that was just a joke about the money

dear friends,

1. because I am busy, uno

not a whole lotta time for anything. been busy contacting bands for upcoming shows & busy trying to re-organize my itunes in anticipation for the battle between myself & matt from earfarm at tomorrow's beg yr pardon #5. he's been doing a lot of smack talking & I have no idea what he'll play which means it will be fun. I am curious to see if he's gonna play an 8+. if he does, I plan to retaliate with in-a-gadda-da-vida.

PSYCH! of course I'm not gonna play that. I'm gonna play yoko ono 12" remix instead. like, duh.

of course, byp isn't all fun & eye-loss. the bands are great too! come check out:

air waves (8PM)
schwervon (9PM)
el jezel (10PM)
via audio (11PM)

$5 admission, $5 all you can eat bbq on the roof from 7-9 & FREE BEER from 11:30 to 12:30. plus tina's brownies & cupcakes.

2. because I'm busy, dos

xxx/helium



this video is important to me in the sense that late one sunday, I was up, doing homework or something on my black cat hair covered couch & about a few seconds in, when the guitar makes its first distorted fuzzy caterpillar entrance, I felt like someone threw that cinematic water glass in my face. I'd been asleep for years & this woke me up. I took one big breath. & did a startled look-around.

I still love mary timony * even though unlike everyone else, I actually enjoyed her solo experimentations in dragon rock, & didn't see her last album as a particular return form just 'cause it failed to mention unicorns. C'MON. there is ALWAYS a place for unicorns in indie rock. 'cause unicorns are kickass.

love, d

* mary timony was the lead singer/guitarist/main songwriter in helium. many years ago, while on an incredibly long club bathroom line, I saw her standing in front of a mirror fixing her (then) blonde bouffant. she used her pinky to fix the black line she had drawn above her lashes & then moved her face around inspecting the overall effect. I sighed internally with an "I wish I wuz her" followed by an even more adolescent, "I wish I was her friend." luckily for me, I did not drink at the time so I never approached her to tell her this. thank god. that's one less item for the d makes an ass of herself montage.

Come along with me...

I did a Listener Hour on WFMU at the beginning of the month (Saturday, July 1st, to be exact). This is what I played:

Yo La Tengo- My Little Corner of the World
Rolling Stones- Sing This All Together
Gordon MacRae- Oh What A Beautiful Morning
Royal Fingerbowl- A Month of Sundays
Bruce Springsteen- 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

Big Star- Thank You Friends
Cat Power- Lived in Bars
Al Green- Take Me to the River
Brazilian Girls- Corner Store
Seu Jorge- Starman
Juana Molina- Ahora

Sleep- Dragonaut
Priestess- Talk to Her
Sweet- Teenage Rampage
Gnarls Barkley- Gone Daddy Gone

Billy Stewart- Summertime

If you want to listen, you can do so here.

check the guy's track record

dear friends,

1. I never did a review post of 7/18's beg yr pardon#4 show 'cause I spent most of the evening having a tiny nervous breakdown. outside of my private inner house of cards meets hearts of darkness debacle, the bands were a dream & djs the obsessive compulsive & fluxblog rocked the house. even in the face of rampant heckling by drunken latins in glasses demanding aaliyah. eh, I'm not naming any names.

like the slayer, when one falls another rises in their place so mark your calendar for byp #5 on tuesday, 8/1 featuring air waves, schwervon!, el jezel & via audio. I will be dj-ing along with dj earfarm & not mc-ing. everyone shout: thank god!

the "you are there" on BYP #4:

earfarm
fluxblog
crackers united
merry swankster

the BYP# 4 bands:

susu*
medic medic
the song corporation
pink noise

2. favorite videos from childhood, part five

big new prinze/the fall**



because I was one of those kids that never napped or slept really, I wound up catching this on late night tv while my mom slept on the other side of our apartment, completely oblivious to my 2AM viewing habits. this band & this song blew my mind & put me on the path of righteousness. it still sounds exactly as I remember: like a truculent drunk shouting nonsense as guitar quicksand/sludge slowly swallows him up. I love it.

love, d

* andrea susu gave me their new cd at the show & I've been cranking that like I had a pick-up truck. expect a blathering write-up soon.

