The Northeast Sticks Together : Boston, Philly, Unite!

so the 440r djs are temporarily out of commission/on vacation. presently, we have 440r operatives on the west coast (good luck micL and all Lovewhip endeavors), somewhere on the maryland shoreline, a computer locked at the mechanic's getting retooled (think new motherboard), and big dig boys still groggy from jet lag.

Luckily, we got many talented friends all over this great country who are eager to help out and share in the experience that is music.

The Philly dj duo known as Crimp Yr Hair, checked in this week with their brand new mix, 'What Would Theo Do?' It's a slammin 80s mix with Cosby Show samples thrown in at opportune moments. They spin at an event in Philly once a month they are calling JAM IT ON THE ONE. Well, I've gone to it, and I can speak from experience, it's like Area D's Musk if he held it at the Enormous Room (which by the way, isn't a bad idea) and way more college kids and hipsters came out and danced. Basically, it's hella fun, and the scene has taken notice. Their night has been selected to be the offical after party for bands like Hot Hot Heat, and the club often runs drink specials for Sparks and PBRs (half-price!). You know, like totally awesome times the laws won't let us have in Boston. Whatever. You'll get a good sense of the revelry by listening to their mix. Check it out yo!!!!

Crimp Yr Hair - "What Would Theo Do?"

the artists' statement:

CRIMP YR HAIR DJs (DSTJ & COLDHANDS) is what we go by and its the dj component of what is becoming a freestlye/dance pop band.

we mostly play freestyle, electrofunk, 80s post-funk and post-disco, 80's dance pop, 80s R&B. our producer heros are JELLYBEAN BENITEZ and JIMMY JAM & TERRY LEWIS. we're looking for some middle ground between their sounds. we like to think of our dj sets as one really long 80s teen movie montage scene (think SUMMER SCHOOL, BETTER OFF DEAD, or TOP SECRET) or what Theo Huxtable would listen in his bedroom on friday night while trying on a Gordon Gartrelle shirt before going to party.

our monthly party upstairs at the khyber is called JAM IT ON THE ONE!!! and its the second thursday of every month.

WHAT WOULD THEO DO? is the question that begs the answer, he'd JAM IT ON THE ONE. we recorded each of the five tracks live and then added the Cosby Show soundbytes. no software programs were used to mix the tracks. it was all mixed live.

here's the track list:

1. Ennio Morricone- “Ecstacy of Gold”
2. Indeep “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life”
3. Nu Shooz- “I Can’t Wait”
4. Neneh Cherry- “Buffalo Stance”
5. The Cover Girls- “Show Me”
6. Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam- “Head to Toe”
7. Rock Steaady Crew- “Hey You the Rock Steady Crew”
8. Johnny Kemp- “Just Got Paid”
9. Animation- “Obsession”
9. Shannon- “Let the Music Play”
11. Ollie & Jerry- “There’s No Stopping Us”
12. Janet Jackson- “Pleasure Principle”
13. Pretty Poison- “Catch Me (I’m Falling)”
14. S.O.S. Band- “Take Your Time (Do It Right)”
15. Freeze- “I.O.U.”
16. Human League “Don’t You Want Me Baby”
17. Expose “Point of No Return”
18. The Jets “Crush On You”
19. Planet Patrol- “Don’t Stop the Rock”
20. Hashim “Al-Naafiyish (The Soul)”
21. Cybotron- “Clear”
22. Stevie Nicks- “Stand Back”
23. E.G. Daily- “Mind Over Matter (Jellybean Benitez Remix)”
24. The Jacksons- “Torture”
25. Real Life- “Send Me An Angel”
26. Ediie Murphy- “Party All the Time”
27. Ready for the World- “Oh Sheila”
28. Berlin- “No More Words”

--------------------------------------------------------

for quicker downloading purposes, here is their mix in parts:
part1
part2
part3
part4
part5

[posted by mac]

Last Minute Post: Big Digits Play Tonight!

