Bootleg Video Review: Jimi Hendrix Experience, Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, NY, August 23, 1968

Nice video on easytree.org. The JHE performing live in my own neighborhood!
I have spent a lot of time in Flushing Meadows park , which is a decaying, at times futuristic, remnant of 2 world's fairs. But I never knew that The JHE (as well as the Doors, and the Who) had performed there. Note: they also do "The Star Spangled Banner". Here's the rest of the description from easytree:

JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE

"THE NEW-YORK ROCK FESTIVAL"
SINGER BOWL, FLUSHING MEADOWS PARK, QUEENS, NEW-YORK, USA

Lineage: 16mm FILM > ??? > VHS > MPEG

Video Size: 352x240 (1638kbps)
Length: 0:23:16

This originaly silent colour 16mm footage has had a soundtrack added from the audience recording of the concert. Unfortunately the footage is not complete for each song so there are sections where the screen 'blacks out' while the soundtrack continues. During "Are You Experienced" Jimi breaks a string and, unable to re-tune his guitar, he places it on the floor and plays it with his foot while he straps on another before swapping the instrument lead!!! The recorder is front of the stage and at least on stage, incredible that he wasn't stopped by the JHE crew!!! Quality is great for that kind of document through bit grainy ,and shaky at some point. Definitely historical stuff!!!

* JIMI'S ARRIVAL ON STAGE (from a different source, probably same recorder)
* ARE YOU EXPERIENCED
* FIRE
* HEY JOE
* WILD THING

Loco For Gocco, Pt. 1

This past weekend, I took a class in Gocco Printing at my local Paper Source store. For those who don't know, Gocco is a small, easy to use screenprinting kit that is a lot of fun. As you can see from the picture above, it is about the size of a VCR tape rewinder. It's wonderfully efficient: you use the same mechanism to expose your screens and print with them. To expose, you insert 2 one shot bulbs and your xeroxed image, then press down on the machine. The bulbs flash and burn out, and your screen is exposed. Then, you simply paint with ink onto your screen (unlike normal silkscreening, you can paint with as many colors as you want on one screen, and keep them separate. This is because no squeegee is involved, just a pressing down motion that does not blend the ink.) The quality is nice and also has a lo-fi charm. Having taken a frustrating silkscreening class where getting from image to print could take hours, Gocco is a revelation. I will be posting some of the images I printed tomorrow, but for now, here are some Gocco links.


Gocco

Paper Source

ten on the turntable: experimental album edition

"BBC Sessions +" - Faust
"Microtonal Works 2" - The New Band
"Sonic Encounters" - Margaret Leng Tan
"Electronic Works, Vol. 2" - Morton Subotnick
"Ensemble Music 1" - Iannis Xenakis
"The Inspirational Sounds Of" - Jah Works
"Dubliftment" - Vibronics
"Faust" - Faust
"Thahandclaspinduction" - Rummage
"Return of the DJ Vol. 5" - Various Artists

Video bootleg review: Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico Live at The Bataclan, Paris 29 Jan 1972

Great video over at EZ Torrents (Easytree.org). 18 Minutes of most of the Velvets doing their thing in Paris, from a 1972 tv program. Lou sings "Berlin" and smokes a cigarette with Gallic indifference. He also does "Waiting for the man" and "Heroin". Nico does "Femme Fatale". Seeing this rare footage makes me love the internet just a little more.

Video quality: Good
Performace quality: Very Good

EZ Torrents

Book Corner: Mexicana!

Another great Taschen book, this time focusing on Mexican ephemera. Durable, affordable, nicely printed, Taschen books are hard to resist.

Taschen Books

ten on the turntable - album edition

Swell Maps "A Trip To Marineville"
Swell Maps "Jane From Occupied Europe"
Dr. Doom "First Come, First Served"
Conlon Nancarrow "Lost Works, Last Works"
Cornelius Cardew "We Sing For The Future"
Luiz Bonfa "Solo In Rio 1959"
Tod Dockstader & James Reichert "Omniphony 1"
Fanatik "Bas 1 Instrumentals"
Faust "The Faust Tapes"
Chris Cutler/Lutz Glandien "Domestic Stories"

Your money and your life

from Seth's Blog

Bootleg Review: The Sound - Korova Demos ~1980

(The Sound live at Plan K, Belgium, 1983; From The Lion's Mouth LP)

