Photo by Rebekah Weatherly

I'd like to say thanks to the Maker Faire for having us back this year. This was the first time Suzanne and I performed in a year, and we were glad to be playing in front of an audience again.

When performing abstract electronic music in a live format, it's always hard gauge audience reaction. However, what I can say after having listened to the recording of the set, if you can make a baby cry so loud it gets picked up by the mic, well, you did something right. I will be posting a video and MP3 of the set shortly.

I'd also like to thank Mix 94.7's JB and Sandy for having myself and Sherry Huss from Make on their show on Thursday, here's a link to listen to our interview: Bill from PLI interviewed on JB and Sandy.

Update


So, Suzanne and I are are going to be performing on the Maker Stage at 8:30 pm this Saturday night at the Maker Faire, being held at Austin's Travis County Fairgrounds, Also, I will be part of a radio spot on the Maker Faire on Austin's JB and Sandy broadcast this morning on Mix 94.7 FM, at 8:30am, there's supposed to be a podcast of it, so when I know the link for that, I'll post it here. Thanks!

My wife, Suzanne and I will be performing at Austin's 2008 Maker Faire. This is the Painful Leg Injuries' first live show in almost a year! The Maker Faire will be taking place on October 17th and 18th at Austin's Travis County Fairgrounds, here's a link to more info. I'll post the actual schedule times when I know them, we are very excited to be playing live again.

An article I recently wrote on using the Nintendo Wiimote as a music controller is now published in issue #14 of Make Magazine.

It's on page 145. I take readers through various set-ups for using the Wiimote to control music software, soft-synths, and even MIDI retrofits of some of my favorite circuit bends. Make was kind enough to give spot on their site for links to the freeware, software, videos, and other bits of associated information, click here to read more.

Also, if you'd like to hear the results of musical experiments with the Wiimote, my band the Painful Leg Injuries have released a free download album called The Rich Man's Godforesaken Driver's Seat, with 13 tracks of Wiimote-controllled music.

Click here to listen and download

My label OKSRNA has just released the first CD-R of 2008, The Harmful Free Radicals' Duplicate Factories of Washington State. To listen to the songs and/or purchase click here.

Aside from being the first CD-R we've released this year, it's also the project that lead to the start of the label. It began in 2003 when myself, and my long-time collaborator Jonah Goldstein (The Unevenness of the Moon’s Surface), found ourselves briefly living on the same coast for first time in many years. We decided to resume our old habit of recording bizarre experimental pop music together and see what became of it. Duplicate Factories of Washington State is result of those '03 sessions plus four years of songwriting, re-recording and editing. It's pop songs in the vein of Gastr Del Sol's Camofleur album, David Sylvain's Blemish, Brian Eno's Before and After Science and Animal Collective's Sung Tongs. But you guys know us by now, those are references only, we've never made music that is easily described.

To download the track Can I Eat The Whole Thing? click here.

My band the Painful Leg Injuries have released a new free download album called The Rich Man's Godforsaken Driver's Seat. This free album is a collection of my compositions and improvisations made by using the Nintendo Wiimote as a controller for music

To give it a listen click here, or to download it click here.

From the moment I first started reading about the possibility, I've been very excited about the Wiimote as a music controller. When I bought one, and got the software and everything working it was inspiring and I recorded many tracks, and these are the fruits of those sessions. The thirteen tracks in this collection combine compositions with improvisations, the conceptual with the intuitive, and noise with melodies. software, soft synths and samplers, a Pushpin Gameboy Color synth as well as my circuit bent instruments such as my Casio Sk1, Speak and Spell.

Here's video of me performing my Speak and Casio SK1 here. I've been covered by the getlofi and Highly Liquid blogs for this project. Thanks to John from Highly Liquid and getlofi

They are 192 kbps MP3 files, and completely DRM free. Flying Through The Eye At An Alarming Time features recorded samples of me knocking my TV with my Wiimote, samples that were eventually played by my Wiimote. This Is Playful For Diseases is made up completely of improvisations with my Wiimote controlled Pushpin Gameboy synth, and Wiimote played samples of the LSDJ Gameboy tracker software, an anachronistic take on Nintendo gear. Michael Winslow Has His Revenge (On Clever Dated References) features a digital instrument completely made from samples of the 80's actor/comedian.

Thanks in advance, take care.