[begin transmission]
[static]
-- begin tracking: Central Target, remote login--
-- LOCATION: appx. 42.362603,-71.062274 --
-- trace source: [radio device blocked by weather; report to 'storm force'] --
[begin message]
THERE'S A NOR'EASTER BLOWING, AND WE'RE CURRENTLY HIDING OUT IN PLAIN SIGHT. CHECK YOUR LOCAL STATION. THINGS HERE MOVE PRETTY FAST. BUT NOT AS FAST AS WE DO.
LIVE-IN-THE-STUDIO REMIXES LAST NIGHT WHEN THE SPIRIT THREE AND NEPTUNE BALANCE COLLABORATED AT CTRL ON A 2-HOUR TRIP-HOP PERFORMANCE.
PLANS ARE CURRENTLY UNDERWAY FOR A NEPTUNE BALANCE EP BEFORE SUMMER 2010.
THE SPIRIT THREE IS EXPECTED TO COMPLETE A NEW EP IN THEIR LIVE SERIES NEXT WEEK, WITH AN ONLINE RELEASE TO FOLLOW SHORTLY THEREAFTER.
WE'RE CURRENTLY IN TALKS WITH SHAKE AND LAZER MOUSE ABOUT NEW MATERIAL, AND MAY BE ANNOUNCING ANOTHER NEW SIGNING TO THE LABEL SOMETIME THIS SPRING.
FINALLY, AFTER SOME LEGAL WRANGLING, IF ALL GOES WELL, WE MAY DIG INTO THE ARCHIVES TO PROVIDE A GLIMPSE AT THE ORIGINS OF THE COLLECTIVE. THINGS ARE AFOOT. NO JOKE.
SURREPTITIOUSLY,
MIKEY SHAKE
[end message]
-- track source: Boston, MA --
-- track sender: CTRL, Primary Agent --
-- monitor radio waves, targ--
[directive: terminate sweet potato supply WITH EXTREME PREDJUDICE]
[static]
[end transmission]
Friday, April 1, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
transmission intercept: CTRL expanding/begin surveillance
[begin transmission]
[static]
-- begin tracking: Central Target Hub Ultra-Linear Unit (CTRL, C.T.H.U.L.U.) --
-- trace souce: Northeast United States, likely on land, Earth --
[begin message]
Hello out there.
Since our last announcement, things at Central Target have been heating up. More communication breakdowns, less all-night Zeppelin parties, and fewer lyrical drops into the communiques.
Fa fa fa... wait, never mind.
I've recently spoken to my trusty new business partner, who shall remain temporarily nameless, but is now 1/2 of the Central Target Recording Label. He's a master of music and a titan of industry. A gentleman AND a scholar. Please wish him welcome, everyone. He'll be operating out of a new secret lair we're opening in Cleveland. I've seen the video screen in the control room... like the bridge of the Enterprise. Secret rooms, parking structure, indoor roller rink... truly incredible. But you read right up there when I said Cleveland. No, we're not relocating -- we're EXPANDING. That's right... we're oozing west, kids.
Despite the best efforts of our helper monkeys, our communications center is not fully operational. But don't worry. Despite the fact that we here at CTRL are somewhat quiet, we're more than comfortable... spending our days in chic lounges and recording studios, making music. Some of it pounding, some of it haunting. In the immortal words of one Mr. Hammer, "It's all good." While we expect the release of significantly more music than has been previously offered, we're also expecting a bit of a quiet period on the release front for the next 4-6 weeks (although other content should still continue to be updated intermittently). But don't lose hope, true believers, not only will we continue to ape the style of beloved childhood narrators... we're also going to hit it hard and hit it good as soon as we regroup. Figuratively speaking, of course.
We're currently in the process of deputizing some collaborators... accomplices if you will. Much like television's "the A-Team", we've been keeping our eye on several potential staff members/contractors. It could even be you. Just know that we're watching, and that at any time you might be called into the most dangerous, fabulous, secretly powerful cabal of artists to which you've ever been privvy.
