putting the j in jjosh

From the "shreds" series, the first one I saw and the mad classic, Eric Clapton shreds. Post title from some old college-time site we went to that was full of ukelele stuff and how the author loved Eric Crapton (??? can this be right? I can’t remember…Sam Uz, do you remember?)…

this clip made me cry tears of laughter when I first saw it, and it is still amazing…part of the Spiritualized show from Sunday was a bit jazz noodley and it reminded me of this…

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

find more shreds vids at stsanders.com, though I’m telling you, this Clapton one is the best…

Saw Spiritualized at Terminal 5 last night with my sister, and every song was a different shade of epic, ranging from epic huge guitar slow burn song to epic big spiritual rock to epic over-the-top guitar freakout. They played a ton of new stuff, but luckily the new stuff sounded great, and I’m stoked to pick up the new album Songs in A&E…

Reminded me of this amazing video they did for "Do It All Over Again" off Let It Come Down…I couldn’t find hi-rez, but hopefully this is good enough that you get a sense of how cool it is…

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Apparently there’s no green-screen involved, it’s all Jason Pierce really doing it…

I hunted down the set list from last night’s show, and then cross-reffed the songs, because I was curious what albums they all came from…looks like they did play a bunch of old stuff (including some Spacemen 3 tracks!), but a lot of new, and a lot from Amazing Grace, which somehow I don’t have (how did I miss it?). We did miss the first 4 songs which is too bad, ‘cuz I’d have liked to hear "Electricity" especially…and looks like only the encore came from Let It Come Down. Set list looks like this:

you lie you cheat
 – AE

shine a light
 – LazerGuidedMelodies

cheapster
 – AmazingGrace

electricity
  – Ladies&Gentlemen

soul on fire
 – AE

sweet talk
 – AE

sitting on fire
 – AE

walking with jesus – Spacemen 3

oh baby
 – AmazingGrace

rated x
 – AmazingGrace

lay back in the sun
 – PurePhase

death take your fiddle – AE

she kissed me
 – AmazingGrace

come together
 – Ladies&Gentlemen

take me to the other side – Spacemen 3

encore:
lord can you hear me – LetItComeDown

Alright Monday, for starters, let’s try some of this:

Familiar to those who own 2007’s JjG mix DVD, Infinite Fire Face…to those who don’t, lemme know and I’ll get you a copy…

As S/FJ says, you can’t look at this for very long.

UPDATE – actually you can! I just spent a good chunk of time zoning out and watching these guys dance and dance and dance…there’s a car driving by in mid frame left, and I love the ducks in the background…this clip gets better and better…

Having a great time net surfing on this lazy saturday afternoon, the Case mostly vanquished, Max and I having rocked it last night with a great film (Tell No One) and restaurant week dinner (Mercer Kitchen — snooty but delicious)…two sites in particular hit me well this afternoon:

1. NYT has a great audio/visual presentation about comic books, er, "graphic novels"…even though there’s nothing too earth-shattering in what these guys are talking about, it’s still really fun to hear the voices of Seth, Chris Ware, Chester Brown, et al, talking about their craft…

2. appealing to the inner geek in me, and making a case for a new type of visual story to be told: the website is down. You might need to be at least semi-familiar with things like an apache server to find it funny, or maybe not, maybe it works no matter what…I was gonna post it directly in here, but watching it on their site is pretty fun…

Since I’m taking the subway again, it’s time to get reacquainted with books, magazines and podcasts. Luckily for me Fluxblog has just started doing podcasts (or fluxcasts)…it’s like listening to the best college radio DJ ever, good times…

From fluxcast 3, here is a track from the Scissor Sisters’s unreleased first demo album…when I first heard it, before I knew what it was, I def thought the ending sounded very Scissor Sisters, but the main body of the track kind of doesn’t…it’s a little more primitive, the electronics are simpler, the vocals are coming from a slightly different place — but all of these elements actually help it.

Lots of sunshine in the sound, lots of sunshine in the sky, the temp has come down to the 80’s, the weekend is nigh…could the Case be on the wane?

Scissor Sisters – Backwoods Disco

This is from Derren Brown’s "Something Wicked This Way Comes"…I watched this last night and found it pretty great. His sense of showmanship is really good, and it makes me feel like maybe this was what it was like watching magicians in the early 1900’s, before tv and the net made us all savvy…

It’s 9 minutes long, but a darn good illusion-y time…

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

Well played, Battle for the Earth, you successfully posted something that made me feel as though I’ve been drinking nothing but Pimm’s for 2 days straight. This is weird and wild. I’m posting it here because people need to see this. Good luck, everyone.

giant tv truck making me nervous

Adding to my Case: the fact that sometimes I feel like everyone else on the internet is some kind of damn genius. This guy worked out how to make a sequencer using paper, skittles and a webcam. The webcam picks up where the skittles are placed, and somehow software translates each position to a different drum sound. Moving the pieces around makes different patterns of different instruments.

