fats

Show tonight 10/29 @ Cameo

Playing with good friends Lonely Brook.


Here's a sneak peek at our current stage plot:

You Can Leave Your Hat ON

In Pittsburgh to mix the album with Alex at the Thunderbird House.

www.accessbrows.quickpass/computerw/sunglasses

this is just for weblinkers who think they have had enough time off to let someone else put a littlesomthing extra into their wall paper! we think it could be fun if you put all of your links or webcons items that dont have a folder on the shelf.... uuse zooms and strech until its fits your monitor

Recent Listening

GROHLCATS

Relevant Vids!

"Friends"

Directed and cut by William Welles of Astrolab Productions
Their web series "Changes in the Gulfstream," with music by BOFSF, will be out soon.

"The Glaive" Live at Cameo Gallery

Filmed by Jared O'Connell (Thanks)

The Best Movies are Never Made

"In December 1974, a French consortium led by Jean-Paul Gibon purchased the film rights to Frank Herbert’s epic 1965 science fiction novel Dune and asked Jodorowsky to direct a film version. Agreeing, he planned to cast the surrealist artist Salvador Dali as the Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV, who requested a fee of $100,000 per hour. He also planned to cast Orson Welles as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, who only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming. The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's own son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd, Magma, Henry Cow and Karlheinz Stockhausen... Frank Herbert travelled to Europe in 1976 to find that $2 million of the $9.5 million budget had already been spent in pre-production, and that Jodorowsky's script would result in a 14-hour movie ('It was the size of a phonebook,' Herbert later recalled). Jodorowsky took creative liberties with the source material, but Herbert said that he and Jodorowsky had an amicable relationship. The production for the film collapsed, and the rights for filming were sold once more, this time to Dino de Laurentiis, who employed the American filmmaker David Lynch to direct, creating the film Dune in 1984."

finished songs from the new album

The Glaive

orz

Many thanks to Alex Herd, who helped us with mixing and mastering.
Right click and "Save Link As..." to download.

Changes in the Gulfstream Trailer

Here's the official trailer for the miniseries we've been scoring, soon to be finished. Click to view it in a nice widescreen.

Whoops!

Sorry, the page you were looking for doesn't exist!

talkin medicine blues

talkin medicine blues

hell yes

Charlie Freak

My friend Charlie started doing an album of electronic music using only Steely Dan samples. I am honored that he took my suggestion and cut up "Bad Sneakers." Samples are available on his blog:

"Babylon Sisters"

"Bad Sneakers"

We are hoping to have Charlie come DJ at a show next month.

Remembrances of Things Past

Covers. Vol 3 (Happy Birthday Jeff!)

So here's the bad news: we took down the new songs, "The Glaive" and "Little Accountant" because they weren't mastered and we want to redo them.

Here's the good news: check out our birthday present (two weeks early) for our good friend Jeff Pentuk. We pulled out all the stops for this. Enjoy and happy birthday, Jeff!!!

Locomotive Breath (Jeffro Tull Cover)





("Save Link As..." to download)

Pizza

Here's a link to download an EP I've been writing and recording on-and-off for the past year and a half with a large group of friends. The group is called Pizza. Tim, Peter and I are all on the album. MP3s, credits, lyrics and art are all included in the download. You can also stream all four tracks at the Pizza Myspace.

Here's the cover art, done by Adam:

Remigses, Vol. I

Rihanna-"Rude Boy" (Remix)

HELL!

Another Thought Before Bed

We went on YouTube recently to test a hypothesis that we hated Ginger Baker, and were proved very wrong by this video.

Sine of the Times

Friends Richard and James with some prehistoric synths at Stony Brook. Right click to "Watch on YouTube"; full screen is necessary.

Eurydice Soundtrack

This is a soundtrack I recorded in the winter of 2009 for a production of Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice at Hamilton College. Thanks to these performers who helped me with it:

Ian S. Wayne- banjo and guitar on “Wedding Music”
Charles Kaplan- guitar on “Brazilian Mood Music”
Nick Fesette- vocals on “Falling Music”
Sam Bristol- vocals on “The Gates of Hell”
The Clinton String Quartet-“I Know How Much You Hate Oatmeal"

Thanks to the cast as well, especially to Ilse Zoerb, who performed the "Charon" songs.

Samples:

Let's Go In The Water

Wedding Music

Charon (Tropicalia)

Download the album

whys that pigture so dark?

who's been crying all afternoon because they hungo?

sweeat

freezer FRIDGE ->
V

The Jam That Never Sleeps

Always be true to yourself.

...Sing along!...

