Ch-ch-check it out... (actually, you probably already have since this hit boing² a few days ago)

Beastie Boys on flickr! Lots more cool shots; click the pic for more.

So, I heard recently that the New Frontier has been sold and will be imploded. The place is a pit and I won't be sorry to see it go. Altho, as this photo illustrates, it will be one more chunk of oldschool Vegas gone. Sure it's a downmarket and fairly skanky chunk of oldschool Vegas but a photo of Adrock in front of, say, Venetian is not gonna signify in at all the same way.

I'd like to apologize to the listener (or listeners) who emailed requests this morning while I was on the air. I got pre-occupied and forgot to check the log, thus missing the chance to play Petula Clark. The other request was for John Denver, which I'm betting XDU doesn't have any of. But I'll check next week.
I think we can legitimately infer that at least one or two of my listeners are morning people. Surly, caffeine-deprived folks like me are not generally in the mood for happy, peppy stuff like Petula Clark... I was gonna say ever but certainly at least not before noon.

Here's the tip for tonite: if you're going to register on a website that involves buyer/seller transactions, it's a good idea (a very good idea) to make sure you give them your correct email address and not one that, say, is spelled wrong. Not only you won't get any of their messages but you'll compel some poor customer-service guy to spend a hella long time on the phone with you, getting you into your account so you can change the email address and etc.

I'm just sayin...

This is almost exactly what i had for lunch on Friday. I had the sandwich pulled instead of chopped. And I had fries instead of onion rings. It was some damn fine pork. Not really what I consider barbecue, since it gave no indication of having ever been near any kind of smoke. The sauce helped and it was great pulled pork but just not smoky like I expect barbecue to be. Allman's Barbeque is on US1 in Fredericksburg, VA, only a short hop from I95. (note: I'm not linking to their site cos it looks like all kinds of hell in Firefox and wants to open pop ups -- google it if you want). I'd probably go back, as it does have a lot of oldschool charm and even if it's not my idea of 'cue it's still got chain fastfood beat all to hell. Maybe the burger next time, tho.

XDU playlist took last week off, so no new wrrld top 10 this week. Instead, here's a Manu Chao clip. This is one of my fave Mano Negra songs. It's also on the Radio Bemba Sound System live CD. Sadly, they didn't play it on Saturday. And this is a bigger band than this year's version.

The show last night kicked all kinds of ass. We got there just as Bebel was starting. From where we were out on the lawn, I thought it sounded great. Some folks we met who were under the roof said the sound in there wasn't so good. After Bebel, Nickodemus DJ'ed for a about 45 min. Really hot set, including some reggaeton and something from one of the Electric Gypsyland disc. Then Thievery, who were on fire. They brought a big crew this time: belly dancer, string section, horn section, and so many singers that I lost count. Rob & Eric stepped out to play guitar and sitar on a bunch of songs. They did older stuff ("Assault on Babylon") and newer stuff (they ended with a version of "...Hate Machines..." that I liked much better than the CD version). Massive. Huge. Amazing. And then after their encores they came back and did a number with Bebel. Supercool. Ursula 1000's DJ set seemed to be having some sound problems. Maybe they were tweaking the system from Thievery superbass levels down to something better for Manu Chao. Who was, if possible, even more amazing than TC. The live CD, it turns out, does a really good job of capturing the show. Lots of tunes I knew ("Welcome to Tijuana", "Clandestino", "Mr. Bobby") and they ended with "King of Bongo" as the band left the stage one by one until it was just Madjid, the guitarist playing alone. Of bands I've seen live, only Gogol Bordello and Pogues can match Chao and RBSS for sheer flatout energy. I was surprised he didn't play the new single. Also surprised to discover his bass player's a dead ringer for Bellini.

If I'd gone to the Philly show, I'd have gotten a much more up close & immersive experience. But last night I got to hang out with Pru, it was a gorgeous night, and there were awesome opening acts. That, my friends, was five hours of damn good music.

About to slope on out the door, headed here (where I've not been since way back in the 80s, when Pru and I saw the Furs there) for the Manu Chao and Thievery Corporation show tomorrow.
good times indeed...

Last night while we were out to dinner, I overheard another diner placing their order and first mention that they didn't like shellfish, so could the shellfish that was part of the side-dish be removed? Also, they weren't so keen on garlic so maybe the roasted garlic sauce could also be deleted. I have to say they were perfectly polite about their request and the waiter and kitchen were absolutely accomodating. It was nothing like an exchange I overheard a few years ago where someone wanted to have a baked pasta dish without any cheese (the chef refused that request). But what interests me about this is that it's a way of looking at the world that's just alien to me. And, I think, to most people I know. If I looked at a menu and saw a dish that had one ingredient I didn't like, I wouldn't order it. It wouldn't even occur to me to order it without, say, the sauce. I guess I've always assumed that the chefs and the kitchens created that dish with sauce or shellfish or okra or whatever because that's how they thought it was best. If I'm at a restaurant it's because I want to eat their food, not some personalized fraction of their food. If I wanted to eat my cooking, I'd stay home. I'm sure that some chefs will just refuse to make changes. I've read that one of the things that can make high-end chefs crazy is customers who ask for lots of changes to a dish, then complains about it. Still, that said, I admire a kitchen that's willing to accomodate changes. I just don't understand why anyone would want them.

