fistful of choons

As may have noticed, I spend a good portion of my day listening to music, so here's some more on what I think of the new choons:

Diplo - live in montreal: Toight! Wicked nice one for the mash-up fans, mostly hip-hop based. This is not likely an official release, but it is board quality.

FABRICLIVE 21 - Meat Katie: New school breaks can wear thin after a while, but this is a pretty solid mix that grew on me a bit with repeated listens. Comes complete with a driving Ian Brown remix smack dab in the middle, fun stuff.

Fabric 22 - Adam Beyer: Glitchy tech house, or housey techno? You get the idea.

Vitalic - OK Cowboy: Why do some french love cowboys? Could it be the same reason I enjoy cheese & wine? I suppose it doesn't really matter. The most obvious and extremely lazy comparison, although spot on accurate, would be to compare Vitalic to Daft Punk. And not just because Vitalic is made up of 2 french house producers, but because this could have just as easily been passed off as the latest Daft Punk disc. It must be something in the water.

Trey Anastasio Quintet - 2005.4.26 @ the Landmark Theatre, Richmond, VA: With a brand new band line up (the only returning member is Ray on keys), trey seems to be back in rocking good form. The new material sounds more like phish and less like a NOLA big band, which is certainly a welcome change. I'm looking forward to his shows this summer with Ben Harper. You can check out the setlist here, and hop on a torrent of the show here.

stereolab - Oscillons From the Anti-Sun: I originally passed this one over, because I thought it was merely a 3cd greatest hits package. Upon closer inspection it turns out to be a collection of EP's from 1993-2001. Well now, this is certainly much more interesting, especially if you already have the umpteen other albums & switched on comps from which a greatest hits retrospect was likely to be sourced from. Solid, just what you'd expect from the lab. Most importantly it contains 'French Disko' which is the rager with which they closed their 2001 variety playhouse show.

-groovin, neph-

honorary

Last night I found myself watching the Gillmore Girls, which was admitedly a low point in my evening - that is until I noticed that one of the characters was being played by none other than my date to the senior prom, Devon Sorvari! Needless to say, I got sucked in, and for those of you keeping track, she played Logan's blonde older sister, Honore. Although her character was just introduced last night, it didn't appear that she will become a regular. Which is just as well, because now I won't ever have to watch Gillmore Girls again. In high school, Devon was always the aspiring actress, at the time she was a walk-on extra in School Ties and Housesitter, both of which were being filmed in the Acton/Concord area. Kudos Devon!

-fanclub, neph-

cast your vote

Noodles is hosting a bizarre contest in which they pick the next Asparagus Queen. Jamie helped with the design work (if you look, she's one of the examples), and John has entered his father who lives on a boat somewhere (unfortunately I can't link directly to his entry anymore, but he's under Colorado, the black & white shot of a guy with a beer). Be sure to check it out and cast your vote for John's dad, or nominate your own potential Asparagus Queen.

-king neph-

new choon roundup

It's slowly made itself a feature here at the Beach, and that would be my two cents worth regarding newly, and yet to be, released music that I have the good fortune of previewing each week. So without further ado, here's this week's new choon roundup:

weezer - Make Believe: Nothing out of the ordinary for weezer here. Unfortunately, the lead single, 'Beverly Hills', is the stand out track.

trembling blue stars - The Seven Autumn Flowers: Is one of the seven flowers audio xanax? Gone is the sense of urgency & turbulence underlying most of 2001's excellent release, Alive to Every Smile. This new found peaceful zone harkens back to Bob Wratten's mellower work with the Field Mice.

architecture in helsinki - In Case We Die: indie glitch pop with obnoxiously child like vox.
VNV nation - Matter + Form: Synthy industrial stuff with a singer whom, upon first listen, I accidentally mistook for Bob Mould with a stuffy nose. Needless to say, I was kind of relieved to learn that I didn't have to suffer through 'wanting to like this' because a Bob Mould project it surely ain't.

john digweed - Choice: Double disc collection of old songs loosely mixed / blended together to create a hit or miss collection of the diggers' personal "classics" like a page straight out of the Back to Mine series. Overall it's a "pretty fun for ol' times sake / trip down memory lane / nostalgia" kind of thing.

j majik - Red Alert: Really running d&b mix, should the mood strike.

the boy least likely to - The Best Party Ever: Twee pop from a band named after a line from a Morissey song kind of sums it up.

audiobullys feat. nancy sinatra - Shot Me Down 12": Two tech housey mixes of the Nancy Sinatra song featured in the opening credits to Kill Bill. Either of these would surely go over pretty well on the dance floor. The first mix pulls from the original in big chunks, where as the 'Lee Cabrera mix' cuts up the source material in a much less straightforward, yet just as enjoyable, fashion.

-shot, neph-

happy recap

Kicked off the weekend on friday with a nice OC double header, while still partially recovering from u2. The night was complete with some damn good abo's greek pizza longside some refreshing sunshine wheats & lemon.

Took in a matinee viewing of Melinda & Melinda saturday afternoon with Paul. I'll have to say it was one of woody allen's better films as of late, both funny and tragic. As the day casually turned to evening, the usual suspects synched up at bacaro, where we met up with Allison & (different) Dylan who were visiting from Steamboat. Plenty of pitchers of sangria later, we started our enjoyable decent down death row, only to change it up with a quick stop at rhumba, then ending the night at the attic - good times were most certainly abound.

After riding my bike downtown to pick up my voit sunday morning, I vegged with some Aqua Teen Hunger Force and my couch.

-nephew-

bombastic

Last night's U2 show at the Pepsi Can was a blast. The stage was similar to the setup on the Elevation tour a few years back, except this time it was shaped as a circle instead of a heart which, when combined with some more lights on the stage, provided the ring effect from the 'Vertigo' video. They also had some really nifty walls of strand lights that came down every once in a while for this message or that graphic. The show was heavy on Atomic Bomb material, which was either good or bad, depending on how you enjoy that album. I would have really liked to have heard 'Zoo Nation' (which of course they played the night before), 'Lemon' (the old perfecto mix of this is classic), or some more stuff from All That You Can't Leave Behind, but I did get to hear 'The Fly' which is probably my favorite of any of their songs, so no real worries.



Set:
City Of Blinding Lights, Beautiful Day, Vertigo, Elevation, Gloria, The Ocean, New Year's Day, Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love And Peace Or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet The Blue Sky, Running To Stand Still, Bad, Pride (In The Name Of Love), Where The Streets Have No Name, One
Encore:
The Fly, Mysterious Ways, All Because Of You, Original Of The Species, 40








-nephropa-

hi jinx

I've been listening to old breakbeat techno for portions of the day today, and I must say it's put me in quite the quick and impish mood. Big ups Suburban Base!

Earlier this morning I won the Musical Mindbender, guessing that Emily Sparks' cover of "too much love" was indeed originally performed by Bread. But I kind of cheated and used some search engine action on the lyrics (which incidentally doesn't always work if the Milkman gets really obscure).

Not only does genius love company, but it loves pranks as well. Three smarty pants(es?) over at MIT created a random academic paper generator. With it, they created two submissions for the Ninth World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics, and Informatics in Orlando. Of the two nonsensical submissions one was rejected, and the other, "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy", was mind boggingly accepted and the students were invited to attend the conference scheduled to take plcae in July sometime. Unfortunatley the word got out that the paper was a total farce, and the students were no longer able to present their "randomly generated talk".

-feelin so real, neph-

smoke signals

From black to white: Here's to the new pope, same as the old pope - getting on in years & grounded in old fashioned conservatism, oh yeah and a hitler youth to boot. The cards sure know how to pick 'em!

To copy or not to copy: The House just recently passed a bill which is designed to combat camcorder piracy at theatres with stiffer criminal punishment. Fair enough, until you get to the second part of the bill - allowing technologies that permit users to edit out the 'bad parts' of dvds that they may be 'too sensitive' to watch, which in theory violates copyrights. MPAA lobbyists - 1, hollywood directors - 0.

Care for a spray: Canada has approved Sativex, a prescription spray containing two compounds of the cannabis plant (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol), for pain relief for multiple sclerosis sufferers. It was formulated to be administered under the tongue, but we here at the Beach would love to try it out as a cooking spray.

-happy 4/20, puphew-

tuesday reviews

Mike Doughty - haughty melodic: Former frontman for mid 90's clever clogs, Soul Coughing, is back in festive form, more so than with his more stripped-down EP's, Skittish & Rockity Roll. Warm weather, drivin with the windows rolled down stuff.

Dinosaur Jr. - dinosaur, you're living all over me, bug (reissues): Amazing sound quality, these are completey remastered recordings that breath new life into old DJ - yea! And the reunited original line-up on craig ferguson friday absolutely ripped through 'lung'. Now if only J. and Lou can remain friends until they schedule some shows west of the mississippi...

verve remixed 3: Conceptual or sequential series often get worse with each release. Volume 3doesn't quite flow as nicely as the first volume, but it holds some interesting interpretations of jazz classics nonetheless, by producers du jour such as Postal Service, RJD2, Junior Boys, & Danger Mouse. Mostly cooler than Vol. 2 at least.

the national - Alligator: The third released from these moody brooklyn gents who kind of sound like a much less frenetic version of the Wedding Present. Rainy weather, sitting indoors kind of stuff.

-nephew-

sunsation

The wonder stuff show on friday was great fun. I'm pretty sure the other 50 people at the show enjoyed it just as much as I did. I guess the stuff were never as popular stateside as they were in europe, which incidentally is where I picked up on them. Most material was from the first 2 albums and the newer disc they're currently touring behind. Not much from Never Loved Elvis or Construction... due to their fiddler missing from the fold I suspect. Setlist:

Escape From Rubbish Island, A Wish Away, Radio Ass Kiss, Ruby Horse, Better Get Ready For A Fist Fight, Was I Meant To Be Sorry, Another Comic Tragedy, You Don't Know Who..., On The Ropes, Donation, Bile Chant, Piece of Sky, Don't Let Me Down Gently, It's Yer Money, Ten Trenches Deep, E:Red Berry Joy Town, Give Give Give Me More More More, Unbearable, Poison



Eventually made it to copper the next day, just in time for the snow to soften up, which led to a pleasant afternoon of spring, mashed potato riding - always good fun (thanks again, michelle). Met up with Pat and took in the sounds of Victor Wooten & his band at the base of the mountain. Found the $1 keg and grooved out for the rest of the afternoon. Spent the night in Frisco at Pat's brother's place. Returned to the valley sunday to see a light hearted orchestral concert at CU with Paul, later taking full advantage of the nice weather and cooking out back at Hillside.





-nephew-

piece of sky

Mmmm, here we stand at the gateway to the weekend. I may have to squeeze one last day out of the snowboarding season, most resorts close this weekend. I'll have to see how I feel after the stuffies show tonight. Never did meet up with aurelie while she was mountain hopping this week, maybe next year.





-two legged groove machine, neph-

adage

I think it's safe to say it's spring now. Even though we had a blizzard over the weekend, all of the snow has pretty much melted here in boulder, and temperature's have been in the upper 60's. Adding to this weathery excitement is my discovery of the song in the new addidas adverts on the tele. And just what is this charismatic tune? Why it's none other than "Hello Tomorrow" by Squeak E. Clean & Karen O.

-I dig it, I dug it, I wiz it, I wuz it, neph-

dead pool

Coming soon:
gorillaz - Demon Days: Perhaps the two best gorillaz songs were the bonus remixes of "clint eastwood" and "19-2000" included at the end of their self-titled debut. This album has a lot of songs that sound similar to the first disc, in fact the first single is named "dirty harry". I'm curious as to what the remixes, if any, sound like...



tarwater - The Needle Was Traveling: Kind of nifty indie-electronic stuff w/ some male vox on some tracks. The name of the band aptly descibes the music.

eels - Blinking Light & Other Revelations: Two discs from the eels that do nothing to change the "beck impersonator" tag I gave them for their last effort. Quirky, bluesy stuff.

belle & sebastian - Push Barman to Open Old Wounds: They need to make t-shirts that say "twee as fuck". You see, then you could wear one on the way to the record store when you go to buy this double disc collection of their seven Jeepster E.P.'s, all or some of which you undoubtedly already own.



-nephee-

photo op

Picture if you will - myself in the front of, and dylan (holding two large pizzas over his head) in the back of a purple plastic sled going downhill from copper's center village to our condo over by the super bee. There in lies both the fun & the futility of the weekend all at once.

-blowin' snow, neph-

rules

Had some casual dinner & drinks on pearl street last night with robert and crew. We were aiming for a rooftop happy hour, but got off to a late start and ened up at the sundowner, which I've decided is only really cool if you can't see straight.

Looking forward to a weekend in the mountains. A bunch of us got a room at copper for saturday night, and then on sunday I'm meeting up with a friend I haven't seen in forever. I also got some new boots I'm dying to try out.

-regs, neph-

some new tune reviews

Coldplay - "Talk" (single from forthcoming album, X&Y): I don't hear any of the tell-tale piano, and the guitar riff sounds as if it were lifted from an epic U2 song. It would be interesting to hear in the context of the rest of the album.

Hot Hot Heat - elevator: Major label debut from this canadian version of The Strokes. They get clever points for skipping the 13th track like most tall buildings skip the thirteenth floor.

13 & god - s/t: What we have here is The Notwist longside members of the Anticon collective. If you're familiar with the ingredients then you can guess what to expect, there's vox from both outfits, so we have some sing-songy stuff and some bizarre vocal stylings on top of IDM/downtempo beats. It's basically sounds like The Notwist vs. cLOUDDED, which is great if you're feeling moody and strange.

Mary Timony - ex hex: I wonder if the title refers to getting away from the curse that bestowed all her previous solo work. The curse would have been that it was horrible. This sounds more like her old band Helium, which sounded a lot cooler 12 year ago.

Experimental Audio Research - mesmerized / beyond the pale / phenomena 256: These 3 albums are not new, in fact all three are from 1994 & 96, but I recently discovered them and thought they merited a mention. The first two E.A.R. albums consist of Sonic Boom (spacemen 3), Kevin Martin (god, techno animal), Kevin Shields (my bloody valentine), and Eddie Prevost (AMM). The third trades Kevin Shields for Pete Bassman (spacemen 3). OK, now that you're either A. bored, or B. confused, we'll mention that this is essentially beatless ambient music with titles such as "DMT Symphony (overture to an inhabited zone)", and "Sub Aqua (left channel) Tidal (centre channel) Lunar (right channel)". Great stuff to completely zone out to.

-neph-

successors

And the new James Bond is none other than...Daniel Craig? At least that's what British tabloid, The Sun, reports. And just who is this Craig Daniel? A very good question, especially since we all know that you should never trust anyone with two first names. So, are we to trust him to faithfully portray 007? It seems he has played several effective british characters, and is in fact british himself, in films such as Sylvia, Elizabeth, and more recently in Layer Cake, and the Jacket - none of which I've seen, so I'm wholly in the dark right now. With any luck, the Sun is wrong, and the next Bond will be Clive Owen.

On the somewhat similar subject of european type things: Monaco's Prince Rainier III is dead at the age of 81. He was perhaps most famously known for bringing some hollywood glamor to the mediterranian principality of 32,000 when he married american actress, Grace Kelly. With his passing, I recall havingng spent many a weekend sneaking in, and subsequently getting kicked out of, various Monaco(n?) bars (there is a drinking age of 18 in the principality) with my high school buddies. On one such night/morning a friend & I found comfort in some park benches after getting split up from our group at some sorted nightclub. We were rudely awkened, and soon escorted to the french border, by some of Rainier's gendarmes. It feels almost as if the late prince once had some semblance of royal power over myself, however removed it may have been. And with that - long live Prince Albert II, the natural successor to the throne. Oh, and let's give a couple of shout outs to Princess Stephanie & Princess Carolyn as well.

-just say yes to another success, neph-

in passing

By now, we all know the pope's rope finally ran out over the weekend - it wasn't entirely unexpected, and luckily it seems to have overshadowed the tiresomely invasive Terri Shiavo schism / media circus.

On a much less global level, the papal passing also seems to have outshined the unexpected death of funny man Mitch Hedberg, 37, who was found dead last wednesday in his hotel room, apparently from a bum ticker. Now, I never met the pope or mrs. shiavo, but I can vouch for mitch, having met him once after an extremely funny show he performed in the ATL a few years back. He was a really nice guy considering that I was basically apologizing for inadvertantly heckling him earlier in the night.



-nephed in peace-

inner city life

Guests from CT were in town all week. Had a jaunt down death row friday evening with everyone, culminating in traffic barriers being launched off third floor balconies and passing out before our subs were delivered. Sweet.

Made sure to catch an early showing of Sin City the next day. Two thumbs up - easily the best movie based on a comic book ever, so far as recreating the feel of the comic book. And you gotta love Alexis Bledel as a hooker. Casually wined and dined at bacarro that night before dropping a few rio bombs. Soon after, we maintained a heavy presence at the west end where sonja unveiled the ever popular & everlasting magic nalgene bottle. The lafayette crew eventually split to catch the bus, ken & I took off soon there after - myself to home, and ken on to other adventures.

-nephoir-

punter

Here's a little something to keep you occupied whilst you countdown the minutes til 5p: Dropkick the Faint. It's pretty fun, even if you're a fan. Post highscores below. My best is 13390, so far.

-kickin' it, neph-