Not on the Guest List

We Are Wolves in town tonight!!!

Canada is good for a lot of things. Low cost prescription drugs. Government protection for citizens who illegally download music. And all too many of my favorite bands. We've got Thunderheist, Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Born Ruffians and fearsome dance rock threesome We are Wolves who are in Portland tonight!!!! Holocene is the place to be this January 31st (unless you're Helio Sequence who are shooting their music video outside this evening), but unlike the aforementioned Helio Sequence, you have no excuse to not be partying down to the trio's tunes such as "Little Birds" and "Fight & Kiss." Not only do you get those songs, but many many more from WAW plus local bands Reporter and Swim Swam Swum. But wait --- that's not all!!!! Not in the least bit. Who are the only band thanked in We Are Wolves' latest album booklet? Only Portland's Gossip!! And who is one of the DJs opening tonight? Brace Paine from the Gossip i.e. The Chain! AND - me as Party All the Time!!! Yes, this will be my first Portland DJ gig! My soundtrack's only rules are that the songs can be danced to, so expect some These New Puritans, Muscles, Metronomy and so so much other electro. It'll sound like my podcast playlists. I'm on twice beginning at 9.

PS - I made the gig poster - my first ever!! Whoo! Why is it red and blue? Listen to "Little Birds" to find out...

"Little Birds" We Are Wolves MP3

We Are Wolves myspazz

Party All the Time myspazz (friend us)

plus:
Reporter myspazz
Swim Swam Swum myspazz

Teenage Hotelcoming

So before the Teenagers kicked off their North American tour with a live show at 1/2ALIVE in Vancouver B.C., they'd previously been chillaxing and getting acquainted with the time zone shift in good ol' Vancouver for a few days. Day of the gig, Meg and I descended upon their hotel room for an interview and photoshoot for the next issue of URB magazine coming out in March - the "Next 100" issue.
In the lobby, their tour manager greeted us and we shuffled upstairs via the elevator. Who's their tour manager? Why only Kristin - she of Deerhunter tour management fame! Seriously - I was like "OMG - yr the one [frontman] Bradford [Cox] is always writing about on Deerhunter's blog (where she blogs too), yr the "den mother," you take photos of them with sunsets in the background." Indeed she was. She's also tour managed fellow Atlanta band Black Lips. So how did she get the Teenagers gig? Cos "they were looking for someone cool" and she was in XL's (the Teenagers' label) speed-dial for the description.
Oh and she gets some photo love from No Age in a post on their blog.

Moving along - she noted that the girls of the band are a bit press shy, so it'd be only the boys keeping us company.

The interview was one of my best ever! And by best ever, I mean seemingly lost in translation. Not only due to language, but in personality differences too. Once the piece runs, the audio is going up here. Quentin (who's lived in England longer than the other two by nearly 3 years) didn't want to do the chat and instead played Zelda on his bed. There were two beds in the room, so a mellow Michael and Dorian plus me hunkered down on the other to talk some Soko, street life and screaming. Awkwardness was abound! Crickets could occasionally be heard. A bit of interestingness - what blogs do the French expats read? I found out. While Quentin lingers regularly on Flou Kids, Dorian prefers Big Stereo! I wasn't expecting an American blog to top his list. Awesome times!

After 20 minutes of conversation it was time for photos and boy can those boys turn it on! I have wanted to have a band pose with heart shaped twisted balloons 4eva - since hearing the song "Lust In The Movies" by The Long Blondes. The chorus refrain includes "I just want to be a sweetheart! I just want to be a sweetheart!" I visualize EVERYTHING and set about trying to figure out how I'd visualize that and those balloons that clowns twist into animals and swords was what I came up with. Many girls that I shoot don't want to appear too feminine, so using the balloons with the Teenagers seemed perfect, especially given their semi-heart throb status of late... kinda like in the Kinga Burza directed video for "Homecoming."

During the photos, we also shot them eating cupcakes as I'd had the idea for them to have a cupcake food-fight. That concept didn't quite materialize, but Quentin did get a brutal sugar rush.

Quentin:

What else came of our hour in the Teenagers' lair? The knowledge that Dorian films his life in great detail. Not only the still style which is showcased on his flickr, but video style ala Dev aka Lightspeed Champion. He was unaware of Dev's documentary dalliances, so I quickly informed him of them. Then we got to chatting about youtube comments and such and the fact that as of now, Dorian is unlikely to make his live-action reels available to the general public. I got some brief screen time hahahaha

Dorian:

We also talked about the fervent reaction that they sometimes is produce in their crowds unintentionally i.e. - when I saw them in London with No Age at Amersham Arms in December. It was semi-miserable because girls behind me were screaming at me, hitting me and pulling my hair because I was closer to the band then them in terms of rows inside the audience (I had to be close to the stage, I was taking pics... that I never posted). Both Dorian and Michael said they didn't notice that mania.

Michael:

Anyway, when we were packing up they asked to keep the heart balloons which was enjoyable :) What a task it was to track those down! Meg's mom saved the day after I was unsuccessful. Our scavenger hunt ended on Granville island at a gag store in a children's emporium that I'd last visited on an 8th grade border-crossing class field trip.

