[atari] punked?

Over a year ago I bought this little monophonic synthesizer about the size of a guitar effects pedal, based on a rave review in the gear section of Tape Op magazine.  The review said it was this really unique little box that generated rich, unexpected tones as you twiddled the two knobs (that’s all it has) .  I’m always looking for new and weird sounds, especially cool looking and lo-fi little boxes.  When I received the box, I discovered that they were right–it did generate some really interesting sounds and I ended up using it on at least one of the songs on Boundary Waters.

Then this morning, while reading the GetLoFi circuit bending blog, I came across this thing called the Atari Punk Console.  It’s a “simple DIY noisemaker circuit” that is based on a schematic that was originally published in a Radio Shack booklet back in 1980.  It has two knobs which interact with each other to produce varying square wave tones.  Hmmm sounds familiar.  So I clicked on a sound sample that demonstrated it in action.  And by golly, if it didn’t sound exactly like my little box.  For which I paid about $100.  GetLoFi sells a kit for about twenty bucks.

But you know, I don’t feel too bad that I put down a Benjamin for a box I thought was a uniquely designed boutique synthesizer but may in fact be a cheap DIY circuit that has been in a Radio Shack booklet for about 30 years.  Because I paid for the handcrafting of a quality metal case, silk screened lettering, and cool vintage knobs.  And plus, I have better things to do with my time than learn how to solder electronics for DIY noise-making circuits. Like, writing stupid blog posts about them.

introducing… The Reflexologists

UPDATE: we just added David Moyer, who plays baritone sax/tenor sax/flute for Breakestra, so this group is gonna be ridiculous!
UPDATE AGAIN!: we just added David Bautista, trumpet player for Breakestra. We have a horn section now!!!
What do get when you put together the bass player from rising soul singer Van Hunt’s band, with the guitarist, the trumpet player, and the tenor sax/baritone sax/flute player from Breakestra?  And then add myself, plus another really talented jazz guitarist?  Hopefully, an amazingly funky and soulful band.  Come see for yourself this Wednesday Feb 25th at a bar & lounge called NEOMEZE, in the heart of Old Town Pasadena.  It’s a really relaxing, swanky joint with great food and a nice selection of beer on draft.  And NO COVER!

Wednesday, February 25
The Reflexologists funk/soul collaboration
@ NEOMEZE Bar & Lounge
20 E. Colorado Blvd. Ste. 102, Pasadena, CA 91105
this is my new project, featuring bassist JP Maramba (Van Hunt, L’Esprit d’Afrique), guitarist Patrick Bailey (Breakestra), saxophonist/flautist David Moyer (Breakestra), trumpeter David Bautista (Breakestra), guitarist Christian Wunderlich, and yours truly on drums
relax at a classy lounge and dance to some funky music!
9pm-12midnight • NO COVER!

With influences ranging from James Brown, the Meters, Fela Kuti, Lee Morgan, and the Dap-Kings, we are gonna get your toes tapping for sure.  Hope you can make it!  Please, tell friends about this because if we get a good turnout we might become a resident band here.

next stop… Minyo Station

Last year I wrote a post about my inadvertent discovery of Minyo, a style of Japanese folk music, through an old record I got from a garage sale–and my subsequent realization that a friend of mine is in a band called Minyo Station, a “progressive folk music” band that fuses Minyo with jazz, rock, and reggae.

Well, as it turns out, I’m playing in the band now.  And we have a show this Saturday at 7:30pm in San Pedro.

Actually, I should say “concert” rather than “show,” because this isn’t just a quick set of music at some club; no, this is the whole shebang.  Two sets with an intermission, a full ensemble featuring traditional singers, folk dancers, and shamisen section, guest instrumentalists, and even a workshop before the show where you can learn folk dances from different regions of Japan.

What’s most interesting and unique about Minyo Station is that it is totally unlike other “fusion” groups that incorporate Western and Asian musical influences.  Usually it’s a matter of simply putting Asian instrumentation and/or melodies on top of a pre-existing style like jazz, funk, rock, etc.  But with Minyo Station, it’s almost exactly the reverse–instead, the base of the music is Japanese folk songs and the Western instrumentation and harmonies are added on top.  Because of this it’s been a real challenge for me to learn the music—the rhythmic structure, harmonic movement, and song forms are so different than what I’ve grown up listening to (but it seems to come naturally to the shamisen players!).  The experience has really helped me grow as a musician, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with others, so if you have a chance, check us out on Saturday!

