davidding.com

new album - people person - available now!

2009-11-05T06:30:00.001+09:00

here it is: the new new album - people person...

for free download: click here
to stream: click here
for lyrics and credits: click here

---

this album will be the last david ding release for the foreseeable future. for the next month, i'll be focusing on live endeavours + preparing for my return to ireland. and after that, i'll be doing something a little different...

thanks for all the support!
dd

like we did last summer

2009-10-13T08:07:00.001+09:00

courtesy of the wonderful moriah newman, some video footage from the show at organ-za in june.

this is me stealing an audience participation thing i heard Feist do - plus 'hair clip surprise', one of the most basic/easiest-to-play songs i've ever written and yet still managed to mess up:

and here's moriah herself doing a lovely version of the Avett Brothers' 'Murder in the City':

i'll be playing again in organ-za on december 4 - my last show in japan! there's an event page on facebook.

"new" "album"! [not the new album...]

2009-10-06T03:45:00.004+09:00

over the last few days i was getting very frustrated with a song on the new album and yesterday i finally decided to scrap it [just the song, not the whole album!]

to take my mind off that project, i did something i'd been meaning to for a while: compile the best of the non-album songs i've recorded in the three-or-so years since i moved to japan. especially since i'll be leaving japan for good in december - and between now and then, the only new songs to be released will be those on the new album.

so, may i proudly present:

click here to download [includes bonus tracks!]
click here to stream [does not...]
click here for credits + lyrics

tracklist:

you can follow
piece of it
don't have to mean it
sussed for passive
matchsticks
to have you here
bay ridge blues
graduation day*
wks
where did it all go so wrong?

bonus tracks:

all done [acoustic] - original version on i am doing this to hurt you
parallel [acoustic] - original version on secret battle
dig fast [acoustic] - original version on secret battle
casual trap [video version]* - original version on inaccurate charm

*previously unreleased

please enjoy!
[while i finish the new one!]

could be awkward

2009-09-28T15:42:00.000+09:00

tegan and sara, a band i got into in a big way over the last couple of years, have a new album called Sainthood coming out next month [in fact, the pre-sale - the only way you can also get their new books coming out - is due to start today...]

last friday, they played at the Rifflandia festival in victoria in canada and premiered 6 songs from the new album. perennial t&s gig attendee jaime wojdowski was there to document:

yay!

i can still see you swaying

2009-09-11T03:57:00.008+09:00

doing some late-night cleaning up of my hard drive and was hit with some nostalgia when i rediscovered these photos from the 'casual trap' video shoot at lizzie's old gaff, back in march 2008:

[from left: kai pence, jeremy lawrence, kara adams, lizzie moore, jeremy mullins]

so i thought i'd share.

of course, you can still see [and rate and comment on] that video here...

and, naturally enough, you can still download the album the song is from here...

meanwhile, work on album #4 continues...

and when i caught it you were out of reach

2009-08-31T16:11:00.002+09:00

so... i'm working on an album. i hadn't wanted to broadcast this, for fear of a) it taking forever or b) it falling apart and not getting finished at all ...like what happened with the summer project about this time last year.

but at this (still early) stage, i feel confident enough to say that it will be completed and released within the next two to three months.

like i said, it's still early, but i can reveal that [spoiler alert]:

it will contain at least eleven songs
it will be a lot more upbeat than the last one
'hard to please [a.k.a. sonic thrust]' will be on it
a couple of the better tracks from that abandoned project will be resurrected for it;
it will involve some DS action
it will feature the kaossilator

sporadic updates will follow.

other things keeping me occupied:

the xx's album, xx.

probably the first clear challenger to Two Suns' position as my favourite album of 2009. their music is very minimal but very very effective. simple guitar parts, sparse beats, boy + girl vocals. we'll have to see if it has the power to endure like the Bat For Lashes album has.

celestebroderick.com

i first met celeste in hiroshima a good few months ago, but only recently discovered that she does amazing stuff like this:

charmingly hilarious, hilariously charming and deliciously subversive all at the same time.

depeche mode

again.

chaos

2009-08-14T23:58:00.001+09:00

over the last few months, i seem to have acquired a whole bunch of new musical toys - the loop pedal, ableton live, portable recorder thing - and in quite an impulsive/frivolous fashion. i guess i'm forgetting/ignoring those lessons i supposedly learned [and pretentiously included in .pdf compilation liner notes] way back when.

