house party

much fun last night at the party at the secret location. bobby vomit, his cousin (matt turd), and mike (former vomit roommate who now lives in indy) arrived at my house shortly before 9pm, & we relaxed here for a few watching family guy before caravaning over to the place.

the house party had four rooms of music: the living room (mostly rock bands), a den/dining room area (where we played), the kitchen (acoustics and singer-songwriters), and the basement (turntables). it took us awhile to find our way down to the basement, but once we did we spent most of the party down there (or at least bobby & i did). dj cuemark was down there all night spinning electro and italian disco type stuff. it was downtempo and occasionally on the verge of being too clubby, but overall much better than what you'd hear in most clubs around here.

robert inhuman was in town. i'd been told he was columbus but during his set he said cincinnati (apparently he's originally from columbus but lives in cincy now). he did a short set using solely microphones, amps, and a couple petals. solid feedback in varying tones intercut with screaming. it was quite good, but piercingly loud and shrill. i probably shouldn't have stood as close to the speakers as i did. his set did not actually clear the room, a very good sign that put bobby vomit at ease. i traded him a copy of maura for a couple cds that i haven't gotten to listen to yet: one project called realicide and another that's apparently called bukkake.

after robert tore down, i set up my gear. after that we went back downstairs for a bit. bobby's compulsive need to spin records was in full gear and he managed to con his way onto cuemark's tables for a bit. lock grooves, anti-drug propaganda, and other silliness. it was fun but before long i had to go upstairs to get ready to perform.

i had hinted on imn that i would play some hanukkah material ("because christmas music is overplayed", & especially because the party was taking place during the hanukkah holiday). the hype on that picked up to the point that i spent a lot of time friday morning finding funny hanukkah pictures to bump the promo threads (in addition to the previous link, see here and here). so it was essential that i live up to the hype and deliver a strong hanukkah set.

i played for at most 20 minutes, with some elmo hanukkah stuff, a splash of daily show, just a little sandler, a chrismahanukwanzaka loop, and a bunch of harsh data noise. then, in the spirit of wowing them and leaving them wanting more (this was a new crowd after all), i busted out that mean grinch who stole xmas complaining about all the "noise noise noise" for a finale. i did manage to lose a chunk of my crowd but i got several compliments, including one guy who said it was awesome because "i hated you so much". he said he couldn't wait for me to finish so he could scream at me. but he was thanking me for this, apparently moved by the sheer intensity of his reaction. so i'm taking it as a very big compliment, the way i believe he intended.

after me, someone played briefly in the kitchen. then a very noisy band played in the living room. at the time we thought it was re vera but apparently they didn't show up and it was "chow chow something or other" (maybe they're just called chow chow). hopefully i'll find out their actual name because i liked their set: distorted electronics, feedback, percussion, and distorted grunts and screams. the singer for that band had actually been to two of our bad taste shows, & hearing the band it made sense. they were the most pleasant surprise of the night.

next, bobby vomit on five turntables and sampling keyboard. harsh rhythms, falling keyboards, and people jamming out right there. good stuff, and once again i was pleased with how receptive the crowd was to this crazy stuff.

we went back downstairs to chill for a bit more but it was nearing 3am. even worse, mike had to get up at 6am to go to work, and had tried to call a taxi hours earlier but the taxi had never come. so i could've stayed and chilled for longer, but i gave mike a ride home and then went home myself.

big ups to ben the host, the other performers (especially robert inhuman and chow chow whatever), justin from the CoS, karl from melk for booking me, etc...