The self proclaimed Recyclers of Rock bring us their debut album. The low-down on this band is this: all their songs sound the same and are really more or less a parody of the whole garage rock genre. All the song titles are fake and jokingly contain the word rock. They sing about their “Dodge Caravan” and “El Camino” and have about 3 or 4 different 1-4-5s theme songs. It comes with a funny zine-like insert.
Here are some pictures of my workspace from about 2000-2007, which was just a corner in my apartment. I work primarily as a woodcut printmaker. Of all the printmaking processes, woodcuts (relief prints in wood) are perhaps the least toxic. This means I can get away with doing my work in the confined space of an apartment. The process also requires very little in terms of equipment. A knife, wood, paper, an ink roller and ink are the only supplies one needs.
This is about the extent of my studio space. Because I can’t get too sloppy, I don’t really have a place to print my blocks, I usually move to my kitchen for that. What’s missing from this view is the TV and Stereo which are usually on while I work.
Despite the photographic chairoscuro of this scan, desk is usally very well lit. Like many woodcutters/engravers, I have have a whole bunch of tools for cutting, yet, I seem to revert to the same couple of tools (seen on the lower middle) all the time.
Here is my current series of woodcuts in progress. The two on the bottom which are completely black are the ones that I have already printed.
These days Nova’s drawing and painting supplies have taken over my space. You can see a hint of the print I am currently working on (when I have the time and energy to do art).
A masterpiece of epic, symphonic goofiness and left-of-center pop structuring. This, along with Lil’ Beethoven is Sparks best since Kimono my House.
What exactly is a Theremin? Well I’m glad you asked that question, because that will allow me to use the BLOCKQUOTE function in my HTML document. Here’s an excerpt from the Big Briar Information Bulletin No. 9201A:
The theremin is one of the very first electronic musical instruments, and yet it is one of the most novel and original. It is played without being touched. The instrument responds instantaneously and continuously to the motions of the player’s hands in the space surrounding it. The instrument’s tone at times resembles that of a violin, cello, or human voice, but has its own unique ethereal quality.
The theremin was developed in the 1920’s by the Russian physicist Lev Sergeivitch Termen (anglicized to Leon Theremin). The Radio Corporation of America produced a limited number of theremins during the late 1920’s under license from Professor Theremin. Then, during the 1930’s, Professor Theremin formed his own company in New York City to further develop the theremin, as well as to design and build other, more experimental electronic musical instruments. Theremin returned to his native Russia in 1938.
The theremin is played by standing at arms length from the instrument and moving one’s right hand towards the vertical antenna to increase the pitch. The player’s left hand is held about a foot above the curved volume antenna. As this hand is moved closer to the antenna the volume decreases. The size of the fields of both antennae can be altered as well as the waveshape of the sound. The distinct theremin sound is unmistakable and has been used for years as background music in various movies. The eerie sound lends itself to sci-fi and horror flicks, most notably The Day the Earth Stood Still. As well, it has appeared in many recorded songs. Perhaps the best example is that ghostly sound during the chorus of the Beach Boy’s Good Vibrations (I’ve been recently informed that the Theremin-like sound is not a traditional space-controlled theremin. It is actually a similar-sounding electronic instrument called an electro-theremin). To learn the almost complete story of Theremin and his electronic adventures rent Theremin: An Electronic Oddessy.
The company I ordered my theremin from was Big Briar. This is a company started by Bob Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer. They sell high quality theremins (the now discontinued 91 Series A,B+C, were priced in a range from $2500-$3050 and they now have a MIDI capable theremin called the Ethervox MIDI Theremin and it goes for $3500). If your looking for a starter model, as I was, I highly recommend starting with the Etherwave Theremin Kit ($299). It also comes fully assembled for a price of $369. Although putting together something that you know you will be plugging into a wall may seem scary at first, I would suggest buying the unassembled kit to save money and its much cooler to say to your friends (who will already be impressed by the fact that you own a theremin) “Hey I built this all by myself!” I began to see Etherwave popping up all over. Most recently I saw Man or Astroman? in concert and it seems that Coco EMW has upgraded from his flimsy pitch-only theremin to a strapped-on, black Etherwave model! When you buy the kit it comes with an unassembled theremin, a video on how-to-play (hosted by Lydia Kavina), a Clara Rockmore CD, and a booklet on the history of the theremin. If you’d like more info or just want to order your theremin today write or call Big Briar at:Big Briar, Inc.
ELECTRONIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
554-c Riverside Drive
Asheville, NC 28801
(800)948-1990
info@bigbriar.com
Having no real electrical engineering skills, I was a bit nervous about having to assemble the theremin. It was, however quite an easy process. Read on and relive my assembling experience in the next section…
Well, it took about three month’s but I finally received my theremin from Big Briar. It was a Monday morning when I got a buzz from the delivery guy. As soon as I got the box up to my place I carefully knifed it open. At first glance it seemed as though putting it together was going to be a major task. The package contained two pre-assembled sections of the wood case, a bubble pack with a circuit board enclosed, two bags of miscellanies parts, and the two shining antennae. The first step in assembling the kit was to stain the wood case. It seems every other person who I’ve seen playing an Etherwave has gone for the shiny all-black look. Personally, I think this looks cheesy, like something Quiet Riot would use, and prefer the wood-grain look. The wood seems to evoke 1917 a bit more than Ibanez black! For my stain I just got some Minwax stain (with the poly-stuff pre-mixed in) and brushed it on. This is the only step where I goofed pretty noticeably. The key here is to apply the stain very thinly. Take the time to get gradually the darkness you need. I was impatient and applied the stuff heartily. When it came to steelwooling the surface to place my second coat on the areas that were too thick just chipped off. This whole process can take about 16-24 hours to allow all the coats to dry thoroughly.
The next step was fastening the two antennae to the cabinet. I needed to buy epoxy for this step. This whole process is simple enough. You just tighten a couple of bolts and there you have it. Make sure your pitch antenna is vertical before the epoxy dries. Mine is ever so slightly off (but it works just fine). Really once I got all the parts laid out it didn’t seem as complicated as I first thought. In fact, most of the steps are just putting in screws. At this point I also had to stick a provided piece of foil into the interior of the cabinet and (this was one of the most difficult parts) peel some self-adhesive felts to be placed on the feet of the unit.
The next major step was putting the front panel together. No big whoop, just screw a couple of nuts. You do need a very small flat-head screw driver to tighten the knobs on the front. I had to settle with the tweezers from my pocket knife.
Finally, I had to wire the unit and solder the connections. I made sure to buy a wire stripper so I wasn’t destroying my wires with my ineptness (’bout $5.00). The directions are pretty straight forward as to where to put what wire. The pieces are small so be sure and have a needle-nose pliers handy. Tinning the wires took the longest amount of time. The actual soldering was fairly easy compared to the tinning step. My only problem was when I was soldering the pitch wire to the circuit board the connection on the board got to hot and started to shift. Luckily I removed the heat before I raunched it. During the summer of 1997 I did some of my first recordings using my theremin. I am, admittedly, a really poor thereminist, and in 2 out of the 3 songs I used it on, the theremin is used mostly as a sound effect. I’m debating whether I should contaminate the net with my recordings.
I’ve added some more art to my gallery under illustrations. These are a series of digital paintings I created for a self-promotional presentation for Ajenda Interactive Media. Here are some shortcuts to each of the images: Start, Approach, Profile, Strength, Experience and Next Steps.
Pictured to the right is the spectacular meal that I ate the other day. When I took the picture, I was going to have something hilarious to say about how different it looked from the image on the box. But, now that I look at it, it really isn’t that far off.
