21-05-2016: organizing media release dates for the alter-reality

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

lastly, there will be a youtube account, but it will only post *samples* of songs rather than entire songs. i'm looking at one minute samples of pretty much every song. i will want to use this profile as a commenting perch, of course. i was going to re-use the dtk profile, but i've decided not to. see, what i've learned is that posting full tracks to youtube makes people think the music is free, and it simply can't be. the point is to push people to bandcamp. fuck streaming. i'll post it when i set it up tomorrow; i'm uploading right now and can't log out. but, this profile won't start working until september, either.

for right now, it's just the blogspot site that will be working.

i'm hitting a math rock show tomorrow night, but i'll be home relatively early and should be able to start realigning the three facebook pages with the period one disc and getting back to finalizing the inri material for good.

this is going to be the new facebook page, because people don't exist outside of facebook, so you need it, even if you hate it. but, it's just going to list links to bandcamp as they come up. all the actual writing will be at the blogspot page. it's really just an obligation.

https://www.facebook.com/inri-1719120681676528

this is going to be the new bandcamp space, which will build itself up from 1996-1999, starting in september 2016. so, it's going to take the full four years to get through this material. but, inri is just period one. i will start a new bandcamp page for deny everything (period 2.1) in the year 2020.

http://jnrj.bandcamp.com/

it turns out that blogger is giving me everything that i want, for now, in a fairly simple interface. all i wanted was a simple journal-style page without heavy scripting and with an rss feed. but, i was hoping i could find a site like this - livejournal or tumblr or something - that gives me what i want because it allows me to post in real time.

i do think that i'll eventually move this to an appspot site, but what that means is that i'll need to upload the whole site every time i make a post. the reality is that it's going to be a while before the site gets more complex, anyways, so this just makes more sense for the moment. i *did* try livejournal, but it looks like it wants to charge me, and i'm not paying. google is always good for free stuff, anyways. in time, i should be able to just copy and paste this page over. really.

so, this is the blog space for the alter-reality. facebook is just a shitty interface, so i'm trying to avoid it - and, actually, get the remaining data that's here off of it. that's going to mean wiping this page down to a cv-type skeleton. the blogspot page will be the most comprehensive thing to follow, the meta level page, where all the links to bandcamp and other comments will come up.

http://therealinri.blogspot.ca/

there's a lot of stuff on that record that doesn't sound much like soundgarden, but is actually extremely well put together. the record continues to get flak for being "unfocused", but that's always missed the point - the late 90s were really a final renaissance of expansive art rock, and the record really fits in perfectly along with other period classics like mcis, aenima and ok computer. i'd argue it's highly underrated, and arguably even their best record. the psychedelic sound that dominates the disc was picked up by cameron & shepherd in the wellwater conspiracy, which seems to suggest that it was actually the rhythm section that had taken over the band in it's twilight phase.

anyways. i'll get to this. but this is another underappreciated track from that disc that i used to listen to quite a bit.

i pull a pretty heavy ty cobb in the climax to the first section of this track:

https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/to-spin-inside-dull-aberrations-2

if you're too young to know what i'm talking about:

my records going back to 1996 are not perfect, but, then again, i've been over this before: who has digital records from 1996? the oldest cd list i can find is from 2002. there are records in archives somewhere that are older than this...if i can find them...

but, here is what i can reconstruct.

now, note that this is going to necessarily be mildly revisionist, in the sense that i didn't buy every cd on the day it came out. some of it, i know i did - like the i mother earth disc, or the nin disc. but i didn't get into stuff like labradford or tortoise until 98 or 99. i can remember exactly when i got into labradford - i saw them open for gybe! on the slow riot tour, which was the spring of '99. tortoise is a little more blurry. i remember getting standards on the release date.

the point is that this is going to have to be approximate, whether i like it or not. although, there is a possibility that it could get very, very accurate starting about mid '97, if i can get to those archives.

i don't get online until mid '97 or so, and there's going to be a big gap over that period. i'm comfortable waiting until i get there before i start looking for usenet and listserv archives.

but, we can see where i'm going with this quite clearly. my first post is going to no doubt be about enjoying the new soundgarden record, down on the upside.

hard-headed, fuck you all.
just add it all
to the hot rod death toll.

that mandolin solo, though.

the page will be up soonish.

