The Audiozine

First: Jump In The Air And Stay There

I don't live in Cville anymore, though I still enjoy a lot of the local music scene there from afar. Haven't been covering shows back in VA much lately because it seems silly to report on a local scene that's an 8 hour trip away. That being said, the boys + girl in the band True Womanhood e-mailed me to let me know about a show they're playing at The Bridge on Thurs Feb 18. Poking around Nailgun reveals that they'll be sharing the bill with Great Dads (another Adam Smith project, therefore probably awesome by default), Rhythm Bandit (whose MySpace reveals some tinny weird electronics), and Dinowalrus (a self-described "drum n drone" band from NYC). Earplugs etc.

Anyway, I appreciate True Womanhood's ambition (e-mailing me even though I don't really even cover Cville closely anymore), their hometown (DC hasn't gotten enough love for at least a decade), and their tunes (lots of chiming guitars, makes me feel like 2010 brings us full circle to the first wave of indie rock bands circa 2000/2001 who merged 90's guitars with electronics and outre song structures, without losing the tunes).

After yet another long dormant period, the Audiozine Listening Series shudders back to life. Two aural delights this time:

1) Dirty Projectors – Stillness Is The Move
Yes, this track has been out for a while. In fact, the full album leak’s been out for a while. That doesn’t change the fact that this song is a hugely auspicious sign that Bitte Orca, the latest offering from the Dirty Projectors, will be among the year’s better collections. Two notable points about “Stillness…”: a) it features a killer vocal that, for once, utilizes melisma, vibrato, and other elements that seem directly pulled from modern R&B; b) the track’s combination of huge drums, synthesized bass, spidery and spare guitar licks, and pop-friendly vocal strike me as being a delightfully warped take on the spare nursery rhyme-like quality of the last few years of hip-hop and R&B. A grayer shade of white, maybe?

2) Wintry Mix 2008-2009
Since last fall I’ve been playing around in my spare time with some really barebones free DJ software, mostly blending hip-hop and other danceable genres. Last winter, I decided to blend some songs outside of the dance music world in an attempt to catch the feeling of the season. From a mixing standpoint, there’s really nothing notable going on. But when I dug the mix up earlier this week, it seemed like something people might enjoy. Runtime is approx 30 minutes.
Tracklist:
D. Lissvik -- Track 6
Arthur Russell -- You and Me Both
Autechre -- Altibizz
Flying Lotus (orig. Kanye West) -- Love Lockdown Remix
Erykah Badu -- My People
Jaylib -- Starz
Slum Village -- Fall In Love
Jape -- Floating
No Age -- Keechie
Portishead -- Hunter

Things:

1) The last show went well. Great friends came, blew bubbles, shimmied and shook to the tunes, shuddered at the noise, Springsteen and the Stones were heckled, the mic was turned off prematurely, our set nearly shut down secondary to our volume and crankiness, and the tunes were sloppy but soulful. Not perfect, but pretty awesome. Quiet My Dear played an excellent set featuring some really tight rhythmic ideas and neat prog-rocky song structures. Like the Police, but friendly. Anyway, thanks for coming to our shows and being our buddies. We loves you.

2) I will be seeing Polvo live in one week. In the meantime, Polvo associates Black Taj are releasing their second album, Beyonder. Classic rock post-Sonic Youth is the tag. I still need to snag their eponymous first album.

3) I've been inundated with a lot of great new music. One of the albums I've been totally hooked on for a few weeks now is the fresh Erykah Badu jam. Sasha Frere-Jones does a pretty good job summing up a lot of why I like the album -- i.e. R&B + noise + politics = excellent. I would simply add to his analysis that she also does a great job of incorporating the last few years' worth of innovation in the hip-hop underground into her neo-soul bag-o'-tricks.

4) Get Excited! Circulatory System! New Album Soon! When they last released an album (2001ish), I saw them at Tokyo Rose and Jeff Mangum (yes, that Neutral Milk Hotel dude, no shizz!) was playing drums for them and singing. I stood around near him, too star-struck to really pipe up and say hello. His voice was so loud, no mic was necessary. Chilling stuff.

5) Muxtape is a really cool website. You should check out Wes Webb aka Western Front via muxtape. He's been mashing up tracks and woodshedding DJ skills lately. Then peruse some of the other muxtapes and make yr own here.