"The Led whaat?"

This is neat. Here is a 1970 interview with John Bonham & Robert Plant. They discuss the "death of the personality cult" and the revolution in popular music that Zeppelin was a catalyst for.

Now, lets move from revolution talk to evolution talk. Here is what prehistoric Wax Romeo looked like. Creepy, right? Thank God for Darwinism.

Also, at the long overdue request of DJ Pat Chez, here is me dressed as Mandeep a couple Halloweens ago.

Smalltown Best:09 Mix

The "Best of 08" podcast was a smashing success and the feedback was awesome, so here is the follow up. What great year it was for music, this mix is about some of the non-dancefloor and not-club tunes which were on heavy rotation this year. The great cover art was designed by our homie Jonathan at Rollout. Thanks for listening.

SMALLTOWN DJs BEST:09 MIX

*edit: Neoteric was kind enough to upload a version with tracklist & artwork embedded HERE


BEST:09 TRACKLIST

1) While you wait for the Others - Grizzly Bear feat. Michael Macdonald
2) Just ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne
3) Stillness is the Move - Solange Knowles
4) Dominoes - The Big Pink
5) Nothing to Worry About - Peter, Bjorn & John
6) No You Girls (Grizzl Remix) - Franz Ferdinand
7) So Insane - Discovery
8) The Sticky - Black Moth Super Rainbow
9) Lizstomania (Classixx Remix) - Phoenix
10) Psychic City - Yacht
11) Blood Bank (Skinny Friedman edit) - Bon Iver
12) Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
13) Animal (Mark Ronson Remix) - Miike Snow
14) Shelter (Them Jeans Remix) - The XX
15) Cruel Intentions - Simian Mobile Disco feat. Beth Ditto
16) Walking on the Moon (U-Tern's Kris Menace blend) - The Dream
17) Bulletproof - La Roux
18) One Life Stand - Hot Chip
19) Rain Dance - The Very Best feat. M.I.A.
20) You Got the Love (The XX Remix) - Florence & The Machine
21) Night by Night (Skream Remix) - Chromeo
22) Pursuit of Happiness - Kid Cudi feat Ratatat & MGMT

Nicaragua - A good purpose

After a few weeks in Europe Pete and I returned home to Calgary just in time to welcome a -37 Blizzard. With 10 days on the calender with no scheduled work I decided to head to Nicaragua and within 2 hours me and my trusty travel mate/girlfriend Joanna were on a plane.

With 3 hours of sun on the first day I received a pretty brutal sunburn.
Which if you have ever spent time in the waves in Nicaragua is somewhat
unavoidable and common. It gave me a few days to work on a new track
heavily inspired by the Spanish/Latin influences in the area. The view from my Nica studio was amazing.


After a few days out of the sun we were back on the beach just in time to hit a nice groundswell that was just the right size for a landlocked Calgarian Surfer. Justin from Liquidglass was out with his water camera and hooked me with a few shots from that afternoon.

That evening our good friend Johnny G was Djing at a fund raiser for The Barrio Planta Project. This is where the good purpose comes in.
The BP Project is a community development program that gives a positive outlet and opportunities to Nicaraguan children and adults.
Activities such as sports, theater and art help foster focus and teamwork while creating confidence and purpose to the individuals and the community. A small donation goes a very very long way.
Click here to View a short video.
Click here to learn more about the Barrio Planta Project.

With only 8 non travel days in Nicaragua we barely got over our sunburns before we had to throw our winter jackets back on and head home. Much thanks to Johnny G, Pete, Marty, Curtis, Yaosca, Elliot, Jamie, Bambu, Los Cardones, Izic, Charlie, Shaun, San Juan C21 and Sanjuansurf.com for the good times. Well see you again soon.

METAL BABY

Video of kid imitating the sound of his dad's music. Hilarious.

BAAAAAAAAAH!!

Wednesday Covers - "Sweet Jane"

Hey everybody, it's Wednesday, how neat. For our cover today we have the standout hit from Velvet Underground's final album, and the mopey cover by downer Can-rockers Cowboy Junkies, which old Lou himself described as "the best and most authentic version I have ever heard". Without further adouche, here's "Sweet Jane".

Synth Jams

Let's put on a couple jams to get fired up then we'll rage this weekend. Who's with me?

TOP BILLIN - PLAYBOY ANTHEM

So we just recently did a remix for our Finnish pals, Top Billin. You can scope the details here . There's a vocal and a dub, so buy 2 of each.


