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Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Unless you count the Juan Maclean and She Wants Revenge, which you probably won't. Subhead: "Coachella goes Lollapalooza." At least that part about Tool playing. Odd.
April 29
Depeche Mode
Franz Ferdinand
Sigur Ros
Common
Damian Marley
Atmosphere
Carl Cox
My Morning Jacket
Ladytron
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!
Tosca
Cat Power
Animal Collective
Hard-Fi
Devendra Banhart
She Wants Revenge
The Walkmen
The Juan Maclean
Audio Bullys
Lady Sovereign
Deerhoof
The Duke Spirit
Editors
Stellastarr
Lyrics Born
The Zutons
White Rose Movement
Colette
Wolf Mother
The Living Things
Nine Black Alps
Youth Group
Day 2:
Tool
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Bloc Party
Paul Oakenfold
Scissor Sisters
Matisyahu
James Blunt
Mogwai
TV On The Radio
Sleater-Kinney
Lady Sovereign
Deerhoof
The Duke Spirit
Editors
Stellastarr
Lyrics Born
The Zutons
White Rose Movement
Colette
Wolf Mother
The Living Things
Nine Black Alps
Youth Group
April 30
Tool
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Bloc Party
Paul Oakenfold
Scissor Sisters
Matisyahu
James Blunt
Mogwai
TV On The Radio
Sleater-Kinney
Gnarls Barkley
Coldcut
Digable Planets
Amadou and Mariam
Little Louie Vega
Mylo
Seu Jorge
Phoenix
Wolf Parade
The Go! Team
Metric
Imogen Heap
Art Brut
Dungen
The Dears
Jamie Lidell
The Magic Numbers
Los Amigos Invisibles
Jazzanova
Michael Mayer
Mates of State
Gilles Peterson
Gabriel & Dresden
The Subways
Minus the Bear
Be Your Own Pet
Giant Drag
Monday, January 30, 2006
 1. That thing we didn't tell you about -- the Diplo remix of the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs single "Gold Lion" -- has apparently leaked. Not by us or anyone we know. In fact, this one sounds faster than the version we haven't heard.
2. Jacque Lu Cont remix of Coldplay's "Talk" is actually . . . not terrible. Then again, we're a sucker for just about anything the thin white duke lays his hands on. Sorta makes you wonder why nobody's done this before. At which point you head directly to Digital Eargasm to get a canal full: all the Talk remixes fit to spin, plus white labels and more.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Follow-up to last night's post, from the typepad of columnist/DJ/record promoter David Day:
"this kfed shit is completely fucking up our sets. I dropped popazuda by Edu K, a real banging baile track for real, last night and I could tell people were thinking, is this k-fed?
"ugh. baile will never be the same. that fucker."
Speaking of which, Edu K! This is the frontman of the Brazilian hard-rock band Da Falla, whose crossover hit "Popozuda Rock N Roll" is sort of the "Walk This Way" of baile-funk. Now he's signed as a funk solo act to Man Recordings, the label that put out that Nao Wave reish last year, and has an album coming next month. Below: video-style (since that's how this baile thread wants to roll) representation of his brand-new "Sex-O-Matic" (thanks, David!) also featuring Deize Tigrona. Deize's single Injecao was the basis (at first uncredited, and now fully credited) for M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gone." Check Just for a Day blog for mp3s, including GNR-sampling remix.
WATCH: Edu K & Deize Tigrona, "Sex-O-Matic" (.mov)
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Over the past decade, VICTORY AT SEA have taken the dark-and-stormy, barbed-guitar torch from Come and run with it, subtly evolving with each of their five full-lengths. There’s still plenty of serrated guitar chords and big drums on their new All Your Things Are Gone (Gern Blandsten), but frontwoman Mona Elliott has become a more nuanced songwriter, and the band have developed a deft dynamic sense of interplay with her throaty delivery. If you heard their last disc, Memories Fade, you won't be surprised at the instrumentation of the song below, but you might be shocked by how good they've gotten at it: those piano chords are all NPR-perfect without getting all like this, and you'll probably never hear another song about wanting to take a nap that also leaves you with an urge to go read that. They celebrate the release of the new disc with pals Helms, Tiny Amps, Broken River Prophet, and Seana Carmody upstairs at the Middle East, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 617.864.EAST. [MORE INFO]
LISTEN: Victory at Sea, "To You and Me" (mp3, OTD exclusive)
REMINDER: Devil Music is playing an early-eveningish CD-release tonight, see Cami's post below for details.
Friday, January 27, 2006
"I'm not that good at pictures," protested lil' man Alex Whalen-Brown
right before our cameraman took this photo.
Photos by Matt Teuten.
We’ve seen the three-man musical-amoeba that is Devil Music headline the Milky Way as an electric-violin-led rock trio. We’ve seem ‘em perform contemporary-classical works with a 20-piece orchestra at the sold-out Mills Gallery -- and one of those works was a balding dude mouth-farting for like ten minutes, seriously. They’ve done tons of shit we didn’t see, like participate in Glenn Branca’s 100-guitar composition Symphony #13 in 2001 (at least it says so here) and tour nationally playing silent-film scores to F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and the 1922 Western Big Stakes. And so we’re pumped to see them play a CD release show for their new rock record Go! with their youngest collaborator ever: fourth-grade "guitar shredder" Alex Brown-Whalen.
