Underworld Trek 2009.

My favorite band is Underworld. They were set to play three shows over three days in three different cities, and my girlfriend Stepho and my friend Sam and I followed them to each date: Las Vegas, Oakland and Los Angeles.

It was awesome. Except for L.A., where Underworld was to headline the HARD Summer festival.

Riot Police emptied the Forum last night. We got out just in time. Hooligans got the whole festival shut down before any of the bands played. I am so fucking bummed. This trek was a huge deal for me.

Clusterfuck is really the only appropriate word. Everything about this event went wrong, from the minute you arrived at the venue. I won’t be surprised if this puts HARD out of business, what with refunding all the tickets (i assume), paying the artists and paying the venue. Not to mention the serious damage to HARD’s reputation. This is a class A disaster.

• There was no order at all to the entrances, it was anarchy — people climbing over walls and shit.
• Inside, nobody knew how to get down on the floor level. The staff were wall imbeciles, nobody could even tell you were the second stage was.
• Frustrated with the lack of access, some hooligans started jumping over the wall of the bleacher section and onto the floor.
• Fire marshall came in and caused some trouble, prompting the organizers to BEG people to sit down and back away from railings. Nearly everybody did but even 1.5 hours later the music still had not resumed.
• Riot police called in, rumors of a fatality.
• Finally, everybody noticed the sound guys packing up and Tweets and Texts from the outside said Underworld and Chromeo and the other artists had already left the building.

Total fucking FAIL.

My friends and I did the whole trek: Vegas, Oakland and back home to LA, and it was such a big deal to me to do this. I am crushed and furious. I’m embarrassed for my city.

Underworld were amazing in Vegas and Oakland, though, and seeing them two nights in a row and meeting up with old friends in both cities was an amazing experience.

Underworld says happy birthday to my girlfriend.

Download Underworld’s birthday message to Stepho (MP3 format, 2.5 MB).

This is a picture of Stephanie taken by Jake Riskin a couple of years ago. I’ve uploaded it for Underworld.

If you know me, you know my favourite band is Underworld. I’ve been a hardcore fan since 1996 or so, when I was about 16. It’s one of those fandoms that changes your life and influences directly or indirectly just about everything you see, hear and do henceforth. I’ve seen them live six or seven times all over the U.S. (which works out to basically every time they come here), attended art exhibitions they’ve curated, bought all their music I can get my hands on, and simply sing their praises whenever I can.

I wrote to ask them if they’d give a shout-out to my girlfriend and fellow Underworld fan, Stephanie, during one of their in-studio radio broadcasts that happened to fall on the date of her birthday. You can't imagine how gratified I was that they actually did it!

While the broadcast was on December 11, I waited until her birthday party this past Saturday to play the recording of Underworld’s message. I stopped the party and plugged my iPhone into the stereo so everybody could hear it (lots of UW fans around that night), and Stepho just about died. It was just a fantastic birthday surprise, and perhaps even more special for me to have experienced that kind of interaction with my favourite musicians.

(For more Underworld, you can hear a bit of their music in my latest DJ mix, which I would never have made if not for their influence and inspiration)

Crap music reviews (which is to say, music reviews that are crap).

Superfast stream-of-consciousness “reviews” just so I can get these things off my desk (yes I still buy a lot of them fuck off) (or desktop as it were) k thnx bye

Hallelujah the Hills - Collective Psychosis Begone

As it is apparently not allowed to discuss Hallelujah the Hills without mentioning the fact that some of the group’s members used to belong to a Boston, MA band called The Stairs, I do so now. 

Songwriter/guitarist/singer Ryan Walsh is an old friend of mine and someone whose work I respect very much and will probably talk about more now that he’s become loads more e-famous than me. Ryan was awarded a grant from some place and used the money to record a proper album, which became The Stairs’ debut Miraculous Happens, which I thought was really quite good.

