I'm playing key-bored in a new band!

We are called Sacral Nerves. And we're playing out first show on December 3rd. Yay!

Useless machines

Interaction Design Safari

I was inspired by this post from Anjin Anhut to go on an Interaction Desgin Safari yesterday. Above are a few samples from the images that resulted from it. See the full set here.

Great Vowel Shift: EP review + upcoming show

My EP, Tasteful Erotica, got a positive review on Argue Job:

His musical intuition is definitely the highlight of the ep. Basque knows how far to push the less palatable aspects without taking the well balanced pop concessions off the table.

Check it out.

Also, I'm going to play a short set at Cagibi next week, opening for Queening (from Brooklyn). Here's a Facebook event. And some details:

Thursday, May 5 at 10:00 pm

An evening of music at Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent, Montreal)

Featuring (in the order they will play) :

- Les Beyond (immanent immigrant) + Old Wyoming (formerly empty love)
http://lesbeyond.bandcamp.com/
http://oldwyoming.bandcamp.com/

- Queening (Brooklyn's Avant-Genius')
http://www.myspace.com/queeningisgreat

- The Great Vowel Shift (local boy wonder)
http://greatvowelshift.bandcamp.com/

Things in general and a new Great Vowel Shift EP

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. This is due to the fact that it was set up as an outlet for all my promotional efforts, and lately I have not had much to promote. I'm not booking shows anymore and it's not really something I'm too concerned about at the moment.

However, I have been making music, and the fruit of those efforts is now available for your listening and purchasing pleasure at this wonderful website. This is a 20-minute EP called "Tasteful Erotica," by my solo recording project The Great Vowel Shift. Here's the cover art:

And here is the track list:

For the record, I think both of those images are remarkably ugly. It's kind of what I was going for.

The music, however, I'm quite proud of. The philosophy behind this release was to not obsess over it, to accept the mistakes, go for spontaneity over perfection, always follow my instincts and indulge in my worst "ticks" as a producer, like cutting all the low and high frequencies on everything and boosting the mids. Whenever possible, I used the first take, even if I was singing a little flat or whatever. I tried to work quickly and release the finished EP as soon as possible.

All of which possibly sounds like I was just being lazy and careless, but that's not what it was. It was about not squeezing all the life out of the original idea by spending too much time "perfecting" it, which I felt was what happened with my previous release.

Anyway, so that's done. It's out there for you to listen to. And if you absolutely love it, you can own it for only $4. It's downloadable in any format you want, including several lossless options and, of course MP3. There is no physical copy. It's a digital release only. I don't think I'll ever make another physical CD ever again. I don't see the point.

I was going to keep writing about other stuff, but on second thought, no, I better not. Enjoy the music.