Monday'ed

no BraiNEr supplements.

2009-06-23T17:17:00.000-07:00

each week you can crab five tracks from us to inspire contributions for the night.

click on the image to download

Song of the Pearl - Arbouretum - Thrill Jockey - 2009

2009-05-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

It’s debatable whether a record should be judged against a band’s previous work, let alone against one previous song. But perhaps the most disappointing flaw of Arbouretum’s second LP is the absence of a cut that rages quite as long or breaks as hard as “The Rise” did on Rites of Uncovering. The 11-plus-minute exploration of big harmonies and fancy feedback is the debut’s highlight, but there’s nothing quite as bold this time around. Sure, Song of the Pearl is tighter, smarter, and more meticulous than the previous full-length, but it’s also a touch less raw and calmly tempered by its maturity.

Fans of straightforward blues-oriented rock likely won’t mind as much as the psychedelically inclined. While there is plenty of fuzz and hum dispersed across solid riffs and slick licks, the tracks on Rites never seem to depart for a surprising trip. “Infinite Corridors” is ostensibly this album’s freak-out, and, while weird, prior history indicates that it never really wigs out the way it could. To be fair, the gas left in the tank is burned up by the subsequent “The Midnight Cry,” where an explosion of furious kick-drumming works into the grungy chuk-chuk-chuk-chuk of a punk song replete with a guitar solo that mocks up a bagpipe’s tonality.

The album pinnacle is opener “False Spring,” a thorough musical expression that imparts an understanding of Arbouretum’s collective ability. The dueling guitar solo cuts itself cleanly from the verse, and then plays out like a track meet; one sprinter takes the lead aggressively out of the blocks, only to see his advantage give way to a lingering rival at the first turn. He paces the leader on the second leg, but ultimately sputters like a key in the ignition, allowing his competitor to charge far ahead for the finish line. After a quick breather, he takes a victory lap, shredding through the crowd’s percussion, his laurel wreath suggested by a frenzied tambourine.

Unfortunately, the track may be too aptly named; after the opening kick, other climaxes are not so out-of-breath, even seemingly reserved. A lead guitarist of David Heumann’s caliber should be free to roam, but just a track deeper and he’s relegated to window-dressing on the low slunk of “Another Hiding Place”, adding a flourish or accent here or there, but never asserting his movement. His conformity isn’t a total loss; by staying with the pack he rubs up closer with guitarist Steve Strohmeier, a recent addition to the group by way of their split-EP release Kale. Strohmeier is a more than adequate complement to Heumann and certainly adds another dimension for the group. But that wrinkle comes at the loss of some dynamic; the duo tends to weave together rather than push off against the other.

Song of the Pearl, then, is well-executed, but stuck in the same gear, especially in its middle. Heumann has surrounded himself with very talented players, and as an ensemble they are tight, tied together by the bombastic percussion of Daniel Franz. And perhaps the artists believed that wandering head-on into stoner rockdom might be a bit redundant. They may have been right, but while the terser arrangements are often clever and always fine-tuned, the group never seems to become more than the sum of its parts. Toss in forgettable lyrics, and Song of the Pearl doesn’t quite push any particular button hard enough to fully satisfy, despite its brilliance.

1. False Spring
2. Another Hiding Place
3. Down by the Fall Line
4. Song of the Pearl
5. Thin Dominion
6. Infinite Corridors
7. The Midnight Cry
8. Tomorrow is a Long Time

by Jay Dryburgh
for Tiny Mix Tapes

Matthew Zapruder - Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope - SideCho - 2009

2009-04-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

It can be troublesome describing what an artist sounds like, but perhaps Michael Zapruder has taken away some of the guesswork since he serves as Pandora’s musical curator. A little predictably, the music genome project spit back three other white guys that play songs, listing Will Oldham, Luke Haines, and (huh?) Dave Matthews. But to me, for richer or poorer, Zapruder more closely resembles Randy Newman. Like the better Newman moments, his latest full-length Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope is raggedly intimate, even-keeled, and admirably restrained. The dry consistency, however, at times caricatures Newman “just singing about what he sees,” slowing the pace to a drip with sentimental imagery bordering on antiquity.

The pace lends the record a restlessness that doesn’t always afford enough patience to allow its slow development. A clanging railroad crossing and reel-to-reel hiss displace “Can’t We Bring You Home” somewhat jarringly from the contemporary, an effect echoed by the acoustic hymnal “Second Sunday In Ordinary Time.” These cuts float on their brevity, but the same cannot be said of “Black Wine” a pastoral epic that clops along for a redundant nine minutes, despite vocals recalling a tender Roger Waters. With a difficult narrative thread to follow and minimal thematic variation, “Black Wine” becomes a medieval chore with little at stake for payoff.

