post human era

Links for 2010-11-10 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:00:00 PST

Post Human Era

Idiot Pilot To Produce Post Human Era

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:20:00 +0000

Well, today was a crazy day. I was at NRG Studios with my friend Jeff Robert (pictured below) who started the studio 15 years ago. Artists like Linkin Park, Incubus, Evanescence, Foo Fighters, and Korn have recorded there, just to name a few.

We were sitting around talking about hiring a producer to take it to the next level, and I played him a remix of my song "Building The Machine" by Daniel Anderson of Idiot Pilot. Jeff loved it, which was convenient because I did too. In fact, yesterday I emailed Daniel to ask if he would produce my entire album. Literally 5 minutes after I played Jeff the remix, Daniel called me to let me know that he would be interested, and we both agreed that it would be an exciting project!

Nice Review of "To Build A Fire"

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:23:00 +0000

Marvin from Free Albums Galore wrote this review of To Build A Fire:

"Back in 2007, I said some very nice things about Post Human Era’s debut album Where I’m Going Half The Time. As happens, I’ve have not heard anything from this talented artist since then and assumed, as often happens, he has returned to obscurity. So I was surprised and pleased to see this new album titled To Build a Fire on the Clinical Archive netlabel. It is again an album full of melodic electro-pop and downtempo goodness accented by the synths and vocals of multi-instrumentalist Daniel Finfer. The description compares him to The Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie, but I find Finfer’s sound to be quieter and more accessible. The 48 minute album is full of catchy songs yet I especially find “You In The Future”, “Replacing You” and the Eno-like “Holograms” to be worthy of repeated listening. Hopefully we will not have to wait three years for Post Human Era’s next album."

Read Full Review of Post Human Era's To Build A Fire

Post Human Update

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:46:00 +0000

Quite a bit of action is taking place in the Post Human Era Dome these days. I've been building a new recording studio at my house in Brentwood, so if anyone lives near West Los Angeles, let me know if you want to record in a studio with a pool, hot tub and basketball court. Services include recording, mixing, post-production, song writing, graphic design, marketing, SEO, and film editing. Music lessons include singing, guitar, bass, keyboards, and Logic Pro.

Also, Daniel Anderson from Idiot Pilot is remixing our first single Building The Machine, which I'm incredibly excited about. They've been one of my favorite bands since 2004 when I first heard that there was actually a good band from my home town of Bellingham, WA (except for The Postal Service).

If any of you know Ben Cooper from Electric President, and Radical Face, we are putting together a concert in May at my house as well. It should be really kick ass and intimate. Again, another one of my favorite artists.

My new album, Echo Corridor, is still being carefully mixed, and Pete Yorn recommended a couple good mastering engineers. I've spent a lot of time toiling over this album, yet almost have ANOTHER ONE done.

Review: Idiot Pilot "The Tail of a Jet Black Swan"

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:17:00 +0000

Every time I hear a new Idiot Pilot song, I can't believe that they have yet again managed to progress while still feeling like the same band. This new song is Idiot Pilot, but better. If that makes sense.

They remain firmly planted in electronic territory, but have adopted more of an organic feel this time around, with live drums layered with glitchy electronic hi hats, colorful synths, a clever chord progression, and a catchy hook that will loop in your head again and again.

A little bit of NIN, R&B, and post-rock influences are shining through as well. I also love their lyrics- at first they seem ambiguous and mysterious, yet over time they start to make more sense when put into context. Can't wait to hear the whole album.

http://idiotpilot.com/

Daniel Finfer Explains The Singularity

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:17:00 +0000

Daniel Finfer talking about the meaning behind

the name Post Human Era, The Singularity, and
theories about what lies ahead of us in time...

Hilarious Review of "To Build A Fire"

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:33:00 +0000

By D. A. Peters
February 2, 2010

Until recently, Post Human Era co-founder Daniel Finfer wasn't known for being prolific. Actually, he wasn’t known much outside of the California University music scene – and cities in Washington State with populations under 9000.

So, when I heard he was creating an album called, “To Build A Fire” my first thought was, “Jack London’s going to be pissed!”

Virtually all of Post Human Era is the studio output of Daniel Finfer, a California resident. While touring live, he is flanked by his brother, Mike Finfer and Steve Kurshner on drums.

The band is really best understood in the context of its influences: there are elements of Nine Inch Nails, the Postal Service, Radiohead, even Kraftwerk. In a way, it’s a tribute to Daniel Finfer’s composition process to have such traditional melodies and song structures buried under layers of noise (and interspersed with experimental fair). He sounds both contemporary and vintage – a step up from overly self-aware kitsch that plagues most independent labels.

It seems, Post Human Era is about moving forward while acknowledging the debt owed to artists past. Newton summarized it as “standing on the shoulders of giants.”

The production is incredibly crisp for a label-less, manager-less band: synths, guitars, baselines, and drums all serving toward Post Human Era’s undeniable pop sensibilities. However, unlike his electronic pop contemporaries, he doesn’t dabble in nostalgia for irony’s sake – no Lady Gaga moments, despite both can churn a catchy chorus. The high melodies are bright (“Lost Children”), the brooding parts are muddied and languishing in cerebral moments (“Holograms”).

The lyrics and vocals stand apart on many songs: otherwise moody content is offset by Daniel Finfer’s impressive range. He’s a competent vocalist: going from warm hooks to brooding tenor sections. There’s restraint to explore musical landscapes rather than overindulge a melody or hook. There’s even reference to Rene Descartes as he croons, “I’ll be the ghost in your machine.” Distinct themes reoccur – from the social commentary/relationship metaphor of a fire to existential, lonely malaise that recalls authors like Albert Camus or acts like the early Cure but layered in something more easily digestible and ironically catchy.

Final Grade: A-

A Perfect Explanation of The Singularity

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:22:00 +0000

The director of District 9 explains the Singularity, and the challenges we will face as we enter the Post Human Era.

Faster.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 08:26:00 +0000

Robot Plays Violin

Robots that can dance better than me

This one looks like CGI but its not. This shit's legit.

and now for the lighter side of the news...

Every day we stumble one step closer.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:24:00 +0000

Military Robot Killing Machines

Worlds First Sex Robot

Creepiest Robot Ever

A marvelous creation of art and science combined

February 2010 Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:09:00 +0000

So its February! Things are really heating up for me right now - we just played an awesome show at USC, and the subsequent party raised about $500 for Haiti, and the foundation we donated to matched it dollar-for-dollar, so around $1,000 is going down to those folks.

In other news, some of you may have noticed that more netlabels are releasing "To Build A Fire", our 2009 LP. This is an experimental marketing tactic I'm trying out - instead of being signed to one, exclusive label, I'm releasing it through multiple, "non-exclusive" labels. Think of it as a double-barrelled shotgun as opposed to a sniper rifle. Anyway, I'm almost done mixing our new album! This, I feel, is the album I SHOULD have written instead of "To Build A Fire". TBAF was mainly auto-biographical, about a failed relationship with someone with too many problems to fix, loosely shrouded in a metaphor of being lost in an icy landscape.

This new album is a concept album about me communicating with my future self to prevent the end of the world. Its not over-bearing, and this concept won't be immediately apparent. This album sounds a lot more, well, "post human"; very industrial and electronic; gritty and digital.

This will be the first album we will formally shop to record labels, radio stations, what have you. Very exciting times indeed. Aside from all that, I'm also building a new recording studio, where I will produce a few new side-projects with some very talented singers.

Alright! That's enough for now. Have a good day, and remember to keep speeding up.

Daniel

News Article + Haiti Benefit Show 1/29 at USC Ground Zero

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:37:00 +0000

The Santa Clara wrote up an article about Post Human Era, which can be viewed HERE.

Also, if you live in Los Angeles, head to USC's Ground Zero venue on campus for a show at 10pm, and subsequent after-party at 2627 Magnolia at USC. All donations will go directly to the Silicon Valley Foundation who is matching donations dollar-for-dollar.

In other news, I'm almost done mixing the new Post Human Era album, which will feature an intriguing new form of promotional marketing I've never seen another band attempt.

Cheers,

Daniel Finfer

Speeding Up

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:45:00 +0000

The following is an article I was asked to write for TransAlchemy, a technology website.

"We are living during a very important time. It is a time in which time itself seems to be speeding up. It is also a time in which the prospect of being able to prevent our own death is becoming feasible. Intrigued? You should be - you might never die. Here's why.

At the dawn of life on this planet, evolutionary changes happened slow. Billions of years slow. One microbe took billions of years to evolve the DNA necessary to replicate itself from simple amino acids. But that first copying mechanism, DNA, allowed information to be transmitted that much faster. Then, evolution only took millions of years to create multi-cellular creatures. Good information was kept, and bad information was discarded. The wheel of time continued until evolution presented the planet Earth with a new species - human beings. Except this species was different - this was the first intelligence on the planet.

This is where the evolutionary process of life really began to accelerate. Instead of millions of years to the next paradigm shift, it was only 50,000 years until Man began to talk. And then, only 10,000 to develop agriculture, written language, society, and government. Another 5,000 elapsed, and we had constructed Pyramids, developed theological and monetary systems, and had begun colonizing the planet. This led to the development of Science a few thousand years later. Science, after a few mere centuries, thus gave us the Industrial Revolution, which after only 50 years gave us the Computer Revolution. Notice the trend? Evolution is a feedback loop. The meaning of life is to speed up.

"Moore's law describes a long-term trend in the history of computing hardware, in which the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has doubled approximately every two years." - Wikipedia

When Moore made this prediction at CalTech in the 1970's, computers were the size of buildings. Now one fits in your pocket, and a current particle accelerator in CERN is capable of achieving the coldest temperature in the universe and a magnetic field thousands of times more powerful than the Earth's- all to find the God Particle that allowed the universe to be created. Forty years ago a machine that sized could barely run Microsoft Word.

This is only the beginning, however - think about the things we will achieve with computers the size of red-blood cells floating inside the body. Nanobots will soon be integrating themselves into our biological structure, repairing broken synapses in the brain, cleaning out arteries and creating a virtual-reality interface within your visual cortex. Don't believe me? Ask Ray Kurzweil, who this year co-founded the Singularity University in Palo Alto with Google and NASA. Their sole mission is to create a human-computer hybrid that will allow us to live forever.

Why a hybrid? Why not simply create a smarter-than-human computer and have it solve all of our human problems? Because that computer might decide that keeping us humans on Planet Earth would only hinder its own progress in evolution, and that we pose a threat to its survival. Or, the computer might even convert the entire solar system into a bigger version of itself to solve the problem. In Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question", scientists keep building bigger and bigger computers; constantly asking them the meaning of life. It is not until the very end, when, after the entire universe has been converted into a computer that the final answer is given. I won't spoil it, so you'll have to read it to find out what the final answer turns out to be.

The UN even recently passed a law banning "self-replicating nanobots" to prevent the planet from being covered in a "gray goo" of robotic microbes. This only supports how real this is all becoming. We are at the end of 2009 as I type this. Six years ago, Facebook was being invented. Now, 350 million people have moved parts of their lives "online", and could not imagine life without it. Ten years ago, cell phones and laptops were only just becoming commonplace within the societal lexicon. Now, having a desktop or even laptop computer is viewed as being a nuisance and hassle. In the next ten years, however, the change will be faster. We know this because its been speeding up this entire time.

Every day, more things happen than the day before- because today we have better tools for communicating, working, living, and replicating information than we did yesterday. The move from analog to digital will be almost too gradual to notice, but one thing is for certain: Humanity is uploading itself onto the internet, which now appears to have turned Planet Earth into a collective brain; every human being a neuron in the system. This collective brain will soon abandon the mortal problems we face today, but it will face problems on a universal scale. Like how to prevent its collapsing star from dying, how to exist in multiple dimensions, or even how to better allocate intelligence throughout the universe.

Maybe then it will even send out tiny seeds to land on distant planets...just like the one that landed on Earth."

Videos From Last Night At Cranes, Hollywood

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:54:00 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfwQbQKED18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZk-RUEULX0

Post Human Era on Clinical Archives

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Clinical Archives has posted Post Human Era's To Build A Fire. Check it out:

http://clinicalarchives.blogspot.com/2009/11/ca337-post-human-era-to-build-fire.html

It is also on the FMA here:

http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Post_Human_Era/To_Build_A_Fire/

Army Of Me

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:40:00 +0000

By Daniel Finfer

Back at the beginning, I split myself in two
Because the world was just too big to see with such a narrow view.
From the two that I became I knew exactly what to do,
And with another point of view around the world felt fresh and new.

The two that I became soon turned into three and four
I lived a life of peace, and never dreamed I'd start a war
I headed out across the land to conquer and explore
But thats the day I felt the need to split myself some more

The thousands i became began to build their first machines
I started building tiny boats to navigate the seas
I dreamed up new religions but they all just disagreed
And suddenly my new religions started building armies

My boats turned into battleships to put me in my place
The soldiers of myself all wore disguises on their face
I don't feel that responsible, for how could I have known
The enemies i wiped away were soldiers of my own

The war engulfed the planet as my army swept the land
I had to know which side of me would gain the upper hand
The tiny little soldiers were too small to understand
I made me fight against myself to find out who I am

You see the winner of the war would know the shape of things to come
For they alone decide my shape when all is said and done;
I almost caught a glimpse of me, reflecting in the sun
but suddenly the final soldier cursed what I'd become

I lost control of everything, and i became confused
I waged a war against myself I never thought I'd lose
And right before I killed myself, I wondered if they knew
That all along their Mighty God was just a point of view

The Singularity Is Coming...Now What?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:05:00 +0000

I found this really cool article about the Singularity...

