SO. This is kind of a new thing for me to try through radio promotion: I’m not only promoting the music, but a whole UNIVERSE of stuff involved with the music, and it is all going to freaking BLOW YOUR MIND. Do you think you might like cute/sweet folk songs, cool sound-collage songs, coming-of-age books about high school kids and cyborgs, excellent stand-up/improv comedy/youtube comedy shorts, AND/OR an incredibly funny movie about grown-up kid detectives?? Then THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU!! Also let’s date.

Believe it or not, there is one guy who has his hand in ALL of those things. At 25 years old, DC Pierson is conquering the media (all of them!) and making all the rest of us look pretty pathetic.

I first became aware of him through some friend or maybe Internet-stranger linking me to a few youtube/funnyordie videos made by his comedy group, DERRICK Comedy. They are all real funny and mostly NSFW/NSF your parents. Here’s a couple you could watch in front of both, uh probably, if you like: “Celebrity” (starring DC as the “Adam Sandler”):

Or here is even one that is music related: “Emo Song” (starring DC):

but I’d highly recommend looking into the rest of them if you’re not particularly squeamish/easily offended. If you’re not into dick jokes of the UCB/alternative-comedy sort, their videos might not be 100% for you, but I bet their MOVIE still is!!!

Last year at Sundance, DERRICK Comedy premiered their first feature film: MYSTERY TEAM. You may have noticed me freaking out constantly about how good it was if we are friends on Facebook or if you read my massive lists from 2009 that placed it as my #5 movie of the year. It is NOT like a longform youtube video, don’t worry, no “Run Ronnie Run” here. It was shot beautifully on one’a'them fancy RED digital cameras and it is just incredibly well-written, well-produced, well-acted. Well-everything really. I love it because it is knock-you-over, line-after-line hilarious, but I also love it because it is a coming-of-age story with real heart that at its core really does feel true. Plot synopsis: a group of 3 kids (DC Pierson, Donald Glover [who you know from NBC's funnier-every-episode "Community"], and Dominic Dierkes) started an Encyclopedia Brown-style kid detective agency when they were little, and now they are 18 years old and are STILL DOING IT. Same goofy kid haircuts, same dorky clothes, same kid nonsense mysteries like “who stuck their finger in Mrs. Brewster’s pie?” And then a little girl retains their services for a dime, and asks, “can you help me find out who murdered my parents?”…naturally, they accept, and HIJINX ENSUE. They produced it themselves and all the actors are their friends, but luckily they are friends with people like SNL’s Bobby Moynihan, Aubrey Plaza (“Parks & Recreation”, Funny People), Ellie Kemper (the new secretary Erin from “The Office”, who also stars in DERRICK’s most famous literally-15-million-hits video), Kevin Brown and John Lutz (Dot Com and Lutz!), and UCB’s Matt Walsh. COOL FRIENDS YOU GUYS.

TRAILER:

Mystery Team has been on this crazy rolling release thing that has basically amounted to them being on tour with the movie for the last year. I guess it’s a thing their distributor does on a regular basis, and although it means their movie is only in one city at a time, it is really cool, because that means some or all of the members of DERRICK actually get to SHOW UP at basically every single city it’s playing in on opening weekend. They do Q&As, they hang around outside of the theater and talk to you for as long as you want them to, and they basically just make a point of being the coolest dudes (and girl) ever. That’s how I initially met DC and this whole thing got started.

And then!!

I found out that DC, on top of everything else, also WROTE A NOVEL, and it is coming out on Vintage/Anchor (a division of Random House) this Tuesday (1/26/10)! I’ve had the fantastic luck to have gotten to read it already, and you guys, THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!!! It is basically the novel I have always wished I was writing. Here’s a plot synopsis on this thing: A couple of geeky loner kids befriend each other in high school, and they start making up this totally awesome comic book/movie universe with stuff like cyborgs and zombies and wormholes and time travel. Then one kid (Eric) reveals to the other (Darren) that he doesn’t sleep, like at all, ever. This comes as a huge revelation to Darren, who is at just that age when you start to realize that maybe the world is not all magical fairydust after all and maybe you CAN’T just be anything you want and sometimes things don’t turn out like you think they should. It gives him hope: wait, maybe the world IS magic after all!! And then a love triangle gets in the way, and some of the stuff Darren and Eric made up starts maybe coming to life, and everything is falling apart and also beautiful and tragic and hilarious. Also DC loves puns and because of this there are a ton of great fake band names sprinkled in there. My favorite is “Andre the Client”. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS. Preferably buy it (less than $10 preorder on Amazon right now!!), so that people keep paying him to do this again.

