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.