Rabbits Full of Magic

B3ATL3$ Skipping Edit #3

2012-01-25T01:58:00.002-05:00

The Babe With The Power

2012-01-23T22:44:00.001-05:00

"SFF" Beatles Drone Skip Video

2012-01-21T15:00:00.000-05:00

Beatles Drone Skip Video Remix

2012-01-11T13:40:00.004-05:00

Sunday 15 January 2012 at Lucky's Public House on Edgewood in downtown Atlanta (right next door to the Music Room & Noni's) there will be an evening of music and film. Music by Adam Bruneau and then Bradley Bailey starts around 8 or 9 and afterwards there will be a showing of "Be Glad For the Song Has No Ending", a film made by the Incredible String Band. Show is free but donations are accepted and the Manor has drinks, food, clothing, books, etc. for sale.

"Blue Jay Way" is probably my favorite Beatles song right now, though that is a definite if you include "Flying" and the extended ambient mellotron interlude that links the two tracks on Magical Mystery Tour. My ultimate musical fantasy is that the Boredoms will remix the Beatles. While this video is in no way my attempt to illustrate the concept, I think some of these loops would probably find their way into such a release.

Hopi Torvald "June"

2012-01-10T10:56:00.001-05:00

Video experiment in datamoshing and bi-dimensional displacement. Music by Nathan Brown of Hopi Torvald. Video by Adam Bruneau 2012.

I Was Up Late Last Night Hey Ya

2012-01-10T01:55:00.002-05:00

192kbps MP3 demo

I wrote this song 5 minutes ago, in pretty much the time it took to record. It's basically me coming up with a rhythm and doing a lazy Iggy Pop over the whole bit. It's 100% improvised.

Really my only New Years resolution is producing more original material, trying to create something every day, no matter how stupid or unplanned it is. So readers will hopefully be happy to hear that in 2012 I'll be featuring more of my original music. I'm pretty excited, because if I ever run completely out of musical ideas, then I'll probably end up falling back on Cramps/T-Rex/Eno/Ramones/VU-style rhythmic arrangements. And that'll certainly generate some cool sounding stuff!

Hurricanes of Love - "Sup Puss" feat. the Goddesses

2012-01-04T16:19:00.004-05:00

320k MP3 Free Download

Recorded live at God's House Tuesday, this is Frank from Hurricanes of Love playing an instrumental tune with psychedelic cat howls from his Atlanta friends. Most holy!

Photo: A "puss on display" taken on tour with the Hurricanes.

Sidrazzi Organ

2012-01-03T23:34:00.001-05:00

My old label mates Pete Blasser (The Gongs) and Nick Currie (Momus) playing with a cool new instrument called the Sidrazzi Organ.

Last Minute Show with the Dust Bunnies

2011-12-21T19:04:00.004-05:00

The MUSIC ROOM will feature the Dust Bunnies this Friday the 23rd, so come on out for a fuzzy, dreamy evening of tunes before your big holiday weekend. Or, if you hate Christmas, that's fine, cos most of the stuff I play is slow and sad and depressing anyways. But noisy! So yay! I've been practicing my theremin alot recently so hopefully I'll really nail those difficult but fun parts.

Dust Bunnies is more or less my main solo project, an embracing of the folk tradition of taking standards and putting a personal touch on them. As it was birthed from a lovelorn emotional state, I perform what I think are some of the most beautiful love songs of rock history. So there will be some Velvet Underground, some Leonard Cohen, some Ricky Nelson, etc. But it won't all be sad songs - I'll be doing "Silent Night" for the Christmas touch as well.

I've made quite a few videos on youtube but given copyright law and the state of the internet, I'm sort of fearing the day when they are all taken down because they are unlicensed performances. My grandparents generation tended to have a piano in every house before the widespread use of records, so the only way someone could hear a song is if they got the music out and played it themselves. Kind of sad that that tradition is being destroyed in the search for profits and an accompanying rockist sense of authenticity. But whatever, enjoy it while you can!

You can download a few Dust Bunnies tracks below, including a few that I don't really play live because they are more straight-ahead than the usual DB 101 Strings-play JAMC set:

Sunday Morning
Dream Lover
Alabama Song

Head On
Virginia Plain
Pet Cancer
The Lottery Song

Black Lodge

2011-12-09T10:35:00.002-05:00

Black Lodge is the newest band I'm in. I play drums, Jenny plays synth, Jen and Karen both play basses, and all the girls sing and write the songs. It's really a whole lot of fun. Basically we try to sound like something that may have toured with the Cure during the Disintegration or Pornography albums. Or maybe Joy Division. I've played with Jenny before in the ATL experimental act Small Framed Boy, but the other two have never played in bands before. To be honest, they are more talented and hardworking and flat out rocking more than most seasoned musicians I know. And they are total sweethearts!

We just began recording last night, during a hazy and bright full moon. Jenny had just been given a black three-legged cat by Jen. Nathan of Hopi Torvald and Tree Creature (and Eyedrum) recorded us, and we should have some vinyl out in 2012, on possibly Douchemaster and Hozac records! We play next Friday the 16th at Estoria.

Toys play undiscovered rock from Mass. 1977

2011-12-03T19:06:00.009-05:00

Toys "Keep Yourself Alive" @ Weston High School (Late 1977)

Happy birthday to Thomas Bruneau, my father, who is the coolest rock n roll dad ever. He played drums and guitar in the Northeast in the late 60's and 70's. And now all his kids are doing the same in Atlanta! Guess you'd say it's a family tradition. He played in this band called Toys which was in the New England psych rock scene in the 70s. His bands had played shows with Jonathan Richman and Ric Ocasek, and in the 60's he was in a psych band called Lords of Knight.

A while ago he gave me a box of tapes of Toys and this is from a performance at Weston High School in 1977 and its a Queen cover and its really effing awesome. The singer does an uncanny job of sounding like Freddy Mercury and all the rest is wonderful and it's possibly the best Queen cover I've ever heard!

There's a picture I need to scan of my dad's band from the time. They are all wearing leather and standing in front of a brick wall like the Ramones.

I Love You But You Don't Love Me Back

2011-12-01T15:19:00.004-05:00

A dime store glam gospel song.
I Love You But You Don't Love Me Back free download

song written/recorded by Adam Bruneau November 2011
drums (sampled) by Bradley Bailey
sax (sampled) by Shitty Bedford

Super Madrigal Brothers and the Elizabethan Glitch

2011-11-06T13:25:00.005-05:00

Once upon a time, when I was 19 or so, I had a dream of making the world's first chiptune album. I was getting heavily into purchasing LPs at thrift stores of exotica and lounge music; not the easy-listening kind so much as the kind with wild cartoony stylistic shifts. Things like The Three Suns and Esquivel inspired me to try my hand at arranging old songs with new sounds, so I decided to make an album and give it to Bjork, who I loved dearly and was just making a comeback with Vespertine.

The album I came up with was The 8-Bit Christmas, and I didn't get it to Bjork but it did end up in the hands of Scottish recording artist Momus. In 2001 I was signed onto his label American Patchwork and contracted to make up 1/2 of a conceptual duo called Super Madrigal Brothers. It was all Momus's idea. Basically we have free reign to do what we wanted with the project, so I researched mountains of MIDI files of music written in the 14th-16th centuries, and arranged songs with my catalog of sounds. My alias was Oliver Cobol, and my partner's was Fashion Flesh. His real name is John Talaga and he lived in Michigan, making homemade synths, remixing things, creating a psychedelic sonic soup out of the clockwork arrangements I had put together. We released an album together called Shakestation that outlined the way we work: one track by me followed by the remix version by John.

The whole band existed only online and through the mail, so when American Patchwork decided to go on a month-long US tour in 2002, it was the first time I had ever met him in person. The tour showcased all the artists on the label, us, The Gongs (spooky post-folk done on homemade synths), Phiiliip (Syd Barrett-meets-early Beck gay art-pop), Rroland (West Coast synth-fueled tone poems) and Momus himself (theatrical post-Bowie vaudevillian avant-pop). The tour was a success but afterwards the label had to call it quits and we took a break. For a few years I was pretty busy with Die Slaughterhaus-related music in Atlanta.

One day Drew Daniel of Matmos emailed me to say that Bjork had heard my album and loved it! It was the happiest email I have ever read in my life! In 2004 Drew also helped us get the ground running on a second album, put out on a small label called Fever Pitch, called Baroque In Voltage. There was no tour, but we did play a single show, flying up to northern New York state to perform at Sarah Lawrence College. Ever since then we have done the odd track online and continue to operate in our own musical worlds. I've just started uploading these tracks to youtube because most people have no idea I did any of this stuff, and the albums are very hard to track down.

Here is a review that Drew did for one of our 2nd album songs, for Pitchfork:

"What Wendy Carlos hath already joined together, let no music critic tear asunder: baroque compositions and analogue synthesizers go together like coconut milk and lime juice. It shouldn't work, in fact it should be fucking terrible, and instead, hot damn, it's delicious. The quasi-mechanistic intricacy and speedy tempos of early modern galliards and inventions seem to find both a hilarious foil and a delicate sweetness when played on warbling, cranky electronics. Wendy proved the staying power of this formula abundantly with Switched On Bach in 1968, and Momus redoubled the historical-overdetermination sweepstakes by going all retro-Carlos in 1998 with The Little Red Songbook.

On their latest album, Baroque in Voltage, Momus brethren the Super Madrigal Brothers (one half of which, the suavely named Fashion Flesh, had a hand in some production work on the eyepatched-one's last album) continue this fine tradition, sculpting a miniature Versailles out of acid washed circuit-boards, lo-bit gamer chips, and tinfoil. Though they are widening their historical scope considerably (the album even includes Bizet's "La Habanera" from Carmen), it's the baroque pieces that weather the Brothers' electrical storms most gracefully, and in particular this composition by Henry Purcell. It clings closest to Carlos' territory (it was an eerie Purcell work that served as the centerpiece of her soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange), but the skittering pitter pat of grainy white noise synth snares underneath give off the faintest whiff of acid house, and will keep the listener on their toes. Twinkling like an LED chandelier, Purcell's melody twinkles and flits across the synth-patches, quivering in and out of tune, but stays musically bulletproof, and oddly noble, throughout."

