Tuesday, March 31, 2009

New Worst Song of the Year So Far

Apparently its name is Dan Black, and I swear British people if you make this popular I'm never speaking to you again. Click at your own risk; I hate this considerably more than "I Love College".

Irredeemable Shit.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Coming in a few months...

...a massive poll of friends, experts, and frendxperts to determine something most important to our lives, the Greatest Ever Gossip Girl Episode Title!!

(I do mean the greatest title of a GG episode, not title that celebrates which GG episode is greatest)

I'd do it now, but a) I obviously need to figure out a better way to word this and b) I figure folks who don't already know these things might not appreciate being told the somewhat spoileriffic titles of the last few episodes of the season. It's gonna be AWESOME(ly pointless and wonderful)!

Like a gorilla, he's a real killer



189. Ricki Wilde - "I Am an Astronaut" (UK Records, 1972)

I was thinking that I've already written about this song somewhere, but a quick Google search reveals that if I have, it was only in Fluxblog comments almost 4 years ago, so I'll definitely do it here again. Anyways, yeah, it's sung by an 11 year old, and is really a perfectly wonderful, ordinary, and cute lyric about a child's imagination. For a long time it was just a figment of imagination for me, as I heard it first on late night syndicated radio while driving home in Chicago, and took about a year to find it on Soulseek. I'm obviously quite happy that I've been able to listen to it any time I want in these past five years, but I have to admit I do hold some boneheaded nostalgia for that year during which it just floated there in the ether of my memory (boneheaded because, thank the lord, once I found the song it was every bit as good as I had remembered it).

Cold as fire, baby, hot as ice

I wrote this. Yah, I dunno.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Mystery!



So I don't know about yall, but I haven't been excited to watch a non-sports-or-Grammy show on CBS at any time I can remember in this current lifetime. But I'm totally down for this. Even if it's hella lame, which, let's face it, it probably will be, there hasn't been a series on TV for my mystery-lovin' ass in a long time and I will watch it, oh yes I will (Note: Criminal Intent and stuff like that obvi, but nothing that spreads out over multiple episodes like this). Apparently it's about a bunch of people on an island, and murder. Yup. Let's do it.

After Dame Agatha, this most reminds me of Murder in Small Town X, FOX's 2001 mystery/reality shows which I haven't seen since it was broadcast, but if I remember correctly was theee shit, despite the fact that, like many great mysteries, it didn't make all that much logical sense. It's not out on DVD as far as I know, but some blessed soul has put the whole thing on the YouTube. First ten minutes of the first episode before. Let's get addicted!

Friday, March 27, 2009

shake shake shake



190. Innerzone Orchestra - "Bug in the Bass Bin" (Planet E, 1992)

This might be the masterpiece of one Carl Craig, who, besides its original 3 creators, is prolly the most important all-time figure in Detroit Techno. And I've found it kind of hard to describe what it feels like, being inside this track. I suppose hearing it on the Youtubes doesn't do justice to how deeeeep the bass is and what it does to that incessant layer of drums that it sits below. It's like what Bearnaise does to steak, if steak made you move your body like the grooviest, sharpest rhythm addict in the world.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

ANTM Power Rankings Is Backs!

We back, folk. Top Model offered some curves this week, a few storyline wise and a few in terms of the modeling. In both the reward challenge and the photo challenge, a scant few models distinguished themselves, so it's kind of hard to tell the middle of the pack apart from each other. But we know the winners and we know the losers, so let's call em out. Condolences to Kortnie. Seemed like a nice girl, but I told you so. Without further ado, GO!



Ranking This Week (Ranking Last Week). Model Name (rankings in the last 4 episodes), bold for bottom 2, italics for winner of the reward challenge), [average ranking overall]

1 (2). Teyona - (3, 1, 8, 2) [3.5]
Last week was but a minor misstep. They love her face, they love the way she looks in pictures, girl is golden. I'm not saying she's gonna win the competition, way too early to say that, but if you gave me like 6 to 1, I'd put down a tenner.

2 (5). Allison - (1, 3, 10, 3) [4.25]
Well, hello there, doll eyes. Maybe not as strong a contender as Teyona because in the end she could just be too cute, but just like Teyona, she bounced back fairly strong in the photo challenge today. Though she does look like a 15 year old. From a horror movie.

3 (1). Celia - (5, 2, 5, 7) [4.75]
So, on the downside, Tyra might kind of hate her now and that might get to Celia, considering she's the type of person who talks about positive energies. Even if it doesn't kill her amazing energy, well, she's just a person with positive energy who Tyra hates. But I'm not gonna give up on her just because of that, did you see the girl pose? Killed it. Just killed it.

4 (6). Natalie - (8, 4, 9, 4) [6.25]
These next four girls could go in pretty much any order, but Natalie will go tops cuz I still have hesitations about Tahlia and Natalie seems the most natural model outta all of them so far. She walked off of the catwalk today, guys, OFF OF IT. BALLS.

5 (9). Tahlia - (10, 7, 3, 1) [5.25]
Okay, so two really good photos in a row, maybe I'm wrong? Maybe? Yah, I dunno though. She looks incredibly awkward walking or posing or sitting there when she's not feeling confident. And then the swimsuit challenges will come, and boy do I hope she powers through the burn stuff, but if she breaks down because drag queens boo her (and listen, I know, they can be mean)...yah, I dunno.

