first the "sad" news...
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story?id=6197868&pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1
next, skinny puppy was alright. i didn't walk out with the shock and awe i was expecting or that i had seen before - but i also didn't walk out. the guitarist/bassist guy - no complaints. the drummer - no complaints. cEVIN key - well, quite honestly he's fat, but he seemed appreciative of the crowd. ogre - homeboy can't navigate his own costumes, but that's ok - he's canadian. but on the whole, you spend two nights in NYC and you alter the set by one...two?...songs?!?!?! sure we got some bonuses that most cities won't: smothered hope on the first night as an extra encore and Al "i don't KNOW what to say about him" Jorgensen on "guitar" for tin omen - i'll let someone else comment on that one...i'm left speechless. but seriously, even the aggression would switch things up for gigs within a short time period (btw - i've heard they might be making a comeback). the techs for the band SUCKED as there were multiple occasions when ogre was left sans mic or mic stand or both.
and let's not even get into the crowd.
i give the first show a generous 3 out of 5 for the first night and a 2.5 for the second.
they highlight of last night was seeing the ESPN Radio dodgeball interviewer who remembers chatting with irene at length - like that's shocking ;)
19.6.04
"I think there is still plenty of aggression in all of us..."
I keep talking about how we are in the home stretch, and while these songs are pretty much up to snuff and just need drum edits before mixing, one song, called one.nine.five.six (which I'll herein refer to as 1956) has plagued us. It's been through several arrangement changes, and everyone has had a feeling for sometime that this track was not quite there yet. So now, thanks to our newest addition Charles breathing new melodic life into the song by adding some new basslines, I was now ready to tackle Track 2 of the new Hypefactor album, which by the way, is the angriest, heaviest song HF has ever done, and will appeal to the few aggression fans who might pick this record up someday.
This song was intended to be our Primal Scream homage. And while it's still a nod to Booby G and co, I decided to loosen the reigns while molding this song into shape. Again, kudos to Charles for his solid work the other night. Because of him, I was able to blow this tune wide open. The track is very loop-based and repetative in nature, so I decided to go over all of these parts with a fine comb. Doing so, I found that these verses could be cut in half without losing the intensity of the song. Originally, the song opened with a quick POW, similar to the aggression's CHEMICAL SUN or Primal Scream's MISS LUCIFER, but after going through these loops, we found several loops and feedback guitar (and of course some of Charles' bass) that I loved and was able to turn these into a cool new intro . B and I agreed that the intro should remain loop based so when the song starts, the impact of the drums guitars will hopefully knock the listener on their ass. At least that is the intention. During all this, Brandt's musical brain was working overtime and we tracked some new melodic guitars to put over the non-vocal verses. That nailed it as far as I was concerned.
And by the time it was over, 1956 had evolved into something new and exciting. It's in good enough shape for me to now lay down some vocals this coming week, but don't be surprised that once we have the vocals and live drums edited in that this song goes through another draft (mostly because there are so many loops that can probably be removed once Robin's drums are in). Not bad for a song that started 2 years ago with the aggression fooling around with laptops and guitars in my parents living room.
SPEAKING of the aggression, they will have a CD out in early 2005 featuring 14 (mostly unreleased) remixes from the course of their entire history. I'll get further into this as time progresses and details have emerged, but as Dan Hamill says "Nostalgia is IN". It is nice though to meet people who appreciate the aggression and their body of work and who want to hear more.
Keeping it old school I-Rock, The MOGpac at Skinny Puppy tomorrow and Monday, look for us. I'm the one with the beard (facial hair, not Ash)
F
This song was intended to be our Primal Scream homage. And while it's still a nod to Booby G and co, I decided to loosen the reigns while molding this song into shape. Again, kudos to Charles for his solid work the other night. Because of him, I was able to blow this tune wide open. The track is very loop-based and repetative in nature, so I decided to go over all of these parts with a fine comb. Doing so, I found that these verses could be cut in half without losing the intensity of the song. Originally, the song opened with a quick POW, similar to the aggression's CHEMICAL SUN or Primal Scream's MISS LUCIFER, but after going through these loops, we found several loops and feedback guitar (and of course some of Charles' bass) that I loved and was able to turn these into a cool new intro . B and I agreed that the intro should remain loop based so when the song starts, the impact of the drums guitars will hopefully knock the listener on their ass. At least that is the intention. During all this, Brandt's musical brain was working overtime and we tracked some new melodic guitars to put over the non-vocal verses. That nailed it as far as I was concerned.
