There’s a new group coalescing in the Capital District: the Albany Sonic Arts Collective. You can view photos from the first event held at the Upstate Artists Guild. I’ve added the group to the Field Guide blogroll so you can stay up to date on future activities.
Author Archives: Holland Hopson
The Black Mirror
I had the opportunity to hear Ian Nagoski speak about and play tracks from his recent CD, The Black Mirror: Reflections in Global Music (Dust-to-Digital). Calling it his “mix tape for the world”, the CD contains world music gems Nagoski culled from 78rpm recordings. The selections Ian played were amazing (some not included on the CD, unfortunately) and his commentary was engaging. He provided a capsule history of recorded music touching on topics that remain with us–media conglomerates, planned obsolescence of hardware and media, piracy and bootlegging, how the disembodied sounds of recordings still captivate us… I wish I could have stayed to the end.
I did, however, pick up a CD and have been especially enjoying “Nam Nhi-tu” performed by M. Nguyen Van Minh-con and “Smyrneiko Minore” performed by Marika Papagika. It’s been a while since a single CD has offered such a variety of listening surprises. Check out audio samples here.
Gig Survival Kit
I ran across this very sleek Electronic Musician Emergency Adapter Kit and it inspired me to post my own Gig Survival Kit. I used to carry a similar collection of adapters, but now I only carry a few adapters augmented by a set of tools.
From left to right and top to bottom:
- combination phillips and flat head screwdriver
- soldering iron
- sponge and solder
- electrical tape
- spare battery (for Basic Stamp)
- stereo 1/4″ to 1/8″ adapter (headphone adapter)
- wire cutter and stripper
- wire ties
- (2) RCA to 1/4″ adapters
- ground lifter (lifesaving hum remover)
- multimeter
- outlet tester
- flashlight
- tres chic cosmetic bag to carry it all!
- (What you don’t see in this picture since they’re carried separately: (2) DI boxes, a reasonably long extension cable for power, and the various audio cables needed for my performance rig.)
I began carrying the soldering tools when I started performing with sensor-augmented instruments using the Basic Stamp and I soon realized that they made most of my adapters obsolete. If I needed some strange cable, it was usually possible to make it on the spot.
The most often used pieces of kit are definitely the flashlight, the spare battery, and the DI boxes. I’ve had plenty of sour/funny/skeptical/scared looks from the heavy-metal sound guy at the club when I begin unpacking my weirdo electronic gear. Then I pull out my DI boxes and I see expressions of relief and gratitude from the sudden recognition that our gear can now speak a common language.
Oh, and the girly-girl cosmetic bag? Simple. It’s free (if you’re male, ask a female friend who wears even a little bit of makeup), it’s unmistakeable which makes easy to find on a dark stage, and it never fails to impress that heavy-metal sound guy.
Download Away!
I have now added download links to the audio files in previous posts and pledge to do the same for future audio posts.
Portland Bicycling Spins Business Spin
More bicycling goodness from the New York Times. Apparently, creating a friendly bicycle culture is good for the bicycling business–just look at Portland. The punch line here goes something like “we went for sustainability and got a better economy, too.” No surprise there except that the business activity was noticed at all. After all, bottom line contributions from bike culture industries must be a fraction of other cultural institutions, even in a city like Portland. Not to poo-poo the article, but isn’t part of bicycle culture envisioning a smaller, more local, more easily customized economic reality? Its a vision that works great at the Better Business Bureau but that may not have such long legs at City Hall. Regardless…bully for Portland.
Oh, did I mention how nice it was to notice great bicycle commuting infrastructure in the Bay Area during my recent visit?
ECFA: Der Wald
ECFA has released their brand-new CD, Der Wald (2007, Pull The String Records).
The lineup for the CD is Carl Smith, tenor saxophone; Holland Hopson, soprano saxophone; and Jason Friederich, drums; with Alex Coke, soprano saxophone on one track. This release features more new music by tenor saxophonist Carl Smith including “Ergeben” and “Schygullaplatz,” both highlights of the recording. Steve Lacy’s tune “The Retreat” is also featured. A few trio improvisations and one solo tenor sax improvisation round out the disc. A nicely varied set of music, much of it with a chamber music feel, and a step up in audio quality from previous ECFA releases. You can get more info and order the CD here.
Too Late Book Review: Fear of Music: The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk and Disco
I recently finished reading Garry Mulholland’s Fear of Music: The 261 Greatest Albums Since Punk and Disco. I picked it up to fill in the gaps of my popular music education–specifically the years between 1989 and 1999 when I was either pursuing classical music (and felt obliged to shut out pop influences, oh boy, isn’t that a ripe topic for discussion…) or too involved in some obscure corner of avant-garde/jazz/experimental/electronic/other to pay attention to what the “kids” were hearing.
It’s a fun read, thanks largely to Mulholland’s cheeky streak but even more so to his idealism. Mulholland values his pop music for its world-changing properties as much as for its booty-shaking abilities. And his disappointment as each starry-eyed group and movement sells itself short to crass commerce and popular opinion is somehow registered with eternal optimism: maybe something stuck this time around, maybe lessons were learned, maybe it will all be different next time around… Too bad it never quite works out that way.
Paris: The City of Bikes
The NYTimes has a story on the Vélib bicycles newly available for rent in Paris. The pricing system seems especially appropriate for bicycle commuters: free for the first half-hour, 1 euro for the second half-hour, 2 euros for the third half-hour and 4 euros for each half hour after that. Many factors would need to work together to make such a system work in the US, including size of the city (populous enough to support a regular ridership, but not so sprawly as to make short bike trips impractical), number and location of stations, and biking infrastructure, to name a few. NYC comes to mind as a place where the US version of the Vélib could take root. Modify the gear ratios, beef up the brakes and San Francisco might be in the running. Making the bikes tourist friendly may be a necessity, but it could also open up possibilities for cities like DC or Charleston, SC or numerous national parks.
3 of 2: Helton and Hopson
Here’s a duet with Thomas Helton, bass + electronics and Holland Hopson, saxophone + electronics from the 2003 No Idea Festival in Austin TX.
[audio:helton_hopson.mp3]Grand Time at 21grand
Now that there’s a spiffy poster for my upcoming show at 21grand, I thought it was time for a proper announcement:
21grand
416 25th St. (at Broadway)
Oakland CA
Oakland-based heavy-Americana trio P.A.F. curate an eclectic evening of improv, noise, psych and rock crossing lines and blurring distinctions between your scene and mine.
• Holland Hopson: banjo and electronics
• Improvised trio with local greats Matt Ingalls, Jake Rodriguez and George Cremaschi
• Premier performance of psych master Nehemiah St. Danger‘s latest work
• P.A.F. – original lineup featuring Eric Carlson, Gene V. Baker and Scott Pinkmountain
