devil/details.

I was backing this up today and realized that, without a looming performance context for which to half-memorize this shit, on paper it just looks insane. This is my part of the score for what happens onstage in ze collaboration with Hillary Blake Firestone, This is hardly an invitation.

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PRESET LIST

1. All Cube knobs taped down
2. Check Mixer levels: 202 is at 9, 404 to 6, mains to 5, phones to 1
3. Prepare tables and cables
4. Chair, GT-3

1. Fresh Batteries
2. Sampler volumes on full
3. Turn on PC Chrono
4. 202 power unplugged and on
5. Cube Power Unplugged, amp on
6. Mobile Amp settings: Dan goes to 5, Cube volume down, tone 10 gain 5
7. Cable settings: New mini/jack from 202 to Danelectro, Long ¼ inch from 404 to Microcube.
8. Have balloon cables visible and ready to go.
9. Balloon settings: have balloon tape/clamp ready
1. Bubbleblower ready
2. Tapeplayer + megaphone ready
3. Make sure GT-3 is set to 20-4
4. POLICE MEGAPHONE VOLUME DOWN ???????????????
5. Maraca
6. Have paper lantern and bubbleblower grabbable
7. Sparklers and lighter
8. Streamers with unrolling begun and Silly string
9. Perishing party blowers that work and clapper

C/G procession

TURN ON AMPS AND 202
MC voice 202-A8: GET CABLES FOR FRASCATI
1) PLUG IN POWER FIRST
2) WHEN 4o4 COMES ON, prepare C4

1st table slow walk, wait and follow hilly
walking toward little table in back is fast, go past table
bringing 2nd table out sideways speeds up
LEAVE together WAIT FOR HILLY SHE BRUSHES LINT OFF
PEDAL: DOWN together with pedal LEAVE RIGHT AWAY
I leave right away see if we can leave/enter simultaneously
Get chair
CLIPS?
Get plugs, plug in power first, remain standing until?

404 to C bank

C4 kick and HOLD when H passes tape line moving into space
One pass nothing
Receive CLOWN NOSE on 2nd pass after music starts
After clown nose, one pass, and then
I blow BUBBLEBLOWER on cue and PREPARE TO TRADE
She takes BUBBLE BLOWER I get PARADE WHISTLE in one right-hand motion SHE PUTS BUBBLE BLOWER BACK
PUT ON LEI
(This is an OK time to plug in GT-3 and balloon)
After FLOWER PETALS,
Then MARACAS, on 2rd pass I start rhythm
After silly string pass, give PAPER LANTERN , get 2nd MARACA and solo……keep playing maracas during paper lantern
Hilly picks up BUBBLEBLOWER
NEXT PASS RECEIVE BUBBLEBLOWER DISH and place far away
THEN DRESS OFF/POUR SHOTS IF NOT POURED YET
RECEIVE 1 POM POM on POM POM round then CATCH ONE AND SET HANDLES UP· on CONFETTI round PREPARE TO LIGHT SPARKLER
After Limbo Rock, light a SPARKLER
SPARKLER
SHIFT CHAIR LEFT and Then give FLAG SWIFTLY when H passes amp and take sparkler with left hand
RECEIVE FLAG WITH LEFT HAND after it passes
POPPERS
DIRT during sirens
AFTER SECOND STORM CLOUD I ADD BIG DRUMS
WEDDING CAR CANS then SPRAY HILLY
MEGAPHONE AND PUT BACK NEXT TO TAPE PLAYER
I THROW STREAMERS AND POPPERS AND MAYBE CONFETTI
After LATIN SHIT, play MEGAPHONE and PUT MEGAPHONE BACK NEXT TO TAPE PLAYER

When Hilly turns volume up, take 404 swiftly out of PA

Hilly rolls half circle then stop 404-C4 and start 202-D1

404-C3 insects during second air horn

D becoming

2 x long skitter
2 x pop
2 x pop and hihat
2 x pop with long skitters
2 x pop with short skitters
2 x pop with hihat
pop until chord change

8 bars after hiss rhythm start drums
TURN UP PA TURN UP PA
TURN UP PA TURN UP PA

THROW POMPOM OVER STRIP LIGHTS on 2 one thousand then HOLD to STOP when they hit the ground. FADE UP 404 if not already and D6

E/I reconstruction

CHECK IF MIXER FADE IS OK
Reroute cube to Gt-3
Align megaphone and tape
Set 202 to B bank
Don’t start E1 until construction stops
REMEMBER BEEPS

Turn on tape and TIMER
text starts, only E1

00:00 balloon solo cube only 20-4
01:30 hilly gets in pile (or writhe on the ground at 1:48) E5 (if she gets in at 1:30, the text runs out as she approaches the table)

02:15 balloon embellishments

03:50(4:08) “whole pig” E9 + KAOSSCILLATOR S.60 bass pour shots if not already
move hilly’s tray over to me

04:58 (5:16) sines E4 on tense chord, switch to J bank, bass

06:00 (6:16) my first blow 648

START J1 kick WHEN SHE SITS UP (around 6:40) possibly use J3 for tension
J12 then HOLD to turn everything off
Turn on police megaphone

I need to be at 202B8 and 404J

BLACK OUT SCREEN

F/J perishing party

202-B8 Then fucking 404-J12

Blowers
Crow
Whistle
Shot/Shaker
Stand up and Move Chair to bottom left corner of table

CROWN
· Turn up little amps during transitional chord
· Volume level for cube at end?
· As Hilly heads back to backstage, I pick up amp, and fade out PA while she’s backstage
· Time fade out of Cube with her balloon finishing, remember J11 is supplementary drone
· Close Laptop

BRING HILLY SHIRT

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complexities.

The Family Tapes reconvened today for some recording and, yeah. It's still hard. Maybe I'll post a recording in a bit.

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tiptoe to the tulip.

Or hop, skip, jump, etc. Jasper and I are doing a little duet this afternoon at De Tulp (Postjeskade 200), it will be loud and abstract but in a friendly way. I think we're actually playing second, contrary to what the flyer implies, maybe our names were just too damn long...

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LATER: Here's the recording. Also below is a recording from a session two days earlier, this is the very first time we sat down as a duo. Both sessions are effects-free.

Jasper Stadhouders  + Mark Morse: z100e.



Jasper Stadhouders  + Mark Morse: De Tulp.



Jasper Stadhouders: guitar + objects
Mark Morse: guitar + objects

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solo studies iv: dirt.

Tonight I finally turned up the volume knob on my trusty sidekick Le Blues Junior, and together we laughed, we cried, we used ridiculous doubleneck slides. Here are some results, all using one or two "9" mutes. And a couple of them have reverb, yeah sorry.

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Study 19 starts out with pedestrian tinkles, but it's interesting to have 18 strings to use instead of 6; unexpected breathy sounds from rubbing inside of forearm on muted bottom string of top neck; pretty decent clarinet emulation until it's revealed that I'm playing a flute carved from a tree branch, badly.

Solo Study iv-19 (behind bridges twinkles, elbow breathing, pedicure bridge on bottom neck pickup, foil mute on top bridge pickup, ebow).



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20a gradually brings the background into the foreground by exaggerating fret noise.

Solo Study iv-20a (top neck, plastic slide, drinking straw bridge).



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Kind of just a little Sonic Toothish exercise in keeping material on both necks going simultaneously with mostly non-repeating chords.

Solo Study iv-20e (top neck harmonics, bottom neck rhythm).



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solo studies iii.

So, yes, more studies and documentation thereof (backstory here). Just because, oh, I don't know, it kind of really is working for me, in terms of actually learning techniques vs. just crashing random shit into my strings.

There will be about 10 in total this time around, I'll be uploading them as I sort through the takes. And then deleting them again as I come to realize they suck (see study 16).

As objects/preparations, they're getting weirder but not necessarily better; but on the upside I seem to be getting a little more efficient/resourceful/ooh dare I say smarter in working with objects. And plus it's keeping me out of trouble, unless you count my dabbling with reverb on a few takes.

SOLO STUDIES III

This first one is a useless freak of a thing, but I've never seen or heard of it before, so I hereby share it with the world, who may already be doing this left and right, WTF, maybe I'm the last to know, who knows. I feel like a useless freak myself for "discovering" it, but you gotta believe me, I didn't spend hours on it, it just happened, you'll see how in 2 seconds.

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So there I was, dorkily taking pictures of preparations when I dorkily realized that hey, my camera makes noise. And not in a bad cell-phoney way. Here are the complicated instructions: turn on your digital camera and hold it right next to your pickups. That's it! Try it!

With my shitty camera I found that there were about 6 different constant/rhythmic sounds, one for each side of the rectangular block that is The Camera. So most of the variation you hear in the study is me rotating the camera around and bringing it closer/farther to/from the pickups. I don't know a single thing about science, but is it probable that the LCD screen is probably the source of this sound?

One way to interrupt the constant sounds is to put something like a finger in front of the lens (with autofocus on), and you get a slightly different sound for a few secs. Much cooler than that (but not really useful on a regular basis) is the sound that happens when you depress the Take a Picture Now button (actual name?) so that your infrared laser thingie comes on but you don't actually take a picture. This is the quick synthish melody you hear towards the end of the first version of the study. Taking a picture sounds completely different and sadly, less cool (you hear this at the end of the second version)...it sounds like maybe the SD card being accessed, you also hear something similar at the beginning, I think this is turning the camera on.

