Basic Notes

BASIC (2014) was the seventh album, though it's technically only an EP. It was the spiritual successor to Robot MonStar, and was likewise a concept album in many ways. While Robot MonStar's main sound was of a more robotic and mechanical nature, Basic was supposed to be more primal and primitive.  Originally it was intended to sound like a post-punk/new wave DIY compilation album, which were semi-prevalent at one time period (like the 'Killed By Death' compilations), with the more raw guitar oriented songs making up the second half, or B-side of the album. It sounded good on paper, but felt too disjointed when listened to as a whole. I abandoned the idea midway through production, and focused on the keyboard songs. Warning Light, originally titled "No Warning" was an example of the style of songs from the aborted second half of the album, although it remained on the final version.
I thought about having all of the song titles follow one of 2 types of name patterns. Pattern A songs were all titled "___ of ___" (Matter of Tact; Monster of Noise, etc.), and would make up the first half of the album. Pattern B songs would be on the second half of the album, and were all titled "No ___" (No Violins; No Warning, etc). Some of those remained for the final versions, like "Matter of Tact", and "Monster of Noise". "Moments of Violins" was originally titled "No Violins". "Warning Light" was called "No Warning", and "Future Arcade" was originally called "No Words".

Although BASIC was supposed to have been twice as long, had it included the planned second half, I decided to play off the name and make it the most minimalist version of an album I could. (Also, because I'm lazy.)  It would have around 8 songs or so, and run just on the borderline between full length LP and short play EP. And once again, because I like gimmicky things, the title BASIC also was meant to signify that it's mostly features songs of an electronic/computerized type as well. I think it's a pretty good album, but it went in several directions during it's production. I was still restructuring it up till a couple days before it's release. Some of the cut songs included, "You Are the Dope", "Meanie Beanie", "Aurora Bearing Malice", "Kitty Spit-Up", "Circle Squares", 'No Feeling', "Sound of Television/warming glow", 'generic pop fair' and a couple others. Another short EP with the deleted songs was planned, but pushed to the side temporarily. A few of these songs have turned up since then in various forms.

Radioset 10th anniversary and more notes

While last year marked the 10th/or 11th? anniversary of the first live show, this year marks 10 years since the first Radioset studio album was released. So this year I'll actually update the blog (or whatever those things are called now) with random facts about the albums and things.  And today I'll do Robot MonStar...

Robot MonStar (2011) was the fifth album. It was meant to be a concept album, surrounding themes of science and sci-fi, and sound very electronic and mechanical. I wanted it to be very Devo influenced. I had gotten access to a keyboard, and spent some time playing around with it, figuring out how to play stuff and playing with the different effects settings. I discovered one that sounded really new wave, and kind of 8-bit. I came up with the idea for the song Quark, and then went on from there, coming up with similar material for a "new-wave" album. I had a lot of ideas for gimmicks, like song titles that were highly complex math equations. The release date of Nov. 1  was chosen so as to look like a binary sequence (110111) when written. The album wasn’t ready in time for release in October, due to the cover art not being complete, but ideally I would have liked to have it out on Oct. 1 (100111), or Oct. 10 (101011). The album title was supposed to reflect the mechanical and science/sci-fi elements. MonStar is the name of the main villain from the mid-eighties Rankin-Bass outer-space cyborg action cartoon, Silverhawks; and Robot Monster is the name of a 1950's sci-fi film. The album was meant to be longer, but I was working on it at the same time as a video project, and that ate into a lot of the time. A couple of orphaned song ideas ending up in the video instead of being finished for the album. But I think it holds up pretty well, and I still like it.

Fleischer Animation

I'm a huge fan of quality animation, and a lot of the early golden age of sound animation during 1930's is some of the best ever produced, despite the limitations of the time period. While several animation studios were around at that time, the top two were Disney and Fleischer. Everyone knows Disney, but the Fleischer's name isn't as well-known nowadays, though many of their creations, such as Betty Boop and Popeye, are.  I like the Fleischer Studio's animation best, mainly due to the surrealness of them, and the fact that they advanced techniques, such as rotoscoping and the stero-optic processes. It was miles beyond what Disney was doing, and far more interesting in my opinion. Unfortunately  things didn't last as they fell victim to the Hays Production Code, and corporate buyout by Paramount. The new management began downgrading the quality of the work and, and making all types of changes to the titles they had obtained. Eventually their popular franchises became just namesake without the heart and soul of the original. Another testament to what happens when money becomes the primary motivation.

Radioset notes (part ii): Robot MonStar

This is probably about a year late, but here's some notes about the latest studio album, Robot MonStar:


- It was intended to be a new wave/sci-fi concept album.
- The title is based off of the 1953 monster film Robot Monster, and Mon*Star, the main villain from the 1986 Silverhawks animated series.
- The release date (Nov. 1, 2011) was chosen because it looked like binary code when written (110111).
- The album has a shorter run-time, since filming/music was also being done at the same time on the short horror film, "Curse of the Chicken Fucker".
- Complex mathematical equations were considered being used as song titles early on.
- The album cover was taken from the first in a series of link-able paintings:

Radioset notes

Considering that this was set up as a blog for Radioset fans, I guess I should post something related to my music... So here's miscellaneous info:

The 'Demos & Other Such Things' box-set released last month is almost all of the unreleased material from the past 10 years. But a few thing weren't included on it, because they were either too incomplete, or already represented on it in some way, or just sucked way too much. (There was also a different, guitar version of Quark that wasn't included, because I had forgotten about it until a few days ago.) So anyway, here's what didn't make the cut:
Sunday Drive (acoustic home demo of 'Pleasantries and Other Such Things' - 11/2004); Household Drugs (acoustic home demo - 11/2004); Milk Glass (acoustic home demo - 11/2004);  the version of Manvoice included on 'Disc 3', but with weird lyrics;  a later version of Milk Glass with the chorus line from Breathe Like An Alien;  an early, noisy, solo version of Terrapin Drop from early 2005;  a very bland and repetitive song from 2007;  a short demo of Nocturnal Emissionary;  the acoustic improve that ended up becoming Retro Space-Age Future Station (Christmas eve 2009);  the ivy demo of Violent Afterbirth;  instrumental practice demos of Faraway and Machine Automatic;  2 untitled songs from Fall 2009; and several hours of lo-fi Polymer Bloom rehearsals from 2004-2005.  There's also a tape somewhere from towards the end of the Polymer Bloom era as 3-piece, that has recordings of Manvoice, New York Simon Underground, Briney, and Lilac Stray that may or may not exist anymore. The tape was borrowed and never returned so...

free speech, blah, blah, blah...

Every now and then you see or hear about something that someone has said or done that will make most rational people raise an questioning eyebrow toward. And then that person always goes on to claim they have the "right" to have done what they did, because it's protected by the 1st amendment. While I agree that everyone has those freedoms, I believe that anyone who has to claim that their actions are protected by said freedom is merely using it as a shield to act irresponsibly. Free speech was instituted so you could speak negatively about the government without being hanged. It has nothing to do with being able to irresponsibly vomit arrogant beliefs, opinions, and personal interests in the public's face like so many people use it for now. First, the government doesn't give people rights, - they're privileges. And like all privileges, if it's abused then it can be further restricted or taken away altogether. People have less rights today than they did just 100 years ago. And by that, I'm not referring to voting rights, segregation, or those rights given/taken from just minorities or women. I'm referring to rules and regulations that are applied to everyone when certain members of society can't act responsibly and with respect towards others using their own free-will. True freedom isn't issued by a government, it's something an individual has unto themselves. And with true freedom comes responsibility, and should be used in such a way.

Sgt. Pepper Album Cover Photos

The other day I was looking at my Beatles Sgt. Pepper's album trying to see how many of the people I could recognize. Anyway I did some searching on the internet, to try to identify the ones I didn't know, and I noticed that a lot of sites ID'd the guy in the yellow derby as Oliver Hardy. But no one seemed to be 100% sure. I'm a huge Laurel & Hardy fan, as well as an aficionado of silent movies as well, and I wasn't convinced. First, all the pictures on the cover were sourced from actual photos, and the pretty much all of those source photos have been identified, except that one, and I've never seen a picture or movie with Oliver Hardy in a yellow Derby. Nor does it look even remotely like him. I think it's more likely to be Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Here's my reasoning:
1. The picture is most likely from the early/mid silent era, since the guy is wearing makeup which was common during that time in order to be seen better on film. Oliver Hardy did do early silent movies, but he wasn't as fat as the guy pictured during that time period.
2. Just because Stan Laurel is pictured two space over doesn't mean it's Oliver Hardy. If it was, I'm sure they could have gotten a much better picture (why not use the one they got Laurel's picture from - picured below). And, if you consider my first argument, Laurel and Hardy weren't an offical team until about 1928, right at the end of the silent era. Heavy makeup wasn't as common then, due to improvements in cameras and lighting.
3. Oliver Hardy never wore a yellow Derby. He's worn yellow Kangals, and other types of hats, but only black as far as Derbys go. Fatty Arbuckle did wear a light colored Derby, however.

I played around with the picture, comparing and contrasting images, and even trying to make it look more like Oliver Hardy by coloring the Derby black, removing the makeup, and adding a moustache... but now I'm even more confused. (BTW, the sites that claim it's Hardy, source Wikipedia - but Wikipedia uses those same sites that source it, as it's source of info... And if you change any of that information, so as to try to correct or highlight any possible inaccuracies, a mod will change it back so their little cycle of misinformation can continue.)