Ben Neal's Blog

I'm useless, but not for long. The future is coming on

2012-01-12T09:42:00.028Z

Woah... where am I? Well, bizarrely, in Lichfield it would appear. Somehow I ended up living in a neat and tidy little city with good food, old buildings, a huge cathedral and a herb garden belonging to Charles Darwin's grandfather. Samuel Johnson invented the dictionary here - yup it's that kinda place - and the other day I sat in a sea of white hair at the Garrick Theater listening to a talk about visiting Burma and planning my escape.

It's not that I don't like it here, but I've just been made redundant from a job I took building computer games for school kids, and have managed to save up some money to go travelling with. Sadly this might mean the end of my band unless we form some kind of virtual counterparts and perform as the Gorillaz. But right now things seem to be tough in the creative industries. The music industry is saturated and no one seems to be getting by, and things don't seem much better for the film industry or the arts.

A while back I worked with the charming Martin Gooch (a filmmaker who has worked on East Enders, Harry Potter and Big Brother) and his words are ringing in my ears... When asked about his choice of 'career', Martin (dressed in scruffy jeans, loose T-shirt and with a foppish non-descript haircut) had said "It's not a choice of career, it's a choice of lifestyle.". It's a quote that clearly demonstrates the creative person's relationship between what would be considered work and how they live.

In a recent interview for Birmingham's Fierce Festival, independent arts curator Charlie Levine's advice on 'making a living in the arts in Birmingham' was "find a part time job... the arts won’t be a 9-5.".

So before I pour yet more money into my creative pursuits, and find other sources of income, I feel like it's time to take a break and regroup. A break to Mexico and Central America.

So for now I ain't happy, I'm feeling glad. I got sunshine, in a bag. I'm useless, but not for long. The future is coming on. Is coming on... Is coming on... Is coming on...

Awesome surreal animation from David O'Reilly

2012-01-09T21:29:00.003Z

This is just so sublimely weird, completely surprising and unique I had to share!

Birmingham Djent & Avant-garde Metal

2011-12-03T08:32:00.001Z

Djent : It's a word a friend mentioned to me yesterday, is a term coined by the band Meshuggah to describe a particular heavily muted and crunchy guitar sound, and is apparently becoming known as a musical genre. I'm new to the word Djent, but luckily I'm not new to bands like Meshuggah with whom I grew up with.

Next week my band Meatfeast play a Birmingham Jazz gig with Djent band Husk.

Husk are led by trumpeter Sam Wooster and supply heavy, rich, jazz-infected doom-metal. I saw them support Trio VD at The Rainbow a while back and knew straight away they we're someone we needed to hook up with.. Wooster scowls a lot - like he hates his band and wants to kill them. It's mesmerising.

My own band Meatfeast have just finished a music video for our track "Self-inflicted Haircut" which was shot in the Green Street Warehouse in Birmingham, near the Custard Factory. The video came together with the help of Fat Baby films director Kevin Chapman and Director of Photography Djonny Chen, who led a skeleton crew from across the Midlands (brought together by Richard Wood of the Coventry Warks Filmmakers Network), and who we cannot thanks enough for making it happen.

We have also released our 2 track EP "Hands Like Claws" - recorded at the lush Monochrome Productions studio near Banbury with the awesome Tom Gittins (of The Culprit). We've been struggling to find a genre we fit into, not really being Post-hardcore, Progressive Metal or anything else we seem to get labelled as. Maybe we're Djent, but I doubt it...

Hands Like Claws EP by Meatfeast

Buy it for £1.38 from Amazon Here

Meatfeast & Husk play Jazz Club at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath, Birmingham on Wednesday December 7th. Tickets £5.

Awesome drunken guitar playing

2011-08-17T13:39:00.005+01:00

I should make more of an effort to post stuff up on here more often. So here goes...

Today I am hung over, 2 days into my first week-long holiday since forever, I was bored stupid. So I hooked up with Mr.Jonathan Garbett - better known as guitarist in Meatfeast - and had a few drinks too many.

Jon has been putting a few of his guitar licks up on his YouTube channel recently too and if your into your technical playing - the guy has technique coming out of his ears.. Behold!

Quick plug - go buy our new Meatfeast EP "Hands Like Claws" on Amazon here now!

Meaty Sounds, Glitch Video and Beastly Writing

2011-07-14T20:53:00.015+01:00

It's been tricky to find time to update this, but heres a few quick tasters of whats been going on... my spazz-metal band Meatfeast's 2nd recording session at Monochrome Productions studio has yealded us with the finest stuff to date - dont take my word for it though - here's some Meat for you to sample...

Meatfeast - EP Sampler by MaggotHouse

There's a release party soon - where we'll be showing our new music video too, it's at Skruffy Murphys, Birmingham on Friday Aug 5th (Request an invite! Spaces are strictly limited. Contact meatfeast[at]maggothouse.co.uk)

Also - just a quicky - A second piece of writing I did is going to appear in the no-holds-barred Dirty Bristow magazine, edition #2. You even get a little tape with some music with it. The release is on Saturday 13th of August at The Edge in Digbeth, Birmingham, a little more on bristow here, and an old blog post here.

Glitch Video and Stationary

2011-04-06T13:19:00.007+01:00

Check out these awesome glitched up clips from Hello Catfood's Antonio Roberts. Check out his lovely array of skills here: Hello Catfood Blog

Antonio will hopefully be working with me on mangling the music video for Meatfeast's "Self-inflicted haircut", but in the meantime enjoy this Stationary-based track from Chairlift.

Beastly Birmingham Zine

2011-04-04T19:44:00.006+01:00

I've just had news that something I wrote will be appearing in appearing in the arty-nonsense/gluttonous-textual-splurge of Dirty Bristow magazine's beastly issue 2.

Issue 1 was an intriguing mix of intellect and drainwater philosophy... with all the pomp of an Artists statement and the enthusiasm of a photocopied zine. Along with it's usual/unusual Fete launch event, Bristow is a great product of the Birmingham underground... keep 'em peeled...

More on Bristow in my earlier post here

Devil Metal, Nasty Jazz & Android Antics

2011-02-09T19:25:00.015Z

Next year we have the end of the world to look forward too! But for now...

My Experimental Metal [!wince!] band Meatfeast has been going well, but please - if anyone can label us as something other than Metal that would amazing! The 'M' word seems to make all but the truely lonesome wince and rightly so. Metal seems to be such a retrospective genre these days - thank God for Hardcore which without a shadow of doubt has produced some incredible bands over the last few years - check out Dillinger in this older post. Even the noisy glitch of jazz band Trio VD (Who I was lucky enough to see at The Rainbow for Birmingham Jazz's closing party recently) makes the average metal band look rather sad. Trio VD were awesome. See here...

Anyways after a duff year for audience figures, Meatfeast gigs have been picking up again since December when we played to a packed out downstairs backroom at The Mitre in Stourbridge with local lads Diamonds. Diamonds feature ex-members of The Hubble Constant and are a tasty mix of chaos, funk and postmodern song titles. Here's a nice pic from our gig in The Red Room at The Giffard Arms in Wolverhampton with them in Jan.

Meatfeast HQ has some more goodies coming up including a music video, an Android phone app, a new website and the finalisation of the 2 new tracks - all of which seem to have been in development since forever. Keep em peeled at www.meatfeast.co.uk for them!

Speaking of Android, I somehow worked through Christmas developing Apps for my new and trusty Samsung Galaxy Tab, (a rival tab to the iPad) which I now use every second for Internet, phone, satnav, games, eBooks etc etc. but more on that another day...

Back in the Black Country... there's a wild little pub called The Hollybush. It is the host to evenings of Drum'n'Bass, Russian Film, live bands and comedy; and run by the every-so-slightly-Mike-Patton Dave. More on the Bush here. Brown Wednesday's are the new film night set-up with Warren and Paul from TeeT Shirts to show very brown and very bad films, and I was able to witness, for the first time in it's majestic entirity, the all-time horror classic 'Edge of Hell'. And let me tell you it's even worse than Troll 2...

Running a Psy-Trance Label

2010-12-14T20:14:00.007Z

New Covert Mag Interview up!

This time with label owner Mike Rucinski of Coventry Psy-Trance label Trick Music.

See here for full feature.

Punk-Blast-Art and Flash-Tek-Music

2010-10-13T19:58:00.020+01:00

Well I have to say I've been flippin busy recently, which might account for my tune of the week being In The Garage by Weezer, which is most-likely the place I'd love to dissapear to for a wee holiday. As it happens I'm off to the south of Spain instead. Yes, I know, your coughing up phlemmy laughter right now, but I'm not off to the Costa del Sol, I'm nipping out to Europes only desert (Spain's Nevada Desert). Apparently they get flamingos, have gangs of gypsys living in caves near Granada and just north west of Almería there's picturesque mountain-side villages. Sounds good to me, plus an oportunity to try out a little more of my Spanish on the natives :D

Anyways... things have been coming on strong with my freelance work and after having come close to hitting off a big project with Fargo - Coventry City Council's regeneration project (camden/custard factory, so I'm told) and building custom trainer software for Loughborough University, I've been working on a Custom T-shirt Designer program I've developed for the lovely chaps at TeeT Shirts (Version 2 is due to go live on their site very soon!), and my web design / development skills have exploded.

It would also be rude not to mention filthy punk rockers Rebel City Radio, as it looks like I'm doing their album artwork after Mac Mayhem (guitarist) liked what I'd done for his previous band The Strawberry Blondes. The guys seem to be having a good old time at the moment gigging up and down the country. Last time I saw Mac was in the bizarre and highly unpredictable entertainment venue of the Holly Bush in Cradley Heath. He was soo wrecked on ale, he could barely walk or see, but was strangely able to hold a conversation and play a mini piano concerto. That nights other entertainment consisted of a man shouting "Shopping!Shopping!Shoppping!" angrily over a mic in the other room.

Harminder Judge - The Modes of Al-Ikseer 2009-10

I'm excited about a potential project with damn fine gent and brum-based artist Harminder Judge. Last time I asked about his work he was importing tonnes of feathers (literally) from India, so anything could happen..! Other stuff includes putting together my first Augmented Reality work in Flash for my Paperless Design project, and getting to grips with Flash's new 3D and audio reactive processes - something that is being used in the mediaplayer I've built for the lads at Firstfold Records (to go live very soon also).

Japanese AR pioneers

Speaking of Firstfold the guys have a stall at this years Supersonic Festival in Birmingham and I was also asked to VJ. I have no idea if I'll actually be VJing though, due to a complete lack of freetime and a few years out of the VJ scene it's looking unlikely I'll have time to throw something together - which would make it the 3rd time I've tried and failed to play Supersonic :( Anyways - I'll be there at some point as it's my birthday weekend and I should also have some prints available on the stall - so go check it all out if your there! I also have a nice little profile page on their site, good ey?

Here's some other Firstfold releated artwork - available from their Supersonic stall I'm guessing...

Video Art Exhibitions

2010-10-08T10:30:00.005+01:00

Just had news that '2 into 1' - a video art project I worked as video editor and soundman with artist Caitlin Griffiths on is getting shown at exhibitions in Twickenham and Berkshire, as follows;

Making it Faking it
Orlean House Gallery
Riverside,
Twickenham,
TW1 3DJ
http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/leisure_and_culture/arts/orleans_house_gallery/orleans_house_gallery_exhibitions/making_it_faking_it.htm
on until 23rd January.

New Greenham Arts Open Submission exhibition
Corn Exchange
Market Place,
Newbury,
Berkshire,
RG14 5BD.
http://www.cornexchangenew.com/events/event_detail/open_submissions_exhibition_2010/
opens 21st October - 25th November

See more on the voice-swap video project in my original post here:
http://benneal.blogspot.com/2009/11/lip-sync-video-art.html

Dirty Bristow! Polly Daniel Son. Young Montana?

2010-08-14T10:20:00.015+01:00

Look out for the bizarre and illusive Dirty Bristow magazine at a summer fete in Birmingham on Sat Aug 28th.

Run by the duo of Bounder (Jon Bounds of Birmingham It's not Shit fame, I think) and Probably Drunk (Danny Smith) - this mag offers artistic freedom and a No-Adverts policy.

They asked me to write something on the topic of 'Birth' after reading my Tweets and the mag is to be released at a summer fete at The Edge, Cheapside, Digbeth.

Originally to have a glass cover (!?) the magazine is somewhat shrouded in mystery and I can't wait to see what the physical thing is going to look like...

Also at the event is music from Brumcast and 8 bit Ninjas... oh and there will be teddy bear bungee too ...?

Meanwhile keep your eyes out for my music video 'Love Guns' for Polly Daniel Son at this years Artsfest and possibly on Big Screen Birmingham too. I had my '2030 Memory' video shown there a while back when there was a lovely beach set up in Victoria Square.

Polly Daniel Son are currently hybernating but you can hear the 4 track EP we recorded on the MySpace : http://www.myspace.com/pollydanielson and also see a couple of video-experiments we did.

If your living near Coventry - there's a couple of experimental electronica events coming up worth going to - Young Montana? is playing Hedonics at the Tin Angel (Friday 20th Aug, £3) and there's Electronica & Dubstep at KICK!SNARE!DISCO! (Sat 4th Sept) on at the Free Mason's Club.. erm... I mean Taylor John's house.

Here's Coventry's Young Montana? proving that good things really do happen in Coventry:
on east village radio w/GASLAMP KILLER by Young Montana?

Another Covert Interview

2010-07-28T16:05:00.005+01:00

Just gone online....

Read my interview of Capsule and Supersonic Festival co-founder Lisa Meyer now online at:

http://covertmag.com/2010/07/28/interview-with-lisa-meyer-of-capsule-and-supersonic-festival/

Touchpad Meat and Japanese Cock Metal

2010-07-15T21:42:00.010+01:00

Meatfeast (my screaming-muso-mental-metal band) are back in the studio again after a long spell of recording misfortune thanks to unprofessional engineers, Jazz Thrash Assassin's dissolve, some never-seen TV footage, and a single that never saw the light of day (until Chris from Brumcast played it on Rhubard Radio a few weeks ago...)

Anyway, gigs have been good recently, at the Actress & Bishop back in May, and Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge on the night Algeria made England look like Accrington Stanley. I even bought a Kaossilator to liven up the sound textures - so expect additional spazfinger solos from now on...

This guys just LOVEs his Kaossilator... I want to be him

So anyways were recording Sparrow Mask and Self-Inflicted Hair-cut with Tommy from metalcore grinders Random Conflict. So keep em peeled for that sometime soon..!

Joe Roger's Words are Meaningless Sofa from the Plus Design Festival a few years back

That aside I DJ'ed for the first time in a longtime at my Mr.Grizz's 30th birthday - an amazing opportunity to play loads of really dodgy 80's hairmetal, scummy punk and Bon-Jovi Jungle remixes. I was so pleased to play out again I even joined talented illustrator Joe Roger's Mixtape Project and now send mixes including the likes of this to randoms every month...

If your after some stunning Detroit Techno mixes for free then you should download this young lads stuff - here's Noccio from Italy - these are easily some of the best techno mixes I've heard for years!! Enjoy!

Meatfeast next play the Actress & Bishop on Thursday July 22nd

Covert Magazine

2010-07-08T10:49:00.008+01:00

I've just started getting involved with Covert Magazine - an independent culture mag on the Coventry scene.

Your excited already - I can tell. But really - it's a great mag! I love it's frivolous and mischievous approach and it's glitchy artwork and off-the-wall style. Content is of a high standard too, with many national and international features alongside more local stuff.

I've just finished an interview with Richard March of Bentley Rhythm Ace on his Godiva Festival experience.

You can read the whole thing here.

Just a note for anyone following this blog - some of my would-have-been-posted-on-here features may now shift over to Covert in the future - so it's worth keeping your eye on both from now on, as posts will probably be split 50/50.

Winner of Worcester Open Prize!

