West Indian Girl

drat. once again, in efforts to abide by my own rules i find myself plagued by the limits of my itunes library. since i can only pick from what i have in the f’s im going with the first 2 artists that jump out to me. alas, they arent new but they both had an instant effect on me when i heard them and have since stood the test of time.
FC Kahuna. is a dj duo from london that made some pretty big beats. at one point they had a band that was touring. anyway, the song i picked called hayling came out in 2002 and features gus gus vocalist haftis helde. many a night i would sit in my truck with this song on repeat. i love the dark sparse bouncy use of electronics (fyi some samples on this song were lifted from tangerine dream). bottom line: this track is full on vibe – its minimal, beautiful, futuristic, trippy and sultry. damn, the cymbals are wonderful in this song too. oh, i first heard this song via a great double disc released my the ministry of sound label called the chillout sessions. this cd was a monster.

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in a weird twist of fate my other f happens to have also appeared on the aforementioned double disc. crazy huh…also the first time i heard of this band too!
Fischerspooner. usually when one thinks of fischerspooner a song like the one im posting doesnt come to mind. tone poem has always been my favorite fs song. we opened 3 shows on the west coast for them in 2005. at the time those were probably the biggest shows we played. adding to the fact that i love casey spooner this was a no brainer for me. check out this trip down memory lane. scroll down to june entry toward the middle of the page to see some of those show reports.. wow that’s a trip. ya know if anyone ever questions the amount of work and shit this band has gone through i guess i should just tell them to scroll through the archives of this blog.

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ok, on to the “f”uture. f me now please.

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thanx again for all the e’s people. way to keep this rollin. lots of good stuff. explosions in the sky – elbow – eels!!! awesome stuff. it was fun listening to all the good, the bad and the ugly. remember….two artists with a link or maybe just one and a question – just dont list bands. i love you guys
fran

when i opened itunes on both my computers i wasnt too shocked to discover how few bands i had starting with the letter e. i knew e was going to be one of those trouble letters. luckily i hit the jackpot with my first suggestion. what a relief, and to top it off, i had 3 of their records. enough said, let’s do e bitches.
Enon. enon is a trio from brooklyn that was formed by john schmersal from the band brainiac. they released their first cd believo! in 2000. it was electronic and noisy and i really liked it. i first heard this when i was a content producer for an online music site and i left a track of theirs up on the music featured section for a very long time. enon is extremely interesting largely due to the fact that after this record most of the band members changed. 2 years later the band was still a trio that featured schmersal but now included bassist/vocalist toko yasuda (ex-blonde redhead) and drummer matt schulz. the track i picked, in this city is off of the high society record released in 02. they have gotten a little less noisy on this one but it’s just as cool. enon is eclectic and rich in the musical ground they cover. discover this band.

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usually my second choice is difficult because there are sooo many bands to choose from. sadly this was not the case tonight. shit…i wanted to go with something new but it was too difficult to find something. ok, this might surprise a few of you but yes…rap.
Easy-E. despite his bad rap (no pun intended) easy-e was pretty awesome before he lost all credibility when n.w.a broke up. this is the guy that brought all the members of n.w.a together and just for that he deserves a huge amount of credit. his label start up money came from selling drugs – which is pretty dope (again, no pun intended). the track i picked off his only full length titled eazy-duz-it is called eazy-er said than dunn. this has dr dre all over it..it’s heavily produced with layers of samples. it was released a month after n.w.a’s straight outta compton and it’s essentially n.w.a but with eazy front and center. i wonder what it would be like to put your name in almost every title of every song you wrote. i guess it makes song naming pretty easy (again, no pun intended).

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ok, now give me your e’s.

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once again thanx to everyone who sent in their suggestions! this is so great. lots of good suggestions here. please, for the love of ur god, will u all take the time and read the comments posted for these “2 with ten” posts. listen to these links when ur at work or just doing something at home. im sure one of these bands is bound to get added to your music library. again, if you post a comment remember to leave a link. also remember that the more suggestions the better for all of us so if u have a friend that’s really into music then by all means send them over so they can share their good taste with us. the letter e is coming in a day. thanx again – i feel smarter.

for all of those who missed it, i will never be the same played a free show last night at pershing square in beautiful cosmopolitan downtown los angeles no less. i love playing outside in cold weather – ever since west indian girl did a show in sub zero temp at sundance i have longed to do one again. last night wasnt quite as cold but it still counts. check out more pics and news about iwnbts here.