"Homecoming" The Teenagers MP3

I would hope this track is already in yr itunes. SO BRILLIANT! Am I going to admit something? Yes. I was so turned off by the first few lines the first time I listened to it in the beginning of 2007 that I didn't make it much further. So I didn't quite understand why girls were getting up on stage to sing at the concert  - I'd never made it far enough to know they trade vocals with a girl, a vocalist who I can absolutely not track down. Anyway - this song is a masterpiece. Later that night Meg and I are sitting there and I'm making comments such as "So deep, so smart, so true." It is. SO honest! Not just about boys vs. girls, but the witticisms including the "massive car"/"SUV." Cue my itunes up to repeat for this track and my day is made. Especially when I'm singing (or rather talking) along. I find a way to weave it into any conversation I have with people lately. Slices of pizza on Hawthorne? Let me bring my laptop and play it for you hahahaha. True story... that actually happened this Saturday hahahaha. I also sent it to someone on myspace last week. I think it scared them away, but when have I ever not in their case? hahaha

Teenagers Myspazz

Noisy Sunday Night

Where will you be this Sunday night? Well, if you're in Portland, you should come down to the Towne Lounge for a night of noise!! And it's FREE! I'm curating the 15th edition of LocalCut's Portland Lounge Series. What will be in store? Well - it's the Portland debut of Feather Figure which is the new noise project from Nathan aka The Chain aka Brace Paine of the Gossip. I'm so excited for what's in store!!! There may be a chainsaw or if he takes a cue from his last noise project (with John Weise nonetheless) he may be performing inside of a sleeping bag!

Here's an MP3:

"Deep Purr" Feather Figure MP3

Also sharing the bill is Night Wounds who I've yet to see live, so I'm uber excited for the experience! They're experimental punks with a penchant for understated shouts. And they have a saxophone! Let's party it down Lisa Simpson style! Also - in another nod to FOX sitcom's - they totally remind me of that episode of Seinfield called "The Bizarro Jerry." You know, the episode with "man hands." Another arch in that episode was Elaine discovering a whole group of friends that mirrored Jerry, George and Kramer. Well, Night Wounds may live in Portland, OR now, but before they lived in Portland, ME! I wonder if living here feels a little Bizarro? I'll be asking!

Come out, come out, wherever you are! It's FREE! Doors at 9. I may or may not be "DJing" in between sets and mini-interviews with some Metronomy remixes.

More info about the night is over at LocalCut.

Towne Lounge = 714 SW 20th Place

Bike, walk, bus, drive or board the MAX (get off at the PGE stop and walk one block West).

Teenagers Touch Down at 1/2ALIVE

And here it was - my DJ debut (in the works for me for about a month) and also the very first North American tour date for the Teenagers in Vancouver B.C. Let's rewind to about last month when I asked my favorite Fedchuk if I could open for everyone's favorite lewd Frenchies seeing as 1/2ALIVE were putting it on. After a yes, I asked a handful of DJs for advice, from Portland's own DJ Joee Irwin who recommended a book and questioned whether I'd be setting speakers alight via Serrato or Traktor to Greg aka DJ Nerverforget of Finger on the Pulse who referred to me to Hoop Dreams and deterred me from traktor. A friend convinced me of Ableton for my audio attack, briefly showed me how to use the virtual decks and then instead of giving me the program as promised, sent word of Lily Allen's miscarriage - which I had already read about the day prior on Perez Hilton. So needless to say, Party All the Time - the DJ "super group" formed by me, Meg of Consumable Audio and Louis of Fake Shark Real Zombie were going to be going the way of itunes. Yes - I just wrote itunes. Hey - if Dev can rock itunes at Reading Festival, then so can we. Plus we were going on at doors, so it's not like that many people would be there to see us suck. That was until we were moved up to an 11pm slot. More on that later...

My!Gay!Husband! was oh so hot for Feist during his set (and on many a remix/blog) - both times - when he was on just after doors and then again after the Teenagers took their bow.

(taken before doors)

Jason also played a song by Vancouver band Fuck Me USA who are far too awesome. Think the Rapture, but a bit more snarly. The song was 4 years old which would make it a pioneer in the reemergence in disco-funk-punk, but it sounded so current that I almost shed a single tear when I found out they had long ago disbanded. now one of them helps run Pop Montreal - a music and arts festival in good old Montreal that didn't show my polaroids in the 2006 edition of the fest. Another single tear.

A Coconut Records track was the first to truly call me to the floor and remixes galore kept me on it throughout the night minus when Party All the Time took the stage and when the Teenagers appeased the screaming throngs first with opener "Starlett Johansson" and then with the rest of their eleven song set. But before we go there, we must first Party All the Time.

(the attendees during our set)

First off, we felt like make-a-wish kids - like all our dreams were coming true hahahahaha
Seriously! Can I be anymore indebted to the 1/2ALIVE crew? We ended up playing our set in Serrato instead of itunes. By "we," I mean Tyler and I and by "Tyler and I," I mean Tyler.

In front of a crowd of 500, we took to the stage while uber flamboyant MC Curtis Santiago sang the Eddie Murphy song we're named after to introduce us and our appearance onstage. There was disposable camera snapping, silly string spraying, knuckle writing and occasional button pushing. Everyone including the crowd and us were dancing and cheering. Whoo!

Party All the Time's 1/2ALIVE / Teenagers setlist:

"The Bears are Coming" Late of the Pier
"Sweaty" Muscles
"Get Naked" Britney Spears
"Can't Chose" Naive New Beaters
"Circle Square Triangle" Test Icicles

Download our set as a Podcast (MP3 format)

Dorian from the Teenagers watched a bit of our set as we'd told him in their hotel room prior we'd be playing some FOB (which we cut for Uffie which we then had to cut period)

Did anyone notice how much Teenagers' "Starlett Johansson" sounds like Tyler's old band Bulletsnake's "Oh Ya?" hahahaha Like it seriously does, but I didn't just think that off the top of my head. Right before Party All the Time went on, Tyler was finishing out his set which included some Wings goodness (plus a George Harrison remix) and I was like "I first heard this in a Smashed Robot! podcast! I first heard this in a Smashed Robot! podcast!" to myself. Then today, while trying to track down the original post I stumbled upon one about his old band... Go listen to the first few bars yrself.

So how were the Teenagers?

Why are we even talking about their set when we could be talking about their hot drummer?

Seriously - I have been OBSESSED with Antonia since I first spied her behind the drum-kit when I saw them in London a couple weeks ago. At first, I thought one of them must have a model girlfriend and that she just wanted to fool around with the drums before they took the stage. Then I realized she was the latest edition to the band. When chatting with Tyler last month - she was like the first thing I mentioned about seeing them live. 1/2ALIVE's TonyX mentioned in the facebook thread for the gig that I'd said they rock. I think their drummer rocks. By rocks, I mean: is a fox. Then upon finding out day of that Tyler had met up with them before the B.C. gig, the first thing I asked was "Did you see their drummer!!??!"

They've added yet another female to their lineup in the form of another guitarist. It noticeably expands their live sound. Backstage before the show, Quentin and the new guitarist were going over guitar parts and practicing. In their dressing room, he mimed a frown and tears while mentioning they were nervous. He mentioned it again from the stage, but not one of the Teenagers appeared to falter once during the set.

My personal highlight: Quentin invited a bevy of females onstage for "Homecoming." There was dancing and singing as some girls traded lines with him on the mic as one does on the MP3 and it was a great interactive addition. They're still a bit blase in terms of the live show in the way that if you took away the audio, how would you be able to tell it was the Teenagers on stage and not some other mid-tempo rock band? Other than Quentin's side-part and quirky eyebrows producing some charisma from his spot center stage, that moment truly ushered in a connection between the band and the audience so that the show wasn't one delivered by any band, but a show delivered by the Teenagers.

Some people were a bit disappointed, but how can anyone have expectations when it comes to bands primarily riding on blog hype? I say, just appreciate them for what they are instead of thinking about what they've been built up to be. Oh so many up front were oh so enthralled and I couldn't help but think what a perfect night for the Teenagers to began their inaugural tour with - a soldout 1/2ALIVE gig.

Teenagers set list Vancouver B.C.:
Starlett Johansson
Feeling Better
III
Make It Happen
Trouble
Sunset Beach
Love No
Fuck Nicole
Homecoming
Streets of Paris
End of the Road

"Fallen Snow" (The Teenagers Remix) Au Revoir Simone MP3

"1234" (My!Gay!Husband! Remix) Feist MP3

A few more photos:
It's Party All the Time, bitch:

(my glasses thanks to Kyle)

Tylernessssssssssss rocks some "Thun-der Hei-st":

The ever enjoyable TonyX:

Curtis with the mostest:

Louissssssssssss:


"Don't forget to send me a friend request":

Party All the Time Myspace

1/2ALIVE myspace

Curtis Santiago myspace

The Teenagers myspace

Not on the Guest List myspace

Fake Shark Real Zombie! myspace
 

Children of the Revolution Festival

Remember that children's movie released semi-recently about eating worms? Well, if those worms were in fact Portland's noise-y, metal-ly, drone-y, punk-y band Worms, I would totally sign up for the task as they are entirely too awesome! They started out with lead singer on the ground curled in a ball without a mic. Actually, even before that he was stood in front of the drum kit wadding up balls of paper. Shortly into their set - after he'd stood up and all - he began launching those paper balls at the audience. I got one and after uncrumpling it, the message revealed was that of political propaganda. I'm down with that. When writing my review for Willamette Week I couldn't find the singer's name and had to call their label Marriage Records who seemed amused by my skyping them to find out :) Anyway - lead singer man, from now on to known as Davis Lee Hooker, kept throwing himself into the audience. I was a bit scared for my camera, not to mention my feet as I always ALWAYS seemed to the bulls-eye of his assault.

They mixed so many dark genre's and even had a throbbing beat going that was near perfect for a disco at one point.
God - they were so awesome. The drummer left his kit to tie his shoe during their set. He chose to tie it in front of crowd and then dance - it was a surreal-ish sight - the way he was dancing - some humor and irony fit to be seen in the last scene of Beetlejuice.
Bird Costumes (in a bear costume or at least hat) took me to another place entirely. There was guitar drone and then melodic and intricate plucking of the chords. I wanted it to go on forever.

I've never checked out Dragging an Ox Through Water before and oh my god - I want to collaborate with him so bad - hillbilly folk with gritty electronics. It was FANTASTIC! I'd say that set received the best
reaction from everyone assembled over the course of both days.

Baby, it's cold outside - and it was cold inside. My teeth chattered a bit even with my puffy jacket on. Still that didn't prevent me from taking a hop, skip and beat during Atole's set to grab some grub at both Burgerville and Burger King. Funny that I frequented both those places and did not pick up a burger. At the latter I indulged in a strawberry milkshake which I brought back to the venue which then resulted in me being asked to leave hahahahaha. It didn't compete with their menu, but whatevs
Anyway - Atole's set was only like 17 minutes - boo! I was expecting a half hour to forty minutes so I ended up missing them entirely - like literally as i walked in they were closing up shop in terms of their set. There will be a next time I'm sure...

