Hey All!  Sorry for the lack of updates.  I promise I’m not being lazy at all!  Promise!  Actually I’ve been quite busy.  Despite my regular job as a commercial producer keeping me extremely busy you may have seen me roaming around Eastern Iowa the last three weeks with camera in hand.  Very very guerrilla like too.  Out of the van shoot and back in the van and hit the road.  Well as most of you know KWWL is going HD in April!  With that means new news opens!  Over a month ago my boss came to me and said, “Hey we need HD shots of Eastern Iowa for our new opens, how would you like to saddle up with a Panasonic P2 HD camera with Marketing/Promotions producer Phil Hunt and get some shots of our beautiful DMA?”  I jumped at the chance to shoot in HD and I jumped at the chance to have my shots as part of the opens.  The hard part, we are launching in April and no one wants to see snow in the shots for Spring!  Well we tried our best to get noticeable areas of Eastern Iowa minus snow.  We also shot a lot of snow footage as well for use next year in our new Winter News Opens.  So hopefully you’ll be seeing some of my camera work real soon on the news (April is soon right?).

Here are some highlights from the three week tour.  The frozen Mississippi is just as majestic as the unfrozen Mississippi.  I absolutely adore Taste of India on Boyson Road in Hiawatha.  It’s totally yummy and Phil and I gobbled a big pile of it down when we were in Cedar Rapids.  Iowa City always seems to be bustling with activity no matter what time of the day and I often forget how cool the Ped Mall really is.  I really enjoy shooting footage especially when I’m allowed to be as creative as I want.  The Alliant Building in Cedar Rapids looks like a sky scraper when you shoot it at the right angle!  I’m not as afraid of heights as I thought, although when you are seven stories off the ground hanging over the edge of a parking garage in Dubuque to get a “cool” shot of the Clock Tower your knees and your partners knees may get a Little wobbly.  I also learned that you can not shoot on a SD Card on a P2 camera that it only shoots exclusively on the P2 card, and if I had read the instructions completely before hand I would have known that.

And lastly the most important thing that I learned.  I really am lucky to work with some of the best and most talented people in the business.  From my co-producer Jason DeWitt (who I spend a ton of time with) holding down the fort while I was out for 16 hours a week shooting, to Chris Hussey our Marketing/Promotions manager editing two GREAT spots that I couldn’t get to, and Phil Hunt for buying ME lunch on HIS birthday and for looking at every angle we shot twice to make sure it was the best angle, oh and holding onto me while I hung over the edge of a parking garage 4 stories and 7 stories above the city streets in Waterloo & Dubuque.  Lucky for Phil there wasn’t a good spot to climb the walls in the parking garage we were in Cedar Rapids!  HA!  Just so his wife isn’t mad at me, but I’m totally sorry for the now 15 years I’ve shaved off of Phil’s life with my daredevil tactics of shooting.

Any way, I have some very exciting stuff coming up.  First up I’m interviewing the all girl metal band Kittie on March 16th at Spicoli’s.  After that I’ll have an interview up I did with Tim King of SoiL for their show at Spicoli’s on April 1st!  I saw the new Wolfman, and was totally unimpressed.  I’ve also been listening to a ton of new music!  Things seem to be a bit more manageable now so hopefully I can get back up on this horse and rider her hard and fast to great things for you my loyal readers!

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Almost everyone today has been affected by cancer in some form or another.  I personally have been affected, my father and my step-sister were both diagnosed with cancer and then became cancer survivors.  It’s something that we deal with every day, young and old alike are both victims to this disease.  There are tons of great organizations out there that are helping to raise money for cancer research and help put an end to cancer!  One of my favorite record labels around, and one that I’ve been a fan of and a consumer of since 1992, is doing their part to help out as well.  I present to you Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music to Cure Cancer coming to you via Metropolis Records on February 9th!

 Rather than try and restate what has already been said, I’ll let the press release do the talking for me on this:

“Cancer has ruined the lives of countless people around the world.  Rarely in the international goth/industrial scene does one hear about it.  On May 1^st, 2008, Jim Semonik, longtime promoter, DJ, and frontman for electro-industrial band Rein[Forced], was diagnosed with stage 2B colorectal cancer.  During a rigorous campaign of chemotherapy and radiation, Semonik’s passion for this music did not waver.  On June 28^th, 2008, 16Volt’s “Denial Highway” Tour came through Pittsburgh courtesy of Jim.  It was at this event that Semonik formulated the idea for a compilation that would not only be gargantuan in scale, but in quality as well.  Jim asked 16Volt frontman, Eric Powell, to be a part of it.  Eric didn’t hesitate and thus Electronic Saviors was born.”

Jim won this battle with cancer despite a few set backs and loosing a large portion of his digestive track.  So now Electronic Saviors is finally here and it’s a great opportunity to give back and get something for it.  There is some real winning tracks on here including a new Chemlab mix and exclusive tracks written for this compilation alone.  Again I’ll let the press release do the real talking here.

“A grand total of 83 artists came together for this project, and it is with this that Jim wants to donate proceeds to the Center For Cancer Research and Wellness in Harrisburg, PA.  Saviorsis a monumental 4 CD box-set, packaged nicely in DVD digi-pack format, featuring stunning artwork by Jeff Confer and a 12 page booklet including an essay from Jim and a drop card for a downloadable 5^th CD.  The content of the compilation covers the widest range of emotions that a cancer patient goes through.  It ranges from melancholy moving songs (ThouShaltNot, Bow Ever Down, Encoder) to songs about the medical industry (SMP, Boole) to angry songs of loss (Suicide Commando, Rein[Forced], Acumen Nation) to pure anger and raging dance tracks (Nachtmahr, The Dark Clan, Terrorfakt, Vicious Alliance), as well as, down tempo, ambient and tranquil pieces (Burikusu!!!, The Atomica Project), comedic (The Gothsicles, Caustic) and songs of hope (Interface, SD6 and Assemblage 23).”

