Mark Solotroff - Everything Is Noise - Song Premiere

 

Earlier today, Everything Is Noise premiered a new song - "Almost All Promises" - from my forthcoming album, "Today The Infinite, Tomorrow Zero." I appreciate that the song is being hosted, as well as the extremely positive and thoughtful write-up provided by Eeli. You can hear the exclusive stream of my song, and read Eeli's reaction, here: https://everythingisnoise.net/premieres/hear-mark-solotroff-make-almost-all-promises-to-you/ Threadless I'm also grateful for all of the Threadless orders that were placed following my last update! After I sent/posted it, I added a basic new BLOODYMINDED logo design, for shirts, hoodies, and totes:     https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-text-logo-2023-update/ BLOODYMINDED Finally, we just couldn't let 2023 slip past without a BLOODYMINDED show happening. Well, we could, but this wasn't one to turn down. This hasn't been officially announced yet, but this flyer is already circulating on IG/FB. If you attended our show with Nika at the International Museum of Surgical Science in 2019, or even if you just saw the recap and the beautiful photos, you'll know that you should keep your eyes peeled for the forthcoming ticket announcement. Thank you for reading! Mark   Website Instagram Facebook Bandcamp Spotify Apple/iTunes Amazon (author page) Threadless

Super Eight Loop "Grid" New T-shirt, Hoody and Tote

Super Eight Loop "Grid" New T-shirt, Hoody and Tote I've been moving very slowly on the Super Eight Loop book that I announced, when I was wrapping up the remixing and remastering process. I do tinker with it, here and there, and one of the results of my work is this grid of all 100 faces from the digital art. I figured that I'd channel my energy into a new Threadless design and make it available to everyone, rather than auction it off as an NFT that only one collector would own. All 100 recordings continue to be available to stream/download exclusively via Bandcamp. This new design is available as a T-shirt and as a hoody in a full range of men's and women's sizes. Tote bags are also available. https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/super-eight-loop-grid Super Eight Loop: Bandcamp

New Intrinsic Action "Metro 86" T-shirt

 

Intrinsic Action "Metro 86" New T-shirt, Hoody and Tote The first Intrinsic Action show was on December 10, 1986, at Cabaret Metro, in Chicago. We were on a bill with the bands Unit 731 and White China. I first saw Unit 731 open for Whitehouse, in 1984, at The Cubby Bear, and he (Paul) was a good fit. White China had an ex-member of Ministry, if I remember correctly, and they were more in that vein. The show was part of a regular Wednesday night budget-price series that was sponsored by the radio station WXRT and that was typically well-attended. We had a great crowd that night, too. At the time of this show, we had already released our demo in 1984 and our self-titled full-length in 1985, and we were about to release Intrinsic Action "II." We were definitely anxious to dip our toes into the live arena. The choice of the Gustave Moreau image was based on my growing interest in this symbolist artist. I had graduated that spring from The School of the Art Institute and I was working as a curatorial assistant in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the museum. I only remember The Art Institute having a small number of works on paper by the artist, but they had long and prominently displayed the large dark painting, "Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra," which I regularly went to look at. When a curator at the museum found out how much I liked the artist, she gave me a copy of the fantastic catalog from the Kunsthaus Zürich show that had been published earlier in 1986. Shortly before our show, Pamela and I had been in NYC, and we saw the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Oedipus and the Sphinx," which became another favorite of mine. A related influence was Symbolist literature, which I had been increasingly enjoying, after encountering the reading lists published in The Industrial Culture Handbook, which I read when it was published in 1983. I was already familiar with some of the big names, particularly the major French authors and certain of their Russian influences, but the Handbook got me to delve deeper into writers like Lautréamont, and especially Huysmans. After one of our practices, leading up to our first show, we (Pamela, Peter Margasak [my cousin, who briefly played guitar with us], and I) decided to go for a drink. There was a biker bar nearby, in Edgewater, called Deadwood Dave's Wild West Saloon. There were usually choppers parked out front, including one that had saddlebags with impressively long fringe that dragged on the ground. After walking in, we went up to the bar and we ordered drinks. I remember, specifically, that I ordered a weissbier. The bartender put my bottle and the appropriate tall glass in front of me and I proceeded to quickly pour the beer, which resulted in a volcano of foam and a wet mess on the bar. The bartender saw this and made eye-contact with me. I thought I was fucked. He walked over, pulled out a bar towel, and wiped up my beer, saying, "I see we've got a little spilly over here." Okay, not bad. Just a little friendly humiliation.  About the show. I will tell you that we prepared a video to be played on the numerous monitors around the venue and on the two 12-foot by 12-foot screens that we requested be pulled up on either side of us on the stage. These screens were used to project videos during Video Metro nights. What we showed ran the gamut of objectionable and inspirational material... sex, violence, German scat films, S&M, Pentecostal Christian snake handlers, Alice Cooper and his snake, Led Zeppelin in all their glory... and more. Not only was the owner of Cabaret Metro very unhappy with us... but the museum curator who gave me the Moreau catalog attended, and she was extremely upset by our performance. Our working relationship and friendship was negatively affected... something I'd have to get used to, making this type of music. Still, the venue asked us back the following month, to open for Wiseblood, under the agreement that we wouldn't show those video nasties. Well, we managed to get a friend to "handle" the projection in the sound booth and - yes - we did it again. We were banned from playing Cabaret Metro until the following year, as our punishment. I just added this new design to our Threadless store, and it's available as a T-shirt and as a hoody in a full range of men's and women's sizes. Tote bags are also available. https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/intrinsic-action-metro-86 Intrinsic Action: Bandcamp Spotify Apple

