The Bran Flakes are back! Six years since their last full release, Otis Fodder and Mildred Pitt are returning with the thrillingly fun I Have Hands on Illegal Art.

Formed in 1992 amidst tape and zine trading scenes, The Bran Flakes already have seven releases of zany mashups and poppy audio collages that are more likely to cop a riff from Evel Knievel than anything on the current radio dial. Call them the cover boys of Cool and Strange Music or simply misfits with giant paper-mâché heads, these boys have amassed a cult following for their child-like concoctions that evoke flashbacks of a sugar-induced high whilst watching Sesame Street.

The new album I Have Hands is 100% samples. No other band dares to invite Lawrence Welk, Mister Rogers, Van Halen, and Strawberry Shortcake to the same party. One track uses Dolly Parton's "9 to 5" at its center, while juxtaposing the familiar guitar pluck from Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger," and then ends with the Osmonds singing about freedom. While the look and feel is distinct, The Bran Flakes are right at home on the label that has championed Girl Talk, Steinski, and other samplephiliacs.

Get the CD with 'pay what you want' pricing at:

http://www.illegal-art.net/shop



Dave Segal of The Stranger

"It makes sense that the Bran Flakes' I Have Hands shares roster space with Girl Talk on Illegal Art. Both artists turn ADHD, omnivorous pop-culture awareness, and overworked samplers into sonic gold (and, in the Bran Flakes' case, aural laughing gas). The prevailing mood on this 30-track disc by the Bran Flakes (Seattle multi- instrumentalists Mildred Pitt and Otis Fodder) is a kind of demented EZ- listening/cracked-game-show franticness. It's novelty music, but extremely well-planned and -executed novelty music. Mocking (or is it homaging?) children's instructional records also appears on Pitt and Fodder's playful agenda. The beats are often danceable, but shaking asses seems less important to the Bran Flakes than provoking mirth."

ILLEGAL ART
http://illegalart.net/

PROPAGANDA
November 27, 2007

................................................................................ ..
................................................................................ ..

OH ASTRO
Champions of Wonder
IA 115 CD
http://www.illegalart.net/oh-astro/champions_of_wonder.html

Married duo Jane Dowe and Hank Hofler are both rooted firmly in experimental music, but with the Oh Astro project they continue their move towards odd interpretations of popular forms. Club music, children's songs, and fragmented samples of pop/rock all intersect on their first full-length album, Champions of Wonder, under the Oh Astro banner.

Jane Dowe entered the international electronic music scene in 1998 on two critical CD releases, Institutional Collaborative on Mille Plateaux, and Deconstructing Beck on Illegal Art. On Institutional Collaborative, Dowe and Terre Thaemlitz created abstract music that was described as a "table-tennis mixing game with 'lounge' and ambient soundclips" (The Wire). Dowe resurfaced in 2005 on Illegal Art with the debut Oh Astro mini-album, Hello World, which was hailed as "funky and pretty, Hello World's bite-sized samples concoct a weird pop universe" (CMJ New Music Monthly). While Hank Hofler peripherally contributed to the project, it wasn't until after Hello World that he became significant collaborator in Oh Astro. Besides creating music Dowe has also done installations in galleries internationally and codes idiosyncratic software for her various projects.

Hank Hofler's first performances were in Japan as part of the live electronic improvisation scene from 1998-2001, playing shows with Japanese artists such as Otomo Yoshihide, Merzbow, Ikue Mori, and Sawako. As Dowe was too shy for live events, Hank's earliest shows were actually performing as "Jane Dowe" (further confusing the identity of the pseudononymous Dowe). As he developed his own reputation, Hofler began to be billed under his own name, began street performing in Tokyo, and later also took on the live shows for Oh Astro. As a tenure-track professor, Hofler currently teaches in an Arts Technology program at Illinois State University. Both Hofler and Dowe hold advanced degrees from prestigious institutions such as Dartmouth College and Keio Univeristy (Japan), but have strong reservations about the esoteric qualities of academic art/music.

The purposely-pixilated digipak artwork for Champions of Wonder was created by the internationally known producer/artist Terre Thaemlitz utilizing illustrations by Aiko Tsuji. The physical release also contains surround sound mixes of the first three tracks by Aaron Paolucci (who also mastered the stereo mixes) that can be played on a computer connected to a 5.1 sound system.

One of the common techniques on Champions of Wonder is the manipulation of vocals by spectral software that is coded by Dowe and long-time mentor Christopher Penrose. Even the more experimental or ambient tracks contain ghostly sounds of vocals that have been stripped from their original context and placed into the pulsating electronic world of Oh Astro. The other common practice on the album is that every sound, with the exception of some of the vocals, is sampled from pre-existing recordings. The types of music sampled range from top 40 songs to indie hipster music to the obscure. In the end, it's more about what is done with the sample than what was originally sampled.

Champions of Wonder has already achieved substantial internet buzz with mp3s being posted on Pitchfork and Stereogum and the "Snow Queen" track ranking in the top 4 "most blogged" tracks recently (according to elbo.ws).

Two free mp3 downloads are available here:
http://www.illegalart.net/oh-astro/champions_of_wonder.html
and you can stream the entire album here:
http://www.fanaticpromotion.com/ecards/ohastro/

................................................................................ ..
................................................................................ ..

DOWNLOAD CLUB:

Both recent releases from Oh Astro and Realistic are now available in the download club. We continue to work on improving the download club and recently re-programmed it to keep track of your downloads so that if you need to download an item again it will not charge you.
http://illegalart.net/downloads

................................................................................ ..
................................................................................ ..

MAILING LIST INFO:

Go to http://illegalart.net/misc/propaganda.html to subscribe or unsubscribe to these propaganda mailings. We currently do not have any other mailing lists, but if you desire more frequent information about artists on Illegal Art, please visit http://philoblog.blogspot.com for news and other erratic postings.

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

ILLEGAL ART
http://illegalart.net/

PROPAGANDA
October 23, 2007

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

REALISTIC
Perpetual Memory Loss
IA 114 CD
www.illegalart.net/realistic/perpetual_memory_loss.html

"Following the aesthetic of Negativland and John Oswald, Realistic borrows material from every possible source: classic rock, disco, self-improvement records, soap operas [and more]. Towning demonstrates a knack for unconventional looping, sonic accumulation, and a good joke." – All Music Guide

Realistic's third album, Perpetual Memory Loss, features sixteen tracks of intricate sample-based compositions -- a beautifully sophisticated celebration of found sound, recorded media, technology, and electronic composition. Slices of field recordings mesh with surreal electronic melodies, which creates enjoyably odd multi-layered musical fun. Realistic is the guise of sound collage artist James Towning, a musician and graphic designer originally from OhioIn 2003 he moved to Brooklyn, NY and currently works a full-time job as a motion-graphics designer in Manhattan.

A recurring source in Towning's compositions is the nostalgic sounds of 70's and 80's techno-pop and rock artists that were personally influential over the years. As well as using computer-based waveform editing and sampling, Towning carries a portable digital recorder to capture various audio environments on a daily basis. Whether the source samples are found around the house, on TV, on a busy Chinatown street, or a crackly sound effects record, Realistic's juxtaposition of head-spaces always creates something surreal and altogether new.

"There's such a rich texture of sound and visuals in New York. I'm constantly entertained with the sounds that I record," said Towning in a recent interview. An ever-increasing collection of thrift-store records and cassettes is another likely source of audio inspiration. "I love composing little sound pieces using whatever source material I choose. It's a cathartic, fun, and essential part of my life," said Towning.


With Perpetual Memory Loss, the Realistic sound has evolved into a tighter and more structured mesh of musical patterns and mangled beats. Tiny rhythmic patterns and subtle textural layers are revealed upon repeated listening. Sampled dialogue is used more sparingly than in previous Realistic releases allowing the musical voices to be heard more clearly. Each complex track is its own self-contained little world, with disjointed characters, funky grooves, and odd but familiar musical samples. Throughout the 45-minute album, expressionistic patterns of sound twist and fold into one another as the tracks evolve. At times the entire audio spectrum degrades and distorts in groovy syncopation. The tracks on Perpetual Memory Loss are more complex and refined, but what remains is the underlying sense of humor, rich production, and an offbeat composition style that is distinctively Realistic.

Regarding the album's artwork, Towning explains, "The CD art was designed by me. It consists of many thumbnails of snapshots I've taken over the past three years or so. That timeframe coincides with the production of the audio tracks, too. The snapshots represent memories in a very literal way. They vary in subject matter from pictures of my cats, still-lifes, industrial landscapes, detailed textures, and random found art. The inside artwork reveals more snapshot thumbnails in varying degrees of clarity." Towning further elaborates, "Beneath the CD, a collage of found images and photographs explodes and bleeds over into the snapshots. The technique of collaging with found and personal imagery reflects the style of the audio tracks too. The primary colors of red and green that I chose were inspired by and derived from a vintage Christmas card I received from a friend a few years ago. Again, a nostalgic reference."

As for the title Perpetual Memory Loss Towning says it "speaks to the process of growing older and the mind's ability to store, lose, and constantly distort memories. And how sometimes those memories are recalled in a random and overlapping order. As we get older, more and more memories are stored while others are buried deep or lost. The title also references the similarities between the ever expanding human mind and a computer's finite hard drive and its ability to retrieve random and corrupt data."

Two mp3s from Perpetual Memory Loss are freely downloadable from our site.
www.illegalart.net/realistic/perpetual_memory_loss.html

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

DOWNLOAD CLUB:

The Illegal Art Download Club is up and running. We anticipate having the new Realistic album uploaded very soon (which is free if you buy the physical CD from the webshop), and there is already download-only content from DJ Pantshead & The Evolution Control Committee, Lecture on Nothing, and Yea Big. We anticipate adding more catalog items and download-only items in the upcoming months.
illegalart.net/downloads

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

UPCOMING:

We are set to release material from Oh Astro (November 6th), Girl Talk (as soon as the new album is finished), and Steinski (February/March). Some of these you'll be able to receive well in advance of the release date by taking advantage of the special offer at illegalart.net/a/myspace.php. At that URL you will also find a free digital EP with tracks from Realistic, Oh Astro, Girl Talk, and Steinski.

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

MAILING LIST INFO:

Go to illegalart.net/misc/propaganda.html to subscribe or unsubscribe to these propaganda mailings. We currently do not have any other mailing lists, but if you desire more frequent information about artists on Illegal Art, please visit philoblog.blogspot.com for news and other erratic postings.

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

we have various tasks associated with putting up & managing content online...... if anyone is interested in helping out please send me a message via myspace. this is non-paying, but if you're a fan of Girl Talk or Illegal Art or Motley Crue, this could be a nice way to help spread the love.

thanks!

philo

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

ILLEGAL ART
http://illegalart.net/

PROPAGANDA
August 8, 2006


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

ON THE EDGE: THE FEMICIDE IN CIUDAD JUÁREZ d
DVD documentary by Steev Hise
IA 901
http://illegalart.net/juarez/

On The Edge is a documentary covering the brutal murders of hundreds of poor young women in the border town of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, murders that have been repeatedly ignored and unresolved by police and governments since 1993, despite the continued and persistent efforts of family members and activists to obtain justice for the victims. Rather than provide an easy, murder-mystery style solution to the crimes, the film sets out to explain the social, cultural, and economic factors that have created this situation where the killings can continue, and continue to go unpunished. In addition to explaining the circumstances, On The Edge situates the Juarez killings in the context of wider political and economic trends, showing the audience that this is not just an isolated phenomenon in one far-off city, but a glimpse at a nightmarish future for much of the world, unless something is done to prevent it.

Coincidentally, Hollywood is also exploring the femicides in upcoming films. Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas star in Bordertown, which is a thriller about a journalist investigating murders in American-owned factories on the border of Juarez and El Paso. Minnie Driver is also staring in the drama The Virgin of Juarez. While both of these movies will help raise awareness of the 400 plus murders, both are fictional accounts that lack the depth to do much more than entertain.

The underlying issues explored in On The Edge go beyond the horror of the murders, and result in a call for action. Issues of narco-trafficking, sexism, free trade, immigration, corruption, poverty, and sweatshops, all come to foreground in this compelling documentary. As the details unfold, it is difficult for the average American's worldview to remain intact. Every responsible and ethical citizen should view this film.

Steev Hise is a videographer, activist, and artist based in Tucson, Arizona. He is actively involved with the Independent Media Center and various Latin American solidarity groups and projects. In fall 2004 he accompanied the International Caravan for Justice in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City, which was the beginning of this video project to produce an up-to-date and accessible documentary about the femicides there. Steev has shown his work in Europe, Australia, and throughout the Americas.

Hise's relationship with Illegal Art goes back to the infamous Deconstructing Beck compilation in 1998 and the release of his sample-based album, Original, in 1999. His focus shifted from audio to video over the years, partly due to his interest in producing works with a strong political bent. While the Illegal Art label has primarily released music in the past, On The Edge represents a new series and direction that will be centered on video activism.

Currently most video documentaries have a short screening life in small venues and festivals. Some are also distributed on DVD, but usually cost a few hundred dollars per copy, catering to a small market of collectors and libraries. On The Edge will be sold, though, below or at normal DVD retail prices with the intention of reaching as many people as possible. Illegal Art is also selling multiple copies at a reduced price for those interested in spreading the DVD to others.

This is a regionless NTSC DVD. You can view a trailer here:
http://political.detritus.net/juarez/juarez-trailer-2.mp4


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

GIRL TALK BLOWS UP
http://illegalart.net/girltalk/
http://myspace.com/girltalkmusic

Due to coverage from XLR8R, Pitchfork, CMJ, MTV, Entertainment Weekly, and countless blogs... we are awaiting a repress of Night Ripper. We apologize to anyone waiting for their order. We expect copies to arrive on our doorstep any day now and will begin to work on the backlog of orders.

Congratulations to Girl Talk on his new stardom. Live dates scheduled at this point include:

Aug 11, Atlanta, Lenny's
Aug 18, New York, Mercury Lounge
Sept 9, Chicago, Empty Bottle
Sept 23, Houston, Porletariat
Oct 6, Decatur ,GA, Azul
Oct 12, Club Firestone, Orlando
Nov 2, New York, Fanatic CMJ Event
Nov 11, San Francisco, RIOTTT festival, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Nov 17, Morgantown, WV, 123 Pleasant


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

SUB/UNSUB:

To subscribe/unsubscribe to Illegal Art propagand mailings, go to http://illegalart.net/misc/propaganda.html. We're currently sending out propaganda every 1-6 months. Stay flexible.


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

..................................................................................
..................................................................................

ILLEGAL ART
http://illegalart.net/

PROPAGANDA
May 12, 2006


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

GIRL TALK
Night Ripper
IA 113
http://illegalart.net/girltalk/

Girl Talk (aka Gregg Gillis) is back with his 3rd album on Illegal Art. With each release getting closer to his notorious semi-naked live show, Night Ripper is focused less on beat-f***ery and more on bringing heat to the party. It bangs as a continuous mix packed with wildly disparate Top 40 genres and eras. Current hip hop hits, soft rock radio standards, party classics, grunge masterpieces, R&B singles, glossy club-shakers, and rock anthems are all layered and pieced meticulously together into one non-stop celebration of pop and excess. Only Girl Talk's magical touch could please both dance-crazed teenage masses and mashup geeks with equal love. Mark Hosler of Negativland has declared it "a plunderphonics party record."

Gregg Gills has built up a party-obsessed cult following as Girl Talk over the past 5 years. The project began with Gillis tearing apart mainstream music using digital signal processing (DSP) and re-piecing various songs back together into glitchy avant-garde renditions of pop music. This cut-and-paste train wreck style is what comprises Girl Talk's debut release Secret Diary (Illegal Art, 2002). He also developed the initial incarnation of his self-proclaimed "over the top" live show during this era, complete with synchronized dance squads, outfit changes, and plenty of crowd interaction/participation. These flashy performances were a response to the increasingly widespread sit-behind-a-laptop-and-look-bored-while-simultaneously-boring-the-audience-style laptop shows.

On his sophomore release Unstoppable (Illegal Art, 2004), Girl Talk took a step away from the DSP/noise of his first release and instead fixated on tightly edited beats and melodies with pop music hooks and samples. As described by Adam Strohm of Dusted Magazine, "Gillis proves to be a masterful arranger of samples; there always seem to be a million things happening at once, and every little snippet of sound seems to be perfectly in place. Gillis warps the pitch and speed of the original sound source when needed, and adds his own IDM beats and squiggles, but the samples he uses are every track's main ingredient and, subsequently, the decisive stars of Unstoppable." With a growing fan base, Gillis began to work crowds into a frenzy at venues ranging from rowdy college house parties to art museums to dive bars with rock bands.

For his latest album, Night Ripper, Gillis has developed a style strictly for the dance floor. Pounding beats are mixed with an endless flow of familiar Top 40 samples. Gillis currently lives in Pittsburgh and actively participates and collaborates with other "on the verge" Midwest and East coast artists such as Grand Buffet (Fighting), Drop the Lime (Tigerbeat6), Chris Glover (Interscope), and Hearts of Darknesses (Schematic/Asphodel). Gregg also tours regularly, which has included previous performances in Europe and Japan. He has done shows with a variety of artists such as Prefuse 73, Wesley Willis, Soft Pink Truth, Wolf Eyes, Luke Vibert, Japanther, Cex, and Otto Von Schirach.

As Night Ripper samples some rather current hits, it is being released immediately upon completion on the Illegal Art website (before it officially hits retail). Illegal Art is also launching an exclusive digital download club that will feature post-Night Ripper tracks, further shortening the turnaround of Girl Talk's super-current sampling habits. Other sonic outlaws, such as The Evolution Control Committee, will likewise be contributing sample-heavy mixes to the download club.

Besides releasing albums on Illegal Art, Girl Talk has issued a 12" on 12 Apostles (UK), a 7" on 333 Recordings (Deerhoof, Drop the Lime, Sagan, etc.) and appeared on various compilations. All Girl Talk releases and appearances are available in our webshop, http://illegalart.net/webshop/section.php?section=girltalk


For the first time we're offering this as both a physical and digital release. While we're working out details of a download club, just email us for info on purchasing Night Ripper as a download and we'll set you up. Purchasing the actual CD from the webshop will also get you the download.

2 mp3s from Night Ripper are freely downloadable from our site.
http://illegalart.net/girltalk/


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

OH ASTRO GLISTENS
http://illegalart.net/oh-astro/

Numerous press quotes from our last release, Oh Astro's Hello World:

"Hello World is the sound of Oh Astro blinking rapidly, constantly, and electronically. More, please, and keep it coming...mysterious stranger." -Static Multimedia

"Builds out of this small sound buildings they are so friendly, delicious, inviting so we cannot go any other way, as drunken with colorful hope to step in." (rough translation from German) -De:bug

"Some of the strangest music you may ever hear. The forms and customs of popular music are systematically turned inside-out, dissected, and scattered into the mix like drops of paint off a brush." -XLR8R

"Jane Dowe jerry-rigged her own software to create music that mirrored the ghostly clicks, piercing pops and quark-sized samples of experimental electronica, but loops all the little blurbs as if she were making pop songs." -CMJ New Music Monthly

"'Circuits Gleam' sounds exactly like its title shimmering truncated melodies flirting jaggedly like two butterflies dancing until it winds down and tips off." -Exclaim!

"This could be the soundtrack to your computers disc defragmenter cycle. Like John Coltranes Ascension or Cephalic Carnages Anomalies, this is music for people who have freed their minds and, or, lost their minds." -Exploding Plastic

"...dissects the works of Aesop Rock, Ennio Morricone, Missy Elliot, and others, folding sample fragments into various shuffling patterns. Highly recommended." -Grooves

"the Borg-like 'customized software' being employed spectrally analyzes and resynthesizes everything, spitting out ghostly profiles of samples, some of them winding up sounding like a sinewave caricature of Justin Timberlake doing Alvin Lucier." -e|i
"Dowe's programming obliterates the original works, forming melodies, make-shift vocals and new instruments from the ashes. Nicely done." -Splendid

"Jane Dowe (a.k.a. Oh Astro) takes a bold-faced turn to blurted hip-hop washes and sheer colorific robotica on Hello World." -Igloo

"Averse POP...an originality outside of argument" (rough translation from Italian) -Neural

"The record your miniature self is sitting on might be by Public Enemy. Or something from Motown. Or maybe something by Steve Reich. Your miniature self is being observed by Oh Astro and they are taking a lot of notes." -Robots and Electronic Brains

"The six songs on this EP flow like adrenaline to the frontal lobe, from the hip-twisting whip of 'Everything Is Go!' to the ADD sweat of 'All My Favorite' to the alien paranoia of 'Circuits Gleam.'" -Venus

"...interesting, entertaining and witty." -Vital Weekly


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

UPCOMING:

Initiating a new video activism series on Illegal Art, Steev Hise's On The Edge: The Femicide in Ciudad Juárez is a documentary covering the brutal murders of over 400 poor young women in the border town of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, murders that have been repeatedly ignored and unresolved by police and governments since 1993, despite the continued and persistent efforts of family members and activists to obtain justice for the victims. Rather than provide an easy, murder-mystery style solution to the crimes, the film sets out to explain the social, cultural, and economic factors that have created this situation where the killings can continue, and continue to go unpunished. In addition to explaining the circumstances, On The Edge situates the Juarez killings in the context of wider political and economic trends, showing the audience that this is not just an isolated phenomenon in one far-off city, but a glimpse at a nightmarish future for much of the world, unless something is done to prevent it.

More information and a trailer is available at http://political.detritus.net/juarez/.

While the official release date is set for August 8th, pre-orders will be sent out in a few weeks. Send an email to info @ illegalart.net to pre-order.


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

MAILING LISTS:

This new propaganda list will allow you to more easily subscribe/unsubscribe as you see fit. Go to http://illegalart.net/misc/propaganda.html to subscribe/unsubscribe. Illegal Art propaganda will be sent out roughly once per month.

The [ia] discussion list is currently inactive.


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

ILLEGAL ART
http://illegalart.net/


..................................................................................
..................................................................................

We just added 2 new items from Solnze Records to the webshop. Amazing stuff. Listen to the clips. CLICK HERE!. We'll be adding more Solnze items in the future. We're slowly updating the webshop to a new database. Some of the pages still list out of stock items, but the following pages are currently in the new database and reliable: New Items, Illegal Art, 12 Apostles, Bran Flakes... and hopefully more soon.

Exactly one year after this account started, we've shifted over to the music section and uploaded tracks from the last 4 releases. All four are downloadable and compressed at the highest quality we could put up on myspace (280-320kbps depending on the length of the song). New Girl Talk album in a couple of months!