Happy 86th Birthday, George Hadjinikos!

Quick, who’s your favorite Greek pianist and composer?  George Hadjinikos, right?  Ours too!  I don’t have anything against Nikos Xydakis, who seems like a good guy, but Hadjinikos is the only Greek I want to listen to tickling the keys.  (And, Xydakis’s fans are always douches, aren’t they?)  In celebration of Hadjinikos’s 86th birthday, we’re moving outside of our Sunday comfort zone here at Citizen Dick.  Usually we roll with a Dick in Weird Places or a Radio Dick or, when we’re feeling particularly saucy, nothing at all, but we couldn’t let George’s special day pass by unnoticed.  Given our depth of understanding of the dude’s work, we’re sending George two tracks that we’ll know he’ll love as birthday presents in today’s post, one from Ape School and one from Coltrane Motion.  George, if you’re reading, there’s a card in the mail; keep it real.

Michael Johnson, the brains behind Ape School, has been all over the musical map, as a former member of Holopaw, a collaborator with Lilys and generalized indie rock Zelig.  His first release as Ape School entered the world on April 28 and has been coursing through the Citizen Dick speakers with great regularity since.  We’ll probably comment on the record as a whole more fully in the future, but for George’s birthday, we just wanted to pass along a track and our generalized endorsement.  If you enjoy the dreamy, meandering keyboard drenched sound of “The Underground,” Ape School is worth pursuing more vigorously.

“The Underground” – Ape School

Coltrane Motion are a Chicago-based, self-described “electronic noise-pop duo.”  That’s a lot of modifiers, but their recently released single, “The Year Without a Summer” is catchy as hell no matter what you call it.  The splashy high-hat, warbly electronic keyboard line, frenetic pace and fuzzed out vocals make for a solid two and a half minutes of glossy, poppy hookiness.  If you’re one of our Chicago readers, we dropped the ball a bit on you; Coltrane Motion passed out some free records at a show last night and we did not get you that information on time.  Happily, you’ll be tapping your toes while you listen to the track below and, we’re imagining, they’ll play another show sometime soon.  We’re hoping for more new material from Coltrane Motion in the future, becuase we like what we’ve heard so far.

“The Year Without a Summer” – Coltrane Motion