6 (3). London - (4, 5, 7, 5) [5.25]
Eh. Just eh today. Still potential though.

7 (4). Fo - (2, 11, 4, 8) [6.25]
Oh, Fo, my lovely Fo, why do these judges not see? You were totally the only person besides Celia and Natalie who did anything good in that pose off, but then you had to be one of the boring ones in the photo. I still love you.

8 (8). Aminat - (9, 10, 2, 6) [6.75]
Nothing interesting to say about you at all. Sweet name, I guess.

9 (7). Sandra - (12, 8, 1, 9) [7.5]
I mean, you figure they can only play up her arrogance so many times before they kick her off, right? I know she won that one challenge and she looks like a model but she's not very good. I have to say though, I've gone from actually hating her to kind of admiring her plucky arrogance in the face of sucking.

Holler.

Everything I make fuck around and be a single



191. Mack 10 & the Dogg Pound - "Nothin' But the Cavi Hit" (Priority Records, 1996)

This was on the soundtrack to rap doc Rhyme & Reason, which I know I saw sometime around its release but didn't leave much of an impact on myself or the culture at large. I don't hear this song talked about much either, but it'll always have a place in my library, mostly for Daz's textbook riding around in the sunshine beat. Mack 10 was never exactly Rakim, but you can't really sound wack on this beat. I remember it getting quite a bit of play on the video channels when it came out, but it is, in retrospect, a rather modest song. Still a great one though, and definitely on the mix CD I'ma make for the first time I get to drive a car this summer.

I'll tell you what you wanna hear if you try



New Juan Maclean video for one of my fav tracks of the year so far, "One Day" (via Pitchfork).

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Put a price on my soul



192. Ida Maria - "Oh My God" (Nesna Records, 2007)

This song is a 2007 song in Norway, I guess, and in at least one sense it was a 2008 song for me, but it seems to be hitting hardest (what with the GG ads and such) here in 2009, hard enough for me that I'm putting it in this very scientific list. It's now a song that I look forward to yelling the words to with my friends. It's now a wonderful, wonderful hit, at least as far as I'm concerned.

The notion of "timelessness" when it comes to music, at least in the way that it is usually used, is completely fucked. It's fucked in that songs always have a context, whether you know it or not. I'm sorry if you think that the Beatles are somehow less a product of the 60s than the Spice Girls are of the 90s (and that this somehow makes them better). There's no objective reason why that's true. No songs are timeless or without context. However, they do have a special ability to have an infinite amount of times and contexts, to gather and wear them like a coat of a billion threads, most invisible to all but one person.

So "Oh My God", like many of the songs here, is special to me in the way that it is special to other people and, indeed, special to me because of the way it is special to other people. But, it is also special to me in this very second in a different way than it is to anyone else, and in a different way than it was a second ago.

There's your wide-eyed, wordy YMD theorizing for the week. Enjoy this quite excellent song which I'd imagine you're already quite aware of.

and Davy Crockett runs around and says it's cool for cats



193. Squeeze - "Squabs on Forty Fab" (b-side to "Labelled With Love", A&M Records, 1981)

The thought of medleys conjures up (for me, at least) images of cabaret performers and variety acts and such, but to be honest those are completely received images, as only the gods know if I've ever seen such a cabaret performer. While my Squeeze collection isn't super-extensive, this wonderful medley of hits is probably the track of theirs I listen to most, and it's kind of a shame more bands don't do this for b-sides, EPs, internet mailing list bonuses, or what have you, never mind live shows. Let's bring the medley back (if it ever was) in vogue, friends! Tell your favorite band that we'll love them more, not less, if they squeeze (ha!) a bunch of their songs together once in a while.

(This might stand somewhat in opposition to my long held belief that DJs nowadays [kids nowadays, grumble, grumble] don't play enough of each song, but whatever, it's fun once in a while)

Monday, March 23, 2009

Tombstone Piledriver



194. Jim Johnston - "Rest in Peace" (from the RAW Greatest Hits The Music album, WWE Music Group/Columbia, 2007)

So the homie Gage is throwing a Wrestlemania party that I'm pretty amped for in a few weeks, and as I was watching Smackdown in preparation I realized how monstrously huge and awesome the Undertaker's current theme song is. Jim Johnston has been responsible a lot of the wonderful, iconic entrance themes in the WWF/E over the years, but he really outdoes himself here. The Undertaker, who for a while there was a deranged biker, is back to being a dead man again, and I'll be damned if this music isn't the perfect intro for an epic battle of good vs. evil. Obviously, the Undertaker (listen to that ghoulish melody!) is evil, though that doesn't mean you shouldn't cheer for him.

Pluggin' Away

Hey friends. Just another selfish reminder that on Monday mornings I do this hustle over at Music For Perfect People. Start this week off with my brief histories of dance music and, if you missed it, holler at last week's fictional analysis of "Rich Girl" by Hall & Oates. Obviously check out the homies Fwank and Jake holding it down on the rest of the site as well.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

SNAP! CRACKLE! CRACKROCKS! POP!

