FoeWeel !!! ???

Ocean Beach, 2009

Welcome to the new look, a slightly different smell and the taste that’s always pleasing to my ears, and hopefully your ears as well. My desktop is filled up with new music and my fridge is full of tickets for upcoming shows to Lykke Li, Modest Mouse, Animal Collective, Rocco DeLucca and hopefully Iron & Wine, so it’s time once again to fill your Facebook stuffed minds with an alternative serving of the present and the past.

TV On The Radio – Heroes (David Bowie) – from the new War Child compilation. a pretty cool take with Kyp’s falsetto working well over David Sitek’s hectic production.

Mochipet and Spank Rock – Far Left (Funktronmix) – David Wang, the insanity behind Mochipet once again serves up one of his Daly Citified mixes of Spank Rock.

The Books Ft. Jose Gonzalez – Cello Song (Nick Drake) – from the Dark Was The Night a 4AD compilation benefitting the Red Hot organization.  This track from two of my favorite artists is a cover of Nick Drake’s classic song.

Richie Hawtin’s Concept 1 series was a revolutionary achievement in terms of creativity, and the distribution by means of 12″ monthly singles limited to 2000 copies make it an expensive and quite sought after commodity to this day. The CD version has been remastered by one Stefan Betke (Pole) as well as the Variations by Thomas Brinkmann which is included in this double CD pack. The Concept series marks a moment of minimalism in music that still fits in nicely to the nature of techno today. The Brinkmann reworking with a custom made two-arm turntable, slowing the speed and separating the right and left channels brings out more of the genius contained in these recordings. Listen up, because these recordings are part of the reason that we are here right now in techno.

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now, for the music:

Aretha Franklin – The Happy Blues (Let Me In Your Life Outtake) – from the ‘Rare & Unreleased Recordings From The Golden Reign Of The Queen Of Soul”, these recordings show a more stripped down version of songs from most of aretha’s career. it also displays the diversity of music from jazz, to standards, to soul and beyond.

Bangers & Cash – Loose featuring Amanda Blank – spank rock and benny blanco are on this 5 track EP which samples the work of 2 live crew. most of the tracks have been all over the interweb, but the sound quality has been pretty low. once you can hear the music especially the bass, this EP is the party continued. spank and amanda blank are two of the best mc’s out there right now.

The Celebration – Tame The Savage – the organ based drama is still there. guests from tvotr and the yyy’s are all here. the songs seem to be there, but katrina ford’s vocals seem to be lost or muddled in the mix. it’s hard to listen to the whole album.

Trevor Andrew and Dingo

santogold’s hype is soon to boil over. very much in the vein of m.i.a. she is doing tracks with spank rock, being remixed by switch and name checked by bjork. i need to listen to more, but what i’ve heard is some pretty heavy stuff. she’s also associated with a band called trouble.

trouble is a project by burton/analog/uninc. snowboard rider trevor andrew. now, when i think of professional athletes going into the music world, i think shaq-fu. i first heard of trouble from the free ‘Analog moving picture project’ dvd which you can find at your local snowboard shop. it features the analog riders from burton riding in japan. also, it has trevor andrew and his band trouble performing a number of songs. at first, i thought it was some type of 80′s tribute band because it has all of the elements that i would normally hate in the electro 80′s music of today, but the songs are catchy and good. go to MKOB for two great tracks from the album. below are two videos for the tracks. the ‘bang bang’ track features santogold. did i mention that he is a sick rider as well.

Videos:
Trouble – Bang Bang featuring Santogold
Trouble – Chase Money

“take a moment and ponder your surroundings, think about all the TIME that has passed under this roof” -unknown

commitment is such an abstract thing in my world. i understand that it is part loyalty and partly the individual needs of a person. if it is in the form of a person then it goes beyond any tangible understanding and i, at this time don’t have the credentials to talk on that matter. i am talking about commitment to a place, to a job, to a standard of living. this past monday, i found out that my parent company closed the doors on the company i have spent the majority of my waking hours for the past 5 years. the actual job was not important. i didn’t create anything or help anyone directly. i basically helped to move massive amounts of money through the american financial markets. something that helped the left side of my brain stay active while the right side had fun. it did not define me as a person, and for once i was able to separate my work life and personal life successfully. it also supported my life in one of the most expensive areas in the country.

i have about 6 months left to figure things out, so i can enjoy one last snowboarding season in tahoe and then move on to my next adventure. some extensive traveling and although i have said that i would never go back to the institution of so-called higher learning, it looks like that may be the best thing for both sides of my brain. and with slightest of hopes that i may call barcelona home one day. it might have been a sign when the 2 companies i have worked for during my 7 year stay in san francisco when out of business. it was a series of strange circumstances that brought me to the bay area, and it’s even stranger circumstances that are making me re-evaluate and move on, but this area is truly one of the greatest areas for culture and life that i’ve ever had the pleasure to call home.

Detroit Grand Pubahs – Sandwiches (Techno) – it always comes down to sandwiches.

The Beastie Boys – Freaky Hijiki (Downtempo) – thanks to superflav we got to sit front row on the balcony at the warfield last night to witness the gala event from the bboys. what a great show. we even had mixmaster mike’s wife sit next to us and take a pic.

The Replacements – Beer For Breakfast (Rock) – simple and straightforward. a lifestyle the mats once embraced. the greatest rock band, ever.

Spank Rock – Bump (Switch Remix) (Hip Hop) – switch is the hot producer of the moment. high synth stabs are a trademark which blends the old with the new especially on m.i.a.’s new album.