about

JJS-III

This is sewious.

I still have a guardian angel.



She still judges you when you leave "thankz 4 the add" comments on my page or use the term "straight-acting".

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Oh. Wait. Shit. You want to know something interesting about me? I forgot that I'm supposed to be impressive on these social networking sites.

I went to school for studio art with an emphasis on printmaking. For my senior thesis exhibition, I made some woodblock prints incorporating paper dolls and comic strips. The department didn't unanimously love them as I would have hoped, so I wound up getting really bitter about the professional art world.

In November 2007, I started doing bic pen doodles for songs posted on my music/mp3 blog, IT'S THE MONEY SHOT!!. The other day I was working on such a doodle on the subway, when a guy sitting next to me asked, "Those are cool. Are you a comic book artist?" This wasn't the first time anyone randomly complimented me, but I got very shy. Perhaps it was the mere use of the word "artist". I don't consider myself an artist. Recently I've just been concerned with creating images that are playful and unpretentious. Maybe daydreaming doodler would be more accurate?

With all that said, some of you may want to see the prints and doodles I have made. I keep that on my flickr page, along with a few other batches of photos.

Right now, I'm living in Salem. I doodle on the commuter rail, and it makes me happy. I've been considering doing a commuter art show. But I am lazy.

You're probably (not) wondering why I'm on DList. In the early days of DList, I created this page to promote a gay hip-hop duo that I was half of, The Mirror Boiyz. Recently we've been focusing on a new project with our pal Lady Friend called CUTE CUTE AWESOME AWESOME.

If you receive a request from me, it's not because I'm try to add to my thousands of friends. You've probably intrigued me in some way, and I'd love to talk to you some time. I can just be a little shy, so um...hi.

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IT'S THE MONEY SHOT!!

• the gladeyes: children are the new hand-clap. (11/15/09) [View | Hide]

  The Gladeyes - The End of the World Because You Don't Love Me Anymore The Gladeyes - One Million Kisses In a perfect world, The Gladeyes‘ “Psychosis of Love” would have defied all limitations and taken a spot on every stupid 2009 Song of Summer list next to Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas and Drake. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a world where neurotic white-girl raps equal mainstream success. The funny thing about “Psychosis of Love” is that it sounds absolutely nothing like the New Zealand duo’s similarly titled full-length album Psychosis of Love. In fact, the song doesn’t even appear on the album. Gasp! With the help of the Auckland Children and Youth Choir, The Gladeyes have turned out one of the most beautiful pieces of music in 2009. It’s called “The End of the World Because You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, and it should not be confused with Mya’s equally awesome break-up jam “If You Died I Wouldn’t Cry Because You Never Loved Me Anyway”. In the song, our heart-broken protagonist laments the loss of her love in a light, whispery tone. As she delves deeper into hopelessness, the choir interrupts with a resounding lullaby–“The sky’s not falling in on you. Be still little one, and go back to sleep.” Within the song’s three minute and forty-two second duration, it manages to embrace the subject’s apocalyptic misery while providing much-needed comfort. Once you’re ready to move on from the “end of the world” phase into the “fuck you, I’m over it” arena, The Gladeyes are ready to help out with “One Million Kisses”. Add a little more bang and try-hard-ness, and this would basically be a song by The Pipettes. Thankfully, it channels that ol’ school girl-group sound without specifically trying to act as a carbon-copy reproduction. In a world full of random white British chicks who want to be soulful, this is even more comforting than adorable singing children.

• crowhead: he was born with teeth. (11/7/09) [View | Hide]

