Random Ravings

Flying Blanket: An Open Letter

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:16:06 -0700

There have been some questions regarding a comment that appeared, attributed to our own Nick Gortari, in a New Times article about our label, Black Cactus Records. Let me set the record straight:

No member of this band (or the label, for that matter) bears any ill will toward Bob Hoag or Flying Blanket Recording. On the contrary, we actually have a great deal of respect for what Bob & Co. do, and we have enjoyed many records that have come out of that particular studio. Black Carl, Neba, Sister Cities, The Love Me Nots... to name a few. As a matter of fact, when Nick and I had radio shows at Radio Phoenix, we both got nearly half of the local music we played from Flying Blanket.

Furthermore, on the occasion that we have bumped into Bob Hoag, he has never been anything but professional and courteous. He seems like a great guy to work with - something we would be totally open to doing in the future if the circumstances were appropriate.

The source of the quote is from a conversation Nick was having with jalipaz (of audioconfusion) regarding the recording of the upcoming Evening Entertainment Band (Nick’s solo project) EP. If you are not familiar with the current incarnation of EEB (it is pretty new, and Nick has only played one show with the current material, so it’s OK if you aren’t), let me just say that it is extremely esoteric. In the course of this conversation, Nick had said, by way of a compliment to jalipaz, that - because jal has a lot of experience working with art bands - Nick would want to record this particular project at audioconfusion even if cost were no object.

Thus the statement that “even if I could record with Bob Hoag for free..” In this case, Bob Hoag and Flying Blanket were being used as an example of an extremely good studio, not a poor one. You could have substituted the same statement with “even if I could record at Abbey Road for free...” and retained the same meaning. This would obviously not be an insult to Abbey Road, but rather a compliment in that it is being used as a gold standard.

This, of course, is not how it was represented in the article, and for that we are sorry. We never meant to belittle any of the folks doing good work to improve our community, and we will be more careful as to how we conduct ourselves when in the public eye in the future.

-Dan Somers

BCr Press Release

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:48:25 -0700

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Arizona's newest record label co-op, Black Cactus Records to host official launch party

July 8th, 2010 - Tempe Arizona: On July 23rd, 2010 starting at 9pm Black Cactus Records will be holding their official launch party at the Yucca Tap Room in Tempe (29 W. Southern Ave). This event will feature 5 of the best, most innovative (and loudest) artists in the Phoenix-Metro area. All 5 bands have been signed with Black Cactus Records since January 2010: The Necronauts, Former Friends of Young Americans, Tremulants, Lisa Savidge & the Premiere. The event is free and will include a free compilation CD featuring brand new 2010 releases from all 5 artists performing at the show.

About Black Cactus Records:
Black Cactus Records is a visionary record label, cooperatively run by its member-artists: Seeking to promote (locally, nationally, and internationally) the music in the Black Cactus catalog through the creative application of the artists' combined skill sets and resources. The label was founded in January 2010 by Billy Goodman of The Necronauts; Nick Gortari and Dan Somers of Lisa Savidge; Marco Holt of the Tremulants; Toby Fatzinger and Leslie Barton of Former Friends of Young Americans; David Jackman of The Premiere, and jalipaz of Mesa-based recording studio audioconfusion. Black Cactus was formed out of frustration with the state of the local and national music industry by and for innovative artists who were struggling to provide for themselves the services a label would normally provide - as well as a vision for a better system wherein creativity and hard work are truly the key elements to success. Because of this, getting signed with Black Cactus Records requires more than just ground-breaking creativity and talent; the bands also have to be willing to put in effort to promote shows, support each other on tour and fund national promotion campaigns. Black Cactus Records will be the feature music article in the July 22nd edition of the Phoenix New Times.

About the Artists:

The Necronauts have been one of the driving forces behind the Phoenix-Metro music scene for the past 10 years. They offer short songs with an agitated melange of high speed punk and pop with a refreshing set of smile generating lyrics.

Tremulants, fronted by 15+ year local music veteran Marco Holt, offer a delicious serving of sweet & noisy post punk that makes coloring inside the lines seem far beyond cliche. Don't be surprised if while listening you find yourself wanting to decorate your walls with crayon.

