Announcement
Looking for an unforgettable Valentine's Day night out? It's an evening of circuit-bent electronic music, featuring Sydney Australia's Toydeath, the strategic chaotic assault of Half Nelson, your local bending conglomerate The Bureau of Nonstandards, and performance electronics from CMU's Robot Cowboy.
Expect radically repurposed toys: Speak and Spells, Barbie dolls, toy telephones, bullhorns, voice changers, all kinds of things. Don't just sit at home--come on out and hear the Furbies singing, each to each. Perhaps they will even sing to you. All ages, $7.
Monday February 14. 8PM. $7. All ages. Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA.
Report
BoN set: seemed successful, a balance of noise, structure, and technical difficulty.
Robot Cowboy: *quite* a show. Glad I didn't go on after him. One to watch.
Half-Nelson: the jazz soundtrack for a Demerol overdose in an abandoned factory.
Toy Death were great fun--good bends on the instruments, costumes, choreographed moves. Apparently they do shows for kids, and they go over quite well.
I already thought the Bureau of Nonstandards set Tuesday night was a good one. Listening back to it, we tapped into something really special with this one. (Warning: blast of noise at 5:30, and occasionally thereafter.)
Announcement
The Bureau of Nonstandards will bend, repurpose, and manipulate its way into your organization's todo list on Tuesday, November 30, as we open for the legendary Ben Miller / degeneration (Destroy All Monsters, Sproton Layer), and appear with local ambient/experimental mainstay Requiem.
Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA. Tuesday, Nov. 30, 8PM. $7, all ages.
Ben's work is rightfully legendary, and The Bureau of Nonstandards will be there as well, bending, repurposing, and manipulating.
Ben Miller :: music for the head
Announcement
The Bureau of Nonstandards reconvenes next week, for a public hearing with Duluth's circuit bending wizard Tim Kaiser, local Gameboy-bender 8cylinder, and Dream Weapon. We'll bring nonstandard blips, bleeps, and bends, along with an appearance by the cheapest-ever Moog product.
Save the date and put it on the agenda; we'll think outside the box, add value, and take it to the next level.
8PM, $6 all ages.
Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA
Some folks from work came by the BoN show earlier this month, so now we've been bl0gz0r3d.
I have committed to riding the fader during the Bureau of Nonstandards show tonight. Should I have brought the compressor? Too late now.
Announcement
Friday night, June 4! The Bureau of Nonstandards rides again as part of the Arts Festival's Art of Technology Exhibition, with chattering, sputtering, crackling circuit-bent devices and twisted processed loops. We're on at 7, followed by Mike Tamburo's friendly vernacular ambience. Come on down and get (circuit-)bent.
805/807 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, 3rd Floor Gallery. Right between Dozen and the Shaw Galleries. 7PM sharp, Friday June 4, 2010. All ages. Free.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette mentions Friday's Bureau of Nonstandards show...but fails copy-and-paste 101. (They misspelled my first *and* last name.) Arts Festival goes more interactive in its 51st year
Live BoN show on WRCT--another in our line of really good radio-only sets.
Announcement
Circuit bender Kevin C. Smith and I are back at the table of bent electronics for a live-on-the-radio show on WRCT. It'll be Monday, March 23, at 9PM EDT--you can check it out over the airwaves, or online via live stream. The Speak 'n' Spell might come back to life, and maybe the Furbies will sing...or something entirely different will happen. There's only one way to find out: tune in Monday at 9. We'll see you...on the radio.
WRCT, 88.3 FM Pittsburgh, or WRCT, 9PM Monday March 23.
Awesome Bureau of Nonstandards show--the Furbies laughed at us, though.
Announcement
It's time to smash your cell phone, saddle up your Furby, and bring your noise-making keychain on over to the Morning Glory Coffeehouse in the new-on-the-cultural-radar neighborhood of Morningside. That's right, circuit bender Kevin C. Smith and I will be at it again as the Bureau of Nonstandards, with Kevin coaxing a stunning variety of sounds from his bent and twisted toys, while I munge the results into a post-human groove, hunched over the laptop with email-checking intensity.
We'll be appearing with Beach Fuzz, all the way from Manchester in the UK, about whom I know pretty much nothing, apart from the excerpts on their Myspace page, which range from feedback and drum bashing to psychedelic drone ambience.
Will the Speak'n'Spell give us evocative vocals? Will the Furbies chant in religious ecstasy this time? C'mon out and see.
1806 Chislett St., Pittsburgh, PA 15206 [Map]. All ages. 7PM.
I'm about to send out a gig spam for Friday's Bureau of Nonstandards show. Time got away from me, folks.
That was a pretty darned good Bureau of Nonstandards set. So does Kevin. Live on WPTS. Favorite bit: when we took the Furbies to Tibet.
Announcement
Circuit bender Kevin C. Smith and I are up to our tricks again--we're playing the WPTS Live show this week. You won't have to schedule it, since it's on the radio or live internet stream. You can just dial it in, kick back, and listen to an hour of pure electronic id from Kevin's Speak 'n' Spells, Furbies, Casios, and other curious sources, as well as my sonic twisting of the results. See you...on the radio.
92.1 FM Pittsburgh, or wpts.pitt.edu, Wednesday February 18, 2009, 9PM
Announcement
Here's a special one: circuit bender Kevin C. Smith and I are going back to the well of bent and twisted electronic toys, while I fire up the live remixer. Will the bent Furby do its three stooges thing again? We'll find out. I might just bust out a short solo set of my latest stuff as well.
We'll be joined by local scene legend Steven Sciulli on his new Hartmann Neuron synth--this might just be the only one of these anywhere near town, and is quite the special device. I know I'm looking forward to hearing what Steve can do with this thing. And if that isn't enough, we'll also be joined by Power Pill Fist from Black Moth Super Rainbow...and he'll be playing Atari 2600! Some surprising stuff is going to happen.
Once again it's at Your Inner Vagabond, so you'll be able to check out some fine coffees, teas, and middle-eastern/subcontinental entrees and desserts. How can you lose? By not coming, that's how. See you there!
4130 Butler St., Pittsburgh, PA
Announcement
Minmei Decelis (My Boyfriend the Pilot) is leaving town and going out with a bang--one last show at Your Inner Vagabond with the Bureau of Nonstandards (that's circuit-bender Kevin C. Smith and yours truly) and 8cylinder. It's not just a show; it's an experience: Min, Kevin, and I will be doing a live film soundtrack to the classic Forbidden Planet. Rehearsals have been quite compelling--I'll be playing processed guitar, Kevin will be bringing a bunch of bent toys, and Min will be playing two Theremins. You heard me, two Theremins. Come on down and check it out.
4130 Butler St., Pittsburgh, PA 15201. Tuesday October 21, 8PM to midnight, with the movie at 10:00. All ages, BYOB.
I'm getting ready for the Bureau of Nonstandards gig tonight
Announcement
All your clocks up to date? Calendars turned over? Car tuned up? Electronic devices all calibrated? Yes? Hm. You're going to have to trash all that--here comes another transmission from the Bureau of Nonstandards. Circuit bender Kevin Smith and I will be bringing the decalibration devices to the Garfield Artworks for another bending + live remix performance. Expect confusing missives from liberated toys, stuttering uncertainty from educational electronics, and looped, poked, and tweaked sounds from many other sources.
We'll be opening for the gorgeous malletized jazz of the Deep End Ensemble, and also for the improvisations of Woodlab experimenters Bernabo/Harris/Masterman. C'mon down and get out of sync. Not everybody's doing it.
Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 8PM, $7, all ages.
Announcement
Circuit bender Kevin Smith and I are at it again, this time at the new store/venue in hipper-every-day Bellvue, 517521. Kevin will bring his box of deviously modified electronic toys and instruments, and I'll remix them live. An exclusive audience at the Garfield Artworks really dug this in July, so check it out tonight.
517-521 Lincoln Ave. Bellevue, Pa 15202 412-223-2552. Friday, August 24, 6PM. All ages. Free.
Announcement
Circuit bender Kevin Smith and I will be doing our live bending + remix experiments under the name The Bureau of Nonstandards. Speak-n-Spells, twisted Casios, and other common sound-making electronics are given a whole new context through hardware changes and the live remix. The improvised results range from an exploration of a landscape of tense sonic alienation, to abstract IDM, to light comedy. We'll be opening up for internationally known sprocket scientist tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE and a special appearance by composer and trombonist Dick Turner.
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE will be presenting "Last Man on Earth," a triple projection movie that references his own improvising on multiple instruments in 1992, the life of writer Mary Shelley, & various related offshoots. He'll play a live soundtrack for his movie using samples from the original improvisation.
Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 8PM, $6, all ages.
Announcement
I'll be performing with circuit bender (and fellow Branca ensemble member) Kevin Smith at the opening of the Make/Do show at Future Tenant. Life is complex, and one often must manipulate materials at hand in order to...well, you know. So we'll be manipulating materials at hand--Kevin through circuit bends (and many of his bends are quite ingenious) and me through live manipulation of the bent sounds. Rehearsals have been particularly promising, with results ranging from ambient to beat-driven abstract electronica, so we're pretty psyched about this show.
Also on hand will be bicycle advocacy collective Free Ride and their human-powered margarita blender. And of course the manipulated materials of the show itself.
So come on down to Future Tenant, and get your circuits bent. You know you want to.
Friday, March 2, 2007, Future Tenant Gallery, 801 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15222, 6 to 9 PM. Free, all ages.
Report
Kevin and I met in 2004, at the abortive Kaufman-Astoria sessions for Branca's 13; now that Kevin's relocated to the 'burgh, it only seemed natural to collaborate. Kevin does circuit bending of various toys (Speak-n'spells, toy megaphones, Casio keyboards, and other amusing stuff), which I've been processing through the laptop.
Generally, a pretty good set--doing the show was lots of fun, even though monitoring was nonexistent, and I had to rely on what was bouncing back off the walls of this long, narrow, cinderblock space. Still, no agenda, lots of time to fill, and free drinks and hors d'oeuvres. The end result: a bit meandering, perhaps, but undeniably atmospheric and full of possibilities for mixing down. So, a success. Ryan of the SCLF was there, and I'd come down with Mr. Funky, so it was a social occasion as well. (Rob convinced us to join him with some other friends at a karaoke night, so we did...though neither Kevin nor I actually sang anything. We're letting the bends do the talking.)
