MORNING CAME TOO SOON

Me and Bob, December 31, 2014 edition

Bob Nastanovich and I had the great honor of ringing in the New Year this year for the fourth straight time here in Des Moines. Usually we do it at my favorite local music venue, Vaudeville Mews, but this year we did it a couple of doors up at the Lift, a bar with a rotating selection of works on the wall by local artists. Here's what my notes tell me we played, with a Spotify playlist (when the tracks were available on Spotify, that is... which was a lot less often than you might think!).

A few favorites from Bob's selection: Roberta Flack's Leonard Cohen cover "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye," current British garage-punks' shout-along "I Wanna Get Out of Here But I Can't Take You Anywhere," and Richmond, Virginia-based second-wave ska band the Good Guys' protest song aimed at the then-Secretary of the Interior, "(The Ballad of) James Watt," with its endlessly quotable line, "Stop James Watt / If you wanna keep the trees you got."

Thank you so much to Amedeo for having us, to John and Clint for getting us set up and putting up with us at their bar, to Dustin for making the Lift idea happen, and to all of our friends who made it out on a cold night that's famously terrible for being on the road. We always have a blast and hope you did, too!


A Sunny Day in Glasgow - 5:15 Train
Danny Stewart & His Aloha Boys - Fort St. Rag (Bob)
Shabazz Palaces - Palace Slide
Butthole Surfers - Lady Sniff (Bob)
D'Angelo - Devil's Pie
Minutemen - Fake Contest (Bob)
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made for Walkin' (Bob)
The Go! Team - Ladyflash
Roberta Flack - Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye (Bob)
Taken By Trees - The Sweetness of Air France
Slave - Volcano Rupture (Bob)
Curtis Mayfield - We've Only Just Begun
Kim Wilde - Kids in America (Bob)
The Crystals - Da Doo Ron Ron
Los Indios Tabajaras - The Washington Flowers (Bob)
Bully - Milkman
Kool & the Gang - Ladies Night (Bob)
Janelle Monáe (feat. Solange) - Electric Lady
Ming City Rockers - I Wanna Get Out of Here But I Can't Take You Anywhere (Bob)
The Smiths - Hand in Glove
Steve Martin - King Tut (Bob)
Twigs (now fka Twigs) - Breathe
Shirley Ellis - The Clapping Song (Bob)
Danny Brown (feat. Purity Ring) - 25 Bucks
Peggy Lee - I'm a Woman (Bob)
Free Energy - Something in Common
New Order - Temptation (Bob, pretty sure this was a shorter mix than the one I usually hear)
Mantis Pincers - Black Capes on Blondes
Greyhound - Follow the Leader (Bob)
White Lung - Down It Goes
Billy Joel - You May Be Right (Bob)
The War on Drugs - Red Eyes
Sun City Girls - Radar 1941 (Bob)
Lana Del Rey - Money Power Glory
The Good Guys - (The Ballad Of) James Watt (Bob)
The Poison Control Center - Give It a Try
REO Speedwagon - Take It on the Run (Bob)
Justin Timberlake (feat. Clipse) - Like I Love You
Groundhogs - Cherry Red (Bob)
Faron Young - Wine Me Up
Doris Day - Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) (Bob)
The Normal - T.V.O.D. (Bob)
Caribou - Can't Do Without You
Sebadoh - Soul and Fire (Bob)
Constantines - Nighttime/Anytime (It's Alright)
Run D.M.C. - Sucker M.C.'s (Bob)
The Exploding Hearts - Sleeping Aides and Razorblades
The Whyte Boots - Nightmare (Bob)
Sleigh Bells - Tell 'Em
The Endtables - Circumcision (Bob)
Booker T. and the MG's - Boot-Leg (Bob)
ESG - Moody
??? (Bob)
Magnetic Fields - Take Ecstasy With Me
??? (Bob)
David Bowie - Fame
Das Racist - Rainbow in the Dark
??? (Bob)
The G-Clefs - I Understand (Just How You Feel) - Auld Lang Syne
Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
Charli XCX - Boom Clap
Madonna - Like a Prayer
CEO - Halo (Beyoncé cover)
Beyoncé - ***Flawless
De La Soul - The Magic Number 
Courtney Barnett - History Eraser
Amerie - 1 Thing
Big Tymers feat. Boo and Gotti - Oh Yeah!
Prince - Kiss
Sophie - Lemonade
Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
Missy Elliott - Work It
Warren G (feat. Nate Dogg) - Regulate (by request)
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
Prince - 1999 (by request for Prince)
LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum (by specific request)
Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)(12" Remix - Radio Edit)
Röyksopp / Robyn - Do It Again
R. Kelly - Ignition (Remix)
Mariah Carey - Always Be My Baby
TLC - Waterfalls
Drake - Hold On, We're Going Home

