New from the DFA...

where is JON WILLIAMS?!?!?!?!?!?!

1. The Juan Maclean - "By the Time I Get to Venus"
2. LCD Soundsystem - "Give It Up"
3. The Rapture - "House of Jealous Lovers"
4. Black Dice - "Come Toaster"
5. The Juan Maclean - "You Can't Have It Both Ways"
6. The Rapture - "Silent Morning"
7. LCD Soundsystem - "Losing My Edge"
8. Black Dice - "Endless Happiness"

Maybe this is an incomplete comp, since no "Olio" or "Beat Connection?" I'm not sure...

while we're riding the black dice jock:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/g/goa/goa.shtml

miss you JW

:-D

:-D

The other four were promo-only/given away?

Wow, how's that sound?

how do i get dfa to send me packages of stuff?

i can't find any info about that black dice 12" (though i was aware eye was remixing some shit for them). any idea about a proper release date?

I always liked that name.

Did he get that alias from Beavis & Butthead?

"This here's Colette. She's been rolling around in a pile of her on sick."

it has "i need your love" by the rapture on the free cd and this dancer is very impressed, the chorus sounds like my doorbell though which will cause problems later when I have my friends in for a few drinks.

Colette

is this available on vinyl worldwide?

:-(

sigh.

(i haven't listened to it yet)

did you check the Ceramic Hulk on Collette? thing is massive!

Hey Yancey, is that the complete tracklisting?

There's a New York Magazine article from the early 2000s about the rebirth of the new york music scene, with Liars on the cover, and there's a "tribes" "map" that has DFA, then a line that goes down to Plant Bar where it says "downstairs from DFA's offices, Plant Bar hosts scene-maker Dan Selzer's party "Transmission" The Rapture's Luke Jenner tends bar."

Which is my way of once again going on about how I was involved in that scene in the tiniest background way possible. James and Jonathan and Tim were always super nice to me, last time I saw or spoke to either was at that 2013 Red Bull Music Academy event at Grand Prospect Hall. I walked by James amidst throngs of fans and figured he wouldn't have noticed me but then felt a tap on my shoulder looked back and got a head nod from him. Then Ran into Jonathan on the top floor where Larry Gus was performing and he said "we should've had you DJ this event!" Always the bridesmaid. I had stopped going out all the time a long time before that and always feel out of the loop and insecure going to a big event like that, so any kind of recognition from those guys went a long way towards my recalling being a scenemaker 10 years before. My favorite part of that event though was probably Prinzhorn Dance School's performance.

Tim I reached out to when I was visiting Bristol in 2012. I honestly don't know that I even knew anything about his split from the DFA at the time. We briefly spoke and he gave me some tips of places to go and things to see but we didn't meet up.

I did used to hang out with Tyler Brodie a lot, he was always at Plant Bar. Far as being a rich kid heir, he was always a super down to earth nice dude. Only went to his house once but it was something else. I mostly used to bug him about his involvement in the Darren Aronofsky movies and Clint Mansell because I was such a Pop Will Eat Itself fanatic in high school.

http://danselzer.com/images/newyorkcompscale.jpg

The One to Wait by CCFX is great. The whole single is good but that one song is fantastic.

― brotherlovesdub

Yes!! Easily my favorite song to come from the label and probably one of my top 50 songs of the decade.

I've never heard that before!

I think In A Hole/Can't Feel My Knees by Invisible Conga People is my favourite of the (possibly) lesser know releases. My life would be immeasurably improved if ICP had made more music.

My life would be immeasurably improved if ICP had made more music.

ILX posts out of context

Haha! I had to google that!

Justin’s still in NYC. I sold him my couch and we almost shared a music studio space in Brooklyn a few years ago that was being vacated by Jason from Hundred in the Hands and the Boggs, next to Will Speculator and across from Vito and Druzzi.

Justin has some beautiful synth gear. I think we worked on some tracks for a dancer at some point.

I've never heard that before!

I think In A Hole/Can't Feel My Knees by Invisible Conga People is my favourite of the (possibly) lesser know releases. My life would be immeasurably improved if ICP had made more music.

― Heavy Messages (jed_)

Oh crap forgot about ICP… I thought they were on Italians Do It Better? They released amazing singles and disappeared. Agree completely on my life improving with more ICP.

“Cable Dazed” is my favorite one. Sounds like the best song The Knife never made.

agreed. I could say the same about "Cant Feel My Knees"

Apparently, ICP fell out badly. It's an absolute tragedy, to be honest. I always think about The Knife with them too but mainly because Can't Feel My Knees mixes so beautifully into Silent Shout.

