Thursday, February 26, 2009

a message from the Flywheel...



Yes Flywheel is still here and gearing up to reopen this spring! But we need your green to do it!

Construction is set to begin on our new 1500sqft space. But that shit is expensive yo! So how about have some fun and support Flywheel at the same time!

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Come to the APE Gallery on Main St in Northampton this coming Tuesday March 3rd at 7:30 and hang out with Thurston Moore and Byron Coley as they sign books and ruminate on their photo documentary of the No Wave music scene of the late 1970s in NYC.
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Music by DJ12XU and video footage will also be served.

Admission is free, but we will be taking donations for our ongoing renovations. Bring your checkbooks or your penny jar and help us get this party started!

Peace!

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the flywheel arts collective is volunteer-run, non-profit artspace in easthampton complete with a zine library (<3333), a café, a sizable board game collection and, of course, a space for live music!! in the past couple of years, it has been in a weird sort of limbo between its original location on holyoke street to the old historic town hall! the flywheel is a wonderful, wonderful space for the pioneer valley--please attend this event and support its re-opening!!


The Flywheel Arts Collective

Monday, February 23, 2009

yet another...

RAC mix to download. If you were into Robyn's self-titled album, you might appreciate this. The RAC gang will be posting up more mixes soon. Some mixes you can keep an eye out for will be of artists like Mates of State, So Many Dynamos, Kaiser Chiefs, and others. Enjoy this one for now.

Robyn - Cobrastyle (RAC mix)

Friday, February 20, 2009

remix for your weekend



Andre Anjos from Remix Artist Collective (RAC) posted a new playlist online yesterday. It might help you out if you're stumped for a chill minimix for this weekend. The mix can be accessed through the link below. User discretion advised. ENJOY.

RAC Agency - MINIMIX 3: FAIRTILIZER EXCLUSIVE

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Los Angeles is (finally) big enough for the both of us

For those of you not in the know, your very own Beelzebub von Wünderbang/DJ Dr. Benway/WOZQ Webslave is in Los Angeles this semester for some R&R.

But, since I run this xit, I still get to blog. (THE POWER!)

As awesome as Northampton is in terms of providing opportunities for live music, few places can beat the total badassitude of Los Angeles. On Valentine's Day, I saw the inimitable Mael brothers perform their latest album Exotic Creatures of the Deep and their 1974 classic Kimono My House at UCLA's Royce Hall.

I love Sparks. Russell and Ron Mael provide the perfect combination of cheese, humor, weirdness, electronica, rock and roll, and performative awesomeness. For those of you unfamiliar with these Los Angeles natives, the Maels have been putting out music since the 70's. The 21 albums were written almost entirely by the stern, mustached, elder brother, Ron, who rarely speaks or smiles from behind his Roland synthesizer. Russell, the charismatic singer, proved last night that he can still leap about and sing falsetto like a pre-pubescent boy (in spite of being in his mid 50's).

They started the show with Exotic Creatures of the Deep, a really weird and very funny album. Highly stagey, including a few numbers performed by (I'm assuming) female members of the UCLA dance department, they kept us entertained. The album pales in comparison to Kimono, but there were some great songs. "The Director Never Yelled Cut" was really weird, really long, and really rather creepy. "Let the Monkey Drive" had a similar quality, though it was funnier. The title "Lighten Up Morrissey" promises more than it delivers, sadly, but I was quite tickled by Steven's silhouette in the background. "Photoshop" was also brilliant. Ron Mael pretended to play a projected animated piano that was constantly being stretched and rotated in Photoshop, much to the audience's amusement while his brother sang "Photoshop me out of your life." I had a great time, but the best was yet to come.

After a brief intermission (during which I scored a free carton of cigarettes and a Sparks pin), we went back inside for the main event: Kimono My House, their glam/electric/proto-new wave/powerpop masterpiece. It's funny, it's beautiful and it makes you want to get up and dance. Russell didn't miss a single word or note. He explained how happy he was to play the songs to an audience in LA who finally liked it, recalling how "weird" people thought it was when they would play Kimono material in the 1980's. The set ended, as the album does, with "Equator," which was "ending" for at least a few minutes. They did a remarkable job. For their hefty encore, they invited all of us to get out of our seats and move to the front of the theater. They played a nice block of hits (the highlight of which was indubitably "Dick Around") and said goodbye.

But honestly, the fact that the music was so good, that the brothers Mael are so fucking funny, that the band of young long-hairs they got to accompany them were having such a great time, that the performative gimmicks were so cheesy and yet so entertaining-- these were not the aspects of the show that really struck me. What I thought was so fascinating, and also so moving, was the incredible turnout. Royce Hall, with its capacity of about 1800, was completely full.

I took the bus from Hollywood and found myself not only among the usual commuters and sleeping homeless people smelling of piss, but also a group of New Yorkers who, I kid you not, flew out just for the show. They were the types you might expect to see at a They Might Be Giants concert. Also on my bus was a gorgeous couple who live downtown. She was quite rockabilly with her bleach blonde lady-pomp, false eyelashes and tight clothes, while he was just pretty, with long matching platinum locks and a velvet blazer. In Los Angeles, one of the unfriendliest cities in the world (particularly when it comes to music people-- if you don't believe me, I can point you in the direction of some of the hipper live music venues [disclaimer: two of which I have frequented and have often found nice people]), it is quite a trip to go to a show and meet so many buddies for one evening. I met another very fashionable couple who had driven down all the way from Seattle.

All of Los Angeles (and portions of the rest of the country as well) was represented, from aging fans of the Angst in My Pants days (and their young, gorgeous girlfriends) to 20-something hipsters in tight jeans to chubby nerds with acne to the avant-garde elite to little kids with their parents. And everyone was friendly. Something about the silliness of it all, the fact that the crowd was so diverse, that we could all be united by a common sensibility knocked down our pretensions for one night.

