"I'm sorry momma...
...I never meant to hurt you..."
So I've been bad. But I've been oh so busy the last couple days. Getting a new apartment and dealing with a house that needs to be sold and a breakup that needs to be finalized sure is time-consuming.
So I've neglected my blogging duties. And for that, I apologize.
But I promise to make it up to y'all. I got some really good stuff up my sleeves.
So maybe not the last one. (But maybe so!)
But there's good stuff coming once I have more than five minutes to sit down at my keyboard.
But for now, a few quick links:
Hope you like, and I promise that the wait will be worth it.
The truth behind beer goggles...
from
BBC News (thanks to Phantasy Tour for the heads up!)
Leave it to the Brits--or mathematicians, or a combination of the two--to actually write a mathematic equation that explains how the more you drink, the more attractive people of the opposite sex appear to be.
Here's the best part:
The research was commissioned by eyecare firm Bausch & Lomb PureVision.
Huh? What? A company that makes contact lens actually paid money for this research? What's in it for them?
(I guess its better than
Trojan or
Durex paying for it...)
(AUDIO!!) !!! - Take Ecstacy With Me
This EP came out last year, and is a worthy follow up to the triple exclamation point-named group (pronounced
chik chik chik)'s ass-whooper of 2004, album,
Louden up Now. I find the title track, though unfortunately named and possessing a hedonistic and self serving (but oh so attractive) chorus, to be such an infectious blend of sounds--ranging from thumping bass to clanging cowbell--that when I first heard it I honestly listened to it twenty-five times in a row on an airplane.
After dropping a quasi-political album,
!!! followed up with an EP of obscure covers: the title track, originally by Magnetic Fields; and "Get Up", an interesting take on a Nate Dogg (that deserves three exclamation points!!!) track.
If I've listened to "Take Ecstacy With Me" one hundred times, I've only listened to "Get Up" five times. So that should tell you something.
But here I present them both to you.
I dare your toes to not tap when the bass kicks in on the first track. Try me.
Aerosmith & Cheap Trick
from
billboard.com (thanks to
Live Music Blog for the heads up!)
Aerosmith and
Cheap Trick are playing
Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Paradise in Hollywood on March 2? Didn't Aerosmith and Lenny Kravitz just play the American Airlines Arena in Miami last week? Regardless, I've never seen the boys from Boston, and this is an opportunity to see them in a tiny venue (comparatively) to what they usually play. Sounds pretty interesting to me...
An then I looked at ticket prices: $100 for the cheap seats, up to $300 for the rest of the room. Jeez, that's expensive. Maybe Steven Tyler was thinking "Hey, if the Stones can charge an arm and a leg, maybe we can get away with charging an arm and a foot".
More information at
TicketMaster; tickets go onsale to the public on Saturday.
Om Records Parties at Winter Music Conference
from an Om Records e-mail update...
Om Miami Party Dates Announced!
OM Records BBQ Poolside @ M3
Thursday, March 23rd
Featuring:
Mark Farina - Mushroom Jazz Set!
Colossus (LIVE) – Exclusive Miami Performance!
Strange Fruit Project (LIVE)
J Boogie
@ Surfcomber Hotel (1717 Collins Ave)
Noon - 5:00 PM
FREE to M3 Badge Holders, Tickets for non M3 Badges: $TBA
&
SHURE PRESENTS OM: MIAMI 2006
In Partnership with BPM Magazine & Om Records
Monday, March 27th
Featuring:
Room 1: Hosted by Alex Peace
Mark Farina
DJ Sneak
Colette & Heather - Celebrating the release of their new “House of Om” double mix cd!
Greenskeepers (LIVE) - Performing songs from their highly anticipated new album!
Marques Wyatt - Debuting material from his new “House of Om” mix cd!
Andy Caldwell - Spinning new tracks from his debut artist album “Universal Truth” featuring the hit single “Warrior” (Guaranteed to be a track of the conference!)
Groove Junkies
Samantha James (LIVE) - Singing her new hit single “Rise”!
Rithma (LIVE) - DJ / Vocal set from house music’s favorite wonderkid!
Room 2:
Johnny Fiasco
John Howard
Colossus (DJ Set)
JT Donaldson
Chuck Love
Fred Everything
Bugz in the Attic
J Boogie
DJ Fluid
@ MANSION (1235 Washington Ave.)
Capacity 2500+, 2 levels w/ 6 bars and state of the art club lighting and sound!!!!
Discounted Tickets Available at wanttickets.com
Admission: $TBA 21+
shure.com, om-records.com, djmixed.com, mansionmiami.com
Some of my favorite DJs and electronic acts (Mark Farina, DJ Sneak, Colette & Heather) playing 45 minutes from my house during one of the year's best dance music events. The fact that the first party is on a Thursday from noon until five and the second is on a Monday night is a bit problematic, but nothing I can't deal with.
