In League with Satan

There are better Bratz subway defacements at my home stop (Carroll Street F) but this is definitely my favorite. Along with the recent Die Hard defacement I saw at 14th Street I imagine we can now proclaim an actual trend of Glen Benton-ifcation to our beloved public transportation system.

Satan spawn the service disruptions this week on the G.

Unrelated: How awesome is it that both Brandi M. and Brandi C. on Rock of Love are confirmed porn stars? How even MORE awesome that neither of their real names are Brandi but neither of them used Brandi as their porn name?

Practicing what I Preach

So recently I wrote a call to arms for anyone in a band to be 12.5% as awesome as Rush. What I really meant, of course, was to reflect upon what you provide to a potential audience, especially in light of what the venue charges them to go see you. Well I wrote that as much for me as anyone else. I do enjoy maximum entertainment when I go out, even if the music is "important" or whatever.

So I spent a lovely day with Jason today that quickly evolved from corned beef hash at the Waverly and playing with pedals at Matt Umanov to spending quality time at the Home Depot and Abracadabra. Fun fact- Abracadabra is where I bought my battle axe.

We have some great things to show for our day. Gaze upon the new shit. More new shit to come. These are the baby steps. I reckon by the end of the summer, when tomato season has passed its prime, people will leave our shows saying "damn, that band was at least 20.1% as awesome as Rush!"

Randomness

Everyone talks about how their iPod has a psychic connection to them, knows exactly the right song to play at the right moment, etc. We all know these great moments of serendipity on a pure scientific level are just coincidences, no more a matter of the spirit than Mother Nature giving you a sunny day on your wedding.

However, does anyone know about the algorithms used to generate playlists when you hit shuffle?

I am not going to make a generalization right now. This is fact. Out of the 8,619 songs, 739 albums and 300 artists in my iPod, Fear Factory ALWAYS comes up in the first 15 songs. Always. Without fail. Looking at my stats via iTunes, I have 87 Fear Factory songs. How come I don't get the same success rate out of my 261 They Might Be Giants songs, 297 Rush songs, 116 Slayer songs, 132 Hawkwind songs, 225 Frank Zappa songs or the 142 Pink Floyd songs?

What is so special about Fear Factory that they ALWAYS come up in the first 15?

Does *my* iPod have feelings and is a huge Fear Factory fan or has science completely run amok?

High Quality Scream Bloody Virgin mp3s

Ok, thanks to Ben Lebo, I have a simple working solution to distribute high quality music.

Find the new songs not destroyed by the cruel algorithms of myspace HERE

Or individually:

Cast off your Virgin Thorns

Basements of Xanadu

There are a couple more track on the main page.

Even more music up on the MySpace

I gotta look on forums and see if there is any way to "master" music to sound better after the MySpace conversion process. The results can be somewhat depressing.

Anyways, there are now two new songs up. In addition to "Cast off your Virgin Thorns" I have put up something that has been germinating the last few months, "Basements of Xanadu." The tune is the sort of mish-mash of influences you should expect from me at this point. I'm getting closer to the Eno ideal of voice doubling. I am definitely better at it now than when I started and put up that first song "Edge of the Galaxy."

Anyways, I will be happy to send out higher quality Mp3s to anyone who asks. I am pretty bummed by how Xanadu converted over.

Latest Concert Schedule

Because everyone loves the list! Am I missing anything?

7/28 Sonic Youth
8/2 Metal Meltdown III (Gods of Fire)
8/6 Zappa Plays Zappa
8/7 Deep Purple
8/9 Daft Punk
8/11 Symphony X
8/24 Dream Theater (4th row on John Petrucci's side!!!!!!)
8/25 Dream Theater
9/8 Heaven and Hell/Alice Cooper/Queensryche
9/23 The Cure
9/26 Megadeth
10/9 Qui (David Yow's new band)
4/1/08 King Diamond/Kreator

Sad Panda

I'm sick. I have a fever. I have an unexplained pain in my neck.

I am missing Testament at the Chance tonight, eating my ticket. This is the second time I have missed Testament at the Chance, although last time it was them that canceled. I have not seen them since the 2003 Gods of Metal tour, and never since the reunion with Alex Skolnick.

I am really bummed out. Blah......

New song up on the MySpace

It is called "Cast off your Virgin Thorns" and can be heard here.

Lyrically, and you can probably hear this in the performance, the song was very cathartic. It is about someone I know, but not someone confirmed to read this blog, whom I care for very much who can't seem to get their life together. In the never ending quest to find the easy path this person makes their life much more difficult than it needs to be, and often this affects my life adversely. At a certain point if you can't find the angle, you need to stop making excuses and just get out there and do what you need to do. No one likes to work. No one likes to feel like a sheep. But we do what we have to do in order to support ourselves and keep our lives moving forward. Life is all about trade offs. Do I love performing advertising operations all day? Hells no. But I found something I am good at that pays me enough to do all the things I love and doesn't erode away at my soul. What more can you ask for? Well, some people don't want to put in their time........

It is not reasonable for me to be this judgmental or to be confrontational about how someone lives their life. This is why despite the recommendations of people around us I do not. How can I say to someone "I have trouble looking you in the eye because the way you live infuriates me and causes me undue stress and frustration?" But as a song? Gold, Jerry! Gold! An open letter written in bile.......

Rush will school your face!

