Rich Seymour's stochastic statements.

Hey, I think this almost counts as a demo, but the songs are maybe a minute too long each. Just skip ahead to the good parts… if there are any.

Demonstrable Negligence (three mp3s in a zip file ~ 10 MB, right click to save)

Check the Clark 8 site for the track listing but really that’s unnecessary… Umm also if you add Clark 8 on myspace as a friend I’ll write a song for you based on some sort of idea you provide. Seriously (first 3 people who ask only). Of course, I haven’t even added Clark 8 as a friend, so I can see that taking a while… MySpace Suxxx0rs anyway, right?

This should be a good time this Saturday April 1st:

What my friends are saying “I have never had less of a desire to go to a show than the one you mention.” Yes!!!

Walt Disney Concert Hall + $10 tickets = good time. In terms of well known folk, Page Hamilton and Mike Watt were on stage. The drummer, mentioned in the previous post, was amazing. He just drilled it and then drilled it some more. One of my friends who was with me got a bit annoyed at the rate of attack that everyone seemed to be going at, but I figure there were at least 2 parts per section and a lot of different sections.

You could usually hear each individual section if you listened hard enough, but I had a hard time hearing some of the people, like one guy was playing something along the lines of an Epiphone Emperor, which would feedback like crazy if he didn’t have it turned way down. There was no feedback at all. The March section was amazing with these great drumrolls at the end, then the Drive section oh man… The 3rd movement was nice and fast, almost surf speed sixteenths. I was standing up by the 4th movement, pre standing O. Since we were in the last row of the balcony, it wasn’t an issue for the non-existent people behind me.

It was longer than I was thinking it would be, but according to this it was changed from the first time it was performed. I was really happy, my cohorts were pretty pleased as well.

D.G. a man who needs a food blog saw his hero J.G. and was merry. Even though they had met previously, D.G. saw no reason to say hi or anything.

Afterwards we went to Daikokuya for ramen, I had this ramen thing that’s like all separate (to prevent needless noodle squishiness) called t——-n no idea how it’s spelled. I went into the little Tokyo American Apparel and snagged a light mint green pocket T because I was excited that they had T-shirts with pockets now. They also have cute teenage clerks, which uhh… makes me realize how old I am.

I’m getting overly excited about seeing Glenn Branca’s Symphony #13 ‘Hallucination City‘ (for 100 guitars) tonight at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. I have a Theoretical Girls CD (meh… conceptually good) and Symphony #6 ‘Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven’… I think that recording is simply amazing. I’m going to bring earplugs in case amazing translates into absurdly deafening.

Oddly, though, I met a professional sound guy the other day who does live sound at the Rose Bowl and he said that sound guys almost never wear hearing protection unless everything is all set. Even then, he uses something from a Dr. that does like -13dB across the frequency spectrum, not the muddy -20-30dB you get in the pharmacy.

I’m finally atoning for missing the performance in 2001… why didn’t I go then! Originally, I think they had Wharton Tiers (who I think I’ve only heard as a producer) up as the drummer, but that has changed to Virgil Moorefield who… has written an interesting book I’m going to get from the library when it comes in: The Producer as Composer

(edit… more additions)

So, I just read an online interview with Mr. Branca, in which it states that he was influenced by reading the likes of Helmholtz (of Helmholtz free energy fame to you thermodynamicists). I had managed to take out Helmoltz’s book “On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music” which is a really awesome (and a might bit hard to penetrate) book on sound. It’s pretty amazing and I look forward to finishing it or at least getting more than ten pages into it sometime. Meanwhile I’m reading more about fluid mechanics for school. Hot diggity.

So, the Mighty Morning Show is definitely gone, see the press release here. In other news, saw the band the Epsilons last night and another band whose name escapes me who had one song that was almost too good. “Candy man” I think it was called, but not a cover. (Edit: Sugar Frosted Light Bulbs is the band and that song is an earworm to the point of being nearly cast in the upcoming movie slither)

Also, stop HR4437. I guess all of the people who support the bill are Native Americans who don’t want their country taken away by immigrants not used to their way of life. Err… wait, they’re not.

Man, radio in LA sucks. Basically this is a given. Sure, KDAY is back and that’s cool. There are some good college stations, but the transmission is short and well, they just play CMJ tracks. Indie 103.1 is a reformed ‘modern rock’ format station with the added bonus of some celeb hosts, like Rob Zombie and Henry Rollins.