(VIDEO!!) South Park does the Aristocrats
Yesterday I stopped by Best Buy to purchase a DVD the day it was released, which I haven't done in a long time. What is the cinematic masterpiece that dragged me to a temple of commerce on a Tuesday night?
It was
the Aristocrats, comedian Penn Jillette and director Paul Provenza's ode to the world's dirtiest, most improvisational joke. I saw it in the sweltering hot Gateway Cinema when it came out, and I don't think I ever laughed so hard. Seeing Bob Sagat using the language he used in this film is priceless.
My dad is a dirty old man, and I figured he'd love this flick, so I asked him:
"Dad, how would you like to watch a documentary about the most vile joke ever imagined?"
"Sure, sounds great," he said with a smile.
So I bought the movie. We're gonna watch it this weekend.
I remember that right before the film came out, I saw a video on the internet of South Park's Eric Cartman telling the joke. As usual, the fat little kid in the red jacket manages to push boundaries to their limits, and in this case, that is pretty hard to do. This version is probably the most offensive in the entire movie.
So, I make it available to you.
Warning: this video is
not safe for work, and crosses every possible line from bestiality, incest, fecalphelia and the desecration of the memories of the victims of 9/11. That being said, it is fu**ing hilarious!!
How can something so tasteless be so funny?
Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival documentary
Last night I went with a couple friends to check out the world premiere of a documentary about the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, an event that is considered my many who have been to be the best music festival in North America. I've heard it compared to events like England's famed
Glastonbury Festival, and since 2001, there have been inevitable comparisons to the
Bonnaroo Music Festival (though I know a bunch of hipsters and hippies that would grimace hearing the two events mentioned in the same breath, and wouldn't be caught dead at the event geared for the other musical subculture).
We got to the movie theatre prepped to party with a flask of Bacardi in the hip pocket. Drinks mixed, seats picked, we sat down in the relatively empty theatre (20 people tops, but it was showing in a ton of theatres in the area) and got ready for what I hoped was a good time. This was the first "concert" I had seen in a movie theatre, as I was at the Brooklyn and Coventry Phish shows that were simulcast in 2004.
The movie started with a brief interview with the promoter and a overview of the festival grounds, which are set up on a polo field in Indio, California. Some time lapse shots of crews setting up the festival were pretty cool to start things off, but I was there for music, damnit!
There was plenty of that to come. Surprisingly, the first performance came from hippie activist/hip hopper/reggae act Michael Franti & Spearhead. We played the obligatory drinking game that goes with his live shows everytime Franti asks 'how you feeling?!?', you drink. There went my cocktail, because he must have said it ten times in his five on screen minutes. Franti set somewhat of a political tone for the film, which was surprising to me, but is used to hilarious effect later when the director juxtaposes urban poet/spoken word artist Saul Williams' take on the political power of music with that moronic piece of tabloid fodder Noel Gallagher of Oasis claiming music should be mindless entertainment and that only people with suits have power.
Needless to say, Oasis' performance was crap; Williams was pretty good, but nothing special.
The musical highlights for me included the
Arcade Fire (yeah Montreal!),
Radiohead and their seizure inducing light show, a screen-sized version of the faerie-like Bjork singing the hell out of her "All is Full of Love", Belle & Sebastian's lyrically improvisation about the festival at sunset, Fischerspooner's crazy electro stage show, numerous interludes with
the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne (and a killer Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1), Squarepusher's squelching d'n'b, last year's "never-gonna-happen" Pixies reunion and some mellow Zero 7 to end the flick.
Performances I could have done without?
Iggy Pop & the Stooges. The Red Hot Chili Peppers: good band, why pick a crap song like "Californication"? The Mars Volta: I was excited to give this band a shot considering everyone and their mother loves them, but they sucked bad. The White Stripes: if you already have Iggy & the Stooges, why have a band that just rips them off? Prodigy: I think I'm not going to
Ultra this year strictly because they are headlining. Morrisey: just meh.
Picking the highlight of the night was easy.
It was a five minute interlude featuring the DJ tag team of
Cut Chemist and DJ Nu Mark from
Jurassic 5. It started with Cut Chemist cutting records on a full screen. Nifty editing split the screen in two, and Chemist was suddenly battling Nu Mark. Then Nu Mark is battling himself. Then Chemist is on the left, Nu Mark on the right. Then they switch. Every possible combination of the two DJs followed in an impressive display of technical skills on the wheels of steel, as well as the best use of a split screen in a concert film since it was way overdone in
Woodstock.
Overall, I really enjoyed myself, and if the lineup is good this year, I may make the exodus. I've heard complaints about song selection, and I agree to a point, but I left satisfied. My only complaint: the really obnoxious cuts in between--and in the case of the Polyphonic Spree, during--performances. It really started to piss me off.
