The Cover

We are slowly getting all of the details together so that we can put these in people's hands.

Bottom Feeders

Special internet-only track for Bottom Feeders added below!

Check track listing! New notes from Frankie as well!

“You don't get harmony when everybody sings the same note.”

BEAST liner note for "Seven Mild Growlers" added below!

Notes added for Kenny Johnson's "Sentences Generated For Disgust"!

AND on Mur's "Defaulter Deformer"!

After Silence

Sounds to Read By, the compilation DSSAC put together for issue three of The Project for a New Mythology, is available! Check out New Mythology's print issues while you still can. Issue four will be print, but the editor has rumored that he may go online at some point. The print issues are great looking and chock full of new writing talent!

If you glance down at the previous post, you'll see the track listing and notes on the upcoming Bottom Feeders compilation. Coming very soon!

Bottom Feeders

This compilation was originally conceived as a collection of recordings of Bass-Type Instruments doing things that Bass-Type Instruments do not ordinarily do. At some point it was expanded to include Electronic Noise Artists... the only music maker lower on the Sonic Food Chain than the Bass-Type Instrument Players. We also threw in a few Screaming Drunk Girls for good measure.

Track Listing and Notes:

1. Scraps/Chic Norris
A microtape recorder placed inside the bottom of an 8" doumbek inserted above the bridge of an upright bass presented to the player Koto style.

2. No More Tickets to Frownland/Jeff McLeod
Arrangement tracked live through a stereo filter. One take of minimal Chapman stick overdubs through a second stereo filter, then one take of bass guitar direct through a tube preamp.

3. Seven Mild Growlers/Roman Gabriel Todd's Beast Rising Up Out Of The Sea
recorded August 2006 to 4 track cassette.

this was recorded in 7 takes. first is a whole tone scale in A with a nice little blast beat. second is a whole tone scale in Bflat with a tom tom rumble. third is ultimate butter. fourth is a tribute to the flying luttenbachers. fifth is 121231212312123. sixth is a peice made on the drums by benny with RGT adding notes. seven is bass vs drums. the 7 takes were edited together in a cakewalk program.

t. ray once took a shit and told me "it was a mild growler"

4. Vomitorium/Stephen McClurg
Upright bass prepared with binder clips. I almost erased this, but when I began projectile vomiting during playback, I figured it was the keeper. Second take following the first take following a 13 hr drinking binge.

5. Picking Weed Out oF Their Loco Heads/As documented by Scott Bazar.
Performed solo on tabletop guitar by myself and a small electric fan. No effects or overdubs were used. It's a study on contrast: from dark calm to bright erratic.

6. Black Diaspora/Trey Lane

7. 40 Minutes Into A Bottle Of Mad Dog/MicSmythe (MS)
I got off work, picked up a bass, grabbed a noisemaker, some indian bells, and a bottle of Mad Dog. I pressed record. All live, with a touch of delay added during some bowed sections. The ambulance in the background is real.

8. Prologue/Mike Lane

9. Lane Change/Mike Lane
Mr. Lane was presented with a bass drum, an upright bass flat on its back, an electric bass with the headstock inserted into the drum head of the bass drum, some mallets and sticks. MicSmythe turned the knobs on an envelope filter while Lane triggered the drum and played on the various surface points of the upright bass.

10. Conjugal Visit With An Unplugged Electric Bass/MS
A tribute to instruments sitting in corners collecting dust. An old electric bass with rusty strings recorded unplugged, with outboard effects added in mixdown.

11. Basic Training/MS
The most obvious natural harmonics played in the most obvious way for less than obvious reasons. The title is a clue for those that wish to venture further.

12. Sentences Generated For Disgust/Kenny Johnson
Upright bass, Marimba, Roto tom frame, boundless playground bells (playground for developmentally challenged children in Montgomery), Vocoder samples, Hand claps.

Recorded 8-10-2006.

13. This the stars, the sea mirror, unseen in his death./McClurg
An electric bass played with the edge of a quarter. I began with the idea of using the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” as a raga. Third take.

14. Walking the Coward/Frankie
For this track a barrowed electric bass was sent though a cable to a recording device and a song was played by a man.

15. khflxlm/Jeff McLeod
Arrangement tracked live on Chapman stick into an Echoplex Digital Pro, with each successive part multiplied and overdubbed on the fly in the first pass-through. After the parts were played, they were then rearranged manually on the EDP, then recorded. The synth at the end was added after the EDP parts were dumped down, and is a pre-dialed-up pattern cranking up after the synth (an old Realistic Moog knock-off) was switched on.

