What was going on? Had decades of sucking down so much high-fructose corn syrup not only made Americans incredibly obese, but also messed with white brain chemistry to the point that some sort of tipping point had occurred?

Not a bad theory, but no, there’s a simpler explanation, with two parts: For the first time in their lives, baby boomers are hard up against it economically, and white boy is becoming outnumbered and it’s got his bowels chilled with fear.

“In an age of diminished resources, the United States may be heading for an intensifying confrontation between the gray and the brown,” writes Ronald Brownstein in his July National Journal article, “The Gray and the Brown: The Generational Mismatch.” That’s a polite and understated way of saying that older white folks are losing their shit as they’re being replaced by young brown and black kids while the economy is in the crapper. – Village voice.

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” Thursday afternoon Web surfing ”

01. Thee Oh Sees – I Was Denied
Warm Slime (2010, In the Red Records)
02. Wild Nothing – Chinatown
Gemini (2010)
03. Blonde Redhead – Here Sometimes
Penny Sparkle (2010)
04. Les Savy Fav – Lets Get Out Of Here
Root For Ruin (2010, French Kiss)
05. Women – Eyesore
Public Strain (2010, Jagjaguwar)

note: Thursday afternoon, cruising on the web reading random stuff online. I for one think Village voice is getting too predictable. How about just old skool explanation? In time of crisis and shrinking pond, all the creatures start biting each other heads off. The people who has the most, can afford scream the loudest. In other word, it’s just another day in paradise. The usual crazies pulling all the strings. So, yawn. The game is still the same … Maybe better background music will help the situation. Little thursday afternoon rock maybe?

PS. I don’t check email anymore. so just yell somewhere in here or post in the forum. Moka is busy being international business gal next week. So, you all are stuck with the rest of the crew. I don’t want to hear any whining and complaining, or I’ll post glitch-hop, noise and Shostakovich for a week. hah!

image: Terence McKenna

We are a campaign – a group of individuals who share a zealous lust for music – music that invades our thoughts, music that propels our bodies – music that allows us to revel in passion and pleasure. We refuse to dilute the energy that constitutes our lives – this seamless integration with the pulsing of sounds and shrill notes sailing wildly through nightclubs and concert halls across the globe. Instead we’ve elected to thrust ourselves into this sea of binary manna – information which helps us sustain our ravenous appetite for music – the Internet.

Our goal is to exalt the unexalted, to bring you goth, noise, electronica, techno, punk, indie rock, darkwave, no wave, jungle, hardcore, world music, and things we would dare never even classify. Utilizing the liberated mp3 format, Epitonic.com aspires to live up to our neologistic moniker, the center from which waves of disruptive purity emit. -from epitonic’s about.

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” Certain Elegance from the early decade. ”

01. June of 44 – Of Information and Belief
Four Great Points (Quarter Stick, 1998)
02. Rosa Chance Well – And So Then Were We
Rosa Chance Well (Kimchee Records, 2001)
03. Timonium – Filamented
Until He Finds Us (2002)
04. Dean Martinez – Ethchlorvynol
Atardecer (Knitting Factory, 1999)
05. Pavement – Greenlander
Slanted & Enchanted (Matador Records, 1992)
06. The New Year – Chinese Handcuffs
Newness Ends (Touch & Go Records, 2001)
07. The Go Betweens – The Clock
The Friends Of Rachel Worth (Jet Set Records, 2000)
08. The Strokes – Last Nite
The Modern Age ep (Xl Recordings, 2001)

note: A handful of sites and event influenced and shaped MdM to become what it is now, Epitonic.com is one of them. Back in the dark age of internet digital audio, it was soundless internet. Around 1998, web browser, Netscape 6, was finally a reliable killer app PC software, html proper proliferated, and most people used 56k v.90 dial up to read the net. Text and image were functional and the promise of internet arrived, but internet audio did not exist. MP3 files was to big and exotic until around 1999. Three things happened. Napster showed up out of nowhere and thrive on college campus network. Those who were lucky to have connection fast enough for transfering mp3 size file. The first generation of digital audio player is out in store (Rio player), and of course practical mp3 ripper for PC finally available online. Music selection was mainly metal, R&B, hip-hop top 40, mtv or at the time “alternative” and grunge, the great reaction to metal. Only the hardiest of music lovers know more by cultivating relationship with local record stores, newsletters or exchanging tapes. So, good music was only for those who brave chaotic Napster or informed underground. Until Epitonic.com.

It was a magnificent site, not only it served mp3 files on the web, but one could listen and downloaded full song without the chaos of napster. Best of all there were far larger genre and sound to explore guided by well written and informed opinion. Nobody was watching over or looking disapprovingly. A good techno is just as deserving as indie rock or lyrical acoustic. Modern classic and experimental are as fun as latest pop to explore. It was forward looking and opening large sound vista. This was what MdM learned. Not only individual songs, but how genres can be viewed and organized, what size of music landscape is possible online. It was revolutionary. Particularly, the dark dissonant indie sound that often shows up in MdM post is the sound of epitonic.com. The sound color you see is the early days of internet, not merely indie list from early ’00. Certain elegance, somewhat moody and different.

Long story short. Epitonic folded in 2004 because the economic model didn’t exist back then for such activity. The server cost finally brought them down. This was before itune/ipod mind you. But they are back now. So MdM is helping to spread the word for their fund drive. If you have some lose change drop them here:

Epitonic.com: Relaunch by the Original Founders

You can still visit the old site archive here while they are building a new one : Epitonic.com

image: fangleman

We live today in a world of ever more stuff – what sometimes seems a deluge of goods and shopping. We tend to assume that this has two results: that we are more superficial, and that we are more materialistic, our relationships to things coming at the expense of our relationships to people. We make such assumptions, we speak in cliches, but we have rarely trid to put these assumptions to the test. – somewhere online.

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” Beat Callibration for new Template. No.1 ”

01. Hauschka - Firn
The Prepared Piano (2005)
02. Nik Bartsch’s Ronin – Modul 45
Holon (Ecm Records, 2008)
03. Alva Noto – flashforward
For (Line (a division of 12k), 2006)
04. John B – Jazz Session II
Drum’n'bass: Visions (1997)
05. Matmos – Semen Song For James Bidgood
The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast (2006)
06. Fridge – Drum Machines and Glockenspiel
Happiness (Temporary Residence, 2001)

note: A lovely miscellaneous minimalism and other. I created for late summer afternoon sometimes ago, but I’ll turn it to idea source for this new template. Orderly but not antiseptic, sparse but not empty, clean but not lacking detail. One can run around freely in the open space. Yes we know the new template is a little disorganized. It needs work, incorrect size and everything is in the wrong place. But as 2 previous templates, we eventually fix the balance if everybody nags enough. Think of this as MdM Madonna’s phase. Change of style and dusting up stodgy habit. … oh and from now on, we will only post lady Gaga for good measure. (just kidding, she is cool)

as usual don’t be shy commenting away if you have good idea for MdM. We are a bit off the caffeine lately.

image: channel 4

Photo: Luca Mariani

Trying hard to make the feeling last before the autumn takes over and ruins it all.

• Wild Nothing – Golden Haze
  Golden Haze Ep (Captured Tracks, 2010)
• Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia – Soldiers
  Left (Buzzin’ Fly Records, 2010)
• The Helio Sequence – Blood Bleeds
  Love and Distance (Sub Pop, 2004)
• Boo Radleys - Wish I Was Skinny
  Giant Steps (Creation, 1993)
• Foxes In Fiction – Flashing Lights Have Ended Now
  Swung From The Branches (Orchid Tapes, 2010)

“I don’t get it. Why would anyone paint a picture of a door over and over again, like dozens of times?”

“It was the same subject, but it was different every time. The light was different, her mood was different. She saw something new every time she painted it.”

“And that’s not psycho to you?”

“Well then, why should we do anything more than once? Should I just smoke this one cigarette? Maybe we should only have sex once if it’s the same thing. Should we just watch one sunset? Or live just one day? Because it’s new every time. Each time is a different experience.”

“But… a door?”

“Why not a door? Sometimes you get fixated on something and you might not even get why. You open yourself up and go with the flow, wherever the universe takes you.”

“Ok so, the universe took her to a door and she got all obsessed with it and just had to paint it 20 times until it was perfect.”

“No I wouldn’t say that. Nothing’s perfect.”

“Come on that O’ Keeffe lady kept trying over and over until that stupid door was perfect.”

“No. That door was her home and she loved it. To me that’s about making that feeling last.”

-  Breaking Bad, episode 3.11

Photo:Brian Ferry

Then, the field of vision assumes a peculiar structure. In the center there is the favored object, fixed by our gaze; its form seems clear, perfectly defined in all its details. Around the object, as far as the limits of the field of vision, there is a zone we do not look at, but which, nevertheless, we see with an indirect, vague, inattentive vision. If it is not something to which we are accustomed, we cannot say what it is, exactly, that we see in this indirect vision.

- Ortega y Gasset. España Invertebrada.

• Sam Cooke – Lost and Lookin’
  Night beat (1963)
• Yo La Tengo – Autumn Sweater
  I can hear the heart beating as one (Matador, 1997)
• Arto Lindsay – Titled
  Mundo Civilizado (Bar/none, 1997)
• Equatics – Ain’t No Sunshine
  Doin’ It (1972, reissue by Stones Throw, 2010)
• Ann Peebles – Come to Mama
  Tellin’ It (Hi, 1974)
• Extra Golden – It’s Not Easy
  Ok-oyot System (Thrill Jockey, 2006)

A soft lunch list. Sweet and mellow around the corners, warm and slightly sensuous in the middle. Maybe a short dinner for two.
How was your day, love?

As you might have noticed we’re changing the look of the motel. Bad timing on my part since we’ve all been a tad busy  lately. Please let us know if you find anything fishy or dusty so we can work it out as soon as possible. Thank you.