One of Kateg's favorite label, Polyvinyl, is offering a free 16-track album at polyvinylrecords.com/mentalmath. The sampler includes a ton of bands we've previously covered: Architecture In Helsinki, Mates of State, Asobi Seksu, Headlights - just to name a few.
Incidentally, one of those band, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are on tour:
- 12/02/09 Outland* Springfield, MO
12/06/09 Binghamton University Vestal, NY
12/07/09 Bell House Brooklyn, NY
12/08/09 Summit Columbus, OH
12/09/09 Bishop Bloomington, IN
12/12/09 Outland Ballroom Springfield, MO
01/13/10 Maxine’s Pub Hot Springs, AK
01/23/10 Gallery Sounds Collective Springfield, MO
01/28/10 Schubas EARLY ALL AGES SHOW Chicago, IL
01/29/10 Courtyard Cafe Champaign, IL
01/30/10 Mojo’s Columbia, MO
01/31/10 Jackpot Lawrence, KS
* SSLYBY 10th Anniversary show with Brian Azevedo and Lamentia
THE YOUNG PUNX
I got a download sample and press release for this band's latest "double a-side single" for Simple Pleasures/Like Dat. Generally, I am not accepting singles, remixes, or demos, but since I did enjoy their previous single for "Your Music is Killing Me" and "You've Got To" (especially the Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim remix), I did give these two new songs a listen.
What can I say ? I really dig the old-school punk intro, followed by this weird 80s pop singing, then some rasta-thing. Not really sure what to classify the whole thing, except that it's quite dancey. As for "Like Dat", I wasn't keen on this as much. Perhaps it's the rap song is such a stark contrast to the other song... but that's probably why people like Young Punx.
Currently, I think you can only get Simple Pleasures/Like Dat on iTunes. If you want to wait, I think these two songs are going to be available on their upcoming album, Mashpop & Punkstep, due out in 2010.
Anyway, since this is the "free" post, you can head over to their official website under theyoungpunx.com/../mp3, you'll find a ton of free mixes and oddities. My favorite are any remix of "Juice and Gin".
NETFLIX+PS3
Also, some random thoughts: I survived Black Friday. I have never seen so many people out in force at 5am. The parking lot at Wal-Mart was completely full, thankfully we got news alert from other shoppers that we went to Wal-Mart at the last stop. Deals were everywhere, it was the worst at Target (which also reflected people flocking to there). One of the item I bought was the Matrix 10th Anniversary Bluray, which comes in a nice book-format, for $12.99. It's normally $29.99 suggested retail price. My impulse buy was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. PC game for $5.... it couldn't be helped.
I spent most of my vacation catching up on reading and TV shows. TV shows comes in the form of Hulu and Netflix - via the Netflix Instant Streaming disc for PS3. Compared to Xbox's "Gold Membership" which costs $50 a year, PS3's free streaming is a much better deal.
The Netflix streaming is dependent on your internet connection, I have a semi-decent connection at 5 megabit, so the video starts instantly (less than 30 seconds). Compare this to Playstation's own HD digital rental services, you have to wait at least 30 minutes to start the video, while it download the rest of the file. It's probably fast if you just drove to the video store and rent your movie.
Quality-wise, again depending on the connection, was pretty amazing for me. According to 1up.com, the streaming is in HD (however, I think some titles are only available in standard definition).
My gripe is that most of Netflix's titles are only available on DVD, the digital portion is probably less than 1% of their titles (it is only a guess since their selection is so poor). Also, there's no searching via the streaming disc. You can browse the recently added in various genres, but older titles, you will have to search and add to your "instant queue". Kind of lame, I hope they fix this problem in future updates.
If you don't have a PS3, most newer television and bluray player will come with instant Netflix, so this company is quite smart in getting their hands on all devices. Think about it, if you bought a Bluray player with Netflix, you will probably sign up for an account. Anyway, if you have a PS3 and a Netflix account already, you can request the free Bluray disc for yourself at netflix.com/ps3.
