Wow Cool is a studio and label based in Cupertino, California. Artists include: Marc Arsenault, Brown Cuts Neighbors, Steven Cerio, evidence, Simon Gane, God Hates Computers, nickname: Rebel, and Offset Needle Radius.
Newave! is a 892 page monster collection of 80's minicomix. Art by Marc Arsenault, Sam Henderson, Ion, Wayno and scores of others. Available Right Now!
Today (Sunday March 14, 2010), San Jose’s beloved childrens’ playground and zoo, Happy Hollow reopened after a nearly two year renovation and closure. Clearly the star of the show was the installation in the entry courtyard of sculptures by Tom Otterness. “Another World”, a series of over a dozen cast sculptures installed in the entryway to Happy Hollow comes with a special coloring book. You can color it and relate your story and send it back to Tom in Brooklyn and receive a plaster sculpture back (Tom’s studio copies your book and the returns it to you). The offer is open to any age.
I first encountered Tom Otterness’s work in the 1983 show and catalog at Tony Shafrazi Gallery “Champions” which also featured Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ronnie Cutrone, Keith Haring, Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf and others. It was an attempt to unite this set of mid-80s New York artists, and even then, Tom Otterness was a clear outsider. (an odd aside, an instructor of mine at SVA once told me that I reminded her of Tom). This is one of Otternesses largest collections of public art (probably the largest on the West Coat), and well worth a visit. It stands as a fair substitute for the old playground fairytale exhibits at Happy Hollow (See my photos of the old Happy Hollow on flickr)
I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of the new Happy Hollow, and was quite fond of the many dilapidated playsets of the HH of old that have been retired. I think the could have managed to go more the route of Oakland’s Fairyland in keeping the old, but moving forward.
Some tips when visiting Happy Hollow.
Bring your own food. The stuff they sell is crap.
Expect the usual idiocy of any parking experience in San Jose.
There is a big area between the playground and Hallow Zoo that contains the old Crooked Man slide. Avoid this, as the house is now boarded up. No sliding will occur.
It’s not there for you, it’s there for your kids. Let them dictate how much fun it is.
A little birdy in a strange land known as “the List” passed on this sweet tidbit to us along with a detailed explanation (after the jump). It’s new. It’s Jah Wobble. It’s awesome. These little one-off releases (like last year’s massive dub rendition of Get Carter) are making me want more of this heavy stuff. Word on the street is that the Blow Up track is one of 21 on the forthcoming LP called Welcome to My World. Jah Wobble makes his web home at 30 Hertz.
The big project for me of 2009 was my collaboration with Joshua Baker AKA Offset Needle Radius. We recorded an entire record in Maine, in January, when I had pneumonia. We did a tour around Easter in New England, we released some buttons, a totebag and a CD. The vinyl version will be coming soon. I swear. Anyway, a half a year after sending out promo copies of Offset Needle Radius Vs. nickname: Rebel we are getting some nice and odd (sometimes both) responses back. Despite relatively little recent promotional push, the record has charted above such luminaries as Fuck Buttons, the Gossip and Mozart on Stanford University’s KZSU 90.1 FM, just last week. (We are also getting lots of love from KDVS and WREK… thanks!)
Marc Arsenault and Joshua Baker come to improvised guitar music from a background in avant-rock bands, and now call themselves Nickname: Rebel and Offset Needle Radius respectively. On Nickname: Rebel Vs Offset Needle Radius (WOW COOL 24/005), they turn in some very credible meandering guitar-scaping episodes full of vast abstractions and intricate scrapey doodles, largely avoiding unpleasant noise or feedback in favour of continuous, real-time playing, only slightly enhanced with foreign-sounding effects and treatments. Intriguing material on offer, but I keep listening out for the moments when the duo cease to tread around each other like two cautious cats, and start to cut loose with some of the impolite energy that you might have hoped for from their punk rock backgrounds.
Hey… fair enough. Now I feel like I have the license to really throw down next time, if not kill….
