KyleParkinson.com

It’s the event you’ve all been waiting for: SKANK. Thursday, September 13th at the Make Out Room (pictured above) on 22nd between Mission and Valencia. J.O.R.Y. and I will be spinning the tracks that spin you, and we’ve even invited some special guests to help out. All you have to do is show up and dance and make out with people. Not a bad deal, eh? And with some new renovations to the venue, the dance floor should be ready for you to sully it once again.

More details to come as we approach the date, but mark your calendars now. It’s not to be missed.

I first had the pleasure of hearing Wolf Parade back in September 2005 when they opened for Arcade Fire at the Warfield in SF. I immediately bought Apologies to the Queen Mary and listened to it for months and months. Almost two years later, and the Wolf Parade hunger hasn’t died down, which is why Handsome Furs‘ new album Plague Park has pretty much been on repeat lately (interspersed with St. Vincent, of course). I always sort of liked Dan Boeckner’s style better than Spencer Krug’s, so while Krug’s side projects (Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown, Frog Eyes) have produced a few semi-favorites for me over the past year or two, I feel like Handsome Furs is going to emerge as the winner.

Boeckner and fiancée Alexei Perry create repetitive, sometimes-sparse tunes using a small assortment of instruments, found objects and drum machines. When I first read that description, it didn’t seem too intriguing, but listening to the album reminded me of Boeckner’s amazing voice and songwriting skills. Immediate favorites include “What We Had” and “Handsome Furs Hate this City,” but each tune on the album is slowly but surely getting stuck in my head. Do enjoy:

MP3: Handsome Furs - What We Had
MP3: Handsome Furs - Handsome Furs Hate this City

I write for several blogs, and recently I wrote a post for RFI’s Online Culture Blog about the changing face of the digital music marketplace.  Here’s what I had to say.

I like music. A lot. I regularly hole myself up in my room for hours scouring music blogs and sites, downloading the latest tracks and checking Metacritic for the latest review summaries. Without getting too deep into my own purchasing habits, I’ll say that the album leak has become absolutely commonplace in the digital music world.

I’m not sure many people know exactly how each album leaks, and a vast majority of them don’t care. Pre-release music is pre-release music, and for a lot of people, the price is right. A leak, oftentimes months in advance of the release date, is simply expected among some music lovers. As soon as one sees a tracklist posted on their favorite music site, the hunt is on.

The government tries to crack down, but the music hunters will very, very rarely become the hunted, so it’s on the record labels to adapt to what has now become a way of life in the business. Physical album sales have absolutely tanked and continue to do so at an increasing pace, so the majors are forced to focus their attention on digital sales, and of course one name comes to mind when we turn to digital music sales: Apple’s iTunes. Continue Reading »

She’s been in my “Now Listening” sidebar for a little while now, but I have to bring more attention to St. Vincent. An alum of Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan’s band, Annie Clark is out on her own now, and thank God. Don’t get me wrong, I love the PS and Sufjan, but this girl should not be buried in an over-sized band.

Her debut, Marry Me, is one of those albums in which one or two songs immediately catch you and get played on repeat for a few weeks. Gradually the list expands until, at this point, I consider every song one of my favorites these days. The music is refreshingly heartfelt without feeling forced or hackneyed, and the lyrics, wow. Here’s a sample from “All My Stars Aligned:

I read the signs, got all my stars aligned, my amulets, my charms, I set all my false alarms / So I’ll be someone who won’t be forgotten, I’ve got a question, and you’ve got the answer

Each song has at least one moment where the lyrics and/or music take you into their own world. Hence the constant pushing of the repeat button. Hard to pick just two songs to feature, but here’s “Marry Me” (the song that initially turned me onto her… music) and “The Apocalypse Song.”

MP3: St. Vincent - Marry Me
MP3: St. Vincent - The Apocalypse Song

And lucky me, she’s playing Cafe Du Nord on my birthday. I’ve got tickets, be my date?

Major power outages are sweeping San Francisco right now, and the Web is taking a hit. That is, the non-kyleparkinson.com Web. Craigslist, Netflix, Yelp, Technorati, Typepad, LiveJournal, and others have been down for most or part of the day. Meanwhile, kyleparkinson.com’s lack of posts has been due not to electrical outages, but rather a nagging cold and plans to expand the site to include a photo gallery. Oh, and my job.

Always one to find the irony in things though, I’ve posted above a recent ONN video about the Internet crashing. Enjoy. Oh also, I’m not sure about this new FoxyTunes footer on the blog post, but I figured right now it was appropriate to show what’s playing. Let’s hope this doesn’t (or does?) become NYC ‘77.
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Now playing: Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
via FoxyTunes

Summertime is probably my favorite season. Spring, fall and winter are pretty sweet too, but there’s something about the summer that can’t be beat. And as all good things go, summertime needs a perfect soundtrack to really hit the mark each year. While The New York Times may have their own ideas, I generally tend to miss out on the hot chart-toppers which are now apparently named after household items.

So I’ll counter with my own mini-list of summer favorites as we hit the one-month mark of Summer 2007:

The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour (MP3)
This song was a summer classic from the first moment I heard it. And it’s about New York, so it was fun listening to the line “Stranded on Bleecker and Broadway with nothing to do” as I was crossing Bleecker and Broadway with nothing to do last week.

Simian Mobile Disco - It’s the Beat (The Teenagers Remix) (MP3)
As I’ve previously mentioned in this blog, I’ve been loving The Teenagers lately, and their remix work is top-notch. So when they tackled SMD’s “It’s the Beat”, I knew it would be rocking me straight through the autumnal equinox. So far, no signs of slowing down.

New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream (MP3)
“I can give you want you want/I can make your heart beat short/I can give you ice cream, we can be a sweet team, melting in your vice dreams, sport.” Those opening lyrics pretty much sum up this song perfectly. Perfect for walking down the city streets on a hot summer day.

Klaxons - It’s Not Over Yet (MP3)
Anyone who covers Grace is fine by me. Well, okay not exactly, but Klaxons put enough of their own touch on this one to make it more than acceptable.

The Rentals - Life Without a Brain (MP3)
The Rentals have long been a summertime staple, ever since I was a young sprout discovering music on my discman. So happy was the day I learned of their new EP, eight years in the making. All four songs are stellar, but “Life Without a Brain” has been the one on repeat for me.

We’ll cut it at five for now, so as not to spoil the full end-of-summer mix. Enjoy the above tracks, and share some of your own favorites.

Sun’s out, gotta go.

Guh. I don’t like to drastically change my opinions, especially about music. So I’m going to ease into this one and make a slight exception for Mark Ronson, only because he’s a DJ-turned-producer and because I enjoy is work on the Amy Winehouse album, which oddly enough I’ve been hearing more and more the past week.  Like everywhere.  Walking down the street, blaring from windows, everywhere.

Anyway, I’ll be honest, Ronson’s music is growing on me, and according to NYT (that’s now password-protected, lame), he’s got a nice self-deprecating sense of humor, which I’m always down for. I’m not sure I can make room on my maxed out 60 GB iPod for his new album Version, but maybe I’ll check out his MySpace page.

I mean, it’s got to be a sign that for the past week, 80% of the music I’ve heard has been “You Know I’m No Good” and “Stop Me.”  Don’t worry Moz, your version is much, much better.

Vesperizer comes back with a killer mix this week: Hello Teenage America. Excellent song selections and a great flow with good transitions. It had me dancing from coast to coast on my recent NY>CA flight. . . until the Tylenol PM kicked in. But I was totally drooling to the beat. I’ll let the mix speak for itself.

MP3: Vesperizer - Hello Teenage America Mix

Songlist:
Justice - The Party
New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream (Comets Mix)
Digitalism - Digitalism in Cairo
Goldfrapp - White Horse (Serge Re-Edit)
Soulwax - NY Excuse (NY LIPPS Mix)
The Rapture - W.A.Y.U.H. (Simian Mobile Disco Mix)
MSTRKRFT - Street Justice
Amy Winehouse - Rehab (Hot Chip Mix)

If you like what you hear, get ready for SKANK at the Make Out Room in September (exact date TBD). Vesperizer, Chico Drets and some special guests will be spinning the beats while you skank out. Not feeling slutty? Well that’s what alcohol is for, silly!

My first exposure to The Teenagers was through their remix of Simian Mobile Disco’s “It’s the Beat,” which has been on repeat on my iPod and will soon be featured in a mix when I can overcome my latent retardation on this one transition.

After some MySpace investigation and reading about them in one of my new favorite magazines, Tokion, I’m really digging their sonic mix of indie and electronic. The lyrics are pretty kitschy, but it works in this context. They were signed to Summer Lovers Unlimited before having ever played for a live audience, so I’m hoping we see a lot more of The Teenagers in the coming months. For now, enjoy the following tracks.

MP3: The Teenagers - Homecoming
MP3: The Teenagers - Fuck Nicole (SLUTTT Ketateen Remix)

I love electronic music and I love Interpol, so logically, I’m loving the new “Heinrich Maneuver (Phones Remix)”. The extended piano-laden intro gives way to crunchy synths and Banks’ baritone as the song kicks into full swing. I’m thinking this song will be making an appearance at the upcoming party. Details on said party will be posted as soon as I get my shit together after a long, enjoyable vacation. In the meantime, how are things on the West Coast?

MP3: Interpol - Heinrich Maneuver (Phones Remix)