I love electronic music.  I love making it, listening to it and dancing to it.  A big part of that attraction is that technology is to the point that any resourceful person can make music on their cheap computers for virtually no investment.  They can do it legally with open source freeware apps, they can code their own synthesis machines with some know how and a free programming language, they can do it illegally by pirating any number of DAW's or they can spend $400 to have capabilities that $20,000 would have bought you 15 years ago.  It's incredible what technology has done for us, and it inspires me tremendously. 

But that bedroom spirit, that late at night creation with no money spirit is also strong in the poet.  A pencil or pen and a piece of garbage scrap of paper something is all they need.  Homeless?  Doesn't matter.  If you have something to say and a flair for articulation pick up a pen and lay it down. 

So I went to see my friend and associate Ty Gorton give a spoken word performance at Augie's tonight.  First of all, there were some impressive performances, most notably from John Staedler and some cat from Louisiana named Larry.  I have recordings of them if anybody wants them.  Larry's ending up in a track though and hopefully I'll see him again to make sure it's okay but it has to be done either way!

Ty spoke about the American Dream.  It was an excellent poem that rang true, carried weight and possessed wisdom that can only be expressed if you've lived long enough to be abandoned by the false expectations our culture tends to instill in us.  He sang the praises of the beauty that can be found in the dream.  He mourned it's ultimate failure.  The audience loved it and it ended with a punch in the gut. 

There were judges because poetry slams are stupid although poetry is great.  Anyway, one of the judges was Father Hansen, the priest who started Augie's and the minister of St. Augustine's Anglican Church. 

Disclaimer:  I go to church from time to time, believe in God, and love Jesus. 

Anyway, this Priest gives Ty a 6.66 score to make some kind of statement that nobody really understood.  A Priest insinuated that Ty's poem was somehow marked by the Devil.  How totally inappropriate and unfitting of a minister!  I was totally blown away and offended by this guy.  Was it a political thing because Ty made a Bush remark?  Was it because this particular man of the cloth thinks that America is actually fulfilling our dreams?  Either way, what Priest does that?  Ty was pissed.   

A Priest carries moral weight, right or wrong, and a priest casually throwing around 6.66 on a scorecard at a poetry slam struck me as incredibly insensitive. 

Anyway Father, guess what, Ty spoke of something that is 100% true for him and probably a lot of other people.  We do live in a society with backwards priorities that make people sick and depressed.  George Bush does speak in single- syllable-appease-the-fearful-masses transparent rhetoric.  I was so floored that he threw up the 6.66.  It was an incredible insult to Ty's insightful poem and to yourself. 

So, there's that, it's said.  I also think that people are born gay and women can be ministers.  Call me a heretic.  Here's Ty's poem for you to listen to or download.  Pass your own "judgment".  

tygorton_americandreams.mp3
File Size: 3196 kb
File Type: mp3
Download File
 
 

Fun is right around the corner for those who like driving beats and electronic music or general bedroom-born artistry.

Gossamer Thread is coming.  A Tasty-Beat-Time with professional dj/producers Holger Honda, Anamnesis and Symbio. 

At the CRUX, 10pm - $5 donation, Saturday Aug. 30.

These guys know how to rock a party and are just regular good guys to support.  

Come show your support for electronic music, dancing and general community with 3 of Chico's best.  Hope to see you there.    

 

 
 

My family and I are flying to Manson, Iowa to spend the last week of October in total seclusion at my Grandparent's house.  I can't begin to express how excited I am about this.  I sense it will be coming at the tail end of a time of major transition for me. 

I plan to bring my m-audio field recording device to collect sounds that can only be found in the Great Plains.  Also, I'd like to record my Grandma playing with her Great-Grandson.  That would be really cool. 

I'll be putting the finishing touches on the Ambient project there, in a mental space I haven't visited in a few years.  Total, complete quiet - no cell phone or responsibilities beyond eating, hanging out with grandparents and making music. 

I'm originally from Iowa.  I went to Sunday school there and reenacted Christ's birth with a cardboard manger set.  I think I played a tree for some reason, I don't know, I was four. 

I hope to pump out some additional material while I'm there, some red meat and potatoes electronic music that can only come from Calhoun County in a little town of 1500.  Late October is harvest season in Iowa. 

I hope that spirit permeates my musicality through osmosis.  For those who care, here's a link to Manson, Iowa...home of Greater Crater days.  They think that whole part of the state sits in the crater that was made from the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.  Check it out...Manson <link>.

 
 

I'm not a big fan of cats for the most part.  They make my face get all snotty and my eyes water.  They poop in the house and they don't really care about people.  If you were to drop dead, and the cat were hungry, it would eat you with out remembering all the nice things you did for it. 

That being said, when I met my wife Anna, she came with some cat baggage.  "Beastly" and "Lucy".  Beastly was a big black tom cat.  His head was like a bowling ball and his eyes were tough, tender and full of personality.  He was a special cat and we ended up getting really tight. 

About two years ago Beastly was freed from this mortal coil by a pack of coyotes up by Bidwell Park.  He even managed to gouge one of their eyes out before he went down.  Knowing Beastly like I did, this was the most appropriate and noble way for him to die.  Yes, I cried. 

Last night I listened to a sample I recorded of his purr about 3 years ago.  I had been working on my 3rd ambient piece for a few hours and was over it.  It was really late at night and I thought maybe if I listened closely enough, and dissected the audio enough, I could hear messages from Beastly on "the other side".  Well I didn't, but I did end up with a cool little sound design piece. 

 
 

Minus Kelvin is a buddy of mine from Sacramento.  We used to hang out, connecting with electronic music.  He used to really challenge me because he slept and breathed electronic music.  When I knew him he had a Masters degree in Physics at the age of 24.  He's now working on his PHd at UC Santa Barbara and is working with one of his idols, the guy who wrote "Computer Music Tutorial."  Anyway, he's gone deep on the science of electronic music and computer sound.  Check out his website here. <link>  He's the most brilliant electronic musician I've had the pleasure of knowing and sampling with.  I'm super proud of his achievements.   Watch this guy, he's going to innovate and become NERD FAMOUS. 

 
 

Took a little longer than I thought to get this site up.  And the URL is a little longer than I'd like but it just says what it is so what am I supposed to do?  I hope you take the time to come back to this site from time to time.  Ambient music project is coming along thanks to my m-audio field recorder.  It's my favorite and most useful piece of gear next to my laptop.

So here we are...the website...I type this in my little coffeehouse in a train wreck. 

I've learned one thing about business, something that I was told before by a crusty, wise entrepreneur.  Don't ever do anything as a means to an end.  For example, if one were to want to write electronic music all day, don't open a coffeehouse to achieve that aim.  Just write the goddamn music - go strait to the end in question and work on that for 50 hours a week. 

So my coffee business is built on what is fundamentally a spiritual error on my part.  But yeah, I see the light at the end of this tunnel, and it looks like an ambient project to aid in the relaxation of natural child birth. 

I'm half done with that and really enjoying the process and change of musical pace.  Check out the little samples I have up.  It will be....oh man, Billy Jean just came on in the cafe...nobody's laid it down like that since.  I lost my train of thought.  By the way, Quincy Jones had everything to do with that track.  MJ tries to take credit for it. 

Anyway "Push" will be set to go in October I do believe. 
Happy birthday website.