** sadly, there is a brief voiceover interruption from whichever program this was cribbed from. my apologies.

you must be used to this now

dear friends,

1. another weekend, another show. actually, no. I took a break from showgoing ('cept for a brief jaunt to philly, see #2) to cook & lounge & watch a cock & bull story*. for coverage of the pretty girls make graves show at the mccarren park pool keep checking subinev. you can count on bryan's photos to be good so there's definitely some kind of wonderful to be found.

2. here is a video for man in gray's thirty-six directed by steven huber. I took a lot of mediocre photos of their illadelphia show so this will have to do for now. my apologies to those who have seen it here already. I like to repeat myself.

thirty-six/man in gray



3. speaking of man in gray, serious business records has gone way fancy on my ass & revamped their site. go read their boozy, rosy-hued arthurian legend penned by the incomparable joe willie & maybe buy some of their premium products. ok not maybe. definitely. pony up.

also go to the photo page, I'm in one of the pictures. try & spot the waldo.

love, d

* SO great. a lot of movie set based films fill me with anxiety & this one is no different (I was practically gnawing my hands off) BUT a cock & bull story had that magical ingredient necessary for this type of movie - CONTEXT. makes me want to re-read the life & opinions of tristram shandy & re-read stephen fry**, who makes an appearance on the extras passionately discussing the merits of this singular novel.

** asterisk in asterisk aspic? did it. done. grammatical crimes daily here at soft communication! but I digress...yes, stephen fry is not just jeeves but a terrific writer as well. for proof try & nab yourself a copy of moab is my washpot.

Music is my boyfriend

Dear friends,

Ventured out to Warsaw last night to see Cansei De Ser Sexy and Bonde Do Role. I had a ball despite the fact that I was carrying a purse that weighed about 20 pounds that prevented me from fully busting out the Solid Gold dance moves and that, in deference to my eternal migraine, I was refraining from the hooch.

Bonde Do Role, a three mc (one of them on dj duties) outfit with a seemingly endless sample clearing budget and some trashy dance moves, opened. They had a "rich kids doing coke for the first time and instead of having an orgy, deciding to rap-sing over their favorite songs" type of vibe. which meant we got treated to a little Kraftwerk, a little Alice in Chains*, a little Tone Loc via Van Halen and the piece de resistance, Europe. Yes, as in the freakin' Final Countdown. And leg humping. And blowsy stripper moves. And the grapevine! Wwhich is something I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of seeing at Warsaw.

Despite their attempts to engage the audience, the boys of the group seemed a bit generic. The lady however won me over with her win at all costs style. Clad in an unflattering pink satin boxing shorts/tank top combination, with tiny dark eyes, bleached blonde hair and woozy on the floor or bandmate's jock moves; she had the interesting effect of becoming more alluring the more you watched her perform. It wasn't the moves so much as her brassy, raspy delivery that was more punk than rap. She had a sloppy-seductive confidence that was entirely natural. Oh yeah and FUN.

Now, I was under the impression Cansei De Ser Sexy (oops, I'm sorry! that's CSS to the U.S. of A.) was gonna be some bratty girls and a drum machine. Nope. A full band of guitar shredding sullen girls, occasional drum machine, one guy on live drums, occasional instrument switching from most of them and a wildly charismatic lead singer named Lovefoxxx. She wasn't sullen in the least, maybe a little bratty but in a thoroughly charming, steal your heart sorta way. She ran around the stage looking like an eight year old leading a pep rally, taking off/putting her clothes back on, and jumping out into the crowd with big fat smile on her face. When her hair extensions fell off at one point, she laughed, yanked the rest of them out and used them as pom poms for the rest of the set. Classic.

CSS tore through each number with surprisingly polished ease for a band that supposedly just learned to play (ahem, according to their press), but still kept things breezy enough to insert Missy Elliott's Work It into one of their songs in cheekily brazen way that delighted the crowd. After that performance, if you somehow managed to resist their frontwoman's charisma and/or dismiss the band as some kind of electro fabrication, then you clearly have no soul.