And here is a full track listing for the entire 4 CD set.  The fifth disc is a mystery so you’ll just have to buy the compilation to find out more!

Disc 1-Diagnosis and Insurance

 

01.  SMP – Stay Sick
02.  Stromkern – Notes From A War

03.  Boole – Smoking Gun
04.  Interface – Never Say Farewell
05.  Chemlab – Solar Max (The Jimmy Sextex Coil)
06.  Bow Ever Down – Goodbye
07.  The Gothsicles – Jim, Let Me Know When You Can Drink Again (Extreme Party Stylezz)
08.  Terrorfakt – Painkiller
09.  16Volt – Things Unkind
10.  Rein[Forced] – Malignancy (Pancreatitis Mix)
11.  Ego Likeness – Save Your Serpent (Light As A Feather Mix)
12.  Burikusu!!! – 7 Dimensional
13.  Inure – Rapture
14.  Cesium_137 – Endure (Encoder Mix)
15.  Cyanotic – Axiome (Post Affliction Mix Feat 16Volt)
16.  Silent Auction – Deliverance
17.  Terror Firma Sky – Cancerous Catalyst Converter

 

Disc 2-Chemotherapy and Radiation

 

01.  The Dark Clan – Beat It, Kill It
02.  The Azoic – Search And Destroy (Savior Mix)
03.  genCAB – Version 2  (Aesthetic Perfection Mix)
04.  Christ Analogue – The Fight
05.  Prometheus Burning Feat Jimmy Semtex of Rein[Forced] – Malignant Disco
06.  Boxed Warning – Run First
07.  Assemblage 23 – Impermanence (Flight AC-112 Mix)
08.  I:Scintilla – From A Wasteland To A Dream
09.  Imperative Reaction – Giving In To The Change (Assemblage 23 Mix)
10.  ThouShaltNot – Sick
11.  Combichrist – Nosepad
12.  Sonik Foundry – Stigmata
13.  XuberX – Fear Is Fear
14.  Mindless Faith – Into The Wind
15.  Cyber Strukture – Some Sorta Rhythmic Machine
16.  vircon – Count Backwards From Ten
17.  Jordan Decay – The Great War

 

Disc 3-Surgery

 

01.  Deathline Int’l – Breaking
02.  Encoder featuring Jimmy Semtex of Rein[Forced] and Patricia Wake – Jim’s Song
03.  Vicious Alliance – Right Beside You (Save Me Now Mix)
04.  backandtotheleft – Maybe Today
05.  Nachtmahr – Katharsis (Purification Mix)
06.  Null Device – Under the Gun (Immune Response Mix)
07.  Suicide Commando – Until We Die (Winter Edit)
08.  Agnes Wired For Sound – Don’t Worry (We’ll Meet Up Again)
09.  System Syn – Blood (2009 Edit)
10.  Acumen Nation – The Juice Of Rotted Fruit
11.  Aesthetic Perfection – The Ones (genCAB Mix)
12.  Dismantled – Not Me
13.  FGFC820 – Children Of Decay (Northborne Mix)
14.  Everything Goes Cold – I’ve Sold Your Organs On The Black Market To Finance The Purchase Of A Used Minivan (I Don’t Want Those Organs If There’s Cancer In Them Mix)
15.  Leæther Strip – The Scalpel Song (Neoplasm Edit)
16.  Mordacious – Sleeping Beauty
17.  Flesh Field – Detritus Of Reason

 

Disc 4-Recovery

 

01.  Noisuf-X – White Noise (Gift Mix)
02.  Hardwire – I Am Forever
03.  The Atomica Project – Transmission
04.  Massiv In Mensch featuring Mind.In.A.Box – Supermassive Gravity (Endanger Mix)
05.  SD6 – Free (Interface Mix)
06.  Obscenity Trial – Here And Now (Banging Mix by XP8)
07.  Alter Der Ruine VS Premeditated Light – Dawn
08.  nolongerhuman – Survival
09.  Iris – Imposter (ThouShaltNot Remix)
10.  Debutante – Alive
11.  Andraculoid – You Tried To Kill Me, But I Killed You First
12.  Deviant UK – Access Denied (Rotersand Mix)
13.  Hypefactor – The Sweetest Soul (Rex Mix)
14.  Freezepop – Duct Tape My Heart (Chinese Theatre Remix)
15.  Spahn Ranch – In The Aftermath (Moroder Mix)
16.  Caustic – Jim Made Cancer His Bitch

 

Disc 5-Bonus Medication (Digital Download)

 

01.  Wreckcreation – Incomplete Me (Remix)
02.  Borderlines – Visualization
03.  AimOniA – Three
04.  Beloved Dead – Twist Of Fate
05.  Derek C. F. Pegritz – Please Let Me Go
06.  Molecule Party – Riser
07.  Patricia Wake – Peaceful Shores
08.  Neurobash – Left 4 Dead
09.  Jon Zaremba – The Best Way To Tear Anything Down Is To Blast!
10.  Less Like Flesh – Virus Free
11.  EVP – Schrödinger
12.  Surviving The Odyssey – Dissolving The Sanity
13.  Retar-D2 – EXTRA LIVES!
14.  The Hose Face – Dread
15.  Sachem Orenda – Evident Product Of Effort
16.  TowerOpensFire – With Heavy Hands

 

Electronic Saviors: Industrial Music to Cure Cancer will be available as a digital download as well, so get out there and buy some music to help cure cancer!

 

 

 

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