If you'd like to hear some heavy, heavy monster sounds, do check out Immigration Dub the new CD from Dubblestandart. They're from Vienna, doing the heavy dub/electonica/rock thing. Clearly influenced by Sherwood and the On-U Sound crew, right down to a Son House blues cover. They do get mad obscurity points for knowing the history, tho. In the liner notes they reference McDonald, Wimbish and LeBlanc as the Sugarhill house band. Anyway, they transcend the easy answer to "what would you get if you crossed On-U with G-Stoned?" Standout tracks on the new one are the Ken Boothe cover (with Ken Boothe); the title track, with Lagos deejay 3gga; the Dub Syndicate cover, which manages to be both heavily dubby and seriously rock out (and its got some sick synth lines snaking thru it; the one I'll never be able to play on the radio (aka "We All Have to Get High"); and the Horace Andy cover, with Gudrun handling the high notes (it's "Money Money" which anyone who's ever heard Blue Lines will immediately recognize).
Hugely recommended.

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 17 june 07)

Por Por: Honk Horn Music of Ghana :: the La Drivers Union Por Por Group
Momento :: Bebel Gilberto
Nu-Med :: Balkan Beat Box
Tibetan Meditation Music :: Nawang Khechog
Voices Have Eyes :: Eccodek
United We Swing :: Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Gems from the Classic Years :: King Sunny Adé
Ananda Shankar & his Music :: Ananda Shankar
Mi Sueño :: Ibrahim Ferrer
Brasil :: Wax Poetic

This week's video feature: Ibrahim Ferrer

I know... I know... there really are no depths of cognitive dissonance and just plain weirdness that haven't been plumbed already by some TV commercial's use of music. But still. Just saw a commercial for a Cadillac minivan with lots of shots of happy, sunny family togetherness. All set to "Sunny Side of the Street" by Pogues. Yes, that's a song from their end days and it's one of their happier, peppier numbers. I'd even let it slide if they'd just kept it to the instrumental break. But once Shane MacGowan starts slurring away it sends the whole thing off to some really unhealthy place. Shane singing and images of happy, smiling children just do not belong together. Nick Cave would be more disturbing. But only slightly.

Last night: Bulls game w/ some of the gang from the station. Good times. We were in the upper section, behind the third base line. A bit further back but still excellent seats (I don't think there's a bad seat in the DBAP actually). And the Bulls won. And it was $1 hot dog night. Also $1 fries. Super good times...

Last night, we had dinner at Federal. Three words: duck confit poutine. All I can say is, thank Grom it was a special and not on the regular menu. Cos no one should be eating that every week. And if it was on their regular menu, I would. French fries. Cheese curds, Gravy. Duck confit....
(what more do you need to know?)

Here's a great New York story. That's one of the best things about the tubal interwebs -- the way in which its now so much easier to find these wonderful stories. I lived in and around NYC for over half my life and I never heard that before, about vendors outside the Met holding suitcases.
Here's a whole lot of great Vegas stories. Wil Wheaton's not covering the WSOP this year. Pauly's stories don't have the charm and offhand brilliance that the best of Wheaton's do but they have more insane profane energy than anyone this side of Tony Bourdain.

I haven't been watching the Sopranos but I've been following the discussion about the final episode. Because I am interested in writing and in how people respond to fiction and in how writers resolve and end things. (continued below the cut, for the spoilerphobic who have somehow managed to avoid all info so far)

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 10 june 07)

Nu-Med :: Balkan Beat Box
Ananda Shankar & his Music :: Ananda Shankar
Tamburitza! :: various
United We Swing :: Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Voices Have Eyes :: Eccodek
Aman Iman :: Tinariwen
Tibetan Meditation Music :: Nawang Khechog
Brasil :: Wax Poetic
Real to Reel :: Noiseshaper
In Dub :: Love Trio

This week's video feature: Tinariwen

As mentioned in this space yesterday, the new Manu Chao single, "Rainin in Paradize" is out. It's smokin' -- much more in the all-out rock-out style of his live shows (as captured on Radio Bemba Sound System the live CD from a couple of years ago) or of Mano Negra even. Check it out for yrself at the official site. You can download the song, check out the video, see tour dates. Speaking of which, I'll be catching up with the Manu Chao tour in Columbia, MD in just under 2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to this show -- not just Chao but also Thievery Corporation and Bebel Gilberto. Plus DJ sets by Nickodemus, Thunderball and Ursula 1000. It's MC meets ESL w/ bonus mellow Brazilian electronica. Brazilian Girls play on on bunch of tracks on the new Gilberto so I'm wondering if they'll pop up on stage as well.
Here's a big ole interview with Chao. The questions are not the best ever but the answers are interesting. Plus there's links to several videos on YouTube.

