BubbaTUNESday
METALBESTOS - The Best Of Orange Television
Just in time for Christmas - the very best of electronic band Orange Television, which for those not in the know is where Swivek got their start. Patrick English and his assortment of extras bring fun and exciting thrills to electro bliss. Now collected is 15 songs from the last ten years of music. I co-wrote "Thrust" but that's only one reason to download this for free!
There's something here for everybody - pissy politics in "Trim Your Bush" and "Armchair Fashionistas", brooding emotional drama and humor in "Cats" and super fun with female vocalists on "Which Of These Teens Is My Baby's Daddy" and "Fuck Me For The Crime Of The Century." Download it! You will love it.
METALBESTOS - The Best Of Orange Television
(DCD1002; Deedle Records)
01. METALBESTOS
02. DON'T SIT TIGHT
03. THRUST
04. RADIO IS DEAD WITHOUT US
05. DILDO
06. CATS
07. ORANGE LIPSTICK
08. TRIM YOUR BUSH!
09. PALOUSE
10. WHICH OF THESE TEENS IS MY BABY'S DADDY
11. A BOY, A BOY
12. FUCK ME FOR THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY
13. ARMCHAIR FASHIONISTAS
14. BLUE MOVIE
15. MACHINE SEX - LICK THE MACHINE
Download
ORANGE TELEVISION - METALBESTOS Labels: Orange Television, Patrick English, Swivek
A Few Of My Favorite Things
Here we are again celebrating the things that I love - so let's start with two of my favorite things - food and TV...
Last night was the season premiere of
The New Adventures Of Old Christine, and I'm sure it's been one of my favorites before but I frickin' love this show. Julia Louis Dreyfuss is HI-larious and I don't know why, but I totally relate to her 40 something divorcee, plus Wanda Sykes is in it and everyone on the show is great! It makes me laugh out loud like so many other sitcoms do not do.
Then there's
Palermo's Italian Restaraunt in Los Feliz, which I always forget until someone invites me to it for a celebration. Yesterday was a birthday celebration for one of my pals at the restaraunt. The food is sooo good, the atmosphere is fun and the neighborhood is great. Right in the heart of the Los Feliz area, it's two blocks from where I lived when I first moved to LA.
Which brings us to our last favorite of the week -
Seattle, Washington. How does that relate to a random pizzaria in LA?? Well the apartment I had when I first moved to LA and lived just two blocks away from that pizzeria was shared with my pal Brian. Actually it was his apartment and I just crashed there, but he moved to Seattle and tomorrow the Leivas and I are heading up to the land of the Space Needle for a reunion with
Brian and my pal
Patrick from
Orange Television. I spent all my time in the world known as Couer d'Alene, Idaho with Brian and Patrick. Patrick got me started into making my own music and helped create Swivek and this will be the first time I will have seen him since I moved in 2000. That's a lot of time and it's going to be one hell of a time... oh and I've been to Seattle many times and no generally love it too - but it's the people I'm meeting in Seattle that's truly one of my favorite things.
Labels: Favorite Things, Los Feliz, Orange Television, Palermo's, Patrick English, Seattle
Video Killed The Would Be Star
So last night I decided to take the old webcam and make myself a video - luckily I'm a musician so I had something to lipsynch to - not that it matters as nothing really matches up and it's really just an experiment gone hysterically wrong... None the less,
Swivek has made a video and because I have no shame I am sharing it with you. Perhaps I should've had that ring on my finger before showing this to the Leivas as he insists I have lost my mind...
You'll laugh, you'll hack - it's the very first
Swivek video
"FLIRT"Check it:
GET THE FULL SWIVEK EXPERIENCE AND DOWNLOAD THE ENTIRE INTO THE BLUE album at
our website - simply CLICK HERELabels: Flirt, My Life In La La Land, Orange Television, Patrick English, Swivek
TUNESday - New Swivek Single!!!
Well I promised a summer single and I delivered - I give you the new Swivek single
"Flirt"... a daring and touching true story of a slut who tried to flirt with my man, oh yes, you see how I put my heart on the line for you, my fans...
Patrick English of Orange Television took our rocking jaunt through sassiness and added his own touches to create our first full collaboration of sorts, with lines like
"I could wipe the floor with you but what good would it prove?" and Patrick's intense arrangements, I'm sure you're going to be wiping the floor with your jaw...
Also included are two brand new songs I wrote, a rollicking Gossip-y touched ditty called
"I Told You" and to counter act the bitchy title track, a sensitive little guitar ballad (I know!) called "
Deep Inside" and the whole EP knocks off with an insanely fun remix of
"Intensity Is Recommended" from our
darkness + light album - the Flo Castleberry (I know!) remix was done by the one and only Patrick.
So run, I mean it, run over to
http://www.flexiblerecords.com/ and download our latest and greatest single "Flirt" - after all, it's all for you.
Labels: Flexible Records, Orange Television, Patrick English, Swivek
That Flexible Sound
The greatest
internet indie label Flexible Records has just released some brand new
CDs by some of my favorite indie bands - and it's my duty as not only these bands' label mate but as a fan to talk a little bit about these brand new releases of music flexibility...
This month there are three new releases, a single by
ASP, which is a gal named Amy from Idaho who knows her way around moody
electro music, another single by a band called
Jaguar who seem to know their way around a Casio and a full
lengthed album of essential sounds by
Warmer called 1:1, so let's take a look shall we?
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Asp - Talk (single 2007)
Talk is the teaser single from the new album being recorded by Amy Willis aka ASP. She's had a few releases on Flexible including a
gothy groove of a vampire song on the last Halloween compilation. Her music is always enjoyable and tangible but I think
"Talk" with its minimal funk
electro groove is the best song she's done so far. Mixed in with the
uber cool beats is her
trancey vocal take where she meanders in and out with simple words of 'I want to talk to you.' In a truly cool little option, Amy has invited every musician and would be musician of the world to
download tracks from her new album and you can remix them yourself. She'll pick the ones she likes best and they may end up on the new album. If things keep going like this, I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up being a bright star in the
electro indie scene. The single also contains a remix of "Talk" by our group leader/Flexible guru Patrick English's band Orange Television. You can download the single FOR FREE here:
ASP-Talk single.
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Warmer - 1.1 (2007)
Last year,
Warmer (
Sandpoint, Idaho's Jesse
Gunn) released 1
. to become in some respects different on Flexible Records. The album is a mixture of moody industrial rock and new alternative brushes that included the
excellent "9 To 5" (not to be confused with Dolly of course), and this year he unleashes
1.1, though fairly close in the formula of the first album I am able to completely wrap myself right around this dark cloud of moody songs. Sure, it has the industrial elements of Nine Inch Nails, and Jesse
Gunn's vocals are as equally strong and
foreboding as Mr.
Reznor, but Warmer actually knows about hooks and with each song the hook of it sinks into your soul and not only can you relate to the words, you actually feel them through the music. Using the
excellent tried and true formula of verse/chorus in most songs, he is able to come up with the feelings of angst, anger, disgust, disappointment and the
occasional euphoria without coming off so experimental and moody it's lost on the listener. When Patti Smith took her moody
eclecticism into pop
territory with the
Easter album, she ended up scoring new fans and radio airplay, and when you listen to
1.1 you can't help but think back to spit fire Patti Smith, her convictions are as strong as her music and so are Jesse's. The melody and vocals represented in the outstanding
"Ethanol" conjure up a Red Hot Chili Peppers vibe and the smooth verse/ outrageous chorus formula on
"In The Key Of Drone" works beautifully with the lyrics, some of the best on the album. Another of my
favs,
"The Smells And The Taste" is essentially a sex song and pulls me right into its grips. The music, the vocals, the words all make
1.1 a great album, and add to the fact that Jesse
Gunn actually looks like a rock star, well, I'd say Flexible may have a hit on its hands. The whole album is
excellent and it's been quite a while since I found an album I enjoy from start to finish, and lucky for all of us, it's free! Just go to
Flexible Records and download it and join
Warmer's myspace page. I'm telling you this is good stuff. Maybe if I'm lucky someday I'll collaborate with Jesse, that could make some interesting dents in the Flexible roster.
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Jaguar - Momus single (2007)
Relying very heavily on the now often overlooked Casio sound,
Jaguar comes up with two little bits of musical endeavors that throw me right back to the days of truly being experimental and exciting. I've always wanted to head to a more pop/rock place in my own music but the whole
Swivek sound began in a basement with Patrick English and I working on little loops of
electro bliss and we pulled out that Casio more than once - including doing a cover of Blondie's
"Fade Away & Radiate" (which would've been great if I knew how to sing after having 17 beers). So with each listen to
"Momus" and its b-side
"Would You Describe This Feeling As Warm" I am reminded of those old days in the
Couer d'Alene basement and it just gives me the warm
fuzzies. Download the single here -
Jaguar/Momus.
and though it came out a few months ago, honorable mention has to go to the latest single by the one true punk indie band on the Flexible label,
The Murders, who continually amaze me, with hook after hook, song after song and if I were lucky enough show after show in the
blisterous Idaho world. You can download their latest single
"Porcelain Doll" in all it's Pixie-
ish glory at
Flexible Records as well. The single also includes a live version of a sex song
"White Knuckles." I tell you 2007 never felt so much like 1977 shady
CBGB's as it does with these two songs. For even more Murders their
excellent Galore EP is also available on Flexible.
and stick around in the next couple of days, because I am finally going to do a full up review of the newest
Orange Television album
America The Beautiful Dreamer, which you can also (and should also) download... hop to it and maybe we can discuss the bands together.... I know you're flexible too.
Labels: Amy Willis, ASP, Flexible Records, Jaguar, Jesse Gunn, Orange Televison, OTV, Patrick English, The Murders, Warmer
METALBESTOS - The Best Of Orange Television
