Post tITLED: NON-FICTION, 2 DAYS AGO: Hitting the ground running in search of BITTE ORCA at Berlin, Alexanderplatz.
Kind of a mini example of like exactly like what is wrong with everyting on a much larger scale... (oR a sampling of my place in the universe of man?)
I went to a few of the larger media stores at Alexanderplatz a few days ago looking for the new Dirty Projectors' album BITTE ORCA. Found nothing. Not even old DP albums. All I found was a place-holder for where their cds should've been.
Two days later paperpools emails me: "Did you see this? http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/07/dave-longstreth"
link to the guardian, (which I hadn't seen yet because, unfortunately, I rarely read the guardian because I am 100% addicted to NPR) anyhow: that article informed me realized that the album came out on June 8th-

Just wanted to point out here: in the United States, (or in Seattle in-paricular) there would've been no question about where to find it. There were always at least 2 record stores within 15 minutes of my apartment no matter where I lived in the city, but for some reason in Berlin (which I'd otherwise consider to be one of -if not THEEE- major cultural capitals of the world at the moment- it is damn near impossible to find a good little record store.)

But still: Saturn, the HUGE new Saturn at Alexanderplatz, (one of the most popular shopping hubs in the center of one of Europe's largest
cities!) is carrying a mere 4 copies of the album tucked away in its "Independent" section- behind (ok, next-to) the Star Wars bobble-heads and Metallica Death Magnetic t-shirts in plastic bags. What the heck, guys?!? It isn't anywhere on (or even NEAR) the "Neuheiten" (New Releases) wall, which is overflowing with the likes of Depeche Mode (DISCLOSURE: I like DM) and about a dozen other completely crap pop acts.

Wow, folks... wow.
This is an obvious point, a point too obvious to even blog about- but too important to igore... the fact that the Dirty Projectors,
a truly great act producing wonderful music that sometimes sounds like pop, is nearly invisible and unplayed outside the indie-rock-o-sphere.
Honestly, I wasn't really even expecting to FIND the Bitte Orca there at all -I EXPECTED to leave the store empty-handed or simply with some old Erykah Badu album on sale for 4,99 (that happens).
but since the top No.3 slot the NEUHEITEN wall was empty I plopped BITTE ORCA in there in hopes that an employee might have an epiphany or some poor lost little German soul might happen across it...

I Saw the Dirty Projectors 4 times here in late 2007/early 2008 and it left a huge impression on me. I'd never seen anything like them on stage, as I have blogged and blogged again- in terms of pop-rock, they were like sitting in the cockpit of the Sonic Millennium Falcon at unsyncapated mathematical lightspeed. Their shows made my eyes cry, like people cry at weddings just because they were so damn beautiful.
Initially I happened upon them when they opened up for Beirut, and then again at Dave Shrigley's WORRIED NOODLES show in Festsaal Kreuzberg (went alone to that because no one would come out into the cold) then WEST GERMANY (dragged half a dozen people along that time and showed up 3 hours too early: ) and then at the Maximum Black Festival.
As I bought cds at shows encountering their recorded music was interesting at first because at the time all I wanted to hear were the goosebump-inducing RISE ABOVE tracks they'd played live (but that CD wasn
't out yet) so I fell in love with New Attitude, and over time the Getty Address has become a favorite... and I am not trying to listen to Bitte Orca in moderation so I don't burn-out on it simply by over-listening.

aiaiaiai, folks, aiaiaiaiaiaiaiiiiii....
today is a schizo-weather Wednesday... so so so:
TAR
FREE
ART
NOW
RAT