Mega Mega Mega

2005

2005-12-23T11:10:00.000-05:00

OK – 4 months late this might be, but it’s time for the MMM train to start rolling again. Instead of writing about music, I have…well…actually I ain’t got much to share, besides moving and starting a new job. Since August, I have seen several excellent shows (The Arcade Fire [I saw the light with them some time earlier this year and now completely understand how amazing they are], Tom Vek, The Rapture, NIN/QOTSA, SFA, Art Brut, LCD Soundsystem, Depeche Mode and Goldfrapp). I don’t think I am capable of sharing enough worthwhile details about those shows now but I will say the following: a) concerts in Atlantic City are a fun weekend activity, and b) the Nokia Theater is an excellent addition to NYC’s music venues - it may be a bit corporate and sleek, but the sound is great, a variety of good sightlines and the music plays in the bathroom so you don’t miss a thing.

Now, a quick recap of 2005.

Top 10 Albums of 2005:
1) Goldfrapp - Supernature : this will unfortunately not come out in the US until March 2006, which I realize is related to the marketing and how the band will only be able to fully concentrate on breaking here at that point after a long period of becoming massive in the rest of the world. I couldn’t wait and bought an import off cdwow.com There is something fishy/smacking of psychosomatic-ness when one of a person’s favorite albums of a year is by an artist that has always been a favorite of theirs, but pathologies aside, Supernature is amazing. There is no distinctive metamorphosis in style from Black Cherry but Will and Allison absolutely nail the sexy electro disco aesthetic that they began to explore on the last album.
2) LCD Soundsystem – S/T: an album that had a lot of pressure on it because of the amazing singles that preceded the album’s release. There aren’t any songs on it that quite match “Yeah (Stupid Version)” and “Losing My Edge” but there are several great songs on it. The taut, jangly beats scattered through are capable of triggering an epileptic fit (in a good way). Spastic, self-aware rock – hard not to think of the Talking Heads when you listen to it, and if you channel them well, they are about as good a band to draw upon as any.
3) Queens of the Stone Age – Lullabies to Paralyze: QOTSA fucking rocks. It’s Josh Homme’s show and he doesn’t need Mongo Nick Oliveri to make it work.
4) Engineers – S/T: I could imagine SoF muttering something to the effect of “…shoegazing by numbers…” when talking about this album. It is what it is – swooping, ethereal waves of guitar and soft, understated vocals. But it’s very good at it and I am a sucker for swooping, ethereal waves of guitar.
5) Soulwax – Any Minute Now: Please release this album in America some day. It’s a lot of electro rocking fun. Proves that there should be no distinction between the dancefloor and the rock club.
6) Whitey – The Light at the End of the Tunnel is a Train: See 5.
7) Caribou – X: It’s also spastic (most of this list is), but in a kraut-rock meets hip-hop kind of way.
8) Art Brut – Bang, Bang, Rock and Roll: Fun songs and a charismatic attitude, I’ll take Eddie Argos over Kele of Bloc Party any day.
9) Broadcast – Tender Buttons: Because music can’t go bang all the time.
10) Tom Vek – We Have Sound: This album finds a nice, unforced balance between indie rock and electronic production.

Top Singles:
1) Goldfrapp, “Ride a White Horse”
2) Madonna, “Hung Up”
3) Caribou, “Yeti”
4) Doves, “Black and White Town”
5) QOTSA, “Broken Box”
6) Mr. And Mrs. Christmas, “Bang the Poll” (a note on this one: it’s an Underworld song released under the pseudonym. Banging banging banging – it’s more mid-tempo than say “Pearl’s Girl” or “Moaner” on the kick drum. The percussion is similar the organic steeze of A Hundred Days Off, but the rest of the song twists and turns like a shark in captivity – love it)
7) Whitey, “Leave Them All Behind”
8) Chemical Brothers, “Marvo Ging”
9) Depeche Mode, “Precious”
10) Goldfrapp, “Slide in (DFA Remix)”

Have a good holidays…

NIN and Billy Corgan news (jeez, that's a boring title for this post)

2005-08-09T14:21:00.000-04:00

I am back from an incredible 10 days or so in the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver are all great cities, and I will say a little more about the trip later (I hope). And now MMM is back from sleep, sort of.

At any rate, as my days keeping MMM chugging along may be numbered with a new job starting in a little over a month, I need to share the nuggets I find while I still can.

a) And here is the first nugget I had to share: if you missed out on tickets to see NIN and QOTSA and Madison Square Garden (I could have used MSG but then the acronyms would be getting a bit out of control), while it did sell out, you can buy tickets via auction at ticketmaster. Interestingly, the auction benefits The Innocence Project - I am a former Carbozo so the idea of Trent using his celebrity capital to raise funds for one of the best things that the school does warms the cockles of mi corazon.

b) This happened while I was away and it was bound to happen at some point. The Smashing Pumpkins are a band that has as much of an emtional resonace for me as almost any band, but as I get older, I am learning the sad truth: Billy Corgan, the artist that was most able to articulate all those wonderful, horrible feelings that come with being seventeen years old, is nucking futs. Did he really think that after he made that recockulous statement about the Pumpkins reuniting that he might take a little heat from the crowds at his solo shows for not playing any? Perhaps I am playing Monday morning quarterback, but I think he would have been better off waiting until he was done promoting thefutureembrace before saying he was getting the old band back together, unless he merely wanted to try to shift a few extra units of the album by attracting a little extra coverage by making the announement. Billy got what he bargained for.

Automated Response

2005-07-23T01:19:00.000-04:00

I am going to the pacific northwest over the next 8 days. Hopefully I'll have some interesting bits about Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, or Powell River, B.C., to share when I get back. In the meantime, download a chunk from a recent Underworld concert at the Exit Festival in Serbia that was broadcast on BBC. There is some new stuff in there in the mix and it sounds sharp - some of the folks on the Dirty messageboard think it sounds like drum and bass, but you can decide for yourself.

...

2005-07-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

a) I was very upset to read on NME yesterday that Jason Pierce had become seriously ill and had spent time in intensive care. His weight was down to 8 stones (112 pounds!) because of periorbital cellulitis with bilateral pneumonia. A new Spiritualized website was unveiled yesterday, so there is unfortunate timing that the first piece of news that the site had to report was Jason's illness, although I have to say it looks pretty slick and the pharmacy motif is very par for the course. My thoughts are with Jason as he recovers and hope that he comes back stronger than ever (and that he is able to tour in support of the new album that is expected to be released next year). There are several Spritualized lyrics that would have been too appropriate for the title of this post, but didn't seem quite right to do that...

b) I love Oddjack's irreverence, and it's even better when applied to cool stuff. Cool stuff includes USA being ranked higher than England in the world soccer rankings and I guess it also includes changes in the odds of the "hipster horserace" known as the Mercury Prize (don't know how hipster it was when Gomez won, beating Massive Attack's Mezzanine and Pulp's This is Hardcore - I really like Gomez and Liquid Skin, but that was not the hipster selection) .

Everything Counts in Large Amounts - 101

2005-07-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

Recently, I watched 101 for the first time. Not sure if the actual title is Depeche Mode 101, or just 101. Briefly, the film captures the band's 101st performance (at the Rose Bowl on June 18, 1988) during their Music for the Masses Tour. The film crew follows the band for a short period of time prior to the concert while simultaneously following a group of DM fans that won a WDRE radio contest where the prize was riding a bus to LA with a bunch of other New Wavers from NYC across America to the concert.

I love Depeche Mode but I never got around to seeing it prior to now, probably in large part because the filmmaker, D.A. Pennebaker, was a teacher of mine in college, and not one that I remember with much fondness. It was particularly exciting to take the class with him as, on paper, he is pretty much royalty when it comes to rock documentaries - you can see his body of work here. I made a short film supposedly under his tutelege, but got very little out of working with him as he would tell the same boring stories every single week and did very little else in teaching us - unless you count repeating to us a number of times the wise advice that "you need to experience showing your work to other people and feel your asshole chewing a hole in the chair" in order to know what it means to be a filmmaker. Very inspiring. At the end of the course, he mentioned that he could have had Bowie come to our six person class had we wanted - DOH!

Perhaps what was most aggravating about DA was his M.O. for documentary filmmaking. As someone who came into his own in the sixties, at the same time as the cinema verite/French New Wavers (the original New Wave) Godard and Truffaut, he embraced the verite approach to filmmaking and applied it to documentary work. Never explain anything on film, just show it was essentially the ethos. DA was not the least bit interested in asking Dylan any questions when he made Don't Look Back, he just wanted to learn about the man by watching him brush his teeth as that is where the truth lies. Interviews on screen are too contrived. There is no question that the polar opposite (just showing nothing but talking heads ramble and providing no primary source material, which is what VH-1 has devolved into) is a terrible alternative, but the middle ground, which is where I tried to find myself as a filmmaker, was not the place to be under Pennebaker's philosophy.

101 had certain weaknesses that may have been tied to this approach to filmmaking. The glaring hole at the end of the film is that you have learned absolutely nothing about the band . David Gahan told a random story about beating up a cab driver one time, but that is about as personal as the film gets. The band dynamics are untouched. There is no context provided and it left me seeing no story, just footage of a few concerts. One of the better moments of the film was when Alan Wilder explained how the DM sound was created, using synthesizers, sound banks, and large digital rectangles that get banged like futuristic taiko drums - but that scene seemed to run a little counter to the verite approach to filmmaking. Surprisingly, in this letter the Pennebakers wrote to the DM fans, they say the film is more about the band than that concert - huh? Either there is absolutely nothing to them as people (which I find hard to image), the band didn't want to reveal themselves to the camera in their more private moments, or the filmmakers just fucked up and didn't get any revealing material, but if this movie is about the band, that is like saying Night and Day is about Cole Porter (a 40s film that gave an extremely cursory overview of his life and certainly didn't mention his homosexuality).

The actual footage of the crowds at the Rose Bowl and even of the fans on the bus was thoroughly entertaining because it is such a time capsule. The musical context of the era was captured nicely during a scene where the bus kids are drinking with some Guns N Roses fans in Albequerque, NM. The kids themselves wern't that interesting - just a bunch of beer drinkers with purple hair. Not a whole lot of fascinating material was revealed about them either and laughably, in the DVD's notes, Pennebaker and his partner Chris Hegedus take responsibility for the idea of MTV's The Real World because of their decision to follow the DRE bus.

The concert itself was exciting - a handful of songs were shown from the Rose Bowl, including "Behind the Wheel," "Strangelove," and "Everything Counts in Large Amounts." The most amazing part of the film, sin duda, was the concert finale - "Never Let Me Down Again." There is one incredible incredible image contained in that scene. A camera is on one side of the stage shooting across the stage. Gahan mounts something at the front of the other side of the stage and does his best Jesus posture and he is captured with his arms out with tens of thosands of kids behind him (but really to his side). The camera then pans over the crowd to reveal almost every arm in the stadium waving back and forth. A very powerful shot.

Pennebaker and Hegedus are kind of right in their statement about the film not exactly being a concert film. While it has several cohesive performances of songs throughout, it does not have the pacing of a concert, like Let's Spend the Night Together or Stop Making Sense, two movies that actually capture the concert experience on film. I enjoyed the performances because Depeche Mode is a great band to watch perform - David Gahan is mezmerising and it is fascinating to see a performance of one of the earlier groups to play with synthesizers instead of guitars and drums (there are occassional guitars played by real brains behind of DM - Martin Gore). But the parts in between didn't reveal enough to connect the viewer to the film. For a Depeche Mode fan, it is probably worth seeing, and you will probably bring a less critical eye than me.

This will be the last time I ever do your hair! Bridget Jones' Diarrhea (The Scissor Sisters) @ Mercury Lounge, July 13, 2005

2005-07-15T10:19:00.000-04:00

Wasting time at work reading the music blogs is sometimes incredibly rewarding - thanks to Brooklyn Vegan, I learned that the Scissor Sisters were going to play Mercury Lounge on Wednesday night under the name Bridget Jones' Diarrhea. Peephole hooked up the tickets during a lunch break by cabbing over to the Mercury.

Well, all I can say is thank you Vegan and thank you Peephole - the Sisters were phenomenal. Not the least bit surprising - they put on a great show in December and my first exposure to them was their performance at last year's Benicassim festival (I became a quick convert). As professional entertainers as they clearly are (they did just play for billions at Live 8), apparently they are capable of stage fright even in a venue as small as the Mercury Lounge. We were standing the by the stairs to enter the stage and as they waited to go on, Jake Shears said "I am strangely nervous" - I can only guess it was due to the fact that they were about to test out 6 new songs in front of friends and family. The nerves didn't show once they took the stage and ripped into "Laura." The show felt very short (probably because it was eo energetic and fun), but they did play 12 songs - 6 new and 6 old, and of the old songs that they played were all the ones that I wanted to hear: "Laura," "Take Your Momma," "Mary," "Filthy Gorgeous," "Tits on the Radio," and "Comfortably Numb" as the closer. Obviously, the energy in that small room was overflowing. Seeing them so close also made it a lot easier to appreciate what a tight band and consummate professionals they are.

Peephole has now recovered from missing their set in Spain last summer. Here are write-ups by Brooklyn Vegan, Yeti Don't Dance, and Central Village.

I already posted my pics from the show here and here. My first foray into concert photos but when you are that close to the stage, it is hard not to.

Scissor Sisters @ Mercury Lounge - July 13, 2005 (second batch of photos)

2005-07-14T01:35:00.000-04:00

A few more (yes, Miranda - that is your finger pointing at Mr. Shears in that picture).

Scissor Sisters @ Mercury Lounge - July 13, 2005 (photos)

2005-07-14T01:24:00.000-04:00

Here are some photos from the incredible concert I attended tonight. I have a bit to say about it too, but thought I would do an experiment and share these first (there are more that are better - just a start):

Supernature/"Ooh La La"

2005-07-06T18:00:00.000-04:00

The first single off Supernature,the new Goldfrapp album, "Ooh La La," can be streamed on their website now (as well as excerpts of all tracks on the album). Shockingly, despite the office firewall's best efforts, I was able to watch the video at work. First impression: the song is itself is fairly close in style of Black Cherry - starting with the dirty synths of "Train" while adding a stomping, more uptempo beat. I dig it and, like the singles off Black Cherry, I imagine it will continue to push Goldfrapp towards the top of the club charts. The video is quite interesting - riffing off of the green background and reel to reel tape motif of the single's artwork - it's basically a performance by an androgynous/mixed gender glam band (although, were there keytars in the days of glam?) with a bellbottom-clad Allison vamping it up as the group's frontwoman. I doubt this is the real Goldfrapp touring band as I can't imagine any of them putting on the lederhosen and playing the violin on the Felt Mountain songs. Aside from the bellbottoms, the video gets more disco than disco when Allison rides across the sky on a discoball horse!

The artwork for Supernature is on the site here. A tasteful photo of Allison in her birthday suit. There is something a bit mysterious about the bit that obstructs her breast - doesn't it look a little odd the way it has that cut-out? It's pretty racy cover art, but why not? Everything about Goldfrapp's music smacks of sex and she is a foxy chameleon whose look as always tastefully paralleled the music.

Unfortunately, according to Arjan, the US release of Supernature has been pushed back to February so Allison and Will can promote the album in the US simultaneous to its release. This is annoying, but at least this means there should be a NYC show in the new year (2006!).

Never could I have imagined when I got Felt Mountain that Goldfrapp would go on to become purveyors of electro-disco. It's been a fascinating metamorphosis as I have found their more club-friendly music just as good as their icier downtempo homages to Bavaria and old soundtracks. Of course, it's not like the sound of Felt Mountain was abandoned, just that the singles now tend to be much punchier songs, outside of "Black Cherry" (and I imagine at least one single off of Supernature). I suppose the common denominator in all of Goldfrapp's music is that it's sexy. At any rate, this album ranks up there perhaps just short of the Super Furry Animals' Love Kraft as my most anticipated albums left to come out this year, although now it's going to be a 2006 release for here (I doubt I will hold out that long and I will get a copy in the fall)

Chems in Central Park / Live 8

2005-07-05T10:34:00.000-04:00

1) The rumored Chemical Brothers' show in Central Park has been confirmed. The line up is essentially what was rumored as well. Tickets are on sale at the Ultra New York website. This will provide a very nice note to end the summer on. While the DJs spinning that day (Jokenfold, Erick Morillo, Danny Tenaglia, and Timo Maas) wouldn't be as exciting as 2manydjs or Erol Alkan, I am not complaining, as I imagine some decent house will be played. Including the scrubs that are also supposed to play that day (yeah, a jerky comment - but I have never seen them spin, so they can't possibly be good!), there are 7 DJs plus the Chems' performing, with more to be announced - how is everyone going to play anything more than 30 minutes if they only have one stage? Perhaps there will be a couple of tents, which could be interesting.

I am a bit torn on how successful I want this event to be. On one hand, if they sell out (as the website promises), that could lead to other similar events in Central Park, which certainly would be a lot of fun. I also llike to see the Chems be successful in the States. However, my big fear is that this is the kind of event that is ripe for an awful crowd that would be the type of characters you might see at Crobar on a Friday night.

Tickets are 50 bucks during the "presale" (which appears to mean a certain number of alloted tickets rather than a specific time period) and go up to 60 once they are on sale proper - pricey, so buy your duckets soon, kids!

2) I watched a bunch of Live 8 on Saturday. Like everyone else, I found MTV/VH-1's coverage to border on the offensive. Who the hell cares what your idiot C grade hosts have to say about Pink Floyd? Fading out during "Comfortably Numb" was such a foolish call that it was funny. Fortunately, I discovered AOL's very commendable coverage on the internet. Any of the myriad concerts from around the world was available to watch live, and without any technical interruptions. I loved Floyd - and I thought that David Gilmour's voice sounded good (Rajeev and I argued the merits of his voice vs. Roger Waters on and off for much of the weekend). The Who rocked. Richard Ashcroft's performance of "Bittersweet Symphony" with Coldplay was tolerable - mainly because it was fun to watch shoeless Mad Richard strut onto the stage carrying his boots. Macca's Beatles set at the end of the show was enjoyable. Peephole was instantly smitten (and I imagine Frauds was too) when we watched Robbie Williams belt out "Angels" during a re-webcast of the London concert.

Why on earth wasn't Rush on the virtually all-Canadian Toronto show?

Perhaps I am getting old, but I surprised myself this weekend while watching this rediculous epic concert and instead of being snarky and cynical about it, I was just happy to see the classic rockers.

A Chemical Trifecta

2005-06-30T16:10:00.000-04:00

Only massive news is going to motivate me to throw a third posting up today - and I promise it's MEGA!

CHEMS IN CENTRAL PARK!!!

September 16, 2005, The Chemical Brothers are headlining Ultra New York - the website has no annouced artists yet, but according to the Chems' forum (I guess it can be taken with a grain of salt, but this info clearly comes from somewhere), the line up is the following:

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS *LIVE* (Astralwerks) www.chemicalbrothers.com
PAUL OAKENFOLD (Perfecto / Thrive) www.pauloakenfold.com
DANNY TENAGLIA (BE YOURSELF) www.dtourism.com
ERICK MORILLO (SUBLIMINAL) www.erickmorillo.com
TIMO MAAS (HOPE RECORDINGS) www.timomaas.com and more TBA

The Joke aside, it's a fun line up for a Central Park party. The Ultra website says tickets on sale "this week," it "will sell out!!!," and they are selling 5000 tickets. Rumsey is a little bigger than I thought.

Needless to say, I am happy that the Chems are playing New York and more importantly, they are playing somewhere other than Hammerstein Ballroom for the first time probably since Dig Your Own Hole, if not earlier.

Live Ate

2005-06-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

Holy shit - 2 MMM updates on the same day. About as rare as an unassisted triple play!

Not sure if I am going to want to see this this weekend.
Mad Richard is going to be on stage with Coldplay singing "Bitter Sweet Symphony" - I don't hate Coldplay as much as Peephole, nor do I like them a whole lot, but this is going to turn that song into the shmaltziest thing ever. I'd much rather see Chris Martin attempt to play Primal Scream's "Movin' On Up" with Bobby G - I can only imagine the invective that Bobby would direct at Coldplay if given the chance . Quickly on that flare up by Bobby G at Glastonbury - so not surprising. The guy is nuts - N.V.T.S. - and for any of you that came to see Bobby not make an ass of himself? "Fuck yous!"

Bob Geldof is a fool for not signing up any of the following:

the versatile Erol Alkan, who could have either bugged out the crowd, or bugged them in. For the London shoegazers out there, Erol is playing a "shoegazer set" at the Sonic Cathedral (a weekly party that plays everything from My Bloody Valentine to Ulrich Schnauss - not that diverse, but quality!) on July 7. Autolux, who is opening for part of the NIN/QOTSA tour, wil be playing that night too.

the G.O.A.T., Underworld, and given them the chance to test out their new line up. Apparently the rumors that Darren Price, longtime pal and warm-up DJ for Rick and Karl is now going to be the third live member are true. Not sure if he was involved in the writing of the new album.

