There was a time when Mikel O.D. was also known as Mikel O.C., as in the O.C. TV show. You see, I love my teen dramas. Always have. Every since the old 90210 days when Brenda and Kelly tossed Dylan back and forth like a tennis ball. Meanwhile, Dylan just kept his smug smirk, and poor old David never got interesting until he started taking drugs. The love for the teen drama has never left me, but it has gotten harder these days to enjoy them like I use too. I suffered through this year’s revamp of 90210, mostly out of a morbid fascination to witness just how bad this shabby also-ran could be.

My worst experience with teen drama was when I tried to watch Gossip Girl. This teen show was so purely aimed against my over 35 male demographic, there was no way I could hang with the catchy lingo, the high fashion and the oh so cold New York demeanor. I’ll stick with my sun in the fun 90210 and the forced intellectual chatter of Dawson’s Creek.

But, something good did come of Gossip Girl and I picked it up for a $1.50 at a library sale a few days ago. OMFGG No. 1, which I looked at thinking this must stand for “Oh My Freaking Great God!� actually stood for the “Original Music Featured on Gossip Girl.� This is a pretty brilliant soundtrack featuring artists like The Kills, The Teenagers, Crystal Castles etc. So it sounds like last year’s hipper than thou mixtape.

I was told by a friend of mine that Gossip Girl has hit its stride this past season and I should give it another chance. I’m not sure I will, but I will be listening to OMFGG!

The reason why I attend the Crofoot more than any other live venue is they understand not only how to put on a show, but, how to make it special. They proved this again on Friday night, June 5th with Mr. Sandman’s Quadruple Album Release Prom, featuring The Summer Pledge, Manna And Quail, The Silent Years and Deastro. If you’re asking if Mr. Sandman is the next new promoter, the answer is no. Mr. Sandman, doesn’t exist. It’s just the fine people behind the Crofoot, doing their own thing to create a magical atmosphere full of fun and mischief.

I got to the show a bit late, which was really a shame because, The Summer Pledge were on stage making a beautiful racket, with loads of percussion, horns, and wailing guitars. Comprised of members from Wildcatting, the Summer Pledge, play some harsh indie rock with a dash of Americana and explosions. It was a big, awesome sound that left the crowd’s ear’s ringing and their face’s smiling.

Before I get on more with the how the bands were, I have to comment on how gorgeous the people were. See the crowd actually got it! I don’t know how many shows I go to where the promoter will tell everyone to wear red - which I show up in head to toe, only to find everyone else in anything but red. The flyer for this show had “prom� in the title and people dressed like it was the prom they really wanted to attend. With all the ladies in fantastic dresses, and the guys, well, you know, at least the ladies looked good. There was a booth to get your picture taken at, punch bowls and cookies on the bar and an “embarrassing moments� at your prom slide show.

 

Manna and Quail have been hard at work re-crafting their sound for a new ep which packed with 7 beauty-laden songs is like a full length with the fat chopped off. Having Dan Zott for special keyboard effects and vocal harmonies was a welcome back to some of the best M&Q moments, as this was one of their finest performances yet. If you want proof just check out the video, they manage to even sound good on my cheap flip camera.

I’ve used words to describe a live show by The Silent Years as “blissful� and “exhilarating.� They have a way of bringing something to the stage that could be called “spiritual� for people like me, that question if we even have a soul to begin with. For tonight’s show they brought a cast of kids with them that sang, beat on drums and played guitar. They brought in cello to add to their violin and created lighting effects with lamps and Christmas bulbs. The bulk of their set came from their new ep, so absent were the singalongs like “Someone To Keep us Warm� and “Open Up Our Eyes.� But, the new songs sound like winners, maybe next time I’ll be singing along with these as well. Check out their live performance of “On Our Way Home.�

Deastro closed out the night. This show was his chance to bring what he brought to the UK just a couple of months ago to his home crowd. Randy (aka singer/synth of Deastro) is still the same lovable goofball we saw last year, throwing out stuffed animals, wrapping himself in a Batman sheet and pogoing around the stage as if his feet were ablaze. What is markedly different is how complete the Deastro sound has become with his full band that captures the sparkly synths and adds texture to space with a new focus on Randy’s vocal. Deastro may be our hometown kid on his way to making it the big time, but he still has a firm grasp on his identity and appreciation for his upbringing. To be able to witness Deastro up close, I traded in sound quality for capturing the moment. Check out the video of Deastro playing “Girl Talk� –style as the crowd gets up on stage and dances ecstatically around him.

