Video: Live at Raw Sugar in Ottawa
Set to the album cut of “People,” this video was put together by Matt from Flat Head Dog Productions, who happened across our set at Raw Sugar last fall.
Live Video from Raw Sugar in Ottawa
Dog is Blue from Damp Digital on Vimeo.
Last fall we played at our favourite Ottawa hangout, Raw Sugar. As we were setting up a dude came up and asked if he could video our set. Sure, why not? Nice of him to ask–next thing you know he’s got some pretty hefty A/V gear and we’re suddenly being captured in HD glory!
That dude was Matt from Flat Head Dog Productions. He shot and edited this montage of our set that night, played to the album cut of “People.” It’s a pretty fun glimpse of the gear/demeanour of a Dog Is Blue show and we’re hoping to work with Matt on more videos in the future.
Dog Is Blue Fuzz Pedals Are Here (Video Demo)
I’ve been teasing this for a while, but the first batch of the limited run of custom Dog Is Blue fuzz pedals is finally ready! The design is basically a more efficiently laid out version of the kickass little Bazz Fuss circuit that is all ballsy, synthy and nasty fuzz. Check out the video above for a quick demo of the prototype (the only one with the power jack mysteriously on the front…) and there are in-progress photos below.
The first four will be available off the stage at tomorrow night’s show at The Silver Dollar for the Music Maul CD release for a measly $40, so get them before they are gone!
iPad Animated Music Video for “People” Is Here!
Holy crap I can’t believe it’s finally finished! After 3 months of painstakingly animating each frame on my iPad 2 using the Animation Creator HD app the video for “People” is ready!
Clocking in at around 1670 frames this quirky video sees a baby picture (of yours truly) that we had hanging comically in our studio take on a life of its own.
I can’t express how happy and excited I am to finally unleash this quirky beast on the world!
In retrospect, I guess this is the answer to the age old question of “how do you follow 100 drawings of Batman?”
Music Video: Handcar Slideshow from House of Miracles
It’s been just over a year since we spent a few long, scotch and coffee filled days at the revered House of Miracles (when it was still in London, Ontario) recording Tortoise with Andy Magoffin and special appearances by Anna Atkinson. To commemorate that milestone here’s a little slideshow of all the photos from that session set to the song “Handcar.”
I put it all together using the Avid iPad app while stewing on finishing touches for the animated “People” video that is coming very, very soon (I promise)!
DIY Effects: Cookie Tin Paramix Pedal Video Demo
I’ve been building a few crazy pedals lately, so expect a lot of video demos in and around things like our upcoming animated music video for “People”.
Case in point, the very versatile and useful Paramix circuit from Guitarpcb.com (designed by Tonmann). This sort of pedal can be a bit difficult to explain (as you can no doubt infer from my nonsensical ramblings in the video demo), but, while it’s no in your face fuzz or swirly phaser, it adds new options to how things like your fuzz or phaser can interact. You can almost think of it as allowing them to live beside each other instead of mashing on top of one another.
Just trust me when I say it really is an awesome pedal. I wouldn’t steer you wrong, would I? Also, that oranges and lemons tin is pretty great anyway…
Check out the build documents at the forum here (where you can also buy the circuit board) and the mods I did are here.
Animated iPad Music Video Coming Soon!
If you follow us on Twitter or pay attention to our inter-band/marital disputes on Facebook then you might have heard that I’m working on a 1600 frame animated music video for “People” done completely on my iPad 2 using the Animation Creator HD app. I’m only a few hundred frames away!
Here are a few stills from this lo-fi magnum-opus that I hope to have finished soon. That cute little stud is yours truly (Laura’s a lucky girl….) and I’m putting him through all kinds of zany stream-of-consciousness situations.
Suffice to say this video has been consuming most of my waking hours for the past few months (aside from semi-aborted attempts at a Replacements cover—more to come on that). We’re hoping to bulk up our Youtube channel with a few other videos too (not to mention a gazillion more pedal demos for all my fellow gear-heads). Stay tuned!
UPDATE: It’s Done!
Gadgets: DIY Blinking Band Sign
I cobbled this blinking band sign together a while back (painted using a similar spray-paint method as shown in our video for “Raise Your Dead (Reprise)”), but it’s one of my more precarious DIY efforts so it’s often out of commission. I fixed it up again the other night and thought it’s time to finally show it off.
It’s got 2 settings: the first just has the lights on constantly and the second has them blink to the input of Laura’s trusty Korg Polysix. You can see my lovely assistant demonstrating that for you above (we had to do a few takes, as she’s a real ham. At least one version ended with her yelling “Dog Is blue” while fist pumping…in retrospect I definitely should have used that one!).
I want to repaint the name and make the words themselves light up, but it does the job in the meantime!
DIY Effects: Video Demo of Stutter Tremolo Pedal
It’s been a while since I built a new guitar pedal. Putting together that gallery of all the ones I built in 2011 made me realize that I only finished a half-dozen or so the whole year. I guess that means I’m spending the rest of my time actually making music, right?
In any case, here’s a lovely lady I like to call ‘Stuttering Ginger.’ As I explain in the video demo below, I had to eat a lot of candy to empty that tin out (the pedal builders diet?). What’s inside now is a very choppy tremolo circuit called the ‘Stutter Trem’ designed by Forced Fire Pedals.
She’s a real beaut and I don’t actually have a standalone tremolo these days, so she’ll fill that niche very nicely. Check out the demo below if you want to hear me ramble…
