Still As Life

As some people would know, I was in Lismore from Monday 26th of May until Wednesday the 4th of June, however, on Sunday the 1st of June, I came back up to Brisbane for the day to go to the Guitar Show at the Brisbane City Hall with my dad and sister.

There were some very interesting and unusual guitars there, particularly in the accoustic section. Of course there were also some very rare and expensive guitars, including a couple that were $90,000 and $100,000. Then of course there are the ugly B.C. Rich and … guitars that all the young kids seem to love. I am of course a bassist though, not a guitarist, so I was more interested in the basses that were lurking around in various corners.

I came across a few interesting ones, such as some LightWave basses, that don’t use traditional magnetic pickups, but optical pickups. I have heard about them a couple of times, but I haven’t seen or heard any of them before. Anyway, the guy showing them wouldn’t let me play one, but gave me the card of a place in Brisbane that sells them and suggested I go have a look there, so I’m thinking I’ll go there and have a look sometime.

The other basses I cam across that were particularly interesting were a brand I haven’t heard of before, Warrior Basses. The Guitar Brothers had 3 of them there, they were all quite expensive basses, starting at $5,000 for one of them, and the other two were $7,200 (though they did offer them to me for $5,000 each if I bought one then). For anyone that knows about me and my white Spector NS5, you would know how much I love it and how much I firmly believe that it is one of the best basses in the world, well, these Warrior basses are getting up there comparatively.

(more…)

Popularity: 32% [?]

I had an assignment due on Monday for KKB210: Computational Arts 1, where I had to create 3 computational art works. This has kept me pretty busy over the past week or so, especially since I had another assignment due on Tuesday, just a 1500-1800 word essay fortunately, so it didn’t take up too much time.

For full details on everything I’ve done for this assignment, have a look at my computational arts blog. I’ve learned a lot about various programming environments and languages in relation to computational arts and live-coding. In particular, I’ve found the Processing Development Environment and Quartz Composer quite interesting and fun to work with. Of course, Quartz Composer isn’t a programming environment, but a patching tool.

I have always been particularly interested in fractals and other forms of digital art, so the computational arts subjects at uni were particularly appealing to me, and thus far have been exactly what I was looking for.

I have made a few fractal animations previously, including one for my NSW Higher School Certificate that I synced up with music. On my second fractal animation, I created the music for it myself instead of using an existing piece. Using Quartz Composer and Processing, I am able to make very similar effects, though not fractals, and have them render and animate in real-time. Two of my artworks for KKB210 are actually live rendered animations based on audio input. You can have a look at them here and here. They are both available under feel free to edit them, redistribute them etc, just take note that it is an attribution, non-commercial, share-a-like license (full details are available on http://matthewbrown.net.au), so you do have say where you got it from if you are re-distributing it.

Now, while I am a novice at the whole live-rendered animations to music and the like, I am happy to do some for events where it is appropriate. Let me know at matt at stillaslife dot com.

Popularity: 37% [?]

This is an awesome song and a great video. Peter Denahy has captured the average Australian teenager so well, I can definitely relate, both from my own experience of being a teenager and from seeing my sister be one as well.

Anyway, watch and enjoy!

Popularity: 15% [?]

I received an email a few days ago from Kel, of “The Travelling So & So’s”, who performed on March 16 at the Defusion party. The email was in response to my perception of what had happened on the night and cleared up some misconceptions. She clarified that it was in fact them that was still setting up late and not the Tricktronix.

To start off with, I would like to apologise for some of my comments. I was mistaken in my understanding that they turned up late. Kel let me know that they arrived at 6pm, an hour and 15 minutes before they were due to start. As a musician myself, I would have preferred to be earlier if I was performing, in saying that though, an hour and 15 should be plenty of time to get setup and have a warm up, assuming that the situation is as promised.

It seems the lack of organisation in regards to the live bands was caused by a lack of space for the drum kit and having to figure out an alternative placement for it, and from the organisers telling them that there would be certain equipment available, which was not there, such as PA speakers, microphones, and microphone stands. So they were not expecting to need to bring these things and had to chase it all up at the last minute. This is why people were arriving late with music gear.

So, I would like to apologise for my conclusion and statements regarding these events and the disorganisation of “The Travelling So & So’s”.

Kel also noted my comments about the large amount of feedback, and I may have misunderstood, but also indicated that I thought their musicianship was bad.

I apologise if it came across this way. As I said previously “They were all good musicians and the lead singer had a great voice…” Being a bass player myself, I am rather jealous that the bass player of “The Travelling So & So’s” gets to jam and play music with such a talented group of musicians.

My main problem with the music was, and still is, that the mix was bad and detracted from the otherwise good musicianship. Yes, I understand a room that is literally a cement box is hard to get a good sound from, I have played in similar environments and am well aware of that. However, that does not change that the vocals were far quieter than the instruments. I could hear maybe half of the vocals, and understand maybe half of that again. I understand that during the warm up, vocals were being improvised and that’s cool, it’s a pity it took two songs before the increasing amounts of feedback from the louder vocals (which were still way too quiet) was fixed.

I am glad to hear that the problems got sorted out in the end. Though it is a pity it wasn’t sooner or it could have been a much better night for myself and all the others that left by 10pm. Kudos to “The Travelling So & So’s” for taking it on themselves to organise the missing equipment and allowing the other bands to use it as well.

Thanks for taking the time to correct my misconceptions and let me know what actually happened.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Get a free copy of the new CD from Pete Cornelius and the Devilles, “Suburban Hell”, when you buy any Stratocaster replacement set from Powerhouse Music and Technology by the end of April 2008!

I haven’t heard his new album yet, but his previous music is excellent. Pete and the Devilles are a blues band with reference to rhythm and blues and some rock influences. Their albums are all available through their website if you are interested, I highly recommend having a listen to their music. It is well worth it. There are samples available on their MySpace, go for it.

Popularity: 13% [?]