Episode 98, Some Assembly Required

Episode 98, Some Assembly Required
(featuring a TV theme)

01 The Art of Noise – “Paranoimia”
02 Unknown – “Weakest link”
03 Osymyso – “Pat 'n' Peg (Eastenders remix)”
04 Jabberwocky – “Cosby”
05 Negativland – “I believe its L”
06 The Jams – “Hey hey we are not the Monkees”
07 Omer Fast – “CNN concatenated (Part VII)”
08 People Like Us – “TV dinner”
09 The Bran Flakes – “Turn the channel, its another commercial”
10 Escape Mechanism – “Culture”
11 Steinski and Mass Media – “We’ll be right back”

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

February 15, 2006: Jabberwocky

February 15, 2006: Jabberwocky

Valentines Day is all over now and its time to move on with our regularly scheduled goal of podcasting the entire second season of Some Assembly Required, in 2006. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the Special Valentines Day Mix! There were more than twice the usual number of downloads, which was super exciting. In fact, people are still downloading it in record numbers, so I'm going to post this a bit later than forecast. Give you a few extra hours to find that Valentines Day Mix. Not that it disappears when the new podcast is uploaded - I've just noticed that once a new show is podcast, the previous ones stop getting downloaded as much. They're all still there, though - you just have to scroll down a bit to find them.

Stay tuned - I'll be uploading Episode 98 of Some Assembly Required sometime a little later today (Wednesday, 2/15). This week's episode features the track I mentioned back when we did the Osymyso feature (see blog post for 1/23/06) - the infamously edited "Pat 'n Peg." All those beeps (over eighty!) are for the FCC, mind you. And the thing is, I'm SURE I heard someone use the "B" word here on a local public radio station, recently. Beyond that, the theme of Episode 98 is TELEVISION. So, all of the tracks are somewhat about TV...

This week's featured artist is Jabberwocky. I've really only played Jabberwocky a few times, but I've dug what we have played. Jabberwocky is from South Central Virginia, where he runs an experimental art/music center called The Noisehouse/434 Noise. He's also known for his electronic trance-ambient group, Acid Roundtrip and plays in the free-form noise group The Zit Hit Machine. He is also the author of The Spontaneous Tape Series, which is a series of improvised cassette releases put out by FDH Records. Episode 98 features Jabberwocky's track, "Cosby," who is one of my favorite comedians of all time. Can't tell by listening to the track if the source choice is an homage or a critique, but these things aren't always so clear. Nor should they always be!

So, without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Jabberwocky...

***

*Name: Jabberwocky

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

*Members: Just me, but I have collaborated with different artists in different projects.

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Tape manipulations at the beginning when I was using cassette as my expressive medium but now I guess I'd consider it digital deconstruction. But now I feel that I've moved on from that with my new CD "Eat S*** & Die" which is an audio collage concept album.

*Is there a story behind your name? I was stoned and was watching a crap movie called After Alice that had a serial killer character named Jabberwocky and I thought it fit good with what I was wanting to create.

*Location: I live in a very small town called Charlotte Court House, in south central Virginia. I also run a small experimental/outsider arts venue down here called The Noisehouse/434 Noise.

*Original Location: I'm originally from Stafford (next to Quantico/Manasass) which is in Northern Virginia.

*What is your creative/artistic background: I used to write short stories as a kid. I started writing poetry/songs when I was 15 (1990) but have had writers block for at least 7 years now.

*History: I started an ambient project back in 1996 called Acid Roundtrip and have put out 2 releases. I've been active with Jabberwocky since 2002 and have put out 6 releases. I have a free form/improv experimental project that I do with Lee Mattox called The Zit Hit Machine. We also use the revolving door method with that because it gives us the freedom to work with alot of different people and constantly changes and constantly evolves.

*Born: February 27, 1975

*Motivations: Cause it's fun. I live for making music.

*Philosophy: Always give 110 % and put your heart, soul and emotion into making music/art. Be true to yourself and f*** the naysayers who doubt you.

*How would you like to be remembered: That what I've done was different and that I was proof of how far anybody can take DIY with the various things that I do. Sorry if it seems like an ego trip.

*Web address: www.freewebs.com/thejabberwocky

***

Thanks to Jabberwocky for being the featured artist this week! He's just one of 11 artists featured this week on the Some Assembly Required podcast. Stay tuned for Episode 98 to be uploaded very shortly...

Thanks again to everyone who downloaded the SAR Valentines Day Mix. It took my mind off of the holiday! Hope you enjoyed it and are back for more. Be sure to check out our new page at Myspace, by the way. Apparently anyone who is anyone has a page at Myspace now, and I was convinced to become one with the crowd. Join me, won't you? I'm trying to make friends - just go to the SAR myspace page and click "add to friends," up on the left, and I'll get an email saying you want to be my friend. How friendly of you! Looking forward to hearing from you...

Thanks for listening,
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

Some Assembly Required: Valentine's Day special MIX

Enjoy the Some Assembly Required Valentine's Day special MIX...

Some Assembly Required: Valentines Day special MIX

...Happy Valentines Day, from Some Assembly Required
(or not)! I'm not personally celebrating this year; but I don't see any reason to rain on anyone else's parade, so... since it's the middle of February, and the TV told me its time to get romantic for no good reason...
:)
I threw together a little Valentine's Day MIX of tracks by artists you could reasonably expect to hear on Some Assembly Required.
Enjoy!

By the way...Use this link for your pod software: http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

The Valentines Day mix is fifty-three minutes of pure sound collage - with a definite 'lovey-dovey' theme. This mix won't air on the radio program - I'm right in the middle of a big project and only have the time to throw a mix together for the podcast. So enjoy online or not at all...
:)

Hope y'all are enjoying the podcast, in general - don't let this special valentine's mix distract you from Episode 99, featuring an interview with The Bran Flakes - just scroll down, here at the blog, to find that particular post. Definitely some good stuff there, too. Check it out, and drop me a line - there's contact info at our official website: www.some-assembly-required.net

Here's a list of the sound collage artists in the Valentine's Day mix, in order:
The Bran Flakes – “Mutual admiration and love” * Dsico – “Love will freak us” * The Doopees – “Love songs (Love is a many razor bladed thing)” * Freelance Hellraiser – “Wonder woman” * Silica-Gel – “I Honestly Love You” * Go Home Productions – “I wanna dance with some Bono” * The Tape-beatles - “Love” * DJ Cal (Calle Hansson) - “Nona Drove All Night” * Escape Mechanism – “Most wonderful” * John Oswald – “Pretender” * Basement Clash – “Magnificent Romeo” * People Like Us – “Nobody loves you” * Tedshred – “Rastars vs. Patsy Cline” * Otis Fodder – “My valentine” * Two Many DJs - “I Was Made For Loving You" * Christian Marclay/G.Muller – “Love Gassoline” * Steinski and Mass Media – “I'm wild about that thing”

Thanks for listening, and have a Happy Valentines Day,
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 99, Some Assembly Required

Episode 99, Some Assembly Required
(featuring an interview with The Bran Flakes...)

01 The Bran Flakes – “Mutual admiration and love”
02 The Bran Flakes – “Cool fresh apple cider”
03 The Bran Flakes – “Call Me Patches”
04 The Bran Flakes – “Hollerin’ linguistics”
05 The Bran Flakes – “(theme to) the Mickey Mouse Club”
06 The Bran Flakes – “Praise the lord”
07 The Bran Flakes – “Perversion for profit”
08 The Bran Flakes – “A Susie Moppet singtime sing-a-long song”
09 The Bran Flakes – “The magical fairy princess”
10 The Bran Flakes – “Collage collage”
11 The Bran Flakes – “The hello show”
12 The Bran Flakes – “Let us praise him children!”
13 The Bran Flakes – “Funny funny”
14 The Bran Flakes – “Love me happy”
15 The Bran Flakes – “Buttermilk”
16 The Bran Flakes – “Bounces”

http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

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

February 5, 2006: The Bran Flakes

February 5, 2006: The Bran Flakes

This is an experimental couple of weeks - thanks to the success of last December's XMAS mix (12/05), I've taken a friend's advice and decided to produce a special mix like that one, to be uploaded every two months or so, in concert with some coinciding holiday or theme. Since its February, I've decided to do a Valentine's Day Theme, so stay tuned for a special mix with a theme of love, and love lost... probably around Thursday, Feb 9...

BUT FIRST... THIS WEEK's Some Assembly Required PODCAST...
I'll be uploading Episode 99 in just a couple of hours. It's another interview episode - this time with The Bran Flakes. Episode 99 will be the podcast this week, and then sometime later in the week I'll upload the aforementioned special mix. Episode 98 probably won't be uploaded until Feb. 15th, as a result (I'd like to give each podcast a few days to stand alone). So, next week's podcast will be a couple of days late. I'm sure you're all going to lose a lot of sleep over this...
:)

I first encountered The Bran Flakes... I don't really remember, for sure. Around the same time I first realized that there was a subculture of sound collage artists, I guess. They were one of the first groups which made themselves known to me. In fact, when I was interviewing "Otis Fodder" and "Mildred Pitt," Otis reminded me that the debut Escape Mechanism EP was inducted into a catalog of traded tapes he was running way back when - which would have been around 1997, I guess. So, I've been a fan of The Bran Flakes for almost ten years, then! The catalog was called "M.O.M." which stood for MOFO Outreach Ministry. It included a ton of material - not just sound collage - including John Oswald's Plunderphonics and Negativland's U2, which at the time were very difficult to find. You'd send him some tapes and a couple of bucks for postage and he'd send you the dubs. I took advantage of his generosity on more than one occasion.

But back to The Bran Flakes... At the time, it was just Otis F. Odder (now Otis Fodder), and I'd gotten two of his releases from an online label called Ovenguard Music. The Bran Flakes were an early staple of this label, which released at least two Bran Flakes albums. The band subsequently released an album on Lomo Records, and a followup on their own label - Happi Tyme Records.

Interviewing them was a treat. If I had to break the artists who receive regular airplay on the show into two camps, it would be those who take it very seriously (uppercase V and S), and those who are just having the times of their lives doing it - and refusing to take it all too seriously. I, personally, strive to exist somewhere right smack in the middle, of course - taking it seriously, but having fun doing it - but your perception of that will all depend on when you happen to catch me willing to discuss the matter. The Bran Flakes, however, are firmly in the latter camp. In spite of my (usual) somber approach to the interview, these two hardly stopped laughing throughout the entire conversation.

There have been a handful of SAR interviews which made me laugh (most recently, last month's special on Jason Forrest - aka Donna Summer), but The Bran Flakes currently hold the record for most-fun-had-during-the-course-of-an-interview-hilarity. These two obviously enjoy their work. More power to them!!

I currently have four records by The Bran Flakes, which I believe is a fair representation of their output as a band (although they've each been very busy with solo projects as well). Hey, Won't Somebody Come and Play, was re-released in 2003 on Happi Tyme Records (it was originally put out in 1999 on Ovenguard Music). Bounces was released in 2002, on Happi Tyme Records. I Don't Have a Friend was put out in 2001, on Lomo Records, and I Remember When I Break Down was released in 1998 on Ovenguard Music. Tune into episode 99 of the Some Assembly Required podcast to hear selections from each of these records by The Bran Flakes...

Surprisingly, considering how much fun they had with our phone interview, The Bran Flakes responses to the Q&A were quite subdued. I've had artists completely ignore the request to keep answers brief, I've had some skip over questions completely, and I've had a few like this one - where the answers are super brief and to the point. Probably my fault, for being so clinical in my approach - I take full responsibility! Believe me, if you want to learn more about this group - download episode 99 of the Some Assembly Required podcast - its MUCH more entertaining...

So - without further ado - here's the SAR Q&A with The Bran Flakes!

***

*Name: The Bran Flakes

*Members: Mildred Pitt, Otis Fodder

*Founding Member: Otis Fodder

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: All of the above.

*Another genre descriptor: Pop Music

*Why you use this descriptor: The Dictionary in 1991.

*Location: Seattle, WA and San Francisco, CA

*Original Location: San Francisco Bay Area

*History: The current sound since 1998 with Otis Fodder and Mildred Pitt. Before 1998, it was Otis solo and the sound was more of a cassette cut and paste feel.

*Motivations: We can't stop and it's fun.

*Philosophy: It's fun.

*How would you like to be remembered: Somewhat like the taste of a strawberry after your first bite.

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

***

Short and sweet! For more info on The Bran Flakes - tune into this week's podcast - Episode 99 of Some Assembly Required - available in the very next post... Stay tuned!

The Bran Flakes are just one of the artists featured in the special Valentine's Day Themed mix, by the way, which we'll be uploading later this week - in honor of next week's "holiday." Stay tuned for that. I expect we'll be making it available on Thursday (2/9).

As always - please feel to drop me a line - let me know what you think of the show, and our new podcast. All of the contact info is up at our website: www.some-assembly-required.net
Just click on the button that says "contact."
:)

Thanks, as always, for listening...
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net