motherless bastard

i was cruising around kix and the city yesterday, and stumbled on a great interview with jeff staple from back in may. jeff is the founder of staple design as well as disco-not-disco fave the reed space, and is responsible for such iconic nike collabs as the pigeon sb dunk. what really stands out in the interview, however, is his take on bape:

The genius of BAPE and the genius behind Nigo is that he was really able, for lack of a better term, to pull the wool over everyone’eyes. Those are bootleg Air Force 1s. You can walk one block to Delancey and pick up a pair of bootleg Air Force 1s, but he really did it. I give him MAD PROPS for being able to be like “these are bootleg Air Force 1s, stand in line and pay $300 for these joints”. It’s crazy.

and, on bbc:

I don’t know. I think again, I don’t know. Sometimes I look at some of the stuff, like those ICE CREAM shoes, are so bad. They are so bad that I almost wonder if Pharrell is making a social commentary, because he is smart enough to do it, and it would be genius if he did. Like, I am going to take this piece of manure and put a BAPE head on it just to see how much we could charge for it. If he did that it would be cool.

seeing the genius absurdity in it all? hell yeah.

bobby conn and the glass gypsies - the style i need

the streets - let's push things forward

pharrell feat. jay-z - frontin'

belle and sebastian - a century of fakers

the new pornographers - the fake headlines

relaxed muscle - b-real

prefuse 73 - robot snares got no cadence or balance

i caught a fading glimpse

The point is this isn't a set of ideas. This isn't some abstraction. This isn't electroclash. Did music come out of that? Can you think of any songs? Are you going back to it? It was a fad. It was a time. And, I know this thing right now is considered a fad and there's a look to it and all that bullshit but without actual music it will mean nothing in two days.

devendra banhart - fall

devendra banhart - the body breaks

it was with mixed emotions that i read the recent pitchfork interview with devendra banhart. on the one hand, i think he's stupidly talented and empathize with his frustration over the recent flurry of mainstream media attention heaped upon the "freak folk" scene that he helms. on the other hand, dude played the recent chanel runway show.

while i know it's far from a popular opnion, i still have a soft spot in my heart for electroclash. maybe it was because i used to go to luxx and kick it with larry tee, et. al. and yes, i did buy into the whole "performance art" aspect of it which i can see now was partly based on self-important aggrandizement. but i do think that some unique ideas and solid music came out of it. fuck, isn't "funk da esfiha" built on the beat from the tiga remix of "comfortably numb"?

bottom line, even if electroclash was a fad, it was a harmless one with some great tunes. "can you think of any songs?"

linda lamb - hot room

fischerspooner - emerge

scissor sisters - comfortably numb (atoc extended edit)

felix da housecat feat. miss kittin - silver screen (adult. mix)

####

one last thing - i finally gave in and got a myspace page...end of an era, i know.

so come be my friend!

myspace.com/speedrail

####

hot room

just got back from d.c. and i think i got a mild-to-severe case of sunstroke. fuck, that place was unbearably hot. good times though, full report to come later.

i love you cause i have to - dogs die in hot cars

tha block is hot - lil' wayne

####since this is apparently the summer of mccarren pool events - helped out by the fact that i live within spitting distance - it's only appropriate that tonight bloc party and the secret machines are playing. only downside is that it's a $50 ticketmaster event, and of course i slept on getting tickets. so tonight i will be standing outside the cement walls to see what kind of distorted sonic overflow i can grab. wish me luck.

the secret machines - pharaoh's daughter

the secret machines - first wave intact

bloc party - luno

####

no hoods no hats

it's that time again...another disco-not-disco giveaway. by now a bunch of you have probably heard about the chocolate swim free ep put together by chocolate industries in connection with adult swim. featuring lady sov, spank rock, ghislain poirier, mf doom, it's like someone put a bunch of my favorite artists in a sack, let them ferment for a while, and a free ep came out. download the sucker here.

here's a taste:

lady sovereign - hoodie (spank rock mix)

the good people over at adult swim and chocolate industries have hooked me up with a pretty sweet prize pack including:

- Adult Swim shoulder bag made by Yak Pak

- DVD's

- 12 Oz. mouse watch

- Adult Swim frisbee

- Adult Swim notebook

- Adult Swim socks

shoot me an email at disconotdisco@gmail.com with your name, mailing address, and the name of a band i should check out for a chance to win. winner will be announced on monday august 7th, so don't sleep on this one!

devo - the day my baby gave me a surprize

the flaming lips - race for the prize

cornershop - chocolat

css - let's make love and listen to death from above (spank rock mix)

teki latex - disco dance with you (spank rock mix feat. amanda blank)

###

thanks to everyone for the suggestions of what to check out in d.c.! i'll be back this weekend with an update.

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kicking the national habit

stop reading this, and go buy this tshirt right fucking now. seriously, mishka is on fire this season and the new collection is sure to sell out mad fast.

####

off on a little road trip tomorrow morning, gotta go kick it with my grandfather for his 80th birthday. he's been at the smithsonian for decades so i think the partygoers are going to be an interesting mix of anthropologists and linguists. hmmm.

cibo matto - birthday cake

the smiths - unhappy birthday

manitoba - every time she turns round it's her birthday

only problem is that the party is in d.c., and i've never had good luck finding interesting things to do there. liz has never been, so we'll probably have to kick it at a lot of monuments and what not. but any suggestions of neighborhoods, bars, restaurants, stores, clubs, etc, to check out would be greatly appreciated!

radiohead - the national anthem

the fiery furnaces - mason city

wilco - ashes of american flags

###

i got the longest throwback

while we're all eagerly awaiting the new plastic little album (she's mature, drops sept 1st), liz got me a copy of their original thug paradise 2.1 record as a quitting smoking present. the great thing about a crew being comprised of art school grads is that not only do you get silly ass clever rhymes, but the cd also came with a whole bunch of rad stickers. hell yeah.

plastic little - miller time

plastic little - lovely lady type song

####

fuck. a crazy thunderstorm just passed through. in like five minutes. i've never been jumpy around storms or what have you, but the billboard outside my bedroom window has been struck by lightning twice in the past week and that shit is crazy.

thom yorke - and it rained all night

the beta band - dry the rain

####

my current clothing obsession, mishka, is getting ready to drop a new collection in the near near future. don't sleep on this one, shit always sells out right quick. there's also a great interview and preview over at hypebeast.

and how awesome is this sonic youth x michael jordan shirt?

sonic youth - bull in the heather

####

the rentals are back to show hot chip how you really rock a micro korg! about time, eh? they'll be rolling through nyc and hit irving plaza on august 4th. full tour schedule here.

the rentals - waiting

the rentals - my summer girl

walking blues

i'm in the market for a new pair of kicks. i like sneakers a lot, but i don't box the shit - i wear it. is anyone else getting a little tired of the neverending stream of dunks? i've been thinking of copping a pair of air max 90s (huf model from the clerks pack above). although i am feeling the nort dunk hi's from the same san francisco clerks pack. what about these:

from the fantastic four pack...or to take it even further:


not sure i could really pull off flashy 95s. although i have been rocking hot pink and neon green patent leather dunks for the past few months...

elvis costello - (the angels wanna wear my) red shoes

camera obscura - footloose and fancy free

belle and sebastian - ease your feet in the sea

beck - one foot in the grave

to be honest, though, if i could have any kicks in the world (besides the dpm terminators featured in my "logo") it would be these futura-designed unkle dunks:


u.n.k.l.e. - the knock

u.n.k.l.e. - lonely soul

####

revolution industrielle

having some technical difficulties over the past couple of days, should be cleared up shortly...

daft punk - technologic (peaches remix)

grafiti - what is the problem (zongamin remix)

the queers - i'm ok, you're fucked

jarvis cocker - cunts are still ruling the world

bad brains - regulator

granny scratch scratch

at a point in time when, even though gas prices are a daily feature on the news, most of us receive our info about nuclear power from homer simposon, the article in the lastest nyt magazine was interesting. basically, the piece detailed the possible resurgence of nuclear energy, as it becomes a pawn in both the foreign oil and greenhouse gas debates. what really stuck out for me, though, was the following:

One great challenge in designing nuclear power plants is that making something safer and making something cheaper are often conflicting priorities: the less you spend, the less safe it is, and vice versa. This is what Westinghouse engineers began to wrestle with as they explored designs that could be built more efficiently. For any new project, the same basic technology would still be used to produce electricity: uranium pellets, encased in fuel rods, would undergo a controlled chain reaction in the core, release energy to turn heat pressurized water and generate steam, and the steam would turn giant, magnetized turbines to generate electricity.

what about fast breeder reactors? already adopted in places outside of the states, these reactors differ in that they operate on a closed cycle. instead of traditional reactors where the "uranium pellets, encased in fuel rods" are disposed of as highly unstable waste, the fbrs continune to generate electricity off of depleted components. while the breeder reactors generally provide less electricity per site, implemented on a wider scale they could generate a far greater percentage of the grid than nuclear power currently does.

now for some tunes!

sun ra - nuclear war

the hives - declare guerre nucleaire

the stooges - raw power

####

heatwave in nyc the next couple of days. my days of bohemian glory are over - getting an air conditioner after work today. fuck it.

atari teenage riot - heatwave

massive attack - heat miser

tommy mccook - heatwave

####

touch the sky

second installment of the mccarren pool parties today, and it's a pretty heady psych lineup:

Dead Meadow
The Slip
Mobius Band
Psychic Ills
DJ Child Labor
DJ Image

i'll probably go check it out in a minute

dead meadow - dusty nothing

dead meadow - everything's goin' on

####

i gotta be honest though, today i'm in a mood to listen to some neptunes-produced lupe bangers as opposed to indie psych. is that so wrong ?

lupe fiasco - i gotcha

lupe fiasco - kick push

i will be your one more time

i hate the siren festival. the last time i was there was two years ago, and while i managed to see great sets by tv on the radio, and you will know us by the trail of the dead, and electric six, i also managed to get heat stroke and throw up all over the place.

a.r.e. weapons - weakest ones

tv on the radio - ambulance

i mean let's get real. it is not fun to stand around coney island in 95 degree heat all day long. add several thousand other hungover people into the equation - and let's not forget that everyone is being plied with free energy drinks all day - and things just descend into a clusterfuck.

i'm sorry, i will not be attending any further siren festivals. one was enough for me.

...

but even if i would consider going, check out the schedule:

the bands that i really want to see (serena maneesh, the stills, art brut, and scissor sisters) all overlap each other and are on different stages.

the stills - let's roll

art brut - good weekend

scissor sisters - filthy gorgeous (extended mix)

she wants revenge - black liner run

####

just lampin

i fucking love ratatat. and i think the reason i love 'em so much is that, in a way, they're kind of like the steel-cut oatmeal of my music collection. every few months or so i'll have no idea what to get for breakfast in a diner, and i'll panic and order oatmeal. when it comes i'm all "oh. shit. i totally forgot how much i love this! i'm gonna eat oatmeal ALL THE FUCKING TIME!"

and even though i should eat oatmeal all the time - it's not only delicious but also good for you! - i never end up having it that often.

in a perfect world, i would be eating oatmeal and listening to ratatat every single day. until then, i'll have to settle for a few monster tracks from the forthcoming classics album:

ratatat - swisha

ratatat - wildcat

ratatat - lex

and some og material:

ratatat - desert eagle

ratatat vs. kanye - get 'em high

dont' sleeep on tickets to the 9/5 show at the bowery ballroom, on sale now.

####

####

if you're in the wburg area, make sure to check out the classiest clothing store around, oak, which has just moved to a new location on n. 8th and is right now having a huge sale. i originally stumbled upon this store when it used to be housed - literally - around the corner from me on a quiet stretch of ainslie st. in addition to stocking some of my favorite labels such as opening ceremony, rachel comey, oliver helden, and rag & bone, they have fantastic man, which is think is the smartest magazine about fashion out there right now.

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driving me backwards

photo from d-i-r-t-y.com

so i'm finally forcing myself to make a proper dj mix, now faced with the problem of how to kick it off. here's what i'm kicking around right now:

sunn o))) - orthodox caveman

t. raumschmiere - radio blackout

brian jones - take me with you my darling, take me with you (dinimaak a habibi dinimaak)

or, in a somewhat different vein:

the chi-lites - are you my woman (tell me so)

####

footloose and fancy free

what the fuck was a spruce grouse doing on keap st near the bqe last night?! liz and i were walking to get some food at around 8 when we were greeted with this volleyball-sized mound of feathers. after several unsuccessful camera phone attempts, she (the grouse) ran under a fence into an abandoned parking lot. we tried calling 311, animal control, and the audubon society, but to no avail. i've heard about the whole parrots-at-brooklyn-college thing, but grouse in the 'burg? anyone else seen 'em?

public image limited - no birds

billy bragg and wilco - birds and ships

####

as anyone who's heard me wax eloquent about the intricacies of the fox lineup can attest, it's about fucking time for me to get cable. so i finally call time warner yesterday to set up an install. i just happen to be listening to jay-z at work, and the time warner guy starts rhyming along to "friend or foe" while he's typing. this leads into us talking about the recent show that we had both been at, his feud with cam, etc. long story short: i got free showtime. thanks jay-z!

jay-z - friend or foe '98

jay-z - where i'm from

cam'ron - i.b.s.

cam'ron - wet wipes

####

pretty vacant

i've been thinking recently about this as-silly-as-it-is-dirty-rap trend taking place out in the west coast. i'm looking at you, mickey avalon and dirt nasty (aka: simon rex). it's stupid. it's not well performed. it's obviously a product of the hype machine. but it's fun and it's catchy.

mickey avalon - so rich so pretty

dirt nasty - droppin names

and really, isn't it just a male version on this:

avenue d - my dirty south

avenue d - sex that i need

####

i hate it as much as the next guy to be "leaked" snippets of upcoming albums by record labels. but i am somewhat interested to hear what the new killers lp will be like. when all is said and done, they're perfectly nice, shiny, rock. take a look at the soundscan numbers for the first half of the year and tell me you wouldn't mind seeing a band like the killers somewhere in there:

2006 Top Ten Selling Albums (01/02/2006-7/02/2006)

Title / Artist: Units Sold
1. High School Musical / Soundtrack: 2,620,801
2. Me and My Gang / Rascal Flatts: 1,997,356
3. Back to Bedlam / James Blunt: 1,659,040
4. The Breakthrough / Mary J. Blige: 1,503,584
5. Some Hearts / Carrie Underwood: 1,479,513
6. Now 21 / Various : 1,364,849
7. King / T.I.: 1,328,057
8. Taking the Long Way / Dixie Chicks: 1,268,706
9. Amore / Andrea Bocelli: 1,132,496
10. All the Right Reasons / Nickelback: 1,072,868

christ.

the killers - when you were young (snippet)

the killers - midnight show

####

and for kicks!

shitdisco - disco blood

woo!

####

3 a.m. eternal

i'm not one to indulge in hyperbole, but i think it's safe to say that yesterday was one of the best festa del giglios that williamsburg has seen in the past 119 years! seriously surreal, seeing hundreds of italian families mob the streets to watch about 70 dudes lift a four ton edifice.

note the bishop in the center - the one with the white and green robes - as the local pastor told the assembled masses, he's a bensonhurst boy! i haven't felt this connected to brooklyn since i finished a tree grows in brooklyn.

and yes, this was the most italian outfit i could put together on my way out of the apartment.

when liz wasn't gorging herself on greasy zeppoles and watery lemonade, she was the one taking all the photos...

####

just when i thought my sunny sunday couldn't get any more local-activity-filled, it was the inaugural free party at mccarren pool! first things first - it is a fucking crazy space. a relic from a time past when expansive civic spaces were at the same time grand and barren. bottom line? perfect place for an open air concert-cum-picnic-cum-dodgeball-tournament. we got there just in time to see beans with holy fuck. while i've seen him throw down harder (read: supreme trading, nye 2004), it was still a lively, engaging set.

beans - crevice

beans - mutescreamer (el-p remix)

hunger forced us to leave the premises after beans' set, but it was really nice to walk around the park with the faint strains of a dj dropping css floating through the air...

css - let's make love and listen to death from above

css - let's make love and listen to death from above (spank rock remix)

####

losing my religion

this is what woke me up at about 10 am this morning. what's not in this picture (from last year) is the giant truck filled with loaves of bread that people were handing out. what the fuck?

ah, festa del giglio! apparently each july the church down the street from me has a big festival, the only one of its kind that takes place outside of southern italy. and tomorrow afternoon 200 dudes are going to go lift a totem-pole-esque statue that is roughly seven stories high. i will definitely be filing a full report of all the goings on tomorrow night.

wu-tang - older gods

the beach boys - god only knows

cam'ron - take 'em to church

moby - god moving over the face of the water

####

in other williamsburg news, i finally got around to watching the pilot episode of web sitcom the burg. shit's hilarious! not only does it feature neckface in almost every scene, but it's also got live footage of bravo silva performing at asterisk as well as the phrase "i'm not going to fly in the face of buddha". check it out here

bow wow wow - tv savage

miss kittin and the hacker - life on mtv

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what's the jump off?

ahhhh, back to my old haunt - galapagos. seems like they've stepped things up recently, booking a lot of sick lineups and tonight is no exception. if you haven't seen plastic little yet, get in the motherfuckin game!

plastic little - the jump off

plastic little - driz hollering

and dj ayres? hell yeah.

bjork - hyperballad (dj ayres mix)

dj ayres - broke ass home

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you want another party rec? but an early post-work one? sure:

don't really know what to make of this "silk screening" party, but should be interesting. and ain't nothing wrong with catchdubs, caps n jones, and free red stripes. ain't nothing wrong that at all.

rick ross - hustlin (catchdubs mix)

caps and jones mix for discobelle

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what's your damage

bamonte's is down the street from my apartment and it is something of a nyc landmark in that it opened in 1900 (before the first pizzeria ever made it to the city). the zagat's entry reads, in part, "after 100 years, this Williamsburg 'throwback' is still 'keeping it real' with 'no-nonsense' 'red-sauce Italian' and 'local color' 'so classic it's nearly a cliche'". what you won't find in any review of the eatery, however, is that it is a hub for williamsburg's thriving filthy street cat scene. seriously, the neighborhood is lousy with the dirtiest stray cats you've ever seen. apparently the staff at bamonte's put out food for the kitties at the end of the night, so they tend to congregate outside of the entrance. i was coming back from watching the fireworks down by the river (and then a stop at k&m to watch people shoot bottle rockets off at oncoming cars) and noticed a pack of about seven cats in front of bamonte's. this - seriously - is not an unusual sight in my area, but what was unusual was that as i proceeded to go through the song and dance of trying to lure a cat into my arms a little one actually let me get close enough to pat its filthy mane. finding it necessary to push my luck, i scooped the dirt-encrusted black kitten up and flipped it over to hold it like a baby. after giving out a terrible cry, the cat jabbed its claw directly into my gut forcing me to release him back into the street.

i now have four cuts in my stomach, in a distinctly paw-shaped pattern. well played, bamonte's.

the cure - the love cats

david bowie - cat people (putting out fire)

the faint - paranoia attack

####

strange news from another star

ah july 4th. they actually opened up a hydrant across the street from my apartment, so there are squeals as kids run back and forth through the stream. now i just need a hot dog and a bud and i'll be disgustingly patriotic. luckily i went to motherfucker last night, so i think it balances out.

out hud - the stoked american

morrissey - america is not the world

blur - look inside america

####

she don't think straight

another pseudo holiday, another motherfucker party. i'm definitely headed to this one, as dave p and tim sweeny, two of nyc's finest vinyl-slingers, will be throwing down in the side room all night. there is also the prospect of a "secret band" performing at 11:30. i've heard rumors of it being either the editors or the futureheads. alls i know is that i'm still kicking myself for not going when bloc party performed, as it was an apparently amazing show.

the futureheads - hounds of love (mystery jets mix)

the editors - munich (cicada mix)

the editors - fingers in the factories

bloc party - like eating glass

brian eno - mother whale eyeless

####

what if i ride

besides drooling over some new woven air footscapes, i haven't been swept up in the whole world cup fever. one sporting event i will sit and watch for hours, though, is american le mans racing. four different classes of cars all racing at the same time, on the same track. the most elegant clusterfuck around. i just turned on the tv and cbs is playing the race from lime rock. it's going to be the last run for the audi r8...check it out!

david bowie - always crashing in the same car

r.e.m. - drive

the flaming lips - race for the prize

cam'ron - girls, cash, cars

fpu - racer car (tgv mix)

the company of others

thanks gawker (last link)! does this mean that i should start focusing exclusively on celebrity gossip? because i'll do it...

the gossip - standing in the way of control

the slits - i heard it through the grapevine

nada surf - popular

kraftwerk - computer world

####


happened to be in times square at the ungodly hour of 9 am this morning - long story - so i decided to take a stroll through a refreshingly uncrowded virgin megastore. crooklyn for only $12?! hell yeah. watched it this afternoon, and while it's not as socially trenchant as some of spike's other work, it is nonetheless a really touching family portrait.

beastie boys - no sleep till brooklyn

the sounds - tony the beat (brooklyn fire retouch)

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