parae archived news jan - dec 2002

yr a loser if you read this stuff - j/k

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12/30/02

this is so lame, but i’m bored and frustrated:

best records i heard this year in no order

rjd2 - deadringer
el-p - fantastic damage
meshell n’degeocello - cookie
mr lif - i phantom
wilco - yankee hotel foxtrot
meat beat manifesto - r.u.o.k? / variations espectrales / remix collection
pulp - we love life
blackaliscious - blazing arrow
sleater-kinney - one beat
acid mothers temple - in c
rush - vapor trails
nerd - in search of

honorable mention - sonic youth - murray street

records i found out about that didn’t come out this year

boredoms - rebore vol. 0
jackie o’motherfucker - liberation
clouddead - clouddead
guided by voices - under the bushes, under the stars
shannon wright - dyed in the wool
amon tobin - supermodified
the coup - steal this album
ween - god ween satan
elvis costello - (just generally obsessed)
chocolate genius - godmusic
the dismemberment plan - change
del tha funky homosapien - (generally tripping on)

worst record - bob mould - modulate

runner-up - frank black - black letter days + devil’s workshop (i just haven’t gotten into them and it makes me sad)

best show - the fucking boredoms @ slims in SF, we were right up under yoshimi, totally mind blowing.

runner-up - rush! three hours of entertainment, and every song i wanted to hear.

worst show - the white guys that opened for el-p, mr lif, and rjd2... what were there names, oh yeah - cage and copywrite - they fucking sucked!

12/20/02

SHOW! New Years Eve - here at our mountain lair outside of Boulder Creek, CA. We’ll be playing with JC (who did the vocals of OK Metamorphize). She’s coming up from LA and has convinced us that there is something more that we need to do this year besides drink and take drugs! If yr out there and would like to come - Email me for directions!

12/18/02

here's this thing i’ve been working on, guess it’s done enough. my labor for the past week and a half:

one day you won’t be young anymore

this is the electronic dance type thing, or something. it was supposed to be a more straight ahead rap song, but yeah, my priorities changed, or something. it’s kinda like a cross between the Pet Shop Boys and the Auteurs, maybe. it’s really more of an anti-dance song, i suppose, well it’ll probably never get played in any clubs or anything (but will any of my stuff?) it’s like, you know how there are songs like, hey dj - play my favorite song, or a dj saved my life last night, or like how all popular club music tends to be celebratory, or the scene itself, that is, you know? well this is like the opposite of that, like damn, this fucking bar/club again, shit this place has always sucked! oh, and yeah, i fucking change the beat a whole lot and piled on some guitars at points, and yeah, i don’t really have any of those cheezy digi-synth things that make up the majority of disposable trance music. but the beats are authentic, yeah! i fucking got most of them online at a site hosted on mp3.com, of all places, that had free beat samples. the rest i pulled off of erin’s keyboard and processed. like, i still have this dream of doing a straight ahead house song, ya know, like that song Lady by that french band Modjo. that song is killer and totally classic (too bad their album kinda sucks). i just get distracted, and end up writing more than one riff. so i’m stuck with this verse and chorus and bridge, and then i come up with a guitar part that i figure i can surgically insert somewhere, and yeah, for a song that was written in less than 15 minutes, it sure did end up giving me a lot of trouble! usually those are the easiest. the words were supposed to be totally disposable, and i was gonna do it all Missy Elliott style and call it Submit to my Qock (creative spelling and all). but i decided that idea was stupid, and when i was up in SF a week or so ago doing the clubbing type thing, of course my cold bitter heart was awakened and thus the present song title. so i needed some new additional words to focus the ones i had, and here we now have yet another song to toss into the pile of “angry songs about lame people i don’t like,” subcategory “boys that’ve fucked me over,” sub “re: sexuality issues.” but really the focal point of this one is rather ancient and it’s not really a direct diss or anything, i mean, sure he can go fucking die, that’d be cool i guess, but whatever, i was over it like so five years ago. really, this song carries a more universal message that can be applied to a many number of common instances.

so it looks like my “album” is gonna be done at some point in january, as i just have one more song to record. everything else is virtually in the can. let’s see, 15 tunes now up on the site here (still gotta clean up a couple) 6 in need of drums (one i still need to finish cleaning up) and one to record. oh the achievement!

12/9/02

general mindless update:

oh my eyes - i’ve been downloading mp3 samples of beats off the internet for the past several hours, real fun stuff with my dial-up connection! i’m working on a dance/electro type project right now, so, yeah, cheezy beats, that’s what i’ve been looking for, so we’ll see how it ends up. i guess it’s kind of a ganky way of going about and getting beats, but the key to this is that these suckers are free (to mutilate). i pulled some off of my keyboardist’s keyboard the other day, and then sucked them thru my processing vortex and got some cool shit, just not enough for a whole song (to choose from). gimme a week, i might have something ass shakable.

live stuff - no word on if or when a show is still gonna happen this month, which is fine, as we ain’t ready and don’t have enough of our own gear to pull it off anyway. however, i haven’t started slacking again, and we’re actually continuing are forward momentum, i suppose. as a trio, we’ve got ten songs sounding relatively decent, and the mole has just about learned five of them on bass (pretty good for three weeks of playing!) he’s actually got a lot of natural talent, just no formal training, so i have to spend a lot of time with him helping to make the connections in his brain. maybe i should consider a career in music instruction. hey kids, the embittered old music teacher has enter the building!

actually, maybe a show - we might do another small show at my house at the end of the month. a friend of ours, JC (featured vocals of OK Metamorphize and the Faggot Rap Attack) is talking about possibly coming up from LA for a couple days and wants to throw something togehter. but would anyone come? me and tommi are still looking for an excuse to go down to LA at some point this month before work/school potentially resumes in january.

