• Jonsi – Around Us. I saw Jonsi at Coachella, at my friend Ron’s insistence, and I’m glad I did. Great show, great album.
• Minus The Bear – Summer Angel. A MTB. It’s a bit different this time around, but still great fun.
• We Are Scientists – I Don’t Bite. Solid as always. One of my all time favorite bands and the new album is great.
• Frightened Rabbit – Living in Colour. Solid.
• Circa Survive – Glass Arrows. Their latest is my favorite album right now.
• The New Pornographers – Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk. They’re machines. This is such a great song. Not sure what it’s about, but whatever, it’s like candy in my ears.
• The Hold Steady – The Sweet Part Of The City. The new album isn’t my favorite, but they’re so good it doesn’t matter.
• The National – Conversation 16. I think their latest album is my favorite so far.
• Broken Social Scene – All To All. Sweetness.
• The Gaslight Anthem – Bring It On. I’ve only listened a few times, but I’m loving it so far and I’ve been so, so excited for this to come out.
• Foals – Blue Blood. Kinda funky and a bit of a shift in sound, but I really like it.
• LCD Soundsystem – Home. The new album kicks ass.

• Best show: Band of Skulls.
• Unknown most destined to be super famous: The Lonely Forest.
• Best act I’d never heard of: Mayer Hawthorne.
• Biggest surprise: Miike Snow.

Now, for the music!

Access the mix here.

• Orchid and Hound – Sabotage. Didn’t see them, but talked to one of the guys on the plane and he gave me their disk. Really good stuff here, like Ben Folds meets Queen. And they’re based in SF so I hope to catch their act soon.
• Gorillaz – Stylo. The new Gorillaz is pretty great. Lots of variety as usual and solid throughout.
• The Boxer Rebellion – Forces. Great stylistic rock.
• Ted Leo And The Pharmacists – Bottled In Cork. Not sure if there is anyone out there as consistently awesome as Ted Leo.
• Mayer Hawthorne – Your Easy Lovin’ Ain’t Pleasin’ Nothin’. I listened to his album three times in a row yesterday. Great Motown style and kinda reminds me of Paul Weller and the Style Council, probably my favorite band of my high school years.
• Local Natives – Airplanes. Totally lived up to the hype. Great show.
• Middleman – Good To Be Back. Stumbled across these guys very randomly walking down the street. Later on that day I had a great conversation with their singer, Andy. Really good stuff but a bit hard to find here in the US.
• Coheed and Cambria – Made Out of Nothing (All that I Am). Not sure how I feel about the new album yet, but there are some good cuts on there.
• Goldfrapp – Rocket. The new Goldfrapp is pretty darn fun.
• Priestess – The Firebird. Finally got to catch Priestess and was not disappointed. These guys rock and their new album is solid.

I’m not going to get into detail about each of these bands, but I’ll highlight a few for you.

• Band of Skills – This is the band I’m most excited to see this year. I missed them at Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle and heard great things. Baby Darling Doll Face Honey was in my top three for 2009 and I think it’ll be in heavy rotation for a long while yet.
• Tempo No Tempo – I saw these guys a week or so ago and had a blast. They’ve got kind of an early Cure, post punk, garage thing going. It’s heavily rhythm based and really fun live.
• Minus The Bear and We Are Scientists – Two bands I love, love, love live and two bands with new albums coming out. I’ve heard the new singles (“My Time” by MTB you can here here and you can catch a video of “Rules Don’t Stop” here) and I like them.
• The Lonely Forest – Another band I saw and discovered recently. Excellent live and a bit hard to pin down. Still, you’ll be hearing them on your favorite teen drama soon I’m sure.
• Spleen United – I’ve liked them for a long time and never seen ‘em live.
• Vince Mira – If you like Cash you’ve got to check him out. It’s pretty amazing.
• Sum 41 – Getting my old school pop/punk fix!
• Surfer Blood – I saw them awhile back and really enjoyed them. They played with Fanfarlo and Freelance Whales who were also really great.

Of course there are others not in this mix I’m looking forward to: Dawes, Band of Horses, Frightened Rabbit, Spoon, etc. As well as all the great bands I’ve never heard of and will stumble upon.

• 1000 Homo DJs – Supernaut. A classic post-industrial rock song. And, ok, it’s really just Ministry doing Black Sabbath, but “Buck Satan” doing his best Trent Reznor? Come on! Awesome.
• Bigod 20 – The Bog. These guys were poster boys for late 80’s German industrial.
• Front 242 – Quite Unusual. Front 242 is probably one of the most popular and well known industrial acts of the 80’s. This is probably my favorite song of theirs. Love how they mixed in gothic elements without going all the way goth.
• Microchip League – New York. This song was a huge club hit. No surprise given the driving baselines. I’m not sure these guys did anything else of note.
• Tribantura – Lack of Sense. Another one-hit-wonder. Man, I loved this song though.
• D.A.F. – The Gun. Classic industrialists, these guys have been around since the late 70’s and I think they’re still out there somewhere. They were kind of all over the place, but had some pretty good minimalist-pop stuff, like “The Gun” here.
• Meat Beat Manifesto – Psyche-Out. I wan’t a huge fan of these guys, but always appreciated their versatile style. “Psyche-Out” was pretty indicative of some of the more “techno” stuff coming out in the early 90’s.
• Psychic TV – Tune In (Turn On The Acid House). An industrial super-group of sorts, they were a huge influence on 90’s techno, house and acid music.
• My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult – Kooler Than Jesus. One of the bigger names in the Chicago industrial scene and a big part of the whole Wax Trax! era. I actually saw these guys at Lollapalooza. That was funny.
• Ministry- So What. One of my favorite songs of all time. The industrial-rock anthem.
• Big Black – The Model. Songs About Fucking is one of the greatest albums ever and their cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” is genius.
• Ministry/Skinny Puppy – Smothered Hope. One of my personal favorite Skinny Puppy songs gets the Ministry treatment.
• Skinny Puppy – Assimilate. I saw these guys a few times over the years and was always inspired by their creativity. They had a message and went to great creative lengths to express it. Sure, most of that message got lost in noise and faux-gore, but it’s about the art. Right? Anyway “Assimilate” was probably their first real hit and I still see it as one of their best songs.
• Killing Joke – The Wait. Probably one of the better known early industrial bands, Killing Joke wasn’t so much one you’d hear at the clubs, but they covered a lot of ground and embraced a ton of different styles.
• Revolting Cocks – Beers, Steers and Queers. A mainstream industrial classic.
• Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria. Around since the mid-70’s, Cabaret Voltaire were pioneers, not only of industrial, but of New Wave and 80’s pop as well.

Bonus Tracks! I tacked a few great cuts on to the end of this to round it all out. Enjoy.

• Moev – Sea Missile Motel. Moev, from Vancouver and on Nettwerk records, exemplifies the late 80’s/early 90’s pop-industrial stuff. I still listen to Dusk and Desire quite often. “Sea Missile Motel” is the b-side to the very non-insutrial sounding “Took Out The Lace”.
• Nitzer Ebb – Murderous. These guys owned the industrial dance scene with their driving beats and anthemic lyrics.
• Front 242 – Headhunter. This is the Razormaid version. You know, just in case you wanted to dance you ass off.

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s DJing was pretty much my life. Over the years other interests, primarily my career and my discovery of the web, technology and design took over and I put away my decks, mixer and my record collection. Every once in awhile I’d get the chance to spin and each and every time I’ve thought, “I should get back into that” but never did.

I’m not sure I ever will, but after a few hours messing with Djay I feel like if I did, I’d probably leave behind all the equipment, sell off my records and set up and go all digital.

Djay was my first real foray into digital DJing. I’d always been scared off by what look like really complicated UIs. To me, DJing in real life is more of a manual skill than anything else. The controls, for the most part, aren’t all that complicated. What’s killer and amazing about Djay is its ability to use software user-interface to fairly accurately capture what it feels like to spin records in real life. All of the controls function pretty much as they would in reality, from the realistic sliders to the small “pitch up” and “pitch down” buttons that do a remarkable job recreating how one would manually slow a record.

There are also lots of things I wish I’d been able to do with records, and most of it is done in a fairly straight-forward and accessible way. Accurate multiple cue spots, the ability to auto-loop beats, sampling, seamless integration with iTunes, etc. After an hour or so I was really wanting to have a manual control to go along with it, simply because my keyboard and touch-pad weren’t cutting it. Good thing they offer exactly that kind of set up. I might look into that at some point.

There are some issues. For example some of the spots where they try and mimic reality are, well, pointless. For example, there is drag when you “throw” a record that you can’t really compensate for with a finger swipe. That’s to be expected I suppose. The auto BPM feature is marginal at best and I can’t seem to figure out how to over-ride it, making it a bit hard to plan out mixes. But for $50, I don’t see these are big problems.

If you’re at all into mixing records you should check it out. Try the free demo, it’ll give you a good feel for it. Also, if your interested in what you can do quickly, I’ve posted a little mega-mix thing I made with Djay. It’s my Lady Gaga vs. Madonna mashup (“Vogue” 12” + DJ Dan Remix of “Bad Romance”) It took me about an hour of tinkering and it’s by no means professional (I messed up a few times as I hadn’t really mastered the interface) but can give you an idea of what you can do with very little knowledge or practice with the application.

• Band Of Skulls – Death By Diamonds And Pearls. My first taste of Band of Skulls was just after The Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle. I missed their show and heard it was awesome so checked out their album. Great stuff, lots of variety here.
• Frightened Rabbit – Swim Until You Can’t See Land. Another great cut from Frightened Rabbit. Can’t wait for the new album.
• Surfer Blood – Swim (To Reach the End). I saw, and first heard, these guys a few nights ago. I really like their sound and they’re fun in concert too. Imagine a bunch of really talented band geeks (real band geeks, not the hipster version) getting crazy on stage and just lovin’ it.
• Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – Even Heroes Have To Die. Ted Leo is one of my all time faves and this new track is great. I heard it first when I saw him her in SF a few months ago. Man, he puts on the most consistently awesome shows around.
• The Big Pink – Dominos. Fun stuff right here.
• Weezer – Put Me Back Together. What can I say? Oh, that’s right; Pitchfork can suck it. :)
• Art Brut – DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshakes. The newest Art Brut is pretty much like their other stuff, funny and awesome.
• Freelance Whales – Location. People are falling in love with Freelance Whales left and right and for good reason. I saw them live a week or so back and they were really fun.
• Systems Officer – Deyos. If you’re a fan of Pinback and Armistead Burwell Smith IV you should check this out, it’s good stuff.
• Bear in Heaven – Ultimate Satisfaction. Love the atmospheric feeling here.
• Built To Spill – Life’s A Dream. One of my all time favorite bands, and although I’ve not listened to it all that much, but I’m really happy with the new Built To Spill.

• Grand National – Going To Switch The lights On. Heard these guys for the first time in awhile recently and remembered how much fun they are.
• Friendly Fires – White Diamonds. Saw Friendly Fires last week (with the awesome White Lies) and, oh man, did they put on a fun show. Highly recommended!
• Lily Allen – Not Fair. Lilly Allen cracks me up.
• Gomez – Airstream Driver. I’ve only listened to a few tracks of the new album, but I’m liking what I’m hearing.
• Silversun Pickups – The Royal We. Just got their new one the other day and it’s great.
• Hotels – Hydra. Cool up-and-coming band from Seattle!
• Cymbals Eat Guitars – And the Hazy Sea. Just picked this up and really liking it. They sort of like heavier math rock, think Built to Spill with a bit more metal.
• Harlem Shakes – Nothing But Change Part II. “I know I’m just a sing-ger, but I feel it in my fing-gers.” Love it. It has horns!1!1!!
• Winter Gloves – Factories. Another great band I “discovered” at SXSW.
• Pete And The Pirates – Jennifer. Love this one and can’t wait for more new stuff from them. So bummed I missed ‘em at SXSW.
• Telekinesis – All Of A Sudden. Aww, yeah, it’s a spring anthem.
• Phoenix – Lisztomania. If you don’t have Wolfgang you’re missin’ out. This song reminds me of my pal Mark Trammell dancing. He’s the bearded fellow in that there video. He’s got mIZoves.
• Wombats – Let’s Dance to Joy Division. Speaking of dancing…