DJ Rodi is an experienced pro in helping homo sapiens get on the good foot.

Just received word that soul/funk selector supreme DJ Rodi and guests will be spinning New Year's Eve at Alex's Bar in Long Beach. All night. For free. Whoa. While most of you probably have your NYE plans set, for the undecided folks out there, this is great news.

I had heard people speak of Rodi—one of the founders of the nine years and running Good Foot night—in hushed tones, but, being a newcomer to the area, I'd never seen him spin. I finally caught the man (who now resides in Osaka, Japan) in action at Alex's on Christmas night, and he properly laid down the sort of amazing obscurities I just don't hear played often enough in clubs. Dude had me trainspotting like crazy during his entire set. I'm tenacious and annoying like that...

Among the tracks he busted out—many on 7-inch vinyl, for extra cred—were Peaches & Herb's “We've Got to Love One Another” (that's what I told this girl at the bar, but she wasn't buying it), Smokey Robinson's immortal “Get Ready” covered by reggae artist Delroy Wilson, “Papa Don't Take No Mess” by James Brown, something awesome by Joe Thomas, (I forgot to write down the title, damn it), and Woody Herman's “Fat Mama” (holy shit, I didn't know Woody Herman made killer funk tunes).

So if you have a small budget but a huge appetite for rare and precious soul, funk, jazz, reggae, dub, dancehall, bossa nova, hip hop, etc., Rodi & co. at Alex's could make for a smashingly frugal transition into 2008.

... and you're feeling sorry about it,

THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO ALL THOSE DAMN PARTY FLYERS LITTERING YOUR CAR'S WINDSHIELD FOR THE LAST MONTH.

After the jump find some sure-to-be-amazing events.
You're lucky I'm giving you a second chance.

Here's another roundup from our pal Jeff Shaw:

Ah, the New Year. Time of transformation, time of bubbly-spawned magic, time of awkward passes and resolutions you mean at the time. While you're preparing for the long sled ride down Hangover Hill, here's some topical listening material.

5. Death Cab for Cutie, "The New Year"
"So this is the New Year ... and I don't feel any different." Who among us cannot identify with these sentiments? The ennui associated with arbitrary calendar-flippage? We've all been there at one point, and this captures one aspect of the nouvelle annee experience: sitting around and waiting for life to start. Some years are like this, running in place while holding a drink. Try not to spill.

4. The Zombies, "This Will Be Our Year"
A delicious pop nugget from decades past, this track isn't explicitly about the New Year, but about starting a new romantic relationship with an old friend. The words I'm looking for to describe it are "thoroughly charming." Share it with someone you love -- or ensure that it's playing when a longtime pal you have a crush on walks by. More recently, OK Go covered this song, and that version is also well worth listening to. You can find it here. But I think the video below, with decades-old footage of somebody's parents shot with a Super 8, fits the tune's feel.

3. Asobi Seksu, "New Years"
About a metaphorical rather than literal New Year, this song (which you can hear streaming here) is the finest track from one of 2006's best albums. Yeah, its almost all in Japanese. Yeah, you'll enjoy it anyway, even if you don't speak the language. You can see people wrestling with the tune's English meaning here.

Steve Aoki celebrates another smooth transition.

A lot of people talk shit about Steve Aoki (a.k.a. Kid Millionaire), especially in OC. He's just a trustafarian, some say (pops founded the Benihana restaurant chain). His DJ skills are wack and his selections mediocre, others claim. He's a marketing whore and the epitome of hipster-dance-scene douchebaggery, yet more others accuse.

But Aoki is making things happen, playing out several times a week worldwide, running an indie label (Dim Mak) with a decent roster, promoting Dim Mak Tuesdays at LA's Cinespace (ground zero for the area's indie-electro-dance hipsterati), overseeing a clothing line, designing headphones for WeSC, lending his name to designer kicks by Supra, and basically putting his savvy Japanese-American fingers in as many avant-ish urban-culture pies as he can. Dude verily is nightlife to many clubbers and a certain sector of the media. Odds are, he's bringing joy to a lot of people's lives. And for every lame event he DJs for thousands of dollars, he can release a few great records by deserving, obscure bands. So maybe he deserves some respect. As Jigga said, you can't knock the hustle. (Well, you can, but hustlas will still giggle all the way to the bank, no matter how much Haterade you chugalug, son.)

I haven't seen Aoki DJ yet, but I have an idea of what he'll spin after googling him within an inch of his life (I'll buy you drinks all night if he doesn't play at least 5 Ed Banger or Institubes trax, that damnably ubiquitous Outfield remix I secretly like, and something by MSTRKRFT or Spank Rock). I'm not expecting to be blown away by adventurous selections, mind-boggling deck tricks or seamless segues. I'll probably be more impressed by his attire and adoring throngs than I will be by his cuts, but whatever the case, this night is sure to be a hipster clusterfuck of spectacular proportions. You may want to look your hottest, too, in case Aoki bud Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter shows up.

Does my envy look fat in this hoodie?

VVM Web Music Editor David Downs calls 2007 the year of rehab. "For LiLo, Britney, Amy, and America as a whole. It'll be remembered as the year we hit rock bottom, and the getting up wasn't going to be easy. Here's how it sounded."

Queens of the Stone Age
Era Vulgaris
"Turning on the Screw"
Because no one rocks harder while still pulling in the girls. This album has at least five epic, shredder songs that kept me awake during several 2 a.m. burns down the pitch-black California Interstate 5 through the Central Valley. This is extreme, inlander music. Butt rock with a heart.

Radiohead
In Rainbows
"House of Cards"

Partly because of the size of their balls, but mostly because the songs are as good as their balls are big. Take the glitchy "15-Step", add the technical "Faust Aurp", throw in the burly "Bodysnatchers", mellow it out with "House of Cards" and you have so much good music, the other songs are just the sweet, shiny coating on the prozac.

See the rest of Downs' picks over at SF Weekly's music blog.

Surprisingly still-popular LA breakbeat producers the Crystal Method—Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland—shlep their MP3s (I'll bet anything they digitized all of their vinyl) to Tentation in Newport Beach (4647 Macarthur Blvd, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., $20) for a DJ set tomorrow night.

Below is the track list for the Crystal Method's most recent DJ mix, 2005's Community Service II, to give you an idea of what you might hear at the gig. Looks like a menu heavy with funky/nü breaks and rejigged '60s (Doors), '80s (New Order) and '90s (Smashing Pumpkins) nostalgia. Let's keep hope alive that they've updated things since then. Below that is 10-minute promo video for the duo's Tweekend album.

1. The Crystal Method "Intro"
2. PMT "Gyromancer" (Elite Force Remix)
3. Elite Force "Ghetto Fabulous"
4. Hyper "Come With Me"
5. The Doors "The Crystal Method vs. The Doors" (Roadhouse Blues Remix)
6. Evil Nine "We Have the Energy"
7. Dylan Rhymes feat. Katherine Ellis "Salty" (Meat Katie Remix)
8. The Crystal Method "Keep Hope Alive" (J.D.S Mix)
9. Koma + Bones "Speedfreak"
10. The Crystal Method featuring Kevin Beber "Kalifornia"
11. Uberzone "Octopus"
12. UNKLE "Reign" (False Prophet Mix)
13. The Crystal Method "Starting Over" (Elite Force Mix)
14. The Crystal Method "Bound Too Long" (Hyper Mix)
15. New Order "Bizarre Love Triangle" (The Crystal Method's CSII Mix)
16.Smashing Pumpkins "1979" (New Originals 1799 Remix)

Matt Castille (Muz) drumming up some Mardi Gras exultation.

Costa Mesa resident Matt Castille appeared in the Weekly's 2007 Best Of issue as Best Genius Hermit Musician. Over the weekend, Castille emerged from his lair to bestow upon me his latest sonic creation: eight tracks he recorded solo under the moniker Muz. My weekend became immeasurably more psychedelic during those 35 minutes.

All musicians always say that their newest batch of songs are their “best yet,” but often this exuberance is delusional. Before we put the CD-R in the player, Castille—who also plays in Vas Deferens Organization—observed that these new joints “may be the best thing I've ever done.” As someone who's heard nearly everything he's recorded, I believed that his statement would likely ring true.

We listened to the disc twice. I was thunderstruck by the rich, lurid panoply of brain-scrambling sounds parading across the stereo field. The man had kept this word. These new songs are more tightly composed than the two sprawling pieces on his debut LP (see my review from Alternative Press here) and more memorable and vividly detailed than his second Muz album, Banana in Portuguese.

I'm still trying to process everything going on here. I feel in the sober light of day that I am ill-equipped (i.e., my mind is not sufficiently altered) to do justice to the teeming brilliance on display. All attempts at categorizing dissolve into so much irrelevant semantics. This new Muz release is one of those heavy trips to which you're lucky if you can eke out the occasional “WOW” as it coats your neurons in gaudy rivulets of psychotropic goo. (This album is currently untitled and without a label. Will some idiosyncratic philanthropist/music-industry renegade please release it? Soon? Thanks.)

Influenced by Nurse with Wound's legendary recommendations list of progressive/psychedelic/krautrock/experimental/avant-garde artists, Castille is one of those musicians who absorbs tons of fantastic, rarefied albums and then reconstitutes the base elements of said albums to his own perverse designs (his Vas Deferens Organization band mate Eric Lumbleau is one of the world's foremost collectors; for proof, see his contributions to the invaluable blog Mutant Sounds) . If names like Art Zoyd, Intersystems, Et Cetera, Brave New World and Severed Heads mean nothing to you, don't worry: Muz will still floor you with his extravagantly exotic tone painting and creative (de)arrangements. The only problem is, after you listen to Muz, nearly everything else in the sound spectrum will seem unbearably pedestrian.

Jeff Shaw at our sister paper City Pages goes off the beaten sleigh path to bring his readership 10 songs for the season. Ever generous, Jeff's allowed us to share 'em with you:

10 and 9: Two from Tom Lehrer
My uncle would never forgive me if I didn't mention Tom Lehrer's scathing, brilliant "Christmas Carol.." Unfortunately, only the lyrics are available on-line, and the only performance of the song is a dreadful reading performed by the even more dreadful Christopher Hitchens. Do Not Want. On the brighter side, we can do a different-denominational holiday Lehrer experience with the peppy "Hannukah in Santa Monica."

8. Harvey Danger, "Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas."
In a nod to my current personal activities at this time of year, I must mention this track from Seattle's Harvey Danger.

7. Of Montreal, "Christmas Isn't Safe For Animals"
Kevin Barnes has a penchant for odd Christmas songs. Besides this preciously weird, violin-backed indie tune, his band has also produced two goofy Christmas-themed songs on their early record "The Bird Who Continues to Eat the Rabbit's Flower." But this is the most accessible of the three, and features a bizarre radio montage in the middle. Excelsior! Get the lyrics and the MP3 download here.

6. Dean Martin, "Jingle Bells (Dan the Automator remix)"
Lounge never felt so cool as it does in this gentle remix that is (gasp!) true to the original. The beatmaker behind Del and Handsome Boy Modeling School does the Rat Pack proud, and I bet even your mom will dig. Download it here.

Freelancer Ben Westhoff (you may recognize the name from "The Efron Scandal") posted this provocative list on our sister paper Pitch Weekly's blog. We reprint it here because this is a time of giving (said the atheist).

By BEN WESTHOFF

1. Worst Album: Arcade Fire, Neon Bible

This cerebral garbage entertained about 100 people, none of whom didn’t either live in Canada or work as a music critic. Speaking of critics, it’s hard to agree with Sasha Frere-Jones about anything, but he was right that Arcade Fire lacks soul. This is true in both the musical and metaphysical senses.


2. Worst Single: Bow Wow & Omarion, “Girlfriend”

Worse than Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” and much worse than ‘N Sync’s “Girlfriend,” this slow, pandering drivel is the kind of thing that makes you wish Bow was still a pup and Omarion was still with B2K.


3. Worst Wu-Tang Clan Song: “Sunlight.”

Wu’s new album is amazing, and I support RZA’s production on it, but on “Sunlight” he falls off the deep end. And as you play all day like the grasshopper who work and toil like armies of ants carrying stones of soil, he chants in a series of run-on sentences, building a home for themselves and storing food. At night we praise Allah and adore the moon in sync like the flow of the Nile, the growth of a child. Cool!


4. Worst Concert: White Williams

White Williams tries his hardest to avoid melody in his songs, and in his concerts he tries his hardest to avoid playing music. This was the case, at least, at his December 10 show at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, in which Williams’ inane, hipster banter dominated the set. During long pauses between songs, we were treated to views of (what I believe was) his MySpace page.


5. Worst Year-End Critic's List: The Onion A.V. Club

Topped, of course, by Arcade Fire, the A.V. Club’s best 25 albums of the year list also featured past-their-prime bands like Wilco and Modest Mouse. I do agree with some of the choices, like Band of Horses and Amy Winehouse, but the main problem is that it includes not a single hip-hop album. An online commenter called “Murk” put it best: “You guys are almost as eclectic as Time magazine!”

6. Worst Idolator Feature: Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament

It seems that whenever Idolator isn’t bashing Village Voice Media papers for shoddy music writing or dishing out shoddy music writing of its own, it is subjecting us to this never-ending “Worst Album Cover Of The Year Tournament.” It's not at all funny (Vice magazine has been doing this to greater effect for years), but I mainly hate it because they've been subjecting us to it -- and its preliminaries -- since fucking February.


7. Worst Genre: Indie Rock

It’s been fun, guys (well, no not really), but it’s time for indie rock to go gently into that good night. Irony, self-consciousness, and beard-stroking aren’t what we need in our music – that’s what we have the McSweeney’s franchise for.

Merry Christmas from fag-hating Westboro Baptist Church!