So, like I said earlier, these Armen Proletarian sets are a rare occurrance. A lot of this is because we didn't have enough time to put in the amount of practice that we figured such a set would require and because lugging four turntables and three mixers to a club is a major drag. This time around, we decided just to play off-the-cuff without any major practice sessions. I think this is because I successfully argued that every time I come up with this mix and practice it until it's seemingly perfect, one of the songs will be a total floor-clearer and thus ruin my entire night. Better to just follow the crowd, I say.
We didn't need to follow the crowd last night because we were just playing in between bands so we were there more to help create an atmosphere than to start a freak-pit. We also lightened the load by bringing three turntables and one mixer. We set up inside a bus-shaped alcove in the Sugar Shack that looked like the Mystery Machine. No kidding. It even had a steering wheel.

That's Juansitive, unofficial third member of Armen Proletarian. Note the steering wheel behind him.

This is Carlos. Note the Scoobylicious decor inside the booth. This is, by far, the best designed show space in town right now.
Violent Vickie opened with a performance piece based on substitute teaching. It was very entertaining and the brand new instrumental number she performed at the end was amazing with a very minimal, Kompakt Records sort of feel to it.
I would tell you about Luna Maia's set, but Estelle and I managed to get locked out of the space and missed it.
Dahlia was great, perhaps even better than I had anticipated. She has a dynamic stage presence and the raspy tones in her voice carried across the room with great strength. If you are going to Hang the DJs tonight, make sure you get there early enough to catch her set. It's going to be out of control. Estelle and I already decided that we're going to head out to Il Corral on Monday to see her play again.
This is a picture Carlos took of Dahlia:

More Dahlia Action.



Here's the setlist.
Grace Jones-- Slave to the Rhythm
Dopplereffekt-- Scientist
The Rapture-- Sister Saviour (Tiefschwarz Mix)
Joi and Jorio- Mind Control
Sin-- So Sad (Abe Duque Mix)
Total Coelo-- Dracula's Tango
Lopazz-- Blood (Tiefschwarz Mix)
Sieg Uber Die Sonne-- Love is OK (Ricardo Villalobos Mix)
Depeche Mode-- Precious (Michael Mayer Balaeric Mix)
Rex the Dog-- We Live in Daddy's Car
Star You Star Me feat. Erlend Oye-- A Place in My Heart (Jori Hulkkonen Mix)
DK7-- Slipstream
Smash TV-- Queen of Men
LFO v. Fuse-- Loop
Donna Summer-- I Got Your Love (Ralphi Rosario Mix)
Ellen Allien-- Alles schen (Klick Martini Bros. Mix)
Madonna-- Let It Will Be (Paper Faces Mix)
Oscar and Ralph Falcon-- Darkbeat
Ricardo Villalobos-- Easy Lee (Smith and Hack Mix)
Slack-- Painkiller
Time Zone-- World Destruction
A2-- Do You Like the Way You Feel When You Shake
Depeche Mode-- A Pain That I'm Used To (Jaques Lu Cont Dub)
Trendoid-- Trendification
Lee Coombs & David Phillips vs. Bauhaus-- Kick in the Eye
The Fatheads-- Calling All Clubs

Mary's blog entry about Peach Snapple and a fear of singing really hit home. I'm so terrified of singing that if someone asks me what a song sounds like, I will say I forgot even if it's a favorite and I have every note memorized. Having always likened my voice to that of a French waif slowly dying of consumption, I think I have a very sound excuse for wanting to avoid the public humiliation of singing in public. However, I now have to ask, how many well-established vocalists are actually petrified of having to get up onstage and belt out something? From what I have read, Andy Partridge is and, hence, most of us have never had the chance to see XTC live.

We have had this page on My Space since last year, when Kar3n, Juan, Carlos and I were throwing parties at the Parlour. If you are interested, add us as your friend. I respond to all the emails and Juan messes around with the design. We'll let you know about website updates, club gigs and other related happenings.

