Inbox: Dinky

Sure, we’re always curious to know about an artist’s upcoming release, most recent tour, or arsenal of analog gear, but XLR8R‘s also got a curiosity for quirk. Thus, each week, we email a different artist and find out what makes them tick, in the studio and in life. Now, don’t go within 10 feet of this next artist and her records if you’re armed with abrasive foam window cleaner. It’s Chilean-born techno queen Dinky.

What are you listening to right now?

Portishead, Third.

What’s the weirdest story you ever heard about yourself?

That I slept with Sven Vaeth to get a career in techno.

What band did you want to be in when you were 15?

Depeche Mode.

Worst live show experience?

I was lucky with my live sets, but as a DJ I had a couple of bad [incidents] the first time I was booked abroad in the Dominican Republic, in 1998. It was my second gig and my records were full of dust after the first [set] at the beach. I asked someone if they had window cleaner fluid to clean my records (which works wonders, by the way). They told me, ‘don’t worry, go get ready and we will clean the records for you.’ Instead of cleaning them with normal window fluid–which is not abrasive–they found an abrasive foam which destroyed 70 percent of my records!

I didn’t realize [this] until I started playing. There was no groove left on any of them and they all were sliding off the needle, making this horrible sound. I had to stop after 10 minutes and didn’t get paid. I was more devastated because of the loss of some really good gems than I was from the gig or the money.

Favorite city to play in?

Berlin

What was it like joining the Martha Graham School of Dance?

Exciting. Very challenging and competitive, which I hated, but hey, another dream came true!

What is your favorite thing you own?

My three-step sequencers and my amazing boyfriend!

Name one item of clothing you can’t live without.

My Pashmina; if I don’t have it (especially on flights), I’d get a cold.

What’s cuter: Kittens, penguins, or Scarlett Johansson?

Scarlett, for sure!

What did you always get in trouble for when you were little?

Not much. I was quiet and always liked playing the piano.

Which pop star would you most like to work with?

Justin Timberlake or Thom Yorke.

What’s the last thing you read?

The Sound on Sound’s last issue.

Complete this sentence: In the future…

I don’t think much [about the future], ’cause the present is too good and keeps me busy.

Stupidest thing you’ve done in the last 12 months?

Spill a cup of tea on top of my brand new Elektron machine drum. ):

What’s next?

So many things! My dance album being released October 6 on Vakant, some remixes, and I’m preparing my live set again. But my next big project is my fourth album, which is going in a completely different direction than anything [I’ve done] before. It’s not necessarily a dance album, and will be the biggest challenge for me to date.

Mind – Dinky

MP3: “Mind”

Last Week: Rafter

Valet “Kehaar”

Naked Acid is the second full-length from Portland-based pysch-nymph Honey Owens, who makes music under the name Valet. The album was pieced together over a five-month period in 2006 and takes its inspiration from, among other things, “Haitian Voodoo drumming, various shamanic dreamtime musics, and the Velvet Underground,” Owens said in a press release. It was recorded in mostly single, live takes, with only some sparse additional tracking. On “Kehaar,” the first single, a few reverberated guitar chords outline a stark musical landscape across which a voice fit for a choir meanders alongside. Owens’ drawn out notes are hauntingly beautiful– sometimes high-pitched and angelic, sometimes atonal and eerie. Find your inner shaman with this ethereal track. Lulu McAllister

03 Kehaar

Pop Levi “Never Never Love”

Given that he’s ex-bassist of Ladytron, the electroclash dark horse of Europe, it’s surprising that Pop Levi would come up with an effervescent album about falling in love. “Never Never Love,” off of his second full-length of the same name, opens with a Missy Elliot-style beat that bumps right into Levi’s electrified falsetto vocal staccatos. His light lyrics (“Never never love love love, never never love love love“) bounce teasingly through a sweet melody peppered with hand-claps, bubbles, and edgy rock guitars. Flamboyant and fun—it’s enough to make a Wham! album jealous. Lulu McAllister

Pop Levi – Never Never Love

Fist Fite: Keeping the DIY Flame

Fuck The Shins, Stephen Malkmus, and The Decemberists–for as much as large-room indie rock has been the face of the city over the past half-decade or so, Portland still has DIY in its soul. Bands still play to friends in sweaty basements, albums are still ripped onto spray-painted CD-Rs, parties don’t stop at last call. And the scraggly Fist Fite will be there ’til the last dude gets mauled by the cops at 3 a.m.

