I am cats.

2012 Update

2012-01-24T00:12:00.000-08:00

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 a BgO release. What does that really matter though? ;P

As far as Bubblegum Octopus goes, I'm actively recording two things, and I refuse to acknowledge the possibility of working on other things for the project, in the interim.
First is I can't ever know things, an LP (likely a 12") and mp3 release, for Placenta Recordings, that will see Bubblegum Octopus as a two piece, with me on electronics, composition, theremin/noise, vocals and composition, and Jon, of my math-rock band, Ultra Death Men, on drums. He won't be replacing electronic drums, just giving them more edge. There are plenty of glitched out, noisy beats without him, but he's taking it to the next level. I'm very thrilled with how it sounds so far, which is why I talked like a bad record reviewer there for a moment... Although, we haven't started tracking drums. I am sure that will be a miserable process....

I'm planning on doing some shows and a mini-tour with that incarnation of the project, but I don't think it'll be a very common occurrence.

Second is BgO as it always is, in solo form, for a [most likely] digital release called Milquetoast.
The first 6 songs were written in a row, one a song a day, leading up to a very important event in my life, followed by some things that are sonically and thematically related, but written months after. Honestly, it's weird stuff, even by my output's standards, but I also feel like a lot of it is somehow more accessible. I'm never sure how to gauge that sort of thing.

Both of these albums have the project sounding rather atypical. Often slower, way noisier, with harder beats, and even more melancholy and mentally disparaging than Bad Happy.
I swear, the music will get happier again some day!

For that reason, I don't know how many shows I'll be able to do with live sets comprised of these songs. I feel a bit batty just imagining that.

For the record, I know I may have mentioned an album called Critters in a recent post.
That album isn't dead, it's just incubating. These two are more imminently pertinent, and while the two combined trump Critters in duration, it feels easier to tackle two small things at once than it does one big one.

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?

- Matthew "m@ the c@" Morden
(^o^!)

WAY overdue update

2011-09-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

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.

New project and upcoming albums of all sorts

2011-05-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Before that though, I do want to get out "I can't ever know things", 20 minutes of some slower, atmospheric, glitchy, synesthesia intensive, sometimes rocking songs. It's a pretty nervous sounding collection of music... made by a nervous dude, no less.

At some point this year (next 12 months, not necessarily 2011) I'd also like to get out the 2006 album Perfect Life & Other Stuff. It needs a facelift, as not all the sounds on the album, nor the original vocal parts have aged well, but I still stand by this (also a 20 minute collection) as being some of the strongest material I've done for this project. It's also very dancey and often times very metal/punk influenced, so it'll be a nice throwback (There will also be material of this nature on some of the splits I'm doing, but it seems to be bad luck to give those approximate release dates)

Hopefully, some label(s) will be willing to print these bad boys on colored vinyl; mp3s for all the youngins who don't have themselves a record player :3

Oh, and The Kitten's Rejoinder isn't axed, by the way. It's just going to be a different release now. Instead of putting MGITCK on there, I'll be getting more copies of them and putting those tracks on Bandcamp.
For TKR I'll redoing some of the various old songs Sean and/or I made guitar parts for for this past tour, with him playing guitar, new vocal takes that are more like what I do live, and new electronics. As for the rest of the release, you'll probably get Take Control and the Scissor Shock split tracks on there... maybe another thing too. Who knows?

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!

Bad Happy is out!

2011-03-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

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!

Bad Happy: Final update part 1/4

2011-01-16T14:40:00.000-08:00

On the 31st of this month, I will officially have all of the new album recorded! I know it's been a painful wait for some of you (myself included) but I really feel confident that it was worth the wait.
I really think that this is the BgO album you have been hoping for.

Punky, noisy, death metallic, power poppy, and psychedelic guitars, breakcore and IDM-ish percussion mutilation, SNES and x-bit chip sounds, synths of the analog, FM, ROMpler, sampler, and complex software varieties, circuit-bending, pedal chain harsh noise, occasional moments of grind, all kinds of vocals, self-sample mangling, and tons of other things.

I just tried to do an album the way I've always wanted to, without sacrificing anything that wasn't out of reach completely, and I think I've basically accomplished that.

By all accounts, there is no excuse for me taking this so long, but I'm glad I waited.
The Bad Happy I had planned to put out in 2010 was in no way as solid as the one that I will be releasing in the next two or three months.
I basically did not anticipate what touring was going to do to my life.
I'll be honest, I slacked off a lot when I shouldn't have. I have really terrible sleep problems and it can cause me to sleep through times when I could have been working, but sleep seems to be creeping back to my side. I also get really overwhelmed very easily and this album has tons of things going on at any given time.

Not only that, but I'm not just making the music here:
I'm doing my own PR work, I'm getting merch made, I'm selling merch, I'm managing all of my internet presence. I'm my own record label, manager, PR guy, booking agent, merch guy, recording engineer, and producer.
I have no one helping me in this at all, I have no studio recording me, and I'm not signed.

People will give me suggestions, they'll help me book shows, etc. but I'm still fundamentally acting as a whole band, a label, and the entire management team.
I don't even have other members to carry some of the burden (and people wonder why I'm slow with my orders and never do real self-promotion, heh)
It's all very detrimental to the creative process, but I am getting better at it.

Anyway, that all said... I've given myself this deadline and I plan on sticking to it!
Send me your positive energy, magical happiness, psychic pizza, telepathic cat cuddles, and your ESP caffeine so I can be productive non-stop!!

Next update will be after it's all recorded!

- m@ the c@
(^o^!)

FAQ (well, question)

2010-12-09T22:09:00.000-08:00

Recently I've gotten the same question a few times about the chronological discontinuity that is my released and unreleased material.
So, in the effort to bring some clarity, here is what I've written, released and unreleased, with explanations about when they were written:

• 8-Legged Dance Moves (Demo 2005) - written, you guessed it, in 2005. Released in 2005, deleted from the internet in 2006, and re-released in 2010

• The Album Formerly Known As "8-Legged Dance Moves" - written between 2005 and 2006. Most of the songs we re-recorded in 2007 and 2008. Released in 2009, due to some hold-ups with the art and manufacturing process.

• Perfect Life & Other Stuff - A full length album written in 2006. The songs had a different feel than those that were written for TAFKA8LDM. I don't know when I will get to record this, but I am going to re-do a lot of the synths and will be hiring a metal drummer (lots of double kick stuff. I think I know just the guy...)
The title is pretty much indicative of the tone. Life felt totally incredible back then with a few minor setbacks.

• Scissor Shock split - Written and recorded in 2007. An additional track was recorded in 2008 for the download-only release, which is kind of hard to find.

• Dusk/Dawn EP - Written in 2007. I actually started to record these in 2007 as well, but I didn't like the way it sounded and scrapped everything except the compositions.
I plan on releasing it, but I have no idea when I'll get to that.
Written during a very low point in my life, before, and after certain life changing events transpired. Dusk and Dawn represent each of those. They will be released together, but separated (be it two discs, two folders, two sides of one vinyl or tape... etc.... probably not vinyl or tape, don't fear

• From The Magical Prince's Mouth - Written in late 2007 and early 2008, all in the winter time. One song was actually written in 2005.
My plan was to do have this out right now on Placenta Recordings Vinyl, but things came up obviously. I'm planning on replacing a lot of the 8-bit sounds I used with the real thing (be it NES, GB, GG, Amiga, C64, whatever) and making it the closest I'll probably ever have to a chiptune album.
Real drums and guitar parts on most songs have not been ruled out either though.
It'll get done when inspiration and free time strike at the same time.
Depressing-ish album! I was in a lousy place at that point in my life after the events related to DD.

• Sparkle Fountain - Full length written in 2008 when I was going to school in New York City.
I will be releasing this mid-next year if all goes according to plan. Jon has already begun to learn the songs, I've already started taking notes and done some scratch vocals (even some final vocals on one song,) and I've begun to practice my orchestral percussion parts.
Unlike Bad Happy, this album approaches Bubblegum Octopus as a band, instead of as an electronic project.
Think "progressive operatic chip-punk" and you're basically there. A few songs will be breakcore infused like Bad Happy though, and there is one song that's all out TAFKA8LDM style. Like what would have happened if I stuck with that sound.
Still in paranoia/anxiety/ultra derealization land at this point.

• Split with Kindergarten Hazing Ritual - Not out yet, but my songs were written in 2008.
I plan to get this recorded and released in 2011. It's going to be free!

• Take Control (Yatagarasu split) - Written, recorded, and released in 2009.
Oddly enough, this was at a point in my life where I began to "take control" of my circumstances and get out of the year and a half of ultra low-point.

• My God Is The Cat King (Dental Work split) - Songs were written between 2008 and 2010, all the vocals were recorded in 2010. Also released in 2010.

• Weakness Electronics (Watabou split) - Written all in 2010 at the same time I was recording MGITCK. To be recorded in 2011. Might be a free one!

• Split with Spreaders - To be released on Lazy Roar, hopefully in 2011. 1 song written in 2008 and 3 songs written in 2009.

• Split with A Beautiful Lotus - To be released by Robo! Robotica!!. 5 really short songs I wrote between 2006 and 2010. It's quite a bit grindy, contrary to most of what I'll be putting out from here on.

• Clotilde (split with Les Trucs) - Was going to be released by some tiny label, but they decided they were too good for us or something, so I don't know what's going. Written and recorded in 2010.

• Possible Party: Part i - By virtue of it being "rarities from 2005 - 2010" you know when it was written and recorded. It was released for free in spring of 2010.

• The Kitten's Rejoinder - This is compilation of my split EPs from 07 - 10 (Scissor Shock, Dental Work, and Yatagarasu) with three bonus tracks. To be released this year or January of 2011.

• Bad Happy - The songs were originally mostly written in 2009, but 2010 saw new songs get added and almost everything got TOTALLY revamped, updated, and otherwise crazy.
I am in the process of recording and have approximately half of it ready for mixing. Will be done before my March tour to support the album.

• I can't ever know things - Album I am writing now. Harvest Autumn Mind, a song sketch I posted on my Soundcloud, is from this.
While that song is basically a weird cut-up of a rock song I wrote with synths added, most of the album is weird, slower paced, breakcore-ish stuff that focuses more on heavy, busted beats, atmospheric and moody synths and noise, and strong melodies.
I'll be surprised if there are any real instruments on this album that don't get mangled to hell.
I'm aiming for a 2012 release with it.

In addition to these, I have some less defined BgO song collections composed:

• 8-Legged C-Sides - Songs that were written for the demo but didn't make it and didn't get recorded again for TAFKA8LDM. I am not even going to think about this album until I'm either totally out of ideas or hit by some kind of insane inspiration.

• 7&7&7&7# - Tentative name for the B-sides of Dawn/Dusk and Perfect Life & Other Stuff.
Currently a huge disorganized mess.

• White White Winter - Tentative name for a small collection of songs I wrote at the same time as Falcon Breeze (end of 06/early 07) that don't fit in with PL&OS, TAFKA8LDM, or anything else. Will be a free release.
Lonely Pop Disco will be on this.

• Sparkle Fountain B-Sides - Songs I wrote for Sparkle Fountain, but will not be on the album in 2011. They aren't bad, but I don't have the desire to work on them for a while.
I'll probably have a better name for the album than this, haha

Okay, at this point, I can tell what the most likely three things you are thinking:

Response 1: Bull shit! You're just saying all this to look good!
Response 2: Why are you teasing us? What's wrong with you!?
Response 3: How did you let this happen?

My response:
Unfortunately, Number 1, I have indeed composed hundreds of songs.
Not just weird electronic music either. I am an instrumentalist as well and I find myself writing more songs than I know what to do with there as well.

Number 2, my intent is not to tease you, but I do want to get some excitement in the air for the future of BgO and I do want everyone to know that the extended periods of time spent between my releases have not been totally unproductive.

Number 3, answering you is what I've wanted to really be doing all this time... so this may take more than a sentence or two.

It's no secret that I make my music "for myself"
I write want I want to hear, I write what I feel represents me, etc etc etc.
Unfortunately for me, getting recordings that match my standards can be kind of hard.
Even if my vocals sound exactly perfect to what is in my head, I don't always like the quality of the recording or the processing of the signal. It's just hard with the technological and acoustic limitations of my "studio" (Read: My room with a bunch of gear in it) to get things to sound right without a lot of finagling/retakes/etc.
I don't really even have the means to rehearse my vocals much, so I basically learn the songs as I record them most of the time.

Another problem is that my house is chaotic, so recording time is on a weird schedule.

That all being said, for a long time, I was pretty okay with just writing the songs and thinking I'd record them in the future.
Now, it's the future, so I'm slowly working my way through the massive backlog.
Unless you have an awesome studio/etc to let me record in, there's not much you can do to help me. One thing you can do though that really does help is send me positive vibes, encouraging feedback online, and keep on my case (NICELY) about adhering to my schedule.

Here's what I want to get done:

December 2010/January 2011: The Kitten's Rejoinder
February or March 2011: Bad Happy
May/June/July 2011: Weakness Electronics, Clotilde, ABL split, KHR split
September 2011: Sparkle Fountain
December 2011: From The Magical Prince's Mouth
March 2012: Perfect Life & Other Stuff or I can't ever know things

I'm really, really hesitant to post this... but I think this is plausible.
I've made a lot of schedules that I've really messed up on in the past, but I want badly for this one to work.

Oh and labels, if you're reading, take note. I'm going to need help (^o^!)

Busy time of the year

2010-12-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

Hey all, I've been busy as of late.
Working myself mad on Bad Happy, trying to get The Kitten's Rejoinder prepared for release, rehearsing with Ultra Death Men and Giggle The Ozone, and trying to organize Christmasasaurus Vol. 5 as last minute as I thought possible, haha

Mob Boss recording has entered the pre-recording rehearsal phase.
For various reasons, I'm just going to do everything except for drums, which will be handled by Jon of Ultra Death Men. I don't know what I'll put this out on yet, but I'm feeling a semi-free album that will come with all future merch orders is the best idea.

Jayme is not out of the band, he's just too busy right now to put effort in, and because they are my songs anyway I'm going to just record them to kick start things.

I have my Bandcamp page up and running to fill the void left by myspace turning into a complete trainwreck.
Not quite a website, but I'm still working on that.

http://bubblegumoctopus.bandcamp.com/

I'm slowly filling in all the lyrics and some descriptions of the songs.
Nothing important, just some anecdotes about their origins, the recording process, whatever.
I know some people have wanted the same treatment I gave Possible Party: Part i to be given to TAFKA8LDM

Well, that's all for now.
Sorry there's nothing exciting...

...oh wait, just kidding! I have some shows!

Bubblegum Octopus December 30th, Yspilanti, MI @ a house party. Ask me for the address.

Bubblegum Octopus January 6th, North Hollywood, CA @ Hustle House with Monomate, NVR-NDR, Halloween Swim Team, and Vyncent Flaw

Bubblegum Octopus January 7th, Isla Vista, CA @ Biko Garage with Monomate, Treasure Mammal, and Coach McGirt

Giggle The Ozone January 21st, Brooklyn, NY @ Vaudeville Park

Bubblegum Octopus & Pyrrhic January 28th, Sunderland, MD @ tba w/ Watabou

Bubblegum Octopus January 29th, Baltimore, MD @ Hexagon Space w/ TALK TO ANIMALS

In March... I'll be playing South By Southwest, followed by another tour with Yatagarasu covering Texas, Oklahoma, and more on the way back to New York!
More details on that stuff soon.

11162010

2010-11-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

So, here's what's been up as of late:

I've been coughing myself new orifices to cough through on and off for the past month or so.
I have the vocals for a bunch of songs tracked, but progress has been slow.
My ears have been clogged, my head has been hazy, my voice has been malfunctioning, my ability to sleep has been severely damaged, my throat and nose have been full of mucus... the point is, I've had a really hard time getting work done for reasons beyond my control.
I'm hoping that tomorrow will bring better health and that tonight will bring restful sleep so that I can get back on this. My brain is exploding with ideas I can't carry out.

That said, Bad Happy is probably not going to come out until January or February now.
I was really pushing for it to be done next month, but time isn't slowing down of course, and "Flu Season" bested me this year *shakes fist at sky*

Let me take the time to apologize now for 2010 being the year of compilation albums and contributions, split EPs, and re-releases.
At the very least, I played in a good deal of the country, got two full lengths (Ultra Death Men and Hybegnu) recorded for future releases, got one fantastic split of new material out, got 15 of my free releases within the public's grasp, and made substantial progress on future BgO releases.

As far as The Kitten's Rejoinder, I decided it does indeed need some sort of bonus tracks and that I should also do some more work on the Scissor Shock split tracks.
They'll never be up to the standards of my current music, but I want to polish them however I can to at least help!
It should be out next month.

It's looking like the track list will be the following:

1. Unveil: Machine Octopus
2. Soft Sun Spots
3. Zuru??
4. Mr. Yum
5. Rembowave
6. Misconception Superhighway
7. Peace in Pious Pieces
8. Discomfort & Laughing
9. Fire Belly Bravery
10. Enjoy My Home
11. Product Amazement
12. The Fantastical Balloonopus: Sanchtïrl'ynk
13. Digidock
14. Here He is He's GONE
15. Sausage MAXXX
16. This is not Dead Time!
17. Enjoy My Home: Platinum

1 and 2 are new songs (1 being an instrumental intro track I wrote in 2007, 2 being a song I originally wrote for the Weakness Electronics split with Watabou this year.)
3 - 8 are my songs from My God Is The Cat King, the split with Dental Work (which is a fabulous release that you should still try to get, even if you get this album when it comes out)
9 - 12 are my songs from Take Control, the split with Yatagarsu from last year.
13 - 16 are my songs from the split with Scissor Shock from 2007
17 is the new version of Enjoy My Home that I've been playing live with better vocals. I was unhappy with some things in the first version and it was my favorite BgO song up to that point.

While I'm on the topic, did I ever post the revised Bad Happy track list?
If not, here it is:

1. SpazzPop Forever!!!!~
2. Distortion Castle
3. 888 Days Meow Fast
4. Sleep Void
5. Floor of Worlds
6. Tubulidentata
7. Goodbye Light (God's Fake Laser)
8. Betrayal is okay.
9. We ARE Sick
10. Shovel Piledriver
11. Metallic Sheep Nap
12. Feeler than I'm old
13. Beautiful Little Towne
14. Time Zone Proclivity
15. Loud Noise In My Room
16. Resting in the valley forever

End of release news, here's some live show updates:

[Start of Mixed Emotionz Tour. Bubblegum Octopus w/ Monomate]
January 6th - Hustle House in Los Angeles, CA
January 7th - Biko Garage in Santa Barbara, CA
January 8th - Northern California, help needed!
January 9th - Portland, OR. More info soon
January 12th - Seattle, WA. More info soon
January 13th - Oregon. More info soon
January 14th - Northern California, help needed!
January 15th - The return to LA. More info soon.
[End tour]
January 21st - Giggle The Ozone @ tba in Brooklyn, NY
January 28th - Bubblegum Octopus and Pyrrhic** @ tba in Sunderland, MD
January 29th - Bubblegum Octopus @ Hexagon Space in Baltimore, MD w/ Talk To Animals
March - Beginning of Bad Happy tour to Texas! Details as they arrive in the next few weeks.

**Pyrrhic is some kind of proggy, extreme metal band I am doing vocals for at some shows.
I will be appearing on their first album, as well. They are a pretty superb band, so I have high hopes for it.

I did art for the 2007 Fork Sister album, Savory Sauces. I still obviously haven't gotten the vocals done, but at least the art is complete!

I'm also compiling another compilation album, appropriately titled "One-Off Oddities"
It's going to be a little more than me just slapping a bunch of weird crap I've recorded together, putting it on the web, and calling it a night though.
It's going to feature songs by Hurricane Metal, The Cuddle Sluts, I Am A Hexagon, c@ Vs. Peppermint Pony, Bubblegum Octopus Vs. Scissor Shock, Rage-a-holic Tortise, Frame House, Awful Throats, a "m@ the c@" song, Mercury Syringe, a Scissor Shock cover I did as Bubblegum Octopus, and hopefully some new BgO song or something to increase the value.
It'll basically answer all of your questions about my projects that you've never heard (except for the fact that the Frame House songs will be a weird porn groove thing and a melodic death metal thing we did before the band had really found a sound. Not even sure it's fair to call them Frame House songs, in fact)

I suppose that's all I have for you for now.
Stay happy, dearest friends.

Minimum Dollar Boy

2010-11-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

Recording with Hybegnu was awesome, seriously.
Everyone involved had something great to contribute. Their first album was mostly angular avant-noise-sludge stuff, but the new one is nothing but contrast and strangeness, without losing a central feeling of discomforting other-worldliness.
Spastic/atonal math jams, gaunt odd time metal, new wave hip-hop, hideous screeching noise, submarine drone, ambient acoustitronic free jazz... basically a ton of things that the average Bubblegum Octopus fan might not really like, but the average m@ the c@ fan will be totally down with.

I think one of the best parts of the whole thing was the fact that one song literally sounds EXACTLY like what you might expect from a collaboration between Keith (of PAK, Time Of Orchids, and tons more) Dylan (of Giggle The Ozone, Zeehas; 12 Wait, and more) and myself... and I consider that sound to be quite desirable.

I ended up doing bass, guitar with a bunch of my effects pedals, vocals, and a set-up where I had a mic running into my KP3, which ran into my DD7, and I played glockenspiel and slide whistle through it. We switched line-ups for almost every song.

As for a release, I don't know yet. We're doing more than expected with this album, so it might be a while yet.

Bad Happy is still trudging along... eh, well... actually.... it's more like it's jogging at this point, but it keeps tripping over it's shoelaces even though I keep reminding it to tie them.
I basically re-did entire drum tracks for like 5 songs, making them ridiculous elaborate, added some potentially unnecessary synth parts from the Nanosynth, and have been fighting with the frustration of mixing up to about 50 tracks of audio and MIDI per song.

