December 28
NEW RELEASE:
LIMBABWE 53
DALLAS KINGSTON KOLLEKTOR ‘vereinswagon’
DOWNLOAD HERE:
https://limbabwe.com/DKK_Vereinswagon.zip
December 20
Introduction to AIKULA’s first vinyl to be released in February
November 27
That Russian peanut butter is horrible (read previous post). It must have lots of adjectives. Sugar, oil, chemicals…… Plus, its crunchy, and I don’t like crunchy peanut butter. This happens if you can’t read Russian Cyrillic. Advice for travelers to Russia who like to eat peanut butter: take your own!
With Rock music getting ‘aged’ its remarkable to see how the mainstream adapted ‘revolutionary’ rock of the 60ties/70ties. Logic, the rockers got old (around 70), and their grandchildren running the companies consider their grandpa/ma revolution as a romantic event somewhere in the past.
Traveling I noticed a few remarkable use of historic ‘revolutionary’ rock music:
-The Rolling Stones ‘Mothers Little helper’. Muzak in a shopping mall. Ok, the Stones are mainstream pop since the 60ties, but ‘Mothers Little Helper’ in a shopping mall! Purpose or coincident? The mall was in Germany, these moms probably don’t understand the lyrics.
– Ramones ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. Washing Machine commercial (no joke!!!!)
– Jimi Hendrix ‘All Along The Watchtower’. Commercial for men’s perfume (for real!)
– The Velvet Underground ‘Sunday Morning’. Airplane muzak when landing! For sure! Ok, its an easy song, but not if you understand the lyrics!
Probably you all can add more examples to this list.
Somehow this evolutionary development was to be expected and is therefore not so much surprising. It rises a question: Where is the ‘revolutionary’ rock of today? The answer is depressing……..
November 17
Now at my house: Russian peanut butter
Unopened. Let you know the taste soon……
October 19
NEW RELEASE: AIKULA ‘ABSURD & BIZARRE’ cassette tape
LIMITED EDITION, ONLY 37 AVAILABLE! ALL HANDCRAFTED
Order from Aikula webstore: http://www.freewebstore.org/aikula
Absurd side: Live This Life (distorted live version) / Iedvesma (live without audience) / Grabbed By The Scruff Of The Neck (live without audience)/ Rather On Cocaine (Istanbul remix)
Bizarre side: No Link (radio edit) / Elena (live guitar version) / Elena (Green Espadrilles remix) / Music Or Death?! (No.1 version) / What are we waiting for / Sssh
Angry Love Productions OTTT37
The title explains the content. You join a venture in variation. This tapes shows that AIKULA is a hard working band. They re-arrange, re-mix, re-play,…. and produce much music that sometimes arrives different than expected.
That AIKULA is in the first place a solid rock band proofs the opening track ‘Live This Life’. Overdriven (distorted), heavy and energetic performed live. Followed by ‘Iedvesma’ and ‘Grabbed By The Scruff Of The Neck’, also performed live, but without presence of audience. Both songs are no longer part of AIKULA’s repertoire, therefore added to avoid oblivion. Last song on the ‘Absurd’ side is a crooked remix of ‘Rather On Cocaine’, their breath taking noise-rock song turned into a kick-stomp.
Bizarre side opens with the ‘hit’ ‘No Link’, radio edit. Followed by two total different versions of ‘Elena’ (live and studio remix), sounding like two different songs. “Music Or Death?!’ is also no longer on AIKULA’s set list, thats why one more time here the ‘No 1’ version. And if you have some patience, there is a little surprise on the end.
Again Aikula shows some guts doing the unexpected. This tape is interesting for followers and music lovers.
LIMITED EDITION! Only 37 made, all hand crafted and numbered! Every tape is unique!
Can’t wait for the vinyl to be out. I heard it sounds as heavy like their live performances. The release is expected begin 2017.
October 13
AIKULA LIVE IN LONDON
On November 7 AIKULA performs in the BRIXTON JAMM, LONDON UK
October 8
August 25
Now, 2016, where rock stars are old or pass away reaching respectable, normal live-expecting age, I wonder which was the lie:
– Drugs are bad for your health
or:
– Rockstars use lots of drugs
?
August 14
PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 poster upcoming Tel Aviv gig:
August 3
Alcohol is popular in Idrija, also with traffic signs….
July 18
Alan Vega, June 23 1938 – July 16 2016
Usually I don’t comment on musicians passing. Other media fulfill this request sufficient. I make an exception with Alan Vega assuming that his underground status doesn’t make media explode. Still, Alan Vega was a pioneer and one of the most influential musicians of my generation (and my generation still influences generations till today).
Alan Vega got 78 years old. A respectable age. Here a vid performing ‘Dream Baby Dream’.
