The Following Aesthetic Reasons

The playlist from last night...

Tonight we're probably going to have to watch the Celtics first game of the season...but not before we go by Gaslight for escargot and St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur cocktails. It's for Heather Stimmler-Hall's new Paris guide "Naughty Paris".

Legendary Pink Dots are at Middle East Downstairs (Central Square, Cambridge MA)on Wedsnesday...Dungen is at Great Scott (Allston MA) and Of Montreal are at the Orpheum Theatre (Boston MA) on Thursday.

For Halloween on Friday, make SURE you check out the return of Thunderdome...Mistaker has hijacked the Greek American Political Club @ 288 Green Street in Cambridge MA and along with the Hearthrob DJ's terror will reign.

Anja Plaschg, also known as Soap&Skin, is only 18 but already she is full of Weltschmerz. Well, it's very becoming on her, and with high Gothic fancy she gives sway to the piano and with such a melancholy voice she sings, cries, weeps her way into your heart. Highly influenced by forlorns like Cat Power and Nico, she could also be Lord Byron's muse or a very convincing Ophelia. Originally from Vienna, Anja as Soap&Skin has played at festivals all over Europe without even having a label backer or album release. Finally, a self-titled EP was released October 10th, with 4 tracks including a remix by Fennesz (!). A full length album is expected in early 2009. I'm listening to the EP on a rainy afternoon, reading "The Flounder" by Gunter Grass. Perfect combination, beautiful sounds.

Sarah Applebaum, a contemporary artist from San Francisco, creates amazing textured drawings which are hung all over the city. Still, I'm most impressed by her soft sculptures which are colorful, chimerical and recklessly so.

Gareth Pugh, a young designer from London specializing in the avant garde and the architectural, recently received a prize to work in Paris and the fashion-guard are quite excited about his prospect there. Not one to disappoint, Pugh put on a show in Paris for the Spring/Summer 2009 collection which was well, hypnotizing.

Gelatin is used in the girls hair to look like they are coming out of water. It's a conceptual collection, the white front and black behind signifies that light comes out of dark, or as Pugh himself explains by way of example, "flowers are the most beautiful just before they die."

http://www.spinitron.com/public/index.php?station=wzbc&month=Oct&year=2008&plid=12884



Tonight we'll go see The Duchess because I'm a goddamn sucker for costume drama. Wednesday Hercules and Love Affair is at the Middle East Downstairs (Central Square, Cambridge MA) you can often get free tickets by calling into the on-air dj at 617-552-4686. Thursday you gotta decide between Lykke Li (pictured above, from Sweden), or Deerhoof/Experimental Dental School/Flying Luttenbachers. Lykke Li is everything that you could ever want in a pop star, i.e. weird and Scandinavian. But the Deerhoof etc show is also sure to be a riot, bouncy clattering artrock experimental improv freakouts. Lykke Li is at the Paradise (Boston MA) and Deerhoof is at The Middle East Downstairs (Central Square, Cambridge MA). Saturday, there's a Basstown event at Great Scott (Harvard Ave, Allston MA).

It’s easy to forget that Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album, the one with “Rhiannon” and “Say You Love Me,” wasn’t their first—it was their 15th. The reason for the band’s commercial breakthrough is largely attributed to the introduction of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to the lineup. But this was one fucked up Brady Bunch, and it wasn’t long before Buckingham decided to “go his own way”…

So you were born in Palo Alto and went to Menlo Atherton High with Stevie Nicks? I am from there too! (I went to Sacred Heart Prep, the rival High School…)

-Oh really? So we’re a couple of rich kids huh? I had an idyllic childhood. Then Stevie and I moved down to LA to pursue a career in music with the band we were with at the time. Buckingham-Nicks, just me and Stevie. It’s a city that doesn’t inherently make sense, you know, LA is kind of a mess. But you’ve got to find your place in the city. Once you do, it’s alright. We struck up and we had to be in LA, or touring around everywhere else. You know, I have kids now and we’ve lived here for so long, I guess you could say I like it here in LA.

Right, you have an interesting background in music. You are self-taught and don’t read music, so what are your thoughts on how music has changed you and how is your experience with music is special?