After the grindiest song on the album has it's drums replaced (it's kind of like Falcon Breeze's much more sophisticated and elaborate spiritual successor,) my only obstacles in the way of having this thing done are the vocals for 9 tracks, some guitar and bass parts, some textural palette cleansers, and the very daunting mixing process.
I've got an install of Komplete 7 on the way that was donated by my father, who got it for teaching purposes, and I think Battery may be the trick for the drums on that thing.

I need to get more shirts printed. All I have left is small and girly small o_o;
Money is so tight that it's pretty hard to afford these things. If I get more of the Tubbypaws design it'll probably be the last run of 6 color shirts for a while.
I'm definitely under-charging you all for them.
I'm too nice sometimes (^-^;; )

Oh, I forgot to include this the first time I updated this post.
The Kitten's Rejoinder is actually going to be getting a "DIY style" release through the micro-label that Yatagarasu runs. He's looking to boost it up in scale and to do that he's going to release nothing but quality extreme/experimental electronic artists (I think only ones that involve chiptune elements, too.)
The Kitten's Rejoinder will be packaged in a similar fashion to Take Control:

Hand printed cover on a cardboard sleeve, xeroxed insert, nice disc.
Actually, the cover will be nicer than these (not that I didn't like them) because Chris now has access to a multi-armed screen printing press... which sounds like a good thing, haha

New Ultra Death Men material is being written, by the way, some of which will be audible at our upcoming show...

....speaking of...

Some of my upcoming shows:

• November 12th - Ultra Death Men @ The Clash Bar (21+ show, sadly) in Clifton, NJ

• December ??? - Giggle The Ozone @ ???? in Brooklyn, NY (more details on that soon, I'm just excited to be playing with them again)

• January 6th - Bubblegum Octopus @ Hustle House in Los Angeles, California (first show of the tour with Monomate)

• January 7th - Bubblegum Octopus @ Biko Garage in Santa Barbara, California (w/ Monomate)

• January 29th - Bubblegum Octopus @ Hexagon Space in Baltimore, Maryland (w/ Talk To Animals! Finally!)

Hope those of you that like Halloween enjoyed the holiday.
The weather is perfect for me right now. See-your-breath cold, without being discomforting.
Give it some time, snow will come and then I'll say that's the perfect weather.

Late update

2010-10-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't have much time to write, as I'm on my way to the post office, and then I'll be in Philadelphia for the rest of the week to record with the band Hybegnu and to get some drum stuff recorded for Bad Happy.

I've actually been extremely sick for the past week, so my progress on the album was temporarily inhibited. I'm back into functionality now though, and I expect to know if it will be out in time for January's tour in the next two or three weeks.

Speaking of, plans for the Mixed Emotionz tour are coming along nicely.
A few dates are booked already, but I'm waiting for the line-ups for the shows to be assembled.

The Ultra Death Men album is coming alone nicely as well. Not sure when it will be done though.
We also have a show in Clifton, NJ at the Clash Bar on November 12th. We'll be playing songs from Muscles as well as some new material.

Giggle The Ozone also has a show coming up in early December, somewhere in Brooklyn, but I don't know many details yet.
The new GtO album will actually be out this month and it's going to rule.
I mean, I'm not playing bass on it or anything, but I am sure it's going to be the best one yet.

Fork Sister –making it's first appearance on this blog, I do believe– is actually back to being an active endeavor. Nothing substantial will probably be done this year, but Savory Sauces (the much belated 2007 album) will get some vocals recorded and a free release, followed by new material written with the project being a two piece.
Shows are also in the works.

Alright, time to be on my way!

New Song

2010-10-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

head on over to http://www.myspace.com/bubblegumoctopus
New song from Bad Happy, titled Metallic Sheep Nap

Release schedule (I... really hope)

2010-10-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, I successfully got on here in time for the weekly update. I think this bodes well for future upkeep of the blog.
Because I didn't skip over 20 days of touring, recording, and planning this time, it won't be nearly as long as last time.

Earlier in the year I posted a release schedule for everything... and I failed to meet the goals I set for myself miserably. Between insomnia messing my life up, having a non-distance restricted relationship, and having shows and touring pretty regularly, I wasn't prepared for what this year would be like (not that it's over yet, obviously.)

So, with all of that in mind, here is a far more reasonable, far more realistic (though still very difficult) recording release schedule. I won't make promises, just in case things happen beyond my control:

• Bad Happy - 2nd full length - December 2010/January 2011 (I'm really pushing myself!)

• Clotilde - split w/ Les Trucs - temporarily on hiatus. Solace Media decided to not put it out.

• Sparkle Fountain - 3rd full length - April 2011 (featuring Jon of Ultra Death Men/Palmyra on drums)

• Weakness Electronics - free split w/ Watabou - June 2011

• Split w/ Kindergarten Hazing Ritual - free mp3 release - June 2011

• Split w/ Spreaders - on Lazy Roar Records - Summer 2011

• From The Magical Prince's Mouth - 4th full length - November 2011 (refurbished version of an album I wrote in 2007, featuring Jon on drums and Sean on guitar! Whoa! It's like what really closed minded wangs call a "real" band!)

There are a few other releases coming up, obviously, but I really don't know when to expect them, so I won't post more about them until I do.

Oh, and just so you know... Bubblegum Octopus will remain a solo project.
Sean, Jon, and anyone else who may enter the project in the future will only be appearing as temporary members.
Bad Happy, all of the splits, and the album I am currently writing are all still entirely solo.
Plus, with the exception of some guitar parts and a few drum parts on those albums, all of the writing will still be done by me, and I'll be giving them direction for the parts they write anyway.
Don't fear (^o^!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, as far as Ultra Death Men releases go, Sean is in the process of mixing it again, and the first track sounds pretty great.

Mob Boss is doing fine, but we never get rehearsal opportunities. An EP will happen... eventually.

Frame House, if I haven't mentioned it before, is on indefinite hiatus, unfortunately.
I'd like if Keith made a reappearance into my life, at least long enough to track vocals (not that I wouldn't like to just hang out with him again,) and I'd just do some electronic drums and use the guitar tracks from the demos we recorded to create a pretty killer EP, but for now nothing can be done about it.

The next c@ album just needs to have vocals recorded, but I'm sure you can understand that I'm spending all potential recording time working on Bad Happy right now. Deadlines to meet!

That's all. Hopefully most of this comes as good news!
Send positive vibes, loving comments on last.fm/myspace/facebook/etc to encourage me.
Did I mention I have a website now? I don't have it up and running yet, I just have a domain and hosting space right now, but soon I'll have something really amateur to hold the place of a website until I have someone who knows how to do website crap.

Upcoming tours and such

2010-09-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been 23 days since my last update, in which I said I'd make this a weekly thing.
I'll uh... try to keep it more frequent.
Also, if you use tumblr, I'm going to try to manage this and a tumblr account, probably posting the same things to both, but who knows.
I think my link is jazzycattime.tumblr.com but I don't know because tumblr isn't working at the moment... this bodes well for my relationship with the site.

Anyway, let me bring you up to speed before I bring you the news:

I had some shows in the south and it went pretty well overall, though it wasn't friendly to my wallet at all, and I ended up eating like one meal a day after a certain point.
I played the loudest BgO show ever in Greensboro, North Carolina, had a kind of awkward gig at a bar in Tennessee, attended a frat party in Washington DC, played a pretty cool and very late house party in Virginia, and stayed an extended period of time with a long time fan on the ETSU campus.

That was like three or four weeks ago.
This past weekend I played a show in Sunderland, Maryland that was pretty awesome.
I have some video footage that I'll get up, but the vocals are all ridiculously soft... well, except for the background vocals that I have on certain tracks, so it almost looks like I'm lip synching in certain parts. Irritating, to say the least.
I'm confused by that in general, really, as the vocals were not soft in person, as others have confirmed to me.

I do have these pictures that I can post right now before I get the video up:

(pictures by "Millasaurus Rex")

Anyway, it's news time!

First things first:
I've imposed a strict, day-by-day goals schedule upon myself and I've been pretty good about sticking to it, or at least doing something of equal relevance instead of what's on the calendar for a given day.
I'm shooting to have this out before January 5th.
"Why that date?" you might ask yourself.

Well, I'll be doing a West Coast tour with Monomate from January 6th to January 13th.
8 days covering everything we can on the west coast from Los Angeles to Washington.
We don't have a schedule yet, but we're working.

"What about Texas?!"
Patience my child, I was getting to that.
While it's not exactly happening ULTRA soon, I'm going to be FINALLY hitting Texas in the middle of next year (whenever Sparkle Fountain is done.)

My plan is this:

1. Finish Bad Happy and release it before the January tour (it's going to be hard, but I'm going to do all I can)

2. Come home and begin working extensively on Sparkle Fountain with the drummer

3. While working with the drummer, record new vocal parts, work on innovating the material a bit (It's all going to be totally new to you, but for me the album is two years old right now, so I need to make some small updates)

4. Possibly play shows with the drummer to see how it fares in that situation

5. Record drum parts

6. Release album as early in the year as is possible (hopefully, through a label)

7. Month long tour, hitting OH, MI, IL, WI, MN, IA, MO, OK, TX (multiple shows,) LA, FL (two or three shows,) GA, SC, NC, VA, and MD, as well as possibly a few other places.

That's my plan. I know I haven't gotten everything done this year that I said I would, but I still did a lot, and I'm getting better at sticking to my plans.
From The Magical Prince's Mouth is not coming out this year, as I was planning a while back. Bad Happy just became an insane amount of work and I don't want to rush it just to stick to my plans.

Additionally, all of the splits I've been talking about will be happening in due time, they just aren't as important as getting another album out.
(I'm waiting on art for The Kitten's Rejoinder, so that will happen whenever art exists.)

I have some non-Bubblegum Octopus news that I'd like to update with, but I'll save details until there is some more exciting stuff!

I guess that's all for now.
In the non-music world I've started playing RPGs again...
I've not settled on one to beat, but I'm thinking Majora's Mask and Earthbound need to finally be 100% complete, and Ogre Battle 64 wouldn't be a bad thing to play through again (maybe I can get all of the Zenobians this time...) I've also been playing Super Robot Taisen on my DS quite a bit... I hope none of this distracts me!

Alri've de

2010-09-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I should try to do a weekly update on the blog.
I forgot to get working on the mailing list thing (which would probably just be sent out monthly and before each more important release and every tour.)

Brooklyn last Friday was okay, but I got some ugly vibes.
I often get the "we don't want you here" vibe at noise oriented shows, actually, but it's never that prevalent. (I get them at a lot of shows, really, but in general that's the most common type to feel uncomfortable at)
I had some fans come out for me and had a good time otherwise, at least. I would have been happier to alienate half of the crowd if it was earlier in my career, but I've become kind of sick of that reaction.
Yes, I get it, what I do is weird and a majority of the people I encounter will never be able to wrap their heads around it and appreciate it for the brand of weird it is.
In fact, there might even be someone reading this saying "its not wierd its stupid and your stupid" (let me make it known all of the typographical and grammatical errors in that are intentional.)

What I found funny about the show, is that the happiest I was was right after the show ended and someone tried to get my friends busted for drinking outside (which they had stopped doing already) and the cops were actually on their side. One of them proceeded to talk to me about when he used to tour the country playing piano for a rock band "getting fuckin trashed every night"
It's good to know that in places where police actually have shit to do they aren't dicks.
There was also a Jamaican guy who came up to the group of friends and fans I was sitting with and joked with us about how us (whites and asians) wouldn't have been able to be sitting there like we were a few years ago.
Another unexpected thing: guy in NYC who walks up to a group of strangers that is actually friendly and not crazy.

I got new blue shirts, did I mention that last week?

They're nice!

Looking for an artist to do the next design. I need something more simple and accessible.
Not everyone will wear this. I mean, I personally think that if you have the open mind to like my crazy music you won't have any hang-ups about wearing an ostentatious shirt to promote me and affirm your love, but I understand completely.
It'll be some kind of black shirt with a white design most likely.

I have almost completed the "Platinum" edition of Enjoy My Home for The Kitten's Rejoinder, but I got side-tracked working on Bad Happy, trying to work out my shows and living accommodations for next week, and getting my new car... uh.... whoa, wait, I don't have a picture of it.
Oh well!

Also, I hate to announce new projects before they have completed recordings, as I have done in the past with Frame House and Mob Boss, but I do have something in the works with ex-members of the Iowa based grind/death/etc groups Labyrinth, Sender Receiver, and Ring Bearer.
I won't disclose too much more about it --for fear of jinxing it more than I may have already-- except that a studio is involved, and that I will be handling programming, production, a lot of the composition, electronics, and some of the vocals.
There will be real drums, I will not be playing the real guitar parts, and I will not be the lead vocalist. THAT'S ALL YOU GET FOR NOW!

I'll be playing in Greensboro, North Carolina on Sunday and Johnson City, Tennessee on Monday. Possibility of a Columbus, Ohio show on Wednesday, and some other stuff, but I don't really know if it's going to work that way anymore.

That's all for now my loves.
I will be sure to have that mailing list thing worked out this month, as well as have The Kitten's Rejoinder mastered for iTunes, and some more audible progress done on Bad Happy.

Naked Neologisms

2010-08-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

Sleep deprivation is getting the best of me for sure.
This is my fifth night of proving indefinitely that I have absolutely no circadian rhythm.
First night I got a decent amount of sleep at like 1PM, the next night I got three hours at 10 something, and the next I got maybe five hours, and last night was a normal amount that occurred starting at maybe 7.
I don't know what's up with me, I've been really fucked up in the sleep department since forever, and it got serious after getting back from CA, but now it's just... really, really, really bad.
I just never want to sleep, and then when I decide I want to I can't even get close to it.

On the bright side, I've begun some sort of ethereal, quasi-psychedelic BgO material.
The first is a song temporarily called Harvest Autumn Mind.
Nothing to be said about it that isn't already written on the page I guess.
I've never posted an incomplete song before, so this is a weird experiment.
Well... no, I've posted Paper Punch Out Dreams before as an instrumental, but that was waaaaaay back when the BgO myspace first became active.

The other is a song temporarily called Squid Ink Baptism.
It's based around a three second sample of Ultra Death Men rehearsing, sped up and accompanied by synth sounds and percussion tracks (vocals too, of course.)
It's in the same realm as this song, but in a more panicky, shivering, drug-overdose kind of way, as well as including a lot more weird blown-out sounding distorted parts similar to the random blast of rage at the end of Peace in Pious Pieces.

I'm temporarily calling the songs part of an EP called "I can't ever know things" but I'm sure it's more likely part of a split and that I'll use "I can't ever know things" as a song title.
On the other hand, I really like that stupid "cover art" I did for the Soundcloud page, and it will certainly make it's way to the EP if it ends up not being for a split.

I've also begun work on The Kitten's Rejoinder, the iTunes only release compilation of all my split material, including the Scissor Shock split (re-mixed and remastered,) Take Control (re-mastered,) the third edition of My God Is The Cat King, and the upcoming Les Trucs split, Clotilde.
There will also be a new version of Enjoy My Home, as one of two bonus tracks on the album, Enjoy My Home: Platinum.
The second bonus track is still unknown.
Artwork will be done by Emilio Hasselhoof of Baaddd, Suicidal Rap Orgy, and other projects.

Also, Ultra Death Men played Bar Matchless in Brooklyn on Friday and we got some footage:

Enjoy!

Onwards through the sky

2010-08-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

My trip to California was awesome: I spent time with Bradlea's family, met her sister and hung out in her gaming command center of an apartment, spent time with the four resident cats in Bradlea's mother's house (Orange Kitty, Antwon, Panathinaikos, and Spoilsbury, who actually lives in New Jersey most of the time, but got to go back to San Diego to visit too,) went to Disneyland, traveled around LA, San Diego, and San Francisco, and got enough authentic Mexican food to hold me over for at least 6 months.
As great as all of that was, I am still able to say that, quite possibly above all of that, my shows were the best part... life changing even!

First up was Los Angeles.
The venue used to be called Vlad The Retailer, or something to that effect, but was converted in under 24 hours by Emily Blong into the Broken Velcroe Carnival.
There is no way to entirely do the venue's transformation justice, but here are two pictures from the place to give you an idea:

(I don't know who took these photos, but the entire set these come from is fantastic!)

All of that was hand-made by Emily, and that's just a small portion of everything she did.
It's been since Bubblegum Octopus' very first show in 2006 that I've wished for something comparable to that set-up for a performance, so that in and of itself was really special for me. It's only made better by the fact that the big pink guy in the second picture was apparently made specifically for my performance.
(We took some promotional photos with me leaning on that guy, but they are a bit blurry.)

My set was met initially with some problems... the amount of power strips being used created some grounding issues, preventing my theremin and the rest of my noise rig from doing anything except electrocuting me, so I just disconnected everything and played with just the KP3, my laptop, my mic, and my DD3.

Throughout the course of my set I managed to spill coke on a power strip, have my table of equipment and my theremin knocked the fuck over, and got so hot and tired that I actually had to take off clothing (I hate taking off clothing in public. It's not a self-conscious thing, I just don't like it for some reason.)
All of it was worth it though, because the audience made it probably my best set so far.
To me, having your shit knocked over by an uncontrollable and enthusiastic crowd is a milestone, so I was actually not angered at all by it... unlike Bradlea and a few other audience members.
(Nothing was broken or even hit the ground, so there was no reason for any ill-will, really.)

Here are some pictures Gabe Bautista took of my set:

I guess it was just the combination of factors that made this such a memorable and truly magical night.
The decor, being across the country, the joyous atmosphere, and the unusually appropriate line-up would have been enough, but I think it was the company that made it extra special.
The crowd was full of characters.
Not your typical weirdos and creeps, nor a group of unremarkable fellows with names I can recall; this was a party where almost everyone invited had a distinct personality that could almost be read off of their faces alone.
People from the internet that only existed as messages, comments, and pictures in my mind came to life before my eyes.
Taylor, D. Bene, Emily, Peet, and a handful of other people all felt like old friends or classmates to me too, right from the start.
I managed to be very anti-social throughout the show, as I often am, but I feel like I could have just hung out with all of them without a second thought if they'd asked me and if I wasn't in such a glorious daze.

I think it should be noted that the fact that I'm able to say that about Peet is indeed a noteworthy thing that I shouldn't let go unaddressed... I think enough people know about the semi-sordid past.
There was a time when he would have called me an uninspiring joke and I would have called him another Nintendo fanboy, digigrind wannabe chump, but all past quarrels and ill-will have been resolved and mutual respect and friendship are finally instated... and I love those things!
He really is a good guy.
The same can actually be said for almost everyone at that show, actually (with a few exceptions that probably aren't worth mentioning.)

I dunno what it is, but I just wished the show would have never ended.

It really does, by the way, feel like, between that and the dozens of other valuable connections, friendships, reconciliations, severance from toxic influences, immense life changes/decisions I've made this year, and strides I've made to curb my negativity and cynicism, that I'm transforming myself into quite a better and different person and that I really might have a happy future ahead of me.

Anyway, San Diego was pretty damn fantastic too.
There were a few fans who came for me specifically, including someone who I knew from some fan-art submission, but none of them were the people I was expecting.
Some last.fm users I've seen around the site who came specifically for Nero's Day ended up totally getting into my set, too. I really love the feeling of winning people over, especially those with good taste.

Sam, the guy behind SD Noise and Zsa Zsa Gabor, was an extremely kind host, and all artists played outstanding sets.
Take Up Serpents played a pretty entrancing ambient/drone set, Nerfbau destroyed ears with extremely harsh noise, Mincemeat Or Tenspeed rocked an extremely mental all-pedal/sampler/sequencer dancey/trancey/noisy set, and Nero's played his brand of wacky, sickening breakcore with live drums (the crowd was pretty massive for his set. Apparently SD is his home town.)

I wish I had some pictures or video to show for it, but all I have for now is the awesome poster for the show:

Last night was my first show since I've been back in NJ, and my first local show since January.
An extraordinarily short-notice show in Brooklyn at "Party Expo" with friends from Florida (Lissajou and Strangelette,) and Beta Club Field Trip.
Attendance was small, but the crowd did include chiptune all-star Bit Shifter, friend from the Take Control Tour, Rhinostrich, Dylan Sparrow (of Giggle The Ozone and other bands,) some other friends of mine, and random passers-by who were terrified by or enamored with what I was doing.

The sound guy/girl (dunno who was doing it) was kind of fucking with me I think, which I'm not so cool with, but there were no real problems, just some completely ridiculous shifts in the frequency spectrum (treble being shaved, bass blasting and then dropping off entirely, etc etc etc.) but the beginning and end of my set sounded really heavy and clean.

No pictures yet except for this wacky one with Strangelette and Lissajou, but more will exist!

In other news:
• I have more shows in Brooklyn on the 19th (Ultra Death Men @ Bar Matchless w/ Palmyra,) the 26th (BgO @ Goodbye Blue Monday w/ Xrin Arms and Speak Onion,) and the 27th (BgO @ Port D'or w/ Xrin Arms and Speak Onion.)

• The split with Les Trucs will be out pretty soon on CD instead of 7", and their side rules.
Hopefully mine will match! (out on Solace Media Corporation.)

• I will be releasing the Les Trucs split, the Scissor Shock split (remastered,) Take Control (remastered,) My God Is The Cat King, and a bonus track or two together as an iTunes only album. I don't have a name or art yet, but I will soon!

• The Ultra Death Men album (Muscles) is still being mixed

• I'm in the midst of recording Bad Happy and it's going decently. Send me good vibes so it goes perfectly!!

• Trying to do another mid-west stint in September. I have the projected schedule on Facebook. Help me out!!

West coast, I mean it now... I will be back soon... and in full force.

The Cat's Consfusion (updated)

2010-06-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

I have some updates and some overdue, micro-tour show reviews for you:

Michigan was pretty fun, visited family, got stuck in some terrible storms, and played two fun shows.
First show was Basement414, which was under-attended in comparison to the last show there, but that's okay.

