Animal Collective Keep Getting Weirder

This video is more than a year old, but I love the song. It's somewhere between Zap Mama and mid-1990's acid techno. A few things I learned from this video: AC is just as good without the light show. French hipsters are cooler, better-looking and far less uptight than west coast hipsters. The tie-dye shirts they're wearing are silly.

The lady and I had the pleasure of seeing Animal Collective just before they broke huge. They played in San Francisco with Black Dice (who were headlining) and they pretty much stole the show. It was the end of their first era -- they had their MiniDisc players going and lots of guitar pedals, very few keyboards. It was just a few months before Pitchfork gushed over "Here Comes the Indian," which is all it took for them to spin their neo-psyche garblings into a real career. Also, I just realized the tour-only vinyl 12" I bought at the show is probably worth a crapload of money now.

Podcast #4: Some Post-Election Dub

I have a hard time with politics. I understand the whole system is a necessary evil in our modern life, but all the chatter on the TV and on the radio just ends up making me depressed and angry. This election in particular, in which I feel the nature of the discourse was ruined by the 24-hour cable news networks, had me reaching for the mute button within several aspects of my life. The messages of the players were getting drowned out by the voices of analysis and paralysis. So now that it's finally over, and now that the good guys won, I'm trying to embrace a little joyful, wordless reflection.

If you feel like there's been too much jibber jabber in the universe of late, this is my offering. A slice of version -- a set of instrumental, wordless dub. Because enough with the talking. Let's just hit some drums, crank up the echo and skank a little. Flip the record over already. This is version style.

Veggie Burritos Podcast #4: Enough Talkin'

Burundi Drums

this is intense...

MM&W Hit Brazil

Here are a couple of videos of Medeski Martin and Wood playing a small jazz club down in Brazil. The band recently swung through South America, stopping in Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Rio and Sao Paolo. I've always wanted to take a couple of weeks off of work and follow these guys around to catch some of the festival gigs in Europe or the small club shows in Japan. But that itinerary looks mighty inviting, as well... (Be sure to watch the ad for Axe antiperspirant that rolls after the performances, it's is totally disgusting)

Free Go Lily from Radiolarians 1:




Agmatia from Zaebos (the Masada record):

Podcast #3: Viva San Miguel

For lovers of all things clave...

We had a heat wave a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. It was up in the mid-90s, which I know most of you east coasters or southerners consider child's play. But it made the mission district feel more like Panama City. Anyway, the heat combined with some chilaquiles I had for breakfast and whatever beer I was drinking at the time got me inspired to record a bunch of Latin music. I opened up the bedroom windows and cranked it a bit, this is the result.

The name comes from the Mexican city -- a friend of ours is currently living down there working on her writing, and I was flipping through some photos she sent. It was in my head while I was doing this mix, so this one goes out to her.

The cornerstone of this mix is the Colombia! comp from Sound Way Records, one of my favorite records from last year. I used a few tracks from that and pulled in Joe Bataan and Ray Barretto. You'll hear some Arsenio Rodriguez, plus stuff from Peru, Ecuador, Puerto Rico and Nueva York. The name makes no sense, because absolutely none of this music is Mexican. But there you have it, enjoy.

Veggie Burritos Podcast #3: Viva San Miguel

Jaco Needs More Cowbell

I've always thought that if there was one thing the prog/jazz bassist Jaco Pastorius really needed to give his music that extra something, it was more cowbell. And maybe a little Walken. So I made a remix. Listen to mine below, and make your own at MoreCowbell.dj.

	Make your own at MoreCowbell.dj

Podcast #2: Africa Everwhere

I've been really into African-influenced music and afrobeat lately, and it's been creeping its way into my DJ sets more and more often. Here's an example, a chunk of a set I recorded last month that starts out with some relatively straight British funk, goes into some reggae-ish territory, then spends the rest of the time exploring a bunch of different cuts with afrobeat horns and polyrhythms. Funny thing is, there's only one song in this podcast recorded in Africa by real Africans. The rest are from NY, LA, Texas, Finland and points in between.