Nine-year-old Alex has been taking lessons from the dude on the far-left, multi-instrumentalist-wonder Brendon Wood. And when Devil Music had a Wednesday show booked at Great Scott in Allston this past September, Wood invited his star pupil to join he and Rapino. Onstage, Alex was decked out in a Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon T-shirt circa 1973. On his little knuckles was the word OZZY inked upside-down. His parents were there -- his dad actually videotaped the show -- and so was his fourth-grade teacher, Ms. Amica. ("She was dancing," electric-violinist Rapino remembers, grinning.)
One major hitch: Alex's kid-friends couldn't come to the 21-plus club. So when the three-piece finally finished Go! (select song called "Burning" below) they invited him back. Alex’s involvement inspired a theme: an all-ages bill tomorrow night at the Massachusetts College of Art (North Hall) comprised of bands with members under 18. Bands like Undecided Youth, a Marblehead junior-high group whose Web site lists members’ "rock idols" alongside their "best friends" and "favorite colors." And a pair of others called the Conversions + the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, all scheduled to take place between the bedtime-friendly hours of 5 and 9 p.m.
[ADD-friendly version: Devil Music is playing a show tomorrow at MassArt from 5 to 9 p.m. with a 9-year-old guitar shredder named Alex and a bunch of other kid-bands. Alex is cute and he likes the Misfits, Slayer, and Ozzy, which way better than the Lame Hot Hits you were sweating as a young child. Alex isn't on the Web-exclusive Devil Music song from Go! below, but you should wax some right-clickage on that dash-underlined text. The song's cool.]
LISTEN: Devil Music, "Burning"
1/27/2006 6:29:26 PM by Cami | |
 Look, before you start, you're preaching to the choir, OK? Dudes come up from Rhode Island talking "punk rock band with a violinist," we're not just gonna yellowcard the fuckers, we're gonna red-card 'em and they're out for the rest of the game. We hear you, brah. But give us a second on this here band VERBANA DARVELL (yep, not only are they punks-with-violin, they've also got a name that sounds like a cheap hooker trying to make it in a Broadway chorus line). Perhaps we were willing to give V.D. (oh, man, it never ends) a chance because back in the '90s there was a punk-band-with-violin called the Dambuilders from these parts who were actually really fucking great. In any case, our dude Gulla gave these kids the thumbs up down in the Providence paper and we myspaced 'em and they sent us this track and, shit, it's pretty damn cool. Spazzy, metallic, the violinist may actually have heard of Stockhausen. They've got a record out produced by Hot Rod Circuit frontman Andy Jackson, they're good kids, they tour, they're playing the ICC Church today with the Number 12 Looks Like You and Boston's newest Epitaph signees, Vanna. You should go see them and make nice.
LISTEN: Verbana Darvell, "Faint Attraction" (mp3)
LISTEN: Vanna, "Dead Language for a Dying Lady" (mp3, via myspace)
 Not as sick as OTD is of them. But they're sick. And they're not playing Axis tonight. Hope it wasn't anything we said.
From the Yellowcard website: "Unfortunately, Yellowcard's 1/27 show in Boston, MA has been cancelled due to illness."
That is all. More OTD coming soon.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
1. Looking forward to this one: Phoenix faves Beat Circus -- the mad Waits/bop carnie-jazz apocalypse supergroup -- debut "a new set of songs about saloons and graveyards in the Gold Rush sung through pipes and bullhorns" at T.T. the Bear's Place, with Brian Carpenter and Alec K Redfearn joined by "special guest banjoist/vocalist" Adam Glasseye. Also, of course, OTD fave Casey Dienel on the undercard. She sent out a myspace bulletin a few days ago looking for a piano; hope she found one.
LISTEN: Beat Circus, "Big Top Suite Pt 2 : Clowns" (mp3)
LISTEN: Casey Dienel, "Frankie and Annette" (mp3, OTD exclusive)
2. Full disclosure: Phoenix's Will Spitz is in AGE RINGS, and this is a problem, because OTD actually likes them, which means at some point we may actually have to write about them in the fishwrap. (*unlike some other places OTD could name, we actually frown upon writing about our friends in print. That's what blogs are for.) For the time being we'll give you the poster. Coming soon: mpfrees. Tonight: at Bill's, on first.
 Sure, the RUDDS have impeccable ’70s and ’80s references — lots of bands do. But few people are more fun to watch than frontman John Powhida. When he jumps off the stage, unleashes his falsetto, and does suggestive things with the mike, he’s plugging into the time-honored rock tradition of straight guys pretending to be gay. Which brings us to the second Rudds album, Get the Femuline Hang On, a disc about having it both ways — being funny and serious, doing heavy rock and old-school R&B. On “Astrological Sign Choker” they’re in hairy-chest glam-metal mode. Rad. Catch the band headlining ThePhoenix.com/New England Product series this Friday at Bill’s Bar with Ryan Lee and the Mindless, who we just wrote about in the Phoenix a couple weeks ago.
LISTEN: The Rudds, "Astrological Sign Choker" (mp3)
LISTEN: Ryan Lee and the Mindless, "Obey Me" (mp3)
READ: Phoenix interviews the Rudds
READ: Phoenix interviews Ryan Lee
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Following up last week's story, the Mass. Industry Committee (M.I.C.) announced the nominations in several categories for the first annual M.I.C. Hip-Hop Awards this past Saturday at the Dres (of Blacksheep) show at the Middle East. The nominations were compiled based on the responses to over 150 delegate letters that had been sent out to media and people of knowledge in the state. Voting will be open to the public and will begin soon at www.massindustrycommittee.com. The awards are tentatively scheduled for April. The venue for the event has not yet been selected but possible locations include the Majestic Theatre, the Wang Center, and the Orpheum Theatre. Slaine topped the nominations with 5, two of which were for his work with Special Teamz, a group that also includes Jaysaun and Edo G.
– Matthew M. Burke
Mass. Industry Committee's hip-hop awards nominations:
 MAGAZINE OF THE YEAR
- Skope Magazine
- The Source Magazine
- What's Up Magazine
- True Magazine
- Subversive Magazine
- Hater's Magazine
- Friday's Magazine
SINGLE OF THE YEAR
- Iroq & John Doe I BELIEVE
- Dre Robinson's PRESSURE ON ME
- Special Teamz MAIN EVENT
- Slaine CLOSE YOUR EYES
- Mic Stylez BRING IT BACK
- DL Contagious
- Perceptionists MEMORIAL DAY
MIXTAPE OF THE YEAR (Artists)
- STRAIGHT PIFF - N.B.S.
- ASK YOURSELF Vol 2 - Man Terror
(Hosted by Chubby Chubb)
- WELCOME TO VENOM CITY - Venom
- ROOKIE OF THE YEAR - Suprano
- HOOD POLITICS - Termanology
- WHITE MAN IS THE DEVIL - Slaine
- THE TIME IS NOW Vol.5 - Hitmakerz
(Hosted by Chubby Chubb)
MIXTAPE OF THE YEAR (Compilation)
- MASS MOVEMENTS - Edi Leedz
- CHAMPS ARE HERE Vol2-Statik Selektah
- BACK TO SCHOOL Vol3 - TD3
- THE UNDISPUTED - DJ Shadow Skills
- MASS DESTRUCTION Vol2 - DJ Illegal
-OFFICAIL SAVEHIPHOP.ORG MXTAPE - DJ Shame
- EMPIRE STRIKES BACK - Statik Selektah & G-Unit
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
- Big Shug Who's Hard
- Lyrical Infiniti
- Venom Sick Again
- Benzino Arch Nemesis
- The Perceptionists Black Dialogue
- 7L & Esoteric Moment Of Rarities
- Ballklub
FEMALE ARTIST
- Carmen (Hitmakerz)
- Letia Larok (Embryo)
- Free
- Brix
- Kiki Breevlife
- Animocity
- Jane Nithrow
MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR
- Krumbsnatcha
- Dre Robinson
- DL
- Lyrical
- Ed O.G.
- Slaine
- Akrobatik
GROUP OF THE YEAR
- Hitmakerz
- Perceptionists
- 7L & Esoteric
- N.B.S.
- Venom
- Greater Good
- Special Teamz
Monday, January 23, 2006
How fucking psyched are we for Mastodon's "Seabeast" video, which finally gets around to staging the epic whitefugginwhale deathmatch portrayed in so many of Leviathan's songs? We have no words, only the above pix courtesy of Ryan Russell via Relapse, who provided these details:
. . . was shot on location at the historic Madison Theater in the band's hometown of Atlanta, GA . . . The video for “Seabeast” dictates the great battle between Ahab, Mr. Queequeg, pride and creatures of the sea . . . was shot with a hand cranked 35 mm camera employing many of the filmmaking techniques of the 20’s and 30’s . . . Director [Jonathan] Rej comments: “The Madison Theater was the perfect location to shoot such a video as it was opened in 1927 as a silent movie theater and was the first theater in Atlanta to show talkies. This is the first time the theater has been used in almost 30 years.”
Same dudes also did the last video, which was ridonculous, in case you forgot:
WATCH: Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder" (Windows Media)
LISTEN: Mastodon, "Iron Tusk" (mp3)
Sunday, January 22, 2006
 Trafficking in those familiar broody, moody vocals, reverb-and-delay-drenched guitar lines, and dance-dance-y drums, Birmingham’s EDITORS have drawn comparisons to the usual post-gothpunk suspects, both past (Joy Division) and present (Interpol). No surprise here: the NME faithful across the pond going bananas, and Stereogum says the NY show was ridonculous the other night. All that and their 2005 debut, The Back Room (Kitchenware), certified gold in Great Britain, won't land stateside until April. The band make the last stop of their first US tour at Fenway Recordings Sessions #11, a series that's replaced the Paradise as the joint to catch the debut of the UK's sensation-of-the-moment (see: Magic Numbers, the Subways, Hard-Fi, etc). Opening: New York’s the Twenty Twos, who also played Sessions #10, and DJ Carbo (Fenway honcho Mark Kates) spins between bands. Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston. 617.734.4502.