There couldn’t have been a better show to have kicked off summer.

You can download these videos at mostpeoplearevjs.mevio.com.

Here's a streaming version of the MPAD Neat Video you can watch here!

2008 - Christmas On Mars - Trailer from George Salisbury on Vimeo.

I am helping promote/host a movie night next week at the Crofoot. Please come see Christmas On Mars, by renaissance-weirdo, Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. There will be short films by local movie team, Iron Core TV. And an afterparty with suprises , a DJ (Me!) and more. All for$5!!!!!

I can't recall the song off the top of my head, but the Hold Steady have a line that goes "I still feel pretty sweet." And, even with a lack of sleep, sore shoulders from carry everything and a pounding headache, I still feel pretty sweet. If you missed it, last night was my MPAD Showcase: Synth, Shoegaze, Surprize! and while I have a long list of "lessons learned" I think the event went extremely well.
My first "lesson learned" was never pick the coldest day of the year to have a show! The temp was somewhere in the subzero area with wind gusting. So the 110 people (which is a pretty good crowd) we had in the Pike Room braved the elements to see the show.

Let's start with the artroom. J. Celestino, Shawn Amberger, Paul Sizer and Marvin Shaouni had work on display. This photo contains work by J. Celestino. Everyone really like the artwork, and a couple of the artists sold a few of their works making the evening especially good for them.

 

 

 

 

 

Get this guy offstage so we can here some music! I had this crazy idea to emcee the night, so before the bands took the stage I came on and introduced them, while giving away PodShow t-shirts and other swag. It was fun and I hope it added a bit to the evening.

 

 

Deastro was the first to play.He threw out a blistering set of frantically paced, energetic, synth-bliss, that those unfamilar with Deastro came away with smiles and an appreciation for spastic dancing.

Otto Vector played next and were nice enough to play a couple of songs, they don't usually perform "Ponderance of a Lonely Girl on a Porch" being one of them, Their sound was especially tight and Renee's vocals were spot on. For one of the early bands, they got quite a reaction from the crowd with some dancing and lots of cheering.
Ether Aura was third on the list, and this was a good time to relax a bit to the ethereal sweetness of Kate, the lead singer's voice. They have a video on their MySpace page from their performance you need to see!














Lastly, 800Beloved took the stage and got everyone to their feet with one of those "it will go down in history" performances. I've never heard a band play so loud and sound so clear at the same time. Their set was shimmering with guitar effects, wonderful vocals and bouncing basslines. Their cover of the Rolling Stones (by way of the Sundays) "Wild Horses" brought a hush then a loud sheer from the audience. Their set ended with the crowd joining them on stage dancing. A moment I regrettably missed. If anyone has pictures from this part of the show please contact me!




I think the best thing for me about the show was everybody seemed to have a very good time. There was a sense of friendliness and a nice shrugging off the "ultra cool to hip to relate" attitude I enounter at a lot of shows. The show took a lot out of me to put on, but, looking back on it, it was worth every moment. Thanks to the bands, artists and friends that participated. It was really you that made the show a night I'll treasure.
This week's podcast, MPAD#128, will have more music from each of the bands that played and more from the show.

One of my favorite podcasts is Bazooka Joe's small World Podcast where Joe sits down with bands, artists, and people just like you and me to talk about their and passion and drive in life. It's been on hiatus for the past couple of months with database/website issues. But, Joe has everything back together, small World Podcast is again ready for action, and I'm very pleased to be his guest. Joe shoots the hard-hitting questions at me and I fire back answers as if a gun were pointed at my head. Well, I'm exaggerating. We actually have a nice chat while I play a few songs I hold high on my list of great indie tracks. If you want to know more about the what and why of Most People Are DJs this is for you. And, keep listening to small World Podcast as Joe always keeps the show interesting.
Direct MP3 download:
http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?http://smallworldpodcast.com/mp3/smallworld110507.mp3

