It was a beautiful weekend in San Francisco. I took care of some odds and ends, went out to see The Invasion with a friend, and visited the family in the East Bay.
While The Invasion was entertaining (and somewhat ho-hum), I saw a more engaging Greencine film the following day: Jane Campion's Holy Smoke!
I love the hilarious IMDB tag lines for this film: "Sex captive in desert hideaway...young beauty seduced by macho American twice her age"; "He had only one thing on his mind... but so did she!" This makes me think ... is Harvey Keitel the reigning king of pulp?
It's really the story of a young woman (Kate Winslet) who goes to India for a spiritual awakening, but is forced back to her home in Australia by her parents who think she's joined a cult. They hire a cult exit counselor (Harvey Keitel) to bring her back to "reality." It ends up becoming a story about sexual awakenings, gender politics and control.
My absolute favorite part is when Keitel (dressed in drag, face smeared with red lipstick, lying helpless in the desert) hallucinates and envisions Kate Winslet as Shiva or some other supreme Hindu deity. All this is happening while The Shirelle's "Baby It's You" is playing. I loved it!
Jane Campion makes thoughtful, stylish, beautiful films. Holy Smoke! is fairly ridiculous, but it's also incredibly mesmerizing. She followed this up with In The Cut, which had a lot of noir/pulp elements. Holy Smoke! came out in 1999 .. check it out!
Animal Collective member Panda Bear'sPerson Pitch album has been one of my top listens this year. A filmmaker named Mike (I couldn't find his last name) documented his three only shows in the U.S. earlier this year, and put them on a DVD called People Party. At first, the DVD was unbelievably offered for free. Naturally, the popularity of the deal got way out of hand, and now you can pay a measly $5 for a multimedia experience. I went for the $13 package, which comes with recordings of all live shows. You can learn more about it here.
I purchased a ticket today to see Animal Collective on Sept. 17 at The Fillmore. They're one of my favorite bands, and I've loved their live shows. I'm really looking forward to the new album.
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I know I write a lot about M.I.A. She has an album coming out in a few weeks and I just really admire her. She has a new video for "Jimmy," which is a re-imagining of a disco song from a Bollywood film called Disco Dancer.
The music has sweeping Euro disco strings, and a melody a bit like ABBA's "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie." The whole video production brings to mind the music videos I grew up watching on Nima TV on Sunday afternoons. This song has massive remix potential.
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Sunday's travel section of the New York Times did a feature on my neighborhood. They call it the NOPA district, which still bothers me -- it will always just be "the panhandle." It's kinda strange to see everything all mapped out. Where I live feels like home, and not "a kind of cultural bridge between hippie Haight Street and the rest of the city." The round-up of stores around Divisadero is fairly accurate, except for a few cringe-worthy moments: on Cookin' Recycled: "a glorified antiques store that is just outside Nopa (but with a Nopa feel)."
It's completely ridiculous that they didn't mention Club Waziema. Maybe because the Times thought it was in Nopa (but without a Nopa feel)?
swoon...Kanye West, is like, so incredible. I've been listening to "Stronger" for a few weeks now, and everything about is just so right.
French dance is the hottest shit in the world right now, and Kanye, never one to be outdone, perfectly samples Daft Punk's "Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger." Of course, it ain't the original, but he knows that and rephrases a classic Nietzsche quote for a hook. Rhyming "since Prince was on Apollonia/since OJ had Isotoners" is kind of silly, but I think that's the idea. Musically, it builds up sounding a bit like Beyonce's "Crazy in Love," a calculated summertime jam. For anime geeks, Kanye does his best Tetsuo from Akira in the stylish music video. Daft Punk is in it too, and the futuristic visuals are great. It's so Neo-Tokyo .. or The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift .. but let's leave it at that.
And then comes the cover. Oh my god! Artwork by Takashi Murakami! Leader of contemporary Japanese art! King of the Superflat! Emperor of ultra-luxurious Louis Vuitton monogrammed accessories! Daft Punk is even on the cover, as is Kayne's iconographic bear wearing Jeremy Scott sunglasses. And this is hip-hop!
"Stronger" is a work of globally influenced pop art. He (and his producers) deserve a lot of credit for this. I hope it doesn't flop.
This Saturday was my third time seeing M.I.A. The Rickshaw Stop is a tiny venue, especially after seeing her at the Independent, and the slightly larger Grand Regency a year or so ago.
1. After this show, I'm slightly more excited about her new album Kala. The songs and videos floating around right now, "Boys," "XR2" and "Bird Flu," haven't impressed me. A little too tribal for my liking. But the new songs she played live were really incredible. I liked the first of the batch, and this one big pop/club track that sounded like a companion piece to "10 Dollar."
2. She looked a bit more focused and serious. There wasn't that fun, crazy, neon explosion of the first album promo tour. Maybe it's because she's testing out the new material for a bigger tour? Maybe it's her shorter hair cut? Or the "DARFUR" t-shirt, or the military headwear? She's becoming a pop star .. and sticking to her guns, so to speak. It's very exciting to see.
3. The show was very loud. My ears are still ringing, and I truly regret not bringing plugs. I had a similarly loud experience when I saw Clinic earlier in the year. Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson.
4. She was more on-time than usual. The show started at 9 p.m. and she was on by 11:30 (one opener, and a bunch of DJs). This was better than the last few shows when she was late, played short sets and pissed off a lot of people. She's been in SF since Thursday I think (she DJ'd at Popscene that night, and played a record store show earlier on Saturday .. both of which I missed). However, I read she was 3 hours late (!) at a show in Brooklyn earlier this week.
5. The audience didn't seem that into it. Lots of random people. LOTS of people taking photographs. I know she's incredibly photogenic .. but it was non-stop. It took me no time to find the photo above from last night's show on Flickr (which I very much appreciated).
Overall, I had a good time. I hope the ringing in my ear will stop. Next up: Clipse in September. Hip-hop shows are always hit or miss for me -- the audience has really gotta be there. This should be a cool show.
I went to the Napa Valley with my father this weekend. He recently purchased property in Calistoga and wanted to show me the "before." It's a plot with a whole lot of nothing, but it's neighboring some wineries and in a very good location. I guess he's planning on turning it into a vineyard and retire there.
It was a lot of fun and it was a really beautiful day. We went to see the Calistoga geyser erupt. We had good food, talked a lot, and since I was the one doing the driving, he got to hear the R&B space disco of Chromeo's "Ce Soir On Danse!" mix, my favorite thing of the moment. He had no comment.
My mother and sister are in Iran right now, which puts my radar up more notches than normal to what's going on over there. When I talked to them on the phone, they sounded fine and excited to be there. I talked Farsi with my grandmother, which was a surreal and touching experience. I don't talk Farsi nearly as much as I'd like to. My pronunciation is very good, but my vocabulary is limited. I've thought about writing songs in Farsi. I suppose it's destined to happen one day or another.
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I found this really vile Iranian cartoon via Angelo Says. It was broadcast on Iranian TV in October 2005. It attempts to rationalize martyrdom and suicide bombings to a young audience, which is certainly as disturbing as it sounds. Jeez, and I thought the propoganda on Fox News was bad.
Patrick Wolf is someone I never wanted to like. At 23, he's got a few albums under his belt, worshiped as a child prodigy and considered to be the second coming of David Bowie. His shaggy, preschooler haircut bothers me, as does his campy fashion sense.
I must admit I didn't actually listen to his music until I saw the video for "Bluebells," the first single off his new album, The Magic Position. With a beautiful piano melody and tasteful firecracker samples, the song had a pretty big impact on me.
The album is pretty tremendous as well. I'm not going to go into a song-by-song highlight -- there are so many good ones -- but I will say "Augustine" is one of the most beautiful ballads I've heard in a long time. I'm constantly playing it.
In this video, he plays "Augustine" on what appears to be a baritone ukulele. The interview is kinda cute as well. Patrick seems like a cool guy and not as self-important as I had imagined. This performance is interesting, but you must hear the original. Also, checkout the new video for the title track. It's classic British pop, a la Dexy's Midnight Runners.
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I'm going to take a little break from writing exclusively about music. I'm finding my fiendish need for new music is becoming a bit escapist for my own creative goals. We'll see how long this lasts!
I'm starting the recording process for the songs I've written in the last eight months. It begins with beat making and sample tweeking. I'm pretty excited about it.
Also, my dear friend Susanna, who sadly ran away to Canada last year with a boy I never met, is sending me vocal recordings for songs she's written. She has a great voice. I'm planning on writing music for this project. It's been a challenge so far, and I'm hoping to get more ideas down when I'm back in the saddle. My technical know-how definitely needs an update.
Kavinsky died in 1986 when his Ferrari mysteriously went over a cliff. Twenty years later, he's back as a zombie ready to get revenge. That's the story as so far.
If you played arcade games in the 80's, this French artist mimics a lot of the noir-ish theme songs of those favorites. There's a nightmarish, L.A. apocalypse quality to his sound. These days, Kavinsky takes advantage of better technology; the bass is thicker, the beats are bigger.
The reviews have not been very generous to Kavinsky, I think mostly because his music might appear to be so overtly referential. But I like it. It reminds me of being 10, a time when wearing big sunglasses and getting to the next video game round at the Round Table Pizza arcade made me feel instantly cool.
The NY Times ran an article two weekends ago about how the new school of French electronic music has more in common with fist-pumping rock than ambient music for "genteel soundtracks" and "design-conscious restaurants." They cite Daft Punk as the forefathers of this revival, which I agree with. Although I haven't seen him perform live (he's actually on tour with Daft Punk right now), Kavinsky uses the Daft Punk image/sound/performance template to produce an interesting backstory.
Other bands in this French revival include Justice, who I haven't really gotten into. "D.A.N.C.E." got old really fast for me, and I haven't liked any of their remixes. I'm hoping their album will have some good surprises. There's also Simian Mobile Disco, who I've enjoyed a lot of their remixes, but haven't heard much of their own music.
My favorite Kavinsky track is this incredible bootleg remix by A-Trak. It's got police sirens, Scarface samples and M.I.A.'s vocals from "XR2." It's perfect. Talking about being 10 years old, Scarface totally reminds me of my uncle, who's "hey mang" I can still hear. Pacino might have been Cuban in the film, but he was definitely Iranian to all the mafioso-wannabee Iranians. I guess that's why "The World Is Yours" is still inspiring to so many minorities.
Kavinsky's EPs appear to be out of print, but you can buy them on iTunes here. Also, I just purchased the "Kavinsky vs. M.I.A." remix from A-Trak "Dirty South Dance" bootleg. You can buy it here.
It was a beautiful weekend in San Francisco. I took care of some odds and ends, went out to see The Invasion with a friend, and visited the family in the East Bay.
And then comes the cover. Oh my god! Artwork by 
My favorite Kavinsky track is this incredible 
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