dubSpot, the West Coast + East Coast music technology training center is doing an eight-city tour of the US to talk about Ableton Live 8 and the Akai APC40 controller. They’re enlisting some of my favorite people to do the workshops. I like the curriculum: it’s not just “here’s how to use Live,” but a real focus on music production, finishing actual music, and pushing the envelope with live visuals, onstage performance and controllers. We also have a $25 discount exclusively for CDM readers if you want to attend.

I want to thank dubSpot for helping sponsor CDM this month – their support makes possible our own free tutorial content and artist coverage slated for later in May.

The tour kicks off this week in San Francisco, but will travel to other US cities soon (dates to be announced; stay tuned).

The artists doing the instruction are some folks whose work I particularly enjoy:

• Jon Margulies, author of Ableton Live 7 Power among other things, and the person doing the Live 8 curriculum here in NY. And like me, Jon is a secret Medievalist (he’s played early music at Spoleto).
• Moldover, “Moldy” to his friends, co-founded the Warper series in NYC and the new LoveTech party in SF, and has become notorious for hacking Novation keyboards and espousing controllerism.
• Christopher Willits is an utterly brilliant guitarist capable of morphing the instrument into all kinds of sounds, for those of you who don’t know his work. And he’s been doing a lovely series of tutorials for our friends at XLR8R TV.

… plus a powerful roster of artists: Funkaid for Africa, Dub Mission, Jason Short, Dub Gabriel, and Barry Cole.

The workshop is $125 for one day or $225 for both. If you are lucky enough to hail from sunny San Francisco, dubSpot is also offering a $25 CDM discount if you head to their site via this link:

http://www.dubspot.com/pages/abletontour.jsp?aff_ref=CDM

But we’ll have more for the rest of the world, too – I’m playing with the Warper crew on the sidewalk in front of dubSpot NY in June, and we’re working on a way of doing a live stream to the CDM planet from there. Stay tuned.

At long last, the Yamaha Tenori-On, the unusual sampling/sequencing instrument bestrewn in light-up buttons, is getting its worldwide release.

And it’s going to be an amazing party.

Launch cities:

• Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany
• Paris, France
• Montreal, Quebec
• New York, NY
• San Francisco, CA
• (most appropriately) Tokyo, Japan

The tour kicks of in Frankfurt first on March 12, then hits the other towns April 8 – 25, finishing where the Tenori-On was born: Tokyo.

Launch artists:

• Toshio Iwai, the man from whose brain the Tenori-On sprang
• Jim O’Rourke, composer/improvisor/producer extraordinaire (perhaps best known for his association with Sonic Youth)
• Atom Heart, aka Senor Coconut aka Atom Heart aka various other things
• Pole, the DJ and electronic artist great
• To Rococo Rot, German post-rocker trio
• Robert Lippok, who counts “set designer” among his credits and co-founded To Rococo Rot
• Sutekh, who spans electronica to noise collage, and mate Safety Scissors, the San Fran contingent
• Andi Toma of Mouse on Mars fame
• The Books, representing New York and generally All Things Awesome — I need to put them on continuous loop on Winamp just so they wind up on the top of my Last.fm profile, where they belong
• I am Robot and Proud, Toronto electronic soloist, toured with Mum and Caribou, and an all-around great computer man
• Nathan Michel, experimental electronicist and DAT politics collaborator. Oh, and Nathan just got his PhD in music composition from Princeton last year, meaning he’s yet another person who finished his PhD before I did. Dr. Michel, congrats.

TENORI-ON Global Launch Event

I’ll be covering NYC, of course, with an awesome lineup (Toshio Iwai / Robert Lippok / Pole / Sutekh / I am Robot and Proud / Nathan Michel / Safety Scissors). But I’d love to pick up some of these other cities and do global team coverage. If you’re interested, drop a line.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Do I know when you’ll actually be able to buy it?

No.

Do I know where?

No.

Do I know how much it will cost?

No. I’m hoping less than the initial UK launch when it goes global, as that was the hope. In the UK, it costs GBP599, which, when you translate to the ridiculously weak dollar is, um, a lot.

Is this better or worse than the Monome?

They’re different. Stop trying to compare them. Get both.

If you’re going to San Francisco (or, like, live there), come hang with some fellow laptop and electronic musicians at a special Macworld edition of the Backlit Lounge electronica party, which has been featured regularly on the CDMusic forums. I’ll be playing a featured set myself, and it looks like a great lineup. It’s the most logical place for CDMusic readers to meet up during Macworld week — especially since it’s free to all, even without an expo pass. Maybe I’ll bring a flag.

If you plan on coming, say hi in comments or email me directly. (I may just check out early, since I have to lead a day-long presentation Friday!)

And if you want to play yourself, I think the organizers are still accepting more players; head to the Myspace page below.

Macworld goers, this is very close to the Moscone Center.

Backlit Lounge SF
San Francisco’s Laptop/Electronica Lounge
January 10, 6 pm to 2 am
Rx Gallery
132 Eddy Street, San Francisco [Map]

Information, friend adds, photos, video, and those interested in performing:
backlitloungesf @ Myspace

Video series on the event, so you can relive Backlit Lounges vicariously (pour yourself a beer or two):
Backlit Lounge @ revver

See also the visual salon with workshops and VJ jam on Thursday night.