Nine Inch Nails Remix Redux

NIN - The Hand That Feeds (DFA Remix)

It was widely reported that the white hot DFA would remix a track off Trent Reznor's recent With Teeth album. Hand That Feeds didn't get the robofag treatment, instead, it has been four on the floored and disco-tarted up with some of the original's snarling menace receding into the background. The DFA make good use of Cloud One synth pops, stomping drum fills, and echo chamber goodness while avoiding the "more cowbell" cliches infecting lesser strains of discopunk. Reznor has been kind enough to release the original multitrack into the quasi-public domain, allowing fans to do their own NIN remixes. Looks like the DFA has some competition.

*Order it Here*
*Purchase the With Teeth Album Here*
ebay Gripper

Boredoms at Bowery Ballroom 5/25/05

The Boredoms killed it at the Bowery last night, untangling a Gordian Knot of tinnitus inducing ecstasy that roped in most of the audience with its n-dimensional fibres. I have never witnessed two drummers playing in sync so well together, let alone three. And Yoshimi was cute as a button.

Missed Jim O'Rourke's set, but from what we heard downstairs it was a drone, and a tastefully chosen chord at that.

UPDATE: A fine review here at More in the Monitor. Also some dispatches from Chicago, San Francisco, pictures from seriously obsessed fans, also a little background from DeRogatis

Electro Shock Treatment

This monster jam from the Willesden Dodgers comes off 1982's More Jive Rhythm Tracks, with a title of simply "A4 112 BPM". I suppose titling everything on the album by its BPM (with the exception of one Smurf fad

Willesden Dodgers - A4 112 BPM
If you can find this, you're a better man than I

bandwagon tune) was a nod to DJs and an assistance to those frantically dipping into their crates. Unlike many nuggets from the electro era, its novelty-free spare instrumentation means time has eroded none of its charms.

On the Serious Tip

MC Skat Kat? We're going to get a bit Stereogummy today and go with a pop culture angle, what with the singoff between shabby Bo Bice and the animatronic Carrie Underwood tonight. It's a damn pity my girl Vonzell got knocked out in the third round for pulling a Whitney Houston and crying a little. But I'm really going to miss Paula next season, that is, if the suits at Coca-Cola decide to put her down like Old Yeller. I scoured the internerd far and wide for a suitable "seal clap" Paula picure but came up short. I wonder if she once impaled the flesh of her palm on a French nail, she only need to throw in a few barks and I'm sure the staff would ready a bucket of fish.

MC Skat Kat - Skat Kat's Theme
Sweet Lord, I hope you don't buy it

MC Skat Kat first collaborated with Paula on 1988's "Opposites Attract" off of Forever Your Girl. He went on to find fame and fortune as a solo act, headlining with the likes of Rush, Brian Eno, and even Frank Sinatra. And before my comments box get flooded with know-it-alls, yes, The Onion declared Adventures of MC Skat Kat and the Stray Mob the "Least Essential Album of the Nineties". Good luck Paula.

ALSO: Can any blogger experts out there help me? I invited someone to contribute to this blog but I'm having second thoughts now. I can't figure out how to delete/ban a user that has posting rights. Or is there a way to muzzle someone for just a week or two? Please e-mail if you can help. Also, I accidentally deleted the code that gives post titles, anyone got it?

Lo-Fi Hi-Five

Las Malas Amistades is a Brazilian collective of artists and musicians who breezed through Brooklyn and proceeded to scatter like ashes. Or not, I really can't figure out what happened, and would love it if someone who knows what they are up to would get in touch. See? I don't have to put on the mask of all-encompassing knowledge blog douche to write the damn

Las Malas Amistades - Discoteca Adentro
*Buy it from the label*
More on Las Malas Amistades, including some video art collaborations

thing. "Discoteca Adentro" comes off with all the poutiness of a defrocked altar boy, its wispy vocals lounging on top of its awkward shuffle and detourned Casio. It is a lovely coda to the flanging turmoil occupying most of the NYC noise band Space Is No Place compilation.

Drank Up All the Kool-Aid at the Block Party

As an apology for the prior unpleasantness I thought I'd share some good feeling warm weather music. No, these aren't Cabbage Patching knee-blowout tunes on the order of Fresh Prince's "Summertime", rather they are rooftop BBQ jams for when the sun's so hot the shingle tar starts to melt under your feet.

Kelley Pollar Quartet - Hammer/Anvil
*Buy it from GEMM*

Kelley Pollar's string arrangements have graced many a Metro Area classic, but on this recording he heads off into a parallel yet original sound. A too sexy groove is intiated with vintage synthesizer bass samples and a distorted organ belching queasy loops. Just when you think the song has built to all the climaxes it can muster, the strings kick in and a pensive melancholy settles upon the arrangement.

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Rinocerose - Music Kills Me (The Rapture Remix)
*Buy it from Amazon*

Not so much a remix than a reworking in all actuality, 2002's "It" boys The Rapture sunk their teeth into the work of floor filler Rinocerose. 'Tis a shame Blogger can't handle umlauts and all those special characters, because you're missing out on some wonderful squiggles in Rinocerose's name.The Rapture put down the cowbell and looked inside themselves to "remix" a quiet, moody cover that yearns for something more than next season's asymmetrical haircut. Seacrest out.

Critical Beatdowns

"Hey guy", the stocky teen says to me, "You got another smoke?"

"My name ain't Duane Reade" runs through my brain.

"Uh yeah, no problem", I offer.

How much are they? Current Bloombergian pricing models leave them at about 39.25 cents each.


Holger Czukay, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit - How Much Are They?
*Buy it from FNAC*

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Who got the baddest breaks this side of the Theater Of Eternal Music? This invigorated composition sticks out like a sore thumb among the muted, minimalist exercises on John Cale and Terry Riley's 1970 collab album of the same title as the mp3 posted here.

John Cale & Terry Riley - Church Of Anthrax
*Buy it from Vinyl.com*
Album line notes here

The guttural drone that kicks off the proceedings serves to bedrock the unexpected breakbeat and its organ theme complement. Towards the end Riley's soprana saxophone solo begins to fold into itself and the organ slips back in to make the piece come full circle. As someone who appreciates VU and Terry Riley, I found this album full of anticipated avant rock genre stretching, but nothing prepared me for the improv abandon found on this session track.

Humming the Classics

Many years ago, when I worked in London, I heard something I was dying to get an identification on. We were passing through the many food stalls of the Notting Hill Carnival when I heard a sharp organ riff repeated from a distant soundsystem. At that point the many competing sounds, smells, and tastes got in the way from me dashing off to get a better listen. Luckily, not two weeks later some travel program on BBC used the exact same song before ad breaks, yet at the end of the insipid show there was no licensing info. At that point I had pretty much given up on it though the chorus melody was indelibly seared on my brain. In my last few weeks before returning to the States my flatmates and I hit up the Camden market

Harry J All Stars - Liquidator
*Buy it from Smoke CDs*

and I noticed the multitude of record dealers hawking vintage reggae vinyl. I went up to a vendor asking that I wanted to buy something which I would try my best to describe. Words failed, so as expected I had to put on an impromptu performace of whistling and falsetto humming. Much like my baby watching me sing, it only elicited a laugh and a "better luck next time". As we finished bumping through the throng of incense dealers and hippie tchotchkes I welled up my courage yet again and approached a kindly looking dealer who immediately recognized my butchered rendition as "Liquidator" by the Harry J. All-Stars. I didn't pay too dearly as it was on a reissued compilation, and I returned home a happy man.

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This next ID wasn't too difficult as I had presence of mind to remember the chorus vocals. A friend and I hit Central Park early one Saturday to get in line for the free Body & Soul performance at Summerstage. The whole day was great, stellar classic soulful house tracks dropped steadily throughout the day, with the high point being a hyperanimated Francois Kevorkian dancing stageside through another DJ's set only to accidentally bump the decks, causing the music to skip and eliciting simultaneous groans and gleeful hysteria from the crowd. Later in the day the sun began to hit a zenith directly above the treeline and the entire tea party got bathed

The Beginning Of The End - Funky Nassau
*Buy it via Tigersushi*

in the warm sunshine. Somewhere around then the DJ threw on this classic which caused the crowd to erupt in hands throwing and reinvigorated dancing. The next Monday I hit up my officemate Ron for an ID. Ron was an old mainstay of the original 70's and 80's NYC club scene and had worked as a bouncer through the Limelight club kid scene of the 90's. He had been a habitue of the Paradise Garage but didn't have many good stories about it, he mostly liked to wax on how he snuck into Studio 54 when he was 18. I didn't have to do much singing when I told him about the Funky Nassau chorus, he let me know who it was but his face betrayed disappointment that I didn't know my R+B charts better.

Knock Knock

When I first moved to New York City my friends and I happened upon Kokie's, a now legendary den of ill repute. It remained in business far too long, but long not enough to earn the hushed tones reserved for a Save the Robots. A great place to hit up for after hours, you could check out the mamis, laugh at Strokes lookalikes stumbling to the pounding salsa, practice your line waiting technique, or wander out to greet the dawn sunlight. One bored weekday night I went in alone, my only intention being to hear some Latin music and bask in the seediness. That particular night the DJ was off, so I drained a Heineken and got up to leave. Before I made it to the door some hipster chick accosted me and asked that I not "Robert Downey Jr. out on them".

Maulawi - Street Rap
*But it from Soul Jazz Records*


As far as I know, the hammer never fell on Kokie's, even after they brazenly installed video cameras outside the door. Rumor had it that the owner had an in with the local police precinct. What we do know is that the owner sold it off to make it another Williamsburg eatery or boutique. I bet people still show up after hours. This track by Maulawi is pretty much what it would sound like if the cops ever raided a Kokie's by way of Harlem. The relentless fuzzed out bass riff combines with cartoonishly flamboyant recorded voices so exaggerated they are almost the obverse of a proper field recording. It's as if an audiobook rendtion for the cover art of Miles Davis' On The Corner is jumping out at you. Soul Jazz Records has reissued Maulawi Nururdi's first album and also included this track to lead off the uniformly excellent New Thing! compilation, a two disc review of '70s era Afro-Futurist jazz.

Chunes My Baby Adores

My three month old son likes to kick back every weekend morning on his Daddy's knees after a stretch of faux standing up. He drools and smiles and I try to coax a few sounds out of his gibbering mouth. He expertly nailed "O" just before the door closed on his first month. Later he progressed to "Buh" and "Brr", the latter being a spitty mess. As of late he will surprise me with

Animal Collective and Vashti Bunyan - "Prospect Hummer"
*Buy it from Fat Cat Records*

an occasional "La", but he's reworking his technique on that one. The wee bairn is pretty indifferent to most music I put on, but he can be counted on to perk up to this collaboration by Animal Collective and elfin folkstress Vashti Bunyan. I think most of its appeal to him is my joining in for the flubby chorus of "Wah wah wah wah wah". It's only fitting that he likes it, as his existence is partially due to Sung Tongs being on repeat one balmy weekend in Miami.

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Another Saturday morning mixtape of ours concludes with a few choice reggae cuts from The Ethiopians and the wonderful candyland children's book fantasy of John Holt's "Ali Baba". The closing track has our little man smiling the most though. Althea & Donna had a minor hit with this track in the 70's, and like all good overlooked music, it has enjoyed revivals and rediscoveries from generations of record geeks to 'zine writers to college

Althea & Donna - "Uptown Top Ranking"
*Buy it from CD Universe*

radio DJs to first-generation music bloggers. The wee one digs it for its pokey skank, perfect for a measured bomp on Dad's knee. Either that or he's secretly laughing at my pasty face mouthing out "Nah pop no style, a strictly roots". Guess I'd better stick to singalongs with the Animal Collective.