download  microscopic  1996  ep  jan 9, 1996
radiohead  street spirit  1996  single  jan 22, 1996
limblifter llimblifter  1996  lp  jan 23, 1996
stabbing westward  wither, blister, burn + peel  1996  lp  jan 23rd
the smashing pumpkins  1979  1996  ep  jan 26th
tortoise  millions now living will never die  1996  lp  jan 30
econoline crush  affliction  1996  lp  feb 20
skinny puppy  brap  1996  2xlp  feb 27
the process  1996  lp
charlie's family  1996  lp
gravity kills  gravity kills  1996  lp  mar 5
the smashing pumpkins  1979 mixes  1996  ep  mar 12th
stp  tiny music  1996  ep  mar 26
the tea party  alhambra  1996  ep  mar ?
the smashing pumpkins  tonight, tonight  1996  ep  apr 15
man or astroman?  experiment zero  1996  lp  april 16th
the smashing pumpkins  zero  1996  ep  apr 23
download  sidewinder  1996  ep  april 30, 1996
soundgarden  down on the upside  1996  lp  may 21

***********

download  the eyes of stanley pain  1996  lp  may 28th
nine inch nails  quake soundtrack  1996  lp  june 22
kmfdm  xtort  1996  lp  june 25th
sponge  wax ecstatic  1996  lp  july 2nd
i mother earth  scenery and fish  1996  lp  july 9th
ost  escape from l.a.  1996  lp  july 15
alice in chians  unplugged  1996  lp  july 30
various (charity)  sweet relief ii  1996  lp  aug 6
rhcp  coffee shop  1995  single  aug 12
white zombie  supersexy swingin' sounds  1996  lp  aug 15th
foetus  boil  1996  lp  aug 20
pearl jam  no code  1996  lp  aug 27th
rem  e-bow the letter  1996  ep  aug 27th
rem  new adventures in hifi  1996  lp  sept 9
the smashing pumpkins live at the corel centre in ottawa  sept 13
tool  aenima  1996  lp  sept 17
moby  animal rights  1996  lp  sept 23rd
weezer  pinkerton  1996  lp  sept 24
the tear garden  to be an angel blind, the crippled soul divide  1996  lp  oct 1
garbage  milk  1996  single  oct 7
korn  life is peachy  1996  lp  oct 15th
swans  soundtracks for the blind  1996  2xlp  oct 22
bjork  possibly maybe  1996  single  oct 28
garbage  #1 crush  1996  single  oct 29
aphex twin  rdj album  1996  lp  nov 4
james gorner / billy corgan  ransom  1996  lp  nov 5
the smashing pumpkins  33  1996  ep  nov 11
bowery electric  beat  1996  lp  nov 12
labradford  labradford  1996  lp  nov 12th
barenaked ladies  rock spectacle  1996  ep  nov 19, 1996
bush  razorblade suitcase  1996  lp  nov 19, 1996
our lady peace  superman's dead  1996  single  dec 16, 1996
the offspring  all i want  1996  single  dec 31, 1996

20-05-2016: consolidating archives (and ranting...)

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

i'm still running late on everything, but i should legitimately start building the alter-reality (as in, creating new profiles) either tonight or tomorrow.

i just need to reiterate: i can see the alter-reality, but the alter-reality cannot see me. and, i will be absolutely ruthless in mass blocking anybody that tries to fuck with this.

that said, there will not be large-scale interaction with the alter-reality, either, like there was previously. i'm spinning this off and letting it float on it's own. so, if you're interested in this, please follow it on it's own terms.

it is currently may 20, 1996 in the alter-reality. serious posting will start by july 1, 1996 - at the latest. the alter-reality will have it's own bandcamp, youtube, facebook and appspot spaces. it is those links that will be posted here by the end of the weekend, probably.

19-05-2016: exploring southwest detroit in the day and the night (to see chelsea wolfe)

show footage:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/kOp6AxyO6g8?list=PLrHImg7oLm2aa6hPQlp4A8E8FjYuYnm2t

review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/19.html

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

i was dreaming this morning. and, in case you're curious....

the truth is that i'm actually very content with the life that i live right now. it would be nice if disability could be a bit more, but i'm actually not complaining - there's really no point you could set it at where it wouldn't be nice if it were a bit more. i'm truly well fed and consider myself to have a very high quality of life.

so, if i were to do it all over again, what would i do? well, i'd be moving towards getting to where i am today faster, not trying to get to somewhere else. that may have meant applying for disability at a younger age. or, perhaps i may have focused on investment.