Veggie Burritos Podcast#2: Africa Everywhere

Enjoy, and please report any problems in the comments.

The Bizarre Sounds of Benin: African Scream Contest

Picked up a treasure on vinyl this weekend, a new compilation from the Analog Africa label called African Scream Contest. The subtitle, written in small print at the bottom of the LP jacket says "Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds From Benin & Togo 70s." I had to whip out the iPhone to remind myself exactly where Benin and Togo are (they're next door to Nigeria) but even before I had done that, I was carrying the record under my arm towards the check-out counter. With a description like that on a front cover that looks like this:

You trust your gut instincts and you just pick it up.

Turns out that Samy, the guy who painstakingly put together this compilation, has a blog called Analog Africa where he posted a link to one of his recent mix tapes. Definitely download it if you're into that perverse culture mash of African polyrhythms, James Brown wailing and organ-driven voodoo soul. But really, who isn't?

Samy also posted some video footage of one of the bands on the comp, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Dahomey. Most of the footage here is culled from live performances, but the song is a studio recording. Still, adds some flavor by allowing your eyes to relate to what your ears are taking in:



And here's the same band rendered as puppets. No joke.

Download: Wilco in St. Louis

i was never super into Wilco. my friend chris exposed me to them by playing Being There and Summerteeth over and over again, and i always liked those records. but then everyone got caught up in the hype of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which, save a few songs, i didn't think was all that strong. i also find the documentary about the making of that record to be almost unwatchable -- those fights between Tweedy and Bennett bring up a lot of tense memories for me. being in a band can be a sublime expression of love and collective art, but it's rarely easy, and that movie shows it all too clearly.

they didn't do much for a couple of years and and kind of fell off the radar. but then Wilco put out A Ghost Is Born, a record i fell in love as soon as i heard it all the way through the first time. it was like they were reborn as something else. the song that i think sealed the deal was "Handshake Drugs." it has a main riff that sounds like your typical Wilco chord progression until the last chord, which is odd and out of place. it sort of goes down and hangs there. that one change ends up driving the whole melody of the song, and it really shines it up. i was also really surprised to learn that Tweedy plays most of the guitar on that album. respect. anyway, the music hasn't left my iPod since i got a hold of it.

now of course, they've put out another record and the guitar savant Nels Cline is now in the band. we used to see Nels play every monday night at Bruno's in san francisco. we'd pay our $5 and sit there like kids at a nudie show when the guy took a solo. totally captivating, made me want to burn my guitar. and the best part, he's transformed Wilco into something totally different, heavy and slippery and noisy.

here's a document of that. the band is streaming all of the shows from this May 2008 St. Louis run on its website. you can go there if you want the quicktime stream, but this recording is a little better quality. it's a matrix constructed from a soundboard feed and two mics on stage, and it sounds gorgeous -- one of the best live shows i've come across this year, in fact. i should also stress that this show is a legal download (the band has an open taping policy) and if you want CD-quality audio, you can hop on the torrents for the whole 3-night run at etree.org.

here are my high-quality MP3s. Note: my buddy mike was the first to notice that I actually mis-labeled these files. when you download them, you'll see they say the 17th, but they are in fact from the 15th. i'm not feeling motivated enough to re-tag and re-upload them, but you should re-tag them yourself. fair pickin's.

Wilco 5-15-2008 Part 1
Wilco 5-15-2008 Part 2

photo: charles harris

Further Proof Aliens Love Minimal Techno

I had pretty much entirely forgotten about the existence of the Yip Yips until I stumbled upon this clip earlier today. I was working on a story for work about radios, and I found myself saying "Raa-dee-oh, Raa-de-oh" over and over. I couldn't place the phrase, then my co-worker said it and for some reason, it clicked. So here we are.

Of course, it's about one hundred times more entertaining now than it was in 1981 or whenever I last watched it.