my name is Con and these are my Picks

Listen to it again

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Thu, 01 May 2014 17:29:00 +0000

There are times in your being where you feel you know someone or something so well and are so familiar with it yet you find another facet of it and it completely changes how you view it. The common example for me is when listening to a song, I normally immerse myself in its melody, but after I sit in the car staring at the red and white reflected droplets accumulating and crying on the windshield, sometimes I feel the waves of emotions like a ewered flood of warmth over my head. This song exemplifies that.

Durutti Column - Otis

If you know Otis, this is the source of his lyrics for him.
Tracy Chapman - Behind the wall

Enjoy.

TEED

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:57:00 +0000

cred

I found out about Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs while looking over the shows playing around Lollapalooza this year. TEED was at Berlin at the time and after listening to a couple of the videos tracks that he put out, I was bent on going to see this stellar . ...apparently not bent enough since I never made it over. Big mistake.

His voice is somewhere in between Toro from Toro y Moi and Erlend Øye, floating non-chalantly as just louder than a whisper over the sometimes pulsing yet disjointed beats (Stronger) while at other times over something haunting (Solo), or over something housey like Your Love:

I'm really glad that this guy is around; this harks back to the faster-paced hits of yore for me and gives me hope for wearing out the bottoms of my shoes in the Primary's of the world. On the flip side, he can just overcome the friction of his fingers and germinate a field of downtempo tracks that pairs well with a sinking couch and a sherry. Sign me up.

Jam Slow

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 02:17:00 +0000

So I've been noticing a trend that I would hope that others would re- or co-articulate. I didn't quite figure it out until I started realized that I like Skrillex and I got over my mountainous hump of being interested dubstep (trust me, those Whitehorn Mountains of actually liking dubstep are ever-present). First, a bit of inspiration to those who maybe still be on the same page as a the 3-week-ago me:

Ok, that song is the super jam. BUT WHY. My theory, it's got all the distortion, dissonance, and discontinuities that dubstep has (and bangers had) but you can dance to it unlike dubstep. But why can you dance to 'Bangarang'? Because there's no anti-gyrating half-tempoing twice in the middle of the damn track where the only thing you can do is head bang / slam / ram to your bro friends. Enough unhappiness... the point is coming up.

More after jumping...

Dubstep prides itself on having those slow bits, or rather, a distinct slow down relative to the rest. When I realized that I liked 'Bangarang' and that it was perpetually slower (110bpm) I likened it to Moombahton which came out this track (if you didn't know), that originally was at 128bpm.

Another genre that came out of slowing down tracks was Belgian New Beat where it was common to take existing acid house or darkwave and slowing it down to... well ~110bpm. The groove is more relaxed and the voices are haunting and slightly distorted. According to the internet, it germinated from the slowing down of this song to this version:

This brings me to my realization of a new genre based on the jams that I would listen to in 2005 - 2010 (which is basically what this blog is based on). Take the hardest tracks you can find and slow them down to the magic 110bpm. This goes for: Mr. Oizo, Yuksek, Tiga, Vitalic, Justice, Soulwax, etc. I slowed down my copy of Ross Ross Ross by SebastiAn to -8 on an SL1200 and it sounds pretty epic. Here it is done shittily with garageband just to give you an example. Here you go, internet. Enjoy.

Yaël Naïm

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 04:01:00 +0000

Need to post this. Too good not to. Read more on her.

Bryl

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:22:00 +0000

from Lumpen, Version, Public Media Institute photo arch

Recently I've tried my hand at speed dating where either I regurgitate the previous conversation ("Hi my name is Con, I'm an engineer, I'm from Chicago... yes the city,") or I stop caring ("Do women have librarian crushes too? Do you ever want to get that shy guy out of his element and just turn him out?") On the few times I went on real dates with them, the concept of dancing comes up and we exchange where and what we like to dance too. I mentioned Lipgloss in Denver and how I found Darkwave Disco at Sonotheque, but then it closed a few years ago? "So what's your new Sonotheque?" And I didn't have an answer. Sure Beauty Bar replaced it in physical location, but it never got its appropriate sequel anywhere

This question plagued me for some months when I was still in the grieving period ("That's too bad about Sonotheque, eh, Conrad?" *epic sigh*) until I convinced myself that there wasn't such a thing as a sequel. At the time I looked up what the folks running it were doing but I never followed up on any of the leads. Yesterday I decided to give the guy who curated the musical end of it, Joe Bryl, a googlin':

- Runs 2nd and 4th Fridays at Maria's (960 W. 31st St)
- Musical director of the Charleston (2076 N. Hoyne Ave)
~~- Runs Wed nights at The Shrine (2109 S. Wabash Ave)~~
- Runs Thurs nights at Highball Lounge (738 N. Clark St.)

