I’m not one to get caught up in Youtube edit re-ups, but this is something more than that. Something special. Great job Youtube user WolfgoreShow…whoever you are.

Hailing from Moscow, Stoned Boys are a duo creating some really amazing dance music that conjures up comparisons to Pictureplane and Teengirl Fantasy through to the more esoteric and dark Witch House sound. Rocking a selection of synths, pedals, samplers, symbols and other assorted dance ephemera the duo build multi-instrumental dance tracks that can be both upbeat dream-pop trance classics and cold wave synth masterpieces at the same time. I don’t think I’ve liked a dance band this much since discovering Holy Fuck and though quite removed from them Stoned Boys do have a similar lo-fi psychedelic rave aesthetic to their music.

They have also remixed “War” by Burzum, if that doesn’t lift them into some kind of whole new level of awesome, then I don’t know what does. To take a black metal thrash classic like that and manage to not totally destroy it when it’s transformed into an 8-bit electro floor killer is all kinds of cool and brings to mind a kind of Black Strobe aesthetic.

With hyper colour visuals straight out of the noise core, 8-bit world and a DIY video that has the feel of a gloomy glo-fi band Stoned Boys are seemingly a bit all over the place, but it’s this mix of influences and aesthetics that seems to make them work. The overall psychedelia of the sound molds this is into a cohesive body of work, though I don’t mean that in a psi-trance kind of way or indeed a progy Floyd sort of way, rather it’s got that modern spacey chillwave psychedelia to it that is all about 2010.

What is also great for a band that seems to have only formed this year is the amount of content out there, numerous tracks, a video and lots of footage of their live performances which don’t disappoint and really show up a lot of other artist working in a similar way. There is usually nothing as boring as watching someone deliver a laptop set so these guys go the other way entirely with a whole range of things to play with. This includes some great looking old keyboards and a really creative and energetic live performance.

Burzum – War (Stoned Boys Remix) by Stoned-Boys

Stoned Boys – Outside by Stoned-Boys

Seven tracks are available to download from their Soundcloud profile and a four track EP called Little Victory which is available as a free download. The EP has some of those same Soundcloud tracks with much better mastering which really bring out the a meatier side to the songs, definitely worth getting. Stoned Boys have also just joined the rather impressive roster of Disaro, so I’m sure you can expect a limited edition CD-R release from them in the near future.

It’s been pretty busy here at Мишка LA with our Fall collection coming in, and coming out and in and out again. So busy that we’ve been a little slow on getting some store spottings up. So pardon us while we play a lil’ catch-up.  And since we’re on the subject of  busy… What a perfect segue one of England’s finest (and businest), Seb Webber who dropped by Echo Park recently.

Seb recently moved to LA to handle some music biz. He’s VP of A&R at XL Recordings and manager of dub/electro maniac Rusko. Seb’s definitely been doing his thing as he helped A&R albums by Adele, M.I.A. and the Cool Kids. He also co-founded independent ticketing company CrowdSurge. Can you say “h-u-s-t-l-a”?

Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90026
213-536-4234

The Private Show T-Shirt ($32.00)

Мишка is proud to do a shirt promoting it’s own make believe peepshow.  You ever been to a peepshow or just a strip club? If you go there for a bachelor party they might send you packing with one of those ugly T-shirts that promotes their corny bar.  I love drinking at Jumbo’s Clown Room in LA when I’m there but that place is fun. No cover, cheap beer and a friendly un-cokey, un-jerking off under a raincoat vibe.  Also the girls dance to good music and one time I saw Angelo from Fishbone there.  He checked out my ska patches but I didn’t want to bother him.

Last year I went to a friends bachelor party and his corny friends made him go to a strip club against his will. The actual strip club environment wasn’t really sexy or scary or debauched or anything… It was just a bunch of bored women dancing around in a big air conditioned and carpeted bar with tons and tons of huge scary looking security guys around. I can’t relax around bouncers. I always imagine that they’re about one second from attackin’ me. They are not cops and don’t have the same code of ethics that cops are supposed to be abiding by. It seems like they’re more likely to beat up or kill you than anyone else in the club, I usually find. I bet If Мишка ran a strip club It would be cool though and the T-shirt they gave away would be way better than the ones that you get at actual strip clubs. This one is available in Black, Navy and Heather Brown by the way. Get one for just a little more than you’d spend on a lapdance…the thrill will last longer!

