RIFF MARKET

Tuesday Grapeshot 02
Sorry, Tough Weeks Lately

Native American Subway Performers

These guys have breeded apparently and are now populating other places besides the Times Square subway stop. You know who I am talking about, the people who wear the rugs and play the electric flute smooth jazz stuff over really world music-type electronica. Normally the "band" is like three dudes and one of the dude's kids watches over the cash hat. Anyway, passing thought: Are these Native American Subway Performers a franchise or something? My reasoning is that none of them are particularly great, but I am happy to report they all sound exactly the same, which makes me think they share notes--possibly notes from a master NASP document of some sort. I'm guessing that at the very least they've formed some kind of workers union just in case somebody starts charging more for electric flute rentals, the pricing of which I quite honestly know nothing about. You certainly can't get one of those guys at Guitar World. Anyway, if there's not a Native American Subway Performer business yet, consider this post the first press release from your brand-new CEO of NASP, Inc. Slate.com, please don't steal this idea. 67 RIFFS



Demon Days [ft. Tim Sweeney, Carl Craig, Gamall]
Studio B
January 19

I'll talk through this (great) party eventually, for now I'm just digesting a) how ridiculously out of touch Internet Music People can be sometimes, and b) how MP3s really might be fucking everything up after all. I've had that Depeche Mode "Sinner In Me" Villalobos Conclave Remix for six months (downloaded it off ohmygosh I'm pretty sure), listened to it a few times on my Grados and system too, thought it was good-not-great, moved on with my life, loved "Fizheuer Zieheuer" whenever that came out. I knew the track (i.e. "Sinner In Me (VCR)") sounded spacious, all the different percussion lines firing off into total darkness, blinking like owl eyes when the lights go down low in cartoons, the one slurping bassline and the vocal track settling respectfully into the same domain. When Tim Sweeney played it at Studio B though, I couldn't believe how insinuating the music was physically, how much color was to each little click and clack, how deep the bass actually was, how that subbass rolls through you across the pan like a horrific chill--DAH-da-do, do-da-DAH, DAH-da-do, do-da-DAH--just back and forth right fucking through you. It's one of those things where you know some quality is lost in the compression, I just didn't know that much was lost. 80 RIFFS



Deerhoof: "The Galaxist"

Reminds me of Radiohead's "Creep," the way the song (i.e. "The Galaxist") starts as this pretty pleasant space ballad, not much to it except Satomi over guitar arpeggios and horntones, then John Dieterich's guitar just cuts through the entire canvas of sound like a bowie knife. 76 RIFFS



The Annuals: Be He Me

This has to be the worst album I've heard in six months. That's saying a lot, because I just heard that new Menomena album too. Fucking wow. If you wanted another reason why the Go!Team are awful, it's this even more worthless crowd of Go!Team-type pep-rockers who think they can get away with no hooks and no character simply by wearing costumes and doubling up the drums and upping the volume and basically just shouting a lot about how much fun it all is. Christ, start a hedge fund already. 5 RIFFS



RECENT FAVORITES

Depeche Mode: "Sinner In Me (Villalobos Conclave Remix)"
Escort: "A Bright New Life"
Laurent Garnier: Shot In The Dark
Allez Allez: African Queen
Peedi Crakk: Torture: Crakk Is Back
!!!: "Heart Of Hearts"
Jah Wobble, The Edge, and Holger Czukay: Snake Charmer

Labels: 2007, concerts, dance, indie, internet music people