Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Al Saniak the maniak's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
10:06 pm	I've been realizing something about myself the last few weeks. Particularly because of two statements. One was from a guy at work, Willis. And another was from an old highschool friend Jack. They both happened on the same day I think, and it really got me thinking about who I am. Here's the background Started playing basketball once a week (weather permitting) with a group of people from my work. It's so much fun! I love being competitive and my life has been missing a competitive output for some time now. I forgot how much I loved basketball and how much I love having a physical presence and relying on my physical skills to do something. Anyway, Willis and the other guys at work have only ever seen me in a lab coat. Apparently they didn't think me much of a threat on the court. Damn did I show them. I was all over the place, running circles around them, drilling shots left and right. I was on fire. A few days later all of work knows that I'm pretty good at b-ball. I overhear Willis talking to someone about the game and he says something like "Yeah, Alex doesn't look like he'd be a good basketball player, but he's unbelievable". Same day I get a call from Jack Zheng. We're both really into electronic music, but never really got into it until after highschool. We've been keeping in touch and talking a lot about music over the years. I'm talking with Jack and he says "Out of all my friends in highschool I would have least expected you to be interested in and actually pursue electronic". So two of the things that I absolutely love in this world, nobody expects me to be able to do or be even remotely interested in... It doesn't end there either One of my favorite memories ever was back in highschool track. One of the first times I ever ran the 2 mile. Indoor track of my sophomore year. I was running against 2 guys from Wachusett, Dan and Tom Brown. Dan was the best distance runner in the state, and Tom wasn't far behind. They line up for the 2 mile and say something about how they're going to take it easy cause they're racing me. So the entire race they plod along ahead, I catch up and hear them having a conversation about math class or something, they realize I caught up and go "oh shit" and speed up. To which I catch up to them again and the same thing ensues. This happened the entire race. They didn't take me seriously. In fact, they didn't care about me as a runner so much that when I sprinted my ass off from a lap behind and caught them 10 yards before the finish they didn't even realize I was passing them until I crossed the finish line. Clearly they didn't expect me to do that. They didn't think I was a good runner. All throughout my life I always surprise people with what I can do and what I like to do. I can't tell you how many times people have been utterly shocked that I know something about this subject, or that I can actually play that sport, or that I can do this certain thing. "It just doesn't seem like you're the kind of guy to do that", they always say. Well.... what the hell kind of a guy am I? Think about it. I'm a huge contradiction to myself. I don't fit into any stereotype at all. I can't be placed in any group, in any click, in any connection. I'm a psytrance DJ who has never done drugs. I'm a jock who reads fantasy books. I'm a skater who likes Chemistry. I'm a nerd who loves sports. I'm a devout catholic who throws myself in with the underground electronic and psychedelic community. The list goes on man. I'm one freakin weird dude. Because I'm all over the place I find that I can make a lot of friends, but I can never find anyone who complements me. I can never find a good woman for myself. The more I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that I probably won't. There is nobody like me, nobody who will share the same interests and ideals and morals and views. And it's because they're all contradictory to eachother! You can't find anyone in the psytrance or pretty much any part of the electronic music scene who has never done drugs. You can't find anyone who is physically active who loves electronic music. You can't find anyone with a brain who loves sports. The list goes on. Everything that I am, I'm convinced that nobody else will ever be. On the rare occasion that I found someone who was really smart and loved electronic music, she was not at all a catholic or had any of my views on the world or morals. I found a catholic who was in the psytrance scene, but even though she had my views on morals etc she didn't really like the music and didn't like sports or really any of my other interests. With each girl that I find I discover more and more things that I don't want in a woman. To the point where I've gotten insanely picky, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Thinking in the long term (as in getting married and raising a family), I need someone with the same morals and values as I do. I would never have a family with someone who did not believe in the catholic faith and in teaching the values. But I also would not marry someone who is not physically able. I'm an active guy, and I want my wife to be able to go on hikes and bike rides and runs well into our future. So maybe that won't happen, but I don't want to be with someone who will be a cripple by the time she's 40. As shallow as that seems, it's a big part of my decision. Because these things are a big part of my life. From a different perspective, I love being able to surprise people. I still revel at the fact that I beat Dan and Tom Brown. I love thinking about how surprised everyone was when I played basketball and blew them all away. I love being that weird guy who turns heads. I love having that attention. But in the long run I think being that way only makes it harder for me. Think about it. When you first met me, what was your initial impression? I bet it was something completely different from what you found me to be. More and more instances are popping up in my head of this happening. And I don't think I'd really change it if I could go back and do something about it. That's who I am and who I will always be. The question is, will there be something next to me thinking the same thing someday? (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
8:28 pm	This is what life was made for. At least my life, and at least at this point in my life. I had just finished cleaning the entire kitchen and living room. Whenever I clean I put on music. That's how my mom knows I'm going to clean. Today I brought down my copy of Younger Brother - The Last Days Of Gravity. On my way to the CD player my mom goes "Oh! You're going to clean the floors aren't you?!!" Ha ha ha, my family knows how I roll. Younger Brother is one of my favorite artists. A collaboration between the godfather of psychedelic trance, Simon Posford, and the amazing Benji Vaughn. Even though they're two psytrance studs, this band / album is anything but psytrance. It's a journey unlike anything you've ever heard. Go buy it, or at least let me know you want it and I'll send you a copy. Anyway, I finished up just before the last track came on. One of the most beautiful tracks I've ever heard. It's called Psychic Gibbon. I grabbed a beer and sat in front of my kitchen window watching the sun set behind the trees. Completely zoned out man. Vision got a bit blurry, felt like I wasn't even there. That's it man, that's it. Looking at the beauty of nature, the sunset, the stupid little groundhogs living in our back yard, listening to this track. It was a feeling unlike anything I've ever had before. It was pure bliss. Now I just need someone to sit with me and watch the sunset... Had a lot going on the last few months. But recently has been pretty quite. Went to visit LHD for a few days in Chicago. I had a friend from Chicago who is now living here tell me how Boston sucked. I was like, no way Boston is awesome! And she said it's nothing compared to Chicago. I now realize she was right. Chicago is absolutely amazing. Went and saw a bunch of the sights with LHD, had a bbq and a party so we could DJ at it. Met some ridiculous kids, partied on the rooftop of a high-rise in downtown Chicago at night in a hot-tub. It was amazing. Chicago, what a city. Definitely want to go back. Definitely want to travel more. Had a strange revelation recently. I went to a party for my friends birthday party and met these two awesome chicks there. Got their facebooks and phone numbers. Said we'd keep in touch. It got me thinking... pretty much all the friends I've made up till now have been though school. I've always had the opportunity to see them in school or to have them relatively nearby because of school. So I've been able to make friends and do things and keep the friendships alive. How do I make / keep friends outside of school now?? I know it doesn't sound that hard theoretically. Just make time to hang out with them. But it's not that easy with my schedule and their schedules. It's been 3 weeks and we still haven't been able to work anything out. It's like, yeah we want to hang out, but how good of friends can we really become if we see eachother once a month at the most. It lacks the time and the opportunity to foster a good friendship. With all of my good friends, there has been some defining moment where we've become good friends and we both knew we were going to stay that way. It's usually been something that we've done or overcome together. But I don't really see that happening with some people I randomly meet and never get to hang out with. It's a strange realization that things won't be the same now and I have to change a big portion of my life in order to meet and make lasting friendships. Love life still sucks. Not much more to say on that. Some things never change July is going to be the most musically amazing 2 weeks of my entire life. And I expect it will be the best 