Music I've Made

I just realized that I have pages all over the internet, with nothing to link them together. To make things better, some of them are years out of date. So, here's my musical history, with links to mp3s and websites where I have them.

Painted Invisible (2003-present)

A solo project that's somewhere between electroclash and futurepop (both terms I hate, by the way), as well as the name of a bouncy synthpop duo that never happened and an earlier trance/pop solo project.

An mp3 collection for Painted Invisible and Pneumat IX (below).

A web page about Painted Invisible and my musical history.

Pneumat IX (2005-2005)

Slower and moodier synthpoppish stuff. Pneumat IX was a duo with my former flatmate Francis until he flipped out and took off (with a bunch of my CDs and equipment) for LA.

The band's myspace page. Just about nothing on this page is true. For example, you may notice that the music that Francis claims as his deeply personal solo music is bit-for-bit the same mp3s that are on the other pages above and below. Oh well, it's still good music.

My personal myspace page, from the Pneumat IX era. I haven't updated it in almost a year, and I'm not even sure which email address it was attached to. There's some music-related stuff there, and some more blogs if you're bored.

The original Pneumat IX page, which we never finished.

The mp3 repository for the above site.

DJ Payn (1989-present)

My usual club DJ name. I've released a few mash recordings, but I haven't looked for them online.

Ice IV.V (1999-2002)

Electronic parody covers. My first post-Ice IX solo project. Most famous for "Del Taco Man," And One's "Techno Man" rewritten about various people in the LA industrial scene hanging out at a Del Taco. Other targets included Idiot Stare via Falco ("Rock Me Chadley Bishop"), NIN ("Closer to Lunch"), and... I can't remember. I no longer have any of this music. If you have any, please let me know.

LAGoth.net writeup, thanks to archive.org. Also see a later version, with the logo.

I have no idea how I ended up on last.fm. But someone must have this song--two different versions, in fact.

HacK (1999-2003)

Psytrance/ebm solo project. I never finished anything, mainly because I spent all my time making new sounds in Reaktor instead of writing music. Reaktor is dangerous. Also the name of three different clubs I promoted. No websites appear to exist.

Mulder's Files (1996-2000)

Synthpop all about the X-Files, basically a S.P.O.C.K ripoff. No finished recordings exist, and I can't find any evidence online that I existed.

Ice IX (1994-1999)

Synthpop/hiphop/ebm/techno. Ice IX was originally an SF band called RU486, but after founder Zeke moved to LA, it ended up turning into Ice IX, which I joined shortly thereafter. Over the years, we morphed from generic Laeatherstrip-style ebm to something unique and cool--partly because I got more involved, but mainly because Zeke's tastes evolved. Our album never came out, but we had a bunch of compilation appearances (not one of which I now have a copy of--again, contact me if you do). Not to be confused with Ice Nine (Levi from TKK's band) or Ice 9 (Chris Randall from Sister Machine Gun's band), from around the same time and in roughly the same musical space.

Official web site on Hallucinet, thanks to archive.org.

An interview in an online 'zine.

The discogs page, proof that someone actually paid me for a recording at least once. Although I think I made more off mp3.com (before they started screwing over their artists) than the whole band made from all the comps combined.

An everything2 node.

Internet Covers Database results, notably including not a single one of the covers we recorded on comps (I think Human League, Gary Numan, Run DMC, Kraftwerk?), and including some that we never even played live.

Krypton Angels (1992-1995)

Bad ebm. I wish someone had told me that the world didn't need another FLA ripoff. One demo recording lost years ago, and that's OK. No references online.

23 Naked Jesi (1991-1996)

Annoying old-school industrial noise. All demos lost, and I don't care. No references online.

Beat Traitor (1988-1992)

New beat/ebm/industrial collaboration with a guy named Topher back in college. One demo recording lost years ago, but I'd love to hear it again. No references online.

Battery Club (1987-1989)

"College rock" (which means somewhere between indie and alternative, before those terms existed) band that went through numerous incarnations before me and the other guitar player (Topher) decided we liked playing keyboards better and started Beat Traitor. No demos, don't care, no refs.

Why I Love Python

Plenty of people, including die-hard lisp-heads and big names in the open source field, have already written about why they love Python. Google does most of their new development in Python, and it's cut their development cycles radically. And Python is the language behind BitTorrent, without which I wouldn't have been able to download replacements for all the CDs that have been stolen or broken over the years (not that I would ever do such an illegal thing). Any company that uses Java or C++ or .NET without thinking about Python first is giving a sure sign that they don't know what they're doing. (Of course I still end up working for them. Well, if they're going to throw money away, I'll take some of it.)

But forget about the technical merits of high-level languages, the beauty of indentation as structure, the interactive environment, etc. You can find all of that in other languages, but none of them are Python. Here are some of the less-commonly given reasons why Python rocks.

First, there's the name. It started off as a Monty Python reference, which is a great way to declare uber-geekiness while (to distinguish it from C++) at the same time not taking yourself too seriously. The only way to top that would be to name the language after a Hitchhikers or Discworld reference, like Slartibartfast or Rincewind. And using spam and eggs instead of foo and bar makes it impossible for any Python user to deny being a geek.

The fact that Python is also the name of a snake (not to mention the Israeli update to the Sidewinder missile) made it way too easy for O'Reilly to come up with the cover for their "Programming Python" book (unlike, say, caml, which is named for animal already in use by Programming Perl). However, now that Python is big news, the community has to worry about offending ophidophobes and Christians--so all of the old logos involving snakes and/or 16-ton weights (especially the MacPython logo, with a realistic snake wrapped around an apple) had to go.

This led to one of the most entertaining discussions I've ever seen, as hardcore geeks tried to figure out how to be politically correct. And the resulting logo is pretty cool, too.

In fact, the Python development lists are often entertaining to read, which I can't say about any other language.

Then there's the fact that Python's Beneficial Dictator For Life has the same name as Risky Business's Killer Pimp (played by Joe Pantoliano in what I think was his first major role). Yes, his name is Guido--and he's not even Italian; he's Dutch. How cool is that?

Python is also the only programming language with its own font (designed by Guido's brother Just).

Pythonistas (and isn't that much cooler than "C++ experts" in itself?) talk about the Zen of Python, and really mean it. Try typing "import this" into a Python interactive session.

Meanwhile, while C++'s big future plans are for a "200x" version, and Perl is looking ahead to a version 6 that may come out any decade now, Python is looking ahead to the year 3000. When we're all disembodied software agents, we will reprogram ourselves in Python.

Then again, what do I know; I used to code in Forth.