Deejays

A photo posted by Jessica Rae Miller (@iowawildflower) on Dec 12, 2014 at 8:42pm PST

#vscocam bob and marc doin their thang

A photo posted by Max Jury (@maxwelljury) on Dec 12, 2014 at 8:55pm PST

I HEAR GOOD TIMES CALLING ME, SOLID GOOD TIMES

If only I still had this hat...

Locals-made-good the Seed of Something held the triumphant release party for their proper debut album, English, which I am biased about but would recommend to just about anybody who likes precocious garage-rock hullabaloo, on Saturday night at Vaudeville Mews. I was lucky enough to catch a bit of their first set before DJing outside at the PBR Bar, and I'm pretty sure they played all of the new ones except for "Fire." I've had the record for a while thanks to their Indiegogo campaign, so I played that one during my own set. I also played a whole weird mix of stuff: For some reason I started reaching for the universal, slam-dunk dancefloor songs pretty early, and I was a little leery of one of my turntables because a speaker problem was causing feedback if I played it too loud, so by the end of the night pretty much every other song it felt like I was finding myself falling back on something from an LP I'd already played. I guess I should bring another crate? Or something? Anyway, thank you to everybody who kept dancing waaay too late, and thanks to Ladd for booking me, and thanks to Joe and Derek and T.J. for getting me all set up, and thanks to Tony and Sami for bringing the Lydia Loveless seven-inch, and thanks probably especially to Brian for letting me talk him into driving me home with my gear; you all are running rings around this little downtown.

What I played is below, with a Spotify approximation that probably leaves out all the best stuff because it always does:


Sparks: "Goofing Off"
Gloom Balloon: "The Face"
The Seed of Something: "Fire"
Lydia Loveless: "Blind" (Ke$ha cover)
Solange: "Losing You"
LCD Soundsystem: "I Can Change"
Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Proud Mary"
Prince: "When Doves Cry"
Gang Gang Dance: "MindKilla"
Lana Del Rey: "Brooklyn Baby"
Digable Planets: "Borough Check"
Arthur Russell: "Tone Bone Kone"
Archie Bell & the Drells: "Tighten Up"
Best Coast: "Crazy for You"
Yoko Ono: "Walking on Thin Ice"
How to Dress Well: "Words I Don't Remember" (meant to play "Repeat Pleasure," whoops)
Constantines: "Nighttime/Anytime (It's Alright)"
Wilson Pickett: "Mustang Sally"
Disclosure (feat. Sam Smith): "Latch"
Chance the Rapper: "Interlude (That's Love)"
Jessie Ware: "If You're Never Gonna Move"
James Brown: "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"
Arctic Monkeys: "R U Mine?"
So Cow: "Shackleton"
Al Green: "Let's Stay Together"
Studio: "West Side Part 1"
Chic: "Le Freak"
Michael Jackson: "Billie Jean"
Paramore: "Ain't It Fun"
Whitney Houston: "How Will I Know"
Röyksopp / Robyn: "Do It Again"
Sam Cooke: "Having a Party"
DJ Sammy: "Heaven"
TLC: "Creep"
Beyoncé: "Partition"
Gorillaz: "Feel Good Inc."
Liars: "Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack"
Spice Girls: "Wannabe"
Kingdom: "You"
Warren G (feat. Nate Dogg): "Regulate"
Drake: "Hold on, We're Going Home"
Wilson Pickett: "Mustang Sally"
Elite Gymnastics: "Minneapolis Belongs to You"
James Blake: "CMYK"
LOL Boys (feat. Heart Streets): "Changes"
Iceage: "You're Blessed"
Spoon: "Got Nuffin'"
Michael Jackson: "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
James Brown: "I Got You (I Feel Good)"
2Pac (feat. Dr. Dre): "California Love"
Whitney Houston: "Saving All My Love for You"
Dr. Dre (feat. Snoop Doggy Dogg): "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang"
The Tough Alliance: "Neo Violence"
Chic: "Good Times"
Korallreven (feat. Victoria Bergsman): "As Young as Yesterday"
Snoop Doggy Dogg: "Who Am I (What's My Name?)"
UGK (feat. OutKast): "Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You)"
Azealia Banks (feat. Lazy Jay): "212"
Frank Ocean: "Sweet Life"
Beyonce: "XO"

WHAT FUN DO THE MODS GET OUT OF SMASHING THINGS UP

Photo by Arin Eaton

The Vaudeville Mews is a big part of why I moved to Des Moines, Iowa, almost five years ago now. My wife and I would come back to visit her family, and we'd go to some new restaurant/bar or other. And they were pretty good! But we didn't move here until after I ended up reading about the Mews, near Fourth and Court, the small local music venue. Jonathan Richman, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Jens Lekman had been through the doors not long before I arrived.

A few years back they opened an outdoor bar, in the adjacent alley. Somehow, I'm told because it sold the most Pabst Blue Ribbon in all of Iowa, it ended up apparently being sponsored, as the PBR Bar. That was open for a couple of years, on warm weekend nights and farmers market mornings. Then the building next door got sold, and last fall they had to tear down the alley bar.

They reopened it a few weeks ago. I had the honor, privilege, thrill (is that a U2 Batman song?) of DJing the first night back. Here are some songs I played. (Spotify approximation, which lacks CEO, Chance the Rapper, Kate Bush's actual version of Kate Bush's song, etc., also below.) Thank you, everybody!



The Tough Alliance: "Setting Sail"
The Grace Period: "Mod Killer"
The Seed of Something: "Downtown"
Bully: "Milkman"
Courtney Barnett: "History Eraser"
Ray Charles: "You Don't Know Me"
Belle and Sebastian: "The Stars of Track and Field"
Sally Shapiro: "If It Doesn't Rain"
Danny Brown: "25 Bucks" (feat. Purity Ring)
Mac DeMarco: "Passing Out the Pieces"
Silk: "Freak Me"
Lydia Loveless: "Head"
Deerhunter: "Nothing Ever Happened"
The Poison Control Center: "'Torpedoes on Tuesday'"
Grace in the Jones: "Walking in the Rain"
TNGHT: "Higher Ground"
PM Dawn: "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss"
CEO: "Halo"
Beyonce: "Partition"
R. Kelly: "Ignition (Remix)"
LCD Soundsystem: "All My Friends"
Chance the Rapper: "Juice"
Disclosure: "Latch"
Sleigh Bells: "Tell 'Em"
The Go! Team: "Ladyflash"
Dwight Yoakam: "Honky Tonk Man"
Ghost Town DJ's: "My Boo"
Beyonce: "Drunk in Love" (feat. Jay Z)
Chic: "Le Freak"
Lucinda Williams: "Passionate Kisses"
Ricky Eat Acid: "In my dreams we're almost touching"
Drake: "Worst Behavior"
Al Green: "Let's Stay Together"
Kylie Minogue: "Can't Get You Out of My Head"
ESG: "Moody"
The Long Blondes: "Fulwood Babylon"
Kate Bush: "Hounds of Love"
OutKast: "So Fresh, So Clean"
New Order: "Bizarre Love Triangle"
M.I.A.: "Come Walk With Me"
No Doubt: "Hella Good"
M.I.A.: "Double Bubble Trouble"
Missy Elliott: "Work It"
Daphni: "Yes, I Know"
Amerie: "1 Thing"
Michael Jackson: "Rock With You"
TLC: "No Scrubs"
T-Pain: "Can't Believe It" (feat. Lil Wayne)
R Kelly: "Bump N' Grind"
Madonna: "Live to Tell"
Whitney Houston: "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (12" Remix - Radio Edit)
Madonna: "Like a Prayer"

Photo by John Huffman

IT JUST MAY BE A LUNATIC YOU'RE LOOKING FOR

They walked through Bedford Stuy alone / Photo by bgh

Thank you so, so, so much to everybody who came out to the Vaudeville Mews on Tuesday night. For the third straight year, the Vaudeville Mews gave me a chance to spend my New Year's Eve playing records I like with Bob Nastanovich and whoever else cared to listen and/or dance. The Mews' lease only goes through the end of 2014, so it's possible this was the last time Bob and I will get to do an "NYE throwdown," at least at my favorite venue's current location. But let's not worry about that yet.

