A little bit of at-ti-tude...

I often have a hard time trying to sell Suede on others. Perhaps its Brett's voice, which I myself found objectionable the first time I heard "Metal Mickey" in the early 90's. Nevertheless, Suede is one of my favorite bands and I am always trying to get others to listen to them. Recently I made a mix cd for a friend. I completely forgot that I put Suede's "Attitude" on there, so it was with shock and surprise when my friend stated that one of her favorite songs on the mix cd was "Attitude". Mostly shocking because "Attitude" was one of Suede's last songs - one of the two that they had put on the obligatory Singles album - one which most Suede fans despise (probably because it's a little un-Suede sounding). So I asked my friend why she liked it. Her response: "It's a great song to secretly and subtly strut down the street to. It's like the sidewalk is momentarily your own catwalk. Magic." Well said.

The other song that Suede put on their Singles comp, "Love the Way You Love Me," is also another one that most Suede fans dislike. However, I've thrown it out there a couple times when DJing and often people are impressed. Perhaps Suede's "bad" stuff is better than everyone thought.

Stop the Clocks!

Oasis is coming out with "the definitive collection, chosen by the band" called Stop the Clocks. This will include a lot of singles plus some B-sides. It's an 18 track double CD, and will apparently deliver what the band believes are the songs that encapsulate the band's career. Not a bad idea, and now I'll have to buy it (unless it's also a digital release that allows me to pick up only the new songs!). This "first ever Oasis retrospective" comes out on November 20, 2006.

Stereogum fills us in on the full tracklist:

"Some Might Say"
"Don't Look Back In Anger"
"D'Ya Know What I Mean?"
"All Around the World"
"Go Let It Out"
"The Hindu Times"
"Lyla"
"The Importance of Being Idle"
"Masterplan"
"Half The World Away"
"Acquiesce"
"Champagne Supernova"
"Rock N Roll Star"
"Supersonic"
"Wonderwall"
"Whatever"
"Boy With The Blues" [New song]
"Stop The Clocks" [New song]

Shake Appeal at M1-5

I'm back at it. I'll be DJing the new Shake Appeal party this Thursday night at M1-5 in TriBeCa (52 Walker Street b/t Broadway and Church). I'll be playing DanceRock, Indie, Electro, and Britpop from 11pm onwards. Free!

CNN trying to get the hip demographic?

In last month's Details (don't ask) CNN took out a full page ad listing "Anderson Cooper's On-The-Road Playlist", I guess to tout Cooper's hipness and to get more viewers (I know, he writes for Details so it's a decent place for his publicity). Anyway, his list has a nice combo of punk, old indie, new indie, and various old school songs:

The Clash - "This Is Radio Clash"
Scissor Sisters - "Comfortably Numb"
Johnny Cash - "Folsom Prison Blues"
Radiohead - "Karma Police"
Sugar - "Needle Hits E"
Ike & Tina Turner - "Proud Mary"
Nouvelle Vague - "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
Interpol - "Slow Hands"
Arcade Fire - "Wake Up"
Arctic Monkeys - "I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor"
Mary J. Blige - "No More Drama"
Devo - "Freedom of Choice"
Elvis Costello - "Pump It Up"
The Hives - "Hate To Say I Told You So"
Abbey Lincoln - "Nature Boy"

Copenhagen round up

So I survived Copenhagen. The DJ night aboard the M.S. Stubnitz was bizarre but a good time. Dancing to blasting drum n' bass in the forward galley of a freighter ship is quite an interesting thing. Other highlights of the trip: Cafe Ketchup, Cafe Zeze, Wall Street Bar, K-Bar, L.A. Bar, bars along Nyhavn, and the Carlsberg Brewery.

Greetings from Denmark

I've been in Copenhagen this week. Very nice city. Clean, and surprisingly quiet. The weather is really nice in July - it's been 70 degrees and sunny every single day.

I've been a little disappointed with the music scene though. The record shops aren't all that. There are a couple of name brand stores that overprice everything (CDs are like $30). The indie shops I've found, namely Sexbeat Records and 2nd Hand, are ok, but their CDs are just as expensive, unless used. And for the love of god, can't I just find some Mew singles? As for the live scene, I haven't seen anyone good. It's the end of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, so there are some decent jazz acts around, but that's not really my scene. However, I've seen some decent DJ's´- including some guys at Zoo Bar that threw out the Jacques Lu Cont remix of Depeche Mode's "Pain That I'm Used To".

Tonight I'm going to the Ohoi! 4 year anniversary party aboard the M.S. Stubnitz (the Stubnitz is an old East German freighter ship - not kidding - that travels to ports throughout the Baltic whilst throwing DJ parties). Ohoi! is a top notch drum n' bass/dubstep event. Should be interesting.

Word.

The Daysleepers

One of the few bright spots of the crop of underwhelming releases in 2006 is from Buffalo, N.Y.'s The Daysleepers. Their "Hide Your Eyes" EP came out in January and is available on iTunes. This "newgaze" band is a little bit of Slowdive, a litte bit of Lush, and rounds out with epic-ness of The Cure. Highly recommended for fans of Souvlaki Space Station and Disintegration. You can listen to a stream of the EP here at the Loveless Music Group site.

New Killers track is not that good

A snippet of The Killers' new single "When You Were Young" can be downloaded from the Island Records site. It's not that good. No synths, lots of strings, some whining. Their sophomore album comes out on October 3rd.

Massive!

[Tickets on sale here at 10am on Thursday morning!!!]

Holy christ. Massive Attack is going to tour America this fall. First tour since the Mezzainine tour in 1998. Ends in New York on October 3, 4, 5 at the Roseland Ballroom. Rumors of Elizabeth Fraser and Horace Andy going on tour with them. Jesus. I saw them on the Mezzanine tour at a small venue Raleigh - tied for the best show I've ever seen. So powerful and overwhelming - nothing like hearing "Unfinished Sympathy" live.

North American tour includes:

Toronto V Festival (September 10)
Montreal Metropolis (Sept. 11)
Detroit State Theatre (Sept. 12)
Chicago Riviera Theatre (Sept. 13)
Houston Verizon Wireless Theatre (Sept. 15)
Austin City Limits (Sept. 16)
Dallas Nokia Theatre (Sept. 17)
Phoenix Celebrity Theatre (Sept. 19)
San Diego SDSU Open Air Theatre (Sept. 20)
Berkeley Greek Theatre (Sept. 22)
Las Vegas The Joint (Sept. 23)
Hollywood Bowl (Sept. 24)
Washington 9:30 Club (Sept. 28-29)
Philadelphia Tower Theatre (Sept. 30)
Boston Orpheum Theatre (October 1)
New York Roseland Ballroom (October 3-5)

Tickets are supposed to go on sale next week.

Preventing irrelavency

The drop date for the new The Rapture album Pieces of the People We Love is September 4. Thankfully. I hope this album comes out before the band is completely irrelevant. And hopefully it will be a gem among the mediocre crap that has come out in 2006. The new material previewed at the Crash Mansion and The Bowery Ballroom shows sounded pretty good, so here's to that translating on the disc. You can hear new track "Get Myself Into It" on their myspace page.