Well I’m sure there are a few unsavory jokes to be made, but in all seriousness the trombone is a cool instrument that gets way less press than it’s little brother the trumpet. This creative fellow added a camera to the horn to bring us this unique perspective.
This guy is my new favorite drummer.
This will be a really great show…if you like guitars and people who have invested time playing them. I spent 20 years in the suny desert of Tucson Arizona, and Sun City Girls were one of my favorite bands from the area…you never knew what they were going to do, one time throwing firecrackers at the audience for 45 minutes, the next time ripping through all the tracks from Torch of the Mystics with seemingly flawless precision. I was happy to learn, Richard now lives here in Portland, and since we’d seen him lurkng about at a few of our gigs we decided to ask him to do a show with us (Audios Amigos). Rounding out the bill is the amazing Ben von Wildenhaus. Full Press release after the jump.
Larga vida a la artista! Talk about transformation and rebirth on a major scale – the Mexican artist Pedro Reyes helped take over 6500 weapons (pistols, rifles, machine guns) and transform them into working musical instruments. The resulting collection, titled Imagine, features 50 instruments that now create music instead of death. I applaud the Mexican government for destroying over 6500 guns and then allowing the parts to be converted into something amazing. Instruments originally used for killing have become something else entirely – when paired with musicians, the new forms create music. The transformed weapons are visually stunning, too. You cannot help but recognize pieces of weaponry but your relationship to them is hugely altered with the addition of strings, tuning keys, frets, etc. The magical death instruments look like a mash-up between the steam punk aesthetic and the wild wild west. Say Infernal Devices meets Deadwood.
You owe John Cage at least .99 it’s a fact. You should go buy his official Prepared Piano app right now. Do it.
From the site-
The sounds of John Cage’s Prepared Piano are now available for you to play on your portable device with this innovative app. Play meticulously sampled sounds of a piano prepared with the actual materials used by John Cage in the preparations for his Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48) as sampled under the supervision of the John Cage Trust.
The Portland Sessions is having a Kickstarter to help them grow and continue their inspired project of documenting bands in unique Portland spaces…check out the press release (Read full post link below) for all the details and then proceed to give them some money. (Here is the link 8 days to go as of this posting).
Audios Amigos is just back from Bellingham and here is a quick update on the debauchery…it’s always off the hook up there. Friday night we played The Sunset in Seattle with our buddies from the north Sugar Sugar Sugar and a couple other bands. It was a forgettable evening for us, a bunch of people standing around with their arms crossed etc. One guy told us we’d never headline Seattle without a “singer”, whatever, we’ll crack that nut eventually. *NOTE* We did have a really great show at Cafe Racer in Seattle a few months ago, and I’d recommend that place to anyone. Onward to Bellingham…
Aww how cute, two of my big influences as a bassist have a nice little chat about stuff.
The Audios Amigos CD release party is coming up July 14th, and the band is streaming the cd in it’s entirety here on Etherbomb! This is the long play full album all 6 tunes (with bonus record noise and special “1970′s style” mastering to make you feel all nostalgic). This format will be included on the cd as a bonus track along with the single versions of the songs. Enjoy.
The Reacharound EP (see cover image below for song order and titles)
Man this is just too awesome. The record label Universal Music Group refuses to pay them their due on royalties from digital downloads of their back catalog, but cannot use the recordings of the songs without their consent (my basic understanding of the situation). So Def Leppard responds by refusing to allow UMG to sell downloads of the existing catalog and re-records all of the songs…so they can receive due payment. I don’t much care for De Leppard so I am not going to listen to the “forgeries”, however they claim they took great pains to make them sound as much like the originals as possible. Well played. The important lesson of course being maintain control of your songwriting credits at all costs! More info- Billboard.com
For your listening pleasure here is a rad 8bit version of Rock of Ages.
[audiotube id="1PX9K-fOMho"]