-Drew Daniel of Matmos for Pitchforkmedia

Pitchfork review of 1st album "Shakestation"

These last three songs aren't on any album. The Chopin piece is one of the last SuperMad things I recorded, and honestly it doesn't sound like any Chiptune music I've ever heard. It's more in the vein of Perry & Kingsley, or Carl Stalling. I think it's one of my favorite things I have ever recorded. "Roadd Rashh" is an improvized dance track using only samples from the Sega Genesis game of the same name. Many ambulances, car crashes, and people yelling. Finally, we have my SuperMad remix of The Beatles song "She's Leaving Home", featuring the vocals of three promising singers John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney

Everything I do for SuperMads is made with FruityLoops, with a little help here or there on CoolEdit. The first album was pretty much constructed on a strict diet of Nintendo-only sounds, most of them from the 8-bit system but a few from the 16-bit. By the time I was on album 2, I had amassed a much larger library of sounds, mainly through collecting videogame emulators such as ZSNES and MAME. We changed the rules as well, because of a Maria Callas infatuation, I wanted to include more recent pieces like songs from the Opera "Carmen". That was in 2004, a year or so after started the similarly-minded musique concrete group #Phonepunk#.

Will Super Madrigal Brothers ever come back? Who knows?

Halloween with the Spooks

2011-10-12T02:02:00.012-04:00

The Spooks played a release show for their album Death From Beyond the Grave on Halloween 2008. There was a giant lighted blow-up ghost, some 3D horror footage projected on the band, and one-time demonic covers of Elvis's "Burning Love" and Johnny Cash's take on "Ghost Riders in the Sky". The "California Boys" video was filmed at this show, and edited under the influence of NiteTime cough medicine.

I've seen many things at a Spooks concern; cow tongues, beef hearts, pig heads, chainsaws, octopi, flaming vaginas, trash bags full of money. For a time King Khan was performing last rites during their shows. Get out your red-blue 3D glasses for "Now I Wanna Steal Your Soul", just above. Flash animation ghosts whirling around some dualistic vortex that emits flying bats.

The Spooks lie sleeping in undiscovered Egyptian tombs, but they will rise again some day.

Gimme Gimme Black Lips

2011-09-28T22:54:00.009-04:00

"GIMME GIMME BLACK LIPS" EP
01 O Katrina
02 M.I.A.
03 Freakout
04 Dirty Hands

Ramones-style Black Lips cover EP by Adam Bruneau. Inspired by their recent show guest starring Bradford Cox as Joey Ramone (see bottome video). I wanted to make this pretty lofi, so it's just a guitar and a bass played over Ramones drum samples. The bass was played through a destroyed guitar amp. It was recorded in Ableton but with quite possibly the shittiest computer microphone i have ever used. These songs are more or less reinterpreted so some parts are cut out and some songs are completely rewritten. Also, the whole thing is over in 7 mins.

Mona Lisa (Atlas Sound cover)

2011-09-20T12:15:00.004-04:00

Below is a cover of a song on the new Atlas Sound record Parrallax. I haven't heard the record, but I did hear Bradford's amazing Bedroom Databank series, which has a home demo. Some spooky theremin, drone organ, and "Pretty Woman" handclaps in this. Brian Eno percussion setup.

Adam Bruneau "Mona Lisa (Atlas Sound cover)".

Autumn Fox

2011-09-11T22:24:00.002-04:00

Dust Bun Bun - Autumn Fox

Psychedelic Atlantean kraut drone dance music. Created by Paul Harper and Adam Bruneau 2011.

Anarchy Comics

2011-09-06T20:39:00.007-04:00

Some underground comic freaks from the 1970s/80s printed Anarchy Comics Vol. 3, seen in these photos. It's from 1981 and it is intelligent, politically charged art dipped in pop trash art sewage. My favorite image is the back cover of, depicting the US and USSR as giant mosquitoes, sucking the planet dry. It's by Pepe Moreno. Paul Mavrides' work appears and he thanks "Bob" from his satire religion The Church of the Subgenius. Front cover by Peter Pontiak, color by Guy Colwell. Edited by Jay Kinney.

3D anaglyph Subgenius video by Adam Bruneau, 2010.

Motion Pictures

2011-08-25T11:12:00.002-04:00

Motion Pictures (Neil Young cover)

Pretty happy with this, especially the vocals. I just set up one computer mic and played it live. The monitor was right next to it, so there's a little bit of room feedback, which is nice too.

Demon's Castle

2011-08-24T00:37:00.000-04:00

Adam Bruneau - Demon's Castle

Fantasma

2011-08-20T14:02:00.011-04:00

Keigo Oyamada (AKA Cornelius) is one of the most brilliant, idiosyncratic recording artists of the 20th & 21st centuries. Keigo Oyamada paved the way for the stylish 90s Shibuya-kei scene in Japan alongside like-minded artists such as Kahimi Karie and Pizzicato Five. After cultivating an underground sound in the mid-80s, he hit it big in Japan's version of The Monkees, a pop band called Flipper's Guitar that mixed 60s psychedelia and mainstream pop into a teen sensation that even had its own TV show. His thirst for recording led him to famously produce Pizzicato Five's best album, 1993's Bossa Nova 2001, a multicultural world-wind tour through retro influences the globe over. The Japanese culture scene based around these titanic acts from Shibuya displayed a unique Eastern approach to pop history, mixing every Western genre through a prismatic Futurist perspective. For Flipper's and Pizzicato Five, Norwegian Metal, Caetano Veloso, Gil Gilberto, Kraftwerk, Black Sabbath, Talk Talk, The Beach Boys, Ennio Morricone, Jesus and Mary Chain, Acid House, Walt Disney soundtracks, etc. all shared the same head space. Album art was extremely vintage-yet-amplified classic 60's and 70's pop.

It sounded like everything was on acid, and fittingly Japanese and Western music culture has shared an asymmetry since the 60's. When Japan was introduced to The Ventures it was the birth of the Group Sounds - the Japanese garage rock explosion. Lots of lofi, futuristic, off-kilter psycho surf classics have originated from here. Some in Japanese, some in English: see The Mops trippy classic "I'm Just a Mops".

Keigo's band broke up in 1991, but his experiments in the recording studio at 3D Corporation led to a new solo identity: Cornelius, from the friendly ape from Planet of the Apes. Keigo has built a mythology about his character of Cornelius throughout his solo career, basing much of his second album 69/96 (1995) on the idea of Cornelius as devil-horned pop metal rockstar astronaut. On that record he received comparisons to Beck as musical curator and sample-jockey. It makes me think more of the Beastie Boys.

First Question Award was more in the traditional Shibuya-kei style, more like Japanese gameshow/bossa nova psychedelic pop. 69/96 featured 96 tracks and had bonus tracks on #69 and #96, and was 69:96 long. It featured experiments with cut-up drum machines, funk, Black Sabbath samples, cassettes, theremins, traditional Hawaiian instruments, electric sitar, etc. The narrative involved the adventures of Cornelius, and was a journey starting in outer space and ending up passing over Africa and into Hawaii, at the end of the world. I'm pretty sure the last bonus track samples "Owner of a Lonely Heart" but I'm not sure...

FantasmaI'm going to skip the rest of his catalog, including what he's doing now, even though it is always mindbogglingly idiosyncratic and futuristic, to talk about Fantasma. This third album is Cornelius's Pet Sounds, both in production leaps and emotional resonance. But actually I like this album more.

When I was 18 I went to see the Flaming Lips begin to promote their new album The Soft Bulletin, at a show at Atlanta's The Masquerade. Cornelius opened, and I bought an import CD of Fantasma before the set was even over, even paying the stupid price of $20. His show was completely synchronized music and visuals, and started with a cover of Black Sabbath's "Wicked World", leading into trippy Beach Boys-styled Brazilian electronica, and culminating with Cornelius playing theremin to "Love Me Tender" while a VHS of Elvis in Hawaii looped in the background projection. That moment changed my life.

I bought a theremin the next day, from Robert Moog, signed by the man. Being into Japanese underground rock is what made me aware of Robert Moog, and for that alone I really have to be thankful. I played theremin in an Atlanta ghost rock band for years and years, practicing taming the tuneless radio beast. I recently played it with the Carnivores and before that the Mermaids on a float during a Halloween parade. Cornelus lead me to discover Momus, who signed me into a videogame band Super Madrigal Bros. We recorded several psychedelic NES albums and went on a few tours. Eventually Bjork heard it!

Cornelius's show that day was the most amazing music performance I have ever seen in this lifetime. He tore through "E", the live-only experiment in one-chord drone rock, mixing classic rock riffs cut up at random over drum-and-bass live drumming from drummer Yuko Araki (AKA Mi-gu). At one point it felt like being in a Christmas Disney parade on mushrooms. Cornelius says on one of his promotions for Fantasma "Keep this and all other drugs out of the reach of parents."

Fantasma the album felt not as good as the live performance the first time through, then my favorite album of all time the second time through, and then every listen since then and the album just gets better and better. While listening I am powerless to do anything else. One song called "God Only Knows" has vacuum cleaners recorded with 3D microphones through the entire thing, and lyrically calls back to "Just Like Honey" by Jesus & Mary Chain and "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys AT THE SAME TIME. For the noise rock "New Music Machine", the lyrics booklet features Cornelius dressed up just like the members of Talk Talk on the album cover above. He even duplicates the gloved hand reaching up to turn up the volume.

The album includes a Videogame Rave performance of Bach in "2010" and after it whizzes by a sample of Jeremy Irons saying "Bravo!" comes in from the coked-out 80's film Amadeus. The last proper song is "Thank You For the Music", and includes a tape cassette rewinding through songs you just listened to! Fantasma ends on a choral piece bending "Our Prayer" from Smile into the prayer "Fantasma". The album tries to hug the entire history of pop music, and it's a hug as big as the whole world.

Fantasma is on sale at Amazon. It recently got re-released and remastered by Sean O'Hagan from the High Llamas. It comes with a bonus disc including all the necessary b-sides and remixes and flexi-discs and crazy one-off recordings from the time period you could ever want. I hear it's already out of print, but luckily we live in the age of google.

Datamosh

2011-08-20T13:05:00.001-04:00

Music by Adam Bruneau, circa 2007

Datamoshing Tests

2011-08-19T17:01:00.002-04:00

Takeshi Murata is blowing my mind with fluid psychedelic computer animations like the one above. I read his technique includes Datamoshing, which was used by Bob to create the this awesome video for Chairlift. Here are my own experiments with this technique.

We Could Make a Record

2011-08-11T00:31:00.002-04:00

written by Harry Nilsson

Dust Bunnies - The Lottery Song

Dust Bunnies - The Lottery Song Chillwave Version

"The Lottery Song" by Harry Nilsson

2011-08-10T14:08:00.003-04:00

Dust Bunnies - The Lottery Song

Typically fuzzed-out, buzzed-out cover in the vein of old school Dust Bunnies. Really weird guitar sounds. Original song by the brilliant Harry Nilsson.

Kill Your Darlings ATL

2011-08-09T16:54:00.002-04:00

Melysa Martinez and I put this video together for a show, here's the press release:

The girls everyone was too scared to warn you about!

Please welcome and support Kill Your Darlings ATL for Bad Bitches Sat., Aug. 20, at Couch Couch.

The evening will feature readings by eight local female writers/poets/bitches, including slam poetry by Blondie of the Clermont Lounge, as well music by El Fossil and Bosco, and a drag show by Twinki.

Doors at 9 p.m. Free. BYOB.

http://www.facebook.com/KillYourDarlingsATL?sk=app_212097992149339

Break Up Song

2011-08-05T11:53:00.005-04:00

break up song by the back pockets

I recorded/produced this song - which hit me while we were recording with the emotional force of something from The Soft Bulletin or In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - from Atlanta's Back Pockets.

Lead singer Emily Kempf and I worked on the accompanying album Fast Cloud Slow Cloud over the past few months before heading out on a northeast tour a few weeks ago. At the time, our heads had been so ruined by listening to these songs over and over again as we mixed that I couldn't even remember if it was any good or not. On Fourth of July as all our friends ran around town partying we sat in my room perfecting this stuff. It started raining and the lyrics said so, so we recorded it and put it in the song, thunderclaps naturally falling into place in the song. It was 100% magic.

With a month break, it sounds as crisp and soul-shredding as ever. At points in recording the album I felt like we hit upon more girl group sounds, which we tried to enhance with multiple layered female vocals from Em, Che, and Haley. Little did I know that while on tour I would experience Lesley Gore and Ronnie Spector singing their classics live 20 feet away from me on a day off in NYC. The universe has lots of little ways of lining things up.

This is the best thing I have ever recorded, and what's more, I'm glad it's not an affectation. We aren't a bunch of rock dudes quoting the "Be My Baby" intro before peddling in nostalgic machismo. This is a song written by a girl about a breakup and it's about all the tactile, painful feelings you feel and the weird existential soul-searching that happens when you lose someone you love. It's epic, orchestral girl-group folk music.

Click here for my flickr set of the recent tour

2011-07-16T00:15:00.001-04:00

The Music of Bradley Bailey

2011-06-29T20:46:00.003-04:00

Without Your Love
Champion Sperm

Bradley Bailey is one of the most amazing musicians I have ever met in my life. Truly avant garde in his approach to guitar playing and noise making but also able to write the most beautiful and raw melodies and lyrics ever to touch your soul. He recently moved out west but he's been back in Atlanta for a minute now and over the past few days we hung out and ended up recording this music. Both songs are written by Bradley and sung by him, and he plays guitar on "Without Your Love". These are more or less Dust Bunnies recordings (especially the entirety of the "Champion Sperm" backing track) but they are Bradley's songs. Think of this as a small series of collaborative interpretations.

Pet Cancer

2011-06-23T10:07:00.003-04:00

Dust Bunnies "Pet Cancer" (Phiiliip cover)

Pet Cancer

I was on the fructose/sucrose bubblegum train
Riding round in the rain
The ecstasy of the sugar was there
but I still couldn't even care

So what if you were just sliced pizza
It must have been the rust
Peeling off the sides of our heads
Isn't it great we're dead

I looked straight at the fuming of your mother
Without a face she looked like no other

Bloodshed in my heart
Bloodshed in my hands
Blood covers the fat of the lands

I think invisible ink pen fumes are
Starting to get to me I chewed on a retard
ANd broke teeth cuz his flesh was hard

So what if we buried your hamster
You knew one day he would eventually get pet cancer
Your life is not in the shoebox
It is only your mind you lost

I turned away from the skinning of your brother
Without a face he looked like no other

Bloodshed in my heart
Bloodshed in my hands
Blood covers the fat of our land

-Phiiliip

Phiiliip is an artists I met in 2002, when I toured the US with him after being signed to Momus's videogame glitsch boy-band Super Madrigal Brothers. Here's a remix he did of "Elemental Childe" by T-Rex.

The Kiwis Psychedelic Reunion Track

2011-06-16T15:40:00.002-04:00

The Kiwis Demons in My Basement

Recorded June 15-16 2011. Kiwis album Shangri-La coming this summer! Die Slaughterhaus 10th Anniversary! Black Lips on cover of Spin!

Andrew Nicholson-guitar vocals solo
Adam Bruneau-bass vocals

Written by Andrew Nicholson
Produced by The Kiwis

The Sacred Magic

2011-06-14T13:49:00.003-04:00

The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage is something I found at a bookstore in Auburn Alabama on the first night of a recent tour with the Back Pockets. I find that every time I go out on the road for a musical experience it is more magical than the last. Things snap into place and synchronicities occur more and more often. Since being on the road with Hurricanes of Love I have started thanking more and more. Thanking is a form of prayer, and a good ritual to introduce on the road is thanking rivers and mountains by their names.

Being an Atlanta musician, I often find myself driving through some of the oldest land on the planet, which is embedded with mystical properties and energy from hundreds of millions of years ago. It's not that worshipping a material thing like a mountain or river causes it to literally call up Mountain/River God and ask them to mail me free money. Praying and thanking these things ritualistically is a method that trains your body physically through repetition and mentally through willpower. The result is sort of a psychic exercise which, when combined with my natural reverence for the land of the Southeastern United States, brings my physical body and whatever electromagnetic/astral/abstract processes it resides in closer in sync with the natural world.

Simply put, when you thank the universe, the universe thanks back.

Anyways I procured this book for $3 when in all actuality the text it contains is probably worth a whole treasure chest full of Spanish doubloons. It was written in the 15h Century by a Rabbinic Cabbalist named Abraham of Wurzburg, who travelled the world in search of a magician that could teach him the secret of The Sacred Magic. I'm rusty on my Cabbala but I feel like I understand what he's reaching for at least somewhat; a system of magic that is holy and almost like what 19th century thought of the earned powers of the Siddhi of Hindu traditions. The idea is someone is spiritually practiced enough to the point where they become so pure in their will, they attain magical worldly powers.

The first part of the book gives a biography and talks about his search, and in the sixth chapter there are some wonderful excerpts from places he searched. He writes,

In Austraia I found and infinitude of Magicians who only occupied themselves in killing and maiming men, in putting discord among married people, in causing divorces, in tying witch-knots in osier or willow branches in order to stop the flow of milk in the breasts of nursing women, and similar infamies. But these miserable wretches had made a Pact with the Devil, and had become his slaves, having sworn unto him that they would work without cessation to destroy all living creatures.

and

In Greece I found many wise and prudent men, but, however, all of them were infidels, among whom there were three who principally dwelt in desert places, who showed unto me great things, such as how to raise tempests in a moment, how to make the Suin appear in the night, how to stop the course of rivers..."

Abraham found his muse in Arabia in a magician named Abramelin and the 2nd and 3rd parts of this book are an in-depth catalog of Abramelin's magic system. The 2nd part describes the proper preparations, dispels myths (Abramelin has problems with certain methods of astrologers), and stresses the importance of willpower and spiritual purity. The 3rd part is a huge list of spells, which are basically charts of the names of angelic beings, laid out in magical diagrams, which look sort of like crossword puzzles. I think you are supposed to write them in Hebrew on the veil that you wear while preforming the rituals in part 2. 30 spells exist, and they are pretty cool sounding.

The names are supposed to be based on whatever religion you were raised in, but he uses Cabbalic names for the divisions of God. Each chapter contains different variations on these diagrams, for instance in chapter 27 you use different names to conjur visions of 'A Superb Palace', 'Unicorns', 'Lions', 'Singing Birds', 'Dragons', 'Gryphons', and a number of other things to appear. When magically flying over the each you can pick from a number of different forms to take, such as white or black clouds of smoke, or various birds. Here are the included chapters, with Abraham's descriptions:

01 How to know all kinds of things Past an Future, which be not however directly opposed to God, and against his holy will
02 How to acquire information, and be enlightened, concerning every kind of proposition, and all doubtful sciences
03 How to cause any Spirit to appear, and take various forms, as of man, of animal, of bird, etc.
04 To procure Visions
05 How one may retain the Familiar Spirits bound or free, in whatsoever form
06 Hot to make manifest mines, and push on all manner of work connected therewith
07 To cause a Spirit to perform all manner of Chemical work and Operations with facility and promptitude, especially as regards Metals
08 To excite Tempests
09 To transform Animals into Men, and Men into Animals (Also to transform Animals into Stones)
10 To prevent all operations of Necromany and Magic from producing any effect; except the Operations of the Cabbala, and of this Sacred Magic
11 To cause to be brought to one any kind of book, and whether lost or stolen
12 To know Secrets, and especially those of any person
13 How to make a Corpse rise from the Dead, and perform all the Operations which the person would do were he living, and this during the space of seven years, through the means of the Spirit
14 The 12 symbols for the 12 hours of the Day and of the Night, in order to make oneself Invisible to every person
15 To cause the Spirits to bring us everything to eat and drink which we may wish, and even everything which we can think of
16 How to discover and take possession of all kinds of Treasure, provided that it be in no way (Magically) guarded
17 How to fly in the Air and go wherever one may wish
18 To heal diverse Maladies
19 For all kinds of Affection and Love
20 To excite every kind of Hatred, Enmity, Discord, Quarrels, Contests, Combats, Battles, Loss and Damage
21 To transform oneself, and take diverse shapes and forms
22 This Chapter is only for working Evil, for with the Signs herein we can cast Spells, and perform every kind of Evil Work. We should not avail ourselves hereof
23 To demolish Buildings and Castles
24 To discover Thefts
25 To walk and operate in and under water
26 How to open every kind of lock without a Key, and without noise
27 How to cause Visions to appear
28 How to obtain as much gold and silver as one may wish, both to be able to provide for the necessaries of life, and to live in opulence
29 How to cause Armed Men to appear
30 To make Comedies, Operas, and all kinds of Music and Dances to appear...

