'I am not a weak person... I can tell you that I have never had any fears and I will win this fight,'

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

Kid? ADULT

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

Another Satisfied Customer! Now featuring MORE Achterbahn!

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!

Too Long In My Mind

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

SAKE!

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

"It hasn't changed at all, son!"

Last night, at a hotel in lower Manhattan, I met the man who influenced me to pick up a bass guitar when I FIRST met him 12 years ago. It's no secret here who this person is, but needless to say he was a total gentleman who was funny and sweet. This brief conversation totally justified my musical existance. We discussed Hypefactor, bass playing and Gibson Thunderbirds. When he asked for a CD, I was floored. Kudos go to Irene (for giving me the last copy of Distracted Lover we had in the house, so I didnt have to rip down my framed copy), G (for coming along so I didn't look like a stalker), and B (tipping me off about the DJ set). It gets better as said bass hero is performing tonight here in NYC.

What a great moment. Thanks, Hooky!

Meanwhile, lyrics are bring revised and honed for HF2. I've been taking advantage of free moments during the Turkey break to focus on the written word. Yesterday, I shot some lyrics over to B and he came back with some positive feedback. Jazzed, by that, I began arranging what is now called OUR FAITH (title to change, though I hated calling it BITTER PARTY OF ONE). I have a decent intro and verse, so this morning I'll work on the choruses before being beaten by a 5 year old AGAIN (no complaints though!).

F

"Ill be over in a half hour"

I write this with a headache a mile wide, so bear with me. With Irene off on a girls night (which I'm told was quite hilarious), I made my way back to the studio to with the intention to remix Saintface and work on a song Brandt's had cooking for quite a while now called BITTER PARTY OF ONE (That title won't last, I promise). However, Ash decided he had to buy his cats gourmet dried fish, so he wasn't going to make, thus that meant no remixing as he had the Face parts. Rrrrr. Thus, we decided to work on the new song..

It took Brandt FOREVER to load this song and all the parts up and I was bored out of my freakin' mind. When he did get the song up, I have to admit I wasnt nearly as pleased with the track as I was when I heard it many weeks back. So a lot of deconstructing went on. The first thing to go were Brandt's strings, which sounded way the hell too much like TKK. Brandt let his Wax Trax fascination get the best of him with this song. I had played some bass awhile back which I thought blew, so I spent a lot of time writing new parts. This took a long time, but I was able to write basslines for the verses and choruses, though the chourses went through a few revisions as the day went on.

At some point during all this, Brandt received a phone call from Ash, saying he was coming by "in a half hour" to drop off the remix parts and I received a phone call from my old pal Jamie Duffy (on tour doing sound for Saves The Day) saying he also was coming by "in a half hour". Its interesting to see what "in a half hour" means for these guys as they didnt show until many half hours later, and hours apart from each other.

Anyway, there was no way Jamie was going to hang out with us and not play, so after he spent 3 hours Instant Messaging people, we put a guitar in his hand and DAMN did he take this new track to the next level. He played the most UN-Jamie like guitars I have ever heard (I mean this in a good way). He played some 12 string as well as some E-bow and really added some sexiness to the track. I just left him and Brandt alone to make this track happen. Now the song went from Wax Traxy to sounding like Soda Stereo. This is good. Damn good.

Then it became the industrial This Is Your Life as the three of us had a big dinner discussing everything under the sun about Jamie's and my past in the world of machine rock (as we call it now). Some funny stories were told and I think Brandt got a kick out of hearing a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that has happened to us over the years.

And yes, Jamie confirmed the atrocity that was the aggression hotel destruction incident. Brandt was shocked that that story was NOT exaggerated.

Then it was drinks long into the evening at KGB bar, which was a good choice as the drinks are strong and priced reasonably and the place isnt overcrowded. Like Russia. I think.

All in all, a fun evening. Thanks, Kid!

F

DISCO!

The Face made their Knitting Factory Debut last night for an early show opening for someone called My Favorite (who have a bit of a following, I'm told). Well, I'm happy to report that Saintface was in excellent form and played a very "hyper" (Irene's word) and "Spirited" (G's word) set. As a musician who knows the band members well, I could tell that they were having a VERY fun time on there. The music was tight, the band was loose. That's how it should be. Plus, they closed with an oldie called YOU BELONG TO ME, which confirms my suspicion that it's popping up on the album. Right, Peter?

I would like to add that Saintface have fallen into an old aggression trap. With the aggression, every gig was "the last gig ever" and we'd play a month later. Saintface's gimmick is "last gig of the year" and they play a month later. December 29th will be their third last gig of the year I think. Love it.

And yes, Peter, that was me who yelled "Disco". Sorry. I wouldn't do that if they weren't my favorite band.

Had a nice round of drinks after with my girl, G, brandt and Peter. Good times.

F

EXIT STRATEGIES

I miss you as well. But here I am.

Pigface, featuring Jared, came into town the other night. It was dilemma for me as we had tix for the Twilight Singers, who I dearly love, but I wanted to see Jared. Irene and I had a great sushi dinner with Jared, who I am always happy to see and have fun with. That was the highlight for sure. As for the gig, the crowd was dead, the venue blows and quite frankly, I feel like Pigface, other than as a promotional tour for Jared/Chemlab, is a dead topic at this point. Touring so soon after the last tour and touring the same market behind KMFDM (who I skipped intentionally when I found out they weren't playing Pig songs) was a huge mistake. Jared is a sole frontman and better off on his own and hopefully this tour at least gets people interested in Chemlab. I was invited to get up and sing CODIENE GLUE AND YOU with Jared (who treats me like a superstar, thanks), but legendary tampon jingle writer Siebold tried to boot me, obviously not paying attention to the fact that I was invited up. Kids stormed the stage, not helping with the confusion either, so eventually, I just sorta walked off the stage cause it was going nowhere. Maybe it was because the aggression was so much better than Douche Dept. when we opened for them. Just saying. And Curse Mckay? Thanks for the water. Dick.

Honestly, between us, I was nervous about going up, as this has been my scene since I was 18. Plus, I hadn’t been onstage in awhile. I was onstage maybe 2 minutes, tops. Irene and Matt were very protective of me post-leaving the stage as I guess I looked a bit frazzled. So my appreciation goes out to them. So while I’m thinking it was a humiliating experience, kids from the gig have been E-mailing me they loved the chaos. Go figure.

Anyway, post gig vibes were low, but thanks to a well-placed Text message from Mr. G, I was able to run down very quickly to catch the last hour of the Twilight Singers. Greg Dulli, fat and drunk, sang the new Outkast song and then played a bunch of Afghan Whigs songs. He was a mess. He talked non-stop. He doesn’t seem long for this world. I’m happy I saw this. I went to bed a happy boy.

The next night was back to the studio for some HF loving. THEY’VE JUST, the first song written for the new album, finally got the attention it deserved and is now a sweet, atmospheric song. Lotta soul to this one. Very pleased with it. 9 songs now for HF2.

Speaking of HF2: the new tentative album titles is EXIT STRATEGIES. You can figure that out on your own.

Last night, Irene found a great Vietnamese bistro for us to find solace in during a massive rainstorm before I headed over to the Coral Room to meet Ash and Brandt for the free Telfon Tel Aviv gig. This gig was nothing sort of EXCELLENT and the band impressed us with their ability to use live instruments instead of solely relying on a computer. Top notch, excellent music. Then I ran into Mike Burnlab, who did the artwork for the new Chemlab record and is a really good guy, so that was a nice surprise.

The evening ended at the Gramercy where Ash, Brandt and I had a very productive and positive discussion about all our different musical adventures. I left this summit quite jazzed and quite optimistic for the upcoming material. I wish everyone I worked with in music was as dedicated as these two (and Robinowitz).

Saintface tonight. More then.

F

JACKIE LAND!

I am going to be in some deep shit with this...

Jackie Chan in talks with government to construct a Jackie Chan village in Hong Kong over the next ten years
by Wu Chi Ming
2003.11.17

Jackie Chan took interviews with a few Japanese newspapers the other day, and revealed plans to cooperate with the Hong Kong government to construct a village (the Jackie village!) in ten years time.  The village could have a Jackie Chan museum and a movie themed park.