Not to get all sappy, but these are amazing times, sometimes. I mean, I have this blog and some college radio. I post stuff over at flickr and I co-wrote the book for VTW. That's not what you'd call a huge web-presence. But just enough for a friend from (as they say) back in the day to find me. Back the last time we saw each other there was no internet. Among many other things. So amazing. So cool.

Largely un-related: I'll be on the air today, 1-3pm EDT, for the Mondo Mundo wrrld musical programme. Usual drill: 88.7fm if yr local, wxdu.org if you're not. Things I'll probably be spinning include: new CDs from So-Called, Bebel Gilberto, and Dubblestandart. Plus the new Manu Chao single.

Tonight's DVD: Everything, Everything, which reminded me of just how much I love Underworld. The video, recorded during their 98-99 tour, captures a lot of what seeing them live was like, altho they're playing to much bigger crowds than I was part of (also, even tho it's 9 billion degrees out tonight, there was far less sweating involved in watching the DVD). When I saw them it was, I think, their first show in NYC. Second Toughest... had just come out and "Pearl's Girl" was starting to get some crossover traction. But this was still pre-Trainspotting so they hadn't gotten super-huge. Big enough that the show was packed but after they did about 90 min. they left the stage and most of the crowd went home. I don't remember if we guessed they were coming back or were just hanging out having a beer. But they did, in fact, come back and play another about 90 min. It was hawesome!
Gotta say that I got a huge kick out of the Netflix reviewer who one-starred this DVD because it wasn't the Underworld he fondly remembered from Underneath the Radar. What in the what now? To me that's the forgotten album. Or, the one they made before they figured out how not to suck. Or or (put another way), before Darren Emerson joined. I guess one man's forgettable v1.0 is another's treasured gem.
And, in a further digression that will mean nothing to anyone (except possibly WTH), I was just reminded by Wiki about Underworld v1.0's even earlier incarnation, as Freur.

doot doot!

I discovered today that there's now a Char-Grill just a 15 min. drive from where I work. That's good news for my tastebuds but pretty dangerous news for my waistline and wallet. Altho it could be much worse. Total door-to-door time was up around 45 min. and that's just not time I'm going to spend every day or frankly even more than once a week.
Still. Burgers... yumm....

I suppose it had to come this eventually. All internet memes will eventually absorb all other internet memes. Anyway. LOL80s! I particularly like the ones that turn lyrics from the band into LOLspeak. Page will take forever to load and it's as scattershot as any other LOLpage. My faves include LOLs w/ Devo, the Cure, Klaus Nomi, and Public Enemy. I have a forming idea for a 242 LOL (i has lockd target.... nooo they stealinz my target) but no idea where I can yoink a pic of Richard 23.

Thanks to boing² for reminding me about Ouch Club. It's been a couple of years, at least, since I've seen it but Owens' work remains delightfully twisted. It's probably not okay to call it goth (I figured out years ago that There Were No Goths -- every goth musician I've ever seen an interview with always denies that they were ever goth) but, well, you do the math...

XDU wrrld music top 10 (week ending 03 june 07)

Tamburitza! :: various
United We Swing :: Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Ananda Shankar & his Music :: Ananda Shankar
Nu-Med :: Balkan Beat Box
Studio One Kings :: various
Tibetan Meditation Music :: Nawang Khechog
lé Temps d'Une Chanson :: Juliette Gréco
In Dub :: Love Trio
Mi Sueño :: Ibrahim Ferrer
Guitar Music from the Western Sahara :: Group Doueh

A new feature here at HoD -- I'm gonna try to find some video from one of the top 10 artists. This week it's SHO. Enjoy...

Here's something you don't see every day (unless you're at the Charming English Cottage o' Death, that is): someone's list of the top 50 XTC songs. Impressive that XTC has enough songs to make that a workable project. Also that, even though Partridge has pretty much declared the project dead, there are still fans hardcore enough to be able to rattle off a top 50 list apparently at the drop of an internet hat.

FTR, I don't think I could do 50 but I could easily do 10. The only 1 from that top 10 that would make mine would be "Great Fire." Other faves of mine inc. "King for a Day", "Tissue Tigers", "Paper and Iron", "Senses Working Overtime", and "Heaven is Paved with Broken Glass."

This may be the best book promo site ever. (found on Neil Gaiman's blog). Not that I'm all that familiar with book promo sites. Still, it's pretty damn cool.

What's that you say? You want to see some more Houston Art Car Parade photos? Done!

After frothing at the mouth (and falling over backwards) about bad music yesterday, I wanna raise the level of the convo. Pleased to see that Slate's giving some love to Tinariwen. Both their CDs are smoking hot and highly recommended here at the HoD.

Also, from the weird lands of YouTube, here's a buncha guys playing the forro classic "Asa Branca" on the bagpipes. (no, I don't understand it either... that's why I like it)