Gear: Media Centre (primarily studio), laptop, Korg EM1, Numark EM260 DJ Mixer (onboard KAOS pad), Alto AMX-100, Edirol PCR 30 MIDI controller, mikes, acoustic guitar, banjo
Primary Software: Acid Pro, Ableton Live, Sound Forge, banks of VSTi's and FX.
Influences
Oh Gawd! 10000 Maniacs, Afrika Bambaataa, Air, Laurie Anderson, Aphex Twin, The Beatles, Björk, Boards of Canada, David Bowie, JS Bach, The Band, Beethoven, Jeff Buckley, Lord Buckley, Jimmy Buffet, Kate Bush, William S Burroughs, John Cage, John Cale, Camper van Beethoven, Johnny Cash, The Chemical Brothers, Cocteau Twins, Leonard Cohen, Gregory Corso, Elvis Costello, The Crystal Method, Miles Davis, Diane di Prima, Bob Dylan, ELP, Brian Eno, Everclear, Fat Boy Slim, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Flatt and Scruggs/Foggy Mountain Boys, The Future Sound of London, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel/Genesis with Gabriel, Allen Ginsberg, Imogen Heap, Hüsker Dü, Juno Reactor, Jack Kerouac, Kraftwerk, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Bill Laswell/Material, Irving Layton, Matmos, Meat Beat Manifesto, Natalie Merchant, Moby, The Moody Blues, Mozart, Mustafio, Friedrich Nietzche, Nightmares on Wax, NIN, Nurse With Wound, The Orb, Pere Ubu, Edith Piaf, The Pixies, Sylvia Plath, The Pogues, Cat Power, Prince, John Prine, Paul Quarrington, Radiohead, The Rheostatics, Robert Rich, Terry Riley, The Rolling Stones, Pierre Schaeffer, Klaus Schulze, Raymond Scott, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Dylan Thomas, The Tragically Hip, Twine, Underworld, Tom Waits, Muddy Waters, The Velvet Underground, Violent Femmes, Neil Young (and Crazy Horse), Wagner, The Who, XTC, Frank Zappa, Warren Zevon, :zoviet france: (actually everything Robin Storey has done that I've heard)
Running water and sloppy sounds, the bodily functions of machines, prolonged sessions of robotic intimacy, crackly high-ends, distorted bass-lines. over-compressed noise with talking/sliced up talking/stuttered talking/repeated talking/delayed talking or no talking... just over-compressed noise.
The essence of jazz, blues, art history and astronomy mixed and served at a Chinese buffet.
The pops and snaps of events layered over the drone of time and space. Eternity filtered through a dancing curtain of Aurora.
If your account should get phished, that's too bad. Should it begin to place comments on my page about tracking who views my site, or about ring tones, Macy's cards, big bud, penis pills, or any other spammy nonsense I don't give a phuck about, well, you know.
Photo Credits: Liz Lott, WKP Kennedy Gallery, Near North Mobile Media Lab, White Water Gallery, Head Frame Project
Which fucked-up genius composer are you?
Tom Waits... charismatic story-teller with a penchant for freaky people and unusual settings. You thrive on the concept of the underdog coming out on top. Take this quiz!
I did the garage band and bar band thing, but after school I virtually left performing to pursue my parents' version of Canadian dream. In the 90's, I used computers to create Visual Art and focused on Writing, specifically Poetry. As a result, I founded The Acid-free Paper and served as host of The Conspiracy of Three, North Bay's long running Reading/Spoken Word series, for 5 years. I started to create electronica, and became intrigued with the interaction between the rhythms of Music and the rhythms of Spoken Word. This lead to the creation of DJ Manican & The Worm Manifesto Orchestra, which included Daniel Elzinga and Ken Stange. As a group, we released and performed in support of Poetry at the Speed of Sound, a CD on Son of Geezer Recordings.
Shortly after this (and about six or seven years ago), I became the Musical Director of PolyesterThought. The first project of this group was to create contemporary music based on the life and writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. Until quite recently, I was intensely involved in the creation of this project and it is on the verge of completion and imminent release. While the music project was still a work-in-progress, PolyesterThought performed these and other works in live and festival settings. Also over this period, I completed a solo collection titled Neoist Suite 1: DiDJitAll dada.
There's more to follow, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Did you see "Kenneth the Page" on Conan last night? They got into a physical gag-off, the last two moves, Conan wiggled his coxcomb-hair, then Jack made alternating repulsive noises with his palms ...
Was a time, before TV, that a person, to be sociable, had to be able to give some kind of performance; sing a song, play an instrument, do a gag, a recitation, tell a joke ...
1. The date is important; I believe the best people -- reasonable people -- change. While unreasonable people can be problematically erratic. 2. Real criticism is a gift one gives to people they believe have potential. If it is accurate, it means the critic took the time to examine the product and assemble comments. 3. "Only joking" -- I'd suppose asserting a thing, and then denying it, is funny ... at two rather early levels of humor. 4. Sounds like R.S. stumbled into some small group's pathological narcissistic cone-of-power. All in all, it apparently did garner attention for the show [I dunno, do they think they're Ali G., or Glenn Beck?] ... was prob. pretty much a wash for R.S.
1. I wish there were more standard DATE practices for i'net news. Sometimes I find myself getting all juked out about something, only to find out it happened 3 years ago. But these vids, framed out with the station ID as news, and it doesn't say news for WHEN.
2. I wouldn't say Rob Schneider "walked out," since they were asking him to leave bcs of what he was saying ...
3. I've dealt with people like that, who are punishingly miserable, and then say it's a joke. I would be very afraid the majority of the improv show he was doing would that shit.
4. Still, I don't think they shoulda left him in the parking lot, although the real circumstances are not explained.