So there's my review. Ethan, are you happy?
(AUDIO!!) Shpongle
I've received a couple requests from friends and neighbors who wanted to hear the sweet psy-trance/goa sounds of
Shpongle. This project is made up of
Simon Posford, perhaps the headiest electronic music producer of all time, and
Raja Ram, flautist and effects mastermind.
Shpongle is another pretty obscure group that has found a surge in popularity in the last few years due to a mention in the ever-so-broad “jamband” scene. I find it amusing how a band, DJ, collective or group that toils on the edge of obscurity (or is renowned in a very small slice of an eclectic genre) for a potentially infinite amount of time can step on stage with
Trey Anastasio (see Matisyahu) or open for
Sound Tribe Sector 9 (see
Prefuse-73), and instantly become the talk on of the town.
That's what happened to Shpongle, and to a greater effect,
Hallucinogen, another one of Posford's projects. Hallucinogen got booked to play last year's Camp Bisco IV, and instantly 2500 people were turned on to his late night psychedelic grooves. Last week
Conspirator (a Disco Biscuits side project featuring bassist Marc Brownstein, keyboardist Aaron Magner and drum programmer DJ Omen) played one of the famed
Tsunami Trance parties alongside Posford, Hallucinogen, Younger Brother and Benji Vaughn (of Prometheus), mixing the hard partying (and apparently mostly Asian) fans of the psy-trance/goa circuit with the sideways hat sporting, baggy pant wearing fans of the Disco Biscuits trancefusion assault.
I like seeing the scenes merge. I’m so beyond the “jamband” label that I try to never use it and I always find myself sub-classifying to get away from it.
So back on point...here is a couple sections from Shpongle. This music is definitely trippy, and like hallucinogenics, is an acquired taste.
Shpongle - Divine Moments of Truth
Divine Moments of Truth, or D.M.T. as it is known, is probably the quintessential Shpongle track. This CD 5" features three different mixes of the song, raging from instrumental to the ultra-trancey.
You honestly can't go wrong with anything Posford has released. His projects run the gamut from Celtic-influence projects to darker sounding trance and the high-intensity onslaught of Hallucinogen.
The Artist formerly known as the Artist formerly known as Prince to play SNL (he's Prince again for the confused)
SPIN.com: Prince Makes First SNL Appearance in 25 YearsI love
Prince, I like Steve Martin and until a few years ago I used to think Saturday Night Live was funny. That being said, I'm excited for to watch this, and I could not tell you the last time I felt that way about SNL. Maybe when
Phish was on it a few years back. The TV Funhouse skit where a cartoon version of the band is raging Y.E.M. and Peppermint Patty turns into a bikini-clad lipstick lesbian was an instant classic.
BISCUITS ADD SHOW IN ST. PETERSBURG!!!
The rumored
Disco Biscuits show in St. Petersburg on March 9 (pre-pre Langerado show) is no longer rumored, and the news is as good as it gets:
From discobiscuits.com
BISCUITS ADD SHOW IN ST. PETERSBURG!!! The Biscuits are excited to announce that they will be playing at the Bank in St. Petersburg on Thursday, March 9th. The boys look to build on the incredible amount of momentum that they have gained in the months since picking up their incredible new drummer, A-Money. Having spent the last week in the studio learning old classics and writing a few bumping new psychedelic tracks, the boys are raring to hit the road, get some shows under their belts, and get the engines firing on all cylinders.
But wait, that's not all!!! If you order right now, this special Florida show will feature an opening slot by the biscuits' very close friends and associates, Brothers Past. That's right, this is the first time in three years that the bands will be featured together as a two band pairing on the same stage, and The Brothers have made significant strides in that time, carving out a sound and niche of their own and building considerable momentum in the process. Make sure to get there early and see what all of the hype is about. See you there. TDB
So I get two of my three favorite bands in one night before gorging myself on music festivally goodness. Sometimes I love living in Florida!
(AUDIO!!) Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Wednesday, February 8th, 2006 8:00 PM
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL
Culture Room
3045 North Federal Highway
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33325
954-564-1074
When I saw that
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings would be playing the Culture Room on February 8, I was extremely excited and more than a little bit shocked. I mean, this is an obscure group. I would have never heard of them if it weren't for a good word put in by members of the
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra. I guess this afrobeat collective and Jones' old school funkateers run in the same crowd in Brooklyn. (After doing a little additional research, I've discovered that the bands actually share some members.