OK maybe this thing has already circulated the internets to death in the last 48 hours, but I think it deserves a teeeeeeeny bit more attention than it's getting. Comedienne Lindsay Lohan told Nylon (Ugh, Nylon) magazine this month that "It's scary when you realize, 'Oh my God, I'm not working. And I have a house to pay for now.'… and there's been some things I've really wanted to do. Like the one movie I've wanted to do for so long is Alice in Wonderland [directed by Tim Burton]. But, um, that didn't work out… it is what it is." Awwww, Lindsicles! She's just like us! Money troubles! DUIs! Public fights with lesbian girlfriends! Case of mistaken pants! God bless her, she's Everyman.

Well, apparently she's hard up enough for cash to advertise an Italian soft drink called Fornarnia which is clearly a hybrid of fornicating and the magical world of Narnia. THE RESULT, ladies and gentlemen, looks a little something like this:



L to the motherfucking OL.

If I could've held you, I would've held you



195. Orange Juice - "Rip It Up" (Polydor, 1983)

This weekend, like many that have come before it, was a sort of destruction of self through booze and sloth. This is the song I choose today to bring in another new week and another new self. Get your groove on, cats and kittens.


Friday, March 20, 2009

Look at your watch now.



196. Gwen Stefani - "What You Waiting For (Jacques Lu Cont's TWD Mix)" (Interscope Records, 2004)

There was a time, kids, when your ancestors would dance to this, dance to it nonstop. They would sweat out its eight minutes, set their watches to its rhythm, and swoon to the synths that the great Jacques Lu Cont nee Stuart Price layered underneath Gwen's already dramatic song. It provokes a good amount of nostalgia now, but then again I think it did the moment I first heard it.

(of course, the youtube I found is a Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts fan video)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

America's Next Top Model Power Rankings Are Here!

What do I love more than sports and competition reality shows? A combination of the two. That's why, for the first time on the internet as far as I know:


For anyone not familiar with the concept of power rankings (click here for an NBA example), they're a ranking of teams in sports that order teams not just by overall record, but by how good they're playing right now. We here at YMD are gon' try to apply the same concept to our favorite Reality Model Competition (take that Bravo) and, Tyra willing, we won't do too bad at it. It's going to be kind of a crapshoot until we get some more data, but let's do it anyways. Hit we with the format, internet!

#. Model Name (rankings in last few episodes, excluding the clusterfuck that is the first hour of the premiere, bold for bottom 2, italics for winner of the reward challenge), [average ranking overall]

1. Celia - (5, 2, 5) [4]
It's hard to give it to someone who hasn't won a challenge yet, but with early favorite Teyonna taking a picture that was mediocre at best, we're gonna take Celia, who hasn't taken a bad picture yet and who Paulina actually complimented tonite. She looks kind of a sexy possum, maybe (?). Definitely on the ugly-pretty side, definitely in the way that Tyra likes.

2. Teyona - (3, 1, 8) [4]
Teyona didn't impress this week, but Tyra looooves her face and until this week loved her posing as well. Plus, this week was play-acting as a tourist, so we're not going to count it against her too much. Also, thank God Tyra fixed that Jheri curl.

3. London - (4, 5, 7) [5.33]
Hipster Jesus Freak has been good and interesting all the way through, and prolly would've been higher this week if she hadn't been in a picture with Allison.

4. Fo - (2, 11, 4) [5.66]
Now, I think Fo is the prettiest of all the girls on this cycle, which means almost nothing here, and might cause me to overrate her. But her runway walk this week was mad fierce, and let's remember that her picture last week wasn't actually that bad, she just got slammed because she cried on set about the makeover (which is stupid, I know, but she has seemed more or less together otherwise).

5. Allison - (1, 3, 10) [4.66]
Can't drop her too far because of how great she was in those first two challenges, but she of the gigantic eyes looked so lost and scared this week that I briefly worried for her safety. Too early to tell, as with everyone, but if she doesn't step it way up dis week she dropping maaaad far down this list. Also, she looks soo much worse with her blonde hair and, again, the 4chan connection freaks me out.

6. Natalie - (8, 4, 9) [7]
She hasn't done anything super-above average as far as photos yet, but have the judges loved anyone or let anyone get away with as much shit as Natalie this season? First she refuses to get her hair-cut, and it turns out they weren't going to give her one anyways. Then she does a stupid turn on the runway, and wins the challenge anyways? Big thangs if she can actually get a win.

7. Sandra - (12, 8, 1) [7]
Oh, Sandra. I really thought you were going to get your arrogant ass gone in those first two episodes, but now yr a great model all of a sudden? I mean, you've definitely always had the look, but I dunno if I can trust you to keep it up.

8. Aminat - (9, 10, 2) [7]
Yeah, yeah, 2nd best of the episode, whatever. Fo was better in it anyways. Forreal tho, Aminat definitely showed promise this week, but she needs to show us some more before YMD gives her a bump. Plus still disappointed from last week that her afro was a weave.

9. Tahlia - (10, 7, 3) [6.66]
Did you guys think that picture was that good this week? The pointing up thing? Yah, I dunno. Tahlia is really pretty and a decent model, but they seem to be setting her up for a storyline like Isis' last year where her main "thing" (in story terms, obviously they both have much more going for them) eventually makes them too self-conscious to perform. Hope I'm wrong, but not that optimistic.

10. Kortnie - (7, 9, 6) [7.33]
Oh, Kortnie, how I wish you spelled your name differently. Do I dislike you for dating your ex-boyfriend (whom I hate. Greg Biffle 4 Life) or cheer for you because yall broke up? Anyways, I don't think you're a very good model so far, and seeing you trying to light yourself (which I do imagine is very hard) was maaad painful. Don't think you're gonna win this one, kiddo.