new music situation and hold up - well i was expecting a big fat check from my old job at the end of november, from cashing out my mandatory retirement fund, but alas it was fucking delayed for a month because of some paperwork, so, no gear splurge yet, so no drum mics, no finished music that has been sitting in the can. however, i have been going back and polishing up the songs sitting in the can, and i must say, they are the fucking shit. i mean, maybe i’m delusional and totally full of myself, wait i am, but they fucking rule, so the couple of people that put up with my music are really gonna dig ‘em once the get tommi’s overplaying drum styling’s all over them. i’ve got four straight up classics, one epic, and one that i still gotta fuck with a bit. i’m also gonna polish up Dictocracy and Michelle soon, so yeah. we did buy some nifty maracas today!

oh the record club - so i ordered a bunch of cds from the record club that finally came this week in the mail. got some music that just really freaks me out, yeah - Dream Theater. man, i just can’t figure out if i like these guys or hate them. like some of there stuff is cool and pretty, but then some of it just makes me cringe. i mean seriously, any band that claims to be influenced by Journey is pretty fucking questionable. i did finally get that Strokes record. they’re cute, especially the drummer. i wonder if they have individual posters like the boy bands that i can pin up in my room, yeah. i also finally got some Wilco (saw them at ATP @ UCLA last spring) and Trail of Dead plus other rock things. though i was really looking forward to this record by this neo-soul hottie named Bilal. i put it on finally this afternoon, and man, what the fuck is this arrogant sumbitch’s deal? fuck, just cuz yr pretty and have a supernatural voice, i mean, come on, i dunno about him. he kinda gives me a feeling like Mariah (who i hate, although found sympathetic in Glitter somehow). I mean, like, what the fuck is with singers all trying to be profound and arty by making statements/skits at the beginning or throughout their fucking records (i.e. Missy Elliot, Out-overrated-Kast). just serve up the fucking songs you arrogant major label shit, aight!

still waiting for the eminem diss - you know, it’s not like i really expect anything like a legitament music career, i mean really i’m much more on a crash course in becoming a failed musician, yet, i have to say, it would be really amusing to me if my Faggot Rap Attack song crossed over into that other dimension and that corporate logo heard it and made some kind of response to it. yet, i must remind myself, that if a tree falls in a forest, but no one hears it, does it make a sound?

ok, finally done downloading, now i can post this overlong diatribe and go to sleep! fucking almost 5am.

12/4/02

for yr approval - You Got It - reconstituted and remade more to my liking, i hope. now more coherently psychotic and obtusely absurd for yr pleasure. doing little guitar pop songs is just so easy for me. creatures like this are a labor, as i generally had no clear idea most of the time as to what i was aiming for... well actually i knew what i was aiming for, i just have been unsure of how to construct it as i have fewer structural tropes to rely and fall back upon. i believe that i am satisfied as can be with this now. this is not necessarily hip-hop i suppose, but i guess something that uses many of the same elements and concepts, such as samples, turntables, and the aspect of collage. essentially, having had no desire to stick to one clear and concrete statement, i have tried to further obscure and blur the intrinsic meanings of the words and tones of the sonics. whether any of it is worth decoding and encoding with ones subjective imagination is up to oneself. guess i’m still making that anti-art shit. this could be crap... has some moments though.

12/2/02

no show! or at least it has been delayed for a couple weeks due to the bullshit of the Santa Cruz police department and they’re Fascist control of the live music permit process which from what little i know seems completely totalitarian and wrong. the scenario is this - in order for a business to even get a live music permit, one must apply and send in a nonrefundable $1200 fee. this is just wrong and makes no sense, especially considering that the venue in question is a nonprofit organization. oh how stupid the laws are.

but that’s alright, that’s ok, cuz we ain’t ready anyway! we’re still trying to pull are shit together enough to have even five songs sound decent, but we are getting there, and when we do we’re gonna be killer. the mole is shaping up to be quite a good bass player, at least for 2 weeks of experience ya know, so things are optimistic!

no new music right now, though i have been working on a reconstituted version of YOU GOT IT cuz i’m not happy with what is currently up. i’m just about done and it is way better and completely more psychotic in different, yet more coherent ways. just gimme a couple more days, aight!

11/26/02

here’s a new song for ya, just redid it less than an hour ago! it’s called ambivalent feeling or eriq is a lousy dirtbag of a boyfriend, yeah. i initially recorded this sucker sometime in the late summer and tossed it in the can of “needs decent drum mics.” yet, i got an inspired idea the other day and decided to just re-record the thing again without any of the layers of synths and electric guitars and just do it “acoustically” with the guitar and voice done in one take each. i know, scary concept, eh, but i figure it might add balance to the other material i am working on. i mean, i reckon this is one of the strongest songs i written, or it’s up to my usual high standards of songcraft, whatever those are. also, i believe it sounds less emo now, so yeah, that must be good, right? i haven’t run this past tommi or the mole, my two usual crap detectors who usually just nod and greenlight everything anyways, so this may disappear as quickly as it has appeared, but i think i’m pretty content with it for now.

11/22/02

hey! we have a REAL SHOW coming up!

Dec 6th, Friday
The Drop-In Center - Front St. Santa Cruz CA

The location and exact time of performance still need to be confirmed, as the location may change, but the show should be in the evening of course! Tommi’s friend Brooke is organizing the show and invited us to participate, and we’ll be playing with her band Hell of Fine and one or two other bands.

