Burst Attention Span

Yet another example of how the American authorities are breeding a culture of violence through their intolerant right wing attitudes. This time,
a Two Gallants concert in Houston is crashed by a cop on the claim of a noise complaint – who then proceeds to use unnecessary force on the band and concert goers alike. One victim was a 14 year old boy, at the concert with his parents.

In the past, we’d never have been able to verify what exactly happened – the word of a cop against drunk party-goers will always be stronger with the public – but thanks to camera phones, a number of videos have been made available. Listen out for the tazer in the third video as a girl shouts “What are you doing?”, that’s the 14 year old boy being electrocuted into a corner by Officer Rodriguez. (incidentally that MySpace poster initially got shut down and had to open a new page)

Pitchfork has an interview with the band’s manager.

At least we can perhaps explain why Rodriguez was on his own… because all his colleagues were prepping for a sting on another club in the city the very next night.

I am so going to miss going clubbing when I move to the US, I’ll have to start listening to country music and going to line dances, my iPod loaded with techno. See them catch me :-)

It’s always a lottery buying a Babyshambles ticket: will Pete be sober, will his voice last out, will he fall into a sweating heap before the end of the third song, will they even turn up? After a weekend of anticipation and silent denial, it was confirmed that Tuesday’s appearance in Basel’s Kaserne was cancelled, but we were still invited to turn up.

All ticket holders were given a choice, get 20 francs back from the 35 they paid to see the support act and hear an indy DJ afterwards, or get all the money back and go home. It was hard to tell, but it appeared that at least half those that turned up wanted to stay and hear the Veils (or ‘ve whales’ as the Swissies call them) anyway.

If that had been my party, I’d have had records on as everyone arrived. If I’d been the Veils, I’d have taken the headline opportunity, played a longer set and tried to get the crowd jumping.

As it happened, we entered to a silence which carried on for half an hour. The Veils played the least dancy set I have probably ever stood up to see, and afterwards the DJ continued the stoned out slow tunes, refusing even to play a Libertines song for the disappointed fans. I was home by 1am. Just like the AVO Sessions…

I don’t normally play flash games, I’d pretty much written them off as unfulfilling time-wasters with repetitive gameplay poorly derived from 80s ‘classics’ written purely to serve a cynical marketing plot…

But, despite being a viral, and being from Sony, Toon Crisis is actually rather good. As you would expect from a music player advert the ‘toons’ from Gogol Bordello are brilliant, setting a manic ‘Turkish bazaar’ background to the 2.5D shoot-em-up action. I’m definitely gonna get some of their track for my iPod :)

I haven’t had this much fun with a flash game since that monkey asked me to spank him…

Stylish though it may be, this little clip shouldn't be taken as an instructional video kids…

Read the rest of this entry »

Playing digital tracks with my turntables has been a kind of Holy Grail for me since I started DJing. I always had more MP3s and CDs than records, and usually I like to edit tracks on my PC so they fit into a set more comfortably.

I've had Stanton's Final Scratch version 1 for a couple of years now, but its marriage with my PC has been a rocky one…

Read the rest of this entry »

Here's something wierd, sub-audible noises that act on the brain like pheremones do – coming out of people's phones!.

Though not an impossible concept, having heard some of their 'Beta' ringtones I am sceptical as to their efficacy. Even if they do work, for them to be effective your phone would have to be ringing almost all day – not something that will endear yourself to your chosen mate.

Good job they're not yet available on Jamba otherwise we'd all be falling in love with MTV ad-breaks every two minutes…

More exciting news comes with the new year… We will have a new franchised English pub in my town, and I am to be the resident DJ.

t's all under wraps right now so I can't blab the name (although the clue's in the title, Admiral). They expect to open in mid february, so I'll get details up in advance for my local readers. The venue is sweet – spacious central bar, enclosed beer garden out back and plenty room for comfy seating.

The DJ booth is all brand new equipment and will have sofas beside it so my groupies don't get tired. They're also planning wireless internet, which means I can hang out there in my spare time too!

Read the rest of this entry »