16. Tothra/Panelouxx

17. Exit Comfort Station/Artaud's Skeleton
Recorded June 24, 2006, in Montgomery, Alabama. Used a G4 eMac. The track is comprised of drone vocals slowed down to emphasize the low end. Some of the vocals are doubled and quadrapuled up. Also some sounds of keys jingling, tweezed and tweaked to emphasize low end. Entirely improvised; it took a little under an hour to complete. Not recommended for high volume and/or weak woofers.

18. Onkyo/As documented by Scott Bazar.
“Onkyo” was recorded at home, no effects or overdubs were used. "Onkyo" means reverberation of sound. It is also a term used to describe a school of thought concerning minimalism. The goal of this piece was to create something of quiet intensity. A guitar was used placed on a table,muffled by cloth,and a large letter holding spring set on the pickups. The piece was performed by distancing myself from the table and gently tapping the floor. The vibrations would resonate through the spring and pickups creating a very low bassy thunder clap. It was recorded very low so that the silence is louder than the sounds causing the listener to hear things that may or may not be there and to raise the question "does it really exist?"

19. Defaulter Deformer/Mur
One electric bass track detuned to octaves and fifths and bowed--flavored with heavy flange and reverb effects. Second electric bass track tuned standard and distorted. Samples from Christian public television, Decorated war veteran and seasoned killer Mr. Rodgers, and a faith healer's sermon translated to Japanese - Lyrical phrase stolen from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake.

20. Soggy Donuts/K & B
Sample riff from a defretted 1980's Series Ten bass extracted by Ali A, with microtape vocals from a freak out session with Kelly T and Becky M. The actual bass player is our dirty little secret.

21. Outro/Matthew Martin
Matt was asked to play an ending without a beginning. Mike Lane grabbed his drums. Press record.

22. Cantelope/Frankie
For this track an old bass(y) acoustic guitar was mike(d) and ran through an octave pedal and distortion pedal, then the peice was improvised while a Dandelion ate a cantalope.

23. Hampton Boardwalk/Kelly Coyle
As I recall, the task was to have something composed and something improvised. I almost immediately wrote the composed piece for it I just couldn't get it recorded. That, and I didn't own a bass just then.

It's really a guitar piece, played on a tic-tac bass, an instrument that is tuned like a guitar but an octave lower. No fancy stuff on the recording (it could be better), but I'm pleased that I got it to work at all. The improv might be next (I'm not real sure).

Performance Notes: Nakatani

Tatsuya Nakatani
Satori Coffee House
December 9, 2006

First Set: Nakatani Solo (Percussion)

Gorgeous and mysterious. He began and ended with bowed gong and was able to create an amazing tonal presence: warm and cold, smooth and angular, dark and bright. All of this was felt before he "struck" any piece of percussion, but by the time he began to accompany the gong with bass drum, one could appreciate the sense of tonal space Nakatani was creating and the importance that every movement, every note, every gesture, now gained.

Second Set: Trio = Bazar (tabletop guitar)/McLeod (guitar)/Nakatani

From the first note, a very different, but still gratifying, experience in comparison to the first set. Bazar had the overall same approach as Nakatani here, translating the smallest scratches, rubs, taps, and scrapes into sound. But because Bazar was amplified, there was a much more sustained sinister quality to his proceedings (think of the dark hum and factory noises that haunt the characters in Eraserhead). McLeod arpeggiates possibilities and has a way of almost creating a harmonic cushion for everyone to rest on. The cushion never gets fully inflated and the listener never gets the chance to get too comfortable, which, for me, is the sweetest tension.

Third Set: Trio + DSSAC

An eight-piece group improv and one of the quietest that I have ever been a part of. Bazar described it as some sort of "organism." Even with four of the group using some type of electronics, the whole piece felt and moved organically. No real beginnings or endings, just bubbles floating to the surface: bird calls, bowed bass, singing bowls.

A big THANK YOU:

to everyone who came out to listen.
to Tatsuya Nakatani, Scott Bazar, and Jeff McLeod.
to everyone else who performed.
to Satori Coffee House.
to Sarah for the pics (including the one above) and treats (glad you found a place to get rid of those "fucking cookies.")

Update letting you know that future updates are on the way.

Not one, but two compilations are in the works. All the music and sequencing is done. We’re working on the details at this point. They are:

1) Noises to Read By
This is a compilation for a Kansas literary journal called Project for a New Mythology. The process of getting this together has been exciting, fun, and rewarding. Recordings by the usual gang of idiots featuring some fresh faces and sounds. Updates on this one should be up shortly!

2) DSSAC/BASS
Starting as a comp featuring solo, improvised bass, this thing got totally out of hand!! It features a lot of low end and a lot of just about everything else. Includes tracks by the old farts and tracks by friends including Jeff McLeod, Scott Bazar, and Roman Gabriel Todd!!

And we have another performance coming up on December 9th at Satori Coffee House featuring a solo set by master percussionist TATSUYA NAKATANI!!! This will be his second time to perform in Mobtown. Scott Bazar will driving into town for this one as well. Details coming soon.

Some Thoughts on the First Performance

First, I'd like to thank everyone who came out on July 2 to watch, listen, and participate. The following is just a reflection on the night. And, to anyone who was there, feel free to comment or get in touch if you have photos or thoughts to share. Thanks, again!

shLow Tunes: Popular Songs played in Unpopular Ways
The evening started a little late, which seems to be the norm at these functions. We charged on with less than an hour wasted. I believe I won over the eight or nine people there with my charm and wit while discussing the third movement of Mahler's "Der Titan" and the 1970s-1980s guitar nexus of Eugene Chadbourne, Davey Williams, and Henry Kaiser. Maybe not. I had fun discussing and demonstrating extended technique. Hopefully someone else did, too.

I followed the lecture with the piece "Vomitorium," which was recently recorded for a project MicSmythe is putting together. More on that recording as details are available.

Duo Dacryops
Since I had the upright onstage, we decided to just go ahead and start our set. Billy Masters was working the sampler and various other devices and I just tried to keep up. We may try to play longer next time, but I was really happy with our first performance. We're slowly figuring out how to communicate within the confines of our instrumentation.

Cataarh
I was really excited about the first live show for this group featuring B.M. and Hemikrania on electronics. It was finished just as it got started. Dense and oddly laid back in comparison to many of the group's recordings. They promise to be back with a vengeance.

(Hopefully the order below is correct.)

Frankie
Frankie from the Western Lands came up next and played some acoustic songs. It was an enjoyable, unexpected, and rare solo set from a dynamic musician we're lucky to have back in town. Frankie's songs (including a blues) provided a nice contrast to the earlier free music/noise/sounds.

Dixieland Noise Band
They didn't so much perform, but erupt into song between sets. Uncontrollable kazoo and bugle madness.

Ted Matthews
Folk, country blues, and free music all grappling in the lap of Ted. Almost every song was played with a different instrument. I seem to remember a banjo and a twelve string acoustic. We were definitely happy to have Big Easy Matthews back in town. Right after his set began, he told us that he didn't know any more songs and then played for at least another hour. But that's Ted for you--always unpredictable.

MicSmythe
I think this was a highlight for many. Basically a two-part composition/improv featuring the audience as ensemble. The first featured a driving 7/8 drum pattern and the second featured a more laid-back groove and electric bass raga. Noise-makers, persussion, flutes, gongs--you name it, it was heard here.

Cattle Baron
What can you say about the Cattle Baron? He rocked.

Western Lands
Ditto for them.

Instead of the planned conducting and improv games, the Western Lands set was followed by an electric jam. Fun, but we hope to get everyone involved playing with and conducting a large ensemble. That's one of our goals for next month.

--McClurg

On the Fatigue of Our Bones.

We're attempting to make this a more viable entity. Monthly performances and occasional releases (hopefully) forthcoming.

Check out this bitch of an earth for related recordings.


Tentative Performance Schedule for July 2:

MicSmythe
(composition(s) for percussion, noisemakers, bugle, electronics, and more)

The Cataarh--First live performance!! Sure to be a bowel-ripper!
(electronics)

McClurg--"Vomitorium" and shLow Tunes: Popular Songs Played in Unpopular Ways
(prepared upright bass)

Duo Dacryops--Adnexa Suite
(electronics+upright bass)

UPDATE

Cattle Baron will be there!

The one and only Dixieland Noise Band will be there!

And the massive sound of the Western Lands!

As well as improv games, prizes, and appearances by various denizens of the household.

We hope to end with group improv and conducting games so bring an instrument!

Updates as details get worked out...

Sets will be from 5 to 30 minutes long unless otherwise noted.