Now, they also have the Mighty Morning Show with Dicky Barrett. He may not be a household name, but he’s the lead singer of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Boston area ska-punk supergroup. I’ve seen them at least a couple times and they always put on a good show. Now you’d think that maybe he would suck on the radio, but he was great. Apparently too great, cause the powers that be at 103.1 let him go. Yesterday and today just some modern rock shlock. Exhibit A. It was a really good morning show, self aware and self deprecating and really funny. Plus he’d actually answer the phone when you called in. Maybe I’m the only loser who calls radio stations, but whatever.

Um… here are the lyrics to Pictures To Prove It by the bosstones.

Lot’s of other LA area blogs are covering this as well.

My New Baby the Eastwood Ichiban

Originally uploaded by Rich Seymour.

So, yeah, here is a picture of this beautiful guitar. You’ll note that if you look at the new and improved Eastwood Guitars website that the knobs look a little different on this than on the ones in most of the photos for the Ichiban model. Personally, I think I like these more, but it may just be because they are what came with it.
Also, the truss rodd cover says ‘Eastwood guitars’ on it, it’s not just a black piece of plastic as seen on the Eastwood site.

I also got a really nice mint (err they say olive) green suede strap to go with it, but it’s not in the photo. I’m debating whether to send it in for customization (they can put cool little mini pix on the strap), but I really don’t know what I’d put on there. Maybe ‘ninja guitar’ in Japanese or something.

Yeah, another track up at clark8.com, check it out. A lot of people who have heard the solo acoustic version of the new song dig the acoustic version, but this version may blow your mind in a sort of overprocessed overcompressed sort of way. Plus I start ripping my vocal chords at the end, that made somebody laugh (DG you know who you are.).

It all started innocently enough, with my friend Tim asking me to join him to go see Animal Collective. This happened. PJ Harvey was in the audience, she stood right next to us. Along with a person who works at Built By Wendy‘s LA store (I think). In spite of my connection to her friend, in that I shop at that store, I said nothing to Ms. Harvey… What could I say… “You’re cool?” “An old roommate of mine was obsessed with your music and you…”? Animal Collective had me going for the show… they definitely packed a very large hollywood club (the vanguard).

Then… Tuesday… it was Juan the Mannequin (sp?), Swims, and Ninja Academy at Mr. T’s bowl. Lightning Bolt has some competition comin’ up yeah.

Then… Thursday, Friday??? not good, this is all a mash inside my brain, it was DJ Jason Forrest (as opposed to him having a full set), two rather mediocre bands (I can say that since I’m in a mediocre band), and finally electric 6. E 6 were refreshingly political. I liked them much more than I thought I would. I talked to Jason after his deal, him and another guy (who puts out stuff under the moniker Libythth) were chillin’. He was a cool guy. I miss his AD&D radio show on WFMU, perhaps someday it will return. It was at the key club, which is sort of what I would imagine a club would be like if it were down the street from the club in the Herzog film ‘Invincible’ if you get my drift.

Then Friday… … it was Earthless and Jackie-O MF at Little Pedro’s Cantina. Earthless destroyed sound, dedicating the show to Ali Farka Toure (I think) It was awesome. I was way into this show. In ways words cannot describe. I got a mild scruff on my shin from the guitarist of Jackie-O MF swinging a mic stand or his guitar… They have a new singer, Eva (also recorded some stuff under the name Inca Ore). She was super sweet as I tried to help get the sound to work. The sound guy had really messed up the PA setup, which didn’t matter for the instrumental bands, but for JOMF everything was messed up. So the show itself was a nonstarter, but still something happened, and it was good.

Finally yesterday, on the recommendation of his intrepid foody webmaster, I saw Magnet at the hotel cafe. I missed the first few songs, but I caught (hopefully) all of the stuff where he used a lap steel. I was fretting over the fact that my Dad sold the steel guitar he got me for my 0th b-day (a supro! vintage!)…. He’s made up for it a million times over, by giving me a couple of guitars, thanks Dad. Now I’m looking at getting a new (as in freshly made) one:
The Bel Aire looks fresh, huh?

School has been insane, lots of code to work with. New computers coming in. Grants to (help) write. Fun!!! Seriously.

So, yeah writing, making, recording and mixing music almost takes all of the fun out of it by the time its over, but hopefully at the end you have something someone can dig on. Some folks who have heard this track have liked it, so maybe you will too:

I changed the link here to point to the band site. It has a new mix of the mp3 up. Clark 8