wake and eat

BUSY, SORRY, HERE ARE SOME TRACKS.

Trus'Me's last album, In the Red, didn't get a whole lot of attention because of its unfortunate December 2009 release date. However, it is one of the more interesting and varied albums to come out of the past year, with amazing collaborations featuring Amp Fiddler, Dam-Funk, and others. "Sweet Mother" is sort of a perfect deep house track: nicely syncopated percussion, melancholic pianos, and some soulful male vocals riding over it. A slow burner, this one is a secret sort of earworm that'll be stuck in your ears for days...

Trus'Me- Sweet Mother

Next up, another favorite from the Philadelphia hardcore/punk scene of the mid- to late-'90s. 2.5 Children Inc. were the hardest of the West Chester/Creep Records crew, and definitely the best, in my opinion. With a sound somewhere between Poison Idea, Conflict, and Avail (weirdly enough), "Wake and Eat" was the sort of thing I put on every mixtape I made for every friend for about five years. Get at it.

2.5 Children Inc.- Wake and Eat

good cop bad cop

Another weekend, another hit to my brain and liver...

But that's besides the point. Today, I'm offering up an awesome track from one of my favorite Philly hardcore bands. Kill the Man Who Questions was one of the most unapologetically political, amazingly thrashing bands of the late '90s. A KTMWQ live set was always bound to turn into a circle-pit of cute sweaty crusty boys and grrls screaming along to all the lyrics, with Pat's Iron Maiden-like guitar shredding and the dueling yells of Mike and Nikki leading the sonic assault. To boot, the band-members whose whereabouts I know of are fucking awesome people. (Andrew is still playing in xLIMP WRISTx, FYI).

So here's "Good Cop, Bad Cop," which "is about being fed shit for entertainment and still being happy to wait in line to pay for more of it. This is about what's on your TV, what's on your radio, what's in your magazines and your movies. The Romans had a saying about keeping the unruly masses in line. Give them Bread and a Circus and they won't raise a fuss. Today, our bellies are full and our eyes and ears are busy, but our heads are fucking empty. So stay tuned, coming soon, after the break,...etc."

Kill the Man Who Questions- Good Cop, Bad Cop

House tomorrow.

covered in white

In 2006, my old experimental electronics group opened for Excepter, whom I'd booked at the Oberlin College club. In the haze of the next day— the Excepter dudes know how to party— my friends and I realized that one of them had left a backpack with an amazing iPod inside of it. Needless to say, we ripped a lot of stuff off of the iPod, sent it back to its owner, and the whole thing seemed to be over.

Then, in 2008 (or 2009?), I got a note from the guy whose iPod had been left behind, and it turned out we were both living in the Bay Area. Now, that guy (Mr. Girardin to you) does this amazing one-man project called Jaws. While sometimes similar to early Excepter tracks in terms of the density of sound, there's something infinitely more troubling, paranoid, and awesomely confrontational about the early Jaws output. Though he assures me that new material is more danceable and less claustrophobically great, I thought that I'd share a track from the older stuff with you today, since Jaws is performing tonight at AMNESIA, b/w 19th and 20th on Valencia in the Mission. See you there, and check out the spacey doom (and absurd panning) of the slice below.

Jaws- Covered in White

Tomorrow, some pppuuunnnkkkkkk.

wishez

Intense Italo sounds on so, so many hits of acid. "and ten treed leaves" by Zeljko McMullen's Wish alias sounds like Moroder telling all the schranz dudes to calm the fuck down and eat some yellow sunshine and watch the fuckin' ocean. Get to it.

Wish- and ten treed leaves

And while yr at it, check out all the other stuff going down with Shinkoyo family AND the Paris London West Nile performance space in Brooklyn that serves as a home and studio space to many of its members.

Oh, and also, there's another mp3 write-up I did for Wish today on XLR8R.com. Check that track here.

Later today, a post featuring the death dubs of San Francisco's very own Jaws.... get scared.

growth

I need to calm the fuck down and just let things happen. This new album from The Seven Fields of Aphelion is pretty much perfect for that purpose. Like running through fields holding hands with yr best friend at the end of summer. Warm synth drones, delayed sentimental piano lines, a real glow that is unbelievably gorgeous yet sort of sad because it doesn't last forever... though if it did, that would make it unremarkable. Paradox.

The Seven Fields of Aphelion- Grown

Oh, and just FYI, Shannon & the Clams and Hunx & His Punkettes KILLED IT last night at Ghost Town Gallery. Check them out when they're in yr town!

Tomorrow, some stuff from one of my boyz in Brooklyn.

body work

Need a masseuse over here... because I'm covered in scrapes and bruises, and obviously need a lecture on making good choices, especially in terms of who to make out with at the party.

AND, of course, this AWESOME SHOW tonight. Hunx, Magic Kids, Shannon & the Clams.... Ghost Town Gallery, 25th & San Pablo, Oakland.... Be there.

weather

Once in a while, the requests for reposts of tracks comes to a fever pitch— recall the repost of Norma Jean Bell a while back— and I yield to pressure.

Today, a classic remix of an even more iconic track. Here's my original post:

Today, I give you a classic remix of Hardrive's "Deep Inside," done by "Little" Louie Vega himself. The Heavy Weather mix of "Deep Inside" is some prescient house music-- the bass-line is an echoey and weirdly arpeggiated monster that sounds as if it could be contemporary, and accompanied by deep kicks and the classic Barbara Tucker vocal sample, it is an astounding piece of dance music that is sure to get as many people on the floor now as it did in 1993.

Hardrive- Deep Inside (Heavy Weather Mix)

To all who requested it, thanks for your interest!!

feels so good

Ah, a still from my favorite vintage porno.

PLUS, THIS IS THE BEST TECHNO TRACK EVER FUCKING COMPOSED. SERIOUSLY. IAN LOVEDAY RIP.

Minimal Man- Treatment Feel

See you tomorrow.

leopard sun

All right, I'm an asshole, haven't had the time to digitize the queercore, so let's just hold off on that 'til later in the week. Tight? Tight.

Instead, another blast from the past: Double Leopards! One of those legendary noise bands lost to the sands of time, there was a point some years ago when I was talking with Mike Bernstein, one of the group's members, about playing a show in the noise chapel in Ohio. Unfortunately, Double Leopards went kaput before that could happen...

Nonetheless, their discography shows a breadth of sounds and approaches to sonics that would make a lot of noise groups blush. From hallucinogenic sine-wave madness to guitar-based emotional drones, the 'Leopards were among the most-played groups on my old radio show, Melting Glaciers of the Synapses, which I hosted with treasured friend and associate P. Corwin Lamm. I miss those heady days.

Without further ado, tho, here are some tracks for your ears...

Double Leopards- Glissando Harmonization of the Skeletal Remains of Stalin (from The Axe Helve LP)

Double Leopards- Meadow Phantasm (from the Soulless Dust, Speed, and Strength CDr)

Double Leopards- Daughter + Sun (from the Circa 1999-2001 CDr)

how we rock

Every couple of months, something in my head clicks and I get really into Kompakt-style minimal and hard acid techno again. Not that I ever really got out of it, but sometimes, its hardness and lack of 'soul' goovin' aren't my cup of tea. This time around, I've been pumping a lot of older Reinhard Voigt tracks and Jurgen Paape slices...

Taken from Kompakt's Speicher 13, "Protekt" wouldn't be out of place on a mix from one of the Underground Resistance crew, what with its acidy melodic lines, hard dry kicks, and punctuating stabs. And with a nicely-synced bass throb, mixing this with some Dopplereffekt is also highly recommended...hearing "Cellular Phone" slowly creep in during this piece is some ace shit.

Reinhard Voigt- Protekt

Jurgen Paape's "Take This" is from 2007, but sounds like it could be from minimal's early days, its simply harsh melodic line and two-note bassline providing a steely backbone to intrusions from bells, echoey brass. Truly excellent panning work begs that this piece be blasted on a loud, multi-channel system. Taken from Kompakt's Speicher 45.

Jurgen Paape- Take This

Okay, tomorrow, some hispanic punk and some queercore. Get yr fuckin' rocks off.

kartwheelin'

Been getting a lot of goodies in the box during the past two weeks of illness, so before I start today's post in earnest, would just like to mention that the upcoming Tanlines EP on True Panther is really something, as is the upcoming Santiago Salazar joint on Aaron-Carl's Wallshaker Music. Lastly, the final effort from one of Oakland's finest groups, Gowns, is up for FREE DOWNLOAD here. It is a lovely 17-minute dirge, well worth your time.

Ah, and a new crew! Boston's White Haus Family Record will be releasing a split between that city's Truman Peyote and Many Mansions in March. The former's "Kartwheels" is a shimmering slice of shiny beats, echo-chamber vocals, crisp guitars, and a lengthy, loop-driven intro that hypnotizes the more one listens to it. Totally in line with some of the stuff coming from friends in NYC, it's nice to see that Boston has something going for it after a long drought!

Truman Peyote- Kartwheels

Tomorrow, punk scum....

let's eat doritos and kill everyone

And breakdance like Qusay Hussein.

Regular posts return tomorrow. Finally feeling up to it again after a LONG WHILE of wallowing in the terrible shit of sickness.

Hope all of you have been well!!