BLOODYMINDED "202" T-Shirt

 

NEW BLOODYMINDED "202" DESIGN What can I say about the connection between BLOODYMINDED and the Roland MC-202? It was the ideal choice of synth, when I was contemplating the end of Intrinsic Action and the beginning of BLOODYMINDED, in late 1994/early 1995. In the later era of Intrinsic Action, we were playing live with a Moog Rogue and a Roland SH-101, which meant that we were tied to keyboard stands or bar tables, or something similar. Using the attachable mod-grip and a guitar strap was never an option with the 101. Never. Back then, I pictured a point where we could be more mobile, onstage, even if we didn't start that way. But a small, battery powered synth, like the 202, opened up more possibilities for dynamic performance, and I'd say that we got there, relatively quickly. Also being being familiar with the 101 made using a 202, its "little brother," a no-brainer. I had already acquired two of the synths, prior to our first studio session, and from the start, we seemed very certain that 202s would be a big part of our band. On one of the spines of our "Trophy" CD, we included the phrase, "Twin 202 Power-Electronic Death-Noise," and we included a 202 on the inside artwork of our "West" 7-inch, with the name BLOODYMINDED replacing the Roland logo. The 202 photographed for this new design is one that was used extensively on tour by Pieter, and it suffered tremendously, in his hands. Over the years, we've learned that 202s are not just musical instruments, but they're shields and sometimes defensive weapons. After nearly every show, I'd discover that another fader cap or knob was missing, and I finally removed all of them from this synth to replace missing parts on other 202s that were also seeing hard use in live shows. Pieter ultimately bashed this one up so badly that not only did the body crack in several spots (thus the gaffer tape), but the circuit board actually cracked in two pieces. I also recall that one of the bare faders punctured his hand during one particularly rough show. This one's been out of commission for years, and several other of our 202s are also in pretty rough shape.  In 2010, when the majority of our 202 "fleet" had fallen into disrepair, I initiated a departure from our signature synth and I bought a few tiny Korg Monotron synths. It was worth a try, right? They'd typically break after just one show, because the mini output jacks are so delicate. A very kind Guitar Center salesperson, who'd seen me return several times with broken Monotrons, recommended that I buy a new one with a protection plan. While I would normally never waste money on that, she explained that for the low cost of the plan, I could keep bringing back broken synths after using them during shows. Huh!?! So, we went down that route, for a while, until the novelty of jumping around on stage with smartphone-sized synths simply got old for us. I kept a box full of broken Monotrons, but that seems like it would make for a boring shirt design. I used to care more about synths, although I still have a variety of small to medium-sized analog mono-synths to write and record with. Over time, however, I think I pretty much lost interest in music gear. I even relaxed our 202 rule again, so you might see Isidro and Will onstage with something else in their hands -- maybe Roland, maybe Korg. Sure, maybe some new micro-synth hitting the market will catch my eye in the future, but I'm not holding my breath. In the back of my mind, I always wondered if BLOODYMINDED would have the natural expiration date of when all of our 202s were destroyed. In the 1990s, they were easier to find and they only ran about $350-$400. By the early 2000s, they were at least double that price, and now they're frequently priced well over $1000, with really clean ones even reaching $1500. That seems a lot of money for something that'll probably get destroyed. Luckily, we've still got some back-ups, so we're not giving up, anytime soon...  https://BLOODYMINDED.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-202 https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/bloodymindedchi/ https://www.facebook.com/BLOODYMINDED/

