Las Malas Amistades Redux

Good mp3blogging entails hipping people to obscure bands you love and want to share.

Bad mp3blogging is commenting on the recent hurricane tragedy in New Orleans by putting up a certain Led Zeppelin track or a particular Johnny Cash tune.

Unfortunately for me, bad mp3blogging also includes relying on Google as a primary research tool. When I posted a while ago about Las Malas Amistades, I got the facts hopelessly wrong. Fortunately, bandmember Manuel got in touch with me and set me straight. As it turns out, the band hails from Columbia, not Brazil. And one of the members now lives in Queens, not Brooklyn.

That's one of the great things about search engines, as my post gets indexed it lays down a sort of honeypot trap to pull in the subject of the piece. Everyone has had a boring day and Googled themselves at one time or another.

It's great that Manuel got in touch, because now we have more info to share about Las Malas Amistades. The band's site, malasamistades.com has samples from their first album. They also have created a group blog at malasamistades.com/blog containing their writings and art. I was also informed that a second album is set to drop sometime in September. It will likely be available at Kim's, Other Music, and online at Forced Exposure.

Here are a few favorite tracks from the site:

Las Malas Amistades - General Electric
Las Malas Amistades - Autoboy
Las Malas Amistades - Bolitas Canicas

Las Malas Amistades Site
Las Malas Amistades Blog

Gang Gang Bang Bang

Gang Gang Dance has reissued one of their live releases, I'm not thilled with this development, as it devalues my three Hillulah CD-Rs (out of an edition of 100).

If memory serves, I was present at two of the recording sessions. I couldn't pay much attention the first night, I had chosen the bar Passerby as the setting for my thesis defense of my second M.F.A. (this one from Columbia). The second night, well, I think I was just chatting with Gavin Brown and nibbling on endive.

This recording is a great memento of what I missed, and I suppose there is a part of me that is glad they are redistributing it to the unwashed masses.

Gang Gang Dance - Passerby (1-6-2003 and 1-7-2003)
Fusetron has it
As does Other Music


And lest we forget the past, here is some musique concrete from the master:

Nam June Paik - Hommage a John Cage
Forced Exposure carries this

Martin Luther King Meets Chicago House

Can't be bothered blogging on the weekend, so we missed posting commentary on yesterday's (Sunday, August 28th) 42nd anniversary of Martin Luther King's historic "I Have a Dream" speech during the March-on-Washington of 1963.

Sure, every American schoolboy has had its stirring close drilled into his head, but here is another way of hearing it:


Mr. Fingers - Can You Feel It (Martin Luther King Mix)
**Buy it from Trax**
Text of the I Have a Dream Speech


Let freedom ring.

Animal Collective's Feels

On Wednesday I started writing about Broken Social Scene's and Animal Collective's leaked albums. Got a little verbose so I thought I'd stick to BSS and follow up today on these shamans of the digital age.

Though Animal Collective is a Banana Nutrament favorite, I had no idea Feels was coming out October 18th, nor did I know a new album was pending. Fluxblog broke the news to me with a write up on "Grass", while a few other blogs took a sneak peak at the upcoming album. From what I've streamed so far, it sounds on par with the astonishing Sung Tongs.

Having been beaten to the punch, here's a few things Animal Collective has been doing in the interim between Sung Tongs and Feels:

Animal Collective - Wastered 12" Side B
Such a lovely, hypnotic piece on their tour only 12" split with Black Dice
**You can find it.. uh.. maybe only for completists with deep pockets**


Animal Collective - The Kite
Gauzy, reverbed textures from a reworking of what sounds like summertime field recordings
**Get it on the They Keep Me Smiling compilation at Forced Exposure**

What Does a Platinum Record Sound Like?


Whoa, this is cool. A Christian rocker got a platinum record a few years back and decided to crack it out of its case while on a bender. He played it on his turntable backwards and heard...




...The Salsoul Orchestra






Read about it at Kempa

Sugar Hill Gang at South Street Seaport Tonight (Free)

Tonight (Thursday, August 25th) the Sugar Hill Gang are at Pier 17 at South Street Seaport. You might think something like this 25 years removed would be pointless nostalgia, but these cats still know how to entertain.

I saw them three years ago and they said good night to thunderous applause. When the crowd started calling them back for an encore some dumb beeyotch yelled out a "Rapper's Delight" request. I was like of course they're going to play that.

