We missed the last episode of the blood series. Never mind. Last night we spent with Dexter anyway.
Archive Page 12
A column written for Instinkt magazine this week:
Výstava “BigMag – Jiné časopisy v Česku po roce 1989” v pražské galerii DOX vypráví sice jen mezi řádky, ale i tak intenzivně, o historii české hudební nezávislé scény v době, kdy jsem ji i já vnímal a prožíval nejsilněji. Vyprávění to není ani příjemně melancholické ani optimistické. Spíš jsem měl celou dobu pocit, že se probírám exponáty nějaké zaniklé, ne moc vyspělé mikro-civilizace, která nikdy nebyla rozvinutá a po celé řadě neobratných pokusů plných touhy a osobního nasazení jednotlivců zanikla. Skončila v zaprášeném rohu jako memento. Jenže mě taky napadlo, že to rozhodně není grafickým zpracováním. To je naopak důvod pro návštěvu téhle povedené expozice. Výstava zmařených tužeb, od anarcho-punkových fanzinů, přes první okouzlení ostrovní scénou v časopise Point, nezpočet titulů dotýkajících se klubové taneční scény posledních dvaceti let, Živel, Ultramix, vypráví něco ne uplně sympatického o té naší “scéně” – totální ignorance publika opětovaná častou arogancí autorů, témata pro těžko říct koho, strach z kolaborace s komercí vedoucí do izolace a slovník sekty jsou nedílnou součástí úpadku všech pokusů o silnou, vlastní, ne jen pražskou hudební subkulturu. Ta tu sice vždycky jednou za pár let vyklíčí, ale dopadne jak fazole v Petriho miskách na základní škole.
In the eye of a hurricane.
Published April 13, 2011 commercial communication , film , music , timeline Leave a CommentUnfortunately, most of the time I spend close to the eye, trying to get a rest, not actually reaching it. But. There are some treasured moments like this, when my procrastination leads me towards things like “you should write a new blog post” instead of “Hurry up, finish the music changes client asked for yesterday, write the new treatment for the commercial agency asked to be finished yesterday, prepare for the today’s PPM, make a quick and magical progress on strategy and creative for brands you work on and call finally the director of the film you work on score for and set up meetings for next week!”. Come on! It’s wednesday and I deserve at least 5 minutes to start this post to reassure myself that this blog isn’t dead yet.
Purchases
So, I work a lot and I made some money for some interesting new purchases to enhance my gear in the studio. TL Audio C 2021 Compressor from Ivory series is a great addition to my front-end as well as a good output “warming” machine.
VOX Pathfinder 10 looks like a toy but sounds like a chihuahua on steroids. I bought it especially for our acoustic tour and home purposes with a big sign “a chinese toy made by Korg bearing a desirable brand of english heritage which looks cool enough to spend 60 Euros”. But the sound of the clean channel is simply fantastic. The overdrive channel sounds simply horrible and unusable. But you can buy a decent overdrive from Danelectro for a price of two packs of Marlboro. I use this combo with my Marshall Echohead digital delay stompbox.
I also bought the iRig, revolutionary solution for playing electric guitar through the amazing AmpliTube on iPhone. Unfortunately, the piece of plastic is rather a disappointment as the contact with the guitar cord produces unwanted cracks and noises. For that money, China can do usually better.
I bought no-name japanese guitar from the beginning of 60′ for 2.500 CZK and I play it with my Fender Twin Deluxe for that uncompromising sound of the beat generation.
The Prostitutes
We did our first unplugged gig this year in Brno, heading another one in Roxy, Prague 21.4. 2011
We recorded live performance in Malostranská Beseda and we aslo shot the video footage. Release of a live album is planned for June.
Pictures from that gig here.
We work on songs for upcoming album to be recorded in Autumn.
We also should record two demo songs for a new czech film about punk movement in 80′, directed by Richard Řeřicha.
Mods
We finished T-Mobile commercials yesterday, to be aired from tomorrow. We also did commercials for Direct Insurance, Česká Pojišťovna sponsoring of ice hockey and Fernet. More at our website.
Other
I composed and produced music for Direct and Fernet Z and did a remake, recording (together with Jirka Burian, Blanka Cichon and Karel Havlíček) and production for T-Mobile “Superstar”.
I started to work on score for the film “Poupata”, directed by Zdeněk Jiráský.
Monday, I took part as one of a dozen co-directors of Sparta-Slavia movie shot during one derby football game.
I would like to start a collaboration with Dogs Bodies, in my opinion fabulous czech band. We might record a session in summer.
I moved my office to Náměstí Kinských 7, Praha 5.
The rest was blown away by the wind.
Quick notes.
Published February 4, 2011 commercial communication , film , music , timeline Leave a CommentThe Linings finally mixed and mastererd, delivered to the band with satisfaction on both sides. Available on Sunday on facebook.
Finally decided to try some of the complex music-making iPhone apps – I just bought Nanostudio. Will be the next album made on iPhone? Probably not, but some of the commercial tunes probably yes.
Mods working on some ice hockey championship sponsorship commercials , preparing another 3 shoots.
WIP on Outbreak project and some very own advertising projects.
Being busy. Sometimes extremely, sometimes it’s just a normal moderate stress helping me to wake up early.
Cold for three weeks.
Next music-development stage for the motion picture Poupata is the task for the upcoming weekend.
Writing new songs for The Prostitutes’ new album.
Having a quick training of “relaxing on the go” helping me to get relaxed in a second.
Having a good time in general.
After great but technically difficult gig in Brno last week when I was forced to rip the tuner and the mixer off my board, disconnect the Moog synthesizer, having trouble to find the cold link in dozen of connections and spending some serious time on my knees, I decided to rebuilt my pedalboard after maybe two years.
Also, I got a new unit as a Christmas present from Kristina, a Boss looper, so I wanted to fit another 173 mm in length onto my T-Rex Tone Trunk pedalboard.
I put the power brick, T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior, up side down on the bottom side of the pedalboard, I bought multi-power-supply cable with angled connectors to feed more effects from one socket with minimum space wasted and I spent hours of re-gluing the velcro strips onto construction, bottoms of pedals and re-wiring the whole thing together. It’s done and it’s playing incorporating this chain of units: DOD VAC 240 input mixer, Boss TU-2 tuner, EHX Black Finger compressor, EHX LPB-1 booster, Ibanez Turbo Tube Screamer TS-9DX overdrive, MXR Phaser 100, EHX Small Clone chorus, Boss RC-20 loop station, Moog Moogerfooger Ring Modulator, Line 6 Echo Park delay and, last but not least, T-Rex Fuel Tank Junior. Oh, I forgot a Roland volume pedal controlling Moogerfooger’s frequency parameter and a Roland on/off switch controlling Moog Little Phatty keyboard gate.
Further changes: I am going to change TU-2 for TC Electronic PolyTune (already ordered). I would like to add one more delay (Marshall Echohead EH-1) in front of the looper, Radial Tonebone Classic tube distortion and an EHX Little Big Muff. That said, I am going to change my board to bigger Pedaltrain HC Pro, probably.
Last night we recorded some new stuff with The Prostitutes to make another step towards the new record planned for this year. Luk, Adam and Adrian were singing, Adam played keyboards and guitar and I played my phone. iPhone 4. Loaded with Gyrosynth, a synth application enabled by built-in gyroscope to play as a scale-specific theremin synthesizer or sampler. You can define what tones in scale it produces, you can control the pitch, volume and modulation on three predefined axis, and you can use built-in synth with delay and overdrive or you can sample any sound via microphone and pitch bend it by waving your hand around you. Big fun but also great live tool with amazing instant results. Dumb-ass-proof operation and like-a-pro solos.
Sunday?
Published January 2, 2011 commercial communication , film , music , timeline Leave a CommentIt’s snowing outside. Lazy Sunday, but I would like to clean at least a part of my 2010 table. So, first of all, rewrite the GE Money treatment. Again. Then start up the Logic and continue on two projects: to finish the bloody Linings project (Linings are not bloody, bloody me that I can’t finalize it) – hopefully Dušan will help me with the mix and mastering – and then a little bit of trance dance again – this time for the movie score I am working on. Three strip-show scenes from a redneck town – three dance floor smash hits. The pleasure is mine.
Then some office work, answering some PR questions and preparation for tomorrow’s work on another advertising tender. The Prostitutes rehearsal is in the evening. The Berlin’s release party of Hometown Zombies is near, January 13th already plus I am testing and learning Boss Loop Station RC-20XL I got from my girlfriend as a Christmas present. Mark Zinner was the inspiration.
Sunday like any other.
Reading: Down The Higway, The life of Bob Dylan.
Listening: Radio 1 Annual Top Chart
They call it a guest star hater. My contribution to the new hate blog right here: JAROSLAV HUTKA
Written for Instinkt magazine last week, here is a re-post of the regular short column. This time about prophecy and national self-esteem. In Czech.
Citují poznámku od Luboše Mikuly na Facebooku. Zní jako vtip, ale je to čistá a každodenní realita: “CZ uzivatel uploadne song v anglictine. American: je to cool je fajn ze nekdo dela takovou hudbu, da se to koupit na iTunes? Japonec: hudba velmi dobra, vas prizvuk je na vysoke urovni. Nemec: je to fajn, technicky to mohlo byt lepsi. Cech: sracka, ja osobne, kdybych chtel, bych to zazpival lip, navic je poznat ze to nezpiva anglicky mluvici clovek, proste trapas, zbytecny neco takovyho davat na web.” Ano, jsme přeborníci ve flusání do vlastní tváře a cokoliv tuzemského nemůže, jako odraz naší vlastní sebedůvěry, dosáhnout úrovně toho světového. Když k tomu přičtu recenzi na desku naší skupiny nazpívanou rodilým mluvčím v angličtině, otištěnou před lety v Reportu, říkající, že kapela je dobrá, ale na kolena to opět sráží český přízvuk, dalo by se pomalu mluvit o bezohledném, bezprecedentním a bezmyšlenkovitém masochismu (máme-li vlastní scénu za vlastní). Potrestáme se, ponížíme se, budeme kálet do vlastního hnízda! Dejme si novoroční předsevzetí: Příští rok budeme naši alternativní hudební scénu, a nejen ji, bezhlavě adorovat jako v Británii. Buď se za rok utopíme v namyšlenym bahně, nebo třeba náhodou dodáme odvahu a energii několika málo lidem s talentem, a vyrojí se tu jedna, maximálně dvě kapely, který sice nikdy nebudou tak dobrý, jako ty venku, ale budeme si je moct tiše adorovat.
The Prostitutes hrají na FAMU
V pátek 10.12. od 22.00
Smetanovo nábřeží 2, budova FAMU
Přijď na Mikulášskou party v kostýmu hračky, přines hračku nebo obojí. Tvoje opuštěné a znuděné hračky dostanou nový úkol – pobavit děti z dětského domova.
Party na ctyrech patrech cele skoly.
vstup: 50,- s maskou, hrackou/80,- bez
The Prostitutes live at FAMU
This Friday, 10.12. at 22.00
Smetanovo nábřeží 2, FAMU building
Come dressed as a toy or bring your old toys and give them away, they will reborn in hands of children from children’s home.
ENTRY 50 CZK (in a costume or w/ a toy) 80 CZK (casual dress and no toys)
The Last Old Mod***MDP74 v. 3.0 
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