sunscreen ...love

alright, i'm taking a hiatus from the internet, blogging, making music playlists... i'll be back renewed, rewired & ready to share more riches sometime in August...
till then, just remember to wear sunscreen:

... and let love rule! Jacques Brel sums it up quite well:

here's my rough translation:

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
A s'offrir en partage / To offer and share
Au jour d'un grand voyage / On the day of a great voyage
Qu'est notre grand amour / Which is our great love

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
Mon amour toi et moi / My love you & me
Pour qu'éclatent de joie / To sparkle with joy
Chaque heure et chaque jour / Every hour every day

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
Pour vivre nos promesses / To live out our promises
Sans nulle autre richesse / With no other riches
Que d'y croire toujours / Than to believe in them always

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
Pour meubler de merveilles / To furnish with marvels
Et couvrir de soleil / And cover with sunlight
La laideur des faubourgs / The ugliness of the suburbs

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
Pour unique raison / As the only reason
Pour unique chanson / As the only song
Et unique secours / And only saviour

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
Pour habiller matin / To clothe in the morning
Pauvres et malandrins / The poor and the ruffians
De manteaux de velours / In velvet coats

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
A offrir en prière / To offer as prayer
Pour les maux de la terre / For the evils of the Earth
En simple troubadour / As a simple troubadour

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
A offrir à ceux-là / To offer to those
Dont l'unique combat / Whose only struggle
Est de chercher le jour / Is to look for the dawn

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
Pour tracer un chemin / To trace a path
Et forcer le destin / And compel fate
A chaque carrefour / At each crossroad

Quand on n'a que l'amour / When we have only love
Pour parler aux canons / To speak to the cannons
Et rien qu'une chanson / And nothing but a song
Pour convaincre un tambour / To persuade a [war] drum

Alors sans avoir rien / Then without having anything
Que la force d'aimer / But the strength to love
Nous aurons dans nos mains / We will have in our hands, my friends
Amis le monde entier / The whole world

ID21 ...Bud is Belgian

did you know that the world's shittiest beer is now Belgian as well?!? the Belgian beer conglomerate InBev just bought out Budweiser for $52 billion in cash, the largest cash transaction in history...

since many of you probably don't know much about my motherland, the great Kingdom of Belgium, allow me...

the Belgian "In God We Trust" type motto is "L'Union Fait La Force" meaning "Unity Makes The Force" which is ironic considering how divided this tiny nation is.

July 21st is coming up. it's the national day of Belgium, kinda like july 4th is USA's national day... except Belgium was around history books for much longer. there was a time where Caesar called the Belgians aka the Gallics, his bravest enemies. the roman empire conquered all of Europe, but the Belgian natives were his bravest & hardest to conquer. we're dissidents by nature! we just have a very hard time complying to the higher power, whatever that might be at any given time. lets face it, nowadays, Belgium, a small kingdom the size of LA to San Diego, is divided in 3 federal states: Brussels Capital (bilingual - French & Dutch, not to mention English, German & Spanish, widely heard around town), Flanders (Flemish aka Dutch speaking with Antwerp being the capital) and Wallonia (French speaking with Liège being the capital)... back in the 80s, there was so much animosity between the Flemish & the Walloons, that the country was almost split into 2 new nations. but both sides revered our uniting king so strongly that Belgium became a federal kingdom instead... more bureaucracy, as now we have one prime minister under the king, but 3 of everything else. for example, we have 3 ministers of education, one for Brussels, one for Flanders, and one for Wallonia, instead of one for the whole nation... so, we have 3 ministers who will bow down to the king equally, but disagree with each other on anything & everything... and instead of taxes supporting one politician, we have to support 3... and at the end of the day, it costs so much that the Belgian state as a nation went bankrupt... Belgians tend to live beyond their means, something i have to work on every single day! it's in my blood!!!

time for a musical interlude by Jacques Brel about Belgium:

Belgians create high fashion (the Antwerp 6), refined chocolates (Cornier, Leonidas, Neuhaus, etc & Côte d'Or for supermarkets), have the finest diamond cutters in the world (for Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, DeBeers, etc), have the most intricate tapestries & embroideries (high commodities in the Middle Ages, which put Belgium on the map), process the finest spices from the new world (we have fries stands on every corner with a variety of sauces so large you would lose your mind - mayo mixed in with which ever spices you fancy), have the best gastronomy in the world (from the finest filet mignon to the best casserole of Zealand mussels), and make the best trains & metros in the world (exported to Portland Oregon to Casablanca Morrocco & many other cities)... not to mention music (Techontronic is Belgian!). oh and did i mention the 500 plus beers brewed in such a small territory?! we still have monks & monasteries working 24/7 to produce the finest beers in the world, from Stella to Delirium Tremens, Chimay, Hoegaarden, Lambick, Kwak, Leffe, etc...
BUT we import all the technology needed to keep all of this afloat, at a national deficit... so Belgium as a corporation spends a lot more than it makes, and as such would have gone bankrupt if it wasn't for their smartest invention, the European Union, with Brussels as the capital. the euro erased billions of dollars of national debt, and imported billions more in foreign investments. Brussels is the capital of Europe, the NATO headquarters, and the center of more than 500 other international organizations, making it the capital of the world of over-payed tax exempt diplomats & honorable foreigners. 30% of the citizens of Brussels are foreigners, and if you look at a map, Brussels is smack in the middle of Paris & London, or Madrid & Stockholm... Brussels is THE crossroad of Europe!

anyhew, more provincial than Rome, Paris or London, Brussels has the best you can find anywhere else, minus the drama. "Petit Pays Petit Esprit" is a way of life (small country small spirit of mind). meaning that when you have so much available in such a small area, why would u ever need to leave... unless you like steep slopes in the Alpes for skiing (a national pilgrimage to Switzerland every winter) or you like the clear warm waters of the Mediterranean (another national pilgrimage to the shores of the Mediterranean every summer)... Belgium is the blessed land of the sweetest routine... and grey winter rains. something my parents ripped me away from by traveling so much to Africa & the Americas. god bless!

we call the Belgians who never break away from the routine the Belgicans, and the others like me, THE BELGIANS!

anyhew, in a few days Belgians celebrate their independence day. July 21st is the day that the privileged in Belgium decided to overthrow their current occupiers in 1830, the Dutch. around 1815 i think, the battle of Waterloo won by the protestant Brits against Napoléon (his 1st loss), the Belgians went from French authority to being annexed to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. the Prince of Orange (a Dutch) became Belgium's ruler. before the French, Belgium had been a territory of the Austrian empire (who also sent an Austrian prince to rule Belgium), and before that was a member of the Spanish Kingdom in the north. which explains why Belgium is so rich in luxury goods that cater to the old world & the new world alike, and why Belgian folklore integrates many elements from all over Europe. Antwerp still is today the 3rd largest port in Europe. back then the Belgian aristocrats were Catholics with a Protestant or even Jewish state of mind, meaning they believed that making as much money as possible by being successful merchants would bring them closer to god. traditionally, in France for example, Catholics taught that money was evil (to keep the poor as such). bottom line is the Belgians didn't want to be bothered with ruling the land as long as they could still do business (aristocrats & cardinals alike).

sometime in 1830, an opera was playing in the royal theater, steps away from the royal palace occupied by the dutch prince of orange. the opera banned in France evoked a spirit of revolution. when the curtain dropped, the Belgian upper crust loaded on fine beers decided it was time for them to assume their responsibility as rulers of their own land, which inspired an uprising which peacefully (in contrast to the French revolution) overthrew the prince of orange & sent him packing to the Netherlands. left alone, all the wealthy aristocrats didn't want to set business aside to rule the country, so they went looking for a well connected European prince to become their king. they chose a prince of the Saxe-Cobourg-Ghotta family in Germany, whose older brother was to become the German Keizer, whose cousins were related to the royal families of Spain, Austria, England, France, Denmark, Russia, etc... as to ensure Belgium's neutrality. on July 21st 1831, this German prince became the 1st king of the Belgians (notice his title wasn't king of Belgium but of the Belgians). this king was to serve as an international representative of the ruling Belgian aristocracy to facilitate their enterprises with all of Europe.

