Nothing is sweeter to my ears than when electronic music decides to get a little nasty with it and drops a sweet groove. Mm. This is something I appreciate from the likes of Beck, for instance, whose determination to really rock the weird works out somehow. Animal Collective, a prime example of weird gone very right, has even been known to section off their big wall o' sound into respectable grooves. My good buddy DiGangi introduced me to this band General Elektriks, whose album "Good City for Dreamers" just dropped Nov. 11. I won't go into my usual platitudes on the subject, but suffice to say I heard the first few chords of "Raid the Radio" at our mutual place of work, and I had to march right up to him to ask about it. It's there on the Myspace. They're based in Berkeley, CA, but the brains behind the project, Frenchman Herve Salters, has toured with the likes of Blackalicious and DJ Shadow. It seems the dude can bring the funk, and I'm inclined to appreciate that.

In related, super-awesome news, I'm seeing Mew open for none other than the Pixies tomorrow night at Constitution Hall! The Boston legends will be playing songs off "Dolittle," for the 20th anniversary of the album, so we'll all have flashbacks of nineties nostalgia no doubt (and thank God I'm taking DiGangi, who has this Judd Nelson thing going on) But equally exciting will be Mew playing from their new album, and will hopefully play that super awesome song I blogged about earlier. Best fifty bucks I will ever have spent, other than that one time...

Jim Hensian Rhapsody

I know I've been a bit blog-happy these days, but call it the honeymoon period. In any case, my sister was thoughtful enough to send me this video, with ample time before the holidays and our tri-sister traditional holiday escapade, going to buy booze while channeling a little Wayne and Garth on the way. But also, what better season to revisit our favorite green frog and French-speaking egomaniacal pig?


Also, it may come as no surprise that secretly I have wanted to be the blonde bass player chick in the Electric Mayhem, my all-time favorite band (sorry, Air Supply).

Oye!

A little shout-out to a professor and friend of mine, Ken Schweitzer, ethnomusicologist and professor of Music and all things syncopated, who has posted a link to his online article about the religious music of Santeria in Cuba. I studied this a bit with him my senior year, and even got to play piano with his Afro-Cuban Ensemble. I became pretty fascinated with his research, and the way the music of Havana is valued as higher than entertainment value, it's a central and highly personal aspect of their entire culture. It's a precious few who get to see the rituals and touch the sacred drums, but over the years Ken has cultivated close friendships to the people and the country to bring back and share with the musically-impassioned such as myself. But I'll let the article speak for itself!

Brand New Goodies!

It's been a delightful week in the world of me: new boots and new tunes. I've been lusting after a pair of black ankle boots with the right right, right toe, and right slouch to finally quit trying to fool anyone and own up to my height, which is, after heels, six feet. But the semi-unfortunate return of so-called biker-chic has offered the possibility of wearing boots that aren't a production to slip on, and heels that don't have dirty station wagons creeping past the crosswalk.

(I say semi-unfortunate, because after all who doesn't like a bit of black leather now and then, but the style in general teeters dangerously into the world of that obnoxious, tough-titty affectation we could all do without). I was poking around my favorite online fashion source, Modcloth.com, and after narrowing it down to top three boots of slightly different variation, settled on a pair that won me comments the first night I wore them to work.

Added bonus this week--and any segway will do to get out of talking like some gay male version of Carrie Bradshaw--is Animal Collective's new EP "Fall Be Kind," out today and already lapped up in Pitchfork's review. But in an effort to maintain journalistic integrity, I did not read the review before I wrote my own thoughts! The band has said they have wanted their albums this year to reflect the changing seasons, although that was kind of messed with when their summer album, Merriweather Post Pavilion was accidentally leaked in December 2008, so I definitely associate the album with cold winter and everything going on in my life at the time. But fortunately this one is coming out with the intended invocations of crispiness, spiciness, and the supplications we offer to have a not-so-miserable winter ahead to trees self-conscious with their new gauntness. The opening track "Graze" sounds a little like the beginning of the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan, and with characteristic janglings like acorns in your pocket, and evolves into a kind of Peruvian carnival and you can see the bright reds and turqoises kissing summer goodbye. What we're hearing is your average psychedelic mashed potatoes-and-synth-gravy-but-thank-God-we're-not-hippies-but oh wait, what's on that second track? Just a sample from one of the great rock'n'roll story-weavers, the Grateful Dead, from Phil Lesh's song, "Unbroken Chain." And the song is definitely the most groove-oriented on the album, which automatically scores high points for me, dubious as I am of the overly-ambient. (Not that it's a bad thing, but it's a question of how addictive a groove is, especially if you're the one caught in it, and how tiresome atmospheric sounds get; I don't want a rock album of ocean waves and rainforest sounds.)


I am happy to say that this will provide the perfect soundtrack for my new boots.

Belated Birthday Self-Presents

To celebrate my 23-year run at life, I made a very necessary purchase from the very best online source of girly and smokin threads, Modcloth.com. It is your best shot at finding things like owl rings and cupcake flats, but the gems extend to boots, skirts, jackets and necklaces. This was my recent purchase that has me all in a tizzy:

It was all I could do to not buy another pair of red shoes.

Delight in Disorder

It's time to finally digest my most recent obsession, though not new themselves, the Danish electro-rockpop band Mew's new album "No More Stories/Are Told Today/I'm Sorry/They Washed Away/No More Stories/The World Is Gray/I'm Tired/Let's Wash Away." They would seem from the first track to be comparable to any other layer-heavy indie electro-avatars, but the track rolls into number two, "Introducing Palace Players," a nest of layered textures and a begrudging attitude with guitar and drums slightly pulling each other along until the zipper pulls down, spilling out enough synth to introduce vocals. The whole album is infectious and lovely, but this makes my top ten favorites this month for sure.