Jackie Chan's "Shanghai Knights" opened the day before yesterday in Japan.  But because he was hard at work on "New Police Story, Jackie was unable to promote the movie in person.  But he still attracted a large number of Japanese media who arrived in Hong Kong to interview him.  He accepted interviews from "Sports Daily" and "Sankei Sports" and disclosed his planned construction of the Jackie village in Hong Kong.  Each part of the facility [would be world class.]  Jackie Chan said, "...I plan a Jackie village!  Besides having a movie themed park, we could have a theater, a [sports area?] and a Jackie museum.

Jackie had originally had this idea on his mind for several years.  He said, "Although Jackie Village is still in the planning stage, there has already been four or five meetings with the Hong Kong government.  The final plan isn't in cement yet, and I can't disclose details.  It was a secret!  There are still a lot of plans for the project.  Moreover, from the beginning until now it's been about two or three years.  I believe in order to complete the project it would take ten years!"  A few years ago there were rumors of plans to construct a Jackie Chan museum in Yokohama, but the plan was stopped.  Now Jackie has regained hope.

http://www.the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20031117/img/c21117_big.jpg

FUCK YOUR PHONE!

Sorry, been buried. But here I am for your stalking pleasure.

Chemlab is literally consuming my life. This is not a bad thing. Tons of work, E-mails flooding in and lots of new interest in my musical world from the kids. The Chemlab message boards are a lot of fun so far. Hopefully, no jackasses will go and ruin it. Thanks to this new exposure, a few aggression/HF cd's are being bought up and the talk of the chat boards is the new Chemlab "MACHINE AGE" EP. Jared is out on the road with Pigface now selling it as well as the new T-shirts (can't wait to strap one of those on!). Finally, my copies of the EP arrived today thanks to the very nice Mike at Invisible and it sounds super. I think for a limited edition tour only item, this is the perverbial bomb, as they say. I'm not 100% happy with the way my artwork was printed, but I have little to nothing to complain about. Its the first official Chem-release in years and I got to be a part of it. Now, onwards to Oxidizer in January...and beyond.

Hypefactor is no less busy. Tackling the song THEYVE JUST, now which has gone from moody acoustical thing to mini-Cure epic. Love what this is turning into. Its the last song to be developed before we being tracking drums. LOTS of inter-corp discussion about the drums, etc. Thats a new challenge for us as we have never directly recorded live drums for one of our projects before. It will certainly be educational. Ash has laid some of the groundwork for this with the Cobra's, but I think we're gonna do some really great stuff in the next few weeks. Robin's ready for this. I know she will come through big time. Also, Brandt has updated the news section of the site, so check that our and LEARN, asap!

Meanwhile, the aggression (remember them) have been informed by the label that the THESE MILLION NIGHTS EP is on the schedule for early 04 (to capitalize on the chemlab association, I'm sure), so I've started prepping the art for it. We're not sure if it's going to be in a slim jewel case (like DEVIATIONS), which is my preference, or in a regular CD5 case, so as soon as I know, I can go full out on the art. the cover is ready. I'm looking forward to getting back into that world for a bit. I think the label has a few of their artists doing some remixes for this, so we might end up with maybe TEN remixes on this mother. Quite the bang for the buck.

And no, i will not comment on Paris Hilton. Now back to Cerati

F

Some Velvet Morning When I Blog

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

Creation Phase

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

A quck peep

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

DONT TRIP, PETER!

Back again from another Saintface gig last night, this time an early show at Mercury Lounge. Solid as always, and some of these new songs, including the set closer, are great dance tunes. However the gig was too early and quite, ahem, Frankly, I think they are playing around town too much. They should be out there less while their album is in progress. It will build anticpation and they would have better turn outs at the gigs. PLaying too much gives people the opportunity to skip a gig because they can always see them "next time". The aggression would play gigs like events so if you missed it, you were screwed (that doesnt always work either, but hey). As for the Saintface album, I predict this album will be quite good and worth the wait. Peter again is cryptic when asked about certain songs being on the album. He should be when I'm around, I guess!

I met with with both Peter Saintface and Michael Saintface tonight to discuss the new Hypefactor album. I also took the opportunity to finally give them the HF2 demos. Brandt got a bunch of songs into better shape so I could give them to the guys. They seem excited and Peter in particular seemed really keen on getting into it. I hope they can be a big part of this.

As mentioned above, new HF demos are now circulating amongst the core crew. I had purposely stayed away from listening to the tunes for a few weeks so I would be fresh eared when hearing these new roughs. I'm happy to report I am still loving this bitch and want very badly to get back into this record tomorrow. We're ready for live drums!

Ill be posting less mostly because Former High School Classmate turned College Roommate turned Magazine Writer got me the new Smackdown game for the PS2...what can I say other than THANKS!

three words: Cerati. Remix. Album. I ran straight to Ebay and got this 2cd bitch from Argentina. I cannot wait.

And the day begins....

"This was just like the Johnn Marr show, except GOOD!"

Been crazy working on Chemlab. Jared is off to Chicago today for the remaining details and then he is off on the Pigface tour. I've been sorting through the new mixes, dong notes and also doing some last minute sound design work for the EP. Fingers crossed no one at INV screws this up (no offense to everyone there, im just anti-labels today, keep reading). The mixes are dirty and more Chemlab than Chemlab. It's harsh and I like it. Luckily, the songwriting is really solid and the music itself is excellent, so its just a matter of mixing and getting it just right.

Mr. G and I caught Paul Weller the other night at Town Hall. It was an acoustic set and he was joined by Gem Archer of Oasis. I don't own any Paul Weller albums (mostly because G owned tons of it when we were roommates), but man do I want to now that I have seen him. The man is energetic and the songs were excellent. Gem is a shockingly good guitarist and really added a lot to it. Amazing. G's review of the gig can be found in the title heading above...

Today I received a fan letter from a guy, Timo, in Germany. He had heard the aggression on various comps and such and wanted to buy "everything", but Tinman hasn't returned ANY E-mails to him. Horrible. I am so furious that I wanted to give this kid every record I have ever done. Sadly, Tinman hasnt returned any of MY emails and I have no cd's either. So i pointed him in the right direction and he is very appreciative. Timo is dead psyched for Chemlab. Me too, pally.

The season premiere of 24 was last night and WOW did it deliver. Jack Bauer: Heroin addict!??!!! I can't handle how good this show is. I have the Kiefer Madness like there is no tomorrow. This is the best show on TV in the past 10 years i think. Since AMERICAN GOTHIC, a lost classic featuring Gary Cole.

Back to the grind, kids...

F

Fuck you... you heartless cunt

Hello again, everyone (all nine of you.) I know it has been some time since I posted here, and you have missed my impersonal musings terribly. You feel neglected. But I swear I will not let it happen again. There are simply too many thrills and wacky misadventures in my life at the moment, and I would be remiss were I to spare you any of the gory details. So here it goes:

hypefactor: part deux
I spent a fair amount of time working on the new hypefactor record during the past month, although I was distracted in recent weeks by school, real life shite and some other musical projects. Most of the guitars are tracked on nine songs, however, and I plan to wrap up writing, production and rough mixing on most of the material by the end of this week. There are also two new songs waiting in the wings - "Bitter Party Of One" and "Down To Brass Tacks" - that, for the most part, have yet to be tackled by the team. Both originated from guitar parts I wrote while messing about on other songs, and while they are shamelessly poppy and breezy, I am hoping they make the record. The plan now is to tackle them once we are well underway with tracking live drums, which everyone wants to see happen this month. My fingers are crossed.

We took a bit of a hiatus from work at the Birdcage in late October because F.J. was compelled to make one of his usual pilgrimages to Los Angeles. I gathered Ash and Robin for a session last Tuesday, however, where we reviewed some old parts (such as new guitars for the chaotic "Solar") and listened to some works in progress. But the bulk of our brief session was dedicated to "Two Basses Thin," which had become a thorn in my side as of late.