Lisa Savidge is a hypnotic mix of shoegaze, post-punk, and alternative - leaving no frequency or style unused in a mission to build the largest, most elaborate (and borderline baroque) wall of sound ever heard. Known to flatten small children and pets.

Members of Former Friends of Young Americans have played in more local bands collectively than we can count. They pack a friendly punch of loud, cerebral, hypnotic pop that will get you humming variations of their tunes in the shower days after hearing them for the first time.

The Premiere blur the lines between classy & sleazy in a way long forgotten by the electro-pop & hip-hop genres that they draw their inspiration from. You may not know whether to laugh or be offended when you hear their lyrics, but we guarantee you WILL know its time to dance with a martini in one hand and a can of Schlitz in the other.

Amen Cowboy is the creation of Clinton Switzer, a veteran of the cut-throat Detroit music scene. A combination of the catchy, thoughtful songs of folk with the edge, passion, and in-your-face attitude of garage rock that will have cowboy boots and doc-martins alike stomping along.

http://blackCactusRecords.com
blackcactus2010@gmail.com

The Inaction of the Good:

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 00:15:39 -0700

A quick note: The language in this post is awfully strong. This is because I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH how strongly I feel about this. I am physically shaking as I type this.

OK, I’m officially announcing a boycott of the following artists:

CYPRESS HILL • JUANES • CONOR OBERST • LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE • RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE • CAFE TACVBA • MICHAEL MOORE • KANYE WEST • CALLE 13 • JOE SATRIANI • SERJ TANKIAN • RISE AGAINST • OZOMATLI • SABERTOOTH TIGER • MASSIVE ATTACK • ONE DAY AS A LION • STREET SWEEPER SOCIAL CLUB • SPANK ROCK • SONIC YOUTH • TENACIOUS D • THE COUP

Plus all of Lillith Fair and everyone else on thesoundstrike.net. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Do you think you are legitimately hurting the assholes who put stuff like SB1070 on the books by staying away from the state? OR... Are you only hurting the people who choose to stay here and fight it?

Supposing it was 1938 and you heard there was some bad shit going down in Germany, I guess you would have steered clear of the country, so that they could have the holocaust in peace. Do you think that makes you better than the nazis, or worse?

I’d say, at the very least, it makes you an accomplice.

Oh, and sign your online petition (that isn’t worth the paper it ISN’T EVEN PRINTED ON), but don’t work with the people who can actually vote out the damn thing.

I mean, what a great idea. ALL of the people who oppose this sort of thing should just move out of Arizona if they are able, so that all of the people who have NO CHOICE but to live here due to economic reasons or simple geography can be burned at the stake with no one to stand up for them. Lets just create a new nazi state with your help.

Seems to me you are on Commissar Joe’s side in the long run.

As for me, I’m staying and I’m fighting. Some of the bands above are artists whose music has really inspired me (Sonic Youth, Conor Oberst, Massive Attack), some of the above are amongst the worst bands I’ve ever heard (no need to name names, that isn’t the point here), but in any case you are all shit to me now and until you change your stance and SHOW THE FUCK UP for the issues you (claim to) care about.

I don’t care if you have Jesus Fucking Christ singing backup vocals on your next record. I don’t care if you give me a million dollars and have me come headline your show. I’m not listening to a fucking one of your songs ever again, and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure no one else does either.

By the way, see the difference between what you and I are doing? You are attacking the victims, I’m attacking the perpetrators.

Oh, and don’t give me any bullshit about “economic pressure” or whatever. Think that’ll stop ‘em? Look at all of the religious right crap Mesa has pulled over the years, knowing FULL WELL that it would (and has) cost them a mint in revenue. Look at the garbage that happened federally for the better part of a decade that crushed America economically in order to support the new crusade.

These guys will go to the poor house if it means keeping you (and me) out. Oh, and who will suffer the lack of revenue? Kids in public school, folks needing a little economic assistance, people forced to live in depressed and high-crime areas, that sort of thing. Not the millionaire jack-offs who have nothing better to do than beat up on the little guy, that’s for sure.

Way to abandon the voiceless you miserable fucks.

The end of tracking

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 12:09:18 -0700

Other than a couple of little touches I’m going to be adding at Savidge Studios, the tracking of our new record at audioconfusion (best. studio. ever.) is done.

