Monday, April 25, 2011

bottomless milkshake

Hola,
So I graduated! I had to streamline my life down to just the bare essentials this month to get through finals, but now finished I can redefine what goes into the new streamline. This means the blog is back on the agenda and I have had some new insights regarding it which I will roughly sketch for you now in a brief focus statement.

You see, as a DJ I have found myself in some sort of conflict of interest, wherein I hold back posting great tracks out of the fear that my DJ sets would seem less original because you had heard the songs before and because other DJ's who read the blog may play them more and water them down so to speak. This had me posting lots that I wouldn't play out and holding back from you all the (hopefully) great music that I do play out. I soon realized that this is a stinky scenario based on irrationality and fear and I am over it.

To use a famous analogy: Its as if my music collection is a milkshake, my milkshake. And I have a straw, which is my computer I guess. Now my blog is another straw that goes from your mouth all the way over to my milkshake. Now. You. Drink. My. Milkshake. You drink it up. The more music I post on my blog, the more milkshake of mine you drink. When I DJ I need some fresh milk to shake for people and if you drink my milkshake then I wont have any. So I need to limit the amount of access you have to my milkshake so that there will be enough to share when I play out.



This analogy is obviously weak. My milkshake is not finite, as almost every time I go online I get more milk to shake. Furthermore, most of you don't DJ, nor get to hear me DJ so it is just not obvious that the more milkshake of mine you drink the more watered down my milkshake gets. So I want to apologize for this previously unspoken wrinkle in our relationship and ensure you that the iron is warming up and will have things smooth in no time.

That said, I find alot of house music boring when not in a dance environment so don't expect a sudden influx of it here. There will just be more DJ-friendly house tracks popping up in the future alongside the usual bag of reworks, classics, randoms and psychedelic shit. You can leave a note in the comments if there is any particular kind of music you would like to see more of and I will try to post it.


So to celebrate this coming-out of sorts, here are some tracks from the past couple years that did it for me every time.

Lee Foss - U Got Me (Original Mix) by STm

thom yorke -Eraser xxxchange remix by xxxchange



...which samples my favourite Talking Heads song of the same name. This is taken from their excellent and highly recommended Stop Making Sense Live DVD.

Check out covers by the Arcade Fire and MGMT pre-fame.


Post-Script

A quick word about downloads. I haven't been linking to free downloads lately, not because I'm lazy, but because it's so damn easy to download anything these days. So if you really want any of these songs legally or illegally, I leave it up to you to find them. I may still link to the occasional mp3, but these days I am more inclined to dodge the whole gray zone that is filesharing and err on the side of the artists.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

r.i.p. lcd?


I'm sad that LCD Soundsystem is kinda leaving us. Last years This Is Happening is allegedly their last album, their Valentines day appearance on the Colbert Report was their last television performance and they played their "last show ever" early this month (and got screwed by scalpers).

I spent the past few days listening to LCD Soundsystem non-stop and re-watching James Murphy interviews. Thought I would share some highlights and LCD odds-n-ends as an ode to the past 10 years.


But first the obvious question: what will James do next?


Oh.. :) Did you hear that? He will actually be "making some more LCD Soundsystem stuff, just not [as] professional rock band". Nice! As he says in The Fresh Air Interview: "That doesn't mean LCD will stop. It just means I'll go back to the beginning: releasing a track here and there or being more fluid about my decision-making rather than albums, videos, singles, tour. Rather than this professional arch of being in a band, I'd like to go back to being a person who decides what he likes to do and pursues something new once in a while."

Personally I'm looking forward to some more DFA remixes, culminating in a Chapter 3 release perhaps. And I'm glad he's gonna get back into dj'ing (and making special disco edits to play) - he already has a bunch of festival DJ gigs booked.








M ss ng P eces Interview (from 2006)

m ss ng Murphy from m ss ng p eces on Vimeo.

















Thats Cool, But Can You Make It More Shit? with aesthetic interview



Live Alone (Franz Ferdinan cover)
LCD Soundsystem - Live Alone (Franz Ferdinand cover) by DominoRecordCo




....and possibly my favourite LCD track.


(check the live version from the last show here)

Monday, April 18, 2011

zambon


It's been awhile and I know some words are in order, but today is not the day.
Soon though.
Until then, please enjoy these tasty reworks from Mr. Zambon.

Six Bladed Knife (Zambon Playing With Knives Rework) by Zambon

Zambon - Soul City Dub by Zambon

Talking Heads - Burning Down The House (Zambon & Mental Rework) by Zambon