HOLY GHOST!

An early xmas present...

2009-12-17T10:46:00.001-08:00

While we were on tour last spring we got asked to do a remix of Van She's cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper." (A remix of a cover, how post-modern.) The deadline was really tight though, so the only way we could do it is if we rented a studio in Paris and worked there for the 5 days we had off. Luckily, we found a place we could work on such short notice.

We didn't have ANY of our usual gear with us (let alone our hard drive!), so we built this thing on foreign equipment: old ludwig kit, roland jupiter 6, fender bass, roland sbf 325 stereo flanger, percussion, old upright piano, and of course, a space echo.

In the end it worked out....I think. Here's the free high quality MP3 .

Happy Holidays Y'all,

Alex

P.s. If you want to get us anything, we would totally like THIS

A day in music history...

2009-12-16T12:11:00.000-08:00

Love Cant Turn Around / Pump Up The Volume

2009-12-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

Last night we were on Eli Escobar and Stretch Armstrong's radio show "Delancey Music Service." After the show Eli recommended we check out the documentary Pump Up The Volume, which chronicles the early days of House music. One of the best parts of the film is the story behind "Love Can't Turn Around," the classic Farly Jackmaster Funk track with Daryl Pandy on the mic. Clip form the film and Houseapella below:

Tape head

2009-12-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

Awesome.

EMINENCE FRONT

2009-12-14T09:44:00.000-08:00

I want to cover this...

EDIT
...with Pat on drums, Gavin on his modular, Morgan on Rhodes, Justin on guitar and the DFA Celestial Choir on gang vocals for the chorus. It would be so awesome.

DFA HOLIDAY PARTY

2009-12-10T18:38:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again. Let's do this New York!

ASK...

2009-12-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

...and you shall receive.

Jazzanova - I Can See (Holy Ghost! Remix Instrumental)

HG! REMIXES MIXTAPE

2009-12-04T18:34:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends,
Sorry we've been bad about posting regularly lately. It's been a rough month…

So, as Alex mentioned below, we made a mixtape of all our remixes. We made 200 of these cassettes, kept 100 to give to friends and gave 100 to Turntable Lab to sell. 50 will be sold via their excellent website and 25 copies will be made available in both the New York and LA stores. As an added bonus, anyone who buys one gets a free copy of the limited edition, full artwork, blind embossed, Michael Vadino designed "I Will Come Back" 12". We pressed 500 and these are the last of them and the only copies being made available to the public. Go cop it all here

As another bonus, here are some unreleased versions of a couple of the remixes we found sitting around on the computer...

Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire (Jerry's Drum Dub) World's greatest drummer + 2 Space Echoes + Two Spring Reverbs = Nice.

Moby - I Love To Move In Space (Space Echo Return Dub) Just a bunch of pretty bits recorded directly to the super worn out 1/4" tape in a Roland Space Echo.

Only Fools & Horses - Spectacle Wins (Holy Ghost! Extended Disco Dub) When we did this remix we made two versions fearing the label wouldn't like the vocals we added. Luckily they did and that version got released. This is the alternate, instrumental, way more dubby version that never saw the light of day.

Hope you enjoy.

Lots of love,
HG!

Australia Dates Cancelled

2009-11-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

To anyone who was hoping to catch a HG! show in Australia over the next few weeks, we regret to inform you that our gigs have been canceled.

Last week our dear friend and musical partner jerry fuchs ( drummer of !!!, the juan maclean, turing machine, maserati, holy ghost!) passed away in a tragic accident here in NYC. Due to these events, we have canceled our a Australian tour to be here in NYC with friends and family during these hard times. We regret this immensely. As you can imagine, this past week has been a long, awful blur and rather suddenly we realized we're just not ready to travel so far from home for what seems like an impossibly long period of time. We love Australia and are grateful to have had the opportunity to visit last year. Hopefully we'll be back again soon and we'll get a chance to make this up to you.

We sincerely appreciate your understanding.

Regards,

Alex and Nick

Holy Ghost!

A DAY OF BOOZING FOR JERRY

2009-11-17T08:15:00.001-08:00

Starts in 45 minutes. Buy a $10 wristband and drink draft beer all day.

Jerry Jams With A Double Kick Pedal

2009-11-16T14:54:00.000-08:00

The Juan Maclean played at a club in Switzerland who mistakenly rented us backline we didn't need. Oddly, the backline also included a double kick pedal. No matter, Jerry was stoked. Never seen anyone set up his drums so quickly or with such glee.

love nancy

JER BEAR

2009-11-09T08:51:00.001-08:00

Beloved Bro.

Thank You Jerry

2009-11-08T17:51:00.000-08:00

So there is no confusion:

Last night Jerry Fuchs, our friend and our drum hero, passed away. Jerry accidentally fell from a freight elevator in Williamsburg Brooklyn and was not able to survive the intense trauma caused by the fall. Nick and I entered the building about the time the fall occurred. We found him in the elevator shaft. We held him and talked to him and went with him to Bellevue Hospital. Heartbreakingly, the doctors were unable to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at 3:33 am.

My last text message exchange with Jerry went like this:

Me: Gerard, will you be coming alone tonight or do you need a +1?
Jerry: I will b coming with my friend J tonight. Let me know if that's a problem. Seriously.
Me: Not a problem!
Jerry: Dude, I know ur list is tight. Let me know if you can't swing it and i will just buy a ticket at the door.
Me: Its fine! We got it
Jerry: Thanks dawg.
minutes later....
Jerry: Thank u, thank u, thank u.

This exchange was typical of Jerry: Always apologizing unnecessarily, endlessly thanking me for no apparent reason, relentlessly polite in a world in which manners have largely been replaced by irony and sarcasm. Of course you wouldn't assume any of this from watching him play drums.... He was terrifying. A machine. A beast. Uncivilized. Rude. A savant. When he got MIDI IN and MIDI OUT tattooed on his forearms I wasn't surprised in the least. In fact, I remember thinking, "Oh, so there they are!" - - as if Jerry had finally revealed the secret to his precision and syncopation.

Jerry was the star of every band he played with and will be painfully missed by those bands and a vast network of friends, family, and of course, musicians and music lovers, worldwide. My deepest sympathies go out to his family in Georgia.

Jerry: Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Always,
Alex

EVERYONE LOVES ADONIS

2009-11-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

HOLY GHOST! vs. KAVINSKY

2009-11-04T09:24:00.000-08:00

Oh, my bad. It's some dude named KANDINSKY.

This Friday @ The Guggenheim
Doors open at 9 pm, and event lasts until 1 am
$25, free for Guggenheim members
Cash only at the door, cash bar
5th Ave at 89th St, New York City

FROM THE ARCHIVES vol. 1

2009-11-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

Automato, LCD Soundsystem & 2 Many DJs @ Barrowlands. Glasgow, April 3rd, 2004.

POLAROIDS vol. 2

2009-11-02T06:10:00.000-08:00

10.24.09

10.25.09

10.26.09

10.28.09

10.29.09

10.31.09

THIS IS IT...

2009-10-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

...was AWESOME.

SOMEONE GREAT...

2009-10-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

...played on a cello. Awesome.

DROP THE LIME v. CLASSIXX v. LIVE FISH...

2009-10-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

...in China. Apparently it's delicious, but Alex and I are getting a little nervous about our upcoming trip.

MORE HG! ON THE MTV2

2009-10-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

We will be hosting Subterranean on MTV2 tomorrow night/monday morning at 2AM. If you can't be bothered to stay up that late on a school night, here are some clips.

Holy Ghost! - Subterranean - MTV Shows

Holy Ghost! - MTV Shows

Holy Ghost! - Subterranean - MTV Shows

DFA v CMJ

2009-10-22T10:36:00.001-07:00

POLAROIDS

2009-10-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

Many years ago my sister gave me her Polaroid One Step camera and I decided I would use it to take at least one picture every day for a year. I'm not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I am a sap, and I like to have pictures of my friends and in the days before good digital cameras it seemed like a easy, fun, talent-proof way to document boring, everyday nonsense that only I a few others would care about. In retrospect, I documented a pretty great year - I was in a band I loved with people I loved (and still do), making a record I loved (and now have mixed feelings about), I was in love with an amazing girl, and I met and fell in love with a large lovable family of people known as The DFA. And I have 400+ pictures that document it all.

Since then I have owned two digital cameras that I have hardly used at all. It seems that unless I have a big clunky thing on my shoulder I don't take pictures which is a shame because I've done some shit in the past couple of years that I really wish I had more pictures of. So, the Polaroid is back. It's not convenient, and it's not cheap, but it is fun. So, I will do by best to scan and upload them regularly. Here are some randoms from the past month...Nick

10-03-09 Alex, Nile, Bernard, Tony.

10-07-09 Michael Classixx.

10-08-09 Poop 'Bot at Santo's.

10-09-09 Bros! HG!, Classixx, Fixed.

10-11-09 Matt's birthday. Nando & DJ.

10-11-09 The birthday boy & Andrew.

10-13-09. Dave P, The Mayor or Philly.

10-14-09 Tyler, Mike & Guy. Lampin' in Bushwick.

10-16-09 Austin's best party promoter, Ian Orth, at Austin's best party, Learning Secrets.

10-16-09 Austin's biggest trouble makers, Le & Thomas

10-19-09 Justine's Birthday. Mike blowing bubbles.

10-19-09 James & Nando.

10-19-09 The birthday girl.

10-19-09 James & Vito

10-21-09 2" Studer @ Gigantic.

HOW TO/MTV2

2009-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

HOW TO W/ HOLY GHOST
Slightly entertaining, for a change.

Holy Ghost! - MTV Shows

PARLOUR GAMES

2009-10-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

Someone has finally uploaded the full video for 6 Finger Satellite's awesome "Parlour Games." Check out Juan Maclean circa 1995. He has hair!...Nick

Six Finger Satellite - Parlour Games from xTheOxx on Vimeo.

ENJOY THE SILENCE

2009-10-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

I've only ever seen the video where Dave Gahan is walking around dressed as a king. Apparently there's an alternate version of the video...

E-Mu Emulators on the observation deck of the World Trade Center! Awesome...Nick

a blast that actually deserves a read

2009-10-09T12:17:00.001-07:00

Its rare that I open an email promoting a party, let alone read it, but here's one that is fucking brilliant. Rok ( promoter, dj, awesome dude) sent it out promoting our party tonight in Brooklyn with Dave P and JDH and, well, its spot on. He even sent along an attachment to support his case! Please see original email below and, yeah, come out if your around. - Alex
--------
HOLY GHOST! & FIXED @ SAVALAS !!!

show details 5:06 PM (22 hours ago)

Greetings,

This week at Savalas, we’re stepping it up a few notches. Not that
things have been too shabby at 285 Bedford lately. In recent months
we’ve had such greats as Stretch Armstrong, Eli Escobar, XXXChange,
Cosmo Baker, DJ Ayres, Waajeed, Mike Simonetti, and Chris Devlin just
to name a few.

One of the best Savalas parties I can remember was a few years back,
when JDH & Dave P of FIXED played. The place was packed to the brim
with friends and fam, and the energy was through the roof. So when JDH
said he wanted to do a repeat, I didn’t have to be told twice...

Now, Josh didn’t want me to write anything in his honor, but F*CK THAT
SH*T! I gotta give credit where credit is due. I’m going on record:
When it comes to putting on large scale underground electronic events,
the party-goers and new-jack promoters of this country owe FIXED a
tremendous debt. It’s doubtful that this current “Electro” or “New
Rave” scene that’s become so popular in America, would even exist if
wasn’t for Josh & Dave. Face it, the dudes are pioneers. For almost 5
years, they’ve been multiple steps ahead of every major development /
trend in electronic music, and introduced New York, Philly and Miami
party goers to the likes of Soulwax, Simian Mobile Disco, Erol Alkan,
Digitalism, Boyz Noize, Optimo, Hot Chip, Booka Shade, Vitalic, The
Presets, and (literally) countless others. As a result, The Fixed
party format has caught on and spread like wildfire across the United
States, spawning an endless crop of imitators…

You think I’m exaggerating? Take a look at Ultra Festival's 2009
line-up (attached), and tell me that you don’t see a minimum of 10
ACTS that got their start at Fixed. Then take a look at the Ultra 2004
line-up and see if it’s at all similar. I think not!

I’d even go as far as to give Fixed partial credit for the public’s
renewed interest in Daft Punk, which is largely due to Justice’s
overwhelming popularity. Who were the first US promoters to book
Justice? You guessed it! So, Monsieurs Bangalter and De Homem-Christo,
be sure to make out your royalty checks to a certain Josh Houtkin and
a certain David Pianka.

Oh yeah, another thing – the Fixed duo doesn’t do all this for
accolades, to get groupies, or to get their pictures taken – their
motivation comes from a genuine and heartfelt place, such as the love
of good music, the advancement of dance culture, the craft of putting
fantastic DJ sets together, and let’s not forget the art of GETTING
RAD!

So all you would be tastemakers, DJs and promoters: bow down and kiss
the motherf*cking ring. THE FIXED RING BITCH! There, someone had to
say it, and I just did…

As if having Fixed wasn’t enough, HOLY GHOST! of DFA are also on the
line-up thanks to a little financial assistance from our friends over
at Vice and Colt 45. In my opinion, Alex and Nicholas are some of the
most promising electronic talent to arrive in a long time - I’ve
thought so ever since I first heard their instant classic “Hold On”. I
remember Eamon Harkin had an advanced pressing back when we did the
FUN party @ Studio B, and everytime he played this flawless slice of
heavenly Nu-Disco, I would salivate at the prospect of getting my
hands on a copy. Since then, they’ve done amazing remix work for Cut
Copy, Panthers, MGMT, and have just released a superb new single “I
Will Come Back”, complete with a New Order inspired video. You can’t
be mad at that. I had the good fortune of opening up for them on New
Years Eve two years ago, and they slayed it, so I can’t wait to hear
what they have in store this time. I guess I’ll just have to HOLD
TIGHT - until tomorrow that is…

-Rok

HOLY SHIT!

2009-10-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight at Santo's, Holy Ghost! vs. Shit Robot. Bros, reunited.

HG! News Update

2009-10-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

So...Last month we spent 2 productive weeks finishing up our LP with the wonderful Chris Zane. He has a nice, large studio in Tribeca and it was a real treat to get out of our bedroom-come-studio. We should be mixed and mastered by the New Year. So there.

The last few days Nick and I have been working in anticipation of the live rehearsals that begin next week. Mike and Tyler (Classixx) are flying all the way in from LA to rehearse with us here in Brooklyn. They're some of the best players I know and we're lucky to have them on-board.

When that's done, we head back out to Berlin, Glasgow, Australia and Asia for a month to DJ - then back home to rehearse more and get ready to go live sometime in early 2010. Somewhere along the way there's gonna be full art vinyl for "I Will Come Back," a cassette DJ mix with lots of guests, and HG! remixes for Kings of Leon, Data Rock, and Van She, along with two new remixes of "IWCB" by Drop The Lime and Newcleus.

In the meantime, here's a boring video of us figuring out the sounds for "Hold On" at home -- Alex

SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE REUNITED ON THE TV!!!

2009-09-30T11:39:00.001-07:00

My 27-year-old self is all, like, "whatevs," but my 15-year-old self almost cried when I saw they were playing on Jimmy Fallon last night. Unfortunately, my 27-year-old self couldn't stay awake and my 15-year-old self had to watch it on Youtube this morning after waking up on the couch to the 6AM news...Nick

MORE JESSICA 6

2009-09-28T08:27:00.001-07:00

HUMAN NATURE

2009-09-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

nick tipped me to this awesome video clip from "this is it," m.j.'s new film. tickets go on sale sunday....

alex

PHOENIX AFTERPARTY

2009-09-24T09:03:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we're Djing at the afterparty for some young up-and-comers from France who I believe are called "Phoenix" or something like that. Should be fun...Nick

RIP ROC RAIDA

2009-09-21T11:03:00.000-07:00

The dude who inspired me to buy turntables after seeing his classic "Rock The Bells" routine in Zoo York's "Mixtape" video circa 1997. I probably watched that video every day for a year, VCR remote in hand so I could rewind and study his section. Unfortunately, all that wiki-wiki, juggling, crab scratch business is very hard so it wasn't long after purchasing a single crap Gemini turntable from a straight-edge kid named Matt that I was forced to let go of my dream of becoming the fifth member of the X-Excutioners. But, I enjoyed making mixes and stuff so I kept buying vinyl, bought another turntable a year or so later (this time a REAL Technics 1200!!!) and somehow, some 11+ years later and still unable to scratch to save myself, here I am; a Professional DJ. Who would have thunk it? So, thanks Roc Raida. I mean it. Real talk.

And, for good measure, Robbie Gangemi's section from the same video, featuring a very young Busta Rhymes on The Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Show.

Okay, hopefully this will be the last "RIP" post for a while...Nick

ROBERT FRIPP

2009-09-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

MOST BORING BAND EVER

2009-09-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

THE TWO CUTEST THINGS I'VE SEEEN...

2009-09-15T23:49:00.001-07:00

...in a long time.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for French Bulldogs. And, a close second...

Ms. Nando, DJing. Is she about to play a Grace Jones record and make your night or punch the photographer in the face? Look at her. All business. Tough as shit. (I tease only because I know that if she sticks with this, we will all be out of our job in a matter of months.)

AL DOYLE

2009-09-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

The man always looks sharp, even when he's about to sit in a dunk tank. I wouldn't look this good in a 3 piece suit...Nick

Tonight @ Santo's

2009-09-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hey, we're DJing tonight in the basement at Santo's. Our buddy Matt Cash is gonna play records too. Maybe our other buddy Wolfram from Austria (Discokaine) will join us. MTV's going to be there filming a short little piece on us so it would be sweet if it was packed. But maybe it would be funny if it was empty. No, scratch that - we really want people to come. Tell your friends...Nick

I Will Come Back 12"

2009-09-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Designed by Michael Vadino with a "blind emboss." The pictures don't do it justice, but it looks awesome. We'll be giving them away via Turntable Lab somehow. Stay tuned...Nick

EMULATOR

2009-09-11T07:45:00.000-07:00

On loan from a great guy named Brandt. We've been getting our Depeche Mode on...

Eddie Locke 1930-2009

2009-09-09T08:13:00.001-07:00

A dear, longtime friend, patient teacher and, as Miles Davis might say, absolute "Motherfucker" of a drummer. If you can find any version of "Caravan" on which he played, buy it and prepare to be in awe of his superhuman press roll. He was a true master and a generally amazing guy. He will be sorely missed.

HG! on VBS

2009-09-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

The awesome VBS produced an episode of their new (?) show "Electric Independence" about yours truly and you'll never guess what we talk about...GEAR! Fascinating stuff to fall asleep to or scare girls away with. Watch it here...

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/motherboard/electric-independence-holy-ghost

...Nick

Tommy Lee Drum Solo

2009-09-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

Jerry pulled this up on the studio computer tonight and had us all in stitches. Awful/Amazing/Hilarious. "Hey Tacoma! I guess dreams do come true, don't they?!!?"

Chris Glover/Penguin Prison

2009-09-01T22:16:00.000-07:00

So, I was surfing the interweb and I found myself on our buddy Chris Glover's (the hunk pictured above) myspace page listening to a remix he did for Marina & The Diamonds. It's super duper good. So, I googled it in an attempt to find an MP3 and found some blog where the dude was all, like, "this dude should work with Holy Ghost!" Well, he has. He sang backup vocals and played guitar on "Hold On," co-wrote "I Will Come Back" and has cowritten and/or played and/or sang on much of our in progress LP. In short, he's our bro. He has been since we were in Mr. Jaffee's math class and he was in Cake Museum and I was in The Laspees and we were playing shows together at The Spiral circa 1997. He's a very talented chap. He has the voice of an angel and is the best guitar player I know. He has a very cool, Morrissey-esque haircut. He can do an amazing Aaron Neville impression. He wears nice clothes. He's funny. In high school, crowds made him nervous. He can play "Bad Town" by Operation Ivy on the saxophone. So, yeah, we know all about Chris Glover. Enjoy...Nick

P.S. Those handclaps sound VERY familiar.
P.P.S. We know, our blogging game is weak. We're going to step it up.

Camp Bisco 2009 in probably too much detail

2009-07-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

Camp Bisco is an electronic music festival that's held in Upstate New York once every summer. The first time we went was in summer 2006 as members of The Juan Maclean - I was playing keys and Nick was playing drums.

Unexpectedly, we had a fantastic time that night. Juan rubbed Petrulli oil on Nick's drums, introduced me as Nick's boyfriend, and did his best to scare the acid-crazed-hippie-children. We played a terrifying set. Great night.

This year we went sans Juans and DJ'd with James and Pat (Special Disco Version). We had our very own DFA tent and once again had an amazing time. Props to all the kids who danced in the mud. Below is a visual breakdown of the trip. Its long and probably very boring, as is our general way...

12-2pm: We met at James' apartment in Brooklyn. He ordered us all delicious breakfast burritos and we listened to records. Eventually the tour bus showed up and Matt Cash gave me a tour:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

2pm-6pm: We watched JCVD - awesome movie - and generally got our hang on.

6pm: We almost got stuck under a bridge:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

7pm: We arrived:

7-10pm: We walked around in the mud. I saw many strange and typical things:

10pm: We set up these gigantic light boxes that Marcus ( Shit Robot) made . We controlled the boxes by connecting the MIDI from an AKAI MPC to a MIDI power strip which turned the lights on and off according to how we played/programmed the MPC :

1am: Time to DJ and people actually showed up:

2.30am: We DJ'd then handed it over to SDV, who KILLED it:
Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

4am: James and Pat put one final jam down. We danced like crazy. I'm wearing a bahja. It was cold and I forgot a jacket:

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

5am: Time to go to bed, it was incredibly fun while it lasted:

-Alex

Camp Bisco 8

2009-07-21T07:48:00.001-07:00

The fine folks at the Camp Bisco 8 were kind enough to give us, James and Pat our own tent to close out the festival. For the "DFA Disco Tent" we brought the flags, the lightboxes, champagne, rose and had an awesome, awesome time.

Alex has some good/embarrassing footage of the party we were having on stage behind the boxes.

Newcleus VS. Holy Ghost!

2009-07-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

When Nick and I make music we communicate almost entirely through a series of grunts, sighs, ehhhs, and occasionally, when we're very lucky, non-sequtors like "fire!" or "jelly!" -- which mean we have something OK. Another thing we say when something is good, spooky, or funky is " oooh, Newcleus!" - which means it sounds like Newcleus - the legendary electro-rap crew from the early 80's and one of our longtime musical reference points.

So, when it came time to find remixers for our next single, I took a shot in the dark and emailed Cozmo D through the Newcleus fansite. Fast forward 3 months and Cozmo D, the man himself, is walking up the steps of our Brooklyn studio to do a final mix of his remix for our single " I Will Come Back."

Not surprisingly, Cozmo was a complete pleasure to work with. We particularly appreciated his honesty about our original track: "Honestly guys, what is this song about! It makes no sense!"

Here's a clip of us doing the final mix with Cozmo. It will be out on the DFA 12" for "I Will Come Back" soon... and its got the jelly. -- Alex

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Video

2009-06-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Directed by Mr. Ben Fries.

RIP MJ

2009-06-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

So my mom called me in tears today to tell me the news. We have lots of happy memories of dancing to Michael Jackson records in the Millhiser house. In fact, I have a scar from the time I fell during a solo dance session to "Beat It" on my dad's speakers (they were big, my parents had left the room) and busted my forehead open, Age 3, 1985 (Mom?). My parents actually got to see him play live three times - twice on the Victory tour and once on the Bad tour where they bought my sister and I matching shirts which we wore to the shreds, literally.

In HG! Alex and I, like many people we know, reference "Off The Wall" and "Thriller" often. Those drums! Those string arrangements! And those fucking guitars! CHRIST! It's PERFECT! I sincerely believe that nobody will ever top the truly magical perfection painstakingly put to tape by the dream team that made those records: Michael, Rob Temperton (ex Heatwave dude, superstar songwriter) and, of course, Mr. Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedien and the countless session players (Toto, Brothers Johnson, etc.). Alex and I have both spent way too much of our lives trying to figure how and why, technically, those records sound so good and, unfortunately, according to Mr Swedien in his book and numerous posts to the gear-nerd blog gearslutz, it seems to be a result of sincere otherworldly talent, which we lack.

So, this is getting long and I could go on and on. But here's to Michael. One of our heroes, and I'm sure one of yours too...Nick

Jerry v. MSTRKRFT & John Legend

2009-06-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

As you already know, we tend to get pretty giddy when videos of our buddy Jerry show up on the YouTube. Here, our favorite drummer-to-the-stars sits in with Mister Krift and John Legend to play the lovely song "Heartbreaker." No one handed drum fills here, but just a generally great and understated performance by a seemingly incongruous cast of characters...Nick

New 12"

2009-06-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

After a long, long wait, we're finally putting out our second original 12", "I Will Come Back." We're giving away the 320mp3 OVER HERE. Full art vinyl is on the way and in the meantime we're sending a limited set of white labels over to Turntable Lab NYC for giveaway today. There's a sweet video on the way too..Alex

hand made

2009-06-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

Stevie's new drum machine, he hand made it when he wasnt busy keeping the DFA Studio humming or building other awesome things. Kick rivals an 808...Alex

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

New HG! 12"

2009-06-11T22:49:00.001-07:00

Dubplate...

...and the the beautiful old Neumann lathe on which it was cut...

...Nick

Jay Stay Paid

2009-06-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

Our hero Pete Rock has compiled a new album of unreleased songs by our other hero J Dilla. We just downloaded it on iTunes and we're smiling ear to ear, banging our hands on the table, and nodding our heads heavily. Every once in a while, Alex pops up from his laptop, makes a smooshy face and let's out a loud, high pitched "Ooooooooooooh!" or "Mmmmmmm!" It's good. Treat yourself to a copy...Nick

EDIT: Holy shit. It's so good.

Record Library

2009-06-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

Quest from The Roots has more records than you.

New Remix

2009-05-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

So after swearing off remixes we just took on another remix in the middle of tour on the condition that the label would pay for a studio for us to work in during our week off in Paris. On very short notice we found a great place thanks to frantic emails to the many wonderful people we know in this wonderful city. So we've been waking up at 9:00, getting our coffee, recording, eating some delicious baguette sandwiches, recording some more, then going to bed. But the studio is full of fun stuff we've never used before. So, if this remix sounds different, you know why.

Mmmmm, Jupiter 6.

Alex plays a cowbell on loan from ParaOne who was also kind enough to lend us a MIDI/CV converter. That's nerd-speak for "important."

Korg MS10, UA-6176, Roland Space Echo RE201. Just below it and out of the picture is an old Roland Flanger that Alex liked so much that he promptly bought one for himself on eBay.

Old Slingerland kit with fancy microphones. The remix has a drum solo. For real.

String synths. Arp Solina (totally out of tune) and an ARP OMNI MKII which, if I'm not mistaken, is what was used on "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Tomorrow we mix. Then we DJ at the Social. If you live in Paris, you should come...Nick

Homemade DFA Merch

2009-05-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

So I forgot to include this picture from Bergen. some dude made his own DFA tote bag. He didn't want me to take a picture because he was worried James would sue him. Seriously. I told him James wouldn't sue him if he would be kind enough to give me the bag. He wasn't. Cute just the same...Nick

House De House (Again)

2009-05-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

So, we did another two gigs with Liv and Saheer and they still rule. Here are some pictures from Bergen.

And, here's Alex and our buddy Wolfram. That's his real name. Wolf. Ram. We made a song with him. Hopefully it'll be out pretty soon.

I don't have any picture from Fabric but if you were there, or have a cyber friend who was, you know House of House fucking destroyed and that "Holy Ghost! was just, um, okay." Word...Nick

2009-05-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

So, we recently took on a new remix and have been having a difficult time with the original vocals. Nice melodies and stuff, just sonically didn't fit with the new backing track we made. But today we stumbled upon apple's "text to speech" program. Using the voice of "Fred," we redid all the vocals, then doubled them with a vocoder. Here's Nick doubling "Fred" with a vocoder...Alex

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Trophy Bar

2009-05-09T07:57:00.000-07:00

We're going to play records at Trophy Bar tonight because we love it there and the drinks are cheap. I've been kind of sick all week so it's probably not the smartest thing to do but whatevs...Nick

European Weekend

2009-05-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

We just got back from the UK/Europe and the highlight of the long weekend by far was watching Liv and Saheer play "Rushing To Paradise." Sorry the pictures are shit, but I was busy shaking a tambourine like an asshole. I'm sure you've heard it, but if not, enjoy. It was generally one of the highlights of our sets from the weekend too.

Buy it. Oh, wait. You can't. It sold out everywhere before anywhere actually had the records to sell. We don't even have a copy. Other highlights from our sets this weekend included the Joakim mix of Pocket Piano...

And, much to my surprise, the Levan edit of Inner Life's version of "Aint No Mountain High Enough" which I couldn't find a proper video of...

...but you should find it because it's beautiful. It didn't quite go off like Body & Soul, but people dug it...Nick

Jerry

2009-04-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was a decent drummer. Not great, but good enough. Then I met Mr. Jerry Fuchs and I pretty much gave up. He is, without a doubt, my favorite drummer ever. He has MIDI jacks on his arms!!! Literally. Okay, not, like, LITERALLY literally - they're tattoos - but, like literally in that obnoxious way where literally actually means figuratively...because he plays as though he does in fact have MIDI jacks in his arms.

Behold him with his band Maserati as he does with one hand what I and most drummers could only dream of doing with two. Literally.

Bonus cool points for the Corsica t-shirt...Nick

Q-Tip Is Cooler Than You

2009-04-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

And most people for that matter. Check as he ignores the MPC to his left and loops up bits from a 45 with his pointer finger...Nick

(Edit: Video seems to have been deleted. Arg!)

Autotune the News

2009-04-25T21:11:00.001-07:00

This is amazing. A little slow at first, but just wait for Katie Couric. And Nancy says we have to sign our posts...Nick

Mike McD On The Mic

2009-04-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

One of the songs we were mixing at Plantain ( see post below) is a track that features the great Michael McDonald. So here's a relatively boring video of us listening to his acapella at the end of the session. After listening to the song about 2 million times, his vocals still make Nick and me smile Every. Single. Time.

Plantain

2009-04-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

We just spent a couple days at the lovely, and recently cleaned, Plantain studios in DFA HQ mixing two new songs (more on that later). I took some pictures.

Matt and Alex comparing compressors on Alex's vocals. The main rack of gear, recently gutted by James who took most of the good stuff with him to LA. The beautiful and rarely used "Live B" room. While making the Automato record, this is where James and Tim set up a TV and an XBox and temporarily rechristened it "The Halo Room."Boneless Buffalo Wings from Atomic Wings. This is what you eat at Plantain. It's a rule. Once upon a time, Tim Goldsworthy did all his editing on big, old Akai samplers (if you're not a nerd, this is incredibly difficult and time consuming). In a stack of Zip disks I found some gems including a blast from our past in the form of an old Automato song. And...
...almost half of the Rapture album crammed onto one 100 meg disc and "House of Jealous Lovers."

Gavin's homemade modular synth, AKA "The Dream Machine." This is what he and Delia used to make their amazing "Days of Mars" album.

Jessica 6

2009-04-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

As you may know, Andrew, Nomi and Morgan, once of Hercules & Love Affair, started their own band called Deep Red. But then some speed metal band from Florida with the same name threatened to sue them so they changed it to Jessica 6. Elle Magazine is doing an article on them or something so last night they had an impromptu show at someone's house on Bond Street for the photo shoot. It was really fun. They were really good.

we all put our pants on one leg at a time, but when james does...

2009-04-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

So, we walk into the DFA offices the other day and we see this monstrosity sitting on James' desk.

A gold fucking record! I mean, who actually sells records any more!?!?! Let alone a 100,000 of them. What an asshole.

Pretty amazing. Kudos buddy.

Mixin'

2009-04-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here's a totally boring clip from my cell phone of us mixing our next 12". That's Nick sitting in front of the board at Plantain (dfa's studio in nyc) and me on camera duty. The lovely Matt Thornley ( dfa front-of-house-genius) is off camera somewhere. The mix session was smooth sailing thanks to Eric Broucek, who did all of the hard stuff at his studio a few weeks ago.....Alex

MGMT v. HG!

2009-04-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

the remix we did for MGMT is finally out on vinyl. instrumental mix included.

http://www.lostinrecords.com/frontend/release/3

keyboardist wanted

2009-04-19T10:29:00.000-07:00

When I told Juan I couldn't tour with him anymore he held open tryouts for my replacement. This

guy stood out instantly - chops for days, great hair, good taste in gear - but he demanded a rate of

$1000/day (including days off!) AND his own hotel room each night.

nerd alert!

2009-04-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

here's a short "in the studio" thing we did for MOG.com. We were really hungover and typically inarticulate that day. For the record, I had just gotten out of the shower and am not wearing gel or product in my hair.

hello

2009-03-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

hi, we're holy ghost!. we make music. and DJ. No, we're not playing live right now, but we will in the the future. No, the album is not finished but it will be soon.