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3/22/04

The Best Blueberries In The US Of A

The Fiery Furnaces “Blueberry Boat” – If someone is going to put out an album in 2004 that I will love more than the Fiery Furnaces’ forthcoming Blueberry Boat, then it’s going to have to a pretty miraculous record.

Blueberry Boat is a very challenging album to say the least. Five of its thirteen songs are eight minutes or longer, and many of the smaller songs fit together as suites; so the album feels very overwhelming at first before you learn to navigate its twists and turns. Your time is most certainly rewarded, because once you adapt to its internal logic and narrative style, Blueberry Boat reveals itself to be just as tuneful and ingratiating as its more accessable predecessor, Gallowsbird’s Bark.

The Fiery Furnaces seem primarily interested in musical storytelling on this record. They mostly abandon verse-chorus-verse structure in favor of letting the music shift with their narrative, so the songs fall somewhere between prog and musical theatre in terms of style and composition. The title track is a fine example of the band at their most ambitious, as it tells the story of a first time captain’s doomed voyage to Hong Kong to deliver the “best blueberries in the US of A.” There are other more immediately loveable songs on the album, but “Blueberry Boat” is the best example of the record’s epic, cinematic scope and will give you a good idea of what to expect of it as a whole.

The Tiki Two “Caravan” – If you were into the Red Astaire song from a few weeks ago or the Avalanches’ Since I Left You album, this should probably do the trick. The Tiki Two transform Ella Fitzgerald’s “Caravan” into a groovy island paradise dance number, which should be perfect for your next luau. This song is a bit hard to come by – only 500 white label 45s were made, and it hasn’t yet been released in any other format.

3/19/04

You Better Wake Up

Bibson & Xuman “Kay Jel Ma” – This is taken from the Trikont compilation Africa Raps, which is a remarkable sampler of hip hop from Senegal, Gambia, and Mali. It’s a peculiar thing to hear Africans putting their own spin on an African American form rather than the reverse – African producers borrowing from the production styles of DJ Premier, Dr. Dre, Timbaland, and Swiss Beatz seems to bring something full circle, though I’m not quite sure what that may be. I recommend hearing the full record – Bibson & Xuman’s Rawkus/DJ Premier-ish style is only one part of a bigger picture that the compilation presents. If you have any interest in how hip hop translates into other cultures, this record is a must-have.

Also: The WFMU 2004 marathon is almost over, and if you still haven’t gotten around to pledging yet, please do so as soon as you can! A perfect opportunity to do so will be during Gaylord Fields’ program on Saturday evening from 6 to 8 PM EST, when he will be joined by guest host Tom Scharpling and Yo La Tengo, who will play any song you request if you pledge at least $100. The annual Yo La Tengo covers show during the marathon is always a lot of fun and full of surprises, so be sure to tune in because these performances are never archived on the site.

I’ll be answering phones at the station tomorrow morning from 9 am to noon, so you could always call in then and I will personally take your pledge!

3/18/04

You Want To Avoid The Inevitable, So You Do The Impossible

Klonhertz “Three Girl Rhumba” – Klonhertz are nice people, because it seems that they made this cover of the Wire classic not so much for their own artistic expression, but to solve a problem for DJs everywhere. The original Wire recording of “Three Girl Rhumba” has one of the best riffs ever (Elastica and Pavement would agree, I’m sure), but it just wasn’t fast or long enough to really fit into a good DJ set. Klonhertz sample the guitar part, extend the song, add stronger beats for the dancefloor, and even found the world’s best Colin Newman impersonator to re-sing the whole thing almost exactly as it sounds on Pink Flag. Seriously, you could fool lots of people into thinking that this is just a straight remix of Wire.

The Bad Plus “Velouria” – Here’s another cover version for you today, but this isn’t nearly as faithful to the original arrangement. The Bad Plus transform the Pixies song into an unlikely jazz number, but without resorting to loungey kitsch. The song starts out as a mournful ballad with rattling percussion, then kicks into a more upbeat section, and concludes with the plaintive piano melody being crushed by a veritable avalanche of cacophonous cymbal crashes. It’s a very inspired take on the song.