BLOODYMINDED "MOTHERCARE" SHIRT

NEW BLOODYMINDED "MOTHERCARE" DESIGN Our "Mothercare" CD-single had a long and somewhat convoluted gestation period. During the 90s, I read several books on the Jamie Bulger case, which informed the direction of some lyrics that I was working on. In 1998, Xavier and I spent a week together in London, during one of my trips there. After Xavier returned to Toulouse, I spent a fun Saturday hanging out with Philip Best, visiting various pubs and "slob book" shops (I'm bastardizing Philip's slang here). I have a memory of passing by a Mothercare shop and boasting that BLOODYMINDED would be making some sort of shirt with the store's logo, as an insider nod to the Bulger case. Five years later, our "Mothercare" single was released. My original thought was that we'd release a two-song 7-inch single, as something like a love-letter to the early grindcore scene, which definitely influenced my direction during the transition from Intrinsic Action to BLOODYMINDED. The single was to include two live songs, "As If" and "Baby," and it would have come in well under one-minute long. Somehow, along the way, the discussion changed to include "A Song For Lisanne, A Young Model," an alternate version to the one on our 2005 album, "Gift Givers," and to release the three songs as a CD-single in a cardboard sleeve. I have no memory of why we went with those choices, but there you have it. The front cover of the single features a cropped image from the well-known CCTV capture related to the aforementioned case. For the new shirt, I've included a wider crop of the photo and I've messed with Megan's great original layout. On a side note, the pressing plant objected to a photo of JonBenét Ramsey that we originally included on the back cover and they requested that we remove it, due to copyright issues. At least they weren't concerned about the photo of Alice Liddell that's on the back. The single went on to totally divide audience opinion. Some people loved it and some people simply couldn't understand why we'd bother pressing a CD that was only a minute-and-a-half long. I guess if you have to ask...  Listen here: https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/album/mothercare Twenty-three (oh my!) years later, we've finally made those Mothercare shirts, although they're not quite the same as the original idea that I had back then. They're a first for us, as the design is printed on red shirts (as well as red hoodies and red totes). People have been asking about colors, so as a follow-up to our recent "BLOODYMINDED Black-on-White" drop, here you go. They're available in a full range of men's and women's sizes. https://BLOODYMINDED.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-mothercare https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/bloodymindedchi/ https://www.facebook.com/BLOODYMINDED/

New Intrinsic Action "Shock Pit" T-shirt

 