The song started during one of the June or July sessions with a basic acoustic/bass guitar motif jammed to inifinity, and was later expanded radically when Ash developed a slew of loops for a chorus. The result was somewhat messy in that we were left with two distinct sections that seemed incompatible, the tension between the two exacerbated by F's dense, seven-minute arrangement. The complexity of the thing had me both concerned and flummoxed for some time, and I found myself unable to write anything resembling a workable guitar structure, despite some excellent contributions from Robin and F.J. in the choruses.

The writer's block concerned me enough that I called in Robin and Ash to help me jam around the parts some more and see if the two sections could indeed be linked. At first, Ash also seemed put off by the arrangement, describing it as a "mess." I am not certain that he left the studio any less skeptical. But after an hour of playing, we tracked some lovely new E-Bow parts of Robin's and a new bass part of Ash's that seemed to make the transition more seamless. Having those two playing with me also gave me a much better handle on the chord structure, and I have now tracked a bunch of parts (on top of the 40 or so already there) that attempt to blend the verses and choruses melodically. I hope everything else thinks it works, because I still am not certain. We shall see at the end of this week after I have fleshed things out a bit more, assembled a working mix and circulated MP3s amongst the gang.

While I must leave now to write a paper about stress - in Portugese, no less - I will post again tomorrow in greater detail about some other recent work, including the hypefactor and Chemlab remixes, recent gigs (Spiritualized, Echo and The Bunnymen), record purchases (John Cale, Twilight Singers, Suede) and the continuing saga that is the hypefactor sessions. Until then, cheers.

The Machine Age...almost

Here I am. Been ill since my return from LA and have a houseguest in the form of Bradley J. Fox, so time is at a premium at the moment. We saw MYSTIC RIVER last night which was solid, but marred by a few flaws and an unncessary final 7 minutes. Also, Sean Penn has fallen into Pacino/DeNiro mode where he is starting to become a bit of a gimmick. Tim Robbins however, was quite good.

Anyhow, been using the sickly free time to just chill with S.O. and to also catch up on the mad rush of Chemwork that needs to be ready for the Pigface tour and the subsequent release of Oxidizer in January. Jared's been great in asking my opinion on things (like approving artwork and such) and I've been hectic doing the art for the new T-Shirts as well as for the new limited edition 'MACHINE AGE EP". I've been really hands on with this release, working with Jared on sutures for it as well as the aggression (remember them) contributing a remix to the project. I did the remix, but then had to run to LA, so Brandt really took the reign and really brought it home. so kudos to him cause he saved this one. It's hot and the only place you're going to get 5 of the 6 songs on this bitch. The final track listening has a new song called BLACK SNAKE VOODOO HISS, two sutures, two ESM demos, and the remix of BINARY NATION we did. Hopefully Invisible will get this ready in time for the Pigface tour. Speaking of which, make sure you go to the NYC show, you might see yours truly onstage if all goes as planned.

While I was gone, Brandt took the downtime to flesh out some remixes of DISTRACTED era HF tunes. Quite simply, they are AMAZING and when done, will be made available for all to hear. IN a perfect world, the new album would have a bonus disc with the DISTRACTED EP plus the remixes. A special edition if you will. Not light we ever signed a record deal for that anyways...

We have tickets to see Death Cab For Cutie tonight, but I might give my ticket to out friend from poontang who's apt went on fire and her ticket is now lost. She is a bigger fan than I am and I think this would make her happy.

Back to the grind this week. Now that the Lab stuff is just about out of the way, I'm aching to get back to the HF2 stuff.

F

Kid Notorious

LA's been a whirlwind of early morning and late evenings. Despite what it seems like, it aint all glamour. Spent some time visiting the set of the movie we've been working on for years that features The One in his next big genre role and co-stars with My Current Favourite Female Actress Who Lives Near The Pub (who I paid money to see in her new movie this past weekend). I could watch her run out of an SUV and into a bowling alley for HOURS. And I did...

Meanwhile, my free moments are spent helping put together this Chemlab EP, which I am doing the artwork for and having my two cents as to what should go on it. I must say I am digging the artwork, I've been having some great bouts of inspiration. Lucky. Jared better keep the title I came up with for this. Also, if he has them ready in time, you'll be wearing Chemlab T-shirts of my design quite soon.

I have a sun tan. Horrible. Embarassing. Though I got it while doing the AIDSwalk here in LA this past weekend with S.O.'s sister. Nobody walks in LA, so this was quite entertaining and moving at the same time. But the tan. jesus.

I think I may have forgotten to mention that the night before I left, we saw Spiritualized. Thanks to G owning LET IT COME DOWN, I am a recent convert to Jason's music and I regret missing their last tour (which BRMC opened). I love the epic and orchestral aspects to the music and I think his lyrics are quite funny. They have a new album, AMAZING GRACE, which is their stripped down rock album, and while I like it, it lacks a lot of the things I love about his music. The live show, unfortnately, reflects that new album and while his band is tight, he sits to the side and just plays without emotion. This totally took me out of the show. I'm not saying the guy has to be a showman, but stand up for chrissake! You're not Robert Johnson. Dude, come on. Get up. lazy Sod.

The Factor Corp. minus the CEO gathered in NYC last night. Maybe B will get the courage to post what went down in the studio while I wasn't looking ;-)

Just get me home. Quick.

F

THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE

I haven't forgotten you, I've been in LA doing the things that I guess I do. I spent a lot of the plane ride here working on the lyrics for a song now entitled THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE. Meanwhile, I have music to work on, but there has been so much material recorded recently that it's jamming up my sweet laptop. Speaking of which, I've worn the battery down to the bone so I stopped by Apple to grab me a new one and doubled the RAM in this bitch so it moves a bit faster. Feels good.

Spent a lot of time here with my friend the Famous Comic Book Writer who just gets better and better and is doing amazing job writing my all time favorite title TEEN TITANS. He is so good and such a sweet guy. We spend every Wed I'm in LA buying comics and hopefully we will be collaborating on something big in the future. He also has a cool wife and a very cool office which he shares with another cool comic writer you all read.

Meanwhile...for Mark Mohtashemi and a few others who asked, here are your answers on THIS:

"Greetings, wireheads:

Jared here. This is just a quick posting to explain why the CHEMLAB record’s taking so damned long to hit the streets. Jason and Jamie and FJ and I (along with a few other key noisists) had a fantastic, spring-wound, deepcut-groove time writing and tearing apart the trax that make up OXIDIZER. It’s a great record, very much in the vein of BURN OUT, while not imitating it. It updates and mutates and at its heart is a detonator coil set to go.

I’m really proud of it and everything that’s brought it this far. I want to make sure that all of Jason, Jamie and FJ’s hard work gets shown off in the best possible way, with the most power. However, everyone on the project felt that it got rushed at the end and needed more than we could give it at the time. It was a tough call but we’ve decided to bring in a second producer, Julian Beeston, to work with us on finishing off the record. This means that the record won’t be coming out until January but when it hits the streets, it’s guaranteed to be a multi-layered sonic beast even more improved by a second drag through the mixing desk.
To compensate somewhat for this disappointing delay, I’ll have copies of a limited edition EP with me on the Pigface tour. It’ll have a few trax on it that you might be interested in - a couple of trax from OXIDIZER, as well as two from some EAST SIDE MILITIA demos which I came across recently. The demos feature Geno and the late great William Tucker - very different versions than on the album, and they sound amazing!
Also, the official CHEMLAB web site will be up and running by the time I start the Pigface tour on November 5th. Be warned, it’s going to be in a state of mutation and freak-out for quite a while, shifting a lot as new discolorations are revealed. Check it out at www.hydrogenbar.com

OXIDIZER couldn't have happened without Jason, Jamie and FJ, and come January, I hope you’ll all agree that it was well worth waiting for. In the meantime, thanks for your patience.
Now hold still: here it comes...
jared"

A lof this was news to me, though now I'm hoping the remix in progress (now in the hands of Ash) makes it to the new EP. Timing is an issue and we will bust ass to try and get it on there in time. For the record, we (as the aggression, remember them?) are remixing the track BINARY NATION, one I co-wrote and play on, and is quite in the vein of BURN OUT AT THE HYDROGEN BAR. You'll dig it. Here is my comment on the EP from the Cracknation website "The EP should be interesting. There's a ton of stuff from JCPS that they never used that I compiled for Jared some months ago off a beaten up old cassette that will be on this thing. I'm curious as to what he will pick as there is some crazy shit (and honestly, there is some stuff that would have REALLY made that album a lot better, including alternate takes and such, as well as tunes they never finished)"

Anyway, everything is cool and I am driving a convertable here in LA, which is another story in itself. Forgive me, but it's time to eat at C'Brea, my favorite place to eat in LA.

