ocdj

BALTIMORE. ocdj's album Hooray came out back in 2007 but the label, Wildfire Wildfire, just sent it (along with rest of their entire catalog) to WRIR.

ocdj is Dan Gaeta. Independent radio fact: Gaeta started volunteering at WFMU at age 14 and eventually became a dj there.

He's toured with Dan Deacon, Video Hippos, Jana Hunter, and DJ Dog dick, and when he performs he wears stuffed animal masks. Goof.

However, he's not performing much right now because he's traveling around the Atlantic on a sail boat. He previously circumnavigated the globe as a hand on this guy's yacht.



More downloads here.

Mochipet

FROM TAIPEI. via the Bay Area.

does a bitchin resume of labels a label whore maketh? he's recorded on the following:

-Bpitchcontrol (Berlin) [Ellen Allien's label]
-Tigerbeat6 and ViolentTurd (Oakland) [Kid 606's labels]
-Component (CT)
-ExNihilo (Belgium)
-Detroit Underground [awesome]
-Voxxx (Chemnitz)
-Deathsucker (UK)
-Intellectos (Boston)
-Schematic (Miami) [Otto von Schirach's label]
-Reconfiguration (China)
and his own Daly City Records (Daly City)

Many people consider this hip hop, and Mochipet himself claims that his favorite music is "anything not electronic." Well, then.


Mochipet at Bangface, London

Mochipet // Master P on Atari

Two Fingers

If you've ever listened to Amon Tobin you know he can go deep and tribal. He was spreading Brazilian sound around before Crookers and the Twelves took over blog house.

His new project with Joe "Doubleclick" Chapman, Two Fingers, takes that deep down to the next level of the inferno, mixing that DEEP (did I mention it's deep? and tribal) sound with a lavish recordful of British and American MC's. They. Bring. It.


Two Fingers and the MC, Sway, recording in Montreal

Two Fingers // High Life featuring Sway

The Ettes - Empty Skeleton Interview

Take 50 bobble heads of your choice, put a spring on their little plastic feet, bounce them up and down, put them in front of an amp with three (fashionable) action figures on top labeled Coco, Poni and Jem, and video tape for 120- 180 seconds. You now have the video for a miniature Ettes show. That’s just one way to go, but after listening to their new EP, Danger Is, on repeat for the past few days, that’s what I feel like — A springy bobble head (Mr. T). When your band ingredients are 60s Beat, 80s punk, and driving, ultra sonic bass vibrations, I think that’s the desired reaction. I could be wrong.

I begged and pleaded with the band for an interview and it turns out it’s much easier to answer a few questions than secure a restraining order. Here’s how it went down with the Ettes sassy front woman, Coco.

ES: First things first, I hear you all live together in a small house in Nashville. Two girls and one guy. Does the seat stay up or down?

Coco: The seat stays down. We make Jem piss outside, which is also where he sleeps, in a ragged pup tent he picked up at the local Army/Navy.

ES: Where do you guys hang out in Nash Vegas? I'm sort of partial to Robert's Western World, but I have a fondness for boot walls.

Coco: We go to Robert's when our parents visit...

ES: Zing!

Coco: But we've been partial to the Villager, what with the darts and the smoking. The changes you will soon notice in the juke box have everything to do with me, and if you've got a problem with it, you can come tell me. I'll be at the end of the bar, watching Tim and Eric, talking to Kevin, ranting about audio books.

ES: You were recently on tour with Kings of Leon. Any fiery sex orgies? Kidding, don't answer that. But seriously, were there?

Coco: I was advised to say something to the effect of "Oh, I couldn't possibly answer that!" They're really good guys. Sooners, but pretty as hell. I can attest that a lot of sex was indeed set on fire. At 6000 capacity venues. 6000 sexes being set on fire at once is really a sight to see. I recommend it.

ES: Musically, who and what turns you on?

Coco: A great beat, honest and threatening lyrics, rhythm and melodies that stick in your head. Now tell modern bands that and have them get to work so I have someone to mention.

ES: How much did Liam Watson influence your sound, if at all?

Coco: Liam tightened us up and really taught us a lot about the history that influenced the sounds we love. He's a gentleman and a scholar, and a musical historian of the highest order, in the least pretentious way.

ES: How did you guys hook up?

Coco: We asked him if he would record us and he said yes.

ES: He also produced Wild Billy Childish whom you've been compared to. Is that a fair comparison? His mustache scares me.

Coco: You should be afraid of Billy.

ES: How do you feel about rainbows? I have this tatt...