Billy Corgan @ Webster Hall - June 28, 2005

2005-06-30T14:51:00.000-04:00

One of the many constant themes in any musicphile's life is coming to grips with the fact that some of the icons of your youth are idiots. Billy Corgan, one of my, if not the biggest, adolescent hero, has become one of those idiots - or he always was, but I didn't realize because I was blinded by adoration for his incredible ability to articulate all of the emotions that come with being a teenager in his soaring guitars, his vulnerable voice, and his sloganeering lyrics. Well, these days, Billy is very busy complaining about how the Smashing Pumpkins never got the kind of academic analysis that they deserved, making over the top announcements about getting the old band back together, and revealing the truth behind his shiny bald façade through his blog. All of this conveniently timed to coincide with the release of his first "solo" album - TheFutureEmbrace. The announcement and the blog would be actually very cool if they didn't feel so damn calculated.

Of course, the eighteen year old in me jumped on pre-sale tickets for his concert at Webster Hall on Tuesday night prior to consulting my less inner twenty-seven year old who pays the bills (and also suffered through the extraordinarily aggravating concert that was Zwan at Hammerstein), or even hearing his solo album to see if it would be worth it. Since buying the tickets, I purchased TheFutureEmbrace, and it's what I expected: an enjoyable but less impressive foray into the area of singer-songwriter gone electro-goth that the Pumpkins explored on Adore.

As the tickets were a sunk cost, I went to the show feeling mixed. On its own, I would be happy enough to see Thefutureembrace live, but for 40 bucks and with all of the foolishness that Billy has engaged in recently - this show had low expectations. And my feelings about Billy didn't improve upon walking into Webster Hall and seeing the concert shirts that were being sold - all of them were just big pictures of his massive head…very appropriate…

Taking the stage at close to 11, Billy's persona instantly filled the room and every twenty and thirty something cheered wildly because in the flesh was the same gawky-looking alien that once put out an album that contained "Cherub Rock," "Hummer" and "Geek USA." Sadly, despite Billy's desire to get the old band back together (meaning get Jimmy Chamberlin back on the kit and hire something pretty to stand on the side if D'Arcy and James aren't interested) none of those were played, although Billy did tease the crowd with 2 seconds of "Today." He played a bunch of songs off the new album, a few other tracks which were not on it (and not particularly good - or I just didn't recognize the worst songs on TheFutureEmbrace), and closed with a cover of AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (if You Want to Rock and Roll)." Billy's band was made up of this girl (looks like he hired her straight off of Suicide Girls), Matt Walker (the drummer that played with the Pumpkins during Jimmy's short sabbatical away from the group because of his love of the skag), and Brian Liesegang (of Filter's first album, Short Bus - I thought that might have been him). The most impressive part of the show was the room-encompassing screen that surrounded the back of the stage - it was up there with Kraftwerk's rig. Webster Hall was almost too small for the screen and the images on it looked the clearest on the projection screen that's on the second level of the venue (the camera shooting the stage is at the back of the venue and was far enough away to give the proper perspective. The new stuff was good - icy electronic melodies with Billy playing crisp, strident guitar lines that could have been played by The Edge.

The show was not as bad as I feared it could have been. Not the most glowing review ever I know, but my expectations were so low, that it is a compliment. But this is the last time I see Billy without a contractual guarantee that I am going to hear some Pumpkins. Check out Central Village's review and photo here.

Bloc Party @ Webster Hall - June 15, 2005 and some other stuff

2005-06-17T15:30:00.000-04:00

a) I saw Bloc Party on Wednesday night at Webster Hall. I had seen them in the fall knowing nothing of them and enjoyed the show despite the less than perfect circumstances that the Tribeca Grand provides for concerts. I am somewhere in the middle on Silent Alarm: I do like it, but it's not earth-shattering for me (not yet at least). I decided to see them this time around in large part because of the love One Louder gave to the Bowery Ballroom show in April (anyone else besides the Kaiser Chiefs take the one-two-three steps of Tribeca/Bowery/Webster?).

I was substantially more impressed this time around with Bloc Party. I know the album now, which of course always helps. They also appear to have honed their stage craft, although it's hard to say how good they were back at Tribeca because the sound there isn't great for concerts. The crowd's unbridled enthusiasm also probably helped. My group was on the balcony, which made watching the audience just as easy and entertaining as watching the band - and I was particularly happy to not be up close when the sweaty shirtless drummer, Matt Tong (who is excellent), decided to stage dive at the end. Only the most devoted fan (and one that wouldn't kick Mr. Tong out of bed) would be anything other than icked out by his decision to rub his sweaty back on their outstretched hands. The crowd was completely mental - a far cry from the un-disaffected type that is supposed to attend NY shows - which would have pleased Jeremy Greenspan of Junior Boys. The double encore was probably very exciting for the devoted fans - I was tired by that point and I could have lived without hearing non-album tracks at that time, but the ending was very energetic, complete with drummer Tong spitting out a mouthful of water in sync with a crescendo (Brooklyn Vegan got a photo of it).

The two openers were a study in contrast. Engineers, a Manchester act that owes as much to the genre of shoegazer as Bloc Party does to Gang of Four, were very good. They could be described perhaps as a cross between Slowdive and Elbow (better than Elbow, probably not as good as Slowdive). Part of me would like to see them tonight at Mercury Lounge, but I will be out of town. The other openers, Automato, were anything but shoegazer. Their sound is live hip-hop, relying as heavily on machinery like Moog synthesizers and a Hammond organ, as much as drums, bass, and guitar. I am not going to bad mouth them because a sizeable chunk of the band (according to my sister) attended my high school, though in light of that I should say that they felt very young - they looked like a HS band. The music was interesting (they had some breakbeat flourishes in there) and their album was produced by the DFA, so they got that going for them.

Check out One Louder's pictures and write up. Peephole had little to say about the show, but it sounds like she enjoyed it.

b) Bloc Party remixer and superstar DJ Erol Alkan's website has some goodies on it (as per usual). First, he has provided MP3s of a couple of some of his very old mash ups: first, a Missy Elliot v. George Michael v. House of Pain track here, and a DJ tool here that melds the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" with Jacko's "Billie Jean" - wicked. Next, Erol graciously provided a link to a segment of an Our Disco set he spun in 2004 - grab the MP3 here. From Our Disco, you can also get a 35 minute set he spun recently there. And if you check out his forum (where he frequently checks in and answers questions about tracks), you will learn that the recent set opens with Primal Scream's "Screamadelica" (don't you love the track that an album is named after but the track isn't on it? other example I can think of is Gomez's "Liquid Skin" and "Bring it On") and is followed by the DFA remix of The Chems' "The Boxer." This remix is kind of in the vein as the DFA remix of The Rapture's "Sister Savior" but not close enough to feel cookie cutter. Worth checking out if you like Erol, The Chems, DFA, or anything, really.

c) Finally, on Allmusic, some love was shown for One Dove's Morning Dove White as it was featured in the Editor's Corner on the home page. Here is a link to their review.

November f-ing 3rd

2005-06-14T10:25:00.000-04:00

I had recently learned from their respective websites that the NIN and QOTSA were going to tour together in the fall. On their own, in smaller venues, these bands played the two most banging shows (I didn't say best - that's a toughie) I have seen this year. Together, in an arena, the havoc they will wreak will be awe-inspiring.

The only hitch that I foresaw when this was announced was the fall timing of the tour. In September, I start a job that is a touch more intense than my current placement (not to say that this one doesn't have its moments) which will most certainly not allow me to keep updating this webpage at the vigorous pace that I maintain (heh). I just read on NIN's webpage (thanks to ProductshopNYC), that this amalgam of stoner rock and industrial mayhem will play MSG on Thursday, November 3rd. I knew there would be shows that might get missed at my new job, but I really hope this isn't the first one (or the second, etc.), so here's hoping that Thursday night is a mellow one at Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

My only other concern is that Josh Homme's badass ways would be muted by then thanks to a court-ordered stint in rehab - what has this world come to if a rock star can't dump a bottle of beer on another musician and then clock him with the beer bottle? Jack White didn't get anything for beating the hell out of that Von Blondie - C'mon!

It's More Fun to Compute

2005-06-09T13:30:00.000-04:00

Last week's Kraftwerk show was unbelievable. My first exposure to Kraftwerk was seeing them last summer at 4 in the morning in Benicassim. Sitting on the first mezzanine made it easier to enjoy the show for what it was, rather than just trying to survive it at the Both halves of One Louder had plenty of accurate things to say about it, as did Peephole (what she says about the equal parts style/substance and humor/seriousness, is very true). Jon Pareles of NYT, not content with merely standing up to the Coldplay juggernaut this week, offered an ill-informed write-up of the show. Part of the charm of Kraftwerk is that it can only be seen as the sum of the parts - the parts are irrelevant. The mystique around them is all encompassing, and that goes for how the music is produced and who produces it. To assume any part of the music is pre-recorded show sounds like the NYT sent a curmudgeonly rocker who has never been to a live electronic show to review it - pobre.

The other night, basking in the glow of having witnessed Pedro's 2-hitter in person, I bought a bunch of CDs at Virign, including Minimum-Maximum, the live Kraftwerk album that was released on Tuesday. Recorded all over the world during their 2004 tour, the setlist and the arrangements of the songs are very similar to the show last week - an incredibly timed souvineer that perfectly captures the overwhelming audio/visual experiences of seeing Kraftwerk (although sadly it doesn't have the prestine visuals - see Jason's great photos). Many of their older songs have been remade with far more modern sounds - the sheen on the melodies are closer to contemporary trance than they are to 70s/80s synths. Because the album is such an accurate rendering of the live show, the highlights of the show at Hammerstein are similar to the album's high points - pretty much everything - but most specifically "Neon Lights" (my personal favorite Kraftwerk track - was gleeful when they played it), the Tour de France suite (although on the album it is sequenced slightly differently, with "Tour de France" coming after "Vitamin"), "Pocket Calculator" (perhaps the biggest beneficiary of a modern revamping - the excellent main melody is even more fine tuned ), and "Aero Dynamik."

Pitchfork's review of Minimum-Maximum is pretty on point.

NIN lawsuit update - Trent wins!

2005-06-01T10:40:00.000-04:00

Cue jokes about getting what you deserve - Trent Reznor had a very big day in court yesterday when a New York jury awarded him 2.95 million in damages against his former manager, John Malm. That award doesn't include interest, which will spike that number higher. Trent also gets control of all NIN trademarks back, which is of significant consequence.

Trent testified the same day that OL, SoF, and I saw NIN at Hammerstein Ballroom. It was a big week for Trent: suing his former manager, playing two big shows in NYC (get the feeling the tour was scheduled to coincide with the trial?), and on the day that followed his testimony/asskicking Hammerstein show, Trent turned 40.

In a Different Place

2005-05-31T10:14:00.000-04:00

Last week, Central Village reported that Mark Gardener of Ride was going to be playing solo shows at The Living Room last night and tonight (Monday and Tuesday). This seemed like a nice, reasonably priced option to wind down after spending my Memorial Day weekend at a wedding of someone I didn't know in Syracuse. Peephole and I arrived at The Living Room shortly before 8, mildly worried we didn't get there in time to get a table. Our concerns quickly evaporated when we realized that, aside from staff, there was NO ONE in The Living Room. No members of Ride, no fans of shoegazer rock, no nothing. The bartender said Mr. Gardener was supposed to be there but there was no sign of him. Thirty minutes pass and still no musicians or fans. Needless to say, we were a bit confused. Perhaps Mr. Gardener's non-appearance has something to do with The Living Room's show listings: Mark Gardenerer was scheduled to play last night, while Mark Gardener of Ride is scheduled for tonight.

As much as I want to leave it all behind tonight, in all likelihood, I will not attempt to go back to The Living Room tonight, but it will be a game-time decision because this afternoon I get to see David Beckham's debut in the USA. The lip service Becks paid to America at yesterday's press conference has Soccernet speculating that he might pull a Pele/Beckenbauer and play professional soccer over here in the near future. I'll believe it when I see it. For now, I am happy that I will get to see Michael Owen, Becks, and of course Arsenal's Ashley Cole (though he may be on his way out of Arsenal after the Chelsea scandal). Fellow Gunner, Sol Campbell, won't be playing because he is still injured. And, despite my allegiance to Arsenal, I have to say I am a bit disappointed that John Terry of Chelsea - the best player in the Premiership this year and Neil Peart doppelganger (which is probably why I like him) - is at home getting surgery on his toe.

Stuff

2005-05-26T09:55:00.000-04:00

1) According to Filter Magazine, the new Underworld album is scheduled for release in August. For loyal readers of Underworldlive, where Karl has constantly teased that the new album was in the final stages, this is some welcome news. That was only a UK release, but I am sure it won't take too long for the untitled album to come out in the US.

2) I don't know how James Murphy is doing it, but he is a touring/remixing machine at the moment. Hot off the DFA remix of NIN's "The Hand That Feeds" (which I have yet to hear), DFA is now going to remix The Chemical Brothers' "The Boxer." This is most excellent news as "The Boxer," sung by Tim Burgess of The Charlatans (UK), is one of the sharpest songs on Push the Button.

3) Correction on my last bit of Goldfrapp news: the new album is now called Supernature - it was originally supposed to have the title of the first single "Ooh La La."

4) I saw Gang of Four last Tuesday night (May 17) at Irving Plaza. By this point, I am sadly not capable of a full write up. For a bunch of 40-something Brits that haven't played together in ages, they were a fierce blitzkreig of a live band. Reminded a little bit of Primal Scream's tight energy, except Jon King's on stage theatrics (including pounding an 80s era microwave with an aluminum beisbol bat)added to the experience, as opposed to Bobby G's clumsy attempts to derails the Scream. Go4's drummer, Hugo Burnham is a badass - like OL said, he makes some very sophisticated beats look very simple. The fact that he looks like he could beat up an entire pub if a barroom brawl every broke out adds to his mystique. As I was one of the Go4 fans that only know Entertainment! and "To Hell With Poverty," I was quite happy with the song selection for the night, which was in large part that album plus that single. "Ether" is a killer track, but "Damaged Goods" and "Return the Gift" were also quite memorable. Check out Rajeev's write up on OL - he has pictures that nicely sum up my view of the show.

Album Review: Death in Vegas - Satan's Circus

2005-05-19T13:44:00.000-04:00

Many of my favorite bands, perhaps the second tier in my pantheon, are those that have maintained a consistent run of very good to great albums over a sustained period of time. They may not be responsible for any of my Desert Island Discs but instead have provided a substantial catalog that I can always turn to.

Death in Vegas is one of my Tony Gwynn groups (great baseball player whose career was based on getting lots of singles and doubles rather than and maintaining a high batting average, rather than hitting home runs but little else). I got into them during my days at Formula PR - I worked there during the promotion of their second album, The Contino Sessions. The main man, Richard Fearless (other member of DIV is Tim Holmes), would send his publicist cryptic quotes from Jean Luc Godard - I thought "what a jackass" as Godard brought back all kinds of bad memories from one of my film classes. When they came to town for their press day on that album, one of my co-workers was sent to Brooklyn to buy their greens - I guess an implicit rider for having to do interviews all day is entitlement to a bag of dank. Contino clicked for me in an unconventional way - a couple of singles where they bring in a lead singer (Iggy Pop's performance on "Aisha," Liam Gallagher on the title track for the next album, Scorpio Rising and others in that vein), but a lot of instrumental, ambient musings. Usually sinister sounding in a very soundtrack-centric way, their music is often very effective at eliciting feelings and images.

DIV had always been a hype group - but being a hype group is easy when you always have a couple of collaborations on your albums. Somewhere along the way, the hype waned on them, and at the same time, they decided to make a cold as fuck Teutonic instrumental album (equal parts krautrock and Kraftwerk) called Satan's Circus. It was released in Europe at the end of 2004 with no fanfare and it is coming out here later this month with even less.

No vocals, no personality, no musical warmth anywhere on this record - no problem. I have been warming up to Satan's Circus slowly. It felt more conceptual than compelling on first listens but, for me at least, it has gradually evolved into a keeper album. There are no obvious songs here, although I can see "Reigen" and "Head" to be methodical killers live (they put on an excellent live show with a full band).

A note on the song titles: possibly the worst ever on any album, unless you look at them as tongue in cheek, and then they they might be humorous. These include "Zugaga" (a reworking of Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express"), "Heil Xanax," and "Sons of Rother" (Michael Rother was a member of Kraftwerk and Neu!).

Fearless and Holmes work on Satan's Circus is ambitious and adventurous in one sense as it doesn't rely on big name guest appearances to sell the album. It is also ambitious as musically it is a departure from their other three albums. At the same time, it is very DIV: the requisite elements of dub and rich electronic production smoothly working within the rock band paradigm are there. I could see it being on my top 10 for this year, which their other albums have tended to find their way onto, and consistency like that is how Gwynn became a Baseball Hall of Fame lock.

Nine Inch Nails @ Hammerstein Ballroom, May 16, 2005

2005-05-17T13:55:00.000-04:00

Last night I knocked off yet another band from the pantheon of great artists I had never seen live before - Nine Inch Nails. They would have been off the list in December of 1994 had it not been for a member of the opening band, Marilyn Manson, breaking his arm, causing the show to be postponed by one night, and I wasn't able to attend the rescheduled date.

I was never a NIN obessive. I have always been a big fan of The Donward Sprial but for some unexplainable reason never bought Pretty Hate Machine (I had Broken but didn't know it that well). I spent a summer working for Formula PR, which was originally started by Trent as his own PR machine (and he had his ex-girlfriend run the thing). By the time I worked there, Formula only did electronic stuff and was pretty much done with Nothing Records - but that is another story. Nonetheless, especially after getting [With_Teeth], I was very excited about this show and expecting nothing short of a spectacle.

As a concert experience, it was nuts. Like OL, and SoF, I was very happy to be on the 1st mezz - the floor looked absoultely mental from above as OL said. From a distance, a crowd that frenzied creates a great energy (but I imagine up close, would have had me clutching on for dear life). Opening with a scathing "You Know What You Are" off the new album, Trent and co. brought the high heat from the first pitch so to speak. Fierce energy articulated with precision. That feeling sums up the whole night for me. Many of the great NIN songs were played, like "Closer," "Hurt," and "March of the Pigs" - and the sound was as sharp as I have ever heard the Hammerstein Ballroom - but the sheer power in the back and forth energy between the band and the crowd was left the most profound mark on me.

For an aggro rock show, the gender breakdown (close to even) spoke volumes about how Trent's persona (looks and personality) impacts who loves them. If an unattractive, less charismatic figure was up there screaming "bow down before the one you serve," I doubt that any of the 100s of girls declaring their unbridled love for Trent would still be there. And I think that is also the case with the male fans too - Trent's brooding personality gives the music a far more interesting context. I think it is impossible to take him away from the music when thinking about NIN.

The show came to an absolutely cathartic conclusion with "Head Like a Hole." When they walked off, even though there had been no encore, you knew it hand to end there - there was nothing that could top that as an ending. "Head..." was a highlight, along with, not surprisingly "Closer" and "March of the Pigs." I enjoyed all of the new songs that were played but "The Heand that Feeds" right after "Hurt" was killer - it's an evil song with a very danceable rhythm. Like SoF, I was hoping to hear a couple of the new songs that weren't played, like "All the Love in the World" and "Only" but there was plenty there to keep me happy.

For more in the blogosphere about the show: OL, SoF, Brooklyn Vegan (who has great photos), and Central Village.

I want a girl who laughs for no one else - Weezer @ Roseland Ballroom, May 11, 2005

2005-05-12T15:18:00.000-04:00

Old reliable music can be very warm and comforting. As a child of the grunge era, many things from the early to mid 90s are apart of my "old reliable" and Weezer is one of those bands. I am not a massive fan - naver actually got The Green Album and Maladroit (though I have heard both) and I have not heard Make Believe yet (so I have no opinion on the discussion of whether Pitchfork's recent blasting of the album - but I will say that the artwork reminds me quite a bit of Bjork's Vespertine). Nonetheless, as a fan of The Blue Album and Pinkerton, when I was offered a ticket to see them at Roseland, it seemed like a worthwhile show to catch.

Fortunately, last night's show focused heavily on those two albums. Opening with "Tired of Sex," =W= played their fair share of big hits from these beloved albums: "My Name is Jonas," "No One Else," "Undone - Tte Sweater Song," "In the Garage," "Buddy Holly," and "The Good Life." I also dug "Hash Pipe" and the new songs sounded ok to me on first impression.

The crowd was fairly low-key and acceptable until "My Name is Jonas" brought out the teenage moshers. Come on boys - moshing is fine at a Rage Against the Machine show or if you don't push your way to the front while slamming around, but don't force your way up close - I seriously doubt that the thing that fragile Rivers wants to most see is a bunch of acmed adolescents push aside all the geek rockers that got to the show early to stand close to their heroes.

Weezer have made some great pop songs along the way. Their concert hasn't changed a whole lot since I first saw them in 1994 or 1995 at Roseland. They still have have the illuminated =W= and Rivers has a little less than no personality on stage. But with several great songs to play, it is certainly a fun concert.

One of my blogging co-workers, Megan, or Jersey Steel, as she is known by Jones Day-litigating Weezer superfans that are basking in the post-coital glow of seeing Rivers and co., wrote about the show last night - here is her postive impression.

On Monday night, the nostalgia will continue when I see Nine Inch Nails at Hammerstein. At that point, they will abdicate the title of "Band I Have Most Wanted to See (and reasonably will be able to) but Haven't Yet" after a slightly less than two week run. It sounds like a monkey Phil Mickelson finally got off of his back or something. They took the title after I saw New Order last week.

News bits

2005-05-12T10:30:00.000-04:00

MMM has become less of a news source - only deeper, more thorough writings is the MO here (that's what I tell myself to justify the big gaps in posts)! But when the exciting, personal bits of news come around, I love to share:

1) Goldfrapp's new album has a name and a lead single! It's called, Ooh La La (very Goldfrappian) and it comes out on August 22 in Europe. The first single is also called "Ooh La La" and that is released a couple of weeks prior. The band describes the single as "sulky" and "sexy" - sounds like Allison and Will are moving into uncharted territory. In all seriousnness, those words might be the only common denominator between the icy Felt Mountain and the electrodisco of Black Cherry. No matter, I'll be first on line dressed as a half man, half wolf to buy the album.

2) Bits of Tosca's J.A.C. are available for stream here. The name of the album comes from the first names of Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber's sons - Joseph, Arthur and Conrad. The album comes out in June in Europe - no idea about here. It sounds like Tosca - dubalicious, a little jazzy, and a little housey.

3) Billy Corgan has announced NYC dates (if you read Pitchfork, you saw this too). Two nights at Webster Hall - June 27 and 28. I dunno - before Zwan, I would have done this in a second. After seeing over and hour and a half of Zwan (a band with one album) and no Pumpkins played, I left that show about as disappointed as I have ever left a concert. I am hoping that perhaps in light of how Billy is starting to shine a light on his past with his very revealing blog on his website, perhaps he will be more comfortable playing Pumpkin songs this time out.

4) One Louder has changed up the look, getting snazzier than ever, and the url, which is now www.oneloudernyc.com

New Order @ Hammerstein Ballroom - May 5, 2005

2005-05-06T11:45:00.000-04:00

NME is often full of shit, using hyperbole as a means of drumming up buzz about second rate poser rock bands, and then taking credit for breaking these “lauded” groups (see The Libertines, Razorlight, etc.). However, they are once in a while spot on when they toss around the hyperbole and giving New Order an award for being Godlike Geniuses (which New Order uses on those promotional sticks on the front of their new album right next to a quote from FHM calling it the best New Order album since the last one), NME was almost understating it.

Last night, New Order played their first NYC show in a very long time. It had the feeling of one of those "event" concerts. I did my best not to get overly excited because I was worried I would be ultimately disappointed and that they would be old fogies just phoning in uninspired performances of the hits. Fortunately, my fear was completely off the mark. Barney, Hooky, and Stephen strutted onto the stage as if they just jetted away from their Spanish villas with those signifiers of living the good life (tanned and a bit of extra weight - except for Stephen who looked quite svelte and less tan). They opened with "Love Vigilantes," which spun the very diverse crowd into a frenzy, and from there they threw nothing but big hits at us for 90 minutes. They also played a handful of Joy Division songs, which I know some think is sacrilegious. I thought they were great - it's the same band that wrote the songs, and while Bernard obviously sounds nothing like Ian Curtis and doesn't sing with the same time of energy, it didn't matter. To hear the original band playing those songs gave me chills. A few songs from the new album, Waiting for the Siren's Call, including the title track, "Hey Now What You Doing," the duet with Scissor Sister Ana Matronic "Jetstream" (which she came out for), and "Krafty." I like "Jetstream" on the album but it didn't resonate that well live.

I must give much love to Peter Hook. I saw him spin in Barcelona last summer and it was plenty of fun, even though he essentially just played the 24 Hour Party People Soundtrack. The guy is an old rock star, but he does it with such panache. And when you see him live, the significance of his basslines is completely reaffirmed. Few bands have featured the bass as the melody maker as Joy Division and New Order have. "Love Will Tear Us Apart," "Blue Monday" (which he rocked a 6 string bass on live!), "Krafty," and virtually everything else totally ride on his bass. It's also not just the melodies that he plays, but the way he plays his bass - low slung and casually as hell - like an f'ing rock star!

Bernard injured his knee while in California but it didn't stop him from hopping around like a clumsy middle aged relative getting down at a wedding. Between his goofy dancing and his oddly timed loud yelps throughout the show, he isn't a natural performer but his energy is infectious. He could yelp a little less often though.

Clearly younger than the other three, a guy named Phil has replaced Gillian and he plays the guitar and the synthesizers occasionally (but not that much - making it look like a lot of the keyboard parts were pre-recorded). He must feel like the luckiest SOB on the planet touring with such a great band and playing all of their hits. Something to think about: would you rather achieve success on your own for a couple of albums and have fans sing your songs to you or would you rather play with one your favorite bands for a while? I think I might pick the latter, but not sure.

There were many highlights for me, but the biggest were "Temptation," "Crystal," "Transmission," "Atmosphere," and "Blue Monday" (which they cut up a bit of Kylie's "Can't Get you Out of my Head" making a cheeky reference to the famous mash-up of those two songs). Sure the sound wasn't perfect as it was the Hammerstein (but it wasn't terrible), but it didn't matter - here was a great band playing tons of great songs which the entire crowd was completely lost in for 90 minutes. Excellent night.

Junior Boys, et al @ Bowery Ballroom - May 4, 2005

2005-05-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

Things have been pathetically slow here at MMM as of late. Lo siento.

I will attempt to make up for it by offering all kinds of news and reviews (but only one on this post). On Wednesday night, Peephole and I saw the quadruple-header Caribou/Manitoba, Four Tet, Junior Boys, and the Russian Futurists. Of the four groups, Junior Boys were the big pull for me as I really like their album, Last Exit. I was supposed to see them in December at a Hanukah show at Joe’s Pub, but the 11pm start time and that the tickets were not paid for in advance made it less compelling to make the trek from Morristown that night. I had seen Four Tet three times in 2002 as the opening act for Radiohead when the Oxonians toured tiny concerthalls in Spain and Portugal for 2 weeks. One Louder (both halves) got to the venue as the doors opened and landed an ace location at the first table upstairs – needless to say, I was very happy to have a good seat waiting for me when I got there. Yeah I know I am getting old but sitting at a concert is generally the way to go.

We got there in time to catch a few tracks of The Russian Futurists. Musically, they were fine – Belle and Sebastian's gentle sensibilities played on slightly distorted synthesizers. However, their lead singer had one of those annoying shiny and whiny voices (Peephole likened it to Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie/The Postal Service), which did nothing positive for me. Fortunately, we didn’t have to suffer through that much of it.

Junior Boys came on at 9:30pm – which isn’t a bad time for an act to start, if it wasn’t for the fact that there were two more to come after them, so it felt as though they were a bit of an opening act. They played some new songs, which were good, and then a handful of album tracks, including “Bellona,” “Birthday,” and “Teach Me How to Fight.” I was disappointed that “More Than Real” wasn’t played. Jeremy Greenspan added a rich U2-influenced guitar line to many of the songs (OL is right that it's straight off The Unforgettable Fire), giving their gentle understated electro pop sound a slightly more rock band feel. Peephole is right that calling for the crowd to dance is a bit of a faux pas - especially when your music could easily appear on a downtempo compilation. Overall a very quality set that made me regret missing the Joe’s Pub gig. Hopefully they play a headline show in New York again sometime soon

One Louder was partially right about Four Tet – laptop wankery is the jumping off point to describe his abrasive live sound. There is a fine line between abstract sound being artistically interesting and pomo (you know, post modern…weird for the sake of weird!) shit. That fine line, of course, is a strictly subjective standard and in my humble opinion, Kieran Hebden/Four Tet comes down flush on the pomo shit side. I don’t know his albums at all, but OL’s description makes sense – he started with something that resembles a song and then deconstructs it/juxtaposes it against walls of noise. Again, I feel old for saying this, but I enjoyed about 30% of his set, which is what one member of OL estimated as the percentage of his own music Tet played. So perhaps I would enjoy his albums…

All I knew about Caribou was the legal battle the band had with LES bar owner Handsome Dick Manitoba over the fact that the band used to go by Manitoba. I once read that not particularly Handsome Dick said that he had to file the suit because he was being hassled by people thinking he was the band. A) That is probably a bunch of shit, and B) that is hardly enough to make a trademark claim on. Dan Snaith, the man behind Caribou/Manitoba, apparently didn’t challenge the lawsuit because of the ridiculous legal fees he faced to protect the name. I know a handful of attorneys that would have been happy to have represented him pro bono (and if any other modern acts get sued by old punk rock – and how fucking unpunk is a trademark suit – curmudgeons for trademark violation, drop us a line here!). Ok, enough of that – I enjoyed Caribou’s live show. Energetic rock, with two drumsets going for a good chunk of the set, melded with pretty synthesizer melodies. I will certainly check out the new album.

A good night of music but four bands was a bit much for me - virtually a weeknight festival, but seeing the Junior Boys live was certainly worthwhile.

Summer shows nowhere near me

2005-04-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

3 that i will discuss briefly:

1) Benicassim line up was announced. I am a bit distressed - Underworld is playing. Some other good acts on the line up but all I need is Rick and Karl to make me happy. Just go to the site and wish you lived in Barcelona.

2) Lollapalooza line up was announced. I am also distressed but for different reasons. I bought tickets for this as they were 35 bucks. There are bands I want to see (The Dandy Warhols, The Arcade Fire, The Pixies [I am supposed to say that - they were very good in December but I don't think I NEED to see them again]), but coming a day after Benicassim really took the wind out of the sails on this one for me. The weekend in Chicago is still tempting though.

3) Somerset House shows were announced. This is a very cool venue in London that has an overpriced ice skating rink in the winter. Underworld played two shows there a couple years back and Goldfrapp's DVD, Wonderful Electric, was shot there. I would like to check it out sometime, and this year, Queens of the Stone Age and Super Furry Animals are on consecutive nights on July 7 and 8, respectively (not to mention Doves on the 6th). Damn.

It's All Gone Pete Tong

2005-04-25T11:03:00.000-04:00

A movie about the decadent island of Ibiza - yes, I was certainly curious, so a Sunday afternoon was spent flicking out. It's All Gone Pete Tong is about an Arsenal supporting, busted grill sporting (like all limeys), cocaine hoovering, English DJ named Frankie Wilde living the good life in Ibiza. "Going Pete Tong" does not mean playing MOR house for millions of weblisteners every week on the Essential Selection but rather cockney for things going wrong (cockney slang is generally based on rhymes). Things go very wrong for Frankie when he loses his hearing, his chav wife and their clearly fathered by a man of another ethnicity son, while simultaneously descending into a charlie-induced mania. After months of Howard Hughes level of madness, Frankie pulls it together, learns how to read lips from a foxy Spaniard, improbably learns to both DJ and produce music by sight and feeeeeeling rhythms (when he puts his feet on a subwoofer), and ultimately returns to the apex of the nightclubbing world.

It was both better than that I expected and a little disappointing. There was a lot more to the movie than the pure gimmick of seeing Ibiza on screen. As someone who has experienced the world's largest club (Privilege) and it's most debauched night, Manumission (pricey as hell but an impressive hyperbolic fete – Mike and Claire Manumission [and not that's not their real name I don't think], the couple behind the party, clearly employ pyrotechnics without the Great White/RI disaster as a frame of reference), that was plenty entertaining to see on the screen. Wilde's demise is very grizzly and seeing phlegm pour out of his nose serves very well as a deterrent for planning a several month period of acting out all of the characters in Fleetwood Mac, Rumors era. That said, there were some Tony Montana-level moments of cocaine ingesting which always provides entertainment. I have to say that rooting for a jackass drugged out DJ to pull it together is not often the case, by the end of the film, there is something a little bit endearing about Frankie, which makes the film work as more than a send up of nightclub culture. Other notable strength: while the mockumentary aesthetic that the film employs is only done half-assed, hearing Paul van Dyk and Tiesto deliver a couple of lines about the genius of Frankie Wilde was quality. PVD is wise to let others sing on his records – everyone's favorite Berlin Wall jumping trance selector has a nasal-y voice.

My beef: while it goes further than a pure gimmick film by developing a nice redemptive story behind Frankie, the film had an amateur quality with a couple of elements. The dialog was most certainly not written by Robert Towne (ask any film student about the script to Chinatown and they will repeat the mantra about the brilliance of the screenplay that was hammered home in class). The clumsiness of the lines are exacerbated by the annoying delivery of the character of Frankie's American manager, Max (a doppelganger for Larry Flynt). The actor who played him, according to IMDB, has done most of his work in England, so as I suspected, it was a bad American accent based on the worst of American stereotypes. It's not that it sounded un-American, but it was so over the top, it wasn't believable. I am sure when Mr. Wilmot does his American accent at parties, it goes off like gangbusters.

A low brow comedy in which you can see the seams on the film can still be quality, and Pete Tong pulls that off. There is little sophistication in the cinema of it, but there are plenty of ideas within the movie to make it worth seeing – if you are a hedonistic anglophile.

Billy Corgan

2005-04-19T10:15:00.000-04:00

Because government employees (besides me) are inept, I have a busy week ahead of me. But for the Smashing Pumpkins fans among you, I wanted to quickly share this.

Some artists' blog are better than others according to Pitchfork. I am not sure if this is a blog per se, but Billy Corgan has a new website and on it he has a section called confessions. He very candidly discusses relations within the band (particularly around the time of Jimmy Chamberlin's temporary departure), his own patterns of sex and drug use, and other very juicy and revealing details. Check it out when you have a little time to put into it.

Erol Alkan Mix News

2005-04-13T14:09:00.000-04:00

A while back I reported on Erol Alkan's upcoming mix CD. Two discs, one called A Bugged Out Mix by Erol Alkan, and the other disc being A Bugged In Selection With Erol Alkan. The release date is going to be April 25 in Europe. According to CD Universe, it may actually get a US release in May. Here is an E-card dedicated to the album with a funky disco-rockin' groove playing on it. Woo Hoo!

The tracklistings are on the E-card and it looks good! On Bugged Out..., the big news is the inclusion of his edit of Josh Wink's "Higher State of Consciousness" with The Rapture's "House of Jealous Lovers" (this song goes off spectacularly when dropped in a sweaty club), some Soulwax and some Goldfrapp. On Bugged In.., there is a "remix" of Spacemen 3's "Big City," an Ulrich Schnauss remix of Justin Robertson's "Love Movement," a Nirvana song called "Rainbow Chaser" (I am sure someone knows where that is from), M83's "Birds," and some Clinic. If I was a betting man (which Texas Hold 'Em is turning me into), I would predict this is one of the bigger releases of the year for the MMM soundsystem. Erol became a member of the selector pantheon while I lived in England in the fall of 2003. Unfortunately he doesn't come to the US much - he would be a killer at the Tribeca Grand on a Saturday night now that the Fixed party is picking up steam.

EDIT: You can sample the tracks on there too and the Spacemen 3 is sounds very cool - I don't know the original but I imagine this is a bit more rawkish than it.

Half of the Dandy Warhols (Courtney and Brent) @ Rothko

2005-04-12T23:48:00.000-04:00

While it is sometimes a love/hate thing with Dandy Warhols for me, the truth is that they didn't lie when they said "Dandy's rule, ok." Too much excellent music. When I heard that Brent and Courtney would be playing a show at Rothko tonight to celebrate the release of DiG! on DVD, well, it was hard to say no. Free show and free Heineken too (I had received an email indicating a Heineken open bar but I got no link to it), well that just sealed the deal.

Peephole and I got there in time to see Hopewell. They were good I guess. I dunno, the more music I hear the less I can digest - I can't really handle hearing music live that I don't know at the moment. I think it might be another sign I am getting old. Their sound was big and anthemic but their lead singer, who apparently is a one time member of Mercury Rev, sounds quite a bit like Mercury Rev's lead singer, Jonathan Donohue.

Brent and Courtney played next. They started with a cover of something old but no idea what. Only played "We Used to be Friends" and "You Were the Last High" of their own, then two Beatles songs "8 Days a Week" and "All My Loving," then appropriately closed with covers of two Brian Jonestown Masscare songs which I think (but I am not certain by any means) were, "Stars" and "Fucker" (someone correct me if they know otherwise). It was just the two guys with acoustic guitars - impressed to see Brent come out from behind the kit and play the guitar (and even offer a couple of understated harmonies too). Probably because they were acoustic songs in part, but Courtney breathed songs rather than sang them - I am not sure if chanteur is commonly used to describe a male singer, but it seemed appropriate tonight. Peephole has a friend that was hit on by Courtney once and got his number at a bar - tonight she reiterated that her friend was a fool.

I have to note a couple of things. First, a bad thing: the crowd was horrible. Yes, this was a record release party at a crappy venue so I wasn't expecting much, but two guys are on stage with acoustic guitars and a good chunk of the crowd talked their way through the show. I am convcinced that the 7th layer of hell will be full of "industry" people. The upside of a "concert" full of indifferent label people and Spin Magazine interns was that it was very easy to get up to the stage. Second, a great thing: I talked to Brent after the show and this is how it transpired:

MMM: Brent, the first song you played, was it a new song?
Brent: I don't remember dude (Peephole later said it was an old song, but didn't remember what).
MMM: Are you guys touring this summer for the new album?
Brent: Dude, I hope so, but I'll be honest, I don't even know what I am doing tomorrow, but if I could I would go on the road tomorrow.
MMM: Any chance you guys will go back to Benicassim?
Brent: That place was amazing - Courtney and I still have our wristbands from it (he shows us his wristband - we also saw Courtney's later on).

So there you have it, another member of a great band that has played Benicassim has confessed an undying love for the great festival (here is another one).

In the end, after paying for subway transportation and one beer after the open bar ended to see half of the Dandy Warhols play a few acoustic numbers was very good value.

The Men Machines

2005-04-12T09:31:00.000-04:00

Brooklyn Vegan recently reported, after presumably dilligently checking the Kraftwerk site for a while, that they had scheduled a US tour with a June 1st date at the Hammerstein Ballroom. That show goes on sale at 11 on Friday the 15th (so don't be at the post office sending out your tax returns then).

I saw them in Benicassim last summer. I won't gush about the festival but I'll quickly gush about their show - it's crazy! 4 50something German men standing motionlessly in a row in front of laptops while an oversized sharp as shit LCD sceen behind them displays some cool visuals, man. Sure it's a silly and highly conceptual bordering on pretenious - but it's really awesome and only old Teutonics who have been doing it for 30 years could get away with it. They focused heavily on the Tour de France Soundtrack and plenty of big hits thrown in as well ("Trans Europe Express," "The Man Machine," "The Robots"). All you suckas can fight for your floor seats, I will be (hopefully) on the 1st mezzanine because this is a show for sitting - though these days more and more shows are feeling like that for me (why would you want to stand during a Chemical Brothers concert?)

Meet the Mets

2005-04-11T09:02:00.000-04:00

Peephole and I were in the nation's capital for the weekend for ony of my HS friend's wedding. It was at the Westin Embassy Row just off Dupont Circle and it was extremely tasteful - as easy as it usually is to laugh at the cringeworthy moments of a matrimonial ceremony, this one had none. We stayed at the swank boutique Hotel Rouge - can't beat finding a leopard print terry cloth robe in the closet.

Hopefully, today I will continue the trend of attending events that are not cringeworthy. I am going to opening day for Los Mets against the 9 Astros of Houston. Frauds usually has more to share with the public about Los Mets (I internalize my suffering) but I feel about as good as anyone could with a 1 and 5 team. They have not looked as bad as a team with only one with so far.

As a reward for me attending opening day, I offer you two versions of the seminal 1986 hit "Let's Go Mets" It's quite the genre bending cut, but ultimately sounds something like Rodney Dangerfield's cover of "Twist and Shout" in Back to School (shame it wasn't the Basement Jaxx track "Jump n Shout")

Here is the original mix and the "dance mix" from the 12 inch. The dance mix is essentially a double lengh version of to the original except for an Alkian-like flourish during the breakdown at about the 3 and a half minute mark.

And if you want to learn more about the brilliant Shelly Palmer, the producer behind "Let's Go Mets" - check it out here.

Some shows/spring cleaning of sorts

2005-04-08T13:45:00.000-04:00

I have seen a few shows in the last week, Graham Coxon (at the Bowery Ballroom on Friday April 1), LCD Soundsystem (at the same on April 2), and The Fiery Furnaces (at NorthSix last night). As this is a journal and I need to make a better effort to keep it updated on what I have been up to.

1) Graham Coxon: I know nothing of his solo work. I went in expecting not a whole lot and because of that I was pleseantly surprised for a good chunk of it. He was a great guitarist in Blur and he still is. The Blur guitar sound is very distinctive and he still makes that sound so to see that was rather enjoyable. I enjoyed most of the the songs (and he packed a ton in - 20some in 80 minutes or so). My biggest beef was that several of the songs (and I believe they were new, unreleased ones) had that plain and boring English punk sound that The Libertines and The Babyshambles seem live and die by. I liked The Libertines alright (and even met Blur's bratty frontman Damon Albarn at their show at the Bowery Ballroom a while back - hey Damon, you bastard, why didn't you play "Oily Water" at Field Day? I am sure if Noel Gallagher had promised me a song before a show, Oasis would haev played it) but got a bit tired of the sound quickly, and Pete Doherty's imbecility even faster. I had read somewhere that Coxon had been playing with Doherty's Babyshambles or something. I dunno - he should write more melodic songs, unoriginal new punk songs coming from a veteran musician in his mid 30s is kinda sad. Peephole's write up of the show is here.