I suffered from some pretty extreme derealization and panic during my set after an extremely long scream, which was captured in a picture taken in the few seconds I showed visual signs of suffering:

It kind of looks like it was extracted from a bad dream.
Too bad I got a speeding ticket after this show
I'm ordinarily an excessively cautious driver, not sure what went down there... never mind the fact that once I drove through Rhode Island at about 100mph.... THAT WAS ONE TIME!

Second show was awesome (it was at the Far House in Ann Arbor MI)
During Watabou's set we received the word that there was a tornado warning (which explained the torrential downpour, sharp wind, and the strange sirens going off when I went outside to get some stuff out of my car.)
The tornado warning was supposed to subside, but it carried over into my set, which was actually a pretty satisfying and tiring set. I ended up playing twice as long as I planned, including playing Loud Noise In My Room, from the upcoming split with Watabou, and Disco Party, which I haven't played in about a year.
Here was the beginning of my set:

I forgot to mention that, for this faux-tour, I decided last second to incorporate my theremin into the sets, and grabbed it on my way out of the house.

After the shows I spent a few days at my cousin's house, doing basically NOTHING.

Now for the updates:
(all track lists are subject to change and variation)

• California Bubblegum Octopus shows
(did I mention that?)
LA on the 29th with Monomate, NVR-NDR, and Brigsley Blong,
SD on the 31st with Nero's Day At Disneyland, Mincemeat Or Tenspeed, and Cheesechasers.
Hopefully at least two more will be booked soon.

• Les Trucs split 7"
To be released on Solace Media Corporation in September.
Two tracks by me and two by them. :)

• Bad Happy
After some time spent without a computer and voice issues, I've finally resumed intense work on this CD.
I'm thinking it won't be out until September now, just due to the complexity of getting a full length CD of this duration as perfect as my abilities and patience allow.
It's now 19 tracks long:

1. SpazzPop Forever!!!!~
2. Distortion Castle
3. 888 Days Meow Fast
4. Sleep Void
5. Floor of Worlds
6. Tubulidentata
7. Goodbye Light (God's Fake Laser)
8. Betrayal is okay.
9. We ARE Sick
10. Panic Moonstrike
11. Heaven Crusher Missile
12. Shovel Piledriver
13. Metallic Sheep Nap
14. Feeler than I'm old
15. Beautiful Little Towne
16. Empathetic Overdose
17. Time Zone Proclivity
18. Loud Noise In My Room
19. Sleep (with me) on celestial hill

• Ultra Death Men CD
We will be recording this on July 20th. We've been working on the songs almost daily to get them sounding tight again.
Tentative track-list is as follows:

1. Murder Burger
2. Rocking
3. Hanging Out With Cool Dudes
4. Pizza Tower
5. Song For The Ladies
6. Orel Herscheiser
7. Dogman Wilson Down Home Country Cookin'
8. Dogman Wilson Piano Lesson
9. Cell Phone Cavern

• Frame House EP
Due to the fact that I play in several bands and tour with BgO, and that Keith plays/tours with Washington Square Park all the time, we've decided that Frame House will revert to a two-piece side project. We're going to record the songs with composite drums (real playing + drum machine + samples + non-drum sounds + other percussion instruments) and release it for free on the internets to build some potential interest.

Hopefully, you loving fans can help push it to all your friends if you like it (you should do that with the free BgO album too!)

• Mob Boss shows and demos
Given that I no longer have to think of Frame House in the context of being a "band" that will play shows, I can now focus on Mob Boss as a full time band instead of a random occurrence.
It is still on the back burner, just because I have so much to do for Bubblegum Octopus and because Ultra Death Men are recording that album, but as soon as time allows for us to work on things we are going to begin rehearsing for a 5 - 7 song EP recording.

That's all for now. Thanks!

Updates 6/06/10

2010-06-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

News time again, do read on

1.) My God Is The Cat King (split CDR with Dental Work)
The new copies are on sale and pretty awesome:
Slimline DVD case, crazy fold-up insert with lyrics to my tracks that have lyrics, some liner notes about the recording, special thanks, and the CD-Rs are numbered in handwriting better than my own! (Complete with a stamp on them that looks like an actual Cat King.)
By the way, if you're still not aware, Dental Work is a truly awesome experimental, psychedelic power electronics/harsh noise/musique concrete/sound collage artist from Traverse City Michigan.

2.) The split with Les Trucs:
Les Trucs are an incredible two-piece electronic band coming from former members of the Germany based band Antitainment. I bought their 3" from Noise Park Activities not too long ago and I probably listened to it about 40 times in a row the first night.
I decided I'd go out on a limb and talk to them and see if they were interested in putting out a split together. Thankfully they were interested and were already familiar with my music.
Anyway, the split is going to be put out by Solace Media Corporation, most likely on colored vinyl 7" and possibly also on CD-R.
I am going to attempt to write new songs for it, but if it doesn't pan out correctly I'll just find some prime-cut material that has no home for this.
Should be about 6 minutes of music from each of us.
We're shooting for a late July release. It'd be nice to get that out at the same time as Bad Happy, but I am no longer making a release date for Bad Happy. No point in rushing it if I get behind again.

3.) Bad Happy
My last blog update was about Bad Happy, and since I've been on the road I haven't had a chance to really do more work on it, however, Inés finished the inside art now, so that's some more progress in my book.
I've gotta say.. it just looks fucking awesome.

4.) From The Magical Prince's Mouth
At the end of 2007/beginning of 2008 I wrote an album driven primarily by sad feelings and extreme anxiety and paranoia that really almost had me "put away."
I've described it in the past on this blog, so I'll skip over it this time.
What's important about it now is that it should be coming out in December.
Somewhere down the line I decided it'd make an excellent release for vinyl and I began planning it accordingly: thinking about what might come through on vinyl and what might not, breaking the album into sides for the LP, thinking about what color the vinyl should be.
Anyway, yesterday or the day before, Placenta Recordings let me know that they wanted me to be their second vinyl LP release (William Side's Atari Party being their first) and I of course immediately thought of FTMPM.
Additionally, there is a song on it that I wrote from the perspective of someone living in 1998 worrying about the end of the world in 2000 that is analogous to a lot of the worries people are having now about 2012, so it always felt like the song should be released two years before that supposed impending disaster and/or spiritual transformation.... for the record, I expect to wake up on December 22nd (or 24th, if you're one of those who thinks it'll be the 23rd) of 2012 and be just fine. I've put in more research on the topic than the average person and I did it in 2007 when there wasn't quite so much hype polluting the available information on the subject.

5.) Split with Spreaders
Not a lot of info on this still. It's being put out by Lazy Roar. I think on "pro" CD-R (i.e a commercial grade CD-R printed up professionally in a plant. They sound the same and look only slightly less nice. There is debate about their durability vs. a regular CD, but I myself have no thoughts on that as I've never witnessed a CD-R breaking more easily than a CD)

6.) California tour
I only have one date confirmed so far, the 31st at Ché Café in San Diego, but expect as many as four shows in LA and even one in the SF Bay Area if I can get it together.
I'll have more details on that posted as soon as I get them.

7.) Weakness Electronics (split with Watabou)
It's still in limbo. Neither of us were entirely satisfied with what we did... blah blah blah, I wrote about it last time. Nothing new to report, just that someone at my show at Far House (which there is now video from) was really impressed with a song off of it that I played live. I've been slowly

8.) Shirt reprint
Due to overwhelming demand (it's a good thing, not a bad one at all) I'll be doing a second run of shirts in blue and yellow! HOORAY!
I'll also have girly smalls since I know a lot of you wanted those.

I know there was one thing I'm forgetting, so this will be updated soon.

My God Is The Cat King

2010-06-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Now you can finally order the 3rd hard copy release from Bubblegum Octopus, just go to my store: bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com
Here is the track list:

Bubblegum Octopus
1. Zuru??
2. Mr. Yum
3. Rembowave
4. Misconception Superhighway
5. Peace in Pious Pieces
6. Discomfort & Laughing

Dental Work
7. Mental Chitlins' (Feat. Emelian Rich)
8. Palace Graves
9. Ghetto Prayers & Grizzly Bears
10. Lysergic Oatmeal/Owl Shift Hustlin'

Also, I put the first album up for full length previews on last.fm (kinda thought they were already)
I'm in the process of doing the same for the Dental Work split.. should be done.... NOW... wait... maybe not yet....

Let's see... oh!
I recorded new drum samples for Bad Happy last night with Jon from Ultra Death Men
and Palmyra.
The cymbals all sound fucking great, and I got all the splashes, muted hits, and grabbed crashes that I could ever want.
I also recorded more vocals for the album, completing almost all of the song Sleep Void.
For those of you wondering, here is the tracklist for Bad Happy:

1. SpazzPop Forever!!!!~
2. Distortion Castle
3. 888 Days Meow Fast
4. Sleep Void
5. Floor of Worlds
6. Tubulidentata
7. Goodbye Light (God's Fake Laser)
8. Betrayal is okay.
9. We ARE Sick
10. Panic Moonstrike
11. Heaven Crusher Missile
12. Shovel Piledriver
13. Metallic Sheep Nap
14. Feeler Than I'm Old
15. Time Zone Proclivity
16. Sleep (with me) on heaven hill
17. Beautiful Little Towne

Track 17 is up on myspace, but it's listed as being from Weakness Electronics, the split with Watabou.
In an act of resourcefulness and desperation, I ended up taking two songs from Bad Happy that I'd completed (Misconception Superhighway and Beautiful Little Towne) and putting them on the splits I was working on.
In the end, My God Is The Cat King came out on the third show of the tour and Weakness Electronics got pushed back temporarily.
Between Travis' dissatisfaction with his tracks, and my own dissatisfaction with mine, it didn't really make sense to put it out yet.
Because of this, I can now put Beautiful Little Towne as the closer for the CD, like it was written to be (or the second to last track, depends how I feel in the next month) and put a song with the working title Floating Black Diamonds back on the Watabou split.

I'm working diligently on this album again, alongside the split 7" with Les Trucs that they want out in July. I think it's going to be 2 tracks from each of us and it's going to be on a label.
(I'm hoping hard for colored vinyl, but that's up to whoever is printing it)

Be safe babies. I'll see you Michigan folks soon.

Free albums: part 2

2010-05-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

The free Bubblegum Octopus album is finally out!
http://www.mediafire.com/bubblegumoctopus

Bubblegum Octopus (Possible Party: Part i)

Bubblegum Octopus (8-Legged Dance Moves [2005 demo])

c@ (oh?)

c@ (copy)

Free albums

2010-05-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

http://bit.ly/cWMi7P

Black Clocks (The Unfair Segregation Of Certain Time-Telling Devices EP)
Fork Sister (Sisters of the Fork EP and Niger EP)
First Aid Squid (Stupid Party Somethingorother (The Four Meows) EP)
I Am A Hexagon (Shape Shifter Mysteries EP)

Tomorrow I should have the Bubblegum Octopus free album assembled too :D

Crucial Blast stocks TAFKA"8LDM"

2010-05-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

In addition to being able to get my first album from my own store (bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com which has shirts and other releases) and iTunes/Amazon, you can also now grab it off of the Crucial Blast Webstore now:
http://www.crucialblastshop.net/

Artists I've performed with (help me fill the blanks?)

2010-05-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

In near chronological order, here is every band that I've played with (as Bubblegum Octopus) that I remember the name of.
I can think of a minimum of 25 bands and projects that I completely forget the name of, but I'm posting this to see if maybe, just maybe, one of you can help me get more on the list.

These bands range from respectable and incredible, to shameful and embarrassing, from MTV popular, to having never performed or recorded before the night of that show.
It doesn't matter if we're best friends or if we got into a fist fight after the show, I'm going to promote you all by name, and I want to make my self-documentation as inclusive as possible:

(I was going to post a link to the myspace page of all of the bands here that have them, but I'm feeling lazy at the moment.)

The Third Degree
Neighbor
Concrete Martyr
The Exotic Aquatic
Family Of Love
R. Stevie Moore
Ogima
November 23
A French Word
Watch Out! Theres Ghosts
Karate High School
Stay For Tomorrow
Yatagarasu
Oxygenstar
Kurisu Bearcub
Disassembler
Chiphydra
Vulturemoose
Facundo
Rotwang
Tony Ness
Vicky's Booties
Rip It Up
Goreaxe
Dental Work
Hug Fucks
Moon Climb The Wall
Active Knowledge
Fart Powder
Exhalations Of The Octopi
Ghoul Poon
Grady Stiles
Cheap Dinosaurs
The Megas
Beverage
Inverse Phase
The Three Brained Robot
Brett Moots
Ian Grover
Rhinostrich
DJ Thanatos
c-c
Keep Bullfighting
Oddknock
Rabbit Punch
Diamonds Guns Gold
Lissajou
Goatslacker
The Orkids
Mr. Blank
Kid Stuff
STRESS
Bowling For Soup
MC Lars
Owen McGarry
Computers At Sea
Br1ght Pr1mate
William Side's Atari Party
Death Factory
Control
Exit She Calls
Animal Style
Disasterpeace
Adamgetsawesome
Rat King
Gape Horn
John Zahorian
Dental Work
Watabou
Crochetcatpause
RedSK
Teh Soup Rebellion
The Night Shall Eat These Boys And Girls
OctavialSilver
Mellows
Seagrass Diov
Anontron
Syphilis Sauna
Little Mack
Mystery Palace
Cadette
Shark Week
The Maw
The Sunshine State
Terrapin And The Wolves
Snuff66
Cobra Kai Dojo

The list is of course always growing, but I feel like after a year of playing shows and touring with this project regularly, and several years before now full of very occasional shows, that it'd be a good time to take a look back.

Also, myspace is fucking stupid and won't let me view old shows anymore to grab line-up lists from... so now I really do need help from people to get this list complete.

- m@ the c@
(^o^!)

Tour Log 2.0

2010-05-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

(re-post from myspace, April 23rd)
The tour is over. I've been home now for five long days, wondering what exactly to do with myself.
I started recording new c@ material, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's kind of hard to write that stuff when I'm feeling so stable.
You'd think after one of the most stressful situations I've ever put myself through I'd have some sort of ultra-inspiration to write new material like I did when I got back from Take Control, but I really haven't felt it yet.

When I left off in the first installment of the tour log I mentioned how awesome Lansing was. Ann Arbor was no disappointment either.
I got to finally meet Eric of Metal Babble/Hentai Cum Dungeon/etc, making him the first Brokecore Records alumni I've ever met in person(!,) hung out with Jay of Dental Work/Placenta Recordings and his girlfriend, Josh of Little Mack/HCD/etc, Nyarlathotep, Watabou and his brother, and a host of people I didn't really get the names of.

The sound system situation was a bit sketchy, so we ended up with a pretty ramshackle compilation of multiple sound systems, and of course, no one was entirely familiar with the 8 speakers and 3 mixers situation... so when problems came up it was pretty hard to remedy quickly.
In spite of this, I only had to get through one song before the sound was repaired to a level deemed acceptable.
The basement was packed (I don't know, somewhere between 30 and 50 people I'd say. It all looks the same after a certain point) and I was quite well received.
Lot's of amazing pictures were taken, and it's always nice to actually get to talk to fans instead of having them run away and leaving only the crazies and the druggies to talk to.
Dental Work killed it (in the good way) and Little Mack and Syphilis Sauna did the same.

The next day I was in Chicago for a performance and an interview on WZRD 88.3.
I played an awkward set on the air followed by an amusing interview. Both of them will be up on the WZRD podcast eventually, and I'll probably be including the interview on Possible Party.
On the way to Chicago, by the way, I drove through Indiana and saw some of the most surreal skylines I've ever witnessed in my life (not to mention a number of Hell's Angels members.)
I don't think it'd have been out of place if I were... say... in Oil Ocean Zone in Sonic 2, but in real life it was just absurd.

After the radio show I went back to Billy's (William Side's Atari Party/The Kremlin) apartment and we watched a documentary on video games, ate some fantastic food he made, listened to records, messed around with some new equipment of his, and eventually fell asleep.

The day after, I drove to Butterfly Daughter/Little Lamp Light's house in Minneapolis.
On the way, I stopped in Wisconsin for food and gasoline.
In the gas station, an avril lavinge-looking girl remarked "darn that Leroy," causing the older, male cashier to chuckle as I exited to pump gas after paying (you crazy folks and pumping your own gas, pah!)
When I returned the girl said "how ya doin' Leroy, I'll take you over here hun"
I don't know if Leroy is some kind of weird slang, a joke I'm not privy to, or if she has a large haired, colorfully dressed acquaintance from New Jersey that she mistook me for... but it was certainly odd, and she made no indication that she actually knew who I was aside from that.

I got to Ash's house a bit late, but not too late to get food and then stay up until 5 playing various video games systems I don't have.

The next morning I woke up rather late and headed off to the Psychic School of Dream Actualization.
After meeting Max of Unicorn Basement and some other people I began to set up.
Cadette, some sort of girl fronted punk band, played a pretty killer set, followed by an outstanding performance by Mystery Palace.

Many people in the crowd were there specifically for my set, which is still a weird feeling for me.
I got up and played a rather disappointing (to me) set. There is footage of the first song, when I was trying to fix the sound system, as well as footage of the last song, when I was tired and worried about the fact that I'd spilled water on my power strip.
Pictures were taken as well, and I'll post them as soon as they are available.

After my set, Gala and all of her friends were extremely helpful and awesome, and carried all of my stuff out to my car (and they didn't steal, lose, or break anything!)

Then Bre and Brent hung out with me for a little while and Bre gave me a sweet painting that she made for me (did I mention that someone at The Crackhouse made me a really killer patch? If not, someone did)

The day after was Iowa City.
All I have to say about Iowa, is that it couldn't have been more exactly the same as what I expected.
Iowa City itself was a really nice college town and not desolate at all, but the highways went through windmill clusters, billowing dust, and miles of nothing.... not that I don't like that sort of thing, I just have a hard time believing such things actually exist.

The show itself was pretty awesome. It was essentially just the run-of-the-mill college party (something I've willingly never exposed myself to before) and there just happened to be a metal show going on there.

Because I'm so tired I'll skimp on the details, but it's of note that I have never played for so many people who were sitting down... but at the same time totally enthusiastic about my set.
Somewhere in the middle, the cops decided to make an arrest across the street, so for a few minutes I stopped my set and gave everyone a group therapy session, wherein there was a role reversal and I disclosed personal secrets, discussed why I don't like Cattle Decapitation anymore (which I was booed for saying... and I do actually take it back because the new album sounds pretty great from what I have heard,) and played with the Alphabet Apple I circuit-bent with the drunkest people there, before continuing my set.

The next night was in Springfield Illinois. It was a frustrating show because my car began acting like a total fuck-up on my way there, and between my tiredness from the tour, that happening, and the sound system being less than ideal I just got into a really weird funk.
Canceling the Chicago show that day made me feel like total shit, but I couldn't risk my car breaking down and being stuck in the mid-west.
It wouldn't be the first time it happened to an extreme experimental electronic artist, so I know the consequences.

(sorry, the details for each night have dropped substantially. I'm actually getting pretty sleepy while typing this. I started this at like 3PM and let it sit on my computer until now... 5AM)

Over all this was a completely awesome tour.
Dates got screwed up, shows got canceled, I ended up with more days off than I'd ever want, and I wasn't nearly as social as I was on the Take Control tour, but I still met some amazing people, hung out with good friends, played some shows that blew my mind, and continued spreading my weird cat loving, absurdist message to people around the country.

I think a majority of the most humbling and some of the most cathartic moments in my life happened on this tour.
I can't believe how many people came up to me telling me that they've been waiting for x amount of years to see me, telling me that they saw god in my set, and even telling me that seeing me live was on their bucket list and they were glad to be able to cross it off.

Not only that, but just playing for groups of 20 to 60 people who knew the lyrics to my songs and danced with me and legitimately enjoyed themselves blew my mind and brought an insurmountable warmth to my heart.

A huge thanks to everyone who I stayed with, hung out with me, and talked to me. It was seriously a huge treat.

Also, a big thanks to all the bands I played with (this list is not complete as I need to find a few names still:)

Gape Horn
John Zahorian
Dental Work
Watabou
Crochetcatpause
RedSK
Teh Soup Rebellion
The Night Shall Eat These Boys And Girls
OctavialSilver
Mellows
Seagrass Diov
Anontron
Syphilis Sauna
Little Mack
Mystery Palace
Cadette
Shark Week
The Maw
The Sunshine State
Terrapin And The Wolves
Snuff66
Cobra Kai Dojo

Extra special thanks go out to Kayla Catraida, Travis Watabou, Eric Metal Babble, the Crackhouse guys, Billy Sides, Weaver, Jeff from Springfield, and last but farthest from least, Jay fucking Watson.

I'll be back in MI and OH very soon...
Everywhere I missed or haven't been to yet, I will definitely see you all soon, just give me some time.

Love and hugs and candy,
m@ the c@
(^o^!)

Tour Log 1.0

2010-04-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

(re-post from myspace)
I don't really have the time and stamina to write a long thing for you all, but I'll fill you in on some news and such.

The tour is going amazing.
I really can't believe how many people have been coming out to see me specifically... it's absurd!
I'm grateful beyond words for the incredible times I'm having 5 days into this and the immensely positive feedback I'm getting.

The first night I spent with Kayla and her three cats... and I mean... come on... three cats! Of course I enjoyed my stay.

After that, I played at The Crackhouse in Columbus Ohio.. and was absolutely insane.
The venue was basically the blown-out, post-apocalyptic buildings you've all seen in movies but never in real life, the crowd was totally into it, they knew how to party like GG Allin, and I almost accidentally hung myself on the ceiling when I jumped off of a table and caught my neck on a low wire.
There was also a surprise break in one of my songs when I unplugged the entire sound system with a poorly placed thrashing, and some surprise crowd participation with a poorly placed foot making it's way to one of my many delay pedals.

I can also say that I have now officially seen blood on one of my t-shirts.
I think that's a landmark for any artist, myself.

(By the way Crackhouse guys, turns out I did in fact have one of your cables but it was hiding in a really weird place. I will definitely mail that back to you.)

The 734 in Ypsilanti was a bit of a weak turnout, but the people that stuck around and did everything from humorously reckless quasi-hardcore dancing to totally freaking out and fighting made it well worth playing.
There was also a recording made of the live set that might be released as a limited-to-25-copies "bootleg" release on Trash-Fuck Net Records.
(I'll be back at the 734 in June for a metal show apparently by the way, so stay posted. I heard there was a lot of hype for my appearance in spite of the meager attendance)

Basement 414 in Lansing was pure insanity.
Incredible vibe, unbelievable turnout, nothing but quality performances, and just an all around amazing show through and through.
I really love playing Michigan...
People knew the words, people danced with me, people picked me up and flew me across the venue, and everyone was just generally fucking awesome.
I even met a burlesque dancer that I'm going to collaborate with, and anyone who knows me knows I really love inter-art-form collaborations.

Definitely one of the best, if not the single best show I've ever played.

It was also all filmed, and parts of it will be visible on the internets eventually.
I was also interviewed after the show for a documentary on DIY venues/culture/music/etc.
At the end of the night I heard someone call my music "cat scratch fever in MIDI form."

Watabou, Seagrass Diov, Mellows, OctavialSilver, and Anontron all fucking killed without a hitch and Dental Work played the single best and most intense noise set I've ever seen/heard in my entire life, and I mean that with 100% sincerity.

Speaking of Dental Work... my split with Dental Work (My God Is The Cat King) is officially out, brought to you by my dear friends at Placenta Recordings.

It's a numbered CD-R in a DVD case, limited to 200 copies.
I might be drawing on the discs, if time permits it, to give it an even more DIY and individual feel, but it looks great and sounds great either way.

Tour Log 0.1

2010-04-07T09:47:00.001-07:00

In spite of immense stress and such, this tour is going pretty well after the first show.
It's strange to play a show where I'm the actual draw as opposed to being an asset.

I'll post something when I have more time to write and more interesting things to write about!

DAMMIT

2010-03-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

The Watabou split was going extremely well. On track, even though it was going to be a tiny bit rushed.
Then I got the news:
I would have to submit everything to factory tonight if I was going to have it in time for my first show.
Balls, dude. Balls.

This does mean, however, that there will be nicer art, better mixing, and professional mastering by Alex again (yay)

I'll write more about this situation later, but for now I don't feel inclined to do so. I just thought I'd get the news out there

Productivity Overflow

2010-03-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

I can say with great confidence that today and yesterday have been the most productive days since Take Control was recorded.
My check lists went from this:

To this:

And the lyrics went from single, clean sheets of paper with text, to four, fourth incarnation drafts with obnoxious corrections and illegible handwriting all over:

What does this mean for you though?
I know you don't all live in my head.... thankfully... for everyone.

I'm a very disorganized person mentally.
Because it's so hard to sift through all the thoughts and keep tabs on the important things, I need to (like many people) write it down.
I used to document my progress in a livejournal that a number of fans eventually stumbled upon, but that eventually became the secondary purpose of the journal as it became social.
What really helped push me through recording TAFKA"8LDM" was the discovery of the "to do" list. At first I was pretty apprehensive because it feels archaic, wasteful, and like the product of age-related mental apathy... but I was 19 years old, and that's only old to the Peter Pan Complexed.

The list ended up looking like this by the end of the sessions:

Oh, and yeah... if something really weird happens and I become famous and I am in need of some money, I'm going to sign this and sell it. I'm just going to put that out there now so that, in the unlikely situation that I become famous, I won't get any justifiable hoo-ha about it.

Anyway, back to my story/update/etc.

Yesterday I spent literally 12 - 14 hours on the splits.
I recorded vocals for 3 hours straight, mixed for about 5 total, and spent around 4 hours on the floor, zoning out and tooling around with different electronics, trying to find something helpful for the process, and probably an hour or more learning guitar parts I've written for songs that I may or may not use.
I learned some helpful things for the future, but all that I really came up with for the splits is how to run some of the synth sounds on the Dental Work split to add analog warmth to the tone.

If you notice, the second list on those pictures is different on the more recent one.
I completely overhauled the track list for the Dental Work split and replaced one on the Watabou split, even after spending so much time with the old stuff.
It sounds like counter productivity, but I was chasing unicorns and dead rats before (I know, that's a pretty contrived metaphor, but it enhances my otherwise tangent filled and moderately bland writing... it's not MY fault if I was born preferring to read recording technique books, instruction manuals, Albert Camus, and articles/documents instead of science fiction and fantasy...

Today hasn't started entirely the same way as yesterday, as there are people around preventing me from getting any more vocals tracked this afternoon, but it did begin with URTURA PAWAA BUREKKUFASTO!!!!!~ and continued with marking even more things off the list, finding flaws and correcting them, more mixing, making a daily priority list, and writing a new Mob Boss song (I need more short cables now for the band though as this song adds yet another pedal to the already very busy pedal rig.)

By the way, maybe your bodies are all different than mine (most are,) but I'm pretty sure that anyone can benefit from a healthy productivity boost with this type of morning. Eggs with hot sauce, blueberry/orange/strawberry sorbet or smoothie with only real fruit, and lapsang souchong.
Feel free to supplant lapsang with green tea if you aren't man enough but don't want to be a total wimp and drink english breakfast tea or whatever lipton iced tea is supposed to be.
Green tea has a slightly more clean feeling to it if it's made right anyway, which has it's benefits... lapsang is about being a mother fucking [Chinese] lumberjack [in the Wuyi Mountains, look it up], punching a hoard of attacking wolves without fear, and loving the taste of drinking something that tastes like it was steeped in a campfire with menthol added.... I swear it's good really though <_<

Whatever, you know what? You probably think beer tastes good and we all know you've only fooled yourself into thinking that because you wanted to feel cooler, so don't even mess with me. I'll lay you out.
Actually I probably won't. I'm not particularly strong, nor has violence has ever sat very well with me from an intellectual/ideological standpoint.

What am I even saying anymore?

Short version:
Recording has gone from "wow, I am fucked" to "YES THIS IS WORKING OUT SOMEHOW!"
I have the rest of the day to be productive, in addition to the rest of the week.

If you're desperate to stay even more updated on today's developments than you are right this second, feel free to check twitter. I might have something for you:
twitter.com/bubblegumoctopu

You can also just check the myspace since Twitter updates the status on there too.
Who knows, I didn't really update much yesterday.
Updating the Twitter page isn't exactly in the front of my mind when I'm recording.

Stay happy, babies.

New homepage for me

2010-03-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

It's a sad day.
After having RPGamer.com as the first website I've gone to when I opened my internet since 2000 (with the exception of when Brawl was coming out, since I set the SSBB website to my homepage in anticipation) I've had to change my home page.
Something weird is up with Firefox and RPGamer makes it freeze (as do a lot of things) and HG101 was the only website I thought made a decent replacement.
I didn't consider the Anime News Network though... maybe.... just maybe...
If you haven't been to hg101 and you like video games at all beyond the miserable apathy that is xbox live post-apocalyptic/military shooters, go LEARN yoself a thing or too, bitch.

Anyway, it's time to make extremely late breakfast and record.
Lapsang and scrambled eggs with possible blueberry/strawberry somewhat sorbet, somewhat smoothie, m@? Probably.

Better than my usual bagel with butter or with lox and no cream cheese (depending on money) and soda.

Jicheal

2010-03-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

What's a Jicheal?
The answer is more obvious than you might think

The answer, is none other than the true King: MJ himself.

Why the hell am I writing about Micheal Jackson though?
I wish I could say it wasn't related to his passing, but it is.

On the day he passed away, I posted a silly bulletin inviting myself to be the new King of Unpopular Pop now that the real throne was empty.
I meant it innocently, but something about saying it made me feel sort of sad inside later.
Micheal Jackson has almost always been an influence on my music, be it just for general song writing genius or vocal abilities, stage presence, and just about every other fucking thing he revolutionized/innovated/etc for everyone else that you already know about.

In the years leading up to his death, I actually became really taken by the thought of a new Micheal Jackson album.
It was an enticing concept. He'd been inactive since like 2001 or so, after all.
I remember seeing him on the cover of TV guide in late 2007 and being so excited... in fact, in 2008 I had become quite obsessed with his music... good timing.

I won't go into too much detail, about how I think he most definitely never molested a child and that he was just crazy and Peter Pan complex-ed enough to think that simply sleeping with a child in his bed was perfectly okay, or how I think he's probably not even dead, just in another dimension taking his career in the only direction it could have gone (I imagine on his way out of the earth's general vicinity he stopped his spaceship just long enough to do some moon-walking on the surface of the actual moon, laughing to himself "heh... moon-walking... they had no idea..") and I won't go into praising him, as anyone with a head on their shoulders understands his relevance and talent...

I will say though that liking him in middle school was a bit problematic as his name was essentially a punchline back then. I mean, I didn't like anything except video game music, jazz, orchestral, and funk up until like 2000 or 2001, but non-ballad Micheal Jackson songs always grabbed my stomach in that certain way that I strive so hard to recreate in my own music with Bubblegum Octopus.
(Embarrassing story, before I knew it was a Micheal Jackson song, I thought to myself that that Alien Ant Farm cover was a song of theirs and I couldn't come to terms with the fact that I enjoyed the songwriting so much because I thought they wrote it.)

I guess all I really wanted to point out, is that what I said was never a joke about his death, simply a weird reaction made when I really didn't believe it'd happened.... hell, I still don't. I'm either in denial or just privy to what he's really up to right now.
I know no one was offended, and I haven't gotten heat about it or anything, I just felt it in my soul necessary to make a public apology to someone who won't know I ever did something that might have been misconstrued.

Did I forget to mention I'm extremely tired?

Behind the video + other shitty show stories

2010-03-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

A ton of you have seen this video...

But I never posted anything about the show really.
So, three years after this miserable show, I've decided to just give some back story.
Why, you might ask?
Well, it's the probably most popular video on youtube of me and I'm constantly forced to be reminded of it all, but, like how much I despise the whole "Nintendocore" fad and the people involved with making it worse, I've never felt compelled to address it because it never feels worth my time.
I figured that I might as well do it now.
I have nothing I feel compelled to work on, it's a funny video that brings me endless shame, and it's really popular (at least, popular for where I am on the popularity spectrum)

So let's answer all of the burning questions:
Why am I just standing there? Why is the audio not matched with the video? Why am I wearing all green? Why am I so miserable and absent minded looking? Why is this video so popular?...
...actually, I can't answer the last one...

So, now that I've roped you in with the inferred promise of scandal and revelation, what did happen almost exactly 3 years ago today?

A very bad show
....

....

....

...I guess I'll elaborate more....

Earlier in the month (March of 07,) a friend of mine/fellow AP music theory student/a middle school crush (no that had no part in this) asked me if I'd perform for a charity event.
In 2006 I'd done one for her church so she thought it'd be no problem to ask me if I'd do another one, and it wasn't!
I asked what it was for and she told me it was for the school's Environmental Club.
I honestly had no idea the school even had an Environmental Club, but I said "hey sure, you're a good person, I like helping the environment, and I know a lot of people have been really wanting to see me live since that crazy band fundraiser show I did where about 70 or more people freaked out, a mini-riot started, and a group of busty females threw money at my feet to encourage me to play more, so let's go for it!"

Now, I'm not a conceited person, nor do I think very highly of myself, but I think putting me on in the middle of the show and putting me rather small on the flyer was the first mistake of whoever was in charge of that part of the show:

Nothing you're unaware of, but generally, you put the most popular band on last so everyone stays, and generally, the band/artist that's actually from the place you're hosting the show has their own built-in following.... so with me being the not only most popular internationally and locally, and being the only one playing that night actually from the high school, don't you think it would have made sense to not only put me at the end of the night, but to also put me on the flyer a little bit bigger than other names instead of much smaller?

No matter, I let it go because I wasn't about to argue.
I was not used to having shows back then, I subconsciously like to self-sabotage, and it was a really really fucked up year... let's not go there, haha

-Flash forward to the date of the show-

Reader: Hey wait, what the, where is everyone? And where is that sound system?

Weird kid that lived on the stage: Oh, that show was a few days ago, you missed it *sweeps*

m@: Err... yeah, they kinda pushed the date forward without much warning to a weird night, so let's go to the actual date now

-Flash backward a few days to actual date of the show-

So, on a night earlier than scheduled; a night with several other events being hosted at the same time, the show went on.
Because I was the only one versed in live sound, I was assigned the task before my set to set things up for the band before me, The E_____ A______ [name protected because they are active again and they are friends of a friend... just know that they are known for being douche bags, play out of tune fake-emo, and the vocalist is a known rapist. Ironically, a friendly promoter in Albany told me they were just as dick to him when he booked them.]

The band came with no apparent knowledge of how live sound works, less equipment than they needed, and expected us to provide them things, and were not too nice about it.
Sorry champs, you're a bunch of high school dropouts with no apparent talent and if you act like entitled fucks, I'm not going to give you any respect.
Anyway, after putting up with rudeness, they played a miserable set of out of tune guitars, excessive use of the word "fuck" directed towards the sound, the band, and an audience the vocalist was apparently displeased with, and generic song writing (or well, they tried to re-create the supposed songs anyway) I was told it was my turn to play.

Now, I won't lie. I was on a lot of painkillers.
Between headache, stomach ache, nerves, and being a general mess of a person that year, I decided it wouldn't be a terrible thing to take three or four times more painkillers than I needed to for the show (I don't know dosages or anything, let's not get crazy here!)

Because older womens volleyball, a girl scouts meeting, and some teacher meeting were all not too into the idea of raucous music being played loud, I had to play a bit softer than usual:
Recipe for a bad Bubblegum Octopus show is any sound issue... volume, unpleasant clipping, weird mixing... volume is the biggest one though.
If I'm not encased in the sound, I don't really feel it as much.
It can feel goofy to jump about and do the weird things I often do when I'm not overwhelmed by the sounds.
Plus.. I was on a stage all alone (I was told I couldn't play on the floor and couldn't pull people on the stage,) not to mention a damn awkward kid in high school.... I don't think that's much of a secret either.

That covers why I wasn't so into that show and why I was miserable/out of it/etc.

Reader: What about the green? It's the most relevant and burning question in our minds!

m@: Well, that was just because it was the environmental club thing.
Nothing exciting.

Reader: What about the audio? You're totally just lip-synching, what a fake!

m@: You know, I've never known. Brian sent me the original cam rip and it was fine, but every time he uploaded it the audio wouldn't match up.
I like that people think I'm lip-synching though honestly. I hate anything that shows how dense people can be, but I also think it's amusing when I'm not in such a shitty mood.

Reader: Ok... Ok... Well, you didn't talk about... uh... uh.... well... WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT?!

m@: Okay, don't hurt yourself. Just breathe slowly, we're going to get through this together!

Let me just say this of the show:

In spite of how lame it was, there were moments of goodness that happened later in the show. That video was taken of the second song I played and my energy increased slightly once I saw how into it the crowd was getting.
I remember some girls (one of which is the girl God's Pink Laser was written about) spazzing out in a way I still to this day have not witnessed at a show, and I really wish people would do something similar, because it makes a lot more sense than anything else as far as I'm concerned.

There was one heckler, but I not only put him in his place, but he apparently didn't show up to school the next day because I embarrassed him so hard.
I don't often have to deal with heckling *knock on wood*, but NJ is a terrible place to play experimental music. And to be honest, he was just heckling me because he wanted me to play a song without giving myself a rest and explaining the song at all.
I used to actually talk about the songs instead of the strange and uncomfortable things I seem to always catch myself saying now.

Anyway, there you have it. One of the lamest shows I've played.
Actually, for humor's sake, let's make a list of the lamest shows in order and post their videos to humiliate me:

1. School of Rock in S. Hackensack, NJ w/ Bowling For Soup & MC Lars, Nov. 2009:

If the bands I was playing don't give away why I might hate myself for doing this (I did it for the lulz, really, but things got out of hand,) the mob of people old enough to know better heckling me because I wasn't Bowling For Soup would have.
If only I was on Warped Tour...
On the bright side, my fans almost got into a serious fight with the dissenters, I got to embarrass them by pointing out that they were waiting for Bowling For Soup to play, and a late 40s - mid 50s parent whose kid I taught in the summer music program happened to be there by coincidence and grabbed some heckler by the collar and told him "If you don't stop this shit I swear to god I'm going to take you outside and break your fucking neck." and meant it.

For the record, I would have absolutely shit myself if that guy did that to me.

2. Sun Radius in Traverse City MI with Yatagarasu and Dental Work, Aug. 2009:
The video was destroyed, thankfully.
In spite of the awesome bill, the sound was awful, the crowd was too high to move, even though they were supportive, and the place was massive, making it ultra awkward to be standing around in not-loud-enough-ness... not to mention, I stepped on my glasses that I brilliantly left on the floor while attempting to get more into my set.
It was a nice atmosphere aside from that. I always like to be with Chris, Casey, my favorite fan-girls from MI, Jay, and his girlfriend.
(Sadly, Yatagarasu's set also got fucked by electrical problems, only making the night worse. A shame my grandmother and parents had to see me live for the first time since that show in the High School at that show)

3. School Of Rock in S. Hackensack, NJ w/ Watchout[sic]! Theres[sic] Ghosts and pop punk bands (Apr. 2009)
This video also disappeared, much to my relief.
The bands were no good, the stage was uncomfortable, I hadn't gotten my live show groove back yet, and there were little boys with crooked hair in the back giving me the finger the whole time.
Also, my plan my friend Luke to have candy tossed at the audience turned into Luke whipping bubble gum projectiles at people who were not enjoying my set.
I can't even begin to explain this show
To top it off, I forgot that I had also left my beloved SM58 on stage and had to sit and watch as a crappy, generic fake emo/pop punk/bad post-hardcore band played a Linkin Park cover using it. I almost killed myself.

After the show, I went to get my money for the show, and some pudgy girl that looked to be in 8th grade asked me "SO WHAT WAS WITH THE [stuffed] OCTOPUS [that you had on stage]??"

*uberfacepalm.jpg*

On the bright side, I met Janelle, sold a bunch of CDs, and met Mike (Kamakaze Kitten)
I also got to sign a piece of notebook paper that was supposed to be a contract that showed I'd been compensated for the show.
(Where was that paper for the BFS show I wonder...)

4. Play N' Trade in Carytown VA with Yatagarasu, Beverage, and Inverse Phase (Aug. 2009)
A chiptune show that had excellent turn-out and decent sound for the small space. The problem? The neighbors decided that we were too loud and, as you can see, we were asked to turn down, leaving the end of my set at a volume so low I practically whispered over it.

5. The Fire(The Firehouse? I don't know anymore, some bar by an actual Fire House) in Philly PA with Yatagarasu, Cheap Dinos, and The Megas. (Aug. 2009)

I don't know where the video went, maybe it exists somewhere.
All I know is that at any given moment I was playing for anywhere between 2 - 11 people.
To make the show worse, they decided to have the open mic AFTER the actual show, instead of having it before to bring people in for the show, so we were outdone in attendance by very amateur and childish hip-hop (I counted over 30 uses of the word nigger in 2 minutes) "funny" folk music, and other run-of-the-mill open mic night occurrences.
Did I mention we had no place to stay and had to drive to Baltimore at 3AM to stay in some blown-out looking building? Life, maaan
---------------------------------------------------

Alright, there you go.
Embarrassments galore.

Coming next time:
Less embarrassing things.

Non-Bubblegum Octopus news

2010-03-11T16:20:00.000-08:00

Sorry all, I know I said I'd do this twenty minutes from the Facebook update, but uh... I got side-tracked by trying to figure out how to record directly from my cassette recorder (I love this thing, seriously) into my computer.

LET'S GO:

Frame House:
FH finally has A DRUMMER! (I don't remember if I mentioned that here... maybe I did) This means that after playing in failed bands with Keith since 2003, we are finally going to be able to record something with a full band AND play shows!
The drummer is none other than Jayme of They All Had Tentacles (and other bands.)
He and I had a rehearsal yesterday without Keith and it yielded some interesting results....
We are still looking for keys and second guitar to cover some of the extra guitar parts, leads, and parts where keith has to sing and playing along is not an option.

Mob Boss:
WHAT?? WHO?? WHERE??!!

Well, as I just got done mentioning before, Jayme and I scheduled a rehearsal but Keith got called into work and I didn't have any other plans...
After doing some noise for fun, Jayme asked if I wanted to play any melodic stuff.
At first I was like "eh... I won't play it very well on this bass, so I'd rather not" (my primary bass was incapacitated for the time being... 6th broken tuning peg in 7 years of playing bass. What did I do wrong?!)
After a few moments I realized that I have a repository of melodic songs I've written on guitar, mostly in strange tunings, and that it'd be a perfect opportunity to try playing the songs with a real drummer as I always imagined never playing them and eventually just recording them with a session drummer or doing the parts myself.
The songs ended up working out perfectly, much to my delight, and a new song was even written on the spot.

After we played through things a couple times (sounding very solid, all things considered) we discussed the future of the songs and decided that the only logical thing was to form a two piece somewhat-side-project-within-a-somewhat-side-project called Mob Boss.

The songs are loud, fast, and noisy, but they have a gooey melodic center.
Hell, there are complete moments of respite from the clangy, blown-out guitars + pedal mutilation and thrashy, punky drums, complete with actual dynamics, but for the most part I guess it's sort of like a real screamo band playing shoegaze songs in their native tongue with a healthy dose of japanese indie, garage, and noise rock in the mix (what else did you expect from me?)
Think Number Girl/Zazen Boys + ACIDMAN + Coaltar Of The Deeprs + Sailboats + Melt-Banana + Discordance Axis + Guitar Wolf + Jerome's Dream + Pia Fraus... or something

It's kind of where I wanted Frame House to move, but now that Mob Boss exists there is no reason to push Frame House where it isn't meant to go.

I see shows in the surprisingly near future and a demo EP in the same time zone.

c@:
Some of you have probably already seen that c@ is on hiatus, but I have been recording some noise for my oldest active project whenever I'm feeling so inclined. The plan is to have a new full length called Rhythm Channel Populous, which will be a sequel to Daring Z-Young Nesyell (no word on the release location), and a split CD-R (or was it a tape...) with I Killed Techno! on Nintendocrash Records.

