Sunday, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Magical Properties Tour
While in Calgary last weekend for the Magical Properties Tour (the Gaslamp Killer, Daedelus, 12th Planet, Teebs) I was able to have a quick chat with Teebs after his set. He played an hours worth of downtempo and dreamy beats ranging from his own original tracks, to Knxwledge, Kona Triangle, and a particularly excellent remix of a Boards of Canada tune I can't name at this time. Anyways, I bought his new LP called "Ardour" and he decided to give me a copy of Ardour B-Sides on cd. Thank You Teebs! I highly recommend checking out his new LP but in the meantime take a listen to the 6 B-Sides as they are here in WAV audio and are an extremely rewarding listen if you like instrumental hip hop. Everything from harps, chimes, tribal percussion, the most watery sounding guitar riffs (check track 5/6 for this), and detuned synths. Enjoy!
alternate link: ardour b-sides
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
And Pop! goes the Weezel.....
drrty POP! (kids. If you ever needed a reason not to do drugs...)
(turns around in chair, notices the screen world, takes foot out of mouth...)
O, Hello there and Welcome to Today's Edition of OK Spuddroker's MAGIK! Series.
Every few days or so for the next little while Herr Spuddroker will be posting a variety of Introductory Works, Theoretical Texts, Profane Grimoires and Practice Books to help one better comprehend the wonderful super duper uber welt o' MAGIK*
Split the Peach
EndsPilT
the Seed!
*(side note: The spelling with a K was chosen by one Uncle AL to differentiate his concept of the psycho-spiritual art und "science" from other practices, such as stage magic. The word Magic has been used by countless magicians before and after without the K. Mr. Israel Regardie and other Magicians see no reason to surrender the word to the arena of stage magicians. Aesthetically I prefer just the K so meh just a moot point that needed to be made.)
In our grubby little hands (or on our Computers if you followed the golly gosh darn link) is POP MAGIC! by Grant Morrison. A lovable Scot who is renowned for being a Comic Book Writer of seemingly endless invention and imagination. He's done so many freakin things it's impossible to even conceive of a decent list without doing such an injustice to this spectacular human being. Personally, my favourite bit has been The Invisibles (which I think everyone should pick up, specially if you want to look deeper into the ol' Occult), but check it all out, tis quite good. HONEST ENGINE!
Any howdy who, he's put together a short wonderful little article that should get anyone in the mood for a little of the Magish. Straight forward, no b-s, and right to the point. A couple of practices, a deeper look into invocation and evocation that isn't tainted with a bunch of hub bub or fiddle faddle foo. Plus, while barely scraping the surface he makes some far reaching points on heavier issues that tend to come up (specially if yer in way o'er yer head).
One quote (which is actually a quote of Uncle AL's) that will considerably unhinge those doors of the labrynth we call the mind without completely blowing them off, I think is worthy of mention on these pages for a little clarification of many of the things said and are goin to be said:
"In this book it is spoken of the sephiroth and the paths, of spirits and conjurations, of gods, spheres, and planes and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain things, certain results follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophical validity to any of them."
Trust me, without this healthy little reminder, you can get a little lost in the deep dark woods/wonderous endless bliss of yers or someone else concoction or worse: become overtly und obssesively paranoid/full of yerself. Smell the roses and enjoy but know when it's about time to force that butt off its rump and head back into the fray. Check yerself, before ye wreck yerself. One cannot help to mention the Myth of Icarus at this junction as well. But that's for another time (or figure it out yerself. cough)
Still not much better has been written for the modern mind set in recent years (everyone worthy of mentioning (lot o' nuts in this fruit bowl) has seemed moved onto bizarre outskirt sciences which are increasingly with due pace beginnning to blur the lines between the two concepts/fields more and more. AND FER VERY GOOD REASON! again look into it. i can only touch base so much before it gets chaffed). Apparently G-Mo is supposed to be expanding the POP! for a single stand alone edition (god forbid) but in the mean time, Chew (slowly. don't wanna choke now...) on THIS!
(there is supposed to be an episode of I AM WEASEL named "I AM DEITY" here but i found it way too much of a hassle to upload. If you get a chance, watch it. It will help clarify certain ideas spread out on this page like a tasty piece of toast. Or it will either confuse you so much that it may give you Brain Cancer. Either way, do yerself a favour and check'er out.)
TU TU tin
TA TA
'til we meet again
SAME CRAP TIME
SAME SHAT CHANNEL
OKiss my S
(turns around in chair, notices the screen world, takes foot out of mouth...)
O, Hello there and Welcome to Today's Edition of OK Spuddroker's MAGIK! Series.
Every few days or so for the next little while Herr Spuddroker will be posting a variety of Introductory Works, Theoretical Texts, Profane Grimoires and Practice Books to help one better comprehend the wonderful super duper uber welt o' MAGIK*
Split the Peach
EndsPilT
the Seed!
*(side note: The spelling with a K was chosen by one Uncle AL to differentiate his concept of the psycho-spiritual art und "science" from other practices, such as stage magic. The word Magic has been used by countless magicians before and after without the K. Mr. Israel Regardie and other Magicians see no reason to surrender the word to the arena of stage magicians. Aesthetically I prefer just the K so meh just a moot point that needed to be made.)
In our grubby little hands (or on our Computers if you followed the golly gosh darn link) is POP MAGIC! by Grant Morrison. A lovable Scot who is renowned for being a Comic Book Writer of seemingly endless invention and imagination. He's done so many freakin things it's impossible to even conceive of a decent list without doing such an injustice to this spectacular human being. Personally, my favourite bit has been The Invisibles (which I think everyone should pick up, specially if you want to look deeper into the ol' Occult), but check it all out, tis quite good. HONEST ENGINE!
Any howdy who, he's put together a short wonderful little article that should get anyone in the mood for a little of the Magish. Straight forward, no b-s, and right to the point. A couple of practices, a deeper look into invocation and evocation that isn't tainted with a bunch of hub bub or fiddle faddle foo. Plus, while barely scraping the surface he makes some far reaching points on heavier issues that tend to come up (specially if yer in way o'er yer head).
One quote (which is actually a quote of Uncle AL's) that will considerably unhinge those doors of the labrynth we call the mind without completely blowing them off, I think is worthy of mention on these pages for a little clarification of many of the things said and are goin to be said:
"In this book it is spoken of the sephiroth and the paths, of spirits and conjurations, of gods, spheres, and planes and many other things which may or may not exist. It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain things, certain results follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophical validity to any of them."
Trust me, without this healthy little reminder, you can get a little lost in the deep dark woods/wonderous endless bliss of yers or someone else concoction or worse: become overtly und obssesively paranoid/full of yerself. Smell the roses and enjoy but know when it's about time to force that butt off its rump and head back into the fray. Check yerself, before ye wreck yerself. One cannot help to mention the Myth of Icarus at this junction as well. But that's for another time (or figure it out yerself. cough)
Still not much better has been written for the modern mind set in recent years (everyone worthy of mentioning (lot o' nuts in this fruit bowl) has seemed moved onto bizarre outskirt sciences which are increasingly with due pace beginnning to blur the lines between the two concepts/fields more and more. AND FER VERY GOOD REASON! again look into it. i can only touch base so much before it gets chaffed). Apparently G-Mo is supposed to be expanding the POP! for a single stand alone edition (god forbid) but in the mean time, Chew (slowly. don't wanna choke now...) on THIS!
(there is supposed to be an episode of I AM WEASEL named "I AM DEITY" here but i found it way too much of a hassle to upload. If you get a chance, watch it. It will help clarify certain ideas spread out on this page like a tasty piece of toast. Or it will either confuse you so much that it may give you Brain Cancer. Either way, do yerself a favour and check'er out.)
TU TU tin
TA TA
'til we meet again
SAME CRAP TIME
SAME SHAT CHANNEL
OKiss my S
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Visa's for Touring the States
Okay, so my band is planning a North American tour. I have heard many ways in which you can accomplish getting across the border, most ways unfortunately are illegal. Some bands end up not making it, completely screwing themselves over by getting caught and being banned from the states for five years. Im guessing that after that five year period is up, getting into the states will never truely be easy for them again.
Just with my personality type, I know, that if we were to put together some crazy scam to get across the states, I would probably go crazy right up until we made it through. I couldn't handle it. No way. There's no way I could rely on chance, and five people getting the same story straight. Especially for an extensive tour in the states that would need major planning, not to mention quitting our jobs, buying a van, also trying to get merch across etc.
I have heard many ways of doing it illegally, but as a band, we have decided to go about it legally. Which if we can acquire working Visas, will allow us everything we need to get into the states, tour, bring our merch and come home no problemo. I have also heard that even with a Visa they can still deny your entry, but the chance is way smaller.
Upon initially asking around for advice and information, I found that there wasn't very much available to someone who really has no idea what they are doing. I didn't even know where to start. I turned to my friends in a band currently touring the states and was given the name of an organization that could help and affordably.
At this point I realized, I should track my progress, keep people updated with mistakes or important things you need beforehand if you are also planning on obtaining a Visa for touring the states. So this is my gift to anyone attempting to do the same thing: my experience doing so, updated as we complete the steps in the process. I know I would have appreciated something like this, so I hope you do!
Up until this point I heard that Visas were ridiculously expensive to get, up to $1000 or more per member. Which does sound ridiculous and in most cases probably annihilated any hope a band had of touring the states. This is not true! The organization I was referred to is called Tamizdat. Visa's for your entire band (no matter how many members) is $1200. Which if you have a 5 person band, $240 each, sounds reasonable right? Right. Some companies like Globalaxs can charge an upwards of $2090, and that's for a four person band. Apparently Tamizdat helps get the $1000 "processing fee" waived.
So once deciding that we were going with Tamizdat, we emailed them letting them know that we wanted to use their organization for Visa services, they set us up a band code and away we go.
First thing you may want to look at is a list of things you'll need for the application process.
http://www.tamizdat.org/visa
First things first, you need a TON of press, like lots, as much as you can get! And press from outside of Canada too, the more the better. Big name blogs, music reviews, magazines, whatever, you need it.
So this is our first struggle, my band does not have a lot of press. A couple mentions here and there but no reviews, nothing really. Once I found out about this, I realized that our initial timeline just got fucked. We are leaving for tour in may, 199 days from now. We need to have everything in and processed by Tamizadat by an absolute minimum 100 days before we leave for tour.
That leaves me with 99 days to figure this shit out, book the tour, record and have demos available and sent for our application. Not to mention, a ton of press I have to magically try and get. So that is where we are currently sitting.
Vanessa Fever
Just with my personality type, I know, that if we were to put together some crazy scam to get across the states, I would probably go crazy right up until we made it through. I couldn't handle it. No way. There's no way I could rely on chance, and five people getting the same story straight. Especially for an extensive tour in the states that would need major planning, not to mention quitting our jobs, buying a van, also trying to get merch across etc.
I have heard many ways of doing it illegally, but as a band, we have decided to go about it legally. Which if we can acquire working Visas, will allow us everything we need to get into the states, tour, bring our merch and come home no problemo. I have also heard that even with a Visa they can still deny your entry, but the chance is way smaller.
Upon initially asking around for advice and information, I found that there wasn't very much available to someone who really has no idea what they are doing. I didn't even know where to start. I turned to my friends in a band currently touring the states and was given the name of an organization that could help and affordably.
At this point I realized, I should track my progress, keep people updated with mistakes or important things you need beforehand if you are also planning on obtaining a Visa for touring the states. So this is my gift to anyone attempting to do the same thing: my experience doing so, updated as we complete the steps in the process. I know I would have appreciated something like this, so I hope you do!
Up until this point I heard that Visas were ridiculously expensive to get, up to $1000 or more per member. Which does sound ridiculous and in most cases probably annihilated any hope a band had of touring the states. This is not true! The organization I was referred to is called Tamizdat. Visa's for your entire band (no matter how many members) is $1200. Which if you have a 5 person band, $240 each, sounds reasonable right? Right. Some companies like Globalaxs can charge an upwards of $2090, and that's for a four person band. Apparently Tamizdat helps get the $1000 "processing fee" waived.
So once deciding that we were going with Tamizdat, we emailed them letting them know that we wanted to use their organization for Visa services, they set us up a band code and away we go.
First thing you may want to look at is a list of things you'll need for the application process.
http://www.tamizdat.org/visa
First things first, you need a TON of press, like lots, as much as you can get! And press from outside of Canada too, the more the better. Big name blogs, music reviews, magazines, whatever, you need it.
So this is our first struggle, my band does not have a lot of press. A couple mentions here and there but no reviews, nothing really. Once I found out about this, I realized that our initial timeline just got fucked. We are leaving for tour in may, 199 days from now. We need to have everything in and processed by Tamizadat by an absolute minimum 100 days before we leave for tour.
That leaves me with 99 days to figure this shit out, book the tour, record and have demos available and sent for our application. Not to mention, a ton of press I have to magically try and get. So that is where we are currently sitting.
Vanessa Fever
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