(with respect to dubuffet)
Monday, January 12, 2009
Bedroom Mix
I recorded this a few nights ago. The mixing is shaky at points, but the idea was just to record a session despite it's flaws. There are a few really solid and ambitious transitions in my opinion. I'm starting to realize that I try to stay in the mix too long. 45 seconds is really difficult if you're not playing techno, which I generally don't play. So from now on, here's your's truly pledging to start acting more like a hip-hop DJ and keeping the transitions to 8 bars.
Bedroom Mix #1 - January 7
31minutes32seconds
Shriekback - My Spine is the Bassline ("12 edit) - 1982
Tepr - En Direct De La Cote - 2006
Wax Romeo - Hey Kids - 2006
Daniel Wang - Gotta Get Up - 1993
T.J. Johnson Band - Dragonfly - 1983
Rhythm Based Lovers - Snow Drift - 2008
Alb - Sweet Sensation (Breakbot Remix) - 2008(?)
Crazy P - Love On The Line (Unabombers Dub Mix) - 2008
Stone Roses - I am the Resurrection (Sir Billy Remix) - 2008(?)
Lee Douglas - Hide'n Seek - 2008
Altz - Yello - 2007
Marbeya - Sancho - 2008
Stream or download it here.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Obamas interview on marriage (from 1996)
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/sacre-bleu-le-m.html
Read More......Saturday, January 10, 2009
Now we are a real, live blog!
You may have noticed on the right scroll bar, Edgar uploaded this deal where you can listen to the songs we've been posting in an organized manner. badass!
Read More......Friday, January 9, 2009
Interesting fact from meeting minutes (part 1?)
I have to re-write this, because its from a pdf file. the link is below...
Martin Limon, Austin police officer representing Downtown District discussed the noise ordinance. There were a total of 449 sound complaints from September 2006 to June 2008 (ed: 22 months, aka 20 noise violations per month) consisting of 145 calls for bars and clubs, 16 for construction sites, 29 for fraternity and sorority houses, 254 for apartments and residences, 1 for a parking garage, 1 for a vehicle, and 1 for an unidentified business. Most of the complains for the 254 residences were not due to live music, but stereos and amplifiers, mainly in the west campus area. Most of the bars were located on 6th street. The total number of citations resulting from the 499 calls were 47, mostly were bars. These statistics apply only to the DTAC. Officer Limon created the downtown noise database, and trained officers on how to use it, no other districts use it.
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/downloads/lmtfminutes060908.pdf
This is probably extremely important
I might be about to get a little political...I don't know
READ (this is unorganized, and my first foray into this shit)
http://www.recaonline.com/docs/arc/arc2007/WallerCreek.html
http://austinhomeblog.com/2008/04/07/new-condohotel-for-waller-creek-in-downtown-austin/
http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council/livemusictaskforce.htm
INCLUDES MEETING MINUTES
Task Force Members
The Austin City Council appointed the following Live Music Task Force members on February 28, 2008:
* Brandon Aghamalian, Musician
* Charles Attal, C3 Presents
* Bobby Garza, Musician
* Jill George, Music Commission
* Alex Gonzales, Austin Latino Music Association
* Saundra Kirk, Planning Commission
* Harold McMillan, Diverse Arts
* James Moody, Transmission Entertainment; Mohawk
* Paul Oveisi, Momo's; Music Commission; Second Floor Management (Task Force Chair)
* Don Pitts, Music Commission
* Adrian Quesada, Musician
* Rose Reyes, Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau
* David Sullivan, Planning Commission
* Scott Trainer, Neighborhood Representative
* Steve Wertheimer, Continental Club
Thursday, January 8, 2009
last year's top tens: this is this and that is shit
so i was disappointed with basically all the top ten lists i saw. most of the lists i read didn't mention a single album i found interesting. so now i am going to just broadcast my tastes as judgment without much justification or regard for top ten list dogma.
if you are bored maybe you will click some links but in any case ...
1970's Algerian Proto-Rai Underground
Sublime Frequencies does it so hard. I think they charged more than 20 dollars for this originally vinyl only comp. They sold out cuz it destroys. I agree with this label on everything they do. At least the albums that have songs anyways. If you want sounds of the jungle or cityscapes, there are better sources. But othewise SUBMIT!
Group Doueh - Guitar Music From The Western Sahara
Like I was saying, Sublime Frequencies does it so hard. I know Mr. Hennies prefers the Group Inerane CD. I didn't try to convince him that he was wrong.
Elodie Lauten - Death of Don Quixote
Our dear friend Tommy put this out and it's awesome. I've only listened to the samples on the site but I'm going to buy this. Minimal turned maximal. Really beautifully hypnotic stuff. Floating. Yeah and Arthur Russell is on it.
The Boredoms - 77 Boadrum
Yeah, so if I had a hundred bucks to burn, I might buy this. The audio recording is worthwhile. The DVD is pretty lame though. When I first started listening to it, I was pretty unimpressed because drumlines do incredibly more complicated/dynamic stuff (but they also foster the below sort of horseshit). And the Boredoms pulled off an event unlike anything else.
So, bottom line: not my top pick by any means but there is nothing else like this out there and it is not wholly redundant. That being said, I have low hopes for the recordings of 88 and the 99 soon to come.
Pillows and Prayers - Cherry Red Records '81-'84
I dug a few tracks off this comp that came out in 2007. I don't know why I am listing this. The track "Feathering the Nest" reminds me of Buckley / Frusciante / Giallo. I mean that in a good way mostly.
Medio Mutante - Inestable EP
Crunchy minimal wave with a female vocalist spouting some sharp spanish. Featuring Seth from the ever-missed Zom Zoms. Fuck.
Speaking of Zom Zoms, I think a lot of their videos on youtube got taken down or at least I can't find them any more...
Lucky Dragons - Widows
Glitches, oohs, aahs.
Melted Men - Smoke Alarm Limbo
So this may or may not have come out this year. I found these guys when I was searching through independent silk screen artists. Someone had done a cover for them that I though was pretty mind melting and yeah, the music is too. This release is a clear 7" for only 5 dollars. And it's totally solid too. Think Residents with a good sequencer.
The Microphones - Mount Eerie
So K repressed the 2003 Microphones epic album Mount Eerie and well, I am buying this right now. Only 500 repressed with the original hand-sown packaging. I also want to hear Dawn, Lost Wisdom, and the follow up Mount Eerie album (the one that came with a book). Side note: it's really really strange seeing how Elvrum has developed. Romanticism+internet=?
Artists/albumsy that i've been listening to and that are partly responsible for me thinking that 2008 was musically sort of meh: The Unicorns, Lightning Bolt, Lau Nau's first album, Sung Tongs, Xiu Xiu (Life and Live, Fabulous Muscles, Knife Play, some tracks off A Promise), J Dilla's Donuts, middle year Oneida records, all of those remastered Can albums, Calling Out of Context, the Boredoms discography, random Sun Ra albums, the first Sun City Girls album, holiday records from my grandparents, and some dixieland records.
Live shows of 2008 that I particularly enjoyed: Monotonix, the Oh Sees, Little Mystery Trail in 2012.
What I'm looking forward to more of: Dirty Projectors, Lightning Bolt, non-billion drummer Boredoms albums, New Moon Comps, Weird Weeds (check out their vinyl (re-)release), Sublime Frequencies, Operation Playmate, Plutonium Farmers.
Favorite Song Wednesday Late Edition
Today's late edition of Favorite Song Wednesday is dedicated to The Whispers.
Dear The Whispers,
Would you like to play my birthday party?
"It's a Love Thing" is the tune that caught my ear, then I realized they've got a pretty smoking catalog of singles and two decades of chart-topping longevity.
The Whispers - It's a Love Thing (divshare)
BONUS:
The Whispers - Rock Steady
DOUBLE BONUS:
The Whispers - And The Beat Goes On...
(This track hit #1 on the U.S. charts and #2 in the U.K. in 1979.)
TRIPLE BONUS:
Will Smith sampled The Whispers for Caribbean-flavored smoker Miami.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Eric B. and Rakim - Know the Ledge (Juice)
I'll take your Ghetto Boys and raise you Eric B. and Rakim. It uses the same sample. This song is featured in the intro to the movie "Juice", which stars Tupac as a psychopath young urban youth who goes on a killing rampage while his homie is just trying to win a DJ competition.
P.S. I've got crazy juice.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Country Joe McDonald - I Feel Like (Woodstock 1969)
Thanks to Zachary for introducing me to this guy...
Monday, January 5, 2009
Geto Boys - Trigga Happy Nigga
how do these guys always deliver?
the intro is basically james brown but in a ghetto context...the beat...oh the beat....UNSTOPPABLE. an entire breakdown from the movie 'scarface'?
energy.
ii <3 texas
Sunday, January 4, 2009
I love/dislike free week // Deerhunter Review // Ghosts of Classic Rock Past
Ok Free Week. Last night (Friday) I went down basically against my will because there are no goddamn parties when there is free week. But then it was really fun. People! Whoa! Pretty girls! Where the fuck are they the other 350 days of the year? Then I ran into a dude I knew from tour who asked me if I wanted to smoke some of Bob Marley's Favorite Weed (it was as advertised) which led to me passing out at his buddy's on South 183 past 71. We had a lot of fun. So that is the best of free week.
Then today I went back and it was like 30s singles crowd night for The Ugly Beets and What Made Milwaukee Famous. It was, shall we say...unfortunate. Free Week should be for the kids! Throw em a bone at least somewhere. I'm sure they have thought of this, but at least on the weekends, man! There aren't going to be any parties. So tomorrow will be a new day...lets hope Free Week can go 2 out of 3 for me.
------------------***warning: approaching super-rant*** skipping to Queen Videos at end of post encouraged***-----------------
Anyways, OK, so I really like Deerhunter right, and I had a conversation with a buddy who expressed a viewpoint I had never heard about them, namely that they were a fake-ass-god-damn-faggot-overrated-piece-of-shit-bullshit music-publicity-hounding-wool-over-sheeps-eye-pulling-band. I was somewhat taken about being as though this had not even occurred to me, and having been away from their old record for a while, and barely acquainted with their new one at the time (more on this later) my defense at the time was a bit weak. It basically boiled down to "yeah, but they write good songs!" which I still feel like is one of the ultimate defenses you can make for a band, (the other I invoke most often being, "they're awesome live." ) Writing even one good song, regardless of whether or not you manage to get it down on record is fairly difficult in my opinion, and I am pretty down with at this point material off of 3 of their records, not to mention that there is a lot of their shit I haven't even heard. And I wont get to the "but" just quite yet...I'll do my best to save that for a bit.
Here are some things I really dig off of Microcastle. Tracks 2,3, to a lesser extent 4, 9, 10, and almost 11. I really like the vocals on track 2, I think the delivery is creepy, and most of the lyrics are awesome. I don't like the line where he's like "I want to fade away," that's sort of a cliche to me, but some of the specific stuff I think really sets up some cool imagery. I like the background vocals that sort of come in, and then the i guess weird guitar solo passage at the end, I like how the beginning of it is composed and it sort of draws you into the section. Track 3 the thing i like is the breakdown part that starts just after one minute, but I also think at the same time this is the biggest sin of the record, and this whole track is this flagrant example of what I don't like about it (and what I like in contrast to this record about Weird Era Cont.) The thing I don't like is its so explicitly a "Big Rock Record." Like having the lyrics "it never stops" and then a drum break. It's not hard to figure out how that's gonna translate live, and the Hot Topic kids are going to get it.*
*Side note---On tour this last time I found myself in a mall for the first time in forever. I went inside a Hot Topic. There was one badass shirt, all black except for a giant glittery Tinkerbell, but THEY ONLY MADE IT IN GIRLS SHIRTS! HOSED!! It would have been rad.
OK, the kids gloves are coming off for a second. This whole record (Microcastle) is littered with "Big Rock Record"isms, and honestly, they are total cliches, aka boring. That's this overarching problem with the record. It's why the epic intro track sort of takes the sails out of the 2nd track for me. But hey, I understand the draw, check out this video of The Strokes playing this crazy stage and tell me that even if you are looking around like "this is bullshit" its wouldn't be totally fun to be in the middle of it, and who are you hurting really? Maybe thats how Deerhunter feels? Why not go for it and "be the Big Rock Band", which uuh, hasn't really, in my opinion due to permanent market changes, even existed since The Strokes/The White Stripes? And will it ever again? Who knows? People take rock and roll for granted. I will be interested to see what happens and that Strokes video to me really illustrates
Also, it has to be mentioned "Nothing Ever Happens" is a "Big Rock Song" (Anthem? Do people say that?) and it probably needs this record to be the context for its existence. Still, you gotta wonder, is it sort of bullshit, even if its not nefarious? And then, after that, does it matter if its bullshit if the song kicks ass? I actually think that counts as a total validation...
----------------------------------------
The Strokes, Live in L.A, Feb 2002
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OK I cant finish this...this has gone on too long, and is already basically running in circles. I like Weird Era Cont. way better, but dont like the 3 instrumental tracks right before the last one. And also there are some of the big rockisms on this record too, even though its recorded totally differently (no pussyfooting with the production for one, thank god). My favorite track of all is track 4 on this one. I think the drum intro is amazing, the guitar riff is pretty original, the form interesting, and the last bit completely epic. Pitchfork described "Nothing Ever Happens" as the track you would play someone as like a "here's Deerhunter!" introduction, but to me this is a much cooler song. It's also really weirdly the most directly derivative that I can pick out, which is to say the guitar sound for the last section could be right off of a My Bloody Valentine record. This to me is so weird because I dislike this record for being essentially a genre record (shoegaze) and yet the one that almost quotes it is the one I like the best? A little weird for sure.
But yeah, the Ghosts Of Classic Rock Past thing...I was listening to classic rock satelite radio at P. Terry's this afternoon while enjoying a delicious double burger (is P. Terry's the best burger in town? Tell me a better burger) and I sort of had this realization the connection from bands trying to be creative and making their singles and how people consumed music through the radio in those days which just doesn't happen anymore. There basically no free radio outside of college radio, and whoever replaced John Peel. And the thing that makes me a Deerhunter-as-big-rock-band apologist is that if you hear "Nothing Ever Happened" on a college radio station, its going to sound fresh and its going to sound better than almost all the other shit that gets played. And that sort of seems like all an underground rock band can really strive for (outside of an iTunes commercial, apparently.) Like this Big Rock Record deal....what is that? People trying to write a new Dark Side of the Moon? A new Zepplin III, or a new Zepplin IV, or a new Sgt. Peppers? The question of "which big rock record" you are going for is nearly as important as trying it, but in my opinion its a fantasy, because those things existed in market forces. What a lot of bands I think in their heart of hearts would really like to write is Queen's Greatest Hits, only they don't even realize it, and because they don't realize it their ideas get candied up and muddled and they write something far shittier than that.
I mean this is rock and roll. Its fucking stupid, and its fun, and its really campy, and it rocks. Look at that gong for Christ's sake!
and then look again, hes still fucking got it!
And now he's still got it, only more so, and without a shirt on!
I mean come on, these are great songs that people know and love, and are fun, and this is passion, and great performance and if you want to smoke weed and sit on a towel you can do that and enjoy the laser light show with your girlfriend. But that is something that literally barely exists at this point, and why I could never hate on Ghostland Observatory, because they get closer than anyone, even if they aren't exactly the songwriters Freddie Mercury was. Also, props to him for coming up with his signature look later in his career. That's pretty badass.
one final link of "we are the champions", because I cant embed this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogKUx_q7ig&feature=related
and another PS, from wikipedia
"In the UK, Queen have now spent more collective weeks on the UK Album Charts than any other musical act (including The Beatles),[61] and Queen's Greatest Hits is the highest selling album of all time in the UK.[62] Estimates of the band's total worldwide record sales to date have been set as high as 300 million.[63] Two of Mercury's songs, "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", have each been voted as the greatest song of all time in major polls by Sony Ericsson[64] and Guinness World Records,[65] respectively. The former poll was an attempt to determine the world's favourite song, while the Guinness poll took place in the UK. In October of 2007, the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" was voted as the greatest of all time by readers of Q magazine."
Friday, January 2, 2009
Mayer Hawthorne and The County
If you've been in my house in the past three days then I probably played you this 10 inch I just received in the mail.
Fuck that Love Lockdown picture disc , Mayer Hawthorne gets my vote for best heart themed specialty vinyl of 2008. Only 1000 were pressed and turntable lab is sold out (it hit #1 on their sales charts) so if you're looking for a copy you might have to hit up Stones Throw or Hawthorne's myspace. Mark Ronson played this track on his consistently amazing radio show Authentic Shit and gave it a resounding endorsement in October, a few weeks before it was released.
Anyway, the songs are magic. They sound like they're straight out of the 60's, heavily doo-wop influenced but with a modern Dilla drum sound. The lyrics sting with a sincerity and vulnerability reminiscent of Smokey Robinson's work. The recording crackles with vinyl pops, giving it an uncanny feeling of age despite it's Nov. 2k8 release date.
Enjoy it.
P.S.
Looks like I got a little carried away with that picture disc photo and forgot to upload the MP3s.
Mayer Hawthorne and The County - Just Ain't Gonna Work
Mayer Hawthorne and The County - When I Said Goodbye
IMPENDING BONUS:
That Dizzee remix I promised is at a rough mix and hopefully I'll have a better version in the next few days, so keep a lookout.
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