Word to Miss Jay's bow-ties, we gon get bigger and better next week, tell your friends. Also, who yall got in this?

Kat Krazy Kenley!

(Matty McD on the Photochop skilllllllz)


That's right folks, our favorite Project Runway villain finally did something batshit crazy to get back into the news. But enough about Harvey Weinstein getting the Reader nominated for Best Picture, East Williamsburg's own Kenley Collins is back in the news as well! TMZ reports that Tim Gunn and our ears' worst enemy assaulted her ex-fiance Zak Penley (KENLEY PENLEY?!) this morning with one (1) cat, one (1) laptop, three (3) apples, one (1) door, and an unknown amount of water. She threw a fucking cat at him. A cat. While he was in bed.

Man, Runway is gonna have a hard time coming up with a kontestant krazier than Kenley.

(Because it's never coming back on the air.)

:( :( :( :( :( :( :(

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

And you know we come through to wreck the discotheque!



197. Busta Rhymes - "Woo Hah! Got You All in Check" (Elektra, 1996)

There was about a year after this came out during which Bussa Buss was my favorite rapper in the world. I know we couldn't have seriously expected him to stay the kinda dude who would take off his shoe and show it to the camera to emphasize a lyric (before hastily trying to get it back on) forever, but when Busta kind of calmed down and became the Cheshire Cat of Rap I lost my faith a little. Still love you though, Buss, may you once in a while return to your stomping days.

(the vid starts with some of "Everything Remains Raw", which is also dope)

Monday, March 16, 2009

SWINTON!

As far as I can tell, none of us here at YMD check Go Fug Yourself daily, not because we're not in awe of their brilliance, but rather because, for some reason, it's sooooo much fun to read a week's worth of posts in one long binge. I was going through it today and found this absolutely amazing Swinton-ing. The voters agree. Click and be amazed.

And you kissed me once and then you kissed me some more.



198. The Mountain Goats - "My Favorite Things" (unreleased)

Idolator let us know today that it is John Darnielle's birthday, and as I was going to nerd out hard by posting a not-even-released Mountain Goats song to this countdown at some point, why not today. I heard the Mountain Goats play this the first time I saw them in May of '05, and up until I came into a few more bootlegs of it a few months ago, I thought it was called "John Coltrane". It's funny, yeah, but it also paints such a happy, exciting picture that it transcends any "funny song" tag even John himself might place on it (insert something about how "funny" doesn't necessarily mean "just funny" anyways that I'm sure I've written before). To really nerd out on it, here are a few versions: the clearest one I have (from 2002 in San Fran) and my favorite in terms of John's singing (from Chicago in, I think, 1997). Plus there's a YouTube from this year which gives me some hope that we might get John to play this when we see the MGs at the end of this month.



Tell my dear old mother that I'll see her by and by



199. James J. McCool - "Coming Home to Die" (???, between 1890 and 1902)

The folks at the University of California, Santa Barbara, are doing God's work in not only maintaining their collection of turn of the century cylinder recordings, but digitizing them for all across the world to hear. My fav of the fraction that I've heard so far is this little ditty by James McCool. It's about a wounded soldier setting off for home. But while you form a picture of the main character in your head, consider that this pop song is actually pre-World War I!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Serious Downgrade

I recently just discovered Interview. I know I'm about 30 years late, but I think it rocks. Celebrities interviewed by CELEBRITIES? BRILL. But how do you go from this...

to this...

...to this?!


Come on. I mean if we're ascending in order of greatness, I guess God would be next, but if he's busy or something, idunno, maybe someone whose face upon I do not wish to vomit. All I see in this douchebag's future is a few more HMSs and some Maybelline commercials ("Maybe he's born with it...Maybe it's tattooed on his face!").
Fuck
Off
And
Die.

New York City took me with the tide



200. Climax Blues Band - "Couldn't Get It Right" (Sire, 1976)

So this song is lyrically somewhat downcast. Our hero travels the country coast to coast, unable to find a place where he feels peaceful and not very hopeful that he will find some place soon. But I find it hard to believe, given the chorus melody, that he's not enjoying the trip itself at least a bit. This is one of those great discofied blues-rock jams that a few bands stumbled upon in the 70s and by the last chorus before it starts fading out I've got my bags packed and am ready to hit the road.

If You Seek Writhing and Sideboobs

Someone hasn't yet given Britney the memo that we know she's in shape now and she doesn't have to show up everywhere completely naked for us to get that she know longer has muffin tops. Whoever that person is should be thanked, and perhaps awarded a medal of some sorts. I'd say watch the video for If You Seek Amy now before it gets taken off of YouTube, but then where the hell else would anyone watch it? Who is going to go through and figure out how to edit this for television?

She's done a lot better but let's remember that she's also done a lot worse, so just watch and enjoy.

Get your 2008 movie on



Yo! Some of my very favorite movies of last year came out on DVD this week, so if you didn't listen to either my constant hounding in person or my year-end bullshit on this blog and see them already, get thee to your local Netflixery!