(I remember Joe was showing afternoon movies (Cinematheque Sonotheque) for a while before it closed: "We're creating a space where you can come by, have a drink, sit and relax while watching something you might not have seen before. Feel free to get up anytime, have another drink, go to the bathroom, go outside to talk on your phone, have another drink, relax a little, have another drink..")

Perfect. Brazilliance is back, Synthetiq is for New Wave, and I have new places to go.

Nouvelle Vague

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:07:00 +0000

The other weekend I had the pleasure of going to dinner at smunderground, done by Sachin and Meagan, two culinary experts and entrepreneurs in the Chicago underground dinner scene.

Beef cheek brisket with pureed kale, sassafras sauce, fried sweetbreads and cream, vacuumed potatoes turned tots, fennel/cilantro salad

Not only was the food incredible, a lot of the songs that were playing caught my ear. In particular, I heard this cover of 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' in the style of bossanova. Wow.

More after jumping...

Doing more digging, these guys do wonderful acoustic versions over and over again for other pop songs:
Nouvelle Vague - Blue Monday (also bossanova)
Nouvelle Vague - This is Not a Love Song
Nouvelle Vague - Master & Servant feat: Martin Gore
Nouvelle Vague - Dancing with Myself
Nouvelle Vague - Fade to Grey <--- Win

They are an all-girl-vocal group out of France that simply do a phenomenal job. The name Nouvelle Vauge is French for "new wave", just like bossa nova is Portuguese for "new trend", hence their focus on that lovely genre that I'm obsessed with too. Whether you're sauntering through the fog of an early morning Logan boulevard or halloween is over and couples have already coupled up, this is the music you should be immersing yourself with. I'm sitting here do my own personal immersion and find myself sleepily reaching for the cup of chai next to my cup o'noodles sitting next to Patty O'Furniture.

Oh, and happy valentine's day.

(btw, I just made the connection today that 'vox' referring to vocals rhymes with folks, not box. duh. aside over)

Sounds to Silence

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:50:00 +0000

I was passively listening to NPR one day and heard a familiar french voice speaking along with some familiar french names. I held my hand back from turning off the ignition and sat in front of my house. Good thing I did. I was pleasantly surprised that Air was scoring an old film called Le Voyage dans la Lune. I had never heard of it prior to but some digging around led me to understand that it was basically the first science fiction film made and a nod to Jules Verne.

The story during their interview was that Godin and Dunckel were asked to do it a month before it was to debut at Cannes, 16 May 2011. At the end of endless nights, they hadn't even seen film with the score together prior to the showing. Now, the soundtrack is a available, and the DVD is set to arrive at ye olde Logan Square at the end of the month. I'll have a showing, but my pal Christopher downloaded it earlier this week (no, I'm not going to cheat). For some clips (a different kind of cheating), you should go here.

Note that this isn't the first time that Air scored a film. You would remember that they did Virgin Suicides and former (then-current) drummer, Brian Reitzell, pulled off Lost in Translation... both Sofia Coppola films, both great soundtracks.

Sidenote
Soulwax is taking the space-themed soundtrack route as well... though not as elegantly as Air is. Here the Dewaele brothers do what they do best: jam.

Isolée

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:12:00 +0000

When I saw that day9 (yes, I play starcraft on occasion) posted an Isolee video on the f'book, he instantly got another 5 points. When I went to conspicks to see if I had put up an Isolée post anytime previously, I was severely disappointed. I'm confessing and the following is my repentance to Rajko Müller, Mr. Isolée himself.

If you're looking for lyrics, you won't find them here. We Are Monster is a collection of distilled, up-beat microhouse (think minimalist dance w/ 4x4 beats). I remember making up a dance with my friend Dan's then-girl Abby sticking my wrists out my sides and treating my phalanges as fins while bobbing like a buoy to 'Jelly Baby/Fish'. Probably one of my favorite samples ever is 4-3/4 min into 'Schrapnell' where he takes the sound made through a speaker when a cell phone about to ring near an amp/mixer/recording device. Brilliant.

Isolée - Jelly Baby/Fish

Last year he put out Well Spent Youth. He keeps to his truncated groovy roots and at the same time smoothes it out more to take a deep house turn. I can't say that I'm a big fan of the genre in general since I feel that there's a persistent discontinuity. 'Palorma Triste' and 'Trop Près De Toi' are closest to what I'm used to from him and consequentially the one I find most appealing... and not coincidentally they are the tracks that have the most number of samples creating that weave.

Isolée - Paloma Triste

Müller understands balance, and that's what gives his cuts longevity. Repetitive dissemblance with a memory is the key to good production and too often you hear artists with the loop button pressed a little too long. This is not a new concept. Probably the most famous example is Beethoven's 5th symphony; it's the same damn duh-duh-duh-duuuh thing over and over again... but not. The modern day version of this departs to the 4/8/16 bar loop, but Müller must, else it wouldn't have the house slant.