-Yes my first instrument was the ukulele. And my parents eventually bought me a guitar. I would be using my fingers rather than a pick. And I would say that music has defined me rather than changed me. I was part of a time. You know, Elvis and what was going on at Haight and Ashbury. Rock and Roll. I would be in my room plucking along to records for hours at a time. I think my parents were wondering, “What is wrong with Lindsey?” My siblings and I, we grew up swimming, there’s a lot of that in Atherton. I was into swimming for a while, but it was music that was my passion. I was just really influenced by Elvis and the records that I had. I wanted to do that.

Can you tell me about your compositional process?

-I don’t think of myself as a writer of songs, but as a stylist. Like a painter painting, I go into a sort of meditative place. In my solo productions I am playing multiple instruments. So I am working with a blank canvas. If you allow yourself to be an antenna, the work just comes to you.

How much are your songs autobiographical?

-Well I think it’s impossible, as an artist, not to infuse your work with your own experience and point of view. For example, when we made Rumours, Christine and John were going through divorce and Stevie and I were breaking up. Even if we thought the songs we were making were generic, years later we realized what they were all about. It was a hard time, there was a lot of hurt and backlash. I don’t know how we managed to do it, really.

What was “Bleed to Love Her” about?

-(Pause). It was about someone I knew a long time ago who was very elusive with her emotions. I felt like I was bleeding all over the place. But you can’t force someone to take emotional risks, it just didn’t happen.

What was “Go Your Own Way” about? Just kidding. So, Gift of Screws, what did the material come from?

-There’s been sort of a pattern that as I’m poised to release solo work or in the process, the band will come in and “intervene”. Gift of Screws was a solo project I had presented to Warner Bros. in 2001, and it was proposed that Fleetwood Mac should record a handful of the songs. "Murrow Turning Over In His Grave", "Miranda", "Red Rover", "Come", "Steal Your Heart Away", "Bleed to Love Her" and "Say Goodbye" were therefore appearing on Fleetwood’s record Say You Will and in substantially the same form you know. The project is its own now, it is more experimental and less acoustic than my solo record from last year. There are a few older songs, still, that were stragglers, waiting to find a home.

What do you think of current music? Do you like electronic music?

-I think there’s some things that are new and interesting and a lot of crap, really. I like electronic music and the new brand of electronic-rock. I can’t remember all the stuff that’s new that I’ve been listening to lately, but I always buy new stuff.

So what’s up for next year?

-Well, the old lineup is basically going to come back together. I think we’re in a much better place. We were all such different people really. It was amazing that we could all be in the same band, it was a band that should never have been, but I guess that’s what made it work too. Christine McVie won’t be joining us though. We’ll practice some in the first few months of the year, and then probably go on tour in the Spring or Summer. Then there’s talk of another album. It’s a lot more commercial, you know, the tour thing. I don’t always like doing it. But, you know, it’s good.

Sounds like Thunder…
Gift of Screws is out now on Warner Bros/Reprise Records. Sheryl Crow was rumored to be joining the band to take McVie’s place when they go on tour in 2009, but that rumor has since been squashed. Phewww, that was close.

So, if you dig the whole nonchalant sexy French woman thing you are A) Human, B) Going to love Purple Magazine from Paris. Women are unabashedly topless, eating jeweled bananas, looking snotty. And it is so chimerically tasteful. The features on fashion (men's too!), art, cinema, architecture, theatre, philosophy, food, politics, and society are always splendid. Check out the website, where now you now can order back issues from all the way back from 1992.


http://www.purple.fr/fashion.php?p=76

For the vinyl collector...Stefan Glerum has created these and far more damning prints for purchase on his blog.

http://stefanglerum.blogspot.com/

Here is the playlist from last night's show:

http://www.spinitron.com/public/index.php?station=wzbc&month=Oct&year=2008&plid=12840

Many calls when I played the Shunsower track by Robert Dietz & Markus Fix, here's the info:

Artist: Robert Dietz & Markus Fix
Record: Boston Shunsower
Recorded: Cecille Records
Release date: 6 October, 2008
02 tracks

A1. Shunsower ( 10:31 )
B1. Bo Boston ( 08:53 )

Played by Ricardo Villalobos, Raresh, Karotte, Nick Curly, Matthias Tanzmann, Johnny D, Reboot, Chris Tietjenafter

Number 1 on Heidi's top 10 tracks of October 2008 as reported by Resident Advisor:

http://www.residentadvisor.net/dj-chart.aspx?id=771&chart=5252

Check out Flickr group The Art of the Display

http://www.residentadvisor.net/review-view.aspx?id=5510

So meeting Jan Krueger was such a pleasure, we had dinner and drinks before the show and got to talking about Berlin, Boston, techno and, errrrr, indie rock. He is, of course, part of the great label Hello?Repeat, the latest release is by Bruno Pronsato. I just put this in my top list for September/October, and I'm happy to post the review here written by our friend Will Lynch!

