Former Ghosts is giving away a mixtape prequel to New Love, the next album. The mixtape features a good amount of mourning and redemption seeking, a bunch of special guests, remixes, demos, a Blink 182 cover, and many stabs at new love. For the next album, Yasmine Kittles of Tearist joins Freddy Ruppert, Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu), and Nika Roza (Zola Jesus). Makes sense. It’s a supergroup of the dark, desolate and beat-driven.

Download “Welcome to Old Love” mixtape:  http://www.freddyruppert.com/Welcome to Old Love.zip

Tracklisting with liner notes by Freddy Ruppert:

1. New Love – Felt Drawings Remix
Felt Drawings is the project of Los Angeles based Dominic Tiberio.

http://www.feltdrawings.com

2. Old Love Introduction – Featuring Sam Mickens
Sam Mickens – vocals and guitar
Freddy Ruppert – synths, drum machine, programming
Sam Mickens appears courtesy of the Dead Science and The Sam Mickens Ecstatic Show Band Revue. Based in NYC.

3. Red String
“New Love.” demo/outtake.
freddy ruppert – synths, drum machines, programming, vocals

4. Winter’s Year – Wild Eyes Remix
Wild Eyes is the project of Ben Chisolm and Chelsea Wolfe.

5. Whitman – New Orleans
Whitman is the Los Angeles based project of Christopher Payne. Here he covers “New Orleans.” We share a crazy bond over
this song and I am completely honored for him to cover it. He also runs the amazing Folktale Records.

6. I Wish I had Never Come Home
“New Love.” demo/outttake.
freddy ruppert – synths, drum machines, programming, vocals.

7. Chin Up – Friendzone remix
Friendzone is the project of James Laurence and Dylan Reznick based out of the bay area of California. Doing amazing things,
two of my favorite dudes ever.

8. Two Paths
“New Love.” demo/outtake
freddy ruppert – synths, drum machines, programming, vocals
sample from Breakfast At Tiffany’s

9. New Orleans – Continues Remix
Continues is the Los Angeles based project of Dan Gatto formerly of Babyland. Dan Gatto has been one of the biggest inspirations on any music I have ever done in my entire life. He put out the very first This Song Is A Mess record ever. His newest project is amazing.

10. If You Need Someone
‘New Love.” demo/outtake. Cover of the Field Mice song of the same title. Probably my favorite field mice song ever.
freddy ruppert – synths, drum machines, programming, vocals
Jamie Stewart – synths, programming, drum machines

11. MLG (dreams the remix)
“New Love.” demo/outtake
freddy ruppert – synths, drum machines, programming, vocals

12. Hell Becomes Me
“New Love.” demo/outtake
freddy ruppert – synths, drum machines, programming, vocals

13. Agnes Of Rome Outtake
Jamie Stewart and Freddy Ruppert synth pop project pre-Former Ghosts
Jamie Stewart – synths, drum machine, programming
Freddy Ruppert – synths, drum machine programming, bass

14. Only In Time – Benjamin Alexander Remix
Benjamin Alexander is an electronic music artist based out of Brighton, England.

15. Waggy
Blnk 182 cover.
freddy ruppert – synths, vocals, drum machine, programming

16. Taurean Nature (Live)
from Venice, Italy.

18. New Love (album version)
freddy ruppert – vocals, treated piano, programming, strings
jamie stewart – synth drone

Welcome to Old Love
artwork by Dominic Tiberio

—Daiana Feuer

Maud Deitch

You know how sometimes when you’re thinking back to a particularly ridiculous dream you’ve had, you have to step back for a moment and acknowledge how completely hilarious your subconscious is? Well, I had one of those moments at The Echoplex on Saturday night. I had never heard of the show’s opening band, Totally Michael, and so when a skinny kid, hardly any wider than his black, be-stickered guitar, took the stage, I had no idea what to expect. A sing along version of The Village People’s “YMCA” later, and I still had no idea what I was in for.

Totally Michael’s ridiculous, completely juvenile set seemed to be constantly toeing the line between arch satire and Blink-182 inspired idiocy, and I found myself looking around in disbelief to try and guage from other’s faces how I was supposed to be feeling about the show. Performance is about 25% content though, and if the remaining 75% is energy, Totally Michael was a complete success. Jumping around the stage like a squirrel with ADHD, Michael Dunlap was a sight to see, and I have to give him credit—he most certainly got me excited for what the rest of the night had in store.

From there, the tone was set for an outlandish, maybe even out of control, evening. The crowd—which was a mixture of teenagers (the show was 18+) in their finest sequined gear and older folks exhibiting various states of total inebriation—was all fist pumping energy as DJ Killed By Synth took the stage. She spun an energetic set of crowd pleasers, even managing to make “We Are Your Friends” seem as jammy as it did the first time around.

The crowd was nice and warmed up, therefore, when Flosstradamus took the stage. It felt, actually, more like a festival show than a Saturday night at the Echoplex. The crowd surged forward and danced the shit out of the seemingly endless (in a good way) set, getting dirty, like high school dance dirty, to mixes of such classics as “Get Low,” made famous by Lil’ John and the Eastside Boyz. Bumping and grinding against the metal barriers set up to control the madness, the crowd screamed enthusiastic at all the right places, got down as hard as they could, and generally seemed to be having a crazily good time.

When Kid Sister took the stage, you would’ve thought she was The Beatles come back for a surprise reunion. I fought my way through the glinting, sweaty sea to try and get a better look at what was happening on stage, and thought for a second I would be spat back out again. When a pretty young reveler saw me desperately trying to get a good angle for a photo, she pushed me forward, saying, “Take pictures, take pictures! Show everyone how good she is!” Kid Sister, the nom de plume of Chicago native Melisa Young, was resplendent with her long black hair streaked pink, flanked by two back up dancers in black leotards and silver masks. Clearly, I hadn’t gotten the memo about the sequins, because, like much of her insanely excited fan base, Young was decked out in black sequined leggings, making her legs look like they were made of ink, and only making her black leather jacket look tougher.

Performing tracks off her soon to drop record Ultraviolet, Young’s performance was as hard and tough as seems necessary for a female MC trying to make it in a not particularly lady-friendly hip hop world. The tracks combine club friendly, bouncy electro beats and relatively benign, although well delivered, lyrics. Perfect tracks for playing in your first car with the windows rolled down, which was probably exactly what her fans would do on their way home from the show. Maintaining the high energy of the beginning of the night would be a challenge, I thought, but Young’s set worked perfectly, bringing the crowd to their peak of hormonal dancing frenzy and leaving everyone excited when it was over.

Watching the crowd stream out of the club was like watching an advertisement for a good night. Though some were definitely a little too drunk, some sleepy, and some wondering loudly where their cell phones/cameras/boyfriends or girlfriends had gone, everyone was all smiles, which, I think, is a sign that all involved did their jobs extraordinarily well.

—Maud Deitch

Blink-182 reunited and performing at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on September 18, 2009. Opening were Fall Out Boy, All American Rejects, and Chester French.

Blink-182

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Fall Out Boy

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All American Rejects

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Chester French

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