Daft Punk Live at Coachella 04.26.06

Download it here.
Download it here.

I heard Daft Punk's show at Coachella a few months ago and fell in love with it. This post is an incomplete description of the bliss that I feel when listening to the set.

My favourite cuts:
3:00 - Robot Rock / Human After All
21:14 - Unknown arpeggiated chords
29:45 - Around the World / Harder Better Faster Stronger
47:08 - Aerodynamic (+ new bass synth backups!) / One More Time
48:54 - Listen for the repeater on the words "Music's got" and "Celebrate".
01:07:16 - Da Funk sampled (listen to 02:26 in the original for reference)

On the last two, it sounds like they've got a beat matched sampler, with buttons for repeating 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, or 1/32 of the sample. Here's what I think happens:

1. You push one of the buttons (4, 8, 16, 32)
   
2. It splits the sample up into the appropriate number of slices
   
3. It gets the position of the sampler
   
4. It finds the slice that the sampler is currently "in".
   
5. It repeats that slice on beat.
   
6. Finally, when the button is released, continues playing the sample from the appropriate position, as if it had been muted (basically, doesn't restart the sample).

You can hear it again during "Technologic" at 13:34 and again at 14:05. I don't know what the equipment is called, but I like the way they've used it. I think that I'll try to write a program to do the same thing one day, and hopefully have it plug into other programs (Acid, FL Studio, Cubase, etc.) via VST(i) and Rewire.

One of the things I love about Daft Punk is their ability to take a piece of technology and do something very sonically interesting with it.

In "Indo Silver Club" (Homework), as soon as the beat drops (at 00:19) the main sample is muted on the downbeats. At high volume, it sounds like your ears are incapable of hearing the sample due to the massive bass. To top it off, at 03:40 they play the main sample muted without the bass kick, revealing the secret of their magic to the listener. When the beat drops again (03:48) the gaps left by the main sample are filled, and you are allowed to continue your booty-shaking.

In "Aerodynamic" (Discovery) at 02:28, a synth comes in playing the same arpeggiated chords as the (mindblowing) solo at 01:02. I didn't realize this until I threw the song into Acid and laid the soft synths over the solo.

In "Superheroes" (Discovery) at 02:22, the left channel plays arpeggiated chords, while the right channel is on delay. I can't really describe the effect, but it's worth hearing.

"Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" (Discovery) sounds like an exercise in vocoder manipulation. A vocoder takes in two signals, called a carrier and a modulator. The carrier is usually a voice, and the modulator is some kind of instrument, usually a synthesizer. The two are merged for the familiar result. The samples are established for the first half of the song. At 02:01 a huge change happens, where the established samples are modulated into insanity. They use a synthesizer plugged on the vocoder for most of the song, except at 02:36, where a guitar is used. I love it.

"Harder, Better, Stronger" is the song that got me hooked on Daft Punk. I heard the cut from 02:01 on a General Electric commercial but didn't know what it was. A month later, Jon and I swapped mixTapes, and there it was. I must have listened to it on repeat for at least an hour and a half. This was in Spring 2001.

There are many more songs by Daft Punk that I could write about, but I feel it would be best if you explored their catalogue for yourself. This is just the tip of the iceburg.

Last Show of Freshman Year

The radio show will (hopefully) never eat my morning again. Amy and Judith came in to lend me their talents as guest-jockeys, and a good time was had by all.

#	N	Artist	Track
1		Elliott Smith	Rose Parade
2	*	Destroyer	Rubies
3	*	Talkdemonic	White Gymnasium
4		Of Montreal	Disconnect the Dots
5		Monks of Doom	Vaporize Your Crystals
6		Of Montreal	Wraith Pinned to the Mist
7		Six Organs of Admittance	A Thousand Birds
8	*	The Essex Green	Cardinal Points
9	*	South	A Place in Displacement
10		Blonde Redhead	This Is Not
11	*	The Tasty Habits	Untitled
12		Modest Mouse	I Came As A Rat
13		Ms. John Soda	Hiding / Fading
14	*	Montag	Kiddo 3
15		!!!	Me And Guliani Down By The Schoolyard
16		Thao Nguyen	We
17		Speechwriters LLC	Spaghetti Streetwalker
18	*	The Little Ones	Lovers Who Uncover
19	*	The Like Young	All the Wrong Reasons
20		Madeline Peyroux	Don't Wait Too Long
21	*	Envelopes	It Is the Law
22		Lightning Bolt	Ride The Sky
23	*	Margot & the Nuclear So & So's	Paper Kitten Nightmare

Playlist - Lots of cute songs

68% new bin material.
unghhhh.

#	N	Artist	Track
1		Volta Do Mar	Music for Countries
2		Koop	Soul for Sahib
3		Elliott Smith	Waltz #2 (XO)
4		Radiohead	Idioteque
5		Thievery Corporation	Meu Destino
6	*	The Light Footwork	The Art Of Everyday Communication
7	*	The Tasty Habits	If Nick and Jessica Were Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)
8	*	Aphex Twin	Chosen Lords
9	*	Mates of State	Beautiful Dreamer
10	*	Electric President	Metal Fingers
11	*	The High Violets	Cool Green
12		The Album Leaf	Over The Pond
13	*	Seth Koffman	Black Biscuit
14	*	Belle & Sebastian	Dress Up In You
15	*	Juana Molina	La Verdad
16	*	Junior Boys	Max
17		Acid House Kings	One Two Three Four
18	*	Boy Least Likely To	I'm Glad I Hitched My Apple Wagon To Your Star
19	*	Suburban Sky	Surf Instrumental
20	*	Spank Rock	Backyard Betty
21	*	Cities	Ooc
22	*	Mcklusky	She Will Only Bring You Happiness
23	*	The Secret Machines	Lightning Blue Eyes
24	*	Margot & The Nuclear So and So's	Vampires in Blue Dresses
25		Air	Surfing on a Rocket
26	*	Tarkio	If I Had More Time
27	*	Wizardzz	"Do Come In!" (Tea and Chulliwugs)
28		Voxtrot	Long Haul
29	*	Shelly Short	Like Anything, It's Small

Playlist - Loops and Loops and Loops

I looped the stream from the WMUC website into the studio via Aux cable to build huge cacophonies. Hear it on the stream at 40:35 and again at 63:30. A week from now the stream link will be the radio show from May 4th, so hear it while you can! Also, today's show was 47.8% new bin material, a new personal best.

#	N	Artist	Track
1		Mint Royale	Princess
2	*	Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins	The Charging Sky
3	*	The Light Footwork	Rapture Good Rapture Bad
4		Massive Attack	One Thought at a Time
5		Simon & Garfunkel	The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)
6	*	Band of Horses	The Great Salt Lake
7	*	Birdy Nam Nam	Jazz It At Home
8	*	Cities	A Theme
9		Ambulance LTD	Stay Tuned
10		Secret Machines	Nowhere Again
11		Matt Pond PA	Winter One
12		MSTRKRFT	Easy Love
13		Supergrass	Kiss of Life
14	*	Field Music	You're Not Supposed To
15	*	Built To Spill	Conventional Wisdom
16	*	Flaming Lips	The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song
17		Raconteurs	Store Bought Bones
18	*	The Fiery Furnaces	Topical-Iceland
19	*	I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness	Lights
20		We Will Build	1214
21	*	Teeth	I Love You
22		Lali Puna	Grin and Bear
23		Air	Playground Love

Playlist - Three Guest DJs

Nancy, Jan, and Jon (via telephone) helped out with the show this morning. What a lively bunch! This was one of our best shows yet. Jan fell asleep before we could beatbox.

#	Artist	Track	Comment
1	Metric	Monster Hospital (MSTRKRFT Remix)	nancy's pick
2	Parks and Recreation	Break Into Song
3	Jason Collett	Fire	nancy's pick
4	Mates of State	Think Long
5	Broken Social Scene	Puff The Magic Dragon (cover)
6	Final Fantasy	This Is The Dream of Win and Regine	nancy's pick
7	The Libertines	Death on the Stairs
8	Athlete	El Salvador	jon's pick
9	Phoenix	Too Young	jan's pick
10	Boy Least Likely To	Fur Soft As Fur
11	Voxtrot	Missing Pieces
12	We Are Scientists	Can't Lose	jon's pick
13	Air	Mike Mills	sooothing
14	Stars	Soft Revolution
15	Fugazi	Break	jon: "play something upbeat!"
16	Thao Nguyen	Hills
17	Isobel Campbell & Mark Lannagen	Honey Child, What Can I Do?	nancy's pick
18	Death From Above 1979	Blood On Our Hands	nancy's pick
19	Alden Ginger	Soon	i'm in love
20	Jose Gonzalez	Lovestain	jon is cleaning out his apartment
21	Hard-Fi	Living For The Weekend	jon's pick
22	The Raconteurs	Steady As She Goes	jon's pick.... again!
23	Wolf Parade	I'll Believe In Anything
24	Absinthe Glow	Contradictions

Podcast Roundup

These are the podcasts I find myself actually listening to.

Audiovant is relatively new, but don't let that fool you. Their first three episodes are interviews with Clap Your Hands, Tapes 'n Tapes, and Jens Lekman. I've no idea how he does it, but I do know that I want him to keep doing it. That sounds a little dirty. Subscribe here.

3hive's Podcast is an offshoot of their main site, highlighting their favorite songs of those they have posted. http://threehive.libsyn.com/rss (read below*)

WOXY.com has three podcasts, but the most important one to check out is the Lounge Acts. They have some really cool bands come in and play in their studio. Subscribe here.

NPR has a great show called All Songs Considered. It features a broader, more mainstream scope of music than the rest, but is just as enjoyable. Subscribe here.

Antcast is the RSS version of videos.antville.org, which posts up cool new videos available on the net. Watch out though, these are videos so the feed will tend to eat more hard disk space. http://feeds.feedburner.com/antcast (read below*)

PopMontreal's Popcast is an excellent show run by Andrew Rose. It started out showcasing bands that were playing in the festival, but now it has a broader scope, focused on bands from Montreal. In it's third episode it included the world premiere of Island's "Rough Gem". Yeah, I know. Subscribe here.

*For all of the podcasts with no direct link, can subscribe in iTunes by clicking on Advanced->Subscribe to Podcast and pasting the address in the text box.

Playlist

#	N	Artist	Track
1		Hotel Lights	AM Golden Hit
2		Basement Jaxx	Rendez-Vu
3		The Dandy Warhols	Be-In
4	*	The Light Footwork	Pirate Karate
5		Matt Pond PA	Neighbor's New Yard
6	*	Jason Collett	We All Lose One Another
7	*	Kudu	Bar Star
8	*	Toothfairy	Kicked Outta The Band
9	*	Sufjan Stevens	The Friendly Beasts
10		Madeline Peyroux	Dance Me To The End of Love
11		Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Theme Song
12		Ted Leo & The Pharmacists	My Vein Illin
13	*	The Playwrights	Dislocated
14	*	The Capes	Tightly Wound
15		Telepopmusik	Breathe
16		Voxtrot	Raised By Wolves
17	*	Envelopes	It Is The Law
18	*	Tarkio	Sister Nebraska
19	*	The Essex Green	Uniform
20	*	The M's	Mansion In The Valley
21		The Rolling Stones	Sympathy for the Devil (Neptunes Remix)
22		Bloc Party	Banquet
23		Yeah Yeah Yeahs	Cold Night
24		Stars	Set Yourself On Fire
25		Elliott Smith	Waltz #2 (Xo)
26		Malcolm Middleton	Devestation
27		Need New Body	Moondear
28		Architecture In Helsinki	Wishbone

Playlist

#	N	Artist	Track
1	*	Islands	Swans (Life After Death)
2		The Mountain Goats	This Year
3	*	Belle and Sebastian	Funny Little Frog
4		Shoot the Moon	Tales from the Sea
5	*	Mass Movement of the Moth	Untitled Track 4
6		The Appleseed Cast	A Place In Line
7	*	Loose Fur	An Ecumental Matter
8		Mint Royale	Always Welcome
9	*	Faris Nourallah	Brogadiccio
10		Polaris	Saturnine
11		Dirty on Purpose	Girls & Sunshine
12		Pixies	Monkey Gone to Heaven
13	*	Mates of State	For the Actor
14		Wolf Parade	Dinner Bells
15	*	Patrick Phelan	Lesser Laws
16		New Buffalo	On Sunday
17		Pelle Carlbeg	Go to Hell, Miss Rydell
18		RJD2	Rain
19		Tamba Trio	Mas Que Nada
20		The Magnetic Fields	You and Me and the Moon
21		Tullycraft	Stowaway
22		Yerba Buena	Guajira
23	*	The Boy Least Likely To	My Tiger My Heart
24	*	Tarkio	Tristan and Iseult
25	*	Kickball	Brown
26		Postal Workers at the University of Ghana	Untitled (Cancelling Stamps)
27		The Teeth	Oh, Bessie!
28		Yeah Yeah Yeahs	Maps
29		Dimitri from Paris	Not Quite Disco
30		Medeski Martin & Wood	Pappy Check
31		The Bees	No Atmosphere

Playlist - Spring break here I come!

So this week was pretty tough, but through hardship comes strength, and through strength comes a pretty rockin' playlist.
Also - today's show had 37.5% new bin material! I ripped about 10 of the albums from today's show and will be exploring them over Spring break.

#	N	Artist	Track
1		Ambulette	Seconds Until Midnight
2		Kinobe	Slip Into Something More Comfortable
3		Elliott Smith	A Passing Feeling
4		The Stills	Gender Bombs
5		Donovan	Hurdy Gurdy Man
6	*	Film School	Breet
7	*	Polysics	Ah-Yeah!
8	*	Toothfairy	Stephanie, My First Love
9		Mu-Ziq	Balsa Lighning (Jake Slazenger Remix)
10		Sondre Lerche	No One's Gonna Come
11		Susan Tedeschi	Tired Of My Tears
12		Climber	Escape
13	*	We Are Scientists	Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt
14	*	The Notes and Scratches	The Hours
15		Kris Gruen	Lullaby School
16		Ted Leo & The Pharmacists	The Anointed One
17		The Avalanches	Electricity
18	*	The Mendoza Line	Golden Boy (Torture in the Shed)
19		Muse	Bliss
20		The Cinematics	Chase
21		Tullycraft	Stowaway
22		Rogue Wave	Publish My Love
23		The Picture	It's Alright
24	*	The Boy Least Likely To	Be Gentle With Me
25	*	Jason Collett	Pavement Puddle Stars
26		Simon & Garfunkel	Scarborough Fair
27	*	Funkiller	Hook Line and Sinker
28		Looper	My Robot
29	*	Lilys	Scott Free
30	*	Frequent Flyer	Sometimes In The Spring
31	*	Essex Green	Rue De Lis
32		Thao Nguyen	Gorgeous Thing

Playlist - Anne Coulter may be the Devil.

Conor sat in on today's show for some interesting (if not inflammatory) commentary.

#	N	Artist	Track
1	*	Eagle*Seagull	Photograph
2		These Bones	Toxic
3	*	P:ano	I Felt His Presents/Doing The Can Can
4		Mint Royale	Little Words
5		The Dismemberment Plan	The Other Side
6		Outlandish	Guantanamo
7		Spoon	The Infinite Pet
8		Sufjan Stevens	The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
9		Koop	Tonight (feat. Mikael Sundin)
10		Mando Diao	Down In The Past
11		DJ Shadow	...Meets His Maker
12		Clint Mansell	2-Pi-r
13		Lemon D	Hard Leaders 26
14		Marcos Valle	Garra
15	*	Magnetophone	Kel's Vintage Thought
16		Pink Floyd	Any Colour You Like
17		Hard-Fi	Living For The Weekend
18		Blitzhosen	John Glenn (Spaceflight Superhero)
19		We In Music	Grandlife
20		The Crystal Method	Busy Child
21		Spoon	Was It You?
22		Wilco	A Shot In The Arm

Playlist

I missed last week's show because I was ill, but I'm back in action!

#	N	Artist	Track
1		Radiohead	Airbag
2		Final Fantasy	This Modern Love (Bloc Party Cover)
3		Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band	Funky Biznizz
4	*	Wolf Parade	Shine A Light
5		Head Of Femur	Elliott Goul is in California Spit
6	*	Up The Empire	Careful What You Say
7	*	P:ano	T. Hatch Says "Round Ev'ry Corner"
8	*	Spoon	Sister Jack
9	*	J+J+J	Insomnia Is A Sleeping Disorder
10	*	Elbow	Mexican Standoff
11		Islands	Rough Gem
12		Broken Social Scene	Cause=Time
13		Built To Spill	Center of the Universe
14	*	Eels	Flyswatter (With Strings)
15		The Capes	Super Girls
16	*	Parks & Recreation	Flat on her Back
17		The Decemberists	Eli, The Barrow Boy
18		The Dandy Warhols	Sleep
19		Elefant	Now That I Miss Her
20		Casiotone for the Painfully Alone	Young Sheilds
21	*	Sam Bisbee	You Are Here
22		Royksopp	Remind Me
23	*	Sam Bisbee	Drug Of Choice
24		The Shins	Mine's Not A High Horse
25		Wilco	I'm The Man Who Loves You
26		Minus The Bear	Pachuca Sunrise
27		The Zutons	Long Time Coming
28	*	Half-Handed Cloud	You've Been Faithful To Us Clouds
29		Voxtrot	The Start Of Something
30		Islands	Bucky Little Wing

Free Music - Nous Non Plus, Casiotone, Voxtrot

Nous Non Plus - Lawnmower Boy
So French pop.

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Young Shields
The name says it all: low-fi and melodramatic.

Voxtrot - The Start of Something
Smiths-y. Thanks Nancy :)

Playlist - New Bin Madness

I dove into the new bin this morning and came out with a lot of catchy stuff.

#		Artist	Track
1		Islands	Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby
2		The Beta Band	I Know
3		Ratatat	Cherry
4		The Decemberists	We Both Go Down Together
5		Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band	Think Twice
6		Nous Non Plus	Lawnmower Boy
7		Ben Harper	Oppression
8		Edan	Funky Voltron (feat. Insight)
9		Belle & Sebastian	Like Dylan In The Movies
10		Iron & Wine	Each Coming Night
11		Saint Etienne	A Good Thing
12		P:ano	Trouble Ahead
13		Carla Bruni	Quelqu'un m'a dit
14		Briskey	Galactic Jack (Buscemi's Beat to Beatnik Remix)
15		Donovan	There Is A Mountain
16		Brendan Benson	What I'm Looking For
17		Tricky Woo	First Blush
18		Deerhoof	Giga Dance
19		Matt Pond PA	Snow Day
20		Parks & Recreation	La La La La La
21		Elefant	Ester
22		Kind of Like Spitting	Hoax
23		Metric	Combat Baby
24		Fugazi	Afterthought
25		Malcom Middleton	No Modest Bear
26		YMCK	Darling
27		Clap Your Hands Say Yeah	This Home On Ice
28		Yerba Buena	El Burrito
29		Morningwood	Nth Degree
30		The Format	One Shot, Two Shots
31		The Album Leaf	Twenty Two Fourteen

Playlist - Raisins won't assimilate

Nancy and I thought of some band pairings last night, check out these double bills:

Gang of Four & Radio 4
The Decemberists & The Early November
The Cardigans & My Morning Jacket
The Tasty Habits & Cake
The Black Keys & Alicia Keys
The Knife & Spoon

#		Artist	Track
1		Test Icicles	Circle, Square, Triangle
2		Benzos	Mechanical Comrades
3		+/-	Summer Dress
4		Fugazi	I'm So Tired
5		Elephant	Make Up
6		Ted Leo and the Pharmacists	The Angels' Share
7		Disco Biscuits	Float Like A Butterfly
8		Thievery Corporation	Liberation Front
9		Seu Jorge	Rebel Rebel
10		Matt Pond PA	Measure 3
11		Metric	Dead Disco
12		Grandaddy	The Group Who Couldn't Say
13		Wolf Parade	Secret Knives
14		Jose Gonzalez	Crosses
15		Stars	Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
16		The Lovekevins	Happy Happy
17		The Happies	The Boy Who Knows
18		Suburban Kids With Biblical Names	Funeral Face
19		Girls in Hawaii	Time To Forgive the Winter
20		Pinback	Chaos Engine
21		RJD2	Final Frontier (feat. Blueprint)
22		The Postal Service	Clark Gable
23		K T Tunstall	Suddenly I See
24		Thao Nguyen	What About
25		Bloc Party	This Modern Love
26		Feist	Inside and Out
27		Kind Of Like Spitting	Scene
28		Carla Bruni	Raphael
29		Brendan Benson	Flesh & Bone
30		The Magic Numbers	Morning's Eleven

Playlist - First show of Spring 2006

What a great way to start the semester! Ghostface and I kept a pretty good balance of music and banter through the show, and we piloted a couple of new features.