Coco: They're pretty gay.

ES: Oh. So, what made you decide to self-release Look At Life Again Soon?

Coco: We were tired of waiting for someone to come along and do it for us. We're very impatient.

ES: How does one go about doing such a thing without breaking the bank?

Coco: Oh, the bank is plenty broken.

ES: The new EP, Danger Is, hints at a slightly evolving sound with the bass-driven "No Home." Is that a bad observation?

Coco: Maybe it's a good one. I'm lazy as hell, and Jem picks up a lot of my musical slack. He's a guitar player first, so he's got an interesting approach to playing bass for the Ettes. Hopefully our sound will evolve so much that I can just sit in a recliner on stage and tap my foot. That will truly be the day.

ES: Is this a preview of something in the works?

Coco: We're recording our third album this month with Greg Cartwright.

ES: You guys toured with the Black Keys last year in Europe. Is Dan Auerbach really the second coming of Christ? Because he really seems
like he might be.

Coco: There's no real reason he couldn't be, but if the Bible and the Left Behind series are to be believed, you would notice some people missing about now, and a charming incarnation of the antichrist named Nikolai Carpathia would soon appear on CNN. Or Fox.

ES: I mean seriously, how great is he?

Coco: Great in the best of ways. He knows his shit, is talented and fun, and is a good friend. His studio ain't half bad either.

ES: Dan Auerbach.

Coco: You said it.

ES: Your name is a suffix. Care to elaborate?

Coco: Not really.

ES: Pffft. Well, what's with the nicknames?

Coco: Poni and I pretending we were in the Switchblade Sisters. Jem is a common abbreviation for Jeremy, at least where I come from, in the south. Jem Finch's name is actually Jeremy Finch. And as we and Scout and Atticus know, he is a very important little man.

ES: I guess. I've seen/read you talking about boozing it up a lot. Should we be worried?

Coco: Probably. I mean, probably. I'll think about it.

From the new EP, here’s No Home, recorded with Christ Almighty himself, Mr. Auerbach.

The Ettes // No Home

Circlesquare

Do people mention INXS ever when they're talking about Dance Rock?

This guy, Jeremy Shaw, is from Vancouver but lives in Berlin. Whenever music people talk about moving to Berlin I think of Stephen Daedalus in Paris with puce gloves carrying a flower. Ha.

Anyway this is fucking sick. What I'm listening to is Circlesquare's new release from !K7, Songs About Dancing and Drugs. Apparently his previous album, Pre-Earthquake Anthem, was like "a molasses drip laced with codeine" so I'll have to check that out, too.


The children of scientists are more predisposed to have Asperger's.

All Live But the Ending

Mi Ami

Yes, I like this band for other reasons besides their name. Please.

More dirty freakouts.

But also, they have good taste in cities/locations. Yes, there is the choosing to name themselves after my favorite city of my entire life so far, but there's more.

They're hitting up Belfast on their European tour. And not only that, they're playing at the Menagerie, at the Ormeau Road on University Street. Shitty dive not without highly unprincipled paramilitary affiliations. They play Reggae and Soul and won't let you wear football colours inside, and it's the only bar I could reliably find Newcastle Brown, too. I have mad respect for a band who can manage to book the best seedy bar in a foreign city.
UPDATE: Belfast informant tells me that Menagerie was freed from paramilitary associations and is now owned by David Holmes. I guess that explains why the music got better. Informant assures that Menagerie is still way seedy.

But anyway, and perhaps even better, Mi Ami is coming to Richmond. (To the Triple.)

We are all travelling through space and time.



Pressure

Mi Ami plays with Thank You at the Triple on March 8th. Vaya con dios, dudes.

Hell

Hell has been active as a dj and producer for 30 years. He is also the founder and boss of the label International Deejay Gigolos (Miss Kittin & the Hacker, Dopplereffekt, Terence Fixmer, Fischerspooner, Tiga, Vitalic, Jeff Mills...).

This track I'm posting is from his new album Teufelswerk. He's divided it in two by the themes of Night and Day; Kruder of Kruder and Dorfmeister helped produce the Day half. Drops in late April and I completely cannot wait... there's a Hawkwind cover on it. Hell's last album, NY Muscle, is so so brilliant.

Hell is short for Helmut btw.


The Angst & The Angst Pt 2


Hell was German GQ's Man of the Year in 2003.

Bonus: In 2006 Hell also produced this track, which I love, for G Rizo.

