The Bad Beat

Konrad - A Christmas Vibe

2011-12-11T17:37:00.000-08:00

Folktronic alchemist Konrad returns for a musical Holiday hullabaloo!
Konrad - A Christmas Vibe by Konrad Music

You can purchase the single "A Christmas Vibe" from the Konrad Bandcamp page:
http://konradmusic.bandcamp.com/track/a-christmas-vibe
Also available on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/a-christmas-vibe-single/id489216158

new Konrad album in mastering stage

2011-05-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

Glad to mention that the new Konrad album is currently getting mastered by audio engineer Dave Cox at 2Dogs Digital Audio. The new album promises to be a spectacular sonic feast of ecclectic audio wanderings. Album set to drop late summer 2011...stay tuned.

Apex 460 Mic Mod

2010-12-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

Cheap Mic (Apex 460) + New Transformer (Cinemag CM-2480) = Kick Ass Mic! Seriously! All the info you need here: http://www.morphproductions.com/apex460transformermod.htm

2010-11-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

Tegan & Sara: Daytrotter Session

quote of a day

2010-06-06T03:39:00.000-07:00

Keep the faith, don't lose your perseverance and always trust your gut extinct.

-Paula Abdul

Robot USA or Experimental Aircraft

2010-05-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

Robot USA is an experimental aircraft; a testing ground of sorts for Konrad to try out new gizmo-manipulations and sound-sorcery. While the majority of Konrad tracks are routinely vocal-based, the Robot USA material tends towards the instrumental. Ten years have passed since the first Robot USA album was released. Since that time three presidents have held the position of Commander in Chief in the USA, two (declared) wars have broken out and global economies have shape-shifted. Perhaps ten years from now, machines will rise up and the singularity will go from science fiction to science fact. Until that time...

1) Robot USA - Ill Style
2) Robot USA - Captain Bomb
3) Robot USA - Ketchup and Mustard
4) Robot USA - Time Machine
5) Robot USA - Muzack for the Death Starr (Movement II)

Purchase the entire album:
Robot USA 1+1=11 available in MP3 format from iTunes

Robot USA 1+1=11 available in MP3 format from Amazon.com

Robot USA 1+1=11 available in CD and MP3 format from CDBaby

sweetin' that sound...

2010-03-31T00:48:00.001-07:00

I took a break from the usual studio hub-bub to do some audio mastering for the fine folks over at daytrotter. In particular these last few days allowed me to do some audio work on The Blind Boys of Alabama session as well as the killa rappers over at DoomTree.

If you haven't had a chance to check out these sessions yet, be sure to step over and give em a listen!

The Blind Boys of Alabama:

http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/the-blind-boys-of-alabama-concert/20031112-7168.html

Doomtree Records feature:

http://www.daytrotter.com/dt/doomtree-concert/20030911-37381997.html

word-

Konrad

quote of a day:

2010-02-04T00:41:00.000-08:00

"What am I in the eyes of most people--a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then--even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum."
-Vincent Van Gogh

quote of a day:

2010-01-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another."

-Frank Zappa

Robot USA vs. Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall (Konrad remix)

2010-01-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

Robot USA vs. Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall (remix) by Konrad __________________

Remix I did a while back with a Roland VS-880, Boss SP-202 sampler, various synths, toy vocoder, plastic shaker and guitar(s).

Original Robot

2009-12-16T01:08:00.001-08:00

Robot was an oddball indie rock band I fronted back in the mid nineties. The main lineup was me (Konrad) on vocals and guitar, Chris Edmond on drums (replaced later by Mike Flack) and Derek Kirkman on bass. We played a handful of shows at local venues such as Smile coffeehouse (opening for such bands as Home and The Multiple Cat), Gabes Oasis (with Tripmaster Monkey and The Adaptors) and a few of the Independent Truckers Alliance shows (Joan of Arc, A Minor Forest etc.) that Pete Toalson organized in the QC area.

Despite the fact that there were 5 thousand other bands named “Robot” throughout the nineties, we did manage to put a fairly unique spin on some typical indie rock stylistics. We only made one serious recording, the below affixed “Robot EP”. The songs were recorded by Patrick Stolley at Great Western studio in Davenport, Iowa. Recorded on 16 track Adat. The trio was tracked live in an open room, with vocals and incidentals overdubbed. Guest appearances on the EP were made by Seth Mulvihill (keyboard track 3) and Eric Honse (guitar track 1, under the moniker “Chuck Rice”), Will Stensrud (Cello track 4) as well as a vocal appearance on “Vulture” by Stephanie Byers, whose vocals were sampled by Pat on a Casio SK-1. The J-card design featured a photograph by Scott Williams. If I recall, the entire recording cost us less than $300.00; paid for with gig money we had saved up.

As that lineup of Robot disbanded, I eventually went on to evolve the band and name into “Robot USA”…a (mostly) solo project that was based around experimental electronica.

-Konrad

ROBOT EP (1996):
Robot - Vulture
Robot - Borderline
Robot - The Bug
Robot - Digging to China
Robot - Super Future Boy

quote of a day

2009-12-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

"Barack Obama is a cross between Martin Luther King and Spock" -Robin Williams

2009-08-03T06:10:00.000-07:00

When you having more than one !!

Mental Man

2008-11-15T15:34:00.000-08:00

Out of the blue, Konrad got a call from renowned Swiss producer Chris(z) from Tracelements and Zodiac Project. The concept was simple: Chris(z) would brew up some melodic, heavy musical ideas from his mountain top studio in Switzerland and Konrad would compose lyrics and melodies from his underground urban Illinois US bunker. Chris(z) laid down the musical foundation with guitars, beats, bass and synth; Konrad penned and crooned. Tracks were traded and sounds were swapped, resulting in the single "Mental Man" that now surfaces. The single is doing incredibly well on Swiss national radio.

The Tracelements full length album "Star Trekking" will be released December 15th 2008 and features the "Mental Man" single. The album will be available in a deluxe digipack edition. The record goes out together with the new film of the mountain climber R. Nottaris called "Appointment with Shackleton".

Tracelements on myspace

MP3 Tracelements :: Mental Man (featuring Konrad)

Greetings From Rock Island

2008-09-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

We’ve been thrilled to read all of the raving reviews piling up in the Blogosphere about Loose Canyons so far, but our favorite comment so far at Radical Turf HQ actually has nothing to do with the record. Over at the blog Cream Team, blogger ‘V’ in Chicago wrote:

hailing from a mysterious city in Illinois called Rock Island , which I'd never even heard of (and thought was a joke until I googled it), Konrad's roots are as unique as his sound...

Ha! Yes, that’s right Rock Island is indeed a real city. It may not be as cool as it sounds, but we assure you that it really does exist. Here are some fun facts about our fine metropolis:

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was founded here in 1851 and was known as the Rock Island Line. The railroad was liquidated in bankruptcy in 1980.

Rock Island is also home to the Rock Island Arsenal on Arsenal Island. It is an active factory producing ordnance and weapons components for the U.S. Army. The Arsenal provides 6,000 civilian jobs for the local area.

The worst prison camp during the Civil War in terms of percentages of death was at Rock Island

The inspiration for the character John Rooney in the well known Road to Perdition novels and movie came from a true Rock Island gangster, John P. Looney.

The computer was invented in a downtown Rock Island bar*

*at least that's what Jeff tells me :)

Loose Canyons release date

2008-08-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

New millennial song constructionist and studio savant KONRAD finally surfaces with his debut electronic pop opus, LOOSE CANYONS.

Konrad is just one of many different musical personas employed by studio savant/song constructionist Jeffrey Konrad. In the past he's recorded as an 8-bit obsessed electronic musician by the name of Robot USA, an emo indie rocker known as eggspout, and a folksy singer/songwriter called "Nigel Jeffrey" who cut an album titled Struggle in the Hive with Patrick Stolley of Marlboro Chorus and Daytrotter.com. And those are just his "official" credentials, he's also released dozens of underground mix tapes and collaborated on a countless number of other projects with musicians from across the globe.

Now he's dropping his full-length solo debut as Konrad called Loose Canyons; a seeming amalgamation of all his past and present musical personalities all mashed into one meticulously produced package. Combining the old school synth sounds of Devo, the ironic b-boy style of Dan Deacon and the sardonic wit of Hot Chip, Konrad is poised to be the underground electro-indie sensation of 2008.

WHO: Konrad

WHAT: Debut full-length titled Loose Canyons

WHEN: August 19th (street date) August 19th (radio add date)

WHERE: iTunes, CD Baby, RadicalTurf.com, KonradMusic.net

WHY: An infectious collection of songs that sound like they were created by the love child of Mark Mothersbaugh and Dan Deacon.