Joshua Van Tassel

hey team. So I’ve been slack on the music making lately, and for that I apologize. My lack of blog presence hasn’t been in vain, or in vane of any type, I promise. I’ve been practicing the drums really hard for the first time in a while and don’t it feel good. It takes away from the music making, but it’ll make for better music in the end I swear.
anyway, enough of music excuses. Here’s what the ol iphone has to say about this whole full moon poppy cock.

Music to come tomorrow I promise, whips will be cracked, resolves will be resolved.

1.  student - “Jooooooooooooooosh I feel sick in my head!!!”

Josh – “Try not shaking your head side to side really fast and flailing your arms.”

student – oh. That’s waaaaaaaay better.

2. ” Wanna see my alien?? He’s grooooosssss I made him and he’s different colors SPPPPPAAAAACE MMMOMMMMM hahahahahahahahahaha that’s my favorite song. Ok, count me in. ”

His mind works at a speed that I really just don’t comprehend.

Hey, here’s a picture from a really fun night I keep talking about.

Also, there’s a little youtube preview of the ep coming out next week right here.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Today is the day I need my apartment and the world to be really warm, and neither of them are. A good friend suggested I try making some sad beautiful music and it kept turning out just plain sad and noisy. What’s the solution? What do I do? My phone is also freaking out and took this totally schizophrenic picture the other night. I have no idea why it does this, but this one actually turned out to be neat.

I think I need some new music in my life as well, open to any suggestions…….

If I make anything that isn’t depressing or irritating in the next 90 minutes, you’ll be the first to know.

Apparently my upstairs neighbor doesn’t read my blog and know about QMS, and insists on blasting his tv as loud as it could possibly be blasted. I think he just watches commercials. Is there an all commercial channel? Here’s something I’m working on if you have a quiet moment – -

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I’m also going to see Death Cab for Cutie tonight, a band that I don’t know too much about, but I did see them open for Neil Young in Calgary and they kicked ass, so it should be fun. I’ll keep you posted.

Last night I was walking home around 1:30am down Sherbourne Street. generally, this is not a time of the night that I like to be in that area without a weapon or martial arts expertise, but whereas I only had a quick few blocks to go from home I thought why not?

About 30 seconds into the walk I heard a bit of scuffling type sound coming from a covered porch on a house. Thinking it might be a raccoon and they’re kind of funny, I stopped to pull out the H4 in case it decidd to make some weird raccoon sounds. What I heard instead was a woman crying suddenly for someone to help her, then a very large man stand up over her and tell her to shut up with a whole string of other expletives in between.

Then he hit her, and hard.

Ok. So this is where I venture into the dangerous territory of a blogger ( explained really well by Meredith here last night) and try and explain something that many people have many different opinions about what the right thing to do is. We’d all like to believe that confronted with this kind of situation we’d be “a man” about it, gallantly walk up those stairs, turn the fellow around and grab him by the lapels, and say something cliche like “pick on someone your own size!”, then fight him one to one, and win of course. He’d learn his lesson and all is well.

Wrong. This is Toronto, it’s 2009, it’s 1:30 am. If I go anywhere near those steps or even get noticed I’m there, there’s a very large chance that I’m going to get shot/stabbed/beaten or all three. If this guy has no quams about openly beating a woman on his front porch, he’ll have noooooo issue with taking me down in the same fashion or worse.

So what did I do? All I could think do, I called 911. I reported the address and what was happening. The problem is that by the time anyone comes to that address it’s all over. I couldn’t stop what was happening, and I doubt the police were able to either, but I just didn’t know what else to do.

So jvt readers, what would you do? Did I do the right thing? I hope I did. It’s kind of a grim topic, but it happens so much more then we’d like to think.

That’s the date for this ep, I promise. If anyone cares, maybe not, but that’s ok too. Here’s the cover and back cover, lemme know what you think. I had all sorts of grand plans for what was going to go down, had some very cool artists thinking of doing stuff, but then they got busy with actual paying work that will pay them and help them pay their bills. Makes sense to me, and it also made me spend time with photoshop which I’ve never used before.

And in other news, my trusty Zoom H4 has just been over hauled and upgraded and oh how I want it. It looks even more space age, sounds better, and is waaaay easier to use. Good work zoom.

I did some mixing and some joshisms for a new Kate Rogers tune this week, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. She’s a really cool song writer with a great imagination who decided to use only sounds her body could make for this tune, no instruments. I’m totally into limiting and challenging yourself when it comes to making music, so this was a lot of fun to work on. It’s a song about feeling like you’re living in a bit of circle, same parties, same old bullshit, etc. I think we all hit that wall at some point, some sooner some later, but it’s definitely there. Check it out, and if you like it, email her and make her feel happy.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In other news, I’m trying to work on my own stuff right now and it’s just not happening. So I’m listening to these 3 songs and its keeping me in check and putting me back on a track or a treadmill or a stationary bike and yelling go go gooogo. For moral reasons I don’t know if I can put them up, but if you buy them I promise you it’ll make you happy -

“Heapphones” – Bjork from Post

“Blue” – the Jayhawks from Tomorrow the Green Grass

“ad astra” – Dean Drouillard from We Held Our Computer

I’ve been teaching drums to a very, very smart and talented kid now for about 8 months, and along with sight reading things I write out for him like a freaking trained ninja assassin, he says the most random and interesting things to me. From now on, every Tuesday I’ll do my best to remember the top 3. Here’s this week’s in no particular order.

1. “Did George Washington have a wooden tooth? Did he like to eat wood? If he did do you think he’d eat his own tooth? Gross!!!”

2. “What does potentially mean? Do you say words like that to try and confuse me? Tell ME!!!”

3. This one is actually the craziest/best thing he’s ever said to me. The conversation went like this -

Student – ” Jooooosh, gues what? Today I saw the future?”

Josh – ” Cool! How did you do that?”

S – “I closed my eyes and then pressed them reallllly hard with my hands, and then I saw clouds coming towards me, and then they went away and I saw palm trees and sand and I was in Egypt!! I was Moses.”

J – silence as I take this in. ” If you were Moses wouldn’t that mean it was the past?”

S – silence as he takes this in. ” yeah, you’re right!! It was in the future!!! It was me when I was old and I was really really gianormous!! And Moses. Can you teach me the song Jesus of Suburbia?”

I would really love to record these conversations, but it’s just morally wrong, kidsploitation you know? Anyway, I’ll give you the weekly transcription from now on.