Basement Records

Beatles Downloads!

2008-04-17T00:19:00.003-05:00

Here is an awesome place to download most of the Beatles albums, as well as bootlegs and some rare solo stuff. I recommend The Fireman albums and the Liverpool Sound Collage by Paul McCartney. The blog is mostly in Spanish but you can still get around pretty easily. Check it out HERE! With the ease and anonymity of storage sites it allows more people to get a hold of out of print items. I just hope they all don't get shut down too soon, because I did notice a few broken links.

Clamuel Semens

2008-04-16T23:53:00.006-05:00

Archangel Satan in a letter to Gabriel wrote:
"Man is a marvelous curiosity. When he is at his very, very best he is a sort of low grade nickel-plated angel; at his worst he is unspeakable, unimaginable; and first and last and all the time he is a sarcasm."

This is taken from Mark Twain's book Letters from the Earth. The video is from a UK kid's show based off of Twain's stories (1985). This particular scene comes from the story The Mysterious Stranger. Anyways read Letters from the Earth. It is so poignant and funny and timeless. It's disturbingly relevant in the current state of the world.

Quick and Dirty Audio Signal Splitter

2008-04-10T00:52:00.003-05:00

(click any image for a larger version)
I had a problem. I wanted to get the same signal across all 8 inputs of my Korg 16 track hard disk recorder. One out to 8 ins. If there is something already made its too expensive ... It wasn't worth me pulling out a project box and the soldering iron for. So I just used what I had.

Supplies:
8 1/4" instrument cables
1 roll packing tape
1 cardboard box (any stiff flat board will do)
1 1/4" instrument cable with alligator clips on one end
2 guitar strings (I used acoustic A strings ... I think)

How to:
step 1) Tape one end of all of the instrument cables down on the cardboard about a half inch apart. Make sure they are all lined up the same way.
step 2) Thread one guitar string through the ground end of the instrument cables (over under over under etc.)
step 3) Thread the other guitar string through the grooved "hot" end of the instrument cables. Be sure to thread this in the opposite way that you threaded the first string. In this case it would be under over under over etc. This helps to keep the 1/4" plugs down because there is pressure on the front and back of the plugs.
step 4) Connect the appropriate leads of your alligator clipped 1/4" cable to the guitar strings.

Thats it! You have just made a quick and dirty splitter. The "how to" was just how I did it based on what I had available. I considered wrapping the inputs with wire but I had no unshielded wire and I didn't feel like stripping any. The heavy gauge guitar string worked great. I got a consistent signal across all the inputs regardless of where the alligator clips were attached.

close-up of the "threaded" guitar strings

Space Ants 3 - stop motion

2008-03-24T01:27:00.004-05:00

Of few friends of mine did this and I scored it with my MicroKorg. Check out some more of their videos here.

Reposting/rescoring for Godard

2007-09-04T11:30:00.000-05:00

Someone rescored a scene from a Godard flick, Vie sa Vivre. I found this on create digital music. See the artist's site here. And without further ado ...

DJ gig at Schubas

2007-09-03T18:41:00.000-05:00

Thursday September 20th @ Schubas, Belmont and Southport. 10pm Suppertramp and T Master T. No Cover! Spinning Indie, Punk, Dub, Underground Hip/hop and Pyschedelic Garage.

Improvised Music Mondays at Myopic

2007-09-03T18:36:00.001-05:00

One week from today I will be playing a show at Myopic Books. Monday September 10th @ 1564 N Milwaukee @ 7:30 PM. For this Improv Music Monday imagine something with mantras looped and cut up on samplers with live drumming, glitches, microphone madness and tape loops. Supper Tramp and the Family.

will it blend?

2007-08-22T22:41:00.000-05:00

Its days like these that I am reminded that the internet ~~can be~~ is great!

see everything from canned spam to a golf club to some bic lighters at will it blend? I mean c'mon HOCKEY PUCKS! Amazing!

Flickr photoset

2007-08-17T08:11:00.000-05:00

I've started a papermusic photo album on flickr. see it here. I will dig through the archives and post more pictures as I find them.

Did I step on your trumpet?

2007-08-17T01:58:00.000-05:00

Great video of my favorite song off of the Danielson album Ships.

(nothing but)flowers

2007-08-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

"Years ago I was an angry young man I'd pretend that I was a billboard ..."

First in Flight

2007-08-14T02:31:00.000-05:00

Its alleged that someone beat the Wright Brothers in flight (by a few years!) specifically Gustave Whitehead. The article is via Wired.