On Monday night the Hold Steady came to town and the show is still playing in my head. The show was held at the excellant new club in Pontiac, the Crofoot Ballroom.With a line-up that included the hipper-than-hip Art Brut and the loud rocking, Federale, I expected this show to be great, but, this show was insanely good. I'll talk about it on my upcoming podcast, but I had to tell anyone else that has a chance to see this show  get your tickets. You won't see a better show this year. Art Brut's stage set included a movie screen that listed the band's set and had humorous comments to go along with their talky, sing-along songs. Eddie Argos, the lead singer (which is really stretching the term) explains his life through bitterly funny pop-punk songs. The Hold Steady played a set that was full of their boozey anthems of misguided youth, while the crowd sang along and held up their beer bottles at every mention of alcohol - which was a few times every song. Craig Finn looked absolutely giddy on stage as he sang his songs and recognized the appreciation and  satisfaction from the audience hearing it. During the last song, which is always "Killer Parties," all hell broke loose as the audience began climbing up on stage, hugging the band, waving arms and singing along (see pic.) I think the bouncer considered putting a stop to it but there was just too many kids rushing at the stage to share a moment with the band that absolutely thrilled them. On my next show, I talk to Tad Kubler, the guitarist and Craig Finn, the singer of Hold Steady play a couple of their tracks and Art Brut.

If I get out of the house for an evening of fun more than twice a month I consider myself lucky. This month I've been hanging out at night like I won the lottery! October started out with the Birthday Massacre show. Then, last week I saw a great show with MC Chris and Pinback. A couple of days ago I saw 30 Days of Night with Rob from Supernot. Last night, Matt from DDR and I saw IAMX and I interviewed the warmup band, the Hourly Radio.
To cap off the month on Oct. 29th I'm saving the best for last and seeing the Hold Steady with Art Brut at the Crofoot. The great thing is I get to share all this stuff with you! 30 Days of Night is reviewed on Supernot#29.The next episode of MPAD will have an interview with MC Chris (that him in the pic) and the Hourly Radio.

I've had Bazooka Joe recently on MPAD, and as all things that come around go around, this week I'm his special guest on his excellent electronic music podcast Solipsistic Nation. I'm playing synthpop and I play a slew of great songs -
   1. Blaine L. Reininger “Teenage Theatreâ€?
   2. Gary Numan “Carsâ€?
   3. Gary Numan “Airlaneâ€?
   4. Thomas Dolby “One Of Our Submarinesâ€?
   5. i, Synthesist “Red Cloudsâ€?
   6. Space March “Time Will Make A Fool Out Of Meâ€?
   7. Alan Replica “Soul Corruptionâ€?
   8. Minisystem “Madingleyâ€?
   9. The Calculators “Dead Is Deadâ€?
  10. Any Day In June “Clearâ€?
  11. Charlie Slick “I Know You Love My Synthesizersâ€?
  12. Idiots! “Spring Is Hereâ€?
  13. Minisystem “What About Me?â€?
  14. FrankMusik “3 Little Wordsâ€?
  15. Otto Vector “Take It All Offâ€?
  16. theSTART “Wartime! (It’s Time 2 Go Now)â€?

In addition to the great music I gush on all my synthpop favorite artists and give some history on how it has influenced my life. Check out the show and let Joe know if you enjoyed it.

Soooo, at the end of my last episode MPAD#112 I comment how the beginning lyrics of Bloc Party's "Hellacopter" with "Note to Self" is a great way to start a song. Well, apparently, I'm giving Bloc Party too much credit, he actually sings "North to South" in the beginning. I was listening again and caught it, looked it up and what do you know, I'm an idiot! The good news is "Note to Self" is still available as a great song opening!

And, for something completely different, on my other podcast Supernot, my co-host Rob and I switch the format up and talk about all things "geek-chic". In other words, we cover DVD releases, the latest TV episodes and comics. Check it out if it sounds like something you'd like.

I noticed that iTunes hasn't been updating with my latest episode. I haven't figured out why, but I did submit my podshow RSS for iTunes as well. So, you may want to plug in this RSS for iTunes:
http://www.podshow.com/feeds/mostpeoplearedjs.xml


If you have any problems ever finding an episode of MPAD please email me.
My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-889295c832187662bb22d4786f8ca5af}

I saw the Birthday Massacre last night and they put on quite a show. Chibi, the lead singer was very expressive, with a pixie grin then a devilish snarl. The set list was a good selection from all three of their releases. A number of the songs came from their latest release, "Walking With Strangers,"  which has been on repeat in my car all week. I interviewed the band before the show so look for them to be featured on MPAD in about a week and a half, with pics, music and even video.

Just wanted to leave a quick note that instead of a 3 Ingreedyance Mix for my next MPAD episode, something much better has come up. James Celestino from Any Day In June will be guest hosting and I'm promising you he'll be playing some great music. If you want to know how I know, just check out his video podcast MATAPOP.Tv - I especially like Barr "The Song Is The Single."

