This weekend, I've been all screwed up on anime and Street Fighter. I also practiced driving, Japanese, and the mixolydian scale on guitar. These are good things. Still I was all screwed up, bleary-eyed at dawn with visions of school girls firing energy blasts at muscular men in white karate gis. Do monsters stalk street corners at night? Did Elvis die? These are questions that need answers. You won't find the answers here.

While salarymen costumed themselves in ties and black trousers, I did sit up wondering what the hell I was doing these days. After putting my own weird wardrobe of punk/closet-queer boy/rockabilly/nerd junk away, I found something that took me back to older bleary-eyed days of night-time mysteries. Many years ago, a friend and I would sit up all night discussing the paranormal and the supernatural, and one day he handed me a really weird little booklet. I don't know if it was serious or not, but the text described a robotic killer or something that was thought to come from a university, I think CMU. I never really read the whole thing. Well it turns out that I live a few blocks from a robot lab owned by CMU. There have certainly been nights where I walked past the walls and wondered what dastardly replicants were being assembed inside that would one day be dismantled by a post-noir detective in our increasingly cyberpunk world. Just the other day, I posted a picture of some ugly, boxy, condos that look like they'd exist in that same time and place. These things are coming up all over. Truly the future has arrived.

Of course the future was already here in some form as Robotic Music of Pittsburgh proves. This record was released back in October of 2009 on the mysterious Specific Recordings, but Bandcamp threw it out to me as a "new arrival". It must be fate! I think it's really just only been now posted on Bandcamp.


Robotic Music of Pittsburgh is an album of musick "played on physical instruments by robotic or mechatronic performers". The cover is a throwback to the harsh Pittsburgh of yesteryear when steel was the king and everybody died with lungs full of soot. You could ask my great-grandfather about it if you were dead. Thank God that that orange guy is bringing all the soot back, so we can all ask my great-grandfather about the steel mills and stuff once we are dead. Thank God for environmental waste and a backstep for human health! Thank God (or Christ) for the bomb. I like the cover to this album.


The album starts with a track by Richard Pell and Matthew Mesner called "Robotic Player Piano". "Monday, January 4th 1999", a voice says, and then it's all controlled chaos of flying ivory keys. There's a swirly mid-range with twinkling somethings above. The first track is not even a minute long.

The second track is attributed to Ben Brown, Garth Zeglin, and Roger Dannenburg and titled "McBlare Robotic Bagpipes". It's another short track, sounding like something John Cale might have produced on viola. The machines drone and blare. They don't rock.

The longest track is "GuitarBot" by the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. It's quite beautiful. I love the sliding guitars, all hollow and slimy, accompanied by a bullish upright bass. As the song continues, it sounds as if there is a keyboard or an EBow or just some really extreme sustain. The musick ranges from meditative to jolting.

After a brief silence, Jeremy Boyle w/ Robotic Guitar and Drums produce a track of the same name. This is the final piece of musick on the album, and it is the most like a typical song. The machines really can rock. The guitar rolls over in waves as the drums sound, well, like clockwork. Some other guitars come in with a counterpoint and semi-solo. There might be a keyboard here, or it is another guitar all covered in amber light. I enjoyed this one very much.

I'm glad that I found this sampler of Robotic Music of Pittsburgh. There is an air of mystery to it. I could not find much information other than a short article written by Manny Theiner for the City Paper concerning the output of the label. Specific Recordings is certainly something I will watch out for from now on. The robots here on Robotic Music of Pittsburgh do a good job at making musick. Were any of them built close by? Label owner Richard Pell does have connections to CMU, so there is certainly a chance. Thus the mystery of the man-eating robots of CMU was finally solved. They are really just musicians taking all the gigs away from human bands. That's just the way of the future, isn't it? Robotic Music of Pittsburgh receives a Good.

Welcome to the second article in the Outside In(fluence) series of international musick reviews. Last time, I talked about some Chinese punks called Dirty Fingers. This time, it's noise-rockers, Buzz Rodeo, from Stuttgart, Germany. I have been aware of them for some time because I am friends with the frontperson, Ralph, on Facebook. Despite this, I have never really listened to the band before. Since I started the Outside In(fluence) series, I thought this would be a good time to do so.


