Bell, Larry – Cello Suite with Harpsichord: Aria – Sam Ou, Paul Cienniwa

David Lynch – Good Day Today – Crazy Clown Time
Silent Drape Runners – New Vibes – New Vibes EP
Shlohmo – I can’t See You, I’m Dead – Bad Vibes

David Holland – Life Cycle: Resolution – Life Cycle
Lansky, Paul – Travel Diary: Lost in Philly – Meehan/Perkins Duo
Karaindrou, Eleni – Dust of Time: Waltz By The River – Sergiu Nastasa, Maria Bildea, Dino Hadjiiordanou

Steve Lacy/Roswell Rudd – Light Blue – Early and Late
Matt Marks – He Touched Me – The Little Death Vol. 1
O’Regan, Tarik – The Spring – Acallam na Senorach: an Irish Colloquy

Leon, Tania – Inura: The Lust – Son Sonora, Dance Brazil

• Nearly every CD sold is now distributed by a single company. This sounds a whole lot like the distribution model for comic books, which once tried to censor a comic it felt was too graphic. I also wonder what would happen if this company mismanaged its business and folded. I know that sounds like extreme speculation, but if another record store closes down, it could wreak havoc on the distributor’s bottom line, like Borders bankruptcy and Diamond.
• Information on the Silent Drape Runners upcoming Twin Peaks Rei-magining that’s TONIGHT.
• Beta Test concert information here.

Reich, Steve – Double Sextet: III – Eighth Blackbird
Glenn Branca – Symphony No. 10: First Movement (The Final Problem) – Symphony No. 8 and 10

Codona 3 – Hey Da Ba Doom – Codona 3
Elodie Lauten – Concerto for Piano and Orchestral Memory: Tempo di Habanera – Piano Works
Balke, Jon – Tuchia – Siwan

Plog, Anthony – Concerto 2010: IV – American Brass Quintet, Texas christian University Wind Symphony
Prokofiev, Sergei – Sonata for Two Violins: IV – Movses Pogossian, Varty Manouelian
Rouse, Steve – The Flying Boy: III Aerial Acrobatics – University of Louisville Faculty Brass Quintet

Martinez, Jose “Pepe” – Cruzar La Cara De La Luna: Siempre Estoy Equi – Houston Grand Opera

I figured it would be a good time to post to post this after the news that we’d be getting Watchmen prequels was released last week. Personally, I figured it was only a matter of time before they would exist. So many jokes have been made about additional Watchmen stories that it almost lessens the blow. There are two reasons these stories don’t need to exist: the original pretty much gave us a wealth of background on the characters that it seems hard to tell a significant story and the Alan Moore not having the rights to the characters makes this a kind of shitty move. On the other hand, comics have always existed on serialization and continuing to tell the stories of characters who readers are already familiar with (until it’s comical to consider how busy super hero lives must be). And these are really good characters who, I think, can help us negotiate today’s world just as much as the Eighties.

Which brings us to Mr. Kovacs. I wrote The Ballade of Walter J Kovacs for ThingNY’s SPAM 2.0 concert, which happened in the early months of 2011. I used the Oulipo poetry technique N+7 (in this case N+12) to revise Rorscach’s journals, replacing each noun with the noun 12 words away in the dictionary. Why? Well, I think the character often considered the hero of Watchmen is a batshit insane proto-Tea Partier. I hoped that by altering the objects  he was talking about while preserving his feelings towards them, listeners would be able to recognize how Rorshach’s worldview is more governed by hate than justice. Also, its delightfully absurd.

This recording was made by myself with Ryan Hendriksen performing the part of Walter, and we recorded it in his West Philadelphia apartment in Spring 2011. We also performed it at the first Beta Test concert May 2011. Like everything else on bandcamp, you can download this for free, or just stream it at your leisure.

Featured Image: Obi-Fran Kenobi on flickr.

I think my favorite part is Sonic holding the drum stick. It reminds me of Animal. Animal and Sonic would make an awesome team of rhythmic speed, now that I think about it.

Anyway, our gig is going to include some really great arrangements of music written for heroes like Mario, Superman, Batman, and a premiere by me called I Do Believe. I’ll have more details on that as the gig gets closer and we start previewing things. You can start buying your tickets immediately via this fancy button.

Also, things are almost all together for another premiere/performance in late April in Brooklyn. Nat Evan and I are writing some works for trombones, and our pieces are going to be a part of a night involving some other really awesome music. With any luck, the Giants will be blowing out the Patriots by half time so I can start writing the piece in peace.

Matthew Guerrieri posted a series of composer sketches this afternoon that made my day. I think my favorite is the Persichetti, but this one caught my eye because I’ve been spending a lot of time with some of his music:

I’ve been playing Dello Joio’s film score suite The Louvre with the Raritan Valley Symphony Band. We’re performing it for the NJ Music Educator’s Association annual conference in February. It’s really weird music, and I can’t decide if its good. It takes some turns form-wise, and as with a lot of Dello Joio’s music, it’s a weird mix of sounding reserved but modern. It is physically and emotionally demanding of the performer though, so I can dig it from a selfish point of view.

Upcoming are some posts related to education that I hope will be interesting to even the non educators. I just need to find a time to get the words to paper text editor.

Okay, you’ve been good for reading all of that, so as a treat, listen to this remix of Mahler 1 by Samn Johnson.

Apparently the first half of the show was Internet Only. The transmitter kicked back on around 4:40, but you can hear all of it at the archive (first few minutes are the end of the previous show, not African Psychedelia). Click through for the list of plays…

The Psychedelic Aliens – Gbomei Adesai – Psycho African Beat

Arlid Andersen – 305 W 18th Street – Selected Recordings
alva noto – uni fac – univrs
Hill, William – Symphony No. 2 (Beethoven 7.1) – II – Lamont Symphony Orchestra

Richter, Marga – Sonata for Piano: II Slow – Richard Zimdars
LCD Soundsystem – All I Want – Live at the World Cafe vol. 31
Child, Peter – Duo for Piano, Four Hands: I Roundabout – Hirsh-Pinkas Piano Duo

Gosfield, Annie – Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites – George Kentros
Glass, Philip – Suite from “The Hours”: Morning Passages – Vassily Primakov

Dong, Kui – Spring – Del Sol String Quartet

Radio this afternoon! Beta Test March 3rd! Here are some links to read over your weekend coffee:

• I’ll be playing a couple of tracks this afternoon from the Disquiet Junto. I’ve missed participating in the last two projects because I need to get some music together for Beta Test, so I’m going to try and contribute in some other way.
• More on censorship of the Internet. Twitter is interestingly making a policy to draw attention to the information it censors. This seems like a way to draw attention to the countries who request they block information, allowing them to be compliant to nations and also mindful of free speech. People need to know what is being censored to effectively protest against attacks on free speech.
• Making music is expensive, but choosing to listen to it is pretty cheap. Why not kick a few bucks to Christian Carey to help him create a live performance of his Gilgamesh Variations?

• Todd Reynolds is streaming some of the music from his album Outerborough (released last year and really really awesome), and he’s also adding some longer comments on the music. Here’s the track Ken Thompson wrote for him.
• PANICKY BEAUTY (alternate comment: Shostakovitch in a punk web comic? Of course I found it)
• The Living Earth Show is doing a kickstarter to raise funds for quartertone instruments. Their youtube video asking for support also serves as a really coherent reason for why complex music is valuable.
• I’m not sure if this post from Nico Muhly is coherent. But the section about the Jersey Shore and its censoring of products drawing additional attention resonates with my fascination over the difference between analog and digital censorship (digital censorship not leaving traces)
• An opera scene about Paula Deen. Yupp.

Hopefully the next item added to this page is details about Beta Test Presents Heroes!  We’re ironing out the tiny wrinkles now.

Lethargize! is an electronic work, made for a remix contest of Steve Reich’s 2×5 on Indaba Music. All of the samples were slowed down at least a little bit, but many were severely stretched. This is also where the tune’s name came from. I really like the bubbling sound that comes out during the second section of the work, which was a completely happy accident I tried to make useful. This was completed in late 2010.

Featured Image: Quinn.Anya on flickr

Hour 1

Glenn Branca – The Ascension – The Ascension

Ruders, Poul – Symphony 4: I – Odense Symphony Orchestra,organ Flemming Dreisig, cond Robert Minczuk
St. Vincent – Actor Out Of Work – Live at the World Cafe vol 30
Bobby Long – Who Have You Been Loving? - Live at the World Cafe vol 30

Coleman, Steve – Gridlock (Opus 8 ) – Dave Holland Quintet
The Muppet Barbershop Quartet – Smells Like Teen Spirit – The Muppets Soundtrack
Curtis-Smith, C – A Civil War Song Cycle: Shiloh- A Requiem – Mary Bonhag, C. Curtis-Smith

Barber, Samuel – Three Songs – Melissa Fogarty, Marc Peloquin
Los Ilusionistas – Colegiala – The Roots of Chicha 2
Brahms, Johannes – Piano Trio No. 1: II – Weiss, Kaplan, Newman Trio

Hour 2

Al-Zand, Karim – Pattern Preludes Book 3 – Ryan Fogg
Shlomo – Trapped In a Burning House – Bad Vibes
Aylward, John – Images of Departure: I – East Coast Contemporary Ensemble

Waggoner, Andrew – Improvisation (2) – Open End
So Percussion and Matmos – Flame – Treasure State
Full of Fancy – Hermit Love – The Singles

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers – Atheists Don’t Have No Songs – Rare Bird Alert
Christopher O’Riley and Matt Haimovitz – Pyramid Song – Shuffle. Play. Listen
Ramsay, Graham Gordon – De Profundis – cond Heinrich Christensen

Tom Waits – Talking At the Same Time – Bad As Me
Papandopulo, Boris – Scherzo fantastico – Nicholas Philips

M83 – Steve McQueen – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming

Watch this video on YouTube.

In the summer of 2011, I was began working on a piece for Beta Test’s Monsters program while on vacation with my family in Lovell, Maine. Located in Western Maine, Lovell is the home of Stephen King, Kezar Lake, and Ebenezer’s pub. Ebenezer’s is one of the best beer bars in America, and during vacation I was happy to sample a few of the best beers in the world, including Pannepot Wild and Verdi Imperial Stout. Stephen King needs no introduction. Kezar Lake is the beautiful and tranquil Maine lake pictured above.

The lake quickly made itself the focus of the piece. The peacefulness of the region is alluring – this was not the first time my family visited for their summer holiday and they generally consider it paradise. Of course, in the middle of the summer there are no hints of the harsh winter and only a careful eye can find examples of the apprehension some of the locales have for the seasonal visitors. To me, the lake was a sort of Siren, beckoning a false realty.

The piece was written for hulusi, an absolutely gorgeous Chinese folk instrument, and harp. Both the harpist (Elizabeth Morgan-Ellis) and hulusi player (Justin Bulava) mentioned they would be willing to play something I wrote for them, but cautioned me about the limited volume of their instruments. So, naturally I combined the two for this work. The video is from the premiere performance on 10/22/2011 at Moonstone Arts Center and was part of Beta Test’s “Monsters” program.