VNRuñderkinder: The V&R Commandments
Monday, August 3, 2015
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Napkin V review by Alex Smith
-K.Gio AKA KRIS127 AKA "the technician"
Saturday, April 14, 2012
homeocrapic goal tenure VHS review
This is in part why noise released on VHS has fascinated me. For one, it's on a physical format that predates the youtube boom by roughly a decade. Secondly, out of the above conventions listed above, I've neglected to mention the few but proud (ignore the joke) captures of noise sets from the 1990's, a time where, if one wanted a visual element or even just a visual archive of a piece of noise, one had no other choice but to record to the relatively cheap and pragmatically popular VHS format. There were even a few clips from noise "music videos," simplistic visual patterns that were nonetheless fitting for the audial component. It seems like when one puts something down on a bulky, high capacity brick of plastic as opposed to a short space of data storage, usually with the intent to distribute it to someone who had nothing better to do than to kick back and pop in a tape of sounds he/she couldn't hear anywhere else, the results markedly improved. At one point, I bought a newer VHS release by Unicorngun, "Stick This in your VCR and Smoke It!" It was jsut glitchy patterns set to droney noise, but again, it was more stimulating and obviously had more time and, for lack of better words, love put into it than just some crappy youtube video. This wasn't an advertisement, or a track some guy liked enough to upload it, or even a live set some insane completionist felt a duty to share: this was a finished product, this was something YOU paid for, something someone else put effort into, something they REALLY wanted you to see.
Unfortunately, the kind of quality I allude to is simply not present in Thickly Painted Walls' confused, sloth-like video collage "Homeocrapic Goal Tenure." Rather, it exemplifies the borderline depressing lack of truly great noise videos, with it's incredibly infrequent and unequal balance of live shows, post-production audio and the painfully boring, almost completely arbitrary extended sequences of anything from household chores to silent show-and-tell scenes that serve as both padding and an endurance test.
The "plot" of HGT, not like I'd expect one, goes something like this:
The beginning is apparently an outtake from a live show recording, maybe from before the actual performance. The visual component is this conical effect I've probably seen somewhere before. The least I can say is, I'm gla the whole thing wasn't like this, since this portion of the tape is highly reminiscent of the generic psychedelic video generated by early windows media player programs.
The next part is actually fairly captivating, the camera following a journey to the top of a dilapidated building then back down again through a filthy stairwell. The music comes in later and it fits well to the mood of the surroundings: piles of cigarrettes, empty beer bottles, graffitti and chipped paint accent a melancholic urban environment, reflected in the rough, almost grungy timbre of the, well, grunge-like music. You can tell there's a lot fo times where the camera man just wants to film as much stuff as possible to see if it'll make for good imagery, and while it's not perfect, this part does show some potential.
Immediately afterwards is where HGT pulls the dragshoot for what feels like hours, zooming out of backyard furniture or walking down a road with maybe a car or two passing by, while the three words from the title occasionally pop up on screen where they reamin for a few minutes and disappear without nay rhyme or reason. During these long, incoherent shots of any random thing you could imagine, there's absolutely no music, just ambient sounds of the camera motor and the outdoors. There's an extended scene with the camera following a cat who peeks out from a house corner, then runs off, and while this part has some good shots to it and is somewhat amusing, it's still incredibly dull without the music.
Mercifully, a live show comes up eventually. It's very long, the setup is limited, and it's very apparent the whole thing was improvised, but after all that nothingness it's a welcome break. Plus it doesn't actually sound too bad; makes me want to do noise of my own. It's not a planned, atmospheric number, just some nerd exploring the sounds his guitar and pedals can make, with some good and bad results.
A longer period of padding follows. Form what I can remeber, this guy has a disturbing amount of care for filming himself shoveling out his snow-covered driveway, even going so far as to film it form two different angles (right first for a couple minutes, then left for a couple minutes, without any juxtaposition or variety). Then he goes on to film his ironically terrible shoveling job. There's also several long scenes where he shows off his shitty paintings, even one scene where all that happens is he cleans up his studio. Not even student art films get this boring or meaningless!