Belgium later became one of the wealthiest kingdoms of the world by colonizing the largest region in Africa, the Belgian Congo (which became the independent Zaire & now is called the Congo again). one of our kings purchased the territory as his own personal property & playing ground, exploiting the land so much so that he became one of the wealthiest man on earth. only in the 1900s did the Belgian parliament decide that the king was abusing his privileges & was the source behind the atrocious treatment given to Africans. the Belgian Congo became a national colony, further enriching the Belgian state with diamonds, gold, copper, malachite, ivory, etc... it's fair to say that the majestic boulevards & palaces of Belgium were paved with African gold. art nouveau, baron Victor Horta being the Belgian pioneer, was subsidized with fortunes made in Africa...
the Congo is where my mother grew up... nowadays, walking through Belgium is a constant reminder that everything Gothic was around for a thousand years or more, and everything else is tainted with African blood, till Belgium caught up with the "technological" revolution & was saved by this corporation called the European Union.

so, if nothing else but the best food in the world (from all over Europe, Africa, Asia -mostly Vietnamese- and the New World), give Belgium a try. and i have to say that i am proud to come from the 2nd nation in Europe to legalize gay marriage. long live the bourgeoisie!

NOW GIVE YOURSELF A BREAK & HAVE GOOD BELGIAN BEER... and i don't mean a bud!!! VIVE LA BELGIQUE!

The PHB in the NYC

my friend Jenn from NY who now lives in elley introduced me to her friends THE PHENOMENAL HANDCLAP BAND... she is flying back to NY tomorrow just to see their first live show; i wish i could too... i posted their songs "Baby" & "15 to 20" on this playlist. check it if you missed it! if you're in NY i highly recommend you go see them.
here's the scoop:

The Phenomenal Handclap Band, a unique project and artist collective born of the talents of NYC Club DJs/Producers Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand (Embassy Sound Productions) will be making their much-anticipated debut live performance at intimate Lower East Side venue, 105 Rivington on Wednesday, July 16! This performance will be in support of their self-titled debut release, featuring a veritable "who's who" of the indie rock and underground soul scenes. Members of such diverse acts as TV on the Radio, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, L'Trimm, Calla, Mooney Suzuki, and Sí Se all contribute their individualistic talents to the album and this performance will offer a chance for several of these artists and musicians to bring these songs to life. The show is free, with suggested donation, 21+ and will begin at 10pm.

This event will be led by the team of very talented musicians that laid the foundation for the album - Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand on keyboards, Patrick Wood on drums, Nick Movshon on bass, and Luke O’Malley on guitar - and will feature a selection of guest vocalists from the album singing their respective songs, including Bart Davenport, Carol C (Sí Se), and Aurelio Valle (Calla).

As for The Phenomenal Handclap Band album itself, The Lady Tigra (L'Trimm) rhymes on the soon-to-be summer classic "15 to 20", while Jon Spencer tells an unfaithful lover to "Give it a Rest". On the brooding "Testimony", Jaleel Bunton (TV on the Radio) provides a fiery psychedelic guitar backdrop for Aurelio Valle's (Calla) voodoo incantations. Carol C (Sí Se) lends her considerable vocal skills to the cosmic disco of "You'll Disappear" and Reno Bo (Mooney Suzuki) harmonizes on the hippie celebration "I Been Born Again".

Embassy Sound Productions (ESP) is Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, two New York underground club DJs who became restless with the concept of playing other people's music. Having been involved with and disenchanted by the local rock and roll scene, they began to focus on producing. In the midst of popular electronic-based production teams such as Justice and DFA, Embassy Sound Productions (ESP) emerges with a fresh approach to dance-oriented rock and roll, using live instrumentation to evoke the intricate arrangements of Norman Whitfield, Quincy Jones and Phil Spector as well as the pared down beats of contemporaries like The Neptunes and Danger Mouse.

here are the details...

Where: 105 Rivington (under the Rivington Hotel) btw Ludlow & Essex

When: Wednesday, July 16th @ 9:30pm (band go on around 10pm)
Why: B/C IT'S GONNA BE HOT!

Lykke Li in LA

her show at Hotel Café in Los Angeles on 25th August is SOLD OUT... but have faith - she added a new LA show:

3rd November at the El Rey - TICKETS

her FIRST TIME AROUND was amazing!!! go again, or go see her if you haven't yet; she has such a magical presence!!!

for free MP3s click here & here & here...

