Halloween Jams

I love Halloween. Escapism? Excuse for ostentation? A method to differentiate and filter out the whores? No, it's obviously the music... not that these are necessarily just for the weekend of the 31st. Speaking of which, daylight savings is on Sunday morning. Whoever thought of putting it there was a genius.

PNAU - Donnie Donnie Darko
Clinic - Harmony
The Rakes - Terror
Sufjan Stevens - They are Night Zombies!!!...

I've always try to play this song every year post-Denver:
North American Halloween Prevention Initiative - Do They Know It's Hallowe'en (Wiki about it here)

This year, can we just please, please not play Thriller at every party... especially the banger version?
Well.. maybe just a little bit but mixed in:
Michael Jackson - Thriller (instrumental)

also def Halloween worthy:

The Knife - Silent Shout

The 'crowning' piece of my costume this year with my roommate still needs to be found... tomorrow. What's your costume?

Balki vs. Balki

Stumbling through rock and roll

This morning a buddy of mine asked how I found a certain link. No idea, only that it probably was a result of looking through ffffound or google images. Thinking about it made me think that I should record internet paths and perhaps retrace steps later on. While looking for Devo's 'Girl You Want' after hearing it at The Gossip show (which was badass by the way even though I got twice-groped) I found this joint and furthermore an excellent resource for classic rock n' roll (NOT classic rock): anything from garage to surf to Chubby Checker-ish, lo-fi, 'The' bands. Examples include:

Devo - Girl U Want
The Elite - One Potato <-- The Jam
The Pleasure Seekers - What a Way to Die
The Rockin' Ramrods - She Lied
Supercharger - Sooprize for Mr. Mineo
Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers - I Need you now

So just from that one Mummies post (which I want to believe is a real compilation album) I've been on an old rock n' roll kick right for the past week. I'm going to completely pillage Debbie's stuff.

New News about Old Folks

I recently received an email from mog about how they are going to offer their own version of a music subscription service (see Napster / Rhapsody) but for $5/mo. I don't know how they're going to do it, but maybe they figure not to make as much money on selling music, but rather attract people and suck them into the mog life and continue to rely on ads.

It worked for me.

I haven't really looked at mog in a while other than the weekly digest emails that they send out which are nothing compared to actually browsing the site and doing discovery by myself. Enter the current update on old friends:

New LCD Soundsystem
Jimmy is working on the next album as announced last week and the sneak peek is already here. You can stream it but not download it? We'll just see about that..

LCD Soundsystem - Bye Bye Bayou

Bloc Party to break up
Maybe I'm just perpetuating rumors here, but it makes sense to me. Considering that while on tour Matt Tong had to go to the emergency room due to a collapsed lung makes me think that he can't keep up doing the riffs that they want to do. Notice the intensity of the drumline in Silent Alarm vs. A Weekend in the City and Initimacy which started to use drum machines. I'm just happy I went to a bunch of their shows during the course of their lifetime. Matt was is fantastic.

Flaming Lips to cover Dark Side of the Moon
You know what I'd love more than this is if they were to do their entire show doing this version that I haven't even heard yet. I understand that 'Do You Realize?' is a religious experience, but conceptualize a Coyne version of 'On The Run'. Wow.

Come to Chicago already

Among the many other reasons to learn French, I've never heard Vitalic speak...


I've ordered Flashmob and it's on its way over across the Atlantique. Can't wait.

The By-gone Days of Lipgloss

When I was living in Denver, dating my then girlfriend, and being even more picky of music, there was a place called Lipgloss where all the then indie hipster kids would hang out. They even had a deal that if you drove your Vespa to the club you would get in for free. It was, and still is, located in La Rhumba at 9th and Broadway. DJ's Michael Trundle (whom my ex went to high school with apparently) Tim Cook, and Tyler Jacobson would totally kick everybody's ass with sweet dance music and there was cheap booze and there were ridiculously hot girls (coat check girl on the right) that I would never talk to and it was always a fantastic time. They frequently were giving away shit and always between 11-1130 at which point the music would stop and they would make an announcement, which was my cue to immediately book it to the DJ booth and get whatever CD they were giving away that day. (That's how I discovered Bloc Party.) When we first started going there, they had 2 boxes in the middle of the dance floor. People would put their drinks on them, but they were meant to be danced on and there wasn't some bouncer shooing you off because you were a dude. Rocking out and posing with Larry across the room was pure delight. After I returned to Chicago I vowed to find the Lipgloss equivalent, but it was too unique. The closest I found was Darkwave Disco in 2005 and then my love turned to electro...

But back to Lipgloss. My iTunes fell haphazardly on Moving Units and I remember that they were one of the frequenters of the tracks to hear there. So, here's my little tribute to the days of yore:

Moving Units - Anyone
Moving Units - Between Us and Them
Bloc Party - Helicopter
Enon - Disposable Parts
Ms. John Soda - Go Check
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
The Faint - I Disappear
Annie - Anniemal
David Bowie - Rebel Rebel

Oh the reminiscence... "Drinking alcohol without the olives, is like making love to a woman without a breasts." - old guy to me before trying to get me to introduce him to Christi and Rachel.

UPDATE: How could I miss this song?? This is probably the quintessential track of Michael Trundle's..

The Stills - Still In Love Song

Hot Tix

La Roux is coming to Chicago on 21Oct to Lincoln Hall.

Buy tickets here.

By the way, all of the shows that I'm going to are underlined on the column to the right. So.... you should come with me to stuff.

This weekend just keeps getting better.

Best show this year

I bought a Fever Ray ticket a while back knowing that I probably wouldn't have the opportunity to see her again. My affinity for Karin Andersson because of The Knife was up there and I thought Silent Shout was a decent album, but I definitely would not have put it at #1 back when it came out. All expectations were crumbled.

Fever Ray is haunting
Fever Ray is a dream world
Fever Ray is putting me in a trance

I had to be sneaky to take some pictures using the phone since the staff (at Karin's request) wouldn't let you take any pictures. I thought that was rather lame, but after seeing what the show entailed I now understand. Right now I'm in conflict in as to whether or not I want to divulge the scenery to you, dear reader, because I have never experienced anything quite like it. So, let's compromise.

Fever Ray - When I Grown Up

SPOILER ALERT


more photos

You will notice a multitude of things in this photo. Lasers juxtaposed with your grandma reading lamps, a man (#3 from left) with feathers protruding from his chest, a dark blob of cloth in the middle (Karin), and not noticeable is a man behind the lamp right in front of me. He has a large hat and seems like he is doing all the programming (maybe the lights too). Most of the show was enshrouded with fog which made me feel like I was on the Swedish tundra and then sneaking into a crystal concert hall watching some dark religion's evening entertainment. The scene, whether in my mind or on stage, was perfect for the pulsating music and lights combined with Karin's vocodered demon-voice only to be confirmed when the fog was blown away.

This thing was better than Of Montreal and on par with Flaming Lips or Super Furry Animals in terms of scenery and concept, but was the polar opposite in what in conveyed which I found refreshing. Fever Ray was uplifting not because it was fantastical and whimsical, but rather because it wasn't cartoonish and you could be sucked into it.

Stand in front and go see the show.