Modular emailed out this YouTube of Soulwax's set-closing song last week in Brooklyn ("NY Excuse Nite Version"). Important in that it documents for posterity the girl from the crowd who got up on the speaker cabinets at left and did an impromptu pants-off dance-off. Not pictured: Me at far left going bananas.
Harry Nilsson, The Point! (RCA 1970) Was discussing this record recently and a lucky search revealed that Nilsson's kid-fable pop musical about the pointless Oblio in the land of the pointy people was made into a real animated movie. Didn't know that! And of course, YouTube provides. It's in a real "Schoolhouse Rock," 1970s line-drawing style. Pretty cool.
Here's my two favorite songs from the album -- I left in a little bit of the narration at the beginning and end of each track. You might recognize the first one.
Totally unrelated:One Louder returns with a post I meant to do myself, celebrating last Thursday's SoulwaxNite Versions show at the new club Studio B in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The only thing comparable was seeing LCD Soundsystem last year (covers: Nilsson's "Jump Into the Fire," Siouxsie's "Spellbound"), but this show might rate even higher on the insanity meter (covers: Roman Flugel's "Gehts Noch," Tomas Andersson's "Washing Up," Tiga's "You're Gonna Want Me" and a bunch of ravey classix that I don't know the names of). Fun times. Same venue is hosting a "DFA disco party" on Oct. 7 with James Murphy, Tim Sweeney, Tim Goldsworthy and Shit Robot DJing (release party for Remixes Vol. 2) but I already got tickets to see The Host that night, d'oh!!
Indian Jewelry, Invasive Exotics (LPU 2006) Hard-to-pin-down Texas group's first full-length reworks the TG / Cab Voltaire grinding echo chamber, party in a hellhole aesthetic. Rad. Thanks to the usualsuspects for putting me up on these guys. CD on Monitor, vinyl on Love Pump United, band on myspace.
Bottomless Pit = ex-Silkworm guys, on the road near you. I saw em and picked up their four-song CD-R, no need to post a track since all of it is on their site. Try "Dead Man's Blues" first -- "I lie in the street / the cars run over me / I wanted to die / but I'm a tough piece of meat." Gut-wrenching. Some of the best ones from their short set aren't on the EP, so here's hoping there's more to come.
Cool that the NY Film Festival is not above putting on a midnight monster movie. The Host (originally titled Gwoemul or Creature) broke box office records in Korea when it came out in 2003. Can't wait to see it next month.
In November, Domino puts out the first U.S. release by early '80s "Sound of Young Scotland" torch-bearers Josef K, the compilation Entomology. My interest was piqued after these guys (along with Postcard labelmates Orange Juice) got namechecked in every other Franz Ferdinand record review, so it's a treat to hear this stuff. "Chance Meeting" is my early favorite, feels similar to R.E.M. circa Murmur and Chronic Town -- great melody, fast-strummed guitars, but still melancholy and minor-key. That wistfulness runs through nearly all their songs, most obviously in a track like "It's Kinda Funny" but even in the dancier, Talking Heads-inspired tracks.
Canarios, Ciclos (Ariola 1974) I'm all about breakbeats and hairy prog-rock lately. Recently re-excavated this album I bought on a trip to Barcelona in 2002 that I had listened to but never really listened to ..... Spanish rock reinterpretation of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, bending 1970s state-of-the-art kbd. squall, prog gtr. wank and stomping drums into symphonic complexity. May not sound like a winning formula but there are some jawdropping moments. (Song titles are approximate ... it's hard to tell where one ends and the next begins since each side is a long suite. Consider these excerpts from sides 1, 3 and 4 respectively.)