Yet Zapruder generates great suspense when he’s inclined to hurry, as proven by “Ads For Feelings,” which strolls along a meandering guitar and surprising orchestration grounded by a charging bassline. It’s an interesting way to manipulate the tempo into a whistling shoegazer somewhere between Fujiya & Miyagi and Yo La Tengo circa I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One. Likewise “South Kenosha” is well-balanced, effectively distorted, and punctuated by a warm organ that shimmers through a pelting hi-hat cymbal. Appropriately, lush instrumentation and narrow vocals understate a build that recalls Sufjan Stevens. Here, Zapruder really warms up, the electricity less stratified as if thatched together by the hum of feedback. And as another display of Zapruder’s range, “Bang On A Drum” grooves hypnotically, playing an organ’s wobbly timbre against an in-and-out tabla that eventually takes control of a pounding break.

Yet perhaps the more reserved and symphonic efforts ask too much of the storytelling for an album where images are not as spartan as they are threadbare. While Zapruder admirably removes the mood from the contemporary, the album’s staid pace and sleepy vocals isolate the work. And that perhaps, is not a bad thing, if each singer-songwriter is marooned at their piano. But the haunting lack of urgency in Zapruder’s voice and keys evokes uneasiness, its unabashed leisure, the brand reserved for a flaneur, sprawls over the entirety of the record leaving too much air to breathe.

1. Happy New Year
2. Lucy’s Handmade Paper
3. Ads For Feelings
4. Can’t We Bring You Home
5. Black Wine
6. Harbor Saints
7. South Kenosha
8. Bang On A Drum
9. White Raven Sails
10. Second Sunday In Ordinary Time
11. Experimental Film

by Jay Dryburgh
for Tiny Mix Tapes

The Future Will Come - The Juan MacLean - DFA - 2009

2009-04-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

After a 14-month gestation, The Juan MacLean’s 12-inch single success “Happy House” has finally blossomed into sophomore LP The Future Will Come. For MacLean, the long cultivation yields abundantly, with new wave and cosmic influences sprucing the framework of solid disco-house. DFAll-Stars Gerry Fuchs of !!!, Nick Millhiser & Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost!, and vocalist Nancy Whang guide MacLean through his robotic coming-of-age narrative masterfully. Despite some darker moments, their truly colorful playing keeps MacLean’s introspective robo-protagonist grounded, halting his steely gloom on the brink of short-circuit. In a sense, The Future Will Come is like a robot growing from the earth, often cold and exact, but equally organic and fresh.

The album’s first half sets off a bit manically, reeling from a pre-album breakup on “The Simple Life.” From here, MacLean endures some growing pains; each track holds up individually, but there is some clunking along as MacLean is rewired. The Hercules & Love Affair string arrangement on single “One Day,” for instance, doesn’t seem to jive with the vocoded Italo-cheese of “A New Bot,” which in turn seems to have little in common with the solemn horn-infused house ballad “Tonight.”

But from there, The Future Will Come blooms incrementally, driven from the ground by the grittiest keyboard performance heard on a dance album in some time. The percussion from a stable of synthesizers and ivories emulates the raw, soulful pierce of Whang’s pipes, bringing both energies to a head. “No Time” is particularly exemplary, as MacLean and Whang find computer love across verses that reveal the lubricious details of robot-on-woman flirtations. The trope is sustained by sonic counterparts: a stammering organ jitters against the drunken wonk of the other, as the fling climaxes in an impressively compact build.

Yet Whang’s strong performance is double-edged, as it exposes an uneven vocal effort from MacLean. At times, his melancholy breaks the deadlock grapple for mood between heavy instrumentation and Whang’s effortless pep. But with MacLean sharing leads, “The Station” drags like an awkward karaoke duet of The Human League, and the otherwise strong title track sounds as if MacLean forgot to boot up his voice box.

Still, while “The Station” stumbles and “Human Disaster” is a strange melo-operatic turn, the remaining tracks — including album-ending trump card “Happy House” — never derail. “Launch me into space,” Whang echoes to herself on the swan song, an ambition requiring both man and machine. This makes the inclusion of MacLean’s most galvanizing single seem appropriate rather than a cheap afterthought. It marks a dance album somewhat evolved to the point that even a robot could come around on its human potency.

