing a homosexual bishop will stop people from going to church. Nothing depresses me more that hearing an organized religion worry about membership. Do they think Jesus is somehow impressed by voter turnout? Do they think God gives preference to religions that appear especially popular? It's not like God allocates federal funding to religious organizations that meet a quota. Several callers also used this issue to moronically rail against potential legalization of gay marriage. I find this profoundly depressing. In my opinion, we must legalize gay marriage. Gay males are the only men in America who still want to be married."

(Chuck Klosterman, p. 104 Killing Yourself to Live) 2005)

2008-11-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

Oz Fritz
All Around the World
2004

A recurring notion in Ray Bradbury's writing is an idea of televisions - giant ones that cover entire walls - that engulf the viewer (the more affluent your family, the more screens you have, generally all located in a single room). Not simply a statement on the harm of television, Bradbury's version of televised entertainment is a bit more involved, the viewer literally sinking into the program to participate (i.e. your children leave the living area to wander in tall African grass).

Oz Fritz might not pluck a note, press a key, strike a drum or sing a note, but he makes wonderful music. As he explains to a young passerby during the first few minutes of track one, Oz Fritz makes "recordings", but it's not as simple as that: Fritz catalogs the music and ambience of holy places, Asian countries and unnamed city streets and transparently arranges them into a fascinating, dynamic, intimate program, not unlike the aforementioned Bradbury scenario. One moment you're walking to your pew during an organ prelude ("Our Lady") then enjoying hymns from Easter Mass performed on skin drums and dulcimers ("Easter Mass Midnight Mass"). Suddenly, you're plunged into a temple full of explosive drum reverberations, the local fowl chiming in for good measure ("Temple Drumming"). From Egypt to Brooklyn, Fritz's work takes you there, plunging you head first, teleporting you like a news reporter, on the scene at every story, during the evening news. This is a real-time sonic documentary of the world you can almost touch and smell.

One guy on Amazon said the following (I think it's important you get the immediate reaction from someone who doesn't normally follow this sort of music.

"I bought these field recordings due to the Laswell connection.I found this cd hard to listen to.You get sounds with people talking in the background, some native music, some vocals,percussion and drones .Alot was unlistenable noise as if on a bus in a forign land and OZ recorded the sounds.Reminds me of the soundtrack to a National Geographic movie."

No on Prop 8

2008-11-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

So California has this Proposition 8 on the ballot this year. Voting YES means you, essentially, define a marriage as that between a man and a woman and nothing else. This year, the LDS aka Mormon Church decided to flaunt their power and do everything they can to support this issue because, well, their stance is "you can be gay, but you're not allowed to kiss, you certainly can't get married to someone of the same gender and you need to do whatever it takes (i.e. shock therapy, marriage to the opposite gender) to cure yourself of this disease (yes, it is treated like a desease).

So the LDS Church read manifestos from the pulpit (coming from The Prophet at the headquarters in SLC, Utah), donates money ($3k that they will admit to), asked others to donate money, and enlisted volunteers in Utah to call Californians to remind them of this pressing matter. Yet they will not admit to the real issue: they really, really dislike gays and use matters such as this as a way to hate in a civilized manner. I have a million stories that support this, but that's for another time.

And their excuse for their political push (despite being tax exempt) is that "oh, gays will request to be married in our sacred temple, we will deny them because of our strict rules about the temple and they will sue us." And they claim this is a "moral issue" not a political one, hence skating around the tax exempt status. The LDS Church is run by current/former lawyers and has endless money so I'm sure they will be fine on both of these matters.

Anyway, I wrote to Katie and told her what's going on here in Utah with regard to her State. I am sure she was already doing something about this, but yeah, here she is, out there fighting while I'm taking some Breakfast Club Trivia Quiz...

Cabbage Patch Palin

2008-11-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

First: You put a dick in the box.

Second: you put your dick in that booxxx

This is from a charity auction on eBay. Current high bid: $5100

2008-10-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

"Art is still quite difficult. Artists are still artists and the culture outside art is still outside it; it hasn't moved in with abstractions and difficulty. It has just given art a different job -- not to be so serious all the time. 'You're fired!' the ordinary world says to abstractions and difficulties in art. 'But you're on double overtime with big Christmas bonuses!' it says to all blandness in art."

