The Black Ghost - I Want Nothing

The Black Ghosts just released their new video for "I Want Nothing," the latest single that they are releasing in the UK. The single has remixes from Sinden, Markus Lange and Vincent Markowski. The Black Ghosts are going on tour in America next month! They are doing a six-city tour with Thunderheist as part of the Vice/Colt 45 tours this summer. All of the shows are FREE and 21+, you just need to rsvp here

May 1st - San Francisco - Mezzanine

May 5th - Los Angeles - King King

May 7th - Atlanta - MJQ

May 8th - Chicago - Hideout

May 9th - Philadelphia - The Barbary

May 10th - Brooklyn - Glasslands Gallery

Gosh golly geepers wouldn't that be fun!!!

Tectonique... your new favorite style.

A friend of mine just returned from France and was excited to tell me about tectonique. Apparently it isn't just a kind of music, or a way to dance, but a way to dress and a kind of attitude as well!



We're talking numerous stores that cater to this kind of cultural phenomenon. Pretty soon that is what Portland is going to look like!



...syke.


Make sure to see Yelle sounding a whole lot better than that come April 23rd @ Rotture for 10 bones.

Take A Tour Of Ida's Home!

Recently my favorite magazine The Fader came to Portland to catch up with Ida No of Glass Candy. Check out her house, and if you're from Portland.... try to guess where the heck it is so we can start sending her chocolates.




Also check out Johhny Jewel's studio, and get a little insight into how Glass Candy get their sound.




Don't forget to check them out for the millionth time come may 5th at East End.

Booka Shade - The Sun And The Neon Light

Booka Shade has been around for a long long time. We're talking over a decade of cuts. Well 2008 marks the year of their 20th-22nd (?) release! and thats not counting all the remixes. In all fairness it will be the year of their third actual album...

The Sun And The Neon Light starts off very slow, with tracks like the title embracing 'Dusty Boots' and Junior Boys-esque 'Solo city'. I literally fell asleep. I wasn't sure whether or not I was dreaming when the gorgeous whispers in 'Redemption' picked up the pace and went full throttle into a very mysterious synth type drone. Still "Dreaming" I heard people making mention of "Booka Shade" as if to call my attention back to consciousness. Had I not heard these voices, waking up would have been inevitable due to the bumping, hand-clap laden, 'Charlotte'. Here we see Booka Shade actually standing the listener up and forcing them to dance.

Booka Shade - Charlotte

This is short lived however, as 'Charlotte' is followed by the subdued nature of the title track. Although the following 3 tracks reach for album stand-out 'Charlotte''s heights, they never quite get there, and we're left with more of what put me asleep in the first place: beautiful chastened electronics.

The album is good, but I'm really surprised at the lack of experimentation, as well as transition from track to track. Anyhow, Booka Shade will be sorely missed by the majority of us at FBM, as we most likely won't be seeing either of their only two west coast performances. (I, on the other hand, will in Chicago!)



Booka Shade's The Sun And The Neon Light is due out May 27th via Get Physical

You Should...

Probably take a second out your busy schedule to make time for some Computer Club.
Who knew such amazing electro could be produced in the states? And Alabama of all places.
But whatever. This shit is amazing! And its only going to get better. Head over to MISSINGTOOF to get one of his songs and an awseome remake of New Orders 'Bizarre Love Triangle'

http://www.myspace.com/okcomputerclub

The Acorn

A friend of mine mentioned that she has been checking this here website out, so these songs are especially posted to catch her interest.

The Acorn is an awful band name, but when you hear the music you'll be like, 'oh, thats kind of a good band name'. Their debut Glory Hope Mountain is a real hit or miss affair, but when they hit, they hit real hard. Take the lead single, The Flood Pt 1, an amazing 4 minutes that evokes everything from Animal Collective to Grizzly Bear, though never quite reaching that level of success. Here we see the more upbeat side of Canada's The Acorn.

The Acorn - The Flood Pt. 1

Crooked Legs follows in similar fashion with experimental percussion backing a really pretty acoustic that eventually bubbles until it coalesces into horns and a rediculously good crooning by singer Rolf Klausener.

The Acorn - Crooked Legs

My very favorite though, is (non-album track) Dents, which exposes their song writing as truly stunning. It's no wonder it didn't make the cut, as it is easily the slowest song they've ever written, but it is here that I am most reminded of Grizzly Bear's Edward Droste. Lyrically and musically this song is not to be fucked with.

The Acorn - Dents


Nicole you're gonna love this, and thanks so much for having that party last night. The asparagus was delicious and I hope you enjoyed our Cordon Bleu and green beans!

Happy Birthday!

The Flood Pt. 1

Hillary Clinton In Oregon

The decidedly less hip Hillary spoke yesterday in a number of Oregon cities. I caught her here in Eugene where she appeared in true bobble-head fashion. This sounds like an insult, but in a lot of ways it truly sums up her advent pretty flawlessly.

The wait for her to go on was a gut-wrenching pep rally that was 90% women whom all seemed ready to vote for Hillary regardless of what she said. She was late, so as to distract us, the crowd was given out call sheets with Eugene residents' phone numbers, names and a script that basically said, "voting for hillary? [If yes] good for you. [if no] well you should." I don't know much about any of the candidates, so I have attended these speeches in hopes of learning more, but this seemed less of an informative get together more of a sitcom screening. In fact, Hillary even said, "Let me look like Oprah here for a second." but truth is, the whole thing felt undoubtedly how an Oprah screening would feel.

