no promises

Filles Sourires, a regular read that keeps me up to date on all the new french pop and old favorites, posted a new song by Carla Bruni, featuring Lou Reed. A little bit reminiscent of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, the tune is lovely.
Listening to this song reminded me to listen to the talented Miss Carla Bruni. Her first album, Quelqu'un qui m'a dit, is such a perfect acoustic piece of work. I never skip a song. it has a simple formula, a couple of guitars, a sensual voice so fragile it could break any second, and lyrics full of witty rhymes, play on words and other figures of speech rarely seen in pop music anymore (someone went to the Gainsbourg school of music). She apparently just released an english album in Europe, a collection of poems taken from english literature that she put to music. It sounds great in theory, but one may wonder if it will measure up to her perfect debut record. I sure hope so. I couldn't find any info on - if and - who is going to release Carla's new album in the US after V2's recent demise. I'll keep you posted if i hear anything.

The former model makes no promises on her follow-up album.

Tomorrow night, we welcome our friends The Bangers behind the decks at Calling All Kids. The Bangers are three DJs from Brooklyn who mix the most unexpected stuff effortlessly and who never fail to give the kids a great time. They just did a fantastic remix of The Rapture's Wooh! Alright- Yeah... Uh Huh, which you can listen to on their myspace. Also guest DJing is the infamous last night's party's photographer Bronques. I thought it'd be fun to have him do something different, only i'm hoping the DJ booth doesn't turn into the sight of a bathroom. Drinks specials are 2-4-1 from 10 to 11pm, and again from 3 to 4am. The rest of the details on the flyer. See you there new york...

wincing the night away

The DJ gigs this weekend turned out to be way more exciting than expected. It all started with Michael T.'s 40th birthday party, for which i warmed up the big venue before the "show" started. Earlier that evening, i was given a list of songs that myself and the other 7 DJs were forbidden to play throughout the night. That included tracks by Roxy Music, David Bowie, Berlin, T-Rex, The Smiths, Pulp, Blondie, Iggy, The Cure, The Ramones, The Cars, Gary Numan, Donna Summer and Duran Duran... aka about 50% of my sets. So i wondered, was Michael's birthday party going to turn into a big 80's karaoke fest? Wrong. Michael enlisted a 12-piece band (12-piece, that's enormous!) to back him and some of his closest friends up to perform the various songs that shaped Michael's musical life. Wow, what an awesome idea. And every performer sounded alarmingly amazing. Michael opened with The Thrill of it All, DJ Jess was a no-brainer choice to cover The Smiths, and Theo (sans les gratte-ciels), made for a stunning Terri Nunn. But it was without contest Michael's performance of Gary Numan's Me, I Disconnect from You that had me, mouth fully opened, in awe of the man. Perhaps i don't get out much anymore, but this was one of the best put together shows, or rather productions, i've seen in a long time. An evening that almost made me want to turn 40 so i could have a party like that... ok, maybe not.

At Lotus on friday night, i was enlisted to back Marky Ramone up in the DJ booth. In other words, Marky put together some CDs, marked which song to play on each of them, and i was to play the track in the order he passed them to me. I was more than happy to help with the button pushing. After each song, i politely asked "what's next Marky?", and he politely gave me carefully handpicked tunes from The Ramones (surprising?), Jim Hendrix (never heard a DJ pull that off before), The Ronettes ("Phil Spector is a good friend"), James Brown ("Did you hear that he died?"), T-Rex (Glam rock was an influence), Joey Ramone's what a wonderful world (great cover), The New York Dolls (more glam, warmly received), Bowie's Sugafrette City (a classic crowd pleaser), and more songs i can't quite remember. With each choice, i became more and more pleasantly surprised. At some point, i even turned to Marky and jokingly exclaimed: "this is a great selection, you should DJ my wedding!", to which he dead seriously responded "i would love to, did you meet my manager over there?". Shit, i was joking. Have i mentioned what a super nice guy he is? And he's available to DJ weddings if you're interested.

If you're still with me, i just want to mention two more things before i leave for the day:

1. The Shins :: Wincing the night away
I love this album. It may not be as organic as Chutes too narrow (a favorite of mine), but i almost like that better as i am generally not a big fan of the previously used alt-country riffs. And, can i just say, i'm a sucker for songwriters who make me look up words on dictionary.com.
The Shins :: Phantom Limb [mp3]

2. Of Montreal :: Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?
When i heard the incredibly addictive track Suffer for fashion a few months ago, i wondered, was this the same Of Montreal, who in 1997 was our radio station's local music director's darling band? and who we had to make part of our DJ rotations more times than we wished for, only because they were local and new? It was in fact, as i found out, the same band. And though i clearly remember holding the early 7" in the radio station's DJ booth (and even playing them), i can not for the life of me remember what they sounded like back then, possibly because i blocked them out of my listening landscape shortly after leaving Athens in 1998. Had you told me 10 years ago that i would be here today listening to and very much enjoying Of Montreal's new wonderfully quirky record, i would have have pretended to ignore you. Morale of this story? Trust your peers, and get this album.
Of Montreal :: Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse [mp3]