Ultra Death Men: We have a demo we're giving out to show promoters, and as soon as we have another show we're going to record a true demo/EP/something-or-other right after for everyone to hear.
No word on the release location or format, but I'm thinking self-released CD-R unless some label wants to press it for us.
We have some new material, written by yours truly, and it's sounding superb.
I highly recommend you come to our next show, wherever and whenever it may be.
Nothing but upbeat math-rock, some freeform "jazz," tasteless "dance" songs, and music in-jokes so esoteric we don't even understand them.

Anyway, that's it.
I'm supposedly going to have a bass student and a guitar student again, so maybe they can help me pay for the things I need before the Unpopular Pop Music Fantasies tour....

Unpopular Pop Music Fantasies Tour 2010

2010-03-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

Well, there it is; the tour poster for my ridiculous two week tour to the upper mid-west:
Unpopular Pop Music Fantasies
As you can see on the myspace, details are still be ironed out, and I won't be surprised if Indiana falls through entirely since it's such a mess... but that's why photoshop has layers, eh?

I've been working extremely hard on these two splits:
Writing, scrapping, rearranging, destroying, reconstructing.

At the current moment, these are the track lists for my sides:

Watabou (not yet named):

1. Space Claw Lands
2. Soft Sun Spots
3. Empathetic Overdose
4. Floating Black Diamonds
5. Loud Noise in My Room

Dental Work (also not yet named):
1. Eat Your Breakfast in Bed
2. Shovel Piledriver
3. Zuru??
4. Mr. Yum
5. Valentines i: Paper Cards
6. Valentines ii: YAY FOR PLAY!!
7. From The Meadow of Cats

Only time will tell how many of these are finished or if certain things get scrapped/replaced/etc
Until that time comes, that's what I'm working with.

I actually began tracking vocals for some songs on the Watabou split and almost finished one for Dental Work today. I need to get my voice back into shape hardcore for the screaming and such, but I did pretty well considering I haven't used my voice since the middle of last month and I haven't been using it regularly since summer.

The free release, which will be called Possible Party, is going to be out as soon as possible.
I'm waiting on art, the possibility of some remixes from some very talented individuals, and to see if I can manage to get you all those "bonus" tracks or not.
It may or may not be released before touring.

Texas in June is not going to happen anymore.
I've decided that the heat + so many of my friends coming east + so many bands being on tour, thus increasing the competition + the need to record things = Texas with Polly Pocket will have to happen in cooler weather.

I should be in San Diego and Los Angeles for some random shows this summer though!

That's all for now.
Wish me luck in recording.
Make my voice strong and mighty.
...Give me the ability to sleep earlier and wake up earlier as well....

From The Magical Prince's Mouth

2010-02-22T02:57:00.001-08:00

Anyone who talked to me during late 2007 knew a few key things about me:

1. I was horrendously miserable

2. I was not keeping up with my fans very well

3. I had kicked all of my most dangerous habits except caring about a horrible person I loved

4. The only childish joy I really got came from bottles of Jones Gingerbread Man soda (better than alcohol, right?)

5. School was not going well and I was seriously reconsidering my mistakes and career choices

There was one thing, however, that actually has some pertinence to why you read this blog:

I was in the middle of writing the first set of Bubblegum Octopus songs I was really proud of, for an album I called From The Magical Prince's Mouth.
Unlike in the past, I barely showed anyone my material as I worked on it, so it's remained quite hidden in general.
The songs were written about things as serious as animal abuse, drug induced insanity, struggles with artistic expression, the apocalypse, and finding someone who really understood me in the ways I need to be, to things as irreverent and stupid as complaining about the lackluster selection of spices in my parents' spice rack and learning martial arts from a tomato.

The songs were gloomy as fuck, sarcastically joyous, full of wacky time signatures, and almost all of the synth sounds came from this wild, beautiful and alien sounding subtractive/additive synthesis freeware plug-in. Actually, the company who made it not only discontinued allowing downloads of it, but made slightly less exciting, but statistically more powerful replacements (which I use on almost all of my material) and hid all remains of the original.
I'm baffled to this day by all of that...

There's no doubt the album had flaws, and many songs were left with slightly unfinished programming, awaiting better ideas for production and composition, but in my self-loathing and lethargy, coupled with the birth of my desire to re-record old songs for The Album Formerly Known As "8-Legged Dance Moves", I kind of had to toss the album I'd become so simultaneously hateful and proud of on the back burner, alongside 2006's Perfect Life & Other Stuff, 2007's Dawn and Dusk EPs, and literally about 200 or more songs in various stages of "what the fuck do I do with this?"

By the time I finished TAFKA'8LDM' and got it printed, it was too late for FTMPM.
I'd already begun working on the album I'm still most proud of, Sparkle Fountain.

Now I know, I do a lot of talking about albums that no one has heard anything off of unless they are my close friends or have seen me live on the few occasions I've taken the songs out for test drives... but I guess the point in doing that is to both:
A. Try to defend myself for not releasing anything for the first 4 years
and B. Let people know that even if I totally lose the ability or interest in writing new BgO material, I will still have a massive catalog of unheard material that I can dip into.

Anyway, back to the point.
Because BgO had developed beyond FTMPM, and because I was so bummed out about how I was being represented by material I wrote as a sophomore and junior in high school, I lost interest in making it the second full length.

Flashing forward, I was of course quite unsuccessful in recording vocals for Sparkle Fountain that I was happy with, leading me to scrap vocal arrangements and lyrics all together, all the while continuing to write songs that were slowly but surely moving away from the SF sound.
Thankfully, Chris (Yatagarasu) came along and we decided to do a split for our tour, which gave me a perfect opportunity to forget the things I was so dissatisfied with, and try writing and recording all new material completely experimentally.

It was a perfect learning experience. Taught me a lot about recording techniques, my own abilities as a recording artist, my ability to work under pressure, and that I actually can pull some shit off when I have a hard deadline.

I thought to myself "yeah, I can totally do Sparkle Fountain now," and I felt that way, all throughout the tour... that is, until I noticed I'd wrote tons of new material before, on, and right after the tour.

In typical m@ the c@ fashion, I ditched SF for the new album, Bad Happy.
This time, however, it was for slightly better reasons:

Aside from just needing to release material when I feel it most, Sparkle Fountain is a massive album. It's 22 songs, clocking in at about 55 minutes, and it requires me to go all out:
Vocal parts I have to practice with a tuner and a piano, screaming and growling that will require me to gargle broken glass, not to mention all of the instrument parts I will have to learn to play and, for some, even learn to record (glockenspiel, xylophone, tubular bells, timpani for example.)
I really do think that if one album will epitomize BgO, it will be Sparkle Fountain... but let's not think about it now. I get overwhelmed thinking about it.
(On the bright side, I do often play songs from it live though, and they're getting easier...)

As you can see, I tend to get sidetracked with my work for the project (as well as when I'm writing emails and blog entries.)
My ability to practice and record effectively is far outweighed by my ability to compose new material, and my desire to represent my current self accurately undermines my ability to... well... represent my current self accurately.

Back to the final point of this blog, I stumbled upon From The Magical Prince's Mouth tonight. I began to listen to the songs and I felt this overwhelming sense of elation.
How could I let songs as solid as some of these go to waste?
There is a level of forlornness and hopelessness that nothing I do now can match, and while dwelling on sadness and things like that is not my style, expressing it to get over it and possibly help others get out of it is, and FTMPM does just that.
I listened to the tracks over and over in alphabetical order before I began rearranging them into an actual track list.
There's no guarantee that the one I made tonight will be final, but I'm very happy with it, and I'm really starting to think that I am going to work on recording it.
It's going to require me getting my old computer working again or finding a PPC based Mac with OSX so I can use the plug-in, but I don't think that will be the biggest problem.
The split with Watabou and the split with Dental Work take top priority, but I am going to start rehearsing the songs so I can play them on this tour in April and possibly get them recorded before the end of 2010. It's a Wintery album, but who knows when I'll get it done.

Enough rambling from me.

I don't honestly know how much of this all makes sense, and I don't know how much of it is even worth reading... but hey, I never do.
I'm lost in sleepless dreaming.

Feb 12 and 13 show reviews

2010-02-15T14:20:00.000-08:00

I haven't done one of these in forever!
I remember back in the days when I'd have like one or two shows a year I'd go over every single detail to the extreme.

Well the first show, Chiptune 4: TOGETHER 4 EVR @ The Massachusetts College of Art, did not go so smoothly.
The sound woman was far from helpful with making things loud enough, so I decided to do whatever I could to fix the problem... it wasn't worth it.
I did manage to play like two or three songs with slightly better volume after I basically just said "look, something needs to change."
I met some nice people and some really questionable ones, talked with Facundo, Vicky's Booties, Animal Style, and other people I've not spoken to in a while, and I managed to get myself invited to another radio show (hopefully I won't get electrocuted this time.)

Seems like any time show attendance is over 40, something goes horribly wrong.
*remembers Bowling For Soup show and cringes*
oh god... the pop punk kids.... make them stop.... (T__T

After the show I headed to Kamakaze Kitten's house.
His parents actually let me stay two nights in a row, so thanks to him and his family for that!

The second show went a lot better.
It was in Roxbury MA at a place known as The Asteroid M House.
I don't know exactly if that means anything, but the shows there are fantastic.
There was only 11 people there, but it managed to be one of the best shows I've played, both in terms of performance and crowd/crowd reaction.
(There was even some keyboard solo wankery at the end of Erin Battle by yours truly)

The night started with me doing a really noisy set as c@ (first performance!), followed by a terrifying noise set by the collaborative set of Hug Fucks and Moon Climb The Wall: Rat King.
After that, Active Knowledge played a wacky chiptune set, complete with a crowd singalong/karaoke rendition of some Madonna song I'm not familiar with.
To end the night they had me play as Bubblegum Octopus, and it was met with 11(maybe more, but that's what I saw) extremely enthusiastic people.

I don't care what anyone says.
Playing for 100 people who love you, hate you, and don't care for a well paying show on a big stage is complete shit compared to a non-paying show for 11 ultra enthusiastic people in a dirty, creepy little basement.

People who think that playing big shows is more respectable, better, or whatever the fuck else are full of shit.

(if something happens and a project or band of mine becomes super popular by some fluke, I won't regret saying that, nor will I disagree with myself)

Anyway, there's almost no evidence that this weekend took place, just two lousy pictures from the first night (that I know of) and two pictures from the second night.
I'll post whatever I can find, but don't expect much.

This week will not be terribly busy for BgO. Just writing lyrics, maybe working on some songs, and then doing some more shooting for that interview.

It might be the second Frame House rehearsal with a drummer though, and Ultra Death Men has really been picking up some steam. Three new songs and a bunch of ideas for places we can play music at locally.

That's all for now! AWAY!

Two days later

2010-02-09T02:01:00.000-08:00

If only for just this one night, writer's block has lifted it's cruel grasp and allowed me to produce sounds once more.

As I write this, I'm in a very strange place I often visit on nights like these.
I'm in a place where the smallest details from my day have been bloated, as if by a form of macropsia that exists only in the subconscious, to levels held for the immensely important and critical.

Caring about people and inconsequential situations until I cry... loving people in ways generally reserved for erotomaniacs and the criminally insane.

Anyone who says that drugs are the most powerful tool for leaving the body behind and changing perspectives is a damn fool.

Writer's Block: A 4000 part saga

2010-02-07T19:47:00.000-08:00

I don't really know what purpose it will serve me to write about it, but for the past three months I've been destroyed by debilitating writer's block.
It's a mixture of about 30 problems that I can't seem to find acceptable coping methods for rolled into one slurry of self-doubt and loathing that I've been all but unsuccessful in hiding.

Hitting roadblocks on the way to new material has not been too uncommon in the 10 years I've been trying/succeeding in writing music. It's not something that's uncommon for anyone into music I don't think.
I mean, there are many types of music which aren't exactly conducive to facilitating writer's block and there are certainly artists who have the ability to churn out material at astonishing rates (some good... some... yeah...) but I'd say that, in general, everyone who writes anything has had their fair share of problems along the way.
What is particularly upsetting about the recent lack of developments is that this is the first time in my life I've really had any "reason" to be writing new material:
Look at the "upcoming release" lists I've been posting
I have so much crap I need to get done that I have to check my myspace all the time to remember what all there is.
I have 8 releases for this project slated for release this year and all have to be top quality and perfect in every way I can manage.

It's a tall order for someone like me.
I have disgusting standards for myself that I can never meet.
I have aspirations far beyond my abilities.
I have desires that probably can never be fulfilled by anyone.

The problem is that I don't seem to want to accept it; it seems too plausible to get what I want with tons of dedication, study, and practice.
Now... I don't know for fact that it is all plausible at all at this point in my life, but it sure feels like it should be... and that alone drives me to be quite discouraged.

You know, I feel like "oh, I should be using more of my hardware/instruments/software" or "oh my compositions should be more complicated/more intelligent/stupider/less complicated/have more modulations/have more sounds/have such and such type of chord progressions/should avoid such and such sounds" or "oh I should really be playing some of these parts live/I should practice more" and my favorites "this isn't emotive enough/this is not silly enough/this isn't unique enough"

The problem is that I think my creativity is only best accessed when I'm not thinking so much or when I'm overcome with emotions.
Neither one seems possible lately. I'm a blank slab of no emotions but apathetic frustration and all I do is think about what I'm doing.

My dad and I talked about it (a rare occurrence) and he finished one of my sentences in a way I probably wouldn't have come up with on my own:
It just feels like I'm copying myself sometimes.

The truth is, I could probably go on literally copying myself, subtly reusing chord progressions and ideas forever and no one would notice it like I would.

I won't lie, there are progressions I have inadvertently re-used or only slightly altered in different keys. I think everyone alive has.
It just happens. The melodic tendencies that grabs someone's hearts will always be the melodic tendencies that grab someone's heart... it is part of what crafts a band or artist's "sound" because that's how they are emoting.. you're not going to write a song that doesn't make you feel something are you?

But that's what one of my problems is I suppose.
I've gotten tired of emoting in ways that feel so similar, but I don't always know how to break free of them because it can be unnatural.

Look... I know this is getting more and more pointless and more and more convoluted... and not to mention becoming more and more inconclusive at a disgusting rate, but I thought maybe saying the types of things I've been saying to people around me to everyone alive might make something happen.

Maybe I'll be so embarrassed by the fact that I was complaining about it that I'll have renewed creativity.
Or maybe someone out there will read this and say "hey, I have some advice for ya pal. You just need to _____ and everything will change for ya"

Or maybe I'll just keep getting more frustrated, who knows.
All I know now is that I need to write some new material for these splits.
I hate the thought of needing to use old material... even when it's material that no one but me has ever heard.

What a stupid kid.

Upcoming Release Updates: Part 2

2010-01-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

Alright, I've been talking a lot about my upcoming releases and there's always been some tone of confusion in regards to it.
I believe I've come up with a solution for myself, so here it is:

(Don't forget I have shirts for sale at shows and at bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com. I need to do my best to get everyone who has asked about them over the years to know about them)

I am currently working on writing material for my splits with Watabou and Dental Work while simultaneously trying to record for my next album, doing songs for compilations, and working with Ultra Death Men to get more shows and a demo/EP recorded so people can.. you know... hear some of our written songs, not just improvisations recorded in the othertwo guys' basement with a single mic.

My decision about the upcoming Bubblegum Octopus releases has basically come to this:

Bad Happy will happen when it happens. I'm not going to rush it.
I wanted it out by March, and then April, but May or June is currently more plausible.
Reason being simply that I need more time on them and the Dental Work and Watabou splits are less fiscally involved.

The Dental Work split will be on his Placenta Recordings CD-R label of course, and it'll be standard fare PR release: CD-R inside plastic case with printed artwork and limited to 200 copies.
Unlike other PR releases however, it will be not only be hand-numbered, but each disc will feature unique hand-drawn art by me, Jay, his girlfriend, my girlfriend Bradlea, and possibly a few by my friends.

If you like novelty discs, that'll be one to pick up for sure.
Best of all, because they are a PR release, they'll cost 5 dollars!

The Watabou split is going to be a bit more cost intensive, but it will be printed in a factory like my album was.
I don't know how many copies we are going to do, but based on the song sketches he's sent me for his side it's going to be epic... no, not "epic" like "I live on my computer and love stupid image board websites" epic, epic like "holy fuck, it's like a final boss battle in my ears"
I'm thinking right now that it will be a factory replicated or duplicated disc with a sleeve style case or standard issue CD case (with a spine label this time, I really regret not doing that with TAFKA'8LDM') accompanied by a printed out insert with lyrics and liner notes, unless it's cost effective to have a nicer one made by the plant (it usually isn't.)

I'm also working on songs for the Zathura split that was supposed to be out in March, but because I'm touring in Michigan and Watabou and Dental Work are in MI... and because I'm playing with both of them, possibly multiple times, I thought itd be more appropriate to have those out for that.

In compilation news, I missed my deadline for Nektar Vol 2, but they said I can always be on Vol 3.
I did submit two old, unreleased tracks for compilations that should be out soon though.
First I submitted my track "Rabbit Fun" for Genres Unknown To Mankind, a compilation chock full of quality experiemental electronic music and defunct, sub-par digigrind bands that existed for a few minutes.... but it makes it funnier that way.

That song was cut from TAFKA'8LDM' for continuity reasons.
In addition to being written too late in 2007, it used a lot of sounds that didn't fit the sonic color palette, which was mostly created with manipulated and layered Apple-made plug-ins from several generations of the same program (for some reason the same settings on the same plug-ins sound different in different versions of Garageband.)
I dunno, it was cut for petty reasons I suppose, that probably wouldn't have even made anyone else bothered like it did with me, but I think it was the right decision.
It's just a blast of silliness.

The next song of days past I submitted recently is "Tree Movies" from 2006, for the compilation Fuck Your Speakers on TrashFuck Net.
It started as a First Aid Squid song, but because it broke the rules (I went back after recording the first part) and because it was far more melodic than the other songs, I decided to just make it an ill-fitting BgO song... did I mention that is has no drums?

I had it up on the myspace and Soundclick for a few days, and it's become a hit with a lot of the older fans, but it faded into obscurity. The song basically made it through every track list I made for TAFKA until the last time I worked on it.

Also for Fuck Your Speakers, I submitted a Rew-mi-ref-rots song called "Fifpjiz III - 56" and another multi-movement c@ song called "Suck my Quetzalcoatl/Dead Friends."

Right now I'm about to attempt doing some recording for my submissions to ACL Save The Kitties and Cybernetic Underground.

For Save The Kitties I've written a short, happy song about.. well.. loving kitties.
For Cybernetic Underground I'm going to attempt recording vocals for a live show staple song, Mr. Yum, which was written for the now disbanded SpazzPop Forever!!!!~ EP.

I'll continue updating slowly.
Connecting the RSS feed to my last.fm page has made me feel like I can't just write about any old thing and that I have to keep it relevant to BgO... -sigh- neurosis...

Merch TO THE MAXXXXXX

2010-01-24T23:50:00.000-08:00

So if you read this, chances are you've found out some other way... but in my meeting with Jive! Records Executive Vice President of Promotion (don't ask... crazy, long story) I was told that "MORE CONTENT = MORE BETTER" so... here I am... providing more content so I can be more better.

My shirts... ARE OUT

I wasn't posting because I:

A. have been doing nothing but playing Earthbound, God Hand, and Pokémon Silver in my free time

B. have been working on reversing my writer's block

C. wanted to wait until I had the shirts for sale so I'd have a useful update

D. have been re-arranging and cleaning my room

E. have been wrestling with my equipment and finding a better set-up

But now....
here they are!!!

You can grab them from my store:
bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com

or send 19 dollars (15 for shirt, 4 for shipping... fucking postal service) to:

m@ the c@
P.O. Box 864
West Caldwell, NJ
07007

I don't yet know how much it will cost for international shipping. Pay attention to my myspace and facebook tomorrow for an update on that. I'll fix it here too.

All orders come with a complimentary 1" button, designed by me (at least until I run out.)

I LOVE YOU

General updates (updated... wut)

2010-01-11T12:00:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I last posted, so let me update yallz about the goings ons.
Because I've gotten space conscious on this thing, I will hide it all behind yet another "read more" cutaway.

• As some of you have seen, I've posted tentative tour dates for April as well as some that are looking to be pretty solid, but not yet confirmed (Flint MI, Columbus OH, Bay City MI, Detroit MI, and Minneapolis MN are all in various levels of being solidified)

I would provide a list here of all dates, but you might as well just go to the myspace and investigate the dates there. I will be out and about for two weeks+ and hitting PA, OH, MI, IN, IL, WN, and MN (I hope I did those postal abbreviations correctly. I'm honestly too tired to care too much) with possibilities of playing some slightly different states on the way back.

No idea if I'll have a short run of tour exclusive shirts for this, but it's possible.

• T-shirts are officially being printed as of yesterday.

NEW INFO: They will be for sale on Thursday night unless there is a delay in the mail.
I'll be selling them for 15 dollars as a sale price so I can hopefully get enough money quickly enough to do a second run!

• Pins [that are not 4 inches wide] will exist soon too (maybe 7 days from now in fact.) I did three pieces of artwork for them that are all exactly what you'd expect from me: cute, strange, and extremely tasteless (depending on which pin ;D)
They'll probably just be a dollar each to keep life simple for everyone.

