i playlisted my brother’s 21st birthday last night, i think it went ok. that fine old tradition of the “21st birthday DJ” - its got me feeling real kitsch. so, here’s some messed-up kitsch to help get you through your working week.

i got to say, love shack is the most played-out of played-out tunes. but i couldn’t help but fall in love with it all over again when i got distracted with some pitch-shifting while putting together my bro’s playlist. simple pleasures, folks, simple pleasures. here’s what i’m talking about:

its not quite a screw, but you know. i’ve always had a sneaking suspicion love shack was meant to be sung by an all male choir, and this is a step closer. for some reason i can’t get this guy out of my head when i listen to it, brian, hank kingsley’s assistant:

wonder why that is.

MP3: B-52s - Love Shack Screw

but here’s a real screw, and a real heavy-hitter. this is bona fide, knock-it-out-of-the-park amazing type shit! god bless dutty artz for posting this earlier in the year. i’ll admit to having a serious soft spot for alicia keys, but this takes this song to a whole other planet. this is the kind of song that can keep me going when things get tough, know what i mean? this is something i can get behind. i feel better every single damned time i listen to this. i’m posting it here because you can no longer get it from dutty artz.

MP3: Alicia Keys - No One (Mike Watts screw)

screwing is about slowing songs down, but i can’t bear to hear any more of love shack than absolutely necessary so, yeah, original tempo. in fact, recently i’m all about shortening songs. like, for example, did you know that “horses” by daryl braithwaite is waaay more palatable when condensed down to 1 minute and 9 seconds?

MP3: Daryl Braithwaite - Horses (Time Poor edit)

MP3: Hall & Oates - Maneater (Time Poor edit)

this all reminds me of the time i condensed my 60 minute JJJ mix up set down to 7 minutes. imagine if itunes or winamp or whatever just had a button you could press that says “condense music” and it just compacted what you were listening to into a fraction of its running time. we’d get so much more done.

and lastly, i found this great 7 minute megamix of “i wanna dance with somebody.” in fact, on a p2p network that shall remain nameless, i found no less than TEN remixes of this track, all neatly packaged together by some dude. its 70 minutes of i wanna dance with somebody. most of it sounds way to queer eye soundtrack for my liking - this is the pick of the bunch. no trickery here, just seriously intense 80s pop remixing. the best bit is about 5 minutes in, where it just becomes this intense drum machine workout and some dude yelling at me over and over “dance, dance, d-d-d-dance”

MP3: Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Hot Tracks mix)

i’m seriously RIAA-baiting with this post. methinks i’m about to trigger a wide variety of alerts on RIAA automated blog piracy detection bot programs. note to tim’s ISP: prepare to receive correspondence! shit i’ve even said RIAA a couple of times in this paragraph so no doubt they’ll be checking me out.

simple pleasures.

last night i entered the tardis…
to chat with fenella kernebone on her show the sound lab on triple j radio.

we talked about my new ep “changes” and played a few tracks from it, including a brand new remix by cleptoclectics!

MP3: Faux Pas on the Sound Lab

this is the only place where you can hear the brand new cleptoclectics remix of one of my unreleased tracks “live shine see”. its pretty cool, although triple j’s audio streaming quality isn’t great. just wait til you hear it at full quality! but don’t be kvetching like a hommus, brother. the remix will be released on december 12 as the exclusive bonus track on the itunes release of the “changes” ep. hold up, magneto and titanium man! solid!!

i’ve edited out the other tracks we played and just left the talking, because i love the sound of my own voice - but you can stream my music at better quality at last.fm or myspace, so go there if you’d rather hear just the actual music. aside from the clepto remix, the tracks featured during the interview are all available on the standard shiny disc in cardboard wallet version of the “changes” ep.

more on cleptoclectics soon - tom and i are currently involved in some kind of self-congratulatory repeating blogger back-slapping feedback loop, and its my turn to say nice things about him. he recently called me an “internet juice mongering dynamo”. ha! i’ve always considered myself more of a crimson dynamo…

now here is a picture of me and my wife juliette upon first hearing the cleptoclectics remix of “live shine see!” see how despite a few hours on the hippie lettuce i’m still mildly shocked by its awesomeness! marvel at my darling wife as she allows herself a knowing grin, despite still entertaining suicidal thoughts following a disastrous hairdresser situation!

i’m currently going track by track through a mix i recently did for a website called research and development - find out more here.

7. agitation free - ala tul (faux pas edit)

a month or two ago one of my favourite mp3 blogs undomondo posted a few 70s prog & psych tracks, and one stood out, “ala tul” by a german band called agitation free. they were like a german prog/kraut rock band, wikipedia tells me they were active from 1967 to 1974 and that one of their number at some point jumped ship to tangerine dream. my dad had a couple of tangerine dream cds in the 80s, i remember as a kid trying to listen to them but being completely bewildered. there was no way in to tangerine dream, not for me. when it came to dad’s cd collection i was more into billy joel. i never even attempted to listen to the vangelis soundtrack dad had. though i did listen to clannad a few times. clannad is good to play d&d to.

MP3: Agitation Free - Ala Tul

MP3: Agitation Free - Ala Tul (Faux Pas edit)

THINGS I SAW ON THE INTERNET:

i make gotye website new pretty! - based on a poster by this guy, who is from these guys, who based the poster on a film clip by this guy which utilised characters designed by some other guy. its official, half of australia now works for gotye. check out wally’s first post in his brand new blog section. now if only i could do something to make my own website prettier..

—

the latest edition of sample wednesdays over at the palms out blog is an mp3 expose of songs sampled by beat conductor turned ben folds fan rjd2, mostly songs sampled in tracks from his first album. i already knew about the elliott smith sample thanks to declan, whose great triple r radio show ‘against the arctic’ can (and should) be downloaded online each week from research and development.

—

a history of simian, riddled with mp3s - a great primer despite a glaring inaccuracy in the opening paragraph (simian were/are from the uk not new york). but yeah this is worth reading, particularly if, like me, you mourn simian and are in denial about the ‘mobile disco’. simian fans should head there if only to grab the track “in siam” a weird psychedelic jumble of a track that pre-dates the first simian album but incorporates parts of one of my favourite simian tracks “one dimension”. i miss simian. this blog is so five years ago, hey.

—

i remixed local melbourne banjo-doom poptarts aleks & the ramps a couple of months ago (you can listen to and download that remix here). not to be out done, the band themselves has puked out a great cheesy remix of ‘brain’, probably my favourite track from the debut ramps album. its at their myspace. you can also read a couple of great interviews with aleks from the ramps here at mess&noise, and here at wireless bolinger. the mess&noise interview in particular is essential reading for ramp fans.

—

and in conclusion: HERBIE HANCOCK AND HIS FAIRLIGHT….

…ON SESAME STREET!!:

… then JAMMING WITH QUINCY JONES!!!!:

hey! a quick thank you to the good folks that have been giving this track a spin on their radio shows in the last week or two. the proper zeal EP comes out in around a month or so, so hopefully you’ve been enjoying this track as a teaser. if you haven’t heard it, download it now and play on repeat. its a winter jam!

MP3: Zeal - Yumi and the Sky (Faux Pas remix)

this blog is just turning into youtube central, and i’m not gonna stop now - here’s the great film clip for zeal’s song salt, which bob put together himself in his bedroom with an inkjet printer, a pair of scissors, and some time off from uni. its cool and my favourite bit is where the hand comes out and plays the theremin. oops i just spoiled it. i’m now currently trying to convince bob how it would be a great idea to make a faux pas clip that involves cats riding synthesisers through space.

this clip screened at the st kilda film festival earlier this year as part of their music video program:

Video: Zeal - Salt

maybe they think that i am mad

MP3: Faux Pas - Looking For Nino (demo)

MP3: Nino Ferrer - Looking for You (download it at robotsinheat.com)

previously:
010 - Faux Pas - Dorothy’s Finger (demo)
009 - Faux Pas - Into Trevor Jones
008 - Aleks and the Ramps - Pisces vs Aquarius (Faux Pas remix)

more…

this is something i posted online a few months ago (before this weekly series started), but its worth posting again now that there are a couple more of you sniffing around this blog… the more i listen to this, the happier i am with how it turned out. it can and will be described as banjo troubadour drama re-interpreted as tribal jam with timbales that shakesdown into sleepy dawn folk. BOOM.

check aleks & the ramps here. you should also check out this article on aleks & the ramps at the mess+noise website, which makes for great reading oooooooh

MP3: Aleks and the Ramps - Pisces vs Aquarius (Faux Pas remix)

previously:
007 - Faux Pas - Coach (demo)
006 - Gotye - Coming Back (Faux Pas Bellheadless remix)
005 - Faux Pas - Wayfare (demo)
more…

pictured left: walter becker aka gotye
pictured right: tim sheils aka steely dan

MP3: Gotye - Coming Back (Faux Pas Bellheadless remix)

previously:
005 - Faux Pas - Wayfare demo
004 - Lon Suder - Untitled
003 - Faux Pas - Jaffee (Midwinter Song)
more…

every week, a previously unreleased mp3 from the world of faux pas - remixes, retakes, demos, off-cuts, whatevz

existing at the intersection of twee glockenspiel pop, homespun banjo riffage, & “bug powder dust” - here lies “yumi and the sky” written and performed by adelaide’s zeal (aka rob jarvis), mutated by faux pas (aka me). also featuring the tidy banjo and glock stylings of aleks (aka aleks) of aleks & the ramps on certain likely instruments. this remix slays giants. bona fidey. dig the cornelius choirs and scandinavian vibes. woah! spread it like nutella!

MP3: Zeal - Yumi and the Sky (Faux Pas remix)

previously:
001 - Faux Pas - The Roland Gift (a 60 minute max mix)

3 lucky people on the faux pas mailing list picked up free giveaway copies of the new aleks and the ramps single “they’re recording everything we say” (previously discussed here). woo hoo! i felt like santa doing a giveaway, so i’ll definitely be doing that again. if you want to sign up for the mailing list, head over to www.iamfauxpas.com.

like all things indie & ‘limited edition’, the single is not easy to find in stores, but hey
i just happen to have some extra copies of it, so if you want one, just get in touch with me and we can sort something out. its only $5 plus postage, & thats aussie dollars, which we all know is not real money. its more like monopoly money. note: my hand is not included in the price! note: i have more than just one finger and a thumb on my left hand, despite what that photo seemingly indicates! how else could i knock out banging synth-flute solos on my two-octave keyboard! (answer: with one hand)

featured on the single, alongside the rad stylings of the ramps, is a faux pas remix of the track “pisces vs aquarius”, which is the title track of their forthcoming album. and you can check out the remix, right now, right here, through the phenomenon of internet technology! check it out. there’s screaming, creepy organs, ping pong, folk guitar & synth bells! silver bells, silver bells, its christmas time in the city… i told you i felt like santa

ring a ling:
MP3: Aleks & the Ramps - Pisces vs Aquarius (Faux Pas remix)