2 weeks of my life as well. Check this. I'm taking a half day on Thursday July 9th and taking July 10th off, as well as Monday July 13th. Thursday Danielle and I are driving down to New York City to meet up with our buddy Gilroy and go and see Younger Brother! The very band I was talking about at the beginning of this post. I'm going to get to see them live!!!! Then, directly from the show, we're going to drive to upstate New York to go to Orb Festival, a 3 day psytrance festival at a campground around a beautiful lake. Orb will feature DJ sets of Hallucinogen and Shpongle by non other than Simon Posford himself!!! I'll be seeing Posford play 3 sets in one weekend! Enough to make me orgasm right now. Getting in to the festival for free as part of the sanitation crew. So I have to pick up some trash and maybe clean a toilet or two. Hardly a problem when you look at the fact I'll be seeing Posford play 3 times :) The Friday after I get back from Orb, VNV Nation is playing in Boston! I got tickets to go with G already and my buddies Ollie and Alicia are going as well. You have absolutely no idea how excited I am for that 2 week span. Words cannot describe. Unfortunately I'll have to survive work before I can attend these events. Work wasn't bad at all, but then I got asked to switch projects. This guy Louie, who is the most hated man at the lab, requested to have me come and help him out because he needed an extra hand for a bit. His co-op is leaving at the end of the month, at which time I will become the soul property of Louie. This guy is so horrible to work for! I can't even explain it. He's mad awkward and everything has to be done his way or he gets pissed. And he doesn't even have any proof at all that his methods work any better than the way I've been taught. And he told me so himself! But I have to do all the stupid and pointless crap that he says and learn all new things and it's just bullshit. I hate working for Louie! And now I'm stuck with him for, as my big boss said, "the foreseeable future". Perfect. Got a few more DJ gigs lined up. Nothing to big. Local party on June 26th in NH, and in Worcester on July 24th. Playing at the next Subculture @ Therapy in Providence on Sept 4th I believe is the date. Been working on mixing a new style of psy that I'm starting to get into. Night-psy. It's harder and darker than most full-on, but more melodic than straight up dark psy. It's awesome energetic and angry stuff. But it's soooooo hard to mix. I haven't figured it out yet. I want to make a new mix with it but I just can't do it. Need to figure this stuff out man. It's really frustrating. So right now I'm taking a break from the night-psy and getting back to some progressive stuff. Gonna try to make an all chill progressive mix for my buddy Jeff. And then a more electro progressive-psy mix. Should be diesel. Overall I'm pretty complacent at the moment. I still have a job, still love the music, still seeing my friends, still going to shows. As always, wish the female thing would work out, but again I'm really not surprised it hasn't and I'm used to it not working out by now. Chicks are still insane. So yeah, pretty complacent See you in the sky in morning See you in the stars at night See you in the river flowing See you in the grass Feel you as I find myself flowing Feel you as I find myself feeling Five toes five fingers all the time Ooooooh... It's a higher higher ground ~Psychic Gibbon (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
10:13 pm	Ever have a confrontation that you know is coming. Looming off in the distance. Eventually it's going to come to bear, and you know it ain't going to be pretty. So you plan out everything that you want to say, how you're going to say it, what order you're going to say it, all the details and you think, damn man I'm gonna give it to them. There's no way they can't see my point. And then the moment comes and doesn't go anything like you planned, don't get out half the stuff you wanted to, not nearly as effective, and at the end you just wind up thinking... what the hell just happened. Yeah that's not a good feeling. Sitting down afterwords and thinking it through, there are so many times that I wish I'd answered or said differently, so many other points I wish I brought up. And it's killing me to think about it I don't know why I bother with this person anymore. Ever since September she's caused me nothing but a whole lot of hurt. I haven't been the only one to say that my life would be a whole lot better off if I just never spoke to her again. But I just can't do that. I have no idea why. There's some kind of connection there that I can't quite put my finger on. I know I can never be with her as in a relationship, there's no freakin way that would work, and I've accepted this. So why do I keep on putting myself through this. The answer? I'm a dumbass... that's about all I've got. FML On a brighter side. My contract at Rohm&Haas has been extended for another 6 months. So assuming that the company (Dow) that is taking over our company in a few days and says they will lay off 3500 people, assuming I don't get cut, I've got a job for at least another 6 months. Which means I can keep funneling my hard earned cash right out of my pocket to pay for my student loans, which makes me oh so happy. Stuff is starting to pick up again on the DJ front. Got asked to play at an event in Vermont by my friend Shara on May 9th. Throwing it down up there. Got 2 dates locked up for WUML. Playing on Karma Street from 9pm - midnight on April 18th, and on Drop Beats Not Bombs from 8-10pm on April 22nd. Also, Lowell just got the O.K. to throw a party on the roof of the music building, and they want me to spin at that. No date for it yet, but I'm definitely throwing down for that. Aaron is working on putting together a small 2 or 3 day festival over the summer and I'll be on that list as well. Just put out a new mix, Amalgamation. Stream it or download it for free @ soundcloud.com/alchemic Have another female on the horizon. But I have no idea how she feels about me, and I'm really apprehensive that I can feel the same way about her that I did about D. It honestly really scares me. And I have no idea what to do about it. Why must my life constantly revolve around a struggle with some ridiculous female. They're all insane. As James put it, they're all the same. Even if you think this one is different, they all play the same game... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
4:35 pm	First and foremost... CHICKS SUCK! That was months in the making. I won't take the time to elaborate on it. Anyway... on to more important matters Got picked up as a DJ by Aaron's (Goatone) crew called Fractaltribe Network, and also by a crew out of Worcester called Department Of Disorder. I'm moving up in the world. Spun at this place called The Raven in Worcester for this dude The Russian and some of his boys. They loved it. Asked me on the spot to come back, then bout half an hour later The Russian (he heads up the crew) asked me if I wanted to join the crew. They throw parties 3 times a month at Spiritual Haze in Worcester, every Sunday at The Raven, and they work with Subroots who throws parties every week in Allston at The Wonder Bar. So far I'm booked to play at The Wonder Bar on Feb 11th, and sometime in February @ Spiritual Haze. Aaron's working on getting me some bigger gigs. And we're trying to get ourselves a warehouse somewhere so we can throw ridiculous parties. We have the backing of a big guy from NY on this, he said he'll help us out. Big things are coming, big things. Got a different job. I'm now working as an R&D Chemist for Rohm & Haas. I work in the Electronic Materials Department on Circuit Board Technologies. It's pretty sweet. People there are awesome, pay is so much better than my old job, and the hours are steady. 8-4:30 every day. I can come home and do stuff for the radio show, or mix, or whatever! I work with a kid who graduated from Umass Lowell as a plastics major 2 years before me. Cool dude. Been working there for about 3 months now. Unfortunately I'm only hired as a temp for 6 months, but every other temp there has gotten a 1 year extension, so I think they'll hire me back once my contract is up in April. Only problem is our company is being bought out by Dow Chemicals, and nobody has any idea what's going to happen when they come in. Of course the first people to get laid off would be the temps. So provided they don't clean house, I should have a job here for at least another year. Went on a spending spree around X-mas time. It's nice to finally have money. Bought some dope gifts for my family/friends, which I haven't been able to do in ages because I've been broke as hell for the past 4 years. Then spent a ton on myself. Threw down $1000 for some Pioneer CD-J 800MK2's. These things are AMAZING. A step down from the top of the line CD-J 1000's, but there exponentially better than my old set. Got myself some nice equipment now, and some hardware/software to record to my computer. I'm all good to go. Actually just recorded my first mix and finished working out the tweaks today. It's all set to go, but I'm having my sister do some cover art for it so I'm going to wait till she gets that to me to release the mix. Work gave me 2 weeks off the week of X-mas and NYE. Went to NY for the weekend first, and then went to Toronto with my buddy James for New Years Eve. Maja (Mistress Jade) was spinning at a party in Toronto, and when worked decided to give me time off I decided why not be absurd and go to Toronto. What a freakin city! That place is amazing. Ate at the revolving restaurant on the CN Tower. We were something like 1200 feet up. It was unbelievable. That city kicks so much ass. Going to try to go back this summer. Radio show only has 2 more weeks left. It's going to be a bummer not doing the radio show anymore, but it's definitely time I left. Ever since I stopped being with the "in crowd" things have become kinda awkward up there. I've made enough connections and contacts that I think I can get my DJ career off the ground. It's all about the expansion of the scene. Right now I'm the first and only psytrance guy on the Department Of Disorder crew. They're mostly a breaks and drum n' bass crew. Which means I'll be able to expose a lot of new people to psytrance. So yeah, pretty much working all weekend and then partying as usual. Gotta throw down a ton of money on my loans, but whatever is left I'll probably be buying music and equipment or using to go to NY etc a bunch. Right now, provided this chica doesn't cause me any more anguish, I'm doing pretty freakin awesome! (Comment on this)
Monday, September 29th, 2008
7:26 pm	Yup, that horrible premonition that I talked about in my post on the 6th, it happened. YUP! How does that stuff happen? Seriously, WTF? (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 27th, 2008
7:18 pm	Whord. Party on the 12th was a lot of fun. Met some new people, got to hang out with some cats I haven't seen in awhile. And I got to spin my first set at a party :) It was so balls. I didn't get to go on until 2:30am, those of you who know me know that I'm not much of a late night person. So that was kinda rough. But I was so pumped to actually play that it didn't matter. I was flyin through the set. The drive home was a different story though. I threw down a sick set though. It was so much fun being able to make the dance floor bounce. At one point it kinda died down, only a few kids in the room. I tossed on this new BPM remix of Harder Better Faster Stronger that I got from those guys and people came out of the freakin woodwork! Everyone poured back in the room and the place was rockin. It was awesome. Got another gig tonight. Leaving in about 2 hours for it. Goatone was supposed to have a party in the woods of CT on Sunday, but because of all this rain they had to cancel it. So my friend Jenn decided to have the party in her loft in Rockland. This all happened about 2 days ago. I got a call from Jenn yesterday asking if I wanted to spin. Hell yeah. So I headed to Rockland to throw down an hour and a half set. Freakin sick. I've decided that I really dislike my job, and I've started to look for another one. There's a lot wrong with my job now. They said that they'd train me in DOT and RCRA regs and give me the Chemist Field Training as soon as I got the job, it's been over 3 months and they haven't done any of those yet. They also said after 3 months they'd make me an offer and put me on salary, which they also have not done. The driving sucks, they're ripping me off on pay, the hours are HORRENDOUS, and a bunch of other stuff. Hoping I can find a new job quick. If I don't find one by October 20th they're sending me to Pennsylvania for 3 weeks, which I definitely don't want to do. That means I'll miss 3 weeks of my radio show, which is ever worse because this is going to be my last semester with the radio show. A lot of crazy stuff is happening really fast. Radio show is ending, looking for a new job, trying to get this EDMC thing going at Lowell. It's been rough. All my friends are up in the Lowell area, and I hardly get to see anyone anymore. I didn't think it would be this tough after I graduated, but I'm pretty miserable just working and not seeing my friends all the time. That's one of the reasons I hate this job. The hours are so unpredictable that I can't plan to do anything on days I'm working. Sometimes I finish early and I'm home by 2pm, sometimes I work 12-16 hour days and I don't get back till 7 or 8pm. I really want to move closer to Lowell, that would make me so much happier. But I'd be a fool to leave home right now and pass up free rent, especially with my student loans coming due in a month or 2. All $47k of them. Talk about a bummer. At the same time, I don't know if I can actually stay here for a long period of time. I mean, I love my family and all, but it's absolutely KILLING me not being up in Lowell. I gotta go and toss some stuff together for this set I'm throwing down tonight. I don't have anything planned out. Gonna wing it most of the night, should be alright (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 6th, 2008
10:32 am	Everything that I've planned out for the past 2-3 weeks has gone wrong. It's not always bad, but nothing has turned out right or the way that I wanted it to for the past 3 weeks. Doesn't matter what it is, or how simple it is, somehow it happens to change. What happened to a little continuity? Can't anything happen the way I want it to around here? It seems that I'm just not supposed to be happy right now. No matter how much I work things out or how solidly I plan things, it never goes down the way it should. Again, this is not to say that incredibly bad things have been happening to me for the last 3 weeks, but it's starting to get on my nerves that I can't rely on anyone or anything. I was all set to resolve something that's been bothering me for the last 2 weeks, then I randomly get ridiculously sick in a span of about 20 minutes and it doesn't work out because of it. So now not only am I sick, but I have to sit here and think about this issue all the time because I can't do anything else. That's always the worst, when you keep thinking about it and letting your imagination go wild. I like to keep myself busy and keep my mind off of it, but I can't do anything but sit on the couch/bed/computer right now. To top it all off, I had this random freaking horrible premonition last night. Unfortunately it seems that whenever I have these things completely out of the blue they turn out to be right. So now I have this new thing to worry about. It just all adds up to a crappy mood and a horrible day. A day, which if had gone according to plan, should have been freaking amazing. But then again, I more than expected it to fall through so I'm really not that surprised it did. The one bright spot is that I got my first DJ gig. Goatone is throwing a small party on the 12th and got me a time slot. Of course, I'm fully expecting something to happen at this party. Someone big shows up and needs a time slot, so they bounce mine. Or the party gets shut down before my set. Or I could get even more sick and not be able to make the show. At this point I'm not ruling anything out. Here's to wishful thinking (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, August 8th, 2008
8:01 pm	Bought myself a new mixer about 2 weeks ago. Thing is freakin sweet (http://www.zzounds.com/item--BEHDJX700) Been messing around with that for a bit, which is probably what I'll do with the rest of my night tonight. Danielle went to Japan for 23 days. She left last Sunday, which means she won't be there to do her radio show, Drop Beats Not Bombs, on Wednesday nights right after mine. So that means I'm going to cover her show for the next few weeks. I'll be at the station from 8-midnight every Wednesday. Just did this last Wednesday, it was freakin awesome! Until I had to get up the next morning. Mind you, I still have an hour drive home after I leave the station at 12:15ish. Then I had to get up at 5;30 and work a 10 hour day. Not very cool. But the shows were sick. I brought my equipment down to the station and spun a live psy set on Danielle's show. My old mixer didn't have any sort of EQ on it at all. It had a cross-fader, and some gain. That was it. Doesn't leave you a whole lot of creativity there, and doesn't make for good mixing either. Now that I've got some EQ, it opens up a whole new world. The mix I did on Drop Beats Not Bombs was freakin tight! You can download it here http://www.garageband.com/user/UniversalWUML/podcast/main It was my debut under my new DJ name, Chemic-Al. I surprised the hell out of myself. The end wasn't as smooth as I would have hoped, but pretty much the entire mix is solid. There are even a few transitions that I can't pick out where I started to mix them. For the most part I was just grabbing random tracks and tossing them together, and damn did it come out awesome. I tried to use a little foreshadowing, like you mentioned on my last mix LHD. Still working on that though. Let me know what you think. I'd appreciate any feedback. Check out www.spinitron.com and look for WUML, Drop Beats Not Bombs on August 6th for the playlist. It starts with Dual Core - Signing In There's an underground psy party tomorrow night. Goatone is starting up a new group called Spiral Tribe Network. This is their first party. It was supposed to be in Nashua on some nature reserve, but for some reason they had to switch the venue. I got a call today from my buddy Jeff, the guy who we camped with at Orb Festival. The party has been moved to his apartment in Boston. They're going to set up 2 stages, one inside the house, and one on the roof! It's going to be so sick. Hope we don't get thrown out. Of course, the party has to be smaller than before, and it'll be a little more cramped, but it'll have a much more comfortable and community environment. They are supposed to have open decks from 7-10, I'm going to try to jump on there and bust out a set for a bit. I'm so excited for this. This is the start of something absolutely amazing. Just wish Danielle was here for it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