To call the members of Fist Fite veterans of the house-show circuit is an understatement. Their previous incarnations as Arcularius and Le Push were beloved in Portland and Olympia, WA, the former home of vocalist/keyboardist Johnnie Monroe and drummer Christian Carmine. After both of those bands ran their course, the duo reformed as Fist Fite, adding bassist Justin Wheeler.

While their sound won’t blow any audiophiles’ minds, it’s undoubtedly fun. Monroe’s voice resembles a drunk, human version of ADULT.’s Nicola Kuperus, and Carmine’s and Wheeler’s abrupt, unpredictable synth-punk underpinnings sound almost custom-tailored for shows in ragged punk houses and dim, smoky bars.

Last year the trio was tapped by Klaxons to open their European tour, but they still barely registered on the indie radar, and their lone album, Downtown Canada, remains a small self-release. Playing to thousands of people “felt really unnatural and awkward,” Monroe says from her front porch in Portland. “You play and you’re done and you don’t have any interaction with the people that are there.”

She recalls opening recently for a band (which will go unnamed here) at the rather shiny, “new Portland” club Doug Fir Lounge. “We got 86ed. Apparently, like, 50 of their beers were gone in, like, a half an hour [in the green room] and they got really pissed,” she says incredulously.

“It’s the least rock ‘n’ roll show I think I’ve ever played,” adds Wheeler.

“I don’t think we’ve ever said ‘no’ to a house show,” Monroe says. “People usually get way more drunker and have way more fun.”

During our discussion, I recall my first interview with this band fondly, a kind of symbol of the old, couldn’t-give-a-fuck Portland. It lasted about 10 hours, starting in a punk bar called The B-side and, later, heading to the band’s recording space in an off-the-map industrial neighborhood by the Willamette River called Linnton. Eventually we wound up beneath an interstate bridge at a riverside bonfire put on Monroe’s bike mob, the 2 Much Bike Posse. Somewhere around this point, I completely lost track of the band. As this city grows and changes almost too quickly to keep up with, it’s good to know there are still keepers of the faith.

Favorite Portland Artist:
Johnnie Monroe: Nice Nice, even though they don’t play that much anymore.

Christian Carmine: Lips and Ribs. Every song that comes out I get really excited about.

Cineplexx Picnic

You may not have heard of Argentinean-born Cineplexx (a.k.a. Sebastian Litmanovich), but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t spent the majority of his 34 years making music. His ninth full-length, Picnic, features simple pop music with little inner complexities (think: The Beach Boys meets Belle and Sebastian). Tracks like “Droga Paliativa” infuse with ’80s style synths and electronic-driven pop, while the title track (which features Half Japanese’s Jad Fair) masterfully layers a folky organ with twitchy guitar and chimes. Like dreamy landscapes sung in Spanish, Litmanovich’s melodies evoke all kinds of emotions.

J Rocc Hosts Stones Throw Podcast

This week, J Rocc is hosting Stones Throw Records podcast 38, which highlights the work of prolific DJ/producer Madlib. The man born Otis Jackson Jr.’s list of aliases is almost as dizzying, as is the amount of work he’s produced, but J Rocc has cherry-picked some of Jackson’s finer offerings and put them together in this 27-minute medley. The podcast moves through a diverse sampler, which includes the Beat Konducta’s funky hip-hop cut, “Gamble on Ya Boy (feat. Defari),” with its upbeat clever dare-you-to-dare-me rhymes, along with Jackson Conti’s Brazilian-tinged music, and the experimental electro-jazz hip-hop of Madvillain, among others.

J Rocc, as Jason Jackson is now most commonly known, first got his feet wet DJing in the mid-’80s with Huntington Beach-based group PSK. From there, he went on to found the influential Beat Junkies (along with members Babu, Melo-D and Rhettmatic) in 1992. Under the Beat Junkies era, J Rocc helped legitimize the use of the turntable as a musical instrument, blending hip-hop with other musical genres and winning the International Turntablist Champion title two years in a row along with his crew.

Photo by B+.

Vivian Girls Ready Tour Dates

What was previously a handful of dates with Crystal Stilts has turned into a full-on tour extravaganza for Vivian Girls. The New York-based band began another round of dates this week, and they’ll be picking up the likes of Dark Meat, Jay Reatard, King Khan, and others to share the stage with along the way.

Meanwhile, on October 7, In the Red will unveil a re-release of Vivian Girls’ self-titled debut album, which was originally pressed up on vinyl and limited to 500 copies. A new 7″, “I Can’t Stay,” will precede the re-release, with a couple new songs the band’s of lo-fi pop loveliness.

Vivian Girls
01. All The Time
02. Such a Joke
03. Wild Eyes
04. Going Insane
05. Tell The World
06. Where Do You Run To
07. Damaged
08. No
09. Never See Me Again

“I Can’t Stay”
01 I Can’t Stay
02 Blind Spot

Dates
09/26 Memphis, TN – Goner Fest
09/27 St. Louis, MO – The Stable#
09/28 Atlanta, GA – The Earl#
09/29 Knoxville, TN – The Pilot Light#
09/30 Charlottesville, VA – Outback Lodge
10/01 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar#
10/03 New York, NY – Rocks Off Concert Cruise%
10/04 Annandale-on-Hudson, NY – Bard College
10/11 Queens, NY – Silent Barn / CD Release Party!
10/12 Boston, MA – Great Scott $
10/13 Danbury, CT – Heirloom Arts Theatre $
10/15 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom $
10/16 Brooklyn, NY – Market Hotel $
10/17 Baltimore, MD – Sonar $
10/18 Philadelphia, PA – The Barbary $
10/19 Washington, DC – Rock And Roll Hotel $
10/26 New York, NY – Santo’s Party House !
11/08 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom &@
11/10 Boston, MA – Paradise &@
11/16 Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex
11/17 San Diego, CA – Casbah
11/18 Los Angeles, CA – The Smell
11/20 San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill
11/22 Portland, OR – Backspace
11/23 Seattle, WA – Nectar Lounge
11/28 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s +
11/30 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom +

# = with TYVEK
% = with DARK MEAT
$ = w/ F***ED UP
& = w/ Deerhunter
@ = w/ Times New Viking
! = w/ Jay Reatard
+ = w/ King Khan

MP3: “Where Do You Run?”

Photo by Austin Warnock.

Summer Song

Here comes Team YACHT. “Summer Song” was originally recorded by Jona Bechtold in his hometown of Portland, OR, and was intended to be a love letter to LCD Soundsystem. Bechtold, along with erstwhile YACHT counterpart Claire L. Evans, intended to release the song for free, but DFA got ahold of it and packaged it up as a four-track single. When it came to making this video, YACHT employed fellow Portland resident Judah Switzer to direct this pastel-tinted banger that features confetti, paint, and lots of dancing. Stay tuned for a full-length album in 2009, and for the truly avid YACHT fans, there’s also this.

Summer Song
A1 Summer Song
A2 I’m in Love with a Ripper (Party Mix)
B1 it’s Boring/You Can Live Anywhere You Want
B2 So Post All ‘Em (Salvia in the Club Remix*

* = iTunes-only track

Gang Gang Dance Plots Tour, Album

Now that they’ve conducted the New York version of this past August’s 88 Boadrum, the members of Gang Gang Dance will return to their own projects, which arrive in October in the form of a new album and a bunch of tour dates.

Saint Dymphna finds the Brooklyn-based group continuing to craft its electronic-flavored indie rock, which has historically translated well into the live setting. After the album’s release on October 21, the band will begin a round of tour dates that start in New York with Of Montreal and end in New York with Rainbow Arabia.

10/24 New York, NY: Santos Party House*
10/28 Toronto, ON: Queen Elizabeth Theatre*
10/30 Boston, MA: Orpheum Theatre*
10/31 Philadelphia, PA: Electric Factory*
11/01 Richmond, VA: The National*
11/03 Chicago, IL: Empty Bottle^
11/04 Minneapolis, MN: Street Entry^
11/05 Milwaukee, WI: Turner Hall^
11/07 Denver, COL Larimer Lounge^
11/08 Salt Lake City, UT: Kilby Court^
11/10 Seattle, WA: The Triple Door^
11/11 Vancouver, BC: Biltmore Cabaret^
11/12 Portland, OR: Berbati’s Pan^
11/14 San Francisco, CA: Bimbo’s 365 Club^
11/15 Los Angeles, CA: El Rey^
11/16 San Diego, CA: The Casbah^
11/17 Tucson, AZ: Plush#
11/20 Ft. Worth, TX: Lola’s#
11/21 Austin, TX: Mohawk
11/22 Baton Rouge, LA: Spanish Moon#
11/24 Atlanta, GA: The Earl
11/25 Chapel Hill, NC: Cat’s Cradle
11/28 Brooklyn, NY: Music Hall of Williamsburg
11/29 New York, NY: Santos House Party

* = w/ Of Montreal
^ = w/ Marnie Stern
# = w/ Rainbow Arabia

The Week in Hip-Hop

The 24th annual DMC’s DJ Battle For World Supremacy and World DJ Finals take place this Friday and Saturday, September 26-27, in London. The battle segment features the U.S.’s defending champion, DJ Shiftee, versus contenders from Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Israel, France, Sweden, and Portugal. The event also includes performances by Killa Kela, Million Dan, and Jungle Drummer. Previous DMC World Champions from North America have included DJ Cheese (1986, New Jersey), DJ Cash Money (1988, Philadelphia), Qbert, MixMaster Mike, and DJ Apollo (1992, San Francisco), Roc Raida (1995, NYC), A-Trak (1997, Canada), and Craze (1998-2000, Florida), to name a few.

Q-Tip, from influential ’90s hip-hop quartet A Tribe Called Quest, drops his new album, The Renaissance (Universal Motown), on November 4. It’s just his second solo release since his 1999’s Amplified. Q-Tip quick facts: He DJs weekly Fridays with Rich Medina at Santos Party House in New York; he performs October 29 at the New York Knicks opening game and appears November 6 on The Late Show with David Letterman.

DJ M.O.S. has a dope rare-groove soul mix online now. The mix features all-good “roots of hip-hop” funk selections from Cameo, Loose Ends, Donald Byrd, Con Funk Shun, and more.

West Coast supergroup The Mighty Underdogs (Lateef The Truth Speaker, Headnodic, and The Gift Of Gab) head out on tour in October and November to support their October 14 Definitive Jux release, Droppin’ Science Fiction. The tour starts in L.A. and hits Chicago, Milwaukee, and Denver before heading back to the western states.

People Under The Stairs producer Thes One is offering a free mixtape download titled Funner Than Leather. “I call it up-tempo disco rap,” says Thes of the release. PUTS official new album, Fun DMC, is out September 30 on Gold Dust Media, and the group will perform October 1 in San Francisco with Shawn Jackson and Common Market at The Independent.

Political hip-hop heads can get a does of real news coverage every week. Just tune in to Jasiri X’s YouTube channel as he remixes the news from a hip-hop perspective. Neither Karl Rove, Bill O’Riley, O.J., nor Josh Howard escape X’s insightful commentary. Brilliant stuff!

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