2010-06-27T11:24:00.003+01:00

I'm very pleased to announce that the video art piece "2 into 1" by Caitlin Griffiths won the Worcester Open Prize!

See the links below for more info on the project and my involvement:
http://benneal.blogspot.com/search/label/Caitlin%20Griffiths

Worcester Open Video Art

2010-05-18T16:31:00.006+01:00

2 into 1 : After Gillian Wearing is a video art piece in which George Reynolds (a man affected with Foreign Accent Syndrome) speaks through artist Caitlin Griffiths, and vice versa.

I did the video-editing and the sound recording, and good fun it was too. Last time I mentioned it it was being shown at The Vaults in Birmingham (see here).

Right now it's being shown in Worcester Art Gallery & Museum as part of the Worcester Open - which also includes works shown at The Pitt Studio (run by curator/owner Nathaniel Pitt - a nice bloke, and one I once shared an office with).

So anyway - go have a look! It's one of the more interesting projects I've worked over over the last few months, and is well worth dropping into Worcs for - alongside all the other stuff on. See the official Worcester Open Website for more on what's on.

See my original post here for some more background.

WierdPaintinCoventryArtSceneDeadBands&Kiwis

2010-05-14T17:31:00.012+01:00

Dont seem to get the time to update this much these days, so might just start doing uber-speedy blogs like this one... it's so fast it's in italics...

Went Austria - saw real Dracula and Wolfman paintings and other oddities in Schloss Ambras Castle .

Also amazing art - snow sheep made by catching breath, then distilled to alcohol - then drank by arty types at Private views, then breath caught back on sheep. Wow.
Coventry - Fargo - new Digbeth / Camden on my doorstep - great!
New business venture *Paperless Design - www.paperlessdesign.co.uk - multimedia in schools! Get in touch please if you want to work with us!
Scary Canary shop open in Stourbridge - great vintage clothing - go have a look!
Meatfeast (formerly Jazz Thrash Assassin) - Gigs!! Screaming!! New tracks!! Got played on Kerrang! again and other stations.
Also - read Blue Whale Blog on duff promoters killing Midlands band scene...
Got Coconut - opened after trouble - all mouldy.. eek.. binned it. Got another. Drank milk like sexy Bounty man.
I'm working on Andrew Cross show at Ikon Gallery - video of technical drumming - guy from Emmerson, Lake & Palmer - coming soon!
Flight of Conchords at NIA on Monday - well funny, best bit where Bret fell off the stage doing sexy dance.

Phew! ...aaaaand... relax...

Digbeth Witch dies...

2010-04-28T09:17:00.006+01:00

One of the most significant moments in Birmingham's history is about to happen... If you haven't heard already - there is a cashpoint opening in Digbeth (and it doesn't charge for withdrawls).

I know - your amazed that the Mediaeval hex warding them from Digbeth has finally expired, and you can get money out without traipsing all the way back into town, or being struck down by bubonic plague, or crushed by a sudden downfall of frogs and newts...

There will even be an opening ceremony...

More here: http://digbeth.org/2010/04/the-cashpoint-saga-the-official-launch-ceremony/

Censored Internet for Brtitain?

2010-04-10T11:39:00.003+01:00

The Digital Economy Bill - Good for creative industries? hmmm... scary stuff...

http://www.infowars.com/the-end-of-the-internet-as-we-know-it-in-britain/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/09/digital-economy-bill-backlash

The Luke-Skywalker-cum-Tresor-Techno affair

2010-03-21T22:55:00.004Z

Caught Japan's Atsuhiro Ito at Capsule's show at VIVID in Birmingham & nice to chat to a few folks down their I ain't seen for a while.

Ito essentially plays a strip-light through a few fx pedals to create a kind of live Audio-Visual noise-techno - by tapping the light on and off rhythmically, and waving it near a light-sensitive sensor, which creates distorted sounds. Gripping stuff, very atmospheric and driving. Kind of a solemn Luke-Skywalker-cum-Tresor-Techno affair.

I'm guessing that this was the guy mentioned when, in 2006, I went to Sonar with the Capsule gang - whom I missed... Well, it's been a few years postponed, but glad I caught him this time!

Nikki Pugh got some nice pics on Flickr here

In fact - check him out on Youtube!

Repetition and Pirate Tales

2010-03-09T16:21:00.015Z

One of my video-art pieces is being shown at The Public in West Bromwich this friday. The video consists of me repeating words or phrases in 30-40 minute loops. A while back I did a live variation of this at the Crowd 6 gallery - find out more - and read an excerpt of my artist's statement here in the original post.

Details on the event at The Public here

Another participant in the live event was Ed Wakefield (aka Captain Ed) who's just published a book titled "Blood and Rorschach". I've just finished reading it and it's damn fine. It's a small black artifact, with the look and feel of a little hymn book. I got mine autographed; it reads "To Ben MEATFASTE UMMF" with a small illustrationsigned "Love Cap Cap x x".

The story is about the slightly salty and paranoid Captain Blood who has been harrassed for some years by marauding sea pigeons. One day he finds Rorschach washed up outside his beach hut and the two set off across the waves for pirate adventure.

Here's a favourite moment:

"For a full minute he stood in the shadows, the tinkling of urine against the wall the only sound. He finished and then tussled his goose barnacle back into his pants. A strange urge to look at the parchment overtook him. He reached inside his coat and unfurled it. All of a sudden an avian scream ripped through the silence, and before he knew what was happening a shape tore past him and the parchment was gone.

'Damnit!' he roared.

'The parchment!' Blood was enraged, watching the offending sea pigeon take off with the trophy. 'Ye whelp!' bawled Blood and set to cuffing Rorschach about the ears"

There's even some bits on the Insertspace YouTube channel:

"Blood and Rorschach" is for sale from from Ikon Gallery, Birmingham - £5.

Screening 1 runs at The Public in West Bromwich from March 13-April 25. Free!

Popeye-Pope's Bacon & other Street Vibes

2010-02-25T21:22:00.009Z

Just a quick update on my last 2 blogs...

The Vaults Bazaar was pretty cool - a nice venue The Vaults, I'd recommend you go and wander through it's stoney arches and go buy a meal there. The place was perfectly suited to the kind of offbeat arts on show and just off St. Paul's square if you know the area.

On entering we were greeted by a crowd of polystryrene cups and with faces, burlesque dancing and a mirror-faced waiter who endlessly refilled and waited upon invisible people, breaking the occasional glass. My favourite piece on show however (apart from the thing I worked on of course;) had to be Steve Varndell's Popeye-Pope. Ok, so I'm a little biased as Steve had me laughing before hand so I was in a receptive mood, but I did like the subtlety and darkness of the 'painting'.

On my first viewing of The Vaults I completely missed it - it was in the depths, on a black wall behind a group of seated wine-drinkers, but after Steve pointed out where it was, I was quite struck by the piece. Let me explain... Under an alcove, dimmly lit, was an even darker Francis Bacon-esque illustration of Popeye; in the seated pose of Francis Bacon's "Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X" (See above). You had to get close to see it, and it was oddly malevolent as Popeye sat like a gummy-devil, eyeing up the passers by from his tunnel.

Secondly I just wanted to add some more videos from the Adam Buxton show. Here's a few treats I forgot to mention in the 1st blog:

And here's Major Lazer's Pon de Floor (which I cant embed at the mo)

The Vaults Bazaar - Video Art

2010-02-21T17:12:00.006Z

A video-art project I worked on with artist Caitlin Griffiths is being shown on Wednesday in Birmingham. The piece involves a voice-swap, lip-sync technique and a man affected by Foreign Accent Syndrome.

Other artists include Steve Varndell & Elizabeth Short of Crowd 6. Trove is Curated by Charlie Levine.

Image of from 'The Book of Caitlin (2007)

See event details below

TROVE, in association with ARC, presents The Vaults Bazaar
One night only: Wednesday 24th February
2010 6-8pm with music till late

The Vaults, Newhall Hill, Birmingham, B1 3JH

TROVE is the first gallery invited by ARC to present a one night only exhibition at The VAULTS in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, UK. Each month ARC invites regional guest curators to present an exhibition of works to be exhibited at The VAULTS, with TROVE kicking off their 2010 programme.

The Vaults Bazaar brings together a selection of regional and national artists that TROVE invited to take part in this exhibition. Each offering a different proposal of work, each vault will be different from classic painting through film to performance, a truly bizarre mix.

Artists include:
Jane Ball, Coco Deville, Graham Chorlton, Caitlin Griffiths, Daniel Lehan, Brigid McLeer, Milk,Two Sugars, Paul Newman, Elizabeth Short and Steve Varndell

2 for 1 on selected cocktails

Website

Adam and Joe & Music Video

2010-02-18T22:37:00.010Z

The other day I had the pleasure of going to the Leicester Comedy Festival to see Adam Buxton present a series of music videos from Bugs (at the BFI) and it was outstanding, easily the best thing I've ever seen him do, and I've been rather enjoying his xFM podcasts recently too.

It mainly consisted of him (after dancing, raggamuffin-raver stylee to sushi) showing music videos and reading us there accompanying comments from YouTube. It was hysterical.

And MY GOD there we're some gems in there! So... I shall waste no time and say to thee - watch this, and laugh, and be "pummelled with fists of SUCCEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[ I can't embed it, so JUST CLICK HERE
--- REMEMBER TO COME BACK though! ]

Seriously, the guy responsible is a genius, and I dare you - no - double dare you, to even try to watch all the videos on his YouTube profile in succession without giving yourself a cracked face and aching belly from laughing.

'Shredding' (as the YouTube term for dubbing musicians with new, really bad soundtracks seems to be) isn't new, but this guy is an expert! Adam informed us that ST's next video will be a dub of Blade Runner - in it's entirety - and you can see from this preview - it's going to be amazing!

Some other delights included showing a video by breakcore-mentalist Ladyscraper showing Transformers playing the drums to spazzed-out gabba. Adam enquired if there were any Ladyscraper fans in the audience, therewas a resounding 'no', but there was one - me!

Another weird video was this one below from Die Antwoord - a South African serious?/pisstake?/art project? clip which will haunt you in your sleep and is just odd, odd, odd.

Adam was what you might term 'proper sound' and even had a pint and a little chat with yours truley after the show at the bar. If you liked any of that - there's more on Adam's YouTube Channel here - 'Sausages' is recommended - and some of the other stuff shown can be seen on the BUGS website here The 'Themselves' video on the far right is flippin' mental.

Boo-ya!!

Created in Birmingham shop in Bullring

2010-01-29T10:06:00.006Z

Just picked up this from Created in Birmingham - they are opening a shop in the Bullring to sell and support local creative talent.

For starters they are looking for illustration, photography, paintings, t-shirts, books and zines. How brummin' exciting!

Here's the original post from their blog.

New Media Art? The Black Country?

2010-01-17T18:38:00.013Z

A while back I wrote up a small group talk I'd shared with artist Richard Billingham (here), and noticed that he is currently showing his photographs of the Black Country at The Public in West Bromwich.Richard Billingham's photo of Reddal Hill library Cradley Heath (?). If it is, it's just up the road from the lovely lads at TeeT Shirts

I went to The Public a while back to meet Caitlin Griffiths (another blog entry here on a recently completed project I worked on with her) and was actually a bit shocked - the place is not only OPEN - it's damn good!!

How these things had slipped past me (being wide-eyed when it comes to art, and local) I can only put down to pretty bad marketing on their part. Anyway after spending about 20 minutes trying to find the gigantic black and pink building from the high street (it's unbelievable well hidden for it's size) I then failed to find the entrance, and circled the place once or twice, before sitting down across the road, only to see a huge, pink sliding door so big and inset into the architecture, I'd walked past first time round.

Well, once inside (after a meeting over soup, with Caitlin) I had the pleasure of going round the place - and it is jammed with really cutting edge, inspirational and engaging new media art. My favourite was Blast Theory's Flypad (2008) in which you can stamp on a pad and float weird 3D virtual fighters around on a video screen over the actual the gallery space. The characters look like oddball mutant wrestlers and you fly around grappling other users (there can be many - all jumping on pads around the gallery) with cameras tracking your guy overlaid on realtime video footage of the space. It's flippin wicked! Blast Theory were there themselves too (I recognised them as I did a 3 day workshop with them creating virtual worlds a few years ago at Warwick Art Centre). GO! PLAY! It's great.

Blast Theory are bloody genius and well worth keeping a close eye on. They are very active in the art world and have done some incredible projects from 3D worlds explored on surfboards Desert Rain (1999) to Kidnap (1998) : a piece in which you could volunteer to be kidnapped! (You didn't know where or when or for how long or what was going to happen, but eventually it did..!). Mental note: I should really look up what they have been doing over the last 10 years... lol
Alongside Flypad there were interactive drawing touchscreens and virtual video hugging and a host of other technology-hungry stuff. I was a bit saddened by the "3D sound corridor" - which I put in a proposal for before the place went pearshaped - which was not really very hi-tech. A victim maybe of all the budget cuts etc. that the place has suffered from?

A good friend of mine Jon Garbett (and guitarist from Meatfeast / Jazz Thrash Assassin) took his kids and they loved it too. So my thoughts on the whole Public/West Brom/Disaster embargo is this - it's there, it's great, stop moaning and GO. It's a damnsite more exciting than Millenium Point, i'll tell you that.

Speaking of the band... and here comes a plug... we're back up and running with a new sax player woohoo! ...and JTA got voted 64th Best Band in Birmingham over the last Decade by public votes, collated Blue Whale Studios. I've mentioned this a million times, but it's been a rocky year for us (rocky as in bad, not rocky as in; we've been running up steps punching the air) and we need a boost to keep us positive and on-track... Keep your ears peeled for gigs in the Midlands soooon.

Folk & Pictures

2010-01-11T14:32:00.010Z

Last night I went to Warwick Arts Center and saw Lewis Garland and the Kett Rebellion. Lewis is a friend of my girlfriend's and we'd been to see him at his last gig in Coventry at the scarily somber Taylor John's. They played Glastonbury a while back and have just finished a UK tour (including a date in Ireland which they refused to play after being informed on arriving that the venue wanted £150 from them to play it..?!).

The Kett Rebellion ain't my usual cup of tea, I'd be the first to admit, but I totally enjoyed the gig. The band play a good variation of folk from soft vocal-acoustic stuff to full on stomp-your-foot gypsy; complete with double-bassist, squeeze-box and mandolin. His lyrics are interesting and draw a few parallels between art and music (Life Drawing - alludes to, well yeah you guessed it... and Art has a cute Damien Hurst heart-in-formaldehyde theme) The band look pretty young, but are very polished, and it's sad to hear that Lewis' getting a bit peeved with the industry and is most likely going to have a break for a while, as they seem to have everything in place for success.
Review - Lewis Garland & The Kett Rebellion - CD to buy

A couple of weeks back I also went to the Capsule closing party at VIVID and saw Modified Toy Orchestra, who were great as always, wielding their speak'n'spell instruments. Briefly got a glance at Catweasel's vvvv set-up for the Toy Orchestra's visuals too - I must work out how to build GUI's using it... also caught PCM too, who always seem to please with a taste of dark Drum'n'Bass. Sadly I missed all the other acts who I haven't seen yet and wanted too, but bouncing round the room like a drunken fool with Tim Jones ("I'm a raver! I'm a raver!") and the slightly sozzled Ashley Cole (AKA toy-mangling grunge-o-naught Concrete Belly) was so much fun I didn't really care.

Here's Concrete Belly getting down with his bad-self (& me VJing) from a while back just before he trashed the place and got banned...lol

Dropped in on the De Montfort University MA Photography Show at the Custard Factory which was a little underwhelming, although it did have some nice panoramic shots of beach huts and seafronts, but was more impressed by the artwork in The Framers next door. If you want cool stuff to hang on your walls go here, you will not be disappointed! See photos below...

