Xavier Renegade Angel: Bizzaro Neo-Psychedelia

Hello All,

Let me share with you my favorite television show of all time- Xavier: Renegade Angel, a bizarre 2007 animated Adult Swim show from the creators of Wonder Showzen

Xavier stars a monstrous looking creature named Xavier who spent his childhood studying under a rude, crass shaman and shortly after began his spirit journey to right the wrongs of the world using bad excuses for philosophy. It is without a doubt the most complexly written and stylized show I've ever seen broadcast on a national scale. The fact that it got picked up by a television station and lasted multiple seasons still amazes me, because the content matter is completely beyond what an average audience would find acceptable, let alone enjoyable. You'll see what I mean...

Watch an episode here. They are short.

So what happened there? I don't exactly know, but it's offensive, unpredictable and odd nature always seem to make me laugh boisterously.

On the surface Xavier: Renegade Angel seems to be just a "straightforward" Adult Swim show that only exists to confuse and bewilder but when you dig deeper and watch the series enough to move past the confusing premise and visuals some serious social commentary and philosophy become wildly apparent. And if you dig even deeper and watch more you can begin to notice some intensely layered and complex writing; most, if not all, of Xavier's lines are some form of word play that flows out his mouth in a way that are incredibly ignorant and stupid, but play on language and philosophical theories. Consider all of these qualities and then add on the mass amounts of psychedelia and try not to be impressed by the quality of writing. How do people think of these things?

Xavier: Renegade Angel sits firmly within niche media, not because of its obscure or underground nature, but because of how utterly unapproachable the content is to the average audience member; sure people can find this show easily, it's all over the place, but an audience member actually understanding and appreciating the show? I can only think of a handful of people that have seen and enjoyed XRA (and I've shown it to a lot of people. A lot of people.)

Intent- The creators of Xavier: Renegade Angel are members of the production company PFFR and also created the MTV show Wonder Showzen. They clearly had some kind of artistic intent in mind when creating XRA and as far as I can tell it was to offer social commentary through a psychedelic and offensively disarming aesthetic.

Oddness- Xavier: Renegade Angel is bizarre, insane and (for lack of a better word) "trippy". It utilizes philosophical quandaries, psychedelic imagery, offensive dialogue and layered plots to create one of the most jarring and confusing shows ever broadcast.

Findability-  XRA is incredibly easy to find. It was broadcast on television on Adult Swim and many of the full episodes are online. Xavier is not an underground show by any means and is easily accessible by anyone who wants to find it, the challenge is finding people that actually want to find and watch it.

Satisfaction- Personally, I find Xavier: Renegade Angel to be stunningly hilarious and a fresh take on the television format but I also understand the unapproachable nature of the show. Audience's satisfaction will vary greatly, but if you go in with an open mind and give it a chance, you will certainly have a new television experience.

Check it out and don't blame me if you hate it. :)

Thanks for reading,
Alex

Freddy Got Fingered Roundtable Discussion

Hello All,

Over the weekend a few fellow film students/bloggers and I got together and had a roundtable discussion on Freddy Got Fingered.

My fellow speakers blog pages:

Mike Allan- Mic'd Up

Casey Bargsten- Culture Cuts

Anthony Brousseau- Laughin' at Me


Check them out and listen to the discussion below!




Thanks for reading!
Alex

Finals Week: A Post Full of Shameless Plugs and My Own Photography

Hello All,

It's finals week over here at Augsburg, so things are undeniably hectic for me so in the spirit of finals week I've decided to keep this weeks post relatively simple/fun and share a bit of my work and my favorites from friends along with some concept images for fake bands that I completely made up.

Enjoy.

I'll start by shamelessly advertising my very own music that I produce under the pseudonym C4NiiBOii. None of it has been created with any artistic intent other than my personal drive to experiment with novelty music. None of the music is particularly good or made well for that matter, but it's certainly interesting (and has managed to attract one seriously sarcastic "fan"). Check it out and hopefully enjoy...

C4NDiiBOii

Mess My Pants

Knart Fockin'

Baby Fighting

And here is a local ambient noise project by Abyssopelagic aka my close friend Mike Fetting.

Abyssopelagic


Rend

Rift


And finally a group of some album art I designed for completely fake bands that I wish existed.

AFTRNN CMDWN: a self title released only on tape by a indie lo-fi garage electronica group.

Corduroy Jumpsuit: a self title from a high concept noise electronica duo.

