8-23-2008
Time flies when you're not updating your website properly. Some of this can be blamed on my blog. Some of this blatant lack of regular updating can be attributed to changes and advances in the Technocar and the multitude of events it attends as well as new camera equipment and how much watering the plants need.
Anywho, the RPM challenge album came out quite nicely, we think. It was different from the first RPM challenge in that I just kind of knew I could pull it off. There are several really good songs in this lot. Overall I don't like it as much as I Have Electric Head.
This week I started work on a new ambient-ish album. Two songs are "in the can" already. If you know where to look for advance copies of these songs you should look there. If you don't know, ignore this sentence and the one before it. Thanks.
As mentioned earlier, the Technocar has undergone some upgrading this year, pictures will be uploaded soon. The Technocar has brought a little bit of confusion and a lot of smiles to parades and festivals in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Baltimore, Louisville, and places between. The car will be in Columbus Ohio for the Hot Times Festival the second weekend of September.
I have upgraded to a Nikon D-80 camera. Visit my Flickr page here.
Cheers,
Alan Evil
2-9-2008
--Alan Evil
2-9-2008
There has been news over the last year, and I hope to come back and add it in with dates and such. I feel bad about the state of this page. I hope to fill in the gaps between 2-17-2007 and now using e-mails, etc. In short, I created a bunch of paintings, expanded my artcar, and piddled in music. So let's pretend for now we're caught up...
--Alan Evil
2-17-2007
It has been a very long time since you received any updates on the goings on here at the Institute. We are pretty sure it's been at least since the last one. We're also pretty sure that had something to do with the "What Has Been Up, Yo?" mix (which remains available for free on the site to this very day!).
There are good reasons for this lack of updates.
1. Much of what has been done since the last update has been secret. We could have told you about it but we would have had to kill you.
2. The quantity of new stuff recorded was down for a while there as Alan Evil learned his way around the Ableton Live! program (and he still feels like a bumbling baby beginner). Getting Live! set up for a new IFPR ambient set is next in line for Mr. Evil and his crew of oddly dressed misfits so you may expect another long, quiet spell.
3. And now there's this RPM Challenge thing.
As you are longtime friends of the Institute here is a link to a special, unlinked page on the site. On this page you will find a set of brand new pop songs from Alan Evil and his Merry People that will make you get up and shake your money maker. This page is getting updated very regularly because the RPM Challenge is to record and mail a new album in the month of February. That's right, an album in 28 days. So Alan Evil had been slugging on the whiskey when he heard this on NPR (and as we all know, whiskey makes him mean). He immediately began cheating and entered "I Have Electric Head" which he had begun recording the day before he heard of the Challenge. He also plans on adding another song recorded even earlier as a "bonus" to the album because it fits. At present there are eight new songs (seven are the "qualifying" songs for the Challenge) in various states of completion up at www.psychicreform.com/rpm. As each song is closed out in the studio for the day a new version is created and uploaded to the site. We only ask that you delete all these alternate versions once the full album is complete. For a very brief period the songs and artwork will be available for free to you (with a suggested donation, of course) and then the album will be for sale.
Here's the list of songs at the moment:
I Have Electric Head 2:14
Mars Has Oil 4:25
Wish You Well 7:15
Radio Sucks 3:21
In My Fantasy 4:11
Golf Course Geese 3:20
That's seven songs at 24:46 (actually a little less for fades). The Challenge is for ten songs or 35 minutes.
And we are pretty sure that the remaining 3 songs for the challenge will be:
Explosively Formed Penetrator
Clear Liquid Eyes
Pimped by My Ho
Keep checking back to www.psychicreform.com/rpm for the rest of the month to get newer versions of what are sure to be ageless pop hits.
Cheers,
Tornado G
Ordinarily we end these newsletters with some kind of observation by Alan Evil who could only say, "What?!? I have to get another drum track down, leave me alone."
11-22-2006
Alan Evil has begun to reconstitute the IFPR live show. Since Dream It Was Crazy the tables full of electronic instruments, samplers, and effects have grown dusty and have been sold off, piece by piece. The dual cd player, dj mixer, turntable and a non-working MC-303 remain but all actual production of new material has moved into the world of Ableton Live!, a computer based digital audio workstation. Many laptop musicians use this program and IFPR has been looking to the future since its inception in the past. So now the actual rack of stuff becomes a virtual rack. I just like the way it sounds. "Virtual rack."
To celebrate the coming return to the stage we have added a selection of live shows from the past here.
The BiPolar Unit collaboration continues to move forward in little jumps and wiggles. If an album comes out before 2010 we will still be faster than Boston ever was.
Today as I drove from the post office back to my house I stopped at an intersection just as the light changed to green. There was this guy who started to cross but then stepped back. He had the air of a bum, none of his clothes fit quite right (though they were all new-ish and clean-ish) and he had the air of the crazies that inhabit this part of the city. He was lurching about, looking at first one light and then the other and then at me then back to the lights. Under his coat he was wearing a black t-shirt that had two words one above the other in big, tie-dyed letters. Just as he waved at me to go on through the intersection I finally could see what his shirt said: "POOP BITCH" I kid you not.
9-18-2006
The upkeep of this site has suffered greatly over this summer. But let the newly uploaded artwork and a store give you reason to rejoice. Though this section has not been updated there is quite a bit more free music available for you. Soon I will have all these albums available as cd-r audio discs at staggeringly low costs!
A first BiPolar Unit release as an ep is possible in the near future. Much goodness awaits those with patience.
There are rumors that Alan Evil is considering releasing some demo songs from his White Trash Opera. They will probably debut briefly on MySpace before taking up residence here.
4-20-2006
In the event you weren't paying attention to the site for the last year (and who could blame you? It went virtually unchanged for almost a year) the IFPR website has undergone a complete overhaul recently to strip it down and simplify the works of it. As a result there is a lot more music than ever available for free and the artwork is easier to view. Tornado_G is trying to get around to setting up a store for us. If you see a picture on the site that you just have to have a print of or the actual piece of art in the picture, just contact us, and we'll tell you how much. We've even got Paypal!
The Technocar has been to several events in the last year. Most recently to Baton Rouge for a visit and New Orleans to see the old home place. You can see pictures of it here. The Bipolar Unit album is nearing completion and remixing by outside parties has begun. New IFPR material is in the making right now, and the birds are singing to greet the coming of spring! Tra la la la la!
5-24-2005
Holy moly it's been a long time!!! Time flies when you're changing your mind. Let's see if I can fill in some blanks here.
The collaboration with Highdropod has taken on a name, BiPolar Unit, and is heading towards a double cd. It seems that each new piece is weirder and cooler than the one before it. At present there is an outtake (same music is in use somewhere else in the galaxy of Highdropodness) on the Music page. The vast majority of music making has gone into this production since last year.
Alan Evil has five pieces hanging in a gallery on Main St. in Louisville called the Cinderblock. They will be up through the end of the month. Prints of the four photographs will be available for purchase here on the site once the show comes down. The painting (one of a series of six) will also be for sale here on the site if it doesn't sell from the gallery. We are attempting to open an online "store" but if that can't be configured successfully in the very near future we'll make a page with a "buy" button next to each picture.
The art car page is in dire need of an update. There is a new phase coming soon and we're kind of holding the update for that but to say the least the car has seen some nice additions. There are new bits of technology and buttons on the dash, more stripes, lights under the wheel wells, the rear seat has been replaced with a bed for Bubbha the wonder dog, a throbbing interior light attached to the subwoofer lights the cab, it has a new, flourescent rear deck, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. We promise to update things soon and notify you here.
Oh, and check out Alan Evil's guitar while you're here. It rocks. It explodes with metal fury. It glows under a black light.
9-11-04
In the last few weeks much has gone on with the Highdropod collaboration. Highdropod has contributed at least three new cuts and Alan Evil has begun pooping all over them (damn that insult dog!). For now there are no cuts from the collaboration on the Music page. This will probably change soon so keep your eyes peeled.
It is also possible that the long delayed album Alan Evil Sings may benefit from the Highdropod collaboration as Alan Evil recently squeezed out what sounds a little like an accursed hybrid of John Cougar, The Kingston Trio, and the Happy Mondays. This song may end up on the Highdropod collaboration but if not Alan Evil Sings is one more step towards completion.
A section has been added to this site for the Psychcreform.com Technocar artcar project. Donations are accepted with profound thanks up to but not necessarily including grovelling in gratitude in a leech infested swamp at your feet. This requires we be in a leech infested swamp at the time or perhaps it could be arranged for a later date. We're easier than a 16 year old blonde with a fake i.d. in a bar in the French Quarter.
One of the kids from the housing projects behind the IFPR studios was so inspired by the Technocar that he spray painted his scooter. I can't wait to see it.
July 29, 2004
So we are now located only here on this server. It's wonderful and scary at the same time. Expect a lot more free music.
The Highdropod collaboration is lulling just a little but that's ok. It seems to come in spurts (no pun intended) with slow periods between. Keep an eye on the Music page. A recent mix of the elements from HPod's "Punk Thing" from Alan Evil is up on the Music page.
We've also brought back this summer's early environmental recordings at a whopping 192kbps mp3 format. Again, look to the Music page.
Today I saw an old black man walking down the street. He was kind of short, a little bow legged, and his hair was gray. He was wearing all white. As he went down the street he was vigorously kicking something. I was approaching slowly at an angle from about a block away, seeing the old man across empty lots and the wide street. At first I thought he was kicking a can with gusto. But as I crossed the street so I could see him directly ahead down the sidewalk, I realized he was kicking pieces of trash out into the street. He was kicking the shit out of each piece and if they only went to the curb he went after them and kicked them out into the lane of traffic on that side of the street. As I approached the IFPR Studios I noted a yellow fast food container, a smashed plastic bottle, and various paper and plastic shards from packaging and the like. Typical trash for this trashy neighborhood. I'm pretty sure he was cursing to himself as he did it but that's a pretty busy street and he was walking fast. As my dog is very old and very slow the old man booked it away from me, talking loudly and kicking garbage out onto the street. I can easily see myself doing the same thing. Protest can come in the most unexpected forms.
July 11, 2004
So the Homestead site is about to vanish forever. Since 1999 there has been and IFPR site on Homestead and I would still recommend them highly to anyone that would like a professional looking site but knows nothing about it. This real site is more difficult, believe me.
The Highdropod/IFPR project is rocking along and we're up to seven or eight compositions in the works. This is going to be a neat album when it's done. As always, check the Music page for the latest recordings.
Two days ago I saw the strangest accident a block down from my house. A jeep pulled out in front of a car and the car ended up jumping the curb into a parking lot and hitting a police car. A dump truck was blocking some of the view down the road but I could see past it pretty clearly from several blocks away so the jeep was, as with most drivers, in an incredible hurry and couldn't wait to make sure the way was clear. Amazing. If you drive like an impatient child do us all a favor and start using a bicycle.