The Sound - Korova Demo Tapes Sessions 1 & 2 & 3 Studio

01 Cost of living
02 Hour of need
03 Resistance
04 Heyday
05 Night versus day
06 Words fail me
07 Missiles
08 Brute force
09 Falling boy
10 Unwritten law (5.1 mb MP3)

The Sound - From The Lion's Mouth Korova Demo Sessions 1 & 2 Studio

01 Winning
02 Fatal flaw
03 Possession
04 Skelingtons
05 The fire
06 Point of no return

Wow! A great find on EZ Torrents. Somehow in all my indie record researching I've never heard of The Sound. They were an English band active in the late 70s and 80s, with a sound that evokes Echo & The Bunnymen and Joy Division. However, they also have their own style going on too. I hear elements of many later bands in The Sound. The sample below, unwritten law, sounds a lot like a certain Duran Duran track. These are the demos that got them signed to Korova. The Sound seemed to be under an unlucky sign, somehow missing greater success, and later on having one member die of AIDS, and the singer Adrian Borland throw himself under a train. Despite all that, we do have these wonderful songs, and I encourage you to seek out The Sound recordings.


The Sound Biography at All Music

The Sound cds at Amazon

EZ Torrents

Mithila Paintings

Went to the Asian Art Museum yesterday, saw some great Mithila Paintings. Here's a shot of one. They remind me of contemporary illustrators.

"Perhaps the best known genre of Indian folk paintings are the Mithila (also called Madhubani) paintings from the Mithila region of Bihar state. For centuries the women of Mithila have decorated the walls of their houses with intricate, linear designs on the occasion of marriages and other ceremonies, Painting is a key part of the education of Mithila women, culminating in the painting of the walls of the kohbar, or nuptial chamber on the occasion of a wedding. The kohbar ghar paintings are based on mythological, folk themes and tantric symbolism, though the central theme is invariably love and fertility."

Mithila Paintings

ten on the turntable - jazz brunch

1. Menina Flor - Stan Getz And Luiz Bonfa
2. Chove Chuva - Sergio Mendes & Brazil '66
3. Ogd (Road Song) - Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery
4. Hard Latin - Kenyon Hopkins
5. The Fakir - Cal Tjader with Lalo Schifrin
6. Something Else Again - Richie Havens
7. Light My Fire - Astrud Gilberto
8. Bala Com Bala - 0 Elis Regina
9. Batacuda - Walter Wanderley
10. Samba Triste - Jackie And Roy

(From "Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi", compiled by Thievery Corporation)

The Record Bin: LSD Records

Among the many incredibly strange genres of vintage vinyl releases is the interesting category of LSD Records. In the mid 60s, chemical experimentation was becoming an adventure for some youth and a nightmare to the adult authorities. At this point vinyl records were something like the internet of today: they distributed all kinds of music, religious and historical recordings, how-to information, as well as the thoughts of anyone who walked into a studio with a checkbook.

Here is a great site that profiles several of these rare records:

LSD Documentary Records

Movie Minute: Flux Film Fest!

Back in 1993, I was an intern at the Whitney Museum in New York. One of the shows that was up at the time was "In the Spirit of Fluxus" which showcased art of the playful 1960s movement. Fluxus was interesting in several ways: it was a truly international movement, it included many women artists, it was multidisciplinary and multimedia before those terms were commonly known. Their work encompasses film, performance, sculpture, graphic design, music, poetry, and conceptual pieces. I was able to meet one Fluxus artist who created noisy machines, and I saw Yoko Ono - in high heels and fishnet stockings no less - at a museum function. Fluxus is one of those cool movements that you may read about, but will rarely see the primary material from: books, films, recordings, etc., even though they may be referenced in many art history books. One of the interesting parts of the Fluxus exhibit was a room showing the various Flux films, most of which are short, inventive, concept or performance pieces which presage the 70s fascination with documentation of personal rituals. So, imagine my happiness when I saw that the hipsters at ubuweb.com have put up many of the Flux Films for anyone to watch!

Ubu's Flux Films

Fluxus at Wikipedia

Also see Un Chien Andalou

Doyald Young Lecture

(a still of one of Doyald's fonts, "Home Run" (unreleased))

Went to see Doyald Young's Aiga talk on Tuesday night. He's a charming old school designer and letterer whose expertise is designing custom logotypes. His voice reminded me of Bob Barker's. He had lots of interesting stories to tell from his 50 years in the business, and everyone who attended received a beautifully printed copy of his "The Art of the Letter" - which includes something like 15 spot colors, 3 foils, embossing, debossing, quality paper, the works! It's a primer on lettering, and features some of his work. He was also selling two gorgeous self published books, but I didn't have enough cash for them. He's done work for a wide range of clients, from Shu Uemura to the Academy Awards and the Art Director's Guild. But, amusingly, he admitted after an audience question, he doesn't have his own logo. This says a lot about how difficult it can be to design for yourself.


