Citizen Fitz

Looking forward to seeing folks tomorrow for my first synth show! My live synth rig isn’t terribly complex but it does have way to many points of failure. Missing a single cable can spell disaster so I’ve come up with a preflight checklist. I’m posting it here not only so the interested might peruse it but also so there’s no way I can lose the damn thing. (Curse it all, I’ve lost the interwebs! Where are those bloody why-fies???).

Gear

• Prophet 08
  • prophet power
  • prophet hold pedal
• Computer
  • power cable
• Metric Halo
• Keyboard Stand (4 parts plus bag)
• Keyboard Stand Board
• Mic stand
• Boom
• Mic
• Mic clip

Cables

• 2 prophet orange cables
• Firewire
• Midi connector
• Mic Cable
• Guitar cable
• Power strip
• Extension cord
• surge protector
• EL wire drive & batteries

Other

• CDs
• mailing list booklet
• business cards
• hum eliminator & cable
• Bull roarer
• Mummified shrunken head (is anyone actually reading this??)

ADD PA

• Bose system
• power cable
• extension cable
• surge protector

Synthpop doesn’t get much better than the Eurythmic’s 1983 hit, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These). The robotic drums, the spidery synth riff, and Annie’s haunting vocals all create a mood that was so very 1983. The song is mysterious and embraces the techno fetishsim of the era but also soulful and very human. The production of the entire Sweet Dreams album was also facinatingly DIY as detailed in this article of Anything Goes Publication Musician Article Dated 11/1/1983:

Their “studio” was a dingy, v-shaped warehouse attic. No acoustical tiles, no drum booth, no double-sealed glass window; they played and sang in the same room with their tape deck and mixing board, which were a TEAC half-inch 8-track and a cheap, used Soundcraft, respectively. For microphones, they had two Beyers, which they used to record everything – Annie’s voice, trumpets, percussion, the piano – and for outboard processing gear they had a handful of old effects boxes, a space echo, and one (count it, one) spring reverb. They made the Sweet Dreams album with that. Go and listen to it. It sounds like it was recorded in the finest of two-hundred-dollar-an-hour rooms, instead of a place most people would barely credit with demo capability. Raw talent and no pressure from the time clock are two reasonable explanations for that disparity, but at the heart of the record’s sonic success is a different attitude about recording. No more “fix it in the mix.” Instead it was get the sound right, no matter how long it took, and then record it flat. And if it didn’t sound right later, scrub it and do it again.

Sweet Dreams Video

The video was just as good as the song. The photogenic Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart drift thru a surreal collage of scenes that include corporate board room meditaion, a rowboat, cellos, and cows. Note also the glaciar glasses Dave wears (very trendy at the time) and the Movement Systems Drum Computer which he is “playing” throughout.

The Synthesizers

Or should I say, “synthesizer”. The entire album apparently uses only one synth: the Roland Juno 60. I’m not suprised as the Juno has plenty of sonic versatility. In addition, I often think that limiting one’s tools is the best choice for improving creativity. Maybe the album sounded so good in part because they didn’t have a gaggle of polysynths to distract them.

Show this Saturday the 19th @ 9:00p.m. in Public House 7 in Falls Church Viginia.

Another show for you all – and confirmed this time :). It will be my first synth set up gig so come out and hear the songs with some cool electronic shading (but no, I’m not hauling out the modular synth this time).

I’ll play a one hour set sometime between 9 and 11. I’ll be performing with Vin Fischer thought we haven’t ironed out who’s playing when and if we’ll have time to learn anything to perform together. I’ll let you all know as soon as I have the info.

Public House 7 is a fun place with good fish and chips (it’s an English pub after all) right off Rt. 7. Hope to see you there.

Public House 7
6315 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA 22044
(703) 942-6383

The song “Oxford Comma” by Vampire Weekend evokes college friends backpacking across the world all the while laughing and shooting barbs at the fussy conventions of “adults”. It’s a great tune with both a calculated catchiness and understated near-sloppiness that make it downright charming. Listen for yourself and see if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face and a longing for smirk-filled college days.

The only thing I find odd about the song is that it is not labeled as “explicit” in iTunes. Why not? It repeatedly drops the f-bomb. Isn’t that enough? Maybe the band is sucessfull enough to avoid unwanted labels on their music. Hmm…

An exotic, beautiful belly dancer swirls about on stage. The only object sharing her spotlight is a lone silver laptop which pulses in sync with her slithering movements. Such is the imagery that Tunisian-born Jean-Pierre “Smadj” Smadja’s music always brings to my mind.

Smadj is an oud player who fuses his exotic instrument with layers of global-beat and electronic textures resulting in music that sounds both ancient and completely modern. One of my favorite tracks from him is the mesmerizing “Sel (Naum Gabo Remix)”. This all-instrumental track lays down a hypnotic Tangerine Dream-style sequence line and then flavors it with a variety of textures and Smadj’s excellent oud soloing. Listen to the sample and see if it doesn’t sweep you away into an exotic locale or the closing credits of an international spy thriller movie.