wish upon a falling (pop) star

oh girrrrrll.... no you didn't! ok maybe a little too gay, but the message is relayed none the less. petrov got to work this morning and he was informed by his 42yo co-worker that britney spears performed at the MTV VMA's last night. unfortunately petrov a) didn't know the VMAs were last night and b)didn't know britney had a musical career anymore. so petrov puddled back to his desk and began search the intertubes for this. and oh did this not disappoint the tragedy that has been the last year named "britney spears." petrov was most pleased to see that she still hasn't mastered the lipsync (or else MTV.com has shitty sound-video syncing on their videos). but the real question lies in why she lacked the onstage charisma that she used to have? she looked bored to death and lacked any real dance moves. (well hopefully the lack of dance moves is because she has been in rehab)

anyway....petrov expended a whole 5minutes on that subject.... time to move on. well how does petrov follow up on this subject for all you pop kiddies? ah yes another fine pop-like band with a brand new video that in fact reminds petrov of britney spears (isn't she pretty in the video?). The Shins!

The Shins - Turn on Me

the pipettes show

the pipettes are coming back to dc! they played a quite crowded show at blackcat back a few months ago now, but this time they are doing it big at 9.30club. hopefully, unlike last time, the crowd will actually get into it. the pipettes have to much energy to be wasted on another dead dc audience. petrov is hoping for the best. They were just confirmed for October 10th.

The Pipettes - We are the Pipettes (SXSW)

don't judge...its good

yes petrov had two songs selected for today's post. however, due to heavy drinking last night, petrov did not write his post. so here he is the next morning, unsure of what the second song was. DOH. anywho... the first song: Kaskade - Love Stoned (by his truly, Justin Timberlake).

petrov knows your judging but there is a reason to this madness. though the songs starts out a bit blah it picks up and carries a good beat after the first minute (and before the last). there is something about the fade in and fade out of this song that he doesn't like, it just seems way to standard for any song.

petrov will be honest, he has heard the original Love Stoned a limited number of times, so he's unsure of what the true base of this song is, but with the exception of the fade in and fade out the song keeps the vocals true and the mix builds off of what is inherently good about the song. There is no attempt to alter the beat, cuz we all knowz JT gotz da beat.

once petrov takes his memory medicine and remembers, he'll give you kiddies the second song he promised.

click click click click click

ugh, petrov is not in the blog writing mood... he's very tired. but fortunately he does have a good song for you to listen to. Its by Bishop Allen, petrov has had the cd for a month or so, but it took until a couple days ago for petrov to start loving it.

is that a highschool auditorium?

tegan and sara (canadian twins) make petrov happy. it was petrov's first concert he attended alone. back in grad school petrov could find no one to go with him so he braved the cruel judgmental world of indie kids alone. its always interesting doing something you normally do in a group alone as it makes you realize that even if just standing by someone you know whether at a concert or in a movie it relieves a lot of the pressure one would otherwise have to present oneself in a certain manner as to say "yeah man... i'm cool with being here alone." the odd thing for petrov is that the places this is most evident is at places with large numbers of people and in the dark. the environment should be well suited for singularity as this creates the optimum level of anonymity. another example is at a club... your friend goes to buy you a drink and you stand there like you are nude and everyone is staring at you because there you are alone. fortunately petrov has learned to deal with this problem with heavy drinking.

with that side story..... here is "Back in your Head" by Tegan and Sara. and doesn't it look like they rented out a high school auditorium? petrov was for certain that the ghostly audience was going to break out in dance at some point during the song.... he was almost certain of it... but they did not.... so he can't blame you either for not enjoy the video as much as one would like.

muckity muck doo doo

Much like yesterday's song, Blonde Redhead's latest album "23" has been out since April. What's even worse is petrov didn't realize he had the song "The Dress" from a previous album "Misery is a Butterfly" (ear soothing pleasure below). Here's the deal kiddies.... don't be a music whore like Petrov or this is the crap that happens to you. The song is in line with the Bats for Lashes song from yesterday, however, it swerves towards depressing instead of borderline poppy. If you need to visual go to youtube and you'll find a well produced video for the song. petrov is fairly certain it was not sanctioned by blonde redhead... but it wouldn't be the first time he was wrong... would it? right?!?

Further more.... google is telling me that "swerves" is spelled like that.... it looks weird to petrov, therefore he does not take blame if it is spelled wrong.... the computer made petrov do it!! with this clearly being a sign that mental capacities have departed... petrov is off to his bunny's nest to rest peacefully.

