A Show of Hands

Last night I had the opportunity to see how far Guitar Craft has come in 20 years. Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists played the Carrboro Arts Center. Before the music began, several of the Crafties announced in great detail, in at least 5 languages, the need to refrain from photography, recording, and so on. This was their tuning of the audience, and while it is impossible to say for sure, I think it contributed hugely to the success of the evening.

RF began with a set of soundscapes before the LCG took the stage, then accompanied the League, mostly on electric except for the last piece (Calliope, unplugged!).

Throughout the performance they mixed GC standards with newer pieces. One focus of the current incarnation of Guitar Craft is circulation, literally passing notes around the circle. At times it appeared notes were passing in opposite directions simultaneously, flawlessly I might add.

I also was impressed with the newer pieces, which seem to be more atonal at times than most of the old repertoire. Composition seems to have made a step forward in GC. Then again, there are the Hellboys.
;-)

More later...

RF & LCG at Carrboro Arts Center

For readers of the local persuasion (who also happen to catch this before show time), Robert Fripp and The League of Crafty Guitarists play Tuesday, October 30th at the Carrboro Arts Center, 8:30 PM. This is the first time the League has visited us as far as I know. It will be great to see how Guitar Craft has evolved since the last performance I attended in .. 19__ something.. it was probably 1989 in western MA. I took a few GC courses in '87-'89 at Claymont Court in West Virginia.

The Internets!

This has got to be the funniest video I have watched all day. "But what does this have to do with music?" Yes, I can hear all you whiners out there. Well, this easy-to-follow video tells you things you may never have heard about, like emails and MySpaces, and friendsters, and more! And we're on the internet and stuff, so it's all good. Right?

You may be wondering what we have been up to here in Bitland. I have been scheming and planning for 2008, and also planning my Maximum Spammage campaign for the next couple of months. We will be rolling out brand new shiny mini-stores to all of our artists to embed as part of their MySpaces. The net may never be the same.

2008 will be a whole new can-o-worms. One thing is certain--you will want to check back here every week and buy buy buy lots of album downloads, but why wait? I would be willing to bet that you don't have all of the 19 albums in our catalog yet. I imagine you don't even have a single one. Why not be an exceptionally cool individual? You would be directly supporting the artists and this website. What, you think I'm doing this for my health? I'm doing it for the toys dammit! You buy a lot of stuff and I get to buy a new loop station, or a guitar. In fact, I'll make you a deal. If 100 of you fine internet people purchase an album I will release an album in the next year. (crickets) OK, well, try this. If even just 10 discriminating individuals such as yourself make a purchase right now, I will write a fat check to support the GCIRP. What is that? Sorry, time's up. That will have to wait for another post.

Unit Vector - New Release

Unit Vector has released his debut album "Off the Tilted Edge", a collage of electronic and found sounds sure to tilt your world. This album is a complete multimedia extravaganza, including the finest FLAC and MP3 audio this side of the internets, original artwork from Unit Vector, and the music video, "The United Hates of Iraqistan".

I would say that "Off the Tilted Edge" is the most advanced album download ever produced, but how should I know? The album was mastered by Steve Roach, with custom album layout software created by BitWorks Music.

"Off the Tilted Edge" is available now as a multimedia album download from the BitWorks Music catalog.

Thanks for your support of the artists!

SG Sighting!

It's always cool to hear about long lost CD's of ours floating about the universe.

From a friend:

I was at the used CD store at the state fairgrounds two weeks ago.. saw the Smokin' Granny CD there..

I made it to a bit of the Carrboro Music Festival last weekend. A memorable performance from Onomata at Arts Center, with drummer Ian Davis flying in from Lincoln, Nebraska for the show. It seemed something like a BitWorks Music friends and family reunion you could say, with most of the usual suspects in attendance.



After a tour through the packed outdoor stage at Weaver Street Market, I walked around the block past a couple of other venues and ended up at Cat's Cradle. Viva la Venus was just starting their set, a female-fronted heavy rock quartet. It's impossible to not draw comparisons here with Heart, but only because of the two strong voices of Wendy Brancaccio and Susan Darney. They have a website here and MySpace here.
Their third CD release is in the works! Also, they are looking for a new bassist, so if you are a bassist looking to rock...



I only caught the start of Mosadi Music's (MySpace, Homepage) set, and they sounded great, a funk jamstravaganza.




Meanwhile back here in the land-o-bits,
Unit Vector is reviewing release candidate 1.