So, nifty. But in terms of a technique you can learn and develop, this isn't it: it's pretty limited sonically if you're not using effects pedals, which we're not. You will notice below that I exploited a loophole in the no-effects-pedals rule and did one take with my amp reverb turned up all the way...yes, I feel guilty about it and would like to say I won't do it again but in fact I know that's not true. I also included a totally dry take for reference.

Solo Study iii-15 (camera with amp reverb).



Solo Study iii-15 (camera dry).



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This one's an orphan from last week, I don't remember what I was doing. What typically happens is, I press REC, play for 2 minutes and quickly decide if it sounds like anything or not and then jot down what I did technically, but I must not have liked this one when I did it b/c I have no jottings, I imagine b/c it's a bit too close to Bela Fleck Plays Gnawa pastiche. But it turns out that now I do like the oud-dy-ness of it all and the gimbri elements in the bass, though I wish I'd left out the one or two most obvious stock "Middle Eastern" articulations that snuck in there.

Solo Study iii-14 (shortened scale on bottom neck and playing behind the capo on top neck).





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The one pictured here and at the top is something I haven't quite figured out yet. It involves using a thundermaker, part of which is essentially a giant guitar string, pressing it up against your pickups, and at least one ebow. The prep as it's currently evolved isn't pictured b/c i've got an ebow in each hand and the camera has to be held innit.

Basically, as notes for myself: there is one ebow that works on the thundermaker, mark it with something: hold that ebow with its front facing upwards at you; optionally put foil on the neck pickup to prevent unplanned loud noises.

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Awesome name aside, the thunderstick doesn't quite work yet. Plus you look like an ass when you're doing it. Instead, we move on to a wonderfully rhythmic, abrasive, and unpredictable prep. It involves:

1) a large metal baking spatula at around the 2nd or 3rd fret, going UOUOUO (under-over), and then continuing on to the bottom neck, under your top "E" string and over all the rest. It should wobble.
2) a foam mute underneath the bottom 4 strings on the bottom neck.
3) the ebow.
4) technique: keep the ebow on the neck with your left hand, use either pickup, and ebow your fifth string. You will get an unpredictable pitch with a rhythmic component due to the suspended spatula being vibrated. You modify the pitch and the vibration rate by either a) moving the ebow closer or farther from the spatula (changing the string length); b) pressing down on the sixth string (not the one you're ebowing) to tighten the suspension of the spatula; c) moving the spatula to a position directly over a fret; d) changing the string length at the bridge side with your right hand palm or index finger.

The fact that you've got the ebow in your left hand lets you do useful things like work your volume and tone controls with your right hand, or mute the string.

Solo Study iii-17a (baking spatula, one ebow, foam mute, dry).



Solo Study iii-17b (baking spatula, one ebow, foam mute, reverb).



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Like a lot of wobbly things, the baking spatula is a little unpredictable.Say, what if there was a much more subtle and reliable prep that was almost as good? This is a 1/2 cm-thick rectangle of aluminium foil on my bridge pickup and an ebow. OK, it's not really almost as good, but...if you play this take and the two above at the same time it sounds like Machine Gun's first album at quarter-speed. Try it!!!

Solo Study iii-18a (aluminium mute, bottom neck, ebow, dry).



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I am liking this next thingie a lot, it's reliable and surprising at the same time. They have these everywhere in Amsterdam, and every guitar player seems to have one:

It's some kind of squishable metal scrubber. Pros: it's loud, and you can use it in either hand with different results, plus it's well-suited to playing non-guitar sounding rhythms, with or without a simultaneous e-bow component, held in either hand. It's textures become more diffuse and mysterious with a touch of reverb (but what doesn't really), so we have quickish examples of: a highly unspectacular ebow thing that I need to replace when I find a better take (dry) and then a kind of interesting thing where I hold the scrubber in my left hand and drum on that hand with my right hand (dry), and a thing yeah where you just desperately fret with the scrubber and play like you're a 1986 Marc Ribot recording, something badly recorded and released on Knitting Factory Works probably.

Solo Study iii-16a (metal scrubber + ebow).



Solo Study iii-16b (metal scrubber + finger rolls, dry).



Solo Study iii-16c (metal scrubber + left hand fretting, less dry).



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Speaking of funny-looking things on stage, here's something I'm working on:

It's the movable one-hand ebow/slide combo. Can almost do it good, the hard part is a) keeping the ebow far enough away from the slide for there to be enough string length to vibrate, and b) at the same time keeping your slide parallel to the fingerboard. But when it works it's pretty unusual.

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