MP3s: Zeppelin For Aspiring DJs
The name of this blog, Better Living Through MP3, is a take-off on DuPont's 1940s promotional campaign which used a variant of the slogan Better Living Through Chemistry as its calling card into the homes of middle class America. Quicker than you could say "lysergic acid," the counter culture of the 1960s took the slogan for their own, seeing how "chemicals" could refer to mind altering substances as well as cleaning solvents, rocket fuel, or biohazardous liquids.
Illegal pharmaceuticals and rock and roll have a long shared history, as do jazz and rock and roll. Wait a minute, that's pharmaceuticals and jazz. Just ask Brian Jones and Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix and Art Pepper, Eric Clapton and Chet Baker. Drugs may kill you quick, but they certainly latch on to some incredible musicians while they are going down. All this goes to introduce today's badass DJ/psychedelic collective from Philadelphia, Pink Skull and their latest offspring, Zeppelin 3. Their song, "Drugs Will Keep Us Together" could be taken many ways. Is the band arguing that drugs will maintain a romantic relationship? That the drugs will keep a particular human "together," as in the ‘70s phrase, "Keep it together"? Either way you take it, it's bad news. Drugs don't keep you together, they destroy you. But hey, tell it to Scott Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots.
Pink Skull serve up a perfect Bloody Mary of DJ grooves, Krautrock mysticism, psychedelic exploration, and pure, free spirited rock and roll. Helmed by Julian Grefe, a turntable resident at powerhouse Philly party Making Time, and joined by Space 1026 vet King Honey, the pair produced 2004's organic synth wonder, Oh Fantastica. Pink Skull is completed by Justin Geller, S PRCSS's Daniel Mazone, Billy Dufala (Man Man), Jeremy Gewertz (Jai-Alai Savant), and Jon Anderson (Boy's Life-r). Names mean nothing of course, except by way of introduction. What matters is Pink Skull's Ministry/Silver Apples meets DJ Logic/Neu logic, and it's totally illogical that it would work, but it does.
Pink Skull
"U.g.uo.aaaahhhhh" (mp3)
from "Zeppelin 3"
(Free News Projects)
More On This Album
Pink Skull "Unicorn Harpoon" (mp3)
from "Unicorn Harpoon"
(Tonearm) More On This Album
Pink Skull "Drugs Will Keep Us Together" (mp3)
from "Drugs Will Keep Us Together"
(The Savant Guard)
Buy at Turntable Lab Buy at Other Music Buy at Beatport More On This Album
Marxy's transnational sounds: While we're doing that grinding DJ thing ...
"Marxy (W. David Marx) is an American living in Tokyo, Japan. His second album Forty Years From Now was recorded over the span of three years in Japanese apartments, Tokyo rehearsal spaces, a Manhattan living room, an Astoria, Queens bedroom, and the legendary Brooklyn recording studio Studio G."
Marxy "Cat vs. Mouse" (mp3)
from "Forty Years From Now"
(music related) More On This Album
Marxy "To Save Ourselves" (mp3)
from "Forty Years From Now"
(music related) More On This Album