Eye Wanna C U

tUnE-YaRdS

Eventually from Portland's Marriage Records. This chick, Merrill, was into anarchy puppets and Christmas music when she was younger. You can actually hear that in the music. She attended Smith and sang in a "brazen" all-female a capella group, too, and later went to Kenya, all of which you can also hear.

She recorded her whole album, BiRd-BrAiNs, on a hand-held voice recorder. She also booked her own tour all last year, which led to the thing with Marriage and this past month to opening for Beirut.



Sunlight

Telepathe 2

So I'm sitting here reviewing this cd for WRIR and realize... I love it. I know I'm not just saying that because the review I wrote was completely dead-on on the first try, after the first full listen. You know what that means? I feel it.

Telepathe Dance Mother
Label: Iamsound
2/25/09
melodic dramatic indietronica (RPM)

Off-key, moany, choral female vocals over bass and drum heavy beats, occasional harpsichords, and dirty south parking lot synth riffs and high-hats. Bold, often violent, Secret-Gardenish lyrics similar to Hole's Victorian fixation.
RIYL Gang Gang Dance, Free Blood, School of Seven Bells

Reviewed by: Mary Claire
Recommended tracks: 1, 7, 9, 2 (see below)
FCC: 8, 2 (at -1:36)

PROPERTY OF RICHMOND INDIE RADIO DO NOT REMOVE

"You could have at least said 'Secret Garden at night.'"

This is the song that made me realize it's appropriate to do a second Telepathe post immediately after the first one.

Michael

Telepathe

Telepathe is from Brooklyn, having started off as a side project by members of the bands Bloodlines and First Nation. To my delight they decided to roll with the Kraut jamz full-time.

I thought the WRIR mail squirrels had chewed it up or something, but apparently Telepathe has only just released Dance Mother, their full-length from Iamsound.

The album includes "Chromes On It," which via music blog distribution and the Chromes on It EP caught a lotta people's attention last year. Iamsound is giving it out free here. I also quite like the Tan Lines remix.

Most of the songs on Dance Mother are less in-your-face than "Chromes."

The video for "So Fine." Can we please talk about the MSCL elements of this? And the kitty, obv.

Mr Scruff

Mr Scruff draws cartoons and named his new album Ninja Tuna. Plus he started his own tea company.

Ninja Tuna is Mr Scruff's first full-length since 2002. He's been on Ninja Tune records since 1999 and been dj'ing famously since the mid-90s, when he blew up in Manchester.


Flyer drawn by Mr Scruff for Keep it Unreal, his monthly at Manchester club The Music Box. Scruff normally dj's the entire night (six hours).

Here's what he says about dj'ing:

Although I am a fairly technical DJ, it is vital to remember that the most important skill for a DJ is to play great records in the right order. Each record must complement the one before, and introduce the one that follows. Beatmatching is an obvious way of linking records, but there are other common factors, such as lyrical themes & complimentary keys that a DJ can use to aid the transition. Each piece of music has a mood and an energy level, and orchestrated carefully, you can create an atmosphere where every record that comes in is precisely right for that moment.

Hairy Bumpercress

Odd Nosdam

This guy, alongside fellow members of his former band cLOUDDEAD and a bunch of other people, actually helped found the Bay Area label/collective Anticon. I mentioned Anticon a few weeks back as Tobacco's label. Odd Nosdam's also collaborated a ton with groups outside Anticon: Múm, Notwist, Mr Dibbs, Sarena-Maneesh, Boards of Canada, TV on the Radio...

He also did a soundtrack for the 2007 film This is My Element, centering around sk8boards. Element Skateboards. Each song on the soundtrack corresponds to the style of a rider in the film; this one is Brent Atchley's, and if I talk any more about that I'll be a huge poser because I don't know who Brent Atchley is. But I like his style.

Anticon has just re-released the T.I.M.E. Soundtrack.

Anticon co-founders Why? (left) and Odd Nosdam (right)

Fly Mode

Wipeout

My BFF Chris introduced me to this most amazing song in college. I'm pretty sure it caught his attention initially because of the title, thrift being a value the two of us hold sacred. After bass of course.

Didi Bruckmayr, Didi Kern, and Fadi Dorninger are from Vienna and have been making music together since 1992. Chris and I both were actually in contact with the band via internet for a while, and so we managed to catch Didi Kern, who did Wipeout's programming and percussion, perform in Vien. He played in a squat/trailer kinda near the Prater fun-fair. The squatters were selling this super-hearty soup for a euro. (Thrift.)


