RKNet Blog... Thing

Boy was it ever! I would explain it to you, but I barely understood it myself. For your listening pleasure, however, I’ve put together another mixwit mix tape that I feel helps express in very broad terms the kind of day I had.

Featuring

1. Kajiura Yuki - Key of the Twilight
2. Sonic Youth - Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsburg)
3. Placebo - Bigmouth Strikes Again (cover)
4. Sebadoh - Too Pure (live)
5. The Tubes - White Punks on Dope
6. New York Dolls - Human Being
7. Tsunami Bomb - The Invasion from Within
8. The Distillers - Sick of It All
9. Howlin’ Wolf - Spoonful
10. New Radicals - I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore
11. New Radicals - Someday We’ll Know

I hope you enjoy it!

While covetously staring at the ATP Festival site, I noted the following announcement:

An extra date has been added to the ATP Festival featuring My Bloody Valentine.

There are still tickets available, from what I can see, but they probably won’t last long. They’re 25 pounds each (approximately 48.95 USD according to xe.com) and absolutely worth every penny.

And because the brains behind ATP can’t be satisfied with taunting me with just one absolutely unmissable show, they’re also heavily promoting a large, multi-act show. Pitchfork is assisting in curating this show, featuring the likes of the mighty Ween, the soothing sounds of Sebadoh, and the always enjoyable Of Montreal.

The details of the festival itself make all the US festivals I’ve read about look tragically bourgeois and haphazard by comparison. For your festival ticket price of 140GBP (274.07 USD), you get:

The event is held in a holiday camp so your ticket includes a pass to the festival + 3 nights chalet accommodation which is self catered and has private bathrooms and private bedrooms, a kitchen with cooking facilities and a lounge with a colour TV. The TV has one channel programmed by Pitchfork and one by ATP.

~ ATP Festival Website

To put that in perspective, VIP treatment for the Gathering of the Vibes cost $385(USD) and was still basically camping, unless you were lucky enough to have a camper of your very own. Campers are not cheap items by any stretch of the imagination, and neither is a quality tent set up, so staying comfortably for the entirety of the festival was by no-means cheap. The festival was held in a very large public park, which - to the best of my knowledge - was not set up for camping.

Doesn’t really stack up, value-wise, with the proposed admission/accommodation deal ATP has to offer if the information provided in the FAQ is to be completely believed. Unless I win the lotto, knock over a liquor store, or find some kind of sugar daddy (or momma, I’m flexible), I’m not going. If any of you are, be sure to take lots of photos and share. If recording is allowed, encouraged, or doable by way of l33t skillz, please do.

http://www.azuli.com/full-details/?s=67135c9d2024662c695090f3c6be4697&id=537&category=1

This compliation is to die for. It opens with some pleasantly ethereal Bjork. In contrast to the Filter review, this song’s album of origin is not one I assumed I must own. Point of fact, I myself only like Bjork’s material in small doses. (They mentioned a few others I didn’t necessarily classify as flat-out essential. At least, not until I heard this compilation.) This happens to be a particularly pungent and heady dose, a good kickoff to the tone and caliber of this album overall.

The album is sprinkled throughout with the deep, heartwarming and bizzare mix of sonic encounters one has come to expect from a group like the Flaming Lips. Although, ironically enough the track I found least intriguing was the one contrbuted by the band responsible for putting together this otherwise stellar mix of sound. They procure a cover of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army, cheekily titled “Harry Potter and George Bush’s Severed Head Mix”. The listenablility factor is somewhat qwestionerball, what with the heavy presence of siren sounds and the like. However, if one like’s Faust’s odd buzzy tone in the chorus of their contribution (It’s a Bit of a Pain, track 4), then one is apt to enjoy this cover. The other track liable to raise a few eyebrows is the last. It’s part of a series, and not part of the Lips’ picks at all. Worth a listen for the beat poetical value, but definitely not for everyone.

The booklet is highly edifying in this audio journey, and provides a really candid glimpse into the band that is the Flaming Lips - more than worth a look in my opinion.

In these busy days of iPods and burnt discs cobbled together from oddball MP3s, it’s nice to be able to pop down to the record store, and get a total education on music from a single disc. Skim the tracklist, if you don’t know half the artists, and are a Flaming Lips fan, then I implore you to trust their judgement. I picked it up in a Virgin MegaStore, but you can find it online here.

On a one to ten scale, I give this disc an overall of 9.7. Would have scored a perfect if it wasn’t for the two slightly awkward tracks and the realization that I have a lot of albums to buy. (Sebadoh’s Harmacy down… a whole bunch more to go.)

If you like:

Techno -
07 - Flim Aphex Twin
11 - Playground for a Wedgeless Firm Chemical Brothers

Pretty Rock -
03 - Speed of Sound Chris Bell
06 - People Alfie
16 - On Fire Sebadoh

Utterly Unique -
09 - Up The Down Escalator The Chameleons
10 - Seven Nation Army Flaming Lips

Instrumental -
08 - Galileo Mice Parade
02 - My Ship Miles Davis
12 - Saudade Love and Rockets

Old Skoolish -
14 - Sleep Comes Down Psychedelic Furs
18 - I’m Not In Love 10cc

Dreamy -
13 - Monochrome Lush
15 - River Man Nick Drake
17 - Pyramid Song Radiohead