I'm sure I'll get some flack for this, but Starship Troopers is one of my favorite movies of all time. Seriously. I love the propaganda look and feel for the film. It reminds me of Frank Miller's "Dark Knight Returns," it's a great use of irony.  Some people don't get this, but, watching this move after 9-1-1 is interesting. And, thinking back to the start of the Iraq war, a lot of scary parallels between the world of S.T. and ours can be made.
S.T. is set in a very fascist world, where serving for the military is the highest of honors.
The teens in this movie are portrayed as pretty, naive and vacuous. They're gung-ho about going into space and killing bugs, until they realize they're like lambs being sent in for the slaughter. Even after seeing several of their own gruesomely taken down they continue their gusto for war.
Director, Paul Verhoven, maybe stays too close to the irony, in that many people fail to see he is intentionally glorifying the fascism and war, so we can see beyond the surface. Beyond the surface is a mindless bunch of kids and a world that is going get it's shit kicked in.

I bought a couple things and heard something I should pass along --
The Wire - Season 1
I was glued to season 4 during Christmas Vacation and I think I watched some of season 1. It was on sale for $24.99 at Best Buy - how can I pass that up?

Marilyn Manson - Eat Me Drink Me
I'll probably talk about this one on my next show - why am I so drawn to this repulsive dude? It's probably because he's one of the few artists that continually push the boundaries of what's acceptable. I've only given a cursory listen to the first few tracks, but, so far I'm a little disappointed. Seems a little bland, but I don't want to speak to soon.

So, give this a listen, Young Love is doing a nice cover of the Smashing Pumpkins' 1979.

There's a new release on eMusic by a band called Machines Kill Music - and it's really good! I just did googled the band and came up with nothing even close. If anyone can email me with info on the band I'll send you a neat surprise!

I'm going to guest DJ on Auralgasms Radio on Monday, Oct. 16 from 10pm-11pm for 1 hour, playing whatever I want. Auralgasms Radio is the internet radio station for dream pop, electronica and more. I'll be playing some new wave and dance classics from the 80's. It'll be obscure and sublime. If you can, please listen and join in on the chat.

A couple of quick notes before the podcast comes on Monday.

The pic you see in this entry is one from the Ziggy Marley photos I took on Labor Day.

Exciting news! I'm part of the PodShow Sirius block on Sirius Satellite Radio. The show airs this Tuesday, I'm on at 8:30pm eastern between A Girl A Guy and a Bottle and Yeast Radio. It will be a short best of recent episodes featuring Gary Numan, Hamell on Trial and the Nice Device.   There are a couple of new surprises on this show so you'll want to hear it. During this weeks podcast, MPAD#63, I'll tell you a way you can get this special show without having Sirius.

It's amazing how we can get so wrapped into all the different goings on with the media, we can lost site of little pieces of news that mean so much. Arthur Lee of (Arthur Lee & Love) died on August 3rd. from lukemia. He led a troubled life filled with a few tremendous songs and seemed on the brink of a comeback for the past few decades. "Forever Changes," both the original and live version rank high in my music collection and I plan on playing them again this week. Do yourself a favor and listen to "You Set the Scene" and give the man his due.
On a happier note, I'm seeing The Church at the Magic Bag on Sunday. This should be an excellant show you will hear more about on MPAD. Remeber this week's show is the big interview with Gary Numan. And, one more day of voting for me to win a podcast award!

This has been one crazy week. I've been incredibly busy but a couple of amazing things happened I want to tell you about. On Monday I saw Gary Numan live. I've mentioned it before, but if you don't know already, Gary Numan is my favorite artist. Yes, even above Morrissey! Having a podcast gave me the opportunity that very few people get to realize - I got to interview Gary Numan. We had a great discussion on his tour and career which will air on MPAD#58 on August 14.
On this week's show MPAD#57, I'll be talking about my experience at the show, reviewing "So You Want to Be a Superhero" and the latest issue of Q magazine. I'll go ahead and tease you with a couple of bands I'll be featuring -- Aberdeen City and My Robot Friend. So, make sure to check out MPAD#57 at mostpeoplearedjs.podshow.com on August 7.
Lastly, don't forget to keep voting for me daily at the Podcast Awards for best "Cultural/Arts" show. Thanks to all of you that have been voting.