This sucks so bad, I need a laugh!

UNCUT!

Yes, if you’ve arrived and all – I mean ALL of the images are missing – that’s because we’ve suffered some sort of crash. We’re working on it!

TIMMY THE POOH

CLICK TO UGH-SPERIENCE!

Drum Box.  Beat Box.  Groovebox.  Rhythm Generator.  Electronic Percussion.  Trommel-Maschine.

They’ve got a bunch of different names and musicians opinions vary from worship to outright disgust but one thing is for certain – when the drum machine was born, the ‘future’ of music was born with it.

The first drum machine was built on commission in 1930 by Léon Theremin, (the electronics genius also responsible for The Theremin, I highly recommend this documentary).  The Rhythmicon (aka Polyrhythmophone), made for American composer Henry Cowell, worked on a fundamental pitch (tone) followed by up to 16 overtones, controlled by photoreceptor cells.  Meaning that the beats were created by changes in light and dark!    It was a very different animal from what we accept as a drum machine today, to say the least.

The next innovation in drum machine technology came by way of Harry Chamberlin in 1947 with the Chamberlin Rhythmate.  The Rhythmate was designed to accompany the Chamberlin, the direct forebear to the wildly popular Mellotron (which, if you follow the blog, you read about here).  Like both the Chamberlin and Mellotron, it used a series of recordings on lengths of audio tape that one could switch between.  Surprisingly, I’ve seen a few of these on eBay for extremely affordable prices over the years.  Here’s a demonstration:

In 1959, organ manufacturer Wurlitzer created the first commercially viable electronic drum machine – the vacuum tube driven Sideman.

A very simple, pre-programmed machine, the Sideman has a unique character, a full richness to it’s bass that later drum machines lacked, due in no small part to the vacuum tubes.

Though not made available on the consumer market, composer / inventor Raymond Scott made a drum machine he called ‘The Rhythm Synthesizer’  (among a number of other synths such as the ‘Clavivox’, ‘Electronium’, ‘Videola’ and ‘Bob Moog’  – wait, strike that last one) for his ground breaking (and confounding) 1964 LP ‘Soothing Sounds For Baby’.

I love it, but did Raymond Scott actually know what a baby was?

By the late 60’s the technology to make an affordable drum machine became available with Roland’s (then known as ‘Ace Tone’) FR1 Rhythm Ace leading the pack.

niiice!

There were a myriad of machines released throughout the 70’s that followed the same basic sound as the Rhythm Ace – analog beats with a few generic pre-programmed settings (Roland TR-33, Wurlitzer Swingin’ Rhythm, Maestro Rhythm King etc.).  This was mostly due to the fact that they were intended for use with home organs, and primarily by older folks and children.

One of the big worries among musicians (well, drummers at least) as the drum machine advanced in sophistication was the possible replacement of the human element.  As the twilight of the 70’s approached, electronic music had started to leak out from it’s hot spots in Germany and France to take hold in the post-punk / new wave movements in Britain and America.  What was once considered a cold and clinical sound (drum machines are precise to the point of inhumanity) was now an asset to a young group.  In an effort to keep their jobs while incorporating the sound of the drum machine, many drummers turned to electronic drums.

While electronic drum sets were not necessarily new – Moody Blues, Devo and most famously Kraftwerk had all built their own -  the amount of people using them had exploded by the mid 80’s.  The most popular brand was undoubtedly Simmons, with their (in)famous SDS line.  Casio, Yamaha and Roland joined the fun and traditional drum manufacturers Tama and Pearl also threw their hats in the ring.

Whadda ya wanna bet that’s Rob Van Winkle (Vanilla Ice)?

The Tama Techstar Mega Kit.

Pearl Syncussion Kit

Awesome pic aside, this was actually a MIDI unit driving the RZ-1.

I used to rock the RZ-1 and, hey, Napoleon Dynamite likes it!

Couldn’t find much info on this Roland set, looks like it drives the TR series?

And just about the time that drummers had had enough of their wrists and forearms being fatigued from smacking the electronic drums unforgiving polycarbonate heads, new wave had pretty much died and, by and large, took the electronic drum along with it.

However, although the late 70’s / early 80’s produced some fine drum machines (the Roland C-78, Linn LM-1, LinnDrum and the Oberheim DMX in particular), one series still reigns supreme.  Of course, I speak of the Roland TR (Transistor Rhythm) series in general and the 808 and 909 in particular.

The first in the series was the 505.  Programmable rhythms, preset sounds.

Next was the 606, more commonly known as the ‘Drumatix’.  This machine is probably most infamous for being Big Black’s drum machine.

“Dead Billy show you what it’s like to DIE, MOTHERFUCK!“

In 1984, as a cheapo alternative to the mighty (and mighty expensive) 909, Roland released the 707 (as well as it’s ‘percussion’ based cousin the 727).

The 808, first introduced in 1980, was highly coveted by electronic art pop groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra and Talking Heads, not to mention being the defining sound of the Beastie Boys breakthrough LP ‘Licensed To Ill’.  It, like the 909 after it, has become as essential to Techno &  House Music as a guitar is to rock.

The Roland TR 909 has achieved a status like no other in the world of the drum machine, fetching anywhere from 1,200 to 2,500 in online auctions.  It is THE sound of 90’s electronic music, used by thousands of artists on countless records.  You HAVE heard it.  It is still the #1 essential building block of about 90% of the House Music still being produced.  It’s used by artists as far apart as Phil Collins and Radiohead.  It’s never going away!

I’m not crazy about Techno / House – but to omit it is just wrong.

In recent years, with the advancements made in computer recording, pretty much every drum machine on Earth is now available either in software form via VSTi or Audio Units, for use in programs like Abelton Live, Cubase, and Pro-Tools, not to mention sample sets.

So while the drum machine as a physical item is fading away, new hardware boxes still pop up from time to time, with varying degrees of success.  From the cutting edge with the Machinedrum…

The Elektron Machinedrum

To the retro analog vibes of the Vermona DRM1 MkIII

Cool thing with the Vermona is you can hook your old drum pad to it!

ADDENDUM:

After reading this, I realized that I forgot two very important things!

1.  While much of Hip Hop’s rhythms were constructed from mixed records and sampled break beats, one VERY essential machine was the EMU SP-1200.  Had Mark Cobb not mentioned the word ‘rap’ (as in ‘talk’)in his comment on the Facebook page, I may have omitted it entirely.  Well, consider that rectified!

And finally, if this all has you drooling and you want more, well why don’t you head on over to The Keyboard Museum’s Virtual Playground for Vinatge Drum Machines (Click The Pic & Scroll Down)!

BEHOLD!

The Mighty Edward Hil

Watch This One if you popped a few vicodin for lunch.

The FAIL-centric title puns have pretty much all dried up, folks.  I think I might just start numbering ‘em, ’cause I’m an unimaginative curmudgeon.  Does that make the FAIL posts FAIL themselves?  Maybe.  What’s it to you?  Okay, you know what – Wordpress is a free application d-bag GIT YR OWN IF’N YEH DOAN LAHK MAH STAHL!

…Look… I’m sorry…. I haven’t had my coffee yet… here’s you FAIL’s for Friday February 26, 2010.  Courtesy of FAILblog…

MURDER! MAYHEM!

Or “Yo Dog, I Heard You Like To Waste Time At Work!”

In case you hadn’t heard, some jolly jackass spent ONE MILLION DOLLARS on a copy of Action Comics #1, famous as it features the first appearance of the first superhero – Superman (sorry, Jesus didn’t fly, have heat vision or launch anyone through a series of forty buildings in downtown Metropolis with a single right hook. I think he tussled with some merchants at a temple, but he was more Super Pacifistic than anything else – good luck getting that story to catch on!).

That is so dumb, I would never spend a million bucks on Action Comics #1 now, if we were talkin’  Detective Comics #27… WHAAAT??/??

Well, I don’t have a million dollars, so it doesn’t matter…

Besides, that was just a ‘Timely’ (that’s an in-joke for my fellow comic nerds – move along) segue to the point of this post!  Yes, it’s another fine diversion from the soul shattering, glass grinding to eye blinding routine of your work day, courtesy Cheezburger Network (Failblog, I can Has Cheezburger, Photobomb, etc).

This one has been up for a while and it may be the most ridiculous one yet – Comixed.

So awesome, you know the original Joker, Cesar Romero , refused to shave his mustache for the TV show?  Yeah, look close – painted right over!

Pfft, Continuity Fail!  Everyone knows that hardcore right winger Chuck Norris would kick Barack Obama in the face, not Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi!

