Really, what else are you going to do? Attend some lame ass hipster DJ party? Go to a bar? Allow me to remind you who made who — or more specifically, who made Y-O-U: Pylon. This group of Athen folks put out some amazingly gutwrenching but thoroughly danceable rock post-punk back in the tail end of the 1970’s (and onward). A band so great, R.E.M. covered them. Every person that’s passed through the doors of a Making Time is totally indebted to this group, in some shape or form. DFA Records has kindly reissued Gyrate very recently. It’s definitely worth owning.

I caught Pylon at the Music Hall of Williamsburg yesterday, mainly because last night’s bill was pretty much unfuckingbeatable — Pylon, Oxford Collapse, and Hugo Burnham from Gang of 4 as the night’s DJ. (Not that Saturday’s gig in Philly is lame; this was just better.)

I’m quite hesitant to attend reunion shows for a variety of reasons, but the main one being that a lot of reunited bands can’t resurrect the ghost of former glory. Last night though, I have a strong feeling I was sucked back into 1978. The band was tiiiiiiight! Vanessa sounds amazing. That voice. Oh my god, that voice. It was so worth it that I didn’t even notice they had played such a long set. And to the crowd, bless you my dear children, for dancing along. It was one big happening of freaking the fuck out.

The only crappy part is that it’s going down at World Cafe Live, which is probably my second-to-last least favorite venue in this city. At least MHW/Old Northsix’s industrial space made a nice match for jagged nature of Pylon’s material. Anyway, guess we’ll have to suck it up and get Cosi with Pylon. MOTHERFUCKING PYLON. PYLON!!!Q!!!!! Can’t you see how psyched I am to see them again?

SAT 11/10, Pylon at World Cafe Live, with DJ Shawn Ryan (of Hurrah) »

P.S. Beth Ditto — Vanessa Briscoe-Hays called and she wants her style back. F’reals.

Kudos to Pilam for pulling off a creative and financially ambitious event last night; a good time was had by all, including myself. As a radio person, I am quite comfortable DJing for no one. (Funny twist: the thing I struggled with in my early days of radio was the nebulousness of the medium.) The small crowd that was there seemed appreciative, so thanks for sticking it out. Here’s an incomplete, very loose recap of my playlist, completely out of order except for the first two songs:

AC/DC, “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution”
Girlschool, “Hit and Run”
The Rondelles, “Like A Prayer”
Outhud, “It’s For You”
Delta 5, “Mind Your Own Business”
Love Is All, “Kiss Kiss Kiss”
Tyvek, “Honda”
Yardbirds, “Puzzles”
B-52’s, “52 Girls”
Spoon, “Someone Something”
The Long Blondes, “Separated By Motorways” (12″ version)
Hi Beams, “Hyperactive”
Feelies, “High Road”
Pavement, “AT&T”
Royal Trux, “Delta 70 of Hearts”
Scrawl, “Green Beer”
ESG, “Moody”
Railroad Jerk, “Bang the Drum”
Pylon, “Feast On My Heart” (OMG they’re playing Philly THIS FRIDAY)
Let’s Active, “Every Word Means No”
Prinzhorn Dance School, “You Are The Space Invader”
Chandra, “Opposite”
Au Pairs, “We’re So Cool”
Lyn Collins, “Rock Me Again and Again and Again”
Gloria Jones, “Tainted Love”

Anyway, Murder Mystery were quite great in the sloppy indie rock way that a person like me could love. So if you like that kind of stuff too, check them out. The rest of the evening’s lineup was fantastic, too. Holy Ghost did a awesome job of mixing it up — as in, not playing all blog house (love this term!) — and their new single is worth picking up. Once Broadzilla nails their transitions, they will own this city. (LOL @ the non-beatmatching DJ of the night to be oh so critical.) Nice selection of deep disco cuts; I throughly enjoyed it! And Dave P brought the cocainesexjams, though was unfortunately cut short due to the arrival of Ye Olde Police.

Saturday night was nu-gaze blog hype du jour A Place To Bury Strangers at Pilam. If the system’s as bloated as folks claim, chances are this band’s next show in town will cost 15+ dollars — so five bucks is a paltry sum to get in on the ground floor. (Strange truth: the show was a benefit for breast cancer awareness/charities?)