Check out Sharon's funk pedigree:
born and raised in Augusta, GA, hometown of none other than Mr. Dynamite himself, James Brown.
moved to Brooklyn in the 70s as a teacher and became infatuated with the addictive rhythms of funk and disco
worked as session singer and studio stable star until the good music of the 70s faded into the overproduced crap of the 80s
feeling down and out, she got a job as a prison guard at Riker's Island. You heard me right. She was a prison guard in NYC. Now that is hardcore.
one day in the mid-90s when she was singing at her church a record producer heard her, put her voice to wax, and the rest, as that real old cliche goes, is history!
I promised some people that I would give them a little sample as a way to entice them into coming to the show (funknjam!), so here goes. The first link will get you the debut LP, the second is a 45 that came out a little later.
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings -
Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings - Genuine
If this doesn't get you excited for some REAL DEAL funk, well then, you don't have a pulse.
So I'll give resuscitating your sorry ass one more try:
Watch this video of the band doing their thing live on Conan. Do you see how many people are on stage there? DO you see the funk dripping off of Sharon like sweat from Michael Jordan? Do you see the suits?
To me, this show is definitely a no-brainer, and could very well be the sleeper show of the week at the Culture Room.
http://rapidshare.de/
Downloading and listening to the New Deal tracks was easy, right? Just point, click (or right click, save as), listen.
I can't promise that all of my posts will be user friendly. Some of the stuff I want to share comes from my personal collection, and I've had to find a way to easy make it available to y'all.
That's why I'm going to give you an introduction to another favorite website utility,
RapidShare. This nifty German website allows me (or anyone else) to upload an archive folder (in my case I use .rar files) to their server. RapidShare will then provide me with a link to download the archive. I post that link for y'all; bada bing, bada boom, you download the archive.
After you download the archive you'll have to uncompress it; right click the file and a 'uncompress' option should pop up. If it doesn't you may need a bit more assistance. Let me know and I'll try to help out.
My next post will utilize this nifty technology.
(AUDIO!!) The New Deal - March 13th, 2005
Backstage at Langerado, Jamie Shields relaxes as Darren Shearer cops a quick feel of Dan Kurtz's boobs. March 13, 2005.Last year's
Langerado Music Festival concluded with a sweaty, smoky, dirty dance party in Fort Lauderdale's Culture Room when
Perpetual Groove and
the New Deal played a late night show on Sunday, March 13. For reasons I can't seem to remember at this time, I missed most of pGroove's set (which incidentally, I've never been able to find a complete copy of). But as soon as the New Deal came on and kicked off with a little bit of Rick James, I almost forgot that there even was an opening band.
The venue was packed that night, and we set up camp at the high bar so we looked over the stage throughout the night. It was a typical "live.progressive.breakbeat.house" party from the Canadian trio: sharply building peaks that would hit hard and often, oftentimes with a relentless fury that left the dance floor gasping for breath. I knew I was beat by the end of the night, and from what I gathered looking around me, the rest of the room felt the same. I mean, it was the end of a loooooong weekend.
The New Deal's entire set from that night is available
here from one of the my favorite web sites in the whole wide world,
the Internet Archive.
If you only want a taste, check out this massive encore, featuring a sweet little German cover song about the end of the world!
Birds in the Ocean 2 >J > 99 Luft Balloons > J Rumor has it that Dan Kurtz, the band's bassist, is moving to England with his lovely wife, so there may not be too many tND shows in the future. Their keyboardist Jamie Shields recently had a baby, so I guess they are moving a little bit more towards the tranquility of domestic bliss after a couple years on the rock star track.
I've always wanted nothing but the best for this band, because when I first saw them in Montreal, it may have been their first tour of shows outside of their home base of Toronto. They played Le Swimming (
R.I.P.), a pool hall slash concert venue with a four foot square stage that was the inevitable stop when any "jammy" band would come through town.
I would stand on a slightly elevated stair over Jamie's keyboards every time they would play that room, watching him get crazy with his array of synths. I watched that band grow into larger and larger rooms, first in Canada, then in New York and around the country. They had some serious momentum for a while, and then kinda petered out and played gigs few and far between.
The three guys in the band are super-talented musicians, so I hope they get it together and write some new tunes.
Welcome to Scooter's Spot v. 2.0!
I started v. 1.0 of this blog a little less than a year ago.
I made five posts and lost interest. Needless to say, I've scrapped it completely, from template to text, it is all gone.
But lately I've been reading a lot of different blogs, especially music and mp3 blogs (thanks to
Silver's Boogaloo for impregnating my mind with the idea to do something like this).
Lately, I've also been posting links to various stories, tunes, videos, sites and other assorted miscelanea on a number of message boards I frequent. I decided to use this this place as a clearing house for all this stuff. Who knows, maybe people will even read what I write! Stranger things have been known to happen.
(Plus, maintaining this blog is going to help me work on my discipline. I want to be able to spend time writing every day. Here's my impetus.)
Feel free to leave comments or feedback. I'll read it all.
