Comments on: Crazy.

Crazy.

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:26:44 -0800

You've never heard a box of Stoned Wheat Thins, a big tub of Necco, a little wooden frog, a Tupperware bucket, an empty jar and a theremin sound this good. It's Crazy. No, really, it's Crazy.

Those of you enamored of this kind of sonic robot/automata/tomfoolery might also wanna check out my earlier FPP on the Japanese masters of electro-mechanical musical magnificence, Maywa Denki. And just for good measure, here's Patsy's Crazy. And Gnarls Barkley's Crazy.

By: kozad

kozad — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:37:43 -0800

Cute rubegoldgergian video, but, as an idealist, it seems to me to be a totally perverse use of the Theremin, designed to be an interface between the human and the music-making machine. Yeah, I know, that was, I hope, part of the "joke," but a lot of effort for nothing, if you ask me.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:41:56 -0800

God, Patsy Cline just makes me swoon. I'd never seen video of her singing before. She had just a surreal amount of control. The robot was amusing, but Patsy -- wow.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:44:33 -0800

FAM, I love you, man.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:44:53 -0800

Oh, yeah, Patsy was just, just... honestly, I get chills every time I hear her do Crazy. One of the great, great vocalists. And by the way, for those of you who don't know, it was Willie Nelson what penned that little gem.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:45:44 -0800

Walkin' After Midnight. *swoon*

By: Falconetti

Falconetti — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:48:18 -0800

One of my favorite concert experiences ever was watching Add N to (X) at a little venue called the Grog Shop in Cleveland (for Clevelanders, this was before it moved to its newer and nicer digs). They were rocking out with their analogue equipment and busted out a theremin and in true rock star fashion held the theremin over the crowd to let us stick our hands through it to make noise. It was like Sonic Youth doing one of their long form feedback squeal outros except everyone is a robot. Also, these were really cool videos. Also, now that I think about it, two of my other favorite concert moments occurred at the Grog Shop: seeing Crash Worship turn a concert into a bacchanalia when I was 15 and getting blistering drunk with my best friends the night before I left Cleveland for good at a Pogues cover band show.

By: Benny Andajetz

Benny Andajetz — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:49:53 -0800

Pretty good music ... FOR A CRAZY PERSON. Actually, it's pretty cool. Thanks, flapjax.

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:29:54 -0800

Previous theremin version of Crazy.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:36:31 -0800

Thanks for adding that link, LobsterMitten. I had thought about adding that "Crazy theremin" clip it to the FPP, since the Moonmilk clip is in fact labeled on YouTube as a "video response" to that clip, but it just got too... crazy. And now I see it would've been a double, anyway! Double crazy!

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 20:39:20 -0800

Yeah, I basically can't get enough of this kind of thing. I could've sworn that I first saw the robot version you linked on Mefi, but didn't find it on a search. It's interesting to think of what other contemporary songs would yield to this kind of treatment - Amy Winehouse's song Rehab comes to mind...

By: Karlos the Jackal

Karlos the Jackal — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:44:03 -0800

Awesome, is what this is. You might also check out the band Octant, a duo plus a robot drummer which seems to maybe work similarly.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:16:42 -0800

Wow, Karlos, sounds interesting. Gotta wonder why a band like that, with such an obvious visual component, has NO VIDEOS UP ON THE WEB! Damn! I wanna see their drumming contraption! So, members of Octant, if you happen to stumble upon this thread, get some videos online, y'all. Unless it's against yer religion or something...

By: revfitz

revfitz — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:31:59 -0800

honestly, I was kind of surprised at how poorly-done the theremin part is. I mean, it's automatic; the pitch arm thing is swinging in one axis. given that you already have a robot theremin apparatus, how hard could it be to make it play more accurately? am I being naïve here?

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:59:33 -0800

posted by revfitz given that you already have a robot theremin apparatus, how hard could it be to make it play more accurately? am I being naïve here? Have you ever tried playing a theremin?

By: Terminal Verbosity

Terminal Verbosity — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:02:53 -0800

The Gnarls Barkley one sounds like Mega Man background music.

By: buriednexttoyou

buriednexttoyou — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 04:36:45 -0800

I can't hear it because of my magical headphones.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 05:46:51 -0800

Awesome! flapjax, that made my day. Thanks.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 06:52:43 -0800

Nickyskye, having made your day is something that makes me very happy indeed!

By: chinese_fashion

chinese_fashion — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:13:54 -0800

See, I am curious here. While the MoonMilk stuff is fantastic, and I love it -- is it really accurate to refer to it as a theremin-playing robot? It's really a sort of wind-up automaton, isn't it? What is the difference between a robot and a wind-up machine?