The leader of the pack is my total fav Rachel Getting Married, which is full of wonderful performances and genuine emotion and I encourage you to watch as soon as possible. Synecdoche, NY, Charlie Kaufman's twisty-as-usual ensemble awesomeness makes its way to DVD as well, def repeated viewings on this one. Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-Lucky comes out as well, so if you hadn't seen it you can now be retro-outraged at Sally Hawkins' Oscar snub. Milk is out too, though I feel like most of my friends seen that one. If you haven't, yr a good long way behind and should do so immediately (or after you view the preceding 3 flicks). Last but not least (okay, maybe least in this paragraph, but still pretty great) is Transporter 3, lest you need a Statham fix to hold you over til April 17th.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Dressed pints demon shrinks bread drunk dead drinks



201. Wire - "Kidney Bingos" (Mute Records Ltd., 1988)

After flirting with it for over three minutes of beautiful nonsense (though if anyone wants to find a narrative, please do), Wire reach the sublime simply by singing the words "high" and "low" during the last 40 seconds. The falsetto on "high" doesn't even come until well into the fade out, but the song has made its point by then.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Fuck up the party before it even start



202. The Notorious B.I.G. - "Party & Bullshit" (Uptown Records, 1993)

On this 12th anniversary of the death of Biggie Smalls, he makes his first appearance in our countdown with his first solo release, the undeniably (unless you wanna deny it) bangin' "Party and Bullshit". Not much more to say on this one. Biggie's flow is a force of nature. Click the video for, among other things, a staged fight and Lil' Kim 1993.

The-Dream is like Woo-oooh-oooh

Tomorrow marks the release of YMD fav the-Dream's new record Love vs. Money, and I wrote a little thing about it at Music for Perfect People. It's definitely the best album I've heard so far this year and as Blogger, unlike Wordpress, let's you embed imeem playlists, I'm just gonna go ahead and embed the free stream of the album that Dream himself is streaming on imeem. Give it a shot, it's R&B heat. Cop it here or at your local music retailer (if it hasn't closed down yet).

If we were driving from Albuquerque to Minneapolis, we'd be in Denver



203. Yoko Ono - "Why" (from the Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band album, (Apple Records, 1970)

A momentous occasion! We're 1/3 of the way through this silly countdown, honestly much further than I expected to get, and it makes me happy to say that for this milestone science has chosen a song near and dear to my cold, black (jk, it's warm and bloody) heart, the first track from Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band LP, which is just such a wonderful little slab of funk (ever wonder why funk comes in slabs?) that you can tap your toes and swivel your hips to. The rhythm section of Klaus Voorman and Ringo Starr are right up front in the mix here, and they make it boogie something wonderful. Combine that with Yoko's shrieks and John's feedbacky guitar noodling and abracadabra! Look! It's no-wave! This is really a treat though, it's expansive and funky and funny and charming and wonderful. I don't want no Yoko-haters, a Yoko-hater is a guy/girl who can't get no love from me.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Put your hand on the goddamn radio

If you haven't downloaded the mix from the post below this one, well, I'm pretty sure it singlehandedly willed the weather in NYC to actually be Springy. Not sayin' just sayin'. Anyways, here we go.



204. the Mountain Goats - "Pure Milk" (from the Hot Garden Stomp album, Shrimper Records, 1993)

There's tape hiss, booze, violent fantasy, less the wholesome characters; a lot of things the Mountain Goats cover often and well. And then there's "put your hand on the god damn radio", which I think is one of the best hooks John Darnielle's ever written and gets stuck in my head all the time.

I think of hooks more as musical than lyrical things, usually, but the Mountain Goats are a great example of a band that uses its lyrics (in addition to the music, obviously) to get songs stuck in your head. I don't think there's all that much in the melody of the way John sings "put your hand on the goddamn radio" that makes it a great pop hook, but the phrase in the context of the song (and in itself, really) for some reason seems to me so goddamn cool that I find myself singing it in my head and out loud often. Catchy lyrics, I guess.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Yes More Spring!



Spring is on the way, oh yes. And in honor of rebirth I recorded a mix this morning, the first time I've mixed anything since last spring, pretty much. It's kind of all over the place and the rust might show in a few spots, but I think it's pretty fun. It's just over an hour. Download and enjoy on your iPods, computers, and car stereos. To be played loud with the bass up!

Yes More Spring! Mix (Mediafire link):
Rufus Wainright - "Tiergarten (Supermayer Remix)" (Polydor, 2007)
Gui Boratto - "Take My Breath Away" (Kompakt, 2009)
Salvatore Freda & Volta - "Bombolone" (liebe*detail, 2008)
The Artist (Formerly Known As Prince) - "Beautiful" (NPG, 1994)
Geeneus and DJ Zinc - "Emotions (ft. Nikki)" (Rinse, 2008)
Sis - "Nesrib" (Cécille Records, 2008)
The Juan Maclean - "One Day" (DFA, 2009)
Green Velvet - "Shake and Pop" (Relief Records, 2006)
the Mole - "Baby You're the One" (Wagon Repair, 2008)
Son of Raw - "A Black Man in Space" (Objektivity, 2007)
Henrik Schwarz / Âme / Dixon - "D.P.O.M.B. (Version 2)" (Innervisions, 2008)

Holler!

Aeroplane!

I was just thinking the other day about how much I want Aeroplane to visit NYC as soon as possible, and today I notice on this Get Rad news letter, that they're going to be playing Fixed at Studio B with JG Wilkes from Optimo on May 8th. I am super geeked.