A. Grimes - MILF

2011-06-01T12:35:00.002-04:00

A. Grimes
http://agrimes.bandcamp.com/track/m-i-l-f

video by Adam Bruneau
compiled from youtube search on 80's breakdance competitions, bikini contests, and skate videos

TV Cello

2011-05-24T11:50:00.000-04:00

Adult Swim "Off the Air" Pilot feat. Atlas Sound, Black Lips

2011-05-23T10:54:00.006-04:00

Adult Swim has a new show called "Off the Air" that is a showcase for animation, music, and bizarre video art. The first episode features music from Atlas Sound and The Black Lips, as well as Dan Deacon and Flying Lotus. Adam Bruneau created the end credits sequence, which features 3D videogame text hovering over video of Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling while the Black Lips perform the Star Spangled Banner! If you have anaglyphic red-blue glasses you can see the effect in full.

The first two episodes of this show will be airing on Adult Swim back to back early Wednesday morning, May 25th from 4:00am to 4:.30am. The new prime time! Each episode is 15 mins long, so the credits segment will be running around 4:10 or so...

2011-05-22T22:12:00.006-04:00

Adam at Hank Williams's gravesite in Montgomery Alabama in 2003. Hank was buried next to his Momma. Photo by Lyndsy Welgos.

Adam Bruneau - Hey Good Lookin' (Hank Williams cover)

Dust Bunnies Bradley Bailey cover MP3

2011-05-20T15:33:00.015-04:00

Dust Bunnies - Champion Sperm (Bradley Bailey cover)

The hard part about being a musician and artist in Atlanta is that so many of your friends and colleagues go off around the country and around the world on adventures, and it's easy to miss such wonderful people. Bradley is out west right now but I hear he's coming to Atlanta to visit in a few weeks!

Bradley Bailey wrote this song years and years ago and I always admired his style. Completely original, a little bit schizophrenic, and totally in the jazz/blues pantheon of rhythmic badassery. Below are the brilliant words of this masterpiece, copyright Bradley Baily:

I remember you were a champion sperm now youre a failure as a person
i dont understand how you be such a jerk when youre as sweet as the smell of flowers
you stupid motherfucker you can fuck right off and get lost in the moment get lost in the moment in the moment in the moment in the moment in the moment

i dont give a fuck if we dont have sex but i appreciate your genitalia
even if its evil and it fucks things up just keep it away
like a poisonous flower or a venomous snake i like to see you in the wild... see you in the wild
in the wild... in the wild... in the wild... in the wild...

take off your face and let us see your skull and you will be much more attractive
and we'll still admire your beautiful eyes and your haircut and your outfit
let down your guard and let your feathers out id even kiss you on the grundle
kiss you on the grundle
on the grundle on the grundle on the grundle on the grundle

I remember you were a champion sperm

I Hate Being Born

2011-05-19T14:04:00.003-04:00

Adam Bruneau - I Hate Being Born (Demo)

This is a song I wrote the week of my 30th birthday when I had no power and was really depressed. It's kind of based on Big Star's "Holocaust" (which I covered) but this quick demo recording is more like on some 70s John Lennon tip.

It's missing most of the lyrics because I wrote them on a paper by candlelight and I have since moved and haven't found them yet. It's about getting real existentially sad and deciding not to kill yourself.

Basement Music on Friday 13th

2011-05-17T18:23:00.013-04:00

lofi demo of G.O.T.H. - Fright Night (Ariel Pink cover 'live' Friday 13th 2011)

Electric Love

2011-05-16T20:56:00.004-04:00

Happy birthday to me. I'm 30. I've made noise music with a TV and a telephone, I've graduated college, I've gone to the great pyramids of Egypt, I've acquired a cat and named him God, and this year I've rocked out on national TV.

What else is there to do? Really, the years aren't flying by fast enough.

Electric Log Lady Land

2011-05-07T19:12:00.001-04:00

Virtual 45s Revisited

2011-04-24T22:18:00.015-04:00

A few years ago I had an Atlanta Virtual 7inch Release Party inspired by the Atlas Sound series, and I thought I'd repost some of them with updated information because most of these old bands have appeared in my life in one way or another recently. So this post is a manifestation of the syncronicities.

Grown-Ups
featuring Jack Julie Adam Andrew Megan Lacey
"Time is Money / Almost Grown"

This record, Mark from Die Slaughterhaus and Baby Dinosaurs vs. Extinction asked for about 5 years ago at the Kiwis second house. We were hoping to put out a vinyl 45 with Jack and Julie before they moved to New York after getting married. Jack played guitar and sang with the Black Lips after they lost their first guitarist Ben Eberbaugh, and this song is like a lost track from that 1st album. Jack and Julie are in the K Holes now, which recently played the Atlanta Mess-Around on a east coast tour. We all used to play together in the Kiwis and I played with Julie in the Wet Dreams and Jack and Julie in Georgiana Starlington, the psych-country band they started after moving to NYC. I got to see them again when I went there to be on Letterman with Deerhunter recently - we all watched it together in one room that night! Everybody on this record is an old friend and I love them truly.

This was recorded by Andrew Nicholson of the Kiwis and I play drums and there's a wonderful Die Slaughterkrautrock ending that was completely improvised. Also a bonus Chuck Berry cover! Yeah it's all a lot of fun. One time we even did "Proud Mary" on a Kiwis record. So yeah, Grown-Ups KICK ASS!!!

The Vietkings
Kiki Adam Lauren Paul Woody Bradley (Justin, in spirit)
"Vagina Faced Man / You Me and the Moon"

Kiki asked me to be in this band which was a 3 month summer-only band because everyone moved away, all over the world. Kiki is in Cali, Lauren is in Malmo, and Bradley is in California too I believe but I may be mistaken. Even just being a 3-month band we played some great shows at Vacation and Drunken Unicorn and a few other places, and we got Woody who is now in the Balkans to play drums and record our single! Mark was hoping to have this out on DSH too, but times got tight for a the label and they just ended up as cool things to play to my friends when they come over to visit. <3 to Marion for designing our 45 artwork!!!

The Vietkings is Atlantian garage rock, maybe in a more new wave mode than Grown-Ups. I overdubbed a lot of glockenspiel in honor of Iggy and Reed, and the 50s Twin Peaks trip b-side has some theremin and Dust Bunnies orchestration. I'm really happy with these recordings. It was a surprisingly prolific band, trashy garage played by Atlanta art schoolers. There are some other recordings I'm going to have to go through for future posts. "Night Girl" features none other than Bradley Bailey, screaming his lungs to pieces in our basement over my Suicide rip-off riff and then there's the unrecorded hit single "Dirty Weed". Think "Bad Kids" but written by kids.

Small Framed Boy
featuring Amanda Jennie Adam Nathan
"Beach Magic / Party Like It's 2012

Small Framed Boy was a really awesome band I was in for a few years before it split up due to people moving and stuff. Jennie Castillo I met when I saw her performing with 1000 Holy Shards at the Eyedrum (RIP). She was dressed like an elvin creature and was playing a bouzouki as a noise instrument. This song is when I played drums in a band with her that sounded like the Plastic Ono B-52oredoms. Amanda had a wonderful bass setup with more pedals than I have ever seen in my life. We improvised both of these songs, and Nathan from Tree Creature is doing something somewhere. He joined us for a fake dub song at these sessions as well. My voice sounds like an out of tune synthesizer.

Me and Jennie are in a new band called Black Lodge with another Jenny and Karen who is getting married to Jesse Smith (Gentleman Jesse)! Congrats to them! So we play Bauhaus or otherwise early goth-inspired stuff with double basses, a Roland, three female vocals, and me bringing out my punk and industrial drums. We're gonna play a show soon and it will RULE!

DSH Baby Dinos Vs X

2011-04-20T19:39:00.003-04:00

Baby Dinosaurs vs Extinction live at 529. on Youtube
Die Slaughterhaus punk rock from Atlanta.
10th anniversary coming soon.

ZOMBIE JESUS (by Adam Bruneau)

2011-04-20T16:27:00.004-04:00

I want blood and I want heaven
Zombie Jesus has your soul

2011-04-19T15:23:00.000-04:00

2011-04-14T08:37:00.001-04:00

Dust Bunnies - Head On (Jesus and Mary Chain cover)

This is from 2007.

The Kiwis Shangri-La to be released summer 2011

2011-04-08T15:12:00.012-04:00

Tabitha's first show, live at Die Slaughterhaus, 2002

Bonus download!!!
The Kiwis Live @ WRAS 2005
or just download The Kiwis live cover of "For Your Love"

Just polishing up Pedro's Kiwis album cover art, which should be coming soon. Reunion show/cd release coming this summer!!!!!

The Kiwis AKA The Kiwis of the South Pacific AKA Tabitha AKA Robots in Love AKA Finally Next Day Blinds were all bands of Atlanta musicians who went to school in Dunwoody, Alpharetta, Marietta, and Gwinnett County. Andrew Nicholson was the creator of these acts, and with Adam Bruneau, Julie Hines, Brent Nicholson, and about 2 dozen other friends, they have made music and art for a decade now. They all moved into Atlanta at the Millennium and got involved in the Die Slaughterhaus music cult, which has produced world-famous acts such as The Carbonas, The Black Lips and Deerhunter. The Kiwis were the sloppy, stoned, out-of-tune, sci-fi black sheep of the bunch.

The record the Kiwis are releasing this summer, "Shangri-La", was started with Mike Wright (producer of Selmanaires, The Black Lips) in 2005 and finished 6 years later. Featuring old classics such as "Old World A" and "When I Think of Christmas I Think of Killer Robots Attacking NYC", and newer pieces like the prehistoric krautrock of "Original Design", classic pop/punk of "Angels in My Eyelids", and guitar heroics of "Death to Mr. Phantom".

Watch Finally Next Day Blinds's one and only show, featuring now members of the K-Holes, The Black Lips, Tilly & The Wall, and E6/The Music Tapes:

my latest video, now on youtube

2011-04-08T10:47:00.002-04:00

Music video for All the Saints song "Preachy", shot by Kristy Breneman, starring Rachel Pagillo and Madeline Polites, edited/directed by Adam Bruneau.

All the Saints - Preachy

2011-04-04T19:00:00.017-04:00

All the Saints - Preachy from Adam Bruneau on Vimeo.