Speaking of pictures - if you want loads of free digital prints - try signing up for free accounts with the following, so far I've notched up over 150 free digital prints just by starting an account with them: Tesco, Photobox, Snapfish or Jessops. Duno if they are still doing it but it's worth a try...

Lip-Sync Video Art

2009-11-26T23:43:00.007Z

I've been working with the rather loveley Caitlin Griffiths (artist) recently who is delving into the realms of Cuckooing once again. She is obviously quite mental as she's the practice coach for Birmingham Blitz Dames Roller Derby Team and doing a Masters and PhD at the same time. We've been working with George, who has Foreign Accent Syndrome. George is from East London. One day he had a stroke, and now he speaks a little like he's from Italy.

We've also had the pleasure of an old friend of Caitlin's, Martin Gooch, who has worked on loadsa good stuff. And directed Hollyoaks. He makes dodgy B-movies by the looks of things, and has made a selection of dirty films which apparently Christian Slater is resisting. He has a little site here which I like very much.

The project revolves around a lip-sync video based on 2 into 1 by artist Gillian Wearing. As seen below. I won't give much more away, as Caitlin may smash me into a barrier, but keep your eyes peeled for an exhibition around Birmingham in the not-too-distant-future showing the piece. I'm tipped it may be a Trove show curated by Charlie Levine.

In the meantime enjoy the original 2 into 1, which I do believe I still have on VHS myself somewhere, probably from when it was on TV as this version must have been. It's strangely troubling...

Twitter

2009-11-17T00:03:00.023Z

Twitter - I mean, really... They got the name right: it includes the word 'Twit'; inspires the word 'Twat'; and gives the impression - it's what timewasting old biddies do to comprise their day.

I get the impression that Twitterers are of the same ilk (but a differn't brand) of the folk who would watch Big Brother's 24hr footage while everyone is sleeping... with one major difference - they're not interested in others sleeping, just themselves.

Why I would want to know this???

"Just woke up from a bomb ass nap...lol.."
"Just woke up, still sleepy. "
"Jus woke up from a good nap on my gramas couch."
"im tired! i woke up"
"I feel so proud of myself, woke up late by 30mins. Yet i can get ready in 10mins and leave home as scheduled."
"woke up from a terrible nap ... how lovely. "
"Did a very crazy thing yesterday. Woke up happy but scred this morning."
"iono ugh.i woke up this way doe"
"Just woke up from a nap. Yes, a nap. "
"just woke up from an all day nap, lol."
"It was good, I just woke up. "
"Dreamt that I woke up with a gap between my front teeth. I was wk"

And yes, they are all real 'Tweets'.

I know! I know!! Stephen Fry uses Twitter - so let's see what he has to say then:

"No. Yes. Mm. Agree completely. That fellow in the M&S advert does look amazingly like me. Astonishingly really."
- Stephen Fry on Twitter

Well fuck me.

Let's face it: if you can say it in 140 characters or less 14 times a day, it really can't be worth saying now can it?

http://twitter.com/misskatieprice - a twat (recommended Twitterer)

Jordan recently mentioned me in her Tweets here

15 best free software downloads

2009-10-31T23:52:00.013Z

Mostly it's for web design or audio/video so excuse my if it's all a little techy.

DONT WORRY! : I'll add in a few cheap jokes to keep the non-techy amongst you entertained.

General stuff:

OpenOffice
Better than Microsoft Office! You can create Office Docs with it, works with docx files (I've had to convert them online recently with docx-converter.com), it's crossplatform and more stable than the juddering old granny that is Word. Apart from a small confusion I had over where the hell the Page Setup bit was in the Word Processor (format>page which actually makes more sense) I've found it to be great!

Dropbox
Free 2GB of online datastorage (a virtual USB stick) - and works just like a folder on your machine, where you can copy stuff to - you can make it accessible to anyone online too (share photos, files etc). Charming little site, easy install, really useful!

Nero 9 - free version
I'm sick of vista fullstop and the annoying default dialogue wastes my CDROMs. Not actually used this Nero freeware, but Nero is always good. Statistically... 9 out of 10 people enjoy gang rape.

Creative stuff:

Pixlr
Online Image Editing - works just like Photoshop and it a bit more comfy than the other free Photoshop-but-not-actually-Photoshop freebie Gimp.

Blender
Full on 3D studio!!! Free!! Scary! Albino... You can't say fairer than that.

Aviary
Online audio editing! Really! Import, export, trim, fade, reverse. All your basic audio editing features online.

Virtual Dub
Digital video editor (AVI's no Quicktime though). Magic little toolkit for trimming and batch converting video files.

vvvv
Mindbendingly-powerful and totally intuitive AV programming environment. Once you learn it's little quirks you'll fall in love with it's beautiful interface and be building samplers, 3D worlds and videofx in no time.

Web designer stuff, noone else will be interested in:

Mozilla's - web developer plugin
Great little Add-on for Mozilla that does nifty jobs you'll use every day as a web designer to test pages. A man goes into a library and asks for a book on suicide. The librarian says; "Fuck off, you won't bring it back."

Xampp
Free install for servers - installs PHP, MySQL and Apache server in a click. Perfect! Saves all the hassle, easy to install and use - even comes with an Apache-ON/OFF control panel. I'm using it for testing out PHP parsing offline.

FileMenuTools
Little context menu tool for pc that gives you new options like quick advanced find and replace and folder syncronisation. Simple, but I find myself using it a lot.

Crimson Editor
Nice lil Notepad replacement source code editor for windows. Includes FTP. Why doesn't Viagra work on chavs? Cos they only get hard when they've got ten mates behind them.

Browsershots
Handy cross-platform browser compatibilty screenshot creator for Web Designers to check their pages dont go AWOL on the iPhone or OSX.

Filezilla
Great FTP client does the job well, no fuss. Connect to mutiple servers at once. My sister talks about sex online with people she doesn't know. She thinks ;)

Digital Picasso

2009-10-31T23:49:00.002Z

Just made this little fella at Mr Picasso Head. (www.mrpicassohead.com).

Or you could go all Jackson Pollock at www.jacksonpollock.org

Enjoy

Social networking for Creative People : Good? or Bad?

2009-10-06T00:30:00.013+01:00

Thanks to Elizabeth Short (of Crowd 6, Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames and, at the inspired Tea Stained) here's a few questions I answered for her on social networking for creative people... I'm also wondering if MySpace will threaten me, so it's a bit of an experiment... ;)

1. Please tell me a little about yourself. What you do (artistic practice or/and job) and where you do it.

I like to think of myself as an artist, although I spend most of my time helping others as a freelance multimedia specialist and teacher. Officially I’m a sole trader trading as Psicon Lab (www.PsiconLab.co.uk) and have been since 2004, although I’ve worked freelance since 2001 and been active in the midlands arts and music scene since 1998.

Commercially I supply services in art and design, multimedia and web, software and interactivity, education and events; usually for the arts, music industry, education and business. As an artist I work in a range of media (mostly digital) with a preference for live performance and draw a lot. I used to VJ (mix video clips live at clubs/events) and would love to be more involved in audio-visual performance.

2. Do you use social networking sites? If so which ones and why? (if not why?)

Recently I use them a lot. I have accounts on many, but mainly use Facebook. MySpace sends me into an intolerable rage at the log-in screen, as I dodge adverts, and it is a disaster of design and user-friendliness. It fails miserably to do the most basic task efficiently. Furthermore I am convinced that they sweep the Internet for any bad press said about them and try to destroy it – there MUST be a million complaints – but can you find any online?? I’ve looked for answers to a selection of problems and found nothing but cheery chit-chat. It is good for discovering great music though and contacting bands, labels and organisers. Given the choice I would remove myself from MySpace altogether if it wasn’t so popular and useful for music – it is THE worst website I have ever had to use, and I wish I never had to use it ever again.

Facebook on the other hand I have found to be an invaluable tool and have recently bought advertising on (ironically!) which is actually looking to pay off quickly – mainly due to a good system of targeted adverts and non-invasive display. What really sets Facebook apart though is the way you can manage the content – It has a selection of filters/lists/hiding options and privacy settings that you can use to set who sees what, and what I want to read, and when – essential tools which are vital for avoiding information overload, which MySpace lacks: contributing to the failing and pointless spam-fest it has become.

3. Do you use them for personal or as a creative practitioner for promotional use? (if not why?)

I use the sites to contact with friends and family and keep in touch with what’s going on – almost as an email replacement these days. I also have my bands on there, and groups and pages for my business. It is great for keeping in contact with people in an easy and social, and more personal way. People can also subscribe to RSS news feeds and keep up with what I’m doing/what my business is offering. I can also embed parts of it into other sites and people can help promote you with cute little tools like ‘liking’ it, tagging it, sharing it and other open communications.

I used to use Facebook exclusively for close friends and deny anyone else, but it’s become so widespread I see no point in fighting it. I also trust it to deal with changes and introduce new tools to deal with them – again as MySpace failed to do.

I do feel it is very important to treat yourself and your business as separate things though – this is a traditional business model which is actually challenged by modern thinking that ‘personal’ business blogs and networking are great for business – which they can be. The key thing I feel is choice – you may just want to buy a sandwich from the shop and not speak to the woman behind the counter, or you may want to chat and eventually become friends, but business and personal life should be 2 distinct roles, even if they do over-lap and cross-filter. Some people care about you being a person, and others just want a job done. Some people want to know what Beyonce had for breakfast, others just want to hear the song. But either way I feel creative people should communicate with each other and find new audiences, and this type of networking encourages relevant people to discover you.

4. How do you feel that they help promote you as a creative practitioner? (If at all).

They make you accessible in terms of seeing what you do, but also in terms of being to communicate with you directly – it used to be the case that people used managers and agents as middle men, now you don’t need to. Also everyone is into it and online networking sites are like an interactive directory - and you’ve got a better chance of getting business in and meeting people if your on there. Another gripe with MySpace here – the search was always completely useless – imagine if you got the Yellow Pages and it didn’t actually tell you page the plumbers were on, so you just had to stumble through it trying to find one..!

5. How do you feel about social networking sites and the use of them to promote creative practitioners?

I think MySpace did wonders for musicians and has been the source of many of my contacts on there in the industry. My music videos get plenty of play on YouTube too and have had viewers reaching into the hundred thousands, which would never have happened without major TV coverage any other way. I think artists should definitely be using them – everyone else is, why exclude yourself? I do feel that artists are cautious though – because they care about how their work is displayed and to who – but Facebook’s privacy settings actually give you control over this – person by person – you can even preview your own profile from someone else’s view just to check what’s being seen. Comments and criticisms are much more likely to be problematic but can open up debate which surely is what it’s all about anyway? Again, I think control is needed – my YouTube videos get occasional idiots leaving non-sensical or stupid comments – I delete them.

6. Do you feel that online social networking sites have community focus?

Yes, of course! That’s what it’s all about.

7. Do you think that online social networking sites will replace the use of flyers for events?

No. Online is one thing and real world another. But, I do think that ‘perishable media’ (ie, stuff that’s only needed or relevant to a specific time, or that goes out of date quickly) is better suited to the web. Better for the environment too! Flyers – as little card leaflets - may die out I suppose, but there will be some other offline promotional stuff instead.

8. As you are based in the West Midlands how do you feel that artist-led groups within the Midlands promote themselves to those within and outside the region?

Not sure quite what your getting at here, but I hope they are keeping up with things and doing everything that they can to make themselves known and progress – in fact, with networking sites they should be actively seeking to bring-in people from outside the region – it’s just too easy to reach the right people now. One of the best things about networking online is that I get fed a massive amount of events that I’m interested in attending – I’m almost spoilt for choice, I even have them fed straight into my online calendar, so am never out of touch.

Again Facebook, blogs and RSS feeds keeps me in touch. It’s actually been very valuable - as I’ve missed shows before - they just forgot to tell me about it, or I never saw a flyer or listing, if I'd have known I would have turned up.

A Feast of Meat

2009-09-26T23:18:00.007+01:00

Screamed my balls off at the debut gig of the newly born musical beast that is Meat Feast at The Gifford Arms in Wolverhampton, which turned out to be a cute little rock venue complete with gothic red curtains, satanic insignia and even The Chair of Doom. We played alongside Faith No More tribute (The weirdly titled) Faith No Man.

Drummer uITgs Thetroll in 'The Chair of Doom' - Gifford Arms

If you were unaware, before I did a disappearing act, I was playing bass in Brummy experimental metal band Jazz Thrash Assassin (newly renamed Meat Feast) and to cut a long story short, while I was away they fired screamer Splakoph (now in Contorted Hazel) and shortly after, screaming keyboard player Anna Krusis left. So guess who's filling in?? Yep... dickhead here.

Not only am I spitting blood and grunting, I'm trying to sort out some keyboard parts by sequencing them using a laptop. The screaming is going well, but the keyboard and samples etc are not, as of yet. We've tried click tracks, but as of yet have not found a good way to get the parts back in...

We're playing some of the old stuff with a few new twists, and some new. We have also been joined by The Baron (also in Viking Metal band Haerken) on 2nd guitar and of course Adam (my replacement bass player) is still with us. We have a dirty new website here and are looking to play some serious gigs in the Midlands between now and Christmas. Next on the calendar is what has been dubbed A Secret Backroom Butchery on our MySpace - it's actually a triple 30th Birthday party at which we intend to go a little mental. Also DJing at the event will be ex-JB's (Dudley) DJ (and ex-Wasted Race drummer) Jimmy Darko and Paul from TeeT Shirts who it turns out has incredible taste in hilariously cheesy electro - such as Chromeo. Apparently they do all their interviews through a vocoder! Magic... Enjoy.

Haerken play the Black Horse in Aston, Birmingham on the 16th of October.

Licking the floor - Kira O'Reilly - performance excerpt

2009-09-25T15:04:00.011+01:00

A while back I went to VIVID to see performance art by William Hunt and Kira O’Reilly.

Just found this little bit of video from Kira's performance on the VIVID YouTube channel.

Read my original post here.

VIVID also have some great stuff ogin on at present the next of which is a focus on The Act of Drawing containing works by Stuart Brisley and Valie Export, among others.

The Act of Drawing runs Thurs 01 Oct - Sat 31 Oct 2009, open Thu-Sat, 12-5 PM, admission FREE, Launch event Wed 30 Sep from 6-8 PM.

Drawings (9)

2009-09-16T16:33:00.002+01:00

Some lovable chaps and chapesses from the sketchbook...

Blah (The Redux of Redux)

2009-09-03T00:16:00.015+01:00

Hmmm.... I'm finding it hard to blog right now (full stop), as my wireless router doesn't seem to want to know my computer... but that's enough of excuses... and poetry...

On Phones...
After a row with phone company 3 (who assured me that I could 'freeze' my account (and pay nothing) while I was abroad until I came back - I found out (when I called them at Heathrow airport) that their staff lied to me (and that I would be paying line rental until I returned) and that 'freezing an account is impossible'. I cancelled my account and switched to 02 (pay as you go) who have since given me 50 free digital photos courtesy of Snapfish and some other goodies... Fuck 3, I say, whose staff are obviously incompetent lying idiots.

Receive random automated phone calls for crap you don't want? My house is attacked every day by an immense number of stupid calls by random recorded messages. Opt out of them here, at the Telephone Preference Service.

On Music...
I am loving Sigur Ros at the moment with occasional bouts of Radiohead, The Cardigans, Carcass, Type O Negative, System of a Down (who I recently discovered) and P.J. Harvey.

The Cardigans are curious. A lot of people don't 'get' them. The Cardigans entertain me endlessly because their songs seem so sickly sweet and still manage to contain the occassional subversive lyric that undermines the whole meaning - swiftly changing what is so painfully nice to... eek.. an abusive relationship. I am having difficultly finding a good example, but can't help the feeling that they are intrinsically cynical and their lyrics are sly, clever, little pins under your skin. What I like more is the disgust with which most people puke at them!