And by the time it was over, 1956 had evolved into something new and exciting. It's in good enough shape for me to now lay down some vocals this coming week, but don't be surprised that once we have the vocals and live drums edited in that this song goes through another draft (mostly because there are so many loops that can probably be removed once Robin's drums are in). Not bad for a song that started 2 years ago with the aggression fooling around with laptops and guitars in my parents living room.
SPEAKING of the aggression, they will have a CD out in early 2005 featuring 14 (mostly unreleased) remixes from the course of their entire history. I'll get further into this as time progresses and details have emerged, but as Dan Hamill says "Nostalgia is IN". It is nice though to meet people who appreciate the aggression and their body of work and who want to hear more.
Keeping it old school I-Rock, The MOGpac at Skinny Puppy tomorrow and Monday, look for us. I'm the one with the beard (facial hair, not Ash)
F
18.6.04
"I'm not a lesbian. I'm bisexual."
Between an evening at the movies and a night in the studio, Thursday was a good day in MOGworld. This week I edited drum tracks for Exit Strategies about eight hours every day, so it felt really fucking liberating to do something else for one evening, even if sitting in front of a G4 PowerBook was still involved.
At last Saturday's dodgeball league tournament, the organizers were kind enough to give every team free passes to a screening of the new Ben Stiller/Vince Vaughn flick Dodgeball. Vince is consistently fantastic, but Stiller is a hit-or-miss comedy writer (see Envy), so I was not expecting brilliance when I met FJ, Irene and her coworker at the Kips Bay Loews yesterday. And while this movie is not mediocre (though many will call it that), nor is it stunning (and a few may call it that), we laughed. A lot. Like Zoolander, some gags were bizarre or simply did not make any sense. But the great material veers between brilliant one-liners ("You're as useful as poo-flavored lollipop!"), cruelty ("You were adopted. Your parents don't even love you.") and pottymouth laughs (a bar called The Dirty Sanchez), not to mention the nut-punching physical comedy. The non-sequitors and Mexican jokes also had us in stitches.
By the time FJ and I reached my block of Maiden Lane, Charles was already outside. We had planned a full band gathering at the studio yesterday, but Ash and Robin both bowed out for personal reasons. So rather than summit about the progress of Exit Strategies with everyone, we focused on three specific songs with Charles that needed bass overdubs or full-on rewrites. As the live drum edits came together for the record, we took the time to replay or completely refashion many instrumental takes recorded against drum loops. The recent addition of Charles to the hypefactor studio crew gave even FJ - typically reticent to re-record anything - impetus to erase a slew of old parts and start from scratch. In the case of the song "Solar," last night marked the third time we had revisted the song's bass part. On "Exist" and "Oneninefivesix," early performances that we found somewhat lackluster were axed as well. We blew through the three songs quite quickly as Charles works at a steady pace and possesses a drum machine's sense of tempo, enabling us to keep takes to a minimum. There were some slow points during "Solar" and "Oneninefivesix," although I chalk that up to the fact that Charles was exhausted and I was pushing him to both write and play long, seamless takes for both songs. A bit much for midnight on a Thursday, perhaps, but he pulled it off.
While the work we did last night may seem mundane, I cannot stress the significance of the evening enough in terms of improving band dynamic. FJ and Charles had never been in a room together under creative circumstances (as FJ missed the "Descriptive" session in May for a Los Angeles trip), so it was important that they get a feel for each other (in a completely straight way.) By the end of the evening, FJ and Charles were avidly reminiscing about obscure 80s new wave (Nik Kershaw) and other "stuff," so all in all I would say it was a stellar session. Most importantly, Charles is smitten with the hypefactor material.
Plans tonight include !!! live at Bowery Ballroom, followed by another day in the studio tomorrow morning working on "Oneninefivesix" with FJ. The sold out !!! gig will almost certainly be a hipster clusterfuck, so I can only hope the set will be worth it (and better than Out Hud.) But I would settle for a mediocre set with an indie celebrity sighting (like Le Tigre's Kathleen Hanna moseying down West Fourth Street last Friday.)
Today's cheap entertainment: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/amg/, a customized mix tape generator. Worth reading to discover such situation-specific mix tape lists as, "Songs to Listen to While Deciding What Color to Make the Background Behind a Crotchless Panty Because You Took Your Fancy Art School Education and Got a Job as a Graphic Designer at a Lingerie Company" (requested by Nikki and compiled by Danor).
