John Carpenter Halloween Music

John Carpenter on the music of Halloween:

"Halloween was written in approximately 10 days by Debra Hill and myself. It was based on an idea by Irwin Yablans about a killer who stalks baby-sitters, tentatively titled The Baby-sitter Murders until Yablans suggested that the story could take place on October 31st and Halloween might not be such a bad title for an exploitation-horror movie.

I shot Halloween in the spring of 1978. It was my third feature and my first out-and-out horror film. I had three weeks of pre-production planning, twenty days of principle photography, and then Tommy Lee Wallace spent the rest of the spring and summer cutting the picture, assisted by Charles Bornstein and myself. I screened the final cut minus sound effects and music, for a young executive from 20th Century-Fox (I was interviewing for another possible directing job). She wasn’t scared at all. I then became determined to "save it with the music."

I had composed and performed the musical scores for my first two features, Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13, as well as many student films. I was the fastest and cheapest I could get. My major influences as a composer were Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone (who I had the opportunity to work with on The Thing). Hermann’s ability to create an imposing, powerful score with limited orchestra means, using the basic sound of a particular instrument, high strings or low bass, was impressive. His score for Psycho, the film that inspired Halloween, was primarily all string instruments.

With Herrmann and Morricone in mind, the scoring for Halloween began in late June at Sound Arts Studios, then a small brick building in an alley in central Los Angeles. Dan Wyman was my creative consultant. I had worked with him in 1976 on the music for Assault. He programmed the synthesizers, oversaw the recording of my frequently imperfect performances, and often joined me to perform a difficult line or speed-up the seemingly never ending process of overdubbing one instrument at a time. I have to credit Dan as Halloween’s musical co-producer. His fine taste and musicianship polished up the edges of an already minimalistic, rhythm-inspired score.

We were working in what I call the "double-blind" mode in 1978, which simply means that the music was composed and performed in the studio, on the spot, without reference or synchronization to the actual picture. recently, my association with Alan Howarth has led me to a synchronized video-tape system, a sort of "play it to the TV" approach. Halloween’s main title theme was the first to go down on tape. The rhythm was inspired by an exercise my father taught me on the bongos in 1961, the beating out of 5-4 time. The themes associated with Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) now seems to be the most Herrmannesque. Finally came the stingers. Emphasizing the visual surprise, they are otherwise known as "the cattle prod": short, percussive sounds placed at opportune moments to startle the audience. I’m now ashamed to admit that I recorded quite so many stingers for this one picture.

The scoring sessions took two weeks because that’s all the budget would allow. Halloween was dubbed in late July and I finally saw the picture with an audience in the fall. My plan to "save it with the music" seemed to work. About six months later I ran into the same young executive who had been with 20th Century-Fox (she was now with MGM). Now she too loved the movie and all I had done was add music. But she really was quite justified in her initial reaction.

There is a point in making a movie when you experience the final result. For me, it’s always when I see an interlock screening of the picture with the music. All of a sudden a new voice is added to the raw, naked-without-effects-or-music footage. The movie takes on it’s final style, and it is on this that the emotional total should be judged. Someone once told me that music, or the lack of it, can make you see better. I believe it."

John Carpenter
Feb. 5, 1983

Music Composed and Performed by John Carpenter
Recording Engineer – Peter Bergren
Synthesizer Programming – Dan Wyman
Stereo Remix Engineer – Alan Howarth
Mixed at Pi West Studios, Glendale, CA

Happy Halloween!

Foo Fighters + QOTSA @ Avalon Hollywood

The Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age played a surprise free concert at Avalon last night in Hollywood. The show was put on by a couple cell phone companies trying to hype a new phone.

QOTSA played a solid set. It's going to be hard for them to top the last time I saw them at the Fonda. Last night's finale of "Song for the Dead" was especially awesome.

Queens of the Stone Age setlist at Avalon 10/29/08:

1. you think i ain't worth a dollar, but i feel like a millionaire
2. 3's & 7's
3. mexicola
4. misfit love
5. burn the witch
6. turnin' on the screw
7. go with the flow
8. little sister
9. sick, sick, sick
10. song for the dead

Foo Fighters rocked. This is the first time I've seen them play a rock set. I had seen them play a couple songs at the MTV Movie Awards and an acoustic Bridge School set a couple years ago. The Foos probably have more fun on stage than any other band I can think of. The joking back and forth between Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins after Taylor's drum solo was pretty funny. Pat Smear came out and played guitar. There was a girl on violin and cello, a keyboard player and a guy on percussion, including the triangle.

Good show.

Foo Fighters at Avalon 10/29/08:

1. all my life
2. times like these
3. learn to fly
4. long road to ruin
5. let it die
6. stacked actors
7. marigold
8. my hero
9. cold day in the sun
10. everlong
11. the pretender

Audio-generated Landscape

Audio-generated landscape from flight404.

Music visualization of a transformed FFT waveform made with Processing + Sonia.

Audio = "Even White Horizons" by Akufen.

More details on flight404.com. Watch the fullscreen HD video on vimeo.

Aarhus Noise Music + Noisejihad

The annual Aarhus festival in Denmark celebrates art, culture, music... and even noise. Frontløberne puts on noise concerts, bringing the underground noise scene out into the light of day.



MaaletHelligerMidlet666 played their first concert in 10 years at the Noisejihad Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, November 2006. This video was included in the 16th Noisejihad Live release. A 5-minute chaotic performance of pure sonic destruction.

cEvin Key Skinny Puppy DJ Marz Tokyo

cEvin Key Halloween Skinny Puppy DJ set with dj oto Saturday night, October 25th, at Marz in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

cKey on MacBook Pro + Numark Total Control + ?.

Photos by Max Hodges available at whiterabbitpress.

Tuttuki Bako

Tuttuki Bako is a crazy new toy coming out on November 15 from Bandai Japan. You stick your finger in the palm-sized cube and an image of your finger shows up on the low-res screen.

The Tuttuki Bako games are nuts. In Face Stage, you tickle a girl's nose until she sneezes all over your finger. In other games, you flick around a stick figure, push a panda on a tire swing, hunt for an octopus at the bottom of the ocean and interact with a slimy amoeba.

The Tuttuki Box sounds are classic lo-fi handheld video game-style. It also functions as a digital clock. It's expected to sell for about $30. When you find out how to order one, please let us know.

via pixelsumo + crunchgear

Stellar Seismology Star Sounds

French astronomers are using data recorded by the Corot space telescope to listen to stars.

Asteroseismology [AKA stellar seismology] studies the internal structure of pulsating stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra.

Different stars produce different sounds based on a number of factors, including their age, size and chemical composition. Similar to the way scientists have turned raw earthquake data into sound through audification, astronomers are making breakthroughs in the understanding of the various processes deep within stars by listening to their patterns.

More info + listen to the sounds of the Sun - HD49933 + HD181420: BBC News.

via matrixsynth

Jane's Addiction La Cita Reunion Concert

Jane's Addiction played an incredible concert at La Cita in Downtown Los Angeles last night. Dave Navarro and Eric Avery announced the show 2 days before on their blogs. I didn't hear about it until the day of.

La Cita is a tiny Mexican bar. Super small. The Fire Marshal limited capacity to just 157 people because of the stage. There were hundreds of people outside.

This show was only the second time that Jane's Addiction has played with the original lineup since 1991. Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins got together and played 3 songs about 6 months ago at the US NME Awards. Last night they played 10 songs.

Jane's Addiction setlist at La Cita 10/23/08:

1. up the beach
2. trip away
3. whores
4. 1%
   
5. ain't no right
6. pigs in zen
7. ted, just admit it...
8. ocean size
9. had a dad
10. been caught stealing

The concert was unbelievable. What a surprise! So damn good. Everybody was having a great time on stage and off. It was jam packed. People were sitting and standing on the bar. Perry and others were banging on the ceiling so hard that pieces started falling.

The band threw in a little "Thank You Boys" jam near the end. Perry sat down behind the drums at the beginning of the encore. He said that Stephen Perkins promised him a drum solo. Stephen jumped back on the drums and played part of the solo of The Beatles' "The End" off of Abbey Road. Then they finished the set with a killer performance of "Been Caught Stealing."

Awesome.

Gear pics:




Eric Avery:

"we never know what the future has in store for us; especially with this band. but, at least right now janes addiction has a future that one would have to call somewhat promising.

we are a great band."

Update: Shout out links to audio - video - pics + reviews in the comments.

Update 2: Less than a month later, they played another intimate show at El Cid.

