Here's a brand new mini-mix for everyone.
I named it after the finest cinematic moment in all of recorded history.
I refer, of course, to this:
Given that, previously in the movie, Richter had suggested to Quaid that he would see him at the party, I guess the one-liner makes sense. But other, more immediately satisfying (and situationally relevant) one-liner options could have been:
"Catch!"
or
"You are no longer armed and dangerous!"
or
"Looks like you could use a hand!"
or
"You and what army!"
or
"Now make yourself a coat of arms!"
or, as suggested by Archie Bevins,
"Alms for the poor!" (in a Schwarzenegger voice it works)
or, as suggested by hosmerp,
"A farewell to arms!"
SEE YOU AT THE PARTY RICHTER!
~tracks~
1. tom tom club : measure up
2. konk : uptown breakdown
3. brian eno & david byrne : jezebel spirit
4. shriekback : my spine (is the bass line)
5. spandau ballet : paint me down (re-paint)
6. smiths : barbarism begins at home
7. thompson twins : we are detective (more clues)
8. d12 : my band
9. robert palmer : I didn't mean to turn you on (dub)
10. missy elliott : lose control (MANDY remix dub)
11. tahiti 80 : here comes (smd remix)
12. dead or alive : you spin me round (like a record)
13. jefferson airplane : somebody to love
14. cowboys international : thrash
I went to see the Flesh at Sin-E before it closes down the other night. As usual, an excellent set. They were playing before this band Valeze which I had investigated a couple months ago when I was still working at MTV Chi, hunting down all bands with an Asian member like a mercenary.
Their claim to fame is a Cheap Trick-y cover of "Search & Destroy" which is kind of obvious and also breaks the cardinal rule of being a band: your first single and/or most well-known song should NEVER be a cover (I'm looking in YOUR direction, After the Fire, Alien Ant Farm, the Goops, Tiffany, William Hung, and Inoj!) The lead singer was this AC/DShe chick, very well-versed in the ways of being a sultry onstage presence and totally unremarkable. In fact, the best part of this whole band was the Asian bass player, who should be cloned and form the entire back-up band:
You can't see it from this angle, but that's totes one of those badass 80s basses too.
Most remarkable of all, the keyboard player of Valeze is clearly and undeniably a chicken that escaped from the henhouse:
after leaving the heaven party, the lab bosses and I head over to the ed banger showcase, where para one, digitalism, justice, boys noize & busy p are djing... lloyd and saheer, being gay, go back home to change shirts?? what a pair of guidos. from what I understand, what with ed banger being SHRN! everyone will be attending this party.
I catch some of busy p's set, and even though he dresses like a 3rd grader, he also started ed banger and manages a little group called daft punk so that by default makes him the coolest guy on planet earth. he played some cool stuff and then closed out his set with the instrumental for gonzales' "worst mc" which totally blew my mind! does anyone else remember this dude? he came out real strong when peaches first showed up on the scene, toured with her and had that song "futuristic ain't shit to me" with the l'trimm sample? no? anyways, hearing the track totally rejuvenated my belief that every song in the world has its time and place when it can be perfect (this is an updated version of my old theory that every song has the power to, at one point, kick off a mixtape), so here it is for you.
anyways, it occurs to me that everybody in the fucking building is rolling their goddamn eyeballs out except for me and lloyd who are getting by on drunkenness and love of da game. all the music is mad aggressive and completely relentless. peak hour at temptations' guido house night does not even come close to the constant fist-pumping required to be able continue hanging at the ed banger party. here's a shot of lloyd, yas, james & lax:
here's a shot to give you an idea of the extent of the rave-osity:
after this whole show ends at around 5, we all wander in a daze over to the after-party. keep in mind that the system was so loud and poorly balanced that when I step out into the quiet street, my ears are buzzing crazily like a landmine just went off by my head. we head over to michna's shindig nearby, where his boys are blasting miami classics and people are spinning outside in the back. I play a few records, and as the sun comes out, ed banger affiliates boot us off the turntables and set up house, french-style. I have gained a new respect for the french. I thought they were a bunch of freedom-hating wine-sippers, instead they have endless reservoirs of energy and an unquenchable thirst for cigarettes, booze and drugs.