You might remember Aeroplane's edit of "God Only Knows" from our post on it a few months ago, or their remix of Coyote's "Too Hard" from even earlier. I love them a lot and hope some of yall consider coming to Studio B for what should be a great Brooklyn time.

Here are two more Aeroplane treats: an awesome remix of Friendly Fires' "Paris", in which they replace the indie band's kinda annoying vocals with those of Au Revoir Simone and the radio edit of their awesome Kathy Diamond-featuring single from last year, "Whispers".





Big ups to the boys of Fixed, they've got some awesome acts booked in the following weeks, including Gui Boratto, Ellen Allien, Michael Mayer, and Superpitcher. Show support!

French Autobahn Techno/Electro



205. Vitalic - "La Rock 01" (from the Poney EP, International Deejay Gigolo Records, 2001)

It's overwhelming, it is. Vitalic is very good at simulating the feeling of speed, and I can't imagine hearing this in a club and not just turning into a crazy robot hummingbird of some sort. It's relentless, except for that one bit where it relents, but even then you know for a fact that he's about to turn it back up at any second and you better be prepared. Later, on the OK Cowboy album, Vitalic would sandwich "La Rock 01" between two mostly schaffel (4/4 with triplets) tracks and, in retrospect, that might have made it both stand out even more and given us a much needed breath after it.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Top Model Double Dactyl



Merrybo, Haribo,
Allison won the first
ep of the year, her eyes:
out of control.

Even more scary, though,
super-surprisingly,
girl is a 4chan meme,
God help our souls.

Keep lyin' for you



206. Sade - "The Sweetest Taboo" (Epic, 1985)
207. Sade - "No Ordinary Love" (Epic, 1992)


One of the few positive memories I have of the smooth jazz station my parents used to put on in the car (at this point, anyways, god knows when the reevaluation of that stuff will happen) is Sade, which, I had no clue at the time, is a band, not just one beautiful, deep voiced singer.

The lyrics of "the Sweetest Taboo" are so self-reflexive that it's distracting. While Sade (the band) maybe weren't Quiet Storm R&B proper, they were close enough, at least in texture (soothing) and function (romantic), the repetition of "it's a quiet storm" states their ode to the genre very explicitly. Then there's the title. Sade (the singer) is singing to a man, true, but the word taboo is just a perfect coincidence, considering this band featuring "exotic" rhythms, fronted by an "exotic" beauty, and consumed, at least in retrospect, by millions of upper middle class white folk with slightly "exotic" taste. Still, the song is fucking great. It's incredibly catchy, the rhythm is fun, and Sade has a wonderful voice. I put it on all the time.

"No Ordinary Love" is a slightly different affair, in that it might be one of the most suffocatingly dark songs ever to grace VH1. Downright dirgy, it is. No smooth jazz saxophones, and even the corny guitar contributes to the sense of dread. I'd hope this is "no ordinary love," Sade, cause, man, it's bleak. But you can't call me someone who doesn't love a good, long, repetitive dirge once in a while, so here we go.

(The video for "No Ordinary Love" is the shorter radio edit, but it's damn near iconic, and therefore included for your viewing pleasure, along with a YouTube of the full song, inexplicably matched with a montage of "Liason", which, after a surprising amount of research, I have determined is General Hospital Fans' name for the relationship between the characters Liz & Jason. Hilarious.)



Mama, here comes midnight with the dead moon in its jaws



208. Songs: Ohia - "the Farewell Transmission" (from the Magnolia Electric Co. album, Secretly Canadian, 2003)

For those waiting for some sprawling country-rock on this countdown, against all odds, somehow you've got it. In context and title, this song is a good gag in that it is a) the first song on an album and b) the first song on the last album by Jason Molina as Songs: Ohia, before he starts a project named after the title of the last Songs: Ohia album. So that's pretty funny.

As for the song itself, I actually haven't been that into Molina's work, but he kills it on this one. The music strikes, for me, the perfect balance between melancholy and triumph that a Midwestern boy such myself feels while saying goodbye to the love of his life, leaving his small town, and driving off into the uncertain night with only $30, the clothes on his back, and his beat-up Cadillac (trust me, I've done this several times). But unlike most such narratives, which are rather selfish, solipsistic you could even say if you said those types of things, this one gets a few "we"s in there and Molina sings, "we will be gone, but not forever." Ya hear that friends? (We might be back, but I assure you, our return will cause problems).

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Colbert will go on

Set your DVRs (or, if yr still in the stone age, your memories). Carl Wilson from Zoilus is gonna be on Colbert tonight to discuss his 33 1/3 book, Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste. I confess that I got about 3/4ths of the way through the (so far, awesome) book before I lost it somewhere and haven't gotten around to picking up a new copy (or finishing it at Barnes & Noble), but I'm def looking forward to seeing what Carl can get outta Stephen and vice-versa. I'm sure James Franco is as well.

Britney Tour Preview: Tassels and Standing Splits



(via Eppy, via Buzzfeed)

I WANT TO GO TO THERE

My back is achin'....



209. Truth Hurts - "Addictive" (Aftermath, 2002)

I'm about to turn 25. I feel totally comfortable making fun of what a loser I was when I was 13. I wore a backwards hat for two years (only taking it off at the behest of my poor father at family functions) and bought the Hanson CD. I'm fine mocking the fact that for several later teenage years, I thought that Sublime and Blink 182 would always be two of my favorite bands. But it seems weird making fun of your 18 year old self, because although it was almost seven years ago, I was...18, a legal adult. But let's be serious, I was an idiot. Although my taste for stoner rock and "underground" hip-hop (Jedi Mind Tricks 4-LYFE!) was waning, to say the least, I pretended to like these bands more than the ones I was listening to on my bright red Sony Discman. I grew up listening to the B-52's, but considered them waaay to childish and frankly bizarre to like openly, I loved listening to Top 40 pop tunes, but thought if I admitted to it, I'd be shunned by my more "alternative" friends (who as it turned out either also shared my secret, or sucked) and I began to like harsher rap, but of course played it off as more of a joke.

I'm not saying I'm the bees knees now or anything, but I'll proudly own up to buying the last Britney record.

I loved this song since the first five seconds of the first time I heard it. Yes, the stolen Indian hook isn't the most original idea you've ever heard, but it worked on me then and it still does it for me seven years later. It took me a couple of years and some awesome folks I met at college (including your loveable coeditor, and the people that run this fucking awesome newspaper), but I proudly present to anyone that has never heard its greatness "Addictive":



"Just me and you high off sex I'm twisted/You OG'd and you OD addicted." BRILL.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Up to 11: It's March!

It's a new month somehow, and I'm gonna go put up 11 new songs on the sidebar to your right for your listening pleasure. New hotness. Real Talk. (If you want one last sweet listen [or several] to the Winter edition of Up to 11, it's right here)

- We start off with my favorite jam from the Juan Maclean's long-awaited the Future Will Come LP, out on DFA next month. The album is super fun and bookended by his two awesome singles from last year, but the (non-"Happy House") highlight is "One Day", which is an awesome, poppy boy-girl house song that explodes into an awesome euphoric climax in the last of its four minutes. The only thing wrong with it is that the climax doesn't last like 4 more minutes. Gimme remixes.

- Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back and messing around with all kinds of new wave electronic textures, which I kind of thought was a bad idea. But what do I know, cuz while I don't love this as much as their rawk debut, it's eons better than the last one so far. I give you the lead single, "Zero", which just goes off into the stratosphere.

- Three rap songs in a row next, with some nice surprises. Ya boy Souljaboytellem first, and this ain't gonna start no dance craze. It's some ultra-minimal grime-y shit with the kid spitting fast and out of breath. Fun. Then the highlight of Weezy's Hottest Nigga Under the Sun mixtape, the Pharell duet "Yes". Pharell's Weezy impression is suspect, but the beat is absolute fire, I think, def one of my best things Pharell's done in a long time. Finally, Cam'ron is back with, of all things, an ode to the Midwest. The beat is by RI's AraabMuzik and is some real widescreen yet grimy shit. Cam still got nonsense charisma, this is heat.

- Back to Brooklyn for These Are Powers and "Little Birds", a booming ride through what I can only assume is some kind of Guillermo Del Toro filmed carnival. I have to remember to bring this CD back next time I go to Chicago, I wanna hear it in the car with the bass up.

- The lone R&B song this week is already a huge hit, but I've been playing it so much I might as well. Of course, it's the Ron Howard approved "Blame It", from Jamie Foxx and T-Pain. I haven't really thrown/been to a big party since I started jamming this, but I'm sure it will be glorious.

- Some dance music towards the end. Still catching up to 2008 of course, here with Matias Aguayo's "Walter Neff" on Kompakt, fun, sexy pop-techno as the Chilean tends to offer. Super catchy non-verbal vocal hook at 2:15. I'm always in favor of that. Then some new New York house, courtesy of Terre Thaemlitz aka DJ Sprinkles. It comes from Midtown 120 Blues, a house album that takes great care to explicitly place itself in a specific historical context and explore what that means, through the music but also through spoken word bits and titles, such as "House Music is Controllable Desire You Can Own". Then some Italo by way of sometimes disco, sometimes prog group Zombi. This is definitely their disco side, and it's as hard hitting, dramatic, and expansive as you'd expect form a disco outfit who love Dario Argento soundtrackers Goblin as much as Zombi do.

- We close with a track that you simply must hear. Even if "deep house" isn't exactly a phrase that makes you teem with anticipation, this is definitely going to be one of the truly special tracks of 2009. It's "Rushing to Paradise" by House of House and it's absolutely epic, over-the-top, maximalist, and spectacular. It's about six minutes of deep, piano-laced build until a sweet break down and a peak (complete with vocals) that should have the kids going crazy. Must hear out.

Thoughts? Ideas? What new shit are yall pumping in March?(/commentbait)

This is how I feel


210. Natalie Imbruglia - "Torn" (RCA, 1997)

I wish I was better at picking out what makes these kinds of pop songs work musically. In general that's much more important to me than lyrics, so while I might write about lyrics in depth more often than music, it's largely because I have a B.A. in English, and was trained to write about words. This song, I mean, the lyrics are fine, they get the job done, especially the great "and that's what's going o-on!", but the real trick for me is whatever the chord change that goes from the verse to the pre-chorus is, whatever it is that happens on the first syllable of "nothing" in "there's nothing where he used to lie." That chord change right there is emotions, folks.


Double Dactylovebus


(cap jacked from dlisted)

Munckerdot, skunkerdot
Kelsey the drunkard got
so damn fucked up she just
laid on a bump.

Bret didn't speak of her
complimentarily,
"Her name's not Chelsea?" They
won't even hump.

Quote of the Day:



"Why do people want to be on My Face?" -Barbara Walters on the mysteries of social networking, or complaining about how bitches always trying to get up on her junk.

You be the judge.

(Via Dlisted)

Monday, March 2, 2009

FICTION

I don't watch The City for realism, alright? I know when shit's fake. It's scripted, they have reshoots all the time, and none of it looks real in the slightest. I mean...it's real pretty, and I do love my some Whitney Port, but it makes The Hills look like an Edward Hopper painting (get it? Realism? Nevermind). But I'm confused...was this week's episode an actual admission that this show is just a savory bite of pop fiction, and not based at all on real life?

On tonight's episode Whitney (yaaaay) is upset because Olivia (booooo) takes credit for picking out Jessica Alba's Diane von Furstenberg outfit for the March 2009 cover of Elle. Whitney, because she is spineless albeit very leggy, does not confront Olivia about this, but quietly weeps into her hands at a release party. This is the the source of her troubles (thanks, iPhone!):



But when the episode ended, my friend Sarah reached beside her, and pulled out this:



Now, I was able to find this cover on the interwebs, but I cannot find an explanation for why it was changed, and why there are no DVF clothes within the magazine. Was this made just for the purposes of the show? Or maybe the Whitney/Olivia controversy was so powerful, so mind blowing, so devastating to the international fashion community, that Elle decided to switch covers.

We may never know.

Not No Line on the Horizon

Apparently a bunch of ILXors decided to record their own version of the new U2 album, based solely on the tracklist without having heard any of it. The idea is amazing and the results are pretty great as well. Stream it here or go find download links in the thread here. Bravo.

When the night falls


211. Usher - "Love in This Club (ft. Young Jeezy)" (LaFace Records, 2008)
212. Whitney Houston - "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (Arista, 1987)
213. Ne-Yo - "Single" (from the Year of the Gentleman album, Island Def Jam, 2008)


OK, so these songs are all about different takes on what is essentially the same thing, dancing or wanting to dance with someone in the club. Usher's is kind of the odd song out here, and might actually be better grouped with Next's "Too Close", but seeing as it's produced by Polow da Don, who also does "Single", let's do it too. Usher has tunnel vision here. He knows what he wants, and that is to make love to you in this club right now. The slow grindin' to Polow's quite ecstatic beat makes the slow dance, for Ursh, purely erotic. For me, this song is completely and utterly tied to my last semester of college and will therefore always hold a special part in my heart, not least because of the fact that a girl once pointed out that my name can be sung during the "watching, watching" part, but I feel like I've gone over all that before, so let's get to the interesting part of the post.

That Ne-Yo is more of a gentleman than Usher should hardly be surprising, but for me the wonderful "Single", freed on Year of the Gentleman from the Joey McIntire/Donnie Wahlberg warbling present on the NKotB version, has grown in esteem as, on my iPod, it has taken a position as a sort of answer record to Whitney Houston's great "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". The two songs are very different from each other musically, Whitney's all synth exuberance, while Ne-Yo's a slow burner with an inexplicable and awesome pounding bass drum. But lyrically, they're very much a good pair. In fact, Whitney's character, a lonely girl unable to find a suitable mate and looking for a dance, seems exactly like the character that Ne-Yo is singing to.

The difference between what Whitney is asking for and what Ne-Yo wants to deliver seems to be commitment. She's looking for "a man who'll take a chance/ On a love that burns hot enough to last" and, sadly, that's not quite what he's offering. See, "Single" is not, like many R&B songs, an offer of everlasting love, but rather a hymn to the possibility of the single dance, the possibility that, for the length of one song, the relationship between the dancers, whether or not it leads to them seeing each other again, is something special. Even if it doesn't lead to a relationship, for that moment you are dancing with somebody who loves you.





Pop Shit

A quick reminder that I've got a new column up at Music For Perfect People. This week it's about R Kelly's sense of humor. Good times.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

I belong to the _____ generation


214. Richard Hell and the Voidoids - "Blank Generation" (Sire, 1977)

There's Richard Hell's swagger, and there's the killer riff, and there's the generational angst, but let's be serious. The reason this is here is because the way he says "blank" during the first line of the chorus and then leaves a blank space in the second line is one of the better gags in rock and roll history. Makes me smile everytime.

I Watch Movies while drinking

America (dir. Yves Simoneau, USA, 2009, watched on Lifetime Television)
While nowhere near as glorious as Rosie O'Donnell's last Lifetime outing, America provided some good times, mostly cuz we were drinking every time the word/name America was uttered. This was a bout a dude named America in a home for wayward kids or something that has dark, dark secrets in his past. It's the kind of movie where they pass out books to the kids and the main character, a disturbed loner, gets The Catcher in the Rye. It actually got kind of intense and disturbing towards the end, to the point that we were all more or less silent for like 8 minutes there, but then it happily came back to suck by spending the last 2 minutes sucking its own dick. Or maybe Rosie O'Donnell's dick. I dunno, good times.

Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (the Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)(dir. Luis Buñuel, France, 1972, 102 min., watched on DVD)
Yaaaaay! This was so much fun. Lotsa other Buñuel immediately added to the queue. Rich people do kinda suck, Luis, I agree, hahaha. There's enough absurdity here to fill a whole waffle truck.