i’m gonna be moderating a panel at the sf music tech summit next monday dec 7th. if you’re in town please try to make it. i’m pretty sure u can watch it live on web….of course

the letter d was actually pretty tough. im sure everyone thought i would put death in vegas down but since i already wrote a post about them a few weeks ago im gonna go with something that might surprise a few of u. this one goes out to all the guys who keep suggesting female singer songwriters to me. Dot Allison. she’s a scottish singer/songwriter that i fell in love with in 1999 when i heard her debut afterglow. at that moment in time i was working at an online music start up and this record was sent to me by her publicist. to this day i think it’s a great record with a ton of a variety. during that time period she was collaborating with artists like arab strap and death in vegas. in the past few years she has been performing with massive attack and recording and performing with pete doherty. again, afterglow is a record worth listening to… just because of the ground it covers. the track i posted is not surprisingly one of the more deeper hypnotic cuts called morning sun.

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wow…choice 2 was difficult…i wanted to go with my favorite deftones song change as well as my fav doves song snowden but i ended up going with a newer band from la called Deathelectric. i first heard about this band because i know the man behind this plan – joseph holiday. he gave me this cd one night a few months ago when i bumped into him outside of the viper room. i put it on while driving down to the studio and i really started to love this one song called no reason (no soul). i have since had that stereo with the deathelectric cd in it stolen from my truck…for the 3rd time. in a ideal world with more hours in the day to accomplish everything i want to do i would have already done a 9XF10 remix of it with josh. anyway, joe—great work on this debut.

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random strangeness…i just noticed the name of this cd is in the evening sun…and the track i chose from dot allison was morning sun. strange indeed. i feel better about these choices now.

just cos im a sucker for Double D’s here are 2 more

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once again thanx to everyone who sent in their suggestions and im sorry for posting a bit late. it makes me so happy to read all ur comments and musical suggestions–even if i dont end up liking the band! i didnt find too many new c’s that i loved in this batch. i hope u guys know i’m being brutally honest with my thoughts, impressions and opinions here…i can’t help it if my tastes may seem(are) at times somewhat narrow — music has to hit me on some sort of psychic level to make a really strong impact. again, i’m lovin the links included in the comments but im not loving the comments that just list band names. these posts are nice but i’m not going to comment on them if they dont include a song link so please lead a horse to water and make me drink. special star goes to harold who came up big on this round. happy thanxgiving people.

Hey guys on way to play sd right now. I will have the letter c video response and letter d up on Monday – I’m also planning on bringing back the show reports but this time adding a video for most of it

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thanx to halloran and everyone else at fm 94.9 for having me on the station this past sunday. appreciate it. especially james and kate for making sure everything went well.

check it out..the other band i’m in (IWNBTS) just did our “first” live video interview after our last show. it’ pretty funny – the added bonus is you get to hear the band that went on after us play their whole set while we talk.

I Will Never Be The Same – The Chicks With Guns Interview from Jim Markunas on Vimeo.

ok here’s the deal – now u can download all of the music i post for this series at the ftp addy below. if u dont know how to do this then this is something good for u to learn cos most 10 year olds know how to do this. seriously u guys should all know how to do this. if u can’t someone will post a quick how to im sure. to access our sever use your ftp client to connect to: ftp://ftp.westindiangirl.com with username wig_2with10 and password ilovethis

server: ftp.westindiangirl.com
user: wig_2with10
password: ilovethis
directory: /FRAN WANTS U TO HAVE THIS

once logged in u will see 2 folders in there….one is for you to take my music and the other is for u to leave yours just drag and drop. thanx
fran

hey everyone I’m gonna be on fm 94.9 in san diego again this sunday night at 6pm – listen up if u can – I will post the show afterwards. you can find the playlists here. i see maynard was on a couple weeks ago – weird…i initially had one of the songs he actually played, on my list, but i swapped it out for a better one. im sure i will explain that on the air. look for another iwnbts name discussion too

ok this is getting better by the week. the letter C – fucking hell, tough call on c cos my immediate reaction was to play a track on side 2 of combat rock by the clash or my fav cure song of off kiss me kiss me kiss me but those groups are way too obvious…who doesnt have those records. here is c…cool and credible

Cruel Black Dove. cbd is a four piece from brooklyn. i discovered these guys pretty randomly and really love their debut ep full powers (2008). it’s dark electronic rock – i couldnt help but be reminded of pj harvey circa bring u my love when i saw their video but thats a good thing. their video is rad. as a result of my my la to brooklyn outreach program i have since become friends with cbd. anastasia is a sweetheart and alan did a remix for us that appears on our double remix cd as well as our latest digital release on origami recs. in a perfect world i would take these guys on tour with one of my bands…they would probably fit better with iwnbts. then again, a triple header with all 3 would be awesome – fingers crossed on that one.