Dan, are you talking about one of ICP? Justin? If so please tell him some random guy in Glasgow adores everything he made as part of ICP, and how sad I am that there's not more to come. Or possibly don't. I'm sure it's quite painful for him too. I love ICP.

Oh crap forgot about ICP… I thought they were on Italians Do It Better?

One EP on IDIB and one on DFA.

Yeah I think I like their singles better than anything the Knife ever made and that’s a big compliment because I love The Knife.

I used to play “cable dazed” and “can’t feel my knees” a lot in one of my bars and they were some of the most requested songs before everyone had shazam on their smartphones.

Big love from Mexico as well, sad to hear things didn’t turn out great. They were super talented.

1/2 of ICP was Justin Simon. Justin was in a NJ hardcore band called Native Nod. There was a big NJ hardcore/punk scene. My older sister was into that stuff but I was too busy listening to Joy Division and the Fall and Pop Will Eat Itself and Renegade Soundwave and Severed Heads. But when I was a sophomore at Oberlin I met first years Justin and Dave Lerner, both of whom were in Native Nod, because one of them had a WFMU shirt on and I was like "hey I'm from NJ too".

I think back then a WFMU shirt meant you were from NJ.

Anyway, James Murphy was a NJ punk and was in the band Speedking. Their second single came out on Merry Dogger, which was Justin's label. Or Dave's. Or both of them.

So James and Justin go back to NJ punk days.

Meanwhile Mike Simonetti of course would become one of the lynchpins of NJ punk/post-hardcore or whatever with Troubleman Records, prior to Italians Do It Better, which happened after I taught him about italo-disco (fighting words!)

The other lynchpin was probably Charles of Rorshach and Gern Blandstern records, and Computer Cougar, who were either 10 years too late for post-punk or 5 years to early for post-punk revival. Nick Forte of Rorshach is a super nice guy who's done tons of interesting stuff including Beautiful Skin and Christmas Decorations.

So I met Justin and Dave in college, and met Mike and James Murphy after. Dave went on to play with Ted Leo (the Leos a big part of this NJ punk scene, apparently their grandfather was in business with mine, like old school post-war Clifton/Passaic stuff, my sister found that out somehow). Now Dave's got a great cosmic country type duo with his wife called Trummors.

Justin spent a lot of time in Japan and runs the label Mesh-Key releasing stuff by Yura Yura Teikoku, Shintaro Sakamoto and Phew. He also had a really cool band called We Acediasts which never came out on DFA but recorded at Plantain with James and Tim.

So when it came to ICP, releases on DFA and Italians Do it Better makes a lot of sense.

Oh yeah I see now the other half of Native Nod were Chris and Danny Leo, Ted Leo's brothers.

sorry above where I wrote "I think we worked on some tracks for a dancer at some point." I meant HE. We've never collaborated on music. He was the junior music director at WOBC when I was the main music director, and we would've collaborated if he came to the station more and did his job.

Dan at this point I feel you’re just showing off to make me feel like my life is the dullest thing compared to yours and you’re right.

I just namedrop so I can remind myself that I once brushed shoulders with relevance.

"Weird Pains" (the flip to "Cable Dazed") was amazing as well - beautiful Can-like percussive groove (it specifically reminds me of Ege Bamyesi) that feels very different to anything else (I ever heard) on either DFA or IDIB.

Remix a friend and I made for the DFA band Free Energy. I remember the music itself reminded us of Dr And The Medics so we laughed and said “Let’s flip this s—- around!” and I think we succeeded. James Murphy recorded the music so the stems we got sounded very good. Super well engineered. Still…
I recall Jonathan Galkon loved the remix. He was great. The band whined that they couldn’t recognize their song/themselves in it so we got paid and it got shelved for a few years. I still think it’s fun but seems like something from a galaxy far far away at this point in my life.

https://m.soundcloud.com/dfa-records/free-energy-dream-city-bim?fbclid=IwAR1FRPbcTD45-bybMjrXV47T736KCN9zO2m6zmQeicpGA_dcaA9btjUIRUs

err “Galkin”

one really cool thing about those ICP 12”s is that no matter how fast it slow you spin them it always seems like the wrong speed (in a good way)

Nice CJV. I remember enjoying the Free Energy record and even going to see them, which is funny since I have no particular fondness for '70s rock, I was just really into DFA. I remember the show was poorly attended, and they were very skinny and attractive. For some reason they're one of those bands where I periodically think "oh yeah, I wonder what they did with their lives?"

Seriously considering buying the ICP 12" on discogs because there's some really cheap options and I feel they are the sort of singles I'll always love and if I always want to sell I have a suspicion they'll be worth more since DFA and IDIB are two labels which might be defunct in the short/mid term and also people are bound to rediscover the amazing music ICP made.

This ICP remix id really great, it was a tip from boxedjoy on here, thanks again, pal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff9JviDKD4k

Remix a friend and I made for the DFA band Free Energy. I remember the music itself reminded us of Dr And The Medics so we laughed and said “Let’s flip this s—- around!” and I think we succeeded. James Murphy recorded the music so the stems we got sounded very good. Super well engineered. Still…
I recall Jonathan Galkon loved the remix. He was great. The band whined that they couldn’t recognize their song/themselves in it so we got paid and it got shelved for a few years. I still think it’s fun but seems like something from a galaxy far far away at this point in my life.

https://m.soundcloud.com/dfa-records/free-energy-dream-city-bim?fbclid=IwAR1FRPbcTD45-bybMjrXV47T736KCN9zO2m6zmQeicpGA_dcaA9btjUIRUs

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee),

well, this was an unexpected treat from this revival.
i recall see the bands cd in the racks, but gave it a miss.
more fool me.
loving the remix.
ta muchly for the pointer CJV.

Yeah, that is well nice, CJV.

Thank you! Glad you all like it.

https://pitchfork.com/news/james-murphy-ousted-dfa-records-co-founder-jonathan-galkin-last-year-what-happened/

Murphy did change the locks on Galkin and says

He specifically challenged Galkin’s claim that the label was “self-sustaining”: “It had an insane burn rate and regularly needed injections of cash that were supposed to be temporary loans that never were loans,” Murphy said. “Which was all fine—I knew what we signed up for to a certain degree.” Murphy also expressed concern that the label “was going to collapse,” and that DFA was “not fulfilling what [he] believe[s] are its ethical duties to its artists.

Murphy’s explanation for not being involved in the label over the years- that he was busy touring and that he didn’t like the focus on records rather than parties , is uh interesting. He makes it sound like he was constantly on tour . At times they were but not sure that’s accurate for the whole period at issue

murphy doesn't come across particularly well, there's obviously more to the story he doesn't want to share, but if it did just come down to financial difficulties that doesn't really justify the way he went about things

Yeah, some very weird comments. Hard to see why he would care about Holy Ghost leaving the label when he didn’t actively do anything for the label for years.

It would have been a blow to the label to lose long standing band like Holy Ghost regardless of how involved he was.

I enjoyed how snarky each got about the other. Galkin getting in how he didn't even like American Dream and Murphy about coffee mugs and tee weekly emails. haha both are accurate for me.

I am really interested in hearing what Galkin puts out on FourFour.

It's a shame James was so hands off for such a long time and that Tim Goldsworthy didn't stick around. It seems like DFA has been in a tailspin since he left regardless.

i can see how murphy finding out holy ghost had left might have been a big sign to him that something was going wrong and made him pay attention to the label for the first time in a decade

with goldsworthy it sounds like he was just as hands off with the label as murphy from 2007 onwards and then stopped working as a production duo with murphy from around 2009 before they completely fell out sometime around 2013. so them stopping working together in 2009 just left dfa as murphy & the label operating with little to do with each other

Seems like Murphy was trying to say without saying that Holy Ghost was asking for their masters back because they weren't getting paid vs. Galkin framing it as a labor of love situation?

idk that it's possible to read that much into it, i didn't get the impression from either of them that the finances were quite that bad at that point

i searched to see what holy ghost had to say about leaving dfa and they just said they knew they didn't want to stay with dfa and reached out to a friend at bmg about reviving west end records bc that was their "dream label" and got a deal very easily. they said "we wanted to get a jump", idk if that just means they wanted a boost in profile or resources that dfa couldn't give them, or what

enjoyed how snarky each got about the other. Galkin getting in how he didn't even like American Dream and Murphy about coffee mugs and tee weekly emails. haha both are accurate for me.

yeah they coulda just done these interviews two years earlier and carried on as usual, without raising the slightest controversy

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/heydude/images/f/fa/Intro-Jake.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/468?cb=20141227202631

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dfa-xx-nyc-tickets-269030015017?fbclid=IwAR2j7apt-Xjy1-W0KlPXxOV2A3FzpF0cKZlCIeHVj1FNHpnyqi4i2gbz200

hoping that ilm'r stirmonster knocks it out of the park and really wish i could be there for the xx party.