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
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Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA
213-536-4234

Since things have cooled off from this years Gathering of the Juggalos festival we haven’t heard much from your favorite duo of wicked clowns. Well they are back to bring you the news and happenings within the Psychopathic Records realm. It’s a change from the format of the previous Weekly Freekly Weekly and Hatchet Happenings they used to provide news with. This time around they are declaring war on the mainstream!

This video is chock full of tour info, upcoming projects, and wrestling tidbits. It’s also full of some bad acting and cheesy graphics that we all know and love. I hope I can make it to ICP’s Old Shit Tour at the end of October. Maybe the powers to be at Мишка will show me some LoLuv and give a ninja the day off, -wink-…

Brand new video and song from one of our favorite bands on around, Blessure Grave. “Sea of Doubt” is  from their forthcoming album All of the Above Buried Below on Fast Weapons. The video was put together from random footage shot by new band member Shiloe Alia in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Oakland, California.

I hope you Blessure Grave fans out there made certain to grab a copy of the Stranger In the House 7″ we released a few months ago. Those of you who haven’t, we’re unfortunately sold out of them, BUT… Insound still has a few left. Get them while you still can, as we only produced 300 total.

I kind of feel ashamed that it’s taken me 2 years to discover Diamond Vampires. I’m just going to have to chalk it up to being over hear in the U.S. and well you can’t keep track of every band, especially when they’re overseas. I bet our resident expert on all things dark, Fokkawolfe is probably reading this and going “Oh yeah them? Pshhh I knew about them years ago.” Sigh.

The best way I can describe Diamond Vampires is to liken them to Chicago counterparts Gatekeeper. They mostly make really fucking creepy synth music that can double as a soundtrack score for an 80s horror film. Incredibly icy synths and beats combined with either film dialogue or way atmospheric and distorted vocals that just keep whatever imaginary slasher narrative you have running in your head going and going through foggy city streets.

Take a listen to “Hungry Wives” up above. It’s fantastic… like some demonic bastard hybrid of John Carpenter scores, My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and a little bit of Skinny Puppy and Haujobb. It’s all purely evil, somewhat seductive and impossible to stop listening to. Gah! I love this shit so much! I wish I knew who the hell was behind Diamond Vampires. They’ve taken the Witch House route and have no pictures of themselves available, haven’t played any live shows and give no clues as to how many members are in the band.

What I do know about the band is that they’re based in the UK and have done remixes for Telepathe, Glass Candy and Faux Fox (all of which are available for download via their website) in addition to the handful of original tracks they have written and recorded, most of which are on their Myspace and can be downloaded here.

A few months back, the band actually got their first official 12″ release for Friday Nights via Amateur Recordings. That vinyl also included “Lumiere” and a remix of “Friday Nights” by the Telephones (video up above). Get that shit and drop it in the mix at your next hipster party and you’ll score that hot pseudo-goth chick you have your eye on. I’m talkin’ to you Toilet Cobra!

So the big question now that I’ve discovered Diamond Vampires and burned through everything they’ve released a few times over, when will we get some new stuff or a full-length? In addition to their remixes and original material the band did make one mix way back in 2008 called Night Operations but I want some more original material! Hopefully these guys resurface from the shadows again soon, I need to be bitten.

Caught wind of this post at Mostly Junk Food… A bunch of screwed and copped tracks from Odd Future’s Mike G. Everything from Cudi, Dipset, Curren$y and even some Crystal Castles. I love how eclectic the Odd Future dude’s tastes are. No small wonder they’re making such interesting music!

Hit up your neighborhood Rite Aid and fix yourself up a purple drank, hit play and get your Saturday night started right cause everything sounds and feels better sloooooooowwwwww.

Continuing a theme, toys are not my only Niche Fetish. There’s the well-documented posters/art. Coffee Mugs. There’s the usual softcore porn addiction…but that’s so predictable it might not even count. I’ve dabbled in coins, banks, cards, rare books, jpegs…you name it.

As I mentioned back a few, I just recently got my appetite whetted on the stamp front…I am now a junior philatelist. As long as said stamps have to do with space, NASA, rockets, or Soviet Russia. Or any combination thereof.