(Matthew Collings, from This is Modern Art)

John Zorn on his piece "Cobra"

Turbo is only a sticker away

2008-10-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

You know, Bush just basically said "don't panic" (while the stock ticker on the side of the screen told us otherwise). Very Hitchhiker's Guide... of him. But really, that's what I was about to say.

When I lived in Puerto Rico (1989-1991), I saw a shit-ton of primered-out, ten-year old cars, mostly Toyotas. I'm not sure if this is still the Puerto Rican way, but boy did boys and girls love to pimp out their crappy cars with shiny rims, uncomfortable bolt-rattling stereos, by punching holes in their mufflers and topping it off with a supposedly pimped-out engine.

Commenting on these cars, a friend of mine once said "Turbo is only a sticker away." I laughed, hard, back then about this phrase amd have used it a million times in different situations.

Today, I could say "Recession is only a sticker (or graphic, thanks Sarazarr for that) away", or "No credit is only a sticker away". Were you in a home last week, but now sitting on a curb or living in a dumpster? No? Then Recession is only a sticker away. Someone told you that things are horrible, but who did that? The News makes its living telling you to live in fear so you'll keep watching. Don't panic.

Dude, this nation is acting like idiotic Generation Gimme Gimme Gimme aka Generation Grasshopper (as opposed to Generation Ant, people who lived through a bona fide Depression)because we can only afford the 2200 sq ft, not the 3200 sq ft, house.

And hello, we're getting close to an election. You don't think things are skewed a bit to guide votes?

But Bush just said we, as a nation, will continue to live above our means. What a renob. That reminds me of one of my favorite The Onion articles.

"A Shattered Nation Longs To Care About Stupid Bullshit Again"

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28129

I love the pic of Britney and the snake.

Tobacco (from Black Moth Super Rainbow) "Hawker Boat"

2008-10-05T14:52:00.001-07:00

I bet he loves his job.

Radiohead "Reckoner"

2008-10-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here is my remix.

Wordz

2008-09-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

Every six months or so, I pick up this book, 30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary. I read for about two days before I forget about it, but it's still a good resource (aka 1) it is more informative than TV 2) it makes me feel stupid and want to improve myself).

This morning, I finally read the preface. Then I read that it was first published in 1940 (then 1970).

Here is why the author, Dr. Wilfred Funk & Norman Lewis, feel I would benefit from this text.

"Your boss has a bigger vocabulary than you have.

That's one good reason why he's your boss.

This discovery has been made in the word laboratories of the world. Not by theoretical English professors, but by practical, hard-headed scientists who have been searching for the secrets of success.

After a host of experiments and years of testing they have found out:

That if your vocabulary is limited your chances of success are limited.

(some other junk)

It has long since been satisfactorily established that a high executive does not have a large vocabulary merely because of the opportunities of his position. That would be putting the cart before the horse. Quite the reverse is true. His skill in words was a tremendous help in getting him his job.

(some other stuff)

Armies fight for phrases: "Make the world safe for Democracy"; "V for Victory"; "Remember Pearl Harbor." Words have changed the direction of history. Words can also change the direction of your life. They can raise a man from mediocrity to success."

1940 was a different era. I challenge you to challenge your boss and her boss and her boss to a crossword.

F.A.R.T.

2008-08-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Anyway, I'm washing my hands in the office bathroom yesterday and I hear this guy talking on his phone in the stall. I also hear poop noises, and he's the only one in there.

"It's imperative that we go forward on this..."

Business talk like that mixed with pooping.

He ends it with, "I'm not at home, now. I'm in the office". And then he farts, bigtime. And then he flushes, biggertime!!!

No one, no one, no one is that important; no phone call is that important.

Then I thought about something a co-worker said about swearing and how "fuck" is a powerword for dominant businessmen, like dudes who jock their way into power. They swear like this to show they can get things done.

So is shitting while talking business a power move as well?

I will never succeed in business.

"It's The Maestroooooo!!!!!!"

2008-08-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

What was I doing late April of 1992? Well, I was a repo-man for a rent-to-own place called Colortyme. What a drag! No really, this is the worst job I ever had. More than just delivering washers and dryers and fridges and entertainment centers and sofa beds* to people around the slums of Ogden, Utah, this was an active collections job. However, if you rent from these places, it is a civil matter, meaning we had to take the matter into our own hands (bank loans and car repossessions allow you to bring a constable or other law enforcement/guns with you).