C’mon, like that’s a bad thing?  Look how happy he is, and he doesn’t have to hang out with B-Real, or use an AK, or write rhymes – and he still get’s paid, bitches!  Damn, y’all’s fuckin’ haterz.

Ahh, come on up and sit on your old Unca Tony’s knee and I’ll tell you a a bit about this here Kranky records.  Ow. Ow. Okayokayokay get down, you’re hurting me.

Alright, so Kranky records was birthed way back in 1993 by two people who loved each others taste in music very much – Bruce Adams and Joel Leoschke.  Now, sometimes when two people who love each others taste in music have more money than common sense, the make a record label.  Joel and Bruce did just that and they named their record label ‘Kranky‘.

Kranky, while not the first name in the upswell in mid 90’s ‘Post-Rock’ (a kind of jazz derived guitar based music mixing elements of electric period Miles Davis with the CinemaScope post-punk of the highly influential Louisville band Slint, primarily), they certainly had some of the more interesting groups practicing the style.  Kranky’s first release was Labradford’s ‘ 1993 debut ‘Prazision’.

Early success’s (artistically, if not financially) came with Jessamine whose sound incorporated synths at a time when doing so was considered cheesy and retro.  Also, while still owing a debt to ‘Spiderland’ , Jessamine ventured further into abstract forms, playing with atonality without spiralling into outright noise.

Also on board were Bowery Electric, a drone rock act incorporating swells of electronic ambiance into their cyclical riffing.  They were also the first band I remember seeing that used a laptop live (I remember thinking ‘wow, how hi-tech’ LOL) – that must have been around 1997.

Early Kranky had no problem taking on artists from the furthest edges of the rock spectrum as evidenced by the stewardship of 21st century schizoid avant-metal maven James Plotkin (formerly of Old Lady Drivers, would later go on to Atom/Phantomsmasher and Khanate, as well as numerous collaborations and high visibility production duties) and New Zealand minimalist folk rocker / composer Roy Montgomery (formerly of The Pin Group among others).

At the turn of the century, with the underground drowning in a sea of increasingly dull, cookie cutter ‘Post-Rock’ acts, it should have been lights out for Kranky as the public’s tastes turned toward a less introverted and funky sound.  But Kranky persevered, bringing in groups that could rock the dance floor and your brain, most notably Out Hud, a group that dug up the mutant funk prevalent in the NYC clubs in the early 80’s and shot it through with a dose of modern sampling techniques and electronic beats.

Also a huge hit were the Canadian group Godspeed You! Black Emperor, whose new take on the flogged horse corpse of Post-Rock was a game changer.  Marked by epic tracks filled with harsh walls of reverberated guitars, placid passages, elements of musique concrete and even moments of extreme metal, the band became the barometer for all who came after.

And just as the sun began to set on the Post-Rock’s second wave, Kranky signed a scrappy band of kids from Atlanta called Deerhunter.  Their singer, Bradford Cox, in addition to being a physically striking figure due to his having Marfan Syndrome, had a penchant for being a media provocateur, keeping the band in the spotlight early in their career with a series of ‘non-troversies’.

Of course, this wouldn’t have mattered if the band weren’t any good.  While their debut, the goofily titled ‘Turn It Up Faggot’, is hobbled by being a mediocre exercise in the cliched from the get-go ‘Dance-Punk’ scene of the day, the band made heads spin with 2005’s Kranky released sophomore effort ‘Cryptograms’.

Largely abandoning the punk and disco combo of the debut, ‘Cryptograms’ brought back the ghosts of the British ‘Shoegazer’ sound of Ride and My Bloody Valentine: wildly reverberated and delayed everything, the ethereal textures and vocals swirling about in a whirlpool of distorted guitars.  Once again, a Kranky band was responsible for the rekindling of a sub-genre as, soon after ‘Cryptograms’ release, the ‘Nu-Gaze‘ sound flared up worldwide.

Like any band smart enough to know a painted corner when they see one, Deerhunter bailed on their more overt shoegazer elements and streamlined their sound to a more accessible pop approach with a strengthened focus on songwriting.

Which is where Bradford Cox’s Atlas Sound, a more eclectic,  singer / songwriter solo project, comes in.  The 2008 debut (on Kranky, of course) ‘Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel’, was met with even more critical praise than his Deerhunter work, cementing Cox’s position as a ‘bona-fide talent’ on the same level as media darlings The Arcade Fire.