if i had the advantage of foresight, i would have probably studied finance and then not spent the time afterwards working but trying to rip people off on the various markets, until i could approximate the lifestyle i have now. it might mean $3000/month off dividends rather than $1000/month off government assistance. but, that actually doesn't really scale into a substantial difference. less walking, more cabs. more pizza, maybe? buying software instead of pirating it?

i just get the impression sometimes that people think i expected more out of myself. but, what that really means is that they weren't actually listening to what i was saying. i was never about winning the game; i was always about trying to get out of the obligation of having to play it. that's my conception of freedom: walking away.

seasons 001-006 (bd-1) [introducing myself]

06. trying to move forward, but just can't stay awake... (dvd 6)

18-05-2016: sorting through old email (ending season 6, starting the summer)

tracks worked on in this vlog:
https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/album/period-1

another short night out in windsor to see a distant canadian act stumbling through town

this was another show without a backstory; i left the house at 9:30 and was home by 12:30, not stopping anywhere or interacting with anybody in the process. the venue was actually at capacity for the show, due to the fact that a local band was having an ep release. i did not stay for the ep release. this was actually partly out of altruism; i was the last person they let in, and thought it would be more appropriate to let somebody in from outside that really wanted to be there. but, it was also partly due to disinterest, of course.

i was actually expecting basic nature to play first, but i did end up sitting through an opening set that was some kind of generic white blues. it's the kind of thing that a certain kind of aging white dude may identify with, but i didn't get much from it. it was neither as raw as the white stripes nor as jaded as the hip, and consequently didn't really excel at much of anything. but, it's actually the kind of empty drinking music that goes over well in this venue on off nights.

the basic nature set was quite strong, even if they lost most of the audience throughout it. i said most; they captured a subset, and kept it. i'm pointing this out because they played just a little too quietly to get their effect across. it's no doubt on some level a consequence of being nice polite young women from the western canadian tundra, and that's stated as more truth than empty stereotype, and there's even a certain aspect of their sound that kind of demands they play with a softer touch. yet, acknowledging this truth, there is also a part of what they do that needs a hefty roar of fuzz and reverb to cut through and drown out the chatter. perhaps they simply weren't used to playing in front of crowds. ok. but, the takeaway from the set is that you don't shush a bar, like they tried to - rather, you turn up and drown them out.

ignoring the volume issue, it was a solid set that accurately reflected the recorded material. other things to note include sporadic use of a saxophone player and a cover of a filter song (take a picture). i happen to have been a big fan of their previous record in high school (short bus), which was seen at the time as a nine inch nails side project, so that was a pleasant surprise.

it's worth the $5 if you like the style. they're not really doing anything novel, but they're colouring inside the lines far better than most neo-gaze acts that i've heard over the last few years.

here's a track from their set:

& here's the vlog for the day:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/14.html

season 6

whatever

i enjoy pile, and have seen them a couple of times, but i couldn't really identify track names. this does sound familiar, put pile kind of have two settings - overdrive and alt country. so, the fact that it sounds familiar doesn't necessarily mean it's an old song. if somebody can correct me then do so, but i do believe it's a new track.

please see the comments for a review. this was a festival show and a long day for music, with around ten bands to review.

this was my path through the day:

scripps park:
Virginia Violet & The Rays (very end)
ambesaw  [this was chill]
Flowers Bloom [very end]
Devinition  [this was hilarious]
Blakdog  [this was a little face melting, i enjoyed this]
Bronze Mambas  [dude needs a fat strat]
Indigo Black [didn't stay long....]
martez (second half)
market [about half - and i did dance]
the errers [most, and enjoyed it]
pile

phog, in windsor:
bad channels
zones

==

so, i'm writing this review a week after the fact after hoping that a specific site would upload footage from the event that would help jog my memory a little. unfortunately, that site seems to have skipped out on precisely the shows that i attended, so i'm not going to have that resource.

full day shows like this can be a little daunting to narrate, and i was far from sober throughout the day. but, let's see what i can get out. remember: this is merely my experience of the day. ymmv regarding my opinions of the various sets.

--

i was late out of the door, and only really regret it on principle. i would have even been perfectly happy to just show up at 9:00 for pile. but, my logic was that a nice day in the park is worth experiencing - partially for inebriation purposes. so, i was planning to get there for 1:00, but slept in and didn't arrive until close to 5:00. in hindsight, both statements are true: (1) i didn't bring enough alcohol for the whole day and (2) i probably wouldn't have made it through the whole day, if i had.

--

the band that was playing when i got in to the park was virginia and the violet rays, which was a kind of a horn band. i only caught the last few minutes and wasn't really paying attention but it struck me as a literal throwback - a novelty act, really. they may have even been playing standards, or mildly altered standards.

i spent the first half hour or so walking around between the electronic tent [ambesaw] and the rock tent [gray bliss], looking specifically for a specific odour - which was eventually found near the electronic tent in the form of a target delivery apparatus of proportions rarely seen outside 4/20. see, i have to admit that i feel no shame in putting through requests for wealth redistribution when i see somebody with a quantity that could knock a horse over - and i exaggerate only mildly. that's a party platter, my friend - you can't have that all to yourself. you'll hurt yourself, even. i'm doing you a favour. so, we had a pleasant conversation about the quality and "treeishness" of our shared delicacy, while enjoying the act, before i got up to place my empty can in the recycle bin, and faded back into the rock tent for a while.

the music coming out of the electronic tent during my stay there was mostly instrumental hip-hop, of a mildly orchestral and slow motion nature. this is a sound that seems to be trending in hip-hop circles, although i can offer no expertise on the topic. it was legitimately a chill vibe, and a good soundtrack for the moment.

--

the band that was playing when i got back to the rock tent was flowers bloom, and i can in fact be seen transiting if you look at the top right of the following video (@1:15-1:30):

i only caught a few minutes of this act and simply don't have any defined memories of them.

--

i have much clearer memories of devinition, a white rapper that came on and just made me laugh very hard. it no doubt had something to do with my experience over at the electronic tent, but it was built on a legitimate level of accidental self-parody. see, he wasn't really sure if he wanted to be tough like eminem or if he wanted to hit some kind of a beyond cliched hallmark/disney moment. it was partly the juxtaposition that cracked me up, and partly the hokeyness of it, but i was really literally doubled over in uncontrollable fits for a substantial proportion of the set. the peak of hilarity ensued over the following line:

"life is not the same since you've been gone",

which was sung off-key over a sample of a plucked classical guitar that sounded something sort of like "it's a small world after all". i was actually still laughing well into the next set; every time i thought about, it set me off again. in fact, i'm still giggling as i type this up.

--

blakdog, clearly named after the zeppelin tune, were up next - and actually started while devinition was still speaking, indicating the set had gone a little long. i should point out that a part of the hilarity was that he seemed to have a substantial media presence filming and photographing him, although i can't find any of it at the moment.

they weren't doing anything particularly novel, and likely weren't aspiring to, either. however, i managed to find a sweet spot near the front of the stage where the distortion was perfectly saturated. my subsequent enjoyment of the set was really purely on terms of guitar tone geekery, combined with being pleasantly baked - a sweet fuzz pedal through a tube amp can do that to you, if you have ears that can pick it out.

while it may seem sort of trite, the fact is that this was the exact experience i was seeking for the afternoon - floored guitar effects coming at me at high volume, while in an inebriated state. this is when i'm most content. so, i dug the face melt - but only after i found the sweet spot, where the harmonics were appropriately fucked

--

at first, bronze mambas seemed to be carrying on the psych rock vibe, but it quickly became apparent that they just didn't have the roar that they needed. see, the guitarist kept jumping back and forth between a strat sound and a paul sound. the singer was doing some kind of cedric blixler thing, which made it a little more apparent where they were coming from with the latin vibe. but, he didn't seem to know if he wanted to be santana or page, frusciante or thayil. in some ways, that's fine - a little flexibility is a virtue. but, his guitar was set up solely for his strat sound, which just killed the bottom end when he needed it.

now, i need to be clear - his strat actually sounded outstanding, when he wanted it to sound like a strat. it's when he obviously wanted his strat to sound like a paul that the only thing that actually got through was a wall of high end static.

i had a talk with him after, because he really needs to address it if he wants to be taken seriously. like, immediately. he can't possibly go on like this. it's a travesty. what i wanted to get across was that the issue wasn't too much treble. i mean, his strat sounded great. it really did. what he needed was a way to get a thicker fuzz when it was required.

so, i strongly suggested that he look into a fat strat, and i hope he does. it could convert a band that obviously has quite a bit of potential out of a sound spectrum catastrophe and into the real thing.

in hindsight, there is a second option - get a second guitarist, and make sure that person is playing with thicker pickups. whatever it is, he needs to find a way to thicken his sound when he needs to without losing his nice strat tone when he needs it, too.

i found some footage of the set:

 

the next few acts at the rock stage were hip-hop acts, and so i found myself more attracted to the electronic stage - and managed to get in on a pass as it came around to me, once i got there. i was present for at least a few minutes of all the acts that came on next, on all the stages, but the only one i have any real memory of is market. i actually caught the start of market's set, and stayed for most of it. it was a largely ambient/idm set that found itself periodically building into more traditional techno - which allowed for the opportunity to dance. and, dance, i did. but, i must also acknowledge that the set is a little hazy. as with the distorted guitar harmonics, though, what one wants is a hazy electronic set.

i didn't bring a clock with me, and didn't think the event was on time, anyways. so, i had to go back a few times to make sure i wasn't missing pile - which is why i caught bits of everything. i do think the electronic set was mostly on time, so the fact that i was able to catch most of market's set meant i was back at the rock tent very close to 9:00, to catch most of the 8:30 act.

i couldn't find footage, but market does have a bandcamp site:
https://marketdetroit.bandcamp.com/

--

so, i caught most of the erers, who were sufficiently raucous at the time to be enjoyable, but, overall, a little boneheaded for my tastes. i've been over this before with some other acts: it was a nice head cave, but it kind of only works in that precise context. and, frankly, *in* that context it doesn't even matter what you're playing - it's just all about the guitar tone.

i did enjoy it, but what i was thinking through the whole set was that i was really mostly hanging around so i didn't miss the start of the pile set. the other thing i remember about the set was that it was starting to get kind of cold out....

a good part of their set is up here:

pile were what they have been every other time i've seen them - loud, obnoxious and kind of ironically stupid, in a pretty smart way. that's pile. and, i got what i came for.

unfortunately, the set lost a few minutes due to a blackout, which i pick up in the vlog. besides that misstep, it was about what one expects from pile. which is what is actually in the video....

here is a full set from pile:

i wasn't sure if i was going to stay for the idiot kids or not; i figured that if somebody cancelled and things got pushed up then i probably would but was largely planning on skipping them. you also never know what the atmosphere is going to be like when you hit a show like this, or how long you want to stay. i could have been convinced to stay until midnight, if it felt right. it was clear on this night that the place was clearing out. and, while i hadn't brought a clock, i knew it was later than 9:30 (it was actually after 10:00). the real driver, though, was that i was just starting to get a little bit cold.

i warmed up as i was moving, but i do think i made the right choice to leave a little early. i didn't hear anything really interesting on their bandcamp, and the footage i tracked down wasn't particularly compelling.

the event organizers had an after party lined up on the other side of downtown, but i was more interested in catching the bus over early enough to get to a sort of a psychedelic/coldwave show in windsor. the optimistic plan was that if i could get out right at 9:30, i could be back in windsor by 10:30 and probably catch all three bands. as it happened, i got to the bus stop at about 10:45 and into phog around 11:30.

--

the bands that were playing at phog were called zones & bad channels, but i have to admit that i have no clear recollection of either of them - or which order they played in. i was actually mostly hoping to catch the first act, learning, and seem to have read the bill backwards, expecting them to play last (or maybe my logic centers were just broken that night - it does happen). what i remember about the show is consequently actually sitting and waiting for a band that had finished their set before i got there. that's ok - they're local, i'll get another chance.

i do recall that one of the bands had a guitarist and seemed to be having fun jamming over a sequencer; i remember thinking it was a little repetitive at points, and wasn't really accomplishing anything. i think this was "zones". the other band was more interesting, as it featured a live vocalist and a bit of an industrial/goth kind of feel to it [maybe the kids want to use terms that end with house or wave. whatever.]. they did quite the cover of frozen, by madonna, actually. could have and probably should have been a bit spookier, though. i think this was "bad channels".

--

i was surprisingly awake when i hit the 7/11 to get some doritos for some nachos, if not really particularly sober. i suppose that's the combined effect of caffeine, guarana, alcohol, nicotine and thc. see, here's the thing: it's actually exactly where you want to be after ten hours of drinking and smoking various things. significantly damaged, but absolutely wired. the other option is passing out when you get home, and that always sucks as you end up wasting half your intoxicants. it's the caffeine that's key. i do highly recommend ensuring you remain caffeinated when you're drinking. it's a lot more fun.

i finished the night off by watching a stiglitz lecture, and greatly enjoying the clarity of his logic. krugman does make some good points about how the most sparkling logic is not always upheld by the data, but i wasn't having any of that at the moment - i was just enjoying the clarity of thought in the dismantling of classical assumptions.

here is the vlog for the day:

http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2016/05/07.html