Clear Pink Dokugan

I finally got around to watching the great little video clip of Greg showing the Karmaloop TV people around the new LA store and it hit me…again: These guys love toys as much as I do!

I can trace my love of japanese vinyl directly back to this blog…I think it was the special-release Dokugan DX for the 2008 NYCC that got tossed up on the blog one week and I fell instantly in love. One part Lovecraft, one part Death Star sewer monster, and one part Necroscope…this toy had it all. I asked a buddy of mine about it and he mentioned that for this particular toy, even if you were down to drop the cash, you still might not get a chance to buy one. And so a habit was born.

Death’s Head (via Plover1‘s Photostream)

A few years later, I’ve got a dozen or so of the ghastly little guys, as well as way too many other goofy, scary, awesome monsters and characters. Despite some other kaiju dudes’ un-love for all the wacky-nasty that is Blobpus, my heart will always belong to Dokugan and that first DX shot I saw of him, right here on this blog.

Chrome Blobpus (via Paulkaiju‘s Photostream)

To commemorate my love of these toys, and to fill a pretty embarrassing void, I created a Blobpus Flickr Pool which, if you’re into that sort of thing (that being toys, Flickr, Blobpus, and/or sharing your enthusiasm for any of the above), come on by, submit your photos, and dogpile the awesome.

Custom Dokugan (via eric..‘s Photostream)

If you’re not already into any one of those things, take a peek anyway…you too might be the proud owner of a wallet-eviscerating and girl-repelling hobby in no time at all.

PS: There are tons of other kaiju-related Flickr Pools out there. Super 7, Cometdebris, Gargamel, Zagtastic, and Le Merde Rules are the ones I’m currently most stoked about! And that’s one to grow on.

Straight out of the Japan, we recently got a visit from one of the biggest rap stars from Japan. Anarchy told us that while in NY he had to take a trip down to see one to one of his favorite brands, us! Anarchy has been tearing up the Tokyo scene for years now but ever since he dropped his second album Dream and Drama last year his name’s been on the tongue a lot of Japanese Hip-Hoppers.

Anarchy brought out his whole team as they went of  shopping spree grabbing everything in site (he really is a fan). So I knew that it would put a huge smile on his face when I told him that we’ll be having a presence Tokyo very, very shortly…but like a true fan he already knew.

Anarchy even came baring gifts! Being the cool guy that he is, Anarchy made sure to drop off a autographed copy of his latest album and live performance DVD of Dream and Drama. And since we love gifts we made sure to send him and his team back to Tokyo with a bunch of 350 Broadway exclusives that are only found here in our Brooklyn location. That should hold him over… well at least for a couple of weeks.

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

J/M/Z to Marcy Ave.
G to Broadway
L to Lorimer

The High Wire – The Sleep Tape (2010) [Grandpa Stan] // Grade: A

I hadn’t heard of The High Wire in advance of this review. The London trio make music that is quite easily mistaken as American, following in the tradition of the sweeping alt-country of Band of Horses. But if you listen closely you’ll start to hear the hints of shoegaze and the two references combine beautifully on their first full length record, The Sleep Tape. I gave my first listen to their debut on a morning where I was awake before the sun had even risen. I watched the dawn begin to break through my windows and it was one of those moments where you know you’re experiencing a piece of music in the absolute perfect frame of reference.

As the album name suggests, The Sleep Tape is full of dreamy male/female vocal harmonies and expansive instrumentation. “A Future Ending” puts hazy guitar work reminiscent of Teenage Fanclub on display while “Letting In The Light” favors a slowly paced Southern acoustic sound. I can hear little hints of so many of the bands I love across The Sleep Tape. My Bloody Valentine, Explosions in the Sky and even Oasis make stylistic appearances. Every track makes use of a slightly different reference point, but united through bouts of shimmering melody and a drifting aura, they play off one another with the same magic as the dreams that poke through your sleep.

The Sleep Tape is an album I’ll surely come back to time and again. It was a total surprise, full of genuine sentiment and gorgeous sounds. I sincerely hope people catch onto The High Wire. They’re a band that truly deserves to find success.

I fucking hate February. It’s the worst possible month, the god-awful dregs of eastern American winter, when everything’s all grey and slush-slicked and all you can do is bear down in your freezing hell of a bedroom and hope spring comes quick and painless. I do a lot of staring at walls in February. A lot of wishing I lived on, like, Easter Island.

So I’m ditching the barren standards this month. Minimal, EBM, chilly German techno—you’re too depressing for February’s blizzard central. We need heat. Lots of it. Sunburns and bikini tops and filthy breakdowns and bass so heavy, it feels like middle earth. We need anything dub-inspired, sounds all echoing and atmospheric, and here’s the silver lining, I guess: February is the no-fail excuse for zoning out to a bunch of warm, summery jams. I mean, what else is there to do aside from check and recheck the 15-day forecast, waiting for the mercury to skyrocket up to 60? ‘Cause I’m not sure that’s the healthiest hobby. Not that I know from experience or anything.

Tek-One – Broken String [H.E.N.C.H.]

Hot-as-fuck UK dirty dub-tech from the second sampler of the first H.E.N.C.H. mixtape. I actually gravitated toward Komonazmuk’s rad A-side “You Fo”” but immediately abandoned it once “Broken String” slammed into the drop at second 55. Wait for it.

—–

Spektrum – Freakbox (Richie Hawtin’s Uncontrollable Edit) [BPitch Control]

Hawtin’s simmering thunderstorm makes everything else on Seth Troxler’s mixtape sound like a piddly little rain shower–and we’re not talking ho-hum stuff here. Boogie Bytes Vol. 5 also includes a pseudo-disco Fever Ray remix and a new Kiki jam, but they barely stand up to so much heat-soaked, organic noise. Perfect.

(more…)

The Canadian women’s hockey team took home gold yesterday, shutting out Team USA 2-0. And after winning it all, the girls cut loose on the ice – sparking fat cigars, cracking beers, and generally not giving a fuck.

Who do these Canadians think they are – Americans? Regardless, I’m feeling this – lookit that big-ass Molson! – but the stuffy old International Olympic Committee is hating. Fuck ‘em!

The Canadian women should tell the IOC to kiss their chunky gold medals, kinda like Scotty Lago did:

American Scotty Lago, who won a bronze in halfpipe, voluntarily left the games after a photo surfaced of a woman kneeling below his waist to kiss the medal.

Not mad!

Finally Congorock is back! I’m sure all of you had been impatiently awaiting his return to this side of the country and now he’s back on the More Fire Tour in support of his upcoming release Babylon! This one’s gonna be one to remember for sure! The Flashing Lights crew will be heating up the night as they only know how with a magical blend of driving basslines all boiling up to the main event… FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

When the smoke has cleared, one man will appear (who knows maybe two) and then… Chaos! We are proud to present Congorock’s More Fire Tour along side Fools Gold Records and Undocumented Management.

If you need an early start, check out Congorock’s Keep Watch Mix Vol. IX or the above Kill With Video episode Congo Hot Sauce. BASS QUAKE!

Saturday 27th of March 11pm
88 Palace
88 East Broadway
New York, NY
$10 Advance Tix/ $15 door

Howdy Whodies. I’m playing a show at Legion on Sunday. I go on at 8. It’s a benefit show to raise funds in order to help out 2 primate sanctuaries in South Africa.

I also have a new mixtape that I just wrapped up this morning. I hope that you’ll find one, or both of these things pleasing. And, stay up because I have a lot of stuff going on in the next couple of months.

Download Zachg – Anything You Can Do I Already Did Better

#KeepOnIt

Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself (2010) [Kill Rock Stars] // Grade: B+

Jamie Stewart may be standing on his tippy-toes to reach post-modern Morrissey status, but here’s the problem: no matter how polarizing our precious Moz has always been, Stewart is even more so. There’s no gray area with Xiu Xiu; you either hysterically love or totally fucking hate them and if you belong to the latter camp, you’re probably no stranger to being called a snob who just doesn’t get it.

