poison to the mind

…or any other pre-teen kids you’ve got about the place:

Frenzal Rhomb on Hey Hey It’s Saturday

Buy:
The song they’re doing is You Are Not My Friend. The single’s still in print.

Speaking of underwhelming gigs, this was possibly the most ludicrously well-appointed-for-choice New Year’s ever in Sydney, with somewhat unsatisfying results. Ostensibly the biggest event was Basement Jaxx at Bondi Beach, but with Bob Sinclar as an ill-matched headliner for $150 or so. And reports from the night suggest that not only did Sinclar in fact suck, but the sound was appalling and kept cutting out, not to mention the whole locked-in-a-concrete-forecourt thing.

In the city, one nightclub packed four international headliners into three rooms, with Hybrid, Z-Trip, Freq Nasty and Trentemøller all for $80. Good value, and while they apparently didn’t overpack the venue, word is that Trentemøller chucked something of a hissy fit over not having enough water when he started, or something. Enjoy his tantrum-free Essential Mix from last year instead:

Trentemøller - Essential Mix

I was out in the inner suburbs, enjoying the unpretentious surrounds of a lawn bowls club with local DJs and one live act, and Jamie Lidell headlining. Good music, good vibe, but Lidell didn’t go on until 1, there’ was no new year countdown, and instead of jamming for three hours like last time he did NYE there, it was a straight one-hour set. Half of that was pretty straight album versions with a pick-up band, and hardly any of his wild jamming. Good, but not good. Dude just seemed tired and not into it. That’s what we get for him having played two shows in different states already in the previous 30 hours. OH WELL. Heard good things about his next festival set a few hours later. Here’s a good one from earlier in the endless album-flogging round:

Jamie Lidell live at Khauspassage 2005

Buy:
Get the double-disc edition of Trentemøller’s Last Resort locally, and a free live Lidell mp3 from Bleep.

Early contender for dud gig of the year came in the last week of January, at what should have been a killer - Spank Rock and Diplo co-headline. Except: MC Spank Rock himself didn’t actually make it out of the US, Armani XXXchange wasn’t on the tour, and Diplo was only doing a 45 minute set. Apparently Naeem had some knuckledusters in his luggage, or a knuckleduster-shaped belt buckle, or some dust on his knuckles or something, and got turned back at JFK.

After doing early BDO shows as DJ sets, the two Spank Rock tour DJs apparently flew Pase Rock out to sub, but he basically did hypeman duties over a couple of songs, covered Rick Rubin, played Lindsay Lohan (which was GREAT) and DJed a bit himself. The rest of the show was just a DJ set, bar the encore where they did Put That Pussy On Me, and Pase delivered his best estimation of the lyrics, to wit: “Sump’n sump’n sump’n sump’n / sump’n sump’n sump’n”. Cheers. Nice work. Diplo came back and b2b’d a bit at the end, and people were dancing and having fun throughout, but then the whole thing shut down at midnight. Come the fuck on! Fifty bucks! Could still have been a great night if it had gone for more than three hours.

Anyway, here’s a sorta-unreleased Spank Rock track done last year with Disco D, RIP:

Spank Rock - Get It On The Floor

And speaking of people who haven’t played a proper show in five years but still do DJ sets: The Avalanches had a new/rare track included to much fanfare on Modular’s NME cover-mount last year. Helpfully, the CD was pressed as a bunch of wavs in a folder, rather than an audio disc. Not great for playing, but handy for making an mp3 from:

The Avalanches - A Different Feeling (the Av’s new sped-up re-edit of the Paperclip People mix)

beep bang bang