Drown Radio Therapy

DrownRadio.com

2006-11-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

Hey thanks for swinging in.

This blog has moved to DrownRadio.com

Please update your links.

Testing

2006-11-11T22:04:00.000-08:00

So this is what a broken heart feels like

Drown Radio, booming over your high school's P.A.

2006-10-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Peder, a friend and fan of Drown Radio, sent me a cool message today about his Philosophy teacher using "Happy Valium Meal" as part of the curriculum:

"After I sent my teacher the lyrics and song of Happy Valium Meal she loved it and decided to print out the lyrics and make copys for the entire class. She told me that when she does this she is also going to spend the day or a good part of one discussing the song. I don't know if it will take place in my Philosopy class or Critical Thinking but knowing her it will probably be both. On top of that she stated this, "I openly admit to hating rap music. I can't stand it. This song actualy sounds like music. This I like." Then we started talking about what kind of music you do and I said it is called Nerd Core. I also said that I like her hate the style of music but I do like your sound and I do love Frontalots music other then that I can't stand rap/hip hop music. She continued on to say you should drop Nerd Core and do more songs like Happy Valium Meal because it is really good and it has lyrics that serve a purpose not like the crap in main steam music."

It's like... one of those tearjerking movies, where the idealistic teacher can't breakthrough and connect with their students, so they try an alternative method... You know... like in that movie... Take the Lead, that was it!

Rhyme Torrents #5 availlable now

2006-09-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share with ya'll that Rhyme Torrents #5 has been released at RhymeTorrents.com

Drown Radio has a demo track on there from the forthcoming Our Friends Electric cd. Check it out while your listening to the rest of the compilation.

!!!

2006-09-05T21:56:00.002-07:00

I just read over on 8bit Betty's myspace blog that he's going to do a remix for me by the end of the week! I have been begging 8bB for a remix or collabo ever since I downloaded To Bleep To Bloop (totally free downloadable album).

This is such a great surprise. No shit about it, 8bit Betty is one of my favorite new artists of the year! For the nerdcore set, imagine Baddd Spellah rocking out gameboys. For the chiptune set, imagine someone using Nanoloop that doesn't sound like every other micro musician.

I'm not sure which track exactly, but I'm assuming it will be a remix of my unreleased sexadelic hit song Twistin' Cherry Stems that I recorded earlier this year.

It's actually a double surprise, this morning I read this blog where 8bB talks about working on a new album and now this! Now I just need to see if I can get mah mann Spellah to finish production on the original track.

Spellah for teh win!

2006-09-05T09:55:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Baddd Spellah has made it to the top ten in the CBC's Remix the Ring contest with his "Rhyme Of The Ring" remix (on the top of the list).

I'd suggest going over there and checking out the entries, don't forget to vote... often... Daily in fact!

In case none of this motivates your lazy ass enough to click the underlined link let me further tell you that "Rhyme Of The Ring" features MC Frontalot on the mic.

Word to Wagner.

NOTE: an mp3 has finally been posted by Spellah of the Rhyme remix.
http://www.badddspellah.com/Remix_the_Ring_Contest/Baddd_Spellah_feat_MC_Frontalot_Rhyme_of_the_Nibelung.mp3

Recap of the JJ Perrey show in SF

2006-08-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

The show at Recombinant Labs was great. Jean Jacques is such a character and it was swell meeting him and Dana Countryman at the same time.
They played a ton of songs using a CD as accompaniment. Jean Jacques had his Ondioline and a newer synth (moog maybe?) while Dana spent most of his time on his Roland, but he used this giant Moog modular synth a bunch.

The main room was packed, but they had a "media room" in the back. I was thinking, who the fuck would want to pay $15 to watch JJ Perrey on a tv, when he's in the room next door, but it turns out the media room was pretty cool. There were a couple different camera angles, and the images were projected along three of the walls, the sound was even mixed in Dolby 5.0 surround sound. It was like watching the show on IMAX. Sounded good, but I sure would be pissed if I paid $15 to watch a TV, they should have had a discounted price.

