"Sleepy Head (White Sirens of Burr Remix)" by Passion Pit

Born in the future world, The White Sirens of Burr were sent back to modern day to begin a crusade against a future full of complacency and idol-worshipping. Emerging from a cloud of mist they streak across the night time like the frigid glow of neon that illuminates midnight diners. They will not quit or be held back. The future must be saved.

Finger on the Pulse NYC held a remix contest a while back for Passion Pit's "Sleepy Head" and none other than the White Sirens of Burr chosen as a personal best of the entries. Picked by the NO Big Deal crew as their favorite, the little Portland Electro/Metal/Healing&EasyListening group has already started down the path towards the destiny that awaits them. Complacency should prepare to be sodomized.

Sleepyhead (White Sirens Of Burr Remix).mp3 (No Big Deal fave)

Music and politics

Not too long ago, a song held lots of power over the political arena. A song could inspire people to rise up and fight for what’s right. It could show the evils of government and inspire change, Bob Dylan, the Clash, Sex pistols, and so many others’s politically inspired songs enlightened the people.
At least that’s what people like to believe. In reality, these songs only reflected the already charged opinions of the people. None of these artists caused the change we saw. The riots, the injustices, and the social outrage of all the people caused the change, not the songs of a few bards.
Music does not inspire political change. I cannot think of a single time that a mass group of people’s beliefs were changed by a feel good political song. Not in any book, music based or historical. Music reflects the politics and atmosphere. I find it hard to believe that music has any mass effect on politics itself.
Don’t believe me? Well look at the music “politic” events. Live 8 could be considered a good example. Massive amounts of bands turned out to show their support for forgiving Africa’s debt. And who did they convince? I’m pretty sure that Africa is still sweating over how much it owes. The people may want it, but the music isn’t what convinced them.
I think it’s time for the music community to accept that we’re not going to create any large political change anytime soon. Or ever for that matter. If you truly want political change, try writing a book or speech. Organize a march. But singing a song isn’t going to get the big wigs prepared to change anything. Let us just accept that we reflect the political atmosphere, we do not cause any significant change.
But why? Well think about it. Most musicians are college educated Harvard grads in economics or political theory. They’re just out of high school or even drop outs. Nothing against them, but politicians aren’t going to take political advice from someone who spent their life dedicated to a guitar. The 6 string instrument, as beautiful as it is, doesn’t give much political insight.
That said, no one should stop making political songs, since they normally are filled with passion and emotions. They can be, and I believe normally are, damn good songs. So by all means write them. Just don’t get into a drum circle and talk about how awesome the songs are, and how we’re going to get change soon. Cause guess what, it isn’t going to happen, and if it does, it isn’t because of your “stellar” song.

Finals

Well, its official, finals have started...fuck. Good luck to you all. and hey, if you want an oh so needed break, just remember that bad girls need love too:


"Bad Girls Need Love Too" -Toxic Avenger

Cornelius

"Cornelius" by the Bloody Beetroots

CORNELIUS from borntofilm on Vimeo.

Taking a cue from my boy Dylan over at portlandplayground I feel the need to share with you this masterful video of debauchery and all around good fun from the Bloody Beetroots. Reminiscent of Justice's recent release of A Cross The Universe, this video keeps on the idea that our generation is going to make civilization swan dive straight into the shits of chaos, abuse, and all around anarchy. Oh the beauty of it all. One thing to note is that this type of shit doesn't happen in Portland, because of its non existent dance/electro scene. But do not fret good sirs and madam es, this is about to change, thanks in a large part to the aforementioned portlandplayground and its leaders, the White Sirens of Burr. So prepare to sodomize complacency and hopefully this video, and the Blood Beetroots (they are fucking amazing, check their shit out, it is mind blowing) will tide you over and prepare you for the irrevocable change that is awaiting our great city
[Nick Erickson]

oh dear, I do hope U got UR holiday sweater on!

oh there is much to be said about the Portland Cello Project's Dec 5th concert, but first...
thoughts on which punk band would best adorn a holiday sweater?
a. the dead Kennedys
b. the violent femmes
c. the ramones
d. the sex pistols
e. the clash
i vote the ramones because they could have a line of ramones holiday sweaters on which each would have a different ramone {Dee Dee, Johnny, Joey, etc.} buy two get Johnny free!

