Like elementary school or Democrats, Stars like Fleas have a lot of people. No, really.

Shannon Fields, Montgomery Knott, Ryan Smith, Ryan Sawyer, Matt Lavelle, Sam Amidon, Jon Natchez, Gerald Menke --- Also frequently -- Shelley Burgon, Laura Ortmann, Thomas Doveman Bartlett Extended Family: Molly Schnick, Antony Fine, Matthew Heyner, Avram Fefer, Charles & Katie Waters, Suzanne Chen, Oliver Rivera-Drew, Michael Patti, Marcel Dzama, Daniel Carter, Kimberly Orcholski, Sayda Canizares, Gerald Menke, Christian Fields, Travis Fields, Sonia Scott, Lance Grabmiller, Martin Nieznanski, Xavier Ortiz, Les Falaises, Nicolas Vernhes, Charles Burst, Josh Clark, Katie Waters, Chris McIntyre, Shelley Burgon, Derek Rush, Bryan Zimmerman, Kyle Bruckmann, Tianna Kennedy, Jordi Wheeler -- others i'm forgetting, others to come, others to go


But, don't worry, they don't all show up at once! We should all join in on the noise.

Punk waved to me. I was busy jamming tapes by NWA and Cypress Hill to dig up old Germs records or get brainy with punk's idealism. But, when I hit those ever-endearing teenage years, I snagged a copy of Mexican punk rock compilation that wasn't as boxed in and muscular as British or American punk. Bands from all over Latin-America didn't hesitate to use their mestizo selves to bring in their national folk, be it Mexican huasteca or Colombian cumbia. I felt a connection to Mexican punk, in particular a band called Tijuana No! that was led by the Mexican Jello Biafra, Luis Guereña. I picked up their Transgresores de La Ley. Musically, they weren't that white-hot, but it was Luis' lyricism with its classic anti-capitalist stuff, Zapatista samples, over crunchy rock--that kept me listening. LA Weekly writer and hardthinker Josh Kun wrote about Luis 's death, which went largely unnoticed by the broader pop culture press, outside of California. With the Arctic Monkeys now reflecting Britain's young people as feeling politically impotent, it seems even more important to feel connected to the idea of change. I forget how magical it is that that feeling existed when I was a teenager. But, what is so remarkable about Tijuana No! is that they didn't die off completely, but rather watched their member Julieta Venegas' pop career flourish. As Kun puts it in an LA Weekly article from 2000,"Venegas, who was born in Long Beach, raised in Tijuana and now lives in Mexico City, was studying cello at the time...but would soon go on to become a member of Chantaje, a punkish Tijuana band that would regroup as political traviesos Tijuana No!, the city’s best-known addition to the Latin rock circuit." Kun continues, "She co-wrote the band’s biggest hit to date, the ska-hop “Pobre de Ti,” before breaking away to go solo on 1997’s stunning Aqui." Lesson here is, pop can come out of punk, because though it may seem counter-intuitive, they are similar in meaning; reaching out to people, communicating something, and making them bump into each other with their bootys. Living in Austin, I always saw young kids in ripped black pants, mohawks hitting the ceiling, and I used to get giddy. But, I always wondered whether they knew how pop could be political. I like teenage revolts that make you dance, that don't just teach political anarchism, but rather how to talk to each other, like we all live in a Marvin Gaye song. And it may be 2006, but it seems the lessons I learned back in the early 90's, that I love being anti-nostalgia, anti-golden age with music are still valuable like Slick Rick's teeth.





I learned that pop music is political. And I know just from travelling to Mexico when growing up, that newsweeklies and music magazines make it hard to blur between pop and mohawk rock. That is a lesson not easy to learn.

The New York Times answers the question about who owns those Beatles ringtones? He does.

Argentinean singer, Juana Molina, has cancelled her forthcoming tour according to her label, Domino Records. What upcoming tour you ask? One sharing the stage with Swedish folk love star, Jose "Who's Nick Drake?" Gonzalez. Weep we will, but due to tendonitis in her shoulder, picking up a guitar is impossible.


We'll keep you updated.

Sweden is known for many things, and a Deleted Art's roster like is one of them:

Xbxrx
Experimental Dental School
The Mae Shi
Limited Express (has gone?)
Japanther
The Sick Lipstick
Hawnay Troof
Yellow Swans
The New Mess
Clipd Beaks
Snowsuit*
Bipolar Bear
Curse of the Birthmark

But, don't take my word for it. Take my word for it.

Beans- Crevice


I remember seeing Beans perform this for the first time on the film Slam. Years later, I heard this open-hearted song and still think, though the beat probably could be better, the lyrics are still as emotionally personal as Ghostface's "All That I Got is You". Beans has always been a strange dude to talk to. I remember interviewing him for Signal to Noise through e-mail and needless to say, they were short answers. Ended up being more of an academic essay cause homedudes answers were like "no" and "yes".