Dana mostly played chord progressions and rhythm, but did several leads. It was interesting to watch JJ's technique though. It was almost entirely played right handed, while his left hand constantly tweaked and raised pots. He was constantly adjusting sounds while playing. Where the left hand primarily handles bass rhythms, for Jean Jacques it controls the parameters and tones of his sounds, much like the left hand controls the volume (thus attack/decay/vibrato) on the theremin.

Tonight I'm riding down with Astrid and Otis to see the show at the Knitting Factory, if anyone has any tips on a ride back (on friday) I sure would appreciate it!

Opening song at SF show.

Jean Jacque dedicates a song to Edith.

Funky song!

An awkward start, but fun retro samba.

Dana and JJ Perrey on the Recombinant stage in SF.

JJ's fabulous coat.

On the keys.

Some of the gear on hand.

Cool picture of the media room found on Flickr. Photo credit: teishus

Jean Jacques Perrey west coast tour with Dana Countryman

2006-08-23T19:07:00.001-07:00

I'm stuck in some kind of trance, I can't explain it. For the last couple of days I've just been walking into shit and just in my own little world, all I can think about is seeing Jean Jacques Perrey perform in San Francisco’s SOMA District next week. The 76 year old French born musician was one of the early pioneers of electronic pop music. Often noted for his early promoting of the Ondioline but it was really his work on albums such as 1964's The In Sound From Way Out that Perrey is well known. Well, that and E.V.A., his often used funky hit off a later album.

Perrey, who just recently finished recording a brand new electro-pop album with the Dana Countryman, will be doing three US shows over the next week:

8/27 at the Triple Door in Seattle

8/29 at the Recombinant Labs in San Francisco

8/30 at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood

and a special in store mini performance at Analogue Haven in Pomona CA

For more info and posters and whatnot, go here

I went to Re/Search's headquarters in North Beach earlier this week to pic up my tickets and V. Vale sent me this awesome pic he took from Perrey's last visit to the Bay Area.

I've never seen J.J. Perrey, but I heard his last show in the city was sort of a potpourri of local experimental musicians that wasn't really all that memorable. This show, however, sounds more exciting because he will be touring with Dana Countryman, they should be well rehearsed and play classic songs and songs off the new album. Vale mentioned that there is a good chance of a follow up Q and A segment after the SF show.

I still can't believe it, I'm going to see one of my electronic music heroes. Where Walter(/Wendy) Carlos popularized the Moog sound by playing classical and pop covers and Edgard Varèse pioneered early experiments with Musique Concrete and tape cut ups, Perrey helped create an entirely new sound of music that was both bold and catchy, making the new art form highly accessible and influencing electronic musicians for nearly 50 years.

I'm not much for autographs, but I've been carrying around my Feb '97 issue of the now defunct Cool And Strange Music! The issue which original inspired me nearly 10 years ago to learn more about Perrey. Dana Countryman was the publisher and the writer of the story, BONUS: two autographs at one show. I'll probably leave my copies of Moog Indigo and In Sound From Way Out on my record shelf though.

a quick vid

2006-08-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

In regards to the last blog, I put up a short video of us messing around at Robert's house. I got a cd with what we recorded that I'm gonna mess with and send to John.

A highly fun experience

2006-08-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

My buddy Highly Liquid is in town and we got together today for fish and chips. During the lunch I got this bug up my ass to get some studio time together. H.L. is an amazing circuit tweaker that I've been buying stuff for years, but he's never been in a studio.

I've been pushing him via email to start working on music together so it only made since that we record while he was in town.

Finding a studio was not easy, but luckily my buddy Robert from Kreamy 'Lectric Santa would like to be part of this and he has some decent recording gear, so we'll do it at his place in West Oakland.

