Saturday, April 10, 2010

Dan Jam 2010 - First Look and Listen


Floating Fish Studios held its second in a series of Synth Jam Sessions at FFS II on 04/03/10. In his first appearance at FFS since 1991, our special guest was Dan "The Man" Fiber.

It was great to welcome Dan and Tara back into the world of FFS. Between visiting Opening Night for Deirdre Burns Art Exhibit at the Wwoffka Gallery in Philly, shopping at the King of Prussia Mall, and late night partying, we managed to make it into the studio for some sonic experimentation.

This raw unedited video footage, shot by Scott on his Flip Video camcorder, captured part of one of those experiments. The quality is questionable but it gives you an unique look inside Dan Jam 2010. The ensemble gathered included Dan Fiber (aka The Man), Dave Chandler (aka Thee Sub One Genius), M Scott McConnell (aka MC2P4), and Matt Norcross (aka Ttam Troll).

This improv was titled TR-5 (not to be confused with TR-5 from FFS II Synth Jam 2010 on 02/20/10).

Thursday, April 8, 2010

And Then There Were Three


Before taking an extended recording and live performance hiatus, Obomatic took the stage at Karma Lounge in Linden NJ on 05/25/03 with the original core infiltration unit of Steve O - Vocals, Troll IO - Synthesizers, and Scottologic - Synthesizers.

Having played the previous weekend at the Music Mania Studio 1 Festival in Gilbertsville PA with guest musician Chad Miller on guitar, we were still in top form. Our set was well received by the small but enthusiastic crowd and afterward as the glow of the multicolored suns dimmed on the fog enshrouded pyramids of OBO, we rode off into the Obomatic Dawn...

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

This Mistress - Basement Band


On July 23, 1988, This Mistress performed what was possibly our final show. The occasion was a birthday party for our fellow band mate, Matt "Scrap Pap" Skirpan. The party, held at Tim Harrell's house in Shippensburg, PA, is one which has spawned many legends which are still spoken of today. From the drunken Jim Dewey's "RRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!" to Kelly "F***in'" Mackey's "My boyfriend's Jamie Doyle!" to Steve Olsen's video invasion of the Harrell bathroom and others. In fact, there is so much classic footage from this party that I'll need to edit many more excerpts to share.

However, back to this video. Here we are performing Love Removal Machine by The Cult. It is before Matt "Birthday Boy" Skirpan arrived party so the band line up was Ken Chandler - Vocals, Kevin "Bart the Fart" Wilson - Guitar, Scott McConnell - Synthesizer, Matt Norcross - Bass, and Tim Harrell - Drums. Once the song ends, Matt arrives and we sing Happy Birthday to him.

Also featured in this video clip are several well known Shippensburg natives or alumni including Jennean Hunter, Ed Hartford, Chris Terry, Mark Brown, Rhonda Laughman, Ted Hile, Angie Laughman, Beth Lynn, and Jamie Doyle. Many others were at this party and I'll identify them in future blog posts.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Any Questions? - Ascension

While preparing for Dan Jam 2010 last weekend at FFS II, MC2P4 (R) and I (L) worked on a few ideas that we thought we could use as templates for our improv sessions. One of these, a song idea we called Ascension, is a pounding and unrelenting piece.

The genesis for this song idea began with a programmed beat on our Roland MC-303. MC2P4 quickly picked up on the groove I set and began playing a synth bass part on his Korg Z1. I then moved over to the Roland RS-09 and Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 to add synth strings and an analog drone. After a short while, we hit the record button and the result is what we share with you now...


P.S. This behind the scenes photo of Ttam Troll (L) and MC2P4 (R) was taken by Kelly Hoffman before Any Questions? performance at the Music Invasion Festival (07/10/04).

P.S.S. Note to MC2P4 - We must get the volume control knob/end output stage on the Roland RS-09 fixed so it doesn't crap out like you can hear on this track. "Write that down!"