Swedish chanteuse Lykke Li reminds us of a blog-birthed Kylie Minogue, though in some of her live configurations there's the Blow's karaoke vibe and always just a little bit of Feist's charismatic but awkward charm. An icier, Scandinavian Lily Allen mixing tons of soul with her electro? Thing is, she plays with live instruments, too. It's fun trying to figure her out because she doesn't have a huge catalog at this point. Though she has a bona fide hit-in-the-making single: We can't get the 21-year-old's sugary, undeniable falling-in-love song "Little Bit" out of our heads. – stereogum.com

Little Boots in LA

i love LITTLE BOOTS...

she will be DJ'ing at A Club Called Rhonda this Thursday.
i'm unfortunately going to miss it as i'm starting a 4 week long break on Thursday morning. hence no more internet, blogging, work, parties & stress for the next 3 to 4 weeks woohoo. my fun will be limited to focusing on my own mental/physical health. but go if you can & tell me all about it when i'm ready to jump back in the game. trust me, i''ll come back bigger & stronger than ever, sometime in August... when i won't be "Stuck On Repeat."

i posted some of her songs in this playlist & this one.

Hyperion Tavern 2nite + the Lady Tigra

or/and check out the Lady Tigra @ Moustache Mondays:

TINY YONG (playlist) .........Miss Universe 2008

TINY YONG - MP3 downloads
(28 songs in French for your iTunes)

since it's Bastille Day, i figured it would be nice to have a playlist all in French. my family might come from Belgium but the French always take credit for everything good that is Belgian, which makes us all a little French to you i guess. Napoléon even ruled Belgium for a little while, till he lost the battle of Waterloo... i lived 4 years in the South of France where my brothers Eric & Jonathan were born. we spent many holidays between the French Riviera, the Provence & the Alps after all... everywhere else we attended French International schools, each earning the French Baccalauréat (a more widely recognized high school degree than the American one). even my South African relatives are descendants of the Huguenots who emigrated from the wine regions South of France & founded the prolific South African wine country around Cape Town (very similar to the Napa Valley)... anyhew, the French in me calls for French music today. if nothing else, how could i not celebrate the country of Yves Saint Laurent?! he always invited the most exotic models onto his runways. in that spirit, i decided to present you with some of my favorite music in French by Cambodian Yé Yé star TINY YONG (pronounced Tee-nee); she became a famous actress & singer in the 50s & 60s. in song #16 she explains that her friends now call her Tiny & her boss gave her that name cuz her real one is way too long: Thien Juong Ton Hu Thi...

close to Tiny's Cambodia, in Vietnam today...
another Miss Venezuela was crowned Miss Universe:

Miss Venezuela / Miss Universe 2008 in full glory:

it must be something in the water. back in the 90s, when my family & i lived in Caracas, a former Miss Venezuela & Miss Universe 1981 was the mayor of Chacao (the district we lived in). her name is Irene Sáez, which is why Chacao is now commonly called Irenelandia:

and then there was Miss USA haha:

MATMOS tonight

SUNDAY, July 13th….
the echoplex presents - MATMOS

come celebrate synthesis with the electronic geniuses:

MATMOS

WOBBLY

dublab DJ’s :)

9pm / 17$ / ALL AGES

@ The Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles CA, 90026

reunited...

and it feeeels sooo goooood!






i love my CICCIOLINA... more pix here on her favorite beach. i need to bring her back there soon!!!

an insight into insanity

8 years of this?!?! click HERE for Ben Cohen's article on this.

DAEDELUS tonight

Saturday, July 12th....
Daedelus "Love to Make Music to" record release party!


DUBLAB will be transmitting the celebratory sounds of the Daedelus "Love to Make Music to" Record Release Party on the dubstream from 8pm-2am pacific standard time.

CLICK HERE TO TUNE IN

featuring many outstanding performances, dj sets, and surprises all night long, dublab is with you all evening along side Ninja Tune making sure you do not to miss a minute of the music.

for more info, please visit dublab events.

a mighty lineup of sound scientists:
Daedelus
Flying Lotus
Gaslamp Killer
Samiyam
Kutmah
Josh One
Thavius Beck
Lazy Brow
+ special surprises and goodies abound!