1. The Simple Life
2. The Future Will Come
3. One Day
4. A New Bot
5. Tonight
6. No Time
7. Accusations
8. The Station
9. Human Disaster
10. Happy House

by Jay Dryburgh
for Tiny Mix Tapes

2009-04-09T21:41:00.000-07:00

Weird electronic shit with female vocals.

Tom & Jerry - Hecuba
The Royal Family - Free Blood
You Are Amen - Pollyester
Summer Song - YACHT
Ms. Broadway (remix) - Glass Candy
Cable TV - Fol Chen

Mondayed #5

April Fools Mix

2009-04-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Wednesday on Mondayed Mix

Shack Up - A Certain Ratio
Funky Way - Calvin Arnold
Upside Down - Carol Cool
Straight to the Bank - Bill Summers
If You Want Me To Stay - Sly & the Family Stone

XRABIT + DMG$ - "Hello World" - Big Dada, 2009

2009-03-19T11:23:00.000-07:00

There’s no keeping up with XRABIT + DMG$ on their debut LP Hello World, but thats doesn’t mean it’s not worth going along for the ride. Texas MC tag-team DMG$ name-check with great effuse, yet with great economy, wringing each reference thoroughly until it pushes narrative, spits game or wisecracks in equal utility. It’s a relentless effort, but it reveals the soul of an indomitably affable dirty south album. Producer XRABIT is aptly named for both the pace and jackhammer thump of his beats that borrow from Detroit and the Bay as much as Houston and Atlanta. Together the trio crafts shout-out-loud hooks over a wide-open bass that could rattle trunks on the road or the dance floor. The result is a trans-phat party album saturated in a sophomoric deadpan with a bold taste refined by its self-awareness.

Berlin-born XRABIT proves to be a surprisingly natural counterpart for his American MCs, despite his geographic removal. He bares a range of worldly influences lightly, fastening non-traditional hip-hop elements to an 808 backbone that often transform tone or mood. For example, by helping himself to a dirty italo-synth line, “Are We Friends” becomes a grimy club number featuring go-go bells on loan from the DFA. DMG$’s hypnotic and sedated delivery of the hook — “I’m so high, truly fly, you inhale smoke, while I inhale sky” — twists it into a bizarrely conflicted anti-drug message.

XRABIT + DMG$ turn in strong bump-and-grind jams as well, notably the big bounce of pseudo-player’s-anthem “Trak’s Promise” and “Thundercats,” a Ying Tang Twins satire that literally purrs. The conspicuously entitled “Party In My Pants” stands out on the strength of its obscurity, referencing Nino Brown, Paula Abdul, and Justin Slayer (who should not under any circumstance be Googled at work.) XRABIT provides the touch of a sinister guitar on a hook that’s hung on the tiptoe peppy organ, like the Grinch replacing a stocking. The song is about exactly what you’d think, but MCs Trak Bully and Cool Dundee each turn in their most cohesive verses on the disc to earn the punchline.

But for all the friendliness and southern hospitality, XRABIT + DMG$ are just putting in work. There’s a charming passivity in the hook of “Ferris Bueller,” a nonchalant explanation: “So cool, everybody wanna be so fuckin’ cool — I’m from Texas, home of the young and the reckless, and we just let it do what it do.” But don’t get hustled. The trio has a plan, and the evidence is “Dirty South,” a hard rep track that lopes like a country line dance. It masquerades as a deep-fried celebration of cornbread and cowgirls, but it settles into a clear refrain: “We gon’ turn the world on to some Dirty South shit.” A lot of yarns are spun on Hello World, but no statement is delivered so matter-of-factly; and yet it doesn’t seem like so much of a stretch if XRABIT + DMG$ continue to run their mouths.

1. Damaged Good$
2. Ferris Bueller
3. Love Of My Night
4. Are We Friends
5. My Stereo
6. Trak’s Promise
7. Salt Shaker
8. Party In My Pants
9. Thunderkats
10. Follow The Leader
11. Same Ole
12. Dirty South
13. Cheese

by Jay Dryburgh
XRABIT + DMG$ on Tiny Mix Tapes

Monday'ed

2009-03-16T20:43:00.000-07:00

Saw some serious carnage on the freeways today. This shit happened about a 1/4 mile ahead of me. The guy's car was completely on fire and he kept trying to go in for his stuff while the grass by the highway began to burn. Earlier, I went by a blue sedan that had flipped. Let's just say it's the first time I've ever had to look away from a car crash. Be safe everyone.

