So far, I've played for y'all two of the pieces of music I've made. Today, I'm going to share a piece that I'm pretty sure is my favorite thing I've ever done. Called "Mbeer", I assembled it solely from one short .wav file of Homer Simpson saying "Mmmm...beer", and teasing it all until it fell apart, stretching it, folding it back on itself, until it was a ten-minute piece of angry, jagged sonic taffy. My only functions were cut, copy, paste, delete before, delete after, reverse, halve speed, double speed, volume +25%, volume -25%, and echo. I had one level of undo.

If you don't have ten minutes to listen to more-or-less unpleasant noises, I also assembled a three-minute radio edit, with which to focus your discomfort. I wish I could remember how I did that.

I know so little about noise as a music genre, and I know way more now than I did when I made this.
One thing I've really enjoyed about listening to Aaron Dilloway's Modern Jester is that it's reminded me of this one thing I made that I'm really, truly satisfied with, even after 15 years.

I know this isn't "music" or what most of you would listen to, but please be kind, I've never really shared this with anyone other than EAR (who can't really do much more than "That's nice, hon"). If you've listened to either, a good Minnesota-nice "That sure is different!" is fine by me.

List day!
1. Last week I mentioned the beat I made (back in 1999 or 2000) combining James Brown and Iannis Xenakis. Well, here it is, for your listening and downloading pleasure. The James Brown and funky drumming is obviously from "Funky Drummer", and the strings and horns are from ST-X Ensemble's 1996 recording of "Kraanerg" (which was released on Asphodel).

1b. I believe this was all done in Pro Tools. One of my driving inspirations was trying to break the software.

1c. The version that I rapped Slick Rick's "Children's Story" over is the last 40 seconds or so on loop. I've found on cassette with my distorted vocal take on it. Not sure if or how I'll ever share it. I need to remember to never sing when there are people around me that could hear it.

1d. I do have a few more things that I did back then that I might like to share. Some is on another CD I have yet to find.

2. Off to see Soundgarden at the Orpheum Tomorrow night.

3. Local Group the Bad Bad Hats have a new EP out. I find it quite enjoyable, and the price can't be beat.

4. Earlier this week, Zack had me craving New Kingdom at a point where there was none on my iPod. Fixed that, but that first day was tough.

At the end of 2011, I really sat down with my thoughts on what I had listened to and what I had sampled and everything and when it was done, I wrote this really cool long thing that I thought was awesome. But I had been drafting that for more than a month.

My music consumption this year has felt like I've been adrift. Continue reading FMD: End of 2012 →