8pm - 2am / ALL AGES!

this event is taking place at an intimate, private downtown LA location...
533 s. Los Angeles st., Los Angeles, California 90013

tickets available exclusively @ groovetickets or Turntable Lab
424 1/2 N. Fairfax Ave
323.782.0173

walter meego :: forever

bollywood blast

Saturday, July 12th

The Getty Center presents:
Summer Sessions 2008

an annual concert series returns with three nights of high-energy, genre-bending outdoor music at the Getty Center. Summer Sessions presents the coolest international grooves that world music has to offer... featuring many sonic tapestries of South Asia including my old college housemate, dublab's own FROSTY!

in late 2006 the dublab collective's DJ Frosty visited India in search of adventure and sound. he found both in Haji Ebrahim's Radio Repair & Record Shop, hidden deep in Bombay's Null Bazaar...
frosty later shared many of these spectacular gems with the world in a podcast he called "Bollywood Blast."

4:00 - 9:30 / FREE / All Ages

Getty Center, Museum Courtyard and Garden Terrace
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, California 90049

pure thoughts

i just got back to LA & made it to a party at the Hammer last night:

tonight ratatat is doing a DJ set at the Chateau Marmont & a full show tomorrow at the echoplex...

if you'd rather have a more artsy evening, check this out:

for a gayer evening i'd highly recommend this:

seeing hot chip at the Henry Fonda over a year ago was phenomenal! i can't wait to see them again at the Wiltern (on September 21st & 22nd)! here's their latest video by directors Bevis Martin & Charlie Youle for One Pure Thought:

Vampire Weekend will also be at the Wiltern on September.

MIAMI (playlist + photos)

MIAMI NICE - MP3 downloads
(28 more tunes for your iTunes; scroll down for artists info)

this is the EYE CANDY that inspired this mix. it's was nice to be back in the Latino American capital of Mee-Ah-Mee!!! i can't think of a better place to spend the 4th of July. as the sun came down we were hit with a spectacle of lightning & roaring thunder, which is something i really miss here in LA...
i really didn't need to see any fireworks after that, but this is Miami & they were everywhere. here's the view from my family's pad:

this last one was taken from Key Biscayne... Miami is so glitzy & polished it's nice to stumble upon this in the middle of it all:

Ritz-Carlton just bought the building so it will soon be revamped to look more like South Beach & less like Havana... my friend Mila is doing wardrobe on this Italian movie shooting at the "new" Ritz-Carlton:

Eric y Mila:

Mila y yo:

i luuuv meee-aah-mee:

anyhew, back to the music! i kick off this mix with a nice tune by HIGH PLACES. you can download more of their songs from their myspace page. Claudine Longet takes over with a Brazilian song; click here for more songs from her. remember THE BLOW MONKEYS? well there in the mix as well... it's not new but i'll never tire of COCOROSIE. click here for another song of theirs i posted.

this mix is full of covers. starting with Brazil's MONO4 cover of Dépêche Mode. i also love the POMOMOFO cover of "Ride The White Horse," THE PAPER SCISSORS one of Hall & Oates, and a great cover of A-Ha's "Take On ME." there's also a handful of remixes, like the TODDLA T one of LITTLE BOOTS. click here to check her out live, here for "Stuck On Repeat" and here for more on her... THE BUMBLE BEEZ masterfully remix WOLF & CUB. SIDECHAINS do a fun one of "Get Into The Groove." Madonna's classics clearly win over any of her cheesy new releases that sound no better than the tragically horrendous high energy beats blasting from the speakers of tacky gay clubs. that's just my opinion. on the other hand, FRANCE GALL gracefully evolved. i end this mix with one of her later mellow songs.

QUINCEY BEAUFORT does a kick ass remix of "Ah-HA" and also shoots his own videos (scroll down to bottom of this entry to see it); click here for "Fuck The Google." SQZMYLMNS do a great remix of Floridians BLACK KIDS who will be doing a show at the El Rey on 29th of July; more on them here. also at the El Rey but this week-end are THE HIEROGLYPHICS. last but not least, i threw in some RADIOHEAD. the best band in the world will finally make their way back to the Hollywood Bowl in August!!!

ok just for fun, here are a few more photos...

Mila y yo:

LA SANDWICHERIE is my favorite food stand in the world:

I LOVE LUCIE: