It’s impossible for me to evaluate music like this, as I rarely hear anything like it. Parts of it remind me of old Subotnik. …. I have not seen the movie since I was in high school, about 1968. I’m sure this music would be entirely different while watching the movie.
— JK, Chicago

This is probably one of the best compliments I’ve received over this. The full album version is almost complete, and I’m working on syncing up the music with the film for DVD or at leat a CD-ROM film. On the album version, expect two remixes (one by Edé Arwine of {species}DROID™, one by John Stone of Mortal Pain), an album mix by co-composer Jason Crowe (16min 48sec), and the demo mix (15min 46sec).

Well, the wait for a This Is Where the Fish Lives page is over!

This Is Where the Fish Lives on FaceBook.

…as usual, when left to my own devices, I am a lazy, lazy man; so suffice to say, there’s not a whole lot on there right now. but still, I urge all This Is Where the Fish Lives fans to go proclaim your not-hate of This Is Where the Fish Lives to all of FaceBook!

It looks like I’m going to be DJ’ing at The Elbow Room in Ypsilanti for Direct Hits, their Mod & Soul night, on Tuesday May 13th. For a Tuesday, it still attracts a pretty sizeable crowd, so that’ll be awesome. I’ll also be bringing my board of pin-back buttons with me (at least I will unless I’m told at the last minute not to), so bring a little extra cash to spend on my top-quality crap, as well.

And speaking of buttons….

…I’m also going to the Chicago Mod 7th Annual Our Way of Thinking Weekender, and staying with a girl I met on CouchSurfing.com, because it seems that until he can moved into an apartment with guest room capacity, Shaunbeard the Terrible’s Bed & Breakfast For Wayward Ex-Goths is on hiatus — but hey, he has a girlfriend who he’s really into, so I’m happy for him. I’ll also make sure to tell all you happy people to check out his metal band WOLFROSE when I have more info on them. But I digress…

So, yes, Chicago… buttons….

I’ll be at the weekender this year and, on Saturday in the early afternoon, I will be at Delilah’s selling my buttons at the Chicago Mod Swap Meet — so if you want some wicked-groovy buttons, but can’t make it to Ypsilanti on the 13th of May, but CAN make it to Lincoln St. in Chicago on June 7th between noon and 5pm-ish, you’ll have yet another opportunity to buy my top-quality crap. I may also bring some of my music with me, too, though probably only to Chicago, and that would be dependent on whether or not I have the time and motivation to get those together as well as the buttons.

LASTLY, for those of you checking this out who don’t read my LiveGerbil, I currently have two of my paintings available as art prints at my lulu.com store. I’m planning to re-scan the others in a reasonably timely fashion to make those available, as well. I know, I know, it has nothing to do with This Is Where the Fish Lives or my noisier music in general, but I’m working on the cover art for Ersatz Music For Ersatz People and music for Un Chien Andalou, and at least the first will be a watercolour and collage, I’m thinking Un Chien will be acrylics on black velvet, so I’m urging you to check out my arts, which you can see more of on my deviantART site, to get an idea for my styles and get excited about these paintings, and maybe even buy something for a poor (in both senses) musician.

That’s it for now. I’m going to go grab lunch and then try to re-send the master track for Un Chien to Edé from speciesDROID for a remix.

heya rj–

i got the cd today. kewl!

i really dig yer renditions of “lycanthrothene” and “what the cat brought in”. even more psychotic than the originals. i was reaching for the kitchen cutlery by the end of the last track.

very worthy covers, with a unique twist.

D’aw! Kinda makes me feel special.

And speaking of listeners, keep in mind that This Is Where the Fish Lives has made all three tracks from The Lemon Kittens EP available for free download on last.FM.

…and, in case you were looking for “serious business music” (well, serious enough that I released it under both my own name and that of my collaborator, rather than as This Is Where the Fish Lives), I’ve recently released “Music for Un Chien Andalou” via my lulu.com account. “…Un Chien Andalou” is an over sixteen minutes long piece of improvisational music recorded using electric viola (bowed and pizzicato), voice, mic’d throat, carefully directed feedback, synthesizer, snare, and bone flute for the Dalí and Buñuel collaborative film opus, Un Chien Andalou (France, silent, 1929). This differs from the original soundtrack (Wagner excerpts selected by Luis Buñuel to be played at screenings of the film), in that it is of a similar school of industrial/noise as Throbbing Gristle and Premature Ejaculation and idea-based avantgarde punk music as Lemon Kittens as Virgin Prunes.

This mix is very rough and this release is of the single unedited track. In Spring of 2008, we’re hoping to have a remastered “clean” version of the track that is better timed with the film, as well as at least one “remix”, all for a second release, and by Summer of 2008, hopefully a DVD or CD-ROM release of the film with the new music (as the film has lapsed into the public domain [cabbage-patches]).

Hello everyone,

I have released a podcast this week to talk a little about the future of this program. You can download it at http://www.bowed.org/xxx/xxx.mp3. I feel envigorated to continue with this podcast: I have a wealth of music ready to go, a lot of exciting things are happening in the world of strings. But I am struggling to keep this as a pro bono venture. I am not going to be able to continue this program in the format it currently exists in without some form of sponsorship.

In short there are five advertising “spots” on each program. I will be selling these spots starting at 20 USD each. For those interested in other options, a rate sheet is available for download here:

www.bowed.org/xxx/BR-Rate Sheet.pdf

Payments will be made via PayPal to my email address: string@bowed.org . All advertisers will receive a receipt verifying payment, wording of script, and information on where their message will be nested.

Please consider supporting a podcast that supports so many string players worldwide.

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all your support.

Mark Allender, producer-host
web: www.bowed.org
email: string@bowed.org
phone: 330-781-4387
skype: mark.allender

Yeah, I know that I have few listeners here, but if even just one TIWtFL fan passes along this info to two people, and those two people pass it along to two more people, and so forth, well, that can really add up.

This guy was also the first person ever to request a free CD-R of The Lemon Kittens EP. Excellent.

Not bad for a music project that gets almost nothing in the way of promo.

Speaking of, and since it’s already free, I also uploaded The Lemon Kittens EP for free download via last.fm. This means This Is Where the Fish Lives will also be getting free Internet “radio” play via last.fm — most likely something like their “tag radio” for stuff like “sound collage”, even though there’s no collage in those three tracks (unless you count throwing in Twin Peaks samples), just cos people have this bad habit of calling something “avantgarde” or “experimental” when there’s nothing really “avantgarde” or “experimental” about it. Joyfulness.

Sweet!

• A new soundtrack for Un Chein Andalou — so far, I’m hoping for it to be a synth and viola piece that will be on the album and *maybe* I’ll do it as a single, too. Since the film itself is Public Domain (yay!), eventually I’m going to find a way to release the film with the new soundtrack, but since I’m not talking to anybody at any little art-house film distros, it’s probably going to be either on DVD-R or via Lulu.com.
• I’m also working on a piece based on reading of an excerpt from Poppy Z Brite’s Exquisite Corpse. I have an e-mail from the author granting permission, and I feel like an ass-hole that I’m just now getting around to doing it, but sometimes you just have to find the right people to execute an idea (and it’s about as hard as you think it is to find somebody who can say “sugar candy ass-hole” with a straight face). Since the book was published by a division of Simon & Schuster, I’ve been examining “fair use” clauses and what-not and because it’s such a small excerpt (barely a paragraph), it can be easily argued as parody without debate. Either way, it’ll be available on-line, at the very least.

I’m probably going to get a few other ideas before I can feel safe in saying that the album is complete, so as it stands, I’m probably not even going to look at being done with this until maybe December of 2007. Maybe.

I’m still hoping for maybe an improv performance in the very near future, but it seems like it won’t be in April.

This Is Where the Fish Lives may be playing a one-off performance in Ann Arbor, MI at a “private party” (which is probably going to be at my place) in mid-to-late April. News to follow and be posted here.

Any performance that may happen is subject to audio and video recording. You HAVE been warned.