This past Sunday, Matt over at Fluxblog posted another song by Seattle danceteria freaks United State of Electronica after seeing their enthusiastic live performance. After watching some videos from their shows in the A/V section of their website, I was reminded of Canadian improv house trio the New Deal, who I've seen on several occasions (including my last nite in NYC 5.31.02, which was immortalized in a now sold-out double live album). The tND shows I've been to were more like huge dance parties, and they were some of the most enjoyable nights I've ever spent out at a rock club.

MP3 the New Deal - "Moonscraper"
The New Deal know how to work an audience. Their shows usually begin with Dan Kurtz (bass), Jamie Shields (keys) & Darren Shearer (drums) sliding on stage as a DJ spins some appropriate pre-set dance music, with the band picking up the beat & the groove & never letting loose. And while the band has several "songs" that it will touch upon during the course of a set, the majority of the music is improvised, allowing the New Deal to feed off of the flow of the audience & keep the party rockin'. This track comes from tND's 2001 Receiver EP, which was put out a few months in advance of their debut self-titled full length for Jive Electro. While these were the group's first "studio" releases, the actual base tracks were were taken from many of tND's live performances, blending the energy of their shows with studio production techniques. The liner notes even boast, "no sequencers or samplers were used in the recording." At a little over seven minutes, "Moonscraper" may be a little longwinded, but it's good sh** IMO.

MP3 the New Deal (f/Feist) - "Don't Blame Yourself"
When tND took to the studio to record their second LP, they approached it much differently. While many of the songs were developed from themes that had developed during their relentless touring, the band wanted to be a little more concise & actually record all of the tracks in-studio. 2003's Gone Gone Gone LP also incorporated another element new to the group's recordings - lyrics & voice. Fellow Canuck Leslie Feist lends her lovely vocal talents to this more downtempo track, along with adding a little bit of indie cred to help fend off some of tND's potential "jamband" stigma.

After taking off most of 2004 to work on side projects and who-knows-what-else, the New Deal is getting back to their bread & butter by playing some live shows this fall. NYC folk looking for a good time over thanksgiving weekend might want to check them out at the Bowery Ballroom, one of tND's very favorite venues, on November 26th & 27th.

BTW: You can download all of U.S.E., the debut album from United State of Electronica, through Mannheim Worldwide. Aww yeah, IT IS so ON!

Also, you might want to check out this week's mix over at Pop77. It has a loose theme based on the Transformers movie, which I adored as a kid.

please stop, you're hurting america

For those of you who haven't already seen Jon Stewart's Crossfire appearance that I wrote about last friday, there are plenty of places to find it by now. Jay from Let The Good Times Roll was kind enough to point me to iFilm, who has streaming video. Both Wonkette and Daily Kos also have several helpful links on the matter, so anybody who wants to see it should be able to track it down at this point (unless you lack hi-speed, I suppose).

On last nite's episode of The Daily Show, Stewart spoke about the Crossfire incident throughout the opening segment, being witty & outstanding as per usual. The second segment featured a hilarious Rob Corddry piece about the curse of the Bambino that is worth seeing if you have a chance.

ETA: I'm Just Sayin' has video from last nite's Daily (via chromewaves).


Believe it or not, David Ortiz used to be a really ineffective DH. Now, not so much.

Speaking of the Yankees/Red Sox, for the second day in a row, designated hitter David "Big Papi" Ortiz came through in the clutch with an extra-inning game-winning hit. Amazing. Ortiz never performed like that in all his years with the Twins, which was why they let him go in the first place. Bizarre. Game six will take place tonite in the Bronx. Go BoSox!

Lastly, I'd like to recommend that anyone interested in the upcoming U.S. election read the cover story from this past weekend's New York Times Magazine. It's by author Ron Suskind & it gives a chilling (albeit a somewhat secondhand) look at how President Bush goes about the job of "leading" the free world. The NYTimes only keeps their articles available for a short time, so I'm also hosting the article for those of you who run into any difficulty with the above link (just click on Dubya below).

This entry was posted by mr gilbert at 10/19/2004 12:30:00 AM.