Also, my pal Jer (who claims to have once bought a pack of Willy Wonka Bottle Caps , and got all fucking root beer ones. I call bullshit.) put me on to a wonderful Shit Robot mix for xlr8r from back in the summer. It's super groovy. Grab it here .

Tracklist:

01 Shit Robot - "Simple Things (Work It Out)" (Todd Terje remix) - (DFA)
02 Chicken Lips - "Feast of Freaks" (Kotey’s Tape Edit) - (Lipservice)
03 Suburban Knight - "The Groove" - (Transmat)
04 Black Meteoric Star - "Death Tunnel" - (DFA)
05 X-Ray - "Let’s Go" - (Transmat)
06 Crazy P - "Love on the Line" (Unabombers Remix) - (20:20 Vision)
07 Bangkok Impact - "Premature Ejaculation" - (Crème Organization)
08 Joris Voorn - "Sweep the Floor" - (Rejected)
09 Cobblestone Jazz - "Traffic Jam" - (Wagon Repair)
10 Crazy P - "Stop Space Return" (Unabomber Dub) - (20:20 Vision)
11 Shit Robot - "Simple Things (Work It Out)" - (DFA)

Euro Tour Recap

Holy moly - what a time. Mike and I went to do some shows in Europe & the UK at the end of November, and Dawn came with us! It was a big success.

We got in to Paris on Thursday with a night off - and our homies Nadastrom were playing in town that night with Brodinski, Primary 1 and Boombass from Cassius & La Funk Mob.

It was great to see Dave and Matt tear up the club in Paris, and also Boombass who has been a hero of mine forever. He played a classy and fun set and the Parisien kids were going off.

The next day we met up with DJ Ayres (Quasimodo) who was playing with us at Casino Noveau that night, and went walking around town. We headed for the APC store and bumped into Mehdi of Ed Banger:

Looking super French.

This is where Ayres (the hunchback of Park Slope) lives:
It was nice of him to let us see his house.

That night at the club was so much fun. The Beat & Juice crew took great care of us. And the club was jamming. Thanks Paris!


Next it was off to Helsinki, where we basically headed straight to the club - we were playing at Siltanen with Fiskars, Flipperi, J Laini, & TaneLee. It was part of the Lifesaver Records 10 year anniversary - and one of the funnest nights we've had in a long time. We felt really honoured to be a part of it. They were all playing awesome vinyl, so we felt bad playing Serato but oh well.


"My brother Fiskars" - that sounds like the name of a sitcom.


The next day the homie DJ Anonymous took us too see Helsinki, and eat some Finnish food. I had herring:


And I also ate Reindeer! Santa's sled might be a wee bit slower this year.


Ayres & Nadastrom kept following us around:


So after the great time in Helsinki we headed to London where Jo met up with us and we had a couple days off to check out classy things like museums & art:


We felt really lucky to be back at Fabric on Friday night again, playing with Ali B & Mat The Alien. The Alien killed it and we got to play afterwards - it's such a legendary club that it's surreal to play there even the second time. In the booth:


Then we got to play the legendary funk night on Saturday at Paradise. A ton of Calgary folks came down - it was so awesome.


Maya!


Claire!


We had the best hosts in London: Ali, Dre & Dee - and it really made all the difference. THANKS GUYS! So that was the trip! A total blast and I can't wait to go back. Until then I leave you with this:

FIREFLY - 3

Firefly had a billboard disco hit with their jammee called Love Is Gonna Be On Your Side This is their 3rd album, and it's fuckin' so good. It's kind of on a funky italo tip, with the exception of may favourite track, "Don't Be A Fool", which is a feel-good synth-poppy duet, with bad English.

Check it out for sure: Firefly - 3 (full album)

"A UNICORN IS NAUGHT BUT A RAVER IN A DUNCECAP"

I think it was Soren Kierkegaard* who said that. Or Peter Sarsgaard? Old gaard/new gaard? Either way, it was someone for sure. And with that, I'd like to call your attention to a picture of our very own SweetCityWoman:


She thought she'd be funny, or whimsical, or some fucking shit, and dress as a unicorn for Halloween. Instead, she came out looking like if the Tickle Trunk exploded at Hullabaloo. Way to go, Nols. Although, it's better than the time she dressed as me. That was fucking terrifying.

So listened to a radio interview on the internet about how to get abducted by aliens. It gets dark at 5pm now, and today it got colder than a witches tit. Might be nice on a spaceship. Fuckin' flying around, eating fruit-rollups, drinking Tang and shit. Aliens, pick me! They probably won't. They don't care. Anyway, here's some spacey shit to bring if they pick you.

