I should've known (redux)

dear friends,

just a quick one to urge you to catch that ole dinosaur the mtv music awards tonight at 8:00 PM. (insert name of band comprised of cute young boys in eyeliner & stripes) & (insert name of hot new r&b singer) are performing, (insert name of some scantily dressed starlet with a vacant stare & a wooden delivery) is presenting. PLUS really bad outfits!

but really, the reason you should be watching it is to catch my red sox lovin' buddy andy ross (aka the mastermind behind secret dakota ring) performing on treadmills with his other band ok go. watch, bite your knuckles*, & be amazed by his ability to dance marvelously in a tailored suit.

knock it out of the park, champ!

love, d

* I am not a fan of treadmills. I sometimes imagine they have teeth. you might say I have a phobia.

what will I do from now on?

1. other reasons

I would love to say that I was taking a leave of absence from soft communication 'cept I'm not sure how long that would be & without a definite time, I don't want to make any announcements. fact is, I do this when I'm at work (illegally & stealthily) & work's been hard lately, the way that work can be when it is demanding & deadly dull. so yeah, while my contributions to this here collective have always been slight, they're about to get slighter. blame it on the rain. all you other contributors, help a sistah out. pick up the slack.

2. other places

clap clap breaks down the differences between 90's indie sexuality vs 00's indie sexuality via versions of bull in the heather. nah, not really. but I just know that the mere mention of "indie sexuality" made someone's glasses steam up. you know who you are.

earfarm has a WAY more demanding job than mine but still has time to write about another quality song that is over eight minutes long.

ruined music was in the new york post! go to their website for additional tales of musical ribaldry, I mean misery.

stereoactive nyc is presenting beg yr pardon #7 tomorrow, & he has interviews &/or mp3s from all the bands on the bill.

3. other videos

don't know why by ko-stars feat. dean & gene ween was a song I closely associated with a big, bad ex. I listen to it now & scrunch my face into what I hope is a bemused look at how wonderfully overdramatic I got over a guy who really was just not right for me but I kept thinking could be by magic & a careful avoidance of the word "love." not really ruined music, though. I adore this song, & still listen to it now & again without fear of flashbacks. it's mine & not my past's.

sadly, I can't find a video for don't know why. instead here are three videos by jill cunniff & vivian trimble's other project, luscious jackson.

daughters of the kaos/luscious jackson



here/luscious jackson



ladyfingers/luscious jackson



jill cunniff is releasing a solo album this november called city beach. I can't wait to hear it. befriend her on my space.

love, d

gonna steal away all of his love

dear friends,

1. skip on over to stereoactive nyc to read an interview with the secret life of sofia in anticipation of their performance at beg yr pardon #7 on tuesday, august 29th. go read it! I hear there will be more to come... (cue portentious music score)

2. talk too much by the goddamn doo wop band is su-weet. alas, I couldn't get my clutches in 'em for a september show. rats! go over to fluxblog & read what he's gotta say about it. note to self: become rich so I can fly bands out to play whenever I want, thus eliminating that whole pesky van drive through several states on a tuesday thing.

3. I'm gonna be here tonight. so should you. don't worry, if you time it right, you can make it back home in time to catch the project runway repeat. yes, I want michael to win. who doesn't? sheesh.

love, d

It was a slippery, slippery, slippery slope

At the suggestion of a professional writer/friend who pulled a Sidney Poitier in To Sir, with Love number on me by firmly but kindly encouraging the use of caps and italics, this piece is being presented without the use of my usual schtick. After this though, I go back to being a slob.

Dear Friends,

1. The Long Version

The Eraser starts like this: //. //. //. Electronic piano. Then the voice comes in, all up in your ear. Warm and almost playful despite the question cum accusation. "Are you only being nice because you want something?" Sidelong glance. More of this: //. //. //.

I don't know how, but I fell down the rabbit hole and something that I would've been mightily resistant to when I first started listening to Thom Yorke circa The Bends, I'm now comfortable with. That is, listening to an album chock full of bleeps and whirrs. It's Yorke's fault. Him and his petulant wide swath of a voice. It cushions the sound of machinery.

I remember reading a Robert Christgau piece in The Village Voice years ago that made me bristle, fuckin' BRISTLE with indignation. It compared Stephen Malkmus and Thom Yorke as vocalists and declared Malkmus the superior by virtue of his "realness." I don't have any beef with that opinion, it's a matter of taste. I love SM and everything he lazily free-associates about when he opens that mouth of his to sing. But comparing the two singers with the idea that one was all golden throated technique and the other all intrinsic feel seemed way the fuck off the mark. Even for Christgau, who I respect (that 30 shows piece. damn! what stamina.) but have never really gelled with because hey, it's not his fault he doesn't speak to me. I'm a Latina from Yonkers, our worlds couldn't be further apart.

Malkie's a genius singer in that, in the parlance of Project Runway, he makes it work. He's fox-sly, surprising, and an improviser of the highest order; deft and light. Yorke is something else entirely. Yes, the guy can saaaang when he wants to but what makes him interesting and different from all the other male songbirds of the British school of feelings, is the Johnny Rotten ugly in his voice. From soar to sneer, he isn't afraid to sound hideous and that's why he appeals to me. I feel like he's barely containing himself, a twitching little vessel of opinions and melody that carry a weight that would be unbearable to listen to if it weren't for the funny/sad self-awareness behind them.

The Eraser is an album as litany of complaints. There are a lot of things going terribly wrong, but whether it's because producer Nigel Godrich forced him to put his voice way up in the mix, or because he's being more self-aware than usual, there's a intimate and resigned quality to the whole affair. So that when he sings the lines, "The more you try to erase me/The more.../The more.../The more that I appear," it comes out like a murmured hush. Like someone seeing the great wave coming but instead of running, they close their eyes and calmly refuse to budge.

It's a short one, this aural document of anxiety and there's repeated cyclical motifs both in the lyrics and in the way the songs are constructed. ThomManMachine is completely dependent on the beats. So they do their relentless repetitions while he provides additional textures by layering his voice on top. In addition to this, he channels his inner state of emergency, lets loose and splits himself some more on the lead vocals, so that there's Thom Yorke One and Thom Yorke Two competing for focus. In The Clock Yorke One spits and hisses in the background like the little beat box that could while Yorke Two unspools an evenly held line about time running out. Black Swan has a smidgen of guitar to appease those that feel deprived, but really the star of the show is the lush quilt of vocals. Atoms for Peace is Yorke's VH1 Divas moment, a chance for him to bust out his formidable falsetto in delicate runs. A favorite of mine is the weirdly uncomfortable Skip Divided that has Yorke One doing a vocal as decorative keyboard line while Yorke Two does a flat affect talk-sing as things bounce and breathe all around. It's not really a pleasant listen, not that it's dissonant or really that strange, but I'm drawn to the amateurishness of it. When Yorke starts babbling about how when you walk in the room, he starts to melt and yips hey! hey! all over the place, it's like he's finally starting to play. This bodes well, I think, for his future work with his high school buddies. You know, those other talented fellas that are currently on vacay.

No, The Eraser isn't perfect. I could've done without the last song and it does get a bit samey, beat-wise. Nevertheless, I don't particularly see it as a failed experiment, experiment implies that there was a solution being sought and I don't think that was the case here. Yorke had some songs he needed to get out and why shouldn't he? Especially when there are real glimmers of beauty there. Like a lot of imperfect but interesting albums, The Eraser will work on people on the basis of individual songs and their own complicated responses to them.

This applied to me as well. Even though I'm drawn to willfully eccentric things, there is something that has greater pull for me as a music fan and that is: an admission of helplessness in a pop song. My favorite tune on The Eraser, Harrowdown Hill, isn't so because of it being daring in any way, it's incredibly straight forward. But...I was listening to it on the bus late one night, travelling from Williamsburg to my hood, J asleep on my shoulder, Yorke's voice in my ear. Then the chorus hit and when he sang "I'm coming home/I'm coming home/to make it all right/so dry your eyes/We think the same things at the same time/We just can't do anything about it," those simple, unspecific lines got me right in my throat. That moment was enough to make this album a success for me. Because it wasn't the song alone, it was where it came on the record, where I heard it, how it translated to me. The timing was right.