  Crowhead - The Bends ft Niko Crowhead - Best Kept Secret ft Rusty P's Crowhead is Christian Wood, previously monikered The Nudge.  Crowhead is a DJ and sample genius from the extended family surrounding Fat City and late Grand Central Recordings.  Crowhead is absolutely wonderful and you’d better be listening while you read this.   His album Born With Teeth is out now and defies easy stereotyping, incorporating an early 80s palette that includes vintage synths, clever genre hopping, and effortless connecting of hiphop’s New York roots and Britain’s breakbeat rave culture.  “The Bends” channels post-punk and electrofunk sounds to great effect and features guest vocals by label-mate Niko, who’s delightful “You’re So Boring” is worth a listen or 10.  “Best Kept Secret (I Guess)” nicks a couple of clever samples that I’ll let you trainspot on your own and recruits Milwaukee hiphop heroes Rusty P’s for a pretty impressive guest appearance and one of the strongest lyrical tracks on the album.  And, for some reason, this little treat is hidden towards the end that I’m reviving the bonus beats tradition for. Crowhead - Super 8-Bit Disco Stop mucking about, Woody.  I demand a real arcade jam record from you.

• san serac: who you gonna run to? (11/6/09) [View | Hide]

  /* San Serac - Music Never Ends /* San Serac - Night Work San Serac’s back with new material. Not surprising, given the relative high profile of his most recent non-solo projects – Stereo Image, with Johnny Dark of Junior Boys, and Slice & Soda, with Para One.   He’s hooked up with Morgan Geist’s label Environ after a false start as one of the last signees to Output Recordings before its closure mere months later and now graces us with a broadening of his sonic palette into handbag and hiphouse with “Music Never Ends.”  Its really clever and, while somewhat surprising, totally appropriate for Nat Raab’s not-entirely-serious post-modern spin on his influences that both pays respects to and ruthlessly deconstructs some of the finest dance music of the last 30 years.  It spins out on some discordant bass and squealing guitars during the breakdown to remind you that this is still Nat Raab of Dischord/DeSoto band Candy Machine and he knows how to work a bassline before playing things out to the glossy hooks that make this track so infectious.  “Night Work” is more akin to his past singles, although sounding far more refined this time around, David Bowie by way of Zapp & Roger performing jazz fusion, and only teases the intriguing but occasionally dry academia that has plagued some tracks featured on 2007’s Professional.  I feel like this is a guy who’s finally hitting his stride, elbowing his niche ever wider and becoming less beholden to his inspirations and more commentator on its evolution and relevancy to modern club culture.

• hey japan … あなたのダンスをご希望? (11/6/09) [View | Hide]

  I find a lot of blog discussion by westerners about Japanese electro to lack any level of comprehension of the music as anything other than an imperialist export that’s merely emulated by some cargo cult-esque fanbase.  I’m not very good at writing from an “educational perspective” about music, but here’s a couple recent favorites that I doubt you’ll see very many other places (although I’d love to be wrong). Bennie Becca - Dreamer (80kidz Remix) 80kidz are a band who’ve been mostly over-promoted for a handful of remixes done for American and European acts, but I’m posting them here for a reason: half of their output (and some of their best work) has been remixes for Japanese acts that people never bother to track down.  This remix is pretty much my favorite thing they’ve ever done, made all the better for its adaptation of an otherwise lukewarm alternative pop track by the utterly mediocre (and incongruously English proficient) Bennie Becca. Clazziquai Project - Kiss Kiss Kiss (Yasutaka Nakata Remix) This brand new remix by Yasutaka Nakata (more famously known for Capsule) of Clazziquai Project is another huge pop-leaning banger from a less unexpected source – he’s a well known pop producer in Japan, working with the likes of model Kate Sakai (as Coltemonikha), MEG, Ami Suzuki, and a teen pop group I’m somewhat embarassed to be such a huge fan of, Perfume. AMWE - Friction Between The Lovers AMWE - Red Fascination AMWE is pretty new to me and I confess to not knowing a heck of a lot about her other than she’s fond of early 80s New York post-punk and showed up on Heartsrevolution’s somewhat recent Hearts Nippon EP remixing “Dance Till Dawn.”  Her own material is a little broader than that association might lead you to believe, and the above are my two favorite tracks from her debut EP I AM AMWE.  She’s actually more focused on an international product than some of her contemporaries, with a single out on Pure Groove and more focused on her association with Kitsune than on being a traditional idol singer. immi - Alice immi - Ups And Downs (The Samos Remix) immi - Local Train -Canon TV-CM Song- (JETBIKINI Mix) I have a feeling this one’s going to get me a lot of yawns via email from the readers of this blog, but immi is a pretty good example of outward-looking pop music that does some interesting synthesis with influences like Kylie, Daft Punk, and such.  Its worth noting that JETBIKINI, featured above, is one of her two producers and is primarily known for working with her.