12/01/2009 00:16:50 ♥ vu (
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
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The King Khan & BBQ Show ♥ Triple
Tour Dates
Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (11/29/09)
12/01/09 Mad Planet Milwalkee, WI
Read More
12/02/09 Logan Sq Auditorium Chicago, IL 12/03/09 Northside Tavern Cinncinati, OH 12/04/09 Lees Palace Toronto, ON 12/05/09 Babylon Ottawa, ON |
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Fans lining up outside ♥ The Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (11/29/09) |
So, if you need to catch up on The King Khan & BBQ Show (myspace), they are an interesting modern band with minimalistic setup and plays a weird mixture of 50s doo-wop and Surf music. They've got a ton of fans, who lined up hours before the show.
I got the story between King Khan's on stage antics and Jessi Darlin that prior to showing up in Minneapolis, that they were delayed and detained at the Canadian border (I think they had spent the last few weeks touring throughout Canada). This resulted in two things: "Unnamed peed in his pants" and last night's show to be slightly delayed (the doors weren't opened to the public until 9:30pm).
Some notable details about the stage costumes: BBQ uses his foot to tap the tambourine and Khan has a fox's head over his crotch. They dedicated "I'll Be Loving You" to "all the Orientals in the audience", which probably only account to myself.
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Nikki Darlin ♥ The Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (11/29/09) |
They started off dirty with "Fun Stix Party" with naughty lyrics like "I'll bring the p****, you bring the d***", followed by "Wild One". They also played fan-favorites like "DUI or Die" and "The Whole Damn Thing" (aka the Chicken Song).
Their cover song, "Shakin' All Over", was their last song on the set... which actually went pretty crazy. See the last half of the song in the video.
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Jessi Darlin ♥ The Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (11/29/09) |
PS, Those Darlins' only male member, drummer Linwood Regensburg tried talking me out of buying their "Gay" V-Neck T-Shirt. He said that he made those V-Necks because someone had suggested it. Apparently they weren't very successful as they only sold a few of those shirts. So, as of this writing, I am one of the six people in the world that owns that V-Neck Darlins shirt.
11/30/2009 04:20:18 ♥ vu (
)
♥ thosedarlins.com ♥ myspace.com/darlins ♥ twitter.com/those_darlins
| W♥M058 [download (53 min, 49 mb)] |
BRITPOPCAST #5: Q MAGAZINE'S BRITPOP QUIZ
Recorded in the same session as Britpop Top Ten Countdown (which I still consider the best show ever), this super hard quiz was written by some hardcore journalist at Q Magazine, published in a paperback book called Q Quiz Book. The book is free, along with Q Greatest Rock & Pop Miscellany Book, as bonuses for an annual subscription. I got the book via one of their magazine off the stand.
Some questions are dubious, as far as Britpop is concern, like The Verve question... but overall one of the better quiz out there.
The later part of the show, we talk a bit about The Abercrombie Hotel closing down, Pavement, and Empire of the Sun.
Also, don't forget to see DJ Sal in Sydney at britpop.com.au.
Below are the questions and answers.
| Question | Answer | Points | ||||||
| 01 From which London suburb did The Bluetones hail? | Hounslow | 0 | ||||||
| 02 What was the Boo Radley's debut album called? | Ichabod and I (1990) | 0 | ||||||
| 03 What was the name of Elastica's long-delayed second album? | The Menace (2000) | 1 | ||||||
| 04 What was Pulp's original name? | Abacus Pulp | 1.5 | ||||||
| 05 What was the name of the band fronted by Danny Goffrey's wife Pearl? | Powder | 1 | ||||||
| 06 What was the name of Sleeper's first Top 10 single? | "Sale of the Century" | 0.5 | ||||||
| 07 Who replaced Bernard Butler on Suede? | Richard Oakes | 1.5 | ||||||
| 08 What were Blur originally known as? | Seymour | 1 | ||||||
| 09 Which Ocean Colour Scene song was the theme music on Chris Evans's TV show TFI Friday? | "The Riverboat Song" | 1 | ||||||
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10 Which Britpop supergroup featured both Blur's Alex James and | Me Me Me | 1.5 | ||||||
| 11 How many Brit Awards did the Verve take home in 1998? | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| 12 In which year was Pulp's first Peel Session? | 1981 | 1 | ||||||
| 13 What was the name of Echobelly's singer? | Sonya Madan | 0 | ||||||
| 14 Which Britpop frontman had his shoes stolen by muggers in 1997? | Rick Witter | 0 | ||||||
| 15 Which member of John Power's band Cast also performed with Shack? | Peter Wilkinson | 0 | ||||||
| 16 One of the follow was not a member of Kula Shaker. Which one?
