Logging Road, February

Logging Road, February was recorded back in 2006 and unfortunately never saw official release. The label I sent it to lost their copy and my master disappeared in a hard drive crash. All that remains is this mp3 which I had posted on my FTP site when initially proposing the release to the label.

The "meat" of the track is pretty much laid out in the title. You hear me walking up a mountainside logging road a mile or so from our home (at the time) in rural Japan with two mics dangling near my feet; gravel crunch augmented by the occasional flowing water and chainsawing. The trek is supplemented by a second recording (done a few months later if I remember correctly) of fans blowing on acoustic guitar strings, creating sine wave-like overtones.

I'm really happy to finally get this out into the public arena. As one of very few non-electronic recordings I've made (and one of my favorite recordings from Japan) this one has been nestled away for too long. Enjoy.



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Supreme Trading 3" Out Now

A lovely package (okay, an inside-out Adidas box) arrived from Italy today. Inside were copies of this 3" cdr of which I'm exceptionally proud. It's a live set, with room and direct sources blended together, taken from the tour with Brendan Murray last autumn and it has been released by the fine Dokuro imprint.

I'm offering them up at $9 ppd ($12 International).
Email ms[at]gmby[dot]net if you're interested.

And if you're the type that likes to taste before you buy, an excerpt of this was included on the first Editions Shiflet mixtape.

Video: Live. July 15. Skylab. Columbus.

Here are the opening and closing segments of my live set from this Wednesday. The above video is really just a short introduction piece, while the second is one originally intended to be short, but extended due to high levels of "feelin' it" in the air. I'm still working out the kinks of the guitar/laptop combination, but it's getting there.

"Any Location Can Be Interesting"

Field Recording and Experimental Music Scene
by Toshiya Tsunoda

Been meaning to post this for about a week, and am glad to finally be getting around to it. Please take a few minutes to read this wonderful essay by Toshiya Tsunoda on the ErstWords blog. It is highly recommended reading for those interested in vibrations of the highest genre-free, scene-free order. Seriously.

Much thanks to Jon and Yuko of Erstwhile for both initially requesting the essay and translating Tsunoda's Japanese text.

TV Pow and Mike Shiflet Three Pricks and an Asshole Live in Milwaukee

It was May of last year and Milwaukee was good to us. Even if the bulk of my memories revolve around "Devil Piss" (a crayon drawing with a very literal title) and cheese curds, I hold said memories quite dear. I don't remember much of this, but luckily there are little machines to handle that for me.

Weird audience recording of live set that starts off as one might expect and then proceeds to take several bizarre turns, each more suspect than the one before. A good time was had by at least a few.



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Apologies to Peter Woods and Hiroshi Hasegawa for potentially implying they had anything to do with this by posting the image above.

No Respsect, Parts One and Two

No Respect Part One: The Guest List

I was supposed to be on the list for an event last week, but when I showed up was not. Luckily this fellow "Andy Shifflit" didn't show up so I got his tickets.



Should note that this is no one in particular's fault. The venue is a strict union place and the act of putting a name on the guest list involves telling someone who walkie-talkies someone else who tells someone else to eventually talk to the person in charge of the guest list.


No Respect Part Two: On the Job

Unless I am completely relaxing, odds are that some thoughts about sound and/or my sound are running through my head. This leads to a lot of notes being typed into my blackberry and plenty of scribbling on scrap paper and post-its at work. I returned from a meeting last week to find a co-worker had made an amendment to an idea that I'd left sitting on my desk:



Would throwing in a Neil Hamburger "That's my life" here be the catchphrase equivalent of mixing metaphors? Not sure, but I'll stick with it.

Friday. June 26. Cincinnati. Ohio.