DAT POLITICS

I had not been to a show in almost a year, and before that it was more like 3 years since I had seen a show. But if we are talking about seeing a GOOD show, then we would have to stretch it back even further. I could bore you with the details of growing older and becoming immune to the "live show hype" or maybe it is realizing that you don't want to fight back swallowing your throw-up the next morning while trying to throw a smile on for work. Late-nights, hangovers, and loud music start to show on your face the next day and you end up looking like Tommy Lee.

But last night was an exception to the rule, My old friend Sebastian from A-town was visiting and actually coerced me out of my late night baseball watching routine. We went to Williamsburg to Bruar falls to see Dat Politics.

The place was very small, but not all the way full, a rather intimate gathering of kids. We managed to pull off the whole "getting there right when the main act was going on" thing, much to my delight. So right from the get go I was impressed with these frechys. With their latest album "mad kit" they have reached more into the pop genre of electronic music. I had to admit that I enjoyed their earlier releases, but nowhere near how much I like this one. It is like they have taken Justice and made it fun and more interesting. Instead of heavy beats and drowning along with some samples, Dat Politics injects some fun-all-smiles Chromeo attitude into a rather dry corner of electronic music. Or to put it another way, they fucking rock, with one of the guys playing a MicroKorg XL like a guitar, and the girl front singer hitting a roland sp-404 sampler periodically and putting Yelle to shame with her best Kim Gorden impression. The long haired dude was on a laptop and Korg Nano Controller.

To make a long story short. I was amazed at the show. If more people knew about Dat Politics I think this album could absolutely blow the fuck up. My ears are still bleeding from the musical destruction that was brought down last night. Consesus...... Dat Politics=awesome.

Go check out the song "Bad Dream Machine" here.

Swoops

Let's see......your a bird valiantly defending your downtown penthouse nest in SF

And then some tits of an old englishman wants to let a "pussy cat" loose on you.

RIP France, Hello Sweden

If anyone had hung out with me in the last three years you prolly have seen my old crappy black backpack. I bought it at a store in France called Decathlon. So in the course of the last three or so years I have fallen completely in love with this back pack. We have had soo many memories. All the giants games, all the bike rides down Valencia, all the gigs I brought you to. Aaaaaanyways.

Me and Backpack taking a nap in Oakland (sketchy!!)

I so being the baseball fan that I am I went to see the new Yankee stadium during it's first year open. I figured that I would catch a piece of history in action. Well turns out that I have all the reason in the world to HATE THE YANKEE!!!! Those fuckers would not let me in with my backpack, so I was forced to make the painful choice between wasting a good ticket and an evening with a friend, or chuck my 5 Euro backpack. I threw the backpack in the trash and begrudgingly entered the shiny new shit hole. Turns out it is just like any other ball park except it is packed to the gills with New York's version of white trash. Not only did I have to throw out three years full of backpack memories, but I also lost the least suspect (ie. laptop carrying) backpack I've ever owned. So here I am without a backpack in NYC. I have no way of carrying anything around. I had taken to carrying things in my fanny pack for a bit, but as I progressed through the Harry Potter series the books became too big for little miss fanny pack.

Thankfully I have the best girlfriend in the world!!!

So yesterday Becca brings this backpack masterpiece into my work and gives it to me as a present. It's swedish, and the brand name is Fjallraven Kanken. And....it is totally rad! you see most backpacks that are made in good old America (aka China) are too damn big. It's like you are going backpacking every time you step out the door. All I wanted was a small laptop carrying backpack that would not pop out over your head, or rub against the top of your ass. Anyways it is pretty rad. So I guess I will have to start a whole new set of memories with this little guy. Fjallraven Kanken also mean arctic fox (or at least that is what becca thinks it means)

BLT/IDM/DLV

Ever since I first met DLV in Davis about four years ago, she has constantly maintained her position atop the list of "hardest working people I've ever met". And that list is not a shabby one, I know some serious nerds (white mike, dr. Grube). Not only does she run an awesome record company, works full time as a chef, and does publicity for one of NYC's finest non-profit venue. But she also has time to entertain friends, aka. cook us food at "grilled cheese night". On top of all this she is everywhere at once, is starting a promotional company with her roomates, and runs a pretty nice blog detailing the some of the local music scene and her own culinary exploits which is appropriately named IDM/BLT?. On top of being our personal grilled cheese caterer whenever we are lucky enough to have grilled cheese night, she also films a webisode short called "facts n' cheese" in which she gives us the rundown on different cheeses as a shabby selection of her friends try not to make asses of ourselves on camera. These short (cheese) bite size shows are fun to watch as much for the cheese info as for the awkward poses that the (we) sidekicks try and maintain throughout the shoot. Watch me make a complete ass out of myself on a future episode (forgot which one it is) Also if you listen carefully you can hear muffled laughter in some of the episodes as some of us the casual grilled cheese night amateurs try to not die laughing when certain sidekicks deadpan a line like "well thanks for sharing your juice with me jenn". So what am I saying here...... you should check out the blog. It is good no!

oh wow i almost forgot..... she is recording music with her music project Drum Machine Dating Service.

Huzza for DLV!

Zavada!!!

Holy crap this guy is awesome!!! Baseball needs more characters like this. I was drunkenly watching the Giants beat the their NL West rivals into the floor, when this relief pitcher comes in to mop things up. And, to my complete delight, he has a FUCKING RAD mustache. When I first saw him come in I was like RAD it's a Rollie Fingers wannabe. Or maybe it's some random Mission hipster that accedentally made it to the Bigs. In the end I was happy to find out that he is just a totally midwestern guy with a pretty blue collar back story, that appreciates the finer things in life, like having a hairy snot catcher. Here are some better posts about the great Zavada.

Yahoo sports

NYtimes

Dork Yearbook

This website is awesome. It's pretty much everything you could want in a blog. Fuzzy 16 bit memories, wearing tank tops and letting your overly thick hair down.

Follow the link for more dorky memories and enjoy.

eight bit, people?

So I got an internship at 8 bit peoples. I am pretty damn excited about this. I was rather intimidating getting interviewed by two of the biggest 8-bit artists in NYC add that to the fact that I went in WAYYY over-confident and totally bombed the interview, and the fact that when I first wrote an email to them I had not known that Bit Shifter was one of the artist that ran it, and referenced him ...... to him. haha. nice. Well yup, just could not be more happy about it. On the flip side I still have that coffee shop job that I hate. oh god it is terrible.