Sunday, November 26, 2006

Episode 122, Some Assembly Required

Episode 122, Some Assembly Required

01 Mr Dibbs – “1000 Drumps”
02 John Oswald - “1001”
03 DJ Frenchbloke – “Whitneytron”
04 People Like Us – “I'm 89”
05 Audio Consortium – “Andre's Voyage”
06 Rush Limbaugh Hater – “Rush Sings I'm A Nazi”
07 Negativland – “Freedom's Waiting”
08 Jason Forrest – “My 36 favorite punk songs”
09 Kid Koala and Dynamite O – “Third World Lover”
10 Wobbly - “Dance floor”
11 DJ Zebra – “Come Closer”
12 DJ Z-Trip & Radar – “Untitled”
13 Soundshaker – “Four More F***ing Years (Blood For Oil)”
14 Wobbly – “Uh What, Uh Huh. Two.”
15 Think Tank – “Anticipatory Retaliation”


Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

More information about Some Assembly Required online, at:
www.some-assembly-required.net

November 26, 2006: DJ Zebra

November 26, 2006: DJ Zebra

If you're reading this and plan to be in the Twin Cities on December 1st, I hope you'll join Ruben Nusz and I at Rosalux Gallery for Create.Destroy.Repeat, our first show together and my first major art exhibition since showing there with Amy Rice nearly two years ago. I'll be showing a brand new series of collage, along with some video collage collaborations and two brand new additions to the Marquee Series. Please join us the evening of Friday, December 1st at Rosalux Gallery, from 7-11 pm. Rosalux is located at 1011 Washington Avenue South, in Minneapolis and you can find more info online at rosaluxgallery.com

Our featured artist this week is DJ Zebra! Stay tuned for episode 122 in just a few, and read on to learn all about DJ Zebra. Thanks for checking us out!


***

DJ Zebra

DJ Zebra is a member of an exclusive new club of mashup artists who've taken that natural next step with their work, forming bands to perform their mashup compositions live. I'm sure there are at least a few "bastard pop bands" doing this by now, but the first artists I'm aware of to do this were DJ Zebra and a group called Smash Up Derby (featuring members of a mashup team called A plus D, out of California).

DJ Zebra is a musician and radio producer from Paris, France. He produces a daily radio mix for OÜI FM (a rock 'n roll radio station in France) and also does a mash-up program on FRANCE INTER. He's also a remix artist, and spins around Europe as a rock DJ.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with DJ Zebra...


*Name: DJ Zebra

*Do you use a pseudonym? I am Antoine MINNE, a.k.a. DJ ZEBRA. I have this name since 1993, when I started DJing in a funky-latino style in France.

*Members: I also play in the BOOTLEGS LIVE BAND with DJ Moule, playing live our own mash-ups with guitar, bass and loops.

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I don’t use technical definitions to describe my work. I'm rather like a "metteur en scène" (in french), it's like a movie director or a master of puppets. I create musical scenes or stories with singers and musicians that never met in real life. It's not just a mix. If it was, mash-ups wouldn't be so interesting.

*Location: Paris, France.

*Original Location: Ham, France

*What is your creative/artistic background: I started playing guitar at the age of 9, in 1980. It was in Ham (the city where I was born, in the north of France). Then I created my first rock band in 1990. We played my instrumental compositions, which were a sort of mix between The Smiths and Jimi Hendrix (can you imagine that?). I was a student in an art school at this time, and I always knew that my life would be nothing without a creative job. Then I went to Rennes in 1991, to work in a radio station, and since that I played music and produced radio programs. So being a DJ was the best way to do both.

*History: I'm living in Paris, France, but I started playing music in a professional way in Rennes (west of France), which is a city that had a serious new-wave background. I joined Billy Ze Kick in 1993, a pop band who did songs over loops (from The Doors, Them, Dave Brubeck, lots of reggae hits...), which was new at this time. This experience made me want to work with a sampler, then I never gave up this kind of work. It was already bootlegs, but I didn't know it because this happened before the "bastard pop" movement came.