• The Texas+ tour (most of which will be with PollyPocket) is coming along surprisingly well for being so far from when it's happening.
I'm considering going to San Diego, but that adds two more huge desert states of driving through to the tour.
I need to find a logical way to do California before the end of the year.
I don't know it for certain, but I'm pretty confident I'll have a tour exclusive shirt for sale with some pretty amazingly offensive art (offensive like a pink and purple day-glo windbreaker or a shirt with a full color wolf with his face fading into that of a Native American warrior, not like old genitalia or 9/11 jokes)
We'll also be selling the Bubblegum Octopus/Polly Pocket split, which also doesn't exist yet

Speaking of releases, here is the hopeful, updated release schedule for this year (all months are approximate; all splits are for Bubblegum Octopus):

1. split w/Zathura (March)

2. Bad Happy - Bubblegum Octopus full length (March/April, CD)

3. split w/ Kindergarten Hazing Ritual (April, mp3 release)

4. Ultra Death Men EP (May, I hope, CD)

5. split w/ Dental Work (May, CD-R)

6. split w/ Polly Pocket (June, CD or CD-R)

7. split w/ Spreaders (July, CD, CD-R, or mp3)

8. Frame House EP (July, I hope, CD)

9. split w/ Watabou (not sure when, CD, CD-R, or mp3)

10. Coverband Mountain - Mercury Syringe album (whenever we are all in the same room again, CD-R)

11. Dual Feline album (also not sure, CD-R)

12. c@ album (no idea, mp3)

I'm hoping for the best this year.
My only new year's resolution was to go on at least two tours this year and to release 10 things.
SEND POSITIVE VIBES AND ENERGY FOR ME TO FEAST UPON

Tour news+

2010-01-04T01:11:00.000-08:00

So a few years ago, I thought it'd be impossible for me to book tours and such, but 2009 brought me the ability and time to finally get out of my shell and see the entire east coast, as well as some random shows in Massachusetts and Michigan.
It was the perfect way to break myself of my long standing misconceptions about my mental stability in such situations and proved to me that I would be okay in such a situation for a longer period of time.

So I have for you all two potential tours for 2010 lined up at the moment + room for at least one more + satellite shows:

So first thing's first... April.
If my album recording schedule goes as planned, I'd like to be touring some random states in the mid-west.
MI, OH, IL, MN, PA, and a few others hopefully.
Any show connections in that sort of area + others will help me infinitely!

After that....

I promised yallz a visit to the West Coast, did I not?
(I did)

So what have I gone and done?
Well, I've joined forces with Polly Pocket and together we are going to book a tour through Texas + who knows where else for June.
She used to book a plethora of shows back a few years apparently, so she brings quite a powerful force to the "team."
We'll be recorded a split of some kind to be released in CD or CD-R format to help support the tour. Probably 3 new songs from each of us and one - three collaborative tracks.

My plan is to find a path from Jersey to Texas that makes sense and can be done in 3 - 5 days, do like 7 or 8 shows in Texas and maybe Arizona if time allows it with Polly Pocket, and then tour my way back to NJ in 2 - 4 days alone to get home in time for my Summer teaching job.

The reason I won't continue to California yet is just a matter of time constraints.
I'm also basing my ability to stay healthy on how long I lasted for Take Control '09 before I started to notice general problems setting in frequently.

Will I be in California? You better believe it.
I'm going to have to figure some stuff out and make actual connections there for it to work.
I any of you that read this have ANY solid CA connections, please let me know. I need them desperately!!!

By the way, Canada is looking to be quite probable for the near future. Zathura (who I am also doing a split with, but you knew that already) have offered their services to hook me up with some shows in their area.

-----------------------------------
Last Monday's show in Lansing was killer. A lot of people left that I think would have enjoyed my set, as they were put off by the noise sets before me... but to be honest, if people are going to be put off by a little harsh noise so much that they'd leave the venue, I probably don't want them dancing with me anyway :D

Met a lot of cool people. I hopefully won't forget the particulars... Emily (who prints stuff), Mike (who I think reads this thing!), Travis (Watabou, who I featured on Christmasasaurus Vol 4), Billy (William Sides Atari Party), the secondary guy in Dental Work (can't remember his name...), and Anontron kid (I forget his name too, shit!)
I also saw Danielle, her sister Candis, and some of their friends, who drove five hours to see me in Traverse City for the first show of the summer tour (jesus!)
I'm going to try to play for Candis' birthday in April actually... but more on that when it is actually happening or not.

Tonight's show in Montclair was unfortunately not quite as nice.
It was actually a well attended show and people were loving it, but the house sound system had a weird compression setting on it so my high end got shaved and it sounded like dirty water.
It made me sad. I am pretty sick but I was starting to get into it until that happened.
To make it worse, the crowd was full of Verona residents, some of my friends, some fans I've seen before, and people who had never heard of me before that were just like (@O@~!!!!!!! in reaction to my set-up and sound.
I wish I could have given them a proper performance, but I basically spent the whole set playing my songs while trying to remedy the situation (in vain.)
It made for a humorous event at least, what with me being back to not moving around on stage much.
I actually got my two favorite reactions at the show:

1. FUCK YEAH!!!! (^O^!!!!!) *fist pump*
2. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON, I'M SCARED D:<<

There was one awesome couple in particular actually...
The girl was totally appalled and offended, as if I'd violated her sensibilities as a human. She allegedly literally said "what is this, is this even music??" while I overheard her boyfriend shouting things like "What is going on here? This is fucking awesome!!"

I was invited back by the two main promoters for the venue though, so next time I can deliver a proper performance by fixing the sound issues and possibly bringing some PA speakers of my own if I have them by then. *crosses fingers*
---------------------------

Anyway, I'm going to be off to try to get some rest.
I got some new pictures from Massachusetts that I posted two of on myspace and I have to say they are two of my new favorite pictures of myself!
I'll have some pictures of tonight, Hackensack, and Lansing soon I hope, and I can share them with the planet.
For now... I sleep.
First time in many months I haven't had any shows coming up, and while I feel aimless, I feel very much relaxed.

More release CRAP (Now includes open invititation comp news)

2009-12-22T00:42:00.001-08:00

Alright, so some of you may have seen that I dropped the ball with the Best Of Christmas (NOT) compilation volume 3.
I just wasn't pleased with the songs I was working on, and the snow storm we had made me not feel safe driving to Bradlea's apartment, where I would have had actual quiet during the day.

That being said, I'm passively working on my song for Nektar Volume 2.
I want it to work, but it's a very conceptual compilation that makes me want to write a very certain kind of song that doesn't exactly just spring out of the ground on command.

However, if you're shouting at your screens (all... four... of you...???) about how I'm being lame and not releasing things when I said I would (again,) there is still hope to satiate your hunger for unreleased or new musics.

Colors Killing Numbers was assembling a compilation a while ago... It was called something with "Genres Unknown" in the title.
It included some digigrind artists, Giggle The Ozone, Strangelette, Scissor Shock, a hip-hop guy, and some other things I forget.
I agreed to do a song for BgO, c@, and FS, and I wrote one song for each.

I recorded the c@ song and submitted it pretty quickly.
The FS song got guitar recording done, but no vocals.
The BgO song kept going from being one song to being another, etc etc etc..

CKN said he wanted to wait for all of my tracks, but after however many months I was unable to record it (first I had to do the Yatagarasu split, then the tour, and then all of whatever the hell all I've been doing since then) he decided to tell me today that his compilation was dead.
This jogged my memory of the thing and I rushed for ideas.

The short version is this:
I took an unreleased track called "Rabbit Fun" that I wrote and recorded in 2007.

The long version:
I took an unreleased track called Rabbit Fun that I wrote and recorded in 2007.
I don't know why I recorded it, but I've had it sitting around, waiting to be on the 8-Legged B-Sides album.
It's short and chaotic, and if I had the ability to get the back-up disc into this computer I'd master the song properly, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

I initially wouldn't have released it on a compilation because I was planning on doing the 8-Legged B-Sides album, but that's no longer some I plan on doing.

I've long been fascinated with unreleased/rarities compilations from a single artist.
For example... Scissor Shock have one on Placenta Recordings (with another on the way,) Melt-Banana have their 13" Hedgehogs album, and Atari Teenage Riot have that Redefine The Enemy album that came in a tin case... so I said to myself recently "3 of my favorite artists have compilation albums... why the fuck can't I??"

That compilation album will not happen for a while yet, but it will include everything I've done that has not made it's way to a disc.
If I sell out of Take Control albums, I might even put my material from that on there.
The comp will include the demo songs, old versions of songs that were on the album but not on the demo, compilation tracks, and the re-recordings of the demo songs that I promise, along with whatever else comes up between now and then.

Anyway, back to the point...

For the upcoming compilation (which I will know the name of soon) I have two tracks submitted:

Boring City's Finest - c@
Rabbit Fun - Bubblegum Octopus

ALSO
There is an open invitation compilation coming out on Trash Fuck Records called Fuck Your Speakers.
I don't know if that means to disregard your speakers or to engage in coitus with them, but either way you know that it will be cacophonous.

The comp was being assembled by Sakura Pups alone, but RedSK's label Trash Fuck got involved and now it's this whole big thing...
Anyway, the basis of the compilation would appear to be the following:

• More songs than you can handle
• All songs unusual and/or chaotic and/or alienating and/or avant-garde and/or generic outsider and/or something else
• ANYONE can take part
• EVERYONE should take part

Perhaps you have a song that you don't have desire to put on release, but don't want to throw out.

Perhaps there is a song you really think represents yourself well and you'd like to get it to a wider audience than just whoever happens to hear you on myspace.

Perhaps you want to make your discography longer.

As long as it's an exclusive song to the compilation at the time of the release, as long as it's under 6 minutes, and as long as it doesn't explicitly harass any of the artists on the compilation with malicious intent, you're already approved.
(Actually, I think songs with generic sounding auto-tune vocals or any amount of "crunkness" involved are not acceptable either, but I don't know for sure)

Just send it to Sakura Pups, RedSK/Trash Fuck, or even to myself (even though I have no real part in organizing it) and it'll get to the right place.

I've submitted a Rew-mi-ref-rots track and I intend to at least do a c@ song.
Bubblegum Octopus, Fork Sister, Dual Feline (more info on this band soon) and others have not been ruled out though.

Okay, that's all! I hope to see some of you lovelies on the 28th.
I haven't been practicing, but I will still bring the noise!!

Go life!

2009-12-20T15:03:00.000-08:00

I have good news and bad news.
Let's start with bad.

I will not have shirts done in time for Lansing.
This is extremely disappointing of course, and to a lot of people who were asking me for them, but I will at least have them done in January at the least.... hey, it's not as bad as how many times the album got delayed by things out of my control....

Other bad news, I will not be able to record a track for Best Of Christmas (NOT) Vol. 3
I worked on a few tracks as potential songs for it, but I hate all of them now and the snowstorm has made it impossible to get to Bradlea's apartment, the only place I'd be able to record anything.

Now good news time!

So it's Christmas time, right?
"...yes m@... we get it. You like Christmas"
No no no... that's not what I was going to say... I just...
-sigh- anyway...
Well, because it's Christmas, and because my dad is the area coordinator of music in my town's school district, and because I teach in the summer music program every year, I am basically obligated to attend the yearly "holiday concert," as well as just about every other concert hosted by the schools.

Usually they are met with the same sort of things... I see one or two of the Ultra Death Men brothers standing in the back, I see some teachers that remember me fondly, I see a parent or two, maybe a student (current or past) that I was friendly with but didn't talk to much...
This time however I was met with a slightly different sequence of events.
It started typically, I sat in the back and saw Sean and Jon, along with some other people who teach at the summer program, I glared angrily every time some idiot walked in the door during performance portions of the concert and then let the door slam behind them...

However, as intermission began, a weathered, grey eyed man in his 40s or so grabbed me by the shoulders, looked me right in the eyes, shook me a bit and said "hey, don't listen to anything they say. Just don't listen to them"
Completely bewildered and disarmed, I looked all over his face looking for the slightest bit of semblance to someone I had ever spoken to.
When none was found I began wondering about the outcome "murderer? drunk? crazy person?"
Before my brain got too carried away he stated "the hecklers. Bowling For Soup? I was there *insert date* for that. Don't listen to them, they don't know what the fuck they're talking about"

My response was nervous laughter, relief, and a smile, followed by "oooh, yeah... well, I'm not too worried."
He went on.. "You know, I grabbed one of them by the shirt, and I said 'if I get hit with your arm one more time, I'm going to take you outside and break your fucking neck"
I'm assuming said person was giving me the finger.
I laughed again, now without awkwardness and with a new found sense of elation.
I thanked him and informed him in a still somewhat confused way that I truthfully expected a similar outcome, and that I wasn't affected by their unwarranted and erroneous "comments."
He patted me on the shoulders again and said "good... they were a bunch of ass holes. Good luck to ya"

I have been to many, many school functions in my life, before, during, and after going to school. None of them have ever left me with such a glorious sense of empowerment.
I can just imagine the kids who bothered him going home and crying about what happened.
This man was no crotchety old man or typical looking 40 - 50 something guy.
This was a man who really might have broken a neck, and definitely could have.

You know... It seems like adults are often times more supportive and appreciative of my music sometimes than the 14 - 23 crowd I seem to usually attract....

Anyway....

I finally have some photographic evidence of S.C.E.N.E. Party II (Salem Chiptune Electronica Noise Extravaganza)at the Gulu Gulu Cafe in Salem MA.

There are more on the way, but who know's what I'll actually post.

This is probably my favorite picture.
On the left is DigiDan (ex-Lucky Constrictors, PATP, Rupis Kelp, and others) who came on tour with me just for the hell of it.

Then is obviously me making the world a less beautiful place.

The guy hugging me is Marc (Moon Climb The Wall and others.) I met him on the Take Control Tour at some house show in Roxbury MA, and we barely talked, but he gave me a wacky, bleached, v-neck cat shirt with MCTW written on the back, and he was really nice and supportive during both nights.
He's one of those people you meet and feel like you've known them your whole life.

The happy looking Scotsman in the center is DJ Scotvoid, who organized the event.
Another guy I met at the Asteroid M House in Roxbury, and another really nice fellow who felt like an instant life-long connection.

Marc and Scot DJ shows on Salem's college radio station. I think they are called MWMW.

Next to him is Gaylin (I think that was his name. I'm really terrible with that) of Computers At Sea, a circuit bent electronics + pop project.
He is kind of like a real life 70s cartoon protagonist with an intellectual side.
I wish I had the means to convey to you in what way that describes him well.
I think the only way to do it is to tell you to watch Dudley Doright from the Rock & Bulwinkle cartoon.
Oh... and I have no idea where that Christmas tree in his arms came from, nor do I remember him taking it from somewhere... or even having it.
It was Krampusnacht eve in Salem MA, by the witch dungeon, at a noise/chiptune/electronics show. I should have expected stranger.

Hugging him is Chris (Active Knowledge.)
I've played with him four times now and he's proven himself a very good friend and a fun live show every time.
We met him on the Take Control tour, and he was one of the few people who reached out to Chris (Yatagarasu) and I about booking us, without us having to stick our foot in any doors.... or even ask.

Next to Chris is some guy. I don't honestly remember his name unfortunately.
That's how bad I am.

Here's another one.

I post this here, because at higher resolutions it looks less like my mouth is contoured to some impossible, inhuman 0 shape, and more like it's the effect of me moving too fast and the lighting being crazy.

All of the pictures I got from that night seem to be of me in what I call "chiptune/noise/breakcore poses" (take your pick.)

That's okay, I probably couldn't be photographed while freaking out in that light, and it'd probably look silly being behind the table (I didn't go into the crowd for whatever reason, even though I put my table on the floor.

Oh, and before I go off to who knows where, here is a picture of Bradlea's cat, Spoilsbury.

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-18T00:52:00.000-08:00

Well, here it is.

The fourth installment!
Christmasasaurus Volume 4

SANTA CLAUS AND HIS ELVES PRESENT:

click on cover to download!

It took a ton of work to get it organized this year... more so than any year prior.
Dingle has been very busy, so I didn't have my usual extra help to get people to contribute.
A Beautiful Lotus asked a bunch of people though and is using his net-label to release it.
Also, special shout-out to Mike of Kamakaze Kitten, who contributed a lot more than I expected.
Also a shout out to Dylan Sparrow of Giggle The Ozone. who did that fantastic looking art.

All of the hard work all of the artists and myself put into this installment really paid off, and I would consider this the best one so far.
If the current trend of annual compilation quality improvement continues, we should be the best compilation of all time by 2020.
Songs cover mysterious IDM, wacky digigrind, happy folk, dark ambient, lo-fi shoegaze, psych, performance art punk, lo-fi hip-hop/punk, depressing fingerstyle banjo, rave, plunderphonics, musical noise, blown-out grooves, frantic electronic pop, dub, chiptune, and who knows what else.

Just in case there are some of you who have not been following me or my friends since 2005, this compilation started as the brainchild of me and my friend Dingle, of Peppermint Pony.
We wanted to put together a weird collection of Christmas carol covers and a few originals for a "present" to fans of experimental, extreme, cute, or unusual underground, mostly electronic music.

The first year was extremely difficult, even though I did more work this year.
No one really wanted to do Christmas music, and no one really wanted to do it for two random kids they barely knew or had never heard of.
The result was a short compilation that didn't match entirely with our intended goal.
It was also released without permission, and mis-tagged as being "Anti-Christmas."
...the opposite of how we, the organizers, felt.
It's got some good tracks, and I still appreciate the work that went into it from all artists involved, but it just didn't do what was planned.
For posterity, we're going to upload it tomorrow and I'll replace this sentence with a link and the cover art.

The second year things went much better, except for for me.
My computer was being repaired and I was unable to record a new song, forcing me to use my reject track from the previous year.
Lots of chiptune artists, notorious ones at that, joined the fray and the now defunct Candymind Records released it for free download.

Clicking that picture will take you to the download.
(The art was done by Animal Style)

While I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions, I think Hallowed Butchery Of The Son's track is pretty damn supreme, and probably the best song he did for the project before transforming into his current blackened/prog-doom/soundscape/psych-folk powerhouse existence, Hallowed Butchery.
There's a plethora of dancey chiptune arrangements of carols and lesser known Christmas jams from Rudolph films and the like, as well as a bunch of digigrind, some noisy stuff, some IDM/breakcore, and plenty of unclassifiable material.

After this album we took a one year hiatus without saying a word about the compilation to anyone.
It wasn't a "I don't want to do this" thing.
I just wasn't talking to anyone.
Some of you might remember my "AWOL" status and my lack of signing in back in 2007 that lasted for quite some time.
While I can't really comment on what was wrong or what I was doing at the time in a public forum, I can tell you to just understand that problems I'd had for a while had built and taken me to a very unhealthy place. I'm glad I made the decision to disappear rudely instead of do anything far crazier by staying until it passed.

Anyway, last year we came back, strong and mighty, with an outstanding compilation.
It was the most sonically diverse, covering folk, hip-hop, cybergrind, improvised free-form rock ridiculousness, chiptune, gloomy new wave, weirdo organ groove, brooding and glitchy darkwave, breakcore, IDM, and all kinds of other weirdness.

(art was by Ehafh)

That about covers it.
I'll post a link to number one and replace the link to volume 3 with an Archive.org link when we have it posted there.

Oh, some news for those of you wondering about shirts.
I've been turning up nothing but weird, unresponsive emailers in my quest to get shirts printed that should have existed 3 or 4 years ago.

Rest assured, they will be out soon, as I do have art.
I just need to find someone who can respond to an email!

I do not know if I will have them in time for Lansing D:

Pins are also mysterious.

If you're looking for updates on the upcoming albums, read my blog, posted at the top of the page

To summarize what I wrote though if you don't feel like looking, I am recording new songs for the next album at a surprising rate in between compilation tracks, shows, and social life.
I have a pretty lengthy list of things I'm working on songs for on the blogspot entry on the subject with explanations of each thing, but for those that hate reading passionately but still want to know, here is the short list of things coming soon and somewhat soon:

• Nektar Volume 2 [free compilation]
• Best Of Christmas (NOT) Volume 3 [free compilation]
• Cybernetic Underground [free compilation]
• I, Candy [cassette, Flaccid Plastic]
• ACL Donation Compilation [compilation, all proceeds donated to charity to save stray animals!]
• split EP with Zathura
• split EP with Kindergarten Hazing Ritual [download, 35764 records]
• split EP with Dental Work [CD-R, Placenta Recordings]
• Bad Happy [CD, self-release]

I'll be going on a "less work, more play" type break for Christmas (except for the show on the 28th) until the end of the year after I submit my songs for Nektar and Best Of Christmas (NOT), so sorry if I'm even slower than normal with responses than usual.

I uploaded my album to last.fm and myspace for listening as a Christmas present.
If you'd like to support me or get the album for a Christmas gift, I still have plenty of copies for sale at bubblegumoctopus.bigcartel.com, as well as like 30 copies of the split left.
I also have the album on iTunes and Amazon if you prefer that.
Support is nice and helps me pay for future albums, touring, software, equipment and repairs, and merchandise!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
(I'm excited to play for some of you on the 28th)

Christmasasaurus Vol. 4: Final Day

2009-12-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day I'm accepting the tracks for the compilation and I have to say... even if no one else I asked contributes, this will be a good year.
This is a picture of the tracks I have so far (pre-track ordering):

Clearly, a good spread!

Picking a favorite is actually very very difficult this year.
I'll admit, that in past years I've often found myself pointing to a song or three and being very confident that they were the best ones, the other songs ranging from "very good" to "completely disregarded the concept of the compilation."

Every year when I sit down and start sending out emails, myspace messages, making calls, or (in the case of this year) just straight up asking someone in person about it, I wonder what a good way to portray my idea for the compilation is.

It's hard to sell the idea sometimes.
People get all uppity about how Christmas is perverted.
How it's a Christian holiday.
How it's a commercialized, shallow, superficial wasteland of false joy.
How to all developed countries, it's not about the holiday so much as it is the advertising and selling.

Well, to this I always laugh and say "yes, but who cares?"
But my head is shouting "FUCK YOOOOU."
The latter is of course not the way I like to portray myself or deal with situations, so I refrain.

The goal(s) of the compilation is/are pretty simple I think:

1. To assemble a team of talented, underground, mostly electronic musicians to take what the mainstream does with Christmas albums, and turn it on it's head; to provide fans of underground music a way to celebrate the season with the songs they grew up with being taken in new directions.