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Cry On Cue. this is the first reggae band to make the list and it might be the only one to make the list. i spent many an hour listening to cry on cue’s truth to rhyme (release 2004) when it was my turn to drive the van on tour. cry on cue is a one man operation led by the incredible
bernie larsen. bernie’s resume is beyond impressive…he was part of el rayo-x, has played guitar for melissa etheridge, jackson browne, lucinda willians, rickie lee jones, etc etc – he even played guitar on public enemy’s last record. larsen has worked with all the legendary reggae guys and if im not mistaken had a few of peter tosh’s band memebers in cry on cue. in my opinion bernie is a guitar legend who has never gotten his real due. last year however, there was a massive spread about him in vintage guitar mag so maybe the masses are in fact finally taking note. i met bernie in the late 90′s in of all places houghton (butt fuck nowhere) michigan. bernie has since done a dub remix for both west indian girl remix records. his last one for indian ocean is a true classic. i love this guy – again, he’s one of the most talented musicians (if not the most) that i have ever met – he will be a friend for life. the song i picked is called mountain come down and it’s off of wash of light which came out in 2000. it’s a great peaceful groove. i need a mojito, a lawn chair, some palm trees and some hot sun right now.

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bring on some c’s people

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once again thanx to everyone who sent in their suggestions. it was a job in and of itself to give each comment a full listen (as u can tell from the 3 part video response). i’m really lovin the you tube links to that special song and the myspace links are also great cos it gives me the opportunity to zone out on a few songs by the bands that i might be unfamiliar with. of the groups that i didnt have in my itunes, the band i most enjoyed reconnecting with was the beta band, the new discovery bands for me where the big pink and bonobo while the band that was most inspirational from a music writing perspective was battles. keep this shit going…it was awesome to open my mind and give all these bands a chance to make an impression.

quick note from the road via my iphone wordpress ap. I’m en route with dino to a private house party we r playing tonight. I know that I’m late with the next 2 w/ ten post but it’s coming. I will post the video hopefully by tomorrow. This has been a great success because I have discovered some cool new bands. We all need upgrades in our life— health, diet, style and music. I’m glad I’m getting my music upgrades from all of u like this. Keep em coming. Bookmark or rss the site so u know when the next post is up. Thanx again

ok, on to the letter B. b is a tough letter cos there are a ton of b bands i would like to play. i know i said i would try to play songs that also started with that letter but i’ve decided to bag that idea – too difficult and besides, i really want to play the songs that initially hooked me to these bands. some of the songs i post may indeed be the band’s most popular one and in that case i guess u can say i have agreed with the masses….shoot me.

Blonde Redhead. i first heard this band via an ex gf – hmmm i see a pattern developing, maybe that’s the role girls have come to play in my life…bearers of music rather than children. blonde redhead formed in ny in 93 and have since become a 3 piece with no bass player. the italian brothers in this band are also twins. i have an italian twin brother as well. it would have been nice to have been in a band with my italian twin…but probably just a trio like br cos 3 is a visually great # for compositions. my favorite br song is equus but magic mountain is a real close second. equus is such a great name for a song. i have grown to love this band – talk about an original and distinctive sound. the love or hate it aspect to this band is kazu makino’s voice. it’s fucked up, give it a chance.

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Boards of Canada. if you arent into electronic music then u might not understand how great this pair of scottish dudes are. i first heard about boc from a guy who moved into the apt across the hall from me when i lived near the troubadour. he gave me all their cds and it quickly became bedtime background music. the song i posted is called roygbiv. u guys know what that is right – short for the colors of the spectrum – red orange yellow green blue indigo violet. like equus was a cool title this is as well. i love the low tone moog melody line – that’s what hooked me about this song. the album this is off, music has the right to children, came out in 98 and it’s a great record. 98 was an amazing year for music come to think of it.

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B is for fucking bonus song!

