Saturday Magic

I just want to share a few photos, taken by my dear friend Dammi Quan, of the theme event Kanjena and I had this Saturday. Kavisha was inspired to do a really impressive, breathtaking, professional grade light show during both of our sets and I just can’t begin to tell what a wonderful experience it was. Also many thanks to Dammi for creating an enchanted, highly atmospheric mirror with a beautiful tarot slideshow.

You all made it a very special evening for me.

Metric and other indie sentiments

This weekend I dusted some of my ''rocks'' of the previous decade.Middle to end zeros and the solution of emotional pain was some records coming from the  Canadian alternative scene of that era.

Records like ''Funeral'' of ARCADE FIRE, '' No Cities Left '' of THE DEARS,''Set Yourself In Flames'' of STARS etc. guranteed for my emotional healing.

Among them there was a group who among other things,rocked a bit more .

METRIC guided by the burning,passionate voice of Emily Haines were creating some of the most honest and powerful indie albums of that decade. 

Today,this dark and really bad-signed decade, all my beloved Canadian indie and alternative posse still creating passionate albums,despite the lack of promotion through the press.

METRIC and STARS returned this year and as always I felt like some old friends came back,taking the shadows away.

.. ''Synthetica '' the current METRIC album includes tunes that still rock my soul even after turning my players,off . 

The Theory of Relativity by Stars  
STARS on the other hand released, '' The Theory Of Relativity '' ,a  great new single,making us eagerly waiting for their new album '' The North '' in September...

Chrisodd ,so proud of them, presents in his Monday edition of Musical Oddyssey,a two hour tribute to METRIC,with exceptional guests like STARS, ARCADE FIRE etc. Old songs,new songs,to cure our hearts... A tiny tribute to a BIG music scene....
Today ,Monday ,June 25, 2012, @ THE VELVET 3-5 PM SLT....

Back with Breakfast with Belle!!

Today, from 3 to 7SLT

Thanks to Lux for this amazing poster!

No show tonight

I'm donating my time to Doxy over at Soundproof for his LGBT event. In the meantime, here's this.

Happy Ninth Birthday, SL! DJing at SL9B

Like many of The Velvet DJ's, I signed up to DJ at SL9B. Most of us were trying to sign up for today so we could wrap everyone's Friday in Velvet. I was the lucky one who kicked the day off with a set at 6 AM. It was fun and I was thrilled to see YoYo and Nuala stop by. Because the theme of the SL9B is community, I decided to put together a list featuring the songs of community resistance and liberation from around the world. I was asked to post the playlist because many of the musicians were new to people, so here goes:

1. I Shall Be Released -  Nina Simone 
2. Baghdad -  Ilham Al Madfai
3. Africa Democratie (Democratic Africa) -  Ismaël Lo 
4. Aiwa -  Emmanuel Jal (Here's a link to Warchild by Emmanuel Jal)
5. Gula Gula -  Mari Boine
6. Soundtrack to the Struggle - Lowkey
7. I Am Resistance -  Rico Pabón 
8. N.E.S.T.A. (Never Ever Submit to Authority) -  Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra 
9. Papa Stop the War - Chicco 
10. Antigua -  Tom & Joy & Tony Allen
11. Liberator Of The Spirit (For John Coltrane) - Kamau Daaood 
12. Whispers in the Deep - Stimela
13. No Agreement, Pt. 2 - Fela Kuti 
14. Fight to Win - Femi Kuti 
15. La Bush Resistance (Featuring Tomer Yosef) - Balkan Beat Box
16. Let's Save The World - Enzo Avitabile
17. Fight For Your Mind - Ben Harper
18. People Have the Power - Patti Smith 
19. If I Ruled The World - Nas
20. The Revolution Will Not Be Online (feat. JerriZ) - Jay Cee Carroll
21. Get Up Stand Up - Bob Marley
22. Cease Fire - Bunny Wailer
23. Djirim (The Orphan) - Thione Seck 
24. Clandestino - Manu Chao
25. Chatma - Tinariwen
26. Unplayed Piano (Chris Lord-Alge Mix) - Damien Rice 
27. We Shall Overcome - Charlie Haden (different version) 
28. What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

Lux's Licks...Tuesday...

                            Cat Power – “Ruin”Download

Guaranteed Fun.

Tonight's set is an eclectic mix from the funk jazz of Galactic to the lyricism of Andrew Bird to the neo-disco of Escort to the anthemic harmonies of Fun. By the way, one way to guarantee there will be fun is to play Fun. at least once. Right?

From 5 to 7 at The Velvet

Poussez

Lost gem of the late '80's electronica...The band FACTION released two albums and it was the backing band of NICO in her last album ''Camera Obscura''. 
As many of the groups of that era washed away as the '90's arrived but their recordings remain as a trophy  for people who hunt eclectic and of good taste electronica /new wave releases..

Witch House Atmospherics

Trippy downtempo music from dark dance floors, mysterious and sensuous at the same time. Pour yourself a fancy, strange-looking drink and join me. Or get drunk on water, as Gilles Deleuze would have it.

