Sunday, September 28, 2008

September 28, 2008

No new Q&A this week, for one simple reason: This week's episode features my phone interview with Go Home Production's Mark Vidler, and we featured his Q&A back in January. Check out the Q&A HERE, for a little background information, then download this week's episode (#216) to hear nine tracks by one of the word's most recognized mashup artists, Go Home Productions, along with our phone interview with the artist.

Check out Episode 216 HERE.

While I've got your ear, I have to mention the fact that my new CD, Escape Mechanism's (Emphasis Added), will be officially available TOMORROW (9/29/08). It's my first new studio album in nearly ten years, and it's 100% recycled, of course. Check out the Escape Mechanism website HERE, for more information...

Thanks for listening!
Jon Nelson


www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 216, Some Assembly Required

Episode 216, Some Assembly Required
(featuring an interview with Go Home Productions)

01 Go Home Productions – “Don't Hold Back (Sweet Jane)”
02 Go Home Productions – “Passenger Fever"
03 Go Home Productions – “Return Of The Weather Episode”
04 Go Home Productions – “Riders Of Love”
05 Go Home Productions – “God Save Madonna”
06 Go Home Productions – “No Feelings For Cher”
07 The Kray Twins (GHP) – “Graham Is A Place On Earth”
08 Go Home Productions – “Daytrip To Never Never Land”
09 Go Home Productions – “Razor Smile”


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Monday, September 22, 2008

Wayne Butane

Wayne Butane

Wayne Butane is a very, very hard person to convince to be interviewed. I’ve been sending him emails for at least a couple of years now. We'll have little conversations from time to time, until I bring up the Q&A and then… silence. Several months later, another little conversation, another, “hey, have you given any more thought to my questionnaire?” Answer: No. Finally, after badgering him repeatedly, over the course of, well, much much longer than most, he has relented. His response below!

So why did I try so hard? Well, in spite of the often rude (and alternately crude) nature of this Underground/Outsider artist's output, I honestly do count his best work among my very favorite sound collages ever. It’s raw, it’s out there, and it’s often hilarious. It's also some of the least pretentious stuff you'll hear on this show, and that's saying quite a bit.

Wayne Butane has released numerous albums, many of which are exceedingly long-form, so if you've heard him on the show, you've probably only (often) heard segments. I'd recommend buying them, individually, one by one, and listening to them from beginning to end, for the full effect. His work is characterized by countless (literally hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of) snippets of dialogue and sound effects, strung together in a linear, never ending, stream of consciousness blast of nonsense. I want to call it improvisational, but I can't imagine truly improvising this kind of thing. I'm sure there's a lot of method behind this madness...

He calls himself an audio absurdist, if that puts it into perspective for you. There's rarely any really sincere message being communicated, certainly no moral lesson, but there is always SOMETHING being communicated. You're just not always completely sure what it is you're listening to. Confused yet? Don't be - just check out some of the tracks and you'll also hear just how beautifully simple it all is (or at least seems to be). (Check out Episode 77 HERE, featuring his track, titled "Sicksicksicks").

There is a new website in the making, but in the meantime you can find more info at his myspace page HERE. Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Wayne Butane...


*Name: Wayne Butane

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: I did a one-off project under the name "Lindsay Lohan's Bicycle Seat" several years ago which remains unreleased. It's probably best that way.

*Do you use a pseudonym? See above.

*Members: It's just me.

*Founding Members: n/a

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I do a mix of all three.

*Another genre descriptor: I'm not that clever. It's just sound collage.

*Location: The Arizona desert

*Original Location: n/a

*What is your creative/artistic background: I used to draw a lot until I realized that I hated drawing. I hate painting too, and one of my paintings was recently used in a feature film, "Netherbeast Incorporated.” Thankfully, I LOVE editing.

*History: I put out my first full length tape for public consumption back in 1992, but I've been doing sound collages since about 1974.

*Born: n/a

*Motivations: I create everything for my own amusement. If anyone else finds it entertaining, then that's a bonus.

*Philosophy: See previous answer.

*How would you like to be remembered: I would love for future generations to discover my work and wonder "What the hell was THIS all about?" Maybe have college courses taught on trying to figure out my work and all the references.