LISTEN: Editors, "Fingers in the Factories" (mp3, via Stereogum)
LISTEN: Editors, "Camera" (mp3, via underrated blog)
 You know them as the gene splicers turned laptop genies who made a Bjork record -- and whom, in a creepy analogue to the work of her hubby Matthew Barney, make art that sits at the intersection of cold science and hot flesh. MATMOS once made an album entirely from sampling and re-editing the sounds of liposuction, and everything from human hair and skulls to latex fetish clothing and amplified crayfish nerve tissue has figured in their collaborations with the likes of the Kronos Quartet and the Melvins, installations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and their own albums. There's a new Matmos disc scheduled for Spring -- The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast -- but their label hasn't heard it yet, and even the Matador dudes are at a loss to say what'll transpire when M.C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel pow-wow with Brooklyn's So Percussion for the kickoff of the Museum of Fine Arts' kick-assic spring indie-rock season (which is brought to you, as always, by your pals at the Boston Phoenix). Remis Auditorium, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston 7:30 pm $20 617.369.3306.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
1. A belated welcome to the new-look OTD. In case we didn't mention it before, that sweet logo is by Jef Czekaj, with whom any regular reader of this blog is already familiar via his numerous musical endeavors, most of which he chooses to pursue under one pseudonymn or another. Besides all that he's an awesome cartoonist. Even Dustin Hoffman thinks so, or so we've been told. If you ever forget where he's at, just click his signature above to check out his site.
 2. Let's pretend this item is unrelated to the one above. Mark E. Moon -- the dude who wrecked the internet with last week's all-world Neutral Milk Hotel remix -- has done it again. He was a little bummed we didn't mention him in our baile-funk rundown a few days ago, but that's only because we hadn't checked the Compound 440r blog in a whole five minutes, and in the interim those dudes had lit up, like, three yards of posts. Including a couple of distinctly non-C440r leaks -- like the first single off the MSTRKRFT album, which, goes without saying, we're totally stoked on. Plus the Big Digits dudes took a videoblog ride with that dude Raji that Miliard wrote about a while back. To get back on track, though, Mark E. Moon has posted two more songs from his upcoming Last Nail in the Coffin mixtape: a reggaeton remix of Unrest and (the source of his protest to OTD) a baile-funk remix of Belle & Sebastian. Fuck's sake, why isn't this kid famous already?
LISTEN: Mark E. Moon, "Legal Man (Baile & Sebastian Remix)" (mp3)
LISTEN: Mark E. Moon, "Isabel (Reggaeton, Eventually Remix)" (mp3)
3. Deserving of its own post: Wayne "& Wax" Marshall's definitive two-page Reggaeton essay in the Phoenix this week (actually even longer online). We were super, super inspired by reading Wayne's now-famous blog post "We Use So Many Snares," which subsequently became the inspiration for a couple of MSM reviews, including a widely-read one in the Times by a former Phoenix hip-hop critic . Wayne didn't really get as much credit as he probably deserved for steering the critical discussion about reggaeton, and OTD thought it was really important to get him into ink-and-newsprint to set the record straight. In any case, we feel this is an important and definitive piece of criticism, and it's one of the things we're proudest to have published. Even better, Wayne has put together a 40-minute annotated soundtrack for the piece that's downloadable for free over at this place, tracking many of the musical moments he elaborates on in his piece. We got giddy listening to it and reading along with it: this is what music criticism should be like. Period.
LISTEN: Wayne&Wax, "Dem Bow Mix" (mp3)
3. Apparently everyone else had this already, but now we got this thing where you can see what Google searches people did to end up at OTD? And then you're supposed to post about it when you get a funny one? OK, best one so far, just the other day: someone landed here by searching for "Jordyn Bonds nipple." Dream on, duder.
4. The Chop Chop's Catherine Cavanaugh checked in the other day -- hi, Catherine! -- to clarify that we were not crazy, they really did have an mp3 up, they just took it down to save on bandwidth. "And plus," she writes, "I'm fascinated with myspace....which is lame, I agree." Not at all. We love social networking as much as the next hopeless web addict, we just can't take myspace with us on the train. So consider yr iPod satiated: here's the track . . .
LISTEN: Chop Chop, "Mixtape" (mp3)
Friday, January 20, 2006
Arch, sophisticated, and impeccably dressed, Bon Savants frontman Thom Savant croons fey, picture-postcard indie-pop with a bitter aftertaste. Already beloved by Anglophiles from Central Square to Times Square, they're just now getting around to finishing their debut album, Post-Rock Defends the Nation, which was produced by Bill Racine (Rogue Wave, Flaming Lips). The album, originally scheduled for March, is now looking more like a May release. To tide you over, we got a download -- 'sclusive! ('sclusive!) -- and after you've fallen in love with it, you can catch the band tonight (Friday, January 20) as part of that ongoing ThePhoenix.com/ New England Product series at Bill's Bar. (Note-entirely-full disclosure: a member of the OTD army dates the Bon Savants' drummer. Not a big secret or anything, just not really any of your motherfucking business. But we have it on good authority that her big brother wouldn't let her date a dude in a sucky band. So there.)