Somewhere along the line there's another, more rocky/less noisy live show, but it's only three songs and the whole set is shot horizontally i.e. the person(s) in frame are standing on the right side of the screen rather than the bottom. The music itself is pretty good, with a few flubs from the sound tech laughed off or ignored.
After this is the final, extremely LONG part of the film where even mroe dull, arbitrary and utterly music-less footage is shown. You see these two roomates do everything: bake cookies, drop some whit in the appartment, clean said apartment, bitch about mice coming in... they even show reversed & black and white footage of themselves eating cookies just to add in a few more seconds. This goes on for ages and of course by this point I'm just trying not to fall asleep.
The last shot, ironically one of the longest if not THE longest sections of the film, is a covered-up outdoor pool with some water on the tarp reflecting some trees. This one shot, although thankfully not static, accounts for not only what feels like then mintues of barely audible and uninteresting ambeint outdoors sounds, but also the credits reel which is very stretched out since there's only about five people to mention, so a name pops up maybe every five minutes, if not moreso. There's an actual track from I guess "Fashionista" that starts up about halfway into the shot, making a grand total of four real music/noise sections in this goddmaned video (counting the second live footage set as one section, although technically it is three songs), but I was so fucking tired I jsut fastforwarded it to the end where it haphazardly cut off, leaving a minute or two of black tape, and finally whatever leftover stuff was on the tape. It looks like some kind of 90' TBC made-for-tv movie on my copy.
And whatever movie that was would probably have been far more worth my time than what preceded it, but liek I said, I'm too tired to be bothered with it.
Thickly Painted Walls are worth looking into for their audio output, but as director(s?), they fail miserably at every convention of filmmaking, and then some. A majority of the film is blatent padding, and the extent to which nearly every shot has no visual interest, balance, organization or dpeth is truly astonishing in how utterly, painfully boring it is. The few live shows are interesting listens but only a fraction of each is truly worth a listen, and no intentionally made music or noise bits on this tape whatsoever are worth sitting through the rough hour total (maybe more) of uninteresting wastes of magnetic tape that amount to the majority of this film, that majortiy being pure visual shit. THis hsould have just been one live section after another, minimal bullshit if bullshti was needed, to keep it interesting. Not this mess. I hope nobody follows this trainwreck as an example of good filmmaking, noise or otherwise. Not again. Please, not ever again.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Thickly Painted Walls chooses her top 10 of 2011
1. Sonic Youth, "Simon Werner a Disparu" CD/LP/download
Considering the separation of Kim and Thurston, I like to pretend this is their real swan song, and how fitting it is., with no vocals.
2. Chineselightbulb, "grey leather" download
The smooth grey leather painted over your skin, glaze my eardrums with saliva.
3. Inés Navarro, "Lentes del condensador" download
what can I say? this album would freak me out and motivate me to record all at the same time, all while being comfortably relaxed laying down in a bed with blankets. Summer or winter.
4. JLK, "empty spaces" CS
read full review here: http://vacuumnoise.blogspot.com/2011/11/jlk-empty-spaces-los-discos-enfantasmes.html
5.. Prurient, "Bermuda Drain" LP/CS
Everything was on point for this release; the aesthetics, the weirdness, I'm glad it wasn't just another noise album. The cassette release offered some interesting demoes and other tracks.
"If I could, I would take a tree branch, and ram it inside you." Forever stuck in my brain.
6. Cities Aviv, "Digital Lows" download
its nice to hear good lo-fi rap that's new, I may not follow that scene so well but this release caught me by surprise birthday cake.
7. MCDX3 "the tape says..." CDr
The tape says... CD-R?! Say What! MCDX3 may become the next Bob Dylan via this release (too bad it was limited to 15 copies)... maybe not, but he didn't sell his soul to the devil, or...?
8. The Avant Garde of Sussex County, "Hope and Dreams Album" download
Joke?Harmonika beat Dr. Beanstock to it! Garageband itunes free mix!!
9. Velvet Chrome, "Anthology" CS
This tape is my cup of tea...
10. Wonder Wheel, "Total Bundy" CS/download
Just the bass heaviness in "deep in the bottle" is enough for me. The raw recordings are contrasted by effected vocals to make this release of the full band version of Wonder Wheel, wondrous.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
JLK- Empty Spaces (Los Discos Enfantasmes) review
I'm opening my closet, I'm plugging in, digital crystal clear reel running along the grassy banks of the splashy agua field. I'm plugging in, I don't care, I'm doing it doing it now. Running down the hill, on the wooden skates, on my surfboard, waking walking. You ask why answer a question with a question? I don't know I say, its repeating though, its different too. The brown faux wood sticker pulsating speaker wound, catfound no cat. I'm trying, trying to figer it out, figer it out tiger. Locked in the closet now, cat out of the bag, quick n easy, forget about it smile, inoffensive and pensive
rock n roll waitress cowboy funk skunk trunk dunk skinny legs with the tight painted on jeans or stocking jukebox fuck DJ spinning krautrock all night and outta sight dancing blues and black burning hacky sack lou reed seizure heart attack no reason to not say that sound clicks off I hear my thought church bells ringing and video game screaming buzzer alert pacing honey comb behind that cockatoo walk in to the dungeon to get fucked mortal kombat contenders are along the sides glide into the center stage with the guitarra in hand demons encircle you and climb on in thru your temples and involuntary segovia death.
http://losdiscosenfantasmes.blogspot.com/2011/06/jlk-empty-spaces.html
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Friday, November 18, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Another non-monster... and look how that baby bounces around! I can't wait to be at the top of the heap.
The best part of this Camaro commercial is flying thru the tunnel of chevy logos. They just don't mak'em right anymore! Its awesome to see it drive through that Tim Burton wonderland.
Disclaimer: I originally saw all these videos on jalopnik.com
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Thickly Painted Walls NAPKUME review by Inés Navarro
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Sunday, June 19, 2011
Tammy Wynette
Tammy Wynette - Stand by Your Man
Thursday, June 9, 2011
where the fuck is that hottie from the haircut place on facebook, a review of EVERY SLUT COULD BE A STAR cdr debut!
i left my tv on in the background, it was just blue screen
i waslisteing to a rational cobain
this was all a dare, a dare to listen to cdr
i was happy to hear my guitar on tablecloth
o yeh i forgot i gotta finish this reivew
i like the transition from dusty pussy to big car
more cobain on auto anonymity
i like way chill bra
it shows that german are super esoteric and take a long time to summon spells
thers this great band dead reptile shrine like that
anyway, this cd is packaged well
i enjoyed the artwork especially the cover and tray and back and inset
but i have a ton of work to do
i was listening to all of wolds shit
wold is really amazing if u ever care
2:48am
o yeh
2:49am
really fucked up shit though..doubt ud be able to take it
2:49am
wold is really good
I'm Gay is the album closer and its probobaly the most interesting and best track on the album.
thin guitar end.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
VNR Newsflash 9
VNR Newsflash 9 from mr. vnr video on Vimeo.
Every wonder where people go when they die? This esteemed reporter wonders too. In a small town in Nebraska there are rumors of ghosts inhabiting the town's park.
aktor stefan walz
kamra, editt david mcdevitt
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
T-PC in Northvale, NJ review
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
thickly painted walls, ceiling fan winter
all tracks also appeared on the limited edition split cassette with Pradada "Junk Ruby/ceiling fan winter", V&Rstereo5, c70 via VNR released early January 2011
credits
released 05 April 2011
all songs recorded and produced by stefan frederic walz 2011 vnr®
tags
Stuff on the Internet
- Avant Garde of Sussex County
- cranksatori
- Diana Vs. the Space Hitler
- Essays by Christopher Grud
- EUU
- exp. etc.
- FREE Binaural Beats
- free music archive
- Germans in Experimentelle musik
- Goodbye Blue Monday
- hippies before priests mixes
- hobo cult
- HOBO CULT internet download area
- homemade-lofi-psychedelic.blogspot
- jerpy harbonis
- Jessica Ryland
- KARLHEINZ STOCKHAUSEN
- Mid rib poetry
- mutant sounds
- Norm Loman's blog
- PBS
- Plaid Guitars
- saucerlike
- scrumptunes
- sunday's best video
- totally fuzzy
- V and R Merchant Dice
- V and R myspace (this is rarely used now)
- WFMU blog
- WNYU
- Wonder Wheel/ Paul A. Rosales