Type O Negative are genius! I had always suspected that their second album "Origin of the Feces" was never really a live album - but I found out yesterday, when Roadrunner gave them the cash to make it, they went out and spent it all on cheap vodka, then recorded it in the drummers basement and added in crowd noises after, including a fake police bombscare in the middle of the set. Genius... and completely hilarious. Here's some negativity for you:

Recent Drawings (8)

2009-08-07T08:49:00.001+01:00

Drawings (7)

2009-08-01T14:50:00.010+01:00

These are pretty old now, possibly 10 years in fact, but I just found them on my computer. I'm desparate to actually get some of my drawings shown soon, as I seem to have half a forests-worth of them spread across the house. If you can help me out in exhibiting them, want to use them or want to own any please get in touch!

Tori Amos suckling a pig from the Boys for Pele album inlay.

Played a live Gabba Techno set at Kidderminster College years ago with Adam 'Funkagenda' Walder and used some great samples from Roald Dahl audio books, one which said "And Now for the Monkeys!".

Madonna just got home apparently..

Artwork for a comic made with Dexstah of Dexstah & Babs fame, back in collage.

Many moons ago I ran a night in Stourbridge called Breadfan with Ad Walder. This is an illustration for the flyer. Can't remember if we used it - I don't think we did, but I kinda like the fork stabbing anyway. Oh - we toasted bread behind the DJ booth by the way and threw it into the crowd... fun times.

Journeys by Swarming Pattern

2009-07-22T16:58:00.011+01:00

Kim Rugg - a solitary red balloon drifting skywards

I recently got to quickly visit The City Gallery in Leicester for the Pattern Recognition show, which turned out to be a good oportunity to see works by Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely and Roy Lichtenstein, among other more contemporary works. I've never been there before and was pleased to have found the place - the gallery is extremely well curated with a well balanced selection of work. I would have left a little note in their comments box saying how much I'd liked it but couldn't find a pen...

Among the posters and prints there was a nice interactive piece, by Boredomresearch called Ornamental Bug Garden, made up of small elements with different behaviours, such as jumping and spinning. It was kind of like an animated painting. Another inspiring piece was by Kim Rugg in which she'd cut out every letter from a Newspaper cover and placed it back, but with each letter now in alphabetical order, and even cut the images into 'pixels' and re-arranged them piece by piece. It made me consider the automation and sorting done by computer programs or the garbled info you get when they crash. What I liked was the fact that it made evident the 'components' of the text - the number of e's used, which letters were bold, etc. and that it was a task usually done by computers but meticulously done by hand. Strangely the essence of what was written was somehow carried through the other design elements despite the disruption of the text.. Genius.

I'm sad I can't go to this years Supersonic Festival, but I can't really afford it right now. Damn all you lucky people who will be spending 3 days listening to some of the world's best new music! But...

As part of the festival Capsule have collaborated with Germination and Fierce! to produce a treat for travellers at Birmingham's Moor Street Station. There Are No Others, There Is Only Us is a video installation of "an aerial dance of half a million swarming birds" by Marc Silver, with music by Ben Frost (who's worked with Bjork among others).

It opens this friday and I'm off to lend a hand tomorrow with it's installation - it may be as close as I get to the action :( Still, it's better to be a tiny part, than nothing at all, and I'm eager to hear some of the alternative soundtracks to the video - submitted through Capsule's website. These days I seem to spend a lot of time at Moor Street and it will be good to have something to muse over next time I'm there.

Pattern Recognition at The City Gallery, Leicester, runs until 24 October.

"There Are No Others, There Is Only Us", is at Moor Street Station, Birmingham : Friday 24th – Sunday 26th July. 10 am – 6pm daily. Free Entry.

Killing Birmingham : Birmingham City Council

2009-07-08T19:08:00.002+01:00

I've been following this for a while and am disgraced by the threat to - in my humble opinion - Birmingham's best clubs and pubs and festivals by The City Council.

Just thought I'd share this video (found thanks to Created in Birmingham) and hope that this whole series of events will go away with minimal loss to some of the places that made Digbeth great in the first place.

Coming up is the 'Raise the Roof' event on August 1st - designed to raise money to sound proof The Rainbow Warehouse and save The Rainbow. Join the Facebook Group to campaign against it's closure and the 'Friends of The Rainbow' group here.

Honey! I'm Home!!

2009-06-23T17:38:00.003+01:00

After spending 7 months drifting around the world. I am back! If you were wondering why it had all gone quiet, then now you know!

If you'd like to see what I've been upto, you can read all about my adventures through Japan, New Zealand and South America here. I aim to add some more pictures some time and tidy up a bit, but you can read the basics!

Since I'm back in Blighty expect a few more posts soon, possibly along the lines of exactly why England is so strange once you've been away for a bit...

Martin Creed is Sick

2008-10-02T14:16:00.026+01:00

The new Martin Creed solo show at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham is slightly disturbing. I love it.

On entering the first floor gallery the first thing that hits you is the splattering sounds of vomiting. As you round the corner you see an unending, uninterrupted video of sex - a penis rhythmically bumping in and out... (just in case you needed a description of what's involved) Set in front of this projection (!) almost as a physical distraction from the visual and auditory assault (or maybe as evidence of it's potentially anxiety-inducing content) was a piece of white paper, screwed up into a ball, neatly housed on a plastic covered plinth.

The sounds of sick mentioned above are part of a video work (Work No.583 - 2007) consisting of 4 TV's on which 4 people - 2 girls, 2 guys - step on screen and simultaneously make themselves puke. They continue for (presumably) as long as they can stomach, creating a trail or pool of sick where they stand, then leave. The videos are edited together so that each initial splattering hits the ground at the same time. They finish at different points, leaving the larger of the 2 girls to continue spewing berry-red vomit in a neat line a short time after the others have gone.

What I liked about this piece was that although it's a pretty straight forward process - they all stuck two fingers down their throat and hey presto - the style for each person was different. The bigger girl made a line, taking a step back after each heave. A thinner girl wandered on screen and stood on the spot, hair over her face, head down and made a neat pile at her feet; actions I guess that had not been preconceived probably as they were more concerned at the prospect of throwing up over and over again. And anyway how do you decide where to puke should you be given a nice empty white space like this one?

Other exhibits in the space included cacti or nails, arranged in a line from smaller to larger sizes, dictated either by nature or industry, and I soon realised that not only did each piece have a depth of consideration independently, but the combination of them came to form parallels and new dialogs - a dizzying experience in the space (in which a neon sign in the corner reads 'Dont Worry') and one that the gallery's invigilators we're notably distressed by. I spoke to an invigilator (who was not enjoying listening to the sound of sick for hours on end) who commented that mostly it was younger people that we're shocked at the work, and in their embarrassment tended to shuffle on quickly. Older people, it seems, have already experienced their fare share of sex, dealing with sick and comparing cacti.

Upstairs you have to dodge through a door that continually opens and closes, only to find that the sound of puke is replaced by the unnerving clatter of a line of metronomes, each set at a different and decreasing tempo. Twin TV's show video footage of a ferry coming into dock, one slightly delayed, so you are given two simultaneous windows in time for the same event. Sheets of paper are covered with short, singular non-overlapping strokes, which create a jostling, textured selection of drawings; every stroke evident.

'Work 160:The Lights Going On and Off (1996)' is housed in the tower room, and consists of... yes... the lights going on and off. I worked in clubs as a VJ for a few years and am well aware of the impact that lighting has on an audience; although standing quietly watching the world pass by through the windows, listening to the regular click of the automated on/off switch of these lights is perhaps more akin to the passing of days and nights, than the noise, disorientating flashes and momentary glimpses found at a club.

Martin Creed it seems likes to make the most of simple ideas. One of ideas is repetition, another is variation, he also likes a performance. Creed's talent seems to be to present minimum stimulus to maximum effect; something very simple which resonates across your psyche. The thinking space around each piece emboldens the concept, enhancing exponentially possible applications and greater considerations of it's reading and purpose. The clarity and simplicity of his work allows you to make your own associations and ponder your own applications of the basic processes.

I got stuck a few years ago creating my own art. One piece I created and repeated recently at the sadly deceased Crowd 6 Gallery is a series called 'If in doubt repeat' in which I didn't know what to do, so I just repeated the same thing over and over. It was amazing how much was revealed through repetition and variation. Maybe I'm sick, but Martin Creed has given me new inspiration in my doubt about what life's about.

You can see an extended version of the sick video along with Martin's Band live at The Electric Cinema on Saturday Oct 4th. Can't make it? Buy the DVD here. Cant wait??? Here's a taster from a similar piece 'Sick Film', Work No. 610.

Lucienne Cole and Friends present Here & Now & The Future (Do you want to dance and blow your mind? on 31 October 2008 @ Ikon Eastside. 7.30pm–late.

Fantasy.Fashion.Sex -: Go Tokyo

2008-09-13T13:53:00.019+01:00

I've had a minor obsession with Japan since I was about 18 and went mad on Manga. Obviously I was a prime example of a teenager being into Manga and Metal, and moody. So anyway when I think of Tokyo, I think of Akira, but alongside imaginary Kanada's & Tetsuo's blazing around on motorcycles and the place being destroyed by dark forces, mutants and Godzilla... I've found there are equally fantastic but real people and places there...

In Harajuku district the Cosplay-zuko (Costume Play Gang) turn up most weekend's at Jingu-bashi bridge. These moody teens find escape in dressing up, and dress as Anime characters or other stylised alter-ego's from music, film, games and fantasy; bloody nurses, Goth's, Lolita's and cyberpunks all gather and hang out. Tourist's turn up in droves to snap them apparently and here's why...

More here: http://www.japanforum.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=2

In Shibuya you get Ganguro Fashion which consists of Manba & Yamanba girls who get tanned to the max, then go seriously blonde. Apparently this all goes totally against traditional Japanese concepts of beauty and the girls are generally seen as well... probably what girls who dress like these Barbie's from Hell (complete with worldly treasures and scorching) would be seen as over here; slappers...

Victory V's seem to be the thing to do when being snapped in Tokyo it seems

Back in the day, when Japanese families all lived together (inc. Nan, Grandad and Great Uncle Rodney) it was tricky for Mom & Dad to find space to get jiggy and add another member to the family. So they used to go and find a quiet room in a Love Hotel where questions are not asked and you can hire the room by the hour. Now this doesn't sound too unusual does it? Until you find out that many Love Hotels are themed... and in true Japanese style you can bonk your missus (or anyone else you care to lure) in a room decorated as... well... a clinic, a forest, a school room or subway car. Or perhaps you'd prefer inside a boiler? or as an alien in a spaceship, or on a Carousel horse?? or even as Wallace & Gromit, in a room complete with oversized TV and furniture..?!?

Read the full Wired mag feature here: http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2006/12/wiredphotos9

Oh did I mention, I'm in Tokyo this Halloween?? hehe. Lucky me. Here's my fave scene from Akira...

Wisdom from Disabled World (TM)

2008-09-02T21:31:00.005+01:00

This gave me much amusement on it's discovery, and I feel that the wisdom given herein from this Disability and Seniors Information and Community site should be passed on to others.

Enjoy.

I Went to the Woods at Walsall

2008-08-29T16:12:00.014+01:00

Phew.. we made it... I just spent a couple of busy days putting together an interactive album for Juneau/Projects/ an artist duo I've worked with on many projects over the last few years. The piece entitled "I Went to the Woods" has been an ongoing project at Walsall Art Gallery for a while now and consists of the general public writing and recording music with the artists, at their studio there. August 28th was the album release, complete with performances of the tracks and the chance to buy the DVDROM album (each disk mounted on a small forked branch).

The concert started with the Juneau lads dressed in painted suits playing wonderfully weird wooden bug shaped guitar type things, producing synthesized sounds. A selection of people involved were asked to come and join them and ranged from a young girl reading poetry to an older man playing guitar to two men on piano and cello. These amateur performances reminded me of Outsider Music or the oddness of Captain Beefheart. The aesthetic is it's clumsiness and unconventional nature; a lack of knowledge and experience overlooked and a sincerely found beneath. You can imagine what it would sound like conventionally, but you are also given it's short-fallings; mistakes and imperfections become exemplified, but acceptable, resulting in moments usually carefully removed or avoided by professionals - missed notes, forgotten and mumbled words, over-long pauses, odd lyrics, unusual technique.

Ben Sadler - half of Juneau/Projects/ in painted suit

The Album itself is a cross platform, multi-track interactive piece, with which you can add and subtract different instruments parts and effects as you listen, even recording your own mix or arrangement and playing it back. Not sure how you'd get your hands on a copy but you could try contacting them at juneau.projects@virgin.net if your interested. They have some mp3 downloads from older projects here.

Also at residence at the gallery has been Milee (Feng-Ru Lee) who has been grazing as a sheep in small grass pens in the space, bringing the outside inside. She told me she liked the fact that you are never sure when you'll bump into a sheep out in the country, and had relocated this experience, in a way, to the gallery. As Milee the Sheep she had been living on, tending to and growing (real) grass.

On Life, Science & Art

2008-08-22T18:23:00.019+01:00

Generally I have little or no interest in Science or Nature, two things my parent's are both keen on. Neither of my parent's are musical or artistic, which strangely is exactly what my brother and I became involved in respectively. Perhaps there's some relevance in that somewhere...

Anyway, soon I'm off to New Zealand and South America to see just about how exotic and wild Nature can get. There is of course plenty of other things to see and do, personally I'm looking forward to being lowered into shark infested waters in a cage, but I thought I'd better do a little ground work on my weak spots first, so aside from fixing cars, swimming and speaking Spanish, I've been reading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, and actually enjoying it. OK so it's an audio-book and I tend to listen to it late at night in bed, or just as I wake up, and yes sometimes it has come dangerously close to sending me back to sleep, but on the whole it has been pretty enlightening.

Just to REALLY rub it in, here's a picture of Bolivia's Altiplano salt plains

Bryson's premise is that it must be possible to understand science, even if basically, without being in-the-know, and for this information to be digestible by the average reader without a coma ensuing. So from the planets to chemical compounds, evolution, quantum physics, plate tectonics and everything else since the dawn of time, Bryson guides you through all the stuff you forgot, or never got, or were never bothered about, and it's actually accessible. Well done him.

One thing mentioned in the section about how life started on Earth was Stromatalites - a name that rung a bell. These weird living rocks are apparently the World's Oldest Living Thing - "the original source of oxygen in the earths atmosphere and hence one of the most important steps in evolution."*Now it takes a lot to impress me with anything nature related, but surviving 3.5 billion years is pretty good going, even if you are just a race of breathing rocks. Sadly they have yet to evolve mouths to chat to us about it all.

Report any weird science you may encounter here

Well, a few years ago on Australia's West Coast at Shark Bay I stood and took a few photo's of these things. I was of course told at the time that they we're really, really important and very, very, very old etc. but to me they were weird and pretty, and I was glad to be in the middle of nowhere, in the sun, amongst a semi-submersed alien landscape.

When I met the Stromatalites - a bunch of old Rockers - hahardyfuckingha

One of my insights from the book was that much of the time Scientist's don't know, which was kind of comforting. I suppose this is why they experiment. Hysterically, many of them are mad, weird, anti-social, maniacal or just plain thrill seekers with an unusual medium. They reminded me of a few famous artists with similar tendencies.

If your bored at this point, here's a list of unusual deaths and here's one of people killed by their own inventions courtesy of the wonderful wikipedia.

What appealed was the idea that they were exploring concepts and exploring, sometimes with only an inkling of what they would end up with. I've always though that the beauty in art was rarely the product, and more likely the process of creating, experiencing or conceptualising the work. But then that's why I like performance art - it's an experience, which is perhaps what you should get with most of the arts (inc. music, theater, literature etc.), but performance is always a touch more more real and confrontational - essential in a world now dominated by media and society's sway towards non-physicality. I suppose that when the product becomes the focus of the process, it feels a little too close to manufacture - work for robots to do, painting by numbers... and evolution I suppose is also a process of adaptation to explore an unknown future.

