Shoegazing Part II (while thinking of your hips)

While I take Tuesdays to Saturdays to celebrate life through diverse rites like naming umbrellas, Sundays and Mondays are the days where I fall into a deep lethargy which I can compare to some sort of perpetual state of menstruation which doesn't allow me to speak or write clearly to the other people around me. The sweet ain't as sweet without the sour.
Days like these require no usual analgesics. I lock myself up and wrap around cascading walls of sound desiring that damn shoegaze tune could last other 30 or maybe 60 minutes. Well that, and the ever-tranquillizing thought we can decide to end it all whenever we please.
I hate Mondays. Big time. Like a rolling stone. Today I am your dagger.


m83 - I guess I'm floating
(before the dawn heals us, 2004)
Malory - lake of doubts (maladon remix)
(Outerbeats, 2002)
Sigur Ros - Bium Bium Bambalo
(angels of the universe, 2001)
Dub Tractor - much better than this
(hideout, 2006)
Windermere - coast is clear (curve cover)
(never lose that feeling Vol.1, 2005)
Dwayne Sodaberkh - whiskey eyes
(Cut open, 2006)
Butterfly explosion - sofia
(the butterfly explosion, 2006)
Gregor Samsa - young and old
(55:12, 2006)
Airiel - firefly
(melted Ep, 2004)
Slowdive - dagger
(Slouvaki, 1996)
Aarktica - ocean
(Pure tone audiometry, 2004)

Thanks to Mary, Merz, Exoul for their recommendations on the shoegazing part 1 post and to all the other shoegaze fans who left comments. Hope you also like this second installment.

CANTEMOS DE SEXO

Esta semana pensaba hablar de Itália, pero resulta que ha subido la temperatura y eso es inversamente proporcional al numero de prendas que nos ponemos. Todo esto hace que las calles se inunden de curbas sugerentes y estó hace que a nosostros mismos nos suba también la temperatura. Por todo esto y puede que también por esta foto de Kalho he decidido que esta semana...va de sexo.

Empecemos con un ejercicio de onanismo que nos canta Albert Pla interpretando Mi mano en pena (de Javier Krahe).

Los Amigos Invisibles nos invitan a practicar sexo anal en El disco anal (también en un recomendable video).

Nadie habia descrito tan bién un cunilingus como Pablo Carbonell que le pasó a Raimundo Amador este Ay que gustito pa mis orejas.

Jorge Drexler nos confiesa su afición a mirar en tu voayer.

Y por último Kevin Johansen se va de putas en daisy.

Espero que hayan disfrutado.

Night List (Macorina - The Order of Things)

...and we must understand by this a sort of communal opinion, a collective representation that is imposed on every individual; we must not understand by it a great anonymous voice that must, of necessity, speak through the discourses of everyone; but we must understand by it the totality of things said, the relations, the regularities, and the transformations that may be observed in them, the domain of which certain figures, certain intersections indicate the unique place of a speaking subject and may be given the name of author. 'Anyone who speaks', but what he says is not said from anywhere. It is necessarily caught up in the play of an exteriority
- Michel Foucault, The Order of Things.

A late night note at the margin about desire and being free. I have to admit being a momentary optimist here, in which the playlist ends with Les McCann ballad. A lyrical soul top charter about paradox of love as a solution to freedom. One relinguishes it is the answer. It makes a hopefull narrative I suppose. The list is my rendition of early MdM posting styles. In the list: "Macorina", the more interesting song in the list, comes from 2003 live recording at Carnegie Hall. Chavela Vargas dallies seductively about night encounter in context of earlier century social constrain on personal identity. "A Change Is Gonna Come" is a memorable Sam Cooke 1964's top chart song. Next to Les McCann, they both are key players during the turbulent decades where stylistical development of R&B and soul coincide with social turmoil. On the background of all that, muted description and without vocals are post-rock pieces. Tarentel (the title of this playlist), Mono, and Zorn's film work.

Totality of things said? Who knows. Once my optimism wears out, I am sure I will agree with any alternative reading but optimistic.

01. Mono - A Heart Has Asked for the Pleasure
02. Chavela Vargas - Macorina
03. Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come
04. Tarentel - Popol Vuh
05. John Zorn - Seductress
06. Les McCann - With This Hand

image credit: bitmapr

BARCELONA MON AMOUR

Si Madrid me mata y Sevilla tiene algo especial...Barcelona sona i la música es bona.
Os propongo un vistazo con la oreja a lo que se hace por mi ciudad nonatal . Bueno, musicalmente se hacen cientos de cosas mas, pero yo destaco estas.


El Tio Carlos - Caballos de viento

Muchachito - Azul
(extraido de una de sus maquetillas)

La Familia Rústika - Haciendo Glüh
(también en video aqui)

Pero como no solo de mestizaje vive el hombre, que sepais que en bcn también se hace buen jazz
Ass Trio - Something Stupid

y buenísima musica electrónica
The Pinker Tones - Viva la juventud

Siento que me dejo taaaantas cosas...

Rip-off Roundup part I

Yesterday at work while shuffling on the player, two tracks were sequenced and I was alarmed at the exact riffing on the baselines. The songs were "Debra" by Beck and "My love for you" by Ramsey Lewis.
Although I lost some time skipping back and forth the two songs to my colleagues to prove my amazing discovery until I annoyed them, it gave me a good idea for a post. Remember kids: Sampling and covering is cool, ripping off and not credit is not.

Round 1: Beck vs. Ramsey Lewis
Both songs sound very familiar in mood and especially in the baseline. As they progress Ramsey Lewis gets lost in an endless funk jam and Beck, predictably, sticks with the original riff throughout the song.

Ramsey Lewis - my love for you
Beck - Debra

Final Verdict: I'm gonna go for Beck on this one. I'm not the biggest beck fan but I thought "Midnite Vultures" was the shit when it first came out, I rarely listen to it anymore but I still stand Mr. Beck's rip-offs now and then. Sorry Mr. Lewis.

Round 2: Visage vs. Kelly Osbourne
A shameless rip-off only a few are aware of. Kelly Osbourne passed the fine line between copy and cover on this one. Fuck, it even has a fancy spoken french word at the beginning of "her" song.
Such rip-off from an mtv branded artist couldn't pass without notice in the music biz and Mrs. Osbourne was contacted immediatly by Visage themselves for explanations. Apparently they arranged a collaboration on Kelly's new album or I think it was rather a collaboration from Kelly on a comeback album by visage... I'm sorry, I really don't remember how it turned out and I'm too lazy to find out.

Visage - fade to grey
Kelly Osbourne - one word

Final Verdict: The original one tickles me better by far. There's also an extended version of "fade to grey" which is even better and which I'd recommend you to look for (probably will post it anyways in the near future).

Round 3: The Beatles vs. Sublime
The first time I heard "What I got" I noticed it sounded really familiar. Then when "Lady Madonna" appeared on the radio a few days later, it dawned on me. The similarity in both songs' vocalization on the verses is so big and both songs are so widely known across the world that I'm surprised none of the beatlemaniacs I know have pointed it out when "What I got" rises up from someone's old stereo. Maybe they're just not similar at all and I'm the only person that perceives it as a rip-off.

The Beatles - lady madonna
Sublime - What I got

Final Verdict: Tough one. I'll call it a tie but unfortunately I don't have the time to explain to you the reasons why. (Swoosh!, look I'm magically vanishing now.)

If you've got some more rip-offs you'd want to share, comment or mail me. I'd appreciate if you'd like to feed my current rip-off obsession very much. Thank you.

Image: one of the numerous anonymous copies from the 16th century of the Mona Lisa claimed to be the original one.

ChungKing Express

Deliciosas canciones de la banda sonora de Chungking Express :)

Brown Dennis-Things in Life.mp3
Faye Wong - Dream Person.mp3
Dinah Washington - what a difference made.mp3
The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreaming.mp3
Chunking theme.mp3

UNA DE COVERS


Moka ha tenido el magnifico detallazo de dejarme participar en este blog. Para empezar me voy a presentar.
9 de cada 10 dentistas recomiendas chicles sin azucar, pues yo soy como el hijodeputa (con perdón) que los recomienda con azucar. Asi que empezaré recomendandoos unas covers que en algunos casos superan a los originales.

javier alvarez - aserejé
be my guest - highway to hell
Devo - I Can't Get No
ass trio - caravan
fanfarre ciocarlia - bond
Mardi Grass.BB - Zen Rodeo -Kung Fu Fighting
Gotan_Project - Paris_Texas

Y como extra os invito a ver una cover gesticulada y lo que puede denominarse como una variación del Gay Bar de los Peaches, a cargo del cantautor protesta de la temporada.

La senda del caracol

Un playlist con buenas dosis de calypso para un verano lleno de guateques siderales, limón, sal y sol.

The Coctails - holiday in paradise
(Popcorn box set, 2004)
Beirut - scenic world
(Gulag Orkestar, 2006)
Monochrome set - apocalypso
(Love Zombies, 1980)
Islands - jogging gorgeous summer
(Return to the sea, 2006)
Saint Etienne - sun in my morning
(tales from the turnpike house, 2005)
The Mighty Vikings - do re mi
(Trojan calypso box set, 1967)
Ray Barretto - pastime paradise (stevie wonder)
(La cuna, 1979)
Blanket music - red right ankle (the decemberists)
(Love Translation, 2006)

yummy:
Dodge has gone cover-frenzy over at my old kentucky blog and has uploaded a good amount of nice versions for songs like "there is a light that never goes out" by the smiths and "god only knows" by the beach boys, among others (specially check out the 34 covers of "love will tear us apart" by joy division, one of my favorite all time songs).

Take your medicine published yesterday one of the most entertaining mp3 blog round-ups I've read, Impifree bloggus anthropological study. I wish I had the time to write something like this.

I'm proud to announce that Berberecho has joined our team. For those of you not akin to his name, berberecho lives in Spain, he's 28 years old and he happens to be a very talented designer who has mastered the work of collage and digital manipulation winning several awards each year under film production companies "berberecho productions" and "requetechunai pictures". He's also guitarrist of the legendary spanish rock-funk band "La familia rustika".

Imagen: Arthur de Pins (me lo susurro Kahlo).

// Nortec - - dance ese dance.

Beck, Mixed Bizness (Casino Soul Olas Altas Mix by Fussible). Julieta Venegas, Sería Feliz (Bostich Remix). Calexico, Güero Canelo (Nortec Mix by Panoptica). Ennio Morricone, Allegretto Per Signora (Nortec Remix by Fussible). Gustavo Cerati, Sulky (Bostich Mix). Clorofila, Paseo Moral. Nortec Collective, Tijuana Makes Me Happy (Thomas Brinkman Remix). Kronos Quartet, El Sinaloense (Dance Mix by Planktonman).

Nomás.

Canciones para un Striptease

¿Con este calor a quién no le apetece un buen striptease?

Canciones para un Striptease a ritmo de jazz ;)
Ethel Waters - I got rhytm.mp3
Benny Goodman - Sing sing sing.mp3
Tommy Dorsey - Well, git it!.mp3
Marilyn Monroe & Cole Porter - My Heart Belongs To Daddy.mp3
Marylin Monroe - Specialisation.mp3
Ella Fitzgerald - A tisket a tasket.mp3
Duke Ellington - it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.mp3
Bermuda - Boom Boom, my Honey.mp3

Canciones para un Striptease con medias ;O
Stereo Total - I'm Naked.mp3
Shivaree - Goodnight Moon.mp3

Canciones para un Striptease "after dark";
Garbage - I would die for you.mp3
Lola - Wish.mp3
Tito and Tarantula - After Dark.mp3
Tom Waits - Little drop of poison.mp3

Image vía Arthur de Pins :)

Summer List No.5 (Lazy Saturday edition)

I am not sure where everybody is, but I'll post an update for lazy saturday. It's for that breezy saturday late afternoon after eating one too many tatter tots and your brain just shuts down and refuses to do anything else beside breathing and sun bath in the back yard. Here is the soundtrack list. Slightly rustic, vaguely unseasonal, neither here nor there, cheerfull and above all...... day time mellowness. It's reverse waking up list.... enjoy life peeps, before it gets really hot.

01. Es - Kaikkeunen
02. More Dogs - March to the Scaffold
03. Amadou & Mariam - Sénégal Fast Food
04. Pieta Brown - #807
05. Voice of the Seven Woods - An Hour Before Dawn

image credit: bitmapr

Catharsis N°6

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, now that classes are over, I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul and commend my spirit to the community of vice. Will come back to you shortly after the weekend.

Ruth - Mabelle
(Polaroïd/roman/photo, 1985)
Guerre Froide - demain berlin
(Maxi, 1981)
Alexander Robotnik - problemes d' amour
(Les grandes voyages de l'amour, 1983)
Moderne - switch on bach
(L' espionne aimait la musique, 1981)
Liaisons Dangereuses - los niños en el parque
(Liaisons dangereuses , 1981)

Juana Molina's fourth full lenght since the appealing "tres cosas" will be released worlwide on June 6th. Molina is one of the most talented manipulators of organic and electronic music today and her unique vision of argentinian folk backed up by an ominous electronic discourse continues alive and breathing on Son. She will be hitting road in North America in June with Jose Gonzales and Psapp. For information on tour dates please visit her label, domino records or her website.

