Never Got In A Fight

Man The Hunter is a relatively new band from Michigan started by young genius Evan Doerring. I first heard them when we played a show together this summer and the band was just Evan solo playing guitar and operating a reverbed-out drum machine with his bare feet. The songs were really striking right from the start, totally familiar and mired in a classic lovelorn powerpop songwriting style. Watching that show I felt that cool wash of thought where your mind compiles a list of thoughts you have about what you're seeing and the final and most important thought is to throw the list away before you remember any of it. Does anyone else have that cool feeling? I usually get it when I realize that there's always a lot of ways to interpret and analyse things you like, but it's probably enough just to like them. I really like Man The Hunter and these songs are something special. I've seen several shows since, and City Center & Swimsuit have both done a few with them. There's a full band now, and Ryan is the drummer!!! Shelley just put out their first 7" (pictured above) on her killer label Ginkgo Records, limited to 300 copies. It's a family affair! You can order the record direct by checking out Shelley's page here. This is not a sound to miss, and I'm stoked for everything to come from this band.

I also found a photo of a Bengal Tiger underwater.

Snow Day

City Center "Snow Day"
Recorded live to 2-Track January 12, 2011. 
Vocals, loop of bass & drums, reel-to-reel, electronics.

I wonder sometimes if winter and summer are sworn enemies or secret lovers. A friend of mine always talked about how much he loved listening to "Heart of the Congos"and other super blissful, sunshiny dub records in the winter. It kind of fits, in a strange way. I often get weird winter-nostalgia in the summertime, and this song is about the vice-versa. My room-mate's cat went kinda wild this last summer and would be out in the sun all day, coming back inside from hunting delirious and deeply dehydrated. Have you ever seen a panting cat? It's really un-nerving. Panting dogs are pretty commonplace, but a crazy-eyed panting cat is really freaky. 

Nomenclature

I did a post about Detroit dance-floor memory machine The New Dance Show about this time last year. The above video is from it's predacessor "The Scene", with a sick debut of Detroit electro classic "Shari Vari" by A Number of Names. Dirtbombs covered this song for their new record, I heard a little of it and it's pretty stellar. I'm not sure why, but in the winter I always have phases of getting deep into this kinda stuff. Been on a headlong Electrifying Mojo kick lately, too, which to me is the epicenter of Detroit culture, DJ personality and my own personal winter memories.

Deuces

I used to be really into throwing up a peace sign for any photo someone took of me. Maybe for like the last five years or so. There's probably a trend I was subconsciously following, or some mass-mind shift, as a lot of things I get into end up being. I generally find myself knowing about or getting really into stuff at the same time it reaches it's peak popularity, just like most people (simple equation, really.) I don't feel too bad about it, cause I'm not someone who prefers obscure things. There's a lot of value in things that millions of people adore, and just because everyone else in the world has a deep, personal connection with Fleetwood Mac or Motown, that doesn't make mine any less important to me.

The thing is, I've noticed a lot of people chucking deuces both in photos, in life, some cultural references here and there, and wherever I see it, it seems to have this mean-spirited undertone of "fuck you". Not "Ok, see you later, peace", but more of a weird power thing. Like "Uh huh, I am calling the shots here, and this call is to get the fuck out of here, later losers." Now that every pop song has a reference to commodifiable "Swagger" (so dumb. like saying "I've got so much brooding!" or "Y'all ain't got debonair like mine!") maybe the time-honored peaceful greeting/farewell has been balled up into that misappropriation. I never wanted to come off antagonistic or even ironic with a gesture, but I feel like those are the choices now for throwing the two fingers up. What the hell.

Peace Gull Download

"Peace Gull" was a limited cassette of all instrumental Swimsuit jams released on my label sometime this last summer. There were around 50 copies and it sold out pretty quickly. I've been meaning to post a download link to the mp3s for a while, so here it finally is. This tape is some of my favorite of the Swimsuit material because it just kind of washes by in a really soft, basement blur. I hope you like the sounds if you haven't already heard them.

DOWNLOAD HERE and more info after the jump.

The (Beer) Hour Is Nigh

My friend Michelle Birawer starts a tour with her solo-noise/scrapped glass bits on reverb-coil jam Strange Brew pretty soon. Check out the tour dates below the jump. Her sounds are pretty unique, and she's supposedly made six different cassettes just for this tour! Also, if you haven't yet, you should get one of the 10 remaining copies of the lathe-cut 12" I recorded and released of some of her last-summer's sounds. Check that out right here.

Treasure

City Center "Room With No Door"

Feel Like Jumping

It's pretty much a given that if you're making music like I do, you will invariably have a field-recording style sample of some kids playing on the playground mixed into your shit somewhere. It's possibly a lost-youth/wish for innocence metaphor?? Who knows, but a lot of songs have it. I don't think City Center actually has any, but many a day I have walked by this school in Ypsi called New Beginnings Academy and heard the future poets, doctors and practitioners at play.

Without sampling the sounds, we did go so far as to name a recording after the spot. In case you missed out on the 50 copies of the New Beginnings Academy cassette, you can download the mp3s right here, right now. More information after the jump. Thanks to Amber for the photos of the true N.B.A. as well as help with making the gif.

Flatten Out The Rainbow/Build A House On The Waves

Happy New Year, Happiest Dreams For 2011. Congratulations to Juan & Laura. Everything open, everybody ready.