dirty agency.

A friend of mine just had Lee “Scratch” Perry perform at his venue in Madison. It reminded me of how ridiculous this man is. PUM PUM!

Jeez, that was quite a vacation, wasn’t it? Anyhoo, I’ll be resuming activity on here soon. I’m in the home stretch with the EP. It’s sounding pretty great thus far and will be recording the last bits tomorrow and the next few days. Then it’s on to piecing this big monster together. So far, so good. I haven’t listened to any music except “Sweetest Girl” by Wyclef on repeat and that song came out last year I think. Oh well. See you all soon!

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s summer. And in Buffalo, that lasts maybe like 2 weeks. So lately, I’ve been enjoying eating outside and I bought a yacht (lie) to boat across Lake Ontario and declare war on Canada.

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Divine Machine is what happens when the love of analog meets the obsession of horror. And it never hurts to have one of the most talented tattoo artists in the country, Cory Cudney, taking his passion of said genre and plowing it through Buffalo, NY. One listen of any of their recordings draws so many parallels to Goblin or any other soundtracks of your typical 70s / 80s horror films. It’s one thing to try and recreate aura of the era, but it’s another to make it enjoyable, which Divine Machine does very well. You may remember another act that is currently dabbles in horror samples… a small French outfit named Justice. Pushing any sampling aside, Divine Machine could easily be mistaken for the real deal sounds of anything from Italian  to early 80s American pulp horror. Remaining relatively low key, Divine Machine is quite an impressive sound.

Divine Machine - Hyperspace Cadets

Continuing on with posting weekly Paper Planes remixes, this one comes from MC Chris. Is it time yet for M.I.A. to put this song into retirement yet? So many people have put their hand in this song at this point and unless something blows me away, this is going to be the last Paper Planes remix I post. Enjoy it.

MC Chris - MC Chris Ownz Paper Planes (M.I.A. Remix)

In the 70s, your parents may have missed the boat on some things. They probably liked The Beatles and the Rolling Stones but then fell into disco and did tons of drugs and then OOPS! Kids! Now, I wasn’t around in the 70s. I’m only in my mid-twenties. But being the curious MP3 blogger that I am, I enjoy finding out about a lot of eras of music, especially the decade that apparently inspired a bunch of potheads to turn into a bunch of cokeheads; the 70s. Kind of like the 90s into the new millennium.

I had a nightmare dream that I had a son and daughter and they asked me “What did the people who didn’t like Kayne West listen to?” That’s when I dusted off my old 4th gen iPod from a box in the basement and played them Kylie Minogue? Right. So the point is, what did people who didn’t like ABBA and The Bee Gees listen to? Hmmm…..

Christian Gaubert was a composer for a lot of French films. In 1976, he created this epic disco track for a marginally decent documentary called Sex O’Clock USA. What is better? The fact something is called “Sex O’Clock” or the fact USA is tagged at the end? Does “Sex O’Clock” reference a specific time for sex or is that sometime usually before bed? Whatever the case, at least it had a halfway decent soundtrack.

Christian Gaubert - Baby Come On

Contrary to popular belief, the are more than two music acts that came out of Canada that don’t include Rush or Bryan Adams. Erotic Drum Band sure had some great albums such as “Plug Me To Death” and “Touch Me Where It’s Hot”. Jesus. It’s disco’s Spinal Tap. This percussion heavy disco act was blazing in Canada. Americans simply didn’t know what the fuss was about.

Erotic Drum Band - Plug Me To Death

And what would dance music be without a little Latin flavor (ie Ricky Martin)? After Fernando Arbex split with his drug-fueled blues band-mate in the early 70s, the next logical step was writing disco music. And that is just what Fernando did. Not to be confused with the bandit from the children’s tale The Bible, Barrabás, was Arbex’s next project.

Barrabas - Checkmate

And if you haven’t noticed, this stuff is a bit catchy. So throw some of this stuff in your next mix. If any of this followed whatever Ed Banger song you were playing, you’d have instant disco cred.

You.

EDIT: Warner Bros. deemed this inappropriate for YouTube. Looks like we’ll have to rely on our friendly Russian neighbors. Here you go.

Among a lot of the garbage you can find on MP3 blogs, sometimes you come across some real keepers. There have probably been two real great acts that Discodust and Winnie Cooper have brought to my attention that I really need to start hearing more of. But instead of rehashing the same songs you can find on said blogs, here’s a couple different pieces.

First, The Golden Filter. No one knows shit about them. But this stuff is ridiculously hot. The end.

The Golden Filter - Hide Me

Second, Diskokaine pretty much came out of nowhere… sort of. If you needed further proof that people from Austria also make the best websites, you should should probably check out this. But here’s “America Fcuk Yeah” which samples AOL Instant Messenger (Mac version). I shit you not.

Diskokaine - American Fcuk Yeah

And a great music video for another song:

Genghis Tron is one of those bands that cross so many genres and boundaries in taste that it’s really not hard to enjoy at least something they are doing. Back when I used to run Kitchen Distribution with my friends, these guys were always one of our favorite acts to roll through and paved some memorable moments at our humble little art space. The success they’ve attained over the years is really well deserved for just how soft spoken and genuine these guys really are, which really is a complete mismatch for their music; loud and bananas.

So today Genghis Tron announced some details of their remix series of their last album Board Up The House. It’s five different releases on five different labels. And to top it all off, they’ve really pooled up some talent to produce what will no doubt be some fascinating music. Everyone from Dntel to Black Moth Super Rainbow to Lucky Dragons to Telefon Tel Aviv is taking a stab at this.

To wet your taste buds a little, here is Rob Crow (of Pinback and Goblin Cock fame) taking a crack at Things Don’t Look Good:

Genghis Tron - Things Don’t Look Good (Rob Crow Remix)

Bob Moog tragically passed on a few years ago. But in the wake of the legacy that was Moog, a few survivors of its old guard remain.

Mike Bucki is one of the last of a dying breed of true analog geniuses. I first met him back when I bought my second Moog (Moog Rogue to be exact). The Moog came to my possession in great cosmetic order but when you turned it on, it made a bunch of noises, none of which sounded like anything in particular. The synth obviously needed a tune up. I called up the nearest electronics guy and dropped off my new toy. After sitting on it for about two months, our anonymous electrician just left me with “Well some people just don’t play notes on them. They just use them for space lazer noises.” Yeah. That’s exactly what I wanted when I dropped it off two months ago.

Looking online, I found Moog Custom Engineering headed up by Mike Bucki, former project manager and engineer at the original Moog factory. For those not in the know, Moogs were actually produced in Buffalo. The factory is now The Super Flea, the largest flea market in all of Western New York, locally referred to as “The Dirt Mall”. Anyhoo, I was surprised this guy was pratically in my backyard as I emailed him my situation and he called me within an hour and told me to bring it in. It was ready and sounded as clean as the day it was first turned on the very next day.

But this isn’t really a charming story about great customer service. Mike is probably one of the most fun guys to spend some time with. I recently visited him again for a power adapter for that same Moog and found his collection of Moogs had now expanded into nearly every possible analog synth you could drool over. Among the piles of parts were snippets of equipment that Moog never released publicly and tons of custom engineered synths. Talking to Mike is even more fascinating. The guy spits electrical jargon at you without hesitation but with a delicate charm. You learn a years worth of synth knowledge for every five minutes of conversation. I have to tell you that for tune ups, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with any of my analog gear. That power adapter I needed? Yeah he built that for me… in an hour… while I was driving to pick it up. It’s not that he’s fast. It’s that he’s fast because he seriously knows and loves what he’s doing.

And as for what he is really doing these days? Mike Bucki runs an extensive business. When Bob Moog came knocking at the door for his Moog name back, Mike changed his company name to Modusonics. He does custom engineering jobs that are made from the world’s most extensive collection of Moog parts, which he inherited from the company. You simply aren’t going to get anything even close real analog Moog sound anywhere else, not even from the newer Moog jobs (Voyager, Little Phatty). And if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket (say like… ohhhh… a couple grand), his custom engineered modules are remarkable.