If Ramp Chicago needed a poster boy it would be Scott Hansen—equal parts audio and visual, he executes both with finesse. As Tycho he’s a master of swirling, sun-drenched melodies and as the much-lauded graphic designer, ISO50, he’s equally stunning and mines a similar aesthetic. Having just shared a bill with Matmos, Tycho is at work on new material for Ghostly International, having recently released Past is Prologue on Merck records. Hansen will be performing and displaying artwork from his ISO50 guise, as well as his live set as Tycho.

You’ll regret it if you miss Chicago DJ, Mr. Automatic, a long-time veteran of collectives like Metropop Media, Retropop!, Boutique Sound and Iconoclast. He’ll be spinning an eclectic mix of downtempo, 60’s pop and disco. Also look out for our new resident DJ Liz Revision (a.k.a. Quantazelle), who recently appeared with a live set in January, as well as live video artist Spiderback, returning to Ramp Chicago with his distinct blend of synthesized visuals.

* Tuesday, March 13, 2007 @ Sonotheque [MAP]
* 1444 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago IL
* 9pm – 2am, 21+, $5

* BassUpTrebleDown presents Ramp Chicago featuring:
* Tycho (Live)
* Mr. Automatic
* Liz Revision [aka Quantazelle] (Resident)
* Emulsion (Resident)
* Live Visuals: Spiderback

Via Musicthing:

For the grumpy electronic musician… Fractalspin’s ‘No, I am not checking my email, retard’ t-shirt. For grumpy DJs, they also do ‘This DJ takes requests’ and who could live without ‘I am totally incrementing this value with all my might’?

Being a laptop musician myself, I can attest to the need for these t-shirts. At smaller shows where the DJ booth is on the floor of the venue, or in a small club where the DJ is out in the open, it would be not unusual to have people (usually men) coming up to me, thinking that they’re clever and asking me if I’m checking my email. I would like to respond “Wow, that’s about the 100th time I’ve heard that same non-funny joke this month!” but, being polite, I just say something very obscurely technical along the lines of “well, I’m actually mapping a filter-sweep graph right now, and then I have to hard-limit this .ogg file, then and put a high pass filter on the syncopated snare, then turn down the resonance and then then phase-sync the first one before I can try to beatmatch them” or something equally silly.Check out all their laptop musician t-shirts.

[tag]electronic music, musicians, djing, performance, electronics, dsp, humor, t-shirts, geek, nerd, geek chic[/tag]

Reading the lastest issue of XLR8R over a hurried solo dinner tonight, I scanned the editor’s column that fawned over a recent single by The Knife of Sweden, who graced the cover in black, Salieri-in-Amadeus-masquerade-party-style raven masks. I did a quick google when I got back to the office and stumbled upon the YouTube video of “Heartbeats” (screenshot at top), and it immediately struck a note of recognition: a remix by the excellent Rex the Dog was on the Switch 7, Disc 1 compilation, that caught my ear previously.

Likely my favorite online clothing store, Mudshark Streetwear in Toronto, asked me to model one of their Kitchen Orange tops, called “Bangle”–I am just a huge fan of Kitchen Orange. It’s a sexy little white top with an open back, and I paired it with one of my MIDI Cuffs for the photo.

[tag]fashion, modelling, kitchen orange, toronto, mudshark streetwear, quantazelle, detroit underground, futuristic, sexy[/tag]

Instead of awkwardly typing on your phone’s keypad something to the extent of “cant find yr house” or “theyre charging a cover here at this venue,” try using server response codes!

200 = OK
The client’s request was successful, and the server’s response contains the requested data.

[FRIEND] hows the sushi ovr there?
[YOU] 200

or

[FRIEND] is it cool if i come over after work w/ a 6pack?
[YOU] 200

202 = Accepted
The request was accepted but not immediately acted upon. More information about the transaction may be given in the entity body of the server’s response. There is no guarantee that the server will actually honor the request, even though it may seem like a legitimate request at the time of acceptance.

[FRIEND] come to our party tonite. addy = 2143 hoyne apt4. theres a keg
[YOU] 202

204 = No Content
A status code and header is given in the response, but there is no entity body in the reply. Browsers should not update their document view upon receiving this response. This is a useful code for an imagemap handler to return when the user clicks on useless or blank areas of an image.

Use this one in place of “lame” or “nothing exciting here”

[FRIEND] how’s the music ovr there? djs start yet?
[YOU] 204

300 = Multiple Choices
The requested URI refers to more than one resource. For example, the URI could refer to a document that has been translated into many languages. The entity body returned by the server could have a list of more specific data about how to choose the correct resource.

[FRIEND] hey whats goin on tonite?
[YOU] 300

301 = Moved Permanently
The requested URI is no longer used by the server, and the operation specified in the request was not performed. The new location for the requested document is specified in the Location header. All future requests for the document should use the new URI.

[FRIEND] yo im heading ovr there now ok?
[YOU] 301: rodan

302 = Moved Temporarily
The requested URI has moved, but only temporarily. The Location header points to the new location. Immediately after receiving this status code, the client should use the new URI to resolve the request, but the old URI should be used for all future requests.

Use this one in place of “brb.”

[FRIEND] yo im heading ovr there now ok?
[YOU] 302

401 = Unauthorized
The result code is given along with the WW-Authenticate header to indicate that the request lacked proper authorization, and the client should supply proper authorization when requesting this URI again.

[FRIEND] were u able to get in without yr ID? or no?
[YOU] 401

402 = Payment Required
This code is not yet implemented in HTTP.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t use it over SMS!

[FRIEND] is it a free show 2nite or is there a cover?
[YOU] 402

403 = Forbidden
The request was denied for a reason the server does not want to (or has no means to) indicate to the client.

[FRIEND] i herd the show was sold out. did u get in?
[YOU] 403

or

[FRIEND] how’d it go last night with that new girl???
[YOU] 403

404 = Not Found
The document at the specified URI does not exist.

[FRIEND] is there any parking outside the place? did you find any?
[YOU] 404

or

[FRIEND] where teh frak r you??? weve been waiting for 2 hrs now…
[YOU] 404

or, [*advanced*] as an inverted request, signalling “i’m lost”:

[YOU] 404
[FRIEND] 2 blks n of armitage at dickens, 3rd bldng on right

405 = Method Not Allowed
This code is given with the Allow header and indicates that the method used by the client is not supported for this URI.

[FRIEND] can i bring my dogs to the theater?
[YOU] 405

406 = Not Acceptable
The URI specified by the client exists, but not in a format preferred by the client. Along with this code, the server provides the Content-Language, Content-Encoding, and Content-Type headers.

[FRIEND] sup doo000000d?? im bringin 2 transvestites and some bondage gear to yr party tonite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAWK on!
[YOU] 406

409 = Conflict
This code indicates that the request conflicts with another request or with the server’s configuration. Information about the conflict should be returned in the data portion of the reply.

[FRIEND] can you meet me @ 4:30 @ filter today?
[YOU] 409: dentist appt

410 Gone
This code indicates that the requested URI no longer exists and has been permanently removed from the server.

[FRIEND] what happend to that cute roomate you had?
[YOU] 410

(I orginally posted this on the Modsquare forums in 2002. it’s been updated from that version)

[tags]sms, mobile, geek, funny, humor, text messaging, culture[/tags]

Pretty amazing. They’re four French DJs who’ve made a full albums worth of songs created entirely by turntablism. Check out their site and Myspace page.