"The Led whaat?"

This is neat. Here is a 1970 interview with John Bonham & Robert Plant. They discuss the "death of the personality cult" and the revolution in popular music that Zeppelin was a catalyst for.

Now, lets move from revolution talk to evolution talk. Here is what prehistoric Wax Romeo looked like. Creepy, right? Thank God for Darwinism.

Also, at the long overdue request of DJ Pat Chez, here is me dressed as Mandeep a couple Halloweens ago.

Smalltown Best:09 Mix

The "Best of 08" podcast was a smashing success and the feedback was awesome, so here is the follow up. What great year it was for music, this mix is about some of the non-dancefloor and not-club tunes which were on heavy rotation this year. The great cover art was designed by our homie Jonathan at Rollout. Thanks for listening.

SMALLTOWN DJs BEST:09 MIX

*edit: Neoteric was kind enough to upload a version with tracklist & artwork embedded HERE


BEST:09 TRACKLIST

1) While you wait for the Others - Grizzly Bear feat. Michael Macdonald
2) Just ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne
3) Stillness is the Move - Solange Knowles
4) Dominoes - The Big Pink
5) Nothing to Worry About - Peter, Bjorn & John
6) No You Girls (Grizzl Remix) - Franz Ferdinand
7) So Insane - Discovery
8) The Sticky - Black Moth Super Rainbow
9) Lizstomania (Classixx Remix) - Phoenix
10) Psychic City - Yacht
11) Blood Bank (Skinny Friedman edit) - Bon Iver
12) Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
13) Animal (Mark Ronson Remix) - Miike Snow
14) Shelter (Them Jeans Remix) - The XX
15) Cruel Intentions - Simian Mobile Disco feat. Beth Ditto
16) Walking on the Moon (U-Tern's Kris Menace blend) - The Dream
17) Bulletproof - La Roux
18) One Life Stand - Hot Chip
19) Rain Dance - The Very Best feat. M.I.A.
20) You Got the Love (The XX Remix) - Florence & The Machine
21) Night by Night (Skream Remix) - Chromeo
22) Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Cudi feat Ratatat & MGMT

Nicaragua - A good purpose

After a few weeks in Europe Pete and I returned home to Calgary just in time to welcome a -37 Blizzard. With 10 days on the calender with no scheduled work I decided to head to Nicaragua and within 2 hours me and my trusty travel mate/girlfriend Joanna were on a plane.

With 3 hours of sun on the first day I received a pretty brutal sunburn.
Which if you have ever spent time in the waves in Nicaragua is somewhat
unavoidable and common. It gave me a few days to work on a new track
heavily inspired by the Spanish/Latin influences in the area. The view from my Nica studio was amazing.


After a few days out of the sun we were back on the beach just in time to hit a nice groundswell that was just the right size for a landlocked Calgarian Surfer. Justin from Liquidglass was out with his water camera and hooked me with a few shots from that afternoon.

That evening our good friend Johnny G was Djing at a fund raiser for The Barrio Planta Project. This is where the good purpose comes in.
The BP Project is a community development program that gives a positive outlet and opportunities to Nicaraguan children and adults.
Activities such as sports, theater and art help foster focus and teamwork while creating confidence and purpose to the individuals and the community. A small donation goes a very very long way.
Click here to View a short video.
Click here to learn more about the Barrio Planta Project.

With only 8 non travel days in Nicaragua we barely got over our sunburns before we had to throw our winter jackets back on and head home. Much thanks to Johnny G, Pete, Marty, Curtis, Yaosca, Elliot, Jamie, Bambu, Los Cardones, Izic, Charlie, Shaun, San Juan C21 and Sanjuansurf.com for the good times. Well see you again soon.

METAL BABY

Video of kid imitating the sound of his dad's music. Hilarious.

BAAAAAAAAAH!!

Wednesday Covers - "Sweet Jane"

Hey everybody, it's Wednesday, how neat. For our cover today we have the standout hit from Velvet Underground's final album, and the mopey cover by downer Can-rockers Cowboy Junkies, which old Lou himself described as "the best and most authentic version I have ever heard". Without further adouche, here's "Sweet Jane".

Synth Jams

Let's put on a couple jams to get fired up then we'll rage this weekend. Who's with me?

TOP BILLIN - PLAYBOY ANTHEM

So we just recently did a remix for our Finnish pals, Top Billin. You can scope the details here . There's a vocal and a dub, so buy 2 of each.


Also, my pal Jer (who claims to have once bought a pack of Willy Wonka Bottle Caps , and got all fucking root beer ones. I call bullshit.) put me on to a wonderful Shit Robot mix for xlr8r from back in the summer. It's super groovy. Grab it here .