2. To see what the artists will actually do with/to such traditional songs.
I want to see the songs, and be able to recognize them, but to either say "FUCK YES" and/or to be totally surprised.
i.e I want to be able to sing along if I feel so inclined, but I don't want to know exactly what I'll be singing along with

3. In the case that there is an original, I want to see if the song can actually integrate in my brain as being a new Christmas song.
I mean... I'm hard to please in that regard.... Stevie Wonder's Christmas song doesn't even register to me as being a Christmas song.

4. I want to be able to host a Christmas party some day and just slap those tracks on a playlist and forget about them until they come up and freak the hell out of the musically or artistically inept.

5. To spread political incorrectness... Merry Christmas Jews! Happy Kwanza whitey!

That list would do a decent job explaining to people, but I am always going to get scrutiny for the concept I'm sure.
Occupational hazard of being an absurdist, extreme, experimental, electronic musician that tries to rally people for something of a mainstream ideal once a year, I suppose.

---------
In BgO news, and very good news for the number of people who have come to me citing themselves as being "excited", "really looking forward", "really excited", "actually extremely excited", and "SO PUMPED" (among other things) for my next album.
It would seem that after a bit of mixing and recording, I have completed recording the first song for Bad Happy.
I need to do the analog noise break, but then it's done... and I can post it!
It's been met by positive response amongst the select friends I've showed it to, but that is not always a reflection of how the fans feel (Birthday b-b-b-blues fest '09 is the favorite song of almost all of my friends and I rarely have people online tell me they like it)

I'll be happy to have something new that I didn't have to rush through
(I really did have to rush through the Yatagarasu split. I had like two weeks to record all of it, and I spent most of it struggling with a song that got cut.)
--------

Negotiations on shirt costs have continued and they are driving me crazy.

Well... let's not go with "negotiations" at this point.
Now I'm stuck at the "waiting for email responses" stage again.

I hate relying on other people, and you should too!

Christmasasaurus Vol. 4 will be out really late tonight, really really early tomorrow morning, or just in normal morning hours.
BE EXCITEMENT!

Photos: Life of m@ the c@

2009-12-11T19:40:00.001-08:00

I have nothing I feel like saying right now, so here are some random photos.
Some are music oriented, some are not.
Let's start with a new picture from the Gulu Gulu Cafe in Massachusetts (probably during a noise portion of my set.)
There are a lot more, and I don't think this was even taken by one of the 'official' photographers for the evening:

This is my beloved Boss ME-50B.
For a bass multi-effects pedal it's pretty lousy in my opinion, but for the things I use it for it works wonders.
Actually, I recorded the screaming for Falcon Breeze with a crappy radio shack mic and using this for EQ and fake pre-amp.
I also recorded a ton of the c@ vocals on Daring Z-Young Nesyel with that set-up.

Live I use this badboy for vocal EQ/volume/delay effects, as part of my noise rig, or as the effects pedal on theremin for Ultra Death Men shows.

This was the rough draft for my album cover.
I don't know how Roxie would feel about it being posted somewhere, but I don't see why she'd mind... it was just a really quick thing to show me what the CD would look like and for me to give her direction with... I will find the sketch I originally proposed to artists, eventually...

This is a Lowrey organ I picked up on the side of the street one day last month (no really.)
It works decently, but there are a number of problems with it... Unfortunately the sub-bass pedals are one of the things with problems.
Had Bradlea not forced me to knock on the door of the person whose house it was and ask if it worked or not, I don't know that I'd have picked it up.

This is the first 'instrument' I circuit bent.
There is a weird switch that makes most of the sounds resemble gabber bass and flatulence, two timer switches (one on the back,) an LED, a true power switch, and the quater inch output I added.
I was thinking of adding a contact point, but I'm satisfied with it as is.

Sleeping on an amp at the Go Bar in Athens GA.
Somewhat boring show, good pictures though! (taken by the vocalist of The Orkids, who we stayed with in GA)

Actually, here's another I never posted.
What may or may not be evident from the photos, is that I was in a lot of pain (throat, body, and stomach) and homesickness had begun to set in.

This is a photo from Christine Lewis' (or as I call her, Aircraft) portfolio.
We were in a Whole Foods after playing Paper Mario all day on some sort of food quest... forget what. I believe I was pretending to be a deer or a moose.

This is a guitar I use occasionally on recordings.
It has to be adjusted pretty badly, but it's still usable.
It was actually sold to me at half price because the company (Tokai) was in a bit of hot water for patent infringement.
Most of my guitar tracks are done with a boring looking, black Epiphone Les Paul.
There is also a really, really broken guitar that's been sitting in my house for years that I use on occasion.

My cat (Noel) reacting to seeing her face tiled as my desktop background.

This is from my second show, which was in a church.
Notice all of those fucking orbs... haunted much/really dusty much?

Lousy picture taken of me teaching at the summer music program I teach every year.

Summer of '08 in Ohio with two different sides of my family.

Also summer of '08.
Taken by my mother... no posing involved here, just my mom capturing what looks like it could be the generic cover of my never being released acoustic bass guitar solo album.

A DELICIOUS MEAL.

This would have been my second show... it fell through the day before though :/
Still probably the best bill I've been booked for.

Another show that fell through. Bummer.

mmm... concert band in 2007.... how nice.

Original artwork for the demo by me! My pixel art is just soooooo detailed.

Random gig where I was the only one without a real teaching job.
Trumpet: My dad (Gramercy Brass Orchestra/Broadway/50604 other things)
Sax: Tim (The Rolling Stones... yeah really)
Drums: Jon (Palmyra/Ultra Death Men)
Guitar: Sean (Palmyra/Ultra Death Men)
Keys: John (Priorden Project/other things I don't know)
Keys: Guy I forget the name of (Yamaha)

In 2006 I posted a weird bulletin wherein I asked for people to join me on my quest to fight the spiders I found in this space. People had to send in their stats and special powers.

This was most of my set-up (without guitars or anything) in early 2005.... oh those were simpler times..

Technically the cover of Horse Wiener by c@.

oh what is this I don't even...

Bradlea and at the end of 08 in San Diego

A picture from the warehouse-like place we stayed at in Baltimore that I didn't post before....

Something that makes me laugh... all the time.
This was taken from the c@ myspace's friend request notifications one day this year.

Alright! Good place to end it!
Time to finish my Christmas song.

Upcoming release updates

2009-12-10T12:11:00.000-08:00

Okay, not as fun as I was anticipating... but I hadn't slept in a while so everything sounded fun.

Still waiting on pictures, video, and audio from the past three shows.
There are two videos on youtube from that miserable show with TRUE PUNK ROCK LEGENDS Bowling For Soup.
One was posted by a fan, one was posted by a dissenter.
I won't link them here because I don't really want to go fetch them... I hate watching myself, and youtube comments make me very uncomfortable... positive or negative, intelligent or completely moronic.... ha... intelligent youtube comments... right...

There were also three videos from Virginia posted... ANOTHER miserable show.
There were noise complaints during the Yatagarasu set, so I was forced to turn down from the start.
By the end of the set it was basically whisper quiet.
They also posted a video from the after-party of Chris and I playing Taiko No Tatsujin on some special machine that there is only one of in the country.
The audio is awful though because the ultra loud DDR playing overpowers the Taiko game.

Anyway... so let's get to the point of the update.
Release for the near and semi-near future!

First things first:

Christmasasaurus Vol. 4

It should be out by Monday. It's going to be killer.
I'm not going to lie... I have a ton of work to do on my song. I really slacked off.
I'm probably just going to record it in Garageband and not bother with Logic.
I have enough wasted disc space and Logic will change all the reverb settings and some of the
the EQ, so I'd have to start over with the mixing.

The Best of Christmas (NOT) Vol. 3

Another Christmas compilation I'm doing. I'm just submitting a track to them though.
It's open invite, so if you want on a Christmas compilation this year, go contact DJ Scratchin'
January 20th is the due date. I may be doing an original instead of a cover!

NEW ART FORM PEWPEWPEWPPEPWEP

Okay, I don't know the actual title for this... but it's a pretty interesting and hilarious compilation centered on the 8bitcollective forums (I don't actually go there, but my friends do)
Basically, the story is this:
Facundo's roommate's father is a radio host on some generic music radio station in Jersey. The kid got his dad to give Facundo and his label (Dancing Is Forbidden) a plug on the station.. unfortunately, Facundo is not classic rock or whatever the hell that station plays... he's a chiptune artist.
I don't think I need to explain where it went from there.
The compilation is basically anyone who wants to just throwing together a terrible and hilarious remix of the miserable radio plug (which was conveniently recorded for us all.)
I think this will be out at the end of the month.

Nektar Vol. 2

Some guy on last.fm contacted me back in October about featuring me on a compilation, and only in the past few days did he get back to me.
It's some kind of wacky, high minded, conceptual compilation that I have no idea if I can match the theme... but I will do my best.
It's deadline is "December 32nd"... which is not a real day... but that's okay. I'll have mine on the 31st to be safe....

Those are within the next month or so.
After that there are some more compilations, solo releases, splits, and releases from my bands finally!

Cybernetic Underworld

I was contacted recently by a clothing designer, Insidious Clothing, they are putting together a compilation with the aforementioned. She's worked with Metal Blade, Slipknot, Marylin Manson, Cinema Strange, and a host of other people that would not normally see myself associated with. She explained in her email that they are moving to incorporate a lot of other forms of music in what they do, and to commemorate their expanding market and source of inspiration they are hosting and assembling a compilation and they want me to be involved. As with all non-holiday themed compilations, I will be doing an original song.
Will be out by the end of February.

I, candy (working title)

So last year, long time friend Peppermint Pony (who assembles and presents the Christmasasaurus compilations with me each year) started a Floppy Disc label called

We talked about having me do a release through the label, but I got so distracted with finally getting TAFKA'8LDM' released that I totally forgot about it.
Well, I talked to him last night about Christmasasaurus and he linked me to the myspace for the label and I noticed he'd added colorful cassettes to the mediums he'd be releasing with.
While touring with Yatagarasu and STRESS I ended up hearing a lot of cassettes. They've been floating around my life a lot recently in fact, and it got me thinking that I should do a novelty release on cassette. I'm thinking it will contain two remixes, three or four new songs, and either a karaoke mix of some TAFKA'8LDM' song or some really really short and noisey songs inspired by Melt-Banana Lite, Scissor Shock, and my old work with c@... but BgO style.
Will be released whenever I clean up my desktop and push myself really hard one weekend.
I'm going Fork Sister style work ethic with this bad boy.

ACL Donation Compilation: Save The Kitties!

Believe it or not, this is not a title I came up with.
I was recently lurking the myspace pages of Placenta Recordings artists and I stumbled upon a compilation called SAVE THE KITTIES.
I was immediately sold, but I had to read about it.
Turns out, Tooth.Eye is assembling a compilation to print copies of and sell to give all proceeds to animal shelters and such to help keep the stray animals of Chicago safe.
The world of stray domesticated animals is a fucked up one; animals left in the street will die, but it's often too expensive to keep animals in captivity for too long as many of them are never adopted, go insane from being 'institutionalized', or are just uncomfortable forever when space runs out... it's really not something I enjoy thinking about, but money to benefit them is something I approve of.
It wasn't long after I read it and became interested that Tooth.Eye sent me a message about donating a song and I immediately responded with an enthusiastic yes.
I don't know what kind of song I'm going to do, but it will be about cats.. not bad cats either!
I don't know the deadline.

Split EP with Zathura

Who the is Zathura you ask? I wondered the same thing when I opened my myspace messages a few months ago when they asked me to do a split... with Black Clocks... looks like I've done a terrible job making people understand that BxCx is long dead.
I think the best explanation of their sound is this, assuming you're too damn lazy to click on the link and sit through the terrifying mess of clashing color patterns:
Take one part ridiculous melted metal and rock, one part Crystal Castles (only the good parts), one part Snowsuit*, one part Yatagarasu, give a girl, and a guy with girly vocals, distorted mics, and mix it all in a blender to create a smoothie of freaked out, sample chopping distortchippop.

I don't normally like accepting offers to do splits with BgO because I take forever with them, but something in my brain said "m@... you must do this!" and... I did!
I have not done much writing for it yet because I've been working on things, but I will soon!
Should be out in March.

Split EP with Kindergarten Hazing Ritual

Who is Kindergarten Hazing Ritual you ask?
Well... you shouldn't be asking, where the hell have you been the past 8 years??
KHR is the solo project of Cory Monster.
It's a delightfully raw cybergrind project that has managed to stay interesting for like... pratically a fucking decade... all witout really changing it's sound in any dramatic way. Punky, metal as fuck, or totally discordant grind riffs with the occasional appearance of some Gameboy sounds and some vocals recorded through some old voice altering toy.
He's a great guy (even if he doesn't like women.... not in the gay way... in the "I hate women" way), and his music is manic, raw, and completely pissed off. Seriocomic and tongue-in-cheek songs about misogyny, misanthropy, and... nerd culture... it still confuses to no end, but makes perfect sense in every way.
My side is mostly programmed, his is mostly complete (also awesome.) It'll be a free release on his label.
No word on the exact month of release.

Bad Happy (2nd BgO full length)

Yes... I really mean it this time... I want the album out and I want it out soon.
After almost 5 years with this project and only 2 official releases, it needs to happen as fast as possible... the only problem is that I don't want it to sound like that was the mentality it was recorded in, heh.
Bad Happy is a collection comprised mostly of songs I wrote on tour, a few tracks I scrapped from the Yatagarasu split (one of which I'd actually finished recording), some songs I wrote when I got back from the tour, and some songs that are the products of salvaging throw away material and some weird samples I'd made.
The album is shorter than TAFKA'8LDM', but it may get longer as incidental recordings come into existence (I'M SO MAD! and Cat Machine! are examples of past incidental recordings for BgO.)
It makes more nods to breakcore and chiptune than previous albums have, and has loads of analog noise and electronics, bass and guitar, theremin, sampler synthesis, subtractive/additive synthesis, original samples, and is filled to the rim with S-SMP/SPC700 and weird vocal parts... I actually even included some 1-bit sounds for fun.
I don't think it will be the crowning achievement of BgO, but I think it's really solid material, I like it more than TAFKA'8LDM', and it will make a very good stepping stone on the path to releasing Sparkle Fountain.
I plan on finishing Bad Happy by March, but I can make no promises.

I'll take this time to mention again that this is NOT the second BgO album I wrote.
There are currently 8 BgO albums that are simply collecting digital dust on my harddrive and literal dust on back-up discs.

Split EP with Dental Work

Dental Work is the solo project of Placenta Recordings' owner Jay. It's an experimental noise project that combines nail-biting power electronics with all kinds of unusual trials in sonic alienation. I played with him in Traverse City and was so totally distracted by talking to some fans and with the experience of his music + the crazy foreign film he had on a projector, that I barely payed attention to what he was doing... I hope I can manage to catch what he actually does this time! He had all kinds of crazy gear and objects on his table.
No release date. He's laid back about that stuff. It'll be a CD-R release on Placenta Recordings, meaning that it costs 5 dollars but is a hand numbered CD-R in colored plastic sleeve with crazy, printed artwork insert.

Frame House EP

Yeah... it's been in the works for about 3 years now. Frame House is the duo of me on bass, vocals, and mandolin, additional guitar, and electronics for recordings, and longtime friend (as in, since 1st grade) Keith Williams on guitar and vocals.
We write the songs collaboratively (a process I'm usually pretty bad at) and we've been playing together in different bands since 2003.
The problem with every band has always been the search for a functional, dedicated, and talented drummer. Even finding a drummer with one of these qualities has presented itself to be quite difficult.
We've finally employed the talents of Ultra Death Men/Palmyra drummer Jon Lango to fill the slot temporarily and record the EP with us.
It's starting to look like we might rehearse enough material to call it a short album, but we'll see what the future holds.
No release date planned. Jon teaches lessons all the time and plays in UDM, Palmyra, and some jazz combo + random gigs, Keith plays in Washington Square Park and Bootleg Flyers, and I have all of my crap.

Ultra Death Men EP

You know, we actually went to a studio to record this, but ended up just messing around, eating pizza, and recording for about 40 minutes.
Eventually we'll get it right.
The songs on myspace from us are just improvisations we've recorded with a built-in laptop mic and/or a portable recording device, and the submission we did for Christmasasaurus Vol. 3 under the name The Bethlehem Redemption Orchestra was basically the same thing, but with three real mics. Currently we play some happy math-rock songs I wrote and some really wacky and humorous, experimental, semi-improvised rock weirdness... plenty of noisy improv between songs as well.
No release date discussed.... Like I said... we're busy people.

Alright, that's all I have for now.
Have pleasant dreams :D

Geared Up To Get Down

2009-12-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

I was going to do a post about Micro-Mini Tour #1, complete with pictures and even videos or audio... but I don't have any of that just yet... so let's do another picture-less entry...

Over the years I've gotten many a strange question, and many questions that I've answered dozens and dozens of times.
One question that's come up a number of times is not as simple to answer:
"WUTS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UR PROJECTS ANYWAY"

Or the more eloquent and profound version:
"Why do you impose restrictions upon your artistic self with multiple projects with a set boundary? Isn't your purpose as an artist to express yourself unfettered to set rules?"

The answer is long and drawn out, but I'm going to do my best to finally explain myself accurately on a project by project basis....

You have to understand, first of all, that multiple solo projects is not because I want to appear to be in more bands or anything.
I play in my solo projects, Ultra Death Men, Frame House, Mercury Syringe, Giggle The Ozone. (live only), and various things that may or may not have staying power.
Those alone are enough to boost my TOO MANY BANDS ego... if that were my goal.

The reason for multiple projects comes from several factors:

1. The order in which they started and the circumstances that I started them in
2. Goals for the project
3. Ideological concepts behind each one
4. Desire to re-invent myself in certain ways
5. To present challenges to the artistic self

Number 1 is long to explain in a chronological, case-by-case basis, and until I fix the format of this thing, I don't really enjoy the thought of losing readers with the monotony.
The gist of it is that Black Clocks, Fork Sister, and c@ were never guaranteed to stay entirely solo though.
Perhaps that brings some light to the situation.

2 is also too long to explain case by case, but remember that some projects were started in a joking manner (First Aid Squid, I Am A Hexagon.) While I like what I did with them, they are intentionally offensive to the listener to a great extent, and they were parody centric.

3 - 5 will take some time now.... this is really what I wanted to discuss here.

Each project has it's own set of aesthetic and ideological concepts behind it.
At the core, everything I do is the same:
I express myself as I see fit, I make music I like, I pursue what I see to be the correct level of perfectionism/mawkishness, and I do it without apology or perverted outside influence because it's my art.

There are some key differences that change within each project though.
I'm going to go through each project now and explain what makes me decide to categorize it as a certain project.
It's most often just gut feelings if I'm not within the boundaries of a certain project entirely.

Bubblegum Octopus:
While most of the songs fall safely into the category of chaotic, cutesy, electronic, video gamey pop music, often with noise, grind, and/or punk elements, that's not really the binding factor anymore.
BgO is an expression of the forced suppression of childish feelings, a tribute to my past, discussion of the loss of innocence, and light-hearted (even during the more vicious or serious sounding songs.)
The color palette is also important to me.
I'm a synesthetic and how I write is greatly influenced by how a song looks in my head.
BgO songs are the most color-cohesive of my work.

I think one thing I should also mention about BgO, is that the project intentionally lives in the clouds.
Just like how Pokémon episodes after a certain point stopped referencing real animals and pop culture, BgO songs have stopped acknowledging things that live outside of the alternate reality it lives in.

While BgO songs will never leave certain sonic aesthetics, I can't really explain them.
For example, the first album sounds pretty consistent throughout... saccharine falsetto, offensive screaming and growling, super fast blasting, poppy melodies juxtaposed with chaos, blippy electronic sounds with occasional super-saws and distorted walls, and the occasional guitar and my "real" singing voice.

The second album I'm releasing however (hopefully out in March) delves more into noisy elements, cut-up drum parts, weird sounds, and original samples being mutilated, with more guitar, more analog electronics, and less of the deliberate sounding "trade-off" style vocals I've been so known for.
It may also be the first to include real drums, acoustic elements, or horns, but that depends on how I feel in the coming months.

The split sits nicely between these two, which is why I've decided to do Bad Happy next, instead of one of the 7 other albums I wrote before it.

One thing that you can always bet though, is that all BgO songs will sound like they were written by that octopus... and you will almost always be able to find that cute/bothersome (however you feel), untrained falsetto within the songs.

c@:
This project is the more about preventing the really fucked up side of my brain from blowing up.
Just like BgO (and like myself in general), it's an absurdist type project that openly, and joyfully embraces meaninglessness and being generally too unusual to be considered normal.
c@ songs are obviously more noisey than anything else (it did start as a straight noise project, even though I've lost many of those recordings), but that is not a defining quality.
The subject matter of the songs is generally anything that comes out.
I try my best to not censor what I say or do with the project in ways I do not with BgO.
BgO's lyrics have self-imposed censorship laws to them...
"don't mention company or product names unless necessary, don't talk about video game or anime characters unless necessary, don't be overtly sexual unless absolutely necessary, don't mention celebrities" and a number of other things*

*NOTE: The first album and the demo are in violation of two of those rules to some degree.
I don't regret saying "Pokémon" or "semen" in the songs, because it was appropriate at the time, but I probably won't be writing either of those in future songs.
I allow myself to discuss anything in BgO songs, I just don't like to do it so overtly anymore.
I barely even like mentioning people's names in songs anymore.

In c@ however, anything is fair game.
The commercialized, sexualized, media stimulated, and anything else part of my brain I consider to be somewhat garbage infested is meant to be embraced and expectorated into the songs.
Again... it's about all the things in my head that need to get out getting out... not about getting out the emotions while trying to preserve things I'm losing.

Sonically the songs will always be strange and will always incorporate non-instruments, broken instruments, toy instruments, electronics, and atypical vocals.

Fork Sister:
Yes, I don't do too much with it, but I still consider it a loved child.
The project is much less an ideological place than it is a sonically conceptual place.
It's a further dedication to my love affair with utilizing digital artifacts.
I could contend that it's about intensity through simplicity...
... ora weird way to show my love of real hardcore, power violence, real screamo, noise rock, and grindcore...
I could say that it was just my way of avoiding turning c@ into a punk band.... or that it was just my way of avoiding turning BgO into a noisey project back when it wasn't at all.
I could say that it was just my way of allowing myself to effect vocals in ways I wouldn't let fly in BgO.

I think the only truly defining factor is the short songs, the processed screaming and yelping, the digitally damaged guitars, drums, and synths, the gabber beats, and the abandonment of musical theory and intellectual (ha... very funny m@.)

So then... what about your work under your own name?
Matthew 'm@ the c@' Morden:
None of it is out yet, but I've talked about it a bit on the internet.
It begs the question, just what the hell will it be?
The project is basically just for [mostly] songs that do not live within the realm of BgO.
Guitar/bass/drums/keys/horn/whatever songs, solo fingerstyle guitar or bass, piano things, acoustic and voice, collaborations...
The best way to summarize it is how I advertise it on the myspace "insider music from an outsider."
I'll also probably release some of the un-c@-like weirdness songs (some 'brutal prog' I wrote for 11 people, spoken word and found sound, strange cut-ups, and incidental recordings) under my name, but I am not thinking about that yet.

I don't know when I will get some of it released, but it will hopefully be in the near future!
BgO album 2 and splits 2 - 5, the Frame House album, and the Ultra Death Men album all take precedent at the moment.

If you're curious about Black Clocks... just remember that it was an old project, and will never release anything again unless I find the unreleased songs I did....

So there you have it... the best I can do to explain the ideological differences between Bubblegum Octopus, c@, and Fork Sister.

So don't be scared when I release a BgO song with a brass quintet and vocals, a live band with no electronics (hey, I did I'M SO MAD! already. The only fake thing on that was the drums), all circuit bent electronics and wall noise with ambient singing, or an a'capella song recorded on a busy street.

BgO will continue to shift, but it will never change (it will always have silly, spazzy, electronic pop songs regardless of the change anyway. Hold me to that as long as I live!)

Christmasasaurus Vol. 4: artist list continued

2009-12-03T02:17:00.000-08:00

I got more of the artist names Phil asked:

I Killed Techno! (digigrind-esque electronic punk)
IAYD (exciting, thumping chip-tune)
The Tliexau Music Machine (I actually haven't yet heard his non-Christmas music!)
They All Had Tentacles (in-your-face digigrind that is often mathy. He's from my home state!)
Melted Cassettes (have not heard yet!)
Ghouliez (same as above!)
Jay Randall of Agoraphobic Nosebleed (I think that one is self explanatory)

I also got Zathura to join in on the Christmas fun.
They're a manic bit-pop duo from Canada.

BgO Micro-Mini Tour #1 starts tomorrow!
Goodnight!!

Christmasasaurus Vol. 4

2009-12-01T01:49:00.000-08:00

A lot of people have asked in the months leading up to everyone's favorite, annual, (mostly) electronic Christmas music compilation whether or not it would be happening again.

So, as I've announced somewhat surreptitiously, it is indeed going to happen once again.
So far the following artists have confirmed:

Xrin Arms (badass, extreme grind/punk/breakcore cut-ups)
Yatagarasu (freaked out chip-skram)
Baaddd (ultra-weird, huggable, minimalist, electronic parties)
Kindergarten Hazing Ritual (probably the finest "cybergrind" band around)
Lissajou (loopy 8-bit techno joy)
The Toilet (completely brilliant plunderphonics with extreme vocals)
Mickey Roberts (lovable outsider noise and strangeness)
Magicool Beauty Fool (wacky pop-sploitation)
The Three Brained Robot (performance art you can sing to!)
OxygenStar (traditional chiptune turned FM jams with ultra tough drums)
Giggle The Ozone. (avant-surf-prog-punk-rock)
Charlie Boy (synth pop turned digigrind turned new wave turned darkwave turned....)
Josef Motley (abstract hip-hop connoisseur)
White Guys Jumping (one man folk band)
Kamakaze Kitten (cute electronics and breakcore)
Scissor Shock (the king of unclassifiable)
Sakura Pups (digigrind from the days of yore)
Watabou (melodic, video game influence electronics)
Colors Killing Numbers (digigrind influenced digital weirdness)
Active Knowledge (catchy chiptunes and acid-trip karaoke)

Of course, don't forget the people presenting it:

Peppermint Pony (minimalist chipglitch)
A Beautiful Lotus (one of the pioneers of MIDI based digigrind)
Bubblegum Octopus (a sexy man)

There are some other tentative people involved, and I left it up to ABL to ask people on his label/people he knows and likes/whoever else, as well as up to PMP (this was originally our idea after all)... but those are the people that have told me personally that they are on board.
No guarantee they'll all follow through, but hey... that's how it is!

That's all for my update. I need to figure out if there is an "LJ-cut" equivalent for blogspot....

Micro-Mini-Tour to Massachusetts starts Thursday.
Come out and see me!!

Melt-Banana II

2009-11-27T22:27:00.001-08:00

I was going to post something related to my music today, but I'm so ridiculously tired that anything I write will be complete nonsense if I talk too long.

I will tell you that I went and saw Melt-Banana again.
I drove with my lady Bradlea, and friends Jeff and DigiDan all the way up to The Space in Connecticut and met up with my other friends Janelle and Mike [Mike is also from Kamakaze Kitten, but Janelle and Mike play with me in my completely ridiculous skate punk/noise band Mercury Syringe. DigiDan is formerly of The Lucky Constrictors and a host of electronic projects and other bands, and we play together sometimes, but nothing has been recorded of us together... MS recordings will be audible in the near future]

I had another awkward conversation with Yasuko and my first awkward conversation with Rika (only awkward because I was so nervous and "star-struck"... again... I don't have too many idols, but Yasuko is not only one of them, but my biggest) and apparently she received the CD I gave her merch guy as a gift for her.
This made me blush like a school girl flatulating in front of her dreamy crush.
Well... maybe not that hard... I probably didn't even change colors, but it sure felt embarrassing.

We also got a lousy picture with her and I bought (yet another) Melt-Banana shirt.
Chinese Stars also played and I kind of foolishly forgot to talk to Paul (formerly of Arab On Radar, one of my other favorite bands).
Maybe next time.

I don't have that picture yet, but it's probably best I don't post it...
Maybe I should, this damn thing is so boring looking without pictures.
I gotta get on that...

Maybe tomorrow I'll post something related to my music.
Maybe I can post a c@ album with some back story!

Oh, Thanksgiving was decent.
Hope you all had a nice one.
Day after was cool.... er... well... freezing.

As per recent tradition, we went and got our Christmas tree.
Unlike usual, we actually got it up and put lights on it the day we got it.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this time of year?
It's quite ridiculous how much, really.

------------------
One thing about music I can say, is that Bubblegum Octopus shows may be incorporating a new member for live performance only... I have yet to find a suitable member to fill this role though.
(I hope I didn't say that somewhere in a previous entry)

I also am going to spend a lovely portion of my day tomorrow or sunday repairing the toy keyboard I slammed to the ground at the School of Rock show.
Apparently it looked like I didn't do it intentionally... so hear it from here first:

I knocked my stand with the keyboard on it over on purpose; I also knocked into my table really hard on purpose too.
Being on stage is really fucking boring when you're all alone.

GOODNIGHT

Melt-Banana

2009-11-24T12:23:00.000-08:00

I saw Melt-Banana last night.
I talked to Yasuko.
I don't know how obvious it is in my music... but I really, really, have an almost unhealthy love of Melt-Banana.
The problem is, every time they've come here since I discovered them in 2003/4 (whatever it was), I've had to miss them.

First time or two I had to go to Michigan (where my relatives live) the day they were playing.
In 2007 I was finally able to go, but they changed their tour dates because they had to open for Tool.
Much to no one's surprise, the date they did the make-up show on was three days after I went to Michigan.

Of course, 2008 had no MxBx shows planned for America, so it was back to waiting impatiently for the day to come.

Finally, this year, I received a delightful, engrishy email from the Melt-Banana newsletter.
"Coming to America?!" I shouted with joy and disbelief, and IMMEDIATELY bought my ticket.
If my read on the ticket is correct, I was the 9th person to buy one.

Anyway, needless to say, I went to the show last night, got about 50 dollars worth of merch (on top of the 16 dollar ticket, 15 dollar parking, and however much gas I needed).
Do I regret any of it?
NO

I met fucking Yasuko O!
I gave the band a copy of my CD as a gift!
I saw the best show of my life!

I'm considering going to Connecticut to see them again honestly.
It would be totally worth it.

I was going to post the picture I got with Yasuko, but I won't have it for two weeks.
It was taken by my friend Aircraft (who takes many of the pictures at my local shows, as well as some of those promotional ones I did to help her with an art project) but it was done on film and she won't have them developed and scanned in for two weeks.
I'll certainly be posting it.
I pray to all omnipotent beings that they came out okay.
(I'm sure I look like a total douche because it was my first episode of being "star struck" or whatever... but on a far different level)

--------------------------
I might have a live guitarist for my Massachusetts 3 day micro-mini-tour.
He's the guitarist from my shoegaze/punk/indie/whatever the heck rock band Frame House.
Not sure if he can really do it or not though because of work. We'll find out soon, eh?
I just added some punky guitar parts to a few old songs and I might teach him guitar parts for way newer songs.
-----------------------

Anyway.
I'll have a picture including post soon or something.
If I have nothing particularly fun to post, I'll at least post a link to one of my c@ albums or something... not that those don't already exist.
GO SEE MELT-BANANA

Introduction: Who/Why

2009-11-22T16:02:00.000-08:00

HELLO
You all (I guess) already know me as an artist, so I think the best way to begin using this is to introduce myself as a person.
(If you'd like to skip me being a person and just find out what this blog is going to include, scroll down to the ------------)

Before I do that though, I might as well explain why I'm even doing this.
I often thought to myself "Hey, I have a blog that friends can read, why don't I do one that everyone can read?"
The problem is that I only had this thought at times where nothing could be done about it... too busy, not home, not by the internet, at rehearsals, etc...
Well, the other day I finally had the thought at the correct time and this was the result.

My reasons for wanting a blog for fans to read is because I want to appear more human and because I myself LIKE hearing from artists I listen to more than just "NEW ALBUM!!!" and "COME SEE ME PLAY AT ________!
I've been impersonated, had people take credit for my music, and treated like some kind of robot for as long as I've been on the internet, but often times in ways that many people don't have to deal with it.

I guess in short, I just want to have a place to post free releases, give some insight on my real life, and have a non-myspace/facebook way to tell you where I'm playing/how my recordings are coming/etc.
I'll have a real website as soon as I find the time and the means, but I'll just integrate this with it most likely.

Now that that's out of the way, let's give you some very long, very boring details on my life:

• My name is Matthew Morden.
"m@ the c@" came about because a group of my friends (for no known reason) began calling me cat, but spelling it c@. When I decided to adopt this name as the name for my first solo project to have a myspace, I realized that I could just write "m@" under the members section.
Some how, people crafted m@ the c@ for me and it just stuck.
Everyone who knows me from the internets calls me m@ or m@ the c@ and my friends call me c@ or Morden.

• I'm 20 years old now, but I have a terrible, terrible peter pan complex.
I don't show it in public too openly, but on stage, in art, and in my private life I can almost be the same person I was 10 years ago.

• I play video games and watch anime, but I am no longer the reclusive or otaku type.
As much as I value my time in the fictional world, the real world is a lot more exciting.
However, my 12 favorite games for 1-player are:

Ogre Battle 64
Killer7
Kirby Super Star
Goldeneye 007
Advance Wars
Zelda: Majora's Mask
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Megaman 3
Bust-a-move
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
No More Heroes
Capcom Vs. SNK 2 (I tend to find myself fighting the computer a lot)

For multiplayer I'm always open, but competitive puzzle games, solid 2D fighting games, ridiculous one player games being played with a group of people, and the occasional racing or party game (with mario's name attached) are all fair game.
Note: I don't like Xbox games with guns that are very popular to play online... but I do like the first Halo game's story mode being played co-operatively.

• I am unemployed (T__T
But, every summer I am a teacher at our public school's month long Summer Music Program. I usually teach bass and guitar, helping out with other types of classes during the program.
I'm usually the youngest member of the staff and the only one without a masters degree (-_-;
This is where I met the Ultra Death Men!

• I do not go to school currently.
I took one semester of music performance and composition at a conventional, private college (not sure why) before I had to stop for health reasons.
The following year I took two "semesters" at an audio school in New York City, but between the cacophony that is Herald Square and my dislike of memorizing mic types and their most "proper" implications, I decided to leave that behind too.
I'd love to start studying theory and performance again, but I'm sure I'd hate it pretty quickly.

• I have a very typical family structurally.
A mom and dad who have been together 26 years, a younger sister, a dog, a cat, and a bird.
Due to my lack of job and the fact that I wouldn't be able to record in an apartment, I've decided to stay at home for another year or so.
Being 20 and living at home without school or a job... yeah... it makes me look pretty pathetic.
But at least I manage to pay for my own food, gas, and clothing, and at least I get plenty of time to work on my music.

• I do not have a typical family in terms of income however.
My mom works at a pre-school, but all of the rest of the money that we make comes from playing music.
For me to use the popular phrase "music is my life" has an extremely literal meaning.
My father is a prolific trumpet player in New York and New Jersey, playing in every style he's asked to. I could go on to cite things from his resume that would impress even the most musically inept, but HEY, THIS BLOG IS ABOUT ME. ME ME ME ME MEM MEMMEM M EM

• Despite my use of the word "God" and other such things in my music, I am not religious, nor would I even consider myself that ultra trendy word "spiritual".
In the 1st grade I underwent my first of many existential thoughts that caused me to question what I'd been taught.
I often blame my Peter Pan complex on my premature development into a GOD QUESTIONING HEATHEN as much as I do on my lack of friends my age when I was younger.

The end result of my cogitations has been a very simple, but strong sense of morality that my girlfriend and I have decided is best described by the metaphor of a parking lot:
You can do whatever the hell you want, just don't cross into someone else's space and inconvenience them.

As for the God/heaven/etc thing, I'm what you'd call an absurdist.
I don't completely align myself with the ideology, but I find nothing objectionable about it and it covers just about everything I believe.
I would also consider myself an absurdist artist to some degree. Hooray art!
(For the record, I don't really like talking about religion and spirituality anymore)

• I won't talk about politics!
The solution to our problems is to make me king of the planet.
(Free candy for all!)

• On the subject of of candy, I do not actually eat very much of it.
In fact, I only really eat candy during October -> January, when all of the Christmas candy runs out.
Food is a weird thing for me.
I have pizza at least once a week and (much to the dismay of my teeth and stomach, I'm sure) I drink an exorbitant amount of soda.
If you've ever stumbled upon my personal myspace (I used to not accept people because I didn't want to be a waste of miniscule data and a bad myspace friend, now I just don't really use it because my friends don't use theirs) you have seen a dated list of my favorite carbonated drinks. Here is the updated one:

1. Gingerbread Man Soda (Jones Soda holiday drinks, 2007)
2. Dr. Pepper Berries And Cream
3. Vernor's
4. Vanilla Coke (er... "Coca-Cola Vanilla")
5. Original Seltzer (it tricks me into thinking I'm drinking soda, but I'm not!)

In addition to that, I really like tea.
I used to be more of a tea nerd, but at this point I have no tea kettle so I've not been having very much of it. Lapsang Souchong is the best.

• Christmas is my favorite time of year.
I embrace the commercialism as much as I embrace the fantastical side... you know, Santa and all that.
It's just fun, and I have a penchant for decorated houses... but don't you dare put out one of those stupid looking inflatables.
They look fucking hideous. Seriously.

• I am not open about my interactions with drugs.
It's up to you to decide what I have or haven't done with myself.
It's hard enough to explain to people my existential beliefs... I just leave politics and drugs out of the public eye.

I will say this though: my art is not just some kind of result of chemical abuse, as is often postulated by many a lad and lass.
As I've been told many times before, I'm "just that weird on my own."

• I love cats

• I love pizza

------------

I suppose that's all I'll bother the world with for my introduction.
This blog is going to be a wonderful thing if people learn about it.
This is not a Bubblegum Octopus-centric blog however.
In addition to occasional online exclusive type garbage and updates on shows/recordings/merch, I'll be writing about: my life, my cat/my girlfriend's cat/other cats, equipment I use/have used, my circuit bending and electronics building, video games, anime, and I'll be posting some of my embarrassing drawings, music reviews, and hyping my friends' visual art/music/businesses/etc.

I really want to re-establish healthy relationships with you!

• Here is my last.fm page, feel free to be my friend:
last.fm/user/jazzycattime

• Also, feel free to become my fan on Facebook. I'm very good with responding on there:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bubblegum-Octopus/154699916968?ref=mf

And finally, I'd love to hear some of your bands and such.
If you have music you'd like me to hear or merch of yours that you'd like to force me to have, send it to the same P.O. box I use for CD/merch orders:

m@ the c@
P.O. Box 864
West Caldwell, NJ
07007

pro-tips:
If you make and send me a CD-R of your music (unless it's part of your aesthetic) make the mp3s you use at 320kbps or just burn it using uncompressed files.
Also, send some art if it's not a real CD! I will just as happily listen to CD-R in a case that says Memorex on it, but I am a CD collector and I love the things I have to have some sort of outside appearance.
(I also love novelty recordings. If you have hilarious recordings of your middleschool punk band or something, I really want them)

If you send a shirt, I wear men's small, but I do sometimes wear girly smalls and mediums, te-he-he-he ;D

If you send a sticker, it's almost definitely going to be on my merch box or a piece of my live equipment... even if you suck I'll probably put you on there!

Don't be strangers!
I got pretty reclusive, unresponsive, and impolite on the internet after that guy decided to take credit for my music, followed by even more of that stuff when I developed some health problems and an extremely chaotic life, but now I've straightened it out and I'm trying to make everything right again!
(I'm even commenting everyone who adds me on myspace again!)

- m@ the c@

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If you happen to be someone looking at random pages on blogspot, here are the projects & bands I am responsible for/play in:

Bubblegum Octopus: spastic hybrid of 90s video game style electronics, picopop, bemani style dance music, punk, and panicky grind and noise freakouts (solo, plays live)

Ultra Death Men: freeform rock/jazz with composed math-rock joy and semi-composed tasteless weird-groove (three piece, I play bass, theremin, other electronics, and compose)

Frame House: aggressive shoegaze twinged punk/indie rock (duo, I play bass and help write and arrange songs. I play mandolin, some guitar, and some other things on recordings... which are being made. The band has a live version with more members, shows coming soon)

c@: experimental noise/noisegrind/digigrind project turned avant-garde fuckery (solo, doesn't play live)

Fork Sister: a lo-fi hardcore punk/power violence/screamo that embraces digital artifacting and low-bit processing (solo, possibility of having a live version)

BlackAlaskan: highly accessible electronic pop music (duo, possibility of live drummer. I help arrange songs, aid programming, and play guitar)

Mercury Syringe: noise, avant-minimalism, and skate punk (three piece. I play guitar and do vocals)

Hurricane Metal: the hair metal/cock rock version of Frame House (duo, no shows yet. I do vocals)

The Rew-mi-ref-rots: ultra-spazzy, noisey and mathematical music... it's kind of a Mick Barr parody really (solo for now)

Dead bands or things with uncertain futures:

Awful Throats: improvised "noisecore" (three piece, I played drums and sometimes bass for one show and only drums for the recording)

Black Clocks: Party oriented digital grindcore, made before I knew there was such a thing (solo, never played live)

Rage-a-holic Tortise: completely weird spoken word/experimental noise/ambient mess with lots of screaming and innaccesible outsider humor (duo, never played live. Played bass, guitar, keys, did vocals, produced, arranged, and played with whatever things were in my room that we wanted to use)

First Aid Squid: Digigrind parody. All songs were recorded vocals first. (solo, no live shows)

I Am A Hexagon: Cybergrind/goregrind parody that my alter ego Todd "Farmdestroyer" Denniston is responsible for (solo, no shows)

The Cuddle Sluts: Weird ultra-minimal, cutesy digigrind collab with Teddy of Ultra Cutez (duo, no shows, one song was recorded)

highly Effective People: digital based melodic death metal (solo, despite the fact that it was meant to be for multiple people. Project died before recording was finished)

Blüdstrÿp: improvised grindcore (three piece, sometimes with guests. Played bass and vocals. Only played live at things that were not shows)

Pie Taster Telethon: Breakcore/pop madness with DigiDan of Lucky Constrictors, TPATP, and other bands (duo, no finished recordings)

yamiwosukasu: first solo attempts to do melodic music. Also had some ambient noise songs and ambient/digigrind songs also made before I knew of such a thing existing (solo, no shows)

Static Revolution: freshman year hardcore punk band. Songs sounded too much like Motörhead (three piece, played bass, no shows or recordings)

Danny Levitz And The Mach 7 Trio: punk/rap metal band that never had a drummer (three piece, played bass, no shows or recordings)

People/bands I have collaborated with in non-band contexts with recordings or shows:

Giggle The Ozone.: avant-surf prog-punk new wave band that I play bass live for

Scissor Shock/Adam Cooley: we did a song called Untitled And Unfinished that was never released. I also sent him some things to use on the Scissor Shock album The Mars Travolta. I'll be collaborating to create a soundtrack for one of his upcoming experimental films

Kindergarten Hazing Ritual: I did vocals for a track on his album "Myspace - The Album". Track was called "I'll help you win a free ipod if you promise me head". I'll also be appearing on an upcoming album for his plunderphonics project Eaglebauer Goes To Quiznoes

Matthew Helpern: He's the dude from 120% Says You're Going To Explode. We did some wacky digigrind song in 2005

Peppermint Pony: We had a split put out on Brokecore Records before it went under and we did 4 songs each + four collaborative tracks

Welcome

2009-11-21T20:32:00.001-08:00

Hello!

I don't really have time to write in this until a little bit later, but thank you for stopping by!
I'll have something here later tonight... a story perhaps?