Month: January 2007

  • Stopgap

    Cory is preparing an awesome [blog].  In the meantime, read this;

    http://www.pnl.gov/news/release.asp?id=204

    As a nation, if we could switch over to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, we would take a big step towards A) energy independence from the Middle East (for the conservatives & liberals) and B) drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions (for the environmentalists & liberals).  The electricity is widely available, and it would create market pressure to start building greener power plants.

    THIS is a serious energy policy; make it happen.

    Musically, I am working with 5*C on demos.  Very exciting stuff.  -h

  • MR sampler, Images, Artists Page

    All of the above have been updated this week.  Check out MR | sampler first – click the link over to your right.  Because who was downloading our semi-official mixtape, now nineteen tracks strong as an introduction to MFR?!  Preposterous.  Stream that instead, and hone in on the albums you’re likely to like.

    I have been meaning to change the “Images” page to a blog category for awhile, and just did it.  All the same stuff is there, but it should make me more likely to do more in the future.  I should make us a Photobucket account or something too, move them all there.

    Also updated the “Artists” page.  Needed it.

    If it’s been awhile, or if you haven’t gotten around to hearing some of the old stuff, really check out MR | sampler, it’s fun.  -h

  • How to make a pop star

    Listen, I haven’t told anyone this, but Cory and I didn’t use any pitch-correction (never mind auto-tune!) on Sally Ride’s new It’s A Trap.  That established, check out “How to make a pop star” on YouTube (and thanks Katy for the links).

    How to make a pop star (part 1)

    How to make a pop star – Enrique can’t sing

    And in other music-related YouTubeness, watch & hear Aries Spears freestyling as DMX, LL Cool Jay, Jay-Z, and Snoop, in about two minutes flat.

  • Wallpaper


    MFR Covers 001-011
    800 x 600
    1024 x 768
    1280 x 1024

    Be A Ska Rat
    800 x 600
    1024 x 768
    1280 x 1024

    D-Rockets
    800 x 600
    1024 x 768
    1280 x 1024
  • Axeface Recording, Nov 05


    Benjamin Axeface (flash)

    Axeface (without flash)

    Cory Alan
  • Shacker, MFR BL/R-OCK Party


    16 July 05
    Crete, NE

    16 July 05
    Crete, NE
  • Tape / echoes at WCC Music Jam 24 April 05


    April 05
    Wayzata, MN

    April 05
    Wayzata, MN
  • Shacker posters by Chad Hawthorne


    …Blackbeard’s
    Birthday
    CD show

    Knickerbocker’s
    Lincoln, NE

    21 October 03
    w/ Rocket Ride

    11 November 03
    w/ High Violets
  • howie&scott – live shots


    May 04
    Lincoln, NE

    Feb 04
    Crete, NE

    Feb 04
    Crete, NE

    02
    Lincoln, NE

    more at www.howieandscott.com

  • Ambient Addition

    http://web.media.mit.edu/~nvawter/thesis/index.html

    I found out about this little guy via the NY Times’ “Year in Ideas 2006,” which has since slipped into the archives (damn you, TimesSelect!).

    Noah’s invention “creates music from the noise all around you.”  The QuickTime demo at the site above probably doesn’t do it justice, but it’s pretty cool anyway.  I want one.  Unfortunately, no one is making them; it’s just a project at this point.  Still, check it out.

    On Noah; “Engineer and musician Noah Vawter is best known for inventing Ambient Addition, the 1-bit groovebox, PSPKick and combyop synthesis. In each of these musical instruments, he combines math and design ideas to illuminate the situation around music, encouraging the democratic notions of freedom and cooperation. He is currently a Ph. D. candidate studying with the Computing Culture Research Group at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ”

    On Ambient Addition; “Ambient Addition is a Walkman with binaural microphones. A tiny Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chip analyzes the microphone’s sound and superimposes a layer of harmony and rhythm on top of the listener’s world. In the new context, some surprising behaviors take place. Listeners tend to play with objects around them, sing to themselves, and wander toward tempting sound sources. With Ambient Addition, I’m hoping to make people think twice about the sounds they initiate as well as loosen up some inhibitions.”

  • MFR 2k7

    I realize that It’s A Trap is just beginning to percolate through your collective consciousnes, as you get around to streaming/downloading/sharing it post-holidays.  But since it’s been out for two weeks! or something now, we’re already thinking about what we’ll be working on in the coming year.

    Tape / echoes’ “Hiplife” project is an album of Africa-inspired music, the ideas for which I wrote while travelling there.  It will be half pop, coming from the local “hiplife” hybrid of highlife and hip-hop styles, and half drum rhythms as my response to the traditional music of the Ewe people.  I may start on this right away; I need the participation of several friends who may be moving in May.

    Cory Kibler is working on a Cory Kibler full-length.  !!!

    There will be a third Sally Ride project of frontier, cowboy-ish songs.  Seriously.  Still no drummer.

    Over the Christmas break I jammed with Scott and Allen Gilbert for fun; hopefully GiLMO and Gilby tracks will result in one form or another.

    I’m already doing demos and arranging songs for Fifty Bears in a Fight, my blues/metal/punk side project with 5*Matt.  We need a singer who can wail, and possibly some kind of lead instrument (lap steel, harmonica, guitar, organ…  hell, maybe even sax with wacky effects – we’ll know it when we hear it).

    Ventura and my re-recording of signs are still happening.  I just don’t know when.  5*C has been my top musical priority for some time, and I’ve made a full committment of my energy to that endeavor through 2007.

    So that’s what our new year might look like.  And if I run out of things to do, I’ll surely take the acoustic out to some open-mics and coffeeshops.  All our best, Mr. Furious

    -h

  • Coup de'rock

    Happy New Year, Friends of Furious!

    When Lincoln Journal-Star’s “Ground Zero” entertainment writers L. Kent Wolgamott and Joel Gehringer published their year-end list, I knew they had hit the champagne early; there is no way that Ladyfinger (ne)’s Heavy Hands is not the local album of the year.

    That said, congratulations to:

    Eric, Lone Prairie Records, and everyone involved with Killers in the Nebraska Territories at # 3 !  (featuring Tape / echoes and Cory Kibler)

    Robot, Creep Closer! for She Beeps! at # 11 !

    Weird!  We’re happy.  Thanks, Lincoln music scene!  -howie and all at MFR.