2) LCD Soundsystem - if you were interested in this show, I am sure you have read about it elsewhere. What more can I say that wasn't said by One Louder or Peephole? Well, all I can say about it is that each time I have seen them (3 now), they have become a performing unit and now they are truly a band. Murphy's dry wit on stage is great. I see One Louder's point about the details of the sound getting a little lost in the energy they play with (though I don't think there is much of a difference), but I personally think they are striking a very nice balance between achieving the well produced album sound and playing an ass kicking live show. Talk about energy, there was a hipster mosh pit during "Movement!" I though "On Repeat" was much better live. Having "Losing My Edge" and "Yeah" in the last three songs of the night is just unfair - these two songs are so good (and so much better than pretty much anything) and to nail them at the end of a show is a perfect finale (I do agree with comments on OL post that the cover of a Siouxsie and the Banshees songs shouldn't have separated the two songs). No encore needed.

3) The Fiery Furnaces - again, Peephole and OL have more interesting things to say than I do. I agree with pretty much everything Peephole said. Unlike LCD, the Furnaces, in my usually humble opinion, need to be more faithful to the nuances of the album to be impressive. Their whimsical side gets lost in the mix and their very sped up live pacing. Eleanor's vocals need to be louder and clearer too as they are such an integral component and last night the only lyric I clearly heard was "I lost my dog..." I didn't love them live the first time I saw them (opening for Wilco), and I didn't walk out of last night yearning to see them again. Their almost too schtick oriented live - though I preferred the schtick first time when they played the extended medley more. Their drummer annoyed me less last night but I think he is a bit of a gimmick drummer and should just play the damn drums and not act like he is in dire need of ritalin. I like Blueberry Boat and their recently released EP, but I am less sold on the live experience. And I agree that a weeknight show that ends at 12:45 is nucking futs. Quickly worth noting from the night was the goofy singer for Dios Malos. These guys were ok but part of why the show went so late was that this band was SO SLOOOOW removing their gear from the stage (and getting it ready between songs). One would think they were high they moved at such a snail's pace - and then they confirmed it when the Ricky (from Better off Dead) lookalike said during a mic break ("we got stopped 4 times driving across county, 3 times I was high, and the cops screwed around with our equipment that's why it's taking long to set it up"). Either that, or you smoked a massive joint in the desolate part of Williamsburg and you can't tell one of your 12 string acoustic guitars from the other (an opener with two acoustic guitars on stage - do they think they are Radiohead?).

Finally: I did a double take when I saw two posts from Peephole in one day...

Lollapalooza 2005 - featuring Satellite Party

2005-04-07T13:29:00.000-04:00

So the extra special, pretty, and very cheap souvenir tickets for Lollapalooza 2005 went on sale today and sold out in 80 minutes (oh yeah, they are doing Lollapalooza this year as a "destination festival" in Chicago the weekend of July 23 and 24). I got my pair because a) I shouldn't have trouble getting a little time off around then, b) a friend in the second city just got a new place that I am looking forward to crashing at, c) it was only 35 bucks (!) for the 2 day pass and they say 70 bands will be there - I am sure I will find a few to make it worthwhile, and d) the Cubs play the Giants at Wrigley Field on the following Monday night and I wanna see the formerly big headed Bonds. The rumored list (they do put an asterisk to indicate that it is a rumor) so far, according to semi-official Perry Farrell website aintnoright has: Billy Corgan, Pixies, Beck, Green Day, The Killers, Widespread Panic, Weezer, and The Kaiser Chiefs. I could live with seeing a few of those bands for certain.

Another band that may be making an appearance, also according to aintnoright, is the Satellite Party - this is Perry's new band, featuring (gulp) Nuno Bettencourt - Portugal's gift to hair metal (Extreme's guitarist). Aintnoright suggests they will play and that wouldn't surprise. I dunno - this one is over my head. Perry does weird things, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I would much rather see a Porno for Pyros reunion (an incredibly underrated band).

Choon of the Moment: Slowdive "Slowdive"

2005-04-03T23:07:00.000-04:00

For the most part, I have not made the Choons available on here - a variety of reasons behind that including that most were not already on line (and I am lazy), plus I am generally a bit dubious of distributing music on the net (but you can read plenty about all of that here - I don't necessarily agree with any opinions expressed there, but the comments on that page are entertaining).

Well, I am experimenting this week with providing a song for download and I am changing the title of this section to moment because I tend to get called out for not updating it enough and I deserve that. So now it is the Choon of the Moment (it might actually be weekly though now).

Slowdive is another band from the early 90s shoegazing scene. I can't tell you a whole lot that you won't be able to find out for yourself here so I won't provide a whole lot of background. I believe a couple of the members, including both singers Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, went on to form Mojave 3 subsequently, and Rachel Goswell has gone solo, and both of those projects have gotten remixed by Ulrich Schnauss. Musically, they are closer to My Bloody Valentine than Ride - plenty of walls of guitarish sounds comingling with breathy male and female vocals where the emphasis is on the voice as an amorphous instrument. It's very, very chill music.

This track, "Slowdive" (yes, one of those odd scenarios where the band name is the same as a song name - any others come to mind?) is a sublime song. Makes me want to just lie down. When "shoegazers" get that balance of ethereal beauty (and they are always going for that) undefined sounds and melodies just right, it hits you in the sweet spot and "Slowdive" did that for me.

You can get "Slowdive" here. If the track is no longer downloading, drop a comment and I will attempt to fix it.

I would just like to ask Mr. Cobain a few questions - it won't take long

2005-04-01T13:42:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently BBC is not as hip to what is going on in the world as we would hope...
(if you are a Yahoo news reader, you probably have seen this)

Graham Coxon + LCD Soundsystem + Headman + Ride = a potentially tiring weekend

2005-04-01T10:10:00.000-05:00

I am going to at least a couple of shows this weekend. First, Graham Coxon, former dour guitarist of Blur, is playing solo at the Bowery Ballroom tonight. "Coffee and TV" is a great song (one of the few Blur tracks he sings), so if that is any indication, it should be a fun night, but I am going in with low expectations - Peephole is the impetus behind me going. The 22-20s are opening and all I know about them is Jason "Poppy" Pierce - leader of beloved Spiritualized - remixed a song of theirs, so they must be doing something sort of right. Will try to get there in time for them.

Saturday night could be big: LCD Soundsystem at the Bowery (I'll be there all weekend). LCD live is an excellent show, and my previous experiences with them was before I knew the album. The late half of the night might be at the Tribeca Grand Hotel where Headman is spinning. I know a few tracks (including a quality remix of Annie's "Chewing Gum") - at the moment I don't have much to say about it other than it's funky and off-kilter. My brain is a little slow this morning.

Finally, just learned that Mark Gardener of Ride is playing the Shout party at Bar 13 on Sunday night. I am a late convert to the blissful shoegaze of Ride - though you can read a little about them here. He apparently does play some Ride stuff live during his solo shows. If I am feeling up to it, to see him for free would be worth it.

Just Like Paradise

2005-03-30T16:23:00.000-05:00

Well I returned from Bermuda a day later than expected - the airline bumped us (we volunteered when they made us an offer we couldn't refuse). Then we almost didn't get off the damned island yesterday because of high winds. Perhaps I'll write an entertaining entry about our weekend, but this isn't it. Not much to say about music there, other than the calypso band that greeted us at the airport when we landed.

For the non-NME readers, I found a couple of interesting bits upon my return to the site.

A) Felix DA Housecat may be working with Thom Yorke. We (the royal we of course) dig Mr. Dazzle (he soundtracked a great night in Chicago in the fall) and we kinda dig Mr. Yorke too (but discovered we were a bit burnt out on Radiohead after seeing them 26 times). Thom has turned in powerful collaborative performances, such as "Rabbit in Your Headlights" with Unkle among others. Thom doing a remake of Felix's big cut "Silver Screen Shower Scene" could be pretty interesting. This has the makings of an interesting development.
B) U2 opened their mega mega world tour in San Diego the other night and played "An Cat Dubh" - Fuck Yeah! An over the top 7 minute epic from Boy - this is a brilliant song and it's appearance makes me consider trying to get into one of the 25 shows at MSG in hopes of seeing them pull it out again.

Queens of the Stone Age - Webster Hall, March 24, 2005

2005-03-25T00:37:00.000-05:00

I just got home from seeing Queens of the Stone Age at Webster Hall. Normally I would write this after at least a day of contemplation and all that but tomorrow I will be in blog free Bermuda, but this show MUST be discussed. Short description, QOTSA RULED!!! But I better do a little better than that.

Opener Throw Rag was a loud punk-core band with a heavy semi-naked guy who had anything but washboard abs playing a washboard with cowbells attached to it. I think I would have liked them during my Mighty Mighty Bosstones phase, but I am far from 17 now, so it’s rare for the punk to do much for a jaded soul like me these days. They did dedicate one song to Lee "Scratch" Perry for what it was worth. They were very strange – not the least bit of a surprising opener for QOTSA. I am going to guess they have a cult following in California and Josh Homme brought them along for that reason (they did have a bunch of shirts and CDs at the sale rack).

After their set, the stage was draped in a white sheet as they set up for QOTSA – very rock and roll. The intro music was that nursery tune/lullaby “Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” and when it ended, they dropped the sheet and RIPPED into “Someone’s in the Wolf” from Lullabies to Paralyze. Goddamn – this song is heavy on the album, but live it was demonic as all hell. Each verse heavier than the last. From there, they fired into the two big guns off of Rated R: “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” and “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret.” A sizeable chunk of the new album was played and they all sounded great: “In My Head,” “Tangled Up in Plaid,” “Burn the Witch,” and “Broken Box” were all tight and energetic. Only song off new album that would have been nice to hear but didn’t was “The Blood is Love.” They played many of Songs for the Deaf as well, such as "First it Giveth," "Go With the Flow," "Song for the Dead" (jeez was that intense), a very different version of "God is on the Radio" and "Song for the Deaf" (which I don't think I heard on the previous tour but was impressed with). Notably absent was “No One Knows” (Peephole was very upset). The band was joined for a bunch of songs in the middle by Mark Lanegan (who they had said was not touring with them anymore – part of me is very suspicious of Lanegan playing with them despite the announcement Final song of the set before the encore was “I Think I Lost My Headache” – serious groovy stoner rock.

Though I have a feeling he is going to be back in QOTSA very soon, the band did not miss Nick Oliveri in the least. Homme is such a charismatic consummate frontman, there is no need for the gonzo bassist (though there are plenty of songs that he sings that it would be fun to see). The line up now has Troy Van Leeuwan on a bunch of instruments, Joey Castillo just destroying the drumset (he was rocking a Buzzcocks shirt tonight), a badass evil looking (in a good way) girl on keyboards (guessing that is Natasha Shneider based on QOTSA website) and I think Alain Johannes now filling in on bass. They were super tight and Homme just shredded on guitar all night.

Finally, to anyone who has problems with Webster Hall as a venue, I am convinced it is all the product of a subconscious animosity towards the venue’s weekend clientele, as it really is fast becoming an excellent midsize venue. The sound was sharp – could hear every part clearly without any muddied sound. The sightlines aren’t bad either and even in the back you are fairly close to the stage.

I am having trouble being as articulate about the show as I would like. It was absolutely asskicking good. QOTSA makes me feel young and stupid again – I can’t explain why they are the hardest rock band now that I get all fist pumping about, but they are. Perhaps it is because they simultaneously are hard but don’t take themselves too seriously. How many other proper rock bands could get away with writing a song that is a derivative wok of Bjork (“Better Living Through Chemistry” is a reworking of one of the songs on Debut). It may also be because they are able to channel the early 90s feel in a very contemporary way - grunge rock but not stale. At any rate, Lullabies to Paralyze has taken on a new meaning with a live viewing and I am very curious to see how it will end up against the heavyweight champ, Songs for the Deaf.

Everybody Knows That Your Insane

2005-03-24T11:01:00.000-05:00

If I wasn't smarting over being the butt of an office prank this morning (and to all you cunts at work reading this - go fuck yourselves with an abnormally large cucumber!), or trying to finish off a sizeable chunk of work with a finite amount of time to do it, I would be in a frenzied state about my upcoming excellent weekend. Queens of the Stone Age at Webster Hall (which I learned from comments at OL used to be The Ritz and is where G'n'R did that MTV club concert from the Appetite for Destruction era) tonight. And tomorrow, I leave for Bermuda for the weekend - here's to mopeds, pink sand beaches, Anglophilic hedonism (I swear I didn't make that up - it's in the ad campaign for Bermuda Tourism) and golfing on a par 3 course on Saturday.

I hope to report back about QOTSA tonight. I hope I am able to tell you that they played "Better Living Through Chemistry" - a good song, a good Fatboy Slim album, and a good M.O.

9 Songs

2005-03-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

Michael Winterbottom, director of the excellent 24 Hour Party People, has made another movie about music and decadence and I might be in it! It's called 9 Songs and from what I have read about it, it sounds very conceptual. The movie is about a couple that go to concerts together and then have very explicit sex (apparently that is all there is to it). The movie was filmed at real concerts of bands such as Primal Scream, Super Furry Animals, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Franz Ferdinand, and The Dandy Warhols. I was at the Warhols show (London Forum in December of 2003) when this was shot - so perhaps my grill will end up on the big screen in sensible movie theaters like the Angelika and the Sunshine this summer. 9 Songs is getting a "limited release" according to IMDB, on July 22, 2005

I am certainly looking forward to this. Good bands, dirty sex - what is not to love?

NB: the movie's official webpage - how cool that it has that adult threshold thing going on? Looks pretty randy!

Broken Box

2005-03-22T11:30:00.000-05:00

Today is a big release day - Coolfer believes the "adventurous record stores" are going to be busy. M.I.A., Moby, Out Hud, Bloc Party, a Yo La Tengo best of, Prefuse 73, Louis XIV (a band that has gotten the One Louder hype stamp), and most importantly, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE!!! I have already heard QOTSA, love it (more on it further down), so I will certainly buy that one, Out Hud and perhaps even the Yo La compilation.

QOTSA's new disc, their first with gonzo bassist Nick Oliveri, Lullabies to Paralyze, got a write up on Pitchfork yesterday. I think it is official - Pitchfork's 7 range is the equivalent of the Rolling Stone 3.5 stars. That score is being tossed out a lot these days - even the new Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol mix CD got it, as did Doves, and tons more. Every now and then they are ripping an easy target a new one, like Moby, to keep their cred, but the way they review albums now, in my opinion, reflects the impact of getting bigger. I think the writing is still sharp and usually quite accurate (though I am not in complete agreement with the QOTSA review).

Anyone else think they are getting soft and are caving into the pressures of business?

As for Lullabies to Paralyze, it is just as sick as I hoped it would be. I am seeing them on Thursday night at Webster Hall and very much looking forward to that show. Rich, full-bodied guitar hooks; snarling, sardonic vocals from Josh Homme - the coolest rocker on the block; a sharp sense of humor; and great pop/rock songs is why QOTSA is so damn good. Losing Oliveri has not hurt the sound - the vocals may not be as across the board as they were on Songs for the Deaf, but Lullabies doesn't suffer because of it. The album plays out, not unlike LCD Soundsystem, with a bit of a Side A/Side B feel. The first half are the shorter, poppier songs, whereas the second half is where the dronier rock kicks in (with "Broken Box" being the big exception - but it fits very nicely near the end of the album) "In My Head" should be as big "No One Knows" and "Tangled Up in Plaid" could also be this album's "Go With the Flow." The first single, "Little Sister," may not have been the optimal first single, as it is nowhere near the best song on the album, but the next single is "Someone's in the Wolf," which is a stoner rock anthem meets a Grimm Brothers tale, with a massive horn section sensibly mixed in at the song's climax. Cheddar.

Some ballin' trainers

2005-03-21T15:50:00.000-05:00

Saturday morning, I awoke the ungodly hour of 8:15 to get to the Adidas Store on Wooster Street shortly before 9. There were already 15 or so people in front of me (turned out the first three guys in line had camped out from the night before - intense!) What were we all doing outside of a Soho boutique on an early weekend morning? Purchasing the Adidas 35th Anniversary Superstar Music Series sneakers, which were being released that morning. Among the artists that contributed to the series included the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Missy Elliot, Bad Boy, Run DMC (naturally), Rocafella Records, Ian Brown and Underworld.

Next to me on line I met John (buying Underworld and Red Hot Chili Pepper shoes), a guy that works on building props for SNL (and operating the puppets when they have them), and Nick, a Londoner on holiday in New York this week whose only goal for the week seemed to be drinking (respect). Of course Nick was there for the Ian Brown shoes. Nick had a rough night before the early Saturday morning and attempted to cure himself with a little hair of the dog, a can of Sapporo in the pocket of his completely British parka. Nick quickly learned about the open container laws of New York (and most of the US in general) and kept the beer in his pocket for the most part. How English can you get? The anticipation on the line grew as we neared 11 o'clock - people got calls from friends saying the Soho Bloomingdale's had the Music Series on sale for 100 bucks (they were 150 (!) at the Adidas Store) and groups on line sent representatives to check it out. One guy came back with the DMCs but most were disappointed.

At 10:45, they opened the store a bit early and at that point there may have been 100 people on line - a crazy scene for a Saturday morning. I got the last pair of 10.5's (my size) and a pair of 11's. Apologies for sounding like a stoner but I think the best way to describe these shoes is that they are a total trip! Depending how light hits them, their color changes from crème to white. Hours of entertainment just by shining different lights at your feet. Clearly my 10.5's got worn on Saturday night.

Here are a couple of links to photos to demonstrate what they look like.

http://img199.exs.cx/img199/37/ss35underworld6xb.jpg

http://individual.utoronto.ca/julianc/UND1.jpg

NP: Zoot Woman - Zoot Woman (one sentence blurb: a more dynamic sounding Junior Boys [that doesn't mean better necessarily - this is purely a first impression])

DFA remixing who?!?

2005-03-17T12:29:00.000-05:00

According to the DFA website, they have two new remixes on the way:

1) "Mars Arizona" by the Blues Explosion - this is a quality, stomping cut that Optimo played at the Tribeca Grand 2 weekends ago.

2) "The Hand That Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails (!) - huh? When DFA remixed UNKLE, it didn't make immediate sense but then I remembered the connection between Tim Goldsworthy and UNKLE (namely he was a member - this useful bit of information got me into Crobar to see Sasha for free), but Trent?!? Maybe Trent got a couple cowbell crazy or something, but the sound of industrial pathos has never struck me as the perfect candidate for a disco-punk reworking. Have to see it (or hear it) to believe it.

Among the Thugs...

2005-03-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

One day I will learn not to draft a blog entry in the Blogger program - I haven't figured this out yet, so my punishment is the occasional lost of a substantial length post. This happened this morning - doh!To satiate the massive public demand while I try to recovery from my crestfallen state and rewrite the thing (a write-up of the movie Kung Fu Hustle and Ulrich Schnauss's show at Rothko last night), here is some interesting movie news:

Eli-JAH Wood's new film, Hooligans, is getting all kinds of positive hype from its screening at SxSW festival in Austin (not just an overblogged about music festival). The movie is about an American journalist that moves to England and becomes caught up in hooligan soccer culture. F-f-f-fresh... This plot sounds a bit like the incredible book, Among the Thugs, which is a non-fiction disputation on both the positive and negative elements of being a hooligan, from the perspective of a New Yorker editor. Claire Forlani plays Jah's sister that lives in England (my sister will be living in England next year too - nice one!). She is high on the list of foxiest of them all, and I just learned thanks to IMDB that she is English - even sexier! This movie has some serious potential...

Put your Finger on the Map, Who Cares Where it Lands - Doves @ The Bowery Ballroom, March 15, 2005

2005-03-16T11:09:00.000-05:00

Last night, the usual suspects (Peephole, both halves of One Louder, Frauds, and a few others) and I went to see Doves at the Bowery Ballroom. This was a major show; I am usually happy to be at a concert, but Doves being near the top of the proverbial list and with a very good new album in tow, plus having not seen them since Benicassim in 2002, and not at a small venue since 2001, created substantial anticipation. I have rambled about my first Doves concert in the past, so I will take off my rosy-framed glasses and not talk about it.

The openers were a "hotly tipped" group called The Magic Numbers. They sing on the new Chems album on a track called "Close Your Eyes" - my feelings about this song have improved from antipathy to indifference as I have become more enamored with Push the Button (one of these days I'll share my .02). I enjoyed them well enough live but am probably not running out to buy the album; decent melodies and intricate song structures, with a throwback to 60's California pop aesthetic.

Doves took the stage a few minutes after 10 cut right into "Pounding" off The Last Broadcast - as tight as ever but opening the show with a song from an old album should have been a sign of things to come. Next came an excellent version of "Words" - this was the norm for the night, as they played everything on The Last Broadcast except for "M62 Song," "Friday's Dust," and "The Sulphur Man." While they played a good 100 minutes or so, playing almost all of TLB only allowed for 6 tracks on their new album, Some Cities, and a paltry 3 cuts off the debut, Lost Souls ("Sea Song" - thank God, "The Cedar Room" and "Here it Comes" - but unfortunately no footage from northern soul club nights accompanying as it had in the past).

Even though it might have gotten too much attention, TLB sounded great. They played "Where We're Calling From" (which sounded quite like The Verve - I don't remember them playing this on the TLB tour) and segued into "N.Y." like on the album, which was a brilliant one-two. I even enjoyed "Satellites," which I have always thought of as being a bit schmaltzy.

The new album sounded energetic and dynamic; as blown away as I was by the absolutely swinging "Black and White Town" (Frauds' accurate description), it rocked even harder live. "Snowden" and "One of These Days" also were great. I was very much hoping to see "The Storm" with Andy singing, but all we got with him on the mic was "Here it Comes." It should be said that Andy might be the secret weapon in the band. He is a razor sharp drummer who is also a very entertaining performer to watch live (his facial expressions reveal that his inner 6 year old loves playing drums in Doves), plus when he steps out from behind the kit to sing, his voice isn't professional, but it completely works for its emotional content.

The coolest couple on earth, Dennis and Lois, was at the show last night, and Jimi (who was battling a cold but still managed to find his wonderfully brusque yet emotive voice) dedicated "The Cedar Room" to them.

The show ended with the "There Goes the Fear" and while I wanted to hear them pull out the song "Spaceface" (which is from when they were an electronic act called Sub Sub), this was an ideal ending for the show. "There Goes the Fear" is a perfect song; big whooshing strokes of melodies with a freaky dancin' Stone Roses' rhythm. One thing that stuck out about the track last night was the live ending they do where Jimi pounds on the timbales for the last minute while guitarist Jez (Andy's twin brother) is working a double headed cowbell. Alongside the South American flavor, did it ever sound like a polyrhythmic disco punk flourish (the double headed cowbell is very DFA) - who knew somber boys from Salford had predicted the impact of the cowbell on the hipster circuit?

A great rock band, tight execution, good sound - what was not to love about Doves @ The Bowery Ballroom? There could have been a bit more love shown to albums other than TLB, and hopefully the setlist will change when they play 2 shows on May 18 and 19 at Webster Hall with Mercury Rev.

I am sure the usual suspects will have write-ups later on, so look for them. Peephole's review is already up.

Songlink'd

2005-03-14T15:01:00.001-05:00

Coolfer had an understated link today to the exciting news that Songlink'd is coming. Songlink'd is a new technology that if you call them and play a song for them for at least 15 seconds, will tell you the name of the song for 99 cents.

As usual, somehow the freedom loving, superior in every way possible, United States of America lags behind the rest of the world on the technology front. They had the same excellent gimmick going on in that 3rd world county, England, for well over a year. In fact, perhaps a week ago, I was thinking that this program needs get here soon as it is a very clever idea, even considering abandoning my budding career as a lawyer to be the business man that brings it over. Too late. Looks like I need to go to my fall back plan: bring The Bagel Store of Williamsburg to London.

This week is going to be rough one: I am seeing Doves at the Bowery Ballroom tomorrow night, then a double feature on Wednesday night that includes the movie Kung Fu Hustle at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, followed by Ulrich Schnauss at Rothko, with my week concluding with some Texas Hold 'Em on Thursday. I would catch up on sleep this weekend, but I need to get up at the crack of dawn to buy these. All this while my day job of saving New Jersey from the forces of evil is keeping me very busy this week.

If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You (fold and forget about seeing the river card)

2005-03-13T20:40:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you people - buying property is no joke! It's a very tiring process. Today, I spent my 3rd Sunday in row wandering around Brooklyn looking for that perfect 1BR with Peephole. Our target neighborhood is Brooklyn Heights. Today we saw several things we liked (not sure if that is good or bad - but I think it is good) but perhaps best of all was the Henry Street Ale House. How can you beat a bar with Fuller's ESB on tap, along with a bunch of other good beers, and some sensible rock on the hi-fi, including one of my guilty pleasures, Manic Street Preachers' "You Stole the Sun From my Heart" (at the V Festival in 1999, as MSP performed, they sold shirts that said "V Festival - You Stole the Sun From Our Heart" - pretty rediculous and I am sure Richey would have never approved). At any rate, I recommend the song and the bar. Hopefully it will be the local watering hole in a few months' time.

Some news:

The Super Furry Animals (SFA) will have five of their albums reissued on March 21 on XL/Beggars Group. They will all include a bunch of extra stuff not on the original releases (of course). While I am glad that I own these albums (instead of having never owned them), it would be nice to get these comprehensive versions that are coming out. Here's hoping the co-workers that I have leant Rings Around the World and Phantom Power to decide to catch up on the back catalog.

Finally, I will admit it - I am the latest sucker for Texas Hold 'Em. I know it is so fashionable to like poker these days, but damn it's fun and addictive. My Friday night devolved into a game of low stakes poker instead of a night at the bars. At least I was up a few bucks, but I am not sure if this a healthy development.

Funeral song...

2005-03-10T14:30:00.001-05:00

A recent poll in the UK and Europe of what song would someone most want to hear at their funeral has revealed some interesting results. In the UK, Robbie Williams' "Angels" took the top spot, with others in the top 10 included Mozart's "Requiem," Sinatra's "My Way" (sadly not Limp Bizkit's cut), and Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." On the contintent, Queen's "The Show Must Go On," was the top song for soundtracking a funeral, with some Zep and AC/DC thrown in the mix of the top 10.

This is a good question - when I was in middle school, I would have picked "In My Life" by The Beatles. I recognize that this choice would be a little cliche. Peephole once mentioned that Brian Molko of Placebo said he would have "Lay Back in the Sun" by Spiritualized would be his choice (I can see the throngs weeping through the lyric "good dope, good fun"). Spiritualized seems like a good band to soundtrack an occasion like that - perhaps "Won't Get to Heaven (The State I'm In)." Then again, that song just feels like you are intentionally trying to squeeze every tear out of the mourners' eyes that you can and I, unlike Bono, am not going to consciously make any choices in life to perpetuate weeping at my farewell...

Anyone else have any ideas for a funeral song? (This does sound a little High Fidelity I know)

Call me The Cruise

2005-03-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

I feel like everytime there is a lull at MMM, I come back and sound like Jim "The Cruise" Anchower coming up with excuses for the quiet - and sadly if I told you what I did with my life, you would probably think I was Anchower.

My weekend was chocked full of culture - 2 nights of quality entertainment.

Friday - Susie Essman and Richard Lewis at the Community Theater of New Jersey in Morristown. It was a Curb Your Enthusiasm affiliated stand up comedy night - if you watch Curb, you know Susie as agent Jeff Greene's foul-mouthed wife. Jeff Garlin (who plays Greene) was supposed to perform but he had to cancel and Susie was the last minute replacement.

It wouldn't be particularly difficult to guess the nature of the crowd at a New Jersey comedy night involving Curb characters - middle aged Jews! With the suburban semites ready for a verbal beating, Susie took the stage and engaged in interactive stand up comedy technique. I am hit and miss when it comes to comedians that work with their crowd - some suck, but those that are quick on their feet are great. Susie was the latter, ripping everyone in the first row a new one with her obscenity-laden razor wit (she asked a woman in the front what she taught, the woman responded something like domestic engineering, to which Suzie yelled "go fuck yourself - in my time we called it home ec"). I won't say she didn't rely on some very easy jokes ("all men lie when they have an erection" and "Jews are very loud") but with her distinctive persona and taught delivery, even the familiar jokes worked.

Lewis' delivery was about as taught as Kaz Matsui's fielding last year. This guy needed ritalin more than I do! He started the same joke 5 or 6 times before he would actually get around to telling it. But that is Lewis' shtick - he paces the stage contorted like Quasimoto while neurosis of the n'th degree pours out of him. He must have reminded the audience 15 times that he was a recovering drug addict and I shudder to think what he must have been like when he performed on a pile of blow.

Overall, Susie was the better comedian, but an all around entertaining night in Morristown.

Saturday night must be discussed. A pair of Scottish DJs that go by Optimo spun at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. Better detailed descriptions are available at One Louder and Peephole - I'll just say that Saturday night showed me that the Tribeca can be an excellent venue for the right party. We got there early and had a couch which made a huge difference, but between reasonably priced Red Stripes (5 bucks) great music throughout (openers JDH and Dave P I believe, as well as Optimo), it was a quality debauched affair.

Supposedly this Saturday the Underworld sneakers go on sale at the Adidas store. I will be there early with bells on and a book to read on line. There is a chance that they will be put on sale next week - will find out tomorrow.

Again, apologies for MMM slowing down this week - justice has called a bit harder this week but that is not a particularly good excuse.

UW hype starts.....now!

2005-03-03T14:59:00.000-05:00

MMM, obviously, loves Underworld - so of course if there is something to report, you will get it here.

Yesterday at Dirty (the unofficial site that acts more like a .5 official site along with Underworldlive), the first batch of summer festival appearances for Karl and Rick (though it should be mentioned that there are rumors that occassional contributor Darren Price is going to become a third member soon). There are only a few (hopefully more comin) and they are not in the most exciting places - again I emplore the UW booking agency to consider the south of Spain! This clearly signals that the new album will be out sooner rather than later though and that is a good sign. Here are the dates.

7 July 2005 Novi Sad Exit Festival 05 Serbia
9 July 2005 Gdynia Heineken Open'er Festival Poland
12 July 2005 Montreaux Montreux Jazz Festival @ Miles Davis Hall Switzerland
13 July 2005 Prague T Mobile Park Czech Republic
15 July 2005 Gelsenkiirchen (nr essen) Electronic Festival @ Amphitheater Germany
16 July 2005 Grafenhainichen (nr Lepzig) Melt Festival @ Ferropolis Germany
17 July 2005 Amsterdam 5 days of @ Heineken Music Hall Holland

On an unrelated UW note, I learned that the UW Adidas shoes will be available at the Adidas shop on Saturday March 12.

The girls are moshing...

2005-03-02T08:49:00.000-05:00

Here is a posting from underworldlive.com the other that I thought was worth posting - as you can see this building is where Karl wrote "Moaner" and it's on the corner of Bond and Lafayette. I particularly like the GTA: San Andreas poster on the wall. Also worth noting that the daily link (accessible by clicking on the word [click]) was to a web page for the Rock Steady Crew - the breakdancing collective. Word.

Honey, do you think this moustache is too much?

2005-03-01T10:19:00.000-05:00

Things have been a bit quiet on this front last few days - apologies to the loyal fan base. Things will pick up again soon (promiso). A couple of bits in the pipework that need to be written about - my weekend of Stop Making Sense (the Talking Heads concert flick) at the Sunshine and Ian Brown at Webster Hall, though you can read Peephole's impression of the two events if you can't wait.

A little live news: Yeah, we all know that Coachella will be wicked, etc., but damnit, but is the Golden State really entitled to great analog (relating to, not undigital) concerts for the bands to warm up at as well?!? According to the Chemical Brothers website, they are playing with New Order in San Francisco on April 29 at the Harvey J Kaiser arena. Perhaps "Out of Control" will get aired live - the Chems never play their songs with actual live singers, with the glorious exception being Tim Burgess joining Tom and Ed at Benicassim in August '04 to sing "Life is Sweet" (and so is seeing a Chem Bros spectacle that hasn't occurred in 10 years!) Or perhaps their collaboration on "Here to Stay" from the t-t-t-24 Hour Party People soundtrack will be performed. A couple years back, the Chems and Underworld played together to warm up for Coachella. Pretty good...pretty good.

Weekend updates and the location of where Karl Hyde wrote the lyrics to "Moaner" will be with you soon...

Choon of the Week: Jay-Z "Threat"

2005-02-24T17:13:00.000-05:00

Jay-Z inspires strong feelings: most I know love him yet a few of my friends who are hip-hop stalwarts think he is a cocky punk (which, of course he is). "99 Problems" was the clear choice off of The Black Album and was one of my favorite tracks of last year. However, I need to be so sin-ser - "Threat" has been getting increased spins as of late.

In broad strokes, "Threat" has plenty of ace qualities: a sense of humor, a sly self-confidence (bravado if you will), and a slick piano/strings hook. Cedric the Entertainer provides the over the top colloquy about making threats that opens the track and segues between the verses - jeez, this stuff is up there with the Wu-Tang intro to "Method Man" in terms of tough guy hyperbole (but you know I love it)! Mr. Z, in sharp contrast to imminently combusting Ced, delivers his threats with such relaxed sharpness, the evil words just sneak up on you. You can check all of the lyrics for the song here, but can you beat lines like:

a) "It's a match made in heaven when I [blaow] 'splay the 7/Put you on the nigga news, UPN at (according to the lyric link, though it sounds like 'and' to me) 11"

b) "I will kill you, commit suicide, and kill you again"

Now that's just hard-core...but at least Hova's delivering it.

Back in the Day...

2005-02-21T14:30:00.000-05:00

On Saturday afternoon, I attended a panel at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts called "Back in the Day...'Til Now: Disco's Lasting Legacy" - it was supposed to be a panel about the history and impact of Disco. Right now, at the NYPL for Performing Arts, there is an exhibit going on called Disco: A Decade of Saturday Nights - it is most worth a visit. The usual suspects also attended (Peephole, .5 of One Louder, SoF and others that do not have a blog handle, which makes them less lame than us).

The panel included the following luminaries of the Disco era:

Mel Cheren: financial backer of the Paradise Garage (home to Larry Levan) and the head of West End Records.

Carmen D'Alessio: "public relations goddess" who was (probably in her own words) "the architect of Studio 54" as she put together the guest lists for the club.

Michael Fesco: a Broadway actor and the man behind Flamingo - a notorious club from the early part of the disco era.

Kervyn Mark: a local DJ that made a documentary about the club music scene of NYC called Maestro

Nicky Siano: he started The Gallery, one of the OGs of disco clubs, started in 1972. According to his bio, both Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan worked at The Gallery. He was the first DJ to produce a record ("Kiss Me Again"). He recently put out a mix called The Gallery that One Louder digs.

Chi Chi Valenti: Not sure what her deal was, but she just came across like a scenester that has been around since the beginning. She looks like a drag-queen (and that name seems to suggest she is one) but apparently she is not as she is married to DJ Johnny Dynell (no idea who he is).

What was great about the panel and the exhibit is the respect shown to the Disco movement; it clearly has been a signifcant part of nightlife culture and music, and a historical perspective of this sort is deserved, the same way libraries and museums celebrate earlier eras in music (like musical theater, classical, jazz, etc.)

Parts of this panel were great. Amusing anecdotes about pigs in cages at parties at Flamingo and Madonna's super unsuccessful debut at the Paradise Garage were the highlights of the event. The panelists lost me (and presumbly anyone who was attending the panel that was not old enough to have actually gone to the Paradise Garage) when they were given the opportunity to express opinions rather than telling stories. The attitude of Cheren was that good music and any semblance of melody died with disco and all club music today is nothing more than "boom boom boom" (it should be noted that his label has released remixes of tracks by major boom boomer Danny Tenaglia, as well as a mix CD by "Little Louie" Vega and Kenny "Dope Gonzalez"). Siano (and Cheren) talked about how there is no talent in playing 8 minute instrumentals, as opposed to the skill possessed by disco DJs that were playing 3.5 minute vocal tracks. There were many of these old fogey attitudes being espoused throughout. Very little credit was given to the offspring of disco (Chicago House, Detroit Techno, etc.). Clubs today don't care about the punters as they are owned by "beancounters and lawyers," hence the fact that most places are bottle services clubs. I hate a bottle service place as much as anyone else, but realistically, it's hard to give free food out to your guests when you consider how much more rent would be for a club today than it was in the early 1970s.

I understand that current house may not be for everyone (much of it isn't for me), and other attitudes of this sort. However, I can't get my head around the ironic fact that this movement which was formed around an extremely open minded ethos is now represented by a bunch of old curmudgeons. These guys need to hear 2manydjs and tell me there is no talent in that, or need to tell me there is no melody in Underworld's "Jumbo." Point being, it's true that the kick drum (the boom boom boom) has become far more omnipresent in dance music in the last 15 years, but to dismiss all modern music on something like that is straight up elitist and living in the past. Even my dad - a historian of musical theater - digs Radiohead (and drove to see them in 2003 in Camden, New Jersey, where he pumped his fist as they played "Nice Dream" for the first time in eons).

Karl Hyde is a Stylus reader

2005-02-21T13:22:00.000-05:00

A quick note - checked out the Underworldlive daily photo/diary entry. Each day, there is a link to something that presumably Karl finds interesting. Today, he put a link to a Stylus review of Max de Wardener. Also learned that he just took in the Joseph Beuys exhibit at the Tate. Finally, and most importantly to UW fans, "r (Rick Smith) burns the oil of many mid nights (sic) mixing&writing" - this should be a good sign for fans, but this has been going on for a while. My personal hope is that they get something out by summer time and hit the festival circuit.

Advice to R and K: I hear Benicassim, Spain is lovely in early August.

We have the day off of work thanks to the holiday but I actually have to be productive so this may or many not be all I have to say today.

Would you buy Second Toughest in the Infants for your 6 year old?

2005-02-18T11:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you can't beat a well written fan review on Amazon - check out this write up of STITI (it's the fifth review down the page) but the complete text is as follows:

Misleading title but a few nice bits, November 26, 1998Reviewer: A music fan

The title led me to believe that it would be good for sending 6 year old (enrolled as a senior infant in St. Matthew's primary school in Raheny) to sleep each night. I thought it might help him grow up into somebody assertive and confident but I find really it a bit too noisy. It's all beats and electronic sounds that give me a headache. There's a nice bit I like though at the beginning of one piece called "Pearl's Girl" but it only lasts a few seconds before some rhythmic thud begins. I don't recommend it for parents like myself. It's not really for your children as the title led me to believe. I think I made a mistake. It must some really alternative music for other people.

So this person was inspired by the name "Second Toughest in the Infants"? He (or she) wanted to make a toughie out of their 6 year old?!? No this album probably wasn't written as a self-help guide for confidence lacking children - perhaps it needs a parental advisory. I am mainly curious how this person stumbled upon this record - it rarely shows up in the children's music section. And how could someone classify the whipcrackin' breakbeat of "Pearl's Girl" as a "rhythmic thud?"

Thanks to bryantm3 on the Dirty Forums for posting it.

Choon of the Week: Orbital "Impact (The Earth is Burning)"

2005-02-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

I never danced in a field in Hampshire until 1999. By then, all night raves were sponsored by Ericcson, which takes some of the je ne sais quoi out of it. But one of my most fatalist beliefs is that we don't come into contact with music and love it until we are ready for it, and I was not ready for all things electronic until about my sophmore year in college (1997-1998).

My most romantic side is the one that fantasizes about hearing great music within the context it was originally written. The rebellious energy of early rave/acid house/whatever you want to call it will clearly be a bit muted when you are listening to it at your desk at work, but a boy can't help but dream of driving around the M25 (where Orbital got it's name) waiting for a call on a massive mobile phone to find out where the underground party is going to be, and that dream for me arrives when I listen to Orbital's "Impact (The Earth is Burning)"

The song is off of the Brown Album (Orbital 2), which came out in 1993. It's a completely epic track clocking in ten and a half minutes and it should be noted that when Orbital released their greatest hits compilation, Work 1989-2002, vitrually every other song was edited down to a three minute version, but "Impact..." was left completely in tact.

"Impact..." starts off with a factory plant sounding breakbeat drenched in acid (808, not LSD) but quickly devolves into a battle of the synth lines. First, a bubbling acid line that serves the role of a bassline throughout the song. Then everything stops for the main riff - as majestic and dramatic an acid house melody as you can find. I know this sounds like completely hyperbolic, but check it out and tell me if I have completely lost the plot. Attached to the main riff like a siamese twin is the synthetic bagpipe line - like two attention-starved kids flailing their arms, but in a very appealing way. Both are great, completely distinct from each other but co-existing to the point of co-dependency (maybe not - I am sure one could make a very effective remix using just one of the lines). From there, the song undulates in and out of these main melodies (and a few others), before building to the crescendo of the song - one of those dramatic vocal samples from an obscure old movie or TV show ("it's a cry for survival!") delivered as the rhythm keeps building into states of pure serotonin-soaked bliss.

Now I am looking out over the panoramic view of New Jersey from my office window (trust me, it's actually very pretty) wishing I was freaky dancing instead of drafting memos, but you can't go mad for it on a Wednesday morning (sorry this COTW is two days late), and at least I have "Impact..." to color my impression of what freaky dancing in the proper context would have been like.

Westminster Dog Show

2005-02-15T15:34:00.000-05:00

The Westminster Dog Show is on this week at MSG and it is hot! MSG was sold out last night for the first time ever for the show (you can insert your own joke about Oasis selling out the garden).

By far the most exciting dogs in the bunch is this breed - several of them were seen lining up outside the bathoom to do some charlie while discussing whether the balearic sound has withstood the test of time.

Icelandic Soccer Drunks and Quentin Getting Tingles

2005-02-14T15:45:00.000-05:00

Two bits of interesting news today worth mentioning:

I love Iceland and I love soccer/football. I am an Arsenal fan, so I definitely don't love Chelsea (though guys like John Terry are hard to knock). Therefore, I am torn about Eidur Gudjohnsen - the star of Iceland soccer that plays for Chelsea. At about 5am on Sunday morning, Eidur got pulled over on the A3 and was arrested for (I love this) "drink driving" - I love England and all the quirky ways they say things, but some are just too quirky without any underlying logic. How can you call it drink driving? If Chelsea was not kicking the stuffing out of every football club in sight, this incident, coupled with their former Romanian international Mutu testing positive for co-co-co-co-co-cocaine, things would look bad for them. This isn't a PR person's wet dream, but it's a lot easier to overlook it with them well ahead of the rest of the English Premier League. Here's hoping Arsenal beats up on Bayern Munchen next week in the Champions League (the preeminent soccer event in Europe - a tournament between the top European club teams that takes place during the regular season).

A quick note on Arsenal - when I started writing this update, they were tied with Crystal Palace 30 minutes into the game - now, at the 40 minute mark, they are up 3 to nil. Nice one boys!

Second, NME reports a whole bunch of Wu activity going on in 2005. As an homage to Dirt McGirt, the Wu has reunited to sing "I Go Through Life" on the upcoming ODB solo album that is coming out in March. Notable in this article is RZA's description of playing the song for one half of ultra-violence machine Q & U:

According to the rapper, the "very emotional" track has caught the attention of some very high profile celebrities too. He said: "I played it to Quentin (Tarantino) two weeks ago, he was in the studio, and he went, 'Man!' He caught tingles up his spine."
"I played it to him again, at the same location, and he caught the same tingles!" he added. "He had a lot of friends here, and they were all feeling the vibe. Some people are saying that Method Man has probably the strongest verse on there. He gave a nice pullout."

The image of RZA and Quentin hanging out listening to Wu demos is very cool.

MMM Sneaker I Love You

2005-02-14T10:34:00.000-05:00

Adidas is having a bunch of famous and sensible folk design sneaker lines for their 35th anniversary. Here's a link to a poster that shows a bunch of them. Among them include Run DMC (of course), Ian Brown (? - perhaps the world is waiting for a decent pair of trainers), and the controversial Missy Elliot shoes.

Most significant in the bunch is #19 - designed by Rick Smith and Karl Hyde. The Underworld Adidas sneaker - it almost sounds too good to be true. Fellow UW head/blogger kwiebusch has posted a much better picture of the shoe. This guy's blog is almost exclusively about UW, so for that, he gets on the music link list on the right side of the page. Kwie - don't let me down as this is a prestiguous honor to receive - keep posting juicy stuff!

According to a bloke that talked to someone at the London Adidas Originals Store, the shoes come out on March 1 and will cost 75 squid, which by then maybe 300 bucks with the current state of the dollar.

An Erol Alkan Update

2005-02-13T18:50:00.000-05:00

The website of one of the favorite selectors around here, Erol Alkan, has recently been updated with a couple of bits of interesting news. He has been busy as of late, doing two remixes for the Bloc Party single "She's Hearing Voices," as well as completing a 2CD mix for Bugged Out! I like the remixes he did of Alter Ego's "Rocker" and of Mylo's "Drop the Pressure" but his real talent is in DJing (hopefully he makes it back to the US one of these days), so a 2CD mix sounds very promising. That is supposed to be released in April (of course that will probably only be in the UK).

One of my all time favorite mix CDs is the one that he did for Muzik Magazine a while back called One Louder (no relation the OL boys of course - just demonstrates a mutual love for the OG of mockumentary films, This is Spinal Tap) - a frenetic romp that showcases a love for new wave and uptempo electro tracks, including the sickest transition ever from the Night Version of Duran Duran's "Girls on Film" into the Thin White Duke remix of The Faint's "Conductor." It also includes Goldfrapp's "Train" (Ewan Pearson remix), and the monstrous Michael Mayer remix of Ferenc's "Yes Sit, I Can Hardcore." All excellent tracks and put together in a very playful, energetic way that makes for a perfect CD to soundtrack a warmup for a night of debauchery. This CD is unfortunately super rare, in part because Muzik Magazine unfortunately went out of business (which is a shame) - any version of this mix on the internet will lose a bit in the chopped up transitions between tracks but it is very worth getting your hands on.

His current chart was also interesting. It has Soulwax's "E Talking" (a quality track), "The Prime Time of Your Life" by Daft Punk (One Louder declared this as the Daft Punk foray into schaffel - the subgenre of microhouse that gaffled the beats of T-Rex songs and Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence") , his own remix of Bloc Party's "She's Hearing Voices," and the Chemical Brothers "The Big Jump." Erol is always playing Chems' tunes or championing them in his charts ("Galvanize" was on the last chart) - I am certainly happy to see an "indie" DJ with love for Tom and Ed.

You can hear a stream of his set at his weekly party Trash from January 25 here

Tosca and Underworld Updates

2005-02-11T14:34:00.000-05:00

Two pieces of information to share today for starters.

First, MMM is a big fan of Kruder and Dorfmeister, as well as their various side projects, which include Peter Kruder's Peace Orchestra, and Richard Dorfmeister's Tosca (with Rupert Huber). I received an email last night from Backspin Promo, who handles Tosca's PR, and at the bottom of the email was a small listing that a new Tosca album is coming out in June. On the Backspin current projects page, there appeared to be the artwork for the album, titled j.a.c. - exciting stuff.

Second, as One Louder had reported yesterday, there was another Underworld radio broadcast on Dirty Radio yesterday. Because of work's firewall, I couldn't hear it, but someone was nice enough to pull out three tracks of their own that were played on the show - they may or may not be on the upcoming album, but at least it is new Underworld material. No "Dark Train"'s are really in there; these tracks are a bit more in the ambient mode, but interesting nonetheless. Here are some Mp3s

TT

Ancient Fat Farm Coat (funny vocal sample on this - something off a tape for learning Welsh)

020202 (I believe this is an older track from the UW archive)

Odd sightings

2005-02-10T09:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I did what every good NJ resident does - visit the Mall at Short Hills. A very posh mall indeed - nothing but top shelf stores and even the bathroom has the choice between towels and the air dryer (sparing no expense!). I found my shopping excursion soundtracked by far more sensible music than what you would expect from a New Jersey mall. At Macy's, dub was in the air and they played Tosca's "Annanas" from Suzuki. Over at Express, my theme song, Air's "Sexy Boy" was on. A little strange to hear genuinely good music at the mall but I am certainly not complaining.

Then, last night, in the Yahoo homepage news section, the headline read "Scissor Sisters Win Big at Brit Awards" (!) - was not expecting to see that on the US Yahoo front page. Here is a link to an article about their triumph.

Anyone else have any stories of hearing suprising songs at stores or other locations?

Further Update on the 2manydjs/Radio Soulwax Essential Mix

2005-02-09T14:44:00.000-05:00

A while back, I was very excited about the 2manydjs/Radio Soulwax Essential Mix, even giving a second posting on it. Time for another follow up.

Daft Punk's "Teachers" is a banging track that surves as a great primer for all things house and hip-hop. 2manydjs played an alt version of it during their EM that had lyrics that namechecked all things rock and roll (Jane's Addiction, Nirvana, MC5, AC/DC). 20 Jazz Funk Greats has done us a series of solids on a recent posting: 1) Provides the complete list of original names/lyrics from the Daft Punk version, 2) Pointed out that on the internet versions of the lyrics to "Teachers," Ashley Beedle is mistakenly referred to Ashley Beatto, 3) Provides the complete list of names for the version 2manydjs played, and 4) posted an MP3 of the track

Ulrich the shoetronicer?

2005-02-09T11:45:00.000-05:00

MMM loves (I am not going to join the bandwagon of saying that I heart everything) Ulrich Schnauss. My man Ulrich clearly outshined M83 at their show in September, which I why when I have the choice of seeing him on his own, or opening for the M83 again in March, I am clearly seeing the headlining show at Rothko on March 16.

Ulrich's sound is sort of easy to describe yet clumsy too. He clearly loves his shoegazer rock (as evidenced by the links on his webpage, but he creates his ethereal swirls of melody on a keyboard and a Mac. His first album, Far Away Trains Passing By (2001), has unfortunately not been released in America - so go out and download it anyway you can! I am not one for encouraging the violation of copyright law, but you aren't violating the law if you qualify for one of the fair use exceptions and downloading something you can't possibly buy should come under that exception (but don't take my word - I am no lawyer or nothing). The first two tracks, "Knuddelmaus" (which was a standard track for many of the downtempo copilations of 2001/2002) and "Between Us and Them" are excellent, beautiful songs, but unfortunately he said he no longer plays the first album live when I talked to him at the Bowery show in September, moments before he mysteriously broke his hand.

Pitchfork arguably created a new genre name today by labeling Ulrich as a "shoetronic German act" - nice one. I ran a Yahoo search (I hyperlinked Yahoo for those of you that may not be familiar with this website - and yes I know Google is a better search engine, I happened to be there and was feeling lazy) for the word "shoetronic" (no hits) and for "shoetronica" one hit on a blog, where someone hypothetically asked whether combining shoegazer and electronica created shoetronica? Hard to say whether the word was an original idea of the Pitchforkers.

To get a first hand sense of Ulrich's sound, here are a bunch of MP3s to shuttle you off to a beautiful field in the middle of nowhere:

"On My Own' - from the new album A Strangely Isolated Place (believe it or not, Sasha managed to fit this song onto his last mix CD, Involver)

Some rarities on his website

On an unrelated note: while finding the link to Ulrich's show at Rothko, I noticed that motherfucking pressure dropper Mylo is playing with a full band there the following week, on March 23. Mylo got some love here with the prestigous COTW award a while back. Another possible show to see.

Choon of the Week: The Stone Roses "What the World is Waiting For"

2005-02-08T10:05:00.000-05:00

The Stone Roses - "What the World is Waiting For"

Writing about how good a Roses song isn't exactly predicting all star talent while it toils in the minor leagues - if you love music and have any inkling of an Anglophilic bone in you, you know that the Stone Roses started their career off with about as much bang as any artist possibly can when they released The Stone Roses, and then withered away in a mix of demasiado dope and legal wrangles with Silvertone Records, returning 5 years later with the apotheosis of a sophomore slump, The Second Coming (it's really not that bad but it just became the butt of many jokes because of the large amount of time that elapsed, the heightened expectations, that arrogant title, and for just not delivering the collection of anthems that The Stone Roses did).

"What the World..." was the AA side to "Fools Gold" (meaning not a B side but not on the album), though it sounds little like the sprawling epic groover on the A side, aside from in rhythm. Sunny, jangly guitars over the trademark Roses' funky drummer beats - this is happy, arrogant, northern (England of course) rock. Ian Brown's vocals alternating between understated, gravelly verses and a bright, energized chorus. And to spoil the big surprise of the song: according to Ian, the world is waiting to get real.

The Roses have some killer songs and this is another one that matches up against anything on the first album that happens to be tucked away on the "Fools Gold" AA side (it is also available on the b side/rarity/a couple of singles collection erroneously titled The Complete Stone Roses, which contains a horrible edit/remix of "I am the Resurrection" that uses a bar mitzvah band keyboard as the bridge back into the verse - it is so awful that it just needs to be heard to be believed). The other thing the world has been waiting for is a perfect Ipod song for indie rock strutting on your way to a job interview - sorted, mate!

2005-02-07T07:41:00.000-05:00

Didn't I see you boys at Crobar on Friday?

Sasha at Crobar - 2/4/05

2005-02-07T07:40:00.000-05:00

On Friday night, Peephole and I went to Crobar to see Sasha and James Lavelle. A bit of explanation is necessary. On this week's Flavorpill email, answering the trivia question "what is the connection between Lavelle's Mo Wax record label and NYC's DFA Records?" Having answered correctly, I got two free tickets to the event ($40 bucks at the door!), and without anything more compelling to do, we couldn't pass it up. Both of us had spent our time at the Sasha and Digweed residency at Twilo back in the day. We had also seen Lavelle recently, so musically, it looked like a fun night on paper.

Arriving at Crobar at 12:30, the scene was sheer chaos. One long line (that apparently took an hour to get through) and a bunch of shorter lines - we managed to get to the door in about 15 minutes, but not without all kinds of shoving and what not. Some little girl who apparently had friends waiting for her at the door tried to push by everyone - when I got in her way and wouldn't let her pass (as she had given no reason to let her by), she shrilly began to tell the security that I was an asshole/dickhead - it didn't help her cause. The line had all kinds of B & T characters (for my non NYC readers, B & T means bridge and tunnel, which are all the people that come from New Jersey, Long Island, and Westchester to infest NYC on the weekends) - then again these days I am a B & T character. All kinds of great lines were overheard while waiting - personal favorite: (with a thick NJ accent) "yeah, Sasha plays the more trancey/airy shit, but Diggers plays the harder shit which I prefer."

We finally got in and Sasha was hard at work on a Mac, apprently playing the tunes using Ableton Live (according to One Louder, this software is invented by Monolake). The music illustrated that there is a difference between progressive house and trance. Sasha was playing a more ambient progessive sound throughout the night - no overly dramatic keyboard waves or diva/goddess vocals, just kick drums and bass-ey melodies. Perhaps in my more progressive days, I would have been able to identify more tracks but I only recognized a couple of songs. First, Sasha was certainly using the Ableton when he a played very extended edit of the new Chems' song "Hold Tight London" (it should be noted the Chromewaves had a bit about the band Tresspassers William - Anna-Lynne Williams who does vocals on "Hold Tight..." is their lead singer - she is also really attractive!). Sasha also played proggy version of Groove Armada's "Chicago" from Vertigo. Unfortunately, we didn't hear Sasha play Ulrich Schnauss' "On My Own," which closed Sasha's mix CD, Involver.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't address the men's hairstyle of choice at Crobar. I am not sure if this new hairstyle is attributable to those idiot Gotti children on the TV show Growing Up Gotti, but every guy in the place looked like one of them - where all their hair stands up, even the back of the head. It's a truly horrible haircut.

We didn't get to see Lavelle, though he was lurking behind Sasha. Not sure if he played before or after Sasha. We asked someone at the club if they knew when he would be on and she was completely clueless. That never would have happened at Fabric! You always know who is on in what room there - but Crobar is no Fabric.

Gruff vomited throughout your saxophone solo...

2005-02-04T11:10:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the best concerts sneak up on you - they are announced shortly before the date of the show so you don't have much time to build it up in your head, or there is not a bunch of hype around the show (speaking of hype I don't think the words "Arcade Fire" have ever appeared on this blog!). Last night, Gruff Rhys, lead singer of my girlfriend's greatest gift to me and the best Welsh band of all time, the Super Furry Animals, played a solo show at Tonic as a benefit for the beleaguered venue. The concert was in promotion of his recently released (all in Welsh) solo album, Yr Atal Genhedlaeth.

Peephole and I got to Tonic a bit early without trying, but it put us at the front of the line and we ended up with seats front row and center - SoF was the fortunate beneficiary of our generosity and he returned the love by taking these pictures (best one is with Gruff using the tape player to illustrate how the closing track on his album, "Ni Yw Y Byd" is a reworking of the most popular Welsh song ever, which gave him nightmares as a child) . His stage set up included 2 very simple looking keyboards, a small wind-up bird that whistled, his "electric bagpipes," a harmonic strapped to a thing that goes on the neck (I don't know what's it called but you know the thing - what Dylan always has), 2 acoustic guitars, and a few other odd noise makers. Gruff strolled in at about 8:45 to a packed room with an FC Barcelona scarf draped around his shoulders (I wonder if he can speak Catalan as well as Welsh) and immediately turned on the quirky Gruff charm by putting a flashing bite guard into his mouth as he triggered a pre-programmed lo-fi version of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are" on his rinky-dink Casio.

The first proper song of the night was the opening track on the album "Gwn Mi Wn." Yr Atal… is a sophisticated lo-fi album with far more production that it wants you to believe - it has a bit of a singer-songwriter on a four track recorder quality, but there is plenty of other sounds in the subtly dense mix. On "Gwn Mi Wn," he immediately showed he could pull of the tricky multiple layers of vocals and sound live by recording himself sing each vocal part of the song while clapping out different rhythms and then loop it such that after a couple sequences, he had produced a thorough yet crisp wall of acapella sound - this was the best song of the night. He focused on the album, playing several songs off it, including "Pdyn Wy 1" and Pdyn Wy 2," (a two part epic about dating a girl whose nickname translated to cake that's similar to a flan, breaking up with the girl and said girl giving the protagonist a tropical disease before she moved to South America - like I could make something like this up?!?) "Epynt," and "Caeffosiaeth," plus one song off Mwng (which was apparently about the infrastructure of Wales during the Roman occupancy). He played only one song in English called "Colonize the Moon" which may well be a new SFA song, that had several clever lyrics, including the subject of this posting.

Throughout the set, Gruff was his charming self between each song, telling amusing anecdotes about things like how come he plays a right-handed guitar as he is was left handed (so the strings are upside down - which make explain some of the melodies he plays), as well as background for the Welsh songs so we had some frame of reference.

Before one song, he recorded the audience making "rural noises" and looped it; thanks to our close proximity to the stage, the predominant sound that looped throughout the song was SoF's dog-like howl. Gruff solicited background noises a second time, but to create a "more urban sound" - SoF tried to restrain himself but to no avail and out came something. Fortunately Gruff dug it and pointed the mic in SoF's direction and raised his eyebrows in hopes of getting more out of SoF. I really hope a bootleg of this show surfaces because versions of Gruff's solo work with SoF sound effects must be kept for posterity sake and because it was a great concert.

Whether he is with SFA or doing it solo, Gruff has the fortunate one-two punch of being an excellent performer that has great charisma on stage. It's a rare opportunity to have the intimate concert experience with someone like that and last night was absolutely great for it. Here is SoF's writeup of the night.

After the show, Gruff told us that last night was the only US date, with a Wales tour upcoming, and then he is "breaking up with himself." Other worthwhile pieces of news: the new SFA album will be out in May (hopefully they'll be back to promote it) and finally, this year (like every year) the band has asked the Benicassim promoters if they can play - like Peephole and me, SFA knows a great festival when it fiestas and siestas its way through one!

Hump (or death) day

2005-02-02T11:16:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday - I had a work deadline yesterday, hence the low activity on MMM yesterday. Today is lowkey, but I need to prepare for an interview tomorrow - so I imagine I'll have another entry later today (but no guarantees).

First, I would like to say that I am an idiot. Yesterday, in the middle of my deadline madness and chatting with a co-worker, the 1pm pre-sale for QOTSA tickets came without me being dilligently pressing F5 on my computer - result: at 1:10 it was sold out. Hopefully I'll be able to score tickets through the regular sale or another route. I feel particularly foolish as I bought tickets for a trip that weekend a day later than I had originally planned because of that show.

Second, thanks to largehearted boy and Ipoditude, I found a useful article on how to take music from your Ipod and put it on your hard drive. Now does anyone know if you can plug your Ipod into any other computer than the one it is formatted for?

I read the Pitchfork review of the LCD Soundsystem album and the verdict was good not great. I am not sure I completely agree with it - I have listened to a leaked copy and been very impressed, but trying to reserve my final opinion until it is released. I do have to say that for a leaked copy, it sounds great, but of course only James Murphy would have the best sounding leaked version of an album out. The review says the album is not enough like "an album" and that no moments are as strong as the singles (which are included as a second disc that got a higher rating). I agree that the album tracks are not as impressive as "Yeah" and "Losing My Edge" (then again - has anything ever been written that is as strong as those songs?) but that is perhaps the point - I think it is extreme cohesive as a full listen (neither of those singles could ever fit on an album without completely overshadowing the rest of it and it was smart to not put them on it) and there are still several excellent tracks. The album comes out two weeks from yesterday.

Finally, its a sad day for the Gunners - losing to Man Utd 4-2 at home. The mighty have fallen. It's like October 2001 all over again (queue spiteful comments of the Yankee nation).

But while I am discussing Arsenal, I need to dive into some romance gossip because this is frankly a cool couple: Arsenal/England full back Sol Campbell is apparently dating Martina Hingis as reported by the Sunday Mirror (though I can't find the article on their site) - I always preferred the Swiss Miss to Anna - yeah she is attractive, but it is just so obvious, and she is talentless, whereas the Swiss Miss had attitude and backed it up with game. Stud Sol was also romantically linked to Dido at one time.

And for more lowbrow material from the Sunday Mirror, here is ex-Libertine Pete Doherty "chasing the dragon" (that is actually how I am preparing for my interview)

Quiz: Peephole in my Brain is excluded, but what is my subject today a reference to? First correct comment gets a ticket to see the Arcade Fire tonight and a U2 general admission ticket for MSG. (note: this is a wholly unenforceable contract because any blog reader reasonably knows there is no chance in hell that a) i have an extra ticket for these shows and b) i would give it away for this)

"Better Living Through Chemistry" and seeing QOTSA

2005-01-31T16:16:00.000-05:00

For those of you not on the Queens of the Stone Age mailing list, word just came down that the pre-sale is tomorrow for their upcoming tour in support of Lullabies to Paralyze. They are playing Webster Hall in NYC on March 24 and the pre-sale for those tickets is at 1pm

Here is the link

The password is sheep

Choon(s) of the Week: Ride "Leave Them All Behind" / Whitey "Leave Them All Behind"

2005-01-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

After a bit of a sabbatical, the Choons segment is back - and of course, since we are coming back, it has to be done properly (with a blaugh!). We got two tracks - one name, two artists, and myriad money shots.
Before getting to the cuts, it needs to be said that a few things are going to change with this segment. The purpose is to find great songs, regardless of whether they are new or old, so expect to find a bit of both in the upcoming installments. OK - the tracks:

1) Ride - "Leave Them All Behind"

I first heard this about 4 months ago and my initial response was the embodiment of exactly why we are all a bunch of internet seekers: "holy shit, this song is what I am talking about!" Ride (from Oxford, UK - big ups to Jericho!) is the epitome of shoegazer rock (or "shoegahzer" as a co-worker of mine once said before he realized that the name of the genre was a description of what someone does when they listen to it) - bastard offpsring of My Bloody Valentine that drench their music in rich waves of guitar and keyboards. This song is for all the lovers of (The) Verve, Spiritualized (if you dig "These Blues"), Doves' first album, and every other band that has written echo-addled anthems.

"Leave Them All Behind" opens with a simple knockoff of a Who keyboard riff (nah nah nah nah) that erupts into a melodic maelstrom of guitars that might be intimidating if you didn't hear the sensitive and emotive vocals.

The song has several segments and takes it time and moving into and out of them - the band is swinging for the fences by writing such a dynamic song that clocks in at 8 minutes. By the end, it's all sonic cacophony, but it's been a beautiful, fist-pumping journey through the ethereal and the heavy.

I am a sucker for a good epic rock song and this is the Ben Hur of shoegazer rock.

2) Whitey - "Leave Them All Behind"

I can't figure out anything about this guy (or band) - come on Allmusic, get with the program. I saw the track on 2manydjs current chart and at first thought it might have something to do with the Ride song, so I checked it out. No relation, but in name (and therefore also presumably in the theme of escaping all of the proverbial chains that hold us back in life).

Makes a lot of sense that it's on 2manydjs chart - its sleazed out, stuttering electro-rock (much like the excellent 2manydj/Soulwax album, Any Minute Now). On the synth/guitar breakdown, it probably comes out to 75/25. There are several catchy hooks in there, which are essential for the electro-rock thing to be successful. It's got an electro-rock feel, but the song was written with the dancefloor in mind - a no-nonsense 4/4 beat and a classic breakdown in the middle.

Bands like X-Wife, Soulwax, and Whitey are having an 80s rock nostalgia party with very original stuff that never actually existed before, and it's damn good. It will play well in either a rock club or on a dancefloor.

Moral of the story: write a banger called "Leave Them All Behind" and you have an equal chance of success as you would if you named it "Come Together"

Yr Atal Genhedlaeth

2005-01-28T16:47:00.000-05:00

Oh it's been a good day on the ticket buying front. First, no sweat getting doves tickets at noon. After my first doves experience at the Bowery, this one has some high high expectations.

Then, One Louder proved why it is key to be on email lists (in this case the Tonic list) - Rajeev alerted me to a solo show by Gruff Rhys - boyakasha! Gruff, the lead singer of the greatest Welsh band of all time, Super Furry Animals, has put a solo album of Welsh songs. That gibberish looking expression that is the subject of the posting is the name of the album. The man is a pro, so you know this is going to be a must see gig.

And for a little information on what's going down this weekend: tonight I will be attending a tsunami benefit party at Rothko that Rajeev claims is a "grime" party - grime is the most gangsta thing the UK offers at the moment and Tony Wilson is even in on the act - no idea really what I am in store for, but Jeeves said the last one of these that he attended was heavy on the Dizzee Rascal, which is a good sign.

Also, I mention this last event with a touch of trepidation. Tim Burgess, troubadour for The Charlatans (UK) is guest DJing at Tiswas at Don Hills tomorrow night. Now I went to Tiswas a couple weeks back and it was the saddest night life experience of my entire life. If you have ever been, you know Malloy - the guy that stands at the front of the stage shoving everyone aside to lipsync and dance with his whole Meatloaf meets britpop thing going on. He was there and maybe 10 more people on the dance floor - absolutely empty. When they played the de facto theme song, Pulp's "Common People," it was completely clear that this party needs to go out with one final bang, complete with Carlos D dancing to Joy Division (as he always did before he became the globe trotting, gun holster totting goof that he is now). Tomorrow is apparently to celebrate the release of the new Chems album, Push the Button, which I am going to do a proper review of here in the near future.

And finally, if you are a lover of the the old school songwriters (Cole Porter era), get over to the 92nd Street Y this weekend - The Lyrics of Mack Gordon is going to be balling out of control with five performances this weekend.

Enjoy your weekend...

The Halcyon Days

2005-01-28T09:45:00.000-05:00

This morning, when my Ipod died on the drive to work (happens a lot when the battery life is 3 hours), I put on the Q Essential Dance compilation. It was the closest CD within reach and makes for good driving music. You can't beat coming out of the Holland Tunnel to "Woke Up This Morning" by the Alabama 3 (aka The Sopranos theme song) - the opening track on the compilation. Being that it is "essential," I think it is a little heavier on early 90s stuff - it has the Stereo MCs "Connected" and then the truly essential "Voodoo Ray" by A Guy Called Gerald. You can't get any more Madchester acid house than that song. Then came Oakenfold's remix of U2's "Even Better Than the Real Thing" (which ironically charted higher than original mix or real thing - if I have ever put that on here before, feel free to smack me upside the head for repeating egghead trivia).

So as I am listening to the U2 mix, which is quite good, I become torn. What he basically did with the song is make U2 sound like the Happy Monday - impressive feat or just mimicking what he did on Pills 'n' Thrills, and Bellyaches? (j)Oakenfold may deserve a bad rap for his tenure as king of the melodramatic trance - and for the God complex he has developed during his reign, but he does have a very good CV. Discovered Ibiza and the Balearic sound during the summer of 1987, he produced Pills - which alone gives a fair amount of credibility. His remix of U2's "Lemon" is one of the best progessive house/trance songs. And I can't deny it - in the late 90s, I liked trance - and his Transport mix CD was very good in its time. Transgiving - his annual turkey night party - was excellent in 1999 (at the Roxy - loudest thing I have ever heard - my hearing was HEAVILY dulled for several minutes after leaving and didn't fully recover until the next day) and 2000 (Darren Emerson and the Joke at Hammerstein Ballroom - can't say I didn't love it at the time!). So maybe he has lost the plot and $20,000 or $50,000 or whatever he pulls per gig nights has gone to his head - and trance as a genre is pretty shit now (I happened to see Tiesto before and Underworld show in Miami a couple years back and it was...ehhh...boring and melodramatic) , but I know there are plenty of sensible shoe wearing disco-punkers that have felt the muted 4/4 kick drums and washes of synths at some point in your reckless youths!

On a related note (instead of having a second prog house-steezed posting and beginning to look like a raver), John Digweed has gotten the Fabric seal of approval and mixed the newest Fabric compilation - Fabric 20. He was always my favorite of the progessive house characters. A most understated approach to the decks (no wannabe deity like Jokey) and a subtle mixer and track selector as well (always had a propensity for dropping Underworld tracks in mixes and live sets). The notorious Sasha and Digweed nights at Twilo were how I got into "electronic music" and the way he built his sets for hours always impressed me - music you could dance to or listen to in bed. I will check out this mix hopefully at some point - haven't heard a release from him or Sasha in ages - not really what I listen to now but I trust Fabric and I see there is some Soma (Slam's label) and Michael Mayer's Kompakt on the compilation which is promising.

I will now go put on Paul Van Dyk's 45 RPM (which, no joke, is one of the best artist albums from the progessive scene) and turn the lights on and off in my office very quickly.

Doves show!!!

2005-01-27T14:03:00.000-05:00

So Doves are playing the Bowery after all - woo hoo!!! One Louder, quick as always with news, listed the show - March 15. Tickets are going on sale tomorrow at 12. Now I feel comfortable putting this up because you three readers out there won't pose a whole lot of competition for tickets, but One Louder is a far more serious blog then this jalopy - why would they jeopardize their chance of getting tickets?!?

Apologies for a couple of slow days on here - things will get back to a normal pace soon. There is even a small chance of some more Choons (I know you people have noticed the dearth of choice cuts popping up on the right side of the page).

Freaky Dancer Wins Big Brother!!!

2005-01-24T15:50:00.000-05:00

Reason 47 it sucks to live in the US: can't watch English TV shows. In England, they show the History of House on Channel 4 - a network! (if you have a friend who happened to tape it, it makes for excellent 5am tv watching!) They also have their share of crappy reality TV, but you don't get Bez on American shows!

On the UK's Celebrity Big Brother, Mark "Bez" Berry - the maraca player/dancer for the Happy Mondays, has won! According to NME, Bez lost his temper several times due to "missing [his] weed" - and even attempted to escape the house (I really wish I saw that!) but he persevered and prevailed. Excellent news!

For more about the man, I thoroughly recommend his autobiogrpahy - the surprisingly cogent Freaky Dancin.

Nicotine...valium...Kaiser Chiefs...CO-CO-CO COCAINE!!!

2005-01-20T10:45:00.000-05:00

The first show announcement in ages that I got that genuine excitement for - Queens of the Stone Age (or QOTSA for shmoes in the know) are hitting the road in March. The supposed dates are on fan site Born to Hula and they are playing Webster Hall on March 24. Not the best venue, but better than Roseland or Hammerstein.

I have been meaning to write about my weekend for a while but it has been a very difficult week at work for a variety of reasons that aren't worth going into. Short short story:

Kaiser Chiefs at Tribeca Grand: Statute of Frauds had a fairly pissed write up about the night and I don't completely disagree. They came on late, we couldn't see shit in the back of the room. The drink special consisted of $5 Rhinegold (yes, that's a special). The band was good but nothing mindblowing, although "I Predict a Riot" was stuck in my head afterwards and with really stupid alternate lyrics (I predicted a bagel for breakfast the morning after). The band came on well after the announced 12 am start, but that didn't bother me too much - a night at the Tribeca is more like a party than a night at a rock club and does have a more loose feel, but that said, if they don't have a good DJ on before the band, do you really want to stand around smushed for an indefinite amount of time? The Tribeca Grand is a fun venue a) when it's a DJ rather than a show, and b) you get really close to the stage.

Scarface at the Sunshine: My first viewing. Sad, I know. I was very impressed. Three things worth mentioning from the experience.

a) When Tony is losing it at the end and cuts up a line of cocaine that is perhaps the size of John Holmes' third leg (I could have hyperlinked right there, but I have a bit of taste), and the whole room started to laugh, someone in front of us failed to see the humor in someone snorting the cocaine equivalent of my yearly salary in one fell swoop and started to yell "what's so funny?" What was this guy doing at the Sunshine?

b) Right after Tony utters the most famous line of "say 'ello to my little friend," the film cut back to 30 seconds before the line. Whoever cut this print was clearly having some fun and the audience didn't seem to mind as they got to see the line twice. Very amusing.

c) Giorgio Moroder - the man behind Donna Summer's disco anthem "I Feel Love," the Flashdance soundtrack, the soundtrack to D.C. Cab - the Mr. T. starring first R rated movie I saw (at like 5 or something), and Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" composed the super 80s electrodisco soundtrack for Scarface. Quality. I do have to say though that during the final scene as the guerilla army or however you want to describe them, approaches the Montana Mansion, the beat was straight out of "I Feel Love" (not that there is anything wrong with it - if Ewan Pearson can use it in a Goldfrapp remix and Underworld's "King of Snake" is based on it, why not let the writer sample himself?). No doubt this is an appropriate movie for a midnight screening!

NME stuff

2005-01-19T10:10:00.000-05:00

I hate Blogger some times.

I had written a substantial post about two NME news stories, which reported the new Portishead album(!) and that the Super Furry Animals had finished mixing the new album in Brazil. In the process of loading the entry, something went wrong and it was lost - so Blogger, STOP SORTING GLASS!!!

I don't have time to rewrite it, so you can come up with your own not particularly clever bits about soccer matches in the largest stadium in the world (200,000 people went to Maracana Stadium for a match in like 1959) and about the Portishead album ending up taking less time than the Stone Roses follow up, but a shorter break than the one between Jane's Addiction albums.

News for Doves fans in NY, LA and Austin

2005-01-17T21:40:00.000-05:00

According to Billboard, Doves are playing SxSW in Austin in mid March, as well as (hopefully) NY and LA. Excellent is all I can say.

The festival is from March 11 to the 20th and their tour has a break from March 12 to March 29, so expect those dates somewhere in that time frame. Hopefully it will be a low-key Bowery show - a venue that would be incredible to see them at again. The first time I saw them was there in February of 2001. They had an unknown NY band called The Strokes open for them - I was at the bar at the back of the floor during their set - unbenknownst to me, I was standing next to Peephole at the time. Doves blew me away that night - brilliant musicianship and even better songs.

Probably the best show I have seen at the Bowery - will that statement provoke others to comment with their best Bowery shows?

The Complex

2005-01-16T17:45:00.000-05:00

OK, so Billy Corgan did not come on stage on Thursday night and play "Silverfuck" - but that would have been more likely than most Pumpkin songs in light of the "Complex" sound. The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex is Jimmy's new project. Jimmy was joined on Thursday night at The Mercury Lounge with 3 other guys - a keyboardist, bassist, and guitarist - but the attention of the solid crowd was there to see the massive Yamaha drumset that dominated the stage. The bassist kept talking about the band as the "Complex" but let's not kid ourselves, there would have been 10 people there, as opposed to the near capacity crowd, had there been no Jimmy Chamberlin there.

The music was a cross between edgy modern rock (well mid 90s rock, big surprise) and early 70s Miles Davis jazz fusion (think In a Silent Way organ sounds), all of which was underscored by Jimmy's He-Man drumming (I can't take credit - I once read a nasty Zwan or Pumpkins review that used that apt title). About half instrumentals and the other half songs, none of it was particularly bad, but the melodies weren't that inspiring either - somewhere in the middle. However, as a lover of the Pumpkins, to see Jimmy bashing away with that fiery intent made it a very worthwhile experience. That said, the next time I see Jimmy, I hope he is smashing his way through "Hummer" at a Pumpkin reunion show at Radio City Music Hall.

You can read all about their album, Life Begins Again, at the website

CALLING ALL TRIP-HOPPERS!!! THE TSUNAMI IS NO JOKE!!!

2005-01-14T15:31:00.000-05:00

Some seriously surprising news coming from Bristol via NME. Massive Attack and Portishead are playing a benefit concert for the tsunami victims in Bristol next month! Yes, that same Portishead that hasn't released a studio album since 1997 (the first review I ever wrote for the Yale Daily News was of that album - warning that is a pretty poor effort from quite a young upstart). For a band that has been out of circulation as long as Portishead has, this is pretty serious. If Underworld (or another ridiculous reunion - The Verve or MBV come to mind) joined that bill, I think I would be on a plane. All they need to add to the line up is Tricky, and the holy triumvirate of Bristol trip-hop would be there.

Here is a link to the site they have set up for the event

LCD mania

2005-01-14T09:33:00.000-05:00

To my devoted readers who don't also regularly check out One Louder, today is a good day to check them out - they have interviewed James Murphy (the don of DFA Records and the hopefully soon to be big LCD Soundsystem, and there are certainly a few nuggets in there. Murphy alludes to a bit of a traumatic break up with The Rapture, although a couple of the guys from The Rapture did attend the LCD Halloween show at the Tribeca Grand. He also wants to play in NYC more, which is of course a good thing. It's a good read so check it out...

The interview is here.

On a related note, Pitchfork reported today that there will be a second disc that comes with the LCD album when it is released on February 15, which will include:

01 Losing My Edge
02 Beat Connection
03 Give It Up
04 Tired
05 Yeah (Crass Version)
06 Yeah (Pretentious Version)
07 Yr City's A Sucker

If you are a devoted James Murphy fan, you have all of these already, but to have them all on one CD makes sense.

Read more about the release here.

Two pieces of derivative news - not a big morning yet - but I will write about Jimmy Chamberlin's night at the Mercury Lounge later, and tell you all about the 20 minute version of "Silverfuck" that Billy Corgan came out for.

Pitchfork Overhaul

2005-01-13T14:41:00.000-05:00

For those of you that read Pitchfork Media, you probably are already aware of the relaunch, which was delayed several times but finally occurred today. For those of you that don't read it daily, or don't know what Pitchfork is (my friends that read this blog out of pity), it is the online hipster independent music online journal/website. Fairly smug and usually informative and entertaining, now that it is up to over 100,000 hits a day (!), they are getting all slick, or so they say. So far it is not that different content wise than before and it does look a bit more impressive on the whole, but doesn't it look more like a very inovolved blog than a professional website? Particularly the font - I know they hired some big design group and most of it looks good, but the font is a bit...blogger. Have to applaud the massive Suicide Girl ads that take up like half the page - although increased advertising may ultimately be the real result of the relaunch (hey, we can make some serious money on this site!). Needless to say, I can't look at Suicide Girls at work (for those of you who have never seen it, think of it as alternative/indie/gothic pornography).

Tonight, I am going to check out the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex at the Mercury Lounge (8:30pm). I have low expectations as I know nothing about the music, other than the fact that Jimmy, the drummer for the Smashing Pumpkins, was a pagan skin god of mine during my youth. Many days were spent playing along to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. And what he did for "Geek USA" is hall of fame material if there is a drummers hall of fame. There is a large likelihood that tomorrow I will be posting on here that Billy and Jimmy (and I guess James and D'Arcy) need to get back together for a mega mega reunion tour and stop muching around with solo stuff - but I doubt that Jimmy carries the same emotional baggage that Billy does and he would be more than happy to get the old band back together again.

The JCC is playing at the Mercury Lounge next Thursday night at the same time.

The Fun Machine Took a Shit and Died...

2005-01-12T16:15:00.000-05:00

Only one band could pull off a name like that for a song...Queens of the Stone Age (well that isn't true but it works as a lead in). Josh Homme and co. have kept the small part of my inner 17 year old alive and rocking since I first heard Songs for the Deaf. It has been widely reported that their new album, Lullabies to Paralyze, on March 22. Their website, www.qotsa.com has been updated to reflect the upcoming onslaught of all things Queens that is sure to accompany the release. On the news front, it looks like a March US tour is in the plans - wouldn't it be nice if it was a low-key, couple nights at the Bowery type tour (which I believe they did prior to the release of Songs...). Advance tickets will be available through their site so keep an eye on it.

Consistent with the dry, cool wit that Homme is known for, the website has a "Rumors" section, which is "just like Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumors' without the cocaine blown up your ass" (though I take that with a grain of...salt) . Some highlights include the "rumor" that Geddy Lee, McCartney and Billy Corgan did not make the final cut in their hunt for a new bassist, and that Homme's suicide girl styled squeeze, Brody Dalle, was grown in a lab out of DNA extracted from Yoko Ono, Hitler, and Anna Nicole Smith. Talk about a dark sense of humor! Also, I wouldn't have minded seeing Geddy playing "A Song for the Dead" - not that far off from "Anthem," "By Tor..." and all that other heavier Rush stuff...

Check all of this and tons more out at the new QOTSA site

Ewan Pearson chart

2005-01-11T16:15:00.000-05:00

One Louder has pointed out to me that on Philip Sherburne's blog there is a post of Ewan Pearson's current chart. Ewan has been a favorite remixer/dj for some time now and has gotten love on here before. The lucky recipients of his quality remixes include (but are not limited to): the Chemical Brothers, Goldfrapp (approppriate in light of today's earlier posting), Slam, Depeche Mode, and The Rapture. Half of The Rapture was at his night at the Tribeca Grand last month. It was an excellent night - he played all kinds of wonky electro house, including a remix of !!! (I believe it was "Hello? Is This Thing On?"), his own remix of Goldfrapp's "Train" as well as the unreleased Black Strobe remix of "Strict Machine" (according to him). He was a very nice guy - said he was working on a remix of the next Alter Ego single at the moment. He vaguely alluded to some artist work as well (which I am very curious to hear).

I'm in Love with a Strict Machine

2005-01-11T14:56:00.000-05:00

Recently I picked up the Goldfrapp Wonderful Electric DVD. There was a very slim likelihood I wasn't going to enjoy 2 DVDs of Allison Goldfrapp, and as expected I am not disappointed in the least. Most artists with only two albums released would come across as extremely self-indulgent by putting out 2 different live shows in one DVD, but this is a perfect exception to the rule - the space between the downtempo, dubby, ethereal, post-coital in the Black Forest debut, Felt Mountain, and the sexbomb electro disco cool of Black Cherry is massive. The tours reflected this as well; the Felt Mountain show, their cover of Olivia Newton John's "Physical" as the exception, was a show that was well designed for sitting, while Black Cherry created a far more dance friendly vibe (they did cover disco tune "Yes, Sir, I can Boogie" the second time around). Both shows were excellent in person and are well captured on Wonderful Electric. Allison's persona of sexy and sexual diva for the leftfield is in full effect (I unfortunately couldn't find a photo of her thrusting the thermian into her nether region - if anyone has one, feel free to put it in the comments!). As the second tour required songs from both albums, the band showed some serious dynamism pulling off everything from the serene "Pilots," the gypsy-sounding live version of "Human," the nu-disco of "Strict Machine," and even the sinister "Slippage." Also worth mentioning is how cool a venue the Somerset House (site of the Black Cherry show) looks - on my list of venues I must see a show at with Red Rocks. The next time I am in London during the winter, I really need to ice skate there.

Perhaps my only gripe is that Will Gregory, the shy half of the pair, is virtually not visible in the video. He is quite the interesting fellow in his own right (here is an article about the man) - anyone who played the horn on Lazer Guided Melodies has virtual automatic credibility.

The DVDs also include documentaries from both tours. The Black Cherry doc, Twisted Summer, was very DIY, with Allison and Will interviewing each other (and sounding really stoned!), and Allison riding down 57th Street of New York in a taxi while shooting herself (with the camera - where was I when this happened?). They also make it to a Bluegrass festival and Allison poses on a front porch of a house with a shotgun.

Radio Ga Ga for Radio Soulwax

2005-01-10T15:06:00.000-05:00

I plugged this 2manydjs mix over the weekend without having given it a proper listen - now that I have, I can plug it again!

The tracklisting gives some idea of how all over the place it is, but there is a lot more there than meets the list. The use of Annie's "Chewing Gum" acapella over QOTSA's "First it Giveth" is one of those mixes that makes absolutely no sense without hearing it - somehow a song that uses chewing gum as a metaphor for men into an aggro punk song (despite the "First it Giveth" being more hard rock than punk) - I can't explain it but it works. There is a great spoken sample that sounds like P-Diddy . Great use of Kraftwerk's "Man Machine" coming out of Snoop Dogg's new single, "Drop it Like it's Hot." Speaking of hip-hop mash-ups, the chems "Galvanize" up against "Fix Up Look Sharp" - very nice. The tracklisting does not list it, but I swear I heard "Rocker" by Alter Ego and "Song 2" by Blur - I don't think the track listing is nearly comprehensive but it gives you a sense of what it's all about.

There is also some chunks of straight up techno/electro in the middle (when I saw them on NYE with Erol Alkan, that sound occupied a big part of the set), but they pull that off with the same aplomb as when they drop a mash-up.

You can call the Dewaeles canned (too rehearsed) but they are among, if not the, most fun DJs on the planet. Here is a public plea for 2manydjs to play NY (hell, even NJ) again soon!

What the 40 GB Ipod was made for...

2005-01-08T17:51:00.000-05:00

The Essential Mix - you know, those two hour DJ sets that are always introduced by the proper sounding Pete Tong telling you what a special Essential Mix this one is going to be. I am waiting for the introduction that starts with "tonight will be a very average EM - this DJ is not bad at all!"

Well, one set of DJs I would introduce on my show (if I had a show) with pure hyperbole would be 2manydjs - the Belgian Dewaele brothers, David and Stephen, whose day job is the very good band Soulwax - their new album, Any Minute Now is supposedly going to be released in the US, (I'm sorry, but I have to do it) any minute now. When they aren't rocking out as Soulwax (although sometimes they do shows as both 2manydjs and Soulwax), they are rediculous masters of the cut-up, mash-up, bootleg, whatever you want to call it. One of my best memories of a 2manydjs night was at the Winter Music Confererence in Miami in 2003, when I saw The Rapture dancing like fools while the Dewaeles dropped "House of Jealous Lovers" - very cool to see a band getting that excited about hearing their own music. At the same party, the blond, facial hair less member of Royksopp (another excellent band that needs to get some new shit out - according to a thermometer on their website, the new album is 75% done) was fist pumping to Primal Scream's "Rocks."

Download the complete two hour Essential Mix here

Here is the tracklistings - all kinds of choons on it, including the chems new single "Galvanize" and some Queens of the Stone Age (boyakasha!)

On a related note, I initially found the mix on this very cool Belgian bootleg website - check it

Lord, Can You Hear Me?

2005-01-07T11:28:00.000-05:00

It's reassuring to see others on the net afflicted with Spaceman-itus - you know, love for all things Jason Pierce. Chrome Waves is currently on a "J Spaceman kick" at the moment, as you can tell from the current list of albums that are in the blog's rotation, and because there is an MP3 download of Low covering "Lord, Can You Hear Me?" from a Spacemen 3 tibute album - of course I can't download it over here.

All I can offer are a couple of interviews with Mr. Pierce. Here is an entertaining one where he responded to the question of whether he is an AC/DC fan with "who isn't?" - wouldn't you love to sit around listening to Back in Black with him? The interview also has a bunch of other interesting bits about influences, but of course it sounds a bit like him taking an opportunity to name drop "sensible" music.
Here is another interesting interview with the man.

A couple legal links

2005-01-06T15:51:00.000-05:00

The law is an contagious disease sometimes - it's really everywhere, whether talkin about music or sports, or anything else. The practice of law also breaks down into two areas: transactional work (helping in the drafting of contracts), and litigation (you know what that is) and today we've got entertaining examples of both. Here's the intersection of transactional work and music: the rider.

Here is the rider from Jane's Addiction's 2001 tour

The Smoking Gun

Here is some juicy litigation. If anyone ever calls you a pimp (as Evel Kneivel was by espn.com)you don't have a libel suit. Perhaps Evel's attorney will make a really pimp petition for certiorari and get the 9th Circus reversed.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/05/MNGPEALB151.DTL

I had some more very witty things to say about these but this post got deleted by a blogspot snafu and I don't have it in me to write it again.

Underworld - Biro the Leggy

2005-01-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

I haven't done much with MP3s here and that is in part because I can't even download MP3s at my job thanks to the draconian firewall The Man has set up here (it's a, gulp, government job of sorts). Despite this, I have a treat today for the Underworld fans in my readership. Recently, Rick and Karl did a couple of radio shows - one for John Peel and another for the loyal Dirties.

During the Dirty Radio show, the boys went into the UW archive and pulled out a "rarity" called "Biro the Leggy," There is a bit of both Beaucoup Fish and A Hundred Days Off in there - listen for the "King of Snake" guy. I haven't listened to it enough yet as it is on my uncharged Ipod (the wire is in a different state at the moment, but I will be reunited with it shortly) and I can't download it at work, but here is a link to the track

Top 10 (err...11) Films of 2004

2005-01-05T16:19:00.000-05:00

Here is my flick list for the year in no particular order - don't know if I have a favorite film overall fo the year, but it would probably be among these...

1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - One of those ideas/issues that we have all confronted but so well executed here. The visual madness somehow makes such perfect sense. Heart-breaking.
2) Hero - Equal parts of beautiful, thoughtful, and ass kicking.
3) Bad Education - So much more than a mere film about pedophilia and the church. Gael Garcia Bernal gave new meaning to "femme fatale" in this modern Film Noir.
4) Napoleon Dynamite - You either loved or hated (and that includes Royal Tennenbaum fans) the off-beat, irreverent humor of Napoleon. I was sold from the moment Kip tried to sweep the leg against Rex of Rex Kwan Do.
5) DiG! - Much of great documentary filmmaking comes from being lucky enough to be in the right place and the right time and Ondi Timoner already had the interesting Anton Newcombe and the Brian Jonestown Massacre before she shot them getting busted for drugs in Georgia as well as Anton kicking a fan in the head, among a bunch of on stage punch-ups. Great rock and roll documentary.
6) Shaun of the Dead - Makes as much clever fun of England as it does of zombie filmmaking (which is what the critics focused on). Shaun knows the difference between electro and hip-hop and for that alone he makes the list.
7) Open Water - A simple, scary idea that was very well executed in a very modest fashion.
8) The Motorcycle Diaries - More of Gael (as Peephole would say, the Hunky Mexican) but this was another great movie. What was perhaps most interesting to me about it was how everyone knows who Che is (to a degree, or at least they have the poster) but the space between being an Argentine med student and the world's signifier of rebel leader is a massive step that becomes a bit more logical in light of his travels.
9) Sideways - Like Wes Anderson, Alex Payne is becoming one of those filmmakers you can rely on to make very funny films that also have very rich stories. I also always like Thomas Hayden Church's super sardonic nature so it was good to see in a film.
10) Kill Bill Vol II - I enjoyed Vol I, but this was a significant improvement. Character development, methodical pacing . Michael Madsen was excellent as the remorseful assassin.
11) Touching the Void - I know this is 11 but I couldn't leave it off. Not sure if it is a dramatization or a documentary or both, but it was even scarier than Deep Water. About three climbers stuck on a mountain. One always wonders when they see a film like this how they would respond if they were ever tested under really extreme circumstances.

Honorable Mention:
Closer (Clive Owen - have been a fan since Croupier and I am glad to see him becoming a big actor. Even Julia Roberts was tolerable in this - she looked a lot more attractive than usual, but it may have been her apartment and career as a photographer that made her appealing) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (not Wes Anderson's best work, but entertaining enough to make it); De-Lovely (perhaps I have a conflict of interest on this one, but I really enjoyed it - the technical adviser on this film really saved it though); I Heart Huckabees; The Return; the Steve Coogan/Alfred Molina and Wu Tang/Bill Murray vignettes in Coffee and Cigarettes; The Aviator.

Read about all of these at the IMDB

You can knock their teeth...

2005-01-05T13:35:00.000-05:00

and their stupid sinks that individual hot and cold faucets, but there are very sound reasons why American music obsessives (of the more independent persuasion) tend to also be Anglophiles - because better music gets more respect over there. We don't have exciting music festivals and great clubs of any significant size because musical tastes are so different.

That pinner of a rant was inspired by the news that Scissor Sisters was the best selling album in the in the UK this year, according to NME. Billboard doesn't have a year end total for 2004 yet, but I shudder to think what will be the best selling album over here.

Norman Cook's mobile disco, the Jane's Addiction of hip-hop and some other fodder...

2005-01-04T10:48:00.000-05:00

Blogs are for passing on links to other shit. In the vein of the great Can't Stop the Bleeding , here is just some interesting material.

http://www.dancefrontdoor.co.uk/article3698.html

Why it pays to play for Real Madrid. Ronaldo, the great gap-toothed soccer stud is going to have Fatboy Slim serve as selector for his upcoming nuptual. Norman would make a great wedding DJ no doubt, but I am sure he is going to take a mint from the Brazilian striker.

http://www.brainwashed.com/!!!/playlists.html

Some very funny playlists and commentary from !!!
Note the antipathy from at least a small portion of the band towards playing "Blue Monday" to Polish cokeheads and drunken hipsters.
One of the guys in the group also makes the interesting comparison between LA in the 80s and the current state of hip-hop. 50 Cent came along, much like G'n'R and by being so much more badass than the rest of the scene, the scene was killed - as for Outkast, they are the Jane's Addiction of hip-hop. To add to this demented model, I would then have to say "Hey Ya" is "Jane Says" and the banging "Bombs Over Baghdad" is the hip-hop answer to the banging "Ocean Size."

http://www.poptones.co.uk

Record label Poptones has a ton of cool interviews on their website, dubbed "Questions of Doom" - you can read about Dot Allison's Ipod, Cult singer (the band that brought you the Goth anthem and nominee for best song of the 80s"She Sells Sanctuary") Ian Astbury's feelings on Primal Scream, and Tony Wilson talking about the grime "crew" Raw-T that he has signed. Also included: Mike Patton, Alan McGee, Alex Kapranos, producer John Leckie, and many others.

http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2005-01-04

Finally, from the gossip page of the IMDB, the directors of Open Water, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, ran from the beaches of Phuket when the Tsunami hit last week. Something sort of ironic about a pair of filmmakers who made a reality-styled film about man against nature then facing an analogous situation in real life.
(On a related note, my top 10 films will be ready soon - had to wait until end of the year to make sure I saw everything I should - but of course I haven't yet)

If anyone else says happy new year to me...

2005-01-03T09:20:00.000-05:00

Why would anyone be chipper on the monday after NYE at 9am? My office seems to have its share of these people...I am personally suffering a hangover without having touched a drop of sauce last night- perhaps it is the cumulative effects of the last few days. As MMM has been on an off of vacation for last 10 days, here is a brief recap.

For the Xmas weekend, my main squeeze and I went to Montreal (surprisingly a cold quiet town at this time of year) and Vermont. In Montreal, unfortunately we didn't make it to the danse/contact, but we made it to the Boxing Day bonanza sale at HMV, where the Weezer Blue Album was 4 canadian dollars (a little over 3 bucks American) - as I always listened to my sister's copy, I bought one for myself. Not much of musical note the rest of the weekend, despite listening to The Specials and the Super Furry Animals with the squeeze's dad on a car ride to Killington. It should be noted that the common demoninator between these listens was the horn player - Rico Rodriguez played on "The Undefeated" on the Phantom Power and was a regular with The Specials.

This weekend, on the other hand, was chock full of music. Thursday night, I caught the late !!! show at the Mercury Lounge. I am glad that I have been lazy in compiling my top 10 shows of 2004, as this one is a last minute entry. Three exclamation points is perhaps the best way to describe the night - an intense, high energy, heavy groove night. I have same things to say about the show as One Louder essentially, but I am in complete agreement that the last two tracks, "Me and Rudy..." and "Intensify" were the highlights. "Me and Rudy..." has been one of my favorite songs of the whole disco punk scene and live it manages to reach even more frenzied levels than when listening to it on your own. (Also, there is a Specials reference in the line "A Message to you, Rudy..." of course).

NYE was spent at the Wilco/Flaming Lips/Sleater Kinney Show. I like S-K - don't know them particularly well, but word on the street was that they were playing new material only during their opening slot and it was very good. The Lips were very interesting for a bit, with confetti, balloons, and topless girls with pasties (sounds a bit like the Scissor Sisters, doesn't it?), but it all got a bit gimicky after a while - I wish I had known Yoshimi better before seeing the show. As for Wilco, the show started out quite good at 11, opening with "Less Than you Think," into "Spiders (Kidsmoke)," as well as MMM favorites "Handshake Drugs," and "I am Trying to Break Your Heart." At midnight, they showed the ball drop, then all the other bands came out on stage, waved to the crowd, hugged each other, did the whole SNL goodbye thing for about 10 minutes. Finally, Wilco started up a series of covers with "Rockin After Midnight" by Judas Priest. Unlike One Louder and SoF, who both have more substantial write-ups on the night, I thought Wilco was not completely out of place at the Garden (of course they are better in smaller venues) but after midnight the tempo slowed a bit and the show never really got back on track. Overall, a good night, but nothing extremely memorable, although perhaps the most memorable part of the night was sitting 5 seats away from Monica Lewinsky. Who knew she was big on both Wilco and the Lips ?

Top 10 Toons of the Year

2004-12-23T11:45:00.000-05:00

Here are my top 10 songs of the year in no particular order:

LCD Soundsystem, "Yeah (crass version)" - the brilliance of this song has been well documented and I am just joining the majority pointing out the obvious but here goes: seamless amalgam of genres of "dance" music (disco, house, techno, funk, etc.) with some catchy lyrics and then a hyperbolic, freak out climax.
Annie, "Chewing Gum" - slick girly pop, the name of the song is so well used as a metaphor for men, and as a metaphor for the sticky nature of the song - it ain't coming out of your head any time soon.
Snow Patrol, "Spitting Games" - forget "Run" and the lighter in the air bullshit, this is the jam - perhaps my favorite song of the year - some sweet "ooos," some banging drums, and some serious synthesizer underscoring.
Franz Ferdinand, "Michael" - along with being the best track on Franz Ferdinand, if for nothing else, the controversy surrounding the lyrics - loved reading about fans that were made uncomfortable by the lyrics.
The Prodigy, Memphis Bells" - this album was not nearly as bad as the press had me believe before hearing it. It may be The Prodigy's worst album, but it has its moments and this track is the hardest, most evil thing I heard this year.
Jay Z, "99 Problems" - I can never study to rap, but should have listened to this to prepare for the bar exam - Hova certainly knows more about criminal procedure than I do.
Scissor Sisters, "Comfortably Numb" - I hated this at first because I only was hearing one of the remixes which just sampled "hello..." every time I went out; then I realized the disco genius.
Junior Boys, "More than Real" - jittery, playful and very pretty little song.
The Beta Band, "Out-Side" - a stomping rhythm with some great sound effects - dogs, trains, chipmunks singing - thrown in for good measure.
U2 , "Vertigo" - that commercial was omnipresent but, damn did it get stuck in my head...fuckin' catorce.

Top 10 Albums of 2004

2004-12-22T10:52:00.000-05:00

Here is the list of albums - more coming later:

Wilco, A Ghost is Born - Great American ambient alt country.
Air, Talkie Walkie - Great French downtempo.
Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand - Great Scottish indie dance rock.
Ulrich Schnauss, A Strangely Isolated Place - Great German shoegazer rock on a synthesizer.
X-Wife, Feeding the Machine - Great Portuguese edgy 80s synth rock and a drum machine.
Snow Patrol, Final Straw - Great Northern Irish/Scottish sensitive rock with electronic production.
Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters - Great New York Elton John moves to Williamsburg.
Junior Boys, Last Exit - Great Canadian New Order meets microhouse.
The Fiery Furnaces, Blueberry Boat - Great Chicago/New York sibling lunacy.
Beta Band, Heroes to Zeroes - Great Scottish/Northern English swan song.

Honorable Mention: Gomez, Split the Difference; Annie, Anniemal; Brian Wilson, SMiLE; The Hives, Tyrannosaurus Hives; Kanye West, College Dropout; The Streets; A Grand Don't Come for Free; Interpol, Antics.

Aerodynamic

2004-12-21T09:21:00.000-05:00

The undisputed heavyweight champs of French house found some new disguises (or are just putting the robot helmets back on) and are ready to finally release some new music. Daft Punk, according to NME, are putting out their third studio release, Human After All, on March 21. I like Discovery (and the accompanying movie, Interstella 5555, is a lot of fun), I really like Homework (bang rating of 8), can't help but feel Thomas' side project Stardust and "Music Sounds Better With You," and even dig the live album, Alive. Now as long as there are no "One More Times" on this album (which is really the house equivalent of "Hey Ya" - a good song that was permanently tainted by oversaturation - I heard "One More Time" on last Sunday morning at a bodega!). Also, would it be too much for these guys to do something live, I mean they do have a live album. I have never heard of a live DJ set/performance/autograph session, nothing, involving DP, but their music tends to promote itself. There is nothing on their website about this except an exclusive opportunity to buy figurines from Interstella 5555, so check out NME for info...

http://www.nme.com/news/110884.htm

"You know, every homecoming party has a queen...well this one has 4!"

2004-12-20T13:31:00.000-05:00

The words of Jake Shears at Sunday night's fabulous Scissor Sisters gig at Hammerstein Ballroom (which according to Ana Matronic - the female member of the Sisters - is owned by the Moonies).

I saw the Scissor Sisters for the first time this summer at the Benicassim Festival (which will figure prominently in year end write up). Despite knowing very little by them at the time, they were electrifying - the Spaniards went mad for the campiness (not a surprise if you have been to Barcelona). This time around, they were as impressive, especially so when considering they were battling the cavernous Hammerstein box. The size didn't stop them from turning the place into a mad for it gay disco. Their big singles, "Comfortably Numb," "Laura," and "Take Your Mama" (which was during the encore) went off as among the big numbers from the night, in particular "Comfortably Numb." They followed it up with "Filthy Gorgeous," which actually kept the tremendous energy flowing. The show ended with a rediculous, over the top "Music is the Victim," complete with topless girls wearing pasties, and a variety of other dancers in all kinds of crazy get ups . Their torch song meets dub showtune version of "Take Me Out" was interesting but not something I would listen to more than a couple times.

Shears, the co lead singer with Ana Matronic, is a great performer. He takes all of the song and dance talent of a top Broadway performer but uses it to put on something completely dirty, unrepressed and fun. Matronic talked a bit too much during the mic breaks but it was interesting to learn she worked at a law firm in midtown a year ago.

The energy in the room was really astounding for the Hammerstein. The crowd, as expected, looked like it had been bussed in from Chelsea. I was half expecting to see the fab five in the VIP section.

There was a warm up dj between the sets that kept the disco vibe flowing. The Ewan Pearson remix of Goldfrapp's "Strict Machine," Moloko "Sing it Back," a mash up of Missy and the Cure, and of course Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" created a fun between set energy.

A quick word about the openers, Vhs or Beta. Didn't know them at all before last night but they were not bad at all. Very similar to The Rapture and The Cure (vocalist had a seriousRobert Smith thing going on, depite looking like James Iha, well at least from the back of the floor of the Hammerstein). Not a particularly original sound, but very listenable songs - curious to hear them. Apparently their album is going to come out on Astralwerks.