Colonial fundraising auction

We are raising money to help pay for a slew of new releases on Colonial, and will be putting an out-of-print and otherwise impossible to find copy of The Tender & Vulnerable's "New Visions of Pure Sanity" on eBay tomorrow.


This is a lathe cut LP, pressed in an edition of 40, with a spray painted cover. The T&V was a 60s protopunk cover band, with Ben and I from The Shamblers on drums and organ, Terry from Thee Iran-Contras singing, John and Jon from The JCs on guitar and professional gambler Alan C. on bass. It was recorded live in the summer of 2006 on 4-track in a garage in rural New Hampshire.

Track listing:

SIDE A
Journey To Tyme (by Kenny and the Kasuals)
Little Red Book (by Love)
Suzy Creamcheese (by Teddy and His Patches)
Fluctuation (by Shades of Knight)
I Want To Come Back (From the World of L.S.D.) (by The Fe Fi Four Plus 2)
Get Out Of My Life (by Little Willie & The Adolescents)

SIDE B
L.S.D. (by The Pretty Things)
Love At Psychedelic Velocity (by The Human Expression)
Time Machine (by Satori)
I Never Loved Her (by The Starfires)
Frustration (by The Painted Ship)

Here's an MP3 from the album of "Suzy Chreamcheese." Right-click to save.

The record will come packed with all of the T&V's merch-- our Pink Box pin, our German Tour pin, our Fuzz Tone sticker and our Superbeatle sticker. AND a copy of the album on CD-R.

Tell your friends-- the auction begins tomorrow, Thursday, April 30th, at 9am. HERE IS THE LINK!

In the meantime, enjoy this clip of the T&V in Frankfurt, Summer 2007, covering The Shandells for an audience of three:



EDIT: The auction has begun! Bid away!

Switched sequencer control

AAAH! Two synth posts in a row!

I found a used Doepfer A-150 Dual Voltage Controlled Switch a while back for a price that was too good to say no to, but have since been having trouble finding a use for it.

Each half of the module works like this: there is either one output and two inputs, or one input and two outputs, depending on how you patch it, and its common in/output jack is connected to one of the two alternating I/O points whenever it receives a voltage, hence "Voltage Controlled Switch."

Our Sequencer, from the Voice of Saturn line of kits, has a Reset jack which, when connected to the Gate output of a step, shortens the sequence. In other words, the default sequence is a 10-step pattern, but if you connect the Reset to the Step 9 Gate output, it becomes an 8-step pattern, as the pulse from Step 9 resets the sequencer to Step 1.


One application I've come up with for the A-150 is to switch between Reset points on the sequencer, using a combination of a Plan B ELF LFO as a clock for both the Sequencer and the divider, and a Doepfer A-160 Clock Divider to provide control voltage to the Switch.

In this patch, I've set the /16 output of the Clock Divider to switch between the A-150's outputs, which are connected to the Sequencer's Step 5 and Step 9 outputs. The Reset jack is connected to the Switch's input.

What ends up happening is a 4-note sequence plays two times, and an 8-note sequence plays once, as a sort of fill-in. It sounds like this:



If the /32 output is used, the 4-note sequence plays four times, and the 8-note sequence plays twice. If the /64 output is used, the 4-note sequence plays eight times, and the 8-note sequence plays four times.

555 osc. w/ PLL

I dusted off the old 555 oscillator earlier today and thought it might be fun to pair it up with our PLL module.



You can build a 555 oscillator for under $10 in parts. They aren't flexible and they sound like door buzzers, but they work in a pinch, especially if you've got something to run them through! Everyone should build at least a few of them!

Thomas Jefferson mug shots

Bicycle camera mount

I have the day off and wanted to add a quick (under an hour) and cheap (under $5) camera mount to my bike before the morning ended. And wouldn't you know it-- the internet came through! Here's an Instructable guide on how to do just that.

Here's what mine ended up looking like:


Heading out now to test it. Will report back soon!

UPDATE:



The result looks more handheld than I would have thought-- I'm going to tighten the screws and try again with a smaller camera to see if I can't get a steadier shot...

Still, it works, it barely cost anything and I'm sure I'll find a use for it at some point!

Have you heard Thee Oh Sees record?

...because apparently eBay really wants me to buy it:


Here they are, in roadside action:

WFMU's Free Music Archive & YOU (and us)

Our very favorite radio station WFMU has been working hard on putting together a real nice collection of free (as in beer, and in some cases, as in speech as well) music. The culmination is the Free Music Archive, which debuted last week. The site looks great, and if you sign up, you can do all kinds of fun stuff like make mixes and you can download regardless. It is a thing of beauty. We highly recommend checking it out.

You may as well start here, with the full set (including the stuff we couldn't put on the air) from our session on Scott McDowell's always excellent show the Long Rally (Wednesdays at 11 on 91.1 in the NYC metro area, or whenevs on wfmu.org).

Spoiler alert

All of "Demons," in two minutes. Its original, dialogue-free trailer:



Soundtrack, sadly, not by Goblin.

"Noise Toy" x2

My boss recently gave me a Loud Objects "Noise Toy" kit. When paired with the one we've already got at our place, they make a glorious sound.

Thanks Scott!

Piezo medallion necklace

I need one of these

From the dude behind Sonic Crayon.