Alwaysmovinginstereo

Sacramento cool kids Sister Crayon are running up and down the state this week. Continuing to make their homies proud, they play a sold-out show on Saturday in LA at the Troubador with the Tune-Yards, and then notably Sunday's last slot at SF Pride's main stage.

The sun-baked crowd this Sunday will undoubtedly cool down with the trip-hop electric soul of Terra Lopez, Dani Fernandez, Nick Suhr, and Jeffrey LaTour.

Streaming above is a remix of one of my favorite SC songs, "Souls of Gold" by fellow Sac native Raleigh Moncrief. You can find the original on their full-length Bellow, which was released earlier this year on Manimal Vinyl.

I just realized, you know which artist played the last slot at the 2008 pride...?

GAGA. That is all. Congrats, SC. 

Call it an off day, hell, an off week.

There's been a handful of new-ish to new tracks I've been wanting to get stoked on enough to post here, but I'm at a loss. 

I'm absolutely broke (yet fabulous!) so no outstanding events this weekend to report on. To top it off, the weather sucks. You know, in that way only a Bay Area summer can suck it up, where you wonder, "this is what it must be like living in Seattle year-round."

It's cool, we're still in California folks (well, at least us fortunate ones), so there's that.

Here's an ode to the feeling, to the near rarity, of a warm San Francisco night. 

Five minute flyer.

The new St. Lucia remix ep "We Got It Wrong" is out of control. This week Lenno's bouncier and disco-y take is a standout, while Starslinger's moody version is no slacker in the goods department either. And eventually, I'll mix the Xaphoon Jones' redux with something grimy and presto! 

Listening to the original "We Got It Wrong"(streaming above) and the Brooklyn artist's other breakout track "All Eyes on You"  leaves us desperately wondering about a full-length's arrival.

http://player.vimeo.com/video/20535037?color=cccccc

Yelle's two-part video for singles "Safari Disco Club" and "Que veux tu." 

She's another French over-achiever (I sense a theme these past few weeks in stereo land...) and she's playing the Regency Ballroom on May 19th in San Francisco. There's just something about a lovely brunette singing sugary and addictive songs to me in French. Translation: dance.

Did ya hear the Oxford Dictionary kicked out the word "cassette tape" in its newest edition?

Sometimes you’ve got to dance like it’s A BIG FUCKING ROOM.

Oversights 2010

In my haste to post the previous entry within the closing hours of 2010, I realize I made some glaring oversights. Um, no mention of LCD Soundsystem?! Sister Crayon? Daft Punk going Tron? Now that the dust has settled from bringing in the new year, I've gained some clarity, and I'd like to reflect on some of the most notable 2010 musical goodness one last time. LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy arguably makes This Is Happening the best album of the year, and makes me want to pack up and leave for New York forever. "Dance Yrself Clean" gets you to do just that, and "I Can Change" is the best song the Human League never wrote. $17 was the price of admission for a screening of Tron: Legacy in IMAX 3D. It was all well and good, with those lightbikes and games of straight-dagger frisbee (as I like to call it). Olivia Wilde is smokin', and Jeff Bridges is basically The Dude ("You're messing with my Zen thing, man.") But when legendary French house robot-DJ duo Daft Punk make their cameo at the End Of Line club, the movie becomes louder, better, and any qualms about the steep ticket price are squashed. Check out the new fantastically old-school video for "Derezzed," and pay attention for one lovely cameo. Oh, Kanye. Whatever. It's good. I was fortunate this year getting to know the Sacramento quartet Sister Crayon through a good homie of mine. So besides Terra, Dani, and Nicolas being super cool and chill folks, they also happen to make wonderfully soulful indie pop, fusing it with traditional trip-hop elements - samples, ambient melodies, and crisp beats. These kids had an epic 2010, highlights including the premiere of their video for "in(Reverse)" in February, their opening at LA's The Echo for School of Seven Bells in June, successfully acquiring a touring van(!), and completing a tour of the west coast with El Ten Eleven. They're killing 2011 already, playing with Little Dragon in LA tomorrow at the Natural History Museum, and anticipating the Manimal Vinyl release of their full-length Bellow, out February 22. And just yesterday, Boy George of all people tweeted about their cover of Bowie's "Bewlay Brothers" saying it was "FUCKING LOVELY." You can catch them live on February 23(along with Dan Deacon) in SF at the Rickshaw Stop for the Noise Pop festival. Listen to the fantastic single "Souls of Gold" off their forthcoming LP here. Boy George should be feeling good about himself lately, after guesting on Mark Ronson & The Business Intl's Record Collection for the modern synth-pop slice "Somebody to Love Me" - a track not far behind the rest of my favorites in 2010... Mark Ronson of course- the more talented of the producing/musician/DJing Ronson siblings (his sister being hi-top sneaker wearing and ex-Lilo-lovin' Samantha) - is producing Duran Duran's new album, which he says will satisfy any true DD fan, that "it's the imaginary follow-up to Rio."  Uh huh. Yeah, that's what he said. But is it any good? Nah.

Although speaking of Rio, my hair is well on its way toward John Taylor status circa 1982. I always thought he was sooo pretty. p.s. this is hella cute.

The Frontier Restaurant in Albuquerque, NM.  My first stop on every visit.