WOOPS.
I've entirely forgotten about this blog. My apologies to anyone who might visit this thing at some point. (Apparently there were 10 views today?? >_>)
This will be a long post, so let's do a cutaway.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Monday, October 15, 2012
Fall 2012 Update
Hello babies.
Tired as all hell, but I feel like I should update this thing.
(Check out that layout!)
First things first: I put out a new album for a new solo project, called Thing-Worker.
Go download this thing!
Anyway,
I'll be embarking on a tour soon. I didn't update this thing, I don't think, but I was on tour for all of August, as well as 10 days in May, before that (which may have been posted about on this blog).
I swear, shows get better every time I go out. It's really empowering. I need to be out more often! I need to play more, with Bubblegum Octopus, with Ultra Death Men, and with anything and anyone that I can possibly play with!
The tour will be a brief journey starting in North Carolina, jumping through OH, IL, MI, and NY state.
Tired as all hell, but I feel like I should update this thing.
(Check out that layout!)
First things first: I put out a new album for a new solo project, called Thing-Worker.
Go download this thing!
It's hideously deformed industrial/harsh noise/power electronics/cybergrind/musique concrete. It's the most abrasive and heavy recording I've done yet and I'm very proud of it. That cover art was a collaboration between Aircraft and I.
Anyway,
I'll be embarking on a tour soon. I didn't update this thing, I don't think, but I was on tour for all of August, as well as 10 days in May, before that (which may have been posted about on this blog).
I swear, shows get better every time I go out. It's really empowering. I need to be out more often! I need to play more, with Bubblegum Octopus, with Ultra Death Men, and with anything and anyone that I can possibly play with!
The tour will be a brief journey starting in North Carolina, jumping through OH, IL, MI, and NY state.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
2012 Update #2: SPRINGTIME
Hello babies!
It's been a while, no?
Let's catch y'all up.
About two weeks ago myself and members of Giggle The Ozone, Pet Bottle Ningen, Ugh God, and others found ourselves in a warehouse studio in Philly, recording for the third Hybegnu release.
If you haven't checked out our first offering (which doesn't feature me) and our second (which does) you can grab them at our Bandcamp page for free (or money, if you want to donate to the Hybegnu coffers.)
Prior to that, I had been doing some really infrequent shows. Did a c@ show in Salem, MA and played Bubblegum Octopus sets around New Jersey. Last night I played at a fantastic house venue in Sussex, NJ, for the second time. The place is called Cigarette Hill On Anal Mountain. Despite the potentially off-putting name, the place is lovely, friendly, and enthusiastic. I was playing with Spreaders, Valerie Kuehne, and Joey Molinaro (who was doing electric violin and foot percussion renditions of Discordance Axis songs). By good fortune, the former vocalist of Discordance Axis, Jon Chang, a supreme idol of mine in the ways of extreme vocals and approach to album releases, happened to be in the audience. For me, that's quite a big deal. His voice has been the ideal sound of piercing screams, inhuman growling, and general vocal chaos for years >o<
Outside of that, I've been working with Jon of Ultra Death Men on the new Bubblegum Octopus LP, due out Fall/Winter of this year on Placenta Recordings. He will be playing drums (if you didn't already know) on about half of the tracks.
The album has taken a decidedly unusual turn, as far as Bubblegum Octopus material goes. In the process of trying to rework the album for live performance, I began playing more guitar on it. The result is a lot of super shoegazey and skramy parts, with equal parts Mukai Shutoku and Agata Ichirou, that somehow borders on accidental, transcendental psychedelia.
That, mixed with the heavy grooves and d-beats of the real drums, the freaked out, sputtering, glitchy breaks of the electronic tracks, the sometimes VGM, sometimes completely wacky synths, and my vocals has created something particularly unusual and "band"-like for the record.
It was a bit off-putting at first and I thought I was just going to scrap everything, but after rehearsing the songs in full form, I've found renewed confidence in what I'm doing with this. Jon's contributions are extremely valuable and integral.
As for Critters and Milquetoast, I'm leaving them on the back burner. I've foolishly begun writing yet another album in the past few months, but I am going to focus on splits and those two albums before I push that forward at all. I have splits lined up with Kool Skull, Kindergarten Hazing Ritual, Dingle, Watabou, Spreaders, and more and I need to get these things done!!
