Fear/Rage

I bit this from Edward Tufte's "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" - highly recommended.

Yesterday I caught part of a Tinkertoy set at some studio party. The sound didn't do justice to the music. The bass was really scattered but they seemed to be hard at their controllers/fairly cool to watch. I'd see hear them again at a better-sounding venue.

This just came in the mail and is fucking hot:

Alexander Robotnick - The Dark Side Of The Spoon (Bangkok Impact remix)

BOUNCE TO THE OUNCE

As payback for this, I was presented with a pair of leaf-sprung stilts after an intense night of drinking. Luckily Avery seems to be on the losing end of every battle with exercise equipment and ate it way fucking harder. This video illustrates the extreme levels of retardation now attainable with sprung stilts. That guy definitely rocks his to the rave.

Boy Robot - Invaders of Vanity Club Land

Gescom - Mag (AE remix)

Autechre curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in '03, and this song came out on the subsequent ATP compil album. It first came out on Gescom's This 12" in '98, along with a really dope AE mix of Keynell.

I feel a new dance mix coming on

Ragtyme - Fix It Man (Marshall Jefferson Vocal Mix)

Marshal Jefferson, aka Jungle Wonz, did this up in '87.

On 'tardom

There are two types of retarded:

Type 1: Retarded, but aware of it
Type 2: Retarded

Type 2 is far better (and ubiquitous), but there's something gut-wrenching about enjoying the genuinely retarded that goes away with faux-tards. Here is some guilt-free Type 1:

Princess Superstar - Coochie Coo

The synth sounds really good. It could be Electronicat or Adult or Electrelane, with like dead-serious lyrics about war and love, but instead it's like 'You know we don't care/you're just a jew playa/movin over my underwear/when you're down to come up for air' That is at least type 1 retarded. I'm so playing it tonight.

Advice to the Graduate

The Pastels - Advice To The Graduate

I like how during Peel Sessions bands sometimes throw in random covers of shit, or in this case the Silver Jews. Every time I hear this, I think of how graduation is going to feel, and now it's over and it doesn't feel like much. Really good Stephen Pastel vocal in this, not that I don't like Stephen Malkmus in the original. Also a nice touch is John Peel's intro, kind of sets you up for something epic. There is an inordinate amount of wisdom dispensed in this song. Kind of hard to think about right now. It's all subtly terrifying, I think, like graduating.

I wish I could show you the photo of the Silver Jews from the album artwork. They look incredibly hopeful. Everything 'Jews-related online seems to focus of David Berman. He wrote this. It didn't change my life.

Shit yes!

Now that the nineties are officially coming back, the eighties are starting to be forgotten and thus are cooler than ever.

I found a comp on the Soulseek (aw!) called Simply The Best of the 80's. Apparently said comp does not exist on Discogs, making its actual existence doubtful, though the tracklist is choice. Some highlights:

Paul Hardcastle - Nineteen
Nu Shooz - I can't wait

I'm all for buying records, and luckily both of the above were apparently smash hits and came out/were re-issued as 12" multiple times. They look like this:

Tell it to me slowly

Zombies - Time of the Season.

Necro is a 'tard for not including the sweet organ line from this in his version. Oh yeah, Necro in Tdot in a few weeks - so going.

Yesterday, this motherfucker
and this motherfucker
showed up to the bouldering comp finals looking like that. The above invoked 'SUCK IT!' taunts on the part of many spectators.

Later: Spank Rock after-party, and after-after-party feat. drunkenness, tapping of that ass, gay guys, ollies over homeless people, pizza smears, and dirty beds. Scroll down to the ultimate fan stalker photo of me & Apparat. A certain retarded someone DELETED the exact same photo but with Spank Rock (me wearing his glasses, broing out like no tomorrow) off her camera. Tabernacle.

Up in Chicago

Michigan clearly does not fuck around

I can't wait

Broin' out

As you can see, Apparat and I are not the same person and don't actually look alike. The show was very cool, but like sparse for some reason? Chicago, figure it out.

Some all-American songs heard on the way:

Gillian Welch - Revelator

Sam Prekop - A Splendid Hollow

Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio

Also wanted to add Tortoise - CTA, but the CTA is filthy/already have Sam Prekop down. The whole new-ish Sam Prekop album embodies Chicago for me.

Parties at my house always end badly

The Exercycle is clearly deadly

Maintain a completely relaxed position and be super fucking plastered for best results



Even American Apparel briefs won't help you now

Engine Sounds

Oh fuck, so nineties! Today: synths that sound like engines.

Deru - Spread Your Arms

I'm not so into the Merck aesthetic as much as the CCO/Morr aesthetic in this genre, but this song has dope-as-fuck engine sounds. If you like this, check Static or Populous.

Boards of Canada - Everything You Do Is A Balloon

Old, but classic. I think my favourite BOC song. When the synths come in around 1:40 I just lose it. My vision of this is of two motorcycles speeding through mountain curves (the synth sounds kind of spread/stereo, hence two). It's so aggresive yet epic, I really love it. Sounds a little bit broken, however, like a compressor set really low so that everything else quiets down on a drum beat. Maybe I would like it better without this.

Now I realise where I get the imagery:


Oh yeah, Gescom put out a Motor 12", which is guess interprets motors more through a beat than through a synth sound. I'm not really into it, else I'd post it. I promise some good Gescom tracks will appear here soon.

Apparat in Chicago

April 11th, Smart Bar. Might drive down for a couple of days. Anyone want to join? Also, good hostels in Chicago?

His show in Geneva was so out of hand. MEAN intellihouse beat. I'm kind of demode and like the older stuff (circa Tttrial and Error), but I hear the new Ellen Allien collabo is good. This track courtesy of hockeyanddeer:

Nathan Fake - Charlie's House (Apparat remix)

Sell your turntables and buy laptops

Ahaha, I just DFA-remixed a gross dance beat from Germany. Ride to this shit right here!

MMM - Donna (LCD Mashup)

This would've shredded at the Queenshead in 2004. Had I actually tried, I would've cut up the vocals a litle bit and looped them here and there. Like "...from Berlin" echoing over the MMM beat. Maybe after exams.

Tuesday II

Today marks the final day of the rock playlist. The final two of eighteen tracks:

Pluramon - Hello Shadow
My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow

Note the remarkable resemblence between these two (even the names). I guess they were made about 10 years apart, when did Loveless come out? Pluramon's entire Dreams Top Rock album is very MBV-ish, very well-done. Not sure if it's explicitly an attempt to sound like MBV, though such a thing would be neither scandallous nor bad. Vocals on this track are by Julee Cruise, who was the roadhouse singer on Twin Peaks (which I love). Pluramon is a German IDM producer with many aliases, all good. Read a review of this record here. It's funny, the review makes reference to MBV and to these two tracks specifically, and I only looked at it now that the playlist has been complete, in my head, for weeks. So I'm not crazy and they are similar. Lucky me for having the Dreams Top Rock LP (and I guess the Loveless LP, perhaps they will get play when I have a Shoegaze party [not anytime soon, the one this Saturday is strictly dance, don't forget])

Perhaps sometime soon I'll drop all tracks from this week's playlist into one set and leave a permanent link to it, as some of the earlier tracks have expired.

Monday II

The rock playlist is almost complete. Today's edition is much closer to my usual preferences. Both tracks have been on many worn-out burnt CDs.

Electrelane - The Invisible Dog

Piano Magic - Saint Marie

Arguably each band's best song, though I have extreme trouble saying that about Piano Magic as at any one moment a different song of theirs takes me over. The percussion on Saint Marie is unreal... the way it pans left/right. Man. Best band ever.

Sunday II

Aha, Grad Ball was a certified shitshow. It took place in a charming warehouse-turned-ballroom on the assskirts of town and the limo was actually a schoolbus. Luckily I was dressed to match - cheap suit and Chuck Taylors. Upon finding out that we only get two bottles of wine per table, Rudy and I got up and proceeded to harvest all remaining wine from the 80 other tables while people were... not sure what to call it... on the dancefloor. Weee were drunk, and that made it a lot better. The highlight was when the DJ played New Order, but then he also played Macarena, so don't give him too much credit. Yeah, it was horrible.

I'm almost falling behind on the rock playlist.

Solex - A Round Figure
(not my style, but addictive/cool bass. Another title off the same album: You're Ugly)
Francoise Hardy - J'suis d'Accord
(ever seen Mulholland Drive? This is like the Linda Scott song from that, but in French)


Oh yeah, does anyone have leads on Ladytron tickets, either in Toronto or Montreal?

Saturday

Last week or so the premier of Ontario, jointly with David Suzuki, announced a plan whereby the Ontario government guarantees to purchase solar electricity at $0.24/KWh (i.e. 5 times what it sells it for) from small producers. Good job, Ontario government!

I should really post a Phonem song to go with this good news (Elliott Perkins [Phonem] is an energy activist whose medium is a sick IDM beat; we would get along). I won't this week, but it will come. Lots of IDM here.

Now some rock:

The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet (I think this one might be about homosexuality, thoughts?)
The Pastels - Boardwalkin' (just plain awesome)

The trash-free rock playlist will be complete on Tuesday.