This Ish Is Justice!

Okay so, ever since homeboy went sample crazy on just about every album he's done, we've all known that Kanye West knows what's up (musically, of course, since his views on Bush are another story). What is very up (sky-high in fact) is that 'Ye and Justice, the feisty French discotheque duo (which I lurve, btw. Gaspard, forget the age difference! I'll still wed thee! Don't French people just drink wine to live immortally anyway? We share the same fountain of youth!) are tag-teaming for some outta this world shit. Oh yeah, and plus they've got that more-dope-than-the-shit-your- dealer-gives-you clothing line that costs an arm, leg, and torso to cop.


But this time, oh this time, 'Ye, Justice, and the sure to be a global supastah! director Romain-Gavras have sacrificed the right virgin because the gods have blessed the world with a sickly killer video for "Stress." If you don't know that song, a) you're not a real Justice fan, and b) don't feel bad. It's at the end of the album, past the club bangers and "D.A.N.C.E." Don't front. You know that's why you bought the record...

Anyway, this video features angry adolescents, a lawless city, some Parisian references, a shaky camera hand, and a subway (or, how I'm pretty sure they say in Paris, metro) station.

So...it's kind of like if Death Wish and Cloverfield had a super wicked HD baby, with bangin' jackets and an ironically ironic hate of "D.A.N.C.E."

Thanks Kanye!

justice stress (official video)
by 75_prod

Your electric bird,
Erika

I Missed The Boat

Ugh, you and I both, Modest Mouse. You and I both. So if you're reading this and find yourself in need of a little backstory, I can help you out.

Missbehave Magazine, the holy grail/sacrilegious shrine of women's mags and badassery is holding this contest-y thing. I read a post about it awhile back but was all like, "Pssshhh. Okay." And I said it (mentally) in this really douchebag-gy mocking voice. I'm not proud of it, okay? But then I read some way later posts (in lieu of studying for my European History exam) and suddenly I felt like the douchebag from Split Ends.

Turns out MissBH (my new abbrev for the fabulousness) needed some more contributors and they were looking for rad chicks to come guest blog some shit! Just the kind of thing I would j'adore seeing as I read MissBH religiously and completely know how to speak and write awesomely. (And sometimes I can do both, but I have to have a clear head for that, which doesn't happen a lot.) The point is, instead of sitting here wasting my education and eating all my Bazooka bubblegum (shit...all gone, nevermind) I could be chitchatting with the best and brightest bitches on the coast. But when opportunity knocked, what did I do? Toss it like a salad. And now I'll have to sit in sad regret/tragic rue-ance while some American Apparel chick with lens-less glasses, suspenders, and a pair of Toms gets to half-assedly write about some less-than-sweet shit just 'cos she beat me to the jump.

Life is unfair. I'm gonna go paint or something. Hey, maybe I can get all angsty like that Juno girl and people might suddenly find my sarcasm endearing. Okay, maybe not. Shit.

By the way, if you need to fully understand the merits of lensless glasses, um, Dominic Andrews can help you out. Actually, he can also tell you other meaningless shit on his little Stickam thingy. Sometimes the internet is scary.



Your electric bird,
Erika

I'm A Jealous Woman

Okay, so since I'm a complete advocate of modern, AWEsome music (Crystal Castles, Pissed Jeans, The National, i.e. bands that sound like the 21st century), it's probably expected of me to ONLY like those kinds of groups. I mean, yeah, I go see Be Your Own Pet and Arctic Monkeys and Club Awesome and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin because the oldies and greats don't go on tours with 15.00 tickets, y'know? K good.

So with that said, I do also love music from the 60's-80's. I'm a huge sucker for retro girl groups and female singers like the Pleasure Seekers, Suzy Clark, Sunforest, etc. I also really love the Ramones and the Buzzcocks and other fabbity fab bands from "back when."

But never have I had so much lust/un-godly love for one song as much as this one.

The woman: Gunilla Thorn, a Scandinavian goddess with a cheeky smirk and a weird chin. This woman was a straight powerhouse of soul and feeling. Homegirl was a bad motherfucka, ladies and gentleman.

The song: "Jealous Woman" It was released in 1966 on the Jealous Woman/Our Love single and then sent into obscurity. But this song, my god, has so much passion and AWEsomeness to it; it's hard to not feel the fierceness that's just emanating from this woman. It's mad decent!

I can't post it on here because the song is nowhere to be found, both bit-rate-wise and physical vinyl-wise. I even scoured eBay for the album...the thing is tooo obscure to be found. Among searches on Yahoo! I've found some random links in languages I don't speak and a couple of references to Joe Meeks, who was Thorn's producer for a bit. She's on some compilations, but none with that song. As it actually turns out, from a bit of heavier digging, "Jealous Woman" can be found on a weirdly obscuro comp that you have to order from a website in Denmark. It's like 129,000 DKK. What currency is that even?

"Jealous Woman" can actually be found here, but this is sort of it.

Anyone know anything about a more domestic solution?

Your electric bird,
Erika

Found One! (Oh, And A Funny Movie To Warm Your Hearts)

O hai! I found one! I found a nifty pic from RSD! (Turns out Criminal had a ton of them - 530 to be exact - on their Flickr) This is one of the photos from the Judi Chicago set. You can see me in the shorts and tights looking incredibly flabbergasted/demoralized. You can also see some other people trying to look bemused and unfazed, but it was merely a facade. Trust.