AND ALSO, as if that weren’t ENOUGH ALREADY, DC has also gotten a bunch of his musician friends to write songs inspired by his novel, and he is just giving those things away! You’ll know some of the musicians and some of them will be new, like Donald Glover did a bunch of sound-collage style tracks as his producer alter-ego, MCDJ (who also by the way scored Mystery Team), and also Jason Anderson, a beautiful human being who released his most recent album on K Records, did a great little ditty. And I convinced DC to let me send those tracks out to you, the worthy citizens of College Radioland!! So ENJOY, college radioland!! You could even ADD IT ON 1/26 on CMJ if you felt so inclined!! It’s a download only, and you can find that download here in a post with some more info on DC’s site, or here zipped up with other info from me like a press onesheet, a photo, and a .wav file of one track for higher-quality radioing. Also here is a radio edit of the one song that has some Bad Words, because that is important if you’re playing stuff over airwaves monitored by grandparents.

You’d think that would be about enough for one add (/career/freaking LIFETIME), but there are even a few MORE littler things that DC Pierson has had his hand in if for some reason you haven’t had your fill. You might have noticed him on “Community” a couple episodes ago (1/14, the one with Jack Black in it: DC’s line: “welcome aboard jeff, this is my article on the school’s new water heater” / then Joel McHale: “you got chops, kid, but we need your talent on a bigger story: Pizza Wars”.)

PLUS, sometimes, DC raps too. Sometimes by himself, and sometimes as a guest on Donald Glover’s (his buddy from DERRICK Comedy/Mystery Team/”Community”) tracks where he raps over indie rock songs (DC’s featured on Discovery and Pictureplane tracks in that FREE MIXTAPE DOWNLOAD) or over Donald’s own MCDJ beats. “They make anti-me PSAs cause I’m dope” INDEED, DC. I will await your proposal of marriage which I’m sure by now is on its way in the mail.

Clearly, this is just ridiculous. Here’s a video about “booklegging,” the dangerous crime in which you individually hand-copy his book and distribute it illegally:

And here’s one about his elaborately-planned book tour:

And here are some dates where you can catch him on his for-real tour with Mystery Team and invite him into your radio station while you’re at it:

NOW: Seattle, WA @ Central Cinema (you missed DC last weekend, but the movie is playing through like 2/4)

THIS WEEKEND 1/29: Boston, MA @ The Brattle

ALSO THIS WEEKEND 1/29: Port Orchard, WA @ The Orchard Theater (DC won’t be there, but the movie is still awesome)

NEXT WEEKEND 2/4: Chicago, IL @ The Music Box

3/5: Minneapolis, MN @ Landmark Uptown

3/12: Los Angeles, CA @ the Nuart

Feel free to contact me to set up an interview (on the phone or in person – he wants to meet you!), or just to hear me gush for a couple more hours about this. Don’t think I won’t.

LIFT’s first RPM add for 2010 is what you might call a Big Deal. Deadmau5 is a superstar DJ. He’s Canadian (which makes him instantly loveable, as we all know). And he wears a big mouse head in public.

DEADMAU5

AT PLAY VOL. 2

Play Records

This is a follow-up to the volume of the same name I sent out to radio last year: it’s 10 DJ-friendly, full-length “unmixed” tracks of some of his bangers designed specifically for you DJs to work your magic with. Released through Canada’s Play Records, it can serve as a companion piece to his “proper” Ultra releases or an introduction to the guy who I just learned placed #6 on DJ Magazine’s Top 100 DJ Poll in 2009. NOT BAD DUDE.

The record went for adds last week (1/18/10), and not only did it hit #4 Most Added, it ALSO ALREADY jumped onto the Top 40 at #33!!! It’s only the rarest of RPM superstars that are able to accomplish this (not even my Armin Van Buuren, Infected Mushroom, Paul Van Dyk or Dizzee Rascal did it!), so obviously this is going to be amazing. At Play Vol. 1 hit #15, so that’s the spot to beat this go-round!

STREAM THE ALBUM:

http://www.deadmau5.com/

Every year I make ludicrously long lists that nobody has the time or patience to get through; this year is no different. With more lists! Keep in mind that I’m never claiming that these are the “best” of any year. They were just my favorites…stuff I loved. There is no objective scale for grading art; my reactions are all I have to go on. So there!

2009 was the first year of my life that was actually a cohesive Year – I had the same jobs the whole year, lived in the same apartment the whole year – switched roommates a zillion times but not on the midyear schedule that would have been normal up to this point thanks to the school system making a Year typically end in May or June rather than December. I’m an adult! So maybe these lists have more cohesion than my last few have. Then again, maybe not.

top 10 albums of 2009:

1. why?-eskimo snow

2. the mountain goats-the life of the world to come

3. casiotone for the painfully alone-vs. children

4. childish gambino-poindexter

5. harlem shakes-technicolor health

6. pomegranates-everybody, come outside!

7. john vanderslice-romanian names

8. david bazan-curse your branches

9. discovery-lp

10. phoenix-wolfgang amadaeus phoenix

15 more (not in order):

dead man’s bones-s/t

phosphorescent-to willie

mono-hymn to the immortal wind

matt and kim-grand

edward sharpe & the magnetic zeroes-up from below

kid cudi-man on the moon: the end of the day

antony and the johnsons-crying light

julie doiron-i can wonder what you did with your day

dirty projectors-bitte orca

grizzly bear-veckatimest

patients-patients

city center-s/t

fishboy-nom

girls-girls

woods-songs of shame

This list is missing a lot. Some of my FAVORITE FAVORITE artists released albums this year that I’m sure I’ll eventually LOVE, but for some reason just haven’t gotten to give them the time they deserve yet. I’m looking at you, Mew, Health, Megafaun, Bill Callahan, Firs, Flaming Lips, Liars, The Thermals, Beach House, Themselves, (Wooden) Wand, St. Vincent, Barzin, YACHT, Throw Me The Statue, Jeremy Enigk, Jeffrey Lewis, Deer Tick, Atlas Sound, Mount Eerie, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Sigur Ros, Royksopp, The Boy Least Likely To, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Asobi Seksu, Malajube, Junior Boys, The Whitest Boy Alive, MSTRKRFT, The Juan Maclean, Yo La Tengo, and Mum. WHOA GEEZ what was my problem in 2009!!!!



top eps/singles:

starfucker-jupiter

brunettes-red rollerskates ep

mountain goats+john vanderslice-moon colony bloodbath

social studies-the hourglass

burial & four tet-moth/wolf cub

we became actors-this is where we started



top compliations:

dark was the night

score! 20 years of merge recs: the covers!

casiotone for the painfully alone-advance base battery life

odd nosdam-t.i.m.e. sdtrk



top comedy albums:

john mulaney-the top part

paul f thompkins-freak wharf

eugene mirman-god is a 12 year old boy with asperger’s

the lonely island-incredibad



top 11 songs:

the national & st vincent – sleep all summer (crooked fingers cover)

childish gambino ft. dc pierson – starlight

matt & kim – daylight

kid cudi – pursuit of happiness (nightmare) ft. mgmt & ratatat

casiotone for the painfully alone – white jetta

why? – this blackest purse

edward sharpe & the magnetic zeroes – home

the mountain goats – genesis 3:23

phosphorescent – reasons to quit (willie nelson cover)

dead man’s bones – in the room where you sleep

harlem shakes – strictly game



top shows (concerts):

1. david byrne @prospect park 6.8

2. why? @le poisson rouge 9.26

3. mono @bell house 9.29

4. calvin johnson, ian svenonius (&city center but i missed their set) @92ytribeca 4.17

5. pomegranates, french kicks @bell house 2.21

6. wild moccasins, the loom, cotton jones @union hall 6.20

7. extraordinaires, tavo carbone @union pool 8.17

8. john vanderslice, john darnielle @wordless show, society for ethical culture 2.27

9. suburban kids with biblical names, afternoon naps, icicles @nyc popfest, cake shop 5.17

10. they might be giants @prospect park 7.11



14 more (not in order):

casiotone for the painfully alone, cryptacize @market hotel 7.3

starfucker, mancino @union hall 4.22

pelle carlberg, the drums @union hall 5.30

polka dot dot dot @sidewalk cafe 1.7

the wrens @bell house 4.10

brunettes, throw me the statue @mercury lounge 9.2

black moth super rainbow @seaport 7.24

we became actors @cross-pollination, pianos 7.28

midtown dickens @sidewalk cafe 9.6

brazos, white denim @music hall of williamsburg 11.12

seth kallen, wheat, tally hall @union hall 2.12

ladybug transistor @union hall 8.27

owen @union hall 10.10

woodpecker!, menage a twang @union hall 8.23



top 10 movies:

1. adventureland

2. where the wild things are

3. fantastic mr fox

4. brothers bloom

5. mystery team

6. away we go

7. a serious man

8. big fan

9. a single man

10. inglourious basterds



27 more I loved (roughly in order now, but I change the order every day in my head, so they’re not numbered):

beautiful losers

paper heart

adam

uncertainty

zombieland

antichrist

the road

coraline

still walking

moon

humpday

medicine for melancholy

extract

broken embraces

taking woodstock

the limits of control

pirate radio

up

anvil! the story of anvil

rudo y cursi

white material

tokyo

i love you man

don’t let me drown

an education

thirst

district 9



saw these filmmakers/actors in person promoting their stuff:

mystery team (derrick comedy minus donald glover: dc pierson, dominic dierkes, meggie mcfadden, dan eckman)

white material (director claire denis and a few of the actors did a q&a , then the next day saw her ‘in conversation’ with noah baumbach…also jim jarmusch was there)

dazzle (director cyrus frisch did a q&a)

cold souls (director sophie barthes did a q&a)

rudo y cursi (gael garcia bernal, diego luna, carlos cuaron ‘in conversation’ at the apple store)

teeth (director mitchell lichtenstein did a q&a at a sunshine midnight screening)

deadgirl (co-director gadi harel did a q&a)

don’t let me drown (director cruz angeles and the teen actors introduced the movie. also my good friend timothy thomas cleary contributed music and was there…as was robert redford)



Coolest soundtracks/scores (not in order):

Where The Wild Things Are – Karen O and the Kids

Mystery Team – MCDJ/Childish Gambino/Donald Glover

Don’t Let Me Drown – Timothy Thomas Cleary

The Limits of Control – Boris

Pirate Radio – 60s britpop

Adventureland – 80s indie rock/synthpop

Medicine for Melancholy – melancholic indie pop



There are still a few 2009 movies that I need to catch up on, but I’m making this the cutoff: if I didn’t see them by now, it’ll be too late to make the list retroactively. So sorry, The White Ribbon, Police, Adjective, Crazy Heart, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnarssus, Little Ashes, Disgrace, The Hurt Locker, In the Loop, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Women In Trouble, New York I Love You, Dare, Precious, The Vicious Kind, and My Son My Son What Have Ye Done. (and Mother, Trash Humpers, and Life During Wartime which I missed at the NYFF but I don’t think they’ve even had a limited release yet). BUT they’ll have a chance of showing up on this one next year:



Movies/TV shows I saw for the first time in 2009 that came out earlier, but have since become some of my Favorites:

the wrestler

milk

forgetting sarah marshall

the tv set

they shoot horses, don’t they?

fitzcarraldo

slackers

synechdoche, ny

breakin’ 2: electric boogaloo

young frankenstein, blazing saddles

brazil

boogie nights

the price of milk

soldier’s girl

waltz with bashir

the counterfeiters

barton fink

saw my first mumblecore movies (puffy chair, baghead, humpday) and liked ‘em

hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (the tv show)

veronica mars

the state (finally released on dvd)

twin peaks

friday night lights

the life & times of tim



Also my favorite comedy shows I saw (not in order):

live taping of conan o’brien with judah friedlander 2.9

eugene mirman ‘the will to whatevs’ book release show @bell house -with eugene, david cross, john hodgman, kristen schaal, paul f. thompkins, and mr. brownstone 2.10

yacht rock viewing party with the cast @bell house 2.27

michael showalter radio happy hour @le poisson rouge 7.11

michael & michael have issues premiere party @bell house 7.15

the state show @bell house 10.1 – it was really just michaels showalter and ian black and david wain, and they showed clips from the CBS special, played clips from the (soon to be released??) CD and did a little bit of goofing around.

tearing the veil of maya 3rd anniversary show @bell house with john mulaney, eugene, larry murphy, jon glaser as ‘the man in the green mask’ and a kid michael jackson cover band 7.19

the rejection show – book release show for jon friedman’s book ‘rejected’ which became a regular show after this one (pretty sure this was the first). david wain, dave hill, sara schaefer and a bunch of other people read stories @bell house 1.27

whiplash – always lovely but I think my favorite was with baron vaughn and wyatt cenac, @UCB 12.15

big terrific – my first one with gabe liedman ‘n’ jenny slate, max silvestri, matt mccarthy, eugene mirman, pete holmes, kumail nanjiani @cameo gallery 10.21

RISK! hosted by kevin allison @arlene’s grocery – all 4 i went to were fantastic but i particularly loved the one 9.24 with samm levine. joe mande, adam wade, rachel dratch, dave hill, tim ellis and the guy with the kangaroo hunting story all also gave particularly memorable performances on their dates.

eugene mirman comedy festival @bell house 9.17-20 – all the shows i saw but particularly ‘the comedians of law and order’ feat. ad miles, michael showalter, baron vaughn, tom shillue, zak orth, eddie peppitone, jim gaffigan AND also ‘10 drink minimum’ that was just a nakedly honest storytelling hour, most memorably by michael showalter and sillily by tony v, hosted by marc maron. Also highlights: daniel kitson, john oliver, reggie watts, kumail nanjiani, hannibal buress, leo allen, todd barry, a cardboard vip booth, and a free ride in a hummer limo to atlantic center and back with complimentary cream soda.

OH ALSO jon benjamin and larry murphy did a pretty amazing anti-comedy aftershow thing (at EMCF) called ‘the perfect storm’ at midnight one night in front of like 15 people in pitch blackness…they made morgan murphy do a set while she lay on her back onstage. matt braunger and hannibal also made some weird attempts at midnight drunk standup. the most weirdly memorable comedy show i’ve ever seen. oh yeah and they invited me onstage (i genuinely forgot that until i typed it) then backstage where i was handed a beer and shown the lobster available on the table. they also provided ‘commentary’ for about the first 10 minutes of the movie ‘the perfect storm’ in boston accents, and danced to a techno song with glow sticks. that one actually wins. best show of the year.



And favorite new tv shows:

1. party down

2. bored to death

3. community

4. delocated

5. parks & recreation (especially season 2 – but season 1 started in ‘09 too)

6. eastbound & down

7. the league



Man, congratulations to donald glover for the freakin’ Hat Trick of hitting my Top 5 albums (Childish Gambino), Top 5 movies (Mystery Team), AND Top 5 new TV shows (Community). Way to make the rest of us look bad, dude.

a few other odds and ends:

tv show that almost totally blew my goodwill toward it and ruined my deep love for its earlier episodes by recycling almost EVERY good joke it’s ever made: scrubs : (

best old album i got super into: lou reed-transformer



Okay. Sorry for my haphazard capitalization (and everything else). I guess I listened to less music and watched more movies this year than I have in years past. I’ve kept up with the personal rule that artists I’ve worked with can’t make it onto the top albums/shows list, because how could I possibly rank them against each other, but Hidden People, Tereu Tereu, Sean Walsh, Big Bang TV, and Girls In Trouble: you all have 100% of my heart. What a good first year for The Band Mom!

The biggest name, of course, was Armada flagship (GET IT?? YOU GET IT) artist and co-founder, superstar DJ Armin Van Buuren.

ARMIN VAN BUUREN

UNIVERSAL RELIGION CHAPTER 4

Armada

RPM Add Date: 10/26/09

After grabbing the #4 RPM Most Added slot, dude spent 7 full weeks on the RPM Top 40, peaking at #18. Even though the push for this one is officially through, it did still make a strong showing on the chart last week, so maybe IT’S not done with US?!

The next one came from the insane hard dance/techno theatrics of German band Scooter.

SCOOTER

UNDER THE RADAR OVER THE TOP

Napith Music

RPM Add Date: 11/2/09

That one just finished up last week, peaking at #20 after achieving #4 Most Added and spending a total of 5 weeks on the RPM Top 40 chart.

And then of course, our two currents: the elder (campaign-wise) being Laurent Wolf.

LAURENT WOLF

RITMO DYNAMIC

Napith Music

RPM Add Date: 11/16/09

Our French house/electro/tribal house DJ just made his debut on the RPM Top 40 last week, after a #3 Most Added slot in November: but an auspicious debut it was, at #18!

Last but not least, German trance DJ Markus Schulz.

MARKUS SCHULZ

WORLD TOUR BEST OF 2009

Napith Music/Armada

RPM Add Date: 11/30/09

This one is closest to its early stages of its run (thanks to that 5-week holiday break we just had), so it makes sense that after grabbing a #4 Most Added slot, it just made its debut this last week as well, at #33.

Armada Music is a Dutch label known for its excellence in trance and house releases, and it’s been a real pleasure getting to work with these four artists for them.

Armada + LIFT = good times! Jump on board if you’re one of the few who haven’t already, RPM!! You can contact me for more info/links to full album/remix downloads.

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour are some Danish popsters who are getting ready to take over the world. When I saw them in November at a swanky hotel party, the house was PACKED with beautiful people (I almost didn’t even get in thanks to my flip flops – true story). Aside from their fun live shows or hearing them blowing up the college radio airwaves, you’ll probably recognize their song “Around the Bend” from an ipod commercial that aired last year.

THE ASTEROIDS GALAXY TOUR

FRUIT

Small Giants

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour are Lars Iversen and Mette Lindberg. Live, the band grow to a six-piece featuring Mads Brinch Nielsen (guitar, keys), Rasmus Valldorf (drums) and horn section, Miloud Carl Sabri (trumpet) and Svend Meinild (sax).

The debut album ‘Fruit’ is out now on Small Giants Records.

“superb jangly pop… the best Danish export since bacon.” 8/10 – NME

RIYL: Santigold, Caesars, Beck, iPod commercials

Start With: 7, 1, 10 FCC CLEAN

The album’s been on the CMJ Top 200 chart for 7 weeks now, plus scoring #17 Most Added (on the Top 20 Adds chart) in its add week. It peaked (twice!) at #67, and even hit #80 this last week after a 5-week no-charting holiday break AFTER its successful campaign was assumed to have come to a close. Like I said you guys. KILLING IT!

LIFT had a contest going on for a while where you could win free copies of their special-edition CD. I bet if you ask them nicely they could still find one for you to grab!

http://www.myspace.com/theasteroidsgalaxytour

For more info, JDub has a beautiful press page up, but for starters, here is an easy bullet point list of all the unbelievably awesome things about this Girls In Trouble record:

    -it’s a set of songs about Biblical women told from a feminist perspective in a K Records-type style of music/songwriting.

    -music sounds like St. Vincent, Alicia’s voice sounds like Regina Spektor, lyrics reminiscent of The Mountain Goats’ writing style.

    -Features Aaron Hartman of Old Time Relijun on the bass.

    -Cover art by Arrington de Dionyso, also of OTR

    -released on JDub Records.

    -recorded by Scott Solter (Spoon, The Mountain Goats, John Vanderslice, St. Vincent)

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

HOWEVER: this album had a very limited physical release, and I could only get a tiny number to send out to you sweethearts at college radio. So if you didn’t get a hard copy, please don’t be offended, but if it is at all possible please DO download it!!! I promise it will be worth it. Contact me for the link!

GIRLS IN TROUBLE

GIRLS IN TROUBLE

JDub

At first listen, Girls in Trouble projects an upbeat, care free indie-folk feel which carries each track from beginning to end. What’s less apparent is the underlying concept: telling the stories of obscure Biblical women through a song cycle. Lushly produced, and artfully arranged with strings, upright bass, and electric guitar, the self-titled debut LP will be released October 27, 2009 on JDub Records.

Girls in Trouble is the songwriting debut of multi-instrumentalist Alicia Jo Rabins, who performs all vocals, guitar parts and string sections for the album. Alicia marries her classical training and folk-punk sensitivity to her penchant for Jewish literature, mysticism and history. The result: pop hooks grounded in experimentation, subtle musicianship and a taste for ruminative lyrics.

Alicia began playing music at age 3, and advanced to play violin in conservatory programs and chamber groups before moving on to poetry, in which she holds an MFA. Disenchanted with poetry by a series of downtown internships and cocktail parties, Alicia escaped to Jerusalem in search of spiritual grounding. After two years studying ancient Jewish texts, Alicia returned to New York and created Girls in Trouble, a synthesis of her explorations in music, poetry and mystical literature.

In the tradition of Leonard Cohen and Joanna Newsom, Alicia’s music draws the listener into a world of poetry, intimacy and violence. Her songs draw from ancient material, yet remain deeply personal; her performance is raw, naked, and unbound. In “Snow,” spiders and scorpions crawl up to comfort Miriam, Moses’ sister, who has been exiled and struck with leprosy. In “Mountain,” a nameless child rushes out to greet her father as he returns from battle—only to learn about his vow to sacrifice the first creature he sees.

For the LP, Alicia lured three of her closest friends to the studio with the promise of bourbon. The full band includes Aaron Hartman (Old Time Relijun, K Records) on upright bass, Tim Monaghan on drums and Jascha Hoffman on keys and glockenspiel. Together, they traveled to rural North Carolina and spilled their guts and Alicia’s dynamic arrangements onto two-inch tape with the help of Scott Solter (Spoon, The Mountain Goats, Okkervil River).

