lazy weekend, stormy season

mixtape connetion vol. 4 went really well - thanks to everyone that came. it was a fun night. here's what i played in my set:

holyfuck - casio bossa nova, gary numan - cars, cut copy - saturdays, caberet voltaire - talking time, new order - the beach, the rapture - i need yr love, tom vek - nothing but green lights, joy division - transmission, devo - cold war, talking heads - making flippy floppy, rogers sisters - 45 prayers, gang of four - return the gift, franz ferdinand - i'm yr villain, the human league - don't you want me, datarock - fa fa fa, duran duran - girls on film, tom vek - i ain't saying my goodbyes

we got lots of photos, but i seem to have lost my digital camera on the night. if anyone has seen it, um, let me know or something. beer + technology = trouble. ugh. [edit]okay, don't worry. benet has it. phew! i'll post photos later in the week. anyway, though, the next night is set to be on probably the 2nd of december, in light of the low hum tour with so so modern and teenwolf being on the normal last friday of the month, on which mixtape connection would fall. make sure you go and support the low hum gig. these bands are from auckland [edit] make that wellington - thanks, anonymous!, and as far as i've seen, they totally tear shit up. more news on that closer to the gig.

the bats were really great at the jetset last night. the sound, for once, seemed pretty good, considering the jetset's common problems in that department. as usual, it's nice to see a band of such calibre playing such a familar style of indie-pop.

speaking of indie-pop, it's going to be poptastic this tuesday night. i've got my hands on most of the stuff mentioned in that pitchfork article about being twee as fuck and stuff. good article, especially the last page - all the bands mentioned there really are worth listening to.

another interesting thing on the net right now is this article, at tiny mix tapes. very funny from the perspective of a music writer/music geek.

wow and check out these two great covers:

iron & wine - waiting for superman.mp3 (flaming lips cover)

calexico - love will tear us apart.mp3 (joy divison cover)

awesome! what a crazy couple of versions. i guess that's the beauty of covers.

i wasn't down - i just wasn't smiling at you

i was talking on the show last night about this photo of me surfing on a big boat. so here it is, to yr right. i'd like to turn this into a myspace style/confessional blog. you won't mind, will you tim? by the way, im just joking about that. while the urge is there, i'll stick to mp3s and music stuff for now.

here's a couple of mp3s for you to download. firstly, the animal collective, from their new album feels. all the reviews of this record have touted it's accesiblity and (more) conventional song structures. and stuff. it's really good, but i think i like sung tongs more, in all it's experimentalism. here's track two from the new album:

the animal collective - grass.mp3

something else really interesting is the new modest mouse covers album about to be released by sun kil moon. this guy plays really affected indie-folk - check out his album ghosts of the great highway. he was also a member of renowned red house painters, who play similar folky stuff. i'm hanging out for this new covers album, tiny cities. i'm trying to download the whole thing, and i'll be sure to play some on the show when i've got it. in the mean time, though, he's one track from it:

sun kil moon - ocean breathes salty.mp3

remember to come see me dj at capitol bar this friday night, the 28th. it should be a wild night. it's on hereford st and starts at 10pm - hot indie tunes til late, for free. wow!

woody allen likes japanese noise rock [playlist 25/10/05]

wow, it's tuesday already. although it doesn't seem like it - long weekend and all. tim and i (richard) are happy. i like indie pop. tim likes sludge pop. so it's going to be an odd mix of things.

1. the lassie foundation - dive bomber [pacifico]
2. dirty three - doris [cinder]
3. kiss me deadly - dance 2 [misty medley]
4. the eels - the medication is wearing off [electro shock blues]

it's not too early for 90's nostaliga. the eels - questionable. but that song is cool. speaking of 90's nostalgia - check out the twee/indie pop article on pitchfork. very in depth account of the movement's history. i'll be digging up a lot of the stuff mentioned and playing it on the show.

5. fence - explanation song [the woolf]
6. the black keys - act nice and gentle [rubber factory]

it's neo-blues. they've just released a live dvd, which looks quite cool.

7. suburban kids with biblical names - parakit [#3]

yay guys. thanks for posting on our blog, johan & peter. check out the suburban kids website. it's cool - even if it's mostly in swedish...

8. iron & wine - teeth in the grass [our endless numbered days]
9. winter vacation - the alps [the netherlands, 1980]
10. kings of leon - red morning light [youth & young manhood]

the big day out announcement sure has been good. looking forward to seeing the kings of leon guys in january. apparently the arcade fire are rumoured for the second announcement. they're into their in-jokes - anyone know who leon is?

