This is Labor Day weekend. I am tangentbot. I haven't posted anything on my blog for awhile, so here goes stuff!

As I Tweeted (Twat? Twote?) about yesternight, I picked up some hella rude vinyl at my favorite Seattle record store 2nd Time Around last night. I happened to find Skinny Puppy - Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse, which is perhaps my favorite SP album. Also, Skinny Puppy - Tin Omen-Twelve Inch Remix, Die Warzau - Disco Rigido, Orson Welles - The Count of Monte Cristo and The Trunk, and finally, W.C. Fields - Temperance Lecture (which is, of course, a comedy record). Anytime I can find old Industrial music on vinyl I grab it. The five albums cost me about 25 bucks.

My esteemed colleague, Jason, hooked me up with a copy of the new Ballzack album, titled "Yeah Indeed", which I must say is fantastic stuff. His sound is tighter and cleaner then on his previous endeavors, and while it seems to be packed with more local New Orleans/West Bank references it also manages to be more accessible. I seriously cannot stop listening to it (help!).

What else can I talk about? Oh, yeah, I've got like four or five songs in the process of being completed, an audio project (or two?) I've been putting off for basically a million years, and this ice cream I got at the Cap Hill farmers market is freakin' good.

If you guys want to get me some stuff, you know, just because, here's what I am looking for, currently;

• some decent, small computer speakers
• a Sony Vaio laptop for dedicated audio production
• the new Android equipped phone from T-Mobile, due out in October '08
• a list of great slice-of-life manga that I am somehow overlooking (inb4 Azumanga Dioah, Ichigo Marshmallow, Sunshine Sketch, Genshiken, Marmalade Boy and Yotsuba&)
• a (Bluetooth?) media streaming "solution" to send music from my computer to my stereo, wirelessly
• an 8-port USB hub

That is it! Everybody remember to floss, okay?

Labels: misc, music

posted by tangentbot @ 6:06 PM 


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kodomo no mono

Labels: music

posted by tangentbot @ 10:40 PM 


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A friend at work told me about this rad site, thesixtyone, and so I uploaded some songs. It only let me upload three songs, until I get "bumped" and earn "points"... I really don't understand it yet, but it looks cool and fun, so maybe you and your sexy friend should check it out.

Labels: music

posted by tangentbot @ 9:40 PM 


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I hooked up my old Atari 1040ST computer that I bought a few years back (for 10 bucks!) and found some chiptune tracker software to run on it. The display is monochrome, which limits my software choices, but Chip Composer seems to run just fine! I even wrote some patterns and put together the beginnings of a song. I should have set this thing up years ago, instead of letting it collect dust in a closet, because it sounds so freaking beautiful it makes me cry a little... just a little.

Chip Composer has a lot of flexibility to it, as far as I can tell. There's a 4-note polyphony, which is too adorable for words. The demo songs it comes with are really good, and I was writing music within five minutes of starting the program.

Labels: Atari 1040ST, chiptune, computer, music, nostalgia

posted by tangentbot @ 3:44 PM  Links to this post

The Most Unwanted Music. Originally referred to be by a co-worker via this site, but I found the original site where you can download the song and buy the album right here.

this, from the Design Observer article...

The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and "elevator" music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance--someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example--fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece.

BTW - I seriously love this so much. Count me among the 200... Beautiful.

Edit:Here is the mp3: The Most Unwanted Song. Minds are blown.

Labels: music

posted by tangentbot @ 3:23 PM  Links to this post

Roland SPD-20

I haven't thought about getting a new toy in awhile, but if anyone wanted to buy me this Roland SPD-20, be my guest. This thing is exactly what I need to cure the "I live in an apartment and therefore cannot have a real drum kit because of the noise" situation...

Labels: music, Roland SPD-20, toys

posted by tangentbot @ 10:33 PM  Links to this post

So we went out tonight to one of our favorite Greek restaurants, Taki's Mad Greek, and stuffed ourselves with a variety of yummy food! Chris Harris accompanied us, as we were all going to see Busdriver at Neumos afterwards. We walked, since the venue is less than 10 minutes from our apartment. The doors opened at 8 pm, but we didn't get there until 8:45, and we were worried we'd have to wait, as every other Busdriver show I've been to has been packed.

The place was empty. There were literally less than 10 people milling about. We met our friends, Jennifer, Jason, Geoff and Lisa, and stood around and talked. Then Busdriver came out and started futzing around with stuff. We all kind of moved up to the stage, unsure of whether he was doing soundcheck or starting. There were only about 20-30 people there, but he started the show, thanking us all for coming out early. He played his set for around 30 of us, the dedicated few, joking and making the best of things. I've seen this dude five times, and it's always been packed. His show kicked ass as usual, although it was a bit short, and he went completely crazy on stage. That's why nearly ALL the pics we got were blurry. We bought a rare collection of his songs at the merch table afterwards and waited for the next band, The Gray Boy All Stars.

We waited an HOUR for them to saunter up to the stage. By this time, Neumos was filled to the brim with drunk frat boys and their girlfriends. The band sounded like every 5 piece funk/jazz combo from the 1970s. The drummer looked like a Reservoir Dog. The bassist looked like an out-of-place Texan. The guitarist looked like every hipster in Seattle, the organist like an out-of-work music teacher, and the sax/percussionist looked like... you know what? It doesn't matter, they were boring. Talented, energetic, and boring as hell. I wanted crazy turntablist-jazz-hiphop and I got The Cosby Show. Not a good follow-up to Busdriver. I think I nailed it when I described the genre as "Sportscoat and Bluejeans Jazz". Also, it was 21 and up, and it just sounded too... grown-up to me. We left about four songs in. 'Evs, Busdriver kicked ass, as you can clearly see.

Labels: Busdriver, food, music, Neumos

posted by tangentbot @ 11:41 PM 


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My home studio lies in a cluttered disarray.

I am re-tooling my studio layout so that I can actually use it more efficiently. I'm also re-purposing my old desktop for audio production, simply because i've discovered that I need a seperate machine for audio, and this one happens to have a kick-ass pro audio soundcard (and independent drives for files and applications). I have to throw some more RAM in there though.

I'm also in the market for a flat-panel monitor and a pair of really good monitoring headphones. I like my little 20 dollar Sony headphones, but they are ten years old, and I'm sure I can find something a bit more "professional". I'm still sticking with Sony as far as headphones go; either that or Audio-Technica. Either way, I'm going to start writing a ton of music soon enough, and putting together a live set if possible.

Also, I just found out about this awesome board game! I'm not really in tune with the whole "scene", so don't be too hard on me if this is old news. Come on though, a zombie attack game? How cool is that?

I leave you with an Aliens haiku I just wrote:

Riply to the Queen:

"Get away from her you bitch!"

Wish that mech had guns...

Labels: boardgame, haiku, music, zombies

posted by tangentbot @ 3:11 PM 


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I am not a thief. I never went through a shoplifting phase as a kid, never "accidentally" carried something out of a store without paying, never snuck into a movie, club or concert and I do not condone such behavior. I don't even open up food or drinks in a grocery store until I've paid for them. That said, I frequently use bittorrent and download tons of music all the time.

A long time ago, I used to buy a lot of CDs. I would typically, on my meager wages, buy two CDs a week. This continued for some time, and I always buy used if I could(and I usually could - unless I really wanted something right now). Then Napster happened to the world, and I caught the tail end of that - when the whole thing fell through I continued to download free music, and my dollars no longer went to the music store.

I used tons of different "sharing" software, settling on Kazaa at last. I bought an extra drive to hold my music, and I only bought an actual CD once in awhile, or I would buy collections of stuff that just took too long to download on a 56k connection...

Then I got a cable modem.

Like I said earlier, I used to buy almost exclusively used CDs. This means that the money I paid for the music went directly into the music store's pockets, as the artist has already sold the music. The artist has been paid for it already. What is the difference here from downloading it? Keeping an outdated distribution method in business? The truth is, about 90% of what I was downloading I would not have paid any money for anyway. So here's what I do:

• I buy music from artists at their shows. If I like an artist, I go see them live. I buy records, t-shirts, CDs - whatever they are selling, at the show. This way, I can be sure that they are receiving the most profit, as they are usually manning the merch table anyway, and it is almost always cheaper than a music store would sell it for. GO SEE YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS LIVE! This is how they make a living, not from 2% royalties off of a bunch of overpriced CDs.
• If it is a movie, same thing - If I'm not going to see it in theater, I'm not going to buy it later. If I download it and LIKE it, I will go buy the DVD. Usually I download anime, which is a risky investment to just buy, as it can get fairly expensive (and there's a lot of absolute crap anime out there...). If I like it, it is usually worth owning, and I will purchase the boxed set (and usually a shirt, toys, manga and whatever else).
• If we are talking about software, then I will typically go out of my way to use freeware. The occasional hacked piece of software will make it onto my computer from time to time, but I will play around with them a bit and get rid of them later on. The few I have purchased (e.g. Cubase, an audio software suite) have been well worth it. A lot of the stuff I have isn't even supported or distributed by the company anymore, so it's kind of a moot point.

I'm employing the same logic as folks who buy a bunch of new clothes, wear them for a week, and return them to the store. This way, I pay for only the things I value, which means I am more accurately voting with my dollars. Does this not make sense?

Labels: downloading, file sharing, music, p2p

posted by tangentbot @ 11:15 PM 


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A Bunny Looks On...

The official title of this image is "Tangentbot and Three Ninjas lay down phat beats as a bunny looks on". What do you say to that‽ Speaking of interrobang-worthy happenstances, as evidenced in the image above, I have started writing music again after a year-long hiatus. I'm sort of dabbling about in different things and I haven't really put together a proper song, but one is on the way, I assure you.

This weekend Ikea is doing the Christmas Tree thing again! What Christmas Tree thing you ask? Well, every year (now it's down to one weekend, from one week) Ikea has a bunch of Christmas Trees for sale for 20 bucks. The cool thing is that when you are done using the tree, they will dispose of it for you AND give you a $10.00 gift certificate to use in the store. Pretty cool, huh? So essentially you get a tree for ten bucks, and you don't have to deal with recycling/dumping it on the side of the road/whatever you do with old trees. A vital part of Christmas for me is decorating a real tree, and the whole apartment smells like evergreen, and we listen to Christmas music... I never get tired of Christmas. Yay!

Labels: Christmas Tree, holiday, Ikea, music

posted by tangentbot @ 8:19 PM 


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