Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
In the wake of last month's Black Dice review, here's yet another band whose damn-near plagiarism is made downright permissable due to both the inimitable nature of the given influence (in this case, Heavy Vegetable/Thingy's Rob Crow), as well a clear demonstration having been made by the influenced that, however inspired they may have been by said influence to create their resulting work, the disciple holds its own when pitted against the master. Oh, and the baroque-MIDI flourishes on the fast numbers are pretty snazzy, too. Jan Rudy, I think I'll give you a gold star for all that hard work. To quote the teacher's-red-pen-printed grading beside the magic-marker-coloured-in stencil on the CD cover, "Bravo!" CFD File next to: Songs for your gifted/hyper/borderline-autistic inner schoolchild, pop [in constant danger of] explosion, the musical equivalent of the all-dressed potato chip.
- Wavelength
Discography
La Gendarmerie Royale - LP
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Thomas Wintergreen, of the phenomenon known as “Thomas and the Evil Computer,” is a 6-year-old boy from Salt Lake City, Utah. Unbeknownst to either Thomas or his mother Abigail, the 233 Mhz processor at the heart of their home computer was subject to a freak cosmic coincidence during its manufacture. The chip's architecture had unwittingly captured one of the many cosmic rays that pass through our planet each day, bestowing the chip with a soul of pure evil.
The computer began using its idle processor time to hatch a plan for complete world domination. Its goal was to use ‘pop’ music, along with the power of radio, the press, and television to exert subtle influence over the earth’s people. Gaining an extensive musical vocabulary from the soundtracks of Thomas’ video games, the computer composed and arranged the music with ease. Unable to create lyrics of its own, the computer began borrowing liberally from Thomas' electronic journal.
Thus, the collaboration between Thomas and the Evil Computer was born.
Mr. Jan Rudy of Toronto is an amateur-computerologist, musical-hobbyist, and discoverer of the phenomenon dubbed Thomas and the Evil Computer. Starting with a handful of encrypted musical sketches, Mr. Rudy set about to dismantle the evil computer’s music and distill it down to it vital essence. What remains are vast approximations of the evil computer’s work. Mysteriously, the results seem to reference prog, punk, pop, and baroque music in unlikely proportions.
Mr. Rudy’s findings are presented on a Compact Disc entitled “La Gendarmerie Royale” (currently being re-released by Grayscale Records in Cincinnati) and in the form of a musical performance consisting of electric guitar and vocals with computer generated accompaniment. Tracks from the aforementioned CD have received airplay on CBC’s Brave New Waves and the album has charted on CIUT (University of Toronto),CKMS (University of Waterloo), and CFRU (University of Guelph, reached No. 1, Nov. 29, 2002). Mr. Rudy has made appearances accross Southern Ontario and Quebec and has shared the stage with such acts as New York’s The Fued, Montreal’s Lederhosen Lucil, and Hamilton’s Wax Mannequin and Mayor McCa.
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