Hauraki Hoedown Highlights - The Old Ceremony

Actually two highlights from tonights show one of which was following on from Bob's awesome 45 minute review of the Uncle Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt ouvre. I added a track by Tweedy's side project Loose Fur into that mix and a couple of rarities from Uncle Tupelo (I Wanna Destroy You - Gun 7") and a live Wilco that I got off the net. Bob had done his research and was filling in the history of the bands as he went along.

The song that really made an impression on me from tonight though was something that I'd only just listened to about an hour before going on air by a band called The Old Ceremony. Self described as "a pop-noir musical association from Chapel Hill, North Carolina figureheaded by songwriter/raconteur Django Haskins" the song was called "Blood and Oil". Lyrically reminiscient of a Nick Cave or Tom Waits composition it was a little out of the theme of my show but sufficiently Americana to warrant inspection. You can grab a copy of Blood and Oil from here.

Playlist for tonights show is posted on my blog, Casa de Country Mike.

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - Neko Case

Neko Case's offerings are getting progressively more refined as well as progressively more cryptic in some respects. Rather than letting her growing alt-country stardom go to her head (ala Ryan Adams), Case appears to be on a solid path of songwriter maturation backed up by collaborations with artists of notable caliber in her 'solo' offerings as well as in her side projects like The New Pornographers. "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" is her latest offering and features such artists as Bloodshot Records artist Kelly Hogan on backup vocals, Howe Gelb formerly of Giant Sand, and tracks with backup bands such as Calexico and the Sadies. This record is an ambitious and lyrically reflective statement by Case, a follow on from her critically aclaimed CD "Blacklisted" from 2002, the CD contains some incredible narrative flourishes from thinly veiled personal insights to deeply metaphorical meditations. I played a couple of tracks this Monday, Star Witness and Hold On, Hold On.

You can download a recent live Neko Case performance from NPR.org here or grab both Hold On, Hold On or the title track Fox Confessor Brings the Flood from this post over on the Aquariam Drunkard Blog.

Live on The Beach

Our live NZ Music Month series has got off to a great start. First up was Katy Soljak (thats her in the picture), one of the island's most accomplished musicians. She played two new songs that she has written to accompany a screenplay about a kiwi songwriter running off to Texas. Her set was great, despite the fact that she was suffering from a nasty white tailed spider bite, that had caused her to be hospitalised the week before the show. Katy was joined by Genevieve Cohen, a student from Waiheke High. Genevieve has a great voice, and they sounded particularly good together on a cover of the crazy hippy anthem All Around the World, originally performed by Blerta. You can read all about Blerta on this fantastic site about NZ music of the 60s and 70s.

Genevieve was back for the second week of Live on The Beach for a solo performance. Ocne again she was fantastic. My sound engineer skills, however, are far from outstanding. Despite my failings Genevieve pulled of a cracking set, concluding with a Neil Finn cover. Look out for her at the Waiheke Jam at Cats Tango on Sundays.

What's coming up? Who knows! Organising musicians is like herding cats. Check this site and the station for details.

We are recording the Live on The Beach performances and replaying them on Island Life the following Saturday morning so you all have a second chance to hear these great acts.

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - The Black Keys

Bob started it all out with the radio equivalent of a treatable neurosis, by playing nearly 3 hours worth of songs with the word 'radio' in them. I heard a Monty Python track, "I Bet They Won't Play this Song on the Radio" which I'd never have expected to ever hear on the radio - but that's the Beach for you... my pick for the night though was one by the blues unit the Black Keys.

I've been playing tracks off this 6 song CD by the Black Keys for a couple of weeks now, but I think that the track I played this monday, My Mind is Ramblin' is really the one i'm holding on to. It's a fuzzy hard-picked guitar groove with a hook that the White Stripes can only dream about at night. From a CD called Chulahoma, the Akron, OH two-piece The Black Keys on the Fat Possum label pay tribute to the late Junior Kimbrough the first artist to record for Fat Possum. Kimbrough was friend of the late R.L. Burnside - another Fat Possum label mate who sadly passed away earlier this year. The Keys stripped down drum and guitar sound pay homage to this North Mississippi Hill Country sound that seems to finally be finding it's place alongside much of the more famed blues locales and sounds. I also played the brief phone message from Kimbrough's wife that thanks the Keys for doing such a fine tribute to late husband - nice addition.

Download: Meet Me in the City by the Black Keys.

For a full list of what I played, see Casa de Country Mike.