Johnny Greenwood* says that Radiohead are planning to take some of the songs from The Eraser and play them out when they reconvene. I hope that this will be one of them.

2. A song

Harrowdown Hill/Thom Yorke



3. The Short Version

I really like this album even though it goes click whirr bump ba choo zip whirr on repeat for 35 minutes or however long it is. The vocals are damn skippy good. I was touched. Buy it.

Love, D

* I wonder what Greenwood would make of Christgau's piece. Besides being Yorke's bandmate for near half of his life, he also worked with Malkmus and Co. on Pavement's Terror Twilight. Ah, to have been a fly on that studio wall...

Album to buy: The Eraser/Thom Yorke

Songs to seek: The Eraser, Black Swan, Skip Divided, Atoms for Peace, Harrowdown Hill

won't give you false hope but...

dear friends,

I am still working on an interminable piece about thom yorke's the eraser. I know, I know. I've been saying that forever. trust me, I'll put it up monday morning.

in the meantime, I've been informed by cassettes won't listen that their crackers united presents friction show at sin-e will feature an appearance by timothy from the diggs. wowza! for an excellent cassettes won't listen remix of the diggs' everyone's starting over, go here.

the line-up:

11:00pm - apes and androids
10:00pm - the foundry field recordings
9:00pm - cassettes won't listen
8:00pm - untied states

I believe there will be some FREE sugary caffeinated alcohol that will definitely getcha boozed up in a few sips sparks earlier in the evening. aaaw yeah. see you then!

love, d

calling us back to war

dear friends,

1. going to union hall in park slope tonight to catch those nice takka takka gents debut their cd, we feel safer at night. I first wrote about the song that the album takes its name from here.

if you are free, you should tag along. if not, go to their website & buy it!

2. step up was a glorious piece of velveeta. go here to read mr. fluxblog's take on what it was like.

I recommend you throw a step up party in your home sometime in the future*. maybe you too, can be part of the rhythm nation.

3. so far, me & jeff k are the only people signed on for the soft communication mix exchange, round deux. c'mon, I know you be dorkin'. take part.

love, d

* be sure to do the step up drinking game. drink every time: a dance outfit is needlessly skimpy, no one has sex when obviously they should, there's a giant electric slide revamp taking place, rachel griffiths aka brenda fisher wanders in clearly needing to pay some bills & doing a mystery accent that turns "3 o'clock" into "3 o'claaaw", some dude proves that just 'cause he likes to dance, don't mean they're wearing no tights, a'ight?, etc. etc. really, it's a goldmine of opportunity.

stay while you can

dear friends,

do you ever have one of those moments where you think to yourself, "why o why do I talk SO MUCH?" I had several of those at last night's beg yr pardon # 6 party, I blame the beer. & the musical thrills. what can I say? I was high on life & hops.

thank you so much cassettes won't listen, ezmachine, my teenage stride & animandible! in addition to getting to see you all play in one place, it was nice to finally meet you face to face!

thank you jeff k & matilda von crumbcake for adding to the night's soundtrack with your dj-ing skillz! I boogied to serge gainsbourg & lee hazelwood. sexy sleaze in two languages! that's educational.

for some video of the cassettes won't listen set go over to merry swankster.

for some audience perpective from the latter part of the night go over to the music slut.

