Fingerprint File

City Center "Fingerprint"

Heart Love

Here is a mix of songs for the end of the year. Totally one long-ass track, sorry. Imagine it's a tape and the fast-forward is broken.

Artist Unknown "Bonjour Tristesse"
The song sung in a film of the same name, sometime in the late 50's.
Chromatics "Runnin' Up That Hill"
Sweet Kate Bush cover from one of the better records of the year.
No Age "Neck-Escaper"
Forever Amber "Bits Of Your Life & Bits Of My Life"
Issac turned me on to this total 60's psyche obscurity this year.
Avey Tare & Kria Brekkan "I've Got Mine"
Live recording somewhere in England. This whole show would have been a way sweeter album than their backwards David Lynch tribute Pullhair Rubeye, but whatevs.
Fleetwood Mac "Think About It"
Rumors outtake.
Bee-Gees "To Love Somebody"
High Places "Shared Islands"
The best band in Brooklyn and probably elsewhere.
Panda Bear "Daily Routine"
Live in Má Fama, Portugal January 7, 2007.
Jane's Addiction "Then She Did"
Jacked my remembrance and joy for this song from Ethan's blog.
Alice Coltrane "Vrindavana Sanchara"
Little Wings "Scuby's Gone Again"
Claudine Longet "Every Night"
Chantel Goya "title unknown"
Bones made me a copy of this yeh-yeh girl's discography, no titles. It's fully amazing, even more-so when you realize she was the star of Masculine-Feminin first and that launched her pop star career.
Nancy Adams "Ypsilanti"
Mike from Top Quality Rock N' Roll found this old 45 and made me a copy of it due to my namesake. It's scratchy as hell but worthy of joy if you know anything about Ypsilanti.
Albert Ayler "Heart Love"

Total Running Time: 54min 56sec.

Download the mix here. Happy end of 2007.

Outside The Joy

Nervous breakdown versus holiday work party. Lester Gombert versus Carlisle Bertram the fifth. Gold girls versus gone girls. Click track versus kitty cat. Who will win in the end????!!?

I found myself really early to an engagement the other night with lots of time to kill, so I walked around the lower east side for a little bit and found an amazing record store called Subterranean. The place looked like it only had NY music, walls plastered with rarities by Patti Smith, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Nico, etc. I got in a conversation with the guy working and he was great, let me know a little about the store, how it had been there for 30 years, but had to close in February because of unreasonably increasing rent and the general demise of recorded music at the present moment. I had to feel like it wasn't quite dead when I got the first two Jesus & Mary Chain singles and Marion Brown's "Geechee Reflections". Always and forever. The dude even gave me a couple Lou Reed records as a friendly gesture, which I imagined as a subversive move against the landlord, who had clearly built the foundation of the building using nothing but Blondie singles and sealed copies of "Coney Island Baby".

Winter is blue.

"Stesichoros released being. All the substances in the world went floating up. Suddenly there was nothing to interfere with horses being hollow hooved. Or a river being root silver. Or a child bruiseless. Or a planet middle night stuck. Or an insomniac outside the joy."

City Center "I Want What Everyone Wants"
City Center "Gold Girls"

Frosted Dove

Checked out the Phosphorescent show last night at Sound Fix. Bones gave me the new record a few months ago, and it was ruling, but she said the live shows were a lot different, mostly vocal loops and weird repeating haunted sounds. The album, "Pride" is somewhere in-between what I imagined that show would be like and the show I saw last night; a full band in a solid country dirge mode. Countless Will Oldham comparisons were made about the record, which I never understood but definitely felt from last night's jam. It was nice in this way where something sounds so much like something else that it's no longer a fault, but one of the draws and highlights. It becomes more than worn on the sleeve, it is the sleeve. Both sleeves and the cuffs. They played a sweet cover of "To Love Somebody" ("you don't know what it's like to love somebody, to love somebody the way I love you.")

I walked home through the crunchy frost and tried to get to bed early, but no, it did not happen. I slept for two hours and woke up at 7 a.m. to start my new job. Forthcoming cheesy mid-90's drum-and-bass tracks will have to wait for me to get some rest. In the meantime, here is a new song for/(by) Alice Coltrane.
City Center "Lost Year"

Can't Get My Hands On The Formula

Participated yesterday in a performance called "All You Need Is Love", a super complex conceptual live dating game held simultaneously at a gallery and a french restaurant a few blocks away via video feed and instant-messaging. Three bachelors competed for a date with a bachelorette, none of them able to see or hear their eventual suitors. My role was that of troubadour, I sang improvised songs about the contestants personalities, appearances, choices in the games, etc. I was part of the same performance in Montreal at the end of summer, but the one yesterday was in Soho and went a lot smoother.

You ever hear of this stuff called "Coffee"? That shit will fuck you up! I tried some today and lost my mind. Here's the proof:

City Center "Formula"
City Center "1998"

Just A Feeling

Skelly fucking with the delay. After decomposition, he really needs the resonant sound of infinity to make a dent, or so he says. Checked out the Jim Roll/Matt Jones/Chris Bathgate/Misti Lynn Show in Queens last night. It was great to see a majority of my remaining Ann Arbor homies in NY. Spent today sleeping and making this song.

City Center "Just A Feeling"

For There To Be Up Then There Must Be Down

Boundless/Countless "Up/Down"

Handing Up Needles To Pinpoint Your Needs

I misheard the whispers, a tortured gasping of "I am your need." Thought they said "I am your niece."

Back from tour and still without a job, so I'm recording everyday.
City Center "Save Everything"

Listened to so much Grateful Dead for the last two months that I'm now investigating Li'l Wayne and Souja Boy almost as a counterpoint. In my research I got the newest issue of XXL magazine. An amazing interview with Remy Ma is a must-read situation, but the highlight and possible mantra is below.

What do you wanna do?
Nothing. I wanna go fuckin' shopping like every other bitch and get my pussy ate. I don't give a fuck. What do you mean, What do I wanna do? I don't wanna do nothing! I wanna shop and look fly and fuck my man.

You must be quite a handful for a man to deal with.
I don't understand why people like me. I treat them so bad. I purposely shit on them. I will act like you don't exist! And they stay loving me. But, a long time ago, I figured out, like, wait a minute, if I show him that I love him, he acts crazy. If I show him that I don't give a fuck and at any given moment I'll wake up and decide you're not the one, these fuckers are loving me to death! I love being me.

My new record came out this week, too. I recorded it back in late January in Arizona with my friend Kyle. That's Jae on the cover smashing my van with a hammer.