At last Saturday's dodgeball league tournament, the organizers were kind enough to give every team free passes to a screening of the new Ben Stiller/Vince Vaughn flick Dodgeball. Vince is consistently fantastic, but Stiller is a hit-or-miss comedy writer (see Envy), so I was not expecting brilliance when I met FJ, Irene and her coworker at the Kips Bay Loews yesterday. And while this movie is not mediocre (though many will call it that), nor is it stunning (and a few may call it that), we laughed. A lot. Like Zoolander, some gags were bizarre or simply did not make any sense. But the great material veers between brilliant one-liners ("You're as useful as poo-flavored lollipop!"), cruelty ("You were adopted. Your parents don't even love you.") and pottymouth laughs (a bar called The Dirty Sanchez), not to mention the nut-punching physical comedy. The non-sequitors and Mexican jokes also had us in stitches.
By the time FJ and I reached my block of Maiden Lane, Charles was already outside. We had planned a full band gathering at the studio yesterday, but Ash and Robin both bowed out for personal reasons. So rather than summit about the progress of Exit Strategies with everyone, we focused on three specific songs with Charles that needed bass overdubs or full-on rewrites. As the live drum edits came together for the record, we took the time to replay or completely refashion many instrumental takes recorded against drum loops. The recent addition of Charles to the hypefactor studio crew gave even FJ - typically reticent to re-record anything - impetus to erase a slew of old parts and start from scratch. In the case of the song "Solar," last night marked the third time we had revisted the song's bass part. On "Exist" and "Oneninefivesix," early performances that we found somewhat lackluster were axed as well. We blew through the three songs quite quickly as Charles works at a steady pace and possesses a drum machine's sense of tempo, enabling us to keep takes to a minimum. There were some slow points during "Solar" and "Oneninefivesix," although I chalk that up to the fact that Charles was exhausted and I was pushing him to both write and play long, seamless takes for both songs. A bit much for midnight on a Thursday, perhaps, but he pulled it off.
While the work we did last night may seem mundane, I cannot stress the significance of the evening enough in terms of improving band dynamic. FJ and Charles had never been in a room together under creative circumstances (as FJ missed the "Descriptive" session in May for a Los Angeles trip), so it was important that they get a feel for each other (in a completely straight way.) By the end of the evening, FJ and Charles were avidly reminiscing about obscure 80s new wave (Nik Kershaw) and other "stuff," so all in all I would say it was a stellar session. Most importantly, Charles is smitten with the hypefactor material.
Plans tonight include !!! live at Bowery Ballroom, followed by another day in the studio tomorrow morning working on "Oneninefivesix" with FJ. The sold out !!! gig will almost certainly be a hipster clusterfuck, so I can only hope the set will be worth it (and better than Out Hud.) But I would settle for a mediocre set with an indie celebrity sighting (like Le Tigre's Kathleen Hanna moseying down West Fourth Street last Friday.)
Today's cheap entertainment: http://www.tinymixtapes.com/amg/, a customized mix tape generator. Worth reading to discover such situation-specific mix tape lists as, "Songs to Listen to While Deciding What Color to Make the Background Behind a Crotchless Panty Because You Took Your Fancy Art School Education and Got a Job as a Graphic Designer at a Lingerie Company" (requested by Nikki and compiled by Danor).
15.6.04
Kidd sized balls
Here's a quick post to put some whipped cream on top of a sundae of a Saturday... http://www.reuters.com/newsSearchResultsHome.jhtml;jsessionid=TTVMIAQRJ55RSCRBAE0CFFA?query=dodgeball&qtype=p&x=16&y=4
once on that page, click on the first link...pretty sweet, right? that's BTSH bad boy Reno in the background. the photgrapher got a mega shot of him jumping over a ball, but for whatever retarded reasons, it wasn't used. in case anyone is wondering, that is a partial view of my knee - sans knee pad.
when you're done with that, get ready to click on the third link, but hear ash yelling "token" in your head...can you hear it? ok now go click on the third link on the aforementioned page.
once on that page, click on the first link...pretty sweet, right? that's BTSH bad boy Reno in the background. the photgrapher got a mega shot of him jumping over a ball, but for whatever retarded reasons, it wasn't used. in case anyone is wondering, that is a partial view of my knee - sans knee pad.
when you're done with that, get ready to click on the third link, but hear ash yelling "token" in your head...can you hear it? ok now go click on the third link on the aforementioned page.
13.6.04
Despite not having Potato Pancakes, it was a good day...
