Tag Archive: Music


First Exit To Brooklyn

Filed Under: About Music, Music, Thoughts by The Space Pope — Leave a comment
March 11, 2011

My friend Erik recently started a new music blog called First Exit to Brooklyn where he posts a song a day 5 days a week to share his love for music with friends and strangers alike. Here’s what he has to say about it.

i’ve loved music for as long as I can remember…so many memories associated with sitting in the back of my parents car, 70’s fm radio playing, my transistor radio, buying a new 45 rpm, watching mtv, going to shows, exchanging mix tapes, going out to bars or clubs, on to mix cds, and currently enjoyed with my mp3 player on random. there’s something about the single; be it popular with the masses, a college radio hit or a deep track. a lot of the appeal, to me, has to do with not knowing what’s coming next. don’t get me wrong, i love to listen to albums straight through as well, but i tend to do that when i am more focused in, and can give the experience more of my attention. it’s just simpler with a single, i can multi-task and still enjoy the music. it can be the hook, the beat, the riff, the baseline, or the chorus, in most cases it’s the combination of all of them coming together that reels me in. over the course of my life, i’ve come to love many songs in many different genres. some of them i’ve enjoyed since i was a child, some were around during my teen years, so many of my memories involve music and I still look forward to discovering music (new and old) every day. that is what I would like to share here…my love for these songs.

Go check it out and listen to some tunes and be inspired. If you’re a Tumblr user (and who isn’t these days?) follow the dude.

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On the podcast

Filed Under: About Music, Music by The Space Pope — Leave a comment
February 28, 2011

Over the last few months I have become a huge fan of music podcasts, which, if you’ve been living under a rock, are basically (usually) free downloadable radio programs. You can find them in a variety of places from the good old interwebs to the iTunes store to where ever. If you’ve never spent a little time browsing, you should. There’s podcasts to cover a ridiculous breadth of topics, from talk radio (Jesse’s favorite) to music to instructional stuff. There are even video podcasts. Pretty neat.

What got me into them in the first place was the Mad Decent podcast back in October of last year. They put out such a wide variety of electronic music, that listening is always interesting. I am not musical ignorant by any stretch, and I regularly hear things on the podcast that I would have completely missed otherwise. The most recent one they put out mixed by DJ Godfather is comprised of entirely Ghetto-Tech tracks. That is awesome. The one prior was all dubstep and the one before that was all EBM. There’s something for everyone, and with 65 episodes you have so much free music to listen to that your head might explode.

And that’s just Mad Decent. I’ve also been enjoying podcasts by Ghostly International, Fool’s Gold, and Modular Records, all available for free through iTunes. I highly recommend all of these. The Cut Copy mix Modular recently released is fucking awesome.

This morning before doing dishes and preparing some food (breakfast! I know! Totally wild!), I realized I had none of my iTunes library loaded into Windows and didn’t feel like rebooting. Instead I searched iTunes for metal podcasts, surprised at myself that I’d never thought to do it before. Surely there would be podcasts in the same vein as my beloved Mad Decent podcast by Relapse or Nuclear Blast or Metal Blade or Earache. And there are.

Kind of.

Upon loading up the Relapse podcast (got to start strong, right?), I was greeted….no no no, that’s not exactly right…ear raped by the kind of obnoxious radio ID I’d come not to miss since I’s given up on commercial radio in the 90s. You know the kind– sample sample sample explosion radio voice announcing the radio station explosion blah blah blah blah. Horrible. Then I was forced to listen to a DJ with all the on-air charisma of your local high school DJ who pronounces the word macabre as “mack-a-bree”. Soon after, music started and I was pleased with that, thinking that perhaps we’d just have music from there on out. Wrong. After two songs was another station ID and then more inept talking. Just terrible. Is it too much to hope that when I download a podcast what I get will be effectively a DJ set rather than a junior varsity level radio show? I don’t think so.

