TONIGHT WE'RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT'S 1999

These guys need to try harder.

Hi there, you! It's me... me! We haven't talked in a while. My excuse is becoming the proud father of a two-month-old, with all the extra responsibilities that entails. What's yours?

I'll try to hit you up with my unbeatable 2011 year-end coverage when I get a second, like a real part-time music critic, with rankings and everything-- maybe by roughly the time the Village Voice publishes its annual Pazz & Jop poll? Or by 2013, whichever is sooner. Hey, with the glut of online coverage and preemptive list-making these days, later is probably better. More time to cool off, get some perspective, and spend time with any records I might've underrated during the year. Or not, we'll see.

What I do want to tell you about in this post (so why don't I just tell you already, right?) is New Year's Eve. That's breaking news, so let's steal one of those sirens from that ol' Murdoch wannabe Drudge, shall we?

There we go! Anyway,  on New Year's Eve I got to spin records at my favorite local music venue, Vaudeville Mews, with local pub trivia night master Bob Nastanovich, also known as the guy who has the most fun onstage during Pavement concerts.  Pavement has been one of my favorite bands since 10th grade, so up there on the screen this reads to me like something that should seem like a big deal. But Bob is pretty much the most down-to-earth guy around, so what it really felt like was just a couple of dudes drinking for free and praying their turntables didn't give off an irritating buzz because their grounding wire was fraying (Bob) or send off weird droning quasi-dubstep wooshes because for some reason the table was vibrating (me). I also started a ridiculously high number of records at the wrong speed, 33 when it was 45 or else vice versa, I think Bob might know the exact tally.

We started testing out our gear a little after 8 ("What, you guys don't have a mixer?") and for the first few hours there was basically nobody in the bar, so Bob and I just went back and forth playing whatever we felt like. Suddenly, not long before midnight, the place was just packed, to the point where you had to switch from plucking out obscurities that seemed to jibe with what Bob had just played (or you had just played) to, y'know, Michael Jackson. Which, I love Michael Jackson, but that's a whole different thing! We had a couple of microphones, too, and Bob was nice enough to do the countdown when midnight came (he was playing New Order's "Temptation," and then I segued into the Prince song that is the title of this post, which I thought to myself was particularly appropriate this year because of the Maya end-of-the-world thing and also because after all these tumultuous years 1999 really does suggest a time period when you'd have a super fun party).

Bob ended up having to leave around 1 a.m., which was cool but meant I would now have to pick all the records myself, and play them on my single turntable with its missing counterweight measure and fend off dudebros requesting the Rolling Stones or lady dudes asking me to "play something I know" like for example that MGMT record I was gonna buy earlier that day if they had it at Zzz Records if I had had time to stop by Zzz Records. Luckily, a couple of our Brooklyn friends and their family members had come out to Vaudeville Mews, including a guy with actual, I mean actual, DJing experience who had advised me on my purchase of a new turntable earlier in the week, the one and only David Bacon though not the DJ David Bacon that comes up when I Googled that name just now. So he was able to help steer me toward the good stuff and keep the records playing steadily as the crowd died down and eventually closing time came at 2 a.m. There are a whole lot of other funny stories I started to type just now but I just deleted them, because this isn't Pitchfork Reviews Reviews and anyway it's good to save something to tell each other over beers. You've gotta see the baby!

Here's what we played: (as best as I can tell from the hurried notes I took with the iPhone's "Notes" app)

WINTER (THE CONCERT PREVIEW)

SPIN cover boys Das Racist returned to Iowa City. @heems

Been a second but I wanted to make sure I got at least one post in while it was still technically October. Posting could be even lighter in the weeks and months ahead, but for those few of you who check this page regularly, you can always see links to new reviews and other long-form writing in the right-hand column there. And yes, I realize those have been coming more slowly recently, too, but there's plenty of my stuff at SPIN.com every morning these days if you're interested.

I stood very far back for Neon Indian in Ames.

It's probably too late already but there's a really strong local show tonight at Vaudeville Mews. Ames bands Mumford's and Wheelers are holding their 7" release party, with Ames' own Volcano Boys and former Ames man and now downtown Des Moines resident Patrick Tape Fleming (of the Poison Control Center) opening.

Kreayshawn #Ames #feltold #didnthateGucciGucci

Other upcoming stuff I'm looking forward to below the jump: Wilco! Lydia Loveless! Kinky Friedman! Bob Seger! Reel Big Fish! The Lemonheads! Meat Puppets! Big Sean! Patrick Stump! The triumphant return of the Autumn Project! Plus, I'm still working on my third-quarter report (more like third trimester at this point, I realize!) but I posted my latest round of eMusic radio station tracks at the very bottom of this page, too -- lots of music I really like on there, although it's limited to stuff that's (a) available on eMusic and (b) somehow in my mind justifiable within a loose definition of my eMusic station's "indie rock" mandate.

Pretty Lights, Val Air #mademefeelevenolderthankreayshawn

Hey, Chet Boom, if I'm forgetting some shows this time, just tell me!

No seriously #prettylights #somehowgirltalksurelyistoblame

EARS RINGING, TEETH CLICKING

Grandma, drill little holes into my eyelids...

On Friday night, Canadian electronic pop act Purity Ring played the late show at Vaudeville Mews. It was only the second tour date for the duo of 23-year-old singer Megan James and 20-year-old 21-year-old (that night was his birthday) beatmaker Corin Roddick, after a stop in Champaign, Ill., the night before, but they were already having a big day. That morning, Pitchfork (full disclosure: one of the publications I write for) ran an interview with the band under the website's buzz-generating "Rising" tag. It was the first time I'd been able to find key information on James and Riddick, such as their names, or the fact that they're originally from Edmonton but now live in Halifax and Montreal, respectively. Along with the article, Pitchfork also shared "Belispeak," which is only the third publicly available song from the group. But those first two songs, "Ungirthed" and "Lofticries"-- the two sides of a 7" that has long since sold out-- were already almost ridiculously impressive, combining the woozy, bass-heavy wobble of Southern hip-hop with the eerie lyrics and pitch-warped vocals of futuristic Swedish duo the Knife to create a new kind of head-nodding, captivating dream-pop. And Purity Ring will be joining another band that evolved from nebulous blogger praise into a pair of legitimately satisfying (and, in the case of 2009's Psychic Chasms, somewhat zeitgeist-capturing) albums, Alan Palomo's Neon Indian, on tour this fall. So getting an early glimpse of them at a small venue here in Des Moines, away from any annoying blogger's crappy phone camera but my own, was a real treat.

Purity Ring didn't disappoint. Sure, there were the expected hiccups, such as the fact that the volume was way too low, so that during quiet moments you could sometimes hear outdoor DJ Alex Brown's reggae wafting in through the door. And I definitely can't tell you the lyrics or much else of interest about any of the new songs we heard; they all sound pretty much like the three we've already heard, and for now, that's wonderful-- we could definitely use a whole album like this. But what I can tell you is that Purity Ring's live show, in keeping with its releases so far, feels like the product of far more forethought than we'd typically expect from such a young band. It turned out that my crappy phone camera was almost useless, because the band performed mostly in the dark, with intermittent stuttering flashes of onstage lights. They played in front of their own big, multi-colored backdrop-- which I don't remember much about, sorry-- with James on one side, roaming the stage and threatening to bang on a giant gong, while Roddick was on the other side of the stage hunched over a variety of electronics. The turnout was light, but passionate, all assembled up in front, even bartender Clint Curtis, who usually hates everything but that night was front row center waving his hand in the air. Purity Ring played the three songs we know, James' sweet lilt transmogrifying into a goblin groan over Roddick's shuddering rhythms. They played a few songs we didn't know. And when it was over, we cried out for an encore. As with Tennis when that band played here well in advance of its own album, James was forced to admit the group just didn't have any more songs. Basemint Design was on hand selling a Purity Ring poster, and the band itself had brought tank tops, but no records yet (a split 7" with Braids is due next month on Fat Possum). I bought a poster, and a tank top, and then the nice folks from Basemint Design were kind enough to call me back over so I could exchange my tank top for Purity Ring's one remaining T-shirt. #wearitwithpride

The headliner of the early show, metal band Nachtmystium, unfortunately canceled.

Purity Ring, slightly more visible here.

Eagle-eyed reader and Des Moines' own king of the mustache Shane O'Brien reminds me of another glaring omission from my recent list of upcoming shows: Rap trio Das Racist plays the Blue Moose in Iowa City on October 21. I still need to get tickets, but I definitely plan to be there, and maybe even head up to Chicago the next day for a Northwestern football game if I'm lucky.

Christopher the Conquered

I also had the great pleasure and privilege of getting to play records a couple of nights in the past week. The first was outdoors at Vaudeville Mews' PBR Bar on Saturday night-- huge thanks to Ladd Askland for booking me and to T.J. Wood, who (good for him, terrible for us) will be moving to New Orleans shortly, for putting up with me and for keeping me supplied with Sazerac. (Another upcoming date: T.J.'s Last Stand takes place Saturday, September 10, at the Vaud, with the Powerplant, Wolves in the Attic, Dustin Smith & the Sunday Silos, Gadema, and DJ Richie Daggers.) And then, on Tuesday night, the Poison Control Center's Patrick Tape Fleming held his birthday party at the Vaudeville Mews, with really fun sets from out-of-town indie-poppers Fishboy and their Sam Cooke-quoting, accordion-toting member Googleplexia, plus locals Christopher the Conquered, Wolves in the Attic, Derek Lambert and the Prairie Fires, and, in a rare appearance, January Rabbit. Between sets, I got to go upstairs and spin records. Thanks so much to Patrick for asking me to participate, to Logan Christian on sound for all his help, and to Brody for working the bar downstairs.

After the jump, full track lists of my sets, with links to streams:

SOMETHING ABOUT THE SUMMER

Bratty punk duo Slutever played the Mews last week, were fun.

There have been some noteworthy shows around here recently that I wasn't able to give enough attention on the blog, such as Mantis Pincers' tape release party and Bright Eyes' weirdly belated Des Moines debut. And there should be some interesting stuff coming up before it gets too cold-- off the top of my head, my potential highlights: New York indie-poppers the Drums, mysterious electronic poppers Purity Ring (who are also touring with Neon Indian, and whose "Ungirthed" 7" I really wish I had bought before it sold out), the Seed of Something's tape release party, Blink-182 and My Chemical Romance (just because), Yelawolf, Explosions in the Sky, maybe Pretty Lights or Bassnectar (dubsteppy dudes), Gillian Welch.

Oh yeah, and I'm DJing outside at the PBR bar a second time on Aug. 27, which is free; I'll also be DJing inside between sets Aug. 30 for Patrick Tape Fleming's birthday party, headlined by Fishboy, a night that will be a highlight for sure, my record selections notwithstanding...

As always, please don't hesitate to tell me what I'm missing!

UPDATE: The indefatigable Chet Boom has reminded me I forgot about Ames and Grinnell. Which is a pretty big omission, considering the M Shop in Ames is getting Cymbals Eat Guitars (with Hooray for Earth, who I recently reviewed for eMusic) and Braids, and Grinnell College is bringing Dan Deacon, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Bass Drum of Death, and Dam-Funk, among others.

AS WE DROVE ACROSS THE RIVER INTO WESTERN ILLINOIS

Slanted and enchanted.

It's been an eventful several weeks, not that you'd know it by my recent posting around here. Since Des Moines' own 80/35 Music Festival on July 4 weekend, I've been to Chicago twice, first for the Pitchfork Music Festival and then this past weekend for Lollapalooza (which I'd actually never been to before).

What direction should we choose?

At Pitchfork, I wrote a quick little thing about tUnE-YarDs, but the real highlight for me was Deerhunter, who, OK, I'm definitely a huge fanboy for,  but the way they'd just string maybe three of their songs together and then stretch them out into space-rock jams, confident the crowd would go along with them but not totally oblivious to audience reaction like the ultra-boring Animal Collective a night earlier, well, it was just fantastic, and singer/guitarist Bradford Cox didn't really say much, but at one point I remember him complaining about those "fucking crypto-fascists," which was already hilarious and the kind of thing you want your noise-rock icons to say, but then he followed it by adding, "I don't know what that means; I was just trying to sound smart." Fleet Foxes, who headlined the second night, were also awesome, every bit as amazing as on record-- such gorgeous harmonies, and it felt like every song they picked was one I liked more than the last. "Oh, man, I don't think it's going to get better than that. Oh, wait, THIS song? I love this song!"

La cocaina no es buena para su salud.

At Lollapalooza, I was there as a member of the press, covering the event with the hard-working, very cool team from SPIN magazine. They'd all done this together before at Bonnaroo, but were kind enough to welcome me into the fold. Skin-reddening sun, wallet-destroying rain, Pete Wentz: I saw it all. For SPIN.com, I wrote about Kid Cudi, Arctic Monkeys, the Cars, Lia Ices, Titus Andronicus, Lykke Li, Beirut, Local Natives, Mayer Hawthorne, Friendly Fires, Disappears, Ratatat, A Perfect Circle, White Lies, Foster the People, Naked and Famous, Ryan Leslie, and Crystal Castles. (I guess I'd especially recommend the posts on Beirut, Local Natives, Crystal Castles, Titus Andronicus, Foster the People, and Lykke Li, in that order.)

Sweat drips from your pores like the falls of Niagara. 

As of today, I can also share an online radio station that eMusic has allowed me to put together. The genre is nominally "indie rock," but they've kindly let me take a pretty expansive view of that genre, encompassing electronic music, hip-hop, and some local favorites along with archetypal indie bands. There was other stuff I might've included, because not every label is in eMusic's catalogue these days, but I think there's still a lot here to enjoy. The songs are on shuffle, but you can see the full selection after the jump:

DON'T BE SHY

This happened.

So I DJed-- believe it or not, for the first time ever-- on Saturday night at the bar in the alley outside my favorite downtown Des Moines music venue, Vaudeville Mews. The space is actually called the PBR bar, because Pabst Blue Ribbon sponsored its renovation (and my DJing gig, too!). Apparently, the Mews sells the most PBR in all of Iowa, which I guess is a distinction of some sort. Anyway, thank you so much to T.J. Wood, Ladd Askland, and Vaudeville Mews for making this happen, to Bob N. for sharing his turntable (it turned out I only used mine), to the Poison Control Center for not one but two typically amazing sets (something like the 265th and 266th of their "never-ending tour"), and to all my wonderful friends who came out and danced.

Here's the setlist (though please note, a few of these I didn't play in their entirety):

THINGS HAVE CHANGED

Huge, huge thanks to friend (and professional graphic designer) Emily Phipps for the new Des Noise banner.

She also provides all the graphics for another local site, the great Nothing Gets Crossed Out.