Look at the above pictures. If you are in a rock band that is what your show absolutely must look like from the upper decks. Adjust to scale and budget. Club bands, there is no excuse! For whatever room you are rocking, you have a responsibility to give maximum entertainment value for your ticket price. Your local band charges $10? Rush charged me $80. You MUST provide exactly 1/8th of that awesomeness! Trust me, that is still quite a lot to live up to! In fact, laugh at Rush all you want, you should be so lucky to be considered 12.5% as awesome as they were up on stage!

Do they still genuinely care? Are they just doing it for the money? I don't give a SHIT. Just go up on stage and do your fucking job. Punch the clock, put on the happy face and ROCK. Then I'm happy. I don't care if you suffer for your art. Jesus and Mary Chain couldn't do it for 70 minutes and a $50 ticket. Rush did it for THREE HOURS. And not only did they play hits like Tom Sawyer and Spirit of Radio as energetically as if they were just written, they played some album cuts so deep you needed a mining helmet and a set of permits to excavate them off the grooves.

Everything was in perfect synergy. The band was super tight, Geddy Lee's voice has never been stronger, and they played an incredible mix of hits and the aforementioned deep cuts. The light show was perfectly complemented with the hi def video screens and there were beautiful color palettes drenching the stage in swirls of lights and future-kill fantasies. The spacier more futuristic songs would be awash in blues and purples, as the earthier rock songs were complemented with reds and oranges. And yes, there were lasers. Tons of lasers. It was like laser PORN. And God knows I love a good laser show!

So now young chaps, go forth and figure out how to be 12.5% as awesome as Rush. Me, I think I gotta talk to the band and hit up Halloween Adventure. We're going to have to hasten a few of our new ideas..................

77 Drummers are better than one?

Last Saturday, 7/7/07, was a fun day in the park. I went to go see a band I enjoy very much called The Boredoms. As everyone knows by now they did a one time performance of a piece called 77 Boa Drums, which I have been looking forward to for months.

I know there has been one hell of a debate on how the event was handled, and it was indeed amateur hour, but they did send emails the night before saying your RSVP was worthless and you needed to get down there at 2:30 if you wanted a shot at admission. As most people who know me are aware, I balk at the slightest hint of aggravation. But I was determined to make it into the show, so I got there early, around 2:15, watched some sound check, got on line and had no issue getting in.

What did it sound like? Sometimes it sounded AMAZING. Beautiful bursts of energy and noise and electronics and cymbals resonating into the East River. Cascades of sound would move through the drum circle and slowly envelop you. This was about 40% of the show.

The rest was watching 77 drummers play rudiments. It is not that I dislike ambient music. If anything the show could have been MORE ambient. But this was a weird game of drumming telephone that had happy accidents, rather than a beautiful movement and flow. Also to prove all of those psychoacoustic experts right, 77 drummers are not necessarily louder than 3 or 4.

I don't mean to sound cynical or hard to please. I came in with a completely open head ready to witness something unique and beautiful. Maybe I was too sober. I don't know. It was good, it was fun. It was not......well it was not Rush.

About that show............stay tuned.

Rush South Park intro

Tomorrow the full Rush review will be up. There is much to talk about.

For now, enjoy this. The show was already brilliant when this little tease happened before Tom Sawyer!

The Shower

I take notoriously long showers. Upwards of 30 minutes long. Those who are witness often wonder (or complain if I make them run late) how the hell anyone can be in the shower that long. What can I possibly be doing in there?

Walking home from the train today it hit me. I think. Well, I always knew I think in the shower but the revelation I had was the shower is the ONLY time in my life when I don't have any distractions at all. The, uh, other thing we all do in the bathroom? I'm reading.

Walking around? iPod. Subway? You better believe iPod! When I'm home? TV, computer, a book or I'm making music.

I never have any time when I am completely alone with my thoughts. Hell I like to keep the TV on when I'm falling asleep to suppress all the things I think about in the shower!

What am I thinking about in the shower? It doesn't matter. Sometimes I am writing a song (I do my best writing "hearing" music in my head and transcribing it on a guitar), sometimes I am writing an email in my head or figuring out a solution to a problem. I may be thinking of ways to improve my curry recipe. It doesn't matter. I realized I have 15-30 minutes per day with nothing to distract me but hot running water and a bar of soap.

Scary, huh?

Quiltsryche

Make no doubt about what I want for my birthday this year!

http://www.quiltsryche.com/

I probably would enjoy either "Primer" or "Instrumental" with its genius Motley Crue reference.

Start saving up now......

Top 100 video games

Edge magazine has apparently gone through the thankless task of compiling what they think are the Top 100 greatest video games of all time.

Here is the top ten:

1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina

2. Resident Evil 4

3. Super Mario 64

4. Half Life 2

5. Super Mario World

6. Zelda: A Link to the Past

7. Halo: Combat Evolved

8. Final Fantasy XII

9. Tetris

10. Super Metroid

I can vouch for RE4, HL2, Super Metroid and Tetris being pretty great.

For fanboy conspiracy theorists, five games in the top 10 are first party Nintendo titles, and one game (RE4) started out as a Nintendo exclusive and has now shown up on two of their consoles.

I have a Gamecube compatible copy of Ocarina of Time I have never played. Since I don't own a Wii yet the Gamecube is still in the closet. Maybe it deserves one last spin. FF XII is also dirt cheap right now in an EBGames special. Hmmmmmm.......after The Darkness turned out to be a pitifully short, although very satisfying experience, I'm ready to get back on the video game horse...It has been far too long.

Any other recommendations of recent awesome games?