So to fill out our lineup, i have recruited the Mole to play bass. It’s been about 3 days since he firstpicked the instrument up with serious intentions, and i must say that he has demonstrated exponential improvement, so we’ll see how this less-than-three-week crash course in musicianship goes - hell, maybe he’ll end up a musical prodigy or something. If anything, we’ll just bash through the songs so fast that hopefully the unsuspecting audience won’t pick up on how much we suck! Besides, we got a cute drummer! My goal is to have ten songs performance ready, so we’ll see how that pans out...gotta start, i mean keep practicing my vocals - don’t wanna be a mumbler ya know!

I have been working on music recording sporadically, though it may be a week or two more before i get anymore new material up on the site. I’m also going to be going back and cleaning up some of the songs already up in anticipation of putting together the album, as i’m nearing the 80 minute mark in new material. Now i just gotta get those damn drum mics and pay off my credit card debt, AND get a job!

11.11.02

ok, so i never talked about the show at my b-day party a couple weeks ago. well, i got a bit drunk waiting for everyone to show up, anyway, we played around 11pm, and made it thru 4 songs. they were - 46, my privilege, fs, teenager of the year. we were gonna a do a new song called she wants to die, but i cut it at the last minute cuz it’d been enough. ya see, i broke a string during the second song, and so we had to go acoustic. anyway, no one could hear shit over the drums, which was probably a good thing, but whatever, it went all rather smoothly.

ok, so i haven’t talked about our experience at the dismemberment plan show. tommi and the mole were bored and got drunk. i enjoyed it, it was cool. travis the singer dude came out at the end and greeted fans and i pussed out on my opportunity to say hello and instead slowly creeped for the door as i didn’t really have anything to say, so i figured why get in the way of some really pudgy emo fan that wants to do their thing.

ok, so i haven’t posted much new music of late and the last thing that went up possibly totally sucks. here’s a pretty one - my gift to you

this is probably not the final mix, and i may work on the vocals more, i dunno. depends on how lazy i am. anyway, it is song #19 for the “album.” but wait, only 13 new songs have been posted! yes i still have 6 songs in the can that need properly recorded drums. i am still unemployed and it looks like it’s gonna stay that way. oh well. this song is all melodic and nice and has some sonics i haven’t done before. the beats are all stolen from my music collection, and the lyrics were supposed to originally be about my disillusionment with the artistic decline of someone else, not that you can hear them anyway.

10.30.02

here it is, the avant hip-hop thing, as done as it's gonna get at this point in time:

you got it

this song is probably one of the most fucked up things i've ever attempted, sonically and thematically. for those of you familiar with my work, it's kind of a cross between Breed and the Faggot Rap Attack. i wouldn't call it a stunning success, but it's got it's moments for sure. when i get good at all of the ideas chaotically sketched out here, y'all better look out. the mole says it sounds like two separate songs ram-rodded together and is a bit more like my older more apparently schizo-style. if i could find a way to make it more cohesive without completely reconstructing it i would, however, given the lugubrious nature of the words, i figure the complete underlying fantasy psychosis more or less lends itself to the particular unstable feel. anyway, enough excuses, here's the chicken of it.

this song is: being mentally shattered by the all consuming cultural contexts of america and the ensuing instinctual reaction of hunting down that one thing, person, or concept that represents everything you are not in order to transmorgamafy them from what they really are not into what they are, because you are right.

this song contains: elements and themes of sexual, emotional, and mental violation and transformation.

the design of this piece is to lend its ambiguious tone towards subjective interpretation. there are lots of ideas in here, what they add up to, as always that's up to you. the piece is not entirely literal, and is designed and constructed on various levels of reality. you can check out the lyrics here, cause they sure aren't all audible.

and if anyone askes, no i did not go out and rape a childhood friend, ok!

10.24.02

another useless update, but i gotta keep the site looking alive ya know. so the good news - the Dismemberment Plan call my remix/recreation attempt #2 "absolutely spectacular." so it's going on the record! ONE STEP CLOSER TO A LEGITAMENT MUSIC CAREER, WAARRRGGGHHH! anyway, so i went out and got their cd to hear the original (yea, credit card), and i must say it's rather damn good, just the kinda angular rock i dig and like to ape myself. me and my crew are gonna hunt them down when they play SF in November and see how cute they are when they sweat over their instruments.

so no new music, but i'm almost there with my post-progressive hip-hop thing. it's getting more fucked up everytime i work on it, i just never have anytime during the week it seems... ya see, i'm back to temping, not totally jobless, and collecting government money, so not totally broke. i figure it's better to collect some $$$ than let it go to Bushy's war chest buddies. my mean spirited rock song is another one in the can that requires decent drum mics, so maybe a month with the rest. one day i'll post five new songs, yeah.

SHOW - our first show live attempt thing. tomorrow, my house, practice room, inebrieted friends, 5 songs. i actually started singing whilst practicing about a week ago ... yeah, i'm that much of a wuss, yet for some reason i haven't relegated to just doing the instrumental thing. anyway, each day shows much improvement, yet we are bound to be a thorough exercise in mediocrity. i just gotta chizel away at the whole being self-consciouse giving a shit thing. oh yeah, why, cuz it's my birthday and i'm getting too old to keep making justifications. fuckin' a, i'm gonna be the age of today's date, oh my twenty something angst, ohhhh! anyway, if it goes well, maybe we'll really get this live thing going, if i'm not too discouraged, that is.

oh yeah, i might be helping to do the music for a big fat hollywood movie. does that make one a sellout?