the purchase i made today was (ever so) slightly less frivolous, as i'd been eyeing up this particular gadget for quite a while:

yes, it's the Korg Kaossilator! and in limited edition pink! [apparently there are only 3000 pink ones in existence - though, i bought this one simply because it was the last kaossilator in the store...]

i'd held off buying one for a while. mainly due to doubts of its necessity. also, was kind of hoping someone would make something similar for the DS - and maybe one will pop up soon enough. but, in the end, i just had too much fun everytime i tried it and just had to get it.

here are youtube search results for "kaossilator". it really is as fun as it looks.

so, yeah. now, i should probably stop buying new gear and focus on using the gear i've bought to record stuff...

will get to that presently.

you SPIN me right round

2009-08-14T10:38:00.003+09:00

back in june, moriah newman, jeremy logue and i played at organ-za in hiroshima. present at the show was jamie williams, who was in the middle of a jaunt across japan, checking out local music scenes for SPIN Earth.

here is his video from the show [featuring me doing 'tried, tested' from i am doing this to hurt you]:

to see/read the full report click here...

flashback video rehearsal loop loop repeat

2009-08-06T11:58:00.001+09:00

a few days before the cactopus show, i went to jimo to rehearse in one of their practice rooms. i had a computer with me, so i recorded the whole lot. unfortunately, the sound quality of the recording didn't turn out the best - but i felt these two performances were interesting enough to warrant sharing anyway. both feature prominent use of the loopstation pedal [which was used quite prominently in the 'teardown' video]. 'gregory', in particular, ended up quite different from the original.

please enjoy, comment, rate, etc.:

cactopussy

2009-08-03T15:33:00.001+09:00

hey! we had a great turnout for the show on friday, raised a lot of funds for the kids and gave tyler, who left hiroshima the next morning, a (hopefully) worthy sending off.

as for me...i did two sets, which - despite some technical/competence issues - went reasonably well. i didn't want to bore people who'd been at the organ-za show last month, so i played a lot of different stuff, including a brand new song that i'm very excited about - i'm going to record it in the near future and will make it available here as soon as it's done. watch this space!

big big thanks to the folks at jimo for letting us put on the show, laura graham for putting it all together, michael bacon for the poster design/use of his cactopus character and an extra big big big thanks to everyone that came.

here are my setlists - along with links to where you can download the original versions (as well as some helpful reminders for certain songs):

tyler battles the cactopus. jimo café, hiroshima, japan. 31 july, 2009.

first set:

you don't burn (the angry song to start with) [you don't burn/i left like i said i would]
day 5 [secret battle]
sussed for passive (the one that involved telling the loop pedal to "stop") [standalone]
piece of it (the "moody" song) [standalone]
fun fun fun [i am doing this to hurt you]
charm offensive [inaccurate charm]
teardown [i am doing this to hurt you]

second set:

where did it all go so wrong? (the one where it all went so wrong) [standalone]
never knew your last name (song i wrote when i was 17) [projects]
the tease [for none]
hard to please ('SONIC THRUST!!!') [new song; unreleased]
gregory [i am doing this to hurt you]
bay ridge blues (the one with the harmonica) [standalone]
minor injury [i am doing this to hurt you]
lastsong [goliath/lastsong]

pictures courtesy of tim ing:

at speed

2009-07-30T03:27:00.002+09:00

in 2006, four intrepid musicians came together in dublin to form At Speed, initially to participate in the trinity college battle of the bands. in the summer of that year, i moved to japan, so i missed the chance(s) to see them play live [like this].

fortunately, they got themselves into a studio in june of 2007 and recorded 12 songs - and then made the results available to download for free on this site [you can download all 12 songs in one .zip file via this link]. so, i did get to hear their splendid sounds.

it's been more than two years since then. the band have - due to geographical issues - remained silent. but those recordings still stand.

i wanted to pay tribute to them. and - also - i wanted to [finally] scratch the surface of Ableton Live, which i purchased about three months ago and have done very very little with. so i took some samples from the songs and went about putting them together.

my aim was to do something in the vein of the field - repetitive, but hypnotic. obviously, it's not nearly as good as anything the field has done - but, i do think it's worth sharing - if only to hopefully spur people on to checking out the original songs.

and... here it is!

