Category Archives: Featured

Aquaserge 12-Inch EP “Tahiti Coco”

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Oh YES, dear friends, we’ve got a genuine, unclassifiably cool anomaly on our hands here. Aquaserge starts off with a bit of the old Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack vibe crossed with a dash of Mellow (that Air side project band that did the soundtrack for Roman Coppola’s movie, CQ ) thrown in for good measure. Already I am hooked, but then this veers off into Miles Davis territory circa the Cellar Door sessions in 1970–it’s those gloriously dated keyboard sounds.

Prog, psych, and groovy all mixed together in a glorious melange all the way from the south of France where Aquaserge resides. Chris Joss, Air, Aquaserge…what is it about France that keeps me coming back for more?

I am loving this group and I have only heard the one track, La Femme De Tahiti. This is so utterly required listening that I’m not going to rant and rave about it except to say that this is my favorite accidental find in a long time. I haven’t loved an accidental find of this nature so well since I stumbled across Gang Gang Dance.

The label this is on, Manimal Vinyl is definitely worth exploring, this band is not the lone anomaly of the lot…but I’ll be damned, this is the track I’ll be stuck on for a WHILE. Aquaserge needs to come to Chicago so I can get the full skinny and bring it to you…solid stuff, this. Check out the MP3 of La Femme De Tahiti in the audio player at the Manimal site. RECOMMENDED.

So You Wanna Be A DJ?

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Back in 2006, I was working as Managing Editor at Gearwire.com, interviewing musicians and DJs about all sorts of technical issues. Here’s one I did with Chicago DJ Chess Hubbard, AKA DJ Mother Hubbard, who spins all over Chi-town and beyond. I caught up with her at the Funky Buddha Lounge and interviewed her about what it takes to be come a DJ and get down to the fine art of turntabling for money. If you’re curious about what it’s like to stand behind those decks and control the party, check this one out…

I’ve got plenty of stories of my own, most of which are connected to my work in radio, but I’ll save all that for another time. Click this to check out the interview…

Fun Used Vinyl Finds

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While out shopping for vinyl tonight I ran across these two delicious finds.I have a huge weakness for anything so wonderfully perverse as Switched-On Rock/The Moog Machine’s old hippie classics re-worked into Moog-synthesized mini-masterpieces. You thought your stereo was broken when you listened to Nine Inch Nails The Fragile, try the super-freaked out synth patches on “You Just Keep Me Hangin’ On”. I actually checked the monitors to make sure I hadn’t lost the tweeters. Hah!

With stuff like this, first you listen cuz it’s cheesy fun. After a few go rounds with it, you actually start hearing how it…could…be…good somehow. This stuff is brilliant. Like eating a brick of jalapeno Velveeta. You know you shouldn’t, but you can’t stop yourself. My favorite part of this two-dollar purchase is actually the liner notes, by “Album conceiver and macrobopper” Russ Barnard. Check out this hilariously dated bit:

“One thing must be stressed: This album is virtually 100% Moog–only two instruments are live. One is the drum set; Moog drums are possible, but in this stage of the art, sound kind of mechanical and ricky-tick.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! That’s 1967 thinking for you…

The Isaac Hayes Juicy Fruit (Disco Freak) is just as great in its own way. This is a long way from Shaft, folks–a disco-infected album (hence the name) that starts off with Isaac Hayes singing about picking up hotties at his favorite disco-teria, and wrapping up the album lamenting about a woman who must “love me…or lose me” My man Isaac is either picking up strict Catholic girls who also love to boogie down but not GET down, or Hayes was just at the end of his lyrical rope by the end of this 1976 coke-n-amyl nitrate soaked leisure suit fest.

I love this cheesy shit. Hayes ain’t phoning this in–he’s going for it on every single track, so there’s this great vibe running through the record. While it’s spinning, you can just see the ABC Records exec snorting coke off the mixing desk, nodding to the beat thinking it was going to be HUGE. “We can shift a million units and get Isaac down to 54 to say hi to Steve Rubell and give Andy Warhol his Polaroids. Then we’ll hit the big time…AMERICAN BANDSTAND.”

Favorite part of this album–the “Solid Gold Dancers” chorus on Thank You Love where the ladies are sing/shrieking “Makin Loooooove” and “Girl, I thank you”.

I ain’t NEVER head Isaac Hayes THANKING a woman for having sex, but it sure sounds like that’s what’s going on here…great stuff. It’s just too wrong NOT to enjoy. “We’ll make love every day…and weeeeeeeellll buh-loowww each other’s MINNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS”

Chasing Lions Presents The Soft Drugs

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Chasing Lions (formerly Puddlegum) has launched as the first blog label. There will, no doubt, be differences of opinion on who the actual “first” blog/label combo is or was–Dave Allen ran Pampelmoose.com for a time with an indie label section by the same name, but Pampelmoose the label seems to have disappeared from P-Moose the blog at present (unless I am just a sightless doink). But I digress…it doesn’t really matter.

Forget labels, the proof is in the music. Chasing Lions has partnered with The Soft Drugs, who offer Side A of their forthcoming vinly/CD release Get Back as a free download.

After having a go at Side A (four times in a row, back to back) I see good things for both the Chasing Lions and The Soft Drugs. I was a bit doubtful of the obvious Beatles tie-in (which are usually dreadful), but fortunately the Let It Be track has nothing whatsoever to do with the Fab Four’s song–except as a lyrical reference. “It could be your Hey Jude. . . It could be your Let It Be…”

The best of this mid-tempo, laid back four-song download is also the most energetic of the bunch. Comparisons are odious, but I Need Space manages to somehow channel GBV in the vocal department, but not in a derivative way…it just sounds –at first listen, anyway– like these two bands belong together on a mix disc in spite of the fact that The Soft Drugs aren’t into the minimal, lo-fi vibe. There’s a healthy energy running through this that holds up well on repeated listens. My only gripe with I Need Space is that the track feels truncated…it’s begging for another round at the end instead of trailing off the way it does. Still, that’s showbiz–always leave ’em wanting more. In this case gents, mission accomplished.

 This Boston outfit features former Pedro the Lion member T.W. Walsh. The sounds are described in the press kit as being a cross between indie rock and trad rock…but you won’t hear any of those Jurassic rockers singing about feeling like a “baby on speed”. Nice! Grab the freebie while you can, and we’ll see how that full-length vinyl sounds when it drops this fall. Click below to hear the great I Need Space cut off the freebie Side A download of Let It Be.

 

I Need Space – The Soft Drugs