Good Weather For Airstrikes

Hey, so I think we can all agree the whole ShareBee thing got real old real quick, so I bit the bullet and bought a new hosting package and so we’re back to direct links again. Everybody wins and shit. Now listen to Rya:

Valentine’s Day is a touchy subject for me. I’m single, you see, and have been going through my “men are slime” phase for like, 38 years. But the Big V is a very difficult thing to ignore, and I have had a few too many hung over February 15ths in my day to only reaffirm this fact. This year, I had big plans for the day-long love-fest: to see The Hours perform at Sotheby’s for the (Auction) Red after party. Such notable artists as Tracy Emin, Murakami, Damien Hirst, and (my fave) Andreas Gursky donated their works to be auctioned off, with all proceeds going to Bono’s (RED) foundation. Those proceeds totaled up to a whopping $42 million bones, so there was a lot of celebrating to do. I didn’t bring my camera, because I thought it’d be a dick move - but that didn’t keep like, every other person there from taking arms-length shots of themselves and their fellow patrons of the fine arts. So, if you want to see how the event went down, hop onto over to some leathery, bottle-blonde, divorced, and loaded Manhattan woman’s Flickr - she’ll be glad you came.

Okay, back to me. I went to the party with my friend Tiffany, she’s also Persian, single, and into alcohol, so she made for an ideal partner in crime. The party started off great; there were celebs everywhere, but none that I pulled an MCA over (I met MCA of the Beastie Boys in 10th grade and cried so hard I almost passed out - awesome). The bar was open, and I took abundant advantage of that (champagne), and there were adorable finger-foods that not one woman (myself included) laid a finger on. Dessert was another story, and I’d like to take this opportunity to holler at the amazing mini-donuts. Shits were the size of like, a quarter and a little extra, but were a million bucks of flavor. Oh, and EVERYTHING was branded with the (RED) logo. Now that I think of it, everything was red - the theme was really apropos, but I was just too hammered to realize it at the time. Okay, that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

Featured artist Damien Hirst, famous for his - okay, you know who Damien Hirst is… and he’s got a giant boner for this band called The Hours. I had some reservations at first, because I was all “can I trust the taste of a man who made artwork out of gluing dead flies onto a canvas?” But I’m glad to say I can. Maybe I’m just too affected by “Gossip Girl,” but I have a sneaking suspicion that lead singer, Antony Genn (who’s been a part of such acts as Pulp and Elastica), banged at least 99% of the ladies in the audience. And he really worked that sexual tension; I mean, I think I was impregnated when we made eye contact. OKAY - now, I’m really going to talk about the show.

This is a great live act - there’s a lot going on onstage, and you can tell that they’re doing something more meaningful than just playing catchy, piano-driven tunes. They also happen to be a great looking band, altogether (shout out to the guitarist with red suspenders), and there was adorable girl drummer. The Hours are a lyrics band, and Genn made sure to annotate the songs’ meanings before diving into them - perhaps so the crowd could learn a thing or two as they swung their hips. Did they come off as pompous for having such a visible compassion for their music? In a word: Yes. But Genn’s onstage banter was successful in keeping them from being branded as too serious, namely when he anointed the crowd as a bunch of “rich motherfuckers” who wouldn’t understand the meaning of the next song, as it was about being “in the the gutter” - but he said it with a laugh, so he didn’t come off like an asshole. This, along with such powerful tracks as “Back When You Were Good” kept the crowd compelled - quite a feat, considering I was standing next to a dude who looked and dressed exactly like John Edwards. I also stood near Dennis Hopper for a bit, but that’s irrelevant. Would I see The Hours again? Sure - it’s meaningful music that I can showcase my moves to, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Okay, so then get this - Genn starts singing “Danny Boy,” which if don’t know, is a fucking AMAZING AND SAD Irish folk song. I had the privilege of singing it for my high school’s select chorus (lead alto, thankyouverymuch), so that was really exciting. But NOTHING prepared me for what happened next. Here’s something I held from you - during the show, I physically knocked into Bono (sorry, bud), so I knew he was in the audience. But then, he went on STAGE. And started to sing The Beatles’ “Revolution #9.” Okay. This is when I went mental. THEN they sang “All You Need Is Love” and I went DOUBLE mental. So basically, I witnessed history. I laughed, I danced, I took a camera phone picture.

Here are some songs I enjoyed from the night.

MP3s:
“Ali In The Jungle” - The Hours
“Back When You Were Good” - The Hours

Also, I meant to put this up as one of my favorite music videos of 2007, but… I forgot. And yeah, we’re well into ‘08 but Derek still hasn’t gotten his shit together and done his 2007 recap annnd now that I saw Bono, it’s relevant! I’m not a U2 fan, but I like this video for “Window in the Skies” and the song is alright, I guess. It features Beck not once, but twice, and Method Man “sings” the chorus. Dreamy?

With every passing day I get closer and closer to completing my Top 50 Singles list, but I’m also constantly coming across exciting new shit that’s begging to be featured on these here pages. Like what, you ask? LIKE THIS: Little Boots, y’all. How every blog ever isn’t currently in a perpetual state of shitting themselves over this remains a mystery, but Little Boots is what you get when Joe Goddard decides to take a break from crafting beats in Hot Chip and teams up instead with Dead Disco frontwoman Victoria Hesketh and it’s fucking excellent. “Stuck On Repeat” is the first single and it sounds like the best track Kylie Minogue never released, while the Joe Goddard production is on par with anything on Made In The Dark. This is the first massive track of 2008 folks, I can’t fucking wait to here this played out in the clubs.

MP3: “Stuck On Repeat” - Little Boots

ALSO AWESOME: PARIS
Rivaling “Stuck On Repeat” in the Awesome Things That Have Recently Happened To Me department was my trip to Paris last weekend. Thursday was pretty low-key while I did my best to regain my health so I could sufficiently rage the rest of the weekend, but Friday and Saturday ruled unbelievably hard. Friday morning was spent drinking wine up on Montmartre and drunkenly exploring the city which was awesome and all, but we crashed hard around mid-afternoon and woke up fully charged and good to go for the Crystal Castles takeover of the Paris Social Club that night. CC didn’t take the stage until around 2:30, so we were all kinds of good to go by the time we rolled up to the club, where the line was around the block and then some. Due to some kind of mix up/the band’s agent living up to his notoriously unreliable reputation we were left off the guest list despite promises to the contrary, but we were able to talk our way in regardless and made it to the stage just as Alice Glass and that other guy in Crystal Castles were taking the stage. And as expected, shit got real crazy real fast. The next forty minutes was pretty much just a blur of sweat and debauchery and more sweat, but one thing is for sure: those French kids flip their fucking shit for that band. Seriously, it was absolute pandemonium. “Air War” was the only disappointment of the show because the sound seemed to be a bit off, but “Alice Practice” fucking KILLED IT when it dropped mid-way through their set. In other Crystal Castles news, it’s a little bit terrifying how well this works.

MP3: “Alice Practice” - Crystal Castles

The rest of the night may or may not have actually happened, but we left the Social Club sometime between the hours of 5-7 AM and my ladyfriend and I woke up around noon on the couch of some kid named Pierce. I don’t even want to hang out with someone named Pierce, let alone wake up on their couch in a foreign city, but yeah… c’est la vie. Saturday was pretty cool too with more hungover adventures around Paris and cigarettes and baguettes on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower, and we were able to find time to make it across town and over to Colette, which rules because I picked up a seriously awesome, seriously limited edish Justice shirt there and realized it’s pretty much the greatest store since Major opened up a block from my house in Georgetown.

MP3: “Streets of Paris” - The Teenagers

Later we met up with our international modelfriend Matt Foley, who aside from being the best looking person I know also scored mad points by taking us to Showcase, a sufficiently ill spot right on the Seine with some of the best DJs I’ve heard in a long time keeping shit really real on the decks all night long. Basically the perfect end to our weekend sojourn. At one point the DJ mixed flawlessly from SebastiAn’s “Fool For Love” remix into that mammoth Soulwax remix of “Phantom Pt. II” and I think I died a little. But yeah, long story short: Paris was a pretty good time.

MP3: “Phantom Pt. II” (Soulwax Nite Version) - Justice

And speaking of “Phantom Pt. II” this unofficial, impossibly fan-made video for the track is totally perfect.

NME SHOCKWAVES HIT LONDON
Despite a glaring lack of sleep and the return of the deathvirus that had plagued my throat the week prior to my Paris soujourn, there was no time to rest when we got back to London because Les Savy Fucking Fav rolled into town for the NME Shockwaves Awards tour and absolutely destroyed the Astoria on Sunday night. Syd sorted us with all access passes and we managed to have a pretty ill time despite our aforementioned sleep deprivation, which wasn’t terribly hard as it was easily one of the best sets I’ve ever seen them play and the crowd was absolutely mental from the minute “The Sweat Descends” and “Patty Lee” dropped all the way until the epic final notes of “Rome” rang out over the audience an hour and change later. So yeah, good times.

We basically lived at the Astoria last week, returning on Wednesday and Thursday night for more NME insanity with Simian Mobile Disco and Justice, respectively. It’s hard to say which was better, as both tend to obliterate any audience in their path, but despite a good showing from Late of the Pier (who seem to have improved dramatically since I saw them with Hadouken last summer) on Thursday night, the edge has to go to Wednesday thanks to a remarkable set from the Whip and a solid effort from Friendly Fires. I’d not expected the Whip to be all that amazing live despite my love for their early singles, but they proved me seriously wrong. “Trash” absolutely slayed as their closing number, but the real surprise was “Divebomb”, easily my least favorite single of theirs to date, which sounded PHENOMENAL blasting from the brilliant Astoria soundsystem and set the tone for what would be one of the best shows I’ve seen in months.

MP3: “Divebomb” - The Whip

Then SMD took the stage and guess what? Dudes still know how to rock the party. Shocker, right? Mssrs. Ford and Shaw pulled out all their usual tricks - awe-inspiring light show, unfuckwithable dance jams, endless knob-twiddling, etc. - but it was the longest set and biggest venue I’d ever seen them play and shit was special. They fleshed out their set with a few excellent instrumental interludes, but they made sure to bring the hits in spades as well. “Sleep Deprivation” and “I Believe” bookended their set in triumphant fashion and remain my favorite works by the duo to date, and all the other highlights off of Attack Decay Sustain Release, as well as bits and pieces of a few of their more well-known remixes (read: “Magick” and “Ladyflash”) kept the crowd in a frenzy the whole night long. Their really wasn’t a dull moment the entire night, which has kind of become SMD’s calling card at this point - you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into when you head out to a Simian Mobile Disco gig, and that’s a fan-fucking-tastic time.

MP3: “Sleep Deprivation” (12″ Edit) - Simian Mobile Disco

Friday I was unbelievably pumped to see DatA do his thing at Egg just down the road from me, but all my friends decided to go to Fabric instead with Adam Freeland and I wasn’t about to see DatA by myself… so yeah, I’m still really bitter about I’ve got to admit that Fabric was an amazing time. My friend Allison is somehow friends with Adam Freeland, who was the headlining DJ that night and also has his own Fabriclive comp (so you know he’s legit), so we were able to bypass the lines and kick it with him in the DJ booth all night which was considerably awesome. I’ve started doing some DJing with my roommate and fucking around with Logic and Ableton (you know, so we can make some TOTALLY BLOGGABLE HITS), so it was cool to get a behind the scenes look at Freeland’s set and see just how much better he is than we’ll ever be. But yeah, dude played a pretty flawless mix of the hits (that Soulwax mix of “Standing In The Way of Control” might never get old) and some more obscure shit, and even though I’d rather have been listening to DatA melting minds with his “Minuit Jacuzzi” mix at Egg, I guess Fabric was cool too.

MP3: “Minuit Jacuzzi” (DatA Remix) - Tepr

I’m literally on DatA’s Myspace trying to figure out which distant European city I’m going to travel to see him play (Electron Festival in Geneva doesn’t sound half bad though), fuck my friends for logically choosing fly V.I.P. no-cover free-drink hook-ups at Fabric over Egg. I may never get over this. I mean, just listen to this shit.

MP3: “I Say You Can’t Stop” (DatA Remix) - Nelson

Finally, the new Mystery Jets single is perfect and timeless and everything you could possibly wanted to be, and the video is all that and more. Who knew Laura Marling could look that good?

I’m unbelievably sick today - it legitimately feels like I’m in a perpetual state of swallowing fire - so forgive me if I’m not exactly on form, but I just wanted to take a quick break from our proper Best of 2007 lists to highlight a track that easily would have broken my top ten of last year had it seen a formal release, but alas I’ve had to wait until finally receiving clearance today from our dear friends at Frenchkiss to post it. The song is “Jody” and it narrowly bests “Fools” as the most impressive track on their remarkable upcoming album, Visiter, showcasing Meric Long’s incredible guitarmanship and songwriting ability. Opening with a languorous riff that recalls Iron & Wine’s more sedated moments, I love how the drums come in off-beat and faster-paced and the guitar has to catch up to it, setting the frantic pace for the track after an intro that suggests a more relaxed experience. Spanning six minutes, the song is consistently evolving into new forms and is the most rewarding track on their upcoming album, even if it lacks the immediacy and contagious accessibility of a track like “Fools”. ShareBee is down today so we’re going zShare for the time being, hope that’s cool with everyone.

MP3: “Jody” - The Dodos

Elsewhere, I’ve already taken in a healthy number of shows in the short time since I’ve been here, including Make Model at the Water Rats (conveniently located right across the street from my flat) last Thursday. They’re a bit of a guilty pleasure, but put on a great live show and all six members seem as if they were born to come together and write chart-topping singles, so yeah, they make me pretty happy. Thus, you can imagine how pumped I was to find this bad boy in my inbox this morning, despite my considerable physical discomfort. Phones, how I’ve missed you.

MP3: “The L.S.B.” (Phones Latino Remix) - Make Model

Next, here’s a new band to get all excited about in 2008. Drowned In Sound have been championing them to no end as of late, but the blogs don’t seem to have picked up on it yet. Their demo EP, available for purchase at 7Digital’s indiestore, is pretty hit or miss in my opinion, but I’ve taken a definite liking to this here track. The Celtic Arcade Fire? Your call I guess.

MP3: “A Good Reason” - Broken Records

Finally, there’s this monster of a track, and even though I’m a bit late to the party I’ve got to do my part to get the word out on this masterpiece. Neither Antony nor his Johnsons we’re ever really my bag, and I’ve always found dude’s eerie-ass vocals to be a bit off-putting, but his vocal contribution on this track is actually perfect. Musically, it sounds like LCD Soundsystem (a long lost remix of the “Tribulations” instrumental, perhaps?), only with more brass and it’s not hard to see how the Brooklyn-based producer ended up signed to Murphy’s DFA imprint. But yeah, if you’ve somehow missed out on this to this point, heed my words and get on this shit.

MP3: “Blind” - Hercules & Love Affair

I’m off to Paris this weekend to see some friends and catch Crystal Castles on Friday night, but hopefully I’ll be damn near finished with my Top Singles list by the time I return.