I made a video for All the Saints, an Atlanta band who contacted me at the end of a creative spell where I produced a series of videos for locals artists that were quick, lo-resolution, and focused on messing with the form of video as much as they were trying to accompany a sonic landscape. For this video I brought in some extra help and it looks so much better than anything I've ever done! Thanks to everyone who has worked on this!

Local video goddess Kristy Breneman was essential in significantly boosting production value to the highest currently accepted standard. Kristy brought a cinematographer's eye and expertise to this project, capturing really nice, crisp shots that I could sink my editing teeth into.

We filmed the Big House princess Madeline (The Dandalls) and the synchronistic powers of the location led us to portray a trance-like magical ceremony where she is telepathically and kinetically entangled with Rachel's (ex-Knaves Grave) emerald-haired priestess. I think it has a nice 70's Horror film look to it in parts.

We ended up shooting on all three floors and the roof of the Big House, a mansion next to the Ponce Shriner's Temple. The storyline is pretty open-ended, so please comment and tell us what you think is happening! It was more or less tuned into, sort of how I would imagine David Lynch works, just interacting images, things suggesting each other, symbols and lights.

I tried to avoid using any digital-only effects on this video, or severe image distortion, because the original cinematography was so nice to look at. Most everything is cuts & superimpositions. The only digital tricks I used were motion tracking on the magic globe during the possession ritual, and some light bending towards the end. Video was edited in AE CS3 and FCP 7 in Feb-March 2011.

El Fossil

2011-03-31T10:28:00.000-04:00

God Sleeping in a Violin Case

2011-03-28T14:22:00.001-04:00

The Carter International

2011-03-27T15:34:00.001-04:00

"Sometimes it's hard to feel what's real...

2011-03-26T08:39:00.005-04:00

"...but it's better than feeling nothing at all."

I've added drums to this music I've been recording with Atlanta duo Lily & The Tigers. Mostly I've been treating them as dual drums (see Atlas Sound's Logos). The first couple of takes of some of these songs had hand percussion: shakers, washboard, etc. These are early mixes and the final recordings will be better but I really like how these are coming out. It makes me think of the White Album, my favorite record of all time. It's hard to describe why - it just does:

Feel and Heal
Ladies

Cameron Stuart plays harmonica on both the above tracks. Lily & The Tigers is Casey Hood and Adam Mincey.

The Back Pockets Have Broken Up

2011-03-26T03:12:00.014-04:00

Tonight my phone was hit with 3 text messages that spelled out the death for the Back Pockets. It's funny because they always get called hippies and I was about to go to an independent cinema to watch John & Yoko (and Tim Leary and Tommy Smothers) talk about peace and sit in bed making art. And no Back Pockets were there! Some hippies! j/k

I was at the end of a week-long tour with them 5 days ago, and was barred from performing with them 2 days ago. Such was life in this band. Sometimes 16 people are in, sometimes 24, sometimes 1, sometimes 4 or 5. At the end of every show, everybody in attendance is in the band.

I will miss everybody. Everybody in the Back Pockets has been like a whole extra family. I wish we could just be a cult, and travel around the country, and live forever making music out of our psychedelic bus. Everyone who has played with the Back Pockets, I love you all!

Flickr collection

To all the Back Pockets hippies:

REST IN PEACE

Superbrothers

2011-03-25T15:49:00.004-04:00

Past Super Madrigal Bros.-collaborators Superbrothers have released a videogame called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery.

Deerhunter on the Late Show Exclusive Photos

2011-02-24T13:39:00.018-05:00

Photographs by Deerhunter and friends.

Love to Bradford, Lockett, Moses, Josh, Cole, Kristin, 4AD, Ace New York, Shake Shack, Dana, Paul, David, Ryan, Ed, Alex, Christchurch / Libya / Egypt / Wisconsin unions, Emma, Lyndsy, Laetitia, Lou, Lou's friends (who I don't remember their names), Alix, Jack, Julie, Paul, the makeup girls and the hair guy who did Don King's hair his first day of work, Pedro, Stoopid Boo, Em & Back Pockets Family, Sirius Bee, Brett W Thompson, all my heavenly WonderRoot, Big House, Black Castle, and Die Slaughterhaus brothers and sisters, all of my heavenly brothers and sisters, all the people that watched it on TV, all the people that watched it on the a computer, the people that made that commercial with the phone number 666-6666, my mom, my dad, my whole family, all my ancestors, all everyone's ancestors, God, Krishna, the eternal Clear Light, the infinite cosmic drone, and the awesome cabbie that drove us to LGA while we were talking about chambers and Cole told a story about Michael Jackson wanting to implant human vocal chords into Bubbles so he could communicate with his chimpanzee companion. They share over 96% the same DNA structure. I forgot how close Lockett said humans are bananas are.

In that taxi Bradford pointed out the NY skyline, which looked like the credits to a badass 80s movie with saxophones. Hundreds of miles and hour in the future, in 2011 the street lights cast a radial gradient on the surface of this Heavenly Wheel. Welcome to Atlanta.

Deerhunter on David Letterman Tuesday

2011-02-21T08:57:00.004-05:00

Kids these days don't watch TV, so go to your parents house and watch this!

The Back Pockets "Hello Dandelion" CD Release Show

2011-02-19T13:41:00.003-05:00

Atlanta's The Back Pockets are throwing a CD release party tonight at the Big House, the awesome mansion on Ponce next to the Shriner's Temple. Also performing:

THE CARNIVORES - Atlanta magic making musicians
BUFFALO BANGERS - Dream pop guitar music for fist pumping
BUBBLY MOMMY GUN - Athens weirdos featuring Athens weirdo mercer west!

Up top you can see a video for a song from the new CD, a club remix I made of favorite track "Making Out Is Great". Special thanks to Orbital, Amiga demo group Spaceballs, and BZD films!

Lily & The Tigers

2011-02-18T20:09:00.004-05:00

Lily & The Tigers performing at Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida

Lily & The Tigers is an Atlanta group primarily featuring Casey Hood (lead vocals & guitar) and Adam Mincey (bass) who has asked me to record some songs for a 2011 record of theirs. While i really should wait until all the overdubs are done and all the guest musicians have added their own flavor to it, I can't resist posting this first take of "The Lily & Tigers Ballad", which is one of those songs so timelessly beautiful that it always makes me teary-eyed to hear performed live. I've added some reverb and light organ on here to bring out the 60's Dolly Parton.

Lily & The Tigers Ballad (First Take)

Two Blobs $#@*ing (Dust Bunnies Remix)

2011-02-15T02:52:00.001-05:00

No Future In Sex

2011-02-14T13:45:00.002-05:00

Sexual reproduction is likely to be impossible in space due to cosmic radiation bombarding the human body, according to Nasa scientists

The human race is spiritually on some long journey towards eternity, and if you look at all sorts of religious traditions, they mostly keep sex out of the way. This is for a pretty simple reason: sex causes birth, and birth causes death, and thus sex is one more shackle that ties us into the never-ending feedback loop of worldly death and rebirth. Like all things worldly sex (or the concept of otherwise Earthly love) is a momentary illusion of happiness, sure to stir confusing emotions and thoughts in your mind that distract you from your pursuit of the eternal NOW in the face of the prospect of worshipping an ethereal experience of physicality. It's no wonder that sex is used by political/corporate powers to subdue and control nearly every human on the planet; it's one of the primal urges that is seemingly never quenched. Today being the most heavily marketed ritual in the Western World.

Today we also have a news story saying that sex in outer space is probably impossible. To reach eternity we have to think another way; perhaps using science to indefinitely extend the human life, or merging our consciousness with computers and electronics, or living out our conscious 'lives' outside of the human body in some other fashion. This is all basically a scientific confirmation of what the most ancient traditions have told us from day one. I'd like to suggest we partake in some new rituals for a society obsessed with sex, rituals that focus on eternal things. Take a half hour and meditate; sit and observe the eternal observer. Or tap into your creative self, make some art or music or something where you have to shut off the constructed world and engage in that never-ending stream of everlasting GRACE which effortlessly goes on whether or not you ever have sex again.

There is a reason Jesus was of virgin birth, because the grace of God is given to the world free of human suffering, free of human intention, and free of human procreation. Spend today thinking about the universe and eternity and leave all ridiculous temporal worldly desires in the dust.

Read on wikipedia:
Androgyny
Asexuality

Red Hot Trash

2011-02-01T21:02:00.002-05:00

on Southern love tour w Hurricanes of Love

peace my Nicodemus

Small Framed Boy - Beach Magic

2011-01-26T01:12:00.002-05:00

Atlanta Ono-esque B-52s-style post-punk. Song recorded 2007. Video Adam 2011.

Prance

2011-01-25T03:25:00.002-05:00

Autotuned Noize Remix of Prince by Adam Bruneau (Dust Bunnies, ex-Deerhunter)

Michael Jackson - Jelly Bean

2011-01-23T20:12:00.001-05:00

The Beatles Covers

2011-01-22T11:54:00.012-05:00

Wild Honey Pie (2010)
Piggies (2010)
I'm So Tired (2007/2010)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (2006/2010)

One of my dreams is to record a one-man (or perhaps just DIY, just no guests as of yet) version of The Beatles "White Album", which is unquestionably my favorite album of all time and has been ever since I was an emotionally unstable, constantly medicated pariah of a teenage weirdo. At the rate I'm going, when I'm in 64 I'll finally have it all done, and it'll be a recording spanning multiple decades of my life. I honestly feel like if that was my only legacy to the world it would make me perfectly happy.

Above you can download most of the songs I've finished, particularly the first 2 which are the newest and I'm most into right now. When I listen back to "Wild Honey Pie" (featuring the Omnichord, an instrument I always think "I should use this more often" every time I use it!) it sounds like some weird Marc Bolan outtake produced by Brian Eno in 1974. "Piggies", I'm just a tad unhappy with the vocals, but on the other hand I really like the energy I've put into them. "I'm So Tired" was recorded in the basement of the Swiss House, where I lived with Bradley from Omelet and Platonic Sex (two bands i was in at the time). I really like the overdriven sound on this take. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was started at the second Kiwis house. I also did a version of "A Day in the Life" that was inspired by Deerhunter's cover that was made back in '04 or '05 or sometime back in the distant past...

When i first got into The Beatles when I was 14 or so, I bought a new album every week, and this is one of the later ones I picked up. It helps that it is the band at both their tremendously spooky and syrupy highs. Forget about the easy to pin down stuff like "Revolution 9" with its "Can you take me back where I came from?" droney ghost folk intro. Supernatural spookiness is everywhere on this record. The first time I ever heard "Back in the USSR" at the very end where the plane sound fades into "Dear Prudence" I hear a spectral yelp call my name in the distance and it scared me witless because I was home alone at night listening on real loud headphones. I put them down and looked down the hall, then around the corners, absolutely paranoid that some specter was calling to me from nearby. Only after putting the song on again and hearing the same sound did I realize that, no, it's not a ghost, it's just this scary f***ing record. There's something equally demented about the end of "Glass Onion", where the Beatles the rock band suddenly stop dead in their tracks as a string quartet melts onto a chopped & screwed blues lick like some kind of zombie chamber orchestra, mindlessly yet colorfully droning up and down. It makes me think of this reoccurring dream I had as a little kid, where there was this giant clock or mechanical device that was coldly, mercilessly destroying the world with every turn of the gears.

Perhaps the most mysterious part of "The White Album" is the conclusion of "Long Long Long". George's songs are always the dark horse deep cuts where the band locks together in some kind of transcendent mystical space of ego-death, Harrison observing it all from beyond the grave even while in his 20s (also see "Blue Jay Way" -- f***ing killer track!!!). "Long Long Long" has a chord structure and melody and most importantly gracefully arranged ensemble performance (requiring 67 takes to get this perfect one!) and practically breaks your heart while simultaneously delivering the full grace of God in its ultimate sonic expression. But the ending -- with that insanely enigmatic keyboard drone, George wailing like a spirit, Ringo imitating a rainstorm, and electric guitar scratching away the last remains of the mortal coil -- is without a doubt the most transcendent piece of music created in the 20th century. That they created something so unearthly without using echo or backwards loops or any studio trickery other than well-placed U-47s is a testament to just how Godlike this band was.

If you've never given that track much thought (which is easy to do given its awkward sequencing position), wait until it is just before dawn, right before the sky is about to turn from black to dark blue, load it up, and crank the headphones, and get ready for the most spiritual pop music ever made.

Nomen Novem - Ghost of Christmas Future

2011-01-18T20:19:00.003-05:00

Music by Nomen Novem
Video by Adam Bruneau

WonderRoot Local Film Night 4

2011-01-18T15:26:00.004-05:00

WonderRoot will be having Local Film Night 4 at Atlanta's historic Plaza Theatre this coming February 17th, starting at 9.15 with live VIDEO TERRORI$M from Adam Bruneau with live music accompaniment from The Beatles 2.

Magicicada - Constant Thread

2011-01-18T11:02:00.000-05:00

Music by Magicicada
Video by Adam Bruneau

6 Days of Videos

2011-01-17T02:41:00.004-05:00

Every day this week I will make a video and post it online. I just got my Resolume Avenue working in 'Recording' mode so basically i should be able to take a bunch of footage and make something out of it in real time. Amazing! Stay tuned!

Aliens Always Want to Go Home

2011-01-16T20:32:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: we did not make it to the show. we got horribly lost on 10 THE LOOP, which is the stupidest road in the history of the world stretching back to ancient Rome and even further to whatever roads they had in Atlantis. stupid stupid stupid. HATE 10 the Loop. sooooo much!!!

Frozen Snow Robot

2011-01-16T14:33:00.000-05:00

The Music Tapes to play the Big House mansion tomorrow

2011-01-12T15:18:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow night the Music Tapes will be stopping by the big mansion on ponce (next to the Shriner's Temple, across from Krispy Kreme) to play a show on their 2011 Lullaby Tour. Julian (also of Neutral Milk Hotel and Chocolate USA) plays songs on banjo and singing saw, and over the years the band has featured amazing creations such as Static The Singing Television, a Clapping Hands Machine, and a 5-foot tall metronome. Here is what they say:

The Lullaby evenings with include songs from the Music Tapes forthcoming 2011 record, as well as from Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornadoes, The 1st Imaginary Symphony for Nomad, and The Singing Saw at Christmastime, along with new Music Tapes games and stories. The entertainment, though sometimes more exciting than lulling, are all in honor of the comforting moments directly preceding and following sleep when we find ourselves happily unsure of whether we are awake or are dreaming.

Donations of $8-$10 will be taken up.
Cheap drinks will be available as well and a fire pit.
The Big House is the mansion on Ponce next to the Shriner's Temple.
It is recommended you park on Durant or Charles Allen Ave because parking is pretty limited.

The Big House
368 Ponce de Leon Ave, Atlanta, 30318

Snow Day Atlanta 1/11/11

2011-01-11T14:47:00.002-05:00

1/11/11 forms a magic ice crystal pentagram.

Back Pockets "Makin Out Is Great" Bloghouse Remix available on Creative Loafing's 11 Indie Acts to Watch in 2011.

Clockwork Psychedelic

2011-01-05T00:59:00.006-05:00

I'm starting new bands, called The Humpers, Heaven Seventeen, BR EAD Brothers, The Sparks, BLQW Goes, The Legend, Cyclops, and Comic Strips.

This website goes through the entire record store scene and describes everything that can be identified. It was shot in the Chelsea Drugstore, which is mentioned in the Rolling Stones current single "You Can't Always Get What You Want". The film, A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick, is legendary for its otherworldly mod set design and resulting futurist/surrealist world. If you keep your eyed peeled in this scene you will see the 2001 soundtrack on vinyl as well as Magical Mystery Tour John Fahey, and much more.

RIP Lenny's

2011-01-04T11:31:00.004-05:00

The Kiwis of the South Pacific live at the old Lenny's in 2005

The Black Lips live at Lenny's in 2007

Lenny's is closed for good, and Eyedrum is moving, and suddenly the Atlanta music scene feels a whole lot emptier. Lenny's was really the training ground for soooo many bands and sooo many solo musicians. I don't think it can be over-emphasized just how important Lenny's was to 2kx music in Atlanta, and while the shift from the old to the new location found its critics (me foremost among them) I still have alot of fond memories of that place as well. Some really lousy memories but lots of really good ones as well! The Eyedrum, well it had its ups and downs, but I've personally played there more than 50 times over the years and saw just as many amazing shows. I think my favorite one ever was when my first time seeing Acid Mothers Temple there in 2002. You can download that complete set via the internet archive.

Right next door to the new location used to be a DIY punk club named The Neutron Bomb which was a wonderful hole in the wall venue run by a teenage kid. I played shows there with the Kiwis and Tabitha. Around the corner, on the way to Moreland, was the Art Farm, a huge artists compound that had an old movie theater converted into a music venue. I remember playing a #Phonepunk# and Kiwis show there. Down the street further in East Atlanta there was ISP Space, which was basically the size of a small book store but turned into NYC-style art bodega. I played shows there with Small Framed Boy. Further down Flat Shoals was the Echo Lounge, quite possibly the most perfect Atlanta venue ever created. I remember seeing Clinic there and watching as the power of their bass tones nearly pushed the stage monitors onto the floor. I remember Guitar Wolf kicking complete ass and then playing a half dozen unrelenting encores in oblivious defiance of hipster bedtime (it was almost 4 i think when they wrapped up?). I remember the Black Lips opening for Dub Narcotic and both acts giving the performance of a lifetime.

It's sorta sad to see them all go.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T03:03:00.001-05:00

The Dust Bunnies (featuring David McClung from Magic Apron) - "The Thing" (Pixies cover)

3D Jesus

2010-12-22T11:25:00.001-05:00

Celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ the Avatar of Vishnu, the Holy Multiplying Incarnation Of Osiris, the Light of Eternal Television Feedback, in wonderful red-cyan 3d. Soundtrack courtesy of Atlanta's Total Experience Choir, recorded live. Fasting while repeated viewing may lead to achieving Christ Consciousness.

Download Adam's pioneer chiptune xmas album, The 8-Bit Christmas recorded in 2001 in the midst of being completely infatuated with Bjork

"Making Out Is Great" new video by The Back Pockets

2010-12-14T00:11:00.009-05:00

The Back Pockets - Making Out Is Great from Adam Bruneau on Vimeo.

"Making Out Is Great" was shot by Ben Grad, John Reynolds, and Emily Kempf. Emily also directs the Back Pockets and produced the final edit & effects with Back Pocket Adam Bruneau in December 2010. Monty Python cutouts courtesy of the Eagles Nest. TV Noize courtesy of NTSC.

May contain making out and NUDITY. May contain scenes of a robosexual nature.

Recording produced by Emily Kempf and Adam Bruneau and featuring the Eyedrum Men's Room Choir Makeout Team.

CLICK BELOW TO DL Blissters & Basements:

Raver remix coming soon!!

Total Experience Choir

2010-12-10T22:18:00.001-05:00

Total Experience Choir "Lift Him Up" MP3 Download

Late 70s Atlanta black gospel rave-up. Amazing.

RIP John Lennon

2010-12-08T22:19:00.005-05:00

listen to my chiptune remix of "She's Leaving Home"

John Lennon - like so many who have quested against violence - was murdered and its only natural that he became the first deified Beatle. There was his "Bigger than Jesus" comment, but there was also that moment in "No Reply" when he sang "I saw the light!" and even though it was about being hung up on a girl the way he sang it edged the Beatles nearer to Godliness than anyone in the vinyl-age pop music idiom. John Lennon (even before his 1969 Jesus phase) always radiated a kind of magic energy. On Rubber Soul he led his group even further down a mystical path, with the futurist tribal magic dance ritual "The Word". He almost sounds fascistic in his declaration: "Now that I know that our views must be right, I'm here to show everybody The Light!" on top of a 2-note piano drone. He sounds like a man possessed, like Moses come down from the mountain. Less than 12 months later he was reading about The Clear Light that one sees after death in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, writing "Tomorrow Never Knows", the world's first sample and drum loop-based pop song.

Enter Japanese conceptual artist Yoko Ono, smeared and scapegoated and racially abused for many reasons which are all pretty unforgivable. The industry couldn't handle an establishment pop star releasing ground breaking avant garde minimalism like "Two Virgins" and (my favorite) "Life With The Lions". The latter in particular is a jaw-droppingly brilliant vision of Ono's Zen-like fluxus minimalist mindset amplified by The Light- John's love for Yoko. Still in The Beatles, John released an album beginning with a 20 minute feedback-and-wailing primal scream noise drone track, complete with hippy jazz coda as if a sampler had suddenly switched on. On Side B John (or possibly Yoko or any of their friends) plays a transistor radio like a free-form musical synthesizer, crafting a harsh electronic rhythm that could be mistaken for Throbbing Gristle if only it weren't so raw and minimal.

Speaking of experimental electronic music, John Lennon was one of the earliest purchasers of the famous mellotron, a proto-synth, proto-sampler that he tinkered with at home and in the studio with The Beatles. There is an unreleased recording of Magical Mystery Tour incidental music by John on this instrument - part of which can be heard on the end of that album's "Flying". The outtake is nearly 10 minutes of pre-Music For Airports layered tape loop ambient music, and it is sad that Apple is sitting on revolutionary material like this and Lennon/Ono's video work. In sound and video the two made work with drones, loops, feedback, and repetition to induce a change in consciousness in the audience. One becomes focused on meditating on the formal aspects of a radio tuner, the sound of a cello reversed and sped up, a montage of peoples' legs, the Number 9, etc.

The more musical pieces on "Life With The Lions" record make me think of Beat Happening; the improvised, acapella melodies, the rough acoustic guitar, the bedroom recording environment. So this is the first lo-fi recording, the first DIY bedroom record. John was always weary of the illusion of The Beatles, and his scorn was often aimed at the music industry vampires than ran the show back then and continue to do so. For a brief moment he could have both the beautiful, detached, baroque Beatles dream, and this new intimate, pure and direct connection with his fans.

His most famous album and the song that gets quoted every time this day comes up, "Imagine", was recorded on his bedroom piano, with Phil Spector manning the tape deck. How fucking amazing is that?

Clementine Willowilde 2k9

2010-12-05T12:00:00.003-05:00

Clementine Willowilde with God, the cat

Here are some songs I recorded with Atlanta's own Clementine Willowilde way back in aught nine. She has a lovely voice and a wonderful way with smoky and mysterious guitar lines. We collaborated on a psychedelic folk sound for a handful of tunes and the instrumentation is acoustic guitar, tremelo'd electric guitar, violin omnichord, treated organs, snare drum, and I think there's some light bass in here but I'm not too sure. The first song dips into a psychedelic ocean halfway through and comes back with Willowilde's distant violin. The last song has a simple dance beat built on loops of snare drum tappings. Good stuff for the wintertime! Check it out!

First Song
Winterbird Wonderful
Nobody Wants It
Masonite and Lime

If you're interested in having me record your music, shoot me an email at adam.bruneau@gmail.com!

20 Years

2010-11-27T21:43:00.004-05:00

Top 10 Adam MP3z/Farewell to the Eagle's Nest

2010-11-27T12:01:00.005-05:00

Door painting by King Khan, J. Swill, and BJ

Here's the top 10-downloaded files from my own mediafire account:

The Back Pockets "Blissters & Basements" the 2010 record I pretty much did w Em from the band. over 500 dls! Back Pockets are currently finishing their next record which will be out soon.....

Grown-Ups "We Are Grown-Ups & This is What Grown-Ups Do EP (2008) 3 song EP, band comprised of Adam Bruneau (Back Pockets/The Kiwis), Jack & Julie (K-Holes), and Andrew Nicholson (The Kiwis/Battlemoon II)

Adam Bruneau "The 8-Bit Christmas" (2001) Chiptune Xmas album I made in 2001 to give to Bjork. after hearing this, Momus ended up drafting me into Super Madrigal Bros.

The Kiwis "Edward Scissorhands Theme" home recorded, sorta like if The Pixies did it. features theremin, sloppy surf guitar, etc. by me and Pedro

Super Madrigal Bros "She's Leaving Home" SMB remix of the Sgt. Pepper track. Chiptune music with vocals by Paul McCartney & John Lennon

Adam Bruneau "Puce Moment Songs" home recorded cover of the awesome soundtrack to Kenneth Anger's "Puce Moment". very trippy, very Syd Barrett. features omnichord & treated guitars

Dust Bunnies "Sunday Morning" 1st Dust Bunnies string-gazer recording, from 2006. recorded right after the Kiwis tour where i was dumped via myspace message

Adam Bruneau "Da Doo Ron Ron" Dust Bunnies demo, samples from Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra

Dust Bunnies "Dream Lover" Dust Bunnies song, samples Kenneth Anger, JAMC, and Paris Sisters

Adam Bruneau "Virginia Plain" probably my favorite recording I've ever done

This weekend I'm moving out of the Eagle's Nest in the Virginia Highlands into a part of town I've lived in before, Kirkwood. It's really just down the street but not having to cross Ponce at the Briarcliff/Moreland intersection is going to shave hours off my life spent in my car griping at traffic...

The Eagle's Nest is named so because it was home for years to Kristin, who tour managed King Khan & BBQ, The Black Lips, Deerhunter, The Fresh and Onlys, and currently Ariel Pink, amongst a zillion other bands. She's always been the punk rock Martha Stewart, looking after bands, taking no shit from anyone. Anyways it's being taken over by some other great Atlanta kids and the torch is once again being passed.

In other news Bradford has posted 4+ hours worth of amazing new home-recorded music at the Deerhunter blog, which was promptly taken down by Sony Music, who actually has nothing to do with him or 4AD, his record label. Weird, but it doesn't surprise me in the least. Further proof that the major record labels believe they own all music in the world, and that they speak for all musicians. Don't worry, though, technology is on our side, and their days are over.

Native American Genocide

2010-11-25T11:30:00.004-05:00

It's important to those of us in the US to remember that we are all immigrants, and that the North and South Americas had a pre-Columbian population of somewhere around 50 to 100 million. Every year we celebrate a day where the good will of the indigenous people helped our forefathers survive the first brutal winters in proto-USA, while ignoring the fact that we turned right around and stole their land, took their lives, and crushed their traditions, through disease, a never-ending stream of broken treaties, and centuries long racial war. Today while you're thinking of things to be thankful for, please a take a minute to think about what has happened, and the two continents that were decimated to make way for this Land of The Free.

Wikipedia has some appropriate articles. Including an incomplete list of massacres on the North American continent 1500-1911.

Rest In Peace

3D Music & Abstract Videos

2010-11-22T11:49:00.004-05:00

I made this 3D anaglyphic (red/cyan) video for Atlanta supergroup The Spooks in 2007. The video was projected behind them for their record release show on Halloween night. The record was "Death From Beyond the Grave" and had a 3D album cover designed by me and came with a pair of 3D glasses. If you have those you can watch any of these videos, plus some other ones I've done. If you don't, I have a pile of them at home and I can give you one if you drop me a line! This video was posted on youtube back in the day but I have gone in and re-mastered it and its much clearer and easier to make out the 3D effects. Watch out for the flying bats!

This 3D Buddha video I made for an installation at Atlanta DIY Art Space/Venue Couch Couch. The 3D is much more effective, now that youtube displays much higher quality videos than they did back in 2007, plus I think I've gotten the technique down pretty well. I use After Effects and Google Image search to basically put together collages in 3 dimensional space. The intention for this piece was something of an ambient video, a kind of window to another world, ideally projected on a wall. I think with DIY 3D and the availability of projection technology one could create a kind of virtual reality trompe l'oeil.

The music was mixed by me from an LP I found at a thrift store in Gwinnett called "Music From the Golden Triangle", which is one of the strangest and coolest records I've ever heard.

Also featuring in the art show was this 3D meditation on J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, Godhead of the Church of the Subgenius, which was the closest thing to a religious influence in my upbringing. Mom grew up in Ohio and was good friends with these clown (and Devo, who participated in it as well) and no doubt I was raised with Subgenius values in the sea of Slack-siphoning Pinks that is the Bible Belt. I really dashed this off without thinking too much about how it would look, but I think it's honestly the most immersive 3D experience I've yet created. Projecting this on a wall, it really looked like those pipes were floating right above your head, and that "Bob"'s grinning face was eerily floating in the room.

Eagle's Nest Thrift Store

2010-11-17T20:13:00.005-05:00

Eagle's Nest Thrift Store is me getting rid of all my stuff before moving out of the legendary Eagle's Nest in Atlanta. This has been a wonderful place, home to many wonderful people over the years, So here's a list of what I have, if you are interested in coming by and checking something out, I live in Virginia Highlands and you can email me at adam dot bruneau at gmail dot com. All prices are Or Best Offer.

$10 vintage blue-red cowboy record case RAD
$10 acoustic guitar case NICE
$0.50 apiece vintage magazines. punk rock, alternative press, 70s playboy, vice, vintage 80s p0rn
$10 video painter, 80s TV electronic art. WORKS. probably have the transformer somewhere too...
$15 line 6 tremelo pedal WORKS very good condition
$1-10 records from one dollar to ten dollars. Gorilla, B-52s, lots of 60s lounge, Devo, Grace Jones, Beatles, King Crimson, Pylon, Vangelis, electro, CCR, Stones, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Velvet Underground, Bowie, prog, 60s comps. make me an offer, i have around 700 records
$5 Beatles puzzle all pieces included. comes in tin box.
$10 gospel tryptic three piece framed photo of southern gospel church revival
$10 45 case vintage, with hippie typography from my mom. falling apart but can be fixed w tape.
$5 tapedeck/DVD player tapedeck AS IS. DVD player is a NOIZE DVD player, will play certain DVDs but very sketchy. use for parts? art installation?
$5 cry baby wah pedal didnt work last time. AS IS. parts? circuit-bend?
$1 dvdrs/VCDs/Divx collection of hundreds of moviez & rare concerts, shows, etc. guaranteed for computer players.

Small Framed Boy Free MP3s Lost Atlanta Psych Classics

2010-11-13T23:23:00.011-05:00

download Small Framed Boy's Holy Shit EP (2007)

download Small Framed Boy's Beach Magic EP (2007)

Small Framed Boy made a few CDrs 3 to 4 years ago, including my favorite recordings - these two from 2007. I taped these in the second Kiwis house in East Lake when it was me (drums) Jennie (guitar/vocals) and Amanda (bass/vocals). It's very strange music played by very strange wonderful people and if I had to describe it I would be at a loss for words even moreso than I usually am when talking about my own music. At the time I was really into Hawkwind, and we're all huge Cure fans (Amanda sometimes goes for a very Fascination Street sound), and Jennie's singing is like early Yoko Ono wailing that is much easier on the ears but still animalistic and raw. Pantheriffic. Her new band is Gazelle.

Deer on the ceiling on some Alabama punk house

Together we bummed around Atlanta and other places in the south, blowing some minds at weird houses with fog machines and fake deer hung upside down on the ceiling. I'd throw in B-52s, Can, Silver Apples, and Lee "Scratch" Perry in there with musical influences as well. Everyone was pretty free to play whatever they wanted for these recordings, which were made up after they released their first record with actually pre-written songs and drummer Erin. I had seen them play a bunch and loved their band so I did like I always do when I love a band and I joined it. Erin left but I joined on and inherited Monks/Devo/Beefheart-esque patterns and pretty soon we started doing things like playing an improvised piece for 20 minutes straight.

Jennie in the green fog

I have some good memories of that time in Atlanta, driving up to Tennessee through those beautiful mountains & listening to Loretta Lynn on the radio, playing at the long dead and awesome ISP space, playing house shows at Justin's FREEDUMB FEST out in Stone Mountain. He's on tour with Acid Mothers Temple and he's got his own projects and a noise label called Sounds From The Pocket that is still going in Texas, where he's since moved to...

BTW You can download both Small Framed Boy albums with a bittorrent clinet here. It's okay! It's all my music!

Deerhunting in the South in 3D

2010-11-12T15:36:00.002-05:00

Saw Deerhunter in Birmingham thanks to superfan and Atlanta videographer ifilmbands (click here for his ATL-riffic youtube page) and they were tired after more than a month straight of touring, so for an encore they played every song in the setlist again! The next day I saw real live deer in the Georgia mountains while visiting dad up north. During the day we went to the top of a mountain and there was a trading post with the stuffed deer, bear, and hawk you see above you in 3D (helps to have Back To The Future-style glasses). When you see a family of live deer, you know it's a rare event, and a special moment, because the minute you are conscious of them they are already slipping away into the forest. Their presence is ephemeral, but it pervades and adds a magical ambience to your experience. It makes sense why Deerhunter is called what they are. Good luck with them on their new album! 4AD seems to be really getting their name out there, I hope for the best!

The Good News 2010 Revival

2010-11-06T23:03:00.004-04:00

3 dimensional portrait of Buddha. use red-cyan glasses for effect.

Diwali fireworks at BAPS Mandir Lilburn, Atlanta

3D Jesus (anaglyphic ambient video)

Seeing the many faces of God this weekend. Happy New Year! Happy Diwali! Happy Daylight Savings! Time is an ever-changing river, like the Ganges which falls upon Shiva's head. Nothing is without the Light and the Love, for even in darkness is an infinity of potential energy, buzzing and swirling and immaterial; like fire, like the plasma static on a TV set. Feedback is the technique which leads to consciousness, and the universe is feeding back on itself and slowly becoming self-conscious. This is the Clear Light that you see immediately after you die. This is the Grace of the Lord, the Virgin Birth that cannot come about through any worldly effort. This is inescapable and is Reality and it is The Good News and evil is as powerless as a knife against water. We celebrate this. On Friday night the clouds parted amidst hail and rain for a clear evening of fireworks and food and wonderful smells and wonderful loving friends. The BAPS Hindu temple in Lilburn took in some scruffy Atlanta art kids and treated us like family. They kept us warm, with smiles on our faces, and bellies happy full of holy food (prasad). We all prayed for World Peace and had more fun than in any Christmas party I've ever been to!

This is basically what I'm making 3d videos about.

3D Jesus Christ Anaglyphic Ambient Video

2010-11-01T20:23:00.002-04:00

watch with old skool red-cyan glasses

To be continued...

Halloween Show at Wonder Root

2010-10-29T11:28:00.003-04:00

3D Anaglyph Halloween Show Poster

This Sunday night at Wonder Root in East Atlanta will be a wonderful Halloween blowout with Carnivores (celebrating a new record out on Double Phantom), El Fossil (the return of the amazing Atlanta surf band), and the insanely talented Adron. Also I'm retiring from live music in Atlanta, and my last show is in a 3-piece punk cover band we're calling Psychic Vampires. We're doing Ramones, Sonics, Misfits, etc. It's fitting because my first show ever was in a 3-piece punk cover band (The Plastic Caskets) who did Ramones and Misfits songs. Come out in a costume! $5! Cheap cheap beer, right down the street from Cabbage Town (and Estoria), and featuring an inter-dimensional makeout vortex.

The Back Pockets: This Is My Idea of Friends Having Fun

2010-10-28T13:06:00.005-04:00

The Back Pockets at the Ottoman Empire in Chicago

Tonight I'm playing my final show with the Back Pockets, at our home base Wonder Root off 982 Memorial Dr in East Atlanta, by Oakland Cemetery. I'm going to miss it terribly, because it was honestly the most fun I have ever had in a band. So many good memories, so many insane shows. Before the Back Pockets started I showed up at Em's first free-form rehearsal - called The Excited Pile - alongside a number of local weirdos that would eventually be in the Back Pockets. I brought my TV and spent the next hour or two making noise with it while they improvised droney, angsty, psychedelic lo-fi folk. I didn't join the band but I kept finding myself at their shows, eventually jumping onto the drum set, or a microphone, just because it thrilled me so.

The Back Pockets at the High Museum

The visual and audience-participatory aspects were something new, something I'd never seen in all my years of playing with bands. It was refreshing, and like some kind of art vortex, it drew me in. Strange twists of fate eventually led me to the purchase a bass guitar and a year free from work, so I signed up! What followed seems like a long dream of house shows, body paint, crazy costumes, tours, bedroom recording, a show at the high museum, a parade of nearly 50 band/troupe members, set designs, rooftop shows, tons of beautiful people, etc. Billy sets up the most amazing, confounding shows ever and has the infinite patience of a Saint. Em has so much creative energy coursing through her body, she's an unstoppable force, a DIY Queen Midas, a tornado of Shakti. The two are the yin and yang of the Back Pockets, the heart and soul. In a town of dozens of cooler-than-thou punk and garage bands, they are unpretentious, inclusive, spiritually lifting, and relentlessly fun. Truly a much needed breath of fresh air for Atlanta and I will miss playing with them dearly. No other band could take their place in my heart.

Whatever the future holds for the Back Pockets - or Emily and Billy - one thing is for certain: it will be nothing but good for Atlanta and the world.

Dry Ink interview with Back Pockets founder Emily Kempf

Download Blissters & Basements in its entirety.

from the first Back Pockets show i played, at the Alley Cat in Carrollton

Halloween Mash

2010-10-22T14:35:00.004-04:00

Wonder Root Halloween 2010 3D Poster

Right now Im listening to "Life With the Lions" by John & Yoko and it reminds me of John Coltrane's Ascension!

Back Pockets are playing Berry College TV this Saturday! You can download our first record - which I recorded - LIKE 418 OTHER PEOPLE for free! Then we might try and go to Howard Finster's "Paradise Gardens"!. Then that night I'm bartending at Wonder Root, where Brett W Thompson is presenting cartoons and bands Omelet, The Sacred Guild, and Rattler Snake! (debut solo performance of Suzanna Baker). The Back Pockets are playing Nov 28 at Wonder Root. Then on the 30th they are playing in Athens. The night of the 30th I might join The Mermaids at the Earl for there release show, playing theremin like I did last saturday with them at the L5P Halloween festival. (For none of these performances I am making any money. )

The Mermaids in L5P Halloween Parade

Halloween night - SUNDAY - Wonder Root will be hosting a Halloween show that I've basically put together as it fell out from under my feet. So it will be time to throw down! The return of EL FOSSIL, plus CARNIVORES and ADRON and PSYCHIC VAMPIRES, a one-show cover band with Joey and Josh (Mermaids), Sunni (Knaves Grave/Pleasure Cruise), Paul (Facehugger/Deerhunter), and me Adam (Back Pockets/Super Madrigal Brothers). Above is the 3D poster for the show, which you can see with red-cyan old school 60s 3d glasses. I bought a bunch from China so if anyone wants one I will have them available at the show!

Sunni from Psychic Vampires

I could blog about why I'm finished with playing live shows in Atlanta but
it's more something I should say in person to my friends, because many or most of them are Atlanta musicians I have played with. The main reason, right now, is that I am broke and have been unemployed (full-time) in over a year, and playing in bands just takes time and money away that I need to use to look for a job.

I'm working on plenty of new ideas. For instance, a 3D video installation
at Couch Couch on Nov 11:

JESUS WALKING ON TV NOISE WATER IN 3D, an ambient/painting-film & interactive virtual reality installation. I will provide 3D glasses and the projection will be wall-sized and ideally life-sized. The goal is to provide a virtual reality spiritual experience based on symbolism in the collective unconscious.

I would like to make the video show life-size figures as projected in Couch Couch. One piece will project Jesus (or Krishna or the Buddha or Satan or Egyptian/Native American/Japanese/Nordic deities and demons) bestowing grace upon someone who wants to volunteer and stand in front of the projection. We can even integrate glitter/sparklers/smoke machines/etc. party favors and such to make it a 4D experience!

The Art of Sleeping B-side MP3

2010-10-21T22:19:00.001-04:00

"Jungle Jam" is the ambient drone b-side to The Art of Sleeping's popular debut MP3 "The Art of Sleeping".

The Art of Sleeping MP3 Debut

2010-10-11T23:44:00.002-04:00

The Art of Sleeping

A Binaural, Anaglyph Existence

2010-10-08T02:03:00.002-04:00

Deerhunter "Lake Somerset" (With Colin at ATL HD Release Show 10/01/10)

2010-10-04T15:04:00.002-04:00

Buy "Halcyon Digest" from 4AD
See Deerhunter on tour

Deerhunter "Rainwater Cassette Exchange" live at Halcyon Digest release show

2010-10-03T00:54:00.002-04:00

Deerhunter pictures

Deerhunter Dust Bunnies Hollow Stars Henry Barbe

2010-10-02T23:49:00.003-04:00

Thanks to EVERYONE for coming out to an awesome release show for my favorite band of all time, Deerhunter! I got photos and video I'm about to put up so if anyone has access to the soundboard please email me!

Pictured: Michael Jackson & Bubbles scuplture in Berlin, in anaglyphic 3D