11. mazarin - another one goes by [we're already there]
12. jolie holland - old fashioned morphine [escondida]
13. pony up! - minstrel [pony up! ep]

these girls say: "my brother's gonna beat you up. my sister's gonna beat you up. my mother's gonna beat you up". i believe them. they're from, like, new york. or something.

14. silver jews - punks in the beerlight [tanglewood numbers]
15. calvin johnson - rabbit blood [before the dream faded]

two weird guys, thats for sure. there are plenty of interviews with david berman from the silver jews on the net at the moment.

16. art brut - my little brother [bang bang rock & roll]
17. mommy & daddy - the streets have come alive [duel at dawn]

they have the husband/wide dynamic going on. plus they're from new york. did someone say "style over substance"?.

18. devendra banhart - chinese children [cripple crow]
19. harvey danger - incommunicado [little by little]
20. tim rogers & the temperance union - riding between my place and ours [dirty ron/ghost stories]

tim dodgers is going to see tim rogers in melbourne on december the first. check this blog for stories and photos and stuff. now something pretty much totally contrasting. that pitchfork's article about twee reminded me of these guys. thanks to some girl in some clothes shop who got me onto this band.

21. the softies - hello rain [it's love]
22. radiohead - where i end and you begin [hail to the thief]

check out this site for links to these crazy blogs that radiohead have supposedly been setting up. it's interesting, really, what they're doing. they post a lot of stuff from their fourthcoming album on their own blog. it's interesting to me in terms of radiohead as actual, real people - their music is so far from that. it distances themselves a lot from their public. obscure lyrics, spacey sonics, other-wordly atmospherics - they're from some other planet, i'm sure.

23. the gris gris - down with jesus [for the season]
24. black mountain - don't run our hearts around [black mountain]

the metal show guys outside the studio window have a cd cover with "prostitute disfigure" on it. we're not quite up to that standard, but these last two tracks are certainly towards the heavy end of the rock spectrum.

25. immaculate machine - phone no. [ones and zeros]

breathe like yr dancing

okay, time again for the mixtape connection. if you haven't been yet it's hosted by myself (richard), dr hitchcock (benet from the mixtape sessions on rdu), gretchen (missy g from girl school, before guitar media on rdu), dj indie slut (bill from human pleasure at hourly rates on rdu), and also a special guest in the form of nick harte from the shocking pinks. we'll all be playing dj sets filled with music you can dance to, not dance music. it's real indie bro. it's at capitol bar this friday night (the 28th) and it starts at 10pm. it's free, too, and for nothing you can hear the sweet sounds of bands like the following:

the cars, duran duran, out hud, the rapture, lcd soundsystem (plus other dfa tracks), !!!, mu, the human league, the soft pink truth, death from above 1979, the cure, blondie, talking heads, joy division, devo, new order, felix da housecat, gang of four, the go! team, vitalic, arthur russell, ellen alien, junior boys, maximo park, tom vek, ladytron, cut copy, etc.

and with general styles playing: post-punk, 80s pop, electro, indie-rock, dance-punk, new wave and more.

this is the fourth edition of this "indie" club night, and they have all been super fun so far. rdunited members get 20% off tap beer and a free limited edition mix cd upon entry. capitol bar is a nice place, and the cool thing about these nights is that it's filled to the brim with nice people.

the dandy warhols - odditorium or warlords of mars [album review]

[Capitol, 2005]
***1/2

Pitchfork Media.com gave this album a 1.6 out of 10. Sure, the name is kinda stupid, but this album will surprise any hipster with an affinity for even the most obscure. It’s actually really good – despite the cliché-ridden stoner-chic poseur aesthetic that the group has become renowned for. To say that they embrace their own idiosyncrasies would be reading too far into it - it’s really just about style. Many critics talk of this as bad when compared with having actual substance. There’s a little bit of the latter here, too. Breezy, lackadaisical and well-paced guitar tunes like “Love is the New Feel Awful” are what this record does best. The Dandys clearly have a target market of faux-hipsters and Volvo adverts, but the mood of this album works too well to ignore. This is sure to suit summer perfectly.

deerhoof - the runners four [album review]

[5RC, 2005]
****

It’s hard not to like Deerhoof. They’re composed of three super-indie guys with one really fucking crazy Japanese chick for a lead singer. The eclecticisms are pretty obvious – spastic vocals with instrumentation to match. At least that’s what their previous albums are like. The Runners Four, their eighth album, is certainly less hyperactive, but by no means tame. This is also their longest, clocking in at 57 minutes over 20 songs – a fact that talks, especially when compared to previous, more frenzied albums like Apple O’, which is only 13 songs and half an hour in length.