Juana Molina - Micael

Image: Tatiana Cardeal

para despedirse

dibujito por mou

he andado un poco ausente.
me he estado despidiendo de unos cuantos.
mini soundtrack para un mundo donde todo duele.

rachel's - last thing last
lali puna - grin and bear
azure ray - november
brian eno - by the river
telepopmusik - love can damage your health

la rola extra,
mucho más rockera pero no menos nostálgica
a.f.i. - days of the phoenix

y una recomendación. escuchen a jög. él también hace musiquita triste y la tiene disponible en su myspace.

[post #300!]

Elegant No.23a

That Beauty is not, as fond men misdeem,
An outward show of things, that only seem;
But that fair lamp, from whose celestial ray
That light proceeds which kindleth lover's fire,
Shall never be extinguished nor decay;
But, when the vital spirits do expire,
Unto her native planet shall retire,
For it is heavenly born and cannot die,
Being a parcel of the purest sky.
— Edmund Spenser

One idea I tried to explore early at MdM was the idea of 'elegant'. It was in tandem with some of Moka's earlier series. (elevator/downtempo and kinky) But after A. E. no 2b post, I quickly moved somewhere else. Here is another try

No. 23a explores two ideas. One is musical, the idea of elegant in musical expression. The playlist backbone is soulfull voices interspersed with songs that swerve between pop, jazz and blues. Feminine elegant, the relation between great voices, context of times and music styles. Pulse of history. These songs are exquisite, with carefull dynamic control, melody, ever changing rythm and texture. Above all it's craftmanship, great techniques done seemingly effortless. Everything necessary without being excessive, each moment is pure. It is an economical equilibrium between form and function. Second idea, is simply trying to find all combination of post forms, anything that cannot easily fit within traditional print or radio, be it subject or type of music. So here is Elegant No.23a.

01. Etta James - At Last
02. Vijay Iyer/Mike Ladd - Density Of The 19th Century
03. Sun Ra - Angels And Demons At Play
04. Medeski, Martin & Wood - Ekoostic Hooka (Live) (rp)
05. The Gossip - Dark Lines
06. Cassandra Wilson - Voodoo Reprise
07. The Avalanches - Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life

image: brightsoulphotography

Amparanoia

"Amparanoia" para empezar con ritmo una semana con gafas de sol y tirantes ;D

Amparanoia - Caravane
Amparanoia - Buen rollito
Amparanoia - Que te den
Amparanoia y Manu Chao - Bella Ciao



tra la ra ...

// Siempresente -- - if everpresent now.

(comienzo del instante)

I'm
no longer willing to
will my life,
NOW I just am.

- . - - . -
. - - . - .
- - - . - -

"partiendo de la idea de que el tiempo fluye, el tiempo sólo existe en movimiento, por lo tanto debemos entender que el futuro no existe en realidad - quizás existirá pero nunca podrá existir hoy, y lo que hoy no existe simplemente no existe - y que el pasado es una idea sólo referencial, pues el ayer en algún momento fue hoy, y cuando dejó de serlo dejó de suceder; si hemos de ser concisos, el tiempo existe solamente en presente, es decir que es, por acuñar un término apropiado, siempresente."

Passengers,
Always Forever NOW.
Gustavo Cerati,
Aquí & AHORA (por 3 Mins.).
His Name Is Alive,
Here Forever Always.
Icebreaker & Manual,
Into Forever.
The Flaming Lips,
All We Have Is NOW.
Passengers,
Beach Sequence.

(fin del instante)

Arte: Maggie (The Blue Shadow).

Summer List No.3

First playlist post for summer. Yes, there are actually 2 playlists preceeding this one, but this goes first because it fits the mood. As a whole, I can't decide yet how the entire set will go, but most probably brit-pop, hip-hop and a dab of j-pop. Public enemy at MdM! New in this list The Picture, a british britpop by way of Brooklyn. Pretty fun. The classic: YYY and Noodles.



Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date with A Night
Noodles - Lite Pop
Hot Hot Heat - Middle Of Nowhere
Pinetop Seven - On the Last Ride In
The Picture - Walking in Flight



image credit: Feuillu

Distant sounds of summer

Solamente existen tres poetas estadounidenses que valen la pena, como bien decía Pound: Marianne Moore, Williams Charles Williams y Mina Loy. Esta última es desde siempre mi favorita.
Hoy le he regalado al polvo debajo de mi librero el poemario de Yeats que compulsivamente compré en un aeropuerto y lo he intercambiado por "Lunar Baedecker and time tables".

El verano me da una pereza infumable...