Well, alright. Fine. I probably am a snob and no, I’ve never understood the appeal. I don’t think Jamie Stewart is particularly poignant or funny. I don’t find his voice evocative. And I resent how easily his melodrama seems to elicit references to Robert Smith and Ian Curtis because the comparison, when you get down to it, is completely baseless. The Cure and Joy Division weren’t the sound of someone wallowing in their misery; they were the raucous, bloody noise of the desperate fight against it. Curtis may have lost his battle in the most tragic possible way, but he fucking fought, man—and that’s what made those songs so chilling. Stewart, to me, always seemed too damned content to whine and roll over.

And yet, it’s funny: I don’t hate Dear God, I Hate Myself. Not that Xiu Xiu’s seventh album marks some new, overwhelmingly sincere territory, but it does make proper use of Stewart’s affectations. See, such a cartoonish sad-sack makes the most sense backed by music that feels like a grand, gilded production and, thanks in part to new keyboardist Angela Seo (Caralee McElroy left to join Cold Cave), most of Dear God drifts around a smoother, bigger version of the weirdo experi-pop Xiu Xiu’s known for. Bouncy jams like “Chocolate Makes You Happy” and “This Too Shall Pass Away” are so catchy and well-produced, they might be the best things Xiu Xiu’s done, and the textural, crashing “Hyunhe’s Theme” is legitimately evocative—albeit in a showy, affected way. And honestly, some of those affectations I can get behind; Stewart’s sure to catch some shit for producing several songs, title track included, on a Nintendo DS, but have you ever played with the music programs on that thing? They’re so fun, some of them so thorough, you’d be silly not to at least try it.

The trick to Dear God, especially for those of us who’ve spent a lot of time hating Xiu Xiu, is to just accept the melodrama, ‘cause let me tell you: it’s not going away. Stewart’s got way too much hubris to ever scale back his provocation, so you’ve got to sort of listen around it—and this time, there’s plenty to listen for. Rad, glitchy production. The way synths explode, scream and recede. Hell, “Cumberland Gap” even has this gorgeous little banjo thing happening, proof positive that Xiu Xiu’s unafraid to exploit the stuff that makes a good song great. Finally, an album that falls in line with the character Stewart’s been honing—even if that character is still a little obnoxious.

Take five recidive delinquents, leave them in the middle of the Florida Everglades, mix in a Vietnam veteran Native American, sprinkle on some “blood magic,” and you’ve got the 1986 action flick Band of the Hand. Directed by Paul Michael Glaser (Miami Vice, The Running Man) and produced by Michael Mann, this forgotten gem is available on Netflix Watch Instantly, but only until March 1!!! I wish I came across this earlier so I could give you guys more than three days notice. For fans of ’80s action and bitchin’ outfits, Band of the Hand delivers.

Notable cast members include John Cameron Mitchell, who played Hedwig in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as an explosives expert who keeps his hair spiked and his mouth shut. Stephen Land (Avatar) plays the boys’ Native American sensei, Joe. Joe’s calling is to help troubled youth turn their lives around by making them eat snails and instructing them on how to properly fire a sniper rifle. Laurence Fishburne plays a pimp named Cream. James Remar (Dexter’s daddy on Dexter) plays an awesome, coked-out druglord named Nestor. His look edges more on psychopath than on ’80s cocaine pusher. It makes him come off way creepy. Like he’d be more comfortable skinning the Viet Cong than making coke deals. He also has a sweet sex-shrine thing going on in his bedroom.

As great as it is, the movie is flawed in two ways: the pace is awful and there’s a noticeable lack of corny ’80s action one-liners. The latter I can live without, but the pace is really a problem. The first hour when the boys are learning how to work as a team can get painfully boring. The bits with Nestor and Cream are great, but the whole Everglades part is pretty weak. BUT once they get back to Miami and start cleaning up the streets things get righteous. I swear, during the final showdown with Nestor, more shots are fired than in The Matrix.

Fans of ’80s action and Vietnam vet Native Americans, definitely check this one out.

Male Bonding – Years Not Long

Xiu Xiu – F.T.W.

Cold Cave – Life Magazine

Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard – East River

Liars – Scissors