10.8.02

so unemployed - yeah more time take drugs and consume massive amounts of alcohol, i mean work on music...yeah. anyway, in the spirit of being lame and not posting anything new, here’s the updated version of My Privilege, enjoy the drummalisciousness.

i’m still working on my demon hip-hop deconstructuralization...it’s coming slowly. while procrastinating on it last saturday i wrote a new rock type song very quickly and proceeded to record the guitar parts that day, the bass on sunday, and the vocals yesterday. i had to go do stuff today, so i guess the drums will be coming soon. it’s one of the catchiest things i made up in a long time and it came out real easy (except for the labor of doing vocals and one bass line). anyway, more that later.
as i am very unemployed, if anyone is reading this and would like to give me work, PLEASE drop me a line. as always i would like to further my music career by doing production, recording, remixing work, hell it’d be cool if any of it paid too, but my services are going quite cheap (cuz i’m bored too). i’m also up for doing production work in the adult/porn industry (i ain’t much of an actor though... except for when i’m seducing cute guys into my - nevermind...)

speaking of remixes, no word on whether the Dismemberment Plan dig the remix or not... oh well, i tried to give them something fucked up yet still accessible, guess this is another one for the rarieties box-set.

10/1/02

here it is, dismemberment plan remix version 2

download it: face of the earth super sonic parae remix II

still only samples from the original song, no other crap added. so much superior than the first attempt. more marketable, more listenable, more shiny, more happy. yes, accessible.

on other notes, i am now unemployed, yeah! fuck real work! just filled out my unemployment claim. actually i have an interview tomorrow at TRANS CONTINENTAL ENTERTAINMENT. yeah, the big fat dude that discovered created the backstreet boys, n'synch, o-town, all that good stuff. it's for a position as a MODEL SCOUT. my aspirations and expectations are not that high! we'll see. if you would like me to scout you as a model, please feel free to send me pictures - right... i am also investigating employment opportunites in the world of adult entertainment - NOT in front of the cameras! i'd be hella down to do production or audio work though, that'd be cool. arghh, i hate looking for a job :(

guess i should start a church or something.

anyway, i've been lagging on the new music, but it's coming. i made some minor changes to the song My Privilege, so I should have that up soon, and i'm working on my demon rap song, should make some significant progress this week. it will be very fucked up.

all the old news has be archived yo.

9/15/02

hey there, so here’s my Sleater-Kinney imitation (though instead of a second guitar i used my synth, cuz i’m a sick basterd):

my privilege

yet another in my series of songs attacking, examining, deconstructing, and ambiguously analyzing white male identity, it’s fun stuff ya know! it’s pretty lo-fi... maybe i should stop taking inspiration from Guided by Voices, but i figure it’s better that i not helplessly obsess over every song that i do. besides, this being completed song #11 of the new era (not counting remixes and tunes sitting in the can in wait of decent drum mics), the approach just had to be in line with the respective correlating number, ya know what i mean? so here you go, my faithful double-digit audience, enjoy.

9/14/02

so this band called the dismemberment plan has got this thing going on where they want fans or whatever to remix their songs - then they’ll put the ones they like on a remix album or something. so here’s my stab at it:

face of the earth - super sonic parae remix

i have never heard the original tune cuz i still haven’t gotten around to picking up any of their albums. guess i’ve just been too busy buying expensive boredoms imports and bargain hunting through the discount bin. the samples they gave to work with were pretty low in resolution and from the sound of it, the instruments were not particularly isolated when they were recorded. aside from these challenges and lack of context, i think i made something pretty pleasantly fucked-up for what was once some kind of emo rock about some girl or some shit. tommi says it’s “not very dancy,” and the mole just kind of gave me a blank stare as to say - hmmph, i don’t understand this. i like it though... oh yeah, no outside source material was added to this project.

9/10/02 - eriq’s real sarcastic 9/11 anniversary rant

In honor of the big day, here are the current search stats (i.e. people typed this into a search engine and my website came up) for www.parae.org as of thus far into september. my faith in humanity is renewed as i see that we are really reaching our target demographics.

Top 20 of 32 Total Search Strings
# Hits Search String

1) 4 free audio downloads
2) 3 faggot
3) 3 faggot sex
4) 3 teenager of the year lyrics
5) 3 whatever happens happens
6) 2 free porno megs
7) 1 anal sex in deck
8) 1 animae girl dress up
9) 1 audio downloads
10) 1 audio downloads (rap)
11) 1 be my bitch faggot
12) 1 kool keith schizophrenic
13) 1 laugh audio sample free download
14) 1 laugh in audio downloads
15) 1 loaded primal scream mp3
16) 1 lyrics party with her friends
17) 1 music from porno
18) 1 nude little girls 8-10.
19) 1 only photos of boys naked during the age of 12-13
20) 1 rachid prototype

Oh yeah, fuck Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Oilmen, and all those who profit from or get off on war and death. It just ain’t cool ya know? The only profiteers with my respect are the people that thought up mass marketing the American Flag as bumper stickers. Let this not be interpreted that i have any respect for a poor shlub who buys the sticker and then puts it on the back of their gas guzzling SUV (or any car). Seriously, the flag is only for white people, cuz like all “red” people are mostly dead (like murdered or something by aforementioned white people of some sort), and the only blue people i’ve seen recently were at Burning Man... and they were more kinda Aqua-Green. Anyway, to sum this rant up, props to all the great Right Wing child molesters out there. Y’all fucked up the sex lives of most my friends. What a beautiful country we are as we stand tall and united, making the world a better place for the children! (cuz short people don’t count tommi!)

8/23/02

here's tommi's art for the CDRs. finally, a project that didn't cost a whole bunch of $$$. if you want one, they're free. just send me an email. i do accept donations, and i've only made 50.