The other positive aspect in all of his work is the amount of detail that extends throughout. You can be minimalist but that doesn't mean you lack effort in the form of content. It takes a lot of leaves to make a tree and someone's got to put them there. It's great that the focus can be on the details of singular items, but I would prefer that that appreciation happen in a sub-layer of the overall design, otherwise there's less to recognize.

Good job, Rajko.

Bike Love

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:39:00 +0000

Good ole Christopher put this up for me a while back and I haven't had a chance to share. Christopher is the kind of fellow that always has solid gatherings and because of his positive radiance, he has a smorgasbord of contacts that are willing to do anything for him but he doesn't really need anything other than enjoying people interact. That and he really likes minimal house and most things DFA. Hence:

Holy Ghost! - I Wanted To Tell Her (feat: Nancy Whang & Juan Maclean)

Those Holy Ghost! chaps got a lot of help on this one to really make it kick. Not only did they get DFA's king and queen on the track and the video, they also covered Ministry to get it all done with a pinch of nu-disco.

Ministry - I Wanted To Tell Her

What's more, to make apply a holy trinity of musical divination on the track, the video itself is a cover of none other than Rad, the righteous over-the-top movie from 1986 about falling in love, being the town hero, standing up to evil corporations, all via BMX tricks. And Lori Laughlin is a total hardbody.

Real Life - Send Me an Angel

And just because I love them so much, and I think that the frontman of Real Life sounds a lot like Klaus Meine of The Scorpions, you need to hear this song too. (This is where the covers end, unfortunately.)

Midnight Club For Mike

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:46:00 +0000

Mike, listen to a group that takes every bit of the Valerie Collective's pre- and post-Drive fame: Midnight Club. Imagine gentle synth hands with shimmering cherry-polished fingernails glossing over your earlobe. She's telling you a story and you can feel the puffs of breath on your neck, but you need to step out to pick up a couple more Vangelis tapes for the deck. You get out to go; she gets out to stay. You turn around and see:

cred: TNUC

They are off of On The Fruit records (which has excellent pieces like this and this) and they are every bit of the aural bits you want them to be whenever you and your dame's moods point to a T-top cruise in between Medusa's on the way to the Warehouse.

Midnight Club - The Machine
Midnight Club - Escape Time
Midnight Club - Hot Space

Cred to Tracasseur for pointing me in the right direction on this one.

New PNAU Now Plus Spank Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:52:00 +0000

Yes, 'now' really was back in July, but since I haven't been paying attention to one of my favorite artists lately, they slipped right past the lighthouse. These guys are always a hoot and this album is full of happiness. 'Unite Us' is somewhere between doing cartwheels on the 4th of July at night and exchanging smiles with your best friend at a wedding. It should be no surprise that 'Unite Us' could feel a little like 'Come Together', and since I'm smitten by the smiles I really don't care as I'm sailing in these fellows' positive breezes. 'Everyone' reminds me a little of the Presets, vocally, but is distinctly PNAU with the waves of cymbals, octavonal synths, and never in a minor key. I'm trying right now not to beam too much, but it's a real trick especially after just watching Love Actually (my #2 uplifting movie next to High Fidelity).

PNAU - Unite Us (Kris Menace Remix)

Part Deux: Spank Rock has a new album
Not only was I sleeping for PNAU, I did the same for Spank Rock who apparently was hiding over in Deutschland with Boys Noize, not only working on an album, but signing up with them. Same old quality dirt. Yes.

By the way, the director of the video, Allen Cordell, loves the ridiculously / disgustingly / disturbingly / visually awesome (I think the hot pink, telekinetic Telly knockoff vid is my fav).

Oktober

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:17:00 +0000

The other day I was in my car driving around and I experienced a "song in your head" moment with Mein Vater war ein Wandersman (Der fröhliche Wanderer) from German class circa 1998. It was part of our compulsory repertoire, however hearing more of them piqued all of our desires (like Himmel und Erde) to sing them more. After getting that in my head I was craving going to a German beerhall and swinging steins.

In the same vein while drinking one of the best oktoberfest beers during September is:

Beirut - A Sunday Smile

This is a great waltz, and waltzes make for great tunes while holding a litre and rocking back and forth while staying on your feet because the entire bar is swaying like kelp in a constantly changing tide.

Do you have any pub songs? I'm looking forward to having a pile of mates pinting away.

Pitchfork Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:07:00 +0000

I think it's interesting that rather than going to both P4k and Lolla, I'm only choosing to go to Pitchfork this 2011. Primarily the reason is that I believe Lolla is too focused on the 18-25yo crowd, which I'm not a part of anymore. Am I a grown-up? Not by any means other than by age and responsibility, but I do see a shift in how P4k operates this year, especially with respect to their brand image of the festival.