Oh you, dear reader, would have been quite the stud if you had come dressed in a Johnny Rammone Holiday Sweater to Portland Cello Project's Dec 5th concert at the Aladdin. Everyone would have swooned over your festive frock. Many studs strutted their holiday sweater stuff at the PCP show for if you wore a holiday sweater you got a free ep from the merch people. the MC, Adam Shearer, even wore a Christmas-lighted sweater! The set list was just as spirited as Shearer's sparkling sweater...from a cover of "Mad World" by Tears for Fears to "Generosity" by savory local, Mirah featuring the full Flash Choir. (to see all fine music played visit PCP online) My personal favorite highlight of the evening was the audience participation. Witty and daring really! Throughout the show MC Shearer had the audience text to his phone what they would say if they really saw their mom kissing Santa Clause, then he'd red em. one text read, "mom, i don't want a Nintendo wii that bad!" but if i had to sum up the night in one statement I would second the comment from someones child who sat in front of me, "mom. mom! I see cellos, cellos everywhere!" That's right, cellos, cellos everywhere! and I would urge you to see cellos, cellos everywhere live. for more show dates and details visit PCP.

i like the disco version better, monique

Trash Talk, Cower, Death A.D., Ill Intent @ Good Neighbor Pizza 11/17

I thought I was on the east coast again. In a land seemingly full of happy circle pits and straight ‘getting rad’, Good Neighbor Pizza earlier last month was full of spin kicks and windmills. Machoism was in the air, and if it wasn’t for the brutal riffs I think I might have actually left. Death A.D., though they look like they’re all batting at 17 right now, started the night with some spastic, grindy influenced hardcore. Their songs were short and fast, which is all I can ask for, but something about their stupid antics – showy ironic fingerpicking, singer collapsing on the floor, etc. – got to me after a while. The drummer was wearing an Infest shirt and the influence definitely showed, and overall it was a good set. Ill Intent played typical bro mosh and sucked. Nothing more can be said. But rest assured when Cower played they made sure that every last person’s insides were sufficiently pulverized. D-beats gave way into crushing sludge riffs and, yes, they managed to protect that age-old rule, abused so many times now by new age shitty metalcore bands: yes, if you play that line again that much slower, it will be that much heavier. Last up was Trash Talk, representing the oh so raging Sacramento California (…?). With songs lasting an average 50 seconds or less, these dudes threw down some impressive choppy thrash that wasn’t afraid to slow it down for a few seconds before launching into 10 seconds more of blazing brutality. While still bringing their own style to the table, the classic oldschool hardcore influence was hard to miss. Trash Talk came to rage and without a doubt succeeded, but their sound was just a little too clean for me. More feedback, more distortion on the bass, less attention to detail, please. By far the most impressive part of the night, however, was the fact that I made it back to the bus at Pioneer Square in 15 FUCKING MINUTES. (Dekum St. is really god damn far north). Cower is playing again soon with Autistic Youth somewhere on Alberta – come see it if you want to rage it and avoid a far too serious scene. -ds

The superiority of Vinyl

Everyone loves their Ipod, Zune, or whatever MP3 player they have. They are the most beautiful creations the world has seen, and I think if mozart had seen one, he would have weeped for joy.

But theres one think about them that hurts; the loss of sound quality. It seems with every step down in size, sound quality steps down. now for those of you who disagree, ask someone in the music biz. A mp3 file loses sound quality over a wav. Its sad. theres a reason that CDs dont adopt the MP3 format. And its not because CD players won't play them either, more advanced ones will.

Which brings me onto the point. Vinyl. I love albums. Sure they can scrath. sure they can break. sure you must keep them within a certain temperture. But you know what, you can't beat thier sound quality. (btw, a album in proper condition doesn't have that background scrath people associate with records. only old, well well well played alums do.