This new record with his new band is getting positive write-ups all over the place, and for good reason. It’s positively anthemic, with nearly every track a journey in and of itself, full of every instrument the group could get their hands on and learn how to play really, really well. Cellos, keyboards, chimes, horns, guitars and Ryan’s cleverly oblique yet highly personal lyrics (the best kind of lyrics, in my opinion), which he often transmits through variously noisy and echoey filters as well as nakedly with nothing but a tinny acoustic guitar to back him up.

Last.fm seems to think that if you like Cold War Kids, Guided By Voices, Okkervil River, Tapes ‘n Tapes and Band of Horses then you’ll like Hallelujah the Hils. I love indie records that sound like the artists actually gave a damn; that they agonized over every layer of instrumentation; and, most importantly, that they had a ton of fun doing it. I wasn’t around Ryan when he was making this, but you can hear his and his bandmates’ personalities all over this record, and it’s one that is sure to endear them to more and more listeners as time goes on.

Top Tracks:
“Wave Backwards To Massachusetts” (Download)
“Hallelujah The Hills” (Download)
“Teenage Synesthete”
“It’s All Been Downhill Since The Talkies Started To Sing”
“To All My Scientist Colleagues I Bid You Farewell”

You can also find loads of free tracks on their official site, and here and here.

Additionally, on my old friend Brad Searles’ excellent Boston music blog is an entire live recording of Ryan performing solo, opening for Broken Social Scene at their MySpace Secret Show.

Ryan Walsh - “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (Live) (Download)

Underworld - Oblivion With Bells

 This is Underworld’s fifth studio album and their first since 2002’s disappointing A Hundred Days Off. That one was completed very quickly and came not long after member Darren Emerson had left to pursue his DJ career full time. I said at the time that AHDO was a transition piece, and the group’s output since then has proved me right, I think, because everything since then has been excellent.

Although Oblivion With Bells is their first physical release in five years, they’ve actually recorded several albums’ worth of music since 2002: Lovely Broken Thing, Pizza For Eggs and I’m a Big Sister, and I’m a Girl, and I’m a Princess, and this is my Horse were digital-only EP releases sold directly from their website, all more than 30 minutes in length, and all original. Additionally, the band have been sitting on another EP’s worth of BANGING tracks they only seem to play live but promise will be released online in the near future.

Msg to Underworld: GET ON WITH IT.

Anyway, Oblivion With Bells is about half a classic Underworld album and half a bunch of noodly bits, which I suppose can be said of even the best bands in any genre of music, so they’re still doing pretty good. The first thing you notice is the artwork, which is auspiciously similar to their glorious “debut,” dubnobasswithmyheadman. The new album has a familiar darkness not heard in years; a sound that’s almost sinister. The already classic “Crocodile” opens the record and leads into “Beautiful Burnout,” in which Underworld define an entirely new kind of electronic anthem. It’s dark and long with the vocoder turned up to 11 and a brilliant live percussion breakdown in the middle.

Other tracks are more cheery, with bouncy verses that give way to layer after layer of banging beats and sunny synths, but that moody Underworld sound is never far away, if only in the form of an instrumental filler track.

Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of fade-outs on this album, which is a practice I loathe. When a song just fades out at the end, I feel like the artist just sort of gave up. My other criticism is more like a backhanded compliment: the songs that are lacking aren’t even that bad of songs, they just weren’t developed enough, or at least in my view were developed badly.

That’s what Emmerson brought to the group, I think. Though not a strong songwriter, he definitely gave Underworld focus and a detached ear, one that could keep the group from disappearing too far up its own ass. It’s no wonder his departure was met with such a ceaseless output of new material. They had several albums’ worth of music ready to go. Imagine what it would have been like if they’d put all the great stuff on one disc?

Oh well, “Beautiful Burnout” is worth all the chaff.

Top Tracks:

“Crocodile” (stream)
“Beautiful Burnout” (download)
“Ring Road”
“Glam Bucket”
“Faxed Invitation”

Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Welcome To The Pleasuredome

 I keep seeing this record on “Best of the ’80s” lists and thought it strange that I —known to my friends as a fairly diligent synthpop listener— had never actually heard it, so I picked up the 20th Anniversary Edition and got my headphones on to see what all the fuss is about.

