TG

 He went by the nickname TG. He was my friend and now he's gone to wherever it is we all journey to when the spark of life has faded from our organic prisons.

We lost touch years ago. No idea really why, other than the tide of time rolling us apart. Well, most likely it was the distance. He moved back to Virginia and I stayed in Mass. I visited him a couple of times back when he first left New England, then it was the occasional phone call, letter, email, social media post, etc. Then, the blankness of space and the occasional thought, “Oh yeah, I've got to get in touch with him again.” 

        Then silence. No response.

I'm not mad at TG that he didn't respond. I'm mad and disappointed with myself that I didn't try harder and more often. Our mutual friend Charles did and he succeeded. I should have as well. Thank you Charles for contacting me. I appreciate it.

TG I remember the mad nights of partying with you, how could I forget that time I was at a Nik Turner concert at the Middle East and the show ended and I turned around and there you were fresh from having danced like a maniac at ManRay, or my first film acting (if you can call what I did that) and you were the lead, keeping everything great with your natural skill. Yes, I still have the script we wrote together for that animated movie. Will it ever get made? Who knows, but if it does it will all be dedicated to you.

TG in all sincerity, you were the greatest Game Master (similar to Dungeon Master for those who don't play roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons) that I ever met. Your storytelling skills, characterizations, and world building skills, were truly unique, quirky, and engaging. I don't mean disrespect to any other Game Masters I campaigned with, but TG you truly were the best, and there will always be an empty space in my mind from not knowing what the secrets were of the universe you so skillfully designed. I never got to experience the end of the story.

Our artistic journeys also crossed for a time.You pushed me as a creator. TG you made my chapbook The Season of Passage look so gothic with your artistic photography. You truly enhanced our book, Drowning Kittens and Road Gods with the images you created. 

Thank you.

It was always a joy knowing you as the funny person that you were. I don't want to be sad, I would rather live in the joy that I knew you for a time. Thanks for everything.

Goodbye my friend. You are never forgotten.

Yours in friendship,

Paul Angelosanto

Vampiric Thoughts

Vampiric Thoughts

Why should I write about vampires?

Aren’t they over done?

They can never be over done. They are as mutateable as we need them to be whenever we want.

The Deathless Night is a variation of vampire form, a pulp style vampire series. 

I have enjoyed Anne Rice’s vampire series. While I haven’t read all of it, I have found a lot of it to be intriguing and enriching.

But too many people think that’s all vampires can be. 

No.

They have to be more or there will be no more vampire tales of worth.

There are things I could tell you about the series but I don’t want to over explain it and spoil it.

If you want vampires that enjoy their powers and revel in walking the night, then this is your cup of blood.

Here's links to each entry in the series

A Meeting in the Night

A Battle of Crimson

The Vampire Queen

The Society of Others

Outer Darkness

Forever Enthralling

Yours in Truthful Advertising,

Count Robot.

Gigs

Gigs

Hey folks if you want to see Astro Al get strange in your town feel free to help us out.

We dig playing live but sometimes it can be a challenge to find and book a show into a good place that will let our strangeness flow.

If you know of some place that we should play let us know.

Stay strange my friends.

-Count Robot.

astroal.bandcamp.com

Where Do The Dead Mice Go?

 Where Do The Dead Mice Go?

My fingernails have grown long and caked with dirt. My father never hit my mother, but he thought he was a playboy and ran around with women all the time. She had enough of it and tossed him out he ran off and gave me money later, but not at the time. When I was ten I had to start taking care of my mother. She was good to me, but she needed my help. I was always working seven days a week. I had to, so I could keep a roof over our heads. I had been taking care of my grandmother for years before I took care of my mother, my grandmother was sick, but proud, her son, my uncle, put her in a nursing home, it killed her. She didn't want to go and my mother didn't want to go either. My landlord finally threw me out of my apartment even though I had been living there for thirty years. I missed the rent just a couple of times. I miss my mother and my father tried to be a good guy. He gave me some money. He wanted to give me a house too, but somebody else got it first and it didn't go to me. There's so much dirt under my fingernails that I don't think I can ever get it all out. My landlord wanted to charge me to haul stuff away, but that stuff wasn't mine. There was a dead mouse near the steps to my new apartment the other day. The mouse isn't there anymore. Who took it and what did they do with it?

