Rumors of a new AVALANCHES album have my heart racing, and the jams are dropping left and right. What, me worry?

My wife, daughter and I decided to spend Saturday night in the front bedroom of the house. We reasoned that it would be safest spot, given the layout of our trees and the wind direction reports we heard on the news. We could not have been more wrong!

Treefingers in my bedroom

We were awakened at 3:30 AM by a noise that sounded like a freight train barreling through the house. It was pitch black in the room, my mouth and lungs were full of dirt, and it took me a few minutes to quell the panic, get my bearings, find the flashlight and figure out what was going on. Water was pouring into the room and there were several large branches protruding through the ceiling. One long branch touched the floor right by one side of the bed, another was hanging like the Sword of Damocles less than 3 feet directly above the spot where my daughter had been sleeping only a few moments before. There were plenty of hugs all around and a few tears before we decided on our next move.

The wind was howling like a banshee outside the house and it was pitch black everywhere, so we scrapped the idea of heading to the neighbor’s house to seek refuge. Unable to see outside and unsure of the extent of damage to the roof, we decided to build a fort in one corner of living room, right beside the thickest wall juncture in the house. We spent four uncomfortable hours in a tiny cramped space, protected by one very large piece of heavy furniture and a pretty pathetic selection of thick couch cushions, telling ourselves and each other that everything was going to be fine.

What we found the next morning

When light started peeking through the windows and the wind began to subside, we made our way around the house to investigate. One look through the back window confirmed that not only had we misjudged the best spot to spend the night, we had grossly misunderstood what had happened to the house. A huge pine tree from our backyard had fallen on the far corner, the upper branches tearing numerous holes in the roof across the bedroom and hallway.

All things considered, we have many things for which to be thankful. No one was hurt and we have insurance, so the house will be repaired in due time. Thanks to my in-laws, we have a comfortable place to stay while we sort out our situation and civilization reboots here in Houston. Our daughter seems to have bounced back from the trauma in no time and is spending her days showing her Nana how to play Wii and dance like a star. The break in routine combined with a very close call has given me an opportunity to do a some re-evaluation and take a hard look at my priorities and habits.

On the music side of things, none of my light or sound gear was damaged (it was all safe and sound in a storage unit). I found out today that the Museum District Day event has been rescheduled, so I’ll post more information about it when I find out the new date. I’m not sure whether or not Catwalk for a Cure or The Kitchen will proceed as planned weekend after next; I should know more in a day or two.

Batten down the hatches and gas up the generators…I’m about to ride out Ike with nothing more than a roll of duct tape, 2 boxes of twinkies and a Can record set to play on repeat. Wish me luck.

I am all about this DJ Koze remix, a brilliant send-up of a track that simultaneously cheers on, and pokes fun at, the Great Minimal Backlash of ‘08. The track itself is whip-smart disco dub: anchored by a chunky, rubbery groove, draped in a silky organ drone, and punctuated with sharp kitchen-pot percussion sounds that seem to explicitly reference Ewan Pearson’s semi-famous quote from Feiern. The vocal is the clincher though. When I first heard this tune, I was reminded of a quote that originally referenced LCD Soundsystem’s Losing My Edge: “If you get the joke, then the joke is about you…”

Environ goes from strength to strength. Entropy Reigns currently sits at the “most played all year” slot in my house. Also…new Morgan Geist is out *today*, backed with a couple of smoking Carl Craig mixes. Search for it on the iTunes store if you want to hear it today…I’m waiting for the vinyl to drop.

One from the vaults. I was late to the Spacemen3 party; this was my entry point into their catalog and still stands as my favorite record before these guys split into Spiritualized and Spectrum. I keep threatening to slip “Why Couldn’t I See” into a mix somewhere…we’ll see.

Finally…something fresh off the press: Johan Agebjörn remixes “Grand Ideas” from Lindstrøm’s latest (and again, I can’t say enough good things about Lindstrøm’s latest ). You can get the remix as an exclusive bonus track on iTunes or stream it from Johan’s myspace. This music is the reason why God created arpeggiators.

Maybe if I treated it nicely, it would complete the pile of work on my desk and free me up up to focus on things like setting up my new DMX rig!

More on this later…it’s going to be “off the chain” as the kids say!