HappyHollow20101, originally uploaded by Marc Arsenault – Wow Cool.

Today (Sunday March 14, 2010), San Jose’s beloved children’s playground and zoo, Happy Hollow reopened after a nearly two year renovation and closure. Clearly the star of the show was the installation in the entry courtyard of sculptures by Tom Otterness.

“Another World”, a series of over a dozen cast sculptures installed in the entryway to Happy Hollow comes with a special coloring book. You can color it and relate your story and send it back to Tom in Brooklyn and receive a plaster sculpture back (Tom’s studio copies your book and the returns it to you). The offer is open to any age.

I first encountered Tom Otterness’s work in the 1983 show and catalog at Tony Shafrazi Gallery “Champions” which also featured Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ronnie Cutrone, Keith Haring, Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf and others. It was an attempt to unite this set of mid-80s New York artists, and even then, Tom Otterness was a clear outsider. (an odd aside, an instructor of mine at SVA once told me that I reminded her of Tom). This is one of Otternesses largest collections of public art (probably the largest on the West Coat), and well worth a visit. It stands as a fair substitute for the old playground fairytale exhibits at Happy Hollow (See my photos of the old Happy Hollow on flickr)

I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of the new Happy Hollow, and was quite fond of the many dilapidated playsets of the HH of old that have been retired. I think the could have managed to go more the route of Oakland’s Fairyland in keeping the old, but moving forward.

Some tips when visiting Happy Hollow.
Bring your own food. The stuff they sell is crap.
Expect the usual idiocy of any parking experience in San Jose.
There is a big area between the playground and Hallow Zoo that contains the old Crooked Man slide. Avoid this, as the house is now boarded up. No sliding will occur.
It’s not there for you, it’s there for your kids. Let them dictate how much fun it is.

1 weekend, 1 thrift store toy, 1 Arduino, and 1 obsessed geek.

Scott is one half of Evidence, Brown Cuts Neighbors’ former steel pan player and the original drummer/co-conspirator in nickname: Rebel.

A little birdy in a strange land known as “the List” passed on this sweet tidbit to us along with a detailed explanation (after the jump). It’s new. It’s Jah Wobble. It’s awesome. These little one-off releases (like last year’s massive dub rendition of Get Carter) are making me want more of this heavy stuff. Word on the street is that the Blow Up track is one of 21 on the forthcoming LP called Welcome to My World. Jah Wobble makes his web home at 30 Hertz.

For many years I have fancied having a stab at directing a short film. I wanted to make a piece that ‘stood alone’ and was not just a vehicle for promoting one of my tracks. (I think pop videos, in this post modern age, are such ‘old hat’). My initial thought was to honour Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Winter Suan,’ which is one of my favourite films. I quite fancied myself playing the part of a priest having a melodramatic crisis of faith. I envisaged a stark black and white affair set in contemporary inner city setting. Don’t get me wrong, along with those two other iconic existentialists, Jean Luc Godard and Michelangelo Antonioni, Bergman’s movies delight, depress, confound and irritate me in equal measure; having said that, I respect the three of them enormously, both for their dazzling radicalism and sheer directorial skill and vision.

Without a shadow of doubt Andrei Tarkosvy picked up their mantle a decade later. It’s the new wave of Turkish and Iranian directors, along with HBO, who are now most likely to make beautifully crafted studies of lonely intellectuals having spiritual crises’. (I would particularly recommend Ceylan’s ‘Uzak’).

After pondering the essence of the three directors’ works, I decided to change tact. Rather than go with Bergman I decided to focus on, a particular part, of what I feel is the Italian member of the iconic three’s tour de force, ‘Blowup’. My change of heart came whilst watching a ‘you tube’ clip of the brilliant vintage short, ‘London to Brighton in 4minutes’. I was playing the clip, of the speeding steam train, over and over, whilst composing a frenzied ¾ time signature drum and bass rhythm to it. Suddenly Antonioni’s ‘Blowup’ popped into my mind. This may at first, seem a strange association for me to have made, but please bear with me.

‘Blowup’ is, ostensibly at least, a murder mystery, but to be honest that aspect of the movie is no more than a side show for me. The film features a day in the life of a ghastly narcissistic (and desensitised) fashion photographer, ‘Thomas’ (played superbly by David Hemmings). ‘Blowup’ is set in, and feeds off, sixties swinging London. It was itself inspired by a short story, first published in 1959, called ‘Las Babas Del Diablo’, by the Argentinean author Julio Cortazar. Both films compress and play with time; ‘London to Brighton’ in a very straight forward fashion, the other, ‘Blowup’ in a much more subtle manner, using the vehicle of photography to freeze and replay time. In any case, both films, when all is said and done, make you feel as though you are recklessly speeding through time and space, whilst continuously surveying the same ‘narrow’ (and tedious) scene. (Perhaps we will now begin to view ‘London to Brighton’ as an existentialist classic)! Ironically it’s the train that stops in time, whereas ‘Thomas,’ in a metaphoric sense at least, hits the buffers (of amorality).

