The Null Device Blog

I am apologizing in advance to Wendy, the cats, and my neighbors.

I just ordered a dhol.

Here’s all the info…

In case you can’t read that:

Sat Oct 18th.  Doors: 9:30 (ND @ ~10pm)

Advance tickets are $5, if I’m not mistaken.

Buy advance tickets at The Majestic.

Now that it’s confirmed, I’m VERY pleased to announce:

Saturday, October 18th
Majestic Theatre, Madison
DJ Rekha
w/ Null Device

More info as I receive it – price, age, etc.

For those who don’t know DJ Rekha is the architect of NY’s esteemed “Basement Bhangra” nights, and she’s one of the top bhangra DJs around.   She came through Madison earlier this year and it was one helluva party.

1) I’m getting really close to having a completed, working electric bulbul tarang.  I’ve got the body built, the headstock and tuners working (hooray for spade bits!) and I’ve got a start on the pickup assembly and housing (which I’ve made modular so I can easily remove it and replace parts at will).  Of course, all my fancy design changes have meant that it’s about twice as heavy as a normal instrument, but that doesn’t really bother me.  I need to adjust the fingerboard a bit so the action is a little higher, and I need to find a better way to affix the nut (it’s a little wobbly) but once I’ve got that sorted, I’m on my way.

2) Since the LeSac vs Pip show, I’ve had this fasciantion with messed-up hip hop beats.  I spent a chunk of Sunday messing aorund in Ableton and Logic glitching breakbeats and dhols to see what I could come up with.  I actually got a pretty cool and usable beat out of it but I’m currently unsure what to put over the top of it.  I may need to speed it up by about 10bpm.  I am a prisoner of my own love of dance music.
Also, possible Big Thing on the horizon, but I’ve not heard anything yet so it may not happen.

Maybe I’m a Genius or Maybe I Just Think A Lot

Originally uploaded by nulldevice

Saw LeSac vs. Pip last night at the Majestic (as mentioned in my last blog post).

Really frakkin good. The opener (“B.Dolan”) took a little bit to get going and the crowd was thin, but he was engaging enough, and his schtick broke up what could’ve been a kind of self-serious set otherwise. You gotta appreciate a cherubic guy dressed as Evel Knievel doing onstage “stunts” to the “The Final Countdown” in between politcal hip-hop tracks. The schtick could’ve overshadowed the actual music, except he had pretty decent flow and stage banter, so he pretty much pulled it off. I’d've liked to have seen slightly more going on musically live, though.

Le Sac and Pip were excellent. For two sort of awkward british guys, they really do have good stage presence. Le Sac clowns around while twisting knobs on Ableton Live, adding a little presence to a laptop rock performance. It’s clear that he’s enjoying the hell out of it. Pip has definite grounding in the poetry/performance art world, because his mannerisms, twitchy movements, nerd-chic style and props (!) bear much more resemblance to someone giving a beat poetry reading than to an MC.

They ran through most of their “hits” – “Beat That My Heart Skipped”, “Angles”, “Thou Shalt Always Kill”,”Development”,”Back From Hell” and “Letter from God To Man” – and surprisingly, added both a new track and a solo spoken-word piece and performed the seriously-downer track “Magician’s Assistant”, which they pulled off but still drew some sort of confused looks from the audience (cacophonous songs about suicide are a risky choice). Also, “Look To The Woman”, which is a great song but also a tough choice to do live, just based on subject matter and tempo.

They’re remarkably accessible guys, too. Neither had any problems chatting up the locals, signing stuff, posing for pictures, etc. Nice guys. Decent merch selection, too.

It was a lot of fun – Dr. Parks and Birke carpooled with me, we met up with Fanale beforehand, ran into a coworker of his as well as Paul and Katherine, then bumped into Maddie at the show itself. Both Matt and Ryan ran into about 70 people they knew (that I didn’t) because they’re outgoing and gregarious. I suppose it helps a show’s energy if everyone in the crowd knows everybody else. Also, there was a surprisingly low percentage of hipster douchebags in attendance. Given the band’s cult status, I expected at least a gaggle of hipper-than-thou kids in tight jeans and chunky glasses looking bored. The three guys dressed like that seemed to be enjoying themselves, so that’s a plus.