this is control

Guitars

2011-01-22T19:40:00.001-08:00

Where My Jews At?

2009-10-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

Late to soundcheck, check. Using CDJs to control Serato, never having used anything but vinyl, check. Dude walking around speaking Hebrew, check.

At least they had Strongbow at the bar.

I know there aren't a lot of resources available to small bands on tour. But with a record label and a popular venue behind the scenes there should have been a few Hebrews at this show, right? I mean, five minutes on the Goog and I've got a page full of Jewish related Seattle contacts. You write them something like "Great band from the motherland coming. Here's five free tickets, and anyone from your spot that gives the password 'David' at the door gets half off entry. Sweet!" You do this fifty times to clubs and universities and synagogues and such, and guess what? You've got a nightclub with some people in it.

But the impressive thing was Soulico didn't seem to notice. They played like it was packed. I looked out into a big empty and got depressed, these guys looked out and made the people that did show up leave with smiles on their faces. Plus I got to ask a dude "So, how's Tel Aviv?"

En Studio

2008-10-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

It's always been that when I say "In the studio," it means I'm in my basement wishing that my studio was somewhere else. The basement is half-finished, so it's never been the most artistically inspiring environ, and the 1906-ness of my house makes sure it's the requisite spooky, spidery, and drafty. Let the ghosts have it, I'm glad to say.

The family business outgrew the family house, so it and Control Sync have moved to a little rental a few blocks away. A bit of a dump that I'm sure housed a long string of single ladies and cats, but a good deal. Hey, you know what's fun? Rewiring a studio. And by fun, I mean not at all, but after a month of crawling around under things rewiring outlets and tracing cables, all systems are getting close to go. I finished labeling the patchbay last night, cracked a bottle of Strongbow, and gave a cheers and a bow to all the beautiful blinking lights.

It won't be an official type launch until sometime in the new year, but I look forward to having you over and showing off my DJ Magic Mike poster. See you then.

Selectah

2008-05-01T22:43:00.000-07:00

I just realized that every gig I've played this year has been reggae. Shit, I'm a dancehall DJ. One skill I lack for the crowd is that of knowing the titles of songs. I was in the studio looking at a few hundred records a while ago and figured out that I knew the titles of about 5% of the tracks. I mean I'm gold if someone comes up and says "Hey, you got that track, I think it's Vybz Kartel, it starts with him chatting about hitting someone in the neck, then there's that thick ass bass drop that was big on that Sean Paul record?" But ask me if I'll play "Give Me a Reason" and I'll shrug and start leafing through every record in my bag to see if one is called "Give Me a Reason." Or type it into the lappy, then turn around and say "What was that again, something about a season?"

Quest

2007-11-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

"Sunday? Sure. I'm game. Hip-hop, right on. I got it. Dj Quest. Yeah, uh huh. What?" I like to play the records, sure. But not with a turntablist legend in the vicinity. Unfortunately for my boys from San Fran, Rakim and the Wu were at the Showbox, so not only were the meatheads doing something else, the heads were too. I was supposed to open up, spinning for half an hour or so, then it became an hour, then an hour and a half. I was two tracks away from running out of record by the time Collage got on the stage. Good set, with surprisingly clear sound despite some soundcheck worries about my cdj. Quest and Apostle were pro all the way, doing their thing hard despite the low turn-out. The headliners...well, not so much. There was quite a bit of yelling about promotion, then I decided disappear into the night and be thankful that I wasn't spending the next ten hours in a van headed south.

Stopgapping

2007-11-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

"Down with the ship" was the motto for this one. The end was in sight, so why not go out with a good time? This was how it was pitched to me. I got to partner up with one of my favorite djs in Seattle, I got to work all the kinks out of getting live with Serato, I learned that the kids think old school was sometime around the mid-nineties. I'm always a bit with the butterflies when I perform, and it didn't help on the first night when I came back from a walk around the block (what that fifteen minute version of Rapper's Delight was designed for, I believe) and the dance floor was circled with a yelping and gyrating bellydance troupe, a bachelorette party, and a group of a dozen confused Eastern Europeans. "You have much Elvis records, good time, yes?" It was a fun month, capped by a night where at some point the doors got locked, the lights turned out, and even the security thugs hit the dance floor. Three in the morning will do that. And although I did some things no dj should have to do, I still never played that House of Pain record.