Intrinsic Action "Shock Pit" New T-shirt, Hoody and Tote Intrinsic Action first performed our song "Shock Pit" on September 8, 1989, at Dreamerz, in Chicago, on a bill with the band End Result. I had written the song earlier that year, after following the news of Gary Heidnik's arrest in Philadelphia, in March 1987. I believe that I relied on newspaper articles, as I'm pretty sure that the song was written before the publication of Cellar of Horror by Ken Englade. My memory could certainly be foggy on that point... In any case, it became a fixture of our sets, from then on. The song was recorded during October and November of 1990, and was released on our album "Sado-Electronics" in 1992. You can listen to the song via our Bandcamp page (as well as on Spotify, Apple Music, etc.): https://intrinsicaction.bandcamp.com/track/shock-pit I just posted this new design in our Threadless store, and it's available as a T-shirt and as a hoody in a full range of men's and women's sizes. Tote bags are also available. In fact, the 18" x 18" tote is probably perfect for heavy-duty jumper cables. https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/intrinsic-action-shock-pit Intrinsic Action: Bandcamp Spotify Apple

NEW BLACK ON WHITE T-SHIRTS

Along with photos of people wearing their shirts and hoodies, I've received a number of suggestions for new shirt designs, and one of the ideas that has gained traction is to print some BLOODYMINDED designs on white shirts. We've never done this in the past so this suggestion caught us a bit off guard. After looking at some of the existing designs on white, versus black shirts, I've set up a handful in a new Threadless collection called... wait for it: "BLOODYMINDED - Black on White." I'll certainly add more designs if the style seems popular, but here are the first five, available in men's and women's sizes and in a selection of plain white shirts as well as black-trim "ringer" shirts, as illustrated below.

BLOODYMINDED - Black on White
https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/collections/bloodyminded-black-on-white

https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-whose-side-are-you-on-black-on-white/mens/t-shirt/ringer?color=white_black_ringer


https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-lake-street-black-on-white/mens/t-shirt/ringer?color=white_black_ringer


https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-bloodyminded-album-black-on-white/mens/t-shirt/ringer?color=white_black_ringer


https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-within-the-walls-cells-black-on-white/mens/t-shirt/ringer?color=white_black_ringer


https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-trophy-black-on-white/mens/t-shirt/ringer?color=white_black_ringer


https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bloodymindedchi/
https://www.facebook.com/BLOODYMINDED/

Intrinsic Action - CBGB - T-shirt + Hoody + Tote

Intrinsic Action CBGB New T-shirt, Hoody and Tote Intrinsic Action played at famed NYC music venue CBGB a few times, and our last appearance there was kind of a strange one. We were initially booked for Saturday October 15, 1994, but as had happened before, we were bumped from that bill and shifted to a lineup on Friday November 18. I think we were paired up with Drag because they were an industrial band from Chicago that had a connection to Ministry. Sacred Addiction was a post-punk leaning rock band that played around NYC at the time. More surprising, as I'm a huge fan of Blue Öyster Cult, was that we followed The Brain Surgeons, a new band launched that year by Albert Bouchard, a founding member of BÖC. That just didn't quite compute, but I was definitely pleased to share that stage with them, even if our music was at odds. I still have my copy of The Brain Surgeons' debut CD, "Eponymous," which was released earlier that year. I don't remember it being a remarkable show, for us, and it certainly wasn't a particularly friendly or easy bill for us to be on. It was our last show of the year, and following one more show the following spring, Angel, Megan and I launched BLOODYMINDED. I have a recording of the show, which definitely sounds solid, though. And loud! Typically, if you had a sound engineer at CBGB record your set, you got a very high-quality board recording. I also recall that they charged an arm and a leg to do so. I suppose it was a lucrative way for them to supplement their paycheck. Listening to the tape as I type this, I can't hear much audience interaction (heckling), compared to what we were used to, especially for a crowded Friday night at CBGB. Not surprising, really, since it was such a diverse bill. The best part is probably how well the recording picked up Megan screaming on "Mantra." I'm planning to release recordings of select Intrinsic Action shows, so maybe this one will make the cut. Songs from prior CBGB shows ended up on our "Manhattan Power Surge" single (also on the "Peepland" CD), as well as on the CD re-issue of "Bad Jack." As soon as we finished playing you can hear Ozzy Osbourne's "Diary of a Madman" over the PA. I've heard far worse choices of music during tear-downs, over the years. Looking at the ad that I clipped from the Village Voice, it's also cool to see that our friends Crisis played there the night before. And on a fitting side note, one of my favorite albums of 2020 was Albert Bouchard's "Re Imaginos," which only came out in November, but which I've already played, a ton. Design adapted from one of the original flyer variants: https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/intrinsic-action-cbgb/ Intrinsic Action: Bandcamp Spotify Apple

