Boy Eats Drum Machine

Boy Eats Drum Machine at Kush Carpets from The Penny Jam on Vimeo.

Thanks, Penny Jam! And here’s more about the vid from Portland Mercury and Pampelmoose.

boy eats drum machine - Live; songs from booomboxxx Album from Menomenation on Vimeo.

Thanks Menomenation!

The hand made vinyl is now in several PDX stores and online from Bridgetown Breaks. Here’s the PDX store list thus far: TLE, Music Millenium, Everyday Music (SW, NE, Beaverton, +Bellingham/WA), and Cd Exchange (Hawthorne). aaaaand Localcut was kind enough to mention the vinyl in their ‘cut of the day’. Thanks, cutters!

I think each record takes about 15 minutes to make. I’m not completely sure though. Here’s each step:

1> find and cut open recycled jackets
2> trace holes on jackets
3> cut out holes on jackets
4> stencil over words and such on jackets
5> artwork on jackets: 3 color screen print @ TLE
6> cut strips of shopping bags for binding
7> bind jackets with paper strips and glue
8> hand number each record sleeve
9> put sleeve in jacket and into plastic bag

Hope your holidays are sweet thus far!
/Jon

boy eats drum machine - “booomboxxx” from Jon Ragel on Vimeo.

Erik Stanfill has been traveling with me up to this point. Not only has he been kind enough to listen to all of my terrible jokes and movie reference puns over some 40 hours of driving, he has also shot some nifty vids. THANKS ERIK!

and here’s some tour pix.

click image to get the scoop from bridgetown breaks

Thanks for the link + collage, PJ! I Love them Bridgetown Breakers. I also have vinyl with me at all BEDM shows.

boy eats drum machine - “love letters only” from Jon Ragel on Vimeo.

boy eats drum machine - “love letters only” from Jon Ragel on Vimeo.

boy eats drum machine - “introduction b” from Jon Ragel on Vimeo.

!thank you for coming out to the party!

After much love (and toil), batches of the 330 hand made limited edition ‘Booomboxxx’ vinyl are starting to…sprout? Errr—let’s just say each one is unique and coming together in it’s own time. They’re all made from recycled record sleeves and bound together with cut up shopping bags, so if the smell of aging paper and fresh glue is your thing, baby have I got the record for you! If you come down to a show, flip through the crate and find one you want, I’ll make sure you get a free 350k download of the album too. Only 15 bucks (whatta bah-gin).

click image to stream/download

this remix of Radiohead’s Reckoner features Fogatron on beat box. it’s streaming here too. hope you like.

remix up on end hits

click image to check BEDM in studio at OPB

I was fortunate enough to play and interview at OPB on 9/18/08. Not only do they have the most important TV station in the area, they also support local art with opbmusic.org. Thank you Dave and all at OPB!

and here’s more pix on the OPB flickr

+ here’s some more on the OPB flickr.

(click image to download 23.1 meg zip file)

PC USERS: if you have any issues try this:
non-asterisk version (23.1 meg zip file).

please share this with all your pals. thanks!

fre*e*p track list:

Planets + Stars
The Crack In The Sea
Demonic With Horns
I’m Alive Don’t Bury Me
Immovably Reunited (a remix by Main Sequence)

+ fre*e*p on portland mercury, turntabling.net, oregonlive.com & bridgetown breaks.com.

(click image to stream/download)

this time it’s ‘billie jean’ + ‘psycho killer’ w/ some french folk spinning throughout. dave allen on bass, benjy rickard on guitar and synth.

oregonlive.com, turntabling.net and pet marmoset were kind enough to give the new mash a spin and here’s a (cute!) post from portland mercury. thanks!

(click image to stream/download)

Here’s an Aaliyah groove with Talking Heads (Once In A Lifetime) + Cure (Lullaby) lyrics and some guitar shreddin’ courtesy of Eddie Van Halen ‘Eruption’. It features me on vox/turntable, Dave Allen on bass and Benjy Rickard on guitar/synth. This is a sneak of one of the BEDM songs for next week’s show, Saturday 8/16, at Wonder Ballroom for Talking Heads + Cure tribute night. Paul Alcott will be on drum kit too! Should be fun… (get tix here).

More about the mashup: localcut, urb, portland mercury, pampelmoose, and elbow.

Hope you have a stellar weekend!

I just got the ‘test pressings’ of booomboxxx (which comes out on vinyl/cd in October on TLE). There was a two week delay at the plant. Apparently, upon careful listening to the first master, they heard ’scratching’ sounds and decided to start over. Hehe. I guess that prooves that it’s a turntablist pop LP. So is that rock and roll, or what? As rock and roll as when The Who had their master tape for my generation sent back because it had ‘feedback’ on it? Or as rock and roll as when Michael Jackson took his sunglasses off at the grammies for the ‘ladies in the balcony’? Is it THAT rock and roll? I hope so… Either way, vinyl really does sound neat. I’ve never had anything I’ve recorded pressed to vinyl before. The highs are smoother and the lows seem to gain more dimensional quality. Plus, I think vinyl smells good…

Speaking of booomboxxx, it’s not even out yet and it just got it’s first press love on turntabling.net. Thanks, Joe!

Also, I’m goin’ to CMJ NYC! Shows on the way there and on the way back are lining up right now. Hopefully one of them will be in or near your town.

(Thanks for reading my blog)

while my cat, loverboy, remains steadily not impressed with the cute hand screened packaging for booomboxxx, I’m hopeful you will like it. now that jared at TLE is done screening the first batch, there is plenty of folding and gluing and such to do. then there’s the actual insertion of cd’s and the stuffing of envelopes and the mailing to various peoples (writers mostly, and dad, of course). the whole thing looks a lot like work. all the same, I’m really excited to be getting back into making + distributing home made goodies. to be continued…

I had a great time at the brewfest on the Oregon coast over the weekend, playing on the beach and meeting lots of new peeps. here’s more pix.

I was fortunate enough to get to play and interview live on KEXP over the weekend. the songs I performed were booomboxxx, planets + stars, the crack in the sea, demonic with horns, and love letters only. here’s a download of the show:

download: BEDM live on KEXP- 6/14/08 zip file / 38.2 megs

Thanks Lisa, James, Sharlese and everyone else at KEXP!

The new LP will be mastered this thursday and I’m currently making some lil’ last minute tweaks. Here’s the track list and drum credits:

booomboxxx (LP- release: 10/08)

01-booomboxxx
02-planets + stars
03-the crack in the sea
04-demonic with horns
05-Im alive dont bury me
06-la la la la LA!
07-put your hands all over me
08-gun fight
09-love letters only
10-WE ARE AN ARMY

drum sample credits:

01-danny seim & kevin o’connor from Danny Vs. Demonic / BB1
02-charles neal from !Facebeat!’s Cousin / BB1
03-josh skins from !Facebeat! / BB1
04-kevin o’connor from Weapons Inspector #1 / BB1
05-danny seim from Courtney Taylor-Taylor / BB2
06-kevin robinson from Running Start / BB2
07-charles neal from Freedoggin’ / BB2
08-josh skins from Patience / BB1
09-fogatron from Rounds Coming Down Range / BB2
10-charles neal from 4 Parts Funk / BB1

All of the drum kits (and the beatbox sample) were mooched and tweaked from Bridgetown Breaks Volumes 1 and 2. THANK YOU to the producers of these incredible records and THANK YOU to the fine musicians who have contributed to my latest batch of cuts. I owe you.

here’s puddletown photo’s bedm flickr set from the holocene show. these were shot by Tyson Koreywo. thanks, Tyson!

here’s the link.

JK snapped some pics at the milepost 5 show last weekend. Here’s his flickr set. Thanks Justin!

here’s a pic of the tender loving empire compilation friends and friends of friends, which contains the BEDM cut ‘the crack in the sea’. the release/birthday party for TLE last night was a blast. among it’s many festive inclusions were cupcakes (galore!), a hand made monster pinata filled with prizes (galore!), hilarious name tags with excellent—and often geeky—social references (you guessed it: galore!), AND music by lots of musical peeps. Plus, lots of other fun stuff I’m probably just forgetting about right now…

1. san felipe 6221 SE Milwaukie

sweet flavor swimming
spices linger on taste buds
go hungry go fish

—–

2. su casa cart 145 SE 82nd

82nd ave
the dollar bill says enough
eat good cheap tacos

—–

3. pepino’s 3832 SE Hawthorne

my happy stomach
fish tacos, chips and soda
only four dollars

—

4. super torta 5640 SE Woodstock

glorious sammich
better then a burrito
let me count the ways

–

5. super burrito express 10506 SE 42nd Ave

oh shimmering flav
spiced voice from beyond southeast
express taco calls

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