5-7SLT @ The Velvet

Subbing for Julesette today

Unless I find out someone already grabbed it, I'll sub for Julesette today, at 3-5.

I am falling in love with Kishi Bashi. I'll play something from his new album. And something from Zammuto's and Squarepusher's new releases.

See you there.

Sures

They are coming from Sydney ,Australia and they sound like the lovechild of THE TEENAGE FANCLUB and PHIL SPECTOR. Lovely for summer nights in smelly megacities.....SURES are two honest musicians that require your attention..

Chrisodd @ THE VELVET, today, hot Monday the 11th of  June, at 3-5 pm slt,gathers nocturnal soft electronic pop, wild garage tunes ,new wave tracks and some powerful 60's stuff for making emotions expanding....

Loving some Crocodiles right now :D

Tiger Milk - The Game

An Estonian electro project I've been enjoying lately. Stylish, sensuous video, perfect for the summer.

It's OK to cry

He was an awesome man, and a large part of my growing up.

Also, late happy birthday, Tom. 

Staying Positive

I'm finding my feet here on Friday evenings. I admit I miss the Saturday afternoon crowd and the wonderful (and sympatico) dj who used to follow me - Kanjena. So please do come help me break the Friday night ice. I have a lot of hot music lined up - my favorite, an eclectic and stream-of-consciousness, something between a meander and an explosion. Punk, world, indie and alt rock.

At the end of a long car drive yesterday I found myself falling in love all over again with The Hold Steady. So I will play a track from Stay Positive. But here's a treat just for blog-readers: Ask Her For Adderall, which you can only find on the vinyl version of Stay Positive, or the special edition CD.

Reunion

I can't live without it these days....The video content is not what this superb love song is about but it's powerful...

Catchy....

I think they're adorable.

Lux's Song of the Week

Speaking of covers...

... No, not cover tunes, exactly - - though I'm TOE-dilly looking forward to Cajsa's Dylan cover set tonight - - no, speaking of covers, I just had album cover art on my mind.

I miss it.

Lining the right-hand margin here are a couple of the album cover images to some music I think I'll be playing during my Velvet DJ set tonight.

(7-9pm, SLT, following that Cajsa set)

I imagine I'll also be playing some tunes recorded in this century, never fear - - but these images are facsimiles of the art that appeared on vinyl LP jackets once upon a time. Y'know, real cover art!

Granted, I'm a fogey and I still have attachments to things of the past, my past. 

I love putting together music sets to share with you from my iTunes library, but I still tend to think of mp3 files and even CDs as facsimiles of the music I truly enjoy. It's not so much an audiophile issue, my hang-up isn't about sound quality, and digital files are hugely more convenient in many ways. 

I think really it's just pangs I have every now and then about missing the practice of being able to hold a record sleeve in my hand while I'm listening to the music.

Studying the art, the session info, the liner notes, and reflecting on all of it while the record plays. 

It's an object that's connected to the music. They go together.

So these days, as that tactile experience occurs less often, I find myself obsessing over tracking down these little images of "real" cover art to attach to the mp3 files in my library. (I'll always require something to obsess over)

Seeing the tiny cover image on my laptop is the closest I can get, I suppose, but I keep thinking they look like postage stamps.

(Postage stamps still exist, right?)

Rant accomplished, see you at 

The Velvet!

I'll miss him

 

Richard Dawson made it all OK.

The Medal of Freedom

What do Bob Dylan and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, Israeli President Shimon Peres, author Toni Morrison, civil rights campaigner and National Farm Workers Association co-founder Dolores Huerta and astronaut John Glenn have in common? They were all awarded the Medal of Freedom last Tuesday.

Dylan was honored for his long career and the considerable role his music played in the civil rights movement. Certainly his music is part of the fabric of our history. Dylan was a trailblazer and a transformative singer-songwriter whose music changed the course of the American soundtrack. In honor of this recognition - the highest award any civilian can receive, I decided to do a set of Bob Dylan covers. That's right - all covers - for four hours on Monday from 3 to 7 PM SLT.

The range of people who covered Dylan is kind of amazing, from Johnny Cash to the Ramones, from Link Wray to Antony Johnson, his music has been recast for pop, country, soul, reggae and electronic sounds. It's an amazing journey. I hope you can come.


 

Breakfast With Belle

It is as simple as ABC, stroll on down to the Velvet and brush off the Saturday night leftovers with me. I will be playing some tunes by Silversun Pickups, Mexican Institute of Sound, Wild Belle and much more.

Yo Digo Baile

Hope to see you there.

:)

I'm So Back!!!

Debuting my new Friday evening time slot. Back from hard drive crashes and all kinds of spurious adventures.

And it's my birthday. Well, close enough. It's my birthday set anyway.

To celebrate: a long reggae set that I hope will make you swoon, even if you didn't think a long reggae set would be that interesting. New Sidi Toure. Then a bunch of awesome women including new music from Sarah Jaffe, Regina Spektor and the intriguing Eliza Rickman (with her toy piano). Then some R&B and some Brit pop and various indie treats. A lot of stuff that I love. Let me share it with YOU. Or if you are reading this after the fact, do join me on future Friday evenings at 5 slt.