As quickie lunches go, it wasn’t all that bad. I found it a rather enjoyable forty seconds of eating. Now I know this will send the tongues of my foodie friends into a death spin (with their organic-fair-trade-free-range tomatoes, decimal place free menus and their fancy square plates), but when considering Italian food, I think the difference in quality between a five star dinner and a can of Chef Boyardee isn’t all that huge. You can take that as either a slap in the face of Italian cooking or praise for the awesomeness of all things Italiano. I’ll go with the latter.
I’m pretty sure I am only only person who has subscribed to my RSS feed, but, in any event, there’s trouble brewing with the feed. I want to reorganize the home page a little and that means I need to change the RSS script at Feed43. The problem is that I lost my password when I moved to the new computer and they don’t have a password recovery service. SO, if you are a subscriber and don’t hear from me for a while, please check this page occasionally to see if I have updated my RSS service.
I’ve kicked up the geekery a few notches this week by building a desktop computer from parts rather than by ordering from Dell or Compaq. It has gone rather smoothly considering all the articles I read on the Internet that warned of of the potential headaches that accompany such an endeavor.
As you can see from the photo, the new rig (that’s what us über nerds call our computers these days) uses a Rosewill Conquerer case with a fancy transparent side panel and moody blue interior lights. I bought the case and all the parts from Newegg.com for around $750. No sales tax and about $18 to ship it. I felt even better about the price when I was perusing the Apple Store down on Michigan avenue this afternoon and saw comparable systems going to two or three times that price (and that price doesn’t include the heart break one feels when they realize you can’t really run Team Fortress 2 very well on a Mac).
Anyhow here the complete stats in case you are interested:
The only thing missing is a decent audio card. The on-board sound of the motherboard can’t really handle ASIO and live music recording very well. My old Audigy 2 ZS can handle it, but the pins don’t match the connector ont case’s from audio ports.
This is becoming the Robert’s CD collection blog these days. Oh well, gives me something to do. I’m considering going a little more typical-bloggy with this site. We shall see.
The Hi-Fives – Get Down!
One or two great songs, but the majority of this is by-the-numbers pop punk.
Sol Hoopii – Master of the Hawaiian Guitar Vol. 1
If you only buy one Hawaiian slide guitar album ever, buy this one. If you buy two, consider volume 2.
Sol Hoopii – Master of the Hawaiian Guitar Vol. 2
Along with volume 1, some of the best Hawaiian music ever.
Hotshot Satellite – Canvas
Fellow MoonRocker, John Burgess’s band from a few years ago. Catchy rock songs with Ukulele!
Husker Du – Zen Arcade
A great record, albeit a tad too long and, at times, you can’t tell one song from the next. Some of Husker Du’s best songs are on this disc, although in hindsight, I think New Day Rising is a better album.
Husker Du – New Day Rising
This is Husker Du’s best, in my opinion. Some of the spazztic energy has been toned down, which allows the songiness to come through, but no so much so that you would accuse this of not being a punk rock record.
Husker Du –Eight Mile High
Excellent single from the best period in Husker Du’s career.
Husker Du – Flip Your Wig
Almost as good as New Day Rising. If you prefer the more jangly/poppy Husker Du, this will probably be your favorite record in their catalog.
Husker Du – Candy Apple Grey
Except for the opening track, this is a very toned-down Husker Du record. Shockingly clean production compared to their indy releases (although they still crank the drowning reverb on the drums). There are several good songs here, but, as a whole, doesn’t stand up to their previous efforts.
I, Crime – Get the Knife
A very nice little EP from these Detroit-ers. I prefer the more rocking songs over the almost folksy milder numbers.
Impala – El Rancho Reverbo
This is one of my favorite records of the 90s surf revival. Soulful and sultry.
Impala – Play R & B Favorites
A collection of some of the more raunchy, saxophone-based songs from Impala.
Impala – Kings of the Strip
Another sax-heavy dose of instrumentals.
Impala – Square Jungle
More Impala. For some reason, this one is not a good to me as some of their ealier releases.