Thanks to Joe and TJ at the bar, Bob at the door, and Derek for running sound. Thanks to my neighbors for making their first-ever visit to the Vaude. Thanks to the young women who asked me to play Beyoncé three times and posed for pictures with me and my B'Day record cover. Thanks to the dude who asked me to play Matt Valentine and Erika Elder from his phone. Thanks also to the couple of people who requested R. Kelly — I'm sorry I was too lame to put "Ignition (Remix)" in my crate this year, but with all the strangers in the room, I just didn't think it was right to risk bringing up painful associations for anyone. (There's nothing wrong with "Bump and Grind," but at least this once I figured we could leave that to the Bumps McGhee song.) Thanks to Ladd for booking us, and thanks as always to Amedeo for running the place.

The new year is about new beginnings, and flubbed song transitions (all by me, sorry), and wondering how in the world you're going to follow the Special AKA's "Nelson Mandela." Oh, and by the way: Thanks also to all my friends who made it out. You really shouldn't have bought me those shots.

Here's what we played, plus the closest Spotify approximation:



The Reverend Gary Davis - You Got to Move
Echo & the Bunnymen - The Original Cutter [Bob]
Scott & Charlene's Wedding - Two Weeks
The Gun Club - Sex Beat [Bob]
Courtney Barnett - History Eraser
Barry White - Barry's Theme [Bob]
Digable Planets - 9th Wonder (Blackitolism)
The Special AKA - Nelson Mandela [Bob]
Bahumutsi Drama Group - To the Comrades
Baby Mammoth - Tasty Maloney [Bob]
Joanna Gruesome - Do You Really Wanna Know Why You're Still in Love With Me?
Hot Chocolate - You Sexy Thing [Bob]
Kingdom feat. Kelela - Bank Head
The Cure - Grinding Halt [Bob]
Lydia Loveless - Steve Earle
Musical Youth - Pass the Dutchie [Bob]
Deerhunter - Pensacola
Donna Summer - Hot Stuff [Bob]
Jonathan Richman - This Kind of Music
The Velvet Underground - We're Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together [Bob]
The Field - A Paw in My Face
Pierre Henry - Jericho Jerk [Bob]
Sky Ferreira - I Blame Myself
The Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want [Bob]
Arthur Russell - A Little Lost
Blancmange - Don't Tell Me [Bob]
Blood Orange feat. Samantha Urbani - You're Not Good Enough
The Feelies - The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness [Bob]
Frank Ocean - Lost
Bumps McGhee & His Twisters - Bumps and Grinds [Bob]
ESG - Moody [attempted, totally played wrong track]
The B-52's - Rock Lobster [Bob]
Disclosure feat. AlunaGeorge - White Noise
Booker T & the M.G.'s - Born Under a Bad Sign [Bob]
Quiet Village - Circus of Horror
Nancy Sinatra - Sugar Town [Bob]
Camera Obscura - New Year's Resolution
Chic - Le Freak [Bob]
TNGHT - Bugg'n
Blondie - One Way or Another [Bob]
Run-DMC - King of Rock [Bob]
Doris Day - Everybody Loves a Lover [Bob]
Wilson Pickett - In the Midnight Hour
Les Rita Mitsouko - Andy [Bob]
Liars - Let's Not Wrestle Mt. Heart Attack
Jack Hylton Orchestra - Gold Diggers of 1933: We're in the Money! [Bob]
LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
Nightmares on Wax feat. De La Soul - Keep On [Bob]
G-Clefs: "I Understand (Just How You Feel) - Auld Lang Syne"
Peggy Lee - Mack the Knife [Bob]
Jessie Ware - If You're Never Gonna Move
Dinosaur Jr. - Freak Scene [Bob]
Beyonce - Get Me Bodied
Kool and the Gang - Ladies Night [Bob]
Beyonce - Freakum Dress
Beastie Boys - Something's Got to Give [Bob]
M.I.A. - Come Walk With Me
Soft Cell - Tainted Love [Bob]
Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches
ABBA - Dancing Queen [Bob]
Beyonce - Ring the Alarm (I think? I may also have played "Freakum Dress" again!)
Hot Chocolate - Beautiful Lady [Bob]
Curtis Vodka - Hey Girl
Heart - Crazy on You [Bob]
Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
Run-DMC - It's Like That [Bob]
Toro Y Moi - Say That
R.E.M. - The One I Love [Bob]
Madonna - Into the Groove
Cozy Cole - Topsy Part 1 [Bob]
Drake feat. Rihanna - Take Care
Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls [Bob]
Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
MC Shy-D - Shake It [Bob]
Big Tymers feat. Boo and Gotti - Oh Yeah!
Billy Joel - You May Be Right [Bob]
Prince - Kiss
The Ray Mirijanian Oud and Clarinet - Bint El Shalabiyeh [Bob]
Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) (12" Remix - Radio Edit)

MAKE YOU WANNA HOLLER HI-DE-HO

Professional and everything.

