The Next Pigface Listening Party Online This Sunday Dec.21 at 7:00pm CST
What a blast and a great idea! People from all over the place - just like I guess someone somewhere used to get together and listen to music - it was cool as fuck.
Friday night was a blast maybe 40 or 50 people hanging out and me trying to play as much new Pigface as possible - and really getting into it - there are some GREAT songs! A big Austin contingent turned up for Sunday night's affair. Selket said it helped her clean the house, Patrik Mata was on line for awhile so I played the newest mix I just finished for him - a great song called 'The Vision and The Voice'. Choo from Wales stayed up late and Bangalore, Braille, Kimberly and a bunch of us had a blast. I pulled out my mash ups at the end! Today's noon affair was, maybe, a bit misguided - but it was great to hang with Curse and Seibold in the room along with Razi from You Shriek who played the synths on 'Electric Knives Club' - a very cool track with Chris Connelly on Vox. The timing worked out well for Jorgen from Shining - he's all the way over in Norway! I threw some China Dub Soundsystem out each night and it sounded cool as fuck!
I'm finishing up mixing a couple more Pigface tracks. 'Killmotherfuckingpigface with more great Curse and Hanin against a backdrop of En ESCH IN THE FLESH!....Charles Levi just e mailed - three hours late for the party as usual! Hopefully he'll be around at the next one....
I'll be doing another listening chatting hanging party again on Sunday December 21st at 7pm Chicago time. I'll play you K M F P F then and more cool stuff- and I'll be giving away some cool shirts and stuff too.
After that - I'll do some of these every month or so. I'd love to sit and do one just with music from China. It's great for me to sit and chat and listen. THANKS for reminding me again how very very cool all of this is - and all of you are
peace love and respect
Martin Atkins
Dec.12-2008
Today is the first of three online listening parties for a portion of the new Pigface studio album. Join the broadcast at 8:00pm CST tonight for the event. Additional listening parties will follow this Sunday and Monday. For more details and how to join in, read the update on the Invisible Community Site HERE.
Dec.01-2008
The NEW PIGFACE album is coming!!! On 8-track! - Pre-order HERE!
Martin is also doing a special Tour:Smart event in Chicago THIS THURSDAY!!!
Thursday, December 4th
Reggie's Music Joint (2105 South State Street Chicago, IL)
Tour:Smart Band Summit - Make More Money On The Road
Mandatory for all local bands - FREE Registration! FREE Appetizers! and FREE Redbull! Register on the Invisible Community Web Site and view more event details HERE.
Nov.13-2008
Tour:Smart event in Chicago! At long last, we're doing hosting a Tour:Smart event right here in Chicago with our friends at Reggie's Rock Club. It's FREE and mandatory for all local bands!
Tour:Smart Band Summit - Make More Money on the Road
Mandatory for all local bands - FREE Registration!
Thursday December 4, 2008 6:30pm - 9:00pm Reggie's Music Joint 2105 South State Street Chicago, IL
You must register to attend, Seating is limited so
reserve your space NOW!
Oct.30-2008 New Pigface available! Martin just returned from a trip to China where he recorded some really cool bands. While he was there, he worked on new Pigface material in the form of THE BEIJING TAPES: PART ONE. It's a limited edition release, signed and numbered. Read more...
Perhaps, the greatest obstacle for artists right now is standing on their own feet, rejecting the major label and industry hysteria to look backwards and seek protection in rules and regulations. The only protection is ideas, momentum, and looking forwards.
We'll show you one simple strategy that will help you make $7,500 more in the next six months!
If you can sustain, you can succeed. Youíll get good ideas to use or inspire you to create your own: new packaging, new partnerships, and new ideas in new markets. As Bruce Lee said, "You must learn to turn stumbling blocks into stepping stones." Read more...
Aug.27-2008 The new Invisible Commmunity web site is here! The new extension of invisiblerecords.com allows you to create your own profile and communicate with other Invisible fans, check out exclusive video & audio, be kept up to date on events, and more. We're planning on doing live broadcast listening parties, online seminars, and much more, so please visit the community section of the web site, make a profile, check out the forums and interact!
Aug.19-2008 Review of "16 Days In China" from KEXP 90.3 in Seattle:
Atkins has done a masterful job with this self-written/directed/produced doc, including both his own ideological wrestling with Chinese political repression with his own emotional terrorism of his personal assistant who set up a three night, several band festival for Atkins at D-22, booked rare studio time for the really creative regional bands against all the odds, and tried to keep the compilation album production for the project within a stretched budget. It’s a warts and all approach, a melee of fresh Chinese punk, post-punk, funk, art-rock voices mixed with Caucasian fear and confusion — feeling not unlike one of your favorite exotic-sounding music genre-transcending albums made in perilous times. Atkins is smartly hilarious throughout, his own DIY spirit inspiring everyone around him to perform and create on their own terms. (Read More)
Aug.12-2008 In a few weeks we'll be hosting the latest in our series of music seminars at the Invisible Records offices in Chicago... Saturday, September 6th from 12:00pm until 6:00pm (with a special early Q&A session with Martin from 10:00am until Noon).
Tickets are limited, and the admission price of $29.99 includes a FREE Tour:Smart DVD and a FREE copy of the Tour:Smart eBook! Click on the image below to reserve your spot and get your eBook download now!
May.18-2008 The dusty world of the label archives seems never ending. I just realized today that much of this is pre-e mail era... so in between painful files full of international conversations about the density of the black for an AP advertisement or a mastering job or sequencing of an album - each part of the conversation memorialized then Xeroxed/printed because one of the fax machines used that horrible thermal paper - there will be a gem... and some of it so very easy to miss it makes me more careful after each discovery and then the whole thing becomes more time consuming again...
Earlier this week I found a sequence of great photos of me in the UK with Martin from Test Dept in his studio and hanging with Meg Lee Chin - then some shots of us in her apartment where the front room was also her 'egg' studio.
LOADS of itineraries, gig contracts, Pigface riders with just about EVERYTHING crossed out, laminates, photos... and in amongst all of it, bits of artwork... I'd forgotten I did the cover to Spoon Breakfast at the local Kinko's, cutting out pictures of spoons and gluing them up for the back cover. Many thought (with a knowing wink and a nod) that the title referred to some kind of collective Pigface heroin habit... in fact, Spoon was he name of Chris Connelly's cat and Breakfast was the name of mine... GUB the title of the first album was the name of Steve Albini's cat. Now, there's a fantastic competition subject ruined! There was so much grief over the competition to guess the word play /imagery on the front of 'Below The Belt' that I learned my lesson,
No I didn't.
A small envelope tumbles to the floor and here are the original passport photos used by Chris Connelly to do the paste up for the first Pigface promo photograph, a marvelous the anarchic 8 x 10's worth of anti-computerism... randomly sized heads cut out and stuck on the bodies of people from a sportswear catalog... juxtaposed over the top of what looks like Mt Everest or, at least, somewhere appropriately high. In amongst all of it are several from Trent.
I'm still grappling with these weird cross currents of emotions... not the least of which is finding reminders everywhere of the contributions good and bad from William Tucker and Paul Raven... bits of art or photos, scrawled messages here and there send me back into that time. Why the cross currents? Because it feels like the guy doing this should be looking back at something long over, ended and done with, not going through all of this whilst putting together a Killing Joke book, scheduling screenings for 16 days in China, working on a great new Pigface album and still mixing amazing music from China...
What's the word... it feels like it should be a reverie - and in a way it is and will continue to be - but its also tinged with a kind of panic - a fear of losing some tiny physical fragment of he larger picture , some postage stamp sized piece of the jigsaw puzzle that, missing, ruins the 3 day taken, finished thing. That feeling, hovering, can sometimes prevent me from even starting these tasks, the fear of the missing piece, laughing at my disorganisedness AND hoarding at the same time....but, so far so good. We'll keep posting this stuff as we find it and I'll keep you up to date with the goings on in our world when I can.
P.L.R.
Martin Atkins
April.23-2008
Here is the press release from Tulsa's Dfest, where this year Martin will be the keynote speaker, and the great line-up of bands includes Helmet, Ghostland Observatory, Paramore, Edison Glass, and many more. Continue reading for information on discounted admission to the 2-day event!
Dfest, Oklahoma's largest music conference and festival, on Wednesday unveiled its first round of confirmed headlining acts for the seventh annual music festival, which will be July 25-26 in downtown Tulsa's historic Blue Dome District.
