Alex Icon :: L_2NITE

@luxacon.bsky.social

412 Followers 245 Following

livepa freetek freakout & homegrown transgenre selection, pittsburgh fka alex is sub Mistress elle excess ag ag lady LXS nuell uncommodity kanye BEST etc. L/pur http://alexisicon.bandcamp.com http://soundcloud.com/l_2nite http://mixcloud.com/ellexcess

a 1 meter multi core audio cable is loosely coiled on top of a Gator mixer case. the tails at each end have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, gray insulation, the colors have faded slightly since new. the right end of the snake has 8 molded 1/4" TS plugs - the way it came from the Hosa factory. the left end of the snake has been customized to now have 8 1/4" TRS plugs that are covered in black heat shrink.
foreground is soundcraft mixer with XLR and 1/4" cables plugged into it. background is house show setup with PA system, monitors, drum set, accordion, bass and electric guitar, saxophone, clarinet, and 4 vocal mics. there is a big purple eyeball hanging on the wall and cloud like fabric decorations from the ceiling
a mackie onyx 24-channel mixer in the foreground with most of the faders down. there is the edge of a laptop keyboard near the front of the frame. in the distance, a stage with a stack of Paraflex subwoofers in front of it and a Danley point source speaker on a stand in the corner. some people are milling about but not in focus. the mixer has a label on the left side for monitor mixes "L C R D" and the channel strips are also labeled "K S Hi, M, Lo Tom, Bass, L R Guitar" etc.
a screenshot of alexisicon.bandcamp.com in a phone browser window. the top banner is part of the collage from the sub Mistress album "a week with Alexis Icon" and there are six square images below on a white background. there are small "x" in the bottom right corner of each square because that is how bandcamp looks to a creator, making it easy to delete the link to an album as if erasing a part of the artist... the squares are labeled in sequence "prime cuts 6/x" "prime cuts 5/x" "prime cuts 4/x" "prime cuts 3/x" "prime cuts 2/x" "prime cuts 1/x" all with the artist L_2NITE. the album covers are all manipulated images of Alex with a glitchy, ethereal character. in the first row, the first has Alex turning knobs in a synth case at a workshop with a projection of the contents of that case superimposed on the lid so the audience can see what the hands are doing with the gear as Alex explains while performing. the second has a closeup of Alex singing with echoes of an image of Alex face rotated ghostly face coming out of mouth as if the sound waves were visible. the third has an image of Alex face on a cutting board with a pixelated knife chopping into thin vertical slices. in the second row, the first has Alex superimposed over Alex in a repeating pattern of inversion, negation and xor blend. the second has Alex DJ on a laptop above a controller whose jog wheels are replaced by an image of Alex face. the third has Alex holding the lid of an open grill above an image of Alex face on the grille. There are a lot of symbolic connotations to these images and all of them are probably valid and likely intentional!
a cell phone picture with flash of a computer screen with the top row of keys visible and you can see the smudges and pixels better than the text. image is of alexisicon.bandcamp.com draft of L_2NITE - prime cuts 6/x and previews the album art, which is a glitchy image of a performance/lecture Volcabulary workshop done for carnegie library of pittsburgh in collaboration with g(fx) and ace hotel. the tracklist is also previewed: 1. refresh 2. breathe 3. exhaust 4. brute 5. lonesome 6. annihilation 7. shard 8. eternal at the bottom of the page, the snip of description reads: the sixth page of a scrapbook-style retrospective of my favorite tunes from earlier iterations on the right sidebar, it says alex is icon Pennsylvania alex icon :: alex is L_2NITE elle excess uncommodity LXS nuell sub Mistress ag ag lady etc. transgenre electronic dance music live PA & DJ from Pittsburgh, PA US booking: djyrlife@gmail.com links to soundcloud.com/L_2NITE mixcloud.com/ellexcess discography a tinypicture of the cover of prime cuts 5/x which is a closeup of me singing at my sisters wedding edited to have spectral reflections of my own face coming out of my mouth as if you can see me singing the memories of my own ghosts
a piezo horn driver facedown with the back of its enclosure taken off in the foreground. a capacitor has exploded inside of it and its former contents are all over the place. behind it, the back of the enclosure also has capacitor guts all over it. at the back of the frame is an intact piezo horn driver.
the left half of pic is foreground of most of a tabby cat face and whiskers. she refuses to fit in frame but is sitting on lap of alex at bottom right, reclined on couch wearing Joe's Record Paradise tee, black bandanna around neck and glasses. in background is IKEA kallax shelves stuffed with binders and boxes of trading cards.
a screenshot of alexisicon.bandcamp.com in a phone browser window. the top banner is part of the collage from the sub Mistress album "a week with Alexis Icon" and there are three square images below on a white background. they are labeled "prime cuts 1/x" "prime cuts 2/x" "prime cuts 3/x" with the artist L_2NITE. they are all manipulated images of Alex with a glitchy, ethereal character. the first has Alex holding the lid of an open grill above an image of Alex face on the grille. the second has Alex DJ on a laptop above a controller whose jog wheels are replaced by an image of Alex face. the third has Alex superimposed over Alex in a repeating pattern of inversion, negation and xor blend. There are a lot of symbolic connotations to these images and all of them are probably valid and likely intentional!
young alex performing in the bassment of Far House in Ann Arbor circa 2011 i think? the background is black and the picture is bounded by a pair of Behringer B215A PA speakers that Pat & i brought on the tour. alex is wearing a white bandana and white crystal castles t-shirt and has head down in a similar pose as the band on the shirt. the noise table is covered in gear plugged into an alesis mixer (not mine) as best as i can tell or recall, there was a loop tape in the Tascam Portastudio that was mixing the Yamaha CS-01 I am playing with a Danelectro Reel Echo on aux and there is an Akai MPC2000XL as well, there is video of my jam on that part, probably microphone hidden in there somewhere. that was a heluva gig.
zoom in on Ableton live sample window with an arrow pointing to the RAM button
four Kodak Analyst projectors are set on stands. they are spooled with tape loops rather than conventional reel to reel. i for one am glad that Orgone research continues despite the decades-long ban... what are they hiding? what don't they want us to know about?
a pair of Danley SM60F on truss over a pair of Danley TH118. there's another identical stack on the other side of the stage. in the foreground, a Tascam DP-32SD Portastudio and Soundcraft EFX8 are set up side by side. The recorder is fed board recording via Monitor out and also a pair of Røde SDC are perched in the back left and right of room for the rest of the sound. There is a sharpie in the middle of the consoles. I'm the background, a mic on a stand next to a noise table. there will be projections on the wall.
two purple lockers at the gym, one is closed and has a flyer for the Female Antagonist release show taped to it. the other one is open and there are magnetic dress-up dolls on the inside of the door. inside the locker there is a hat and some keys hanging, at the bottom there is a folding hand truck/moving dolly that I am pleasantly surprised fits inside the locker!
a crowd of people under a bridge are dancing. the speakers are backlit by a bright white light. there are led faerie lights n'at. everdark on the longest day of the year
A green flyer with drum machines on it reads: A Community Pride Festival For Queers, By Queers VOLCABULARY Accessible Music Production The Korg Volca is a portable battery-powered groove box with focused synths and drum machines that you can affordably purchase or even rent from the Carnegie Library! For years, Alex has been using the Korg Volca series to compose and perform live electronic music. This workshop will share how using simple, accessible technology can help you bypass the intimidation and exclusivity that often comes with arcane and expensive music technology. VOLCABULARY is not just about using this specific tool, but about building comfort and fluency with whatever music technology is at hand, and generally is an approach that can remove barriers of entry to creativity. 2:00 PM Saturday, June 21, 2025 Bottlerocket Social Hall 1226 Arlington Ave, Pittsburgh, PA, 15210
caption: Saturday June 21st 2025 at Mary's an evening of dancing & merriment for folks dedicated to a better world with DJs Edgar Um and Alex Icon 9:30pm/21+/free Mary's 5128 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh image: an ice machine with the word "fuck" tagged on it, is about to be stepped on by a menacing 👠
a stage under a tent is set up on a closed off street in Millvale. there are rainbow balloon sculptures flanking the stage. there is white text "luxacon sound @ pride millvale 2025" highlighted in front of the stage. there are microphones and monitor speakers on stage, subwoofers and tops just off stage. there is a tent behind the stage where the mixer etc. live. it is on the edge of DIY and Professional where luxacon sound thrives!