So last night Bob and I spun records at Vaudeville Mews.Thanks to Ladd, Bradie, Patrick, Dustin and everybody who came out to ring in 2013 with us. Here's what we played:

YEAR OF THE GLAD

These guys listen to music.

So I've been putting together a little online radio station for eMusic the past few months. (If you don't know eMusic, it's a subscription music discovery service, and I'm honored to contribute alongside all of the super-knowledgeable critics who write there.) While I don't necessarily expect anyone to want to trawl through all of my playlists, I figured I might as well share the songs I've added so far.

Maybe bands will Google themselves and see I'm not a big jerk all of the time? Maybe you'll skim the names and either nod your head in agreement or spit out your coffee in frustration, wondering why I put x on my list but not y? Maybe nobody will ever see this? Who cares!

P.S. If you're in town, please don't forget, Bob Nastanovich and I will be spinning records until we fall down over at Vaudeville Mews on New Year's Eve.

THE WORLD MOVES ON

That's me facing away from the camera, talking to my friend's ex-boyfriend.

Today, eMusic published an interview I did recently with Jens Lekman, along with a review I wrote of his new album, I Know What Love Isn't. I last interviewed him and reviewed his album five years ago for Pitchfork, when he put out Night Falls Over Kortedala. So this was sort of a big moment for me. Although I was at first resistant to the appeal of this Swedish singer, songwriter, and producer, he has turned out to be one of the musicians whose work has meant the most to me over the past five years.

Still, when I saw him at New York City's Webster Hall in April 2008, and then headed back to my Brooklyn neighborhood for the nearby house show posted above, I remember already wondering how he would ever top Kortedala. It was more than an album for me; it captured a moment, a moment that might've been as naive and idealistic as the presidential campaign themes that fall can seem after four years of polarized gridlock. You can always make another album, but moments are out of our hands.

I tried to mention this to Jens, but it didn't really come out in the form of a question, and I'm not sure what I said made sense. Toward the end of our interview, though, I was able to bring up the small but significant role he played in my current whereabouts: As my wife was suggesting we move from Brooklyn to downtown Des Moines, she used local venue Vaudeville Mews' recent and upcoming shows as a lure, and I was thrilled to see had played here.

"I remember that show in Des Moines," Jens told me, in a portion of the interview it didn't make sense to file for eMusic. "It was really fun. Like, there was a big crowd, and everyone was really excited. It seemed like a really cool town, actually." After I talked a bit about how nice it is to see performers away from situations where they know their every move might be dissected by the blogs and media, he said in agreement, "Those shows are just so much more fun, to be honest."

So there you have it. Lekman seemingly remembers playing Des Moines -- his description of the show definitely matches what I heard about it, though maybe every stop in his tour was that way. And while I'm not sure his current album of low-key heartbreak will be embraced in the same way Kortedala was five years ago, to me it's an even better album, of a piece with recent records by Tracey Thorn and Jonathan Richman. Lekman and I are in different places now, different moments, but his music still has a power over me I can't quite explain. I'm looking forward to sticking with it for another four or five years.

see also: "I was a seapunk when I was 12"

channel HOGSTYLE

Lotus Plaza plays at Wooly's in Des Moines' East Village.

So I DJed again on Saturday night at Vaudeville Mews' outdoor PBR Bar. Or at least, played records -- someday I really ought to figure out the whole beat-matching/mixing thing, but at this point I still have enough trouble remembering which discs are 45 RPM and which are 33 RPM. And that's even after I've cued my records up with my headphones. Go figure.

We're in the midst of what officials say is the hottest July in this state since the Dust Bowl, so it wasn't my most crowded DJing gig ever. For most of the night, then, I basically just played what I wanted to play. No matter how soggy-muggy it is out there, though, after midnight you get random drunk people wandering over to dance, so you play what you think might keep them moving.

Thank you so much to Ladd for booking me (under the hey-Marc-you-should-really-think-up-a-DJ-name name of DJ Hogstyle, hence my Frank Ocean-inspired post title), to Kyler for helping me get set up and keeping me from getting too thirsty and just generally putting up with me, to Derek for getting me squared away sound-wise, and to Patrick and Ashley for helping me haul my turntables and crate of records home again.

Once again, I tried to keep a running notepad entry on my phone with the names of the tracks I was playing. I did pretty well until the end, when I have one line that says "Wgotne" (did I play Whitney Houston again? I think I'd remember that) and another line that says, simply, "Bwy" (Sade's "By Your Side"? SWV? More TLC? LCD Soundsystem?). Without further stupid ado:

PARADISE BY THE DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL LIGHT

A new friend begs to hear Meatloaf, though
I'm not sure if she had the title quite right.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the Vaudeville Mews' back bar on Saturday night! I had a total blast spinning records again. Despite a needle that broke on the way to the venue, I felt like the night went off almost without a hitch, and I was super excited to see so many friends' faces out there.

As promised, here's what I played.

THIS JUST IN: I'll be back DJing again on Saturday, July 21. Mark your calendars, save some Pitchfork-festival-weekend sweat, keep being awesome.

TONIGHT WE'RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999

These guys need to try harder.

Hi there, you! It's me... me! We haven't talked in a while. My excuse is becoming the proud father of a two-month-old, with all the extra responsibilities that entails. What's yours?

I'll try to hit you up with my unbeatable 2011 year-end coverage when I get a second, like a real part-time music critic, with rankings and everything-- maybe by roughly the time the Village Voice publishes its annual Pazz & Jop poll? Or by 2013, whichever is sooner. Hey, with the glut of online coverage and preemptive list-making these days, later is probably better. More time to cool off, get some perspective, and spend time with any records I might've underrated during the year. Or not, we'll see.

What I do want to tell you about in this post (so why don't I just tell you already, right?) is New Year's Eve. That's breaking news, so let's steal one of those sirens from that ol' Murdoch wannabe Drudge, shall we?

There we go! Anyway,  on New Year's Eve I got to spin records at my favorite local music venue, Vaudeville Mews, with local pub trivia night master Bob Nastanovich, also known as the guy who has the most fun onstage during Pavement concerts.  Pavement has been one of my favorite bands since 10th grade, so up there on the screen this reads to me like something that should seem like a big deal. But Bob is pretty much the most down-to-earth guy around, so what it really felt like was just a couple of dudes drinking for free and praying their turntables didn't give off an irritating buzz because their grounding wire was fraying (Bob) or send off weird droning quasi-dubstep wooshes because for some reason the table was vibrating (me). I also started a ridiculously high number of records at the wrong speed, 33 when it was 45 or else vice versa, I think Bob might know the exact tally.

We started testing out our gear a little after 8 ("What, you guys don't have a mixer?") and for the first few hours there was basically nobody in the bar, so Bob and I just went back and forth playing whatever we felt like. Suddenly, not long before midnight, the place was just packed, to the point where you had to switch from plucking out obscurities that seemed to jibe with what Bob had just played (or you had just played) to, y'know, Michael Jackson. Which, I love Michael Jackson, but that's a whole different thing! We had a couple of microphones, too, and Bob was nice enough to do the countdown when midnight came (he was playing New Order's "Temptation," and then I segued into the Prince song that is the title of this post, which I thought to myself was particularly appropriate this year because of the Maya end-of-the-world thing and also because after all these tumultuous years 1999 really does suggest a time period when you'd have a super fun party).

Bob ended up having to leave around 1 a.m., which was cool but meant I would now have to pick all the records myself, and play them on my single turntable with its missing counterweight measure and fend off dudebros requesting the Rolling Stones or lady dudes asking me to "play something I know" like for example that MGMT record I was gonna buy earlier that day if they had it at Zzz Records if I had had time to stop by Zzz Records. Luckily, a couple of our Brooklyn friends and their family members had come out to Vaudeville Mews, including a guy with actual, I mean actual, DJing experience who had advised me on my purchase of a new turntable earlier in the week, the one and only David Bacon though not the DJ David Bacon that comes up when I Googled that name just now. So he was able to help steer me toward the good stuff and keep the records playing steadily as the crowd died down and eventually closing time came at 2 a.m. There are a whole lot of other funny stories I started to type just now but I just deleted them, because this isn't Pitchfork Reviews Reviews and anyway it's good to save something to tell each other over beers. You've gotta see the baby!

