"Buy or Cry"

New Young Pony Club - Jerk Me: This is an ace punk-funk jam in the spirit of ESG/Bush Tetras/Material, working some wonderfully sleazy guitar licks worthy of a Marc Bolan reference. And although I might think the NYPC is strongly influenced by certain artists from certain eras, they continually surpass those influences to produce very modern songs that are (so far) nothing short of bulletproof.
I wonder if the NYPC will continue to release only 7inch singles, or if they will work towards an album? I kind of hope for the former, preferring the current mysteriously exclusive access to their music through the small vinyl format. But maybe that's just me being selfish...
Click here to buy this 7 inch from Picadilly records while you still can. I honestly can't believe there's any left.


The Hot Springs - CacoDisco: I first fell in love with song when I found it on a Montreal Pop Sampler earlier this year up at the radio station. It became a staple of my show until the station started getting renovated and I couldn't find that particular pop sampler. Fairly frustrating, but whatever. Recently I was reminded of this song while I was re-logging my old playlists and I decided to check the old WWW for some news on the Hot Springs. They have an album out now and are planning to do lots of shows in the fall. Lucky for you if you live around the Montreal area.
Click here to buy the Hot Springs CD from Insound.
http://www.the-hot-springs.com/ - It's the official website!

Furthermore, about Montreal... On August 25-28 there will be a fundraiser for War Child at the Parc de Amerique with live painting and such, maybe music, some afterparty stuff. Not too clear really based on the intelligence I have received so far. Here's the original transpondence from my man in the field, Russ Morland, who will be in the fundraiser doing some paintings:

"Ok so the dates for Art in the park are august 25-28 @
Parc de amerique.
The event is a fundraiser for War Child, with after
parties and such. I guess they are sending the English
there to bail them out yet again, dig the trenches,
paint us up a real bullying of conflict, down with the Hun!
Oh... wait that was something else. So like yeah I'll be
there so it so it should get boozy.

Russ"

http://www.warchild.ca/

the chromeo update.

please note that in my original chromeo post I was all wrong. Chromeo is coming EXCLUSIVELY to Vancouver on THURSDAY, August 18th (not friday as previously mentioned) at Celebrities, no other stops are planned. tix are $12 at scratch, zulu, highlife. Don't forget to scroll down this page to download the chromeo mix.

Cut Copy to tour North America, with Franz Ferdinand

Cut Copy - Radio 1 Mix (45 minutes, mp3): If you've been following this page, or my radio program for the past year and a half you'd know that Cut Copy is probably my favorite thing to play on any occasion. Now they're coming to a North American town near you! This is a mix Cut Copy put together for a bbc radio 1 show while they were touring the UK with Mylo. I don't know the whole tacklisting, but you got some Fleetwood Mac, daft punk, good measure of cut copy, soulwax, chikinki, the stills, franz ferdinand, chromeo, etc. Not only are they touring and playing live rock shows, but they'll be DJing the afterparties. Isn't that lovely. Here's the dates:

US TOUR DATES
with Franz Ferdinand & TV On The Radio
September
Tue 20 Chicago - Aragon Ballroom
Wed 21 Minneapolis- Target Center - US Bank Theatre
Thur 22 KC, MO - Uptown Theatre
Fri 23 St. Louis - The Pageant
Tue 27 Denver - Fillmore Auditorium
Wed 28 SLC (Magna, UT) - Great Salt Air

October
Sat 1 Seattle - Paramount Theatre
Sun 2 Seattle - Paramount Theatre
Mon 3 Portland - Rose Garden Arena
Tue 4 Vancouver, BC - Orpheum ***
Thu 6 SF - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
Fri 7 LA - Greek Theatre
Sat 8 LA - Greek Theatre -
Sun 9 San Diego - SDSU Open Air theatre
Tue 11 Las Vegas - The Joint
Mon 17 NYC - The Theater at Madison Square Garden
Tue 18 Toronto - Ricoh Centre

***If you live in vancouver I can tell you they'll be DJing the afterparty at celebrities on Davie street. Better be there.

http://www.modularpeople.com is the excellent australian label Cut Copy is on. Along with the presets, chromeo, colder, wolf mother... And if you sign up for their wonderful newsletter you would get access to mixes like this one and videos and contests and all sorts of other fantastic stuff... Way before I'd post it here.
Click here to buy all kinds of cut copy swag off Juno.

Chromeo tour, Bloc Party remix Needy Girl

Chromeo - 40 minute Mix: A tight sleazy/cheezy/80's electro funk mix detailing Chromeo's true roots. I don't know what the tracklisting is on this mix, but I do know there's some heavy flow on the octagon drums throughout. If you like what you hear, chromeo is once again on tour (not really they're just playing Vancouver. HA!), check the date:

Thursday, August 18, 2005
Vancouver, BC, @ Celebrities


in the mean time...
Chromeo - Needy Girl (Bloc Party remix): If Needy Girl wasn't hot enough, Russell Lissack of the Bloc Party reassembled a nice throwback to New Order's Blue Monday, along with added rythm guitar, synths and a more rock oriented bassline. I kinda wished the guitar riff at the end of the first chorus would have carried on through the song, or a least came back for seconds, but whatever. The big sweeping synths at the end keep things moving and this is certainly a refreshing visit to one of my favorite songs.

http://www.chromeo.net the official website
Click here for Vice's page on chromeo.
click here for australia's modularpeople site on chromeo.
Click here to buy some Chromeo 12's from beatstreet.

This next ones for the graphic designers

Shirokuma - Moonlight In The Afternoon: I don't know what took me (or anyone else for that matter) so long to post this song. Originally released on a 10" back in 2003, this big warm slice of electropop was reissued on a double 10" (weirdest format yet, I think. Still waitin on a split 10" from somebody to take the crown though) earlier this year with remixes by Andy Votel and Max Tundra.
On the back of the record sleeve the song is cleverly spelled out on a pink and white checkerboard. With the japanese woman's alphabet interpolation "A...B...C...D..." spelled out on the Pink squares next to Mark Corrin's corresponding verses on the white squares. You'll notice that for each letter, the verse that follows corresponds alphabetically "A - city Arches in the sun as we hurry past," "E - Eating heat in the pink of a hotel bed," "L- Laserprints on our skin at the waterfall," and this goes on through the whole alphabet. This sleeve is almost as fun to look at as this song is to listen to. Definately one of the most cleverly designed sleeves I have ever seen. Not to mention the quality of the vinyl pressing itself. It sounds really good. In fact, I'm finding that all the vinyl I get on 10" sounds better than anything else. I really should find out where these are all getting pressed. I'd post a picture of this one to illustrate the clever graphic design, but I don't have a digital camera or scanner. I'll try and borrow one later.
Click here to order this from Picadilly at a very reasonable price.
http://www.shirokuma.co.uk/ official website.

And if you liked that one you will definately like the Das Pop track chris at Uncritical has posted

Your results are back from the lab.

Duchess Says - In Serial: This might be the best song I have posted yet (yeah I know, nevermind that Cribs thing, good song, but I was crazy to say "best song ever"). With In Serial I'm thinking Manga Studios circa 1985 teaming up with Italo-electro-disco pioneer and sountrack genius Giorgio Moroder to produce an Anime feature obsessed with the juxtaposition of contrast and homogenization, and it would have been called Black Moonbird. There'd be tons of crazy dangerous half-machine villians (with forward facing utillity style haircuts) trying to take over Tokyo and make everyone half-machine so they can work for the Evil Boss to create this giant robot that will move the moon into a position where it always eclipses the sun over Japan. The tide is always high and the sun no longer rises. Just this faint halo hovering to blot out the contrast between day and night, good and evil, life and work, man and machine.

Of course or hero, Ryudo Hawkwind (neurological scientist by day, motorcycle vigilante gang leader by night), will not accept this fate. And of course his girlfriend, Kagero (tired journalist by day, underground synth-rock diva by night), get's wrapped up in the boss' plans. Naturally, Ryudo has to save her and the world with his gang on their totally kitted out street bikes, sporting their fashionably futuristic sideways haircuts.

At the climax of the movie, just when the giant Black Moon robot is blasting off into space, Ryudo will expose the fact that he is a man-machine and he will sacrifice himself by boarding the robot to stop the Evil Boss' planned blackening of the sun. and just as the giant robot is pushing the moon into position slowly in front of the sun (Duchess Says' In Serial is expertly chosen to score the scene: Kagero crying safely on earth, the war is fighting fiercly in the streets. We see the sunlight dimming over the trees, faces going dark highlighting the terrified watering whites of their eyes, the melancholic synth solo of In Serial [@ the 2:53 mark] driving the point home), the robot explodes into a giant silent fireball, killing Ryudo while making obvious references to the Phoenix as the moon glides safely over the sun to resume it's natural orbit.



Click Here to visit the official site for Montreal synth rock sensation Duchess Says. Including real information and a healthy fascination with budgies and the flu. If you're crafty you can download two more mp3's from their site.