* http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Oceania/Australia/photo868281.htm

The Magician of New Street

2008-08-12T16:01:00.013+01:00

The other day I got to New Street station only to find that all trains to Coventry were cancelled and had been replaced by buses. 'Balls' thought I, 'I suppose I'll have to get a coffee and wait then'. I looked at the coffee shop, and figured I'd just save my money.

So I trundle out the back of the building to discover the loitering place. On my way out of the doors, I get a "'scuse me, mate". "Sorry" I say, delivering my usual leave-me-alone-i-am-not going-to-give-you-money line with half effort and blindly walk on. "I'll do you a trick." he says.

So I stop, and turn around to see a guy in a floppy hat and shorts with a bag. He looks like he's just fell off the Oasis tourbus, complete with hangover and mild concussion. 'Fuck it.' I thought. 'I've got 30 mins and if this guy can amuse me for a few, what do I care? I'll just keep my hand on my wallet, and an eye out for his accomplice (should this be one of the Distraction category scams)'.

So he offers me a deck of cards and and after narrowing down my choices to next to nothing, he says 'think of a card'. I say "11 of hearts" in my post-party, only just woke-up, slightly bruised state. "Hmmm.. that'll be a Jack then?" he says. "Err.. yeah, that'll be a Jack" I say. So anyway, up turns my Jack from the deck, as if by magic, and he reveals that all the other cards are blank. It must be magic. I start to form a slight grin. "Feel free to go 'Woooo!' and show your excitement!" he says. So he shows me a few other tricks that look mostly like they've come from a kids magic set and have been dragged through the garden a few times.

Up wanders an old Afro-Caribbean guy to watch. 'Maybe this is the accomplice' I wonder... the pair are such a mismatch, it would be a perfect cover. The old man loves it as the magician transforms 3 ropes of varying lengths (with my help) into 3 ropes of the same length, and laughs sporadically, patting his hands together. "That's wicked!" I say, genuinely impressed with his slight of hand, "Your best trick yet!". "Yeah? Can you spare me a little change?". I dig out a pound, and he offers some more really, really good tricks for another small donation. "Next time" I tell him and shake hands.

So my bus turns up and I get on.. now with a curious grin, thinking that the money I would have spent drinking coffee i didn't want, sitting at a wobbly metal chair, at a sticky Costa table, got spent on being amused by a magician.

Even if a basic one.

Guardian says Digbeth has 2nd & 3rd best outdoor dancefloors in UK

2008-08-08T15:35:00.005+01:00

Well it finally happened. Birmingham is ace, and Digbeth is better.

The Guardian voted The Rainbow 2nd best outdoor dancefloor in the UK, and swiftly followed it with The Custard Factory's Factory Club (Medicine Bar) as 3rd.

Birmingham you fuckin' rule..!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/aug/07/uk.bars?page=all

More Flummoxed with my Flickbook Anim!

2008-07-29T18:01:00.004+01:00

After reporting on the Flummoxed event a while back here, I wondered whether I'd ever get to see my animation played and am delighted that the flickbooks have made it online! Yay! Mines even first to play, done in black playschool crayon...

mmmm.... crayon taste good.

It seems Trevor Woolery was responsible, and there's more to follow as this is just part 1. Thanks to CiB for blogging it here.

Here's the animations, in there full glory :) :)

Flummoxed Flipbook Workshop part 1 from Lonomi Productions on Vimeo.

Secret Garden [P?]arty

2008-07-26T12:03:00.018+01:00

Well it's not over yet, but I went down to Cambridgeshire to check out the Secret Garden Party, which, all told, was strangely very quiet and mis-organised.!? I went down on wednesday to help artist Will Parker set-up the video installation we had been working on. Will's exhibit consisted of a time delayed video feed, one side of which was slightly delayed so you could, in theory, interact with yourself, a bit like this;

The first day was spent... waiting... for a carpenter, scaffolder, electrician, organiser - in fact anyone of any use to turn up and help us set the space. Lots of promises and no show from anyone. A team were building an entire bar in the same tent with food serving facilities and they too were waiting... and being delayed.. in fact they had to stay up the entire night building it ready for the 12 o'clock opening the next day with little help or contact from anyone from the festival. Will's install never got made while I was there due to structural concerns, a complete lack of three wooden walls and no electricity. We were promised that it would happen, but be relocated. I don't know if it ever did.

I've never been to the Secret Garden Party before and well, it was curious. It looked great - there were trees of shoes, random doorways, houses of straw and wood, random nan's living rooms, a dance-off boxing ring, mud pits, a boat and more props, flags, circus tents, surreal scenery and curious clothing than you can imagine, but behind this attractive frontage was a distinct lack of... well.. Party!

On wednesday the workers on site had to trek to Tesco, 4 miles away, to get food and drink as pretty much nothing was available on site - no drinks, no alcohol, no food! The dance-off boxing ring, which was the only place pumping music late and being rawkus were told to stop at 10pm and a topless girl was asked to put her shirt on. Hmmm... I went back to my tent at 10.30 bored out of my mind to relax for 5 mins and fell asleep, missing, I'm guessing, very little.

Grandma's living room in a field

So along came Thursday and the crowds started arriving - hooray! - but it turned out that the production of the festival was so far behind that the main stage wasn't even built for the thursday evening and, despite the increase in numbers, the place started to feel more like a theme park that was closing for the night than the first day of a festival. I overheard one conversation discussing how with only 3 people in the que in front of them, it took someone an hour to get through the festival gate as they were searching peoples bags so thoroughly.

Thursday night however was a vast improvement on wednesday, not that that was hard. So it's going better - I'm getting pissed on the alcohol I brought in yesterday from Tesco - a can of Red Stripe being £3.30 here (thats £13.20 for a 4 pack of lager!! Not exactly the reasonably priced selection of food and drink available mentioned on their website). Anyway I find a dance tent and get lost in a small crowd of zebra women, dandys' and deranged farmers. My minimal techno hit out of the way, I venture off and find that a Teddy Bear house is pumping - great methinks, only for them to announce 5 minutes later that they only have an 11pm license and are closing... so I find another tent with techno playing, and the power cuts out twice on the DJ who is working from a computer, by which time the crowd has begun to dissipate.. and they announce they too only have an 11pm license and are now closing........!! fucking hell.

Wrongness was on the menu at the Teddy Bear's house

I wander off to buy a drink at a little Honeymoon lodge, only to find they have run out of everything except Mead, which I except in desperation. Very little is going on. Fuck it thinks I, I've got better things to do than wallow in disappointment. I try to buy some food from a chinese shop, of which they have none left. "What can I buy with £2?" I ask. "2 Springrolls??" replies the guy behind the counter. So off I walk bemused with a single springroll wondering what the hell happened to my festival experience?

I can only hope for all those who are there now and paid £125 a ticket that Friday and Saturday were fucking amazing!?!

How to be a Rivethead

2008-07-19T11:29:00.005+01:00

Need advice on how to be Rivethead?
Need to name your Industrial band?
Seeking advice on how to date a non-Rivethead?
Wondering how to express your post-apocalyptic-ness at work?

Don't worry help is here... http://www.sonic-boom.com/industrial/

Recent Drawings (6)

2008-07-15T20:08:00.007+01:00

Supersonic Friday

2008-07-14T08:27:00.013+01:00

Rated as the best experimental music festival this-side of Sonar in Barcelona by someone recently (if my memory serves...) it was Supersonic again this weekend in Birmingham! What a treat:) As usual, I got rather excited at the Friday line-up... Saturday looked amazing with Battles headlining and Sunday had the delights of the ZX Spectrum Orchestra and possibly the most awe-full band in the universe ASVA.

ASVA are the only band I've seen (at another Capsule gig) in which I have totally lost my concept of time and could have easily been there for a month. People left crying with disappointment that an ex-Mr. Bungle member [Trey Spruance] could be doing anything as strange as playing as slowly and loudly as possible. ASVA make Type O Negative sound like Chipmunk-Speed Garage.

Anyways... I got asked to VJ again this year and again sadly had to decline. The first time there was a bombscare and since then I've hung-up the old VJing gloves and retired. The good news though - I get to be at the event and enjoy it as a punter. Excellent. Visuals were good in the medicine bar but what the hell was the pink and green shapes all about when Cutting Pink were on? ergh......

So why Friday? Well...

First up were Cutting Pink with Knives whose tracks Airz and Laser Hannon from their ‘Populuxxe’ album are a couple of the most listened to tracks I own, according to the trusty LastFM profile. They may barely be over a minute and a half each and completely spazzed out cybergrind pop nonsense, but I love them. Which may be a little more than the band themselves do, who were HAMMERED. It's their last gig before splitting and they swiftly massacred everything like a seasick serial killer. These guys were funny! Crowd surfing, throwing guitars in the air, crawling around the floor, throwing cans of beer at, and chatting to the surgeons in the crowd... great to watch! but sadly, after missing them the last time they played, I felt a bit underwhelmed that the songs I know and love somehow got turned into sludge. Ah well, it was funny, even if they seemed outta tune, outta time, outta key, outta their heads and considering each track was about 2 minutes max, you got a 'let's chat break' of about 4 minutes between every song. Ace, but for all the wrong reasons.. maybe..

Here's a pic - not from Friday, but perhaps evidence that CPWK are mostly mental?

Rolo Tomassi however were tight as fuck. Totally amazing set from a band who when I first saw them were dressed as a selection of manga dragons, bob the builder and Sam from Blakfish for Halloween - a look that I somehow still miss. None of them look very old. And this is usually pointed out early on, closely followed by 'and the little girl with the cute blond bob can't half scream with the best of 'em'. It is true. Eva, Rolo's incredibly sweet and innocent vocalist, can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand-up like porcupine spines as she snarls and adds a little pirouette. Rolo started strong but tended to peter out a little just before the end, similar to the last time I saw them - but the first few songs were just electrifying. They seem to be going from strength to strength this year too and just played Download..! Luckily there back in Birmingham in sept or playing in Wolverhampton in august if you need to catch them. Oh, and they're from Sheffield - I love Sheffield. Actually they appeared in my first blog on here.

Here's Rolo live at Rock City.

Sadly I missed most of PCM with the vocalist from Bolt Thrower... sounded good from the bits I caught though. Dalek were a tad dull for me, and I'm surprised they're on Ipecac but maybe they're just not my cuppa tea - big industrial hip-hop beats and serious rap, but nothing I'd write home about. I was keen to see them as they are playing this years All Tomorrow's Parties in December which is curated by Mike Patton and The Melvins. If I were going to be in the country, I'd be there! Among the acts are The Locust, Thrones, Bohren und der club of Gore and Fantomas playing The Director's Cut in it's entirety!

The Osaka Invasion was great, I was looking forward to Bogulta who did not disappoint. Playing electro-pop-cartoon-noise this Japanese two-piece looked and sounded great, as was Ove-naxx . DJ Scotchegg the KFC obsessed, Wrong Music genius was amazing. Playing his set from a Gameboy, this frazzled-looking stripey-hooded madman, clawed the air like the god of thunder, while hammering out 8-bit gabba blasts, smoking-nintendo-doomcore, and stars & bonuses. YES!!!

Here's Scotch Egg's Bach remake:)

But where the hell was DJ/Rupture? I was looking forward to seeing him, but couldn't find him anywhere! Was I just too wasted or did he not play??? Confused.

Anyway thank you again Capsule. We love you. Feed us weird things, more weird things.

Tweeting into space

2008-07-09T14:08:00.005+01:00

I have found myself updating my online Twitter account. This disturbs me, as i get the distinct impression i am writing brief statements to the Internet for no particular reason, with no mission in mind and a microscopic audience. Status updates? What is the point? Curious...

Twitter Profile

Alien plantlife meets Hip-hop / VJ Starwars

2008-07-05T23:28:00.008+01:00

On the off chance you've not seen it already, here's the incredible and very inspiring video to Sixes Last by Alias created by 1st Avenue Machine. AMAZING.

Here's something a bit special too from Electraglide 2005 in Japan. Chris Cunningham cuts Starwars... Being an ex-VJ and a big techno fan, I got a bit wet over this...

Got Flummoxed!

2008-07-05T10:01:00.016+01:00

On Thursday I went to Flummoxed at The Rainbow Warehouse next to The Rainbow in Birmingham. Last time I went their was Below - a rather epic and deep techno night which was quite a contrast to the intriguing events unfolding at 7 Inch Cinema and VIVID's collaboration event.

On entry I was greeted by a lady in what I can only think was a icecream van who relieved me of £4 and told me that a piece based on the No.11 bus route was taking place next door. So I wandered through and after a quick hello to Mr.Ben (Illustrator and purportrator of unusual musics) realised that the array of onstage musicians playing doublebass and violins were somehow describing the route of a bus...

Time for a beer methinks, and promptly walked into a beach constructed beneath the arch of the railway. So after getting sand between my toes, I plump for a bench instead of the deckchairs from which I might never leave. I'm given a flickbook and reveal to the guy handing them out that I am already armed with a crayon and ready for action.

So I drink and chat and draw my flickbook - a journey through the air and into an ariel view of me getting beaten in an arm wrestle, which I hope might appear online at the 7 Inch site at some point, as I didnt catch it on the big screen... The screen that's showing the flickbooks being scanned in and animated as their made...

So the event is about Fluxus, a 60's performance art movement involving such artists as Yoko Ono and John Cage. It's all about playing and making and doing and exploring. Strangely I have a long lasting link to Fluxus, as for years I have been using the name Phluxm to create and perform (as Artist/Musician/VJ/DJ) with, a name that evolved from Fluxem ('em - as in them) a cheeky rewrite of Fluxus. As part of that process I developed PHLUMX, VJing software (which is the same word as Phluxm with the last two letters flipped), a word that works in ALL CAPS or all lowercase but strangely not so well as a mix of the two. Anyway... shut up Ben... Here's a pic that I recognise from my Fluxus research at Uni. Can't think why...

Photograph of Shigeko Kubota performing her Vagina Painting,
taken July 4th, 1965 at Cinemateque, E 4th Street, New York City during Perpetual Fluxus Festival.

In the side room I watch Flux Concert 2 which involves a selection of performers called into play with the ring of a bell. The sort you have in Faulty Towers at the reception. A small steel thing, you tap on the top. Bing! Manuel!!

The happenings involve; a barrage of noise in the form of a 3 piece band, a message written on paper but never seen, which is torn to pieces on completion and thown into the audience, and a potato which is peeled intil there's nothing left. The highlight for me was John Richards's "Piece for Sparklers & Dirty 'Dutch' Feedbacker" - a new piece - which involved creating sound from heat/light sensors attached to candles. The electrical hums, buzzes and crackles are controlled through the lighting, burning and blowing out of candles, to create a sort of audio-visual, electrical/heat-light sound composition.

I couldnt help but think of two other works; one seen at Sonar 2007 in which the sound of tiny metal rods had been amplified on a tiny table - the movement of the metal rods was controlled with magnets to create a juddering drum-like performance. The second by Brian Duffy held at Ikon in which he had used the light from the stars to create sounds which altered as the stars changed.

After this Ian Francis introduced us to a video 'which they wouldn't normally show'. It was a video documentary about a government cover-up made mainly of hidden camera footage . It was all very serious and intriguing as a story unfolded of a disaster at some sort of atomic facility over which the media coverage had been suppressed. I did get a bit suspect of the genuineness of the footage when a worker (apparently trapped in a safehouse in a contaminated area for 3 days) appeared to be standing in what looked more like someones bedroom covered in tin foil... then through the back door of the room stumbled a mutant! It was the guy from the video, lit only by a group with torches - he stumbled into the room and collapsed. A niceley executed shift from video to reality...

Aha.. just found a little bit of paper with a few links on it about the inspiration for the piece which was called The Atlas Experiment. Try these for some real info: http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATLAS_experiment.

