Sick Cat

Yesterday we found out our cat Boris is going into renal failure. We have lots of stuff we have to do for him now. But it's ok we will do all we can to keep him healthy as long as we can.

Holidazed

So as we hit midspan of the Hoilday season, I already feel kid of dazed. Some times they go by real slow, but this year seems to be whizzing by. Its crazy. Anyway its almost over, so nothing to do but hurry up and wait.

Crocodile Cafe closes without a bang

So, for the people who read this who don't know me I spent 15 years working as a independent sound engineer in the Seattle area. Some of that time I worked on the road, touring with bands, some from my home town and some from out of state. The first Seattle club I worked for on a regular basis was the Crocodile Cafe.

My band had played a few shows there in the early 90's and I had become friends with the house engineer from coming in to mix for some of my friends bands. He had worked for years only taking one night a week off, and during the holiday seasons no days off for months in a row. He asked if I could cover a couple of nights for him. Then he asked if I could cover a few more. Then he got sick and I came in for a few months while he recovered. It was a great place to work, I loved the sound system. I got the chance to both play some great shows and mix some great shows. I got the chance to meet some great bands and make them sound great in that room. I also worked for a great sound engineer who really cared about the bands and making them sound good, even when they didn't deserve it.

I woke up this morning and checked the news and saw they closed this weekend. I knew that they were in financial trouble, but I hoped they would make it.

Some more synth noise video

I thought I would make another video of the synth I built last year. I think it wants me to play it more. Thats why its so fuzzy.

It is a modular synth that comes as a kit from a company called Paia. I want to build some more synth modules, I just need to get around to buying them. Then putting them together. Than testing them. Than maybe I will make some more little videos. Sounds fun huh?

My walk on Capitol Hill

Last night I met my wife and a friend at Quinns for a burger. Before they arrived I went for a walk around the block and took some camera phone shots.

Also from my desk

From my desk

Battles

So as usual I am hitting myself for ignoring the local music press about the show to see, it is months past and I pick up the CD and think, "I should've gone to that show". Last week as my wife and I left the Queen Anne Easy Street Records, I grabbed the latest release by Battles .

The opening high hat and side stick beat combined with looped guitar and whistling soon turns into a jazzy prog frenzy. The second song starts with a heavy tribal drum beat combined with warped carnival like vocal manipulation and guitar/ bass confusion. The third song is the closest to anything that resembles pop music, if played by a schizophrenic.

This album is amazing. If you are looking for a band that combines live sampling, solid drumbeats, synth weirdness, and total noise freak outs, Battles are for you. I won't go into the pedigree, but they have all spent time in some great bands. I now know what my music teachers were trying to introduce me to by playing Frank Zappa, Yes and ELP. This is where I want to see the future of music going ( with the use of sampling, looping, and electronic manipulation). At least the music I want to hear some of the time.

Thumbs up to Buddha Machine

I've been loving my Fm3 Buddha machine this holiday season. It is nice to be able to deprogram the holiday music by centering myself to the drones and loops of the Buddha machine.

If you haven't heard of it, the machine is a box made by the electronic group FM3. They took 9 loops they use in their music and put them on a little hardware box that looks like an old am radio. The loops will play until the battery wears out and there is a switch to cycle thru them.

The boxes also spawned some remix records last year with artists using the loops or playing along with some of them.

I keep mine at work and it helps me relax when tension rises. Some days I leave it on the whole time.

nothing to report

Nothing to report. Its the holiday season and my mind is wandering too quickly to form complete thoughts. I have been spending more time working on sound and less on words. I will try to post more sounds clips tomorrow. For now a shakey shot of some storage tanks. It is nice to have a less shakey camera, but I now have to try harder to get interesting shots. Not as many happy accidents.

A little synth buzz for today

Everyone loves puppies

Another week flies by

So we started out with the most rain in quite some time, (if you don't count last year, I love the media's ability to over hype anything) and it ends with a movie probably better left for video. The Sasquatch Gang is the new movie by the people who made Napolean Dynamite. It had its moments, but overall I thought it dropped the ball. I liked some of the characters, but the story was lacking and they spent too much time with the stupid rockers. I give it a see it on cable or as a discount dvd rental.

Flooding down the street

So I was checking out the West Seattle Blog and they had some photos of the road between Delridge and 26th. I guess the Longfellow Creek flooded and was covering the street a couple of hours ago. I'm glad we live on the second floor.

The photos of the car in the Allstar Fitness parking lot covered to the roof is awesome.