Someone once explained to me it was basically an issue of sound waves and layering of the music, and when the music is compressed into a smaller format, that the levels are compressed to a single level, but on vinyl this never happens.

Which is why is sounds incredible. Don't believe me? well heres a test. Put on Cat stevens, any of his albums, any of his songs (I particularly like Moonshadow), on an mp3 player. Then listen to it on Vinyl. The real casual listener won't notice. The serious music efficienato, will.

Some artists (like Cat Stevens, Tom Petty, or any band who uses alot of layering) improve greatly, others really don't.

But the fact that you can get old albums for extremely cheap (like 50 cents at Everyday music) just puts the icing on the cake.

And want it on your mp3 player anyway? well you can buy a usb turntable to fix that.

Pandora Music

..is one of the greatest Music inovations of our time.

For those who don't know anything about it, heres a little information. It's an online Radio station. It calls itself the Music Genome Project. Basically, what you do is when you first arrive, it asks you to name an artist or song. It then selects a similar music based on that. Pretty basic, nothing new, really.

But whats great about this is you can continue to add artists to the list. You can even exclude certain artists. You can thumbs up or down a song. If you thumbs it up, it will show up more, but it will also add more songs and artists based on that selection. If you thumbs it down, it will not come up again, and it will avoid that kind of song (unless other songs similar are thumbed up).

As a result, the more you use it, the more it will match your tastes. Not only that, you can have more than one station to have, thus allowing you to have more than one genre at a time.

The reason that all this is legal is they have carefully looked at the copyright laws and carefully sidesteps them. plus, its connected directly to amazon.com, so no one really cares.

also, you can have your own account, so it will save all your information.

check it out

pandora.com

White Fang Show

Sup Dawgs?
So I was at the white fang show last night at the artistery. I will admit, I wasn't always the biggest fan of the white fang. When they played at the Holocene last summer for the pdx pop now CD release party, me and my friend opted out to go see some free titties next store at Sassy's. But back to the show last night. Deelay Ceelay, or was it Ceelay Deelay? either way was pretty good. Two drums, some prerecorded synths, very cool with the fog and video show projected behind them. Next came Mad Rad, which were okay, their beats were definitely a little more dance like then fitting for hip hop beats. Finally came white fang, right off their aborted US tour, back for some p-town lovin. Even before they started, the crowd began moshing around so that 30 seconds into their first song they had to stop because we had knocked over the drum set. They loved it, the people working at the artistery, not so much. Newly equipped with two guys to keep the crowd from rushing the tiny stage, they started again, wailing away on their assortment of instruments. The crowd ate it all up, jumping around, propelling bodies into one another, there was no lack of injury. Multiple times large sections of the crowd would loose footing and pile up onto itself. Unfortunately I had the pleasure of being under a lovely pile and succeeded in getting my knee stomped on, bruises are already starting to form. All in all, it was a great show. Tiny basement given live through the motion of so many bodies, what a sight. It solidified its success when my friend said she got punched in the eye, and was now going to finally have the black eye she has been wanting for forever. She also felt it necessary to reprimand me and my other male friends for being such pussies that we hadn't been able to punch her in the face. Well, maybe another day.
[Nick Erickson]

Pretty Cool: famous 70’s rock stars with their parents

I guess rock stars are people too. I caught a glimpse of these pics and it just made me laugh. Some truly notable musicians with their parents. It is weird to imagine, and even more weird to see. Check it out here
[Nick Erickson]