From here on, I relaxed on the beach watching the flickbooks animate on the video screen and laughing at the occasional whistleblow which called onto the dance floor a gang of silent ravers (all with mp3 players), one who seemed to be some sort of cross between the badguy in Flash Gordon (with the goldmask who melts) and a Transformer. On leaving, this strange being gave me a playing card, which I have just found. On it is written "There's a suit for your kind! Find them - this evening!". Which I did:)

Official Fluxus Site

another album that amazes me on every listen

2008-07-04T19:22:00.006+01:00

Another album which is incredible and I still listen to a lot is Paw's Dragline. How they write such powerful stuff about things like a dog, or fishing, or drinking is just plain unusual... Post-grunge stuff, very American but what a fuckin album... I own it on tape and it is in danger of being chewed up and spat out every time I play it. I need a copy on CD which will have to be 2nd hand because you cant buy it anymore. I pretty much dosn't exist online either.. :(

This video is Jessie I'd rather have put Sleeping Bag on here but it seems every YouTube video of the band has been videod from across the room while watching it on ancient VHS equipment as the tape is being mangled...

Judging by the posts on YouTube for Sleeping Bag there's a few out there who also love this album. Death to Traitors was not so good an album, and to be honest the newer stuff sounds a pretty dull. Strange how sometimes a band will just unexpectedly pull an amazing album out the bag.

http://www.myspace.com/pawofficial

On getting flummoxed...

2008-07-03T10:05:00.007+01:00

Tonight I'm off silent raving at Flummoxed thanks to Flux-fest run from VIVID and hosted by 7 Inch Cinema. I am also told to bring my best worst vinyl for a 3 deck mix and a marker to create flickbooks. Can't wait:)

Ian Francis and 7 Inch Cinema have consistently brought exciting new music, film and frolicks to Birmingham. Here's an interview curteosy of Created in Birmingham

Don't miss out on the remaining fun at Flux-fest either, there's plenty more to be had....

PS. Did anyone mention I developed a piece of video mixing (VJ) software called PHLUMX used at a fair few 7 Inch events in the past?..? LOL

3 albums that amaze me on every listen

2008-06-26T20:55:00.007+01:00

Every now and then you chance on an album that you have to play from start to end every time you listen to it. Many are well know, but here's a few I love that slipped the net or just got plain terrible reviews full stop...

B>Thong - "Damage"
In my eyes as good as Pantera's "Vulgar Display of Power", but never as influential and got absolutely panned by the reviews. I actually listen to this a hell of a lot more. Crunchy as hell, sharp as serrated metal knives and with a dash of cheeky humour. If Pantera we're Swedish this would be them. Methinks the band name may have done them no good at all and apparently the other albums are crap..!? Well this one's ace! Check out the video too, got me hooked on first listen ever.
http://www.last.fm/music/B-Thong

Meet Me in St.Louis - "Variations on Swing"
Pretty Emo for me but the spazzed out arrangement and delirious musicianship win every time. Managed to catch em life briefly but their vocalist has just left, so it was not the same. Sorry guys. Loved this EP to pieces. One wince-fully aggressive online review claims that this gem is 'a load of pretention wank' that's a small quote from a slagging off of epic proportions that the 'reviewer' seems to have felt necessary. Exactly what a 'pretention wank' is - I dont know.
http://www.last.fm/music/Meet+Me+In+St.+Louis

X is Greater than Y - "Negative Snow"
I actually know Simon their bass player, but this EP is epic and genius for what initially seems a straight forward-ish indie act. Bit lost as to why I like this so much actually.. maybe it's the claustrophobic, upfront-ness of the production. Apparently it was produced by a guy who would normally do dance music. Many people really didn't like it - I love it!
http://www.xisgreaterthany.com/assets/mirrors.mp3
http://www.myspace.com/xisgreaterthanymusic

A Door

2008-06-19T16:32:00.003+01:00

Rut Addict

2008-06-12T21:35:00.013+01:00

Well I've become an addictive personality. I am blaming my age and a newly discovered tendency to get stuck in patterns of behaviour. My current addictions include; Photography, The Smiths & Spanish.

Photography... I bought a bullet-proof camera for my travels and try to make an effort to carry it about with me and take pics of stuff. Clouds strangely are becoming a main focus of attention when I'm out. However a week or so ago I was lucky enough to go to the peak of Snowdon on a Stag weekend for the infamous Levon Lumb, so many pictures taken there of various outdoor scenes and collapsed drunken friends.

The Smiths... how the hell did i get into the Smiths?! They are totally unlike any other band I listen too.. Which is good i suppose. I have no idea why I like them so much. I can only say great song writing; A weird mix of wispy guitar lines, jolly basslines, eighties drum sounds, huge effects and of course Morrissey's whimsical plum-like observations on British life...

Spanish... I will not mention here for fear of flying into a whirlwind of broken amateur Spanish. Found this though which is ace - its a TV drama type thing for learning it: www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/mividaloca/

Can't wait for next episodes !:S

---

As a total aside, check out this fella; Mr.Bungle, Fantomas, Naked City, Korn, Meshuggah - remixed as Breakcore! YEESSSS!!! : http://www.myspace.com/randomatikblast

Stirring the $urface

2008-05-20T20:00:00.007+01:00

Danny Smith's amusing blog on the $urface Unsigned Festival's tendency to make money from their clientele.

http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2008/03/18/surface-unsigned/

Made especially portent by my own experience of coming 4th in last years festival with Jazz Thrash Assassin, although fond memories... maybe there's an underlying agenda here (?).

Polly, Daniel & The New Baby

2008-05-09T10:12:00.004+01:00

Polly Daniel Son MySpace

My new band!

Performance Endurance Art

2008-05-08T17:44:00.019+01:00

It's been a while since I saw a piece of really influential, truly amazing performance art, but the other day I went to see a treat at the Endurance body-art weekend mini-festival held recently at VIVID.

The piece by William Hunt called "Call John the Boatman" involved the following;

The room is silent aside from the drips of water from 4 paint pots held aloft by ropes which run to a central point close to large black bin. The Artist enters though a side door, to kneel and tape two tape recorders to his knees. He then stuffs earplugs into his ears and nostrils. He clips his harness onto the ropes and leaps up the back wall, inverts himself and slowly dunks himself headfirst into the large black bin of white paint.

He then lifts himself back out, the paint pots acting as counter balances, and hangs suspended above the paint bin - head now white, hair trailing paint onto the floor. He clips himself in place and takes out the earplugs. (I notice that in other performances, Hunt uses a buoy as counter balance but the surrounding pots of paint hanging two either side of him, used in the VIVID performance, suggested his enclosure in an art space, at the center of which Hunt literally soaks himself, which I kinda liked.)

Straining, he presses record on the tape recorder on his left leg and sings what sounds like a sea shanty calling John the Boatman, who is asleep. He then rewinds and plays the tape, while pressing record on the machine on his right leg. The artist sings 'a round' variation of the song (row, row, row the boat style) over the initial recording which is recorded into the second tape player. He then rewinds and plays the new recording while singing over it again and records this over the first recording, transferring the song between the two players, while adding new parts.

As he repeats the process, the recordings grow increasingly distorted and layered, and Hunt gets progressively weary, hanging upside down, as the audience watch paint dry over his facial features and dripping hair. To me it suggested distortion through analogue recording, copying and duplication, or the strength of oral tradition as the words and tune remain the same despite the degradation of the recording. The inversion certainly added an element of stress and increased physical presence, straining his singing as the piece develops. When the round is complete, he unhooks and lowers himself to the floor, then leaves.

The rest of the show included an absolutely A grade mix of moving image pieces from the very best in performance art; including Stuart Brisley, Vito Acconci, Marina Abramović, Ron Athey, Chris Burden, Tehching Hsieh, Valie Export, Smith/Stewart, Bob Flanagan, Orlan and Gilbert and George. VIVID did an amazing job of gathering these gems together, this was an opportunity to see so many incredible performance art videos all in one spot.

I returned to see Kira O’Reilly on the Saturday and was disappointed at the turn out as the place should have been crawling with students and artists from far and wide.. (VIVID : Better marketing needed methinks, I only found out there were three days of performance when I arrived!). O'Reilly, naked aside from small props such as a hat and feather, performed a series of dance-like, circus-esque motions and repetitive actions including slapping her thighs until red, climbing into then jumping from a wall in high heels and holding uncomfortable poses against the concrete floor. At one point she circles the audience, with her back turned, looking into every face through a small hand mirror. The piece is punctuated with small gasps, gestures and waves of her hand. Frequently she twirled a feather between her teeth. Personally I found the amount of variation in her actions difficult to identify themes or narrative in and was a little underwhelmed after friday's event.

More on William Hunt on his website here.

Keira O'Reilly's website here

Interesting anti-art article on O'Reilly here. Here's more on the piece in discussion.

More performance Art coming soon courtesy of Fierce! Including works by Harminder Judge Singh and Jiva Parthipan with whom I was lucky enough to have a chat with in a bar after VIVID.

Get it all up front. Communications meltdown

2008-05-07T22:54:00.008+01:00

I've been tinkering with Google's iGoogle space for a while, but have just found a lovely plugin that diaplays blogs RSS feeds, alongside my handy 30 boxes calendar and Facebook (oh my god you geek) plugin so everytime I logon online it's all there in front of me. Glee... I even have the weather...

If In Doubt... Repeat...

2008-05-05T15:33:00.011+01:00

On April 18th I did a spoken word performance called "If in doubt repeat..." performed at Crowd6 in Bearwood alongside Edward Bond, David Miller, Ana Benloch, Stuart Tait, Matt Westbrook and Michael Hesp among others. This version was sub-titled "Buy" as the piece is one of a series of durational word-based works, using a very simple concept of repetition.

The idea is simply to repeat a word or phrase for as long as I can or until I make a mistake, and this usually gives some interesting results. The series includes; “I Don’t Know” (2005), “Art is Good” (2005) and “Data” (2008 -30mins).

Here's a bit from the proposal I made to Crowd6 : "Through repetition, the phrases gather new meanings and readings, via variation and mishearing. Human behaviour often intervenes or interrupts such as sighing, yawning, breathing or laughing and betray other human processes affecting this simple procedure. Throughout the duration of each video I become increasingly tired - introducing an aspect of endurance and motivation.

Facial expressions add to the reading of the words and give insight into my thoughts and feelings. Rhythms emerge and sounds begin to take recognisable patterns. Regional dialect and pronunciation also play a part in the sounds formation.

The performances can be humorous, frustrating, at times expressive and at others not. Spiritual mantra’s are called to mind, or perhaps rote learning or memorising. ‘I Don’t Know’ works around a theme of uncertainty, failure and struggle. ‘Art is Good’ entertains themes of creative license, brainwashing and belief. ‘Data’ introduces a theme of digital reproduction, information processing and offers a human equivalent.

These pieces are intended to highlight human variation (intended or otherwise) in language and emotion through time and repetition, and our fluctuations in the reading of them."

For "Buy" I wore a jacket and sunglasses and repeated the word non-stop as if giving a lecture to the audience. A variation for this piece involved shortening it, as previously most of the performances had been around 30-40 minutes, and I was asked to make this more like 5 minutes, so, as a way of limiting the time, I gradually raised the volume of my voice until I was shouting "BUY!BUY!BUY!" at the top of my voice (although in reality I could have probably gone further - I thought I'd spare the seated audience).

I hear there is some footage on DV of it somewhere.. maybe I should chase it up...

Edward Bond - pirate, minor deity and possibly the universe's finest dancer has also blogged the event here. Go Read!

Ed & Dave's previous show 'Wunderkammer' curated by Kate Pennington-Wilson and Charlie Levine at BIAD has also been posted on Ed's Blog here and Ana Benloch has also posted on it here.

Recent Drawings (5)

2008-05-04T14:59:00.008+01:00

Caught in 2 Scams - e-buying is dodgy!

2008-04-28T16:16:00.006+01:00

I have gotta warn you... recently I have been caught in 2 online scams!

NEVER BUY FROM REDSAVE.com

I bought something online from a company called REDSAVE - (www.redsave.com). When I made the purchase I was unwittingly signing myself up to a monthly membership and they charged me £19.95 a month until I finally twigged and submitted a cancellation form. The bank were fully aware of these conmen, but as I had apparently agreed to their Terms and Conditions when I bought the product they were technically making a legal deduction from my account! I did a bit research and followed advice from Martin Lewis’s www.moneysavingexpert.com/ site. I threatened them with Small Claims but ended up cutting my losses as this would have cost me more money and time. It cost me over £60 which was more than the item i bought.

Dont get caught - these guys have to be avoided and have been on the BBC Watchdog program. Try to buy online using a Credit Card (not a debit card) and CAREFULLY read the T&C of online stores that you don't know well and trust.

WATCH OUT FOR COMPUTERISED eBAY BUYERS

I have just tried to sell a digital video camera on eBay and the winning bidder turned out to be a scam asking me to send the item to Nigeria. They seem to have a very sophisticated system in place. Firstly a genuine bidder was outbid at the last second, then I got a fake email from what looked like eBay (Named Service@ PayPal.co.uk) saying that the payment had been made. The actual email address was clients-verifings@post.com (not actually eBay) and it was sent to me so quickly I became suspicious it had been automated by a computer just as the bid won. I contacted the buyer through eBay saying 'Sorry, but I suspect you are a scammer, please contact me to discuss' and got a dodgy response from 'Clara Wood' at clarawoodxyz@gmail.com that read like this;

"Hi Mate,

I write to inform you that I have made out a quick payment of xxx Pounds to you for this item number (xxx ).So

check your mail INBOX OR BULK FOLDER for the confirmation mail from paypal .Get back to me immediately if you receive the confirmation mail from paypal.I want this item shipped through FIRST CLASS ROYALMIIL INTERNATIONAL SIGNED FOR to my Friend who works with the German Embassy in Lagos Nigeria.Below is`her name and address that you will have to send the item to:

NAME: YEROKUN OLUFEMI OYEKUNLE

ADDRESS: #19 OGUDU STREET , GRA , OGUDU-OJOTA , 23401 , LAGOS , NIGERIA

Send the shipping details to me tomorrow soon as you ship it so that i can forward it to her.

Kind Regards,

Clara

PS: due to how urgent My`friend needs this, i decided to pay you Extra Money for the international postage for this item, as I will be leaving for New York,so make sure`you`post it out tomorrow to her then you get back to me with the tracking"

THE MONEY NEVER APPEARED IN MY ACCOUNT.

DO NOT SHIP OUT ANY ITEM WITHOUT FIRST RECEIVING PAYMENT FOR IT FROM THE BUYER. THIS SCAMMER WAS OBVIOUSLY HOPING THAT BY PRESSURING ME TO MAIL THE ITEM OUT QUICKLY, WHILE PAYMENT WAS STILL PENDING, THEY WOULD GET THE ITEM AND I WOULD NEVER GET THE MONEY.

It's also tricky to get rid of a false winning bid quickly as eBay insist that you try contact the buyer and give a set amount of time before any more action can be taken. Meanwhile the genuine bidders who could have bought the item were bidding on other cameras on eBay, while mine was still unable to be sold. I had to cancel the sale through eBay which was fiddly and took some effort. The second place bidder whom I contacted and told about being outbid in a suspicious way went on to buy someone else's camera, and so I lost out.

Become a Twitter and ditch the internet!

2008-04-14T09:31:00.007+01:00

So as I sit here with my cup of Alta Rica black coffee and await the arrival of 1120 new Drum n Bass tracks (courtesy of Jinpow) I thought that despite an absence of internet connection, I’d write something up in Word and add it to the Blog at the next available opportunity. (So here I am)

Recently I’ve moved house and do not have Internet access at home. I am arranging a new connection with BE Broadband who can offer [for £18 p/m] a scary 24MB connection down a BT phone line using the new ADSL2+ technologies. I am actually slightly surprised (for some unknown reason) how easy it is to get Internet access without having it yourself. Internet is available most days at most places and mostly for free.. Lucky me!