Thursday, January 19, 2006
1. Why pretend otherwise? We had lots of blog-picked goodness lined up for today, but everyone's water-cooler discussion this morning is going to be centered around one song and one song only. Download courtesy Nick Fader and the Catchdubbettes: Cam'ron drops the a-bomb on Hova, setting off what's sure to be a mixtape battle of epic proportions. It's only been hours, but Cam's spoken intro already feels legendary: calling out the King of New York for wearing sandals with jeans, then -- according to Lemon-Red's count -- calling dude "ugly" no less than seven times. It's presented as Cam's chivalrous defense of Dashafella, though nobody with a pulse can fail to rekkanize that Killa Season is right around the corner. Motives, shmotives: Trust us, our description doesn't even begin to describe the magnitude of this shit. Crack sales are plummeting, dope fiends are getting high just off the anticipation of how insane Jay's response is gonna be on this. So first, before you get your coffee and whatnot, go grab round one:
LISTEN: Cam'ron, "You Got To Love It" (mp3, via Faderblog)
 2. Look, we know some of you have heard something about the new/as-yet-unreleased Yeah Yeah Yeahs single "Gold Lion" getting remixed by Diplo. We just want to set the record straight here for a second and make this perfectly clear: we don't know anything about it. We certainly, 100-percent have NOT heard the track. You will not hear us say that, for instance, Diplo's remix of "Gold Lion" is the most awesome thing he's done since Piracy Funds Terrorism, precisely because how could we if we haven't heard it yet? If we were to claim that, say, this song had glitchy acoustic guitars and b-more synth stabs and hooks galore and Karen cooing Oooo-ooooh, oooh-oooh, and then if somewhere down the line that turned out to be the case, all of that would be totally coincidental. Because honestly, like we said, our knowledge on this is zip, zilch, nada.
While you're waiting for some douchebag to leak the aforementioned YYYs track, you should maybe do like we did and catch up on the Backwudz album. Nobody is every gonna love those dudes more than everyone else, but we're a sucker for anything with a silly Willie Wonka sample, and this is, like, the mother of all Oompa-Loompa breaks. It's also a little old. Whatever.
LISTEN: Da Backwudz, "I Don't Like the Look of It" (mp3)
3. We bet you've heard lots of low-level buzz about the Gnarls Barkley record, but if you're like us, you can't even remember how, even. To refresh: yes, it's Danger Mouse. This time he's with Cee-Lo from Goodie Mob. And that's the problem: people are thinking it's gonna be another DangerDoom, another Gorillaz. Nonononono. You do not understand the gravity of the situation: we're talking getcha-two-step-'cause-it's-the-record-of-the-year type shit. What we're hearing is something that is way, way better than anything either of the participants have ever done. When the first track leaked a while back, we were like, "Oh, wow: this really is severely not a rap record at all." Then after a few listens it was like, "Fuck, these guys made the 2006 equivalent of a Sam Cooke record." Then the other night someone leaked two more tracks, these ones untitled, one of which is just like not even comparable to anything else going on right now. It's a suicidal soul song, but it's also more than that. It's . . . well, fuck, just go listen to this shit . . .
LISTEN: Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy" (mp3, via gvsb)
LISTEN: Gnarls Barkley, "Untitled 2" (mp3, via gvsb)
4. Our dude Will Spitz put up a Jimi Hendrix poster in OTD's old office the other day. Who the fuck does that? And then sweats us for the Diplo remix of a YYYs song? THAT WE DEFINITELY DON'T EVEN HAVE?! (And yo, what you know about a Diplo remix of Madonna's "Hang Up"? Because look, and we're not playing here, we have absolutely no knowledge of that shit, either. As a matter of fact, the next person who even hints at shit is gonna have to fight us.) In any case, maybe Will will like this song, on which the Rubber Band Man interpolates "Hey Joe." The hook is bananas.
LISTEN: T.I., "What You Know" (mp3, via Spine Magazine)
5. Go thank Benzi for posting the new Nelly Furtado/Timbaland joint. Conceptually, the obvious architectural precedent for this is Gwen/Pharrell, but Timbo sounds like he's got more of a Mr. Collipark intimate-club vibe on his mind, and over the course of the song he talks Nelly into going from Robyn-y, bubblegum-popsong naughtiness into some Fergie-style, humps-and-crotch-sweat nastiness. We have trouble imagining this as a huge pop hit -- full disclosure: OTD said the same thing about "Hollaback Girl" -- but your club arsenal will be incomplete without it.
LISTEN: Nelly Furtado, "Promiscuous Girl" (mp3)
6. Speaking of all of the above, the following two remixes made the rounds last week: the first is a humpless "My Humps" that turns into a clever megamix; the second is the Pharrell song remixed by the other Neptune, Chas Chad, in a B-more club style. The latter is DJ Technics approved.