3:47 pm	Orb Festival 2008 Damn son! Finished up a ridiculous week of work last week and left for Echo Lake in upstate NY with Danielle on Thursday after work. We got there around 10:30pm, managed to somehow found our buddies Jeff and Dave and make camp. Orb Festival was a 4 day (July 10-13) electronic music festival, focusing mainly on psy and ambient, but I heard a bunch of progressive, breaks, house, and some other stuff throughout the festival. So we ended up camping about 100 yards from one of the two stages, called Pangaea Stage. When we made camp there was no music going on. We ended up befriending some crazy Canadians who were camped near us and they came over to hang out and make some smores with us on Thursday night. We also made friends with this 30 year old dude Billy who left his family for the weekend so he could come to this by himself. Guy was nuts. He was ridiculous at making fires, and we blew on our fire and made it from a small little fire into a freakin raging bonfire. He thus earned the name Lung Bitch. Everytime we had a fire and we needed to get it going we called Billy over to be our Lung Bitch and it always worked. Guy was awesome. So we chilled all night and then went to bed around 3:30am. Right around 4am they started cranking music on the Pangaea stage. Apparently the schedule got pushed back 7 hours, and they were supposed to start around 10pm with some full-on and work their way into downtempo for the morning hours. But instead they started at 4am with full-on. We could feel the bass shaking our tent! It was tough to sleep to say the least. Around 7:15am while dozing in and out of sleep, Danielle and I heard someone open our tent flap. This chick we've never seen before with dreadlocks climbs into our tent, looks at us and goes "Psytrance mannnnnnn" and the collapses on our bed and falls asleep. We have no idea what's going on, so we say screw it and just go back to bed. Around 9 this chick gets up, looks around, goes "f*ckin psytrance" and leaves the tent. Completely absurd. Later in the morning when we have a fire going that same girl came over to introduce herself to us, turns out her name was Britney and she was completely out of her mind and on some kind of drug/drugs. She was actually supposed to be a few tents away from us, but got her tent confused with ours and just passed out in it. Her boyfriend Jon came over and they chilled by the fire most of the day with us. Britney was insane! At one point she started carrying on a conversation with someone who wasn't there, started talking about going to the museum, and then said that we should all go upstairs because that's where they were looking for us. This chick was cracked out on something, but it was hilarious. They were good people. First big night of music was Friday night into Sat morning. Drank quite a bit of rum and wasn't feeling so well. Only partied till like 2am (considering I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before, that was pretty late for me) then Danielle and I went back to crash. Our buddy Jeff woke us up at 6am to see one of our favorite psy acts, Atomic Pulse, play at set at 6am. Mind you, the entire weekend you could never get more than 30minutes of sleep at a time because the music was so damn loud. So we were "sleeping" from 2am to 6am, but really only got like 2 hours of sleep, if that. It was AWFUL getting up at 6, but we saw Atomic Pulse and wanted to stay for Protoculture, but we were wiped. We went back and had breakfast then passed out again. Saturday night was the biggest night of music. We were determined to stay up till dawn. Night started off awesome, we were rockin hard core till about 2:30am then got tired. Around 4am we decided to go back to the tent and rest, but not go to sleep. We still wanted to get up at 5 and see the sun come up over the lake and the main stage. It starts to get light out, and 5am comes, and we both said screw it we were too tired and went to bed. It was impossible to stay awake for the good acts! I learned I'm not much of a festival guy because I can't stay awake. But it was still a damn good time. We had so much fun. Cooking on the fire was amazing, meeting all kinds of really cool / strange people all weekend long was amazing, we got to hang with some of our best friends, see a few of our favorite acts (although we slept through a good portion of them), swim in the lake and still be able to hear the music, and pretty much dance to electronic 24/7. Here's to an awesome weekend that I will never forget, and hopefully many more to come Namaste! (Comment on this)
Monday, July 7th, 2008
7:55 pm	Another amazingly awesome weekend. Had OSHA training for the new job from Monday - Thursday, we got Friday, July 4th, off. Had to be in Needham at 6am each morning. It was brutal. Got though it though and made it to the long weekend. Thursday night I went into Boston with Danielle, our buddy James, and Will (the electronic director of WUML). We went to see Klute spin some dnb. Klute came all the way from the UK, and he's my favorite drum n' bass producer. We go to the show at The Phoenix Landing in Boston and run into ILP, the guy from Beat Forge Productions who spun on our radio shows last week. Hung out with him all night and got to meet and greet Klute at the end of the show! Not to mention he ended his set, then out of nowhere dropped the greatest song ever, Hell Hath No Fury. Go check it out. Danielle followed me back home and then the next morning we got up and drove to NY. Stayed there till Sunday and saw Infected Mushroom at Webster Hall on Saturday night. Before I get into the Infected Mushroom story, listen to this. Neither Danielle or I had ever been to Times Square before, so Friday we decided to go and bum around a bit. When we first get there I see one of the theaters is putting on the show "Young Frankenstein". A few minutes later we're wandering around and we see some big dude dressed up as Frankenstein, about a minute later I hear a voice behind me say "Mr. Saniuk?". I look over and it's some dude dressed as Igor from the play, and somehow he knew my name. Turns out that guy was Dan Rolph! I used to run with him back in Milford High! Haven't seen him since he graduated 5 years ago. Wicked awesome. We talked for a bit and took a picture, then him and Frank ended up getting swamped by tourists to who wanted take pictures with so we had to leave. The rest of the day I was regretting not getting his phone number because we were going to be in New York all day Saturday too. Could have done something with him. We went back to Times Square on Saturday to get something, and of course we ran into Dan again in full costume! It was hilarious. I got his phone number, and after we had dinner with Julian from Radioactive Sandwich, we went to this Red Sox bar in New York called The Hairy Monk. We met up with Dan and his fiance there for a few hours. It was so nuts hanging out with them. They were awesome, never thought I'd ever see that kid again, let alone randomly on the streets in Times Square. After we departed it was time for the Infecetd Mushroom show :) So, as you may know, I did a ton of promoting for the IM show in Boston last September, and was promised tickets but the veune was 21+ and I wasn't 21 yet. So the promotional manager Erik Koral said next time IM came through he'd get me on the guest list. So, Danielle and I were on the guest list for the show on Saturday. We showed up and everything was a mess, there were like 4 lines and everybody was all confused on what was going on. Eventually after about 10 bouncers we were able to find one who could tell us where to go for the guest list. He said "go to the front, there's a shorter line with someone in a mohawk, go to the... go to the.. just go talk to the tranny." Yup, there was a raging transvestitie with a pink mohawk managing the guest list. Erik told us we were on the list, possibly VIP. So I told the absurd tranny to look for Alex Saniuk and he promptly told me we weren't on the list and to get lost. Now, that's not the VIP line, so we checked with the VIP line and they said no way. So we're standing there in utter disbelief and wondering how we didn't get in, when a bouncer calls us back over to the tranny and has him look for my name again. This time I told him to look for Al instead of Alex, and sure enough I was the first one on the list. I didn't really care as long as we got in, and we did. And it was ridiculous. Setlist: Riders on the Storm (The Doors cover) Cities of the Future Deeply Disturbed (Infected Remix) Some new song I haven't heard before Muse Breako RMX Suliman Another New Song Coolio (Astrix Remix) Ratio Schmatio IM the Supervisor Becoming Insane Vicious Delicious Special Place Encore 1--- I Wish (the crowd went BALLISTIC during this!!!!) Encore 2--- Converting Vegetarians / In Front Of Me They started the show off with a cover of The Doors song Riders On The Storm! I heard they had played this at the previous two shows at Chicago and Singapore, and I was so happy they played it at Webster Hall, let alone opened with it. It was unbelievable. Danielle was able to get on stage for a bit. The whole show was ridiculously nuts and we went absolutely crazy because we knew every single song (except the songs from the next album) and were rockin out hardcore. So friggin dope, you can't even fathom it. Have to get through work this week, taking Friday off and heading to Orb Festival in Afton NY for a 4 day camping electronic music festival. This has potential to eclipse the Infected show, because I'm going to know a ton of people there and be able to hang out and listen to amazing music for 4 days straight. Let the inner hippie out for a bit. Can't freakin wait. Expect a full report when I get back from Orb :P (Comment on this)
Friday, June 27th, 2008
