Maria X’s Neighborhood

POLYVINYL
One of Kateg's favorite label, Polyvinyl, is offering a free 16-track album at polyvinylrecords.com/mentalmath. The sampler includes a ton of bands we've previously covered: Architecture In Helsinki, Mates of State, Asobi Seksu, Headlights - just to name a few.

Incidentally, one of those band, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin are on tour:

12/02/09 Outland* Springfield, MO
12/06/09 Binghamton University Vestal, NY
12/07/09 Bell House Brooklyn, NY
12/08/09 Summit Columbus, OH
12/09/09 Bishop Bloomington, IN
12/12/09 Outland Ballroom Springfield, MO
01/13/10 Maxine’s Pub Hot Springs, AK
01/23/10 Gallery Sounds Collective Springfield, MO
01/28/10 Schubas EARLY ALL AGES SHOW Chicago, IL
01/29/10 Courtyard Cafe Champaign, IL
01/30/10 Mojo’s Columbia, MO
01/31/10 Jackpot Lawrence, KS

* SSLYBY 10th Anniversary show with Brian Azevedo and Lamentia

We are going to cover the all-ages show at the Bell House in New York.

THE YOUNG PUNX
I got a download sample and press release for this band's latest "double a-side single" for Simple Pleasures/Like Dat. Generally, I am not accepting singles, remixes, or demos, but since I did enjoy their previous single for "Your Music is Killing Me" and "You've Got To" (especially the Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim remix), I did give these two new songs a listen.

What can I say ? I really dig the old-school punk intro, followed by this weird 80s pop singing, then some rasta-thing. Not really sure what to classify the whole thing, except that it's quite dancey. As for "Like Dat", I wasn't keen on this as much. Perhaps it's the rap song is such a stark contrast to the other song... but that's probably why people like Young Punx.

Currently, I think you can only get Simple Pleasures/Like Dat on iTunes. If you want to wait, I think these two songs are going to be available on their upcoming album, Mashpop & Punkstep, due out in 2010.

Anyway, since this is the "free" post, you can head over to their official website under theyoungpunx.com/../mp3, you'll find a ton of free mixes and oddities. My favorite are any remix of "Juice and Gin".

NETFLIX+PS3
Also, some random thoughts: I survived Black Friday. I have never seen so many people out in force at 5am. The parking lot at Wal-Mart was completely full, thankfully we got news alert from other shoppers that we went to Wal-Mart at the last stop. Deals were everywhere, it was the worst at Target (which also reflected people flocking to there). One of the item I bought was the Matrix 10^th Anniversary Bluray, which comes in a nice book-format, for $12.99. It's normally $29.99 suggested retail price. My impulse buy was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. PC game for $5.... it couldn't be helped.

I spent most of my vacation catching up on reading and TV shows. TV shows comes in the form of Hulu and Netflix - via the Netflix Instant Streaming disc for PS3. Compared to Xbox's "Gold Membership" which costs $50 a year, PS3's free streaming is a much better deal.

The Netflix streaming is dependent on your internet connection, I have a semi-decent connection at 5 megabit, so the video starts instantly (less than 30 seconds). Compare this to Playstation's own HD digital rental services, you have to wait at least 30 minutes to start the video, while it download the rest of the file. It's probably fast if you just drove to the video store and rent your movie.

Quality-wise, again depending on the connection, was pretty amazing for me. According to 1up.com, the streaming is in HD (however, I think some titles are only available in standard definition).

My gripe is that most of Netflix's titles are only available on DVD, the digital portion is probably less than 1% of their titles (it is only a guess since their selection is so poor). Also, there's no searching via the streaming disc. You can browse the recently added in various genres, but older titles, you will have to search and add to your "instant queue". Kind of lame, I hope they fix this problem in future updates.

If you don't have a PS3, most newer television and bluray player will come with instant Netflix, so this company is quite smart in getting their hands on all devices. Think about it, if you bought a Bluray player with Netflix, you will probably sign up for an account. Anyway, if you have a PS3 and a Netflix account already, you can request the free Bluray disc for yourself at netflix.com/ps3.

its a little blurry but just like in japan most passengers would rather go fast between stops and dwell at stations longer

Fans lining up outside ♥ The Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (11/29/09)

I was actually at last night's Triple Rock Social Club to do coverage on Those Darlins. But staying for The King Khan & BBQ Show (the headliner) was a bonus. You see, in 2005, I was sent a live video clip of "I Love You So" by a duo called "BBQ King Khan" (the name that was listed on the video).

So, if you need to catch up on The King Khan & BBQ Show (myspace), they are an interesting modern band with minimalistic setup and plays a weird mixture of 50s doo-wop and Surf music. They've got a ton of fans, who lined up hours before the show.

I got the story between King Khan's on stage antics and Jessi Darlin that prior to showing up in Minneapolis, that they were delayed and detained at the Canadian border (I think they had spent the last few weeks touring throughout Canada). This resulted in two things: "Unnamed peed in his pants" and last night's show to be slightly delayed (the doors weren't opened to the public until 9:30pm).

Some notable details about the stage costumes: BBQ uses his foot to tap the tambourine and Khan has a fox's head over his crotch. They dedicated "I'll Be Loving You" to "all the Orientals in the audience", which probably only account to myself.

Nikki Darlin ♥ The Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (11/29/09)

This was Those Darlins' third Minneapolis show. The first time they played, Kelley admitted that she did not know this city existed until they showed up to play - in which Nikki responded, "now you know Canada exist too". It would seem that Minneapolis might be one of Darlins' favorite city to play now - especially because I recognized some of the same dedicated group of fans that was at the 7th Street show at last night's show.

They started off dirty with "Fun Stix Party" with naughty lyrics like "I'll bring the p****, you bring the d***", followed by "Wild One". They also played fan-favorites like "DUI or Die" and "The Whole Damn Thing" (aka the Chicken Song).

Their cover song, "Shakin' All Over", was their last song on the set... which actually went pretty crazy. See the last half of the song in the video.

Jessi Darlin ♥ The Triple Rock Social Club, Minneapolis (11/29/09)

Overall, I think Those Darlins satiated their existing fans, while perhaps gaining a few new fans. I overheard a few people saying how unexpectedly great their performance was. Their self-titled album is available now at Amazon.

PS, Those Darlins' only male member, drummer Linwood Regensburg tried talking me out of buying their "Gay" V-Neck T-Shirt. He said that he made those V-Necks because someone had suggested it. Apparently they weren't very successful as they only sold a few of those shirts. So, as of this writing, I am one of the six people in the world that owns that V-Neck Darlins shirt.

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BRITPOPCAST #5: Q MAGAZINE'S BRITPOP QUIZ

Recorded in the same session as Britpop Top Ten Countdown (which I still consider the best show ever), this super hard quiz was written by some hardcore journalist at Q Magazine, published in a paperback book called Q Quiz Book. The book is free, along with Q Greatest Rock & Pop Miscellany Book, as bonuses for an annual subscription. I got the book via one of their magazine off the stand.

Some questions are dubious, as far as Britpop is concern, like The Verve question... but overall one of the better quiz out there.

The later part of the show, we talk a bit about The Abercrombie Hotel closing down, Pavement, and Empire of the Sun.

Also, don't forget to see DJ Sal in Sydney at britpop.com.au.

Below are the questions and answers.