(one of the d makes an ass of herself highlights was my going up to a random lady audience member & yellin', "HEY SLUT!" thinking that she was one of the music slut folks. she was not. that was awesome. I should never be allowed to speak.)

tonight, I will go see step up. when ballet meets hip hop, there can only be excellence!

love, d

ps if you weren't at BYP last night, do yourselves a big favor & make sure you get to the crackers united presents friction show next wednesday so you can see cassettes won't listen for yourselves. TRUST ME. get your tickets now!

songs to seek: slee-z machine/ezmachine, reversal of red bird/my teenage stride, fuck the prom/animandible, summer vacation/cassettes won't listen

(NB: a remixed version of summer vacation, renamed picket fences, was SO fantastic last night! back-up lady singers! mc! my dragging people from upstairs so they wouldn't miss it! I wish I had a copy of that performance!

for those of you who were equally frothing at the mouth over it, the mc was bisc one, back up singers were thimali & mariella, & devang shah was on hand drum. you can download picket fences on bisc ones's my space page)

That's not the only lie I told you

Dear friends,

1. Tonight is Beg Yr Pardon #6 at The Delancey. Go there. Eat baked goods. Heckle DJ Jeff K and demand he play some hip hop. Procure bbq for $5 on roof. Catch the sweet stylings of My Teenage Stride and Animandible. Say hi to me at the door. Smile at DJ Matilda von Crumbcake and request some Blues Explosion. Shout "#1! #1!" to no one in particular. Snarf more brownies. Wind the evening down with the electrifying likes of EZMachine and Cassettes Won't Listen. Drink free beers. Dance a bit. Go home. Zzzzz.

Trust me, it'll be good for you to get out of the house.

2. I wanted to post about another entry in the sensitive mysogonist pop sweepstakes i.e. the song Notice by Gomez by putting up the video but there is none. I don't get it. I was sure that would be the single from their new album, How We Operate. It ain't.

Seriously. Who picked the goofy Girlshapedlovedrug* as the first single? The band or their record company? What is wrong with you? Don't they know the lady demographic who would drool over a video shot in pensive blues and greens featuring a frail but handsome (in a romantic poet dying of consumption sorta way) boy clad in a worn man-cardigan crooning about you never noticing him!? The white curtains billow in the room, the singer looks out longingly, 1, 2, 3...sigh. Cue the vj now.

Non-existent cliched video aside, Notice coasts along on an interesting blend of unrequited rom-rock that's equal parts resigned and bitter as all get out. At first, it's just the sudden beat stops that signify that maybe the leading man has more will than he's letting on but by then end, when he's blowing off his previous sucker pronouncements with an "I can tell you're in denial. Get over it," You get the feeling that all that sensitive guy jazz is just another costume. Lady, you're a self-centered bitch, dig? And like the usual contributions in this genre, that underlying message will go...(sorry I can't resist) unnoticed. I wonder if that was the point, if this was intentional? I wonder why I like it regardless, even as it skeeves me out.

3. Coming back from Jersey yesterday at dawn, my ipod shuffled onto a band I'd previously tried to contact about playing BYP but were busy touring, Meneguar. Their song 100 Actors is like a kinder, gentler, post-elocution lesson version of Fugazi's Guy Picciotto riding waves of queasy guitar chords going up and down and up and down. The song is blessed by a tight military beat to go with its first person philosophizing, making it sound way more authoritative than the hazy accusations in the chorus would suggest. Go check out 100 actors on their My Space.

Love, D

Songs to seek: Notice/Gomez, 100 Actors/Meneguar

* Written by member Tom Gray, who usually writes sunny slices of pop goodness. This is not one of them.

BYP#6

A reminder - you have plans this Tuesday night:

I should've known

dear friends,

oops! my friend & sometime boss, contributor travis told me about this video last saturday & I plum forgot to mention it. how could have that have happened?

here it goes again/ok go



o a-ross, I can't wait to see you again. I've always sassed you in the past 'cause good looking & talented people need to be sassed often for their own health & humility. next time, I'll be sure to make the ribbin' extra special.

love, d

ps one more thing! go to the news page on the serious biz website & download the draculazombieusa/JAMF remix of spank rock's put that pussy on me STAT. it's six o'clock in the freakin' morning & I am rocking that shiz! my neighbors love me, word.

with powder pink & sweet

dear friends,

1. flashback

because I really don't need another project but I seem to want to suffer, I thought I'd see if anyone is interested in taking part in a second soft communication mix exchange? hmmm...anyone?

naturally, the theme would be different than last time. right now, I'm torn between "pick a book & dream up its soundtrack" or "road trip", an old suggestion of contributor mary's, though I'd probably add that it needs to be a specific scenario road trip. for example, not so much "hey, I'm on the road" but more like, "hey, I'm on the road with a severed hand & an inherited collection of nancy drew hardcovers with coppahs on my trail - ain't life grand!" but you know, simpler.

if you're interested in making copies of your mixes to a bunch of friends/possible strangers over happy hour sometime in the next couple of months, hollah.

2. videos from childhood, part seven

caterpillar girl/the cure



I practiced those flicka flicka & catcha cata cata parts like I was heading straight for carnegie hall. I teased my hair until it looked like an egret nest & tried hard to look smoky without the benefit of make-up since I was too young to wear it & besides, goth/punk don't work if you look can't-put-my-finger-on-it ethnic.

yes, the cure is responsible for my branching out from say, animotion, & investigating things that would never, ever play on the radio unless you could pick the signal for wdre/wlir on your trusty portable. robert smith, I will always love you, even though you never change your style or your lipstick color. I blame these violin see-saws & opening hoo hoos. it will always be the sound of a start.

3. yes, I was flattered

last time I was at the brand spankin' new union hall I was informed that I was gorgeous! like garofalo*! by a fella named stan who told me white girls can't resist his piece. because I am not caucasian, he was cool with revealing his secret power move which consists of him flashing his victims & then kissing their hand. pure class. nice meeting you stanley, I hope they didn't boot you out of the bocce lanes for messing with the white people.

but I've digressed, my friend pete galub, who surely won't flash anyone is playing this friday at union hall at 9pm. to preview some of his new material, check out his my space page.

wish me luck, tomorrow I am headed off to la playa in jersey with momz. I hope you have a lovely weekend as well!

love, d

* I look nothing like ms garofalo. but I am bespectacled, short & prone to making caustic remarks. that's probably what's to blame. on a related note, has anyone seen her lately? wha'appened??? she got all buff & stuff! but it's not so much that as I don't even recognize her face? & she's on the radio?!? exijo una explicacion!

can't you see that I'm human?

dear friends,

1. don't watch that, watch this

between the usual booking mania & planning a birthday trip for my mom this weekend to the jersey shore, I haven't been doing much musical sightseeing. so here are some places to go from the chairperson of lazy:

jeff k sells out & does some witty cover coverage on merry swankster.*

cindy hotpoint** tells me & you about one hot mariachi & the collectively hot dance stylings of anavan on the rich girls are weeping.

matilda von crumbcake has a photo of my favorite neighborhood kitty & for those that don't care for cats, a fantastic casiotone for the painfully alone track at sugartown.

j tells you about carniverous cave dwellers, melrose place re-enacters & whether or not pigs have wings at heart on a stick.

justin says mark your calendars for the always excellent friction party at sin-e on august 23 with cassettes won't listen (playing beg yr pardon #6 on tuesday, 8/15! soooo good!) & the foundry field recordings at crackers united.

2. videos from childhood, part six

just another night/mick jagger



I know this is probably the worst one yet. jagger looking wizened & wearing eyeliner! rae dawn chong looking like actually she enjoys jagger chewing on her face! that acoustic faux spanish guitar breakdown! the big group dance at the end! totally cheesetastic excellence!

love, d

* because I am a pushy sort of fangirl, both jeff k & matilda von crumbcake are dj-ing beg yr pardon #6 on tuesday. come on out!

** I accidentally put ms. hotpoint on my friends mass mailing list 'cause her email resembles a buddy of mine's. I am very, very sorry. I'm sure receiving party invites from a total stranger from nyc must have been puzzling, not to mention terrifying.

And for every happy hello, there will be good-bye

Dear friends,

On Friday, I read on Soundbites that Arthur Lee of Love had died of Leukemia. I became a fan of Love after hearing their version of Burt Bacharach's Little Red Book in a record store. At the time, I was in full White Stripes froth and that song was so obviously a blueprint for The Stripes overall sound (guitars as percussion and general stomp) and their own eventual Bacharach cover* that I had to investigate further and see what else they'd made. I bought Forever Changes, Lee's paranoid psychedelic nightmare of a record and was awestruck. That album still sounds contemporary today, thanks to its twitchy landscape turns and general air of world-out-there terror. Like some kind of hippie Cassandra, Lee saw the darkness that would eventually squash the summer of love dream and couldn't see himself living through it. His songs have an anger and frustration wrapped up in constantly shifting arrangements and tempos. In songs like A House Is Not A Motel and You Set The Scene, he couldn't figure out whether he wanted to check out or fight through the trouble. And his ambivalence bristles instead of shrugs.

J and I went to see Love and The Zombies at The Town Hall last year. It was really something to see Lee sing "this is the time and life that I am living and I'll face each day with a smile" with a curdled little grin. It looked as if, after all these years, nothing had changed at all. But there he was.

Little Red Book/Love



Love, D

* I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

Songs to Seek: Little Red Book, Seven & Seven Is, Signed DC, Alone Again Or, A House Is Not A Motel, You Set The Scene

I see you're under my diamond

dear friends,

1. firstly, an enormous congratulations to gabriel from BYP #2 alumns & gentlemen extrordinaire, takka takka. not only is this stellar fella going out on tour with cyhsy & soft communication favorites architecture in helsinki BUT he's also getting married this saturday*! I hope him & his beautiful bride-to-be have a perfect brooklyn day out in the blue & green!

2. secondly, matt earfarm posted up his BYP #5 re-cap & also our playlist. looking over selections, I noticed two things. we are shameless, shameless panderers of the highest order. I mean just look at the crazy dance party usa turn it took towards the end. & also (& this totally goes against the first point) we think the fall is so nice, we played them twice. go figure.

BYP #5 playlist (that's me in the bold)

"me plus one" - annie
this was actually not my intended start song but soundmaster bob needed to check the levels & I hit the first song on the list. a is for annie.

"lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken" - camera obscura

"melo do vitiligo" - bonde do role
I read on fluxblog** that marina from bonde do role took a bad fall at pitchfork but new pictures show that she is out & about, still performing, rocking a sling. she is a true playah.

"the city never sleeps" - the fall

"punker plus" - le tigre

"the continuing story of bungalow bill" - deerhoof

"jackson" - lee hazelwood & nancy sinatra
everybody knows I loves me some lee & nancy. I prefer this version of jackson to the carter/cash original (HORRORS!) because I buy that hazelwood is the most dissolute faux-country cad ever with his snarky "I doubt its." he's clearly leaving nancy by the side of the road. also, I adore those fade-out whispered "jackson"s. you pavement fans out there might notice the resemblance to the repeated "texas" bit at the end of texas never whispers. nice, eh?

"jackson" - brakes

"let down" - toots & the maytals
because matt had to play me like that & volley with that jackson cover, I had to counter with one of the most interesting covers I've heard of late, namely this version of radiohead's let down. it sounds like it wouldn't work but it does, especially the melodica intro. & while I wish toots had attempted that amazing split vocal thing at the end that yorke does where his "you know where you are" gets higher & higher, it's difficult to quibble when the man sings this tune with a conviction that belies the sunny reggae beat.

"wolf at the door" - radiohead

"911 is a joke" - public enemy
thom yorke once said this was a very sexy song. the natural response to wolf at the door, no?

"the bush" - special ed

"hot boyz" - dear nora & casiotone for the painfully alone
(NB: I had wanted to follow matt's selection with the seed by the roots & cody chesnutt. sadly I didn't have it. le sigh.)

when I first heard this version of missy's hot boyz I was dubious. because I couldn't tell if these whiteys actually liked the song or whether they were taking the piss. at some point or another, I decided to take them & their homage seriously. as seriously as that hard beat that punctuates the slack.

