This is a section for MUX blogging, blog frickity blog! Yeah, yeah. Blogs are lame, I know - but whatever, it's an easy way to keep my site up to date with what I'm up to. I am a slacker, but I will try to keep this updated on a fairly regular basis.
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Reviews and thoughts about recent MUX shows
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Sunday, 13 November 2005 |
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Ok, it's seeming like it'd be a good idea to put up a blog, if just to keep track of post-show thoughts and tech details. I'll allow posting, too. :)
The Lotus Long Weekend show went pretty well, all told, with the usual slough of last-minute mishaps. I played last, with my timeslot being 2:00am-3:00am... but at 1:45, the bartenders told us that we'd have to shut the music down sometime between 2:00am and 2:30am, because they wanted to clear our room out before the other two rooms shut down, to help with the cleanup process. We complained loudly, and they agreed to let us go until 2:30am. Ricardo's set (awesome house) was cut a little short, to give him a 45 min set and I would cut my set down to 30 mins... felt kinda bad for Ricardo, as he didn't hear about it until 10 mins before he'd have to stop, which always sucks. About halfway through my set, I got a note saying the staff really liked the tunes and were willing to go until 2:45am, then someone else told me to go until they shut down the system. ;)
Fuck, I FORGOT TO PLUG IN MY VOCODER.
AGAIN.
Jesus.
I've since wrapped up four 1/4" patch cables together, so that when I go to plug in the red and blue 1/4" cable for the Nord Micro Modular outputs, there's already two cables there for the inputs. This should make it so I don't forget ever again. LAME, LAME, LAME.
Thanks to everyone who came out!
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MUXList Mailouts
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Monday, 05 September 2005 |
Subject: (mux): The Listening Room
From: "Drew Smith (mux)" <drew@mux.ca>
Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2005 17:50:57 -0700
Hola folks,
Just a very quick note (incidentally the thirteenth email to this
mailing list) to remind you of a fantastic event this weekend.
The Listening Room is a showcase of live-PA artists, digital image
artists and DJs, held yearly in the H.R. MacMillan Space Center (aka the
Vancouver Planetarium). It's a tonne of fun, and missing it would be
sad.
There's about 100 tickets left; the past two years this show has sold
out by 10pm, so if you're interested, either show up *very* early, or
drop into the Planetarium any time tomorrow, before 5pm, to get advance
tix. Tickets are $20, beers are cheap, and the venue is *incredible*...
something like three million dollars worth of lasers and projectors.
See http://www.listeningroom.ca for more info... hope to see you there!
Cheers,
- Drew. |
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MUXList Mailouts
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Thursday, 14 July 2005 |
Subject: (mux): Party this weekend!
From: "Drew Smith (mux)" <drew@mux.ca>
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2005 13:11:09 -0700
Heyas,
This is the twelfth email to this announce list since September 2003.
This is just a quick note to let you all know about an awesome outdoor
party happening this weekend. The location is a secret, you'll
absolutely never guess it in a million years - as a hint, it's thirty-
something miles outside of Squamish, BC. ;)
This party is rain or shine, though The Weather Network says sun:
http://weather.ca/weather/cities/can/Pages/CABC0279.htm
The crew throwing the party is none other than Soundproof, and the party
is 'Trancemission 8' - that's right, this is their *eighth* annual free
outdoor party! If you've never been to a Soundproof event, expect an
extremely well planned and executed stage and dancefloor setup, friendly
and fun older party crowd (probably 300-400 people, mostly 20-30 years
old), excellent sound and visuals, and pounding techno! This party has
historically had a tendency to pull ravers who haven't been partying in
a long time out of the woodwork - so if you haven't been to a party in a
while, and are fed up with the typical fare, this would probably be your
best bet for a proper, oldschool summer outdoor rave. Chances are
you'll know people - maybe even consider bringing a few friends who've
never been to a rave?
Here are the flyer images:
http://lfo.fsck.org/~drew/T8_front.jpg
http://lfo.fsck.org/~drew/T8_back.jpg
Interestingly, there's also another event happening at the same location
- the Vancouver Burning Man crew are throwing their annual "Burn In The
Forest" very near by, so that's another two stages of DJs and a few
hundred more hedonistic party people, adding up to one hell of a night.
More information is available, of course, at Soundproof's website:
http://www.soundproof.ca
I have to say, Trancemission 7, last year, was the absolute peak of my
summer - standing at the back of the dancefloor at 8am, watching people
dance with the morning sun glinting diamonds off the glacier, gorgeous
blue sky, ice-blue glacial river next to me... I just couldn't wipe the
poo-eating grin off of my face. It just doesn't get any better than
that.
Don't forget to bring a flashlight and a sweater - being near a glacier,
it gets pretty cold at night! Hope to see some of you there - and if
you don't have a copy of my 2005 Live-PA Demo CD yet, hit me up at the
party, I'll have lots of extra copies with me. :)
Cheers,
- Drew. |
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MUXList Mailouts
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Wednesday, 16 March 2005 |
Subject: (mux): Announcements, Gigs, Demo
From: "Drew Smith (mux)" <drew@mux.ca>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 11:56:57 -0800
MUXLIST ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1.) Where is MUX?
2.) UPCOMING SHOWS
3.) New Live Recording (full set!)
4.) 2005 Demo CD Completed!
5.) Promoter Callout
6.) Gear Changes
Holas,
This is the eleventh email to this newsletter since the inception of the
list in September 2003. News time!
*******************************************************************
1.) Where is MUX?
For those new to the list, MUX is an all-hardware live-pa acid/rave
techno musician in Vancouver, BC, Canada. MUX music is pounding and
energetic, and is best enjoyed at a loud volume very late at night.
As for where I've been - well, for the last few months, I've been trying
to balance a fulltime day job with a few little side projects - like
buying a house with my girlfriend, getting ready to move, etc. :) The
house we're buying doesn't have a room for a studio, so we'll be digging
out the floor of the basement (6.5' ceilings just aren't high enough!)
and refinishing it custom, with sound-treated walls and ceilings,
hardwood floors, etc. Lots of work, but it should make for a very
pleasant place to work on music.
Currently, I'm in the studio, holed up and working on a new set of rave
techno for the 2005 party season. I'm looking greatly forward to
playing at many parties this Summer! If you liked last years music,
just wait until you hear the music this year...
*******************************************************************
2.) UPCOMING SHOWS!
Well, ok, currently it's just "upcoming show" - I have a second booking
in June, but no info about that show yet. I'm confident that that'll
change soon enough, as I've been giving out demo CDs like mad. :) I've
had to turn down a few shows since Christmas, as I've decided to build a
new set of tunes from scratch rather than keep playing last years music.
I'm booked for a performance on April 28th at "Kcuf Uoy", the techno
clubnight held at Lick ever second Thursday. This will be the third
time I'll have played at Lick, this time with my good friends Ross "DJ
Granolaboy" Kakushke and Jody "GI Jody" Marshall both spinning records,
making up a night of Pod6 debauchery. Cheap drinks and good techno
people abound!
I've told the guys at Kcuf Uoy that I will probably not have a full hour
set of music ready in time for April 28th - like I said above, we're
busy buying a house and moving into it, which is taking up WAY more of
my free time that I'd like - I'm aiming for 30-45 minutes, and I'm
considering this show a trial run of a bunch of new ideas I've been
working on.
Lick is at 455 Abbott Street in Vancouver, BC - doors open around 9pm,
with techno starting around then and continuing until 1am or whenever
they kick us off the (excellent) soundsystem, whichever is later.
*******************************************************************
3.) New Live Recording!
Not so new anymore, but new as of the last mailout (way back in
November; I told you this list was low-traffic!). I got a decent
stereo-mic recording of my set at the "Just What The Doctor Ordered"
rave on November 27th 2004. Sharing the bill that night were Aya, Dr.
Doom, Crazy Dave, Goa Pete, AkHentek, Ninjaboy and Logik.
The recording is available on my website, in the 'Live Recordings'
section:
http://mux.ca/livetunes.html
I consider this recording to be an excellent example of my 2004 live
sets - my set was from 2am-3am, and you can hear from the recording how
much the crowd enjoyed it. :) I've received some excellent feedback
from folks on the net who've downloaded it and had a listen.
(I'm always interested in hearing what you think of my music, good or
bad - any feedback helps!)
*******************************************************************
4.) 2005 Demo CD Completed!
This is the really big news for this announcement email - after many
months in the studio learning to use Ableton Live and struggling to
learn how to be a recording engineer, I finally finished. My "MUX 2005
Live-PA Demo CD" is four tracks of audio, recorded and mixed together in
Live in "Stu-Stu-Studios", my home studio here in the heart of East
Vancouver, then mastered by Steve Venter at Dirty Bass Studios in
London, UK.
The four tracks are:
1. Collaborate (7m15s, 138bpm) - Collaborate, and LISTEN!
2. Complex (6m08s, 138bpm) - YOU ARE INCONSISTENT
3. Seamripper (6m15s, 138bpm) - That's just the drugs talking...
4. Channel 58 (6m39s, 138bpm) - 57 Channels and nothin' on
I would have liked to have included more songs (my 2004 liveset was
approximately 14 songs), but I just didn't have time!
If you'd like to download the demo tunes, they're available on my
website, of course!
http://mux.ca/studiotunes.html
If you would like an official CD copy of the demo, write me back at
drew@mux.ca with your full snailmail address, and I'll get you a copy in
the mail - I only have about 30 custom-painted "CD mailer" envelopes
left, though, and would like to get them into the hands of folks in
other cities, so if you're in Vancouver I'd much prefer to get you a
copy in person rather than mailing it. :)
If you're like me, and just want to download a single file and be done
with it, I recommend you grab the following MP3, which is exactly that;
a single file with all four songs, mixed together:
http://lfo.fsck.org/~drew/2005_demo/mux_-_2005_Demo_-
_All_Four_Tracks.mp3
Thanks muchly to Chris Thomas (aka XFive) for hosting these files on his
very fast server!
*******************************************************************
5.) Promoter Callout
Given that the 2005 season is beginning, and booking for the Summer
parties is already started (or is already completed, as is the case with
the biggest of the events, like Shambhala and Motion Notion, d'oh!), I'm
now looking to get my demo CDs into the hands of every promoter I can
find. I'll have my live set ready for full shows after the end of May,
and will be available from about June 1st onwards.
I'm not just looking around Vancouver and surrounding areas, either!
Later on this year or early next year, I'm interested in looking at a
tour of a few major cities in western Canada, and would like to build
contacts in other cities. Promoters don't necessarily have to be bigger
crews with the financial ability to fly me in, I'm just as interested in
playing for smaller parties and free parties, if I happen to be in town.
For instance, we visit Toronto at least once a year, and I'd be happy to
bring my gear along if there's a party waiting for me.
So, if you are a promoter or know of any party promoters, big or small,
who'd be interested in hearing a demo from an awesome live-pa rave
techno guy, please forward me a mailing address to drew@mux.ca and I'll
get a demo CD out ASAP!
*******************************************************************
6.) Gear Changes
I've made some more changes to the rig, in preparation for the 2005
party season - major changes include a bunch of rewiring, the removal of
the Korg ER-1 drum machine, and the addition of a Future Retro FR-777
analogue synthesizer and a Shure Beta57a microphone.
For the gear geeks: I've changed the routing to my DBX 166XL compressor,
which now has my kickdrum on one channel and my bassline (from the
Waldorf Pulse Plus analogue monosynth) on the other channel, with the
kick sidechained into the bass channel. This lets me duck the bassline
out of the way so the kick punches through, giving me a lot more control
over the low end of my mix. I've also changed a lot of the routing of
the two lead monosynths, including the SH-101 - I'm still trying to sort
out a problem with major noise from the 101 and 777, but I think I have
a line on a fix, so I'll have some new studio pics on my website when
that's finished. :)
Expect my sound for the 2005 party season to be much updated as a result
of these gear changes!
*******************************************************************
Anyhow, that's it for this edition of the MUX announce list. Stay
tuned, check out the free downloads on my website (http://mux.ca), and
if you're in Vancouver hit me up for a copy of my new demo CD if you see
me out at a club or on the street. :) I hope to see lots of you out at
Kcuf Uoy on April 28th!
Cheers,
- Drew. |
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