Saturday, September 25, 2010

ITALIANS DO IT BETTER WEST COAST PARTIES

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We are excited to announce the Italians Do It Better
family hit the road in full force next weekend.
Chromatics is back on stage for the first time in
over two years. Glass Candy will be giving us a
sneak peak from their new album, & yours truly
will be spinning before, between, & after the live
sets. If that wasn't enough... We have friends making
cameos in each city. We'll also be traveling with a merch
store. 12"s & cds for $5, Lps for $10, & shirts from Glass
Candy & Chromatics. We're bringing limited quantites of
some hard to find Italians vinyl so come see us at the merch
table early. The tour also marks the double release of two
Chromatics albums. "NIGHT DRIVE" CD analog remastered
with 5 bonus tracks clocking in at over 78 minutes. & "IN
THE CITY" CD / LP analog remastered with 5 unreleased
tracks including the instrumental version. "NIGHT DRIVE"
double lp couldn't get done in time for tour due to printing
delays...But we'll have everything in the store in a couple of
weeks so stay tuned...Come out & say hi. This is the first
time we've ever thrown a label party in Los Angeles so you
know it's going to be sick. Get your tickets cheap & early.
Here's the links for the tickets :


THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 30
SEATTLE / CHOP SUEY
Ticketweb.com $10 adv.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 1
PORTLAND / ROTTURE

THURSDAY OCTOBER 7
SAN FRANCISCO / RICKSHAW STOP
http://www.rickshawstop.com/

FRIDAY OCTOBER 8
LOS ANGELES / CLUB 740
http://italians2010la.eventbrite.com/

SATURDAY OCTOBER 9
TIJUANA

SUNDAY OCTOBER 10
SAN DIEGO / SODA BAR
www.frontgatetickets.com

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Monday, September 20, 2010

Mike heads south--- then west

Mike will be taking his act on the road this weekend.

check it out:

WEDS 22: EL PASO @ El Pisto
(have never djed in El Paso so come down)

THURS 23: LOS ANGELES @ The Central (Santa Monica)
w/ Paul T (Sarcastic) & Travis TK Disco hot new club alert...

FRI 24: SAN FRANCISCO @ Face (best party in SF)
w/ Eug & J Montag

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Thursday, September 16, 2010

the Italians backstock purge!

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hello. over the next few weeks we will be putting some
old stuff for sale in the store that has been sold out for
quite some time. these arent represses, these are our
personal copies that we have accumulated
over the years. All sealed like new copies. You may notice
round one is up with the Tiedye, the elusive Chromatics In
The City 12" and Life After Sundown 12"s.

Those are our own personal stash of stuff we found in Ida's
basement in Portland a few weeks ago. Keep checking back
all the time because we are putting up some really cool stuff
by Chromatics, Glass Candy, Tiedye, Invisible Conga People,
and some other surprises. We have limited quantities of
this stuff. Some we have 20 copies, some we have 5 copies!

Also we have some more Chromatics books leftover from
some people who never paid. if you are interested email
mike at troublemanunlimited dot com.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

MIKE SIMONETTI & JOHNNY JEWEL "Albuterol" cd (out now on Perseo)

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In December 2007, We threw a huge gala on a cold & rainy Friday
night in Portland with Chromatics & Glass Candy. Mike came out
to spin the party...the after party...and the party after the after
party... We spent the next three days recovering, working on a
mix, & trying to find a place for Mike to lay his weary head. The
damp & grey climate is great if you're writing Wipers lyrics...but
if you left your prescription asthma medicine (Albuterol) in Jersey,
you're pretty much screwed. Day 1 : Mike stays with Me at chez
Ruth / Daphne & Ruby (the sister cats) fur all over the apartment
causes Mike's asthma to flair up even worse. Day 2 : We decided
to relocate Monsiuer Simonetti to Ida's Candy Castle / Marlon's
(the stray cat) tiger stripes almost close Mike's eyes forever. Day
3 : Adam & Natty offer him a warm bed...but Pimp C's (the cat
freed from a shelter on the same day the UGK poet was released
from prison) dander just about closes Mike's windpipe. Then it
occurs to us...there's no cats at the studio, so we spend two days
& nights listening to crates of killer cuts from Mike's library in
New Jersey. Starting with around 80 songs and slowly narrowing
it down to 10 traxxx that really complimented each other. Step 1:
Burn all the records to disc through analog preamps ... Step 2 :
Edit the traxxx live using 3 cdjs. Step 3: Take the best edits and
blend them all together in one long take live to tape. No computers
were harmed on the set of this recording. At Italians Do It Better,
we love our computers... But for a mix this dirty, with almost all live
drummers, it just felt better doing it by hand. The end result runs
the gamut of rock, disco, proto house, boogie, swedish glam, bizarre
italo, soul, & some odd things in between. Not to mention the entire
mix is slightly pitched down. Most likely due to exhaustion & Mike's
almost comatose state. It just sounded heavier this way.
The weekend came & went, & it was time for Mike to fly home... On
our way to the airport, Ida chased a Fed Ex truck down Hawthorne.
Just in time for the flight, the Albuterol finally came. Mike took it &
all was well. There was so much confusion that weekend, I forgot to
label the tape. It got lost in the shuffle. Tours came & went. New
records were being made, & we forgot about it. Five months later
Mike found a rough mix of it on his ipod & ripped a really lo fi
version for the blog. The mix exploded (20,000 downloads &
counting), but no one could guess the full tracklist. A couple of
months ago we started Perseo & around that time I found the
original mix in Portland. Here it is ...the way it was
meant to be heard. Fully remastered back through tubes.

TRACK LISTING
1. The Dead Of Night
2. Pitched Down Pugh (Gothenburg Boat Mix)
3. The Downside Of Gentrification
4. Found You In The Dollar Bin
5. Syntheseized Throbbing Baleric Italo Track With Guitar Solo
6. School's Out Forever
7. Her Magic Spell
8. Pulasky Skyway To Zanzibars
9. Super Sensitive
10. Disconet Dilemma

Total Running Time (50:31)

$5

BLACK & WHITE

Ever wondered what would happen if Helmut Newton chauffered
Colin Self & Raymond Pettibon for a spin thru monte carlo in the
middle of the night? Just arrived in the store today from the italians
do it better print factory... simply titled, "Black & White"... A
conceptual poster magazine designed by Chromatics & Desire.
Part of an ongoing multi media collaboration between the two
groups...the summer issue features thirty 11 X 17 black & white
posters of design, drawings & lyrics. Sneak peaks of upcoming
album art ... movie posters ... 12" sleeve designs ... tour flyers
from the past & future ... luxury advertisements... & new
romance ... GLASS CANDY & MIRAGE both throw cameos to the
mix on a couple of posters. Made for CHROMATICS' west coast
tour with GLASS CANDY in October...Very limited edition.
The bands agreed to part with 50 copies for the
Italians store. Printed & assembled by the bands last spring
while DESIRE was recording in Portland. These things are huge
so shipping is higher than usual.

In other news ... CHROMATICS is in Montreal right now working
their new double lp in DESRE'S suite 307 studio off of Saint Laurent.
Meanwhile, NIGHT DRIVE, is finally at our vinyl pressing plant!
Analog Remastered Double Lp with five unrealeased tracks from
the album... The lost fourth side of the album that never got put
out due to lots and lots of problems beyond our control. I guess
that's what happens when you record on really weird equipment
that is almost impossible to find parts for. Which is why it never
came out on vinyl ...We'll explain more later. & if that wasn't
enough,we are also excited to announce an "IN THE CITY" Mini
lp also at the plant this week. Features the 12" version of "In the
City" plus 6 unreleased B sides recorded between 2004 & 2006
immediately preceding the NIGHT DRIVE sessions. These tapes
were rediscovered in the process of Johnny relocating studio
vaults to Montreal for the new album. Both albums will be in
the store in about a month so stay tuned and get them here
first!

DUE TO THE SIZE OF THE BOOK THEY WILL BE SHIPPED SEPARATE
FROM THE REST OF YOUR ORDER.
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