[mac and td with honorary digit brian catbee]

!SEE BIG DIGITS LIVE TONIGHT!

Appearing at Bill's Bar

with
WE ARE WOLVES
MAHI MAHI
THE MULES
and
PROTON PROTON

show starts at 9pm
$7 for 21+
$10 for 18+

boston vs. montreal vs. providence vs. brooklyn
the battle will be won on the dance floor

dance dance revolution

sonia squid sez: "the 440 blog needs stuff like this!"

et voila!

these dudez have been awarded honorary 440R doctorate degrees:

Last Post, Big Digits Home Soon

So the last two shows of this little tour were of mixed results.
We got to play a slamming party at a house in Seattle on saturday night. Tons of people packed into a smallish room in a finished basement. we got to play last which was a bonus because by that time everyone was crunked up and really ready to party. once again, similar to l.a., from the first note, people were getting down. it got really hot and sweaty and we played with our beats going thru two guitar amps and our vocals shared a single guitar amp. it was loud and distorted and awesome. straight up booming. no cops came and nobody got out of control. Casy from Casy and Brian passed around and empty 12-case of Olympia beer for donations and people were most generou$. [big ups, by the way, to the two totally ferocious and talented duo that is casy and brian. without them, this adventure would not have been possible.]

and, a very special guest was there. all the way from boston, 440r president ms. Karen Tsiakals was in attendence! it was soo great to see a friendly face in the front row, amongst the seattlans, rocking and head-bobbing.

the next night was quite the opposite to seattle. we played an all ages show at a new club in Tacoma, Wa called the Frame shop. only three people paid to get in, so between them, the staff, and the other bands, we rocked out to like 11 people. a far cry from the packed house party the night before but still it was fun. how many bands can say they 'rocked tacoma'?

-mac

vday love mix

back by popular demand. i searched my computer for mp3s with the word "love" in them, and made this mix out of them. plus one or two other tracks on the same tip.

nothing says "i love you" like a hasty mix tape. if your lover isn't a dork, go ahead and pass this off as your own:

download: 440 djs love mix mp3

spoiler: fat truckers_beyonce_britney_prince_freeze_giorgio moroder_LCD soundsystem_kraftwerk_coldplay_daft punk_the stills_mstrkrft_soulwax_dmx krew_esg_grace jones_white stripes

love micL ptvn

sunglasses in canada

for those who remember tiga as the canadian who remade another canadian's sunglasses at night, i sure hope you have heard sexor, tiga's new joint. and now DFA has remixed "far from home" from sexor. i like this remix a bunch, and I'm gonna go ahead and list what i like (and don't) about it. likes: nice simple jam, throbbing bass. the build-up is great, with the different synths coming in and the percussion add-in a little later. new sweet synths coming in each time the vocals cut out don't distract, but fit in nicely, keeping the track interesting. the end. the whole build-up of the song in general, towards the end its like and old chemical brothers track in the whole thickness of it. dislikes: only a couple here. first, having heard the original many times, i really miss the nice chord progression of the chorus, this happens way too often on remixes, where the remix loses the chord progression of the original song, and just keep the song in mostly one chord. this practice of remix artists annoys me to no end, and if this remix had a more interesting chord progression, it might have made for one of the best remixes i've heard lately. and second, the vocal comes in a bit early, kinda gives the track away, could have held off a bit on it. anyway enjoy:

tiga - far from home (DFA remix)

ps: i posted a mix about a week ago for our monthly series but it disappeared. it wasn't that great anyway. weird though. -micL

Big Digits tour diary, not dead, just in Canada

Sorry about the lack of updates, computers have been harder to find than we thought. No links in this post since I'm using a internet machine than my own, so look it up yrself. I'm just gonna give a brief rundown of the shows with more info to be posted later. Here is the story so far:

Los Angeles kind of rules, there was crowd surfing (albeit not for us) at our show. We played at The Smell, a volunteer run all ages artspace/venue, with the aforementioned San Serac/Captain Ahab (see the San Diego post), Laco$te (boy/girl danger rapping), and Totally Radd!! (cassette remixing/fivepiece/computerrockers). The kids went nuts, there was dancing from note one and everyone was supernice. It was easily one of the best shows we ever played.