Two years ago, Carlos told me about this dream he had involving an Armenian guy working some terrible job during the Depression. The description, which involved a newspaper cap and suspenders as well as, I believe, a handlebar moustache, reminded me of these old pictures I had seen of my great-grandfathers during the 1930s. They lived in cities (the Boyle Heights section of LA on my dad's side of the family and Cleveland, Ohio on my mom's side), worked on rubbish routes and steel mills, respectively, and bore the most serious of gazes in all of their photos. The guy in Carlos' dream had a name, Armen Proletarian, and we thought that might make a nice moniker for our two-person DJ sets.
Armen Proletarian sets are very rare. In fact, in two years, we have only performed twice (once at the Smell and once as part of a fundraiser in MacArthur Park). Our third performance will be this Friday in support of Luna Maia, Violent Vickie and Dahlia. We will be playing in between performances and our sets will consist of Carlos and I trying to cram as many songs in as possible.
This show will take place at Volition @ Sugar Shack 4402 W. Pico (near Crenshaw) and starts at 9:00 p.m.

On a related topic: We're really excited that we get to be a part of the first in Dahlia's string of Los Angeles performances. She will be playing several dates over the course of the next week, and we hope you can catch her at least once. Here are the gigs:
4/14-- Dahlia with Violent Vickie, Luna Maia, DJs Armen Proletarian @ Volition @ Sugar Shack
4/15-- Dahlia with Gravy Train @ Hang the DJs
4/17-- Dahlia with Booberg, Explogasm and Totally Radd!!! @ Il Corral
4/21-- Dahlia with DJs Bobby M. and Rudy Bleu at Diskoteka

Last night marked the first time that I have ever played a proper club gig outside of Los Angeles (I've played a couple private parties in the IE and San Diego, respectively, but not a club). Hell, in ten years of DJing, this was one of the few times I've played outside the hipster ghetto extending from WeHo to Downtown (never played either Valley or the South Bay and have played on the Westside twice).
The first thing I noticed about Riverside is that it's far, but not too far. The cd in the car didn't lapse during the course of the drive, but we were driving for miles, passing Buena Park and Chino Hills and thinking "How much longer?" Then we hit the Magnolia exit and circled around the El Torito/Red Lobster/Black Angus block before I called B. Monsoon on his cell and found out that the club is actually behind El Torito.
The second thing I noticed about Riverside is that, simply put, the crowd is fucking awesome. I haven't seen a club that packed and out of control since Bang! in 2001, when brand new songs by bands like Ladytron and Le Tigre were forcing people to dance on the tables. Unlike Los Angeles, the Riverside crowd does not stand around and wait for an 1980s flashback that they are too young to remember or Britney Spears. In fact, the 80s songs didn't go over well at all, save for "Blue Monday," which is perfect for any occasion. This was a crowd that craved newer sounds and that makes for a great gig.
Here is the set, deciphered from my chicken scratch notes made while running back and forth between turntables, cd players and folks with requests (most of which were played, save for the guy who asked me if I "even know who Brian Eno is"):
Franz Ferdinand-- Matinee (Headman Mix)
Pet Shop Boys-- West End Girls (Bobby O. version)
She Wants Revenge-- Tear You Apart
Bloc Party-- Two More Years (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Fallout Boy-- Dance Dance (Tommie Sunshine Mix)
The Bravery-- Fearless (Richard X Mix)
New Order-- Blue Monday
Depeche Mode-- A Pain That I'm Used To (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)
Le Tigre-- After Dark (A Touch of Class Mix)
White Label-- Benny Benassi "Satisfaction" vs. "Short Dick Man"
Digitalism-- Digitalism in Cairo
Mylo v. Scissor Sisters-- Drop the Numb
Audio Bullys-- We Don't Care (Extended Version)
Dead 60s-- Riot on the Radio
Dexy's Midnight Runner-- Geno
The Specials-- Gangsters
IMA Robot-- Black Jetta
Panic! At the Disco-- The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage (Tommie Sunshine Mix)
Starsailor-- Four to the Floor (Jacques Lu Cont Mix)
Stardust-- Music Sounds Better with You
Madonna-- Sorry (PSB Mix)
The Killers-- Somebody Told Me (Mylo Mix)
Goldfrapp-- Ooh La La (Benny Benassi Mix)
Royksopp-- What Else Is There? (Thin White Duke Mix)
Annie-- Heartbeat (Alan Braxe Mix)
Flat Pack-- Sweet Child O' Mine (Mylo Mix)
James-- Laid

Of course, after I finished, I realized that there were more things that I was dying to play, but didn't (Editors, Delays, Melody Club, The Presets, The Glass). That always happens and it was definitely an incredible night regardless of what I forgot to play. Thanks to Mantastique for making this happen.

Aron's Records has officially closed its doors.

I think I saw the cash registers for sale outside in the store parking lot.

