Black Dice are some of most creative electronic musicians out there and the gear they use is very important in the creation of their unique brand of experimental music. Their sound relies primarily on sampled sounds and extensive use of effects pedals. Aaron uses an Akai MPC sampler augmented by various effects pedals including a Boss PS-5 pitch shifter. Bjorn uses a custom-made sequencer/filter built into a case emblazoned with the band’s initials which he then runs through an Electro Harmonix Poly Chorus. For his guitar, he uses a Gibson Les Paul put through a Boss DD-5 delay, a PS-5 pitch shifter, and a Zvex Wooly Mammoth fuzz. Eric uses an 8 track recorder and a mini-disk player put through a Boss PS-5 and a Digitech Synth Wah. Black Dice also acknowledge that they use a lot of bizarre sounds such as those made by broken tape decks or by putting a contact mic on a champagne bucket. They also have a new album out April 7 entitled Repothat you should check out.
Black Dice in the Studio
Black Dice – Glazin’
Black Dice – Chicken Shit
Animal Collective makes extensive use of samplers. Usually, samplers are used in a hip-hop or dance context for playing beats and some lead lines. Animal Collective uses them in an entirely different way. They make use of the Roland SP-404 and SP-303 to create ambience and sample beats. They use quite a bit of found sound in their recordings (ex. the didgeridoo sample on “Lion in a Coma” off of their latest record, Merriweather Post Pavillion). Noah Lennox, better known as Panda Bear, exclusively plays the sampler on his Person Pitch album. Want to hear some other creative sampler users? Check out [Post-foetus], Odd Nosdam, Flying Lotus, Bradford Cox and Daedelus.
Owen Ashworth, better known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, has one of the best set-ups I can think of. He uses a wide array of battery-powered keyboards to make his heartwarming electro pop songs. For those of you not familiar with Casiotone keyboards I’ll give you a rundown of the basic features of most of them. Their super-cheap, often have cheesy drum machine beats that can be used, and they can make you feel like you’re playing the Legend of Zelda on your Super Nintendo. The Casio SK-1 sampling keyboard is one of Owen’s particular favorites. This small keyboard allows you to sample a short loop with an internal microphone and then play it with the keys. It’s soooooooooo lo-fi. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone are playing a free, all ages show at Ms. Bea’s tomorrow night at SXSW. If you’re in Austin you should check it out and of course check out FMLY’s shows the 19th and 20th at HiLo as well.
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone- The Subway Home
Tomorrow night FMLY members Milk are playing at the Airliner in downtown LA. Should be a great show full of acoustic guitar and mandolins and such. The show starts at 9 and lasts until 2 in the morning so it should be a fun night. So if you’re 18+ and in the area you should totally come check it out.
Dan Deacon’s gear is all a blur of electronics and fluorescent tape. He sets this mess on a table and places it in the middle of a rowdy crowd and soon fun ensues. I thought today I would take a more in-depth look at his colorful set up. Let’s start with his Casiotone keyboard for all those lovely, cheesy 80s synth tones. Note the two rack units at the top of the picture. The top one is a “function generator” which generates sine and square waves waves which he then runs through a Digitech Whammy pitch shifter, a Boss DD-3 Delay, and a Mood RIng Modulator. He also uses a vocoder and runs his voice through the effects pedals. Finally he attaches his Ipod to a banana for,well, its great tone.
Video About Dan Deacons Gear
I have an unhealthy fascination with musical equipment and I often find myself pushing my way to the front of a crowd simply to get a good look at a band’s gear. At a recent HEALTH show on the 26th I did just this and managed to get a pretty good look at their wide array of pedal effects.
The above board is guitarist/vocalist Jake’s. The pedals from top left to bottom right are:
Amp switcher- Used to switch between distorted and clean channels on his amp though I’m pretty sure he usually had it on distortion.
Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man- For the massive delay sounds.
Zvex Tremorama- Stuttering effect heard on “Triceratops”.
Boss Reverb- Adds that metallic sheen on the guitar.
Boss Tuner- For tuning purposes as well as turning the noise on and off. He uses the pedal to cut all sound out at times.
Electro Harmonix POG- Used for all that bizarre atonal octave stuff.
DOD Compressor- Brought up the low end.
Vocal Effects box- For reverb on his voice.
I love Don Caballero. I even affectionately refer to them as Don Cab. And you know part of the reason I love Don Cab so much? The intense looped guitar riffs that build and stack until they are truly beautiful. This effect was created by one guitarist, Ian Williams during the heyday of Don Cab with the help of a little box called a looping pedal. These pedals essentially sample and loop a phrase of what you play on an instrument, be it a guitar, bass, or anything else. Williams uses the Akai Headrush pedal in his new band Battles. Other common looping pedals are the Line 6 DL4 and the Boss RC-20. Bands such as Explosions in the Sky and Russian Circles also make frequent use of these magic boxes to thicken up their sound.
Hey we all love Daedelus, right? And what makes Daedelus so special? Well a lot of things, really. Besides the beautiful music he makes from samples he and others created he also performs his music in a unique way. Though Daedelus could be a solely laptop musician he instead chooses to use the Monome, a unique electronic music device. The Monome is a box that consists of 64 pushbuttons. These buttons can be used to trigger various samples and tweak the samples to make wild and wonderful sounds. Daedelus tiilts his Monome forward so the audience can see what he’s doing so electronic music becomes less of a hidden process and more of a spectator sport. Check out this cool video of Daedelus jamming on his Monome.
Video of Daedelus on the Monome
On a lovely Thursday evening I made the trek up to Echo Park to see some fine young and talented musicians. Arriving at the Echo I could already feel myself getting excited for the show to come. Who am I kidding, I was stoked.
Continue reading ‘HEALTH, Abe Vigoda, and Captain Ahab at The Echo’
Bearded indie rockers, Band of Horses, announce some dates for the upcoming months. Soon their reverb- heavy rock will be echoing across the country. Well at least in California and the South including their home states of North and South Carolina. Several of the dates are festivals including Bonnaroo and Coachella. If you haven’t see this band go see them because they’re incredible live creating such a huge sound often propelled by slide guitar licks. If you have seen them then you know exactly what I’m talking about. You should also pick up their album Cease to Begin (Subpop)
04-15 Santa Cruz, CA – Catalyst
04-17 Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
04-18 Indio, CA – Coachella Festival
06-10 Norfolk, VA – The Norva
06-11 New York, NY – Carnegie Hall
06-12 Baltimore, MD – Ram’s Head Live
06-14 Manchester, TN – Bonnaroo Festival
06-16 Asheville, NC – Orange Peel
06-17 Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre
06-18 Myrtle Beach, SC – House of Blues
08-15 Copenhagen, Denmark – Beatday Festival
Band of Horses- Is There a Ghost? video
Punk isn’t dead thanks to bands like Moldar who are a little more complicated than that typical three chords and the truth type of punk. Their guitars go from the serene to the all out noisy, staying interesting throughout and reminds me of a more hardcore American Football. The groups music is melancholy and harsh but, at times, beautiful as well. They’re constantly playing over the greater Los Angeles area and they’re playing at MotionLa February 27th with equally awesome bands Calculator and ColorChromatic. They also have a 5-song EP out at the moment which you can download here. Here’s a track from the EP that I especially enjoyed.
Moldar-Post-Communist Russia
Sonic Youth, the godfathers of noise and much of experimental rock in general have a new album set to drop in June. The album is set to be called The Eternal and will be their first release on Matador Records. This will be their first full-length since Rather Ripped in 2006. Thurston Moore promises it to be ”juicy and supersonic”. What more could you ask for? On a related note Thurston Moore is playing a solo show at The Smell in Los Angeles this Friday, February 20. It’s $5 like all Smell shows so check it out if you’re in LA. Starts at 8.
Sonic Youth- Schizophrenia
