Tell em like it is Genesis P.

Playlists vs. Mixtapes

A while back I was reading a book about the future of music delivery. The author had a theory that users would pay a small subscription fee and have access to music all the time on all their devices, transferring back and forth with ease. Being that all music has yet to be owned by one company, these days users have different devices to play digital files, or older analog devices like turntables or tape players.

When I was younger, before the computer was widely used in the home, but after the compact disk was released, people would make tapes of music for each other. These "mixtapes" were a labor of love, or in some cases, in search of love. They took hours, sometimes days to create. Much thought was applied to come up with the perfect mix for who ever it was aimed at. I threw out all of the tapes I had in our last move. I hadn't had a cassette player for years, and was only a hair away from transferring all my cd to a ipod and selling off all but the most important music I own on cd.

I hadn't thought much about the playlist on my ipod. I have made some, but I usually just listen to single artists at a time. I have made some, but never put to much effort into making them. But after a long road trip last weekend I got to thinking about the difference between the playlist and the mixtape. The play list is fast to create, if changes need to be made all it takes is a couple of clicks and its done. Mixtapes took hours, songs being recorded in realtime, breaks to change the lp or cd for the next one. If you wanted to change a song on a mix tape it had to be the last song, or it was time to start over from the beginning.

The playlist is not any less valid. To come up with a good one it will take the same amount of thought and planning, just less on the digital creation side.

Perfect from now on

So the other day I was looking at a post on Pitchfork about the line up for the upcoming All Tomorrow's Parties and saw that several bands were playing sets of complete albums. Most of them were bands I liked or had seen in the past. One was Built to Spill playing "Perfect from now on".

I thought that might be a cool set to catch. Now I don't ever really travel to see shows. I might catch something in another city if I'm there, maybe check ahead of time to see who's playing and if anyone I know is playing to say hello. But I don't plan trips around that, and I don't like festival shows as a rule.

Still I looked at the overall line up and thought I might want to see some if not all of the bands playing.

I picked up my Ipod and scrolled down to Built to Spill. The record wasn't on my Ipod. Now I don't have all of Built to Spills records, but I knew I had listened to that one over and over. Then I realized I had never bought it on CD. I had owned a tape of it. I became lost in the switch over to the digital age. So I went out the other night and got a new copy to add to my Ipod.

It is still a masterpiece. The guitars float back and forth melodies combining in that magical way only music from the past does. Reminding me of the years that have past.

I don't think I will be going to the show, I saw them play this record live when it came out, but I am glad of the reminder and the visit of some music from my past.

Buddha Machine meets the Korg Mini Kp

I decided to put the first loop of the Buddha Machine into the Tape Echo of the Mini KP. Just a little experiment for this afternoon.

New Synth vid

A chain of my analog and virtual analog synths and some effects making weird noises. It includes a Monotonic U-73, a Paia 9700 modular, a Nord Micromodular, a Yamaha Magistomp and a Boss DD-20.

Chickenhead Church 1/13/2008

Last Night phase3 played with Dj Dick Flick and Your drugs my money at Mr. Spots Chai House in Ballard.

Here is a video excerpt of phase3's set.

Here is some photos of the other bands.

Dj Dick Flick

Your Drugs my Money

Korg Mini kp

This is the Korg mini Kaoss pad. I got one a few weeks ago and have been having lots of fun with it. It has a few synth patches, but it is mainly an effects unit that you control with the pad. I used patch 99 "Synth + Looper" to create this video. All the sounds are from that patch. I did record some sounds to my computer and play along with it.

Korg has a new synth called the Kaossilator that is a pad controlled synth and sequencer, but I wanted to have the effects in the mini kp. I still might get the Kaossilator later on though as it looks fun as well.

phase3 at Mr. Spots Chai House in Ballard

Come on down to the chickenhed church. Sunday Jan 13th phase3 ambient psychedelia and travelling roadshow will be performing. It will be a fun time for all.

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?

Was Radiohead online album a failed experiment?

Radiohead released their latest album "In Rainbows" on Oct. 10th.

An article in E! online says " The findings were announced Tuesday by comScore, an information company that provides real-time measurements of Internet usage through a database of nearly 1 million Netizens. The company has permission to track all the users' Web activity. And according to comScore, approximately 62 percent of the people in its focus group who downloaded In Rainbows didn't kick in a single cent to what's been dubbed Radiohead's "honesty box.""


I'm not a fan of Radiohead, but I was glad to hear they are helping to change the business plan of how music is provided to the public. I don't think CD's are going to be phased out. I do think digital downloads are still going to happen and if musicians provide them to the public like this I think it will work to their advantage in the long run. The change will only happen if more artists with wide appeal like Radiohead embrace new techniques. Only time will tell....

The day after

Our show had a good turnout. We played a good set and my only regret is we didn't record it. C'est la vie! Our Cd's look very good as a finished product. My wife said she has never heard us play so mellow. I find that it is more a reaction to the feel in the room for me than anything else. I don't pre-plan the set, I just follow the sound in the room at the time of any particular show.

Writer's block or otherwise known as the dark period (too heavy ? I think so )

This one of my artistic phases where I 'm fairly stuck. Now in the past I would hit this point going crazy. Try real hard to keep busy, you know force it out. Like when you rock back and forth on the toilet when you are constipated. Or is that just me? Anyway, its not like I'm not doing anything, I just have lots of ideas that I keep refusing to write down. Or if I do I don't finish them. Or I tell them to people and then they don't sound as good to me as they did in my head. I took this photo a few months ago and keep coming back to it. I think its a good representation of electronic music. Its DJ L.A.M.P. playing with the noisettes. I wish I could be playing like that. But for now I can at least capture that feeling in the wild.