I
Spawn of fantasies
sifting the appraisable
Pig Cupid his rousy snout
rooting erotic garbage
"Once upon a time"
Pulls a weed white star-topped
among wild oats sown in mucous membrane
I would an eye in a Bengal light
Eternity in a sky rocket
Constellations in an ocean
whose rivers run no fresher
than a trickle of saliva

These are suspect places

I must live in my lantern
trimming subliminal flicker
Virginal to the bellows
of experience
Colored glass

II
At your mercy
our universe
is only
a colorless onion
you derobe
sheath by sheath
remaining
a disheartening odour
about your nervy hands

[Mina Loy]
(Psst: you can find the entire text of Lunar Baedecker in here.)

1. Tindersticks - Walking
Red House Painters - Smokey (Demo)
Susumu Yokota & Rothko - Brook And Burn
Songs Of Green Pheasant - I Am Daylights
Atahualpa Yupanqui - Punay (Mi pastorcita perdida)
Migala - The guilt
Neil Young - down by the river
Tara Jane O' Neil - the phoenix
Devendra Banhart - Hey Mama Wolf
Beirut - the canals of our city
11. Neil Halstead - high hopes

Image: Henry Darger, who by the way never met Wolfi in person nor his work and listened to too much Neil Young on his last 3 years of life. His lucky number was 11 and apparently he had the same sleeping disorders that I have ( insomnia and light hypnopompic hallucinations).

Breaking : Soul Asylum - Stand Up And Be Strong

We have just received new track from upcoming Soul Asylum Album, Silver Lining.

Apparently planned for July 11 by Legacy.

"Drummer Michael Bland (Prince, Dixie Chicks, Sons Of Almighty) contributed to the album as did the Replacements' Tommy Stinson, who stood in as bassist for two tracks ("Bus Named Desire" and "Oxygen") and sang on four. According to a spokesperson, Bland and Stinson will join Murphy and vocalist Dave Pirner on a spring tour, which begins April 12 in Minneapolis and will run through August."

Soul Asylum - Stand Up And Be Strong

Track listing:
"Stand Up and Be Strong"
"Lately"
"Crazy Mixed Up World"
"All is Well"
"Bus Named Desire"
"Whatcha Need"
"Standing Water"
"Success Is Not So Sweet"
"Great Exaggerator"
"Oxygen"
"Good for You"
"Slowly Rising"

see also: Soul Asylum, Billboard news.
image credit:

Kid A reworked (Blucu Uktan)

1. The velvet teen - Everything in it's right place
2. Steve Jaunzemis - Kid a
3. Meshell Ndegeocello & Chris Dave - The national anthem
4. Lunasect - How to dissapear completely
5. Fuzzyste - Treefingers
6. Radiohead - In limbo (Boo Maga living in a fantasy remix)
7. The Tallywood strings - Optimistic
8. Radiohead - Idioteque (BBC remix)
9. The Randy Watson experience feat. Don Bell - Morning Bell
10. Christopher O' riley - motion picture soundtrack

"Shadowing everything they’d done heretofore like a cold black monolith, Kid A was the ultimate encapsulation of a band held firmly in the grasp of the blue-steel g-forces of technology. One October day in 2000, Radiohead stripped their threads completely, and offered us this, an album consistently devoid of context and thus one that provides its own for the decade. In its dark-hued unfolding, we began to see ourselves as faint and flimsy and perhaps even glowing with the toxicity of our own immense need for progress, detached from ourselves and those around us via the depth of our future and the inevitability of its emergence. And, yet, this wasn’t mere detachment, a leap out of step with anything we’d come to learn from OK Computer. This was linear progression via spastic EKG line, as the band slipped free from both academic IDM and mournful Brit-rock. Kid A is restrained and chained in all the right places, and boiling with such a ragged distrust of us all and all that is in us that we can’t but claim its place in our own lore. We acknowledge the same awkwardness, and understand its isolation now. That is what they’ve forced us into. And that, above everything else, is why Kid A is the most important album we’ll see this decade". [Derek Miller]

High tide on the sea of synths

In epileptic steps forward you. My ticking arm reaches for your skin.
There's a hole in my body where my heart should be. Is it coming back?
Wait and see.

Brennan Green - little ease (Lindstrom & Prins thomas rmx)
I:cube - procession
Kraftwerk - home computer (edit)
Copy - it's a little too late (thanks Scotto)
Phoenix - too young
Starbuck - a fool in line
Honeymoon Killers - wait & see
Roy Ayers - tarzan (ame rmx)

Image: Yet another lovely portrait from Kahlo, this one was taken from her flickr series "Kahlo y mi diario".