Big Spider’s Back

This is a track I did while I was in Berlin about a year and a half ago. It’s one of the first and few all sample-based songs I’ve done. Probably aided by the fact that all I had there was my laptop and a shoddy internet connection. It was intended to be a total Four Tet fanboy tribute, but my friend told me it reminded him of DJ Shadow. I suppose that’s not too far off…

Big Spider’s Back - Wisdom Toof

So not only did I get to play on Rainydawg, but I also discovered some choice musical selections thanks to Jason, the show’s host, and his ace musical taste. Two tracks I’ve really been into are Peace Offering by Growing and an Atlas Sound track off a Bjork Tribute CD (something that honestly sounded like a horrible idea to me but is actually quite excellent).

I guess through his savvyness , Jason also found this blog and posted a few tracks from here on his blog, something which to be honest totally horrified me at first. It’s kinda silly for that to be my reaction being as I voluntarily put these songs up here myself. I suppose that’s the great ruse of the internet - the feeling of total anonymity (who’d ever expect anyone to voluntarily surf their way onto these shores? not me!) and the actuality of having every impulse readily available to anyone who knows how to type your name into a search engine. But as I’m never one to shy away from the Orwellian implications of having every bit of voluntary or involuntary personal information within reach of everyone else, I suppose I shouldn’t feel embarrassed at all. This is all totally normative. Everything’s gonna be just fine

Every aesthetic inevitably seems to get resusciated these days, and now it seems ‘lo-fi’ has been re-canonized (maybe re-re-canonized?). I found this totally surreal MTV news feature on the new lo-fi movement led by the preeminent paleo-vj John Norris. He interviewed the prime suspects - Times New Viking, Jay Reatard, No Age and I was pretty surprised how little awkwardness there was between interviewer and interviewee. Usually, the big media giant invading the tiny subcultural crevice feels like watching an ant being slugged to death by an unnecessarily large, blunt object.

What doesn’t make sense to me is why this ‘movement’ even exists. I mean, didn’t Pavement, Guided By Voices, etc. epitomize the lo-fi scene of the early 90’s? Wouldn’t Garageband or something of its ilk be considered more emblematic of 00’s lo-fi? I can think of a few musicians that’ve recorded full records just with their computer and its internal microphone. Ok, so you can make the economic argument that lo-fi was first and foremost a movement borne out of fiscal necessity, only later codified as an aesthetic preference (kinda like ‘indie’ huh?). And the bands interviewed for the MTV segment certainly cited economic factors as one of its driving forces.

That might have had more validity in the early 90’s when indie bands didn’t readily have access to big fancy recording studios. But the advancements in home recording technology (in terms of fidelity and affordability) makes me suspect what should really go without saying; that lo-fi like ‘indie’ is at this point, a purely aesthetic category that has nothing to do with what it ostensibly claims to adhere to. I mean honestly, if a kid growing up in the bronx in the 1980’s could bang out a beat on an emu sampler or on an mpc nowadays, the economic argument for a bunch of white dudes from colombus, ohio recording on a clanky 4-track is clearly bunk.

that’s not to say i don’t dig times new viking or no age, which i really do. but i guess i didn’t expect to hear something as time and place specific as the lofi sound of the early 90’s re-introduced almost 20 years later. maybe someone should record their next record on a phonograph.

I’m starting to think that no artist/musician ‘has’ a blog, or whatever internet persona they may choose to be. It’s simply a continuation of their artform, a form of expression as disembodied as anything would be these days. And I don’t mean that as a bad thing. I think every artist should be a blog. There’s no need to shroud yourself in mystery anymore. Actually, being a blog isn’t a demystification of anything but a logical conclusion of being a virtual human being/artist/musician. If you pull the curtain, you see there’s nothing really underneath to begin with. I think that’s the real lesson of reality tv. If a celebrity depended on mystery to sustain their iconographic status then every celebrity who’s appeared on vh1 would cease to exist. The reality of reality television (and the internet for that matter) is that forms of media have no basis in what used to be considered real. So any artist that winces at the thought of being a blog should realize that they already are.

Four Tet is coming! Four Tet is coming! Finally. I missed him last time he was in the states, (with Prefuse 3 no less!) and I’ve waited years and years to see him. I can’t remember the last time I was actually excited to see someone perform live. Oh man, so excited!

Last weekend I played a few songs live on Rainydawg Radio. It was for this shoegaze/drone/ambient show called Floating In space. It was a lot more fun/less nerve racking than I  expected and everyone there was really nice and laid-back.  The host of the show, Jason,  put  up some pictures and mp3’s of the  in-studio on his blog. You can check em here.

I haven’t posted in quite awhile for reasons I’m not exactly sure of. But I hope to get the ball rollin again.

sometimes there’s a fine line between horrible and catchy. this here, a song by canadian rapper chuggo executes this to perfection. no matter how abominable every aspect of this song and video is, i can’t help but repeat its refrain over and over again in my head. god help us.

played my last show for awhile the other night at the showbox. went pretty well despite forgetting a fairly critical cable back at my practice space. luckily the space was only a mile from the venue so in a fit of amateurishness i rushed there and back to get it - 15 minutes before my set no less. luckily everyone was really friendly and accommodated my hopeless lack of organization.

oh and here’s another song i dug up. it’s a really ad hoc guitar instrumental a la john fahey/six organs of admittance. i wish i could go back and mix it a little but alas all the master tracks to these songs are long gone. kinda scary to think all your shit is just a hard drive malfunction away. i could probably be smart and make physical copies, but that would be far too sensible

Roam

I have a few odds and ends that will probably never see the light of day. So I figure I’d put em up at the mercy of this blog and whoever reads/listens. Most of these songs are really unfinished and kinda hard for me to listen to now without feeling embarrassed but I feel equally compelled to bear it all at once, like airing dirty laundry or something. Maybe that’s why you always see plethoras of b-sides, unreleased, early demos, etc. being strewn all over the place. The more cynical side of me thinks that its simply a means for labels to exhaust whatever scraps are left of defunct or once great-turned mediocre bands. But maybe its this desire to bear everything.

So without further adieu, this is the first ‘electronic’ thing I ever did on my computer. I used this program called audiomulch which is way fucking rad and probably the only thing I’ll regret leaving behind if I get a mac (cause its only pc compatible).

Trill 2

Big Spider’s Back EP
here is the ep i recorded last summer. i’d been meaning to put it online for awhile now, so i’m glad i finally did. hopefully i’ll put up some more random tunes i’ve done from over the years. stay tuned…