“The Medium Is The Medium - Nam June Paik clip
Here’s a short clip from a Nam June Paik video piece featured in the PBS early ’70s special “The Medium Is The Medium”. Pretty cool stuff.
We IST ▲▲▲▲ Undsies ᐂ ᐂ ᐂ ᐂ ᐂ // Munition Wolves
MAN WITH A VIDEO CAMERA - trailer
A Documentary Film
Directed by Petri Hagner
Music by Circle
DESCRIPTION
Esko Lönnberg has left his middle-class job in Sweden and returned to his hometown of Pori, Finland. Now he has taken up filmmaking. His first project is a film about the rock band Circle.
SYNOPSIS
The film follows Esko Lönnberg who is making a film about the rock band Circle. Lönnberg, a 59-year-old HVAC manager, left his job in Sweden and returned to his hometown of Pori, Finland, to pursue his artistic desires. In Pori, he found kindred spirits in the local experimental band Circle whose members are half of his age.
The shooting for the Circle movie mostly takes place in the countryside where the band is recording their next album. The circumstances turn out to be chaotic, but Esko tries to keep the crowd together, even though he does not know himself if he is going to end up with fiction or non-fiction and problems ensue. Disagreements disappear, however, when the gang gets together to share sacred moments around the dinner table, to watch sports on TV or to play in the recording room, where Esko captures everything essential and unessential on video while the band plays. When filming the musicians in action, Esko almost becomes part of the band. He throws himself into the music with his whole body and does not pay much attention to what his instrument, the video camera, is recording.
In spite of some discord and even heated tones, the making of the Circle movie radiates an air of friendship. It ties the crowd together, regardless of the weight of each individual performance. In the end, the greatest rewards seem to be the work itself and the shared experiences.
The vocalist of Circle, Mika Rättö, is virtually the only one in the band to show interest in Eskos film project. The making of the film indeed falls mostly on their shoulders.
Besides being an account of filmmaking, Man with a Video Camera is a film about the significance of choices in life and their consequences.
Twig Haper on Steev Mike
Full piece and more writings - http://heresee.com/twigharper/writings.htm
Over the years people have asked me what is Steev Mike and what is my involvement. First off let me say there is not a simple cut and dry answer to this question, when asked in person its a hard thing to articulate because it covers so many avenues of possibilities. I will try my best to write about it.
First off if you are reading this you most likely know who Andrew W.K. is. Lets just assume you do, and if you don’t please type “Andrew WK Steev Mike” into google and readup.
I first met Andrew WK when we were attending community high school, If I remember correctly our art teacher introduced us. At this time I saw a comic book he was drawing, and it blew me away. The attention to detail was just so beyond the ability of most people twice his age, it was hard to believe. Right then I new something was up. I didnt attend school much and alot of us were really into creating as much chaos and excitement as we could get away with, so and eventually I got expelled, along with my good friend Nathan Young (who currently plays in that band Wolf Eyes ya know?)
At that point me and Nathan lived at a sort of experimental group housing madhouse, it was in Ann Arbor on jefferson street, thus known as the Jefferson House. The Jefferson House was across the street from University of Michigans Institute for Social Research. At this point in the house we were experimenting with psychedelics, noise music, deprogramming social imprints, creating new imprints and being generally crazy as young energetic intelligent outcasts do. I could spend alot of time writing about this but back to point. Andrew would come over alot during lunch break from school, and during one of these times was my first glimpse of what would be unfolding over the last 15 or so years. A popular paranoid topic at the Jefferson House was that we were unknowingly in the middle of a social experiment designed by some people involved at the University of Michigan. So enter Andrew, a very shy nice young man who was also devious and very talented. So he started coming around more and more, and these paranoia ideas increased within me and I attached them to his presence.
I think like a year later, one night I stayed up for 28 hours then took 7 hits of super super strong LSD-25 black pyramid gels. It was my first drug induced egodeath experience, and of course it utterly blew me to pieces. I made contact with inter-dimensional entities who showed me many possible futures of my self and everyone I knew, I hit the christ consciousness, worlds exploded, I was birthed out of the cosmic egg and then shit back into the hells of earth…. My ground training at this point was zero; alot of what unfolded I had no reference point. So the experience left me utterly confused with maniac enlightenment, for half a year….
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Boys of Summer - Hail Sagan
New boys of summer release - future ancients now availalbe!
Dr. York - It’s On Me
Dr. York - It’s On Me
http://www.free-dr-york.com
VENOM P. STINGER - 26 Milligrams
-
Nick Palmer - vocals
-
Mick Turner - guitar
-
Alan Secher-Jensen - bass
-
Jim White - drums
This quartet was an overpowering late 80s/early 90s Australian group who morphed out of one scorched-earth, rawer-than-raw hardcore noise band called The Sick Things, and later again morphed into another thing completely: the lovely, edgy instrumental trio The Dirty Three. In between were several LPs, a 45 and one 4-song CD-EP that it is essential that you hear. Nowhere have I heard a band so desperately trapped in their own skin. Their militaristic, brutally loud and often atonal punk rock was an ugly cousin to a lot of the American bands of the day, the ones that came out on labels like Amphetamine Reptile, Treehouse, Noiseville, Circuit and Adult Contemporary. Their singer, Dugald McKenzie, had the rawest mouth-rasp vocals imaginable, and not only was it difficult to imagine him singing without his neck veins popping halfway to China, it was difficult to hear his deep-accented wails and think him anything but Australian. Drummer Jim White usually sounded like he was stuck somewhere between drumming for the Daughters of the American Revolution parade and for later-period John Coltrane. Even when the songs didn’t fall together all that well – and their albums do have some filler – they never wavered from a mood that was dark, angry and ballistic. Even on the (rare) slow ones.
COIL - TAINTED LOVE
RIP Jhon Balance
Formed in London in 1983 by John Balance as a solo side project to Psychic TV, Coil developed into a full-scale musical group in 1984, when Balance cemented a partnership with Peter ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson. Christopherson had been a founder of Psychic TV and member of Throbbing Gristle. For over twenty years Coil would be at the forefront of European experimentalism and electronic music.
Jhon Balance (1962–2004) died tragically in an accident at his home on November 13th, 2004. Peter Christopherson decided that, with the passing of Jhon Balance, Coil would not continue.
Fad Gadget “Ricky’s Hand” first ever TV appearance
This extract, from 1980 “Cargo De Nuit” from Belgian TV, shows Frank Tovey (Fad Gadget, synth + Black & Decker), Phil Wauquaire (Bass synth) and Jean-Marc Lederman (synth) “miming” Ricky’s Hand, Fad Gadget’s second single
Robert Gorl - Mit Dir
Robert Görl is a German musician (drums,keyboards),songwriter and producer. Born in Munchen,Germany 1955.
He is most famous as a member of the group D.A.F. (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), which he became a part of in 1978 together with Gabi Delgado-Lopez.
They reached the charts with songs like “Der Mussolini”, “Kebab Traume”, and “Der Rauber und der Prinz”, as well as huge success and two sell out tours with the album Alles Ist Gut. D.A.F. recieves a German Music Award for this album.
In 1983 D.A.F. splits up.
As a solo artist Görl released his first album “Night Full of Tension” in 1983 on Mute Records.
On this album Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) collaborated on a couple of tracks (Charlie Cat & Darling Don`t Leave Me).
Robert Görl had played drums on the Eurythmics album “In The Garden” in 1981. The link was Conny Plank. Both D.A.F. and Eurythmics
used Plank as a producer and the same studio in Cologne.
Robert Görl released the singles “Mit Dir” c/w “Beruhrt Verfuhrt” and “Darling Don`t Leave Me” c/w “Eckhardt`s Party” and “Aist Wieder Da”.
In 1986 Robert moves to New York to study one year at the Stella Adler Conservatory of acting. In the summer of -86 he met Gabi Delgado back in Germany, and they released the D.A.F. album “First Step to Heaven”. But D.A.F. does not make a comeback.
From -87 til 1993: Görl works with a solo project together with some canadian musicians, but the material was never released. After this (in.88) Görl was in a heavy car accident and left the music scene for a while.
Visuals for this video are taken from Kenneth Anger movies. Nice.
Xex - Cops [1980]
Xex were an experimental wave band, formed in South River, New Jersey. They were a mysterious affair, releasing one record in 1980 and disappearing soon after. The band “began” as a high school kazoo trio. Member Waw Pierogi’s interest in science led to several unique delay and echo experiments in the early years, most of which were employed on the band’s debut. However, though outfit had little musical technique, their trials and experiments yielded several songs, and after their first performance, the original trio of Waw, Thumbalina Gugielmo, and Alex Zander brought in two of their friends/fans to round out the lineup. Thus, after several experiments and debates, Xex was officially born in 1978.
The band spent the next two years constructing several tracks utilizing minimal synth techniques, semi-conventional song structures, and male and female vocal experiments. Due to the nature of their project and the band’s limited abilities, live shows were often inconsistent and humanistic, and often featured performance art and video accompianments.
The original pressing of Group:Xex sold little over a thousand copies. Soon after its release, additional members David Anderson and Jon-Boy Diode departed as Xex completed work on a second record, which due to limited funding and a since-deteriorated master tape, has not yet seen the light of day, and may never will. The original trio continued to work together along with new member Cookie Ruggerio (who previous involvement with the band was limited to walking a stuffed cat during a performance of ‘Kitty’). Only a few tracks have surfaced, and mid 80s performances of the band did not include Waw Pierogi.
In 2004, cult interest in the band culminated in a proper reissue of Group:Xex, complete with several demo cuts from the band’s original sessions. Just a year before, Alex Zander passed away from a heart attack.
Rosa Yemen - Decryptated & Herpes Simplex
Rosa Yemen was a French post-punk/no wave band in the late 70’s. The band consisted of Lizzy Mercier Descloux on vocals, and D.J. Barnes on guitar. They recorded an eponymous mini-album for ZE in 1978.
Stephan Eicher - MiniMiniMiniMinijupe + Sweet Jane
Early solo minimal single from ex Grauzone dude.
The Spits - terrorist attack
The Spits are a Seattle-based punk musical group. Currently, the band has released three albums, all officially self-titled but unofficially titled 1, 2, and 3, released by Nickel and Dime Records, Slovenly Recordings, and Dirtnap Records, respectively.
The band describes itself as “Punk for the People”, and focuses on loud, noisy, and dirty punk rock. Band members frequently appear in costumes on stage (e.g. graduation robes, Ronald Reagan masks, or toilet paper “mummy” costumes), and focus on the dirty, low-budget sound and presentation of garage punk.
The Spits’ “Bring Down” was featured in Al Partanen’s skateboarding segment of the “Born Dead” skate video, as well as Darrel Mathe’s section in the snowboarding video love/HATE. I H8 Pussies was featured in Andy Forgash’s segment in the snowboarding video Burning Bridges as well. Their song “Remote Control” appears in Absinthe Films snowboarding video More.
Jon St. James - Trans / Atlantic (1984)
Pee Wee says “Don’t do crack”
