Ellen Allien’s DJ sets often last well past last call ‚Äì when I saw her a few years back in Portland, she was still spinning as the bar staff booted people out. Allien spins an experimental blend of techno and electro music that somehow manages to be danceable, and radiates calm, German cool from behind her laptop and decks. Opener Miss Kittin comes across as a less-hokey version of Peaches; she certainly likes talking about fucking, but manages to be more than a one-trick pony. I still haven’t managed to make a dance party at Studio B, but I can only imagine the fog machine will be in full effect.
Details: Sat 3/24, 10:00 PM, Studio B in Greenpoint, 18+, $12.50a/$15d
-Cortney Harding
If the above cover of “You Shook Me All Night Long” by Celine Dion and Anastasia doesn’t make you vomit blood, you’re stronger than us. See the whole, horrible list here. We especially *enjoy* the Duran Duran cover of P.E.’s “911 is a Joke.”
The incomparable WFMU blog has an interesting out-of-print blues record by Ram John Holder available for download.
From WFMU
“Black London Blues” was an LP recorded by the acclaimed British stage, screen, and TV actor Ram John Holder in 1969. I bought it as a youngster (my copy is on the US Phillips label) for 47 cents in a Woolworth’s cutout bin. The cover is a moribund B&W photo of a gussied-up Ram in an abject ghetto; no liner notes, no personnel listing. Every cut is titled the “(something) Blues”, and the track playing times on the label are different than those on the cover by several seconds, and I think neither is correct. My pre-pubescent friends and I used to howl with laughter listening to it (even though the cover scared the hell out of us), and, as with many things you hear when you’re too young to understand them, it wasn’t until years later that I was able to see the musical virtues of it.
O’ Death
tonight, Friday March 9, at ASTERISK
258 Johnson Ave @ Bushwick | EastWilliamsburgIndustrialPark, Brooklyn
L to Montrose | 8PM | $7 | ALL AGES | no phone O’ Death:http://myspace.com/odeath
“Righteous growl-stomp and roots-infused beauts, sometimes compared erroneously to Tom Waits (except for a few percussive and guttural moments) in a few music blogs, O’death is really more Will Oldham meets the Holy Modal Rounders with a splash of the drunken sprawl of the Pogues and the youthful energy of early Violent Femmes — the association is unavoidable on “Nathaniel” — tacked on for good measure. A lot of the material consists of knee-slapping, banjo-and-fiddle fueled stomps that throw sparks in every direction imaginable, but the haunting ballads really shine, too. So often current alt-roots/country music tends to slide into the abyss of mediocrity, assuming that a slide guitar run or a few plunks of a banjo can cure just about any ill, but this NYC six-piece knows full well how to kick that shit in the √°ss (maybe breaking a bottle or two over its head on the way) and breathe life into a genre that’s often seen slow-choking under a cardboard apple tree. Yee f√∫cking haw! O’death done good. Real damn good.” –Kevin K. The Boggs:http://www.myspace.com/theboggs More info here
We loved the first Panda Bear record and are delighted to report that the first single from the new record, Person Pitch, has even exceeded our expectations. We know Beach Boys comparisons are tired, but this new track, “Bros”, sounds like the soundtrack to one of Brian Wilson’s flashbacks. [Hat tip Aquarium Drunkard.] VIDEO:Panda Bear : Bros MP3:Panda Bear : Bros [Via Nialler9]
