Days before Christmas and just over a week until New Years.... what do these 14 days hold for music fags like myself? Top of 2002 lists of course!! For your reading pleasures.... two of the more respectables. Happy holidays and I'll see you soon!
Best Lists of '2002 Best of Lists':
Pitchfork.com
Other Music (my unoffical link to their official 2002 recap email)
I'll add a few more in time....

Radiohead tend to do things their own way and do it right: from production and mastering techniques of their last 2 records (KidA and Amnesiac) which are must listens on headphones (arguably the most harmonic and aurally spatial LP�s released in years), to their holiday �gift� to us.

You see, while REM and Pearl Jam release holiday packages chock full of stickers, and exclusive fan club only CDs, Radiohead says 'Fuck the gifts, lets throw a party' and webcast it online.

Last evening, Thom, Colin, and crew setup some turntables in their Oxford studios and spun their favorites live. Mixing utterly disturbing video of Bush and Saddam sharing a kilo of coke, to Thom�s attempts at mixing a Squarepusher track into an aged, ska Bob Marley 7inch, the band obviously does it their way and does not give a fuck about (perceived) image. Even more impressive, viewers were treated to 4 new songs performed live and off CDR (which may or may not make it onto their next release slated for dropoff on March 25, 2003)�.that in itself is the true gift of music.

Final question: did their webcast violate the DCMA regimes' stance on webcast royalty control ? Oh right.. Readiohead webcast the event out of UK. The RIAA doesnt control that market.... .

Zero Music Budget = Gifts of Music. A kind soul has supplied me with some very nice gifts: Kenny Glagow's "Toronto Mix Sessions" (on Turbo; featuring Rother's Decepticon-esque 'Simulationszeitalter') and Triple R "Friends" (on Kompakt). A span of choice mixes which cover the gamut between electro-tech and micro-house. Tiime to take a listen ... and thank you Erik.

As I complained a few days past on the lack of shows events to hit durig the winter months, I must apologize to my good friend Greg for being a noshow again to his night over at Vertigo..... don't hold it against me..l will make it. Please ppl, dont let my bad habits stop you from visiting the club on Wed's..

It looks like the Primal Scream site is finally up... How the fck did they get stuck with a .org?

Is it me or are less bands/groups touring this winter than previous years? Or maybe I am being more selective about what I attend/buy for music. Either way I have yet to find a show in the next 45 days that I will be attending.... boring. Luckily the Parisan signed me up for Woodworking: How to Build a Shaker Table (being taught at Cambridge Continuing Ed this winter)... I kid you not...

Listening to: Marco Corola live @ PL
Looking forward to: White Stripes "Elephants"

Someone passed me some illegal MP3's of the new Primal Scream "Evil Heat" LP. For a record as new as this one (released in the States on Nov 26th), you think maybe their website would be live (re: promo). Enjoyable record this time around. We're looking good even 3 tracks in....

Wishlist: A few new releases in recent weeks worth noting (both out of Italy) : Niccola Conte's "Jet Sounds Revisited" fusing 60's soundtracks with bossonova and jazz and Valvola & DJ Spectra's "Venus 69" following the utterly non popular Italohouse/pop road to stardom. Seeing as my music budget is at zero for the next month, I'll have to pick these up next year.

Fabio and Grooverider::: It has been roughly five years since I last caught Grooverider back at the Spot basement (now a posh tapas/Latin bar known as Sophia's) in Boston. The show, a last minute one off with most promo happening via word of mouth, turned out to be one of the better nights of drum and bass that I have experienced in Boston. Prior to that one off, I was fortunate enough to the F&G duo bring another basement space to its knees at London's Blue Note. It was the one and only time I left a club near deaf and with ceiling dandruff* (*def: brittle white paint/asbesto specimens which fall from ceilings due to high intensity bass rumbles).

Friday night at Axis may not have been as spectacular as those long gone evenings of my youth, but it did instill some semblance of hope to a drum and bass scene that I see as dying due to lack of progression. Its an argument and stance that I fight daily with the younger dnb fans that are coming in fresh, untarnished, and still love the power of a deep deep bassdrive buildup and the power of the roll.

F&G's session was what I had hoped: honest, modern, and with a new twist and flavor that does shine a bit of hope on the genre. Banging Latin beats, back to basics -almost straight on UK hardcore tempo's... sounds like a cliche, but it is the roots of it all. Is it the memory's of old that kept me dancing Friday evening? Or the thrill of the old timer's tearing through a room of youths that needed a lesson in the past? Hopefully the latter.... roll the bass....

CD: Boards of Canada "Twoism." Well worth the 7 year wait for the re-issue. Buy it now.

So after a few weeks, I think I have stolen enough css code from MT to allow blogger to feel somewhat at home. As much as it ills me to abandon the flat text document found at dropform, this may do me some good. A bit more to hack away at. Be back soon

Lets run this little test to see how far across the screen the text will run before being cut off. test ttest tes

ugly

test this out