OK, here’s one thing I don’t get: nu-gaze as a movement. Why are people talking like there’s some huge enormous shoegaze revival? It never left. Look at messageboards, the guitar pedal industry/racket, dance parties — people still get weak in the knees thinking about whammy bars and notes that quiver like a baby’s bottom lip. Maybe we were all too busy getting rad, covering up our shoegaze intentions with a pseudointerest in metal, or whatever that’s popular at this moment, but it’s been there all this time. I’m sure there’s some agenda-setting & cultivation theory I could cite here to explain why shoegaze has been suppressed, butyouknowwhatimtalkinaboutamirite?

APTBS were solid. They are not, despite Pitchfork’s claim, the loudest band in NYC. When I was younger, a concert caused me to lose my hearing for three days straight. I know loud. APTBS are loud, but entirely tolerable with earplugs. So chalk this up to a bunch of indie rockers being pussies. If they were such a thing, Pilam’s board would have gone up in flames after the first chord was struck. (Have you seen Pilam’s sound system? It makes Tritone’s PA look like the Wachovia Center. I think my shitty home stereo — which has only one working speaker — is more powerful.)

They also sound a whole lot like Loop. Yeah, Loop! That long-forgotten Creation band has been overlooked for too long; let’s make some Loop love happen folks. I mean, have you heard some of these “heavy” bands who get namedropped these days? All I ever hear — and what I loved last night — is loud, relentless, garage-drone-throb that was Loop. Loop, Loop, Loop.

But whatever. The band was not the highlight of my evening. It being “Greek Week” for the fraternities at Penn (yes, it’s weird to think of Pilam as one of those, but they are), every frat had party monitors at the door checking I.D.’s. Don’t ask why I went to crash another fraternity party with friends (watching a whole dancefloor of douchehammers fist pump along to “Stacy’s Mom” was penance enough, thank you; I have learned my lesson), but I did. The doorman would not believe my driver’s license was real, nor that I was 21. I’ve been cursed with looking young for my age, but seriously — SERIOUSLY FOLKS — I don’t look 18, 19, 20. I will just happily accept the ego boost and move along, thankyouverymuch.

This Saturday 11/3 I will get another shot at being 21 (forever?) when I DJ Pilam’s record release party for DFA artists Holy Ghost. Also on board are Dave P, the Broadzilla dudes, DJJJC and live musical act Murder Mystery. I know I’m the sore thumb on this bill, so screw the cocainesexjams†, my set’s gonna be a long distance dedication to that select segment of the audience who won’t get the special opportunity to make poorly-informed choices about their sexual partners. You’re my people. I promise to disappoint everyone else but you.

With that said, I think it will be a good time, it is BYOB and the Philafunk space is gorgeous. It’s a shame a piece of me dies every time I have to utter the venue’s name.

† with all due respect to Dave P that is. I mean, you don’t want me attempting c.s.j.; better leave it to the master, you know?

This Thursday 6-8PM EST, instead of being “on-air talent”, I’ll be DJing a show on WPRB. Very excited about this! If you missed out on donating today, you’ve got a second chance.

In addition to WPRB’s incredible pledge gifts, I have a specialty thank you for becoming a member: donate 103.30$, you can receive your very own custom “mixtape”. You specify the format (cassette/CD/mp3), I’ll provide 30 minutes of exclusively curated tunes… just for you.

» Fun Vampires interview with yrs truly is right here.

Sunday night, I could have gone to the Acid Mothers Guru Guru show — which I’m sure was amazing, given the nature of the collaboration — or I could have checked out Samara Lubelski at Big Jar — considering how much her new record rules, would have been great. But the idea of standing around on the eve of an extended weekend with a bunch of dudes stroking their chins over the music (a mild reprieve from stroking another part of their body, I’m willing to wager) was on par in my mind with a meal of liverwurst and onions. In short, blech. (Apologies to L&O; I’m sure it’s a fine meal.)

What I really needed was a good party — not merely a celebration of the extended weekend, but a good solid kickoff to the semester. Truth: I love events like Making Time and [click.] because of the cardio workout it gives me. And Sunday night couldn’t have been more perfect for that — a solid 4-5 hours of pogoing, fist pumping and sweating (but not to the oldies). DJ’s Orgasmic and Surkin were unfuckingrelentless the heavy electro jams, and the audience, well, this was probably the most insane, punk rock audience I’ve encountered in a while outside of a hardcore show.

I probably could have stayed longer, but I’m a firm believer in “leaving on a high note”. Two days later, I’m thanking myself for it — oh, the aches! Now it’s a matter of convincing my body of the same.