2023 Musical Awesome Moments

Here, in no order other than they occur to me, are some of the most amazing musical experiences of 2023 that I experienced.

The Gypsy Moths at the Burren in Somerville I've been lucky enough to see the moths tear it up a bunch of times over the years. This is another great show in a long line of fantastic gigs. I haven't seen the moths do a bad set yet, and if I ever experience the Moths playing Time Ran Out live, I swear I will burst into tears. That is one sadly beautiful song for the ages. Give it a listen and get your tissues ready.

Quintron & Miss Pussycat in Rhode Island Quintron & Miss Pussycat in Rhode Island For years, many years, I've been trying to see this utterly unique band, but as they don't get to our area a lot and they weren't playing whenever I happened to be in New Orleans it just hadn't happened. Finally in 2023 I witnessed them. This endearing musical melange of mayhem and home made puppetry exceeded my expectations. They are a true musical gift. There is no one in the universe like them. Here's one of their tunes.

Los Tiki Phantoms & Messer Chups in New Hampshire Saw this tubular surf double bill at the Stone Church. A very unique venue. It is as it's name suggests, a church made of stone. The staff are fun with a total laid back vibe that I miss in the Boston clubs. Los Tiki Phantoms are masters of stage craft running all over the club, dancing, forming conga lines and human pyramids. Messer Chups are the Russian royalty of horror surf rock. They know how to lay it down. Here's some links to their stuff.

Los Tiki Phantoms

 
Messer Chups

Personal top musical moments

This section is all about some of the highlights of the musical experiences I was involved in creating,

Wonder Valley Music Festival in 29 Palms CA

Our act, Static Apparitions played at this festival. Performing in the desert is a thrill. Seeing for miles in every direction as you play, is a trip. The desert has a truly intriguing beauty and feeling it radiate at me while I tortured sounds into creation is something I treasure. There were a lot of amazing acts at the festival not the least of which was Phog Masheeen. Here's a link to a recording we made of our set.

Phog Masheeen rule the infotainment music world

Recording in Becket MA

Sounds that can't be made, can be made at the Quarry in Becket MA. Tim Mungenast & our act Astro Al spent a few hours crafting sonic sculptures among rusted out relics to a broken past. The sounds from this place are like a distant lost time that never existed. The album might make it out in 2024. We'll have to see. Here's a link to some of our other stuff with the mighty Tim Mungenast.

Recording at Echo Bridge MA

It rained. It was beautiful. Amplissima played and recorded and I never wanted it to end, even though I was worn through physically. Spiritually, it was pure transcendence. An album from this session probably won't be out until 2025. Here's a link to some of our older stuff.

Performing at Evil Clown Headquarters in MA

Back in the late 90s I tried and tried to set up a live stream show and never made it succeeded. Fast forward to now and the mighty Evil Clown headquarters does it on a regular basis putting together wild ensembles spontaneously creating experimental music. I am very happy to be part of Neurodivergent which is one of the many rotating ensembles for Evil Clown. Check out our performance as Expanse (part of an ensemble we guested with) from 2023

Recording at Fort Warren on George's Island

Our act Static Apparitions act did an afternoon's worth of recording at this fort which is a park. The Powder Magazine on the island is home to one of the best reverb chambers imaginable. It lightly rained off and on throughout the day which made it more magical. Here's some of our other stuff.

There were dozens of other exciting music journeys, but the ones I've listed were the hugest stand outs.

I feel lucky.




Yours in Musical Memories,

Count Robot

9/11 is Not a Holiday

 

9/11 is Not a Holiday

For a few years there was an outcry to make 9/11 a national holiday.

I am glad it never happened. 

Can you imagine what it would be like?

“What are your plans for 9/11? Grilling some burgers and drinking some beers!”

“No one beats our 9/11 deals!”

“Come on down to our store on 9/11 for some explosive savings!”

Don't think these things will happen? They already have. Look at the pathetic people running a online sport betting site who tried to co-opt 9/11. If you don't believe me, feel free to look it up, somehow betting on sports in honor of 9/11 is patriotic. A large retailer once stacked boxes of soda cans in the shape of the twin towers in “remembrance” of the day. A mattress company had a sale in “memory” of 9/11. Sadly I'm sure there are more examples of this exploitive behavior that are unknown to me.

It even happened days after the tragedy. There were signs on many Massachusetts local business proclaiming that we'll never forget while also hocking their merchandise.

While you're remembering the fallen, never forget to not sell their memories for profits.

If you really want to honor those who died, do something kind for someone, even a stranger, and not just on that one day every year, but every day.

Top 3 Musical Experiences of 2022

Usually I do my top 3 albums of the year. Honestly this year I can’t whittle the list down. With so many great albums out in 2022 I just can’t narrow the field down enough for it to make sense (Cat Temper, Porcupine Tree, Marillion, and so many more!). Plus, why keep doing the same list every year?

So this year, I give to you my top three musical experiences of the year presented in their own categories.

Show of the year

While I managed to see a lot of amazing concerts this year, the Gypsy Moths, Sonic Rock Solstice (Krankschaft, Zub Zub, etc.), Goblin, etc. there is one show that simply stunned me like no other and made me feel like a teenager again. That was Vanilla Fudge at the Bull Run in Shirley MA. Let me start by saying, they were not exactly like their albums, which makes me happy, because if you sound just like your records, why am I venturing out to see your show when I could just listen to you at home? Vanilla fudge while keeping their 60’s sound has also modernized it a bit by adding some prog and slight metal tones into their sound palette. The show was loud and visceral in the best sense. There was another show I saw in 2022 that I wanted to be loud and fierce, but it came off as too polished, Vanilla Fudge delivered the loud rock and roll that I wanted. A great first for me at this show was seeing/hearing a Leslie rotating speaker in action! For those curious folks who are unfamiliar with the Leslie, follow this link for more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_speaker Hauling something as fragile and yet incredibly heavy as that speaker is a huge act of dedication to their sound. It really made a difference in their keyboard sound, giving it a rich tone. Carmine Appice performed a phenomenal drum solo. If I am lucky enough to get the chance to see them again, I will go!

Album of the year

This title goes to the band Smoke for their 2022 album Groupthink. Every song feels linked lyrically. The line “Worry no more your mind is not your own” appears in at least two of the songs. The blend of huge booming tones and the sole beautiful acoustic number all shine. The acoustic song, Supplication of Flame, has a somber heavy feel with growling bass notes sputtering below the acoustic guitar. The production blends raw power mixed just the right amount of slightly smoothed edges. This album came recommended to me by my friend Garry Lee. It’s not easy to count all the interesting music that Garry has hipped to me. I really want to hear more music from this band. I bet they would be tremendous live. Despite all the other great new albums that came out this year, this is the one I kept wanting to blast on the stereo the most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4BZt4a6os8

https://thecultofsmoke.bandcamp.com/album/groupthink

Musical Moment

Usually I try to distance anything I do in the audio sphere from my top lists of the year, as it feels self-aggrandizing, and how can I judge anything I’m involved with impartially? Well, this year I can’t separate this out, so I won’t. My top musical experience occurred thusly; I was on stage at the Sonic Rock Festival for our second Astro Al set. During our song Come to Me I looked over at DNA girl while she was playing her guitar solo. Suddenly, the flying, wading through customs, all the planning, every seemingly endless practice, burning power supplies, all of that, led our musical journey to the stage in Bromsgrove UK and that culminating moment in a joyous convergence of pure bliss. The sounds of it in my mind and soul are never going to be emotionally captured on any recording except within me. No medium could archive the music my heart heard. The sounds that DNA Girl made on that Sunday afternoon are burned into me and will always be there whenever I need to experience them. That moment is pure transcendent spiritual electricity. It felt gorgeously endless and when it finally stopped, there were no regrets, just the knowledge that pure beauty was created on that stage and I felt it.

Yours in auditory experiences,

Count Robot