I (Creme Dementia ) cruise thrift stores a lot and look for interesting toys to stock-pile for eventual circuit-bending. I have a lot in storage. I typically use a set-up of about 8 toys that I have bent run into an 8-channel mixer. I then perform improvised sets that typically run about 25 minutes. I time myself by projecting a prepared reel of found 35mm slides from my Kodak Ektagraphic.

A lot of my recordings are mixtures of live improvisation on circuit-bent toys sometimes combined with programmed beats and/or autoharp/keyboard-based music. That's pretty much it. My hopes are to start bending MIDI-based instruments and controlling them with a laptop while I bend them manually.

The following is an excerpt of a forthcoming feature article on Michael Farentino's Bedtime For Robots, and the long journey through musical projects, he took to get here.

Bedtime for Robots ...created in 2001 as a studio project that no label would touch because of its supposed inaccesability, I recorded 6 albums worth of dark ambient noisescapes...My first live show with BFR was a real magical experience for me...I had no idea how my new brand of aural terror/performance art antics would be received, and I was overwhelmed with the response...This is truly the happiest I have been as a performer as well as in the studio.

What makes BFR special to me is not only the lack of boundaries I give myself artistically, but also the fact that every aspect of this project is home-grown and free of manufactured record biz bullshit...from my record label (Subhuman Experiments), which I co-own and operate with Perpetual Mourning's John Starrick, to the hand-made collectible recordings (one such collection comes in a biohazard/specimen bag, another in a vintage cigar box), to the recordings and artwork...it is 100% created without the input of industry execs thanks to the possiblities offered by modern technology...however, a great deal of BFR recordings are purely analog...as much as I love to work in a digital medium, I still prefer the vibe as well as the artistic challenge offered by analog tape...

my latest BFR project is a 24-hour studio recording (the 24-hour Psychosis)...now I know what it feels like to hang by your thumbs for 24-hours...this has so far been the most exciting and brain-draining project of my entire life...not only is it an incredible challenge to create that enormous body of music for one studio album (all of it is brand new material), but to mix, edit, and store that vast amount of material (all of which is on several pounds of analog tapes) has really put me to the test as far as the technical aspects are concerned...this next phase has taken BFR far out into multiple genres of exploratory music. Finally, I have begun to experiment with film and video for the next multi-media phase of Bedtime for Robots as well...

Bedtime for Robots is a symbol of freedom for me...I have been working on this stuff for nearly 10 years already...it constantly challenges me artistically, technically, and as a performer...ever day it presents me with new possibilities...it's as if BFR has a life of its own...it has no expectations of me...i have no expectations of it...we give ourselves no boundaries...we simply flow...but we never rest...

When someone wants to come from Virginia to New Jersey to be part of the Funky Flea, I take notice.  Jeannette Herrera quit her day job to chase her dream of paint, and  she knows what it takes to get eyeballs to your work...alot of leg work.   I asked Jeanette what she was giving up  to pursue  her dream and what went in to make that decision.

Ah my day job!  I was a certified picture framer. Working in DC I have gotten my hands on some really phenomenal artwork that makes you weep just knowing where its been and who had a hand in making it. Having a certification let me work in shops that dealt with the Smithsonian, the Holocaust museum and in general just people with more money than God. I got into framing when i was 14 because i was taking AP classes and got sick of paying other people to mat and frame my work.

At 17 I got my certification and just loved the job , I got to see beautiful artwork all day and i got a discount on framing my own things. Met some people , sold some things, quit painting for a while,was a single mom for a long while and just around 2004 started painting again and had a little show and sold like crazy. My boss and my husband said I really had something that I should just dive in and do it so here I am.

Painting and creating but nervous and just trying to get into the groove of things. And that's keeping it short and sweet :) 

It kills us that we've taken this long to release Radio Earwax.  We're just keep making it cooler, but time is the price we've paid.  So Jeff and I got together for our Friday meeting with the idea of launching Earwax then and there.  We were immediately smacked in the face with "technical difficulties beyond our control'...and that was that.

It kills me because I'm writing this while listening to Taner Yucel from Turkey, and I can't share his music with you. This guys music is amazing. Every day I hear a band on Radio Earwax that blows me away, and who becomes my instant favorite band.  Today its him. 

"...AND THEN, THERE WERE FROGZ ! is the brainchild of 23-year-old multi-instrumentalist and chameleon, Cody Louis. What started as a comedic experiment with a friend during the harsh North Jersey winter of 2004 (the hype of which would only accumulate 2 fans), ATTWF slowly chugged its way up the tracks into cult status as the project's quality, quantity, and substance blossomed into something new fans would consider unique. As time passed, genres would cross, noise would become melody, dissonance would become coherence, nonsense would become logic, and crazy would find its new nature sound, the Croak.

Maintaining a dark sense of humor with a sharp wit for animal metaphors (all the while maintaining the avant garde stylings of experimental music), and devising concept pieces about pyramid schemes, gambling, natural selection, the country of Australia, and fine dining, Cody has independently produced, recorded, and released 5 EPs and 3 full-length albums in four years. Although none of the material sounds alike, he is quick to ensure his motives, sometimes claiming questionable rhetoric like, "the next EP might just be captured audio of me sleeping, produced with the finest equipment money can buy, to ensure the purest sound of a mouth in mid-slumber."

What???

Traditional AND non-traditional instruments are incorporated into each individual piece to achieve the appropriate feel for its respective movement. Adding to the chaos, Cody creates many of his own instruments right out of the house. (personal favorite: the "Medicine Rattle": a dislodged hamster wheel, spun quickly on a sideways axle, with trading cards sticking out of each spoke, and a freshwater fish tank filtered microphone protruding through the center. the instrument can be heard in the electronic bridge of "Lucky Number Blue", off the upcoming album, Predators And Pokerfaces)

His message is simple. "Enjoy yourself, disregard influence, and create what moves YOU," he says.
"And love your fans. Appreciate the people who appreciate what you have to offer."

After contributing guest vocals for tracks by Cali-Electrohead Rotting Gnome, Australia's own Aqua Bear, and MIDI Beast out of New Mexico, and with a full-length, a 3-way split (also featuring XComboverX and You Are The Betrayal), and an all-covers album on the way, ATTWF show no signs of slowing down, or, for that matter, no signs of what to expect from a constantly evolving project of which the world will now become aware."

END.