Saturday Nite Alright

Going on simultaneously, is the Learning Secret's party featuring Runaway(Brooklyn NY)at Beauty Bar($2 w/RSVP, $5 w/o), and the Culnsweet dance party at Black and Tan(free). Here's is the Learning Secrets flyer...


I absolutely love the design for all Learning Secrets and Lydia Reynold's flyers, so cool.


I think CulNsweet lost their crayons.



The design for this flyer for their monthly at Black and Tan is, eh, oookay...



I've seen pictures like that of the girl below on prior CulNsweet flyers. Who ever draws those pictures for them should do all their future flyers in my opinion. Anyways, this will be a pretty cool dance party...should be fung!

Reminisce in Bliss

I was browsing some blogs and I came across two post about 80's pop culture; tracks of 80's TV show theme songs, and a redux video of the 1983 HBO opening theme. I was born at at the peak of Disco in the 70's, but I'm a product of the 80's with out a doubt. When I was a kid, I grew up on nothing but MTV and HBO. It took me back to when I was little tyke when reading these 80's post.

There was this movie that came to mind called Looker. Its a classic 80's movie in my eyes. Its kinda of cheesy now(things always seem cooler when your a kid), but it is somewhat cool at the same time because of some wicked music, sound effects, and interesting imagery. I loved this movie when I was a kid and I remember watching it alot. Check out the trailer and a clip:

Looker Trailer:



Looker Movie Clip:



The reason why I saw the movie so much(HBO):

Thursday Recap and Weekend Regrets

(Photo from Gorilla vs Bear, Lykke Li show in Dallas TX)

Lykke Li at Antone's 2/19/09:

Before I went to the Lykke Li show at Antones, my sister Linda went to the free in-store performance that Lykke Li did at Waterloo Records earlier in the day. Linda called me before I was about to head out downtown and said " Richard your gonna have such a great time" in an envious but positive tone. Unfortunately for sister, the show sold out and she couldn't buy a ticket a couple days before it. I felt bad, but I warned her well in advance that it had the potential to sell out. I was kinda of shocked I was able to buy my ticket when I did towards the end of January. So when Linda told that she had a great time at just some sort of promotional appearance, I got even more giddier then I was before.

I arrived at Antone's 20 minutes before the concert was scheduled to start at 9:00 pm. I got a cold tasty beverage from the bar and went to the side of the stage to get a decent spot because there was already good amount of people waiting in front of the stage. As I waited for Lykke Li to grace us with her presence, I bumped into a friend of a friend named Lydia. I went solo to the show and so did she, so it was nice to have someone to chat with while we waited for opening act Sarah Jaffe whom is from Denton TX.

Sarah Jaffe, eh, was good. I don't think I would go out of my way to see her again like at SXSW or anything, but she had a really pretty voice that accompanied the intimate acoustic vibe of her set. Some of her songs where pretty catchy, and she did try, towards the end of her performance, to get some crowd participation...something about holding hands or humming. I can't really remember, but I do remember Sarah Jaffe not having much of a stage presence, and being quite monotone when speaking to the audience. She kept saying how excited she was, but this was a little conflicting considering her reserved demeanor. So if your into soft acoustic sets or songs that S.P.E.L.L out the lyrics, then this might be your cup of coffee(shop rock).



When Lykke Li first came on, she started her set off smoothly with Dance Dance Dance. She had the energy of a red bull and trashed around the stage like a banshee. Towards the end of her set, she even got up close and personal with the front row by getting in the audience. Her voice was crisp, clean, and it didn't disappoint(me); reference the video below. She is cute, adorable, and quirky; she showed this by playing some covers, including Everyday I'm Hustlin'. During the show, I got the feeling that she was some what frustrated, maybe because she wasn't getting a responses from the Austin crowd she may have been getting in other cities. She said(not verbitim) a few times "this is our last show before we take a month long break, come on and make some noise!". I know for a fact, I was distracted because I was trying to take at least one decent picture half the show, so I wasn't screaming like a 14 year school girl, nor was I like the girl(not Lydia) next to me who seemed to know every song word for word(kinda of annoying since she was the only one singing...in my left ear). I was having a horrible time with my camera though. Out of 152 pictures, only hand full came out semi-presentable(I was the annoying guy constanly sticking his camera in the air, getting in your field of vision, and taking pictures every minute). Its a damm shame bout the pics...













