Several years ago I started reading about Bertrand Burgalat when I first learned about the ultra-suave Katerine (another Parisian). Bertrand put out a CD called 'Quadrille' on his own Tricatel label . I have never to this day been able to locate a copy of that disc. Katerine, Bertrand Burgalat, and Louis Phillipe were said to be making Paris as slick as the days of Serge Gainsbourg. Katerine is deservedly famous for his songs and voice, Bertrand for his production skills, and Louis for his horn arrangements (though he also has a far reaching solo career back catalog on el records and other labels). The first easily available Bertrand Burgalat production was April March's 'Chrominance Decoder' CD in February 99. Sweden's Cinammon followed with a release produced by Bertrand with horn production by Loius. By then there was a Tricatel compilation "Au Coeur De Tricatel" (which 5 songs of "The Genius..." are from). The compilation was his statement to the world. It showed his main strength: modesty. Bertrand Burgalat does not put his name all over the things he's worked on. In fact, he refuses to repress the much desired 'Quadrille' CD despite it being a sure seller. This is a frustration almost on par with DJ Downfall's (the drummer of Sportique and Marine Research, who also runs the WYAIWIA label) refusal to repress the first Girlfrendo 7", which I've still never heard except on their website . Bungalow has put together this handy compilation to put a good cross sampling of Bertrand Burgalalt's skills into the hands of lots of people at a great price. What is the Bertrand Burgalat sound? It is a 70's soundtrack styled precision bass sound with a somewhat sleazy, somewhat Morricone feel, and lots of audio knick knacks.

New from David Gedge of The Wedding Present. "Lollobrigida" and "See Thru" were recorded by Steve Albini. "Sly Curl" features a naration read by Sean Hughes. "Lollobrigida" is taken from the forthcoming Steve Albini produced album 'Disco Violante'. Cinerama had a 7" on Elefant Records recently. The sound they have of late seems very fit to the aesthetic of that label: very stylish, easy, and with 60's pop culture iconigraphy. "Lollobrigida" has accordion, vibraphone, nice female background vocals, glockenspiel, and breathy lead vocals by David Gedge. As with the last several singles I like the main song best by far. This is more a credit to the main songs than a condemnation of the B-sides though. I never liked the Wedding Present or even Cinerama till recently. The incredible songs leading off the last 3 singles have made me look forward to hearing each new release from here on in though.

I added the Dead Boys second record to WZBC in the June 27 gullbuy. 1977's 'We Have Come For Your Children' never got reissued on CD or vinyl till recently and I was very glad to present it to the station for our library, and for those who had never heard it before. Just a few weeks ago Tommy Nelligan (Tommy Gunn & The Hit Squad, more recently The Cyclones) rang me on air about lyrics to the Dead Boys song "Not Anymore", which he wanted to cover. Looking in WZBC's library I found that we already had 'We Have Come For Your Children' (albeit beat up), but we did not have 'Young, Loud, And Snotty', the Dead Boys AMAZING debut record from 1977. I list The Dead Boys Blitz Benefit as the most memorable show that I've ever seen in my life. Johnny Blitz (the Dead Boy's drummer) got stabbed several times by someone who had a grudge on him from his days in Cleveland before the band moved to NYC, and Johnny had (natch) no health insurance. CBGB's hosted a 3 night festival with just about every band in the NYC 1977 scene playing for free to raise money. Each night The Dead Boys also played with guest drummers, the most memorable of which was an amped up John Belushi who really played well for a few songs. In NYC the Dead Boys were like England's The Damned: that is to say they were young, loud, and snotty. 'Young, Loud, And Snotty' is an incredible record even now. It has their signature song "Sonic Reducer", the ode to the hearing protector developed by North Industries, as well as their songs for Lydia Lunch "I Need Lunch" and "Caught With The Meat In Your Mouth" (which acheived meaning with her famous onstage service of Stiv Bators at an early Dead Boys performance at CB's). I usually put stars on the sticker of a CD to indicate my favorite songs. For this disc I just put "all" next to the star. The Dead Boys were the coolest. They looked great, were tight as a drum live, and made 2 killer studio records just like the New York Dolls. My fave of this week's adds.

Both songs are done by each artist. On the Four Tet side you have the Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) mix of the Pole song "Heim" plus the Four Tet original "Cload". On the Pole side you have the Stefan Betke (Pole) mix of the Four Tet song "Cload" plus the Pole original "Heim". Kieran Hebden is the bassist of Fridge. It's an interesting presentation which actually works very well. It seems that many people who have followed him from the start are getting tired of the never changing Pole sound. Mixing it up with the enigmatic Kieran Hebden brings Pole to life and pulls Kieran out of the (now unfashoinable) post-rock sound, though to be fair he has been doing that as a member of Fridge for some time now. Both artists seems to benefit from the others presence on this 12".

The non LP B-side "Barrio Alto" is what this 10" is about. "Focus On Sight" is taken from the 'Mirror Conspiracy' CD, but the non-LP B-side "Barrio Alto" is worth the price of this record if you love Thievery Corporation. It is a downtempo instrumental with a noodling guitar lick on top of the kick drum and strong bass guitar, with a shimmer of keyboards below. It seems like 'The Mirror Conspiracy' hasn't dented the charts at WZBC. Hopefully this 10" will put this Wash DC duo up where they belong, and cause people to check out the full length a little closer as well.

Forced Exposure do a pretty good job of summing up Von Lmo's historical perspective . What I can say is that I remember when this record first came out in 1981. NYC was the place. No Wave had already crashed, and Von Lmo had Devo-like suits and used a saxophone. I didn't like him then, even though his posters were in the windows of the store Revenge, the tailoring/clothes store owned by Tish and Snooky of the Sic Fucks - definetely the barometer of cool at the time. Von Lmo was a bit like another struggling band at the time: The Misfits. He had an out-of-another-time look and an individual vision that was out of sync with everything around him except the out of control life in the lower east side. Listening to this disc now living in Boston I can see just how far his influence did spread. In Boston there is a band that has been going for a long long time- The Bent Men. Many people leave their (totally over the top) performances saying "no one else is like them". This disc shows that they are quite influenced by Von Lmo. The reissue of this record includes a studio version of Shake, Rattle, and Roll that is the disc's highlight, along with the title song.