Unhappy Father's Day by Tank Monster God King: a drone album by a doom metal band

Brain by The Smooth Jefferies: a sex jam album by a clean cut jazz band

The Big Sex: A self title by me, Mike Fetting & Mike Allan (hopefully becoming a real album soon)

So there it is. Some of my own personal work and some album art for bands that need to be real (in my opinion). Hopefully this was a short enjoyable break from studying for all of you, it certainly was for me.

Thanks for reading,
Alex

NIKE7UP: Destroying Pop Music Since 2010 (and still no one's heard of him)

Hello all,

It's time to discuss one of my favorite musicians of all time: NIKE7UP, a remix artist that focuses on chopping & screwing pop music into heavy non-traditional club bangers.

NIKE7UP is an artist shrouded in mystery, there is almost nothing known about him or his identity, he rarely posts on his social media pages and has only posted a handful of songs but each song is more tantalizing than the next. NIKE7UP's mysterious underground practices don't end there; his minuscule following can be confidently described as "cult" (at most) and he has been known to randomly show up at NYC nightclubs and perform but this is a rare occasion that is never promoted. NIKE7UP is an enigmatic artist surrounded by rumor and conjecture but there is no doubt that his music is fresh and unique.

NIKE7UP's music can be characterized by heavy driving beats set over chopped and screwed pop music. When considered separately these characteristics may seem generic and uninteresting but mixed together the result is something unique. I will refer to my personal favorite NIKE7UP song "SO REAL NIKE7UP BELONG TO MIX"; this is a song that feels as though it's at home when being blasted over the buzzing speakers of some destroyed makeshift red-lit club in the basement of a hipster drug den. The compressed Mandy Moore vocals in the intro offer a bit of misdirection, making the audience feel as though they are just getting another run of the mill remix until 5 seconds later when a deep, buzzing synthetic bass beat over powers the vocals and sends the audience spiraling into a dark dream state of dub club catatonia; listeners feel compelled to turn off the lights, close their eyes and just bounce with the beat.

Another great example of NIKE7UP's dark, unique stylistics can be found in his song "ME MYSELF & TIME NIKE7 <3 MIX" (this song is download only but the download is small and safe). The song begins with a effect driven restyling of Demi Lovato's vocals with a heavy driving beat. The vocals repeat for minutes while the effects and back beat morph and dissolve into others and then the song snaps back into a fast beat with new vocals leading the audience to think the song has hit its peak; there can't be any surprises left right? Wrong. The second wave of Lovato lyrics and beat continue for another few minutes gradually slowing down with almost unbearable tension until the song breaks into a loud explosion of digital bass that seems to pound in your chest and you can't help but dance along in an almost orgasmic release of anticipation. This song could drive a club of X poppers into an unstoppable and likely fatal dance freak out reminiscent of something you'd see in a movie about drunk college kids.

Whether or not these stylings are up your alley they are certainly an interesting and new take on club remixes. With only a few thousand followers, NIKE7UP offers a truly underground take on club remixes, taking it into the realm of dark heavy digital remix rather than the poppy upbeats that many remixes currently thrive on.

NIKE7UP is a personal favorite of mine and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Check out NIKE7UP's complete catalog on Tumblr. It's free.

Thanks for reading,
Alex

Vaporwave Music

Hello All,

Out there in the vast entity that is the internet, there exists a new genre of music that was created to only exist in a hidden, low-key online only venue and after an explosion of new fans it was labeled a dead genre by its creators. This genre of music is called Vaporwave and its incredibly interesting.

Vaporwave music was created by musician Chuck Person (aka Daniel Lopatin of Oneotrix Point Never) with the release of Eccojams Vol. 1 which was posted into a music forum where it quickly gained fans and sprouted many forum boards dedicated specifically to sharing and creating Vaporwave music. The movement continued to grow from there, quickly developing many contributing artists and manifestos, until finally an online only event was created where lead Vaporwave contributors would invite fans to secret chat rooms where they could watch the artists perform via videochat; this event was called SPF420 and was considered the birth of Vaporwave. The Vaporwave community grew exponentially after the event and the number of contributing artists skyrocketed. Here is an image detailing essential Vaporwave artists that was created and shared to aid listeners in sorting through the masses of Vaporwave artists. Give some of the artists a listen here, here and here.

Vaporwave is characterized by a highly digitally manipulated dreamy sound created from chopped, pitch shifted and effect driven remixes of 90's commercial jingles and pop music meant to convey the feeling of drifting through a digital mall of the future.. Many songs are titled in Japanese or written as computer files and all accompanying visual media is highly rooted within a distorted 90's digital consumerist aesthetic. The Vaporwave community describes this aesthetic through a manifesto of sorts:

"Global capitalism is nearly there. At the end of the world there will only be liquid advertisement and gaseous desire. Sublimated from our bodies, our untethered senses will endlessly ride escalators through pristine artificial environments, more and less than human, drugged-up and drugged down, catalysed, consuming and consumed by a relentlessly rich economy of sensory information, valued by the pixel.

The Virtual Plaza welcomes you, and you will welcome it too."


After the release of this "manifesto" and a related article, the Vaporwave community experienced another population/popularity burst and more artists began contributing and (according to the original contributors) changing the genre from its original stylistics; after this burst the community then began to consider Vaporwave to be a "dead" genre despite the fact that artists were/are still creating and sharing Vaporwave music.


And this all happened within a few months. Online. At no point in the life of Vaporwave was there any physical media.


And it's all free.


Check out some more artists:

Saint Pepsi- Hit Vibes

Disconcious- Hologram Plaza

Unpleasant Nostalgia- 2D Memories




Thanks for reading,

Alex

Shaye Saint John and the Experimental "Deep YouTube"

Hello All,

I've been deliberating a proper way to introduce you all to the experimental side of YouTube, which is often called "Deep YouTube" or "That part of YouTube".  I've found the perfect introduction- meet Shaye Saint John and prepare yourself. Shaye Saint John is a quintessential introduction to the mind numbing, confusing material that is consistently uploaded to the depths of YouTube and missed by many.

Deep YouTube is a place on YouTube that many people reach after following the downward spiral of related videos until reaching hidden, under viewed content that has been pushed out of the public eye by popular, more viewed videos under similar search tags. It can typically be challenging to consciously get to Deep YouTube but it is easy to identify when you have reached it.

A Deep YouTube video can generally (not always) be identified by a relatively low view count , a lo-fi or digital aesthetic, garbled or highly compressed audio, and unflinchingly bizarre content matter. Many of these films are simple videos that have no purpose other than to confuse, humor and assault you with avant-garde or experimental imagery and sound. Not all Deep YouTube videos have a purpose or were created for artistic gain, many are simple editing or animation experiments that were never intended to reach the internet, but somehow did.

But this is not the case with Shaye Saint John; every SSJ film was created with purpose by the late Eric Fournier who had heavy ties to The California Institute of Abnormal Arts; there is very little information on Fournier other than speculation on his death and his online persona Shaye Saint John.

The SSJ films are incredibly interesting; watching them produce a unique feeling of confusion: do you react with laughter, screaming, or crying? Its tough to describe this feeling without experiencing it first hand, so watch this and be conscious of how the video makes you feel.

Are you disgusted? Amused? Terrified? Horribly confused? All of these feelings are appropriate. In fact, feeling confused after watching SSJ seems to be the exact intent of Fournier. The combination of brainless dialogue, the lo-fi aesthetic and cheesy Windows Movie Maker effects culminate to create a series of films that look like they came directly from an asylum and make you feel like you belong in one.

This is why I believe SSJ and other experimental Deep YouTube videos to be important; in a time where shock value, irony and insincerity reign over media, these Deep YouTube videos still find a way to instill genuine feeling into an audience through rejection of classic structure or logic and by embracing heavily stylized low quality imagery and sound that forces the viewer to challenge their view on the need for structure in media.

Shaye Saint John-

Intent- While information on Eric Fournier is limited, the info out there states that Shaye Saint John was a character created to confuse and terrify the few lucky enough to encounter his films. There is clear intent by Fournier to create a piece of art with his work as SSJ, although the exact reasoning and theory remain to be seen, although I believe it to be Fournier's attempt to instill genuine confusion within an audience that has become numb to internet media.

Oddness- The SSJ films are incredibly odd and confusing, to the point of being legitimately disturbing. There is almost no way to describe how odd the films are without experiencing for yourself. So here is another, I'm sure you'll agree...it's odd.

Findability- Shaye Saint John is easy to find online. His name is scattered throughout the internet and videos are posted on multiple websites and forums randomly in hopes that viewers will stumble onto them and have an intense reaction. The point of the SSJ films is not to find them and watch them, but to encounter them when you'd least expect and have yourself a confusing good time.

Satisfaction- Personally, I find SSJ to be very satisfying. The films create genuine confusion. But the true satisfaction of Shaye Saint John comes from sharing the film and watching others go through the same roller coaster of confused, disgusted, disturbed emotion. It's truly a communal experience. None of us really get it, and that's great.


Other Deep YouTube videos:

Sausage Groove

You're Correct Horse

The New Kid

Snospis Eht

Sad Toy Cats

2016

Mom Ordered Ants for My Birthday

Garfielf


What are some of your favorite Deep YouTube videos? Comment and share!

Thanks for reading,
Alex

Funky Forest: The First Contact...with the utterly bizarre.

Hello All,
I've seen the strangest thing. A film that made no sense and complete sense at the exact same time. One of the funniest, most outright strange films I've seen in recent memory. The film is called Funky Forest: The First Contact. Watch the original Japanese trailer here, the eerily vague English trailer here, and my favorite excerpt from the film here.

A "still" from "Funky Forest"

Funky Forest: The First Contact is a film composed of many different short vignettes that follow a group of multiple established characters. None of these characters interact outside their own short vignettes (with the exception of one so called "singles picnic") and each vignette is an entirely self contained story...of sorts.  There is no real story involved in any bit of Funky Forest and anything resembling a narrative structure is minimal and basic, but this does not hurt Funky Forest in any way, in fact, the inclusion of a set narrative structure would destroy what the film is entirely. Funky Forest needs no story to achieve its goals, because it utilizes motif instead; throughout the film vignettes are repeated and the only way we, as an audience, are to understand what is going on is to recognize that these situations are repeating and getting more ridiculous. For example, the film opens with two men dressed in white on and entirely white stage, they trade banter like some Japanese Moon version of Abbot & Costello for a short period, they start to move and act more emotionally until, mid-sentence, the screen cuts to black. Then it cuts back in, they are still fighting, then back to black. Then back in. This repeats for a bit before a new skit is introduced, and throughout the film these two gentlemen are continuously shown randomly throughout the film. for the rest of the film scenes cut to black and back into an entirely different sketch at random; there is no telling when a skit will end and a new on will begin, it just happens whenever which gives the film an unseen type of disarming, confusing, random and unhinged humor.

Intent- The lead director of Funky Forest, Katsuhito Ishii, is a fairly prolific director and writer who has established through his other film that he is a competent auteur. He knows what he's doing behind the camera. Nothing in Funky Forest is there accidentally and it is by no means a piece that was created for the sole purpose of being weird; there is some clear artistic intent, but I cannot begin to interpret what it is. Perhaps many of the underlying themes are lost in the American-Japanese culture divide. The creators of this film have proven through multiple past films that they can create a well put together film, so clearly Funky Forest must be a conscious departure from this style into something completely original.

Oddness- Funky Forest is undeniably strange; there are humanoid tentacle monsters, a hidden alien subplot, unwarranted random dance scenes, a deranged version of Abbot & Costello, and some pretty disgusting sex imagery throughout. The entire film is almost indescribable as it follows almost no plot other than following characters in this strange universe. If you want a mind numbingly bizarre film, you will find it in Funky Forest.

Findability- Funky Forest is available for a completely free full viewing on YouTube along with multiple download sources, and clips/images hidden in forums throughout the internet. Funky Forest is very easy to get your hands on online; the real challenge comes in finding an audience that actually wants to view a film like this.

Satisfaction- Funky Forest gives its audience a new film viewing experience as they sit and stare at the TV understanding almost none of what is going but laughing to tears anyway; there is no room left within the insanity to do anything else but giggle at how confused you are. If you want to watch an odd movie that breaks conceptual boundaries in seconds, repeatedly, then Funky Forest will give you exactly what you want in ways you never thought you wanted.

I highly recommend it. Highly.

Thanks for reading,
Alex

People Like Us and the Sounds of Irritation

Hello Readers!

I've recently discovered a musician that exemplifies what The Boring Tree is all about.

People Like Us employs many musical techniques in a new way that creates a final product that is utterly unique.

Listen to the People Like Us album "Abridged Too Far" here.

Also, listen to a short audio story on People Like Us with interviews from musicians Mike Fetting and Joe Macintosh. The player should be at the bottom.

Now hopefully you just listened to links and have some idea of what People Like Us is.

People Like Us is a pseudonym for DJ artist Vicki Bennett. People Like Us is a sample artist, meaning she takes multiple clips from other music and mizes them together to create an entirely new song. Sampling is not nearly a new art form and there have been many many artist trying to push the boundaries of sampling but none produce a final product quite like People Like Us. Why is that?

One of the largest contributors to People Like Us' sound is the concept of "irritainment" that Vicki Bennett created with People Like Us. "Irritainment" is a sampling concept that refuses to allow the listener to get comfortable with any one sample; when a sample is being played it switches just before you can really enjoy the sample.