The idea is to bring Un-Bent items and work on bends for two hours, then spend two hours of improvising sounds on our new toys. I'm supplying all the toys including a Roland 707 drum machine, SK-1, Sk-5, 99 sound bank Casio, some tiny yamaha sequencing composser, a Dr. Rhythm, a speak and spell, an answering machine and this kick ass toy vocoder.

I can't wait to see H.L.'s techniques on how he approaches bending. He is out here without any of his gear, and he'll be bending shit he's never bent before.

We are going to document the process too, my buddy Craig (from our recent 24 hour comic jam) will be filming and I'll have my PXL 2000.

!!!

24 Hour Music

2006-07-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

There is a post over on the Nerdcore Hip Hop Forum discussing the possibility of a 24 Hour Music project.

http://www.rhymetorrents.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=778&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Sounds neat, I'll keep you interested if it happens.

If you anyone is interested in contributing, join in.

-Doc

Mouth Party and Nerdcore Verse added to Myspace

2006-07-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

Uploaded two tracks to http://myspace.com/drownradio

Mouth Party is similar to a bunch of the new songs I'm working on. The style is sort of a Crunked out Casio. I'm doing an MC Lars remix in this style. It is also the result of working with Highly Liquid on some stuff. I've been using a few of his instruments for a while, and he sent me some raw bent audio to tweak up, I used some of that on this track over the drums, especially after the first breakdown (about halfway through). Also got to rock mouth harp on the track
of course.

The other track is off of Rhyme Torrents, a nerdcore hip hop compilation that I was part of. The full posse track is 18 minutes long I think. It's hella good though. Grab all four (plus one) cds of music for free at www.RhymeTorrents.com.

Hot and tight, like a turtleneck sweater...

2006-07-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

Z. at Hipster Please has a new interview up with Baddd Spellah here.

Baddd Spellah, if you didn't know, is a "Beat maker for MC Frontalot. I think he is of the Asian persuasion." At least that's what his Nerdcore Wiki tells us.

Speaking of, there still aint shit up either the Nerdcore Wiki or Wikipedia about Drown Radio.

O.o
Yeah, so Spellah is pretty much the man, thanks for the dope interview Z.

More podcast themes than you can shake a stick at.

2006-06-28T09:40:00.000-07:00

So last week I mentioned that I had done a podcast themesong for 40s Over 40 and I also mentioned that Beefy threw out some huge props on his podcast for my work.

I decided to surprise Beefy with a podcast themesong for his show, partially as thanks for the love, but also as thanks for the work he is doing on the Drown Radio website.

Listen to "This is an Experiment in Sound" the Just Another Lazy Podcast themesong.

Podcasts, suckers!

2006-06-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

So I'm listening to Beefy and Jones newest podcast of Just Another Lazy Podcast and I was totally surprised to hear my name mentioned... A lot! They talk a bit about the new track I've been working on with Baddd Spellah, and play my song Happy Valium Meal. Tons of love from Beefy and the crew, and I wanna throw tons of love right back at ya.

On the subject of podcasts, my buddies Josh and Dan have a new podcast series on the b3 Studios servers called 40's Over 40. They asked if they could use a Drown Radio song and I asked if I could make them a hot new exclusive theme song... So I've spent at least 8 hours working on this :45 second song... Jeez. Anyway, I think I like it... I need to take a break from hearing it for a while... But you should give it a listen here and the instrumental here.

Now, Josh also called me up asking if I wanted to start doing a podcast on their server, it sounds fun, but I wouldn't want to do it unless I had a mixer, cd players, and turntables set up at my house just like the ones I used to use on pirate radio (with Josh sometimes co-hosting). So if that happens, perhaps I'll do it, but it did remind me of the podcasts I used to do with RJ Owens for about a year on yoyoradio.net. That stuff was fun, you can find those podcasts here.

However, I do think I'm going to take some of our old pirate radio shows and upload them for podcast.

Sandman's Got the...