at this point, I have this quivering "it's not fun anymoooorrreee" look on my face. and of course neil nice who's wasted out of his gourd lumbers over like a fratboy and violently jostles us back to life. he like bear-hugs us! then my gracious host xavier, clearly disgusted by our lack of partying (I am literally falling asleep), slams down a bottle of grey goose, a chaser, glasses and a bucket of ice in front of our shellshocked, bewildered eyes. he then berates all present lab representatives (yas, lloyd, myself, james, michna) that we better finish this bottle of goose or else he will fist fight us. all at the same time! bear in mind that it is 7:30 am, the sun is out, and my flight leaves at noon.
here is an awe-inspiring shot of xavier, the camera can barely contain his joie de vivre:
also, the chicks here are TOTES BUSTED. there's this one slithering snake woman who is clearly trying to hit on anything she can, except everyone is so disgusted that she proceeds to dance with... the tree. then while she's rubbing up against the tree, she slips because she's a drunk hag and hits the stump with her ass. charming!
I can't really say much else. when you're in high school and see the sun rise it's like you've defeated the night or something. when you're 27 your bones ache and you feel like a desiccated husk and want to crawl into bed. I'll leave you with this quick vid I shot -- that's mehdi spinning and the guy who designs the covers for ed banger chugging grey goose from the bottle:
Vive le France!
first thing I do when I wake up on day 2 of wmc is smoke a cigarette then eat a makeshift breakfast burrito and take a shower. today is a big day! I head out with michna and we hit the beach:
the water is so clean I feel instantly compelled to urinate in it. we hit up a pool and waste the afternoon watching the stones throw set. let me make it clear I have nothing against stones throw... I got that charizma 12! indie hiphop is not my thing and I'm fully capable of respecting scenes that I'm not involved in (eg- metal).
but the stones throw party was the most self-congratulatory scene I had ever seen. maniacs yelling on the mic about how stones throw is the "future of hiphop" and a crowd that is literally 98% white dudes bobbing their heads smoking joints. benji b is kind of meh as a dj and then j-rocc, who handles mic duties informs everyone that madlib is going to "get on the 1s and 2s". why j-rocc doesn't just do a funk and breaks set and decimate motherfuckers is beyond me. oh yeah, throughout this time, THIS dude is hanging out stage right, doing the ani difranco hippie girl seaweed dance:
anyways madlib comes on, a totally unassuming looking guy, and proceeds to play CDs for the next 45 minutes. madlib djs the same way your stoned younger brother might if you gave him a CD turntable, which is to say, not at all. it was kind of eyebrow raising plus everyone was screaming with delight! it was like watching the special olympics where you cheer someone on just for finishing!
after this ridiculousness the lab bosses, lloyd and I wander to some random restaurant's roof party, which slowly reveals itself to be HEAVEN ON EARTH. they give us free fiji, top shelf vodka, red bull, and various little wedding appetizer type foods, plus there's the new ghost rider video game just sitting there and the most pneumatic women you've ever seen wandering around smilingly giving you free refills. here's what we look like when basking in heavenly glory:
Jasper inspires me to newfound lows of creepy voyeuristic perversity by stealing snapshots of the ass of this girl wearing basically spandex underwear as shorts. I figure hey, if Jasper is jumping off a bridge I might as well too:
NEXT!
JUSTICE!
DRUG-FUELED MAYHEM!
NEIL NICE TURNS INTO A FRATBOY AND GRABS EVERYONE BY THE COLLARS, DEMANDING TO KNOW WHY THEY ARE NOT PARTYING!
Everybody take a minute and enjoy Robert Palmer's amazing video.
Does this presage JT's similar use of "chicks dressed in white/chicks dressed in black" in the "My Love" video?
