mixed show last week.

the good:
SG played the OA butler role. based on feedback, people loved it. Cepia was beautiful (even though everyone stayed in their corners.... but maybe it’s just that kind of music). people crowded in for OA, response seemed great. everyone who came with me (Stephen, Kate, Ernest, Adrian, and Mike) dressed up (red ties). the festival folks were nice.

the bad:
no real sound check. no monitors to be used (even though you could see them off to the side), so it was difficult to know how loud to go, etc. or what it sounded like on the other side of the speakers. it got too crowded so Kate and Ernest couldn’t do much glow poi.

evern worse:
the festival folks repeatedly asked me how long i wanted to play (40 minutes), but then the sound guy wanted to cut off at 30 minutes. a little later he came up and said that was it. i asked if i could finish the track i had just started and he said "ok" but then cut my volume by somewhat... so it felt anticlimatic. then he was really insistent that i get all my stuff off stage asap. everything was really loose up to that point, so it made no sense that all of sudden everything was rushed (except that later i realized they added extra artists to the bill... who, don’t get me wrong, were a lot of fun!).

still, overall a good show...

hank

never mind that it was a few weeks ago. the show at the kitchen was amazing. we had given up on local shows a long time ago, but with the new network of houses putting on shows... wow!! they pack the people in. they're into more eclectic music and it just gives one hope for being in the middle of illinois.

and the biggest thrill was sitting on the kitchen counter watching Yea Big + Kid Static. everyone was jumping up and down and i could feel the entire room moving up and down as well. amazing! yb+ks rock the mics and the digital beats twist out of the laptop. incredible. stefen's production is so top notch.

we've gotten a lot of online reviews etc. for the new album, but this one is easily our favorite (even though they didn't give us 5 stars!).
tinymixtapes.com/OhAstro

The performance last night (Metatronics: Throne of Fog) was a huge success from my perspective. I don't think I've felt this good about an improvised set for 3+ years (Phoenix Gallery, Candlestick Maker). In the last 2 years I have had some good live sets (Francisco House, Faculty Show, Champaign), but those have focused more on the Oh Astro style material. This event pushed me to go back into the more improvised soundscapes and I rethought aspects of it for this performance, taking it to another place. Maybe even to a range of material that could be used as transitional material for the Oh Astro shows.

Kudos to Nick Hoffman for organizing the show and twisting my arm to do electronic sampling improv for a change. The format was Nick solo, Me solo, and then duo (roughly 20 minutes for each segment).

the press folks have asked for a list of samples on the album, so here are some notes we typed up.
......................................................................

Notes on samples:
1) Snow Queen: Ratatat "Desert Eagle" and Lily Allen "Everything Is Wonderful"
2) Hello Fuji Boy: Hot Chip "Boy From School," Fujiya & Miyagi "Ankle Injuries," and Lionel Richie "Hello"
3) Lucy Sees The Moon: Lucy (our daughter) sings the lyrics to children's song "I See The Moon" and it is filtered through Deanna Durbin "Amapola" and Bing Crosby "If I Had My Way"
4) Candy Sun Smiles: Busdriver "Sun Shower," Gnarls Barkley "Gone Daddy Gone," and Electronic "Getting Away With It"
5) Empty Air: only source is Jim O'Rourke "Good Times"
6) Xanadu: Jane sings the lyrics to "Xanadu" in sync with the original song (originally sung by Olivia Newton John with music by Electric Light Orchestra) filtered through Electronic "Get The Message" (strumming guitar intro) and Xiu Xiu "Bishop, CA". Background contains samples from Pan Tone "Gringo Grinder" and The Killers "Somebody Told Me" (guitar pluck)
7) Journey to the Center: remix of ROC "Journey to the Center of Brixton" (authorized), along with additional drum parts from Stefen Robinson (aka Yea Big).
8) Itch Box: remix of Yea Big "Please Die, and Leave Me Alone" (authorized), which samples vocals of a chain-gang chant from the Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack. also contains vocal samples from the ROC track, additional drum parts from Stefen Robinson and a synthesized harmonic progression from Tristan Hansen (a student of mine).
9) Robot Love I Love You: Ella (our daughter) sings her own lyric filtered through the Japanese children's song "Inu No Omawarisan" as recorded on the compilation Doikono Douyou
10) Quiet Mouth: only source is Sufjan Stevens "John Wayne Gacy, Jr."
11) Pet Apples: only source is Apples In Stereo "About Your Fame"

This is as accurate as we can remember. We could be missing something or mistaking something, but it should be at least 95-99% accurate. It may seem odd that a few tracks only have one source, but it's usually transformed to such an extent that we feel it has become its own entity.

last week i opened up a show in Champaign for Headlights and Poster Children. playing for a rock audience was amazing. despite some of the glitches and missteps, the Oh Astro material seemed to go over really well.

one of the highlights was seeing the Poster Children. they were so tight and energetic. Rose was incredible to watch. i remember driving around Provo, Utah years ago and hearing "If You See Kaye" on the alternarock station and loving it at the time. i would never have imagined that i would someday open up a show for them.

hank

Here are a couple of diary entries from this Summer when we were working on the album. -Jane

Monday, June 4, 2007
perplexed
I seem to be coming up against a wall creatively. I had a breakthrough over a year ago, but last summer the tracks and project just got less compelling the more I created. This January, I likewise had a breakthrough, and it felt even more significant since it moved my music much further away from the esoteric and experimental. I have done a couple more tracks, but again each becomes less compelling. Today I am trying to start another track, and I'm just not convinced that it's going in a decent direction. What can I do, or how can I either create more material in this vein or switch things up enough to have yet another breakthrough?

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
vox
I'm still somewhat perplexed, but I put some time in late last night jotting down ideas. I am feeling more confident, but uncertain at the same time. In November/December I tried to work on some sort of processed vocals, but nothing came of it. I'm leaning towards going back to some of those ideas, but I hesitate to spend days experimenting and come out empty handed. The general inclination, though, should be to open the project to other ideas and directions and not limit it to the methods that worked for the last track I made. I need to pull from other techniques and strategies. I tend to get tunnel vision when I'm composing. I have a system that I think will work, but I have to escape out of such barriers.

hopefully we'll get some tracks up soon from the new disc. i just saw a physical copy today for the first time. the artwork is done by Terre Thaemlitz. it's beautiful. official release on November 6th via Illegal Art.

1. vocals fitted to harmonic file
2. harmonic file edited w/ backing track
3. vocals processed through edited harmonic file and mixed into track

We've been experimenting with this for a while and maybe we finally have it just so... maybe.

Love, Jane

Hank and I are finally dedicating some solid weeks to finishing a series of tracks. We've also started documenting our work on twitter. You can find us here: twitter.com/ohastro.

Love, Jane