People ask me alot where to go out in Boston. Make It New has always been my answer. It's every Thursday at Middlesex, in Central Square Cambridge, and I like it because the emphasis is right: no naked women/acid trippin' visuals, no $15 drinks/ no more beat-you-over-the-head breakdowns. The staff is awesome, the venue is dark, and OMFG, the music is NEW. As in, hot minimal tracks that aren't recycled next week too. Open till 2am, ususally free. This Thursday, the guest is new to Boston: Jan Krueger.

"Krueger is best known for playing a sinewy, seductive, serpentine combination of deep house and minimal techno that is proper for intimate dance floors. For Make It New, the lights we be extra-dim as Kreuger mixes a luscious set of Berlin and Detroit music that is sure to bring people closer together." -David Day

Jan Krueger at Bunker:
http://beyond.datavibe.net/20080702_JanKrueger.mp3

Jan Krueger on the Ibiza Voice podcast, June 2008:
http://www.ibiza-voice.com/sessions/media/Jan_krueger_Ibiza_Voice_Podcast.mp3

About Jan Krueger:
http://www.eardear.com/artists/index.php?artistid=21&anzeige=bio

Make It New on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/makeitnew

Opening sets from Baldur/DJezus:
http://djezus.org/

And Alan Manzi:
http://www.myspace.com/alanmanzi

"The Following Aesthetic Reasons" is now Mondays 7-10pm on WZBC 90.3 FM (Boston radio frequencies) or stream live at wzbc.org

Here is the playlist from Monday:

http://www.spinitron.com/public/index.php?station=wzbc&month=Oct&year=2008&plid=12799

http://www.supermarkethq.com/designer/18/products

I just love these light fixtures which are photographs of natural or urban decay. Also the playful microphone!

http://rs415.rapidshare.com/files/150210857/Magda___Electronic_Beats_Radio_Oktober_2008_UMP3.mp3

I generally choose to live in a bubble, sheltered from all politics, pop culture "hits", and celebrity dish. But even in the bubble you have stars, and so you could say that Magda is amongst the brightest stars in my little sky. Over the last few years, Magda has risen within Richie Hawtin's legendary label, Minus, to a influential seat on the techno set. Her performance(s) at the 2008 Detroit Electronic Music Festival were lauded as some of the best in show. Now, the shape of techno and electronic music to come could have something to do with Magda.
In an interview with UMP3, Magda sets it straight:
"...it’s all business, it’s all a market. And as much as I’d like to say, 'I’m cool, I’m underground, I’m not part of that,' - what if that happens to what I’m doing?" Magda is quick to stress that techno with the rest of the world must inevitably change, and that it is not a static, ahistorical, un-changing entity floating in time in space. “Techno and dance music really got popular around ‘97. It really blew up on a commercial level and people found out about it. Where ever things become commercialized, ultimately it pushes the subcultures more underground. I feel like now something new is going to happen again. It’s been kind of stagnant. Now most people know about it, so I think those people who came into it later, through trance or more commercial stuff are looking for other things. With the invention of technology and final scratch people are making super cool stuff, and it’s creating this new subculture. That’s exciting to me.”

Lou Doillon. Daughter of actor Jane Birkin and director Jacques Doillon. Now designing for French line La Redoute (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_yc76499TM) and Lee Cooper Jeans, her self-described style is "French Revolution meets Joséphine, which meets Millais’s Ophelia, wearing Degas’ tutu, Toulouse-Lautrec’s green stockings, Mary Poppins’s boots, and the Artful Dodger’s top hat, kind of with an air hostess hat."

Andy Warhol. The self portraiture of Warhol is ambiguous. Are the works, in fact, accurate representations of the real Andrew Warhol, or simply a means of deception? With his averted and superficial gaze, Warhol seems to deflect analysis and confrontation just like his famous fictional works of art.