Happy Birthday Michael J. Epstein's Mustache!

 Michael J. Epstein's Mustache just celebrated his third birthday. He was born the day after a family wedding in which no mustaches were permitted.

Mustache had a quiet birthday as usual, but did receive one generous card from Eric Steven Roberts and Nicole Freeman.

Sophia's Rock Beat: Lady Drummer series - Theresa of Streight Angular

A while back, I did some short interviews with local girl drummers whom I admire. I've been sitting on these thinking I'm going to do something huge with them, but I've come around to thinking I should just post them! So, you'll be seeing these pop up when these hot ladies have gigs coming up.


Streight Angular is playing tomorrow night at The Middle East Downstairs on one of the most stacked bills of the entire summer! Fri 7/29:
Mellow Bravo, Sidewalk Driver, Walter Sickert And The Army Of Broken Toys, Streight Angular, This Blue Heaven (doors at 7:30 - do not miss a minute of this bill!)
Boston Band Crush is presenting the night - read their blog post here!

Theresa, like me, started playing drums as a necessity to playing in a band with her partner-in-crime. I asked her about her influences and experience:


Theresa: "I started playing the drums about 5 years ago, when Al Polk wanted to start a new band and asked me to be the drummer.  I grew up playing alto saxophone, but I think I always had drumming in my blood.  I like to make interesting beats, typically with space and syncopation, and I'm inspired a lot by Caribbean rhythms.  My only drumming project has been Streight Angular, although I've sat in for other bands, including a hip hop project.  Streight Angular draws from all different genres to create fun, danceable music with a message."




 Strieght Angular has just released a new video, check it out:

DNFMOMD: Episode 1: Arrival Music Video News & Press - 50K views!

December '11 update: We were very honored to have TIME Magazine Online select our video as No. 6 (we see what you did there) in its Top Ten Creative Videos of 2011 List - TIME LINK

July 11 update: Our music video debuted just about a month & a half ago on Magnet Magazine  (link to blog post about the video and making of info). Of course by now you know that the video is a shot-for-shot remake of the opening sequence to '60s cult British TV show, The Prisoner. The two links to the video (the original version and the comparison video - which has The Prisoner in a box in the lower corner) have combined views of over 50,000!

The following is a list of some of the exciting features the video has received!

We just got word that MTV Latin America has the video in rotation for June and July, and MTV UK has also played it!

here are some of the exciting places it has been featured online:

The Daily Wh.at - music video of the day 7/12/11 "named after the show’s thirteenth episode — only play songs inspired by Patrick McGoohan’s criminally short-lived cult TV show. Hope to be seeing much more of them in the future.(ucwidt)"

Comics Beat - Friday Fun, 7/8/11 "Could the Boston-based musical duo Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling be any bigger Prisoner fans?"

Topless Robot - Prisoner-themed  band makes Prisoner-themed video for Prisoner-themed song -"this is impressive enough, but the fact that the band shot their video in Boston and New England -- and not the actual England -- yet managed to recreate shots so accurately, but also somehow got their hands on a vintage Lotus 7 car complete with the correct license plate... well, it's beyond amazing. That's lead singer/drummer Sophia Cacciola as Number 6/Patrick McGoohan, by the way. Somewhere in the pantheon of Impressive Acts of Nerdery, this thing ranks near the top."

Screened - "there's homage and there's outright obsession.....Apparently this took two years of planning to pull off, but hell...it shows."

Metafilter - 7/12/11 - "I am not a number, I am a free woman!" - this one has the most "interesting" comments!

The Boston Phoenix “this clip for "Episode 1: Arrival," directed by Theodore Cormey of Lost Jockey Productions, it's just next-level insanity, replicating, scene-by-scene and shot-by-shot, the show's opening sequence, filmed at various locations around Massachusetts over 11 days of shooting and two years of planning. It's nothing short of jaw-dropping, and really, suddenly getting chased out of nowhere on the beach by a giant fucking orb is a metaphor we all can relate to."

The Weekly Dig - "’60s series steeped in espionage The Prisoner acts as the inspiration for their music and wardrobe, so it should be no surprise that their latest video is a stunning--and nearly identical--Prisoner homage."

SciFi Pulse - "Rock band homages classic Prisoner opening titles"

Ronster's Reviews “painstakingly accurate recreation, right down to the Caterham 7 'Prisoner' edition car (a replica of McGoohan's car, which was produced in 1990 in limited quantities) and the near-perfect replica of the interior of The Prisoner's flat. If like me, you are a fan of this series, you will be amazed at how close they got it. They substituted a Boston garden for the Welsh village of Portmeirion, but found a beach location which is uncannily similar to that in the location in Wales."

The New England Deli

Fanboy - "DNFMOMD recreated the opening sequence from The Prisoner in modern day Boston"

The Daily Pop - "Filmed throughout Massachusetts , the video is an astounding achievement. Painstakingly accurate to the source material, the video isn’t just a shot-for-shot homage to the classic ITV program, but the song itself is really great. Featuring a replica of the signature Lotus 7, every camera angle is replicated along with McGoohan’s unique facial expressions (performed by lead singer Sophia Cacciola). As a fan of the original Prisoner I was very impressed by the attention to detail, then taken in by the song as well."

Trusty Plinko Stick - "I love how music steeped in nerd culture has evolved past the convention circuit and Dr. Demento (not that there's anything wrong with either) and into the realm of elaborate artistic endeavor - but these two kicked it up a dozen or so notches more with the video for their song "Arrival." And yeah, the song itself is pretty rad, too. I definitely need to hear more from these people."

The Knights - "I think it's pretty cool."

And on Prisoner-specific fan sites:

The Prisoner Online - Band Recreate Prisoner Title Sequence

The Unmutual “The Unmutual Website was delighted to recently hear again from the band "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" regarding their 'shot for shot' reworking of the series' opening title sequence for their latest video"

Six of One featured the video on the front page.

Johnny Prisoner “I found it awesome, and brilliantly filmed, and executed. I was pleased not to see Portmeirion in the music video, filmed as it was in Boston, and around New England. All the detail that Sophia, her band, Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling had put into the video, it's quite astounding really. And to achieve a shot by shot replica opening sequence to the Prisoner, is quite marvellous to see."

More info (incl. making of, photos, etc) at http://donotforsake.com/arrival.html

Sophia's Rock Beat: 06/30/11-07/16/11

June 30th we headed down to Porter Belly's to check out Northampton band, Bunny's A Swine - as part of Local Music 101's podcast series. Video 1, 2, 3.

7/14 we caught the I, Pistol CD Release at TT the Bears. Video 1, 2, 3. Also on that bill we caught Reverse (video 1, 2, 3) and The Rationales (video 1, 2, 3).

7/15/11 we caught the reunion show of Curious Ritual (a band that did well in Boston in the mid-'90s). Video 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Michael J. Epstein Memorial Librarian Tanya Palit moonlights...as a muffin!

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Librarian Tanya Palit recently appeared as a guest on the Jeff Jam show. She sang along with Jeff on a bunch of tunes and strummed her ukulele (the very same one as played in the MJEML), but perhaps most importantly, she took on a critical role in Jeff's show...the muffin. Immediately after the credits (about 1:40 in), Tanya transforms into a dancing muffin. We're proud of her!

DNFMOMD: The secrets of the bass sound...

Some people may not realize it, but Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling is just Sophia Cacciola rocking the drums and singing while I play bass. When people hear our record, they often ask me if I played the guitar or if someone else was uncredited as there is no listing for guitar. For those of you who have seen us live, you are probably aware that there is no guitar! We keep our recordings relatively true to our live sound and don't do any bass/guitar overdubs. So, the kids wonder, how do I get that sound?  ...and why?

First, in case you are not familiar, here is an example of our sound from our latest EP...

Sophia and I used to play in a band called Blitzkriegbliss.  The band was a trio.  She played guitar and sang. I played bass. We played with some great drummers, but we seemed to shed them faster than dirty socks. So, after some frustration keeping the momentum going, Sophia decided to learn the drums. After a short time working on that, we decide to get things going again. I suggested that I could mess around with some kind of hybrid guitar/bass situation so we didn't need another member. At first I thought I'd play guitar and octave it down, but I kind of felt like that had been done a lot before. Also, one of my favorite things about our previous work was that I could do my best to channel some of the great bass approaches used by Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order - probably my favorite bass player. I wanted to continue down that path.  I really wanted to avoid using samplers, backing tracks, and shoegaze pedal stomping.  I just wanted a sound that I could keep pretty constant throughout - sort of like a classic genre sound (but a new one) that didn't rely on a million combinations of processors.

So, I bought an octave pedal from my favorite effects pedal company ElectroHarmonix and decided to give it a go.  After some quick messing around, we decided it worked!  Here's what I came up with.

Oh, and before we get into the details, I am probably the least gearheady person in the world. I don't think too much about this stuff at all. Half of the time, I can't even remember the brands I am using.

It all begins with an Ibanez SoundGear SR3000 bass. I am sure the very specific particulars of the instrument do have an effect on the sound, but I think the key component is that it has an active pickup and can output a pretty strong signal.  I put this instrument through quite rough treatment. Here is a photo of it after I broke two strings during a song live recently (link to video).

I use the simplest splitter (multipurpose even) in the world, a BOSS  chromatic tuner. I take the output channel and send it directly to my bass amplifier and take the bypass channel and send it to the remainder of my "guitar" rig. Stomping this pedal (turning the tuner on) then shuts off the signal to the bass side of the rig, but not the guitar side.

I'd have to work really hard to find a less fancy bass rig than I've got. I use a Hartke HA3500 amplifier head with a 115 cabinet . I like the amp's blend of tube and solid state channels (I mostly crank the tube channel). I rarely use the amp's EQ and I never use the compression.

I've always used cheap, get-the-job-done type cabinets. I got a Hartke VX115 because it was light and the 15-inch speaker gives me great low end. As I am sending a lot of mid and high signal to the guitar rig, I didn't really care too much about a cabinet with much of anything other than low end.  Main criteria: cheap, not too heavy, and not too big.

More recently, I switched to the Gallien-Krueger 115MBE 1x15 Ultra Light Bass Speaker Cabinet. It's smaller, lighter, can handle more power, and, at least to my ears, sounds better. All-in-all, it's a win!

That's it for the bass side of my setup!

The guitar side is a little more involved, but not too crazy. I did everything I could to keep it simple. I start things off with what I consider to be my secret weapon!  The Rusty Box is a boutique bass pre-amp pedal designed to help replicate the bass tone of Bob Weston (Shellac). I love the pedal because it gives me a little extra control of how hard I am driving subsequent stages of my rig. The thing that is tricky with this guitar path is that it's all about gain staging and balancing things just right. The Rusty Box is a great initial aid and I use it just a little bit to help me get more control of changes in tone associated with how hard I attack the strings of the bass. 

I can go from pretty clean to total noise dirt depending on my strike. This little guy contributes quite a lot to that! Here's a little image showing my starting knob positions for getting myself set up. Yes, I drew those knob positions myself, thanks very much!

From the Tronographic web site: MID CUT DEMO, PRE-AMP DEMO, BASS VI DEMO

This brings us to the obvious necessary transformation that brings the bass into the guitar's tonal range. The ElectroHarmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator is my weapon of choice. I use it to shift the bass signal up both one and two octaves, with very little clean signal passed and no suboctave. I detune the shifted sounds a little to add some dissonance and fear to the sound. The use of the two octaves makes the bass sound a little bit more like an organ than a guitar, but that kind of works for me.

It also results in changes in dissonance depending on how hard the strings are struck. If I give the strings a good whack, lots of dissonance. If I play gently, a fairly consonant signal. The image to the left shows my initial settings for this pedal (marked with red tape, some of which is coming off or has come off).

From there, I send the signal to a volume pedal.

I use an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal Jr. to control the level of the "guitar" half of the rig. This gives me the ability to play with full guitar, partial guitar, or no guitar (just bass!).

(Ignore the second volume pedal and the Big Muff pedal in the image. While those are on my board, they are not used at all in this band. I always think I want to incorporate the Big Muff, but I never have found a way to make it work.)

Finally, I send the signal to a Mesa Single Rectifier amplifier and Mesa 212 cabinet. I use the clean channel, but I push the gain up really high (so it's not actually so clean). Depending on how the tubes and pedals are feeling that day (and how much I've messed up tiny settings in this highly non-linear system), I sometimes have to crank the mids.  I also sometimes have to drop the mids!

Sometimes in the studio, we have also taken the signal from the POG stage of the system while tracking and reamped it using software amplifier simulators to enhance the sound, particularly the low mids, which can sometimes be cranky and unpredictable.

That's it! Let me know if you have any questions about it!

DNFMOMD: cover Sweet Dreams with Glenn di Benedetto of Parlour Bells

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling and Parlour Bells are playing tomorrow at The Lizard Lounge, Cambridge MA and we decided to collaborate on a cover song - it was all supposed to be a delicious secret, but in the process we discovered we are bad at keeping secrets. So bad that we accidentally recorded the top secret duet we have planned for Friday night's Goddamn BDay Bash/DNFMOMD 2nd Video Premiere w Parlour Bells, Merrily James show and also accidentally made a video for it and mistakenly posted it to YouTube.

Hear our take on the Eurythmics' Sweet Dreams (are made of this) below!

The Boston Phoenix took notice and said: "More than a decade later, we finally have something to wipe that gross-ass Marilyn Manson taste out of our collective Eurythmics fan-mouths."



Here are the details for the show - it's also our video premiere for our cover of First We Take Manhattan!

FRIDAY, JULY 22 2011
DOORS AT 8:30PM
LIZARD LOUNGE

In addition to celebrating a certain someone's goddamn birthday (Glenn, producer of the First We Take Manhattan video and singer of Parlour Bells), Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling will be premiering their NEW video for "First We Take Manhattan," produced by Killer Suit. And that's just the icing on the goddamn cake, as there will be a heaping slice of the devil's food cake we call ROCK AND ROLL with performances from...

SET TIMES (APPROX)
DO NOT FORSAKE ME OH MY DARLING - 11:45
PARLOUR BELLS - 10:30
MERRILY JAMES - 9:15

ADVANCE TICKET LINK!

To get a sneak peek at the "First We Take Manhattan" video check out the teaser:

Michael J. Epstein & Sophia Cacciola host On the Town with Mikey Dee on WMFO 7/20/11!

Go "like" the OTTwMD facebook page! OTTwMD plays local Boston music and is on every Wednesday from 9pm-Midnight and almost always features a live band around 10:30 - it's on 91.5 WMFO - http://wmfo.org.

Send your CDs to the station SO THAT WE CAN PLAY YOU! and if you're extra nice - denote which tracks have swears (and likewise if all tracks are clean, please!)


WMFO
attn: Joel Simches
PO Box 65
Medford, MA 02155

here was tonight's playlist:

	9:07pm	Cooling Towers “Joan of Arc” from s/t
	9:11pm	Muck and The Mires “Doreen” from All Mucked Up CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Soundflat Records 2006)
	9:12pm	Parlour Bells “Pet Names” from Heart Beatings CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (2010)
	9:17pm	The Highway “Last Race” from Forest People CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Interscope Digital Distribution 2010)
	9:24pm	Lauren Flaherty “Battle Scarred” from The Southie Chanteuse CD/LOSSLESS EP (2011)
	9:27pm	Streightangular “On the Washing Machine” from After and Before CD/LOSSLESS ALBUM (Polk Records 2009)
	9:30pm	Blizzard of 78 “Nothing or No One” from Nothing Or No One CD/LOSSLESS EP (2011)
	9:33pm	Chris Elliott “Raven On the Wire” from Voice, Guitar, and Ten Good Songs
	9:39pm	The Longwalls “Sargasso in Space” from Careers in Science  (Static Motor Recordings 2011)
	9:43pm	The Hush Now “Hoping & Waiting” from Constellations (self released 2009)
	9:46pm	Kingsley Flood “Cul De Sac” from Dust Windows  (Kingsley Flood 2010)
	9:53pm	The Televangelist and The Architect “Within Reality” from Expecting Nothing Out Of Everything  (Undetected Plagiarism 2010)
	9:56pm	The Russians “Talking To Yourself” from Crashing The Party (Moontower Recordings 2010)
	9:59pm	The Downbeat 5 “Out In The Streets” from Victory Motel CD ALBUM (Abbey Lounge 2005)
	10:04pm	Golden Bloom “E.H.M.” from Fan The Flames CD (The Sleepy West 2009)
	10:05pm	Full Body Anchor “1 in 150” from The Restless EP  (2011)
	10:10pm	The Future Everybody “Strings” from It Takes Nothing  (The Future Everybody 2011)
	10:12pm	Gentlemen Hall “Bonnie And Clyde” from Self Titled
	10:14pm	Stereo Telescope “Lighthouse” from S/T  (2011)
	10:22pm	Taxpayer “Night Vision” from Don't Steal My Night Vision  (Lunch Records www.lunch.com 2009)
	10:26pm	Treat Her Right “I Think She Likes Me” from Anthology (Razor & Tie 1998)
	10:30pm	Axemunkee “LOST HIGHWAY” from SideWalk Mary  (Tigrette Records 2008)
	10:37pm	Mistle Thrush “Small” from Drunk With You  (Ecstatic Records 2002)
	10:40pm	One Happy Island “Temporary Tattoo” SINGLE (2010)
	10:44pm	The Grownup Noise “Just So You Know” from This Time With Feeling 2011
	10:48pm	Natural Toy “Women Love to Like Me(They Don't Like to Love Me)” from Are We Here Yet? (NT Records 2003)
	10:54pm	Tribe “Supercollider” from Sleeper  (Slash/Warner 1993)
	10:58pm	Bobb Trimble “Galilean Boy” from The Crippled Dog Band (2011 reissue)
	11:01pm	The Vivs “(You Should Have Seen) The Other Guy” from Mouth To Mouth (The Vivs 2009)
	11:05pm	Aloud “Fan the Fury” from Fan The Fury (Lemon Merchant Records 2008)
	11:11pm	Jordan Valentine and the Sunday Saints “Tell Me What's On Your Mind” from Van Van and Cleo May (2010)
	11:13pm	Mascara “Listerine” from Fountain Of Tears  (Mr. Fibuli's Records 2010)
	11:19pm	Curious Ritual “Realized” from God Hilliard  (Dahlia 1996)
	11:24pm	Ad Frank and The Fast Easy Women “Man On Fire” from Your Secrets Are Mine Now  (the archenemy record company 2009)
	11:29pm	Jaggery “What You Lack” from Upon A Penumbra  (Jaggery www.jaggery.org 2010)
	11:33pm	MeandJoanCollins “Crime of the Century (So Far...)” from Love. Trust. Faith. Lust. (2010)
	11:37pm	The Lights out “Back Down” from Rock Pony  (Lights Out Recordings 2010)
	11:40pm	Count Zero “never be yourself” from Never Be Yourself  (2011)
	11:47pm	Ketman “Hideout from the Sun” from El Toro  (Lifted & Gifted 2008)
	11:54pm	Televandals “GOOD FOR NOTHING” from G4N
	11:55pm	Will Dailey “Keep You a Mystery” from Torrent Pt. 1: Fashion Of Distraction EP (2009)
	12:01am	Art Decade “The Queen” from Zeppah Recording Compilation No. 9

We also played PSAs about the longhorn beetle, making sure your papers are in order to enter/exit Canada, and Michael read a PSA about wild fires.

DNFMOMD: New video: First We Take Manhattan released on 7/22

Last month we were very pleased to release our epic Prisoner-recreation music video for Episode 1: Arrival (read about it here and here). Watch that video here.

Michael & Glenn hard at work

microfilm props!

But last July we were about a year in on planning Arrival (and honestly, due to all of the obstacles involved in pulling off a production of that magnitude- we weren't sure that was ever going to come together) so we started talking with Glenn di Benedetto of Killer Suit Pictures about doing a video for our cover of Leonard Cohen's First We

suspicious liquids

shooting in the library

Take Manhattan (listen to it here). Since the song is a cover and is outside of our 17 song project to record a song for each episode of The Prisoner series we thought we had a lot more leeway to just create something without directly referencing The Prisoner (though I still wear my white-piped dress, of course!). So we wrote a spy-caper of astronomical implications! Over the course of the rest of 2010 we had about 4 shoot
days. We shot all over Somerville, an undisclosed laboratory, and all over our house. It's a dark, mysterious psychological thriller!



Watch the teaser for First We Take Manhattan:

astronomical!

Over the course of this project Glenn has become a close comrade and frequent collaborator (see Special Friends - our coming-soon sitcom) so it makes it extra special that we are premiering the completed video at his birthday show - 7/22/11 at The Lizard Lounge - Glenn's band, Parlour Bells and DNFMOMD play. Parlour Bells are also releasing a single that night - and Glenn and I will sing a very special duet! (FB EVENT)

the monkey and the plywood violin

yes, teetering off of ledges and ladders for our art