a hand in compression glove over a small field of synthesizers and similar gear. there are wires everywhere, here is the general idea: akai mpk mini usb controller for kilpatrick carbon, sequencing korg volca beats, kick, drum, bass, keys, fm2. their outputs mixed by myvolts passive into a korg kaoss pad quad, which the hand touches repeatedly (looper, high pass, delay + reverb) in line with the beat. a few times touching the cutoff knob on the bass. the pattern is 82bpm and uses a small portion of the carbon's potential to have longer sequences running at different speeds which you can kinda see on the display. it sounds awesome fwiw
a child wearing a shirt "school sucks" is pat on the back by adult wearing a shirt "fuck work" is captioned "how we spend our days is how we spend our lives"
another superhero pose from that photoshoot. Alex is serving "the flash" as if prepared for a supersonic sprint, or perhaps a lunge while jumping between ledges. on a green and black checkered background, hair in ponytail. green Carhartt, blue jeans cuffed over doc martens.
Alex appears to be breakdancing on a black and green checkerboard. Alex is wearing clear framed glasses, hair tied in ponytail green Carhartt jacket, black Unmapped North label tee, blue jeans cuffed and black doc martens. Alex cannot breakdance anymore and probably never could, this is a trick of photography intended to make it look like it is something that it is not.
an allen & heath xone:92 DJ mixer is on a slightly cluttered workbench. the channel 1 level and mix 1 knob are at unity. channel 1 fader is fully up and assigned to the left side of crossfader. crossfader is fully left. there are green LED showing at the channel 1 VU meter and in the mix VU meter. there is a small sticker to the left of the aux matrix which says "music practice" and on the bottom front of the mixer slightly obscured a sticker which says "we are all gods and we need your love"
a slightly faded sticker which reads: Warning! Extreme Experimental Erotic Homosexual Content Intended for a mature audience. Contains graphic material.
crop of heading of post from Other Site reads: L_2NITE @luxacon Pittsburgh, PA • Today
macro shot of stickers made from offcut white thermal paper from a small glitch at the post office (don't ask, i love USPS sincerely & will not slander any of my partners!) they are small rectangles approx. 1.5"x2" which are stencilled in black with the word "L_2NITE" at about 30° incline from lower left to upper right. there are black stripes above and below which form a kind of triangle pattern. the background is a blurry wash of gray, blue, green, pink, and purple from a set of alcohol ink markers whose nibs are falling apart. since this is thermal paper, with exposure to light or heat the background will darken over time, but the hope is that the alcohol ink remains visible layered on top of that inevitable decay and erosion. edition of ~100 but i didn't count closely. they are all unique but identifiably of the same set, which is substantially similar to the quality and quantity of my own art output. these are going on my gear similar to how i once used AG AG LADY vinyl stickers, though i assume those will last longer bc plastic...
a vestax pmc-05pro III DJ mixer on the workbench. it is on. both VCA faders are up but there is only signal on PGM 2 VU meter. the crossfader is in the center position but the cue is in the left position, not actually listening to anything? the cue volume fader is obviously not original. the original input switches are in plastic baggies to the left of the mixer, one whose shaft broke off and the other whose shaft was so loose the owner described it as "this mixer was misbehaving" I sourced a pair of gently used input switches from an earlier revision of the same mixer and installed them today, works like a dream now!
an aged sticker on the side of an o.c. electronics, inc. spring reverb tank. it reads: folded line reverberation device manufactured by beautiful girls in Milton, Wis. under controlled at-mosphere conditions u.s. pat. 3,363,202/canadian pat. 825,330
a black poster on a beige wall which reads: primary techniques for performative viewing (a.k.a. "how to become the world's greatest artist") by geoffrey hardman the following numbered sections will outline in succession the steps necessary for meaningful engagement with a variety of artistic works. 1. conduct regular communion with any work you so choose. hold consistent conversations with the work. this does not mean literally going and talking to a statue however it is not unexpected to speak out loud as a means of responding to ot attempting to connect with the work repeat this indefinitely. 2. immerse yourself in romantic feelings surrounding the work. gradually develop your own sexual desires around it. this may pose certain difficulties as it's to be expected that work with inherent sexual themes can elicit this response effortlessly in most people. conscientiously focus on every aspect of the work that is arousing until it comes your own sexuality. 3. develop a very real obsessive fixation upon the work until it entangles every facet of your life. you must fixate upon the work until it harms you and endangers those closest to you. repeat this indefinitely while consciously considering consequences of completing this step. 4. completely destroy the work in an emotional uproar. this step may be completed either literally or figuratively. consciously consider the resulting consequences of completing this step.
a behringer eurorack m 2642a with all faders down, knobs zeroed out. the knob on the 2nd aux send of Stereo D is mismatched in a way that would probably make most pro sound enthusiasts chuckle.
three robots in light gray, black, dark gray. they have cylinders for faces and pinched/cinched waists reminiscent of Gundam models. they have big stompy feet. there are buildings and other mecha in the background because I am not a very good photographer and my hands are tired. pardon the dust
three brick-built Lego mecha stand between two parked Mazda RX7 in front of DeCADA modular grocery, sushi restaurant and cafe. Mobile Frame Zero library "Landscript" with blue armor plating and dark gray hands and feet. Left holds a spazer of some kind, right has a small proton beam and center is pointing a conventional blaster at the camera menacingly. In the background, one of the women who works at the cafe next door is walking away from the scene.
a Lego brick-built Battletech MechWarrior Bushwalker on a pink tablecloth. The frame is in light gray with black and dark gray armor cladding. If you have played the games or seen the box art you know what this guy looks like.
the three MFZ squads described in earlier posts are now on baseplates. there is also a small scene in the foreground with two black-and-white pilots facing against two yellow-and-gray pilots. coming along
portrait of the author sitting at a table at the Rock Room with left hand on the faders of a small mixing board. The room is dimly lit in red which is a sharp contrast to the brightly lit kitchen workstation in the background. There are a lot of flyers and ink on the wall of the bar. Alex sports a black "embers breaks" snapback, clear glasses, and has a goatee which is mostly washed out by the lighting. Wearing a black band tee (indistinguishable) black bandana around neck and a well-worn button-down work shirt (unbuttoned) the long sleeves torn off, rolled up and cuffed to bicep, a sharpie, pen and mechanical pencil dangle from the pocket. Alex doesn't go out often so this is a kinda rare signing, but hopeful more frequently for the right shows!
Tonfa Squad stands at ready in front of CaDA Kitten Grocery Store. The three mecha in black and dark gray livery lack the substantial upper body armor typical of frames, but that is because they were not designed for combat. Destiny had other plans... Mechanic at left wields spanner, hammer, chisel, impact driver with aplomb, always has the right tool for the job and capable to engineer the enemies destruction from whatever parts are at hand. Miner centered holds two pickaxes at ready along with a pair of high power emitters at waist level - once used to illuminate the dark subterranean worksite, now capable of sensory disruption with blinding flash, strobing burst, and even melting metal and rock when overdriven. Forestry at right has two pairs of chainsaw at ready. Unassuming when working at normal tasks, especially in an era where the heavily armed oppression has forbidden them to have any weaponry... like the Tonfa of their namesake, originally a farm implement but repurposed under occupation to a highly effective melee weapon, the plowshares at hand are sublimely effective when used as swords!
MFZ Betty Squad in red, dark gray, light gray livery is posed in front of CaDA coffee shop & donut shop modular buildings. Betty Captain on left has a dark gray right pauldron signifying rank and a menacing heavy blaster in right hand. Betty Berserker on right is dual-wielding katana with a pair of tanto ready to go. Betty Artillery back center has a pair of missile pods mounted above shoulders pauldrons, heavily inspired by Battletech/MechWarrior IYKYK. The base design is from the MFZ Frame Library but detailed significantly by my family from that reference - we build together so well :)
two trs jacks above a breadboard. each is patched into a small, yellow transformer. a ground lift switch is turned off. on the other side of the xformers, a resistor matrix performs sum and difference equation to output the mid and side signal to two trs jacks. this takes advantage of the differential signal of balanced cables to add and subtract the + and - components from both inputs to encode or decode stereo to mid-side why one would want to do this is beyond the scope, just ask me if you actually wanna know lmao
three lego mobile frame zero mecha units with orange eye, dark gray armor plating, light gray and black accents stand in front of the CADA Fujiwara Tofu Shop and Kissaten Shop. left is a Sharpshooter posed poised with two pistols ready in quickdraw holster. right is a Knight prepared to tank and brawl with an energy sword in right hand and energy shield in left hand. center and slightly behind, the Sniper holds a large Gauss rifle with a complicated rangefinder to assure complete destruction of the target. it is a bit dusty below their feet, sorry about that!
concept art of the trimaran from waterworld in trawling mode
added from the previous picture: roland d5 as midi controller into motu 828mkii fw to macbook sitting on top of it. below is creamware a16 tdat analog which adat optical 8 more channels into the motu. out of sight, 2 dSub snakes connect the first 16 channels of the onyx 24.4 into the rack on the right. a cheap office USB keyboard with "ag" sticker appears to be controlling the entire thing.
home studio build c/a 12/1/24. a mackie 24 channel console with a pair of kali lp6 monitors atop on-stage stands. to the left, a small odyssey rack with lexicon alex, emu proteus 1, roland mt32. in front of that is a small case holding korg volca drum, kick, bass, and keys into a myvolts passive mixer. korg kp3 not yet patched but will probably be an insert on groups 1&2 for loops. some coiled xlr cables i just made. not pictured but under the table, kali ws6.2 subwoofer.
labyrinth OST, DMX - flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, velvet goldmine OST, ja rule - venni vetti vecci, rage against the machine - evil empire, alanis morissette - jagged little pill
the art of Yu-Gi-Oh card Polymerization with additional text added "BITCHES BE LIKE: I'M POLY OK BITCH AND !?!? HURRY UP & Fusion Summon 1 Fusion Monster from your Extra Deck, using monsters from your hand or field as Fusion Material. I AIN'T GOT ALL DAY!!!"
Neutrik NC3FM-C convertCON Unisex Male/Female XLR Cable
alex is holding a soldering iron and is attaching an xlr end to an unbalanced quarter inch jack . wearing glasses and there is a scattering of cables strewn on the table.
a graph that shows wastewater data for COVID increasing again
the lid of a dj coffin is filled to burst with legacy electronic music technology haphazardly but purposefully wired to facilitate live PA this afternoon
pretty sword boys from touken ranbu from left to right kinda: kashuu kiyomitsu (black hair, black and red jinbaori, uchigatana) hachisuka kotetsu (pink hair, gold haori, uchigatana) mikazuki munechika (black hair, blue hakama, tachi) mutsunokami yoshiyuki (black hair, red and blue kote, uchigatana) yamanbagiri kunihiro (blond hair, black jinbaori with white manto, uchigatana) kasen kanesada (purple hair, blue hakama, uchigatana)
alex is holding a guitar and adjusting a microphone during an open mic night at Pittsburgh's Blue Moon sometime around 2013
pink guy smirks in front of sriracha shrimp ramen
bubble mailer decorated with a quickly-rendered ultra fine point sharpie illustration of the cardfight! vanguard VR "nullity revenger, masquerade" with the flavor text "the knight of shadows pushes on. while cutting through the futility of conflict" the picture on the card is hard to parse with what appears to be a knight clad in black armor with many sharp spikes and a thin black tail, curled around a legendary sword. a ribbon swoops gracefully around to imply motion, the knight possibly mid-transformation into a phantom blaster dragon or other illusionary revenger. i still don't quite understand the pose so it's hard to say if the rendering is accurate lol