The Blog of Bill.

Wine Review: Angioletta Moscato

2011-10-01T18:53:00.002-04:00

We were eager to taste this Moscato after enjoying the Cupcake Moscato D'Asti many times over the past few months. There was a little bit of disappointment when I removed the wrapping on the top to reveal a cap instead of a cork. Then there was the taste. Not bad, but drinkable. A big less sweet than the Cupcake, but then this is not an Asti. Judy experienced an aftertaste that resembled pepper. Overall, something we would not buy again - the lower price was not worth it. Instead, we reccomend The cupcake, shown here.

New stuff, August third, twenty ten.

2010-08-03T07:55:00.002-04:00

The Sklar brothers have a new podcast, "Sklarbro Country". Search it and download it.

Mitch Miller has died at the age of 99. Growing up, he was known to me as the sing-along guy. In the industry, he was a force to be feared. Rest in peace, big man.

Primus is playing in Cleveland tonight. I'll be there! I thought they were putting out a new album this year but I guess I was mis-informed. Sons-a-bitches!

OK, have a great day.

Live-Tweeting The LeBron Announcement: Comic Genius

2010-07-09T10:06:00.004-04:00

Hiya Kids.... How ya doin'?

I follow the Sklar Brothers on Twitter. For those of you who don't know, they are twin brother comedians who are also big sports fans, so much so that they frequently guest host The Jim Rome Show.

I don't tweet a lot, but I do follow people's tweets for updates on what's happening. Sometimes the Sklar Brothers have some great stuff, like live-tweeting the most recent Scripps-Howard spelling bee. Hilarious!

But I digress.

Here are some of the tweets offered by Jason and Randy before, during and after last night's record setting "F You" to Cleveland, The LeBron Announcement:

Feel like there's not enough "Lebron to the Timberwolves" talk going on out there right now.
4:31 PM Jul 7th via web

BREAKING: ESPN is reporting that LeBron has signed with ESPN. (Weird because he met with the Oxygen network last night)
9:36 PM Jul 7th via web

Boys and Girls Club kids, contributing a lot to the announcement. They're about as necessary as throwing powder.
about 8 hours ago via web

Could they have gotten an older more rattier gym? Was the gym from Hoosiers taken? The Rucker would have been a step up.
about 8 hours ago via web

As soon as I saw that LeBron's beard didn't connect to his stache, I knew he was going to Miami. That's an old Cuban Jew facial hair move.
about 8 hours ago via web

I don't know what's more boring. The interviewer -- Jim Gray, or where they did it - A grey gym.
about 8 hours ago via web

Delonte West's first question after the decision: LeBron's Mom isn't going to MIami as well, is she?
about 6 hours ago via web

Re-watched LeBron interview. 2 things: was JIm Grey mic'ed? & how much rouge was he wearing? According to JG's cheeks it was -6 in there.
about 6 hours ago via web

Feel like the crowd at the gym for the interview couldn't have been quieter or more casually dressed than if they were at Lilith Fair show
about 6 hours ago via web

Good move not going to Chicago, because LeBron doesn't have to fill Michael Jordan's shoes now. He just has to fill Harold Minors'.
about 5 hours ago via web

It was so quiet in that LeBron interview gym that you could actually hear Jim's hair, greying.
about 5 hours ago via web

And in one fell swoop, there went Larry Czonka's standing table reservation in the pool at the Delano. LeBron, ye hath done it again!
about 5 hours ago via web

LeBron better LeBring it or he's gonna look like a LeBridiot.
about 5 hours ago via web

Between claiming LeBron quit in the playoffs & planning next season's Get to Know Anderson Varajao Night, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is a busy man.
about 5 hours ago via web

And finally, tweeted most recently:

Just listened to the Amare Stoudemire to the Knicks, announcement on a ham radio.
about 5 hours ago via web

I'll miss you, Mom.

2009-11-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, November 6, 2009, my Mother passed away. She had been ill for a long time, suffering from diabetes and dementia.

I took care of her for several years here at my home, and when it was evident that I could not provide or afford the care necessary for her, she was living in a local nursing home, but I never stopped caring for her or visiting her. I knew her death would happen someday, but as much as I tried, I could not prepare for it.

Now that the news is out, we are receiving an enormous outpouring of support from friends, family and acquaintances. The big question is: When's the funeral? Are you going to hold services? After careful consideration, I have decided we are not going to hold public services or have a gathering for my Mom's passing.

There was an obituary in the paper, though. You can view it and sign the guest book online until December 10. My entire family thanks you.

Here's my reasons:
This year my Mom got to experience two really great things that she was able to attend. The first was my wedding, and the other was my siblings and other family members getting together to take her out to dinner. She had really good days for both of those events, she enjoyed them as much as she could, and a few days after the latter event was when the big downward spiral began for her.

Her remains will be cremated and buried in a private place. When my Dad and my brother passed away, we did receive family and friends at the house, and that was for my Mom more than anything else. These "services" and "gatherings" are for others, and I find no need to prolong my grief or bring others down through this tradition. I feel there are better ways to get over a loss such as this. My memories for funerals are so dismal, and I don't want to remember a close friend or relative as a corpse in a fancy box, I want them to live in my memory for all the things they were, because that is all we have left.

I do hold my friends close, and most everyone I care about and who cares about my family has already contacted us, or I have contacted them. I'm sure there are more phone calls to make. We will continue to celebrate her life as well as our own and embody the good spirits and loving thoughts my Mom held dear.

Personally, I have a strong dislike of the traditional funeral system. It is a vacuum of money and hypocrisy in my opinion, but I do not want to deny anyone who participates in it the opportunity to grieve and heal from their loss in the way they choose. I don't think that I am dishonoring my Mother. A lot of the friends that she did talk to on a regular basis before she got sick are unable to attend any sort of event anyway. I've been spending time with my immediate family and thinking about the stuff that made my Mom happy.

The love that she gave to this world is immeasurable. We will never forget her. The good memories of her will enrich and educate us for the rest of our lives, and for that we give thanks.

Now...let's get on with our lives, shall we?

It's been too long!

2007-06-08T20:07:00.000-04:00

Yikes! Over a year since I have posted anything on this site. way too long. Now I need to find something out. Lots of things.
I have an HD TV.
I love the HD I get on cable.
I am mulling HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
The Playstation 3 looks inviting, because it also plays SACDs.
But I'm not a gamer.
The multi-channel surround on PS3 is only through HDMI, and I don't have HDMI on my receiver.
I'd be happy to get a new receiver, but none of them have the right amount of inputs.
I also have an Apple TV box.
What's a boy to do?
To be continued.

Live on Cleveland radio this Wednesday!

2006-05-15T00:24:00.000-04:00

As some of you might know, I did an Internet radio show with The Ghoul on a site called ClevelandHits.com back in 2002. This coming Wednesday, May 17th, I will be on WNCX 98.5 FM from 6AM to 10AM with The Ghoul for the morning show. Get up early and get ready for your day with The Ghoul and Me!

That's WNCX-FM, 95.5 FM - Cleveland's Classic Rock Station.
Omigawd.. I'm back on the radio again.
Wednesday, May 17th, 6-10AM.

New look for The Box of Sound

2006-04-01T09:18:00.000-05:00

The Box of Sound podcast will soon be sporting a new look and a new direction. Rich Kegarise, good friend and guest for two previous episodes, will be a regular on the show as we talk about all sorts of entertainment media, mostly music from our unique point of view. Check it out.

Also, the Uncle Scratch album should be in my hands any day now. I hope to be posting information on how you can get your grubby little hands on a copy. It ROCKS!!!

Quick Update!

2005-08-08T10:46:00.000-04:00

The next podcast will DEFINITELY be centering on Jandek. I spent a couple hours with Len from Jawbone on Saturday, helping him with some technical hurdles in his audio setup. He is a great guy and he spreads that niceness to the rest of his family. His kids are friendly, of course there's the lovely Nora (she was too busy to talk, but she popped in on us and said Hi), and the whole house experience that is the Nobbynees home.
Time to pick up dry cleaning and do grocery shopping for Mom. Later!

This is now a podcast.

2005-07-21T07:49:00.000-04:00

Future posts will most likely appear as podcasts in the Box of Sound website. Why read me when I can talk to you?

OK, stop grumbling and start clicking, then start downloading. I'll talk to you again soon.

...and this is what's going on.

2005-05-14T08:37:00.000-04:00

Jandek project is not stopped, but kind of on hold for now. The audio project part of my life has been getting busy and I'm getting tired of emails and phone calls saying, "Update your blog, dammit!!!"

I've recorded a couple of songs for the Jawbone Radio Podcast show. One of them, "Nora (&Len)" is played at the end of the show, and I've sent a little quick thing I call "MST Jawbone", a version of the theme to Mystery Science Theater 3000, with new lyrics about the Jawbone show.

Pre-production has begun for the next full-length D.Verada project. Songs are the main focus, this will be a genre-busting affair, if I do all the stuff I want. More as that comes together.

I'm also re-discovering my record collection, thanks to the unbelievable program SoundSoap Pro from BIAS Software. This thing takes recordings and removes the unwanted elements. In the case of phonograph records, the surface noise, clicks and crackles are removed to the point where a well preserved record sounds as good as a CD, with the warmth of analog intact.

Some of the records I've transferred lately:

Robert Rental and The Normal: Live
Bill Nelson's Red Noise: Sound On Sound
Hawkwind: A Space Ritual
Hawkwind: Quark Strangeness & Charm
Raydio: Rock On
Then there's the Sparks catalog. So far I've immersed myself in: Kimono My House, Propaganda, Indiscreet, Introducing, and Big Beat. Ron Mael is a terrifically under-appreciated composer.

Yes, I know that a lot of these records are available on CD, and sometimes with extra cuts. But a lot of these are over-priced imports and with the tunes I actually want to put on my iPod, it is much more rewarding to transfer the vinyl I loved originally. I also transfer records, cassettes, reel-to-reel and 8-track tapes for a fee. E-mail me for details.

Monkey Call is playing a new venue next weekend. More info in a separate entry.

I'm toying with starting a podcast later this year. This will be mainly about music and will feature lots of interviews I did in the 70s and 80s with now-classic rock and roll people.

The Hand That Mixes NIN tunes

2005-04-18T10:03:00.000-04:00

In a fascinating twist to the typical means of record promotion, Trent Reznor, the man who basically IS Nine Inch Nails has released the first single off of the new album WITH TEETH, "The Hand That Feeds", as a free download in GarageBand format. This is absolutely cool as hell. Check it out immediately by going to nin.com, click on current, and see the link there. I have an odd feeling he'll take the file away soon even though the thing is completely saturated with copyright warnings all through the install.
This file allows you to listen to, remix, dissect, and otherwise de- and/or re-construct the new song, one instrument or track at a time. Oh yeah - this is only available to Macintosh users. Sorry, Windows enthusiasts.

In Jandek news, he's still scheduled to play live in England in May. His first live performance, in Glasgow, Scotland last October, has just been released as album #41. Quit yer bitchin, I'll continue the Jandek album review project soon. Much more fun stuff to come, including more Pro Tools fun, 8-track tapes, remastering scratchy records, and more.

Happy Birthday Nora - Check out this Podcast!

2005-04-06T10:26:00.000-04:00

A quick detour off the Jandek turnpike here to wish a happy birthday to Nora, and a big thanks to the Jawbone Podcast program. When Len said he was putting together a special birthday show for his wife, and was inviting folks to contribute, I composed a little tune and it's the first complete song to be recorded on veebosonic's new Pro Tools studio. I think I used the word 'verbal' too many times in it, but hey, it's OK by Len and Nora, so it's OK with me. The new song "Nora (&Len)" is on the big Nora Birthday Show on their site. Check 'em out.

More Jandek soon. I just got album #40 in the mail.

The Living End

2005-03-27T14:05:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #18, The Living End. Released in 1989.

Master bluesman Jandek slingin' some stride blues your way with his jammin' band. Instrumentation on this is 2 guitars and random drums, with Jandek on the mic. He sounds like he's in a good mood, he's comfortable, and he's preachin' them blues. Actually, this is the best singing he's done yet! The title cut sounds like it's from the same recording as "Message To The Clerk" of the last record. Then, once the tune really gets going, it stops dead.
"Talk That Talk" gets adventurous when Jandek starts interjecting things and the guitar starts playing disjointed but very distinct stabbing chords.
"Start The Band" is a quick instrumental that goes to nice places and then stops abruptly.
"Girl From America" has a woman singing quietly in the background - is this the return of Nancy?
Gotta love the false starts on "Embrace The World Outside". There's that female humming again, now singing full volume. Brushes on the drums. Are we in San Francisco?
The long piece on this disc, "Take Me Away With You", tries the blues format with the female vocalist. It doesn't work as well as when Jandek does it, but the female singer gets into it a little bit. Some nice blues lead work though.
The last song, "Crazy", is loud and obnoxious and intoxicating. The guitars are too loud, the female voice is going nowhere, and Jandek's chanting a drone in the background. At the very end, Jandek siezes the mic and sings in his best alto, "You're mine... you're mine... yo-" and the tape runs out. I laughed out loud! A rockin' end to this strange album.
Another neat thing that happens during this recording is some obvious tape machine screw-ups. Sounds like the thing is broken or Jandek's using some really crappy tape stock. It all makes for a quick grin on my face when those little glitches creep in.

On The Way

2005-03-27T12:29:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #17, On The Way. Released in 1988.

Another straight forward blues oriented Jandek album. This one is more of a blend between Jandek and other musicians, not sounding uncomfortable at all. The album starts out loud and electric, and gets quieter from there. "Message To The Clerk", a re-make of the tune from THE ROCKS CRUMBLE, is constructed as a Muddy Waters kind of workout, with extra distortion and massive whiteness built-in. Good stuff. "Give It The Name" and "Sadie" sound like someone else singing. There are several songs that sound like a full band - bass drums guitar vocal, and even the occasional harmonica. The drums still have a long way towards resembling any type of real beat, but they can be an infectious sort of anti-beat... Makes you want to put on The Shaggs.
Then there's the eight and a half minute "I'll Sit Alone And Think A Lot About You". Starts out with acoustic guitar, some of those random drums creep in, and Jandek starts singing quietly. Really quietly. Is it Jandek or someone else? I don't care, it is almost not even there. The recording is looking so hard for level that the monitor speaker starts fading back - no need to re-record, it's a Jandek record. It goes on, and on, and then it ends. The album ends quiet. It's almost unnoticeable.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Happy Easter. I'm in a Jandek kind of mood, so I might do another one of these today. I've been trying to learn Pro Tools, a bitchen recording program that I'll be doing a lot of work in this year. If you want a fantastic electric guitar sound, get yourself a PODxt from Line6. It's a little expensive, but it nails the sound of many different amplifiers, cabinets, microphones and classic effects boxes. Then it allows you to combine these in any combination imaginable. The pedal controller is really expensive, too... almost as much as the unit itself, but when you see all the stuff that it can do, it just might be justifiable. I still haven't decided if I want to get the pedal or not since I probably won't be playing out with it.

Getting back to Jandek, the 40th album has been released, and I still have a lot of listening to do. Also, it has been announced that he'll be playing at another festival in England organized by the same guy who orchestrated his Glasgow appearance in October last year. No, I'm not going to fly to England to see Jandek. I'd rather see Ben Folds.

You Walk Alone

2005-02-20T22:18:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #16, You Walk Alone. Released in 1988.

Shut up! I know it's too long since I continued with this project. Lots of stuff has been happening. Monkey Call is rehearsing again. I played a gig with the Squeaky Wheels over Valentine's Weekend. My iPod died and I got a new 40 gig model. I've been taking care of legal crap with family and some home repairs. All that on top of work and everything ELSE I do. Also recorded a comedy show with Todd, my old "Under The Shelf" buddy and partner in Spudlok and Boring Industry.

My friend Len Peralta and his wife Nora have started a new podcast, a chat show called Jawbone and it's entertaining. They just talk about whatever is on their minds, whether or not they think it will be interesting to their listeners. The cool thing: It usually is interesting, like a good cup of coffee with friends. I've listened to all the episodes so far, and I sent the D.Verada CD to them for consideration to play or excerpt on their show.

Sooo... are you ready for an all blues Jandek CD? With real guitar playing from start to finish? There are 2 guitar players on this album, both playing quite well and jamming to standard blues and non-blues with Jandek providing singing and drums. The last tune, "War Dance", sounds like Jandek has some major pleghm going on and he spends about 20 seconds trying to hock it up during the song. This stuff just gets more interesting as it goes along.

Saw "Hitch". Cute.
Saw "Double D Avenger" with the Joe Bob Briggs commentary. Absolutely hilarious.
Purchased the second season DVD set of Penn & Teller's "B.S." - if you're looking for extra footage, there is none. Pick up the first season if you haven't already. I feel ripped off.

Blue Corpse

2005-01-24T22:34:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #15, Blue Corpse. Released in 1987.

This is the most recent Jandek album that I have a vinyl copy of to compare versions of. I have five others: Ready For The House, Six And Six, Later On, Nine Thirty, and Telegraph Melts. The CD re-mastering of all of these are poor in my opinion, and I have a standing offer for anyone who buys a copy of D.Verada's new album Cheese Sandwich through the mail (see the veebosonic link to the right). To prove that you already own a copy, photocopy the back of your jewel box of any of those CDs. Make it so I can see the name of the album, the song titles, the Corwood address and the bar code. Then send it to me along with your paid order. I will send you a copy of my vinyl rip on CD of the respective disc. Mind you, I will not send any Jandek vinyl rips to anyone who has not already invested in the music themselves, and I will not send them to you if you are not buying a copy of D.Verada's CD. D. feels very strongly about this, as I do. This way, only people who are genuinely interested in both of these independent artists can take advantage of this offer. Now on to the music for Jandek album fifteen.

This album features another guitarist, quite possibly the same guy who played guitar on Follow Your Footsteps. There are similar chord progressions, and standard tuning, chords, and blues progressions that really suit Jandek's lyrics and style. During "Down At The Ball Park", Jandek says, "...take it, Eddie." Maybe Eddie is the other guitarist.
The first two songs have a different singer, as well. Maybe it's the same guy who is playing the guitar. "Harmonica" is simply harmonica playing for five minutes. "House Of The Rising Sun" is not exactly a cover of the classic blues tune, because the music sounds entirely different, and the melody surely isn't the one you're used to. Then there's the words. OK, they're uh, similar to the original. Then there's the last cut, "One Minute", which is one minute long, with six bonus seconds. Drums. Talking. Then an abrupt stop.
It all boils down to a randomly constructed, but exactly wonderful Jandek record. This is one to recommend, because it's got the widest variety of Jandek sounds to it, and enough stuff that is serious to let you know what Jandek is really about. This one's my favorite so far.

This was Jandek's 15th album. Right around this time, the Spudlok album BIH! was recorded. The CD version, hopefully out later this year on veebosonic, has a tribute called "Ode To Jandek". Here's the words:

JANDEK IS GOD!! (4times)
Flipping my analog radio dial
I came across a station worth my while
The DJ's name is Evan Ford
Playing strangeness someone dared to record
Saturday mornings on B-W-C
On a show lasting one AM to three
Evan tells us we're about to hear God
And through the grooves we're about to plod
The man's name is... Jandek!
SCREAMING MAN:
Jandek! Jandek! I'm singing this song for you, Jandek.
He plays you every week, and when he does, I feel your power.
Music will never be the same.
You are my Beatles, my Bach, my Mozart.
I love you, Jandek, I really do.
SECOND VERSE, SUNG:
Corwood is the label he's on
For them fifteen records he has done
All of them are very plain
All of them sound quite the same
From his basement he presses them out
With shrieking guitar and shrill shout
He sends out promos and hopes records go
But he never gets played on radio
The man's name is Jandek!
SCREAMING MAN RETURNS:
Jandek! jandek! Your music is sheer genius.
I worship your album covers.
I'm naming my child after you.
Your music killed my plants.
My neighbors claw at my door when your music is on the radio.
I listen to you all day, all night.
Send me your autograph if you can write.
Oh wow-I made a rhyme. I'm rhyming for you Jandek!
Your music is genius.
You've got the brain of Einstein.
Keep screeching that guitar.
Rhythm is not a word. Neither is taste.
I love you, jandek, the God of avant-garde.
Jandek! Jandek! Jandeeeeekkk...... oh, no, no, it's just no good.

R.I.P. Johnny Carson. He was the best at what he did and nobody will ever do it as well again.

Modern Dances

2005-01-20T09:49:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #14, Modern Dances. Released in 1987.

Wacky Jandek. Wild Jandek. More electric music, on the edge of being comedic. Reprises of "Painted My Teeth" and "Spanish In Me" are here. Silly puns abound in "Twelve Minutes Since February 32'nd" and "Hand For Harry Idle".
There's more ensemble playing and plenty of female vocals, presumably from "Nancy". In "I Want To Know Why", the guitar interplay sounds very much like Captain Beefheart, circa Trout Mask Replica. There's been talk on the Jandek mailing list of Zappa influences in his music, here's another clue for you all - as irrelevant as it really is.
Then, at the end of the album, it's back to acoustic guitar and voice. A comedy album? Almost. This is the closest I've heard Jandek come to raw and unbridled buffoonery, for almost an entire album.

Wild stuff, kids.

Follow Your Footsteps

2005-01-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #13, Follow Your Footsteps. Released in 1986.

Young Jandek on the cover. Black and white photo. He is playing BASS!
A major shift happens here on this album. There is clearly another guitarist playing on a lot of this album, playing guitar in a much more traditional rock/folk way. Make no mistake about it, this is still a Jandek record, but when he plays the guitar it is in a wildly unorthodox style. All the tuning Jandek uses is his own, not assigned to any specific pitch. He just tunes to what sounds right to him and that's what he uses. It's plainly obvious that this second guitar player is using standard tuning and chords in a Jandek environment. Jandek also plays guitar, sometimes at the same time as this other player. The two guitars are not tuned to each other, and when they play together it is almost as if they're fighting one another.
This is a much more laid-back album, yet still there are tunes with electric guitar and plenty of drums. For those of you Jandek purists out there, there are a couple of tunes with just guitar and voice, and the last tune is amusing. Sounds like Jandek playing the other guy's guitar (there is also a definite tonal and timbre difference between the two instruments) and both of these guys being a little less serious than usual.

Rotten weather today. Time to stay home and watch TV and listen to music. Oh, and mail D.Verada CDs to radio stations and magazines. Queer Eye premieres of straight guy and straight girl tonight. It's absolutely bizarre how much of a guilty pleasure that show is for me.

Telegraph Melts

2005-01-10T08:06:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #12, Telegraph Melts. Released in 1986.

The electric party continues at Jandek's house. The stimulant is coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, and sleeplessness. There's bashing away aplenty on drums, electric guitar, bass, harmonica, and microphones. Nancy Sings. John Plays Drums. Unless, of course, Jandek's doing overdubbing. There's a couple of tracks that have dueling Jandeks moaning at the top of their lungs, including "Mother's Day Card".
On "Governor Rhodes", which has nothing apparent to do with the Ohio politician, Jandek's going on about how "We are here to celebrate...to sing... to chant..." Nancy's repeating everything he's saying in her own interpretive singing. Then he says "Celebrate our love." there's a short pause, and then Nancy says, "Celebrate our love?" in a tone that sounds like she actually means "Wait a minute jandek, I thought we were just friends." They carry on and sing and chant just the same.
"Star Up In The Sky" has marathon yowling from Jandek that is horrifying and awesome at the same time. I listened to it three times on the way in to work yesterday. Then there's the classic "You Painted Your Teeth". No Jandek mix tape is complete without this track. Wild stuff, kids. Re-defining music as it never was.

OK, I have to take a shower and then start sending radio stations copies of the D.Verada album. If you're at a college radio station and are interested, e-mail me at the link on the right side of this page for details.

Foreign Keys

2005-01-07T09:43:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #11, Foreign Keys. Released in 1985.

Jandek goes electric. Not just a little, this whole album is electric, and full of energy. It starts out with "Spanish In Me", probably the tune with the lowest energy on the album. But that just sets it up for the rest. Several of the songs feature the voice of "Nancy", all tracks have drums and electric guitar, and a few even have bass. Unknown whether it is Jandek playing all the instruments or if he just threw a party and started rolling tape.
The best two tracks are at the end, "Ballad Of Robert" has Jandek ranting in distorted splendor. The last track, "River To Madrid", is a reprise of "Spanish In Me", sung duet style by both Jandek and Nancy, with much more manic power. I LIKE IT!

Enjoy your weekend, kids. Stay warm.

Nine-Thirty

2005-01-05T10:08:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #10, Nine-Thirty. Released in 1985.

Ten albums in eight years. What other artist can boast that? Not many. But then, not many make music the same way Jandek does. This is another acoustic album, but the songs actually do have a bit of variance in them. Jandek is using the fretboard of the guitar more, and on one track he's even playing one not and bending the string. The voice and the playing are starting to work with each other in this unique form of music. The lyrics talk a lot about traveling, and different locations. "This Is A Death Dream" is the big introspective one to listen to, as if the title isn't obvious enough. Oh, and the song "Oh Jenny" was released on an earlier Jandek album. For some unknown reason, he redoes it here.

The D.Verada album is OUT. It's a 75 minute instrumental blast of sounds, rhythms and solos. You can buy a copy by going to the veebosonic website , which is in it's very infancy, but promises to grow like a weed in the days and weeks to come. Check it.

Christmas was great. My sweetheart got me an LCD monitor for my desktop machine, cool as hell and saves energy and $$. Did I mention I like her a lot? I think I might keep her for a while. The rest is secret (big smile).

Now on to the NEXT Jandek album. Believe it or not, he just released another one. Damn! Four albums in 2004?? Stay alive in double-oh five!

Interstellar Discussion

2004-12-08T02:00:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #9, Interstellar Discussion. Released in 1984.

In continuing with my series of Jandek chronological album reviews, let me assure you of one thing: I am not listening ahead. I am not listening to a lot of new stuff. Most of my recreational listening this time of year is Christmas music, because I love it a lot. I have heard the new U2 (good) and that really popular Maroon 5 album (better) and haven't even touched the new Eminem (on the pile below Jandek's "The Door Behind"). I have been spending time Christmas shopping, caregiving and doing research on marketing for the D.Verada album, which will be coming out in January for sure.

Back to this posts' subject, Interstellar Discussion. As far as Jandek albums go, this is the best yet. Electric and acoustic, with lots of variety. Still blazingly amateurish, in the course of Jandek albums this one shows a great leap in album making. There is definitely some multi-tracking going on here, like the dual Jandeks in"Hey". The electric guitar playing continues the trend of the last album, where the notes and chords are using the fretboard, but the acoustic guitar playing is still almost all open strings.
Drums, guitar, harmonica and the Jandek voice as well as percussion (banging on the microphone) make this an entertaining as well as amusing album. Two big faves are "I Ain't Got None", which makes the title plainly obvious (none what?), and the brilliant "Ha Ha", which spotlights Jandek's harmonica playing. The last half of the album is acoustic, sort of a cool-down after all of this banging about.

I'll try and continue this review string a bit more often, but this is a very busy month.

Big guilty pleasure on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim: "The Venture Brothers". Part Jonny Quest and Thunderbirds meet National Lampoon and Freakazoid (little-known WB cartoon from the 90s) with loads of thought and hidden back stories for those who discover them, the show is amazingly well written and plenty of surprising out-loud laughs.

Extra thanks to those who have contributed comments to this thread. It keeps me motivated!

A break from Jandek: NIN SACD ARP bits

2004-11-27T10:37:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to post a couple of things:

Nine Inch Nails' DOWNWARD SPIRAL album has been released in surround sound. The Super Audio 2-disc "Deluxe Edition" has the album in regular CD stereo, and in high resolution stereo as well as the 5.1 surround mix, then 70+ minutes of demos, non-album tracks, remixes, etc. In CD and hi-res stereo. A nice package. There's also a DVD-Audio version of the album for about half the price that uses the weird new "Dualdisc". CD on one side, flip it over and it's a DVD with videos for three songs, an image gallery of graphics for the album and a NIN discography with audio and video clips (can't wait until CLOSURE comes out on DVD next year!) The video stuff is exclusive to the DVD-A, the second disc of extra music is exclusive to the Deluxe Edition SACD. The surround mix is by Trent and doesn't spoil the spirit of the original album. It stretches the album sonically, but all the stuff you remember hearing is not hidden. Here's hoping all future NIN albums are mixed in surround. One last thought about this: This album was recorded digitally 10 years ago, and now it's available in a format sonically superior (theoretically) to the digital recording technology available at the time. What kind of resolution was this album recorded in, and what, if anything, was done to improve it sonically? Sorry, my head hurts thinking about it.

For those who know anything about making music with computers, you've probably heard about virtual instruments. Lately a lot of programs like Reason, Gigasampler and "plug-ins" for recording programs like ProTools and Performer create synthesizers right on your desktop that can be played from MIDI keyboards connected to your computer. Most recently, the virtual instruments that have been catching my eye and making the respective brows go up and down are ridiculously authentic recreations of the original Moog Modular synth, the Minimoog, and the Yamaha CS-80. Now the piece de resistance has been announced:
The ARP 2600 synthesizer was always my favorite analog synthesizer from the seventies. A self contained gargantuan with lots of sliders and switches, it resembed a modular synth in such a way that every control had a jack underneath it that allowed you to plug a cable into it and interrupt the pre-patched signal flow to change the sound any way your imagination drove it. This was extremely useful when altering external audio signals. Now Arturia, the company that makes the other virtual instruments mentioned earlier, has announced that they will be shipping the 2600 in virtual form soon. The Pavlovian bell has rung. I've been wanting a 2600 for decades, and now it's within reach. We'll see what happens. Pardon me while I get the lobster bib.

The Rocks Crumble

2004-11-27T00:17:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #8, The Rocks Crumble. Released in 1983.

Well. Where was I for a week or so? Thought I was gonna blog a Jandek album a day, every day, until I had 'em all done? Nope. I will eventually get to all of them, but man does not live by Jandek alone. I got busy, and Thanksgiving and work and all sorts of other things happened. So, in order to keep you from too much information, I'll let you know this: D.Verada's first album is in the manufacturing stage. While I was away, I didn't forge ahead and listen to any Jandek albums in advance of the reviewing. So here is the review.

There's a drum set on the cover. The drums are prominent on this record. But first, two songs of acoustic guitar and vocal, including "Birthday", another version of the song that Nancy sang on "Nancy Sings" a few albums back, and the one that Jandek sang when John played drums on "John Plays Drums". Then the electricity kicks in. Three versions of "European Jewel" are back to back here, making it five versions altogether for this song in Jandek's catalog. Where's the remix? First, the song is played with electric guitar. Strange. When Jandek plays electric, he uses the fretboard a lot and plays full chords as well as individual notes. When he's acoustic, he's almost exclusively playing open strings. Then for the second version, "European Jewel II", the drums are banging away randomly. Then the song is played AGAIN for "European Jewel 501", with the drums getting a little bit closer to playing in sync with the guitar.
The rest of the songs continue with interesting wordplay on "Message to The Clerk", parts one and two, "Breathtaker", "Lonesome Company", and "Same Road". Looks like Jandek may be on the way to a cohesive album here, in his own unique way.

Your Turn To Fall

2004-11-16T09:06:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #7, Your Turn To Fall. Released in 1983.

Another album of all acoustic guitar and vocals, another disc of short songs. This one's a bit of a downer (as if the others aren't?). There's a color cover of a painted wooden desk with a guitar case next to it. There are two instrumentals, one being "New String". Jandek's string-stretching technique? Doesn't sound that much different from any of his other single-note melodies, except that one string is tuned to a very low pitch.
Recording quality of some of these is exceptionally low-fi, especially the last cut, "They Knew My Game". I wonder if there is ever a second take for a Jandek song, or if he just saves every take and releases it on another record?
Oh, yeah: the one really different track is "John Plays Drums". The same lyrics as "Nancy Sings", but with Jandek singing and playing, and someone on drums randomly pounding away madly with no synchronization whatsoever to the rest of the music on the track. What the hell?? Maybe "John" begged him to let him play drums on his record. What a guy.

I know somewhere Dr. Clayton Forrester is watching me during this experiment, and he's not happy with the results. I'm nowhere near as funny as those guys Joel and Mike with the two robots. If you don't get that joke, I sentence you to watch a DVD of Mystery Science Theater 3000, STAT!

Staring At The Cellophane

2004-11-14T23:21:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #6, Staring At The Cellophane. Released in 1982.

Three albums released in one year. This is the third. This one and the previous one have covers that are nearly identical. A picture of the same guitar, possibly taken on the same roll, from different views. All short tracks, kind of like a pop album - NOT. This album is ALL guitar and vocals, but I like this one just as much as the last one but for different reasons. Just like the last one, the first song is named after a person. Just like the last one, the second track is an instrumental. Then there's track eleven, "Sand I". Very few words, but Jandek discovers the fretboard on the guitar!!! When the song starts he mutes the strings for a percussion-like effect and then starts PRESSING DOWN ON THEM. YESSSSSS!!!!!! In combination with the unique tuning he's using, he's making some neat chords! Another tune has him singing an interesting made-up melody to the singular chord on the guitar. Damn. I just might even put one or two of these tunes on my iPod.

Allright kids, I'm going to bed. This will be a big week for DVDs, with both Elf and the next sets of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Space Ghost coming out.

Judy and I will be shooting pictures for the cover of the D.Verada CD this week. Get excited.

Living In A Moon So Blue

2004-11-14T10:11:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #5, Living In A Moon So Blue. Released in 1982.

The second of three albums released in one year, all vocals and acoustic guitar, with a little bit of harmonica. Sixteen short songs, with relatively short lyrics, except for "One Step Ahead", the first Jandek instrumental. Sounds like he started a song with full intention to start singing some lyrics he wrote, and then go so into banging on the strings near the bridge that he just fixated on that and kept going for two minutes. A lot of the lyrics are silly, nonsensical, and then he does something serious like "All In An Apple Orchard". Yet you can't deny the humor of a song with the lyrics "Please do not push any buttons/On this machine/On what machine/Wet paint /Keep Out". All done in a complete deadpan.
The more he gets into doing these, it sounds like he's got a feel for actually creating a cohesive album where the songs are actually distinguishable from each other, unlike the first couple albums. How this continues for 33 more albums is unbelievable, but I'm committed to listening to them all. This is music that defies description (yet I'm doing it right here, DUH - what does that say about me?). But once you get past the fact that the musical tones are nowhere near music as we are used to listening to it, these records are glimpses into Jandek's imagination, and how he perceives music. Putting on any other music allows you to accept the commonly familiar universe of the 12 tones in all of it's mathematical permutations and rhythmic predict-abilities, this music tears completely away from that in a universe so simple and distant, that upon first hearing it you can only perceive it as wrong and poorly done. Then once you get past that, you see something so completely different. No wonder there are so many records by this one guy. Who else is going to do this?

Monkey Call practice was Friday night. We're playing at the Creekside Tavern at 37040 Detroit Road in Avon Lake Saturday, November 20th. This is our last show of 2004, the year of the Monkey, so show up, dammit! Yes, we will be recording. For more info or directions call the Creekside at 440-934-4476.

Chair Beside A Window

2004-11-12T08:33:00.000-05:00

Chair Beside A Window, Jandek album #4. Released in 1982.

This album is an improvement over the others, but in odd ways. First track, "Down In A Mirror", is the familiar downer blues with voice and guitar, but there's this noise in the background. Could it be the motors in the tape recorder Jandek is using?
I was listening to it in my car and I had to stop the CD because I thought something was rattling underneath my vehicle.
Next we have "European Jewel", which was also a song on the first album, but this version has little resemblance to the original. Distorted electric guitar, drums, bass and voice. Is this a whole band, or did Jandek play all the instruments himself by overdubbing? The bass player sometimes sounds like he's unaware he's playing with other musicians, and decides to start playing sea shanties. The drums are a cacophonous racket that has a tempo not unlike a traffic jam with mortar fire. Just before the end of the song, it sounds like a fight breaks out to see who can play the fastest. Gee, I hope nobody get hurt during the recording.
While he's singing "Unconditional Authority", it sounds like someone's feeding him taffy, and he's trying to chew it and sing at the same time.
Then there's "Nancy Sings". A woman with a beautiful voice singing Jandek's lyrics while the usual Jandek guitar plays in the background. Haunting. Next up is another "band" track, "No Break". Nancy is talking random bits of speech, while the guitar cranks away and the drums struggle to keep a beat. Then back to the usual voice and guitar songs for the rest of the album, but overall this is the most varied Jandek album yet, ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime, not necessarily in that order, and some really pleasant things in there as well. Dare I say it? I enjoyed it.

Footnote to "Nancy Sings": Back when we were playing Jandek records at WBWC, we called her "Jandek's bitch".

Enjoy the weekend. I'll try to do some more of these reviews, but I may just want to take a break. Saw THE INCREDIBLES last weekend with digital projection. Awesome. When the digital projection started, I was looking for imperfections in the colors, but the only defects I saw were in my imagination. I'd really like to see it again with traditional film projection, to see if there's a measurable difference. I've heard that films shot digitally are better shown that way, and movies shot on film are best projected that way. If the Star Wars III trailer that showed is any indication, I wholeheartedly agree. But I also feel that the industry is going to try and push digital projection to all the theaters eventually, which I know will be a bad thing as a lot of purists are concerned. Remember when there was only one movie at each given theater? If so, you're probably over 30.

Later On

2004-11-11T11:00:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #3, Later On. Released in 1981.

Before today's jandek review, I have two references to make:

1. Negativland and today's date: E-leven. E-leven. It's not even funny.

2. Zappa reference to today's Jandek album title from "Jazz Discharge Party Hats": Later ON - they discovered, this would make a great way of LIFE for them...

Thank you. Now, back to our regularly scheduled Jandek review.

With this album, Jandek gets up and does something with more power than the C battery dim melancholy that the first two albums were cloaked in. Right away, on "Your Condition", he's moaning and rocking out, meditating on the the title, going "yorcun-dishun, yorcun-dishun..." and has discovered the harmonica, which he actually seems to know how to play. The guitar's still out of tune and will probably continue to be until the end of time, so let it be that way. He's also grabbing the guitar neck and muting strings for percussion, so Jandek's music, as well as his lyrics, move in a new direction. Songs actually change moods so it sounds like other songs rather than one long song divided by short silences. On the last track, "The Second End", lots of strumming up and down the strings close to the bridge. Introspective minimalism, and lots of it.

Once again I have a vinyl copy of this album to compare, and this one hasn't been messed around with too much, just a reduction of tape hiss and lots of reverb.

And speaking of Jandek,
The DVD of the movie JANDEK ON CORWOOD arrived in the mail. I watched moist of it last night, and will continue to watch bits of it as I continue into this odyssey of musical murkiness. I'll have more to say about this movie after November 24th, when it should be for sale in the regular marketplace.

Six And Six

2004-11-10T14:40:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #2, Six And Six. Released in 1981.

For an album that was released three years after it's predecessor, this is not very different. Could it have possibly been recorded at nearly the same time as the first, and just held back until he could afford to manufacture this LP? Strange, to say the least.
Once again it's all songs sounding like the same guitar at the same sitting, with the same out-of-tune open strings. The variations between them are interesting, though. There's a slower tune like "Can I See Your Clock" that has all singular picked string notes as it's accompaniment, then the next song "Wild Strawberries" has Jandek wildly strumming away at the entire set of strings (maybe less than six) with bare fingers, so hard the pitches bend.

Every song is Jandek singing and acoustic guitar. Lyrically very down, mellow and depressing. There are conceptual continuity clues to forthcoming song titles and album titles as well. But then I noticed something different.

This experiment is not the first time I have heard Jandek, as I've told you earlier. I also have some of Jandek's vinyl releases that I have converted to CD here at home for my own personal enjoyment(?). When I was listening to this CD and the first one as well, I noticed the sound was really different. It sounded like the music was being reproduced from a poorly encoded MP3 file, because of all these strange audio artifacts in the music that would not have existed back in the early eighties. So I pulled out my CD of the vinyl rip, and it's easily apparent that this album was drastically remastered to remove tape hiss. The LP sounds like it was recorded with a cassette microphone sitting on top of a cardboard box. The CD sounds like it was taken from a better quality recording, and gobs of reverb were added to mask any other audio defects that may exist.
The recording has also been edited. In the song "Point Judith" on the original album, there is a point where the microphone gets bumped, or knocked to the floor, and it is as jarring as it is hilarious. On this CD, it is entirely edited out. Same with a bump of the mic on the last cut, "Delinquent Words", and where Jandek's breath hits the mic and produces a "pffh" noise. The fade is also slower. I'd absolutely be floored if this was a re-recording.
But then again, there's a great line at the end of the album: "Dust enters into all being, and man who came from dust, to dust shall he return." Sing on, Jandek. You are the God of the Avant Garde.

More to come.

Ready For The House

2004-11-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

Jandek album #1, Ready For The House. Released in 1978.

The entire album is Jandek singing along with a quite out-of-tune guitar, by most standards. The first eight songs go along like they were all the same song with different variations on them. It's like he sat down and decided to record an entire album at one sitting, and made it up as he went along - the music that is. The lyrics definitely have a little more thought put into them, and the opener, "Naked In The Afternoon", is actually a little catchy.
Then there's track 9, "European Jewel (incomplete)". This one is on electric guitar and a different song altogether than the rest of the album. The playing is still very amateurish, but you have much more of a sense that there's something actually going on here. Is it the same person playing the guitar, or is he singing along while someone else plays? "Jandek" could just be the name of this project.
This album reminds me a lot of when I very first picked up a guitar at the age of ten and tried to make up songs. I strummed the open strings and made up lyrics that wandered around three pitches that sounded right to the strings I was playing.

And yes, this project does remind me of what The Residents did to Penn Jillette way back when he was locked in a hotel room and forced to listen to every Residents record and record an audio diary each day. However, you have to remember one thing about The Residents, and they have admitted this from day one: Somewhere in all the information you hear about them, someone is lying to you.

More tomorrow.

It's Here!

2004-11-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

I just found out that a box has arrived at the house from Corwood Industries. Looks like it's a big ol' box of JANDEK. More in my next entry, which might be my reflections on the first album.

Later.

Four More Years

2004-11-03T15:47:00.000-05:00

Well, Bush was re-elected. I for one am glad that Kerry did not win. I'm not a big Bush supporter, but Kerry was definitely NOT the right man for the job. End of that discussion.

Matt Martin from Squeaky Wheels called today. He's putting the finishing touches on the new CD and he and I are going to get together to discuss little details. Stevie Fingers left the band and relocated to Florida. I wish him the best, I hope he knows what he's doing.

I have changed the preferences on this blog so that anyone can add comments. Thanks for letting me know I could do that. I'm not the most tech-savvy guy in the world, but I'll figure it out eventually.

Now I'm just trying to find the time to edit the audio I have sitting on my hard drive. Later.

Jandek-mania!

2004-11-01T12:32:00.000-05:00

Here's what I can tell you about Jandek.

Back in the late eighties, I was hanging out with my friends Pete and Evan at WBWC-FM, the radio station at Balbwin-Wallace College in Berea, OH. They had all these records by this guy in Houston, TX who put out these records and sent them out to radio stations. They called this music "the most bizarre and horrible music ever made", because it was just this guy playing a very out-of-tune guitar and singing over it, usually just as out of tune. Very unprofessional, very amateur. But not without its own strange charm.

Evan had a show late on Friday nights called The Avant Garde, and he decided to play one song per week from Jandek's catalogue that they had there at the station. He would always preference the event by saying that Laurie Anderson was the Queen. The Residents were the kings. But there is only one that is the GOD of the avant garde, and that is Jandek.

I sent a letter to the post office box that is Corwood industries, the label of Jandek, and I asked if any Jandek was available on compact disc. I received a reply: a photocopied catalog of the phonograph records (LPs) available at the time (at that time there were fifteen albums), and written on the back of the tiny envelope that the paper came in, were scrawled the words. "No cassette or compact".

That was 1988. This is 2004. There are now 38 albums in the Jandek catalog, with three released in this year alone and the most recent being last week. Believe it or not, this guy has quite a following!!!

An independent documentary film, JANDEK ON CORWOOD, is being released on DVD. Now comes the shocker of shockers: On the 17th of October, for the first time ever, it was confirmed that Jandek played in front of people at a music festival in Glasgow, Scotland. It was not announced before, during, or after. Of course, MP3s are floating around the net and usenet. Yep, I got 'em.

I've been threatening for years to order some of Jandek's music. I've now done it. I sent a check to Corwood and I will soon be receiving CDs of every one of Jandek's 38 albums. I will post my reviews here.

I have also made the decision to start releasing my music to the public, but not under my own name. I will post information about the CDs and free MP3s when they are made available. ENJOY.

P.S. Happy five months, Judy. ;-)

Howard Stern, Happy Satellite.

2004-10-07T16:33:00.000-04:00

Howard Stern has announced that as of January 1, 2006, he will be exclusively on Sirius Satellite radio. Finally uncensored and away from the confines of the FCC and regular radio broadcasting, this has been announced as the beginning of the end of AM and FM radio as we know it. Uh, I don't think so.

First of all, radio is free. Free, free, free. Everyone has a radio and they're cheap if you don't have one. They're in cars. Home stereos. Walkmans. Table models, under the counter, in the dentist's office, everywhere. Satellite radio is by subscription and you have to pay for every receiver that has it, just like cable or satellite television. So this format has a long way to go before it is really mass market.

Second, there are two satellite providers. Sirius and XM. XM has the advantage of being mostly commercial free and better sound quality. They also, as of this writing, have more subscribers. Sirius has exclusive NFL programming, and now they have Howard Stern. Upon Stern's announcement, Sirius stock went up significantly. Yow! What gwine on heah? There is no denying that this is a major shot in the arm for the number two guy on the block. If I hung out at Best Buy and Circuit City, I would wager that it's a major topic, and how much money can we make here?

Third, is this a bold move on Stern's part, or is it just a response to something else? Opie and Anthony, lewd shock jocks themselves that lost their radio gig over a year ago for being too objectionable on their syndicated afternoon show, have debuted on XM radio, and the news was all over the place about how they are now uncensored and free to do whatever they want on satellite radio. Now Stern is a player. The man is talented and funny, and this is far from his last gasp. He could retire now if he wanted to, so he doesn't need the money.

Lastly, at this point in time, I'm not going to jump on this bandwagon. I don't listen to radio enough to warrant the expense. Beyond AM, beyond FM, beyond my budget. I can, however, sit back and watch the fireworks, and so can you. Have fun. Oh, and we'll see how I feel about this in a year.

All Hail The Kleptones!

2004-10-06T04:16:00.000-04:00

If you are familiar with any of the following; Negativland, John Oswald a/k/a Plunderphonics, The Evolution Control Committee, etc., you MUST check out The Kleptones. I did go out and buy the new Cake, Fatboy Slim and William Shatner/Ben Folds CDs today, but I can't stop listening to The Kleptones' masterpiece, A NIGHT AT THE HIP-HOPERA. In the style of their previous YOSHIMI BATTLES THE HIP-HOP ROBOTS and DJ Dangermouse's THE GREY ALBUM, this is a mash-up of some of Queen's hottest hits and many other artists raps, rhymes, tunes, and full recordings. It's completely non-releasable, so go to their site and use BitTorrent (search for it, it's PC and Mac compliant) to download the music and artwork in a zip file. The only way you can get it is for free, like most mash-up music. I wish I knew a way to send money to The Kleptones to support their efforts. They freakin' rock.
Highlights: Mixing at least four Beastie Boys tunes seamlessly with "I Want To Break Free" and "Radio Ga-Ga", Turning "Bicycle Race" into a laugh fest with Eminem and Ben Stein. Also in there, among others, are ODB, Missy Elliot, Q-Tip, and The Moonites from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Download this NOW!

I'll type more this week, because there are a lot of things to talk about, including FahrenHYPE 9/11 on DVD. Oh, and practicing harmonica while driving.

My Toughest Audience

2004-09-30T14:39:00.000-04:00

I played a solo performance on Tuesday to a class of 4th graders. I was invited by my girlfriend's daughter to her music class' "sharing day", and I showed up with guitar and harmonica in hand. I played Steely Dan's "Monkey In Your Soul", accompanied by my iBook running Reason playing my programs of drums, bass, and horns. Afterwards there was a question answer session, which was great. Lots of questions about the band and what we do. Some of the better questions:
"How did you learn to make the computer play the music?"
"Was that sound a cello?"
"How good were you when you first started playing the guitar?"
Once again, a great time and I got a Thank You hug from Michaela.

Picked up the Marilyn Manson Best-of CD/DVD set. The DVD was a good idea, all of his music videos in one place, many of which I've never seen before. The last Manson album, THE GOLDEN AGE OF GROTESQUE", had this god-awful short film by Manson where he kept saying "Stop rehearsing Alcohol, start performing chemicals." I even wrote a Beavis and Butthead commentary for it:
(TRANSCRIBED OVER A TWENTY MINUTE PERIOD)

Beavis: This sucks. Change it.
Butthead: Shut up. Something cool’s supposed to happen.
Beavis: The music is stupid. It’s like... Circus death stuff. Why is that guy putting like, shoe polish on his face?
Butthead: “My butt is a VCR... My butt is a VCR.” huh-huh. Huh-huh.
Beavis: HEY BUTTHEAD! CHECK IT OUT! THOSE CHICKS ARE NAKED!
Butthead: WHOA! Wait.. You dillhole – those chicks are wearing fake boobs. I wonder if Manson’s gonna like, do it with those chicks.
Beavis: But they’re like, tied together or something. I could score with those chicks, cause they're like, crazy and would, uh, let me.
Butthead: Beavis, you couldn't score with chicks like that even if they were crazy. They only like guys in like, goth bands. Like Marilyn Manson.
Beavis: Oh, uh, yeah.
Butthead: This is stupid. I’m gonna put another DVD in.
Beavis: NO, WAIT! NANANANANANANAH! mmmmm....STOP REHEARSING ALCOHOL! START PERFORMING NARCOTICS!
Butthead: huh-huh. Chattering X-rays. That's cool.
Beavis: heh-heh. Oooo. Y’know, I don’t know anything about making movies and stuff, but, could somebody have like turned on a light or something?
Butthead: Maybe they made it at night. What, it’s over?
Beavis: I told you that sucked. Next time we’re watching “Cliff ‘Em All!”
Butthead: Shut UP, Beavis. Watching those two chicks made me like, hungry. Is there any beef jerky left?
Beavis: Uuuh, no. I ate it.

Playlist Magazine LIKES me!

2004-09-25T02:33:00.000-04:00

So there's this new magazine about iTunes, iPods and MP3 players Called Pllaylist, and they have this new website that has a forum. I posted my mono file trick for saving space on your iPod (first posted here on April 18th), and Editor in Chief Christopher Breen, author of "Secrets Of The iPod" and an iPod/Mac guru himself, praised it. I am flattered. Check out their forums. I'm listed as Billeblast.

The new Frank Zappa DVD-Audio release, QuAUDIOPHILIac, is freakin' awesome. Quite possibly the best posthumous release of Frank's material yet. If you have a surround system, you owe it to yourself to seek this out. I've been a vocal critic of some of the other recent Zappa vault releases (most notably the mix on "Halloween" and the authoring errors on "Baby Snakes"), but this one is the shiznit. Get it. Highlights: "Rollo" from the ORCHESTRAL FAVORITES sessions, a jam session of the themes that eventually made up the composition "Chunga's Revenge", and extended versions of "Ship Ahoy" and "Waka/Jawaka", the latter minus some of the horns and a Frank guitar solo played though a ring modulator. The only other time I've heard a guitar through a ring modulator is "Too Much Paranoias" by Devo.

Back With Blurred Eyesight

2004-09-19T15:30:00.000-04:00

Well, first of all, I am posting again after a delay of over 15 weeks. Yeah, I suck, but in a good way. I have been making notes about what to blog about and if I make good on all of these suggestions I've made for myself, I'll be giving you all sorts of constructive ranting. But it is Sunday morning and I haven't read my Best Buy circular yet, so here goes.

The blurred eyesight is a result of a mishap during my retinal checkup over the past week. My doctor puts a special lens on my eye so he can see the blood vessels inside and determine if any further laser treatments are needed. As sometimes happens to contact lens users (of which I am not), my eyeball got scratched. Wasn't that much of a bother the first day but then it got infected. I just thought it was bothering me, so upon the doctor's office's advice, I bought some lubricating gel to help the healing. That was three days ago, and it's been hurting more ever since. I just got off the phone with the on-call eye doctor to prescribe me some antibiotic ointment, and I'll be picking that up when I go buy my paper. Arrgh.

Music stuff:
Rumor has it The Beatles and Apple Computer are coming close to a settlement on their dispute over the name 'Apple". A settlement of over 20 million dollars was paid to them years ago and an agreement was made that Apple would not start a music company, but you'd have to be hiding under a rock for the last three years to see that Apple now makes the world's most popular portable music player and has the biggest and most widely used music download service. If the rumors are true, The Beatles company, Apple Corps, will get a settlement of historic proportions, previously associated only with class action lawsuits, and Paul McCartney may end up being a member of the Apple board of directors, which now includes (shudder) former vice president Al Gore. Will all Apple users have to "go veggie" now?

Depeche Mode will be releasing an album of remixes in October. From the band that practically invented the marketing plan associated with constantly remixing their work (sorry, Puffy/Diddy/Sean/whateverthe f%*& your name is), this should be really cool stuff. The preview track, a version of "Enjoy The Silence" mixed by one of the guys in Linkin Park, ROCKS. But looking on their site, most of the tracks are previously released remixes going back to 1981, which the diehard fans (myself being one of them) have bought at least twice already. Only a handful of the 20 or more tracks that they are releasing as part of this whole project (2CDs, bonus CDs, limited edition singles, etc.) are newer than 2001. Another marketing ploy. What, you don't have enough of my money yet? I want a check from Dave Gahan for helping to finance his heroin habit a few years ago, and while you're at it, do the same for a hundred thousand or more of your other fans, One other thing would be nice - a formal apology for Dave Gahan's solo album. Can you say suck? No, not in a good way.

The Drunken Medical Gal

2004-05-17T09:28:00.001-04:00

The gig on Saturday night was much better than expected! Joe, Tom and I all had extremely exhausting days earlier, but this was a pick-up gig we took because another band had cancelled a week earlier. Anything to help out Ray at the Creekside.

We had a healthy size crowd the entire night, and our friend Nancy came out to sing "What's Up" and turned the place upside down. We had a running gag with Cristal Beer (a new beer they're selling there) and we were pushing it in-between songs, inserting Cristal Beer into song lyrics, etc. Hilarious. That was the secret word.

We also had little flyers with a picture of a milk carton sporting the photo of our missing stuffed monkey (pilfered at the last gig we had there).

And then there was this guy and gal who came in wearing scrubs (hospital workers? EMS drivers??) and the girl wasted no time getting hammered. She walked up to the band about 1:20AM before our last song, and demanded to let her sing a song with us.
"What song?" we laughed, having no regular female singer in the band.
" 'Crazy For You', by Madonna? Puh-leeeze!" Uh, we don't think so.

Heard from The Ghoul. The DVD I authored for him sold out in Detroit at the Comic-Con. Time to make more. Another title may be in the works soon.

Stop reading and go enjoy the weather.

2004-05-04T09:03:00.000-04:00

OK, so I didn't post a review of KILL BILL Vol. 2 right away. You may have thought I was killed. No such thing. I DID, however, see it twice. It was that freakin' amazing. Bad thing is, I really can't say anything about it without giving something away. Spoilers, they call these tidbits of info.
What I can say, is that what Vol. 1 had in violence and just damn good action sequences, Vol.2 more than makes up for in dialogue. The film making techniques, the tributes to martial arts genres of the past, and of course, the element of surprise made for a fantastic film. See it.
Last Friday (April 30) I went and saw my old band, Squeaky Wheels. Once again, they have no permanent drummer. Hoss left, and now beating the skins is none other than John Walsh, recording engineer extraordinare! I knew of Walsh from Sosumi and the records he's produced for Cleveland groups like Bluto's Revenge, and called him when he worked at Buchanan Recording Complex where we ended up recording the project that never got finished (I left the group at the tail end of recording). So it was great to see him and hear him play. It was a good time and I went up to play "Run Like Hell", "Faith Healer", "Dummy Seat", andthe old "Roadhouse Blues/Freeway Jam" medley. A possibility of a reunion 'tour'? Maybe a few dates here and there, but nothing permanent.

2004-04-18T23:29:00.000-04:00

If you know me, you know I have an iPod, and I'm absolutely nuts about it. I have a 30GB iPod that I purchased on May 5th, 2003 and that I now have 4952 songs on it. For someone with over 3000 CDs and an additional 3000 vinyl records, that's a small amount. I am very selective about the stuff I put on my iPod, and I frequently add and remove songs. The songs that stay are ones that I like or for one reason or another I have to keep, for example songs I have to learn for the band I'm in (Monkey Call).
However, I'd like to type a bit about maximizing your iPod experience. Besides being selective about the songs you put on your iPod, I have a full 10 gigabytes free on mine. I'm only supposed to have approximately 7500 songs space on my machine. Ultimately, I'll have a lot more. The reason? Old songs in mono and spoken word selections.
AAC compression uses less file space than MP3, and if you have a CD with old songs in mono (say for example, the first 4 Beatle albums), if you use the default setting for importing the music from CD, you'll import those mono files as full stereo. For the mono files ONLY, change your importing preferences to custom and mono, and those mono files will save with half the space and identical fidelity. As a result, my iPod has stuff by The Beatles, The Kinks, James Brown, Dead Kennedys, Muddy Waters, Louis Armstrong, and many more that are mono songs, but play wonderfully with no loss in sound quality, yet they only use half the space.
Next, if you have spoken word material, the quality of the file is not as critical as those music files. Therefore, keep 'em in mono and change the bit rate to 48kbps. As a result, a four minute file, which usually takes up four megabytes of space, will only consume 1.5 megabytes. Even if you only have a couple of hours of spoken word stuff on your iPod this will free up a lot of space for full stereo 128kbps files.
Coming up tomorrow: my review of "Kill Bill Volume 2".

2004-04-01T08:25:00.000-05:00

OK. I'm waking up, Listening to the new Aerosmith CD "Honkin' On Bobo". So far, it's pretty good. I'm burning DVDs for the Ghoul presentation at Cinema Wasteland this weekend, and getting ready for that first cup o' coffee. Welcome to my blog. I'm on vacation until Monday, so hopefully I'll make the best of the time "off".