My apologies for the lack of posting yesterday .. sometimes life is too hectic even for musical happenings to be posted.
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TrackbackHere tis your final Lollapalooza lineup which was graciously thrown up by the cats over at BrooklynVegan.
LOLLAPALOOZA 2009
Depeche Mode
Tool
The Killers
Jane’s Addiction
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Lou Reed
Ben Harper and Relentless7
Thievery Corporation
Snoop Dogg
Rise Against
Andrew Bird
TV on the Radio
Vampire Weekend
The Decemberists
Neko Case
STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9)
Animal Collective
Band of Horses
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
Coheed and Cambria
Ben Folds
Fleet Foxes
Silversun Pickups
Kaiser Chiefs
Crystal Castles
Bon Iver
Santigold
Atmosphere
Dan Auerbach
Cold War Kids
Deerhunter
Lykke Li
Robert Earl Keen
Peter Bjorn and John
Heartless Bastards
Gomez
Glasvegas
Federico Aubele
Dan Deacon
Passion Pit
Zap Mama
The Raveonettes
The Gaslight Anthem
The Airborne Toxic Event
White Lies
Ra Ra Riot
No Age
Asher Roth
Los Campesinos!
Bat For Lashes
Chairlift
Gang Gang Dance
The Virgins
Amazing Baby
Portugal. The Man
The Knux
Ida Maria
Delta Spirit
Friendly Fires
Manchester Orchestra
Constantines
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons
Hockey
Miike Snow
Alberta Cross
Hey Champ
Sam Roberts Band
The Henry Clay People
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam
Cage the Elephant
Living Things
The Low Anthem
Blind Pilot
Langhorne Slim
Other Lives
The Builders and The Butchers
Eric Church
Joe Pug
Kevin Devine
The Greencards
Carney
Thenewno2
And spinning at PERRY’S
Bassnectar
MSTRKRFT
Simian Mobile Disco
Deadmau5
Boys Noize
KiD CuDi
Crookers
A-Trak
Hercules and Love Affair (DJ Set)
The Bloody Beetroots (DJ Set)
LA Riots
Kaskade
The Glitch Mob
Hollywood Holt
Rye Rye
He Say, She Say
Car Stereo (Wars)
Dark Wave Disco
Moneypenny
Yello Fever
Animal Collective (DJ Set)
Check the official site for the festival for more info ..
Comments rss TrackbackNow I’ve never been to Oneonta before and it was quite the change from playing parties in the Bronx but PCPM decided to try the change .. Maciej (aka Captain Hooks on this wonderful website,) along with Jeff Connors (who we fondly refer to as Heffe) met up Thursday for our drive to Steve Gamache’s humble abode up in Troy, New York. Thursday consisted of a long jam session (one that was mildly dumbed down to our personal choices of sustenance and leisure) and a night full of beers from Brown’s Microbrewery, and other local watering holes.
Iwo Jima is in the mix ..
We awoke Saturday to jam out some new tunes that Steve had worked out (one had been named Iwo Jima after this sweet American Flag lighter Steve owns) and then we began our haul out to Oneonta. The car ride was pretty enjoyable considering four grown men were having a band bonding moment by bringing all our voices together for a rendition of Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” along with the workings of the Wu-Tang and the ODB ..
The General Clinton Pub was the venue we were granted access to play and they were also kind enough to give free domestic beers on tap .. With bud heavy in mouth and belly and a hot funk pressure on the rise, we got to start around 10:30 and continued to rock for an hour and half. Posted below are a couple jams. The second video is a short clip of the band being joined on stage by Dan and Eric from The Gambler Nun & Radio .. this group hails from Oneonta, Ny and there is no other way to describe them other than they fucking rocked the pub AND were very generous hosts of us four PCPMers and a few followers who came out to rock with us. Check out the Gambler Nun & Radio on their myspace page .. I suggest the song “Every Actor” .. mostly because its dope but also because this is one of the songs Maciej and I remember dancing our faces off amidst our blackout (?)
Funk can travel anywhere ..
After the show, we were treated to two bonfires and some brews and then some sweet sweet slumber … the Gambler Nun & Radio guys have a dog named Kevin McAllister who so kind as to attack me the following morning ..
Dammit Kevin ..
Thanks to the guys in Gambler Nun & Radio for allowing us to share a stage with them and house us .. also many a thanks to Pat, Dawson and Andrea for drivig up to Stoneonta to check us out and join in on the festivties.