Banksy Village Pet Store & Charcoal Grill

NOTCOT: Banksy's Village Petstore & Charcoal Grill from Jean Aw.

Banksy's Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill is a weird one. The guerrilla graffiti street artist has created a bizarre art installation of animal animatronics. Catch it on 7th Ave between West 4th & Bleecker in New York's Greenwich Village through Halloween.

NIN Live Design Tour Lighting + Video

Live Design interviews Roy Bennett, Cory FitzGerald and Sean Cagney about the equipment and production behind the interactive lighting and stage show of the current Nine Inch Nails: Lights in the Sky tour.

LIGHTING AND EFFECTS

10 Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot
14 Vari-Lite VL2500 Spot
10 Vari-Lite VL2500 Wash
112 Martin Professional MAC 300 LED
25 Martin Professional MAC 700 Wash
5 Martin Professional MAC Wash XB
38 Martin Professional Atomic Strobe
38 Martin Professional Atomic Colors
5 Syncrolite 5X/B
82 Saco Smart Flow
36 Saco Highlite
6 Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions iW Blasts
6 Philips Solid-State Lighting Solutions Color Blast
4 Altman Micro Ellipse
4 Reel EFX DF-50 Hazer
4 High End Systems F-100 Fog Generator
2 Reel EFX RE Fans
8 Upstaging Speedwire DMX Winch

VIDEO

2 Element Labs 50'×16' Stealth Walls With SP1 Processors
1 Barco 50×16 D7 Wall With D320 Processor
4 Green Hippo Hippotizer
1 Barco MatrixPro 8×8
1 ArKaos Media Server
1 Raritan Paragon II KVM System
4 Moment Factory Servers For Interactive Media
1 MOTU MIDI Interface
Various IR Emitters/Cameras And Lipstick Cameras For Interactive
Various IR Cameras For The Survivalism Shots
Various Netgear Gigabit Switches

CONTROL

3 MA Lighting grandMA
4 MA Lighting NSP

FOH

ZooKeeper Computer For Content Loading
Raritan Paragon II UST For Server Management

Live Design: Nine Lives
More info: Moment Factory NIN Stage Show

Bernie Worrell and the WOO Warriors + Stranger

Bernie Worrell and the WOO Warriors are playing their first live concerts in 5 years in Northern California next month.

RonKat Spearman - Vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards
Michael Cavaseno - Guitars
Kevin Carnes - Drums
Kirk Peterson - Bass
K-OS - Turntables
David Boyce - Horns

Nov 12 - The Boom Boom Room - San Francisco, CA
Nov 13 - The Boom Boom Room - San Francisco, CA
Nov 14 - Starry Plough - Berkeley, CA
Nov 15 - The Red Fox - Tavern Eureka, CA

Bernie's played keyboards with everyone from Parliament-Funkadelic to Talking Heads to Gov't Mule. He also recorded and toured with Les Claypool, Buckethead and Brain in the group Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains. He plays Moog, Kurzweil and Dave Smith Instruments synths through GK amps.

The documentary Stranger: Bernie Worrell on Earth is awesome. I saw the world premiere of it at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. At the end of the screening, I turned around, and there he was, Bernie Worrell. It was a bit surreal to watch such a great film on the life of an unsung music legend and then see the tears in the man's eyes while he was taking it all in. I'll never forget that moment.

MP3 Quality Test: 128k vs. 320k Encoding

Can you hear the difference between MP3 audio encoded at 128k vs. 320k?

http://mp3ornot.com/

SCSI SM/CF Card Reader Drives

Breathe new life into your old school sampler by adding a SCSI drive with a Compact Flash/Smart Media reader/writer. Check them out at SCSIforSamplers.com.

Samplers compatible with the MCDISK drive:

• Korg Triton Classic, Triton Studio, Triton LE, Triton Rack, Triton Pro
• Akai MPC60, MPC60 II, MPC2000XL, MPC3000 (requires the Vailixi 3.50 OS), S1000, S1100, S2000, S2800, S2800XL, S3000, CD3000, S3000XL, S3200, S3200XL, MPC4000, S5000, S6000, Z4/Z8
• Yamaha Motif 6, Motif 7, Motif 8, RS7000, PSR9000
• Ensoniq ASR-10, ASR-88, ASR Rack
• EMU Emax SE/HD, ESI-32, ESI-2000, ESI-4000, E4k, E5000, E6400, E64, EIII, EIIIxp, EIV, E4XT Ultra, E-Synth
• Roland XV-5080, S750, S760, S770, DJ70 MKII, SP-700, VP-9000
• Kurzweil K2000, K2000VP, K2vx, K2vxS, K2000R, K2000RS, K2500X, K2500XS, K2500S, K2500R, K2500RS, K2600X, K2600XS, K2600S, K2600R, K2600RS, K2661

via sequencer.de

Richard Devine Surachai Interface 23.0 Droid 6

Last night we danced late at Interface 23.0, the Droid Behavior 6th anniversary. Electronic music all night in a loft in LA.

Got there at the end of Surachai's set. I found about the event through his Trash_Audio blogspot, a great site which features interviews and studio pics of electronic artists. When we reached the experimental/IDM room on the second floor, he was screaming in the mic over a blast of modular synth chaos. I wish I would have caught more of his set.

Richard Devine's performance was the highlight for me. I had seen him put on a great show at Analoglive! in a seated venue a year ago. His set last night was much heavier and danceable while still being pretty out there... from chill rhythms to IDM down the rabbit hole with time-expanded beats being ripped apart to a climax of super-fast frenetic beats. Good stuff. Minimal gear setup. Anybody recognize the knob-filled box in the blurry iphone pic above?

Alec Empire - Eat Your Heart Out 2

DJ Alec Empire [Atari Teenage Riot/Digital Hardcore Recordings] has released a new DJ mix, Eat Your Heart Out DJ Mix Vol. 2, on EYHO.

After a night of spinning at Tresor in Berlin a few weeks ago, he stayed up and recorded this mix using 2 turntables + an arsenal of analog synths: ARP 2600 - Metasonix Wretch Machine - Korg MS20 - Moogs - Sherman Filterbanks - Analogue Solutions Vostok...

Alec Empire:

“It was great because I had the record players running into my mixer, had all my gear there, and it felt like surfing or something…keep the beats going and going, do abstract brain stuff on top of it. You know every mix I do is different, and at the moment I love this style…but this can change next weekend…as a DJ you have to stay in motion all the time. I had “Stalker” playing from VHS while I did this…”

Listen to audio samples [1 + 2] + order the limited edition 2xCD from The Hellish Vortex now.

Banjo Brain Surgery

Bluegrass musician Eddie Adcock suffered for years with hand tremors that made playing the banjo impossible. He recently underwent deep brain stimulation surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to have a pacemaker put in his chest that sends a current to an electrode in his brain. To find the sweet spot responsible for the involuntary shaking, doctors had him play the banjo during the surgery.

It's hard for me to imagine just being awake with my skull wide open, but to be playing banjo at the same time? Wild!

Good Morning America youtube video.
BBC surgery footage.

i-Dance WALL∙E + Loud Objects Noise Toy

Wall•E Loves Noise Toys (part 1) from Gian Pablo Villamil.

i-Dance WALL∙E dancing to the sounds of The Loud Objects Noise Toy.

The Noise-Maker

The Noise Maker from Miguel Sabogal.

Brushfire

brushfire from Charlie McCarthy.

As the firefighters continue the struggle to contain yesterday's fires in the San Fernando Valley, this video by Charlie McCarthy captures the sights and sounds of a much less ferocious fire. Porno for pyros.

The soundtrack is "These Dubious Movements" off the Raindays album by Bill Van Loo & J. Schnable and mastered by Joshua Eustis [Telefon Tel Aviv].

Gidget Gein RIP

Gidget Gein was found dead of an apparent heroin overdose on Thursday, October 9, at a friend's home where he had been staying in Burbank, CA, according to NME and Blabbermouth.

Born Bradley Anne Stewart on September 11, 1969, in Hollywood, Florida, the bass player took on the name Gidget Gein when he joined Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids in 1989. Gein played bass on Marilyn Manson's debut album, Portrait of an American Family. He was fired from the band before the album's release after ending up in a hospital bed on Christmas Eve from a heroin overdose.

He went on to start his own band, Gidget Gein and the Dali Gaggers, and then sold art and fashion under the label Gollywood.

Killing Joke + Pigmy Love Circus @ HOB

Saw Killing Joke and Pigmy Love Circus at the House of Blues on Sunset in West Hollywood last night.

