I have a cold. I was supposed to go to New York tonight to see Salem play, but that isn't happening. However, I encourage any in the five boroughs to go to that show, and then party it up at West Nile (just down the street) with Teengirl Fantasy and loads of other awesome people afterwards. I will be in town for the Blondes/Teengirl Fantasy/Light Asylum show on Friday, so I'll see you there!
As my Facebook friends know, I've been all over these early-to-late-'90s issues of Cometbus that I bought in elementary and middle school, and just unearthed from years of detritus at my parents' house. What's weird is that as I've been reading them, my musical tastes (along the punk gamut) have been coinciding with bands mentioned in specific issues of Cometbus. So, Aaron tells one of the Kevin stories about The Dicks playing a show at Berkeley High (it got cancelled), and what do you know? I'd been listening to Kill from the Heart for two days straight. Or Aaron makes a reference to some dude saying, "Fuck you, do you know the Dead Boys?" And I'd been listening to "Sonic Reducer" on repeat for an hour earlier in the week.
As a sort of tribute to Cometbus, which is my favorite zine ever produced (and it continues, miraculously!), and to Aaron himself (though I doubt he'll read this), I'm posting a track from each of these fine punk bands. If you don't know them, you've been missing out, so get wild.
Okay, I missed yesterday. Whatever. Happy New Year!!!
Since I first posted it in 2008, I've been receiving endless requests for a re-up of Norma Jean Bell's "I'm the Baddest Bitch (In the Room)." Understandable, duh, because it might be one of the best tracks to ever grace a set of speakers. And the Moodyman mix below is even better.
I sent this text message to my girl J9 at 2 am from a car in Ohio. I was coming back from seeing Tortured Soul with Nick from TGF, occasional deep movements contributor Leo, and this boy Tristan, who might be the most insane fucking driver I've ever experienced in my entire life. Sure, he was drunk, but he'd be holding a cigarette, rolling windows up and down compulsively, changing CDs, and changing lanes, all at the same time at like 90 mph. And braking. A lot.
The only thing that kept me from leaping out of the car was when this track came on, and I got all warm and started vamping out because who cares if I'm going to die in a fiery crash? I'm the baddest bitch in the room.
We eventually made it back okay, and almost two months later, J9 puts this up on Facebook. God to the damn.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that once I got back to town from the insane drive, I go up to my friend Alie's place and the party has cleared out but my three best bitches are all dancing around like maniacs to "Orinoco Flow" by Enya, spilling beer all over me and kissing me. Truly one of the best nights of 2009. More to come in 2010, sans the insane driving, hopefully.
After a break in year-end lists in 2008, I am happy to present my top fourteen music boners of 2009. These are all singles (or singles culled from larger works) that appeared high on my iTunes Most Played list, or simply those I consider the most interesting music of the year. Some, if not most, have mp3s attached, except in cases where it seems a bit superfluous. So, on with it, and remember to SUPPORT THESE ARTISTS.
I know, Logan and Nick from Teengirl Fantasy are good friends of mine, so it might seem a bit unfair to name this the track of the year. But you know what? Fuck being fair. This is the most played song on my iTunes, the most spun 12" from the past few months on my decks, and genuinely the piece that gets stuck in my head the most. From their first official show in Oberlin (which was awesome, by the way) to insane European tours and mentions in BUTT magazine (among others), these boys got it going on.
I posted the video of this track a while back. For some reason, I totally adore this band, and though people have laughed at me for it, I'm not really one to care that much. The lyrics (after a bit of deciphering) are totally bizarre, transgressive, sexy, anti-capitalist rants. And there's so much bile in Justin Pearson's screaming that listening to All Leather is sort of like someone throwing up in your ears. In a good way.
Another weird one. Intense, stripped-down techno with an industrial bent that just fucking slams. If you're ever up at six in the morning and want to stay awake, just turn off all of the lights and play this polyrhythmic, raw-as-hell filth until your ears bleed.
The tech-house wunderkind of the year, Culoe De Song's first EP actually lived up to the hype. However, "African Subway" was pushed aside by "The Bright Forest," which seems a bit cloth-eared to me since this piece is more interesting rhythmically and melodically, as well as being infinitely more anthemic.
The Scandinavians continued to bring the disco insanity this year, and this piece by Jackpot sounds like it could have come out of the golden age of Italo. All that it needs now are some ridiculous lyrics, and you'd have the perfect throwback, replete with bouncing bass and lush synth groovage.
Another Italo-inspired piece that also has some serious debts to pay to Detroit. Though "Reckless With Your Love" and "Hungry for the Power" are a bit more my style of well-produced gay diva house, something about "She's An Illusion" is really special.
As I type this, I'm in an airplane 37,000 feet over Colorado. I'm listening to this song, and I already want to insist that they turn the plane back because leaving the Bay Area is something that feels good in theory, but in practice, kind of sucks shit (in the bad kind of way). This song IS California, as far as I'm concerned, and I can't wait to get back so I can cruise around Oakland on my bike blasting this like I have during the past few months. Check the NSFW video below, featuring a cast of Bay Area miscreant homos and gender-fucks, including Hunx and Alexis from SORE.
