back in NYC/simian mobile disco

so ive been back in the nyc for a while now and totally neglecting this blog. in return, from now on i will be posting songs on here (YSI's, FYI), thus officially turning licoricekicks into an mp3 blog. how exciting! the first is this dance-tastic remix of a go! team song i came across. tell me it doesn't get your hips shaking! whoever these "simian mobile disco" guys are they worked wonders here (though the other stuff on their myspace page wasnt as exhilirating).


also: check out my radio show on barnard college's WBAR student radio station. its friday 6-8pm and you can listen streaming on WBAR.org. i will be playing a lot of electronica and dance, with an international vibe. there WILL be baile funk. there WILL be scandinavian house-pop. there WILL be reggaeton. there WILL be grime. there WILL be a general standard of musical excellence. so check it out. ill also try and link to podcasts on here. anyways, heres the song i promised:

Ladyflash (Simian Mobile Disco Mix) - The Go! Team

Baile Funk/Funk do Morro/Carioca Funk

So this crazy genre of Brasilian hip-hop has been one of my favorite discoveries here in Rio. It is the music of the favelas (slums) of Rio, where they have all night bailes, or dances, in these giant gymnasiums. The parties are supposed to be crazy (I've yet to find someone to take me and I'm a little nervous about going without an escort!)... you have to climb the giant morros (hills--practically mountains) on which the favelas perch to get to them and there are these crazy strict codes (really an extended courting ritual) for guys who want to ask a girl to dance. And you don't want to break them because dancing with someone else's girl can get you in serious trouble. Some of the songs have choreographed dances, your bunda (ass) being the major focus in all of them.
ANYWAYS: the music. The music is this weird mix of like Miami Bass and old school Afrika Bambaataa hip-hop which was lifted from its American context back in the nineties and imported to Brasil where it acquired some distinctly afro-brasilian rhythms and a strange breed of rap-shouting in Portuguese, thus giving birth to the wonder that is Carioca Funk. The stuff is super lo-fi, all recorded in like four-track studios in the very same slums.
The website Funky do Morro has some mp3's for download.
I'd recommend the first collection listed, As Melhores do La. It recycles the same beat a lot, but it's a killer one. Also there's a Diplo mix (he's really into the stuff and has released some collections in the U.S., including one called Favela Booty Beats--that's the pic) called Favela on Blast which is basically my favorite thing in the world. I think you can find it if you search elbo.ws (see my links). Anyways, I just thought I'd share my love for this crazy, urgent (to use a jim adjective) mess of a genre.

surreal sexualized earthworms

So when Conchita and I were in Recife, we took a cab ride out to this little suburb named Varzia which was not much to look at, but near the corner there was this long driveway which took us through one of the only stretches of Mata Atlantica (the original tropical forest that lined the coast of Brasil) left in the northeast, and in the center of it was this sculpture garden set up by this French-Brasilian named Francisco Brennand on his family's estate. The family made a lot of money making ceramic tiles or something, but this guy decided to devote his life to art--sculpture, specifically. The result is a gigantic collection of whacked-out pieces, surreal sexualized earthworms, deformed heads/faces, vagina-esque fruits, a temple of sacrifice, and his very own taj mahal. It totally blew my mind. Here are a few pictures.

near death in lapa (not!)

went to lapa tonight with roommates conchita and erin. it was a fucking madhouse. skol had some sort of bootleg outdoor music fest there, which basically meant the entire 10 block square area was packed with beligerent cariocas and even more beligerent brits and aussies. fucking british empire. anyways, we met up with sophia, erin 2 and susana, who was at her peak carioca craziness all night long. milled around for a while and up by the escaderia we hear a loud pop (may or may not have been a tirateiro... i kind of doubt it). initial crowd reaction was a half-hearted ducking, followed by a few second lull before people started rushing down the street mob-style away from the bagunça. i ducked into a barzinho, which promptly dropped its iron-curtain of a door. had to hang out for a while til things calmed downed and i could go out and find everyone again. exciting, to say the least. then down to emporio where they were playing tired eighties u.s. dance-rock and some franz ferdinand (i think... i get them confused with a few of the other breakthrough indie bands... whatever). a heated debate followed on comparative racism in the u.s. and brasil. susana was insufferable. she loves to argues but talks and talks and refuses to listen. we even got the barkeep involved in it. he seemed to have good things to say, not that susana would let him get a word in. by the end i was ready to leave, and erin feigned illness so she and i could split. so now im sitting in the apartamento waiting for conchita and susana to make their way back here too. a recife photo slide show will be in order, i think. tomorrow ill try and post some photos of this AMAZING sculpture garden we visited there. for now im hot and sweaty and tired. im gonna try to finish reading my book, the story of lucy gault, which i've enjoyed thoroughly.

recent discoveries

ive been super-spent recently, after a sleepless trip to recife in the northeast of brasil last weekend with roommate conchita and high school bud nena. result being ive spent a ton of time zoned out in internet world, dling as fast as my third-world broadband connection will let me. i belatedly discovered the wonders of kelly clarkson's "since u been gone" as well as preteen sensation smoosh and a handful of others. heres a tracklist to my life right now:

kelly clarkson: since u been gone
salt n pepa: push it
smoosh: rad
lady sovereign: hoodie (basement jazz remix)
annie: me plus one (the rapture hush hush remix)

also, while in recife i picked up my first baile funk (aka carioca funk, funk do morro; funk in all three being pronounce funk-ee) bootleg mix-cd, by a guy named dj ricardo. its pretty good, apart from the HIGHLY annoying and unnecessarily loud dj shoutouts that pepper the tracks. ill have to post more on my recent obsession with this genre of brasilian hip-hop some other time (perhaps later tonight).

stranded in south america

so i created this blog because im 7/8ths of the way through a semester spent studying in rio de janeiro and im feeling a little isolated. language barriers, culture barriers, you name it. and the thing that has been getting me through is the online music community, which i now really want to become a part of. for now im just going to ramble to myself and whomever else happens upon this thing... listing songs and bands and albums ive come across and liked or hated and stuff i mean to check out when i get back to nyc. thats it i guess. enjoy, random stranger.