F

PS: Stu Hart, legendary patriarch of the famous wrestling family, passed away today. Owen, I'm sure is waiting in that ring in the sky waiting to thrown down with his pop again. Bless.

"Maybe it is I who is penetrating YOU!"

So Mr. G and I reunited to see KILL BILL yesterday. While I think I liked what I watched, I have to say overall, the film was disappointing. It lacks the cleverness and wit of Tarantino's other work. What I have always liked about his movies was his ability to put a new twist on American pop culture and make it ironic. In fact, that was the framework of his films and I believe the key to his success. However, by using Asian Cinema as his template, he is unable to get you invested in the film. And as some of you may know, I'm a "bit" of a fan of Asian Cinema and let me tell you this, KILL BILL is more of an homage than it is a parody. It's not ironic, it's not clever, and there's really nothing cool about it. The ending blows too. I think if it had been one lone 3-4 hour movie, I could have been satisfied.

Then the rest of the day and evening became quite British and here's why...

1. G, S.O. and I had fish and chips for dinner from A Salt and Battery on Second Ave. This is quite possibly the best fish and chips in the City, though I am somewhat partial to the pub. Poor G had to miss the last crucial minutes of the Yankees so we can meet Matt and Jax and something called Dougie at...

2. The EDDIE IZZARD show. Holy shit is this guy a genius. For years I had no clue about him other than he dressed up like a chick and then one night in London Jared and his wife played me some of Izzard's videos and man is he a blast. Anyhow, this was our first time seeing him live (and matt's 50th time or so), and it was worth the hit. The man has an uncanny ability to seemingly make throaway jokes only to go back to them later and make them funny as hell. During his set he tackled everything from Racisim, cavemen, super heroes, transvestites, the planet mars, dentists, horses, fighting, air flight, did the worst yet funniest Christopher Walken impersonation ever and even made a funny joke about 9/11 (based on the fact that the rest of the world writes their dates with the DAY first and not the month, thus "everyone was wondering WHAT exactly happened on November 9th!). Brilliant. The vibe we left with was so good. I think I was beaming from the laughter!

After a quick pit stop at the Tom aggression Birthday gathering, G and I met up with the Kidd, Ian Broon, and poontang to check out...

3. Saintface. Live. Taking a break from doing their album, the lads put on an entertaining rock show featuring all the ass shaking hits we love. They had a few technical snafus, which is always expected, but this is band which much confidence and energy and the tunes to back it all up. Later, I spoke at length with Peter Saintface about the album and while he told me which rockers are going on the refuses to tell me which ballads are being recorded for fear that I will "pursade" and I am one of the few people who can "sway" him. I am honoured to say the least. Things are looking up for this band and hopefully the album will be in all our grubby hands sooner than later. He and Michael Saintface both asked about HF2 and wheels should be set in motion upon my return from LA.

And now, a lazy day

F

Whats The Score?

In the wake of the recent rythmn section shake ups in Ass Cobra, which I'm sure is going to lead to some nasty shit amongst the MOGpac, Ash and Robin made their return to the Birdcage last night. Ash was hyper, Robin was not, so I knew they were both in the proper frame of mind to work. On the way down to the studio, I played them the new versions of 1956 and TWOBASSESTHIN. Both were met with enthusiasm. Everyone seems pleased with the direction the album is taking, but we all realize there is still work to be done. Oh yeah, and for the 4,000th time, we listened to Ass Cobra's DETROIT, which has supposedly taken 6 months to do.

I was happy to see B's friend Kid Who Looks Like Kid From Witness All Grown Up in town and chilling. He is quite fey yet handsome and I think because of that he pulls in tons of chicks. I was happy to find he had bought some chocolate donuts. He is quite thin and can live on these things. He watched MR SHOW and realized it wasn't that funny after all...

B and I had an agenda for these two and we put it in effect immediately. The first big decision was to cut almost 3/4 out of SOLAR and start from scratch. No one was happy with the song, so instead of talking about it for hours, we decided to just get rid of everything that was problematic and go at it again. Even I, who normally is adamant about keeping things, felt this made sense. I think the crew were a little surprised how agreeable I was. I'm not sure yet what this means for Link's sax parts, which concerns me a bit

Robin has been playing too much guitar lately, so I felt she needed a bass in her hands. I challenged Ash to stop playing guitar like a jazz half ass and to rock out a little bit. B sat in the corner, I think with a guitar, its hard to tell when Bat-Ash needs the lights off everytime we work. Ash and Robin switched back and forth between bass and guitar and the results were awesome. It took a really long time, which is kinda uncharacteristic for us, but it was worth it as we got the necessary parts to work with. Thanks to these two, we have a good verse and a really nice melodic bridge that (and I didn't say this to Ash at the time) sounds like The Cure.

During all this, I sat with a laptop, checking E-Mail, talking to a few folks online and looking bored . In reality, I'm jotting down ideas for arrangements, occasionally a lyrical idea, and listening VERY closely. Sometimes I'll just spring up and say "THAT'S IT!" or "NO NO NO". Anyway, B will have to lay down his stuff (also quite good) and get all this to me before I leave for LA on Tuesday so I can hammer it into shape. After that, we'll figure out where this tune stands, but I think it's in really good shape.

It was late, but I wanted to flesh out EXIST because I just wasn't happy with the bass in the chorus. And you know its serious when it's ME playing the bassline I don't like it. At this point I was kinda tired, but I recall Robin laying down a lot of bass for me to play with. I also think Ash threw down some guitars.

Overall, it was a evening serious success. It wasn't like our usual sessions where the magic happens immediately. This was more about getting deep into the guts of two songs and mining the gold out of them. It's not easy. Robin referred to is as "unproductive", though I countered that it's quality, not quantity, and Hypefactor got some real serious quality out of the kids last night.

My immediate task ahead is to work with the new stuff discussed above and to tweak 1956. I have written some lyrics for the song, which are actually the first for this album and now changes need to be made accordingly. In the meantime, the decision has been made to not write any more for this album until we have the live drums over the tracks. When we have that, we will then make the next round of creative decisions. I am hoping we can spend November getting the drums into shape. Then we will assess what we have and then go from there. I'm not putting any time restraints on this one. I want it perfect.

And perfect it shall be...

F

Where am I?

Hi Ashley:

After an early breakfast this morning with my old pal the famous Martial Arts Cinema historian/Author (who hated KILL BILL by the way), I decided to stroll through Times Square in search of inspiration for my mom's Birthday gift. I hadn't been up there since G, Matt and I spent an evening with Wrestling Superstar Who Used to Be Shinobi. Anyway, I am a die hard New Yorker, to the end hopefully, but there is some weird shit in Times Square. Based on my experience today, I would like to tell you that we live in a world in which:

1. Robert Evans has an animated series about his life (that's actually a plus).
2. Posh Spice shills for hip hop clothing. What the FUCK.
3. Why is my agent/lawyer/advisor spending money for me and my girlfriend to see "A Boy George musical" that is also a "Rosie O'Donnell production". This is BROADWAY? Where are the actors?
4. Jason Patric on Broadway. Nuff said. And no, he's not an actor, he's a method half ass.
5. And to make it worse, he is "acting" opposite Ashley Judd.
6. Bubba Gump Shirmp Company opens on December 6th. I'll be at Sardi's thanks.