Uneasy ground

I haven't been going to many shows lately. Money feels thin in my wallet and the day calendar has become a mocking face, bleeding puss-like ink all over my sanity. But a few weeks ago I had a quick one-two punch of live music: namely the November 13th Dirtbombs show at Berbati's and Yeasayer at the Aladdin on the 21st. Perhaps my emotions were shaped by the order of the events, or money finagles, or that I've been listening to soviet rock anthems and Smithsonian field recording of historical Appalachian Mountain songs for the last couple months, but damn I want emotion when I go to shell out some bucks. Lets look at this comparison in Thanksgiving analogies. The Dirtbombs are the messy dark-meat, the fried giblets, the stuffing soaked with gravy, the dank piece of pie left in the back of the fridge, your uncle Joe after too much sparkling wine. They are a fever that excretes dirt and frantic power. They rock you and make respectable people want to dance like nobody's watching: sweating and shaking and beating on relatives/stage-equipment. Yeasayer, in contrast, represent that comatose state reached after stuffing your face full of everything in reach for 4 straight hours. It's that moment near death when the final swallow of pie ruptures your stomach and starts to squeeze out your pores and the gaps between tooth and gum, dimming your vision. You don't know if you're hallucinating or dreaming, and while your breath is rattling your brain is working as if permeated by an opium cloud - sporadic bursts of incrdulous electricity. Moving is practically beyond question and introspection overcomes the surrounding reality/stimulus of loved ones and speech.

Now depending on your personality, you might be predisposed as to which one of these scenarios you like best; and the question emerges whether one must choose exclusively. Both bands are obviously talented and urban and have their respective followings and scenes. Both are anthemic and push blood into a frenzy and fill your body and soul with beautiful noise. But my personal choice (and I like gorging my brain-out to a reflective stupor as much as the next Jack or maybe even more) is the former to the latter. Call me a poser of the underdog or whipping-up an idealic/delusional rocking-class Detroit background rather than embracing the indie-pastige product of Brooklyn that should be my suburban siren - but I'll take the sweat-dripping giblets over dream-headed fog anyday.

As a final check-out:
D: Crappy live recording in their hometown


Y: Crappy live recording in their hometown


Luv,
~SpecSocWrite

Travis

(some leagal garbage...the copywrite to this film is owned by Independiente Limited 2007)

lovely!

Xmas sweater bonanza

While home for Thanksgiving break, I rifled through my family's front hall closet and uncovered a lost gem! Buried amongst broken umbrellas, unused tennis rackets, and my stepdad's reflective jogging pancho was my beloved childhood holiday sweater, the one my mother made for me circa 1995. The finest of cotton and hippest color of red, my childhood sweater was once all the rave. It has a sewn-in white turtleneck and an iron-on cut-out of Mickey Mouse. And the best part is if you press Mickey's ear he sings "jingle-bells jingle-bells jingle-all the way"! However, now that a decade or so has passed the tune sounds more like Tom Waits took two too many sleeping pills and sang "ju-un-gle be-al-as...ju-un-gle be-al-as...ju-un-gle AAALLL th-uh waaaay." You almost expect to hear him burp after it plays. Nonetheless, to a 5 and 1/2 year old this holiday sweater was dope (and frankly, still is). Truly one of a kind. Well almost, apart from the fact that my brother had a matching green one. How, you might ask, should I remember this? because we have a Christmas portrait from 1995 perched on our fireplace mantel, in which the entirety of my family is wearing equally as dope sweaters. You should see my stepdad's, I didn't even know they made iorn-ons that big...I'm not saying he's fat he's just 6'2" and broad shouldered, and he certainly wouldn't have fit into my Mickey Mouse sweater, I should know because after I dug through that front closet I couldn't help but try the sweater on. You may be curious, did it fit? Let's just say I'm a little disillusioned that they don't make children's size smalls with larger neck openings.

Has all this talk of childhood Christmas sweaters got you nostalgic? If so, you should join me and the Portland Cello Project this Friday at the Aladdin Theater in SE Portland for an Xmas sweater bonanza. The Portland Cello project is a local, but nationally renowned, group of up to 16 indie contemporary classical cellists (one of which is an LC alumni!) they are known for getting indie kids to listen to classical music and classical junkies to venture into the world of indie rock. That's right, indie rock! They will be preforming with guests Mirah, Ritchie Young, Jenny Conlee (from the Decemberists), Justin Power, Ali Ippolito, Matt Sheehy, Shostakovich, and The Flash Choir this Friday December 5th. Expect the unexpected (bet you've never heard superMario brothers or Britney Spear Toxic on cello) and WEAR THOSE TACKY HOLIDAY SWEATERS FOR FREE MUSIC!


-mh