April 11 2008
Big thumbs up and a thank you to D6 and Champagne & Bacon for their hard work keeping Electronic Music alive and flourishing in Reno. The Reno News & Review has posted their list of the most influential people in Reno music over the last 25 years and has them both listed. I find this to be extremely exciting and it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
The list is a great read in itself. I urge you to check it out.
Lists are always controversial. When Rolling Stone released its list of top 500 albums of all time, the comments came fast and furious. “Thanks for completely shitting on hip-hop and the influence it has had,” wrote one reader. “According to this list who needs the last 20 years anyway?” wrote another. Even seemingly safe choices proved divisive. “Please get the stinking Beatles off these lists. They are a glorified pop band that for some reason we are all programmed to believe were great.”
Essentially, the comments revealed the problem with lists—they are incredibly subjective and getting two people to agree on what should be included is an exercise in futility. We expect this list to have the same issues.
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With that in mind, here’s our list of the most influential people in Reno music over the last 25 years. While we know not everyone will agree with the choices, we look forward to the dialogue it will generate.
April 10 2008
I needed a break at work today, and I needed to take my mind of all the stressful things related to work. My release today was this poster for Lunchbox Radio:
Cross posted in Arts
March 25 2008
Over the weekend The Mantis and I made our first Radio Liners. This was the first time I have attempted to create anything with sound. It is definitely fun and I am excited to learn more about it. We used cubase to record and compile the audio. We made one for Jager Hour, our not so consistent show where we play records and ramble on until we are too drunk to continue, and for general broadcasting on Lunchbox Radio.
Check them out!
December 15 2007
I recently setup a server and wanted to hide the port I was using. I don’t like nasty looking URLs like the following: http://radiostation.com:8002/listen.pls. I wanted to be able to type out the address much easier than that, something like http://radiostation.com/listen.pls.
What I ended up doing was create a simple PHP script and a mod_rewrite rule to create the link.
Here is the PHP script:
listen.php
<?php
header("Content-type:audio/x-scpls");
echo "[playlist]
NumberOfEntries=1
File1=http://lunchboxradio.com:8000/";
?>
It is sending the document as a media type instead of an html doc, which causes your browser to attempt to download it instead of displaying the files contents. Generally you will be prompted to open the file in your default media player, which will usually be fine to listen to the stream.
Instead of pointing users to a PHP file, I wanted to direct them to a PLS. You just need to add a rule to an htaccess file that redirects all requests to FILENAME.PLS to FILENAME.PHP and voila, you are done.
My .htaccess file:
.htaccess
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^LunchBoxRadio.pls$ listen.php [L]
Now I just have to link to http://lunchboxradio.com/LunchBoxRadio.pls to listen to the stream. This is way better than the long ugly URL that is the default.
December 12 2007
Mixlife the Distractor
Once upon a time I had a grand idea. It was to be an all encompassing and tangible representation of a feeling and love for a certain style of music. A sound that, when you heard it, sent chills up your spine and stopped the world. It was the sound. It was everything I wanted out of electronic music. To me it defined what it meant to be a raver. When I heard it, it just felt right. It made me feel right. I had a friend who shared this feeling and also shared this idea. Our downfall was that you cannot capture a feeling into something real without losing the feeling. We could never focus the idea enough to do anything with it. We called it Mixlife. Even the name evoked that feeling, enough so that everyone around us understood immediately what it was.
We tried to turn it into an online source for Electronic Music culture and news, a dj profile and music resource, an events calendar, a clothing line, a promoter, hell we even tried to be a radio station. We could have done so much with it and that was the problem. It could have been anything. Perhaps it was because we just couldn’t decided what we wanted? Or lacked the discipline to just do it? I honestly think it is because you just cannot take an emotion and make it something you can touch. Its far too abstract a concept.
Maybe we just wanted to hold onto something innocent and free? Maybe Mixlife meant more than we thought it did?
In the end, it became more of a burden than anything. Friendships were tarnished, people were alienated, and I lost sight of what was important.
Mixlife the Lunch Box
After a few years struggling to focus I decided to let it go. I have come to realize that trying to match the scale of this feeling with a business was a terrible idea and was distracting me from the whole point of Mixlife; the music. That was always the point. To promote and focus on the music we liked.
During the end of this fiasco we had an inside joke about Mixlife. It tried to be everything. So, like Spaceballs, we had mixlife the flamethrower, mixlife the toilet paper, and my personal favorite, mixlife the lunchbox. Once I finally let it all go I realized that all I really wanted was a place where I could listen to the music I like with no pressure from anyone else, no expectations, and no bullshit. So at 2am after a long night at work I registered lunchboxradio.com. The next morning I secured a server, installed shoutcast, and starting encoding some of my favorite mixes. I even created a small logo just for the hell of it.
It’s all just for me and my selfish love of a sound that keeps me going. If other people like it then right on. I am not planning on broadcasting this to thousands of people, and I don’t plan on having resident DJ’s or weekly shows. I just want to be able to listen to the sounds that make me feel at home. It is all I really wanted from Mixlife.
Ecsyle the Raver
During the course of all this I also realized that this sound is just for me. It’s what drives me. Other people have other sounds, but I do believe that in the end they have that same feeling. We are united under a common love. Without getting too emo or preachy about it, it’s a very beautiful thing. It’s all about the music man… ya dig?
For anyone who is interested, check it out at lunchboxradio.com. It’s nothing fancy, and the selection is limited at the moment. But if you like the music I like, then you might dig this.
July 18 2007
This year was the best year yet. It was the most spiritually freeing, mind altering, relationship strengthening, mentally refreshing experience since Burningman last year. Perhaps this was the first time I actually felt free enough to let go and immerse myself into the event. From the minute we got there to the minute we left I was all smiles. For one, I was able to share this experience with my beautiful girlfriend Nicole. I had mentioned Stilldream to her several times before and she kinda just shrugged it off. That all changed once she got there. She “got it” and I have never seen her so into an event before. It felt good to be able to share such a big part of my life with her. Stilldream is about as raverish as you can get without actually being at some dirty rave. It is more true to the spirit of things, it’s all about the music, the family, and the friends. The party is a natural result of the vibe and not the focus. When someone cries because the event is over, you know you did something right. And for that, I thank everyone involved in making Stilldream so goddamned incredible.
For those that do not know what it is, check out their (as of yet unfinished) website -> http://stilldream.org
The music was incredible. My favorite had to have been Blvd. They fucking killed it with a live breaks set. Literally, live. These dudes rocked a fucking bass guitar and drum set while dropping some sick fucking break beat. Dragn’fly and Forrest Green definitely blew my mind saturday night. One of my favorites, DFuse, was awesome as well. Too bad the sound was so fucked up that night. I was really into his set. Of course, everyone did a great job. I was even surprised a few times. Gamma and Mek, hell yeah, thanks for the morning techno. Perfect way to end a perfect night.
I have a few photos on my camera still. As soon as I get a moment I will get them onto my computer and share a few of them.
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