Another time, Liquid Liquid came back onstage at Knitting Factory and some indie geek asked for "Cavern". Everyone frowned in his direction.

C'mon, if you pay the big bucks to see Nancy Sinatra at the Rainbow Room, you're gonna hear "Boots Are Made For Walking". If you look at the ticket, it's written in the fine print.

Damn.

Afrodisiac Sound System - C.K. Mann vs. Sugar Hill Gang
Grab it here

also, why not
Afrodisiac Sound System - Fela vs. Grandmaster Flash
Or read about it here

Cryptical Developments

I've really fallen asleep at the wheel here. Two of my favorite artists are about to release new albums and I had no idea.

Animal Collective's Feels is set to come out Oct 18th. Pre-order and stream samples here. More on that later this week.

Broken Social Scene has a new self-titled album coming out October 4th. How was I not aware of this?

Broken Social Scene is especially dear to our hearts, though we missed the SummerStage show, my honey and I went to see them at Bowery Ballroom back in December when she was EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT. We stood way at the back where the stairs are, to avoid any basslines that might disrupt the final touches on our baby's cranial development. How indie rock is that kid gonna be? Twenty years from now he'll be telling off the clerks at Other Music that he prefers Broken Social Scene's earlier work and that they are hardly as essential as when he caught them in utero.

I thought you were only allowed to self-title your album on freshman efforts. What is even more curious though is the poem that has been posted by Kevin Drew on the BSS website. It seems to be directed to people searching for a leak of their album. I'm going to attempt to parse a few choice lines for your edification:

Lines 1-2
So there you have it.............
Two weeks later and you all get to hear it.
Sounds like he is pissed that they just wrapped the mix and it has already leaked.

Lines 6-7
Did you think if you didn't seek our souls that you wouldn't find it??
please...............
Seems like tortured symbolism until you realize that "seek your souls" represents SoulSeek.

Line 8
I couldn't fucking tell you if your computer misrepresents the sound.
True, them computer speaker shits are tinny.

Line 12
wWhat you hear is our sound.
Masterful attempt at sneaking a Beastie Boys reference by us.

Lines 23-24
I couldn't be happier with the dirt, the piss, and the idea of fear within this sound.
Treble and bass have as many rules as your fingers want.
Abrupt shift into iambic pentameter.

Line 30
We were hoping all the dungeons and dragons people will roll the dice...........
Is this a veiled swipe at Indeietrus' band? Does this mean BSS reads our blog? I had no idea we were that influential.

Lines 38-40
We're grateful you are tracking us down.
Go and argue and go and fall in love.
Or go towards the ditch.
Is he a closeted Deadhead? He may have written this under the influence of that Mexican brown from Washington Square Park.

So the whole poem is pretty ambiguous about whether he is angry about the leak. He seems to want to scold and thank the fans all at once. I guess there is no harm as long as their fans do go out and buy their work in October. I may have become aware of BSS from a download, but then You Forgot It in People did become my de facto Christmas present of 2004. I must have bought it for at least four people.

Preview 7/4 (shoreline) from the Arts & Crafts site

Records in Park Slope

You don't have to blow your salary at Academy or comb through the nether regions of Williamsburg to find good rekkids. Between Park Slope's Somethin' Else Records, the weekend flea market at P.S. 321, that seemingly always closed store at the corner of 5th and 9th, and the neverending stoop sales, the discrimnating buyer can find plenty.

Here are a couple I picked up this weekend:

$0.75
Milton Nascimento - Talento Brasileiro
I guess discounted because of the two places where it skips. Very pretty Brazilian stuff though, I've been meaning to check him out.

$2.00
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
I'm a sucker for a good charismatic yogi. I think this guy turned on The Beatles.

$3.00
Songs of the Humpback Whale
Don't make fun of me, it's even better than the new Black Dice.

$1.00
Loud Reed - Berlin
Very raw and dark.

$1.00
A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray 12"
Has a whole bunch of piano breakdowns and acid squelchy remixes on it that I never knew existed. As always, favorite part is when the guy goes "m-m-m-major!". I need to get that as my cellphone ringtone.

$1.50
Nitro Deluxe - Let's Get Brutal/This Acid House
I was surprised to find this so cheap. Lots of artists decamping from the electroclash fad for a second look at Aciiieed. Also, that Soul Jazz comp doesn't hurt matters.


