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Oh, the triumphant disaster that was the Dan Deacon show at the Mohawk. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Dan Deacon, he is a Baltimore based performance artists/composer who relies on a mixture of current and outmoded technologies to create an electronic hodgepodge of infectious electro. A hodgepodge that reminds you of Carl Stalling's cartoon compositions, Joe Meek's out of this world production techniques, DEVO's knack for writing killer hooks while having a political slant and their tongues firmly entrenched in their cheeks and that goofy neighbor of yours that spends all his time making curious creations in his parents' basement that you've been dying to lay your ears and eyes on either for the sheer comedy or potential brilliance of it.

Dan Deacon's look goes hand in hand with his music. He is now somewhat overweight, wears oversized glasses, is balding and sports t-shirts with cartoon characters or allover animal prints you might have gotten from a zoo circa 1988.

When I first heard Pinback I remember feeling like I was getting in on the ground level of something fresh. This usually brings out a few characters in myself. There's the snob who is somehow entitled, self-righteous about finding out before everyone else and is all too happy to shout out dates and shows off the top of his head to prove his importance. However, the snob has to be careful to be blasé, as not to look like he really cares that much, he just happens to be in the know. Then there is the cynic, not far from the snob, who tries not to get into them that much knowing the chances of said band sustaining a career let alone putting out a second album that he will enjoy as much are slim to none. The cynic is careful not to wear his tastes on his sleeve for fear of his peers. The cynic also is ready to pounce with accusations of whose sound said band is pilfering and is all too ready to dissect them to the point of ruining them for anyone within earshot.The cynic wants to be the optimist but he's had a bad day. And then there's the optimist who rarely rears his head in my musical mind. He desperately wants to come out and embrace something but is afraid of the corruption of something that he thought to be so pure. He wants this to be the real thing. He wants the band to be friendly. He wants them to sustain and he wants his friends to love them just as much as he does. He wants to feel as strongly about them in the daylight as he does in the evening.

Jennifer Gentle 8.17.07 @ Emos

Marco Fasolo, who wrote, recorded and produced the new album The Midnight Room all alone at his Ectoplasmic Studio in Northern Italy, has assembled a new touring band that graced the stage of Emos this past week.

Jennifer Gentle's music has always been peculiarly fascinating. Aptly named after a Pink Floyd lyric off their debut album, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, Jennifer Gentle has always had a sound reminiscent of early Floyd but more so the work of their departed original front man and madman Syd Barrett. Jennifer Gentle's sound skirts around such other influences as Joe Meek, Lord Sutch, and Captain Beefheart, all who have sordid pasts of their own. Marco seems to have a flair for the outsider artists who were able to remain on the inside of the industry despite their obvious proclivities for the bizarre.

Ian Orth of Learning Secrets, which is based out of Austin, Texas, has been putting on events ranging from band showcases to all night ragers from NYC to SXSW to Europe and points in between. I had a chance to sit down with Ian and ask a few questions about his DJing, Promoting, and thoughts on the future of the Austin DJ scene and more.

EL: So what is Learning Secrets exactly? Is it you as a DJ, is it a promotions company, is it a collective, is it a worldwide force to be reckoned with? Is it like Sylvan Learning Center?

IO: The idea for Learning Secrets actually first started while I was still in college at Rutgers. I was the Promotions Director for the college radio station and was putting on these super last-minute basement shows with the radio stations money. The shows were called Learning Secrets, like "come out and learn a secret about this band I think is cool that you don't know about yet but I think you'd like." This is back in 2000-2001 when there was a certain new crazy level of energy going on in the east coast music scene, especially in the NYC/NJ area. It was pretty nuts to think back on it. I booked the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for their first show in Jersey and they played in the basement of a dorm and actually opened up for Arab on Radar. Karen O was still awkward as a front woman and actually tripped over the monitor speakers in all her nervousness... she was a champ though. I was actually remembering the other day that I booked The Rapture at a small Coffee shop inside the student commons area and Her Space Holiday opened. I think there were maybe 50 sweaty kids crammed into this student lounge coffee corner just going nuts, now the Rapture is opening for Daft Punk in 10K arenas... which is kind of perfect. Not that the one Learning Secrets show they played did it all, but it was one of those early ones for them, they were still a new band, and they had just moved to the East Coast from San Diego.

Live at Emo's 7/16/07

After seven years of existing in the prosperous Portland music scene Blitzen Trapper has decided to make a play for a greater audience by venturing out on their first series of national tours in their career in support of Wild Mountain Nation on LidKerCow Records. They seem to be making up for lost time by jumping from tour to tour in the last few months with opening slots for heavy hitting bar rock champions The Hold Steady, David Vandervelde, the much name checked within the last year Two Gallants, and of course squeezing in some headlining dates for themselves in between.

This night, sandwiched between a stripped down set by two members of Zykos and headliner David Vandervelde, the sextet of Blitzen Trapper took the stage. Admittedly, I was surprised to see that they were a sextet. I had devoured the album but hadn't noticed much in the way of keyboards. So when I saw they had one member who did nothing but keyboards as well as two members who would also switch between their own keyboards, I was a little surprised.