For those of you who missed out, don't worry. Their 21-part London concert series during which they played their entire ouvre is online somewhere.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Wowza

I'm typically months or even years behind the latest trends in music so I don't know if this video is already old hat, but HOLY GOD this makes me happy.



If I could be someone else for a day, I would be that guy in the front. And the only thing I would do for that entire day would be to do that dance to this song. Also, Yelle, will you be my girlfriend?

just another monday

Thought you all could use a few nice downloads to start off your week.

Some Canadian stuff for ya, eh?
Thanks to the lovely DJ REV aka A.Raife, I downloaded the latest Metric leak, the acoustic version of their song Help I'm Alive. Their new album FANTASIES hits stores in the U.S. April 14th, 2009. The last we heard from Metric was back in 2007 when they re-released their album Grow Up and Blow Away, so it's nice to see the band back on the map. For more information on the band, visit their site and their myspace.

Metric - Help I'm Alive (Acoustic)
Metric - Help I'm Alive


L.A. Status
Bodies of Water is a great little band based out of Los Angeles. They've got a haunting sound at times, but with a chamber-music twist. Strange combo, I know. Apparently they're great live, so if you're ever down for a random show, check 'em out. Here's a couple songs off of their latest album A Certain Feeling released under Secretly Canadian. Enjoy.

Bodies of Water - Water Here
Bodies of Water - Gold, Tan, Peach and Grey


Le Disco
I'm a big fan of the "nu-disco"music blog by the record label VALERIE. They've always got something good posted. My latest favorite is this track by College, remixed by Keenhouse. Dance to it.

College - I Think About It (Keenhouse Remix)

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Keep checking out this blog for more downloads this semester, and of course keep listening to WOZQ. Peace.

THE SHIFT video podcast

This is really just a YouTube video that we made using the built-in camera on my computer, but we're calling it a podcast. Technology rulez.



Listen to us in real time on Fridays from 6-8 am. And if you think that's whack, just wait for more podcasts.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

hunx and his hamburger heaven

seth bogart AKA Hunx has done a lot of good for the world, dropping beats without fail for everyone and anyone to sweat up to. hailing from oakland, california, seth has fed our hamburger hungry hearts with a wide variety of fabulous, queer musical ventures, ranging from the infamous Gravy Train!!! and the Knock-Ups to the lesser known but nevertheless radical Panty Raid, Baby Jail and a Michael Jackson cover band called Dangerous. Seth Bogard is probably the sweetest dude ever; in high skool, my friends and I often brought him slices of pizza after his shows—every piece a token of our utmost appreciation. through his beats, he gave us all a place to dance; no matter who you were, what you looked like or who you liked, if you wanted to work it, you totally could at his shows—it was like he built us our own club house, full of snacks (cheetos), spliffz and swinging hips.
and now Seth Bogart has done it again. When he isn’t dishing out fashion advice or snipping bangs at oakland’s wonderful thrift boutique Down at Lulu’s, you can catch him playin’ with his new band, HUNX AND HIS PUNX.

“gimmie gimmie back your love”



i personally like the bubble letters, the oversized lipstick and lyrics like “let’s go buy some snacks, let’s go drinking by the tracks.”
oh Seth Bogart, i totally would. and i’d buy you some extra fries too.

“crusing”




AND part 4 of Queer Youth Tv’s Queercore (co-directed by Alex Hinton and Bret Berg)—featuring Seth Bogart!!!! (don't miss the other 3 episodes, ps.!!!!):




Hunx and His Punx myspace

Thursday, February 5, 2009

I got ninety six tears in my ninety six eyes.



Lux Interior (aka Erick Purkhiser) died on February 4th 2009 from a pre-existing heart condition

He is remembered by his wife Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace).

Their band The Cramps defined the genre of pyschobilly and their iconic image of campy, horrific, sci-fi, fetishistic, witchy, dirty American rock will never be forgotten.


R.I.P Lux Interior





RIP Lux


RIP Lux Interior (1946-2009)

Man, we've lost a lot of greats recently. Levi Stubbs in October, Ron Asheton in January, and as of yesterday at 4 AM Pacific, Lux Interior, the lead singer of the Cramps.

The Cramps were a great fucking band. Punk rock you can twist and grind to. The music was funny, it was sexy, it was campy and it was great. A decrepit drive-in movie decked out in leopard print and red lipstick, hopped up on speed and ready to fuck shit up...but also totally aware of its absurdity.

When I think of the Cramps, I think of two things. The first one is riding in my friend's old Mercedez my senior year of high school. On beautiful California afternoons, stoned out of our minds, we'd drive to our favorite burger stand after school, blasting the Cramps the whole way there. With a Marlboro red hanging out of my mouth, my head moving to the beat of "Goo Goo Muck," I felt cooler than I'd ever felt before. The other thing I think of, oddly enough, is WOZQ. I think of subbing late-night shows with DJ Löwenbräu, turning out the lights, pumping up the studio speakers, and dancing like crazy to "Rock on the Moon" until we had to stop for fear of a heart attack.

So whatever your beliefs are, say a prayer, light a candle, pour some champagne onto the floor, or just do what I did, put on Songs the Lord Taught Us as loud as your speakers can go, turn off all the lights, put your inhibitions in a jar, and cut a fucking rug. Invite your friends. Go crazy.

RIP Lux, you are already sorely missed, but wherever you are, I hope you know that your music will be making sweaty boys and girls gasp desperately for breath, clutching their chests, in college radio stations, bedrooms, backyards, etc. until the end of time.