*Born: 1971

*Motivations/Philosophy: I like to be free. I like every kind of music, and I have an offensive attitude. The art of provocation! So bootlegs/mash-ups are the best way to do music with all those elements. It's also a way to open people's minds, to have a sort of political dimension without anything else that music. Some people think that "we shouldn't have the right" to do that kind of mix between artists without demanding. So it's like a "f*** off" style, and I like that.

*Web address: My website is http://www.dj-zebra.com

***

Thanks to DJ Zebra for submitting his responses to our Q&A this week. Check out his website and download this week's podcast (episode 122) to learn even more and hear some of his work!

In a rush this week, so I'll wrap this up quickly. I still have a couple of pieces to finish up for my exhibition with Ruben Nusz this Friday! Please join us at the opening - again, it's Friday, December 1st, from 7-11 pm at Rosalux Gallery. More info at rosaluxgallery.com

Tune in next week for our feature on TWINK. Until then, thanks for listening!
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Episode 121, Some Assembly Required

Episode 121, Some Assembly Required

01 Avalanches – “Since I left you”
02 Christian Marclay - "John Cage"
03 Dsico – “Block rockin’ woman”
04 Silica Gel –“Personal dream”
05 Cast of Thousands w/ Escape Mechanism – “Lets talk (Q and A)”
06 John Schnall – “God”
07 DJ Cal – “Wicked whatever”
08 Myeck Waters – “The strangest story”
09 DJ Jester & the Gellm – “Filipinofist”
10 DJ Talkback – “The return of scratching”
11 John Oswald – “Open”
12 Osymyso – “Girls and boys”
13 Splatt – “Caution: rafall”
14 Twink – “Three blind mice”
15 Steinski – “Relax”


Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

More information about Some Assembly Required online, at:
www.some-assembly-required.net

November 19, 2006: Dsico

November 19, 2006: Dsico

For those of you who are staying on top of the podcast via iTunes, I apologize for whatever technical issue we were having this past week. A few emails between myself and a couple of (highly educated) friends later, and I was able to add some code in somewhere and make the problem magically disappear. Glad to report it was something that we could fix. Stay tuned for episode 121, to be posted next - and it should be available at iTunes shortly therafter!

***

Dsico

Dsico was one of the first mashup artists I came across. I got a disc in the mail shortly after someone else had sent me the Best Bootlegs in the World Ever compilation, and I listened to them both for quite awhile, as I slowly warmed up to the idea. Believe it or not, I wasn't too sure I liked it, at first! When we had The ECC out to play at Theatre de la Jeune Lune a few years ago, I DJ'd for about an hour, warming up the crowd, and spun mashups (in homage to Mark Gunderson's title as "Godfather of Mashup"), and it was the aformentioned CDs which made up the bulk of my offering that night. The crowd was quite appreciative.

Dsico is another mashup artist who has since gone on to produce more traditional music, choosing to move beyond his role as mashup artist. Although of course we'll focus on his work as a sample-based musician here, Dsico has become a band with a live line-up featuring Luke Collison on Guitar & Vocals, Michaela Davies on Bass and Reef Gaha on drums. Collison continues to do remixes as well, though based on his answers to the SAR Q&A (below), I doubt he'll be doing any more mashups...

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Dsico!


*Name: Dsico

*Members: 1-3

*Founding Member: Luke Collison

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: These days it’s just a "band.” I suppose I’m more a singer/songwriter for lack of a better term. I don't do that mashup rubbish anymore. Thats all just plagiarism anyway.

*Location: Sydney, Australia

*What is your creative/artistic background: Well, I'm living in Sydney, Australia at the moment and have been here for the last 10 years or so. I played a bit of guitar in high school, as I imagine a lot of people did. But it wasn’t until I was at Uni that I got into electronic music and started playing with synthesizers and that stuff.

*History: Dsico, has been going for a few years. Initially it was just a Pseudonym I was using for doing Mash-Ups and Plunderphonic type work. This was all around 2002/2003 I suppose, DJing and "net-releasing" unofficial remixes etc. These days I don't do any of that though. And Dsico has now become the name for my original music output. I have a couple of albums out on my own little vanity label "Spasticated Records." I've also now put together a 3-Piece Band for live gigs, with Vox/Guitar + Bass + Drums & Electronics. We've been doing a few gigs around Sydney this year.

*Born: I've been working under the pseudonym Dsico since around late 2002 or so, and I'm old enough...

*Motivations/Philosophy: I just write songs. Its amusing. Oh and I like the mixing/ production side of it a lot too. It’s always interesting learning how to get a better or smoother, fuller sound. Lately I've been trying to get into producing other bands more as I think I have writers block with my music. My recent songs have been a little lacking. But the production side has been coming along. Although you always want more gear. More preamps / microphones, fancy synths... It’s terrible.

*Web address: http://www.dsico.org

***

Thanks to Luke Collison of Dsico for being the focus of our feature this week at the SAR Blog. Check out episode 121 to hear one of his mashups - or "rubbish," as he calls it! Check out the Dsico website when you get a chance as well.

Hopefully this new episode uploads to iTunes this week and we won't have any further problems getting the show out. If you have any problems, please feel free to get in contact. You can post a comment here at the blog, or drop me a line at my email address (listed at our Contact Page). Also, if you have any ideas on how we could better promote the podcast, I'm all ears. Still quite new to this and, as you can probably tell, much more interested in the production and musical direction of the show, as opposed to learning all the ins and outs of the technical side of podcasting, but I'd love to find the show more exposure so if you have any ideas on where I should be listing the program, or promoting it in other ways, please don't hesitate to make your suggestions...

Tune in next week for our feature on DJ Zebra. Until then - thanks for listening!
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

Friday, November 10, 2006

Episode 120, Some Assembly Required

Episode 120, Some Assembly Required

01 Tedshred – “Rastars vs Patsy Cline”
02 People Like Us – “Millenium Dome”
03 The Evolution Control Committee - “Music for Selling”
04 Glockenspiel – “When The Record Goes Around”
05 The Bran Flakes – “They're Laughing At Me”
06 DJ Format - “Vinyl Overdose”
07 The Tape-beatles – “Call of the carpenter”
08 Jeff Sconce - “Good times!”
09 Negativland – “Quiet Please”
10 Splatt – “Laughterstruck”
11 DJ QBert – “Sneak Attack”
12 People Like Us – “Ski Heil”
13 Realistic – “Oops out of space”
14 Negativland – “Pip Digs Pep”
15 Myeck Waters – “I love that thing!”
16 RX Music – “My generation”
17 King of Pants – “Badd To Me”


Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

More information about Some Assembly Required online, at:
www.some-assembly-required.net

November 10, 2006: Glockenspiel

November 10, 2006: Glockenspiel

I first played Glockenspiel on the 6th episode of Some Assembly Required (in February, 1999). I played them again on the 29th show, and then waited almost two years to play them again in episode 120 (which is this week's podcast). We'll get into all the nitty gritty about why, along with the who, what, where and when, below...

***

Glockenspiel

This week's feature is on an artist with only two tracks in the SAR library! Read on for the SAR Q&A with Glockenspiel's David Jordan, who of course has done much more than just those two tracks as Glockenspiel. Jordan is a musician who's been in a number of bands including Beatless, Polycarp and Micro-East Collective. He is currently involved with a rock trio called Cantwell Gomez & Jordan.

He's also a founding member of the North Carolina collective known as Wifflefist. That group is known for lots of experimental projects, including the three he was involved with, Glockenspiel, Beatless and Polycarp, not to mention Silica Gel, Laso Halo, Magwheels, Buttfinger and plenty of others like Catnip, Friend Side Monkey, Banana Twins, Renelvis and A/V Geeks.

When I say I only have two tracks by Glockenspiel, what I mean is that for the first three years of the show I only had one! When contacting him to do this feature, I asked him if he had anything else I could play, and he sent me the 2nd track - which should be featured at some point this coming year. So that's something to look forward to! In the meantime, here's the SAR Q&A with David Jordan of Glockenspiel...


*Name: Glockenspiel

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: No, except I got miscredited as "Glock 2" on the RRR 500 lock groove compilation.

*Members: solo (side) project of David Jordan

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I'd classify Glockenspiel broadly as "experimental" with a lower case e. My earlier stuff definitely fits the tape manipulation / turntable creations mold, depending more on which piece you're looking at. Lately I've turned more to live improv using electrified percussion and controlled electronic feedback. Some digital deconstruction is certainly in Glockenspiel's future, but I haven't really had the right toys to pursue that much. I suppose what ties it all together in my head is a sense that it's solo as opposed to whatever else I've got going on at the moment playing with other people, and that it's textural as opposed to structural music. Appropriation certainly plays a part in what I do to make the textures, but it's not as critical for defining what I do as Glockenspiel.

*Location: I've spent most of the last 20+ years in the Raleigh / Durham / Chapel Hill area of NC, where I've been making noise in any number of bands for about as long.

*What is your creative/artistic background: Founding member of Wifflefist, was in Beatless and Polycarp, Micro-East Collective (large improv orchestra), current rock trio is called Cantwell Gomez & Jordan.

*History: Been around as Glockenspiel since early 1990s. Been around as myself since 1968, born in Detroit if that helps plot my astrology chart, but grew up mainly in Lubbock, TX before moving east.

*Born: Detroit, 1968

*Motivations/Philosophy: I seem to have a compulsion to make this stuff, although it's a compulsion I only rarely have spare time to indulge in. In general, I think that to make and engage in and try to appreciate the difficult and unfamiliar stuff (music, art, whatever), makes us smarter and better and occasionally happier people.

*Web address: Perhaps coming to myspace very soon. There's an incomplete discography at: http://www.cantwellgomezandjordan.com/jordan.html where you can see other things I've been up to as well.

***

Thanks to David Jordan of Glockenspiel for being our featured artist this week. Check out this week's podcast to hear the infamous Glockenspiel track, "When the record goes around."

If you find out about our weekly podcast at mnartists.org, then you may have seen their recent feature, with MN Stories' Chuck Olsen. I was the focus of that feature, and instead of being all shy about it, I'm going to tell you to go take a look! I'll be having an art exhibition with Ruben Nusz in December, at Rosalux Gallery, and the video touches just a bit on my work as a visual artist, so... check it out and see what you think. You can also see my and Ruben's work at Rosalux Gallery's website, or at our individual pages at mnartists.org:
Ruben Nusz at mnartists.org
Jonathan Nelson at mnartists.org

Thanks for checking it out. Until next week, thanks for listening!
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

Monday, November 06, 2006

Episode 119, Some Assembly Required

Episode 119, Some Assembly Required

01 DJ Jimmie Jam – “Jimmie's Jam”
02 Brian Eno & David Byrne – “Help Me Somebody”
03 Emergency Broadcast Network – “3:7:8”
04 Freelance Hellraiser – “I Feel Kylie”
05 Lecture On Nothing – “Strap It On”
06 Laso Halo – “And I was a play horse you pull with a string”
07 Corporal Blossom – “The Christmas song (chestnuts)”
08 Myeck Waters – “Perhaps you are living”
09 Escape Mechanism – “The Recap”
10 The Tape-beatles – “The law of repetition”
11 Greg Carr – “Remote viewing in an emptying house”
12 IDC - “Hey Mug”
13 Kid Koala – “Music for Morning People”
14 John Oswald – “WX (track one)”
15 DJ Food – “Turtle soup (wagon christ mix)”


Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

More information about Some Assembly Required online, at:
www.some-assembly-required.net

Sunday, November 05, 2006

November 5, 2006: IDC

November 5, 2006: IDC

The featured artist this week is British Mashup artist, IDC! Read on for the SAR Q&A with IDC, and check out episode 119 (uploading now), to hear 13 sound collages by artists from around the world, including a mashup by IDC.

Well, I can tell you that I'm pretty proud to have stuck to my goal of featuring a new artist every week this year. Only two months left to go, and with very few exceptions we've featured a different sound collage artist each and every week, here at the Some Assembly Required blog. If you haven't been keeping up, scroll back through the archives to read all about a few dozen of the hundreds of artists we feature here on the show. Check out the links page at the SAR website for hundreds of additional references as well!

Can't say I've been too prolific though, blog-wise. Aside from these weekly features, I haven't had too much else to say! Maybe I'm kidding myself, actually. I'm sure it's the SAR Q&A's with featured artists which brings you here, if you're in the habit of visiting us weekly.

However, if you would like to learn more about me... Chuck Olsen at MN Stories has teamed up with mnartists.org to do a monthly video feature on Minnesota artists and I was his first subject! Check out the short video feature HERE. I'm quite flattered to have been the subject of his first venture with mnartists.org. Special thanks to Chuck Olsen for being such a gracious videographer and editing out (almost) all of the dumb things I said and did on camera!

***

IDC

Thank god for the internet. I'd say 99% of the mashups which get aired on Some Assembly Required are either sent via email or downloaded directly from the artist's websites. IDC is one of the many artists I've found during random searches for new sound collage on the web. His mashups have been featured on the radio and in nightclubs everywhere, as well as online.

IDC
has been producing mashups since around 2002, along with official remixes and mix singles. IDC routinely plays out in the clubs and has been featured on MTV, and on radio programs such as Pete Tong's Essential Selection Buzz Chart, Lamacq Live, Rob Da Bank's Blue Room, John Peel's BBC Radio One program, XFM shows The Remix, The Rinse and X-posure, Scotland's Beatscene and Ministry Of Sound, and of course... Some Assembly Required.

The IDC track featured in this week's episode (episode 119) was personally selected by Outkast's Andre 3000, who insisted that the mix up of "Hey Ya" and The Streets "Don't Mug Yourself" be cleared for MTV broadcast. That particular track had the most repeat broadcasts on the program MTV Mash and was the tune chosen to end the series. Check out this week's podcast to hear it! Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with IDC...


*Name: IDC

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: No

*Members: Myself and my self-built computer and for "on the road" dates I'm joined by my band of CDRs.

*Founding Member: David IDC

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Of those three "digital manipulation creations."

*Another genre descriptor: I like "21st Century Rock'n'roll", believing that the ancient spirit of rock'n'roll manifests best through the most contemporary means of production and creation that are available to it.

*Location: London, UK

*Original Location: same

*What is your creative/artistic background: writing about music for a national music weekly whilst at school, playing guitar and touring with a band straight after, having a couple of books on music history published, becoming a DJ/club promoter for a few years, then mixing the lot up in a new thing for a new century with IDC.

*History: IDC tentatively surfaced in mid 2002 when a bootleg/mashup track I made was featured on "MTV Select" in the UK. Shortly after a couple of remixes for labels followed and then the whole bootleg / mash-up side of things I was doing picked up a lot of interest. A white label original tune appeared on vinyl the following year and things really started kicking off from then on.

*Born: London, in the 20th Century.

*Motivations: I think everybody should have some outlet for their creative desires, whatever form it takes and however good the results are. I do the things I do and make the things I make because I want to do them and they make me feel good, purely and simply.

*Philosophy: Do what you want to do, then if you can earn a living and pay the bills from doing what you would gladly be doing for free, things are going nicely.
*How would you like to be remembered: Too much yet to do to be thinking in those terms.

*Web address: www.idcmusic.com

***

Thanks to David of IDC for being the featured artist this week at the blog! Be sure to check out episode 119 to hear his mashup along with 12 other sound collages - and check out IDC's website, while you're at it. Now go download episode 119!

Tune in next week for our feature on Glockenspiel...
Until then - thanks for listening!
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net