Doyald Young Profile

Logotypes & Letterforms, Fonts & Logos Books

Bootleg review: The B-52's, Studio Jam, xx.xx.1978

A nice recording of the B-52's at their catchiest. This was broadcast on the "Studio Jam" radio show in 1978.

1. Planet Claire ( incl. radio intro )
2. 52 Girls (5.3mb MP3)
3. 6O6O - 842
4. Devil In My Car
5. Hero Worship
6. Lava
7. Running Around
8. Dance This Mess Around
9. Rock Lobster
1O. Private Idaho
11. Strobe Light

Performance: Great
Sound Quality: Good

Available at:

EZ Torrents

Typesetting & Paste-up, 1970

The first time I did any layout design was in 1987. I began working after hours at the Regis High School Owl Newspaper in New York. Producing a publication was quite different back then: we'd use an old mac to print out articles, hot wax them onto a board, and figure out scaling and cropping of photos with a proportional scale. If a line or word of type had to be changed, we'd print it up, cut out a sliver of paper, and carefully glue it onto the article. We had a Linotype (?) Headline setting machine, which was basically a large P-Touch that used large plastic discs with all a font's characters embossed around its edge. You would turn the disc to select each letter, much like cracking a safe. Despite our manager's cries of "Be careful, that stuff's expensive!", we couldn't help but use them as frisbees. We had x-acto knives - and a ceiling of foam panels, which made great targets. That was the first time I saw Rapid-o-graph pens, which I use today. Which brings me to today's link: a nice set of photos showing how layout was done in 1970. Although these techniques may seem like ancient history, the same basic concepts are there, from 1970's paste-up, to the desktop publishing of 1987, to 2005 and the blog publishing explosion.




Typesetting & Paste-up photos

ten on the turntable

"Drowning in the Sea of Love" - Joe Simon
"Stack Chedda" - Lord Sear
"Heavy Soul Slinger" - Bernard Purdie
"Flying Saucer Goes West" - Buchanan & Goodman
"Goofy Goober" - Spongebob Squarepants
"Distant Land (Hip Hop Drum Mix)" - Madlib
"Silly Savage" - The Golden Toadstools
"Music People" - Jack Mayborn
"Initials B.B." - Serge Gainsbourg
"Treat 'em Right" - Chubb Rock

Mysteries: Resurrect Dead on Planet Jupiter

Someone has been embedding strange plaques into roads all over the world. They message is usually "TOYNBEE IDEAS IN KUbricK's 2001 RESSURECT DEAD ON PLANET JUPITER". I've seen these things in NYC and always wondered who was behind them. Sounds like your average schizophrenic prophet, but one who really puts in time and energy to get his message out.


Toynbee Signs

Bootleg review: Buzzcocks, Last night at the Electric Circus

Live At The Electric Cirus Manchester 02-10-77

01 Fast Cars
02 Fiction romance
03 Boredom
04 Sixteen
05 You Turn [sic] Me Up
06 Orgasm Addict
07 Pulsebeat
08 Love Battery
09 Time's Up
10 I Can't Control Myself ("Whats On" TV Program 21-07-78)

A great set from the kings of fuzz pop. The occasion was the closing night of the famous Electric Circus in Manchester, which had been a focal point for many of the bands emerging in the wake of the Sex Pistols. They start with 2 of my favorite Buzzcocks tracks, "Fast Cars" and "Fiction Romance" which has its live premiere here. Check it out!

Performance: Sweet
Sound Quality: Ok

Available at EZ Torrents

Further Japanese Pocky Comercials: “Can you see that I am serious?”

Cool collection of commercials for the delicious Pocky snack from Japan. See if you can figure out who these ads are being aimed at! Brian, any help on translating that "anata..." pocky line? questions...


Dan’s Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth » Further Japanese Pocky Comercials: “Can you see that I am serious?”

Lyn Collins, RIP

The New York Times > Lyn Collins, 56, Singer With James Brown, Dies (Reg. Req'd.)