Last night, I was fortunate enough to experience Daniel Johnston’s performance at Neumo’s in Seattle. Along with eight bottles of water lined up in a row, he brought two song journals on stage with him that he referenced the whole evening. He began one song with a warning that part of the lyrics were torn out of the journal so he didn’t know how far he’d make it through the song. He seemed to do just fine. The Dead Science, who was one of the opening bands, also performed as Johnston’s backup band for part of his set. In the middle of the set in order to introduce them, he had to ask them what their band name was again, and the guitar player graciously whispered in his ear to remind him. If you haven’t seen the documentary about this guy, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, you should. Here’s a bit of the show from last night:
DJ Sta-Prest here. Apparently everyone’s still recovering from the brilliance and intensity that was the HER Magma Fest Volcano Explosion, as there has yet to be a post here about it. I’ll keep it brief and say that that evening was incredibly special, and showcased so much about what I love about the Seattle music community. I think these pictures (by Flickr user thombert, aka Kevin Parsell) sum it all up as my words could never do, so I wanted to share them with you all:
There are more pics from the Magma Festival at Kevin’s and Whprwhil’s Flickr pages.
Thanks to everyone involved. I am so proud to be a part of this community.
Okay, he is kind of already, like, everybody’s hero and a frequent spin here at Hollow Earth Radio. And we were able to nail him down for a “live” performance and interview for The Corner Pocket Program*. Though, too be honest, it is not quite live. But it will be glorious! Tune in Thursday from 2-4pm and/or Saturday from 5/7pm PST for an exclusive (now that the show is in the past**) performance from Mr. Blau himself and a interview of this great Anacortes hero from Clyde of Your Heart Breaks fame!
*The Corner Pocket Program is a weekly two hour music show of local music from Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan Counties in NW Washington State! Viva Bellingham, Mount Vernon, Anacortes!
**The show occurred here in the central district of Seattle, WA a month or so ago at “The Ark.”
Wednesday’s set will be the entirety of the White Elephant Record Exchange Project. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 38 tracks and at least 95 minutes of music (the votes are still out). This project (as is this blog) is hosted and sponsored by Beep Repaired a lovely group of individuals who make and support tons of great music and art in the Seattle area and beyond, many thanks to all of them. Also Thanks to Jason Kopec of noise | order for help developing the idea and putting together the site that is linked here, where all the tracks will remain for free download starting this thursday, 03/20. The cute lil’ elephant is by David Bratton.
The White Elephant Record Exchange Project was
undertaken by 20 individuals in the late part of
January 2008. The project involved sampling,
composition, and ultimately all kinds of editing and
manipulation of various original source material.
Participants were first to find the “worst” and “most
unusable” 12″ vinyl record possible and hand it off to
the curator. Those records were then distributed to
the participants insuring everyone received a
different record than the one they submitted. After
receiving this record, the first goal was to complete
one song.
SONG A
The point of Song A was to compose a piece of around 1
minute, 30 seconds through editing and creative
playback of the record alone. No pitch adjustment,
time stretching, compression, or any digital effects
were allowed in this phase of the project. This meant
that the participant could basicly just cut and paste,
do a bit of layering, and then adjust track levels.
It was essentially an exercise in composition to see
what each individual could create with supposedly
“unusable” source material and very limited
constraints.
Those songs were all finished and then given back to
the curator. Once all the songs were gathered, they
were then redistributed back to the original person
that submitted the 12″ vinyl. For example, if you
submitted Led Zepplin “III” as your album, you then
got the remixed, cut-up piece someone created from
that album. Then the Song B phase began.
SONG B
The creation of this song had no boundaries
whatsoever. The idea was now to allow each
participant total freedom (without the diffcult
constraints of the Song A phase) to create a remix of
someone else’s Song A piece.