For instance, looking at who is playing where and when, they don't show a timetable (I have one below) but rather merely organize it chronologically and visually, teetering on paragraph form. It's annoying if you're trying to set up the logistics of where to be and when, but if the setup were designed with a purpose (and why wouldn't it) then the focus is that they are trying to get you to see a show fully without breaking mid-way to head to the half-way finished show on the other side of Union Park. I think that's more sophisticated because you are there with intent, not to live the festival to excess.

Also, the new icon/logo for the festival is decidedly muted: not colored, not in your face, not even prominent. It's meant to be humble and that gives the fest greater credibility because it's not the advertising that's drawing you there (I'm not saying they didn't do that) but the quality of the curating. I like it. Speaking of, just look at the names of the stages.

Who are you anticipating?

Gatekeeper
They have figured out how to do the subdued banger but without actually being a banger or being over-the-top with typical distortion. The early 90's synth patch flavor reminds me of Alexander Robotnick's Shout borrowing the same. On the other hand of excellence, I get the same impression that I got from Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack in that every track stands up very well on it's own, but as an album I can't say that I would listen to Giza all the way through unless I'm on my way to some neon dungeon. Hey, what are you doing tonight?
Track to hear: 'Chains'
Verdict? 20ft back, all in black.

EMA
Judging by her glam photo with confident name on a chain, I wasn't expecting the somber, serene sounds she sirens, but I'm glad. Sometimes like a singer-songwriter, sometime like the XX, and sometimes like a passivated Go Team, it would be well-good to stop by and sit down. By the way, check this out.
Track to hear: 'Breakfast'
Verdict? Lying the the grass, problems take a pass.

Tune-Yards
Merrill Garbus has got lots of concepts. LOTS. Intermittent lounge singing, Wizard of Oz choruses, drum machine-drummer duet, distorted vocal sirens... all really cool, but in the end I feel like I'm eating food at someone's house that measures their culinary abilities by the number of ingredients they can add to a dish. If I listen to an album like WHOKILL over and over, I think the desire for instant gratification subsides and I may find and pick out the intricacies of the tunes. My girlfriend will have to press play though.
Track to hear: 'My Country'
Verdict? Passing through to get a brew.

Battles
These guys fit the exact archetype for a street music fest: bubbly, slightly weird for the olds, and like a parking meter, intended to make you leave. Sorry guys, not a fan. However, I would love to see if they do the live collab with Gary Numan on 'My Machines' so I can throw a rose at him.
Track to hear: ....
Verdict? Which end, is the opposite end.

Curren$y
Hearing hip-hop at Pitchfork is always a refresher for me as I hardly get enough of it. Curren$y takes care of my fix. You know what's perfect? The subtlety of the instrumentals, the lack of auto-tune, and basically the lack of gimmicks both in effects and lyrics. Like a primer-only coupe deville, this guy flows well without the flash and has it where it counts.
Track to hear: 'Breakfast'
Verdict? Listening within the masses, listen later after classes

Did I mention I like primer hoopties?

Thurston Moore
Almost immediately after pressing play, I got the desire to take a summer siesta after hearing him through mog. It's perfect. I woke up at 5am to take my pop to an epic bike trip today for the weekend and I'm beat. The delightfully plucked guitar paired with the swooning violas remind me of a high fidelity, sunday morning kurt vile without microphone pedals. I probably won't make it through his set standing up.
Track to hear: 'Benediction'
Verdict? Let the sun bake me, let the next band wake me.

James Blake
While glitch-minimalism may work for some, his CMYK EP doesn't really get it done, nor does Klavierwerke. Eh, I'm just not a fan of the style. If you love the odd / experimental / electronic sounds of samplers, this guy is for you.
Track to hear: ....
Verdict? Neko Case is the place.

Speaking of, what about the headliners? Guided by Voices, Neko Case, and certainly Animal Collective are all like gorgeous women: they are not in need of any more fanfare. So I'll be seeing them all.

Oh btw, some extra events are here.
And if you want to hear a medley of folk yourself: eMusic has a free sampler.

Saturday Night Live, ain't no jive

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 05:27:00 +0000

Cred

I've been on the prowl to collect a mess of WBMX tapes and let them ride in the Accord. Deephousepage is a great resource and I'm a total new noob when it comes to 80's house. (I'm totally mining that decade for all it's worth.) I try and get this guy from work to come out to Neo all the time, but he says he's past his prime and besides he was Mr. Industrial. As he explains it to me "it took me a while to figure out that no girls liked Nitzer Ebb."

Farley Jackmaster Funk & Julian Jumpin Perez - WBMX Mix 1987

Naturally, I can't find these jams anywhere, because it's either the live mix or it's some rare mix that I can't find. Partial tracklist nonetheless:
Double Exposure - My love is free
Carl Bean - I was born this way (Better Days Mix) (vid)
Luthor Vandross - The Glow of Love
Fatback - Backstroke (vid)
Take That - Relight My Fire (vid)

And I just got this one (skip to 2min at least)
Bad Boy Bill on BMX in 88

For grins,

Search for all the mixes from that era.
Ah merde! And tonight was the night to go to Neo! 1st Friday's of every month is house music house music.

Vexed Pulp

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:35:00 +0000

The primary motivation of me even listening to these guys is the return of Larry to Chicago for my bday:

I'm normally not a Britpop listener, but for a solid 2 weeks I've had these guys on repeat in my car and felt compelled to share. The tracks hark back to the days of Lipgloss in Denver for me, especially 'Disco 2000' where it begs to drink $2 gin/tonics while jumping up and down in everything Buffalo Exchange. Even further back, 'Underwear' was my exact feeling in high school at my crush sophomore year while she was dating this really cool fuck-up:

I couldn't stop it now. There's no way to get out.
He's standing far too near. How the hell did you get here.
Semi-naked in somebody else's room.
I'd give my whole life to see it.
Just you stood there only in your underwear.

Like my own from the same era:

Stop it Conrad
Stop looking at my legs
'Cause if I catch you
You'll be walking on pegs

Pulp - Common People
Pulp - Disco 2000
Pulp - Underwear

Different Class totally characterizes all the babe angst I've had throughout the years. Maybe I should have been writing music about all my failings so I could fall into the stereotype of musician-has-following. Every DJ gig I had included a fangirl or two with the same foolish output: "beat it, I'm working here." I now understand why parents give their kids advice... I just need to figure out a better marketing method than normally employed by the olds. You should have figured out by now that naturally I know nothing about Pulp... except for them handing me an old summer preview TV Guide with Season 2 of Voyager and the ghosts of girls past, my hands never held their ass.

The Yellow Happy Triangle

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Fri, 06 May 2011 06:11:00 +0000

I've seen YACHT before. I've heard YACHT before. The more I read about and experience YACHT, the more I want to read about and experience YACHT.

I'm standing at the head of the crowd at the feet of the lead guitarist; he's well put-together with his slick grey shirt, plain grey pants, no belt and haircut that reminds me of a young David Byrne. Claire Evans peels off layers of a white suit jacket, to a white thigh-length skirt, to just a wifebeater and white spandex shorts. It perfectly compliments the angelic perception I have of her enlightened soul.

Most times I go to a show and perceive the band's stage visuals while sipping my greyhound and being crowded in with the occasional patchouli fellow or sweet-scented female. This time, my divine essence is tickled. Truly the experience of hearing Yacht both in melody and in conversation conveys an embodiment of balancing subdued, Gaian worship with exercising group party yoga to advance human consciousness. At the show, Claire told me where their spiritual center is and now Marfa is my Mecca.

Which brings me to YACHT as a brand: human love and the pure, positive human experience. I can't think another appropriate word for it as the concept of a brand is fabricated, but YACHT's entire artistic vision is more of a discovery that they want to share in a focused manner with their audience. You could liken it to a religion but there is nothing overt or pressing about their message. Excerpt from their pamphlet "The Secret Teachings of the Mystery Lights" that I picked up from Jona Bechtolt himself:

Thankfully, the Universe need not be worshipped. The Universe is not self-conscious, not self-organized. It is merely an awesome extension of the space which we inhabit. We are part of its makeup as stars and planets are part of its makeup; if the Universe is infinite, then size becomes subjective. We are as relevant a part of it as anything else.

It may be difficult for you to picture yourself as an actual part of the Universe, to see your physical body as a visible nature through which the structure of countless waves of evolving life are unfolding their latent potentialities. But it is the case. Just as every cell in your body is an infinitesimal part of the system that is you, so you are an infinitesimal part of the system that is the Universe. And as we are part of all things, so we are capable of knowing all things.

Off their 7"...
YACHT - Dystopia
YACHT - Utopia

Experience them, travel to Marfa, and perpetuate positivity.

Another 90's post

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 23:50:00 +0000

I'm not there yet. The 90's are not back yet... not for me. The closest I've seen grunge make a comeback are folks wearing plaid shirts, but the long hair isn't there yet, nor are the Vans, the JNCO jeans, or Daria. What are back are the early 90's, only insofar as an extension of the 80's. Case in point:

Lady Miss Kier

Deee-Lite - Groove Is In the Heart ... and video

Many moon ago at Coachella 2007, I was walking along and heard some real grooves coming out of one of the side dance tents. I'm always a fan of the fag jams, and with the boys' presence on stage, that solidified the atmosphere. It was a big girl, with big hair, and a hot dress pushing up her girls, going all out with her mix. "Damn she's the jam." Who was it? It seriously wasn't until a couple of days ago when I became reacquainted with Deee-lite when I heard that Lady Miss Kier was DJ'ing at Berlin this Sunday (seriously, a gay club on Easter Sunday and a school night?) and hence this post. Now I can't get enough of her.

