Well, shit. I did a whole lot of nothing yesterday despite having grandiose plans to clean the house top to bottom in Kathy’s absence (I can be annoying). She’s in Germany for five days. Instead I shirked work (workshirker) with Christian all day, who just returned from meeting with Uma in London about their movie. Then Mike Nouveau came to store his Vespa at my house for twelve days while he goes to Paris. I am not going to Paris or London or Germany. I am going to the Tea Lounge.

On Saturday I did, however, travel all the way to Alana’s house, which I think is located in Latin America… or maybe across the street from a meatpacker in the utmost of industrial Brooklyn and a gaggle of cackling hispanic men who take lots of group photos of each other. She and Kate and I put on the Greatest Hits of Dimitry’s Most Hilarious T-shirts and ran around in the rain throwing balls at each other.

Two songs to share. 1) Estelle’s new single “No Substitute Love,” which I really like a whole lot more than “American Boy.” Christian is in the video, too! 2) Five O’Clock Heroes’ “Who” with Agyness singing. It came out great, I really love this song. It’s been on repeat in my bedroom for a while now.

Five O’Clock Heroes – Who (feat. Agyness Deyn)

One more thing. (more…)

Brad’s Birthday at the Annex
Photos by Antwan Duncan of IThinkYoureSwell
June 14, 2008

I haven’t offered a live version of any of my songs before, but I like the remixed version of my song “Do It in the Street” that I performed kind of as a surprise on Saturday at my birthday party, so here you go. It’s on my Myspace now, too.

Brad Walsh - Do It in the Street (Live)

Alanis Morissette and Ryan Reynolds broke up and now he’s engaged to Scarlett Johansson. Alanis says she’s not mad at him for that but her new album is super angry. Plus, I think she’s pregnant? Lucky for us, that translates to some brand new energetic sounds from the most recognizably scorned woman of the 90s. Take a listen to two tracks from Flavors of Entanglement: the heavy electro “Straitjacket” and mello-pop “Giggle Again For No Reason.” Both go into territories that she hasn’t really explored much before, and with a fair amount of success. Still sounds like her, but whoever’s been in the studio with her has had a heavy hand here and there, and Guy Sigsworth seems to have had an influence beyond just the production of “Underneath.”

“Straitjacket”

“Giggle Again for no Reason”

Here’s an easy chance to get a bunch of cool stuff for free with little effort on your part. To win a set of Radiohead’s new Best Of compilations (CD of 17 tracks and DVD of all 21 videos), as well as the full Touch Me album from JunkMag favorites The Beautiful Bodies, all wrapped up in an Anna Nicole Kill Shop Kill canvas tote bag, just comment below with your best Seventeen-style Traumarama.* Our favorite will win the prize. You have until June 4 at 3:00pm EST. ETA: Nikki wins! Total traumarama.

*Comment anonymously if you like. Just include your e-mail address when you comment, and it will show up only to us. We will contact you later if you are the winner and nobody will know that the embarrassing story belongs to you!

Consider this an afterthought to the last couple posts… two wonderful songs from two very different places. Below you’ll find a high quality version of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” [the one most often going around the net currently is crappy], and another track from the Republic Tigers called “Golden Sand.” You need to buy both of these albums.

The Republic Tigers - “Golden Sand”

Katy Perry - “I Kissed A Girl”

I took Alicia’s picture a few months ago at a party, and pretty soon after that we found each other online and got in contact to spew accolades at each other. So when she came back into town after a trip to Italy (she’s from Kansas City), we met up to discuss her music, my music, her travels, and my… back yard. I had a great time just fucking around and hanging out. No pretension or awkwardness, really, for relative strangers.

We had to reschedule the visit from earlier in the day to 7pm, and then when she arrived she had to sit around for an hour listening to a (really hot) dude explain to me and Anna our parts in a movie that we’re going to do this summer. But it actually all worked out for the best, because when everybody left it was getting dark outside and we went to the back yard to do photos, and they started to come out great.

Click any of these images to see larger.

Beautiful Bodies, “Touch Me”

Her band, the Beautiful Bodies, is really good. I really like “Touch Me” on their MySpace. It’s only a matter of time before this song gets co-opted for an iPod commercial or something. She also sings a bit on some of the new Republic Tigers (who I love) album, who were why she was in town this weekend (they were on Letterman). Their album Keep Color is like Nada Surf and Interpol and Stellastarr had a threewaybaby.

The Republic Tigers, “Buildings and Mountains”

It seems that between Alicia and the Republic Tigers and Ssion and the 20 or so transplanted club kids with more original style than I’ve seen around here in a long time that Kansas City is the New New York.

1. Tonight Kathy and I will be doing an IMpersonal liveblog of the American Idol finale [we gave up when I got drunk and bored, so Kathy just added on to last night’s post, right below this one], mixing this and this seamlessly and with plenty of disdain.

2. Just randomly checked this and was surprised… from this server alone, based on a post with a download link long since buried way back in this blog, my Ashlee Simpson remix has been downloaded almost 80,000 times. That’s a lotta Ashlee.

I’ve been writing about Alan MX a lot lately. Here I go again! As I’ve said before, he’s one of my favorite new artists, and his label debut Warpsichord is out soon. We decided recently to do an EP, possibly an album together, and we’re going to start work on it right away. Here’s an example of the type of music we’re going to make together; it’s an unmastered preview of a remix I’m doing of his song “Captain America Video.” The words and vocals are his, the music and some backing vocals are mine. Take a listen and let us know what you think! I’m really happy with it and can’t wait to play it next time I DJ. Listen to it on something with good bass!

Alan MX, Captain America Video (Brad Walsh Remix)

I’ve had Santogold’s debut self-titled album (out today) for a little while. On first listen I was disappointed by what I immediately deemed yet another over-hyped collection of mediocre music put out by an interesting person with just one great single (the much-blogged “L.E.S. Artistes”) to back it up. But after a few more listens to it all, schizophrenically-sequenced as it is, I found much more to love.

Some songs rely at points on archetypes of nineties successes. “My Superman” is very late-career Siouxsie and the Banshees, right down to the pronunciation and wailing, dragging vocals; while several others (“You’ll Find A Way” and “I’m A Lady”) are almost boring rehashes of familiar No Doubt and grunge.

But some of the most original standout tracks are new and exciting territory, perfectly timed. “Starstruck and “Anne” – and to a more dramatic degree, “Creator” – are brand new. In 2008 we don’t have anything on pop radio that sounds like Santogold, except the occasional M.I.A. track from a shared producer. And though many comparisons based on prior experience have been made between the two, Santogold is of a distinctly separate feel and genre.

”My Superman”

My favorite two songs from Madonna’s forthcoming Hard Candy are (1) “Give it to Me” and (2) “Miles Away.” While these both sound musically like the hands of her producers, they’re still very much her and recall past signature Madonna songs. Most of the rest of the album banks on tired stereotypes of last year’s radio and edges on gimmicky. But these and one or two others are great.

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Have a listen to Northern State’s “Better Already” (1) and the JD Samson remix (2) below. It’s a new sound for them, off of Can I Keep This Pen?, their new album produced by Adrock of the Beastie Boys and Chuck Brody of Shitake Monkey. I really love this song, and the whole album is great. On June 3, I am playing a show with them at Knitting Factory, and I’m going to debut some new music and make a big deal out of the whole thing. It’ll be my first live show in over a year, so buy tickets (on sale tomorrow) and see us both!

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Listen to this. Lifelike remix of The Presets’ “This Boy’s in Love.” The new album is very good, very much their sound but lots of new directions.

Since it opened a year or two ago, I have been into the Spring Street Ben Sherman store a few times and only ever found a couple of things I liked. So I went in yesterday with the lovely Dana Dynamite looking for something and to my surprise I kind of love the entire spring collection. There was a lot more black and white than I think they’ve produced in the past, and anyone who has ever seen me out knows that my apparel rainbow is pretty much grayscale. Perfect. So she helped me find some amazing stuff that I’m bringing with me to Vegas. Without Dana I think maybe I would have been showing up to Tao in holey underwear and a poncho.

Yesterday was Geneva’s official birthday so we had dinner at 24 Prince, and as usual, I basically died. I want them to cater my afterlife. Finally introduced Nikki to Christian, and they had lots to talk about, obviously. When I get back next week I’m going to do some awesome photos with her. (more…)

My mom has had me listening to The B-52’s my entire life, and every time I hear them I get super nostalgic thinking about driving around sunny back roads with her. When I was little I used to lay under the piano by the heater and stare at the red album cover for Wild Planet for really long periods of time. Then when their Greatest Hits came out in 1998 it was the soundtrack of the summer and one of the constant CDs in rotation in my very first car. So now they have an all-new album for the first time in something like 15 years, and I am really excited by this song, “Juliet of the Spirits.” It’s instant classic for me, I can barely contain all the chemicals inside me putting my brain back in the passenger seat. Here it is, along with the Peaches remix of their new single “Funplex.”

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