So the three delivery/collections employees all had routes that we had to work, and the company had a policy about your route: at the end of every week, we each needed to have our customers down to 6% or lower. That is, 94% or more of your customers had to be paid up for the week (other rent-to-own places in the area were on a monthly basis, so they worried about this 74% less than we did).

Scraping, scraping, scraping the bottom of the barrel each week, I would hound everyone for money, or their goods, though picking up their goods meant less money for us and that all figured into another scheme of “we want xx units out to customers”. Hence, we wanted money.

We inadvertently trained most of the flakey customers to wait for us to pick up their payments (it’s much easier to let someone come to you rather than drive or mail your bills). So I’m stopping by on Sunday mornings (the job was supposed to be a 9-5, but I worked seven days per week, 10 hours a day, usually), or Saturday nights, or Friday at 1 am on the way home from trying to have my own life to catch these people and shake $40 out of their pockets. Many times, it was a screaming match on the lawn or just knocking on a door fifty times with “I know you’re in there!” before I got the money; my friend Tony (high school friend who got me the job after I had been out of the country for two years and was desperate for work) would generally knock, some guy would give $20, he would knock again, get $20 more, knock again and get more money from these deadbeats. Horrible.

Besides the scary times (walking down pitch black apartment corridors at 11 pm, putting my hands on the wall and feeling my way alone for someone’s door, waiting to put my hands on some hobo who will kill me for my shoes), the low point was X-mas of 1991. I had hounded this one customer for a month and could never find them home. On X-mas eve, I stopped by, just ‘cuz. A seven-year old answers the door. He and his younger brother were alone in the house, playing Nintendo. Guess what I was there to collect money on. Yes, the TV. I took their TV. I know it is not my fault, but I certainly had no charity in this situation (the kids didn’t seem very surprised about it, unhooking the video game and starring at the floor). Fudge!

The second low point was late April of 1992 when these two brothers – guys who treated bill collections as a funny game – decided they wanted to fight me as I came by on Easter morning. They had knives, but I didn’t give a shit. I was seriously about to murder these guys over it all – I was that worn out and miserable because I had let the job turn me into a monster of sorts. Well they were all talk and the situation sort of diffused, but I didn’t get any money from them (my friend, who was soon fired, fudged the numbers that week to make it look like were made our quota).**

There are those musical moments that come along right when you need them, and the Beastie Boys’s Check Your Head (released April 25, 1992) happens to be one of the top ten ones in my life. As one of the songs on this album (“Professor Booty”) mentions, "I’ve been through many times in which I thought I might lose it/The only thing that saved me has always been music".

I’m not going to go into why I love this album so much (i.e. the first album where one of my favorite bands actually buckled down and treated their work as more than a party; the classic bassline of “Gratitude” that probably inspired 100,000 dudes to buy a bass guitar; all the lines I quote from each song, such as “good morning/it’s time to get up and GO TO WORK!”; the brilliance of “So What’cha Want”, how 1) the scratching on there established my love of turntable-as-instrument 2) the drums on that track is something I’m always striving to achieve when I think “I need big drums”), but this is something I needed to ground me from all the horrible things I had going on at the time (this job was my life, pretty much).

In 1993, I lost my first copy. I bought a new one immediately.

In 2001, I lost my second copy and didn’t bother getting a new one until 2007.

In 2008, some dink broke into my car and stole my stereo. Last night, I figured out that Check Your Head was in there. For a week, I kept saying "I need to rip that to my iTunes...eh I want to listen to it in the car".

To be continued, Check Your Head...

* Sofabeds weigh a ton, if you didn’t know. We once delivered one to a trailer park. I rolled my eyes once I figured out the address because I knew it was someone who hadn’t done the math. After ½ hour of us dragging it down the hallway, 20 minutes to fit in the room, we opened the bed to find that the woman needed about 3 more feet of room for it to open all the way. We tried all kinds of shit, lifted and dragged some more (wearing ties and collared shirts, we were) to no avail. It took twice as long to drag it back to the van, all the while the woman bitching about how “it should fit”. It doesn’t lady, what the hell do you want??!

** The one brother came in that week to pay. He wore a smirk on his face as he stared at me. I started shaking, and had completely lost my mind for a moment. I screamed, “What the fucking fuck are you looking at you fuckhead!!!?!?” Nice words from a dude who had been out preaching scripture to the Puerto Rican peoples a few months before.
*** I didn’t know until a few years ago that frat boys co-opted the Beastie Boys as party anthems. I choose to ignore that.