Here's what we played: (as best as I can tell from the hurried notes I took with the iPhone's "Notes" app)

EARS RINGING, TEETH CLICKING

Grandma, drill little holes into my eyelids...

On Friday night, Canadian electronic pop act Purity Ring played the late show at Vaudeville Mews. It was only the second tour date for the duo of 23-year-old singer Megan James and 20-year-old 21-year-old (that night was his birthday) beatmaker Corin Roddick, after a stop in Champaign, Ill., the night before, but they were already having a big day. That morning, Pitchfork (full disclosure: one of the publications I write for) ran an interview with the band under the website's buzz-generating "Rising" tag. It was the first time I'd been able to find key information on James and Roddick, such as their names, or the fact that they're originally from Edmonton but now live in Halifax and Montreal, respectively. Along with the article, Pitchfork also shared "Belispeak," which is only the third publicly available song from the group. But those first two songs, "Ungirthed" and "Lofticries"-- the two sides of a 7" that has long since sold out-- were already almost ridiculously impressive, combining the woozy, bass-heavy wobble of Southern hip-hop with the eerie lyrics and pitch-warped vocals of futuristic Swedish duo the Knife to create a new kind of head-nodding, captivating dream-pop. And Purity Ring will be joining another band that evolved from nebulous blogger praise into a pair of legitimately satisfying (and, in the case of 2009's Psychic Chasms, somewhat zeitgeist-capturing) albums, Alan Palomo's Neon Indian, on tour this fall. So getting an early glimpse of them at a small venue here in Des Moines, away from any annoying blogger's crappy phone camera but my own, was a real treat.

Purity Ring didn't disappoint. Sure, there were the expected hiccups, such as the fact that the volume was way too low, so that during quiet moments you could sometimes hear outdoor DJ Alex Brown's reggae wafting in through the door. And I definitely can't tell you the lyrics or much else of interest about any of the new songs we heard; they all sound pretty much like the three we've already heard, and for now, that's wonderful-- we could definitely use a whole album like this. But what I can tell you is that Purity Ring's live show, in keeping with its releases so far, feels like the product of far more forethought than we'd typically expect from such a young band. It turned out that my crappy phone camera was almost useless, because the band performed mostly in the dark, with intermittent stuttering flashes of onstage lights. They played in front of their own big, multi-colored backdrop-- which I don't remember much about, sorry-- with James on one side, roaming the stage and threatening to bang on a giant gong, while Roddick was on the other side of the stage hunched over a variety of electronics. The turnout was light, but passionate, all assembled up in front, even bartender Clint Curtis, who usually hates everything but that night was front row center waving his hand in the air. Purity Ring played the three songs we know, James' sweet lilt transmogrifying into a goblin groan over Roddick's shuddering rhythms. They played a few songs we didn't know. And when it was over, we cried out for an encore. As with Tennis when that band played here well in advance of its own album, James was forced to admit the group just didn't have any more songs. Basemint Design was on hand selling a Purity Ring poster, and the band itself had brought tank tops, but no records yet (a split 7" with Braids is due next month on Fat Possum). I bought a poster, and a tank top, and then the nice folks from Basemint Design were kind enough to call me back over so I could exchange my tank top for Purity Ring's one remaining T-shirt. #wearitwithpride

The headliner of the early show, metal band Nachtmystium, unfortunately canceled.

Purity Ring, slightly more visible here.

Eagle-eyed reader and Des Moines' own king of the mustache Shane O'Brien reminds me of another glaring omission from my recent list of upcoming shows: Rap trio Das Racist plays the Blue Moose in Iowa City on October 21. I still need to get tickets, but I definitely plan to be there, and maybe even head up to Chicago the next day for a Northwestern football game if I'm lucky.