Anyway - Ms. Tara Jane O'Neil once again had her backup dancer who once again (as he was and did at Night of 1,000 Madonna's) was accessorized with items more often associated with women and then proceeded to strip down to his skivvies. Some felt his appearance was distracting.

I thought it was quite the opposite - an enhancement. He also shaved his beard on stage. No one can deny he was entertaining.

They passed out tambourines to a lot of the audience and it reminded me of say any TV on the Radio show you could name. Her book was also present and my my my is it a fantastic work of art. She also had her visual art displayed on a wall for the weekend.

Panther and Charlie's fabulous hair was the last thing I saw on Saturday. My FIRST time seeing Panther as a duo. But first, I must go back to the fabulous hair. Did you know the the casio-pop trio of unicorns, beauty-queens, I mean other-worldly ladies Au Revoir Simone are sponsored by Bumble and Bumble because their hair is so lovely? Well if Panther's show was a testament to anything - it's that some hair care company needs to sign him.

Seriously.
Okay, moving on...
I listened to his forth-coming album 14 kt. God in full earlier in the day so I instantly recognized when he started his set with track one "Puerto Rican Jukebox." (MP3) I am LOVING his new-ish direction. It's so world-music and still not in keeping with what else in coming out of Portland or anywhere else for that matter. Panther is just so progressive.
Charlie said the event reminded him of "Woodstock in '76." Bless his heart. Well, I guess that is the year
the movie came out. He also proclaimed that he'd gotten stoned before their set.

Oh - and he asked what would happen with 2008. I thought he was gonna use the opportunity to big-up his album. He did not.
Charlie's dancing is a bit different and he doesn't perform from inside the audience - he was on the stage the whole time. To my left a voice excitedly said to a friend "See - I told you he's so much better with Joe!"

And I would have to agree, which is a feat within itself because I thought he was the pinnacle of greatness when alone. It's kind of a compare and contrast thing going on with him and the former incarnation of Panther and each has their merits. I especially enjoy that Charlie's drumsticks have string attached.

The only band I had on my radar for Sunday was Fist Fite, of course. It was bassist Justin's 29th B-day. They rocked as expected and everyone was pretty much at Fist Fite's feet when it came to applause. There was no singing with a telephone however, only a regular mic.

Afterwards I briefly hung out with Jason Simms who was selling some merch after his band Dagger of the Mind's set. He is so fun. The last time I saw him before that was at MFNW I think. Then this past Friday we did some hustling for Harp Magazine together - he interviewed Janet Weiss and Stephen Malkmus and I shot the photos. Out on newsstands sometime very soon.
Anyway - I also ran into Jennifer who is Josh from Starfucker's girlfriend and who is downright so arty and awesome. We had a long fun chat and are so on the same wavelength about the abolishment of full-time day jobs :). She actually started the print-making collective Flight 64 - a group that I LOVE, but can't afford to join even though they are cheap-ish. I encourage all local print-makers to seek them out.

Of the art hanging on the walls, I spied the majority of it including a collage by E*Rock:

and two different installations of polaroids. I most hearted Yoni Kifle's which was the scene of a landscape at night. He shot it so that only a portion of it was captured with each polaroid and then when clustered together - you could see the whole scene - from a building to powerlines, etc.

Does he have a flickr stream?

Two other notable visuals:

Here's the article I ended up writing for WWeek which includes a couple more bands. Read it over on LocalCut for a fun comment by a reader at the end of the post. I get nothing but love over there hahahahaha. Yeah right. I seriously am looking at all possible avenues to not have to write a single word over there again. I'll be rolling out new post themes very soon over there that do not include words.

My COTR flickr photoset (I'm far from finished in terms of uploading)

The Best Bands You Didn't See at COTR according to Crappy Indie Music and they're right - I didn't see either of the bands they linked -- Chrome Wings or my beloved Starfucker. I missed Starfucker's set because I was still making the WAW concert poster for the show at Holocene on January 31st (the gig on your calendar yet?)
nor Death Songs who CIM make mention of, a band which includes a member of the Shaky Hands.

Oh - and I caught Mattress who rocked a lightbulb as part of his kit ala Dan Deacon and a strobe light a little later on ala Crystal Castles. There's no business like show business and there's no performer like Mattress. He reminded me just the slightest bit of a solo-Panther, but with dress sense, mannerisms and ticks all his own, not to mention his hits delivered via cassette tape floss:

And I couldn't stay for Yellow Swans on Sunday because the duo's set conflicted with the last bus home.

