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4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Out of touch, but a little bit of time, so here I am... Took a quick post-24 runner over to the studio the other night to make some cosmetic changes to SOLAR (yes, the real title), 1956 (yes, the real title), and EXIST (yes, real title). When listening to the versions that came out from Saturday's awesome session, I realized a few tweaks needed to be made. EXIST in particular, needed a bit of a change in the intro as the post-saturday one, as S.O. pointed out, sounded exactly like a certain song by a British artist of some note. I went and got the song in question and sure enough, she was right on. It was a minor tweak, but worth it. SOLAR, the album closer, had a bit too much Hookbass in it, so to keep the impact of that sound fresh in the song, I took stuff I had written for the verses out. There's a great ending to this song, which could be compared to The Cure in their prime. To flesh this section out, B played some sweet piano over it. I was only in the studio for a few hours, but they were hours well spent. Now we are trying to formulate a gameplan for the next stage, meaning, its time for the live drums for the first 7 or so songs. Also on the agenda will be to write a track in the rehearsal space with the full band. I had wanted Peter Saintface to get on on this part, but he is neck-deep in the 'Face record, and we're gonna have to be patient while he does his thing there. If I didn't want that Saintface record so badly, I might be upset ;-) While all THIS is going on, the Chemlab machine is in full swing. The new mixes came in from Jared and Joolz and I'm pleasantly surprised that they were able to take a Chemlab album and mix it to sound even MORE like Chemlab. I wish I had been there, but my comments, as always, are nitpicky. Meanwhile, the new website, complete with message board, is now functioning and I find myself posting left and right and innundated with instant messages about the album, the ep, and anything else related to it. The kids are jazzed for this album and I'm confident it will deliver. Meanwhile, Jared is getting the EP ready in Chicago and I myself am dying to see and hear the final result. I worked on 4 of the 6 tracks and did the artwork for it. It's the first thing kids are going to hear from the new Lab and I am (understandably) excited and paranoid at the same time. The fan who wrote from Germany wrote to tell me that Tinman wrote him back and he has ordered his aggression CD's. Good! Now watch, he'll fucking hate it... F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | For the first time in weeks, I made it down to the studio to get back to work on HF2. I had so much energy because I had been itching to get back into it. Hit the ground running and finally did the long awaited arrangement on 1956, which is now a lean mean fighting machine. Of the course of two hours, every time Brandt and I would say 'it's done' and play it back, we'd get a new arrangement idea. We shaved a minute and a half off of it, and I'm loving it. Then B played me the new parts to TWO BASSES that they did while I was away and I was really into and was double pleased I didn't have to change a thing in the song. They've really smoothed that tune out and made the two very different parts appear to be seemless. Awesome work. My next task was to tackle the new intro to EXIST because the newest version B sent me seemed messy. He has so many cool parts in it that it became just a matter of giving them room to shine in the intro. Quick work. I then extended the bridge Robin and Ash wrote for the song, simply because it deserved more ear time and is quite possibly the best 20-30 seconds of the album. Nuff said. Then, as a nice surprise, Robin and Ash appeared and the band was in full swing. We first just reviewed the songs as everyone had notes (well, ash actually had writtern notes) and comments on the new mixes. Everyone is almost on the same page and even where we're note on the same page, we're at least in the same chapter of the book and quite close. Which is really good. Once we were done reviewing the tracks and set a gameplan for the day, we listened to some of our recent non HF work (i.e. Chemlab and Ass Cobra) and hammered out some internal MOG politics, which is wack, but has to be done sometimes. However, I'm happy to report I'm digging the Cobra. Then we got back to the problematic SOLAR, which is less and less problematic finally. Robin recorded some new basslines for it while Ash and I watched New Order at Finsbury Park on DVD and checked out the new Peter Saville book. Awesome stuff. Watching the New Order gig sparked a new musical idea that everyone seems down with. Anyway, Robin did an amazing job and then I laid down some hooky goodness over some of the stuff. I now have the parts loaded up and will spend the next few days trying to bring that tune together. All in all it was a successful evening. We now have 9 songs for the new album. 7 of them are ready for live drums and the other 2 are close. We will probably need one or two more songs. I've given us no timeline to finish this record. Its too good to rush. I've learned my lesson before, but on the flipside, I'm not going to let it go TOO long. And now, some rest... F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | There's a lot of HF going down, right now actually. However, I need some sleep. Will report tomorrow about today's awesome sessions with the crew. However, here is further info on what is easily for me the first great release of 2004... February 2004 sees a deluxe 2xCD reissue of the sole album by Revenge, the electro/hard rock hybrid fronted by New Order bass player Peter Hook between 1989 and 1992. Following the release of Technique in 1989, the four members of New Order spent time apart to pursue other ventures. Always intended as a proper band rather than a solo project, Hook was joined in Revenge by Chris Jones and Dave Hicks, and later by David Potts, who would remain with Hook as part of Monaco five years later. One True Passion was originally released by Factory Records in June 1990 and spawned a trio of singles: 7 Reasons, Pineapple Face and Slave. Given free reign to indulge Hook's leather-trousered rockist instincts, the material welded hard rock to dance beats, with a lyrical focus on sin and redemption. The artwork was just as contradictory, combining sleek Peter Saville typography with softcore imagery by Suze Randall. The band toured like bastards, and in January 1992 delivered the excellent ep Gun World Porn, which offered a more laid back, intimate feel. Deleted after the messy collapse of Factory in late 1992, One True Passion has now been extensively reconfigured by Peter Hook, and includes Hook's new recordings of the late period unreleased tracks The Wilding and Televive. The set comes with a full-length bonus disc, Be Careful What You Wish For, with lots of rare remixes and unreleased songs in demo form. All 30 tracks, over two hours of music, have been carefully digitally remastered. The booklet includes sleevenotes by Joy Division/New Order biographer Claude Flowers, and a new, highly candid interview with Peter Hook on the background of the band. FOR RELEASE FEBRUARY 2 2004. | tracklist 01 Televive (unreleased) 02 The Wilding (unreleased) 03 Deadbeat 04 State Of Shock 05 Little Pig (Remix) 06 Cloud 9 07 Jesus I Love You (B-side) 08 Pineapple Face 09 Big Bang 10 Slave 11 14K (B-side) 12 Bleachman 13 Surf Nazi 14 7 Reasons (Demo) 15 It's Quiet 01 Underworld (unreleased) 02 Deadbeat (Gary Clail Dub Mix) 03 State Of Shock (US Dance Mix) 04 Pineapple Face's Big Day Out (US Mix) 05 The Trouble With Girl (compilation track) 06 I'm Not Your Slave (Remix) 07 Hot Nights/Cool City (unreleased) 08 Surf Bass (unreleased) 09 Paris '68 (unreleased) 10 Bleach Boy (B-side) 11 Soul (unreleased) 12 Kiss The Chrome 13 Fag Hag 14 Precious Moments (unreleased) 15 Pumpkin (unreleased) This will ruin me. Ill be listening to this for years.. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Well, Saintface finally had what they claim will be their last gig of 2003 (I'll believe THAT in 2 days), and it was a true test for the band in that they were plagued (and I mean PLAGUED) by technical difficulties that reminded me of the aggression's 2001 comeback gig in NYC. However, I think the 'Face's problems stemmed from the fact that there was incompetence at work at this venue, Sin-E (most famous recently in mogworld as the place where Irene and Anna watched Ed Norton play guitar), and the soundperson basically was either totally new to the club or a homeless person just brought throught the door. There was just too many problems for it to be a regular club problem. HOWEVER, as Irene astutely pointed out, to their credit, the face never missed a note or a beat and were able to keep the energy going. i can relate that it is terribly frustrating to have your momentum fucked with like that, and knowing Peter, I could see the energry draining from his face towards the end, but this is a true test of a band and these guys passed with flying colours. I was also very happy to see the guitar player is REALLY coming into his own and is really becoming a solid presence onstage with the 'Face. He was worth the wait. They ended with YOU BELONG TO ME again, which confirms my suspicion that this will make it to the album. If not, a cover of it will end up as a hidden track on the new Hypefactor. You've been warned, Peter. Just go finish the goddamn album already, or at least give me the rough mixes to keep me happy. Please. Peter also serenaded my little sister during this gig and implied several times from the stage that she was with child. She is about 80 lbs soaking wet, so I am confused, yet supremely entertained by this. I was going to ask him what that was all about, but I think I enjoy the mystery much more... Anna and G went on their way, but Irene and stuck around to check out My Favorite, who have a bit of a buzz these days. I'm happy to say it was worth the wait, as they were quite good. We didn't stick around for the whole set, but I did buy Irene the CD (which I had been contemplating before she expressed her interest). My Favorite are quite good in what we in the MOGpac would call a 'John Hughes' kinda way. It's very 80's soundtracky with a solid band and an excellent young lady, Andrea, doing lead vocals. The bassist occasionally dabbled in a Tones on Tail basstone and the guitarist, who looked like he stepped out of my old High School, was VERY good. I feel bad for the accordian player though, he looks quite bored and upset, but was really good on the 2 songs he was allowed to play on. However, the weak link, believe this or not is the main guy, who sings and plays keyboards. He was like everyone one of those Jon Cryer characters from the 80's who never got the girl and then in his 30's decided to start a band. I hate to say this, cause it's obviously his fucking band, but he annoyed the shit out of me. i can't tell if he's doing this all tongue in cheek or not. Unfortunately he's all over the album, but is less annoying. But they should just let this girl sing everything, she's a gem. I won't rush out to see them (cause of this guy), but if they play with Saintface again, I'm sure we'll stick around. Maybe I can adjust. Sorry. I don't mean to sound like a douche here, its just that I really like the songs and the band and especially when the girl sings. ugh. Sorry. My day starts off on a sad note, as I wake to see news photos of my hero Jackie Chan mourning the death of his friend the famous HK pop star/actress Anita Mui, who passsed away yesterday from complications of Cervical Cancer. Horrible. She was only 40. She moved me to tears when she acted opposite the also recently deceased Leslie Cheung in the classic ROUGE. She was BRILLIANT as Jackie's love interest in MIRACLES and hilarious beyond compare playing his stepmother (!) in DRUNKEN MASTER 2. She was supposed to be in Zang Yimou's next film with Andy Lau (who she shared the screen with in one of my old favourites SAVIOUR OF THE SOUL, which Irene recently bought for me on DVD), Zang Ziyi, and my current favorite Asian film star Takeshi Kaneshiro. This is a big loss for the HK film community and the world itself. That's her quote above... F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I've not forgotten you, but I'm sure you, like me, have been busy with the holidays. What I learned this year having a live in girlfriend is that my family at the holidays now perceive me as an 'adult' which to me is a four letter word. However, this means now that 'we' meaning myself and Irene, have to go and buy gifts for everyone in my family. This is not an easy task and I have newfound respect for my mother, who has been doing this for decades on my behalf. As an only child, it was wasy for my mom to tack on my name to gifts she had bought for for my relatives. Irene, to her credit, and in spite of an insane work schedule, somehow managed to steer the ship to success. I did help even with the flu. However, now, instead of getting gift cirtificates and such (cause no one knows what the hell to get me anyways), I get things like gift baskets. What the hell is THAT...even Irene's adorable nephew, who is 5, bought me a shaving kit because 'I'm always visiting'. Actually, i thought that was kinda cool. Despite now getting 'adult' gifts, Irene managed to keep the 12 year old in me quite happy on Christmas with lots of Star Wars and wrestling gifts. And of course, she got me the Ash-Recommended Bose Speakers for the Apt, which is going to get us kicked out of here. I have them at 2, and its blowing the roof off this place. However, next year I'm going the route of the 5 year old and making lists. I'm slowly catching up on things, mostly non-music stuff, cause Brandt is out of town till Mid January, so we're on a sorta hiatus. However, Brandt and Robin had a productive initial drum recording session while I was sick. While I have yet to hear, both reported good things from it, Robin in particular was very excited. It was then when I realized that this was out first time recording with her as a drummer!! Well, its about time, yeah? Anyway, Ash reports to me that B left the drum recording set up intact, so we might head in there soon to do some more. Hopefully. I wish I had more to report, but sadly, the holidays make things crazy quiet. Been catching up on my Asian cinema, and watched the first two INFERNAL AFFAIRS back to back. Awesome stuff, though I'm worried how they will handle the third one. Anyhoo, I'll be around later F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | This comes all the way from our new friend Timo, who lives in Berlin, who I mentioned a few posts back about having trouble getting our CD's. Well, looks like he bought himself the entire catalogue! Here's what he had to say (slightly edited) 'hello F.J. the hypefactor record totally makes my day at the moment. i don't know what to say.....it is such an amazing piece of soulful and of honest music - yeah, this might just sound pathetic but damn, it is without the shadow of a doubt an incredible effort and i wanted to let you know. listening to the ep i really start to think it was absolutely about time that you did something on your own. this is your counterfeit ep. well kinda, but a thousand times better. distracted lover so totally takes me away, this doesn't happen too often anymore. i am sure i love it as i love the last crack record and man, i truly dig that one..... i love the hommage to some of the 80s heroes like smiths and new order and just how you turn these so wonderfully around and take out the best from those and give it a 2k3 facelift and throw in all of your honest feelings and thoughts and damn......awesome. i might just not find the right words, F.J., i am sorry. but hey, one thing's for sure. YOU DID IT. as for the the aggression material, i almost love flood album as i do love the distracted lover ep, hell it is so mad. there's so many new elements to be discovered that just aren't to be found on the forst two records and i absolutely salute that. it is x times more playful, more versatile, more achterbahn, more progressive, more of an original sound as on the old ones. i hardly know a band that's joyfully making music industrial-style like YOU, yeah, you hear that all the way thru the album from the first second on, there's musicians at work who do it from the core and from their very hearts. flood has turned out a killer album and you guys deserve a whole fucking lot more recognition (well that's clear anyway, you sure don't need me to tell;-) for your music and your art. i really like the two old albums as well. i have to say my faves on the debut aggro are the very last track ('permanent' - for its come armageddon, come, come, nuclear bomb - atmo) and the (quasi-hidden) chicago drinking song, that's a fantastic moment. the salvo remix on the remix album is killer as is the cydonia remixis really awesome! damn, i almost forgot the precious little gem being the deviations single. highly inspired and decently worked out fuck-with-yous, like that one a lot, too. as i mentioned before, i somehow dig the very last remix totally. what a twisted fucker. cuckooland supreme. come on, F.J., i want an honest answer, you have been playing with the thought at making a full-length hypefactor album, haven't you?! can't wait for that to happen....' He's going to be a happy Timo in 2004, I think ;-) F PS: 'cuckooland supreme' is the best description of Ash I have EVER heard! |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Sorry, its been so long, but thats not to say there isnt anything exciting going on. Honestly, I'm just happy to be back in NYC for an extended period (maybe 3 weeks max), so two of those weeks are going to be vacation. Brandt, who I think is recording drums right now with Robin, is going back to Chicago, so i will be forced to actually relax and not work on music for a bit. I have a bit of reading to get caught up on, so thats the plan at the moment. However, Leo v23 has been recruited to perform on one of the newer tracks. Dead excited about that one. Chemlab is officially out on January 27th. It's available for pre-order now, which I was excited to see. I am really looking forward to the reactions that will flood the Chemlab and Acumen newsgroups in the weeks that follow the album's release. I'm supposed to rap with Jared tomorrow, so I should know more about what the gameplan is, etc. for 04. I'm also told he has the new Watts album, and I'm determined to scam this unreleased gem from him. Speaking on unreleased gem's Chris Connelly, a gentleman if there ever was one, has sent me a copy of his new album NIGHT OF YOUR LIFE, which is quite simply, nothing short of excellent. As I mentioned to Chris yesterday, this new one, co-written and produced by the amazing Chris Bruce, shows Connelly at the height of his vocal and songwriting powers. It's a nice balance between his previous solo work in SHIPWRECKED and his recent album PRIVATE EDUCATION. I know a lot of the kids want him kicking and screaming Revco style, but goddamn I love this man's solo work beyond belief. Saw Return of The Bing last night and it was quite epic and the filmmaking was excellent. However, as much as I enjoyed it, LOST IN TRANSLATION is still my pick of the year (and probably cost the same amount of the the hobbit's rubber feet in the Lord Of The Rings) And now, some rest, but more sooner than later... F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Greetings from LA. I hear y'all might have some snow there...just a rumour I've heard while driving around in my convertible. Not much to report other than I'm working non-stop, but I am happy to say I just got back from seeing THE LAST SAMURAI at Mann's Chinese Theatre (THE best place to see movies here, arclight be damned), and godDAMN was this movie incredible. I don't think it's any secret that I have a love of the Asian culture, and I felt this movie successfully told a great story and respected the world and culture of the Japanese quite well. Cruise was phenomenal as well, mad intense. This is rivalling LOST IN TRANSLATION as my movie of the year (only cause I have yet to see THE BROWN BUNNY). Anyhow, I strongly urge you to see this film. Quite moving stuff. On music note, has anyone heard the new Die Warzau track, RADIATION BABIES? What a smoking return from one of the all time greats. Keep your ears open for this one. Irene tells me the new Connelly album is waiting in my mail at home, as if wanting to get home to her wasnt enough, now theres an awesome new CD waiting there. ugh. And yes, im working on music in the free moments. Listening to the demos and writing words and such. I'd like to think my colleagues have figured out when they are recording drums, but for some reason I doubt it... And now for some long awaited sleep. Be well all. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Been spending some time hanging out with Irene at home and working on loops for Jared's new project, which I think he would describe as 'broken word'. He's working with Mark Spyby of Dead Voices on Air, and they've asked me to send them loops and noises and such to work with. I've drafted B into this as well. I've got some ideas flowing, certainly enough to send them in the next few weeks. Dunno anything more about the project than that. However, it's nice to be asked to be a part of it. My pal Gilez, he of the reknowned Armalyte Industries, was kind enough to send me a copy of his label's latest release: Haloblack's THROB. This version is slightly different than the one I've had for a year or so. The final version has an new track called FEEL which might be the best track on the album. It's fast and synthy and sexy and different for Bryan and co. Honestly, the album needed this as well, as the pacing is a bit on the trip hop side. However, that works for me as I quite like the album. Also, a track I hadn't heard called PERMANENCE towards the end really adds some nice atmosphere to the album. The production is super and the mastering job is top notch. It's 'throbbing' out of my new Bose speakers right now (thanks Irene).Of course, the Raymond Watts cameo is always welcome. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am curious to see how the die-hards respond to it, especially after reading some of the reactions to the Chemlab album (which range from 'I love it' to 'I like it, but it's not Chemlab'). Grabbed the new CURE box set and was quite pleased with that. The sound is great and while I am a big fan, I didn't own anything on this other than maybe the song from the CROW soundtracks. Therefore, this package is a big win. I'm weird and very unlike my mates with certain bands like The Cure and Depeche Mode in that to me their later years are more interesting to me than the early stuff. I mean, you KNOW Matt Gentile (even if you dont know him) sits around listening to STANDING ON A BEACH and SPEAK AND SPELL while I sit around listening to WISH and SONGS OF FAITH AND DEVOTION, thinking these are the classics. Anyway, this Cure Box has given me an appreciation of those early years and a lot of solid remixes and B-sides from the later years to make me happy. This Box is a winner. Made a trek out to my birthplace last night in Brooklyn, to check out the 'Face at some club for hipsters. It was an awesome venue, with a large stage and nice sound, and this made very a VERY solid evening of Saintface. Big crowd too. Cheap drinks as well. Two hipsters were dancing next to me. The venue and atmosphere obviously amped the band up quite a bit as they gave one of their best performances I have ever seen. Also, the re-introduction of YOU COULD BE MY SECRET was ace. I wonder if that means its on the album, Peter? Anyway, I think band was in good spirits and always my time spent chatting away with the lads is always welcome. Peter informs me the album is progressing nicely. Oh how I want that album! After, G and I, with a few pints each in us, ran to a KFC drive through while they were closing and each bought a biscuit. They had no honey, which G was very pissed off about, but they had plenty of butter spread, which i threw at Matt and Jax. All and all a fun evening. Now I am off to the Isle of Long to watch me drummer in action as we record her for HF2. More later on that. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Vocal demos continued through the weekend, with the heat at the studio going in and out at will. I love NYC. Robin came in to lend her support and spatula as I sang my ass off on tracks like ONENINEFIVESIX and CREATION DAYS (though I might have to write another chorus for that one). This session didn't go as effortlessly as the first session the other day, but Brandt pushed me and pushed me until I hit notes that I never knew I could hit. Again, it's a thumbs up all around from the crew on the lyrics and melodies, which are key. I think Ash will hate the lyrics and melodies, which is usually a good sign in my eyes ;-P Listened to some more of Robin's drum tracks thus far and I'm quite frankly blown away by what she brings to the tabel. What a musician this girl is! I tell you, she's the shining star on this album. I need 5 more of her. Clone this woman! This weekend, our intention is to get Robin going in earnest on the drums. Team Obscene (a MOG subdivision consisting of MOGpac members Matt, G, the kidd and myself) gathered last night for the first time in ages to watch some sport and play some vids. Kudos to Matt Gentile for getting me past the VICE CITY board I had been stuck on for an ENTIRE YEAR (i wont say which, for fear of embarassment). And now the adventure (and howling laughter in my home) will continue. Also, my Pac exclusive Christmas presents have gone over quite well with the troops! An E-mail came in from former Skrew!frontman Adam Grossman today, always a welcome presence in my mailbox. Such a good guy. I think I may have mentioned I saw Skrew more than any other band ever. I think Saintface after this week beats that record believe it or not. Lets toast to both bands. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | 'As of last fall, I am no longer writing music with nor working in the studio with Ministry. After the last tour- and years of collaborating with Al and everyone else we've worked with-I've decided I need to work on other music . So, I AM working on music right now in my studio in Austin. But don't worry. Distortion Rules.' --Paul Barker So, Barker leaves Ministry. 18 years and a few classic records. While Peter Hook inspired me to pick up the bass and play in that style, the first basslines I learned were Barkers. In fact, the first thing I ever programmed was the drumbeat to Lead Into Gold's FASTER THAN LIGHT. It was he, in the legendary IN CASE YOU DIDNT FEEL LIKE SHOWING UP video, that inspired me to save my money to get myself the Gibson Thunderbird bass that I still play today. So where does this lead? What exactly IS Ministry now? Was the sum better than the parts? We're going to find out soon as Ministry has a record due out in May. I fear the metal. Paul's Pink Anvil album last year, admitted even by Barker himself as a throwaway, was crap, but again, Barker's Lead Into Gold is probably one of my all time favorite projects EVER. It's no secret my one remaining Holy Grail in music is the lost Lead Into Gold EP called LOW AND SLOW. I'm hoping Barker doesn't stray into metal territory. Actually, I feel the same way about Al. The worst part of this is now the oft-discussed RevCo reunion is now off. That's the true crime. I hope Al and Paul both continue to entertain us for years to come, but I want to love it the way I did in my youth. Inspire me! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | With a big sigh of relief, I re-entered the birdcage yesterday to get back to work on HF2. Sadly, the special guest couldn't make it as his mother was making him a going away dinner (note: hes not living here on this side of the planet any more). However, plans have been made to give him loops and such and he WILL appear on this record. And we need him. He's talented, classy and foreign. So this left Brandt and I to our own devices and the first thing we did was listen to the rough tracks of the inital drum sessions. I'm happy to say the test run was a success and Robinowitz is well on her way. I have some new ideas on how to push her buttons creatively, and we should be implementing those ideas as well. I have referenced recent Gustavo Cerati live show bootlegs as our benchmark for drum/electronic combos. So B, knowing in advance I was interested in beginning some vox, had the mic and gear set up. It took till 3 am, but I laid down some scratch vox for THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE, SOLAR and what is still called TWO BASSES. This was more to see where my voice is at these days and to see if the melodies and lyrics I had this far for the album worked. Well, Brandt seemed happy with the melodies and lyrics, and hes a fucker when it comes to this stuff, so I think we're at a good point. I'm also happy my voice has gotten stronger with age, or maybe I just know how to use it better. Brandt says I'm hitting 70% of my notes, which for me is a miracle this early in the game. What will happen now is that I will listen to mp3's of the tracks with vox for a few weeks before cutting the next round of vox. Thats usually when I hit my 95% (the rest is technology at play). But it's off to a good start, and I'm also ready to work out ONENINEFIVESIX and CREATION PHASE as soon as I'm back in the studio. Happy to report the long awaited REVENGE 2CD set finally arrived yesterday and godDAMN was it worth the wait. I've been living a lie for 12 years as it turns out the entire previously released tracks from their second EP GUN WORLD PORN were all in fact edits and the original versions appear here for the first time ever. Brandt and I almost shit our pants hearing the full version of STATE OF SHOCK (a lost classic). So much of Hook's bass was cut out. Whoever was responsible for that should be killed. Immediately. Anyway, this disc is the best. I'm enjoying some time at home with Irene and hoping to get into the new Primal Scream bio should I grab a few free moments. Hopefully it's good. I'm sure we will be discussing Chemlab soon as the album is just starting to get to the kids who pre-ordered. The reactions will be curious. For the die hards: I have corresponded more with Mark Mohtashemi this week than I have in the past 8 years. I'll let you speculate. blog blog. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I'm back in NY after a whirlwind week of LA and San Fran. Needless to say, I am quite sleep deprived, but always productive and always plotting and scheming. Of course, things happen, and I try to share them with you. While on the plane to LA, I finally got the inspiration for lyrics and melodies for the one HF song that was giving me trouble, CREATION PHASE. There's a lot scribbled on paper and I'm actually about to go put it into the computer so it's legible. Then I'll play with it. However, this gave me the confidence to decide it's time to start scratch vocals. We've been incredible slow of late and it's time to kick it into high gear. Everyone is back in the same place, so hopefully we can make some big leaps, especially with the drums and vocals. I know Robin is game. First day back in the studio is tomorrow and I'm hoping we have a special guest in there, as he promises to show up. Also on the plane flight, I found myself in a sound design mood and started creating some really interesting loops that might lead to the long discussed EK-7 project. This one will be for the 'kids', if you know what I mean. However, I have to see if a certain someone knows how to wrap his fingers around a guitar again to see if my masterplan can come to life. We'll be talking more about this later in the year. Had dinner with my agent/lawyer/advisor and our old friend LeoV23, who was a happy to inform me that his new project, AM PACIFIC, has begun and slipped me a demo. ohhh, I'm a happy boy as Leo usually never fails. He hasn't this time either. It's a continuation of his adventures as Sutra, but it expands on the sound, adding horns and a new female vocalist. He seems quite committed to this as a full time band and you know I'll be the first one checking it out. Leo was packing a one two punch as he announced, thanks to my encouragement, that he and Krayge are FINALLY going to re-master a V23 best of and put it out this year. He might even get the very cool Warzone Demos on there as well. The versions of BLACK SKY and VALUE on that were mega. I hope they make it on there. I really have to ride Leo to make sure this all happens as I have been bragging on the boards (with Leo's approval) about this. You coldwave kids are in for a treat with this. Thanks to the ever helpful Mike at Invisible/UI, I finally have a copy of the final real manufactured OXIDIZER in my hands. I am a happy camper to say the least. The mastering, which I hadn't heard and had no idea about, is very very good and the record sounds crisp and punches hard. INV actually spent some money and printed the art on nice glossy paper. Make it feel special. I think its ironic that I first heard the final album in LA as I spent the bulk of my work on the album (loops, listening to mixes, etc) from LA for some reason. Anyway, the chapter is closed and the jury will be decided. I know I can sleep at night loving this album. Despite all the chaos and drama, it was worth it. And a flying V to anyone who doesnt like or get it. I hoped I would come home to find the two CD Revenge set waiting for me. Sadly, not yet. However, I am dowloading new Ass Cobra Demos. There is a God. I think. Irene has a friend who has a friend dating Hong Kong star Anthony Wong. This is too much for me to handle. Too much. I'm sorry to cut this all short, theres more, I think. I just need to get re-adjusted to the cold. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I have to admit, I have been musically unproductive as of late. That's mostly because of the holidays and everyone is scattered, etc. There was a loose gameplan to try and record some more drums this week. The drummer and I were up for it, but Ash didn't feel comfortable doing it without Brandt, and it might have been more of a hassle than productive. Also, one of Ash's many projects, the glitch-y sounding Carbon Framework, which is quite good, has been picked up by a label and he has to rush some material out for a 12 inch. Congrats Ash! Meanwhile, the musical behind the scenes always keeps me busy. I had my first Chemlab hissy-fit this week, for reasons I can't reveal, but unlike the aggression, where I treat everything like a soap opera, I tried to not be melodramatic about this. Like every album or band, there have been a few hiccups along the way, some I brush aside, others I tackle full on. In the aggression, I'm the 'boss' so it means juggling 100 different things. In Chemlab, I'm able to focus more on certain things, while Jared, as 'boss' focuses on the many issues. I think my job with Chemlab beyond the music is to give perspective, which is why Mr. Novak suggested my 'quality control' credit on the album. I should give Ash or Brandt one of those on Hypefactor, maybe? (no fuckin' way!) Sadly, but not life-threatening, Chemlab has been moved back 2 weeks. Usually it's time to blame the label, but this time its Caroline's fault. No surprises there. However, this is locked now. February 10th. I'm happy with today's reaction on the Chemlab site to the song BINARY NATION, which started in this very computer. I think this is one the kids will latch on to when they get the album. Very proud of that song. I've gotta learn to keep my gob shut when the narrow-minded dumbasses spuzz their stupid thoughts on the music on the sites. I feel like the defender of the cause. Well, you can't make everyone happy, I understand this, and I know people aren't going to love everything you do, but for fucks sake state the opinion with some intelligence ONCE. We'll get the point. Douches. However, that's just a small portion of the kids. I've beeen getting a lot of nice and well-thought out feedback from people. Even if they don't like it, I like that they really put their minds to it and gave it a fair shot. Anyway, the point of all this is that OXIDIZER is now available for pre-order. If you're smart, order it via the Hydrogenbar.com site. I'm hoping to have some copies next week, but Mark Mohtashemi and The Kidd might blow gaskets if I don't give them copies soon. Speaking of Pre-Orders, Haloblack's THROB is also available for pre-order (see www.thesickcity.com for details). I point this out because the album is being released by my dear friend Gilez over in the UK via his label Armalyte (http://www.armalyte.com/). Gilez has come a long way in the few years I've known him. Introduced to me by jared, Gilez put us on his Defcon 1 compilation and then brought the aggression over to the UK in 2001 for the release show. We've remained friends ever since . He's a helluva guy and a good family man. He works hard and it's good to see him being able to release an album of this calibre. It legitimizes him. Gilez and I spent a significant portion of the day yesterday trading secrets and ideas on how to eventually work together. We even laid out the terms of our deal. This could happen 10 years from now for all I know. It's not going to be Hypefactor, and probably not the aggression. But I know what Gilez wants for his label and it meshes with what I'm feeling like doing post-EXIT STRATEGIES. More on this, much later. MUCH. Been struggling with the passing of a friend this holiday season, but I woke up this morning to a nice letter from a certain keyboardist in a band I have made no secret of adoring. It was a simple note expressing his appreciation for my support of said band. This started things with a smile, so kudos to the keyboardist in question. Made my day! Off to LA on Monday. Not going to miss this horribly cold weather. Luckily for irene, she's coming out as well, so she can get away from this too. I'm hoping to have Chemlab copies next week, so I'll report in. Bless F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I've been wracking my brain, trying to figure out what my musical BEST OF is for 2003. I'm sorry Ash, but I think I was too busy making music in 03 to focus at the moment. However, i did walk out of 2003 loving stuff I was unfamiliar with like South, Telfon Tel Aviv, Death in Vegas, Andreas Tilliander, and others; unable to stop listening to stuff such as Chris Connelly, Acumen, Christ Analogue, Interpol, Cerati, ILC, and Saintface. 2003 saw the aggression go to Russia and come back just to 'split up' again, Ass Cobra was born, Hypefactor was reborn and yet the aggression is the only with a CD coming out anytime soon. Go figure, though 2004 is the 10th anniversary! However, you know who to thank at the cocktail party if that nothing happens to commemorate it. I saw a career milestone reached as I got to be a part of the Chemlab relaunch, to which I would like to thank Jared, Jason and Jamie for letting me in on that. Hopefully, you will still love me on 27 January when the album comes out. in 2004 these albums will hopefully own: Chemlab, Telfon Tel Aviv, NIN, Revenge 2cd retro, Ass Cobra, Oasis, and especially Saintface. Oh and maybe this Hypefactor album will come out! Now for Film: I wish I never returned to THE MATRIX, but Bryan Singer made X2 a near perfect comics book based movie. I also felt LAST SAMURAI was a huge awesome well of emotion, OLD SCHOOL will be seen as a classic for years to come, but no movie rocked my ass like LOST IN TRANSLATION. Bar none. The Best. IN 2004, the movies to see will be CONSTANTINE, SPIDER-MAN 2 and HARRY POTTER. In the world of Hong Kong film, Jackie Chan failed me with the MEDALLION though owned in SHANGHAI KNIGHTS. The INFERNAL AFFAIRS series is amazing, I have a gay thing for Takeshi Kaneshiro from THE RETURNER, and MEN SUDDENLY IN BLACK was one of the funniest films of the year. The loss of both Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui sucked majorly. in 2004, my money is on NEW POLICE STORY and INFERNAL AFFAIRS 3. In the world of comic books, nothing rocked harder than pretty much anything that came out of the apple computer owned by Mr. Geoff Johns. His FLASH issue 200 was THE best single issue of a comic book this year (even Wizard magazine agrees). He re-launched my all time favorite comic book TEEN TITANS to much acclaim and success. Honorable mention goes to Jeph Loeb who brought the HUSH storyline to an ok ending, but launched the awesome SUPERMAN/BATMAN series. However, my favorite non superhero book is NEGATION. I love it to death. This could make an awesome movie I will run to the comic store to in 2004 to buy anything by Mr. Johns, Mr. Loeb (especially his upcoming run with Michael Turner on SUPERMAN/BATMAN), Brad Meltzer's DC Identity Crisis and KISS KISS BANG BANG. Anyway, If I think of anything more, I'll let you know. Back to the real world! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Back from LA at last. Seemed like I was gone for a month, but I've returned to a welcoming New York that finally has good weather (certainly better than LA, which rained like a mother the whole time). While I did enjoy some leisure time with the kick ass nephew, it was mostly all work, little play, and a few stolen moments to work on some music. One of my goals in LA was to nail down the audio portion of MOG-X. This required a ton of effort and attention, but thanks to a certain engineer making my life incredibly easy, I made leaps and bounds with it. This has been a good time, a fun experience, with few cringe worthy moments. The truth will be revealed as to what this all means in May. However when in LA, my mouth got the better of me in certain circles just to gague a reaction to this kind of project. Needless to say it went over well. My priority however was my HF2 vocals. This means driving around all day and night through LA while blasting the demos in the car. I sing along to the scratch vocals in order to get more comfortable with the material so when we go back to record the final vox, the delivery will be more confident. I find this method works best for me. Also, I refuse to do final vocals until we have the drums tracked, so Brandt made it a priority to send me demos that had both scratch vocals AND live drums tracked. The feel, the dynamic totally changes. Anyway, I feel good about the melodies and lyrics and think I can kick some vocal ass when it's time to do the final vox. Speaking of live drums, the HF crew had a field day in my absence and had several drum sessions. It seems, and I'm sure that someone will correct me if I'm wrong, the practice sessions recorded on to tape were very helpful to Robin. I can tell you that though I havent been there for the recording of these drums, what is being sent back to me is nothing short of amazing. It seems Ash and Brandt have achieved a great drum sound and well, I don't have to get into how awesome a drummer my girl Robin is. We're almost there! On my last day in LA, I spent an evening at the home studio of Leo V23 to go through the track he is working on for us, OUR FAITH. It was mostly dissecting the song and getting into mechanics of it, but I did give him Carte Blanche to get all Cerati on this track. I have a good feeling about this. Meanwhile it seems now that everything is about catching up with the real world. Not a bad thing. The Oscars are tonight and it shocks me that MASTER AND COMMANDER is nominated. I just watched it and jesus was it boring as hell. Awesome acting, great action, but terrible storytelling. A major disappointment. F (the title above comes from the enjoyable French racing film Michel Valliant, which I caught in LA. Fun as hell) |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Ok so no drums were actually recorded on sunday. Long story short: the mixer that tom supposedly fixed went on fire about 5 minutes after we set up. Tom Whitfleet, stick to guitars, pally. However, this gave us time to go over the drum parts with Robin. We taped it, so now she can study it and really get deep into it. She's mega. Anyway, I'm off to LA tomorrow so hopefully they will track this while I'm gone. I'm hoping. The bad mood from that was lessed by an enjoyable WWE title win by Eddy Guerrero. The first thing that company has done right in ages. Now make it happen for Benoit. Two things have made me laugh: 1. an 8 second mp3 of ash cursing, compiled by Matt Gentile. and 2. this: http://www.taleoftwocities.org/images/bushs_gallo.jpg My man. I always know Barbra Bush was the hot one! Gallo-style! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Saw South on Friday night who were very enjoyable, enthusiastic and technically awesome. I think they rushed the gig as the sound was a little off, but they have the songs to back it up, so no biggie. South will do nothing in this country simply because they're songs are too intelligent and well-played. But as long as we know them in our own little corner of the world here, its all good. Brandt never showed for this gig because he was too busy working on the album. Now call me crazy, but i don't think thats ever happened in any of my musical projects before. So while he missed a gig, making him a dork, he is dead into the album, which makes him cool. So kudos, you dork. Yesterday I learned that Caviar (complete with imported blini) is the best Valentines present EVER. Bar none. Irene and I now also possess a new digital camera. Details as to why and how we own said camera cannot be disclosed at this time. Lou Reed would call this 'A Perfect Day'. Things are about to get better as I prep my return to Robin's to continue Drum Tracking today. The question tonight that Dan Hamill and I need answered is: Can Eddy do it? F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I love women. I love my girl, I love my moms, I love the Ro Ro, but i LOVE LOVE LOVE my drummer. Went to the cage this weekend to check out some of the drums recorded thus far for HF2. DAMN! It's awesome. She's a monster skin beatin' babe. The 4 songs she's done so far have gone to a whole new level. And this was just the warm up. More this weekend. I'm dead psyched. Thanks to this woman, this album's getting some balls. Brandt did some more tracking on OUR FAITH, which is a rocky tune, described to me as Cerati meets Oasis. It rocks. Now, the parts will go to Leo V23 in LA for his contributions. The intention is to meet with him a few times while I am in LA to work with him on the track and to find out what is up with the V23 best of. Work on MOG-X has finally begun in earnest this week. I'm having fun with this. I've brought in a handsome and knowledgeable young man to help me with some of the visual aspects of this project. I'm working on the audio portion of this project to get it set in motion before I leave for LA next week. I am not a reality TV guy, but goddammit I do love THE APPRENTICE. YOURE FIRED. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | At last: The Star Wars Trilogy on DVD February 10, 2004 The most requested films for the DVD format will finally become a reality this September as Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox present the eagerly-awaited Star Wars Trilogy for the ultimate home entertainment format. The four-disc collection will be released on September 21 The day is only getting better F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Just when I think I'm too jaded and that I've seen or heard everything this planet has to offer me, i read this and I become that 17 year old at the Marquee again: From the New Order website, worldinmotion.net 'Good morning Peter, what is going on Hooky's world today? PH: Spending lot of time recording New Order new album and at the same time writing songs for my new side project with Mani and Andy Rourke. The name is 'FREEBASS' or 'STALINGRAD' but still not final.' Besides Episode 3 and a new Batman movie, I now have a new reason to live ;-) F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Reeling from the Indy debacle (and I know quite a bit about it what the hell went down with that), Irene and I cabbed it to her fave hipster hang, Piano's to check out some Saintface. They went on extremely late (shades of the aggression's first 'headlining' show at Batcave so many years ago), but we had fun hanging out with the lads and having a few pints. I was excited to hear the DJ play some Colder (who right now is the one album everyone in the MOGcamp can agree on). Around 1ish (I think) the 'Face took to the stage and made it all worth the wait. I don't know how much more I can write about my favourite band. It's all been said. During this gig, Peter revealed the album title (don't think I didn't catch that, pally), and they played a new song, the title I don't recall, but another worthy track. Peter is intentionally fucking with me to make the album tracklist a surprise, but I did figure out how it ENDS. You'll see. Irene, upset she had missed the last show, was dead into the gig and my highlight (lo-light) was Brandt getting his ass verbally kicked by Peter by not clapping to HUDSON AND DAY. What a douche. Brandt, that is. Anyhow, another fun evening topped off by 2am cheese fries with my girl at the Gramercy. Luckily, no sign of Ryan and Parker. Back in the real world, we made it through cold and rain to the old aggression bunker and current Ass Cobra space (aka Robin's basement) for the latest attempt at recording drums for the Hypefactor album. I won't bore you with specifics, but technical difficulties made for a half frustrating/half productive evening. However, cameos from both Ash and Matt at separate intervals helped ease the pain. Somewhere during all this I learned of a potential REAL band name for Ass Cobra, which Ash created and I think is excellent. Which is why other cobra's will probably kill this. Ash also spun some of his new Carbon Framework material, which I'm totally digging hard. This kid is on fire. Matt Gentile and I discussed the Sisters of Mercy yet again, which for some reason makes me insanely angry that the last time they put a new album out I was still in my teens. Eventually, we got some drums down for MORNING AFTER and EXIST. I'm dead happy working with Robin, who is a great team player. She really pushes herself and you never get less than 150% from this spatula weilding skin beater. Lucky to have her. Anyway, we still have a lot of drums to do, but I think we've got the set up down and are getting more effective by the day. At this point we have drums down for 4 tracks. I think Brandt will now edit these down and then eventually we will do re-takes so its cleaner and smoother. But finally, a bit of momentum at last. Oh and more buscuits at KFC at 1am! Also occupying my time is MOG-X. All I can say. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | What a shity way to start the day. My dream Summer Trio of films for 2005 (indy, Batman, and Star Wars) is now shot to hell: 'Variety reports that the reunion of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford for Indiana Jones 4 is on hold again as a new script draft is commissioned. Paramount had hoped to get into production on a fourth film in 2004 for a 2005 release. Frank Darabont had been brought in to script a concept the trio liked, but apparently Lucas wasn't happy with the draft. They will now bring aboard another screenwriter to rewrite Darabont's script. The trade added that Spielberg had no comment on his plans. Spielberg, Lucas and Ford have been trying for nearly a decade to mount one last Indiana Jones adventure, on the condition that all three had to love the concept and script before proceeding. Finding an availability window for Spielberg, Ford and Lucas is daunting, and it is now looking like a 2005 production start at the earliest' RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | The elements had to smack somebody sometime, so thanks to a fever of 103, Brandt had to bow out of Saturday's drum recording, which effectively killed that. Learning of this only 10 minutes before I was leaving for the session, I was left with a blank day. Now normally I would be a happy lad about a day of hooky, but when one is focused on the initial plan and its killed at the last minute, cranky F comes to the forefront. However, I got caught up on some reading (new issue of Tape Op, thanks to Irene for that subscription, and Kris Needs' new Primal Scream bio, which is excellent), and wandered about a bit. I stumbled across the new Industrial Nation. Now honestly, I dont like anything industrial any more and I dont think one feature (or the musicians) in the magazine remotely interest me (Give me Al over Ronan any day), I was happy to find both of my bands were reviewed quite favorably. I'm sure these reviews will be quoted quite freely on the respective band sites. This helped the mood somewhat, as did the back cover Underground Inc ad that had Chemlab on it. Also, arriving on my door that day was the debut album from the french band COLDER, who Irene suggested to me after reading that they were compared to a pop Joy Division and Suicide. Well, that merited a looksee. I'm happy to report the album, AGAIN, is very enjoyable. It's not so much songs as it is moods. The man behind colder is a French-Asian dude who is also a multimedia artist, and Colder is both a film and music project. The package I got had a CD with music and then the accompanying DVD of short films to go with the music. I think the only reason it's musically compared to Joy Divsion is that some of the drum programming is very Stephen Morris like. Plus the artwork is very JD. Cool stuff. With Irene out running yesterday morning, I popped in my long-awaited copy of the Thai movie ONG BAK, which has been making waves in the Martial Arts Movie circles for some time for it's frighteningly real use of Thai boxing moves in a Martial Arts Movie setting. The star, who is also the co-writer of the film, Phanom Yeerum had been described to me as someone who could fight like Bruce Lee and fly like Jackie Chan. Now, you know I don't accept shit like that lightly, so I went out of my way to check this movie out. Needless to say, the movie itself is totally underwhelming and cliche, but the fighting is the scariest I have ever seen on film. Ever. Thai boxing is an exceptionally brutal sport and this film captures that brutality in a way that makes you scream with delight while also cringing for the life of Phanom Yeerum as well as his poor stuntmen. It was scary good. The DVD bonus of watching them put these fights together is even scarier and better than the fights in the movie!! And yes he can flip and fly like Jackie and fight like Bruce, though he lacks the charisma of both. However, this dude is probably in a shit mood after being kicked in the head so many times. He's basically the ECW version of Kung Fu. To me, the key will be to bring Phanom Yeerum to Hong Kong and put in a movie where an experience director and fight chroegographer can maximize that potential in a well made movie.If that happens and it works, the new era of fight cinema starts with this guy. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | So, Irene and I made the trek to a midtown Manhattan movie theatre to see a special preview of HELLBOY, the large motion picture based on the Dark Horse Comic. Believe this or not kids, I have never one in my life read a copy of this comic. Therefore, I was going into it fresh, with nothing to compare it to. Needless to say, I was impressed, especially with the first half of the movie. The set-up is great and the actors are super, especially Ron Pearlman as the title character. To be able to create a sympathetic and likeable character with all the make-up and gear on really blew me away. I love the character, I love the set up, and it’s obvious that the director loves this comic more than anyone. It’s exceptionally well-directed and the FX are top notch. However, the third act seems rather anti-climatic, similar to how I felt about SPIDERMAN, but I like these characters and are invested in them and want them to win at the end. That takes a lot these days, but it just needed that one kick ass moment at the end to put it over for me. So, in retrospect, HELLBOY gets a big thumbs up and I hope to follow more of his adventures. CLONE WARS Season Two and while I loved it, especially since it’s starting to lead to the schism between Obi-Wan and Anakin, I loved it even more watching the first 10 episodes in a row with 5 Year Old Cousin who could be my Clone. This led to much playtime and web searching for Birthday presents for him. I think he will be quite happy with his Republic Gunship. Thanks to one of the web savvy rivet kids (this time, its Aero), I just heard 5 tracks off of the new Skinny Puppy album THE GREATER WRONG OF THE RIGHT. Well, I’m happy to report it’s really super stuff. It takes the best of it’s two main principals, Ogre and Key and plays to each of their incredible strengths. The production is incredible and Ogre’s vocals are amazing. It’s actually similar to his solo material. When he works with Mark Walk, he’s usually either very straightforward in his delivery or Walk goes Pro Tools crazy on him. This works on the solo stuff, but no one knows how to get the best out of Ogre than Cevin Key. While I feel there are elements and sounds that go back to the old Puppy days, I feel this is very contemporary. It reminds me of RABIES era done in a modern style with better programming. It’s a big step forward from THE PROCESS, which remains one of the most underrated albums ever released. Yes this has guitars, but not in the way THE PROCESS had them. A great comeback and I’ve only heard 5 songs! If Watts, Ministry, NIN and Die Warzau can live up to the Puppy album, The I-Rock old guard is gonna clean house this year. Now where are the kids!? Who’s next! Come on. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | While I don't have anything specific to report, I will just jot down my thoughts today: 1. Running into Joe Saintface yesterday on the subway was an enjoyable experience. Two bassists in mid album on the N train train complaining about their bandmates is the best way to ride down to Union Square. 2. Jackie Can V Donnie Yen Part II. Jackie and Donnie will have their second on-screen throw down in the TWINS EFFECT 2, the sequel to last year's surprisingly fun movie popcorn movie starring HK chick pop duo Twins. Jackie V Donnie Part I was in the extremely awesome SHANGHAI KNIGHTS, but the fight was too short (something I have told the director repeatedly) and I was left wanting more. Hopefully this will deliver. Jackie Chan's SON, in his 20's, is the male lead of this movie which scares me and makes me feel incredibly old. It was almost 20 years ago when I was doing a Jackie Chan fanzine speculating that he might have a wife and child. Sure enough, I was right! 3. Skinny Puppy's new album is released in May. I am cautiously optimistic. I feel deep inside that it will be awesome, but I feel it will not be for the diehards. Good I say. Bands need to move forward. These are not the same men we knew 10 years ago. However, they are no less talented than what they were. However, including the douche with the bad hair from Static X on a track is the first red flag. I hope I'm far away from Ash when this album comes out. 4. Meanwhile, Eric Powell has caused the industrial version of 9/11 with a vicious email to a rivet fan who is not so happy with Eric's direction with his new band, Ringer. Granted, he was provoked by this kid. The intial Email wasn't exactly Roger Ebert quality in terms of it being a well-constructed commentary, but to respond like that wasn't the coolest thing to do either. I understand Eric's need to branch out musically, I personally don't like the new music at all, but what i dont understand why Eric, according to his E-mail, walked away from so many record and management deals? Everyone's circumstance's are different, granted, and it's certainly not my place to speculate. Eric's put out some great music, but I think cooler heads should have previaled. Eric's frightening dismissal of the 16 Volt legacy post-WISDOM is more shocking and disappointing to me than any of this. 5. Meanwhile, on a better note, I heard some demos by a well established I-rock band who many love and have been hoping for a 'return to form' from for many years. What I have heard thus far ranks in the 'so far so good' in terms of harkening back to an older style that they made famous. It will certainly be the best thing they have done in ages and one new song in particular might be one of their best ever. Stay tuned. Thanks to you know who for hooking me up with that. 6. This I just read on Cracknation.com and it pisses me off to high heaven. It's regarding the second album from one of my favorite new bands, Defragmentation (who recently did an awesome remix for us): 'Well...unfortunately...Martin has decided to sideline this release until more copies of Self Construct are sold. Which means, this album may never get released, unless a resurgence in popularity of their 1st disc occurs (considering the zero promotion that it was given...well, I'm not expecting it). Jeff's contractually bound to Underground Inc as well, so this really fuckin blows...he's pretty much stuck. ' To say this angers me is an understatement. It's a bullshit excuse from a label that needs to be developing young talent and supporting established acts (READ: CHEMLAB, ACUMEN) that can actually make money for the label if they had the proper resources. I could write a book on this, just based on the past year of OXIDIZER, which has taken a large toll on me professionally and personally. Bullshit. You wonder why the 'scene' is dead. Dumb. 7. Rumours abound that the new Episode of Star Wars will either be called 'RISE OF THE EMPIRE' or 'THE CREEPING FEAR'. Gee, which one of THOSE suck? 8. In other Star Wars news, season 2 of CLONE WARS starts tomorrow. Bring it! 9. My dentist cleaned my teeth the other day with COOKIE DOUGH flavoured cleaning stuff. He also has full INTERNET and CABLE while you are actually IN THE CHAIR. He is also worried about my manager/agent/advisor and thinks she is 'all over the place'. She's been his patient for years and he just figures this out now? Also, he has robbed Dan Hamill of thousands of dollars. So thanks to Dan Hamill, I can blog while getting my teeth done. This to me is the greatest. 10. I'm REALLY glad i didn't go to Wolfsheim. Bonus Musing: I wish Matt Gentile posted more. I'll tell you about HELLBOY tomorrow. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | so there we were, the douche, the superstar and the recently legalized girlfriend, at Citizenfest '04. after seeing way too many people on line outside and in the club that were totally not on my list of must-sees in the remainder of my lifetime, the show began. actually, after seeing people i'd prefer to never see again on line outside, followed by an anal intrusion by webster hall 'security', and then seeing more people i'd prefer to never see again once inside, we waited...and then the show began. i guess it was close to 11p when the two german boys and their computer, collectively known as wolfsheim (that's pronounced VOLFS-hime for those who don't understand that the german language does not allow for a *sh* sound), took to the stage. the show was a good mix of new songs (which i don't own) and fan/club-floor faves. some history - the douche and i flew to germany for DOOMSDAY in august 2000 to see these guys in dresden (yes, there was a skinny puppy reunion at the festival, but we were already investigating the trip before we found out that fact). this was back in the day when he and i would take over any venue that was lucky enough to have us show up. and dresden, berlin and munich were no exceptions to that fate. was i impressed by their first performance in nyc ever? no. was i entertained? sure. thoroughly. the boys got smart in the past few years because they took a page out of de/vision's book by adding a live guitarist and drummer to the tour. oh...did i say de/vision, i meant depeche mode (but i actually hate dm mit drums...definitely prefer dm sans drums - i can argue this with frank til i'm blue in the face). they used the new live act primarily on the new stuff but added it, appropriately i feel, to some of the older tracks that really rocked out with the live feel of real drums. case in point was 'heroin, she said'. if you know the track, you know the chorus has a great breakbeat type drumline - normally lost when using synth-drums, but powerful with an actual person behind a kit. other highlights, for me, included 'lovesong' (not a cure cover), 'sparrows...' and 'real'. the point in the show which made me want to walk out was, of course, the final song of the evening...the last song of the second encore...a song which apparently 'gives them touble in germany' - 'once in a lifetime'. i used to pop for this song like it was martin l. gore singing an acoustic 'dressed in black' at jones beach. but watching the citizens on parade as they recall the song from their like-new copy of metropolis' release of spectators (four years after the album came out, fyi)...i was almost disappointed. it was an obvious closer...but still left me with an awkward, uncomfortable feeling - very similar to the once i received walking into the venue by a mark phingers-esque looking cro-magnon bouncer. indeed. all in all - a fun evening. i learned a few things that night. i learned that citizens can find true love, if you look for it in a basement in franklin square, li. i learned that a good talking to could instill the fear of god in someone. and most importantly, i learned that i never want to attend another citizenfest again. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Well, I'm still coming down from the Wrestlemania experience. First, hats off to Matt Gentile, who, despite trying to swerve me into thinking he had accidentally burned one of the tickets, really came through big time by getting us 4 excellent seats at MSG. All for, as Dan Hamill would say GRATIS (though he would say it GRATIAS). The show itself was a blast, the crowd was fun and we saw some super wrestling. In particular, Chris Benoit pulled off the big one and really made the evening special with his big win. Also, in the surreal part of the night, Brock Lesnar, the Next Big Dumbass, was booed out of the building. How stupid is this guy to walk away from the sport that made him tons of money and a star to boot? He's young and will regret this decision. Instead of being the next Kurt Angle, he's for now, the next Ultimate Warrior. He'll be back. Watch. Anyhow, before all this Mania, I spent my Saturday in a German bar drinking with G and Matt, and later Ash. Also, we ate potato pancakes and 'cupcakes'. This was a good time, nay, a great time. It reminded me of our days abroad. However, the drinks took their toll and after a wine filled dinner with Irene, I found myself drunkenly harrassing tourists in Times Square. Man, that was embarassing, but Irene got a kick out of it and thats enough for me. Then we hit Broadway and saw AVENUE Q, which is amazing and hilarious. SEE THAT. Broadway is in an excellent phase right now with plays like WICKED and AVENUE Q that are very commerical, yet artistic, clever and entertaining. I hate musicals, but I love those. I have to tease you with some info. A certain pal of mine, known in many circles musically, has reported via a mate that he has contributed to a certain album that will kick major ass this year. I didnt even know these guys were DOING an album. The I-kids are going to be pleased as punch. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Last night the Factor Corp. gathered for the first time in ages for the next round of drum tracking for HF2. It was a well-coordinated operation. Ash, who has a car, would bring the gear, Brandt would set it up, Robin would play the drums and me, well I get to hang out with my mates and have Ash drive me to Wendy's. I don't do much, though I did read a great interview with John Taylor in THE FACE. Ash and I discussed wrestling on the way to Wendy's. Brandt has the drum set up down to a science so the set up time is now under an hour. Impressive to say the least. I know it sounds like I do little, but mostly my job is to comment if something ISN'T going right or if I don't like swhat's going on. Happily, I've had to pull very few of what I call 'Executive Decisions' on this album, which to me only reminds me that my true skill is finding the right collaborators to make music with. I don't miss the aggression on days like this! ;-) We had an agenda of 4 songs: OUR FAITH, THE THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE, LENINGRAD (formerly known as Two Bass), and THEME FROM PROPAGANDA. Ash claimed we'd get 1 done, I said 2 at best. Lo and behold a certain drummer did her homework and hit a grand slam and knocked all 4 out of the park. Big time. B reported to me this morning that she was dead on most of the time and very little editing will be required. I love this woman. She just makes my life so much easier. So now the next steps are as follows: B goes to Chicago for a week and immerses himself in edits, which he will be sending me as he progresses. In the meantime, I continue working on melodies, singing along to the demos, etc to get into shape. Hopefully, when B returns I'll be ready to sing and sing like a mother. However, I'm going to take my time with this and not rush it. Meanwhile, following up my previous entry, Matt Gentile has TRULY earned his Superstar nickname and has obtained 4 tickets for Wrestlemania at Madison Square Garden this Sunday. How he pulled this off was pure genius and totally legal to boot, so to say I'm impressed is an understatement. Dan Hamill has not been this excited since Bon Jovi released NEW JERSEY. I think we will be attending Wrestlemania in suits. 4 Classholes out on the town! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Sorry it has been some time since I posted last, but an attempted graduation and HF2 have swamped me for the past few months. Consider this a bid to be a bit more disciplined, as there will be a lot to say in the next few months, and not all of it about factor. Speaking of... Yesterday Robinowitz, F and I spent the evening on Long Island (out of necessity, not choice) for what will be our second-to-last session of live drum recording. Ash dropped off the gear, made a run to Wendy's and trashed some '80s music before taking his leave, although we begged him to stay. After a whirlwind setup, we tackled four tunes: 'The Morning After The Life Before,' 'Our Faith,' 'Theme From Propaganda' and 'Leningrad' (formerly known as 'Two Basses,' and there's a free drink at KGB in it for anyone who can figure out the origin of the new title.) F wrote extensively here about the devolution of our earliest drum sessions into logistical nightmares, the worst of which was the electrical blaze that temporarily retired Ash's mixing desk. Honestly, the first five or six sessions were total pains in the ass, between moving gear out to Long Island, moving ourselves out to Long Island, scheduling idiocy, incompetent parts suppliers and missing gear. But yesterday's session (and the two previous - one with Ash and Robin and one with Robin alone) was, in a word, effortless. For the first time, we made it through the full schedule of songs for the evening (with time to spare for homemade biscuits.) Robin's playing was spot-on; I spent this morning at the Cage listening to her playing without any EQ or compression, and it was striking to hear how few edits would be required on the tracks. 'Theme From Propaganda' is now a storming funk tune - house music played by a live band (which just might be disco, right?) - while 'Leningrad' is Gustavo Cerati's Ocio project playing folk music. Nice stuff. 'Creation Phase' is undergoing a major overhaul at the moment thanks to prodding from Robin and Ash, although it probably will not be complete until well into April. During a tracking session for this tune and 'Solar' in mid-February, we ran into problems with a rhythm arrangement for the bridge, and Robin and Ash basically said the song's second half was shit. I do not always agree with Ash, but he was dead-on right; I'd had reservations about the bridge for some time myself, and they validated that. The next week Robin and I tracked a drum part for the 'new' bridge that, when complete, will mark the first time this band has written around the drummer, rather than loops. When this tune emerges from maintenance, expect it to be leaner and meaner. The meanest song on the LP, in fact, when F's vocals are complete. A slew of gigs are coming up that I am hoping will be brilliant: Death Cab For Cutie at Irving Plaza, Squarepusher at Irving and The Rapture and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club in a double headlining bill at Roseland. And, were that not exciting enough, The Twilight Singers return for a Warsaw gig at the beginning of April. More on that later. I know this is a few weeks late, but... Danny: I'm sorry about Scarlett. Benicio's a douché. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Oh Darling, you know I've not forgotten you. It's just that while I live a fun life, there's only so much you can write about without boring the reader. I mean, how much can write about my excitement about Groovie Mann joining RevCo? I sincerely doubt you'll want to hear me discuss my views on Wrestlemania (though if Matt Gentile gets us into the show, he will truly be a MOGsuperstar). I doubt you want to hear about the large amounts of sushi Irene and I downed tonight. Anyway, things are moving along here. I saw alleged members of the MOGpac at Ash's Birthday gathering the other night and this was a partial treat. It was good to catch up with the RJ's of the world (RJ is my bizarro twin in the life of Ash who happens to be an excellent musician and Ash's writing partner in the world of electronic music), and it was good to see Ash in good spirits. It was also a good opportunity to thank Ass Cobra bassist Charles from saving those bitches from a life of aggression covers (this is a JOKE). However, the absence of both Matt Gentile and the Kidd was felt, though, as the MOGpac lacked its heart and soul, respectively. Meanwhile, we enjoyed STARSKY AND HUTCH for its homoeroticism (had to see it with G) and hated JERSEY GIRL for its hetroness. Affleck is just flat out lame and Kevin Smith disppoints as a director as he ages, though I am excited he is writing and directing THE GREEN HORNET. I think I've seen Saintface a few times since we've last spoke. Again, full on. They take the stage on Long Island for the first time this Friday. I fear for them as I have been on many a Long Island stage and rarely has it been enjoyable. Anyway. Saintface. Impressive, ok but where's the album. Well, my gossip is as follows. It's just been reported to me that a certain lead singer from said band just walked out of The Birdcage with a keyboard belonging to certain lead singer who is typing this. Something about 'strings' and then 'mixing'. Stay tuned. I work daily on my vocals for HF2. It is a slow process, more based around developing the feel for each track. I sing along quite a bit. Thursday there will be more drum recording. This excites me as we are so close. I can't wait to get this album back into the studio where I can get into a routine. In the world of I-Music, i discuss further work with Jared though nothing set in stone at the moment. I have to send some loops in for his project with Spyby. Hope they like what we did. LeoV23 writes to inform me that progress is being made on the V23 retro CD. there might possibly be a new song that they will finish for this release. I have begged to remix. My agent/manger says I have become the industrial Ryko-disc guy. In the meantime, I remain happily domestic. I watch wrestling and Teen Titans, I play RISE TO HONOUR, which is making me mental, and I occasionally buy my girlfriend things for our kitchen. I find myself listening to Chris Connelly's new project EVERYONED and enjoying it immensely. I am looking forward to reuniting with the MOGpac spinoff group Team Obscene to watch Mania this weekend and I am dead psyched about Irene and I seeing Avenue Q on Broadway this weekend. And then there's the cinematic side of my life, which I can never speak of, though many of you would love to hear. I did get a CONSTANTINE crew jacket, which is nice as hell. 8 years of script notes and all I got was this jacket (and a possible cameo in the movie). Anyhow. I will report back to you soon about more drums, my new cel phone, and other assorted goodies. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | This warm and sunny morning started off with a chance run in on the corner of 17th and Park Avenue with the wonderful Robin, who as I learned in this brief time spent with her, is quite 'busy and jangly'. Where I'm from, these are good things, but obviously not in certain dim places. I always enjoy my time with my multi-talented bandmate and friend. If I can take one thing from this conversation, which included everything from comparing ipods to discussing school and New Jersey, it is that I wish the aggression a long eternal slumber in the annals (not anals, Dan Hamill), of history. See my previous post regarding 'missing being in a band'. I'd rather go back to High School, or maybe early college cause there were girls then. Anyhow, in the words of Greg Dulli, actually some French chick he recorded...goodbye motherfucker. Onward, Ho's. Then next time I checked email, I received this epic from a fan, who after much praise for the Chemlab album, writes: 'Alright, this was not the original intention to write this message to you, it was because of the Hype Factor EP which is just not leaving the 'right-next-to-the-stereo-pile', I'm not even thinking about putting it on the '2nd-next-pile', no f'n way. I'm still caught in the beauty of it. I have told you before, it's true and by the time you might have gotten tired of people telling you such BUT, F.J, it is such a won-der-ful record, simple as that. Also, I recently discovered I never saw the beauty lying in your voice before this effort? I've tried a dozen times to write this sentence without it sounding so damn gay but I failed, can you xqs me? I maybe miss the appropriate words (no native speaker here, sorry) but damn it's such an honest effort, I can onnly presume this was the most personal piece of music / lyrical work you've ever done? By the way, 'thieves' (which I'm sure isn't only my favourite on 'the distracted lover') made it right into my all-time-favourite-achy-breaky-sour&sweet-luv-tunes-ever'. What an amazing, amazing song. Thank you so much, F.J., I msut be getting repetitive, excuse me, but you know, I kinda had to let you know. Again.' Well, if I know the new album will sell ONE copy, here's the dude that will buy it. This letter makes everything we do worth it! And no I haven't grown tired of people telling me that they love DISTRACTED, the problem is, the only person who tells me that is Brandt! ;-) This could be a good day. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | My Significant Other, a fine woman, ventured via Chinatown bus (the in thing to do, and extremely cheap) to DC to check out Neubauten. She and her friend Lauren have a Neubauten tradition where they get drunk and check out a few of their gigs. Personally, having seen them perform once before many of you were in nursery school, I think getting drunk and watching them is some form of torture. Not to say I don't appreciate them. As Dan Hamill put it: 'It doesnt matter what the tradition is, its just good to have tradition' I, being someone who has never seen Greg Dulli perform while being sober because of 'tradition' (with the exception of that one Pigface related incident which you can read here somewhere) cannot argue, especially in light of my recent actions in Brooklyn (see previous entry re: Twilight Singers at Warsaw). Anyhow this was the first time Irene has gone out of town since she moved in. It's usually me leaving for LA and her staying here, but it was shocking to see how quickly I regressed to being a 15 year old again. When I wasn't working, I was either buying or watching Kung-Fu movies, playing videogames, reading comics, surfing the web (more ebay shit), eating unhealthy, and playing music at indecently loud levels. This was all done in the company of either Evan, G or both. Though I have to admit, it was fun watching the directors cut of WRATH OF KHAN and reciting the dialogue for G and Ev during the entire movie. However, I missed being an adult! Ok so then, mostly out of obligation to my non music profession, Evan and I went to check out THE PUNISHER late Friday night. I don't know what I did to piss off God, but making it throught his movie earns me the right to change my second initial to Jesus. Everyone involved with this movie should be shot, especially Travolta (who should fire EVERYONE who works for him NOW for letting him do this piece of crap). Poor Thomas Jane. He's a nice man who was right for the role but was saddled with a script that was seemingly re-written to be as shitty as possible. Someday, THE PUNISHER will be taught in a classroom (probably by me) about how NOT to make a comic book based movie. Utter shit. We were saved somewhat the next day when me and my two pals went to check out KILL BILL VOL.2. I don't think it's any secret that I am not a big fan of the first volume. I thought it was predictable, not too clever, and the action was so-so. Overcritical? Yes, of course, as its QT going onto my turf of Asian Cinema. Anyhow, Volume 2 is a very enjoyable film that is tight and fun, character driven and filled with great action. IN particular, the throwdown between Uma (looking better than ever) and Darryl Hannah (looking scary as fuck) was excellent. Also, Vol 2 made perfect use of Gordon Lui and Michael Madsen, which is what I really needed from this movie. OK, QT, now save Travolta again and go make the Vega Brothers! Meanwhile, my Ebaying has gone totally overboard. I have won a dozen Jackie Chan photobooks and two stunt crew tshirts. It's very weird that this has all kicked in, though I think it has to do with the fact that JC has just turned 50. FIFTY! I remember being a kid and him approaching 30 and thinking that he was only going to make 3 more movies or something. JC, despite that my girlfriend has to wake up every day and stare at a wall of JC pix and posters, is still the man! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Again, it what seems like a decade, the main Factor principles of Brandt, Ash, Robin and myself gathered for the first official HF photo session. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this band in its short lifespan has yet to have an official photo. Everything you have seen so far, including the pix in the DISTRACTED sleeve come from other sources (ie. videos or candid shots). Sadly, despite my begging and pleading, Peter Saintface bowed out; most likely to prep rough mixes for me to hear (HINT). Meanwhile, Brandt enlisted his friend Kathie-Rose (forgive me if I've spelled your name wrong) to take said shots. Thank God this nice girl has the patience of a saint to deal with us. A few days earlier while planning this, Ash had a smart idea to put us to work in the studio as we are all rarely in the same room at the same time. Based on that, Brandt, as usual, smartly did the homework and had everything ready and waiting for us. This evening would also give Robin the opportunity to hear some of her drum work for the first time ('wait, I played on that?'), and for Ash to review his basslines from 2 weeks ago that we all love ('eh, I'm not feeling it'). Though we all agreed on our love for the new bridge in CREATION PHASE and Brandt, in one his 'Ideas that F.J. thinks is stupid when he first hears it but is later proven wrong' told us we would have to write a new outro to the song in a different key because that new bridge ended in a different key. I, of course, was like 'that's stupid', but thats what I always say. However, then we got it going. As usual, the mandate of pushing these songs forward is proven to be successful as the new outro is awesome and allowed me to get some cool 'F.J. bass' in there. The song BLOWS up at the end. I'm loving it. For every great moment like that, there's some frustration. On another song, SOLAR, we decided to have Robin re-track her chorus basslines against her new drums. This proved tough. What she originally had was a very simple line that I felt drove the song perfectly, but Ash felt there could be more to it in a 'dub' sorta way. After Robin's many attempts, Ash took over for awhile, but he couldn't quite crack it either. I think we all liked where he was going, but it just wasn't getting there. Honestly, I think we should go back to the simplicity of the original bassline, but we have to at least explore every angle before committing. We owe these songs, and each other, that much. During all this, Kathie-Rose, took what seemed like a million photos. She's very sweet, very cool, but I think was upset to learn that Ash, Robin, and I all hate The Pixies. What was interesting was that after 10 years on and off working together, Ash and I didn't realize that we both hated them. I was convinced he loved them and he thought I loved them. EH! BOTH WRONG. This was a big bonding moment, for Ash, Robin and I. We spent a good half hour RAILING on The Pixies. Enjoy the reunion, Brandt! Anyway, the evening ended late with Kathie-Rose taking more 'band' shots. I think she coulda kept going all night taking pix, but my crew was getting cranky so we called it a night. FULL SUCCESS. During this, I realized the only thing I miss about the aggression was the comraderie of being in 'the band' with my friends. However, after hearing tales about certain mates other bands and the drama and high school kiddie shit that goes on within their unit, I was suddently quite happy to just have a 'project' that is evolving into a band that will only have people who WANT to make the best possibly music they can. Music should be the escape FROM the drama of the everyday, right? In other news, I have regressed to my 15 year old self once again and I'm suddenly buying rare Jackie Chan movie programmes from Japan. These highly collectable books were my teenage obsession, but my collection was far from complete. On a whim, and encouraged by my significant other, I went on Ebay only to find that two places in Japan have unloaded TONS of them. So far I have yet to lose an auction, but I doubt the rent will be on time, especially now that I've found someone selling Jackie Chan stuntcrew Tshirts (I have the ORIGINAL from the early 80's!). I'm in trouble to say the least. In news beyond everything, in a rare NYC appearance the other night, Bradley J. Fox, fresh from his travels to Paris, Capetown and Bucharest, announced that he and his Wife Dee Dee are expecting their first small Cramp. I feel this child will kick much ass and now I must concede my LA digs to this small baby. My request for bunk beds for the forthcoming infant and I was denied. Luckily, Agent/Manager/Lawyer has an extra bedroom just for me. Irene and I are inching closer to bi-costalness, i think...should know more this summer. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | The weather suddenly gets good and things get going here! First off, my laptop is back and to make a long story short, when upgrading to OSX, something went wrong and I wiped out EVERYTHING I have ever done in this laptop. Let's not use words like 'backed up' or 'saved', ok? Needless to say, thanks to the geniuses at DRIVESAVERS, I have all my erased files and I am significantlly lighter in the wallet. However, now my computer is running super amazing out of control awesome. Though I have no music software at the moment. However, we have some amazing stuff brewing for this new album. Ash's bass playing is incredible on MORNING AFTER and the bridge we wrote for CREATION PHASE was looped over and over again when I spent my Saturday at the studio. Before all this, Mr. G, Brandt, and I checked out the face in Brooklyn, just a block away from where my mom grew up. This venue, Southpaw, is the bestfor Saintface.They thrive there. Memo to the guitar player: Dont punch your guitar after the first song unless you have a backup guitar, pally. Just sayin. Morrissey has often failed me in his solo life. I have yet to enjoy myself at any of his solo gigs that I have been to. His last album was utter shit. Saintface, who I have described as 'what Morrissey wishes his solo career was' has my heart in recent years when it comes to music. However, he is always forgiven. I will buy his new album and already spent way too much money on tickets for his gig next month. I have to admit, I'm enjoying the Morrissey comeback. We live in an age where we DO need someone like Morrissey to be, ahem, our frank role model. Reading his intelligent and witty criticisms of our world in the NME this weekend made me smile. However, the SPIN article was terrible. Not because of him, but because SPIN is the worst music magazine pretending to be cool I have ever read. Put Peter Saintface on the cover and maybe I'll by it again. I think the first photo session for HF2 is this week. Maybe Thursday. I'll keep you posted. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Things post-laptop problems are starting to get back to normal a little bit. I still don't have my laptop back, but the initial shock of what I did to it (another time) has worn off. Again, I credit Irene for keeping me sane. However, my IPOD took a dive on Friday, which now makes me feel quite jinxed. This led to some time back at Apple in Soho, but the situation was saved by 'the IPod genius'. Also, thanks to Brandt, I was able to get 1500 or so songs, including some very rare ones BACK into my Ipod within a few hours. A minor crisis saved. Frustrated, Irene and I spoiled ourselves with an evening at Jules, a wonderful French place on St. Marks. Post dinner, we spent some brief face to face time with Peter Saintface, who was in good spirits and certainly enjoyable to chat with. He now has his songs for this album and I expect we're going to get some greatness out of him! The next morning, I was feeling refreshed, so I ran to the studio early to work on more bass and surprisingly, Ash was only an hour and a half late. He had issues with the basslines in MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE. His belief was that while what I played in the song worked for it, it was more of my typical 'hook style' bass playing than it was rythmic. Repeated listenings to the song confirmed this to me. Instead of me doing it myself, I suggested Ash record it as he was the one who pointed it out and obviously had been thinking about it. Also, my other motive, no pun intended, was to get him more invested in the song from the bass side, as he will be the live bassist. Needless to say, it was interesting to watch him work. I've only jammed with him on songs as opposed to putting him in front of me, as a producer, and having him work out a part. Instead of full sections, he worked the chorus out a few measures at a time; eventually writing one longer piece. It's very mathmatical, very detailed, very technical and very successful. It was totally fascinating. I've worked with the guy for years and he still comes up with new ways to puzzle me. After I left, I believe the two of the laid down the rest of that song. Then, Ash, Brandt and I reworked the bridge to CREATION PHASE, a section that had been troubling everyone in the group, except me of course. Brandt had a vision for this and even tracked Robin playing some random drums based on what he had heard in his head. When I heard the drums earlier in the week, I dismissed it as being too MARCH OF THE PIGS, but when he edited them into the song and presented a guitar part, it was very obvious that this was more akin to The Who. And this is NOT a bad thing. Ash played bass and I played a quick Hook-style lead over this bridge and we hammered it out in what seemed like 3 minutes. It's awesome. I dream of it. I'm happy. In my old age, I've gotten good at letting my collaborators push the songs a bit to make things better. I've become less stubborn and am going to have a much better album because of it. Later, while shopping on 5th Avenue with Irene and Dan Hamill, we ran into Robin and her man Damon. It was a birthday, so Happy Birthday to the best bandmate I've ever had! We discussed the real band name for ass cobra, which led to Mr. Hamill making a wisecrack that we will get tons of mileage out of. See you at Golden Unicorn, bitch! The evening was capped off with a screening of THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, which should be huge, but won't be, but was nonetheless enjoyable. The kids in the movie, in particular one of the sidekicks (who Irene has dubbed the new John Cusak), really carried it. And the presence of AJAX from the Warriors, James Remar, never hurts. I spent Easter immersed in all things Clone Wars. And speaking of Jedi, I ran into the star of my NYU senior thesis film, SUBURBAN JEDI, this morning. HIs name is Kosak, I love him and it was good to see him. He is strong with the force, still, especially if he moves to France. So jealous. Note to self: Plan vacation! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | It's been an incredibly stressful week thanks to my totally screwing up my laptop while trying to upgrade my powerbook to OSx. I've been through too much with this, so I dare not explain. However, massively public kudos to my significant other for handling my 'suicide watch' with a nice dinner at Wonton Garden. If my computer is salvaged, I will post in depth as to what happened and why and how. As for now, fuck it. Brandt has gone on in depth in my recent absence regarding certain events and for once he is mostly accurate. The session with Ash was fun and to hear the edited drums for the first time really got the adrenaline pumping. It made me want to get this record out next week, but sadly there is still work to be done. As for The Twilight Singers gig, my memories, based on copious amounts of Sake, Beer, Gin and Tonic and the DREADED Jagermeister are as such: the gig was too short (in my drunken mind it was a half hour), they played no Whigs songs (they played several), and Dull is, well, a fat fuck. I supposedly screamed this loudly. This is my attempt at being more 'British.' Also, I recall me and my friends huddled and hopping up and down singing along, which also means we have seen too many British people at gigs. Last night we checked out the always impressive Saintface. They were fun and energetic and peter's CONSTANT abuse of Matt Gentile from the stage was super fun ;-) Before I start bitching about their album not being done, they ARE doing rough mixes now before bringing a mixer in, so they are in good shape. I am also told that I will be lucky enough to hear these rough mixes. Peter if you're reading, PLEASE don't forget me, Ill even give you NO notes at all so i don't fuck anything up ;-) Also, Peter needs to watch out for crazy Goths dancing in front of the stage. HEY, this aint Joy Machine, sister!! Saintface opened up for a band called Blondes, Inc. who I liked in a BRMC club kinda way. I thought the rhythm section was tight, allowing the keytarist and guitarist to drive the vocal melodies. I bought the CD, so I'll decide then if I like them or not! However, they were smart enough to invite Saintface to open for them, so that's a point in their favour. However, the scary couple making out next to Irene was wayyyy too distracting. You had to see that one. In the end, we had a good crew and the face guys are always nice. Peter and I have settled on his singing two songs for EXIT STRATEGIES, which he has yet to hear, but those songs are called CLEAN UP and EXIST. I know that these two tracks will be massive with him on vocals. Also, I breathe a sigh of relief that he is doing those two songs as we have always had these songs in mind for him. He was the last piece of the puzzle for this record and now its in! The aggression are making their return to compact disc later this year with a rare remix making an appearance on an upcoming compilation in the US. It will be Needleye's awesome remix of MY WHITE NOVA and I'll send more details when it's all official, etc. While Brandt is editing, I have started to slowly move the HF Live Machine forward a bit. There is no timetable to play, but there is an idea as to who should be in this band. Besides Me, Brandt, Robin and Ash, I'm happy to report that the last aggression keyboard player, The Kidd, now is the first Hypefactor keyboard player. Honestly, I think this is a more exciting gig for him than the aggression. It's more of a challenge. I'm told Robin is concerned juggling two bands is going to be tough when it comes to playing live. I disagree and plus, double bills could rock! Assfactor, anyone? I'm back in the studio tonight for bass overdubs, then we're checking out some Death Cab on Thursday. It's a good life, kids. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | A friend of mine once said that beer is the force that gives us peeing. And on Saturday evening it gave the MOGpac the resplendent urlLink Twilight Singers , cloaked in a thick fog of soul, whiskey and illicit cigarette smoke at Brooklyn's urlLink Warsaw . For their second major American tour in six months, Greg Dulli's post-Afghan Whigs project put on a storming set reminiscent of the 2001 gig we caught at Bowery Ballroom in support of Twilight As Played By... This will sound blasphemous to some longstanding Dulli fans, but the gig almost made up for my having missed The Whigs' final national tour - in support of the stunning 1965 - as the group closed with two of my favorite numbers from that LP. Mind you, the gig could have been a disaster of epic proportions. And as F, Irene, The Kidd, G and I sat at the Polish National Home's bar drinking urlLink Zywiec , this possibility lingered in the backs of our minds. During the first leg of the band's Blackberry Belle tour last year, sets ran three hours or longer as Dulli, a glutton of epic proportions, drank himself into a stupor and told 20-minute stories to the audience while the band looped introductions to their songs ad nauseum. We learned about urlLink Amber Headlights , the near-complete Twilights album that was scrapped upon the death of Dulli's friend, director Ted Demme. And about Elliot Smith drinking at Dulli's Los Angeles bar, The Short Stop. And about Dulli screwing his college girlfriend to Marvin Gaye and Kate Bush. It was charming and funny for a few minutes, then wore thin rapidly. How thin? The Kidd - the most ardent of Dulli fans and the man responsible for introducing the MOGpac to The Whigs - walked out of the gig. Luckily Saturday's gig was brisk and succinct, wrapped up in a timely two hours. 'Uptown Again,' 'Up In It' and 'Somethin' Hot' sounded boozy as ever, while the gentler tunes from the debut Twilights LP were infused with new rock and swagger. Dulli said little but teased the crowd a few times, making reference to the fans' distaste for his Storytellers routine on the previous tour (he pulled the same gimmick at almost every show in the fall, and was deservedly reviled by fans and critics alike.) And it probably did not hurt that copious amounts of beer were consumed before and during the gig, punctuated by a round of Jaegermeister for all. F was in rare form, putting 'em back in a way I had not seen since we hit up KGB Bar with urlLink Jamie Duffy . The next time you see him, ask him what he remembers about this evening. In other Dulli news, The Twilights are releasing a full-length album of covers this summer, while the man is recording a separate LP with ex-Screaming Tree Mark Lanegan under the moniker of urlLink The Gutter Twins . Dulli and Lanegan claim that group will tour, playing songs by all of their affiliated bands and covers with a revolving cast of musicians. I am hoping we will be seeing more of Greg in the coming year. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | After more months of drum sessions in Garden City than I care to remember, the Factor Corp. - sans Robin, who was deservedly cavorting with her boyfriend - met at Birdcage for a meeting/listening session covering the drum recordings and edits thus far. We had not been in a room together for some time, and it was good to see everyone and catch up on life. Reaction was largely upbeat, especially to 'Our Faith,' 'Exist' and 'Leningrad.' 'Our Faith' has the most work complete thus far, as it was the first edit I tackled using Ableton's Live, a stellar program for time correction. At best, however, the process is tedious. I could complete a song per day... if I were putting in a 12-hour day of editing. But real life shit means that I'm getting through a song about every three to four days, thereby making most of April editing time. Ugh. The one point of contention came up during 'Theme From Propaganda,' Ash's Russian club monster with live bass and guitars. Robin played a staggered drum pattern over the 4/4 programming that I love, even in its unedited form, but that Ash and F hate on the basis that it makes the song too busy. I am standing by my opinion of the drums... for now. But the song is Ash's baby, so once I finish my edits this week, I will hand over the drum parts to him and let him make the final call. Yesterday the band also had the opportunity to meet Kathie, my long-time photographer friend who will be shooting the Factor photos for the CD art and Web site. Kathie sat in on about half of the session, listening to us bicker and lending me cigarettes. And she was quite charmed by F and Ash, who have rubbed off on me, apparrently. I am not certain what this means, and Kathie did not care to elaborate, but I will assume this is a good thing. Random aside: About half of the new Skinny Puppy album is amazing. Absolutely fucking amazing. Industrial may not be dead after all, if only the kids will rally to support this. The evening before I caught the hipster gig of the year, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and The Rapture in a double headlining stop at Roseland Ballroom. It was my first time seeing both bands, as I made the massive error of missing BRMC during their stops at Warsaw and Irving Plaza in 2003. The good: BRMC were stellar, and The Rapture sounded far more tuneful and coherent live than they do on their 'breakthrough' LP, Echoes , revered by every white twentysomething in Brooklyn with an afro. The bad: The audience, which was exactly what you would expect at this gig. The worse: The vibe of both bands' best performances was ruined by the crowd's indifferent, muted response to everything. Shouldn't blistering performances of 'Stop' and 'Love Burns' warrant a bit more enthusiasm? I would think so. The unexpcted: The audience popped the hardest for 'Olio,' 'I Need Your Love' and a few other Rapture tunes with only electronics and drum machines. Strange, given the hipster crowd's fondness for sloppy guitars. And the ridiculous: The Rapture's Gabe Andruzzi, whose onstage antics proved that, unlike Blue Oyster Cult, his band does not need more cowbell. Speaking of up-and-coming bands playing obnoxiously large and overhyped shows, seeing BRMC and The Rapture reminded me of why I didn't bother to see the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Hammerstein Ballroom earlier in the year. As much as I adore this band, I cannot imagine their energy translating well in any venue larger than Irving Plaza. And at the risk of sounding like the elitists who selfishly want success to elude small bands, the point of all this is lost on me when gigs become hipster clusterfucks. A friend of mine put it best the other evening: 'Damn, we were lucky to see them when we did.' |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | First things first, thanks to the Quizmo website, I have created 'Test Your MOGness' quiz for the members of the MOGpac. This quiz is designed mostly for the 8 or so people that would possibly get it, but dammit of those 8 people who have taken it thus far, there has been much amusement. It really takes the piss out of the whole crew. Further to the 24 Quiz discussed previously, Brandt took it and was Tony, and Ash took it and was Michelle, Tony's wife. If you know these people, this makes perfect sense. Then Dan Hamill took it and was Kim Bauer, Jack's daughter, which in this silly world of ours, makes even sense that G himself would be a hot chick... Moving on... Being as burnt out as I am from the recent LA adventure and then subsequent real life work related matters that have kept me from home this week, I was excited to have a good nights rest yesterday and then hit the studio for a solid (half day) or work. We began with the computer-based grunt work of adding the new parts Leo did in LA for OUR FAITH to the original song file. I loved the arrangement Leo and I conceived for the song, so it was my job to get that in shape. Arrangement is one of my strong points, so while this may be a boring job for some, this is my bread and butter. It didnt take too long, but I wanted to spend some time going through everything thats been recorded for the song to see what would stay and go. By doing this, I was able to create a cool blend of the original (recorded with Jamie Birthday Boy Duffy) and the new version (recorded with Leo). We got us a hot song here. Next was more fun, as I finally got to get my musical hands on the latest track, DESCRIPTIVE, which I had yet to do anything but arrange. As I type, I'm waiting for B to send over the mp3 of it, but we created a new intro that has all the elements of the chorus, minus the guitars, but with the addition of some F-Bass. Brandt wants this song to end as a fade, so we added this bass to the fading chorus at the end. Inspired, I began writing some lyrics down so I wouldn't forget while B added some synth and strings to the chorus. I'm really loving this song, and while I don't think it fits on the album (and was never intended to be), I am enormously proud of what my mates did here and I hope we can play this baby live. Upon discussing where we are at with the albun, it's been decided to start vocals earlier than planned as the drum editing is going to slow for my tastes (however, this will bring us nothing short of perfection thanks to B). So I should be back there on Monday starting this. It was too nice outside after a few crap days of weather, so B and I hit the record shop for our usual round of spending way too much. Got the new MOJO/NME special on The Smiths and seeing Oasis on the cover of the new Q made my day. Later that night, Irene, G and I went to see SHREK 2. I am not a big fan of the first one, which I liked, but damn this second one is HILARIOUS, thanks in part to really funny voice work from Antonia Banderes and Rupert Everett. Really funny, go see it. And now I must prepare for the long awaited Pizza-Off event in which Irene and my dad will battle to see who makes the better Pizza here at MOGworld. My dad, who doesnt cook is about to get his ass handed to him I think, as Irene makes a damn fine Pizza. The Winner in all this is ME, who gets to eat all of this! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | So while arranging the song B, Ash, Robin and Charles wrote, DESCRIPTIVE, we paused to eat some Great Wall and watch the Season Finale of 24, which was really good. Not great, but really good. Jack's breakdown at the end was a good way to end it. The War goes on and Jack Bauer will not tire! Anyhow, The show's not back on till January and I have a feeling it will be a very different show. Seasons 1 and 2 were classic and quite frankly, Season 3 had a lot to live up to and occasionally delivered. It's time to change up the formula. However, speaking of season finale's, SMALLVILLE was awesome and they re really shaking up that show in a good way. They got rid of a lot of characters supposedly and had a well crafted cliffhanger. Kudo's to that writing staff. I took a quiz that was called 'Which 24 Character are you most like' and this was the answer: 'You are MOST like JACK BAUER. Your motives are pure, but your tactics are ruthless, fearless and uncompromising. You value loyalty, honour and tradition. You don't trust people easily, but when they do earn your trust, you are loyal to them, sometimes to a fault. You are quick-witted, resourceful and a bit of a badass. You love danger and taking risks, but will not hesitate to put yourself on the line for your beliefs and the people you care about.' I think i AM a bit of a badass, though I hope I don't have a heroin habit by next season. As for the new song, it's damn good and the kids have left me a lot to work with. I don't know if they will love the arrangement, but you can't make everyone happy. I already have vocal melodies for it. It gets quite electronic in the middle, which I love. It will be great for the single.It needs some more meat on it, though I'm not sure what it needs yet or if even I'm the man to do it. Regardless, this track is certainly worthy of the HF catalogue. My compatriots are a mean force. Meanwhile, Brandt gave me a new edit of CREATION PHASE where the intro was significantly chopped. The song has much more punch now, which really takes it over the top (a good thing). it makes sense. Also, he recorded some extra guitars for LENINGRAD, which were good but needed proper placement, so we spent sometime on that. Now that song's just about perfect. Brandt will now be spending the next week plus editing drums. Closer and Closer. We need to be careful not to start overthinking shit. While I am a newcomer to THE SOPRANO's, my love for Drea De Matteo is everlasting. Watching her get beat up and now supposedly killed on that show is too much for me. I have a feeling which she appears next season on the FRIENDS spin-off JOEY, I doubt we will see Matt LaBlanc smacking her around. And finally the newest issue of the BATTLE ROYALE manga has arrived, so I'm off! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | As I got up to grab some iced tea from the fridge (now a staple at Birdcage to cut down on Wendy's bills), the searing pain in my arms reminded me of something I forgot to mention in my previous post: the MOGpac's first appearance at the Tournament Of Champions dodgeball league. I will keep the history and details about this event to a minimum, as I hope Mattagement (an organizing principle of MOG Athletics) will go into specifics about that here. But a few key observations: - The MOGpac should probably spend weekends brushing up on their skills, as the team went one for five, despite a good showing during our warmup session outside MLK Jr. High School. - A defensive/catching game is probably the way to go because, with few exceptions, we throw like girls. Sorry ladies. - The MVP award for the day belongs to Charles LaBarbara, who went one-on-one against a chick and brought the MOGpac its only victory of the championship. The ref would take umbrage at Charles' name being used in the same sentence as MVP, but he's not here right now, so fuck it. - The only team the 'pac beat has a player who the crowd referred to alternately as Tolkien or a Hobbit. I am not sure what this says about us. - The 'Nastiest Smack' award goes to Robin Emmet, who took one for the team square in the chest when she was the only one left on the court. Not even FJ's frequent spatula attacks could have prepared the poor girl for that hit, which resonated throughout the gym. While we lost that match, the hecklers booed the opposing team for beating up on a lone girl. Do moral victories exist in dodgeball? - The MOGpac received its most savage beating at the hands of a team named after a Spinal Tap album. We hath smelt the glove, and the stench was foul. - If you are a team of irate alpha males, calling yourselves the 'Richard Ryders' is an unfortunate decision. The good news is that we met a couple of other dodgeballers who were competing for the second time at the tournament, and their team made it to the playoffs after a one-and-five showing the month beforehand. Indeed, miracles do happen. Now all we need are t-shirts. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I admit I was supposed to write this post days ago, but I am back to editing drums for Exit Strategies and keeping everyone up to date went on the backburner for a few days. So please excuse my poor sense of timing. But as FJ wrote yesterday, while he cavorted with industry types in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the Factor Corp. board met at Birdcage to hammer out the foundation of the band's first new song in seven months. The recording was planned at my encouragement, and I admit it is nonsensical to dive into a new recording while we are waist-deep in edits and overdubs for the full-length. That being said, the fans will be treated to a new hypefactor release this year before the album - I'll leave it up to FJ to fill in the details when he sees fit - and we wanted to include something exclusive. This track will most likely be it. The directive for the song, per FJ, was to compose something emphasizing electronics rather than guitars. Guitars drive the melodies and rhythms of Exit Strategies , with few exceptions, and we both thought it would be clever to do something radically different here. A number of structural ideas and potential 'blueprints' for the tune were bandied about via IM before F left for Los Angeles, and the general consensus was to fashion a pop song whose melody and atmosphere are driven by rhythm loops and synth melodies. I refined some structural ideas further while listening to some NewOrder b-sides from their Get Ready era, both of which were synth-based tracks recorded during that band's otherwise rockist period. And as always happens with this band, plans and ideas rarely materialize as intended, and for the better. The core of Robin, Ash and I were joined by Ass Cobra bassist Charles LaBarbara the evening of the session, much to Robin's surprise and delight (as she and Chaz get along swimmingly). Ash and I cued up some loops we had prepared in Ableton Live, while Charles played bass and Robin played synth drums on her Roland electronic kit... a first for us. As Charles' funky bass part came together, however, both Ash and Robin drifted toward guitars, and they recorded some dark, chordy progressions of which I am quite fond. Ironically, no electronics (aside from the basic loops and Robin's drums) were tracked that evening. Not what I had intended by a long stretch, but the result felt right. I took that direction one step further the next day while jamming along to Robin's drums and Charles' precise, machine-like bass line, which will probably form the verse/chorus structure for the tune. Their playing had such unexpected drive to it that I tracked some acoustics and a brisk, zingy electric riff in a few hours of inspiration. I also pulled in a lot of new loops from a prep session I had done earlier in the week, many of which may stay pending FJ's arrangement overhaul. As I wrote to F today, the song is only 10 to 15 percent of the way there, so it could be a reggae song by the time we are wrap it up next month. But the song in its current form has far more verve than I anticipated, and I am thrilled with the direction it has taken thus far. A substantial part of the song's feeling derives from Charles' bass part, which I think is one of the best things this group has committed to tape in some time. There are countless studio moments - Ash's guitar riff in the bridge of 'Exist,' FJ's bass in 'Clean Up,' Robin's drumming on 'Solar' - where I thank my lucky stars I play in this band, and Charles' performance on Wednesday was of that quality. I, for one, hope (and think) this will not be his only appearance on a hypefactor recording. The last time I posted I promised to say something about ex-industrialist Chris Connelly's new record, Night Of Your Life , which came out last week. FJ and I had the luxury of digesting a pre-release copy of this album for a matter of months, and after listening to the finished product I still believe Connelly has not recorded anything this brilliant since Blonde Exodus , if not Shipwreck . This feat is all the more impressive considering that those records were recorded with full bands, while producer/longtime collaborator Chris Bruce and a keyboardist are Connelly's only accompaniment on Night Of Your Life . Bruce, a wildly talented multi-instrumentalist and member of Seal's backing band, deserves a huge amount of credit for providing the lushness this batch of tunes required. Given hipsters' penchant for singer-songwriter types these days, I will never understand why 'Stella Stand Up And Take Your Man' is not a massive hit. Other than a certain record label's penchant for blowing goats. Oh, and the cover art, all of which was shot in Scotland, is sublime and worth the price of admission alone. Edits and overdubs continue this week, and if all goes well vocals start on one or two songs next week. Stay tuned. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Just back from the Harry Potter premiere here in NYC. Good movie, solid direction and an extremely hilarious cameo by ex Stone Rose Ian Brown (a pal of the director's, hence the cameo). Of course in all of Radio City Music Hall only two people went mad for Ian Brown: myself and Dan Hamill (though you should have seen Mr. G pop for Emma Watson when they came out to introduce the movie, not that I blame him). As for the movie, it lacks one thing, which is a major bad guy. Let's just say Kenneth Branagh got more screentime in the last movie than Oldman does in this. Special thanks to Mattagement for hooking Irene, G and myself with tix. The post show dinner at the original hardcore Benihana was most enjoyable and as always, the company (G, Matt and Jax) is always first rate. Stepping back to my industrial roots, I've heard the new WATTS album for the first time today. It's always fun to hear something new from Raymond, and this is no exception. With WATTS, Raymond tries some new things, going into more electronic territory while also stripping down his usually thick sound. It was a smart decision not to call this a PIG album, because with the way its produced and performed, its not. When it does sound like Pig, its more of a reference than anything. I know some of you die-hards are pissed, but quite honestly, he's smart not to fuck with the PIG brand name. I know that sounds kinda corporate, but when he goes back to doing something as PIG, no one can fuck with him when he wanted to try something different here. Having spent years tracking down almost everything the man has ever recorded, I'm a sucker for most things Watts, so I might be a bit biased. I am told in their first outing, MOG Athletics won ONE game and lost FIVE in dodgeball. I would like to congratulate these beatiful losers on a job well done!! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | This might be my first blog from the air. I am 3/4 of the way back to NYC from an extended stay on the West Coast. While here in the air, I want to wish Team Mogpac well on their first dodgeball game, currently being played somewhere in the big apple. I hope Matt Gentile will report the results here on the blog and I look forward to participating in the next round of what we call MOG Athletics. Considering it was Irene’s idea, I should participate. A lot happened on my LA journey and it’s hard to remember it all because I’m so tired, but I’ll try to give you the update, as I did actually work on things to benefit the world of MOG. I won’t get too deep into my adventures at E3 as it was a massive headache and basically a huge arcade on steroids. I did enjoy seeing some of the new games and in particular, the new tech. I think we’re all going to be playing the Playstation Portable in the next few years. It was also fun to see my man Evan walk the floor of this convention like a massive rockstar (He’s an important game reviewer in the real world). The convention is huge, it’s loud. Note to self: next time bring aspirin. Quick story: on my way to the convention, LA’s finest pulled me over for jumping into the HOV lane (like an idiot I pulled right in front of a fucking cop). However, upon seeing my Ipod in the front seat, the two policemen, who shall remain nameless, and I got into a conversation about their desire to play their Ipod in their police car. When they learned I was going to E3, I not only avoided a ticket, I also got a police escort for my trouble. Only in LA kids. Anyhow, at a party held in honour of my lawyer/agent/advisor, Leo V23 and I huddled into a corner to discuss our musical work for the upcoming week in LA while also trying to avoid (unsuccessfully) as many entertainment industry types as possible. With our game plan set, Leo and I spent a few nights in the wee hours working on the new HF song OUR FAITH. We had been looking for Leo to come through with his unique style of atmospheric guitar playing and singing and boy did my second favourite Argentinean come through. We took what was a wall of guitars and britrock and turned into a sexy explosion of the subtly and noise. Tons of loops were removed and by doing so, the melodies really came through while also making Robin’s drums really stand out. Leo laid down some beautiful guitars and even better vocals, in Spanish no less. I used my skills in an arranging capacity and we have a brand new and interesting song that is a million times better than what I walked in there with. Leo is used to being a solo performer, but I was really impressed with how collaborative he was. Working with him was no different than working with my best collaborators: Brandt, Ash and Robin. He would listen carefully to my ideas and even if he thought some of them wouldn’t work, he would try them, which sometimes led to him being surprised, me being surprised and most importantly, really allowing us to push the material forward. After working with “producers” and “musicians” whose egos and need to be in charge overwhelms everyone else in the room to the point where they won’t let anyone push the music forward because of their own insecurities, Leo was a joy to work with and has a place in the Factor Corporation any day. On the topic of Leo, in between all of this I managed to catch the debut gig of his newest project AM Pacific, which continues the musical style he began several years with his previous project Sutra. This was at a private party filled mostly with hipster douches out in Los Feliz, the Williamsburg of Los Angeles (Fuck you, Fury). Leo had a very simple set up of himself on guitars and vocals, one girl on lead vocals, and another girl on vocals and trumpet (who was amazing). Beats and loops were run through a PA via Leo’s Ipod. They came on late and the people were annoying, but damn was this short set worth it. The AM trio was excellent and really delivered a beautiful set and the best cover of Chris Issak’s WICKED GAME you will ever hear. Meanwhile I worked on artwork for a potential HF single, while my 3 cohorts teamed up with Ass Cobra’s amazing bassist Charles to work on a potential B-side, which they have titled DESCRIPTIVE. An mp3 was sent my way of the material written for this song and boy am I excited. I had a few requests of what I would like to hear in a B-side and the Factor Corp really stepped up to the plate. I’m already writing vocal melodies. I hope Brandt will go into detail about the making of this song somewhere here. Luckily Brandt took the space to review Morrissey’s new one and I’m happy to say I’m loving the album. Another amazing return to form by a legend of days past. We need Moz and he has not let us down. Duran was the comeback of 03, and Moz is truly the comeback of 04. Thank God. My celebrity sightings included former Melrose Place douche Patrick Muldoon, the Legendary Mickey Rourke, Apollo Creed himself Carl Weathers, current Playboy cover star Charisma Carpenter (who I was tempted to ask why she refused to show her nether regions in said photo spread, thus making the spread quite Maxim instead of Playboy), and the man Dan Hamill and I call Mr. 100 Million Dollars: Oliver Martinez, who might be the one human being Brandt hates the most on this planet besides Benicio Del Toro (who is on the airplane movie screen right now in 21 Grams). Oliver was sans Kylie, but was wearing these horrible glasses that reminded me of Dan Hamill Circa 1993. Not good. Special thanks to my friends at Ca’Brea for sitting my lawyer/agent/advisor and myself at a better table that the movie stars. Also, the highlight of my trip was spent with the younger crowd, including the new Fury baby, in from San Fran (it was fun seeing Bradley J. Fox and my sister Dee Dee looking into their future of parenthood while playing with the Fury child). And of course, as much time as possible was spent my 5 year old nephew, who becoming more of a clone of my girlfriend every day, just as my small cousin has become a Star Wars loving Benihana eating clone of me. Oh I saw TROY and the best part was seeing the trailer for CONSTANTINE. New York approaches. More, much more, soon! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | With FJ loitering outside all-male theaters on Santa Monica boulevard and sharing iPod tips with law enforcement, news on the home front is my responsibility for another week. The past few days were rife with gigs, record purchases and hypefactor work, thankfully, so there is a lot to keep you occupied until FJ writes about the 'gig' he saw Saturday night. First stop of the week was on Thursday at the dreaded Piano's (where personality goes to die) to see The Dansettes. Joe Babic, the perenially youthful bassist in Saintface, has dated a charming lady named Jamie for as long as anybody in the MOGpac has been going to see his band. Unlike the worst rock 'n' roll girlfriends - a lecherous lot who date talent because they lack it themselves - Jamie is a musical firebrand in her own right, and The Dansettes are her band. A 1960s-styled girl group, no less, with Jamie and two others on vocals and a quartet of male instrumentalists. While The Dansettes are a nostalgia act in the sense that they are not doing anything to modernize the soul genre, they stay true to the tenets of the best groups from that era and have more talent and style than any other contemporary outfit claiming to be 'soul.' The set mixed obscure Northern Soul covers and originals, and it was obvious the band knows its roots because they nailed the best elements of the former in their own material. It is tragic that The Dansettes have yet to commit anything to tape, as Jamie truly has an excellent tropue on her hands. Revelation of the evening: Jamie can belt out those soul numbers with as much vigor and flair as her 1960s predecessors. Who knew the spirit of Dobie Gray was alive and thriving in the body of a 5-foot, 3-inch Polish girl? Utterly remarkable. My original plans to see Saintface at Lit on Friday night were scuttled when, at the last minute, FJ discovered via Irene that Colder had their debut New York gig booked for the same evening at Rothko on the Lower East Side. Colder is the alias of Marc Tan, a French video artist who wrote and recorded some tunes to accompany his visual work. 'Again,' the album borne of those recordings, ended up being more interesting than anything Tan committed to DVD, and he was promptly signed to Output Recordings (the über-hip home of The Rapture, etc.) Reviews pegged the record as a more electronic Joy Division or Revenge, naturally piquing interest among some MOGpac members. And for the most part, the record lives up to the hype, as its absence of memorable hooks is more than compensated for with Tan's spacious programmed atmospheres. When FJ or I carp about electronic artists' live shows, we almost always note the reliance on computers or pre-programmed material (Squarepusher, you asshole: take note). In Colder's case, however, the exact opposite was the case. Tan brought a three-piece accompaniment (guitar-bass-drums) for the tour, and his group proceeded to wreck the album's subtle delivery. It was not until the middle of the hour-long set that the group struck a rerasonable balance between the live rock and the programming, and even then with mixed success. I will rarely argue that something is too live, but the criticism holds true for Colder. Even Ash, an ardent fan of Again on the first listen, was underwhelmed. And our talkative guests did not help matters. That being said, Colder drew a heck of a crowd for a show with no promotion. Every crisply-dressed indie snob in the city packed into this tiny club, making for a crowded, overheated and unpleasant wait... save for the DJ playing Die Warzau's 'Land Of The Free.' I made the trek to Rebel Rebel on Saturday for no particular reason, only to discover that Dave had limited edition versions of Morrissey's You Are The Quarry in stock. In short, this is the best set of tunes old Moz has assembled since the early 1990s. There is nothing earth-shattering here, aside from the liberal use of programming and synthesizers, but the melodies are strong and as arresting as anything in the man's solo repertoire. I will argue that a stellar lyricist like Morrissey should align himself with more innovative songwriters and arrangers, as stated in the New York Times' review of Quarry . Nevertheless, Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte are competent players who deliver some fine work on this album. Kudos. PJ Harvey's new single The Letter , on the other hand, was a letdown. Harvey chose to produce her new record herself, and limited her instrumental support to longtime collaborator Rob Ellis. While the song is pure Harvey, the production leaves a lot to be desired when held up against Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea . A shame, really, though I will reserve final judgement for the album. Album to be discussed later that you must pick up now: Chris Connelly's Night Of Your Life , out now on Underground, Inc. Tonight: Guitar work on 'Leningrad' to test my theory that the song is far from complete. Stay tuned... |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I can only assume I am blogging so much because I am on a plane in the morning, but just to tease you, the Hypefactor Live Experience just took an interesting twist. Stay tuned. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | From today's NME comes this years most awesome event: NOEL GALLAGHER and IAN BROWN have collaborated on a track for the former STONE ROSES vocalist's new album. According to The Sun newspaper, the pair met by chance at the Electric Cinema in London’sNotting Hill. 'We got talking about music and agreed we should do something,' explained Brown . He added: 'Noel sent me some music he’d done and I recorded a vocal. The result is brilliant, I’m really excited. I hope it will be a single.' The news comes after denials from the Oasis camp that Liam was to form a supergroup with ex-Roses guitarist John Squire. As previously reported onNME.COM, the band claim the story was 'dreamed up' by editorial staff atThe Sun. Oasis are currently working in the studio on the follow-up to ’Heathen Chemistry’, which is due for release later this year. Brown’s new album is expected in August or September. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Though this blog is usually reserved for the musical portion of my life, I must report today that I am a victim of false reporting on the internet. It was reported on 'respected' internet movie sites this morning that I have become an Executive Producer on the forthcoming BATMAN film. While I would love nothing more in life than to produce a Batman film (and believe me this new one is going to be the bomb), I can truthfully tell you that I AM NOT an Executive Producer. I just happen to work for two of them in my 'other' life. I wanted you all to read this first as the E-mails are already coming in. NO I AM NOT. OK? I would love to know who does this shit. I have asked the websites to remove the false article simply because A. It's bullshit and B. Could get me in trouble. THANKS, Jett. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Upon finishing the post below, something was nagging at me. Like I had forgotten something. And then it hit me. Besides this week being the 10th anniversary of the first time Mark Mothasemi and I took to the stage with the teenage versions of Ash and Tom, a year ago this past weekend, the aggression played what will be most likely be their last ever show. From what I recall, it was a good gig, though honestly, we were always good (though we got REALLY good once Robin came in). We played here in the City and the other band no showed, so we were able to do our extended set without having to cut anything. it was sparsely attended, especially in comparison to our previous NYC shows, but it was hastily put together and we had just come back from Russia when the opportunity to play arose. While we had several gigs over the past 10 years that were supposed to be our last, the one time I didn't think was the last one, was in fact, THE LAST GIG EVER (TM). I've not seen a video of this gig because, according to Matt Gentile, the tape is 'fucked up'. I nag him occasionally about this, but there's a romanticism to never seeing it I always felt like the aggression should have gone out like the end of Michael Mann's HEAT, in an overblown blaze of glory. That gig has been played over and over in my head millions of times. From what I would wear to what I would play, the gig was preconceived for the past few years. I don't think I was alone in that as I recall Ash having a set list for such a gig (as well as several drafted letters of resignation). I was about to share with you my thoughts on what that gig should be. I've decided against it as I think what you are speculating might be better than what I had planned. I thought I would be more emotional about it, but I guess I got over it more quickly than I anticipated. This could be because I remain in such close, daily, contact with the people who did matter and worked hard to make the aggression something special. Another reason, and I can see this with time having passed, I was fucking miserable in the band thanks to the lack of focus and maturity within it. But if I am anything, I am loyal and I was the general who took the ship down to a noble death. Let's be frank, we only sold a few thousand records, we were never even a blip on a radar. However, for ten years it was the world I and a few others lived in and while I can never forgive the few who tried to fuck with it, I love that the music and the experiences will be something no one can ever take away or tarnish. I wanted to save the industrial scene when bands i adored like Chemlab and Skinny Puppy went away. With all of these old schoolers coming back and putting out records, I can rest easier knowing we kept our elders seats warm in their absence. From the pits of the Underworld to the former Soviet Union, the casualty rate was shockingly low and most of the friendships remain intact. Plus, some records came out that I love to pieces. They proudly hang on my well as reminders of the wonderful life I have led for 10 years. And don't think I don't seen the irony in the fact that the one of last songs the aggression ever played was in fact, Hypefactor's SWEETEST SOUL. HAH. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Been running around like mad man as I get ready for another LA trip, so bear with me if I seem, if I can coin my dentists description of my agent/manager/lawyer: Scattered. We did the customary Mothers Day celebrating yesterday, honouring the woman who dares take the responsibility of claiming to have given birth to me. She's a nice lady, I like her, though she needs to stop working so much (which is something she would say about me). Anyhow, this brought us to Long Island (hopefully for one of the last times in my life before the nice people who raised me finally move into the City at last). Completely by coincidence, Irene and I had tickets to see her absoulte favourite band, CAVE IN, on Long Island as well. Farmingdale, no less. Notice the first part of that town's name is farm. I must admit to having a strong appreciation for Cave in, but I am less appreciative of these far out parts of Long Island. Well, it was another flashback to pre-drivers license days, as Irene and I were driven by my aunt and uncle (also nice people, who have seen many aggression shows in their lives, poor things) to the venue, which was on the 'main street' of town. Talk about Suburbia. We couldn't wait to get the hell out of this town! Who in their right mind lives out here! Anyhow, the gig was good. The young guys in this band are shockingly gifted musicians. They write complex, catchy songs and this was the first time I was able to check them out in a small venue. They are loud and talented as hell. I love their album ANTENNA, which strays from their previous hardcore sound, so when they dip back into the catalog, I am not as excited, but because they play so well, it's enjoyable nonetheless. Their new material steps back a little bit to the harder side of things, but with a 70's rock bent. Could be good. Stay tuned. Great band! Irene being up at 5:30am for work this morning really kicked me in the ass and it sent me straight down to the studio in the morning for what will be my last round in the studio for the next few weeks. I spent the whole day there, and we got some work done. It may not feel like much, but what we did was very important for the record. We offficially wrapped up guitar tracking today as Brandt laid down his acoustics for THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE. Again, I played the role of engineer and it's something I need to do more of instead of letting everyone go and just do their things. Hypefactor was orginally intended for me to improve on my bass playing and singing and I think I have met those goals. Now, I need to focus on producing, though I'd like to apply that to another project, i.e. Chemlab, and then bring what I learn into the HF experience. Anyhow, something to think about. I also took the opportunity to have B tutor me in how to use the program LIVE, which he and Ash often use to edit loops and such. I need some practive on this fucker! We also wrapped up a remix that has been sitting around. A while back, Brandt had started some remixes of two songs from THE DISTRACTED LOVER. They were good drafts, but I felt they needed some more work. We just never got around to it. Last night at Cave In, they were selling a limited edition live CD that they pressed on their own and this inspired me to want to do something for HF; possibly a giveaway using those remixes. In my mind right now, and it's being planned that way, it will be THE SWEETEST SOUL EP, and we will give it out over the website. I spent part of the morning re-listening to the remixes and I heard changes that could be made on the remix of THIEVES very quickly. Needless to say, we worked fast and have a nice completed remix. I have to really sit with the other remix as it needs a ton of work on my return. In my fan boy moment of the day, I ordered the new solo album from Sakurai Atsushi of Buck Tick. My old friend Wayne Hussey of the Mission, who did a wonderful remix for us years ago, wrote a song on the album as do Bryan Haloblack and Mr. Watts himself. These are more than enough reasons to buy this disc. Hope it rocks. My posting will be less frequent over the next few weeks thanks to my heading to the left coast, so hopefully my comrades will fill the void a bit. Behave. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | An extremely productive time was had at the Birdcage today as we came closer to wrapping up all the guitar overdubs. In fact, we might be done entirely if Brandt kept working after I left (though I doubt it). Regardless, the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter as we progress in large measures towards the mixing stage. Like last week, I again stepped into the engineer's chair as Brandt not only re-recorded several guitar parts, but committed some new ideas to disk. I won't bore you with the details as it was a tedious but necessary task, but he started off doing some wonderful work in the rapidy evolving CREATION PHASE. The parts he wrote for this song are not simple, but the ease in which he lays them down would make you think otherwise. His attention to detail may be as tight as as Dan Hamill's anus, but it's worth it. Anyway, I think now we can finally put that tune to rest. Next came the guitar lead for 1956. When the song was originally started in the aggression, Tom had done a riff which I thought was a good starting point for something that could work in the chorus. It was the usual Tom throwaway riff that he probably wasnt even paying attention to when he wrote it, and probably couldn't remember even playing. Anyhow, I remembered it and wrote my vocal melody to it. Realizing his riff wouldnt work as written, I took the extremely rare opportunity to pick up the guitar and re-write and perform the part myself. I'm happy to say my favourite two words: FULL SUCCESS apply here. I am under the impression that this is the only time I have picked up a guitar for this album, and this was the first guitar lick I have written since the verse leads for THE MOTIVE way back when. This worked out well and inspired Brandt to pick up his guitar to layer something over it. In a matter of minutes, the song went to a new level. Stay tuned! Afterwards, we attempted to re-record Brandt's intro guitars to SOLAR, but I wasn't happy with the guitar tones he was working with. After some time, and much to my delight, Brandt decided to stick with his original recording from the demo and would fix the timing of it in Live to make it dead on perfect. I'm very much sold on that sound so Brandt, if you're reading this, don't change your freakin' mind. KEEP THAT PART... Sometime during this, we had a special guest visit us in the form of Matt Gentile. As some of you may or may not know, Matt laboured many years as the aggression's manager and my original bass tech. I refer to him often as Mattagement. Thanks to him we've seen places and things on this planet the average rock band will never see or even dream of in their lifetime. He's the guy you call and say 'I wanna play some shows in Russia' and days later, you're headlining major cities in foreign countries. Along with Dan Hamill, he is the co-conspirator of our MOG trips abroad and has never failed in his duties to us as a mattager or as a friend. I never question a thing when Matt is leading the charge and this had led the some of the greatest adventures of my life. Anyway, he had some time to kill before seeing Morrissey's last night at the Apollo, so he came to listen to the new songs for the first time. It was good to have a fresh perspective on the material from someone who knows that the hell they are talking about. Because the aggression has gone the way of Suffolk County, Matt and I have existed soley on a friendship level this past year. However, I was excited to see him slip back into his professional mode and start discussing things like what the single should be, what song we should open gigs with and how we should have an EPK on the new CD. All great ideas. I guess I should ask the handsome bastard to manage the Hype. Someone remind me, thanks. ;-) I'm off to LA this week, so time is short and we're stealing as many moments as possible to make sure Brandt has everything he needs to work with in my absence. We're in good shape. The idea now is to be ready to mix the whole thing in JULY. I make note of this now to see when we actually DO start mixing someday. In the meantime, say hi to your MOMS. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Jesus, where do I begin? Last night, and at long last, Irene and I made the trek to Harlem to the legendary Apollo Theatre to see Morrissey take to the stage for the first time here in many years. We’re both sick with colds and the weather was crap, but we were psyched. There was a large line to get into the venue and who of course was at the near front of this line? None other than Peter, Joe and Michael, three-fifths of my favourite band Saintface. Decked out in identical denim, the lads were, to say the least, excited. It was an NME moment. To say Saintface loves and has been influenced by Morrissey/The Smiths would be an understatement compared to one describing me as a “casual” Star Wars fan. These guys were ready to rumble. Little did I know what was to come… This was my first visit to the Apollo and I was shocked at how small this venue was. However, my shock turned to pure joy when I discovered that our 4th row Orchestra Left tickets gave us an extremely close, unobstructed view of the stage (this moment was observed by Joe Saintface from the last row of Orchestra Left). I’ve had some choice seats before (i.e. the legendary Depeche Mode Jones Beach show a few years ago, thank you Matt Gentile), but these were CLOSE. Needless to say, Irene and I were buzzing when we arrived at our seats while former NY Doll David Johansen was playing. In between sets, a disgruntled Peter Saintface came by (did I mention, all the way from the last row of Orchestra left) to tell us how inherently wrong it was that we had better seats than the Saintface crew. Without saying so, my dear friend was saying “motherfucker, you don’t DESERVE those seats” (and quite frankly, I concede that those lads are more hardcore than I could ever be and deserving of the best seats). In another NME moment, I told him which band he should stick with if he wants to see some rock n roll up close. All light-hearted though, I’m just busting balls, because quite honestly, I know we were all happy to be there. Finally, the lights went down and the intro music began. The die-hards ran to the front as did part of our row, giving Irene and I a lot of room to watch the show. Suddenly, Michael Saintface appeared next to me. His genuine excitement for the imminent arrival of Morrissey reminded me of when my mom took me out of school to see the first showing of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in 1980. He’s already an intense dude, but this was pure love (though slightly scary), and I must admit, it was infectious. Before I could even respond, Michael had run to the dead center of the security barrier to join his two bandmates as they welcomed their idol to the stage with hundreds of other screaming fans. We were close, but Saintface was now closer. And there he was, Moz himself, looking lean, handsome and stylish. And honestly, with this crowd, the man could do no wrong. Granted, he’s not the wildman of the olden days, but he commands the stage in a unique and special way. His band, led by the ever-talented Boz Boorer, was tight and kept the pace up. The addition of a keyboardist (who also played horns and bongos) was welcome. And the fans, including the three members of Saintface dead center, went ballistic. Morrissey delivered a great performance. His show was centered around his forthcoming album and I’m happy to say the songs don’t suck. He chose his set list carefully, a Smiths song (THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT) here, a solo classic (EVERYDAY IS LIKE SUNDAY) there. It was enough to keep us engaged and entertained while serving as a reminder as to why this man deserves his status as “legend”. We sang along, we laughed, and we had fun. But the fun came not only from the gig, but from the audience…A guy seated in the row ahead of us decked out in a painted denim jacket that said MORRISSEY IS GOD, had run to the front to deliver Moz daffodils (someone had to). While his friends stayed in their seats and kept bringing him drinks, he patiently waited for Moz to come near him. This dude’s hard work paid off as his love of Morrissey was consummated not only when Moz graciously accepted the flowers, but then later allowed this man to kiss his hand. The look on this guys face when he turned back to his friends was priceless. His patient friends were very excited for him and I have to admit, Irene and I were quite happy for him. It’s rare when you can feel that kind of pure joy for someone at a gig. After years of being pissed off by his 45-minute sets of the past, Moz played a very full and hearty set. He returned to the stage to do the Smiths’ classic HAND IN GLOVE, which for old fan like me, was a welcome surprise. Even better was when Moz ripped off his shirt and threw it into the front row and left for good while several fans, like SHARKS, jumped for the shirt. Now normally I wouldn’t even mention such a thing if it hadn’t been for the fact that of the half dozen or so fans fighting for a piece of this shirt, the scariest, most intense fan vying for a piece was none other than Michael Saintface. Now, at this point the houselights are up and this shirt is STILL being violently fought over. These fans are not letting go! Security can’t even break this one up. They’re rolling over the seats! Upon realizing Michael was in the thick of it, Irene and I rushed over to cheer him on. “C’MON MIKE! DO IT FOR SAINTFACE!”, we yelled. Pieces are broken off, and some fans are leaving, but Michael, reaching levels of TAXI DRIVER era Deniro ferociousness, is still struggling to get him some Moz. Suddenly, the joke wasn’t funny anymore. Peter jumped in on this chaos when, after 10 minutes of struggle, it came down to Michael vs. one very aggressive woman. Little did Michael know that this woman is Saintface’s ASCAP rep who handles their publishing!!! Realizing this, Peter started asking Michael not to KILL this woman, thinking of course they will never see any publishing money. Eventually, thanks to Peter, they were able to each get a small piece of the shirt. I don’t think Michael spoke after this, but as I said to him on the way out, “Man, I’m glad your own our side!”. Joe Saintface, non-plussed by any of chaos, quietly convinced a roadie give him a set-list, so he was quite happy. Later, as Peter was walking out with an oversized mounted poster of Moz on the cover of Spin (given to him by the same ASCAP rep!), he informed us that this fight for the shirt is a regular tradition amongst them. Go figure. Also, and I’m warning those of you who are going to see Moz this week, Michael Saintface is going to be BACK for another show (not sure which). When the shirt flies, RUN. Let the man have it, for God’s sake! He’s a good guy, but he’s got a bad case of Moz-it is! (I hope he takes this all in good fun!) To say Irene and I were entertained by both the show and the events afterwards would again be another understatement. To the guy with the daffodils, I applaud you. To Saintface, It was an honour to see you leather clad warriors lose your cool and be true fans of music for one night. And to Morrissey, all is forgiven. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | It's a lazy day in MOGworld as Irene has been downed by a mediocre 2am cheeseburger that didn't agree with her (damn you Gramercy!) and I'm just flat out beat. We enjoyed seeing the entire MOG collective last night for the KIDD's birthday; however I am sad I missed Dan Hamill lapdance both men AND women. I'm sure all I have to do is ask... With Irene asleep, I've just finished watching Serpico, completing my inadvertant study of old school Al Pacino movies. GodDAMN, he was so good when he was young! I also used this weekend to catch up on recent Korean cinema. I watched first watched NATURAL CITY, which was described to me as the Korean BLADE RUNNER. Sure enough, it's almost the same plot, just with a few different twists, and not neary as good a film as Ridley's masterpiece. However, it looked fantastic, it was bloody and violent and I had fun watching, but it lacked substance. Next up was the highly recommended 2009 LOST MEMORIES which was pretty good, but not the classic I was told it was going to be. It had an interesting plot, but it meandered on. Plus it was shot on video, which was a big problem for me. However, I think Korea is the next big center of action movies, they just need to focus more on the stories and characters cause the directors are quite good and the ideas are very original (except when they're ripping off BLADE RUNNER). Anyway, I made two pit stops into the studio this weekend and here's what went down: LENINGRAD, originally known as TWO BASS, has finally been edited down to an acceptable length. It's original running time was over 7 minutes and after some rough vocals and some notes from Ash, I realized that this song would work better as an instrumental at a shorter length. Brandt and I had gone over the changes a few weeks ago with Ash and I pointed out what I planned to do, but I made sure to give myself some time to go over the track to make sure those changes are right. I got in front of the computer and it got it down very quickly to about 4 minutes plus change. It's tight now and I think it's going to work out great when we have the final drums in there. Yesterday marked, in my mind, a pretty historic moment as for the first time Brandt asked me to record HIM playing guitars. Usually he just goes and does his own thing, unless we're jamming or writing, but he's never asked me to play producer for his guitar playing till now. Due to a computer crash some months ago, some of the parts to THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE has to be re-recorded, and then several other parts had to be re-recorded to fit Ash's new basslines. I recorded a LOT of Brandt and all of it was quite awesome. The song rocks, and like every other song, it's going to blow up when we have the final drums in there. I don't think Brandt has much left to do other than re-track a few things here and there, but then its on to the final drum editing. Once he's done with that, I'll start on the final vocals. We've started to talk about HOW to release this album, and right now we're leaning towards putting it out ourselves just to avoid the problems I've had over the years with labels. I'm at that age where the record deal means less and putting out a finished album that I'm 150% happy with means more. Now I must make soup! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I'm still digging the Ryan Adams album immensely to the point where it's taking me time to get focused on the new Cure album. Upon the first few listens, I'm really liking the songs and the band sounds really inspired and motivated. In particular, Mr. Smith is pissed as hell on this record. I like that. However, I think the production blows, the mixing is flat and the severe raping of the defining Simon Gallup bass tone severly damages this album for me. I have a feeling that after seeing them perform these songs live at the end of next month I will appreciate them more. While I love the influence the producer has had on the band in terms of writing and performance, I think he should have stayed far away from the mixing. Since you last read me, I have been spending signficant time between both of my bands. For the aggression, I solidified the tracklisting for the album and it will truly complete that era of music. I then proceeded to go hogwild (heheh) and do 95% of the artwork for it. The front cover is something I have been dying to commit to CD for some time, It's a photo of Iceland at night (taken by Brandt), but I'm just waiting on a few fonts to get it totally into shape. Thanks to Leo, I have all the fonts from FLOOD, so there will be continuity from the previous full length (Similar to the first two aggression CD's). I'll post the cover when it's done. Meanwhile, check out www.theaggression.com for details on the new album as well an update on what the various members who DON'T post on this Blog are up to. As for Hypefactor, Brandt and I took another stab at 1956 on Monday. We cracked it even further. Usually I would think at this point we are overthinking the song, but in reality the song needs this work and it's becoming more organic as we progress. This time, Brandt finally had the live drums ready to play with the song and Robin is so fierce on it that we dropped another load of loops out of the song. Like I said, organic. Thanks to those new guitar parts from Leo, the vocal melodies need to totally change. Thats my next assignment. B did a really cool rough mix for me to take along so I'm at work as we speak! I've started to give friends and family a sneak peak at the material and the response has been very strong, I'm happy to say. I gave Almost Bar Fighter Dan Hamill a sneak preview and he was impressed and very complimentary. He's probably my biggest litmus test of music outside the musical core. Because he is not a musican (he is a stage actor), he represents 'the people'...I think. In the meantime, the THIRD band I have had the pleasure of being associated with has a nice review in Outburn this month and a good interview with Mr. Louche himself. Read it HERE: http://trixvintage.com/outburnchemlab.jpg (Thanks to whoever posted it on the Cracknation site). On deck this week is seeing SPIDERMAN 2 tomorrow night. Then, we have a gathering of the Factor Corp. principles (Brandt, Ash, Robin, myself and now Charles) scheduled for Thursday night to review everything. Hopfully no one will flake because I really want all of these people in a room asap. All that's left is the vocals for 1956 and Peterface. The light at the end of the tunnel grows brighter. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I'd like to take a quick moment to announce the arrival of the newest little member of the MOGpac...Lucia Mary Magdalene Link, born June 24, 2004 12:36 a.m. 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 52 centimeters. First child of longtime founding member of MOGworld Chris Link and his wife Nina. Said child is already being spoiled by me and my significant other! In other news, NAPOLEON DYNAMITE made me pee myself silly. Not a great movie by any means, but entertaining as hell. SWEET! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | A whirlwind of a day ended at 3am last night and after a long day of the au bon pain, studio, chinese food, fixing my fonts, more studio, Pluck U, Saintface, many drinks, soical time with the ladies of Internationalpoontang.com, a near barfight, a guy in a thong (yes he was the near barfight), a very public threesome (yes this involved the guy in the thong), and some pizza, I feel we all earned the right to sleep in this morning... We were able to find Leo somewhere in NYC yesterday and after a fun breakfast catching up, we dragged his ass into the Birdcage and put him to work. As predicted and hoped for, Leo again left his mark on EXIT STRATEGIES. Let me be frank with you, I was handling problems in my other professional life, but Leo, at B's direction (Earn that producing credit, son!) did some sweet ass backing vocals for THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE. I had many ideas for backing vocals for this, but they went way out of my range (and believe me I tried), but Leo really came up with some great stuff that I think really punctuates the choruses significantly. While doing all this, Leo somehow fixed a recent font related problem in my computer, for which I am very very greatful, while giving me thousands of new fonts to play with! We then gave Leo a playback of the song we wrote with him and Jamie Duffy, OUR FAITH, because he hadn't heard our changes. There weren't many other than my new vocals, so he he was really into it. He will be playing his own version of the song with his band, AM PACIFIC, at their upcoming shows in LA. You can't get a better compliment than that! After some Great Wall, we put a guitar in his hand. Brandt had wanted him to tackle LENINGRAD, but honestly I feel that song is truly developed, so, as mentioned in a previous entry, I knew we could do more to 1956, so we got him on the verses and boy did this turn out to be one of my better decisions. I won't give much away, but it's still getting further away from Primal Scream and closer and closer to Hypefactor. The effort is worth it, and like Charles before him, Leo now has opened new doors to this song that I think are going to make for an amazing final song. We're almost there with that track. Thanks to Leo, always the pro, for coming in and really pushing our material forward again... Later, I met back home with Irene for some Pluck U (which means she worked late and is too tired to fight me on the topic of dinner) and then had a few drinks with the ladies of Internationalpoontang.com, some of whom are quite sunburnt from extended sunbathing on either Long Island or Asia, depending on which poontanger you are speaking to. Congrats to Poontanger D on her new digs and the excellent drinks and kudos to whoever made the jello shots that Dan Hamill and Irene consumed like it was nobody's business. From there we were off to see the Face, back in action. I think I missed a gig due to an LA visit, so I was psyched. I think I have mentioned my hatred of the venue, Sine-E, before, mostly because of their horrible technical problems. This time, the face were problem-free and the gig was another enjoyable experience. If anything, my dear comrade Mr. Peter is far too prolific for his own good. I feel like we're on album 5 when I don't even own album 1. Right when I get attached to a song, he goes and writes three more. My concern is that songs I loved a year or two ago will never see the light of day in my ipod. I know the album will own and don't get me wrong, the guy doesn't write a bad song. It's just we're 5 albums in when I still want albums 1-4. I love the man, I love his band, (and yes you SAW me singing along to the last song, Joe) and I say all this purely out of love for the music that I want to own. As a musician, I understand not wanting to be stuck playing the same songs over and over again, but songs like I LOVE YOU, MADLY and THERE IS A ROOM (which I'm certain has to be on the album) got you to the dance and got a lot of people in that venue last night. Give them the hits, lads, give them the hits! We spent some time with the lads after the show. Peter, B and I discussed the HF album, and while he has his head around EXIST, melodically, CLEAN UP is a problem, so we are going to get Peterface into the Birdcage in July to work on it as a gang. I have now given him a deadline and he promises to stick to it. He's the last person we need to finish recording this album (No pressure, guy!). Then at some randumb (intentional spelling) lower east side bar that seemed straight out of 1981, Dan Hamill didn't like the way a drunk man (with his thong exposed and shirt lifted) was treating one of our friends and he made this known. Dan Hamill is not an easy man to provoke so when I accidentally walked into this I just stood quietly backing him up while he defended the honour of our friend. I'm still not sure what this was all about, quite frankly. In fact, I am going to try to ask him to write something for the blog explaining, but he made quite an impact on this crew. After, one of the guys, obviously intimidated by my beard while backing up Dan Hamill, tried to sweet talk me, and I responded with 'As long as none of my friends are fucked with, you'll be ok'. After that, they went to the back of the bar so the guy in the thong could resume his dry humping of the two girls who were making out (yes we have photos). We have travelled all over the world with very few problems, or three ways so this is one for the books just to see Dan Hamill as Harrison Ford. I already respected that kid, but after last night, I respect him more. The lovely day ended with a slize of pizza and garlic knots for my girl and I. As Leo and I sing in a song: Mas Bien. +F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I'm leaving shortly to go to the studio to work with B and our special guest Leo V23, who is in town for a spell and has been roped into to add even more to this album (hopefully in the form of some sharp backing vocals). I'm psyched to have Leo on our turf for a change and I expect a productive day (once we stop talking about the genius of Cerati). Stay tuned. In the meantime, last night, Irene and I checked out RUNNING ON KARMA starring my man Andy Lau and the beautiful Cecilla Cheung, at the 2004 New York Asian Film Festival. I might have discussed this film when I saw it some months ago (I'm a big fan), so the chance to see it on 35mm in a screening room was a must do for me. Irene had heard about it and had wanted to see it as well, so that got us to the theatre on time. Seeing a HK film on a movie screen in a movie theatre brought me back to my youth when I would sneak down to the Bowery (aged 10) to see whatever new movies were coming out of HK. Sadly there are no more Chinatown movie houses, so one must recapture their youth at these new kind of events. But the feeling was great. Go to the festival before this week is out. Some awesome movies are playing (like HERO and INFERNAL AFFAIRS). You can learn about at the Festival at http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/nyaff04home.htm Meanwhile, and I'm not sure why she bought this, while we were wandering about the upper west side the other night (don't tell anyone we were up there), Irene picked up the Ryan Adams CD LOVE IS HELL. Now, honestly, the guy seems to be a douche. When I first saw him, he was a douche singing in front of the Twin Towers and happened to grab some press because he filmed it before the Tradge (as it's called here). He's always in NME being, well a douche and because he lives nearby here, until recently I would see him quite a bit, quite often at the Gramercy, looking like, well, a douche, and usually with extremely funny but insane movie star girlfriend (who I hope is not a douche). He was recently photographed at my least favourite bar ever Black and White, which confirmed his huge douchedom. Also the cover of this album has two photos of himself, which makes it twice the necessary daily dose of doucheness. I'm under the impression Irene bought this for Adams' cover of Mr. Gallagher's WONDERWALL, which is quite legendary if you read NME enough like I do. I'm told this CD is two EP's combined into one CD because his label, obviously douches, felt the material was 'too dark' to release as a full length. Well thats kinda wack because this CD is REALLY awesome. And the Oasis cover does live up to the NME hype. Yes it's dark, but his lyrics are solid and his melodies are sweet and I keep going back to the CD, no matter how many times I have the urge to listen to Ministry ;-) Well, thumbs up for that douche at the Gramercy. The fucker can write some tunes. Lesson learned: look beyond on the douche and listen to the tunes. You'll be shocked what you hear. Do that with Ass Cobra as well. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Matt is obviously poopy from the lack of aggression in his life, so let me tell you about the Skinny Puppy shows. The fact of the matter is, as Irene put it, this was a 'reunion' show and no matter how much we loved this kind of stuff back in the day, and I was fortunate enough to see Puppy in 1992 (the best year ever), whatever we were about to see in 2004 just wasn't going to be the same thing. For some, like my significant other, this make the show skippable. For me, I can appreciate the challenge that was laying ahead for Mssrs. Key and Ogilvie. Most of my interest in this was helped by the fact that the new album is really good. I respect their NOT going back and doing something they had done before (screw you diehards), so I expected them to do something different live. The quick comparison: Puppy was very performance art based in the old days, tons of props, big set, etc, which you could pull off back then without losing your shirt. in 2004, its impossible to pull off a big stage show, so the emphasis was focused on musical performance and to that effect, a guitarist/bassist was added as well as a drummer, while Mr. Key manned the keyboards. Honestly, I think that his moving from drums (he is amazing) to keyboards was perhaps the only true error of this tour. His style is unique and while I'm not knocking the drummer they had (he too was amazing), it did take away from their particular sound. It seems I have spoken negative about this, but quite honestly, I had a blast, especially the first night. In an unusual move for me, I avoided reading about setlists, so I went into it all fresh. it was an open book for me. They played a great range of material spanning their whole career, including gems like GLASS HOUSES, TIN OMEN, TESTURE and INQUISITION, and other 'hits'. I was impressed by the way the music was presented and I thought the live versions, particularly of the olders stuff like SMOTHERED HOPE, were sharp without insulting the original versions. I would like to note that Ash marked out like a maniac at this gig, which is a big compliment. Also, we got TWO encores at this gig, which I'm told is very rare on this tour. By the time I left the first night, I was pumped to see it again. The second night was interesting in that its like seeing a movie you really liked for the second time and you find things you like even more and now a few things you didnt like as much. But nothing I hated and I wasn't as excited as I was the first night, obviously, but it allowed me to appreciate the show more. I had heard from TODD RYAN (I spell his name in caps, so you can all yell at him), that Puppy had rehearsed 18 different set lists, but the set list was pretty much the same the second night. We stood in a different spot and got a better view than the night before, so it was fun to watch even more. Ogre's voice was much better the second night, and the music seemed tighter, but the crowd and the vibe was lacking the second night. However, just when I was ready to get myself a drink, out of nowhere they brought out Grandpa Al to guest on TIN OMEN. It was 1992 (the best year ever) all over again. I don't think Al was plugged in, and he seemed quite zombified (and industrial Ozzy), but the idea of Al guesting with Puppy after all these years on a classic song he helped produce was enough for the crowd to lose their shit and for the 19 year old in me to flash a wide smile. It may not have been a classic performance, but it was certainly a classic moment. And in this day and age, a classic moment here and there with our old heroes is good enough...even if they look like theyre straight out of WEEKEND AT BERNIES. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | first the 'sad' news... http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story?id=6197868&pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1 next, skinny puppy was alright. i didn't walk out with the shock and awe i was expecting or that i had seen before - but i also didn't walk out. the guitarist/bassist guy - no complaints. the drummer - no complaints. cEVIN key - well, quite honestly he's fat, but he seemed appreciative of the crowd. ogre - homeboy can't navigate his own costumes, but that's ok - he's canadian. but on the whole, you spend two nights in NYC and you alter the set by one...two?...songs?!?!?! sure we got some bonuses that most cities won't: smothered hope on the first night as an extra encore and Al 'i don't KNOW what to say about him' Jorgensen on 'guitar' for tin omen - i'll let someone else comment on that one...i'm left speechless. but seriously, even the aggression would switch things up for gigs within a short time period (btw - i've heard they might be making a comeback). the techs for the band SUCKED as there were multiple occasions when ogre was left sans mic or mic stand or both. and let's not even get into the crowd. i give the first show a generous 3 out of 5 for the first night and a 2.5 for the second. they highlight of last night was seeing the ESPN Radio dodgeball interviewer who remembers chatting with irene at length - like that's shocking ;) |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I keep talking about how we are in the home stretch, and while these songs are pretty much up to snuff and just need drum edits before mixing, one song, called one.nine.five.six (which I'll herein refer to as 1956) has plagued us. It's been through several arrangement changes, and everyone has had a feeling for sometime that this track was not quite there yet. So now, thanks to our newest addition Charles breathing new melodic life into the song by adding some new basslines, I was now ready to tackle Track 2 of the new Hypefactor album, which by the way, is the angriest, heaviest song HF has ever done, and will appeal to the few aggression fans who might pick this record up someday. This song was intended to be our Primal Scream homage. And while it's still a nod to Booby G and co, I decided to loosen the reigns while molding this song into shape. Again, kudos to Charles for his solid work the other night. Because of him, I was able to blow this tune wide open. The track is very loop-based and repetative in nature, so I decided to go over all of these parts with a fine comb. Doing so, I found that these verses could be cut in half without losing the intensity of the song. Originally, the song opened with a quick POW, similar to the aggression's CHEMICAL SUN or Primal Scream's MISS LUCIFER, but after going through these loops, we found several loops and feedback guitar (and of course some of Charles' bass) that I loved and was able to turn these into a cool new intro . B and I agreed that the intro should remain loop based so when the song starts, the impact of the drums guitars will hopefully knock the listener on their ass. At least that is the intention. During all this, Brandt's musical brain was working overtime and we tracked some new melodic guitars to put over the non-vocal verses. That nailed it as far as I was concerned. And by the time it was over, 1956 had evolved into something new and exciting. It's in good enough shape for me to now lay down some vocals this coming week, but don't be surprised that once we have the vocals and live drums edited in that this song goes through another draft (mostly because there are so many loops that can probably be removed once Robin's drums are in). Not bad for a song that started 2 years ago with the aggression fooling around with laptops and guitars in my parents living room. SPEAKING of the aggression, they will have a CD out in early 2005 featuring 14 (mostly unreleased) remixes from the course of their entire history. I'll get further into this as time progresses and details have emerged, but as Dan Hamill says 'Nostalgia is IN'. It is nice though to meet people who appreciate the aggression and their body of work and who want to hear more. Keeping it old school I-Rock, The MOGpac at Skinny Puppy tomorrow and Monday, look for us. I'm the one with the beard (facial hair, not Ash) F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Between an evening at the movies and a night in the studio, Thursday was a good day in MOGworld. This week I edited drum tracks for Exit Strategies about eight hours every day, so it felt really fucking liberating to do something else for one evening, even if sitting in front of a G4 PowerBook was still involved. At last Saturday's dodgeball league tournament, the organizers were kind enough to give every team free passes to a screening of the new Ben Stiller/Vince Vaughn flick Dodgeball . Vince is consistently fantastic, but Stiller is a hit-or-miss comedy writer (see Envy ), so I was not expecting brilliance when I met FJ, Irene and her coworker at the Kips Bay Loews yesterday. And while this movie is not mediocre (though many will call it that), nor is it stunning (and a few may call it that), we laughed. A lot. Like Zoolander , some gags were bizarre or simply did not make any sense. But the great material veers between brilliant one-liners ('You're as useful as poo-flavored lollipop!'), cruelty ('You were adopted. Your parents don't even love you.') and pottymouth laughs (a bar called The Dirty Sanchez), not to mention the nut-punching physical comedy. The non-sequitors and Mexican jokes also had us in stitches. By the time FJ and I reached my block of Maiden Lane, Charles was already outside. We had planned a full band gathering at the studio yesterday, but Ash and Robin both bowed out for personal reasons. So rather than summit about the progress of Exit Strategies with everyone, we focused on three specific songs with Charles that needed bass overdubs or full-on rewrites. As the live drum edits came together for the record, we took the time to replay or completely refashion many instrumental takes recorded against drum loops. The recent addition of Charles to the hypefactor studio crew gave even FJ - typically reticent to re-record anything - impetus to erase a slew of old parts and start from scratch. In the case of the song 'Solar,' last night marked the third time we had revisted the song's bass part. On 'Exist' and 'Oneninefivesix,' early performances that we found somewhat lackluster were axed as well. We blew through the three songs quite quickly as Charles works at a steady pace and possesses a drum machine's sense of tempo, enabling us to keep takes to a minimum. There were some slow points during 'Solar' and 'Oneninefivesix,' although I chalk that up to the fact that Charles was exhausted and I was pushing him to both write and play long, seamless takes for both songs. A bit much for midnight on a Thursday, perhaps, but he pulled it off. While the work we did last night may seem mundane, I cannot stress the significance of the evening enough in terms of improving band dynamic. FJ and Charles had never been in a room together under creative circumstances (as FJ missed the 'Descriptive' session in May for a Los Angeles trip), so it was important that they get a feel for each other (in a completely straight way.) By the end of the evening, FJ and Charles were avidly reminiscing about obscure 80s new wave (Nik Kershaw) and other 'stuff,' so all in all I would say it was a stellar session. Most importantly, Charles is smitten with the hypefactor material. Plans tonight include !!! live at Bowery Ballroom, followed by another day in the studio tomorrow morning working on 'Oneninefivesix' with FJ. The sold out !!! gig will almost certainly be a hipster clusterfuck, so I can only hope the set will be worth it (and better than Out Hud.) But I would settle for a mediocre set with an indie celebrity sighting (like Le Tigre's Kathleen Hanna moseying down West Fourth Street last Friday.) Today's cheap entertainment: urlLink http://www.tinymixtapes.com/amg/ , a customized mix tape generator. Worth reading to discover such situation-specific mix tape lists as, 'Songs to Listen to While Deciding What Color to Make the Background Behind a Crotchless Panty Because You Took Your Fancy Art School Education and Got a Job as a Graphic Designer at a Lingerie Company' (requested by Nikki and compiled by Danor). |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Here's a quick post to put some whipped cream on top of a sundae of a Saturday... urlLink http://www.reuters.com/newsSearchResultsHome.jhtml;jsessionid=TTVMIAQRJ55RSCRBAE0CFFA?query=dodgeball&qtype=p&x=16&y=4 once on that page, click on the first link...pretty sweet, right? that's BTSH bad boy Reno in the background. the photgrapher got a mega shot of him jumping over a ball, but for whatever retarded reasons, it wasn't used. in case anyone is wondering, that is a partial view of my knee - sans knee pad. when you're done with that, get ready to click on the third link, but hear ash yelling 'token' in your head...can you hear it? ok now go click on the third link on the aforementioned page. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Well, after months of anticipation, Irene and I were finally able to stay in town long enough to join MOG Athletics' Dodgeball Team for their second tournament. The whole experience was quite funny and enjoyable. It's an organized monthly tournament filled with a few hundred 20 and 30 somethings, all of whom take this game either quite seriously or in some cases, FAR too seriously. But believe me, those who took it far too seriously were heckled by the MOGpac and their cheerleaders, consisting of some of the ladies from Internationalpoontang.com. Most of the other teams were cool, but some were massive douches, but I guess in retrospect, it made it more fun to have heels to boo at (though people like the Douches of Rock, as I called them, reminded me way too much of why I never embraced the world of organized athletics or High School for that matter). We had a solid (much better than I thought) and ethusiastic team, led by Matt, who is a focused and determined Captain and the man who scored our most dramatic victory. It was exciting to cheer him on as he claimed a huge victory when we he was outnumbered. It was easily the highlight of a very enjoyable day. Everyone played their hearts out and you can't ask for more than that. There were several times I was worried about Irene and Robin getting smacked around a bit (especially after hearing how robin was smashed in 'the womb' last time), but everyone ended the day in good shape (and with free passes to the see movie DODGEBALL this week). This was followed by a fun afternoon of beer and food at some German place uptown and a nice long walk back home to Gramercy. Of course the evening was spent dead on the couch watching my newly purchased FREAKS AND GEEKS DVD. I remain in extreme pain as I type. Meanwhile, in the musical world, a remix the aggression did for the band DUBOK, has surfaced on their website www.Dubok.net. There's a pro and con this. The pro is that something I have worked hard on is now available and is receiving some nice comments, and the con is that this EP (which features lots of remixes by a lot of great artists that you can also download) was supposed to be released by Tinman last year, with the aggression's remix EP for THESE MILLION NIGHTS to follow it on the schedule. In my heart of hearts, I kept hoping I would hear from Tinman asking them for the EP so we could get the last of the aggression's FLOOD-era material out. It might in fact be the last ever aggression release. There are some amazing remixes that have yet to be heard from artists all over the world who busted their asses at my request. It makes me look like an idiot to them and makes us look flakey to the few fans who have seen the EP teased on theaggression.com and Tinman's site (which hasnt been updated since last October) and want to buy it. I have tried repeatedly to contact Tinman to resolve this as well as to get copies of my records, in particular the first HF CD, of which we have no copies of. I know we're not a band thats sells many records, but the last thing I want to do is not be able to release something thats been advertised. More if and when I know. I'm hearing good things about the Skinny Puppy tour, which member of the MOGpac will be attending here down the block from me one week from today. Some of us (like me) are going to both nights. I have a good feeling about this show. And I'm wondering, does Brandt wear his dodgeball kneepads when he mixes? F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Well, hipsters, I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Cure's travelling festival next month and if you see me there, you can thank Mattagement because thanks to a Ticketmaster screw up, the Internet Pre-Sale didn't start as scheduled and computer glitches made it EXTREMELY difficult for Dan Hamill and I to obtain our tickets this morning. Jokingly, I said to G 'If we don't have tickets in 5 minutes, I'm bringing Matt in', but then when I realized the situation wasn't improving, I, in fact, had to call in the trusty pal/manager. I was desparate. Matt, being Matt, once again brings good ticket karma to the table. As I conferenced called him and G on my cel while I rode through New York City in taxi cab on my way to the studio (normally, I take the subway, but I had to make myself available to the lads to get into my account to get the tix), Matt worked a miracle and was able to get the 4 tickets we needed for myself, Irene, G and Ash. Kudos to Matt, who's not even going to the gig (but he is seeing them in the South of France in a few weeks, so don't shed any tears for the fucker). This should be a good show. The Cure never disappoint and I haven't had a chance to see Interpol live, nor The Rapture. On the second stage, the music gods shine as Irene will finally get to see her beloved Muse and Dan Hamill will have the orgasmic time of his life experincing the hippy redheaded goodness that is Melissa Auf De Maur. And I'll laugh the whole time, I'm sure! Anyhow, this ticket fiasco made me incredibly late for the studio, so we rushed right into the album's opening track, THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE. This song was written well within my vocal range, but what happened since I did the scratch vocals is that Ash came in and re-wrote the bassline, thus changing the whole dynamic of the song. Also, this was my first time hearing Robin's live drums and they are nothing short of excellent!! She OWNS this album, but I needed to spend considerable time re-adjusting the vocal melodies to fit the new material. Of course, we got a better song out of it, but it took quite a while to do. I was able to get everything down eventually, but it took a lot of effort. However, I'm quite happy with the final result. I had a lot of ideas for backing vocals, but they are way out of my range, so we are contemplating bringing in a female vocalist. I also heard Brandt's new closing guitars and closing edit of DESCRIPTIVE, our new B-Side, and it's mega. We just need to get those verses in shape next. I did speak at length with Ash yesterday about this and 1956, so I think we're going to see the Factor Corp gathered together in the next week. Luckily, I finished my work today in time to make it to lunch with famous comic book artist currently drawing a popular book with an 'X' in the title. We had a fun and productive 2 and a half hour lunch, and I really enjoyed my time with him. Plus he signed a copy of his latest hit for me! Speaking of comic books, the first issue of DC's big summer event book IDENTITY CRISIS, by bestselling author Brad Meltzer, came out today and it's pretty flipping amazing. This is a MUST READ. And since we're on the topic, big kudos to my friends at DC Comics for having the stroke of genius to create a DC Direct figure based on the old Earth-2 Robin. This is my dream toy and an wonderful, unexpected shocker. Can't wait for that! And lastly on the can't wait front, thank you Mr. Lucas for allowing Cartoon Network to make a second season of CLONE WARS next year. Just don't screw up Episode 3, ok? F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Obviously he's been too busy staring at the birds across the way, as Brandt, in his genius, totally skipped over our Memorial Day session at the studio, which was in fact the First Official Vocal Session (tm) of the album. Let's start with this: I love writing lyrics, I like coming up with melodies, but I hate singing. Hate it. If I had my way, HF would have its own singer, but the only man I feel to be worthy enough to be the HF frontman has his own band to worry about, but he occasionally graces us with a vocal or two when it counts. You may have read about him here before. In the aggression, it was easier because you could get away with not being perfect because we would just slap distortion over it. Hypefactor, fortunately (or unfortunately) is different. Doing vocals with Brandt is a much different experience than working with Tom and Ash on FLOOD. Quite honestly, while I love the lads, recording the vocals for FLOOD with those two mo's was a horrible and frustating experience as they kept forcing on me what they wanted as opposed to making the most out of what I am capable of doing vocally (which isn't much to begin with, but hey, you try it). Brandt, while often a slow-mo, has the know-how to get the best performance out of me. He understands my range and what I can and can't do. What I learned from the last HF CD was that I work best demoing my scratch vocals and then listening to them for a month or so before coming in to record the final tracks. This approach also helps me in places where I feel the lyrics might be weak. I always carry my little lyric book with me to jot down revisions, so when the time comes to record the final vox, I'm ready to go. One final thing I thought was important to this process was my desire to record my vox against the real drums recorded for the album. Brandt has been editing the drums in bits and pieces, so if something had a real drum edited together, I focused on those first. I felt having the real drums to sing against would create the right emotion for each song as opposed to singing to loops. This went out the door somewhat when I started getting into the groove of things but lets see what happens when the drums are all in there. Because a lot of prep has gone into the vocals BEFORE I step into Brandt's bathroom to record, we're able to hit the ground running and this past Monday was no exception. We started with CREATION PHASE, and were able to wrap that up very quickly over several hours. Brandt would record several tracks of me recording different things in different ways so we had the pick of the litter later on when mixing. With this track we had the new ending that Ash, B and I wrote and I was able to come up with something on the fly to add to ending. It's a short vocal passage, but perfect in terms of the song coming to it's conclusion. This one is a stormer. After a long tea and biscuit break, We then tackled SOLAR, the album closer. This had partial drums but I got caught up in the song, so we laid down the whole song over the course of a few hours. Again the same approach of recording several different takes was applied. Also note, Brandt is a stickler for detail. If I fucked up a nuance of a vocal, I was ordered (in a nice way) to re-take it. This kid is determined to make this album as live and as real as possible and I think he just doesnt want to have sit and play with auto-tune for a month. Needless to say, i did my best and he didnt argue or make fun of me too much, though he keeps telling me to sing 'More Gay' on the mushier songs like SOLAR. Feeling the vibe, I asked him to roll THEME FROM PROPAGANDA, which isnt a song as much as it is the dance ceterpiece of the album. I originally wanted to leave it alone, but I had an idea to take an Undeworld-y approach to it, so we put a lof of effects on the vocal and I just improvd a bunch of random lyrics about clubs, coat checks, and assorted random BS that you hopefully not be able to make out when you hear the final song. I'm not sure what I did here, and I don't think B did either, but hey. So we're off to a good start. B has already filled you in on our Spanish Language Experience (tm), which was scary and fun. Luckily, Leo did all the hard work in advance, so I just had to make sure I was pronouncing everything properly. This is a lot harder than it sounds, kids. Anyway, I'm very high on this track, OUR FAITH, and the album itself here in the late stages is evolving into something better than what I thought it could be a month ago. There is still more work to be done, but luckily my next two songs, THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE, and ONE.NINE.FIVE.SIX are currently in the very capable musical hands of Brandt and Charles, respectively. Until they do their things on those tracks, I can't cut my vocals for those tracks, and I don't want to be in a position where I do vocals and then someone alters something musically in the song. In the meantime, I have to finish lyrics and verse melodies for DESCRIPTIVE. This will keep me occupied as I'm trying a whole new approach (for me) to lyric writing and vocal recording with this song. Brandt touches on it below, but I'll get further into it later on. Special thanks to my man Bisquit for sending me the studio version of RevCo's CATTLE GRIND (hilarious)! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I almost forgot to mention... In non-hypefactor news, a recent Guardian newspaper interview with Scotch charmer Kelly MacDonald included some wonderful news for fans of British drama (such as myself). The BBC ordered a second season of State Of Play , a six-part series about investigative reporters and political corruption in modern-day London that debuted in the States last month. While substantially shorter than MOG favorite 24 - it is customary for a British TV season to run a mere eight or nine episodes - the two shows share a great deal in terms of pacing (relentless action, frantic dialog, radical camera cuts, heart palpatations.) In the first season, the i-team tied a government researcher's murder and a drug shooting to an energy scandal in the British parliament, with plenty of unexpected twists. Admittedly no arms were severed in the making of the series, but this program can effortlessly hold a candle to 24 or any other mystery-action show. Need more convincing? The original cast, most of whom are tipped to return, includes MacDonald, John Simm (Bernard Sumner in 24-Hour Party People , a raver in Human Traffic ) and Bill Nighy (the aging rock star in Love Actually ), among countless others. And MacDonald, despite being married to a twit who plays bass in Travis, is worth the price of admission alone. Sadly, the BBC is rubbish when it comes to issuing DVDs in a timely fashion, and the first season of State Of Play is no exception: The Beeb's Web site lists a release date in February 2005. I hope, however, that BBC America will run the series a few more times in the interim for those who missed MacDonald's gorgeous accent. And the other stuff, of course. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | For the second post in a row the MOGpac heads south of the border. The circumstances: FJ and I booked another 10 a.m. session at BIrdcage on Wednesday to continue work on vocals. The day was unique, however, in that we decided to tackle a vocal track for the song 'Our Faith.' Which, as it happens, is sung entirely in Spanish... a language that neither FJ nor I speak. The backstory in 100 words or less: I demoed in the song in the fall of last year, then FJ came and re-arranged it. Jamie Duffy of Acumen Nation/DJ? Acucrack/Chemlab stopped in the studio and added guitars, followed by another few months of writing/arranging. Then, in March, we mailed the computer files for the song to Leo Canneto (Virus 23/AM Pacific), who recorded more guitars and a Spanish lead vocal while FJ visited him in Los Angeles. A Gustavo Cerati homage, basically, and a damn good one at that. While FJ knew he wanted the song to be a duet of sorts, he came to the studio with no real arrangement game plan yesterday. One idea floated earlier was to mix Leo's Spanish vocal with FJ singing in English. But after listening to the track on loop for about an hour, we realized that altering or eliminating any significant part of Leo's vocal to accomodate FJ was, well, pretty fucking stupid. It is a brilliant vocal, so why fuck with it? But in keeping with the duet plan, FJ saddled himself with the challenge of learning Leo's vocal in Spanish and doubling it. And he rose to the occasion, I must say, as he hammered the song out word-for-word over the course of a couple hours. One of his strongest deliveries yet. We also found the time to track a rough vocal for a chorus of 'Descriptive' yesterday, marking the first time we have ever recorded a vocal so early in a song's gestation. There is not much to write yet because the song is far from complete, but I think the final version of this particular vocal will be one of the finest performances FJ ever commits to tape. I predict that will be a difficult session, however, as the tune requires a delicate croon unlike most anything recorded by either hypefactor or The Aggression. More on how this plays out once we have the verse figured out... Aside from the vocals, I have been putting in a lot of hours at the studio editing drums and trying to keep the album on schedule. 'The Morning After The Life Before' is the priority song right now; we recorded a slew of guitar and bass overdubs in late April and early May, and we want to wrap up the vocals within a week. Once the live drums are mixed with some programmed rhythms (courtesy of Ash's wonderful TR-909 and, perhaps, Robin Emmet), this song will be a monster worthy of comparison to recorded music's best album openers. Modesty? Not in this case. Also near the front of the editing line is 'One.nine.five.six,' the aborted song we recovered from The Aggression's final demo sessions. A vocal session for that tune will have to wait, however, as FJ and I agreed earlier in the week that Charles should be invited to re-write and re-track the bass line. While FJ and I have been on the same page from day one about what the song should be ( Exterminator and Evil Heat -era Primal Scream, mostly), we both seemed to have reservations about our instrumental execution. In an effort to breathe some new life into our thinking, we gave Charles a wide berth in terms of what he can write and record, and I hope his ideas will allow us to revisit the guitar and vocal melodies later this month. If his performance on 'Descriptive' is any indication, Charles' playing will properly anchor the song, and that is exactly what it needs. And now for a non-sequitor: While the Birdcage studio (aka my apartment) has three rooms, most of the recording takes place in a room tucked in the northeast corner (as it is farthest away from my fifth-floor neighbors and, therefore, less noisy.) This is also the only room with a clear view of neighboring apartments, as it abuts directly on two other buildings. Lately, the view from my mixing desk has been getting more and more Cinemax. About two months ago, my distant neighbors decided to eat dinner in their lingerie. Last week, the people whose kitchen window looks out on the studio had some sort of professional photo shoot in their space, replete with many shirtless men. And last night, in a moment that would have thrilled Ash, I sat editing drums while a girl in the same kitchen walked around for ten minutes... topless. Now who said studio work was boring? |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | If you weren't at Rothko's on Friday night, you missed it, meng. I caught my first (and rare, for a NYer) glimpse of what would have been the result if Stephen Patrick Morrissey had been born in Tijuana instead of Manchester. This well-coifed man is Jose Maldonado, on loan from LA's Sweet and Tender Hooligans. He's got the hair, he's got the specs, he's got the cuffed jeans, he's got the cardigan, the paisley paisley shirt (i think it was paisley), the malnourished yet amorphic physique - but more than anything else, he's got the voice and the on-stage disposition and relationship with the audience that truly captures his idol's mystery. much unlike the fag (oh btw the douche - NO ONE LIKES YOU) that used to head up the Salford Lads (btw, guitarist John 'Johnny' Capp if you're reading this - how's RVC, pally?), Jose possesses class. ash and i walked out on a Lads gig 4+ years ago at Don Hill's because the fagsinger was such a (coining G) nightmare. back to the gig - kicking it off with the Queen is Dead, a few forgotten lyrics are quickly forgotten as he belts out the outro 'life is very long when your lonely', the set consisted of standard Moz and Smiths tunes including Shoplifters (sent out to Winona Ryder), Last of the Famous..., Girlfriend in a Coma, November Spawned a Monster and This Charming Man. The Lads even assembled a great rendition of First of the Gang to Die off the new one. All in all, SummerMan, my recently legalized S.O. and her teacher friend were all thoroughly impressed by the performance. did i mention the four go's right in front of brandt and me that led us to make a pact to never smith smiths/moz tunes to each other? i'll let him tell you about those guys. i'll leave you with a post i left on the Sweet and Tender Hooligans yahoo group in true fan appreciation... hey all - brand new to the group and i joined just to say thanks to Jose for making the trip out here - your performance was jaw-on-the-floor amazing. the last time i caught the Lads i WALKED OUT because the old lead singer was so terrible - in talent and personality - but that's neither here nor there. i'm sorry i didn't get a chance to catch up with you, but i expressed my appreciation to both ez and brian, the promoter. you kids in LA are damn lucky to have this guy as i'm sure you are aware! hope to see you out east again sometime soon. cheers. matt. JOSE MALDONADO REPLIES: Thanks for that, Matt. Sweet and Tender Hooligans played at The Knitting Factory New York last October and hope to return very soon. I was real happy to come back and visit The Big Apple again and I'll more than likely be back to run the marathon. Hmm.. maybe I can work a gig around that..? PS - someone had to respond to me... From: 'Jeremy Alisauskas' Date: Mon May 31, 2004 4:43 am Subject: Re: [Sweet and Tender Hooligans] NYC gig... How very cruel of you sir! Terrible in talent and personality? well if you walked out than you certainly didn't speak with him, so how may I ask do you know anything about his personality? Thats just a nasty thing to say, and being nasty doesn't make you look cool, it makes you look insecure. Goodnight Sir! AND I SAY THIS TO YOU MR. JEREMY ALISAUSKAS...being a dick-sucking homo doesn't make you look cool, it makes you look GAY! \ / Sir! |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | There is literally never a moment of rest this month as I woke up at 4am, got on a 7am plane, flew to NY, walked in the door, kissed Irene hello, ate some Pluck and then ran off to see Saintface in Brooklyn at my favourite venue Southpaw. The band were in TOP form and played with a lot of energy and the sharp musicianship I come to expect from these lads. Also, they played some more of the hits, including my two current favourite songs, which proves this very blog has some sway. And yes, that's been confirmed. Anyhow, the gig was REALLY good, they were firey and had the swagger of a band that is confident and excited about playing music. I love that. Also, Peter pulled an old school Frank move by dedicating the last song to one of his many ex-wives, which to me is always a genius move, so respect to him to that. Of course said ex wife was one of the ladies of internationalpoontang.com, which made it all the more enjoyable. Normally, this is where I would start bitching about their album, yadda yadda, but Peter has two days left of actual mixing. I told him I would be on his doorstep Wed morning ;-) I expect big things from this album and I doubt I will be disappointed. And you know it will be reviewed here first. Speaking of reviews, a ton of CD's have showed up here in my absence that have yet to be consumed, such as the new Damage Manual Remixes, Pigfaces' crackhead (I love getting things early), the Cracknation Sampler (thanks El!), and two CD's by Gustavo Cerati's bandmate/programmer Leandro Fresco, who is AWESOME. Lots to listen to, but not enough time as our day will be spent on Randall's Island checking out the Curiosa Festival. To say Irene is psyched to see Muse would be like saying I am a casual Star Wars fan. F. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | i've been in this city for an hour, and already i've seen: 1 transexual - pre or post-op, i can't confirm - we didn't get a chance to chat about it 2 asian men speaking french - which is one of the few things that freaks me out as much as midgets 3 homeless men 4 americans and tons of rack!!! not necessarily exposed, but still there. the only things for me now that would complete my trip are my boyfriend (ashley)who appreciate the rack, my girlfriend (who would appreciate the rack as much as ash or me) and my luggage, which some french fuck forgot to put on my flight from paris to nice. you's think that since these fags aren't spending any money or man power in the mid-east that they'd at least get the whole 'take the bag from this plane and put it on that plane down'. HOWEVER - me being the winner that i am, my suitcase has already been checked onto the next flight down which arrives at 5pm local time (it's 1115am now) which means that since my baggage is more than three hours late and i bought my plane tickets thru AMEX, i get some sort of make-good in the form of $$$ :) happy, but to say that i can't wait to kick it former-eastern-bloc-turned-genocidal-dictatorship tomorrow in croatia is an understatement. fuck the eu. i've been up for a full 24hours now, so as soon as my hotel room is ready i aim to sleep. i wish my friends well and i'll check in with updates of uncharted lands soon. NOTE TO FRANK: since you're into taking advice from the 5yo, what are his thoughts on REVENGE OF THE GAY? |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | My nephew, Cameron J. Bradish, informs me that we must never, EVER talk to the Mondu, which is a korean dumpling that Irene's mom makes that is blow away the best dumpling I have ever had. However, we're not allowed to talk to the Mondu, especially when we are eating it. I trust this 5 year old, so I will proceed to eat said Mondu and never EVER speak to it. I wanted this on record. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | My LA trip is taking its toll, but it does allow me a few fun moments. Took a quick pit stop in to see the nephew, who is recovering from dental surgery, which could suck for a 5 year old, but some Yu Gi Oh swag can be super medicine. Also, ran into young assistant friend of Agent/Lawyer/Advisor who wants to quit the biz to play guitar. Good seeing him, but too brief. We have a tentative plan to meet at The Short Stop, owned by one Greg Dulli, later this week, but I have a feeling I'm gonna get swamped and have to cancel, which sucks. I was able to end the evening on a high note for two reasons: Firstly, Dr. Fury himself, the original aggression vocalist turned screenwriter, was in town and we were able to catch up at Ca'brea, which thank fuck, is still open and in fact being renovated. The sweetie who runs the place gave me the full report on the renovations and made me feel like I own the place. Fury and I discussed his recent adventures in Alaska as well as our respective businesses. He is often eager to hear of my musical adventures as I feel he secretly longs to be in music again. I think. Don't tell him I said, but tell him I DO appreciate him treating. Nextly, I return to LA HQ to find a nice surprise in my E-box: an mp3 of Mr. Peter Saintface's vocal demo for the new HF song EXIST. I've had it on repeat repeatedly for some time and I am VERY VERY happy. He doesn't know this yet, but I love it and am quite happy. It's quite Depeche in nature. This is a very good thing. As always, Mr. Face was worth the wait and he gets a free drink from me when I hopefully see them back in NY on Friday night. I havent heard from Brandt on this song yet as he is in Chicago with family, but I have a feeling he will be pleased as well. More on this soon. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | The con was THIS close to a full success, mostly because I got screwed big time out of the convention only Batman figure. Lost the raffle every day. I suck. However, I scored a rare new BATMAN BEYOND Kubrick as well as a convention Teen Titans special Robin Mini Figure. I type this yet again in my SITH t-shirt, so the 2004 con will go down as the best so far. So now its back to LA for the week until the Cure gig Saturday. I'm going to try and catch Saintface in Bklyn on Friday night if I am awake (Hello, Peter!). Not much to report here other than a brief but enjoyable phone conversation with Mr Pally Neet, who is in Albany being visited at the moment by Agent/Advisor/lawyer, who's room I type this from. My chat with Dan was a nice surprise and uplifiting. He is a good vibe. I hope to get my grubby Machine Rock hands on their new material sooner than later...probably before Die Warzau if they keep delaying! Yes, I was seen at Skybar today, but I'm not proud of doing such LA things. Yes, I did make up for it by watching the awesome Iron Man match on Raw while eating Pizza. However, because former students turned pals have Direct we actually watched WWE on East Coast time, which has totally thrown me off. With Wrestling done at 8pm, I have no idea what to do with myself. Thus I am writing to you. I had a brief scare on Sunday when Mrs. Cramp (and unborn child) attempted to eat at my favourite LA eatery, Ca'brea, last night and found it was closed. I panicked big time, but called tonight and they answered, so maybe they are just closed on Sunday in the summer. I hope. I will try to make it there tomorrow night with former aggression vocalist turned screenwriter turned parent. I'll keep you posted. Back home, Irene informs me that Inv has sent some CD's. I think the Damage Manual remixes are in there, which is an interesting album to me. As you know, I adore my friend Connelly, but I felt the Damage Manual fell short, mostly because I thought the production wasn't up to snuff. The CD's sounded muddy (no pun intended, Neet) and failed to grab me like Murder Inc. did several years before. The lackluster show Brandt and I saw them play years ago didn't help either. However, hearing remixes could allow the project to take on a new meaning for me. Ill keep you posted. It's a shame Chemlab doesnt have a remix album out...we know who to thank for that, i think. Meanwhile, the UK trip gets even better, as Irene and I will be seeing Mr. Greg FUCKING Dulli himself and his Twilght Singers the day we get there. I will stay sober for this gig, I promise. Unless G shows, which isnt likely. I just got the tix and I am dead psyched, kids. Hope you like the new Blog look. I had no idea I had OPTIONS, so I looked into it... |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | The Rollercoaster I am on called ComicCon continues to run me ragged. I won't bore you with my true reasons for being here, thats part of my OTHER life, but I will tell you that it is exciting and exhausting to the extreme. I wouldn't trade the opportunity to be here for anything, its that much fun! First off: Irene is down in DC, but is a winner here in SD as I have not only gotten her a rare NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS item (Kubrick related, of course) but she about to be the proud owner of a personally autographed lithograph by her fave artist, Mr. Michael Turner. I don't know Mr. Turner very well, but I appreciate his going to the extra step to personalize the autograph for my significant other. I think she's gonna be happy... While working as well as searching for gifts for the nephew, cousin, and girlfriend, I took the opportunity, as I do every year here, to make some time for myself and attend the annual STAR WARS presentation along with 6,999 other people. This is always a highlight, especially when there is a new movie on the horizon. I'll skip over the details, you can always find them on the SW website, but being there for the first announcement of the new movie title, REVENGE OF THE SITH, at the end of the presentation, was something special for a diehard like myself. However, this is just where the fun begins... Immediately after announcing said title, Steve Sansweet, the Lucas 'guy' who gives these presentations, displayed a new tshirt with the new movie title/logo on it and announced the shirt would be onsale in 'Five minutes at the Star Wars Pavillion' (which is huge, fyi). Well, you dont say that kinda of thing to 7,000 insane fans, who all then RAN, and I mean RAN to get the tshirt. I didnt rush as I had calls to return, but when I made it to the line, there were literally THOUSANDS of people in front of me. In fact, Con security had to cut the line for safety reasons and of course, I was part of the line that was cut. RRRRR. Frustrated, I went on my way, not realizing I was walking past the back of the pavillion where said shirts were being sold. The securtiy people were so busy forcing people against the wall that they basically left the SW salespeople/cash registered unblocked, so yours truly had no problem walking RIGHT UP and buying a tshirt within 3 minutes and before they even let anyone get there!! In my perverted mind, I am the first person to ever buy a REVENGE shirt, but I know its not true, but ALLOW me the moment, ok? I got lucky here and was so scared that they were gonna bust me that I ran off as soon as I purchased the shirt. Within seconds, someone from Lucasfilm had grabbed me. I was ready to give the shirt back, but it was actually the girl working the register giving me my change!! I was so excited that I split before getting my money. While I am a sith badass for cutting thousands of people on line, she would make an honorable jedi for bringing me my change. Cheers to Lucascashregisterchick. My other highlight of the evening: While on my way to dinner with a wonderful TV actress who I grew up watching and having a major crush on, I was stung by a bee for the first time in my life. It SUCKED. I don't recommend it. Especially when dining with TV stars. However, it was a great conversation piece, especially when putting a bag of ice on my swelling neck. Fortunately, no allergic reaction. Yet. Pray. So its back to the Con for a bit tomorrow, then off to LA again for the week. I'm tired, but I have seen the wookie planet and thats enough to make me happy and sleep well. Goodnight, all! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Despite not being here for a few months, California is just how I left it: Sunny, hot, and filled with the usual suspects. I flew into town early to check out the rough cut of a certain movie that I am associated with that stars The One and current favourite actress who irene hates who lives near MOGworld despite being from accross the pond. I'm happy to say after 8 years, this movie has been worth it as it is great and you will hopefully all see it early 05. The sweet irony of it was that the next day, while sipping tea at the Four Seasons at a table next to kevin Spacey (who has a very large head, yet is more handsome in person than you would think), the same current favourite actress came walking in looking nothing short of amazing and justifying my longtime love of her. Cheers, Ms. W. I was only in LA briefly this week, sharing my time only with my lawyer/agent/advisor (now en route to NY) and cool as hell nephew who is the best. Thanks to Irene's moms for yet ANOTHER great meal. Cheers, Mama Bradish. I'm now in San Diego for ComicCon and it is quite frankly overwhelming. Its too big, but the Star Wars stuff is great this year and I type while wearing my new Original Trilogy tshirt. God somehow blessed me that I can live with a hot chick, put out records, and make movies while being a HUGE geek of epic proportions. And no, despite what some may tell you, I am not dressed like Han Solo for the convention. Being here at the moment puts my musical life on hold, but my art career is taking off. I have been asked by a new band (featuring ex members of my favourite all time industrial rock band) to create the new logo and look for the unit. I am excited about the challenge, so cheers to Ash and Ass Cobra! Ill try and write back regarding the con, but quite honestly, its going to kick my ass until I head back to LA on Sunday morning. I will then be in NYC for only a few weeks before Irene and I FINALLY make our way to Europe for the long awaited vacation. We will hit the UK and pay a visit to the French. We will be lazy and eat well and see Primal Scream with the Louches. This is a good life, kids. In the meantime, if youre in SD, say hello and come visit me at the Warners presentation tomorrow. i think you can figure out which presentation Ill be at with bells on. Also, for you Hollywood types, read VARIETY today and you might see yours truly mentioned there. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Since all is quiet due to MOGtravel, let me throw in a quick note about the Prince show I attended on Monday, 7/12. Two words: UN-real. The man has been doing it for 25 years and he hasn't lost a nanogram of it. Prince is a pure entertainer and a damn fine one at that. He got the entire crowd into the show; so much so that even this writer caught himself clapping along once or twice (this as opposed to the standard folded arms with the 'try to impress me' smugness on the face). For a capacity crowd at the World's Most Famous Arena, Prince delivered hard. He played the hits, he played the old school, he played the hits and the old school on a stool with an acoustic guitar. You could he missed the big shows. When he went into exile during the 'slave' years due to fights with Warner Bros, he'd play epics sets in tiny European clubs - that's well and good but someone of his caliber belongs on the big stage - he feeds off of it. The louder the crowd got, the more intense he got. No one walked out of the show feeling in anyway disappointed (except for my sister who wanted to hear '1999' - I tried to explain to her that since we've passed the year 1999, that it was kind of a moot point) - and good thing too since the tickets weren't exactly price like an all ages Fugazi gig. Prince, as expected, brought with him a stellar band. No, Sheila E was not there, but the 'precussionist', to his credit was outstanding. Prince also had one guitarist, bassist - both superb - two saxomaphonists - one of whom used to play with James Brown or something like that - a trumboner, and two keyboardists. All geniuses at their trade. And not to be out done, Prince can wail on the guitar. All the virtuoso rumors I had heard are TOTALLY valid. He started out with his traditional telecaster and eventually ended up with his signature swirly-glyph looking guitar. I was truly happy I experienced this - and, to boot, everyone who walked in the building received a copy of his new album. That's full-service stardom. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Well, the above phrase was uttered by MOGpac Athletics team captain Matt after the Pac lost a crucial dodgeball match to the tournaments first ever (at least from what I've seen) All-Girl team, and I think that sums up last nights D-ball performance. We managed to win one, but we suffered nothing but losses the entire evening. About this loss to women, I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of G, The Kidd, and our newest player, the utterly useless (yet enjoyable to have around) Lurch, who saw this match as an opportunity to 'play nice' and meet some girls. Since our team has girls, one of which is my own girlfriend, I felt no need to pull punches and eliminated several girls without mercy (and without injury). Matt I dont have to worry about as he doesn't respect women, Brandt, who played sleeveless and will never hear the end of it, is so young that he is still in his 'girls are yucky' phase, and Irene and Robin ARE girls. My other three mates, however, we're thinking with their willies and we were served up a big hulking plate of defeat. THANKS GUYS. Of course I mean this all in good fun. However, I must say, I had a ton of fun, even though weeknight dodgeball can be quite tiring as opposed to Saturday Mornings, in which you are rested and raring to go. I played all right, I guess. I think I played better than last time, but I was the victim of several bad calls and even got hot under the collar at one point with the ref, which is very unlike me (i was proven right though and allowed back). As a protest, I have decided to be the Brock Lesnar of D-ball and retire at the tender age of 31 to possibly return to my backyard wrestling career. If the money is right, I might return to D-ball, even though it has become a corporate monster of camera crews and Red Bull endorsements. I am about the GAME, the SPORT of Dodgeball. Special thanks to Pete and Damon for no-showing at the last minute, leaving us short. Cheers, bastards. Also special thanks to G who brought the driest, least chewy, Chewy Granola bars ever. Asshole! Anyhow, the night before was spent partially at the Birdcage, with me in the producers chair recording Brandt's new rythmn guitars for THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE, which had to be changed in light of Charle's recent bass revisions. B worked fast and with great skill and the night breezed by. I was only there a few hours, but left a very happy producer knowing that the opening track of the album will have the kick I want it to have. Brandt also threw in a few new brushstrokes which brought later parts of the song to life. Well played, guy. B also posted the new version of 1956 for the others to hear and while we havent heard from Ash about it, Charles really was into it. In some instances, he couldnt tell the difference between his basslines and my new basslines, which to me is a HUGE compliment! We might get him to tweak some of his bass because I used different drums in certain places now in the song and he feels he could tighten his stuff up. Bring it on, I say. I'm leaving for LA on Tuesday and B is off to Europa for a long spell on the 24th, but we're in super shape. The only thread dangling is Peter Saintface, who is mixing like a madman for S-face. We're patient people and he is worth waiting for as we have plenty to do. He's gonna sing two songs and is going to be the exclamation point on this album. To answer some of your E-mails, I have no idea when this record is coming out. Honestly, this is a new band starting basically from scratch and this album is crucial in defining who and what this band is and thus, it has to be perfect to us before you can hear. I love this record and won't sell it short, but damn am I itching to play some gigs with these people! Tidbits: IDENTITY CRISIS might be the best comic book mini-series since KINGDOM COME. Congrats to my pal Mr. Carlin on editing a potential masterpiece...I just wrapped up Ric Flair's autobiography, which is wonderful, funny and educational when it comes to a business that I love, but have very little knowledge of. Foley's books are a tad better, but this comes close...I count the seconds until new record label PULSEBLACK gets up and running. It's the Die Warzau guys and all of their projects and I'm expecting huge things from them. The new DW songs are amazing... I'm sure there's more, but the day must begin! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | First off, I just love the above title which is a quote from a description of the new Jackie Chan movie NEW POLICE STORY. My love of Jackie and his work is no secret to anyone, especially my lovely significant other who has to wake up every day to a wall of framed movie posters and photos and JC and me. Anyhow, I love the trailer for this new movie, so I'm hoping it's good. JC has supposedly decided to go back to HK and just make movies there for a few years. I can't say I disagree. When I'm not rushing to see his latest Hollywood work, we have a problem. It's ok JC, you made your millions, just do what you do best... Speaking of doing what you do best, I found myself back at the Birdcage this weekend working again on problem-song 1956. We've got the musical part of the song in great shape, so now it was time for the next step. I had the lyrics and the vocal melody all ready to go and upon my first delivery, Brandt felt quite frankly that the approach was flat and needed more. Weeks of work down the drain in 10 seconds. However, it was the kick in the ass I needed because we sat there for quite awhile going through the track line by line and after a relatively short time, we had a new vocal melody cooking. Once I nailed the first verse, the rest of the song just poured out of me. It was a weird night and day experience in the studio, as I felt quite stymied early on and then suddenly, as if someone had flicked a switch, I was able to figure this song out with little trouble. The other positive that came out of it was that while using a guitar to figure out certain notes for me to sing in the newer parts of the song Brandt, unbeknownst to himself, had written a new guitar part for the bridge. I convinced him to play what he was initially playing to figure out my vocal melody as a new solo. I then went and wrote a new vocal for the part and we had an even BETTER song. And with this, and I'm probably jinxing myself here, my recorded contributions to EXIT STRATEGIES have come to a close. All that is left is one P. Saintface coming in to the studio to make some vocal magic happen. More on that soon...I hope. With all of my musical work accomplished, I spent the later portion of the day/early evening with an assembled MOGpac at the annual German fest back home on the Island. Last year was a drunken mess of light and dark beers, sausage and potato pancakes. This year was a more reserved affair as we all got there much later, and we were all exhausted from our various musical projects (the Cobras had worked on tunes till 4:30am the night before and THEN rehearsed, which is a work ethic I can admire). Though brief, seeing the crew is always worth it. Yesterday, Irene and I tried to sleep in, but there's just always something going on that keeps us from sitting still (In fact, I couldn't even get time to watch the WWE PPV till 1am last night). We checked out the off-Broadway show COOKIN', which is really good in a STOMP kinda way, but this time with Asian cooking. It made us quite hungry, so we immediately ate like champs. Of course, it was no rest of the weary as I spent the rest of my night with Country Music's finest, THE NASHVILLE ATTITUDE, fronted by my talented cousin Marc Vincent, who writes better original music than the covers he plays. I'm catching up big time on recent music, but I'm too swamped too go in depth. But quickly: I'm shocked at how much I hate the new Prodigy album. I like the new Interpol, but felt it was too much of the same thing and they played it too safe. However, more tracks from the new Die Warzau album have emerged and I'm loving everything I'm hearing so far. That album has a lot of potential! Also, has anyone heard the new Clay People song FAILURE? It's a remix, but I like it. Mr. Neet, like Jimmy Marcus, remains one of the best singers ever in the genre and along with Jared, one of the best lyricists. No one can touch those two. Anyhow, the new Clay song reminds me of recent Chemlab. Funny, innit? Little time, little sleep, but nothing to complain about, kids. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Starting with this post, I will start a new section of this blog entitled 'What I've Learned From...' in which when I feel I have learned something for better or for worse from someone. I will relay this to help you as the reader learn from our experiences here in MOGworld. These entries will appear when necessary. The very first entry is: 'What I've learned from Mike 'The Kidd' Hess' I have learned to never go into bars my siblings frequent and try to namedrop them when my friends and I can't get served because we are drunken douches. And if you want to get kicked out of said bar (the best pub in NYC) just say to the bartender: 'BUT I'M IN THE AGGRESSION!' This does not work. You have been learned. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Beat from what seems like a week of non stop insanity, I will try to recollect the past few days to the best of my abilities. First off, SPIDERMAN 2 was nothing short of excellent. I don't think it's any secret that I love the first hour of the original film and hate the second hour of bad CGI, plot holes the size of mars, and bad pacing. For me, and as some of you know, comic book movies are my 'thing', and I can find very little I didn't like about SPIDEY 2. Every huge problem I had with the first movie, some of which are listed about, was addressed and it seems Sony has lifted the shackles off of Mr. Raimi and have allowed him to make not just a great superhero movie, but a great Sam Raimi film. A lot of the the quirkiness of his earlier work shines through here, and don't even get me started on the awesome Bruce Campbell cameo. Anyway, see it. Repeatedly. As planned, the entire crew got together Thursday night for a long listening/commentary session on the current status of EXIT STRATEGIES. Well, they got half of the record, really, but mostly the stuff that have made leaps and bounds in recent weeks. Of everything, OUR FAITH, received an overhwelming thumbs up from the group as did all of Charles' recent contributions. Thats not to say everything was peachy keen. Charles and Ash (and occasionally poor Robin, who I think was asleep most of the time) had a lot to say, and luckily in our grown up post-aggression drama years, their comments can be taken as how they are intended: to HELP improve the material. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean I agree with all of what they say, but these are the people who's opinions matter most and what they say WILL permeate my brain. It's nice working with people who don't have the ego's the size of continents and are trying to push you to be better at what you dol. Anyhow, notes were taken, suggestions were addressed, and by the end of the night, we had Charles hard at work on re-recording Ash's basslines for MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE. Charles lent a whole new dynamic to the song, and wisely took the opportunity to play his parts in and out and around my various F-basslines (no longer Hook-basslines, ok?) to create some awesome dueling melodies and a sweeter chorus than the one we had written (and without making it sound like fucking Ned's Atomic Dustbin). Because of that, I edited a significant amount of my own bass out, which now makes those lines that much more dramatic when they enter the song. I'm psyched! Well believe it or not, everyone had huge and I mean HUGE problems with the revamped 1956. At first, internally, I was a bit defensive about it, especially when Ash begged for it to be turned off (fucking drama queen), but once we got into a discussion about it and started to dissect the parts of the song, I began to understand the real problems of this song. The band really gave me the ability to stand back and look at this song, flaws and all. Along with Charles' new bass in MORNING, this was the most signficant thing that came out of the group meeting. It was a fun night, and I got a ton of positive feedback from the aggression members on the artwork for the new remix album. I'm going to step away from it for a bit to gain some perspective and get back to it. Of course, during the evening, everyone stole each others IPODS and traded music. Ah, the modern age. So, much appreciation to Robin, Ash, and Charles for making some time for the Factor Corp. I would say 3/4 of what they suggested will be incorporated. the 1/4 is just artsy crap that they can do in their own band (j/k). Speaking of which, their material just improves by the second. I'm really feeling what they are doing...and you will too. I think the group comments on 1956 effected Brandt as well as we spent a lot of Friday just talking about the song and what didn't work, etc. This led to Brandt and I meeting up early this morning to get to work on the next wave of this difficult song. Charles had called the song a musical 'Franksentein' as it had lots of good parts, but nothing that tied them together. Also, everyone seemed to have issues with the fact that there were so many loops. The new intro that I busted my ass on last week went out the door and I went back to the quick bang immediate start of the track (like THE MOTIVE). Then, the next thing we did was strip the song to its bare essentials of guitar, bass, drums and strings. Taking Charles' advice, I grabbed my bass, and B busted out his 12-string and we went and wrote a new section of the song that would successfully bridge the verse and chorus. It took a LONG time, it was a lot of hard work, but once we did this, we knew we had this song in a million times better place than it was when we started. It totally made sense to us why this song, up until this point, hadn't worked right. Brandt really took this one and ran and did several melodic and rocky guitar tracks to flesh it all out. While he was working out his parts, I was able to go into the computer and do some cool sound design on the guitar line I played in the verses. I smoothed it out, made it a little bit otherworldly and it fits much better within the song. Brandt later went in and re-did some of his verse wah guitars while I tightened robin's drums up to make it much more dance, more Stone Roses-y, which you know I love. Again, none of this was easy, but it was totally worth it. This new section works incredibly and we were able to change the big guitar solo towards then end to incorpoate this new section (believe it or not, the solo fit perfectly over it). With that, I went and created a new arrangement that has VERY few loops (maybe some one bar loop flourishes every now and then) and can easily be played by a rock band live. I got some Wanton Garden to go straight outta Chinatown as well as some DVDS (including the new BETTER TOMORROW remastered box set, which everyone should own instead of renting PAYCHECK). I checked out the new Andy Lau movie JIANG HU (also starring Irene's favourite Cantopop idol Edison Chen), but the movie was a bit lacking. Great idea, poor execution. Nice DVD package though. 10 bucks to anyone who can figure out what the hell happened to the release of the new Die Warzau album! It's killing me! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Here is today's fan mail, send to my hypefactor.com address: 'Rarely have I read through such a vast pile of horse manure.' That's from Brandt's dad, who, if he is referring to this very blog, is saying my life is horse shit, right? F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | i'm not a fan of europe. and with my new minimalist perspective, i'll leave it at that. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | While I cannot write volumes about the KMFDM debate as I am on holiday in Praha and writing this on the clock in a 'net cafe, I will say this in response to FJ's query... Sascha's comments about the making of Money are quite accurate, although some of what he said in the aforementioned interview was news even to me. At least two 'drafts' of Money were presented to Wax Trax! before the final version, and at least one of them was 'test pressed' (more on this in a minute). I knew very little about the first draft, but can only assume now that it was the Split LP mentioned by Sascha in the interview. When I spent at least one day per week trolling the used bins of Chicago record stores in the mid-1990s, I came across two Wax Trax! 'test pressings' within the span of one week that were quite unusual. For the uninitiated vinyl geeks, 'test pressings' are produced by pressing plants to see if the master being used in the duplication process is flawed. Almost every record or CD is test-pressed at some point, often in limited quantities (as few as five to ten copies.) Sleeves and jackets are rarely included, with pressing plants substituting generic 'white labels' in lieu of real artwork. Wax Trax!, however, test-pressed many of its records in far greater quantities and used the extras in promotional mailings to DJs and radio stations. Wax Trax! test pressings are relatively easy to spot, as most have computer-generated labels with the artist/album information and were produced by an American company called Hub-Servall. These pop up in record stores and on eBay every few months, most selling for little more than a few dollars. The identical Wax Trax! test pressings I found were for a KMFDM album called Apart . Upon listening I realized that both were preliminary drafts of the Money LP that had made it as far as the test pressing stage, but had been aborted for whatever reason. I wrote Sascha for more information and he said that, indeed, Money went through two separate drafts, although En Esch was still 'in' the band at the time and he failed to elaborate on any of the backstory cited in the recent interview. He did, however, ask for my one duplicate, as not even he had a copy, and I duly obliged with a mailing to Seattle. For you KMFDM completists out there, you need not worry about missing any material. Many of the songs ended up as remixes on singles from that era (ie 'Split-Apart' from Vogue ), and the rest saw the light of the day on the KMFDM rarities compilation Wax Trax!/TVT released in the late 1990s. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | In response to my previous post, the person I called out on the H-bar board regarding KMFDM's MONEY album has responded and with factual back-up to boot. He pointed me to a recent interview with Sascha KMFDM that gives the whole story: 'In 1991 we started recording MONEY. MONEY was not supposed to be called MONEY. It was supposed to be called SPLIT because En Esch and I decided to break up during the tour with Thrill Kill Kult in 1990. So we decided that our next recording budget would split half and a half. I would get one half and he would get one half and we would both make 5 songs. Back on those days it was all still on vinyl. So he made 5 songs, I made 5 songs and we threw the coin and decided who gets the A and who gets the B side of the record. WAX TRAX rejected B side which was the En Esch's side. They said it didn't sound like KMFDM at all and that they didn't like it.They didn't want to put it out because it didn't meet the criteria of the label. So they gave us more money. That's why we called it MONEY. That record was all about the money. And I finished up the album without En Esch and certainly that was kinda really bad blood between us because he felt sort of rejected.' This is just a bit of what is probably one of the best interviews I have ever read with Sascha: http://www.electromeda.net/audio/interviews/sascha_KMFDM.html It's a good read, though I prefer Lucia interviews. I for one am surprised Wax Trax even rejected stuff back in those days. Discuss. You learn something new every day. And again, hearing stories like this confirms my belief that someone needs to write a book on all of this! F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | A few things on my mind while I have your attention: On a late night visit to a magazine store on 3rd Ave, I noticed that some 'rock' magazine called REVOLVER had not only an article on Ministry, but also some kind of 'definitive' history of industrial music in. When I saw a 12 year old photo of Grandpa Al (not related to Grandpa Frank, Ash) I decided not to read the article, and I turned my attention to the horrible, inaccurate and insulting 'timeline' of industrial music. While I no longer have any love for the current state of this genre of music (mostly because no one good has come along in about 10 years), I do hold 'my' era (late 80's to late 90's) of it dear to my heart. To write something so poor and again, inaccurate, infuriates me beyond belief. The moron 'writer' who put this together goes so far as to talk about how Wax Trax founder Dannie Flescher passed away in 1995, when it was in fact Jim Nash. (God rest his soul). To me, this is a huge shitstain on the genre I started my musical career in. Fuck you, Revolver, you piece of shit magazine. On the subject of I-rock, a member of the Chemlab newsboard stated this regarding KMFDM: 'For the money album, En Esch chose to do five songs and have Sascha do the other five, and WaxTrax rejected all of Esch's submissions. ' For some reason, I find this hard to believe so I have called this person out to state where this comes from. Some of you who read this are well versed in the history of this music (Meaning: HEY BRANDT), so I ask, have you heard this story before? Answers to come... I feel its more than necessary for someone to go and write the history of shit shit down in a book and make it accurate. Mr. Gassman has been planning this for some time, often with my encouragement, and I hope being in a band doesn't distract him from writing said book. I constantly watch my employer get frustrated with the massive historical innacuracies in his chosen love, comic books, of which he knows basically everything (and I'm understating that), and I feel I'm going to fall into that same pit of frustration as time marches on. What happens when some 17 year old, curious about the genre, read REVOLVER's History of Industrial Rock and doesn't know better? Bullshit. Anyhow on a better a note, the Durans first single with the original lineup in a million years has surfaced and it's gay and awesome and is called SUNRISE. I love it. I saw them play this when I saw them in California last year and my agent/lawyer/advistory said as a compliment 'ohh, its nice and gay. They sound like The Pet Shop Boys'. I liked the song, but felt it was semi weak when I first heard it. Obviously the Durans did too as they have made it a lot harder than I remember it and the results are awesome. It's still nice and gay, but unashamed in it's Duran-ness (listen to that funky bridge), yet entirely modern and NOW. The future bodes well for the full-length album, ASTRONAUT, due out in October. I smell potential upcoming Album of the Year candidates in Duran Duran, Ian Brown, and Die Warzau. I was hoping for Oasis this year, but I don't think that's happening. Oh, and Saintface, of course! Speaking of which... Last night, Irene and I spent some quality time 'summiting' (as the MOGpac would call it) with Mr. Peter Saintface, who has been way too busy of late to read this blog. Hopefully by now he is caught up, but suffice to say, he is quite busy, still mixing and is THIS CLOSE to finishing the record. I remember being THIS CLOSE to finishing records and there were many weeks and months and in some cases, years, to go. Regardless, I will refrain from bitching about not owning the album at least until I fly back from Paris. Peter is looking well and relaxed, especially for a man THIS CLOSE to finishing an album. He was helpful in my search for this weeks NME (Ian Brown cover!) and encouraging of our adventures to come in the UK and Paris. We then discussed our respective and mutual musical worlds and he is excited to someday meet Charles. Our mutual musical worlds should be criscrossing again sometime in September I believe. Despite playing a lot of whiffle ball and Star Wars today, I was able to start work on another piece of art for Ash. Maybe he will like this one as much as I like his new songs. We shall see. Anyhow, there is a pay per view tomorrow that I need to rest up for. Cheers F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | The days draw near before Irene and I head to the other part of the world, so the chaos is at double speed (even though I am taking the time to blog and she is on the couch watching a screener of TROY and I think slowly regretting it). My morning was spent with our new friend Ben at at the Apple Store. Finally, someone there with some class and patience (though it was his last day there!) He handled a lot of my post-crash problems (reinstalling os9, etc) so I can get back into musical shape and he then addressed the physical problems facing this beaten-down Powerbook. I won't get into details, but its only 2 years old and looks like its been around for triple that. This stems from the fact that this computer has been all over the world with me and never stays in the same spot too long. You would think they would make these things a bit sturdier. Anyhow, lets just say Ben gave me the rock star treatment and this laptop will be as good as new by the time I return from Paris. Just so you know, his last two 'celebrity' clients at apple were myself (!) and Claire Danes, who i think he now has a crush on. The rest of the day was spent interacting with lots of cool people. Observe: Ash and I had a fun exchange all day via E-mail. I finally showed him my first piece for Ass Cobra and he started out REALLY liking it, and then in his own 'special' (as in special ed) Ash way, we had pretty much trashed the whole thing. HOWEVER, he gave me the music finally, which wil serve as the soundtrack to my European vacation. Hopefully, by the time I get back I'll have my head around the Cobra and get into it. Ash, Robin and Charles have an excellent new song called THREE WEEKS, which I am very fond of. I love that I be a fan of this band... Leo V23 has found his way onto I-Chat, which is a big pleasant surprise for me. Instead of now waiting every month to see him and exchange new music, we now have the direct line. As he prepares for his first official gig as AM PACIFC, he sent me a new song called 11:11 which is one of the best things he has ever done. I'm sad I will be missing this gig for sure, but he knows my schedule and hopefully can book around it next time I'm in LA. As I type. we are trading various rarities, live tracks, etc from the likes of Cerati and Fresco, et al. As if this isn't even a crazier day, Joe Saintface and I had a brief but nice exchange regarding the status of the new Saintface album. Regular readers of this blog will know that I am somewhat impatiently waiting for this album. It seems Joe is too. Supposedly, it was officially finished last night, though I will believe it when D'orge hears it, know what I mean? However, Peter, prepare to be stalked by your number 1 fan. I leave TUESDAY and need this in my I-Pod! Speaking of Mr. Face, I might have failed to mention that a few E-exchanges with Peter have taken place this week regarding the second of the HF songs he is singing for EXIT STRATEGIES called CLEAN UP. He sent in his suggested edit for the song, most of which I didn't have a problem with other than the fact that he totally cut everything I loved about the song (Read: F-bass parts). Needless to say, he trimmed the song by two minutes, which it totally needed, but I think and shortened version of the long F-bass parts will come back as a bridge somewhere. The compromise should be very easy to figure out once he finishes the vocals. Meanwhile, while Mr. Louche celebrates his anniversary and in preparation of our socializing in London next week, I have presented him a 'gameplan', which outlines some of what could be our immediate musical future together. Yes that sounds gay, but hopefully down the line, and if all goes according to plan you Louche fans will be happy labheads a year or two from now. Watch this space I keep hoping Irene falls asleep watching TROY so I can watch the OASIS gig I taped on Trio this afternoon while we were at dinner. Fingers crossed! F PS: SOMEONE TEACH ASH HOW TO USE THIS FUCKING THING! THANKS. |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Taking a break from music (and having a sick girlfriend at home) I caught up on my movies while also checking out several TV pilots that you all will be watching in the Fall. I'll clue you in on what I'm liking and what I'm not. First off, though still ill, Irene (A real trooper!) mustered up the strength to see COLLATERAL with me on Saturday night. It's very very entertaining, but ultimately is a bit over the top. Cruise is good and occasionally scary, and while Jamie Foxx is starting to display the traits of a young Denzel, the role he played was better suited for someone of Denzel's age. They should have made Foxx look a bit older to get the character across better. Jada Smith, who I normally don't like (and can never figure out that middle name of hers), is entering a hott phase, which is never a bad thing. She was really good in this, though she didn't do much. Michael Mann, a brilliant director, has a knack for making LA look like the coolest place on the planet, when it is, in fact a wackass town. It's incredible how he films the worst parts of Los Angeles and makes it look 'cool'. CONSTANTINE is like this as well (and a much better movie). Anyhow, COLLATERAL was satisfying, yet cartoony, but was ultimately good fun. The rest of my movie viewing was all straight out of Hong Kong: First off was Johnny To's new film BREAKING NEWS, which is a great semi-satire/political statement on the media and how it effects modern police tactics. As it progresses with its 'Die Hard in an Apartment Building' storyline, the police and criminals use the media and the internet against one another and it's very clever in it's execution. Simply put, I loved this film. It was smart and energetic and with the exception of the annoying as fuck Kelly Chen, the film was cast perfectly. I was happy to see Simon Yam (the Deniro to Johnny To's Scorcese) in a cameo and I think casting non-to regulars in the main roles was a smart choice. With movies like this, the superior PTU, and the stunning RUNNING ON KARMA, Johnny To has become HK's most diverse, daring and interesting director. He's the best thing to happen to HK cinema in a long time! Next was the lighter ENTER THE PHEONIX, which features many of HK's younger stars (including Irene'sfave supporting actor Chapman To) and is directed by first time director and popular young star Stephen Fung (who looks like he could be a young and better looking Jackie Chan). it's a triad based identity switch comedy with gay overtones. Sounds like a lot, yeah? Well, its really ambitious, perhaps a bit too ambitious. Daniel Wu, who I watched a lot of this weekend, is a good looking young guy who can actually act and he plays the role of the gay son of a dead triad leader with a lot of emotion and wit. He reminded me of a young Yuen Biao (one of my all time faves, of course) and sure enough Yuen Biao plays his dad in it! To say I marked out for this would be an understatment. The long lost Third Brother (along with Jackie and Sammo Hung) really brings some much needed emotional weight to the proceedings and grounds the film in his all to brief moments on screen. if anyone in HK cinema deserves a comeback, its Yuen Biao, who was so awesome in his movies with Jackie and Sammo and in classics like PRODIGAL SON, ON THE RUN, and his best film bar none: RIGHTING WRONGS. Anyway, the rest of the movie was light and fun and it breezed by with some fun cameos, best of which was Jackie himself in the very last frame. In 2004, seeing Jackie and Yuen in the same movie is enough to make me smile. Last but not least was the critically acclaimed ONE NIGHT IN MONGKOK, which again stars Daniel Wu, this time as a country bumpkin hitman who has come to HK to assassinate a triad leader while also searching for his lost love. The amazing, beautiful and underrated (and supposedly underfed) Cecillia Cheung plays the hooker he befriends along the way. This is more of an ensemble piece in which different stories intertwine throughout the most densely pouplated city in the world, Monkok. No one is clean in the movie, especially the cops, who do anything to cover their own flaws. The movie is dark, nasty and violent and is the first movie of that kind to really stir me in awhile. I think Cecillia gets a bum rap as an actress as she is GREAT in this (and also in RUNNING ON KARMA) and Daniel Wu could be, with some experience, the next Andy Lau. I can't recommend this movie any more highly. Probably the edgiest thing I've seen in awhile. GREAT stuff. For more about these movies, check out http://www.lovehkfilm.com, which in my expert opinion is the best HK review site on the net. I then turned my attention from HK Cinema to American Television and checked out 3 new shows that some of you will be watching in the coming season: THE MOUNTIAN is typical WB fare except this time at a ski resort. Not a terrible plot, but the acting is so so, and Oliver Hudson, who I usually like, is kinda flat here. Basically its about a family fighting to keep the resort alive after the death of the family patriarch. Skinner from X-Files is the bad guy and Barbara Hershey, who has gone through a terrible face lift, plays the mother to the family of good guys. The show is filled with women who would make great ingrediants for a dope bowl of ass soup, and thats the best thing going for this. Not terrible, it's set up very well actually, but not something I'm going to be DVRing in September. One show that is without a doubt on my must DVR list this season is LIFE AS WE KNOW IT (formerly knowin as DOIN' IT), which is an excellent modern coming of age series focused on three horny teenage boys who can only think about, well, doin' it. While the show seems like a straight up sex comedy while going into Ferris Bueller territory with the 3 leads breaking the fourth wall to talk to the audience, halfway into it the show takes a dramatic turn and suddenly pours on tons of depth for all of the characters. It's EXTREMELY well done. The cast of total unknowns helps as well as they are not all WB pretty kid types and it helps make it seem more real. Kelly Osbourne (!) is part of the ensemble is shockingly good as the 'fat chick' who one of the boys really likes but is afraid to date for fear of being made fun of for dating the fat chick. This is a show full of surprises and funny moments, but has a lot of depth and out our of nowhere (but not out of place) character development which makes this my top choice for the 04 season (along with Drea D'matteo in JOEY, cause she is just the best). I learned after that certain writers from FREAKS AND GEEKS are involved with this show which explains a lot, and explains why ABC will probably cancel it quick because its smart, edgy and intelligent: things we normally don't associate with network television these days. The third show is the highly touted JACK AND BOBBY, which is a smart and original show about two brothers (one in High School, the other just starting) in the year 2004, one of whom will become president of the United States 40 years from now. The show contains interstitals from the year 2049 in which they discuss the life of said president and how events in his younger life helped form the man he becomes. VERY clever. The two boys, though WB pretty, CAN act, which is good, but Christine Lahti as their overbearing and pothead mom needs to bring it down a few notches. She's a pain in the ass. Anyway, the set up is great, but my only complaint is that they reveal which brother will become president by the time the episode was over, which I think was a huge mistake. They could have milked this one for ages, and now it just becomes not 'which one becomes president', but 'what makes him president'. I think they may have jumped the shark with this one, but knowing the writers involved with this show, I have a feeling that my minor issues will disappear as the show progresses. This is one to watch! In other TV news, Dan Hamill's favourite actor and former bandmate of Vincent Gallo, LUKAS HAAS, has joined the cast of 24 this season. I have a feeling that with the show being revamped, this could be a much stronger season than last. Anyhow, I've rambled WAY too much and now you have Matt back to keep you occupied with his tales of gayness while I prepare for vacation. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Hello my friends. While taking holiday in eastern Europe I have gone for a record ten days without doing the following: checking my voicemail, checking my email, checking the DrudgeReport and checking the MOGworld blog. It is with great anticipation that I review all of these the moment I land in the USofA. So, how am I able to type this now? Well, I am actually typing in into MS Word now – fortunately I have borrowed my legal gf’s laptop for the flight home – I have blogging as well as an Advertising take home final to attend to. I ended up borrowing this laptop because she is actually on a different flight than I – she is flying KLM back to JFK. Long story short, I was supposed to fly out on AirFrance tonight at 6.55p local time but since her flight was this AM at 10p, I got on the first flight for the NYC. Having to pay a slight fee to allow for this, I learned at check that I was bumped up to business class – how brilliant – it reminds me of flights from London and Paris in trips gone by. When finally boarding, I was further delighted to learn that I had been upgraded again to First Class from Business. J Let me tell you – First Class is hard living. I’m about to down my third glass of champagne and consume a cheese plate prepared especially for me since the vegetarian meal was not available. I think that after I blog and eat and work on my final, I might watch some Curb Your Enthusiasm as I know for a fact that I have that DVD in said laptop at the moment – what I am not sure, however, is whether I have my cd envelopes with about 15 other DVDs for my viewing pleasure. My only complaint is that the power outlet in my chair seems to cutout every 5minutes…so tough this First Class livin’. Maybe later I will continue this blog to talk about my holiday…it includes but is not limited to the following: drug smuggling, French cars, industrial gods, gothic fags, German National Socialists, Hammerskins, miles of pavement, litres of petrol, millions of bugs and a black cat. Ciao! Someone near me is watching that Broken Glass movie with Hayden Christensen – HC is the Ryan Phillippe of the early 2000’s but without the hot wife. I don’t know what Lucas sees in this momo. And the flight has been a bit on the turbulent side. And I’ve switched from champagne to Sprite – much more refreshing. I’ve already had the chance to load my pictures into this computer – some keepers, some real losers. I’ll share those at a later date. Now I have to try to finish my final so that I don’t have to worry about it once again on terraferma. Well this flight continues to be turbulent – making me honestly nervous – and I never get nervous on flights. Let me use this opportunity to report on the musical aspect of my trip – M’ERA LUNA. What started as a one day festival, M’ERA LUNA has ended up being one of the surviving German events bringing in over 25,000 visitors to a beautiful little town that is pretty much over run with jerks in full clad black outfits in middle of the summer. This is something I will never understand. I don’t care who you think you are or how embedded in the “scene” you think you are – there is no reason to dress head to toe in black, whether it’s cotton or polyester or PVC or leather – it’s just stupid. And the other thing I don’t understand is why these people who love their snow white tans don’t enlist the services of sunblock. I witnessed some of the most horrific tan lines on Saturday that I was in shock. These kids don’t make any sense to me. When the Douche and I were exposed to the “tanned-goth” of the Doomsday 2000 festival – that, too, didn’t make sense to me until this weekend: M’ERA LUNA 2000 was a week before the Doomsday fest we went to, so by the time we saw them, their terrible burns had turned tan. Just sayin’. So the music. The Jax and I drove from Munich to Hildesheim with much ease and settled into our hostel only long enough to freshen up and hit the festival. Complaint number 1 – when you are charging 45 euros at the door for a single day ticket – ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS YOU FUCK! Or at least accept cards inside at the official t-shirt stands or have an ATM inside or something!!! After that setback and the realization that our purchasing power had greatly diminished even before entering the venue (an old airport), we wandered over to the main stage for the what was the second song of goth-rocker legend Wayne Hussey and The Mission. The band does not fit the man. I’m probably all wet on this but the guitarist looks a lot like Danny Lohner of NIN fame. The open-air affect was not nice to these guys. They put on a good performance considering the heat and the daylight and the stupid crowd. Following The Mission was L’Ame Immortelle – a band enjoyed by the Jax and a band I was interested in checking out because of the hype surrounding them and boy was I not disappointed – they sucked even worse than I had anticipated, though the crowd seemed to enjoy them greatly – see where I’m going here? This 6 piece included a drummer, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, female vocalist and male vocalist who doubled as cheerleader and occasionally hit a key or two. These cats were weak. Even the Jax was like asking if I felt like making a 4+ mile roundtrip walk to the nearest ATM rather than watch these guys. Pathetic. We next ventured over to “the hangar” in great anticipation of Fixmer/McCarthy. We headed over a little early and ended up catching the end of In Strict Confidence’s set. I’m not positive, but I think there was another industrial band from LI called ISC, but this is not the same band. This four piece, including a female vocalist for one song, owned the hangar. Their music was a bit simplistic, but was catchy. The lead singer reminded me of Ash if he were a bit more assertive and could sing in a deep German voice. After leaving the stage at promptly the moment they were supposed to (these Germans are proficient at some things) about 70% of the packed hangar left. We made our way to pretty close to the stage and I was beaming with anticipation. Then all of the Nitzer Ebb shirts started filing in. Everyone was ready for something special. Terrance Fixmer, some techno guy, came out and did his own soundcheck only to retreat back behind a curtain for another five minutes before showtime. Truth be told I was not a big fan of this album – but that wasn’t stopping me from strapping on my messenger bag as close to me as possible in case I had to remind the Germans why we won WWII. So Fixmer comes back out and gets some sort of beat going…DUH DUH DUH DUH and the germans are going nuts b/c that’s something they can dance to. Then Douglas McCarthy comes out – aviator Ray Ban shades, close buzz haircut, dark blue Levis (hanging a bit low though), black shoes and a dark blue button down with the sleeves rolled up – and shouts “REMEMBER ME?!?!?!” This man knows that everyone is there not because of his new project but because of who HE is/was – and he didn’t make us wait a single second and Fixmer’s beat/ambient tune turned into the main bassline and drum tracks from “Join in the Chant”. I instantly handed the Jax my camera (What do you call a girl at a hard core show? Coat rack.), then first I said “I’m going to cry” and quickly followed it with “I’m going to go elbow some Germans in the face”. Less than 5seconds later I found myself 3feet from the barricade in the dead center of the stage. All I can say is that McCarthy has been doing this for about 20years and his voice is still like is on the So Bright, So Strong e.p. Other NE songs included Murderous, Control, I’m Here and Let Your Body Learn (as the encore). My only slight complaint is that the old NE songs(except for JItC) were a bit more big 4/4 beat as opposed to the originals and also he tended to leave out verses settling for the big payoff of the bridges and choruses – I guess best delivered over the big beat. I was disappointed in that but I do understand why it was done the way it was, but like DM bringing back Black Celebration for the last (?) tour – it’s just plain not as good. Aside from having a wound on my elbow reopened by some faeg’s spike (causing blood to pour from my arm), I was thoroughly entertained and look forward to seeing them in the States – maybe Cesar can book it. Looking at the interactive flight map I can see we are over Québec now – only an hour + outside of Newark – it’s a wonderful feeling entering your own timezone again. Returning to work tomorrow is going to be a giant nightmare but I guess it’s what one has to do in order to take these adventures. Enough philosophizing – back to my homework for the remaining hour. Tchüess!!! (Brandt can correct my spelling) |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Sadly, with a girlfriend with flu-like symptoms, my planned screening of COLLATERAL didn't happen. I tried to pawn off the tickets to various friends, but no takers. Hopefully tonight my significant other will be in better shape to see this film. I read the script and while it was good (not great), I feel the director and actors will elevate it to where it needs to be. Meanwhile, I am hard at work doing lots of things NOT related to my music. This is only helped by the fact that one Brandt is somewhere like in Poland pretending he is 'cosmopolitan' when he is in fact, nothing more than Summer Man. Someone is gonna figure that out at some point and there will be some big ass trouble. Probably involving a big ass chick, knowing B. However, I have my own European trip to worry about, which will be Irene's first time in that direction of the world. While many people plan tours of historic sites and such, we are taking a more rock n roll approach to the trip and are just seeing gigs (at least in London) and being lazy as hell. So if you're British and you are at either the Twilight Singers, Primal Scream or David Cross (!) gigs in London this month, come say hello to the New Yorkers. Also on the cultural agenda for this trip: shopping, eating, and sleeping (probably in that order). And yes, I do intend to see a few old pals in London, mostly while Irene shops (Gilez, save me!). Anyhow, I've become preliminary art idea for the band In Loving Memory, which has been referred to here jokingly as Ass Cobra and will be referred to as such from this point on. Yes, this is Ash and company and I'm fascinated by the challenge of coming up with a 'look' for this project. However, i have no fucking music for this project, which doesn't help me (ASH!). I heard some more of it last week and damn do I like it a lot. Charles has been the difference maker big time and has brought out the best in Robin and Ash. I have one concept piece done already, but I really want to spend time with this and do it right. Our house continues (happily) to be MOG Central Station this week. Most of the week saw Agent/Lawyer/Advisor using MOGworld has her NYhomebase, though Irene has seen her more than I have. Also here was the 5 months preggers Mrs. Cramp, who is a riot and was introduced to Sizzling Rice Soup for the first time ever this week. Another convert! We dined with our new friend, Ben, who Irene and Mrs. Cramp befriended while trying to get Mrs. Cramp's laptop fixed at the Apple store. Ben is a cool dude and is studying to be a priest of some sort, and works at the apple store during his time away from Seminary School. Anyway, he too enjoyed the finer dining in Chinatown and as soon as I'm done with this entry, I will be heading down to see him to get this laptop into fighting shape. Aces. FYI, I have tried to re-listen to new albums I have recently had problems with or didn't love just to make sure they weren't lost in the shuffle in the recent onslaught of 'too much new music at the same time'. Sadly, very few of the opinions stated in previous entries have changed. I still hate the new Prodigy album (Q Magazine agrees), i still hate the production on the Cure album (so does Simon Gallup supposedly), and I still just like the Interpol album. I have new respect for Muse since seeing them live and am now enjoying the albums much more. I'm still digging the Damage Manual album immensely and the new Clay People stuff (only have a few demos) rocks my pants silly. I have tried to control my urge to run to a certain nearby bookstore to haunt the singer of my favourite band for mixes of what I think is his now completed album. It's so hard to be so restrainted. I know you read this, PLEASE PLEASE send me the album! OK. Out for now. F P.S. The headline quote is from my 6 year old cousin, Eric, who is my clone who, upon hearing the title of STAR WARS EPISODE III, proceeded to quote every instance the word SITH (or has he pronounces it: Seeeth) was used in the previous 5 movies. I can't think of much that would be make me prouder of this boy. To hear him quote a random Darth Maul line is astounding and brings great joy. Attack of the clones indeed! |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | I forgot to add in my blog yesterday that despite the Cure appearing sluggish, the musicianship was solid as always, and Bob's voice was in AMAZING shape. He's an incredible singer... Speaking of incredible singers, my pally Dan Neet (via my other pallyl TODD RYAN) sent some new Clay People tracks my way. Well I'm happy to report that so far, its another comeback worth salivating over. Dan is in TOP shape and the music is melodic, diverse and very very interesting. I like where this is going and I'm psyched to hear more. I believe he is working with some of the former members of Stabbing Westward, though the guitars are classic Clay. I think by now, many of you have heard the remix of the new song FAILURE, of which I have a fondness towards. The Damage Manual remix album is also so far very very good. Maybe I'm a sucker for anything Connelly, but this CD is filled with very cool and different remixes. It doesnt really get boring and thats VERY tough on a remix album. This should be in the ipod for awhile (more than their previous releases). Also, I acquired the VERY rare (so rare I literally got the last copies from a very random online store) of Leandro Fresco's CD's INVERNAL and VACACIONES. Both were released on the now defunct Fragil Discos label out of Argentina which also released Cerati's OCIO project some time ago. AMAZING ambient music. Impossible to get, but worth the month it took me to find it. Soundtracky and atmospheric and just kick ass. love it. I want to do something like this in the future. It's a good time to love music...finally. F |
4,192,173 | male | 27 | Technology | Pisces | 10,August,2004 | Still without any time to really take a day to rest, Irene and I, joined by G, Lurch and Ash (who graciously provided transport) went out to the landfill known as Randall's Island to check out The Cure's CURIOSA festival. The festival on paper is a good line up, filled with interesting bands, most of whom, with the exception of The Cure, I had yet to see. Therefore, this tour provided the opportunity for me to see bands I had been, ahem curious, about seeing perform live. We hit some traffic so we didn't get to see all of Mogwai, so I have no review to present to you. Thus, the gig starts with Dan Hamill's dreamboat, Melissa Auf Der Maur, who is a redheaded hippie with sweet thighs. She's a bit spacey (not kevin) for my tastes, so once she started singing about horses, I felt it was time to get a smootie. Dan Hamill seemed pleased with the gig, so thats enough for me. On the main stage, The Rapture took to the stage and they are super talented and super young. These kids look young enough to be The Kidd's kids, and that is saying something. However, they were fun, energetic and played a good set. The dude with the cowbell who dances like an idiot was at first very funny, then annoying, and in retrospect was back to being funny. There is something about The Rapture that never quite clicks with me musically, but they are crazy talented and have potential to really grow as a band. However, until then I felt like this tour had to be over in time for them to register for Freshman Orientation. They get a thumbs up from me. Then we checked out something called Thursday. Total shit. I recall very little other than Irene deciding to stay at the second stage in order to get a good spot for Muse. She was rather focused and determined and downright scary. But I get like that too... So then New York's supposed finest, INTERPOL, took to the stage. I'm a fan. I'm not a fanatic, but a fan, so I was really intruiged to see them more than any band on this tour. Sadly, this gig didn't deliver at all. They are lazy, they lack charisma and their performance flat out sucked. The best thing in the band is Carlos D, an amazing hipster douche, and that takes a lot for me to say. He had technical problems with his rig, which might have killed their momentum, but he literally is the only one besides the drummer who looks like they belong on a stage this size. The rythmn section carries this band far beyond anything it should be. The guitar player is a hack who's lack of style or distinction in his guitar playing and sound cripples this band immsenly. The singer's Ian Curtis gimmick goes way too far live and he sings without any conviction or passion. There is a BIG fucking difference between being cool in a nonchalant way and being nonchalant because you dont have the courage or skills to back it up. However, let me say that they do have some great songs on record, especially the new song NARC. After seeing Saintface give their fucking lives in a clubs the night before, Interpol come off as hipster douche hasbeens at 30. The singer from Interpol should go to Mercury Lounge on August 28th for some serious lessons on how to be a frontman. And yes that was Michael Saintface walking away after a few songs telling us 'I've seen enough'... Luckily this horrible experience and the whole day was saved by current UK sensations MUSE who made everyone on this tour look like fucking amatuers. While I have always liked them on CD, my concern was that they were products of the NME hype machine. Well, I am happy to report that they are more than deserving of the hype they have gotten in the UK. They are shockingly good musicians and the energy they had on stage was staggering. It was the best 45 minutes of the day and one of the best performances I have seen in ages. Matt Bellamy, the frontman, plays guitar in ways that are alien and while this is a rock band, the use of occasional loops makes me a sucker for them. Worth the hype. And thanks to Muse for making my girlfriend a very happy fan. Great stuff. And well...The Cure. They came on, and they played, and it was the first time I felt that they seemed, well, old. They seemed sluggish, especially when the limped through HIGH, and the new songs didn't translate nearly as well as I had hoped. Poor Simon Gallup kept trying to get the energy going and it just wasn't happening. I felt the set list lacked the diversity of other tours and I feel like I have heard this all played before. Of course the older stuff came across well and this was the first time I was REALLY into the very old stuff (Forest, 10:15), but the gig just lacked the spark, the energy, that they have had EVERY time I have seen them since 1989. The encore was great, however, and that helped a lot. I'm a sucker for a good outdoor gig, but when youre sitting on the grass swapping spit with your girl, you know the band just isn't delivering as they should. The evening ended with the crew grabbing a late dinner at the Gramercy. No sign of Ryan Adams (who is playing here soon, but is so not worth 40 bucks to see). All in all it was a good day, saved by the brits in Muse, so cheers. F |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | Testing, testing, cute bunny testing. |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | IIIIT'S GONNA RAIN!! Man, you know life is boring as hell when your posting to your blog with nothing to say and im not even @ home.(-.-;) It takes a long time to post from my cell, but the novelty of it hasnt worn off yet. (^O^) |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | Mood: It's a beautiful day today! They are making something in the home ec. room that seems to involve boiling strawberries and it smells sooooo good!! Jam, I think. I move on Sunday. Sooo troublesome. めんどうくせ なああ！ I'm pretty much packed but I'm going to be living at my old apartment till the 1st so I'll be living outta a bag till Tuesday. I'm going to go see Troy today though. Apparently it's three hours. mmm golden greek Orlando. They really picked a great cast I think. I have an enkai on Monday so it's going to be a busy, busy time for the next few days. |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | Mood: sad and a little upset. urlLink I got to this page because it was written on a buddys shirt in the Penny Arcade comic today. Totally random thing to do really. Then I clicked on the birds and the bees story, which is what the link goes to directly. I read the whole thing, all the time thinking it must be a kind of satire or SOME kind of joke. No such luck. I'm sure the author would say that letting our children think being gay is O.K. is not a topic to joke about. Sometimes, over here, when Sonia sees something on the news about America that shows something with a Bush view on it, she says she's kinda embarrassed to be American at that moment. I'm not christian, but I am human, and this man makes me embarrassed for the human race. It's a book, just because it's a very OLD book written when it was very common for scholars to take hallucinogens does not make it unquestionable. That's pointless logic though because it's the type of thing that a person has to accept to believe and the people who would benefit from it the most are unacceptable to it. It's a tough thing living on this planet with so many different people. Each one seems to think that it's not enough to hold an opinion. They feel that that convincing someone else will justify their stance more. It would be so nice if people would have the faith in themselves to hold their opinions and truly not care what others think. So many people say that they are that way, but if they are then why are they trying to change my thinking? It's not just about holding your own under fire, its about not firing on others as well. I was thinking though, like that kids in the comic; people have to get their ideas from somewhere. They are socially constructed. Plus, once they have them, i would be folly to have them set in stone. New ideas should be reviewed and judged on their own merits. Unfortuatly, most new ideas get judged on whether or not they will suposrt that person's existing ideas, which is quite the same as having them set in stone. I'm just trying to live in this world. I'm not smarter than many, and no, your probably not more or less intelligent than me by any great extent. Don't quote IQs at me, IQ isn't realism, or emotional sense. So many, many people who think that their particular education and personality makes them smarter. Everyone of those people will ignore a statement like that as well, maybe they don't think I'm intelligent enough to criticize them, they who KNOW what's right. Just like the man behind that page. If you could live in someone else's head for a bit, I bet you'd be surprised to find out they're NOT beneath you. They are a smart and reasoning human being with reasons for everything. If you fail to recognize that, then how smart are you? I believe that man is wrong, with all my heart. He can have his opinion, he can even believe that printing anti-gay pamphlets is the right thing to do. I'll still sit her and be sad for him. We can all only live as ourselves. |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | urlLink Just a picture post today. This is my dad as I imagine he MAY have looked once upon a time when he had hair. I think its a bit thin in the face though. Now, aint that neat!? |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | urlLink Tis Craig! Now, aint that neat!? |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | Mood: slightly perplexed... Now that I am on blogger I keep having to go to tripod to grab my little mood dudes. It's kinda troublesome. I can't just get rid of them though, they're too cute! The things I do to keep you people amused. OH, and get voting! I want to put something up there. Of course the people who have come to the site have probably voted so I suppose I should yell at the people who are lax in reading the best piece of literature on the internet today! |
1,463,590 | female | 24 | Education | Capricorn | 24,May,2004 | EEP! 3 posts today if you count the picture, sorry guys!! SCROLL DOWN to get to info!! |
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