Voyager One and Company

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I went through the process of getting rid of a ton of physical media recently. I’m working on the VHS tape collection, and found to home made tapes from ’98. I remember doing a show in Worcester Mass. and meeting a guy who did a cable access tv show based on quirky video and a noise soundtrack. Madam Chao’s Theater.

In exchange for some sounds to use, he hooked me up with a copy of one o his shows. And he tossed in a tape of a live show from the UFO Club in Japan that had performances by:

Mo*Te
Xome
Yukiko
Shortwave Radio Suicide (MSBR, K2, Government Alpha, Rudolf and Andy Bolus)
Facialmess
Kazumoto Endo
Gomikawa
Stimbox
And Crack Fierce

So, I rescue those from tape onto digital. I was going to put it on Youtube, but YouTube said it was too beaucoup. So, inspired by RRRon, I decided to do something out of the ordinary with it.

I got five usb sticks, loaded them up with the video files (it’s about 3 1/2 hours worth of material), and a ReadMe.txt file. They were each given a name, from the list of five interstellar space probes, and sent out into the universe of noise artists and free spirits.

Anyone who receives one of them in the mail can download the files for themselves, add their mark to the ReadMe file, and pass it along to the next person with interest. They can also use the opportunity to include some mail art as well.

So, out there somewhere, these guys are making the rounds.

How do you get your hands on one? I don’t know for sure. Spread the word would be my advice. Tell people if they know where one is, that you’d like it sent your way. Talking leads to trading, and trading leads to joy!

America’s Greatest Noise

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Big thumbs up and it makes me smile. Frans De Waard wrote (compiled?) a book on Ron Lessard. Buy it, read it (because the idea is not just to own it as part of our collection), be a happier human because of it. 🙂

Things I didn’t learn early enough in life . . .

RRRecords is pronounced with an extended “R” sound at the beginning of the word. It is not the letter R spoken twice followed by the word “records”. I learned that from an interview with Dom Prurient.

Ron put out the lock groove records, and they were functional pieces. You can read how they functioned in the book. But they were like . . . useful.

How much I appreciate the Recycled Tape Series – which are all still available for the cheap from Ron. There’s a line where I’m like “Just because you can pick up dozens of hours of sonic joy for $50, doesn’t mean you should be asking this guy to dub a dozen tapes for you”. That’s for me. You can do whatever you want. Maybe I’m wrong.

How cool the Pure Series was.

That Ron and Emile Beaulieau were like Harvey Dent. Imagine not knowing that right from the get-go.

That Ron – spoiler alert here – was so groundbreaking that he could tell Merzbow “Hey, most of this is good, but I’m gonna need two more tracks because two of them don’t cut the mustard”.

Enough with the spoilers. I don’t think the book is available on Amazon, I got mine from Scream and Writhe. You should get yours, doesn’t matter where.

The man is a treasure, and if I took away anything from the read it is “if you feel like doing something you think might be fun, do it”.

Sentiments on making Noise

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“For anyone who wants to make noise for others to listen to, I have been instructed to tell you, don’t. Do not make noise for others to listen to. Make noise for you to listen to.

Listen to your own noise as often as possible. Improve it so that becomes noise you want to listen to more. Any reasons or intentions you may have beyond this are your own and are not for anyone else to dictate to you. Whatever it is that you wish to achieve from the creation of noise or in the noise itself, be sure to clearly define that for yourself. What is it? Be specific. Has that happened? If not, keep doing it before expecting someone else to want to listen.

Once it has, congratulations. If you had any desire beyond what you would already have at that point, you probably should have gotten way more into dubstep.”

That’s from a Madame Chao interview. I’m on board.

There’s also a quote that I haven’t committed to memory from Vomir from a WCN podcast interview where he says something to the effect of “Perhaps you listen to my sounds. and you say, these are no good, I do not like them at all. I am ok with this!”. I now own Reject Principles. Comes with a cool little poster.

I heard a Steve Wozniak interview and they were talking about the creation of the personal computer. People in power wanted to know WHY he was building a personal computer. the answer was because he wanted to. Works for me.

Hello world!

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Hey everyone! As you can see, I’m getting around to putting this site together. I expect it will happen in levels, and this is the first level. I also expect it will take a good bit of time until I get on top of this thing and make it look and work the way I would like best. We can still use it in the meantime. So, welcome, and this is the start of things you’re seeing.