I leave for Austin early tomorrow morning for my first SXSW. In honor, here's an apropos Beach Boys jaunt featuring Blondie (edit: I should clarify, Blondie Chaplin) on vocals. I stole it from Innersounds, you should check them out.

Leaving This Town - The Beach Boys (No video, just music... quality isn't great, but you get the point.)

FoF Music & Dublab present...

2009-03-11T20:06:00.000-07:00

Wild Wednesdays

2009-03-11T12:18:00.001-07:00

TO THE PRODUCERS OF THE JIMMY FALLON SHOW...

2009-03-04T21:09:00.000-08:00

...please stop insulting my intelligence with your poorly disguised advertisement.

Also-- Daly is the next Carson, mark it down.

chump day

2009-01-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

bout to be on my way to pick up Jay from the airport for ten days of debauchery..

recorded this mix for sunday but i think its too upbeat slash fun to pass over for a hangover mix.. so take it early and, what the hell, let's just say its in anticipation of tomorrows hard opening for Happy House. Jonathan Carlos Chris and myself play dumb shit either called disco or house, you can decide.

Franz Ferdinand - IAmYourVillian (lindstrom rmx)
m.e. - r+b drunkie
Black Mustang v Kerrier District - Mad as Hell
Black Dice - Smiling off (DFA rmx)
force of nature - to the brain
lisa - jump shout

Celebration
Celebration
Celebration

my guess is this is supposed to pass for the flyer

one more note on Neil

2009-01-06T10:32:00.001-08:00

second encore was this bad boy. absolutely electric live.

one out of many

2009-01-06T10:09:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back my mother delivered the best birthday present i've gotten to date: Neil Young tickets. The show attempted to round all the edges of his enormous career and did a fair job doing so. Classics from Harvest through new material both rhythmically and politically driven. Unfortunately no b-sides from unturned stones like Trans but still a surprisingly well rounded set list for a large and conventional crowd at The Garden. I'd post a track but i'd rather save that for a better or darker day, instead here's one from the opening act Wilco.

Working years in college radio, i've been constantly bombarded with indie acts often varying by the slightest degree. and i'll admit even on my best days i more often than not passed these guys over to focus on something a bit less conventional; i won't deny their talent, but the sounds never caught me by surprise like i'd hoped. However, live they dropped their kraut soaked gem Spiders and it's been in my playlists since.. Although overall the sound is still a bit polished for my liking (especially into the chorus) i will happily wave the pop flag high for the pace of this piece alone.

Anywho, it's off my favorite release of their's A Ghost is Born from '04. and on a more crass note, Obama loves the shit out of these guys so fuck it and tune in right? it's better than some trife ass Toby Keith anthem.

Wilco - Spiders (Kidsmoke)

kid literally held these boys up for the last five songs from Neil, no break. no joke.

can't hate

2009-01-05T14:13:00.000-08:00

i really can't hate on this. they've kinda made the right move with their videos..

new Casual Sax

Sven Barth & Induce are: Casual Sax - Whorer Core from induce on Vimeo.

and incase you slept like a reallll rumpelstiltskin lookin ass mutha fucka.

old Casual Sax

MONDAYED?

2009-01-05T13:00:00.000-08:00

There's no better cure for what ails ya:

Sunday Session

2009-01-04T19:09:00.000-08:00

Alright, so this is kind of late in the day for a Bloody Mary Mix, but I probably spent an entire year of my life waiting for people on "Miami Time" so I think you'll just have to deal with the turtle pace of the West Coast and slide away behind the long dulcent tones of run-on sentences and smooth tracks like:

The Low Murderer Is Out Tonight - Low Motion Disco
Beach Culture - Thompson Twins
You Got the Stuff (Special Disco Version) - Bill Withers
Tha Kee Tha Tha - Five Letters
Off the Groove - Ronald Snijders
Bernadette - The Funk Brothers

Listen to Sunday Session #4

best of '09

2009-01-03T17:38:00.001-08:00

i don't care if it is January 3rd. i guarantee this will be on my top ten list come the end of this new year.

wish there was a file i could put up but its worth just going here and listening.