‘Sheila’ from ‘Logos’

Flush with the massive street cred that both Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Deerhunter / Atlas Sound brought them, Kranky continues to release records for some of today’s hottest indie rock acts…

Benoît Pioulard

Lichens

Growing

Jessica Bailiff

Lotus Plaza

Pan*American

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Just a heads up to you folks who drop by here for the yucks –

We’ve started up a PBBI Facebook page that will be like a goofier, more interactive sibling to the main blog.  What this means is we’ll have more videos, music, as well as this new idea I’ve got that I’m calling ‘FORCED TO WATCH’(© Tony Emmons 2010).  F2W, conceptually, is pretty simple: Every month (if the idea blows up, this could become a weekly thing) we have a list of the most popular movies currently playing in theaters.  By use of voting in a poll, you the reader get to send me to see the film of your choice.  Now understand, though I’m a big fan of film, I can’t stand most movies out there.  Ro / Co’s (Romantic Comedies), Dramadies, teen model driven ‘Horror’, sappy sentimental bonding films, ‘epic’ summer blockbusters, Tyler Perry, a number of Nic Cage films (it’s a crap shoot), any Disney sludge, TWILIGHT.  These things all make me squeeze my head in an attempt to keep my brains from leaking out.  On the flipside, I love documentaries, sci-fi, Cohen Bros., David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Alex Cox, Quentin Tarantino’s recent work, black comedies,

BUT I’LL WATCH THEM FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT! And after a viewing I’ll follow up with a review with pictures (including the overall experience in the theater).  And I’ll be honest.  If something was genuinely good – even though I may look like a chump in admitting it, I will tell you so.  Conversely, if something is truly garbage, expect a torrent of unbridled vitriol to to spew across the screen.

HOW IT WORKS. On the Facebook page on the last Monday of every month I’ll post a list of movies in the theaters (based on what is available locally).  The readers, by use of a poll,  will then vote for their favorites to weed out the stragglers.  Then on the Friday of that week a poll will be taken allowing you, the reader, to pick what movie I’m going to be ‘FORCED TO WATCH’ (BTW, these will be paid for out of my own pocket, so there’s that incentive to make me really suffer).

Doug Dubois for The New York Times

Canadian artist Marcel Dzama paints an interesting world that seems to be in step with our current Western predeliction for lusting conquest, but not really wanting to know how we get there.  We put smiles on everything!

This is what I read when I look at Dzama’s pieces.  Technically they are simplistic and childlike, a hybridization of outsider legend Henry Darger’s naive panorama’s and the original illustrator of A. A. Milne’ Winnie The Pooh, E. H. Shepard. Of course, these can be seen as filtered through someone who grew up on the Sid & Marty Krofft led Saturday morning puppet shows of the 197o’s.

But it’s not all cute or precious. The subjects have a dry sort of slapstick violence to them.  Themes of militaristic might by way of the battle of the sexes appear repeatedly.  Nature, as represented by a often leafless tree with human legs, takes us by the hand, wandering mouth agape through a human dystopia masquerading as normality.

One particularly effective and funny piece is of a crowd of 50’s attired adults.  One of them points from one side of the painting to the other.  As viewers, our eyes are drawn to the cartoonish buffoon in the general area that was pointed to.  He’s clearly the odd man out here with his giant head, pointy boots and dunce cap.  But upon further inspection, the man next to him, camouflaged in his coat and hat, is in fact pantless and masturbating, his member jutting out of his fist.  And everyone is having a good laugh.  It’s a hilarious image and one that brings up more questions than it answers.  Who is being laughed at here?  Is it the Buffoon or  The Stroker?  Neither?  If one were to dive in deeper than Dzama may have intended, you could go so far as to say this painting is a metaphor for the last decade – classic misdirection while a crime happens right under your nose.

CLICK TO EXPERIENCE!

It’s really interesting work, and easy to take on multiple levels.  As such, it’s no surprise that he’s done his fair share of CD cover art (most notably Beck’s 2005 release ‘Guero’).  What is a treat is that he’s moved into film – here’s his video (with Patrick Daughters) for the group Department Of Eagles track ‘No One Does It Like You’ off their 2008 release ‘In Ear Park’.

I can just see it now, a nobel prize winning scientist discovers a cancer eating virus and thus saves millions of lives, owes early interest in science to the nut kick episode of ‘Sport Science’.

I can’t wait for the “Sport Science: Lighting Your Farts” episode.

Danke, Geekologie!

HUG-E-GRAM

My Message: “PLEASE DON’T LEAVE MEEE!!!”

This product just made every stalker in America have a lightbulb turn on above their malformed heads.

Courtesy: Geekologie

But Does It Float is a simple and elegantly designed blog primarily concerned with sculpture, design and installation art (though photography pops up now and then, as well as prose).  There are a few artists posted now that will definitely be spotlighted here in the near future (David Maisel’s work is varied and jaw dropping).

CLICK TO EXPERIENCE!

David Maisel

Derek Faust

Hiroyuki Hamada

Marco Fusinato

Michael Johansson

Over at Flavorwire, A small piece about the ‘über’ controversial Military History Museum in Dresden, Germany is intriguing.  That’s not a project I would want to get involved in!  Yikes!  Beautiful building (designed by Daniel Libeskind), though.

“Look, over there – NAZI’s!”  “Karl, those are dummies”  “That never stopped them before!”

And to lighten things up, let’s stroll on over to Awkward Family Photos!

And, finally, a cringe-worthy AWKWARD FAIL.  Courtesy of FAILblog and Glenn Beck acting like David Brent (Ricky Gervais) on the original Office.

AAAWWWWWKWAAARD!

Nan Goldin is probably the master of ‘being there’ – her work strips away the bullshit and just gives it to you raw.  It’s what she does, and few are better at it.  From her playful, candid shots of New York’s young drag queens, to her powerful and (sadly) controversial work documenting the then emerging and terrifyingly mysterious AIDS epidemic that nearly destroyed an entire generation, to her own trials and tribulations in The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, to see her photos is to step inside a moment of time as it happens.  Sometimes that’s a great party, sometimes it’s the last place on Earth you want to be.  I’d like to direct you to the fantastic article that Nan herself wrote concerning one of her favorite subjects as well as the times and disease that took her – Cookie Mueller.

Click To Experience, and if you’re in an absolutely artless job-space, be aware that some of these images are a tad NSFW.

Rarely does a group produce music as loose, sparse, and cavernous while maintaining an effortless and genuine enjoyment of both playing and process.  Bristol’s Beak> is one such group.  Typified by said process, the band has been around for just over a year.  Usually we’d never had heard of such an esoteric bunch this quickly, but it helps to have ’somebody’ in your ranks who can walk through doors most young acts take at least three years of hard toil to bust through.

Beak>’s ’somebody’ you may know – if not by name.  He is one Geoff Barrow, founding member of the pioneering ‘trip hop‘ band Portishead (though their sound has certainly changed dramatically since the days of their 1994 hit ‘Sour Times’ ).

The ’somebody’s you may not know are Billy Fuller and Matt Williams.  In Billy Fullers case, though, you may have heard him as he’s played with such artists as Massive Attack and Robert Plant (!!!).  So, in short, though the band has basically appeared out of the ether and got gobs more attention than anyone in their position would have (should have), they’ve paid their dues – in full.

The music has a very spontaneous feel that comes from recording a song while it’s still fresh.  It’s not improvised by any means, these are songs, they’re just not polished to sterility.  Over that, much of it seems to have been recorded live in the studio (meaning everyone is playing at the same time in the same room as opposed to doing it in pieces as much music is done today).  The result, as dark as the tones used in the album are, sounds like it was an actual joy to make.

As for the music itself, it’s a perfect storm of 70’s German ‘Kosmische Musik‘ (I’m in the process of retiring my use of the term ‘Krautrock‘ as it’s been misused to the point of including the Scorpions for god’s sake), the late 70’s / early 80’s Post-Punk of Joy Division and even dips it’s toes into some Downtown New York style Noise Rock like the Swans used to dish out circa ‘84.  And I’ll be damned if I don’t here an echo of Tears For Fears in there, as well!

Clearly, you listen to Beak> for the atmospherics and moods, not the deep lyrical content as, when there are vocals, they function more as moans drifting out of the fog than of any sort of poetic awakening.

Perfect music to mix in for that late night party where everyone is discussing art, music, poetry and adult sexuality (a rarity in this day and age, for sure).