People Like Us also uses hard cutting and digital feedback to transition between samples. This idea while not completely original, is certainly not a mass movement in media. There are many moments in Abridged Too Far where the music cuts to an entirely new line of musical "thought" which requires the audience to make a (sometimes) large cognitive jump; the audience has to adjust to a new beat immediately or be lost for the rest of the song.

How does People Like Us fit into the Classifications of Niche Media?

Intent- With People Like Us, Vicki Bennett clearly set out to make many pieces of music that are to be viewed as art forms. On her home webpage, Vicki Bennett is listed as an avant garde artist; this shows that she knows what she intended to do with music when creating for People Like Us, not just creating music for the sake thereof. There is a clear thesis and authorship behind the distinct People Like Us sound.

Oddness- People Like Us certainly exhibits an odd musical style through its use of the concept of "Irritainment", hard music/beat/sample shifts and an intense use of digital noise as transition. These concepts, while not entirely ridiculous when separate, when used together they create a uniquely strange style.

Findability- While not entirely that challenging to find most of the People Like Us albums are only available for purchase from Vicki Bennett's home page or for download online. Attempting to find any video or media on People Like Us that has not been published by Vicki Bennett is certainly a challenge. Its findable, but you need to be seeking it out.

Satisfaction- People Like Us is highly satisfying (to me); much of the noise and odd sample cuts generally build off each other to create an uniquely beautiful crescendo of battling sounds. Many times it works some times it doesn't, but I think it satisfying and I think you will too!

Check it out!

Thanks for reading,
Alex.
 

Classification of Niche Media

Classifying niche media is no easy task, especially since the term “niche” is entirely subjective, but I have attempted to break down my classification process into four categories through which I will review and discuss the niche media selections.

The four categories are as follows:

Intent- What did the creator intend when he/she created this piece?

                I will do my best to research and use context to develop an educated guess as to what the artist had intended when creating the piece. While highly dependent on the type of piece selected, the intent can help to show whether a piece was made to be consumed as art or made just to simply be made.

Oddness- What separates this piece from other types of media?

                When evaluating the oddness of a piece I will attempt to look into what makes the piece undeniably different from most other types of media. Oddness will vary greatly from selection to selection.

Findability- How far do you have to stray from “the center” to find this media?

                Now, in the age of the internet, nothing is truly ever “hard to find” so instead of trying to measure how challenging a piece is to locate, I will evaluate how far I had to stray from my normal internet routine to find the piece. I will also provide links to download the selection (if available).  

Satisfaction- How much do I think you’ll enjoy this piece?

                I will discuss and rate how much I enjoyed the piece and will also discuss how much I think y’all readers will enjoy it. The satisfaction section will almost always be presented in the form of a full review, meaning I will also be considering the previously listed categories and discussing the piece as a whole.

So there it is. That’s how I will review and classify selections of niche media. I do reserve the right to update and improve this process as time goes on. All reviews and recommendations will discuss these 4 categories.

Until the next time, enjoy this Frank Zappa song about receiving oral sex from a homosexual robot.

http://bit.ly/KxXtSi

And since Frank Zappa can never truly be niche media (even though he does get pretty weird), here is a link to a scene from the film Funky Forest: First Contact. It is probably NSFW.

http://bit.ly/16SgBg8

Thanks for reading,
Alex

Welcomes and Introductions

Welcome to The Boring Tree, a film and music blog that centers around pieces of media that are a little left of center.

The Boring Tree is run by me, Alex Behrns, an Augsburg College student. I am currently in my senior year of studying Film and Creative Writing; I spend my free time attempting to consume as much film and music as I possibly can, but I have a special interest in a specific type of media: the indescribable, odd, and just tough to find, aka “the niche”. After many years of wading through all types of media I realized I had a deep desire for a website that sought out these tough to find oddities of media and shared them, so I made one.

The Boring Tree is a blog committed to finding, compiling, reviewing and recommending  “niche” film and music. Now, I’m sure many of you readers are thinking, “but Alex, how will you decide what is niche and what isn’t?” That’s a good question. Good thinking, Tex.

“Niche” media is a film or piece of music that is unnecessarily odd (either in premise or practice), tough to find (tough for on the internet, at least) and inexplicably satisfying (in an emotional or artistic sense).  Stay tuned for more information on classifying “niche” media as there will shortly be a new post dedicated to the subject.

Until then, enjoy some of Mort Garson's Plantasia, an album that contains "warm earth music for plants, and the people who love them."

Thanks and Enjoy!

         Alex