I’m disappointed to report I really didn’t like it. Thought it was noise and won’t listen to it again. Yeah it has “Relax” and “Two Tribes” but they’re remixed to dullness from their more famous 7” versions. It’s not really worth talking about.

Maybe Welcome to the Pleasuredome is just a “you had to be there” kind of record?

Top Tracks:
None

M.I.A. - Kala

No, I don’t think it’s as good as Arular, but what chance did Kala ever have at that? This is still a great record with some classic tracks. Some friends and I listened to this together and critiqued it over AIM. There was some controversy over whether Kala is a dance album or not. I say no, not that there aren’t dance tracks on it, but Arular was a straight up dance album. It was hyphy in the extreme. Kala is not.

I was trepidatious about this release after I found out Switch was producing it. There’s not much to say about him; either you think he’s alright or you think he’s not. I only know his work from the crap remixes he’s done for other artists, but I’m forced to say he did quite well with Kala. “Boyz” is a proper M.I.A. banger, and the “Blue Monday” meets “Where Is My Mind?” track “20 Dollar” is one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard (although it does sound in parts like M.I.A. is about to sing, “how does it feel” but doesn’t because it’d be too expensive). 

However, the best tracks are “Paper Planes” and “Come Around,” produced by Diplo and Timbaland, respectively. “Paper Planes” is for me the best song on the record, and I didn’t even recognize the Clash sample. The Timbaland song is really awesome, too, although I doubt the European 8-bit techno musician he probably stole the music from feels the same way. Oh, can you keep a secret? TIMBALAND IS OVERRATED. Also — a hack. 

But I digress.

Top Tracks:

“Boyz”
“20 Dollar”
“Paper Planes” (download)
“Come Around”

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Not bad.

Underworld live, Hollywood + NYC 2007

Stepho, Ginny, Sam, Megan, Jonah and myself met at my place on September 9 in preparation to see Underworld live at the Hollywood Bowl. The odious Paul Oakenfold was to open, so we took our time in getting there, making sure to arrive just after the disgraced DJ finished his set and thus protecting our delicate aural passages from his fierce horribleness. 

I’d seen Underworld five or six times previous, but the Hollywood Bowl gig was particularly intriguing. Known for their epic, high-energy performances, Underworld was routinely praised as one of the best live acts of the ’90s. If you’re not familiar with the Hollywood Bowl, imagine the lengths of two football fields sort of wrapped in a curve, forming an enormous amphitheater. Originally designed for orchestras, you’re meant to sit on benches or in fancy boxes and not really dance much at all.

I expected a moodier, slower set — something along the lines of what the band’s actually wanted to do for years — and I was pleased to receive just such a performance. Underworld opened with “Luetin,” the best track off their last album, A Hundred Days Off. It’s a slow-building, darkly hypnotic track that set the mood for the first half the show, which included new Oblivion With Bells songs “Crocodile,” “Beautiful Burnout” and “Glam Bucket.” All of them are top tracks, with “Glam Bucket,” in particular, being the most worthy addition to Underworld’s intimidating legacy of live anthems.

As regular readers of this blog already know, I lack the command of language needed to describe for you just how fucking gorgeous this song is. As such, I’ve decided to break innumerable copyright laws and let you hear “Glam Bucket” for yourself. Just don’t tell anybody.

Following “Glam Bucket” and a bit of improvisation and elements of “Lenny Penne,” Underworld crashed into a second hour full of hits including “Cowgirl,” “Born Slippy NUXX,” and “Two Months Off,” a song I hate on A Hundred Days Off but usually enjoy live. 

It’s interesting. Universally agreed to be their weakest album, A Hundred Days Off was rather well represented at the Hollywood Bowl performance. Besides “Luetin” and “Two Months Off,” Underworld also played a version of “Mo Move,” complete with apocalyptic tribal drum breakdown in the middle. Previous “Mo Move” performances on previous tours included lyrics from “Mmm…Skyscraper, I Love You” or “River of Bass” thrown in for added hyphocity, but this version was all instrumental, which worked better than the vocal album version. I think it’s really impressive how the band have continued to develop concepts from an album a lot of people quite vocally disliked and turn them into something which the crowd doesn’t just enjoy, but indeed, something they genuinely desire. In that respect, I suppose A Hundred Days Off is kind of like Daft Punk’s Human After All, another album nobody liked until it was retooled for maximum christ-raping intensity. 