6:37 pm	Hosted the Beat Forge Beat Down on the radio show last Wednesday. I had everyone from Beat Forge Productions come down to the studio and they spun for 4 hours on Danielle's show and my show. We had Goatone, Mark5, Leo C., ILP, and yours truly spin sets. It was freakin awesome. I'm friends with this guy Jeff who helps organize and run a regular house night at a club in Boston called Underbar. Guy's wicked cool and has a ton of connections. We're going to camp together when we go to Orb Festival, the 4 day camping electronic festival at Lake Echo in New York. Can't wait for that. But anyway, Jeff was listening to the show when we had the Beat Forge Beatdown. He sent me a text at 7:45 the next morning saying to call him back, he had an idea. I had to wait till I was out of work but it was worth the wait. Check this out... He loved our radio shows, said both Danielle and I had awesome radio personalities and we ran damn good shows and get awesome acts on them. He said he was bummed because you can't get the signal in Boston, and Boston doesn't have any electronic radio shows. He has some connections at Kiss 108. He wanted to ask me permission if he could make a pitch to them for Danielle and I to have an electronic radio show on Kiss 108!!! How insane is that!!!! He said he wants to pitch it to his friends in person, and not just over the phone. He's got a really good pitch worked out he claims. Jeff wants to see an electronic radio show in the Boston area that will keep people up to date on what's happening in the scene locally and host some big acts whenever they come into town, and otherwise just play some freakin awesome electronic like we always do. I have no idea if anything will pan out from this, but it won't hurt to ask. So I told him go ahead and make the pitch and lets see what happens. My immediate concern with getting involved in the corporate world is them telling us what we can and can't play. The reason I'm doing the show is to expose people to electronic music and to get otherwise unknown artists some exposure. I love finding people online who nobody has heard of, and getting music to play on my show. Just because they don't have a record label doesn't mean they make bad music. In fact, I like at TON of artists who aren't signed. There are some really talented electronic musicians out there that nobody knows about. So if these dudes say I can only play trance and house or try to limit it in some way like that, sorry, I'm staying with Lowell. But again, might as well make the pitch and see what happens first. Don't know when this is going to happen though, Jeff said it could be awhile till he meets with his friends. I'm content to just sit and wait. Going to Mark5's house tonight with some people to spin. Just bought about $150 in music over the last few weeks. Wicked pumped. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
2:50 pm	Graduated. Can knock that off my list of things to do. So glad it's over. This last semester really killed Chemistry for me. I hate it now. Thanks a lot Dr. Ryan. I managed to pass P-chem 2 with a B, never thought that would happen. Did the whole walk across the stage thing, picking up my diploma from the school on Wednesday. I'm just glad to be done and off to other things. The realization that I'm not going back to school in September kind of sucks. I just started making a ton of friends at the radio station, and hanging out on South campus all the time and meeting tons of people down there. And now it's over. There was a whole new world opened up to me this semester, only in the last half of the semester, and now it's over. Bummer. They're letting me keep the radio show because they said I have one of the best shows at the station. So I'm going to keep doing this for awhile. It's friggin awesome. Managed to get a job with an environmental company called EQ. I had the interview the day I moved back from college. They hired me, but I can't start working until I get OSHA safety certified. The next time they're offering the course is the first week of July, so I've just been hanging around for a few weeks. I've been going in to EQ once a week to learn their computer system and stuff, meet some people at the job. It's pretty sweet. I get to go to work in jeans and a T-shirt every day, the job consists of driving around and going to different sites and packaging up hazardous chemicals. I'll only be in the office about once a week so I won't be stuck in a cubical all the time, and I'll be outside and driving around a ton. I think it's going to be a good job. They're hiring me through a temp agency for 3 months to see if I'm a good fit. If they like me after that initial period then they'll hire me through the company on salary. I've been going to a bunch of electronic parties as usual. Wicked excited for the next few weeks. I get July 4th off from work, so I'm heading down to Manhattan with my friend Danielle (she hosts the electronic radio show Drop Beats Not Bombs that is on after my show on Wednesday nights) and we're staying there from the 4th-6th, with an Infected Mushroom show at Webster Hall on the 5th. I got us on the guest list because I'm the man :P Infecteds promotional manager owed me a favor, so we're getting in for free. That weekend is going to be nuts. And the next week is going to be even more insane. I'm taking Friday the 11th off from work. Thursday night after work Danielle and I are driving to upstate New York to this campground called Echo Lake for a 4 day electronic music festival called Orb Festival www.orbfestival.com We're camping out at a secluded campground for 4 days, and they'll have music going on at 2 stages 24/7 the entire time. They have some HUGE names like Hux Flux, U-Recken, Atomic Pulse, and Etnica playing at the event. It's going to be absolutely ridiculous and so much fun. I can't wait. This week on the radio show (June 25th) we're having 5 DJ's come in a spin for 4 hours straight. The entire Beat Forge Productions crew is coming down to the station. Dex, Goatone, Mark5, ILP and Leo. It's going to be nasty. They're going to be mixing it up from 8-midnight, on both Danielle's show and mine. Definitely check it out if you can. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 12th, 2008
10:59 pm	So myself, James Kremer and Danielle hosted the first electronic event ever held at UML. We called it "The Gathering" after Infected Mushroom's first album. It seemed fitting because it was a sort of coming together of all the WUML electronic shows in order to throw this party. It was amazing. We hired this guy from NH who does the decorations at a ton of other big events to help us out. He was the only expense we had. He came with a bunch of wood, tons of PVC piping, a crazy amount of black lights, and tons of tools. He ended up building two lacra (at least I think that's what it's called) structures that we strung multi-colored cloth that glows like crazy when you put black lights on them. It was so sick. You should go check out my pictures of the event on my facebook page. The DJ's were James Kremer, DJ Ra, and Chongo n' Ksc. Kremer is a WUML DJ who does Karma Street on Saturday nights, Ra is a pretty big name who plays at Rize in Boston all the time, and Chongo n' Ksc are some awesome dudes from Lowell who have been spinning / producing for about 10 years. They all did it for free. Minus what it cost for the decorations, we gave the rest to charity. Kremer has a friend who died a little bit ago of brain cancer, one of his last wishes was to have a charity rave. So we donated all our proceeds to a brain cancer foundation. All in all it was pretty successful. We had about 75 people in the V-Pac, more than half the capacity. The sound system was a lot better than I thought it would be. DJ's were awesome, music was great, we had no incidents, and everyone had an awesome time. One of the best parts was watching some punk/ska kids dancing their asses off. Had a ton of them tell me that they've never listened to electronic before but they freakin love it now. We helped to reduce the stereotype of generic "techno". Mission accomplished. But the best part was after the show, at the after party at the WUML station. A bunch of us went back there right after the show, including myself and my buddy Dex who spun at a bunch of the UNH shows and at MIT etc. I got to open for Dex!!!!! I did a psy set live in studio and on air using Dex's equipment for a packed WUML studio. Had some technical difficulties at the beginning, and I completely messed up the very last transition, but the rest of the 54 minute set was rockin. I nailed pretty much everything else and I had the entire place hoppin. It was so much fun and such a great feeling. Dex went on after me and threw some stuff together. It was awesome. Great freakin night. Once I get through Saturday, I'll pretty much be done with my college career. I have my last chromatography test on Wednesday, as well as my senior thesis presentation. Then it's hardcore study till my P-chem 2 final on Saturday. Then I have my music final on Wednesday, so I'm pretty much just chillin until Wednesday. Going to have an IDM/Experimental guy named Synnack come on the show Wednesday night and then be done with school. I need to find a job. Waters didn't come through for me, said they're in a "hiring freeze" so I need to find something quick. Going on a little vacation to Washington DC with Steve right after school gets out for a week. Should be dope. Going to Infected Mushroom show with Danielle on July 5th at Webster Hall in NY. Infected's promotional manager owes me a favor so we're getting in for free. Really want to go to the Tiesto show in Boston on June 18th at The Estate. Xtronika, who I had on the radio show last semseter, is opening for Tiesto. I'd love to see that, but I need a job so I can afford it. Dex and Goatone are keeping me posted on any and all psy events going down. Should be a good summer. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
