Like A Motorway

With the last of my birthday money from last month in my hands I had the chance to visit a proper record store today. Rasputin’s in San Lorenzo stands so far ahead of the any competition on the other side of the bay, with so much more selection available than anything on the mid-peninsula. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tower, but they always mark their prices up after Thanksgiving , don’t do order rarer electronic stuff or singles and don’t have a decent used section. It’s times like this that I miss living in San Jose. Sure there are no decent clubs, but at least they have plenty of record stores (many of them open late).
My find of the day was in the random used bin where I discovered a copy of Electroset’s rave makeover of “Blue Monday.” I’ve been looking for the single off and on since it first came out nearly fifteen years ago and this was the first time I had seen it. Still it wasn’t as strange as the last time I was in Rasputin’s and found the same Moby cd I had reviewed for my college radio station with my handwriting still on part of it (I couldn’t tell you if they sold it to the store or someone stole it from the station though). Oddly enough one of the mixes on the Electroset single was ahead of it’s time, mashing-up Kraftwerk’s “Tour De France” with “Blue Monday.” I always appreciate old rave music that knows it’s roots.
Maybe I was just in nostalgic mood (or maybe the price was right) but I also picked up Saint Etienne’s new singles collection “Travel Edition.” I used to love Saint Etienne so much, played them to death on my old radio show, but their last three albums just haven’t been where my interests are these days. My biggest faults with the album are that they included too many of the wrong tracks at the expense of other, better singles. Strokes of pop genius like “You’re In A Bad Way” didn’t make the cut, but filler like “Goodnight Jack,” and self-indulgent meandering like “How We Used To Live” (all eight and half minutes of it) made the compilation. The lack of conventional sense is one of the reasons I was drawn to the band in the first place, but it gets a little frustrating when they try attempt to convey a legacy while leaving out some of my favorite parts. The other odd thing about the collection is that the only new track looks to be a Sarah Cracknell solo track since it’s written without the other band members and produced , programmed and mixed by the tracks co-writers. That being said, there is tons of great music on it, and they made some great moves working with Franz Ferdinand (now rumored to be working on the new New Order album) producer Tore Johansson and getting the colder Ladytron/Adult. side of electro clashright on the money back in 2000 with the even better now “Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi).“ Still you never want to see something you used to love drift apart from you when you wish they did things your way.
Of course what I was really looking for today I couldn't find. Scissor Sisters "Remixed!" album just isn't anywhere except online stores. From what I can find, it looks like it's just not getting any decent distribution because it's out on the SS's original indie label A Touch Of Class which just doesn't have the set up. Too bad.

Post With Link To Free Music Download (You Know You Want It)

I’ve been in the mood to post something clever recently, but sadly I have no clever thoughts for you. Instead the itunes release of the new Chemical Brothers single “Galvanize” has me thinking about the “electronica revolution of ‘97” and the artists I supported back when I was doing college radio. 2004 has been a troubling year for bands and artists that I was into back before they got major label deals and broke out (kinda) into commercial radio play and press coverage. The Crystal Method dropped the disappointing Legion Of Boom, Orbital went out with a whimper on “Blue Album,” Prodigy’s “Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned” didn’t get off the ground, and Fatboy Slim’s “Palookaville” is something of a disaster (admittedly with a great song in “Wonderful Night“). Really the only non-electro/synthpop electronica album I’ve loved from the past year is Ferry Corsten’s “Right Of Way” so I’m pretty happy that the Propellerheads still haven’t gotten around to releasing their second album (promised for a fall ‘04 release). Better to write off ‘04 as an off year for the big beaters of the “electronica revolution.” Things are looking up though, “Galvanize” sounds pretty good on the first week of listening although it sounds more “underground” than I would expect from the Brothers at this point in their career. From what I’ve read, both their album and the new Moby album are going to be full of vocal tracks which is a step in the right direction and I think they’ve got the songwriting skills to make it work. It should be interesting to see if it works, because I’ve just read an article about the superstar trance djs now going all “rock” which could be final signal of death for electronica as we’ve known it. Time will tell.
I was rather happy to see the Color Theory update on the message boards because it cleared up some confusion I had. Brandon Flowers, the singer for The Killers, has talked about how he spent the 90’s in a synthpop band called Blush Response and formed The Killers after being dumped by the band when they moved to LA without him. I’ve been looking over the past few months for any information about the band since they were a modern synthpop band and the scene isn’t very big. All I could find is that Flowers was also in another band Subversion that released one song on a compilation (“Electricity” on Ninthwave Records). But here comes the Color Theory update offering a free download of Blush Response’s “Your Sinister Heart” demo because it was produced by Brian of CT. Come to find out they sound pretty good, but never got past doing a couple of sets of demos. It’s well worth checking out and more polished than the Subversion track if you’re interested.
I was going to say something witty about something inane but it’s a cheap shot that I am so beyond…

No Update

The hp that I normally use had it's power supply die for the fourth time since I bought it three years ago and since it is no longer under warranty I don't have the money to fix it because it's got some specialized fitted power supply that is only available from the company. Of course I could use the hp laptop that I own, but the power supply on that is busted as well.

Ripping Off The Band-Aid

I caught Kerry's concession speech this morning. Completely classy and a rather moving take on the democratic process. Even with the razor thin margin of victory (which I saw called a "decisive victory" by one of the Fox News anchors, come on it was 51% to 49%, how is that even close to decisive) it's good to see that things moved quickly and without controversy.
What seems to have made the difference was religious folks who think Bush has a closer connection with God. Maybe he does, but he always looks like he's putting on a public show rather than a sincere feeling of faith by my take, but the vote’s show I am in the minority. I think Plaid, who is a sweet woman who I happen to disagree with, summed it up well avoiding the fake ambiguity she used pre-election over at the Sloth Radio forums:

Kerry evidentally ran a spirited campaign. I think most people knew they weren't "stuck" with a vote. They didn't have to vote for the candidate who professed the Catholic heritage without a firm practice of his convictions.

The majority of us decided that Morality Matters. Character Counts.

God Bless America! President George W. Bush remains President for another term.

: I just don't understand how people have come to conclusion that Kerry isn't religious because he doesn't have a story about religion saving him from alcoholism. I don't understand how morality or character factors into taking the country into a war that was outlined years before by the PNAC doctrine written by current members of the White House administration. At this point it doesn't matter, because the country decided. Life goes on.

Tension

We're now just hours away from an incredibly close Presidential election and it's about time to get it over with. I think people have gotten a bit tense, more willing to snap at others if you will, because no one knows who is going to win the election and everyone out there has a strong opinion. Some months back before the Democratic primaries were held I publicly declared that it was going to be incredibly close election and that the events of the past three years have polarized Americans to an incredible degree. We should know just how right I was in a day or so, but for now I'm enjoying the view sitting on edge of history.

Couldn't Have It All

In the past two days I managed to get into an all out fight on ElectroNode over reviews. Breye, the main force behind the band Provision, (who's name and band I'm including only because in the course of the thread it came to light that he constantly searches ebay for his own band's material so he's probably vain enough to search this out and why shouldn't he find this blog thing that I don't link to from any of my many online hangouts) posted a two-page long rant about how he hates Jason who reviews the bulk of the material at synthpop.net with the original title of "are synthpop.net reviews biased". This was the starting point and what he hammered in at the end, but what he missed is that all reviews are biased. All of them. It's the sad and simple fact that humans with biases create reviews. Basically he was furious because Jason had reviewed three of his cds and gave them all recommendations but didn't fill every sentence with meaningless praise but some actual criticism where he implied that the sound design was a bit monotonous. As someone who has some experience with synths, even though my own music sucks, I got what he was saying, but Breye took this as an insult and it was said that it should only be discussed in production circles. Who are we making music for anyways? Other producers or listeners?
It was frustrating to find myself accused of a number of things I never said the course of the thread while being told I was not reading his posts. Still stranger was that he didn’t engage anyone else other than Si and ignored other people who were harsher than me in pointing out what he was proving about his character. Earlier tonight he sarcastically renamed the thread “thanx” or something in response to my pointing out that he was ranting about positive reviews that recommended his albums and said for the second time that he has nothing more to say to me (he didn’t mention the other half dozen people who challenged him) so hopefully this is over. We’ll see I suppose, but picking on people who always back down (as Jason does often when challenged, he’s a nice guy who avoids fights) is a pathetic bullying technique that kids figure out in kindergarten and using that against someone who went out of his way (and in the course buying at least one cd) to promote your band is spineless and someone had to stand up.
Of course this whole thing might stem from something more personal. Previous to this album a member of Provision Alex left to join the group Ctrl, who Jason gave a perfect five star review of their album. Anyone jealous that their album didn't get the same grade?

Municipalities

So my life is as boring as ever, but I've picked up a couple of new albums in the past few weeks.
The new Fatboy Slim album is a bit of a disappointment on the first few listens, but I haven't been a "Fatboy" mood as late, so that might help explain my feelings. "Don't Let The Man Get You Down" has been featured in some commercial even before the album was released and I thought it sounded tired then, so finding it opening "Palookaville" wasn't a good sign. Most of the album is along the same tempo and mood of the lead US single "The Joker," and seems to lack the drive that made the previous FBS albums so much fun. Still "Wonderful Night" is a great track, and apparently will have a video shortly. That's a good thing.
The new Client album "City" snuck up on me, because I think it got a US release a week before the UK (when does that ever happen?). It's different from the debut album, it's almost less layered but has a fuller sound (I know that doesn't make sense, but work with me). "Overdrive", the track with Martin Gore on backing vocals was an instant favorite, but I've probably overplayed it so it's lost a little of it's charm. However, the album is solid, tons of great tracks and they even added strings on a couple of tracks. Definite worth your attention if you're interested in electropop.

The Politics Of Dancing

I'm a bit puzzled by a San Francisco Weekly article I just read about the dancing habits of white guys disguised as an article on Franz Ferdinand. The political/economic link that the author is attempting to make just doesn't quite fit and the whole argument is overstretched because they whole Nirvana/grunge explosion started in the midst of a recession and probably shouldn't be referenced if you're trying to prove bad economics as the reason for dancing. By far the most annoying thing about the article is the implied claim that synths are cheaper than guitars. Odd.
Also, has anyone else noticed the amount of anger directed at Dave Chappelle lately? It seems ever since he signed his new deal with Comedy Central I've been reading in the press "we've all heard about enough" and "we all agree his star is on it's way down." We agree that the use of the royal "we" is always a sign of wisdom, but come on, the guy is funny. Why turn on him because he's getting paid?

Nail Salons & Barber Shops

Local news amuses me. Thanks to the free San Mateo Daily Journal I found out that my wife's hometown is doing it's part to fight organized crime by requiring nail salons and barber shops to get a permit to stay open past 9pm. The police chief pointed out that not many people get haircuts that time of night, and he might have a point.
Also my radio station was just added to the Electro Node Radio Stations Index. Big thanks to Jeff because it's not like he's getting anything out of the deal. He's a hell of a nice guy, and appreciate his help (not to mention his wilingness in taking on the thankless job of running ElectroNode).

Did You Know What Needs To Stop

Those damned Raiders commercials that are running nonstop, at least on cable, in the Bay Area. Bringing the Raiders back to Oakland was one of the worst decisions in recent years (costing Oakland tons of money in tax money yearly when they can't afford enough police to keep the streets safe), and it is endlessly frustrating because the games don't ever sell out, so no home games are televised in the Bay Area because Al Davis uses his big stick to punish fans for not buying more tickets. So this Raiders commercial shows the "family friendly" atmosphere (remember the rioting after the Super Bowl a couple of years ago?) with incredibly grating guitar rawk turned up much louder than even other commercials. It's kind of funny because they show a pudgy little baby, and a little girl who looks a bit scared to show the happy Raider Nation. Fine. You win, Al, the Raiders are family friendly. Now stop showing that damned commercial before I have to go all crazy on your cheap ad again.

In It For The Thriller

I finished another review! Here's a link to my review of Client's "In It For The Money" single. I'm pleased to see that Micke, who owns and runs synthpop.net, added a picture of the single which makes the review look much better. Now I just need to get this content thing down. While we're talking Client check out this excellent interview with the band.
Also the nme review of the Prodigy album just posted and they confirmed some of my feelings about the album and made me feel less crazy about my belief that they re-did the beat from "Thriller."

Always Synthdriven, Never Outpoped

I had the chance to pick up the new Prodigy album yesterday even though I’ve been having car (battery) problems this week. Well, it’s a bit early to make a final judgment, but on my first couple of listens through “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned” doesn’t impress me that much. I’m actually a fairly big fan, even though I dismissed them after hearing “Charley” too many times back on Steve Masters’ mixes on Live 105 back in the day. I rediscovered them when I saw the “Voodoo People” as part of some record store sponsored late-night tv ad-thing, picked up that single and got hooked into their amazing album “Music For Jilted Generation.” I picked up the “Firestarter” single the first day it was out when the band was still on Mute, which was months before they were picked up by Maverick and I’m the first person I know to play it on the radio back on my college radio show. So it’s not like I don’t want to like this new Prodigy album, but it just hasn’t grabbed me. Hopefully that will change as I get to know the album a little better.
In the music download world, I mentioned that I recently tried out Rhapsody, and since then I went through on an additional free trial offered by my ISP. Maybe that was a mistake. While they let you sign up online, they want you to call their costumer service number to unsubscribe, and on the 13th day of the 14-day trial I called up when I got home from work. Apparently they close at 6pm Eastern Time, and when I called back the next day to cancel they informed me that I had been billed at midnight the night before (they must use a different definition of 14 days than I do). Fortunately they were able to unsubscribe me, and after my protesting they even refunded my monthly charge. The guy I talked to on the phone was nice, but their policy is damned near fraudulent. Very frustrating.
I also recently ended up getting a whopper, which currently will get you download from aol’s download service by-way-of-burger king’s site. Um, I put in the code and it told me that the song I wanted downloaded, but the song never appeared on my hard drive. I have this long running theory, dating back to the first time my parents got sent a disc in the late 80’s, that aol only succeeds because it preys on the computer illiterate. Take for example the aol for broadband, that does nothing other than make it look like you’re using aol for $20 a month. It does nothing! Why give aol your money? Are you that stupid? No, you’re probably just old, and don’t understand “internet” or computers that well. So, this is a first for me with not actually getting a download that I “paid” for. If I actually spent any money I would be furious, but since I wasn’t trying to do anything other than send a few cents towards the band (Cosmicity since you’re asking), I’m not too upset.
I was reading on one of the synthpop mailing lists today that Claudio from Moonlife is putting together a regular electro pop night featuring live bands in San Francisco and on the first night he’s got his own band booked along with Subimage. It has plenty of potential, so I’m very excited. Besides it gave me a reason to re-listen to Subimage’s debut “Etoc” tonight. Very good album, and they’ve got another one due out in October.
The Pet Shop Boys premiered their score to Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin” in London this past Saturday. At some point their score should be released on cd, but I’m not expecting a US release (take for example the nearly year old “PopArt” greatest hits still has no release date because of fighting between different record companies the Boys have been on over the years). The odd thing is that there was rain at this London performance that was caused by the tail end of Hurricane Ivan which is just reaching the US shore as I type. Sometimes even nature reminds us what a small world we live in.

Troubles So Hard

Well, not that hard, but I've been having problems with my computer over the last couple of days. It just isn't loading web pages as quickly as normal and the streaming on Rhapsody has been horrible. Let me explain about Rhapsody, they got me in on this free trial thing during the Olympics and I found another offer to extended my trial period. I'm still not totally sold on the service because the sound quality is a bit iffy, and I'm no audio snob, but I am enjoying things like waking up last Tuesday to find Bjork's new album ready to play on my computer. That's pretty cool (interesting album by the way).
Beyond that there has been even more drama in my little online world. Electroculture has had a recent ownership change and will be changing it's name to Electronode shortly. There was a "war" on bimfactor with another forum I frequent that was supposedly about something that was ultimate two people's perception of attitudes. Interestingly, the people on bimfactor who were calling to spam the site and shut it down, then joined the other forum and argued that the other forum was denying the first amendment. Regardless, I thought it was odd how a champion of the first amendment was the first to argue for shutting down the forum that offended her (well offended her because of someone else's perception of comments on a thread). Really it all comes down to a waste of time and energy, and leaves me sad that more people aren't able to be rational in the arguments.
Beyond that I did finally finish another review for synthpop.net. I gave Client's "Going Down" a mildy positive review, but I am a tough critic. I am getting closer to finishing a review of the New Order Online's tribute album, but it is taking forever, because every time I talk about compilations I sound like a complete idiot. So it goes...

Letting The Market Decide

More shocking news for you, John McEnroe's new cnbc talk show has scored a rating of 0. Twice. One of the big arguements about content on tv is that "the market will decide" what will make a profit, and what stays on the air. I have had the "good" fortune to catch an episode or two of "McEnroe" and I can tell you that it is the worst talk show I've seen since "The Sharon Osborne Show." Despite conventional wisdom, some people just aren't ment to be talk show hosts. We'll just have to wait and see how long the show lasts...

I also had the good fortune of stumbling into one of my buddys from high school electronic music class current music project. Apparently he's dropped the Fuzzy Green Carpets name that he had been using and now goes by his last name Osteen for his dj and trance and house producing efforts. He's got tons of talent and is well worth checking out.

Just Chill

It's not very often that I get excited about commercial radio, but recently I've really been enjoying the Chill blocks on Alice. The station usually plays tons of Dave Matthews Band, Nickleback, and Train that is the sort of music I can't stand. However, during the weeknight and Sunday morning Chill blocks they mostly play calmer electronic music, mostly trip hop and ambient along with some mellow britpop. The best thing about the program is that it isn't as tightly formatted as most commercial radio because they go beyond the singles. Even better is that the other night they played a set that included Fatboy Slim ("The Weekend Starts Here") and Dubstar ("Stars") played back-to-back, which were two of my most played artists (and songs) on my college radio show back in 1996. I didn't think I'd ever hear my musical tastes so faithfully duplicated, especially when no commercial radio around the Bay Area at the time would play those two.

News?

Generally speaking, I think the claims that "the media" is left-biased are blown out of proportion, but this story has way too much coverage for something so small.  Why is it, that 40 people seeing "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a news story that's been run for over a day on ABC network radio news?  So some guy paid for a showing in a 500 seat theater and 40-ish people who are Republicans showed up.  What does this prove?  That republicans are cheap?  Talk about a pointless "news" story.

Dropped

The folks at Slim-Fast have apparently dropped the ad campaign featuring Whoopi Goldberg because the were "unhappy" with her recent jabs at Bush during a political fundraiser. If they were smart, they would have dropped the ads because she hasn't done any watch able work in a decade. It's time to take some time off Whoopi; you couldn't possibly need more money. Besides these Slim-Fast ads were the worst featuring a celebrity since the terrifyingly bad Pier One ads with Kirstie Alley. Why bother spending extra money on a name, when all you're going to do is make them as annoying as possible?

You Think You Know Them

Saturday night I had the chance to finally see Cause & Effect live after about a decade of wanting to, and it was an interesting experience. The band put on a good show, and it was obvious why they were signed to a major label back when electronic pop got some exposure from major labels (which it is again, after years of neglect).
I got there, after finding an amazingly close parking spot, as Subimage were finishing their set. Chris, Subimage's singer/songwriter, did some great dancing and did as well as I've ever seen an opening band do in getting the crowd involved. I was impressed, and picked up their album after the show. It's a great album, and they had a real massive sound on stage, so they are well worth checking out live.
Cause & Effect did a lengthy set, and played most of their recent release, The Sunrise EP which is a return to form after their miserable guitary "Innermoststation" album from the late 90's. The band looked fit, and keyboardist Keith was wearing a Halou shirt, and since Halou are from San Francisco and have worked with C&E I assume their were in the crowd somewhere. Rob was a great front man, and I appreciated his attempts at getting the crowd to dance, but his guitar was way too loud. I've noticed this problem at many an electronic show, where the guitars are mixed way too loud. It's not the bands fault, but when your synths are providing a minimum of four instruments at a given time, it seems odd that the guitar would be louder than all of them. Hard to pick one highlight from the show, but I really loved the ballad-y "Stay" off "The Sunrise" EP, and the contemporary re-working of "You Think You Know Her" was great. It's just a shame they lost so much of the crowd to the time of night by the end of their set. We all get older I guess...

I Take Pictures

Photographic pictures. Bright light. Dark room...Oh sorry, got lost in an early Depeche Mode reference there. So a while back I was at the Dekadance Radio Show 20th Anniversary Concert with bands like Faith Assembly, Regenerator, Bizarre Love Triangle, and my favorite Bay Area synthpop group Moonlife and while I was there I took a few pictures. I hadn't used my digital camera in the dark before, so almost nothing came out. However, I emailed a couple pictures each out and much to my suprise one of my pictures end up on the Moonlife site (slightly lightened up by the band so you can see them).

Independence (A Bit Late)

While I couldn't get blogger to work yesterday, I thought I would still post this link that my grandmother sent me. It's a bit like a non-violent version of missile command, and while it's no mindsweeper, it's still a decent way to kill a few seconds.

Ha!

Score another point for the 80's revival, because tv's favorite cat eating alien is to start hosting a talk show. Well at the very least, Alf is hosting a one-off special on TV Land. What can I say, it's a strange world.

Terminal

I had the chance to see "The Terminal" yesterday and it was interesting film. I can't say that I loved it, but it was completely involving and a much better than could ever be expected from a stupid premise about a man stuck in an airport. I had been tracking the films progress and didn't think it would actually get made, but I'm glad that it did. Hmm, I'm rambling. The movie is essentially about people who are waiting, which is not the most cinematic of subjects. The best part of the film is the performances. The most consistent criticism, other than sentimentality, is that he doesn't do characters, but he did an excellent job getting great performances out of every actor in the film and giving all the characters their humanity. I'm obviously not expressing my thoughts well, but Ebert did an insightful review that is a little more enthusiastic than my thoughts. Definitely a movie that reasonable people can have different opinions of, but one I enjoyed.

Pop Notes

If it's good enough for Puff Daddy, then why not? I just read in nme that Madonna is changing her name to Esther because she "wanted to attach myself to the energy of a different name." How well did that work for Symbol-Man, oh wait... he just changed his name back to Prince and had his biggest hit in years. The big M went on comment on others reaction to her recent devotion to Kabbalah saying that "I'm a little bit irritated that people think that it's like some celebrity bandwagon that I've jumped on." It is so not like Madonna to just jump aboard the latest fad. She's always dedicated herself to her singular vision of classical style.
The latest in the wave of summer concert cancellations comes to us courtesy of Missy Elliot. She is apparently unable to make her UK appearances because of a shortage of busses for her tour. At least it's more originally than spraining a leg or something…

No One...

...Saw this coming. Courtney Love just pulled out of her tour that was due to start in a few days. It's amazing that woman can remember to breathe with many, many legal problems (her motto: every week a new court case).
And is anyone else "shocked" that Britney Spears also pulled out of her tour because of her recent knee injury. I just don't know what to do with my summer anymore since Christina Aguilera started this trend of canceling summer tours. It just breaks me heart :(

This Is How You Remind Me (To Turn The Radio Off)

I always thought that Nickelback's boring songs sounded exactly the same and I pointed this out to my wife once as we switched back and forth between their two songs on different stations at the same time. Well, I was browsing the forums over at Pocky Bot and saw that someone posted a link to an almost mash-up where the separated their two hit songs in different stereo channels and played them at the same time. It's scary how close they are, getting loud and quiet in the same parts. Down with bad music!

Coverage

What does it take to get national news coverage? The dominate news story of the week is President Reagan’s death, which is legitimate since the man ended the Cold War, although cable news networks running constant live coverage of the man’s coffin is totally unnecessary. Talk about morbid. Beyond Reagan, the country is still at war and the two highest members of the CIA resigned last week. Is there anything more we need to know about our spy agency soon to have new management? That might be a big story. So what story did I hear lead the hourly news brief on ABC radio two hours in a row? An anti-war protest in Washington of what they said was only about 50 people. Here is the only print story I can find about it (not that I looked too hard). Hmm, 50 people drum on cans and make the national news. I’ll gather up my family and friends for a barbaque and see if we make the news!
Also Roger Clemens just won his 9th game this season with no losses yet. That man is a working legend and one best things to ever to happen to baseball (and he always strikes my team out).

Last Viewer Standing

Tonight I was suckered into even more reality with the new season of “Last Comic Standing.” I had strong reservations about watching the show, since all I remember from the ads for last season was the idea that it was comics living in a house together (that’s all I need in my life is another snooze-fest like “Big Brother” with people who think they’re funny). Fortunately this was just people doing their acts, with an odd mix of established comics with tv gigs (the guy from the Nick At Nite Road Crew and that guy who’s always on Collin Quin’s politically incorrect rip-off) and total amateurs. There were some good acts, and it was nice to see Will Durst, who is a Bay Area comedy staple, win a spot as a semi-finalist at the San Francisco stop. Once the show the living in a house together part I’ll probably tune out, but who knows, the extremely unfunny yet constantly employed Jay Mohr is the show’s host and producer which might force me to bail earlier.

Best News For Music Fans Ever

It was just announced that Creed are disbanding. This is the best news I've heard in ages, since their bland uninpired blah rock has held radio hostage for far too many years. I have all the hope in the world that the band's offspring won't have any success and we will all be rid of this horrible plague that is Creed's music.
In even better news is that Cause & Effect will be visiting San Francisco in July. I have been wanting to see the band live for more than a decade now and I'm so happy to finally have the chance. It almost makes for my not being able to make the
Freezepop show next week.

Book Sales

I happen to flip past C-Span earlier this evening while Bill Clinton was giving a speech promoting his soon to be released memoir. It was interesting to see him speak, since it has been a few years since he left office, and what a difference there is between his speeches and Bush’s style. Perhaps it was just the freedom to not be “presidential” but Clinton was really engaging and got a number of deserved laughs out of the crowd. What I saw of his speech reflected on the creation of the current political climate, and how the 60’s and Vietnam War created much of the divide between the parties. Nothing too shocking there, but he went on to describe the post-Cold War Republican party as a unified front, as opposed to what he considered himself to be a part of, the tradition of individual politicians working with members of both parties in the spirit of compromise. It’s my impression, in online discussions and listening to much of talk radio that people have become so polarized politically that common sense and critical thinking goes out the door when politics are involved. Critical thinking and the ability to analyze is the core of what makes democracy work, so why not use it when it comes to your political views? Just a thought that I believe more Americans will rediscover soon, although it may take another four years. (I caught a bit of “Crossfire” earlier this week and was shocked by the complete devotion to partisanship since both sides were taking cheap shots at the other candidate’s Memorial Day activities as being contrived.) Overall, I was left inspired by Clinton’s speech, and was impressed at his willingness to admit his faults, both personal and political.

Actually

It just occurred to me, in the tradition of so many other great thoughts that occur at nearly 2am, that I’ve had Pet Shop Boy’s “Actually” album on my brain today. I was thinking about the lyrics to “Hit Music” and how it mentions “Tainted Love” and “Love Is Strange” which is the cross referencing you don’t often hear in most pop music. Then I got “I Want To Wake Up” stuck in my head, probably because of the whole new Morrissey album who was in The Smiths with Johnny Marr who works with PSB and “IWTWU” is his favorite PSB song. Oh, then I heard “What Have I Done To Deserve This?” on the radio while I was picking up dinner this evening, which is a duet with Dusty Springfield who’s 60’s hit “I Just Don’t Know To Do With Myself” was recently covered and released as a fantastic single by the White Stripes. So I checked my computer, and for whatever reason I hadn’t ripped “Actually” on to my computer and so I did it and I’m listening to it and writing about it, and it really is a great album. Also it has one of the best album covers of all time (which they claim wasn’t staged, it was just the result of a long photo shoot).

Shrek 2- Donkey's Revenge

My wife and I caught “Shrek 2” over this past weekend and we both really enjoyed the movie. I was flipping through the imdb comments and someone was talking about the first “Shrek” being, “lauded by both critics and audiences: an uncommon occurrence in today's society” which I find to be amazingly short sighted statement. Popular movies and critical acclaim have almost always had about the same ratio over time, and things have only improved in relative popularity of critical hits with commercial success with the availability reviews and the rise of the information age. It helps to think of things in perspective.
Anyways back to “Shrek 2,” one of my favorite lines (just a side note; I don’t warn about spoilers, because there are no surprises in life) is the giant gingerbread man’s last line in the movie’s narrative. For some reason he quotes ET’s final message and tells the Gingerbread Man to “Be good.” It was just so odd, but I’m into movie referencing overkill, so it’s a good thing.

Web Weapon

You probably already know the Christopher Walken starring music video for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon Of Choice,"

and thanks to the magic that is the internet I just discovered a faithful stick figure flash version of the video. It's amazing what's out there.

Lost Twins?

Tired of hype for the season finale of "American Idol" I've become obsessed with Ryan Seacrest's shocking resemblance to former mtv pretty boy Brian McFayden (hosting on the TV Guide channel these days, and WB's idol parody).

Local News

Today may have had a presidential speech as it's major headline, but this story is what caught my eye.

Here's a bit of the story from SF Gate :
A radio traffic reporter became part of the traffic report Monday morning when the small plane he was in made an emergency landing on an East Bay freeway -- causing a traffic slowdown.

No one was injured in the incident, which happened at about 8:30 a.m. when the Cessna 172 apparently ran out of gas while en route to the Hayward municipal airport and landed on westbound Interstate 580 at Highway 238 in Castro Valley, authorities said.

With the help of a motorist who slowed cars on the freeway, the pilot managed to land in the far right lane and come to a stop in the right shoulder. No cars were hit, and a monumental traffic jam was averted, but traffic slowed as motorists gawked at the spectacle of the red-striped plane on the freeway.

: My wife used to commute past that area, admittedly heading the other direction, at that time of day until a little over a month ago. It's just such a surreal scene.

.

Also I'm a bit bummed that Morrissey won't be making all of his Kilborn residency. Why must I always be so miserable?

Miss Kittin

Thanks to a generous donor, I've had a chance to listen to the new Miss Kittin album. It's a bit of an overwhelming album on the first listen because it is completely uncompromising. It was my feeling that Miss Kittin would go a bit more pop and accessible than her work with The Hacker, but she went the other direction. I still have to develop my thoughts and I expect to write out a formal review for synthpop.net, but on first listen it is a very interesting album. It's always good to find albums where people push themselves artistically.
If you’re interested in some great photography, then check out the work of Electro Swank. She’s done some great things with models and electronic pop bands.

The Truth About Film School

A buddy of mine passed the following article from The Onion:

Film-School Graduate Goes Straight To
Video-Store Job
SANTA MONICA, CA—The theatrical career of recent USC School of Cinema-Television graduate Neil Hemmitt was put on hold indefinitely as the aspiring director went straight to video-store clerking Monday. "The big studios never gave me a chance," Hemmitt said, as he shelved a Big Fish DVD at Blockbuster. "But it's because they didn't understand me." Hemmitt's producers, Harold and Francine Hemmitt, pulled his financial support in March, after calling his predicament "hardly original."

: As someone with a completely useless associates film degree, this says more about film school than anything else. I know so many more film professors than people working making films, and all those people I know get paid to work on films volunteered for a decade before getting paying jobs. What a complete waste.

Kraftwerk Live

I had the pleasure of the seeing the legendary Kraftwerk live in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. It was an amazing show and I was fortunate enough to bump into mp3s of their appearance two days later at the Cochella festival at this secret location which I saw on the boards on NewOrderOnline.
Speaking of New Order, today is the anniversary of the death of Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis. A sad time, and I've been listening to a bit of JD to mark the occasion. Interesting note, Curtis was a bit of a Kraftwerk obsessive and had his band listen to Kraftwerk before taking the stage for live shows years before they would fully adopt electronics as New Order.

First Blog

Welcome to my first blog posting. Let me begin with the obvious question. Who am I? An avid electronic music fan and internet radio dj. Daft Monk's Boombox is my station and I invite you to check it out. Beyond that I spend time on the Synthpop.net (where I also do occasional reviews), Electro Culture , and SlothRadio forums. I also run the ElectroPop group onAudioscrobbler.