I wasn’t quite sure what to say about 6Music, other than “they’re really cool, and I’m psyched that they have played my music, so speak up and save this awesome station”. It also seems weird to be a non-license-paying foreigner trying to muck about in another nation’s culture. But, since Rupert Murdoch and the US and UK governments have no such qualms… anyway. Ed from Radiohead said everything I wanted to say over on Dead Air Space. Read on:
I am writing regarding the news today that 6 Music is going to be closed, in the hope that you reconsider this decision. To be honest I, along with a vast number of other musicians, music industry types and real music fans, are completely shocked and baffled by this news. I wonder if those who made this decision are actually aware of the hugely important role that 6 music plays in fostering and promoting new bands, as well as still playing the likes of the band that I am in. It literally is the radio lifeblood for music outside of the mainstream. Not to denigrate Radio’s 1 and 2, but it really is the only station that puts music first, and that’s from a punters point of view and not some bloke in a band. Nowhere else can you hear an archived session track from T Rex juxtaposed next to Midlake’s latest release. As David Bowie, put it … it keeps the spirit of John Peel alive.
Please realise the impact and severity of closing this station down. It will be a huge blow for new bands and their labels. It’s not enough to ‘refocus’ Radio’s 1 and 2 as 6 music does a very specific thing. What you have with 6 Music is a gem of a radio station, it is doing what no other station in the world does or can possibly do. Remember it is also still relatively young, give it time. You also finally have a fantastic and seemingly settled line up of DJ’s. Please get behind it and from what I can gather about its annual budget of £6m, it surely punches way above its weight in terms of cultural relevance and importance.
A BCN music video featuring early electronics effects provided by Peter Barvoets. Performing are James Kopta, Jason Martin and myself. Song and video were recorded at the Schenectady Public Access studios.
More information on the Radio Disease Killer quack medical device. It does have a switch that only goes ‘ping’.
The Art of Zines show at Anno Domini in San Jose is still going on (through March 13th, 2010). There are many zines by me and related Wow Cool type people on display. Check it out if you can. Many reviews have been flowing in from the likes of: Daily DuJour, Gary Singh at the San Jose Metro, and 1 (800) Dilettante.
OK. Now some damn music. Brown Cuts Neighbors have been organizing the archives and have put out a call for any audio/video/photo documentation that might be out there (See this earlier post). One item that is already online that has resurfaced is this piece on the 1986 release(?) by BCN “No Big Deal” (When Jason was 12) on Albany, New York’s TheHiddenCity.com. It includes four song downloads and a full gear breakdown by Jason Martin. He claims a Tesco guitar was employed. That is hardcore.
Brown Cuts Neighbors bassist circa 1999-2001 Seth Cluett is presenting “Forms of Forgetting” Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:00pm – 9:15pm at the Princeton University Chapel (FREE admission). The work explores the role of in-attention and re-attending in listening. Using found objects, altered consumer electronics, home-made instruments, sine tone oscillators, the acoustics of the space and a host of psycho-physical phenomena, this new piece aims to construct a focused, attentive perceptual space and an elastic, malleable experience of time. For more information: http://www.onelonelypixel.org
I got to spend last week in Wow Cool’s stylish Brooklyn HQ and met up with occasional recordist, mixer, and masterer for nickname: Rebel, Mr. Andrew Gerhan, who was fresh off of a European tour with Adam Arcuragi. Andy was part of Adam’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert recently, and he had many exciting tales of life on the road, which included late night concerts on the MTA (New York Subway), with the whiskey flowing freely, and other assorted hi-jinks.
On February 20, 2010, the BBC posted “Dutch cabinet collapses in dispute over Afghanistan” as the top story on their News homepage. The complicated mechanisms of content-based advertising placement brilliantly selected to display a box for the current Netherlands tourism campaign “Just Be… in Holland“. Ouch.
For some more insight on the background of the Afghan boondoggle, I highly recommend the series by Adam Curtis… also hosted by the Beeb (scroll down a bit if need be).
Sorry, I’m a couple days late on this.
UPDATE: Today’s massive Olympic fuckup involving Sven Kramer cements 2010 as a rough year for the Dutch.
Does anybody out there have visual documentation of shows and other live Brown Cuts Neighbors interventions? 1989-91 most desired, but other eras good too! i got all the audio, and Marc’s digitizing ALL the public access episodes from over the years… its the visual documentation of live performances and happenings that i have very little of…. We’re gonna use this stuff and you’ll get credit if you contribute. xoxoxox Jason
Now available to view online is J. F. Culhane’s Radio Free Blissville. It’s available in regular (above) or remix versions. nickname: Rebel contributed music to the soundtrack. Mr. Culhane also has a rather fine YouTube Channel and he holds it down on the interwebs primarily at glasscapsule.
The year is 2013. There has recently been a huge satellite war and all modern communications have been disrupted. In America, the Department of Defense has taken back most of the internet, reducing it to a unusable trickle of information.