Weird science.

I Eat Beats from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

On his Vimeo page, the author says:

Future directions may include: more sensor types (e.g., a slider for tempo control), note-sequencing mode, and assigning the different colors to different rhythms or instruments (purple as bassline, or yellow as "every other measure").

There is a cut in the middle where it transitions from solo improvisation to three people interacting simultaneously. Any out-of-sync audio/video is due to my frazzled camera.

One of the other big problems: people like to eat Skittles.

Are you familiar with the case? I know some of you are. The case shows up when you’ve had too much of a good time and haven’t given your brain a chance to catch up. Maybe it’s a massive weekend, maybe too many intoxicants, maybe too much mind-blowing good times. Come Monday morning, welcome to the case. It should probably have a capital C, welcome to the Case. Usage is like a noun: "I’ve got a huge Case." "My Case was evil and unstoppable" etc.

Well let me tell you about the epic Case I’ve got going on. We got back from our mind-buggling vacation yesterday morning after taking the red-eye back from San Francisco. Today I went back to work after a biggg break. And it’s evil hot, and the subway is disgusting, and after being West Coast for so long, everyone here seems so uptight.

Plus, how’m I meant to go back to regular life (bills, work, subway fares, taxes) after seeing what I’ve seen in the past 10 days (Shelagh in Portland, Roscoe’s Wedding, bonfire on the beach, the OR Country fair, the OR coast, a flock of feeding pelicans, sea lions, seals, elk, otter, the prehistoric Fern Canyon, the OR dunes, camping in the Redwoods, the CA coast, mud baths, Sonoma wine tasting, San Francisco partying with Z&G)?

My Case is epic. Nothing seems to matter. Nothing is good. Like Versus said, there’s tunnel at the end of the light.

The only things keeping me from bashing in my own head with a hammer are two tracks I got from the trip.

The first track we heard in a store in Portland, OR…just some random clothes place playing this dope track. It’s by Lateef and The Chief; Lateef from Latryx, and The Chief from Blackalicious. The bass is so solid, and the rap is so flowy in that Bay Area style (Lyrics Born, Latyrx, Blackalicious, Gift of gab, etc.)…

Ambush – Lateef and The Chief

The other track we heard right at the end of the trip, in San Francisco. Hanging with Z&G, and G telling us about how they go to all these parties where DJ’s are giving out free promo CD’s. They got this one from a DJ named Motion Potion (turns out he’s pretty well established and revered), and it was so good I ripped it from him on the spot. No clue what the track names are, but this one mashes up a vocal by Lyrics Born over some amazing, analog-sounding synths and beat. While we were walking around with Z&G, G kept saying "everybody move, nobody get hurt", and now I know why. This track is fantastic.

Motion Potion – Track 6

If I were in a normal frame of mind, these tracks would make me dance around the room. As it is, I’m lucky to be able to nod my head to the beat. There will be a bigger post about our trip coming, right now I’m in no mood.

Case.

Sf

In the summer of 2006, before I went out to Burning Man solo, JG & JW gave me this track that they promised would blow my mind. I put it on my mp3 player and took it out to the desert, not knowing a thing about it…oh, and it came with instructions. While digging though camping gear to get ready for the OR trip, I recently came across the print-out of the instructions…they read:

Suggestions from Jon and I

1. Don’t force it

2. HOWEVER, need to have a good place to listen, solid sound system needed, high volume needed, 13 minutes of focus needed, YOU MUST GO FROM START TO FINISH and music heads a must.

3. Don’t let losers in, you must prepare for a ride and people can’t be borrowing you or the others listening.

4. It is A LOT to wrap your head around so be ready to travel

5. Thank the lord for music

6. Be someone

Now let’s face it, these are powerful instructions. I obeyed them to the letter and ended up listening to it in the middle of the desert, sunrise after the man burned, headphones pumped, watching a giant flower-crane machine on wheels drive around the desert in the early morning sun. My mind was totally blown.

And here’s you chance to share in the joy. Normally I would put it on the blog so you could play it right here, but that would sort of fly in the face of the instructions, wouldn’t it? But here’s a link to download it. Obviously, I won’t be around to make sure you follow the instructions, and maybe you’ll just download it and play it right on your PC, or in your car on the way home from work, but I’m telling you, follow those instructions and a good time will be had by all.

Instructions number 1 and number 6 are the keys here…enjoy!

Ultimate 13 Min Track from Jo(h)ns

(right-click to download, then follow instructions above)

Oh, also if anyone knows what this track is, we’d love to know!

(photo from redteam’s Flikr)

Sometimes you hit a dry spell where you don’t find any good music for a while. And then sometimes you hit a vein of gold and for a little bit you find track after track after track. Coming right on the heels of that fantastic Flying Lotus track, check out this good summer vibe, courtesy of Motion Man, from Cocaineblunts‘ muxtape…

Motion Man – Mo Like Flows On (12" Remix)