[free download] DJ Knife "Strange Brew Vol. 3" release 03.22.13 @ Good Life

DJ KNIFE is out of control. One of the few DJs around town that can spin any party and adapt to any style from downtown hotspots to Allston DIY spaces (he spun the Phoenix launch party back in September), Knife has now birthed another Strange Brew mega-mix indicative of his schitzo tastes. With 40 tracks mixed super-quick in under 42 minutes, the third installment runs the dance floor course from remixes of Passion Pit to Toto, Jane’s Addiction to Neon Indian, Janet Jackson to Haim, Jamie Lidell to Jay-Z.

What else? “Of course there’s gotta be some trap stuff, a smidgen of classic rock, couple retro tracks and a lotta French sounding dance music,” Knife says.

Remember those “set it and forget it” commercials for the Showtime Rotisserie chicken cooker? This is the DJ mix version of that. Grab the entire mix below, then celebrate its release tomorrow night, March 22 at Good Life on Kingston Street downtown when Knife hits the decks with El Poser and Leah V. They'll be upstairs while Pico Picante rages down below.

Strange Brew 3 Track Listing:
1. Intro
2. Jamie Lidell – Figured Me Out
3. Onra ft. Olivier DaySoul – Long Distance
4. Gigamesh – All My Life
5. Poolside - Do You Believe?
6. Toto – Africa (DJ Ayres Edit)
7. Jane's Addiction – Caught Stealin (Whiskey Tango Edit)
8. Geto Boys – Mind Playin Tricks (Steve1der Remix)
9. Moon Boots – Got Somebody
10. Le Crayon – Lush
11. Kill Paris – Shades Of Funk
12. No Doubt - Settle Down (Baauer Remix)
13. Le Youth – Dance With Me
14. Only Children – Down Fever
15. Grupo Guerra 78 – Soul Makossa ( Whiskey Barons Re-Work)
16. Mat The Alien – Tom Deluxx (Moombahton Edit)
17. Oliver – All Night Long
18. Tony! Toni! Tone! – Feels Good
19. Mr. Vegas – Bruk It Down (DJ Class Remix / Diggz Short Refix)
20. DJ Day – Still Jingling (DJ Day Edit)
21. Pretty Poison – Catch Me I’m Falling (Diggz Short Edit)
22. Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (Gigamesh Edit)
23. Haim – Forever (The Knocks remix)
24. Passion Pit – Carried Away (Viceroy Remix)
25. Penguin Prison – Fair Warning (Oliver Remix)
26. Sneaky Sound System – Big
27. DJ Fashen – Ecstasy
28. Neon Indian – Deadbeat Summer (Skeet Skeet Edit)
29. Brass Knuckles – Lie To You
30. Janet Jackson – Someone To Call My Lover (Top Billin Remix)
31. America – Ventura Highway
32. King L – Val Venis
33. KP & Envi – Shorty Swing My Way (Kid Kamillion Remix)
34. Big Chocolate – Blue Milk
35. DJ Samir - Samir’s Theme (OH SNAPP!! Remix)
36. Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life (Exceed Remix)
37. Jay – Z – Who You Wit (Accro Remix)
38. Nas – The Don (Tom Wrecks Remix)
39. DJ Serafin – Music Sounds Better w/ Blunt Passing
40. Usher – Climax (Flosstradamus & Diplo Remix)

Thursday 03.21.13: Pretty & Nice + Stephie Coplan + Jukebox The Ghost @ Brighton Music Hall

Now deemed “Buzzworthy” by the good folks at MTV, Boston’s PRETTY & NICE have been on the road prepping new record Golden Rules for Golden People, the Rory Records/Equal Vision Records follow-up to last year’s self-released Us You All We. After their gig exactly a week ago at SXSW at the Basement just off Congress Street (where they wrapped shooting a seven-location music video), I trrrrriiiieeeeeedddddd to get the scoop on the new tunes, and, well, did, in a tour van interview down in Austin, but it's lost in the WFNX black hole. It was cool, I pretended to be Pretty & Nice and Pretty & Nice pretend to be me. More shit that will never air. Vanyaland needs a soundcloud. Note to self.

Anyway, the new P&N record is not out until late April, but we’ll get a taste Thursday night when our favorite herky-jerky ampersand band hits Allston's Brighton Music Hall with the Charlotte-Zoller-tour-navigated Jukebox the Ghost and WFNX golden girl Stephie Coplan and the Pedestrians, who, as has been well documented, I am quite fond of.

There is seriously way too much going on Thursday night. WTF. We haven't even gotten to the Middle East show. I've been picking unemployment splinters out of my ass all week, and now there are at least four shows I need/want to be at tomorrow night. Dafuq.

In My Head: Petty Morals "Radio Action" / debut gig 04.06.13 @ Radio

"We do not share the values of the establishment. We are not old men. We are not worried about petty morals." --Keith Richards

Continuing the What If theme from the previous San Cisco post, this track embedded below, "Radio Action" from the newly-minted PETTY MORALS, was scheduled to be the Boston Accents Song of the Day on WFNX this past Monday. Obviously, that never happened. Kinda a bumout, as I've been digging this squealing synth-punk number from the moment it found its way into my inbox. It got spun on Accents maybe two or three times before the shutdown.

The ladies of Petty Morals -- who have performed in a host of past and present Boston rock dynamos as Tijuana Sweetheart, Cult 45, Ghost Box Orchestra, and the Grinds -- first met in rehearsals for a Joan Jett tribute show late last year, and after realizing a shared love for a more rock and roll side of synthy disco (think late '70s/early '80s NYC subculture, as well as stuff like the Cars, Le Tigre, and the Sounds) they hatched this new band. A few months later, the Cotton Candy Demos were born.