• tuesday is remix day: pt 2. (11/3/09) [View | Hide]

  Yeasayer - Ambling Alp (Memory Tapes Remix) I’ll confess to not being the biggest Memory Tapes fan ever, but they’ve managed to hit one out of the park on this version of “Ambling Alp.” I’ve never been totally sold on Yeasayer or Memory Tapes, but somehow, in combination, there’s an elatedness that I’ve never felt in either band. The lo-fi-Motown groove after the breakdown is utterly magical and demands an extended version of this remix. The Bravery - Slow Poison (Drop The Lime Remix) The Bravery dropped a couple of remixes of their latest single not too long ago and they were mostly as expected. But this version by Drop The Lime taps into some warped tropicalia for a strangely effective take on the mostly mediocre original. There’s also a Villains remix that suffers for the fact that Sam Endicott thinks having a distinctive vocal style means not being able to hold a note, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find that elsewhere. El Perro Del Mar - Let Me In (Nhessingtons Remix) El Perro Del Mar have been quiet lately except for a re-release of their latest album with a couple of remixes. This one, by Nhessingtons, is my favorite of the three. There’s a fabulous shuffling quality to it that pays off towards the end. This is music to play on the beach at 6am with friends to watch the sunrise with. They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them - Rabbit Seal Monkey (King Of Town Remix) King Of Town effortlessly lays a filmy layer of shimmering disco over “Rabbit Seal Monkey,” dragging the somewhat ethereal original back to earth. Although it suffers slightly for lacking the progressive final third of the original, theres still a lot to love here. I’ve only heard two remixes from King Of Town to date, but I’m really looking forward to more.

• tuesday is remix day? (11/3/09) [View | Hide]

  Bloc Party - Zephyrus (Holy Fuck Remix) Saint Etienne - Spring (Air France Remix) Johnny Foreigner - Choose Your Side And Shut Up (JOCKS Remix) Well, not regularly. But I put my hands on a couple of remixes over the weekend and thought I’d share them. First up: Holy Fuck take on Bloc Party and make them sound like … well, old Bloc Party.  I’d offer some snide commentary about how the original song sounds like a lackluster remix and this the other real song, but I feel like a lot of far more widely read people have already paddled that boat.  Needless to say, I can’t stop listening to this and I haven’t ouched Intimacy since I got it.  Draw what conclusions you may. Next: Saint Etienne gets a bit of life in their step courtesy of Air France.  I’m not the first to post this (I checked) and I’m breaking my general outlook towards blogging by doing this, but Foxbase Beta is absolutely genius and worthy of the praise.  I’ve been so-so on the newer material but this brings me right back to when I thought Cracknell and Friends were the best band in the world. Finally: I’ve been looking for a time to post this, but haven’t seen a good opening.  So have it anyway.  JOCKS made a song I generally don’t care for into something fun as hell that’ll be in my bedroom disco playlists for months.

• three trapped tigers: um, something clever about numbers. (10/29/09) [View | Hide]

  Three Trapped Tigers - 6 Three Trapped Tigers - 9 Three Trapped Tigers is a fabulous book by Guillermo Cabrera Infante.  It also happens to be a post-rock trio from the UK.  I only mention the former because I feel like the band can be summed up in this description of the novel: “highly experimental … playful and rich in [musical] allusions.“  The fact that this band has been touring with 65daysofstatic is a notion so perfect that I have a hard time remembering it reflects reality more than my imagination.  Their output as relatively sparse as far as recorded music goes, but I look forward to the fruits of their quest into double digits. Technical note: Much love to Todd Iceton for helping to fix the ITMS RSS feed.