DJ Simon - The Mix and Mash Radio Show - 7th May 2006

Soulwax - Slowdance
A fabulous opener from my favourite Belgian brothers Soulwax (AKA 2manydjs). This track is taken from a recent 'This is Radio Soulwax' CD available with last months Mixmag - Electro Techno, bombastic rock to disco and chunky swirling gutars and saxophones - Blindin'

For more info on Soulwax/2manydjs go to http://www.soulwax.com/

TRACK OF THE WEEK

Arthur Baker ft Tim Wheeler - Glow the Freelance Hellraiser Guitarmageddon remix
I've been playing the original version of this for a couple of weeks and stumbled on this Freelance Hellraiser remix when I was looking for his first (official) release 'Pound for Pound' (which I still haven't found yet). Glad I did too! There's a great Hooky bassline, slashing guitars and the Ash singer’s imperfect vocals. This could almost be a mid-’80s New Order single and the Freelance Hellraiser works his electro flair.

Lindstrom - Another station
Another Station is a balearic disco-number with cheesy early-house-piano, 8bit bontempi-drums and lush flanger-strings, perfect for those really late nights/early mornings. There's a great Todd Terje remix of ths kicking around aswell that picks up the speed and incorporates harmony-vocals and a new totally irresistible bass-line.

Scissor Sisters v Fischerspooner v Pet Shop Boys - We need a war (DJ Earworm Bootleg)
A quite brilliant mash-up from DJ Earworm incorporating the Scissor sistors 'Filthy Gorgeous' and Fischerspooner's 'We Need A War' with a smattering of the Petshop Boys 'It's a sin' - A brilliant piece of Bedroom Bootleging!

Go to http://www.djearworm.com/ to download this and other DJ Earworm Mash-ups


Velvet Underground vs Chemical Brothers - Dont hold back Sweet Jane (GHP)
Oh I've gone bootleg crazy this week! This is class from the most prolific and commercially succesful bootlegger Mark Vidler the man behind Go Home Productions.

This mash-up fuses .."The Chemical Brothers 'Galvanise' vocals with Velvet Undergrounds 'Sweet Jane' for the main part, held together with all manner of elements that made up MARRS 'Pump Up The Volume'. Adina Howard pops in for some overused acapella duties, whilst U2 and a 'blink and you'll miss it' Blur sample surface for some air towards the end."

Go to http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/ to download this and other Go Home Productions tracks.

Cat Power and Karen Elson - I love you (me either)
Fifteen years after his death, Serge Gainsbourg lives again with the release of 'Serge Gainsbourg Revisited' bringing together original muses and younger fans to rework his best songs. This is the first time that Gainsbourg's lyrics have been officially translated into English.

Gainsbourg is revered in France as the nation's greatest popular musician, but in Britain he is perhaps best remembered for the 1969 seduction classic, Je t'aime moi non plus and this Cat Power and Karen Elson track, 'I Love you - me either' is translated directly. Excellent it is too!

Daft Punk v Hard-Fi - Hard To Boot (Dunproofin)
Yet another mash-up ths time from Dunproffin'. Daft Punk's Digital love has always been a Saturday morning favourite for me and it mixes perfectly here with vocal's from Hard-Fi's Hard to beat!

Headman - Moisture (feat Anton Spivac)
Swiss born, Berlin-based Robi Insinna, a.k.a. Headman, is a nu-disco producer on the Gomma label. While his music has a very simple, analog-sounding backdrop like a lot of minimalish electro house, Headman is a master of meticulously placed layers of coy synths, handclaps, and cowbells as with here on this track featuring Anton Spivac on vocals.

Moby - Dream about me (The shortwave set pick 'n mix)
Planet L's been bangin' on about the Shortwave set for a while now which the only reason i got hold of this Moby track. Very good it is too!

Franz Ferdinand ft Jane Birkin - A song for sorry angel
A second track from the Serge Gainsbourg Revisited CD featuring Serge's old muse Jane Birkin.


The 25 Minute mix

Hot Chip - Over and over (solid groove remix)
Cut Copy - Saturdays (Headman Remix) From 2005
LCD Soundsystem - Disco Infiltrator (fks Infiltrated vocal mix)

Hauraki Hoedown Highlight - Josh Ritter

I usually post the playlists for my show over on the Casa de Country Mike blog but I didn't write the songs down last night as I was recording it for a potential podcast, so figured I'd have another listen and post later. But my highlight for the show last night (apart from Willy B. making me go to dead air to fix the horrible buzz we were experiencing - but big ups to him for fixing it!) had to be the two tracks by Josh Ritter that I played, Good Man and Thin Blue Flame.

Ritter's "The Animal Years" is a lyrically complex meditation on well ... the usual subjects, but it's Ritter's rich voice and some awesome production (from a guy who's produced both Mighty Mouse and Iron & Wine) that make this offering stand above many of the similarly styled singer/songwriterish releases of late. I played the pop sounding Good Man and the 9 minute opus Thin Blue Flame. The opening track, Girl in the War is really what sold the album for me originally and you can download that one and Thin Blue Flame from the Josh Ritter Fansite, here: http://www.dougrice.net/joshritter_audio.html

DJ Simon - The Mix and Mash Radio Show - 29th April

TRACK OF THE WEEK

Hot Chip - And I was a Boy From School (Erol Alkan's Extended rework) - Released April 2006

Seems to me that Erol Alkan is trying to 'out DFA' the DFA on this fantastic rework from Hot Chip. The track starts out all moody, bleepy, glitchy electronica with trippy vocals and grows into a low-fi balearic crescendo (if there is such a thing). It is magnificent in so many ways and should appeal to the clubheads out there just as much as the mushroom chompers of this world - Blindin'!


Headman - Moisture (feat Anton Spivac) - Released April 2006

Serious action from Headman, a big player in the new electro disco movement! Moisture is the second single from Headman's acclaimed CD 'On' released on Gomma Germany last month. Given Headman's electro leanings this is a suprisingly up-beat post punk, disco-not-disco, guitar driven track.


Goldfrap - Slide In (DFA Remix) - Released December 2005

Man I love this tune so much, even more than I did on my last posting! and it fills 15 minutes of my show too which is always a bonus! :-) There's something really special about this remix and I’m really feeling the 'Disco DFA' vibe! On another note, given that when it came out in December last year only 100 copies were pressed, I'm rather pleased that I have a copy - What - You mean an mp3 doesn't count? Bugger!


LCD Soundsystem v PartyBen - PartyBen Is Playing at my house - Available online 2006

A great Bootleg this from Party Ben mixing up the LCD Soundsytsem's Daft Punk is playing at my house with Gorillaz, Kate Lenlow, MC Hammer amongst others - Mashup's are dead my arse!!!

For more bootlegs from Party Ben go to: http://www.partyben.com/


Flaming Lips - Yeah yeah yeah song - Released April 2006

Fantastic new and very cheerful single from the Flaming Lips from the new 'At War With the Mystics ' CD, their the twelfth studio album. It seems they've now moved away from the digital sounds that dominated their 2002 release 'Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots' and have taken on a more experimental, organic sound described by leader Coyne as "space-age jazz and progressive Dixieland" - It can't be ignored!


Kylie Minogue - Slow (Chemical Brothers Remix) - Released 2003

An excellent remix of Kylie's Slow from the Chems. Given that Kylie was going through a bit of an Electronica phase at the time of release it's hardly surpising that this glitchy club version of 'Slow' works so well! Good old Kylie, you gotta love her - And such a nice arse too!

Go to http://www.chimeric.demon.co.uk/diversity/articles/airbrush.html for further information about Kylie's arse!


Spank Rock - Rick Rubin (xxxchange electro remix) - Released March 2006

An ode to the bearded Zenmeister of maximum noise-creation, This track 'Rick Rubin' is in fact Spank Rock’s very own, somewhat cryptic brag suggesting that, just as Rick Rubin transformed modern music in the mid-eighties, now Spank Rock are going to do the same for the mid-noughties. The track itself has tonnes of squelching bass, bizarre latin percussion, talking drums, random electronic squeaking, robot voices, and a rhyme from Spank Rock himself that skips through concepts and ideas at such speed that it leaves you dizzy.


Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen (Justice Clique Edit) - Released March 2006

A brilliant re-working of Franz Ferdinand's current single from one of my favourite remixmeisters!!! Some people (ie. Planet L) say it never really gets going - Tosh!!!! ;-)


Coldcut - True Skool - Released April 2006

The new single from Coldcut's latest album 'Sound Mirrors' out on Ninja Tune records.


The DJ Simon 25 Minute Mix

Lifelike and Kris Menace - Discopolis
Lindstrom - Another day (Todd Terje remix)
Tiga - Far from home (DFA remix)


This just in:

DFA Records have finally released 'The DFA - The Remixes Chapter One' this month. The CD collects 9 of the DFA Remixes done since their inception in 2001, starting with the first ever, "Deceptacon" by Le Tigre. The full track listing is as follows:

1. Deceptaon - Le Tigre
2. Mars Arizona - Blues Explosion
3. The Boxer - The Chemical Brothers
4. Another Excuse - Soulwax
5. Dance To The Underground - Radio 4
6. Emerge - Fischerspooner
7. Dare - Gorillaz
8. Orange Alert - Metro Area
9. (Just Like We) Breakdown - Hot Chip

Volume 2 will be released sometime in September

For more info go to: http://www.dfarecords.com/

That's it for this week, more next!!