Tracklist:

01 Shit Robot - "Simple Things (Work It Out)" (Todd Terje remix) - (DFA)
02 Chicken Lips - "Feast of Freaks" (Kotey’s Tape Edit) - (Lipservice)
03 Suburban Knight - "The Groove" - (Transmat)
04 Black Meteoric Star - "Death Tunnel" - (DFA)
05 X-Ray - "Let’s Go" - (Transmat)
06 Crazy P - "Love on the Line" (Unabombers Remix) - (20:20 Vision)
07 Bangkok Impact - "Premature Ejaculation" - (Crème Organization)
08 Joris Voorn - "Sweep the Floor" - (Rejected)
09 Cobblestone Jazz - "Traffic Jam" - (Wagon Repair)
10 Crazy P - "Stop Space Return" (Unabomber Dub) - (20:20 Vision)
11 Shit Robot - "Simple Things (Work It Out)" - (DFA)

Euro Tour Recap

Holy moly - what a time. Mike and I went to do some shows in Europe & the UK at the end of November, and Dawn came with us! It was a big success.

We got in to Paris on Thursday with a night off - and our homies Nadastrom were playing in town that night with Brodinski, Primary 1 and Boombass from Cassius & La Funk Mob.

It was great to see Dave and Matt tear up the club in Paris, and also Boombass who has been a hero of mine forever. He played a classy and fun set and the Parisien kids were going off.

The next day we met up with DJ Ayres (Quasimodo) who was playing with us at Casino Noveau that night, and went walking around town. We headed for the APC store and bumped into Mehdi of Ed Banger:

Looking super French.

This is where Ayres (the hunchback of Park Slope) lives:
It was nice of him to let us see his house.

That night at the club was so much fun. The Beat & Juice crew took great care of us. And the club was jamming. Thanks Paris!


Next it was off to Helsinki, where we basically headed straight to the club - we were playing at Siltanen with Fiskars, Flipperi, J Laini, & TaneLee. It was part of the Lifesaver Records 10 year anniversary - and one of the funnest nights we've had in a long time. We felt really honoured to be a part of it. They were all playing awesome vinyl, so we felt bad playing Serato but oh well.


"My brother Fiskars" - that sounds like the name of a sitcom.


The next day the homie DJ Anonymous took us too see Helsinki, and eat some Finnish food. I had herring:


And I also ate Reindeer! Santa's sled might be a wee bit slower this year.


Ayres & Nadastrom kept following us around:


So after the great time in Helsinki we headed to London where Jo met up with us and we had a couple days off to check out classy things like museums & art:


We felt really lucky to be back at Fabric on Friday night again, playing with Ali B & Mat The Alien. The Alien killed it and we got to play afterwards - it's such a legendary club that it's surreal to play there even the second time. In the booth:


Then we got to play the legendary funk night on Saturday at Paradise. A ton of Calgary folks came down - it was so awesome.


Maya!


Claire!


We had the best hosts in London: Ali, Dre & Dee - and it really made all the difference. THANKS GUYS! So that was the trip! A total blast and I can't wait to go back. Until then I leave you with this:

FIREFLY - 3

Firefly had a billboard disco hit with their jammee called Love Is Gonna Be On Your Side This is their 3rd album, and it's fuckin' so good. It's kind of on a funky italo tip, with the exception of may favourite track, "Don't Be A Fool", which is a feel-good synth-poppy duet, with bad English.

Check it out for sure: Firefly - 3 (full album)

"A UNICORN IS NAUGHT BUT A RAVER IN A DUNCECAP"

I think it was Soren Kierkegaard* who said that. Or Peter Sarsgaard? Old gaard/new gaard? Either way, it was someone for sure. And with that, I'd like to call your attention to a picture of our very own SweetCityWoman:


She thought she'd be funny, or whimsical, or some fucking shit, and dress as a unicorn for Halloween. Instead, she came out looking like if the Tickle Trunk exploded at Hullabaloo. Way to go, Nols. Although, it's better than the time she dressed as me. That was fucking terrifying.

So listened to a radio interview on the internet about how to get abducted by aliens. It gets dark at 5pm now, and today it got colder than a witches tit. Might be nice on a spaceship. Fuckin' flying around, eating fruit-rollups, drinking Tang and shit. Aliens, pick me! They probably won't. They don't care. Anyway, here's some spacey shit to bring if they pick you.

Harry Thumann - Underwater

Ganymed - It Takes Me Higher

Azoto - Exalt Exalt
Space - Magic Fly

Dee D. Jackson - Automatic Lover


*Nols's joke. I know, right?

MOAR BEST RAEV EVER!

Since this has basically become a video blog, I'ma toss up another. This one goes out to all you Shambhalowlifes that didn't get enough hippyrave in August. It's some more video from Shambhala, and will have to tie you over. It's only footage shot from the Living Room, which the stage overlooking the beach, and features the homeys Vinyl Ritchie, and JonH and Steve of Fort Knox 5. It was shot and edited by our pals Amy and Simon, who, in my esteemed opinion, did a bang-up jobby. The catchy-as-all-hell tune that it's set to was done by our pals, Hoola and Soup

The Living Room from Simon Slade on Vimeo.

I'm gonna take a break from the videos for a bit and should have some music to post this week. Also, Mike and Pete are back from Europe, so come down Thursday to welcome those 2 dicks back.

Holy fuck, it's December.