My Favorite 12s

Wow, this is so no duh as a blog thing I can't believe I didn't do this earlier. The premise is simple: these are my favorite 12s.

The Next Plateau pressing of "How High"is pretty much findable in any record store, but these 2 mixes come from the slightly less ubiquitous import version, with 2 mixes not on the domestic one. The NY mix has the chorus vocals dipping in and out but for the most part is pretty dubby/spacey, while the Garage one is more instrumental-y.

Spencer Jones ~ How High (New York Mix)
Spencer Jones ~ How High (Garage Mix)

Trip Hop!

I figure what's the point of having a blog if I can't put up some totally dumb shit I used to like. Here, unapologetically, are 3 of my favorite trip-hop tracks.

DJ Cam ~ Gangsta Shit
Taken from the "Mad Blunted Jazz" album. OK just the TITLE should clue you in on how dated this is. Cam was pretty good for a freedom-hating Frenchman, but all he really did was take Sade/Premier loops and layer some other shit over them. Anyways, there was this guy from college who originally put me onto everything TRIP-HOP related. It's funny because at the time it wasn't corny at all to like stuff like this, in fact I felt real cutting edge liking this "fringe music" and started buying all the DJ Krush/Squarepusher/DJ Cam shit I could find while everyone was buying "The Love Movement." I still remember when I realized that Krush and Shadow had that one track "Duality" that was like Pacino VS Deniro. I even distinctly recall having a moment where the breakdown kicks in and its just drums and this piano over it (at 4:42), and I was like "whoa, THIS is the center of the universe" and then took another BONG HIT (basically literally true).

Money Mark ~ Underneath It All
Money Mark gets a bad rep for being a corny dude basically b/c of guilt-by-association with the Beastie Boys and recording not-fully-realized weepy/upbeat ballads about his dumb life, but every once in a while he would strike TRIP HOP GOLD (yes I said it, dear reader!) with tracks like this (BTW, anyone got the live version of "Cry" by Money Mark that was on that Mo Wax Faces Z comp, holla!).

Coldcut ~ More Beats & Pieces (DJ Qbert I Miss You Blobula Mix)
This was originally released on Qbert's Pumpkin Demolition mixtape, one of those turntablist breaks tapes that used to be so ubiquitous. This is signature Qbert -- super expressive and weird SKRATCHING. Also, this track prefigured the entire Wave Twisters album by having weird sci-fi children's records samples (I'm pretty sure that's like a Fantastic Four 7" or something) over one of his insane outer-space instrumentals. I will admit it's still pretty amazing hearing the wobbly sounds he would coax out of the records he used. He was like Tom Morello!

In conclusion, all this shit ended up costing me WAY too much money at the time of purchase, and even now I'll see a Headz 2B boxset at a record store for $50 and smile because that means someone else out there is still waiting for the trip-hop resurgence. Some of this actually sells for US cash American dollars on eBay!

Double nerd bonus!
Jazzanova ~ Coffee Talk (DJ Krush's Code 4109 version)
Dr Octagon ~ Moosebumps

DIOYY?

Does It Offend You Yeah? ~ We Are Rockstars

Trophy Bar Podcast!

Hey everyone, Farika from Trophy Bar put up a podcast of my party there a few weeks ago. That's me up til about 39 minutes, then Rok One from the Bangers gets on. You can listen/download it to your heart's content:

WOODMAN & ROK ONE LIVE @ TROPHY BAR June 21

I haven't listened to it yet but it's all live so hopefully I don't fuck up too much. Get yo' dance on!

My favorite songs

Don't listen to this mix if you are trying to relax.

Jubilee-4AM

I dont know why....

But this video popped in my head recently. I had to really search for it but I found it. Remember seeing this over and over again on Nickelodeon? These are the things I think about at 445AM after going out all night. Welcome to my brain

Toadies at Bowery Ballroom

So yeah, the above picture basically sums it up. It was awesome seeing them play essentially all of Rubberneck, but the running joke of reunion bands going "so we have a new album coming out, OMG we're back do you want to hear some of the new jams!" and everyone demurely mumbling "yeah OK" was in full effect. The weird thing about 90s bands doing the comeback thing is that it gives a lot of people license to wear the shitty grunge-era clothing they put away in their closets for the last decade. It's like I fell through a wormhole and suddenly I was in high school. This is not necessarily the nostalgia-fueled mayhem one would hope for.

I saw a Sub Pop shirt, a Lars Frederiksen shirt, and this dude with a billy goat beard wearing a 311 shirt (which as I've always said, is reassuring to see a living breathing stereotype). A full on mosh-pit erupted too! Christ I'm glad this idiotic nonsense no longer exists at shows. During the set-closer "Tyler" I was tossed around like a plastic bag and my thumb ended up in someone's mouth for a second. I was basically like "do these people WANT the 90s to never have ended?"

A few observations:

1. Todd Lewis' vocals sound alarmingly like Brian Johnson's. I was waiting for the deafening guitar peals of "Thunderstruck" to shred my ears at any moment.

2. The average age was 25-30. And still these idiots moshed around like Godless heathens! Have we learned NOTHING?

3. It seems the only people who DID learn something from the 90s were the bouncer/roadies, who were like minutemen waiting to pounce on any drunk hockey player dumb enough to crowdsurf onto the stage, and either shoving them right back into the crowd or tackling them to the ground and throwing them off stage.