Harry Thumann - Underwater

Ganymed - It Takes Me Higher

Azoto - Exalt Exalt
Space - Magic Fly

Dee D. Jackson - Automatic Lover


*Nols's joke. I know, right?

MOAR BEST RAEV EVER!

Since this has basically become a video blog, I'ma toss up another. This one goes out to all you Shambhalowlifes that didn't get enough hippyrave in August. It's some more video from Shambhala, and will have to tie you over. It's only footage shot from the Living Room, which the stage overlooking the beach, and features the homeys Vinyl Ritchie, and JonH and Steve of Fort Knox 5. It was shot and edited by our pals Amy and Simon, who, in my esteemed opinion, did a bang-up jobby. The catchy-as-all-hell tune that it's set to was done by our pals, Hoola and Soup

The Living Room from Simon Slade on Vimeo.

I'm gonna take a break from the videos for a bit and should have some music to post this week. Also, Mike and Pete are back from Europe, so come down Thursday to welcome those 2 dicks back.

Holy fuck, it's December.

JINGLY TWINKLY

Amazing.

Neil Young sings 'Fresh Prince' theme song

Speaking of covers...





... Just kidding. It's Jimmy Fallon.

Wednesday Covers

Let's try a new semi-regular feature shall we. What we're gonna do is trace the lineage of popular tunes that have been covered by other artists. Oh man, this is gonna be fun. Yay.

The first one is "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone", originally recorded by The Monkees. OK here we go.

The Monkees (1967)

The Monkees - Not Your Steppin Stone
Uploaded by scootaway. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

The Sex Pistols (1980)



Minor Threat (1981?)

Gimmee Gimmee

Hey - Bonjay just released their first official ep and it features a remix by Smalltown Romeo which is described on the release as "tuff dubby disco". The original is a great weirdo-dancehall tune, these guys are one of our favorite new Canadian acts.

You can buy the original along with our remix and others by Ghislain Poirier and Grahmzilla of Thunderheist on iTunes: HERE.

Also they have released their own remix of the track for free download here on XLR8R.

Anyways, Big up Alanna & Pho on the first of many more to come!

OLD LADY DANCING

This is so awesome.

EURO MINI-TOUR MIX

Hey we are kicking off tonight in Paris at Nouveau Casino and made a mix to celebrate the trip overseas. It'f full of some of our latest club favorites. So enjoy!

SMALLTOWN DJS EURO MINI-TOUR 09 MIX

Smalltown Djs Euro Mini-Tour Mix 09 Tracklist:


Boom (Meterhead Remix) - Smalltown Romeo
Night by Night (Smalltown Djs Remix) - Chromeo
Put Your Hands on Me (Jesse Rose Remix) - Crookers
Gipsy Kings feat. Analogik - Malente
I Think I Like it - Fake Blood
I Like It (Riva Starr remix) - Malente
Dj Saved My Life (Tom De Neef Club Mix) - Crispin Glover
Disco Disco Disco - Mowgli
Kingstonlogic - Terri Lynn
The Lock Shot - Goshi Goshi
Blau (La Riots Remix) - Laidback Luke & Lee Mortimer
Turn That Shit Up (Diplo Remix) [Smalltown Edit] - Tom Stephan
Chillin (Top Billin UK Mix) - Wale feat Lady Gaga
Lions feat New Kidz - Malente & Dex
Bangkok - Boris Dlugosh
Bang Bang (U-Tern's Calvin Harris Blend) - Rye Rye
Vocal Chords - Claude Von Stroke

Tour Dates:

Friday Nov. 20
Paris, FR
Nouveau Casino
w/ DJ Ayres

Saturday Nov. 21
Helsinki, FIN
Siltanen
w/ Top Billin

Friday Nov. 27
London, UK
Fabric
W/ Mat The Alien & Ali B

Saturday Nov. 28
London, UK
Funk, Soul & Disco Set
Paradise

Party Parrot

Smalltown Euro 2009

URB 25: NOW! featuring Smalltown Romeo

Hey - we were just featured in Urb's new digital issue featuring 25 up and coming acts in underground music. It's called Urb 25: Now! and our friends 12th Planet and Skeet Skeet are also featured. Thanks to everybody who has been supporting us already and to all the new friends who are visiting for the first time.


Check it out here on page 26:
URB 25: NOW!

Smalltown Romeo Myspace : HERE
Smalltown DJs Myspace : HERE
Wax Romeo Myspace : HERE

Nice one!