Plans for the coming months

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:28:00 +0000

So lately I've been realizing some things about my band, Post Human Era, and the ways in which the fundamentals of the music industry are changing. In the past, you had "legends" i.e. Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, etc. These weren't people, they were Gods. Intangible, reclusive, untouchable. You were lucky to catch a glimpse of them stepping out of a limousine, and even that would be a rarity.

Now, in an age where human contact is becoming less frequent thanks to social networks, people want to feel that human connection again. They want a musician to be their friend, not some mysterious icon that keeps his private life under wraps.

On that note, I will soon be making a series of webisodes - tiny videos that may range from performing live versions of our new songs, tutorials on song writing and music production, and you can also bet theres gonna be a whole lot of nonsense and tomfoolery as well.

I also want to clarify something that alot of people have asked me about: What does Post Human Era mean? Most people think I'm talking about some bleak, desolate, post-apocalyptic world where Mel Gibson is wearing tight leather pants (see Thunderdome). Whether you want to believe it or not, our world is changing. Rapidly. Just ask Ray Kurzweil. I personally believe we are hurtling towards a technological singularity- that is, a point in time when change becomes so rapid that even trying to predict it is naiive and futile. Some call it Heaven. Some call it Valhalla. I call it the Post Human Era.

Terrence McKenna explained God to be a "multidimensional being that exists ahead of us in time, and it acts like a black hole, pulling us towards us; advancing us, and evolving us to become more of what He is. The closer we get to this multi-dimensional being, the more rapidly things will change." Could it be that this "multidimensional being" sent clues about its existence back through time to create all these different world religions, thereby ensuring its own creation?

All very deep questions to ponder. By the way, if you live in LA, theres a REALLY good taco place on the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Bundy.

New Album Available

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:39:00 +0000

Post Human Era - To Build A Fire

Right Click - Save As - To Download

http://posthumanera.com/Replacing_You.mp3

http://posthumanera.com/You_In_The_Future.mp3

http://posthumanera.com/Lost_Children.mp3

http://posthumanera.com/Directions.mp3

http://posthumanera.com/Conclusion.mp3

http://posthumanera.com/Landing.mp3

Click Below To Download Entire Album...

DOWNLOAD

Moving To Los Angeles

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:04:00 +0000

Post Human Era is moving down south for the foreseeable future, but luckily LA is only a 2 hour plane ride, 6 hour car ride, 12 hour train ride and 378 hour bike ride away from the Bay area. Watch this site for updates, because things are about to start happening pretty quickly.

"You In The Future" Music Video

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:37:00 +0000

We just finished shooting the video for the first single off the new album, "You In The Future" in Los Angeles. It was directed by Dillon Brown and Gavin Garrison, who both do amazing work. You can check out Gavin at Red Apple Production.

"Holograms" Music Video Update

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 04:24:00 +0000

Day one of shooting for the "Holograms" music video was a great success...It was shot in 4K HD with a RED camera, and directed by Dillon Brown. Saturday will be the final day of shooting, and then its waiting, waiting, waiting for post production to be complete...

Post Human Era headlining Earth Day Festival at UC Santa Cruz April 18th

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:48:00 +0000

Come celebrate the Earth with Post Human Era and four other bands at UC Santa Cruz April 18th! Its going to be an outdoor concert, Santa Cruz style.

Music video in the works...

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 05:40:00 +0000

A fan of Post Human Era contacted us about doing a music video. Shooting begins April 4th, and we are using this.

Post Human Era playing College Night April 30th at SCU

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:39:00 +0000

Thats right. College Night. Its April 30th at the De Saisset Art Museum on campus, so come out and see our entirely new band, complete with new drummer, bassist, and synth player!

Mixing Update

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Finfer) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 05:43:00 +0000

Its mixing week here at Indopendence Studios, and we've been knocking out a track a day. And they sound ridiculous. So far, we're done with:

You In The Future
The Sound Of Strangers
Replacing You
Holograms

We worked on Landing today for a while, and up next is Warm Is Near. After mixing wraps, its off to Mike Wells for mastering, and then keep your eyes out for a ton of shows.

Dan