The album cover to Combine, released in May 2017, has a mechanical feel. It is literally a picture of a piece of machinery with small lightning bolts, but the image is also very clean. I'm not a fan of this type of art; it leaves me feeling empty. It seems like a popular style, but it seems so sterile to me. I do think it suits the band a bit with their mechanical attack.


The first song on Combine is "Cheap Trick", sounding like Albini in more ways than one. The guitars are scratchy sirens and the vocals excitedly wild. There are some nice drum parts here. I know Steve Albini likes the band Cheap Trick quite a bit. I don't think this song is about the band. Next is the speeding-along racer of "Jordan Walk". I really like this song with its imagery of bicycles racing around. Everything goes to chaos before the chorus returns. Then the song ends with the guitar sounding like an electrified cable of many pounds. "Nice Guy" sounds like Sonic Youth meets Big Black and My Dad Is Dead. "The Song in A" has more raw power cable guitar. The bass has a weird, ghoulish sound. The drums sound good but kind of thin. The bass a subtle creepiness from under the waves of guitar. "Pride Parade" does not refer to a pro-LGBT event but to self-congratulatory, arrogant rockstars. I was glad to hear a short break of near silence on this, as the album has been going on full blast since it started. There is at least one German word here that is repeated often. I think it is "hofnarr" meaning a fool or jester. I had to look up the translation, but it makes sense. "Tripwire!" is heavy and droney, and I like it a lot. I don't know what it is about though.

The second side begins with the Dick Dale guitar of "Brompton Stone". This one reminded me a lot of Multicult with its throbbing mid-range bass and screeching guitar. "Spinning" is a little quieter. I get tired of all the yelling and stuff, though this is still along those lines. The guitar does some cool stuff, alternating between a start/stop Ramones rock and a Sonic Youth galactic attack. "Next Position" sounds like it has something to do with sex or fascism, but I think I'm missing something. I thought this song was somewhat tiring. "Rubdown" is more guitar attack. I wish the drums were more prominent. "Butchers Knife" starts with an interesting effect that's been on a few songs, a kind of tremolo or something, some kind of stutter on the guitar at the end of the notes. The musick is the poppiest it's been on the entire album, Ralph, the vocalist, nearly crooning in his own way. This one is my favorite on the album. It reminds me of Iggy Pop's The Idiot and Gang of Four. I wish more of the album had been like this.

Buzz Rodeo is a very skilled band. They make some cool sounds. I just wish they had more varied songs. "Butcher's Knife" proves they can do more than just yelling b/w loud guitars. I love that song, so much. I can't say much for the rest. Combine gets a Neutral. It doesn't do enough for me, mostly a slight headache.

On January 11th, I played the first Treasure show of 2018. Treasure is a monthly ambient series at Howlers put on by Manny Theiner (Futurism) and his fellow DJ Elizabeth (Amadea). I was supposed to play one earlier, but this one was probably the best for me anyway.

I left my house with a lot of time to spare. I put all my gear in a box, and, unfortunately, it started to rain soon after I started towards the venue. All of the musick gear was protected with various towels, but the box started to fall apart. Luckily, my friend Anna saw me walking and gave me a ride to Howlers.

Howlers was all dressed up for the show. The tables were covered by black tablecloths and little jewels were strewn about on top. Because this was my first Treasure show, I didn't expect anything like that. It is a nice touch.

I played first after some chilly post-punk and industrial DJing by Amadea and Futurism. I used a stripped down setup of only 3 pedals and the microKorg. It was nice to bring back the Boomerang Phrase Sampler Plus, and the other two, DOD Carcosa Fuzz and Strymon El Capistan dTape Echo (what a mouthful of jargonese), both fairly new, worked well together. A guy in a YouTube guitar video would say something about how I was able to "keep my tone", far off from the muddy sounds of slightly older Satyr/Elfheim material, and then play a really boring blues solo. I played some exciting blues solos during the soundcheck, though the actual set was ambient and textural, little crystals of the night among an unfulfilled sound of mystery. I continued to build the crystal notes with bass counterpoints. The song never reached that unfortunate lazy noise end that has occurred too often in the past. Instead, it ended with a few springy guitarings. The next song incorporated the microKorg with minimalist drums and vampire bells. A foreboding bass sound provided the backdrop. That one ended with a choir and morphed into the "swamp-tone" (nothing to do with Swampwalk) that I use often, and that morphed into a whirl of notes. The final section was very quiet. I got a lot of compliments on my set, and I really liked it too. It was one of the best I have ever played.


Next, there was more DJing for a bit. Then Swampwalk played. Her set was really good! I mean, Swampwalk sets are always good, but the sound was very full this time. The chiptunes sounded bright and clear. She was also very emphatic with her vocal delivery. I love the vast swings of emotions of these songs, true peril and joy.

More DJing commenced, and that was it. I got a ride home from Elizabeth, thankfully avoiding the rain this time. I hope to go to more of the Treasure shows (Treasure #11 happens February 8th featuring slowdanger and Trovants). I also have a better idea of what to do with future Satyr/Elfheim sets, though they may still remain somewhat rare for the time being.

2
Vimanas were ancient flying machines from Hindu mythology. Were they real? Were they not? I don't know. There is a real Pittsburgh project with the same name, however. I've never seen them live, nor are there any pfotos or links to Facebook on their Bandcamp. Who are these beings? Well on January 18th, 2018, they released a self-titled album. This is my excavation of such a thing.


The cover of Vimanas. drew me to this album. It follows a trend in metal and noisy rock of ancient building and mythical imagery, but I still like the stark pyramid and the bold text. I don't like that the text bleeds into the bottom border with a slightly darker color. Anyway, what sludge metal or noise-rock was contained within these chambers?


The musick on Vimanas actually isn't like that at all. The first track "Strange Attractor" starts with a cool dub sound that becomes more jazz. I find the lyrics sort of cheesy at first, but interesting later. "Do I think these songs are going to mean something? Something, someday, to somebody." The little keyboard flourishes are nice. "Beds" has a guitar sound like Dean Cercone or something I might have done a while ago, but it sounds acoustic. I like the theme of the song and the way that the vocals end before the song does. The guitar has a cool sound towards the end. "Doomed Inspiration" has an R&B feel and a song structure that has very juxtaposing parts. The guitar seems to be going direct; it sounds like Tom Verlaine's on "Little Johnny Jewel". I really don't like the vocals on "Moon", and the instruments aren't much to me either. The lyrics are okay, though they are quite flowery. The spacey sounds that fly over the track and the bass drum sound below are nice. "Whereunto" continues the mild musick with more vocals that just seem placed on top. I don't think the words fit so nicely into the holes they are given. "Starspawn" starts quickly after the sudden end of the last one. I don't like this one. The lyrics have a particularly New Age thing going on that I don't really care for and recalls those posts on social media of people talking about being made of "star stuff". "Reflector" has okay lyrics, but, again, I feel like they don't fit the jazzy musick very well. It's a shame because the musick sounds very nice towards the end of the track. "Can Word Affect Change?" is alright. I think the title is far too blunt. Again, I'm also not a fan of the vocals/lyrics. "Powerless To Try" is a jazz-rock instrumental. I like the drum sound and the guitar sound, once the song has built in intensity towards the end of the track.

"Distant Moment Replay" has beautiful musick that reminds me of the anime A Piece of Phantasmagoria. The vocals really bother me again. The lyrical theme of self-reflection is good, but the words are not. "We thought our strings were out of tune. In fact, they sound better than that. We almost went our separate ways. Instead, we admitted faulty character traits and stayed." Sorry, I'm really not a fan of that. "Ancient Obligation" is pretty cool. I like the really out-there vocal effect at the end and the progressively building tones. "Endless" has some decent guitar lines, but I hate the drop after each line of the chorus and the tone of the vocals. I like the part where the flute sound leads the bass, but it's just placed over the top of everything else. This song is very disconnected. "Interregnum" is just a little instrumental piece exactly as it says. It's pretty good.

I'm not going to discuss the vocals much more; just know that I don't care for them. I like the 70s movie score meets funk tone of "Modern Gem". I don't like "Progress". "Sparrows" is okay, comparing bird songs to text messages. I like the weird electronic drums and the background tones. The part of the song that's just all crash cymbals kind of lacks punch, though it kind of works as a droning section. "Immanuel" has really nice musick, more of that Phantasmagoria sound. The guitar has a beautiful reverb with pianos swirling around and synths floating in the sky. The vocals are poppier here, but I still dislike them. "Tomorrow Plans" has a good sound for a final song.

So what are Vimanas? Well, Vimanas certainly have their own style. The complex structures, strange aerial loops, and verbose lyrics of these ancient crafts create something that I can't say I have ever listened to before. However, perhaps Vimanas should remain buried; the lyrics and vocals, especially the sing-song way in which they are sung and the obtuse word choice, really ruin the album for me. Had this album had a different lyricist and vocalist, I think I would enjoy the calm jazz of the musick. There is certainly a structure here for something to be built in the future; it really shouldn't stay buried, but it will need some future tech added. It pains me to say but, having discovered what I did upon this excavation, I can only give Vimanas a Bad.

I was browsing Bandcamp's selection of Pittsburgh artists today and came across a little album that caught my eye - Ellen Dash's The Whale. I didn't know anything about it. The album was just released on January 19th, a chiptune thing with a bright and charming cover.


The cover shows a pink whale moving to devour a small ship, perhaps a galleon or something of the like. The whale is probably pretty big then, but the sort of sub-8-bit art only shows so much. Like I said, I really like the bright colors and simplicity. There's not a bloody head or text that looks like it was woven from the world's oldest vines to form the name of the heaviest riffers in Oakland. The art fits the musick well.




The Whale starts off with "Truth In The Pants". The song has a knocking bass drum sound and springing trumpets amid somber tones and weird echoes. It sounds like something from an early 1st-person shooter. "Sun Orgy" has a similar foreboding tone, this time with a slap bass and driving/droning pulse. The organ break in the middle provides an excellent level of interest. "Jealous Laser" has a snare and dissonant organs that have a really cool progression. Some laser sounds provide additional color. "Relations" continues the more complex drum sound from the previous track with more down-tempo musick. I like the Princely keyboard sound on here. This song is a little longer than the others. I am not super fond of the little breaks of silence between certain sections, but this song is still good.

I really like the beat on "Resonance" and everything sounds nice. This is one of my favorite tracks on here. "Guilty Skull" has a sort of guitar sound, but it isn't really a rock song at all. The drums are really industrial, potentially heavy if they were a physical kit. "All I Have Is My Road" has the clearest drum sounds yet with some kind of effect on them I think. I don't really like this one, though; it's too much of the drums with nothing else, and I don't find them particularly interesting. The bass sound is okay. Unfortunately for me, this is the longest track on the album.

"Laser Sale" brings the album back to more exciting territories with its abundance of instruments, the bass echoing the piano. I like the drums here, though they are a bit high-pitched and thin. "Unto The Whale" starts with a beat that seems to be saying the title before dropping into a lonely bass sound, building on that, and then coming back to the original beat. I like that effect, though the beat is a little tiresome. "Angering The Gods" is the last track on the album. The end has a cool progression and there are some nice sounds here, though it's kind of a summary of the earlier songs.

The Whale was a fun album to chance upon. It's all instrumental chiptunes, and the songs are short. It reminds me of Guided By Voices actually, at least in the structure. I'll have to look for more musick by Ellen Dash, who also calls themselves pup/puppy. The Whale gets a Good.

Welcome to Artist Special! Artist Special is a new series of interviews that runs every third Sunday of each month. I'm talking with artists who make both musick and another kind of art. They could be poets, painters, sculptors, novelists, game designers, or anything else. This month I talked with Brian DiSanto.


Brian DiSanto is mostly an a capella musician, though he has played with bands IT IT, Skeletonized, and Znagez among others. I first met Brian through mutual friends who were all living together, or soon to be living together, at the infamous Roup House a while back. Later, we played musick together in the short-lived Mangy Bipods.When I put up a post about this new Artist Special series, he was the first to respond with samples of poetry. We did a short interview via Messenger; the results are below (only edited for grammar).

When did you start writing poetry? When did you start making musick?
I started writing poetry in late middle school, probably around the age of 14 or 15, in study hall. Even back then I was attracted to the movement & rhythms of poetry and how they could exist beyond the words & transform into melody. I really wrote for my own entertainment. I became equally as interested in writing a song myself that could spin ‘round my head all day as a motivator as I was trying to find interesting songs on the radio. I started to record and actually write full-blown songs shortly after this…maybe age 16. It was always with my good friend Rob Russell and I. He was on strings and I sang, or sometimes had bongos or makeshift percussion. Our favorite recording spot was this crusty old shack in North Park. We would go after dark. And the building was always unlocked and had working electricity and these fantastic acoustics. There was a big crumbled sign hanging inside that said “No confetti permitted in the building”. That was our first album name which I released on CDR about 7 years later. We called our band various names, including The Ramblin Roosters and Maverick Jack & The Grenades.   
In the beginning, what/who inspired you in terms of each? What continues to inspire you?
Back then, and still today, REM and Robert Pollard have been hugely inspirational. Their carefree, seamless songcraft was just so attractive. They were punk, but they were pumping out pop songs. Catchy, gorgeous pop songs. Especially Michael Stipe and how he allowed his vocals to become a sort of hidden instrument. You couldn’t decipher what the hell he was actually saying, but it didn’t matter. He was a vehicle for emotion, and most important to me, a pop hook. And Robert Pollard and his prolific nature. He never really aged in normal human terms. He kind of just keeps writing songs to avoid getting older. Literal rock n roll lifeblood. I liked that. Tom Wolfe continues to inspire me as well. His word usage is so beautiful. It just glides. Like the board game Mousetrap. You wouldn’t dare stop that little silver marble once the contraption has initiated. So you watch with glee and amazement. The actual stories he’s telling are secondary. 
I asked you about this in person, but, to clarify, have all of yr songs begun as poems? Are some written with the intention of being made into a song at a later date?
I would say 50/50 as far as songs that started as poems. Most of my poems are foundationally geared with melody and rhythm in mind, but I carefully leave quite a few alone and don’t develop them beyond words. Though if you were to read the ones that have remained only poetry aloud while in a certain chipper kind of mood, the fully realized songs will slither out into the ether pretty easily, which is my secret intention.
You have a small label called Wild Raft. Where did the name Wild Raft come from? I've always liked the simplicity of the name.
Good question! My family and I used to go camping often and one of our favorite activities was to go tubing along Slippery Rock Creek near McConnell's Mill. One Friday night when I was probably 13 or 14 there was this huge rainstorm which created super high water levels with extremely rugged rapids. The state park rangers made a clear announcement NOT to tube/kayak/canoe due to dangerous conditions. My dad pretty much said, "screw that", and he and I went anyhow. As soon as we launched we both flipped off our tubes, catapulted down the river with hanging onto the tubes' rope, and by the grace of miss mother nature herself, finished the 5-mile trip unscathed. We evaded the rangers at the end. It became a legendary moment in my childhood.
Briefly describe yr creative process. How do you choose the words/lyrics? Some of these are pretty out there.
Quite often a melody will just zap into my head outta nowhere. It seems to happen most often as soon as I leave work. It’s like a natural destressing mechanism. It’s that gorgeous moment when you finally aren’t chained to the crummy labors of the workday. The brain wants to go party and release itself. If the melody is decent, I usually will record a chunk of it into my cell phone so I can revisit it later and add words and verses. I have probably 150-200 chorus snippets on my phone at any given time. I am way more interested in the hook than writing about a theme or moment in my life. Maybe one out of fifty or so songs will have a theme….and if so it’s a very looooose concept. I enjoy writing about movement and escaping and metaphorical moments when something striking happens. My main mission is always to get the song stuck in your head, without it being annoying. If you listen at night and wake up the next morning with the chorus circling your head, it was a job well done/gold star for me. And the words are a giant puzzle. How can I fit “rhododendron” somewhere to close to “power flight” and then fit that near “exonerate”? I’m filling in my own New York Times lyric crossword as I go. I’ve best pick the right word now, or the next one ain’t gonna fit.
I know that you also make collages for yr album art. Does that come from the same place? Is the idea of “found art” a central element to yr work?
When I collage it’s a similar process. The shapes and flow of the imagery should be catchy and memorable. It’s also me simply entertaining myself. I like spooky creatures, and neon contrasted with not neon, and space, and the unknown. I probably was watching an episode of The X Files within 24-48 hours of every collage I’ve ever made, which probably shows. I think the idea of found art and recycled art is super cool, though I don’t keep that in mind when creating something – and I don’t necessarily want the collage to feel old, or new… just grasping and groovy in that moment in time.
What are yr goals for yr musick and poetry? Do you see yrself publishing a book of poetry in the future? I can’t remember if you made a zine in the past, but I do remember you reading a story at a Quiet Sound Night at one point. That was pretty cool. Is that published anywhere?
My creative goals are very relaxed. It’s important that I keep producing, as long as I can. I’m very fortunate to have recently jammed and recorded with the folks in IT IT and Skeletonized. They both were unexpected and amazing collaborations. I hope to continue similar projects, as long as people see my lyrics and vocals as a vehicle to further their sound. My dream scenario would be to have a pure rock formation, stage-ready. A no-holds-barred power pop and psychedelic affair. Something like the Butthole Surfers but with less cerebral damage. I’ve released 3 poetry zines in paper and digital format, which are linked on my website, wildraft.tumblr.com. I also released one CDR copy of actual spoken, not “sung”, poetry. It was called The Above-Ground Octopus. This was in maybe 2011. I nestled it under a hedge down around the busway behind Bloomfield. The story you’re referring to was called Cap’n Fizz & The Mysterious Glowstick Hotdogs. Kind of a nod to discovering LSD, but in a more PG text. I released that as a paper zine as well. It’s intended to be acted out as a play. If I could make that happen one day I’d be ecstatic.
What new stuff are you working on?
I'm writing as many songs as I can. I want to release a new solo album since I haven't in a few months. My fourth poetry zine has all the content but I need to assemble it and it needs a title. I'm thinking Powdered Mink Metropolis. Or maybe Transmissions On Chestnut Ridge, which would be a shoutout to this stretch of land out in Westmoreland County that the locals call Chestnut Ridge. And for hundreds of years, it's been a hotspot for the unexplained.
I hope you found these answers insightful to the enigmatic Brian DiSanto. Even being his friend, I sure learned a lot. You can check out Brian's musick at https://briandisanto.bandcamp.com/ and his poetry at http://wildraft.tumblr.com/.