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No

Night by Night (Smalltown DJs Remix) - Chromeo

Our friends at Fools Gold have posted the Smalltown Djs Remix of Chromeos 'Night by Night' . Head over to the FG blog to grab the Smalltown, Skream and Siriusmo remixes.
All gratis.

RIP Jerry Fuchs

1974-1999

Prince Klassen Fall Mix

Our good mate Prince Klassen has done a new fall mix for Cloud Plum and as usual it's really really good. A great fit for leaves falling and cool weather - lots of spacey synths, mellow vibes and acoustic guitars. The tracklist is tagged in iTunes throughout the mix.

PRINCE KLASSEN - FALL MIX FOR CLOUD PLUM

OOPSIE

Kraut Jamz

The BBC documentary Krautrock - The Rebirth of Germany provides a captivating look at late 60s-70s German avant rock and the weirdos that made it. Watch it here.

If you can find it, Julian Cope's highly opinionated, out-of-print Krautrocksampler is a must read primer on the topic.

Here's a quick little folder of Kraut jammers I put together for you, because I'm nice.

DOWNLOAD

Tracklist:

1. Guru Guru Sun Band - Starway
2. Faust - So Far
3. Neu! - Hallogallo
4. Can - Oh Yeah
5. Can - Moonshake
6. La Düsseldorf - Silver Cloud
7. Ash Ra Tempel - Le sourire envolé
8. Harmonia - Walky-Talky
9. Harmonia & Eno - Atmosphere
10. Cluster - Caramel
11. Popol Vuh - Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte
12. Guru Guru - Der LSD-Marsch
13. Amon Düül II - Archangels Thunderbird
14. Aloa - Fremdes Haus

Toddla T North American Tour Vid

Including the boy Wax Romeo at his finest.

HALLOWEINER

Saturday we have a crazy Hallwoeen party at the Theatre Junction Grand in Calgary. Tickets are sold out but you might be able to get some if you murder someone who has some and take their tickets.

I'VE GOT A BID BITE!!!

This past week, when we had the Dust La Rock art opening at the Hifi, I noticed a real occult vibe througout. Must have stuck with me because I've spent the last 30 minutes watching snake videos. This one is the best one found. It starts with these two nature dickheads spelunking through bat shit doing what they describe in their own words as "looking for snakes". It's scary as shit at first, and then turns into one of the top 10 funniest things I've seen around the 1:30 mark, when he gets bitten and keeps repeating the same thing. Check these fucking guys out:



He doesn't die...cause these two dicks go back...watch:


Never had the urge to wrestle a snake.

Le Luci Bianche Rigettiano

Our great homie and main man Ryan Ford made this really cool mix, in his words (I've been listening to it while making love) :

So I wanted to do a mix like this for a really long time. This is a cooling out, tooling around, working on art, making love, driving, eating pizza sort of mix. It is fairly different to the type of music I usually play in the club. This mix has an ebb and flow that is very different from slanging bangers for the people at the club. It reminds me a lot of the way I used to make tapes (or try anyway) when I use to DJ at some raves in 98-99. I hope you enjoy dis mate.
Ryanello Fordinho

Le Luci Bianche Rigettiano Mix 2009

http://www.myspace.com/djfordinho

Tracklisting:
Osborne - Wait a minute
Runaway - Brooklyn Club Jam
Eli Escobar - Good Time
Only Fools and Horses - Spectacle wins ( Holy Ghost! Remix)
Touch Sensitive - Body Stop
Zwicker - Who you are (Junior Boys Remix)
Relation - Your tiny mind ( Lifelike Remix)
Empire of the Sun - We are the People (Shazam Remix)
Phonat - Set me free
Bent - Always (Trevor Lovey's Remix)
Major Lazer - Cash Flow (Classixx Glass Bottom Dub Mix)
The Glass - Wanna be dancin' (Nadastrom Dub Edit)
Monochrome - Pearl
Roland Clark and The Montanas - Music Taking (Fred Falke Remix)
Farley Jackmaster Funk - Love can't turn around (Lifelike Remix)
Dam-Funk- Purple
Egyptian Lover - I Cry (Night After Night)

10

When Grimey and I started Hai Karate we wanted to play every good style of dance music on one night. At that time nobody did it. Thanks everybody for all the support.

