Scientific Discussions about Slowness for A/V Festival

Vicki Bennett is currently curating a 744 hour long radio station called Radio Boredcast, to run for the duration of AV Festival 12. As part of this broadcast I am conducting a series of factual interviews with scientists that deal with 'slow' issues such as: Rust, Evolution, and Sleep in Bats. You will be able to find the interviews here, through A/V festival, or later archived on WFMU.
"AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible is a Festival in slow motion. For the first time the Festival runs for a whole month from 1-31 March 2012. It's the most adventurous edition to date including over 15 major exhibitions, more than 50 film screenings and music events, weekend walks and an online radio broadcasting for 744 hours. The programme takes place at different speeds, paces and times of day across Newcastle, Gateshead, Middlesbrough and Sunderland, including an accelerated 24 Hour Launch. Programme highlights and our new website will be launched in November, sign up to our email list to keep in touch and follow us on facebook and twitter".

Beasts for A While Review from Gumshoe Grove

Another interesting review of Beasts for a While from Gumshoe Grove with extra plugs for Matt Minters artwork, our love for inexpensive synths, and a few extra Collection mp3s if you visit the real blog post and not just my reposting below...

"First, before you read another WORD, listen to that first MP3 up there ^^^ … this is the unintentional sequel to “April Showers” (by Grove longtimers Tonstartssbandht), a vocal smash-terpiece as intruiging as lie detector tests are faulty. If some of you have lamented this site is too weird/obscure/out-there, check out “Pitter Patter Treat” and hear the exact point where (potential) popular appeal and small-run weirdness intersect. Smashing.
Now that we have that out of the way, allow me to unveil my first 11-inch LP (and it’s red, to boot): Beasts for While, by Collection Of The Late Howell Bend (who also have a split with old warlords Warmer Milks notching their collective belt), a band with one of those names you just have to investigate (just did a Wiki search and found nada).
Where to begin? Side A of Beasts is executed perfectly. This is music you didn’t know you needed to hear, but did. Launching with an Andy Ortmann, science-lab feel, the marble slab of psych sprawls out like bushy-blonde hair from there. Soft-lens, post-Cocorosie, pre-Espers, micro-Spires That From The Sunset Rise, Lou Reed-style ghost-folk with cheapo synths scratched out from a cave studio?
YES, more please! Spreading this one, super-specific idea over an entire LP side might seem like a stretch, literally, but it’s more than enough to diddle your dreams. It’s like 39 Clocks hijacked a sinking ship and started shooting off guns and letting Wesley Willis play synths.
Side B is almost as ripe. Nimble, tip-toeing strings dance about as — you didn’t forget! — SYNTHS yip and yap, lapping up the open spaces of the composition and contrasting interestingly with the rhythmic bow swipes. Some more of those dead-mouth vocals slip out of the mix like the squeak of a balloon emptying or a dolphin “a-gha-gha-gha”-ing, and those will determine the extent of your enjoyment of Side Deaux.
That AND a last-minute change-up into repetitive, murky drone-synth territory that only helps Beasts for While make its case for your time and space. Very different from the rest of the LP; a drifting glacier makes its way through salty waters ever so slowly, staying cool even as the rest of the earth heats. Oneohtrix Point Never, Mudboy, Editions Mego alumni et al; you get the drill before I even tell you any more, right?
Don’t let life, or good limited-run records, pass-ass-ass you by, brother."

Women Are Magic

Nine Fingered Thug has a new tape out. The Indy Weekly describe it as

"From the nasty rattle of the opening bass riff to the tortured, lethargic keyboards that close "Birthday Deer," Nine Fingered Thug's debut cassette is a purposefully abrasive outing. About as far removed from modern, joy-buzzing noise pop as possible, these songs quake with the low-end dumpster rock of the keys, drums and bass instrumentation and snarl with Samuel Mintu's demented, rabid yap."

A fantastic description of a review. No doubt. However, I would choose different language. For me, words like 'beautiful' and 'pretty' come to mind. Nine Fingered Thug as metal, noisy, and full of minor chords as it might be, follows many interesting modes. Many of the song structures actually follow the principles of ballroom dancing and easy listening...including waltzes, marches, and a fox trot. Polka is definitely in the future. Sure there is lots of low end with the instrumentation being bass, drums and a hacked organ. But to whales, elephants, lions, or many other power forces from the animal kingdom low end is sexy. High end is reserved for screams of panic and terror emitted by prey animals.

I would say we are in the genre of folk metal or ballad metal if there is one. The best folk songs tend to be tragic including teachings of fables and folklore for the young ones just entering the world. Metal because of the overdrive.

They are tapes, get them while they are hot.

Collection of the Late Howell Bend Review

Beasts for a While was reviewed by Brandon at Olive Music. This is a re-posting of that review.

"When I was first mailed this disc, I couldn't have been more excited to put it on, based entirely on the artwork. I was expecting something maniacal, evil, and disgusting. And while some may argue that is exactly what I got, I was definitely surprised when the needle dropped. What I soon found out is that The Collection Of The Late Howell Bend is not a black metal band, a wall noise project, or even some type of witch house act, but some type of next-level piano/synth/vocals post-neofolk meandering. AWESOME.

While I was initially intrigued by the strings, pianos, and vocals, I do want to use this opportunity to call out the cheese factor on some of the tracks. The synth lines often sound (and feel) like they were pulled out of a discarded Legend Of Zelda game for the Super Nintendo, which, although not entirely un-enjoyable, almost don't fit in with the feel of Beasts For A While. However, as much as that synth doesn't fit in with the album, it also fits perfectly. Along with the piano and cello, you are transported to a screened in porch, cramped tight with good friends, warmed by cheap wine, and the smells of summer are fresh in your breath. At least, that's what I got out of my first few listens.

Perhaps the more I listen to this album, the more places I will be transported to. Perhaps not, but that's not going to stop me from trying because the moment you lift the needle from the silent locked groove, you'll just want to flip the record and start it all over again. Oh, and if that's not enough to get you to buy this, tell me how many 11" records you have ever seen."

Beasts for A While is still available from Ownness Records!

Another fantastic comp

I must say I have enjoyed fully every comp I have been fortunate enough to be included. So much of a good comp is about the person who selects the music, and puts the tracks in a pleasing order. This comp is no exception. It is just FANTASTIC!

Ordering details are on the Delirious Insomniac Blog

==Below is a reposting from the Delirious Insomniac Blog===
The Delirious Insomniac Freeform Radio Show has haunted the airwaves of WLUW into the wee hours of dreary Monday Nights since 2008. Host Arvo Fingers uses his lengthy experience as a sleepless madman to wield surrealistic songs and sounds into a slithering swath for 4 hours a week. Presently, "Delirious Insomniac" is also syndicated on RadioKL.Hr in Croatia, with occasional interviews, virtual guest installations, ghost hosts, and radio art. On September 9th, 2011, Arvo Fingers and WLUW will be celebrating the 4th Anniversary of the Delirious Insomniac Freeform Radio Show as well as the release of the first volume of "Delirious Music For Delirious People", a compilation featuring Jarboe, Controlled Bleeding, Zola Jesus, Boyd Rice and Friends, Gary Wilson, BeNe GeSSeRiT, Big City Orchestra, Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet, and others.

At this time, less than 150 copies of the digipaks are available and not spoken for. The pro CDRs will stay in print unless someone happens to want to work with me on a double LP.

Irene Moon and the Begonia Society at the ICA

A book documenting (you can flip through the pages here) Moon's residency at the Institute of Electronic Arts in Alfred New York. The book, first published in 2009, includes an 2007 interview with Irene by Kathryn Drury and performance documentation by Peer Bode, Devin Henry and Nick Garafoli. The performance piece entitled Aster Tide Auk was performed with Jay Blandford, Kathryn Drury, Rebecca Frasier, Nick Garofoli, Elena Grajek, Dionne Lee, Meg McLaughlin, Samantha Pribish, and Justin Windman.

Evoluion Meeting Video Contest

As part of the first ever Evolution Meeting Video Contest (organized by NESCent) Meditation on Odonata was submitted.


Meditation on Odonata from Irene Moon on Vimeo.



Created with help (and specimens) from the North Carolina State Insect Museum (insectmuseum.org). An informative but strange introduction to the order Odonata. Video created using AfterEffects software, NCSU Insect Museum specimens, and footage from the Sandin Image Processor located at Alfred University. Meditation on Odonata is important for a few reasons personally as we work on digitizing our Odonate collection…discovering all kinds of cool dragonflies that are found in North Carolina as well as georeferencing these specimens. Could this be one way to discover how the landscape has changed from urbanization since dragonflies are typically found and collected around water?

Salamander Auk

Live version of Salamander Auk from the Auk Theater. Matthew Minter and Irene Moon are the Auks. Matt created the masks and the artwork for the overhead projector. Irene did the music. The plot was created by all the auks. Recorded during the 2005 tour with Mudboy and Wizzards.


Salamander Auk from Irene Moon on Vimeo.


For more Auk Theater information and videos.

From the Radio Archives: Insect Corner on DO or DIY

Irene Moon and friends with Insect Corner on WFMU in 2009 featured on DO or DIY hosted by People Like Us. Below are the links to the archives right to the insect corner selections (not in any particular order)!


1. Pat and Ellen. A rebroadcast of Questions from Pat and Ellen about Spider Mites.

2. Leafhoppers and Frass

3. Insect Diversity

4. Heinz tells tales of New Jersey Insects

5. Heinz tells tales of WWII insects

6. Introduction to Insects from Curator Bill with a Social Insect Focus

7. Aunty Pat and Aunty Ellen fill in for Ken: Insect Corner Branches out on the Phylogenetic Tree with Tapeworms.

The podcasts use the WFMU popup flash audio player...