The Retrospective

The other night I was hanging out with my roommate, Juan, and his lady.  He was making dinner and I said, “Hey, let’s turn on some music.  Anyone have any suggestions for me to put into Pandora?”  Juan, being the poster child of brilliance, had a better answer-  “Oh, have you ever tried Musicovery?  It’s an older program, but way better than Pandora.”

I pull up the site on his laptop and start clicking around.  First of all, the interface is gorgeous, its a big web of colored circles and on a sidebar you can choose genre, tempo, dark vs. positive, and calm vs. energetic.  Like Pandora, you can bookmark the songs you like or dislike.  Also, you can choose the decade and year that you want music from.  We wound up playing a combination of jazz, world, funk, and disco from the 1970s to present along with a dark feel and energetic beat.  Yessssssss.

The other fun thing is that  you can get lost fooling around with this website for hours.  Good times.  It’s my favorite shiny new toy!

www.musicovery.com

Tags: Music · Technology · web2.01 Comment

MSTRKRFT, 1 Sleazy hookups 0

Last Friday saw the GBH ten year anniversary party take over Webster Hall in NYC with a lineup made in hedonistic electro heaven. Known for throwing some of the sweatiest dance parties around (past guests have included the Juan Maclean, Spank Rock and Drop the Lime), their Nicky Digital approved brand of glamorous debauchery practically demanded the services of banger connoisseurs LA Riots, hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash and upstart dance punks Does It Offend You, Yeah?, followed by the one-two punch of DJ sets by the DFA’s James Murphy and robot pop remixers du jour Jesse Keeler and Al-P, better known as MSTRKRFT. Considering that Murphy threatened legal action against Jesse’s former band, Death from Above (also the name of his NYC based dance punk label with Tim Goldsworthy) which resulted in the new name of Death from Above 1979, I’d love to know who came up with that inspired pairing.

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Tags: Event · Music2 Comments

From the 80s sax solo at the end of “Hearts on Fire” to the dreamy nostalgia of “Future,” Dan Whitford and Co. make some of the most gorgeously crafted indie-pop this side of the century; they get the Pitchfork boys and HypeMachine girls all together now. Since entering my life last year as a Joakim mix on the Bang Gang Deejay’s “Light, Sound,Dance” compilation, Cut Copy has stolen my heart and refused to give it back.

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Tags: Event · Music2 Comments

 httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbjBHkKiS4c

Politics just got real.  I’m still not 100% sure on how I feel about this.  I think I will leave this one up to the readers.  Questions? Comments? Concerns?

Tags: Video1 Comment

Take Buenos Aires and stick it in Oakland. You know, like what Shawn Reynaldo (aka Disco Shawn) and Gavin Burnett (aka ORO11) did after meeting on the Buenos Aires DJ circuit through mutual friends in late 2006. We should thank these guys for bringing cumbia to the Bay Area in a way that no one else really is.

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Tags: event · Interview · San Francisco1 Comment

This past Saturday I had the chance to catch up with Mimi Cook, who just happens to be Apple’s Creative Director, over lunch. We went to the Americano Cafe near the pier in San Francisco. You couldn’t have asked for a better day- beautiful weather, warm breeze, salt air from the ocean and of course lunch with a very amazing woman. My talks with Mimi are always great because she’s such a wealth of information and inspiration. We discussed things I’m currently working on like the complete rehaul of The Retrospective going into effect in the near future. We also covered some new tidbits I’m keeping under the radar. I’m always impressed with her ability to discern the scope of someone’s talents as she has been directing me to other creatives that will be spotlighting here.
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Tags: a moment of clairty · The Retrospective2 Comments