If you want to be a part of this series, please send a message to the Skull Valley Facebook page or send an email to skullvalleyblog@gmail.com with a short description of what you do and samples of yr work. I hope to see you back here in February for the next Artist Special when I talk with Mick Malone about his new book of poetry.

On January 5th, I went to the First Friday event at Spirit. It was the first one of the year, and some of my friends were playing at the event. Even though it was fiendishly frigid, I was able to just walk the few blocks to the venue.

I got to the event and nobody was really there. I looked at some of the art by Donald Ducote. He has a textural, abstract style that uses a lot of red. It's kind of ugly in a cool way, but I can't say that I was that interested in it. I always think the art placement at Spirit is a little strange; it's not particularly well set up for that sort of thing, but I appreciate that they make an effort to do it. I do think if the lighting had been better on the art, I might have looked at it more closely. Anyway, I didn't see anyone I knew, and nothing seemed to be happening at the moment, so I left.

I went back to Spirit a little bit later. Now there was something going on. Many more people were there, and some equipment was set up. I saw my friends in BBGuns at a table and sat with them as another friend, Valerie Kuehne, began to play.


Valerie played a very furious and exciting set. At first, the crowd seemed unsure of what to make of it. I think it went really well. Her cover of "I Can't Stand Losing You" by The Police was interesting, though that might have been the weakest part. It was a bold move though.


The Petals were next. I had never heard of them before, and I can't say I am much of a fan. They played a sort of 2000s indie/baroque rock thing like The Arcade Fire. I liked some of it when it sounded like The Good, The Bad, & The Queen. Also, the guitars and some of the vocals were cool.


BBGuns, the main event for me, were playing third. The audience had thinned quite a bit, possibly from the variable sound and feelings towards the last two acts, or maybe it was just late. It was awesome to hear the new singles live, and the old songs sounded good too. I am excited for the album release party on February 16th. I thought this was the best performance that night, though I did not stay much later.

After BBGuns, I went home. It was cold and I got a ride. There's not much else to say; it was a fun and short show. Thinking back, I do wish I had stayed for the last performer, a rapper named NVSV. I did listen to him on his Facebook page. I can't say I like it too much, but I do always like to see something new, even if I don't like it. I hope to see you at the BBGuns album release party or at other First Fridays at Spirit or on Penn Ave. later in the year.

MARI themes

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