Dubstepping

2007-11-05T17:51:00.000-08:00

Love that dubstep. Unfortunately it's one of those genres that the dj you know and half-a-dozen of his friends are into. So there were six of us playing, about fifty in the crowd, the math makes sense. If you could get together the fifty kids in Seattle that are into it and the hundred in Portland and the fifty in Olympia, you'd have a fun monthly. It hasn't been the case at the monthly they do at the Baltic Room, as the last time I was there it was with eight other people, five of them who played that night. One of the problems I see is that Seattle djs tend to get a bit anal about their chosen genre. I mean Seattle had a speed garage crew. Seriously, remember? Probably not, and that's my point. It's great to be up on the sonic obscurities, but there's also knowing what influenced the music you play and going with that. That's why Monkeytek did it for me. He seems to understand that there are a lot of different ingredients that make up the dubstep stew. Wow, he's actually playing some dub. Hey, a little ambiance. Gee, was that a reggae track? I'm sure there was some bitching in an online forum afterwards ("I ran his set list in itunes and a third of them weren't even tagged 'dubstep' under the genre field, I swear!"), but he's the best I've heard in a while, and I'm looking forward to checking his night in Portland to see how the kids get it down south.

Data Rocks?

2007-06-24T22:55:00.000-07:00

I'm not all that crazy about performing. The studio is nice and cozy. The stage is always too loud or not loud enough, too bright, too cramped or too spare. Always found it trying when I was a kid in a band, then djing, even when backing up a friend these days. It didn't help the other night when we arrived for our sound check at eight and had to sit through an hour of noise punctuated by some sort of yelling every once in a while. It was interesting, as what I had heard from this band had led me to expect something a bit more dance club friendly, but my eardrums overruled novelty fairly quickly. The fun part was this leaving us about five minutes to get our check one two on. Needless to say, it led to the monitor mix sounding somewhat far from ideal, but hey, just go up there and blast it, right? Done. It ended up being a lot of fun, definitely the best show I've done with my pard Collage to date. Got an ego boost from the strangers with the smiles and the pats on the backs, then definitely when we came back from a trip down the street for a little dubstep and the headliners only held on to about a third of the people we had left them with. Things learned: 1. Norwegian guys in quirk rock bands are kind of dicks. 2. Despite bad omens, sometimes it works.

Uwajimaya

2007-05-09T23:16:00.000-07:00

Once a month or so I have to get down to the International District (aka Chinatown in every other city that has one) to get my Uwajimaya on. It's a Japanese market that has expanded over the years, going from a humble grocery to an entire block with a food court, bookstore, and four stories of apartments above. I get my tea there to avoid the alt.yuppie teahouse down the road, too many sandals and hairy people scribbling in journals, you know? Uwajimaya is a bad place to take that friend of yours that only has Asian girls beside him in the photo album; he might never leave. I always end up in line behind some Chinese granny with a basket of fish and octopus and unidentifiable vegetables that is about to become the best dinner ever. I've thought of introducing myself and following one home with a bib on, but hey, there's always grape Pocky. And, yes, grape Pocky is the shit.

MFP

2007-04-12T00:03:00.000-07:00

How the mighty have fallen. I experienced so many firsts here. First time I got up close to a DJ and saw a mix being created. Nitzer Ebb into Run DMC into New Order? It made sense, seriously. First time I heard house music in a club (different DJ, natch). First time–being a few years away from 21–I ordered all the cocktails I had heard of. MFP was a little gay club outside of Gainesville. A mixed night went over well, with the DJs, the music, the hip college kids and their funny haircuts and their disposable income. Then one night a week was two, then three. MFP was part of a healthy electronic music scene that Florida seemed to get a lot sooner than most, and then there was lots of E, and then it all went a bit mad. And then it was 1990. A few years later Middle America caught up.

Music

2007-04-11T23:54:00.000-07:00

I got this fortune the same night that someone asked me to get serious about backing them up DJ style. It's something that I've been wanting to do again for a while, getting a bit in live, getting out of the studio. Getting it down to the point where the mix is where we want it and just handing the sound hippy a stereo cable "Left and right. Thanks, man."

"Well, It Ain't Ozzie & Harriett"

2007-03-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

You know when your wife wakes you up after about three hours of sleep and is like "Hey. There's a girl on the futon." And you mumble something about lost car keys, being late, gotta take her downtown. And the wife says "Have the car back by noon, I have to get down to the bank." You know? No, probably not.

Irag Needs Women

2007-02-24T02:29:00.000-08:00

Okay. I think I've figured out the problem with our friends in Iraq, if not all of the Middle East. Every time I turn on the CNN, things going boom, riots in the streets, lots of yelling and arm flailing, right? All brothers. Not a girl in sight. How about you step back and let the ladies run things for a while? No cultural commentary here, but if you have to get your mom to fix you up with a date it's probably 'cause you're not all that smooth. All I mean is that if we could all move like Eric, there might be world peace.

Seattle 1 – Boston 0

2007-02-04T11:21:00.000-08:00

When asked why his crew didn't report the "suspicious devices" a Seattle road worker said "They were toys. We took them down. We threw them in the back of the truck." Read about the mayhem here.

Corky

2007-01-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

I have a friend who told me that the only time the TV ever made him cry was when Corky didn't want to take off his Batman costume after his one in a million night at the dance. That might be why this is the best commercial ever.

Women Respond

2007-01-29T15:49:00.000-08:00

You know you're swimming through stupid when you have to tell people things like this.

White

2007-01-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

Seattle weather. Ten days ago it looked like this out my front door. Yesterday a guy jogged by me in shorts and a tank, arms stretched to the sky. You see this a lot around here, if you're from somewhere else you might think it's the rapture, but no, it's sun in the three day forecast.

Barnabas

2007-01-15T22:55:00.000-08:00

Not much scares Collage. But if you're ever behind him and whisper "Barnabas" in a scary voice, he might jump three or four feet straight up. After he comes down, and if he doesn't punch you in the throat, see if he'll tell you the story. One of the funniest childhood remembrances I've ever heard at 4 a.m.

My Dog Is Cuter Than Yours

2007-01-15T22:49:00.000-08:00

Word.

Roadside Florida

2007-01-15T16:41:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of places in the South where it looks like crazy exploded. If you stay off the Interstates and Turnpikes and such you get to see such gems as this. I couldn't find a sign, and couldn't tell people what it was called, but as soon as I said "This roadside place with spray painted jockeys and the green seven foot Big Ben and the hundred or so suits of armor," they're like "Oh, yeah, I bought a Mexican fishing reel and a bird bath there."

Sci-fi Bachelor Pad

2007-01-15T15:48:00.000-08:00

My first apartment. $230 a month, and I remember being wicked pissed when it went up to $250. This was taken from a parking spot across the street where one of Alachua County's finest would show up a couple of times a week after we had a run-in. Every few days I'd wake up to a patrol car framed in my bedroom window. Subtle, they're
not.

The furniture was a bit minimal, consisting of a television and Atari 2600, a six foot guitar stack and a mattress. Oh, yeah, there was a big green Killing Joke "Kings and Queens" poster.

Louis' Lunch

2007-01-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

Back in the South. This is one of the best things about Gainesville. "You can't go home again." Yeah, well sometimes you can, and sometimes you can for seventy five years or so.

Begin

2007-01-15T14:15:00.000-08:00

Write, right? I thought that the non-studio stuff could go here, if only to keep me writing. Tap, tap, tap.