I’m a Frankenstein guy. Nuts for Universal Monsters. Spider-Man. Charlie Brown. Catcher in the Rye. Big Trouble in Little China. An Arrested Development junkie. Etcetera. The list goes on. And you know what? Sometimes I surprise myself with the stuff I fuckin’ USED to be nuts over. Case in point.

I was looking for some music to go with this week’s kaiju-movie—that’s right…my little stop-motion experiment has come full-circle (no-pun), back to the vinyl monsters and weirdos that it started with—and I happened upon all. this. rare groove/leftfield/beats + pieces music I used to collect. I’ve got like hundreds of cds worth of mp3s for just about anything Ninjatune put out in it’s first 15 years of existence. Or at least that’s what it feels like.

There was a time when my life was dedicated to hunting down the latest Zorn, Patton, Mori double-cd from Japan. A time when I would do whatever it took to get a DJ Krush mixtape from someone. And, of course—maybe even the strangest of all—a time when I would turn cartwheels over finding even a snippet of a track by Luke Vibert, aka Plug, aka Wagon Christ, aka Etc.

Mind you, I have not listened to this stuff in at least six or seven years. Maybe—MAYBE—I’ll put on some Amon Tobin or Squarepusher every once in a while, but happening upon all this crazy music and trying to sample it to the point where I could pair it with 900 images of spinning dinosaurs was a fucking time-warp indeed. It made me wish I was a DJ so I could put it all together and play it for you, constant reader. I had you in mind all along. Alas, a DJ I am not.

But. As it turns out, none of that music really ‘goes’ with what I have in my head as the soundtrack to revolving monsters. Maybe it’s the 7+ minute running time of most of those tracks. Or the 2 minutes of buildup at the beginning of most of them. I don’t know.

As such, I opted to reach even deeper back in my obsession vault and tickle my novelty college music bone. That’s right. They Might Be Giants. Many folks make the mistake of categorizing these dudes in with Weird Al and other jokesters, but let me correct you of that notion right now: These are fantastic songwriters.

Sure, it’s quirky. Sure, it sounds like a cross between Ira Glass singing to kid’s music and, well, the Sponge Bob theme. But it’s fantastic. I demand that you agree. If you are not familiar with this band, go buy, download, or listen to Apollo 18 or Lincoln…they are so super good it’s not even funny. But it’s funny.

As a tie-in with last week’s entry in this craptain’s log, my first-ever exposure to them was when I was a little kid. Nickelodeon—for some reason—used to play music videos after school (Nick Rocks?), and I have a distinct memory of seeing the video for ‘Don’t Let’s Start’…and, well, then I forgot about them again until High School when the dude on the bus with the HUGE headphones and some box-set of Disney music CDs would rant and rave about them.

So, yeah. In a nutshell, They Might Be Giants are girl repellent. But they’re worth it. Just like toys. Thank sod I’m already married…as I just wonder what a burgeoning love interest of mine would say if she knew I spent my Friday nights in my office, drinking sugar-free red bull and taking photos of my overpriced, over-cherished Japanese vinyl toys listening to cerebral-as-it-comes indie music in a shirt that says ‘Keep it Surreal’.

I wasn’t really going anywhere with that. But you get the picture, I think.

Needless to say, my little movie with no real theme, no real message or overlying organizing principle was a match made in heaven for a song that was written almost 20 years ago, and that I hadn’t heard in at least ten. The only bummer? I shot too much! So I opted to add my original favorite TMBG song to the end, which of course then prompted me to give my now-title the Brangelina treatment. Voila.

As always. Thanks for watching. Thanks for reading. I am currently in the shadow of Mt. Shasta, drinking my first beer in over a month, hoping to simultaneously get some photos of the moon and NOT cut my hand off with a chainsaw. Slay for me.

Until next time….

How can you not like that creepy homemade porn vibe where the video looks like it’s a 5th generation transfer? It fits this remix PRADADA remix of Wonder Wheel’s Purple quite perfectly. Nice and trippy redirection of Wonder Wheel’s usual sound. The video reminds me of this old installment of Kill With Video… I like it!

If you like the video check out Moduli TV’s Vimeo for more of their work.

Via All, Everyone, United