Diggin Deep 012513

We had our second new night of Diggin Deep of Friday night. It went well, there were a few more people than last time, which was great to see. Honored guests this time were Gary Wilder, a local filmmaker and Ariana Blanc, one of the Ghost House DJs and the one who sold me the turntables they used to use which we now use for Diggin Deep.

Musically we covered a lot of ground, which is the plan generally anyway. I was excited to play the Whitefield Brothers LP I'd picked up earlier on in the week. Ian and Avitar's selections were right on spot as well. One of the things I like most about DJing with Ian is that he usually takes it off the rails right from the get go. A lot of funk/soul DJs would much rather that 'punk DJ's' keep their thing very far away. Ian's not solely punk, but he brings that to the table along with garage, soul and ska. So we've been finding that it all works pretty well together. Next time I'm going to try and get a recording, one way or the other, so that you guys in places far off can get an idea of what we do. Now for the photos!

Half Life Full Cycle [J7N030]

Bit by bit I'm posting links to my numerous albums on my own and other netlabels, from the time period where most of my output was being released. There's a lot of my stuff on Archive.org and I'm slowly bringing those recordings to light again. The one I'm highlighting to day is a very experimental album I made as a commission of sorts from a French netlabel called Digital Biotope, which sadly is no longer in existence. The version I'm showing here is the reissued version on my my own (also defunct) Jon7.net Microlabel, but I'm going to provide a link to the archive.org archived Digital Biotope version.

 

The link to the American version: http://archive.org/details/J7N030

And here's a link the original French version. It's not any different, they're the exact same files in each package, but they've been given different nomenclature, and you'll get full jewel case art work with the American version. While I was pleased to be invited to do a release for the label, I wasn't pleased with the way they handled the artwork; I sent them files but they didn't do anything with them except dump them in the .zip file the album came in. I had thought they were going to use them in a proper layout.

The link to the French version: http://archive.org/details/db012_Jon7_HalfLifeFullCycle

The notes I provided for the album:

(trk1) cellular life grows in a petri dish, and is gradually consumed by bacteria.

(trk2) in a bustling other earth city, birds extinct for centuries still fly around
at midnight.

(trk3) robots don't go to church, but if they did this might be part of the mass.

(trk4) we're guests on their planet, and though it seems strange, this is how they
say grace, so we'd best respect it.

music was created using random sound timing programs, live mics on the street,
wineglasses, screwdrivers, metal chalice, bowls, random household items, power
drill, oscillator, tape recorder

recorded in eugene, OR 2006

Ethno-funk Ingredient Shopping

I'm pleased enough with my first attempts at ethno-funk that I'm going to continue to do it. So today I went out and picked up some ingredients I'd seen at the St Vinnie's near my house. They've got a big record section, and though a LOT of it is crap, I still find interesting stuff and I keep my eyes peeled for new arrivals. It really is a bit rare to find great records there but I like scoping out what there is an abundance of and try to think of ways to make use of it.

Today's finds were a smattering of possibly useful stuff that if it indeed proves useful I will pick up more of. What we have here is some Irish, Scottish, (presumably) Paraguayan, Argentinian, Italian and some general South American stuff. As far as the covers go, the "Starr" album is awesome. I love the accordion shot and the wicked grin on the guy's face. I especially like that record for its printing and manufacture qualities; it's made in Scotland and on some nice thick vinyl. I hope it's as good as it looks. If not I'll certainly try to enjoy it on it's own merits.

A Winter Night of Experimental Soundscapes 011813

Friday night was the first night playing at the New Zone Gallery this year, one of the places we often do our noise/experimental shows. It's always a fun time, and this time none of the art shook off the walls! Though we gave it every reason to. Participants for the night were Juice Machine, President Blair (me), I Died, Hobby Knife!!! Nick Hoffman and Andrew Quitter. Exceptional sets were performed by all, and I was pleased because I wads at the last minute able to supplement my tape setup with Hobby's Ibanez delay unit, which I gave/traded her for years ago and am so pleased to see is still operating and in use!

Here are the photos for the night, and the flyer. Word is, there are videos of each performance. I will add them to this post when they show up. Also, at this very moment, there aren't any action shots of me, as i was performing, but there will be some coming thanks to Heather Chessman, whose camera is way better than mine.

I Died on the pedals. The religious iconography behind him seems very appropriate somehow.

Andrew Quitter, on the multi-knob thing

 

Heather Chessman, going solo so soon?

Juice Machine, givin it the squeeze

Nick Hoffman, bringing the horns to noise

Hobby Knife!!! rocking the other multi-knobby thing.

Some trouble with the police that we were quite pleased to not be involved with

Order of the Mixtape Party 011613

Yes, it was that time again, where we get together at fathoms to spin records and nerd out on music. these are always fun events, because a lot of folks from CD world come out and bring records they've found. One of the things that makes these nights so much fun is that all levels of dj skill are respected. We have folks spin that aren't professional or habitual DJs, but we treat em with respect and help each learn a little more along the way  Here's the photo reel for the night.

Josh Burrington and Boots Mallomar checking out some new boxes of vinyl Josh got in.

Josh and me scoping out each others' boxes... of records

Ian Lawless, who's getting more photo coverage this year than ever before.

Avitar Virgonian on the decks, standing head and shoulders above us all

My mix for the party, a selection of rock covers by funk and soul artists, packaged in these recycled crap-hop jewel cases.

Ethno-funk Arlines Trip #1

I've been working on some different new experiments with a lot of different international vinyl I've been picking up. A lot of this stuff has been records which don't of themselves have tracks that can be mixed in whole; in this case a lot of Irish, Scottish and South American stuff, and a pile of 45's I found from Japan and the Philippines. I thought there had to be something I could do with them if scratching them into live mixes didn't work as expected. So I decided to try and create a sort of 'ethno-funk' based loosely on the sound the Whitefield Brothers managed to achieve.  This is the first track in this series of experiments.

Diggin Deep Jan. 18 2013

Last night we got together for the first new night of Diggin Deep at our old location, The Astoria Bar in West Eugene. The DJs for the night were me, Avitar Virgonian and Ian Lawless, whom you'll remember from previous posts. There was a good turnout including a lot of the guys from CD World, my buddy Larry and his wife Pam, and Tobin Newburgh, aka King Toby, who was an early Diggin Deep DJ when I had first started the night. Ian Lawless also brought in a crowd of his friends and roommates who were digging the range of music we all played.

We're planning to do it again in two weeks on the 25th. For now, here are the photos from the night, as well as a video with short clips of each of us playing.

 

 

 

Don's Birthday Shindig with the kids from EEMC

It was our buddy Don Haugen's birthday the other night, and we got invited over to come play some music. Some of the noise folks from EEMC, our local noise group, came out to play. There was a lot of joking, toking and general happy sass from everybody. I think this was probably the most laughter and friendly ribbing we've had at a ny noise event in Eugene in a long time.

Here's the extended photo reel from the night!

President Blair, seen here performing the evening's joint rolling and repair tasks.

 The debut performance (as far as we know) of Juice Machine

 

 

 Takin a trip with our own Quasar Valkyrie, Abe Hurd

 

Hobby Knife, mistress of the spooky flashlight.

 

Don Haugen, the birthday boy