The advantage I have found of not having it at home is that you actually do what you have to do when you get chance, instead of spending hours piddling about doing very little. A while back at a ‘how to improve your business’ course it was suggested that to manage time online better you could check your email at 2 designated times a day – say one in the morning and one at night - to save endless checking back – just in case you have a message waiting. Personally I am finding it more and more difficult to extract myself from the web, but perhaps I work at a computer too much and have to much free time!

At the moment I do not have TV either, and a similarly pleasant phenomenon exists, by which I do not watch stuff just because it’s on - I watch DVDs I have bought or that have been recommended… and I now seem to have LOTS of extra time too - time to draw, time to read, time to make videos, time to think about what is in them, time to extract my brain from the ever increasing media-network and world of advertising that TV and internet bring. In fact so much time I have devised and am performing a live performance piece at the Crowd6 gallery in Bearwood this Friday. Online communication quickly became much duller and a bit pointless after a brief break from it - once I actually retracted my senses back from the vortex… The Viz profannysaurus defines a ‘porn vortex’ as “A dimension where time has no meaning, encountered when looking for left handed web sites on the Internet. One could fall into a porn vortex and emerge ten minutes later to discover that three days have passed.”. I am suspicious that a similar vortex exists for the rest of Internet & TV. Spookily I seem to have anserwed my question raised two posts ago..!

Online social communication seems to have gone nuts recently. Twitter is the latest addition to my growing arsenal of accounts I have. With Twitter you can update your current status every hour, presumably so a stalker can pin point you more exactly. So why would anyone want to know where you are or what your doing or what you want to say at any point of the day? Twitter's premise is that 'What are you doing?' is a vital question that must be answered many times daily. This service will presumably be superseded by a government system which will update this momentarily for you.

Are we soon going to start seeing people wearing T-shirts with a digital display of their changing status printed on walking around? Saying that... when I was 18 I was very keen on wearing homemade shirts that displayed how I felt on them. I had one that said ‘I’ll be back, I’ve brought my axe’, another that claimed ‘I am become postmodernism’, one that stated ‘Paranoid, Depressed, Lonely’ (with a little tick-box by each one) and another that pleaded ‘Go easy on me I’m trying to scrape a degree’ - but I suppose that’s what being an introverted, artistic teenager is all about, ey?

There is of course growing fears that more and more of our personal info online is a bad thing, a very, very bad thing if it falls into the wrong, and mostly invisible, hands of paedophiles, politicians and marketing men. So why are we so eager to create our own online profile?

In the studio with Jazz Thrash Assassin

2008-04-01T20:05:00.008+01:00

Spent 3 days in the studio recording the new Jazz Thrash Assassin (as yet unnamed) 2nd EP and living on coffee, bananas and Mozzerella & Ham slices. This is the second time we've dropped into Robanna's to record with the sound engineer Miguel Seco who seems to get and like what we do. The tracks we chose are; Prick, School of Random Thought, Schizophrenic Love Song, Sneezing Drum and The Answer.

The tracks are our usual mish-mash of styles veering wildly from smokey-jazz to blood-splattered metal, mostly topped with a piss-poor sense of lyrical humour. First day drums went down swiftly followed by my bass parts (which I'm mostly happy with apart from being a bit 'slapped out' in the funk section of School of Random Thought), Guitar and vocals went well second day. Third day more screams & vocals and keys go on. The mixing is yet to be done, but the EP should be available for download soon!

Recording is always a bit tricky to start as the tracks inevitably sound different stripped down to their separate instruments and slowly layered back up (usually drums, then bass, guitar then keys & vox last). Mistakes become painfully obvious, although the studio is the best place to chop em out or rerecord em, and you suddenly appreciate bits never noticed other people did before, cos you were busy concentrating on your own stuff. There's also parts that you never learnt properly ('shame on you!') or always forget, that become stumbling blocks in the process. The best part is usually when the vocals go on, and people get excited about how the track is finally going to sound. School of Random Thought (or Dr. Guitarbett as it's been known) is my fave, closely followed with The Answer, which now has a wicked tempo change only heard by the lovely folk in Manchester last gig. Schizo's mellower-than-mellow keys are also sounding amazing. Prick is sadly sounding the weakest of the batch, which as it's usually our big finale, is a shame but hey - we couldnt get in the orchestra and gospel singers needed!

Recording is always a bit weird compared to rehearsing and gigging because there's only the music and none of the usual stupidity/moshing/dancing/screaming/exercise routines/masks and other chaos that usually ends up in the JTA live shows, and the final version usually varies quite a bit from the original lo-fi demo knocked up in Dr. G's Garage Lair. It's also a great opportunity to sit and listen and talk objectively about what works, what maybe needs tweaking and what should be emphasised in the mix. You can also do fun things not possible on stage like double up guitars and vocals to make it super beefy, or add effects or switch sounds more accurately. I also realised quite how much you rely on cues from other instruments and how much you play off each other. Something that I liked was that there are parts in most of the songs, that are always left to improvisation by at least someone in the band, meaning you get an slightly unpredictable but original performance at every gig!

Here's Pork Rind Grind feat. Sharon Format from the JB's gig in March;

How has being creative become so difficult?

2008-03-26T20:35:00.003Z

When I was at Uni and College, I immersed myself in endless creativity - painting, drawing, writing, making computer games, videos, websites, music; always starting new projects. I suppose being on a course that's full-time and dedicated to being creative in an environment in which a group of others are doing the same thing really helps.

Now I seem to have a list of jobs to do. Some of which I get paid for, some of which I feel I need to do, and some which I'd like to do, but never seem to get around to doing. And instead of starting new projects I just seem to try and refine old ones, hoping that they'll progress rather than starting fresh. I suppose my ideas about what is successful have changed. I used to believe that you just needed great content, but the world has proven otherwise and you need a hell of a lot more than content to get anywhere, like finance, marketing, distribution etc. and unless your lucky enough to have someone else do this for you, you seem to end up doing this more and more, and making less and less. I suppose you just need to set aside time to be creative, which is always problematic, as time designated to produce unknown results always seems a bit less productive when you could be ploughing through a list of to-do jobs. And when inspiration strikes it's always better to drop everything and get on with it I suppose.

So instead of actually doing something, I am sitting here writing about not doing anything. Typical! ... How can I be more creative?

Evil Kids will take over... but now there's fun to be had

2008-03-18T12:09:00.021Z

I was going to write something about how kids are going to take over the world through chaos and violence, but it was getting too grim and serious, and since I had not 1 but 2 strange dreams last night (in my feverish state) about my house being invaded by evil youths, I'm not going to anymore. If you'd rather read stuff like that go here; otherwise here's my usual brief creative review!

Alicia Dubnyckyj - Tokyo Collection

Had the op to speak to the lovely Alicia Dubnyckyj who had some interesting things to say on my previous Richard Billingham blog since she once dated him! (Hope you don't mind me mentioning it here!?) Nice to see people I went to Uni with who are still at work and have made a career from their art. Then I went to watch The Next Men at The Rainbow in a kinda drunk but mostly uneventful evening, apart from a friend being thrown out for pissing on a chair and me dancing like a gibbon to drum & bass.

7 Inch Cinema at the Hare & Hounds was great - their Straight 8 (www.straight8.net) selection was really good. The premise being you take one super 8 cartridge, shoot it and present it without editing, so you have to be kinda organised and ready to live with any mistakes. Chris Keenan had his Fidget played again and spoke about it briefly which was quite funny. Here's my fave from the screening by Jacqueline Wright and Alice Lowe, the hysterical and lyrical 'Sticks & Balls'!

Dave Rhodes was involved in the recent New Horizons graduate show at Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, his dustbin-lid masks where amongst the array of slightly-over-cramped but never the less interesting new art on show. Also got to Yardbirds to see some jazz, delayed trumpets - wicked!

I went on a mission to Reading to catch the Where I Lived and What I Lived for show by the Juneau/Projects/ that I worked on: 6 brightly painted instruments are playable via little beer can plectrums and trigger video screens of squirrels to enter and play minute versions of the instruments along with you. How much fun! Nice to see the little drums, guitars, horn etc in the flesh too, surrounded by tubs of peanut butter..!

I also managed to see Autechre at the medicine bar, who were in the dark oddly, which seemed to slightly under-impress most who were expecting maybe at least stage lighting. Still the set was pretty good and accessible for Autechre who on occasion can sound like your brain is a bag of microchips being crushed underfoot. Nice to catch a few of the Brum Creative lads floating around and a few other likelys.

Jazz Thrash Assassin played at JB's last weekend alongside Slipnot. Captain Ed & Jin Pow's Jin Krogan (who also did the artwork for the EP) joined us live on stage as Sharon Format and bust some stunning moves to disco classic 'Black Boots'! Much fun!.. apart from the disastrous start when, on the first note of the first track my strap flew off and then 2 minutes later my lead came out.. this is why I tape everything in place with duck-tape! I should probably mention here 3 of us were waring aprons and one a PE kit.

Richard Billingham : The Zoo

2008-02-20T21:46:00.025Z

Today I was lucky enough to have the chance to speak to the (once Cradley Heath based) artist Richard Billingham of Saatchi & Young British Artist (YBA) fame. He gave a talk about his work to a selection of staff & students at Halesowen College, where he used to go. During the talk he talked about his early paintings, and the photos of his family, urban exteriors and zoo photos and videos.

It seems painting was his initial interest in art, and as a small child he would sit and draw in his parents flat. When he managed to get a camera from a club book (which he never paid for) he used it to start taking photos of his father, as studies for his painting. As he continued, his interest in photography and people's reception to it developed, and he was lucky enough to get a deal through a visiting lecturer at Sunderland Uni where he was studying with a publisher, which (i think) became 'Ray's a laugh'.

I asked him what his parents thought of his photos, he said they were pretty much indifferent. He'd drawn all his life and then started to take photos of them. One of the few that that they did not like was this one of them eating;

Many of his lesser known, early photos contained staged actions (which was news to my ears). Above the flat his parents lived in, lived a guy he called 'the hippy' who would bring his alchoholic and jobless father Ray, litres of superstrength homebrew. While there, 'the hippy' had a tendency to pose for the camera, resulting in some bizarre pictures such as one with him threatening Ray with a knife and a hammer, in a comic and slightly disturbed image, while Ray stands there looking rather forlorn. I asked if he felt part of the space or detached while he took the photos. He seemed to say he felt part of it, but maintained some detachment, presumably for artistic insight.

Billingham's younger brother had been taken into care and Billingham contacted him "to see what he looked like". Billingham also mentioned he was in a way jealous of his brother and "wished I'd been taken into care too". His brother eventually moved back home after having his A level application form was ripped up by his foster parents in case he acheived higher than their children. Billingham seemed to value education and stated that it had got him where he was now. His brother seemed to enjoy playing up for the camera, resulting in the following recognisable image of Ray having a cat thrown at him:

Billingham's photo's of Zoo's were interesting. Although I found his videos much more so. He said he now used video more frequently than still photography, and his videos of animals showed very sad, and unhappy repetetive behaviour by them.

I couldn't help (at the danger of sounding possibly a tad aloof and cruel) but feel a strong link between his Zoo photography and his early family shots. The Zoo images showed saddened animals in cages or run down pens, unable to escape and trapped in a cycle of unhappy repetetive behaviour. The figure trapped in an environment was similar and the mood also; Billingham as the photographer - the sympathetic but objective onlooker.

http://bhlogiston.schauecker.com/

He said he liked the movement in a video of a squirrel bounding endlessly left to right in a cage - he was interested in the image, but was disinterested in 'the zoo debate'. He seemed to see video almost as a moving painting, and distinguished art-video from TV or cinema, most notably by a confinement of narrative and lack of editing.

On BBC TV I saw his film 'Fishtank' and have always been bemused by a long and dizzying scenewith his brother playing with a small battery-powered ferrit & ball toy, dodging endlessly across the floor, but after seeing the zoo videos of phychologically distraught animals, this kind of made sense in a weird way.

Noise, Out and AV Art

2008-02-17T15:00:00.028Z

Well lovely to have a week off work, although it really dosn't feel like I've done much. Time for an update then I suppose on the life of young Ben. Actually I seem to have done quiet a bit...

Hmmm.... I finally bought 2 tiny CCTV cameras (which I've been meaning to do for ages) and spent a day taping them to my head, hands and guitar and then projecting the result on the wall - much fun. I linked up with Concrete Belly for his gig at The Rainbow the next day (Feb 3rd) and intended to do the same for him, but he ended up being ushered on stage while I was at the bar, so never got chance to truly wire him up. We did project a view of him tweeking his knobs, changing pedals and messing with his modified toys above him which looked cool and he played a wicked set of noise, drones and grunge influenced soundscapes. Also nice to hear some new elements of dub and sub-bass working into his new stuff.

It was good to finally see Meet me in St.Louis, sadly minus their vocalist but still pretty amazing. If only the bands would have stuck around to watch each other then the audience would have been better. Good on It's Just Noise for continually putting on great events with genuinely great, talented and surprising new music.

I intended to use the mini-cams at the next Jazz Thrash Assassin gig at Bar Academy and tape them to both Splak & Walt's mics, but I ended up taking loadsa gear down there and realised that that back wall of the stage is a glass window out onto the street so wouldn't really be that great anyway. Bit of a non-story there. Anyway, Last Chance at Rampton were immense once again, and nice enough to gimme a free cd too. Last chance are intense live - angry, tight as fook and threaten to tear your face off should you venture to close.

The guys from The Fairytale were friendly and bought a JTA CD after hearing just one track in soundcheck! They put on a good show after Last Chance, which we understand is pretty intimidating - we followed them at our debut show.. man that was a kick up the arse. Gig was well funny anyways and Anna was on form, she emerged at one point from the ladies wearing a toilet roll hat. I will say no more. She crazy. Thanks to the peeps who came down - you nuts! :D

Went to see a play in Reading which made a nice change,but totally missed out my opportunity to see the musical squirrel's video installation I worked on with Juneau/Projects/ that is installed at the Marksman Gallery which runs until March 8th. Maybe I should go back..

Had a soundtoy created for Juneau lads installed in Birmingham museum and Art Gallery (gallery 20) as part of the Essence - Through the Fretwork show. The piece is a Santur - a virtual instrument you can play through a touchscreen. Brian Duffy (of Modified Toy Orchestra fame) is also involved in the show and produced some music by 'completing' a kids keyboard which had never had it's asian scale connected. Apparently the show is going to Tate Britain next!

After the show the Crowd6 gang and I were hussled by a self-proclaimed 'Piss Artist' - some homeless guy who could have easily been a performance artist in retrospect, were he not obviously off his head. Anyway he wandered into the bar and sat himself down next to me, and prodeeded to insult people with perculiar 3 year old insults like 'celery head' (?!) and then do a portrait picture of them. So he takes the piss, then does you some art, hence 'Piss Artist'. Better add a dose of alcholism to that too I suppose.

After that I was introduced to a guy called Dave who was playing a banjo.. and to cut a long story short, I missed my bus, a random German got his tackle out, and me and Dave figured that the world was just getting too weird and so hit the Tap & Spile for refreshments.

Bloody hell, I'm having to refer to my rather useful 30boxes online calendar to work out where life took me next.. apparently it was Hott Date at the Rainbow which was flippin' amazing as always. I had to laugh at the live Blind Date piss-take. Well funny. I met the lovely Charlie Levine there and Tony Blair's son apparently. Speaking of Ms.Levine - her curated show Step (mentioned in previous blog) has a closing party at Crowd6 this friday in Bearwood.

I also had the oportunity to get to Walsall Art Gallery where the Juneau lads have a music studio in progress - you can go and record tracks as part of their residency. Had chance to chat over a few ideas with the guys and was actually inspired to produce a set of soundtoy multimedia experiments that mix noises in different ways.