Band of Horses. ok ok i know it’s called 2 with ten but for damn sake i couldnt get out of my b’s without talking about this band- more so because of this song. once again, i first got into band of horses via an ex gf’s laptop. there are lots of things i like about this band, particularly ben bridwell’s voice and phrasings. in a strange way he reminds me of mercury rev at times. i also liked the first photos i saw of them…one was in front of an old blue truck and another with a boxer in it…sort of like we did at one point. anyway, we’ve played a couple festivals with these guys but unfortunately both times our set times overlapped and i missed them. the first lyric of the song that never get tired of listening to is “it’s looking like a limb torn off” – very nice.

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b was tough..i’m really gonna go for lessor known bands when i hit c. i regret not mentioning bo diddley for this – please give bo a try.

thanx to all of u who responded to the first installment of 2 with ten – the letter a. i ended up listening to every suggestion. at the very least i feel like i increased the depth of my musical knowledge – out of the bands suggested i enjoyed reconnecting with autechre and discovering american analog set. again, thank you for sending in these myspace pages or you tube videos. the letter b coming up on monday – video response will follow as well. keep it up people.

yesterday i was thinking about how different most of my friends’ itunes libraries are. i think u can tell a lot about someone by going through their music library – to a degree it reflects ur personality. i thought a fun thing to do would be to go through my own library from A-Z and pick 2 artists that start with each letter and then play one song from each. im gonna play songs by artists that i think everyone should at least be familiar with. i’m gonna pretend we’re just hangin and vibin’ out. my goal here is to hopefully inspire and reinvigorate your music library cos we all could benefit from a little change and growth. i’m on a quest for new or even old music that i havent heard (thus making it new to me) that will add something good to my life. there are too many bands out there and no way to filter them all. i will usually trust my friends opinion before any publication’s. if i pick a popular band dont fucking rag on me…it’s in my itunes and hey, i like it and im gonna tell ya why. i might even attempt to have the names of the songs also begin with that letter but that might prove a bit too difficult. ladies and gentlemen, i give you the the first installment of 2 with Ten featuring the letter A

Astrud Gilberto. I first heard astrud when i was in the company of a pretty blonde in her downtown detroit dirty hell hole of an apartment. i have loved her (astrud, not the girl) ever since. astrud was married to joao (famous) gilberto and the song she’s best known for is the girl from ipanema. interesting fact – bebel gilberto (who tours now) is technically not her real daughter – same dad, diff mom. that might explain something that i have always wondered about. i have seen her live show twice (one of those times we opened for her) and both times she didnt play her “mom’s” hit. both times i remember being bummed out to the point of swearing cos i wanted to hear the girl from ipanema. i guess there might be some weird issue with her mom- that’s the only reason i can think of for her not playing that song – damn u bebel. without further adieu here is agua de beber and not the girl from ipanema.

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Air. i first heard air in the car of one of my gay friends back in 98. this guy had his finger on the pulse of what was some good electronic music back then. and no, his finger wasnt on the pulse of aything else if ya know what i mean. i was, and at times, still softly mesmerized by moon safari – their debut and easily my fav. i should play the song la femme d’argent which i consider the deepest and best track on that album but in efforts to play a song that begins with the letter A im going with alone in kyoto which is beautiful in its subtle build up psuedo chorus. this song was off a later cd…i think it was also in the movie lost in translation but i might be wrong about that and dont feel like fact checking it now. i havent been a big fan of their more recent stuff as i feel like it’s more of the same but not as good….that is the plight of almost every band. in an ideal world great bands evolve (ie the clash) instead of releasing watered down versions of their earlier records.

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OK – please send me some music starting with the letter A – something u think is super cool and i would like…as well as Appreciate. Leave a comment – this will be good for everyone.

looks like im going to indie 103.1 tonight with josh to be on dave navarro’s dark matter show. i will report back. i think u can listen live online at indie1031.com. 10:30 is when it starts.

UPDATE: so, that was fucking fun – the interview went great. before we went over to the station josh and i had a few beverages at my local bar (el carmen). i have posted the show below. thanx to marcy liu for sending it to me. i gotta tell ya, dave navarro and his little crew were cool. you know how i love to call people out but i can’t in this case. dave was dope and has a real quick wit. i liked him even though people say i look like him – but i still get the prince thing all the time. it never ends – i even got it tonight from the lady behind the counter at cvs. i also get the occasional cornell thrown in there…which still blows my mind. then again, people say i look like my dog more than cornell so im not sure what to think anymore. im going with tony cos i love him. enjoy the show

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oh yeah – speaking of radio interviews…i just got confirmed with halloran on 94.9 in san diego for another coup d’etat on nov 15th. awesome!