RIYL: St. Vincent, Regina Spektor, The Mountain Goats, Joanna Newsom

Start With: 3, 6, 4, 5, 1 FCC CLEAN

Contact me for a download link!

This record went for adds on 11/2 and has been getting some great feedback so far, but hasn’t quite hit a chart yet. So this is the week!! Also, it’s been getting some incredible press!! Check out some awesome high-profile reviews at Heeb Magazine, AOL Spinner, and AbsolutePunk. Also this video of Alicia performing “Hunter” with her trademark beautiful violin looping was featured on YouTube’s music spotlight for two days.

Also, they are going on tour! Facebook events here (Southeast, this week) and here (San Francisco, next week). Myspace with info here. Dates here!

Wednesday Dec 2: Baltimore @ Cyclops

Thursday Dec 3: Takoma Park/DC/Northern VA, LOOKING FOR A VENUE (w/Jupiter Rex)

Friday Dec 4: Carrboro NC @ Leo Gaev Metalworks, 102B Lloyd St. (shopwarming concert, with poetry smorgasbord and GIT set)

Saturday Dec 5: Atlanta, GA @ Highland Ballroom (w/Meeks Family)

Sunday Dec 6: Asheville, NC @ Posana (w/Pilgrim and A Copper Crow)

Friday Dec 11: underground San Francisco show @ Socha (w/Jascha vs Jascha)

Saturday Dec 12: big San Francisco show @ Contemporary Jewish Museum of SF (Chanukah party, w/Charming Hostess and others)

FUN!!!! You should definitely go. It was a show a few months ago that convinced me I NEEDED to work with this band, and their record release show last month (with Franz Nicolay opening) was equally incredible. Here (and here and here)are some videos I took.

http://www.myspace.com/girlsintroublemusic

http://blog.jdubrecords.org/category/girls-in-trouble/

http://jdubrecords.org/press/girlsintrouble/index.php

yes yes yes yes yes!!!!!!!!

Update: Hit the 12/15 Top 200 chart. #98!!!

The Invisible Kid hails from NYC – but he actually came to us through the RPM director of Tucson, Arizona’s illustrious KXCI. Corbin Dooley, aside from holding down the electronic music department at that station (as well as having graduated from my alma mater Wake Forest, as it turns out!), also runs his own record label: Bikiniwax Records. This release reminds me quite a bit of the Secret Machines at times: distorted, ethereal, electronic post-punk music. Plus he does tons of awesome remixes, by artists like The Faint, The Helio Sequence and Friendly Fires!

THE INVISIBLE KID

THE ENTRANCE

Bikiniwax

The Invisible Kid is the brainchild of New York City-based producer/ songwriter/ performer Daniel Lee. The music is a mixture of 80’s new wave, 90’s indie and shoegazer textures, and modern electronic/mashup situations. “The Invisible Kid” debut self-titled EP was released on November 29, 2005 and was followed by an assortment of remix work in 2006.

In 2002, Daniel Lee completed a remix for seminal UK trip-hop/electronic artists, the Sneaker Pimps, on their international single release for “Sick”, which received national radio airplay. Under The Invisible Kid moniker, he has most recently completed remixes of Pittsburgh-based band Shade; the DC-based outfit Soft Complex; Portland, Maine’s Paranoid Social Club; Detroit, Michigan soul/funk master Nadir; fellow New York City shoegaze outfits Autumn Thieves, Elika, Soundpool, Dead Leaf Echo, and Project Skyward; and British artists SOKI2U and Laurence Colbert (formerly of the seminal group Ride).

This year has a lot in store for Daniel Lee and The Invisible Kid project, as The Invisible Kid’s second record – “The Entrance” – was released to the masses.

“…his Oxford influences and Manchester sensibilities have forged a bond on the floor of his basement studio, somewhere between the production sized talents of his electronic mind and his subterranean love for white-noise theatrics.”

–Gordon Sharp, JEZEBELMUSIC.COM 

RIYL: Secret Machines, New Order, Air, MGMT

Start With: 13, 3, 10, 7 FCC CLEAN

Contact me for a download link!

This thing went for adds on 9/28, and it’s gained a steady and growing following since then. But it has yet to make it onto the Top 200 chart! Each week it squeaks by JUST under the level it needs, like just one or two more stations would make all the difference. Let’s not let this one slip through the cracks, it’s a very cool album and doesn’t deserve to be the only thing I’ve worked all year that doesn’t hit a chart!