Chatterboxes, these rappers.

The Opus- Take me to the Basement (featuring Aesop Rock)

HAPPYSUCKY tell us so.

Languis is from LA and make New Order pop for the twenty-first century. With their moody Argentinean band members and gloomy melodies, I think we should all dress up like the Cure and run outside and freak out the mailman. Black fingernail polish not included.


Languis- Falling from So High

Duos from Portland always make us smile. Nice Nice, stand up. Today, we share with you a milky-voiced singer and an experimental R&B producer. Think Mirah meets, er, Nice Nice. Hoodies and beat-up sneakers are selling out as we speak.

The Blow!
The Blow!
The Blow!
The Blow!

Paty- Cavalo De Pau

Iannis Xenakis- Ioolkos

FRIENDS!

hearts go hard when beats grow old. like my dad told me when i was a little kid with guitar strings coming out of his nose; be strong. to everyone who has been with me from the get go, thank you. new bands, new rappers, new producers, new writers--these make earth warm and glowing fingers want to dance. art makes us live louder. young people with synthesizers in the streets. criticism is not here to make tears, but rather to make us want better. and we try our hardest, we do. elephant rock and Derrida (because names are always capitalized) rap proved to be not enough, what next? small french children and baby neptunes thumps. records should be these tiny things we take to our graves, that are like the last words we will ever utter spoken with last breaths and pink smiles. paintings that are drum machines. crayon indie pop. critique is like watching white noise fizzle. its all about the walter benjamins. grow beards. wear dresses. and don't think for a second i have forgotten about you young youth with afros and white sunglasses with television heart. colored sunshine breaking across brown skin. guitars like echoes and bullets and ringtone beep beep after you. I watched you grow. tomorrow bunnies over Israel (because countries have to be capitalized). see, there was no reason to put down those crayons and pick up those gray guns with their dry bodies. john peel was a saint, mom used to say. and i'd pick up the phone and hear morocco on the other end beatboxing and i'd laugh and laugh and laugh. buildings born of hums. we are inside these parenthesis, that was this dream once, and they were the size of Paris, not the rapper, but the city and then the rapper came out and started doing his SAT's then threw his pencil down and was all like, i don't need SAT's!!!!! and then i nodded my head gently, biting into an apple that was digitized, bytes biting back, because really who needs those question marks? pop like david bowie's cereal box with glitter spoons and stardust prizes. we only remember what leaves us, i once saw on a wall in berlin. mom used to cook some mean moon rice. sun ra bubble gum. toy records. don't forget literature with effects pedals vowels distorted analog nouns bounce. j dilla t-shirts and pajama pants.



new york means tomorrow.

With their Captain Beefheart on a diet vibe and 60's Brit Rock steez, this LA pysch-rock trio is still mysterious. Long hair does little to make a rock song great, but somehow these dudes did it. Sugary vocals, homoerotic lyricism and squiggly fonts: I am for real.


West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band- Shifting Sands

Those weirdos in Liars are back to break you off. Starting May 17th, watch out for nonstop hair flying, drum crushing, guitar ignoring, love loving. Galaxies will move like in a T.I. video and post-Berlin bubble pop will get destroyed in favor of forest rock.

You should, um, probably be there.

Dates:

Wed 5/17/06 Philadelphia, PA Theatre of Living Arts
Thu 5/18/06 Washington DC Black Cat
Sat 5/20/06 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
Sun 5/21/06 Knoxville, TN The Pilot Light
Mon 5/22/06 Atlanta, GA Drunken Unicorn
Thu 5/25/06 Houston, TX Walter's on Walters
Fri 5/26/06 Austin, TX Emo's
Tue 5/30/06 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad
Wed 5/31/06 Tempe, AZ The Clubhouse
Thu 6/1/06 Tucson, AZ Plush
Fri 6/2/06 San Diego, CA Casbah
Sat 6/3/06 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour
Sun 6/4/06 Pomona, CA Glass House
Mon 6/5/06 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
Wed 6/7/06 Eugene, OR WOW Hall
Thu 6/8/06 Portland, OR Dante's
Fri 6/9/06 Vancouver, BC Richard's on Richards
Sat 6/10/06 Seattle, WA El Corazon
Tue 6/13/06 Denver, CO Hi-Dive
Sun 6/18/06 Chicago, IL Logan Square Auditorium
Mon 6/19/06 Detroit, MI Magic Stick
Wed 6/21/06 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace
Sat 6/24/06 Brooklyn, NY Warsaw
Sun 6/25/06 Baltimore, MD Sonar

Park Slope peoples stand up. Celebrate Brooklyn! is a neato reason to move to the city. Bands play here and there.


List, Thus Far:
6-15 - Maceo Parker (opening night)
6-18 - Laurie Anderson
7-01 - Angelique Kidjo
7-09 - Ralph's World
7-13 - Yo La Tengo
7-27 - Philip Glass
8-03 - Bill Frisell
8-04 - Los Amigos Invisibles
8-06 - King Sunny Ade & His African Beats


And Central Park Summerstage is another reason to pay exorbitant rent in New York.

6-13 - Moe
6-17 - Rhett Miller, Ollabelle, Teddy Thompson
6-23 - Refugee All Stars (of Sierra Leone)
6-25 - Feist, Jason Collett, Buck 65*
7-01 - Ska Cubano
7-02 - Seu Jorge, Jose Gonzalez, Alex Cuba Band*
7-13 - Ani DiFranco*
7-16 - Amadou & Mariam, Daby Toure*
7-23 - Konono No. 1
7-30 - Lady Sovereign, Todd w/ Karsh Kale and Realize, My Pet Dragon*
8-03 - New Pornographers, the Frames, Calexico
9-05 - Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Damian Marley
9-06 - Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Damian Marley



*Shit's Gonna be Dope!!!!

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five- The Message



C-L-A-S-S-I-C!

Masonna-Wear Your Love Like Heaven

Screamo expert Masonna makes a lot of hubub using effects, distortion, fuzzy static and his voice. Rumor has it that years ago, Beck heard who he was and got him to open his Japanese shows. But, you know, its not that bad. I'm sure this will be pop in a hundred years.


Masonna- Epistle to Dippy

Mike Ladd- I am Building a Bodacious Bodega For the Race War

I like bands that are about momentary bliss. Like The Germs or Ol' Dirty Bastard. Future pop be damned, this Baltimore quartet is Erase Errata for the East Coast peoples. Nasty chords, lazy drums and lots of jumping around.



Ponytail is all this and more.

Lexie Mountain Boys

(by daniel ladel)


On MTV, Rakim and Nas confirmed that they are working together on a new record. "Me and Nas, we been talking about this for a long time. Our people around us been talking about it and the whole world [has been talking about it], but it's about time, man," Rakim said. Now, we sit and wait for a thousand years.



Thanks, guys.

Colombian punks turned hippies, Aterciopelados, are some of the most legendary figures of 90's Latin rock. With their catchy rhythms and wonderful blend of pop and Andrea Echeverri's elastic voice, I want to hug them forever and ever. Two songs from their excellent, La Pipa de la Paz record show how rootsy they can be, though their later works are chock-full of beats.




Aterciopelados- La Culpable

Jackson C. Frank- Blues Run the Game



Forget Jose Gonzalez's mopey acoustic songs, Jackson was waxing depressive back in the 1970's. Bad luck and down and out feelings followed this American folk star throughout his entire life until he passed away. "Blues Run the Game" is by far his best song. "Kimbie" is great, too.


Jackson C. Frank- Kimbie

dalek- Classical Homicide

Simon Reynolds' excellent book on postpunk, Rip it Up and Start Again, highlights PiL in its first section. Johnny Rotten's beautifully wimpy synthetic self talked about the Pistols' first album and how it was shaped by Malcolm McLaren. Rotten, whose real name is Johnny Lydon, said that his vision of their classic Never Mind the Bollocks record would have been different. He said, his ideas would have rendered the album "unlistenable for most people." Are we talking about the inception of noise? Post-Luigi Russolo static? I can only imagine what Rotten had in his brain and can wonder if pop history would have been different if McLaren and the rest of the Sex Pistols would have let him have his way.


For now, I guess I'll just rip my black leather jeans and go outside.

Thanks, Malcolm.

Hotstepper Jamie Lidell don't stop. When he's not touring with Beck, breaking synthesizers, wearing weird yellow outfits and being British, he's making music. Warp Records announced that Lidell:

"Has handpicked a collection of live versions and remixes of tracks from his album Multiply to form Multiply Additions, out next month. Highlights include new mixes from Mocky, Four Tet and Freeform Five, and a particularly dope remix from Luke Vibert. Multiply Additions will be available on CD in all it's full-length, 10 track glory alongside a 12" sampler carrying four choice dancefloor cuts.

Out on May 29th worldwide through all the usual avenues, with the exception of the CD in the UK which will be available exclusively from Warpmart."

Hello, home.



I missed you.

Props to Eat Records in Greenpoint, my new home. Austin record stores have been kind (End of an Ear, Waterloo, 33 1/3) but its time to move on.


Fork in hand, I'm ready.

San Antonio turntable wizard, DJ Jester, like most of us, was asking the big questions. Records, magazines, women, Willie Nelson, city after city, women, Kid Koala--is this all there is??

And he almost gave it all up.

Jester put it like this, "It was true. SXSW was going to be my last show EVER. Truth is, life on the road is hard as shit sometimes and I was in a situation. Last night, the weirdest thing happened in the middle of Oklahoma. It's one of those moments that kind of choked me up and absolutely made me realize that being Jester is who I am, it's what I do. So, here I am…in "G. Michael Pendon mode" all tired and exhausted from work, driving the Axe truck for 12 hours through Texas checking into the Hampton Inn just pass the Texas/Oklahoma border, I mean the middle of nowhere. So, the guy at the front desk is looking at me as I'm checking in and right away he looks so familiar. After checking my ID after I handed him my credit card, he says "Aren't you DJ JESTER?" with a nervous smile and chuckle . Let me tell you…I mean, that's happened once before in a Walgreen's parking lot in Houston with this dude that saw me play in New Zealand, but NEVER would I imagine that to happen in Arden, Oklahoma, with a hotel clerk… especially when I'm not even on a dj tour, just rolling through town for work in the friggin' promo truck. I instantly remember talking to him the last time I played Oklahoma City. I mean, it wasn't on some ego shit for me. If anything, I was so satisfied that this random person could be so excited and grateful for my music. Much like I was grateful for his gratitude. You just don't get rewards like that, or to that degree, when promoting body spray or shower gel. It's something I've been thinking a lot about lately….how friendship, community, love…all that shit is what really matters and sometimes it's all too easy to get distracted. I fell asleep last night happy that I can make others happy. I rested easy for the first time in a long while."


And get ready to get rocked by his new mix cd, Secret Love, coming in June. MP3's soon.

Big Business ain't no joke. Two guitar-slanging white dudes who throw riffs around like bricks. Their record, HEAD FOR THE SHALLOW on Hydrahead Records is worth digging for.

Thumbs down to boring ass 9th Wonder. Dude, are you a sampler? Do you just touch things and process them in your body and out comes a 70's soul loop? And enough with the plump, crunchy beats that sound all Fruity Loops.

But, I love Murs though. Thats why this hurts so much.

Boo.

Portland's Nudge are a terrific three piece that use everything they can to bang on stuff. Their record last year for Kranky, Cached is brilliant. Put it like this:

"Nudge demonstrates a remarkable range and mixture of real time playing and electronic processing. Rhythms hint at dub reggae or African patterns while the accretion of electronic textures goes on above and below the melodies and beats. This interlocking of electronic and organic instrumental sounds is what sets Nudge aside from those who simply glue twee melodies onto drum machines and synth pads. Nudge enjoys their flirtations with genre, which makes Cached a genuine look at a band in 'play' mode (as opposed to po-faced 'work')."

But its their latest 12" on this great label called Community Library that has me stoked. I reviewed it for XLR8R a while back and forgot to mention it. Let them mention it:

"new release available featuring two exclusive tracks from an ensemble including auxillary members franz bucholtz [signaldrift] and howard gilam [front machine].

go to www.community-library.net and grab one before they're gone."

British originators of the remix, Coldcut, famous for their twiddling of Eric B and Rakim, their classic 70 Minutes of Madness (word to Hollertronix) and eye-popping live shows. They're hopping on tour with Aesop Rock beatsmith Blockhead. Bananas, I tell you.

Dates, folks:

Sun 04/30/06 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Indio CA

Tue 05/02/06 Mezzanine San Francisco CA Blockhead

Wed 05/03/06 Aladdin Theater Portland OR Blockhead

Fri 05/05/06 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver BC Blockhead

Sat 05/06/06 Neumos Seattle WA Blockhead

Tue 05/09/06 First Avenue Minneapolis MN w/ special appearance by Andrew Broder (FOG), Blockhead

Wed 05/10/06 The Abbey Pub Chicago IL w/ special appearance by Andrew Broder (FOG), Blockhead

Fri 05/12/06 Opera House Toronto ON DJ Vadim, Blockhead

Sat 05/13/06 Metropolis Montreal PQ Kid Koala, Blockhead

Mon 05/15/06 Paradise Boston MA Blockhead

Tue 05/16/06 Sonar Baltimore MD Blockhead

Wed 05/17/06 Irving Plaza New York NY Steinski, Blockhead

XXL- (Pokey in Your) Gnocci

Oakland's Xiu Xiu and Torino, Italy's Larsen made a pretty good record last year. Jamie Stewart pillow vocals and asymmetrical guitars in bed. Under the name XXL, their debut record, Ciautistico! was a successful experiment. Morrissey posters and toy robots sold separately.


XXL- Distorted Duck

# posted by M Dilla @ 6:38 PM