I’m off to perform two live shows in East Germany this weekend. One of the events is in an underground cave. I’ve played a underground cave before in Germany but I’m not sure this is the same one. Last time we drove miles (kilometers!) into the middle of nowhere to find thousands of cars in a field. Then at one spot people were just walking into a hole. It was pretty crazy, cold and the acoustics were much better than you would think. I’m not sure vibrating tons of rock above your head is a good idea but hey nothing ever goes wrong at these things right?

By the way I’ve recommended MadMimi before (article: here) for letting your fans know your doing something via email and here’s the latest promotion I sent out last night regarding these live shows: http://mim.io/570f2

If you want to get on that email list: click here

Nervous Gender is a Synthpunk band from Los Angeles that kick offed their madness in 1979. I love these guys. Listen closely to the lyrics from the song Cardinal Newman (video above). Who can beat a chorus that screams, “Catholic school with prison bars! Catholic school with prison bars!”. All their recordings are fuzzy taped real analog synth detuned greatness. Go search the net for bits and pieces of what you can find and shoot them a few messages because they are still around.

“The group was confrontational and experimental, mystifying audiences of the day. Phranc’s androgynous appearance was the embodiment of the group’s name and added to their mystique, garnering them much press in zines such as Slash. Despite their somewhat high profile, the groups’ habit of provoking the audience, obscene material and harsh erotics guaranteed they would never gain commercial acceptance.” – Last.fm

For more info: www.myspace.com/nervousxgender

Long before the hipster Microkorg hit Williamsburg there was the Korg 700s Minikorg. It was one of Korg’s first synths and to this day it’s one of my favorites. Every time I hear one of its raspy detuned aggressive sounds it makes my brain jump to it’s evil side. Daniel Miller used a 700 to create one of my all time favorite records TVOD/Warm Letherette by The Normal (iTunes link). Daniel soon went on to found Mute Records and sign Depeche Mode.

“It has three ring modulators for some strange sounds and noises. Sometimes a decent bass sound for techno music can be achieved using the MiniKorg’s hi-pass and low-pass filters. The two oscillators can be de-tuned and they offer triangle, sawtooth and square waveforms. There are some strange analog effects built-in as well such as portamento, a rudimentary repeat-delay, auto-bend (bender), vibrato and Chorus and Noise waveforms.” – vintagesynth.org

You can find the Korg 700s MiniKorg on eBay from time to time for a decent price. It’s on my wishlist!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCHQyEJL7w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8thf7TpZYs

photo credit: drsquidd