this was kind of an experiment for me, so feedback appreciated - feel free to leave a comment below!

i hesitated to label this a cover or remix - so i went with mashup!

jellyfish image courtesy of ethorson via a creative commons attribution-share alike license.

weird memory cassette tapes

2009-07-29T22:56:00.001+09:00

a recent post about memory tapes on the discodust music blog , to which i was introduced by my friend and visual collaborator andrew morris, lead me to this other post from last year about memory cassette, which is related to weird tapes, which led me to be very confused until just now when i read this article on pitchfork...

wow, that sentence was fairly ridiculous.

anyway, i haven't yet had the opportunity to wade through all the currently available stuff under all three names, but have listened to and really want to direct you to the four tracks available in the aforementioned post HERE, particularly 'Listen to the Vacuum'. really beautiful stuff - the "lo-fi bedroom disco" description sums it up nicely.

please enjoy!

cactopus spotting

2009-07-29T00:18:00.000+09:00

cactopus sightings all over hiroshima!

there is no escape!

reminder:
david ding; tyler walker
jimo café, hiroshima
this friday, 31 july. doors 19:00.
entry 1500 [includes 1 drink]

tyler battles the cactopus

2009-07-20T11:52:00.002+09:00

7pm, july 31, 2009 at jimo café [map], hiroshima, japan

david ding; tyler walker

entry is 1500yen, which includes one drink and a raffle ticket... [prize(s) tba]

proceeds from the evening will go to education in cambodia via PEPY.

feel free to add yourself to the guest list on the facebook event page.

---

in other, somewhat exciting news, i finished writing/demoing a song today. it's my first after a long break following i am doing this to hurt you. it's quite fun and poppy; not dark at all. i shall begin working on a recording of it after the gig.

日々の音色

2009-07-16T01:29:00.001+09:00

i already posted this on twitter among other things, but it's so good, it deserves the officially sanctioned davidding.com seal of approval.

this video, for '日々の音色 (Hibi no neiro)' by SOUR, is truly, totally genius:

waiting for the stars

2009-07-05T13:11:00.004+09:00

thomas fernandez, one of the many talented folk i met while living in nagasaki, has put up a website showing his artwork - ranging from touching/humorous stick figure drawings to striking photo collages.

feast your eyes at thomasfernandez.com.

in other [arty] news, jeremy posted a video of his electronic performance from the show at organ-za last week, filmed by sofie andersen:

jez used ableton live to trigger loops he'd recorded, as well as singing live and playing a sweet little synth solo. nice work, man!

jeremy's myspace page currently features the original version of the song.

in other [non-arty] news, my mother will be arriving in hiroshima in approximately six hours.

organzic

2009-06-28T20:01:00.002+09:00

friday's show at organ-za went really well! both jeremy (logue) and moriah (newman) played beautifully. my performances were more on the ugly side of things, but i suppose that was kind of what i was going for...

some pictures from the evening can be found here. if you have any of your own, feel free to add them!

also, if you have any videos, please add them here.

for those interested in finding original versions of the songs played, or for anyone as obsessed with setlists as i am, here's friday's with related links:

quit your day job! organ-za, hiroshima, japan 26 june 2009

first set:

civilian [i am doing this to hurt you]
fuse [i am doing this to hurt you]
somebody could love you [c'est moi cover]
tried, tested [i am doing this to hurt you]
tiburón [projects] / heart of glass [blondie cover]
the danger of one [inaccurate charm]
gregory [i am doing this to hurt you]

second set:

the shape of things not to come [i am doing this to hurt you]
casual trap [inaccurate charm]
hair clip surprise [projects]
all done [i am doing this to hurt you]
teardown [i am doing this to hurt you]
home [inaccurate charm]
dig fast [secret battle]
don't have to mean it [standalone]

becoming eclectic

2009-06-18T00:57:00.002+09:00

californian radio station KCRW has this show, morning becomes eclectic, on which they often [two or three times a week according to wiki] have musicians come in and do a live set, with an interview sandwiched in the middle. video of the performances is usually broadcast along with the audio.

loads and loads of great acts have played on the show. some more than once.

best of all, there is a massive searchable archive of performances on the station's website. go have a look - you're favourite artist might just be waiting for you. or at least some gems to be discovered.

here are a few of my favourites from the last few years, starting with one from the other day:

there's also a Fur and Gold-based one from august 1, 2007.

this is a solo performance from the Let it Die era, with a couple of then-unreleased tracks from The Reminder. there's one from after The Reminder came out with a full band and guest appearance from Kevin Drew here, but i don't think it has quite the charm of this one.

features an early version of 'intervention'!

probably my favourite of all the ones i've seen. great balance of songs, with each of the ladies' personalities coming through. "they call it way too rowdy - we call it finally free..."

list, set?

2009-06-16T23:58:00.003+09:00

i'm having some trouble figuring out what i'm going to play at the gig next week.

part of it is that it's kind of the first time i've had an overabundance of songs that i'm excited about doing, so i'm going to have to leave out stuff i really want to play. then there's the whole thing of finding balance and flow in the set, etc.

it could just be that i, in general, overthink setlists. not (just) mine. i find looking at setlists endlessly fascinating. i'm even intrigued by setlists of bands i don't listen to, or don't even like. i just love to pore over selections made; seeing when rarities crop up; how the show is opened and closed; what's played in the encore(s) - if there is any; seeing how different songs from different stages in the band or artist's career are sequenced together.

i sometimes go through websites devoted to a band's tours or even their entire "gigography": [sonic youth], [r.e.m.], [bruce springsteen], etc...

i get extra excited by pictures of actual setlists: are they handwritten or printed? do they have any special notes???

actually, going through my guitar cases i found this from the last gig i did in nagasaki, setting off a bout of nostalgia:

[note 1: due to time constraints, 'charm offensive' wasn't played]
[note 2: i usually don't actually write down setlists, as it's usually just myself playing...]

but then there are bands that don't bother with setlists at all and just improvise the entire set - fugazi and the white stripes jumping to mind. seems to have worked well for them, and it wouldn't really be difficult at all considering it's just myself...

is it the way to go?

as a sort of public rehearsal-type thing [but mainly just for the laugh], i'm going to set up in one of the shopping arcades in hiroshima on thursday night from about 21:30/22:00 and run through some songs.

swing by if you're around.

hopefully after that i'll have an idea of how to go about the show.

shut up, george!

2009-06-09T02:58:00.000+09:00

i was going on about organ-za quite a bit in my last post. this will continue...

on sunday (7 june) i went there to attend the 'Eccentric Salon', which featured four main acts, as well as the screening of a locally-produced short film. the first act - one man and his electric guitar - was, unfortunately, not as amazing as the venue. the second, a dance act from Tamura du (?) Hisashi, was wonderful. Izumi got her accordian out as the third act.

and then...

mr Okumura Yuusuke took the stage. and he was nothing short of phenomenal. he played five songs (four in the main set and an encore), each lasting about 9-10 minutes. and he certainly brought more than enough eccentricity to fit the name of the event. the highlight was part of the fourth song he played, in which he acted out a conversation (in English) between himelf and george lucas. i managed to catch it on camera:

seeing him perform got me both excited and nervous about playing there. there's certainly no way i'm going to even come close to matching that man's performance. yikes!

in semi-related bad news, due to technical/technological difficulties, Prickly Pear will NOT be making its debut at the show...

alas, the show itself will indeed go on!

quit your day job!

2009-05-29T11:37:00.001+09:00

on 26 june, i will be playing an acoustic set at Organ-za, my favourite venue/bar/café in hiroshima. also performing acoustically will be moriah newman and jeremy logue. and then there'll be the live debut of Prickly Pear, an electronic-ish duo, shrouded in mystery [it's me and jeremy].

i'm really excited to play there, as it has such a great atmosphere/vibe. and it looks like something out of a david lynch movie

last saturday i was there for Beggar's Banquet - a kind of mini festival that happened over the weekend. the highlight of the evening was when the woman/artist/genius who runs the place, Goto Izumi, gave an incredible performance filled with costume changes, a suicidal doll and her playing a multitude of instruments [well, three or four]. her weapon of choice is the accordian which she plays with unbridled passion...

so, yes, excited!

also, for the laugh, i'm taking requests for my solo set. if there's anything you'd like to hear, let me know by commenting on the relevant post on my new slick facebook page.

summer dilemma

2009-05-26T11:31:00.004+09:00

i'm planning on attending this year's Summer Sonic festival [in Osaka]. this year, it's a three-day affair. however, i'm unsure as to whether to go to all three days, two or just the one.

let's look at the line-up:

of the friday acts, sonic youth are the only kind of essential one for me, them more or less being my favourite band ever. that said, i've seen them live twice before and the rest of friday line-up just doesn't really jump at me. i would like to see the flaming lips at some point in my life, but i'm not that rushed. the vaselines, beyonce, n.a.s.a. and gogol bordello are intriguing propositions, but given those are spread over four of the five stages, i'm definitely not going to catch all of them.

saturday is the most attractive of the three. nine inch nails on their final tour for a while/ever, mogwai, aphex twin, soulwax, girl talk. again, due to stage scheduling, i won't catch all of them - but those are all acts i really really want to see - not just ones i'm interested in seeing.

sunday has a nice electropop run on the sonic stage: the ting tings, CSS and klaxons. there's also the tom tom club on the dance stage (at the same time as CSS or klaxons). but other than that, not much.

an important thing to consider is, as far as i know, the osaka "leg" [as opposed to the tokyo one] does not have any camping - so we can remove "joy of festival camping experience" from the list of pros on the full weekend ticket side.

as for...

cost: not too concerned about this. tickets for the whole weekend are ¥37,000. day tickets: ¥13,000 for friday and ¥14,000 each for saturday and sunday. looking at that, i sort of think, if i were going to go for two days, i might as well go for three days. so that sort of reduces it to whole weekend versus saturday only.

friends: going alone wouldn't be a problem, but going with some others would be better! various people i know have expressed interest in attending - but i'm not sure exactly who wants to go when. colm told me he's up for the saturday.

anyone else going?

anyone been to summer sonic in osaka before?

anyone strongly recommend any of the other acts playing?

i know this is not what you really needed to know

2009-05-19T13:20:00.003+09:00

so, i'm working on some sample-based stuff with ableton. in parallel, i've also been messing around with my guitar and coming up with some relatively straightforward, but really fun rock/pop type stuff. the question now is whether to keep these two threads separate or to combine them into some unholy hybrid.

i'm thinking i might take my chances with the latter...

--
blast from the past:

was going through the depths of my hard drive and came across the demo i recorded way back in july, 2004 for 'glacier', a song i wrote for das Glitch. it's pretty bare bones and a lot slower than how we ended up playing it [actually, it seemed to get faster and faster each time we performed it]. nevertheless, it's a reasonably interesting document. or at least it was interesting for me!

i've uploaded it in a .ZIP file together with a live recording from the very last das Glitch gig on 13 June, 2006 for comparison:

glaciers.zip

it's in our bones forever

2009-05-13T14:07:00.002+09:00

Pictures of Montevideo, Speak,See,Surrender's contribution to the 2009 RPM challenge, is a wonderfully layered, astoundingly melodic album. it also has a nice nautical motif running through it. my favourite track is called 'Overboard'.

i'd wanted to post about it a while ago, but the rpmchallenge site was undergoing some major reworking, rendering it temporarily unavailable. but now it's back and you can download or stream it from this page [where you can also stream SSS's 2008 rpm album].

while we're talking about music i've been loving, the recent Bat For Lashes album, Two Suns, is fricking incredible. can't stop listening to it.

here's her/them on Later doing two songs with a short interview in between:

in other news, i've finally cracked open the macbook pro, have installed ableton and am starting to work my way around it. will share some results as soon as some decent ones appear.

after noticing a lyrical drought over the last while, i think i may have pinpointed the cause: i haven't been keeping a diary/journal. this is something i used to do a lot. lame as it sounds, it was really useful in generating lyrics [it was also really useful for settling interpersonal arguments regarding what happened where/when/with whom...]. so i'm going to try and resume that practice.

as well as that, i plan on taking more of a quantity over quality approach to posting updates to this site [and to twitter!], in the vain hope that relentless yapping will generate more interest in my music, if and when it appears.

any chance of that working?

not all

2009-05-08T17:19:00.006+09:00

my new macbook pro and physical copy of ableton suite have been delivered, but i have yet to open them.

instead i've been just playing and singing. i'm trying to get in the habit of actually practising songs, y'know, so they sound somewhat decent.

while i was at it, i decided to record some. and i've uploaded two songs played back-to-back in one take...

click here to download

the songs:
'all done' - possibly the highlight of my rpm09 album.
'all i need' - a cover of a song by my friend sarah, who made significant contributions to the aforementioned album.