The Jensen Studio

This month, TubaTronix suited up and took Provo’s Avant Garde music scene by storm. We played two gigs at the Pennyroyal Cafe in Provo, 1/14/09 and 1/28/09. January 14th was the official TubaTronix debut – the first non-young-men’s-group-and-not-at-Andrew’s-house gig. There were missed notes and equipment failures, but the shows went well, and the audience enjoyed them.

TubaTronix served as an opening act for “Asplund and Friends,” a biweekly concert series at Pennyroyal Cafe every 1st and 3rd Wednesday. Dr. Christian Asplund, music theory professor at BYU (and a relative of Joe and me) organized and performed at the shows. Ironically, TubaTronix’ downtempo symphonic electronica was the “tamest” act on the show. We were followed both nights by UBA, a group performing free improvisation on tuba, electronics, bowed guitars, viola, and voice. If you can imagine that.

In an attempt to start a beautiful tradition, we’ve tried to record everything from the performances. Of course, we forgot to get most of the first gig recorded, and the one song we did get – “Awkward Ambience” – represents a pretty embarrassing equipment failure…We managed to get everything from the 1/28 gig, though. Here are the mp3′s from the two performances. Have fun.

But, before you just read this post, know that the TubaTronix page has been updated a bunch on this special occation. You’ll find a lot of cool notes and pictures from the shows. So you might want to go straight there. Otherwise:

• 01
• Music For Two Musicians
• 03
• Awkward Ambience

For more info and pictures:

See the TubaTronix page

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Presenting the new music video for the Rent a Mongoose project.  This was prompted by a friend who asked how we make music.  This is not a complete answer, but it’s more entertaining than my personal explanation.  I, Nick, was the cameraman during the production of the project.  You can see it in the studio blog on the Rent a Mongoose page or on the Nick Jensen Podckast.  The music is also quite entertaining, go to the Rent a Mongoose page to hear all the tracks.

Download the video

Visit the Nick Jensen Podckast

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Kids Still Haven’t Found Guns

This is a little something I’ve been working on over Christmas break. This song is actually an unlikely combination of two other songs:

• “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – U2
• “Kids With Guns” – Gorillaz

Mashup?

For those of you who don’t know about mashups yet, we turn to Wikipedia:

A mashup, bootleg or blend…is a song or composition created from the combination of the music from one song with the a cappella from another. A mash-up is a song created out of pieces of two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another.

In full swing at the end of the 20th century, mashups have been described positively as “ultimate post-modern pop song[s]“ or “culture jamming in its purest form”. They have also been described negatively as “the logical extension of the sampling fever of the ’80s taken to its dumbest extreme”.

I think I personally prefer the “ultimate post-modern pop” label. Either way, please enjoy the mashup!

And, by the way, Happy New Year!

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