Christopher the Conquered

I also had the great pleasure and privilege of getting to play records a couple of nights in the past week. The first was outdoors at Vaudeville Mews' PBR Bar on Saturday night-- huge thanks to Ladd Askland for booking me and to T.J. Wood, who (good for him, terrible for us) will be moving to New Orleans shortly, for putting up with me and for keeping me supplied with Sazerac. (Another upcoming date: T.J.'s Last Stand takes place Saturday, September 10, at the Vaud, with the Powerplant, Wolves in the Attic, Dustin Smith & the Sunday Silos, Gadema, and DJ Richie Daggers.) And then, on Tuesday night, the Poison Control Center's Patrick Tape Fleming held his birthday party at the Vaudeville Mews, with really fun sets from out-of-town indie-poppers Fishboy and their Sam Cooke-quoting, accordion-toting member Googleplexia, plus locals Christopher the Conquered, Wolves in the Attic, Derek Lambert and the Prairie Fires, and, in a rare appearance, January Rabbit. Between sets, I got to go upstairs and spin records. Thanks so much to Patrick for asking me to participate, to Logan Christian on sound for all his help, and to Brody for working the bar downstairs.

After the jump, full track lists of my sets, with links to streams:

AS WE DROVE ACROSS THE RIVER INTO WESTERN ILLINOIS

Slanted and enchanted.

It's been an eventful several weeks, not that you'd know it by my recent posting around here. Since Des Moines' own 80/35 Music Festival on July 4 weekend, I've been to Chicago twice, first for the Pitchfork Music Festival and then this past weekend for Lollapalooza (which I'd actually never been to before).

What direction should we choose?

At Pitchfork, I wrote a quick little thing about tUnE-YarDs, but the real highlight for me was Deerhunter, who, OK, I'm definitely a huge fanboy for,  but the way they'd just string maybe three of their songs together and then stretch them out into space-rock jams, confident the crowd would go along with them but not totally oblivious to audience reaction like the ultra-boring Animal Collective a night earlier, well, it was just fantastic, and singer/guitarist Bradford Cox didn't really say much, but at one point I remember him complaining about those "fucking crypto-fascists," which was already hilarious and the kind of thing you want your noise-rock icons to say, but then he followed it by adding, "I don't know what that means; I was just trying to sound smart." Fleet Foxes, who headlined the second night, were also awesome, every bit as amazing as on record-- such gorgeous harmonies, and it felt like every song they picked was one I liked more than the last. "Oh, man, I don't think it's going to get better than that. Oh, wait, THIS song? I love this song!"

La cocaina no es buena para su salud.

At Lollapalooza, I was there as a member of the press, covering the event with the hard-working, very cool team from SPIN magazine. They'd all done this together before at Bonnaroo, but were kind enough to welcome me into the fold. Skin-reddening sun, wallet-destroying rain, Pete Wentz: I saw it all. For SPIN.com, I wrote about Kid Cudi, Arctic Monkeys, the Cars, Lia Ices, Titus Andronicus, Lykke Li, Beirut, Local Natives, Mayer Hawthorne, Friendly Fires, Disappears, Ratatat, A Perfect Circle, White Lies, Foster the People, Naked and Famous, Ryan Leslie, and Crystal Castles. (I guess I'd especially recommend the posts on Beirut, Local Natives, Crystal Castles, Titus Andronicus, Foster the People, and Lykke Li, in that order.)

Sweat drips from your pores like the falls of Niagara. 

As of today, I can also share an online radio station that eMusic has allowed me to put together. The genre is nominally "indie rock," but they've kindly let me take a pretty expansive view of that genre, encompassing electronic music, hip-hop, and some local favorites along with archetypal indie bands. There was other stuff I might've included, because not every label is in eMusic's catalogue these days, but I think there's still a lot here to enjoy. The songs are on shuffle, but you can see the full selection after the jump:

DON'T BE SHY

This happened.

So I DJed-- believe it or not, for the first time ever-- on Saturday night at the bar in the alley outside my favorite downtown Des Moines music venue, Vaudeville Mews. The space is actually called the PBR bar, because Pabst Blue Ribbon sponsored its renovation (and my DJing gig, too!). Apparently, the Mews sells the most PBR in all of Iowa, which I guess is a distinction of some sort. Anyway, thank you so much to T.J. Wood, Ladd Askland, and Vaudeville Mews for making this happen, to Bob N. for sharing his turntable (it turned out I only used mine), to the Poison Control Center for not one but two typically amazing sets (something like the 265th and 266th of their "never-ending tour"), and to all my wonderful friends who came out and danced.

Here's the setlist (though please note, a few of these I didn't play in their entirety):