8/23/02 (early morning - will not be wanting to go to work when i wake up)

New Music! As promised, you may now download Version Red. Ambient Hip-hop yo, my latest genrefuck. that’s what i’m gonna tell me people now when they asked that question. you know which one... “so like what kinda music does yr band do???” totally hate that question! like i listen to so much music, why should it be derivative of one marketable type of category? anyway, this thing is pretty tossed off, wish i could say i had more time to put into it, but for now, it’s good ‘nough suppose. i let tommi due most of the scratchin’ and you’ll see the skills just ain’t there either... actually we’re going for a john cage type thing, ya know. anyway, i’m sure q-bert would spit up his cereal if he heard this. it’s really quite punk rock, ya know. not much actual thought went into this, i figured it’d be quicker to keep it random and improve, and just let the cosmic vibes flow. the needle seems to have landed on the right spots as i sampled and time stretched some pretty random shit we got at the bargain barn a couple weeks ago. like there’s this harp music, some wacked out polish 12 tone orchestral stuff (that makes me happy!), presidential speeches, some dumb classical orch gunk, and organ music - yeah! and the beat, well i plan to use more beat samples from this band, not only cuz they’re one of my favorites, and not just cuz the drummer is highly underrated (because the band is fronted by a female?) they got some finely strange beats, though i mainly dig their ultra colorful songs, her solo stuff is just as bomb, and her wonderful personal insights into insanity are so delicately cut up. seen her twice solo live, she’s got magic in her eyes. so yeah, tossed off ambient hip-hop.

so now i’m getting the cdr together, tommi is doing the art right now, gonna get it put together tomorrow, and then we’re off! hope some of the people it finds it’s home in dig it. or totally hate it. anything but indifference, that’s the worst! like none of this shit is quite perfect, but most it comes closer than what i’ve done in the past.

8/21/02

New Music! - Download now Michelle, my semi ode to this chick i worked with back at a horrible diner that will remain nameless like 3 years ago. she was really cool, but her life situation was getting progressively messed up. anyway, the song really has little to do with her lyrically, as the majority of the words are a dictation of a close encounter of the inebriated bar kind that the mole experienced and recited, then edited by me. i wanted to have someone else sing this, someone with the magic charisma, like my girl caitlin. but she don’t really return my phone calls, cuz i made an ass of my self in front of her by consistently declaring my attraction and severe desire to fornicate with her fine little boyfriend via penetration of his cute little booty. bummer. she’ll forgive me though, and i’ll tap ‘dat as one day, right... they’ll all want a piece of my cock when i hit the big time... enough of that, i’ll post that song when i get the drum mics. god damn! a gun shot! fucking red neck mountain hicks! ok, regaining the focus - so this new tune was mainly done in may, and i kept procrastinating on doing vocals, cuz i wanted one of my bitches to come do it for me, rather than put my whiney voice all over it. octavia, where you at? well, i got tired of waiting, and surmised an approach, and i believe that i’m rather satisfied with the results! tommi just laid down some additional percussion on it, so now that it is suffiecently cluttered, why here it is! the gin + juice drums are from the funky drummer cd, and then everything else is by me, with tommi doing that percusive thing, yeah.

i’ll have another new tune up tomorrow. it’s my latest invention! inspired by ripping off dj shadow and from listening to the orb, i have created: “ambient hip-hop.” then we’ll have ten songs to toss on the cdr’s that i be passing out at burning man!

also, spending money i shouldn’t, i picked up the new frank black cds yesterday. my verdict, they don’t suck, though the whole stones vibe kinda freaks me out. not quite as solid as dog in the sand, but not as bland as pistolero. i really think he should listen to some more modern music for additional inspiration and then mix the shit up. there are some killer tracks, but some of the vocals are pretty weak, and the drummer doesn’t always have that energy. i think the main problem is they mix the shit live, and sometimes it ain’t perfect. dude needs a computer, go digital, diversify his art. he’s still as talented as ever, and it’s sad to hear him bummed out over what sounds like his wife left him for another man. that’s kinda fucked up.

8/19/02

New Music! - Download now You Would Be King, another one of my insipid tunes subtly mocking the authoritative figurehead with his finger on the button. fun stuff. this one was written on the piece of shit casio keyboard i use, cuz i ain’t got nothing better. really wish i had a real piano. a real singer would be good too. at least the beats make me happy. that’s tommy doing the 60’s style drumming - for once the piece of shit nady mics work to my advantage! the sampled beats come from a “funky drummer breaks” type cd and this live album by a japanese guy who is like a prog drum god or something. anyway, the whole thing seems to rip-off my old tune “edge of california” which a significant portion of my single digit (or is it double digit now) fan base just looooves. zero records sold and i’m already repeating myself, again.

Still got like five songs in the can that just need hi-fi drum recording. yesterday tommi and i tried to lay down drums for one of my best most spitful ass-rock songs ever, and i just ain’t gonna tolerate the shitty nady effect on it when the production is so distortedly slick otherwise. if anyone would like to make a tax-deductable donation to parae.org in the support of independent anti-music (as the amusing intro review puts it) i will gladly accept cash, stolen credit cards, bootleg porn, and the fresh raw hearts of major label record executives.

Anyway, we’re going to this burning man thing next week, and i’ll be giving away CDRs of all the finished new tunes to poor unfortunate souls who wish to be subjected to my imperfect art... should be cool. gonna try to get a couple more tunes up before i leave. tommi’s gonna do the art - gonna wrap the bare cd in folded paper, real indie style. email me if you want one, they’re free. only catch is that you have to make 10 copies and pass ‘em to yr friends who like weird music, otherwise you die within seven days.

8/12/02

New Music! - Download now Dictocracy, my latest piece of sonic sludge rawk! Like Loo, my dyke girl said, “like the song is buried underneath all this stuff, i wanna hear what yr saying.” dude, if all you had was 2 shitty nady mics to record yr drums and vox, you’d be wise to employ unique production techniques too! when i get these damn credit cards paid off, i’ll get me some real mics, and then i’ll be able to distort and over process with more clarity, yeah... it’s not like i’m trying to bury the song, it’s my standard first rate cheeze rok shit, ya know, but it’s like, things just sound better when massively and carelessly distorted, especially when the original sonics might be questionable. besides, it ain’t the song structure or lyrics that are weak... i think... i mean i did pretty much write the tune in 20 minutes last sunday. whatever, it’s like the Acid Mothers Temple, but with a conventional type song structure, and uh, semi-descirnable words. it’s kinda ever so fashionable garage rawq, but it turned more punk when i layered the vox. tommi has trouble playing fast. you know i cheat, but it sounds good. them drums are mostly complete takes, the kid’ll get the consistency there - only been playing for a year. shit, you’d think i’d be able to play guitar after almost 10 years... fuck i’m getting old. anyway, i’m rambling cuz i’m a bit buzzed on that sierra nevada shit. yeah, i been inspired lately. got my first Guided By Voices record, changed my life. that bob pollard guy can sure sing a melody. it ain’t even one of their good ones supposedly, but it rocks my world yo. so i tried to keep this tune in an GBV slash AMT vibe, you know? i didn’t labor over the vox too much, cuz this is like faggot punk, ya know? totally overly compressed!!! i used to be totally against compressionl. oh well, this shit will all probably be remixed down before any cd is burned. anyway, if the feds can disciphre the words, this should help get ashcroft on my ass. yeah, this is some lame left wing political shit. hope it ain’t too grandstanding. hope it has some shit that ain’t been said enough already. like anyone cares... wait i do!

8/7/02

Download OK Metamorphize (three subtle remix) available now from parae.org. This creation was made by the very innovative Alba back in 2000. I really, really like it, really. It's like fuckin' Merzbow. If you would like to remix any of my tunes just drop me an email info@parae.org and i'll put up anything that's killer with mad props.

Tommi the illustrious drummer returned from Rome last week, so i should have some new stuff up soon. Still only got 2 shitty Nady mics, so we be doing some of that trendy garage shit, but on sonic methamphetamines.

7/23/02

New Music! - download now The Flying Faggot Rap Attack, in all its reconstituted glory. i once heard the ex-drummer for r.e.m. say that you can only polish a turd so much, but i may have finally scrubbed this heaping lump of coal into a diamond or something shiny like that. this song has been a real bitch to make, as i pretty much had to redo almost all of it like three or more times over before stuff started to sound proper. much aid came with my recent acquisition of a turntable and some inspiration from some real hip-hop shit (the El-P solo cd is fucking killer). i couldn’t get my operation to kidnap dj q-bert (he’s so cute!) off the ground, so if the turntable stuff is shitty, just don’t tell me, cause it sounds alright to me. the mole-boy says that the extended stretch in the mid-sect ion with the turntable doesn’t sound very rhythmic, but i think it’s alright. it’s like jazzy, but noisy, or like 20th century atonal...right. oh yeah, this thing is fucking loaded with samples. go ahead, sue me, please! i got an arena metal band, lots of late 70’s soul, a recent record by an obscure 60s singer, primal scream therapy by some avant garde chick, 70’s easy listening with a hairy chest processed accidentally into noise, and lots of other bullshit i can’t remember. i think i have a list somewhere... oh yeah, and that principle beat is straight out of 83. on to the subject matter - well i have to say that most of my songs are inspired by real events or things that have personally happened to me or my friends. anyway, after much distance and hindsight, i think i finally got the narrative to a point where it is pretty concise and clear. i could ruin this with a brief summarization, but why don’t you just download this sucker and unlock the mystery for yrself! i recommend that you get hella fucking stoned and hear this thing in all it’s corrosive glory for the first time totally baked, or on lots of psychedelics. oh yeah, the first version sucked - hope this one doesn't. i might tweek it some more later.

7/9/02

no more free web counter :(

and just when i hit the 300 mark. fuck it. got my turntable today, now i just need something to hook it up to...

7/8/02

new music! download now New File, a pretty little piece of throwaway candy. this is actually the first thing i recorded once i got my “audio thingy that lets me record on to my computer” back at the end of april, so i didn’t want to try anything hard. after two months of procrastination, i think i just spent more time putting the final touches of processing on this than actually writing or recording the tune (which was like a couple of hours). i suppose it sounds a bit like moby, but hopefully the suck factor is less since the beat source i sampled comes from a very well known and influential band known for their hardcore independent aesthetic. hope they don’t sue me! me and tommy, (who wants it to be clear “isn’t living it up” in rome), really dig the drummer’s chops. did i mention how much moby tends to suck (though his really bad metal/punk album is actually somewhat enjoyable). it’s like he doesn’t even try to write anything of substance, ever - all of his stuff sounds the same and is soooo MOR. anyway, this thing is an instrumental, so no one can say the vocals sound like the violent femmes, which i am so sick of hearing, cause i don’t even listen to them ever, other than being familiar with their early hits, and owning one of their latter day records of quite questionable quality - so no, they are not an influence. it’s just bad mics and lack of vocal ability. i swear i don’t try to sound so whiny, i just bitch naturally.

hey, check out the totally pretentious lyrics to my new songs, cause who knows what ya can hear with the way i tend to mix!

7/7/02

Uh, i jumped the gun. Here is the new song, Another Dead Queer Boy - really done. i added an intro, some backwards guitar, and processed the vocals different. guess i got too excited on sharing this with my single digit audience!

7/5/02

New Music! - Download now Another Dead Queer Boy, so fresh on the sonic canvis that the paint is still wet! i just spent less than six hours recording this tune which is almost unheard of for someone as anal retentive as me, let alone doing a piece all in one day. hopefully it won't sound like shit tomorrow! it's about this kid i kinda knew named Frank who died a couple months ago when he got too close to the ocean cliffs while totally drunk. when i went to his memorial, the revelation came out that he was closeted (which was no surprise to someone with highly tuned gaydar such as myself, i mean this kid was sooo flaming.) anyway, all his stupid fucking friends, even people i know quite well, who should know better, were like, "oh, no he wasn't gay, oh, well maybe he was bi, oh that's not important," and just wanted to remember their dead drinking buddy. hmm, wonder why he was totally trashed all of the time? it really pissed me and tommy off, so of course i just had to do the poor basterd proper in one of my pretentious songs. hell he gave us free pizza just a week before he was struck down by the 'ol mighty gravity. but why am i going off explaining the fucking meaning behind this tune when you can actually make out the lyrics? hell, i almost sound like a real singer! anyway, i did this all with my analog synth, a pitch shifted drum loop, a tv, and my voice box. yup, this is another one of my esoteric pieces -no candy, just vegetables. it's not a demo, it's spartan!

anyway, i got like 5 rock oriented songs almost done, they just need drums, yet alas the drummer is still living it up in Rome, lucky basterd! it's all good though, i'll be getting some real drum mics soon via the financial assistance of the mole. i can't wait! where i could only distort and flange 2 tracks of rhythmic wankage, now i'll be able to over process up to 8! now if i could only get more plug-ins... i also have two hip-hop type things i'm gestating, should make some progress when i finally get a turntable next week. as if i ain't mediocre at enough instruments, for some reason i think i might be able to become little novice scratcher. maybe if i listen to enough q-bert - fuck it, i'll cheat with the computer - yeah. no anti-dance music yet, cause i ain't got no fake drum software to play with :(

6/25/02

minor cosmetique update to the site. no new music :(

listening to new sonic youth cd, pretty rockin' - the drums are mixed louder than the past few albums, kim's preachin' the gospel right now... the production is clean like dirty, but the music is more progressively experimental and not as linear.

6/19/02

New Music! - Download now As She Stood Before Us at His Going Away Party, just finished, in fact, so done, i might change it tomorrow! All sounds made with drums, my voice, fake piano, electric organ, and ambience. Dig if you will the esoterica. i think this stuff is a bit more well executed than my previous pieces of this nature. Note the slowed down Boredoms influence. Everything is true and accurate, quite a trippy scene for my first acid trip. Wait, if my parents read this, uh, it's all fake, i mean the drug part, yeah i'm just a poser, right...

6/16/02

New Music! - Download now 46, recorded this past week. This was supposed to be all done in one-take... yeah right. All my people got better things to do than kick it with me here in my dungeon taking orders. So i was going to do all the vox and guitar in one take - well i had to cheat, cause i ain't got no singer-songwriter skills.

As for Teenager of the Year, the 2nd mix is the keeper, but i'll keep the first noisy mix up for a little while.

Most of the Alternate album is now online, i should have the rest up by tomorrow. It's all encoded at 160kbps, so enjoy the lusciousness. I should have selections of my older material up over the next week.

I have a half dozen more songs almost done, they just lack beats for the most part, as my drummer is in Rome and not returning my messages... must learn to play drums - must acquire synthetic beat software...

6/10/02

hey y'all, whoever's listening, well the mix from my last post didn't last long, cause i got a bit of negative feedback from some friends. here's my new more commercial, i mean less noisy, i mean better mix, yeah!

Download Teenager of the Year (mix 2)

Be part of the process, give me feedback on the two mixes, cause i may not have a clue as to what i'm doing. Anyway, i think the vocals are more audible and the drums are less noisy and more naked with their imperfections. Overall, this mix is less compressed. Is it the magic combination?

6/8/02

New Music! - Download now Teenager of the Year, the first new Parae recording in two years (not counting the Flying Faggot Rap Attack, which is currently being reworked into something more lethal.) The name is ripped off from my favorite Charles K Thompson CD, and the musical concept was originally meant to be some kind of hommage. This is the mix i just made an hour ago, so who knows how long it will last. It's kind of extreme - i recommend playback at a loud volume with properly positioned stereo speakers or headphones. It is 2.2megs and is encoded at 160 kbps.

Created May-June 2002; all sound by eriq ri, with tomiko hittin' drums, and erin played the keyboards if you can hear them in there.

Give me feedback on the mix. If you can't hear the words, you should turn up your stereo. More coming soon...

6/1/02

Interview! - go to GoLittleRecords and see if you can grab a copy of Jaye's upcoming reversible sampler. Included will be an interview on all things parae, and it's about as candid as i'll ever get. go now, what are you waiting for?

Mp3s - I will get these back up in the next week, and i'll probably put them all up at the standard 128 encoding rate, cause i can't have my old tunes sounding shitty. also, i may just go ahead and post the entire alternate album up for download. it all depends on my access to a DSL connection.

New Music - Not yet. It'll be a couple more weeks. Right now i have five songs in various states of completion, and i'm aiming for a song a week. my drummer is going to europe for half the summer, so whatever i tackle next will probably be more electronic.

5/22/02

ok, can't download the mp3s, can't view certain images? here's why! i'm in the middle of transferring the site over to a new server, one that is half the price of my previous situation and offers 3 times as much storage. yea, exciting. so, considering how long it took me to get the damn mp3s up originally, it will probably be a few days before i will myself to go thru that process again. on the bright side, when i do get them up, i'll probably have some new tunes to thrust voraciously unto all who are listening! so to answer that question, yes, i have been recording! i have about 4 projects in various states of completion. mainly they just need acceptable vocals and finished drums/beats. being that i currently only own 2 ten dollar mics, this may be a challenge. alas payday is around the corner, and my credit card is not yet maxxed out. actually, the mics make my voice sound like shit, so it doesn't making doing the vocals that pleasant. it's all high end generic eq-ing, totally not even picking up my low range, giving them this nasty nasal quality. like i'll cop to really liking rush, but i don't wanna sound like the singer (at least not on these tunes!) the material is pretty rocking, cause that seems easiest with my current gear, but i'll probably due some synth based stuff with weird beats next.

4/27/02

creating mirrors of this site in other languages is more than i can do. so, i have placed a link to a translator on the front page of the site. it is not that good, but it is a start.

i have updated the links page. most of the links are prettty boring, but the ones at the top should provide some entertainment.

oh yeah, i also have rearranged things a little bit. text versions of the lyrics were put up last week. after typing them all up, i came to the realization that maybe they could be construed as emo, so i would like to re-assert that i was genuinly depressed and bummed out when i wrote a lot of them, plus i was still teenager. let us hope that my crap detector has improved with age.

my audio card is scheduled to arrive quite soon, so then i guess i will be making some music again. well i suppose 23 months isn't that long, is it? not when you spend your days in an office chair getting fat!

so, if everything works when i get it, i may just have something in a couple of weeks to place up on my server where nary a soul will download it. must come up with a marketing scheme. well, as long as i am impressed, then all will be well in this delusional universe.

oh yeah, we're going to maybe do our first live show around the end of May. it'll be at my house, probably for tony's birthday party type event.

4/11/02

i've been sick the past couple of days, but have still managed to make it to my silly job and then come home and work on the site. note the added mp3s, which fucking took forever! stupid dial connection cutting out when song is almost uploaded :(

anyway, 9 mp3s are now available for download, some never before offered, some only previously available via streaming audio on Mp3.com, but i am no longer affiliated with that ugly corporate entity. all of the music is old stuff, as i don't have anything new to display...soon. i'll try and get the 10th song that i was going to post up sometime in the next couple of days.

the language translation thing is going to be a bitch, but i think it will be worth it. my friend directed me over to a site that will translate into 8 languages, so i'll be fidgeting with that over the next week or so.

4/8/02

www.parae.org in full effect. some jerk off bought the dot-com last year. i was like, how much you want for it? punk was like $1900. i placed a counter offer of $40. pig laughed. i told 'em to go fuck himself.

translated mirrors and more coming real soon...

3/21/02

alright, CDRs are now for sale! in truly ghetto lo-fi DIY fashion, nothing spectacular in the packaging, but hey, it's a start, and they're going cheap. hopefully, i'll mix up a pot of more merchandise to hawk at my burgeoning fanbase in the coming months, like stickers, and maybe even some commeorative posters (though my ambitions may just be getting to my perception of reality!) we'll just have to see...

3/19/02

what's in the works...

so what valuable lesson have we all learned during the past year? that good always triumphs over evil? no. that hard work always pays off? naaa.

so i've spent like a year and a half talking about how i'm gonna get this com-pu-tah and everything will be alright, and then i'll be making crazy music again, just like the good ol' days of academia, and all will be well and at peace.

well, i got a fucking computer now, it ain't paid for, but what can you do? alas, i must acquire more overpriced product to create this home studio thing. consumer level prices my ass! how about a fucking living wage? how about decent rent? check this out, i just spent $200 for a box of foam that doesn't even cover one wall of my drum room, all so my neighbor Dave will stop leaving threatening messages expressing his ability to get me and my housemates evicted while mocking my guitar skills. he's not trying to be uncool, you see... oh magical foam, magical studio foam that absorbs all sound...

ok, enough bitching, won't even go into my day job situation, not that i give a damn, but it feels pretty shitty to be undervalued, especially when yr a fucking temp that's been doing the job for 9 months and they hire someone else (who has more experience... go figure.)

so i got a band. we don't play live yet, cause we still suck and don't practice enough. right now, we sound like cruddy new wave punk, but i have high aspirations and a vision of unsuckiness...

so i'm gonna make a record. not sure when it'll all start, i gotta at least get an audio card in my machine. hopefully by may. it will be the shit.

so i can sing now. yea... with confidence, from my belly.

so i'm gonna get a domain name in a few weeks, do this shit proper, because i'm not already spending way too much for crummy dial up internet service. they ain't got no dsl in the woods that i live in, nor would i pay fifty bucks a month to download porn faster when i could do it for free at my job.

so all the mp3s are gone. and soon all links on mp3.com and possibly all them other sites. mp3.com is sooo disgustingly corporate and just downright confusing, however i do know it got me at least two fans, which is kinda cool.

so i'm gonna post up some mp3s straight up once i get the domain situation worked out, and thus the free audio download's section will come to life!

so i'm gonna sell CDRs of my first three records, cause they ain't good enough to press. maybe i'll sell a couple.

so i'm gonna create some sonic bile, and hopefully it won't be too obvious who it's ripping off. then i'm gonna press it if it don't suck, and maybe sell some real cds come october or november (if i still have a decent employment situation to subsidize such an endeavor.)

so then maybe five people will actually buy the thing and i'll have more stuff to put in my closet.

-eriq ri