a) Alonza Bevan b) Jay Darlington c) Steve Peck d) Paul Winterhart | C | 0 | ||||||
| 17 Who was the singer of the Seahorses, John Squire's post-Stone Roses outfit? | Chris Helme | 0 | ||||||
| 18 Which member of Dodgy went out with Denise Van Outen? | Andy Miller | 0 | ||||||
| 19 In 1995, with Britpop at its zenith, which three acts headlined the Reading Festival? | Smashing Pumpkins, Bjork, and Neil Diamond | 0 | ||||||
| 20 What item of furniture played a prominent role in the video to Supergrass's Alright? | bed | 1 | ||||||
| 21 What was Marion frontman Jaime Harding convicted of stealing in 2000? | a garden gnome | 0 | ||||||
| 22 Which Britpop outfit were the first to appear on Top of the Pops without releasing a record? | Menswe@r | 0 | ||||||
| 23 How many Top 5 UK albums did Space manage? | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| 24 Gene's 1994 debut single For the Dead came in a limited run of how many? | 1994 | 0 | ||||||
| 25 Which former member of Pulp now runs a ceramics shop? | Nick Banks | 1 | ||||||
| Bonus Questions |
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26 The infamous "Battle of Britpop" - name the two singles by Oasis and Blur that went head to head that same week.
Bonus point: Who won in term of most singles sold. | "Roll With It" vs "Country House"; Blur won the battle (but Oasis won the war). | 1.5 | ||||||
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27 Elastica stole the guitar riff of "Connection" from what 70s punk band?
Bonus point: name the song. | Wire; "Three Girl Rhumba" | 0 | ||||||
| 28 Name Blur's bassist Alex James' unusual hobby? | Cheese lover | 1 | ||||||
| 29 Before Kanye's "I'll let you finish" upstage,
which Britpop maverick danced his way on stage during Michael Jackson's
performance of an award show. Bonus point: name the award show. | Jarvis Cocker; The Brit Award | 1.5 | ||||||
| 30 Name the lead singers of (1) Oasis, (2) Blur, (3) Pulp, (4) Suede, (5) Sleeper, and (6) Elastica. | Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, Brett Anderson, Louise Wener, and Justine Frischmann | 3 |
11/29/2009 20:09:50 ♥ vu (
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
KOSHA DILLZ
official ♥ myspace
We've previously mentioned Kosha Dillz before, with his collaboration with C-Rayz Walz. Derek said that previous album had "classic hip-hop that rests firmly on a bed of oldskool beats", so missing from Beverly Dillz, Kosha Dillz's latest album (released November 10th on Modular Moods Records), seems to be the "oldskool beats".
Although the album starts off with a surprisingly hip-hoppy "DooDoo" - the rest of Beverly Dillz seems pretty laid back to me. There are a few exceptions like "Jungle" and "Tastes Good" (the best rap song on the album).
Personally, I thought "Puddles" was one of the better song, it's probably because it had Yak Ballz as guest. The song feels really familiar to me, like its bass is from the 80s or something. Speaking of familiar, you'll get that on his single, "Cellular Phone", which features some classic Dilliefied version of "This Old Man" and "Word Up".
Kosha Dillz was recently in the news because he remixed fellow Jewish artist YACHT (aka Jona Bechtolt) for an EP called Swim Club. You can grab the free 8-track EP at Kosha Dillz's website. I didn't listen to the entire 8 tracks, but I can tell you that I spotted some Beastie Boys, New Jack City, and Hansons references!
PS, While there are a lot of "hhheh" Hebrew sounds in "Kol Ha Kavod Lirkod", I believe all the songs on Beverly Dillz are in English.
MOSHIACH OI!
myspace
With the baby picture and my generally association that Jewish musicians tend to be either traditional or modern hip-hop, Moshiach Oi!'s album, Better Get Ready, surprised me with their hardcore punk music. Like typical punk songs, these songs are fast, loud, and brief - like a punch in the face.
The band's singer and found, Yishai Romanoff, actually sings his songs (instead of shouting out loud that you find on hardcore bands). Unfortunately, as religious as some of the songs can be ("I Wanna Learn Torah", "I Wanna Learn Torah", "This Is My G-d", "Hashem S'fasai Tiftach"), I can't help but think that the message will be lost in a loud sea of drums and guitars. The one exception of "I Love Torah", where you can clearly hear the majority of lyrics are "I love Torah, yeah!"
To me, punk bands do not often translate their live energy and performance well on the recorded medium, so to really appreciate a band like this, you sort of have to see them live. They are playing one date - probably to celebrate Hanukkah at: Chabad of Bushwick Brooklyn, New York, on December 12th.
You can pick up both of these albums from Shem Speed Store (the largest collection of Jewish music).
IN MORE JEWISH NEWS
For a full listing of events, head over to sephardicmusicfestival.com, what I can tell you is that Matisyahu is headlining on December 14th, which incidentally is also the most expensive ($35) among all the dates. The rest of the dates are decently priced at $12 or so.
Update 11/29/2009 17:51:48:
| jaklumen wrote: Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 4:23 PM |
other than that they get like 10 gifts for Hanukkah
Eight. There are eight days of Hanukkah, and there's a gift for each day, or there's a number of gifts corresponding to the day (1 gift on the first, 2 on the second...) All I remember well was some Jewish friends of my family said they had to alter things so they wouldn't go broke giving gifts to the kids.
The observance is tied to the Maccabean uprising and references the miracle of the menorah remaining lit for eight days despite a lack of oil.
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
First time I have seen the Vox compose window for over two days. This site is so dead.
Here was yesterday’s traceroute from Auckland:
Based on feedback, three Kiwi Voxers have been able to get on this site. I still refuse to believe that this error is unique to me. As many of you know, I am on Vox regularly, and average well over a post a day, but the comment thread here gives you an idea of the number of times it has failed. I heard from one Australian Voxer who can no longer blog from Vox using Firefox and has to switch to IE8, so there is something very serious going on with the site in blocking certain individuals from using it normally.
At least I was able to get these Mini E videos up for your enjoyment: a few days ago, Vox would not let me import images or videos.
Hey, I’ll take what access I can get right now …
Anyone come across this bug in Eudora? Write an email. Add bits. Click save. Send email.
Email that goes across is the version before the save.
I am so pissed off right now at Eudora, which has generally been reliable, but this was an important op–ed sent to The Dominion Post. Without my changes, it makes me look like a self-serving dork. Great way to pimp the mayoral profile to a journo.
Just Tweeting with Robin, who can, strangely, blog from his home in Auckland, New Zealand on to Vox. I have found it nearly impossible to blog for most days (or parts of days) this month, and for many days since August, whether I am in Wellington or Christchurch, using a Windows machine or a Mac, never mind which browser.
One observation I have made is that when things do not work, the status bar has ‘Waiting for www.vox.com’. When it believes the page has “loaded”, the message disappears. Of course, all I see is this:
I have noticed that when the compose screen does come up, ‘Waiting for www.vox.com’ changes to other servers, too, such as static.vox.com. Right now, the screen comes up in a very rapid (for Vox) two hours—go Vox!
I’m deducing one of two things: when pings come from here in Wellington or Christchurch, they reach the Vox server, but the server fails to go forth to the subdomain and load whatever files are necessary for the compose screen to appear.
Or, two different ISPs in Wellington and Christchurch (TelstraClear in Wellington and Christchurch, and Surfspot in Christchurch) can only ping www.vox.com but not resolve for static.vox.com. But surely these subdomain URLs are the server end and not the ISP’s? (I believe they are on our own server.)
I tried a US proxy server last night to see if the compose screen would come up and, once again, it did not. (Proxy servers are a good test: for a while I could not access the Autocade home page from New Zealand, and had to route things through proxies before I could see it. Since complaining to the ISP, things have been fixed.)
I would love to know what caused the Australian blackout in August, which did not affect New Zealand. That time, I recall Snowy, Ninja and other Australian residents could not blog, and it seems similar to what I experience now.
I will test Vox from Auckland in a few days’ time, and use a third ISP, to see what happens.
Diagnoses from boffins who actually know about this stuff are welcome.
I lost count of how many hours it took for the compose screen to come up, but since it is night-time now, and I am pretty sure there was sunlight when I first began clicking ‘Create’, we can say a good quarter of the day has passed, at least.