CARTS OF DARKNESS

Just watched this documentary by Canadian director, Murray Siple, about homeless dudes in Vancouver who race carts. To be fair, it's not just about that, but I've seen these guys bombing down the hills in North Van like a fuckin' Meatloaf song. Also, I think our very own DJ Pat Chez selected the soundtrack, or at least it fucking looks like it. Only an hour, definitely worth a look-see.

"Murray Siple's feature-length documentary follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts down the steep hills of North Vancouver. This subculture depicts street life as much more than the stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The film takes a deep look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk. Shot in high-definition and featuring tracks from Black Mountain, Ladyhawk, Vetiver, Bison, and Alan Boyd of Little Sparta."

DnB?

Who listens to that stuff anymore? Not me / meep. Here's a couple toons that I'm not phazing out to these days...

post pre-millenial tension


pre-pre-millenial tension


soul patrol

DUST LA ROCK

This week we are presenting Dust La Rock's Best of the Beast art show at Giant 45 and The Hifi Club. He is the man behind Fools Gold Records' amazing artwork and we're huge fans of this guy. If you're in Calgary right now you dont want to miss this. Please click on the artwork above for more info - see you this week.

TODDLA T

UK Bashment poster boy TODDLA T is playing the Hifi Club tonight with us and it should be bonkers.

Here's a remix he did for Grand Puba recently:

GRAND PUBA - GET IT (TODDLA T REMIX)

See you tonight!

Slow Motion For Me

アホな走り集

via thepublics

Folk Rave

Standout obscuro music blog Glowing Raw just posted a massive grip of classic folk albums for download, including gems from Syd Barrett, Townes Van Zandt and Nick Drake. Catch the wind, brothers and sisters.

Nuggets

Not talking about chicken nuggets, gold nuggets or the Denver Nuggets... Talking about Nuggets Compilation Volume 1: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968. Here are a couple songs to try out. If you likey, download here.

Best of Beantown

I needed an excuse to post this image cuz it's so awesome. So you're gonna sit quietly while I name off my 3 favorite Boston bands. Don't act like you don't care. You do.


1. The Pixies

In high school Smalltown Pete would make his friends sit in his car (Chrysler New Yorker, the one that talked), lock the doors from the inside, and impose college rock tunes on our ears. This was my introduction to the Pixies, the greatest band the 90s ever produced (are too). Okay so the members aren't technically from Boston, but they formed there. Close enough, jeez.

"Hey" (live), 1989



"U-Mass", 1991




2. Dinosaur Jr.

Okay Dino Jr isn't from Boston either. They met at high school in Amherst, Mass. Whatever, good e-fucking-nough. The Dino Jr sound is a study in contrasts, making uneasy bedmates of thunderous metal riffage and wimpy, boo-hoo lyrics. That's what makes it good. P.S. J. Mascis is a guitar god.

"The Wagon", 1991



"Over It", 2009 (Still got it!)




3. The Modern Lovers

Alongside his idol Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman is the consummate proto-punk songwriter. The Modern Lovers were fast, frantic garage goodness, with 3-chord simplicity and naive lyrics about ice cream, insects and airplanes. Can't not love it.


"She Cracked" (demo), 1972



"Roadrunner", 1976

What a week

Wow - this week at the Hifi there are three awesome shows, starting off tonight with the new disco sounds of In Flagranti:




















Here's a great mix they did this summer for the Big Chill Festival:
IN FLAGRANTI - BIG CHILL MIX

Tomorrow night we have LA's best DJ Fashen coming through, and he's one of our fave djs out there:





















Here's the link to Fashen's awesome White Light Mix - also done this summer.

And Saturday we have Mad Decent's latest signing Maluca coming through, I guess you could describe what's happening here as an "embarrassment of riches":




















Here is a link to Sticky K's remix of Maluca's El Tigaraso.

So see you at one or all of these shows, unless you aren't into great music and having fun.

THIS IS NEAT

Turd On The Run

French photographer Dominique Tarlé took thousands of pictures of the Rolling Stones during the Exile On Main Street sessions in the South of France.

Here's what Mick Jagger said about the time:

"(We were) just winging it. Staying up all night...Stoned on something; one thing or another. So I don't think it was particularly pleasant. I didn't have a very good time. It was this communal thing where you don't know whether you're recording or living or having dinner; you don't know when you're gonna play, when you're gonna sing - very difficult. Too many hangers-on. I went with the flow, and the album got made. These things have a certain energy, and there's a certain flow to it, and it got impossible. Everyone was so out of it. And the engineers, the producers - all the people that were supposed to be organized - were more disorganized than anybody."

via 01 blog (with a nod to Chris Allen)