True Panther is the best new(ish) label in the states, duh, and though the original single of this track came out in 2008 (I believe— correct me if I'm wrong), it is still the best track from the Gay Singles album: catchy, fun, hip-shaking, and sexy in that cute-boy-you-smile-at-on-the-BART kind of way.
Not an original, so maybe it shouldn't be on here, but it is so catchy and so much gayer than the original that I sort of fell in love with it. With a fuller, brighter sound, along with vocals that are considerably less creepy than those of schlag-crooner Manfred Alois Perilano, the track actually makes the connection between cake and sex work quite well. Hungry guys eating pies, ha.
These guys are the best thing that happened to techno in the past five years. Live instrumentation, jazzy arrangements, great rhythmic energy, and a lyric playfulness that just kicks the shit out of most other dance music out there. I gave this track to my girl Alie, and a week later she texted me like, "HOLY SHIT "HORNY" IS THE KILLER SHIT." And I was like, "DAMN RIGHT. LISTEN TO DAT SHIT WHEN YR FUMBLING WITH HER BRA, GIRL."
It's confusing to me that Electrik Red haven't caught on with anyone except journalists and faggots (LOL big dif right) in the US. "We Fuck You" is like the sonic equivalent of this hot bitch in heels kicking the drunk, sexist Tucker Max clone so hard in the balls that he wishes he'd never been born. Only Tricky and The-Dream could have helped these ladies pull this shit off so well. (Because I'm scared as fuck of Def Jam, just peep the vid below).
I'm a sucker for ethnic vocal samples in techno tracks. The fact that the peeps repped here are the Romany nomads of Europe and not the usual (though still awesome) South American street kids or African shamans makes it all the more interesting.'
People in real life and on the internet keep on talking about this track, and how it should be released on vinyl, and how it is just so effing deep. And yeah, it is. I never want it to end.
So party through the new year with all this biz. It was a great year, and I'm hoping that excellent stuff just keeps coming!! Stay tuned for the 10 best remixed music boners of the year, cumming at ya on Monday.
Praise Mary! So, the Bay Area's very own Hunx & His Punx have been given the remix treatment from another queer, Nick of the amazing Teengirl Fantasy. Exactly how he turned a fun, trashy rock track like "Dontcha Want Me Back" into something Carl Cox could have produced is a mystery to me, but he managed to do it. The remix features bright, lush synths, bouncy pop-house bass, thrumming kicks, and those lovely major-key piano stabs that all queers seem to salivate over. Since the most astoundingly gay-pop, progressive house radio station in the City, if not the world, just switched formats a week ago, this track ought to keep our briefs hot and steamy until the hopeful reversal of said format switch. Though I admit that I've never been a regular listener of Energy 92.7, it is true that the station was a cornerstone of the LGBT world...all over the world, and it is a shame that such a unique radio phenomenon was usurped by yet another staid Top 40 station.
Obviously, you should be listening to Teengirl Fantasy and Hunx & His Punx all the time, because they are two of the best groups around right now. AND both groups have upcoming albums on my friend Dean's True Panther label.
Finally, a last queer note: one of my favorite writers, Dennis Cooper, gave a shout-out to Deep Movements on his blog today. Check it out, along with some insane Halloween horror goodies.
So, in case you missed it, friends and compatriots Teengirl Fantasy have an interview up on Pitchfork that you can read here. Also, there was a feature on them up on Pukekos last week in which yours truly is mentioned (I'm Ted, by the way), which is available here. Enjoy, and BUY UP THOSE 12"s. They are beautiful to look at and listen to...and not to be crass, but they'll probably be worth a shit-ton of money someday.
Love you boys, and miss you much!
(Get ready for some awesome shit tomorrow— two posts, two completely different tracks!)
Teengirl Fantasy have certainly come a long way since I first posted about them back in February of 2008— not only have they been one of the main attractions at the past two Whartscapes, they've also officially remixed Radiohead and Pictureplane, released numerous limited-edition records, and performed countless times with such a dizzying array of groups that it makes the head spin. Everyone from techno-heads to raging queens to psychedelic-neon-beard-rainbow types are into the Fantasy, and it makes perfect sense. It's like Nick and Logan are constantly sending out old-school PLUR vibes through their sounds and spirits. All the better for us.
Their newest piece is a four-track digital EP (available over at Pukekos for free) featuring two new tracks (which will be released on record in Amsterdam in September) and two remixes of the a-side, "Hollywood Hils." Though this track is some excellent deep house lushness, I have been aching for the b-side to be recorded and released since I first heard it live. "Love Don't Live Here" is an 81-bpm number that liberally samples Rose Royce's 1978 hit, "Love Don't Live Here Anymore," and turns it into a near-boogie track, layering on top with lush, swirling synths, some nice double- and quad-time percussive flourishes, and eventually landing thoroughly in a sound that's more Dam-Funk than not. However, with loops and samples as thick as on a good Moodymann track, this is most certainly a rawer, more soulful version of that LA electro-funk sound. Highly recommended!
After a long weekend of music and merriment of all sorts, back to blogging.
Tonight in San Francisco, good friends Teengirl Fantasy are playing at the LiPo Lounge with two City-based groups: Partyeffects.biz and Bookworms. I've fallen in love with Bookworms' work- its samples, its rhythms, its synth burblings, its non-techno techno aesthetic. Definitely worth checking out the music on the myspace, and downloading the mellow piece featured below. And come out tonight! Should be an excellent party at an excellent location.
My friends, the boys of Teengirl Fantasy, have given me a new-ish track that they've been playing since this past spring, but which had yet to arrive in a recorded form that they liked. "Now That's What I Call Volume 2" is a slow-burner-- not too heavy on the kicks, but with a dusty bass-line, a carnivalesque main synth progression, and lush gauzy backing synths. The drum programming hisses and steams in near dub-step fashion, and the new addition of ethereal female orgasm noises makes the track's second part a real hot one. Awesome stuff from the Fantasy, as always.
Nick and Logan, as they are known to their familiars, have a new-ish remix of Telepathe out now on London's Merok, and the label is putting out a limited-edition 7" by the boys in mid-December. I would argue that they're the most interesting group that the label has put out, but this is neither the time nor place-- with one year as a group, Nick and Logan have already accomplished what takes some many years. Congratulations and good cheer all around!
A great mix for you today! (And a super-special post later, too!)
Harry over at eeshirtay has done it again, this time laid up by some pain pills and in a truly psychedelic frame of mind. It features everything from awesome James Brown loops to a techno-fied version of Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes the Hotstepper," and includes at least two tracks that you may very well have heard here for the first time-- Teengirl Fantasy's "Azz Klapz" and Kornel's awesome edit/mash of Booka Shade's "In White Rooms" and Corona's "Rhythm of the Night." A nice, hazy pace with some killer beats and surprises everywhere, the "Vicodection" mix will send you into a tranquilized state of great. Thanks again, Harry!
First of all, you should check out this great video of my pals Teengirl Fantasy playing at Death by Audio in Brooklyn last week.
Then, you should download the track performed above from this blog. However, since the Britisher there doesn't really talk about the substance of the music (besides making a totally bizarre comparison to Lindstrom), I'll say a few words. "Customize It" (alternately called "Azz Klapz," for those who want to be in the know) mixes the best of Baltimore club-style sampling, funky bass synth-lines, and nice crisp drum patterns; then, it explodes into a full-fledged 90s Euro-house track that is undoubtedly influenced by Robin S.'s "Show Me Love," along with a multitude of other classics. I especially love the lush synths that take over the track for part of its final minute. Totally awesome stuff, it is nice to know that these boys are getting so many props-- they deserve it to the utmost!
A bit later today: though I know I posted a track from Abacus recently, I have a remix of his that is just too smooth and lovely to not share.
Last night, friends Teengirl Fantasy did a killer opening set (with lots of fantastic newer material) for the always-zany and charismatic Dan Deacon. Though I've seen Deacon a few times, I always forget how incredible his performances are, and last night was no exception. "Wham City" had more energy in it than in any other performance I've heard, and with Salt N Pepa's "Shoop" bookending both sides of his set, you can be sure that everything else in between was also excellent-- whooshing Casio, snappy drum patterns, and an overall sound befitting an acid rave trip while watching Saturday morning cartoons. Today, I give you the first track from Deacon's 2007 album, Spiderman of the Rings, "Wooody Wooodpecker." Enjoy!
First off, the new schedule at WOBC has been announced, and you can listen to my show, which expands upon what I usually post here, from 7-9 PM EST on Tuesdays. Planning a show with lots of surprises, including much more hip-hop and ghettotech than is found here. So unless you're in Oberlin, OH, stream the show every Tuesday! Guaranteed goodness.
Secondly, but more importantly, today I'm giving you a track by my friends, the boys from Teengirl Fantasy, a group I mentioned a while back. Logan and Nick have quickly ascended to insane heights, not just at Oberlin-- where their group is pretty much considered the best on campus-- but in the broader music world. Not only were they featured on 20 Jazz Funk Greats about a week ago, but the NME have contacted them about being included in an upcoming issue. There's a reason why hype is building around them: they're fucking good. Really good. (And I dare say, they're both handsome devils and wonderful people).
"GasMaskk" is a fast-paced number with excellent synths, perfectly farty little bass notes, soft processed vocals, different samples taken from the Sparks-produced Lio track, "Marie Antoinette," and an uncanny ability to worm itself into the ear and stay there for days. Any specific genre is difficult to pin on them, but it is most certainly fantastic party music, and there are definitely moments that remind me of the more esoteric, good italo-style disco. Well worth seeing live, it's also worth a trip to their Angelfire page, which Harry over at eeshirtay has called the most amazing throwback to late 90s personal webpage design he's ever seen. Quite something!
Thanks to Nick and Logan for allowing me to post this. Check it!
Please respect the artists discussed in the blog by buying their releases, seeing them perform their craft, or finding your own way to support them. Any tracks posted here are for reviewing purposes only! If you would like a piece removed, email here.
If you would like to purchase mp3's, I urge you to go here or here. If you're addicted to that vinyl crack, then I'd go here or here.
