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All in all, we enjoyed this collection. But we also liked Stallone's performance in "Over the Top." (So compelling, that arm wrastlin' man!)
During SxSW 2005, we stumbled (quite literally, as we were bendered and broken at the time) upon a Vice mix-CD of some sort. Grappling with the emotional mania that comes part-and-parcel with errant boozing, we fell in love with the first track, which fit our obliterated state of consciousness most neatly. It was like mainlining the finest of china to sooth our pickled and crippled brain. It was wonderful. It was loud. It was beautifully irreverent.
It was Death From Above 1979’s “Blood on our Hands”.
The song gave us concurrent urges to set random dumpster fires, eat spicy foods, go violently narcoleptic, and punch ourselves in the face. Their standard sound, in our mind, is most easily described as what you would hear if a Generation X-era Billy Idol had his testicles repeatedly thumped before he sang dubiously romantic poetry over Ministry (a la Land of Rape and Honey) instrumentals, and then had that produced by whoever the hell did the majority of Pantera’s catalog. Believe it or not, they come off as sincere in this, and not in any ironic, hipster-bullshit attempt to cash in on those too slow to catch on to the trick. Very gritty, energetic, simple, and always threatening to bring on an aural-induced aneurism (as much as a two-piece is capable of doing so).
Like a Jaeger-bomb enema. But we’re just speculating here.
And it is with the same hat-tipping irreverence that these two Toronto boys kick out their “Romance Bloody Romance” Remix and B-Side “album” (but probably in CD format, although they do, thankfully, offer vinyl for most of their work).
At first, we were wondering what the hell a band who is KNOWN for their stage presence doing with a remix album when they only have one full album under their belt to begin with? Well, this question remains wholly unanswered for us, even after listening. All we can guess is that Vice saw the success with Bloc Party’s remixed album and were like “fuck it, let’s do that for DFA before Christmas and shit. Daddy needs a new yacht. Where ARE those hookers we ordered an hour ago? I mean, fuck!”
Or something like that.
There are several tracks from their “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine” album, along with two b-sides: “Better Off Dead (Le Peste Cover)”; and “You’re Lovely (But You’ve Got Problems). Honestly, the b-sides feel rather misplaced. As if they were meant to be on You’re a Woman but the engineers just couldn’t get their shit together in time to master it before they printed the inserts. Either that or they’re pet projects of some sort, which is fine from an artistic standpoint, but they simply don’t have the meat to stand up to any of the tracks on You’re a Woman, and they don’t have the fascinating cross-genre sensibilities of the remixed songs on Romance Bloody Romance. Here they are:
You're Lovely (But You've Got Problems) – If you enjoy The Cult, then you’ll enjoy this song. LOTS of cymbal crashing. Lots of classic heavy-metal vocal stylings (ooooaaaahhhh!!!! Yeeeaaahhhh!!!!) that would sound really kick ass in a stadium or floating up from the t-tops of a bright-red IROC Z (just before obligatory stop-sign peel-out). In other words, aside from it having an even more garage-sensibility to it, You’re Lovely runs right in line with DFA 1979’s prior work.
Better Off Dead – this two-minute puppy is a remake of Boston’s own punk La Peste from the late 1970’s. We won’t pretend we know who La Peste is/was, so we have nothing of substance to say as to the quality of their treatment. But we’re sure La Peste has dreamt many a year about the day when a duo from Toronto might make one of their local hits into a brief b-side on a remix album. Aside from the extremely esoteric context of the song’s appearance, it really is pretty catchy. Still not sure why it was not simply tacked on to the end of You’re a Woman instead, but we are never consulted for these things. Never ever. For good reason, we’re sure.
DFA 1979’s style is not necessarily unique (feel free to argue that if you want to live your life bitter and alone), but it doesn’t need to be. They’re ONE band with (pretty much) ONE album under their belt, so they aren’t up against any creative walls yet. What IS unique is this remixed album (along with the two b-sides). Take the previous description of their music (Idol-Ministry-Pantera-ish), and then make it blatantly DANCEABLE. If you ever go to a DFA 1979 show, then there’s no mistaking their intention for you to dance. They want you up and out of your seat, preferably breaking things. The kids go apeshit all over the place. But the songs themselves, whilst having danceable elements, are not the dubby-clubby variety that one finds on Romance.
Our favorite is the Black History Month remix by Braxe and Falke. It’s most fascinating because it takes a raucous, riff-heavy song and lays the gay-house treatment over the chorus. THICK. Makes us want to oil up and hit the gym. Die-hard DFA 1979 fans will likely enjoy this remix the least, because it could possibly be the most stark departure, but that’s because they are denying their feminine side. And that’s not cool. Not cool at all.
If you are a fan of DFA 1979, it might be recommended that you sample some of the remixes before iTuning them, or god forbid, buying the whole thing in CD format. But our guess is that you will be hearing some of these remixes wherever Panther, LCD Soundsystem, and The Rapture are currently jammed.
Check it. Kick it. But take some caution. Listening to DFA 1979 over an extended period may cause the consumer to abuse drugs, make bastards, and break some shit. So there’s that.
Here’s the track listing:
1- Better Off Dead (La Peste Cover)
2- Blood On Our Hands (Justice Remix)
3- Romantic Rights (Erol Alkan's Love From Below Re-Edit)
4- Black History Month (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix)
5- Little Girl (MSTRKRFT Edition)
6- Romantic Rights (The Phones Lovers Remix)
7- Black History Month (Josh Homme Remix)
8- You're Lovely (But You've Got Problems)
9- Romantic Rights(Marczech Makuziak Remix)
10- Black History Month (Sammy Danger Remix)
11- Romantic Rights (Dahlback Remix)
12- Black History Month (Girl On Girl Revision Featuring Final Fantasy)
13- Sexy Results (MSTRKRFT Edition)
image from Death From Above themselves. Word.
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I listened to this album a few weeks ago and was thouroughly disappointed. Some are good, most are horribly too "techno" for my taste, I don't know a lot about techno but it reminds me of something I'd see on E! Wild on Ibiza. After hearing the DFA cover on the Bloc party b-sides I'd rather hear DFA do an entire album of covers of other bands, not vice versa. I guess a second LP would work too...
Goddamn, I just got this cd and I agree it blooooows. And not like "architects and blow-up dolls" blows, but just plain sucks.
I like DFA 1979 but this remix album thing is getting out of hand. Like beck's Guerolito. Who the hell wanted that to be made. Damn scientologists.
Bands: Please, don't remix or cover a song unless there was a) something wrong with it in the first place that kept it from reaching its potential, or b) you've got an interpretation that's at a complete right angle to the original.
I guess that's all very subjective though.
Making shitty music has never been easier.
Welcome to the digital age!
Huh. I really liked this album. The MSTRKRFT remixes are really great and dirty, and I especially liked the appearance of Final Fantasy. But whatevs. It takes all kinds.
And, lest we forget, Bloc Party, a band with one album, also put out a rmx album this year. As did Beck, who has enough material to justify such a thing, I suppose? And don't forget that Interpol rmx EP. This is not some out of left field phenomena.
And, btw, DFA 1979 played Emo's earier this year, before SXSW.
I was not trying to say that I hated the thing. It has its moments. And the fact that they did some of their own remixing through MSTRKRFT tells me that they’re genuinely interested in tinkering with their own sound. But perhaps they should be doing that on a second LP instead of a quick-burn “remix & [2] b-sides” release. That’s all I was trying to point out.
If I were less inclined to give a shit about this band, I would say the whole “remix” thing sounded like an uninspired, lazy cash-grab on the part of the artist and label. Even though I certainly hope that isn’t the case.
Hell, if it is a lazy cash-grab, more power to 'em. I seem to remember seeing one with a rather adorable pregnant girlfriend/wife during SXSW. Nothing wrong with trying to make a little money in the music business while you can, you know? And, this is Vice we're talking about...so it probably WAS a lazy cash-grab.
And, I don't know, seems to me that it's okay for them to tinker with their sound like that on a rmx album rather than on their sophomore effort. I like the idea that the album sound vs. the rmxes vs. the live show are all very discrete sounds.
Hey, look at that I'm highly incoherent today. That last sentence is crap. I meant "very discrete parts of their agenda as a band." That sounds better. (:
Its available on vinyl, silly goose.
hey girl your so sexi hehe whats going on man just chillen here