For the People Mix

(Photo care of Justin Kent)

DJ Neverforget is far too awesome! I first spied his mixing skills when he balanced tour managing and DJing for Lo-Fi-Fnk when they hit the US last year. He passed along the mix he played after their set, which was a hit for this site and he just continues to tear it up on the (virtual and actual) decks. He visited Portland again in late December, but I'd shipped out to Seattle so we didn't meet up. While in town he gifted Heebonism with his DJing presence alongside the Hot Mess crew. And while still in Brooklyn a few days before, he gifted me with a lot of DJing insight over the phone for my first DJ gig opening for the Teenagers (Track 8 in this mix) that is less than a week away now! Thanks to him I know the woes of Traktor and he has a bit of humor too - telling me not to be worried if I'm not playing the hottest track that came out that day. SO TRUE! hahahahaha

Ready for his latest mix? Here it is, For the People:

Tracklisting:

"Intro" | Tom Songs
"The Boys" | Dragonette
"Sweaty" | Muscles
"Sueños Dulces" | Thunderheist
"Miscommunication (The Bloody Beetroots Remix)" | Timbaland
"Tristesse Jole (Rolf Honey remix)" | Yelle ft Missy Elliot
"That OH! Sound (VNDLSM Edit)" | Sebastian Ingrosso VS. Boys Noize
"Starlett Johansson (NARCTRAX REMIX)" | The Teenagers
"Around the World (Villains More Cowbell Edit)" | Daft Punk
"Cross The Dancefloor" | Treasure Fingers
"Our Time" | Ocelot

Download For the People (in MP3 format)

I'm admittedly not the queen of remixes since I tend to favor the original tracks (I know - that is a no-no in terms of blog hype) so to me this mix really hits it's stride toward the middle marker when I begin treading into unknown territory. Am loving "Cross the Dancefloor!" I was listening to some 1982 Chi-town house last night and the tune totally captures some of those hallmarks. And almost straight-edge me is a little too in love with the lyrics of "Our Time." It's being filed with Thieves Like Us' "Drugs in My Body."

Let's dance it down!

No No No Disco is No No No More

This past Tuesday was the final night of everyone's favorite Tuesday night dance party in Portland that has played host to many a live act and held down by my favorite DJs - Nathan aka Brace Paine aka DJ Nightschool aka The Chain (yeah - I know I didn't have to do all the akas, but that's part of the fun) who started the night and Andrea aka DJ Linoleum who began holding it down while Nathan's been doing Gossip tour after Gossip tour, took it over and closed it out.

It seemed to take longer than normal for people to collect on the floor to dance, but when they did, it was full on! In the electronic portion of the evening I swear I heard a lil' Cut Copy, but what my ears were most excited for was when "Live Good" (MP3) by my FAVORITE band Naive New Beaters hit the speakers!!! (I'm such a fangirl of them that I'm in the top 6 listeners on last.fm for them hahahahaha) And I got to hear my request of "Drop It Like It's Hot!" And it was hot, as was some Stevie Nicks and New order towards 2am after a lil' bit of Mariah.

So long, farewell No No No Disco. . .

I did a short Q & A with both Andrea and Nathan a couple months back. Those Q & As were the first two editions of my "Hang the DJ" column over at LocalCut.

Here's what Linoleum (whose name comes from a Le Tigre tune) had to say about taking it over:
How’d you get your current main gig?
No No Disco used to be hosted by DJ Nightschool and Neighborhood DJ. I’d been filling in with Neighborhood DJ when Nightschool was on tour with his band. Then Neighborhood moved to NYC and Nightschool is touring even more now [in a little band called the Gossip], so I was invited to jump in this past February.

Linoleum full text

The Chain* adds a lil' when I broached the question to him.

What will we do with our Tuesdays for now on? Well, Linoleum's slot remains (as does her vinyl presumably) so you can bet when Tube debuts the night "Cold Party" this upcoming Tuesday it hopefully won't veer too far off course from what we've been dancing to all these months. If there is one DJ I trust in this town, it's Linoleum so whatever she cares to spin, my feet will follow.

It's time to take a stroll down memory lane in terms of No No No Disco. Favorite memories? It seems I have too many.

(*And remember to mark your calendars for The Chain and me DJing at We Are Wolves at Holocene on January 31st. Only $6! It's gonna be awesome!)

Simian Mobile Disco Interview

My Simian Mobile Disco Feature Interview ran on Pitchfork while I was still in the UK in the beginning of December. Below it the audio, outtakes and a link to the interview on Pfork + a SMD remix MP3.

Back in September I had a mighty fine chat with James Ford - he of Simian Mobile Disco and producer to the stars - indie stars that is. I'm IN LOVE with him... like since before meeting him. When did the love affair begin? Well, when he produced Test Icicles' album For Screening Purposes Only. Our names both appeared in the album booklet - mine cause I did the band portraits and his because he handled the production in France. I had to know more, but his name was pretty scarce on the internet at that time - mid-2005 - and only a few results returned for Simian and a few remixes of his led me to the Piccadilly Records site where I truly fell in love with electro. On the same page, a track from New Young Pony Club was displayed serving as my first and fateful introduction to them in the form of "The Get Go."

So James and I sat back in Diplo's dressing room at Neumo's in Seattle because theirs was even shittier and spent near an hour discussing songs, remixes, production and song requests when they DJ all the while surrounded by rude yet hilarious drawings on the mint green walls.

You can read the interview on Pitchfork for the above topics, plus song titles, their first "Hustler" video, just how busy James is and spy a photo I took them taking their name far too literally. What can I say? I'm obsessed with props!