Tune in next week to see what I come back with. Just kidding, Honey. Seriously, I'm only kidding.

Some White Boy's Sure to Imitate That

And that white boy is me. Actually I ain't imitating, not even stealing, just sharing. Sharing for the purpose of you buying this, or at least being aware of it.

Felt kind of bad putting up the new Spank Rock, as pretty much the whole release is just variations and remixes of "Put That Pussy on Me" along with a couple good megamixes. Then I realized he probably didn't clear the samples on those Beach Boys loops, not to even mention the Snoop jacks.

Chisox/Yankees game on in the background, right as I wrote "Snoop" that Snoop/Lee Iacocca Chrysler ad just came on. My fingers type magic.

Spank Rock - Put That Pussy On Me
**Buy it from Turntable Lab**




Yeah, this Spank Rock cut is ill. Possibly circulated only on promo for a minute, cause it's halfway through August and I'm hearing my favorite '05 summer jam for the first time.

Put me in the mood for some more treats:

Eazy-E - Gimme That Nutt
Why? Because I know you lip synched to this in front of your bathroom mirror when you thought no one was around. Yeah, I watched you do that shit.


L'Trimm - Boom! I Got Your Boyfriend
If you're one of those scenester chicks confusing L'Trimm with Le Tigre, while "spinning" in LES boites with the six records and four hundred CD-Rs you own, you better ask somebody.

Give Me Every Little Remix

Imagine you had a boutique label and one grillion dollars to spend as you wished, hiring the best remixers on a whim -- Francois Kevorkian, Luomo, Yamatsuka Eye, Lindstrom; hell, I got a field recording of the Meatpacking District at 1 AM, let's get Larry Heard on the phone.

Came across quite a bit of shit talk about Mr. Maclean's opener role at the Webster Hall this past June, I don't know, I didn't go. He did kill it though a while back at the now defunct Volume with his drummer from Turing Machine laying down the house beats and Tim Goldsworthy working the theremin like a drunk Helen Keller. Actually, before the set even began he won me over screaming at the nonplussed crowd, "Get in here, you hipster artfags!".

The Juan Maclean - Give Me Every Little Thing (Cajmere Remix)
**Get it at Phonica**

Now see, "Give Me Every Little Thing" is a stomper. Always has been, and to make sure you don't forget they got Cajmere to rework GMELT. A while ago I wrote about a boring ass job I had to endure where our only light moments came while pretending to roller skate dive to the breakdown on Kraftwerk's "Numbers". Another group favorite on my coworker's mixtape was Cajmere's "Percolator". Nice to see that almost ten years later Caj has lost nothing and keeps his source material a stomper, just in a completely different direction.

Cajmere - Percolator
**Get it from Nuloop**

As far as Delia Gonzalez & Gavin Russom go, well, I don't buy the whole Moroder meets Krautrock publicity copy. It's more like Tony Conrad via a dogeared Casio instruction manual missing a few pages. And that is something to behold.

Delia R. Gonzalez and Gavin R. Russom - Field Effect 4
**This comes from a compilation regarding a show at Andrew Kreps quite a while back**

Knowing that both The Juan Maclean and Delia & Gavin are playing the CMJ fest together, I take a break from writing this and check the Northsix website. Just found out tickets for the DFA showcase are going on sale in 45 minutes. Test your luck here.

Fringes of the Native Tongues

Remember dashikis and Africa medallions? The resounding positivity Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu Nation created echoed in the loosely knit Native Tongues collective. Now, a lot of faces in the Native Tongues crowd have moved on to greater levels of celebrity and influence on popular culture, I'm thinking of Q-Tip, Queen Latifah, and the loosely affiliated Mos Def.

Not everyone went big time. You don't even want to know what happened to Chi-Ali. But there was a time when flower power and b-boying merged for a few summers.

Chi-Ali - Age Ain't Nothin But a Number (Qool Marv Speed Up)
Find it here

Leaders of the New School - lnternational Zone Coaster
Yes, that's Busta you thought you heard

Baby Got Backpack

There is one particular Miami Base song I have never been able to abide. You know the one. The one that all the thirteen year old girls at the mall chant like Hare Krishnas. I am speaking about "Baby Got Back", a delightful rump shaker of a ditty that caught my ear ten years ago. That is, until I heard the repugnant and racially insensitive line "even white boys got to shout".

What does that mean? I am a second class citizen due to being melaninally impaired? Like I can't Cabbage Patch with the best of them? We need to live in a world where the rich, the poor, the white, the black, the Luxembourgians, the Lichensteinians, the obese, and the slender can do the Running Man in unison.

So, I can proudly report that Sir Mix-A-Lot has seen the error of his youth and repented with this delightful revisitation to his demographic target. Rrrrrrrrrreewind!

Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Backpack
You can watch it here, it's the second video to the right on the top row

Hey, beats going on Celebrity Fit Club.

Interview With Reporter Who Interviewed Yoko Ono

I'm at a birthday in the Lower East Side and my friend Lisa casually mentions she's late because she was at the Dakota interviewing Yoko Ono. Everyone nods and exhales a "Greeeaat", while I sit there barely able to contain a "whothewhatnow"?

I should add that Lisa is a big muckety muck at the Associated Press. It would never even occur to me to reach out to Ono's PR folks -- not that I have anything relevant to ask. So the next best thing is to shake Lisa down for details, like some schoolgirl upbraiding her more popular friend.

BN: I'm not a writer, but do you have any idea how jealous your getting to do this made me?

Lisa: It started to sink in after about the fifth time you said that.

BN: I got to confess I find Yoko Ono more interesting than John Lennon. Not that John isn't great -- they both did so many incredible things with their lives. How did you score this plum assignment?

Lisa: She's such an enigma. I got the assignment because she authorized the musical "Lennon," which just opened. I do a lot of theater interviews that wouldn't make you jealous.

BN: Were you intimidated entering her home?

Lisa: I think I would have been intimidated entering the Dakota even if John had never lived there. They've got all these gates and doormen in uniforms. But it definitely freaked me out to be in a place where he lived.

BN: You mention in the piece the Imagine piano, and lots of family photos everywhere. Did she have lots of images of John up? Any Beatles memorabilia? Gumball machines filled with cocaine? Any contemporary art lying around? Give us the goods.

Lisa: I couldn't snoop around too much. It wouldn't be very professional to wander off and root through drawers. But in the white room she has a picture of John in a New York shirt on the piano and a Magritte painting above it. She collects Magritte.

BN: So she has refined taste in home design?

Lisa: Yes, and the apartment is huge. She has a sofa in the kitchen.

BN: Did she cut off any of her clothes during the interview?

Lisa: No, but she wore a low-cut shirt. At 72, showing cleavage is pretty bold.

BN: Did you really know all that stuff about Fluxus or did you look it up before you met?

Lisa: I knew about her art, but the Fluxus movement in general is a bit hard to describe. I researched it.

BN: Does she still hang out with LaMonte Young?

Lisa: I have no idea. I guess I should have asked.

BN: Why couldn't I have gone too, posing as your strapping young assistant, manning the tape recorder and all things mechanical?

Lisa: I think you might have drooled on her.

BN: You pretty much own the name Lisa Tolin on Google. I mean, no one comes close. Any other Lisa Tolins out there frustrated by your total name domination? Do you think a challenger to the throne will ever emerge?

Lisa: There is a middle school soccer player named Lisa Tolin, I think. If she goes pro, I'm screwed.

BN: On a scale of 1 to 10, how retarded is the phrase 'bloggerati'?

Lisa: I'd give that a 9. I also hate 'blogosphere,' though I'm apparently in the minority.

BN: So pretty much now that I've outed that I know an AP editor, I'm guessing you'll never do a piece on mp3 blogs and interview me extensively, making sure to correctly spell our URL at the end of the widely syndicated article?

Lisa: I was thinking about it, but spelling the URL correctly would kind of take the fun out of it, wouldn't it?

BN: When I'm famous in ten years, are you going to call in a favor and demand that you be allowed to interview me?

Lisa: Yes, and I will want to bring in an assistant to man the tape recorder.


More about Lennon on Broadway

John Lennon - Oh Yoko!
**Buy it from Amazon**

Yoko Ono - Walking on Thin Ice
**Buy it from Tigersushi**

Chaotic Evil's Van Burglarized, Equipment Stolen

I know that's a shocker -- but let me convey some other news first.

Friday's show in Williamsburg was an okay affair. There were intermittment electrical problems that really tested our patience, plus it was sort of a scenesterish crowd lacking the intellectual capacity to understand what we were doing.

Saturday's show though, that was an unholy mindfuck. An incredible rooftop view overlooking the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges set the stage for an epochal night. The people at The Watchtower have a rigorous approach to musical scholarship, at the end of the show they were in a total trance from our playing. Even when we finished and packed up our gear they were still staring at us blankly, totally awestruck.

As you might surmise from the title, the bad news is that after parking the van near our practice space in Bushwick, it was broken into and all our gear and personal effects stolen. Fortunately, we have a detailed inventory of what is missing. It looks like the rest of our summer shows are now canceled.

Word around the scene is that this larceny is this is the worst thing to happen since Sonic Youth got their detuned guitars ripped off. Thanks in advance for anyone who can help us locate the whereabouts of the following stolen items:


IPCM 70/80 flanger
Behringer DSP2024 flanger
Ibanez FL9 flanger
ring modulator (broken)
Danelectro PFJ-8 flanger
Krapp's Last Tape (first edition)
carton of clove cigarettes (opened)
bag of dried cranberries
Don't Mess With Texas t-shirt
American Apparel tube top
sleeping bag
Sleeping Bag Records SLX-001 12" (original pressing)
gallon of pomade
Lacoste dress
signed photo of Kevin Shields
Le Tigre CD (Feminist Sweepstakes)
Le Tigre polo shirt (red)
kickball
orange Adidas headband
cowboy boots
BluBlocker sunglasses
analog Fender tube amp
Bjorn Borg Fila tracksuit
Chaotic Evil Neighborhoodies merch
merch table
Canon XL-IIS Super 8 camera
The FADER magazine issues Feb, Mar, and Oct '04
As Four jumpsuit
Grado headphones
2 cases of PBR
Ratt t-shirt
fuzz box
fuzzy Guatemalan sweater
PETA membership
crate of several hundred assorted 7" records
working volcano (science project kind)
2004 Whitney Biennial catalog
Karim Rashid biography
pixelvision camera
tattoo gun
extra pair of horn-rimmed glasses
Ewok pajama bottoms
framed MFA diploma
white belt
Harmony Korine Criterion Collection DVDs
pirate costume
McSweeney's Quarterly Concern Issue 16
trucker hat (6)
map of Bed-Stuy

Deep Slumber

If I ever fall into a coma for thirty years and wake up in a hospital bed without long gnarly fingernails and a giant white beard, I would be really angry. I mean, thanks family, for grooming me in my somnolescence, but c'mon, you just blew my only chance to work the Rip Van Winkle look.

Durutti Column - Sleep Will Come
**Buy it from Forced Exposure**

Erase Errata - Go to Sleep
**Buy it on Audio Lunchbox**

My Bloody Valentine - When You Sleep
**Buy it from Insound for cheap**

Daft Punks

Got my Pixies/Gang of Four tickets for Coney Island today. It sounds like a great time, right in the Cyclones baseball stadium on October 1st. It will be a bit chilly but there should be some leftover sunrays, hopefully enough left for beers on the boardwalk at Rudy's or the possibly defunct Puzzles.

Actually, we might not go if Ticketbastard rejects my order. I grabbed four in case two friends not clued in to this want to join. After the transaction completed I started to get a nagging suspicion there might have been a two ticket limit, so we'll see what happens.. stay tuned..

This was sent to me the other day, a stop action music video made by some nerds dancing to Daft Punk. I thought, great, I've been planning to make a homemade music video of my baby dancing to "Teachers". That is, in a few months when he's big enough to fit in the red baby Adidas tracksuit we got him.

Guess what? These guys used "Teachers" too. I'm still going to make my video though, just you see. This is pretty good for a chuckle, nothing extraordinary, but cute:

Nerdy Homemade Stop Action Daft Punk Video

20 Jazz Funk Greats Dissects "Teachers"

Aziz Ansari at the UCB

Me and the Missus don't get out much, for some reason our six month old baby bun soaks up all our attention. That, and I think it's illegal to leave them unattended. But last Saturday the grandparents were in town, and we had a 30th birthday to get to later that night, so we checked out Aziz Ansari's show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre*.

*My old friend Dan used to perform there all the time before moving to Antarctica (no really, he did this one year base camp adventure job).

For the longest time I've been meaning to introduce my Dearest to the wonderful charms of the UCB, and Aziz Ansari Punched a Wall was a pretty great way to do it. I was reluctant to go at first, suspicious of the drumbeat from our NYC indie blogga aristocracy. I suspected they got bored annointing the next 'it' bands and had now moved on to comedians; in fact, Aziz is part of the local blogging ranks. It was a no brainer to check him out though after seeing the Shutterbugs videos, which are downright pee pee in the pant pant funny.

Shutterbugs Episode 1
Shutterbugs Episode 2

With all the writeups he gets I was expecting an ambitious "Premium Blend" echelon slick entertainer. Instead, he has an incredibly disarming stage presence, winning over the audience with his indirect, awkward delivery. I now see why the indie blogs got hip to him, onstage he has the bemused detachment of a character in a Wes Anderson film. The show has an an economical pacing, and the material ranges from kind of amusing to deep belly laugh -- but I'm not going to reveal why he punched that wall.

Quick shout to the act following him, the Wicked Wicked HammerKatz. First, because they asked if any bloggers were in the audience, that they get some hype. That earned me an elbow in the ribs from the Missus. Second, they are a hypertalented bunch of NYU kids who love a good suicide joke. So wrong, and yet so right.

Click here to reserve tickets to Aziz Ansari Punched a Wall and Wicked Wicked HammerKatz

My Name is Lobot and I am a White Slave


Some accuse George Lucas of being a closet fascist. Untrue. Many an African-American comedian has commented that Chewbacca is Han Solo's manservant. This is simply not so, Chewbacca is bound not by the manacles of oppression, but by a life debt owed to Mr. Solo. There is however, a seamier, more disturbing undercurrent running through the Star Wars trilogy.

Mr. Lucas tacitly endorses white slavery in his filmwork.

Although he skirts the issue in Empire Strikes Back, it is true, I am a white slave, grateful only to know that Lucas has spared you from seeing the harsher punishments meted out to me. For Lando Calrissian is my cruel master, having fitted me with a Compuslave TK-421 Obedience Helmet, he controls my every move by releasing or witholding sex drukqs into my orbital hemisphere. Listed below are some of the cruelties I have endured at Calrissian's hands:

His pouring of bitter, burning cold carbonite onto my genitals.

His making me dress in billowing puffy sleeved shirts, which he refers to as "Lobot's silkies and dainties".

His hiring of IG-88 to work me over a desk, which he watched via closed circuit holoprojector.

My constant endurance of Ugnaughts whose hands are a little too friendly with my tush.

His making me groom his moustache daily, and the plucking of the nostril hair.

My inability to make it out of bed in the morning without Calrissian's release of sex drukqs via remote control. Sometimes he forgets.

The time he made me retrieve Luke Skywalker's severed hand, only to force me to pleasure myself with it.

If my experiences are not enough proof for you, look at the rest of the trilogy. When Leia is forced to become Jabba the Hutt's concubine, what is she made to wear? Yes, a hot slave ho costume. And when Solo was abducted by Boba Fett, what vehicle did they depart in? Yes, the (white) Slave I.

Or look the rest of Lucas' filmography. That guy in THX-1192 is a white slave, and Ron Howard in American Graffiti was a total slave to the fashion of the 1950's.


Please Save Me

Introducing Chaotic Evil

In certain circles I am fondly remembered as lead guitarist of seminal D.C. hatecore band Ethnic Slur. Although I created the band, I was voted out in 1997. Having since moved to Brooklyn and having grown leaps and bounds as an artist, I have pushed beyond such childish schoolyard sludge rock. Currently I am endeavoring with my sound art group Chaotic Evil. We have been working together out of my loft for quite some time, but only now are we prepared, emerging artists that we are, to depart the sticky mucus of our creative chrysalis. For any dullards reading this that means we are playing shows in August and September.

Chaotic Evil

Indeietrus Hofnickler - IPCM 70/80 Flanger
Okkei Habunde - Behringer DSP2024 Flanger
Caspar Kohlheim - Ibanez FL9 Flanger
Andy Franklin - Ring Modulator (Broken)
Lydia Benvenuto - Danelectro PFJ-8 Flanger

Upcoming Shows:
Robot Dragon Loft, Williamsburg - 8/12
The Watchtower, DUMBO (invitation only) - 8/14
The High Line, Chelsea - 8/25 (sunset show)
Planet Thai, Williamsburg - 8/27
Veggie Castle, Flatbush - 9/2
Tonic - Downstairs Basement Secret Sub-Basement, LES - 9/10
Tea Lounge - Park Slope - 9/17

Jude Law and M.I.A Get They Knob On

Item! We have it on great authority from our comments box that Jude Law and M.I.A. are making the beast with two backs. When she dumped Diplo we figured she was due for an upgrade. F U Stereogum, F U Drudge, this is a Banana Nutrament nnnneXCLUSIVE, y'all got scooped.

true, it's a Maxim publication, but it has teh hawtness

The wonderful thing about the Internerd is that if this a malicious rumor, no one will remember and I lose no face. If it's true then I'm the Liz Smith of indie rock.

Good luck you two, you make a great couple.

Throbbing Gristle - Hot on the Heels of Love (Ratcliffe Remix)
**Buy it from Mute**

M.I.A. Shawas Evolution

M.I.A. is bringing her fire to Central Park Summerstage this Sunday, the 7th, so I thought I'd write up a little ditty. Oh, did I mention it's a free show? I see Gordo is getting mad Darwinian in his last post and that sparked it -- I'll write up this concert and tie in my personal fav track, the "Sunshowers" jawn and the disco steez from where it came.

This is the original real deal from Dr. Buzzard. Don't know much about his backstory, just don't get him confused with Dr. John, that dude from New Orleans who sings for Shrek movie credits nowadayz. Joint ends with some nice rainfall samples that could have been lifted off your local mall's Body Shop CD sampler, but naw, this is from the '70s.

Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower
You can get it on Amazon


Miguel is running a blog for a few months with a name ripping off Ironman and then makes it worse by showing no love for Tony Starks Enterprises. Who the fuck brought me this indie rock shit, man? I checked the archives, man. Y'all heard the fuck I said.. I gave you. I wrote it on the fuckin' paper, man.

So this is another Wu-Banger, a real hand raiser, how come I don't still hear it in the club? Heel toe. Heel toe.

Ghostface Killah - Ghost Showers
Catch it at Beat Street


OK, here is (future) babymama's Arular track. Kinda sorta gets overlooked coz of "Galang", but it's still my favorite. I got some advice for you M.I.A., page me if you need some smoke, don't bother with Washington Square Park, and don't go out like a punk.

M.I.A. - Sunshowers
Buy it at Insound

Free Yr Folks?

What about these Deirdre? Your mention of "freak folk" music got me thinking, do any of these artists qualify as part of the movement influenced by Ms. Bunyan and Ms. St. John? I can't tell, and I am offering this up to you and the readers as a thought experiment. Notice the successive degeneration of form from track to track (that was my idea).

Samara Lubelski - Fleeting Skies
This is so beautiful and transient. Fleeting, even, except that's what she calls it in the title, so it would be a poor adjective for me to use. I got to get to one of her shows and see what Samara looks like, she sounds like a total Sugar Magnolia. Get Samara Lubelski's album here


No Neck Blues Ban - Twinkle
You'd have to eat pills stonger than that CIA grade shit Rafael Palmeiro takes to even BEGIN to wrap your head around this. More here


Comets on Fire - The Unicorn (Live)
Especially like the part at the end where it goes wub wub wub fibber fibber. Get it from Tonevendor


Excepter - (The Ass)
This is the last track of their recent album. So does each track represent a different part of the digestive system? Cos this kind of sounds like shit but then it also kind of sounds AWESOME. Get it from Load, their label


Sometimes it seems like some sort of Darwinian zero-sum game with every musician trying to be the most intentionally "out there" and everyone trying to outdo each other with their pedal effects and delays. But no one beats Mama Universe.

Free Folk

The term "folk music" conjures ethnographic studies, creaky Harry Smith style documentations, or bereted recontextualizations in dimly lit San Francisco coffee houses. Another approach to a folk tradition abandons nativist purity in favor of self sufficiency and the realization of personal songcraft. Bridget St. John and Vashti Bunyan are two UK artists overlooked in their day due to being overshadowed by famous folkies of the period and limited pressings of their respective albums. Shockwaves originating from their work are resonating in today's music, they both have influenced a generation of "freak folk" and introverted musicians such as Devendra Barnhart and Animal Collective.

Bridget St. John - Curious Crystals of Unusual Purity
more about Bridget St. John
an art exhibit inspired by the song, and a review

Vashti Bunyan - Seventeen Pink Sugar Elephants
more about Vashti Bunyan