I was a little disappointed that Underworld didn’t play more of the internet-only, live-only tracks they’ve been performing at various festivals and one-offs around the world; songs like “You Do Scribble” and “JAL To Tokyo.” These tracks are completely insane, largely drum ‘n bass numbers and thusly not danceable in any practical way, so they’d have worked nicely in the Hollywood Bowl. 

Throughout the evening, I moved up and down our row to “vibe” with each of my friends for a song or two. This was really fun, especially because Underworld is a band that I’ve basically forced into everyone’s brains over the last few years. Sam and Ginny were already fans, but that Jonah, Stepho and Megan enjoyed the show so much was hugely vindicating. I mean, I was so evangelical about Underworld, I promised friends that when the band finally returned to LA, I would buy their tickets and happily eat the cost if they could truthfully state they didn’t think it was awesome. 

I brought with me a bottle of exquisite and absurdly priced champagne, given to me for my birthday by friend Timo, who is this fantastic German fellow who refuses to buy clothes anywhere in the US but in New York. I love him a lot. We finished off that bottle as well as another, cheaper one we’d brought, so Stepho and Ginny volunteered to run to the Hollywood Bowl’s booze kiosk and buy more (it’s a brilliant fucking venue, I tell you). Underworld launched into NUXX with a furious, driving beat and I imagined the girls dashing up the hill and back to our seats as fast as possible, which it turns out was exactly what they did. We popped the cork and drank a third bottle of champagne while the band finished off “King of Snake” and concluded the show with the sublime “Jumbo.”

As expected, a fabulous show. The full setlist (as best I’ve been able to determine): 

01. Luetin
02. Ambient improvisation.
03. Crocodile
04. Improvisation.
05. Juanita (Very slow, dark version — excellent)
06. Improvisation.
07. Beautiful Burnout
08. Glam Bucket
09. Lenny Penne/Improv
10. Cowgirl/Rez
11. Two Months Off
12. Mo Move
13. Small Conker and a Twix
14. Born Slippy NUXX
15. King of Snake
16. Jumbo (Encore)

The fun didn’t stop there, though. Just a few days later, I boarded an aeroplane for New York City to see Underworld again, this time in Central Park. That’s just how I roll.
The Central Park show was one of the most incredible nights of my life. Certainly, the music was tip top, but a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was for the first time seeing my favorite band with my oldest friend, Kendall. He and I have been friends since we were sixth grade Boy Scouts in Singapore, and we’ve been devoted Underworld fans for what has to be more than a decade now. Circumstances were such that Central Park was Kendall’s first Underworld show, so the experience was just all kinds of gushy sentimentalism.

This Central Park venue, which I think is called the Rumsey Playfield (?), is the perfect environment for live electronic music. It’s outdoors, only about as large as a couple of basketball courts, so you can’t really get too far away from the stage even if you tried, and equipped with numerous beer and Red Bull kiosks. Also, portable toilets.

The Centeral Park show was completely different than the Hollywood Bowl performance, despite actually including many of the same songs. The energy of the crowd was upbeat and infectious. Everybody wanted to dance, and everybody was ready to get crazy. After a forgettable set by DJ James Holden, Underworld took the stage and opened once again with “Luetin.” The crowd dug the song but desired BEATS, and Underworld took their cue and dropped the immortal “Dark Train,” which many of you may remember from the “baby-on-the-ceiling” sequence in Trainspotting.

It was an amazing, amazing version, and really brought Kendall and I back to the old days. The rhythm bits played for ages, mixing in bits of live-only jam “Shake That Higher” and building up to a crescendo that never came — fake out! All the sound fell out for a very tense moment before the famous “Dark Train” keyboard riff filled the space, and people just freaked the fuck out.