A panic has swept over the band in the last couple of days since the tracking, not because things went badly, but because they went too well. It was just too damn easy... We had blocked out a week for tracking, but after three days (two of track-by-track, one of live with overdubs) everything sounded... Well... Fantastic. There was nothing more to do.

Surely, some kind of mass psychosis had struck the band and recording staff. Surely, it cannot sound as good as it does in such little time. We must have lost our perspective.

However, I listen to the raw recordings again, and I am reassured. Also, to be fair, it wasn’t actually “that easy.” Sure, we only spent a couple of days in the studio, but we spent months and months rehearsing, doing preproduction, recording and mixing demos, analyzing the tracks and rewriting parts, and so on. If anything, had we gone into the studio with the level of preparation that seems to be about typical for most bands but stayed for a month or even two, then that would have been LESS work.

Not to say that everyone needs to put that kind of time in. It’s no secret that we are one of the more... er... “complicated” bands around. That is definitely not a dig against anyone. I think there is plenty of room in the world for jam bands, punk bands and others who really benefit from not over-thinking things. I guess to me it is like The Clash vs. The Sex Pistols. I love them both, but London Calling was clearly a lot more work than Never Mind The Bollocks. Would Never Mind The Bollocks have been better if they had spent a lot more time perfecting it? Absolutely not. Would London Calling have been better if they dropped all of the fancy production in favor of raw energy? No way.

And that brings me to the other reason why preproduction was such a big part of this record. We are doing London Calling, Dark Side of the Moon, Surfer Rosa, Sgt. Pepper’s, and Zeppelin IV. Now, am I saying we are as good as those bands? I’d like to think so (shouldn’t you think your own band is great? and if not, shouldn’t you work on getting better until you do?), but it would be awfully pretentious of me to make that distinction myself.

No, what I am saying is that is the standard we are holding ourselves to. If you are going to make a record, why not do your best to make the perfect record? As such; no filler tracks, no misfit instrumentation, no compromises. Also, that means that if we heard a song and said “this could use a string quartet,” we got one, and recorded it. Actually, we didn’t use any synths at all, other than the keyboard parts that are obviously supposed to be synths (we also used a Rhodes, a Wurli, and a Farfisa).

Of course, the other thing about those above records that makes them stand out to me, is that they are original and could not be mistaken as being any band other than the one that made it. To me, it is easy to be original (you could replace all of the strings on your guitar with spaghetti wrapped in tin-foil and play it with a rutabaga... I don’t know if that’s been done yet), and it is easy to be good (just rip off The Beatles up and down the street), but doing both at the same time is where the real difficulty lies.

Now I know that the hip thing nowadays is to be to cool for school and not think that anything is good, except if it’s really, really bad (thus, you can demonstrate your superiority over all of the philistines you are surrounded by). I know I shouldn’t say what I am about to say, because many, many people will hate me for it. But screw it, I’m in an honest mood.

I think we actually did it. I think this upcoming record is going to be that good. It is fantastic and wonderful from beginning to end, and it could very well change your life.

You may disagree, and you certainly are entitled to. Ask ten music listeners, and you’ll probably get twenty opinions. But for me to be able to hear that record I always wanted to hear but no one had made yet... The knowledge that this vision we have been working on for so long is being converted into ones and zeros and being etched onto a disc... Well, that’s a bargain at any price.

Perfect VS. Art

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:21:17 -0700

OK, I think we need to clarify here, because a lot of people seem to be having trouble with how these two should interact. As a general rule, there is no perfection in art, and no art in perfection - so this is a word we are trying to remove from our lexicon as we go into recording this time. Hopefully I can fix your lexicon as well!

Perfect: A completely faithful and accurate representation of the subject or source material. Machines do this best.

Art: A technically inaccurate representation of the subject or source material, but one that shows perspective, feeling, soul, etc. Only a human can do this.

So, how about a few examples?

PERFECT:

ART:

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PERFECT:
“While suicide would be easy, it is impossible to determine weather or not it is a logical choice based on the vast amount of information that remains unknown about death and morality.”

ART:
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life
....”

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PERFECT:

ART:

And yes, perfect gives your wallet more money, but art gives your life more meaning. Take it for what it’s worth.