The Ink Spots – Greatest Hits
A great compilation of Ink Spots songs.
Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights
I am surprised by how much I like this. The songs are hard, catchy and have a nice driving groove to them. And you gotta love the baritone vocals. One thing though: I’m not too much of an audiophile, but this has got to be one of most horribly mastered discs I have heard. The drums are squashed beyond recognition and have no punch whatsoever. Another casualty of the “volume wars” I suppose.
Godflesh – Selfless
This album doesn’t hold my attention as much as Pure. The sound is thin compared to that record, but I still enjoy about 80% of this.
Godspeed You Black Emporer! – Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!
After about the first fifteen minutes or so of this double CD, it’s pretty clear that Godspeed is a one-trick pony. Essentially, what they do is take four or five chords, repeat them endlessly, and gradually add more instruments until the song crescendos in a wall of sound, then begin removing sounds from the mix until they are back to quiet again. Pick new chords and repeat. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a neat trick and, despite the fact that they come from the renegade U.S. province of Canada, I do recommend this album.
The Go-Nuts – World’s Greatest Super Hero Snak Rock & Gorilla Entertainment Revue
Ok. They are a joke band. But I love shtick rock and how can you not love a band that has a song about Robert Earl Hughes?
The Go-Nuts – Dunk and Cover!
More Snak Rock! With an animated cover and the classic brand-name dropping track, “Bombay (You’re my Hostess Cupcake)”
Lesley Gore – Greatest Hits
Bubbly, infectious 60s pop that is all about being (happily) devoted to guys who treat you like crap.
Grandmaster Flash – Furious Five – Grandmaster Melle Mel – The Greatest Hits
A horribly mastered, budget bin collection of their best songs. With a painfully truncated version of “White Lines”.
Green – White Soul & Bittersweet
Early 90s, Chicago-based jangle pop? This band seemed like it was the next big thing, and then it went nowhere.
Nina Hagen – Nunsexmonkrock + Nina Hagen Band
The first part of this CD is perhaps Nina Hagen’s best record, Nunsexmonkrock. It’s at times atmospheric and at other times rockin’ but always unique and interesting. The Nina Hagen Band EP is pretty straightforward rock, and 2 of the four songs are covers.
Nina Hagen – Love
A greatest hits CD that features the German versions of all the hits we may know here in the U.S. Pretty good choices overall, but the bonus track “World Now” is awful, awful, awful.
Nina Hagen – Nina Hagen
Gone are any traces of her punk roots. This is, for the most part, a late 80s hair metal album. There are a couple of listenable tunes, but a little too cheesy for my tastes.
Bill Haley and the Comets – From The Original Master Tapes
What can you say? It’s Bill Haley and the Comets sounding great as usual.
Neil Hamburger – Inside Neil Hamburger
A decent short dose of Neil Hamburger.
Neil Hamburger – 50 States, 50 Laughs
A tour only CD release that is exactly what the title says. Pretty good.
Neil Hamburger – Laugh Out Lord
Neil Hamburger sorta jumped the shark around the time of this hit-or-miss album. This record still uses a canned audience, but the parody has worn thin and become too self-referential. The musical tracks are a nice change, but not quite enough to make me recommend this release. I think this is around when Neil began to perform live extensively. Turkington seems to be adapting the character for a live performance setting. The result is the gruff-voiced, coughing, audience-baiting Tony Clifton persona he uses today (like Clifton, I have my doubts as to whether Neil is actually being performed by Gregg Turkington anymore… that voice is just sooo different?).
Helmet – Strap It On
Loud, chunky, stop-starty rock from the early nineties. Not bad, but wears thin after a few songs. The horrible free-form guitar solos don’t help either.
Hi-Fives – Welcome to my Mind
A decent punk album. It’s on Lookout so it tends to sound like those bands, but they have hints of the British Invasion in their sound. And a few surf tunes as well.