As it’s the new single, the band of course played “Crocodile,” which the crowd seemed to love despite its mid-tempo nature. But with that out of the way, Underworld turned the hyphocity up to level HYPH0C17Y. They played many of their most intense, driving songs, and really intricate and expansive versions, too.

See for yourself:

01. Luetin
02. Dark Train/Shake That Higher
03. Improv
04. Pearls Girl (so insane, one of the most insane songs around)
05. Improv
06. Beautiful Burnout
07. Two Months Off
08. Rowla (One of the hyphiest songs ever made by anybody)
09. 5 Foot 5
10. Glam Bucket (Somehow even more awesome than in Hollywood)
11. Improv
12. Rez/Cowgirl (Brilliant version)
13. Small Conker and a Twix
14. Born Slippy NUXX (Naturally)
15. King of Snake
16. Jumbo (encore)

The crowd was united as one beast of beats, with everybody cheering at precisely the same moments, whenever new layers were introduced, whenever transitions occurred and whenever breakdowns broke down. I don’t think we stopped jumping up and down once the whole time, unless you count the numerous times we stopped jumping up and down to exchange money for goods and, occasionally, services. Throughout the evening I called and txt’d more or less everyone I know with a mobile phone, and received all kinds of congratulatory and envious txts in return. I wish I still had them, it was glorious.

Following the show, we all wandered Central Park and, later, some of Manhattan in a post-Underworld trance. We jumped from bar to bar, saying hello to friends like Brendan & Mariah, and just having a generally wonderful night.

X-mas memories and Underworld.

The office xmas party was fun but weird. The boss kept feeding us tequila shots and while I expected people to fall over themselves and slip on each others’ puke, the evening remained pretty tame. The party was at the Mayan, which I haven’t been to since a warm summer night back in 1998, one of the best nights of my life.

I was 18 and living alone (pre-cat, even) in an apartment in Valencia, just hanging around waiting for school to start in a couple of months. I spent most of my time back then just driving around Los Angeles in the middle of the night in my then-new car and talking into a tape recorder. I happened to hear on the radio that my favorite band ever, Underworld, would be playing a show at some place called the Mayan and that it would be one of just three US dates they were playing to test out material from their forthcoming album. Also, the show was to be that night.

After one navigational and logistics obstacle after another, I got my tickets and made it to the Mayan in time, but only to be horrified by the fact that the best standing room was in the 21+ area. As you are probably aware, the Mayan’s ground floor is split into two levels, the upper of which being more ideal for concert-viewing and is accessible by two stair cases— which were both protected by large menacing security guards. As I was at the time really nerdy and didn’t like to dance (as opposed to now, where I am merely just really nerdy), the thought of being stuck in a crowd consisting largely of fat ravers and unable to see the band I loved so dearly filled me with a nameless dread. I decided I would not — could not— go down like that.

I hovered around the staircases for thirty or so minutes while the DJ played and the mutants danced, and when one of the security guards glanced in the other direction — possibly to kick someone out for trying to stab someone else in the eye with a glow stick — I stealthily dodged behind him, slid up the stairs like a ninja and found myself a comfy spot against the railing in remarkable Batman-like fashion. 

I say this with all seriousness: at the time, I definitely considered myself to be one of the coolest men to have ever lived. 

I was standing next to a gorgeous girl who like me was able to recognize what songs Underworld was playing in spite of their dramatic but glorious live improv/remixing. Tragically, she was with a boyfriend who clearly wasn’t into that kind of music and just sort of stood behind her and patted her hip every now and then to show everyone he was hitting it. I still remember precisely what she looked like, and I occasionally fight the urge to post a Missed Connections ad on craigslist about her. But I digress. 

Underworld were amazing. I’d never seen or heard anything like it, and what solidified in me was an almost spiritual understanding that even after leaving LA almost two decades before and living and traveling around the world, the city itself was welcoming me home. My true home. I mean, god, it was magnificent.

Last night at the Mayan, at the Sony xmas party, an ’80s cover band played. 

They’re called the Spazmatics. 

Yeah….