Happy New Year from the team. A brief reminder that tonight's endorsed celebration is upstairs at 59 Canal in Chinatown, NYC with DJs Magda, Plexus and Troy Pierce. This is a very small space, so get there early - 11pm at the latest. It's also $20 and there is no guest list whatsoever, but well worth it. As mentioned, this is also my semi-official NY going away party. If bleeps and clicks aren't your thing, or if you have the energy for a second throw down, the only other public party in NY Burnlab fully endorses is the Motherfucker New Years Bash at Downtime. See post from Dec. 21 for details.

For those in Boston on January 2nd, Jared Louche is doing a one man show at Man Ray's at 9pm. The coolest cyberpunk poet you're likely to meet will be "telling some twisted tales from the road, injuring a few songs from 'Covergirl' and h3llb3nt, mumbling some jazz-king riffs, unwinding reflections through the shotglass darkly and generally dropping off-the-hook rants from the rock'n'rollercoaster life."

Tuesday, January 6th is the annual Designer's Night, in tandem with the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Once again hosted by legendary artist and designer (and my former college instructor) Camilo Pardo at the equally legendary Bankle Building on Woodward Ave. Music, booze, design-speak, Detroit style.

Finally, check out the current Computerlove featured artist, Patsch. Stunningly elegant and gritty graphics which defy time.

*for the team: It's never too late to get in your best and worst of 2003 lists. But, the sooner the better!

Burnlab: Now with more tasty chunks of goodness in every bite!(TM)

The awkwardness of the grammar is the beauty of it.

Hey, greeting from Detroit by the way. I highly recommend The Inn On Ferry Street to any wayward travelers looking to stay in one of four beautiful renovated mansions or two carriage houses in theoretical walking distance of almost everything cool to do in Motown... for not a lot of money either.

Maybe its all the proofreading at the new job, but am I the only one driven crazy by the header 'Knowing Stuff Your Friends Don't Makes You Cool'?

Shouldn't it be- 'Knowng About Things That Your Friends Do Not Know About Makes You Cooler Than Your Friends, Are'



Droid Behavior keep techno on the up'and'up in la-la. Last weekend's party was as solid of an underground event as you will find- no small thanks to this guy.

It ain't no Detroitluv or even a Naughtybooth, but Cued-Up maintains So-Cal pretty well, as small as it may be. And I'm quickly learning that all of the local DJs listed here, that you probably haven't heard off, are actually pretty fucking good.

Big Magazine is back online - finally! Looking good.

Reminder to all our editors: please get your 'best of' lists and comments in as soon as you can. People really do pretend to care! The ones I've received so far are really good. No pressure though. :)

Despite the inevitably contrived name and SOM bullying into the process since day one, the design of the Freedom Tower is... well, not that bad. It has some smart elements, but aesthetically leaves me ho-hum. If you haven't yet, check it out for yourself and read what Muschamp has to say.

By the way, tweaking on the site is complete. Welcome to version 4!

I don't believe we haven't linked this here before - do check out our friend Bethany's clothing company Cyberoptix. Cyberhip cyberfetish for cyberpunks.

If the official Burnlab endorsed NYE party with Magda isn't enough for one night, Michael T. and the Motherfucker NYC crew present a late New Year's bash (1:30am-8:00am), featuring the usual suspects playing rock, punk, new wave and disco, and our friend Cowboy Mark spinning electro and industrial in the 'make out room'. Downtime, 251 W. 30th Street. Go to the Mofo site site for more info and reduced admission.

Space 380 is an interesting music promotions firm which helps independent labels and artists gain public and industry awareness, college radio airplay and tour and distribution support.

edit: strike that. I'll be flying to Detroit 12/22-12/30. We'll deal with the DMV later.

I'm sorry, this isn't Live Journal, but I need to vent out loud for a moment. I can't decide which is pissing me off more right now: Geico or the NY DMV. If I'm driving to Michigan without insurance next week, so be it. All I know is New York is doing a pretty darn good job convincing me I made the right decision to move. Must everything be a drawn-out, complex process? I guess it wouldn't be New York otherwise. Hmm... Listening to Skinny Puppy really super-duper loud all afternoon probably isn't helping the situation. Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

I'll be at the Arnold's show late, but for sure, and our good friend and hugely secretly amazing DJ Brian Jackson will be molesting the turntables with an array of music we fully endorse and condone at Subtonic, courtesy of Bunker NYC. You should come out and shake it to the likes of Coil, Swayzak, and whatever tricks B has up his sleeves.

Burnlab: Assimilate.(TM)

This is apparently not new news, but I just heard about it: Otto Von Schirach of Schematic Records is currently considered a primary member of the Skinny Puppy crew and has been working on new material along with cEvin Key, Omar Torres, Nivek Ogre, Mark Walk and others. The first new Puppy track since 1996's The Process LP is included on the soundtrack for the film Underworld, which you can listen to here - also featuring The Icarus Line, David Bowie and others. Can we say "Not quite The Crow?" I'm really loving this track, but ugh... looks like a terrible movie. An all new SP album is scheduled for an April 2004 release. (If you don't like the annoying Flash soundtrack site, there's a short high quality sound clip here.)

Speaking of Puppy, there is a good interview with designer Steven R. Gilmore from XLR8R transcribed here.



And speaking of Schematic, Arnold Steiner's exhibit, ROM opens tonight in Williamsburg. (See Monday's post for details.)

bleep bleep bleep

Photos and streaming live set from the Kooky Scientist and more info on Magda's New Years Eve party form Penetrate.

Just in: Troy Pierce and Heartthrob live blips in Baltimore on 12/13. Download it here.


Burnlab: You heard it here first... unless you're cooler than us, in which case you either need to be worshipped or killed. We'll get back to you on that.(TM)

One for the folio.



This is not what the upcoming Solvent LP will look like. Back to the drawing board, but I'm pretty proud of this draft and wanted to share it. Make sure to get out and buy the brilliant Radio Ga Ga twin 12"s next month.

All Music Guide blocked Blogger.com on their in-office network. How messed up is that? Anyway, I'm posting on Rob Theakston's behalf while he finds a way around it. Here's Rob:

Hi there.

After much prodding and pressing from various folk, I have begun work on the follow up to my last mix CD of two years ago.

I am offering this up to Friendsters and Burnlabbers only, as I will only be duplicating the exact number requested and will not be for sale. These will be professionally duplicated (read: not a cd_r) with nice, minimal packaging.

Artists include Round Five (Rhythm and Sound), Jan Jelinek, Stephan Matheiu, Twine, Kevin Shields, Mark LaLiberte, Taylor Deupree, AGF, Telefon Tel Aviv, a track from yours truly (which will be limited only to this disc) and a few others...

Please email me (busymofo@yahoo.com) should this be of interest you.
Thanks.

Drama, drama.

Burnlab: Better than a punch in the eye... or seven.(TM)

Kind of an in-progress launch (a lot of links to sort out, and the splash page will probably change a few more times), but here it is - Burnlab version 4: better organized, new look, new flavor, new aroma. The result of months of noodling and fussing.

I know the links in the new Friends+Family section aren't working yet, but give it a look and remind me if I overlooked anyone who's actually a friend of Burnlab.

enjoy

BLV4.0 coding and testing, testing and coding continues. Trying to get it on line for the lunch rush.
Stay tuned.

Burnlab: Nice pants.�

ROM: A Digital Art Exhibition by Arnold Steiner
opening reception Friday, Dec. 19th @ REPLICATE
242 Wythe Ave., #2 (actually on N. 3rd between Wythe and Kent) / Williamsburg Brooklyn / 718.218.7688 / 7pm-9pm / complimentary drinks

Arnold will be showing large format prints on vinyl featuring work from Schematic and Counter Flow. If you can't make it out Friday, the show will be up through January 30th. Definitely check this out.

INFINITRANSFORMATION.COM / REPLICATE.INFO

The fine folks from Adbusters present Black Spot Sneaker.

[Thanks Nix for the link.]

don't know how many of you know this already, but Swedish Covenant provide excellent hi-energy futurepop, with plenty of beats and a cold Scandinavian inflection (oh, and pretentious weirdo lyrics..) See this video for evidence.

this week's scoop:

So as rumor has it, I'm moving to Detroit as early as January 4th. The paperwork won't be finalized until x-mas week, but I wanted to get the info out now as Magda's NYE party at 59 Canal will double as my NYC going away party. We'd love to see everyone there. Great music, great people and plenty of bad behavior. I'll be back east at least once a month. Given my usual travel schedule, few should notice the difference. ;)

Saturday evening was a superb NYC/Detroit experience. Starting with the best ADULT. performance I've seen yet. Every day that passes Adam and Nicola seem to get darker and weeeeeiiiiirder... and better. The new songs are killing me. This was followed with fellow Motown ex-pat Jon Santos (tha Killah from Manilla) facing off in an impromptu freestyle rap battle in a stairwell at Tonic. Hard to really explain, but quite awesome. Santos rules.

Ah... NYC would not be what it is without the influence of Detroiters, yet Detroit is certainly not NYC. Wish me luck (please.) Lots of new projects and adventures are in the works, including Les Infants Terribles - tentative name for Burnlab's monthly postpunk/industrial/electro night in D-town, in association with Blackbx and R. Theakston Heavy Industries. Venue TBD, but impact is eminent January 2004.
All for now.


Burnlab: You are repressed, but you're remarkably dressed.�

If it's on the internet, it must be true.

RYT Hospital is the leader in advanced medical technologies... or its a very elaborate and well done piece of web art by Virgil Wong.

Word has it that the new Nine Inch Nails album, Bleedthrough is finished and slated for release in early 2004. (Yeah, right after the Tapeworm LP comes out.) Trent Reznor recently told Alternative Press that the new album "explores loss and possible discovery of self, along with alternate layers of reality and perception set inside a nightmare you can't seem to wake up from... with lots of feedback." He went on to say, "Computers, among other things, are ruining music these days. I hate the Pro Tooled sound of perfection and everything being fixed. This record is most definitely un-fixed."

The last statement immediately brought to mind the live, single take video for March of the Pigs, directed by Peter Christopherson, a.k.a. Sleazy. (Quite possibly the best music video of all time.) Now all we need is a cramped little club tour and its 1990 all over. Break out the cloves and lace up the Docs, baby.

Burnlab: Doesn't it make you feel better?�

sound extraction x and dj driver will treat us to a live and improv electronic instrument jam session this saturday (for free) upstairs at the berkely front.

Burnlab: happiness is a warm laptop.�

these are a few of my favorite things.

these are not.

Burnlab: decking your halls.�

When I Sold My Soul to the Machine is a documentary about the electronical music culture in The Hague, the Netherlands. From the early nineties on this culture has emerged. This film will travel back and forth in time, alongside the artists and styles while connecting characteristics and peculiarities of electro into a whole.

Not out until May '04- but there's a priceless clip of Ferrence on the mic.


Burnlab: Dancing in wooden shoes.�

We're dangerously close to finishing some long overdue site updates. Until then you have to view this full screen blog mess. You'll be okay.

Burnlab: Have some soup.�

You're a Post-Punk. You know 70s punk was cool, but it was mostly just a stepping stone for the greater intellectualism of what would come after. The 80s were amazing. You quite possibly have huge hair, and may wear lots of black. Snare drums need reverb. Lots and lots of reverb.

Big freakin' surprise there. (This took eight questions?) Here's a bonus one: The Birthday Party is the only band listed under music on your Friendster profile, true or false?

Burnlab: Hands up! Who wants to die?�

Re. previous post:
As they drove away [from the courthouse], the song "You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)" blared on the stereo as Houston sang along and Brown kissed her bruised cheek.
-CNN

That is seriously fucked up.

Burnlab: Pardon our French.�

allen, just wondering....is crack actually cool in circles where you are? i was suprised to find out that young/fucked-up/well-to-do kids from london find crack cool...amazing what a desire for the newest thing fosters

Rob Theakston won't be the only Michigander gracing NYC with his presence this weekend. Burnlab favorites (and fellow art school freaks) Adult. and Ian MacKaye's favorite band Tamion 12 Inch will be performing with French "elektro prankster" Electronicat at The Knitting Factory Saturday, 12/13.
10pm, $15, buying advance tickets is a really good idea.

November marked the release of The Mitgang Audio's debut LP The View From Your New Home on Ersatz conspirators Suction Records. Listen to samples of this seriously top shelf synth-pop at the Suction website.

Contemporary master of electronic body music Terence Fixmer just released the first single from his recent collaborations with Nitzer Ebb vocalist Douglas McCarthy. Look for a full length album in early 2004, and for the pair to tour together, starting in Barcelona on January 23rd. No US dates yet, unfortunately.




If you missed The Kooky Scientist's live set in New York on Saturday (about a half dozen people immediately come to mind - you know who you are), you can listen to his recent Detroit performance here [RealPlayer required], courtesy of our friends at Paxahau. The Scientist's laptop and array of custom little black boxes move the sound from ambient, to tribal, to blippy minimal, to crushing 4/4 EBM, to pattern arrangements you've just never heard before... often colliding all at once with amazing clarity, like a fine synthetic torte. Not the same as being there, but definitely worth a good listen. Big thanks to Fred himself for the photo above.

Getting nostalgic, I've pulled up my copy of Mindblower for the next installment of Dorkwave. Seriously.


Burnlab: Rivers of blood, years of darkness.�

a bit of a late report , i know, but madga´s opening set for richie last thursday in barcelona was inspired, despite the normal spanish problem of people normally showing up after midnight (magda started at 10). i unfortunately had a 7:40 flight to london the next day and made it to the airport completely hammered. while in london i also picked up a fondness for queen rivalists the darkness and picked up excellent cds by the streets vs. basement jaxx, also known as audio bullys and the balls-out drum´n bass/jungle compilation by adam f and dj fresh breakbeat kaos, a must if you´re feeling cool but a bit agro...

1. I'm in New York this weekend. You will party with me. And then I will be back NYE for more.
2. As a lifelong rabid democrat, whomever gets the nomination between Dean or Clark..well, I wouldn't be surprised if the other person became their running mate.
3. New Darkness christmas single rocks.

Burnlab: Where activity partners and those just here to help collide.�

Gore endorses Dean. Liberman and Gephart receive sharp stick in eye.

Seriously, time to pack it up anyway fellas. Let's trim it down to the doctor and the general right now. Everyone else is so boring! Well, Al Sharpton is anything but boring, but come on...

In other political news, what has John Tenney been up to? Check out Activate Royal Oak, John's local political action and information site. Also see The Royal Oak Experiment (which is like a local version of The Onion.) Now that's the awesome I'm looking for. So good.


Burnlab: Tastes like chicken.�

Oh, another thing I'm trying out here is signing every post with a new slogan. We'll see how quick that gets old.

Burnlab: You could get it removed, but you will die.�

You know how much we love to give you [the loyal Burnlab reader] scoops, so we're going to try to provide at least one juicy one a week.

Those looking for the perfect New Year's Eve party in New York need look no further than our favorite little night spot 59 Canal, where Magda will grace us with her charm, antics, and especially brilliant record collection and DJ skills. A few out of town guests are already making plans to be there, including this guy.
Rockin'.

Alright, you may have already known that, but probably because I told you in person.

If you haven't seen Magda's new web site yet, do check it out. Also see the really nice work of designer Francisco Lopez who made it all happen.

There's one more biggie, but we'll hold off until the paperwork is done. Let's just say that the Lab may have new yet familiar digs sooner than later.

Burnlab: Feels good inside your head.�

Just launched! Bush in 30 Seconds, a political TV ad contest to help find the most creative, clear and memorable ideas for ads that tell the truth about George Bush's policies. You don't have to be trained in the art of filmaking to participate, you just need to be ready, willing, and able to turn your clever ideas into a real 30 second ad.

Music video jukebox from Submarine Channel. There's a Spike Jonze section and a French New Wave section. Very nice!

Don't feel bad Mike. Sheer laziness kept me from Mutek- no weather nessesary. Did attend Create:Fixate, which was a lot closer to home. Wasn't blown away by the art, although there were some original prints from my new favorite book. Excellent music- techy, IDM, breaks and such. Unfortunately, I don't know who was rocking what.

And speaking of mediocre art with great music...

Alan Oldham's, new website has some fun old Fast Foward radio programs for download. Skip the comic book stuff and go right for the early 90's beats.

New York has made me a big weather puss. Instead of going out in the snow to see PTV3 I spent the evening loading up my hard drive and credit card at the endlessly addictive iTunes store with essentials I'm kind of embarassed for not already owning - such as The Fall's Rough Trade Anthology. Anyway, I believe a night of Dorkwave is in order over the Christmas holiday. Anyone with a bar and a good sound system in Detroit want to hook that up? Like Friday the 26th? Seriously.

Mr. Picassohead. Enough said.

R.I.P. Micromini. Long live Micromini.

D[e]K[ay]NY

Hey, fksche.
'sup?

I know everyone in New York reading this is probably on the list for Micromini tonight, but it would be really cool if we all paid the paltry seven bucks so Kevin can go to Germany without a bunch of debt collectors in dark sunglasses on his tail. Just a thought.

In other NYC happenings this weekend, Psychic TV will perform here for the first time in 15 years this Friday at the Coral Room. Doors at 9pm, show at 11, $15, no list, 512 W. 29th.

Former Psychic TV member Fred Giannelli, a.k.a. The Kooky Scientist will be performing Saturday night at our favorite little Chinatown afterhours joint, 59 Canal with our good, good friends Plexus and Troy Pierce. 11pm, $10, the address is... well, 59 Canal Street. This show has the hottest flyer I've seen in ages. Check out the Flash version here. The timing is a bit weird, but I'm not betting that Fred and Genesis are going to be sharing the stage at any point this weekend. You never know though.

December edition of the Daniel Miller Happy Hour went up today. I wait for this every single month like watching water boil. Agh... the playlist isn't posted yet!! It's the "best of 2003" show, so you ought to know it all anyway.

Back in Black.

You know how sometimes you come across great music in like four or five different genres and it turns out there's one guy behind it? No? And the same guy who's work you're really digging calls you out of the blue to direct a music video a couple years ago, but it didn't happen because the label didn't have any money, and who were you kidding because all you have is a little DV camera and a lot of ideas, but damn, how cool was that? No? You know how sometimes the output is so good you write a blog post about it, and then like three months later write about it again just to remind people? Yeah.

Bryan Black, former programmer for Prince and cofounder of innovative machine rock group H3LLB3NT is busy busy, which is good for us robot muisc consumers. Motor, his gnarzigkeitesque project with Olivier Grasset a.k.a. Oli Shaddow, released a brilliant EP this summer on NovaMute, and is set to put out a new remix of the Throbbing Grislte classic Persuasion. A full length album is also in the works. Black's electropunk outfit xLover have just about finished an LP tentatively titled Deep Kink to follow their Trash Me single (also featuring a sexed-up cover his former boss' Controversy.) Label and exact release date not yet confirmed, but expect it sometime around February or March. One date that is confirmed, February 16th will see the release of Throb, the long awaited new Haloblack album. I haven't had a chance to hear it yet, but Jared Louche says, "It�s brutally fractured and static-driven. His best record yet." Jared is one blue haired cyberpunk poet to trust.

Oh, and totally unrelated, I'm working on a little piece about the search for Donald Trump's abstruse hair Tuesday night which will be published on Rob's Blog. Hold tight.

London's burning down down down down down down down
New York's burning down down down down down down down!

4/4 industrial according to Tiga. Out now on Turbo.
(Thanks Gibby!)


FYI, the DSL at the Lab has been out all day and I just figured out how to "borrow" wireless broadband from a neighbor. If I'm slow with emails and posts, that's the excuse.

Did everyone read Kevin's little announcement today? Two strikes against New York, and two more reasons to go to MicroMini Thursday night.

Remember: When you read Burnlab you know stuff your friends don't... which makes you cool.

tomorrow (thursday) i will have the great pleasure of seeing magda open for richie hawtin in my very own town of barcelona while in the company of barcelona�s newest yank resident geoff white and the amazingly unjustly under-known simon ashton, mastermind of downtempo wizards big bossa (check out his music from his release "badalona". it ranks among the best of current downtempo but sadly its distributor went under. he�s currently working with steven halliday from agent sumo on a new more electro/experimental release featuring ayesha, the singer from my band, misnoma)...sometimes the world being so small has it�s benefits

Everyone go do THIS. NOW. It's too easy and important not to. Thank you.

It's Tuesday, which means Gibby Miller and friends are doing DAMAGED at the Leopard Lounge: 5th Street and 2nd Ave., above Sin Sin in NYC. Punk, post-punk, electro, nuwave, nowave, dorkwave. Cheap drinks. Dancing. Bad behavior on a weeknight. See you there.

Prior to Damaged, Pinter, Herrera and I are going on a little paparazzi adventure into uncharted territories of society absurdity. More on that tomorrow.

Please welcome our two newest conspirators to the editorial staff:

Lynnel Herrera is a New York scene barometer, professional tastemaker, contributor to Flavorpill and works at Karim Rashid Design.

Derek Plaslaiko is one of the very best DJs in Detroit (if not the world), formerly Rich's tech bitch, an Untitled resident and a genuine stand up gentleman if ever you met one.

I started to write an article about the WTC memorial finalists, but Maureen Dowd of the New York Times summed it up more articulately Sunday in her editorial Unbearable Lightness of Memory.

The eight designs for a memorial at ground zero, gleaming with hanging candles and translucent tubes and reflecting pools and the smiling faces of those killed on 9/11, aim to transcend. And they succeed. They transcend terror. They have the banality of no evil. They represent the triumph of atmosphere over atrocity, mood over meaning. The designs are more concerned with the play of light on water than the play of darkness on life.