latest ustream action

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crude-listening-parties-lan-version

oral history...

AUDIO FOUNDATION ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW 2009

READ HERE

the new thang......

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/crude-listening-parties-lan-version/v3

on iran

This was made in 2007, just before Bush's neo-cons were replaced by a Democrat administration, but still....the tension described in this doco is there. Today Ahmadinejad made a speech to the UN - protesting new sanctions against Iran and re-affirming that Iran only wishes to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Even if they were wanting to develop a weapon, who could blame them with Israel wielding dozens of nukes...this film details the history of US-Iranian and Iranian-Israeli relations and lays informational foundations for the current 'stand-off'.

vid , die die die/tff/crude, cosmetix 3

This piece is best listened to through a headset or 'headphones'. The music itself is what i'm trying to 'showcase' so the imagery, sourced and edited very quickly, is very crude and very one dimesnsional. 'Breeze' is a 4 part multi-layered clarinet piece which will be on the upcoming 'winds of wood and winter 2' album - dark and moody woodwind music recorded specifically in winter. Check out the maiden voyage of the 'winds of wood and winter' series HERE

And onto the review..
I was personally invited to perform at Die Die Dies' multipurpose home-turf gig, quite a surprise. Wouldn't wanna turn down an oppurtunity to support a band with a known national following now would I. Hell, I'd play with Dave Dobbyn if I was invited. And I'd perform my straightest songs yet. That'd give the peninsula underground something to moan about. Arrived at Chicks hella early like, making sure i soak up every bit of that desolate realm known as 'the soundcheck'. Ah...the soundcheck, bane of the musicians life - this is where you do penance. Its like waiting at the emergency ward to be seen. This is where the glamour evaporates.
Its a cold void, even when you're actually soundchecking there's this curious nothingness hanging in the air, there is truly nothing like it - an empty venue in the afternoon is something else. If you've been at a venue for a few hours before the gig you get t' thinkin' no-one's gonna turn up, it all moves so slow. But the punters ultimately do trickle in and it feels like a psychic usurpation of your space. More often than not in NZ musicians don't have a dressing room to mentally prepare so you pace and quiver in anticipation of your performance in amongst the consumers. And everyone tells you to sit still. DDD was to be using the performance as footage for a new 'music video', obviously this would be the 'band performing' section. (Should've given them all crude tees). I've been told thats what a 'new' band should go for in their first films - the first release should be the band in their natural setting playing their instruments and singing. Then as you become more established you can play with more abstract visual concepts. The Aesthetics will be working on one of their first music films over the next while. Whether we take the aforementioned advice we don't know. Anyways....Crude was up first. The freak opener act. A very minimal set-up this time, the laptop and a clarinet as my 'transitional object'. Suckle suckle. A few glitch-beat numbers embellished with bratty vocal stabs and piercing slices of upper-register clarinet. Some ad-lib comments like 'it's your world' and 'just impress yourself' and 'wrong time, wrong country' and of course 'hey hey commando'. Some snake charming routines, a sip of beer here and there. Strictly routine. Filmed the audience from the stage. TFF were second up, I've certainly been playing with them quite a bit lately, and so they've recieved plenty of reviewage,
but once again I'll say that they were great fun. I'm even getting to know their songs. Rory MacMurdo is an absolute joy to watch while he drums. He's a mad drummer. Their music is rampant, percussive and complex. And lastly, Die Die Die. And unfortunatley I didn't see their set as I had to whip down to None Gallery for Cosmetix. But I saw their soundcheck and they're tight. Really tight and coiled like a spring. Like a weapon. Joy Division at 45 rpm. Not quite emo, not quite punk. A punch in the face. Andrew uses pre-recorded tape-loops of vocal screams and guitar ephemera for enhanced effect - not sure if this is a new development..What a romp. A real romp. And I romped on outta Port Chalmers on a late bus wit me tail b'tween me legs. Rock star styles. Loser cruiser my ass. Ousted. Annexed. Banished. Romper Stomper. Oi fucking oi. John Key. Oil slick. Nazareth. Images of the real exorcsim of a german woman in the 70s haunting me , storming through my psyche, pushing through the boozed neuronal murk. Gave me nightmares. Off to none. I yearned for human warmth. And I got it in the form of none. 'Cosmetix 3' was a superlative explosion of robots, bits, bytes, plastics, coloured paper, glitter, digitalia, electronics, 8-bit games, 16 bit games, paper mache caves, cardboard cities, circuitry, wire, metal, glass, mirrored objects, keyboards, wind-up toys, lo-bit crackle, game soundtracks. And of course, a freakin' roller derby theme! There were Installations and performances by an exciting assortment of artists.....ISO 12, Edie Eves, John White, Rachel Blackburn, Forbes Williams, Kelly O'Shea, Pete Gorman, Motoko Kikkawa, Justin Taulu, Tokerau Wilson and mmmmmee(not able to make the exhibition opening, my installation was repeated and intermittant remote activation of telecommunication equipment, termination of the signal, and the ensuing psycho-social affect caused my this..i mean...i rang none over the night about 10 times and only let it ring once, irritating and spooking a few, some intuitively blaming me). Inspired performances of electro musics by ISo12, John White, Rachel Blackburn and others, Isos beloved makeshift studio the Tardis in full operation. Toki's array of games were there to play, a bright yellow console entertaining for hours on end. Motoko Kikkawa's installation was a highlight of the night for me - a beautifully formed geometric figure, almost room sized and 3 dimensional - arranged with simple items like stickers and coloured paper and other curious items, the effect almost holographic, space and line used in such a way that from a certain perspective it becomes like a huge ellipsoidal object that moves through other installations without being at all intrusive. Simple, elegant, scientific and metaphysical.