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Archive for the 'music' Category

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Late 70s/early 80s goodness

Published on March 1, 2007 in music. 0 Comments

Kelly and I caught an hour of live Joe Jackson on VH1 Classic tonight… it was a broadcast of a UK concert from the “Night and Day” tour, and it was awesome.

In addition to “Another World,” and “Steppin’ Out” from that album (pretty much my favorite all time record), he closed the show by belting out “A Slow Song,” which is the most interesting track on the record.

Needless to say, I was scouring YouTube afterward. You know how that goes:

Arcade Fire in NYC

Published on February 18, 2007 in music and photos. 0 Comments

Arcade Fire, Judson Memorial Church NYC Originally uploaded by activitystory.

We were lucky enough to get tickets to see the Arcade Fire at the Judson Memorial Church in NYC on Saturday (flickr photoset). I think the main highlight was “Wake Up” played in the crowd as an opener, but the whole show was great, and included a lot of new material. You can listen to the whole show at NPR. It let out really early, so we tried to go see Kevin at the Knitting Factory afterward, but, sadly, his show was sold out. The two-show challenge never works, as I unfortunately learned in hi school when the Coctails and Polvo played Dallas the same night at different clubs.

Late 90s Indie Rock Nostalgia continues

Published on February 10, 2007 in music, photos and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

After my last post and the Chavez reunion show I attended w/ Jay a few weeks back, I realize that I’ve entered a period of Late 90s indie rock nostalgia. I hope you’ll join me… . I suppose I’ll have to do a record jumble of this before I get over it.

Rock and roll heros on public radio

Published on January 30, 2007 in music and photos. 0 Comments

Jenny Toomey, formerly of Simple Machines/Tsunami and now of the Future of Music Coallition was on Bob McChesney’s Media Matters this past week, talking all sorts of smart stuff about music in the digital age. She had some particularly exciting things to say about indie lable distro via digital files at the end of the show (perhaps the final chapter to SMR’s Mechianic’s Guide…). It looks like the show’s not listed in the archive yet, but if you subscribe to the podcast, you’ll get it.

Anyway, hearing her talk got me all excited about the 1998 Simple Machines goodbye party, which a huge crew of folks from Greensboro went up to DC for. This was about the time I got my first digital camera, and I was taking pictures like crazy, but none from the shows have made it to our flickr. Here’s one of Trei and Ceri from that weekend, though. I’ll track the others down when I get home tonight. Late 90s nostalgia, here I come again.

Tsunami’s last album, A Brilliant Mistake, is one of those albums that no one really talks about, but that I have listened to 100s of times, and never went on a long drive without.

In other public radio news, David Byrne is on Soundcheck this afternoon, hopefully that will be the segment they podcast. It’s available here.

Ringtones recontextualized

Published on March 29, 2006 in music. 0 Comments

Someone sitting next to me in the TACC Visualization Lab (which is basically a darkened room full of curved displays) received several cell phone calls while we were watching a presentation, but it wasn’t until the second call that I realized it wasn’t just a well-placed musical flourish in the presentation… I wish I had a not-jarring ringtone; my Adam Ant "Goody Two Shoes" ringtones is usually pretty distracting. I just saw that the Touch Shop has a cd of 177 ringtones prepared by sound artists, composers, djs, and other noisemakers, that I imagine would make for pretty good listening on its own. I’m pretty sure that Kelly would freak if my phone emitted some Ryoji Ikeda.

First jumble of the spring season

Published on March 27, 2006 in music. 0 Comments

I just completed and posted the latest record jumble, based mostly on records got in the last couple of weeks– some bought, some pilfered from Trei’s pre-move weeding out. It looks like anyone trying not to listen live might not have been able to, sorry about that.

> record jumble 032606

Upon previewing it just now I realized it’s a bit dark; perhaps some sort of balance for the absolutely gorgeous Austin day we had today.

Seen at SXSW

Published on March 22, 2006 in austin and music. 0 Comments

Bands seen at SXSW, chronologically. * indicate how much I loved them. ^ indicates I saw them intentionally.

