She’s about as sexy as a caramel machiatto
February 7, 2010
A song about hanging out in Tokyo’s happening Harajuku district, having a caramel machiatto and watching all the beautiful kawaii girls go by.
Photo via Bass N Roll
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Besides the one Japanese word, Kawaii, the rest of the song is in Mandarin Chinese – Here’s the lyrics
她不是我最喜歡的醮糖麻其朵
她不是我最喜欢的醮糖马其朵
她不是我最喜欢的高山乌龙茶
但是她超级世界无比霹雳kawaii
她不是阿坚最酷爱的马靴
她不是Keith最喜欢的坏女儿
但是她超级世界无比霹雳kawaii
她是我最喜欢的醮糖马其朵
她是我最喜欢的高山乌龙茶
因为她超级世界无比霹雳kawaii
The video is a collection of old footage from the Prelinger Library collection — I found a bunch of incredible clips of coffee drinks and people from back in the day. Very old school. If you come out to a Dirt Star show, this is some of the VJ footage that I’m using.
By the way, Cool Tokyo street photo via Bass n Roll on Flickr. Thanks for the great shot – really captures the electricity of downtown Tokyo!
Drop it on the One.
January 30, 2010
On the one…
Everyone always asks what this song is about —- well,
its about imagining what if even god gets sick and tired of his day job…
Here’s the lyrics below.
Drop it on the one
Step out on the street
Feeling nice with a real phat beat
I can’t figure out
Why this gravity
Is always pushing down over me
Scrunched up in a ball
No partiality at all
I wish i could fall
But there’s too much gravity and, so
The rivers and the sea
Why must it be me who controls it all…
i wish i could fall
But its my destiny
To live without the luxury of not
Hanging out in shopping malls
The rivers and the sea
Why must it be me
Who controls it all…
from the 2008 Dirt Star album, On the Street.
Can’t believe we’re all the same
January 15, 2010
There was one song in English on my first album – and its called Hole in the Universe.
And here’s the lyrics:
Hole in the Universe
Can’t believe we’re all the same
Can’t believe we’re all insane
Cause I don’t want to be like you
No I’m not like you
When you said we were
Like the ends of a magnet
I thought opposites attract, but
I felt so repelled by you
Intergalactic battlestar bombastic
Somewhere about the hole in the universe
Somewhere above the north field and our heads
Squirrels running round the park in a circle
King Lychee on a stage screaming loud words
San-ba guitar lying on the ground like she always does
Intergalactic battlestar bombastic
Somewhere about the hole in the universe
Somewhere above the north field and our heads
Can’t believe we’re all the same
Can’t believe we’re all insane
Cause I don’t want to be like you
No I’m not like you
When you said we were
Like the ends of a magnet
I thought opposites attract, but
Intergalactic battlestar bombastic
Somewhere about the hole in the universe
Somewhere above the north field and our heads
A new animated music video idea
January 10, 2010
Had an idea this afternoon for my new song, Funny Man. I was thinking about incorporating one of Floaty Keith’s characters in the video, and the world appears in as the lyrics go. Its a very literal song, so it might just work.
But I’m not a big animation guru, so I don’t know how I’m going to pull that part off. I had an idea to create South Park style cut-outs. I was also thinking about using Flash animation. Any recommendations on the best way to animate something like in the screenshot above?
Drinks on Dirt Star
January 6, 2010
Happy new year everyone! A small present to wish that all your cups of coffee in 2010 are a happy cup. This cup’s on me.
Just updated “She’s as Kawaii as a cup of caramel macchiato” on Soundcloud.
Its a song in Mandarin from my 2005 album. Well, its not all Mandarin – there’s Japanese too. And some English. BTW, Kawaii rhymes with Hawaii — and it means super cute in Japanese.
And here’s the VJ footage we use live for the song on Vimeo
I’m having a caramel macchiato. You?
That’s my amp on the album cover
October 31, 2009
Last week I introduced my favorite instruments, and this week its some gear – first off? My amp. Spend a lot of time staring at it. Luckily, its incredibly beautiful. Genesee painted it when she came to visit — its covered in these great rock stars. So when I re-designed the Score album last year, I used a photo I took of my amp as the cover. Its a basic little model I bought while on tour somewhere in China, and its got some serious balls for such a little guy. Check out the photos below. BTW, download the album here – it rocks.
And there it is – my amp 
Again, download the album here – it rocks.
My instruments – the Guzheng painted by Floaty Keith
October 22, 2009
Everyone always asks me how I make my music, so this week each day I’m going to upload a photo of my favorite music instruments.
Today it’s my guzheng!
I found this guzheng on the street. Its true, I actually found it on the ground, lying in the garbage in Hong Kong.
Believe it or not, I found this beautiful guzheng lying in the gutter.
At the time, I was living in Taiwan and on a weekend trip to Hong Kong. I couldn’t believe someone would throw it out!
Picked it up, wiped it down clean and took it to the airport to catch my flight. Wow, now that I think about it, that was the old Hong Kong airport. I didn’t have a case or anything to carry it in, so the airline told me just carry it on to the airplane. Many heads were turned.
Actually, that was even before it was painted the way it is now. I’ve carried my guzheng all around the world since then.
Guzheng pegs that hold up the strings, beautiful shadows.
Well, a few years ago I had a cool side project with a great guitarist named Floaty Keith, who is now resident DJ at the Underworld in Taipei every Friday night. We used to jam out, me playing on guzheng, scratching and dropping beats. Floaty Keith would play some great guitar progressions. Well, in his spare time, Floaty Keith just happens to be one of the most incredible artists I’ve ever met. If you’ve ever been to the Underworld, you might recognize his painting style. Floaty Keith spent like three years painting the whole bar – THE ENTIRE BAR! until it was completely finished. Here’s a link to Floaty Keith’s Myspace.
This crazy looking guy is chillin with long arms.
I think back then, that time around the guzheng rubbed off on him. And the first piece he finished painting the Underworld just happened to be my guzheng!
Floaty Keith painted a bunch of robotic-looking monster-ish characters that kind of reflect the Dirt Star world of space-like out-of-this-world ambiance. Yet at the same time, full of color and emotion. I love the devilish star pig, the chill out long-armed guy, the robotic shopping cart pusher, and the cute blue pixie. Once the strings are on the guzheng, there’s a beautiful line of shadows across the body.
As you can imagine, I couldn’t play the guzheng at first. But I’ve spent a lot of time trying to hone my guzheng skills, and today I must say I’ve found a lot of inspiration from this gift of a musical instrument. Its definitely got a lot of soul. I love jamming out new sounds and rifs on the guzheng – I find I come up with a lot of new musical ideas using it instead of a guitar, or a piano. I like dropping it into a Kaoss Pad or Ableton effects chain, and playing around.
I’ve recorded a lot of guzheng music, but haven’t released most of it. I have a few tracks on my upcoming album with guzheng. And on my last album I had one song. Click here to download an instrumental track I released on my last album called “The things you do“
Here’s the robotic man with a shopping cart, stuck in the shopping mall he can never escape from
My instruments – the industrial-strength midi controller
October 18, 2009
20 buttons and a USB cable – simple as that.
Buttons for rock stars to pound out sweet beats.
Everyone always asks me how I make my music, so this week each day I’m going to upload a photo of my favorite music instruments.
Today it’s my industrial-strength homemade midi controller.
How Colin and I made the world’s most basic midi controller
I’ve always liked to experiment, taking my instruments apart and making new ones. I came up with the idea for this midi controller a while back – I’ve always wanted to pound away on big big buttons. Big Big Buttons! Just like on a subway train – those big emergency buttons.
Got to talking with Colin about the idea, and we made it come to life. I gave him a few schematic concept sketches, and he put the wiring under the hood together. We made it specifically for use with Ableton. So instead of messing around with full-on midi programming, we actually did the circuitry by disassembling a normal keyboard and reassigning the keystrokes to the buttons. In a sense its not a full-on midi controller, but for all intensive purposes it works as one.
The casing body is now is now a 2.0 version. For our beta version we uses an attache case, with an acrylic plate that the buttons were attached to. After the wiring was all tested and completed, I wanted to give it a solid casing. So I went out and got the shiny black casing made down the street in Dongmen.
How it works – triggering beats, samples and effects
Use it basically for two things – triggering samples and beats, and controlling effects. Each button is a trigger for an event in Ableton, so playing live I can trigger effects and sounds. I like to set up the samples and effects I use in a show in advance, then I can drop in stuff on the fly without ever having to look at a computer screen. With a guitar, mic, or turntable hooked up thru the soundcard to Ableton, I can switch up between effects settings, using it as my effects pedal.
My instruments – DIY midi controller + classical guitar
October 17, 2009
Everyone always asks me how I make my music, so this week each day I’m going to upload a photo of my favorite music instruments.
Today it’s my modified classical guitar again, some extra shots — with midi controller for rocking beats in sync with Ableton Live, and a guitar tuner, all attached. The tuner is transparent, so you can see all the wiring inside too. Everything’s attached to the body with good old tape.