Hang tight, boys and girls... and just remember the slogan I heard from Kevin almost a decade ago. I'd paraphrase, but it would just lose something in the translation.
More soon, once we contact our girl in Dorchester, once we refuel the brain trust, and once we run the electric bill sky-high at 3:30 AM. Trust me, it will make sense later.
Gotta run.
Diabolically.
Mikey Shake
-- track source: Boston, MA... Cleveland, OH --
-- track sender: CTRL, Head Agent --
-- monitor radio waves, no hard line installed --
[directive: determine purpose of CTRL, halt world domination]
[static]
[end transmission]
[static]
-- begin tracking: Central Target Hub Ultra-Linear Unit (CTRL, C.T.H.U.L.U.) --
-- trace souce: Northeast United States, likely on land, Earth --
[begin message]
Hello out there.
Since our last announcement, things at Central Target have been heating up. More communication breakdowns, less all-night Zeppelin parties, and fewer lyrical drops into the communiques.
Fa fa fa... wait, never mind.
I've recently spoken to my trusty new business partner, who shall remain temporarily nameless, but is now 1/2 of the Central Target Recording Label. He's a master of music and a titan of industry. A gentleman AND a scholar. Please wish him welcome, everyone. He'll be operating out of a new secret lair we're opening in Cleveland. I've seen the video screen in the control room... like the bridge of the Enterprise. Secret rooms, parking structure, indoor roller rink... truly incredible. But you read right up there when I said Cleveland. No, we're not relocating -- we're EXPANDING. That's right... we're oozing west, kids.
Despite the best efforts of our helper monkeys, our communications center is not fully operational. But don't worry. Despite the fact that we here at CTRL are somewhat quiet, we're more than comfortable... spending our days in chic lounges and recording studios, making music. Some of it pounding, some of it haunting. In the immortal words of one Mr. Hammer, "It's all good." While we expect the release of significantly more music than has been previously offered, we're also expecting a bit of a quiet period on the release front for the next 4-6 weeks (although other content should still continue to be updated intermittently). But don't lose hope, true believers, not only will we continue to ape the style of beloved childhood narrators... we're also going to hit it hard and hit it good as soon as we regroup. Figuratively speaking, of course.
We're currently in the process of deputizing some collaborators... accomplices if you will. Much like television's "the A-Team", we've been keeping our eye on several potential staff members/contractors. It could even be you. Just know that we're watching, and that at any time you might be called into the most dangerous, fabulous, secretly powerful cabal of artists to which you've ever been privvy.
Hang tight, boys and girls... and just remember the slogan I heard from Kevin almost a decade ago. I'd paraphrase, but it would just lose something in the translation.
More soon, once we contact our girl in Dorchester, once we refuel the brain trust, and once we run the electric bill sky-high at 3:30 AM. Trust me, it will make sense later.
Gotta run.
Diabolically.
Mikey Shake
-- track source: Boston, MA... Cleveland, OH --
-- track sender: CTRL, Head Agent --
-- monitor radio waves, no hard line installed --
[directive: determine purpose of CTRL, halt world domination]
[static]
[end transmission]
Saturday, March 26, 2011
intercepted: transmission from CTRL remote location
-open transmission-
-static-
-receiving message-
-sent from: Central Target Research Labs, Northeast United States, Earth-
-subject: "This Year's (Business) Model"-
-NOTICE -- HIGH PRIORITY
-begin message-
The Central Target Recording Label -CTRL-, is not a record label. It's a label for a "collective" -- without the baggage that term now carries, thanks to some ill-advised misappropriations. It's a group of like-minded musicians who make unconventional music. Members of many of the groups have mixed and matched in various musical combinations over the past decade. The idea behind CTRL as a "recording label" is as an outlet for people to put music out into the world in a dedicated channel, acting as a brand, a flavor, a seal of approval. A stamp that the content of the music comes from a certain sensibility. Not a specific "artist/label" relationship. Not yet. The particular musical content isn't necessarily of a common theme, other than the fact that it's not interested in charts or trends, or even commercial domination.