Here's one for you to play with - Turn Your Speakers On!!; SOUND TOY

And heres an old one i made just for fun:

Adventures in Art

2008-02-02T15:36:00.002Z

Crowd6 held a show the other day in Bearwood called 'Step' currated by Charlie Levine. The premise of the show being that in order to view art works need to be seen independantly of each other so as to avoid contamination from other works. Thus the show is split into 3 steps. Each 'step' replacing the single work of art with a new one which is the only piece in the space.

The first offering is from Will Clifford, a bottom-lit plinth with what appears to be a small plastic cup set on top. The cup is actually created by layering paint inside it then, finally, removing the cup to leave the cup-shaped painting. It's quite striking in the small space especially as the plinth is the only source of light in the evening.

There's a crit on the piece tonight at the gallery at 7pm if your interested. Step2 is Beverley Holden (8th - 14th Feb), Step3 is Caitlin Griffiths (15th - 21st Feb)

Well anyways after the Private View people made their way over to the becoming-ever-so-familiar Snooker hall over the road for drinks, and a good mate of mine turned up and decided, since we were there he'd take full advantage of whipping my ass at snooker, and did. As we played, we noticed the occassional person would dissapear or appear from a small door at the back of the large hall. So, naturally, we decided to explore ;P and after making our way through a small adjecent pool hall found ourselves wandering down a small flight of stone stairs into what seemed to be a cellar, where we found a room with a large glass window.

Through the glass we could observe a room of teenagers carrying each other around piggy back, there was also a drum kit, and a dwarf speaking into a microphone. They didn't seem to notice us, I have no idea if the glass was one-way or not, but we watched for a bit, then left.. before they started speaking backwards. After this, we rode an armchair back home, across the ice.

Recent Drawings (4)

2008-01-29T22:52:00.003Z

Inland Empires

2008-01-20T21:18:00.001Z

Well, I've just watched David Lynch's amazing INLAND EMPIRE again and am still none the wiser. I (perhaps) boastfully said to a friend the other day that I 'got' Lynch's films to some degree, even the weird ones, but failed to get my head around Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain.

I would like to hold my hand up and announce that INLAND EMPIRE is far, far more bizarre than The Holy Mountain, and that's saying something. Weirder even than Miike Takashi's Visitor Q.

Right now I am tired. I was up early to throw my sorry ass about a TV studio for a Jazz Thrash Assassin appearance on RedTV (Sky Channel 186 - due to broadcast in Feb), followed by afternoon beers with Walt and El Robbo, so... Patrick from New York can give you his thoughts on the film here in his blog;)

Here's more if your hungry for insights into the film http://messageboard.inlandempirecinema.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17

PS.
[If you've seen any recent interviews with Lynch on video lately], what the hell is going on with right hand when ever he mentions something ephemeral, conceptual or abstract? Craziness

Fun to Share

2008-01-19T16:38:00.001Z

Just found this and thought I'd share:)

A Day of Rest & Big Thinking

2008-01-15T14:38:00.002Z

Today I have had the opportunity to tackle the big issues in life, so here goes...

Health
Well... today I collapsed. Again. Which was nice. Apparently I have low blood pressure and this means when I stand up quick I sometimes collapse.

So far this has happened 3 times; once in the morning, after a night out and I stood up and went to the door to get a cup of tea (Tea-related collapse). The second time just after waking up I was on my way to the toilet (more on toilets later...) in a flat i used to rent. I got to the door, went to jelly & collapsed (Wee-related collapse). This morning I was pretty knackered, after a hectic day yesterday & playing football last night, and had to eject myself from bed to get to up for work. I made it to the light-switch by the door and... collapsed.

This leads me to think that it's not the getting up that's the problem, I'm good at that, it's just when i get near a door. Maybe I should leave by another method.

Time & Music
I am a bit addicted to Facebook and am slightly disappointed that everyone else on there is not as active as I am. A Facebook friend announced (on Facebook), that there were some articles on The Guardian site as to why it is evil and should be avoided. The articles were mainly about how they are targeting ad's at you, but to be honest they've not started to bother me yet and I was more interested in why I am addicted? Apparently as far as social networking sites go Facebook is fast looking to take over MySpace, but MySpace may has one redeeming feature - Music. And interestingly another addiction is music - in particular certain tracks - which I have on repeat pretty much endlessly on my PC and mp3 player, and tend to have in my head even if I'm not listening to them through some electrical device. Wow, I really am becoming a geek, but as we all know geek is the new cool, and saying that it's time for 'Airz' by Cutting Pink with Knives - my latest addiction since Plastic Boy's 'Life isn't easy Mike'.

Here's there amazing video for CPWK's 'Laser Hannon' track. I cannot believe I missed these guys when they played The Rainbow last.

The World
Apparently Brazil is a Pretty Dangerous place, with a capital P and D... or so my DJ friend Funkagenda tells me on messenger. Africa is easier to travel around than you'd think according to The Rough Guide to First-Time Around the World and seems like a very dusty place however you choose to travel. The Japanese language uses a concept of particles within sentence structure which means you can say the same sentence in a different order and it will still mean the same thing: the important thing is the preceding word which indicates whether the man bit the dog or the dog him. Japanese toilets may have a selection of buttons for various flushes and other functions. Many less developed countries simply go with a hole in the ground - negating the need for contact with your toilet at all. Bizarre that 'more sanitary' toilets require more contact than 'unsanitary' ones.

Here's Mr.Funkagenda at work at Global Gathering 07, jammy beggar;

Religion & Philosophy
I'm kinda keen on books with a philosophical element and there's an amazing book by Richard Dawkins's bought by my mother for me this xmas called The God Delusion which is an exercise in reasonably discussing why God does not exist and is a breath of fresh air for anyone who was always a bit suss. For those who do believe - you should read it anyway, just to make sure you do.

Met a nice guy & artist Harminder Singh Judge the other night, who had an installation at VIVID when I did Sewn to the Sky for the first time with Juneau/Projects/. I'm always out to help promote what folks are up to so, here's some Birmingham and religion based artwork from a guy with a sense of humour about these things:

http://www.harminderjudge.com

Here's some things I did already knew but thought I'd mention just to help my memory; Christianisty and Islam both descend from Judaism. Pantheists believe God and Nature are one and the same thing. Metaphysics is the philosophy of being and knowing. Ontology is a branch of metaphysics dealing specifically with the nature of being. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge and Phemomonology is the science of phenomena & study of consciousness and object of experience, being distinct from being ie, Ontology.

Here's something that turned up on a God-related search on YouTube. Enjoy.

Recent Drawings (3)

2008-01-07T16:42:00.002Z

For Her this Xmas: Mime, Make-Up & Body-Mods

2007-12-28T14:12:00.004Z

Right, now xmas has been successfully bypassed this year...

The other day a friend sent me a YouTube link of two girls miming to 'Im so Excited' by Le Tigre, and a thought occurred; Is video-miming the new karaoke? I wonder if there are serious video-mimes, like the ever so sad 'serious karaoke artists'?

Another ego-centric series of YouTube videos found is all about putting on make-up, much of it gothy. I just picked this one cos strangely I've just listened to the same track myself ('Black No.1' by Type O Negative). Note the way she demonstrates her roots need dying to the lyrics? Important.

While on a more gruesome topic, there's plenty of body modification on YouTube and there's certainly some weird and wonderful stuff going on. Have a look these tricks you can do... if you ever fancied getting your tongue split...;

Other mods include tattoo's, scarification, under-skin inserts, extreme piercing, suspensions... all in the name of... erm.. Image? Is fashion the new religion? Eek!

And here's a girl that's done it all; here's her rendition of Barbie Girl, you can also see her put on make-up and get her septum pierced from her profile.

Sharken911's YouTube Profile

I HATE VISTA

2007-12-22T14:15:00.001Z

I am REALLY hating Windows Vista and as much as I want to resist moaning (and particularly about computer related things) - I have got to get this out of my system!!

What I HATE about Vista;

Ten thousand, "Can I do this? - Can I please? - Are you certain about that? - What really? -Well I did warn you..." Messages popping up every 2 bloody seconds - I'm all for security but -- fuck off!!!
Sometimes it'll detect your broadband connection, sometimes not. If not I have to disable the connection in my network settings and re-enable it, sometimes it displays this as a little icon, sometimes as a list view. Well thats consistency for you.
The search tool - what the hell is this all about - I can't search by file type or anything more useful than a tag name?! What??!! Apparently it's really great.. no it ISNT!
Why cant I listen to my media player without constant skipping and stuttering? ARGH! I've got 2x 64bit processors in there, what are they doing if I can't even word process without the occassional skipping?
"Windows has just updated itself and as a result has decided that it would like to turn it's self off and restart - I assume this is the perfect time for you right now?? No? Oh well, would you like to postpone this irritating message for 10 mins? Yes? Great I'll try to shut you down in tens mins then instead of right now..." Thanks a lot.
"So your a web designer ey? Well let's upload some images then... Ta-da!! there you go.. What? Iv'e split it in half, coloured parts grey or otherwise mangled it? Dont be daft! Look it's not Vista it's your FTP software, try uploading onto your Myspace.. aah.. OK maybe it IS Vista." -- HOW do I fix this? It's doing my nut in - I have to use my old machine to upload image files just to be sure they work?? Blaaargh.
Copy and pasting - yes there's something we'll be using a lot... Slow? Hmm let's compare with your old XP machine - what? It works better and at 3 times the speed? How strange... I thought Vista was supposed to be an improvement.
A Password, that's good for security - what vista does is not allow you to save any passwords in Outlook etc. just to really irritate the shit out of you, and make your use of Windows even more labour intensive. Oh and so you have to buy the new version on everything.
And just to REALLY take the piss - none of your other old software or hardware will work - FUCKING SUPER..!!
Well Vista's been around for a bit now and yeah, there's always teething problems, I know, but how about some bloody fixes then?!

The only positive features I've found on Vista are: The combination of Explorer and File Browser, the bigger image views and Preview app, and the new Media Player. WOW. I've never really taken part in the PC/MAC debate but I would now say BUY A NEW MAC & NOT A PC to anyone who asked. If I had a copy of XP I'd partition my HD and install that. Vista is a rubbish attempt to level with OSX!!

Fuck off and die Bill Gates!

Me + Music + Technology =

2007-12-20T15:15:00.000Z

Now you can witness my current musical addictions courtesy of Last FM!

Last FM if you don't know, monitors whats on your media player and feeds it through to a networking website. Press 'play' and you get a personalised radio station. It's also got few cool features like recommending similar artists, the widgets (like the one featured on this blog on the right) and the comfort that your musical taste and trends are being monitored by a corporate body, probably for marketing purposes.

I've been addicted to a few artists and a few individual tracks and am unable to stop listening!! A strange and feverish musical bathing that I'm currently subjecting myself too. A reward maybe after moving pretty much my entire CD collection onto my PC. Anyway, since a computer far far away is probably working through this I thought I'd give it a go to.

Here's the situation since i joined a month ago.... You'd have seen a hell of a lot more Joanna Newsom if I'd have joined earlier...

Artists: plays:

1	Tori Amos	223
2	Meet Me in St Louis	166
3	Björk	131
4	2 Many DJ's	120
5	Joanna Newsom	101

Tracks: plays:

1	Meet Me In St. Louis – Why Thank You Suzie	31
2	Meet Me in St Louis – I Am Champagne And You Are ****	24
3	Meet Me in St Louis – Well You Damn Well Should	23
4	Meet Me in St Louis – The Torso Has Been Severed In Mid Thorax	21
5	Tori Amos – Bouncing Off Clouds	20
6	Meet Me in St Louis – Right this way, you maverick renegade	18
6	Meet Me in St Louis – Eins zwei drei Hasselhoff!	18
8	Meet Me in St Louis – All We Need Is A Little Energon And A Lot Of Luck	16
9	Joanna Newsom – Sadie	14
9	Meet Me in St Louis – I Beat Up The Bathroom, I'm Sorry	14
9	Björk – Unison	14
12	Joanna Newsom – Cosmia	12
12	Meet Me in St Louis – Come to New York, there were fewer murders last year	12
12	Tori Amos – Teenage Hustling	12
15	Nine Inch Nails – [silence]	11
15	Tori Amos – Big Wheel	11
15	Calyx – Follow the Leader	11
15	Various Artists – Track 9	11
15	Meet Me in St Louis – I've Got Knives In My Eyes, I'm Going Home Sick	11
20	Various Artists – Track 1	10
20	Gabriel Ananda – Süssholz	10
22	Calyx – Get Myself To You	9
22	Joanna Newsom – The Book of Right-On	9
22	Joanna Newsom – Sprout And The Bean	9
22	Ed Gein – Robert Flaig	9
22	Ovuca – Afternoon Girl	9
22	Shitmat – Bloodclot Jungle Tekno	9
22	Meet Me in St Louis – You're Doomed	9
22	Hellifish – Radical Digital	9
30	Sasha – Bloodlock	8
30	Tori Amos – Digital Ghost	8
30	Rolo Tomassi – Fuck The Pleasantries	8

So heres the trends;

Song-based music with real instruments - for when I'm feeling all emotional and need an outlet:
MMISL / Joanna Newsom / Tori Amos

Cool as fuck and textural electronica - for audio pleasures, a time to appreciate genius and production values hand in hand:
2 Many DJs / Byork / Ovuca / Nine Inch Nails

Euphoric Dance - in nostagic yearning for more clubland!:
Sasha / Gabriel Ananda / Various Artists (Track 9 is 'Wrong Direction' by Leandro Gamez, Track 1 is from the spanish Electro Trax Magazine CD #29 from Sonar)

Brutal hardcore and breakcore - for bustin heads to on the dancefloor when I'm feeling physical:
Rolo Tomassi / Hellifish / Shitmat / Ed Gein / Calyx

See what hot on my Last FM profile right now here : http://www.last.fm/user/phluxm

Rock Art & Dressing Up

2007-12-16T19:14:00.001Z

Played the Barfly with Jazz Thrash Assassin on the 15th dressed in a pair of turquoise slacks and a tiny jumper. Sadly my hair kept falling off and lasted on my head all of about 3 seconds. The idea was to be dressed as an old man, but I looked more like some kind of deranged Erasure fan. I had worn the wig at a previous gig but had a hood and cap to keep the thing on then. Mental Note: Duck tape needed for next time. Random Conflict were pretty impressive again, found myself moshing out with Mr.Pea. Went out after with Ben Screamer, Pea & Walt and poor Walt got so hammered he blacked out on the stairs in the Xposure Rock Cafe, fell down them smacked his head off the floor at the bottom! After spazzing out at the gig & then playing football I was aching all over by Wednesday.

Saw Gogol Bordello in Wolves & they were excellent. The encore went on and on - i figure that endless partying is probably part of the Gogol lifestyle! The support band were good too, kind of French punk-Drum n Bass-dub thing goin on. No idea what they were called. Spotted some photos online from there somewhere too..

Emma Bowen's Periscope show was also good, lots of bits of MDF and other items dotted about the small space. It's good that she finally made it happen as it was due earlier in the year but didn't materialise. It's the final show for the space, as I believe it's moving somewhere else. Got slightly sozzled in the bar after. Which was nice.

Saw the final show at Crowd 6 last night too. It seems that 2008 is going to see a change for these little art venues. The walls of the gallery had nicely and tastelessly been decorated. I just missed the AAS performance but managed to see what Stuart had caught on video - 4 robed performers pulling dripping tinsel entrails from their stomachs and hanging it on a Christmas tree. Nice concept, would have been good as real entrails or similar meat-based substance thought I. Just found this of it online:

Captain Ed & Dave Miller's performance was enjoyable - a storytelling really. Dave was a mermaid in top hat and Ed was great as he tongued at his 'melted cheese' rubber pirate mask. I was particularly liking the mini-Marshall amps they wore on their belts, which were completely unnecessary to amplify their voices in the small space, but somehow they made them appear tooled up for the job.