Official Crude Blog 2008

hey hey! Vallee!

2009-08-07T23:03:00.001-07:00

..finally.

2008-12-29T21:19:00.000-08:00

...and so 2008 comes to an end. Many thanks to all readers, thanks for the feedback and support.
So, although it would be easier to just keep blogging here, i included the year 2008 in the url title so i needed to create another. The 'crude decade' is the portal of chortle for 2009. here's the link:

http://crude2009.blogspot.com/

....thanks and goodbye 2008, you shit filled year of madness, jealously, death and pain.

phenomenonenon

2008-12-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, the 'boxing day', Crude performes at Chicks Hotel with the legendary electro-recluse ISO12 !!! This will be a post-xmas 'relief its over' party, also a forum for the release of the wordy 'l'archivio' dvd, which features 77 tracks, 4 vids and a writing section, all as data data data. I'm very happy with this dvd - and i hope you get as much pleasure out of listening to it as i had slaving over it's creation.
Ah, 'tis christmas day; soon, 2009 will grace us, ah, 'twill be the national party's finest hour. So bugger me. The big news - the inauguration of Barack Obama, and, will the alien presence be finally disclosed? Who knows. I doubt it. I've seen one ufo in my lifetime, a small immobile black object in the invercargill heavens, back when i was 4 years old...I could swear it was something un-natural - it simply would not move, a black dot, just hovering, ominous...observing,, reading me,,,downloading my genome,,watching...pulsing...I didn't see it disappear..but you know what - the SAME type of object was spotted in invercargill this year by a family in south invercargill - a small, immobile black dot in the sky - and they saw it leave - it bolted into the air at lightening speed - straight into space, without sound. oh well.
As mentioned earlier, the crude blog for 2009 is here:
http://www.crude2009.blogspot.com/

.............oh - here is the FINAL song title list for the DVD:
'34'
'2008 theme'
'aersosoll'
'against the street'
'alcoholic descent of famous actress'
'alone by the fire'
'angry'
'another one bites'
'beast inception'
'black wood, grey air'
'breathh'
'bula droiv'
'cardboard bohemian'
'cirrus'
'codex'
'crack'
'crude hell bent'
'cruder beat'
'da grind nuu mix'
'damien'
'death of the patriarch'
'deep field'
'devil racerr'
'dopamine flutter'
'drone of the patriarch'
'eternalize yrrself'
'evil cute kid kill'
'for i have nothing'
'.fr'
'friday (cruder mix)'
'geo-psycho'
'ghz ghz'
'heat'
'hey hey commando'
'homage 2 gg allin'
'hulan tipall'
'hull, lackey, braggard'
'huul dax'
'i'm a man'
'indistinct and shadowy'
'intent and mobility'
'know'
'la fascista'
'la piano 333'
'la piano 444'
'la piano 555'
'leary'
'miss this'
'new zealand'
'no'
'nord'
'nort juss'
'nothing'
'o'
'on an industrial scale'
'puru liir'
'seal 2'
'seething ugly'
'shine on'
'shine on 2'
'shooter'
'shooting up national'
'sikh solace'
'slov kuum'
'spliced swinger'
'syringes and insekts'
'tallow'
'the beggar'
'the sea, the blood'
'the tone, the charm'
'trans caucasus drone warlord'
'tuff in the valley (they make 'em)'
'tulak nozoth'
'ugly competition'
'vortexx'
'wrk_ethik'
'zhuang zi'

anyways...Aesthetics news...the LP production has been paid for in full, and we are now awaiting the TEST PRESSINGS...yeehaww
until next time...keep cool. merry christmas. obey. consume. die.

microreview # 9 - the autopharpies, the aesthetics, voodoo gangster

2008-12-15T21:25:00.000-08:00

The irony, the envy, the blood and the passion. The fire and the blood and the passion. The passion and the fury and the might and the blood and the passion. The fury and the seething, ugly jealousy. And the passion.
Dunedin city, spirit home for those rejected elsewhere. Welcome home.
Ah,, the end of the year. The drunken student hoards shift back in with their parents and the godless consumer beast that is 'christmas' with all it's tiresome obligations sucks on yr vital being like a blood hungry tumour. Everyone gets a little crazy this time of year. Families who hate each other forced together over game and piss. Hows the career going, loser???
And so, what a relief it was to assemble down at None's basement for the fourth and final event of last weeks mini-fest of visual art and performance..
1st up was the Auto Harpies, fresh back from a jaunt to the enlightened isles of the north,,,dizzying, dry, almost morbid science pop, indifferent cool psych enblazoned with an assortment of synth warbles and drones..a slightly lower-key set from the band compared the chicks triumph - but who could blame 'em - this was the end of a very long and hard year. Anyway, their keyboardist Aliki Boufis was on a long haul to Athens the next day...
drink. gurgle. fights. egos. egos like gas planets. dunedin demons. rage.
The Aesthetics were on next, with bass player Jason Barrett nursing a broken hand no less,,,determined to play...regardless,,,,macho/but sorta stupid,,a short set nonetheless,,,doing what we can with what we got and what bones we haven't got...'post-punk' perhaps....with this ugly familiar yokel twang in me vocals...solid drum-chum from openly communist Malcolm Deans..at least this time our short performance was justified..next time you'll see us well have the LP for sale...anyone know why he had a broken hand?? An LP ? Who won lotto??
Voodoo Gangster were last and what a pleasant surprise - really cool electronic/techno/house from Sean Norling and guests...I'd love to get me hands on some of that swagger...abstract, super cool, uber-uber lounge/sci-fi tete-e-tete micro mouse voodoo nonp-reference lacky popper , sytnh from Iso12, maximum impact dry ice .. Nice to see Peter Gutteridge out and about...2009 will be VERY EXCITING and hopefully the logical continuation of all the GOOD WORK put in by the SCORES of very talented dunedin scum-bags and goodly yeomen I know so well. Amen.

NEW BLOG URL FOR 2009

2008-12-04T21:03:00.000-08:00

UM,,,,jus' lettin you know before time , because i idiotically named the url of this blog 'crude2008' , well, it'll just look retrograde if i leave it so, so,,,,,I'm starting a new official crude blog in 2009 called the 'Crude Decade'.
You can ready your bookmarks with it here::::::::::
http://www.crude2009.blogspot.com/

the next crude album - the cover

2008-12-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

the fruits of 2008: soon to be released stuff

2008-12-04T00:21:00.000-08:00

Hello. Hello. Hello.
Dose down, cheeks ruddy and life rolling over to its sleepy conclusion : this has been 2008.
On the Crude front - the dvd is nearly finished (released on my brfday december 22) , a few more titless there like 'shooting up national', 'angry' , 'against the street', 'la fascista' , 'science' ..to name just a few...very proud of this dvd . so, it's one of those dvd-rom things - you know , those things that were cool in the early ninetees....it'll have writings, (a prose piece for each piece), photos, 3 vids ('wrk ethic', 'j is for jesus' and some other thing...
The Aesthetics LP, well, nearly sent the master away until i found out it was all 'out of phase',, meanaing its back to the drawing board...apparantly, when mixing digital works for vinyl you must keep certain frequencies 'in phase' so as to not send the needle careering across the dubplates...oh well. its a learning curve , what. ..so, we The Aesthetics are playing none again december 13th,,,cant wait what a blast......
erm...isn't last.fm fun...heres the crude page on last.fm. ....and the album 'syringe insekt'...you know this one:

...politics:::: parliament kicks off december 9...woohoo!
financial crisis! wooohhoooo !!!
2009!!!!!!
wooohhooooooooooo!!!!

microreview #8 : eye, drysoket, crude - none 29/11/08

2008-11-30T23:45:00.000-08:00

Gallery giggery. Performance-as-installation. Sound creation so subtle as to resemble a type of internal martial art. This music isn't spectacle, it's a distillation. A performance captured for posterity by a myriad of recording devices...the audience is less participant-in-real-time than estranged remote-viewer..(quiet..we're making history here). Three acts, with a fourth assembled from diffuse players/party-goers.
The None Gallery basement is such a great setting for performance. So ramshackled and gnarley. Concrete and dust and bottles'o'beer, I have to commend the dancer for performing in bare feet. Actually, I have to commend the dancer for performing full-stop - I have never seen anyone interpret free-noise with dance. No defined rhythm to grasp onto, unless you count the percolating pulse of naked speaker against concrete. Yes - this was act number one : Dry Soket - another clever working title (prize for who can list 'em all!) for the stalwart gallery ensemble of Boufis, MacKinnon and Wilson, featuring contemporary dancer Josh Rutter. The sound crew were seated on the floor and manipulated a cavalcade of sound devices - some of which were hooked up to a series of diagonally aligned( rather like a classic vector graphics game) multi-sized speakers on the concrete floor. They were a delight to behold as grainy signal forced one particular speaker to splutter and rattle - a curious electro-acoustic pitter-patter of wood, concrete and rubber. A little performance in it's own right. MacKinnon blurs the line between art and music by incorporating his current installation motif into the 'onstage band' format. But it was Rutter who commanded the most eye-balling. Painfully slow martial art-like movements, slo-mo convulsions, a bizarre figure stalking and glaring and searching, as if possessed - opening and closing the door in some ghostly sorta shamanistic/demon absorbing way, agony his expression - one couldn't keep ones eyes off Rutter and his tense, truly clever interpretation of what the sound was doing. Or going. Or whatever. Nigel Bunn, seated next to me, mentioned something about DDT and its effects. Bravo.
Beer number 6 and next on was Eye, the power trio of Porteous, Stapleton and Thompson. An elegant arc of a set - perhaps based on
a classical formulae - i don't know, the tension was coaxed up to a climax, there was the plateau of madness, then it all calmed down again and found resolution - perhaps an analogy to passing storm? The erotic arts? Somthing more cerebral perhaps - even paranormal? Either way it was awesome - a personal highlight was the primordial circular drone emitted from a Tibetan bowl -- always a pleasure to absorb. Such a simple device - such a gorgeous sonic result.

Crude played next. Unashamedly antithetical in its approach to the last 2 acts. More animal than cerebral. Animal yet mathmatical yet lap-toppy industro beats w/ slimey sax abstracts. Yokel vocal. Did they like it? Crude has no idea. Crude woke up next morning and said. "That gig did'nt actually happen". Crude don't care. Crude on crude. It still suits the galleries tho'. Says me. The glitch bogan fron nowheresville, southland.

da da da

2008-11-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

ugly ambition - the cover

2008-11-19T22:25:00.000-08:00

here it be , here it be. this is the cover for the aesthetics album. Um, its gonna be a screenprinted cover so we'll more than likely print it on some tee shirts and suitjackets and shit...

stock footage from 2003 plus! microreview #7 - alex mackinnon,pete gorman ,shelly harding,....OPSoA show..

2008-11-13T23:09:00.000-08:00

An old friend of mine , Tania Price, posted some footage of my one-and-only art show ('kiosk' a daily matinee and revue of my cover art - especially the black and white photocopied stuff ---like so::::

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

...yeaH...anyways..erm..heres a link to the VIDEO. Its potentially amusing footage if you like your compere short and strange and born iun southland. talking garbage. And why not. Wasn't it Baudrillard who said we need MORE rubbish out there - more anti-simulacrum simulacrum ? More anti-media media? Gilbert? Am i wrong?

So....here i go at 'art writing'. Something I may never do again. Now, I'm a bogan, so, don't expect art nz mag material. Ok???
-----um, went to an art show last night - a good one, mind. So good I shouted the show another box of booze. Mister-arts benefactor. Micro-loans. Anything to usurp attention eh? (manipulative lttle creep -- naaaaah). The artists of the evening were Alex Mackinnon, Pete Gorman and Shelley Harding .(now if I missed something i'm sorry)From my viewpoint, flux was the prime motif here - movement - invisible and visible, and its visual/sonic/spatial representation. Gormans installation, a mechanised pendulum augmented with all manner of transmitters, radio devices, mini-cameras, and a panoply of wires was the real rock and roller of the night. 2 large projections behind the ever writhing implement captured the bizarre de-tuned transmission(s?) and re-coded it as beautifully agressive tv glitchery not disimilar to the quality of transmission from those dodgy head-mounted cams the crew of the nostromo beamed back to Ash on their fateful walk out to the derelict ship on Lv-426 (oh, you remember). A radio tuned between stations (am? fm? sw?) relayed a hypnotic drone/signal - chance musics - the range of tone and pitch was astounding. A truly beautiful amalgam of drive and constancy and gurgle and purr. Perhaps his assessor felt the same way, who knows.
MacKinnon used sound as his medium. A trio of cabinet-extracted speakers were masterfully strung to ceiling and wall creating a zennist enclave and a perfectly proportioned template for the prepared sound-fields to channel through. You know, you can say 'drone', but the word simply dosen't do justice to the spectrum and variety of sound that a drone can acheive. Literally millions of different genera of drone. Mackinnon, cleverly referencing Lucier, coaxed out dozens of alternate drones and sounds from a single source. Scoff all you want - sound art exists. so go buy an installation or buy a friken record of the stuff. Its hipper than smoking a hookah on k road or living with someone who knew andy warhol once.
Lastly, and no, not leastly was one Shelly Harding- video art this time. A beautiful looping tryptich feauting a human figure, masked, performing 3 different home-gym excercises. Very very smart and amusing material (if i was wealthier I'd buy the data and have it at home)and a wall sized chess board/smorgasboard of female mouths, gossiping,reciting, divulging dirty secrets, abstract bubbling brooks of mouths and ruddy lip-schtick,,totally hypnotic - very much a work indiciative of the lil' boxes /profiles of the web-age, dozens of concurrent streams of thought and narrative/concord and discord - back-biting and dual-faced careerist mulch.
I write this review because I respect the work of these artists, i was there, and I had a good time. So,, if this review, in all it's non-referential philstinismism, does anyone any good, then GOOD. bee bob a luula shes my baybee.

enough politics - back to music

2008-11-11T14:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah I've had it with my ranting. I can bleat all I like but really, the left/right argument is a stalemate. For every argument from the left there's a rebuttal from the right and it goes on and on and on forever amen. As Key says - the proof of the pudding is in the eating so I suppose we better sit back and watch all the 'brightness' we voted for happen. Ohh but there'll be 'belt tightening'.. Yeah, whatever. Thats my last comment, sorry if it's sounds limp.

Music - um, well I'm doing my bit for private enterprise and releasing the new Aesthetics album , ugly ambition, which truly kicks ass, in my arrogant opinion, on vinyl. A real investment. So, keep an eye out early next year for that gem. It'll bhe collectable. Like a 70s Star Wars figure. Like the dole. Like empty methadone bottles. Like magic nose goblins.

the nz election - the live blog

2008-11-08T01:18:00.000-08:00

...9.08 pm ..party votes -- 39% national is ahead.
cocky blood reddens pearl necklace blonde silver spoon money heroin family - 6.8 million dollar mansion - tory media led election victory for national - kiwis will believe anything - blood and guts - death - financiers waiting in the wings to insert fattened phalli into us - death - 49% national is ahead - --
9.14 pm -- blonde rankin heroin cocaine funds private funds products'n'services - what will they offer - lock up the frustrated - john key takes nervous shit - blonde nazi sheik - national party - cocaine inserts - change! change! change! change! change for the rich! growth ! growth! growth!
54% returned --- national is ahead.....cocky conserves /skins tighten /dopamine shooting-up (very wealthy children of ceo takes heroin for the first time and feels normal for the first time)- undeserving poor closer closer to messy deaths at hands of noblemen street-fighting mob - undeserving unproductive children need personal responsibility (in form of powders, glues, milk-products, agri business, govt subsidies for business) for grey-power rocket felch in cocaine nazi blonde ambition family - keep on growing - even when the resources run out - new markets : selling heroin to auckland's wealthy - good idea - attn paris hilton : flood auckland 2009 - right wing govt good ground for this enterprise ---
9.40 - 70% return. National is ahead. Greedy grimace/grin lamb-chop right leaning fetish fetish - national is in. with ACT as head sadist. Media has told us this is the outcome right from january '08. our pulverized brains just go along with it. How many people in this country really know what the right stand for? Or do we just identify with the black and white rugger bugger get-off-yr-butt rhetoric gung-ho hurl-spiel of the fattened lamb-butter boys - couch potato - national - tory - republic - they've usurped barak obamas change meme - wrong ideology mate! change. they're changing right! oh yeah.whatever.75% - 46.1% to national. they lead.
the poor - bail out the rich. everytime. social policy. zakat. lemmings. cost/benefit. We are all purely rational beings. statistics. machines. growth. bohemian. ethyl alcohol. robyn malcolm. pizza and coffee. ivory dealers. public/private. making the private public since 1974. secrets. lies. stem-cell research. testicle. genome. king-maker. maori/national rightist merger. ge money. bayer pharmaceuticals. prozac. privatisation. corporate welfare. sales. lackey. braggard. mummies boys. there is no depression in new zealand. prime minister. views. cabinet. mafia interests. pressure groups. tags. microsoft.
i get the feeling we've all bought into the memetic usurpation of barack obamas 'change' theme.
10.00 pm ...me thinks it's over. for me. for people like me. weak people. people who never grew up. people who gave themselves over to their madness - their muse. Real work beckons. Real, decent work. A change. I must join the dairy industry. Or its over for me.
private. private. private. pepsi runs kindergartens. macdonalds runs primary schools. work and income exxon/mobile. private/public. john key's house. a fresh target. call the feds.
some signs of movement. 87% returned. nats ahead. it's over. industry. resources. we've signed ourselves over in this stupid trance-state. we're dead.
10.08pm Hi Mum. You got the change you wanted. Guess its time to let the entrepreneur inside me come out of the closet. Maybe selling guns? Start a sort of artist mafia/gang? NZ dosen't want to protect the vulnerable. NZ seemingly dosen't want so many things it's grown accustomed to. Oh well. When it turns to shit, its our own fukkin fault. We've made our fukkin bed. Interest cuts on student loans is back. We're fuckd. the baby-boomer cockys have their prurient inbred toffe-nosed fun once more.....erm.....is it over??? erm...

new place online for Crude Tees....

2008-11-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

Check it out:: - a new hub for the Crude tee shirts and theres thousands of other wierd arty tees to check out.....

http://rumplo.com/people/person/cruder
http://rumplo.com/people/person/cruder/submissions/

other tees :
http://rumplo.com/tees

oooh look...one time only...the original designs.....
1. 'scratchy' tee 2. 'mousey tee' 3. 'arcane' tee. 4. 'man-in-hat' tee.
All designs kopyroight matthew middleton's problem,cunt? designs 2005-2054

the creative madman under National - a manifesto

2008-11-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

1. The hogget'n'beef bloated cocky has his power back. The ACT party will insert it's fascist kiwi-style libertarianism into our jellyfish-like recti/lives. United future will provide the lubricant. The angry working poor now have executive governmental approval to blame the unemployed and unemployable for their personal problems. The meme is set in blue australian mineral/steel, and the coke snorting, butt-plug wearing, gimp-in-secret CEO-set shall spit on me and you and ma and pop forever amen.

2. The anti-political-correctness meme is back in fashion...at the executive government level. Let the 'entrepreneurs' and old-moneyed brat-spawn stare down upon ye through royal roman noses. Let them heckel and bray. Secret coprophiliacs - a true New Zealand culture. The mantra: - through soiled, gurgling shit spangled throats-- "the poor - why,, they are lazy! For they have chosen their lot! Why should we pay!! Why should we pay tax full stop! Ducky --take a nice hot shit on my face...aaaaa yes! yes!!

3. To be an artist or musician, a 'creative'; to our enemy, this is always seen as a weak ambition. Something essentially deviant, evidence of mental illness, or a lack of 'spine'. Under National - regardless of ones living standards..even without access to materials...do not stop your flow - keep your output alive. Keep it coming. Change your medium perhaps - if there are no tools/materials at your disposal, take up ritual magic, invent religions, perform in the street. And get ugly. Represent the truth - what life under national is really like. Observe the anomie. Be the anomie. Document the inequalities - expose them, and confuse the conservative mind. Vex upon vex upon hex upon hex. All we have left. Concoct and knead curses with bloodied knuckles.

4. You cannot 'buy' genius - and this fact frustrates the wealthy - it sends them into a psychotic, foaming, demonic fury.

5. Drugs are good for you. Drugs aid in your ritual. Your 'art'.

6. Being poor under National : a different kind of poor.

7. The money will trickle up. Your wage streams through you. You are a conduit for
the shifting of funds from remote private interest to remote private interest. To make something is the enemy of consumerism -a passive dance

live blog US election

2008-11-04T18:15:00.000-08:00

3.15 new zealand time:
joined twitter. red state? blue state? 808 state? pure hate? too late?

3.21 - obama wins ohio - needle in me vagin'o

3.25 "Is that a dog? his name is biscuit "

3.26 seen that film - 'gozu'? dig that last scene!

                        cruder                                              fox fascisti they know the real the real baudrillardian world the real rational cost-benefit analysing rational human ..                            less than 5 seconds ago              from web

32. obama takes NM. McCain takes Georgia. Middleton takes Yage. (not)

36. Is it over?

37. There's a pug-faced old cat with a deep slow-purr glued to me thigh.

46 - another cuppa tea me thinks.

55 It's snowing like a motherf**kr. And i have to do leafletting for the greens. dang.

57 Iowa to obama...mcain takes Utah. yeah like he wouldn't bible belt wierdos

microreview #6 - dirtroom and armpit , none gallery, 30.10.08

2008-10-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

Another gathering at the None Gallery, a performance by Armpit, the brilliant dirt-guitar ex-hamilton outfit featuring all-stars Pumice, CjA, and (absent for this show) Jon 'sugarjon' Arcus, and Dirtroom - savage inner-city guitar perspectives. Armpit are celebrating the release of their album 'tron' on Last Visible Dog records (and look at all these other kiwis Chris Moon has released!). Dirtroom have also just completed an awesome album entitled 'Curses'.(info here)
An intimate evening - typical of an evening with the Nonesters, good willed, friendly, a celebration of sound-arts and a collective bat-on-the-back. A good way to blow off the foetid steam of weekly living as a student/artist..that is..generally strapped with a sporadic wad of heavily creased, p-lined and grocery-listed cash here/there from gigs sales..

Wonderful to be in the superlative presence of Mr Stefan Neville(pumice)once more,this is a man who has the fortitude and single-minded art-market savvy to take his inimitable show to the world, funding or no, and to release title after title, illustration after illustration, gem after gem and drum like a pro to boot.
Also present was Zoe Drayton, one of the most passionate advocates of sound art I've ever met, a true driving force here and founder of the Audio Foundation. This is the person to know if your aesthetic aspirations are not those of dave dobbyns and more like john cage's. I'm a member of the AF and it is truly the finest effort to consolidate and network this young scene to date.

Gigs gradually become more like art installations...well, sound-art gigs are...and so does the peripheral noise-rock/ethereal drone scene.its not a bad thing..it's about really listening and appreciating the sound...of course I make a point to have a project alive that will reject these socio-spatial requirements - gigs a real wild party complete with heckling, dancing and pernicious satanic character asassination and bloody gossip through the entire show...a true blues rock 'gig' in a pub in a town in the South Island of New Zealand. Yeah yeah yeah. Shut up.

Anyway, this gig was great. Dirtroom are a force field, and their noise is increasingly subtle and evil - Armpit are legendary, micro-entreprenuers - bastions of DIY, real role-models and modellers of the scene. Heard of in Finland. Even.

the aesthetics - gig commentary

2008-10-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

check it out at the aesthetics blog here:::::::::::::::::::::::::::

http://aesthetx.blogspot.com/2008/10/saturday-chicks-gig.html

end times jukebox -

2008-10-26T02:09:00.000-07:00

the set list (oh yes how utterly fascinating!) as 'spun' by the 'end times jukeboxx' for the aesthetics gig at chicks on saturday ............
oh what an arrogant and pretentious assortment of snobby musics! as if you care!!!
ahoy! what ho! hey nonny nonny!

1. theme from stalker (russian film)
2. psychic tv - being lost
3. serge gainsbourg - le poinconneur des lilas.....
4. alan vega - ice drummer
5. van halen - running with the devil
6. sisters of mercy - anaconda
7. the germs - sugar sugar
8. slayer - black magic
9. sham 69 - hersham boys (live)
10. serge gainsbourg - harley david son of a bitch
11. the plasmatics - sex junkie
12. lene lovich - wonderful one
13. leonard cohen - im your man
14. gg allin - i hate people
15. fela kuti - zombie
16. john carpenter - assault on precinct 13 main theme
17. neil young - don't cry no tears
18. the puddle - rat park
19. nikki sudden - stuck on china
----------------------------------end of set one
perhaps a more pop orientated, accessible group of songs.

set 2.
more electronic orientated:

1. throbbing gristle - splitting sky
2. crude - i'm a man
3. tolerance - sound round
4. grandmaster flash & the furious five - new york , new york
5. ellen allien - MM
6. Cinema Verite - side 2 of 'der weisse rauch'
cassette 1984. GET IT HERE

set 3 - punkier - drunkier

1. helios creed - invitation
2. gg allin - i need adventure
3. lydia lunch - lightening's girl
4. swell maps - midget submarines
5. daf - sato-sato
6. alice cooper - elected
7. billy idol - white wedding
8. sylvias mother - dr hook
9. trois gymnopedie - satie
10. hot chocolate - everyones a winner
11. herbie hancock - rockit
12. pussy galore - kill yourself
13. the plasmatics - black leather monster
14. aleister crowley -vive la france
15. phases of the moon - peking opera melody
16. artaud -pour en finir
17. georgio moroder - scarface - end title
---------------------------------------------

psycho-geographic analysis of the gig to come!!! thrills and spills! ugly ambition!

why 'blog'? why not 'glog'?

2008-10-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

Music is life and life is music. Oh, I hope the New Zealand National Party don't make it hard for me to make it. Whatever they put me through, nahh, I'll still be making music. I imagine it'll be fiercer, more deranged, more desperate and savage. And my performances may be too, but i'll probably be too anemic and hungry to get too powerful up there..hail the brighter neoliberal future!! Heil!! Well- on the surface at least the party is looking to 'maintain' funding for the arts at the same level as it is now and it'll keep PACE afloat apparently...

The news of the hour::: the AESTHETICS ALBUM. It's pretty much DONE and MAN it kicks ASS.
The sound has evolved into a kind of less punky, more, i dunnow, new wave/alt rock type thing, the sly musical wit of Alex Chilton, the fiendish funk of late 70s Iggy Pop, the purulent anger and grotesquries of GG Allins Murder Junkies, the lo-fi slime of Flipper, the saxophonic angularity of The Contortions, the undeniable influence/inspiration provided by Chrome and Helios Creed (unmistakeable!!unavoidable!!)...all of these references suit the new sound/album.
Well be playing Chicks Hotel this Saturday (the 25th) as well as playing our favourite musics/drinking roles.

What else. Not that much really. I've taken up Tai Chi, and I love it.

NEW BATCH OF AESTHETICS OFF CDS / GIG 25TH OCTOBER !

2008-10-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

this fresh batch from the USA are $30 each. u'll see em at gigs, on the street, up yr nose etc.
Also, the Aesthetics are playin Chicks Hotel, Pt Chalmers on Saturday the 25th of October!!

microreview #555 - onefest 5 - the hasselhoff experiment, general winters' freak train, the autoharpies, and crude

2008-10-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

To keep a string of reviews astringent and alive and spontaneous can be a difficult procedure because yr dealing with 'samey' situations and sounds. Perhaps a theme could be proffered for each new review. This week feminist. Next week post-structuralist . Naahhhhh. I ain't THAT academic, me mateys. Not me. Sorry Bob.

..A fly in a end-of-days stupor slams into the window and we recall the weekend.

Radio One throws these yearly parties called Onefests. This weekend saw number 5 down at...yep..Chicks Hotel in our favourite port community, Port Chalmers. (where????)
The Hasselhof Experiment were to re-invent themselves that night, yo MFs, we're back.
To me it was the AutoHarpies night. Me being a big fan and all. Even objectively indeed..scientitionisticly, it really was their night. because it is...OUR problem.
After my token 'look what i can do (with a bottle)' 30 minute performance the Harpies took their auto-pills and unleashed the fiercest, most atonal, most destructive, most evil, most machinistic, most unmanageable (and unmarketable) din I've heard from a live band in a long time. With a drummer auto-high and blasting binary..keeping a lid on the swirl just ever so slightly. A rhythm based band. Atonal - except for the devilry of their voices, a note sustained here and there. The retro-referential synth-horn-section overdriven and bastardized. Bass with indifferent forward-drive. Noise for noise sake. An apocalyptic, musically nihilistic tour de force.
I wonder to myself - my God - Radio One who is owned by (who?) who is owned by (who??) is celebrating and supporting this...this...noise?? These type of bands are pure art - pure dada, dirty to the core, as poor as a wall street exec...there must be someone on the inside...oh,,yes,,thats right. There is. Your place in heaven is secure, sir/madam.

The Disc Jockey of the evening was General Winter's Freak Train , aka Aaron Hawkins, spinning an curious mix of musics to suit the dangerously eclecticism of bands. Some really interesting noisey stuff..lotsa 'whats this'? and 'who's this' from me - buggin the dj like a star-fucker on ecstacy

Crude and The Autoharpies didn't truly fit in with the sound and style of the H.E, the former 2 acts blasting off into the acrid nether-regions of sound and unsound all arty like (not quite fitting into the new free noise/improv scene (I'm so sensitive. I'm so serious) OR the 'rock'n'roll scene (i'm so unpolitical. i'm so meat.I had sex)) or the punk scene (i don't care. I'm under 20 ) OR the indie lo-fi (my acoustic guitar is my mother) scene or the new doom scene(i smoke sooo much pot. I am male.)...even the dunedin scene (i'm from dunedin and i'm in a band so whatever we do its cool)) Maybe thats why the guys didn't turn up to see the support bands. Or maybe they did, but they weren't there when I was. They more than likely were on the road right up to the point of the show driving their v8 holden straight into the stage from outside jumping out and spraying the crowd with flame etc etc. Nevermind. Word is...they were....good. Yep. Fuggin good. Booze soaked rock. Drummer-in-trance plus buckled over gat gurgle-creature. Anti-Seenerama. They arrived, played and got outta dodge. Yeeeehawwww.
And so am I.
Sayonara you smelly south island retards!!!
yeeeehawww!

even MORE places to stream CRUDE online

2008-10-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

wowww..they're calling it a sort of napoleonic complex...hell..they may even be right!!
Here are links to more placeS where I've stashed songs!!! okay...well...we got:

1. mp3.com.au - one of the original realms of free crudery
http://www.mp3.com.au/crude
HERE'S THE TRACKS EMBEDDED!:

2. Bebo - the 'bebo' album - an experiment in nothingness: and possible indie pop glory:
http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=4960272764

3. err....where else...oh yeah..i'm all over the internet archive:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=CRUDE%20MATT%20MIDDLETON%20AND%20collection%3Aopensource_audio

4. and i'm even on download.com. naPoleonic complex - quite probable.
http://music.download.com/mattmiddleton/3600-8622_32-100793960.html?tag=bookmark

5. and - the new last.fm album -------'syringe/insekt' - a different version of the other one (on my site/internet archive)
http://www.last.fm/music/matt%2Bmiddleton%2B%252F%2Bcrude/Syringe%252FInsekt%2BLP

and ......will i ever like..give up!!?? someone shut me up!!! I'm never going away!! NEVER!!!!! NEEVVVEERRR!!!

6. The old original myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/crudecat

So...that's just the 'alternate' place to stream crude!!!! the official channels are found HERE!
woohoo.. oh yeah....thought i'd repost this section::
\
...."That naked creature, the new zealand creative. Oh! breath with me now - ponder this, the 21st century urban kiwiscape..it's tenderloin system, it's butter-milk work-wheels, it's cauliflower-ear'd cabal, it's necrotic free-masonry, it's heroic cockies, hoodies yellowed, eyes-on-dope, ancestral frown lines cavernous..'Yo Dick!'..George street: Lo! The public figurine : the plaster-cast artist: she who hath 'willingly' 'selected' that 'insecure' 'lifestyle' 'option'. Tattered, leathered and android, hypnotized on govt cheese, ministry of social development eugenics and the relentless tv3-tv2-tv1 media attention on the daily acts of uniquely kiwi brutality, rape, torture and murder (let alone the gory, nightly, scatalogically vouyeristic and unnecessarily realist cop drama autopsies) all of it dosed out every night like your suppertime war-time tripe'n'greul. And Tv3 will tell you : national has already won! And tv3 will tell you to save power! All the while 'essential' industry sucks up as much as it 'needs'. The little ones all take the risk in the end. We take the risk. We are the buffer-zone. Kept anxious and work-ready. Labour flows. Mobile. Upskilling perpetually.

With all this in the ugly kiwi air.....still! her mirror reflects. The medium may be the word, the line, the sound - the mirror still reflects. And soon, ye who do not yet 'sell', who do not yet 'earn' : soon : the market liberals take power. And STILL : your mirror will reflect. As it does and always will. And you will be marginalized further. And further. And your out-put will darken, madden. It will become louder.

To the New Zealand creative: if national wins the 2008 election - don't stop. Just get louder. Harder. Sicker. Uglier. Smellier. BE the poverty. Show the upper-classes what it does to your mental health - BE the disease. Get right in their whimpering,spastic, painted on faces. Throw their shit back at them. Use what is available. The internet. The pen. The brush. The amplifier. The microphone. The vibrator. The toe-clipper. If you're too weak - withdraw, hibernate, plan, plot, store, percolate. Scratch it out on private scrolls.

Well, i thats probably what i'll do."

THE AESTHETICS NU LIVE VID!!!

2008-09-29T02:26:00.000-07:00

microreview#4 - stefanimal, crude , lucky dragons

2008-09-28T16:24:00.000-07:00

firstly however - Crude has joined the ranks of Lastfm.com - here's the page:

http://www.last.fm/music/matt%2Bmiddleton%2B%252F%2Bcrude

And also - i'm doin a live-top-air on thursday october 2nd 7-9 on radio 1 91.3 fm.

......Good vibrations cascaded across the great pacific ocean and into the dunedinite soul last evening in the form of the Lucky Dragons, a two piece act from the Los Angeles area. Lucky Dragons are two androgynous/alien types (a complement in my book), Luke Fishbeck and Sarah Rara . This is the sound of the 'new wierd america' - a 'folktronic'/psychedelic movement that embraces innocence, simplicity, polyphony, effects coaxed from homemade and handmade instrumentation/gadgetry. While in NYC in 2006 I viewed this trend first hand - perhaps the movement is a reaction to the hyper-technology of the age, a reaction against the boys-own doom-metal school that is also a very hep thing right now. I have to say it - I was kinda disapointed on realizing that folk/americana/bluegrass/medieval is de rigeur in the US..I came from a type of hicksville to experience 'urban culture' and what I got was another, although a very stylized, hicksville. Surely its a reaction. No-one wants to be sohpisticated anymore. The white kids are discovering their pastoral roots.
Ohhh well. I'll just keep doing my thing. Futuristic, heavy, complex and mentally ill. An unfeeling cacophony care of a bullet proof little boy with megalomaniacal fantasies. Ouch. I know how to hurt myself.

Anyways. Support acts. First Stefanimal.
This woman owes it to herself to take that sound overseas. Its easier said than done of course. I sometimes even resent it when someone tries to encourage me to leave this country.. I dunnow - it's a complement but its like...I live here...I'm sorry but I live here and I'm not like..rich..But anyways..Stefanimal performed and yes - I enjoyed her set. Like Pet Shop Boys high on nitrous. A sensitive, ethereal keyboard driven singer/songwriter adventure - intelligent lyricism, new-wave/new romantic/electro-pop angst underneath a haunting alter-boy-on-smack voice...perhaps goth, perhaps too subtle to be goth. Keep an internet-mediated eye out for this artists progress.........
The audience trickled in ..in gradual couple-based increments..this certainly wasn't a typical backstage evening. And the fact that it was 'god's day' didn't help either. As a performer a Sunday is always an anomalous enterprise.
I played next, yes, me, Crude, in my LA olympics 1984 singlet - almost gay-chic maybe -- all that was missing was the thick mo' and the aviators....nothing out of the ordinary,,backing cd doing all the work...saxophone stabs and bleats...the new post-industrial warble of 'hey hey commando'...synth stitch and swoop..alan vega in my blood...
Then 'twas the Lucky Dragons........wow! A ritual - the usurpation of duality and its transmutation into all that monistic. (In other words - they become 'one'). Soprano recorders, pentatonic scales, pretty tones, offerings of rocks and pepples, a strange theremin and audience paricipation ..On the projector sceen they played THIS movie..

Some of the audience left disturbed at the 'ritualistic' character of the Lucky's, but most were uplifted. I felt healed as I woke the next day. And I mean it. Improvised music is a shamanistic phenomomenon and it can be utilized for many highy subjective and personal purposes..including a type of buddhistic cleansing of the mind/soul. One 'deals with' concepts of ego, past issues, person-to-person relations/proximity, claustrophobias/social phobias as one performs. Improvisation is the perfect vehicle for channeling and 'banishing' them. So there. So sayeth Dr Middleton. Whatever. Bye. See ya.

new aesthetics blog::

2008-09-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

a blog specifically devoted to the life and times and rants of the members of the aesthetics is here:
http://aesthetx.blogspot.com/

this is - the news

2008-09-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

Crudetivity over the next couplea weeks::; well sir,,on Sunday the 28th Crude will be supporting Lucky Dragons, for sale at that gig will be the nu tee shrrt, i gots 4 - 2 'xs', one 's' and one 'm' - but these sizes are deceptive - in reality they're a size up - the xs tees are actually small etc etc. I'll have an audio copy of 'fumes' , a 'wretched five' data cd, and a copy of the new 'crudepod 06-08' datacd adventure there. On October the 2nd Crude will hit port chalmers once again to join in the festivites--the onefestivities--- numba 5 that is,,supportin' the Hasselfhoff Experiment, and , ohh shucks i get-ta see the AutoHarpies again!!. As far as Aesthetics action is concerned, whelp, we got another Port-side gig, it'll be our first in a while - and we'll be in celebration mode hopefully as we should, I emphasize should, have most of if not all of the 'ugly ambition' tracks recorded by that point. But we won't have copies...we'll be looking to titlate labels far and wide before deciding on a self release or not. all going well however we may have a fresh batch of 'Off' cds direct from the USA to sell. Theres quite a sad story behind this album, one of my most enthusiastic american supporters was one Ian Thomas, who died tragically and well before his time from an agressive brain tumour. He was a good friend and my 'biggest fan' well, in the USA at least. Heres to ya Ian.
ALSO ____ THE VIDEO FOR J IS FOR JESUS -- LIVE -- A SPLICED TOGETHER REISSUE FILMED BY PETE GORMAN (variant media)and M O T O K O will be on youtube soon!!!!! woohoo. for now, check out my 'crudetube' page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/crudertube

NU CD RELEASE:
CRUDE - crudepod 06-08
for the sake of simplicity, convenience, symmetry with current trends Crude has compiled a
mp3 data disc that features the booty and blood from the albums
fumes(2006), slurries vols 1 annd 2 (2007), podcast ep (2006), dopamine 20 (2006),
kenji siratori and crude 'alien extermination' (2007) and syringe insekt(2008)!
all 128 kbps mp3s -----------------------------------------------
all encrusted onto a cd!!!! And to you sir, that'll be $50.

TAGS:
Worth. Value. Goods and Services. Self-esteem. Merchantilism. Zakat. Social Policy. John Key. Alchemy. Chicken. Ducking.

microreview #3AUTOPHARPIES/ ISO12/ OTEPOTI UNDERGROUND/ MOTHER EARTH CHICKS 19TH

2008-09-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

Port Chalmers is where it's at - again. It's almost - no, it IS exciting - there's an exciting new scene there - led and fed through the existence of that one pub - CHICKS. Last Saturday was yet another soiree. And WHAT a soiree. First up, the illustrious Toki Wilson, all wired-up and armed with colourful plastic sound toy machinery, rarotongan militant psychedelic hip-hop southern side and the harsh realities of Stafford street art-skool old-skool. Subtle, to the point of evil, Toki's Otepoti underground project, now in it's solo form, set the standard of the evening - an electronic rat-a-tat-tat.
His rhyme slick, his stage presence diminuitive yet simmering, cool incarnate.
Having coerced a friend to lend me $20 now i could truly participate in the evening. MotherEarth was act number two - Joan George on Bass, Robbie Yeats Drums and Chicks owner Hector Hazard on Guitar. This was a power-trio - violent spasms of bass flicker, like scratching Kim Gordon's eyes out, lee Renaldo at-gun-point ---- teaching sonic youth an important lesson, primordial violent slam-slam-slam. The sound like an artfully coaxed yet mismanaged war-effort. Knives and nuns. The ethyl propulsion of our divine drunken-philosopher yeats.The ancestral grin of motherearth on speed/bass/noise. 10 out of 10.
Iso 12, dunedins most dedicated electro artist was next with sytnh back up by myself (crude). Sophistry. Gadgetry. Years of refinement and ferment. Subtle brit pop/ darkwave lyric layered upon home-spun lectro beet/ minimal-tik haus-louse keys. Dance. Specialist music - embracing the one and not letting go. Top marks. Top marks. Top marks. Arm marks. Sharks. Weather. Blood. Iso 12.
But wait.....theres more. The coolest band in New Zealand. The Autoharpies. No exception. Dark brooding post-punk on ether. Sinister synthetic lines of heavily cut coacaine/sound. Super cool girls all statuesque. A drummer unrelenting and super-smooth; evil femme-beat-plastique. A steamy rifferama, subtle like a plasma. Arrogant in its utter coolness, but like as if they give a fuck. Zombiefied melodies atop dual synth/guitar raunch/paunch. A laser - a phaser. A high school blazer.
That alchemic binding together of event and sense that that top-shelf liquor can-do. Jager shots. Punch in the face. Toilet time. A lemon rind.

phenomenonenon

2008-09-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

3 new songs for the " L'archivio dei lavori ultimati da Matt Middleton.....

i'm a man - nu minimal percussion skinny puppy foetus maddening drunk flop

eternalize yourself - mantrfication of post-humous furies experiment

hey hey commando - lite executive blister pack point-of-sale black industrial popper

---off to a gig tonight at Chicks ,,,,,it's thee Autoharpies, Iso12, motherearth and the infamous cult group The otepoti underground. Alright - shall review if able. Thanks alot.TAGS: winston Peters. Populism, charisma, attack politic.

(me holding the cd cover for the album 'slurries volume 2')

crude supportin' the lucky dragons!

2008-09-17T00:39:00.001-07:00

--from LA ,,the lucky dragons are currently touring the nether-regions and when they hit dunedin Crude'll be supportin' (oh yeah, its the backstage september 28

..check out their myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/luckydragons

----the infamous crude linkbank

2008-09-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

http://crude.co.nz/link%20bank%203.htm

ultra-cold atoms at otago university

very fascinating doco

free film index

hell

2008-09-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

wow. check out the Autoharpies myspace page. Fukkn great shit , mannn. \

post LHC

2008-09-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

david kilgour gave me this real dirty, mocking sorta look. Um......so the mental illness might be flaring up.
um.....er...yeah
hey new zealand - go vote national. yeah go on. Fukkin um,yeah - vote National. It'll be really good for the mentally ill. Vote for National - vote for the health of the mentally ill. Yeah .

" L'archivio dei lavori ultimati da Matt Middleton per l'ANNUNCIO 2008 di anno" ------tracks so far this year

2008-09-01T00:58:00.000-07:00

The work for this dvd is coming along just NICE! So there'll be plenty of songs, lots of scans of stupid drawings and photos and what else, oh yeah a written section and maybe a vid. All on one dvd. For yr records, here are the song titles so far::

.fr - scathe/soap loop
aerosoll - aero drone done
alone by the fire - cave on casio
another one bites the dust - queer chunks
beast inception - blue/black synth
blackened deadened keys - blackened hypnosiss
breath - zennist lung
bula droiv - concrete licourice stik
cirrus - hydrosphere whispies
codex - crackle maths
crack - throat glitch
crude hell bent remix - metal storms
da grind - sabbath on synth on static
deep field - heavy wind research
devil racerr - synth motors
dopamine flutter - urban fields
for i have nothing - bank account readings
ghz ghz - lite tek
homage to gg allin - nihil loops
hulan tipall - ritual wind
hull, lackey, braggard - word crimes
huul dax - sax cone
ugly competition - computer chant
know - voice piss
leary - found sounds . ripp offs
miss this - isolated loop
no - voice exercises
nort juss - clarinet
nothing - computer secrets/lies
o - nerd-tekker
on an industrial scale - apokalyptikon
puru liir - glide sax
seal - groan drone
seething ugly - ambition
shine on - crystal
shooter - click spatter
sikh solace - mantra mange
slov kuum - concrete cull
spliced swinger - looop'n'roll
syringes and insects - crystalline hump
tallow - blip gristle
tape droner 1 and 2 - swiss chard
the sea, the blood - lake eerie
the tone, the charm - uplifted
transcauscaus drone warlord - memories of welly
tuff in da valley - bogan anthem (whispered)
tulak nozoth - sacred arts, the
vortexx - residents, the
zhuang zi - historical reference
-

the aesthetics - 'ugly ambition' - it's awwwnnnnn!

2008-08-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

It is done! The album is finally....finally UNDERWAY!!! woooohhhoooo! Track One 'Devon' is DOWN and done and on stinking, putrid, rocked and rolled digital byte-bastardized audacity trackery!!!!complete with freshly captured bad-domestic-vibes! It's a track that embraces our new dirty scum-blackened death-punk drawl...compleat wif remote scandanavian minor chords, fuzz box and zildjian waves'n'rushes. This baby oughta be out by DECEMBER '08. so it can be released along with :: the Crude data dvd archive 'La Archivio Dei Lavori...' and the re-issue of Crude's Sax Sothis...and the reissue of the aesthetics CLASSIC album 'OFF'!!!!

crude news::: thats right ...there will be a 'sax sothis' re-release in december!!!

And new fresh 'Off' Cds will be arriving in New Zealand soon!!!

rare crude vinyl.....

2008-08-26T02:09:00.000-07:00

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/crude

inner city guitar perspectives LP on ebay
refute a myth society LP on ebay
inner city guitar perspectives cd/lp - googled

c h i c k s

2008-08-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Chicks, in Port Chalmers, run by Hector Hazard, is the new IT BAR!! (as in 'it', not information technology).
And in a gratuitous splurge 3 bands, The Aesthetics, Alpha State AND, yes...Michael Morley and Robbie Yeats ,,,two beautiful thirds of the Dead C performed there last Saturday.....in a party type thing held for soon-to-return-to-dunedin Leila George.
Alpha State were what they were what they were. It was great. Port Chalmers style racketeer-pop post-jangle hearts all felt-up.
Morley/Yeats transmuted guitar magnet t' gold with their soup-brand devil-dirge downward-slide with hard-whack on th'snare beatery.
The Aesthetics went all Contortionsesque (more sax than geetar)- me loosing most of me inhibitions, dancing in ritual circlez and offering up my sax-as-vomit-portal for da audience right in yr face-like. Well wheat bleat bleato-blotto.

What a fab venue. All the trimmings. All the piss flowing. Chairs and fukking tables. Portholes and Kitchery Bitchery Dock. The mouse ran up my choc. Art in the Art space. Thee right people, the right aroma. Colour, not black and white. All the fukin shades of grey. Were you there? ...Theres more this weekend! Eye (gods walk among us!), Dirtroom (scream bloody murder))and Kahu (quietist loud crank)perform!!!!!

the night the music fried: refuel saturday.

2008-08-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

It's monday morning! And i got a job!! Its my calling ! Full time blogger! weekend madman, weekday gonzo! Put the coffee on! Go get me a pastry! Lets talk 'culture'!

.....You can't call it Dunedin music, for it isn't Dunedin music. It is global music made by people who are based, for now, in Dunedin. To lump these acts in with 'dunedin''s current over-extended list of rag-tag rugger-bugger student flat bands would do them an injustice. These people operate from Dunedin only, and their craft radiates outward, via the net, and geraldine vinyl, everywhere on earth.

This is the great divide between our local acts: on one hand: say...it's an active dunedin band who have a high profile on dunedin music.com etc.. you hear about them constantly..in Dunedin. All the time. Like, they must be doing so well. But go to Helsinki, or Berkley, or even fukkn Auckland, and it would be like 'who...? excuse me....who..?' ...on the other hand - the bands/acts that play rarely, well, if they do(as admittedly some are very active)their performances are not ardently advertised or noticed,,have several records out,,many networks,,,but you like RARELY hear about them, they aren't discussed in Dunedin so much, like, they don't even exist..or they may as well not ..but then you go to like Melbourne or Boston or Brussels and yeah,,they're known alright! And respected. And often have record deals there. What gives? Oh well. Nevermind.

The bands on Saturday were of the latter variety.
\It was a real cold night and the mere fact people came to the gig was an indication there was some pull to these bands. due to health issues, Les Revelations De Seriuses
withdrew,,,,strange cause someone close to the band told me they were playing at Arc that night..maybe just a misunderstanding. I look forward to hearing them!
I'll save the SELF review till last eh...

WOLFSKULL . Shit. My god they ruled. And i had the best seat in the house,,,up on stage wit' them on the right-wing (your LEFT) lips wrapped around a nice taut mouthpiece. Wolfskull are the real deal - like the stumps they're an all-star out-fit; Duane Zarakov with his trademark groove - untouchable. Clayton Noone with his sad melody/dirty dirge. Iso 12 with his sweet voice, wierd, remote lyrics and his cosmo-centric Korg. Sean Norling with his bass from Mars and it's googol effects.(don't u just love googling names) They do/DID the heavy psyche thing like masters. A very....boy type of thing. It's a big ol' scene now in the Northern Hemisphere...the number of bands of the ilk sproutin' like the buds of spring,,it's pot music par excellence. I whacked out a little sax-a-ma-phoney for dem, worked ok I tink. Congratualtions wolfskull, take that shit to the bastards of the north me suggest.

DIRTROOM. Aliki Boufis, Alex McKinnon, Toki Wilson, Rachel Blackburn . - Mood music. Thats what I'd call it. No,,,,that would be an over-simplification. Dirtroom, made up of the remnants of Khomet, (two members, Jimmy Currin and Ollie Van Der Lugt are absentees..tich tich,,call thhe principal)are noise. At it's core is a primal expressionism. They tore and shred and rollicked and banged and fed-back a million times over and, as a musician myself, I just knew they'd be feeling good (endorphins surgin' ,dopaminergic reward mechanisms all firing..u know the score)..after that show. Always a joy - the individuals of Dirtroom are all resident at the None Gallery - each an artist in their own right...in fact..they're all visual artists. Watch out for them - wherever u may be.

I played too. Ha. My god. what happened. I premiered a few numbers off the 'l'archivio' dvd..'hull, lackey, braggard'...'beast inception' (yeah that trax online),,'ugly competition' ,,,my remix of 'hell bent for leather' ...and ad libbed a new song,,,'J is for Jesus'...the evening's show will be included on the December DVD!!!!!! As is typical, I....I....entertained.

The show was a release party. dirtroom's track waz: 'homeless bodies' , Wofskull's ..'whole lotta ghaza'. Released on root don lonie. To order, well, either go thru the root myspace or email Mr Noone: rootdonlonieforcash@hotmail.com

.....and so : to conclude, for on reading this blog it's brevity was very obvious...yes...it was a GREAT NIGHT. I could use better referencing, more adjectives, i could talk history or speculate on future careerist timelines but u know,,,it was a GREAT NIGHT and a great SOCIAL OCCASION. To get certain elusive types together,,,just get WOLFSKULL to do a stint. with um, with Stevce McCabe. And King Loser.
PS - Dunedin's Lord Byron Gavin Shaw is on myspace. Check it!

madmen: on stage and being very, very strange

2008-08-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

....blog on the gig at refuel....coming tomorrow!!

eventology

2008-08-08T01:51:00.000-07:00

Watched a great film today, A Singaporian effort, '15', a raw, at times very abstract film following the lives of various disaffected youth from the island/city state. I recommend it.
Tharrrs another gig brewin' in the air here in funsville Wyoming, and as the vultures circle o'erhead we prepare our speeches: 'kill me now, kill me quick, arsenic on a carrot tied to a stick'..Who's it dis time badger? well well, 'tis the best doomological scholar-band of the big mainland/canoe 'wolfskull'....if yr an avid online buyer i suggest you puruse their discography..and the magnetotronic combobulations of Dirtroom....this be an disc release party,....!!!!..I'll be playin with a lil' lektronic/saxophonic set (which will be recorded and added to my december release compendium... and Les Revalations also perform. Hurrah!!!!

aesthetics news.
Our old out-of-date blog, the one left on the un-altered aesthetics blog page offa crude.co.nz is, well, ironically, it's core clippit, that 'we are back to a three-piece again' is , well, the case once more. Our new bass player left the band on amicable and rational terms, and so, us old c**ts shall keep flying the fart-flag for a bit. The album, that old memetic/crumb of data, is yet to be completed, but it will be, in the main recorded at my new studio, henceforth known as 'river-bank rooms' up in north east valley. 'Ugly Ambition' will see the light. And there's good new for you aesthetics fans...all 20 of you...I'm finally awaiting the remaing 'OFF' cds from the states!! soon at all gigs we'll have plenty of copies of this beautiful nugget/album, all on a REAL CD! all who listen to the record get a chaffing initially, but after a few listens are taken in by it's deep subtelty. It is a great album, an overlooked, un-adorned, un-recognized piece of cultural history that sits in the strangest record collections. The mission to furnish oneself with a copy shall be simplified in a month. Or so.

world news.
Has anyone read the Hadith? Those were brutal times weren't they. The bloody Olympics. Beijing 2008. What happens when it's all over? Who'll win the US presidential election? Jesus? Or Jesus? Here's a good web-page --Too Much magazine. The eight pipes were extended from the Al-Zarqan nuclear facility eight months agomorfix Life Sciences, a company focused on treatments and diagnostics for brain wasting diseases, today announced its operational and financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2008 Although a seemingly simple piece of technology in comparison with the complexity of the detectors, the beampipe is a carefully designed and essential part of both the experiments and the LHC.That fucking band. Damn record companies.

upcoming eventology :

2008-08-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Aug 16 2008
10:00P
REFUEL :WOLFSKULL!! DIRTROOM!! CRUDE!! and um...

crude merch ::: as it happens...my other crude blog

2008-08-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

http://crudemerch.blogspot.com/

wellington part 2

2008-07-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

read fast for correct effect..

...Recovering from the instore gig and the first couple of days in Newtown I assimilated. I like to visit a place not as a tourist but as a latent local. Newtown charmed me with it's easy going nature - easy going with an edge, of course - eateries and affordable veges/fruit everywhere,,i must admit it..Wellington is the food capital of New Zealand.

The big gig was friday night at Happy. And what a gig it was...a high spirited & enthusiastic crowd, most of them dancing,,my god..actual dancing..a thing seemingly exclusive to wellington...dancing...to music..

the big upset was of course Panda Battle Battle Panda's absence : Lucy had to receive emergency treatment for a freak head injury earlier in the day,,it was too late notice to whip up another act. That was a real dissapointment for both the audience and Beth who had been looking forward to the gig with relish for some time. Rock and/or Roll moves in mysterious ways. I'm a big fan of the Duckling Monster and an integral element was missing from the night : shes the coolest singer in town. Yeah I said it.

Newtown played first - a duo act with a onstage demeanour so relaxed and insouciant our collective ego-masks were immolated (oh dear - more references to 'ego' and 'masks'). There's was the interactivity of a vital,anarchic,witty and very-much-in-love couple,,through their act we were invited to their flat/life/stage, the music an expression of the Wellington everyday, a flurry of riotous sloganeering, cats meows, punk-as-gossip, mohawk's and a cup of tea..the riot grrrl movement very much alive and well in the capital..

The Stumps played 2nd,,,initially it was to be us (The Aesthetics) but Grace won the day and we were relegated to the prime spot..Either way,,,the Stumps performance was ideal for the headline act, and even more so - they were mind-blowing...a whirlwind. Loosely their sound is Heavy psyche - with that crazed amphetaminized guitar sheen,,with that unpredictable improv shock, like Eye they were vortex music but with a chunky post-rock approach. 'Twas evokation music. 'Don't mess with shit you don't understand man..' ..Visuals played a very strong part : behind them was the film 'God Damn Religion' by Sun City Girls' Sir Richard Bishop : a flick-thru/slide-gallery/fast-paced compendium of static full colour images gleaned from the dusty annals of ancient religion, both east and west - hells, devils, demons, hindu hells, tibetan hells, torment, christ's torment: a real bias t'wards the dark side methinks. All up a mad soiree.. I am now a Stumps fan.

------------------'twas so,,encouraging to have an audience swell before us that night,,,chants of 'bogan' and howls and yips in the mist...we did what we could and hells-teeth it was good. The gig was filmed by ex Christchurch lone-eccentric swordsman Lynton Denovan(CM Ensemble, Tony Valens & The Incisions, Righteous Sinner Singers, Sirlordme).
That was our new bassist Alex McKinnons last gig with us...so the band now goes on to record the album 'ugly ambition' without him and in live situations will more than likely remain a trio.
Thanks.

the crudertube - my playlist on youtube

2008-07-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

NEW TEE SHIRT!!!!

2008-07-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

HIYA! I HAVE A NEW TEE SHIRT AVAILABLE :::::::: HERE'S THE LOGO

invert the image for a better representation of what it'd look like on a t-shirt!

wellinton diary 01

2008-07-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

Back to dirty old Wellington. Where the beards grow and are well kept. Where the streets are paved. Where Lange lays. Where the user-pays. Where you're a 'Dick' all day.
The Crude industries event last evening was a fairly claustrophobic affair, well, for me it was, but art prevailed! Sax chortled and wailed, amps coughed and spluttered, half knowing half smiles were exchanged, merchandise was displayed and discussed, units were pushed.
Don't let Spacething's size fool you - for at it's core is a big heart and a chamber of beautiful D.I.Y artefacts. Performance at Spacething necessitates a casting-off of the artists ego: her boundaries - the audience is integrated into the performance. It is a direct and brutal interchange : a removal of the mask : a challenge - with a great reward. I feel an odd sense of gained merit today.
Tomorrow is the big game::::A bunch of bands playin' Happy, Wellington's Tonic. Or Cakeshop. Probably more Cakeshop. There's Newtown, a very angry band indeed. Theres the Stumps, an all-star out-fit featuring the talents of Antony Milton (Black Boned Angel, A.M etc), Stephen Clover (Seht) and James Kirk (formerly Sandoz lab technicians) . Panda Battle Battle Panda also perform. And I expect they are a ball.
And of c ourse, The Aesthetics. Much anticipated, everything riding on this one gig, they better-be-good-or-i'm-taking-my-shares-outta-pfizer type thing or some shit.
So cock-a-doodle doo lets drink ourselves to death and track down John Key@!!!!!!!

MORE TO COME!!

why the futurians rule the world

2008-07-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.myspace.com/futurians

this next link contains all the info you could ever want plus a hyperlinked discography (which is pretty extensive too) http://www.softabuse.com/artists/futurians.html

The Futurians are a band that have soul. Their music, a pulsating, minimalist, primitivist, machinistic monster of a thing is at once fiction and fanstasy, at once politics and hyper-reality. Go to a Futurians performance and you will know what i mean - this is the now and this is the future. I mean, just take a look at their influences: (from myspace) : music robots, pkd, murdering monsters, star trek, the fall, blakes 7, billy idol, dr who, battletruck, bauhaus, judge dread, cortina, futurama, guitar wolf, wictyst, cock esp, hodogs, catpower, f leger, yoko ono & john lennon, thee strap ons, isaac asiminov, pere ubu, the aesthetics, sigue sigue sputnik, talking heads, public image ltd, survivor, wssoes, otto dix, duicide, halo jones, international telepaths, frederick pohl, joy division/new order, pink & green & blue, suicide, star wars, dr strange love, 2000ad!, blondie, 6 feet under, bratmobile, royal trux, 3d movies, krazy kat, teenage panzercorps, the face, metal mickey, iron maiden, the gordons, willie dixon, margeret atwood, death, tivol, gfrenzy, pablo picasso, acdc, the simpsons, 6 finger satelite, john waters, dungeon, scrooge mcduck, kurt vonnegut, teenage panzercorps, glittering lights, monster dogs, ringo.

The Futurians wouldn't be the Futurians without Beth Dawson a.k.a duckling monster.
Beth is a one-woman army..a vocalist with no comparison, a peerless cultural engineer who has re-invigorated the wellington underground through her many bands and her spacething enterprise. The welly old-guard shudder and moan about it all, the zinesters and scenesters support it all.
Neither would they be the same without their mad Korg comptroller ISO12. Or without the dirge guitar of Clayton Noone - and the nasty minimalism of Sean Norling. crikey - i have basically said the Futurians wouldn't be The Futurians if they didn't have band members. How convoluted. my apologies.
anyway...
last night The Futurians played a set at the masonic lodge in Port Chalmers, unfortunately the last show to be put on there (council issues and residential complaints rendering the culture of the lil' port void until 'Chicks' re-emerges as an art-hub). what a show to go out on. I played around 9pm, successfully implementing a more sober approach to my performance, my sax stabs'n'jabs all in-sync and tight, ad-lib sections carefully determined before-hand...attitude all vicious and ironic...stoned-dude groany'n'deep vibrato lay upon th' country'n'western suicide-a-billy twang-ology vocal gymnastick. pats-on-the-back and warm reception.
Next was Onanon, (a reference to onanism?) a band i hadn't truely taken much notice of until last night, their new material mature and slick and evoking the melodious gaiety of The Clean, the schizoid cleverness of The Pixies, the smart-bomb punk architecture of The Swell maps, all the while retaining a sonic signature all their own. More Dunedin than Dunedin, they'd do real well in Australia and The USA. Kinda like Panel of Judges , from melbourne, they were more dunedin than dunedin too. But hey, it's a classic sound - a neat lil' approach to post-punk-dom and it's 21st century protagonists do not indulge in 'replication';they are innocently chanelling that original spirit.

Last on was The Futurians. And they conquered. many danced, many lived to tell the tale. There's was an approach synthesizing elements of no-wave, new-wave, synth-rock, drone rock, doom rock, kraut-rock, pt chalmers dirge, robot rock, riot grrllism, and calculator punk. if it's labels you wanted. all i say is; support them. If ye be in wellington, go check out anything Beth Dawson is inmvolved with. If Dunedin - check out wolfskull, iso 12, psychic sidekick...there a dozens of related acts all pious in their own rights. Go check out the soft abuse link above and buy an album. great use of comic book-mechanoid linguisitic in their titles.

Oh yeah go buy a Crude Cd too.

phenomenonon

2008-07-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

Winter is what it is isn't it. And next Tuesday the Crude mechanism flys to capital city! ahh yes, a little voyage outta the dunedin-scape, therapeutic. This missions acts as a promotional/marketing exercise,,the CRUDE show on Thursday at spacething a tuppaware party, and the Aesthetics show on Friday a rock-a-rolla showcasey. Yes indeedy.
But first 'twill be The Futurians gig in Port Chalmers! yeehaawww!

crude in wellinton ...

2008-07-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

CRUDE - wellington july 23 at SPACETHING
Current mood: gallant
Category: Fashion, Style, Shopping

YEP - WELLINGTONIANS! Come to the coolest spot in welly wednesday the 23rd (time to be confirmed) to C CRUDE do an INSTORE PERFORMANCE ! Not only that, Crude will be armed wit an arsenal of recent recordings.............

Crude - Wretched 5 data cd (5 albums)
Crude - The Gel
Crude - The Mine
Crude Complete !! DVD
Crude - La Chaleur Basse De Fidelte Vols 1 and 2
Crude - Slurries Vol 1
Crude - Slurries Vol 2
Crude - fumes

from the Artless Intent Line :::

5454 - Travelogue
Rory Storm - ATTACILS
Palace - De Novo
CPU Group - eagles in echo
Kenji Siratori & Crude - Alien extermination (a CLASSIC)

wooohooooo!!!!!!!!

SPACETHING:

http://www. facebook. com/group. php?gid=7895184105

art , new zealand society, meaning and meaninglessness

2008-07-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

That naked creature, the new zealand creative. Oh! breath with me now - ponder this, the 21st century urban kiwiscape..it's tenderloin system, it's butter-milk work-wheels, it's cauliflower-ear'd cabal, it's necrotic free-masonry, it's heroic cockies, hoodies yellowed, eyes-on-dope, ancestral frown lines cavernous..'Yo Dick!'..George street: Lo! The public figurine : the plaster-cast artist: she who hath 'willingly' 'selected' that 'insecure' 'lifestyle' 'option'. Tattered, leathered and android, hypnotized on govt cheese, ministry of social development eugenics and the relentless tv3-tv2-tv1 media attention on the daily acts of uniquely kiwi brutality, rape, torture and murder (let alone the gory, nightly, scatalogically vouyeristic and unnecessarily realist cop drama autopsies) all of it dosed out every night like your suppertime war-time tripe'n'greul. And Tv3 will tell you : national has already won! And tv3 will tell you to save power! All the while 'essential' industry sucks up as much as it 'needs'. The little ones all take the risk in the end. We take the risk. We are the buffer-zone. Kept anxious and work-ready. Labour flows. Mobile. Upskilling perpetually.

With all this in the ugly kiwi air.....still! her mirror reflects. The medium may be the word, the line, the sound - the mirror still reflects. And soon, ye who do not yet 'sell', who do not yet 'earn' : soon : the market liberals take power. And STILL : your mirror will reflect. As it does and always will. And you will be marginalized further. And further. And your out-put will darken, madden. It will become louder.

To the New Zealand creative: if national wins the 2008 election - don't stop. Just get louder. Harder. Sicker. Uglier. Smellier. BE the poverty. Show the upper-classes what it does to your mental health - BE the disease. Get right in their whimpering,spastic, painted on faces. Throw their shit back at them. Use what is available. The internet. The pen. The brush. The amplifier. The microphone. The vibrator. The toe-clipper. If you're too weak - withdraw, hibernate, plan, plot, store, percolate. Scratch it out on private scrolls.

Well, i thats probably what i'll do.

Ok , bye.

READING ROOM

a 'good' day

2008-06-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

Sick ,sick sick world. The human: savage. Hatefull, fearfull, dealer of atrocity. Ignorant, payed off, corrupted, made-sick. Hell. This is hell. earth is hell. The human is lord of hell. System of sickness abound. Africa - continent of hell. Asia - realm of hell. America - cultures favourite hell. europe - hell's treasurer. death, torture and sickness. The human way. Pain, control and lust for power. The human hell. To be human is to be a monster. To be human is to be lord of hell.

dj action

2008-06-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

tmoro night on radio one i'll be doin' the 'natural selection' show. here's set one, with set two coming soon....
set one

1. notstandskomitee - ausnahmezutstand (3.24)
2. pleq - i didn't have a clue what i was doing (1.54)
3. ellen allien - bim (5.30)
4. mort garson - the ride of aida (voodoo) (3.10)
5. alu - big fon (3.47)
6. beyond sensory experience - across the divide ( 4.23)
7. minim.all - unsaid words (4.32)
8. wauvenfold - stab
9. tuxedo moon - km and seedingb the clouds ( 11.44)
10. notstandskomitee - kleine auayerirdische (3.58)
11. alu - funkturm (4.53)
12. kenji siratori and crude - tokage (7.20)
13. crude - the fume (6.07)

end timez jukeboxx set 2 hour 2

1. scarface end title - giorgio mororder 6.17
2. dj mehdi - kery james - ya pas de coleurs 3.25
3. goblin - suspiria - main theme - 6.05
4. theoretical girl - the red mist
5. the puddle - monogamy *( 3.44)
6. neil young - stupid girl (3.12)
7. nikki sudden - stuck on china (3.04)
8. mono atro - decem (7.49)
9. angelo badalamenti - laura palmer theme (4.52)
10 venom - welcome to hell (3.12)
11. laibach - life is life (5.04)
12. lydia lunch - smoke in the shadows (4.53)
13. costes - outtake (1.37)
14. destroy all monsters - vampire (1.59)

______________________________________________________________

mission statement

2008-06-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

> this blog is not a music magazine. it is merely a online journal or diary. Events that surround me (the blogger) are rendered to text as best and as truthfully i can. If offense is taken toward any opinions or observations therein, please contact me, tell me the problem and I'll do my best to rectify it.
Catholic block. Compare Libertarianism. Help me. Kelp. Hurt. dank. Cunt. Smart shit. Opeth. Juniper. ibogaine. Chris Knox. Anglican. Super-duper.

causal nexus - chch gig - wembly stadium

2008-06-23T19:29:00.000-07:00

Back back back and back again from the end of the week! Another one! And this time, the cruddy-aesthetic mechanism did it's thing in Christchurch city! AGAIN! Watch out Christchurch ......this may even happen....AGAIN!

I now consider semi-regular performance in Christchurch a very viable option - travel there a mere commute to work. In New Zealand's South Island, there are three 'major' cities - the largest being Christchurch (henceforth 'chch'), the other my base ov operatics, Dunedin, and lastly Invercargill, the torpid sprawl i was born/raised in and most recently the epicentre of Mongrel Mob/Road Knight tuppaware parties/tensions. Town-like centres very close to city status are Timaru, approx 2hrs south of chch, and Nelson - at the top of the SI. Slightly smaller - perhaps labelled 'larger towns' are Oamaru, with it's intriguing Penguin Club venue, Queenstown, all powdery'n'vulgar, and maybe Gore, with it's freshly incinerated country music hall. But sorry, Chch, Dunedin and Oamaru seem the most attractive. Yes Invercargill, I really did just said that.

But you know, as far as touring is concerned, my approach is the targeted hit...not a tour per se...but a weekend in one town, then home. Flights are the best ways to get to the Nth Island Cities. Hence the Crude/Aesthetics marketing/performance activities in late July. Bookmarking THIS site is essential for the assiduous south island rocker.

Ok, I digress. Blather. Filler. Here's another one of my 'micro-reviews'.....

Arrived after a shit drive. went to Chip Anals. watched queen, elton john, judas priest, guns'n'roses, genesis, ozzy osbourne and paul mccartney dvds. genesis were in a pastel suits, like 80s cops or coke dealers or something. Oh yeah - i watched a fleetwood mac live dvd - at their drugged-out height. paused shots of the drummers facial expressions for fun. fugacious fun. I know I know, naff sounding dvds but i was too out-of-it to care what they were and what you people would think of me if i said i enjoyed them. went to the venue. a big room hence a cold venue - but the staff seem to profer forth some sort of warmth towards me. i think they like me there. dave kahn of krkrkrk did the sound. i was anxious as shit. the lo-liners arrived. great people. and they kicked ass. reminded me a little of the renderers maybe..sorta ...but at the same time they were nothing like them. i applaud the lo-liners, solid, country/blues swamp rock with masterful drumming by rustle coveney, great vocals by Lisa Preston and Joanne Billesdon, relentless bass from Sharon Billeston.. then we played. our best gig in a while. my god we ruled (well maybe). bad bad bad. as in - bad=good. all those dvds payed off after-all,, thanks freddy, you great fag you.. palace of wisdom tied it all up with a wonderously grating no-nonsence garage rock performance.ballzy, straight down the middle garage from these legends. Mick Elborado was amazing to watch ,with his meaty bass and ox had us all facing the front, getting real They started with a handpicked selection of nz 60s nuggets (actually 80s it turns out!). Palace of wisdom has as much collective knowledge of this era of nz music as the new york public library has books...great show. One of many. A very hard working Chch institution is our ole' Palace.

ox threw an after party. i didn't go.(and i bet i missed a good one (typically good). i went home to watch more naff aor dvds. and i don't fucking care. i was intransigent about it.

The gig was recorded,,,,,and the best bits will be mixed into the upcoming aesthetics album 'ugly ambition' whcih will probably be released on the hardest tryer label 'artless intent' ...and there maybe phots of it coming up on thebigcity.co.nz....so watch out...

compare and contrast libertarianism.

phenomenonenon : part i

2008-06-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

Oh i love flicking through the virtual pages of the net and fishin' up some good ole' crude mp3 action. Take THIS for example - basically another online album; streamable, downloadable, and juicy. Yes - it's true, I'm a smug lil' fan of my own work. I'm my own muse. I concoct musics that satisfy my own aesthetic yearnings. God forbid: I listen to my own music. And i don't care. Here in beautiful Kiwiland, it' so easy to earn the label of wanker. And so what. I mean really..
\what has been happening..well, I's offa 2 christchuch city for the weekend, to provide an entertainment alternative to the international rugby match and it's resultant vomit/blood/urine hued psycho-social ganglia.....goddamn we all better watch our asses that nite!!
what else........oh, here we are - a quick review of the Aesthetics/sonic smith gig at refuel :::: i sorta felt combining the
fatboy slimming of meister smyth with the flipperama of aesthetics was just too sociologically polarising. His thing attracts x type of people, our thing attracts y type of people, and some of them dislike each other. Perhaps that is why a friend of mine sneered at me so.. Oh well - perhaps she would like to become our fuckin manager. But anyways - the highlight of Sonic's set was his housey tounge/cheek remix of the Beverly Hills 90210 theme. Top marks, mr man!
The aesthetics , (ooh, that's me! reviewing myself now! you wanker)were loud and messy-but-tight - brilliant performance by the engine room (the drums of mr. malcolm deans, the bassological infusions of Mr Alex McKinnon), and stunning klang/jang/kerrang of Mr jason Barrett. I was fairly soused (no! really? you mean...for a change??)and greatly offended the ghost of albert ayler with my miserable attempts at saxophone virtuosity BUT - i KILLED the synth man!!! WE ROCKED IT!!! AND WE'LL BE EVEN BETTER IN CHRISTCHURCH!!!! YAYY!!!!!
FOR NOW-------
BYEEEEEE!!!

PS - this is my best friend on earth : DAN TAIT (aka chip anal)I love his writing man, he has dyslexia and hence a sorta on-the-surface naievity which betrays his piercing critical sensibility. Jagged, de-consructed stream-o-conciousness shit, a delight to read...real cool style. i reckon.

PPS - check out THIS site.

PPPS - do NOT, i REPEAT, DO NOT VOTE FOR NATIONAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

refuel june 18 ; what actually happened

2008-06-19T03:08:00.000-07:00

boodle :
struedel
: valve - slanderous!
bolshevik!
strand p- strand books - !
>> <<
abso (l) ute
um....klang!
ibiza crude matt middleton faux bogan and/or (faux-ganne)
_ ??
china . gang.. mongrel mob
black power/// tribesman //
road knights (firey lounge bogan bitch )
level ov org//+
( - harley davidson corp)
pot
stand-over
what really happened
bugger

gang war nz

2008-06-19T02:59:00.000-07:00

Blatant. But::::::,,,mir-a-c(U)louse.

Said Sayid: Mound - Mouth - Otu _ UtU _ green :
sall[[[[ seel (prog) 20 .45986705497
Ju- ----- "angler"
Mount : --------------------------anex (x)
minus equals :
throb ov black shopper
= " why you little"
scowls from the fart of the family mang ///
involve crime:
"no idea - no capacity to fathom :
no capacity to ....to....no compassion ..indeed:
a [socio] P(A)T/H
. _______________\
___________________________________\
POLYNEEEJ
polyneeej
they know how to (H)UR.T . : you

ragguaglio !!!!!!!!

2008-06-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

The Aesthetics are playing in Wellington Friday July 25th at Happy with Panda Battle Battle Panda, Newtown and the Stumps!!!!
should be the gig of the year!!

Crude will also be playing an instore at Beth Dawsons Spacething shoppe (date yet to be confirmed...) .this will also be a forum for capital city based music consumers to get their hands on some physical crude discs ::: for instance: Slurries parts 1,2 and 3, Dopamine 20 data cd, Wretched 5 data cd, CrudeComplete dvd, La Chaleur Basse di Fidelte vol 1 and 2,
The Gel, The Mine, Fumes, Syringe/Insekt, The Aesthetics Off, and The artless intent back-catalogue featuring work by cpu group, 5454 (aliki boufis), palace, and Kenji Siratori/Crude!
Crude will also be attending the Happy open mic night on wednesday the 23rd July

PS ---- The Aesthetics are to perform at the media club, christchurch city, on SATURDAY THE 21st of June with rockers Palace of Wisdom and the Lo-Liners !

and if yr in dunedin , go to refuel pint night wednesday the 18th (tmoro) to see The Aesthetics and local electro-guy Sonic Smith!!! free entry! cheap beer!

crude : micro update and resources

2008-06-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

There is enough Crude for everybody on earth! Don't fret, people! This link-bank is a great resource for finding all the various Crude bits online: http://crude.co.nz/link%20bank%201.htm

update: Crude is::: recording saxophone suite. readying stock for wellington gigs in july .......The Aesthetics are: about to embark on the nu album, starting with drum/bass tracks for the new song 'blood rock'. Playing refuel on wed june 18th, and Chrsitchuch media club sat june 21st..
And also : here's the cover art for the Kenji Siratori and Crude collaboration :

classic crude noise piece

2008-05-31T21:54:00.000-07:00

there's an angry professor at the central university library. When i sidle past, arrogant, young, laden with books, I can just feel his hatred. And a small insult leaks out from his lips. Lock, stock and barrell. Channel development. Moss and rouphage. Italian Stallion. Lights, camera, action. Moonbeams and feather dusters.

http://www.archive.org/details/BrainwashSequence53

big business

2008-05-31T02:40:00.000-07:00

A personal victory would be the ability to fund:

1.set up of a venue/club, a slick, professional, sophisticated, progressive, fully-lubricated, dj laden, coffee-roasting, crude worshipping one. A crude stocking chain of cafes/record stores.

2. release of the entire crude backcatalogue on thick black vinyl with super-professionally re-design sleeves then distributed world-wide through the coolest stores..

3. A media campaign to educate the majority of new zealanders to realize that the poor and the unemployed are actually utilized as a conduit for funelling capital directly BACK to the companies/ceos/wealthy fucks that call us (and use media to cultivate the meme that the poor are 'lazy')'bludgers'. Oh yes, we're contributing alright, you fucking fucks.

4. A $5,000,000 tv marketing campaign for the crude web-site, asia/pacifc region

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2007/07/15/subsidizing_the_rich_and_a_fre/
http://www.wehaitians.com/reverse%20foreign%20aid%20why%20are%20poor%20countries%20subsidizing%20rich%20ones.html
http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=j-GQmNXwWL0C&pg=PA149&lpg=PA149&dq=poor+subsidize+the+rich&source=web&ots=H85oFtDETr&sig=CSi45iECQXvjuVeAHIbVo6CchJw&hl=en
http://www.jethroproject.com/tjpsubsidy.htm
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1995----.htm
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0210/S00089.htm

eventology

2008-05-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

Stupor. A 'flash mob': heavy calloused mental patient(s) running wild on George Street,Dunedin, New Zealand. Catatonia. A thick rimmed, yellow-bellied gob of mank. Stuck on level 5, stomach knotted up. Trying hard not to pass water.
That is the sound we look for. That is the ground we hook more.
The Aesthetics : noise rock, nihil rock, spatter rock . Painting a picture. Snaking the tincture. Nagging and null. Gagging and lull. This be the buttery-knob of rake-rock libri:
vermin: vermin: vermin: vermin:

'Sold out' they say - ha! Yeah, that's right man we like totally sold out! We played the big day out! We like sold out! Look at us now! It's all bling and cash-as-toilet-paper! Yeah! We sold out!

Shows:::: The Aesthetics with Sonic Smith, a Dunedin electronic act. Thats Wednesday night, June thee 18th my people. Free entre. Please, if ye be in that quadrant, that sector, do come along.
Then : CHRISTCHURCH !!! The MEDIA CLUB!!! THE AESTHETICS! THE LO-LINERS ! THE PALACE OF WISDOM! ~~~~~~~ JUNE 21ST ..........

And then WELLINGTON : JULY!!!!!! WOOOHOOO!!!!!!
Classic AESTHETICS/PALACE OF WISDOM/CRUDE REVIEW

the great rock music lie

2008-05-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

Extremely active and fascinating couple of weeks for Crude. For the sake of the reader: I want to let you know that this blog will not only focus on Crude's activities but also that of The Aesthetics, my 'rock' band, and other peripheral aspects of 'life' as a 'musician': it's psychological, sociological, theological, indeed, it's epistemological aspects.
Yeah, whatever.
So anyway, whats been happening??

Item one this afternoon was the borderline ballroom gig amongst the anglo-fauna of Christchurch city last Wednesday the 21st. Goodness gracious, what a great evening. Was a delight to absorb self in the digi-soup of I-rory. Using crude objects of both home-made and exotic qualities, I-rory evoked the sound plethorae of Zoviet France.
Dj Stanier Black Five inserted rough electronics and strange bliperama into those between act breaks. And the guest DJ (who???)spun the wholly relevant back-log of Touch Records' (Philip Jeck's label) highlights..
I had prepared an arsenal of pre-recorded shite so as to select what suited the night best. Decided on a mix of psycho-lounge act/suicidist screamology to provide a juxtaposition to the monotheisticly non-vocal apparatus of the night.
And lo! It work'd lovely-like! Set ONE slab of glitchery on auto-pilot for a bit, popped off-stage for a whiskey and left the crowd panting! Then suddenly I pop back up for a rendition of 'Welcome to my Day', a piece with harsh electro beats and an almost split enz-ey melodic line. Well whoop-de-do.
Finished up quick, 'twas one of those infuriatingly brief Crude sets, well, according to one punter it was, I thought it was just nice at perhaps 30 mins.
Philip Jeck was on next, click the link for his biography: he's a legend. The audience, seated and attentive, was to bask in an array of masterfully coaxed samples and loops for a good 40-50 mins. There was a rare beauty to his chosen sounds: simplicity, delicate but forthright line, the texture of chamber music.

ITEM TWO : The Aesthetics. Our new bass player is Alex Mckinnon, perhaps best known for his experimental work. 'Tis working well. We performed at Dunedins vegan hot-spot Circadian Rhythm on Saturday the 24th, alongside new dunedin hardcore punk act Foe, the odd-ball gold-digger schtick of Wolfman, the dirty hyper-referentiality of The Creeps and the alround dumbness of The Anals. My god, do those Invercargill boys draw a crowd? What the hell is it???? My god we rocked it. Maybe the sound didn't work, it's yet another on-stage mix venue, maybe my vox were too loud but god we rocked it. For our first gig just hours after our first full band rehearsal 'twas a promising din. So paint my red and call me a twot.
The Aesthetics are now recording, new doom-laden works are in order, always with a glint of humour. Black pitch fuggin humour. The Aesthetics are hopefully rocking Christchurch on thee 21st of June and Wellington city sometime between 22nd - 26th of July. And no, we ain't playing the backstage. And no, no more zero dollar gigs. fuckers.

Ain't the world a screwy place. It makes me sick. Physicaly sick.

crude on trade me ...

2008-05-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

check it out!! refute a myth for a wild price!!!!

REFUTE A MYTH SOC, ECTASTIC YOD

a gig review

2008-05-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

Went to a party last Saturday night. No, sorry, it was a Friday night. So whats the fricken diff, biff?? At the new Arc franchise. In this, this post-crown-venue dunedin, bands and bandidoes all scruff and puff play for a zircon encrusted crust where they can, mcMann. Arc, the 2 (not 1!) microphone venue is an option favoured by the hardcore stage-mix set, and by Jove, did the boys I saw do a good job with what they had! EYE: Peter Stapleton, Peter Porteous and Nathan Thompson proved themselves absolute MASTERS of the vortex with a set that sucked me down the gurgler of my mind's mindless mind. Pure quantum-gravity (amateurish mis-informed physics analogy for effect only)type sound acheived: the vortex - a daoist spinning effect, whirling magnetic guitar dervish zoetrope. A twister. Stunned and put in my humble place amongst such venerable sonic black-blood magic arts. A fine performance - EYE are failsafe brill-o pads.
Next was the NEU BLOOD. The northern lights. The boys from up north who came, swore and concured. Alex McKinnon, acolyte zealator of the free-noise brick-laying brotherhood and Lee Noyes. What a stunning din!! Lee Noyes played drums like a 50 ear old african american super-pro jazz legend! Absolutely blown the fug away bro!!! And Alex - he's an absolute free-noise super-star. X factor uber-alles. We mean it. And so do they. It's obvious - thety're aiming high : REAL high. (like i did once when i played that sax solo a refule in '98 where i 'changed form' when playing)
Oh - sorry, i missed wolfskull and the OZ group. Would comment if i could and I apologize profusely. Was too pissed, too drunk, too other-wise occupied. I ASSUME they were fascinating. Dingy. Bleak, but groov-orientated. next time folks.

new songs

2008-05-02T00:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, just finished a new batch of work for the big december release (and its gonna have a booklet!!ooh! ooh gosh!). Yeah, the one with the rediculous title: L'archivio dei lavori ultimati da Matt Middleton per l'ANNUNCIO 2008 di anno....

the tracks:
'solace' - simple tone loop, all sounds extracted from voice. cute. or perhaps just cutesy.
'beast inception' - a highly stylized attempt at emulating the cult black metal pioneer band 'Von' using only synthesizers...
'nothing..' - oh yes, that old motif...this is a vocal structure gleaned from one of my dictation tapes..
'it's ugly competition...it's madmen' - again, a clever little composition assembled from samples taken from a 'manifesto' i dictated...
'the sea, the blood'.......similar to 'the tone, the charm', this is an attempt to submerge the listener in gallons of goopy-pus ridden reverb. with a real spacey sci-fi undercurrent. sea and space merge to make blood clots or something stupid like that.
well there you go. ooh i BET you're all really excited. ooh yeah. quivering. yeah. absolutely.

.. a man's man.

2008-04-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

The Aesthetics are now a trio (again), but will flesh out into a quartet very soon. The weekend saw a typically loose and pissed set from the three-piece...a flurry of sound evoking the nihilism of the Fall matched with the deliberately off guitar of Black Flag's Greg Gin perhaps...yes? no? doubt it? perhaps?
Yes, 'twas a party at None/Lot 24/Dive Distro, one of those events, all in celebration of our bass player/second guitarist/vocalist Jason Barret. Cause it was his birthday. We love Jason, he's a real bonafide nihilist. A scum punk rock and roller. A romantic. A male witch. A lover. A fighter. A drinker.
happy birthday Jason Barret.
A cool night. The entertainment began with The Creeps, a youthfull band that played Misfits covers and shit,,then there was a new out-fit called 'Kunst' ..Aliki Boufis (5454,drums) , Toki (toys,noise-making devices, glee cartel, khomet)) and Alex McKinnon (guitar noise, house, fake piano, dream roll tapes). Very enjoyable din. Then I think murderbike (iso 12, rachel..?)did a stint, then the aesthetics + stalker performed, all the while new(ish) Dads Clayton Noone (armpit, fuck don lonie for cash label, cja, futurians) and Sean Norling (mandroid, dick the phone, futurians) waited patiently arms folded bleary eyed for Zarakov to arrive so as to assemble the doom wizards Wolfskull ...
But then , they played. And it was good. And then, the party atrophied into a grovely sorta jam session with people off the street abusing instruments (me) . Who else was there. The usual suspects. Blah Blah. Music. Dunedin. Network. Network some more. Motoko filmed it all. Thanks to Jason. Thanks to Iso for being Iso.

the music blog phenomenon

2008-04-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Such delight! A victory for poor music lovers world-wide. Just look at this LIST :
http://music-bloggers.blogspot.com/
Just downloaded the original soundtrack to that 70s animated cult classic 'the fantastic planet!'
download it:
http://massmirror.com/792f4301f7a7c148ecf14eef5aeba8b3.html
couldn't help myself - it's just so cool!
thanks to the following music blog: TONTONMANHOOD

webpage-paypal-sendspace-atm

2008-04-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

I did it!!! It has been done! I have done it ! I have achieved it! I have made money and sent out an album completely mediated by the net! that is, they payed by paypal, they ordered an mp3 album, i sent it to them via sendspace! Yeeehaaa! We at Crude Digital-Accumulative Finance are fully happy! Hurrah ! The new model works!

Other news:::::MAY is the month that hypermodern is to release my collaboration with Kenji Siratori!!! Not long now, folks!

The Aesthetics have had some real home and away kinda stuff happening lately : will have to dedicate an entire blog to this one. please stay tuned for all the gossip!

Also, did y'all know Crude had a 'pop' album on Bebo?? Check it out - you need to just scroll down to the tracks and hit play all! a very catchy and compelling selection of songs, I believe.

the weekend : fragments/observations.

2008-04-18T20:56:00.000-07:00

Oh the magic that is existence. We reach yet another weekend : time to reflect on the weeks activities, eh what? But first..
May, New Zealand's Music Month, is creeping up again : we wonder what colour scheme to ol' logo will utilize this time! The NZMM is an institution now, an annual assault of all things dave dobbyn. To the underground : RISE UP ! make yrself heard May 2008. Attack (no, not as in 'hack')and scribble over as many NZMM sites/forums as possible. The underground has made itself so much stronger and savvy with the onset on web 2.0, and the majors know it. The Crude mechanism ain't gonna back down either. And so I blog on.
This underground I talk about is a varied and crytalline super-structure. And still, i blog on. How 'bout that cruddy weather? The South Island has just received a wintery blast. You know, just enough to remind us where we are exactly, just north of Antarctica, that melting continent.
I digress in a large way. Please excuse me.
Relevant news:: Crude is to play the BorderLine Ballroom in may. May 21st to bwe exact. Check out the Crude myspace page for informations........

a trillion streams

2008-04-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

Crude streamology. A 128kbps affair. Always. Don't let that put you off, oh audio purists: if you per chance purchase a Crude audio document, it hass all the quality of a wav file.
Crude streamology: detrimental? no! Unhealthy? hell no!
Not much to report. Still on spekaing terms with all first rate memeticists. Still eating well, prefer an east asian type of diet. Still crunching the cruddy numbers. Still workin' up a well earned sweat. Still got me fingers crossed. Jurisprudence. Logical Postivism. StarGate. Panspermia.

photo taken by alex mckinnon at an aesthetics show in 2007. more from this series can be viewed here.

When I was Indie-Lo-Fi . . .

2008-04-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

Back in the '90s Crude was primarily guitar-based. Crude was one of those bedroom 4 trackers, and the songs were these twisted ditties, lots of overdriven and poorly amplified guitars, naked clarinet through naked microphone, and excitable 20 something's pained 'n' panicked vocals. I whipped up some juicy tracks back then...'simon says', 'top of th pile', 'this town'...
those were the days. I get the feeling many Crude fans yearn for a return to that approach. Well, one guy did mention it today on myspace. It's hard to please everyone, innit. I'm exploring these bare-bones electronics at the mo', let it be known though - I always have my tounge firmly in cheek. That lo-fi ethic, that kiwi humour, it'll always permeate my recordings, academic or no.
I'm going to get down to some simple songs again though, soon. In fact, as we embark on the aesthetics next record, I'll be recording a guitar and vocals 4-track piece or two at home to contrast/complement the rock action in the studio. Why not. Ditties. Like 'whispering city' and 'reptilian agenda'. like 'hombre'.
As mentioned on the crude site, the recordings of that period are available in the form of Inner City Guitar Perspectives...and also, 'La Chaleur Basse de Fidelte, Vol 1 and Two'.

If you like that type of Crude stuff - seek out those who have the old cassettes. Thats the true old-skool Crude. tapes like, 'ebola roller', 'vagabond bagowind' , 'miscreants and materialists', 'the end of the world', and 'matthew middleton' etc etc ad nauseum.

And to the lo-fi purists, well...my descent into what ever-the-hell it is i'm doing now was demanded of me by the ugly, wart encrusted foul breathed muse surgically attached to my frontal lobes.

pete doherty - probably writing poetry in his cell

2008-04-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

I'm obsessed with alot of things, one of them being Pete Doherty. I think this afflicts hundreds of people world-wide. He's simply magnetic - there's something about him - an x-factor, an anti-celebrity for sure...some say he's the last of the Rock and Roll romantics. I doubt that, there'll be more where he came from, scribbling poetry, finding wisdom in excess. I don't know, perhaps it's his big boyish brown eyes. Perhaps its the fact that he can score the good stuff. Maybe it's the girls he attracts. But anyway, he's in prison finally, where he'll be left alone by the papparazi for 14 weeks to knuckle down and write some new poems. Will he cope? Is he hooked on the junk or can he take it or leave it?

I'm at the stage now where i believe the 'palace of wisdom' is acheived not through excess, but temperance. I know, i know, call me a square. Excess lets you access certain peripheral aspects of wisdom, but not it's essence. Excess allows one to strip away psychic limitations, to analyse and critique the staus quo from a haughty distance. You can work through internal problems with a good binge. The ego is inflated until it bursts - and there, at that point, you have gone beyond the self to see the stars as they are. But - there's a limit to excess. To go further - one needs to restrict oneself. Quietism allows one to strip away psychic limitations, to analyse and critique the status quo from a humble distance.
You are not wasting your energy. You are storing it and converting it to wisdom. Don't get me wrong, excess is what Crude is all about, when i can afford it. But as I get older - quietism, the teachings of Zen and Daoism - this is the true palace of wisdom.

As for the musical activities of the moment ::: Crude is fermenting away, stored in a sealed hermetic vessel somehwere, maturing in vaults, working of its own accord. The Aesthetics are embarking on a new album, in fact our first recording session is loosely planned for this weekend...wish us luck..this idea with this new rekkid is to capture the essence of the line-up : an older slightly more laboured and conceptual rock band, cynical and filthy, a bit metal , a bit new wave - dirty, with a bass player who looks like a bass player, a rhythm guitaritst who looks like a rhythm guitarist.......

A recent find online was an old Aesthetics live vid from our Auckland days (2002) . The line from 'my right to riches' is the one playing, that is, Shaun Jury (bass), Stefan Neville pumice/armpit etc (drums) and me. I am told we looked like we were 'really famous' ,,,as if it was some vintage footage of some 80s post-punk band in their early days. ha ha!

vomiting up arts and crafts :

2008-04-06T18:24:00.000-07:00

And so ends another Wellington buskers Festiv..ah..Dunedin Fringe Festival. Or is it finished - yet..? no? Still more acts? Oh okay. Well, I'm done with it. And I breath an unashamed sigh of relief.
Crude activity for the fringe consisted of alot of typical synthesizer effluent : my typical click/cut set to hold, my beautiful home-crafted single reeded instrument (i think it's a unique design, it's a single tube, but a square tube - a crude single reeded thing - check out these various similar instruments) utilized for pseudo-arabica effect, the odd plonk on a xylophone for evokation of Coil..
oh what else - yeah a white crude tee for the whyt debarcle. (c?) (k?)
And now it's over it's time to get onto recording the new Aesthetics album, which will be an interesting endevour. Won't it just. Oh yes, yes it certainly will. Yep. Yes Sir E.
My project focus is cyclic, for a while i attend to all things crude, then, having adequately sickened myself , I morph to rock'n'roll mode. And it has at least 12 points of articulation.
Possible working titles for Aesthetics album: 'Ugly Ambition' , 'Interwaste', ...'United Video'..oh i don't know.

crude - the gallery experience vs the pub experience

2008-04-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

They are different aren't they.
The Gallery experience: (as a performer) - a modicum of poise is required, at all times, in some cases even while performing. You a usually encased in a white room, surrounded by various highly individualistic aesthetes comparing notes/making assessments etc. If it's an opening, there'll be booze. If it's a performance, there'll be booze up your sleeve.

Of course the pub - well, the typical feel is indifference at the soundcheck, the residue of beer, people getting messed up,...a different buzz eh what.

What am I saying??

Nothing really, Crude performed at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery last night, and tomorrow ill perform as part of the "Whyt' concept. With those crazy mr sterile guys. they do a weird jazz punk fusion thing. like i dunnow -a cross between the Contortions and any number of obscure 70s fusion out-fits. So suck on that you right-wing humanity-hating napoleonic complex bastards

life/nine inch nails remix/life/living

2008-03-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

photo from the borderline ballroom crude show by Claire Ranui

Life ...indeed. Thats which we cannot help but participate in. We do what we can with it, with our various abilities, our various traits. I am convinced we live 'forever' - wanna know why? Because when we die, all conciousness is eradicated..all conciousness of time is also gone. Therefore, our lifetime is our one and only experience of time. Therefore it is, in essence, all time. If one can subjectively render time as a cyclic, momentary 'suchness', surely, one could actually live what seems like an eternity. Thats what I think.

Enough orientalism for the morning....onto more tactile, more CRUDE business.......

Later this week I will be wailing and churning to a film as part of the dunedin fringe...thursday night at the dunedin pubic art gallery me thinks..

I couldn't help myself, in a fit of strategic self-non-self-promotion, I hooked up with the great Nine Inch Nails site and remixed a new track by Trent Reznor...have a listen!

Also,,,my project with Kenji Siratori is moving along nicely,,,May is the month for 'alien extermination's' release..check out the cover art

Some very nice Aesthetics photos by Dunedin's newest audio-genius Alex McKinnon can be viewed HERE

and so: thank you, so long, goodnight...so the chemical romance song says. teens man, they scare the living shit outta me. friggen fringes,,,yeah theres a fringe for ya. a real fringe. PS - come and listen to the Bebo CRUDE POP PARTY Album! I consider it to be the follow up to 'Inner City Guitar Perspectives'!

!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!

!!!!!!

!!!!

26.03.08

2008-03-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Crude marches on. And I've ditched the squelching biege vans for a pair of black and white sneakers. That do not squelch. They pop. I 'pop' around town. Today I shall take stock of recording progress this year - I shall list the new titles I've conjured up for the december release ...oh dear, the title,,,why oh why,,,L'archivio dei lavori ultimati da Matt Middleton per l'ANNUNCIO 2008 di anno...I shall henceforth refer to this data-laden platter as 'the december release' ..ps - the Italian, loosley translated is 'Archive of the best works by matt Middleton for the year 2008' or something. Very dry, but succinct.

new titles: (post syringe/insekt --which is the first 'folder' of the data dvd)

Know ..a short eerie vocal treatment..
Another one Bites...of course - the famous Crude re-working of the Queen hit of 1980..cheeky.
Vortexx Rock '08 ...back to the classic crude 'spy/surf' sound of the datastream cowboy days perhaps..psy-op driving synth..snakefinger-style guitars embellishments..
Shine On ....blazing high pitched guitar fuzz and crystal , space 1999 sample mega-treated..
Puru Liir .. one of the bass recorder works..deep..deep...deconstructed. Gibberish language title..
Deep Field ..super tuned-down reverb drenched wind instrumental..
Hulan Tipal..more invented titles..is that quasi-Tibetan perhaps..? Another bass recorder work..
Huul Dax ..as above!
Blackened Deadened Keys..think Gorgoroth made entirely out of synthesizers...?
Tallow...a charming evil/cute pixelated mp3-crystalline piece..
Devil Racerr...dig the two 'rs' ..yeah man Po-Mo..this is that electronic-motorcycle sound you get from a juno 60 roland synth.....2 lanes...two drivers..a near over-dose and a naughty pitch bender..
Hell Bent remix....Judas priest cover...super treated,,super cut up...super nasty..downright rude ..
Alone by the Fire...creepy super-odd crude track wif vocals..wierd jazz rock treated electronics
Spliced Swinger .. an electro piece that swings..messed up...ugly even..
Nort Juss - BASS recorder--shawm...
Bula Droiv - bass recorder,,,sax,,
Tulak Nozoth ---u can check this one out HERE
Slov Kuum - bounty hunter from Tatooine...naah...another bass recorder work..
La Piano 222,333 and 444..piano experiments...
So , thats the december release thus far. before december..there should be an Aesthetics CD (r) out..a self-released effort ...an artfull attempt to capture the current 'good form' of the band..of course check out our myspace page...what else..my collab with Kenji Siratori should be properly released via under-underground label hypermodern inMay!! Check out our myspace page..
I am involved in a couple of Dunedin Fringe activities...get the info below....and ...of course..i trawled the net and located sites / stores which hold copies of my 'major' releases from the '90s - the classics as it were....inner City Guitar Perpex...refute a myth society et al...what eles...the sun is shining on Dunedin today!!! So keep out of it!!!!!
So anyway -- here's the latest catalogue as a pdf.

a streaming we shall go

2008-03-25T01:15:00.000-07:00

As an introductory gift - if you don't have these babies already - some vital open-source Crude for you and you and you. All music is by Matt Middleton.Copyright.Copyleft. Copy Kopy.If you're looking for Crude news updates, please scroll further down to the 'news' post, post number one, where the former updates page has been replicated in full ,,,complete with scores of active, seething, purring links:::both internal unt external. yah!!! Many many moons. Aloha, ufoid.
(2008)
Crude - Syringe/Insekt

(2007)
Crude - Slurries Vol 2

(2005)
Crude - Rich and Dumb

2006 to now : crude news

2008-03-25T00:20:00.000-07:00

19.3.08

THE DUNEDIN FRINGE FESTIVAL 2008 : crude is participating in 2 events:::: firstly, 'sound in the cracks' - 'INNOCENCE' : INNOCENCE (April 3rd, 8pm) Forty (or so) Dunedin musicians are put into a room. All of their names are put into a hat. Then a series of short (generally speaking, 5 to 12 minute) silent films are shown. For each film, three musicians' names are pulled out of the hat. They then improvise the soundtrack to the next film, which they are unlikely to have seen before. ($12/$10conc)

the other shows in the sound in the cracks series:cHERE

EXPERIENCE (April 4th, 8pm) A night of modern composition, interpreted at its' most basic level - that one person tells some other people what to do. This is composition in paint, in word, in flesh, in ether - as well as music. All works are by Dunedin residents. ($12/$10conc) PRIVATE (April 5th, 8pm) A night of immersion. Here, we erase the borderline between musician and audience to give an even greater understanding of how musicians work and think. Not quite a workshop, and not exactly a "happening" - but definately a unique experience. This night is FREE but numbers are strictly limited. No intoxicated persons will be admitted. PUBLIC (April 6th, time to be confirmed but approx. 2 or 3pm) An exploration of Dunedin's acoustic ecology. Some transport will be provided, but please bring your own if you can. FREE. SOUND IN THE CRACKS utilises the skills of over 60 Dunedin-based creative musicians, and well as workers in other discplines, and the films in the first concert have been collected from top-notch makers from around the country. ||then

PRIVATE (April 5th, 8pm) A night of immersion. Here, we erase the borderline between musician and audience to give an even greater understanding of how musicians work and think. Not quite a workshop, and not exactly a "happening" - but definately a unique experience. This night is FREE but numbers are strictly limited. No intoxicated persons will be admitted.

PUBLIC (April 6th, time to be confirmed but approx. 2 or 3pm) An exploration of Dunedin's acoustic ecology. Some transport will be provided, but please bring your own if you can. FREE.

AND.....WHYT::::

after collaborating with punk rockers in the Czech Republic, experimental musos in Malaysia, and Hip-Hop and Gamalan in Eastern Java, the mr sterile Assembly, 4 Wellington avant/punk/jazz musicians, perform alongside experimental Dunedinites to deliver 2 hours of total sensory submersion: a molotov of music, film, installation, animation and cricket pads.

APRIL

5 6

VENUE

MASONIC LODGE, PORT CHALMERS / NONE GALLERY, STAFFORD ST

TIME

2.30PM (MASONIC 5TH); 8.30PM (5TH); 9.30PM (6TH) (DURATION 120MINS)

PRICES:

FULL $6 CONCESSION $3

TICKETS:

DOOR SALES ONLY

WEBSITE

www.skirted.net

wondering about those major releases from the ninetees? i trawled the net and found many of them extant. check 'em here

01.03.08

-----Life and love.So sayeth the award winning French actress. Passion. Anyway. What is happening in Camp Crude you ask? Very important: indeed : LIFE CHANGING , Terra QUAKINGLY important stuff is going down here. First : local Dunedin multi-medium artist Aliki Boufis (khomet, haunted turneys, glee cartel etc etc) has contributed a 15 track platter of sound-genius to the Artless Intent corpus. As soon as cover arts received, the album goes live.(as in , well, its available). might post a whole track (here it is : track 9 from 5454's travelogue album!)as the sample instead of the usual 'micro-sample'. 'Tis a strange world, this open source one. The 'mp3 blog' phenomenon is another weapon in the free content arsenal , perhaps in 10 years the idea of 'buying' a recording will be deemed preposterous. Oh well, we do what we fricken can , don't we Stu. I mean hell, i've 'given away' a wack-load.But i still try to 'sell' stuff. I try. And on occasion, I do. Anyone reading this in China?India? Didn't think so. Where are you? Do you feel like buying a Crude cd? Or would you rather just download something? Does the 2008 data cd, not released until december, interest you? It'll be like $50. Only a fraction released free. Most of it exclusively yours..oh, GIG COMING UP: march 5. And the Aesthetics got a lovely article in New Zealand Musucian mag. Marvellous, says Cambell Kneale,,,ah,,John Campbell.

31.2.08

well, Crude is back in dunedin for another year of refinement and ferment. Enjoy that 'syringe/insekt' cause it's the only free release or any type of release this year with the exception of decembers datadvd - which will contain all my recordings this year! This year also look out for a recording by The Aesthetics - the first by this line up! Looks like there'll be a few crude shows coming up in the dark belly of dunedin-town soon...i wet my pants in utter excitement. yeah. wet 'em. wet 'em real good. like GG allin.

28.1.08 -

A PHOTOJOURNAL of the big day out gig is available!!

22.1.08 -

the big day out - done and done. As soon as i receive photos and the recording, i will place this digital evidence on the Aesthetics page .Also a full sorta tour review. A highly subjective one. So, welcome to 2008. To celebrate, I'm making available the first folder of the years' only release (the long Italian titled dvd discussed below). Unearth these isolationist piece HERE. No Crude shows on the horizon, but the aesthetics will be performing twice in Febuary.

7.1.08:

the aesthetics to play big day out 2008 !

Current mood: breezy
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

Oh, such a shift in our fortunes. After carefull deliberation, the panel of judges from the big day out decided to go with us, a Dunedin band no less, and in 9 days we will be on our petrol-fuelled way to our first Stadium show!

The journey began when we submitted the simple rock song 'Pelvic Arcana' to a local university radio competition. The comp - 'open the big day out', was based firstly on voting , which we won hands down, then on the discernment of a cabal of radio one staff. We won the Dunedin final, and our presskit and track(s) were submitted to bfm/bdo. Apparently, none of the Auckland bands we were up against had what 'they were looking for'. Perhaps it was energy - maybe innovation, i'm not sure.

But they chose us, and we are delighted. We'll (attempt to...if its anything like the crude goes to new york photo diary you may not believe it occured)) keep a road diary , and turn the 30 minute set into more of a 'business card' for the world/indistry we reputedly hate so much , than just a one off gig...we'll make sure we take plenty of ugly on-the-road pics and stadium snaps. I believe our aim qwill be 5-6 real tightly performed numbers leading up to an all-out rock and roll/free-form synth/guitar/drum war near the end.....

19.12.07 -

........the aesthetics page is prety much complete, wwith the exception of some ugly band-shots, but, the mildly exciting thing is , i've tracked down places online where one can get the long-lost LP 'my right to riches'. All the info is on the pages so go there. Yah. Yah. Yavoll. Good golly. Creationists know how to party. David Icke on Ketamine. Al Jazeera and Crude special non-report. Oil. Peak Oil. Ohhh yeah. Read up on your Daoism, prepare your home garden, get your batteris and all the Crude mp3s you can download. Oh yeah, AI has new releases in the pipeline : Dunedin underground electro-wizards Palace, 5454 aNND THE ONE AND ONLY iso FRIKKEN 12....

5.1.07

Amazon.com has a few second hand copies of Inner City Guitar Perpectives available. Not vinyl though sorry. i believe its out of print. But people love it. And it's also a download

10. 12.07

Shit, just looking over this page I notice alot of talk about money. Sorry about that. To counter-balance. I print the words Artistic Integrity.

7.12.07

CRUDE COMPLETE IS NOW AVAILABLE AT A 'NICE' PRICE. THIS PRICE IS $250 NZ, HALF IT'S PREVIOUS VALUE. VALUE. OH VALUE, SUCH PARADOX. ANYWAY, THE DATA DVD IS the future medium for Crude releases, as mentioned below, a years work will be encoded and sold as an archive, no more 'albums' as such. But there is the back-catalogue to check out - they will stay available as albums. Thanks.

5.12.07

	crude
Date:	4 Dec 2007 10:20 p.m.
Subject:	crude - wealth and power unbound: day to day life in 2008
Body:	1. PAYPAL functionality being incrementally added to online catalogue - 2. The Aesthetics are going for funding for 2008 - 3. CRUDE RELEASING STYLE - A NEW STYLE: No more album length releases... With the completion of the 'Slurry Series' I've been contemplating new ways of 'containing' my recordings. Considering the typically vulgar and volumous output, I ask, how does one release fewer titles, with the same or similar amount of content. And so, in 2008, Crude will be releasing an 'archive' - the full out-put of 2008 as DATA (320 KBPS MP3S) on a DVD..And so, the title of the release for 2008 is : CRUDE - L'archivio dei lavori ultimati da Matthew Middleton per l'ANNUNCIO 2008 di anno'. 4. the crude site has not been updated for a few months, now i have the capability back and am tweaking compulsively. My god . that information was utterly critical. Utterly. Utterly. UTTERLY.

4.12.07

::::::::::::::::: NEW RELEASES: Japan spews forth many intense artists and writers , dunnit. One such writer is KENJI SIRATORI, a writer of bizarre prose that's so deconstructed it's like deciphering a pilot's manual for a UFO. His work is hyper-scientific, but organic and bloody, indeed, its is the meth of script. Of late he has been collaborating with musicians(as well as recording his own dark ambient snuff): he provides the words, the musicians, a soundscape. The output has been insanely prolific. And CRUDE has come to the party, through a chance myspace meeting. The fruits of this encounter is a cd entitled 'Alien extermination'. Check out the album's myspace page( yes, inanimate objects have profiles too) . Here's the artless intent page. Have a good listen. CRUDE has finally come out of a kind of slack period, releasing slurries volume 3. slurries volume 4 is on the way, and it's better. There's been crude gigs in Dunedin, the Aesthetics are rocking again and hope to play Australia next year. Thats about it.

29.08.07

CRUDE plays at thee BORDERLINE BALLROOM in chch august 30. hip hip! hooray!

24.08.07

THE AESTHETICS are back from the GRAVE! again! the line up this time is : Morgan Oliver -BASS, Jason Barrett-guitar, Malcom Deans - drums and Matt Middleton - vocals, guitar, synth, sax and percussion. Thjis line up will play their premier shows in October me-thinks. And their ought to be at least 75 percent new original material involved. So i've made a lil' aesthetics page and will add to it as the new line up progresses. check it out HERE.

1.8.07

- back from auckland. will write another one of those overviews regarding the event. if yer interested. um, well, the world stinks real bad. go check out my big link den. don't really care bout much. rock and roll eh? yeah - a roster of control freaks, emotional infants and obseessive-compulsive fetishists.

24.07.07

- cool. off to auckland this week. yay. haven't seen the sky spike for 5 years. those swiss artists rule. I have slightly updated my BIO. Now alls i need is a c.v that will actually get me employed.

9.7.07

- a few pics from my recent show at the crown hotel are HERE. Photos by rok pix.

12.6.07

- tHE real groove article is OUT! GLOSSY,, GLOSSY,,, SHINY!!!

9.6.07

- So it seems this page right here is thee new hub. Is my site all too Web 1.0? Quite possibly. Oh well, we do what we can. Don't we. Yes we do. A visitor to this site 'Dosen't want to work for things' and shouldn't have to unearth stuff. They should be avidly presented with it. I try my best. A reminder of some of your wonderous cruddy options: I have T-SHIRTS for sale! I have LOGOS on view! I have a little piece of PROSE! I have a STOOPID ARTY page! I have GIG POSTERS on view too! What else.....oh yes, a RE-RELEASE! DOPAMINE 20 IS now out as a DATA CD! Wahooooo! Looks like I'll be playing a gig at the Crown Hotel June 30th with Pumice and WOLFSKULL!

5.6.07

- the second artless intent release is now available. Check out the CPU Group's 'eagles in echo' HERE. Tentative arrangements are being made for Crude to play Wellington in August. Crude endorses all sorts of unsavoury things. Crude is nurturing a wonderous presence on myspace. Crude encourages independant, objective news analysis.

21.5.07

- oh my god i'm playing auckland! Part of the ongoing ALT.MUSIC FESTIVAL! The lineup::::::::::::::::::::::::::Schimpfluch-gruppe including Runzelstirn and Gurglestock, Dave Philips, Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device, and Crude!!!!
entry:::::::::::::: $15, Saturday July 28, 2007, doors 8pm, starts 9pm ...............................................Rising Sun, Karangahape Rd, Auckland

22.4.07

- THE FIRST ARTLESS INTENT RELEASE IS NOW OUT! IT'S BY DUNEDIN ELECTRONIC/IMPROV WIZARD RORY STORM! GO CHECK IT OUT!

17.2.07

- A special pre-realease interview with Shayne Carter is AVAILABLE HERE in the Press section (lower part of the page..). This will be in Real Groove's JUNE 2007 edition! My god, actual press! In a New Zealand music magazine! who'd've thought it? something gotta be wrong...

13.207

- ringtones! Thee innovative crowd at Voeveo have made it easy for people like ME to broadcast my twisted little ringtones onto innocent mobile phones! CHECK IT OUT

11.2.07

- new album. part of the 'slurries' series 07. not one thing recorded - all intra-cranial, intra-computer clickerama. all praise to the new flesh eh what. Its called 'SLURRIES VOLUME 2'. check it out in the 'most recent releases' page.

30.1.07

- like anybody who is nobody CRUDE has a page on News Corps' Myspace. check it out HERE

19.1.07

-like whats going on here? why not invest in the programme.

8.1.07

- A FEW PHOTOS FROM NYC ARE HERE

5.1.07

- Amazon.com has a few second hand copies of Inner City Guitar Perpectives available. Not vinyl though sorry. i believe its out of print. But people love it. Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00000B2TW/ref=dp_olp_2/105-8161183-4666024

HOT !!*aRTLESS iNTENT to release local artists on special web-catalogue. FIRST RELEASES POSTED MARCH 07 approx. ARTLESS INTENT line focusing on local electronic, experimental, odd-ball, spoken word and scum-rock artists. releases to aid groups in outreach. label un-motivated by competition.

24. 12.06

- to aid the bewildered and the off-put i have split the crude catalogue into a trilateral formation thusly :the MOST RECENT RELEASES PAGE, the ESSENTIAL TITLES page (about 15 or so of my personal best) and the FULL BACK-CATALOGUE PAGE (unabashed glory)

3.12.06

New York thing - happened, is now memory. Detailed Report due to Creative New Zealand. Harrased by Work and Income on return. These govt departments obviously do not communicate. Ability to skip country for 'free' resented by winz. Contribution to new zealand culture dubious. crude futures 2007 Current mood: optimistic hello. crude strategies 2007 :
*further online fermentation, general mycological decay.
*departure from 'techno' to 'slurry sound'
*post 'manahattan transfer' report to creative new zealand, general anti-climax
*albums-as-files, direct marketing to brain implants.
*nurofen plus plus, l-tyrosine, dha, blueberry, vinpocetine , alpha lipoic acid(?)
*sporadic volume release of 'slurries' - computer music gunk
*revolving line of credit. retarded but not. probably not.

REVIEW OF THE LINES OF FLIGHT FESTIVAL which incl myself by Stephen Clover is HERE

21/09.06']

- a new dark ambient cd (post wretched five) is out now! Entitled 'FUMES' this work will be showcased at Lines of flight 200666. Check out a new track from this album HERE