LISTEN: Mark B, "My Humps (Humpless Remix)" (mp3)
LISTEN: Skateboard P, "Can I Have It Like That (Chase Chad remix)" (mp3, via Gangsta Music)
5. We forgot to mention this a while back, but Nick also picked up on our MySpace buddy Statik Selektah's refix of the 50 Cent/Mobb Deep track over the Nu Shooz beat. Statik is not normally the kind of guy you'd pick for a Fader favorite: he's one of those in-the-trenches, doing-good-deeds dudes, big-upping local talent and tossing off smashed Clinton Sparks, Jr. mixtapes. But you don't need a marketing degree to figure how the Rub crew would be feeling this:
LISTEN: Mobb Deep & 50 Cent vs Nu Shooz, "Have a Party" (Statik Selektah remix)
7. Rollie Cadence Weapon a/k/a Razorblade Runner is back in the game and his comeback post just killed like 100 bloggers dead. To recap, the things to grab over there right now are the much-searched-for Sebastian remix of the track by Uffie -- the jawn that Lemon_Red has been co-signing of late -- and the Digitalism remix of the Test Icicles song. These are both club-droppable and if you are just walking around on the Green Line with these songs on your iPod, there's a little hipster halo that hovers over your head when you playlist these things. Despite all that, those two songs are really heated. And, y'know, most of you guys have the D4L and the Man Man, but if not, like, obviously grab that shit.
8. OK, everyone knows that Sam "Iron & Wine" Beam hit the jackpot by having Calexico back him on that EP and whatnot -- he finally got the band he deserved, and they finally got a singer with songs. Everybody's happy. So can you really blame Will Oldham, who has spent the past couple of years trying to figure out if he's a real country artist or not, for throwing up his hands and saying, "Fuck it, I'm ripping THOSE GUYS off!" To wit: the Bonnie Prince Billy record backed by Tortoise. Which is also, like the I&W/Calexico disc, coming out on Overcoat. This one is all covers. Samlexico did VUs and Willie Nelson; Bonnie Prince Turtle does Springsteen. Here you go:
LISTEN: Bonnie Prince Billy and Tortoise, "Thunder Road" (mp3, via some velvet blog)
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
So. This thing showed up the other day. We are not ready to review it or anything. But it's worth noting that the Dolls did two sorta odd things: they made a "rock" record -- which is not easy to do without guitars of any kind -- and they also stuck to the piano/drums format. In other words, if you were expecting an album filled out with other instruments, you aren't getting it. Also, if you were looking for Brechtian punk-cabaret, you aren't getting that either. (We were gonna save this for when more people were reading, but what the hell: No, Virginia, there isn't a Santa Claus.)
On the upside: there are some good songs on this record. That always helps.
Our favorites thus far: the one that namechecks the Noise Board, which we'd guess is also the single. And the one called "First Orgasm," which if you've heard "Missed Me," you might assume is like some creepy song about a girl describing the first time some dude made her spooge: a coming-of-age story if you will (sorry). That's not what it is. It is, however, a really funny song about Amanda's wake-up routine -- the title being a reference to her "first orgasm of the morning," and an excuse to take double-entendre to the next level. Huzzah!
If we were into burning bridges we could leak this or something, but we don't play that. Plus, we assume Fluxblog or someone will chime in soon enough. In the meantime, here's the Dresden Dolls covering Queens of the Stone Age, via Copy, Right?
LISTEN: Dresden Dolls, "No One Knows" (mp3)
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
 Willy Mason -- that emo-folk kid from the Cape who signed to Conor Oberst's label, had a UK buzz-making hit with a really really awesome song called "Oxygen," and then seemed to drop off the face of the earth after having what sounded like a nervous-breakdown-ish episode -- has resurfaced on the Astralwerks label, home to such hipsterbait mofos as the DFA roster and Beth Orton. In March, they're reissuing his debut Where The Human Eat, which at one point was available as a free download in its entirety on Conor's Team Love site. Here's the official announcement and tourdates:
Astralwerks is proud to welcome Willy Mason onto it's roster. Hailing from Martha's Vineyard MA, Mason is all of 20 years old and already an extraordinarily accomplished singer-songwriter. Mixing the blues, folk and country traditions of John Lee Hooker, Hank Williams, Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash with the spirit of politicized punk rock, Mason forges a sound all his own, at once incisive, ramshackle and timeless.
Mason will be touring extensively this year. Dates with KT Tunstall are already confirmed:
1/17 New York NY, Mercury Lou nge
1/20 Boston MA, Paradise Lounge
1/21 Philadelphia PA, World Cafe Live
1/24 Chicago IL, Schubas
1/25 Minneapolis MI, Varsity
1/27 Seattle, Crocodile Cafe
1/30 Portland OR, Doug Fir Lou nge
1/31 San Francisco, Slims
Previously in the Phoenix: Bright Eyes smile on Willy
WATCH: Willy Mason, "Oxygen" (RealVideo)
 
1. You may recall that, once upon a time, a Florida DJ helped a Sri Lankan MC in British exile to gain international exposure by producing a song that borrowed liberally from a form of music popular in Brazilian ghettos that had in turn been derived from a style of hip-hop indigenous to Miami. Which, as you may recall, is a city in Florida. The relevant point here being: the part about the Florida DJ borrowing liberally from the Brazilian song caused a bit of a fuss.
