Grande Valley Auction Incident takes a look in the rearview mirror and asks, “Hey, what if the music that was created during ____ and ____ wasn’t actually all that bad?”
Archive Volume Two gathers all interesting instrumentals from 2001 to 2003 and brings them together into one whopping collection.
Bandcamp | iTunes | Apple Music | Amazon
Archive Volume One houses 11 songs from my past, recorded somewhere around 2001-2004. I listened heavily to The Red House Painters and Godspeed You Black Emperor.
I Won't Untie The Knots was influenced highly by Arcade Fire's second record Funeral and the strange but accessible melodies heard in Band Of Horses in their first two records. Lyrically, it's an expressionistic and blurry impression of modern life filled with the intimate dread of personal responsibility.
This song was originally created in a fit of passion in a random building in South Austin. Interestingly, the drums were not played to a click track. There are around 20 guitars overlaid throughout this recording. Some electric, some acoustic. Piano, and even mountain dulcimer.
Auger In’s first record is all about post rock improvisation at it's best: Raw, layered, textured guitars provide the atmosphere while pulsating and energetic drums provide the pulse of the music. The Human Sea is like a drummer being told to show off while he/she is playing in a cloud, and the cloud changes form to match his/her playing. The contrast is surprising!
The Human Sea features Cale Parks, solo artist and drummer of the band Aloha, and Dave Wirth, film composer and guitarist. Originally recorded in 2001, and released on January 21st, 2021.
Cinematic Piano Improvsations comprises 24 minutes of solo, improvised piano with a cinematic flair. The songs themselves lay themselves bare before you. Incredible microphones picked up every single noise of the piano, including pedal squeaks as well as mistakes. The album feels incredibly intimate and forthcoming without being TMI.
All songs on Cinematic Piano Improvisations were improvised. Improvising is all about using mistakes to your advantage. A wrong note played once is a mistake; A wrong note repeated is an idea. For this record, I accepted the mistakes, turned them into ideas, and called it a day.
Cinematic Piano Improvsations is available exclusively on www.firefireredstardown.com.
PS: You can become a member of the Fire Fire Red Star Down music community for $14/year. Give it a great go!
Photo: White House (gold piano) by Harris & Ewing. Public Domain. www.loc.gov/item/2016855753/
Imagine three pianos recorded one at a time, and each of them was improvised. The pianists could only react when they heard a note. The result? This is the most ridiculously chill piano song.
To me, this record has a nice, sleepy feeling to it. Something to relax into, something to take a nice nap listening to (dare I say even on repeat?).
Evil Gima's ulu is a tour-de-force in ambient experimental sound. The songs themselves have no melody, no harmony (Aak And Quack excepted), and in many cases no sound that is recognizable. It was created using a number of different sound design modules and hyped to sound good at 85dB.
This isn't your suger-coated candy pop, feel good, I'm-the-king-of-the-world type of music. It's an adventure for those sonic searchers that are willing to listen to music with scruity and stoicism. Are you one of the few and proud?
Field Spectra is a commercial-free sound preservation project aimed at capturing sounds as they are at one moment of time. With the world rapidly changing, it's nice to have a little continuity and a sense of history.
This collection of sounds was captured in 2017 in south and central Austin. I aimed to find the moments of nature still embedded within this growing, vibrant city.
Donations are accepted of course! I am giving this one away for free because it makes me feel good to share what a particular moment in time felt like in sound.
Library Of Congress. Photoduplication Service, photographer. Chamber Music Festival. Washington D.C, 1970. Photograph. www.loc.gov/item/2017646184/
I love experimenting with sound, and around 2017 I got super interested in understanding synths. The best way to get my brain wrapped around them? Tests!
All tests were presented by date, in reverse chronological order (aka from the most interesting to shittiest). No guarantees for quality! Some of these tests are embarassing, especially if I had the heart to listen closely.
Plese enjoy these songs as well as my embarassment of them!
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Photo credits:
Library Of Congress. Photoduplication Service, photographer. Chamber Music Festival. Washington D.C, 1970. Photograph. www.loc.gov/item/2017646184/
Slimline feels exactly what it's like to be in your own mind, totally aware of it, and not giving a damn whether or not anyone actually cares about it. You are deeply into your solitude, and that's all.
Musically, Slimline is a relatively noisy album but an ultimately human listen. Elements of IDM, experimental, ambient, big beats (at times), supremely layered guitars, and intensely personal.
For optimal listening, allow yourself to be over-caffeinated after the sun goes down. It's best to be around people, so go to a coffee shop that's open 24 hours and enjoy the ambiance.
Suggested activities: Write in a journal, do some programming, enjoy the process of doing some intensely detailed art. Completely ignore every other person around.
BONUS: Included is a PDF of the original name of the Double Headed Seagulls: The Arms Race. This was a document that I planned upon putting on a website somewhere, but just never happened (until now!).
Flutters Re-Released on Bandcamp! Yes! Best of all it includes tons of bonus tracks not available anywhere else. Get to hear the originals! Plus, I’ve included a ton of pictures from the recording session. Interested in seeing which mics went where, what guitars I used? This re-release is for you.
Today's re-release is a simple, super relaxed, and super chill piano track. The Still Life was written many years ago but put together with a video when I was living in Santa Fe, NM.
When I listen back to this song (in moments of extreme artistic gluttony hahaha), It feels like time has slowed down to a crawl. The video has the same feeling. You can watch the music video for The Still Life:
Let’s keep this re-releases going!
Today's re-release is AES by Evil Gima. Evil Gima is a catch-all moniker for my ambient, dark, and experimental music collages. They tend to be great for staring out into space and relaxing into the textures.
After I moved to Santa Fe, NM, I was really hit hard by the epic cloud formations, the beautiful art, and also the cultural and historical amnesia. Read about the history of the city, and you'll be quietly freaked out.
Anyhow, AES always reminds me of that time of the ceaselessly changing skies of New Mexico.
I've also included the full liner notes of the record AND five Ableton Live screenshots of the projects. Perhaps you musicians would like that?
We’re keeping the weekly re-releases going! This week’s rerelease is the soundtrack to the fantastically awkward and super-low budget film Crisp Lips, done by my good friend Madison Bounds of Blank Factory.
Included in this release are 11 bonus tracks and the movie poster for the movie. Best of all, I’ve decided to make the album $6.94, which is less expensive than is iTunes, BTW. This is why I love Bandcamp. I love including interesting tidbits you can’t really get anywhere else.
Click the graphic to see the record:
On Wednesday at 6:45 PM, you can watch the full movie Crisp Lips, start to finish, if you choose! Beware, it’s good and awkward and silly and partially just strange! Madison certainly did a great job on his first film, and he’s definitely getting better as a filmmaker.
Be sure to check out the clips coming out each week on YouTube on Wednesdays. Crisp Lips is full of interesting little moments. I’ll be posting each of them as they come out.
The Mumbler is a short film where mumblers are quarantined to an industrial treatment center. The film follows the story of Willow, a young woman with a decimated speech enhancing device struggling to get a replacement. The Mumbler was shot in January of 2019 and completed in summer 2019.
The Mumbler’s music takes the perspective of the main character, Willow, a smart young woman who feels suppressed by others because of her inability to communicate. Her experience is not far away from 18th-century kings and queens who were often harassed and muted by court intrigue. By using classical period music as a source, the score encapsulates the frustration that Willow feels while at the same time keeping the film light and comedic in feel.
The Mumbler (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is now available on Bandcamp. Awesome, right?
"My older brother Dave Wirth is such an insufferable know-it-all. I swear, he's such a loser. He's got you fooled! Don't believe a word he says! He's a loser face who doesn't know anything at all! He's a nerdfacelooserbrainstupdhead!!!1 What a butthead! What an annoying soccer jock! He thinks he's god's gift to music and he's not!!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!! ahshdfhdjhhfjdhfa;wnerioqw93ngnsd!!!! What a stupid!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"
Ahem, okay, this is why my little brother doesn't get to use my computer. I took his computer away from him long ago so that he doesn't put this dribble out there and clog up the internet. This is what I get for being generous and putting his music out...
The Sidekick’s new record Songs For Children is probably the wildest, most kinetic, most joyful, most demanding, most insane album of 2020, if not the decade
Songs For Children mashes up metal, IDM, experimental, jungle electronica, and childrens melodies all into one weirdly intense experience. Seriously. It’s like Melt Banana and Messugah and Judy Garland got into a fight armed to the teeth with switchblades and there is blood everywhere.
Don’t judge this book by it’s cover: Songs For Children is without a doubt the most demented album you will ever hear.
The soundtrack that started it all: Dave’s first experiment into film scoring. Get your wackiness on!
Deep, dark, and nightmarish, IT\AM is sure to enthrall you with an intense wall of sound and epic piano. Checkit!
Ready to get your absurd-funny on? The Mumbler’s soundtrack might just fit the bill:
