D-Floor Magic = Yes Giantess

Once upon a time, around 1983/1984, Michael Jackson (circa Thriller) and Prince (circa Purple Rain) had a torrid love affair and birthed a glorious synth-pop miracle child and it's name was Giantess.

Little Giantess was kept hidden in a secret music lab called Neon Gold, and fed a steady diet of John Hughes movies, Whitney Houston, Kajagoogoo and bits of Bowie, and through this miraculous concoction of eighties magic, Giantess morphed into a foursome of strapping young lads with a penchant for pop music.

Fast forward - 2010 and Giantess is now YES Giantess - clearly because the response to their dance floor driven jamz was an emphatic "YES" - and they are rapidly tearing up D-Floors across the country with their supersonic synths and infectious hooks.

Tuff N Stuff, the standout track off their 2009 EP You Were Young (produced by Passion Pit's Ayad Al-Adhamy), is grade A electro and it's catchy chorus is impossible to dislike. My low-fi loving friend over at Gnarly Sauce Music even admitted to feeling bubbly and filled with neon love after listening to Tuff N Stuff!

I recently caught Yes Giantess live at Santos Party House and they were AWE-SOMEEEE! Singer/keyboardist Jan Rosenfeld was all smiles as he sang and bopped around the stage with the same energy as Duckie from Pretty in Pink.
Surprisingly, the place was pretty empty, which is why I feel the need to share the awesomeness that is Yes Giantess, because in my world, they are totally radical and most excellent!

Sweet Jams -

Yes Giantess - Tuff N Stuff
Yes Giantess - The Ruins






New Video for "The Ruins"





Photos from the show at Santos:

Casual Man in Casual Heels

This month's Do's and Don't on Vice are written by NYC local mensch The Fat Jew -
and while all of his commentary on the usual crop of awesomeness and atrocity is hilarious -
this one takes the cake:

"It’s one thing to parade around in a beehive wig and stilettos 
looking like a character in a Broadway show about transvestites—those guys are abominable. But a man in Barnes & Noble scouting for his next great read in a pair of sensible heels? 
Now that’s awesome."

Hello Mother Leopard, I Have Your Cub

At the Drive In - one of the best bands ever
Relationship of Command, released in 2000, is one of the best albums of this decade. Cedric Bixler is a maniac on stage and its phenomenal to watch.

My two favorite songs -

One Armed Scissor



Enfilade

At the Drive In - one armed scissor

At the Drive In - Enfilade

Flying lotus- i got this shit woooo

The Dude Abides

Like every other individual on the planet, I have an unhealthy obsession with the movie The Big Lebowski; i find any reason I can to use stolen quips in general parlance.  People ask what the fuck I am talking about when I say "yes, the dude abides" and I look at them with sadness and disgust, because clearly they have failed to taste this integral slice of cultural pie.  My response to these situations is typical, I say "shut the fuck up Donnie, you're out of your element," and "am i wrong? am i wrong?"  At which point the conversation goes severely south, and I elect to dabble in a bit of pacifist ideology and drop the whole thing, writing the individual off as a nihilist.


The Big Lebowski is like Rocky Horror Picture Show for my generation - some may call it a cult classic - I call it "the shit."  It's influence reaches far beyond the mere film, it affects the daily lives of many a dudeividiaul, as evidenced above.  So when I found an entire website dedicated to the mentality of "the dude," otherwise known as "Dudeism," I knew that I had found the holy grail of culture.
Naturally, I immediately made myself a white russian and dove into the grand poo-bah of all things dude - and I came across this article - brilliantly written by "Rev." Ed Churchman, an ordained reverend of dudeism (finally a religion I can actually identify with.  Churchman philosophizes on the potential of his "special lady," who is studying to become an accountant, to be a productive member of society, yet still be a dude - being that the stylistic tropes of "the dude" are far from number crunching.  Through a perfectly dude-centric narrative and analysis,  he concludes:
I mean, what I’m trying to say here is that you don’t need to be THE Dude to be a Dude. If my special lady wants to become an accountant, they hell yeah, that can only be a good thing. We need more Dudes out there in the world, in all corners, spreading the good word indeed. The more Dudes that disseminate among the un-chilled masses the better, I say.  A Dudeciple can do a world of good from where he is, but he’s not everywhere. He can touch the hearts of all men, over time, but he’s not, like, omnipresent or anything. Chances are you’ll meet him in the supermarket, or at a bowling alley, but if there’s a Dude in your office every day, that’d make things fucking interesting, man.

This dudette definitely abides.

Check out the full article here:

http://dudespaper.com/dudeciples-and-the-pan-dudeian-nation.html/

And a classic scene from the film:

Blasé, Blasé...

photo by l-train

nikon fm, nikkor 50mm f/1.4 lens, ilford delta 400 film

The Postelles - White Night EP

It's The Strokes, mixed with a bit of du-wop, peppered with Ska, and smoothed out with some Motown vibes, and it's damn good. New York City based band, The Postelles announced the release of their debut EP White Night, due out March 2nd through Astralwerks. Interestingly enough, the EP was produced by "Stroke" Albert Hammond, Jr. at Electric Lady Studios in NYC - the resemblance is clear. But these guys are much more than just a new take on "the strokes," and their spin on the whole resurgence of fifties du-wop is unique and layered.

The quartet are launching a tour to promote the EP, and it begins with a few stops at Bowery Electric on February 10th and February 17th, before heading out on the road with Hockey (another great band from the left coast). The Postelles, whose name is reminiscent of the sound their tunage brings, will be making an appearance at SXSW in March and I expect they are a band we'll be hearing a lot more from in the coming year.

White Night consists of three tracks:
01. White Night
02. Sleep On The Dance Floor
03. Looking Glass

Here's an awesome older song -

The Postelles - 123 Stop