It's Alive
Current mood: possible
Category: possible Music

Sunday we made more progress in drum tracking for the album.
APRIL BROKEN DUSK
TRAMPS IN STEREO
NIKKI JANE
THE GREATEST LOVER OF ALL
PARASOL

And tonight, Thursday, we worked on arranging
RING MODULATOR

An album is a home
You should be able to live in it for a while
Perhaps a lifetime
There are tract houses in rows repeating every 4 or 5
And there are those homes with "personality"

But there's also that house at the end of the block with the cars piled up in the yard
smells like sitting water and buzzes, a never ending camping trip
The guy who lives there never comes outside
And his kids, you think they are his kids, have little deformities
Trigger finger, psychic twitch, knowing smile
Personality does not begin to describe it
This is an album you'll play your whole life
In your nightmares

There's only one copy
scarred from drunken brawls, cooking accidents
But You own it
this thing so full of the struggle of life you smile imagining its birth,
crawling bloody across the floor, it's alive
pummeling other records
to be king of the turntable and scream out from your stereo

Currently listening : Home By Automatic Arms Release date: 06 June, 2006

1:05 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Sunday 18FEB07 - Wednesday 18APR07
Category: Music

On that day IGOR SPECTRE decided to complete tracking of our 12 song album 2 months later.

That means we need to complete our tracking on April 18th. (Then we mix and press)

So far we've tracked drums for:
BRUISE KNIFE (Sun 18FEB07)
MY 2 CENTS (Sun 18FEB07)
PHAROAH'S GOT THE BOMB (Thu 18FEB07)
WHERE IS MY HEART? (Thu 18FEB07)

You may be wondering about the secrets to our rock recipe?
Well you've come to the right place. With each post we'll peel back our metal skin a bit so you can steal a glimpse of the pounding heart of rock n' roll. Gather round would be surgeons of rock.

We take inspiration from the many greats who've gone before us. Like reading accounts of Tony Visconti's and Brian Eno's techniques for recording David Bowie's albums. Visconti developed a technique of using three mics on Bowie's vocals. The mics were placed very close, medium distance and very far and set up with gates so that as Bowie sang louder on different parts of the song the more distant mics would kick in adding more spaciousness to the sound. We used this technique on a few songs on WE MISS THE RUSSIANS.

Here's Tony now to talk about recording:
>> DAVID BOWIE :: LODGER

This is a strange album, both dark and light. We dropped the ambient-side-two concept and just recorded songs! We had fun, but nevertheless an ominous feeling pervaded the album for me. The song, "Move On" was written while listening carefully to a tape of "All The Young Dudes" played backwards. So accurate were the reversed chord changes, that when we flipped the tape over and played "Move On" backwards, David and I were able to vocalize "All The Young Dudes" and record it. When we flipped it back over and played it the right direction you can hear the results towards the end of the track. It's weird!

"Fantastic Voyage" and "Boys Keep Swinging" are the same exact chord changes and structure, even in the same key, just the tempo and instrumentation are different. We even recorded a third song with the same structure, but it never got finished. "Red Money" is Iggy Pop's track "Sister Midnight" slowed down slightly with some instruments taken off and new ones added. I love "African Night Flight", which began as a jam based on Dale Hawkins' "Susie-Q". We were also treated to the creative inclusion of Adrian Belew, late of Frank Zappa's crew, for this album.

My only regret is that we went to New York to finish this album, and it suffered at the mixing stage because New York studios simply were not as versatile or well-equipped as their European counterparts in those days! The heavy New York vibe (in the '70s cocaine was ubiquitous and naively abused) added more darkness to this album.

Currently listening : Hatful of Hollow By The Smiths Release date: 09 November, 1993

1:43 AM - 2 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Monoxide
Category: Writing and Poetry

I saw her sitting in the car
smoking a cigarette
her eyes pure and white
snow fell on sun set
I saw her breathing

her cigarette ash grew longer
as the shadows tend to do
but she never moved a muscle
her engine purred so smooth
I saw her breathe

the ash fell upon her
as flakes fell from the sky
I didn't move a muscle
Just sat and watched her die
I saw her last breath

Currently reading : Cloud Atlas: A Novel By David Mitchell Release date: 17 August, 2004

2:51 AM - 4 Comments - 3 Kudos - Add Comment

Lunar bounce

Essay about power for the future:

http://www.aip.org/tip/INPHFA/vol-8/iss-2/p12.pdf

Currently listening : The Bends By Radiohead Release date: 04 April, 1995

11:11 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

neighbors!
Current mood: envious
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Autolux has recorded Joy Division song "No Love Lost" for the companion soundtrack "Out of Control" for the film Control, a bio-pic about Ian Curtis, deceased frontman of Joy Division.

How fun.

Currently listening : Future Perfect By Autolux Release date: 26 October, 2004

5:40 PM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Fear of Robots
Category: Music

Robots replace humans don't they? Isn't that why we created them...to take over repetitive tasks. All the time set free by a washing machine. Time re-captured by a drum machine. These and many other robotic machines circling around us -- friendly servants happily carrying out the most mundane tasks effortlessly, precisely. We have them cruise our missiles and cruise our cars. The mechanic says he has to run a diagnostic on your car cuz they all have computers in them now. A robot Tivos our favorite shows and another suggests Netflix DVDs. Mimic human thought.

A bumper sticker reads "Drum machines have no soul." Fear of robots? There is a computer program that finished "The Unfinished Symphony" by analysing the beginning to predict the end.

Scientists are working now to predict our every thought and desire. They are driven by capitalism which provides the money for the research which will generate endlessly gratifying product tailored to meet our every desire which will in turn lead to infinite profit.

IGOR SPECTRE is robot free. How long can IGOR SPECTRE remain robot free? Does IGOR SPECTRE have control of their own destiny? What invisible hand guides us?

There are so many forces that shape us: hunger, sexual desire, ego, capitalism, democracy, sound waves and boredom are some of the basics.

Can you name some more? Julie? Bill? Sandy? Fredo? I see you.

Currently listening : Low By David Bowie Release date: 28 September, 1999

2:32 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

seixip eht
Current mood: late

Some of you met, saw, heard our new drummer, Santos DeLeon
We had a pleasant rock outing a few weeks back and he performed splendidly. Welcome Santos! Please check out the new line-up at your first opportunity.

I watched some of loudQUIETloud: a film about the Pixies this evening. Now I'm all fired up again about music.

We had a pro ductive prac tice last SunDay and made some pro gress. But now the holidays are here and we will hibernate again.

What was our progress? This blog promised the deep secrets of igor spectre…where are they?

We workshopped:
The Greatest Lover of All
April Broken Dusk
Damaged Goods
Tramps in Stereo

We are back up to 6 hours of rehearsal every Sunday (except holidays and after shows) so this means you can expect an album at least as good if not better than our debut WE MISS THE RUSSIANS or your money back.

6 hours can be taxing, but, as we've learned over the past 6 years it is a key part of our band psychology. Somewhere in the middle of the desert of Sunday afternoon inhibitions breakdown and creative impulse becomes a matter of survival: How can we make the next three hours interesting? Let's come up with something new so we don't bore ourselves to death. And so we grow by attrition,

Sure there's a component of brute rote. We can be better musicians. But rock is not really about musicianship in the end. Sure that's a part of it. But if that was the whole thing RUSH would be everybody's favorite band. But they are not.

So what is the key to rock? Nobody knows yet (except The Beatles and they are all dead except for Paul and Ringo), but IGOR SPECTRE has made it their life mission to discover the answer.

Stay tuned.

what did they wear to practice?
Rob - Bruins
Santos - leather
BRIAN - Gilligan hat
Jeff - green and blue Barney Miller tie

Currently watching : Loudquietloud - A Film About the Pixies Release date: 07 November, 2006

1:07 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Live Cam
Category: Art and Photography

Anybody out there in IGORVILLE know about live webcasting ?

I've mounted a  CAMERA on my guitar and want to beam our live shows into cyberspace in realtime so that alien websurfers can hear & see how much music has developed since the Voyager Spacecraft carried that gold record out into space back in the 70's.

So if you know an easy way to do live webcasting that does not interfere with our wildly freeform imporvisational spontaneous emotive rockin' live show than please send info.  This cause is important enough to us that we are willing to mount antenae onto our rock helmets if need be.

Yours truly,

Noxious Conundrum

Currently listening : And the Surrounding Mountains By Radar Brothers Release date: 10 May, 2002

5:09 PM - 4 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

Electric Harp
Category: Music

Just downloaded this album by Zeena Parkins called "No Way Back."

here's the blurb:

In between working with elaborate classical evocations of her small-ensemble compositions (Isabelle) and creating powerful detailed works such as her Radica Jewish Culture composition Mouth=Maul=Betrayer, New York avant-garde composer Zeena Parkins still found time to make fiery, improvised solo recordings for electric harp. With her entirely personal instrument she can shape complex works of feedback-drenched, string-bending, and percussive noise texture, and with this recording she continues in the vein of work developed on her striking solo debut, Nightmare Alley. Parkins uses tape loops and samplers sparingly as accompaniment, though the majority is solo harp filled with distorted metallic textures. Zeena Parkins transfigures the harp into an extraordinary instrument of many voices. No Way Back comes highly recommended to fans of '90s experimental and improvised music.

Currently listening : No Way Back By Zeena Parkins Release date: 29 September, 1998

1:22 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

music is math is music
Current mood: tube overdrive
Category: tube overdrive Dreams and the Supernatural

ah, the saturday morning bloggercise. Why am I blogging when i should be editing BOPPIN'? Well I'm actually listening to music that I may be cutting into the film. Since I'm thinking about music I will write about it too.

A more liberal climate. A jazzier drummer. More efficient communication. Texture. Silences. Space. Spaces. Side two of the BLACK SABBATH album. It has this organic, improv vibe to it. It wanders in and out of several states of mind. Where one tune ends and the next begins becomes irrelevant. This blurring effect also happens on HALF MACHINE LIP MOVES by CHROME. The Beatles were good at it and Pink Floyd. It's like these people are not so impressed with themselves simply for writing a song, a tune, a riff, which they have to sit on, and so they can change channels at will and mimic the way the mind leaps from thought to thought. They are transmitting mood and emotional states as much as songs, lyrics, chords.

I wonder if Santos is into funk or jungle grooves at all? He likes some jazz stuff so I'm guessing syncopation is OK.

TALKING HEADS
ENO
BLACK SABBATH
LOW
EVERYBODY WHO PRETENDED TO LIKE ME IS GONE

breakthroughs at last practice:
switching verse rhythm for chorus rhythm
following intentions of demo
loft
mood lighting
space

what would it sound like if every song was played block chord style? i.e. play the chord once only when it first appears and let it ring out until the next chord change. Make sure the chords are clearly stated. The drums will carry the pulse. The vocals will carry the melody. This would create lots of space. Filling in the space, or not, would be a different issue. This is like writing a song and just blocking out the chords on the piano, not a part, just the chords, just the harmonic progression. And then really listening to what the vocals are doing melodically and rhythmically. Over and over again. Then embellish that. Support that. The music would evolve differently. We'd accent things differently based on the vocal performance. Variations and nuances would present themselves.

Listening

maybe it's not quantity

but quality

we could double our 6 hours a week into 12 hours simply by upping the quality

of listening

I'm high on this communication thing after listening to over a year's worth of feedback about BOPPIN' AT THE GLUE FACTORY. I wouldn't say I have it down so much as that I'd like to switch majors and get a PhD in it.

Art (music, film) is communication of the most complex sort. Which makes talking about it and evaluating it even trickier. How do you use words to discuss a form of communication the strength of which is it's ability to communicate beyond words?


We have not forgotten about the cover song contest. We got some great entries from you all, thanks! We're just going through band changes and getting ready for the next wave of white noise energy. Did you know that there is also pink noise and brown noise. Oddly brown noise sound the most disturbing to me. It favors lower freq and has a muffled Cronenbergesque quality. We should use it in our music.

note: not to be confused with
Brown Sound
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the guitar tone. For the random signal, see Brownian Noise. For the defecation-inducing sound, see Brown note.
The "brown sound" is a legendary electric guitar distortion tone that musicians try to emulate using various effects pedals, tube amplifiers and modeling amplifiers. The term was coined by guitarist Eddie Van Halen to describe the sound of Alex Van Halen's snare drum, which he then attempted to emulate with his 100-watt Marshall amplifier running at full volume. More than the appropriate number of user-submitted product reviews at the well known musician review websites claim that product X can replicate the Brown Sound perfectly.

Currently listening : Black Sabbath By Black Sabbath Release date: 25 October, 1990

10:47 AM - 6 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment