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Origins of Doctor Casino
1997-2000: Enrolled in "MIDI
Keyboard" class at Chamblee High School in order to escape other
electives that had been proven awful. Learned essentially all the
keyboard skills I possess to this day, thanks to the laid-back but
encouraging instructor Robert Glor. Along with Jacob West (Bootleg
Blitzkrieg,
Rainbow Cemetery), I spent much of the 1998-1999 school year
learning to play Castlevania songs, which has nothing to do with Doctor
Casino but should tell you a lot about the nature of the class.
1998-2000: Membership in internet
bands The New Logic Theory and The Digital Fever Computer
honed my techniques, with recording perhaps moreso than with
songwriting. Permanent feedback/suggestion bonds formed with PJ
Burns and Mark Herbkersman.
2000-2003: As "Sid Swift," I
teamed up with neighbor and later roommate Matt Voss as "The
Sorry Sods." I gained practice and confidence in the writing of
silly songs, and built connections with the Athens "sub-underground" or
"Homemade Junction" scene. The artists in that group provided
musical inspiration, collaborators, and opportunities to play in
semi-public. Meanwhile, involvement with the Sorry Sods takes up
most of my musical creativity, but the first solo songs that will
eventually become known as Doctor Casino tracks emerged as well: "Crush
Song," "Not Falling For You," "Startin' Fires."
January 2003:
The name "Doctor Casino" is first generated during a jam
session for the short-lived Athens no-wave electronic band, The
Centroid (see above). Before "The
Centroid," many other names were considered; I was the only one
upping "Doctor Casino," and was forced to let it go, to focus on
the band being not named "The Winkies."
Winter 2003/2004: Short-lived "Casinophobia" (or "Loaded Dice") band
featuring Travis Hallenbeck on guitar and Matt Grove on drums. We
played two wonderful shows (including my first "real venue" performance)
and recorded semi-complete four-track versions of a few songs before
petering out.
Fall 2004: Debut of CBS prime-time series
"Dr. Vegas." Fears that CBS would either hit me with a frivolous lawsuit or attempt to buy me out
are allayed when "Dr. Vegas" flops and gets cancelled midseason.
Year 2005: Having finished my
undergraduate career in August '04, and the first issue of the
Ummagurau! magazine in the fall of that year, I finally started
dedicating huge chunks of time to systematic recording of original
songs. Continual tweaking of older material was mixed with hardcore
slogging-through on new tracks, culminating in the completion and
release of Orange Blossom Spaceship on September 25th.
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Side Projects / Old Junk
The Sorry Sods (2000-2003)
consisted of myself and Matt Voss, and remain on indefinite hiatus since we
never broke up. For a time we were the most exciting new act in
Athens, with our trailblazing lo-fi sound, catchy tunes, and ironic slacker
Pavement covers. For more information, see the
Sorry Sods
homepage.
The Centroid (2003) featured myself on
keyboards, Matt Voss on drums, Dana Swanson on vocals, and
Travis Hallenbeck playing the Street Fighter II sound test. We
performed only once - at the X-Ray Cafe's Electronic Music Night on 1/17/03.
This performance is probably best left to the dustbin of history - however,
for a taste of what it involved, here is "Countdown" (Download
mp3). Double
Dinosaur (200?-21??) is the hypothetical teamup of
myself and Dave Deyette (The Pigeons, Them Aches, Sweet Ethels,
Tanny Manners).
We have yet to perform or record anything at all, and it is not known what
sort of music it will be when we do.
The New Logic Theory (1998-2000)
was an Internet band composed of Chris Erb and Pat "PJ" Burns (Palecurve),
then later myself. We never really got anywhere and most of our absurd
ambitions to reshape the future of electronic music or whatever never quite
got off the ground. However, we got to play with CoolEdit a lot.
For a taster, here's an mp3 of "Tha Dod
[xenogenesis: death mix]." Digital Fever Computer
(2000-2001) (also known as Digital FC) arose from the ashes of NLT
and consisted of myself, Pat Burns, and Mark Herbkersman (New
Models), who had begun working with NLT during its death throes. DFC's
output is considerably more listenable than NLT's, because we were trying harder and
had started writing
actual songs. Also, I was learning to use tracking software instead of
just mixing WAVs on top of each other in CoolEdit. The results were still
generally amateurish but are, along with the Sorry Sods, the real roots of
the Doctor Casino sound. Check out
"Simple Machines" (PJ on vocals) and "From the
Interference" (Mark on vocals).
Tsar Bomba (2000-Present) is only the
latest fake name that I will never really use as credit for all of my
non-Casino solo recordings, which are for the most part unlikely to see the light
of day except for brief moments on websites like this one. In general
this material can be described as non-melodic and lacking in vocals - most
of it is sample and beat based, and would make for good hip-hop tracks
except that there is almost no bass. Previous codenames for this work
may or may not
have included Tracklash, DJ Delta Deep, DJ Son of Adam, Octopistachio,
Noel Galaga, and others. |
