But of course the true monster of last summer's playlists out in capecod world was ROCK THE PARTI by Goldchains I'm pretty positive that I can't approve of anything he's done since, but this song alone should elevate him to the strata of the greatest songwriters of all time. What's the best part..? When he says his "caravan" is going to "head down to Chechnia, and trade drum machines for guns, so the kids can have more fun" or when he lists the things he's done , which include "Inventing marijuana"(!)? Ok here's some live video of the jam being performed but you must get the original in stereo to pump loudly next time you need some motivation.

FUCK OFF WANKERS!!

Call this the "ghosts of last summer" section-- The reigning dancefloor king on cape cod this past summer was undeniably AWOL ONE- well, maybe not him so much as the song Rhythm. He may have been responable for other things more twisted or brilliant, but no one who was down last summer can deny the ass-movement powers of this track.

So if you were anywhere near my house or the O'hara manor last summer, chances are you heard a fuzzy, poppy 70's brazilian song that was a danceparty staple. This song, which joel got from one of his brother's Three Kind of Stupid compilations is by a band called Os Brazoes. Apparantly these guys kind of came and went, but the one pyched-out LP they released has become hot property amongst record nerds. I couldn't find much of their music available for free on the internet, but i did find some DJ sets by some scandinavian DJs who weave so OS Brazoes music into their ninjatune-like sets. here's a one- Set 1, with the set list found here. Word.

Our girl Emily has just scanned a bunch of her brilliant polaroid work onto the SFB site. "Roid Rage" can be viewed here. Keep ya head up shorty!

Check our friend Michael Stuetz's slick photo website for some schooling, yah heard?

While we were in P.R., Jen picked up El Progresso (not the soup) by the Boriqueno MCSiete Nueve (79) along with the Intifada, a side project of the producer Ya'll Zee who also has a solo record out (all available from phantomvox). The shit is pretty nice and was a bit of a relief from the relentless beat of the thugged-out Reggaeton which bumped out of every truck on the street (not that we were hating on that at all times, either). Sorry, but all i could find were cut-off WMA files (goddamn intellectual property standards!) but here are some tastes- Poesia Subterranea by Siete Nueve, Mi Vida by the Intifada and Tek Nologia by Y'all Zee.

Dezaire

The other the thing we discovered and were rocking pretty regularly (especially while working, appropriately) was Dezaire from the island of St. Croix. It's reggae with an outspoken political stance akin to say, Sizzla, combined it with a smooth roots sound and an angelic voice. It's music you can chill to on the beach and still get something meaningful out of. Here's a stream of the albumGracious Mama Africa (you'll need to download Realplayer).

Speaking of Jen and I's strange excursion to the land of coqui frogs, while we were camping on the island of Culebra there was a rainstorm and we ended up holed up with a guy who turned out to be a member of Wooden Robot, the rad multi-intrumental band from MIlwaukee. It turns out Jen was good friends with his roomate back home. Wooden Robot kind took that trend of adding string or other old-timey instruments to hardcore music that was going around a few years ago and just took it all the way. Where those other bands just seemed to be using the unusual sounds and mournful melodies as a novelty, Wooden Robot made that spooky, atmospheric sound their main M.O. which then sometimes gives way to raging thrashy passages. Acctually being trained musicians doesn't hurt either. Check their Wooden Robot flash sitefor more info and streaming music. (the above jpg is on of those exquisite corpse drawings all 7 members of bands did together.. i dunno)

Genevieve and I randomly ran into Michael from Provincetown (he's got a lot of tatoos and works at the Squeeling Pig and Strangeways) here in VienVang, Laos. He's about embark on a Japanese tour with his extreme noise project FIRE IN THE HEAD, accutually supported by members of Bastard Noise (which he admits was a bit of a mix-up but, hey..). Here are some Mp3s which he says don't really compare to FITH on record or esp. live- Ignite/Submit, and A Fate Deserved.

I had heard MC Trey all over Triple-J radio while I was sailing down the west coast of Oz and was lucky enough to meet her and have a few words at the OZ vrs. New Zealand rap battle in Melbourne. She's kind of like the female Mr Lif of Australia- a really cool and down to earth homegirl who's all about the culture and way up on the positive vibe. Here's Creepin and Feline Forces both from her latest album Tapastry Tunes.

To keep inna Oz vein, I saw Curse ov Dialect open for Kid606 in Melbourne and it was a strange experience. To say that these guys are on some "other shit" is not really hitting it. They came out dressed in powdered wigs, iranian traditional garb, south american warrior make-up, I think one dude was meant to look like a tree all covered in electrical tape. They proceeded to bounce around the stage and spit out the strangest interpretation of hip hop. Think of the cheeky strangeness of Themselves mixed with the obnoxious energy of "Licence to Ill" Beasties and it's close. I guess maybe somebody else made the Themselves connection, as their full-length debut is out on Mush records, same as cLOUDEAD and what. Here's Multicultural Markets. (Also check the rest of the Mush Mp3s available on the site with songs by AWOL ONE, dedalus, Boom Bip, Busdriver, cLOUDEAD etc.

Mutiny

Here's High on the Hill and Police Strike Riot by the Melbourne folk-punk band Mutiny. I have to give them a shout out because they let me sleep in their space while in was in Melbourne and broke, and because they are a good band and real down to earth cool people- check www.mutiny.com.au for more..

To Keep up and nerd the eff out on all things Dumile, check the MF Doom site. The best part is the MF Doom Lyric forum, where geeks debate whether he said ""top bleeding lady fell and took the loaded raw dears,
stop feedin babies colored sugar coated lard squares " or "Top Bleeding, maybe fella took the loaded rod there", etc.

Turning to that Hateful city of Brotherly Love philthadelphia, if you lived there you'd probably allready be on the Hollertronix jock. Their mixes are hard to find online (except for an uninspired live mix at www.rockstargames.com- click on the jukebox and select their mix, or maybe better yet choose the price paul mix), but they have posted this Radio mix by Diplo- stream or download, which isn't nearly as crunk as Hollertronix live but hey.. you're sitting in front of a computer.

In artfaggery news, judging from the website it looks like Space 1026 in Philly is getting quite slick and corpolicious. I guess their branching out from just being a place where skaters come crash openings to drink free booze and hit on art school girls while everyone marvels at a photo of Ed Templeton's dick or a paper-mache model of Harmony Korine's crack pipe.

Just 2 Guys

Genevieve's brotehr Elliot showed me some stuff by these guys from California who call themselves The Lonely Island, who are friend of friend of his or something. Generally I think they think they're funnier than they acctually are, but this clip for the song Just 2 Guys is just genius, almost unintentionally. Like when he says "That guy's a cunt!".. oh boy. (or try this Mp4 file)

From Che-wei (in return for the plug i gave him below?) comes this mp3 of DJ Food's history of the 20th century in mash up form- The official link may be taken down, but try A bootleg link. Food is a genius, i thank the lord for the cheap bootleg Cds in Bangkok or I may never have bought my first Solid Steel CD "Now Listen" on my first SE Asia trip or recently bought the heavyweight mix Solid Steel "Hexstatic" which will be fuel for the dance party fire this summer.

Cody's band Fall of the Bastards from Portland have a huge following of total freaks on Myspace.com. Check out their Myspace Music Page with lots of Mp3s and pictures of goddamn longhairs!

I hate to just keep reprinting links I found on sites that Ive allready mentioned, but some of this stuff is so good. How about our boy Jeffry Lewis' (Chris, Jason, remember stumbling into that performance last new years?) History of Punk on the Lower East Side 9 minute song/lesson? It's nerdy, informative and historically accurate- how punk!
And here an Mp3 of a (I could've sworn that somebody... Rusty? had this idea some drunken night years ago) grindcore band with vocals by a pitbull. Caninus- Locking Jaws. Stupid? Yes, but... no, it's just stupid.

Whoa.. has anyone seen or heard whats going on with this Tigerbeat six records/SHOCKOUT thing? No idea? Listen to these insane mixes i got from the togerbeat website: Kid 606 Shockout Mix Kid Chameleon Shockout Mix 1 ; Shockout Mix 2... What?

And lets not forget our boy Che-Wei, for he's on a mission. You can learn about him the above link and about the mission from the Freedom in Familiarity weblog and from the Preview for the film he's working on about the Wallmart tour that I tagged along for the last leg of in 2004.

Clockcleaner

Many of you know John Sharkey the asshole, but what about Sharkey the musician? The notorious philly jerk's band is called Clockcleaner and they claim to sound like Shellac and Jesus Lizard. Here's some footage ofClockcleaner live
involving a road flare, apparantly.

Also from "rummage through.." is this link to download the Cometbus tape compilation "Lest we Forget". The mix is of east bay punk from 1981-1988, and in true Cometbus fashion, the sound quality is terrible and the songs range from awesome to excreble. Enjoy..if possible!

My favorite rapper of this past year (thanks to a Mr. Breneman of Denver, CO) Serengeti (On the left in the photo) has a new record called "noodle arm whimsy" (really) on F5 records, who also just put out a Gingerbead Man/MF Grimm single. Here's Paper Plates
from Serengeti's Debut CD "Dirty Flamingos" which was my soundtrack for last summer.
F5 Records

Check the wonderful feeling of 100% AMERICA style: rock-Tee shirtsin Engrish!

There's a new hit single from Sole's new studio album, "live from rome" available from anticon.com called
"sin carne", which im not sure how i feel about, but...
http://