Here are a few out-takes that didn't appear on Pfork about guest-vocalists and whether he will find himself down a rabbit hole as Paul Epworth did with so many production credits to his name currently flying around:

In terms of making the tracks with guest vocalists, how does that happen - do you make the music first?
We really didn't know how we wanted to incorporate vocals, we just knew that we probably wanted some vocals. It's actually really hard to get vocals over electronic music. Generally as DJs, we'd always play the instrumentals of things, but we knew for the album we wanted to have vocals on there.
Basically what we did, its we'd get people in that we knew, or that we knew as friends of friend. Get them in for an afternoon, play them four or five bits that we'd been working on that were at various levels of completed-ness and got them to pick one that they liked the most and try to write something there and then. That's a hard thing for people to do really. We had varied levels of success. The ones that were most successful are the ones that made it on the record. I think the most song-y one was the one from Simon Lord - "I Believe." I think mainly because we've had a history of working with him and he sort of knew roughly what to do.
Same with Barry from Clor. We'd done a little bit of work in the past, so we were already on a wave length. Some of them were way off the mark. We tried out quite a lot.
It was weird how we did it. We didn't want to get anyone who was really sort of famous, or successful, or really more famous than us, because we didn't want it to be about collaborations. We wanted it to be our record and there were some voices on there as opposed to "Hey - it's Simian Mobile Disco featuring -

Kele from Bloc Party."
Yeah. We could've probably gotten Kele on it if we'd wanted because he records in the same studio and he's really good and blah blah blah. It would've just been a bit... Especially with me being an indie producer it would've seemed like getting people in for the sake of it.
In terms of how we work with vocals in the future, I really don't know what will happen. We'll just see.

As a producer, you're working with so many acts. Has it ever crossed your mind, "I hope I don't encounter the Paul Epworth curse?"
What is the Paul Epworth curse? 

Granted he's now come back with Kate Nash, but after he hit success with Futureheads, Bloc Party, Maximo Park, etc. nobody new worked with him and none of the bands whose debuts he produced didn't do their second albums with him. So many acts that your working with, specifically Klaxons, are so adamant that you work with them on their future releases.
The thing is I've got a lot of respect for Paul and I think he's really good.

I agree!
I think the main negative thing that maybe counts against him is that he was apart of a sound and part of a particular type of band.

And you're kind of genre-hopping.
For me, I've always enjoyed, like you say, genre-hopping or not having a sound in a way. I think that Paul has really diverse music taste and can do that, but maybe the bands he chose and that particular time were all similar sort of bands whereas hopefully the bands I'm choosing are broader and the stuff I'll do in the future is... If you ever get into the situation we've got into where you're a - inverted commas - Hot Producer - there's bound to be a period six months later where you're the opposite of a hot producer. I'm very much expecting that to happen to me. I think the only thing you can do is to try to keep making records that you like. There's nothing you can do beyond that. The rest is all out of your hands.
The good thing about being a record producer and making music, your always judged by your last record. You make a really good record - hopefully people will see that and that's what you get judged on - that's what it says on the tin. I think that's a really good thing.

And you can listen to the interview yourself:

Simian Mobile Disco Audio Interview MP3 (48:22)

*For those of you new to my audio interview bandwagon, I have the tendency to say "yeah" and other similar words in response. It feels weird to stay completely silent only nodding my head in agreement and I'm exactly not gunning for a career in radio y'all. Preteens on forums seem to harp on it when my interviews get reposted (not that I think this one will), so that's the reason for the disclaimer...

Afterwards they DJed, came back down and got completely trashed. James is so cheeky - when the evening wound down he began to leave, then stopped to bow his face right in front of me waiting for a kiss. He didn't leave until he got one hahahahahaha. Both in looks and personality, he is quite the character.

Two more question and answer outtakes:

With remixes, offers, and people approaching you - are you picky with that?
Picky mainly because we don't have any time to do anything. If we do a remix it has to be something we really, really want to do as opposed to something we think just might be okay. Literally, we don't have time to. We've always done remixes rather quickly. We've always done them in a day or a couple of days. Literally it's like, you've got from mid-day today until you get on the plane tomorrow night or something, which is kind of dangerous. You can quite easily do something that is okay, send it off, and it's out there, which we've don't a couple of times. It's not a nice feeling. We're trying to say "no" as much as possible [right now].

Do you have favorite remixes that you've done?
To me, remixes are pretty throw-away, but in a good way. I kinda like that. I think that's why we don't spend that much time on them. For me they're almost function.  It's almost like make a song, do a job. It's like making it work on a dance floor. We've just done a Bjork remix [of "Innocence"] that I like, maybe just cause it's newest.

"Innocence" (SMD Remix) Bjork MP3

Simian Mobile Disco myspazz (how much do I love how many months Chromatics have been in their top friends?)

My flickr photoset of the evening (spent alongside Diplo and Switch as well)

Camden Town Rock

Back in December I caught Holy Hail and like half a song by Black Kids at the Barfly in Camden Town, because I couldn't be bothered to leave my place until midnight on the Friday they played.

I was slightly under-whelmed, which I didn't anticipate, but give HH lead singer Cat major kudos for being so into their set - endlessly bouncing around all happy - it was almost contagious, but never fully crossed over. She even jumped into the unrallied audience for a bit. All I could think and geek out about was "She used to be in FannyPack! She used to be in FannyPack!" Man - has she come leaps and bounds. While I miss the odes to camel toes and fire, I do love the N*E*R*D crossed with Sons and Daughters sound of Holy Hail that now is veering towards B-52 territory. "Cool Town Rock" showcases their ability to write crazy good and crazy random pop tunes that depend on dual vocalists. They closed with that - which is their current single out on Adventures Close To Home Recordings and also the promoter of the Barfly night.

Can I just express my disappointment that they didn't play my favorite song of theirs "County Fair Part 2." Major bummer man.

