Lucky Dog Audio Post

Buchla + LensBaby

charles — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:17:00 -0500

I don't know what I like more about this video, the sounds of the Buchla Music Easel or the look of 16:9 720p High Definition format shot using a Letus35 Extreme and a 35mm LensBaby 3GPL! Awesomeness all around.

CHARLES COHEN AT THE BUCHLA MUSIC EASEL from ALEX on Vimeo.

Modern Art Revisited

charles — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 16:20:00 -0500

My first band was called Modern Art. As you can see in the above flyer, we were very serious about being a band. First off, we had a look - berets. Yep. We all wore berets. You know, the kind of hats that Claude Monet used to wear. I guess if we had really wanted to sell the idea we would have also worn smocks. But smocks aren't as cool as berets. Also, if you take another look at our flyer you will see that we knew EXACTLY what to do when posing for a professional band picture (i.e. have everyone look in a different direction). I'm sad to say that this is the only flyer I have left from those halycon days when me and my band mates would stand in a group, put our hands in our pockets, and stare in different directions. Yes. Those were the days.

Conceptually I'd say Modern Art was a new wave band though at the time we thought we were punk. Somehow we'd heard the term "punk" and we knew it was cool. The bands we admired were U2 and The Police. We thought those bands were punk. A year after this picture was taken, I purchased "Never Mind the Bollocks" and realized how un-punk they/we were.

It's fun to think back on those early, floundering days of being a band. Not only were we all trying to figure out how to play our individual instruments but we were also trying to figure out how to play our instruments together as a group. At one rehearsal I remember us working out the particular sections to a certain song. I decided that the drummer (pictured center in the plaid jacket) and me (far right) should come up with some visual cues for playing certain parts. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: When I nod my head once, hit your ride cymbal.

Drummer: Ok.

Me: And when I nod my head twice, hit your crash cymbal.

Drummer: Ok.

Me: Ready?

Drummer: Almost. I've got one question.

Me: Yeah?

Drummer: What head-moves are you going to make when I need to hit the hi hats?

Good question. I am surprised that I'm still not suffering from whiplash.

What reminds me of all this is a viral piece we created recently for OKGazette.com. Brian Winkeler approached us about creating a piece of music that could be "sloppy and garage-y and fun." He wanted something punk-ish and also something juvenile to accompany a puerile video featuring various shots of people getting "racked." Yeah! I know. How great is that for an assignment! Obviously we were totally excited. Plus, he didn't need a song as much as he needed riffs. Sloppy, choppy, I'm-just-learning-how-to-play-my-instrument type riffs. So we assembled the troops, mic-ed up the drums, and cranked our amps up to 11. Total fun! Basically the session became method acting with instruments. We picked a key (A) and played the most bone-headed riff in the book. It was all about channeling that "my first band" experience. For me, it was Modern Art Revisited, except that Modern Art sounded much much more accomplished than this:

Oklahoma Gazette RACK!!

Summer Reading - The Best of the Booker

charles — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:44:00 -0500

I read Midnight's Children about 5 years ago at the beach. Looks like the book is new again! Like Nabokov said in his lecture Good Readers and Good Writers, it's only the re-readings that matter. Guess it's time to hit it again.

Re-reading the best of the Booker - Telegraph Re-reading the best of the Booker - Telegraph via kwout

Prank Calling The Intern

charles — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:39:00 -0500

So, Judson approached us several months ago about being our intern. Really, our friend Ben approached us several months ago about his friend Judson being our intern. Anyway, our initial response was thanks but no thanks. We've never had an intern. We don't really need an intern. Etc etc. Well, Judson and Ben just wouldn't let up about the whole thing. "Are you sure you don't want an intern?" asked Ben. "Judson REALLY wants to be your intern." After several emails and iChats we conceded to meet Judson. We did our darnedest to scare him off. "Judson, if you are going to intern with us there's gonna be a lot of data entry," said Scott. "These is nothing glamorous about this kind of work," I said with a steely expression, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Yes, yes. Judson was excited. He wanted in.

So we conferred with Judson's professor at UALR and set up a course for the month of July. Then we came up with a rough outline of work we could assign to Judson, our intern. Things like archiving finished spots, soldering cables, updating our talent demos so they included more of Brian Winkeler's spots. Suddenly we were excited. We had an intern!

Not so fast. Turns out that in between signing up with us as an intern and showing up for his first day (July 7) Judson accepted a gig playing guitar in a touring band. Our buddy Jason ran into Judson on Monday of this week, learned this, and called us. Judson had been meaning to call but. . .

No intern. But more seriously, no heads up from Judson, the intern-turned-touring-guitarist, about the change of plans. So we decided it might be fun to play a little phone prank on Judson.

Here's the cast:

Me playing me. Rather me playing a slightly more passive-aggressive me.

Voice actor Bob Hulsey as Keith Satterfield, our attorney who has been working all week on "paperwork" for the internship. (Incidentally, this isn't the first time we've cast Bob as a lawyer).

Judson as himself, the unknowing recipient of our prank call.

Listen to Prank Calling The Intern

Judson was a great sport about the prank. Obviously he gave us permission to post the recording saying that he would have his lawyer contact us with a release form. Ha!

Also, we are pretty excited for Judson. July looks like it's going to be a busy month for him on the road. He will be looping through Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. His touring schedule can be found here and here.

Congrats Judson and good luck on the road!

Seen Your Video

charles — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:16:00 -0500

It's only rock and roll. . . and a WHOLE LOTTA green screen.

NAIVE NEW BEATERS "LIVE GOOD"
Uploaded by djtoncar

Phonographantasmascope

charles — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:28:00 -0500

Album Cover Game

charles — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:23:00 -0500

Link

Here's my best score.

I missed In Case We Die by Architecture in Helsinki.

The Mysterious Apartment

charles — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:48:00 -0500

Here's an awesome NYT article about an uptown NY apartment designed with clues to a scavenger hunt hidden in the architecture. The architect, Eric Clough, enlisted the help of writer Jonathan Safran Foer to create a mystery/puzzle that would then be embedded into the very walls of the apartment itself. There are secret compartments, hidden scrolls, word games - checkout the slideshow to see how some of it works.

Pretty cool. I wish I had mysteries like this written into the walls of my home. Instead we are stuck with the case of "why does that keep dripping?"

Black & White Sleeve Face

charles — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:22:00 -0500

Les Visages de Douille du Chien Chanceux.

Domain Registry of America PSA

Scott — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:53:00 -0500

Brother Dave rants about another business phone call scam.

"These people really piss me off."

Brought to you by your friends at Lucky Dog.