Posts tagged with "Bloomington"

Hey all! A few months ago I put together a remix of Cross the Dancefloor which I’ve been playing out pretty regularly, and has been heard on BBC Radio 1 a couple times. I’ve always planned on giving it away, but have been holding out on release until the day the Treasure Fingers EP comes out to spread it around. So since the EP’s finally up on digital download sites (support ‘em!) here’s my mix in full 320kbps glory:

Treasure Fingers - Cross the Dancefloor (Flufftronix remix) (ysi)

Also, I’m moving out to Philly this weekend! So so so psyched. This will of course mean many more East Coast appearances (and easier flights over oceans.. hint hint Europeeps!); I even have a few gigs coming up as I head out there:

8/7 - Band in a Hat II @ Rachel’s Café, Bloomington IN (I’m playing drums and drum machines in a band with members randomly chosen a month ago)
8/8 - Rad Summer Dance Party @ Bloomington Playwrights Project (with Localhero from Chicago, Trash Menagerie and Noise/Floor Crew; Everything Continues, Figure, and Ready T)
8/15 - Crescendolls @ Barbary, Philadelphia PA w/Lauren Flax, JHN RDN, and Gregg Foreman
8/16 - U.N.I.T.Y @ Hugs w/Lauren Flax and JD Samson

Man; it’s been a slow Summer in Beetown. Ben and I have been busy jetting out of town for weekends or weeks at a time, and haven’t done a proper Rad Summer event in a venue since what; mid-May I think?! Eeeyikes.

I’ve only got a handful of shows left before it’s off to Philly so definitely come out to this one; should be a good time!

So I’m sitting at the Indianapolis airport waiting to catch a shuttle back to Bloomington.. saw this last night:

I’m a huuuuge fan of Yelle / TEPR / Grandmarnier’s stuff so it was damn fulfilling to see them killing it before a packed auditorium. Speakers stacks shook, lighting rigs trembled, and faces gelatinated like silly putty in a microwave.

There’s been some debate lately as to what constitutes live performance and what doesn’t and I don’t really care where the line is drawn, just make it awesome and that’s what counts right? It was two years ago I wrote to Yelle’s myspace trying to book some US shows for her; while I was probably not well-equipped to do so at the time (and possibly would still not be), and I can now see why she and her camp waited. Translating studio tracks into a live show is not easy work and it was so much more kinetic, forceful and gratifying to see Yelle’s tracks translated off sequencers and onto live drums and synth than it would have been to see her backed by a DJ.

But all in all this was just something I’d been wanting to see for really about two years and, well it was just as good as I imagined it’d be.

I was not a very good blogger this tour. Oh well. Next tour! Gotta say though:

• Lots of pictures over at the flickr; I’ll post some more once I’m home (later tonight).
• Non-stop flights are now a must
• I do have a long recap and a long list of people to thank in the works.. but for now: it was crazy, and everyone who helped is fucking golden

Big things in Bloomington this year, and some more touring is for sure in the cards as well. 2007 is well past half over, gotta make the Indian Summer and all the rest count.

Also, RAD SUMMER (it’s not a threat, it’s a promise!) is going to transform from a tour into a bunch of other awesome things, keep those eyes peeled..

Today was one of those days where it’s fairly sunny, and then the sky just opens up for a half hour or so of torrential downpour. This was filmed an hour ago, and now it’s sunny again.

It’s been fun. Some twenty or shows completed, two or three to go before the long drive back to Bloomington and I resume frantic work on the half-dozen projects which need to get finished some time before Summer.

At first I was feeling kind of let down about playing a lot of smaller shows. On one hand, it’s really my first time doing a serious tour in this part of the country and I don’t really have too much music people can get into beforehand. And I’m still learning what makes people dance (I have a much better idea now, and am really really looking forward to writing new stuff once I get back home). On the other hand this whole booking, promotion, and show-picking mess is a huge game of chess, and I’m really in the beginning stages of that, too. It’s been a wonderful learning experience.