In future live performance news, I will be playing Ultra Mega Awesome Extreme 6 this Saturday, in Detroit. The line-up is downright sinister. If you're even remotely able to get to this, you really need to. I promise promise promise it will be worth it!
Then in May I'll be doing a really ramshackle tour just to get out of my comfort zone.
May 9th - Winston-Salem, NC - tba
May 10th - help needed for SC or GA
May 11th - Gainesville, FL - The Laboratory
May 12th - Panama City, FL - The A&M Theater
May 13th - I'll play whatever in FL!
May 14th - Orlando, FL - Uncle Lou's
May 15th - help needed for SC or GA
May 16th - Greensboro, NC - tba
May 17th/18th - help needed for SC or GA!!
May 19th - Philadelphia, PA - 8static @ The PhilaMOCA
In August I'll have a longer tour, covering the mid-west and Texas, that may actually feature the debut of a new, two-piece project, but I can't say anymore about that in case I jinx it.
For now, I'm out. I hope there are no obvious errors in this. I don't have the time to proof-read >_<
It's been a while, no?
Let's catch y'all up.
About two weeks ago myself and members of Giggle The Ozone, Pet Bottle Ningen, Ugh God, and others found ourselves in a warehouse studio in Philly, recording for the third Hybegnu release.
If you haven't checked out our first offering (which doesn't feature me) and our second (which does) you can grab them at our Bandcamp page for free (or money, if you want to donate to the Hybegnu coffers.)
Prior to that, I had been doing some really infrequent shows. Did a c@ show in Salem, MA and played Bubblegum Octopus sets around New Jersey. Last night I played at a fantastic house venue in Sussex, NJ, for the second time. The place is called Cigarette Hill On Anal Mountain. Despite the potentially off-putting name, the place is lovely, friendly, and enthusiastic. I was playing with Spreaders, Valerie Kuehne, and Joey Molinaro (who was doing electric violin and foot percussion renditions of Discordance Axis songs). By good fortune, the former vocalist of Discordance Axis, Jon Chang, a supreme idol of mine in the ways of extreme vocals and approach to album releases, happened to be in the audience. For me, that's quite a big deal. His voice has been the ideal sound of piercing screams, inhuman growling, and general vocal chaos for years >o<
Outside of that, I've been working with Jon of Ultra Death Men on the new Bubblegum Octopus LP, due out Fall/Winter of this year on Placenta Recordings. He will be playing drums (if you didn't already know) on about half of the tracks.
The album has taken a decidedly unusual turn, as far as Bubblegum Octopus material goes. In the process of trying to rework the album for live performance, I began playing more guitar on it. The result is a lot of super shoegazey and skramy parts, with equal parts Mukai Shutoku and Agata Ichirou, that somehow borders on accidental, transcendental psychedelia.
That, mixed with the heavy grooves and d-beats of the real drums, the freaked out, sputtering, glitchy breaks of the electronic tracks, the sometimes VGM, sometimes completely wacky synths, and my vocals has created something particularly unusual and "band"-like for the record.
It was a bit off-putting at first and I thought I was just going to scrap everything, but after rehearsing the songs in full form, I've found renewed confidence in what I'm doing with this. Jon's contributions are extremely valuable and integral.
As for Critters and Milquetoast, I'm leaving them on the back burner. I've foolishly begun writing yet another album in the past few months, but I am going to focus on splits and those two albums before I push that forward at all. I have splits lined up with Kool Skull, Kindergarten Hazing Ritual, Dingle, Watabou, Spreaders, and more and I need to get these things done!!
In future live performance news, I will be playing Ultra Mega Awesome Extreme 6 this Saturday, in Detroit. The line-up is downright sinister. If you're even remotely able to get to this, you really need to. I promise promise promise it will be worth it!
Then in May I'll be doing a really ramshackle tour just to get out of my comfort zone.
May 9th - Winston-Salem, NC - tba
May 10th - help needed for SC or GA
May 11th - Gainesville, FL - The Laboratory
May 12th - Panama City, FL - The A&M Theater
May 13th - I'll play whatever in FL!
May 14th - Orlando, FL - Uncle Lou's
May 15th - help needed for SC or GA
May 16th - Greensboro, NC - tba
May 17th/18th - help needed for SC or GA!!
May 19th - Philadelphia, PA - 8static @ The PhilaMOCA
In August I'll have a longer tour, covering the mid-west and Texas, that may actually feature the debut of a new, two-piece project, but I can't say anymore about that in case I jinx it.
For now, I'm out. I hope there are no obvious errors in this. I don't have the time to proof-read >_<
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
2012 Update
Hey all.
For those who don't know, I've been making much more frequent posts at jazzycattime.tumblr.com
I'm in the midst of an extreme recap of all of my touring escapades, starting in summer of 2009, extending all the way up until this past summer and beyond.
But let's talk here about the future of Bubblegum Octopus and other projects of mine.
All the meaty bits.
Hybegnu's second album (and the first to feature me) is available for download via bandcamp, or for streaming, what have you, at . The album is called SHE-MASK, and it's a bit of a... "trip".
Bizarro prog-sludge-doom, featuring members of Giggle The Ozone, PAK, Time Of Orchids, Ugh God, Scutopus, and Infidel?/Castro!.
Another release, since last update, was that of my soundtrack for a platforming game called Cheeseman. The soundtrack is available at .
It's mighty BgO-ish, but it's not officially a BgO release. What does that really matter though? ;P
Ultra Death Men, by the way, will finally see their two years overdue EP release. We have made tracklist cuts that have made all three of us happy and inspired, and our agenda for this week is to get the mixing 100%. It's very very close right now.
Other than that, you'll just have to see what I put out. I'm tired of letting people down with false hope!
Maybe that's my resolution for 2012?
Don't forget to just follow my facebook page for more frequent updates.
It's the easiest thing right now, eh?
For those who don't know, I've been making much more frequent posts at jazzycattime.tumblr.com
I'm in the midst of an extreme recap of all of my touring escapades, starting in summer of 2009, extending all the way up until this past summer and beyond.
But let's talk here about the future of Bubblegum Octopus and other projects of mine.
All the meaty bits.
Hybegnu's second album (and the first to feature me) is available for download via bandcamp, or for streaming, what have you, at . The album is called SHE-MASK, and it's a bit of a... "trip".
Bizarro prog-sludge-doom, featuring members of Giggle The Ozone, PAK, Time Of Orchids, Ugh God, Scutopus, and Infidel?/Castro!.
Another release, since last update, was that of my soundtrack for a platforming game called Cheeseman. The soundtrack is available at .
It's mighty BgO-ish, but it's not officially a BgO release. What does that really matter though? ;P
Ultra Death Men, by the way, will finally see their two years overdue EP release. We have made tracklist cuts that have made all three of us happy and inspired, and our agenda for this week is to get the mixing 100%. It's very very close right now.
Other than that, you'll just have to see what I put out. I'm tired of letting people down with false hope!
Maybe that's my resolution for 2012?
Don't forget to just follow my facebook page for more frequent updates.
It's the easiest thing right now, eh?
Thursday, September 22, 2011
WAY overdue update
Well, fancy meeting you here, Blogspot. Long time no see.
Admittedly, you've not been out of mind entirely. I've sat down a few times to write something for you, but I get lost in the details, or overwhelmed by the sheer scope of all the things I'm trying to concisely iterate without compromising the integrity of.
But what can I possibly do? There is no way that I could ever, as an author or even as a speaker, convey everything that's happened to me since my last update. My life has been an absolute psychotic whirlwind of emotions and experiences: Things I thought I'd only be able to dream of, falling right into my lap; things I busted my ass for, crumbling in my hands. Moments of unimaginable bliss and confidence; crippling anxiety and sadness; completely unproductive rage. Highs and lows surpassing all past experiences in either direction. Personal barriers and comfort zone inhibitions completely destroyed.
Summer 2011 was probably the most eventful and powerful season of my conscious life.
After the annual music program I teach at concluded, I hit the road pretty immediately, and it was a weird tour. It was over a month long, but I played less shows than I would ever normally do while being out that long. My life at home situation was getting unbearable, and I desperately needed a breather. Not a "get out for the weekend" breather, but a "be gone for over a month and hardly talk to anyone from home at all" breather.
I went to MI, played a prom themed show that was an extension of Ultra Mega Awesome Extreme, with tons of friends, wearing something I'd have worn for such an event, and hung with some family for a few days after, before taking a plane to LA for three super intense shows and three completely crazy days off. I got to play with and hang with some incredible and diverse, mostly electronic artists, including Captain Ahab, NVR-NDR, Kool Skull, Kevin Blechdom, Essay, Cyn Cyn And The Pons, Vyncent Flaw, Wizwarz, 8bit Weapon, Computeher, and one of my closest friends, Yatagarasu.
I flew back to MI after my week had ended, drove up to super North Michigan to play out in the woods for Placenta Recordings' second Mental Spaghetti Fest, with a cavalcade of great music, including Watabou, Kessenchu, Crochetcatpause, Little Mack, BBQ, Free Love Association, Dental Work, a whole bunch more.
After that, I made the long drive to Iowa City, where I played one wacky, awesome show, followed by a week off, to hang out with friends new and old. I was so taken with the city that I've sort of decided to move there at some point. Were my life at home not turning around for the better, I'd be living there next month.
In IC, I actually started a new band, humorously called Piss Fist. It was a particularly angry day, and I was with a great metal drummer and a great metal vocalist... why not start a grind band?
http://bubblegum-octopus.com/Cats/DA%20thing.mp3 (I'm on guitar, by the way)
This is a low quality demo of the first 19 seconds of a song, before my computer died and I realized I had no cable to plug it in.
"No worries, we'll meet up again tomorrow and do full song recordings" we said, not knowing that tomorrow would be a busy day indeed, and we'd not play again together until a time that has yet to happen.
Before the end of the Iowa journey, I took my friend Weaver with me up to St. Paul, MN, where I played a BgO set at a grind/thrash/tech-death show.
For two songs, BgO was a two piece, with a second vocalist. We probably could have benefited from a rehearsal or two, but it made someone very happy indeed that I was able to play Life Story = Fire for the first time ever (I didn't write it thinking I'd ever play live and is hard to pull off, alone, as you can probably imagine).
We drove back down to Iowa, collecting some hilarious Christian extremist propaganda on the way (some of which is still in my car) and we got ourselves ready for a crazy house show.
Before the show, I was inspired to play Discomfort & Laughing, off my split with Dental Work, but I've never really liked the lack of low end and weakness of the drums on that track, so I used my car speakers to write a bass line and make a completely new mix of the song.
My set for this packed living room ended up being the single longest BgO set of all time, clocking in at about 47 minutes. I have no idea how my voice held up for that long.
Two more leisurely days in Iowa before I hit the road once more, for the final stretch.
I drove to St. Louis to play somewhat quietly, to a nearly empty gay bar, but still enjoyed myself.
The next morning, I was mauled by a chihuahua (seriously, the wound is just not healed) before going to Grand Rapids, where I had a bigger, though stoic, crowd of punks that seemed to enjoy my set. None of the fans I expected to show up made it out. Always something weird when I go to GR.
The next night I played a meadery in Columbus OH. The projected turnout was massive, but almost no one showed up at all, save for a friend and a few other fans she brought with her. The guy who helped book me on my last trip through Columbus eventually showed up and, through the most successful and proactive attempt to promote a show of all time, literally coaxed people from the dubstep show across the street that I was more worth their time, and they came/were apparently not disappointed.
As a side note, I'm far from an expert on the subject, but this place's mead is pretty delicious. Just saying. Brothers Jake is the name of the spot.
The second to last show of the tour was in Buffalo, at a cool little art gallery. The set was really awesome, the people were totally enthusiastic, and I was in good company for the night and the following day. Buffalo, by the way, gets an award for most dancey crowd. The house show in Iowa City and the boutique I played in LA were good, but Buffalo did great. It was a marvelous way to end the tour.
Well, it wasn't supposed to be the end of the tour, but Hurricane Irene had her way with my Brooklyn show, making it the second time a natural disaster has influenced a show of mine with Greenlander (last time we played together a rather fatal tornado tore apart the city next to where we were).
There ended up being a makeup show for that, which was the catalyst for a series of really dramatic and powerful changes in my life, but I've been cutting out the overly personal parts and nitty gritty details of this story.
So now that I'm home and have no upcoming tours scheduled, I've just been working on recordings. The Hybegnu album is finally being mastered, and it sounds gooood so far.
Ultra Death Men is in the same boat: severely overdue but at least it sounds great.
I'm also recording the next BgO album, a vinyl/mp3 only thing called "I can't ever know things"
It's not exactly a full length, but certainly not an EP. Why bother classifying these things anyway? It'll be out, hopefully by the end of the year, but I can't make any guarantees.
I'm also diligently working on composition and production of the next true BgO full length, Critters. It's so drastically different from all past BgO output that I've actually included some slightly older, super choice material that no one has ever heard, just to give it a tiny bit more continuity. The songs happen to work with everything I've done for the album anyway, so they aren't just going to be slapped on there, willy nilly.
Unrelated to BgO or projects you already know about, I'm going to be doing some production stuff for a few artists I really like. Recording vocals, mixing, all that noise.
I'll also be doing production stuff for some black metal my friend has written. I guess he wants me to play some of the guitar parts, too. I like working in contexts that make me uncomfortable.
I am also doing a soundtrack for an upcoming, platforming game for the iPad. I'm pretty excited about that.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm pretty beat, so hopefully there are no horrible grammar mistakes or non-sensical sentences.
Take care, babies.
Admittedly, you've not been out of mind entirely. I've sat down a few times to write something for you, but I get lost in the details, or overwhelmed by the sheer scope of all the things I'm trying to concisely iterate without compromising the integrity of.
But what can I possibly do? There is no way that I could ever, as an author or even as a speaker, convey everything that's happened to me since my last update. My life has been an absolute psychotic whirlwind of emotions and experiences: Things I thought I'd only be able to dream of, falling right into my lap; things I busted my ass for, crumbling in my hands. Moments of unimaginable bliss and confidence; crippling anxiety and sadness; completely unproductive rage. Highs and lows surpassing all past experiences in either direction. Personal barriers and comfort zone inhibitions completely destroyed.
Summer 2011 was probably the most eventful and powerful season of my conscious life.
After the annual music program I teach at concluded, I hit the road pretty immediately, and it was a weird tour. It was over a month long, but I played less shows than I would ever normally do while being out that long. My life at home situation was getting unbearable, and I desperately needed a breather. Not a "get out for the weekend" breather, but a "be gone for over a month and hardly talk to anyone from home at all" breather.
I went to MI, played a prom themed show that was an extension of Ultra Mega Awesome Extreme, with tons of friends, wearing something I'd have worn for such an event, and hung with some family for a few days after, before taking a plane to LA for three super intense shows and three completely crazy days off. I got to play with and hang with some incredible and diverse, mostly electronic artists, including Captain Ahab, NVR-NDR, Kool Skull, Kevin Blechdom, Essay, Cyn Cyn And The Pons, Vyncent Flaw, Wizwarz, 8bit Weapon, Computeher, and one of my closest friends, Yatagarasu.
I flew back to MI after my week had ended, drove up to super North Michigan to play out in the woods for Placenta Recordings' second Mental Spaghetti Fest, with a cavalcade of great music, including Watabou, Kessenchu, Crochetcatpause, Little Mack, BBQ, Free Love Association, Dental Work, a whole bunch more.
After that, I made the long drive to Iowa City, where I played one wacky, awesome show, followed by a week off, to hang out with friends new and old. I was so taken with the city that I've sort of decided to move there at some point. Were my life at home not turning around for the better, I'd be living there next month.
In IC, I actually started a new band, humorously called Piss Fist. It was a particularly angry day, and I was with a great metal drummer and a great metal vocalist... why not start a grind band?
http://bubblegum-octopus.com/Cats/DA%20thing.mp3 (I'm on guitar, by the way)
This is a low quality demo of the first 19 seconds of a song, before my computer died and I realized I had no cable to plug it in.
"No worries, we'll meet up again tomorrow and do full song recordings" we said, not knowing that tomorrow would be a busy day indeed, and we'd not play again together until a time that has yet to happen.
Before the end of the Iowa journey, I took my friend Weaver with me up to St. Paul, MN, where I played a BgO set at a grind/thrash/tech-death show.
For two songs, BgO was a two piece, with a second vocalist. We probably could have benefited from a rehearsal or two, but it made someone very happy indeed that I was able to play Life Story = Fire for the first time ever (I didn't write it thinking I'd ever play live and is hard to pull off, alone, as you can probably imagine).
We drove back down to Iowa, collecting some hilarious Christian extremist propaganda on the way (some of which is still in my car) and we got ourselves ready for a crazy house show.
Before the show, I was inspired to play Discomfort & Laughing, off my split with Dental Work, but I've never really liked the lack of low end and weakness of the drums on that track, so I used my car speakers to write a bass line and make a completely new mix of the song.
My set for this packed living room ended up being the single longest BgO set of all time, clocking in at about 47 minutes. I have no idea how my voice held up for that long.
Two more leisurely days in Iowa before I hit the road once more, for the final stretch.
I drove to St. Louis to play somewhat quietly, to a nearly empty gay bar, but still enjoyed myself.
The next morning, I was mauled by a chihuahua (seriously, the wound is just not healed) before going to Grand Rapids, where I had a bigger, though stoic, crowd of punks that seemed to enjoy my set. None of the fans I expected to show up made it out. Always something weird when I go to GR.
The next night I played a meadery in Columbus OH. The projected turnout was massive, but almost no one showed up at all, save for a friend and a few other fans she brought with her. The guy who helped book me on my last trip through Columbus eventually showed up and, through the most successful and proactive attempt to promote a show of all time, literally coaxed people from the dubstep show across the street that I was more worth their time, and they came/were apparently not disappointed.
As a side note, I'm far from an expert on the subject, but this place's mead is pretty delicious. Just saying. Brothers Jake is the name of the spot.
The second to last show of the tour was in Buffalo, at a cool little art gallery. The set was really awesome, the people were totally enthusiastic, and I was in good company for the night and the following day. Buffalo, by the way, gets an award for most dancey crowd. The house show in Iowa City and the boutique I played in LA were good, but Buffalo did great. It was a marvelous way to end the tour.
Well, it wasn't supposed to be the end of the tour, but Hurricane Irene had her way with my Brooklyn show, making it the second time a natural disaster has influenced a show of mine with Greenlander (last time we played together a rather fatal tornado tore apart the city next to where we were).
There ended up being a makeup show for that, which was the catalyst for a series of really dramatic and powerful changes in my life, but I've been cutting out the overly personal parts and nitty gritty details of this story.
So now that I'm home and have no upcoming tours scheduled, I've just been working on recordings. The Hybegnu album is finally being mastered, and it sounds gooood so far.
Ultra Death Men is in the same boat: severely overdue but at least it sounds great.
I'm also recording the next BgO album, a vinyl/mp3 only thing called "I can't ever know things"
It's not exactly a full length, but certainly not an EP. Why bother classifying these things anyway? It'll be out, hopefully by the end of the year, but I can't make any guarantees.
I'm also diligently working on composition and production of the next true BgO full length, Critters. It's so drastically different from all past BgO output that I've actually included some slightly older, super choice material that no one has ever heard, just to give it a tiny bit more continuity. The songs happen to work with everything I've done for the album anyway, so they aren't just going to be slapped on there, willy nilly.
Unrelated to BgO or projects you already know about, I'm going to be doing some production stuff for a few artists I really like. Recording vocals, mixing, all that noise.
I'll also be doing production stuff for some black metal my friend has written. I guess he wants me to play some of the guitar parts, too. I like working in contexts that make me uncomfortable.
I am also doing a soundtrack for an upcoming, platforming game for the iPad. I'm pretty excited about that.
Anyway, that's all for now. I'm pretty beat, so hopefully there are no horrible grammar mistakes or non-sensical sentences.
Take care, babies.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
New project and upcoming albums of all sorts
Those of you following me on Facebook or Twitter are probably aware that my life recently hit a crazy crossroads. I'm not really the type to discuss my personal issues in detail in public forum, but when it affects the music in any way, I need to at least address that "something happened, this is what it's causing"
That said, life has been steadily improving, with some drops in spirits every now and again, but the emotional whirlwind has done a number for cleaning out my head and piling up all kinds of new garbage.
So what's the point of reiterating these facts?
Well, for one, two BgO albums have been indefinitely put on hold: They are the late 2007/early 2008 full length, From The Magical Prince's Mouth (which was going to be a vinyl/mp3 release through Placenta Recordings) and the late 2008 full length, Sparkle Fountain (which is an hour long and was going to feature me on a ton of live percussion and a real drummer on almost every track.)