We played twice in one night in Portland, OR, early at The Food Hole (all ages) and late at Dunes (bar). The shows were kind of meh but the other bands were nice. We drove down from Seattle with our Northwest tourmates and 1/2 allergic to peanuts Casy+Brian and had good times hanging around town.

Olympia was awesome, more all ages action (Manium warehouse), great hosting bands (Scream Club are excellent peeps), and goodtimes drinking Casy's invented drink (Sparks+Orange Vitamin Water=drinking that's good for you).

Canada has been a bit of a problem, after taking 6 hours to get up here (the main border crossing was closed due to some sort of police action, if anyone knows the story about this let us know) the house show we were playing got shut down 10minutes into Casy+Brian's set, so no playing for us. To keep it posi here are some highlights of our Canada missadventure so far:
Debating what would be the worst Valentine gift ever (as debated by 6 dudes trapped in line at the border crossing over 2 hours, trust me you don't want to know what the answer is).
Hanging with pals/artists/letting me use their fancy computer/smoking in apartmenters Marc Bell and Amy Lockheart.
Canadian cops being relatively nice and not arresting us.
Suprisingly good pizza.

Hope everyone is well,
TD

Rave On!

so, apparently the Big Digits are too big to post to our little blog, so you'll have to read about them here.

‘I direct music videos and you guys have a fresh new sound.’

come home soon, digits. the bed's too big without you.
-memoon

Songbird, the "open source iTunes killer," flies today

From BoingBoing.net
A team led by ex-Winamp-er Rob Lord today released a preview edition of Songbird, a desktop media player that offers an open source alternative to services like Apple's iTunes and the Windows Media Player. Instead of connecting to one locked store full of DRMmed goods, it can connect to any and all available music (and video) on the internet.

_TNY

Big Digits tour diary, San Diego

San Diego kind of rules, Mac and I got of the plane after flying for about 9 hours (including a stopover in Las Vegas where I won $15 on slot machines in the airport, Ka-ching) and immediately tore off our various accoutrements of New England weather to bask in the glowing warmth of a city that remains 67 degrees and warm almost every day. We proceded to the Mustache House, home to awesome kids of various sweet ideas including the band Business Lady. After a couple of hours of eating curry, going to record stores (had to pass on the too expensive Moondog records), talking about Boston (the only band they asked about was Anal Cunt, seriously) and discussing the problem of California property tax and the effect it has on the the roll of police in the incorporated/unincorporated towns of Southern California we went over to The Che Café for our first show of the tour.
As we were coming in the LA darkwave jitter dance lightshow that is Ananvan were setting up their drums/organ/bass. We did the building with the people thing and headed out into the dark woods behind the venue for a little imbibing of courage before starting the show. Anavan ruled pretty hard despite them having some light disfunction and not playing my favorite song that I had been humming my head all day. San Serac was up next and electro-timbaled his way into the heart of many an awkward-dancing San Diegan. At this point we went on, I have to confess the traveling and time difference had taken a bit of a toll on me (although a big thank you to Ashliegh for toting our loser asses to the airport at an ungodly, even for the odd houred Providence lifestyle, time). I was a bit, how do you say, sluggish. The kids seemed to get into it though, there was dancing and whatnot. Captina Ahab closed things out with a sweat-fest of epic motivational jams, but you'll hear more about them later when in our LA post. Drenched and tired Mac and I went and got burritos (they put french fries in my carne asada, total genius) and passed out in a haze on the couch.

Tomorrow, a rundown of the incredible LA show and hot celebrity gossip.