I decided to utilise the scene in ‘Blowup’ where ‘Thomas’ photographs the model Veruschka. My pounding relentless, restless, ¾ rhythm suited the self concerned and conceited Thomas character to a tee. When I first saw this photo shoot scene I was still a teenager, and I absolutely hated it. In fact at that point I despised just about every aspect of the film. I found it ludicrously decadent. I thought that Hemming’s character was a very nasty bit of work, to the point of being an over the top caricature. Well before too long I was cracking on in the music business meeting people like ‘Thomas’ on a pretty regular basis, especially around the Chelsea and Notting Hill sets. From record company executives, through to lead singers and photographers, there were plenty around. I think that narcissists (and their close cousins the sociopaths), really started to come to the fore in the hedonistic ‘me first’ sixties. They have been multiplying exponentially since then. They often come in the form of celebrities. Many in our society are fixated upon them. I think that people with narcissistic personality disorder tend to have a ‘black hole’ like quality. Everything and everyone in their orbit, who lacks a good instinct for survival, gets sucked in and sucked dry.

I decided to revamp the ‘Thomas’ character and jump him ahead into middle age, where he is still bored and contemptuous of everything that comes in his path, only he now has an added quality of bitter disappointment and fear of aging. I had a very clear idea of how he should now look and behave. (Ok ok I admit it….it afforded me the opportunity to wear ridiculous blond wig and get sprayed a fetching shade of orange. I must admit it was fun playing the aging narcissist, driving around in a flash motor. I found it hard to get out of character once shooting was complete. My face was stuck in ‘contemptuous and disappointed’ sneer mode).

I thought it fitting to put him in a swanky dockland’s penthouse apartment, with a gorgeous young wife (who he treats with disdain), and a vintage Aston Martin. But of course none of this brings him any degree of happiness or comfort. He has no empathy for anything or anyone around him. Everything and everyone is a commodity, purely a means to an end. He is still living in an entrenched state of ignorance. I wanted the finished film to look like a million dollars. I wanted it to have the production values of the best ads. I wanted it to have the same seductive quality that car ads and perfume ads display….as they lead us by the nose into a false world of illusion and permanent dissatisfaction.

-Jah Wobble

The big project for me of 2009 was my collaboration with Joshua Baker AKA Offset Needle Radius. We recorded an entire record in Maine, in January, when I had pneumonia. We did a tour around Easter in New England, we released some buttons, a totebag and a CD. The vinyl version will be coming soon. I swear. Anyway, a half a year after sending out promo copies of Offset Needle Radius Vs. nickname: Rebel we are getting some nice and odd (sometimes both) responses back. Despite relatively little recent promotional push, the record has charted above such luminaries as Fuck Buttons, the Gossip and Mozart on Stanford University’s KZSU 90.1 FM, just last week. (We are also getting lots of love from KDVS and WREK… thanks!)

Of most interest to me was the review by the talented UK cartoonist, DJ and reviewer Ed Pinsent in his Sound Projector blog (He also spun us on his Resonance FM show and podcast. Does he really think these names are highly dubious, or is he taking the piss?):

Marc Arsenault and Joshua Baker come to improvised guitar music from a background in avant-rock bands, and now call themselves Nickname: Rebel and Offset Needle Radius respectively. On Nickname: Rebel Vs Offset Needle Radius (WOW COOL 24/005), they turn in some very credible meandering guitar-scaping episodes full of vast abstractions and intricate scrapey doodles, largely avoiding unpleasant noise or feedback in favour of continuous, real-time playing, only slightly enhanced with foreign-sounding effects and treatments. Intriguing material on offer, but I keep listening out for the moments when the duo cease to tread around each other like two cautious cats, and start to cut loose with some of the impolite energy that you might have hoped for from their punk rock backgrounds.

Hey… fair enough. Now I feel like I have the license to really throw down next time, if not kill….

I am writing regarding the news today that 6 Music is going to be closed, in the hope that you reconsider this decision. To be honest I, along with a vast number of other musicians, music industry types and real music fans, are completely shocked and baffled by this news. I wonder if those who made this decision are actually aware of the hugely important role that 6 music plays in fostering and promoting new bands, as well as still playing the likes of the band that I am in. It literally is the radio lifeblood for music outside of the mainstream. Not to denigrate Radio’s 1 and 2, but it really is the only station that puts music first, and that’s from a punters point of view and not some bloke in a band. Nowhere else can you hear an archived session track from T Rex juxtaposed next to Midlake’s latest release. As David Bowie, put it … it keeps the spirit of John Peel alive.

Please realise the impact and severity of closing this station down. It will be a huge blow for new bands and their labels. It’s not enough to ‘refocus’ Radio’s 1 and 2 as 6 music does a very specific thing. What you have with 6 Music is a gem of a radio station, it is doing what no other station in the world does or can possibly do. Remember it is also still relatively young, give it time. You also finally have a fantastic and seemingly settled line up of DJ’s. Please get behind it and from what I can gather about its annual budget of £6m, it surely punches way above its weight in terms of cultural relevance and importance.

Save 6Music Facebook Group | Love6Music.com | If you won’t listen to me you might listen to Lily Allen

A BCN music video featuring early electronics effects provided by Peter Barvoets. Performing are James Kopta, Jason Martin and myself. Song and video were recorded at the Schenectady Public Access studios.

More information on the Radio Disease Killer quack medical device. It does have a switch that only goes ‘ping’.

You will go now to vote for Neon Knome to be on Adult Swim. Vote first, because this cartoon by Ben Jones/Paper Rad will melt your fucking brain forever.

The Art of Zines show at Anno Domini in San Jose is still going on (through March 13th, 2010). There are many zines by me and related Wow Cool type people on display. Check it out if you can. Many reviews have been flowing in from the likes of: Daily DuJour, Gary Singh at the San Jose Metro, and 1 (800) Dilettante.

The reviews are coming in overwhelmingly positively on Fantagraphics new book NEWAVE! The underground Mini Comics of the 1980s, which features my 8-page comic the Girl From Mars. Loving words are to be found from: Steampunk Willy’s Mad Comix Ride podcast, Comicsgirl, Publisher’s Weekly, Mania, and the Comics Reporter.

OK. Now some damn music. Brown Cuts Neighbors have been organizing the archives and have put out a call for any audio/video/photo documentation that might be out there (See this earlier post). One item that is already online that has resurfaced is this piece on the 1986 release(?) by BCN “No Big Deal” (When Jason was 12) on Albany, New York’s TheHiddenCity.com. It includes four song downloads and a full gear breakdown by Jason Martin. He claims a Tesco guitar was employed. That is hardcore.

Brown Cuts Neighbors bassist circa 1999-2001 Seth Cluett is presenting “Forms of Forgetting” Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:00pm – 9:15pm at the Princeton University Chapel (FREE admission). The work explores the role of in-attention and re-attending in listening. Using found objects, altered consumer electronics, home-made instruments, sine tone oscillators, the acoustics of the space and a host of psycho-physical phenomena, this new piece aims to construct a focused, attentive perceptual space and an elastic, malleable experience of time. For more information: http://www.onelonelypixel.org

I got to spend last week in Wow Cool’s stylish Brooklyn HQ and met up with occasional recordist, mixer, and masterer for nickname: Rebel, Mr. Andrew Gerhan, who was fresh off of a European tour with Adam Arcuragi. Andy was part of Adam’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert recently, and he had many exciting tales of life on the road, which included late night concerts on the MTA (New York Subway), with the whiskey flowing freely, and other assorted hi-jinks.

While putting this together I’ve been listening to Brown Cuts Neighbors co-founder Coleen Martin’s Lady Starlight Rock N Roll High School Podcast.

On February 20, 2010, the BBC posted “Dutch cabinet collapses in dispute over Afghanistan” as the top story on their News homepage. The complicated mechanisms of content-based advertising placement brilliantly selected to display a box for the current Netherlands tourism campaign “Just Be… in Holland“. Ouch.

For some more insight on the background of the Afghan boondoggle, I highly recommend the series by Adam Curtis… also hosted by the Beeb (scroll down a bit if need be).

Sorry, I’m a couple days late on this.

UPDATE: Today’s massive Olympic fuckup involving Sven Kramer cements 2010 as a rough year for the Dutch.

bcn – bogarts, originally uploaded by lookseeseen.

First up. BCN has a facebook fan page at: http://www.facebook.com/BrownCutsNeighbors

Does anybody out there have visual documentation of shows and other live Brown Cuts Neighbors interventions? 1989-91 most desired, but other eras good too! i got all the audio, and Marc’s digitizing ALL the public access episodes from over the years… its the visual documentation of live performances and happenings that i have very little of…. We’re gonna use this stuff and you’ll get credit if you contribute. xoxoxox Jason

Visit the new Jason Martin website

For more info on Brown Cuts Neighbors, please visit the archived web site from 2002. BCN also has a Wikipedia entry.

Now available to view online is J. F. Culhane’s Radio Free Blissville. It’s available in regular (above) or remix versions. nickname: Rebel contributed music to the soundtrack. Mr. Culhane also has a rather fine YouTube Channel and he holds it down on the interwebs primarily at glasscapsule.

The year is 2013. There has recently been a huge satellite war and all modern communications have been disrupted. In America, the Department of Defense has taken back most of the internet, reducing it to a unusable trickle of information.

Most of the general public who were dependent upon technology are detached and lost. Urban society has returned to a DIY fix it culture.

One bright spot is the resurgence of lawless community based pirate radio. These covert broadcasts are unseen but heard intermittently.

