Missing In Action

<-- That is where I have been for the past couple of weeks. Glorious New York. I was physically there for 11 days and the rest of the time I was either preparing to go, or wishing I was back. I was in NY to see friends but also managed to catch a couple of shows.

While browsing around MySpace before my trip, I happened to see that Mahogany had a show scheduled while I was going to be in NY. What luck! They never make it to the west coast. Andrew and co. were playing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg as part of NYC Popfest so of course I had to check it out. The band played a short set of songs new and old including one of my personal favorites, "Supervitesse." It was glorious noise.

While I was there, I ran into Michael Grace from the beloved, defunct My Favorite. I'd had many beers by the time I went up to him and introduced myself by saying "I really, really miss your band." He was very gracious and told me that his new band The Secret History has an EP coming out in the fall. I'll definitely be on the lookout for that.

My trip was ostensibly scheduled around The Cure's final show of this tour at Radio City Music Hall. The venue was cool and the band were good but I think there's a possibility I saw one or two too many shows (a total of four) on this tour. The core set of hits was basically the same each night, and I never really need to hear "Love Song" or "Just Like Heaven" again. Having said that, they pulled out some really old and rare stuff that I love so I can't complain.

Now that I'm back I'll be posting regularly again. A lot happened while I was gone and I'll probably write about some of it. Too much e-mail to sift through, but I'll get to it!

Caravan Girl

OK, everybody knows how much I love Goldfrapp, but the announcement for their next single is a little disappointing:

CD
1. Caravan Girl
2. Happiness (Video)

Maxi CD
1. Caravan Girl (Live Choral Version)
2. Monster Love (Live Acoustic Version)
3. Little Bird (Live at The Union Chapel - Video)

7" numbered picture disc
A. Caravan Girl
B. Little Bird (Animal Collective Remix)

I have issues:

1. Do not make the second track on your two-track single a video! I resent buying a single that has only one audio track on it. Sure, there's the video but I have to put it in my PC to watch it. Annoying.

2. A different version of the single on the maxi CD is a good start. A live version of "Monster Love" sounds good too. But then, another video that I can only watch on my PC. At this point, a DVD single would have made more sense. What happened to DVD singles, anyway?

3. This is the third single from the album and still no b-sides. Still no sign of the 10+ songs that were scrapped during recording sessions. I don't know how far they got with any of those but maybe they could have finished a couple for b-sides.

By the third single in support of Supernature, we had two really excellent b-sides ("All Night Operator" and "Beautiful") and two really amazing remixes "Number 1 (Alan Braxe and Fred Falke Main Remix)" and "Ride A White Horse (Ewan Pearson Disco Odyssey Parts 1 + 2)" so I'm feeling just a little disappointed.

Of course I'll buy them anyway. "Little Bird" was amazing live and I definitely think it's a contender for a good remix (and they could use one; the remixes from this record have been a bit boring) so all is not lost. The single is released in the UK on 6/30. No word of a US release yet, but I'm not holding my breath since they didn't do one for "Happiness."

Here, have an actually quite nice remix from this album that is thus far unreleased: Goldfrapp - Happiness (Rex The Dog Remix)