Valentine’s Goodies up in the Shop!

… and a lovely St. Valentine’s Day to you, friends.

We have a few new items up in the shop for Valentine’s Day : some Pug Love for a Tom of Finland Tribute show called ‘Secrets of the Dog Park’ that should get your fur standing on end, as well as a poster we designed and printed for the fine fellows over at the ALO music headquarters. Both were printed by yours truly at Inky Oxnard Studios (with help from the fantastic Mister Jim Winters) in lovely West Oakland, California.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

xm

more organ madness : wonder woman

Friends,

we’ve been obsessed by organ music over at the Wertzateria. The last episode of our radio show Argyll Adventure Tree was dedicated to organ music (almost completely).

Today I received this little gem from Michael over at the Verasphere: it’s an organ version of the Wonder Woman theme from a fine fellow named Geoff Love. Enjoy.

By the way, Inky Oxnard’s Holiday Frenzy is happening this Saturday and, as like the childrens like to say, it’s gonna be off the chain. I know there’s a lot going on in December (can’t we just do Halloween again?) but this event is going to be particularly fine. See you there!

xm

Just Another Music Tuesday

Hi friendlies:

Music fills the room at the Wertzateria for about 12 or 13 hours a day. It’s our constant companion. I geek out about music the way some people geek out about sports – or movies. I dream about doing posters for my favorite bands, and sometimes my dreams come true (stay tuned for a Campout 2009 poster design!). I am constantly searching the intertubes for interesting music to play on my radio show, The Argyll Adventure Tree. Some music (and noise related sites and images, many thanks to Phil Benson) for your eyes and ears:

On July 2, William Orbit played a live set on KCRW (featuring Laurie Mayer from Torch Song)!

Our friends in Voice Farm have a new website. I love these guys.

There’s a nifty documentary about Brian Eno (whose Oblique Strategies I use all the time when I’m doing a creative project) streaming right here.

A lovely sad song: “Another Day” by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. I know the cover by This Mortal Coil, but I’d never heard the original.

A contemplative moment: through our friend Antony we were turned on to the music of William Basinski (in fact, Andy did a bunch of work on William’s site). Quiet, loopy, weird, and entrancing.

You might enjoy the Nigeria 70 Box Set. Funky and so, so great.

Here’s a few records I worked on: Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty by Camper Van Beethoven and Honey by Jonathan Segel. Go on, drop a dime on these fine folks.

Enjoy.

x,m

Argyll Adventure Tree Halloween Show is up!

My dearest spooks and goblins:

If you know Andy and I at all, you know that we love Halloween. We love all manner of freaks, spooks, and crawlies. In honor of All Hallow’s, we’ve put together quite an Argyll Adventure Tree for you. It’s right here, and it’s show #8. You can either listen to the show on your pooters or download the mp3 and listen to it as a podcast. It features Racer X (who turned out to be quite the Goth) from The Ripple Effect, and lots of Vincent Price and Bugs Bunny.

Mwwwwwaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! Enjoy.

xm

the east bay express name-drops svelte!

you know how there are those moments when i put the pencil down (and stop drawing drawings) and pick the pencil up again to write song lyrics? the group i’m in is called svelte, and the larger group umbrella (or group of composers) is called the immersion composition society. our particular branch of the ICS (in the east bay) is called the wig lodge.

now. you might be thinking ‘what are you doing up at 3:10 am, michael?’ (someone screamed outside our bedroom window at 2 am, i got up with a flashlight to check it out). you might also ask ‘i thought you were an illustrator. how does making music relate?’

well, they’re both really fun. i’ve learned a ton about the creative process from working with steven on svelte. the idea is that everyone in the lodge chooses a day out of every month (although i’ve been horribly remiss lately and have created exactly nada in the way of music, since illustration work has been wildly busy) and dedicate that day t’ making music. we get together, steven and i, (or sometimes andy and i, or sometimes just me on my own) and make as much music as we possibly can in the daytime hours. there is no editing allowed. if it has a track number, it is a song. then we get together (the night of the day we all compose) and listen to everyone’s output.

i just noticed that i used the word ‘fun’ above to describe the art/musicmaking. you know, sometimes the creative process isn’t fun. sometimes it’s not supposed to be fun. sometimes it’s hard work, and your brain is highly engaged in a state of creative concentration. that’s not necessarily a light airy feeling – a fun feel – but the output is usually something you’d want to look at (or listen to) more than once. anyhoo.

so. svelte got name-checked alongside such amazing folks as nicholas dobson, darking freakhead and sleepytime gorilla museum in a very nice article in the east bay express about the ics. it’s worth a look.

you can listen to some of svelte’s work here. did i mention that i’ve been making music with steven since 1986? he (for my birthday) handed me a DVD with 6 hours of the ‘compleat svelte’. wow. the very first song is called ‘ointy pointy’ (i won’t make you listen to it right now) and it was created after a night of (erm) partying at steven’s house in fremont where we both grew up. fast forward to 1991, and we’re messing around with a four-track cassette recorder and primitive sounding loops and playing gigs in punk rock queer clubs. fast forward to 2000, and ICS is happening, and our output expands from a song a month to twenty songs in a single session.

you can see eye eye sailor (the sock puppet pop opera that steven an’ i composed and i did the sets and puppets for) here.

the rest of the wig lodge is here.

here’s a hilarious picture of michael and nicholas (the founders) along with steven, the other half of svelte, from the east bay express.

xm

christmas on mars

…is finally finished. i wanna.

happy summer. be alive.

xm

possibly maybe

a fantastic cover of bjork’s song “possibly maybe” (one of my favorite songs) by final fantasy and ed droste can be found here. bee-ooo-tiful.

xm

do you yazoo?

my darlings,

just saw yazoo re-unite and play a show at the (most lovely) paramount theater this week, and was delighted not only by the performances (alison moyet can belt out a tune like none other, and vince clarke’s new arrangements left me breathless) but by the crowd’s reaction to the show, which was overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

i have seen hundreds of live shows in my time, and it takes a lot to get a (somewhat stoned/jaded) bay area crowd moving. not this time. the crowd was on its feet right away, screaming as loud as they could for as long as they could.

there was just the two of them on stage, but there was plenty to look at – what seemed to be levolor blinds in the background (how very 1980′s prince!) transformed into screens onto which were projected lovely bright new-wave graphics.

lots of gay boys and girls in the audience who, like me, were clearly raised on this stuff. i remember sneaking into my older sister’s room (who was at the show too – i love you, julie) and discovering the two yazoo records and playing them until the grooves wore out. didn’t they bring my love down? all night.

all night long i keep on getting overwhelmed and emotional (like during mr. blue) because when these records came out, i was in high school. and this music kept me company until i could find a date. alison’s voice is so lovely, and so plaintive, and vince’s music is so perfectly angular and spare. compare this music to any recording by ac/dc and remember why it seemed so revolutionary. those were the two choices.

for those of you who don’t know yazoo, here’s a little snippet from their upcoming (remastered and remixed) box set. turn it up and get out of your chair.

Bring Your Love Down (Didn’t I)

x, m