The Pigmy guys rocked while making fun of themselves as being "fat and old" and also pointing out their "high dollar" drummer [Danny Carey]. The Pigmy frontman showed off the major scar on his neck from his cancer surgery and warned of the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Then he turned up the energy on "Drug Run," squirming around like addict jonesing for his next fix. He broke out a knife and ventriloquist's dummy as props. A special guest joined in on "Face Bit Dog."

"I'm an Angry... Old... Man!"

They dedicated their set to the late Paul Raven and said Killing Joke was their favorite band ever.

Killing Joke came out and almost seemed like a bit of a joke. This is Killing Joke's first tour with the original lineup in many years. I've got to give props to the legends, but Jaz Coleman and the way he pranced around was pretty funny. You could tell the band was having a great time. Jaz gave a nod to Nirvana when he mentioned finding a Christmas card sent to his mother by Kurt Cobain in 1987. Lots of musicians in the audience: Dave Grohl, Duff McKagan, Morrissey, Mark McGrath...

Josh Freese Leaving Nine Inch Nails

Drummer Josh Freese is leaving Nine Inch Nails in December at the end of the upcoming North American leg of the NIN Lights in the Sky tour.

Trent Reznor on nin.com:

"Josh Freese fans be sure to check out a show on the upcoming North American leg of the tour, as sadly they will be the last ones he's playing with us. He informed me he's leaving the tour at the end of this year. Yes, we are still dear friends. No, I'm not sure what we are going to do."

Vatos Locos Forever

Korg MR-2000S

Is 1-bit recording the next step?

1-bit/5.6448 MHz. The portable MR-1000 sounds great. This new studio version, the Korg MR-2000S, just might become the new mixdown recorder of choice in a couple months...

The Tone Generation 11 - Expo 58

The Tone Generation continues with Programme 11 - Expo 58.

The Tone Generation began as a series of 10 radio episodes exploring the history of early electronic music around the world. The show is produced by Simon James and written, researched and narrated by Ian Helliwell.

This latest special edition highlights the experimental music of Expo 58, the World's Fair in Brussels 50 years ago. It premiered last night as part of a live broadcast from the Atomium in Brussels at the Nuit Blanche festival. The Oscillatomium program was aired on radio stations in London, New York, Lisbon and Brussels.

Program 12 will feature the RCA Synthesizer.

LA Amp Show + Hollywood Drum Show

I'll be hitting up 2 gear lust shows today. The first is the Amp Show which runs today and tomorrow.

Loni Specter has been putting it on for a few years, and it keeps getting better. It's the only show dedicated to guitar and bass amps with over 50 amp companies showing off the coolest amps you never see--or hear!

The 4th Annual LA Amp Show takes place at Airtel Plaza Hotel in Van Nuys. What's cool about being it in a hotel is each manufacturer has a room (or more) so you can play through and actually hear the amps.

If you're into effects, make sure to check out the Pedalboard from Hell.

From there I'll drive down the 101 to the 11th Annual Hollywood Custom & Vintage Drum Show. It's at the old KFWB building, near the Capitol Records building, just north east of Hollywood & Vine.

The name says it all: Custom & Vintage Drums.

Pro Tools 8

Pro Tools 8 looks great.

Enhanced and customizable user interface, better MIDI editing, Elastic Pitch (realtime audio transposing!), score editor, improved track compositing, 10 inserts per channel, files up to 4GB, 5 new virtual instruments and 20 new effects...

Pro Tools LE will have 48 stereo tracks. You can get 64 stereo tracks in LE by adding the Music Production Toolkit 2 or DV Toolkit 2. Get 128 tracks and 7.1 mixing by adding the new Complete Production Toolkit.

ThingamaWEEN + ThingamaBLANK

Bleep Labs has brought back the ThingamaWEENs just in time for Halloween.

There are four ThingamaWEEN versions available:

• “The Modern Prometh-O-Lux” [the monster]
• “Jack-O-Lumen” [jack-o-lantern]
• “Bella Lubleepy” [vampire]
• “The Ghost of Robot TB1X” [ghost]

Bleep Labs has also joined forces with Delicious Drips to release the first ever DIY Thingamagoop: the ThingamaBLANK. This version will feature a matte white or black finish for easy painting, plus a mystery bag of Thingamafaces.

DIY Thingamagoops will ship mid-October.

More Thingamagoop action on Califaudio.