This is all I can think of it. It was too much. I hate myself. Anyway, I ended up getting mom tickets to see Hugh Jackman looking crazy disco gay in THE BOY FROM OZ. and yes, I'm going too. Dan Hamill just told me "Moms love singing fags". I would have agreed with this, but Jackman IS Wolverine, so he's tops in my books.

My "celebrity" sighting was Robert Sean Leonard who looks like my relative who married a woman to cover the fact that he loved men. There's nothing wrong with that! Stop it! Gay is OK. Where the hell are the real stars!

Anyway, this sent me packing right into the Virgin Megastore where they expected me to spend 30 bucks on the new John Cale album. Luckily, Amazon UK has it for like 14 bucks. Screw you Branson. I ALMOST bought the new Interpol single cause it's the Arthur Baker remix, but its just two song. Lousy. Luckily I came to my senses and ran home, where I now have to go meet my former student, Edward, who is a nice guy.

Two more remixes have arrived: The first one comes all the way from Japan. SINO, who you can read about in the new Industrial Nation, took an interesting approach to DREAMS TO DEATH and made it a nasty machine dirge. It's very simple, but effective and fits in real nice on the EP. In the meantime, the lads in Cyanotic delivered their remix of THESE MILLION NIGHTS and have taken a drum n bass approach to it. Solid. I'm really happy with it and it gives us something we don't have yet on the record. One thing I have learned from all this is that Tom's vocals remix really well. Remixers love the smooth vocals.

Meanwhile I am working on a remix for a band you all know and love but are curious as to where their new album is. I am just as curious to be honest with you as I thought I would have it by now. Who knows. I'll get back to you on that. Also, I'll report back tonight or tomorrow after we get the crew together at the studio. Lots happening with HF. Till then...

F

The Plot Thickens...

Despite my being distracted by Dan Hamill's discovery of classic wrestling on channel 70, the vision of the new Hypefactor album became significantly clearer with a whirlwind editing/arranging sessions yesterday at the Birdcage. With this session, two songs, 1956 and TWOBASSES took massive shape and now have the structure and guts they need to become excellent songs. I heard B's new guitar parts for 1956 yesterday and was really happy with them. As usual, there was a lot to listen to, and this actually led to my editing new sections of the song just based on his new guitar parts. This song is a stormer. Meanwhile, he was really into my weird arrangement for TWOBASSES, which is basically two songs now, and I think we are going to treat it as such. the first half is acoustic/electro and the second half is a Stone Roses-esque dance jam. But each part uses elements from the other. I'm REALLY psyched.

If all goes well, we should have the album laid out and ready for live drums in the next few weeks. of course, Ash will come in this week and kill the buzz by wanting tons of stuff changed (I mean this in a good way).

Meanwhile, S.O. and I caught up with Mr. G and we saw SCHOOL OF ROCK featuring the genius that is Jack Black. This movie is hilarious and makes the best use of the Jack Black gimmick, taking it to new heights. What made it even more interesting was watching these kids rock out and they knew how to really play. I'd be curious to see how they cast this movie (something, I'm sure for the DVD). Then we met up with members of poontang and sang Verve and Robbie Williams songs till the wee hours at the original MOG hang out O'Hanolans.

And now the best news of the morning:

Revenge/Monaco album announced
LTM are pleased to announce 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. Indeed in some respects Revenge can be seen as a dry run for Monaco, who went on to deliver a top ten album and single in 1997. One True Passion was first 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 OTP 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 retooled and reconfigured by Hook and Potts, and comes with a full-length bonus disc of rare remixes and unreleased songs in demo form. Standout tracks include 7 Reasons, Deadbeat, Big Bang, State of Shock, Pineapple Face and Jesus I Love You. All material has been carefully digitally remastered. The set contains over two hours of music, and the booklet includes sleevenotes by Joy Division/New Order biographer Claude Flowers.

I feel it appropros that in the middle of my second CD exploring these very influences that this retrospective is announced. Mega!

F

Hailing From Our Nation's Capitol...

In DC for a few days. For the first time since S.O. lived here when we were wee kids in love, I took Amtrack down. However, thanks to some travel experience, was bumped up to first class, which was a delight. The tea was always handy, just like on Continental's first class flights, but the difference here is that a. you can use your cel phone and b. they have outlets for each seat, which for a guy like me who seemingly has become physically grafted to his laptop, is a blessing. This is a far cry from the last time I was on an extended train ride, which was in Mother Russia (see theaggression.com tour diary for details), however, the Russian dining cars are the BEST (right, Matt?).

Therefore, the 2 and a half hours on the Acela Train gave me time to work on the HF2 song TWOBASSES, which I have mentioned previously. It's a tough song with a lot of parts, so the bulk of my time was spent figuring out how to mesh the very fast part with the very slow part. NOT easy, but I made some headway and thus I am looking very forward to my train ride back to NYC (hopefully) this afternoon to get deeper into it. I think, and this is for those in the corp. reading it, I'm going to add little noises and such from the faster part and pepper them throughout the slower part for continuity. I sound like a chef.

Anyhow, I am staying at the Willard in DC. Fancy-ass hotel. Awesome. My lovely S.O. would dig the hell out of this place. But historically significant because it is the bar where Ulysses S. Grant would drink. All the politicians who wanted his ear would hang out in this lobby to wait for him to get him to sign off on things while he was wasted on rye. Hence, the term "lobbyists". How cool is that?! That's your history lesson of the day.

The kids in Cyaontic wrote me to say their remix for the aggression EP should be done today. I'll report on once they send me an MP3.

In the best news of the week, former aggression vocalist turned important screenwriter and his Mrs. have had their long-awaited baby, a girl, who's name, at the moment I don't know how to properly spell, so I will refrain from trying. Needless to say, it's not F.J. Everyone is in good health. The Mom called me and she sounded like she had just come back from shopping, while the Dad sounded like he just did 4 tours of duty in Iraq. Hilarious. Bless! I have no doubt that S.O. is currently shopping for MORE for this new child, as my lovely girilfriend has bought more clothes for this baby than I have in my closet. But hey, kids are awesome. I get my lil cuz's on Sunday!

On the run.

F

Whats?

Little B has the flu, so the studio is basically contaminated. Thus our Tuesday studio event was out the door. Sissy boy. However, news comes Mattagement that both HF and the aggression have received reviews in the newest issue of Outburn. THE DISTRACTED LOVER, which received an 8 out of 10, was a well written review in which I felt the reviewer gave it a fair shake and actually knew what the hell he was talking about. Most shocking was that his favorite track on the CD, PIRATED, is in fact my least favorite. Meanwhile, the aggression's DEVIATIONS ep got a 6 out of 10 from some reviewer who seemed more hellbent on classifying everything in a genre as opposed to actually getting into details about the music. While the reviewer is very kind to FLOOD as an album, it's shocking at how the two reviews differ. One is well written and really gets into the guts of the CD while the other sounds like some bored kid trying to explain something to a pal in the dorm room. Anyway, its fun to hear opinions like this, especially when they're good. Of course, right when we get reviewed, the label doesn't have an ad in sight for any of these records. No one in the MOGcamp is shocked.

Via the wonderful world of the Internet, Ash has delivered his parts for the second half of the track we call TWO BASSES. As a joke, I call it TWO BASSES THIN. If you get that, you get 10 points. Anyway, I am due in DC this week so I want to take this track with me to really get into it. The first half is slow, this new half is faster. The key to this will be to make a solid transition between the two. I see this at the moment on the second half of the album. (I write that simply so a year from now we can compare where the track actually ends up)

I close the evening reading about Raymond Watt's new project, which is called, and I love this...WATTS. My dear friend Marc Heal appears on this I think. This will give the Kidd and I much enjoyment as we love all things Raymond. I hope it's good. I hope I don't have to order it from Japan. I hope it's awesome. Meanwhile, Bryan Black is going to put out the long-awaited Haloblack album THROB soon. I'm curious how that album will be received by the kids. Louche slipped it to me a while ago. I dig it, its really well done. However, it is not fast, not hard, but unique and interesting. I can hear the douche coldwave kids (not you, Aero) complaining. But kudos to Bryan for expanding his palette. It's a tough sell of a record though. The only thing Coldwave I'm digging thats new is Christ Analogue's new one. That's a hot album.

Watts will probably be awesome. Hopefully

F

Morning Sci-Fi

Early AM call at the studio yesterday for us to review Robin's guitar parts from earlier in the week and alter NEW SONG to fit those parts accordingly. Quite happy with the track and it's new rockier vibe. Also went over my newer chorus basslines for EXIST, which I'm not as happy with, mostly because they conflict with the hook-bass I had previously written. The Hook-basslines are better and have to stay. Not sure what I'm going to do here yet, but one I idea I have tossed around is having Ash play bass over this part for a different feel. That might do the trick.

Then we settled down to handle basslines for 1956. Tough track and because its faster and rockier than most of what we have been doing, it took a long time for me to get the right feel for it. Also, this record is going to be as "live" as possible, meaning, we're trying to get the human element of having someone play consistantly over a song as opposed to taking a measure and cutting and pasting repeatedly. To get into the feel of the track, we put on some Primal Scream tracks that i would play along to. Once we felt I had the Mani vibe cooking, I got to work. The song is in three diverse parts, one is the very hard , the other is a synthy dance section (the verse) and the last is is a melodic string part (the chorus). So I had to play three different basslines that encompassed three different moods. I think what we got down works and should set the tune in motion. It's hot, rocky, and dirty. As everything should be.

We've started scouring through books and such for art inspiration. I'm going to be doing the art on this one so we're are throwing some ideas around. I want to do a photo session with everyone to get that vibe. Maybe this can happen tomorrow night if we can get everyone together. I'm thinking Anton Corbjin, but I always think that. I just need some photos to get the ideas flowing.

Besides playing the new Hybrid album non-stop (and not just the tracks with Peter Hook on them) I am really into the new UNKLE album, which is quite good and features a Stone Roses reunion of sorts with Ian Brown and Mani on the same track. Also digging the Manics for some reason this week. Over the next month or so we should be checking out some great gigs including: Spiritualized, Death Cab For Cutie, Twilight Singers and of course, Saintface. We're going to see the MAN Izzard on the 11th. HAPPY DAYS.

As for Chemlab, I am at a loss and have no idea what is going on. Frustrating!

F

Our Girl All Grows Up!

With Ash unable to make it last night, the spotlight focused on Ms. Emmet, who, while brought in initially to be the aggression’s first and only drummer (and quickly became my favorite member of the aggression), has become quite the impressive guitar player in Hypefactor. Because of changes made to the track she initiated, THEY’VE JUST, we re-recorded her guitar parts and tried different variations of it (i.e. acoustic and electric guitar takes), so we have lots to play with. As always, her focus and desire to see things come out perfect is a blessing. Once that was out of the way, we recorded her playing some Noel Gallagher style rock guitar on NEW SONG (obviously, just the working title), and by God did she turn this song into the rocker I was envisioning. Robin’s a really talented musician and my intention will be to make sure she is never underutilized. And yeah, she’s my favorite member of Hypefactor, too. Between Robin, Ash and B, I feel quite fortunate to have all these talented people working on my “solo” album.

We loaded 1956 in the computer, but because of our Robin-centric evening, we will get to this song during out next session, but everyone seems pretty hot for it.

Back in the other musical universe, our friends in Dubsinth back in St. Petersburg Russia have handed in their remix of THESE MILLION NIGHTS for the forthcoming aggression EP. Yura, aka Atom Fear, has really delivered a great, slow, moody, and cinematic remix that will fit very nicely on the final CD. Awesome work!

Sino, from Japan, informs me his remix of DREAMS TO DEATH is finished. Hopefully, I will be able to write about it shortly. Also, Cyanotic, an industrial band I know from the Midwest, wrote to tell me they should be delivering a remix on or before 10/1. Of course, my musical Alzheimer’s has kicked in and I can’t remember what track I gave them. Anyway…

Danny-Boy informs me I missed the NYPDBLUE season premiere. I must really love this album to forget such an important event. But there is no more important television event this year than the 24 season premiere on, I think, October 28th. I need TIVO. Immediately.

F

One.Nine.Five.Six.

I'm saddened to read reports that 16 Volt have called it a day. Once upon a time, it seemed as though Eric and co. we're going to be the break out stars of that scene we were all once a part of. The Kidd, Mark Mohtashemi and I were big fans of this band, especially during their Skin/LetDownCrush era, which I think many feel was their peak. Those two records are classics and really had a unique sound and feel to it. During this period, Eric did an awesome remix for us of CROSS, which is on our second CD. Later, they assembled what I felt was going to be the "dream team" with Krayge Tyler, Mike Peoples, and Servo, and while it kicked ass live, I felt Supercoolnothing was a bit of a let down (no pun intended. While I loved the songs, I felt it was too metal for my taste, though i find myself going back to it every now and then.

I don't know the circumstances of thier break up, but I know they had recorded new material via a demo deal with Capitol or some major, which I can only assume fell through. Also, Jason was telling me how he had been talking to Eric about an Acumen/16v double bill. I guess that's off, but it could have made for a hell of a swan song. Now I double regret our showing up too late to see them in LA last month.

I think 16V had a few more good albums in them. Perhaps later down the line they can bring it back. In the meantime, I hope this doesn't stop Eric Powell from continuing to make music. He's an extremely talented dude.

In the meantime, about a year or so ago, the aggression began demo'ing songs for what might have been their next CD. the material was quite good, but debate ensued as to weather or not these were aggression songs and they are currently in "limbo". A song or two from the "Fernwood Terrace" sessions will probably end up on the Ass Cobra album, but one of those songs, titled 1956 will now be appearing on the Hypefactor record. I'm REALLY excited about this track, which is very Primal Scream, and appreciate Ash signing off on it. We'll work on it tomorrow night.

F

"Famke Can't Dance? That must be ADORABLE"

Quick Pit Stop in the studio yesterday for some bass overdubs and retracking some older parts to fit the current scheme of things. Quite frankly, it was too nice out to sit in the studio too long. We did some stuff, fixed some tracks and went CD shopping at Rebel Rebel. Of course we spent too much money (Brandt in particular), but it was worth the hit as the purchases between both of us (new UNKLE, Hybrid featuring Peter Hook, and Muse's new one) were all winners and now blasting loud on the Ipod.

The vision for the rest of the album becomes clearer. A track written in the aggression camp might defect to HF2 if I can get Ash to sign off on it. If so, we're going into Primals territory. More when I know.

S.O. and I spent last night at college galpal turned publicist to the stars 30th birthday party last night. Though these things are normally not my scene and despite the former TV star turned Batman pulling a no show even though he RSVP'd (and much to the relief of S.O. and the birthday girl who are afraid of that combo), it was fun to see my estranged pal Amidala dancing in the same room with Jean Gray and Chuck Barris (who can dance like a mother). The title of this entry says it all and you can credit that quote to Danny Boy.

Though we did make it to San Genarro this afternoon, I am sad to miss beer fest today though I enjoy the company of my very small relatives (and should be home in time for some PPV).

F

Bye honey, have fun playing!

Booted out of MOGworld for a girls night, I made my way to the cage last night to review our work with Link as well as address the outstanding needs for the album as it stands. It mostly became a night of fine tuning and bass overdubs. What I like about the brisk yet leisurely pace of this album is the ability to have some perspective and really focus in on things. Recently, Ash was pointing out something he felt was lacking in one of the songs and then added that he wanted to make sure everything was at the highest level it could be. Sometimes that requires throwing whole parts out (like we did with the verses to SOLAR) or sometimes it requires going deep into the song, listening to every individual part and either adding or removing something, which we did last night by creating a new chorus bassline for EXIST. Long, hard work, yes, but rewarding when you get the desired results.

A new song is brewing, I might have mentioned this somewhere. I think Brandt's working title for it is BITTER PARTY OF ONE or some gayness like that. Unlike the other songs on the album, he's written guitars, keyboards and such first and then I'm throwing basslines down. We did something similar on KIEKO'S LAST SMILE on HF1, but that was mostly because I hated the tune initially and was indulging him. Of course, it ended up being one of the best tracks I have ever been a part of. Anyway, the parts he has so far are quite good and he keeps throwing bits and pieces of this new tune at me each time I show up. I play bass and then I never think about it again. Then when I come back, I hear where he is at with it, and I dig it. Watch, this one's going to be a keeper.

With the exception of one track, which I need parts from Ash for, the next week or so is in Brandt's hands for guitar overdubs, so I get to breathe a bit (though I doubt I will). We spent hours last night figuring out where new guitars need to go or where current ones need to be changed. The rest of the evening was spent, almost in frustration for me, trying to figure out what the album is missing at this point. We have 8-9 songs, and I would like to see it end up being 11 songs plus the hidden track previously discussed. Therefore, there probably needs to be one last round of writing and I'm going to spend the next few weeks or so figuring out what else I would like to hear on the album as well as coming up with some interesting approaches to writing said material. My intention is to be ready to record drums by 10/1.

Well, have you see all this wonderful publicity for the Chemlab album? (read that as sarcasm).

I've got The Cure's TRILOGY DVD on. Forgot how good an album Pornography is, though I like Ash, Tom and Matt's version of 100 YEARS much better ;-)

F

Prayers Answered

From an E-mail from Peter Saintface yesterday when seeing if he wanted to hang out:

"Hey F, Afraid I have a SF recording session slated...looks like this EP is actually becoming an LP"

About time.

F

Linked!

Former MOG founder and aggression superstar Mr. Link came to town, sax in hand, and though we had a short amount of time with him, it was very productive. Ash came in as well for this special occasion, and with Brandt, the 4 of us were able to hammer out a newly designed verse for SOLAR, which needed the revamp. Link plays some sexy sax in it. Its very deep now, more the album closer I was hoping it would end up being.

We then did an improv jam, totally over 10 minutes of the four of us playing to a click. Very light, very jazz. Look for this song, now called CHATTING BIRDS, as the hidden track. Last but not least, we recorded tons of Link just playing sax for future use. Lots of incredible material to go through.

We then had a fun pac/poontang meal and drinks. Great stuff.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO was entertaining, but see LOST IN TRANSLATION immediately. NOW. Go. The Links, Danny-Boy, SO and myself checked it out tonight and its wonder ful. I love Scarlett Johanssen. She's a heartbreaker. In the theatre was the guitarist from Interpol with the muttonchop sideburns and let me tell you, he LIVES the gimmick. All I'm saying.

Here's some product placement...

http://cn.rockdell.org/cracknation/attachments/IM000448.JPG

Thanks, Pally!

F

Ass Grabber

The Factor Corporation gathered it's division heads at the cage last night. The Head of Engineering decided to show an hour and a half late, which gave yours truly, the CEO, the opportunity to have a nice drink at Les Halles downtown with Deputy Douche. Later we were joined by General Rabinowitz and I gave them a sneak preview of the new Chemlab, which they liked and appreciated. A good test.

Anyway, once we all got up to speed on where all the songs are at, we went back to those earlier acoustic tracks the four of us recorded some time ago. They hadn't been addressed since the initial recording. Well, one of them, which we just call TWO BASSES (obviously wont be the final title) has now morphed into a really cool trip hop track that suddenly goes dance. VERY cool loops from Ash and then Robin and I recorded some additional guitars and bass, respetively. B wrote some new stuff as well that he will be recording in the coming days. Suddenly this track has a whole new life and a new vibe that I am very into.

We then addressed THEYVE JUST, which will remain a sparse, acoustic based track (I think). Robin went mental (for Robin) and was pissed a certain take of her guitars wasn't used. I think she hit Ash at one point, even though this is really something I did. Anyway, we found the part and will be putting it in. I promise, Robin! I think Brandt has a track or two to add to this one and then I will take another pass at it. Very moody piece, very romantic and fits real well on the album.

Lastly, we tackled SOLAR, which we all have problems with. Everyone has pin pointed that the problem lies in verses, which are not as full developed as the choruses. People were a little hesitant to make comments cause I had done the arrangement, but I was fully in agreement with the comments made and am determined to get this song up to speed. Brandt had some guitar lines that I think I totally missed that will work on improving the verses. This weekend, the idea will be for me to write an entirely new bass line and get some sax in there. I see this as the album closer. The song is there, we just need to develop more.

A lovely trip back to the Gramercy area with Robin, the ass grabber. She expressed to me how much she she enjoys working with HF, but also misses the aggression. As Batman used to say in the old TV series: "Poor Deluded Child".

All in all, it was a very productive evening!

On a side note, America loses two great icons in Johnny Cash and John Ritter. Rest well, men.

F

a break in the action

Today is 9/11.

I am happy to be alive and be the luckiest fucker alive.

To life. Drink up.

F

PS: Christian Bale is Batman. inspired choice.

BOXSET?

While the asses cobraed yesterday, it was back to the Birdcage (the new name for the studio) to work on the Audio Warfare remix. As I'm sure you can figure out, the track is pretty hard, and quite honestly, the remix is even harder. I think my friend Christian Nitrate will approve.

Needleye delivered big time on their remix of the aggression's MY WHITE NOVA. It's a stormer and does what I like best with remixes, uses a lot of the original song for the listener to know its a remix, yet adds so much of themselves to it that it becomes interesting and original. They manipulated a vocal that original said "you were so goddamn pretty" to sound like "you were so goddamn prissy". Hilarious. Kudos and thanks to Gilez and Needleguys. The remix reminded me of why I originally wanted to be in a heavy band.

However, now with half the EP now, I find myself in that position that I HATE more than anything, which is nagging the other remixers to hand theirs in by the deadline. This is even harder when you have people remixing in places like Japan and Russia. When I was watching over 12 or so remixers for PURE LIQUID EGO, I felt like the bigggest asshole in the world trying to get people to finish, especially since they were working for free. Hate it. I do like nagging Jamie Duffy though...he deserves it. ;-)

It's interesting that while I am chin deep in the Hypefactor album, I find myself going back to listening to very hard music. I'm loading the Ipod with old v23, Schwein and of course, old Chemlab. I think this is a yin and thing. Ash was recently disenchanted with one of his many musical projects and I explained to him that we all have different moods and the music we do reflects that. That's why now, in our Power Station/Arcadia phase, I feel a longing for the aggression and that kind of music. Eventually. Right now, I have Chemlab to keep me in that vibe.

The evening ended at the pub celebrating S.O.'s birthday with half of poontang and half the pac (in the form of G and the Kidd). The evening included cameo's from Bing and MURRAY! Good times, though we send good thoughts out to our dear friend Dorg, who had a bit of a spill earlier in the day and is in rough shape. Much love to her.

And now...brunch.

F

Simon Says

Regarding a collaboration between Duran Duran and Gwen Stefani, Guitarist Andy Taylor said: ""It also has to work musically. We're not just going to bring someone in because they're Gwen Stefani ..."

Le Bon quipped: "Oh, I would!"

Genius.

Sol

Took a brief pit stop into the studio last night for a few hours to fix up Solar. Some parts previously laid down needed to be re-recorded to fit in the song properly. When arranging, this happens. So of course a simple piano part now is three tracks of three different ideas that I will sort through today. Once this minor tweaking is done, I'll E it over to the studio, where B will prep it as am MP3 for the "Corporation" (as I call it) to hear. I have a good vibe about this song.

We had the Latin Grammy's on, hoping to get a glipmse of Cerati, who I have a feeling didn't bother to show, despite being nominated for Best Rock Album (I think).

Meanwhile, Brandt presented some parts for the new song he mentioned earlier here in the blog blog blog. Despite it's Thrill Kill Kult rip off strings that might need tweaking, I quite liked and laid down a quick bassline. I struggled for a bit to come up with more and decided not to push it and wait till B lays down all his guitars. His parts for this are good and I'm looking forward to playing with this one.

The new Twilight Singers EP arrived the other and day and all I can say is: Greg BY GOD Dulli, you have been sorely missed. Welcome back! Dan Hamill has taken a full week of work off just to listen to this three song EP. Can't miss this one and the cover is sweet too.

My Kinda Town

Blog blog blog. Dear Bloggie...

Just got back from the Bradley J. Fox nuptuals in Chicago. Good time and good to see former aggression members as well. I think we have Mr. Linq locked in for an appearance on HF2. He has the demos and was digging them quite a bit when we parted ways. He and Nina should be popping into MOGworld next week. Came home to find the 24 marathon in full effect. Needless to say, I am a big 24 mark and was suckered in immediately as was Mr. G 70 blocks away.

The new aggression remix EP takes shape. Needleye has finished their remix and it's on it's way. I don't even know which song I sent them! SINO from Japan has agreed to do a remix and Brand't is getting the parts ready as we speak. The Russians have finished one and have asked if they could do more! Can't complain about that.

Saw the family Novak while in Chicago for a fun evening. It was good to be there in a non work situation. Which of course meant Jason and I went straight into the studio to listen to the Crack works in progress. With the Novak kids asleep, the grown-ups fast-forwarded through the much discussed MTV awards. The Madonna/Britney thing was a snooze, but Jack Black is a genius. Anyway, I thought the Duran Lifetime achievement award was a great idea on paper, but was executed poorly. Still, to see them on TV was great...and speaking of the Durans...

On the 27th, my 31st Bday, some of the crew caught Duran at their intimate gig at Webster Hall and by god was it incredible. Please refer to my previous post from the gig I saw last month and apply it here, except 500x better, which quite possibly makes this my favorite gig of all time. it was a shorter set, but we left that gig drained and amazed. I was also glad to see that the last gig wasn't a fluke and these guys mean it. Just see any recent review in the NY papers and you'll see. Amazing.

Spinning the new BRMC CD at the moment, so far, they have avoided the sophomore jinx. So far.

Chemlab's drop date is supposedly the 3rd week of October. I designed a Chem Tshirt that hopefully some of you will be wearing soon. A new project with Jared (not Chemlab) is in the planning stages and should be the project I segue into after the recording of HF2, though bough projects might run simultaneously.

Brandt tells me I have some work to do on SOLAR. I like the sound of that!

F

blog blog blog

Spent the bulk of the working on two things:

1. The new HF track SOLAR (now jokingly called SOLARIS in my computer). Took a long time to get into this track because I wasn't familiar with a lot of the tracks (mostly Summer Douche's 200 guitar tracks) and I needed to sit and listen to Ash's loops which are REALLY cool. I would say I spent a good 8 hours on this one. My initial version was over 8 minutes long, but as of this moment it's just under 6. I'm going to sleep on it and then decide if any more changes are needed. Then we'll commit it to mp3 and pass it out to the Factor Corp for further development. This song cries for the vocals of Peter Face.

2. Chemlab art and other business things pertaining to OXIDIZER, it's follow up, and a new F.J./Jared collaboration that I hope becomes the project I do after HF2. I have been quiet about Chemlab as of late, mostly because it's now just a matter of waiting for the record to come out. There is a lot of activity behind the scenes. I'll learn more perhaps when I'm in Chicago this weekend for Bradley J. Fox's wedding (S.O. and I are stopping at Crack Central to see the "family" on Friday night)

I am obsessed with the MTV show NEWLYWEDS. That Jessica Simpson is a nightmare.

I just turned 31 years old as I wrote this. Blog Blog Blog.

F

The Icelanders are In the House

We ventured to Brooklyn last night to check out the Sigur Ros/Bjork show. First off, I am a dead sucker for anything in Coney Island as I spent a lot of good times there as a kid. Of course we had to get us some Nathan's Hot Dogs. I hadn't been to the Coney since I beat the poo out of John Darryl Sparks on the beach during the recording of ALTAMONT, so that's quite a ways back. For the record, I'm not a violent man, but Sparky provoked said beating and Former Aggression Vocalist Turned Important Screenwriter cheered me on approvingly (and HE later smacked around John Darryl Sparks for worse than I ever did. Again, provoked)

So we got to the baseball field just in time to watch Sugar Rolls. I don't think it's any secret that I am not the biggest fan of this band, but I am loyal to Iceland so I decided to give it my full attention. Over the years, there have been several cases in which a band I didn't like on record totally won me over live. Fortunately, I am happy to say that this was the case with Super Ross. I totally understood after the first song why people liked them. First off, their musicianship is stunning. The arrangements are bizarre and the approach to performance is unique. Anything goes with these guys, and they have an amazing string quartet to that adds tons of emotions to the songs. And that's just what this band is, pure emotion. The singer is a beast who is able to bring these songs over the top. The songs build and build, oftentimes to a beautiful climax. Anyway, really good stuff. I was very very impressed and happy to be proven wrong.

For some reason, I have never been able to connect with Bjork. I have always appreciated her and her work, but I never went out of my way to get her albums, nor have I ever seen her live (I think I saw the Sugarcubes once), so I welcomed this opportunity to see her in action. Again, like her opening act Salmon Roe, I was really impressed, especially with the set up that included a string section, a harpist and guys with laptops (I think, it was hard to see from where we were). I cannot believe that voice comes out of that midget. Again, the emotion of the songs was intense and the occasional pyro and firework helped punctuate some of the big moments (wonder what Ash thought of those!). The bulk of the set consiseted of very dramatic songs focusing on the strings with broken beats (am i right, Ash?) Towards then end, they broke out the dance beats and really got the crowd really hopping. I would like to have seen a more diverse set, combining the dance and the dramatic songs throughout, but honestly, it's a minor complaint. Time flew quick and now I can understand why Bjork is such a phenom (as we say in wresting). My only other complaint are the hipster morons who were at this gig. I would not be surprised if Ash killed someone, cause I was that close. Hipsters need to GO, despite my girlfriends enjoyment of making fun of them (I can't blame her).

This show honestly should have been like in Carnegie Hall or something, not a baseball field in Brooklyn. But Icelanders and Hot Dogs are a solid mix!

F

"Artefacto"

One thing I forgot to mention in today's post: For some time now, F.J. has been clamoring for a song on the record that embraces the vibe of Gustavo Cerati's "Artefacto." I've had a riff kicking around for some time, and while working on it today I think I found what he is looking for. More on this in the next two weeks...

I employ a flexible definition of 'minimal'

As of 5 p.m. today - Saturday - there are enough guitars on "Solar" to injure a small animal. So much for minimal.

Honestly, though, I could not help myself. The track captured my imagination right off that bat in a way that few do. It has a slow, funky shuffle - "When The Levee Breaks" meets "A Northern Soul"-era Verve - that lends itself to all kinds of psychadelic jamming. I layered echo-drenched 12-string parts, harmonized e-bows, wah-wah'ed funk lines. Had I the time or money for draw, this would be the track to which I would smoke.

I even added an extended track of theremin, which previously made an appearance on the "Theme From J-Bar."

Now poor F.J.'s job is to sort out the twentysomething tracks of instrumentation. My realistic expectation is that half of what I recorded will be wildly altered or removed altogether, but that is OK. While I enjoy jamming and layering parts on these songs, ultimately everyone on this record subscribes to a "song first" mentality. In other words, if the part does not work for the song, it goes. Plain and simple.

This working method also happens to be F.J.'s strong point as an arranger. I have never known him to discard a part that helped a song, and at this point in our long working relationship, I have the utmost trust in his discriminating ear. If something gets cut, it happens for a reason.

The process of arranging and cutting is also eased by the fact that there is little to no ego about individual parts among the members of this project. In all my time working on hypefactor, I have never known someone to piss and moan about their part being cut from a song. Well, there was that one time that all of F.J.'s bass parts were removed, and he went on a bender that ended with him capsizing his sailboat during the Fastnet race. But that's another story altogether...

Speaking of guitar parts, on Thursday night Ash played some sweet parts on a Gibson ES-330 in between bouts of programming. His playing really stands out, and he clearly has an instinctive ear for a good hook. Like me and Johnny Marr, Ash takes many of his cues from The Cure's Robert Smith, a fine guitarist who has never quite received his due as a player from the rock elite. Perhaps it was the hair?