The Eclectric Company, Shakey and Moldover present:
WARPER + SPLICE = OVERLOAD!!!
THURSDAY APRIL 24th
at THE TANK NYC
2 floors of biomorphic musicians, eclectic electronics, & multimedia meltdown
Splice celebrates 2 years of bringing live and eclectic electronic music to NYC -- by joining forces with the Warper crew, for one amazing night of audiovisual excess!
PLUS: DJ Maxx Klaxon spins new and classic electronic sounds all night!
7pm - 1am
$10 at the door
$7 with RSVP (contact splice.nyc@gmail.com by 4pm Thursday)
$5 with Bent Festival hand stamp
ALL AGES!
21+ to drink
The Tank at Collective: Unconscious
279 Church St. btw. Franklin & White
A, C, E, J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, Z, or 6 to Canal Street
1 to Franklin St.
212.563.6269
www.thetanknyc.org
posted by Maximus |
11:38 pm EST |
2008.04.21 |
link
After last night's Democratic debate -- which opened with almost an hour of asinine questions about flag pins, the word "bitter", Reverend Wright, etc. -- Obama explained this morning how he deals with the haters:
Here's a screening I've put together in conjunction with the Monkeytown guys. Sorry for the short notice...
Monkey Town presents:
Silent Films + Unique Instruments Festival Battleship Potemkin and Metropolis
7:30 PM: BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN
Sergei Eisenstein's BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925, 73 mins.) is a dramatized account of a mutiny by oppressed sailors on board a Russian warship. Its bold visual compositions and provocative storytelling made it an instant classic; eight decades later, it still stands as a powerful propaganda piece and a stunning work of avant-garde filmmaking. This screening features the electronic/orchestral score composed in 2005 by the Pet Shop Boys, and recorded by them with the Dresden Sinfoniker Orchestra.
10:00 PM: METROPOLIS
Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS (1927/1984, 80 mins.) blended Art Deco futurism, shameless melodrama, class struggle, and a sexy robot into a science fiction masterpiece. Much footage from the 210-minute original has been lost forever; this restored and "enhanced" (with color tinting) version was released by electro-disco producer Giorgio Moroder in the mid-'80s. Moroder also produced the soundtrack, which features Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Jon Anderson, and other New Wave-era rockers. A heady mixture of cinematic art and pop kitsch.
Sunday, April 13
Admission: Free ($10 drink/food minimum)
Showtimes: 7:30 and 10pm
Reservations are recommended (718.384.1369)
Monkeytown
58 N 3rd St
(btw. Kent & Wythe)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn Map
posted by Maximus |
2:15 pm EST |
2008.04.13 |
link
Simian Mobile Disco gives a video tour of their stage setup:
Lots of cool gear, arranged on a circular table which they move around while performing. Money quote: "The whole idea, really, was that we'd try and create a kind of TARDIS type thing for us to mess around in..."
[The director] told them, “I’m not laughing at you, this isn’t going to be a piss-take joke video.” We talked with [him] and said, you know, “We trust you, ...you go, do it.” At first the people in the village weren’t happy with him filming because they had heard about “Borat.” Eventually through interpreters he explained himself that what he wanted to do was respectful.
posted by Maximus |
12:40 pm EST |
2008.04.08 |
link
The Sharper Image catalog listing makes it clear that this is not a real musical instrument:
With the beamz, there should be no performance anxiety at all because — whichever beam you break, in whatever sequence — your music is guaranteed to be harmonious. All discordant chords and sour notes have been programmed out so everyone plays great.
Basically, the software chooses the notes and sounds, with the user merely controlling (to some degree) the timing.
Unfortunately, the video gives the impression that all the music this thing comes preprogrammed with is utter shite. And the people "playing" it look like big dorks.
Perhaps there's a way to adapt/abuse/hack this device into producing some interesting sounds (does it output MIDI signals?)... but for $600, I'd rather buy some real music gear instead.
posted by Maximus |
5:54 am EST |
2008.04.05 |
link
[A]s the House of Representatives voted this week to speed up the visa approval process for some foreign artists and entertainers, the heads of arts organizations said attention was finally being paid to the real problem: the time, money and complexity involved in getting visas for lower-profile artists, including dancers, singers, musicians and actors.
“It has become a huge burden,” said Nigel Redden, director of the Lincoln Center Festival, the renowned arts showcase that this summer will bring together 57 performances and events from nine countries. ...