Most of the general public who were dependent upon technology are detached and lost. Urban society has returned to a DIY fix it culture.
One bright spot is the resurgence of lawless community based pirate radio. These covert broadcasts are unseen but heard intermittently.
Lady Starlight–Brown Cuts Neighbors co-founder and infamous Lady Gaga collaborator–makes a cameo in the new eponymous video by Semi Precious Weapons (above – look for the two-tone hair and laser fingers)
Sunday February 14 at 6:00 AM on KFJC Special edition of Stream of Consciousness! Cousin Mary will play the complete concert performed by the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra that was recorded on June 13, 2009, featuring fognozzle.
nickname: Rebel splinter faction Creature Comforts (formerly White Seizure) will perform their debut live gig on Sunday, February 21 at El Rio in San Francisco, CA. 3158 Mission St (@ Cesar Chavez), San Francisco, California 94112. Cost: $5 Also performing are: Zoo – Deeply weird, deeply awesome electro-psych folk, from ex-Little Teeth. and Smallhands – Skater Heartbreakers.
I don’t usually go for linkblog posts, but today the web offered a rare and wonderful cornucopia of delights both useful and entertaining. First up, Scion Magazine (whatever that is) has a profile up of Troy, New York’s wonderful Casper Electronics. Hopefully I can finally visit them next time I’m back in the city I used to call home.
As a renter or homeowner (most people, right?) you’ve probably wondered about what type of toxic shit might be in your fire extinguisher, and are possibly as afraid to use it as you are of the potential of a fire in your home. I made the discovery in my previous residence that fire departments will donate small fire extinguishers to rental buildings; and, worse, that these devices are not made for household use. yes, it’s true. WTF? Right? Check yours out. Kevin Kelly’s very often useful Cool Tools blog posted on Monday a report on a fire extinguisher that you can feel good about. One that uses baking soda.
21st Century COINTELPRO: Cass Sunstein, director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for the Obama administration, has come under fire in the past few weeks for suggesting that it would be a good idea to deploy federal agents to “cognitively infiltrate” political groups that believe in conspiracy theories. A report on The Huffington Post.
And last: Hardcore Ephemera photo collection of zines, flyers, etc. from the Albany New York Punk/Hardcore scene of the 80’s/90’s by Christopher Adam O’Toole. You may need to be a facebook user to view this. There is talk of turning this into a larger project that is more accessible by the public.
The Art of Zines show opened at Anno Domini Gallery in Downtown San Jose this past Friday. Stacked on shelves along the walls are dozens of zines from all over, including many titles from Wow Cool and old familiar favorites like the latest issues of Fluke, Cometbus and Doris. Stop by if you can. The show runs through March 13th, 2010. Long time friends of Wow Cool will no doubt recognize the late James Kopta on the cover of “That Dog Drives a Go Cart” on the poster art for the show. See some photos from the opening: My Photos | Cherri’s Photos | Brian’s Photos
This installment is a twofer. During the second day of recording nickname: Rebel’s New Rock Church of Fire record (still working on it folks), I tried an experiment to loosen everyone up. Inspired by a session that Brown Cuts Neighbors had done for WRPI radio in Troy where, either the mics were cranked way up or the headphones in the studio were, so that every little movement or sound was incredibly loud, we tried the same sort of thing in a planned situation. I had a day of down-time in the studio (The old DeptEx/Magic Recording Eye studio of Jason Martin’s at 51 3rd St. in Troy) and scrounged the local Salvation Army and a couple hardware stores, and built a rotary saw cymbal stand (inspired by a similar rig of Steven Cerio’s and not uncommon in jazz circles) and a pair of bass springs (stretched out springs attached to a 2×4, amplified with either a guitar pickup or contact mic; inspired not just a little by Einsturzende Neubauten). So… Scott Smallwood, Aaron Smith and myself (and possibly Peter Barvoets?), recorded by Jason Martin, who had been instructed to crank everything as loud as it would go, consequences be damned, strolled into the studio (part of the composition as planned) and delicately touched and maneuvered the various implements of destruction. Various pianos, organs, electric razors, rebar, railroad spikes, walkie talkies and other detritus were also employed. Remember, it was not very loud in the room (and it was a very large room). A brief excerpt follows.
OK. After seven days of February and just three posts, it is obvious that the gear blog will not be an everyday this month feature; but, I will try to keep it as a regular–once or twice a week-thing as long as the need is there.
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