Nearly 150 bands will perform this year in conjunction with the 2-day conference, organizers announced. The conference keynote speaker will be Martin Atkins, best known for his work in post-punk and industrial groups including Public Image Ltd., Ministry, Pigface and Killing Joke. He also wrote the indie band Bible, "Tour Smart and Break the Band."
Tickets go on sale tomorrow, with a special 48-hour-only discount on advance tickets. Dfest and OKC Tickets will offer a $5.00 discount for all Dfest tickets purchased online. Please use the coupon code "okctix" (without the quotes) when making purchases at www.tulsaworld.com/okctickets.
Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the event, and include admission for both days.
Here is Martin's DJ set list from The Voodoo Room in Edinburgh... click the 'play' button to stream his 'Mind Your Own Business' + 'Funkytown' mash-up!
April.01-2008
The Invisible Records CD Grab Bag!! Our best CD special ever!!!
Over 50 CDs to choose from and add to your order for only $3 each!
Click on the image of the grab bag to check out the whole list. Many of the CDs offered are out of print and available in very limited quantities.
March.31-2008
The free CD for the beginning of April: The Damage Manual EP!!!
INV143: The Damage Manual ">1" EP Free until April 11th
Review from Fodderstompf web site: "...I love the whole EP but ‘Damage Addict’ & ‘Blame and Demand’ are the stand out tracks for me. Massive plodding bass with Geordie’s guitar wailing over the top, and Martin’s thunderous drum sound throughout – excellent stuff!..."
Lots of other specials and new items in the web store as well, from the Tour:Smart eBook to the Drug Test pack.
There's new programming on Invisible Radio, including a new hour of programming from Mark Spybey of Dead Voice on Air, and this week we'll be adding another new special program from Patrik Mata of Kommunity FK!
March.05-2008
Hello again, I’m back from my second trip out to Norway – they seem to like me over there and I’m starting to get in tune with some of the amazing programs they have going on there to promote new music, new artists and more culture – a lot to be learned and its pretty humbling and cool that they keep asking me back! I stopped off in Cologne, Brighton, London and Coventry to lecture too – all great experiences. At Drum Tech in London I got behind the kit and managed to trash a few drums after advising the 22 drummers to pour milk all over their first new kit. Oh yes. Theres a new shirt – “looks great – smells baaaad!” at BIM in Brighton a great lecture was followed by some disbelief in the fasct that everyone is totally fucked – even the hillarious translation into German mystified some of them, but, the first lecture and meeting a trainee cage fighter Harry kept my energy up throughout the day and into the nights dj set at the Catherine of Brunswick pub – great stuff and thanks to all who came out.
Up on the site today is a chance to get my new documentary ’16 days in China’ maaaaan, hats off to Cliff Seiloff and his work on the FFA doc – I now realize just how much work this medium is. These days the camera isn’t out of my hand (there are hours of Tour:Smart stuff on the way) but there were so many issues and story lines from my China trip that threading them all together was a huge task. I hope it communicates the experience to you – I haven’t watched it all of the way through yet – its been too intense with bursts of focused activity – I’m going to schedule a screening here at the label at some point – I’ll keep you posted. ABSOLUTELY no inspired by radiohead – the dvd actually has some Chinese money inside…..don’t worry – this isn’t the start of a massive new campaign…….the money is quite worthless – except as a beautiful reminder of the trip.
See you at SXSW if your going to be there – I’m speaking at 12 noon on weds the 12th room 18 ABC at the Austin Convention Center. Lookout for a DJ set in Edinburgh and much much more coming soon
Bestestest
MarteeeeeeeeeeeN
February.01-2008
A letter from Martin:
Hello!
I’m excited to start delivering some great new content and ideas - again!
I love it all and am thrilled to welcome you to our new site.
As other labels have come and gone (and total respect to anyone that can do this for more than two years) I’m proud of the fact that we haven’t changed our core ideas much. I was going to say direction but I’m not sure about that. I look around at the gallery, the book, the free seminars we do, the music, and the broad scope of it all seems perfectly natural to me because, I guess, I’m in the middle, plate spinning and gluing it together. It’s all stuff I’m proud to have made or been involved in. It feels good to still be here and send you this at the start of our 20th year.
The office and the archives here are huge - if you could wander around this place and stumble across the things that I do on a daily basis you would absolutely SHIT your pants with delight. The depth of Pigface, PiL, Killing Joke, Brian Brain, Damage Manual, Murder Inc., and label memorabilia is simply staggering. We are uploading, tagging, and looking forward to a long year of much more all underlining what this has always been about: new discoveries, excitement...
I’ve found a bunch of alternative artwork for some of the releases, videos, some supercool shirts we forgot about (or grew out of?), and posters that were designed but never made. There are essays, diaries, all kinds of junk to some, gold dust to others. Think of it as a kind of CSI Industrial except, this ain’t no fucking autopsy! The patient is alive and well, just A.D.D.’ing on three cups of coffee and an over abundance of really stimulating stuff flashing in front of my eyes and ears.
In the 20-year tradition of not doing anything by halves, we’ll be starting off by just giving away a bunch of CDs. I know some of you out there are grimacing right now waiting for the list of albums you had forgotten we ever released or wish you had never heard. I’m proud to say actually, that looking back through 300+ releases they’ve been pretty fucking stellar and always personal in some way for me... But have no fear fuckheads... The first free album will be: Pigface "Easy Listening."
We have Invisible Radio that’s growing each week, invisible TV is kicking ass and my SG Tour:Smart band advice column is now a bi-weekly thing here for FREE! (There aren’t any naked girls... just the naked truth... so I apologise for that'll see what I can do...)
There’s great new music. There are more dubs and more access (like a live camera in the studio coming soon). For you Pigface fans check out China Dub Soundsystem. It’s me in the studio with 30 other musicians making up some supercool music which is actually the very essence of Pigface... and yes – I am working on a new album! It has just been severely sidetracked by my trip to China and my book... but its in the can maaaaan, its coming soon. It’d be nice to have it out by the anniversary wouldn’t it? For those of you who are wondering - its prettyfuckingcoolpigface - Chris Connelly's track is still bouncing around in my head... it’s called“Electric Knives Club" and check out Snapline - one of my favourite bands in a long long time.........they ROCK!
The "16 days in China" documentary is almost done. Wow, what a 14 month lesson – documentaries are way more work than an album! Duh! There are trailers already up and more bits and pieces will crop up soon.
The gallery is up too. You can start to see how broad and culturally diversified we really are.
I find myself wondering why on earth didn?t we put up the radio station five years ago??? It’s cool as fuck! Here’s what Greg Z had to say:
"I'm really getting into the Inv. Radio. I kinda thought that I would hear stuff that I all ready have. What I'm hearing is stuff I haven't heard but need to, tracks I forgot I have, and hell, just a bunch of stuff." - gregZ
There has been a debate here about the mail order. Thanks to Merch Squad for handling this for us while we re-tooled. Our new store has weight-based shipping and some choices of services for you. This will be a switch from our previous shipping method which I describe as more of as “faith based.”
There are new shirts, new versions of old shirts and soon some stuff for your kids.
There’s a Beat Fetish section with some free beat loops and samples, over 100 free, full length downloads, and all kinds of shit to keep you busy without having to send us any money at all! (Brilliant! I've gone and completely fucked myself!)
There’s photos, art, books, music, did I mention free music, advice maaaaaan, what’s next? Recipes??
Take 12 lunatics
Throw them in a bus and marinate in their own succulent creative juices
Throw on the fires of hell, desperation and a need to explode nightly
Remove when crisp
Shake, don?t stir
Drop at the same time and
Voila
Peace, Pot, Microdot!
Pigface.
We're going to need some help, but this time around, the web store will be available to all of you as compensation - you can use your invisible cash to buy some shit - not just CDs, DVDs and shirts - but there are great deals in the studio section too - a basic mastering session (we'll just make it fucking SLAM!) and a longer deeper experience where we'll turn on all the brainpower for a short while and get you some solutions that can really help (mastering, editing, advice and t-shirts to start with). That feels good to me – a bit of help where some of you could really use it, right?
So, welcome to the next part of the journey. It’s one that combines thoughtful, gleeful examination of the evidence and making our archives available to you. It’ll be like we are sitting together while we pore through a pile of photographs. ....waiting for the pizza to arrive.
Having been through part one, you gotta stick around for part two. What’s next, is this lunatic going to start a school or something????
With the same entrepreneurial REAL WORLD approach to all of it? .....that would be fucking crazy right?