I’m starting to feel like that one guy on Transformers who hangs out with all the robots. He’s got this mechanical suit he runs around in, fighting evil alongside the Transformers, sometimes repairing them also maybe? But without his suit he’s just a dude, all the Transformers are what they are, or the other thing they are, I guess. Which is like me, with my laptop: I’m barely a musician without it. I need to work on that.
And hey, it’s May 1st! I should be doing something festive, something exciting. Today is a good day. It’s good to think about all these wacky adventures I’ve been going on, which off the cuff seem somewhat apolitical to me, and remembering why I’m doing them and how they really do tie into my grand schemes empowerment, dismantling oppressive institutions, and nurturing more sustainable and inclusive communities. Lots of people I feel privileged to consider myself a contemporary of (and feel guilty for always comparing myself to), I don’t think they have that drive. It keeps me in check and in focus. And once I’m more confident in my music, I know I’ll be more able to talk about my ideas and expose people to all this wonderful stuff that keeps me feeling vibrant, feeling alive.

1) So, just checking.. but the job that seemed definite for me to buy a car with and tour in April/May might not be happening.. and I wanted to see if any of you wanted to go on tour for six weeks? You won’t have to pay for any gas, I’ll be able to drive my share, and you’ll be able to rock out in like 20 different states and two Canadian provinces. I might still be getting a car, but, I want options!

The dates are April 1st through May 15th, from Bloomington IN all over the place and back to Btown. For serious, if anyone’s interested in this comment and we shall chat.

2) On a *cough* entirely unrelated note, does anyone want to sublet my room in Bloomington from April 1st to May 15th? It’s $165/mo. and pretty awesome.

Trip number two away from Bloomington is in full swing, somewhere around halfway complete. I was at the National Conference on Organized Resistance over the weekend, and went to an all-time low number of workshops in the four years I’ve attended: one. Though, it was a good one, on solidarity economies (basically, the collaboration between disparate groups using and trying to create non-oppressive modes of exchange). I saw many old friends, quite a few I’m still friends with, and met a few really neat-seeming new folks. My roommate became infamous for righteously pulling out a knife at a workshop entitled “Anarchism and Pacifism”, a little while after the speaker said the best way to combat immediate sexual assault was by hugging your attacker.

Just about everyone from Indiana, a bunch of kids from Columbus, a car of New York kids, and one lady from Savannah all stayed at my friend Shara’s house. Thirty eight people and one cat were there last night! (Two of them babies) Everyone was for the most part super-respectful and cleaned up after themselves. Pretty awesome, fellow houseguests, pretty awesome. Also awesome: Shara’s new/old house with wonderfully hospitable peoples living in it. Yay skedge house.

Now I’m in the living room of a house with lots of old friends in Greensboro, NC. It’s been four years since I’ve been in this house; it looks a lot different and only one of the same people from back then lives here now. I’ve been drawn a map of the town to refresh my memory and update me on new places and ones which are now closed. Now, I retreat to the guest house (aka heated and furnished garage) for a good nights’ sleep. Sometimes it’s awesome to be home, but right now, I love traveling.

In response a successfully attention-grabbing Anti-Coke campaign going on at IU Bloomington I’ve been helping out with, some dude writing for the school paper did this article. It’s a smattering of Daily Show-type humor with free market globalization politics mixed in. I’m writing a reply in which I’d like to point out the inability of conservatives to write humorous opinion pieces, as well as correct his factual errors and poorly-thought points both facetious and serious.

So, yeah. The link is up there. Y’all are pretty smart and funny, so I thought I’d see if anyone had any ideas while I tried to think of some. The smarmier the better!

Shot at the pet store at the Bloomington mall the other day. It’s cute, watch it!

PS: The Bell Orchestre’s album “Recording a Tape the Colour of Light” exceeds my medium to high expectations. Those Montréal kids are talented.