*Web address: Flamingcanine.com is currently out of commission. I'm working on a Wayne Butane website.


www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 77, Some Assembly Required

Episode 77, Some Assembly Required

01 Wobbly - "Guy guy"
02 Idiom Creak - "Alphabet song"
03 Steev Hise - "Yankee phoney"
04 Christian Marclay/Otomo Yoshihide - "Lucky seven"
05 Workeshoppe Radio Phonik - "Big time shopping-Jinglephonics #3"
06 Wobbly - "Better than your lucky day"
07 Wayne Butane - "Sicksicksicks”
08 Antediluvian Rocking Horse - "Dadanger music"


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

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Brian Joseph Davis

Brian Joseph Davis

A friend sent me a link to "10 Banned Albums Burned, Then Played," by Brian Joseph Davis a few months ago. The project is very conceptual, which is kind of a weakness of mine. I love the idea! The project was simply a (destructive) reinterpretation of work by ten artists with albums which had been banned. Another of his projects is "Five Box Sets Played on Fast Forward, Then Edited Into Songs." Nice.

He's a writer, composer and conceptual artist. His most recent project ("Original Soundtrack") is a collection of major motion picture DVD menus, stacked and played simultaneously. Davis also manipulates the sounds being played, and the results will be available as CD and free mp3 download in October. He will also be installing/performing the piece in Vancouver, New York and Toronto in the coming months. Find out more HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Brian Joseph Davis...


*Name: Brian Joseph Davis

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

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations:

*Another genre descriptor: Depending on the project, either sound artist or composer. Albeit a composer who works with off-label use of common technology as an important part of the process. I've only been comfortable with "composer" this year, as my musical training, such as it was, was self taught, long ago, and 2 chord-song-based.

*Why you use this descriptor: Everything I've done does draw on a tradition of some kind. Eula (turning the punitive Sony BMG contract into a choral work) is like a Fluxus score, but also, I thought it was an update of Orson Welles reading the credits for the Magnificent Ambersons. I like commonalities. With the upcoming project (Original Soundtrack), even though 20 TV sets and DVD players with movies left at their self-looping menus SEEMS like a recipe for a-musicality, it's actually the most conventionally musical thing I've done since the Adorno 7-inch. In Original Soundtrack, there's arrangement, a score, a live PA performance, and these lovely genre moments in the middle of the utter chaos.

*Location: Toronto, Canada

*Original Location: Wallaceburg, Ontario

*What is your creative/artistic background: Like anyone else who came of age in the 1990s, all over the map: very incomplete cultural studies, 8-hour graveyard shifts at a college radio station (where you're bored of rock music within an hour and go digging), silk screen print work, video. My sound stuff seems informed by all the above.

*History: As a serious producer, about 5 years.

*Born: 1975

*Motivations: My dad is a millwright. They solve problems with pre-existing machines. I've just gone into the family trade.

*Philosophy: There's no one unified thing, probably other than the idea comes first, the sound comes after and if it's a compelling sound for other people, the idea was an interesting one.

*How would you like to be remembered: ???????

*Web address: http://www.brianjosephdavis.com


www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 215, Some Assembly Required

Episode 215, Some Assembly Required

01 Alien Army - “Jazz”
02 John Oswald – “Anon”
03 DJ Peaking - “Warning, Rush Where It's At”
04 Chris Larsen – “One Minute Bolero”
05 Kid Koala – “Nerdball”
06 DJ Realm – “Revenge Of The Nerd”
07 Brian Joseph Davis - “Venom”
08 Corporal Blossom – “Plastic Job”
09 ComaR – “Shut up on a Blue Monday”
10 Ergo Phizmiz – “Going on a Picnic”
11 The Bran Flakes – “Step by step”
12 Wax Audio – “WMD American Justice”
13 Girl Talk – “Unicorn vs. Gravity”
14 The Bran Flakes – “Sentimental Soliliquy”
15 B'O'K – “A New World Order”
16 DJ Le Clown - “In Da Black”


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Saturday, September 06, 2008

Kelly Patrick Ryan

Kelly Patrick Ryan

Kelly Patrick Ryan is the artist behind the solo project titled "Happy as F***," making it one of only a very few projects whose names I cannot legally say on the show. Actually, his may be the only project I can't legally identify on the air, now that I think about it... I received the CD from Ryan's friend Arden Durham, when Kelly was in the hospital. He was diagnosed with cancer around 1997, and he passed away in 2003.

I asked Arden to fill in the blanks for our feature on Kelly Patrick Ryan this week, and I'm basically paraphrasing her email in my introduction here. I never met the artist personally, though I played his tracks several times on the show. I understand he was an occasional listener to the program. She describes him as... Well, I might as well just let her do the introduction, too. Here's a segment from a recent email message to intro this week's feature on Kelly Patrick Ryan...

Kelly died in October of 2003 from brain cancer after battling it for more than six years. He produced music up until the last few months of his life. His experience with such an aggressive and eventually debilitating cancer probably brought out the best of his grim humor and passion for expressing deep emotions, and he was a lighthearted jokster up until the end. No matter how dire or desparate a situation might be, Kelly found a way to do something constructive and creative with it, exerting some relief from the situation. Not that he backed away from things that most people like to keep secret and tuck into hiding, as he often portrayed the vulnerability, frustration, fear and anger we all feel at some point or another in his artwork and his music.

He was self taught in music and took part in Musical Theater, at the Maplewood Heritage Theater, when he was a kid. In 1994, he settled into the Tilsner Building, in St. Paul, as an audio sculptor, working with keyboards, midi and sampling. He was also a painter, with shows at galleries such as Distillo and Art Jones. He performed at venues such as First Avenue and the Walker Art Center.

With special thanks to Arden Durham, here's this week's feature on Kelly Patrick Ryan...


*Name: Kelly Patrick Ryan

*Members: Kelly Patrick Ryan, solitary project

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I would describe Kelly’s work as mostly digital deconstructions. But some tape manipulations and turntable creations, along with other crafty means, were used to reconstruct or create this music. Kelly was very clever and could make music out of just about everything, from a woman screaming excerpted out of a movie to pirating samples of other’s music to playing an instrument, bending, twisting, or otherwise altering noise to suit his expressive purposes. He described himself as “working extensively with keyboards, sampling, midi programming, and recording.”

*Another genre descriptor: Kelly described his work as “audio sculpture” and himself as an “audio sculptor.” His music was an essential medium of expression to his identity as an artist and he was always making it in some way, shape or form.

*Location: Saint Paul, Minnesota

*Original Location: Saint Paul, MN

*What is your creative/artistic background / History: Kelly Ryan performed in musicals as a kid, so he got an early start. As an adult, he played with Rummage Kinsman, New Music Ensemble, and Dead City Radio among other bands. Kelly was a master at keyboards and drum machines. There are rare tracks in which Kelly actually sang, but he still always altered his voice with a ton of effects.

*Born: 1969

*Motivations: “My work reflects a number of things; mostly it’s the result of venting, complaining about a situation, my environment or love in general.”

*Philosophy: “My goal as an artist is not to get you the viewer to praise or criticize the work but rather simply to remember it.”

*How would you like to be remembered: I like to remember Kelly Ryan as a great humorist in all art forms. He was always layering multiple meanings or metaphors in his work. Above and beyond his satire, having a great time was important to Kelly. I think he would get a kick out of people listening to his music at all, but if they found some inspiration, emotional validation, or anything else to take away from it, all the better!!!

*Web address: http://kelevision.org/


www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 76, Some Assembly Required

Episode 76, Some Assembly Required

01 The Grassy Knoll - "In the light"
02 John Oswald - "Mother"
03 Beastie Boys - "Rock hard"
04 Splatt - "Hedvig Nagila"
05 The Overneath - "The ec$ta$y of Lar$"
06 Happy as F*** - "Down"
07 John Oswald - "Net"
08 Z-trip - "Rockstar II"
09 John Oswald - "2 net"
10 Hapy as F*** - "Lil' swine o' mine"
11 Donna Summer - "Accept the cheap"
12 Z-Trip - "Rockstar"
13 T. Hecker - "Introducing Carl Cocks"


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