3/17/04

Rainbow Is Not My Favorite Color

Cocorosie “Butterscotch” – This song, and the rest of the album from which it is taken, La Maison de Mon Reve, is one of the strangest and most beautiful things that I’ve heard in a long time. The record sounds a bit like field recordings of early 20th century folk, blues, and gospel music, but with peculiar modern touches such as toy sound effects, unconventional vocal overdubs, and lyrics about Skittles.

Cocorosie is a duo of American sisters who reunited after years of separation to record this album (due out in April on Touch & Go, by the way) in an apartment in Paris. Both of the girls are blessed with amazingly beautiful, impossibly sexy singing voices and a gift for writing weird, brilliant lyrics. One of the finest moments of “Butterscotch” is when one of the girls intones “you remind me of baseball, towtrucks, and movies” close to the microphone, so that if you’re listening on headphones it feels as though she’s singing right into your ear. It melts my heart every time I hear it.

I highly recommend checking out the full album, especially if you like Cat Power, but feel that she’s not eccentric enough for you.

Katerine “8eme Ciel” – It’s just a coincidence that I’m posting so much music from France this week, I swear. I don’t have much to say about this groovy modern lounge number, aside from that I love the melody and the shifts in percussion throughout the song. There’s some excellent keyboard sounds all over this, especially that whirring sound around the two minute mark.

Elsewhere: Said The Gramophone has a brand new Wilco song. Sit through the first two minutes of mumbly quiet stuff, because the instrumental section totally makes up for the fact that the beginning sounds like Dave Pirner doing an Elliott Smith song on the piano.

Also: If you can, please check out the special episode of Arrested Development on tonight after American Idol at 9:30 on Fox. If you ask me, the show is (along with Strangers With Candy and The Office) the best sitcom of all time. However, the show is still finding its audience, and is struggling in the ratings. All Fox needs is a sign that the show is getting more popular, so please, watch the show and if you like it, tell your friends and write about it online. If you’re new to the show and get the FX Network, you can catch a special marathon of the first six episodes from 2PM-5PM on this coming Sunday. Tonight’s episode features a number of guest stars, including Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, James Lipton, SNL/UCB cast member Amy Poehler, and Henry Winkler; but the real draw is the top-notch regular cast which includes Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Jessica Walter, Jeffrey Tambor, Alia Shawkat, and Michael Cera (who just may be the best young teen actor I’ve ever seen.)

3/16/04

How Far, How Wide?

Sia “Breathe Me (Four Tet mix)” – This is one of the best things I’ve ever heard from Four Tet – it’s all spare layered percussion, bass, and vibes with vaguely Fiona Apple-ish vocals. It’s a nice fresh take on post-trip hop downbeat pop, and quite an improvement on the Dido-gone-indie album arrangement. So far, this Four Tet mix is only available as a 10″ white label in the UK.

Scarce “All Sideways” – Unlike 99.9% of all bands who ape the Pixies, Scarce got it right, or at least they did on this song. The charm of the Pixies wasn’t just about loud/soft dynamics, or Kim Deal’s rolling basslines. That’s the easy stuff. To really get that Pixies sound, you need a male singer who sounds absolutely batshit insane, and compliment that with background vocals from a woman who sounds just a little too calm and self-assured – maybe the subtext is that she will soothe/save the damaged protagonist, or perhaps it’s a Charlie Brown thing and he’s being victimized by this dominating, ultimately indifferent woman – take your pick. Scarce’s singer Chick Graning was a bit over the top, but in a good way – there’s something about his shrieking and warbling falsetto that is very compelling even if it seems contrived and exaggerated. I appreciate his sense of melodrama, I really do.

“All Sideways” is taken from the band’s only major label album Deadsexy, which was released with little fanfare back in 1995. I’d want to say that they were a one-hit wonder, but that’s not even true – the video for “All Sideways” was on 120 Minutes once, twice tops, and that was it. I loved the song immediately, but was (and still am, I checked) unimpressed by the record. If you’re still interested in checking it out, I’m sure that if you scour enough cut-out bins and used record stores, you’ll find it for dirt cheap.

3/15/04

Oprah’s Book Club For Illiterate Hipsters

Animal Collective “Who Could Win A Rabbit” – Oh my God, I think I’m going to love this song forever. This is taken from the Animal Collective’s brand new LP Sung Tongs, which is their most pop record to date, though maybe ‘pop’ isn’t quite the right word to describe it. It’s pop if you compare it to their last few releases, which were mostly atonal experiments in texture and form. It’s pop if you consider a warped, severely psychedelic version of Neutral Milk Hotel to be ‘pop.’

As a whole, Sung Tongs seems to be the culmination of what the collective has been doing for the past three years. While the other records seemed to push their interests in folky acoustic guitar, electronic manipulations, and psychedelia to radical extremes, on this album it seems as though they’ve found a way to put it all together with Avey Tare’s gift for melody, which has largely been underutilized since somewhere around Danse Manatee. If they are attempting to create some kind of modern version of folk and traditional music (as I suspect they are), then Sung Tongs is their most successful record since Avey Tare & Panda Bear’s Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished if just because it’s so much easier to imagine someone playing “Who Could Win A Rabbit” next to a campfire than anything off of Campfire Songs.

Phoenix “If It’s Not With You” – What does this song remind me of? There’s got to be some (probably very uncool) radio song from the 70s or 80s that this song has lifted its chord changes/melody/something from. Maybe it’s a little bit of a bunch of songs? I feel as though I’ve known this my entire life. Anyway, this is the smoothest, cleanest, grooviest song on Phoenix’s new record Alphabetical, which is really nothing but smooth, clean, groovy songs.

Elsewhere: New-ish MP3 blog Cocaine Blunts & Hip Hop Tapes offers “slept on classics” but no “wierdo electroclash shit.” Also, The Gardner Linn Fan Club is posting some MP3s in addition to some strong commentary about comics.

Also: Those of you who enjoyed the demo version of Leslie Feist’s “Mushaboom” that I posted a few months ago should head on over to Said The Gramophone to hear the finished studio version of that song as well as another from her forthcoming album. As I predicted, “Mushaboom” sounds fantastic fleshed out with more instruments and percussion – I’m quite glad that they were a bit creative with it. I had imagined that it would have been recorded with a more traditional arrangement, but they went for something much more colorful and upbeat. The intimate, wintery, by-the-fireplace quality of the demo is gone, but it’s not as though every copy of that version is going to disappear or something. The song has such an incredible melody; practically any arrangement of it would sound good.

3/12/04

Burning Like A Silver Flame

Beenie Man w/ Ms. Thing “Dude (Sticky Refix)” – “You heard what she preferred…she wants a real man, she don’t want a nerd” – Well, that counts me out. I had been meaning to post the original version of this, but thankfully I found this Sticky mix (remember him from that Lady Stush track from a couple weeks ago?), which is a vast improvement all around. Whereas the original was a bit too flat and lacking in dynamics, Sticky makes the song MOVE, and it all sounds so much more vibrant and fun.

Erlend Øye – “Venus/Intergalactic Autobahn” (excerpt from DJ-Kicks mix cd) – Erlend Øye’s new mix cd is the latest in K7’s DJ-Kicks series. Øye’s mix features some well chosen tracks by The Rapture, Avenue D, Phoenix, Cornelius, and Royksopp, but it’s most notable for how he sings throughout much of the mix. In some cases, he sings a bit of a song before dropping in the original vocals (as he does with The Rapture’s “I Need Your Love”), but more often than not, Øye sings cover versions of songs over unrelated music and beats, mash-up style. In this excerpt, he does a bit of Shocking Blue’s “Venus” over Uusi Fantasia’s “Lattialla Taas,” which then segues into Øye singing his own “Intergalactic Autobahn” over top of Justus Köhncke’s “2 After 909.”

Elsewhere: I recommend checking out the DJ Screw mixes over on Tyrone Shoelace’s blog while he still has them up. It’s basically manipulated, super-slooooow mixes of hip hop songs designed to be a soundtrack for robodosing, and it’s got this bizarre, soothing, return-to-the-womb charm that I can’t quite explain. I can’t imagine what this must be like while high – I feel like my head’s swimming just listening to this stuff sober.

3/11/04

While I Have Money To Spend

The Silures “21 Ghosts (Part One)” – This is new from Vitalic and Linda Lamb, who teamed up to make an electro rock EP under the name The Silures on the French label Citizen Records. If you’ve been looking for a catchy, anthemic, somewhat goth electro tune about demonic possession sung by a woman with the thickest Noo Yawk accent this side of Fran Drescher, well, then this should do the trick.

Crackhaus “Akufen’s Mornin’ Dump In The Bush Of God” – Likewise, if you’ve been looking for a house track built around samples from old blues and bluegrass 78s, you’ll probably dig this. This is from the new Blame Canada! 12″ on the Musique Risquee label out of Montreal, and it’s a lot better than you might be expecting.

Also: If you’re living in England, and specifically in the vicinity of Brighton, then you owe it to yourself to go to tomorrow night’s It Came From The Sea club night at The Hanbury Ballroom.

And: I was just looking through the concert ads in the Village Voice, and noticed what I think may be the weirdest bill I’ve seen in a long time: An Evening Of Comedy And Music: Al Franken and Michelle Branch. Huh? Wha? Part of me wants to stake out the venue before the doors open just to see what kind of crowd that show attracts.

3/10/04

All Apologies

I’m going to take a break from the music for today and repost a few things that I put up back when the readership of this blog was about one fifth of what it is now. I’ll get back to the pop music tomorrow, so don’t worry.

The Apology Line (side a)

The Apology Line (side b)

The Apology Line (1-212-255-7714) was an art project created in 1980 by an anonymous man going by the name of Mr. A. The idea of the line was to give people a non-religious outlet for confession and public apologies. The line received hundreds of calls daily from 1980 up through the mid-90s, but the numbers for the Apology Line are no longer in service or have been reassigned since Mr. A died as a victim of a freak hit-and-run boating accident.

I recorded these mp3s from a tape that The Apology Line created and circulated titled The Apology Line: Uncut Gems From Year Zero (1980-1981), which is now out of print. I didn’t bother breaking up the individual confessions into separate mp3s, because it was just easier to offer each 22 minute side of the tape as its own track.

Please bear in mind that many of these confessions are extremely upsetting, and some of the callers seem to be genuinely disturbed individuals. This is not easy listening. However, there are some lighter moments here and there, and other parts which are just bizarre. The tape is an amazing document, and an often fascinating peek into the minds of total strangers.

Artist Unknown “The More You Sell” – This is a selection from the WFMU compilation tape The Happy Listener’s Guide To Mind Control. According to the liner notes, this is from an in-store motivational tape intended for the sales staff of some NYC boutique dating back to the mid-to-late ’80s. Basically, this is a recording of the most evil sounding voiceover man who ever lived intoning creepy self-help/sales jargon over generic 80s dance pop music. It’s pretty terrifying stuff – I have no idea why anyone would ever make a motivational tape sound so incredibly malevolent.

3/9/04

I Don’t Care What New Yorkers Say

Electronicat “Frisco Bay” – Not so much dance-punk as it is danceable punk, this singalong should get you moving even if it is more heavy on the treble than the bass. This is taken from the LP 21st Century Toy from the Disko B label in Germany.

Bloc Party “She’s Hearing Voices” – It’s like Interpol, but more aggressive? It’s like Interpol, but more danceable? It’s like Interpol, but actually British? It’s like Interpol, but with a Matrix reference as the lyrical hook? It’s like Interpol, but with a solo at the end that sounds like something out of an amateur Pearl Jam cover band? Yeah, all of that, I guess. “She’s Hearing Voices” is Bloc Party‘s first UK single, and a full length album is forthcoming.

3/8/04

Some Of It Is R&B And Some Of It Is Rock & Roll

Hot Chip “Bad Luck” – Quite possibly the mellowest song to ever contain the lyrics “fuck you, you fucking fuck,” “Bad Luck” reminds me a bit of Erlend Oye’s “Every Party,” which had a similar kind of summery, subverted-slow-jam appeal. This is taken from the forthcoming Coming On Strong LP on Moshi Moshi Records. The first single for the album, “Down With Prince” was released in the UK last week.

I Hate You When You’re Pregnant “There Is Stuff In This World” – I don’t think anyone would reasonably expect to hear anything nearly as beautiful and poignant as this song from an artist with a name as awful as I Hate You When You’re Pregnant, but it seems like everything about this Tempe, Arizona “band” (actually just one guy stripped down to his brightly colored underwear) is designed to defy expectations. To hear more, check out the MP3 section on his website. I recommend “The Furr’s Is Gone” and “A World Without You” in particular.

Elsewhere: More new MP3 blogs are popping up every week! Please welcome Zero-G and Punkassbitch, and Spreadin’ to the blogosphere.

Also: The WFMU marathon begins today! Please support freeform radio by pledging whatever you can over the next two weeks. WFMU is entirely listener supported, and does not accept money from the government. Listener donations, no matter how great or small, are essential in keeping the station alive. If you pledge during specific programs, you can get special DJ premiums, many of which are very interesting. Also, pledging during specific programs lets the station know that you care about that show, which can help to keep it on the regular schedule.

3/5/04

I Immerse Myself In The Melody

Superpitcher “The Long Way” – This sounds as though it was written for the express purpose of being listened to on brisk evening strolls. It’s interesting how this song feels as though it is a brief section from a more conventional pop song extended and removed from its context. I find that when I’m listening to it, I get this uneasy feeling of waiting for something to happen – a significant rhythm shift, a key change, anything. It’s not a bad feeling, per se – it’s just very evocative of restlessness and anticipation, and so I’d like to think that was the point of it. After all, the central lyric is about waiting: “Night came the long way.” This is taken from Superpitcher’s forthcoming album Here Comes Love on the German Kompakt label.

Ty “Ha Ha” – More UK hip hop, but this time it’s something not related (as far as I know) with what’s being called grime, which normally comes from the garage/two-step scene. Ty’s music is a lot closer to hip hop as we know it in the US, and owes a lot more to Roots Manuva than Wiley and Dizzee Rascal. “Ha Ha” is the lead track off of Upwards, which came out last year in the UK, and is being released in the US on Big Dada/Ninja Tune. I like the LP, but “Ha Ha” is the clear stand-out, with its bouncy, rocking synth groove and memorable chorus.

Elsewhere: Tyrone Shoelaces has been posting mp3s for the past few weeks. (I’m embarassed that I didn’t notice sooner!) Make sure you check out the Frisco Kid and Skepta tracks while they are still up, they are both very good.

3/4/04

Love Is All I Bring

Althea and Donna “Uptown Top Ranking” – This is the only hit single from this Jamaican duo, who were teenagers when the song hit big in the UK and Jamaica in 1978. There’s something about the sound of the keyboards in this song that I absolutely love, though I’m not sure if I can quite explain what it is about it that I find so evocative. I haven’t had much luck in finding more of their songs or any detailed information about Althea and Donna, so if you know anything, please let me know.

I Monster “Who Is She” – I can’t find much information about this band either, but I know that they are from Sheffield, England and the name of their album is Neveroddoreven, which is one of the better palindromes that I’ve seen. The song thuds and plods along like a caveman Portishead while the singer croons romantically, sounding a bit like Roy Orbison doing a Scott Walker impression. It’s peculiar, but it works.

Also: Check out Bubblegum Machine, which is a weekly mp3 blog which has been around for a while now, but I didn’t know about it until Mike wrote about the site on Clap Clap today. Over a year’s worth of selections are ready to download, which at two songs per week comes out to being the rough equivalent of a four or five disc box set. It’s a pretty amazing site, especially if you like kitschy pop obscurities.

3/3/04

Leaving Me With Thoughts That Weren’t Even Mine

Ghostface Killah “Run (Pistol Pete Remix)” – This is a Fluxblog exclusive! This excellent Ghostface remix comes courtesy of Pistol Pete, the man responsible for the remix of Missy Elliott’s “Pass The Dutch” which was posted here a few months ago. Pete is a freelance producer/remixer, and if you’re interested in contacting him for a potential collaboration, please email him at petervaleri @ hotmail.com

Dani Siciliano “Walk The Line” – I think this could pass for a Missy/Timbaland production, don’t you? If someone had told me that this was a new Tweet song or something like that, I probably would’ve fallen for it. This is actually the work of frequent Matthew Herbert collaborator Dani Siciliano, and is taken from her debut album, Likes. There’s some great robotic stop/start stuff going on here, and a chanted chorus which was stuck in my head when I woke up this morning, a la Waking Ear. As with a lot of what I’ve been posting lately, it just drives me nuts that this probably has no shot at the mainstream, in spite of fitting in quite well with the weirder stuff that does end up on MTV.

Also: Say hello to another new MP3 blog: Soul Sides – The Log just started up, and is already offering some strong hip hop and jazz selections.

3/2/04

We Must Not Question The Good Lord

Celestial Choir “Stand On The Word (Larry Levan mix)” – This is usually referred to as the “unreleased” Larry Levan mix, but that’s a misnomer now that it’s been recently issued as a 12″ single. The song is a perfect blend of live disco beats and strident gospel vocals, and it is easily one of the finest pieces of music I’ve ever posted here. I’m absolutely floored by this song, and honestly, I think you’d have to be crazy not to love it too.

Franz Ferdinand “Take Me Out (Morgan Geist Reversion)” – Perhaps a law should be passed to make it so that Franz Ferdinand never again releases a record without having it reworked by Morgan Geist. The original version of “Take Me Out” is fine enough, but a bit too timid about embracing its inner disco queen. Geist’s version could still stand to be a bit dancier, but it’s at least a more even hybrid of disco and rock, rather than being mostly rock with a bit of disco on the mother’s side.

Also: Esselle is now posting daily mp3s, in addition to its regular blog content. He’s just started doing this, so there’s only a couple songs, but they’re nice ones from Camera Obscura and MF Doom.

3/1/04

She’s Smoother Than A Pebble

Bronze Age Fox “Baby, We Must Be Over” – This is an odd one. There’s some obvious Prince worship going on here, but it’s mixed up in some weird blend of IDM sounds and early Smashing Pumpkins style. I’m not sure whether this is a) how I wish Prince sounded now or b) how Adore would’ve turned out if Billy Corgan was more into r+b than goth.

Starting today, you can see a gallery of selected photographs that I created during my college career at Parsons School Of Design on the Queer Granny site. Each image is accompanied by some commentary which can be made visable by clicking on the “notes” option on each page of the gallery. This site has been a long time coming – I really should have done this a year or two ago! I have to send a huge THANK YOU to Pauline and Richard, who put it all together for me. They did a nice job, and I’m very grateful.

Please feel free to comment on the photos! It’s mostly older work, but I’m still interested in getting fresh feedback, because it’s been a while since I’ve had any.

2/27/04

It’s Easy To Think The End Is Coming Soon

The Fiery Furnaces “We Got Back The Plague (single version)” – This is the b-side to the new “Tropical Ice-Land” UK single, and like the a-side, it is a totally reworked version of a song from the Gallowsbird’s Bark LP. The new arrangement is like a Scott Joplin/Sonic Youth mash-up gone awry, but it works in spite of itself. The song’s inherant folkiness is foregrounded by the ragtime-y piano, while the noise firmly places the recording in the stylistic present and undercuts any potential modern folky preciousness.

As a change a pace, today I will be offering a full length comic book produced by my good friend John Cei Douglas in lieu of a second mp3. John is a new cartoonist from Leicester, England, and you can download his new comic Sleeping Beauty as a pdf file by clicking on the title.

John is a very promising talent at the young age of 22. Without ever seeing either of their work until after the completion of this comic, he manages to combine elements of Chester Brown’s illustration style with the subtlety and grace of Seth. He has a knack for experimenting with page layout and formal structure without being ostentatious or taking the reader out of his story. He’s capable of drawing some truly elegant and stunning images, most notably the bus departures on pages 13 and 23.

In terms of story, Sleeping Beauty is a bit slight. It’s less of a traditional story than a dreamy, lyrical meditation about young love. The comic works in a way similar to a song or a poem, with John’s words and images coming together as an expression of memories, ambiguous emotions and stray thoughts rather than a conventional narrative.

John Cei Douglas is not currently being published, so if you have an interest in publishing or distributing his work, or hiring him for freelance illustration jobs, please note that his contact information is available on the final page of the pdf.

2/26/04

The Monster Standing By Your Heart

Wiley “Problems” – More grime. This is taken from the forthcoming LP Treading On Thin Ice, as well as the single for “Wot Do U Call It?,” though this really should’ve been the a-side. Aside from maybe “Fix Up, Look Sharp,” this is the most pop (in the contempory chart sense of the word) of all of the grime music that I’ve heard. I’m hoping that this or something like this can make a dent in the US charts, though I’m certainly not holding my breath. It’d be fantastic if hip hop had its own British Invasion, though. It already has an Elvis now, so why not a Beatles?

Unwound “Demons Sing Love Songs (alternate mix)” – I was going through some old cds the other day, and came upon an old Matador Europe sampler titled Draw Me A Riot which came polybagged with an issue of (I think) The Wire a few years ago. It’s a pretty good cd as far as promo compilations go, which is mostly to do with the quality of Matador Europe’s roster, which includes artists from the American Matador stable, plus strong acts poached from other American indie labels.

There were some interesting alternate mixes included on the disc, most notably this spacey, menacing version of Unwound’s “Demons Sing Love Songs.” This was the first I heard of the song, so it led me to purchase a copy of the album with the regular version of the song, Leaves Turn Inside You. While by no means a bad album, that record was a big disappointment for me. Nothing else on it was quite like this, and though the proper version of “Demons Sing Love Songs” was still a fine song, it was missing the shoegazer-y daze of this alternate mix, which was a large part of why I liked the song to begin with. The album version’s vocals are buried in the mix, the keyboards are less prominent, and it has percussion evenly distributed throughout the song. The effects are all but gone, there’s more guitar, and the whole thing is far less dynamic. It’s such a shame, because it’s obvious that it didn’t have to sound so typically indie.

2/25/04

I Do Work To A 108 Tempo

Teriyaki Boyz “Kamikaze 108” – This is a brand new production from DJ Shadow, and is taken from the new Japanese compilation Nigo Presents: (b)Ape Sounds. It’s not exactly breaking new ground for DJ Shadow – stylistically, it’s not that far off from the “Drums Of Death” song that he did with Mike D – but it’s quality work, and quite a lot better than anything he did on the Private Press album. The Teriyaki Boyz are rappers from Japan who alternately rap in Japanese and English old school hip hop catchphrases.

Black Devil “”H” Friend” – This selection is from the “lost classic” Disco Club EP, which has recently been reissued on the Rephlex label. It’s creepy, vaguely soundtracky disco created in 1978 by two French library music composers who decided to try their hand at making a disco record with engineer Jean-Pierre Gouache. I can’t imagine anyone but goths dancing to this, but it’s good stuff.

Also: NYC cool kids should get their tickets to see the Clinic and The Fiery Furnaces ASAP. If you’re going, let me know.

2/24/04

Take Notice Of What’s In Front Of You

Alicia Keys Vs. Gregory Isaacs “You Don’t Know My Name (reggae version)” – This is the best mash-up of the year so far – a seamless mix of Alicia Keys’ vocals and an easy going riddim. Despite my general distaste for Keys, I quite like both the official version and this reggae mix, but I think I may prefer this version if just for the lack of spoken bits. Apparently Keys has heard the track and loves it, so an official version of this mix may be forthcoming.

X-Wife “The Sound Of You” – Here’s another track from the X-Wife album Feeding The Machine, for those of you who enjoyed “Eno” a few weeks ago. “The Sound Of You” is probably my favorite song from the record, along with “Eno” and “Fall.” It’s so huge; it sounds like it was made to be performed in stadiums and enormous outdoor festivals. It’s a bit like what Clinic might sound like if they had the anthemic scope of U2.


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