Now comes something that feels inevitable: a trio of good-looking baile-funk teens who are seeking revenge (or so you could say if you're kind of fudging the details, but what the hell, let's invent a storyline, shall we?) by borrowing liberally from popular American hard rock and Broadway showtunes. The best part? Yes, the Florida DJ is involved again.
In case you ain't heard, the group in question is Bonde Do Role ("The Rollercoaster Band"), they have a 12-inch EP coming out next month, they are from Brazil, and they are fixing to blow the fuck up in a minute. Discovered by Diplo, they're the first signing to his Mad Decent record label. Mad Decent's label manager was nice enough to give us the heads-up about this a couple weeks ago, and recently leaked a song to the world. In true label manager fashion, he didn't leak the best song on the disc -- he left that for some blogger guy to do -- but we'll spell it out for you: funk carioca + Alice in Chains's "Man in the Box" = genius. (OTD's dream of a real-deal baile-metal song, first dredged up by Da Falla's Popozuda Rock N Roll, has been realized.) Ditto for the songs sampling the Darkness and the Grease soundtrack. Crass? Yezzur. Dope? You don't know the goddamn half of it. CD version will appear at a later date with remixes from Diplo, Brucker & Sinden, DJ/rupture, DJ Marlboro, and Paul Devro -- i.e., the only baile-funk DJs that matter. If you hadn't slept on these kids, you coulda downloaded the Bonde demo at their MySpace page: now you'll have to stream it like the rest of the early adopters.
LISTEN: Bonde Do Role, "Funk de Esfiha" (mp3 over at Lemon-Red)
2. Hearing the Bonde EP had us thinking yet again about what lies down the pike for favela funk. Mere weeks ago, Disco D introduced the tabloid and mainstream press to baile-funk by producing a funk track -- in Portuguese, no less -- by Britney Spears's husband. Now he's turned around and produced a b-funk single by a Brazilian group who sing in English. (We could claim it's the first b-funk single in English, but we have no idea whether that's the case.) Clearly, this is the shit people are going to be talking about this year. Whether anyone who heard Diplo and Paul Devro's mixes in 2004-05 will recognize the funk in 2007 is another question. But if it sounds anything like this, we won't give a shit. Disco D: consider yourself forgiven for K-Fed.
LISTEN: Braza, "Welcome To Brazil" (mp3)
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Photos by Eric Antoniou.
(today's guest OTD post is from Matt Squadcar)
First the Ameriquest Mortage signage flanking the striking curtain mural that
hung in front of the stage came down. Then, after a few random guitar chords
echoed through the Garden, the scrim disappeared, as the big screen behind them
let off a blinding flash, the Stones were back in town on the second leg of
their “Bigger Bang” tour. At one point, a bemused Keith did manage to mumble
something about “déjà vu,” but — to their credit — this was no rehash of the
August 21 gig that got the tour off to celebratory start back in August. Yeah,
they opened with a loose and swinging “Jumping Jack Flash” that took a few bars
to come into focus, which is saying a lot for such a familiar song. But that
Keith and Ronnie’s style: whether they’re toying with crowd or each other, they
seem to enjoy stumbling into their bloosier rockers rather than nailing the hook
right away. Maybe it pisses Mick off, though he seemed his usual happy self as
he half-sung/half-shouted a chorus as fully etched in our collective cultural
memory as the lips-and-tongue Stones logo that adorned all the merch the
capacity crowd had already feasted on, from the $15 faux laminate ticket holders
the guy in front of me wore around his neck, to a $600 leather jacket that one
couple were debating about as I’d made my way into the venue. Hell, what’s six
bills when you’re shelling out up to $450 for tickets.
The show
may have started in similar fashion to the Fenway gig, with Keith’s freeform
soloing and beefy Chuck Berry licks fighting with Mick’s flashy moves for the
spotlight during “Jumping Jack Flash” and “It’s Only Rock And Roll.” But then,
with keyb man Chuck Leavel leading the way, they launching into “Let’s Spend the
Night Together,” setting the tone for a set that featured almost a dozen tunes
they didn’t play that hot August night at Fenway. From a perilously loose
“Midnight Rambler” and a shambling “Happy” to a smooth “As Tears Go By” that
featured some nice 12-string acoustic strumming by Keith.
After seeing about a dozen Stones shows in the past dozen or so
years, I’ve admittedly started looking for something — anything — critical to
report. But when you consider how easy it would be for the “Greatest Rock and
Roll Band in the World” (or, at least, to judge from all the 18-wheelers parked
out back, one of the biggest) to just go through the motions, it’s truly
remarkable to watch Ronnie wait for Keith to give him the nod before breaking
into the lap-steel solo on “Happy,” or look on as Keith makes eye contact with
Mick before glancing back at Charlie to mark the end of “Tumblin’ Dice.” Yeah,
they’ve got a couple of keyboard players, a four piece horn section, three
background vocalists, and a monster of a bassist in Daryl Jones to keep some
semblance of order. But there aren’t even many club bands left who deliver the
level of spontaneity that distinguishes the Stones as dinosaurs in the very best
sense of the word.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
 It won't be official for another week or so, but sources tell OTD that after a whirlwind bidding war, Boston's Aberdeen City will sign to Columbia Records. In another local connection, their A&R rep is Maureen Kelly, a Boston University grad who while at Universal Records signed the Scissor Sisters. The band plays ThePhoenix.com/New England Product series at Bill's Bar on February 24, shortly before making their first trip to SXSW, and is readying a limited-edition 7-inch of their local hit "God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me" (which, shortly after we shouted it out, was promptly awarded song of the year at the Boston Music Awards), with a flip-side remix by Lo-Fidelity All-Stars.
