The Kids Don't Stand A Chance-Miike Snow & Vampire Weekend

What the hell happened to the Postal Service? I miss their tasteful feng-shuiing of cheap electro sounds and ben Gibbard soft spoken words. Well now, I've got something to complete the Genius Playlist of the Postal Service: Miike Snow's remix of Vampire Weekend "The Kids Don't Stand A Chance." It's incredible what a few bleeps and beeps can do to an indie song. You can download and stream the track for free at RCRDLBL. Miike Snow is an American trio composed of Andrew Wyatt, Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg. They got more phat beats on their Myspace page, where unfortunately, there are no concert dates to be found yet.... I am patiently waiting!

Side Kick - Deep Fear

Within the dark walls of the Antwerp minimal techno/house scenes, the most enticing beats usually resonate off the steaming bodies of ravers and the still-legal smoke of the crowd. Now that I don't permanently live there anymore, I usually take a pen to the spot and end up writing the absurd lyrics all over my hands and google the tracks the next day. Unfortunately, the best tracks are often stripped of their meaningless words and titillate you to a sonic climax. This was the case of Side Kick (productions)'s Deep Fear. The Italian DJ trio, hailing from mob-central Naples, is a noob in the house scene. Their underdeveloped MySpace page -showing that they have only been active since 2008- delights me. I was wondering why I hadn't heard of them before. The fact that they are so new to the scene and yet this track has already reached the greater northern Europe is quite an accomplishment. These guys are mixing geniuses, and I'll be following their moves for a while from their first album drop to the announcement of a tour. Rock on, ragazzi!

Deadmau5 @ webster hall

It was thanksgiving eve, one of the craziest event of the year (when you think about it it's really New Year's, Christmas, Halloween, and thanksgiving eve that pack the clubs like No Other!) 

Webster hall,  B'n'T,  Guido douchecentral, featured Deadmau5 as they main DJ. After a fight between some cocked up motherfucker and a seemingly innocent second party, Deadmau5's devilish laughter blasted across the room before he started his set. The minimalist DJ didn't have to work much to get his crowd pumping, and he didn't sweat it either. To a doped-out crowd, he kept the promise set through them by his CD. He added very little to the pre-disposed tracks. The music very good for someone who sees and hears Deadmau5 for a first time. His CD "Some Random Title" is the real cornerstone in minimal techno trance. 

The Budos Band

O-O-o-o-o-oh, yessss. More phat, funky beats PLEASE. 

The Budos Band.. yeah, you like that baby. That's the new sound we're riding with, it's the smooth beats we're going to make love to. These guys know what they're on about, they were raised in soul and funk, they grew up in the southern most point of the United States... wait, what?!?! Fuck! They're from Staten Island...

   Well, these Daptone Records ambassadors sure know how to put together a jam. These cats got three albums in the bag and a talent that spread evenly over the 12 members of the band. Some 5 different percussionists –from drums to congas, lay the foundation for the increadible winds collective – two trumpet players, a baritone and a tenor saxophone– topped by an electric and a bass guitar, and somehow, they managed to get an organ in the mix. The result: a banging cocktail that'll catch a bunch of different music enthusiasts, from pop to jazz, for an all-out, mind-fucking, back-in-time experience.  

Sam Jayne and The Simpson Soundsystem

A friend of mine sent me a bunch of songs from artists I didn't know to save me from my music writing block. I've been in a music rut of Techno and Girl Talk. The song that caught most of my attention was "Darker Still" by Sam Jayn And The Simpson Soundsystem. So after a few satisfactory listens, I checked them out on the broad cyberspace to find –essentially– nothing. Not a myspace page, not a website, just several sites offering a track up for download. 

Nice! That's about as hidden as I love my music. Since I can't tell you anything about the band, because even my itunes won't give me substantial stuff to work on, I'll tell you a bit about what I know. It has some Moby-esque elements of electro, but really, it's not. No, this track is a bonifide, hit-you-in-the-face-cause-you've-likely-never-heard-this-before smooth indie track. Almost like a Pink Floyd record without the experiment. Can't wait til I get some more info about these dudes

Hot Chip @ Terminal 5

Two songs into Hot Chip's recent gig in NYC, and I regretted not tripping on X. But with every great rendition of each song of their new album, Made In the Dark, and the temperature rising amidst the crowd of Chipheads bobbin' to the sultry sounds emanating from the speakers, I figured I would have probably died before even hearing their nasty break-down of "Hold On."

The quintet hailing from the UK, with an already well-established following in the States since their last gig at Webster Hall, keep pushing the boundaries of their own tracks at every show they perform. With the exquisite qualities of each song in the new record, the show could have really gone either way, disappointing over-enthusiastic fans or taking them on a sweet electronic ride; or in their case, causing one TOTAL, mind-fucking, roller-coaster musical experience. "Shake a Fist," "Out at the Pictures," and "Ready for the Floor" were distorted in a new light that their initial genius a new appealing aspect. But they really fucking nailed it with "Hold On," which was originally my favorite track on the album, by completely tearing up the rhythm, starting by speaking out the lyrics of the song with absolutely no back up from any of the instruments. Because it is arguably the most dance-ready track of the lot, the tension in the crowd was soaring. We were all hanging on to the edge of temporary insanity unable to figure out where this song was going. 

And they kept the crowd hot until the end, when they started off "In the Privacy of Our Love" with Sinnead O' Connor's "Nothing Compares To You." This was the ultimate cathartical orgasm to the intense sonically sexual experience I had just been a part of. No drugs, just sound.

The Dandy Warhols @ Terminal 5

It's the end of an era. The rock era. The get-drunk-and-get-loose era where people get smashed at concerts and raise hell. Well, maybe not... but it sure felt that way last night at the Dandy's concert at the Bowery's Terminal 5.

The crowd ranged from teens to mid-lifers (but the median was probably around 35, which could explain the lifelessness of the gig). The mosh pit was a subdued ensemble with a few young and reckless fans who seemed to be desperate to revive the hall. 

The set list was a mix of song picks from their new record ...Earth To The Dandys and their two greatest albums Welcome To The Monkey House and Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia.

They did a terrible version of "You Were The Last High" and "Bohemian Like You" (but the crowd still cheered the loudest for their biggest hit). "Holding Me Up" and "Get Off" were rather accomplished on the other hand.

There was one song which was really worth the concert when they pulled out the electric drum pad and seemed like they were just improvising. Aside from that, the concert was a disappointment. And it was confirmed when the band had to say something to the audience about "the strange room perfume" going around (referring to the couple of rebels smoking weed indoors) and when one avid fan who jumped onstage to dance to the last good song of the evening got in trouble with the concert security. What kind of a society have we evolved in?