11:30 pm	Word. Lots of insanity since last post. Won't remember it all. One of the best times I've ever had was going to NY with DJ Goatone (his real name is Aaron) for the Metaforce party at Club Exit in Brooklyn. Got to drive his sweet Subaru down to NY while he got stuff for his set for the party ready. Had dinner with the dudes from Radioactive Sandwich in Manhattan before the show, then ran back to Brooklyn to catch Aaron's set. He was so nasty. I got to meet Rachel and Vish, the two organizers of the party. They've been hosting parties for like 20 years or something. They threw some of the original parties back in Goa when psy was first starting out. So much history in those people and that entire crew, it was awesome. Show was from 10pm - 6am. Aaron was my ride, so I had to stay for the whole thing. It was so crazy. The music wasn't my favorite, but after being there for 8 hours and meeting all those people, it was unbelievable. I was dead tired when it got out at 6am though. It was really weird walking out of the dark club and having it be light outside. Turns out there was an after party, but I needed sleep. So I drove with Aaron and a few people to this kid Max's house a few blocks away. Max (who I just met like 10 minutes before) let me crash on his couch while everyone went to the after party. They get back at 10am, and Max is like "So who wants a beer?" Kid goes to the kitchen, makes himself a scotch and lights a bowl at 10am! Crazy Russians. Aaron was still kinda trippin so I had to drive back from NY. You'd think a 5 hour drive back from NY would be awful on 3 hours of sleep, but it was amazing. There was something about it, not having slept much, kinda on edge, cruising through NY with the windows down cranking Shiva Chandra, it was absolutely beautiful out. Everything else in the world just kinda stopped, nothing else mattered. Everything was right with the world. It was an awesome experience. And no, I wasn't on any drugs. Never have. That weekend was so dope. We're hosting an electronic event here at Umass Lowell. After seeing what Leo up at UNH and the kids at URI are capable of doing, why not try it here? My friend Danielle and I got the go ahead word from some dudes at the station to organize a show. We booked the V-pac, only problem is they want us out of there by 11pm. So we're having the show from 7-11, then heading back to the station to keep spinning and party. I'm doing a psy set live at the afterparty. I put it together last night, DAMN SON. I can't wait to throw it down. I'm so excited for it. We have 3 DJ's doing a 4 hour tag set for the show. Chongo n' Ksc, DJ Ra, and James Kremer AKA Cheerio Theory. Chongo n' Ksc have been on my show before and are actually coming back on to the radio show next week (May 7th) to do a live set, they had a residency in Boston for awhile some time ago. I can't remember the name of the place... DJ Ra plays at Rize in Boston all the time. And Kremer is a DJ here at the station also. These guys have a lot of talent and tons of experience. It's going to be a cool show. If we get a good enough turnout we're going to try to start an electronic music group here at UML. Only problem is I'm graduating this semester, and Danielle is studying abroad the next semester. So neither of us will be around if we get it going. We just kind of have to get it off the ground and hope someone picks it up. So if you're around on Friday, May 9th, come on down to the V-Pac in Fox Hall for a great electronic show. It's $3, but all the proceeds go to charity. The Musella Foundation For Brain Tumor Research. One of Kremer's buddies, a fellow DJ, died of a brain tumor a few years ago, so we're throwing this in his honor. The radio station is letting me keep my radio show even after I graduate. These last few weeks I've become so much more accepted at the station. I actually know everyone at the station and hang out with them now. Really wish I got started with the station and with these people a lot earlier. Everything is just starting to come together and now I'm leaving. Well, I'll still be up here once a week next year for the radio show. A few people want me to be the RPM director, or at least assistant, but I'm passing on that for now because I'm out of here soon. The WUML overnight broadcast was the other week. We broadcast all night long from a field on South Campus to kick off Spring Carnival. I had the 1am-2am slot that night. Had a few drinks, played some kick ball, then got a dance party going from 1-2am. You have no idea how much fun I was having. I was rocking out so hard at the booth, it was amazing. Had punk and emo kids dancing up a storm to electronic. My buddy Steve mentioned to me; "This is what you need to be doing with your life." Hell freakin YEAH! So, radio station and all that stuff going amazingly well, school... not so well. Should pass everything, but my senior research is not going well at all. It's a really really long story, but the short version is my professor is an ass and gave me equipment that doesn't work, so I've been trying to fix it for 7 months and he won't help me or let me use equipment that actually works. And now he's pissed at me that I have nothing done. As long as I pass that I'll be happy, I'd be ok with a D. It's really killed chemistry for me. I absolutely hate it now. I was thinking about grad school, not any more. No way in hell I'm doing any kind of research like that again. As long as I can graduate, and get a decent job to support my music habit, I'll be happy. I did a research paper on Electronic Synthesis for one of my classes recently. Found an entire chapter of a book dedicated to psytrance. It was an amazing read. Here's one of the things that struck me the most; “Many of the people I interviewed had college educations, or had decided to forgo educations, making the New York City trance little culture the primary focus of their lives. This isn’t that unusual, but what struck me was how menial many of the jobs people held, even those with college educations, and how little people seemed to mind. In part, this was clearly a reaction against a dominant structure that values the Protestant work ethic and tends to judge people based on their occupations. People didn’t seem to count the days until the weekend, until the next party, but were content to work at the jobs until the next party came along and would regenerate them… The New York City Goa/psy trance scene is a little culture in which one’s job has little or nothing to do with one’s identity, and, as Durkheim says, is simply a way to subsist while languidly carrying on in everyday life.” Yup, that about sums it up. As long as I can get a job and it allows me to go to some psy parties and buy music, I'll be completely happy. Things in the female department aren't going so well either. In the last few months I've been into 2 people, and both of them are already taken. I'm very opposed to going after someone who is already taken, so I haven't done anything about it. But it seems so wrong that we aren't together. But, being the idiot that I am, I'm not going to do anything about it and just hope that something miraculous happens and it works out. I guess that's just how I roll. Huge P-chem test on Monday and I need to study a ton tomorrow so I didn't go out for Dan's birthday tonight. Friggin P-chem, can't wait to be done with that. Anyway, I CAN'T WAIT TO SPIN AT THE AFTER PARTY ON MAY 9th! We're broadcasting it live, so tune in to 91.5 WUML Lowell, or stream it from www.wuml.org around midnight and I'll be doing my set hopefully. We also have my buddy DJ Dex doing a psy set after me. He's a lot better, but mine is still going to be awesome :P Oh yeah, go download Pixel vs. Wrecked Machines - Mother Funker. Greatest break EVER! (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
9:05 pm	This is why Goatone talking with me about why he DJ's; "I love it with all my heart. I believe that when you love something this much, you owe it to yourself, and to your friends, and to your family to dive into it head first. When you're fully engulfed by it, that's when you're free." DJ NDE about the same thing "I was a f*cked up kid as a teenager. I had no idea what I was doing, wanted to blow my head off. Then I went to my first party. It was amazing. I looked at the DJ as a god. It changed my life. I wanted to be like him. I made the decision, and now I've been a DJ for over 10 years. Music saved me. If I can do for even 1 kid what that DJ did for me, I'll consider my life worthwhile." This is why I love music. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing. I love the people, I love the scene, I love the music. I just hope there is a place for me here, and that I don't have to leave. The radio show is starting to take off. The last 3 weeks I've had DJ's and a producer in the studio. A psytrance DJ by the name of Goatone came in 3 weeks ago and did a 1 hour set of what he called "Old school Scandinavian trance". Some really really sweet stuff. I recommend you check out Human Blue. Guy is amazing. 2 week ago I had local house producers / DJs Chongo n' Ksc in studio with a 40 minute progressive house mix exclusively for Universal Mind. Last week I had another psy DJ Dex in to do a 1 hour psy set. It was amazing. April 16th NDE from Muck Crew is coming on to do a set, then April 23rd Mr. Bang Lee and Ann K are doing a tag set live on the show. They're THE BIGGEST names in minimal techno in New England. Also have Nau-Zee-auN coming in April 2nd to do a live performance, and potentially Mistress Jade and Fig on April 9th. I freakin love this! And I really really hate school. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
10:28 pm	Completely absurd weekend. Went to New York with Steve on Friday. We left at like 1:30 and drove to Brooklyn. We were going to this event held at Club Exit in Brooklyn. Event was called Synchronize, Maja (Mistress Jade) was spinning. So we get to Brooklyn and then take the subway into Manhattan to meet up with the guys from Radioactive Sandwich. We met up with them at this Chinese restaurant they always rave about called Mandarin Court. If you're ever in Chinatown, I highly recommend it. Got to hang out and have dinner with the Sandwich guys and Slice 2's girlfriend. They're so friggin cool. Had a great time. They gave me a ton, and I mean a ton of stuff to give out at the station. Love those guys. I ended up getting the sauted Lotus, which was pretty damn good. After we said bye to the Sandwich dudes we went back to Brooklyn to hit up Club Exit. The club was so decked out. It looked so amazing, such a cool place. Got in on the guest list no problem and met with V, the chick who runs Norotech Records. She was pretty cool. Maja made it and we hung out with her for awhile before she spun at midnight. Her set was the highlight of the show. After her set, this big trance guy from Germany, Taucher, was supposed to come on. But he never showed. Apparently his bag of equipment got stolen at the airport so they had the same DJ on for 2 hours. He was spinning minimal techno. He was a good DJ as far as DJ skills go, but the music was HORRIBLE! At about 2:30 Steve and I decided we were just going to bounce cause the music was that bad. Maja came over to us before we left and asked if we could give her a ride into Manhattan so she could catch a train home. We said sure. On the way to the car she said she was taking a Fung Wah bus up to Boston the next day, and she should have just packed a bag and ridden up to Mass with us. Well, why not? We ended up driving to Maja's house at like 3am, she packed her stuff mad quick and she rode with us back up to Boston. It was so awesome. We had to drive back in that crazy snowstorm so it took quite awhile. She's so awesome, we just traded stories the whole trip. She's only 21 and she's played shows in Asia and Europe and all over the world. We got back to Lowell at 10:30am. I passed the hell out and woke up at 4:30pm. Hung out for a bit and then went up to UNH with some friends to go to the Euphoria show that Leo organizes. Euphoria was sooooooo much better than Synchronize. My buddy Jeff Hyde had the first set, but we got there kinda late so we missed it. It's cool though cause he's playing in Lowell on Friday at this event called Down With The System. The room for Euphoria was massive, much bigger than any room they'd ever had it in before. And the school bought them this amazing sound system to go with it. They had a whole stage for the DJ's, and a huge screen for visuals. I got some amazing pictures by turning the flash on my camera off. So cool. At Revelation 4 and at the MIT Party that I went to a few months ago I got to know Dex and Goatone. They're 2 psy DJ's who spin for Leo. They were both doing sets that night, and then combining to do a set together as Viral Spiral. Got to talk to them a bit before the show, and then hang with them a bit after the show. They did one of the most amazing psy sets I've ever witnessed. The only set that was as good as the Viral Spiral set was the one I saw by Mistress Jade & Artemis when they spun together under the name The Mistresses Of Mayhem when they opened for Infected Mushroom at Axis in September. Show was absolutely amazing, and it was only $3 to get in. Everyone needs to go to one of these shows at some point. So diesel. I'd been talking with Goatone about coming down to do a set on my radio show Universal Mind. We worked it out and he's coming down tomorrow night, March 5th to do a 45 minute set on the show! I'm so pumped. His real name is Aaron, he's the freakin man. Kid's so cool. Everyone should listen in to the show tomorrow night to hear what this kid's got. I'm so excited. There's an event in Lowell coming up on Friday called "Down With The System". Guess who might be coming up to go with me... JACK ZHENG! Him and Usman might be coming up for the show. Haven't seen those guys since we graduated almost 4 years ago. Jack invited me to a party on Saturday, I suggested I bring my decks and spin if they need music. So it looks like I might have myself my first gig if everything goes according to plan. We'll see what happens. Anyway, last weekend was amazing, have another dope weekend coming up. Spring break I've got a few things to do, then I'm probably going to be working on some mixes most of the time. I want to get another psy mix done, a house mix, and a trance mix. Don't know if I can get those all done, but I have some ideas for each, just need to spend some time on them. My friend taught me about counting beats, and I can't believe I didn't realize how to do that earlier. I'd done everything before by timing, by actually looking at the exact time when the beat started and broke etc. Counting makes it so much easier. I think I can put some good stuff together. Look out for it. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
1:17 pm	Went into the WUML studio a 1:30 last week and and recorded my first mix. It's psytrance stuff. I figured out how to hook up that DJ setup I bought to the studio so I can use it. Download it here http://www.garageband.com/user/UniversalWUML/podcast/main It's called "3's & 5's". It's only about 46 minutes long. I still have a long way to go to become a decent DJ, but I figure it's not to shabby for only having my decks for about 3 weeks. There's one or 2 parts that I could have done better, but overall I'm pretty proud of it. Started off with some dark psy tracks at the beginning, giving way to some full-on tracks, and then to a more pop-ish full-on at the end. Psynina - Sexy Secret Prometheus - 9th (The Man Who Swam Through A Speaker) AMD - Crash XSI - Warning Zone Eskimo - Party Pooper Infected Mushroom - Muse Breaks (Remix) Infected Mushroom - Cities Of The Future Violet Vision - Cellophane Ananda Shake - Disco Dancer If you decide to check it out, let me know what you think. Constructive criticism welcome. I'm always looking to get better you know. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
10:49 pm	Got my radio show back. It was a battle. At first the radio station screwed me over and completely gave me the cold shoulder and didn't give me a show. I kinda thought they would do this, so a few weeks ago I asked some of the artists that I've become friends with because of the radio show to write a little something about how my show is important to electronic music and to the local scene. I complained about not getting a show and posted the letters everyone wrote me online that night. Then my buddy Steve got in touch with the guys from Radioactive Sandwich and they wrote angry E-mails to the GM and Program Director of WUML. The next morning I woke up and got a message saying the station was sorry that things happened the way they did, and they offered me a show and a good time slot. Looks like I'm on Wednesday nights 8-10pm!!! Such a diesel slot. I really owe all the people who wrote stuff for me. Meba wrote a 2 page letter for me, and Freon Rig Records wrote 2 pages as well. Love those guys. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't get my show back. I'd rather not think about it. Been to a few events lately. Went to that Lock-In event I was talking about before. Place was so cool. 3 Floors, main room was nasty. I ended up drinking quite a bit. While waiting in line for beer I ended up making friends with 3 separate DJ's, gave them all my card and they ended up buying me beers. Pretty schweet. I was there alone again, Jade gave me her only +1 so I got in for free. I don't really mind going alone to these things anymore because I meet so many more people. I randomly met a guy who went to UML and actually had a Drum n' Bass radio show on WUML in 2002. Jade went on around 1am, her set was amazing as usual. Only problem was, around 2am the cops came and shut the place down. Kind of a bummer because it was supposed to go till 8am. Turns out the guys who ran the event, Funky Communications, they own a warehouse in Providence. So everyone hoped in their cars and we drove to a warehouse in Providence to party some more. I absolutely love this. Here's something cool for you guys to watch. Go to www.zebbler.com and click on Past Events. The first video on the left should be "Infected Mushroom and Alex Grey documentation". That's a video of the setup and of the Infected Mushroom show at Axis I went to in September. Zebbler is a local VJ out of Boston. He's a crazy dude. You remember that bomb scare involving the Aqua Teen Hunger Force stuff last year? Yeah, that was all thanks to Zebbler and his crew. Some of it was up at the show. Watch the video. It's awesome. Got invited to another party at MIT the other weekend. Went solo again and ran into Fig there, as well as a DJ I met at Revelation 4 awhile back, and 2 DJ's psy from NH, Dex and Goatone. They're part of Beat Forge Productions, which my friend Leo runs. They said if I got my radio show back they'd love to come down and do a set for the show. Awesome. There was this one guy who was DJing that night. I found out his name was Zyler Vega. If you ever have the chance to see this guy spin, do so. He was unbelievable! He was mixing drum n' bass with some of the nastiest psy EVER!!! Couldn't believe what I was hearing. MIT throws some dope parties. Jade is spinning again at this event called Synchronize being held at Club Exit in NY on Feb 29th. Going there with Steve. I got in touch with the group running it, Norotech, yup, we're getting in for free :) Love being able to promote stuff on the show and being able to get into events for free. Only thing that sucks is that it's down in NY and we'll have to drive back at like 5am. On that note, Slice 2 from Radioactive Sandwich lives near that part of NY. He said we might be able to crash at his place after the show. SO DOPE. I still haven't even met the Sandwich dudes yet. Heading down to NY early on the 29th so we can meet up and grab dinner before the show. That's going to be one of the greatest nights of my life, I can already tell. Oh yeah, I bought myself some really cheap and really crappy CD-J's to start spinning on. They're cheap Numarks, and they really do suck. But it's somewhere to start. I'm getting pretty good at beatmatching and working on the fading techniques and such. There's a lot to learn and I'm kinda teaching myself. But I came up with a psy set that I think is pretty sweet, at least for a beginner. I'm going to have to head into the WUML studio at like 2am some night when nobody is on, hook up my decks and record it. Still working on getting around to that. I love having them though. I spin at least 4 times a week, only had them for not even 3 weeks yet. It's so much fun. Radio show is going to be awesome. Potentially, Jade, Fig, Dex, Goatone, Leo, the guys from Radioactive Sandwich want to come by and do sets on the show, as well as this local Industrial/Powernoise group Nau-Zee-Aun. It's going to be an awesome semester for the show. Everyone should check it out. You can stream it live from www.wuml.org if you're not in the area or not near a radio. Just click on the link that says "Live Radio Webcast" and you're all set. Universal Mind 91.5 WUML Lowell Wednesday Nights 8-10pm I bruised / cracked one /some of my ribs last week. They still freakin kill. Not fun at all. Nothing I can do about it either. Oh well. At least I got a radio show :) (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
9:06 pm	Went to that show Revelation 4 down in Connecticut a few weeks ago. All of my friends bailed on me last minute, so I said screw it and went down by myself. Turns out Leo and a bunch of people from Euphoria were there so I hung with them most of the night. Mistress Jade and Fig were there too so I got to hang with them again. Met some new DJ's, made a bunch of new friends. Became friends with the director of operations down at the UConn radio station. He's throwing some parties down there in the spring I'm gonna hit up. Revelation was ridiculous. 7 different rooms of sound. There was so much going on all the time. Each room had a different genre of music going on in it throughout the night. You could just bounce from room to room. So much fun. Yesterday was ridiculous. I ended up going down to Foxwoods with Suke, Dana, and Matos. Played a bunch of poker. Now, I haven't played poker in about 2-3 years, but I held it down. I still managed to lose $100 over the course of the day, but that was on a couple of bad beats. I lost $50 with my queen high flush to a king high flush, then I lost pocket aces to a 2-pair that the guy caught on the river. Those 2 pretty much killed me. But overall I played well. I called a few bluffs and I was right, I won those hands. I bluffed a few times and got away with it every time. I was reading the game well, didn't get into any stupid pots. I was proud of how I played, cept that I lost $100. Get back from Foxwoods and watched the Pats game. Then I headed down to Randolph again. DJ Fig was having a house party at his place and invited me to come. It was quite absurd. They had some turn tables set up in his kitchen and people were spinning on those all night, then down in the basement he had another huge setup and people spun on that all night too. So much music, so many cool people. Met this guy Mike who runs Funky Comm. out of Rhode Island. They're throwing the Lock In event I'm going to on January 19th. He said I'd get in for free :) Met a ton of new DJ's and passed out a bunch of my cards. People are starting to know who I am, it's pretty awesome. Get this, I went to that Infected Mushroom show at Axis back in September. Mistress Jade and Sparxx spun some nasty psy before IM came on. I now know Maja (Jade) but I never met Sparxx (Diana). Turns out Diana was at the party last night so I went over to introduce myself and we started talking. I handed her my card a few minutes later and she was like "NO SHIT, You're Universal Mind!". Never met her before, but she knew who I was because I am Universal Mind. I'm starting to make a name for myself, it's so damn cool. I got to hang out with Maja for a bunch of the night. She's so dope, I can't even explain it. I ended up leaving the party after Maja's set, which was around 4:30am. I guess I need to be more of a night person if I'm going to be partying with these guys now. I'm exhausted and it's only 9:20 right now. Every time I leave one of these things I feel a great emptiness for the next couple of days. I can't really explain it, but I just feel like part of me is missing when I'm not surrounded by music. Going to one of these events sort of expands my soul or something, and when I leave them I can feel it shrinking. I'm increasingly feeling the need to get myself a pair of decks. I need to start spinning, only problem is I don't have decks and don't have the money to pay for them. I got to watch Maya spin for an hour and a half last night. I was literally about 2 feet away during her whole set. I got to see how she did everything. It was so fascinating. I really think I can do it. I really want to try. I just need to find a way. Got an influx of new music for Christmas. *Armin Van Buuren - 10 Years sick 2 CD set of his best material and some of his unreleased tracks. Really great album *William Orbit - Hello Waveforms not really what I expected. Kind of cheezy ambient. Some of it is decent, but I'm a little disappointed. *J. Viewz - Muse Breaks DAMN! This guy is amazing. He's one half of Violet Vision, if you've ever heard of them. But this side project is so good. It's jazzy electronic. They use tons of live instruments and are really talented. They blend everything together so well, it's unlike anything I've ever heard. Really cool if you like jazz, or just talented musicians. *XSI - Warning Zone Some awesome full-on psy that Maja recommended *AMD - Big Fish Another diesel psy group Maja told me about. She used a few songs from AMD and XSI in her new mix that's coming out in a few days. I heard it last night, friggin awesome. *Younger Brother - Last Days Of Gravity Combo of Simon Posford (Shpongle, Hallucinogen, Celtic Cross) and Benji Vaugn (Prometheus). Really interesting psy and psy-bient. *Prometheus - Corridor Of Mirrors Some real dark psy Word though. Time for bed (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
3:48 pm	That trance DJ/Producer Xtronika came on the radio show a few weeks ago. He's so cool. The guy has done work with Above&Beyond, Gabriel&Dresden, Delerium, Armin Van Burren, he even did a song with Madonna. He makes some damn good trance. Can't believe he came on my show! Such a cool guy. It was awesome to just chill with him for a bit. He said that he's doing a show with Eco at Avalon in NY this spring. He said he'd get me tickets and I could chill with him backstage. Sick. He's also going to send me a few copies of his new album and the remix album he's been working on with Above&Beyond whenever they're finished. Went to Euphoria again last weekend. It was pretty dope. Went with a few different people this time. Got to hang out with Leo again and meet some of the DJ's who spun at the show. Good stuff. I had been talking with this psy DJ, Mistress Jade, about getting tickets to Saturn Moon, which was a HUGE psy event held in Connecticut last night. I wanted to get some tickets ahead of time and she was selling some. But she was heading up to Vancouver to do a show and couldn't get me any tickets that week. But her good friend Fig was spinning at Euphoria so she said she'd give him some tickets and I could get them from him at Euphoria. I found Fig at Euphoria and he ended up forgetting to bring the tickets. He said that I could come and hang out at his house and pick them up. So on Thursday me and my new roommate Bob-O drove down to Fig's house in Randolph. Some crazy circumstances happened, and Mistress Jade ended up being at Fig's house too. So Bob-O and I just chilled with Fig and Mistress Jade for awhile. So awesome. It was nuts, I just sat there and talked music with a well known international DJ. Mistress Jade is freaking amazing. And she's Polish :) Drove down to Connecticut last night with Steve, Al and Michi to go to Saturn Moon. I did some promoting for them through the radio show and got to meet and chill with Kahlil and Kalomo who run Awake Productions. Great guys. Said they'd keep in touch with me on any new events and such. Show was amazing. You have no idea. Mistress Jade went on at midnight and played one of the sickest sets I've ever heard. When I was chilling with her at Fig's place she told me she was working on a new mix and was going to try it out on the crowd at Saturn Moon. DAMN SON. Mix was ridiculous. Amazing psy. She looked so awesome up there. I watched her spin and work the crowd. She enjoyed ever minute of it, she was having more fun than the people listening. It was a cool thing to see. I'm pretty much in love with her. I caught up with her after her set and got some pictures, she gave me one of her CD's and was pumped that I made it to the show. Pictures are on Steve's camera right now, have to get those soon. She's spinning again at an event on December 22nd. It's called Revelation 4. It's down in South Windsor CT. It's a huge charity event. They're going to have 24+ bands, 80+ DJ's, 8 rooms of sound. Party is going on from 11am on Saturday to 6am on Sunday. I definitely want to hit it up. Steve and Bob-O want to go too. Mistress Jade is playing, Fig will be doing one of his breakbeat sets, Knowledge from CT is playing also. I need to go, I have to see her again. If anyone is interested in going let me know and I'll get you the rest of the information. I'm getting stuff together to apply to Grad Schools. I'm applying to UNH, UConn, URI, Umass Amherst, and SUNY Buffalo. Right now it seems the Buffalo is the best place for me to go, if I can get in. I'm starting to really wonder if this is the path that I should go down. Every electronic show that I go to, it just feels so right. My element is to be involved with music. I need to be. I want to do something with music, but I don't know how or if I can. I can't stop with the chemistry thing either. I've come this far I can't just quit. When I look at things in the big picture, I'm really just doing the chem thing for the future. I want to be able to make a decent paycheck and support my wife and kids, give them things and opportunities I never had. But right now my dreams are with music. But if I give up chem, I've got nothing because I don't think I can make anything of music, which means I won't be able to provide for a family. So I guess I'm just going to do what I always do and stick with the chem. I don't want to graduate. I want to stay here and do the radio show, I want to stay here and be involved in the electronic scene, I want to stay here with my friends. I don't want to leave it all. But in the end I guess I'll have to... Current Mood: confused (Comment on this)