There is no end goal to the content unified under the -CTRL Stamp Of Approval- -image quarantined: delete- umbrella, other than a drive to create music, regardless of audience. It's what makes a musician record a composition by themselves, for their own satisfaction. That drive is what fuels this group of artists. That's why we're going to begin by giving it away for free Central Target. There's no other motive behind the music to their creators felt the need to create it. In the spirit of Factory Records, "our bands have the freedom to fuck off" -check for DNA on statement-. For now, it's simply a way for a coterie of like-minded people to share what they make with other people who may like the same thing, As well as to provide greater visibility for each by the "strength in numbers" survival strategy. Seems simple. Sharing music online? What a concept...
But beyond rock-crit jargon and lofty philosophies and some silly posturing, really.. the point is that Central Target will now be providing the world with some more wonderful new music by several incredible artists. Three, in fact, for starters.
<1> Neptune Balance
close your eyes on a city street and just listen to the music that thousands of individual moments are making simultaneously all around you. it changes course at any given beat -- reflecting that gentle wash as you stop trying to hear something and just listen to it. love, hate, passion, reflection... laughing, screaming, or crying. it could be any of those moments you're overhearing at once - only stretched out long enough to swim in. electronic music that weaves in and out of the human condition.
<2> Lazer Mouse
It's the overloaded sugar rush of that big smear of icing on the corner of the cake. There's no better sound than the sound of cruising around town looking for a good time -- this is the soundtrack to that good time. Buzzing, crackling, infectious punk rock music... sweet with a serrated edge. Music to feel better to.
<3> The Spirit Three
Echoes without a source, it sounds like remembering too many things at the same time. Difficult to pinpoint, but layered textures that let just enough light through to spot half-forgotten melodies that dance around radio frequencies like ghosts.
Please welcome the new members to the family (and there may be more in the future), and we're looking forward to hearing wonderful things in the future.
Meanwhile, the communications center at the bunker is still inactive, which means this was snuck into a television news station in downtown Boston -locate^terminate source- so that we could transmit it worldwide. More analyitical pop culture editorials should soon be forthcoming, and if all goes well, we intend to bring you more music before the month is out.
-sender-Mikey Shake-x-
-title-President/Editor, CTRL-x-
-begin program: "track sender"-
-end message-
-static-
-end transmission-
-static-
-receiving message-
-sent from: Central Target Research Labs, Northeast United States, Earth-
-subject: "This Year's (Business) Model"-
-NOTICE -- HIGH PRIORITY
-begin message-
The Central Target Recording Label -CTRL-, is not a record label. It's a label for a "collective" -- without the baggage that term now carries, thanks to some ill-advised misappropriations. It's a group of like-minded musicians who make unconventional music. Members of many of the groups have mixed and matched in various musical combinations over the past decade. The idea behind CTRL as a "recording label" is as an outlet for people to put music out into the world in a dedicated channel, acting as a brand, a flavor, a seal of approval. A stamp that the content of the music comes from a certain sensibility. Not a specific "artist/label" relationship. Not yet. The particular musical content isn't necessarily of a common theme, other than the fact that it's not interested in charts or trends, or even commercial domination.
There is no end goal to the content unified under the -CTRL Stamp Of Approval- -image quarantined: delete- umbrella, other than a drive to create music, regardless of audience. It's what makes a musician record a composition by themselves, for their own satisfaction. That drive is what fuels this group of artists. That's why we're going to begin by giving it away for free Central Target. There's no other motive behind the music to their creators felt the need to create it. In the spirit of Factory Records, "our bands have the freedom to fuck off" -check for DNA on statement-. For now, it's simply a way for a coterie of like-minded people to share what they make with other people who may like the same thing, As well as to provide greater visibility for each by the "strength in numbers" survival strategy. Seems simple. Sharing music online? What a concept...
But beyond rock-crit jargon and lofty philosophies and some silly posturing, really.. the point is that Central Target will now be providing the world with some more wonderful new music by several incredible artists. Three, in fact, for starters.