FunkE > One Nation Under One Groove > Rappers Delight
Snippet of Jam with Dan and Eric from The Gambler Nun & Radio
Funk Jam + Hype Man spitting some ODB ..
The audio from the show was recorded in full and will go up on our myspace soon enough and it twill also make its way onto this beautiful website as well.
Long live the funk.
Comments rss TrackbackI started watching the Gorillaz documentary last night and it really made me want to listen to more Gorillaz .. very honest tunage and the creators are all about the music. Awesome.
Comments rss TrackbackA while back I wrote about the dope idea of the Gorillaz putting out the documentary Bannanaz .. well it is time to unleash this beast FOR FREE streaming on everyone’s favorite interweb.
CLICK HERE and you shall be redirected to the movie which is featured up on babelgum.com
Spend your 4/20 doing whatever you please .. but if you find yourself on a couch in a cloud of smoke, this could be an awesome item to toss on the boob tube.
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(background info: Katy Perry wrote this song with Kara Dioguardi and recorded it, but it didn’t make her album. Kelly then ran with it for hers.)
Thing #1:
If you’ve read any of these columns (if you haven’t, hi!), you’ve prolly deduced that I don’t care at all whether the voice you hear on a recording is a product of human skill or studio trickery. A lot of my favorite pop music (Britney, Cassie, etc.) is made by folks who aren’t technically great singers, but have interesting songs and production. I preface with that to make clear that this isn’t a Kelly>Katy cuz she can really sing in real life value judgment, but rather an opinion that Kelly sounds about 100x better than Katy on this record. The power and depth to her voice blows Perry’s LA(ish) affectations out of the water and make a good pop song (the lyrics I could give or take, but the “Oh! Oh!” chorus is awesome) into a great one.
Thing #2:
There’s this abstract idea that it should be all about the music (a topic to explore later at greater length) but I don’t really believe that can ever be true. So, I will freely admit that, given a Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson version of a song, I right off the bat assume that I will like the latter better. I don’t like Katy Perry. I hate “I Kissed a Girl”, I HATE “Ur So Gay”, and I hate her being famous. Now part of listening to pop is being ready to change your mind about things; to enjoy small moments of wonder even if you dislike whole discographies. And I’d like to think I do that more often than not. But I’m not foolish enough to pretend that there’s no bias here.
Comments rss TrackbackClick the picture to hear a new Tom Wait’s track titled “Falling Down.”
Comments rss TrackbackFor all the heads ..
Comments rss TrackbackThis Tuesday everyone can go to the stores and pick up Enter the 37th Chamber by El Michels Affair .. these funky dudes play all wu-tang instrumentals on the album .. Try and tell me that isn’t awesome .. Take a listen to the band’s version of “C.R.E.A.M.” ..
Still not convinced? Check out the Wu-Tang throwing some classics down with El Michels Affair providing the smooth beats ..
Comments rss TrackbackSouth Street Seaport – initial 2009 show schedule
June 13 (noon) – Children’s Day
June 27 (7:00) – New York City Opera
July 03 (6:00) – Here We Go Magic & Bachelorette
July 10 (6:00) – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & TBA
July 17 (6:00) – TBA
July 20-30 – Sitelines (see below)
July 24 (6:00) – Black Moth Super Rainbow & TBA
July 31 (6:00) – TBA
Aug 07 (6:00) – Moshi Moshi day w/ Casiokids, The Wave Pictures & Slow Club
Aug 14 (6:00) – TBA
I might possibly check out Black Moth Super Rainbow again .. who knows. The Seaport is sweet. I saw Animal Collective there last year .. i wont begin to talk about my dislike of Animal Collective and the crowd that went to see them .. but the seaport is still sweet.
Comments rss Trackback Comments rss TrackbackThis Friday, April 17th, I will be performing with my old college band PCPM .. you may remember us from our glory days of bringing funk to the Bronx at parties or may be even opening up for the Ghostface Killer at Spring Weekend of 2008. Either way, I have not been able to perofrm live music in so long and there is no other way to put how I feel .. I have a huge musical boner right now.
CaptainHooks on the Mic. Mangtooth on the kit.
What started off as just an idea to bring a couple buddies together and create music turned into a beast of a music group that for the most part consisted of getting drunk and writing tunes .. now we are a little bit older and a little more wise .. so we will get just as drunk and rock even harder! We are bringing a large array of instruments .. everything from two kaossilators, synthesizers, large numbers of drums .. along with your basic guitar, bass, drum, and vocals.
It should be an interesting show .. in ONEONTA, NY .. who knows how it will turn out but the fact that I get to take time off of work, go play music and rehearse all Thursday, rehearse all Friday and then step up and rock the house Friday night at some bar is really, really, exciting for this guy.
If you have any interest in hearing our drunk basement recordings from a year and half a go .. terrible quality of recording but the music isnt half bad .. oh yea, its all improv and off the cuff so there will be mistakes .. lots of em .. but are they mistakes if you didnt plan a damn thing? Enjoy .. http://www.myspace.com/somerealbronxfunk .. I suggest listening to “Mad Dog, I Love You.”
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The Mars Volta are planning to release their latest album on June 23rd. The album is titled Octahedron and only has 8 tracks .. which is weird for the Volta. On top of that, the album has been described by vocal frontman Cedric Bixlar as being the bands “acoustic side” even though the entire album is electric AND the album only clocks in at 49 minutes .. which is usually a warm up for this band. I am excited to hear what the new tracks sound like .. I am also looking forward to Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s release of his solo album Cryptomnesia, which concidentally has all the members of the Volta on the record with the addition of Hella drummer Zach Hill and the subtraction of Volta Drummer Thomas Pridgen.
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CKy is set to release Carver City on May 15th through Roadrunner Records .. you can download the single “Hellions on Parade” here ..
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Aside from all this musical goodness coming my way, I have been listening to a ton of live RX Bandits jams .. I really dont know how I can contain my excitement for the fact that on July 14th RXB will be releasin their newest album and then one week later Portugal. The Man releases their newest album titled, The Satanic Satanist.”
Good things will be coming in time. This weekend is going to rock. I am seeing RATATAT on tuesday! Hooray!
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I know, I know, stooping to VH1 lists for content might be kinda eh, but I’m not gonna argue about their choices, I assure you. Instead, here are choice cuts from 5 artists whose big US hits made VH1′s recent 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders of the 80s List. No YouTube embeds cuz that shit would make this hella long (and I can’t find embeddable versions of some of these). Click the links tho, you know you wanna.
1. Dexy’s Midnight Runner’s – “Geno” (on the countdown with “Come On Eileen”)
Obviously “Come On Eileen”, like, got me through 12th grade, but Dexy’s first album Searching For the Young Soul Rebels is actually quite good. This single was number 1 in the UK two years before Eileen hit (Brits do get something right once in a while), and has an absolutely killer horn section and breakdown. It’s about finding inspiration from Ram Jam Band singer Geno Washington and it kicks ass.
3. A-Ha – “The Sun Always Shines On TV” (“Take On Me”)
This did reach 20 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in the US, but is understandably overshadowed by the incredibly catchy “Take On Me”. This is kind of standard “huge” 80s new-wavey rock, in a way it reminds me of Big Country’s excellent “In a Big Country”. It’s great though, soaring and falling at all the right parts, and the video not only adds a sad ending to Take On Me’s romantic animation fest, but features creepy mannequins.
11. Gary Numan/Tubeway Army – “Are Friends Electric?” (“Cars”)
Gary Numan kicks a lot of ass. He was one of the first new wavers to hit it big with synths and therefore deserves some credit for the deluge of robotic wonder that came after. “Are Friends Electric?” is every bit as good as cars, and despite not having a chorus, is filled brim to brim with amazing hooks. Also, it deserves credit for being a part of Sugababes’ “Freak Like Me”, a 2002 Richard-x produced beast that is basically a mashup of “Are Friends Electric?” and Adina Howard’s “Freak Like Me” with the Sugababes singing Adina’s vocals, and is 300,000x better than anything the Hood Internet will ever do.
15. Devo – “Jocko Homo” (“Whip It”)
Oh, how to do justice to the wonder that is Devo in a few short sentences? One hit wonder or not (“Whip It”, though much remembered for its video, peaked at 14, so it wasn’t even that huge of a hit in chart terms), I’d hazard to say that Devo is probably in the top 10 of bands that this country has ever produced. Their rhythms were so stiff that it was almost a deconstruction of unfunkyness to the point that it became funky. I could list Devo songs all day, but let’s just go with “Jocko Homo”, the best song about evolution ever.
35. Tom Tom Club – “Wordy Rappinghood” (“Genius of Love”)
Tom Tom Club were a funky beast, as one might expect from a band founded by the Talking Heads’ rhythm section. This is a fun little rap mostly about how silly words are, which is as good an idea for a song as any. The real star here, though, is the groove, which is steady fire.
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