In the 1960s, Stanley Lunetta created a number of interactive scultures using electronic audio generators. Some of them were still running as of 2008. Some responded to elements such as heat and light to change the sounds, others had more explicit human interactive elements.
You can find more information at Lunetta’s site, including the Moosack Machines section.
(Thanks Zir)
Cult of Zir live at Wisteria Campground in Pomeroy, OH July 4, 2011. Video taken by reverend SCUM!
There’s a new Cult of Zir album up at Bandcamp.
Previously: Cult of Zir Live at Pocket Sandwich (Video)
The cover of DMT: The Spirit Molecule
I’m reading Grant Morrison’s Supergods right now, and I’ll probably have more to say on it in the future. But I’ve just passed a part in the book where he talks about the Sekhmet Hypothesis, and wanted to get some thoughts down right now.
The gist of the Sekhmet Hypothesis, as explained by Morrison, is that every 11 years culture shifts as sunspot activity waxes and wains. At one pole is “hippie” culture characterized by longer pop songs, longer hair baggy clothes, psychedelics and an emphasis on peace and love. At the other pole is punk culture, which is characterized by shorter pop songs, short hair, tight clothes, stimulants and an emphasis on anger and rebellion.
Update: Iain Spence, the originator of the Sekhmet Hypothesis and author of a book on the subject left a long comment that’s worth reading. It appears, first of all, that Morrison’s punk/hippie description of the hypothesis is much oversimplified (or perhaps I misunderstood his interpretation of it, this is like a game of telephone – if you want the real scoop on the hypothesis, go to the source). Second, Spence has updated the hypothesis having admitted that he was wrong about the solar cycle aspect of it, among other things.
So it would go:
I could add the surge of mind fuck movies in the 90s, and their come back in the 10s, but as some readers pointed out in my earlier post on the subject, those types of movies didn’t entirely die out in the 00s. Also:
It’s really hard for me to accept that “punk” is the opposite of “hippie.” The 60s counterculture wasn’t always peaceful and non-violent, and the punks, with their love of Jamaican music, antiwar songs and their vegan and vegetarianism were a lot more hippie-ish than many gave them credit for.
It’s hard, given the number of exceptions to the formula, to swallow the idea that there’s a real, society-wide pull between punk and hippie every 11 years. Others have critiqued historicity before, and I don’t need to go there.
But there may be pattern of rising and falling tides of psychedelia, perhaps accompanied by a sense of optimism and energy that eventually dissipates. The 60s had acid, the 90s had ecstasy. And I’m hearing that DMT is becoming a common strong street drugs these days, and the new cool thing to listen to is apparently the sound of a modem slowed way down. We could be in for some weird times indeed.
Prussian Blue was a pop duo consisting of 13 year old twins Lamb and Lynx Gaede. Their lyrics contained racist and white nationalist themes, which attracted international media attention. I feel bad about piling on to the media spectacle, but this this an interesting story. I always felt bad for these two, who were clearly being used by adults to push certain messages. I’m glad they’re moving on with their lives.
Now 19, they both still speak in a disarmingly girlish singsong. Their message, however, was not always so sweet. In 2006, the sisters, who formed the band at the suggestion of White Nationalist leader William Pierce, drew international notoriety with songs like “Hate for Hate: Lamb Near the Lane,” a dreamy folksong cowritten by Lamb and the late David Lane, a member of the violent terrorist splinter cell The Order, who was then serving 190 years in prison for his involvement in the murder of Jewish talk show host Alan Berg in 1984 (he and Lamb were pen pals).
Prussian Blue was never a presence on the pop charts and only played small venues. But for a brief time in the mid-2000s, Lamb and Lynx were seemingly everywhere — “the new face of hate,” as one news program put it. They appeared on “Primetime Live” and in a number of other media oulets, including GQ (where I profiled them in 2006).
The Daily: Former Nazi teeny boppers are singing a new tune
Here’s Gell’s above mentioned 2006 profile of the sisters for GQ.
You can now download Return to the Wasteland for free, or just pay whatever you want. Before there was a $5 minimum.
I was going to release a new track today for X-Day, but I’m not happy with the material. I was also planning on making Wasteland free when the next Psychetect album is released – but that’s still at least a couple months away. So, to support your slack, I decided give away Wasteland a little early.
Of course, X-Day is all about profit, so feel free to pay money for it. You can also buy the album from iTunes, Amazon.com and a bunch of other places.
Cover art by Ian McEwan, color by Danny Chaoflux
Sound produced and mastered by Klint Finley
Ceremonial Tibetan “singing bowls” are beginning to give up their secrets.
The water-filled bowls, when rubbed with a leather-wrapped mallet, exhibit a lively dance of water droplets as they emit a haunting sound.
Now slow-motion video has unveiled just what occurs in the bowls; droplets can actually bounce on the water’s surface.
A report in the journal Nonlinearity mathematically analyses the effect and could shed light on other fluid processes, such as fuel injection.
BBC: Tibetan singing bowls give up their chaotic secrets
(via Edward Borasky)
Before the Gorillaz and Deathklok, there was Mondo Vanilli (and before Mondo Vanilli, there was Silicon Teens, but that’s another story). Now the band, consisting of Scrappi DuChamp, R.U. Sirius and Simone Third Arm has released its 1993 album for free online.
David Pescovitz writes at Boing Boing:
In 1993, cyberculture prankster/provocateur/publisher RU Sirius, founder of Mondo 2000 magazine, composer Scrappi DuChamp, and performance artist Simone Third Arm, recorded an album for Trent Reznor’s record label. They had met at Reznor’s Los Angeles rental home, the house where the Manson Family killed Sharon Tate and others. Tim Leary had brought RU along to a housewarming party there and RU gave Reznor a demo tape of his band, called Mondo Vanilli. Reznor quickly signed the band to his then-nascent Nothing Records. Unfortunately, this great work of curious and quirky synth-industrial-pop, titled “IOU Babe,” never made it to the record stores. Almost two decades later, Mondo Vanilli has officially released “IOU Babe” for free online. A CD with bonus material is coming shortly.
Some of this was streaming on Revolting.com in the 90s, and somewhere along the lines I downloaded a couple MP3s of the band’s music (I don’t recall where from), but I think this is the first time the full album has been made available.
Mike Skrtic turned me on The Shaggs just last weekend – and today I happened to find this new BBC short documentary on them. It’s only 11:43 seconds, and well worth watching.
For more background, here’s Susan Orlean’s piece on the band from The New Yorker.
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