Their first gig is April 6 at Radio in Somerville, for Jay Allen's 50th birthday bash alongside Muck & the Mires, Dirty Truckers, and Dogmatics. People are gonna eat this shit up.

Thursday 03.21.13 @ Great Scott: San Cisco

So I guess for the next few weeks these posts will be a series of What Ifs. Shows that never happened, songs that never got played, bands not written about blah blah blah all that regretful shit.

But here's something I'm legit bummed about: Aussie pop act SAN CISCO were supposed to perform a private set at the Museum of Fine Arts tomorrow, part of the years-long WFNX sessions that in the past housed the Vaccines, Dropkick Murphys, Airborne Toxic Event, and so on and so on. We were currently in talks to host future sessions with the Breeders and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. But those, like San Cisco tomorrow, won't ever happen.

In any event, WFNX had been spinning their breakout hit "Awkward" for a while on the stream. People were feeling it.

They are in town to begin with, of course, because they're at Great Scott in Allston tomorrow night, 03.21.13, so we'll just have to settle for a regular ol' plugged-in show. So it goes.

Despite the song title, there’s nothing “Awkward” about San Cisco’s bubbly brand of love-pop, and like the Naked and Famous and Strange Talk, the band is the latest in a string of acts from Australia and New Zealand blurring the lines between indie and electro. Their 2012 Awkward EP was one of the more overlooked records of the year, but I think their 2013 success will more than make up for it.

Later, WFNX. Here's an hour of Merchandise

On my last day of work at the Boston Phoenix (RIP), I went into the WFNX studio, and started spinning songs I merely wanted to hear: Suede (all seven of them), New Order, Pulp, a bunch of Britpop hits from our Top 100 Britpop Anthems of the '90s feature from August 2011.

Then, around 5pm, as my colleagues and I were headed to An Tua Nua for some memorial cocktails, I set Merchandise's 11-minute epic "Become What You Are" on repeat seven times, filling more than an hour, separated only by our robot DJ, 3001, saying "Whatever, man" in between.

That was my sendoff. To quote Carson Cox in my favorite lyrics of the song (at least how I hear them): "I'm a mother's son. I'm a rolling stone. I don't want anything that I have to own."

Peace out, WFNX. <3

Thursday 03.21.13: The New Highway Hymnal @ T.T. The Bear's Place

I'm still suffering from my annual late-March SXSW hangover (and a few other random ailments), but I'm excited to get back in the sonic groove tomorrow night at T.T. The Bear's Place, as the New Highway Hymnal conclude their March tour with a homecoming gig in Cambridge. Yes, what I need to cure this shaz is some dirty psych-punk.

Also on the bill is Crushed Out (formerly known as Boom Chick, word?) and Thunderbloods, a new-ish bluesy bar rock band from my homie Evan Kenney (Bodega Girls, Read Yellow, the Cool Ranch dance night). Here's the Facebook invite.

Hymnal was the second band signed to Vanya Records, and in October we released their debut LP, Whispers. Vinyl available at the show or via our Big Cartel online store.

Reborn. Chapter 2. March 2013

A week ago tomorrow, while I was in Austin, Texas, for SXSW, I learned that my beloved Boston Phoenix would be no more.

Several years ago, while I was a shitty features reporter at the Boston Herald toiling under an even shittier arts editor, I killed off free time and the desire to write about whatever I wanted via this blog, Vanyaland. Since I was hired by the Phoenix in June 2010 to be the alt-weekly's Music Editor (an honor I still hold very dearly), this place became a graveyard, a flyer dumpster for my two other ventures, the Pill dance night (every Friday at Great Scott, yo) and Vanya Records, a record label I launched out of my Allston bedroom in September 2011. After all, the Phoenix hired me in part because of what I'd write about here. So out of respect for their salary sent my way each fortnight, I took all my shit over to 126 Brookline Ave.

Now, with a few days of #funemployment under my belt, I already need a place to collect my ideas and rants, post new music shit I discover, hype rad shows and events, and just keep my brain working and pushing forward. Rest and relaxation are foreign concepts to me. Like sobriety.

So yeah, Vanyaland, I've kinda missed you. There will likely be less reality TV rants and chick strip seahorses tossed up on eBay, but that's cool. Music surrounds my life like never before, and I live among the greatest scene in the world here in Boston.

Here's to another act of ridiculousness.

xoxo Michael Marotta / Michael V

VAN002: The New Highway Hymnal Boston + New York record release parties

The best new rock and roll band is not only on my own VANYA RECORDS, but they are also releasing their debut 7-inch this weekend at the Pill in Boston and Public Assembly in Brooklyn. Prepare for liftoff with THE NEW HIGHWAY HYMNAL.

Vanya Records launches in September; VAN001: Bearstronaut "Moniker/Shannon" 7-inch

Been awfully quiet on the Vanyaland front, and for good reason: Things are still fantastic at the "day job," as music editor of the Boston Phoenix, the Pill is still banging out the modern indie dance party every Friday at Great Scott, and lastly, I've decided to start a small boutique record label out of my bedroom, releasing my awesome friends' awesome music digitally and on vinyl.

Ladies and germs, I present to you: Vanya Records.

The first release: "Moniker/Shannon" gold vinyl 7-inch by Boston's post-pop electronic quartet Bearstronaut, a dance-centric group I've long been fond of and no stranger to the Pill (several live appearances, "Wire" release party, The Rapture @ Pill Halloween 2k10). The record -- VAN001 -- drops this September.

Listen to the track here.

the pill ::: Summer of Shitshow 2k11 with Girlfriends (07.29) + THe Hush Now (08.12)