Blonde Redhead will not be gracing DC with their musical delights.... but will be playing the Ram's Head Live (Baltimore) on August 8th.

pretty girls and bunnies in the dark

today's song comes from an album yet to be released in the US (will come out July 31st), "Fur and Gold", but already out in the UK. as such Bat for Lashes is already playing the european festival circuit and is about to make their US tour debut starting (yesterday) in Hoboken, NJ... leave you to judge that as a way to kickoff your US career.... anyway, the song is fabulous... slightly eerie, but poppy and all caught in the music video that petrov enjoys tremendously.

gypsy punks

if petrov had known he would have been a healthy bunny again by tonight, he would have picked himself up some tickets for gogol bordello before they had sold out. oh well.... petrov saw them on their last visit to dc last summer (also at 9.30 club) where petrov and a good half of the 9.30 club floor found themselves dancing up a storm to the point there was literally no article of clothing that was not completely and utterly soaked through. getting a dc crowd to dance like that... is no small feat let petrov tell you....

GB recently played live earth and did a duet with Madonna... interesting combination? yes. interesting resulting song? yes. good? you be the judge. if you don't know gogol bordello.... this has little resemblance of the full band's size or craziness. anywho... if you have tickets for tonights show, lucky you, petrov will probably be test driving cars instead.

relax

well, relax is what petrov did this weekend. due to an unsaid illness, petrov went camping with his friends this weekend, but was not allowed to touch anything that was not clearly identified as "contaminated." because petrov felt fine, but remained slightly contagious, petrov made out like a bandit being waited on hand and foot. petrov appreciated this mightly. he will be sure to repay his servants-for-a-weekend with a special labor day trip.

and of course, relaxation being the lose tie-in for today's song by Mika, "Relax." Petrov still hasn't decided how to categorize this music in his little head. it reminds him deeply of Scissor Sisters, but isn't quite so crazy. petrov had never heard of Mika until after his performance at 9.30 club and proceeded the next day by more "m4m" missed connections from the show than even Pride could pull in. so petrov had to see what the hell was going on and he found himself an ambiguously gay high pitch singer. its been a month or more and petrov has still not decided whether it is worth investing in Mika's album "Life in Cartoon Motion." It will probably happen sooner than later as Spoon and Partrick Wolf have both found Mike worth the remixing.

taint is not part of the anatomy (at least not tonight)

One thing DC is not at lack of is DJ’s or other musically-inclined-dj-fanboys with specially named nights. To name a few there is Blowoff, Taint, Infamy, Bliss, Sorted, Garutuchi, Crowd Control, Unbuckled...

Tonight at DC9 is the semi-regular gay-indie event that goes by the moniker Taint. The formerly once-a-month dj night at DC9 has moved to a more sporadic holiday-eve schedule, which is unfortunate as it a) occurs less often and b) brings out the masses like no other. Unlike many of the above and other “special night events,” Taint is one of the few alt.homo nights in washington with exceptions like blowoff and the take-over-a-straight-bar ‘guerilla queer bar.’

This in actually makes petrov very sad because petrov prefers these nights to the regular monotony of the usual gay bars (and corresponding music). Of course this creates the dilemna of would it still be so exciting if it was the regular? Petrov, doesn’t think so, but he also thinks not hearing 3 songs each of nelly, christina, madonna, fergie, and beyonce at one bar in one evening is a good thing.

Well your still reading, so petrov surmises your probably interested in what the kiddies at taint listen to. In their own words... “Taint is an alternative electro/indie rock dance/lounge night” for a crowd of “mostly queer boys and girls.” Petrov considered the music to be more of a mashup of 80s and indie music put in a nice little electro-pop casing. Tonight’s taint is being turned by DJ Rob Diaz who will be mixing up some of the above stated genres and a dash of punk and brit-pop thrown in for good measure. Also in the booth will be K La Rock, a member of the washington-based First Ladies DJ Collective. What is cool about the collective is that they are pushing what they refer to as the “vinyl ceiling” for equality of ladies on the dance floor. Always good to have a gal in the house.

The video selection usually not music videos, but instead films you are most likely to see at a gay-indie film festival, such as the over-the-top ‘The Raspberry Reich.’ Tonight three short Grant Guilliams films will be played between sets.

lithium

petrov, as stated before, was not that familiar with polyphonic spree, until saturday night. with two albums in the petrov library, he found the newest album "a fragile army" to be just "ok". there is something about the album that has not given petrov that special feeling inside, maybe its that most of the songs seem over filled (such would be expected from a 20-person band) with excess rock 'white-noise'. yes petrov said rock white-noise, he has copyrighted that term.

in all actuality, petrov feels that the polyphonic spree is a live experience not paralleled in a stereo system. the spectacle that is the polyphonic spree, is a stage presence of lead singer, tim delaughter, five head shaking choir members who appear fully capable of being members of the Pipettes with a bleach job and a poka-dotted dress, a three piece horn section, a harp, flute, two percussionists, a keyboard, and the usual string section. when seeing them live, you can mentally grasp what the hell is going on that, you have no clue when listening to the album at home. however, petrov still recommends listening to the 9:30 Club show on the NPR website (see link above).

most notable is one hour and 15minutes into the set, the band covers nirvana's "lithium." if your too lazy to listen to the live version, which petrov believes to be superior to the recorded version listed below... you know what to do.

petrov will post pictures if/when AB forwards her pictures to petrov. it is certainly a sight to see.

everyone's favorite indie-church choir (and possible cult)

clap your hands for something new: the musical adventures of petrov cotton: polyphonic spree

tomorrow night is the Polyphonic Spree at 9:30 Club. are you sad you won't be going with petrov? fear not you can virtually experience the concert through NPR's live broadcast online . just clicko n the link below at like 9pm or so. cheers.

smoosh

when two pre-teens can rock as good as you, you should be a little concerned. but that is in fact what Smoosh does. petrov had heard of them, but had little knowledge of them until he saw them open for The Pipettes at blackcat a while back. he was indeed found to following standard DC indie concert protocol for bands one likes -- tapping foot, nodding head, and the optional a) arms folded or b) beer in hand. petrov was guzzling his beer bottle like a bunny on his mum's teet, so yeah petrov approves of smoosh.

at the SF performance they covered the bloc party song "this modern love" and did quite well in petrov's view. despite not being grown men who can actually rock and not make DAR Constitution Hall's, where petrov saw bloc party, acoustics sound as bad as they are, smoosh gives a good playing of the song. they were unable to make it their own, but like a fine cheese, age will cure that.

recycle your pop (songs)

in lines with the fergalicious post.... the new Nelly Furtado video... have we seen it before? Yes. Is it better than the original? Petrov sees a scantily clad wet man in the original, nothing in the new...so No. FYI, Shania is a Petrov guilty guilty pleasure, but she rides snowmbiles, so he is ok with that. To be fair to Nelly, she at least mixed it up with some ideas from other Shania videos.
BEFORE


AFTER

polyphonic spree

in a little over a week Petrov will be seeing Polyphonic Spree at the 9:30 Club with some crazy U2 fanatic. Furthermore, the first single off the new PS album is a series of like 70,000 still shots and is taken in DC (notice large marble phallic symbols in background). As such, it would probably be wise for Petrov to play a PS song for all the kiddies who don't know the band small cult that plays happy happy joyous songs. To be honest Petrov doesn't actually know that much about the band, he just has this odd desire to go to concerts that seem appropriate for dancing. If this tune turns your crank, AOL Spinner is streaming the entire album on their website for the week, Petrov believes.

all things texan aren't bad

eh, petrov is a liberal northern who prefers snow to heat, so deal with it. so tonight the Austin, TX band, Voxtrot, is gracing the stage of the blackcat, meanwhile several blocks away, my maple syrup loving canadian sweetheart Feist is taking the 9.30 club stage. unfortunately, its a busy school night for petrov so he will be unable to attend either.

the Maple Syrup Princess, already graced a blog entry here a few days ago, so today Petrov is providing one of the slower songs off Voxtrot's first full length album. Petrov had some difficulty picking a song to share with you all because he has pretty much only consumed this album as a single unit, as it is a very digestible carrot album. Petrov just starts listening and next thing he knows its over and when its over it makes petrov very sad. So here is to the the "repeart all button."

architecture in helsinki

Petrov decided awhile ago to put a song called "Heart it Races" by Architecture in Helsinki on the blog for your aural-satisfaction. However, he has been tripped up with which song to actually place on here, because you see, the song has already been remixed by the likes of DJRupture, Hey Willpower!, Dr Dog, Trizzy, and Yacht. So instead Petrov has come to the decision to give you the whole enslaught, plus AiH's video for the song. Petrov is sort of partial to the original and Dr Dog's remix, but he would appreciate hearing back from you on which version is your favorite. Comment away!

fyi, the video makes Petrov smile a little.

take it like a man

in honor of Pride weekend here in DC, what better song than "take it like a man" by Dragonette to get ready for a night on the town? the song is very catchy and the video... well the video is straight out of the 70s. Martina Sorbara and her cherry necklace makes Petrov a little weak in the knees. "but who is martina?", you ask Petrov. well martina is a fine young lady we have all heard before on the Basement Jaxx album "Crazy Itch Radio." (she sings 'take me back to your house'). anywho, happy pride!

them swedes are shifty little liars!

no... i love the swedes, especially several extremely cute members of I'm from Barcelona. Petrov has two crushes in the band. this video isn't anything new nor amazing in any musical sense, but its upbeat and makes you want to shimmy a little bit doesn't it?

can you guess who petrov's crush is?