Avi from Avi Buffalo spits truth on Pitchfork’s “Year in Guestlist” thing:

2. Stephen Steinbrink (aka French Quarter)

This guy is really good. He’s from Arizona and writes beautiful songs. Spacious songs. He’s got lots of music I’m into but the one the folks I’ve talked to refer to the most is Ugly Unknowns. He’s got another song called “You Are Dead” which is also very good. My favorite song of his EVER I don’t know of a release it’s on, but it’s on his MySpace called “Neighbors in the Bedroom”. He’s into alternate tunings. The other very important thing to remember is that he’s GOOD LIVE! So if he’s stopping through your town check it out.

Both of those songs Avi mentions adoring are on “It’s Not Just Kissing” which, as anyone who has heard it knows, one of the best god-damn-it records of this or any year.

You can buy it, right here:

SELECT YER LAND

US $13.00 CANADA $16.00 INTERNATIONAL $22.00

Captain Beefheart is dead. The list of one-of-a-kind, transcendental human grows shorter.

I updated some of the new releases in the catalog. It always gets me so excited when I realize the amount of cool shit that is always on the cusp of happening.

Yuppa from Tokyo sent me this rad song she made as “HNC.” She also sent me a picture of all the Life’s Blood LPs she has (she has all of them). Perhaps a HNC Life’s Blood cassette is the future…?

Dash Jacket’s 7″ wasn’t ready quite in time for last night’s performance at Origami, so now they’re playing on the 7th of January. They’re still going on a quick jaunt up north starting tomorrow, and then another to Colorado the following week. Dates are like this:

December 19th / Los Angeles at The Smell with School Knights, The Lovely Bad Things, Black Elephant
December 20th / San Francisco at Five Points Art House with School Knights
December 22th / Sacramento at The Hub with School Knights
December 23rd / 5…4…3…2…Fun! on KCSB 91.9FM in Santa Barbara
December 26th / FMLY Fest at Cobblermania with a ton of bands
December 27th / San Diego at Tin Can Alehouse with School Knights
December 29th / Denver at Woodsman’s House with School Knights
December 30th / Denver at Meadowlark
January 2nd / Boulder at Astroland with School Knights

A nice shout-out today from Gumshoe over at Tiny Mix Tapes:

Physical formats HURRAH: If you think ACTUAL ALBUMS went the way of the dinosaur and that this whole physical-vs.-digital debate was over, you were… perhaps in the majority, but there are a lot of us left on this island of album packaging/artsy extras, and we’re not going anywhere. Cassettes, 3-inch discs, 12-/10-/7-inch records, pic discs, colored vinyl, records that run backward (thanks a lot Pregnant/Life’s Blood, for further complicating my listening life), foldout booklets, CD-Rs, accompanying comics, lyric sheets, pop-up gatefold LPs, box sets, micro-cassettes, handmade packaging, numbered editions, insufferably limited runs… As much as any other in recent memory, this was the Year that Music Got Physical; could it be that, as many satisfy themselves with personality-free MP3s, the rest of us will draw even closer together, hoarding our limited-run, physical products like in that recent movie starring the guy from Hidalgo, the one where he and a small boy, his son, have to survive in a post-apocalyptic war zone and only have each other to rely on? I’m just going to call this one right now: Yes.

Hurrah indeed. Life’s Blood has a very busy December into January happening right now, with tapes coming from Lou Breed, Tan Dollar, Jack Bartlett, Adam Lipman, Smoothie (Thom of Dash Jacket), and others. A 7″ from Nima and maybe some lathes? More stuff. Our aesthetic is evolving. Was there ever one, anyway?

Moon Pearl is going on a tour that looks like this:

January 13th / Irvine at Acrobatics Everyday with Tan Dollar, Dash Jacket, The Lovely Bad Things, Ugly Girls, Airborne Age
January 14th / San Luis Obispo KCPR presents at TBA
January 15th / Early show, 6PM / San Francisco at Sub-Mission with Religious Girls, Mason Lindahl, Tears Club
January 15th / Oakland ? Late show
January 16th / Sacramento at The Hub with Pregnant, Appetite, Produce Produce
January 17th / Los Angeles at Pehrspace with BYODeath and Son Cats

Pregnant goes to Portland in January. Dates coming!

Dash Jacket plays Origami Vinyl this Friday evening. I think their new 7″ on Fire Talk will be available. It features “Leisure Burn” which is easily one of their best songs to date.

Growing up, I often sat in the car with my parents as we drove to and from , usually, familial events. In the car, I would be subject to the latest Persian and Arabic dance-pop hits, which I did not appreciate or enjoy. Instead, I would listen to cassettes of American pop and rock hits I recorded from my radio. The only song that was imposed upon me that I can recall enjoying, even wanting to hear actively, was “Salma Ya Salama,” by Dalida.

Obviously, at the time I had no idea who the artist was or what the song was called, and it was only a couple years ago that the mantric chorus of the song popped up in my head. I can’t recall if their was real-world motivation for it, if I had heard it somewhere, or what…but I recalled it. I recalled the chorus, and so I searched phonetically for something resembling “salama ya salama,” which had stuck with me so deeply, and I found it fairly easily. And then again today, I sought it out once more, and it is still such a hugely nostalgic trip for me. Beyond the scene it makes me remember and consider, I genuinely enjoy the song and a lot. I read about her on the internet and was impressed to learn how prominent of an entertainer she was in the third quarter of the 20th century. Her quantifiable accolades are numerous, but perhaps it is more notable that she was voted as the second most influential person on French society after Charles de Gaulle. Three of her partners committed suicide, and she herself did in 1987 at 54. Bummer.

I am actively seeking more of her music now, and if anyone has a good starting point, I would totally love to talk about it.

Holy shit, this is amazing.

Mike Wood of Foxy Digitalis posted this nice interview with Moon Pearl, which features me talking about Moon Pearl and Life’s Blood.

Also, Vacation Vinyl in Silverlake now carries portions of the Life’s Blood catalog. When you inevitably patronize that fine establishment, do hit the Pupuseria on the corner nearby for a blissful convergence of thrift and taste.

Pregnant will be live on web-station dublab in early January, which is super. He will also play an in-store at Origami Vinyl in Echo Park, I think on January 3rd. Dash Jacket will also kick-off their tour at Origami on December 17th. The loft space at Origami is an interesting place to see music tower above you.

Nima plays her second ever show next Tuesday along with Tan Dollar at Angelo’s Pizza in Pomona. It’s free. Both have upcoming releases on this label.

I’ve been kind of obsessing over the following three insane Japanese songs, the latter two of which are from advertisements for vegetable juice and huge custard pudding, respectively.

I wrote an essay on James Nyte’s “In Your Dreams,” a video I posted a few weeks ago.

To get the weird, custardy taste of the last few video out of your mouth, here’s a wonderful track by Avocado Happy Hour. This is a Baltimore-based sometimes ultra-minimal but not always duo of (usually) marimba (!) and various keyboard-based instrumentation (synths, organs, piano, etc.). I love mallet instruments, particularly the marimba. I hope to release something for them soon, in the new year.

Avocado Happy Hour – Daytime Television

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Did you know you could still get Pregnant’s “Regional Music” and the “Sacramento” double 7″ together, shipped for $21 dollars?

A bunch of fun and rad “Regional Music” / Pregnant stuff these past two weeks.

Cinema Caldera made this video staring Dan and his babygirl for the power ballad “Wiff Of Father” :

The ever-productive TERROREYES has produced this second Pregnant session:

(Look for a TERROREYES session with Dash Jacket by the end of the year)

Daniel recorded this “OFF AIR” interview for Capital Public Radio.

He also drove to Irvine this past Saturday to play the OPEN MELODY festival myself and some friends organized under the Acrobatics Everyday banner. What a guy!

Those cassettes planned for “Late November” are coming…soon. December, I guess.

Dash Jacket are going on a small tour in December. Tour dates updated on the “Tour Dates” page.

So, you can now buy several Life’s Blood releases on your favorite digital music retailer. That’s neat. So if you are into stuff like iTunes, Napster, Amazon, eMusic, etc., and wanna check out approximately half our releases (so far) without worrying about shipping or what have you…make it happen.

Kites Sail High has their first show since their tour in August this Monday at MILK in San Francisco, with similarly-minded IDMtronic folks Truckasaurus and Sister Crayon.

This festival is still happening this weekend at UC IRVINE, more information here.

Did you watch that James Nyte video in that last post? I’m still into it. I wrote this short essay soon after watching it for the first time–I was so compelled to respond to its power.

Here are some nice reviews of Pregnant’s “Regional Music.”

STILL SINGLE

NORMAN RECORDS

VAIN INFORMER

Kevin Greenspon was on Pitchfork last week.

And here is my favorite song of 2010 as of yesterday.

Also, for those in the area, this is happening: