The music business had a loud weekend. I’ve had a copy of Whitney Housten’s I will Always Love You on my hard drive for years. Even if the song isn’t your style the range she hits smoothly matched with the very sad country lyrics (Dolly Parton wrote the song) is touching. Death to addiction is tragic and as in this case is usually post years of a public downhill slide. Too often the cliche sayings such as, “The higher the highs the lower the lows.” ring true. To die the night before the Grammys certainly adds to the story.
And what about the Grammys? Until last night the last time I watched even a few minutes of the award show was in the 90s. However I was in the mood so I watched the entire 2012 shebang. I was surprised to discover I liked most of it. The overall look was nice and glittery, gold and flashy and they mixed the sound just right for television. You could hear all of the vocal performances clear enough to understand the lyrics. Springsteen’s patriotic song “We take care of our own” was very jock like chanting USA USA but fun. I learned Rihanna has a seductive voice. Host LL Cool J is a major has been but for some reason no one knows that yet. His hosting style is best described as boring. Get a host that’s interesting please. Glen Campbell and The Beach Boys completely showed up the younger bands who lead them onto stage. I used to sing Rhinestone Cowboy when I was a kid. Later I thought it was a song about gay cowboy. I still have no idea what the song is about. The worst performance of the show was Chris Brown. First off why let the woman beater even be on stage it all? I watched the Grammys partly to find out who are these artists I hear when I’m out at a restaurant or clothing store that offend me so much. Yeah Chris Brown is one of those artists. Lady Gaga didn’t win anything which made me happy. I dislike her music too. They gave Stevie Wonder a standing ovation. He can’t see so I’m not sure that made any sense. Taylor Swift was the worst dressed. Clearly she doesn’t live in a shack in Alabama so why try and pretend. Foofighters played a few times. I can’t stand them either except when Dave Grohl sang with Deadmau5. So yes there was electronic music on the Grammys. Of course for David Guetta’s 30 seconds they had some hip hip artist rap over what he was doing (can’t remember who). Unbelievably they had the hand picked fake crowd holding giant glowsticks. Guetta looked retarded smiling and bopping his head up and down. I now he’s happy to be on the Grammys but it was very awkward. You will hear a lot of people talk about Deadmau5′s helmet. That thing was cool but an evil led mask has to be cool no? The animations on it were wicked too. I particularly liked the eyes winking and the shots of him from a far with the big ears moving slowly up and down. Too bad he missed the Grammys being stuck inside the thing unable to see. Nicki Minaj had to be on meth. Her exorcism performance was just plain stupid. Paul McCartney is old but had some good lyrics, “Your going to carry that weight a long time.”. He played two times which was one time too much in my opinion. Finally we get to Adele who won song and record of the year for Rolling in the Deep. There’s little to argue with here because lyrics and melody won. I’ll say it a million times… music inspired by real events in your own life is what makes it. She sings about a breakup and she sings “You’re gonna wish you never had met me”. I bet he felt that last night. Nothing wrong with that.
“We could have had it all (You’re gonna wish you never had met me). Rolling in the deep. (Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep). You had my heart inside of your hand. (You’re gonna wish you never had met me). And you played it to the beat. (Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)” – Adele
For more info: grammy.com
This entry was written by , posted on February 13, 2012 at 6:44 am, filed under live performance, music, political and tagged Adele, Grammy, Whitney Housten. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
After my recent post Front 242 Collector I was contacted by a person named Martin who collects 242 himself. He sent me some photos and history of a very unique and collectable piece: one of Jean Luc Meyer’s helmets. He paid about about 150 Euro for it but it turns out the helmet itself even without the 242 connection was originally expensive…
“A few months ago i have sent an e-mail to front 242 collector. But i didn´t get an answer. I think the blog isn´t updated anymore. I regret that there is no real actual f242 forum. I send you a photograph of an item i bought many, many years ago and an old article from a japanese music magazine to compare. Take a look at Jean-Luc. Please let me know what you think. I did a lot of research about this helmet (it is the version whithout the welding shield), i am sure it´s an original. And the story from the guy who sold me this helmet is plausible.
I have bought it from a former dj, who worked in an underground club in the eigthies. I used to go there from when i was 16 or 17 (at that time Depeche Mode released “Black Celebration”). The dj (i don´t remember his name) got a backstage pass for the Depeche Mode concert in Essen/Germany (Music For The Masses Tour), Front 242 were the opener (i was there, brilliant concert). After the gig he had the possibility to talk to Jean-Luc. Jean-Luc gave him some signed posters, as far as i remember a signed flag, and as a highlight his helmet.
You can see the helmets when you watch the beginning of the Front 242 Tape One Video (Paris 1987). While Jean-Luc on stage only used the basic version of this helmet Patrick and Richard wore the version with the welding shield. The helmet was originally manufactured by Racal Amplivox. Today you can buy it for example here: http://www.airwareamerica.com/3mhepaairstream.aspx, (list price: 968,77 $), you see, even today the helmet is to expensive to create a fake.
I have seen a lot of photos from the “f242 museum/exhibition” in Brussels to the band´s 30s anniversary, they showed a lot of stuff, even old clothes, but i haven´t seen any other of their helmets.” Martin
To read the newspaper clipping above in detail: front242articles.blogspot.com
This entry was written by , posted on January 13, 2012 at 4:44 am, filed under hardware, live performance, music and tagged Front 242, helmet. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Here is a video of LL Cool J at CES showing off his new collaborative recording studio service Boomdizzle. There’s a bunch of these services now. Ohm Studio comes to mind as a recent entry. I wonder if people are really using any of these and making complete songs. We did learn Mama Said Knock You Out took 14 takes and LL knows who Leonard Cohen is. The best thing is this video isn’t about branded headphones! In case you were wondering my fav Cool J Track is Rock the Bells.
“LL Cool J launches his remote music-recording software, called Boomdizzle, to the stage at CES 2012 and lays down some tracks with B-Teezy!” – Cnet
For more info: boomdizzle.com/studio
This entry was written by , posted on January 11, 2012 at 6:15 am, filed under live performance and tagged Boomdizzle, collaboration, LL Cool J. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m back from Malta and I had a superb time! For some reason the long travel didn’t phase me. I read a couple hundred pages of the Steve Jobs bio and watched some movies. Here’s my quick movie reviews… Contagion: I thought it would be better but still entertaining. A Better Life: Pretty good and makes you have a warm heart for Mexcian and S. American workers in the USA. Crazy, Stupid Love: Ryan Gosling is good inspiration for the gym and there’s a good enough romantic scene if your into that kind of thing (I am). Limitless: A strange pro-drug movie which is not all that great yet it’s stuck in my mind.
Now to the live show report. The club Tattingers was crowded and the stage area was very tight. You don’t need security in Malta with respect to violence however some crowd control would have been helpful. About half way through the set when I started to throw out some of the new stickers from the stage kids rushed up and knocked the table hard enough that my new Macbook Pro went flying down about 20 feet. The music went off and nicely the kids started chanting Horrorist over and over very loudly. When I am on stage I’m locked in the zone so once the computer was handed to me I just restarted and and the show went on. My Apple fanboyism is stronger than ever because there’s only a very small mark on the corner where it must have hit the floor. I do have an SSD in the thing which may have saved the night. In fact the chanting really pumped me up so much that the rest of the show was so energetic I was completely sweat wet when it was all over. If you make music you have to get out an play live there’s nothing in the world like it.
Pet Duo had a mountain of computers, Ableton Launchpad controllers, CDJs, etc… and held the club in a hard techno daze for hours. I always love performing in Malta and the promoter has promised me the next gig will be in the peak summer season and I get to take his water scooter out for a ride!
To see the full set of photos from the show: click here
For more info: thehorrorist.com and petduo.com
This entry was written by , posted on December 6, 2011 at 6:38 am, filed under live performance and tagged Malta, Pet Duo, The Horrorist, The Horrorist Live, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m off this weekend to perform in Malta. I’ve played there numerous times before and this weekend I am upping the “military music” with 3 new fairly agressive techno tracks (with vocals). One of the songs called Take this Step has become one of my new favorites and is sort of a successor to Flesh is the Fever or Hard Step Future Force (for those who follow my tunes). Pet Duo are a couple from Brazil who live in Berlin. I’ve met them enough times in hotels, airports and show to call them good friends. They are crazy (in a good way) and militant vegetarians. Speaking of hotels they don’t mess around over there. I will be spending time in the indoor pool for sure and will certainly sit by the Mediterranean. If your Maltese or on vacation there I hope you come out and do say hello in person!
“Tickets are out at €20 from PCWise, Royal Impact, Fact and selected runners. Infoline – 99909808″
For more info: shiftmalta.com/pet-duo-the-horrorist
This entry was written by , posted on December 2, 2011 at 2:23 pm, filed under live performance and tagged Malta, Pet Duo, Tattingers, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I finally was able to gather together some photos from my live show on Saturday night. As you can see it was a bloodfest. The Smack! Halloween Fetish Ball is an annual event. Even though NYC experienced a freak snow and ice storm people came out. I met and watched the Orlando band The Ludovico Technique (a name from the movie a Clockwork Orange) from Orlando, Florida perform. They had a mountain of gear with them including an SKB rack just for vocals. I saw an old Boss SE50 and TC Electronic Voiceworks in there. Of course they also had a grinder (tool). There was also semi live sex show “sexorsism” and some good goth/ebm DJs some from the old days and some new. Thank you to Xris and crew for producing the darkness.
“SMack! is New York City’s Premier Multimedia Fetish Play Party. NYC’s Longest running Fetish Event, we’ve been setting the trends since 1996, and after 15 years worth of events, we’re still pushing the envelope with new Performers / Models / Fashion Shows, cutting edge music / DJ’s, VJ’s / video artists/projections, play equiptment / machines, Dungeon Play Space/Dominatrix Hosts…” smack-fetish.com
To see the full set of photos: flickr.com/thingstocomerecords/721…
This entry was written by , posted on November 2, 2011 at 4:54 am, filed under live performance and tagged Fetish Ball, Halloween, Smack!, The Horrorist Live, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
This video gets good at 4:45. The human voice is the most expressive instrument and it will always be the the one that hits our hearts the most.
“Andy from the Sennheiser Research Center in Palo Alto, CA showed us this neat MIDI Wireless Microphone with Controllers & Buttons.” – Moogulator
For more info: sennheiser.com/press_releases_060411_4
via sequencer.de
This entry was written by , posted on October 28, 2011 at 5:00 am, filed under live performance, song writing. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I will be performing on October 29, 2011 in Manhattan at Bardot Heights for SMack!’s annual Halloween Fetish Ball. I like to pick my NY events carefully and I didn’t hesitate to say yes to this one. Things are sure to get very freaky at this notorious party. I have a few new songs I can’t wait to perform. Also on the menue is The Xxxorcist w/Joanna Angel, The Ludovico Technique and more. Come and get scary with us!
“SMack! is New York City’s Premier Multimedia Fetish Play Party. NYC’s Longest running Fetish Event, we’ve been setting the trends since 1996, and after 15 years worth of events, we’re still pushing the envelope with new Performers/Models/Fashion Shows, cutting edge music/DJ’s, VJ’s /video artists/projections, play equiptment/machines, Dungeon Play Space/Dominatrix Hosts…” – smack-fetish.com
For more info: smack-fetish.com
This entry was written by , posted on October 13, 2011 at 4:58 am, filed under live performance and tagged Goth, gothic, Halloween, Joanna Angel, The Horrorist, The Xxxorcist, Things to Come Records, Warsaw Ballroom. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
If you are in the New York City area next weekend, September 24 come to SAE on 1293 Broadway and hang out with Ableton, Propellerheads, Steinberg, Keyboard Magazine, Celemony (Melodyne), SSL, IK Multimedia and many more pro-audio companies. They set up exhibits in the classrooms and practice rooms. It’s a great chance to see and demo new (sometimes yet released/announced) products. There is also an extensive panel series. You can sit and watch a group of people chat about a number of music related topics. I will be speaking on the “The Future Tech Tools Guide: How to us new music platforms & APPs to build your business & create a better workflow.” panel. The event is free but you have to register in advance. Come say hello: imsta.org/imsta_festa.php
“IMSTA FESTA, a celebration of music technology, features exhibits from the major music technology companies on the market today as well as the highly educating Shocklee Innertainment Panel series about music, creativity and business. Come hang out with NYC’s community of musicians, producers, engineers, DJ’s, artists, managers, studio owners, coders, music students and audio tech enthusiasts. You never know who you may run into.” – imsta.org
Register today: imsta.org/imsta_festa
This entry was written by , posted on September 15, 2011 at 4:08 am, filed under Ableton Live, business, interviews, live performance and tagged Event, IMSTA, IMSTA FESTA, SAE, Shocklee. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I’m back from my live show and weekend in Phoenix, Arizona. I performed for a old friend who I went to College with Bill Kraemer. I went to SUNY Purchase which at the time was mostly an art school. The campus was 85% freaks. Bill and his friend Marcel had a techno act called Technosphere. I remember visiting their room across campus. Marcel was a really skinny tall guy from Belgium with a heavy accent. They had mini studio featuring a Rogue Moog and some ART rack efftect processors. They had dayglow shirts, toys and stickers and were properly ravetarded. In my elephant sized box of cassettes waiting in my mother’s basement sit a few Technosphere compilations. Maybe someday someone born a decade later than yours truly will obsess over them as I do with early 80s electronic demo tapes. I had not seen Bill in more than 15 years so I was looking forward to seeing him.