Now I have a terribly hilarious video from the tragically comical Super Deluxe. And a haiku about Super Deluxe that James from Criminal wrote. BTW, the haiku first, video later. I noticed the order of items was well, out of order.

Do you need something,
like laughter, sadness, strangeness?
Try Super Deluxe.



Your electric bird,
Erika

So You Lost Your Virginty During A Concert, Huh? Typical.

O hai everybody! National Record Store Day was THE BOMB, and completely all that with a bag of Chips Ahoy! If you missed it, well, you have a lot of 'splaining to do! Criminal and Co. were out in full force and there was a ton of pizza (everyone ate it before I could)and hot dogs on the grill (yep, ate all of 'em), so I actually ended up having to buy a slice of pizza from Little 5 Pizza, although I did look supes spiffy wearing pink sunglasses at night. Holla!

The show started with The Bridges, which were, erm, like Au Revoir Simone, but - GASP! - better. And pretty like the Plasticines and skinny like Jemina Pearl. They were AWEsome, if I do say so myself. It was almost an all girl band, but, typical, a dude was on the skins...sigh...

So there was some haziness afterward while I shopped the sidewalk sale (and totally copped a Niko album for 2 dollars) and then bought a mag to peruse while sitting alone (yes, like a sad loner kid I went to the festivities solo...fug) and as I must have looked like the bike monitor sitting on the patio above the bike rack at Aurora, Philip from Chainestereo, whom I met once before in the exact same parking lot, wearing the same shirt. spoke to me awhile. All was great until he bid me ado and hung with the older, cooler, beer buying crowd, with whom I can only hope to one day compete.

After some standing/aloofing, I saw Trances Arc (soooo cute!) and Club Awesome, furry white tiger suit and all, then Judi Chicago, topless karate suits and all. Dude's British. Anyone know that?

So after killing an hour and losing my parking space, I hightailed it back to Criminal to run into Elliott from Sunday School, my old boss, and then watch my girls the Coathangers go on. As usual, they recognized me from my shirt, and Stephanie for totally signed my drumstick. Porque? 'Cos we're like totally like peanut butter and jelly holmes. Just kidding. 'Cos I asked her to.

After the Coathangers was Noot D'Noot (maaaaajor fun) and then Janelle Monae, a totally fitting closer to the evening. Oh yeah, Andy Hull, Dead Confederate, Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause, and some others played in between those acts, but uh, I can only report what I saw, right?

Yeah, totes, it was sooo amazing and I could not be happier that the whole thing got put together. Despite the skepticism (because there's no actual spike in sales seeing as everything was on sale) I know there's going to be another Record Store Day, and definitely a vinyl resurgence. Or at least a record player resurgence from all the free LPs given out yesterday.

Due to my stupidity I did not have my camera, so I have no photos, but will root around the 'net for some. In the meantime I'll try to hook my hoes and bros up with some of the music from NRSD.

Noot D'Noot - Fire King

The Coathangers - Parking Lot

Judi Chicago - Lizards

Great, great day...awesome, awesome night.

Your electric bird,
Erika

Homeless Soccer

I am MOST DEFINITELY going to update tomorrow after National Record Store Day, but in the meantime, tide your sad selves over with this AWEsome video:



From superdeluxe.com, one of the sponsors of Record Store Day! Whoohoo!

Your electric bird,
Erika

It Won't Get You Married, But...

Okay, I am here currently to profess my undying love for a couple of new tracks that are...mmm...pretty much off the chain. Actually, these bad boys are so good that they were on said chain, jumped off, repaired themselves, then repeated the whole act suicide bomber style. It was sick. I saw it happen.

Anyway, let's just dive right into it. The first one is from the uber-pop Bostonians the Billionaires. They're a five piece of working class dudes (and a fly dudette) from Martha's Vineyard that started a band, made fab music, and then followed suit of every other American band, relocating to LA, where they're currently hustling to get their song, "The End of Summer Song" on Indie 103.1. You can help out in the hustle and chart the come up on their little bio page on Too Soon Records. This song is "Eighties Movies," a light, airy summer song that almost requires you to put the track on repeat. It's almost sung-spoken and, with the lyrics, guitar bridge, and guy/girl interplay, this song feels like it should be a lost track from a of Grease or Guys and Dolls soundtrack. Of course, we've certainly seen these musical-style songs before (*cough cough Hard Place cough cough*) but I love them all. Makes me wanna go all Debbie Allen and Fame and shit.

The Billionaires - "Eighties Movies"

And to reference,

Hard Place - "Demographic" (found it!)

The next song is the Diplo remix of "Bama Gettin' Money." If you've heard the original song, it's eh, so-so, as far as hip hop goes, but then Diplo strolls along, pops a squat, and tinkers with the song until it's straight up flyer than a tsetse. This is definitely ridin' music. Oh, and it's recommended all ridin' be done dirty, k? Thanks. Peep Diplo's other works here.

Diplo - "Bama Gettin' Money" Diplo remix

Finally, we have one of the most interesting new little duos since the Dodos. This Is The Ivy League may actually have graduated from an Ivy League school (as their attire may indicate), but these Brooklynites aren't quick to flaunt any overt higher knowledge. The little cuties combine pop and shoegaze effortlesly, creating seamless three minute soundtracks to an indie movie. "London Bridges" coulda totally been in Juno. Like, for seriously.

This Is The Ivy League - "London Bridges"

That's all. Download, hoard, wear out, recycle.

Your electric bird,
Erika