Tag Archives: Orange County

Snow Blind

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I launched a new page navigation application on df.com today that will make it easier to jump ahead or go back in time from the main “News & Updates” page that you’re seeing right now. If you scroll down to the bottom you’ll see it. I think this will help you move around a bit easier and that’s always nice. It’s also on the archived pages (including the “digitalflood Pirate Radio” show pages). Again, this should make moving around quickly on the site easier to do.

We got a lot of snow here in Orange County, NY (as has most of the Northeast) over the last 24 hours. About 12″ plus. The snow started around 9 pm yesterday and just stopped around 9 pm today. That’s 24 hours of snow. I’m far from buried in though. I managed to shovel myself out. My landlord gave me a hand with his plow equipped pick up truck (which save me tons of time).

I haven’t even had a chance to think about next week’s digitalflood Pirate Radio (that would be “Volume 6 Episode 6” for those of you who like numbers). I can tell you it will be out on 2/16/10 though actual recording still has to happen. I may be able to get MC Mary to do the next episode (Volume 6 Episode 7) as she’s stopping by next week.

Other than that all is well at the Pirate Radio if not a bit quite. I am right now in conversation about a pretty cool project that if it pans out I’ll let you know about. I’m looking to do a remix album and we’ll see where that goes.

Finally, DJ A.D.D. has been kind enough to loan me an Akai controller pad, which I have yet to hook up. When I do (most likely this weekend) I’m hoping to see if I can use it trigger samples and queue points in Virtual DJ. If not it may be time to learn Traktor (I’ve been holding out). We’ll see how that goes.

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DF Pirate Radio – “flAnneljAm: After Dark”

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Title: Vol. 5 Episode 5 (Click link to play) Rel: 12/21/09
Description: “flAnneljAm: After Dark” – Back in 1996 DJ digitalflood launched his public broadcast career on SUNY Orange’s WOCC 530 AM radio station. The world was not quite ready for it. Back then DJ digitalflood went by the DJ alias of flAnnelmAn. It was a salute to his alternative grunge loving music roots. DJ digitalflood was a huge fan of the alternative and underground college music scene. He religiously wore a flannel shirt every day. His hair was ridiculously long. He didn’t buy his shirts in the mall. And he wore khakis pants long before they ever appeared in a Gap commercial. Needless to say, he did not necessarily fit into mid-90s Orange County, NY college culture. Nevertheless, his lunchtime hour long show “The flAnneljAm” became a cult favorite amongst the student body. His off kilter wit and fearless self depreciating humor made even the most musically dull student interested in what he’d say next. So while he had their attention he made sure to slowly bore into their minds by subjecting them to the hardest underground metal and hard rock.

It’s been a long time since 1996. Over a decade, if you dare count up the years. The question DJ digitalflood couldn’t let go of is– what if he had all the skills and technology of 2009 back in 1996? What would the “flAnneljAm” sound like then? Well, you could be a jerk and point out that since the flAnneljAm evolved into digitalflood Pirate Radio it’d sound exactly like every other episode of Pirate Radio, but let’s not be a douche like that. Let’s pretend that it didn’t. And if you can for one second pretend that far then you can also pretend it’s 1996 and this is the flAnneljAm… even if it’s Pirate Radio… which (yes) is one and the same… *ahem*

This episode is chalked full of alternative metal, grunge, and underground indie music from circa the early 90s. It reads like the who’s who of the scene before the scene. You may not recognize every song, but you’re sure to recognize every artist even if at that point nobody aside from the guy at the turntable knew who they were. It’s history brother man. Pure history.
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Birth of InterWebs

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Some random items and thoughts:

  • Forty years ago today, the first packet was sent across the Internet between the Univeristy of California (LA) and Standford Research Institute (both in the State of California in the USA). Happy birthday Internet!
  • Everyone keeps asking me if I’m psyched about the soon to be launched DJ Hero video game– I’m not. Just like Guitar Hero is nothing like playing a real guitar, DJ Hero is nothing like mixing real tracks.
  • A local bank robbery is solved… I think the best part is the bank robber made it all the way to Hawaii on the cash and then came back to Orange County, NY where he was caught by parole officers with the clothes and money in his car from the robbery. Why would you come back? Come on!
  • Your first official look at the new Verizon Droid mobile phone.
  • If you use Mozilla Firefox be sure to upgrade to the latest release. They just patched like 16 security holes.
  • There are a number of password stealing scams going on right now across the world. One such is the recent Facebook phishing email scam. I got about 15 of these messages in my various accounts this morning. Don’t be a moron and fall for it lest I mock you publicly for all to see.
  • For all you Yankees fans who mocked me when the Mets where being clobbered by the Phillies… hope you’re happy now because they are 100% your problem to deal with.

I’m hoping the weather holds out for Halloween. I’d like to walk around with the girls for an hour or so. It’ll be my first time outside of the house or a hospital in over a week. Fortunately I’m not getting cabin fever as of yet– yet being the operative word.

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Shameless Promotion: New Casket Architects CD

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Casket Architects "Future Wounds" CDThis past weekend the Casket Architects released their new CD “Future Wounds” to much accolades during their CD release party at the Tuscan Cafe in Warwick, NY. I’m not one to pimp out the “scene” any longer (cause frankly the scene died about ten years ago a fiery painful and much under documented death), but it is noteworthy for a few reasons:

1. They are arguably one of the best live bands from Orange County, NY actively performing (if not THE best).

2. They are a sonic mind trip and a half– listening to their first two albums (“Dance on the Death Nerve” and “Skull Persuasion”) was like some sick late night mash up of Skinny Puppy and Napalm Death… this album takes it another step further.

3. There are few truly creative bands out there. Casket Architects manages to really cross musical boundaries, do something original, and be pretty darn melodic without being a Pop sell out in any sense. We call that “win-win-win”.

I’m not close with the band (so there’s no incentive for me to give props) though Skow admittedly knows them, but he didn’t ask me to pimp them either. I just feel they deserve the shout out and if you like digitalflood’s stuff it’s certainly worth checking out their new CD (which can conveniently be purchased through their new Merch shop).

Give it a listen and drop back to let me know what you think. You can (even maybe more conveniently) find the Casket Architects featured in the digitalflood Pirate Radio “Palindrome Remix” episode if you want a sneak peak at their earlier work. You can also listen to Skow and I babble about nonsensical metal ramblings, as well as, food during that same episode in case you’re into that sort of thing.

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DF Pirate Radio – Cliffnotes (2006 Season)

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Cliff Notes – 2006 Season

* The audio clips between songs for Pirate Radio are actually DJ Digitalflood’s voice altered via computer software.

* The original advertisements for the various Pirate Radio episodes can be found in the Graphic Art section.

* An annual event since 1999, the Digitalflood Party takes place usually the first weekend of June. The first DF Party was held in 1999 and was completely non-alcoholic. After 2004 the party moved to a local tavern called GW’s. The beverages shortly there after were no longer non-alcoholic.

* It’s important you watch the Strongbad Metal episode at Homestar Runner in order to understand Vol. 2 Episode 5. Specifically the phrases “Summon orbs!” and “OMG! Wanna join my Guild?”.

* Recording a Pirate Radio show in a 20×20′ room with six people results in the temperature easily hitting 85ºF even on the coldest winter days as the crew would come to find out. Fans couldn’t be run (or AC for that matter) because it would have messed up recording, which only made things more challenging.

* Pirate Radio monologues have no script or set agenda. In general, the crew is told a topic and everybody kicks the idea around from there in realtime while recording. Sometimes you find comedy nuggets; other times you find jokes you wish that nobody managed to hear you say. Song mixing was also improvised as the guests get to choose the order of the tracks leaving DJ Digitalflood on his own to figure out in post-production how to make them flow.

* You can email Pirate Radio show ideas and song requests to DJ Digitalflood via the Contact form on this web site. Who knows, we might actually play it for you and give you the mandatory shout out.

* DJ Digitalflood does all his mixing on virtual turn tables and audio production software. He began doing computer based audio engineering in 1996 including formal training during High School and College on audio production.

* DJ Digitalflood’s dubbed his audio mixing style “Cut Like Crack”. The style is completely home brewed and developed by DJ Digitalflood himself. The term was first used by DJ Digitalflood in a bar conversation in 2005 when some people asked him what his music sounded like. The reponse: Like it was cut with crack.

* You can keep up to date on DF Pirate Radio by using the RSS Feed function in most audio management programs such as iTunes and Winamp. When a new episode comes out the program will automatically download it.

* MC Mary @ The Disco! played lacrosse through out all of High School and is a fourth degree black belt in Tae Kwan Do.

* A mysterious hum appeared in the monolouges during the middle of Volume 2 that DJ Digitalflood could not explain. It wasn’t until recording some mix tracks after the end of the season that DJ Digitalflood discovered the cause– the computer fans and hard drives would spin up during recording causing the desk that the unit was on to vibrate. The microphone (which also sat on that desk) in turn would pick up that vibration as a low tone hum. The result was the sound you hear during the silence buzzing along in the background oh so annoyingly.

* The Chickenette is a real sandwich consisting of a hard roll filled with three deep fried chicken tenders, a slice of fried honey ham, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, and Swiss cheese. It comes with a pickle, coleslaw, and a side of fries (which are best with honey mustard). The calorie count is around 1,600 per serving. You can order it at the Monroe Diner in Monroe, NY.

* The sound clips used during Pirate Radio are collected via the Internet and include many popular movies including “Anchor Man”, “Napolean Dynamite”, “Tron”, and “Meet the Parents”. There’s also a lot of “The Simpsons” clips. The sound effects are also off the Internet from various freebie sites.

* Despite all the talk about drinking it is intresting to note that DJ Digitalflood was Straight Edge (including no caffeine, alcohol, or drugs) between 1994 and 2004.

* DJ Digitalflood went on hiatus beween April 2006 and November 2007 to focus on his new wife and later on helping out with their newborn daughter.

* Early in May 2006 My Space deleted DJ Digitalflood’s public musician account for “copyright violation” complaints. At the time of deletion, DF Pirate Radio had close to 4,000 friends. Today Digitalflood’s private profile is friends only and limited to those he knows in real life. The profile was one the top ten most popular artists within Orange County, NY for over four months.

* Digitalflood MP3s can be found all over the Net and have been distributed by other sites throughout the world. This includes the Pirate Radio shows.

* DF Pirate Radio accepts artist submissions for the show. Use the Contact page to find out how you can be featured on an episode of the show.

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