OK. My personal life is getting weirder and weirder by the nanofuckingsecond, but here’s some stuff you should know:

» If you listen to Her Jazz over the internet, tomorrow you will be out of luck, as WPRB plans to observe the Internet Radio Day of Silence. This event was organized to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, may lead to the virtual shutdown of this country’s Internet radio industry. To see a list of participating stations, learn more about why this is happening and more check out the site above or Save Net Radio.

» That said, you can still tune in through the good old FM signal — I’ll be giving away tickets to the Fiery Furnaces at the North Star Bar.

» Friday night I watched Parts & Labor rock the fuck out to a crowd of 300+ at a crumbling warehouse in Bushwick. Matt & Kim, whom I’m not so into, were pretty great.

» Saturday I saw S-S-S-S-Spectres, Ex Models and Ghostface (Who! Was! Taking! Requests?!) — not on the same bill, of course. But you could imagine it that way, since they played on opposite sides of the East River.

» And Sunday I made my inner 15 year old pleased as punch thanks to Superchunk’s show at McCarren Park.

Action-packed weekend here at the Her Jazz compound.

» What/where/when/whaaaaa did Buried Beds become so loud? Friday night’s show was probably the most rock I’ve seen of them. The band following them were so fucking awful. Do you ever get that way, where a band is so awful — I mean, like embarrasingly awful — you can’t even keep yourself in the stage area? Yeah, that happened to me.

» I really like when there’s a bunch of good shows in town, you can just pick and choose what you want to see, like dim sum. Additionally I’m thinking of titling Saturday as “The Night Where I Only Watched 1.5 Songs Per Band”, and no, I don’t need flashy graphics that look like a nu-rave flyer to suss out the statistical data. Simple math, brah — I saw a little bit of Black Moth Super Rainbow’s vocoded stoner rave rock, Fuck the Facts brutal grind and Electrelane’s energetic take on krautrock. Funny though, how the Electrelane show was packed to the gills with douchebags — in the short time I was there, I had beer spilled on me twice. You’d think the grindcore show would have been more problematic, but maaaan, was the crowd totally chill there.

» Caught Knocked Up this weekend as well. I have to say, there’s been a slew of somewhat decent films being totally ruined by completely shitty trailers and marketing plans (Georgia Rule, Knocked Up, etc). DAEREST HOLLYWOOD, if ur reading this, take noet. Anyway, KU was good, a subtle but scathing critique of the baby/marriage-obsessed culture/feedback loop that gets crammed down our throats. The fight scene between Rogen’s and Heigl’s characters, where a totally hormonal about-to-burst Heigl struggles to find her ground against Rogen’s immature comebacks (honed after hours of stoned, drunken arguments, no doubt) really rubbed me the wrong way. Out of his pack of loser friends he’s the most responsible and has the best chance of getting his shit together, somehow the script leaves the audience rooting for Rogen, which is kinda fucked.

» Annoying photography gripe #4,573,947,598,347: Blaming bad images on equipment. I’ve seen amazing images shot on disposable cameras, I’ve seen stunning work produced by 18×24 Deardorffs — so it’s not so much about the equipment. Technique is crucial. My own equipment is so barebones it’s downright laughable, but I understand the limitations of my various cameras, and in the words of the almighty Tim Gunn, I try to “make it work”. I wont lie — I’d be perfectly happy with a Leica M8 or maybe one of those crazy digital backs for my 500C (maybe then I will use it more than once ever five years). Maybe I should pull a SF/J and beg the internet to buy me new equipment? I promise to never photograph a rusty door for as long as I live.

» Inspired by Idolator’s Barbara Manning post on Friday, here’s one more track of hers, from the old Live at Dave’s Garage 7″ series:

S.F. Seals, “Back Again” (From Live At Dave’s Garage Vol. 5)

Julie Doiron at the First Unitarian Church Chapel

Life has been a series of ups and downs in the past couple of weeks. In other news:

» I went up to NYC for the Popfest over Memorial weekend; kudos to the Popfest crew for putting a show on the Coney Island boardwalk. Having the opportunity to be on the boardwalk, soak up the sun, watch a couple bands and put my feet in the ocean were exactly what I needed. Brown Recluse Sings and Cause Co-Motion totally owned this festival — but whatever, I called that from a million miles away. The Besties aren’t too shabby either.

» Julie Doiron is on tour with Calvin Johnson for the next month, and I recommend that you catch her live. The intimacy of the FUC’s chapel (50-person capacity) meshes well with her always-genial persona; she’s also got Steve & Will from the Constantines backing her up.

» Of course you probably missed this, because it’s fucking One Tree Hill, but the Con’s “Soon Enough” was featured in the closing to an episode recently — and it works quite nicely.

» Aaaaand to meet my 1% Canadian programming requirement, here’s Toronto’s Small Sins, whom I caught on tour with Sloan recently. Seems like this song, “Stay”, was enough of a hit to warrant a remix 12″ with contributions from the Postal Service or something. Regardless it’s a nice, self-tormenting pop song, which given my crappy weekend seems pretty apropos:

Small Sins, “Stay” (from the self-titled album)

Eh, let’s make it a double-header — here’s my favorite Sloan track from the most recent album, which they totally did not play at their Philly show:

Sloan, “Can’t You Figure It Out” (from Never Hear The End Of It)
Yeah, it cuts off like that. Woo hoo, the joys of record sequencing.

I get this sweet window of time where I can write and shit, then it’s back to the craziness — story of my life, I suppose. I have a big test in ten days, the end of a fiscal year at work, a radio show to resume, freelance crapola and the course I’m a TA for begins tomorrow night. This list excludes my daily life activities or the home improvement projects I’ve stupidly scheduled for the warmer months. That said, if I had endless amounts of leisure time I wouldn’t know what the hell to do with myself. But no more excuses!

» NYC Pop Fest is this weekend, folks. My favorite bowling partners Brown Recluse Sings, secret skatepunks Surefire Broadcast and JEK’s brother’s band Gritty Midi Gang are amongst the cream of the twee crop on these lineups. Props of the Pop Fest folks for curating the shit out of this — I only wish it was this past weekend to conflict/coincide with the No Fun Fest. Can you imagine Merzbow vs. Mitch Easter?!?! I can. No rly. Srsly.

» Why can’t I stop listening to AC/DC? And is it just me, or is there really no AC/DC for sale in the iTunes store?

» In other news, I am just really, really bummed that Veronica Mars wasn’t renewed for another season — another conflicted, headstrong female character bites the dust. And what is up with their lineup next season — Gossip Girl? At least in VMars case (and Gilmore Girls, too), we watched as its characters weaved in and out of these worlds; this new series looks to be like a full-on, raging WASP fetish. Way to go CW, now I understand why Univision whoops your ass ratingswise.

The world is brimming with drumming news! There’s a drummer joke to be made here, but I’m too lazy to do it.

» The pride of Princeton, NJ, Home Blitz, are looking for a drummer:

Hey, the band Home Blitz is looking for a drummer so our current drummer can switch to 2nd guitar. Drummer should be pretty good but not necessarily extremely skilled, able to play in competent fast rock style as well as more free/crumbly styles. Influences include Brinsley Schwarz (4th album only), Sidewinders, Hackamore Brick, early Scritti Politti, Real Kids, Meat Puppets, I dunno. If you are interested or know someone who might be, please let me know. The drummer should be available for semi-regular (couple times a week at most) practices in Princeton, NJ, USA and sporadic gigging around the tri-state area.

» Surely there must be 77 drummers out there with nothing to do this summer… This sounds like Branca’s 100 Guitars symphony — only louder — which is to say, it will be totally rad. Also, this email comes courtesy of Sonic Youth member Steve Shelley(!). The contact info is gorked to prevent spammers, but you’re all smart kids, I’m sure you’ll figure it out:

the boredoms - an incredible japanese group that sonic youth has been associated w/ for nearly 20 years are putting on a special show in brooklyn on july 7th.

they are putting together an ensemble of 77 drummers (we toured japan last week w/ a 3 drummer version of this group and it was amazing) .

anyways - they are looking for a few key drum leaders and then 70-soemthing additional drummers. I think this will be a lot of fun - I’d be there w/ you if I wasn’t already booked out of town w/ sy .

if you are at all interested please contact Hisham via email

And in a bit of non-drummer news, some other stuff…

» Girls Rock Philly is seeking equipment donations! Help us out. Please! You’ve probably got a guitar or random amp lying around the house that you never use. Donate it to charity! One of the great things about GRP is that any girl can sign up, and having equipment relieves campers of having to own anything. (And let’s face it — there’s nothing fun about making young girls schlep equipment around in the summer.)

» Sharkey from Clockcleaner set up a show for LA’s Silver Daggers (Load Records), tomorrow 5/2 at the Marvelous (out here in Sunny West Philadelphia) that’s totally worth checking out. They’ve been favorably compared to the Dog Faced Hermans, which sounds like something I can totally agree with:

Silver Daggers, “Joy” (from New High & Ord)