Look, I understand the need for the talking on the radio. You’re limited in how you can interact with the audience. That is, if you don’t tell them, they aren’t going to get it. But on the internet, the experience is essentially a multimedia experience and you can disseminate information in so many more effective ways than telling someone like, oh, I don’t know, giving them a link to the information. When I double clicked on the podcast, I knew exactly what I was choosing; there is no need to tell me. If I wanted to listen to ham-fisted interviews–and I don’t–I would listen to Hot 97 or something. Keep that shit out of the podcast. And if I want to listen to good interviews, the Relapse Records podcast is not where I am going to find them. For example, I just listened to the guitarist from Dying Fetus talk about how they’re not going to let their music get all “gay”. Seriously guys?

A perusal of the other podcasts I downloaded seems to indicate that all metal podcasts are the same as the Relapse one. Terrible! Where does one go to find good new metal without having to listen to some dimwit who sounds like he’s congested chatter on?

Kudos to the electronic labels who really get the medium and boo to the metal labels who don’t. Get with the now, guys.

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A Happy Valentine’s Day from The Black Laser!

Filed Under: About Music, Music, Thoughts by The Space Pope — Leave a comment
February 14, 2011

someecards.com - I love you like a cannibal loves human flesh

Because I do love you all so very, very much and want to let you know on this beautiful, false holiday, I’ve prepared a little mix for you to enjoy. I was originally just going to post a Carcass video and be done with it, but that felt a little cheap so I spent the last hour and a half preparing a heart warming Valentine’s Day mix for all my readers.

1. Acid Bath “Paegan Love Song”

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2. Anal Cunt “In My Heart There’s a Star Named After You”

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3. Neaera “Definition of Love”

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4. Pig Destroyer “Girl in the Slayer Jacket”

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5. Network “Love on the Lips of a Whore”

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6. Agents of Oblivion “Dead Girl”

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7. Gwar “Rock N’ Roll Never Felt So Good”

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8. Converge “Heartless”

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9. Pantera “This Love”

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10. The Red Chord “Love on the Concrete”

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11. Carcass “No Love Lost”

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12. Biohazard “Love Denied”

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13. As I Lay Dying “Empty Hearts”

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14. Pro-Pain “Make War (Not Love)”

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15. Slayer “Love To Hate”

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16. Cannibal Corpse “Infinite Misery”

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17. Agoraphobic Nosebleed “The Newlyweds Are Raped”

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18. Unearth “Black Hearts Now Reign”

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19. The Hope Conspiracy “Defiant Hearts”

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20. Morbid Angel “Nothing But Fear”

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21. Emperor “Ensorcelled By Khaos”

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22. Celeste “Il y aura des femmes à remercier et de la chair à embrocher”

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23. Killswitch Engage “My Last Serenade”

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24. Deicide “Till Death Do Us Part”

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25. DMX Crew “You Can’t Hide Your Love (Hidden Love Mix)”

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There you have it! 25 unrelenting tracks of pure Valentine’s Day LOVE.

And in case you want to download the whole thing and listen to it at home, at work, in the car, at the gym, while making love, in jail, on a spaceship, while fighting orcs, or anywhere else you need a Valentine’s Day soundtrack, you can get it here: Valumtime’s Day 2011

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I made a breakthrough today.

Filed Under: About Filmmaking, About Music, About Writing, Film, Music, Writing by The Space Pope — 3 Comments
February 10, 2011

Last night I met up with my friends Ruth and Nik for a “hey we haven’t seen each other in a while let’s have a beer” beer. Ruth and I got to discussing our editorial methods (she is also an editor) versus those of others we have worked with. I remarked that I often found it strange that some people can just jump in and cut without having seen all the footage. That method isn’t wrong, of course, it just doesn’t work for me. I need to see all the footage before I can start putting things together. It’s part of the process. While watching everything and thinking about it, I start putting together cuts in my head. Once I’ve finished viewing dailies, I can slap cuts together with great speed because I feel confident that I am making the right choices. If I haven’t seen EVERYTHING, then I am not sure that I am picking the best takes or reactions or whatever bits I’m picking and that both slows me down and introduces doubt into the process. Again, doing it the other way is neither right nor wrong, I just know what works for me. Ruth agreed with my methods, adding that she feels as though the thoroughness involved with watching everything is an important step.

Today, I wandered off to the coffee shop with my notebook to sit and do some writing for the first time in months. Before meeting Ruth and Nik last night, I found myself in a powerful, crazy funk that I couldn’t shake. I pulled my notebook out and hastily scribbled a couple pages of text and instantly felt better for having purged that bit of anxiety. No, I won’t tell you what it says, but do know that it has been a long time since I’ve written anything of substance and that little writer’s high (I just made that up, feel free to use it) reminded me of how it feels to be productive in that way and how I used to feel during the Y.5k.P.50.S.S. when I was trying to crank out my quota—really really good. Really good. It inspired me to spend some time outside the house today reengaging with my lost love.

With the coffee at Milk & Roses making my blood simmer, I cranked out the beginnings of something that came to me this morning in bed before I woke up to find that my phone had reset itself to the factory defaults (fun). Between chunks, my mind wandered and I realized something: the block I often feel with writing come from the fact that I feel as if I need to know the entire story before I start writing. How stupid is that?! The whole act of writing is puzzling out the story from bits and pieces. If you knew the whole thing before you got started, you’re really just transcribing, not writing. Of course, we can argue about that for about a hundred years, but that’s not the point of this post. The point is that I realized I cannot approach my writing the same way I approach my editorial work. As an editor, there is a set amount of footage to use, a set body of choices to be made, but as a writer you can take your work anywhere at all. The closest thing to that as an editor is the editing of documentaries which can pull from a seemingly inexhaustible body of footage, but even there limits exist. There are only so many news broadcasts of a certain even, there is only so much football footage, there are only so many interviews with former presidents. Sure, you can go out and shoot stuff, but at the end of the day you’re left with a set amount of material from which to work and that’s it.

This is not true for the writer’s craft. Want to be in outer space? Of course you do. Boom. Done. The past? No problem. Want to have you character do anything, say anything, be anyone? Go for it.

You’re only limited by what makes sense in the context of your work. Does it make sense that your main character is a reformed alcoholic with a violent streak who pays his bills as a clown at children’s parties? It does? Cool. Does it make sense that the shadowy body working against your anti-hero protagonist is comprised exclusively of seven year old girls all named Agatha? It doesn’t? Ok, change it then. What should you change it to? ANYTHING. Therein lies the challenge.

But before I go further off on my tangent about what writing is and isn’t, let’s refocus on the issue at hand: how I think about the process. Basically, I just need to let go similarly to the way I’ve let go of my need to have the first draft be perfect. The plot needs to evolve. It is an organic thing, not something rigid and artificial. Let it come and the work will benefit from that.

So that’s my big creative breakthrough for the day. It may seem minor, but sometimes looking at a problem from another perspective is all it takes to fix things. And by sometimes, I mean pretty much always. Let’s hope that this bodes well for the Y.12.P.S.M.R.

Let us celebrate my new perspective with music.

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Oh seriously, what the FUCK, Japan?!?

Filed Under: About Music, Letters, Music, Thoughts, Writing by The Space Pope — Leave a comment
February 4, 2011
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Dear Japan, again,

Seriously? What the fuck. Cabbage slide flute? Are you for serious?

You do know that, in this man, you possess a tremendous national treasure, don’t you? It would be a shame if he was not allowed to pursue his produce instrument art with your fullest support.

Let me repeat myself for emphasis. Cabbage. Slide flute.

Cabbage slide flute.

Sincerely,

Joe Dillingham
The Black Laser

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Big Broccoli Ocarina

Filed Under: About Music, Letters, Music, Writing by The Space Pope — Leave a comment
February 3, 2011
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Dear Japan,

Please don’t ever stop making weird people. I love video like this so much I can hardly contain myself. Where I’ve written a few sane sentences, I’ve tried my best not to explode into a stream of expletives and exclamation points and repetition of the word “awesome”. I desire wholeheartedly to see more enthusiastic Japanese men play western Christmas music on homemade produce instruments as their wives accompany them on a regular instrument. For example, I’d like to hear “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” played on marimbas made from coconuts and accompanied by a zither. Or perhaps “Little Drummer Boy” on a carrot flute with a theremin. Or “Mele Kalikimaka” on watermelon guitar with a violin.