July 17
SHINAFEST 2016:
June 28
An article of Simon Shackleton published 3 days ago:
I began using Facebook over 9 years ago now when they took over the reigns from MySpace as the go-to hub for online community-building and marketing. They quickly began to feel like the mothership, a huge, vast, global sponge that absorbed everything in it’s path. Aside from their lack of music player implementation, what appealed as a user was their sleek and easy-to-use interface and the under-one roof nature of their site. I also loved (and continue to love) the Messenger feature, and still spend large chunks of each day talking to friends, working up leads for possible work opportunities and forming new connections with people I’ve never met, and perhaps never will.
It’s been an awesome tool during this time and I’ve given as much as I’ve taken from it in consistently being one of the 1% of the population who are actual content-creators (9% are interactors and 90% are passive consumers). During this time I have worked hard at building a sense of community around my Simon Shackleton Artist Page (previously the Elite Force page), continuing to reach out with content, conversation & community at the heart of my efforts.
In the past two or three years, the goalposts have changed pretty markedly. Facebook has abandoned its community-spiritedness and its own goals have shifted radically to a much more hostile, corporate model, with it’s primary raison d’etre becoming monetization. With all of the additional content that comes from over 1 & a half BILLION users, the fight to appear on people’s precious Newsfeeds has become a brutal one, and has resulted in a race to the bottom when it comes to tactical posting. I have lost count of the number of musicians changing tack and re-appropriating tabloid TV Video snippets and the crassest of images to leverage more likes, to massage their egos and inflate their sense of popularity. However in the venn diagram there’s a huge subset of followers that love ‘TV’s Funniest Bloopers’, but virtually none of them are relevant to their music, and will never hear it or engage with it.
It. All. Means. Nothing.
The sad thing is that these posts lower the bar. They encourage lowest common denominator interactions and they reduce the chances of their music being heard in the future, not to mention that of other artists who perhaps don’t play those gutter games.
Facebook Page posts are now verging on *completely* pointless unless you have bottomless cash reserves to pay to gain reach. I have seen brand new musical and visual content of mine not just fall below the radar recently, but disappear from it completely. When you get to the point where less than 1% of your fanbase (who have chosen to Like your page after all) see your posts without Facebook extorting money from you from boosting them, it has truly become an empty vessel. Outside of personal pages, Facebook is now a hugely expensive, un-engaging, non-community based red herring. It has spawned a massive industry dedicated only to marketing tweaks and tips, and it’s easy to get drawn into that world in the desperation to be heard by your own friends and fans.
I’m. Not. Playing.
I’m done with playing that game. I have a beautiful hub right here (http://www.simonshackleton.org) that I am investing more of my time and energy in these days. It looks better, sounds better, has more integrity, is more personal, completely customisable … and you know what? It may not have the reach or functionality of Facebook, but I don’t care. It’s where I live.
It has soul, honesty and passion. And that is enough for me.
Tell your friends, and bookmark for regular visits : http://www.simonshackleton.org
Tanx Simon, I am lucky sticking to my little personal soulful corner of the world-wideweb: www.limbabwe.com
April 24
This text is borrowed from an article written last year by Terry Matthew after an issue with copyrights on the social-medium page ‘Soundcloud’. You can find the original here: http://5chicago.com/technology/soundcloud-social-media-fanbase/ .
The article is briefly related to a remark I made more than 10 years ago, on tour, in the early days when all this started. A musician told (and explained) me how his ‘MySpace’ page works, and that he had already ‘400’ friends. What I (cynical) commented ‘I rather have 4 real friends than 400 cyber’. Over a decade further social pages became common part of our lives including all complications users have to deal with. Especially in music industry it seems indispensable.
To make the remarks in Matthews article more universal (lesser specific about Soundcloud), I edited it a bit. Reading the original gave me the impression he talks general about the phenomenon ‘social media’ anyway.
The article goes a bit deeper than my blunt remark years ago, still, in basics, it comes down to the same…
It’s your fanbase – that number that appears everywhere and makes artists either frustrated or gives them an unwarranted sense of self-importance. It should be rather easy to contact them all and tell them you’re moving on and you’ll all meet up on hearthis.at or mixcloud, right?…….Right! And that’s why most artists aren’t going anywhere, as long as their account is still active. Their fanbase ain’t going with them.
It’s been said that we live in an era of “access” – a kind of golden age of artist communications and marketing. Rather than rely upon the faulty medium of the journalist or the tabloid, artists can now talk “directly” to their fans without any intermediary. Well, except for SoundCloud, or Twitter, or Facebook, or…
The reality is that you don’t own your fanbase. You just “access” them. You rent them in exchange for your data. And when the moment comes you want to end your lease and move to another block, it becomes incredibly clear what the distinction is.
When a site implodes or homepages are taken down without much recourse, the artist is confronted once again with having to build an audience from zero. If you have a million followers it’s a bit easier, of course, but most artists don’t have a million followers. They may have a few thousand followers, accumulated over the course of years. A “follower” is a person who (with some exceptions, obviously) has indicated that they like you and want to receive updates from you. And now you’re a dead link or a gap on that follower’s dashboard, and that’s all.
The important thing to realize is that these barriers between fan and artist are entirely artificial. There’s really no reason why they need to exist, other than to obstruct you from leaving the page.
