Filling in for the fish

I'm grabbing Koi's slot tonight in what promises to be far less double entendre-ridden than what I just wrote. Er, yeah. Here's a video for one of the tunes I'll be playing. It's full of summery images and fun, far away places (not to mention one laugh out loud edit that I could watch again and again).



At 7, Maht will be rocking per annum 1991, aka my most interesting year.

Taken by the Merms....

Is this a Canadian band that will set the new-new wave fan base on fire this year ?
 Well,even if this duo remain in silence has achieved to cause me long forgotten chills.
 And, returning the favor  I'll share a couple of tracks from their debut ''Heterotopias'' with you, somewhere between 3 -5 pm slt Monday the 28th at THE VELVET club. 

Also,Chrisodd will bring to surface some original Kraut goodies, dark techno heartbeats and some poppy spring/summertime flowers....Get inworlds, find out what I mean and spend some quality music time as always....

Summer Begins - Let's Go to the Beach

There's a reason Memorial Day has become the beginning of summer - a day of picnics and family fun in the sun. It's the first work holiday since the beginning of the year, ending the longest stretch of unbroken work of the year. School is out or soon will be and in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting longer, warmer and more promising.

So to celebrate the unofficial beginning of summer, I thought I would play the music celebrating the most summery music of all - surf guitar and the rocking music that developed around surf culture. My set starts at 5 PM SLT.


And bring your swimsuit!

Breakfast with Belle!!

Shake Shake Shake your sleepy self on down to the Velvet for some Sunday morning fun!! I will be playing some tunes by White Denim, Bear in Heaven, Chromatics and much more.

Hope to your pertty faces :)

At The Velvet 11AM SLT

A positive message in a negative land?

Maybe! Today @ 1pm SLT, at The Velvet, is a collage of... collage. Negativland, front and center. Bring your thinking caps, or a dunce cap, they'll both work. Take a load off and have fun with sound!

200 years ago

I took a chance and played this tonight: the whole thing.

We all know the ending and I'm sure, as some of us enjoy fireworks this weekend, it will be played. I'm pretty sure that many people have never heard the entire Overture and that ending is so much more meaningful after you've made that journey.

It was originally  written to celebrate Russia's victory over France (can you say "Borodino"?), but we've used it in the States for many a year, mainly because the French helped us out against the Brits.

It was a stupid and bungled war, and they burnt down the capitol, but jeeze-louise, it's rousing and exciting.

Plus, cannons. You cannot beat that.



Happy Memorial Day. 

"This is all true, it's water I drink"

I love taking leisurely strolls in my musical collection and this week I came across the song off the first full-length album from the Brazilian group CSS that fitted smoothly in my set for this week. The rest of the songs on it strike me as perhaps less interestinf, but this one is deliciously defiant and mysteriously playful. So that'd be a little preview. Hope to see you tomorrow!

CSS - "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above"

Ten Points!!!

OK, OK. I said it before and I'm saying it again. There's one thing that popped into my head when I first saw this video.

And I know it's kinda dull and weird. But really, that's what I thought of. You kids be the judge.

Oh, look. TERRANCE STAMP.

Tuesday Night Tracks

Donna Summers, Robin Gibb, Peter Jones, Chuck Brown, Donald "Duck" Dunn,

'Sweet Joe' Russell, MCA aka Adam Yauch, Charles "Skip" Pitts ...

We've lost some musical greats this month, everytime I turn on the tv, I expect

to hear of another death.  Twisting that around a bit, my set this evening

is provided by motivation and inspiration.  I'm sure Adam, Donna, & Donald,

not to mention the other un-mentioned musicians who've passed away this month

brought inspiration to just ONE person.  That being said, I've cobbled up a set

to throw down this evening. Personally, I would rather be off building or playing

with my barbie doll alone at home (OMG NEW HAIR).  Sometimes we just need drug

out of our shell.


New tunes tonight...lots.

