Last night I saw Ratatat and The Double at the Knit - went to see the Double on the strength of the song "Blanket on the Beach," which was a constant hum-along on the drive back from Seattle this summer (singing in cars as one of life's great pleasures). The set was shakey, ill-planned and lacking in dynamics, evidence that the duo turned foursome might still have their heads in the studio than in the show. I guess signing to Matador will shake them of that. I always worry about bands that compensate noise for complexity of song form - or do i? ...of song forms, and freedom? anyway, they're abcdbefb kinda thing reminds me lovingly of my old band's songwriting umm...strategy - make a bunch of awesome parts, sew them together, put the awesome-ist parts in twice. Voila! it works for sonic youth, it worked for us.

re: Ratatat, okay, ya, I just moved back to NYC and I feel like I missed the joke. Great bandname, very good hair and lovely backgrounds - even love the ebow guitarmonies and the headbanging, only - it's so...it's so...midtempo. Metal and downtempo really do belong together as the privledged space of nerdy white dudes.

IN OTHER NEWS Here is my EMP Pop Conference abstract if you were wondering. Any info about Central European dance music history - by golly, send it!