Once upon a time, there was this American synthpop band called Ministry that sounded oddly British, as if the band were signed by Mute, although they started out on Wax Trax! (I suppose, not a huge stretch from Mute) and then ended up on Arista. One day, the band decided that the Depeche Mode vibe wasn't doing much for them and embraced its inner metalhead. Then the band blew up with such albums as The Land of Rape and Honey, A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. At roughly the same time, as the 1980s edged into the 1990s, a German industrial band called KMFDM, also signed to Wax Trax!, appropriated a riff from Slayer's Reign in Blood album and called it "Godlike." It was a club hit for much of the 1990s.
While I am a fan of Ministry's synthpop incarnation (if you don't have With Sympathy, look through the used bins at your local record store), I'll agree with most in that Ministry came into its own whilst dealing with its metal-industrial complex. Case in point: "Thieves," off of A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, is one of the most brutal, yet oddly danceable songs you will ever hear. Similarly, I personally believe that "Godlike" is KMFDM's best single, a very creative way to get the hescher's on the dancefloor. However, these two groups inevitably begat the trend for industrial-metal, which plagued the 1990s and culminated in the popularity of bands like Rammstein and Orgy, who managed to butcher the best dance single ever recorded. Industrial-metal, on the whole, was total crap. There really is no other way to put it. When you are moving to a really intense dance number for three verses and two rounds of a chorus and it is suddenly interrupted by a Pantera-esq guitar deluge that just seems to be there without any sense of purpose, it's akin to walking to a party in a new pair of shoes and then stepping into a heaping pile of dog shit.
Now, I humbly submit that if industrial-metal had played out according to the "Thieves"/"Godlike" model, it might have sounded like Millionaire. On Paradisiac, the band's sort-of-new album (it came out in Europe last year), the guitars are rough, the beats are erratic but danceable and the synths accent the songs, as opposed to driving 3/4 of each number. Certainly, Millionaire will never be defined as industrial-metal, but the sound seems to incorporate the spirit of mid-career Ministry and a still-young KMFDM than any of its direct descendents (or even later offerings from those two bands).

As usual, I have no idea what will be played tonight, but here are some new things that really excite me:
Digitalism "Digitalism in Cairo" (A must-have for all Cure fans who aren't remix-phobic and I must thank Paulie for that tip)
Lee Coombs and David Phillips v. Bauhaus "Kick in the Eye"
Delays "Valentine" (Thanks to P3dro for the tip, although I still can't find that Mylo mix either).
Flat Pack "Sweet Child O' Mine" (Mylo Mix)
Plus, lot more, but, like I said, I don't know what will be played, so just come to the club.

I'm starting to think that all clubs should adopt the Moroccan decor of Blu Monkey Lounge. Moroccan decor means big, plush sofas with tons of pillows and that is always a bonus, particularly in a club as small as Blu Monkey. Plush sofas provide ample space for people-watching.
Observation 1:
Carlos: "I think those are trannies."
Liz: "No, they're just Gwen Stefani fans."
Observation 2:
Carlos: "I thought that girl had cauliflower ear. It's just a flower in her hair"
Liz: "No shit, I was thinking the exact same thing."
Observation 3:
Liz: "That's Apparat."
Carlos: "How can you tell?"
Liz: "Only one of the performers would walk into a club with a Carl's Jr. bag and he's taller than the others."
Seriously, has anyone else noticed that European DJ/producer-types are, on the whole, way taller than their American counterparts?
Oh, and I was right. It was Apparat.
Observation 4:
Carlos: "You should really get a whiff of the patchouli on the dancefloor."
Liz: "Um, no thanks."
Let's make this clear, I hate patchouli. The smell nauseates me. Yet, it is completely inescapable at any electronic event. It is also inescapable at underground hip-hop parties and goth clubs. At the latter, though, patchouli mingles with clove smoke and that is by far the worst possible combination.
The sound at Blu Monkey is nice and full. Things that would come across as a tinny mess at most LA establishments (such as echoes on the high-hat) sound clean here. However, the sound and accompanying projection screen kept crashing, like there was the one fuse that insisted on blowing every twenty minutes. This could have caused for chaos, but it didn't (at least not with the crowd, blown fuses can probably drive even the most laid-back hippy of a DJ to madness). Everyone on the bill played well and Apparat, well, we're talking about part of the team behind Shitkatapult Records, which is right up there with Bpitch and Ghostly on the list of electronic labels that make me drool. In my mind, Apparat could be nothing other than incredible and, once again, I was right. Do yourself a favor and get some of his music and, while you're at it, get Orchestra of Bubbles, which, if you haven't been paying attention to posts here for the past two months, is his collaboration with Ellen Allien.

Last night, I stood in front of the mirror as part of the pre-club ritual of self-examination. I analyzed my outfit briefly just to make sure that I don't look like a complete trainwreck. Then I came to a shocking realization. This outfit-- black sweater that is a little too large, black kilt, black leggings and black ballet flats-- might just be the same outfit that I wore the Friday night that my barely-teenage friends and I snuck into Pump Up the Volume at the Granada Hills UA. I can't confirm this, as I haven't seen any of those girls since high school graduation, but I am pretty sure of this. I am also fairly certain that the red lipstick and black eyeliner combo was part of the Liz package at that point in time. The hair is different, though. I had a perm then, something I will never repeat. The fifteen-year cycle of fashion is fairly frightening and something that is difficult to recognize before one reaches the latter-half of the 20s.
The day before, I stood outside of a building on Cahuenga (say it with me: kuh-wang-uh) with another journalist waiting for our producer and a girl walked passed me and smiled. We were wearing nearly identical outfits: black sweaters (the staple of the ex-goth wardrobe); gray skirts; black leggings and flats. She knows what I know, leggings are awesome and we should all rejoice in the fact that they are back in fashion.
Leggings are especially fierce when worn with ballet flats because you can feel like a dancer, even if your posture is terrible and you're nowhere near lithe. Dancers always look fierce. For proof, look up pics of Martha Graham. Ballet flats, however, are the worst possible shoes anyone can own, especially if you are like me and have weak ankles and flat feet. They are terrible on the back and fall apart quickly. If you understand this, then you realize that the best bet is to get your ballet flats from Payless for $10 and then wear them sparingly.
The girl who sang on 11hz Robot's Arcade Fire cover (re-composed on Gameboys) wore ballet flats. Hers were hot pink and looked great against her black-and-white striped tights. Striped legwear should be the next big thing (Rivka from Mad Happy was also wearing stripes, although hers were in an equally cool multi-colored pattern), but that probably won't happen. Back in the pre-Hot Topic days, a lot of my friends would drive out to Hollywood to spend $18 on a pair of striped tights. I had a secret, though. Since striped tights were only worn by teenage misfits, they hardly sold at the cheerleader-friendly mall store Contempo Casuals. That said, one could always find striped tights in a variety of colors for $3.
Shall we move on from fashion issues? I think the answer is yes.
Before the show, I hung around with Mad Happy and a few of their friends, chatting and listening to the jazz band play on the first floor of the Grand Star. One of their friends had just moved out to LA from Tulsa, so I gave him the lowdown on the city. They're all really interesting people and managed to spark an idea for a story that could possibly come to fruition in the future. I found out that Octavius, the promoter of Data Age, is also the new co-host for Demolisten on KXLU. That said, I ended up running into Fred, who has hosted the show for years, later on that night. He told me about Explogasm's gig the previous night. Apparently, the band was invited to headline a house party in La Puente. Midway through the first song, a police helicopter hovered above the backyard and several cars showed up to break up the bash. I tried to picture what a cop might think looking down from the helicopter to see a giant fake penis and a guy running around in tights and a Santa Clause beard, amongst other ridiculous costumes.
Data Age itself is a good time, fairly mellow with a focus on band performance, as opposed to dancing. Most of the performers were of the laptop and modified Casio variety, churning out music that was both fairly challenging and accessible. In case you didn't catch it earlier, I was quite taken by 11hz Robot's cover of "Wake Up," as the filtered vocals gave it a This Mortal Coil sort of vibe. Intercom and Moscow Coup Attempt also produced some fine music. I didn't get to see Letting Up Despite Great Faults.
As has become usual, I really enjoyed Mad Happy's performance. They write some incredibly catchy songs and have some killer beats. Plus, watching them dance with each other, shifting their intense gazes between each other and the crowd is really endearing. I hope that eventually they can put on a full-blown stage show with DJs and big lights. In the meantime, though, you can catch them Monday night at Il Corral. San Diego people can catch them Tuesday at Scolari's Office and Fresno folks will have the chance to get Mad Happy on Wednesday at Tokyo Garden. In addition, if there is anyone from Colorado reading this, the band will be opening for Dressy Bessy in Boulder on 4/22.