brainwaves from ZF FILMS on Vimeo.

@brainwashedcom – (as in brainwashed.com – home of the brainwaves festival) one of my all time favorite music news sources, touching upon the darker side of my listening soul, has joined the land of twitter. I attented Brainwaves in 08 and was deeply thrilled to finally see some of my old favorites: Peter Christopherson, Meat Beat Manifesto, Matmos, and Stars of the Lid. I was also introduced to some musicians such as Marissa Nadler, Glenn Jones (who I met there and learned he’d had his album worked on by one of my childhood friends and classmates, Anthony Esposito), Boduf Songs, His Name Is Alive and many others that enticed me. Brainwashed has always been at the forefront of musical discovery, finding and helping bring success to those bands that eventually grew to relative stardom (Antony, Amanda Palmer, Devendra Banhart, and on and on) but often being overlooked by the powers that they inspire.

Brainwashed deserves credit for pulling culture out of the cracks and feeding it to many who desperately need it, and while that occasionally comes with a low dosage of condescension, their reviews and headlines are usually surprisingly optimistic and pleasant, rarely crucifying their subjects. For a counter-culture online publication with a dedicated base of rabid, often darkly dressed fans, that’s quite impressive.

The bottom line is: if you want to be a step ahead of the music scene, pay attention to brainwashed. Listen to their podcasts. I too have been guilty of ignoring them from time to time, and for that I always kick myself. On their site, they are currently wondering what they’re going to do with twitter. If you’re listening, brainwashed: keep us informed. Remind us when you update, tell us when there are brainwashed bands playing shows, tell us when the DVD is coming, let us know whenever you see Gary Wilson covering himself with baby powder. Tell us pretty much anything, we’ll listen.

By the way, I must show pride, I got this shirt at Brainwavesfest2008 and I am in love. Thanks kranky.

This Twitter experiment is already yielding me some fruit, I slacked off preparing my show last night (uh, cuz I was setting up PJ at Che’s Lounge with his own twitter). So, since I have very little music selected, I was flying by the seat of my pants. However, my sudden influx of new listeners (thanks in part to twitter itself) blasted me with a barrage of eclectic requests. I couldn’t fill all of them, but I did my best to try, and during the show I got followed by another 5 or 6 people, and turned a few people on to making accounts themselves. This is my second day using the thing, my first day REALLY using it. It’s pretty incredible. Anyway, I took advantage of the requests and did my best to fill the gaps with my own selections. I also played that Clark EP, split up over the course of the show.

So anyway, the tracklist is as follows:

1. Clark – Growls Garden
2. Animal Collective – Banshee Beat
3. Fever Ray – Keep the Streets Empty for Me (by request for Brian)
4. Clark – The Magnet Mine
5. Flight of the Conchords – The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room (Sort of by request for Paul)
6. Sufjan Stevens – The Dress Looks Nice On You (by request for deckhands)
7. Boards of Canada – Oscar See Through Red Eye
8. Justice – Dance
9. Patrick Wolf – Get Lost
10. Zeigeist – The Lake
11. Clark – Seaweed
12. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – Young Adult Friction
13. Clark – Gonk Roughage
14. Tim Exile – Don’t Think We’re One
15. Bonnie Prince Billy – I Won’t Ask Again (by request for “humanity” from PJ at Che’s)
16. Dodos – Chickens
17. The Mountain Goats – So Desperate
18. Bob Dylan – Not Dark Yet (by request from My Mom)
19. Akron/Family – Dylan Pt. 2
20. Billy Idol – White Wedding (by request from Chrysal)
21. Clark – Distant Father Torch
22. Clark – Farewell Mining Town
23. Antony and the Johnsons – Kiss My Name
24. Metric – Help I’m Alive (by request from Katherine via Facebook)
25. Plaid – TAK 5

Note that I linked all those who made requests (or something resembling a request). I will try to do that from now on if I’m doing the Twitter thing, although if I have a lot of new music I might be less likely to take requests.

Oh and without further ado: Here’s the link to the episode for download/stream (64 kbps mp3 – i know i know, it’s recorded from the stream)

[audio:http://www.maurydegeofroy.com/Radio/MOTL-03-19-09.mp3]

Okay I suppose this post doesn’t work if you’re looking at an RSS feed, but anyway, my pride:

Just tossed the twitter feed on my blog. And hey, it works, how bout that!

Hooray technology.