I’ve been working hard at my day job recently so when I received my Silver Medalian upgrade card from Delta my frown started to relax a bit. You get such a card for racking up a zillion frequent flier miles in a short time. The big deal is with the card I get automatically upgraded to business class. Not only to I get my own armrest but I can use all the fast check-in lanes and in general feel superior to everyone else. On my way to Phoenix I went.
I watched three movies on the flight. First was “Trust” staring Clive Owen. Even though Trust is rated well on Rotten Tomatoes skip it. It’s just a kiddie porn fantasy rape movie. Hollywood should be ashamed of producing this kind of thing. Next, I watched Strange Powers the documentary about Stephan Merritt and The Magnetic Fields. If your a regular reader here you know MF is one of my favs so I knew I’d love this film (and I did). Stephan explains his songwriting process which consists of him sitting in gay bars for eight hours listening to bad disco. Dark mood indeed. I was thrilled when they showed his apartment and there in the corner was an Electrocomp-101. These are rare synthesizers and I too am a proud owner of one (serial number 521 to be exact). Lastly, I saw True Grit which I thought didn’t live up to the hype with the exception of the end sequence. I won’t spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet but it’s properly sad as all movie endings should be.
I land in Phoenix, meet Bill and it’s hot. In the sun it’s much much hotter than you think. I had to get a few things at CVS so I took a walk. CVS was only a few blocks from my hotel. Somehow I got lost, disoriented and had to ask for help getting back. It’s that kind of hot. I realized anyone who lives in Phoenix is surrounded by something that could easily kill them.
I arrived a day early and spent the afternoon in the Hotel’s pool. The San Carlos is a famous place built on the site of an early American Indian school house. That’s where this hotel’s bad karma started. In the 1920s a woman jumped to her death from the roof. Later, Bogart and Marilyn Monroe made the Carlos there home for short stints. It’s a properly haunted place and before I even knew the history I was taking photos of it’s creepy Kubrikesque hallways.
For dinner Chris Randall was kind to pick me up and take me to the Gallo Blanco Cafe at The Clarendon Hotel. Here I believe I probably had the first good mexican food in my entire life. A simple fish Torte that’s still on my mind five days later. If you read this blog you obviously know who Chris is. He creates the Audio Damage plug-ins, makes music and has a blog called Audio Industries. All his efforts are unique and above par interesting. The conversation was good and it’s always nice to validate your own life a little by meeting people with similar interests.
Later Friday evening I met with Bill, his friends and Ralph aka Kung Fu grip. Bill’s 1987 Toyota Camry looks like it was lost in the dessert a few years. Fully covered in pink dessert dust and full of disorganization. Flyers, containers and well just a bunch of unidentifiable stuff. Bill couldn’t drive for what ever reason so his friend Matt took over. Matt was wearing a NY Yankees cap tilted to the side. So here we are four guys in this car and Matt in his hat. Yes of course we get pulled over. Yes of course Bill doesn’t have insurance. Let’s just leave the rest of this night unspoken about ok?
The next day there was more swimming then the live show. The venue was inappropriately huge but soon after arriving I was able to meet a few new friends who flew from surrounding states to catch me. The show starts and as with every time I perform in a new place I have to work hard to prove I’m there to have fun with the crowd. In a good mood I manage to get everyone from frozen in fear to yes let’s dance like we are Germans.
For more info: thehorrorist.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 3, 2011 at 4:55 am, filed under live performance and tagged Arizona, Chris Randall, live performance, Phoenix, The Horrorist, Things to Come Records. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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