I would definitely see her again, and next time I'll scream, sing along, and take better pictures.

Thursday night continues...Wild Life 2 at the Parish. A quick recap:






(Left to Right; Bird Peterson, Go Go Garcia, and Ryan Ulloa/Birthday Boy)

Wild Life 2 was a fun way to dance the night away after Lykke Li. It was a tag team event between eight different local deejays, in which all pitched in to support and make this a pretty cool free party at the Parish. Lots of Electro being spun that night, which I have no problem with because I heart it sooo much. I got to dance to some of Bird Peterson set who slipped in some Hip hop(which I can not dance to for some reason), and he then blended in a few Dubstep tunes which I was pleasantly surprised by. Much Thanks to David AKA Richard.Gear of Alter of Bang. and Josh aka Joshua Distance of Robot Dance Music for being such awesome host.


Philip Glass Weekend Regrets:



Over the Weekend there was a show I regret not going to at the UT Bass Hall. Philip Glass was in town Saturday February 21st. You may ask who the heck is Philip Glass, and others will say duh. For those who don't know him, he is one of the most popular modern day composers around. There are not that many of 'em round ya know. Per Wikipedia, early admirers of Philip Glass include, but not limited to, Brian Eno and David Bowie, and he has worked with such artist as Paul Simon, Mick Jagger, Leonard Cohen, David Byrne, Suzanne Vega, Natalie Merchant, and Aphex Twin.



I was so close to buying the $60 ticket, but I decided not to at the very last moment because I'm trying to maintain a strict self discipline when it comes to going to shows. I over did it last year with going out to concerts, so I'm trying to keep my sanity and avoid going broke by only going to 2 events a month. I had already reach that 2 show limit for the month of February before I found out about Glass's performance last week.

I am glad that I told a friend about it though. He took it upon himself to research Glass's work, and he made the decision to make the drive up from Victoria TX to see the performance, so a least someone I know went. He told me it was excellent, and the show consisted of operatic singers, two pianos(Glass on one), and some strings and horns like a cello and saxophone. The composition was put together around Glass's interpretation of Leonard Cohen's writings for the Book of Longing.

Speaking of Leonard Cohen...



He too, has added tour dates and will start his US tour in Austin TX April 2 2009 at Long Centre. Tickets go on sale this Friday February 27th at 10am. The tickets are supposedly going for(price wise) any where from $80 to $500. Its pricey but the man hasn't toured in 15 years.

Two Artists...



In the moment.

A Artsy Smartsy Hoti Toti Music Vid Post

I came across this video for the band called Fever Ray on the Discobelle's blog a couple of days ago. It has weird imagery and I recognized the singers voice as that of Dreijer Andersson of the great great great band The Knife. I put two and two together, and I immediately recognized her voice. I hope the Knife regroups and puts out new material sometime in the near future. That would be so excellent, but I guess Fever Ray will do for now.

Fever Ray:



When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

This is reason I love love love The Knife...


The Knife and a couple of other bands are the main reason I went on a all out music binge last year. Bands and musical acts are so fragile, just like anything in life i guess, so I made it an extra effort to see as many acts as possible. You never know when that band will just...not exist anymore.

By the way, whats in the water in Sweden(The Knife is from Sweden)? I just don't understand why there are so many beautiful women and talented bands that come out of that country. That is it! I moving to Sweden. Speaking of Sweden, Lykke Li recap post coming soon.

A friend of mine put the video for Walking on a Dream up on Myspace last year. Walking On A Dream is cool and similar to my video post for the song We Are The People, in reguards to imagery and sound. Empire of The Sun is one of the many Australian indie slash dance outfits(ie Midnight Juggernuts, Presets, Cut Copy etc) that have made a name for themselves in their own country and abroad. The video style and imagery reminds me of the movie called The Fall. Check it out if you have time.



With out further a due...

Empire of the Sun:




It seems like Telepathe get some flak for being experimental or having an some sort of an arty feel to their music. I didn't really bother with this band until I came across the song So Fine(which the video is for). Awesome song and an awesome band in my opinion, in which I get the impression may change after I see'em live this SXSW(we shall see).

Telepathe:

Dyn-o-mite! Its Miller Time!!

It was almost a full weekend of spookyness, but unfortunately DJ Spooky's Rebirth of a Nation was sold out at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown. I should have realized this was going to happen, especially since there was a medium sized crowd at his Mohawk show on Friday. I held off on buying tickets in advance because I wasn't to sure if I was going to be able make it the Alamo thing since I made plans to visit family in Victoria. Sometimes I have trouble gauging when shows will sell out. When they do sale out, it makes me o' so angry. I do make the right decisions on occasion to buy tickets a head of time for some shows I wanna see. I did buy my Lykke Li ticket early which saved me some hassle since that show sold out too.

Even though I did miss the screening of Rebirth of a Nation, its not a total loss since I got to see DJ Spooky's Friday night Mohawk show. Paul D. Miller, aka Spooky, seemed like a really nice and chill person. When watching the opening acts Delicious and Golden Arm Trio, I would occaustionally see him mingling with the crowd and watching the different acts on stage himself. He seemed like a "down to earth" kinda of guy and willing to converse with whom ever about whatever.

Delicious:



Golden Arm Trio:



When Mr Miller got on stage, he said that this would be a teaser set since he is in the middle of three unfinished projects. Its sounded as if he was going to be pulling from each to share a little. He started off with some wicked video with flags of the world flashing on screen which seemed kinda subliminal. Next, as in Back to the Future, he then took us into the unique world of Wattstax, in which a majority of the music spun was 70's slash 60's funk and soul using music and video footage from Stax records. He did more Wattstax material then I thought he would since he said it was a teaser set earlier. Some parts of the show seemed off while some of the music and video mixing where dead on and pretty cohesive.

DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid video-montage:

(FYI-The volume on this video is loud and the video has some choppy sloppy editing. I did my best with footage I shot to create this)



Spooky Pictures:





After the Wattstax experience, he began shifting to Hip hop which which then lead into a Rage Against the Machines song(this was one of the last bands spun). The crowd seemed to be pretty easy going and enjoyed the set. At one point, two guys tried to make a mosh pit(during the Rage part) but it looked more like two drunk baboons ballroom dancing instead.



People where just having fun, being goofballs, and just trying to have Good Times. The crowd was a mixture, and their ages probably raged anywhere from the mid 50's to twenty somethings. When I first got there, there was this older black man who was sketching the opening band Delicious. I've never been to a show and seen this before. It really was an eclectic group of people.

Because of the noise ordinance, the show ended around 12:30am because supposedly cops showed up. I think they show up at every show really. I felt like the show should have gone on for another 15 to 30mins to end on a more satisfying note. It just seemed like someone suddenly ripped the plug out of the socket for both the projector and the turn tables midway through the show. I have no regrets about the cool laid back evening though, and I hope to see the finished product for the Wattstax remix soon.

¡Xtra! ¡Xtra! read all bout it:



Locals deejays, Richard.Gear and Joshua Distance, will be hosting the monthly Wild Life part-yay at the Parish once again. Lots of local deejays and it will be lots of fun, so bust a move!

Spoo...keey Ki Key Ki-key and Black History Month

For the most part, I feel racism is lessened in larger cities then in the rural areas of Texas, and it is still prevalent and can be felt to this day in small country towns. Some of my African American co-workers have told me about their own personal experiences with racism in Texas which just makes my jaw drop. To my knowledge I've never experienced racism against myself. I really am a product of my environment with Texas and Mexico being neighbors, with my ethic background being a mixture of Hispanic(Mexican) and Anglo(English) ancestry. When doing a little genealogy, I even came across family members in my own family history that owned slaves and participated in disenfranchisement of African Americans and prevented them from obtaining other civil liberties and rights as well; this is quite eerie if you ask me!

Outside my immediate family, my Grandparents are the individuals that still expose me to forms of racism. My Grandmother Martinez is the only one, while in my presence, which throws around the "N" word. She also likes to call Hispanics that attempt to come across the border "wetbacks". I've tried to ask her to stop talking like that and to be more considerate, but she just shrugs and laughs it off as if its a joke or something. My Grandma Farrow use to use the "N" word in her everyday speech too, but she has stopped in the last couple of years and has toned it down greatly. Even my Grandpa Farrow, who lives in East Texas, last year sent emails having a propaganda like text that denounced President Obama and called him the Anti-Christ(!WOW! Anti-Christ, wtf).

This is so sad and amazing that people actually really do feel this way about Blacks and about the newly elected President Obama. You can really see the racist rural community come out in force in the President election this last November. All the major "progressive" cities in Texas i.e. Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio all voted for Obama, while a majority(not all) of the small towns voted Mccain. In my opinion, this shows a serious undercurrent of race tensions which still run deep in Texas. I even came acroos it when I went down to Cuero TX this last weekend to visit my mother. I stayed at my Grandma Farrow's house when some company came over. While I was there, her friend Barbara started using the "N" word when speaking about Obama. I didn't say anything and just ignored her ignorance out of courtesy to my Grandmother and I said, "I voted for him this time and I'm still voting for the man next time too!". I swear, this is Texas and you can't deny it.

Although, Texas is a Republican or blue state, I can't say everybody that lives in small towns feels this way. It really might have been just partisan politics and nothing more then a choice made due to their affiliation with the Republican party. My thoughts that the votes where cast for Mccain because of past prejudices views, and that they had nothing to do with conservative or liberal beliefs, will hopefully be disproved by these people(rednecks).

In conjunction with Black History Month,on Sunday February 15th at 2pm, DJ Spooky The Subliminal Kid will be in attendance at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater with a special screening of his multimedia remix called Rebirth of a Nation, in which it deconstructs and transforms the 1915 silent movie The Birth of a Nation into a different piece of cinema then what was intended.





It is Black History Month, and this an interesting way to celebrate, show respect, or acknowledge the amazing perseverance of a people that lived so long under such staunch oppressive conditions.

I heard about the movie The Birth of a Nation in history class but I never watched it. I found some freaky pictures which are pretty shocking to find that this was part of pop or entertainment culture back then.







I've never seen the original, but from clips off You Tube and these pictures, I definitely get a taste of how The Birth of A Nation really does glorify white supremacy by using dramatic "here I come to save the day" music, along with themes of knighthood(chivalry) and bravery(fearlessness). The Ku Klux Klan(KKK) is America's Al-Qaeda and is really really spooky.

I first came across DJ Spooky by way of the movie Slam(1998). He did the soundtrack which really sets the mood in the movie by weaving in hip hop joints, trip hop licks, and sprinkles in drum and bass to set the pace. Its an independent flick which really blew my mind back '99. From the previews, I thought Slam looked cheesy(I'm lactose intolerant, so I stay away from the cheese), but you cant deny the poetry by Saul Williams and Sonja Sohn. It is so powerful and moving that it will leave you in awe...

Saul William's poetry in motion:




I still to this day am a big fan of Saul and Spooky who continue to make great work. I wish I kept up with their current works fanatically, but I'm out of the loop, so I'm going to see the Spooky show at the Mohawk in a fresh light. I think he is doing something else with music and a multimedia remix of a documentary about Wattstax '73, which is the equivalent of a "Black Woodstock", Friday the 13th.

Wattstax '73:



Isaac Hayes - Shaft - live at Wattstax 1973:





Damn right!

We Rrrr...Your Fwends!

So...I got a couple shows in the works that I plan on going to in the next few months. I've already purchased Tickets for each show and I'm pretty siked...

- Lykke Li at Antone's Austin TX February 19th.

- Cut Copy with Matt & Kim at Stubb's Austin TX March 6th.

- Mates of State with Black Kids at La Zona Rosa Austin TX April 28th.

- Animal Collective at Stubb's Austin TX June 5th.

I may go to the DJ Spooky show in mid February at the Mohawk, but I haven't bought the ticket yet.

I was back and forth on deciding whether or not to go to the Lykke Li show. I continued to browse through her music, and I figured from alot of her video footage of live performances, that this is going to be a must see show. I found this really neat video of a seemingly spontaneous ho-down performed in L.A. which eased my nerves about going to the show. Its a really special vid and I think everyone should see it.




Lykke Li & Bon Iver doing 'Dance Dance Dance' in L.A from Lykke Li on Vimeo.

A funny side note, one nite I was watching this video and my sister was a sleep on the couch next to the computer. When I was playing this video and Lykke started singing, my sister suddenly rose up(like Nosferatu) with a grin on her face, which I will never forget, and with her eyes all squinty. I said "whats up, you liking this song or what", and she just giggled and said "yeahhhh..."(in a goofball kinda way). She then passed out again immediately and was out like a light bulb.

Sister snoozing with glasses on (like mother like daughter):



Mother sleeping with glasses on(like daughter like mother):



It was so hilarious because my sis is not a Lykke Li fan, and she has never even heard of her which was the funny part. Lykke's voice just rocks, and my sister's immediate reaction to it confirms this.

So since I've posted the Lykke vid showing a band doing live material which is pretty great, I like to also point out this video blog, blogotheque and their You Tube site. Some of its in French but don't let that stop you. They seem to make very good videos of bands live, raw, and unplugged. These are two of my favs I just came across:

Yeasayers - No Need To Worry





Fleetwood Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains - A Take Away Show



by lablogotheque

Death Disco

Well well well...I have nothing but positive things to say about Ian Orth's(of Learning Secrets), Paul Mahoney's(of LCD Soundsysetem), and Andy Butler's(of Hercules and Love Affair) deejay sets this last Saturday. It was a such a cool party and great to see a huge turn out. Lots of happy people busted out their fancy dance shoes to dig on the Saturday Night Disco groove considering...

The 1979 Disco Demolition Night



So thirty years have passed since the mayham and disorder which occured at the Chicago White Sox's baseball park. Its crazy how much hate there was for the music and the culture of Disco here in the States, and how that negiative reaction aginst this gerne didn't even happen overseas. Although, Its awesome to see how Disco went underground and then "re-invented" its self through Chicago House and so forth. So you can't kill dance music, but dance music can kill you...




(Just kidding)

So, here is a video made by uLOVEi and pictures by me of the Learning Secrets 5yr anniversary shindig:


Hercules & Love Affair Interview from uLOVEi on Vimeo.

Ian Orth:


Paul Mahoney:


Andy Butler:


Thanks to Learning Secrets for the coolest party!!



Ian Orth left, me center, Jeramy Neugent right


Parties this weekend:

Freaky Friday is brought to you by Treasure Fingers! Let me see you move it shake it +cross+ the D.A.N.C.E floor for free if you RSVP.



Super Saturday is brought to you by Richard.Gear, Joshua Distance, and Computer Club(LA):




Change of Topic but keeping with Disco theme...

Neon Cool Kids Yo(NCKY)!! Shhheck out these sick Disco traxs by NCKY:



BWH "STOP"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/54853157a2daf8e1/

Plastic Bertrand "Stop ou Encore"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5485302308bf1613/

Pino D'angio "Ma Quale Idea"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/54852885ca301f35/

Ray Rogers "Ya Ya"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5485294247f04b49/

Circlesquare "Dancers"
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5485279686323a3d/


I also came across this Paul McCartney video for "Silly Love Songs" and you can't deny the 70's Disco influence in this song because of the strings and the orchestra sounding back up band:



This song and others makes me sad I'm not able to make it to this years Coachella which always seems to impress me with their simply fantastic lineup year after year. One year I will make it out to this music festival. Check out some of the lineup on this flier...