“We’re turning the United States into fortress America,” Mr. Redden said. “It turns everyone into an enemy. It loses us friends around the world and respect around the world.”
Now, those seeking entry must run a bureaucratic gantlet that can include having to establish their artistic credentials, hire a lawyer, pay visa fees and visit a United States embassy or consulate. ...
Once the application is made, the Homeland Security Department is supposed to act within two weeks, but recently it almost never has; in the worst cases, getting an answer takes as long as six months, arts organizations said. So-called premium processing is available to expedite an application, at a cost of $1,000 for each petitioner. ...
Matthew Covey, executive director of Tamizdat, a nonprofit group that helps artists get visas, said the House bill was a step in the right direction. Emerging artists without much money or the organizational skills to get together a visa application are the ones especially hurt by the visa labyrinth.
“An awful lot of musicians don’t make a lot of money,” he said. “They are looking to break even, to promote their work. Most musicians need to expedite their visas because many clubs book six to eight weeks in advance.”
And American audiences may never know what they are missing.
The new bill isn't perfect -- it only applies to non-profit arts groups, so individual artists who don't have a non-profit to bring them over are still out of luck. But it's a step in the right direction.
Previously: M.I.A. was denied a visa in 2006; Ellen Allien was denied one in 2004.
posted by Maximus |
2:00 am EST |
2008.04.04 |
link
This Tuesday, join us for an evening with former BUST columnist Janice Erlbaum, whose new book, HAVE YOU FOUND HER, is a psychologically captivating follow-up to GIRLBOMB: A HALFWAY HOMELESS MEMOIR, and Ed Hamilton, author of LEGENDS OF THE CHELSEA HOTEL: LIVING WITH THE ARTISTS AND OUTLAWS OF NEW YORK'S REBEL MECCA.
Before and after the reading, DJ Maxx Klaxon (Splice, Popular Front Records) spins sublime electro, subversive pop, and subterranean rock.
Janice Erlbaum + Ed Hamilton
with DJ Maxx Klaxon
@ Rapture Café & Books
200 Avenue A
(between 12th & 13th Sts.)
Tuesday, March 24, 2008
8 pm - 10 pm
Free
posted by Maximus |
1:54 am EST |
2008.03.25 |
link
The characters in his stories were, like their creator, always polite and well-spoken, with a dry, understated British wit. Sometimes it seemed that Clarke was almost incapable of writing a truly angry character, which dulled the sense of human conflict in his work (but there were plenty of extraterrestrial perils to make up for it).
The science was always rigorous -- his "hard SF" approach avoided space opera for a sober grounding in plausibility. But what made his work truly special was its sense of cosmic perspective: the awe, tinged with loneliness, that his protagonists experienced before the grandeur and strangeness of the universe. Clarke was non-religious, but his writing was saturated with a sense of the spiritual.
Research studies have turned up minute amounts of more than 15 drugs or their byproducts in several pristine-looking rivers, a reservoir, and aqueducts feeding the country's biggest water system.
posted by Maximus |
4:39 pm EST |
2008.03.09 |
link
As the music industry gropes for viable 21st-century business models, the new NIN album presents a very interesting test case:
The $300 “ultra deluxe edition” of Nine Inch Nails‘ Ghosts I-IV, limited to 2500 copies, sold out in a couple days (I believe released Sunday, no longer available this morning). There are some manufacturing costs, but they don’t appear to be using any precious materials. So if an artist typically makes $1.60 on a $15.99 CD sale, profit from sales of the limited edition already matches profit from a CD selling hundreds of thousands of copies.
Then there are non-limited sales of a $75 merely “deluxe edition”, $10 CD, and $5 download, and whatever other products NIN comes up with around Ghosts.
The ultra deluxe success seems to me to validate the encouragement by some to pursue large revenue from rabid fans and collectors willing and able to pay for personalization, authenticity, embodiment, etc., rather than attempting to suppress zero cost distribution to the masses.
And at the same time, many of the tracks are being made available by the band as free downloads.
Of course this won't work for just anyone. Nine Inch Nails is an established brand, with dozens of releases, years of touring, and millions of dollars in past promotion and publicity under their belts.