Drum roll please... Their set-list was:

"Big Guns"
"Double Dutch"
"Endless"
"Blood Hands"
"Born of a Star" (MP3)
"Planet Shock"
"I Owe"
"Cool Town Rock"

Holy Hail myspazz

In the Year 2007

My un-ordered year-end list. Note I wrote it to be posted before we entered the new year:

Best Albums:
I don't really listen to albums cos bands don't really make albums anymore. More like songs put together, but the We Are Wolves, Klaxons and the producers behind Britney Spears made complete albums that are all too enjoyable to listen to at full length and Muscles' disc is far too much fun to leave out and I'm oh so impressed by Miss Murphy.

We Are Wolves - Total Magique: Got this from the bin at Willamette Week and I'm gonna buy it too in support. It's so cohesive and so their sound. I eagerly anticipated their follow-up to Non-Stop Je te Plie en Deux if not for the songs themselves, then for the touring it'd bring. I'm so beyond pleased with Total Magique. It's magic!

Britney Spears - Blackout: I downloaded this from itunes at the stroke of midnight y'all the day the album dropped. Stroke of midnight. I don't love her for irony, I love her because her songs are the best millions can buy - they are so crucial and everyone should listen to them even if they have to disassociate Miss Spears from the package. "Get Naked" takes the cake. My favorite lyrics from the track: "I'm crazy as a motherfucker" and "If I get on top, you're gonna lose your mind." Blackout is SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her previous disc In the Zone is still in my top two of albums possibly ever, but this has almost tied it. There are no ballads - finally. She can't sing, so let's not sit through 3-4 minutes of that realization - let's dance instead! You can tell how detached she was from the process though.

Roisin Murphy - Overpowered: Added solely on the back of seeing her live - AMAZING set of songs! So accomplished!

Muscles - Guns Babes Lemonade: Tyler 1/2ALIVE sent out a link mocking the Pfork review of the album, but I really think that review best sums it up:

"And while, over the first few listens, those constant gang-chant harmonies can seem maddeningly samey, they quickly differentiate themselves exactly enough for a 43-minute record..."

DJ Joee Erwin hooked me up with it and first I wasn't that impressed - thought the best of it had already hit the fan in the form of his singles racking up possibly too many plays in my itunes. I instantly noticed that EVERY song relied on "whoo!"s and that reminded me too much of Kaiser Chiefs' debut where every track had Ricky going "ahhhh!" on it - totally overused, so that turned me off, but I got past it. The lyrics of the newer songs didn't reach me in the way of "One Inch Badge Pin," "Ice Cream" or "Sweaty" except for "Jerk" - that song became my new boyfriend - aside from Muscles and all... and maybe "Lauren From Glebe," but you know what - it's all warmed on me - partially cos I've been too lazy to get up and press skip therefore the other songs have ingrained themselves in my mind, earning my loyalty.

Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future: A concept album without it being totally obvious. Sounds so amazing - full length - not just all the songs together, but in order - one right after another in tune to the tracklisting. Takes you to another world. Presents a united revolt. Very subversive.
The media is so over-saturated with relationships and love. It's being sold everywhere - advertisements, movies, books and of course the most popular melodramatic songs. It's so refreshing to be able to listen to something that isn't completely caught up in boy-girl drama, especially supremely overt boy-girl drama. It's really a challenge to get away from that song-writing wise which I understand and which makes Klaxons feat - songs that are interesting, intriguing and draw you in despite no immediately obvious relation to reality - all that more admirable.
I actually had to check the release date on this because it's absent on quite few blog's year end lists and I think that because it sounds so classic and essential most people have forgotten that it hasn't always been with us... or maybe they don't want to list a band that doesn't pay their support acts...

Honorable mention to Timbaland for Shock Value. And don't think I didn't appreciate Calvin Harris' disc. There's a lot I haven't listened to ie Justice's offering. I wasn't taken with LCD Soundsystem's 2007 effort. Lily Allen's was also grand - very complete scenerio presented.

Wasn't Uffie's debut slated for 2007? It not dropping is my biggest disappointment.

I also need Love is All to hurry up and put something original and full-length out. Can they lock me in a refrigerator in the process?

Best concerts:

➔ YACHT on a yacht. When I met up with the Portland Radio Authority crew for my SNAP! feature in Willamette Week, we recognized each other from YACHT on yacht. As we shared about bumping into other people from the experience and the inevitable hellos and hugs that accompany each occasion, Coco equated the experience to summer camp and you know what - it really was - a whole glorious beautiful summer of getting-to-know-yous and memories packed into one day on the Willamette river. Still too special for words.

➔ Fist Fite and Klaxons at the Crocodile (RIP) in April. Served as my live introduction to both acts and it blew my mind. No pretension what so ever. The audience and both bands were so alive!

➔ Patrick Wolf at Lola's (Didn't blog about it, but some tears were shed and I posted photos on flickr)

➔ The Hives at the Crystal Ballroom (Didn't blog about it. Maybe I should) Afterwards my mouth hurt from smiling so much i.e. the ENTIRE time. Every band has something to learn from them.

➔Art Brut "Secret show" at Bumbershoot. SO GREAT! Such a return!

➔ White Rabbits at the Doug Fir opening for Tokyo Police Club. I blogged about it over on LocalCut. Knew nothing about them and had no idea what to expect as their set began. It rarely happens that you are treated to something as amazing as they were without any idea of what is to unfold and that made it that much more special.

➔Gossip at the Wonder Ballroom. My introduction to the talented, amazing and spreaders of right-on gospel New Bloods. I'm pitching them for the next issue of URB Magazine - the Next 1000 issue, pitches due in a couple days. And God - did the Gossip hold it down that night! So empowering! It also got me/this blog on Perez Hilton!

➔ Seeing Arctic Monkeys and then the Kooks on the same night on May 2nd. Showmanship overload.

Honorable mentions to Girl Talk's and Dan Deacon's sets at Musicfest NW, plus TV on the Radio in March just cos there's no other way to add them in seeing as they didn't release Return To Cookie Mountain in 2007 and I love them too much to leave them off.

Best in-store:

Foals at Rough Trade in London December 10th
Tore through their set like it was a real gig - and the lighting was remarkable.

Best DJ sets:

➔ Flosstradamus at Rotture

➔ Kavinsky and SebastiAn at the Daft Punk aftershow

➔ DJ Neverforget at Lo Fi Fnk

➔ Pretty much any night at Tube with DJ Linoleum on the decks, because all of her sets are beyond efficient in getting everyone to dance, but perhaps especially July 3rd cos she broke out both Mount Sims and Calvin Harris in the same set!

Best random in concert discoveries:

Graffiti Island
Purple Crush
Ghostland Observatory

Best people I've never blogged about:

Soko
Naive New Beaters
Jonathan Byerley
Eugene Mcguinness
Kickball

Best Free Itunes Download:

"Nike Boots" - Wale
Someone wants some sponsorship...

My favorite mix of 2007:

Kitsune Maison 4 (promo mix) (MP3)

Got clued into it via Disco Attack in spring which in turn clued me into Darkel.

Best Blog Discovery:

Pandatoes

We met at Bumbershoot and geeked out about Uffie. Nuf said.

Discs I'm most excited for in the New Year:
Foals
Born Ruffians
Maybe a Starfucker release?
Ashlee Simpson - cos it will mean more music videos!!
Alex Turner's side-project with James Ford
Am curious to see what comes of These New Puritans and Late of the Pier

Other year end lists:

Charlie of freak-out duo Panther put together a really, really commercial Top 10 of 2007 list.

David put together a Top 20 for the Milk Factory.

Greg at Pandatoes rounded up 2007's best remixes.

Local blog AudioSurface rounds up 2007's best indie

And Tyler summed up his Top 10 on his last.fm.

And if you live in Portland, I hope you checked out my best local albums of 2007 in Willamette Week i.e. Panther and YACHT and the 2008 disc I'm most excited for --- Live in Liverpool by the Gossip. Nathan gave the craziest quote ever. Well, maybe not ever - he's pretty random. Let's say his craziest quote in the last 24 hours. Surprisingly, he didn't weave in Grace Jones, but Rick Rubin's beard makes an appearance.

This has been a beautiful amazing year for Not on the Guest List. The blog took on a life of it's own from March on and went to new levels I didn't think possible. If I have anything to say about blogs it's that everyone should start one! It's crazy seeing Portland music blogs now cos when I started NotGL, there weren't any. The blog has served as a star in a constellation - great for connections. I love everyone who I've met through it - "thanks for the (2007) memories" to quote a Fall Out Boy song title :D

I'm planning on regular posting, more guest mixes and whatever strikes your fancy in terms of posts - you can always let me know.

My what a year it's been outside of the blog!
Started out with a full-time job at a mall, got evicted from my place in February hahahahaha
Began experiencing house shows.
Fell in love for the first time over the summer.
Got fired from said full-time job two days before my birthday which was actually the best gift in the world - it enabled me to take off to the UK.
Partied it up in New York, Vancouver B.C., London and Glasgow.
Got added to freelance staff at a weekly newspaper - writing about music for Willamette Week and blogging for their music site LocalCut.com despite no degree in journalism or even a high school diploma for that matter, took on a lot more for Pitchfork - shot two amazing fests for them aside from continued photo reviews and will now do regular feature interviews. Next one will be No Age!!
Made so many new friends.
Didn't do any publicity shots or album booklets - maybe next year?
I want a book deal, to show my polaroids, take concert posters more seriously, finish the music I'm making with E*Rock, maybe get a regular DJ gig and move to Berlin in 2008. Best go get my hustle on!
Oh and I really, really, really, really wanna go to South America - either at the end of the year or have firm plans in place for 2009. My pleas for couches to grace starts... NOW :)

I already know 2008 will be packed with DJ gigs and concert promotion if January is any indication.
Things you must come and dance with me at:

➔ The Teenagers at 1/2Alive at Richard's on Richards in Vancouver B.C. on January 18th. Meg and I are opening for them as Party All the Time y'all - our first ever DJ gig.

➔ Feather Figure at Towne Lounge in PDX on January 27th - as apart of LocalCut Live Lounge series. It'll be Feather Figure's first Portland show!! Nathan will be trading his guitar wielding in the Gossip and STILL not returning to Deep Jail to make good with a chainsaw. It'll be a night of noise. Think his previous noise project Heavy Seals.

➔ We Are Wolves at Holocene in PDX on January 31st. Nathan and I are DJing as The Chain and Party All the Time respectively. My set will MAKE you dance - some Soldout, Naive New Beaters, These New Puritans and Metronomy. WAW are like my favorite Canadian band - keyword band - and have been for a long time. I am SO EXCITED to see them - not to mention be involved in the gig. Not on the Guest List is hosting it. Local bands Reporter and Swim Swam Swum are also on the bill. I made the concert poster too!

Jamie Lynn Spears forever!