The good news is that Daisy at Vox—a.k.a. the only lady who seems to care—has written back to me to say my issue has been passed on to the boffins there. I hope they can sort it out, but I believe that since I have tested Vox on Macs and PCs, and in two different cities using two different ISPs, and all manner of browsers, then we can rule out anything I am doing wrong. I have, after all, been on the web since 1993 and kind of know what I am doing.
The other good news is that I have something other than technogripes to post.
First up, the Auckland Savings Bank, which is owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, is trying to push how “Kiwi” it is. Kiwibank, in New Zealand, must be a real threat to ASB, because people are conscious of how much Australian banks have been ripping off New Zealand customers. Hence the whole local angle, which is not really convincing anyone except for a few people in the boardroom at ASB. (In fact, a whole Facebook group has been set up to refute these advertisements.)
Here is the outdoor ad that reminded me of the campaign:
As it is nearly impossible to get a compose screen on Vox, here is a second image I wanted to share. The yellow roses that I posted earlier were the worse for wear after some gales here, but you can’t beat nature. Here’s one of the new arrivals, photographed earlier today: Like Chance the Gardener, I have other flowers. In the spring. In the garden. As you can see, the spring weather has finally come, albeit very late in the piece.
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Tour Dates
12/06/09 Disney Hall Los Angeles, CA
Read More
12/07/09 Casbah San Diego, CA 12/08/09 Detroit Bar Costa Mesa, CA 12/09/09 Cafe Du Nord SF, CA 12/10/09 Humboldt Brews Arcata, CA 12/11/09 Mississippi Std Portland, OR 12/12/09 Media Club Vancouver, BC 12/13/09 Wild Buffalo Bellingham, WA 12/14/09 Chop Suey Seattle, WA 12/16/09 Brookdale Lodge, CA 12/17/09 Cellar Door Visalia, CA 12/18/09 Bootleg Theater LA, CA |
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Songs range from borderline country music to Dylan-type folk. The later is especially true when one of the band member breaks out the harmonica.
They ended their set with "Wishes and Stars", my favorite song from Harper that I've heard. Instead of doing that fake-leaving-the-stage, they just stayed on stage and played some encores. The last song is a cover of "A Message to You, Rudy", who you & I probably know as a ska song by the Specials (but it's originally by Dandy Livingstone).
So this was the last night of their national tour. It sounds like they've been very tired, some even looked relieved, but they were certainly very happy to be playing in front of an audience. The band admitted that this was one of the better crowds, considering that they've played a few shows to "five people".
Trivia: Touring drummer Russell Simins, best known for being in Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, is from Minnesota.
UPDATED 11/26/2009 19:42:54:
| ArtsOrbit wrote: Nov 24, 2009 9:59 PM |
@weheartmusic H. Simon's reference was to Tom Verlaine: the song was Television's "See No Evil." Agreed that H.S. is best with folk music!
11/25/2009 01:12:04 ♥ vu (
) ♥ myspace.com/harpersimon
I’m still testing this site to see how long the compose screen takes to appear. Right now: five minutes. It’s a darned sight better than the 75–120 minutes of last night, and the two days of earlier this month. I suspect Daisy, who is most Voxers’ contact inside the company that created this site, doesn’t work every day—I wrote to her again last night (oddly, I can still DM; and I can still comment. I just cannot compose or add media).
I have tried this site on Windows and Mac, on IE, Safari and Firefox, using two different ISPs, and in two different cities, and got the same behaviour. It’s been happening with increasing frequency since August. I will briefly try it from a third city shortly.
I know from feedback from some of you that this bug happened in Australia, too, but it hasn’t happened to you lately (though Ninja has had to switch to IE just to use this site, so things are not normal).
Interestingly, Robin can still blog from Auckland so the issue is not nationwide.
My opinion: I was a Vox beta tester and was one of its biggest cheerleaders, and the silence from the company is not making me terribly happy.
And, yes, I still had interesting posts to share, but by the time the window comes up, the inspiration has long passed. Sorry if I sound like a broken record—I really wish they would fix this site, or turn back whatever new programming they put in which is obviously blocking some users. I have seen a lot of neighbours leave Vox over the last year or so, though oftentimes they do not say why. I wonder if they found it as buggy as I have in the last few months.

