Another Summer Slipped Away Without Me Noticing

Hello!

So, in the hopes of somehow discovering an escape route from the severe writer's block that I have been trapped inside for the past several weeks I thought that a well timed promo post was in order.

If you are in Southern California this weekend you should take full advantage of your opportunity to see the sure to be fabulous Crystal Stilts, and Cause Co-Motion up to three times this weekend. Both bands are clearly doing their part to showcase just how exciting of a town Brooklyn is for indiepop right NOW, and both bands are releasing records for Slumberland. OH, and on a related side note I just noticed that official release date for the debut full length from perhaps the most exciting (Brooklyn based, naturally) indiepop band in the country right now, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has been set for February third. Just a few days before my birthday! But it would be far to easy to get sucked into making this a post about how great the Pains of Being Pure at Heart are, and how great Slumberland releases tend to be in general. Please allow me to shift my focus back to the two great Slumberland bands that will be in town this weekend.

First of all, spend your Halloween in indiepop's Southern California home base, Oxnard. Not only will you get to catch some of Brooklyn's finest, you also have the opportunity to catch such squaregirls favorites as Catwalk, The Tartans, and Sea Lions, and um, me DJ-ing. A-hah, there's that element of self promotion that you've come to know and expect from a squaregirls post. I'm truly excited about this show, and really honored to have been asked to play records around some of my favorite bands of the moment. And, I'll be DJ-ing alongside one of my fellow Hungry Beat! cohorts Brian Cunningham (B-rok.) Brian is one of my favorite people to DJ with as we seem to play the perfect opposite ratio of pop to soul, and since Brian has so many good records his presence on the decks mathematically increases the fun level in the room by somewhere around 300 percent. Here are the details:


Friday October 31 - Special Halloween Show
@ The Kenji Shack 4300 Santa Clara Ave.
Oxnard, CA 93030 For Directions: (805) 485-1415
7PM/ $3/ ALL AGES

For the hardcore fans (or those of you who reside in San Diego) you can catch the Crystal Stilts/ca-USE co-MOTION portion of things at the Che Cafe on Saturday November 1st...

... But all of you Los Angeles folks are probably going to want to take Saturday to rest up for the action on Sunday at Part Time Punks:



Indiepop nights at PTP always tend to be something special, and I have a feeling that this one will be no exception!

We'll hope to see you out and about this weekend!

Oh, and I'm finally catching up on my finances, which means I've been able to order quite a few new records, and if you are at all interested in my thoughts on some of those records please check here as I may have just beaten this writer's block thing. At least for now...

~ sqg marion

let this groove set in your shoes

this is going to be quick and involve a large amount of cutting and pasting. maybe it's something in the soon to be Halloween air - the forces of evil have once again cut off my internet (and phone line!) so i'm currently milking off someone's wireless network and the connection is rather spotty. you know what's a sure bet though?? all the fun you're going to have this weekend!

~ tomorrow night @ spaceland ~
Monolator's Don't Dance record release!!!
Squaregirls are co-presenting the Monolator’s record release show with our beloved RFSL (head over to RFSL for an in depth interview with Monolator's main man Eli Chartoff). They’ll be joined by Correatown, You Me & Iowa, and Summer Darling at Spaceland.
Squaregirls have had the immense pleasure to hear an advance of Don't Dance and it's goddamn good. Read WIF's review of it here.
But we guarantee you that nothing, and we mean nothing, compares to seeing the Monolator's live. It’s going to be an amazing night and we hope you can join us!




then head on over to pehrspace for the second installment of hungry beat!
sqg Marion’s & friend's monthly dance night which features a revolving cast of DJ's spinning new and classic indie pop and northern soul.



Ronettes or Mo-dettes?
"Million Tears" or "Tears of a Clown?"
"Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch," or Honeybunch?

No need to make such difficult choices.
Hear it all this Saturday as we mix and match some of our favorite indiepop, and northern soul related dance tracks!

With Special Guest DJs: the lads from MAXIMO PARK!
and DJ Jukebox from Substance!

Also, do be sure to bring your beverage of choice since Pehrspace does not contain a bar. A-hem. (This also means it doesn't have to end at 2am--it's really up the madness in your area.
)

For the most specific directions, head over here.


See you Saturday!

And if that ain't enough Indiepop for ye, then see you Sunday, too!


it's going to be a great weekend!
~sqg kristen

The Girl's Alright with Us

Hello! It's before 10 AM, I've had way to much coffee, and I've listened to the unbelievably fantastic new Love is All single, "Wishing Well," about eight times now. I think it's going to be a good day!

I'm considerably more certain that it will be a good evening since squaregirl Kristen and I are dj-ing here:





O.k. I'm resisting the urge to play "Wishing Well" one more time, and letting the rest of the Love is All portion of my itunes play itself out so that I can focus my attention on informing you to what is sure to be a pretty great show tonight. The ultra-feminine electro-pop of Hearts of Palm UK has inspired us squaregirls to dig through our records to find our best girl related songs, i.e. all girls, girl singer, girl in the title, etc. to play for the portions of their album release show tonight that we are responsible for. Add Fol Chen - who never play the same show twice, but always play something interesting - to this mix, and The Sweet Hurt - who I know absolutely nothing about, but the L.A. blog force seems to love - to the mix, and you've got what I think is the potential for quite a fun party...

... So, we'll see you tonight?

Rip It Up And...

Hello, squaregirl Marion here! It is quite late, and I am quite tired, and I have to be at work kind of early tomorrow. In other words I will keep this post brief.

I started a new blog. I've had a bit of trouble focusing lately. There have been so many things that I've wanted to write about, yet, I couldn't seem to get the words onto the page. I'm just barely keeping up with my Web in Front column, but I would prefer to be writing more than the every five weeks or so that that entails. I thought that a new blog might be a worthwhile experiment. This new blog, Paint the Words in Pastel Blue, will ideally become a nice mix of reviews, and other random musings about pop songs. It is also safe to say that there might be a slight indiepop slant to this new site...

Check it out here, if you are so inclined. The first post also happens to be my first attempt at a straightforward album review.

Squaregirls will remain, any other squaregirl can post anything she wishes to post here. I, however, am going to leave this blog strictly to promote any projects that we might be taking on, and/or to alert you to DJ gigs, shows we are presenting, radio sessions, etc.

So on that note, my latest Web In Front Column is posted here.

And there is a Creation Records tribute set that I was a part of in the dublab archive now here. My friends Laura and Maura (the Auras) joined me for this one. They were a lot of fun to do a radio show with. My opinions about the overall wonderfulness of Creation Records may not be quite as firm as the appear to be in this session, but it's still an overall worthwhile statement to make. Most early (even some mid) Creation is very, very good. Plus it's a great thing to always be learning, reassessing your opinions, and the things that you believe to be true. Right?

Oh, and speaking of dublab I will be on from 4pm to 6pm on October 14th as part of this upcoming week's Tuesday Transmissions. I'd be honored if you would let me provide a small part of the soundtrack to your work day. It's far enough away too, that I could probably be persuaded to take a request or two. In fact, two hours is quite a bit of space to fill so requests are more than welcome!

The next night, October 15th we will be DJ-ing the Hearts of Palm UK's album release show. I'll add a more proper post about how much fun that has the potential to be, along with the flier sometime early next week.

Alright, I think I've covered everything that i can think of, and my exhaustion is bordering on delirium, so goodnight.

~sqg marion

Sorting Through...

O.k., I'll admit to being a bit lazy for just reposting our myspace blog about our first Hungry Beat! night here. I think it says it all though. Also, below the playlist are some of my personal favorite pictures of the night!


HUNGRY BEAT PLAYLIST 9/27:

Each DJ's first set is posted below. The music went on quite a bit longer, and by the end we were doing things a bit more tag team style. We'll probably go further in that direction in the future, as it's really fun that way. It is worth noting that we did play the Pat Powdrill song "Do It" that was sent to us courtesy of our club night hero, How Does It Feel to be Loved later on in the evening. If anyone has any questions about anything else that was played, or if you want to see the rest of the play list posted here, please do not hesitate to ask! We had the best time on Saturday night, and that is entirely thanks to all of the wonderful people who came out to dance with us. Please join us at Pehrspace on October 25th when do it all over again!

Love,
Hungry Beat!

Marion:
The Pastels - Heaven's Above
Melody Dog - Futuristic Lover
Courtney Love (Lois Maffeo/Pat Maley) - The Second Most Beautiful Girl in the World
Honeybunch - Hey Blue Sky The Lucksmiths - Smokers in Love
14 Iced Bears - Balloon Song
My Bloody Valentine - Paint a Rainbow
Poptarts - Girly Pop
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday
The Flatmates - Could be in Heaven
Razorcuts - Storyteller
The Wake - Talk About the Past

YY:
Girls at Our Best! - Fashion
Felt - Ballad of the Band
Biff Bang Pow! - Someone Stole My Wheels
Revolving Paint Dream - Green Sea Blue
Jazzateers - Heartbeat
Too Much - Silex Pistols
The Siddeleys - Sunshine Thuggery
The Wake - Crush the Flowers
Shop Assitants - I Don't Want to be Friends With You
Modettes - White Mice
Love is All - Make Out, Fall Out, Make Up, Fall Out
Househunters - Dorsal Fin
Aislers Set - Mission Bells

Goodwill:
The Monkees - Hold On Girl
The Olympics - Same Old Thing
Stevie Wonder - Aint That Asking For Trouble
The Radiants - Choo Choo
The Supremes - When The Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes
Jay & the Techniques - Keep the Ball Rolling
The Marvelettes - Your Love is Gonna Save Me
The Parliments - (I Wanna) Testify
The Ronettes - You Came, You Saw, You Conquered

Michael Stock:

The Creation - Making Time
The Stone Roses - Here It Comes
Primal Scream - It Happens
New Order - Ceremony
The Flatmates - Happy All the Time
My Bloody Valentine - Sunny Sundae Smile
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Never Understand
Jesse Garon - Presence
14 Iced Bears - Inside
The Pooh Sticks - Heroes & Villians
The Shop Assistants - Safety Net
The Wedding Present - Brassneck
Beat Happening - Look Around
The Beach Boys - Help Me Rhonda
Biff Bang Pow - There Must be a Better Life
The La's - There She Goes
Big Star - September Gurls

B-Rok:
The Jellybeans - You Don't Mean Me No Good
The Vontastics - Never Let Our Love Grow Cold
Orange Juice - Rip It Up
Jean Battle - I've Got to Come In
Saint Etienne - Your in a Bad Way
Darell Banks - Our Love is in the Pocket
The Uptights - Shy Guy
The Isley Brothers - Why When Love is Gone
Jay & the Techniques - Strawberry Shortcake
Brigitte Bardot - Ca Pourrait Changer
The Go Betweens - Spring Rain
The Falcons - (I'm a Fool) I Must Love You

















You can view more pictures from the night, here. We'll see you on the 25th!