The S.T.A. Part 2

Covers, Vol. 2, "Changes in the Gulfstream" and Album News

March: In addition to mixing and recording our new album and practicing for our April shows, we spent some time recording a bunch of other music, with help from some friends. First, two weeks ago, a few of us got together to record the second installment in the BOFSF Covers series (with Ian Wayne guesting on banjo):

Never Going Back Again (Fleetwood Mac cover)

Then this past weekend, we began recording a soundtrack for our friends' new web miniseries Changes in the Gulfstream (Astrolab Productions). Andre Matlock and David Moroney joined us for these sessions. These are two selections from the music we recorded over the weekend. After the debut of the series, we will hopefully release a soundtrack album.

True Skin

Mussels

Also, the first two completed songs from our as-yet-untitled new album will be posted in about a week for download.

P.S. check it

Untitled

Crispin Lover

It was so nice out yesterday, somebody traveled through time to visit it again.

Rockin' Back Inside My Heart

Sherilynn Fenn loves Ruffles and Andre.

John Fahey

Looking way cooler than most were in 1969. All his music from this period is really haunting and amazing.

For Liebe of Liebe Hart

I wanted to post about a long time inspiration of mine, David Liebe Hart, because he has a new album out that you can download for free from his Facebook fan page or here. This album is a bit punk-styled, but his other work with main musical collaborator Adam Papagan is more in a folk vein.

Most people know David as the singing puppeteer from Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, which is where I found out about him. But his cable access work on his show the Junior Christian Science Bible Show (which began in the '80s, I believe) and the Del Talk Show, as well as his three albums with Adam Papagan, is remarkable in its own right. I try to follow all of David's movements as much as I can. So I wanted to encourage you guys to download his new album. Here's a classic older song I like a lot, one which I have thought about covering:



The most comprehensive explanation of David's views about aliens available online is this wonderful three-part video from the Del Talk Show:



Salame.

More Thoughts Before Bed

Tonight, over cheeseburgers, Pat, Tim and I discussed how understandable it was that Bill Callahan grew his hair really long and grew a beard after he and Joanna Newsom broke up.

A. That's what you do when a girl breaks up with you. Bill Callahan is simply a human being.
B. She's dating Andy Samberg now. You would grow a beard too.

Hard to rationalize this changing of the guard.

The Super Technical Approach

This isn't what our new album is going to sound like, but it is what it will feel like.

Thoughts Before Bed

As a former Mountain Dew addict, my relationship with the drink is too personal for me not to spend every waking night thinking about getting singles released by this label, the official online Mountain Dew record label.

What do all these bands get to be on it and we don't? What is this Matt and Kim bullshit? I don't think they've even had a soda, let alone spaced out after drinking ten Dew cans in a row. Their music doesn't sound like drinking a lot of Mountain Dew or sucking down a lot of pixie sticks or Robotripping like everyone claims it does; it sounds like drinking a bunch of Kombucha and holding hands at a Braid concert.

I like his record, but Neon Indian's music doesn't conjure up Dew fantasies for me either. "Chillwave," besides being the worst genre name ever, makes me want to do anything but get green. Pitchfork says Neon Indian sounds like staying up all night and drinking Mountain Dew. You know what sounds like staying up all night drinking Dew, Pitchfork? Shpongle. The Lounge Lizards. BLACK SABBATH.

Our music sounds like Mountain Dew because Mountain Dew is responsible for a lot of it. During the "Jokeland" summer, I was strung out, living can-to-can in our roached-out Dawson Street hovel. I was LIVING Mountain Dew. Suck it, Matt and Kim.

Chromeo, though... I bet they drink a ton of Mtn Dew. That is music that makes me think of enjoying a crisp new Dew on a summer evening in Pittsburgh.

Rapolon and the Rapalongs Album Out Now!

The result of a few intense recording sessions we had up here at the BOFSF house during the past two months was a fantastic debut double-album for our side project, Rapolon and the Rapalongs. For this record, we and a group of friends played backing band to the iconclastic vocalist Lord Apolon ("Rapolon"), who pulls apart pop songs and puts them back together in accordance with his particular style of interpretation, which truly knows no musical precedent. We learned a lot from working with Rapolon, and you can be sure that this release will not be the last you hear from this project.

Here is the cover art:


"Sitting in Italics: An Evening with Rapolon and the Rapalongs" is available for free download in its entirely here and also at the Rapolon MySpace.

M.O.A.B.O.F.S.F.

We made Acronym Geek!


Next stop OED!

World Wide Webb

Today they posted a download of Jokeland on the blog "Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers," a site some of the members in the band have been downloading music from for a long time. That was cool, but I also discovered that recently a French blog called No-No Music wrote about us, putting "Mugs" on a playlist with other "fun" music like Local Natives, Ratatat and "Pork and Beans." I ran their comments through a translator, and this is what came out:

It begins with the kingdom of a joke, "Jokeland 'first album came out 5 friends from Pittsburgh. Becoming rather a kind "freak folk", these are the voices that print under their wacky character. Just a joke between mates!

Here it is, translated back into French and back into English:

It begins with the kingdom of a joke ", debut album Jokeland '5 friends have left Pittsburgh. Becoming more of a sort of" freak folk ", these are the voices that print under their zany character. Just a joke between mates!

A third time and "kingdom" becomes "reign." Anyway, I think, at least in these phrasings, they got it right about the album, except for the "freak-folk" part. Freak-joke, more like!

French speakers: different translations are welcome.

Frog Eyes - A Flower in a Glove

It pretty much goes without saying that BOFSF is pretty excited for the new album from Frog Eyes, Paul's Tomb: A Triumph.
























Listen to A Flower in a Glove over at The Needle Drop. I really like it.
Hearing this and the new Joanna Newsom song in the same night, (about a week after finding out who Lady Gaga is,) gave us all some campfire heart.

Robert Ashley

dualtrack.blogspot - Robert Ashley - Private Parts (The Record)


Recommended.

NYU Hits The Big Time!

Yes, finally I see what the big deal about Lady Gaga is.

Among other things, I like this. The beat kind of reminds me of that one Moby song (i.e. "Everybody come back sometime..."), which is cool.

Hello friend!

The Ballad of Mick Fleetwood

I just discovered that I like Fleetwood Mac, something I once vowed never to say. But a caveat to would-be Mac converts: you can't like it all. Roadblocks will arise. Enjoy the guacamole, but remember that every avocado has its black spots.

Cool:



Cool. 0:42. Unreasonable amounts of cocaine involved here:



Less cool:



Resistant to interpretation:

Recording update

This album is going to be our Tusk, and I plan on becoming BOFSF's Christine McVie.

1/6/10 Pics

Thanks Margot!

Live Songs

Here are two tracks from the acoustic show we did at Goodbye Blue Monday a few weeks back. Hope you enjoy them.

(Click the play button to stream the song, or click the link to download it.)

Anchor

Wolf Cry

Also, a wonderful piece of art drawn by our friend Goda:

New Album

We started recording last week. Should be done sometime this spring, but don't hold me to that. If you've seen us since this summer, you've heard some of the songs that will be on the album, but not all of them. It's still early in the process, but we're planning on this record being our triumphant return to vocals.

Recent Listening

Christian Marclay started playing turntables before the DJ culture in hip-hop had entered the mainstream. His music developed completely independently of that culture and with totally different intentions. He loved hip-hop, though, and preferred to perform with DJs rather than the no-wave and musique concrete types with whom he was usually billed. In the same way that John Cage "prepared" pianos by shoving them full of nails and sandpaper, Marclay "prepared" records by cut and pasting shards of different LPs together. He was a virtuoso at a type of performance which he completely invented. The compilation "Records," which this piece is on, is a must-have.



Gerard Grisey is a French "spectralist" composer. This is my favorite piece by him, a chamber work from the mid '90s. It plays with how the listener's sense of musical time contracts when an unexpected or jarring event occurs. Repetitions of his primary motive become mere fragments of their source material. This kind of diminution really does create the feeling of a vortex or whirlpool or something. I like this technique because by gradually developing his motive, Grisey can eventually associate two phrases as restatements of the same idea even though they sound hardly anything like one another.



Always a badass, always inconceivably bizarre. This song is from 1977's Death of a Ladies' Man, but by 1979 he was doing all of his songs with this sleazy electric big band. As a result the feel of the song is strangely upbeat and twisted by a cornball swing feel to awesome effect.



A lot of Residents being played in the BOFSF house. This is the Residents' dance jam, as you can see from the video. A lot different from the album version (from The Tunes of Two Cities). According to Residents mythology, this song is written by the alien race the Chubs, whose oeuvre sounds for the most part like fucked-up swing band music played on weird analog synths. However, this live version has more of a Texas two-step backbeat to it.


"ONE" by Yeasayer, etc.

SHOW: Wednesday, January 27 @ Union Hall 7:30pm

Hi!
Ball of Flame Shoot Fire will be playing our first show at Union Hall since our show with The Spinto Band on Wednesday, January 27th. The bill is:

Wild Yaks
Steel Phantoms
I'm In You
BOFSF

Wild Yaks:



Steel Phantoms:

Free Williamsburg interview




I'm In You:



Union Hall:

2010!

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!