2006-06-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

This is a remix I just finished for Sandman, the original song appeared on his Return to the Black Hole album, I'm doing a slew of remixes off this album, but really liked this track so I thought I'd upload it.

click

edit: and here is another new Sandman remix by DR

Gameboy and circuit bent sounds a plenty, I welcome any constructive feedback.

Wednesday I go into the Studio 132 and record vocals for Twisting Cherry Stems over a brand new beat by Baddd Spellah. TCS is a song I wrote maybe 4 years ago, and have been wanting to record ever since but just couldn't find the right music for it... Until a new beat arrived in my inbox(xx) from Baddd Spellah that was a perfect freakin' fit!

BZ at 132 is the mastermind who mastered The Atomic Brothers VS Drown Radio Therapy cd, but I've never recorded with him. In fact it's been 7 years since I've recorded in a studio!

"Tons" of new stuff with Beefy

2006-06-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

So one of the best things I got out of my work with the Nerdcore Hip Hop Compilation "Rhyme Torrents" was meeting so many cool new artists. I did a beat for Beefy on Rhyme Torrents #1 called Tub of Tabasco (lyrics here) and a beat for Ham Star's Posse track (I also had a verse on the Posse track, I wish I could find the whole track somewhere, but here's mine).

Since then Beefy picked another older Drown Radio beat for his new myspace song "Feel So Good" and he also posted a brand new remix I did of Tub of Tabasco.

I love the singing on Feel So Good, but I think I prefer the original version of T.O.T. over the remix (but I think Beefy likes the new mix better). So, check out the songs on his Myspace Page and then let me know what you think... Preferably on my DrownRadio.Blogspot.com page or on my comments page.

note: Beefy and Scot Nery are working on a Drown Radio page... so... keep your eye out for that.

Thereoke Recap

2006-06-05T11:22:00.000-07:00

Thereoke recap originally appeared here

It was 8pm, Josh had some wikki stuff and BAC pics to update, and Dan had 3 hours of film to log.

So that left John and I to head over to ATA for the show. I'm glad he went, because I really wanted to go, but didn't want to force any of my guests to come to the show.

When paying admission the ticket taker asked for our phone numbers for the "Cell Phone Orchestra".

We (I) kicked off the evening with some with some whiskey from ATA's makeshift bar. 1 dollar a shot, and the shots where about 4 fucking ounces. I had two "shots" over ice. Afterwards, they started playing obscure music related short video clips. One, made by Xerox, was a cartoon about a lovely lass that could only be woo-ed by a unique new form of music, so her suitor learns to play the theremin for her love. Then there was this awesome excerpt from this VH-1 adaptation of Gene Simmons autobiography, has anyone else seen it? It was all done with still photos then animated in really cool ways, funny story too. Then there was William Shatner's rendition of Rocket Man from '78. Not only was that great to watch, but we had actually been talking about it several times earlier that day, what a surprise to see it at the show.

After the films, the Punk Rock Quintet took the stage. This was their first time not performing with a full orchestra, and it worked pretty well. PRQ performed 70's and 80's punk songs with violin, cello, two operatic female singers, and a male vocalist. Their set started a little week, but they hit their stride by the third song. I wouldn't mind seeing them again.

Before intermission there was one more act, the cell phone orchestra. The audience members with cell phones drew numbers from a hat, and were "conducted" into playing ring tone symphonies by dialing those numbers. The end result was not anywhere near as interesting as one might think. I think I heard three phones ring.

During intermission I chatted with my buddy Matt (Bomarr Monk). Matt is an obscure music buff as well, I'd love to hang out with him sometime and make beats or go over music collections. Matt, if you are reading this, I just got all of my records from Minneapolis shipped here, check 'em out. It's a shame that Passage wasn't here to meet John, they could've chatted about gameboy music.