Also: for a limited time, you can download remixes of the hit single “Sometimes” here! Enjoy! 

http://www.myspace.com/theinvisiblekid

http://www.theinvisiblekid.com/

Okay you guys, so one more week. LET’S DO THIS!!!!

The other day I got to take what felt like an exciting new step in my career: I accompanied a band in to their interview at Sirius Satellite Radio! It was a pretty big deal. That place is real fancy, it’s got as much security as (I imagine) the Pentagon does but with much cooler music playing from TVs on the wall. And a dream DJ booth!

All the Sirius employees I met were SUPER nice too. I officially love it there!

Of course the band was Infected Mushroom. The guys from the band (Erez and Duvdev, left to right) were really sweet too! They talked about lots of stuff like living, making music, and partying in Israel (where they’re from) vs LA (where they live now); their genre-bending style and the evolution of the band; the “Riders on a Storm” mashup we recently sent out; and their truly remarkable live show. It was really cool learning about Israel from real Israelis’ points of view, rather than the media or my Jewish friends who have just gone on brief visits through Birthright (which is a very cool thing, but certainly not the same as living there!)…anyway pretty soon you’ll be able to see footage I took from part of the interview over at the LIFT/PRO MOTION blog!

We tried to go out for pizza afterward, but it was like 11am and we couldn’t find a pizza place open. (I know right, I got up early enough to be DONE with something by 11am?! Whaaa)…so I ended up wandering in Times Square looking for a wireless hotspot and ended up getting displaced from the seat I finally found by a fire-eating contortionist. Just a regular day in Times Square I guess.

Anyway, as you know from the post below, these guys have been KILLING it on the RPM charts at college radio. We did hit that top 20 forever ago, in fact after hitting #20 we then blasted on to #12 for two weeks in a row! So now, obviously, the goal is TOP TEN AT RPM!!! Let’s do this, you guys. We can totally do this!! I would LOVE for this to be my first Top 10 record. And so would these guys, just look at their smiling faces (with Geronimo from Sirius)!

YAY!!!

Infected Mushroom have been around for like 13 years and 7 albums, and their sound has been constantly evolving. They first became known as THE pioneers of the genre of “psytrance”, a style Wikipedia deftly describes as “hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and mesmerizing melodies created by high tempo riffs” (thanks, wiki!) . Lately, they’ve been leaning toward more industrial or even somewhat metal sounds, incorporating things like driving guitars and guest vocalist spots from Perry Ferrell and Jonathan Davis. The newest album has been drawing comparisons to bands like KMFDM and other Metropolis Records artists, as well as drum’n'bass like Pendulum, but with psychedelic and Middle Eastern elements all its own.

I started out quite a few weeks ago with the band’s lead single, “Smashing the Opponent”

which hit #3 most added and then smashed (…sorry) onto #26 at the RPM Top 40.

Listen to the single:

Now, though, the campaign for the full-length is in full swing. Legend of the Black Shawarma, in a funny twist of symmetry, has already ALSO hit #3 most added and #26 on the RPM chart. Yay! But like I said, these guys are superstars if you ask the right people, and a well-established name at college radio. We should at least be able to crack into the top 20! So that’s what we’re going for this week.

SMASHING THE OPPONENT

LEGEND OF THE BLACK SHAWARMA

Perfecto

Listen:

By the way, I was curious (and clueless, from a suburb in Ohio) so I looked up what a “Shawarma” could possibly be. Turns out it’s a Middle Eastern pita sandwich thing, and now that I’m aware of it I keep seeing it on signs of falafel places around town. Makes sense, these guys being Israeli and all. The More You Know!

Stay tuned for more updates: multiple adds from both LIFT (at RPM) and The Band Mom (at Top 200) are on the way!!

There are a bunch of new irons in the LIFT fire these days.

The first one I haven’t yet mentioned comes from a mister DJ Broc. This guy makes some smooth house-, almost trance-like original tracks for your listening pleasure. They just roll off your back in waves. On top of the bed of “bliss” (bad album puns coming right up!) floats female vocalist K-Rai, among a few others.

DJ BROC

BLISS

Thump Records/Universal

This record had a great debut at #34 after a #3 most added slot at RPM. It’s been a few weeks since it slipped off though, so let’s bring that bad boy back on there! Those DJs who were going wild for Paul Van Dyk’s original stuff would have a pretty good chance at getting into this – not that it’s an exact replica or anything, but in a similar vein.

Let’s do it up!! Listen here: