SoundYeah is a new sound app by Pill & Pillow that takes the tired old concept of an MPC style drum layout and mixes it with on the fly recording and gesture based controls. I’ve loved the idea since I saw the early test version in July and now I finally get to play with it.

The sounds: Most music apps come preloaded with samples, but SoundYeah is designed for live sampling the environment around you. This is a great idea, but I’m not going to go onstage and build a kit in front of people. I love working with my own samples, but if there isn’t any way to save those samples this app is pretty useless for live shows. Oh, SoundYeah also deletes all of your samples everytime you exit the app… so be sure you don’t quit it if you wanna be able to make that sound again.

The gestures: definitely the coolest concept of SY is the gesture based controls. To play a sound once, just tap on it with one finger. To loop the sound, tap with two fingers. To stop the sound, tap with three fingers. Clockwise motions make the sample play forward, counterclockwise make it go backwards. Dragging your finger from a button controls the playback speed. While the app is extremely responsive, the difference between a normal note “trigger” and one of the gestures is far too sensitive. It’s very difficult to just make a simple beat without the buttons interpreting minute gestures as advanced controls. Even with a lot of practice I couldn’t consistently make a beat without having some sample play backwards or something.

I still can’t wait to play with this app more, but I’m kind of bummed that it’s more of a noisemaker app than something I could use to make music onstage. The nice part is that many of these issues could be fixed with an update. The idea is solid, all the app would need to be useful would be:
1. Save and load samples
2. Save and load kits (of your samples and settings)
3. Make the gestures less sensitive (so notes are easier to trigger consistently)
4. Work with other apps. This can be down with Sound Copy, which is the equivalent of copy/paste for audio between apps. Or allow this app to run and record audio from other applications running in the background.

My overall impression of the app is positive, but only because I’ve been waiting for more gesture based sampling apps since the iPad first came out. I don’t know that the typical consumer will get much out of this app in it’s current state. SoundYeah is available on iTunes for $5.

There are 56 seats on your average BART car, but only 2 of them allow bike riders to sit comfortably without having to hold on to their bicycles the whole ride. IF YOU ARE SITTING IN ONE OF THESE SEATS PLEASE SHARE IT WITH OTHER RIDERS!

Obviously these are priority seating for elderly or disabled riders, and if I was sitting in this area with my bike, I would hop out of my seat whenever I saw a rider who could use the seat more than I could. So all I’m asking is for a similar courtesy from other riders. If you don’t need that space, don’t hog it up.

Yesterday a rider cut in front of me as I was boarding the train and she took up this whole seat. There were at least 40 other seats open for her, so I asked if she would mind letting me use that space. “I was here first” she replied. Then I asked if she would at least move her bags so I could sit in the seat next to her while I propped my bike against the wall and she said “I need the whole seat”.

This weekend is the annual San Francisco Zine Fest at the County Fair Building in San Francisco. People always ask me why I prefer the SFZF to the Alternative Press Expo. First off, SFZF is free for the public. Anytime an event asks people to pay to get in… which instantly turns those possible consumers into spectators. I NEVER make as much money or have as much fun at events that charge at the door. Secondly, the SFZF has a far more infinite vibe. Even though APE is absolutely packed with attendees, they don’t actually like to stop and talk. They just wanna get through the crowd and find Dan Clowes’s table, but SFZF attendees are there to check out what people have made and how they made it. I always have a bunch of nice conversations there.

This year I’ll be be selling my denim pen wraps for artists, 1″ button sets made from dollar bills, some 24 hour comics, wallets, and my awesome new laser etched wooden yo-yos!

Each yo-yo is laser etched with a drawing of me on one side and my Handtler Moose on the other side. Also: argyle.

I’ll be selling these for $15 each during Zine Fest, then I’ll be putting them on my shop (along with some other goodies) next week.

[top photo of Doc Pop at APE by Laughing Squid]

Another great album to work along to is Kid Koala’s “Music To Draw Too” which is available for free for the next 20 (or so) hours! Stop reading this, go download it now! I’ll wait… Get it? Good. This scratch mix could never be sold for fear of licensing issues, but has some nice moments on it.

Cut Chemist has a new mix out too. I have to admit I was a huge fan of Chemist back in the day, but he really started losing me from Product Placement on. “Sound Of the Police” yet another mix album from the man, but with a twist. “Different than the traditional mix CD using two turntables, this exclusive offering was created live using only one turntable, a mixer, a loop pedal and all original vinyl pressings. CUT thought when performing this mix live it would challenge the contemporary DJ as well as himself.” Definetly more interesting then simply hearing a bunch of obscure records mixed back to back. “Sound Of the Police” is ten bucks on bandcamp, but a bonus cut titled “Adidas to Addis” is free for download. You can also listen to the entire album streaming.

8bitSF just had another awesome show at the DNA Lounge. You may have missed it, but the sampler for the show is still up, featuring music Crashfaster, Mr. Spastic, Minusbaby, and Anamanaguchi. Download the sampler here.

Speaking of Anamanaguchi, the fantastic music video blog La Blogotheque recently posted a fantastic live performance of Anamanaguchi’s new single “Airbrushed”. Watch the video here. Download Anamanaguchi’s new singles here.

Anamanaguchi | A Take Away Show | Airbrushed from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

La Blogotheque also posted a charming video of Neautral Milk Hotel Neutral Uke Hotel performing “In An Aeroplane Over The Sea”. Watch it here.

Neutral Uke Hotel | A Take Away Show | In The Aeroplane Over The Sea from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Here is a quick video I made about the Hurricane Simulator, a cheesy “wind tunnel” which claims to reach speeds of 78mph. As you can see in this video, it never reaches anything close to that, but it was fun to yo-yo in. A quick search for 78 mph winds pulls up several videos with similar experiences [re: 78 meh per hour].

Be sure to watch the whole video to hear my chiptune rendition of Rock You Like a Hurricane.

Miggy’s newest video is full of fantastic freehand shit. I particulary dug Tyler’s new stuff, but I’m gonna have to learn Miggy’s foot-pivot move at 1:47. Can’t wait to see what’s next in the Studio Sessions series.

Holy carp! It’s been almost two years since I first started making those Missing: Invisible Bicycle posters. Since then, thousands of people have called the number on the poster and been rick rolled by my pre-recorded message.

For just one weekend, back in January ’09, I forwarded all calls from my Grand Central/Google Voicemail to go directly to my cell phone… During this time, I personally treated every caller to a live rendition of Rick Astley’s classic song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. I filmed a few of these calls, but never got around to editing it all together until today. Enjoy the video.

The first is Boxthor’s clip video from the World Yo-Yo Contest. Though the lighting is a little low, the editing is great and Boxy focuses on a lot of players that don’t usually show up in American clip videos:

Next up is a new möbius video by Tane. Möbius is a sub-style of yo-yo play that I had a hand in developing (and naming) ten years ago. Instead of starting with the string on one finger, möbius players keep the string on two fingers to make it easy to open the slip knot up and do tricks in and around the loop. I have never seen Tane’s stuff before, but I totally dig it. It’s great to see different takes on a style you love:

I was asked to judge the Artistic Performance division at the World Yo-Yo Contest this year, which mean I had a fantastic front row seat to Rei Iwakura’s freestyle. I hadn’t seen his freestyles before, so I was blown away by all the weird shit he was doing with an extra piece of string (or two strings on one yo-yo). Instant classic:

Finally, I wanted to share this yo-yo video by fellow Mission-ite and KnifeTank collaborator Lilia Markham.

hi from liliakai on Vimeo.

Pony Farts is an older trick of mine with a smooth flow. I’ve been meaning to make a how to video for it for months now, but I finally got around to finishing because of Cyclonmods repeating yo-yo trick contest.

Thanks to Erica for helping me film and making sure I finished editing the video.