Okay, that was a bit harsh. You might have a soul, but it doesn't dance. Ever.

Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above/CSS (video)



Love, D

Favorite Live Songs: Melo Do Tobaco*/Bonde Do Role, Music Is My Hot Hot Sex/CSS

UPDATE: other folks who went to the CSS/Bonde Do Role show and have things to say about it...

Fluxblog
Brooklyn Vegan
Music Snobbery
Yeti Don't Dance
Soundbites
Sucka Pants

a siamese cat of a girl

dear friends,

1. eternal flame much?

TONIGHT IS (cue fanfare):



what I want to know is will the song corporation play a cover of that horrid bangles song eternal flame & prove me wrong by providing the beg yr pardon audience with a daringly insightful rendition that makes them re-evaluate not just susannah hoff's songwriting skills but life itself? HMMM?!?

2. marimba?

j & I watched the movie stoned last night which attempts to re-create the last days of brian jones before he met his untimely swimming pool death.

conversational snippet in lieu of actual review:

d: wow. that blew.

j: it would've been much better as a short...don't you think?

d: hmmm...it would've been much better not sucking.

j: it would've been much better had it never been.

d: exactly!

(also a criminal waste of paddy considine who absolutely killed in 24 hour party people with his pitch perfect portrayal of new order manager rob gretton. you don't remember who that is? the bearded guy with the pint glass surgically attached to his hand who seems to embody the manager that every band wants: an intensely loyal person who can kick someone's ass for you should that ass need to be kicked.)

but back to brian jones...my childhood impressions of the stones were that they were the ugliest famous men I had ever seen in my life. total grotesques in pirate shirts. I am not sure when I got over how oogy boogy I thought they looked & started to enjoy the music but it took a while. fine, call me shallow.

I always did love this song though...

under my thumb/the rolling stones



jones' prim marimba line perfectly personifies the seething, gritted teeth rage that's just trembling under the surface of jagger's well-dressed lines. it's not just the girl who has been made over, it's the protagonist as well. he's looking the part of the big man with the posh girlfriend but he's still an insecure little boy. & when the song is done it's that musical line you remember; the trembling hand on the tea cup after the put down.

see you tonight!

love, d

song to seek: under my thumb/the rolling stones

movie to avoid: stoned

all I want is one kiss, just one kiss

dear friends,

1. the 61 bus saved my life

missed the siren festival. can you believe it?! I always go. fact is, I didn't feel so hot on saturday. opted instead to stay at home most of the day. listened to the eraser by thom yorke. have things to say about it, just not know.

later that evening, the monkey & I took the bus from one end of brooklyn to the other to see minnesota's low lustre play galapagos. got to the venue too early, went to eat, came back to catch exactly one & a half songs. felt like the prize horse's ass. luckily for me (& you, you'll see) low lustre is moving to beautiful bushwick in september. who doesn't love second chances?

2. the light fantastic

here are some pictures from the polish disco show at club europa last thursday. the venue was admittedly out of the way BUT made up for it by being very spacious & having excellent sound.

I have to say, I'm a bit in love with emily & travis from the muggabears. & isn't just 'cause they came over with their stuff at 7:30 on the dot, or that travis played an unplanned, last minute solo set (the highlight being I'm coming true which has a great little guitar hook that curls & wiggles & ends with a CLANG CLANG. listen to it on their my space page), or their sticking around & enjoying the whole show. they were funny & sweet & not the least bit perturbed that I'm a member of an electro franchise.

according to their aforementioned my space page, they are playing a "not so secret show" with emma la reina & limbs. once I know more details, I will let you know 'cause I'm a'be there!



you all know I love them unsacred hearts. joe willie was in top form. sadly most of the pictures I took were piss poor thanks to the...fog machine. yes. you read that right. & did I mention the discoball & light show? actually, the smoke & lights were kind of all around fabulous, just bad for the photo-takin'. this one's good though.



as you can see, tina gray joined them for an electrifying two three four. in keeping with the song, a sorta indie rock "he said, she said, he realizes he really doesn't get it" duet, joe watched her sing like a man who knows he's going to eaten for breakfast but is secretly quite pleased at the prospect.

the fabulous mistakes previewed material from their forthcoming album. my favorite moment was hearing them play what sounded like a prog power ballad (?!) during soundcheck, watching the out of town metal band that the club had hired to play at 11 listen on in confusion, hearing same prog power ballad performed later complete with fog machine & swirling disco ball. m to the stakes, I LOVE THAT SONG. what's it called?



thanks to all those that performed & all those that came! you are superstars!

3. favorite videos from childhood, part four

aaaw yeah, one thing dj earfarm should know about our beg yr pardon #5* tag team dj-ing extravaganza is that this will most definitely be played.

electric avenue/eddy grant



I'm not really sure why I loved this video, it makes not one iota of sense. it must be the fake motorcycle sounds followed by that OH!

love, d

* AHEM, BYP #5 is on 8/1, the one after BYP #4 tomorrow on 7/18, which YOU will be attending, no?

songs to seek: I'm coming true/the muggabears, the two three four/the unsacred hearts, (awesome pseudo prog power ballad I don't know the name of complete with harmony oooo's) moon/the mistakes, electric avenue/eddy grant

* thanks fraser!

whatever happens, if we're still speaking

dear friends,

1. a reminder, an actual one

I received some sad news this morning that the muggabears will not be able to play as a full band at tonight's jezebel music showcase because of a death in the family. it's hard to express how one feels over someone else's loss especially when condolences always seem so paltry. my thoughts are with them.

travis johnson, lead singer/guitarist from the muggabears, will perform solo at 8:30. the unsacred hearts & mistakes will go on at their regular times. there is an open bar from 8-9, so if you plan to come be sure to take advantage of that...



now how does one get to club europa?

by subway: G train to nassau ave. stop - walk 1 block north to meserole ave. & manhattan ave. club is located near the corner of manhattan ave. & meserole ave.

map of 98-104 meserole ave
brooklyn, ny 11222

2. a reminder, the song

I will cave in & buy the eraser because I love thom yorke like I was fourteen years old & nothing else in the world matters! ok, maybe not all the time. it would be difficult to get through the work day feeling like that all the time. but something close to it. a cards-close-to-vest fantaticism, perhaps? that sounds about right.

yesterday, soaking wet 'cause of sudden downpour, I sat on the bus & read the thom yorke interview in spin. the interviewer asked yorke if anti-depressants help him with his overwhelming anxieties & he replied in the negative, & continued by saying that music is all that's ever worked for him in that regard. I found myself nodding stupidly in agreement. then instantly felt embarassed because I realized that I've been on the bus, drenched by sudden downpour & nodding to some musical hero's pronouncements in some way or another FOR MOST OF MY LIFE. does this still happen to other people? or am I stuck in a teen time warp? just wondering...

there's a radiohead song called a reminder* which I put on a mix for j when I was a'courting him (female rob gordon, c'est moi?). it's a woozy number that sounds like sitting in a lounge in the world's most beautiful airport & it's not just the boarding call pronouncements audible in the mix, it's the WHITENESS of the sound. all the notes in the song seem to drip in the air, everything molasses-slow with a guitar line that swirls around & around aimlessly. it's just like watching take-offs & landings when you get to the airport too early & you're headed someplace that isn't where you want to go. yorke mumbles & slurs his way through it, a man who hasn't slept in days & there's a strange urgency behind his drowsy rambling. this song is a message about transitory things & that old twitch inducing truthism: just because things change doesn't mean it wasn't real & true at some point.

a tender & damaged little thing. go find it.

love, d

ps I'm buying the eraser this weekend. I'll let you know what I think.

* you can find a reminder on the airbag/how am I driving? ep

song to seek: a reminder/radiohead

often inclined to borrow somebody's dreams till tomorrow

dear friends,

according to the associated press, syd barrett, founding member of (& coiner of the band name) pink floyd, died several days ago. no details have been released as to how he died. he was sixty-years old.

I wasn't too familiar with barrett until I got an education from j about barrett's time with floyd, subsequent solo material & slow mental disintegration. a sad tale indeed.

here are a couple of my favorite syd songs, one in the form of a floyd promo clip, the other in the form of a cover by former blur guitarist & syd barrett enthusiast, graham coxon.

see emily play/pink floyd



love you/graham coxon



love, d

songs to seek: see emily play/pink floyd, love you/syd barrett

it's coming in hard

dear friends,

1. like I said on friday, you really oughta go*...



now how does one get to club europa?

by subway: train to nassau ave. stop - walk 1 block north to meserole ave. & manhattan ave. club is located near the corner of manhattan Ave. & meserole ave.

Map of 98-104 Meserole Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11222-2636, US

2. like I said on friday, I wish I wuz him...

7/4 (shoreline)/broken social scene



I would like to be that unkempt & have a lithe french chanteuse in my clutches.

3. I never said this but...

at the end, the monkey & I split on the world cup issue. he was backing the french & I had to go for my italian brethen (my last name is sicilian which means I'm at least 1/4 eye-talian.) I got rather aggro during the final match. so much so that j said, "when did you become such a big italy supporter?" I replied sotto voce (natch), "when the game started. shhhh."



congratulations italy! now maybe the chilean team can stop sucking & actually qualify four years from now...

love, d

* thank you jared for the flyer!

show to go to: jezebel music presents...band night at club europa thursday, 7/13 with mistakes, the unsacred hearts, & the muggabears

Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that

Dear friends,

Last night I went to see Broken Social Scene or BSS, as I am prone to calling them, play in Prospect Park. I felt mited, tired and wasn't drinking so didn't mix it up much. Though I did enjoy eavesdropping on the three dudes sitting behind me as they talked about the upcoming "Hands" (!?) and Architecture in Helsinki show in Central Park and whether or not it was worth the trillion dollars to buy tickets on EBay and fly out to see Sleater Kinney in Portland now that they've "broken up." I had a sudden flashback from many years ago of holding up Call The Doctor in front of my friend Don's face and saying "THIS is the future." It was in a way. But not for me really. I could never take to Sleater Kinney again quite the way I did with that song.

But back to the show. The Hidden Cameras were breezy summer twee bubbling with songs about sex, casual or otherwise with glockenspiel and synchronized dancing. Soft Communication award for sartorial excellence goes to the butchy Hidden Cameras drummer* (who was really quite an excellent drummer, which is why I focused on them in the first place) clad in a white pants/vest/tie look and seemed to be going for an interesting Brideshead Revisited type look. Excellent summer style, in my opinion. Kudos!

BSS were great. There were fewer folks there than usual which is fine with me because now it was much clearer who was doing what. And now that I've experienced Feist and Emily Haines, I finally got the chance to see Amy Millan from Stars as their chanteuse for the night Millan won me over with her shaggy haired rock star moves and her rapport with Kevin Drew which was like violent fraternal twin brawling with the biggest grins you've ever seen. I've never caught Stars live (hope to change that at Siren this year) but I always pictured the woman behind that cool, intimate voice as being a remote little thing who barely moves. Not so Miss Millan, who was working it like a toddler in front of So You Think You Can Dance? and only stayed completely still for a weirdly affecting performance of Anthems For a Seventeen-Year Old Girl. Affecting in that, for the first time (I've seen Haines do it previously,) it made me want to be a 17-year old in love so that song could be truly, truly mine and I could go to sleep thinking about hands brushing, the smell of shampoo and all that heart quivering emo jazz.

Yeah...I'm a sap. But it gets worse!

Weirdly crushing confession #5. I came to terms with the fact that I have a mad, wanna do ya celebrity crush on Kevin Drew which is weird because he's far removed from my fair-haired type (let's see Drew is...brunette, has no ass, smoker, sloppy, never met a hairbrush, sweaty***) and I think it must be some crazy onanistic thing where I wanna be him, hence the crushing.

Huh? Sexual narcississim much? Well, he does stuff onstage that I wanna do, namely wander about playing various instruments, messing with vocal pedals until he gives people ear-seizures, bumming cigarettes from the crowd, guzzling booze, singing soaring lines over an excellent brass section and lovin' life. It may be that as soon as Drew gets off that stage and goes back to his (surely) messy room back in Toronto that that person doesn't exist anymore. But that man, the one co-leading the pack singing about never coming back and the shit tasting good and the cause, the cause, I’d like to be him. And drunkenly walk up to a foggy mirror in a tiny bathroom, pointing at my reflection and telling myself nice. fucking. job. rock star.

I got to see Almost Crimes, which was the song of theirs I first saw them play which made me go gaaah. It wasn't as transporting but there's no way it could be. There were great renditions all night, some faves being Ibi Dreams Of Pavement, Fire Eye'd Boy (which if I had mind control powers I'd make Prince cover. For real, how good would that be?) And the got to give it up groovetastic Hotel but still, I never lost my mind. Perhaps the moment has passed me.

It doesn't matter really 'cause I'll see Canning and Drew and whoever is in their band of merry wackos next time they’re in town. Always and forever. Like I said, I'm a sap.

Love, D

Band to see live: Broken Social Scene

* Man? Woman? Still not sure. Who cares? I'd say gender is irrelevant, a white summer suit works well on both.

** Hilariously, ass part aside, this reads like a description of me...hmmm...I hate myself, word?

It's the only way you'll ever know

Dear friends,

1. Fire in the disco

As some of you may have heard I've been trying to book a night for Jezebel Music at a Polish dance club in Greenpoint called Europa that is branching out into rock nights. I'm not really sure if I'm allowed to say much about the process since technically, it's "work" so instead I'll just say: The Muggabears, The Unsacred Hearts, Mistakes.

Should this be your very first venture to Greenpoint? I think so. And those that live in Greenpoint/Williamsburg, should this be your first venture to the disco that's this (insert gesture of tiny-ness) close to your house? Definitely.

The Muggabears, who I have not had the pleasure of seeing live yet, combine qualities from two of my favorite bands of the 90's: Pavement and Polvo. They have the same fascinating and unexpected instrumental shifts paired with vocals that repeat what could be slogans but sound too crumpled to actually be anything so emphatic. In short: hypnotizing. I would love to put them on a bill with those wacky Emma La Reina kids... oh wait. Never mind. (Whistles, looks innocent)

For fans of the math rock (the only math I like) who've been itching to stand there staring like eagles at the musicians as they make your eyes cross with beautiful guitar squalor.

The Unsacred Hearts, written about recently here are fine, fine men who are so...enraptured (and I don't bandy that word around) with music that you can't help but get sucked into their church of boozy Rock & Roll as well. Sounds like a roadside bar experience you'd rather avoid? Wait. Not quite. Tthis is genuine live band mojo that feels as good as dancing around your living room with your headphones on, not like standing there with your arms folded worrying about the quality of the club bathrooms. Trust me. Or if you don't, trust Earfarm's take on The Hearts live show.

On a side note, frontman Joe Willie is leaving shortly thereafter for a rollicking bike-a-thon through Vietnam with his lovely missus Melissa. I don't know about his biking skills, so this might be the last time you see him, especially if he decides to stay there and write the great American novel, so come wish him well, bring him gifts of travel pillows and books, both dirty and poetic, etc... He'll appreciate it.

Mistakes are one of the very best live acts in NYC. I said so here and so did this gentleman HERE, and he goes to way more shows than I. If you have not had the pleasure of seeing them play ever, I'd recommend you start planning the fixed grin of enjoyment that you will acquire at this show. Guaranteed excellence!

2. The shoe, the gaze, amen

I'm more of a blog-reader than a blogger. This is a fact. Who is a blogger? Well, Merz from Mars Needs Guitars, that's who. I came across Mars Needs Guitars when I stumbled across this shoegaze series with guest writers*, because as y'all know, the shoegaze is a fetish o' mine. I keep coming back every day for the fresh posts on all things that sound real good plus pictures of rockets of course!

Do yourself a favor and make it a daily read.

3. Favorite videos from childhood, part 3

Yes, this one's a doozy. But I'm not alone, my opinion is shared by Contributor Jared, he of the long tooth for Chinese and the scarce but superb contributions to Soft Communication. One day he and I will sing this song at karaoke, thus alienating all of our friends because Jared will most likely take his shirt off AND insist on singing the Philip Bailey part.

Easy Lover/Phil Collins and Philip Bailey (video)



4. A venue I can walk to

Man in Gray is playing with the wonderful Up the Empire at the Brooklyn Lyceum tonight and I could be wrong, but I think there was some mention of burlesque dancers(?!) between bands. That's a first for me...I'll let you know if that’s a good or bad.

Love, D

Bands to see live: The Muggabears, Unsacred Harts, Mistakes

* I really wanted to write to him and ask if I could do one of those but realized that the whole don't even know how to post an mp3 might be a serious problem.

we got garbage

dear friends,

1. favorite videos from childhood, part two

it’s a rather obvious choice, isn’t it? I’m beginning to think that maybe the reason I liked these particular videos is 'cause of their shared mini-movie feel.

smuggler's blues/glenn frye



on a side note, when the monkey & I first met we bonded over our vague memories of loving miami vice & in particular the episode where edward james olmos’ monosyllabic police chief is inexplicably revealed to be...a samurai? that’s right! a latino samurai. complete with crazy hiding from the bad guys by wedging his injured body sideways on the ceiling of a doorway. & if any of you recall that magical moment, consider yourself an official member of our gang of losers.

2. the obvious segue

speaking of gangs of losers, soundbites posted the title track from the dears upcoming album in this post. I am eagerly anticipatin’ their return as can be expected if you read the two spectacularly unsophisticated posts I wrote about them last year. unfortunately, this track, you & I are a gang of losers, while good*, is not the one I thought it was. namely the one that they played on their live show every time I saw them & have been dying to get my hands on since that has a lyric that goes something like "you’ll hate everyone until there’s no one else." I want that song! where is it?

(runs off into a corner, clutching head & mewling)

3. beg yr pardon #4

I know byp# 3 had some serious competition thanks to the five beeeeeellion quality gigs going around town that night, so I can forgive ya if you missed it. this time, however, you best be at the delancey on tuesday, july 18th because the line-up is truly de-licious, de-lightful & de-lovely. we got susu at 8, medic medic at 9, the song corporation at 10 & pink noise at 11.

behind the dj booth expect the obsessive compulsive in the earlier part of the evening & fluxblog in the latter part of the evening. I’m already polishing my dance shoes.

$5 entry (includes tinalicious brownies & cupcakes), $5 for upstairs bbq until 9PM & FREE BEER from 11:30-12:30.

love, d

PS anyone else going to broken social scene tonight at prospect park?

PPS can anyone recommend an air-conditioned establishment in park slope where I can watch the world cup final on sunday?

* though my favorite leak thus far is definitely the biting whites only party which works nicely as the theme song to my general indie rock show experience.

that's right

or I really should be done packing*, top of the pops is dead, long live top of the pops

dear friends,

there are no facts here. only zool. all I know is that top of the pops is ending, has ended or something. I used to watch toftp religiously when it was on bbc america in the mornings. some performances were great, some performance were a sorry mess. either way, I was usually amused UNLESS it was a teen group named s club 7 or something (they had loads of groups like that, identical seeming buff types dancing & singing in unison) but they'd usually be done with quickly & be followed by...megadeth? a great way to start the day.

this here is one of my favorite top of the pops performances. no, it's not rock.

come into my world (fischerspooner remix)/kylie minogue



I remember being dumbfounded by this. bizarrely alluring not just 'cause it's kylie but everyone seems to be on ludes including the beats & what is up with that very tall, is that a paunch or no? pink haired "back-up" dancer? when I found it on you tube, of course I discovered/realized those art pranksters fischerspooner were the ones behind this erotic techno pop cabaret lipsynch concept/remix. nice work. love the the way the repeated ending "come" is turned into caw caw caw. kylie as sexually sated seagull. how could I not love it?

love, d

* the monkey & I are headed to virginia. we are celebrating our anniversary a month late. we slow like that. enjoy the holiday weekend!