| Multitrack Minds
Musicians who want to record at home have more options than ever before. If setting up a complicated computer-based studio doesn't sound like your idea of fun, check out a self-contained digital multi track. Today's units are more capable than ever; here we help you identify the features most important for capturing acoustic guitar. .
The Velvet Teen - Cum Laude!
Eschewing the alt-rock intricacies of Out of the Fierce Parade and mostly down-tempo, piano-centric orchestrations of Elysium, the Velvet Teen once again redefine themselves and their sound on their latest triumph, Cum Laude!. Cum Laude! not only treads new ground for the group, but does so with formidable aplomb, wrecking any notion that this band can be pinned down.
In contrast to Elysium’s six extended tracks, Cum Laude! favors shorter, quicker, and more dynamic compositions. One of the first things you’ll notice on it is the heavy vocal filters, which, ironically, only embolden Judah Nagler’s croon. Nagler has never been stronger and here his voice simply rises above the glitch-heavy rock like a heralding of something prophetic and radical. Opening track "333" attests to this when Nagler belts out, "I took the pain out of my pen / I took my self out of my selfish ways / and wrote all...I took the greed out of my grin / and sunk my teeth into my work instead / and they followed."
Although produced with the same sparkling precision as Elysium, Cum Laude! is a hybridized beast of a supremely varied parentage.
Electronic maestros craft new subculture
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - In the corner of Noah Fleischman's Kansas City basement sits a table with electronic toys, keyboards and guitar pedals, all gutted and rewired, circuitry spilling from the casings. But he's no gadget repairman. He's a musician. Fleischman manipulates the machines - toys, instruments, talking dolls even - to make strange, dissonant sounds. He is one of many experimental artists immersed in a blossoming, do-it-yourself subculture known as circuit bending. "I like the random chaos. No two devices are the same," Fleischman said. On Web sites like eBay, circuit-bent mutant machines are hot commodities. And festivals and workshops have sprouted worldwide. Many have turned to circuit-bending creator Reed Ghazala's anti-theory.com Web site for guidance.
The Mars Volta bottled at Endfest
The Mars Volta walked off stage at the Endfest on Saturday (August 12), after being pelted, in perfect Reading fashion, with bottles of piss. The band were playing the event - held at the White River Ampitheatre in Auburn (Washington State) and also featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Gossip and Wolfmother - when the crowd turned against them. Presumably lengthy prog-rock workouts weren't the flavour of the day in Washington at the weekend. Websites including Pitchfork and NME.com have reported on the incident, but as yet the band have not made any official comment. Reports state that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez smashed his guitar against his amplifier before departing the stage, with singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala asking the crowd to find the offending urine-hurlers.
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