Sometimes, though, Deerhoof are pretty hard to like. The shtick of the group is interminably appealing (you should see the lead singer dance! Explosive!) but for all of their aesthetic, they are pretty difficult at times. That’s the point, though – the sense of difficulty is engaging and rewarding. This difficulty seems to have subsided somewhat on this new album, which is good thing for both longtime fans and newcomers alike. They’ve become more conventional, in their own, twisted way, but not so much that it would discourage Deerhoof-spaz purists. Besides, they could only have kept that up for so long. It’s like they’ve somehow matured and selected the best facets of their oeuvre and made a solid indie-rock album out of them. They know how to kick it – that is obvious – it’s just a little less relentless.

A comparison to The Pixies is adequate. But Deerhoof take the loud/soft dynamics that The Pixies pioneered and flip it upside down. They’ve been labeled “by turns cuddly and chaotic”, and that’s pretty apt. While at parts they can be quaint and simple, they can also be dense and incredibly fucking loud. The production is quite raw, which is useful as explicative of the hidden charms of melody and sweetness lumped under the car-crash wreck that is the rest of their sound. Either way, it’s definitely the best car crash I’ve ever heard.

my sun is setting over her magazine [playlist 18/10/05]

so i'm typing tonight. it's me. richard. the space bar is kinda sticky.

1. okkervil river - stoned [black sheep boy]
2. herman dune - [not on top]
3. pinback - fortress [summer in abbadon]
4. clap your hands say yeah! - upon this tidal wave of young blood [clap your handssay yeah!]

my favourite album of the year. but what about the best song of the year? i was listening to national radio today and they were getting people to name the best song of all time. actually it was maggie barry hosting the show, which lessened the integrity of the debate at hand. someone suggested something from the platters.screw that. what about the smiths? "there is a light that never goes out"? oh yeah.

5. architecture in helsinki - wishbone [in case we die]

it's cute. "twee-prog", as someone aptly put it. now for a golden oldie. from a terrific album - there aren't many albums that can be just as good when you put them on "shuffle" mode...

6. pavement - kennel district [wowee zowee]
7. uncle tupelo - factory belt [no depression]
8. blood on the wall - mary susan [awesomer]

fuck yeah - listen to this guy's voice. you can't argue with an album title like "awesomer".

tim actually likes this next song. "in a bland sea of salty mediocrity, the arcade fire is a clean refreshing burst to the pallet"

7. the arcade fire - neighborhood #3 (power out) [funeral]
8. broken social scene - major label debut (fast) [ep to be you and me]

i remember when funeral first came out, lots of people compared it to you forgot it in people by broken social scene. it's the energy and fervour that is most easily likened, but it falls pretty short otherwise. i guess they both use parenthesis...

9. the strokes - juicebox [forthcoming]

this is more of a public service announcement than anything. tim would rather people listen to this than, well, the killers at least. he likes franz ferdinand now. hehe.

10. art brut - modern art [bang bang rock & roll]
11. buttersprites - fever [buttersprites]

now for shea's pick of the night. they're from sweden and sound kind of like this guy called jens lekman. who i like, too. try his album when i said i wanted to be your dog.

12. suburban kids with biblical names - trees and sqirrels [3]
13. the clientele - the geometry of lawms [strange geometry]

this album is really great. so is their 2003 lp, the violet hour. lush, simon & garfunkle-eqsue indie-pop. good for summer nights at around 9:30pm.

14. immaculate machine - broken ship [ones and zeroes]
15. dirty three - ember [cinder]
16. xiu xiu larsen - paw paw paw paw paw paw paw paw [ciautistico]
17. joanna newsom - three little babes [the milk eyed mender]

apparently her concert with smog in auckland on sunday night was "perfect" (mirabel, 2005). i could only imagine. the milk eyed mender truly is one blissful record. it's funny how a voice so immediatly abrasive can be so rich and rewarding.

18. the radio dept. - this past week [this past week ep]
19. animal collective - winter's love [sung tongs]
20. john wilkes booze - cultural hurricane [telescopic eyes glance the future sick]

vice magazine hates those guys. and yr parents. and you.

21. daniel johnston - my life is starting over again [discovered/covered]
22. yo la tengo - upside-down [may i sing with me]
23. tim rogers - shit [dirty ron]

token tim rogers track. now, time for some surf guitars. i've been getting into these surfing/tarantino-esque stylings. another band like the next one is messer chups. they're great.

24. suspirios - make you wet [make you wet]
25. the ramones - teenage labotomy [rocket to russia]
26. cut copy - saturdays (reprise) [bright like neon love]