• boy omega: are you ready to explode? (10/28/09) [View | Hide]

  Boy Omega - Black Metal Fairies Boy Omega - Roll The Dice Boy Omega - Follow The Herd I’m a huge, huge fan of Sweden’s Boy Omega, a more or less solo project of Martin Gustafsson.  My first exposure to his music was sometime in 2005, when he contributed a cover of The Magnetic Fields‘ “Papa Was A Rodeo” to an online tribute compilation.  When I got around to his original output, I was surprised at how the restrained piano ballad cover didn’t do justice to his original songs largely comprised of melancholy pop tinged with experimental flourishes.  Over his career, he’s shuffled variations of this style album-by-album but the latest work, The Ghost That Broke In Half, plays all of these variations into their first album that’s felt like, well, an album.  If you end up listening to it, keep your ear open for guest appearances by Rasmus and Andrea Kellerman of Tiger Lou / Firefox AK and Andreas Lassus of the ever-wonderful Lassus.

• atoi: low is a state of mind. (10/27/09) [View | Hide]

  Atoi - Tonight Atoi - Once Upon A Time As I’m sure you can imagine, our slapdash blog gets a lot of fabulous Google traffic.  One of the many little joys of doing this is the idea of some jaded old feller looking for gooface’d young ladies and, instead, getting really adorable pop music.  Atoi are a couple of Danes who probably won’t give you a hard-on.  What they do do, however, is make some very forward-thinking and listenable experimental pop music.  Every impulse towards irregularity and agitation in music eventually makes its way back into pop canon and this colorful bunch seem to think Herbert, Two Lone Swordsmen, and Matmos are the absolute dreamiest.  I can’t even pick out what instruments they’re trying to emulate in most of their songs, but I think half the fun is guessing.  If infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters can produce Shakespeare, I guess an infinite box of found objects tumbling down infinite stairs can eventually turn out something I strangely want to make out to.  Go figure.

• sasac: wherever i choose to go. (10/27/09) [View | Hide]

  Sasac - Escape From Your Love Leela James - Good Times (Sasac Remix) Every now and again, I come across something out of nowhere that just hooks me hard enough that I can’t stop listening. Enter SASAC, a producer I’ve seen referred to alternately as proto-skweee and mod-funk, who’s hiding immense brilliance behind a tiny release catalog.  He’s produced remixes for tracks featuring some serious under-the-radar talent like Aaron Phiri and Mapei but, outside of a local Swedish fanbase, he doesn’t seem to be getting much love.  I’d love to change that.  His material mines the lo-fi clicks of skweee as much as italo, but conforms to neither genre easily.  And, to add slightly more confusion, he’s a hell of an 80s electrofunk DJ.  If we’re seriously going to get excited over this funk-tropicalia revival thing, I insist we get some real boogie kings involved.  Someone hire this guy out, okay? P.S. The above track can be had in delicious 320 over at Klicktrack. PROGRAMMING NOTE: Please enjoy IT’S THE MONEY SHOT!!, now with locally hosted downloads.

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Comments

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treavioli

Comment left on: 9/2/09 4:33 PM Calvin harris's remix of "The Reeling" (Passion Pit) is aurgasmic.

SB_BGM

Comment left on: 3/15/09 4:46 PM a lazy day in SD nothing too much to report lol ugh I can't wait to move out there this summer! good times and new memories, well if i don't drink them away lol

SB_BGM

Comment left on: 3/15/09 3:45 PM Hey how's it going? =)

Kevbot

Comment left on: 3/5/09 2:41 AM Thanks for the add. - Straight-acting non-femme

kristopher

Comment left on: 2/20/09 12:52 AM Congrats and good luck!

chevere

Comment left on: 2/17/09 2:01 PM I think you're winning.

sirc1audious

Comment left on: 2/15/09 3:34 PM yay congrats! def post the next article.

sirc1audious

Comment left on: 2/13/09 12:37 AM voted =] goodluck!

337	Comment left on: 1/4/09 1:23 PM happy new year my friend!! I hope everything's going well for you! xoxo

muzophile

Comment left on: 1/2/09 8:38 PM Happy new year man! Hope its off to a good start! Just added a pervy video of me on the left side of my profile - hope you enjoy! :) Muzo