"Take a Chance" on Mr. Flagio’s Classic Electro Hair Gel!
Do yourself a favor and try the extended 12″ version of Mr. Flagio’s Classic Electro Hair Gel! Rubbing just a small amount of this amazing product in your hair will possess you to run to the nearest night club and bust out ultra funk-a-fied, angular dance moves! It’s greasy, cheesy and fun!
First developed in 1983, Mr. Flagio’s Electro Classic Hair Gel was originally a hit in Italian discotheques, but thanks to a new-wave of electronic music distributors, known as blogs, the product is beginning to grow, grow, grow…in popularity!
I know what you are about to ask. How does it all work? Well, the power lies in the gel’s ingredients; a slick beat combined with a gospel chorus extract, chemically-enhanced verses and silky synth melodies. They all work together, in harmony, to produce an extremely uplifting and memorable experience. Plus, your hair will look incredible! Just “Take a Chance” and see for yourself!
Mr. Flagio’s Classic Electro Hair Gel comes in a variety of different packages! Collect them all!
This non-paid for advertisement was brought to you in part by Beat Electric, where all your disco dreams can come true!
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Go Get Ya Nails Did with Kid Sister!!!
At the moment, I’m listening to Chicago-based Kid Sister’s frivolous single “Pro Nails,” a wet and shiny ode to nail polish, and sheepishly bouncing my shoulders. It’s a well manicured track with NO cracks, so please file it down…in your music library.
Typically, rap videos aren’t anything I write home about, though I do harbor a secret envy of sweet dance moves. The video for “Pro Nails” featuring Kanye West is actually what got me into the track, thanks to the close-up fingertip break dancing (complete with miniature shoes!). I daresay the sequence is cute…icle. Definitely too entertaining to watch in secret.
You may want to buy the single on vinyl, perhaps for your next dj night. Kid Sister’s debut album, Coco Beware, is due out on Fool’s Gold in February.
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If You Want to Clear Out a Party, Just Put On Some DNA…and Turn it Up!
In the brief, but very influential and wild late-70’s New York movement, known as No-Wave, most bands had a general distaste for previously recorded popular music, including punk. They wanted to create something totally new and expressive. Something devoid of influence and predictability. Something primal. Something that confronted the audience and possibly alienated it.
Musical nihilists DNA were able to embody all of these things and still manage to create music that is listen-able…well, almost. The unrelenting, repetitive paranoia of “Not Moving” with its screeching guitars and unnerving tempo changes, sounds like nothing else that came before it. But it’s the drugged out, naive rhythms of “Egomaniac’s Kiss,” that is really the band’s signature tune. Although it flirts with pop structure, Arto Lindsay’s intoxicated and ready-to-vomit vocal performance helps to ensure that the song will, undoubtedly, make all of your party guests leave…well, all except for me. I love this shit!
Check out a live, late-70’s performance from the booty-shakin’ trio:
Pick up the band’s anthology DNA on DNA. It features 20 songs including the one in which the New York band, Blonde Redhead, derived its name.
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Blues Magoos: "Gotta Get Away," Classic Garage Cut
What a great band name. Bluuuues Magoooos. It rhymes, it’s catchy, and it’s bizarre. Even better, this description accurately describes their sound as well. One of the first bands to be marketed as Psychedelic, The Blues Magoos were pioneers of the new sound. Although commercially successful for only a short while, they gained popularity touring with the Who and Herman’s Hermits.
“Gotta Get Away” is off their debut album from ‘66. Trademark to 60’s garage-rock, this blues-based song features fuzzy guitar and colorful organ. Escalating group vocals provide the hook, ending with the assuaging message of “I wanna be free.”
You can purchase the garage-rock classic, Psychedlic Lollipop from Amazon.
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Drum Circles Go Punk! Kickin’ It With Foot Village
Tired of hearing guitars in rock music? Want a more stripped down sound? How about abandoning chords and notes altogether!? What’s left? Drums.
Hollywood’s Foot Village is a group playing nothing but drums. This idea might not work in theory, but percussive screams and desperate yelps which balance their chaotic texture. This is anarchy. This is a musical, “fuck you”. Most importantly they have an intense live show:
Foot Village’s album, Fuck The Future is now available on K Records. For fans of Godz and Black Eyes.
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New Music Spotlight: The Lucid Electro of Appaloosa’s "The Day (We Fell in Love)"
What do you get when you combine the vocals of Nico, Chan Marshall and down-tempo euro-disco? You get the simple and lucid sound of recently signed French singer, Appaloosa. The name is derived from a type of spotted horse, but the music is far from spotty.
“The Day (We Fell in Love)” is a gorgeous ballad that transforms itself into a sedated disco track. The first part, almost classical sounding, is treated with sparse pianos and vivid imagery, as it sifts along lighter than a feather. In the second half, minimalist beats are sprinkled with chimes as they help give flight to her lucid vocals, which have no intent of coming back down.
I’m not sure when we can expect a full-length album, but you can add her as a friend on MySpace, and get the news straight from the “spotted horse’s” mouth.
