Thursday, April 25, 2013
Caran D'ache Astronaut Tin Box
Artwork from a tin container of Caran D'ache coloured
pencils. Not sure of the date, but I'm guessing
early seventies. Painting is signed "Leffel."
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
'Hunting A Schizophrenic Wolf' -- Coming Soon from The Fucked Up Beat
Last week, I wrote about ‘Roswell Radio Cult,’ by The
Fucked Up Beat. I’m excited to write that ‘Hunting A
Schizophrenic Wolf’ will be available for purchase on
Daddy Tank Records in June. This will be The Fucked
Up Beat’s 12th album, and their first ‘physical’
release. I’ve had the privilege of hearing it, and
it is fantastic.
The Fucked Up Beat is Eddie Palmer and Brett Zehner. Eddie Palmer recently shared some insight with me on their working method, which is conducted with Eddie in New York and Brett in San Diego. I’d been intrigued by their song titles and had asked about them. “In terms of the song titles,” Eddie wrote, “Brett sends me free form typewriting, and I take parts of his writing and cut it up into song titles. Some of the words are parts of poems by Allen Ginsberg, on a few songs. I create the album artwork before recording.
“The songs for each album start when Brett sends me beats and field recordings. I then cut up and edit his beats and add my own bass, keyboards and synths. Then I go back and add some very short samples from 1920's and 1930's American jazz songs, all public domain. I sometimes loop these samples. Then there is a process of collaging and editing to get the final version.
“The process happens rather quickly. I work best when I do everything all at once. Brett and I are in a good place with the process, and we both have the same idea of what we want to do. He sends me things, then I add things and show them to him. It’s rather easy for us to work this way.”
One of the things I like best about the music of The Fucked Up Beat is how well its collage elements mesh together. The music has a terrific smoothness and unity, and it creates a fresh, independent vision from its diverse source material.
Here is a preview from ‘Hunting A Schizophrenic Wolf.’
The Fucked Up Beat is Eddie Palmer and Brett Zehner. Eddie Palmer recently shared some insight with me on their working method, which is conducted with Eddie in New York and Brett in San Diego. I’d been intrigued by their song titles and had asked about them. “In terms of the song titles,” Eddie wrote, “Brett sends me free form typewriting, and I take parts of his writing and cut it up into song titles. Some of the words are parts of poems by Allen Ginsberg, on a few songs. I create the album artwork before recording.
“The songs for each album start when Brett sends me beats and field recordings. I then cut up and edit his beats and add my own bass, keyboards and synths. Then I go back and add some very short samples from 1920's and 1930's American jazz songs, all public domain. I sometimes loop these samples. Then there is a process of collaging and editing to get the final version.
“The process happens rather quickly. I work best when I do everything all at once. Brett and I are in a good place with the process, and we both have the same idea of what we want to do. He sends me things, then I add things and show them to him. It’s rather easy for us to work this way.”
One of the things I like best about the music of The Fucked Up Beat is how well its collage elements mesh together. The music has a terrific smoothness and unity, and it creates a fresh, independent vision from its diverse source material.
Here is a preview from ‘Hunting A Schizophrenic Wolf.’
'Victorian Machine Music' by Plinth
This is the sort of thing I find irresistible. Click here to find out more.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The Kantele and The Kalevala
During our visit to the Musical Instrument Museum last
weekend, I saw this beautiful Finnish kantele. The kantele is a plucked zither. I have a special liking for the kantele. My cartooning project for 2012 was the
first fifth of a cartoon adaptation of the Kalevala, the epic poem of
Finland. The hero of the Kalevala
is the shaman Vainamoinen, who plays the kantele. 
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
'Roswell Radio Cult' by The Fucked Up Beat
In the movies of the 1950’s, the world was a sanitized and less bewildering place. But the sci-fi movies of that time were different.
In the sci-fi movies, the world was weird and disturbing. The government was conducting secret programs. Alien spacecrafts were crashing in the desert. The oceans were incubators for giant radioactive monsters. And mad scientists were everywhere, conducting bizarre experiments on their hapless victims.
This is the edgy psychological territory that “Roswell Radio Cult” by The Fucked Up Beat seems to place in. With track titles like ‘The Terror From Beyond/who traveled down highways of space and time’ and ‘The Groom Lake Flatwoods Monster/I’d like some gasoline please!’ it is an album built to inhabit that shadowy B- movie world.
The Fucked Up Beat is Eddie Palmer of New York and Brett Zehner of San Diego. They describe their music as ‘Experimental Schizo Noir Trip Hop.’ Regarding the album’s long, fantastic titles, Eddie Palmer says “On ‘Roswell,’ we wanted to create fake movie titles for American sci-fi movies of the 50’s. We usually finish all our song titles and the album name before we create the music. This gives us a thematic approach to each album, and a direction for the songs.”
The music on ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ supports this theme beautifully. But The Fucked Up Beat do not promote that concept so insistently that it becomes a limitation on the album’s musical or conceptual scope. The weird fusion of styles and beats and moods on ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ suggest places beyond one specific temporal,
geographic or conceptual location. It’s great fuel for the imagination, and for highly personal psychic trips.
Listening to the album, it was easy to imagine it as a sci-fi soundtrack to my dad’s life in an alternate universe. Full of samples from American jazz songs of the 20’s and 30’s, ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ is largely built on the music he would have listened to.
In the real world, my dad did an honest day’s work, drove home, had a cold beer, and watched a ball game.
In the alternate universe that ‘Roswell Radio Cult’ suggests, he would have stopped in the desert after work to do peyote with the Mothman. When he got home, he would contact the saucers orbiting Earth on his short-wave radio. Then he would stay up most of the night, talking to little green men about The Plan.
The music on Roswell Radio Cult is extremely accomplished and inventively arranged. Beyond any conceptual framework or narrative the track titles might suggest, it stands up as a purely musical experience. It has many bizarre and abstract moments. It also has plenty of outrageous and catchy grooves. This is experimental music that swings.
Perhaps the thing that impresses me most about the album, though, is how well it conveys a feeling of mystery. And, how well it suggests that we humans are a small part of a very big, and very strange, Universe.
This is a quality found only in the best works of science fiction, in any medium.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
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