Whatever you do, please do NOT allow two people to play two different kinds of produces instruments. This is an illustration of what might happen.

I mean that. Please, for the world’s sake, be very very careful.

Sincerely,

Joe Dillingham
The Black Laser

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Creative Projects-January : When You Were Away

Filed Under: Film, Music, My Music, My Work, Thoughts by The Space Pope — Leave a comment
February 2, 2011

It’s February 2nd here in grand old Brooklyn which means that January has come and gone and I am responsible for a creative project. Well, I’m on it, as opposed to previous years, and have already met with my quota for the month. Good thing too, because it’s over.

So what did I do? I was in a short film for a friend. Fun! I don’t have any photos yet, but here’s something you might have seen on Facebook.

It’s not real. Well, I mean, it is real, but not really real. It’s real make-believe.

You’ll say, “Joe, you’re no actor!” (unless you’re Amy and Angela), to which I will reply, “You are correct, dear sir! Indeed I am no actor!” How did I get involved in this little project then? And, more importantly, what did it entail? Let’s jump in my DeLorean and rewind a bit, friends! 88MPH……

Last October I received an e-mail from my friend Teddy asking if I acted. He told me that he had written a script that he thought I’d be perfect for since it was inspired by a night of dancing at Public Assembly where I got up on the empty stage all by my lonesome and tore the dance floor up. Eventually, the whole stage was filled and I had strange women dancing through my legs and when everyone needed a breaky poo, I politely told them I was good and kept going. Typical night out for me.

I replied, as above, that I don’t really act, but I’d be willing to read what he’d written and let him know what I thought. He sent the script and I read it and wrote back immediately that I would be glad to act in his film. I’m not going to talk too much about the content of the film. Those of you who know me in meatspace have heard a little bit about the project, but it will stay there for now. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for when it gets posted here.

We had our first reading in December, but didn’t start rehearsals until after the new year began. Between the numerous rehearsals, learning a few semi-choreographed dance routines, and three days of shooting, I figured that this was fair game for my first of 12 projects for this year’s theme. I’m sure you’ll all agree too. And, well, if you don’t, you can go to hell.

As far as slowing my roll goes, last month was terrible. Of the 31 days in January, I think I went out like 600 of them. Here’s to focus in February!

So what does February hold?!?! Well, for one, I am definitely going to get josephdillingham.com up because I feel like not having it up is holding me back professionally, even if it probably isn’t. It’s stressing me out, ok? Deal. Second, Charles and I were talking the other night about writing an EP this month and actually putting in some effort. I think that he and I have good musical chemistry and it would be fun as hell to make some dance music. Third, I want to start planning Mandy’s music video, which probably won’t happen until March, but I want to get it going and get Rodney and Arian on board. Fourth, a couple of other fellow and I were talking about a silly little film that we wanted to do a few years ago on the set of the Firelances of the Ancient Hyper Zephyrians video. If we can get that going, it would be awesome too. Maybe I’ll slip in some writing too. It’s been a YEAR since I’ve written anything. Terrible.

Lots to do this month and lots to come. Keep your eyes on The Black Laser. My ascendancy is nigh.

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School of Seven Bells’ “I L U”

Filed Under: About Music, Music by The Space Pope — 2 Comments
January 1, 2011

Now that 2010 is behind us, I can safely say that “I L U” by School of Seven Bells is the best song of the year in my not-so-humble opinion. Check it.

Now listen to it again. Ok. Now again. Now tell me you don’t love it. If you don’t, you’re wrong. I think it is just fantastic. I’m not even going to bother some lengthy explanation of what I like about it. Just enjoy it and recognize that no one wrote a song better than this last year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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