Appaloosa – The Day (We Fell in Love)
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Philly Artists Determined to Cross Over Into the Surrealistic Mummer Dimension
If you live in Philadelphia and have ever hung around on Broad Street on New Year’s Day, well you may have noticed all the colorful, eye-popping brigades trotting and dancing down the street in glorious celebration. Of course, I’m referring to the annual Mummer’s New Year’s Parade, a Philadelphia tradition that invites everyone’s inner freakiness to come out and play. Man, it’s a blast! The costumes! The music! The soft-pretzels! Yeeee!
Bewildered by all of the excitement, at times you may have even been inspired to JOIN one of those brigades…or perhaps, dare you think it, start your own. Well, a group of local artists have dared to think it, and they need your support. Led by Sonja Trauss and Space 1026-er Aryon Hoselton, The Vaudevillains New Years Brigade is a collective of new-wave Mummer wanna-bes. They have put together an awesome ecological-themed routine with mashed up music, charming choreography and conceptual props, all in the hopes of crossing over into that surrealistic Mummer dimension. Let’s help these kids live out their dream!
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Stream Magnetic Fields’ New Christmas-Themed Downer: "Mr. Mistletoe"
Yep, The Magnetic Fields can be a bummer, especially on Christmas. With that being said, it doesn’t get any more sad than “Mr. Mistletoe,” a heartbreakingly somber tune about a man without love, who denounces the “magical” plant and refers to it as a “useless weed.” It’s kind of funny at times, but mostly a downer. One must always keep in mind though, it’s what Merritt and company do best. The track is from their forthcoming album, Distortion, and it’s a great song, but dammit, I am depressed now!
Distortion is due out on Nonesuch on 1/18. Pre-order your copy now.
Ok, ok…time to snap out of it! For some uplifting goodies, check out: Sweet Chocolate Typography from Holland, courtesy of our friends, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. An awesome Holiday Interview Series from the great kids at My Old Kentucky Blog. A killer recipe for Pecan-Rum-Pie over at Sailor Jerry, and X-mas time XTC, thanks to the spirited and gracious You Ain’t No Picasso.
Merry Christmas!
Magnetic Fields – Mr. Mistletoe
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Silent Night, Violent Night: Spinal Tap’s Classic Ode to the Season, "Christmas With the Devil"
As a Jew, I don’t believe in Christmas or the Devil. However, I do believe in heavy metal, as well as great comedy, and in this “arena,” Spinal Tap are gods!
The simple fact is that “Christmas With The Devil” is the best Christmas song ever written. Sure, “Little Drummer Boy” and “White Christmas” are joyous and spirited tunes, but where are the monster riffs? Where are the blood-curdling screams? My friends, the Tap shall provide you with all the evil you need this holiday season.
Also, check out this 1983 video of the Tap discussing Satan (2:12) and performing their classic ode to the season on SNL (5:22):
For more heavy metal hysterics, purchase their epic album, This Is Spinal Tap on Amazon.
Spinal Tap – Christmas With the Devil
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Let It Snow, Nintendo Style!
If you are in your mid 20’s to early 30’s, you probably remember getting your first Nintendo Entertainment System as a kid. Your first game was probably Super Mario Brothers, which you spent hours and hours playing in an attempt to defeat King Koopa and save the princess. At the time, you saw everything in 8-bits and the minimalist, quirky electronic music in the game was the soundtrack of your life.
These days Bitshifter, along with other delightfully nostalgic nerds (I mean this in the best possible way) are taking that love for early NES sounds and applying them to actual songs. Bitshifter’s version of the holiday classic “Let it Snow,” was sent to me the other day by a (snow) angel who shall remain nameless. The song triggers images of Mario and Luigi in some secret winter wonderland level of the game. Needless to say, it put a huge smile on my face and brought me right back to those childhood winter days when I would take breaks from throwing snowballs, blow on the Mario cartridge, and head for the Minus World.
For more NES-inspired holiday music, check out 8-bits of Christmas.
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Exclusive Interview With Philadelphia’s Pop Astronauts, GANG!
Philadelphia definitely has its share of weird and interesting bands. The hip-hop meets electro meets opera meets space disco group known as GANG, may be one of the most interesting. Made up of four friends; Amanda (vocals), Jaclyn (Glockenspiel, Vocals, Percussion), Nicole (Bass, Keyboards) and Tim (Drums), their live shows are high-energy, choreographed mini-spectacles that feel like pep rallies in outer-space.
I recently caught up with the band, at a gig in Philadelphia, and proceeded to pick their brains about aliens, influences and the future of the band…
And You Thought King Kong Was Just A Giant Ape…
Well, King Kong was also a 1980’s post-punk band, not from Skull Island but from Germany! They had a sound that could easily be compared to early post-punk bands like A Certain Ratio and today’s crop of dance-rock bands like LCD Soundsystem.
Oh lord, these German monkeys brought the funk! “Fight the Devil” is a funky hand-clapping pop smash (if it had been originally released today) that takes no prisoners. Let the devil’s blood run in the streets of Berlin…or something.
Check out more of their stuff at Mutant Sounds.
King Kong – Fight With the Devil
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