Reading about her influence on the NYC dance scene in the early 90's and the fact that she was already heavily a club fashionista makes me even more drawn to her. Her relations with Grace Jones and Bootsy Collins make my social libido percolate and her rampant self-canvasing makes me want to be my future-daughter's tailor. Now that she's coming (back) to Chicago, I can only imagine what she's got in store for the current scene... and what she's wearing.

Oh by the way, I hope she wears her hair up.

WLUW Hints Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 22:38:00 +0000

Living under a rock does have it its advantages...

1) You get more time to yourself
2) Nobody will judge that 6" beard after you keep telling yourself you'll get around to it
3) You can appreciate Lady Gaga two years later after The Fame since you just got it

Trends have flown past tending not to knock on their way through town. Fortunately, your radio that interprets frequency modulated air waves have given you a cracked-open window view of the music world. Enter WLUW, Loyola University's radio station. It's rare to hear the same song twice during any given month of listenership, so the opportunities to write down picks is on par with a grizzly bear catching horny salmon.

Enter White Mystery.

This is the kind of band that I want to see in my brother's basement, the Ice Factory, or the Mopery. (Oops, those are all gone.) Gruff, sweaty, and on Whistler Records, this pair are like a garage band for your next beach party: gleefully serrated. Alex White's sweet voice balances out the over-the-top drums of her brother Francis and is a perfect complement to her bad axe (do people still call it that? and bad = good, duh). Try their single on for size:

White Mystery - Powerglove

See them at Pancho's on April 20th or at the Abbey on May 7th.

So Much

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 04:56:00 +0000

There is a small barrage of random events that are going on. For one, I just experienced Baconfest for the second time. From 12 vendors to 60 influential Chicago restaurants, this thing has grown like crazy. Bacon bloody mary's (bacon encrusted rim, bacon vodka, strip of bacon), chocolate bacon topped smoke-flavored ice cream with salted caramel at the bottom tip of the waffle cone, and souvee'd pork-belly over polenta with blue cheese sauce are some of the items that caused me to buckle over after about 30min (pace yourself!). Oh and this isn't just Chicago apparently, it's nationwide per google. I had a hummus/sprout sandwich for dinner.

Next a recent find via Lincoln Hall is their Chicago Rock Stars tour where they go visit various musically important sites with respect to Chicago between 1980 and ~2000. Wilco, the Smashing Pumpkins, Ministry, and Liz Phair. Amongst the Untouchables gangster tour, the haunted tour, and architecture tours this is a welcome addition.

Also at Lincoln Hall on 5May, they are going to have Del Rey (local, modern psych-rock) do the instrumentals to Fantastic Planet, a 1972 Cannes-winning animated film allegory of humanity. What I've seen so far of the original has been well done (think Monty Python for animation). You can watch it in all 8 parts starting with...

Finally, this guy popped in firefox via my friend Mike. Thanks.

When is this album going to leak already?

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:07:00 +0000

I went to Buenos Aires my buddy Larry to visit our buddy Timmy, and if we weren't in a parrilla, he was searching for the new Strokes album. The obsession became most evident when I went to check my mail on Tim's computer and all the tabs in firefox were:
"angles leak"
"strokes angles early release"
"strokes angles forum mp3"
"strokes angles advance copy"
He would shuffle around our rental apartment after eating breakfast, then finally leave, exiting with "I'm going to go upstairs and listen to the album"... which was the 30sec snippet version of each track on youtube.

I even played my hand at it and called a couple of people since, after all, I agreed with Tim: how can a major cd release be under wraps for so long? Have the record companies figured it out? Was no human used in the manufacture and storage of these pieces of plastic?

After all that, a couple of tracks did peek out and we would sit around staring at various objects while Maccu Picchu would blast around us. Why is this so important? Simple: We want it to be the new 'Is This It?'. We want to be a stallion in college jumping up and down at a sweaty show in our sunglasses around beautiful friends and future friends... again. For a group whose public image smiles less than Thom Yorke, the Strokes are the reincarnation of the leather jacket, copious hair, converse, and the singular pair of jeans that only get washed once a month. They do everything rock and roll except elect a cab rather than chopper.

