When you blink your eyes...

I was turned onto Prefuse 73 by my friend John back in Oklahoma City years ago. He got me into more electronic music in general. I have gotten to appreciate electronic music more and more. Prefuse 73 I feel is one of the more innovative and progressive. Very unique sound.

The album I've been drawn to the most by him is One Word Extinguisher. The way he chops up vocals and creates a cohesive feel throughout the record is great. Its not just sampling a track or sound and playing it back, its more about making something completely new and original. I usually prefer when I can't immediately tell where the sample came from or even recognize it at all.

I had the chance to see him perform in person last night at Hiro Ballroom in Manhattan. I think it was some guy's birthday party. Another DJ who performed before Prefuse who was quite impressive himself. At first there were a few DJs just playing and mixing records. Then this guy, Bean, I think was his name started really performing and playing things I had never heard. Somewhat in the vein of prefuse 73.

Then, a skinny dude with a baseball cap on backwards, glasses and big poofy hair spilling out the sides came out, this was Scott Herren, Prefuse 73. He fiddled with many different mixers, soundboards, and an akai drum machine while Bean was playing then he finally went on.

I was thinking of the word futuristic but that isn't really it, progressive is a better word. He had another guy with him that was moving around many different knobs and switches as well. I didn't see him use any headphones at all to hear what the mix would sound like before hand, it all seemed to be spontaneous performance. He was, however, apparantly using headphone ear peace as a microphone. It looked like he was making noises into it and sampling it and distorting or modifying the sample, blending it into the sound. At times the tracks meander into somewhat of a latin sounding beat yet still maintaining his cohesive style. Its hard to describe anything else it sounds like. Its not really very danceable but makes you want to move, similar to The Field. I got up close to the stage and was about 10 feet away from him so I could see what he was doing. I noticed, similar to The Field, he didn't seem to be using any computers at all. There were a few macbook pro's set up on stage but they seemed to be for the previous performances.

It was great to see him play live. I am drawn to any artists pushing sounds in new direcctions. Now, I need to see Aphex Twin somehow.

Last night I made a trip out to Studio B in Brooklyn to see the Swedish electronic band The Field. Four Tet was originally supposed to headline but they canceled a few days. However, I mailny wanted to see The Field anyway so it worked out. Studio B is out in a warehouse are of Greenpoint, a short walk from Williamsburg past McCarren park.

I have enjoyed The Field's album From Here we Go Sublime. since I got it last year. I wouldn't exactly call it house music but it does have dancable tendancies to it. Definitely more arty and abstract at times. I guess you could call it IDM.

I especially love the title track which is rather abstract. When described it sounds very simple, its just one long sample of a single old song which I can't exactly place. Something from the 50s or early 60s. It transitions through looping through different parts of a sample at varied interval lengths. Finally allowing you to hear what was being sampled at the end.

The opening band I had never heard before. Young Knives from Oxford. They weren't bad. Reminded me of The Futureheads and others like them.

After that a large soundboard with many wires hanging off of it was wheeled onto stage. I recognized a blonde man that appeared to be Axel Willner (The Field), from what I'd seen in photos, plugging the wires to different ports on the soundboard and samplers and whatever else. Then it went dark and a blue light was shown as it stayed for the entire show.

There were 2 other guys as well, one playing a small keyboard and another who switched back and forth between a guitar and a drum kit. You couldn't really tell what sound was coming from where. I never really heard anything that sounded like a guitar, probably used for distortion sounds. The drum kit mainly seemed to be used for the high hat. I was surprised to not see any computers, it appeared to be all analog sampling and sequencing.

Since Four Tet didn't show up the place wasn't totally packed out yet filled in more as the show went on. I stood next to a large speaker near the stage which I used to take some long exposure photos to try to get something out of the low light. The sound engineering was very well done. The only other time I went to Studio B was to see LCD Soundsystem in 2007 which was the best show I saw last year. The beat of The Field's music seems to grow inside the song, its not totally obvious at first. Very enjoyable and different kind of live music experience than I'm used to. I'm always curious to see how electronic bands perform live as much of it is production work. Most times there wasn't much to look at other than him twisting knobs and an occasional instrument shift.

This was one of many concert tickets I currently have. Hope to see many of the other free shows in parks and pools around New York in the coming months. Excited to see as much live music as possible this summer.

The anticipation for the second full-length from Wolf Parade has rivaled my anticipation waiting for Interpol's Antic's to come out several years back. Finally I have been able to give the 9 tracks on the new album "At Mount Zoomer" several solid listens.

I heard the 2 songs Wolf Parade posted a week or so ago on Myspace a couple times and had a luke-warm reaction to them. I didn't dissect them much at the time but when listening in passing they seemed more subdued, not as maniacally off-kilter as their previous work. Since the Wolf Parade release in 2005 Spencer Krug has been in at least a few bands I know and listen to, Sunset Rubdown and Swan Lake. Dan Boeckner started the band with his wife called Handsome Furs. I was able to see Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs play in recent memory, effectively to the two front-men for Wolf Parade. I am excited to have Wolf Parade tickets for the first time on July 31. Can the new release live up to all the hype and anticipation from the previous album?

Through the first listen on the first half of the album I was not sure. It felt like it was not as caustic and driving as I wanted it to be. The churning fury of the dueling keyboards wasn't there in the same way as Apologies. I especially was not satisifed with California Dreamer with the Ray Manzarek sounding keyboards. However, with several subsequent listens the album has gained increasing impact and admiration. The fire is definitely still there. The final 3 tracks are an especially outstanding finish.

In similar fashion to Apologies to the Queen Mary the tracks primarily alternate between singing by Boeckner and Krug. The sprawling finale, Kissing The Beehive, a duet between the two. Sounds odd to think of it as a duet, a duet makes me think of Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers or something, this is nothing like that. The combination of the vocal styles complement one another quite well as an entire album. Both have a pending urgency and haunting despair about them. I listened to Apologies to the Queen Mary several times before I even realized there were multiple vocalists on the album. Its very clear now with not just with my current knowledge of their previous work but their styles have become more distinctive yet fortunately for this album still mesh will together as a whole. While listening to track 8 "An Animal in Your Care" I was thinking how Krug often sounds like he's about to run out of breath with contrasting almost angelic qualities about his voice. Definitely evident when listening to Sunset Rubdown.

At Mount Zoomer may not be as manical and furious as Apologies to the Queen Mary at first listen but they have done something new again. The duel keyboards are again used effectively but are more subtle. They eerie-ness of this album becomes more apparent with repeat listens. I'm not sure if the theremin is used again on a few tracks or its just a synth sound. Many possible influences seemed to come to mind at first. However, after more listens it blends together and it just sounds like Wolf Parade. The final flourish of Kissing the Beehive, the Dinner Bells of this album, weaves keyboards and distorted guitars is especially satisfying.

See this previous entry for thoughts on Apologies to the Queen Mary. http://josephrussell.com/blink/2005/dec/27/drunken-calliope-trance/

I'm very excited about the idea of a new Autolux record. I saw today they released a new single on myspace called Audience No 2. I listened to it several times on repeat. I like it quite a bit. It still has the distortion of the first album and the signature drum fills. I'm feeling the jump in energy on the hook. Let's see if it holds up as much as their first record once the lyrics sink in more.

I obtained tickets for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in New York last week curated by My Bloody Valentine and one of the bands they chose was Autolux, that's all I needed to know to get tickets. I've been dying to see Autolux for awhile now.

I'm quite interested in how artists follow up a successful work. Autolux currently has the one album that I consider a great success. It wasn't maybe a huge commercial hit but I think they have continued to gain underground credibility. They've waited quite awhile to come with a follow up to Future Perfect and I haven't heard of them touring much at all. I hope they can do it and come out with another inspired record.

[UPDATE]
Here are the full correct lyrics Autolux has posted next to the track on the myspace page:

in between the thinking and the saying
threw away what i can't believe
tell me how you lose this feeling
all moods have been dealt and played
tell me how you lose this feeling
all hands have been cut and waved

i have always been your vegetable
and you my Swedenborg
i would drop myself through black holes
to end up at your door

there's no one else to get hung about
and there's nothing else makes you twist

you set yourself up
the lightening bolt hit
you watched yourself change
and no one's left to blame

the helicopter's spotlight shaking
hungry orson on the make
the less you put yourself in
the less you feel so fake

suddenly i'm alright
and it 's time for you to go

you set yourself up
the lightening bolt hit
you let yourself change
now everyone's to blame

and the gulf sign split the screen up
and the gulf sign split the screen up
and the gulf sign split the screen up
and the gulf sign split the screen up
and the gulf sign split the screen up

Last fall I spent several long weekends completing a photography portfolio website for my friend Carl Burton. Carl has become a very good friend since I've been in New York and his photography is an inspiration to me to keep pushing myself to do more. Among other goals, I wanted Carl to be able to manage the uploading and organization of all the photos, sets, titles, dates, ordering himself without having to require any technical knowledge of web design. In addition I wanted to allow for his wider panorama images to be viewed at a larger size yet still have square format photos fit in the same display mechanism.

I have a large print of the photo above and they are definitely more impressive printed large. Contact Carl if you're interested in any of these or any of the other photos on his website.
I ended up building a photo scrolling technique triggered by the mouse mouse hovering over the photo thumbnails based upon mootools javascript library. Mootools made sense to me at the time because of the documentation and the smaller library size. The layout of the page was challenging to fit both the thumbnails and fullsize image on the screen on lower resolutions. I decided on a minimum resolution of 1024x768. Even with that its still a bit vertically long at times depending on browser toolbar configurations. In full screen/minimal toolbars it fits perfectly. I felt this sacrifice was worth it for the larger image size it allowed us to display for higher resolutions. However, I do get the occasional feedback that people on older computers had to scroll a bit to see it all. I tested mainly with Firefox, IE 6/7 and Safari. I tested with Opera later and it seems to work as expected.

The front end of the site has no AJAX but I did use AJAX on the admin side to allow carl to re-order both the order of the sets and the order of the photos within the sets. He can upload a photo and it automatically crops to the appropriate max size. Also, he can change the caption and date among other attributes of the photo during or after upload.

I chose to teach myself CakePHP and use it for this site as I already knew PHP and wanted to get more experience with the popular MVC web development frameworks. I originally was thinking of using Ruby on Rails but I liked the performance of CakePHP and already knowing PHP made it an easier learning curve and easier deployment. Once I got the hang out of I did enjoy working with it and the ability to quickly make changes. After working with Django quite a bit recently I tended to like the application module approach they use slightly better than the more rigid layout CakePHP uses which is very close to the way Rails is laid out.

I ended up just extending and customizing the scaffolding for the models to create the admin site. Many of the base scaffolds were perfectly fine for him to work with, but others needed more advanced functionality and I needed to remove superfluous fields. It seems to be working pretty well as he's been able to add several rounds of photos without needing to ask me for help. While I don't mind helping, its nice for him to have instant gratification without having to wait for me to be available to make the change. It was definitely some extra effort but I always like to take the approach of doing a little more work up front to allow computers to do the work for you later.

http://carlburton.net/

I finally saw Dan Bejar play with Destroyer last night after being into him for a few years now. He has been one of my most played artists over the past year. Not only as part of Destroyer but with his other bands Swan Lake and The New Pornographers as well. It was great to finally see him and hear all the songs I know but the performance itself wasn't totally mind blowing.

Dan Bejar has a unique voice and vocal delivery that many people I know don't get into. I would say its kind of theatrical in a way. However, I think he is one of the better modern song writers out there. He is often compared to David Bowie which I can definitely agree with on some songs. I've found I'm into a lot of Canadian pop/rock music in general for whatever reason.

There didn't seem to be any roadies, they just set up their own equipment. I was pretty sure it was him when this skinny man with poofy Jeff Lynne looking hair and Clark's Wallabees came out and plugged in 2 distortion pedals. I went with my friend Lindsay and we got a spot right in front of the stage which happened to be at the perfect angle to see him.

The performance like I said wasn't totally electrifying or anything. The way he sang the vocals seemed different in not always a good way compared to the studio recordings I have heard. However, still enjoyable, especially knowing most all the songs they played. He kind of reminded me of some kind of a muppet creature made of felt and rubber. Definitely an interesting and odd character.

I did take my camera and get some live music shots for the first time in quite awhile. The shots came out decent I think with our vantage point and the lighting at the Bowery.

The full set of photos I took at the show can be seen here.

I finally took my camera out in the subway this morning and took a few pictures. I've been wanting to do it for a long time but couldn't make myself do it until now. I hope to keep taking some every day.

The camera can't just be in the bag, you have to have it out around your neck or you want get the picture when you see it. I enjoy when I take the photos but a lot of times I don't want to be a person with a camera. That's the thing, if you don't have the camera out and put it up to your face you can't capture what you see. I don't think its that I'm afraid of what they may do, I know generally most people don't care. Its more than I just don't want to bother people, in the end its not really a bother. I think most would even appreciate the photos if they saw the shots later.

I started with just a few this morning its a start. The last couple days I just carried it in my bag but made a promise to myself I would have it over my shoulder outside of the bag starting today. I must keep the camera out taking photos starting now, its been underused for too long.

A big inspiration to me about a year ago was Travis Ruse. I really appreciate his ability to have the camera out and not being afraid to put it in people's faces.

I walked into the office this morning and possibly my all-time favorite song was playing, Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song. I'm going to see Destroyer tonight, I'm planning on trying to get close to the stage and get some photos, haven't done that in awhile. I was looking at some old live music photos the other day and I miss capturing the shows. We'll see what happens. I just know I need to keep taking pictures and not allow the camera to gather dust.

The earth has thawed and given a glimpse into warmer days here in New York. I don't know if I've ever been this excited for the summer to come. Especially, walking around Union Square every day. Making it through the winter in New York makes you feel as if you really have earned the right for the summer weather. I don't feel like its any colder here in New York overall than in Oklahoma, its just the way you are in the cold more often having to walk and take subways more often than cars. Now, Its hard to stay inside. At least the office has a window to let the fresh air and natural sunlight in.

With warmer weather comes much more comfortable clothing. Much more skin can be seen around the streets. Oh my, its truly a blessing which I am very appreciative for.

The soundtrack for the start of the summer weather has still been this French Kicks album. I'm surprised I've had it going on repeat for this long.

Its been a challenging yet fun week at work. I feel like I really deserve the weekends more than usual lately. I hope to get into more photography/art projects soon. I've been thinking of trying to do a short video project or take a drawing class this summer as well. Also, I got some acrylic paint awhile back that I plan to try a few paintings with soon.

I'm optimistic about the summer and opportunities that are in store.

I went to a Black Book magazine party at 1Oak in Chelsea last night as I work near them with my new job. I was feeling kind of sick after some bad sushi but did my best to drink through it with the complimentary Skyy Vodka. I ended up having a good time anyway. I think I saw the guy who won the last Project Runway there. Around 11 I was invited to see the French Kicks @ Mercury Lounge. Its hard for me to turn down a concert opportunity so I went for it. I enjoy Mercury Lounge as well.

I had seen them probably like 3-4 years ago at Opolis in Norman, OK and hadn't really listened to them much since their first album One Time Bells. I keep hearing positive things about their new album but was kind of skeptical at first. I did enjoy the show quite a bit although it was a bit of a blur later in the night. We got there after they had already played a few songs. I recognized a couple of the old songs but it was mainly all newer material. It was a good show from what I remember of it.

I listened to the new album Swimmers at least 3-4 times today and it was much better than I expected it to be. They've really tightened up their sound and seem more experienced but not too forced or derivative of another band. Its nothing totally groundbreaking, but its inspired and has a nice cohesive flow to it. We'll see if it lasts but I'm really into it so far.

I've been enjoying the new Destroyer album quite a bit. He's been on the top plays list on last.fm for awhile now and this new album has only increased the lead. I've been wanting to see Dan Bejar live for several years and am excited that I have tickets to see him next week. There is just something about his songwriting and delivery that does it for me.

Speaking of Blue Flowers, I think that is my favorite Dr. Octagon song. When I'm in the mood to hear him that's often the song I start with. I put it on in the subway the other day when I was thinking of the title of the first track on Destroyer's latest album.