Lady Starlight–Brown Cuts Neighbors co-founder and infamous Lady Gaga collaborator–makes a cameo in the new eponymous video by Semi Precious Weapons (above – look for the two-tone hair and laser fingers)

Sunday February 14 at 6:00 AM on KFJC Special edition of Stream of Consciousness! Cousin Mary will play the complete concert performed by the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra that was recorded on June 13, 2009, featuring fognozzle.

nickname: Rebel splinter faction Creature Comforts (formerly White Seizure) will perform their debut live gig on Sunday, February 21 at El Rio in San Francisco, CA. 3158 Mission St (@ Cesar Chavez), San Francisco, California 94112. Cost: $5 Also performing are: Zoo – Deeply weird, deeply awesome electro-psych folk, from ex-Little Teeth. and Smallhands – Skater Heartbreakers.

A Frank Budgen classic. From the James Kopta Memorial Concert. Valentine’s, Albany, New York, September 22, 2002.

I don’t usually go for linkblog posts, but today the web offered a rare and wonderful cornucopia of delights both useful and entertaining. First up, Scion Magazine (whatever that is) has a profile up of Troy, New York’s wonderful Casper Electronics. Hopefully I can finally visit them next time I’m back in the city I used to call home.

As a renter or homeowner (most people, right?) you’ve probably wondered about what type of toxic shit might be in your fire extinguisher, and are possibly as afraid to use it as you are of the potential of a fire in your home. I made the discovery in my previous residence that fire departments will donate small fire extinguishers to rental buildings; and, worse, that these devices are not made for household use. yes, it’s true. WTF? Right? Check yours out. Kevin Kelly’s very often useful Cool Tools blog posted on Monday a report on a fire extinguisher that you can feel good about. One that uses baking soda.

Here’s a round-up of the 2010 Super Bowl TV advertisements on Mashable, complete with embedded videos.

21st Century COINTELPRO: Cass Sunstein, director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for the Obama administration, has come under fire in the past few weeks for suggesting that it would be a good idea to deploy federal agents to “cognitively infiltrate” political groups that believe in conspiracy theories. A report on The Huffington Post.

Missile Silo Confessions: Living on the Edge of Armageddon on WIRED. This is just a completely fascinating read and view.

And last: Hardcore Ephemera photo collection of zines, flyers, etc. from the Albany New York Punk/Hardcore scene of the 80’s/90’s by Christopher Adam O’Toole. You may need to be a facebook user to view this. There is talk of turning this into a larger project that is more accessible by the public.

ArtofZines11, originally uploaded by Marc Arsenault – Wow Cool.

The Art of Zines show opened at Anno Domini Gallery in Downtown San Jose this past Friday. Stacked on shelves along the walls are dozens of zines from all over, including many titles from Wow Cool and old familiar favorites like the latest issues of Fluke, Cometbus and Doris. Stop by if you can. The show runs through March 13th, 2010. Long time friends of Wow Cool will no doubt recognize the late James Kopta on the cover of “That Dog Drives a Go Cart” on the poster art for the show. See some photos from the opening: My Photos | Cherri’s Photos | Brian’s Photos

On the spot reporting by Silvia Chenault

About the most insane musical moment on Saturday Night Live ever. This may top the Beastie Boys and Elvis Costello doing “Radio, Radio” or Natalie Portman’s rap. Punk.

This installment is a twofer. During the second day of recording nickname: Rebel’s New Rock Church of Fire record (still working on it folks), I tried an experiment to loosen everyone up. Inspired by a session that Brown Cuts Neighbors had done for WRPI radio in Troy where, either the mics were cranked way up or the headphones in the studio were, so that every little movement or sound was incredibly loud, we tried the same sort of thing in a planned situation. I had a day of down-time in the studio (The old DeptEx/Magic Recording Eye studio of Jason Martin’s at 51 3rd St. in Troy) and scrounged the local Salvation Army and a couple hardware stores, and built a rotary saw cymbal stand (inspired by a similar rig of Steven Cerio’s and not uncommon in jazz circles) and a pair of bass springs (stretched out springs attached to a 2×4, amplified with either a guitar pickup or contact mic; inspired not just a little by Einsturzende Neubauten). So… Scott Smallwood, Aaron Smith and myself (and possibly Peter Barvoets?), recorded by Jason Martin, who had been instructed to crank everything as loud as it would go, consequences be damned, strolled into the studio (part of the composition as planned) and delicately touched and maneuvered the various implements of destruction. Various pianos, organs, electric razors, rebar, railroad spikes, walkie talkies and other detritus were also employed. Remember, it was not very loud in the room (and it was a very large room). A brief excerpt follows.

Horselover fat by WOWCOOL

OK. After seven days of February and just three posts, it is obvious that the gear blog will not be an everyday this month feature; but, I will try to keep it as a regular–once or twice a week-thing as long as the need is there.

DJ Shadow live in Chile 2006. photo by Leo Prieto. Licensed under Creative Commons

In 2006 DJ Shadow dropped his most recent solo album, The Outsider, and set in motion the process of creating one of the most fully-realized and successful artist sites on the web. The latest incarnation of DJShadow.com was built by Derick Daily and his team at the prestigious marketing firm Euro RSCG and DJ Shadow’s team, managed by Michael Fiebach, all under the careful control of Joshua Davis (DJ Shadow). The three-year project completed it’s final development phase and was relaunched in August 2009. As someone who is developing a label site (that would be WowCool.com, folks), that features a full online shop and artist pages, I look at DJShadow.com as an example of what can be done.

Apart from the site’s innovations as a presence for a musician online, it represents not just DJ Shadow, but also works with, and by, his collaborators from Solesides/Quannum, Cut Chemist and Cali-Tex, DJ Shadow’s personal label for funk and soul re-issues, which includes the School House Funk compilations, and the recent ‘great lost Chicago funk’ album Pieces of Peace. It’s no secret that DJ Shadow is a major record hound, and his site represents that. This is clearly the work of someone who truly loves records and wants to share that with others who appreciate that.

DJShadow.com has a clean and elegant layout. No confusion about what stuff is and where to find it. It just works. And it is deep. The archives and discography are presented in a straightforward, unpretentious style.

The signature single from The Outsider ‘This Time (I’m Gonna Try It My Way)’ can be read as a statement of the need for an artist to control how his image is presented and his work is distributed; whether you are a DIY bedroom producer or in a ‘best of both worlds’ situation like DJ Shadow, who is both a major label artist and a successful indy label owner. At least that’s how I took it when it came out. Along with the Bloc Party’s ‘The Prayer’, ‘This Time’ served as a major inspiration for me when I started to plan the relaunch of Wow Cool.

OK, enough about me.

Holding down the day-to-day at DJShadow.com is Michael Fiebach. He handles the site management; marketing, project, and distribution management and sales for independent DJ Shadow releases; merchandise management for the entire DJ Shadow product line for tour and online sales and E-Commerce management for the online store. I met Michael at the last two SF MusicTech summits. He is direct, honest and knowledgeable about the music business. We spoke in depth about the site and the DJ Shadow Handmade label for this article on December 22, 2009 and followed up by email during January, 2010. This is the first of two in-depth follow up articles with people I met at the SF MusicTech Summit.

I’m guessing the average person would have a hard time getting exactly why it’s an unique deal, the arrangement with Universal, to license back the albums for digital sale and how that works.

Yeah, I think that you put it exactly right. The common music fan has no idea…doesn’t get it… ‘oh, you’re selling downloads… well, there have been downloads for 10 years on the Internet…’ who cares? You know?

The unique thing about it, really, is that we’re the only artist site that I’ve seen, that is legitimately licensing music back from the label and selling it directly to the fan through downloads. We are licensing the music as an E-Store, just as iTunes and other major E-tailers do. I haven’t seen any independently operated artist sites that combine the downloads with physical merchandise for the entire store. We do t-shirt and download bundles and buy a CD and get the download for free; and, there are sites that do that, but not independent artist stores, and combining the merchandise with the digital downloads was something that was really hard, actually, to get done and it’s not something you see that often. We do all the fulfillment out of here ourselves. We ship all it from out of here, worldwide.

Do you know the percentage that you’re moving of digital vs. physical sales?

As far as digital compared to physical, digital is a nice piece of the pie, and it is growing…For most people, CDs are kind of tough these days…as I’m sure you know, in general, but we still do… People still want DJ Shadow limited exclusive merchandise and CDs and we just came up with some creative ways to make it available… and there, we still have plenty of interest in CDs. Overall, vinyl is still moving very well from a direct to fan perspective, and the interest in Digital is large and continually growing. When we bundle digital and physical together… that is when the real interest is sparked. From a mass distribution perspective, CDs are still the bread and butter.

Any interest in developing the site to where it’s got more kind of community type features – like profiles, things like that?

It was something we looked into for this launch, but the tough thing is that we have a pretty active community on the social networks and I just found that people like to stay on those networks. They go to Facebook anyway. They go to these other networks, and we’re on there too. I don’t have a problem with those people interacting on Facebook. I think the data spreads better and to more people when it’s on Facebook, There are millions of users on Facebook – there are not going to be that many users on DJShadow.com… so I think that as far as gaining new people to come to the site– I think it’s more useful for those people to interact at different social networks and then to come DJShadow.com to get news and buy merch and to check out videos and things like that.

Facebook has been an extremely effective tool for Shadow, and I plan to continue to use it to promote Shadow and our various online campaigns. I think Facebook has done everything right, and I did agree with the sentiment at SF Music Tech that, generally, musicians need a Facebook strategy as opposed to Facebook having a Music strategy. Facebook has all of the tools for musicians to use; it’s using them correctly that is the important part. Twitter is Twitter. Most people use it too much in my opinion. Especially for musicians… make each Tweet count for something. Over-saturating the Tweetosphere is both annoying and diminishes the importance of each message. I think we need to focus on ways to properly utilize MySpace for what it is. Regardless of what people say, MySpace is still extremely important, and has the ability to really take over the online Free Content space for music. We, as industry professionals, should help MySpace to do this as opposed to just mocking them and sitting on our hands. I think we need to utilize these networks for what they are, and bring people to our home-base through those networks. We shouldn’t try to replicate those networks on a site that will never have even close to the same effectiveness in terms of data portability.

On the handmade bundles – I’m kind of curious about the actual manufacturing and assembly of those. You’re doing 180 gram vinyl…

Right, it’s a template that’s printed, but it’s hand assembled…so it’s actually stamped – the inner sleeve of the vinyl… the actual vinyl is stamped with the title on the label of the vinyl and then the inner sleeve is stamped…and then that reads through the outer sleeve which is die cut, and then we write the customers name on the back of the vinyl. Every person that orders gets their name written in… “this vinyl belongs to…”, and we write the customers name there… and that’s for the CDs and the vinyl. It was definitely the most intense music project I ever worked on from a production stand-point. I mean, you are talking about 15 releases (CD, vinyl) not to mention the fact that we also released most of that stuff digitally as well- ALL within a few months, and even though they all fit into an art template, there is still so much that goes into each of those releases. Really fun project though, and it has been a success.

How many separate releases per year are being produced by the DJShadow.com crew?

Per year totally depends. 2009 was a record year. We did the Diminishing Returns 2 CD re-release, Schoolhouse Funk CD re-release, 6 DJ Shadow Handmade Vinyl releases, 9 Handmade CD releases, and, with the launch of the downloads section we added 9 Exclusive downloads (most of which are the same releases as the Handmade pressings), and we did a Deluxe UNKLE “Psyence Fiction” download release as well. There has never been a year like that before…. We went all-out with the relaunch of the website.

2007-2008 we did The 4-Track releases, and ‘The Hard Sell’ With Cut Chemist. Those were bigger projects that had more mass appeal other than just appealing to visitors of DJShadow.com.

Were the 4-track era releases put together solely by DJShadow.com?

The 4-track releases were put together by Shadow (the music and vision), myself (Project Management), Paul Insect and Alaric Hammond (for the art), and Mikael “Count” Eldridge (Sound enhancement). The 4-Track Box Bundle was an idea Shadow and I came up with mid-way through the first couple of releases as a way to sum-up the project at the end. The high-end 4-Track Era CD packaging and the bundles were all exclusive to DjShadow.com. We also did a VERY limited Japan release which came in different packaging than the versions offered on the site. The Box Bundle included a Bonus mix CD which was not available as a part of any of the other packaging. Overall, it was probably the most successful project ever commissioned by DJShadow.com. The Handmade Project may beat it out though, it’s close.

So, how did you get involved with DJ Shadow?

I actually got the job through the guy who had the job I have now, Bryan Utech, who I definitely give credit to for upping the merchandise game, he has a huge history with music merchandising. He worked with some big bands… Linkin Park, Kid Rock, the Strokes and some other big names. He hired me in April 2006 to run the web store and do social networking type stuff… and then he left about 5 months after I was hired, to go pursue other things and I had just kind of built up a relationship with Josh and his personal manager and business manager at that point and they just asked me to take over the whole online and merchandise operation.

So it must be going good. You’re still there 3 years later…

Yeah, in April it will be 4 years. Which is crazy. It’s been cool, I’ve gotten to tour, I have been a part of some big projects and really got to spearhead the download store and site re-launch. The touring was amazing. I can’t even… I’ll never have that experience anywhere else… it was really cool… working with Shadow is an incredible… I mean he is one of the best musicians out there, in my opinion, and definitely one of the most respected in the industry. He’s a musician’s musician. People love him and respect him, and I think that has been really good for me. He’s top notch.

So he’s a good boss?

Oh yeah…definitely.

So, what do you listen to around the office?

Ha! All types of stuff. Some of it, I don’t even know what it is… just CDs that Josh leaves around in here…old funk stuff, classic, underground hip hop… I’m a hip hop fan and grew up listening to hip hop… but I definitely still listen to alternative rock from the 90s, some classic rock… we listen to all types of stuff. It’s an eclectic mix…which is what I guess you’d expect working in the offices of DJ Shadow.

Right. Anyone you care to give a shout out to?

Definitely would give a shout out to the Quannum people, Lateef and Gift of Gab (of Blackalicious) and all the people over at Quannum…great music, great guys, they’re family. Also The High & Mighty–my friends from The Eagles games in Philly, and a huge inspiration for me getting in the music biz (Mr. Eon- when’s the next record??!!). Besides that, I’m feeling Jay Z’s new album (The Blueprint 3, in case you weren’t sure)…I love it.

Right on… OK, so I’m obliged to ask this… any kind of info on when we can expect a new DJ Shadow album?

Well, I can definitely tell you he is currently in the studio working on new music. I can’t say anything about what it sounds like, or what it is… or anything… to be honest, I don’t know. I’ve heard very small bits and pieces… but, it’s going to be surprising and, I’m sure, it’s going to be cutting edge, and dope, as it always is… but, as far as a timeline, I have no idea when something new will actually be released. All we know is that he is working on it.

What did you get from SF MusicTech? Any highlights, thoughts on the summit itself as an idea, etc. I think we basically talked at the show about the social networking panel getting hung up on MySpace and Facebook. Anything strike you as worth relaying about the event?

I think it is a great conference. I do think some of the speakers tend to get hung up on certain issues from time to time, but overall I think it is an informative conference. I spoke on a panel at the Bandwidth conference back in August, which was similar but a little more intimate, and I also attended the last SF Music Tech Summit in Spring of 2009. It is great anytime there is an opportunity for music industry professionals to gather and discuss ideas for this business. There is so much confusion as to where the industry is headed, it is always reassuring to interact with other individuals in similar positions… I walked away from this year’s SF Music Tech Summit with a heightened awareness of the current situation in the industry, and with many ideas for Shadow’s operation. Everyone is trying to figure out the same thing: the optimal approach for monetizing music… I have gained countless contacts and business opportunities from attending these conferences, and I definitely plan to continue to attend them, and hopefully I will be given more opportunities to take part in panels, etc.

DJ Shadow In Los Angeles 10.31.09- Snippet by djshadow

DJShadow.com’s latest release is DJ Shadow In Los Angeles, 10/31/2009 available as CD & Download. Released Jan 19, 2010. Sample above.

DJ Shadow.com

The moonmilk homemade instrument series was one inspiration to finally start documenting some of the more out-there gear in the nickname: Rebel arsenal. The idea to do a gear blog had been kicking around for awhile but was not getting done. The other inspiration was the RPM Challenge, which invites musicians to write and record a whole album of music, 10 songs or 35 minutes, during the month of February. I created ‘R is for Riot‘ for the challenge in 2008 at the urging of Joshua Baker of Offset Needle Radius.

moonmilk’s homemade musical instruments

nickname: Rebel Gear Blog Archive

Wild Planet’s Beat Blenders

Girls of Slender Means by WOWCOOL

Picked up this pair a few years ago and did damn little with them. Finally broke them out for the “Girls of Slender Means” sessions with Mike and Nick of nickname: Rebel (excerpt above). It’s a tricky double-backed beast and deserves a further look, and probably some serious circuit mangling. And just what sort of info passes through those RJ45 plugs? See video and links to circuit bending info below.

The Beat Benders Series: Bling Bling on TechDweeb | New Toy – The Beat Blenders on Unearthed Circuits

Beat Blenders Product Sheet (PDF)

Electronica Beat Blender on Amazon | Power Rock Beat Blender on Amazon.

Photo of the Beat Blenders was achieved by slapping those babies on a flatbed scanner. Came out pretty cool.

The Gemini MPX-30 is a Cheap (typically under 200USD), versatile and somewhat reliable CD turntable with effects, cues, loops, etc. It has been a standby item in my house party DJ rig and a favorite tool for Hallowe’en mixes since my brother in law left it at my house over three years ago. It’s since found it’s way into nickname: Rebel recordings, like the 2009 Ouroboros single:

The first thing that should be mentioned about this unit is that it seems to normally go under a different name – the CFX-30. Here’s a pretty comprehensive review at DJForums.com. The ‘30 has been discontinued by Gemini and I’m not too impressed with it’s successors from what I can see. It’s hard to beat for the price. Digital out. Easy to use. Big, clunky design. I like it, but I’ll probably still get a Pioneer set up at some point. There is currently one available on eBay.

Stravinsky I-Ching
While on tour with Offset Needle Radius last April, we had a gig at Cambridge’s the Lily Pad, and opened with “Stravinsky I-Ching”. What you do is: Select random parts of arbitrary tracks (no sneaky previewing!) from, say, the classic 1968 recording of The Rites of Spring by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, load them as hot cue points, fuck around with them, make loops, spin the wheel on different effects, etc. It was while doing this that I discovered an interesting ‘feature’ of the ‘30. Spinning very fast with (I think it was) the Zoom filter you reach some sort of overload with an interesting audio result. It shows up about three times in the sample below.

Much more of this type of audio tomfoolery is better displayed by FM Einheit on his CDs Radio Inferno and Prometheus • Lear.

Stravinsky I-Ching by WOWCOOL

If all goes well, either me or Mike Keegan will be posting a profile of some piece of equipment we use in nickname: Rebel every day for the month of February.

NEWAVE! is now in stock and ready to ship from Amazon.

UPDATE: Some photos from the release party at the Fantagraphics Bookstore/Gallery.

An unholy host of New York City-type cartoon art guys (and a couple others and at least one gal), many of whom have been or are currently published or distributed by Wow Cool (and nearly all the rest are old friends from SVA, minicomics or the Zero Zero anthology) get to step out in style in Hotwire Comics 3, available today, Wednesday, January 27, in a comic book shop near you. That’s right, brand new work from Steven Cerio, David Sandlin, Mats?!, Danny Hellman, Michael Kupperman and a whole bunch more. The Comics Reporter says: “A boon for fans of a certain kind of energetic, restless, profane comic book making — for the rest of us it’s an exquisitely curated, controlled visit to that particular comics world.”

If you are in New York City, there is a release event for the book at Desert Island Comics this Friday, January 29. Editor Glenn Head and contributors Danny Hellman, Sam Henderson, Michael Kupperman, Jayr Pulga, David Sandlin, R. Sikoryak, Chadwick Whitehead and Karl Wills will be there in person. If you miss it, I imagine you can catch most of them at Kellogg’s Diner sometime after 4 am.

See a preview at Fantagraphics.

Visit the Hotwire site.

Order yours right now from Amazon.

I was sent a link to iO9’s write-up of Alex Cox’s recent Non-Sequel to his classic Repo Man film today by my nickname: Rebel cohort Michael Keegan. It was too early in the day to absorb. This was the first I had heard of any such sort of venture. I sort of peeked at it a couple of times. I sent it to someone else. Her response was “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” Which seems to be the general reaction. I’m gonna say that’s a good thing. I want to see this movie.

Here’s the trailer:

Alex Cox has a blog. He talks a bit about the development and making of Repo Chick, as well as his repo turf war with Universal.

Two other stories of interest you may have missed:
Luxury cruise ships are still docking at their private beaches in Haiti
Doctors Without Borders Plane with Lifesaving Medical Supplies Diverted multiple times from Landing in Haiti

This is the video I was looking for a few days ago. A lesson for me in not relying on YouTube. Gumby puts the kibosh on the blockheads latest evil scheme, a pesticide protection racket, that has the worms up in arms and gasmasks, even. Available on the DVD of Gumby: the Movie. There must be something about the process of doing stop-motion animation that breeds a deeper social consciousness. (See earlier post about Oliver Postgate). Sorry if you have to endure any commercials to get to the cartoon.

Yes, Captain Beefheart himself is 69 today. It’s no secret that he’s popular in the house of Wow Cool. Just released from Proper Records is the long-awaited biography by long-time Magic Band member and arranger John (Drumbo) French, Beefheart: Through the Eyes of Magic. It appears that the book is currently only available in the UK and Europe, and, as of this writing, it is not yet in stock from Amazon, but is available through other sellers from Amazon.co.uk. For readers of the excellent, and up-until-now definitive Beefheart Bio by Mike Barnes, it’s been a long wait for this book, as French heavily teased that he was working on his own book back then and revealed relatively little of that mystical hermetic life as a member of the Magic Band. Proper also released French’s latest album Drumbo: City of Refuge last year, and it is solidly in the Magic Band tradition and well worth getting.

John French’s MySpaceship
Interview on Perfect Sound Forever

I couldn’t find any clips on YouTube that really fit with what I would have liked to have shown in memory of the great Art Clokey, creator of Gumby and Davey and Goliath, so I picked this video of Lightning Bolt’s 13 Monsters by Paper Rad. There’s a great bit in one of the old Gumby episodes that Brown Cuts Neighbors stole for one of our TV shows with Gumby’s band having a run in with some rustlers that has the classic line “Sorry we’re so dirty, ladies and gentlemen, but we were hijacked”. Sorry you don’t get that. You can just imagine. Rest in Peace Art. You are much missed.

More previews and info on Fantagraphics site.

Pre-order yours today! Newave!: The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s on Amazon.

This is the one book about sound you must read this year. I’ve been waiting for something like this for years and for this book since July. Steve Goodman, better known to the world as Kode9 of Hyperdub Records, delves into how sound has been used by government and industry to manipulate and control people.

Description from Amazon

Sound can be deployed to produce discomfort, express a threat, or create an ambience of fear or dread—to produce a bad vibe. Sonic weapons of this sort include the “psychoacoustic correction” aimed at Panama strongman Manuel Noriega by the U.S. Army and at the Branch Davidians in Waco by the FBI, sonic booms (or “sound bombs”) over the Gaza Strip, and high-frequency rat repellants used against teenagers in malls. At the same time, artists and musicians generate intense frequencies in the search for new aesthetic experiences and new ways of mobilizing bodies in rhythm. In Sonic Warfare, Steve Goodman explores these uses of acoustic force and how they affect populations.

Most theoretical discussions of sound and music cultures in relationship to power, Goodman argues, have a missing dimension: the politics of frequency. Goodman supplies this by drawing a speculative diagram of sonic forces, investigating the deployment of sound systems in the modulation of affect. Traversing philosophy, science, fiction, aesthetics, and popular culture, he maps a (dis)continuum of vibrational force, encompassing police and military research into acoustic means of crowd control, the corporate deployment of sonic branding, and the intense sonic encounters of sound art and music culture.

Goodman concludes with speculations on the not yet heard—the concept of unsound, which relates to both the peripheries of auditory perception and the unactualized nexus of rhythms and frequencies within audible bandwidths.

Order from Amazon: Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear (Technologies of Lived Abstraction)

Video from XLR8R where he talks about the book