She paused frequently in-between her speaking of global warming, education, and health care as if to wave an applaud sign. Maybe it isn't her fault everyone was cheering so much, but she didn't seem to mind, constantly nodding in agreement to the cheers in absolute bobble-head fashion. Like Obama, Clinton made mention of nearly every American lament, of course, and also like Obama, saying she was the second-coming of Christ and able to fix said problems. The problem here, and with Obama's speech, is that everything is so vague. Sure you can make mention of problems and get everyone to agree that they need fixing, but if you don't elaborate on the 'how to' it kind of seems pointless to mention.



As I've now made perfectly clear, however, this appearance was not intended for me, the uninformed. This was obviously scheduled to be a gathering of Clinton fans, sure as shit of whom they're voting for. OH! one funny thing to add... when Ted Kulongoski was introducing her he said, "I'm not just voting for Hillary because she is going to be the first woman president" to which a number of people in the crowd shouted, "I am!". And I feel like thats what is wrong with both democratic candidates. A number of people WILL vote for each regardless of their politics and due to their respective differences from past presidents.

If I gleaned anything from this though, it is that although I would rather see Obama in office, Big Clint wouldn't be the worse president in the world. Anything but that mole-rat McCaine.

Reverend Vanessa

*

Looking through my Moleskine the other day, I ran across a page that wasn't my own handwriting. It said "reverendvanessa.blogspot.com YOUR NEW MYSPACE DEFAULT --- I NEED A ROOMMATE!" Slowly, I began to remember a hazy Monday night at XV, and this girl with a camera who took my picture. I looked up the website today. It turns out her photography is really quite nice.**

Sure, documenting last nights' parties in a blog is nothing new, but it's fun to stumble across a mystery photoblog and see pictures of tons of people I know (it IS Portland though, and Portland hipsters at that. I shouldn't be too surprised.) There isn't much content yet, but I promise to come back if a) she keeps posting rad photography and b) posts that picture of me that she took.

*Photo is from reverendvanessa.blogspot.com.

**Not to detract attention from Fuckbadmusic's fabulous photographers, though!

RYE RYE PLAYS PORTLAND!

I've been putting off buying tickets to M.I.A. so that they would sell out and I could use that as an excuse for not going. That was until today, when I did my daily check of Rye Rye's myspace page to find that she would be opening the M.I.A. show @ the Roseland on May 23. I will now officially refer to this day as D-day, a day when something truly significant will happen.

let me please add that if you are not there, you are officially square.




DJ Blaqstarr - Shake It To The Ground
DJ Blaqstarr - Shake It To The Ground (Air Jared Remix)
DJ Blaqstarr - Shake It To The Ground (Claude VonStroke Remix)
DJ Blaqstarr - Shake It To The Ground (Switch & Santogold Remix)
M.I.A. - Paper Planes (Blaqstarr Remix Ft. Rye Rye & Afrikan Boy)

Who Does That?

I was in such a rush to get to work yesterday. I didn't even have a chance to listen to the stack of records I bought. Lame. But I had already heard them through the blogsphere. Anyways... I got a couple amazing records. One being 'Dirty South And Paul Harris feat. Rudy - Better Day'. Featuring the most epic John Dahlbäck remix. I think this song is going to be huge in the scene that doesn't exist in Portland. To bad. This would be a good summer sing along anthem for everyone to wash off the winter funk. I love happy music and sunshine. I think I might be getting really close to finding a better day.
Dirty South And Paul Harris feat. Rudy - Better Day (John Dahlback Remix)
Heres another present from way back in 2005.
If you don't know who this guy is...
then I cant tell you.
john dahlback-i hear you
www.johndahlback.com

BOUNCE

This is an awful name for a song. I mean first of all it could allude to millions of different things, but also it really offers no indication of what you are about to get yourself into. Luckily with MSTRKRFT's 'Bounce' they have tapped N.O.R.E. and (personal faves) Thunderheist to clarify exactly what to do with that measly one syllable...party.

MSTRKRFT - Bounce

Via RCRD LBL

I mean... "See a lesbian, don't call her dyke." this is worth a download.

Also, don't forget to make your BLOODY MARYs. Recipe courtesy of MSTRKRFT's own Al-P

Failed It/Nailed It

-in which we discuss: Success where others have failed.



Let me preface this by saying, The Juan Maclean do not need to be remixed. Given the nature of their tunes, this is inevitable, but with all the fleshed out blips and beeps in their under-two-to-over-fourteen minute songs, they've pretty much covered every which way to interpret Indie/Disco House/Electronica.

In the Happy House 12" single we see a couple attempts at shortening the track by the likes of Lee Douglas and Prince Language (whose can be heard by clicking his name). Where these remixes fail however is in offering a new perspective on the track. Though titled (Prince Language dub mix) I fail to see any dub influence beyond that which the track itself offers. Lee Douglas comes a little closer, mixing in a way that creates a sort of frantic nature from a track that is fairly mellow albeit totally dancey. His remix, however, fails to give significance to the vocals, using them as a sort of add on rather than justification as on the originals next to 13 minutes.



The original begins in true DFA fashion, bass accompanied by cow-bell esque bongos which lead into hand claps to keep the beat. Keys give the track a real 70's feel and provide a countdown to the 'launching into space'. Between bass, keys and claps we have essentially 3 beats going that could become boring if not for the addition of said cow-bell and vocals to remind us that this track is "Excellent". Though the remixes offer A.D.D. friendly versions of Happy House, cutting at least 4 minutes from the original, they fail in letting the respective mixes flesh out any one of the three beats, leaving the track haphazard where it was originally so focused.

The Juan Maclean - Happy House
Happy House 12" single came out 3/04/08 on DFA


Also unmentioned but sort of note worthy is Them Jeans' take, which falsely implies there is fat here to trim.
The Juan Maclean - Happy House (Them Jeans Trim The Fat Edit)