Early sketches for the traveling wine-o-phone. Cinematic Underground tour, 2005
We used tuned wine glasses quite a bit on the score for Brick, but as we prepared for the US Cinematic Underground tour, I started thinking about a way to travel with them. Little did I know that my eventual collaborator Jonny Rodgers was simultaneously working on a design, which would go on to accompany the Faux Fix tour years later. His version was much more reliable (the glasses were glued in to a flight case with built-in mics), and while ours were taped into a rickety suitcase, we did think to fill it with christmas lights, so at least that was a score on the visual side of things.
Performing “My Dear Self” by my self in Bristol on a boat sometime in 2004. This was before the full live show was developed, but I was already experimenting with using Zach’s artwork along with the performances.
Photo by Rama Knight
From the vaults: Cinematic Underground tour sketches
Just found the megaphone we used for The Cinematic Underground tour in 2006. Same batteries that took us from Boston to Denver and back to New York are still going strong. Now, what to use this on in 2012!?
Here’s a great link to see documentation of our Cinematic Underground US tour. Looking at these makes me want to get back on the road again…
Speaking of The Cinematic Underground…
Helpful little site.
Combines two of my favorite past times.
This morning, for some reason, I stumbled onto Zach’s amazing batch of letters which he wrote to Vilhelmina during The Cinematic Underground tour. These letters were written in place of a band blog, but in them, you can trace a lot of what happened during that time (band fights, crappy shows, personal introductions, our vegetable-oil bus, and Zach’s ramblings, which are always a good time).
I had forgotten about this documentation of Marke playing Karma Police, almost 5 years before Jared’s wonderful account of a similar event. Sometimes lightning does strike twice.
I was enjoying reading my sister’s post about listening to music everyday on the Paris metro and then I got to the end and realized she was listening to my music.
I guess it never quite struck me that The Warden would have a favorite song on my album or that I might be in her earphones on the subway. This is one of the more meaningful things I’ve read about something I’ve made!
Every day, I take the métro from one end of Paris to the other for classes. It’s roughly a forty-five minute journey there and back (thirty-five to forty if I will my feet to move fast enough to and from each stop). I was banking on the thirty-five to forty this morning when an elderly woman stopped me and asked me if I would help her cross the street. I was a little surprised and even excited to assist her because I didn’t think that ever actually happened outside of the world of boy-scouts. Apparently my professor didn’t think so either because she seemed unbelieving and less than amused when I used it as part of my excuse (the woman really did walk rather slowly across the street). Anyways, each morning and each afternoon, I relish the forty-five minutes of undisturbed time when I have absolutely nothing else to be preoccupied with other than putting my earphones in and turning my ipod on shuffle. Every once in awhile, when I have forgotten to recharge my ipod, it dies mid-trip and suddenly the reality of the cramped, uncomfortable compartment comes rushing into my mind and I become painfully aware of the (often) less than pleasant environment in which I exist while on the train. This happened to me today, but before it died, I took my ipod off shuffle to revisit the album Annasthesia by The Cinematic Underground. The song “The Face of the Girl (Like Glass)” has always been my favorite and I’ve been singing these lines in my mind all day:
“I don’t want you off in the distance
where walls of mirrors keep you away.
So I’ll take this chance with a prayer
come out for air today.
Fingerprints on your lemonade glass
lipstick left behind on the rim.
The look you give me let’s me know I could win…”
I don’t think they all know this, but when I’m here, an ocean away, I often listen to my siblings’ music when I’m having a day where I particularly feel the distance. They all exist on my ipod and I settle for that when I can’t be with them in person.
infinitybuttons asked:
What will be the next thing we hear from the Cinematic Underground? Will you be putting out a new album, or are you going straight on to the Looper score?
Thanks for the Cinematic Underground interest. I hesitate slightly to talk about upcoming projects before they’re in production, but I can confirm that everyone in the band is itching to make the next record. Zach and I recently had a talk about the artwork, and I anticipate the visual aesthetic will be a large part of what drives the album. As far as timing goes, I don’t expect we’ll get a good chunk until the summer as there are a couple film projects on the docket first.
By the way, I just browsed through your blog, and I’ve got to admit, this is pretty funny.
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