A dude with a Primus Shirt
Found myself at a mall.
There he is, a man with a faded Primus t-shirt walking slowly down the hall.
I say to him, “Cool shirt, dude.”
He smiles as every vast wrinkle on his face folds with a crinkle.
He’s probably not much older than me.
That smile still has the 1990’s attitude of someone who saw Primus while they still sucked.
Rock and Roll will never die until we’re all dead.
Yours in in rock and roll,
Count Robot
Yes, I've blogged about this a bit but here's a bit more!
So for those who don't know we were part of a musical/improv/spoken word/livestream inanity with our group Neurodivergent Orchestra. You can watch the show by clicking on the video above.
Here's some more behind the scenes and other related pics.
My rig for the set. I got the idea to use tapes because it felt like 80's alien conspiracy theory stuff. So I made a tape and wanted to use some existing ones that I had. Sadly the tape players all rebelled. Not sure why. I tested them before and after the show and they all worked fine but for some reason during the show they wouldn't play. Alien interference? Maybe!
DNA Girl vamping it up before the show.
Gongs were made to be gonged!
Tim's squeaking pig! Used during the set.
Pek (the band leader) sent us these cool altered photos he made from the set.
For those who don't want to watch the whole show, here's a shorty!
Thank you Pek for letting us perform at these shows. These are some of my most favorite shows I have ever done. Amazingly fun and almost zero stress.
Yours in musical madness,
Count Robot
These shows are structured musical/spoken word chaos.
Here's some behind the scenes photos from the show.
The big screen TV with part of the narrative. We use this for a pre-show discussion.
Printed copy of the script.
Musician fuel or as it's commonly called, pizza. We eat a bit before and after the show.
A pre-show shot of the studio space.
Believe it or not, this was once a coffee machine that has been converted into a wild sound making device. Even though it doesn't give me delicious bean beverages, it gives me delightful sounds.
Synths!!!!!!!!
One of the many stationary cameras in the studio. Sadly the live camera operator couldn't make it.
Gongs, bells, crazy!
Rubber chickens!
Tim! The mighty guitar stylings of Tim Mungenast! A pre-show shot.
Tim's array of pedals.
DNA Girl's orange amp. My amp is to the right of it. Sadly my gear rebelled just at the start of the show so I used almost none of it.
Tim's guitar. Here he is using a screaming goat toy on the guitar. Screaming goat guitar!
The camera switching board.
More stuff in the studio. All instruments free to use during the show.
And that's it. Hope you dig the show!
Yours in chaotic weirdness,
Count Robot
5/2/26
Sometimes it’s the little things that someone does for you that matter
Yours in tasty ice tea,
Count Robot
A write up about the album, Echoes from Another Place by the audio project known as Static Apparitions.
Static Apparitions is an audio project that I work on with DNA Girl from Astro Al. We both have different stage names for this project rather than the ones we use with Astro Al.
So you’re probably asking yourself, “How is this any different than Astro Al?"
Well there’s two key differences between Static Apparitions and Astro Al.
1. While some Astro Al stuff is improvised, 100% of every Static Apparitions tracks are 100% improvised recordings which are then cut and edited to produce the end result.
2. There no lyrics or audible spoken word pieces in a Static Apparitions track. There are some samples and some times spoken bits are recorded but they are distorted so that they just become part of the landscape. All vocals are wordless.
If anyone has a time machine so that Static Apparitions can go back in time and record soundtracks to Italian 1960s/1970s horror flicks we'd be game to take that trip.
Ok, now with all that out of the way, let’s break down this album a bit track by track.
1. Alien Disruption 4:11 - Some nice swinging guitar from Madame Inconnue on this one. The end is all about signals from the EMF field. For more info on that check below.
2. Sounds from Another Place 6:23 -Got some dark distorted tones contrasted by the light sounds of a tongue drum. This song is a good example of what we're trying to do with Static Apparitions, create art with collected sounds. I think I named this track but I'm not 100% sure.
3. Space Orb Sonata 5:12 - Madame Inconnue named this one. I think she might have named almost all of them. The Jupiter III analog synth is on this one. You can hear it in some of the "chirpy" synth sounds.
4. Rising From the Tomb 5:09 -Some fun distorted layers of guitar on this one curtesy of Madame Inconnue. Really good playing my friend.
5. The Musical Diary of Duchess Daphne Dukane 6:59 - Vocals and sounds. I believe this was partially recorded somewhere outside, but I'm not sure where. This is a mashup of a few different recordings. Name of the track is courtesy of Madame Inconnue.
6. Secret Basement Lab 5:11 -This is only track I'm certain that I named. It just sounded like a basement lab in an old school horror flick where the mad doctor is building a monster for science or revenge or both. At least that's what I hear.
7. Raven Cry 5:10 - Some textural guitars and moody synths. Ravens are associated with many things in different mythologies. Why is it a Raven Cry? Great job Madame.
credits:
Madame Inconnue: vocals, guitar, percussion, octave mandolin, mandolin, synth
Baron Vincent Von Lugosi: cassette recorder, sampler, weird sound generator, Jupiter III analog synth, saw, zither, TV/VCR combo, synth, percussion
The cover photo was taken on George's Island in Boston then distorted.
One might ask, how do you play a TV/VCR combo? On Etsy, I discovered someone selling an Electro Magnetic Field Microphone. It's a microphone that picks up electro magnetic fields. Held up against a TV/VCR combo it makes some pretty wild sounds especially if there's nothing but white noise on the TV. It works ok with a tape playing, but doesn't quite have the level of strangeness that the lack of signal to the unit feeds into the microphone.
Here's a link to an EMF mic
Yours in static based art,
Count Robot
For those who don’t know about him, Hunter S Thompson was a wild journalist writing many articles and books chronicling his drunken investigative style of journalism.
I am currently reading his book the Great Shark Hunt. It’s a collection of his articles, poems, and esoteric pieces.
What is most striking to me about this work, the bulk of which was written during what arguably was his peak during the 1970s, is that his main antagonist, president Richard Nixon, could sadly all too easily be replaced by the name of the current pedophile cretin occupying the White House.
The names of the monsters may change, but their actions don’t.
Here’s an Astro Al track about Thompson called Gonzo Gone.
Astro Al is one of the audio projects that I am involved in.
Yours in gonzo-ing,
Count Robot