"20L07" - john & jehn

---

"pole position" - folk implosion

"rollin' danny" - the fall
because I love the fuckin' fall.

"crocodiles" - echo & the bunnymen

"99 problems" - danger mouse/jay z
full disclosure: when I first heard this version I was slightly underwhelmed. I had expected something way more terrifying in its awesomeness, since here are two incredibly visceral songs making out right in front of you like they don't care - it should freak you out or turn you on or BOTH. instead I was left with a merely a "huh." that being said, in a club, in the dark, with a drink, this hits the spot.

"standing in the shower thinking" - jane's addiction

"cut-out witch" - guided by voices
gvb! gvb! gvb!

"beetlebum" - blur

---

"tame" - the pixies
an easy one I know, but whenever this plays people hit the bar with a vengeance, in order to have something to hoist in the air during the final screams, I suppose.

"really bad weekend" - art brut

"two guys (for every girl)" - peaches
listening to eddie argos moan about his life, I started to imagine the kind of song he would write if he were set up on a date with peaches that went disastrously & hilariously wrong. coming soon to a theater near you!

"the journey" - fatboy slim

"see emily play" - pink floyd
had to throw one in for syd. & the monkey, who was patiently perched next to the dj booth all night.

"worked up so sexual" - the faint

"field day for sundays" - wire
angry that matt played the faint (I had desperate guys all cued up) I retaliated with an extremely short (but perfect) song. color me cruel.

"what's in it for me?" - brakes

"cope" - the futureheads

---

"plastic passion" - the cure

"handsome devil" - the smiths
george jezel was wearing a hatful of hollow t-shirt. this one was for him.

"trash" - new york dolls (very clever, matt)

"baby c'mon" - stephen malkmus
the guitar playing on this song is like being extremely drunk in good & equally inebriated company. no one's gonna rat you out the next day for playing the solo on a broom because they were accompanying you on table, I mean drums.

"astronomy domine" - pink floyd (request)

"wounded world" - mission of burma
I saw burma cover astronomy domine at irving plaza a few years ago. the monkey was mouthing along about oberon & titania & I thought, ah. must be floyd.

"scream team" - deerhoof

---

"let's go crazy" - prince
an old request from marts la reina. sadly, I think she missed it...(sob)

"into the groove" - madonna

"groove is in the heart" - deee-lite
how right you are lady miss kier.

"sexy back" - justin timberlake

"work it" - missy elliott
speaking of sexy back, missy wants you to keep your eye on her badunkadunkdunk.

"good enough for grandad" - squirrel nut zippers

"humpty dance" - digital underground
because everyone knows the words to this.

"so what'chu want?" - beastie boys

"talk to me, dance with me" - hot hot heat

"wanna be startin' somethin'" - michael jackson (matt faded out before the unfortunate yee-haw! moment. smart man.)

"the last time" - gnarls barkley (request)
a young lady requested gnarls. we aim to please.

"monday morning" - pulp

"love me or hate me" - lady sovereign (request)
phil byp requested some lady sovereign. I relate to this tale of midgetry.

"don't you want me" - human league

***

our apologies to the lady who requested muse & new kids on the block. we both almost had either on our playlists. yeah, that sentence makes some kind of sense.

also, my apologies for not playing cansei de ser sexy. I meant to play them at the end but ran out of time. if they ever let me do this again, I'm on it.

3. full circle? I think so! to hear both dj earfarm & takka takka rock the haus, be sure to attend crackers united presents friction on september 14th at sin-é. I will be there fo' sho'.

love, d

* last I checked, the first dance song had not been decided. my own personal choice would always be I wanna destroy you by the soft boys. I realize that not everyone shares my sense of humor so feel free to leave more appropriate wedding song selections in the comments.

** speaking of fluxblog, tomorrow is matthew perpetua's birthday so if you've ever snorted coffee through your nose after reading his entries (current favorite: "seriously, if you can't immediately tap into the raw, specific emotions of "Rusted Gun of Milan," "Emily Kane," and "Good Weekend," then perhaps we should just consider that you may be an unfeeling turbodouche") or downloaded an mp3 on his site, then run off & bought the cd, make your way over to fluxblog tomorrow & say thank you kind sir & happy birthday.

band to congratulate & go see live: takka takka

dj to do the wop next to while they play the beasties: dj earfam

I'm always staring at your smile

dear friends,

my left eye is twitching. I've had a ridiculous amount of coffee & I desperately need a massage by the brilliant but duosyllabic* susan of chinatown. in other words, a FINE beg yr pardon last night.

quick notes:

air waves started things off with a mesmerizing set of slow burners fired up by lead singer nicole's haunting voice. I'd describe it but I realize all the notes I jotted down make her sound like perfume: dark, woodsy & evocative. I'm sorry guys, I’m that bad. they're great however so go check them out STAT.

caught schwervon! some time ago when they played with diane cluck & I went up to them after their set, shook hands, mumbled & ran away as fast as humanly possible which is my standard rock show behavior if I like a band. fortunately, they did not remember that magical moment & I'm so, so glad they came out & rocked the faces with their prickly pop stylings. if you missed them last night, be sure to catch them on saturday, august 5th when they play at the bowery poetry club.

el jezel, el jezel, el jezel. they are my homies. I love them too much to be coherent about them in any type of way. they thrilled me with an old favorite, I know it & their fantastic cover of fascination street by the cure. judging from the audience response, I'd say el jezel deservedly won themselves some new fans last night.

via audio were last & slayed the crowd with their opener, presents, which I first babbled about in this post. live, the band were a revelation, so confident & full of charm, easily trading harmonies & instruments. jessica via audio has won my heart forever by being the first person in BYP history to pay homage to our junior high prom décor stylings by rocking a stunning tiered white dress. now if only we'd had spiked punch! visit them on my space & friend 'em up.

matt earfarm & I dj-battled all night between bands. there is a list of what we played which is in matt's possession & if he can make out my spider having a heart attack scrawl, those selections will be made public at some point. regular earfarm readers know that matt has fantastic taste & going toe to toe with him on the audio front was a real treat. I hope we get to do it again sometime soon!

to all those that were at BYP #5 last night dancing & listening, thanks for coming out! I had a ball. jot down BYP #6 on august 15th on your calendars. that night our bands are the fabulous cassettes won't listen, ezmachine, my teenage stride & animandible. dj duties are being handled by jeff k from merry swankster & matilda von crumbcake from sugartown it's gonna be banging. yes, I said banging. a new friend used a variation of that in conversation & now I can' stop saying it. curses!

2. speaking of banging, & this falls under "future banging", o'death has been enthralling me for some time now with their particular brand of moonshine deliciousness. & strangely, I use "strangely" since I am most emphatically NOT a tastemaker, subinev (aka contributor bryan), yeti don't dance, heart on a stick, indie-licious, & the music slut feel the same way. go read up about 'em. let me know what you think.

because I am sometimes lucky, o'death will be gracing my sorta birthday BYP show on september 26th at the delancey. joining them will be draculazombieusa (at o'death's request!) & mistakes (their new tunes are swoontastic).

I am currently looking for an equally banging out of town band to fill that fourth slot. expect a serious hootenanny.

love, d

* all she would ever say to me was "ay-ya" to express her dismay at my crippledom. alas, I loved her but I cannot afford her.

bands to see live: airwaves, schwervon!, el jezel, via audio, mistakes & o’death

download your audio on mp3

I've just posted the first of what will be many MP3s on my blog:

http://djearlybird.blogspot.com/2006/08/presto-mp3-blog.html

Note that I'm not going to post anything unless the artist tells me I can (or unless I absolutely cannot track him/her down after best efforts), so this will not be a regular feature. Think of it as a bonus for visiting my blog every now and then.