But it's still encouraging to less well-known artists. As Kevin Kelly suggests, having a small number of "true fans" may be more important in the future than having a huge but only casually interested audience.
posted by Maximus |
2:53 pm EST |
2008.03.05 |
link
Synth duos boil the "band" idea down as far as you can get before getting into the area of solo act, which is a whole different pop concept. Couplehood is such a primal idea that the synth duo contains an air of mystery that regular rock bands do not, especially when one stays quiet, behind the keyboards, and the other is the focus of attention. Who are these two people? What is their connection? Are they friends? Lovers? Are they gay? Straight? One delivers the lyrics, one generates the sound.
posted by Maximus |
1:36 pm EST |
2008.02.27 |
link
Voltage HQ is moving across Brooklyn -- from north (Greenpoint) to south/central (Kensington). The preparations have been underway for a while, but this weekend is when it all goes down. The computer is getting packed away later today... so no blogging for me for several days at least. See you on the other side.
Meanwhile: Check out Mekatronics (tonight in Williamsburg) and Splice (tomorrow night in the East Village).
posted by Maximus |
1:00 pm EST |
2008.02.23 |
link
BROKETRONICA featuring Maxx Klaxon @ Inciting HQ - Philadelphia, PA
Maxx Klaxon performs live in Philadelphia, this Friday!
Maxx's latest show is part of BROKETRONICA, the new underground electronic performance series that's generating buzz in Philly and beyond. Also scheduled: fellow NYC-based artist I, Synthesist, plus Philly's own MAD, Solus, Rekall, The Unlikely Member, and more.
It all goes down at the home base of the Inciting collective. Inciting is a growing consortium of musicians, DJs, promoters, and visual artists, producing musical events in Philadelphia. Members include Pandemix, MAD, and Jason Carr, all of whom will be featured at this week's edition of BROKETRONICA.
Ladytron have just announced that album #4 --apparently named after an Italian scooter -- will be out on June 3.
Here's their full tour schedule (not yet posted on their site):
Tues, 5/20 Edmonton, AB The Starlite Room
Wed, 5/21 Calgary, AB The Warehouse
Fri, 5/23 Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom
Sat, 5/24 Seattle, WA Showbox
Sun, 5/25 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom
Tue, 5/27 San Francisco, CA Fillmore
Thur, 5/29 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda
Fri, 5/30 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda
Sat, 5/31 San Diego, CA The Belly Up
Mon, 6/2 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue
Tues, 6/3 Denver, CO The Gothic
Thur, 6/5 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom
Fri, 6/6 Austin, TX Stubbs
Sat, 6/7 Houston, TX Meridian
Sun, 6/8 New Orleans, LA House Of Blues
Tue, 6/10 Orlando, FL Club Firestone
Wed, 6/11 Tampa, FL Czar
Thur, 6/12 Miami, FL Studio A
Fri, 6/13 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
Sun, 6/15 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo Festival
Mon, 6/16 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
Tue, 6/17 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
Wed, 6/18 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
Wed, 6/25 New York, NY Terminal 5
Thur, 6/26 Philadelphia, PA Theater of Living Arts
Fri, 6/27 Baltimore, MD Sonar
Sat, 6/28 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Mon, 6/30 Boston, MA Paradise
Wed, 7/2 Montreal, QC Metropolis (Jazz Fest)
Thur, 7/3 Quebec City, QC Theatre Imperial de Quebec (Summer Fest)
Fri, 7/4 Toronto, ON Harbourfront Centre
posted by Maximus |
1:31 pm EST |
2008.02.11 |
link
- Isao Tomita - "Snowflakes Are Dancing" - In 1968, Walter/Wendy Carlos took the world by storm with Switched-On Bach. Six years later, Tomita's Snowflakes Are Dancing offered a very different version of classical electronics. Instead of the precise counterpoint of Bach, Tomita focused on the flowing, romantic tone poems of Claude Debussy. This is the title track, a favorite of mine since I bought the album on cassette in the early '80s. Get the remastered version here, and learn more about Tomita here.
posted by Maximus |
11:20 am EST |
2008.02.04 |
link
And so does Stevie Wonder. (I like how Obama's name is spelled out in Braille dots at the end of Stevie's video.)
Oh, and so do I. VoteHope, the independent group that produced these spots, has some ideas about how you can support Obama's campaign. The official campaign website does too.
posted by Maximus |
6:06 pm EST |
2008.01.30 |
link
and 
), then moving on to his novels (including 
, 
, 
, and, belatedly, the chilling 
).
, and learn more about Tomita 