Well, after months of anticipation, Irene and I were finally able to stay in town long enough to join MOG Athletics' Dodgeball Team for their second tournament. The whole experience was quite funny and enjoyable. It's an organized monthly tournament filled with a few hundred 20 and 30 somethings, all of whom take this game either quite seriously or in some cases, FAR too seriously. But believe me, those who took it far too seriously were heckled by the MOGpac and their cheerleaders, consisting of some of the ladies from Internationalpoontang.com. Most of the other teams were cool, but some were massive douches, but I guess in retrospect, it made it more fun to have heels to boo at (though people like the Douches of Rock, as I called them, reminded me way too much of why I never embraced the world of organized athletics or High School for that matter).
We had a solid (much better than I thought) and ethusiastic team, led by Matt, who is a focused and determined Captain and the man who scored our most dramatic victory. It was exciting to cheer him on as he claimed a huge victory when we he was outnumbered. It was easily the highlight of a very enjoyable day. Everyone played their hearts out and you can't ask for more than that. There were several times I was worried about Irene and Robin getting smacked around a bit (especially after hearing how robin was smashed in "the womb" last time), but everyone ended the day in good shape (and with free passes to the see movie DODGEBALL this week).
This was followed by a fun afternoon of beer and food at some German place uptown and a nice long walk back home to Gramercy. Of course the evening was spent dead on the couch watching my newly purchased FREAKS AND GEEKS DVD. I remain in extreme pain as I type.
Meanwhile, in the musical world, a remix the aggression did for the band DUBOK, has surfaced on their website www.Dubok.net. There's a pro and con this. The pro is that something I have worked hard on is now available and is receiving some nice comments, and the con is that this EP (which features lots of remixes by a lot of great artists that you can also download) was supposed to be released by Tinman last year, with the aggression's remix EP for THESE MILLION NIGHTS to follow it on the schedule.
In my heart of hearts, I kept hoping I would hear from Tinman asking them for the EP so we could get the last of the aggression's FLOOD-era material out. It might in fact be the last ever aggression release. There are some amazing remixes that have yet to be heard from artists all over the world who busted their asses at my request. It makes me look like an idiot to them and makes us look flakey to the few fans who have seen the EP teased on theaggression.com and Tinman's site (which hasnt been updated since last October) and want to buy it. I have tried repeatedly to contact Tinman to resolve this as well as to get copies of my records, in particular the first HF CD, of which we have no copies of. I know we're not a band thats sells many records, but the last thing I want to do is not be able to release something thats been advertised. More if and when I know.
I'm hearing good things about the Skinny Puppy tour, which member of the MOGpac will be attending here down the block from me one week from today. Some of us (like me) are going to both nights. I have a good feeling about this show.
And I'm wondering, does Brandt wear his dodgeball kneepads when he mixes?
F
We had a solid (much better than I thought) and ethusiastic team, led by Matt, who is a focused and determined Captain and the man who scored our most dramatic victory. It was exciting to cheer him on as he claimed a huge victory when we he was outnumbered. It was easily the highlight of a very enjoyable day. Everyone played their hearts out and you can't ask for more than that. There were several times I was worried about Irene and Robin getting smacked around a bit (especially after hearing how robin was smashed in "the womb" last time), but everyone ended the day in good shape (and with free passes to the see movie DODGEBALL this week).
This was followed by a fun afternoon of beer and food at some German place uptown and a nice long walk back home to Gramercy. Of course the evening was spent dead on the couch watching my newly purchased FREAKS AND GEEKS DVD. I remain in extreme pain as I type.
Meanwhile, in the musical world, a remix the aggression did for the band DUBOK, has surfaced on their website www.Dubok.net. There's a pro and con this. The pro is that something I have worked hard on is now available and is receiving some nice comments, and the con is that this EP (which features lots of remixes by a lot of great artists that you can also download) was supposed to be released by Tinman last year, with the aggression's remix EP for THESE MILLION NIGHTS to follow it on the schedule.
In my heart of hearts, I kept hoping I would hear from Tinman asking them for the EP so we could get the last of the aggression's FLOOD-era material out. It might in fact be the last ever aggression release. There are some amazing remixes that have yet to be heard from artists all over the world who busted their asses at my request. It makes me look like an idiot to them and makes us look flakey to the few fans who have seen the EP teased on theaggression.com and Tinman's site (which hasnt been updated since last October) and want to buy it. I have tried repeatedly to contact Tinman to resolve this as well as to get copies of my records, in particular the first HF CD, of which we have no copies of. I know we're not a band thats sells many records, but the last thing I want to do is not be able to release something thats been advertised. More if and when I know.
I'm hearing good things about the Skinny Puppy tour, which member of the MOGpac will be attending here down the block from me one week from today. Some of us (like me) are going to both nights. I have a good feeling about this show.
And I'm wondering, does Brandt wear his dodgeball kneepads when he mixes?
F