♥
L

Thirteen

Today's set is an easy mix of old rock classics from The Beatles, The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Donovan and a many others. It's music for my mood. I will start playing at 5 PM, leading into YoYo at 7.

...and now Robin Gibb's gone too.

We've just lost Donna Summer, last week we said goodbye to
Chuck Brown, D.C.'s "Godfather of Go-Go Funk" - - and then this morning I've just heard that the Bee Gees' Robin Gibb has crossed the finish line following his long battle with cancer.

Did you ever see the Albert Brooks movie, "Defending Your Life"? Not a great film, but not bad...

The image from the movie that always remains with me is of  the newly-deceased arriving in Judgement City. The after-life looks like a big-city American convention center and luxury hotel, and you arrive aboard a tram loaded with other folks who have just recently died.

Celebrity deaths often seem to occur in threes, and so I'm always struck with the notion of them riding the tram to Judgement City together. They recognize an old friend or kindred spirit, and so they have something to talk about as they journey together. Maybe they can hit the hotel bar and reminisce for a while. I find the idea comforting.
Robin and Donna certainly would have a lot to compare notes about, and if they weren't familiar with Chuck, they'd undoubtedly have a good time getting to know him.
Bon Voyage to all of them!

Oh, and btw - - I'm spinning at The Velvet tonight, from 7-9pm, SLT. See you there!

Breakfast with Belle!

Wake up to me playing you some tunes to start your Sunday off right!!. I will be playing some tunes by Father John Misty, Arial Pink's Haunted Graffiti and Band of Skulls. Love skulls, well Mexican ones!!

I hope you will roll out of bed and on over to the Velvet and join me for some Sunday fun!

Disco In Heavens...

...For so many years and probably for the next one hundred!

Rest In Peace DONNA SUMMER ! Thanks !!

And I say to you

You shall never hear surf music again.

At least not like this.

Know your Punk Bands: The Ruts

An odd group to start out with, but I thought I'd start with something obscure (which is Velvet-appropriate) and wouldn't require I write a biography (which would take too long).

The Ruts formed in around 1977 and puttered around in the shadow of The Damned, The Clash, Sex Pistols, etc.   They disbanded in 1980 after Malcolm Owen, their lead singer died of an overdose, then reformed in 2007 (with Henry Rollins replacing Malcolm Owen) to do a show just before Paul Fox died of cancer.  It was a great event, and if you're so inclined, go to Amazon and look up "The Gig", a DVD of the entire show, including the UK Subs and The Damned opening for The Ruts + Henry Rollins.

Why should you listen to the Ruts?  Well, Malcom Owen's singing and the lyrics aren't really anything worth writing home about.  But man, dig this guitar...




Probably one of my top 20 favorite intros ever.  Doo-doo-doo....doo-doo-doo...doo-doo-doo....

Allegedly, according to the somewhat dubious opinions of Henry Rollins on matters non-musical, but certainly dead on in musical matters, this band influenced the entire D.C. hardcore scene, in the same way that MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges were huge with the early UK punk scene even though they didn't make as dramatic an impact on the United States.

Playlist

Posting the playlist from my giallo set. Thanks to everyone who supported this micro-event!

Aural Fixation

There's SO many engaging sounds to be heard at The Velvet, wouldn't you agree?

Listen closely and you'll hear the unmistakable noise of deejays having too much fun.

One case in point is Monday night's  sonic schizophonics from YoYo, when he shares from a big stack of eclectic music that begs the question:
"Why can't you just play something we all know??"

*sigh* - - SO much music, so little focus...  7-9pm, SLT - - See you there!

My ever bloody Valentine....

Tired of waiting a new MY BLOODY VALENTINE album as we promised 20 years ago ? 

I am ! But these days there's a colllection of all their Creation era e.p.s plus the famous remastered versions of their two full Creation albums.
 ''Isn't It Anything'' and ''Loveless''  received awsome reviews back then but they became notorious and a blueprint for a whole new generation of groups,after almost 15 years.

Chrisodd is going to honor these new releases of one of his all time favorite bands,today at THE VELVET,3-5  pm  SLT.

Many songs from their Creation era, their early days, their American ''kids'' and their fellow indie pop bands that once upon a time made G.Britain a cool place to discover the sound of tomorrow..

Chrisodd will be very happy to share those tunes with ALL the indie and music lovers  around sl ! 
Happy to get into the hazey,distorted,dreamy,nostalgic vortex of one of the most fascinating sounds ever created ....

Kino

The Euro Horror, Giallo, Arthouse, Kino Sleaze soundtrack set with Mallory and myself was a lot of fun. I tried to cover many films that I love and have collected, mostly Giallo, Horror, Thrillers and Surrealism, with a few kinky groovy pornodelic classic thrown in. In some ways the set is a doorway to those films, they are environments designed to raise the consciousness beyond a rational level, to create a bridge between the abject and the erotic, between desire and revulsion, and to suggest a leap off that bridge, or maybe a push...

The cut off names on the setlist are: Vampires of Dartmoore, Vampire's Sound Incorporated and LA Vampires and Zola Jesus.

Now that the hype over The Black Keys "El Camino" album has died down, I can share with you one of the songs off that album that I actually enjoy.   Because all the others were just rampantly mediocre and used the same beats over and over.  

This is The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling.

Ring a Ling Sunday Starts!
Nothing like rolling out of bed to some tunes. Come roll out from under the covers and into some Velvety tunes with me. I will be spinning some tunes by Placebo, Noisettes, Gun Club and Grimes.

Back to my regular time slotted time 11-1 SLT at The Velvet. Oh and don't forget to give your mom a kiss, some flowers and candy!

Oh ho! What have we here?

The new fish in the pond.... Hello, Wiseblood Wisent here. You may know me from my many appearances on Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, and Lawrence Welk! Or not....

Been a fan of music since I was in the third grade. Made my first call to a radio station for a song request around that time (Cliff Richard - "Devil Woman"). Well, good as that song is, I'd like to say my tastes got better, especially in the 80's. Take a look!

Ok, ok, the video ain't that great, but I love that song regardless. You can find out more about what floats this fish in the Velvet pond this Saturday at 11am SLT, I'll be covering for Kris; then I get to annoy you every Saturday @ 1pm SLT AFTER Kris. Cheers! :D

Giallo Tribute: Tomorrow, 5-7SLT

The giallo films, referring to the unmistakable kind of Italian thrillers from the 60s and the 70s, are most notably marked by vivid, even feverish graphic imagery, maniacally stylish settings, strong sense of suspense, bordering on creeping insanity and paranoia, persistent eroticism, as well as surreal and horror, Poe-esque elements. Even if we simply think of the titles like Blood and Black Lace, The House with Laughing Windows, Seven Bloodstained Orchids, Knife of Ice, the giallo ventures already feel like exercises in strange, savage poetry put on film.

While the creative use of music in the gialli was shaped primarily by Dario Argento’s collaborations with Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, and the band Goblin, we can also speak of giallo-haunted music in a broader sense, be it disco-infected electro with darkly theatrical imagery or occult, footsteps-filled spaces of witch house and related experimental trends (Dario Argento meets David Lynch, huh?).

My giallo tribute will generally capture the moods of deep unease, the feeling of an eerie and ultimately fatal hide-and-seek, the lush temptations of italo-disco in a cold, midnight world where both murderers and murderees abide by fashion, and gently melancholic moments, doing the necessary work of mourning for what happens in the masterful nightmares known as gialli.

I'll be along presently

I'll be a little late for my set tomorrow night, but I think what's there should be enjoyable. This little gem fer instance. Maybe I could just listen to this dude say the word "couch" all day. I dunno.

It's like a guitar, but heaps, heaps smaller.

Hey, alright! My dad has cancer. I found his ukelele today and brought it to him.  I hope to get a few videos of him playing it before the story ends. I don't know how funny an 80-yr-old is, but I'm willing to risk it.

It's got a good beat and you can dance to it...

Oh boy, another Monday!

The best part of my Mondays are often that part where I get home from work and have the privilege of coming into
The Velvet to share music with you all for a coupla hours.

I'm on tonight, 7-9pm SLT, and I have another mish-mash of music that I hope will entertain.

I can see that there'll be some recent music and a lot of older music, some familiar favorites and some that are likely news to youse.

I see some jazz and folkie sounds, some snarl and some softness, and (for no good reason) I see a wee chunk of pop and rock somewhere in the middle that evokes mid-60's-era Hollywood and the Sunset Strip...

I'm looking forward, and I hope to see you there!

HONEYCOMB COLLECTIVE

As  die-hard ANIMAL COLLECTIVE fan I was very pleased to see as the first news of the day,that their new single is going to be released  this summer,after 3 years interval of normal recordings. 

They are back with a very intersting 7'',which you are able to listen here and also,it will be a part of my set at THE VELVET today at 3 slt.Also some new vital new releases ,that make me jump up and down these days and some oldies but goodies which may cause strong nostalgia or happy banging .
Better come from the beginning,though or you'll miss the ''hot'' releases....

The Beat Goes On

I am working on my set for Monday evening and thinking to focus on sweet beats - from jazz, pop and bossa nova, and maybe just a bit of breakbeat just because I can. Yes, the beat goes on. In the mix, Jojo Effect, Club des Belugas, Koop and more. Starting at 5 PM SLT - at the Velvet - The Beat Goes On

Tanlines - Brothers

So, I didn't get a post in on Thursday.  It probably would have been another Rollins anecdote (he has a million of them).   But instead I'd like to post this little reminder of one of the most amazing groups to emerge in 2012 so far.  This is Tanlines, and their catchiest song off their new album released in March, called "Brothers"

Belle's Beginning

I am doing my first set ever in SL, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I will be playing songs that make me happy and I aim to get your happy going too. It is Sunday, and I think we all need a joyful end to our well deserved tiny weekends. I am looking forward to sharing a little cheery Sunday time with you, and I hope you will join me for my debut dj experience.

You will hear some new Santigold, Yuck, Bloody Beach (happy ha), Dirty Projectors and Death Grips (joy joy)
Hope to see you Sunday 12PM SLT :D

Come share some spring energy with me

I’m back! After two weeks off for work trips. I was so busy that I didn’t get to collect much new music. But I had to drive a heck of a lot, so I got to listen to a ton of music in the car. The main thing I was tripping out on as I climbed and dipped through the mountains and farmlands of Maryland and Pennsylavnia? Lots of STONES. So I’ll play three of my favorite Stones songs (three of my several dozen favorite, anyway) in a mini-set.

There will be a kinda long ‘river’ segment. Which for me is about this astounding trip on the river of life, and also about being washed clean. So come get washed clean.

To top off all the good spring energy, it’s Cinco de Mayo. We’ll hear some Ozomatli, another track from Mati Zundel’s new release, some fiddle music from Gu-Achi of the Tohono O'odham people of southern Arizona, Brave Combo and Los Lobos.

I did grab one new release: some indie rap, "Zero Dark Thirty"by Aesop Rock. It's good enough to make me eager to hear the rest of the album, Skelethon.

As it happens, I have given you an overview of my set completely in reverese.

See you at 1 SLT!  I missed you.

“The indestructible kernel of darkness”

To celebrate what André Breton called “the indestructible kernel of darkness” with the necessary glamor and subtlety, tomorrow I am going to play some pitch-black affairs from witch house, only to proceed to a resonant, atmospheric patch, which will in turn give rise to a few vaguely vintage-sounding songs filtered through ghostly, late-night sensibilities.

And if you happen to have other plans on this Saturday night, as shocking as it is, I still encourage you to listen to this simply beautiful, poignant song that I love so much.

Bark Psychosis “400 Winters” 

Saturday, 5-7SLT @ The Velvet

R.I.P. Mr. Yauch...

❤

Vinyl Fetish

Two guys, five turntables, and a sampler. To the infinite groove.