After intermission Otis Fodder and tradeMark G gave a little history about the theremin, followed Mark's performance of the Star Trek theme on their Moog Etherwave. Then they asked for volunteers for Thereoke. The first two performers both chose Abba songs, the backing tracks where midi files, not full live bands. Dancing Queen sounded like elevator music. I'm glad Otis asked me to step up, I'm usually too shy to volunteer for this sort of thing, even if I really want to do it. I requested Girl From Ipanema, and I believe I did a pretty good job until after the chorus, the song had a breakdown or something weird happening. I had a blast rocking it.

After a few more songs, John and I took off. We went to Arinell's for a slice, and came back right as ATA was clearing out. I took this chance to inquire about the Optigan. Apparently it wasn't working well that night, but Mark gave me a little tour of the device. I had never seen an Optigan in person, and just loved all the cool shit about it. All the sounds are read off of a 12 inch circular piece of celluloid, using light. The sound was surprising, basically the notes on the keys sounded like samples of organ notes, but the "chord" keys on the left of the keyboard actually triggered loops. So basically this was like the first commercial sampler on the market (am I wrong on this?). The Optigan discs had great sounds too, one was a break beat loop kit, with 12 different loops in different keys. The loops had funky ass bass and tight drums, seriously some amazing kits to choose from. Another disc had a choir singing "doo doo be-doo be-doo waaah" lines, totally ripping off Esquivel sounds. Actually I bet with some research it might turn out they where actually Esquivel conducted, I seriously would not be surprised. When you press a key, it doesn't always start at the beginning of a loop, as it just plays what's on the Optigan loop. The keyboard sounds suffered because of this, they had this clipping sound when you struck a note, and you couldn't shape the wave at all. Learning about the Optigan was the highlight of the evening, I'd love to document some of the sounds on these killer optigan discs sometime.

Let me take this oppurtunity to say I get mixed up with tradeMark G when I go to some San Francisco events.

me:

Evolution Control Committee's tradeMark G.:

Christopher Lloyd:

Thereoke in SF

2006-06-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

note, this was originally published on here

I'm sure most folks that would read this blog are already familiar with Leon Theremin's famous musical invention, The Theremin. But I'd also bet that many of ya'll that have heard the device have never actually given one a try.

If you live in the Bay Area, you can easily remedy this situation by attending Thereoke this weekend at Artists Television Access in the Mission.

I saw Thereoke last year at a Dorkbot show and really had a good time. Otis Fodder and tradeMARK will be hosting the event which will probably start with Theremin history and demonstrations followed by an open mic set up. Any audience member can get on stage and try their hands at the theremin will being accompianied by midi file versions of popular theremin songs.

It's a fun chance to actually see for yourself what a theremin is actually like to control. I still have a special space in my heart for Theremin recordings, but I have to say trying one for myself actually put to rest any thoughts of ever mastering the device. It was fun but I'd still rather sample the great Clara Rockmore than create the sound myself. Besides I prefer the sound of my musical saw any ways.

Other than Thereoke, Otis and tradeMARK will be rocking out obscure theremin cuts on cd and records throughout the evening. I can't wait to hear what they have spinning.

From what I understand, there will also be an Optigan on hand too, hopefully with demonstration. The Optigan is similar to the classic Mellotron keyboard, but instead of using magnetic tapes it produces its sounds from celluloid discs. I've never seen one before so I'm pretty stoked.

Saturday May 6, 2006
Thereoke!
Other Cinema (ATA: Artists Television Access)
992 Valencia, San Francisco, CA
Show starts at 8:30pm, $6.66 cover

Split release with Atomic Brothers!

2006-06-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

30 minutes of gameboys vs casios. 13 tracks of strange sounds and features a Drown Radio Therapy remix of an Atomic Bros. classic.

Availlable on DoctorPopular.com soon, if not when you read this. Also availlable at Nationals in limited qauntity.

The Atomic Bros., El Suavo Amerikano and Unt Destructo, hail from the cold cold midwest. Using gameboys, mandolins, and trumpets to create video game-esque soundscapes to stories of cavemen and space pirates. Soundtrack to Tetris meets early Tom Waits.