These albums aren't canned, but it's easier for me to think of them that way for now, just so I don't stress out about them anymore. Unlike the other albums that I figuratively have under my rug, I really wanted to get these done ASAP until the recent changes in my life occurred. They just don't feel relevant anymore and it's going to take another specific set of changes and some inspiring nostalgia to get me over it.
Certainly though, the news is not all bad.
As I said, this has helped me clear out my thoughts and given me all kinds of new ideas.
I've begun composing a new BgO full length... but I'm going to withhold the name of it for now, just in case I change my mind.
Regardless of what I call it, the album is absolutely already the weirdest thing I've done yet.
To add to that, only one of the 10+ songs I've begun writing for it has any chiptune sounds at all, and I don't imagine the number will go up much from there.
Other project news:
Ultra Death Men's debut, Muscles, finally has a projected release of July, exactly one year after we recorded it (hah) and it's going to be a free release, with a limited run of numbered CD-Rs printed. We'll also be recording our second album in July.
Hopefully more shows both local and slightly farther away will accompany the release of the first album.
The Hybegnu album also has a deadline in the July/August timeframe. We're going to all sit down and have a final listening session before final mixes are created sometime this coming month. We started with 6+ hours of recorded material, so it's been a bit of an ordeal. It's finally sounding awesome though.
Oh... and yeah... I have a new project... and it's another solo project.
I know you're inevitably wondering why I would want to do that. I've worked under at least eight monikers as a solo artist (plus maybe some I'm not telling you about) and BgO is the only one with substantial notoriety. People constantly suggest I just keep them all packed together so all potential fans of a given album or sound can be drawn to the same place.
And I understand that.
But as always, it's just a matter of what feels right to me based on sonic content and thematic ideologies. The reasons for a new name have nothing to do with a desire to look more busy or more prolific than I am and I am not trying to just push a bunch of different things at the populous and just ride whichever one gets the most popular until the spark fizzles out.
The aesthetic of this new project isn't even entirely new for me. It's lyrically self-deprecating, blatant, and gratuitous, which was once a c@ staple, but I just couldn't convince myself that these songs fit in there.
It could have been the next "m@ the c@" offering, as I vowed a while ago to put a stop to new solo projects and use that name as a receptacle for all my musical non-sequiturs, but that didn't seem appropriate either for some reason.
This project is gross, and to feel more comfortable being this blatant and disgusting, I felt like I needed to feel completely different.
The best way to do that, I find, is to just totally pretend that I'm different. It's remarkably effective in art, as well as in life.
I initially pretend the project was called "Twat Bitch" because nothing I could have come up with if my project was called "Twat Bitch" would ever have seemed too offensive. In fact, I'd have to work pretty hard to get up to that level. That's a damn tasteless name.
With that facade and the assortment of negative feelings I've been harboring as my muse, I developed these usually slow, harsh, grotesque, industrial/noise/gabber/digital hardcore/whatever songs, comprised mostly software drum machines, hardware noise, digitally manipulated samples, and real-time processed vocals. It's entirely ugly.
Of course, the project doesn't really have that name, I'm calling it "Thing-Worker"
(Feel free to over-think the meaning of that name.)
Here is a sample of what will be on this album.
I expect that a lot of BgO fans will have no interest in this project at all, but I also expect that people who don't like BgO in the slightest will gravitate towards it if they hear it....
However, I have been using this project as a way to experiment with weird things I want to incorporate in BgO, without having to commit to them in the context of a project that has very strict quality standards... so maybe this is just one more of a long series of recent signals that it's the end-o-times for the "nintendocore" fans interest in me... and I don't have a single complaint about that :)
Until next time!
That said, life has been steadily improving, with some drops in spirits every now and again, but the emotional whirlwind has done a number for cleaning out my head and piling up all kinds of new garbage.
So what's the point of reiterating these facts?
Well, for one, two BgO albums have been indefinitely put on hold: They are the late 2007/early 2008 full length, From The Magical Prince's Mouth (which was going to be a vinyl/mp3 release through Placenta Recordings) and the late 2008 full length, Sparkle Fountain (which is an hour long and was going to feature me on a ton of live percussion and a real drummer on almost every track.)
These albums aren't canned, but it's easier for me to think of them that way for now, just so I don't stress out about them anymore. Unlike the other albums that I figuratively have under my rug, I really wanted to get these done ASAP until the recent changes in my life occurred. They just don't feel relevant anymore and it's going to take another specific set of changes and some inspiring nostalgia to get me over it.
Certainly though, the news is not all bad.
As I said, this has helped me clear out my thoughts and given me all kinds of new ideas.
I've begun composing a new BgO full length... but I'm going to withhold the name of it for now, just in case I change my mind.
Regardless of what I call it, the album is absolutely already the weirdest thing I've done yet.
To add to that, only one of the 10+ songs I've begun writing for it has any chiptune sounds at all, and I don't imagine the number will go up much from there.
Other project news:
Ultra Death Men's debut, Muscles, finally has a projected release of July, exactly one year after we recorded it (hah) and it's going to be a free release, with a limited run of numbered CD-Rs printed. We'll also be recording our second album in July.
Hopefully more shows both local and slightly farther away will accompany the release of the first album.
The Hybegnu album also has a deadline in the July/August timeframe. We're going to all sit down and have a final listening session before final mixes are created sometime this coming month. We started with 6+ hours of recorded material, so it's been a bit of an ordeal. It's finally sounding awesome though.
Oh... and yeah... I have a new project... and it's another solo project.
I know you're inevitably wondering why I would want to do that. I've worked under at least eight monikers as a solo artist (plus maybe some I'm not telling you about) and BgO is the only one with substantial notoriety. People constantly suggest I just keep them all packed together so all potential fans of a given album or sound can be drawn to the same place.
And I understand that.
But as always, it's just a matter of what feels right to me based on sonic content and thematic ideologies. The reasons for a new name have nothing to do with a desire to look more busy or more prolific than I am and I am not trying to just push a bunch of different things at the populous and just ride whichever one gets the most popular until the spark fizzles out.
The aesthetic of this new project isn't even entirely new for me. It's lyrically self-deprecating, blatant, and gratuitous, which was once a c@ staple, but I just couldn't convince myself that these songs fit in there.
It could have been the next "m@ the c@" offering, as I vowed a while ago to put a stop to new solo projects and use that name as a receptacle for all my musical non-sequiturs, but that didn't seem appropriate either for some reason.
This project is gross, and to feel more comfortable being this blatant and disgusting, I felt like I needed to feel completely different.
The best way to do that, I find, is to just totally pretend that I'm different. It's remarkably effective in art, as well as in life.
I initially pretend the project was called "Twat Bitch" because nothing I could have come up with if my project was called "Twat Bitch" would ever have seemed too offensive. In fact, I'd have to work pretty hard to get up to that level. That's a damn tasteless name.
With that facade and the assortment of negative feelings I've been harboring as my muse, I developed these usually slow, harsh, grotesque, industrial/noise/gabber/digital hardcore/whatever songs, comprised mostly software drum machines, hardware noise, digitally manipulated samples, and real-time processed vocals. It's entirely ugly.
Of course, the project doesn't really have that name, I'm calling it "Thing-Worker"
(Feel free to over-think the meaning of that name.)
Here is a sample of what will be on this album.
I expect that a lot of BgO fans will have no interest in this project at all, but I also expect that people who don't like BgO in the slightest will gravitate towards it if they hear it....
However, I have been using this project as a way to experiment with weird things I want to incorporate in BgO, without having to commit to them in the context of a project that has very strict quality standards... so maybe this is just one more of a long series of recent signals that it's the end-o-times for the "nintendocore" fans interest in me... and I don't have a single complaint about that :)
Until next time!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Bad Happy is out!
Sorry about not updating like I said I would, that's just how it goes sometimes I suppose.
Well, Bad Happy is out. It has been for a few days.
Want it immediately? Grab it up on iTunes/Amazon.
Want it in it's ultra nice looking physical form? head over to bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com OR come to a show (you can also send me check/money order, just email me)
Don't want it? What are you doing reading this?? GET OUT OF HERE!
Well, Bad Happy is out. It has been for a few days.
Want it immediately? Grab it up on iTunes/Amazon.
Want it in it's ultra nice looking physical form? head over to bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com OR come to a show (you can also send me check/money order, just email me)
Don't want it? What are you doing reading this?? GET OUT OF HERE!
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