Archive for the ‘Praga Khan’ Category

Praga to God that I Khan get this record

Monday, September 12th, 2011

Damn video games.

Allow me to elaborate.

Last week I purchased Driver San Francisco. It’s a shockingly great game and return to form for a series that I thought went to the shitter ages ago. I highly suggest picking it up.

I didn’t preorder the game when it came out, but the dude working the Gamestop still gave me the preorder bonus, a perfectly nice travel mug with the Driver logo on it. Kind of stupid, but whatever, I like free crap.

I was content with that, until I found out that UK retailers got their own pre-order bonus for the game: a freaking 180g yellow vinyl LP with selections from the game’s (amazing) soundtrack! Goddammit! That’s the second time us Americans have been screwed out of awesome video game vinyl! But hey, I was able to get that record thanks to an awesome person who reads this blog.

So…are you an awesome person who reads this blog? Can you get a copy of this vinyl and mail it to me? If so, I will repay you in cash and in MP3s.

My email is on the sidebar to the right, if you think you can hook me up please drop me a line.

Short post today. Bigger post tomorrow.

Praga Khan
My Mind Is My Enemy (A Mind Is a Dangerous Thing Mix)
My Mind Is My Enemy (Quick Frontal Mix)
Luv u Still (Our Love Is Eternal Mix)
Praga Khan has an album called Pragamatic and another called Khantastic. I respect that level of commitment to such a stupid alias.

I’m not that familiar with Khan’s solo work, although I notice that much of it seems to be of the EBM/industrial-dance variety,dark songs about how much he hates humanity; how much humanity hates him; or how much relationships suck.

This is of course in stark contrast with his work with Lords of Acid, a band whose catalog almost solely consists of songs about crotches and what people do with them.

They recently got back together (with a different lineup) and have just released their first single; “My Little Rabbit.” It’s about a big plastic vibrator. Nice to see that some things never change I guess.

Honestly, that song sounds pretty damn horrible. These tracks, however, are not. You should listen to them. Then, if you dig the remix to “Luv U Still” then I suggest you check out the album version – that track is one of the best acid house songs ever, no question.

Posted in Praga Khan, remixes | 1 Comment »

Not Pretty, Still Vacant.

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Fucking hipsters man…

I hinted upon this on my last post. I went to the Girl Talk show in Pittsburgh this Saturday. And while I had a blast at the show. Something struck me a bit…odd about the crowd.

Allow me to list some of the fashion decisions I saw first hand

  • Pink sequin dress with dayglo fanny pack
  • TWO white men dressed like Michael Jackson circa Beat It.
  • A woman rocking a full on Native American headdress
  • JEGGINGS EVERYWHERE
  • Fat men with sports glasses and bushy, unkempt beards (thanks, Dan Deacon)
  • Cute girls wearing sports goggles
  • Short gym shorts on men (also, its fucking COLD here)
  • A green suit guy
  • A man dressed as a banana
  • Two girls rocking full geisha wear

Okay, that’s it. I officially do not “get it” anymore. I’m old. I do not understand what is going on. Why the hell are these kids dressing up in clothes that are intentionally ugly as hell and in most cases, not at all flattering (jeggings notwithstanding) ? I think I know. Its the fucking hipsters man. They’re ruining it for everyone.

There’s been much debate over what qualifies a “hipster” these days. Some people think all you need to be a hipster is a love of ultra-obscure indie bands, but I think that has almost nothing to do with it – at least with the hipsters that annoy me.

Hipsters today…they don’t seem to really care about, or really love, anything. Everything is a joke or a show. Nothing is authentic. They’re pop culture tourists, grabbing snippets of things here and there for their own shallow needs. Some hipster kid sees Heavy Metal Parking Lot, so he downloads some Dokken and buys a cheap denim jacket. A hipster chick sees a Siouxsie and Banshees video so she decides that the Indian headress look is hot this year. Michael Jackson dies, so now everyone is a die-hard MJ fan again, and simply must have a vintage Beat It jacket. The don’t know anything about what they are cribbing from, other than that they think it might make them look uncool in the way that matters the most.

Remember back in the 90s when everyone wore inconspicuous thin-framed glasses? Then Weezer got cool again, and kids started rocking the thick frames like Rivers Cuomo (I’m sure there was more to it than just Rivers, but that’s the only example I can think of off the top of my head). They were so “uncool” they became cool.

Well, they’re no longer fake-uncool, they’re straight-up cool. So now hipsters are rocking aviator frames and sports goggles! Two of the most uncomfortable and disgustingly ugly forms of eye-wear ever devised by man! Just in an effort to be intetionally uncool in a way that might make them seem cool! What’s next? Monocles?

You combine this intentional “uncool” with the casual appreciation with things like 80s culture and vintage fashion, and that’s how a normally cute girl ends up wearing pink sequins, a turquoise blouse with shoulder pads and rocking a fannypack with neon highlights, looking like she was dressed by kids on the special ed bus.

But whatever, fashion has always been moronic, now its just ironically moronic. I can deal with that. The shit that really gets me pissed is the bullshit fake interest in everything. The appropriation of shit I love (80s music and fashion) into knock-off, intentionally “ironic” bullshit.  That’s how you get asshole fake retro-sounding bands like Owl City. Its not like these assholes are really appreciating this stuff, they’re just faking it. Pretending that they think its cool because other people told them that it might be someday. When its runs its course they just sell it all back to the thrift store they found it from and move on.

They kill culture, sucking up all relevance it had and turning into a joke, something they can ironically mock in a pseudo self-referential way while sipping PBR and listening to Broken Social Scene. They ruin it for everyone. Because after the hipsters make their way through a subculture or music scene, anyone who had any actual real interest in it goes away, terrified that they might be mistaken for one of those soulless asshats.

I’m just dreading when they move onto grunge rock (I’m already seeing the flannel look come back). I wonder if they’ll bother with other 90s music trends. Where’s the love for horrible 90s pop music? That’s it, I’m calling it – get ready for the big Jesus Jones revival in 2012!

Erasure
 Oh L’Amour (Tin Tin Out Mix)
Oh L’Amour (Matt Darey Mix)
Solsbury Hill (Manhattan Clique Extended Remix)
The Erasure love continues! Quick disclaimer though, the “Tin Tin Out Mix” is slightly messed up. There’s a very small skip in the middle of the song I could not fix, and the very last note skips once. I couldn’t fix that either. But neither gaff is really worth worrying about. Besides, the “Matt Darey Mix” is much better, and any version of Erasure’s cover of “Solsbury Hill” trumps them all.

Praga Khan
 Love (Insider Remix)
The Moon (C.S. Johansen Remix)
Love (Dan Maze Remix)
Praga Khan’s real name is Maurice. If my name was Maurice, I’d bastardize Chaka Khan’s name for my own personal gain as well. These are from the 12” single to “Love.”

Muse
Super Massive Black Hole (Phones Control Voltage Mix)
Songs about interstellar phenomenon should not be this sexy. From a bootleg 12” called “Indie Rock n Roll Remixed.”

Posted in Erasure, Muse, Praga Khan, rant, remixes | 12 Comments »