Sunday, February 28, 2010

LURKER




Philly basement scuzz mess home CDR thing induced fuzz feedback and lo-fi fuckery
http://www.archivecd.com/image/DEEP%20POSSUM%20EDIT.mp3
enjoy the malaise

Sunday, February 21, 2010

LOUDEST SOUND IN RECORDED HISTORY


Saw a show on some HighDef channel (I'm a sucker for anything on Hidef TV) about Krakatoa.


The loudest sound in recorded history occurred on August 27, 1883, just off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia.
A volcano on the small island of Krakatoa was undergoing the cataclysmic stage of its months-long eruption. At 10:20 AM the volcano exploded with a sound heard, literally, around the world.
Scientists estimated the explosion's sound to be around 180 decibels, which is a great enough force to instantly kill all hearing tissue within a human ear.
For comparison, 180dB is about 13x as loud as a jet engine from 100 ft, or as loud as a rifle shot at point blank range. People 2,200 miles away in Perth, Australia could clearly hear the eruption immediately after the explosion.
The explosion spewed a cloud of lava and ash that killed all 3,000 people living on an island 8 miles away. Tsunami waves caused by the volcano crested at over 100 ft.
The eruption sent a shockwave of energy that traveled around the world approximately 7 times and registered on measurement instruments for 5 days after the eruption.
Tsunami waves reached the coast of South Africa over 8,000 miles away, and smaller waves registered on tidal meters as far away as the English Channel.
However, the English waves occurred too soon after the explosion to be remnants of the tsunami. Scientists believe these disturbances were instead a result of air displacement caused by the sound of the eruption


More nerdy sound factoid stuff.. dont know if this is true or not but sounds feasible i suppose


But if you're talking about sound in decibels at the recording source, it's a different story. The loudest sound possible in air is 194 decibels. What does this mean? It means that anything with a higher energy density cannot travel as a sinusoidal wave through air--the wave breaks down, causing turbulence and friction at the wavefront (like comparing smooth ocean waves to the breakers on a beach that happen when a wave gets too big). Such energy in air would turn into heat and even possibly light or plasma rather than sound; it only turns into sound under 194 decibels. You could imagine that in the first split second of a nuclear blast, the fireball has an energy density greater than the equivalent of 194 decibels, and instead of "sound" you get instant supersonic wavefront of destruction. Once the energy density breaks down, the shockwave travels out at the speed of sound, starting at 194 decibels and getting quieter as it radiates outwards. Probably the people who live to tell about nuclear blasts have heard sounds in the lower 100s of decibels or less. Recording equipement and ears actually get destroyed at sounds lower than 194dB, for example supposedly your hearing tissue gets destroyed pretty instantly at 180 decibels, and even 150 decibels will make you go deaf in a short while. So: loudest absolute sound is some sort of cataclysmic explosion volcano, meteor impact, big bang, etc. Loudest sound in energy density is 194dB and occurs at the edge of destructive events, such as major explosions, suicidal blue whales, supersonic aircraft, etc, but this sound is not heard or recorded by the observer; it diffuses by the time it is heard or else it kills the listener.

STEREOPHILE




Was trolling through stereophile http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/the_recording_angel/ and saw an article about some blind test with recorded music and live music and noticed John Atkinson's recording rig consisted of two different pairs of DPA mics the 4003 and the 4011's and Millennia media mic pre's.. good call John.. the past few years i've been running the DPA4052's (same family as the other 4000 series DPA mics minus a mic body) and the Millennia media M-2B tube mic... All of the bigjar books recordings were done with this rig and of particular note i think the Religious Knives CD came out particularly awesome sounding if i don't mind patting myself on the back too much.

Monday, February 15, 2010

COLD CAVE

I started to hear some buzz about this band like 6 months ago and was intrigued by the name, which i liked a good bit.. i later heard one of the dudes was from Philly, and Hospital records was doing some spanky limited tape releases from them. Alright so time to google that shit and check out myspace tracks. Mind you i never download music online because as a general rule i hate listening to music off a shitty PC with $50 speakers, but myspace I'll cruise to sample shit out as its so easy. Anyway back to story, I punched up the COLD CAVE myspace page http://www.myspace.com/coldcave and the jams immediately started to flow... I was mixed with a handful of emotions, the most powerful of which was being thankful i hadn't been 6 months late to the party this was utter shit.. I lasted 20secs on the myspace page and was pronto out of there. I did get a fair chuckle thinking it was pretty funny that some one currently could take Depeche Mode and twist that into some current underground rebirth that was "cool" once again. What a fucking scam!! sheer genius. Like 3 weeks later i was cruising some audiophile nerds blog off the stereophile website http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/ Stephen Mejias who i guess is from the NNJ area as he writes about the Princeton record exchange and NYC a bunch. Anyway I'm cruising his blog finding amusement in lots of different shit when fucking cold cave pop up with a big gush attached to it.. "2009 single of the year" voted by him.. no wonder i cant sell releases anymore my taste must be even shittier then before. For the record this youtube video didn't make me burst into as much hate as the myspace track but i still don't like it. Yours truly grumpy old man signing off.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

SHIZUKA

Apparently Japanese underground vocalist and guitarist Shizuka committed suicide early this month. A fairly under documented band and artist that really summarized all the stuff i love about the Japanese psychedelic world of Tokyo pre- 2000. Haunting, mysterious, shrouded in darkness, delicate but yet dashed with moments of blissful shredding guitar feedback. Her band featured guitarist Miura Maki on guitar, and Kosugi Jun on drums, who if I'm correct both served time in Haino's Fushitsusha. A pair of PSF CD's can be found without too much trouble one being a studio album and the Live Album traditional aesthetics which was recorded in 95 from Osaka but not released till 2008 is maybe one of the best releases PSF has done in years in my eyes.

JACK ROSE RECORD RELEASE SHOW

So big show last night in Philly to mark the launch of Jack Rose's most recent studio release which will be out on Thrill Jockey records i suppose any day now? if not currently for sale. Lots of great bands played all of which made sense in the context of who and what Jack was. PELT, MICHEAL CHAPMAN, THURSTON MOORE/ CORSANO/ FLAHERTY/ NANCE/ + voilin girl, MEGABOOZEBAND, PELT, BLACK TWIG PICKERS, GLENN JONES, MEG BAIRD+CHRIS FORSYTH, WILLIE LANE and D CHARLES SPEER. Practically a mini fest sort of line-up. Hosted at the Latvian society in Philly (pretty kick ass venue actually) which featured lots of cool foreign beers. Anyway lots of great music, nothing really jumped out at me as being particularly awesome but was a cool collection of bands that were different enough to make keep it interesting. Between sets they played some video exerts of Jack in performance and interview that will be part of an upcoming DVD release on strange attractions. Below is a small trailer for the release
The DVD project was worked on by Jesse Sheppard and features some truly fantastic footage of Jack and Glenn Jones playing in a loft in Brooklyn on some sunny afternoon, along with interview footage conducted by Byron Coley from the same location. Also included is some concert footage from a Philly gig (i did external audio for this portion). All and all its a fantastic looking release and based on all the parts I've seen to date it does create a understanding of how Jack evolved into one of the the most prominent pickers of today. I've heard an early April release date for the the DVD but I'll post more when i hear about it being confirmed.

Friday, February 12, 2010

AI ASO







Three consecutive snow storms of roughly 2 feet this winter which is an absurd amount for an area that might get 12" in an entire winter. Driving around at about midnight during the most recent storm on empty roads taking iphone pics to a soundtrack of Ai Aso's Lavender seemed very fitting and peaceful.

Monday, February 1, 2010

WALMART OF LABELS

So i meant to comment on this before when i first heard about it so finally had the time to share my thoughts.

IMPORTANT RECORDS SALE http://importantrecords.com/releases/44_66_sale.html
44/44 & 66/66 The Important Records 2009 Holiday Sale44 cds for $44 66 cds for $66shipping for either is:$7 in the USA via media rate (priority or UPS is available)$16 Canada/Mexico via airmail$42 overseas via flat rate global priority w/ tracking+ all cds will have a small drill hole in their barcode+ double cds count as 2

From a consumer prospective this is an absurd deal no doubt, their are like 300 or some odd releases on Important with lots being things i own currently, things I'd like to own, or things I would have liked to have released on my own label (minus the generic packages and shitty horrible ugly inner CD slipcase info commercials). But lots of great audio content, and 66 CD's is a shit load of music for that price. From a label perspective i suppose its a way to recoup some cash flow that is tied up potentially in junk stock that you have sitting around. A good way to jump start some sales and i suppose much better to get things out of the basement and warehouse and out to people who will listen to the stuff.. Hell that's the purpose of doing a label of love after all isn't it, even with selling the releases at a loss. But if i was a distro from either overseas or in the US i'd be mad as hell. What if i was Aquarius records for example. How the hell am i going to sell any Important record back catalog CD's against that deal he's running? I'd also be annoyed if i was the guy that two weeks prior i bought 3 or 4 titles from the site at regular price. I'd be feeling pretty cheated right about now, knowing that i could have had all the same discs for $1 each if i had waited. I'm reading way too much into this but does feel like some walmart moving into some small town dumping prices which forces the close outs of all the local stores on the main drag. http://www.newrules.org/retail/news/walmart-charged-predatory-pricing
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/24/business/wal-mart-on-trial-on-predatory-pricing-charges.html?pagewanted=1
I suppose i shouldn't care?? but i was basically glad i wasn't trying to release new shit the same month against that sale. I mean does the guy who bought 66CD's in one shot really need to buy anything else for the next 2-3 months???