The Stay hotel, newly carved out of the Cecil Hotel on Main Street between 6th and 7th, advertises using model-actors who are paid to hang out in glass-walled rooms. The 20-somethings stand in stark contrast to the rest of the area, well known for its low-income residents.

In fact The Cecil Hotel has served low-income residents for years, and advocates for the poor worry about where they will go if the neighborhood morphs into another glitzy, expensive tourist trap.

Advocates say they find it frustrating to see businesses once again catering to young, chic tourists rather than helping the down-and-out residents. But the man who created and runs the Stay, William Lanting, says the Stay will help create a “new neighborhood” he hopes will be more vibrant.

Either way, the Stay offers rooms for under $100 a night, shared room and bunk bed options, and even an Xbox game area. So for those of you who have always wanted to visit a poor neighborhood, but  just couldn’t find suitable accommodations, the Stay’s got you covered.

Paavoharju - Laulu laakson kukista

I forgot to include this in my top whatever albums of 2008, but it deserves to be somewhere in my top 3 for the year. This album is perhaps the most mysteriously beautiful thing I have heard in a while. It starts off like a lullaby and progresses with each song. A woman’s eerie vocals can be heard by the second song, followed by a man singing a soft folk tune. The next few songs begin to sound like a strange and highly experimental Cocorosie, some building from a delicate piano to a creepy pyschedelic organ accompanied by dark vocals. Keep in mind this album is entirely in Finnish and the band is apparently Christian. I did not know this or anything about them upon purchasing the album, I simply liked the cover. I mean, look at it:

 
This album is weird, I will admit, but when searching for music I tend to stay away from painfully experimental music that I sometimes consider trash; this I might consider the strangest masterpiece I have heard in a while. The subtle piano, violins, and finnish humming/singing intertwined with the right amount of static, beats, and strange samples makes this album tastefully haunting. 

 
Buy it here.
Here’s a video.
Listen to more here.

The Black Kids “Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo)” music video plays into my nostalgia for things that had little to nothing to do with my childhood perfectly. It’s nonstop montage homage to oldskool cartoons. The best part was probably the Thundercats turning head intro, with the Speed Racer driving scenes a close second. The power pop rock sound of the band would have caught me anyway (it’s so hooky) but coming across this music video has completely wooed me and my nerd love over. It’s just so kitschy I can’t get over it.

Courtesy of our Music Director, Maura.

Radio 200 Adds

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This is called “Family of Others” off the band’s latest, Offend Maggie.

First and foremost, for all you Seinfeld,and Curb Your Enthusiasm fans, or for all of you fans of funny, please take some time out of your day for Larry David. Yes, he may be an ignorant SOB sometimes but it makes for the most uncomfortably wonderful kind of comedy around. Critics will deem people like LD as the dark side of humanity, providing nothing more than negative commentary. I must (un)kindly disagree. David will say everything that people only think, when others are too scared to talk. And it is fucking hilarious. While he may not be for everyone, it’s worth a shot to convert as many people as possible. His comedy may have been around for years (Seinfeld–which I think pales in comparison to Curb Your Enthusiasm) but I think everyone should check it out. I mean, who doesn’t like watching people feel uncomfortable? Hilarious.  Here’s a link to an article he recently wrote about the upcoming election. Check it.

Secondly, new music. I am proudly using my first post to provide a shameless plug for my friend’s band. Formerly known as Panda, Dizzy Balloon (huh?) has been around since middle school. Over time, their sound has grown and matured into something new. This past year, they recorded a full length album. Check out the myspace. If this music doesn’t get your toe a-tappin’, I don’t know what will.

See, I took care of your afternoon entertainment. Enjoy.

So Halloween is this Friday. Still don’t have plans? Like electronic music? We can help. 

The good thing is that this Halloween there are plenty of choices of events to go to. You have an opportunity to go to not one, not two, but three places in the same night. 

First off, the most recently announced event is an Ed Banger Halloween Party. 

Sponsored by Nike, the french Ed Bangers DJs will be hosting a Halloween Kick-Off party at the Montalban Theater in Hollywood. This is the same theater that Soulwax will be screening their Part of the Weekend Never Dies on the 28th. The new Busy P AirForces will be unveiled at the event, and you will have an opportunity to meet the members of the Ed Rec Crue, while still outfitted in your Daft Punk knock-off Halloween costume. There’s no RSVP, so just show up. The event starts at 5PM at the Montalban.

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What to do next? Well, of course there’s Hard Haunted Mansion, but if you don’t have tickets to it, or if you intend on showing up late, you could always check out an event sponsored by LA Metromix.

The people who brought you the weekly DanceRight event at La Cita bring you Drop-Dead Gorgeous Halloween at the Natural History Museum directly South of USC. Here you can catch DJ Sets from Treasure Fingers, Classixx, and my pick Holy Ghost. The best part of this event is that it is absolutely free for admission. Don’t want to fork out $60 for a Hard Ticket? This is your best bet. There is a catch, though, to admission: you simply need to RSVP. Easy, right? Open up your favorite email program or webmail site and send your confirmation over to metromix@danceright.com.

If you’re going to this event and staying there, enjoy yourself. But if not, you always have the option of walking over to Hard Fest going on within walking distance. A safe bet would be to pay couple bucks and parking over at the University of Southern California Parking Structure X on Figueroa. This parking structure is located right in between, and is walking distance, both the Metromix and Hard events. That being said, you can head north on Figueroa and find yourself at one of the most epic electronic events that Los Angeles has ever hosted.

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Meet Hard Haunted Mansion. 

With a line-up featuring the biggest names in electronic music, I have no doubt that this event will be the highlight of the night. You will have an opportunity to catch the likes of Justice, Soulwax, SMD, Boys Noize, Crystal Castles, Crookers, and a few others…… all in the same night! If you haven’t bought your tickets for this yet, you should because they may sell out and/or reach capacity early. So get your costume, get your ass to the Shrine on Halloween night, and prepare for one of the biggest nights of electronic music ever to take place in the western hemisphere. 

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But wait…. there’s more. Still not satisfied? Halloween is not just a night… it’s the whole weekend.

By the time you wake up the following morning hungover from Hard Fest, you have just enough time to get yourself and a few close companions in a car, and head east to the northbound Interstate 15. Follow the road for a couple hundred miles, and you will end up in Las Vegas where the party never ends.

The Fabulous Festival is the biggest electronic show in Las Vegas history, where you can catch sets from  MSTRKRFT, Crystal Castles (again), DEADMAU5, HeartsRevolution, and [once again] the Ed Banger Crew featuring Busy P, DJ Mehdi, SebastiAn, SoMe and Mr Flash. Since Las Vegas is lenient with ordinances, curfews and whatnot, expect this event to go on until the wee hours.

And if these don’t satisfy you… I don’t know what else to say.

(Pictured: Singing DJ Jens Lekman at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. For more better photos, check out Brooklyn Vegan’s post)

The last two days of CMJ were jam packed with temptatious showcases, mixers, and panels. Thursday, I went down to the South Side Seaport, and after getting terribly lost, I was only able to catch Bearsuit. The band was a fat waste of time musically. However, the band did tell a zinger related to technical difficulties:

“We’re having problems with American Power.”
“A lot of people are.”

As cute as they were, I wished I had caught the last moments of Brooklyn’s Loose Limbs, who sound a bit like Thee Oh Sees. In the evening, the folks at Matador threw a little party at Stanton Public, with DJ sets by Times New Viking and The Teenagers. Admittedly, it was after some failed attempts to go to other shows. (Piano’s was sold out very early, so we didn’t catch the Dutchess and the Duke and the line for the Vivian Girls was long and static.)

Saturday, AAM threw their showcase which had a great line-up: Crystal Antlers, Ruby Suns, Monotonix, Annuals, and A Place to Bury Strangers. I caught up with Crystal Antlers here, and they gave me a little interview about their tour, CMJ, and some future plans (transcript posted soon). I have their EP, but hadn’t yet seen them live and let me tell you, recordings sell them short. Ruby Suns played percussion heavy, island music with light electronics and I was in disbelief that two young New Zealanders were making all that music.

Man, I thought Crystal Antlers had great energy, but Monotonix was the most shocking, exciting, and unpredictable show I saw at CMJ. The lead singer kicked over trashcans like they were soccer balls, threw water unto the crowd in a manner similar to a mass baptism (he does sort of look like Jesus), and hung off the balcony until security gently pulled him off. He moved like a whack-a-mole machine, frantically disappearing and reappearing in different parts of the venue. The other members had wild antics as well, and I was shocked how perfectly the tunes and vocals were, despite being upside down or having your drumset held up steadily by members of the crowd.