sing like buildings: July 2007

performance :: guy blackman

guy blackman and sly hats (of crayon fields) are on a world tour, grass roots style. partially promoting his new release, adult baby, but mostly being honored to perform this year's what the heck festival with k record counterparts such as calvin johnson and mt. eerie, guy's tour schedule is relentless. big travels for the earnest pop songs he creates. his new album at first recalls hidden threads of twee, maybe hinting a mellower belle & sebastian. but after listening to the whole album, there's a different kind of charm in his pop ballads. a quality of 1960's pop, in the quality of nico's chelsea girl or maybe nick drake. this becomes most evident on tracks like 'black eyes.'

:: listen to black eyes

the lyrical content holds a lot more soul then most passby twee too. mostly harbouring emotions of past relationship, faded friendships, and confronting sexuality. the cast for this album is an army of guest appearances and players, including a sing duet with jens lekman, and a vocal lead with peggy frew.

guy has his hands in many cookie jars. he also runs chapter music, which famously released, songs for nao, a compilation of underground japanese bands. it serves as an encyclopedia for japanese undergrounders. highly recommended if you're trying to gain speed on that scene. he was a temporary player in my pal foot foot, my favorite underground band from japan, and has collaborated with the tenniscoats and maher shalal has baz.

guy blackman plays one more time in new york before jumping to europe. he'll be at union hall (702 union st, park slope, brooklyn, NY) on monday July 30 - with in interview, doors 7.30pm.

Labels: performance, release

circuit bent little tikes megaphone

the little tikes megaphone is an amazing out of market jewel. even without the bends, it's pretty fascinating, having high pitch and low pitch voice alterations. my reference for this bend came from casper electronics founder and guru bender, pete edwards. he's provided a partially complete schematic for his circuit bends.

the most fascinating feature, and i don't know how pete came about discovering it, is that the circuit board has a robot voice mode. it must of been part of the original design, but once they went to production, decided to scrap the robot voice. too scary for children? too bad for them, amazing for us! this is by far the most amazing feature. all you need to do is add an audio out, and then you have a totally useful instrument for recording and live performance. what's even better is that there is already a volume control on the device, so you don't have to worry about high output signals from your quick audio interface.

the megaphone is built like a tank. the hardest item i've ever tried to disassemble. i recommend great great patiences and the right tools. putting it back together was a miracle too. there is plenty of room inside the chamber for extra circuitry, so that's good. in a crunch for time, so i didn't figure out how to patch the fx into the processor as pete edwards suggests. another time...

Labels: circuit bending

performance:: lullatone usa tour

review tour schedule and watch lullatone tour commercial!
lullatone.com/

learn about other performers:
www.myspace.com/aliaspail
www.myspace.com/tristanperich
www.myspace.com/burnkit2600
www.myspace.com/twiandhumblefeather

Labels: performance

performance :: 77 boadrum

maybe the single most important musical performance i've ever witnessed? i'm not sure. feel completely whole, like a musical catharsis. the legendary boredoms assembled a gang of 77 drummers, converging in brooklyn bridge park. it was like getting struck by lightning and surviving. the first pounds of the drummers were like hammers in the heart. the beats spiraled outside to each drummer. then they converged on grooves and filled in their transitions [

watch video].

waiting in line under the city sun was pretty testing, but i was prepared with sunscreen and umbrella. it was the longest, largest line i've ever seen. i was shocked how many of my friends flaked on coming. was this not the most important experimental / avant garde whatever ya wanna call it event? warning, you may get teased...

i was thrilled to squat near brian chippendale of lightning bolt. other drummers i was thrilled to see were mathias schultz of holy fuck, enon and andrew w.k. you could see the looks on the drummers' faces. they were witnessing it for the first time too. lots of grins, smiles, and smirks. the crowd was eventually worked into a trance, and everyone who didn't know how to move or dance to this new music, just danced. it was an endearing moment. we all caught the bug. our heads were smacked with sound; thank you boredoms!

:: listen to excerpt
:: listen to excerpt

the thunderous unity of 77 drummers in a spiral can't really be well captured or shared. it was a rare experience that can only translate in person. a memory i never want to forget! tons of media [flickr] and posts are popping up, like here and here.

Labels: performance

performance :: true primes at pete's candy store

rolyn and che of true primes played at pete's candy store in brooklyn to a packed house of long time fans and pals, myself included. a nice hyper set with fx'd beat oriented loops, more familiar of their older material a couple years ago. royln calls it their hip hop set [

watch video]. the fun about true primes is you just don't know what you're gonna get until you start taking notes on che's set up as he's hooking his tape machine and toys up. a regular curiousity shoppe for gear geeks.

royln does the robot! sensual style and teasing stage presence: you always get the feeling that true primes have been pals longer then any hometown friend you still play phone tag with. the comfort level and banter with audience is very household. their new album 'we have won' is out on locust music.