Rachel Goldstar**
Belong ***^
Frog Eyes *****^
Brothers and Sisters *
The Harrisons
Jim Noir **
Art Brut *^
Blackalicious*^
Spoon**^
Echo & the Bunnymen ^*
Jenny Owen Youngs*
Kevin Devine^***
Charlotte Martin
Indian Jewelry***
Skeletons & Girl Faced Boys****^
Princess Superstar****^
Ariel Pink**^
Headlights*
Tralala
Ted Leo/Pharmacists**^
Skeletons & Girl Faced Boys (Again!)****^
Band of Horses**^
Morningwood***^
The Winnerys*
The Jessica Fletchers***^
Nine Black Alps
Charlatans**^

I think that’s it. I feel like I got my money’s worth, and probably would have done better if not for my new found interest in NCAA hoops.

More posts about records and sound

Published on January 26, 2006 in music. 1 Comment

I finally broke in my new mixer last night with the latest version of Record Jumble, comprised exclusively of the records I picked up in NYC earlier this month (with the exception of a Gossip 12" that was laying around that I hadn’t listened to yet). I’m still getting used to all of the controls on this thing, and made plenty of audible mistakes (including having the output on mono for nearly 35 minutes and having the xfader set too sensitive).  I also messed around with the effects loop it allows… getting a little out of hand and living up to the phonograph disaster name with some of the echo/delay, um, experimentation.  Sorry for all of the overdriven parts.

It was actually really fun to only have a stack of 15 records to pull from, but part of that was due to the fact that they were already somewhat related since I bought them in a burst.  I should use that approach more often. Also notable is the fact that I had 3 simultaneous confirmed listeners, which is a new high score.

Anyway, if you’ve got an hour and 15 minutes, I give you: Record Jumble 012506.

Records of my record collection

Published on January 24, 2006 in infostudies, music and photos. 2 Comments

  Color Coded Records 
  Originally uploaded by activitystory.

So, Sam and I were discussing our digital and analog music collections, like always, and I decided to see what happened if I uploaded photos of the spines of all my records. They were once organized by color, an arrangement that actually lasted a couple of years (see photo at right).  Now, however, my extreme laziness dictates that they end up where they end up, crammed into an order that only archaeologists will understand.

I actually like the way that forces me and others to browse, and, thanks to the wonders of flickr pro, I guess that experience is now semi-webified, but without the satisfaction of hearing what you find.  You can see all 25 cubes of my storage unit in this flickr set.  Sure, many of the images are a little blurry, this method doesn’t allow you to see what lives in the blank-spined sleeves, and you really have to click on "All Sizes" (above the image on each flickr page) to read even the ones that are legible, but… let’s see what happens.  A list of possible fun results:

  • Well, honestly, y’all can see my kick ass record collection without having to travel all the way to Austin (I know you were dying to do that)
  • Find my second worst record (I know in my heart my worst is an unmarked house remix of "Crazy About Her" by Rod Stewart, but these images don’t make that one visible).
  • Even though you can’t make notes on the large version of the images, maybe people will note and comment their favorite songs or albums, or the stories they’re reminded of
  • Maybe you want to make me an outrageous offer on one of these records (though I’m pretty sure I’m not the selling kind)
  • I don’t know what else… select mixes for your own personalized Record Jumble?
  • Maybe everyone else will do this and I can do all of the above to someone else’s records, which I’m dying to do.

So, let’s see what happens.  If y’all complain too much about the image quality, I may shoot some better ones; it took me way longer than I expected to get all 25 images cropped and accounted for, but if there’s anything I can do to make the above list easier. I guess if none of that happens, at least I have these photos for insurance purposes.

If I were software….

Published on December 9, 2005 in art, infostudies, machines and music. 0 Comments

I’d be Jason Freeman‘s iTunes Music Signature Maker (via createdigitalmusic.com).  When you run this application, it goes into your library, figures out what you’ve been listening to, and creates a short collage  to represent your taste.

This is the same person responsible for the Network Aurlization for Gnutella that I posted about a couple of years ago. iTSM is great, a kind of hyperlocal, meaning-loaded version of that, with much more fun results.

Here’re two signatures from my iTunes Library, one w/ the defaults, one messing with the settings a little.

You’ll notice this is better than any of the songs by themselves. Please make one of your own.

More interesting stuff:

from the post at createdigitalmusic:

…uses an FFT to merge spectrally similar audio, mixing down your audio smoother than a baby’s bottom.

from the application documentation:

Maybe you’ll load your iTunes signature onto your iPod, e-mail it to some friends, share it in our signature gallery, or stick it on your home page. Maybe it will help you gauge your compatibility with your next blind date: "She seems nice enough, but her iTunes signature is just so atonal! Should I go with my heart or with my ear?" Or maybe an iTunes signature will figure prominently into a political attack ad: "If you’re mad at him for raising your taxes, polluting our environment, and cutting the education budget, just wait until you hear the music he listens to…"

Broadcast it out so everyone can feel it*

Published on November 16, 2005 in austin and music. 0 Comments

  J plays Margaret’s bday/fundraiser 
  Originally uploaded by activitystory.

Activitypal and troubador J played a live set on John Aielli’s Eklektikos show on KUT today, and it was great. Karla, Alex, and Steve joined him on about 8 songs including ActivityStory faves "Sunday Morn," "Room 304," and "Sleep".

The performance is semi-faithfully represented in mp3 form here (recorded it from the radio like I was in 6th grade again):

> J Molin "jumpin’ through the Speakerboxx"
(when he said that, J.A., responded., in deadpan, "That’s great.")

I’ve heard all of these songs many times, both live and on record, and with many different arrangements, and love them all. They sounded a little different today, fresh and heavy and bright. I tried to think what it would sound like if I didn’t know J, or wasn’t picturing him in the studio.  It’s strange, the radio. And magic.

* from J’s "Jesus rode a bike"

Sound Field jam session in Second Life

Published on November 12, 2005 in music. 0 Comments

  Sound Field jam session in Second Life 
  Originally uploaded by activitystory.

So, after almost 3 months of mandatory virtual world exploring (I’m taking this class…), I’m finally starting to look at Second Life as something fun.  The project that Greg and I have been working on has been coming together, and we had our first event on Wednesday night, a sound-object jam session (with Melanie, Alex, and some people we just met in SL).  I recorded it for posterity, and was planning to podcast it, but maybe it’s better to make downloading/listening to this one, um, voluntary:

> Sound Field Collaboration Result 1 (mp3)

The loops and sounds are things greg and I made and attached to objects floating in the space that play when you click them. Mine are mostly from things I made and recorded around 1999, so some are recognizable to diehard P fans. The typing sounds are the several of us chatting with one another in SL.  Next idea is to record and remix that and the other interface sounds (like the screenshot/snapshot sound and the menu click and selection sounds) to add to the fray.  The coolest thing to me was how well SL handles sound spatially— you can hear sources getting quieter and louder based on my moving around in the space.

It all probably requires a little more explanation than that, but I need to write it up for real first.

****Update:We’ve had two more events, with simarly somewhat-listenable results:

> Sound Field Session 2

> Sound Field Session 3

Sounding out the city (and the movie line)

Published on November 4, 2005 in music. 0 Comments

Hate to be that guy, but twice in the last week or so my day has been made by a podcast. Both have been from Morning Becomes Eclectic, and both included live sets from bands that I’d recently seen that didn’t play all the songs I wanted to hear.

  • Today, it was Sons and Daughters, who played pretty much the same set that I paid someone with an extra ticket $40 (this is a totally unprecedented level of fandom for me) to see in support of the boring-ass Decemberists during ACL, plus "Taste the Last Girl,"  which is probably their most radio-ready song of all.  Also, there’s video!
  • The other was Gang of Four, about a week after Kelly and I caught them at Emo’s.  We almost didn’t go (being a little worried and conflicted, like others), but then some unwanted tickets surfaced for cheap.  It was a great show, but there were a few jams I wished they had played.  Here they are thanks to the internets, and there’s also an interview that made me feel better about the whole tour. A little.  All told, it’s about 1:15 of solid gold entertainment that helped me kill time waiting to see the awesome Squid and Whale, one of two highlights of the Austin film festival last week.

The audio quality could be better, but this is the kind of service that should have us shaking in our boots about the fate of public radio. Donate now, freeloaders!

I’ll be keeping my ears peeled on November 11 if, at the Parish tonight, The Clientele neglect to play "I Had To Say This" or "Reflections After Jane" or "Kelvin Parade" or "Geometry of Lawns" or….

***Note: Honestly, I don’t hate the Decemberists, but everytime I hear one of their songs, I find myself wishing it was from frontman Colin Meloy’s EP of Morrissey greats instead.

Sam sounds off, album set complete!

Published on September 21, 2005 in assignment:the world and music. 0 Comments

This just in…

The full length album project is complete. Sam turned in his haunting “Sambient” last night, and ears will never be the same. You can now fill nearly half a work day (if you don’t work all that hard) with sounds from us. For those of you waiting to hear the complete set of recordings, get going:

>Four Full Length Albums, August/September 2005

Assignment: The World: Full Length

Published on September 5, 2005 in assignment:the world and music. 0 Comments

Looka: The albums are in!

J’s, Greg’s, and mine are all finished and available for your listening pleasure. Or displeasure. You can even listen to the full album in a single mp3 file, so’s you don’t have to keep clicking.

We got together on Friday night and sat in Sam’s dark living room listening to them, but they may be better suited to zoning out and getting some work done.  Let us know what you think!

Sam’s is nearing completion after some unfortunate technical difficulties.  I’ll get that posted when he’s done.

Do yourself a favor…

Published on June 13, 2005 in austin and music. 2 Comments

& spend at least some of today listening to Green Milk From The Planet Orange‘s mp3 excerpts of their super-long songs as loud as possible. We saw them at 710 last night and they were great.

There was a lot of standing on chairs, laying down on stage, and whistle-blowing, screaming, and playing solos in the crowd.  My favorite part was when Dead K, the guitar player, recreated the one-sided, apparently hilarious japanese phone call from "A Day in the Planet Orange," complete with sampled phone ringing. Then he pulled out a bull horn and ran out into the crowd again to scream some more.  I imagine that snail will probably be the only one to bother to check out the songs, which is probably ok, because he is also most likely to enjoy it.

I was pretty excited to see the headlining Rubble as well, an Austin band I’d never seen before. They took a long time to set up, hanging a cloth in front of the stage that, before I relized they were going to project stuff on, I thought was the most pretentious thing in the world. Who plays rock and roll with a gauzy lace curtain separating them from the audience?  I felt like a total dumbass when the light show started. They finally played at around 1:15 or so, but it was pretty much worth the wait. They play heavier MBV-, Bardo Pond-, or Loop-style stuff, and it’s nice to have something to look at other than a bunch of dudes stomping on effects pedals for that kind of a performance. It was getting late (Kelly had left me behind), and most people were just kinda standing there nodding along to the songs, but the bass player from GMFTPO was really getting down.  I have no idea where he got all his energy after their set. I left once they played Grey Baby, which is posted on their site. Another good loud one to start the day with.

Long time listener, first time caller

Published on April 14, 2005 in diy and music. 2 Comments

  Record Jumble is alive 
  Originally uploaded by activitystory.

Today, when Quinn was testing stuff our for our i312 webcast tomorrow, he pointed me to Nicecast and promptly blew my mind.  He was interested in its talk-show type features, but the fact that you can use it to broadcast any kind of sound from your computer is what got me excited. I could barely make it through my class tonight because all I could think about was rocking some vinyl on the internet.

So, after setting it all up (which was pretty easy, once I realized I needed to set up a static IP address for my laptop), I was playing "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Home Computers" and Morrissey’s Viva Hate for Trei and Sam to enjoy however they wanted to in the privacy of their own respective homes.  Just put my computer in the counter (see pic), plugged in the cable and bam. (By the way, I’d have to put "Alsatian Cousin" up there with best album openers, though it certanly doesn’t reflect the rest of the album)

The moral of the story is, The Phonograph Disaster can now play records for a remote crowd that only half-wants to hear them.  This is exactly the impetus I needed to get back into my record collection since the big shuffle it underwent when we moved.  I just need to figure out a good time to spend a couple of hours online when someone wants to listen.  Some of you with real jobs– I will play custom sets for you!! Just let me know when and what. No more NPR mornings for y’all.

Nicecast also broadcasts your iTunes if you want (including tracknames, which comes with some baggage), or any other audio source on your machine, and you can apply all sorts of effects to the broadcast channel.  I’m still not sure how exactly to execute it, but methinks this could lead to remote freakout jams with some mindmelting feedback.  More on that as things develop.

I’m also excited about using it as an excuse to interrogate everyone I know via Skype, and to explore it as a remote karaoke option, modelled after what Jeremy used to do over paltalk (?) (there’s a karaoke preset in the Nicecast effects bundle!).

Copying Secret Comics is the new blogging

Published on April 12, 2005 in music. 2 Comments

Very Metal’s post on the Shaggs today got me looking for the 2000 New Yorker story about them (which I’m guessing came out around the time Daniel put out the tribute album [even though AMG says 2002]). I wonder how many copies of that sold.  It’s great.

Anyway, so the AssistiveMedia.org Reading Room Archive has an audio version of it, which is well worth a listen.  Interestingly, I’ve been working on part of a grant proposal lately related to auditory navigation, and have been spending lots of time on assitive technology resource webpages lately, but this is the first one to feature the Shaggs.

So, listen to the Shaggs story. It’s a half-hour long and might make your morning.  Also, there’s a lot of other potentially great audio stories on the page for those of you who have already gone through the Soundportraits, Transom, This American Life, and Blunt Radio archives.

Incidentally, Very Metal thinks he stole the line "If it doesn’t, then something inside you is dead" from my old post about the Six Flags Guy, which is dead wrong, as you can see here.  But thanks for reminding me how mean I am.

The Real Pdub

Published on April 11, 2005 in music, pain and text. 4 Comments

I worked for the Dallas Observer while I was in hi school, which is funny, because their current editor just happens to also be named Patrick Williams (just like the composer, the caribbean chef, nigerian spammer and the lonely inmate).  So, I’m always wondering if folks I knew in Dallas are always thinking it’s me when they see his byline.

Anyway, it seems like they’ve recently expanded their online archive to include stuff from 1994, featuring a piece I wrote about local Dallas band the Voyeurs.  I remember being a little embarrassed that the story got the headline "Vibrator Dependent," especially when my mom sent clippings to my grandparents, extended family, and neighbors. But I’m guessing that that’s nowhere near the embarrassment the real Patrick Williams, Editor-in-Chief, feels when my story is attributed to him (it’s the earliest piece attributed to someone with our name on the site).

I loved working at the paper, but it was the place where my dreams of being a journalist when I grew up died.  I couldn’t handle all the phone calls.  Unfortunately, in the past 10 years, I’ve published nothing else about vibrators.

Here’s a scan of some other stuff I wrote for the Observer, in what is probably a total violation of copyright law. If you want to know how "The Best of [Your City]" gets chosen, let me know. 

Statistically, I rule

Published on March 30, 2005 in music. 4 Comments

I know I got a 55 on my stats final last semester, but I am now 5 for 6 on free iTunes songs from Diet Mountain Dew.  Pack the car Kelly, time for a trip to the dog track!

Unfortunately, I got the last yellow-lid DMD from the campus store this afternoon, so I guess my winning streak is over.

Another problem is I can never choose a song to wrench from an album… any ideas on a single I should I get with my last free pick?  I’m looking for an only-good-song-on-a-throwaway-album type of thing here.  The first song that gets 2 votes in the comments will be my choice, so comment wisely.  If no one votes, I’ll probably violate the first rule of my music collection and buy the song that Moby (NO!) did with Gwen Stefani, since a can’t get enough of her album.