The 12 is more minimal than the video version -- big ups to Andy for burning the extended mix below:
I Didn't Mean To Turn You On (Extended Dance Mix) (mp3)
the first thing I find out when I get to miami is that, the previous night, there was a latenight afterparty at the house I'm staying at. shout out to jake & xavier of "one more day" fame, who generously extended their couch to me in my hour of need. apparently the lastnightsparty guy, peaches, the manwoman drummer from le tigre, and a bunch of degenerate drunkos were all there getting wasted so of course my initial reaction is "shit! I missed everything!"
at this point I realize that WMC is all about going aimlessly from party to party, meeting quasi-famous in-the-scene people, and getting their info so that later you can become myspace bffs with them.
talk about big fish in a small pond, everyone knows everyone at wmc! if you have put out even one remix everyone knows it. girl talk is like a living breathing pariah.
so the day is spent seeing michna in his most comfortable and natural surroundings, ie DORKING OUT! it's like he's in a protective cocoon of dorkdom. everyone is constantly on their laptops, myspacing each other. michna gives me a tour of his old house (backyard pool son!) and when we get back spankrock is there and the first thing he does is give me a warm sapporo tall boy and I'm like "you are suddenly my friend."
we all order pizza for dinner because every restaurant is literally crawling with guido tanktop wearing vice-don't goons of all stripes wearing their douchebaggery proudly on their sleeves. little do I realize that for the next 48 hours I will eat nothing but fried beef and cheese for every meal.
first night is the lab party... basically every lab affiliate in the world djs except for me: James & Yas, the Rub, DJ Contra, Lloydski, the gaslamp killer (finally meet this dude and he rules the school) etc etc. it's kind of like a wedding, east coast lab heads and west coast lab heads get together and commiserate on the sorry state of affairs. the 3 wise men of the lab (pictured below) get drunk and watch impassively while paying for (literally!) $18 vodka and red bulls (we're talking well vodka here people!).
all is well and then andy gets on and destroys motherfuckers with a fiery hot set straight form the depths of hell. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Andy's opening onslaught of Kano and 2x Debbie Deb tracks, while fiery and Florida-appropriate, is a straight hollertronix bite. subconscious! appropriately, the realest moments of all come when he plays the no brainer club jiggy shit and we all lose our minds in the middle of... a jay-z set. also, he had 1000 sunglasses made up with his name on them and was giving them out:
the remainder of the night we spend watching ross one spinning at jiggy hiphop clubland and wandering aimlessly through the streets of miami -- every restaurant we walk by has dj tiesto pumping out of it and every car that drives by has "this is why I'm hot" rumbling from it.
at some point I become dimly aware that every girl, while hot/sexy in a passing light, becomes grotesquely and unbearably ugly upon closer inspection. It's like LA girls except worse because they're not even hoochie enough to be in LA. plus they are clinging like vines to these gigantor smooth skin eyetalians! we're talking sandals, spiked hairs, gold cross necklaces, incessant use of "bro" and of course, relentless fist pumping. allow michna to elaborate:
egg foo vs guidos
NEXT: DAY TWO!
WHEREIN ED BANGER FUCKS ME IN THE EARS!
WHEREIN MADLIB SPINS A SET THAT CAN ONLY BE GENEROUSLY DESCRIBED AS NONSENSE!
WHEREIN XAVIER, WASTED OUT OF HIS JONZO, SLAMS A BOTTLE OF GREY GOOSE DOWN AND CALLS ALL LAB AFFILIATES PUSSIES FOR NOT CHUGGING IT AT 8:00 AM!
The other day as I walked around in the beautiful gleaming Brooklyn late morning, I had 2 tracks in the pod that almost made me openly weep.
The HD sharp clarity of the weather plus the music in my ears rendered my defenses against crying woefully impotent in the face of their sheer combined beauty.
Regina Spektor "On The Radio" (music video)
David Bowie "Five Years" (live video from 72)
But then of course "Don't Cry" came on and I immediately straightened up.
Top 5 Pedophilia songs!
5. Outfield "Your Love"
The jury's still out on this one, but I always took it as the fact that Josie is the dude's wife, she's out of town, and he's stalking the neighbor's daughter even though he likes his girls "a little bit older"... a stretch? The video doesn't really elaborate, but it does have an EXTENDED GUITAR INTRO WHHHAAAATTT!
4. The Slackers "Pedophilia" (YT)
Pretty self-explanatory. 3rd wave ska you may have given rise to some terrible bands, but the Pietasters and the Slackers will always be OK in my book. Can't really say the same for Mephiskapheles, the New York City Ska Jazz Ensemble, the Skoidats, the Insteps, Mustard Plug, the Allstonians, or JC Superska.
3. Rick James "17" (12" Mix) (mp3)
Another pretty self-explanatory track. "17" exploded my mind when I heard it in college, but back then irony was all fresh and new. Nowadays if I hear some guy like "oh man the lyrics for 17 are hilarious" I'm like "yea they are... if you're 20 years old." What is my problem???
2. Oingo Boingo "Little Girls" (music video)
Danny Elfman WTF! You know how when you go record shopping you look for those early records by 80s bands thinking they were probably way punkier and awesome before they had their first hit? Hmmm???
1. Benny Mardones "Into The Night" (music video)
This song somehow peaked at #11 in 1980 on Billboard, then nine years later Benny Mardones was like "I guess society now has a much more liberal view of grown men fucking children, so I'm going to release this record again (at which point, it will peak at #20)."
FROM THE 33 1/3 BOOK ABOUT ARMED FORCES:
Frank Rose pegged Elvis Costello's early persona: "I think he has a vision of himself as the Avenging Dork." Prefigured by Randy Newman and Jonathan Richman, Elvis Costello introduced this archetype to rock, both by his songs and his image: The aggressively inappropriate stage name; the stance...
The Avenging Dork constantly wants (and fears) sex, but is not sure why; has become embittered by a perceived pattern of personal and professional rejection; craves intimacy but grows suspicious or defensive in its presence; projects his immaturity onto women whom he first idealizes and then degrades, by word or deed; needs external validation but loathes, preemptively, those in position to mete it out.
Get out of my head, author Franklin Bruno! Somebody's been reading my dream book!
It was kinda challenging for me to get into the Pet Shop Boys. WTF? Erasure, DMode and New Order was no problem -- my keen Asian sensibilities instantly locked in on that shit and I was like "cool, OK, synthesizers I got it, NEXT."
But Pet Shop Boys have that epic and decadent kind of detachment that Roxy Music also sometimes has that makes me sort of wonder how serious dudes are being. "West End Girls" is like 101 that everyone knows, it has that golden triangle thing where everything comes together and it's a perfect song, crosses racial divides, etc. Also Andy wrote an amazing summation of "New York City Boy" for turntablelab, but unfortunately that record's sold out and the review's down.
Anyhow, after trying to pare down my favorite PSB songs, I dwindled it down to "Being Boring," "Suburbia," "In The Night" (mp3) and "Always On My Mind." (YT)
I ripped "In The Night" from vinyl -- it's some weird version on the B-side to a European pressing of "Opportunities" that has a Latin Rascals(?!) dub on the flip.
I love allmusic.com. Whoever the staff is that writes their album blurbs always writes the quick info that you want to know, without getting too dorky or snarky about it. In fact, they never talk shit at all about anything. They're pretty good about giving contextual, fair reviews to dreck like Lenny Kravitz, when a much simpler summation of his albums could probably be more like "someone stop this douchebag from picking up a guitar ever again."
That's why I felt so betrayed when allmusic totally shat on Spandau Ballet's first album "Journeys to Glory," which is actually totes amazing. it's a synth New Wave album but really dark and kind of Joy Divisiony... plus all the singles are catchy! Apparently according to allmusic the only album worth owning by the Ballet is "True" -- and even though this album also rules, what's with the hate for "Journeys to Glory"? I take back the first sentence for this blog, allmusic, you can suck on my junk.
However on the Thompson Twins front allmusic comes correct. These dudes are so good! "Hold Me Now" wins despite being overplayed, but I bought the "Lies" 12 a year or two ago, and that record is one of my fave 12s of all time, it has an extended version of "Lies" plus a weird dub version of "We Are Detective." All this from an album that has one of the dudes dressed up like Cyndi Lauper on the cover LITERALLY WEARING HIGH-HEELS:
*update* upon viewing the picture closer up, I have concluded that it is not, in fact high heels. It's just the angle of the floorboard.
either way the guy looks only slightly less gay than early vince clarke.
I've been really into this old classic house track "Shake Your Body" by Jeannette Thomas. The dub version has been melting my mind recently. There's something about early house -- it took me the longest time to "get it" just like it took me awhile to "get" disco.
A lot of this stuff you just have to go out somewhere where the sound system is amazing and the DJ knows his shit. SO MUCH depends on a good DJ! Like I went to Midway the other night to see the Flesh and the DJ played these 2 kind of indie new jazz broken beat instrumental tracks that were totally amazing, and I normally hate that stuff. Then he played Special Ed's "The Mission" remix which at that point I was like WHO IS THIS GUY!! It proves the theory that the best DJs make you hear old songs in a new way... it was inspiring! I was totally over DJs and this dude makes me feel like a lame-o just by mixing 3 songs!
So anyway back to "Shake Your Body"... I only recently developed an ear for how dope these early house tracks are, especially when those hi-hats start overlapping and the bass drum is like the simplest thing in the world, it's kind of like how ESG (and yes you too, Shaggs!) was just a bunch of chicks doing what they thought every band in the world does except they were doing something amazing. There's that "we're just figuring this out as we go along feeling," not unlike when you first DJ and and your mixes may be total trainwrecks but you've got the FIRE!
(to be shouted in a Braveheart "they can take our lives but they'll never take our freedom" cadence)
They can criticize your out-of-tune obvious blends, but they can't criticize your SPIRIT!
Brand new mix in honor of nice weather. Track selection gets a bit jokey at times, but what can I say, all praises due to the untouchable shrine of Girl Talk, the one true Godhead of DJing.
Formerly Fucked
~tracks~
the blow : true affection
matt harding : close
raconteurs : level
yeah yeah yeahs : phenomena
stranglers : peaches
clash : brand new cadillac
starland vocal band : afternoon delight
beck : debra
specials : ghost town
musical youth : pass the dutchie
weezer : el scorcho
green day : brain stew
(giorgio moroder promo)
giorgio moroder : lost angeles
simian mobile disco : the mighty atom
jeannette thomas : shake your body (dub)
human league : rock 'n' roll
mariah carey ft. jay-z : shake it off
abba : mamma mia
So after the OKGO videos that were amazing and completely self made, it's kind of a no brainer than all the cool kids are going to try and do the same.
check out Ben Kweller's video for "Penny On The Train Track." He filmed it and it's grammy dancing. If nothing else, her leotard is reason enough to like this video.
So i'm generally not hip to the jive as far as album leaks go, by the time i get it, the album has been leaked for three months and the artist has to release a whole new set of demos. HOWEVER, this time i was on top of my game.
Fiest's third full length album The Reminder , due out in May, was waiting for me as i stumbled to my computer early this morning. Maybe it's because i have envy issues with cute girls who can sing, but the single is pretty damn good. You can listen to it over at Hype or head over to her myspace Feist.
and if you want a reminder of her wonderful Bjork-esque video for Mushaboom Check it out here.
I was going through my shelf of lame collectible junk (read: everything I buy) and wanted to put up my 7 fave 7"s from the 80s. I'm not claiming that these songs are going to shit on your skull, they're all pop songs I like, so if you expect some bullshit $400 punk 7s on here then you're outta luck. I'm more into these tracks because they all stand strong on their own -- they BELONG on the 7" format! If you're into this nonsense I suggest you investigate the "New Waves" double CD, which I recommend mostly for its relentless awesome-osity.
Let's DOO THIS! I no particular order:
DEVO - TURNAROUND (mp3)
THE HUMAN LEAGUE - ROCK 'N' ROLL (mp3)
*from the double 7" set "Holiday 80"
Totally righteous early Human League from when they were still Sheffield art punks dabbling with synthesizers and trying to figure out if they wanted to be more like Cabaret Voltaire or David Bowie. On the original 7" they go from this cover of Gary Glitter into a cover of Iggy's "Nightclubbing." What!
THE POLICE - SO LONELY (early live video)
I didn't even know this was a single but I guess that makes me a retard because this is the best song from their debut album. I mean "Be My Girl/Sally" also rules, but was "Born in the 50s" intended to be some kind of scathing commentary on yuppies/baby boomers or something? Sting never really got a handle on subtlety (see: "Russians" - best song on the Cold War EVER).
GO-GOS - OUR LIPS ARE SEALED (music video)
This is like the funnest new wave song ever. "Head Over Heels" is also crazy happy but something about "Lips" just puts it over the top. HOW DO YOU NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON THIS BITCH!!!
JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS - DO YOU WANNA TOUCH ME (OH YEAH) (music video)
Not the best song that Joan Jett was ever involved with, but I included just because she's totally fucking foxy on the cover. She's like an American Apparel ad, except if Dov Charney tried to sleaze her she would drop-kick him in the rectum.
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS - RADIO RADIO (music video)
The Attractions didn't get cover credit until "Armed Forces," the most jittery, postmodern, seductive and cynical record of the EVER.
THE SMITHS - HAND IN GLOVE (weird homage fan video? using some ye olden thymes b&w movie that presumably has incredible importance to Morrissey?)
The first record by the Smiths -- I read they were going for a Wall of Sound thing which is why it starts so noisy with the harmonica. What else... "Handsome Devil" on the B-side! Which is kind of about gay pedophilia! Plus the cover has some dude's naked ass! Which, combined, made Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke's parents think they were in some homo band! The A-side has "Kiss My Shades" etched into the vinyl!
*BONUS!*
Speaking of gayness, I bought Pink Floyd's "Learning Fly" at some thrift shop, and when I looked inside, lo and behold I found a little note. It seems that gay men also like the Floyd!
I first heard about SMD thru the Kitsune comps before they started to suck. Their track "The Count" was so righteous I put it on my mix with Michna.
I've waited for a full-length forever from these incredibly dorky looking guys.
They've released a trillion quality remixes in the past few years, and precious few original recordings. Here's a few of my faves:
PEACHES - DOWNTOWN (SMD RMX) *MP3 via Pause N Rewind
TAHITI 80 - HERE COMES (SMD RMX) *Streaming via Dudes Blox
SMD - IT'S THE BEAT *Performance via New York Noise
OK kids, here's 3x 80s jams from DA VAULTS... eat it up!
1. 12" mix of ABC's best song "The Look of Love" Whoa-oh-whoa-OH! A peak inside the process during recording this classic will no doubt reveal the following:
-Hey PRODUCER TREVOR FUCKING HORN, can you make the synthesizer a little more GLAM!
-Oh, I don't know Martin Fry, you see the synth is not really a glam instrument.
-Well why don't you remove David Palmer's johnson from your mouth and MAKE IT SO!
2. As close to CD quality as you're gonna get of Sexual Harassment's "If I Gave You A Party". Any serious DJ nerd will know that if you wanna spin a song off iTunes on Serato, you gotta buy/download it, burn it to disc, then import it back into your Library. When Andy told me that the first time I was like "Shyeah right buddy!" Now I'm like "there really is no other way."
3. A remix I did 2 yrs ago of Peaches over Peter Schilling. I did it on Garageband with records so it's not perfect, but what it lacks in polish it makes up for in REALNESS, N-words!
Woods, you might be the only person that really appreciates this BUT on one of my journeys through the interweb today, i set out to answer a question that plagues me often, "i wonder what Jason Bateman is up to these days," I thought, and so, of course I went to trusty IMDB to find that Mr. Bateman is not up to much BUT this then led me to the greatest discovery i might ever make in the music world.
Michael Cera , of George Michael Bluth fame, has a band and, YES, they do a cover of a weezer song.
i highly suggest you also check out their myspace page, the pictures will only make you love him more, Guaranteed.
The Long Goodbye
It's kind of amazing that he dresses like George Michael in real life. 
In response to Zubes' post about Owen Pallet the fucking clown-dong, I have to say that I saw the Arcade Fire last year on their Funeral tour. I had nothing against the album at all, as far as epic whiny rock it was pretty OK, and I was really eager to like their concert, mostly b/c it was attended by literally droves of glasses-wearing George Saunders-reading art girls who I would be afraid to talk to.
But after the Arcade Fire's punishing and relentless fucking 30 hour set I was like Christ! I get it! Just because you have 79 members in your band every song has to be 13 minutes long? Does every track have to travel across space and time to encapsulate the very essence of human suffering, shortly before one of the glasses-wearing guys switches instruments for the millionth time? By the time they hit their (literally 3rd!) encore, Whiny P McGillicuddy's larynx was so exhausted from his soul-bearing (see below) that he had to let that chick take over. 
Bad move! It was like when the Scissor Sisters let that Animatrunko chick get on the mic, she starts blathering about her hippy nonsense, like how "New York City is a living moving energy" or whatever. Same thing with the Arcade Fire chick, she starts cry-singing this 7 minute song about trees. Literally!
Hey Win Buttass, good thing you destroyed your guitar on SNL...
NOW YOUR ART CAN NEVER BE REPEATED, BY ANYONE, EVER!
Thanks Zubes for the title. I just got the 2nd Music for Robots CD sampler from fellow technophile JP. The whole CD runs the Indie gamut pretty effectively, and for me there are 2-3 truly stellar tracks. There's a dub version of "Hustler" by SMD, whose original version incidentally has literally the best music video for anything ever (YES THAT INCLUDES YOU, A-HA).
I don't want to blow up the CD too much but my #1 track is "Close" by British Indie penis-crusher Matt Harding. I wish I had a whistle that would go "TWEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
By the way, here's a sketch for a sticker that MFR asked me to make, that I never made:
Here's a quick link to the Lidell Townsell "Nu Nu" edit that I did a little while back. It's done from vinyl and I've been thinking about doing a cleaner version from CD, but motherfuckers are asking $25 for that shit. It's got open drums at the head and tail, plus acapella breakdowns during the chorus so you can put Bmore drums, baile funk, or Peter Bjorn/TV on the Radio instrumentals under it.
There's really no other reason to post this besides the fact that im in love with J Schwartz and that i just found this video.
This may be one of the worst remixes i've ever heard. It is saved for only a second when Kanye spouts something about not knowing what Fall Out Boy is talking about.
and here's the original so you know just how bad this remix actually is
Fall Out Boy- This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race (YT)
also, here's a fun throw back to what a douchebag Pete wentz really is (ladies, this one's for you) PEEP SHOW
hey woods, i think he gets negative points for the morrisey picture in the background.
So i think the name "The Arcade Fire" is pretty gay. i mean, the band is pretty good, but the name is stupid. well maybe not stupid, but i've heard better. But the dude that did the string work for their album, Owen Pallett formed his own act and he named it after a video game. basically it's this guy wailing on his violin. every now and then he throws in a good 'ol Rivers' moan circa "tired of sex" and some other jibberish.
it doesn't get much more indie rock than this kids
Final Fantasy- He Poo's Clouds (YT)
Final Fantasy- Artic Circle (YT)
For some reason i really like when foreign countries use unknown indie rock songs for their commercials.
have a taste
On the off chance that there's anybody out there in the planet who has yet to see these two beautiful, beautiful videos:
George Washington by Brad Neely from Creased Comics
SNL Digital Short: Sloths
Justine D, one of the founders of the Motherfucker party, just got her own website finally. If you never met Justine, she's one of the coolest promoters/people around, plus her boyfriend Tim Sweeney is also literally the nicest dude on the planet. He works with DFA and Rockstar Games, plus he's got a very good podcast where he spins on the radio with such people as Joakim, Headman, and Erol Alkan.
Anyhow I went to Motherfucker a few months ago and despite the fact that it's like the Times Square of hipster parties I had tons of fun, mostly because the DJs don't try to do dumbass mash-ups or intentionally overly ironic songs, they pretty much just play glam and other fun shit. So here are 2 tracks they played that night, which I have now integrated into my own set:
On Justine's site I was watching the Motherfucker movie trailer and was reminded of Morrissey's cover of the T Rex song they used, so here it is as a happy fun-time bonus.
So on DJ Eli's blog he put up the classic "Sardines" by Junkyard Band. But I dunno why he didn't give everyone the B-side "The Word"... such a better track I think. But then again maybe that's why he didn't put it up. But in any case, the flipside is fire. The only time I ever had the guts to play it was @ Lit in the basement one Friday and it decimated the place.
Also here's a link to the best thing ever. My editor Ryan turned me on to this clip -- it's so simple in concept but awesome to watch... makes me want to learn After Effects. Plus I know it has nothing to do with music. Whatever, you can suck on my junk(yard band mp3 audio sample! :P).
Last night, as i was watching an old episode of Dawson's Creek as i sometimes (often) tend to do, i was surprised to never have noticed their reference to the Smith's goodie "Girlfriend in a Coma" and not only is the lyrical content GOLD, but the video is pretty amazing too.
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