<1> Neptune Balance
close your eyes on a city street and just listen to the music that thousands of individual moments are making simultaneously all around you. it changes course at any given beat -- reflecting that gentle wash as you stop trying to hear something and just listen to it. love, hate, passion, reflection... laughing, screaming, or crying. it could be any of those moments you're overhearing at once - only stretched out long enough to swim in. electronic music that weaves in and out of the human condition.
<2> Lazer Mouse
It's the overloaded sugar rush of that big smear of icing on the corner of the cake. There's no better sound than the sound of cruising around town looking for a good time -- this is the soundtrack to that good time. Buzzing, crackling, infectious punk rock music... sweet with a serrated edge. Music to feel better to.
<3> The Spirit Three
Echoes without a source, it sounds like remembering too many things at the same time. Difficult to pinpoint, but layered textures that let just enough light through to spot half-forgotten melodies that dance around radio frequencies like ghosts.
Please welcome the new members to the family (and there may be more in the future), and we're looking forward to hearing wonderful things in the future.
Meanwhile, the communications center at the bunker is still inactive, which means this was snuck into a television news station in downtown Boston -locate^terminate source- so that we could transmit it worldwide. More analyitical pop culture editorials should soon be forthcoming, and if all goes well, we intend to bring you more music before the month is out.
-sender-Mikey Shake-x-
-title-President/Editor, CTRL-x-
-begin program: "track sender"-
-end message-
-static-
-end transmission-
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
The Spirit Three - Meatland EP
Meatland: Secret Transmissions From CTRL
DOWNLOAD HERE
1, Control Codes
2, Bad Dollar
3, Today I'm Hiding Planes Behind A Telephone Line
4, Backdoor Wisconsin (Bavaria)
All tracks recorded live (one take)
Recorded March 6th-14th
at Central Target Research Labs, Boston, MA
Mikey Shake - all guitars, drum programming
no synthesizers were used on this EP.
Front Cover photo and layout by CTRL Design
special thanks to ofthemetro, Cliff at "effects", Mike Walsh, and Sweetcheeks
Part Six of the Spirit Three EP series
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The 100th Post
We've made it to 100 here at the CTRL! It's with that in mind that the information in the following comminuque is both technical and philosophical... isn't that what each and every one of you faithful readers comes here for?
The Central Target Research Labs are up and running, with a library, lounge, galley, communications center, recording studio, nearby escape route, and an in-house exotic eatery.
Despite the toll that the relocation has taken on us all, several projects are in the works, including the production of a soundtrack for a lost 1960's biker/exploitation film, a review of the latest album by Detroit music legends The Dirtbombs, new Spirit Three material, as well as a series of random and insightful dispatches originally created between 1:00 AM and 7:00 AM.
However, despite the best effors of our tech team, we're currently without a way to broadcast these, as a freak accident has knocked out our comminications equipment. So, all of our efforts are currently self-contained, until a way to jack into the system presents itself. Then, we'll naturally flood the channels with new updates. Until then, hold tight.
We're working on it, don't worry.
So until then, I'll leave you faithful followers with the following postulation.
I was watching the 1987 film version of Less Than Zero (a longtime favorite book of mine, but I'd never seen the movie), and found myself wondering if a plastic, shallow, day-glo wasteland of superficiality presented in the film is somehow preferable to a twitchy, paranoid existience where imminent doom is never far from anyone's mind. Of course, years spent decrying the artificial, dead-inside gloss of the late 1980's makes (and a naive longing in my adolesence for "gritty reality") this is a bitter pill to swallow, but as defeatist as it may seem, it sure seems prettier than the alternative.
Grim, huh? It's February. Let's not get too peppy for another month, people.
The Central Target Research Labs are up and running, with a library, lounge, galley, communications center, recording studio, nearby escape route, and an in-house exotic eatery.
Despite the toll that the relocation has taken on us all, several projects are in the works, including the production of a soundtrack for a lost 1960's biker/exploitation film, a review of the latest album by Detroit music legends The Dirtbombs, new Spirit Three material, as well as a series of random and insightful dispatches originally created between 1:00 AM and 7:00 AM.
However, despite the best effors of our tech team, we're currently without a way to broadcast these, as a freak accident has knocked out our comminications equipment. So, all of our efforts are currently self-contained, until a way to jack into the system presents itself. Then, we'll naturally flood the channels with new updates. Until then, hold tight.
We're working on it, don't worry.
So until then, I'll leave you faithful followers with the following postulation.
I was watching the 1987 film version of Less Than Zero (a longtime favorite book of mine, but I'd never seen the movie), and found myself wondering if a plastic, shallow, day-glo wasteland of superficiality presented in the film is somehow preferable to a twitchy, paranoid existience where imminent doom is never far from anyone's mind. Of course, years spent decrying the artificial, dead-inside gloss of the late 1980's makes (and a naive longing in my adolesence for "gritty reality") this is a bitter pill to swallow, but as defeatist as it may seem, it sure seems prettier than the alternative.
Grim, huh? It's February. Let's not get too peppy for another month, people.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Thoughts Found Online: A Quick Update For The Faithful
'Found thoughts' for you... an excellent point about the state of most "indie rock" (the musical 'style', not the act of being a band/artist on an independent label) and its influence derived from Radiohead, who, for the LAST TIME, I do enjoy.
Interesting. When confronted with the question of how I could come up through the same "pre-indie" channels of alternative rock and punk, yet feel so distanced from the state of current "indie rock" (i.e. "blog rock") is because I approach it expecting the same punk-derived value system (both musical and philosophical) I encountered in the "alternative" scene throughout college and the early years of the current environment. I'm looking at it as a punk, they're looking at it the way prog-rockers would, which, to my mentality, is anathema.
And don't worry, faithful readers, Central Target has not forsaken you. We're simply in the process of updating the new and improved Central Target Research Labs.(CTRL). The lab equipment has been moved in, there's still some light cleaning to do, and we're desperately in need of that phalanx of teenage Swedes to shuffle things around, but it's coming along nicely. Here's a snapshot from the "moving-in" process:
We may be taking January off in the "Spirit Three Live EP Series" after the relocation and the sad passing of a member of the Central Target family, but we will be back in force, and rest assured that January is not going to pass without some type of surprise.
Switchblades & Lollipops,
Mikey Shake
Central Target Research Labs
"What strikes me most about them is the absolute lack of playfulness in their music. Everything about them seems absolutely calculated and simultaneously stoic and histrionic. Nothing about them feels immediate.
There's also the matter of their influence on independent rock since the release of "OK Computer." I feel like a large percentage of music championed by Pitchfork and their ilk is derived from or greatly influenced by "OK Computer" and its followups and the musical principals extolled therein. The punk values of "indie" throughout the 80s and 90s where replaced with prog rock values."
- "PB", avclub.com reply boards, Jan. 2011
Interesting. When confronted with the question of how I could come up through the same "pre-indie" channels of alternative rock and punk, yet feel so distanced from the state of current "indie rock" (i.e. "blog rock") is because I approach it expecting the same punk-derived value system (both musical and philosophical) I encountered in the "alternative" scene throughout college and the early years of the current environment. I'm looking at it as a punk, they're looking at it the way prog-rockers would, which, to my mentality, is anathema.
And don't worry, faithful readers, Central Target has not forsaken you. We're simply in the process of updating the new and improved Central Target Research Labs.(CTRL). The lab equipment has been moved in, there's still some light cleaning to do, and we're desperately in need of that phalanx of teenage Swedes to shuffle things around, but it's coming along nicely. Here's a snapshot from the "moving-in" process:
We may be taking January off in the "Spirit Three Live EP Series" after the relocation and the sad passing of a member of the Central Target family, but we will be back in force, and rest assured that January is not going to pass without some type of surprise.
Switchblades & Lollipops,
Mikey Shake
Central Target Research Labs
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Two Roads, In A Wood... blah, blah, blah...
Self-taught musicians tend to learn by listening and playing along to things, whereas more trained players are taught the "right" and "wrong" way and focus on accomplishing a superior performance. Which might explain the fact that bands like Joy Division and bands like Dream Theater exist under the same category of "rock music".
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