It would be incredibly simple to ask people on sign-up if they want to share their email address, and allow any customer at any time to export the data for whatever reason. Most of us sign up to receive email updates by artists (in fact, we should be doing it more, considering it’s the only means to have any kind of “ownership” over your fanbase now). The days are long gone when an email address was some kind of a secret gateway to our identities.
It’s not a shocking revelation to state this. Holy shit you mean the corporations that dominate 21st century communication want control?! But it is depressing how rarely this is addressed, or how little artists or their advisors and managers think about this sort of thing.
Most will not leave social media pages because nobody else is leaving. Pages will not go down because there is too large of a user base and too much venture capital already burned. Many artists who hate it will continue using it because they loathe having to build their fanbase all over again. Some will go elsewhere, but have to realize that they just renting fans there, too.
Matthew tells us that; if joined, we all are used by the social media companies, artists/fans/admin/followers… He advices to ask every follower/fan for an email address. Your fanbase is than direct accessible, free from s(h)ite-producers decisions.
March 28
NEW
LIMBABWE 52
DALLAS KINGSTON KOLLEKTOR
‘GROUND’
A contradictory reflection inspired, found and based in the contradictory town with the contradictory slogan: ‘history of advance technology’
Free download ‘Ground’ here:
https://www.limbabwe.com/Dallas_Kingston_Kollektor_Ground.zip
Feb 27
GENESIS P ORRIDGE, FEBRUARY 2016
photo by Drew Weidemann
Feb 17
My latest ‘hobby’. Start with 1, now have 4. Since the introduction of the (not so) smart phone previous owners dump the small computers (call them ‘notebooks’, or….what ever…). So I catch them, because I like them. real keyboard, nice screen where you can oversee a complete page (readable). Can do everything I want and fits my coat pocket. I’ll keep the phone for calling and keep collecting more of these before they are disappeared. Need sufficient supply for the rest of my life. Asus are my favorites, if you want to dump one, dump it on me. Email!
Here my collection (so far):
Guess what desktop I use….
Feb 8
Today its France Preseren day in Slovenia. Probably most readers of this post have no idea what that is, so let me briefly explain. Preseren was a writer (poet), died more than 150 years ago on February 8. He wrote in Slovene language, and according Slovene cultural history he influenced local language and inspired the artistic scene. In Slovenia this is sufficient to have today an annual national holiday. I am wondering, does Germany have a Goethe day, Netherlands Vondel day, Portugal Soares day, England Shakespeare day,….. Probably they do, but I am sure these are not national holidays. Slovenia is a young, small and not very populated country (2 million). They are desperate in proving their existence. Thats all understandable, although personally I am not for any activity stimulating nationalistic feelings in whatever territory. Anyway, I write this post not so much because of France Preseren or nationalism. On and of I spend time in this part of Europe. Not so much for cultural, human, political or whatever reason, but for the nature, and thats not created by humans and their urge to organize. Hanging here I try to catch something of the language, realizing how difficult it is. Take the word ‘let’ for example. It has 3 different non related meanings: year, flight and cold (or ice). Now thats confusing. It would be more logic if the word had more related meanings like flight, wing and bird or such…. So here I am, in Slovenia, ordering whiskey without flights, congratulating the couple with their 25 ice anniversary and ordering a strawberry year cream!
The story goes that Preseren drank lots of wine.
Jan 29
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
LENT ME YOUR UNDERBELLY, 19 FEBRUARY BUSBAR IDRIJA SLOVENIA
AIKULA, MARCH 11, BUSBAR IDRIJA SLOVENIA
ENNUHHH SHINAFEST AGAIN IN SEPTEMBER
Jan 23
The background on yesterday’s Shinafest announcement is a picture of the original Idrija mercury mine logo during the Yugoslavian time. We talk about a period of almost 50 years, still the logo totally disappeared. I looked for it everywhere. In the town Idrija, online, books about the mine,… but nowhere pictures of the logo during the Yugoslavian period. It even seems that almost the complete Yugoslavian time is totally ignored, as if it never existed. Not that I am such ‘Yugo-retro-fan’, its still weird. We talk about rational history here. Something that was there, did happen, and therefore can not be denied. I understand emotional and political motives, but history should be free of these issues and be based on facts. Fact is that Idrija and the mine was also in the socialistic state Yugoslavia. Fact is that notables in those days did put a star on top of the tools (the star is now gone, disappeared, vanished forever). If you ignore historic facts, you are forging history. A doubtful action, mostly done for political reason. History forging has fascistic tendencies instigated by lesser smart ones among us.
Lucky, in a private collection I found an original symbol from the Yugoslavian years and made a picture of it:
This was used to cover the hole for a flagpole. A nice cover with the logo on top. Lets place the picture again with a clear description so people searching the web can find it:
Official symbol of the Antonijev rov mercury mine in Idrija during the Yugoslavian years.
Ok, back and online forever! I am happy stopping this little bit of history forging.
Jan 21
So, why not start posting again regularly……
Lets start with announcing the Shinafest dates of this year:
