province

photo: from AngryCitizen on flickr

tv on the radio - hours

the past few days have been a mix of entertaining out of town guests and nursing a rapidly debilitating flu, but last week i managed to go to both tv on the radio shows. well, i ended up getting a ticket at the last minute for the 17th but ended up having to skip out on most of tvotr's set because my dad was in town for the night. i did catch grizzly bear. i can't remember a single performance that i have been to in recent years that was as lackluster as grizzly bear. i'm sorry - they sing very pretty songs, but are totally, completely, utterly boring to watch play live. thems the breaks.

tv on the radio - the wrong way

catching the entire show on the 18th didn't help grizzley bear either - tvotr performed like a well oiled machine. wait, like a well oiled rock and roll machine. return to cookie mountain only continues to establish itself as the best release of '06 the more i listen to it, and the guys really brought the sucker to life on stage. while there was no singular moment during the performance that reached the epic heights i've seen them hit before (read: "dreams" at siren 2004), it was a fairly bulletproof showing. didn't hurt that the band rolled about 15 deep for the encores. or that karen o was standing next to me for the entire show.

tv on the radio - province

tv on the radio - satellite

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ring my bell

photo: jerry hsu

it's raining and i just got back from trudging around manhattan for the past 4 hours. my feet hurt. i'm hungry.

simian mobile disco - animal house

the gossip - standing in the way of control (soulwax nite version)

ah, that feels better.

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as long as something's happening

liz has two phobias which i find hilarious. the first is an unease that she experiences around hanging beads, and the second is a hysterical fear of bursting/popping eyeballs. i'm not saying that it's not a terrifying prospect, but there are very few situations that would induce generalized anxiety about one's eyes actually bursting. i probably shouldn't have showed her this video:

klaxons - magick



i should really start charging modular a fee to keep me on retainer - i just can't stop posting about the klaxons. i guess it comes with the territory when they insist upon releasing a small but steady stream of absolute bangers. the fun goes up to 11 on this one:

klaxons - magick (simian mobile disco remix)

for some reason that track reminds me of this vitalic reworking of bjork. maybe it's the european feel? the synth stabs? the awesomeness? really raises more questions than it answers.

bjork - who is it (vitalic remix)

trentemoller, who put out one of my favorite remixes of 2006 so far, has dropped an lp of original work. filled with meandering, minimal electro beats, the last resort sometimes dabbles in the academic but is never anything but lush. check it out.

trentemoller - snowflake

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if you're in the nyc area tonight, come check out destrosound at fat baby. he goes on at 8, and maybe afterwards he'll tell you about when we used to share an apartment together in bushwick and had a calendar with pictures of exotic cars.

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b-boy bouillabaisse

shit's going to be crazy at the knitting factory this thursday - as ttc, cadence weapon, and beans put the shit on blast. beans is one of the most reliable acts in nyc (dude's mpc crashed at a party on new year's eve and he still kept people moving) and cuizinier (from ttc) tore up the mercury lounge when he opened for spank rock. and i've been hearing lots of good things about cadence weapon. don't sleep on this one.

ttc - le chant des hommes

ttc - girlfriend

ttc - codeine

beans - win or lose you lose

ciara - oh (cadence weapon smart bomb remix)

rick ross v. simian mobile disco - hustlin' hustler (remix)

just call me a francophile.


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ttc - pauvres riches





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you could have it so much better

i've been crazy busy finishing up a project at work - i should be settling down and getting back on a regular posting schedule this week...

frank zappa - the duke regains his chops

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say what you will about vice as a lifestyle brand, they still manage to consistently put out content that is not only fun, smart, and engaging, but, most importantly, relevant. i picked up the vice guide to travel dvd this weekend and was totally blown away. from drunken trips to chernobyl to going to a baile funk party in the slums of rio to meeting with a guy in bulgaria who TRAFFICS NUCLEAR WARHEADS, i was blown away start to finish. by not being heavy-handed, the pieces manage to address myriad global issues in a way that is fresh and immediate. go out and buy this now. seriously.

x - the world's a mess; it's in my kiss

sun ra - we travel the spaceways

morrissey - america is not the world

sunn 0))) - cursed realms (of the winterdemons)

check out this clip of an arms market in darra, pakistan:



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everybody hertz

hefner - my art college days are over

the latest installment of tokion's creativity now conference is coming up in a couple weeks. i haven't been since the first one in 2003 when i managed to hear peter saville (genius) and gaspar noe (jackass) speak. here's the 2006 schedule:
SATURDAY, October 14th, 2006
11:00 (Doors Open)

12:00 – 1:00
First Time Feature Directing
Justin Theroux
Mike Mills
Phil Morrison

1:15 – 2:15
The Magazine as an Art Form
moderated by Greg Foley (V Magazine)
Graham Rounthwaite (The Face)
Olivier Zahm (Purple Fashion)
Eli Horowitz (McSweeney's)
Grégoire Basdevant (Colors)

2:30 – 3:30
Lost & Found
Christian Marclay
Cory Arcangel

3:30 – 4:00
Break

4:00 – 5:00
Non-Traditional Advertising
Jason LaBeach (Motorola)
Alex Burnard (Crispin Porter + Bogusky)
Doug Holroyd (McKinney-Silver)

5:15 – 6:15
Sports & Artistry
moderated by Chris Pastras
Natas Kaupas

SUNDAY, October 15th, 2006
11:00 (Doors Open)

12:00 – 1:00
Street Art
moderated by Stephen "ESPO" Powers
Os Gemeos

1:15 – 2:15
The Art of Television
Mitchell Hurwitz
Wonder Showzen

2:30 – 3:30
TBD

3:30 – 4:00
Break

4:00 – 5:00
Repackaging the Label
Proenza Schouler
Kim Jones

5:15 – 6:15
We Love the Nightlife
Ron Galella
Patrick McMullan

the real standouts for me are mike mills and mitchell hurwitz. i started following mills based on the work he did for air, such as the packaging for moon safari and some of their always-great videos:

i finally got around to watching mills' feature debut thumbsucker a few weeks ago, and while the high point was keanu reeves as hippie dentist, the film definitely had its moments.

air - sexy boy

air - kelly watch the stars

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mitchell hurwitz. well, the guy created arrested development. good enough for me.

martini bros - the biggest fan (black strobe remix)

lipstick vogue

nerve has an interesting interview up with jayson musson from disco-not-disco faves / contenders for favorite live show of '06 plastic little. here's a short excerpt where musson answers the "novelty rap" charge:

There is definitely a certain amount of humor to it, and because we don't have an agenda, I guess it could be said it's novelty. We don't have a mission statement. We're not here to enlighten people, we're not here to teach, or to fill a voyeuristic need of middle-class folks by telling gritty street tales. When it comes to black music, rap music or jazz, people like to be mystified. If they understand it, they can easily move on to the next thing, so they concede to be mystified. I think that's why jazz was so prominent, because it's just this mind-blowing musical experience. And hip-hop was like that for a while. But we're not trying to mystify anybody. We essentially just want to have fun.

definitely a more compelling explanation than the slapdash "gallery rap" term...i mean really...

plastic little - lovely lady type song

plastic little - miller time

aaron lacrate feat. amanda blank and spank rock - blow

check out the video for upcoming plastic little single "rap o'clock":



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nerve also has a piece on girl talk, and greg gillis takes a more direct route for hitting the site's core demo:

I've always been into juxtapositions of really different elements. Things like really overtly sexual rap mixed with clean-cut '70s pop music, stuff like that. You hear a guy rapping about having sex, and it's set over James Taylor. I think it's what makes the music fun.



girl talk - bounce that

girl talk - minute by minute

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