The first was "Yoga on Tape", which I can't decide if I like. It has potential, I think. The second feature we tried was "Aural Research" where we chose a song that is written in an interesting way and analysed its unique qualities. This week we took a look at "Indo Silver Club" by Daft Punk, in which the melody is muted on the downbeat. This gives the listener the sensation that the bass is heavy enough to make them incapable of hearing the melody. Daft Punk later plays the melody alone, and it's more obvious what is going on.

On a side note - the playlists I post here will now include links to free music when I have them at hand. Links on an artist are for other songs by them, while a linked song title is that specific song.

#		Artist	Track
1		Feist	Sacred Heart
2		Wheat	These Are Things
3		Arctic Monkeys	Mardy Bum
4		The Unicorns	Sea Ghost
5		Thao Nguyen	City Sky
6		The Faint	Worked Up So Sexual
7		The Coral	Bill McCai
8		The Arcade Fire	Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
9		Andrew Bird	Measuring Cups
10		Head Like A Kite	Circus
11		The Soft Explosions	Sister Come On
12		Sufjan Stevens	Casimir Pulaski Day
13		The Dandy Warhols	I Am Over It
14		The Zutons	Havana Gang Brawl
15		Piebald	American Hearts
16		Jose González	Heartbeats (The Knife Cover)
17		Eels	Grace Kelly Blues
18		The Dismemberment Plan	Sentimental Man
19		Mando Diao	Little Boy Jr
20		Kings Of Convenience	Know How (feat. Feist)
21		Carla Bruni	Le Plus Beau du Quartier
22		Broken Social Scene	KC Accidental
23		Bright Eyes	First Day of My Life
24		Ted Leo and the Pharmacists	The Angels' Share
25		Brendan Benson	Cold Hands (Warm Heart)

New show for Spring 2006

I've got a new radio show this semester, and as you can see, Ethan has lent us his talents of dry-erase advertisement. In English, it reads, "Energy of the music - With Killer Ray and Ghostface Conor. 8:00-10:00am Thursday." Of course, I'll be updating this page with every week's new playlist.

Live - Act Local Hurricane Relief Fundraiser @ The Knitting Factory

Conor and I had nothing planned for Sunday night and decided to continue our ManHat10 adventure at the Knitting Factory. Thirty bands were scheduled to perform, with Matt & Ira (from Nada Surf) and The Wrens headlining.

Matt & Ira played a great set. Matt played acoustic guitar while Ira drummed along on tambourine. Their songs translated to the acoustic format beautifully. It says something about the quality of a songwriter when their work is just as good, if not better, with all but the essentials stripped from it. I talked to Matt in the lobby after their set and he was very friendly. He seemed uncommonly happy that I'd enjoyed their show. Humble, even.

We checked the other stages after Matt & Ira were done and found a couple of terrible bands, so we decided to come back later that night for The Wrens.

We arrived a little early and caught The Soft Explosions playing on the main stage. They seemed pretty solid: two guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer. Their second guitarist was pretty attractive, but as soon as she started soloing she instantly became the hottest girl in the world. I'm not even kidding. She shredded like Enron. She played the slide like it was easy. Conor and I were in love. With her. Not with each other. Well maybe. Anyways, the band as a whole was pretty cohesive, but the solos flying around in the background made the whole thing mesmerizing.

Finally, The Wrens came on stage. They played their gig almost like a rehearsal. Not that they were unprofessional to a fault; it gave the show a friendly, playful touch. They fooled around between songs, playing the starting chords to "Sweet Home Alabama", joking with the audience, and whispering into each other's ears. They played without their drummer but made up for it by rocking extra hard. They did some interesting things with their electronics as well. Charles Bissel (vocals, guitar) called Greg Whelan (guitar) on his cell phone. Whelan held his phone to the pickups on his guitar, while Bissel sung the opening lines of a song into his phone. The result was a warped, barely understandable sound that kept the whole place holding their breath. Later, Bissel played with his loop machine in interesting ways, while Kevin Whelan surrounded us with glorious, synthesized piano. There were good vibes and good times to be had by all.