Prof Genius + Duane Harriott + some Dam Funk on choice tracks.

epic

friends

2009-01-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

We can't always post psych and balearic tracks, so here's a more upbeat and motivating mix from a good friend of ours, and maybe yours, Alex Caso. His collection is hard to beat and he brings it out genre by genre each thursday to the patio at Vagabond. Similarly I play thursdays at the News Happy Hour and then late night out back in PS for the weekly disco getdown Happy House. So come support a few selectors and maybe we'll start getting more than backyards.

admittedly i liked 14th st more when it was like this

and less now that its this

but anywho, here's the first Burning Hand of Friendship mix

and here's the breakdown

00:00 WATERFORD LANDING PSA
00:23 Burning Hand Theme and Intro
01:49 Episode 1:Miami's Stoner Disco Movement
06:10 Mix: 1.intro/Daestro - Light Powered
08:23 Mix: 2.Metro Area - Tonky Pumps (cookieheadz manga edit)
11:47 Mix: 3.Royksopp - Only This Moment (forsiktge massasje mix)
14:45 Mix: 4.Deadbeat - Boil - Cookeheadz edit
15:44 Mix: 5.Luci - Rappaton/Stacey Q/CHZ edit
16:44 Mix: 6.Matthew - Elementary Lover (CHZ fast edit)
19:27 Mix: 7.Ernest Saint Laurent/Royksopp - Remind Me - Moonfish mix
22:00 Mix: 8.Feadz - Edwrecker
24:16 Mix: 9. FPU - Crockett's Theme
26:53 Mix: 10. Mr. Flagio - Take A Chance
30:27 Mix: 11.Chemical Bros. - Life is Sweet (Daft Punk Remix)
31:34 Mix: 12.Saint Etienne - Conchita Martinez
33:49 Mix: 13.Georges Vert - Electric Bird
35:35 Mix: 14.Waterford Landing - Theme From Through The Night (fast EdiT)
37:34 Mix: 15.Santogold - Shove it - (get rid of spank rock, he really sucks edit)
40:19 Mix: 16.Treasure Fingers - Cross Dancefloor (lifelike rmx) - CHZ edit
43:08 Mix: 17.Moby - Heaven (Treasure Fingers CHZ blend)
45:23 Mix: 18.Kelley Polar - Ashamed Of Myself (moby chz blend)
49:40 Mix: 19.Daso - Meine
52:24 Mix: 20.Anubian Lights - Fur Immer Und Ewig (Daso CHZ blend)
54:25 Mix: 21.Disrupt - Roddim Grid (anubian CHZ blend)
58:07 Mix: 22.Booka Shade - Charlotte/Mr.G
60:00 Mix: 23.Audion - Just Fucking/Luke Solomon - Spirits (prins Thomas Disko)

you can also be his friend here

The Last Records of 2008

2009-01-01T15:07:00.000-08:00

I stopped by the thrift store on Magnolia yesterday looking for a ridiculous New Year's suit and stopped first to peruse the records. While I ultimately ended up passing on the $35 canary suit (it wasn't long enough in the arms-- what can I say, I'm a gangly fellow) I did pick up two records.

First, "Emotional Rescue" from the Stones, which features the criminally underrated cut "She's So Cold."

Then I found the 12" of Orbit's "The Beat Goes On." I'd never heard it, but I usually snatch up singles when I find them AND it had a Don Was production credit. And guess what, it is a jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam.

Happy New Year everybody.

miami new years eve

2008-12-30T12:10:00.000-08:00

oh what a glorious night tonight will be!

JUMP OFF AT 10
DJS BENTON
JUAN
JONATHAN
STRAVINSKY???

COUPLE FREE KEGS
FREE COVER
FREE SKATE RAMP

STAY LINDO + SOFLO + MONDAY'ED present::::

Civic Musical Road Project

2008-12-28T15:20:00.000-08:00

this beats out the guitar hero bike video..

but perhaps even better is this comment..

"Dear Honda Engineers,
Your song is out of tune (the opening interval is a semitone flat, the top note is a minor third too low, etc.). I have a theory as to why: You started with a 4in spacing between 1in grooves. To change the pitch correctly, you should scale the whole 5in unit (spacing AND groove). But if you just scale the spacing, you get the wrong interval: (3+1)/(4+1) gives a M3rd (5/4) instead of 4th (4/3), and (2+1)/(4+1) gives a M6th (5/3) instead of octave (2/1)."

gotta love the internet.