Bunch of Reviews

2008-07-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

Christian Weber
Walcheturm Solo
Cut
Street: 5.13
Christian Weber = Joëlle Léandre + Ray Brown + George Crumb

Despite a list of collaborators longer than your genealogy, upright bassist Christian Weber demonstrates his ability to go it alone for 38 minutes with no edits, no electronics and no loop stations on this live recording. Exploring the entire spectrum of the instrument’s ability – and then some – Weber begins his monolog by pinching and pulling strings deeply and intently enough to resemble the team of lumberjacks who first bore his bass. Continuing in this fashion, he slowly introduces his gamut of techniques, furiously juggling slaps, sul pont, scraped rhythms, pizzicato, felt-not-heard drones, sprinkles of melody, microtonal pulses and wood creaks into a lovingly tangled texture; despite this History of Extended Techniques, Weber is a master who manages these into a cliché-free, hypnotic performance. After an intoxicating, growling climax, Weber descends into muted plucks and carefully paused punches of harmonic waves that echo the Zürich concert hall as the curtain falls.

Pink Skull
Zeppelin 3
Free News Projects
Street: 4.01
Pink Skull = New Order + Can + Basement Jaxx

On Zeppelin 3, Pink Skull main-man Julian Grefe set out to revisit an era of electronica when “a house record didn’t have to be between 126 and 130 (bpm)”. This is no continuous mix but rather a mixtape for a party where everyone convenes and somehow gets along. Like the Led Zep classic of the same name (Grefe even plays on their “Bonzo’s Montreux” with the timbale-laden “Gonzo’s Cointreau”), there are twists around every corner; one minute Grefe has you on your feet then demands you close your eyes, fold your arms and enjoy serene washes of feedback and samples (“Ssilt”). From the odd and laughable Chemical Brothers-like “Itchy Woman” to the utterly badass Plastic Little remix of “Crambodia” (featuring Spank Rock’s chanteuse Amanda Blank, Spank Rock and Ghostface Killa) to the utterly off-key porch thumping kaleidoscope “Take Me Out Riding” (with Mirah), Grefe would do well at a disparate event such as All Tomorrow’s Parties – playing it all by himself!

N*E*R*D
Seeing Sounds
Star Trak
Street: 6.10
N*E*R*D = Stevie Wonder + Quincy Jones + The Jungle Brothers

Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams aka The Neptunes aka N*E*R*D. (it’s rumored that third member Shae really does all the work): geniuses or a couple of dorks who accidentally made a musical footprint as large as Timbaland? Whatever, as their hit-and-miss history over the past couple of years is mostly forgiven on this third album. After a brief skit, the album does exactly as the first title suggests: it’s “Time for Some Action”, the band ripping into slinky bass guitar, snare and panned whispers; apparently the duo recently discovered drum ‘n’ bass, or simply decided now is the hour to bring it back, as evidenced on the scratched-out “Everyone Nose”, the swaggering “Spaz” and Check Your Head meets E40 mix of “Anti Matter”. Except for the ersatz pop rock number, “Happy”, and the bored ballad “Love Bomb”, fans who embrace the group for their eclectic nature will celebrate and give thanks that Hugo and Williams still save the most interesting beats for their solo work.

No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976-1980
Thurston Moore and Byron Coley
Abrams Image
Street: 6.01

1970’s New York, a time of polemic filth and fury with displaced art kids crashing head first into the detritus to form bands without which we would have no Rapture, LCD Soundsystem or (insert a hundred names here). Framed around this incredible gathering of black & whites are interviews (conducted by the Thurston Moore and writer/editor/et cetera Byron Coley) with artists deep in the thick of said scene (i.e. James Chance, Glen Branca, Ikue Mori, Robert Quine and the ever-verbose Lydia Lunch), club owners, iconic groupies and passers-by, including Brian Eno who gives his perspective on the immortal Eno “produced” No New York compilation. Having been active participants during this era, the authors do a spectacular job of detailing the tenuous camaraderie, insular tension and the seeds of No Wave’s demise. Not simply for those who know the difference between “No Wave” and “New Wave”, the eye candy and history lessons make for an illuminating, universally appealing document.