As for the album, they've chosen against the muted/distorted vocals that was (thankfully) everywhere in 'Is This It?' and picked the polished sound of First Impressions. (In contrast to Angles, First Impressions sounds a little like a modern day Scorpions but without the ballads.) Angles wins on well-placed subtleties where necessary and muted vigor elsewhere: Macchu Picchu is golden. But right now, listening to "Two Kinds of Happiness", the verses belong in Bright Lights Big City (that's a compliment), but the chorus needs to be turned down a little in favor of the rest of the album.

So til Tuesday, before you go to Twist and Shout or Reckless, you can listen to Angles here on the Strokes site.

from NME

"The best artists are the ones that work the hardest, and if you work hard enough, you'll eventually experience the happy accidents that are art. I learned that from my stepfather." - Julian Casablancas

Picks are hard

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:25:00 +0000

Lollapalooza is here and now and we are full of dilemmas... choosing where to go while at Grant Park is not the issue: we have an explosion of aftershocks around the city. The options on the right side are just the things I think are worth parceling out your precious ears and Etnies to. Let's start with the easy stuff:

Friday
The Ettes - 12:30
...but I'll probably get there at 1pm
Mavis Staples - 2:15 (Ana Sia is 2nd)
Drive By Truckers or My Dear Disco - 3pm
~~Semi-precious weapons~~
Hot Chip - 6pm
Chromeo - 7pm
Tiga - 8:10pm
2manydj's - 8:30pm
Jet to the Metro - 10:30
Cut Copy - 11pm
Soul Party in Chinatown if it's still going on - 2am
Orchard Lounge at Smartbar since it's the only late night thing I've heard of

aaaaand.... let's update this tomorrow. Merde I need to get out of here.

Last day at Pitchfork 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 15:56:00 +0000

This weekend has been a whirlwind of festival get-togethers (my next door neighbor was standing next to me randomly. I love this fest.) I need to get out of the house to get to Best Coast right now. They really are wonderful. Below is the schedule and my projected path if you want to follow, or tell me about my maybies. Find a fellow and grab a ticket outside the gates for $20 if you can.

Best Coast - The Sun Was High (and so was I)

Pavement 8:30 (a)
Sleigh Bells 7:40 (b)
Big Boi 7:25 (c)
Neon Indian 6:45 (b)
Major Lazer 6:15 (a)
Here We Go Magic 5:45 (b)
St. Vincent 5:15 (c)
Surfer Blood 4:45 (b)
Lightning Bolt 4:15(a)
Local Natives 3:35 (b)
~~Beach House~~ 3:20 (c)
Washed Out 2:50 (b)
~~Girls~~ 2:30 (a)
Best Coast 1:55 (b)
----arrive----
Cass McCombs 1:45 (c)
CAVE 1:00 (b)
Allá 1:00 (a)

Aeprilplane

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Terrible photoshop job

I really should be napping, but this nagging mix really should be reposted. Recently I picked up yet another one of Aeroplane's monthly boss mixes. The one from 3 months ago that they did for Radio 1 is no exception of excellence. It starts out a little slow, which makes the mix a little short, but then again if you are itching for some more pulsating rhythms that means they are doing a good job. Also, the big hullaballoo on this is that they are Radio 1's 500th DJ's to be on their show.

Aeroplane April Mix on Radio 1.
(In case you don't know how to download off of soundcloud, there is a little download button just above the play button. Sometimes it's activated and sometimes it isn't, depending on the artists. Click that button!)

Tracklist:
01. Aeroplane - We Can't Fly 
02. OTP Party Breaks #1 - Lifetime Groove 
03. Radiorama - Vampires ( Remix )
04. Marta Acuna - Dance, Dance, Dance 
05. Lucio Battisti - Ancora Tu 
06. Aphex Twin - Iz-Us
07. Friendfly Fires - Paris ( Aeroplane Remix )
08. Flight Facilities - Crave You 
^^ 7+8 mixed create: Friendly Fires vs Flight Facilities - I Crave Paris (Aeroplane Mix)
09. Human League - Don't You Want Me (Instrumental Edit) 
10. Black Van - Yearning
11. Les Rythmes Digitales - Sometimes 
12. Casco - Cybernetic Love 
13. Fox The Fox - Precious Little Diamond ( Shep Pettibone Remix ) 
14. Patrick Cowley - Right on Target 
15. Goldfrapp - Alive ( Joakim Dub ) 
16. Lime - Unexpected Lovers 
17. Children of the Mission - Tears

I always get a little giddy when I hear good DJ's play tracks that I have, especially if I have them on vinyl. I randomly got the Human League track a while back and it wasn't labelled as such, but it's instantly recognizable. If I rip it (unlikely) or find it online (more likely), I'll update this. Enjoy!

Alternating Current / Direct Current

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:21:00 +0000

Ah blog. Where have you been.

Let's not talk of our brief separation and just work on getting back to having some sort of friendship. Let's go to all the things we find and then tell everyone the story. We're always there together, but I can't have you acting too clingy because that doesn't make me want to write. Let's be relaxed about it so you can be important in my life, but I need to get out there and do different things too. I know I want to write a book, but I know it can't be with you, and you know that too. You love all the same music I do, but dare I say that I need to look at the other blogs? I'm a man afterall. I actually have another blog. I never told you but there it is. It read you one day and it didn't like the fact that I was posting, but that was to be expected; I would imagine you would have the same reaction. Towards the end there I was writing over there more and I realized that I couldn't keep both of you up forever. We had a long stint at Coachella, then Soundset, and I'll see you again at Pitchfork for sure, but I need to write for the other one. I'm sorry it had to be this way. Can we just listen to music like old times?

Speaking of dreaming, even though Cut Copy hasn't made an album in ages.. AGES I say, Dan Whitford (Cut Copy * 1/2) and Joel Dickson (Riot In Belgium) have come together like hydrogen and oxygen to explode into this fluid fantasy for my aural entertainment. How could you not play this at eleven? You can definitely hear the Cut Copy arpeggiation, the signature synths, and catchy chorus. Can't characterize too much of Dickson since I don't know too much about him other than RIB's "The Acid Never Lies" (fantastic) off of Azuli records. Clicky!

Voltage - All Night

Voltage - All Night (Azari & III Remix)

Riot in Belgium - The Acid Never Lies (3PM Rough Rave Version)

Little note behind AC & DC. After the advent of the electric lightbulb, cities were considering switching from their night light fuel from gas in favor of electricity. One region in particular was around Niagra Falls where a hydroelectric plant was beginning to be built. (side note: did you know that because of all the generators in the area, the falls actually used to pump out about 20x more water and were that much more awe-some?) There sprung a debate about how to carry the electricity from source to bulb over the huge distances of demand via cable. On one side was Nikola Tesla (of the Tesla Coil), proponent of the AC system and on the other was Thomas Edison with the DC system. DC was what Edison's lightbulbs used, batteries inherently have DC, no AC motors were around, not to mention all of Edison's patents were using DC. Unfortunately, AC had the super-advantage since transmission costs ($ per mile) for DC were much higher than AC since DC required additional generators ever couple of miles because the power lines would lose current and heat up if you tried to push it further than 2 miles. AC needed a similar station every ~15 miles so building sending electricity in rural areas was much more economical. Niagra was a done deal with AC and Edison ate his hat. More.
I love being a geek.

More music devotion

noreply@blogger.com (Conman) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:23:00 +0000

I've always wanted to run a tracker for bands like on the side of conspicks for the rest of the country so it's easy to find good shows wherever you are. The flip side of that is me traveling around the country to see people that wouldn't normally come to Chicago / get a different vibe. Coachella has it's scene, Pitchfork & Lollapalooza their's, but after going to them year after year there becomes a twang of familiarity bordering on repetition. That's why I went to Soundset this year since I've never been to an all hip-hop fest, but my true desire is to go to Belgium or Japan for a quality electronic music fest. (I've never wanted to go to WMC in Miami due to massive bro-dom.) Well, I found out the other day that I am a lucky man.

Enter Sonar Music Fest - Chicago.

Based in Barcelona, I've always talked about going there with Larry but it's always been time/cost prohibitive (I already plunk $1k for Coachella and I think he does the same for Lolla). This year's acts in Spain that I wouldn't see anywhere include Air, Roxy Music, DJ Hell, and Booka Shade and I would gladly pay more festival bucks for. As it pertains to my town, they say that they are focused on cultivating the North American and Catalonian (not necessarily Spanish) scenes at the fest. In similar regards they did other versions already in New York and in DC, and are doing another take this year in Tennessee. I'm excited.

I should also honorably mention that North Coast Music Fest is also going to be around in early September. Not purely electronic in nature (it almost seems like they're jumping on the festival bandwagon) but I'll be happy to see Pretty Lights, De La Soul, Moby, Boyz Noise, and Chemical Brothers. Oh my.

As a sidebar, I should mention that Sonar is still looking at various venues to hold their event, including Millennium Park, Congress Theatre, and the Metro. WHY can't they revitalize the Uptown Theatre? I understand that cost to rehab the place is astronomical, but with the presence of something like Sonar or whatever other music fest, I would think that it would be a great place to have a show. Do other cities in the US / the world have as many music gatherings as we do? I'm ignorant to whatever street fests go on in NYC or Paris or London, but I would imagine that with their glut of talent that there would be something to go to. You know what the best way to find out is, right?

UPDATE:
I actually wrote this entry last month. Since then, it looks like Sonar is going to do their spiel at the Cultural Center (the city's old library) on Sept 10-11. Announcement here.