Sunday Sessions

2008-12-28T10:58:00.001-08:00

another slow start for your sunday recovery. this time a lil more beat driven than psych heavy. admittedly i played Can again.. oh well::

Can - All Gates Open
Patrick Cowley - They Came At Night
The Drunk pt 2 - Drunk Drum
Tantra - A Place Called Tarot (idjut boys re-edit)
Habitual Parking Violators - One to Twelve

SUNDAY SESSIONS
SUNDAY SESSIONS
SUNDAY SESSIONS

last track always makes me think of Matty boy

Sunday Morning

2008-12-27T23:48:00.000-08:00

If you can't wake up to this Hall & Oates cover, you have no (blue-eyed) soul.

Things Are Gonna Get Easier - Low Motion Disco

Thursday Eve

2008-12-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

It's a post-Festivus party and you're all invited.

Merry Thursday Eve

My Weak In Review

2008-12-22T14:51:00.000-08:00

Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke - Modular

Perhaps the best thing that can be said about Ladyhawke’s eponymous debut LP is that it’s impossible to describe her sound without naming some of the most iconic acts of the 80’s. But the path Kiwi Pip Brown takes is broadly shiny and inoffensive, borrowing the likes of Stevie Nicks and Cindi Lauper merely for temporal comparisons that don’t quite stick to the un-80’s safety of this disc. Brown manages to hit all the pertinent pieces from the decade, but the disparity in niche from new wave to power pop fails to serve as a synergizing force. Often the effect manifests in uninspiring pastiche akin to a Time-Life anthology—a cynic might say the only thing 2008 about Ladyhawke is that it’s recycled.

In all honesty the resentment exists in part because it’s obvious that Ladyhawke could be really fucking cool. There’s “Love Don’t Live Here” a Nicks-esque send-off where Brown starts to show some chops. Her delivery is a little monotone, and a little under-stated but obviously well-rehearsed. Unfortunately, the same can be said of the overall production, and instead of bolstering Pip’s pipes the construction really just amounts to stagnant pop.

The lyrical content of nearly every song sounds like they were written in or for a club ("Better Than Sunday", "Another Runaway", "Dusk Til Dawn"), but confusingly the album experience seems more appropriate on headphones. With one foot in and the other out, Ladyhawke can’t quite get away, for instance, with ripping a Gary Numan riff on the wet-blanket first single “Paris Is Burning.” The single is emblematic of the albums’ larger flaws: not even Nero was less ambivalent about a city en’flamme. Label-mates Cut Copy took an EP hack at “Paris Is Burning,” and the energy jives closer to a song with all-night-long lyrics like “Give me your glass, its your last, you're too wasted. Or get me one too, 'cause I'm due any tasting.” My guess: Cut Copy tries on “Dusk To Dawn” and turns it into a coke-den/cat-walk strutter that helps Ladyhawke realize that it’s okay for her to freak out a little bit.

But Brown shows some promise for next time with the closing number “Morning Dreams.” The floating finale crests on the strength of synths that subside and give way to a satisfying guitar kick. It’s a power ballad that could fill either a room or an arena, and points to the space Ladyhawke could fill with some youthful risk and mature attention to arrangement.

sunday sunday sessions

2008-12-21T10:52:00.001-08:00

i know we've been silent a second, but it is in no way a sign of the times.

here's a set i did for dublab.

hopefully yet another move to start the day off slow.

feeling festive

2008-12-17T11:57:00.000-08:00

think im going to go make a muppet with matt and rebecca (pictures to follow)

so i feel very much in the christmas spirit

matt told me about this

and i'm admittedly a bit disappointed that i haven't heard more people drop this in sets lately

the waitresses - christmas wrapping

Your Wednesday Walrus

2008-12-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

Just don't forget to put on your Golden Earring.

Stormy Monday Blues

2008-12-15T18:31:00.000-08:00

Macho said it best-- sometimes you Got To Make A Move. I quit my job at the deli to move on to bigger and better things. Also, no longer will I hear Paul McCartney's atrocious Christmas song twenty-seven times a day.

Today was my first day with no obligations in two months. I celebrated by sleeping past noon and spending way too much money on the nachos at Sharky's. Then I came home and listened to my favorite rainy day songs and chose four for you.

Download em
I Got The - Labi Siffre
Da Da - Hiroshima
I Feel Sorry - Rotary Connection
Harlem - Bill Withers

...and a bonus Rotary Connection cover of Stormy Monday.

treatment for mondays

2008-12-15T13:26:00.000-08:00

A case of mondays usually consists of untreatable depression brought on by no just cause, except the bleak and immediate future. so for all the monday'ed out there, atleast now you have a reason:

trax

2008-12-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

this one from Spektrum off of Eskimo's Cosmic Balearic Beats Vol 1 has been growing on me steadily.

Fit Together

raise it up

2008-12-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

bacon

2008-12-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

i won't lie, straight jacked this from the TTL blog.. but this speaks volumes to me.

Sunday Sessions

2008-12-13T19:06:00.000-08:00

breakfast pizzzzzza

Jay, please feel free to add your touch to a title here, but for now it's

Sunday Sessions
Sunday Sessions
Sunday Sessions
I've got this thing and it's fucking golden, but this time i'll give it away for free.

The first of a weekly gift to our likely hungover readers for whenever you roll out of bed. or stay in bed.
hopefully its better than Foldgers.

playlist::

The Brooklyn: A Photo Essay

2008-12-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

This is The Brooklyn from Von's, the grocery store I work at until 3pm tomorrow afternoon. The Brooklyn consists of Artisan Cheddar bread, garlic aioli, black forest ham, green bell peppers, red onions, sandwich vinaigrette, and the piece de resistance, marinated mozzarella cheese. If you eat The Brooklyn with Cuban coffee and Parliaments it's called "The Matt Cash."

Here's a good look at the cheese. The sandwich is heated in an oven for a minute before the vinaigrette and lettuce is added. It continues to cohere into a mass of decadence even after it comes out of the oven and is wrapped.

She quit teasing.

Consummating.

(That picture of me is a better laugh than any joke I could tell, ok?)

holiday'ed

2008-12-13T09:37:00.000-08:00

went to magic kingdom last night. here's what white people seem to find fun..

space mountain

Elf DJ/Emcees making us dance in line

pretty castles

and heres two places white people no longer go

coney island

and santa's enchanted forest

(yes thats santa delivering gifts to mars)

lastly, i think Jay can second that white people love it when fireworks go off AND you're on a rollercoaster..

obama didnt change shit for white folk

2008-12-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

Thursday is here and we all know what that means.. just four more nights til MONDAY!
but in an effort not to watch water boil, one of these options will have to make due til then.

here in miami it starts tonight with the always lindo IAmYourVillian happy hour. usually you can find me spinning there with friends, but not this week. $2.50 beers all night at the News Cafe..

then on saturday i'm sure most have set plans, but if you find yourself roaming 14th st as we all do, stop in PS to hear Schematic record's Romulo and Jacque Polynice mix in dark wave between the italo selections of Carlos Llanos and Giorgio Ardito.

flyer anyone?

since we are bicoastal..

on admittedly a larger scale, LA has it's hands full this weekend as Otto von Schirach and Venetian Snares take their tour to The Knitting Factory on friday night.

then saturday at Club 740 James Murphy will be alongside the UK's Horse Meat Disco duo and admittedly better blogger Lovefingers.. this ones a late night

However, without a doubt the biggest thing to take away today is our first original video!!!!!!
Margaret Evans used to find friendship in her kitten Fingers, but not after this Catfight

me: what happened?
: why the fighting

margaret: he ate my tortilla chips

See That Wednesday Adams Ass Lookin' Mothafugga?

2008-12-10T16:15:00.001-08:00

Dreary Wednesdays will always remind me of this girl Nicole who used to date my friend. She was the most miserable person to ever set their eyes on the Hollywood sign. Well, that might be overstating it, but probably not by a whole lot. Benton coined her Wednesday Adams, an apt moniker for our drab-feathered friend who wore only black and lived with her cat, the Nobel Catastroph', a tyrant feline she swore was "29% Wild," but was going to be 88.88% dead if it didn't stop scratching the crap out of me. I recall it's exact domesticity, a figure so inconceivably ridiculous I still can't bring myself to try and explain why.

She was 27 and would constantly tell us she couldn't believe she was hanging out with people five years her junior. We all liked her though because she was a big fan of Hall & Oates, and I'm dead serious, because that was abnormally endearing. Since I have no photographic evidence of this woman I am just going to post a picture of her father and some old coot that thought it'd be funny to jump in front of the camera right before the photographer took the picture but then immediately realized he would have to be still for the next 20 minutes or it would just come out blurry:

Here is my Aural Ode On A Grecian Urn to
Wednesday Adams (zshare MP3)

that 80's show

2008-12-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

this commercial is killing it in my growing-grinch-holiday-heart

but since this blogs supposed to focus on pizza and disco and weekends let me trail..

videogames!

i've been trying to think of a good description for all this new 'electro', and then i remembered when i was real young and first got napster and i wanted video game themes on my computer and stumbled upon inevitable live versions. so uncovered for you is a gem that i would love if i were ten and just got napster for the first time today.

for the mac users out there

Mario Paint

alas someone is killing it with classics

Dam-Funk x Outrun from stonesthrow on Vimeo.

TOMORROW ON "MONDAY'ED"

2008-12-09T18:05:00.000-08:00

Blood Is Thicker Than Tomato Sauce

2008-12-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

This blog was built on the foundation of pizza, a meal entirely propagated by the liberal media. Clearly only hoity-toity ivy leaguers and other assorted stoners with their parent's money can afford to eat pizza all the time. For these folk, Tuesday is the weekly respite from Mussolini's favorite meal (it's true, look it up) because from 3pm to 11pm Del Taco has three tacos for only $1.09. True connoisseurs know to show up at 10:55pm so that they can also order the steak and egg breakfast burrito and hash browns when breakfast is served at 11pm.

This is Del Taco's logo courtesy of Greensboring.com:

Usually I walk to Del Taco with my roommate Will Drinker. He runs an exceptional blog about his older brother Dan who was born with Down's Syndrome at DanDrinker.com. Will is the only one of my friends who does not have a large intestine but he does have blood clots in his legs (also true, but you'll just have to take my word for it.)

He is also the only friend of mine Grace Jones has ever written a song about.

'da te vuelta'ed

2008-12-09T15:17:00.000-08:00

monday's often sit comfortably outside everyday norms; this comes as no surprise as many parallels can be drawn to every day life. take the restless rumblings of the planet earth slowly shifting til tectonic plates cause continental collisions.

just as crusts reform, so can our grasps on the routine. just today two shit festivals announced some golden acts. Fuck the rest of Ultra, but give me that Hercules live and maybe even that hidden carl cox tent. same goes for Langerado (now bayfront) with the exception of Tortoise. between those announcements and the shit writing on the Daily Show last night i now know to keep a more open mind on this mysterious Mon-day.

A Rollerskating Jam Named "Mondays"

2008-12-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

Benton seems to have this idea that Mondays are boooooring and while he's playboying about Miami, I'm busting my ass at a supermarket deli:

I work from 9am-6pm EST on Mondays, which doesn't sound so bad except for the fact that I live in LA, and so the third thing I do to start my week after a shower and shave is squeezin the stuffins out of 16 frozen chickens. Then I drop into the fire like DJ AM and man the deep fryers, ones and twos. After a quick chicken tender breakfast, I slip around in the freezer for a few minutes before pouring some combination of mac & beef and Stompin' Steakhouse Chili all over my apron. Oh yeah, ever worn an apron? It has three pockets on the front of it and every time I reach for my cutting glove it looks like I'm grabbing at my junk. Sometimes I cough while I'm down there to see if anyone laughs.

Then the customers come and I take painstaking care in handcrafting some of the greatest sandwiches our era has yet witnessed. One dude told me that I was Picasso and a very sweet elderly woman told me that I will be a good husband one day. Lather, rinse, repeat.

BUT I don't work there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so Monday is also kind of like my Friday in a weird way. Oh yeeeeeeah...

boom.

2008-12-08T13:50:00.000-08:00

uno mas

2008-12-08T13:10:00.000-08:00

here's where we really see our antagonist grow..

a few of my favorite things.

this jon & vangelis track oh but also this department of eagles track oh but also this Pilooski edit .

and lastly

yes turtles, but more importantly the 'zzza

big ups to primo's on Miami Beach, that swirly place Jay took me too in super depressing Pennsylvania, Ciccone's in Ardsley, NY (whaddup high school lunch), Primanti Bros now in Broward, that buck-a-slice place on St Marks next to where matt and i play darts, the Original, Famous Rays (haaaaaaa), and to whoever first thought of delivery <3 <3

k, i'm off to drink coffee and watch Bolt 3D

preemptive

2008-12-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

before those darn critics and that one over there start nagging about this blog 'falling off' or losing its once unique voice, i will happily take requests. but since there are no readers yet, i'll have to play both rolls.

READER'S POLL: Did i dodge the stale bread bullet??

finding our voice

2008-12-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

This has been started in a truly One-Up fashion. i highly doubt i'm the only person pretending to work while waiting for the rest of the internet to start it's 9-5 (entertaining me). So to fill the last niche on this over sized ARCNet, here is a drunken sloth that will update while the rest of my new peers sleep off their excesses..

and speaking of sloths

i hear animal videos are guaranteed bank

ED NOTE: i may or may not be employed, but i hear its also good to be relatable