Saturday, October 13, 2001
Last night I played my fourth time at Mojo’s Daily Grind, my second time with Rich Bailey (also known as Proem in the electronic music universe). It felt good. Since Sean, I haven’t really done much but solo performances. And solo shows have their charm, but having someone who has you back and vice-versa feels nice, too. Not that we were doing any more than playing at Mojo’s. But still. It takes some of the weight off.
We both had just laptops, Rich with his new Windows machine and me with the trusty Powerbook. We didn’t synch with MIDI or anything, we just individually made sounds — mostly arhythmatic noises — and just wove together the textures. About a third of the way in I asked Rich if he’d mind slowing the tempo down to 120 beats per minute from 140 so I could use some .wav file drum loops I’d made, and we did that. Then we sort of synched, but not “officially” via computer communication or anything.
I started the set using some SuperCollider programs I’d been writing. When I tried to launch Logic, my whole machine went down, and I gave up SuperCollider and just fed samples on my computer through VST plug-ins within Logic. There were a couple drup loops I crunched up and then some recordings from CC’s Coffeeshop I’d made last December of people talking that I distorted and delayed (and pitch-modulated into some creepy shit!) and some recordings from the whole Gloryhole Incident (which you can learn all about at auscillate.com/josh/gloryhole). Good fun. We made a racket.
Now I’m chilling out at home after a fast-paced day, listening to “Freedom Rock” by Stars as Eyes — a very pleasant album, indeed. My housemates are alive and noisy, but I’ll probably go to sleep sometime soon.
