Mylene: Queen of Pop

This week in the fishwrap, Charles Taylor makes the case for French pop, through the lens of the latest Mrs. Johnny Depp album. Below, longtime Phoenix critic Michael Freedberg, whom we consider our resident expert on the topic, provides his own master-class in variete francaise -- one that is necessarily weighted towards Mylene Farmer, who is the Reed to his Bangs, the Kixx to his Eddy. In his commentary on these 17 "best-of-the-best" tracks, Freedberg elaborates on the spirit of liberte that infuses the best of Mylene; teases out the existential bark in Pascal Obispo's bite; and introduces us to a breadth of French pop that swings from the volcanic rock-n-roll swagger of Noir Desir to the tipsy modernist electro of Melissa Mars. It's the depth of feeling that Freedberg responds to in these tracks; at times, when we were recording this session about a week ago, the critic sobbed openly in the studio while the tracks played back.

Not long ago, we teamed up with our sister mag Stuff at Night to bring together eight of Boston's finest DJs to shoot the shit about the state of dance music in our fair city. It turned out to be far more interesting than we had any right to expect it would be, and may even have squashed some beef in the process. Was kinda awesome to see the youngbloods pay respects to a 20-year vet like Bruno, who sat at the head of the table and dispensed knowledge like the Godfather. And it was also awesome to be able to make what we hope will be some lasting introductions. The conversation meandered from practical advice -- like how to handle obnoxious requests -- to big-picture shit, like Bruno and the Soul Clap dudes talking about the evolution of tastes and audiences, Baltimoroder dropping ready-for-dissertation paragraphs on the effects of technology on the profession, and DJ Knife lamenting his switchover to Serrato. You can watch the trailer above, and read the whole article over at StuffAtNight as part of their annual music issue.

But the best thing to come out of this whole meeting was a commitment to actually get everyone in the room on the same bill -- no small feat, and in our minds kinda historic in terms of bringing together a bunch of different scenes. Tonight, all eight DJs from the roundtable will be taking turns on the turntables at the Good Life, launching what we hope will become a regular everyone-and-the-kitchen-sink event. But on the off chance that never happens, you might want to stop by. It's free, with complimentary PBR for the early birds: but it's also list-only, so make sure to rsvp to RSVP@stuffatnight.com.

If you're headed to M.I.A. at the Palladium tonight, get there early: Cool Kids have cancelled, but we're dying to see what C440R's monster party-rap duo have in store when they step in tonight as a last-minute opening act. Big Digits at the Palladium: who'da thunk it? For an idea of how much awesomeness is in store, check the video above to see what happened the last time someone offered TD and Mac Swell a nice big stage.

Sure, it was only two songs. (Turns out they had a third ready to go, but decided against it. What, the applause wasn't loud enough? "Exactly," said Chris Brokaw.) But since this was the first time Come have performed since their 2 1/2-hour farewell gig at the MidEast's downstairs room back in -- what, 1998? -- well, this was pretty fucking rad. Brokaw, on loan from Thurston Moore's band and a zillion other projects, hopped up after Thalia Zedek's band played a more-blistering-than-usual set, providing the pentultimate thrill on the occasion of the Middle East's 20th anniversary as a rock club, which is not coincidentally Billy Ruane's birthday, and is also coincidentally ME booker Kevin Hoskins's B-day. Whew. Yes, Hallelujah the Hills and Helms and IV Diffusion and Drug Rug were great, but dude: Come played a fucking reunion show. And since you weren't there, we brought back this clip. We've got the other song in a holding cell, waiting for an encore, along with some awesome footage of Hallelujah the Hills covering the Beatles, which we haven't asked them for permission to post yet. More anon, then. Many thanks to Leslie McCleave for additional footage.

For those of you reading this at work: the weekend ain't over yet, snitches. Many of you will have Tuesdays bookmarked as Hearthrob night, but they're going early this week to accomodate a dude who we'd postpone Christmas to see. Even if you don't listen to SINDEN's UK radio show or have the funds to fly over the pond to catch his resident sets at Fabric, you've probably encountered his remixes, sets, image, and likeness on this blog and many others (those Mad Decent guys, for example, are obsessed). His Counterfeet label, with Dave "Switch" Taylor, is runnin' thangs.

For those of you reading this at work: the weekend ain't over yet, snitches. Many of you will have Tuesdays bookmarked as Hearthrob night, but they're going early this week to accomodate a dude who we'd postpone Christmas to see. Even if you don't listen to SINDEN's UK radio show or have the funds to fly over the pond to catch his resident sets at Fabric, you've probably encountered his remixes, sets, image, and likeness on this blog and many others (those Mad Decent guys, for example, are obsessed). His Counterfeet label, with Dave "Switch" Taylor, is runnin' thangs.

Monsterous edition of THUNDERDOME tonight, bringing Baltimore Clurb legend Scottie B and Spank Rock's Chris Rockswell to the decks, along with resident headbangers Micl Ptvn, Mistaker, and DJ Die Young to represent the home team. Special live-video guests: Robotkid (ask him how much the new Harmonix game Rock Band is gonna rule) and Matt Boch. Beware: it's at a new venue this month, and taking a cue from Robotkid's email, we're throwing in a map below instead of mpfrees.

Sort of like that episode of his brother's TV show, only with waaaay lower-end sponsors. If anyone goes to this, email us. We'll post comments . . . anonymously, of course.

On Wednesday, I had a show in Boston opening up for Widespread Panic.  I had never heard this band before, but I knew they were in genre of "jam band."  I don't know anything about the jam scene really, which is part of the reason why I wanted to do the show.  I knew it was going to be weird, which I guess was also part of the allure of doing it.  My shows from 2000 to 2005 were oftentimes like this, playing with an unrelated band whose audience could a damn about me and I get it up there and try to have a party.