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Jan 232011
 

left to right: Crow, Stangroom, Molyneux. Photo by Valerie Martino.

Sweat Weasel is the second of three special improvs recorded live at Betty’s Bar & Grill on January 16th, 2011. It features Tommy Stangroom on drums and circuit bent toy keyboard, Lawrence Crow on keyboards and programming, and Stephen Molyneux on 4 track loops. Tommy plays drums for Square People. Lawrence makes ambient experimental music using open source programming. Stephen is one of the founding members of the Murfreesboro experimental collective Horsehair Everywhere.

Be sure and check out the first Betty’s recording Milk Vetch (featuring Leslie Keffer, Ben Marcantel, and Scott Martin) on podcast 47. The third improv featuring Lazer Slut and Unicorn Hard-on will come out next week.

Oct 172010
 

In keeping with Halloweird! October, we bring you Frankenstein 1986, , a new synth-pop soundtrack to the 1931 horror classic Frankenstein, starring Ken Soper, Lawrence Crow, Tommy Stangroom, Cody Bottoms, and JJ Jones. There are some great moments, such as Cody’s electric guitar samples, Ken’s haunting Hammond organ lines, and Lawrence’s Casio SK1 leads; but listening back, I fear we may have been having a bit too much fun. I had the brilliant idea of incorporating a cheap toy drum machine that wears out its welcome . . . oh. . . after about 5 seconds. That’s not the fault of its wielder JJ Jones (who knocked it out of the park with his vocal work on the episode). I even played the drum machine somewhere in the middle of the show. The blame lies with the machine’s downright annoying timbres, which weren’t apparent to me until playback. Tommy Stangroom, who did various percussion and synth sounds, claims it was apparent to him from the beginning. He elected not to play the infernal drum toy.

There’s enough good material here for a decent 30 minute show. In it’s full hour + run time though, I recommend you only listen in sync with the film. Seeing the classic film with an 80’s synth pop soundtrack is a strange, comical, and not unpleasant experience.

What do you think? Does it stand up to the Dracula or Freaks soundtracks?

Stay tuned next week for the Third Annual Halloween Extravaganza, which will focus on the intersection between fear and arousal.

If you like the show, tell a friend and leave us feedback on iTunes.

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Oct 162010
 

Because of a week-long work trip, I wasn’t able to post this episode last Sunday. Never fear though, for another Halloweird! October episode is coming tomorrow evening!

“For the love of beauty is a deep-seated urge which dates back to the beginning of civilization” Freaks opening disclaimer

For episode 36, we created an improvised score to Tod Browning’s 1932 horror film Freaks. The episode stars Ken Soper on Moog synthesizers; Tommy Stangroom on percussion and xylophone; JJ Jones on voice and various toys/chimes; Lawrence Crow on Theremin, Casio SK1, and various toys; Cody Bottoms on laptop, keyboards, and Korg sample pad, and Craig Schenker on saxophone. There are quite a few golden moments in our Freaks soundtrack, and I encourage you to sync the soundtack to the film. Be sure to mute the tv and turn the subtitles on! Syncing instructions in the podcast intro.

We recorded this improv on Thursday, October 7th. Directly after, we recorded an “80’s synth pop” soundtrack to a beloved horror classic. Find out what that film is when we release podcast 37 tomorrow night.

Halloweird October!

Oct 032010
 

Kicking off Theatre Intangible Halloweird! October is the 1st Annual Halloween Extravaganza, a WRVU podcast broadcast around Halloween 2008. To prepare for this show, we sent out cheap digital recorders with T.I. correspondents to capture their Halloween nights. We assembled the recordings and met at WRVU to improv around them. I sprained my ankle pretty fierce right before Halloween; thus, my recording featured me at my house, complaining about not being able to go out. When we taped the show at WRVU, I hobbled around on crutches, in some serious pain but high on the magic going down.

The 1st Annual Halloween Extravaganza features Cody Bottoms, Brey McCoy, Lawrence Crow, and Charlie Rauh. The field correspondents were Paul Cain, Cody Bottoms, Richard Harper, Wes White, and myself.

If you like the show, tell a friend and leave us feedback on iTunes.

Subscribe via iTunes.