Mark Solotroff "Live In Wierd"

 

Mark Solotroff "Live In Wierd" Live Recording + T-shirt In late 2007, Pieter asked me if I'd like to perform a microphone feedback set at Wierd, that winter. I'm sure that we both knew that harsh feedback would be more sonically confrontational than the weekly crowd there was used to, but it seemed like a good plan, nevertheless. Bear in mind, this was prior to when experimental, power-electronics, and noise artists played the weekly Wierd party on a more frequent basis. A date was chosen in mid-January of 2008, and on the day of the show I flew to New York with a small mixer and ten microphones. I did a quick soundcheck in the late afternoon, while the bar was being set up for the night ahead, and things sounded loud and clear over the Wierd PA. That night, as was typical, the room became more and more crowded and the dance floor filled up, as midnight approached. I made my way through the dark space to clear some space to place my mic stands in an arc and to get my show underway. As you'll hear at the beginning of the recording, there were some ringers in the audience, including James from BLOODYMINDED and Alex from Climax Denial, who were visiting from Milwaukee. That resulted in some good spirited heckling, like you'd probably hear at a BLOODYMINDED show. I let the frequencies and the volume build up slowly, resulting in an uncomfortable space filled with mild static and the sound of an industrial-sized smoke machine in overdrive. I remember that once the feedback fully kicked in, the crowd began to thin out a bit, but it was really hard to see exactly what was going on through the thick fog ("The sky is so thick with smoke"). After about ten minutes of heavy feedback, someone got in my face and yelled at me to stop. Apparently, the bouncer from Home Sweet Home felt it was way too loud and he lost his shit. My feedback performances were never meant to be confrontational or to elicit the same sort of crowd reaction as an Intrinsic Action or a BLOODYMINDED show. I imagined that they were somehow more academic in nature, but I suppose that it's all just noise to some people. Once I was done, it was only a matter of minutes before I untangled all my mic cords and packed up and people were back to dancing. While I've never felt that live recordings have done justice to these feedback shows, whether in capturing the full intensity of the frequencies at high volume, or especially the physical effects that audience members have related to me, like the pressure they felt in their inner ears or the sensation of air moving around them, I think this recording holds its own, pretty well. Listen here: https://marksolotroff.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-wierd    Companion T-shirt, adapted from Pieter Schoolwerth's original flyer design, with his kind permission: https://BLOODYMINDED.threadless.com/designs/mark-solotroff-live-in-wierd

BLOODYMINDED "Live In Mexico City" Now Shipping

DIGIPAK CD + NEW MERCH NOW SHIPPING    ORDER THE CD VIA BANDCAMP: https://bit.ly/3g2XWnm This was definitely one of the most exhilarating BLOODYMINDED shows in our history, to date. Under Kabarett was such a great space. It's a classic goth-industrial club that has hosted Christian Death, Sex Gang Children, and many more. When we walked in, the first thing that I saw was a large Bauhaus mural on one of the walls. Game on. The crowd was amazing. They looked great, and the people that we met were really cool. They were extremely responsive, too, as you can hear in the recording. I thought that the Chicago r4wb1t5 crew that we were traveling with might have to kick-start things a bit, but the locals were totally ready, screaming right away, cheering, raising their hands. Total high-energy. The night couldn't have gone better. We left the club at about 5:00 AM, and went with a group of about a dozen people to relax at a taqueria, one with outdoor seating that served volcanes, a delicious variant on a taco or a tostada, which we washed down with some Indios. The ride home to our hotel was completely unexpected. Some guys who were at the show and who we had tacos with offered to drive us. We were piled into a Honda Accord coupe. Heber was in the passenger seat and Isidro and I were in the back, with the driver's friend between us. We noticed that our speed was increasing and that we were racing through the streets at 6:30 AM, listening to Mad Professor at high volume and running red light after red light. All of a sudden, a police car pulled into an intersection and we nearly t-boned it. The guy who was driving us just kept going, and we saw flashing lights come on as the police car stopped and abruptly turned to pursue us. Our speed increased as we dangerously wound in and out of traffic and along narrow side streets. At one point, Isidro and I looked at each other and had a real "Almost Famous airplane-in-the-storm scene" moment, and in my mind, I thought that if we were going to die, we'd be going out on a high note. Our driver finally outran or just plain lost the cops. He suddenly pulled to the curb and told us to hurry out and grab our gear from the trunk. I thought he was dumping us out on some random corner, but Isidro pointed diagonally across the big eight-corner intersection to Hotel Virreyes, our home base for the week. What a way to end the night. The ride from Colonia Centro to the club in Roma took about 30 minutes the evening before, but that race home only lasted about 10 minutes. We later found out that the driver and his friend were both tripping on acid. NEW COMPANION MERCH NOW AVAILABLE: https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/live-in-mexico-city/         You can purchase, download, and/or stream "Live In Mexico City" on all major platforms, including: Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/3g2XWnm iTunes: http://apple.co/2eQJOP7 Apple Music: http://apple.co/2eSmLUb Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2f8NjRd Amazon: http://amzn.to/2fjq1LO Youtube: https://youtu.be/5wBu_5wOwSI Tidal: https://store.tidal.com/us/album/66546199 https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/bloodymindedchi/ https://www.facebook.com/BLOODYMINDED/

BLOODYMINDED "Moonwalker" Drop

Our song "Moonwalker" was originally released in 1999, by Malsonus/Crowd Control Activities, on the compilation "The Sound of Sadism." The CD was compiled by our friend, Jonathan Canady (Angel of Decay, Dead World, Deathpile, Nightmares, etc.), and while we're not all fans of compilations, several of our closest friends were also involved, and we just couldn't turn Jonathan down. Long before we conceived of "Magnetism," or the four "Phases" releases that were associated with that moon-adorned album, I was already fascinated by the power that the moon seems to have on some people. "Moonwalker" was inspired by a mixture of pop-culture interests, ranging from true crime to Michael Mann to Michael Jackson. Although it started its life as a song that was despised by many in the scene, it seems to have become a fan favorite (and by "fan," we primarily mean Alex from Climax Denial). We rarely play it live, but when we do, I'm sure to forget a significant amount of the lyrics. Megan oversaw recording, mixing, and mastering at Acme Soundworks, NY, NY, in early 1997, with me hovering annoyingly close behind her attempting to "co-", and it notably marked Pieter's first studio appearance with the band. NEW MERCH NOW AVAILABLE: Moonwalker (One) https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-moonwalker-one      Moonwalker (Two) https://bloodyminded.threadless.com/designs/bloodyminded-moonwalker-two      Purchase, download, and/or stream "Moonwalker" on all major platforms, including: Bandcamp: https://bit.ly/36mcU51 iTunes: https://apple.co/2VfgEid Apple Music: https://apple.co/3liqHxx Spotify: https://spoti.fi/36mhksz Youtube: https://youtu.be/70BCJNg91TY Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/album/164075336 https://bloodyminded.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/bloodymindedchi/ https://www.facebook.com/BLOODYMINDED/