Last Post for a Week and a Half

Sorry this is a pretty short post. In a few days I'll be flying to London so unfortunately, this will be the last update for the month. Between starting the internship (which has been going well, the people are very nice, good atmosphere there too) and today, finishing up as General Manager of WMSC, it seemed like a good time for a vacation. Sort of right in between two different experiences, something like that. But I'm leaving you guys with a nice, healthy selection of mp3's from Ghostly International. Matthew Dear has been getting pretty big on the scene and was even listed as one of the Res 10 in this month's Res magazine. Dykehouse's name has been floating around too, with a review in this month's New Music Monthly. So if you haven't heard them yet, or the others hear, do yourself a favor and take a listen.

And if those tracks aren't enough to keep you busy for the next week and a half, check out Dahlia and her band Galvanized. Any fans of Miss Kittin's solo work or Peaches should download these tracks. If you like them, her site has more and a couple of albums you can purchase if you're so inclined. Dahlia, who's a fan of this blog by the way, has been working on some really good new stuff, so keep an eye out for her. OK everyone, see you in June when I get back, I'll try to find a nice postcard.

Matthew Dear - But for You

Dykehouse - Chain Smoking

James Cotton - Beat Ya!

Midwest Product - Duckpond

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Galvanized - Lovergirl

Dahlia - Deeper

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Fluxblog posted an excerpt from a shortwave radio show called The Right Perspective today, recorded by The Professor from WFMU. It is an extremely and completely unashamed ultra right winged talk show, complete with conspiracy theories, etc. One thing I found pretty striking about it is that host's claims that he fears the liberals just as much as the terrorists. The funny thing is, I've thought the exact same thing about the ultra conservatives. In fact, here's a quiz, you get a series of statements and you have to guess who said them Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson or Usama bin Laden. But seriously, it's made me think more about the political climate in America now and how much it has changed in the last few years. But I do believe in freedom of speech, so I think this excerpt is worth listening to, maybe to remind people what the political climate is right now.

Well, on a much lighter note, Band and Burn still has a good cover of Serge Gainsbourg, among other stuff, that's worth downloading while it's still up. There's something about a Gainsbourg song sung by robots, I had to mention it here. Also, thanks to No Frontin', Just Music for adding a link for this blog. It's another blog worth your time, especially if you want to check out some of Ninja Tune's videos. And if you like the Cinematic Orchestra video, download the song here. It's actually just a coincidence, but I felt like including something a little more downtempo after the last two posts. All That You Give is from Everyday, which is a very nice chilled out jazz album. It features the likes of Patrick Carpenter, Roots Manuva, and the incredible Fontella Bass, who you can hear on this track.

Cinematic Orchestra - All That You Give

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Yesterday was the first day of my internship. I'm working in the post production department of a video production company. They do mostly documentary work, which is good because I can't see myself working for a sitcom or reality tv show. But I had a realization while I was there. I don't think that as long I am in this industry, I will be able to take it seriously. Even something as well meaning as documentary and nonfiction television is hard to take seriously all the time. This isn't to say that I won't put in the time and effort and do the best job that I can do, but it's come to my attention that the television industry, and in fact most of the media industry, has no sense of humor. I don't mean to say that they can't come up with humorous sitcoms. I don't watch much TV any more, but there are a few good shows still on. What amazes me are the people who make these shows and how seriously they can take themselves. It's as if something going wrong during the taping of American Idol puts the lives of thousands of people at risk. Maybe that just says something about the way our society does see the media now, like it really is something much more important than we realize. And I even saw this as a broadcasting major in college, among some of the professors and some of the students. But honestly, it all seems pretty ridiculous to me when I think about it. Sometime, turn on a random channel in the middle of the day, watch whatever the show is for a little while, and try to imagine yourself working on that show, getting really stressed out, and losing sleep over it. Changes are, the show you're watching isn't a work of art by any stretch of the imagination and is probably pretty ridiculous when you think about it. But maybe it's just me and this is another one of those things that only bothers me. Still, I respect the people I work with, but I don't think I can take this work as seriously as some of the other people in the industry do. At least I don't have to wear a suit.

I had today off so I started a new show on WMSC, my college radio station. I only have a few months left and I felt like a challenge so I agreed to co-host a show with my friend Abby. The summer schedule is pretty open so we got a good time slot, 4-7pm on tuesdays. What makes it a challenge is that her musical taste is very different than mine. She mostly plays music from broadway musicals so it's my job to mix in a healthy sampling of dance-punk, idm, glitch hop, etc and still maintain a nice continuity. We're still searching for a name for this show, so if you have any ideas, let me know. The first show actually went pretty well for the most part. My plan is that the more Disney-esque she tries to make the show, the noisier my music had to be. So far I haven't had to play anything by Merzbow, but we still have a few months of this show to go. What do you think about the song below playing after the Lion King soundtrack? I'm not really complaining though. If nothing else, it's given WMSC something a little different.

Merzbow - Aqua Necromancer

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First blog news. Added a new link to the mp3 blog list. So check out Bang and Burn. They would like to share their love of Bananarama with you. Also, I've got the comments working so that anyone can post comments, not just people registered on blogger.

I went to go see Super Size Me this weekend. I don't recommend seeing it if you ever want to eat at McDonald's again. In case you haven't heard about this movie, here's the idea. It's a documentary about a guy who decided to eat nothing but McDonalds every day for an entire month. The rules were that he had to eat three square meals a day there, not eat anything that he couldn't get at McDonald's, try everything on the menu at least once, and super size the meal whenever they asked him. The film isn't really disturbing because they describe what goes into the food, it's disturbing because this guy gets pretty unhealthy and something about watching that happen to him that quickly is kind of unsettling. I've also started reading Fast Food Nation. I used to think that all of the food at McDonald's was unhealthy. Now I no longer really consider it to be food, in the same sense that you wouldn't really consider dirt to be food. It's strikes me more like a kind of non-toxic clay-type substance modeled into the shape of food with artificial flavoring. Granted, I know it's actually much worse than that, but I've only just started reading Fast Food Nation, so that's about what my impression is so far, disregarding my suspicions about what kind of "meat" they are using. Anyway, Super Size Me was a great movie, but it might make you feel a bit sick for a while after watching it.

This week we finally got a release from Montreal's Les Georges Leningrad. Their debut album, Deux Hot Dogs Moutarde Chou came out tuesday on Alien 8 Recordings. They have a very unique, eclectic sound that reminds me a little of CocoRosie, but with an intensity and brutality about it that makes me think of the post-punk movement. The bass lines are good enough to dance to, but I can't quite call this dance punk. Everything scream lo-fi, from the distorted vocals to the harsh synths. It deserves a listen, or possible more than one. The whole album has some calmer points. Also, I hear they put on quite an impressive live show.

Les Georges Leningrad - Georges V

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More ideas for funeral songs

I found a couple more links to this blog today. Thanks to Copy, Right? and Swen's Blog. Interesting question on Copy, Right? today. "What song would you like played at your funeral?" I was asked the same question recently. I said Push Th' Little Daisies by Ween. My feeling on this is that I'd really like people to be able to laugh at a distasteful joke when I'm dead. It's better than everyone crying, right? The only problem is that certain people, such as my mother, would probably not be able to appreciate the humor at a moment like that (not that my mother doesn't appreciate humor, mind you, just maybe not that particular type of humor). So, reconsidering things, I'd probably choose something off of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works, Vol 2, just because I love that album.

But maybe that would be kinda of depressing in that situation. So here's another suggestion. If I was at a funeral, I think I would like to hear something by Mileece. I have a few reasons for this. First, her work is very minimal, so it wouldn't be overbearing on everyone. Second, with all the tiny glitch-style sounds, it tends to have a pretty warm, comforting texture to it. And third, her EP Formations is said to have been programmed as a kind of ambient musical representation of how plants grow. Maybe it's just me, but that sounds perfect for the situation. Think about it, the decaying body in the ground that eventually give new life to the plant life that will cover the grave. Alright, so maybe that idea won't work for everyone either. Regardless, her work is really incredible and worth checking out.

Mileece - Fern

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Are We Popping?

First of all, a big thanks to Fluxblog and Tofu Hut, for linking to this blog. If you haven't seen either of them yet, they're both worth a daily visit. Here's what Tofu Hut had to say: "Where the heck has Radio Babylon been hiding? Hustle over and snap up the bushel and a peck of Bjork rarities while they last and then see what else you can scare up. Get in on the ground floor; this is bound to blow up shortly." A few days ago, it was mostly just my friends going to this blog, but these guys are pretty big in the mp3 blog-o-sphere, so I feel kind of important now.

Speaking of links, I've got some good links on the sidebar now. A lot of the blogs update daily. Some stuff worth hearing now, Kelley Polar Quartet at Fluxblog, Mummy Fortuna's Theater Co at Music (for Robots), and Nico at Said the Gramophone.

Björk has a new Quicktime movie up for the new album. In it, Björk mentions some of the collaborators she's been working with, including Valgeir, Matmos, and Dokaka, among others. You can see the movie here.

Now onto your mp3. Broken Spindles is a side project of Joel Peterson of The Faint. The new album, Fulfilled/Complete, is out now on Saddle Creek Records. I would highly recommend it to anyone wants to hear something like The Faint with some string-based songs mixed in. This is a track from the self-titled, debut album which I bought from the live keyboardist from Broken Spindles when I saw them at the 2002 CMJ Music Marathon.

Broken Spindles - Downtown Venues

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New Blog Design!

Since Blogger has a new look, I thought it was finally time to update the Radio Babylon template a little. I like this design a lot better than the old one. Also, my new posts allow people to leave comments. Unfortunately, no one really goes to this site, but if you do and you hear something you like, post a comment about it! I'm still pretty new to html, but I'm going to try to get the links back up on the sidebar soon.

Today's music is by The Notwist, another good indietronica band who are getting pretty big (at least as far as indietronica bands go). This is a sort of hidden track from their web site.

The Notwist - One with the Freaks

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Got the Neon Fever

Looks like Blogger's got a whole new format. I know some of the other blogs have had slight gltches lately, so if you see any problems, e-mail me.

I'm currently listening to the new Felix da Housecat album, Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever. It's incredible. If you liked Kittenz and Thee Glitz you'd probably like this too, although it's in more of a DFA-style punk dance album. It's also a lot more song oriented. It's a great album and it deserves to be posted. The bad news is that all I could find from the album so far are Real Audio files. The good news is that all these tracks are incredible and some of the best ones on the album, so it's a nice preview even if you can only stream them. What She Wants features James Murphy of DFA/LCD Soundsystem fame.

Felix da Housecat - Rocket Ride

Felix da Housecat featuring James Murphy - What She Wants

Felix da Housecat - Watching Cars Go By (Cyberwhore)

Felix da Housecat - Ready 2 Wear

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Fuck the Real World

So it's getting to that point in my life where I have to start thinking about getting a real job. For the record, the creation of this blog is one of many signs of my complete unwillingness to do that. I've been trying to get an internship (and then hopefully a job) in the media industry. But I really didn't want to end up at some place like Clear Channel or News Corp because they go against my principles. My fear was that I wouldn't be able to get anything, but it seems that I've lucked out. I'm now going to be working for a place that does mostly documentary work for channels like Discovery Health and the History Channel. Granted, it's not the perfect job, but I feel better about it than some of the others. I don't get quite the same feeling of having the weight of the world crushing me yet. We'll see how it goes and then of course the fun of finding a decent job in September.

But onto the music. Today's link is more hip hop from Ninja Tune. This is a track from Sixtoo and it features Damo Suzuki from the classic Krautrock band, Can.

Sixtoo featuring Damo Suzuki - Storm Clouds and Silver Lining (Album Version)

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Who sucks at updating his blog on a regular basis? More coming soon, life's been busy lately. I've been listening to this track a lot lately, it's a newer artist on Ninja Tune called Homelife. They're sort of breakbeat/acid jazzy with a good sense of humor.

Homelife - Flying Wonders

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Intergalatic Autobahn

So I was thinking about what kind of girl I need to find. I think what I really want is a girl who I can float around in space with for a while. Then we'll slowly start to disintegrate and fall back down to earth. We'd land on a small ship in the middle of the arctic circle where we'd form back into our bodies and watch glaciers. Then we'd float onto shore where we'd watch volcanoes erupting in the distance from the safety of a nearby cliff, with the glacier still behind us. Then she'd whisper something in Norweigan that neither of us could understand. This the direction my mind moves in when I go to a Peaches show, fall asleep listening to Erlend Øye's DJ-Kicks compilation, and wake up listening to the new Sigur Rós EP, Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do.

Seeing Peaches live was an experience. We got a little bit of crotch action (my friend Gina took pictures to get onto the Peaches Crotch Gallery, but Peaches was running around the stage too much. I told her that if they didn't accept them, I'd post her pictures here), but we didn't get any fake blood spat at us. Maybe next time. Iggy Pop was there too, kind of. Well it was just a video projection of him, but Peaches still did a pretty nice duet with it. Over all, it was a sex-tacular show, but I don't think Peaches is the woman for me. Sorry, but the curly mullet thing just isn't doing it.

The opening acts were good too. A couple of electro-clash German girls called Electrocute and an Austin based rock band, Young Heart Attack. Even though it's not the type of thing I'd usually post, today's link comes from them. It's a song called Misty Rowe, about a girl the lead singer used to like in high school. If by some weird chance she makes her way to this blog, maybe he'll get lucky...

Young Heart Attack - Misty Rowe

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Contort Yourself!

Sorry for not updating for a few days. Been a busy week and my net connection was down for a little while. This has to be a short update too, but I'll try to update more this weekend to make up for not posting. But here's some James Chance and the Contortions for you. Late 70's punk rereleased last year on Tigerstyle Records. It's an old song, but it's funny how well it goes with modern groups like the DFA, !!!, or the Rapture.

James Chance - Contort Yourself

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