Saturday, February 21
Minyo Station @ The Grand Annex
434 W. 6th St. San Pedro, CA 90731
Concert: 7:30pm
$15.00 pre-sale / $20.00 at the door
Workshop: 5:00pm – $10.00 (Learn folk dances from different regions of Japan)

mixtape time

The A Song For Ourselves mixtape is now available for free download right here.  It features exclusive tracks from Bambu, Kiwi, and Geologic of Blue Scholars, plus a lil’ ol’ track produced by yours truly.  Get it while it’s hot!  I got a nice shout out from Tad on his blog too.  Oh, and if you plan on attending the film premeire/concert (Sat Feb 28th) he is encouraging everyone to buy tix beforehand since it may sell out.  The easiest way to buy tickets is online here or over the phone (213-680-3700).

choking under pressure

Sometimes I wish there was a heimlich maneuver for the mind.  Many a time I’ve sat down to play a gig that was very important to me, and my nerves have gotten the better of me.  It’s a sucky feeling–one that I’d say almost everyone has felt before, and I think this article in Scientific American on “Choking Under Pressure” is of special interest to other performing artists.

I think I’ve slowly gotten better, learned to calm my mind and focus at those critical moments.  One breakthrough for me came when I realized that when you practice, you should not only practice the material you’re trying to learn, but also the mental state you want to be in when you’re performing it.  So I started to change my practice habit; I would not only focus on the notes I’m playing, but on my breathing, my posture, the tension in my muscles, and my mental state.  It’s not easy.  Paying attention to all those things, while simultaneously reading synchopated rhythms and orchestrating them in all four limbs is not really something the human mind was set up to do naturally.  Being hyper-aware like this is essentially the goal of meditation, and conceptualizing practice in this way has been an important change for me.   They definitely don’t teach you this in band class.

those clever Aussies

I know that Bret and Jemaine would take offense, but I can’t help but have a similar affection for another musical duo from that sector of the globe (Australia, not New Zealand): a group called Empire of the Sun.  They’re not a comedy act though; they are two musicians who make electronic pop, and one of them sings.  Their debut album was released late last year, and to me it sounds like the soundtrack to my favorite 80s movie that I never new I had.  Awesome.  Here’s their new video for “We Are The People,” one of my favorite tracks on the album.

To seal the deal, their amazing album cover looks like a movie poster circa 1985! I love how these guys have their own costumes and faux mythology.

A Song for Ourselves – new song featuring Bambu!

I first met Tad Nakamura soon after I transferred to UCLA almost 10 years ago.  Whoa has it been that long already???!! Hold up.  I gotta catch my breath, cause I feel really old now.  Anyways, Tad was on the lawn near the student union, introducing a group of prospective members to the student activist group CAPSA, and wearing a thuggish bandana.  I knew dude was for real the first time I saw him.  Flash forward to today, and now he’s an award-winning filmmaker who teaches Ethnocommunications at UCLA.  His previous documentary won him Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, and his upcoming film is having its world premiere on Feb 28, 2009.  It’s called “A Song for Ourselves,” and it chronicles the life and music of pioneering Asian American Movement troubadour Chris Iijima.

To help publicize the event, Tad enlisted the help of DJ Phatrick to put together a mixtape of both remixes and original versions of Chris’ music.  I contributed a track, a remix of a really beautiful song, “War of the Flea,” by Chris Iijima, Nobuko Miyamoto, and Charlie Chin (as the group A Grain of Sand).  It features some poignant and heartfelt verses by legendary local emcee/activist Bambu (of Native Guns).  I’m really happy with how it turned out, and it’s available for free download, hope you enjoy!

The way the track came about is actually interesting.  Tad needed instrumental versions of Chris’ music for the film, to mix underneath interviews.  So he enlisted me to recreate them, which I did by painstakingly transcribing and then playing on acoustic guitar and bass.  Boy I tell you, they did some mean ass fingerpicking back in the heyday of 1960s/70s folk music!  My cramping fingers could attest to that.  Well, I now had all these tracks of isolated acoustic guitar just laying around on my computer.  It dawned on me that I should put it to more use, so I chopped it up, slapped a beat to it, and added some of Chris’ original vocals.  Lucky for me Bambu liked the beat, so he added a couple of verses that really took the song to a new level.  Much gratitude and thanks to Nobuko Miyamoto for allowing us to sample the original music.

If you like the track, please share it with friends and help spread the word about the premiere of A Song for Ourselves.  And please check out the original A Grain of Sand album, it’s incredibly soulful revolutionary folk music that is still very relevant today.

Edit: Tad just released a trailer for the event!

static to distortion

On Friday night after my gig at Cafe Metropol I sat in my car, in front of my house, for a good half hour or more, completely transfixed.  The lights were off, the engine was off, but the radio was on.  I sat there with my s.o. as we stared blankly out the windshield, listening to Exile perform a live set on KPFK.

He was always one of my favorite producers (his album “Dirty Science” is completely sans the chain) but that night he became my hero.  Exile had sat in the radio station’s studio the first hour before his interview just sampling the output of the radio show.  He then proceeded to create an on-the-spot sound/beat collage using the samples he just captured.  He then went into a set of tracks from his just-released album, which uses the same premise: created from samples culled entirely from the radio.  El Keter has a great Blogarhythms post about the new album–titled succinctly, “Radio.” That night I went straight to my computer and bought it from iTunes.

Exile has an uncanny sense for rhythm as finely tuned as J Dilla, with a musical pallette that is absolutely unique.  “Radio,” from start to finish, was constantly putting my ears in a state of “holy shit, I’ve never been in this place before, and yet, it feels oddly familiar.”  It’s euphorically disorienting, aurally rich, politically poignant, and his beats are still funky as hell.  I’ll venture to say that when music historians look back, they’ll see the release of this album as groundbreaking and important an event as the release of Endtroducing…..

As much as I used to rag on LA, it’s a wonderful time to be living here.  Some of the most amazing music on the planet is coming from here at this moment.

new Leviathan Brothers video!

Sean O’Connell and Tom Child have collaborated on another awesome video (seen the other one?) and this time they’ve really outdone themselves.  As for the music, Sean and I recorded, mixed, and mastered the entire song in my studio, aka Grandma’s Dojo, in one day.  Here’s what Sean has to say:

It’s called “Dr. Werrenrath’s Prized Pupil” and it’s the first time Miles and I really stretched out with some studio trickery.  It’s got a vocal sample, organs and one of the sweetest drum breaks Miles has ever laid down.  I’m happy about the song and believe it may even be released on a 7″ record through White Noise this Spring.

Check it out.  Rate it 5 stars and forward it to all your friends.  And then come out to see us at the Continental Room on February 1st (Super Bowl Sunday!).  We’re playing two sets starting at 10pm and it is absolutely free.  We had a great time there a couple of weeks ago and think you’ll enjoy visiting the oldest bar in Orange County.

a day in the life

I’m not sure why it took me so long to put up a the first post of this year.  This month flew by, and as I sit here recovering from a cold on a beautiful sunny day, I should probably try to reflect on the new year with some sort of optimism–what with a new President on the way and all.  But times are tough and the economy has really hit every segment of the population hard, including musicians.  When gigs disappear and things start to look bleak, I’ve realized it’s vital to keep a sense of humor.  Especially for musicians.  Let me explain.

Being a musician in LA is like having a job with a bi-polar disorder.  From gig to gig, we are constantly being thrown into every varying strata of our society; one night we’ll be playing a gig at the stankiest, shadiest dive-bar in the outskirts of town, and the next night we’ll be playing a reception in the backyard of some Hollywood producer’s Beverly Hills mansion.  One night I’m worring about my ass getting kicked in a bar brawl, and the next night I’m standing in a buffet line in front of Sidney Poitier and Diana Ross (this really happened).

Anyways, point being, this job is about as boring as it is lucrative (i.e., it is neither).  And while I think having this kind of firsthand insight into the stratification of society is amazing, it really takes a toll on one’s psyche.  I mean, if you work an office job, you kinda know where you stand–you have a title, a position, and you generally know what level of respect you are going to get from your collegues based on this.  But for musicians, it’s all over the place.  I’ve been talked to like I was a 12-year old kid by an asshole sound engineer at a club.  On the other hand, just the other day, an assistant at Warner Bros studios (I was backing up a singer for a showcase) asked me if I’d like “room tempurature” or “refrigerated,” bottled water and then personally retrieved it for me.  I don’t know why, but that blew me away.

In conclusion, you really need to have a strong sense of self in this business or else you’re going to feel very manic depressive.  Which leads me to this wonderful video that was taken by a guitarist that I know and have played with, and takes place in a club I’m very familiar with.  It is a vivid sneak peak into the life of a jazz musician.  If Flight of the Conchords ever decided to play a jazz club, I’m sure the scene would go something like this.