Kern

Thrift

Tussle

Tussle's been around since 2001-- they did a couple of releases on Troubleman Unlimited before jumping over to Oslo's Smalltown Supersound and putting out Telescope Mind, in 2006, along with their new one, Cream Cuts. Isn't that such a dope name for a record?

Apparently while on tour last year with Hot Chip, Hot Chip superstar Alexis Taylor became so "smitten" with them that he wanted to contribute to this new one (on the song "Titan"). Smitten. They're from San Francisco.


Transparent C

Ninjasonik

These dudes are on tour with Japanther, but for some reason they weren't on the flyer for last night's show. I got all happy when I realized who they were, my new-band missed connection from the Rock the Bells sidestage last year.

Ideally I would post a photo of Telli Gramz in the Vera Bradley hoodie he was wearing last night, but this is fashion, too.

Tight Pants (Rap Version) (free download from iheartcomix)

There is also a more punk version of this song, laid over "Negative Thinking" by Death Set. Death Set actually shot the video for it with them.

On their myspace they list GG Allin, R Kelly, and ODB's Grammy performance as their influences. Kool Keith gets no mention, for what it's worth.

Erol Alkan

I know Erol Alkan primarily for his DJing-- His 2005 Essential Mix for Radio 1 gave me so much; bittorrent it. Alkan started the London clubnight Trash, which went on for 10 years, and he won Mixmag's DJ of the Year for 2006. He's also got massive Superstar DJ association: the Soulwax documentary features him, and when I saw him spin it was at the Fixed party at WMC last year, with Simian Mobile Disco.

He's involved in other projects besides remixing, though. Check this. He produced the Late of the Pier album Fantasy Black Channel, just released in the States last week, as well as the Long Blondes' album Couples and the Mystery Jets' Twenty One. He's even got his own music-with-guitars-in-it project, a psych outfit called Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve.



Fan Death - Veronica's Veil (Erol Alkan's Extended Rework)


Late of the Pier - Space in the Woods


Beyond the Wizards Sleeve - Violent Lampshade

Tobacco

Tobacco's myspace headline is, "Taking down PETA one member at a time." Yeah! But I think it might be because animal sacrifice is part of his religion. Leafy vines sprout from my brain and blossom into magenta fur. Backwoods Altar indeed.

Tobacco is one of the founding members of Black Moth Super Rainbow. His album Fucked Up Friends did very well on WRIR's charts this fall-- it's on the alt-hiphop label Anticon and includes a track with Aesop Rock.


He kind of looks like McKay.

Gross Magik

Esau Mwamwaya

London producers Radioclit have been tossing mixes around for a while. This fall they released their first artist-driven album, free here and a bunch of other places.

The artist is Esau Mwamwaya. He's from Malawi but has lived in London for 9 years, and he sings in Chichewa as well as English.

The album is dope for that reason but also for Radioclit's production-- you may have already heard the tracks they built with Esau using songs by Architecture in Helsinki, Santogold, MIA and Vampire Weekend, which hit the web last year.


Esau (left) met Radioclit's DJ Tron (right) when Tron visited Esau's junkshop in London. Not long after, Esau became "the African Phil Collins." The guy in the center is Johan, the other half of Radioclit.


Hide and Seek


Boyz

Fires of Rome + Don Rimini

Unlike McKay I often run straight for the remixes, sometimes even bypassing the originals altogether.

I've been digging on hard-hitting French DJ Don Rimini, and it was his remix that led me to NY's Fires of Rome.

Don Rimini has delivered some sick mixes via Discobelle and Delicious Vinyl. Fires of Rome have been hyped by the, uh, the New York Times.

Before - Fires of Rome


Set in Stone

After - Don Rimini


Set in Stone (Don Rimini's Fire in Paris Remix)

Spoek Mathambo

I featured Spoek's H.I.V.I.P. Dezemba Liazonz mix on a radio show I recently hosted, and since then I've been stalking him online a bit. He's from South Africa and currently working out of Paris and Berlin.

Spoek is fun to stalk because he is a man of many projects:

-Sweat.X, his duo project that started in Berlin. Lots of London club action.

-Play Doe, his duo project from Johannesburg. Similarly popular in Europe.

-DJEDTRONIC, from Paris, for whom he has been mc'ing. They're going to be at the Club NME Paris party Jan 30th with Zombie Zombie, and they've just released a record on Boys Noize.

-other stuff such as the artwork below

DJEDJOTRONIC f Spoek - Dirty & Hard

His blog features a lot of other cool musical ish from S. Africa, too.