Drown Radio Therapy is the solo project of Dr. Popular and gets it's unique sound from his vast army of short circuited Casio's and toys blended with acoustic guitars and Doc's weird ass sing songy rappin'. "I heck-a dig the sound of cheap Casio Sk-1 drums, and glitched out melodies that get stuck in your head, but I always keep it rooted in pop music."

Atomic Bros. and Drown Radio Therapy have avoided the cliched sounds that other "Chip Tune" or "Circuit Bent" artists cling to. Creating their own unique sounds through their own experimentation. The Atomic Bros vs Drown Radio Therapy is the first official release of both artists and the first release on Better Sleep Through Science Records.

Geek and Spell

2006-06-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

Been geeking out on musical instruments again lately, so I had my buddy at Highly Liquid custom build a Speak and Read with glitches, pitch bend, and and actual MIDI input. There are hundreds of phenomes (sylables) in the speak and read, and if I find the right ones, I can create phrases using sequencers or keyboards! Or I can treat the device like a drum machine. If you have a copy of the Atomic Bros. vs Drown Radio cd, track one features a bent Speak and Math (that is locked up in a shed in Minneapolis).
I really want to get into live recording again (vs laptop sequencing created from live sounds), so I needs to get a digital fourtrack. I'd like to take some time off to write four songs, with vox, toys, and guitar. Still really want to get my Five Percent Nation project off the freaking ground. FPN will be my live band co-operative project. Got some companies asking for demos of my electronic work for possible tv/soundtrack usage, whatever, pretty unlikely I'll get any work, but I'll get them stuff.

CASIO pr0n

2006-05-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

casio pr0n *

The Casio SK-1 is one of the absolute greatest sounding, cheap keyboards evermade. Even without any bends, put that bitch on monophonic, hit the portamento button, and listen to the fullness of that freak flute sound!

Gotta love the SK-1, the greatest of Casio's SK series, and you've gotta love the people that take a classic device apart, short the circuits, add a bunch of knobs and a patchbay, then rehouse it the proper Moog-esque casing it fucking deserves.

Michael Stein's bent sk-1. Link found from http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/05/simply-astonishing-casio-sk1-mod.html

I haven't been able to find anymore info on Michael Stein, but his construction is fantastic and the bends look great. I love the mod wheel on the left and the x/y potientiometer joystick on the right. Note that this isn't technically a Casio SK-1, but a Realistic Concertmate 500 (an exact duplicate of the SK-1 made by Radio Shack).

Built by qrsrstcdetuvcde
More info here.

This was the first super sk-1 I had ever seen. The switches on the yellow strip are for a step sequencer, the posts on top (over the orange) are bend points, allowing the bends to be turned on and off depending on the sequencer. So the bend points, speed of the sequencer, and number of steps (up to 8) are all adjustable.

Built by Casper Electronics

"The right side of the panel is the glitch patch bay. On the left side is a timer module and four modular switches. The bottom left panel holds three modular adjustments with on/off switches and momentary ON pushbuttons."
There are sounds availlable on the site, also check out the super sk-1 on the home page... Amazing! Casper is truely doing some unique stuff, although his case work may not be up to par with Michael Stein or Highly Liquid's, his ideas are great. Also worth checking out is his custom made step sequencers here. these can be used with any patchbay device.

Get LoFi posted a pic from Frederic in France. Get LoFi has done a great job showing the details, so I won't bother here, just go check it out on his site.

This is more of an honorable mention, than a super mod, but going along with a case mod theme, Highly Liquid was working on a keytar kit for SK's. Due to tons of trouble working with an online metal worker, I believe he has decided to hold off with the project until he could get higher qaulity work. Here is a closer view of the bends on the neck. The bends on the neck are all temporary on buttons. Cool for activating one or two bends (if they are close together) at a time, but a little difficult for multiple bends. Still it's a good solid and consisten sounding device for live shows.

*(lube not included)

**I'm hoping to start posting on www.DrownRadio.com again about musical devices, so we'll see how that goes.