PREVIOUSLY ON OTD: here, with mentions here, here, here.
LISTEN: Aberdeen City, "God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me" (mp3)
LISTEN: Aberdeen City, "In Combat" (mp3)
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
 We didn’t stick around long enough to see whether U2 played, but we did catch a good chunk of the “Steve Morse Review” at the Paradise Monday night. In case you missed it, this was a chance for the “local music scene” to thank the exited senior Globe pop music critic for holding down the most tit job in town for 30 years. Organized as a kind of roast by the Don Law/Tea Party Concerts/Clear Channel folks and freelancer Tom Kielty, the “Review” of Steve attracted the usual list of aging who’s-who’s and smattering of youthful rock and roll hoodlums (who hung by the upstairs bar and snack table). Don Law Himself gave a keynote speech (only funny line: a mention of Morse’s “prematurely black hair”) before turning the event over to his top capo, Dave Marsden. Then there were a string of sometimes sorta funny tributes, which weren’t nearly as biting as they could have been. Come on, guys — the dude no longer has any power: roast him, for fuck’s sake.
Everyone pretended that the reason Steve got all that “exclusive access” to everyone was because he is probably the greatest rock and roll journalist who ever lived. It seems no one noticed that he was the critic for the Boston Globe. As in: Boston’s only daily paper that matters.
Whatever. Give the guy his props. In his thank you address, Steve himself estimated he went to about 250 shows a year -- “300 when I was between marriages.” And God bless him for that. Peter Wolf poignantly remembered the good ole’ days of the Boston scene when he and Morse and, apparently, Van Morrison, whooped it up and “threw up on each other.” Then he read the lyrics of his “Cold Heart of the Stone.”
The Laws actually gave Morse his two aisle seats from the Orpheum and Great Woods/Tweeter Center. As Morse sat in the Great Woods/Tweeter chair stage left, longtime Tea Party ticket manager Paul MacDonald said he was glad that Steve would no longer be on “the Don Law payroll,” and did a Bono routine in a “Bono jacket” (black, fringed), a “Bono hat” (black cowboy), and “Bono glasses” (amber-tinted ski goggles — the Fly, get it?), and sang . . . “Nobody Does it Better.” Former Herald pop critic (another buy-out “victim”) Dean Johnson gave Steve a framed yellow legal pad and made a big deal of tipping his hat to his rival — that hat dramatically revealed to be a . . . Woodstock tie-dye baseball cap! Which he tipped and then walked off stage with! (Wasn’t he supposed to give it to Steve? Get us rewrite.)
There were video tributes from Steven Tyler/Joe Perry and Jimmy Buffett, emails from James Taylor and Bruce Springsteen and Billy Fucking Joel. Perhaps the best phoned-in tribute was from former Don Law booker Jodie Goodman (now working for Clear Channel in San Francisco) who appeared on the video screen in a still photograph, dishabille in bedclothes, bare shoulders exposed, as her recorded voice thanked Steve since, “I only had to sleep with you twice” and “you never hit on my girlfriends . . . unless you were drunk.”
Everyone listed as many shows they could think of that Steve saw and Steve ran down the list of Paradise shows: U2, the Police, Tom Petty, the Pretenders, Warren Zevon, Elvis Costello, and on and on. Steve was clearly touched, thanking fellow Globies, telling us to be nice to Joan Anderman (his heir apparent). When he started thanking the “late-night spots” — Dunkin’ Donuts, White Hen, and Hi-Fi Pizza — we figured it was time to leave.
You don't have to know anything about late-'90s "Black Sabbath revivalists" Roadsaw (though OTD does) to appreciate this utility-box-turned-rawk-white-board recently discovered in a practice space at New Alliance. Maybe knowing that the Curve of the Earth band once had two ass-related songs called "Fancy Pants" and "Handed You Your Ass" (scroll) might help. Or that Roadsaw's Boston-famous bassist is Tim Catz* (now of Antler, along with former Saw Craig Riggs) and their twice-kicked-out guitarist was (is?) named Darryl Shepard** (who went on to join Milligram). Or that Quintaine Americana practiced here too and could've made this list. No matter, this one speaks for itself. Hyper Active Colin Powell? Assholular Mitosis? Plum-Sized Lump? Whoopsie Daisy Fuentes?
New Alliance father-figure Alvan Long says that he thinks the boys were coming up with fictional band names, though it could be a marathon-long brainstorming session for song titles -- who fuckin' knows. (Though if anyone knows the real backstory and wants to inform us in the comments section, that'd be sweet.) Since we can't post the photo big enough without blowing up the tables to the right, here's the master list (or how it reads to these squinted eyes), clockwise from top left:
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