Keytar Hero

I don't know who started this whole retro-synth trend in hip hop production, but when I first heard Snoop Dogg's new song I was totally horrified. It's the aural equivalent of a hot pink Members Only jacket, and picturing Snoop wearing said jacket made me sad. Then I saw the video, and I will never doubt Mr. Broadus's choices again. I just wish this was in my size.

Santerror. Saaantasm.

I hope you enjoy this truly remarkable collection as much as I did. That look on the right, Christ, I'm not sure I've ever been that scared of anything in my life.

Vince Guaraldi Trio - Skating

And I'm off!

GhostproofBlanket is out of the office until January 2nd.

me: i personally plan to spend a few days just hermiting it up in my house. maxing. relaxing.

Rawg: yeah, i definitely need some serious me time too

when you say hermitting up, you mean eating pizza and watching porn, right?

me: ohmigod yes!!

i'm going to fold over an entire pizza and eat it like a single slice, while watching the finest porn money can buy.

that's what Christmas means, to me.

Only Journey and Killa Cam can capture how amped I feel right now:
Cam'ron - Just Us

If you're holdin up the wall then you're missin the point

You know what I just can't understand (Andy Rooney voice)? People who are dead from the waist down. No dancing, just stock-still-standing. New York concert crowds are the worst offenders; I've been to too many shows where I've scanned the crowd and wondered whether people are even enjoying themselves. What's the problem? It's good for your brain! It makes you more attractive to others! So dance it out. Crank dat soldjahboy. It's peanut butter jelly time peanut butter jelly time, with ice cream and cake and cake, chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side.

The Rapture - Wooh Alright Yeah! (Scottie B remix)

Rod Lee - Dance My Pain Away

Cat Stevens - Come On and Dance

Wait...what?

How did I never know that Collie Buddz is white? And also really, really hot? He's like Kevin Federline's sexy Bermudian cousin or something. Basically my whole life (since around last July) has been a lie. My foundations haven't been this shaken since I found out Shaggy grew up in Brooklyn.

Collie Buddz - Wild Out

Everyday is B'Day

When I have a busy workday, I listen to the same two albums like clockwork: Fugazi's "The Argument" in the morning and Beyonce's "B'Day" after lunch. Her first album only had four good songs and I pretty much sold it right away. "B'Day," on the other hand, is a mothereffing masterpiece — second only to Destiny's Child's "The Writing's On the Wall" as my favorite work in Beyonce's oeuvre.

If for some twisted reason you don't already love B, you will after watching FourFour's highlight reel of her completely ba-nay-nays concert DVD. Go, go now. I'll wait.
See? She's magic. She wails and flails and and kills it and puts her back into it and sometimes she just plain falls down. You can catch me at her next MSG show, hysterically crying, mouthing all the lyrics and clamoring for her upper-lip schweat soaked towel.

'Upgrade U' is perfection despite "I can do for you what Martin did for the people." She means Martin Lawrence! Healing the world with laffs!
Beyonce - Upgrade U
Beyonce - Krazy in Luv (Rockwilder rmx)

THIS is what color my parachute is.

Dear Sirs,
I would like to express my interest in the position of abandoned baby hedgehog cast-wrapper. Until today I thought my #1 pipe-dream job was 'baby masseuse', but I was wrong, as wrong as Mother Nature is for slapping the caterpillars out of these spiky widdle babies' tiny hungry mouths.

I have so much love/brightly colored gauze to give,
Ghostproof Blanket

R.I.P. Pimp C
Update: Outkast kinda owns this song but Pimp C and Bun B are up for a Grammy now:
UGK feat. Outkast - International Player's Anthem
Jay Z feat. UGK - Big Pimpin
36 Mafia and UGK - Sippin' On Syrup

Cumbia!

I'm too busy to post anything today, so instead anyone who shares my obsession with all manner of Latin American music should go download Diplo's latest Mad Decent podcast (just type "Mad Decent" into the Itunes store, it's free). Cumbia's an old folk dance and its music has been given a big revival in the South American club scene...since he mentions Samim's "Heater" in the podcast description I'm just gonna post this remix real quick. I love me some Pitbull, it's Monday, bleep blorp.

Samim/Pitbull - Heater (Claude VonStroke Remix)/Ay Chico (Lengua Afuera)

Herrrvé

I wasn't sure how I felt about Hervé — aka Voodoo Chilli/Count of Monte Cristal/one half of Dead Soul Brothers — for a long time, but that might have had more to do with my own resistance to the rave-nostalgia trend. Also, the kids call what he's doing "fidget house," which is a dumb name and isn't it just old fashioned tech house with a dash of acid 303 action? Between this Counterfeet EP teaser and his set on Sinden's radio show in which he played House Crew's "Keep the Fire Burning" which I hadn't heard in easily 10 years, I'm officially a fan. Late to the party, as per yooge.

Hervé - Counterfeet EP teaser
Hervé - Cheap Thrills
Roisin Murphy - Overpowered (Hervé and Roisin in the Secret Garden Mix)
*** GPB favorite:
Larry Tee + Princess Superstar - Work It Out (Hervé Goes Low Mix)

And again

I've worked about 60 hours this week and slept 20. Am I going crazy because I'm listening to this song on repeat or am I listening to this song on repeat because I'm going crazy? Either way, I am obsessed.
Via KEXP blog:
Feral Children - Jaundice Giraffe
(myspace)

Superman that Ho

I had wicked insomnia last night, and in the time before I decided to get up I tried to "count sheep" by thinking of rappers with comic-book names. I came up with: Dr. Octagon, Jean Grae, Juggaknots, Ghostface (Tony Stark), Method Man (Johnny Blaze), Green Lantern (d.j. but still counts), MF Doom, David Banner (it's Bruce in the comic but still counts)....there must be tons more but my brain was addled. I guess I'd be Jessica Jones.
Akrobatik - Inhuman Capabilities
Jay-Z - Blue Magic (Green Lantern remix)
Ghostface Killah - Ghost Deini

Free Rice!

FreeRice.com is my new favorite thing, and if you're a word-nerd it will be yours too. A fellow editor is always sending me vocab quizzes (a relaxing and totally justifiable form of procrastination) and this one uses its ad partners to donate ten grains of rice through the U.N. for each answer you get right. I got 360 grains in four minutes so if I do it everyday I might accrue a whole bag. It's totally addictive. Seriously, check it out! Jeffrey Sachs would want you to...and if you don't know who that is, go to Youtube right now, listen to him talk, and let him get you excited and hopeful about ending world hunger. Seriously, that's a money-back guarantee, he is amazing. Ok, serious-ish time over hey look it's 50 ANIMALS IN CASTS!!!

Cranky Monday

My weekend involved a soup kitchen, a nursing home, and catch-up work. The days were high on service and low on fun and I'm hating this bleak week already. Thin Lizzy's Jailbreak is barely carrying me through today. "Like Thin Lizzy" is the clue I use most often for IRISH. Sadly, that is not the nerdiest thing I have said today.

Thin Lizzy - Running Back

Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back in Town

My favorite T.L.-flavored Ween song:
Ween - Gabrielle

Mind Meld

So far our power is limited to group-thinking 90s/early 00s top 40, but give it time.

Monie Love - It's A Shame

Saudade

Today I'm thinking about someone I haven't seen in years, and feel in my bones that I will never see again. He used to say, "when you tie up all of your loose threads in life, there's no reason to be on Earth anymore and death comes for you." I always thought that this was less folksy superstition and more of a good excuse to hold complicated relationships at arm's length, but he seemed to really believe it. We ended things, and then slapped a messy question mark on things, and then came total radio silence. And now, for the last year or so I've had the same— or rather permutations of— the same dream in which we run into each other at some random bar, the people I'm with all bow out and we sit down to tie up all those loose threads. Every 40 days or so my mind travels down this well worn track, trying to self-correct through repetition, and apparently there's something I haven't arrived at yet because it happened again last night. The joke, though, is that I don't believe there's ever such a thing as closure really, and our time together was alternately the happiest and most miserable I've ever experienced; if my dream ever played out in real life we'd probably either fight or have some sort of equally unsatisfying exchange. And yet.

The Portuguese word "saudade" is one of those terms that, like "Schadenfreude" in German, has no direct English equivalent. As an inveterate obsessive I've long been in love with the concept, though I still struggle to the get the exact meaning right. The best definition I can find is:

a feeling of longing for something that one is fond of, which is gone, but might return in a distant future. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return....Saudade is different than nostalgia (the English word, that is). In nostalgia, one has a mixed happy and sad feeling, a memory of happiness but a sadness for its impossible return and sole existence in the past. Saudade is like nostalgia but with the hope that what is being longed for might return, even if that return is unlikely or so distant in the future to be almost of no consequence to the present. One might make a strong analogy with nostalgia as a feeling one has for a loved one who has died and saudade as a feeling one has for a loved one who has disappeared or is simply currently absent. Nostalgia is located in the past and is somewhat conformist while saudade is very present, anguishing, anxious and extends into the future.

One of the things I find so beautiful about saudade is that not only does it perfectly encapsulate this certain kind of wistfulness, by giving it a name it celebrates it as something of value. It doesn't dismiss it as useless wallowing, it acknowledges that some people leave a bigger fingerprint on you than others, and that's just part of our lived experience: That happened, I knew you, we were there.

Hello Stranger - We Used to Talk
Au Revoir Simone - Stay Golden
Old 97's - Adelaide
Bjork - I Miss You (Sunshine Mix)
Mirah - Don't Die In Me

It's so cold and dark where I am

You know, if I could do it all again, I would have worn pants today.

Click here for a depressing and almost surreal tale of suburban malice that is of particular interest to anyone who was once a moody 13-year-old girl with no friends (ahem). Also, another shining example of Lets Not All Have Kids, because some people just shouldn't be allowed.

Clarence Carter - Backstabbers

Hometown Boy Makes Good

This past July, on my way to a party at St. Mark's Church thrown by delightful spazz Brendan Fowler, I ran into a fellow tablemate from the freaks-and-geeks side of our high school cafeteria, Erik (second from right). I hadn't seen him in four years, and he told me his band had been signed and they were headlining the St. Mark's benefit. I left before they came on, because I am a jerk, and I never checked the Virgins out until I heard them last Wednesday...on "Gossip Girl"! They also did a tour opening for that band Jet. They're officially kind of a big deal. Yaaay Erik!
This song is the hottness:
The Virgins - One Week of Danger (myspace)

<3

Klaas - I Love You (Van She Tech rmx)

Either Love Me Or Leave Me Alone

My alma mater was a bastion of all things P.C., womyn-centric, anti-hegemonic, vegan and gluten-free, the sort of place where leaving the cafeteria you'd have to step over the protesters dressed like Native Americans lying prostrate covered in fake blood and then wind your way through thirty girls and gay dudes doing free-movement improvisation on the lawn. Maybe we were burnt out on Naomi Wolf, or maybe college girls are college girls are college girls, but at night we'd all put our politics aside and drunkenly sing along to the most misogynistic lyrics hip hop has to offer. When I was 16, "Ain't No Fun" enraged me; today I absentmindedly mouth the words while I'm doing work. I'm essentially inured to the sexist aspect and all of its ramifications, which is why it's so weird that while listening to good ol' Brand Nubian the other day I found myself bristling at what Grand Puba was saying. He sits on a high horse in general, sure (see: "All for One" etc.), but how many songs do you really need taking women to task for sluttin it up?

Many, the answer is many songs. When Devin the Dude says "You can give me some head but keep your breakfast in bed/ I'd rather spend my morning diggin through some records instead" I'm like cool, thanks for laying it out. But Sadat's all "Your pussy can't see these lips, I keep my tongue in my mouth/cause I can't see down South," and I'm sorry but it seems like you hate women. It's akin to the whole, give me a douchey open-book fratboy over a spindly art-fag who claims he's a feminist because: Red Flag, you know? I'm always gonna bump Brand Nu though. I can't resist an Edie Brickell sample, much less a Groove Theory sample I mean that's just scientific fact.

Sadat X - The Lump Lump (Nubian Mix)

Brand Nubian - Slow Down

Brand Nubian - Love Me Or Leave Me Alone

What, no bottles/models Venn diagram?

Rap represented in mathematical charts and graphs

90% of these are pure gold. Thanks, Roger!
This first song is for Sue 'cause she always has five on it:
Luniz - I Got 5 On It
David Banner vs 50 Cent - Disco Play (Siik remix)

Delta 5 - Mind Your Own Business

Also, this is what I'm the most excited about today. Bacon and coconut milk is the new peanut butter & jelly.

Friday Funtime

Double dose!
Nice and Smooth - Sometimes I Rhyme Slow

Gang Starr feat. Nice and Smooth - Just to Get a Rep

"I am good-natured and provide satisfaction":
Best PSA ever.

Oh, to be the filling in that sandwich.

Michael Jackson - Human Nature

SWV - Right Here (Human Nature Mix)

Nas - It Ain't Hard to Tell

Philadelphia Fun Factory

This weekend was all about purple jumpsuits, band-aid pasties, no borders no boundaries, valet parking, and straight class no-hobo thrift store glamour. Well done, ladies.
Oh also, Jenny made me give Kid Sister another chance. Warming!

Kid Sister - Southside
Lil Wayne - Mr. Postman
Justice -Phantom

I Be On That Kryptonite

A few years ago, Chuck Klosterman wrote a piece for Esquire describing the difference between an archenemy and a nemesis, and why it's kind of great to have either one. While virtually everything else I've ever read by him makes me annoyed ("Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" is like being cornered at a party by some windbag who won't let you get a word in edgewise and still tries to divine some sort of deep significance from the pop-culture bath that Baumbauch/Smith/Tarantino/Linklater sucked dry for movie scripts in the 90s), this article really spoke to me. While I have more than my fair share of soured friendships, I would love to know that someone is sweating me to the point of fist-shaking vengeance. At the very least, I'd settle for a nemesis that could be the target of my finely honed yet sadly underused across-the-room withering stares. Any takers?

Yo Majesty - Kryptonite Pussy (UMYO remix)
Purple Ribbon All-Stars feat. Big Boi - Kryptonite
Girl Talk - Bounce That

Happy 'Weener

This video makes me want to re-watch "Phantasm", "Fright Night" and "Return of the Living Dead", which has one of my favorite monsters ever, Tar Man ("Braaaains!"). Fun fact about "Fright Night" costar Stephen Geoffreys, whose squeaky-voiced Evil Ed character I was obsessed with as a kid: He has since made the transition into an entirely different genre of film making. Please check out his oeuvre; do you think Netflix has "Latin Crotch Rockets" or "Halfway House Hunks"?

Discarded Halloween Costume Ideas

1. hobo
2. hobo ghost
3. sexy hobo ghost
4.












Monster Movie - Ooby

Friday Funtime

Thank you to all of my awesome, funny, devastatingly attractive friends for the best birthday I've had in a really long time. Yaaay us!

Hey, what ever happened to Nelly? I don't miss him or anything, I'm just curious.

Jagged Edge ft. Nelly - Where the Party At (remix)
Aaliyah ft. Timbaland - We Need a Resolution

Music fer broodin' to.

I love this first song, and Annie Clark's voice, despite her membership in stuff-of-my-nightmares Polyphonic Spree. This is the standout on her album for me, but fans of Feist-y preciousness and Kate-Bush-quirk should definitely check it out.
Put a sweater on, because it's fall, finally.

St. Vincent - Human Racing
Frank Black - Lone Child
Holopaw - Igloo Glass
The Damnwells - Sleepsinging
Pinback - From Nothing to Nowhere New Pinback is good. I'ma buy it. You should too.
The Epochs - Mouths to Feed
Blonde Redhead - Spring and By Summer Fall

California Uber Alles

"Fire may burn until it reaches ocean, fire chief says."
A Pepperdine professor sounded pretty flip on NPR this morning, stating that the only homes in real jeopardy so far are the millionaires in Malibu's. Wonder if that's still true as of 12:20 PDT.

Dead Kennedys - Forest Fire

"My heart is hardened. It's like one of those shellacked hearts at the Bodies Exhibit...except of course that it isn't from a Chinese vagrant. Hey — are you familiar with a type of glue called Liquid Nails? That's what my heart is like! Very very hard."

Goldenfiddle scanned Madonna's 1985 Playboy spread. More interesting (to me) than this photo documentation of an era with far less stringent pube-maintenance is that the best cover line they could come up with was "Unlike a Virgin...For the Very First Time." Yeeeikes.

Friday Funtime: Five Classic Dancehall Gems, Plus One

I dug in the (CD) crates for this one. Picking one Beenie Man song was too hard, you're getting two.
Beenie Man - Who Am I
Red Rat - Tight Up Skirt
I'm a sucker for Red Rat's borderline-irritating voice and trademark "ohhhhh nooooo"s. I almost posted "Big Man Little Yute" since I love how he sounds there sparring with the way deeper voiced Goofy, but we're doing classics today.
Beenie Man - Let Him Go
Murder She Wrote - Chaka Demus and Pliers
This song reminds me of a girl I used to know; I have a memory of driving with her while she sang along and me thinking about how she herself had a pretty face and bad charactah, as Chaka says.
Bounty Killa - Living Dangerously
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam
By far my favorite version of this standard. The barebones dubby production and the way her voice goes nearly off-key singing "This woman" gets me every time.

This one's for all the Jennies in the house

I'm pretty sure this remix is made in a JeNayNay factory that makes things J would like:

Scanners - Lowlife (LA Riots Remix)

Scanners
LA Riots

Bangers & Cash's Top 10

Spank Rock, Amanda Blank, and Benny Blanco name their Top 10 Songs to Do It To.

My favorite part is towards the end, where chameleonesque Amanda Blank does a flawless PhilaSouthJersia accent. I've long tried imitating the Philly-suburbs faction of my family myself, but I can only get the pronunciation right if I'm reciting the intro to Dead Milkmen's "Bitchin' Camaro" verbatim. Funny you should ask, I've got a car now.

Plastic Little - Crambodia (Pink Skull remix feat. Spank Rock, Amanda Blank, and Ghostface)

Amanda Blanks's other band, Sweatheart:
Sweatheart - Fingerbangin'

Everyday I'm puzzle'in

I think I just sprained my brain.
For the most part, very legitimate complaints aside, I like my job. It uses a lot of my native talents (like useless trivia knowledge) and hobbies (reading the dictionary, studying etymology). But every six weeks or so, I have to do something that is useless to explain here, but basically involves train A/train B word-algebra shit that completely drains my mainframe. I 75% hate it and 25% love it. The love part comes at the end when I've figured out the solution and feel like a genius for a second.

Now I'm running hot and cold and had to jump up and down a lot and listen to T.I. really loud just to remember who I am again (not a genius, not a super-computer). Arughghghhghmpf.

T.I. feat. David Banner - Rubberband Man
T.I. - Why You Wanna

Oh, Blackwater.

As everyone knows, I keep my identity secret so that I may freely express my incendiary political views. I'll just go out on limb here: This Blackwater business is fuuucked uuuuuuup. The one, possible, tiny pearl in this mess is the possibility that coverage of the massacre — and the subsequent civil suits — will shed light on the disturbing fact that "contractors operate in a legal netherworld outside of the military courts martial system and are also outside of Iraqi civil law."

The use of private security firms in places we've carpet-bombed is by no means new, but how many more incidents will it take before people realize the fact that they, more often than not, are completely undermining whatever pathetic shred of a hearts-and-minds effort we've still got going over there?? Given the Army's recruitment crunch among other factors, I realize that civilian contractors may be a necessary evil, but their freedom from the strictures of the law is not.

The Doobie Brothers - Black Water
Metric - The Police and the Private

Sampladelic relics

I mentioned Palms Out Sounds recently, as they make magic, but I'd been so busy loving Remix Sundays that I never even checked out Sample Wednesdays until Molly told me what she'd found on there. Get ready to have your mind freaked. Ew, not like that!

Within five minutes of searching their amazing collection I found three songs I've been looking for forever: Dr. Buzzard's "Sunshowers," Debarge's "I Like It" and Shannon's "Let the Music Play." A++. [Related: Fellow closet freestyle fans need to read RichFourFour's golden recap of last summer's 'Beatstock' in Long Island, for the pics alone]. Don't miss the Daft Punk post, especially.

Friday Funtime

If you don't remember this song I don't even know you anymore. It takes me back to a simpler time of ten years ago, when I weighed the same as I do now yet could somehow put away 80 ounces of malt liquor without falling over.
"Uptown Saturday Night" is one of those albums that didn't make it back in the cross country move, so if you have it, be a buddy and burn it for me?

Camp Lo - Luchini (buy)

Everybody Else Is Doing It

Since "In Rainbows" came out today, and this is the only sort of weather that makes me want to listen to Radiohead: Here's my two favorite songs off the album. Go git the whole thing here.

Radiohead - 15 Step
Radiohead - All I Need

If I could only listen to one Radiohead song ever again it would be:
Radiohead - Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)

Busy, cloudy Tuesday

Trentemøller - Take Me Into Your Skin

Deeeeez Nuts.

If JuJu and Psycho Les knew I was working on a Sunday, I bet they'd come over and convince me to smoke a blunt and hit up a strip club instead. The Beatnuts are my favorite.

From "Take It Or Squeeze It":
The Beatnuts - No Escapin' This
The Beatnuts - Contact

From "A Musical Massacre":
The Beatnuts - Turn It Out
The Beatnuts - Story 2000

Friday Funtime

Pharoahe Monch just released his sophomore album "Desire," just 18 million years (ok 8 years) after "Internal Affairs" came out. To be honest I haven't heard it yet, but hearing about it made me remember how this song still gets me. every. time.

Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says

Since Molly and I were talking about how great PalmsOutSounds is last night, here's a link to couple ESTAW remixes of "Simon Says" they've got.

That Soulja Boy "Crank That" song is about two more plays away from crumbling all of my resolve, and I fear that soon I will actually like it. Don't let the terrible video quality deter you from watching this fantastic montage of people doing the Soulja Boy dance sensation that's sweeping the nation: Crank Dat Soulja Boy MIX!!!

Oh yes, there will be...sorry.

Apparently this goes on every time a "Saw" comes out? I didn't know. I've tuned out everything Saw-related since the first one, with that corny puppet and Danny Glover's weirdly apoplectic acting choices and the awful 'Did I just bee-low your myeeeend?' ending. But good for them, pairing their torture-porn promotion with a little altruism. Let's see if "Hatchet" throws some sort of 9th Ward fundraiser.

Gravediggaz - 2 Cups of Blood

Ian MacKaye Lives!

Posted on my Myspace bulletin board today:
>> Ian Mackaye, lead singer of influential hardcore band Minor Threat as well as Fugazi passed away today in a Baltimore hospital room. Outside a Fugazi show in New Jersey last night, the singer was struck by a car passing by the front of the Ventura Theatre. Brunswick police say that the driver allegedly stopped, but then fled the scene. There is now a police investigation underway.

Mackeye was rushed to St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, where he was pronounced dead this morning at 6am. This is a tragedy for the underground music as a whole and we need to stand together at this time of loss.<<
The 45-second period after I read this was a nightmarish emotional roller coaster, until I remembered that Google News exists. He still walks among us.
Like many East Coast suburban misfits, my friends and I were all huge Fugazi fans in high school. If I had a nickel for every terrible "Waiting Room" cover I heard at a Tune Inn show/VFW hall/backyard party, I would easily have fifty cents. When I lost my virginity, it was to the dulcet tones of Minor Threat. No disrespect to Guy Picciotto, but I can really take or leave his Fugazi vocals even when I love the songs. Ian's voice is pure skate-park white boy masculine aggression, and this— coupled with his always in the right self-righteous lyrics and political engagement— makes him my favorite white guy singer of all time. Today's scare just reminded me of his pure hotttness.

Minor Threat - Look Back and Laugh

Fugazi - Bad Mouth

I've recently rediscovered "The Argument" and it's back on heavy rotation at work. This song is one of my favorites because Ian could still scream his fucking head off at 40 and it sounds awesome.
Fugazi - Epic Problem

By the Powerus Grascol

GhostproofBlanket: Have you ever heard of Grayskul?
BoyleRoche: He-Man master of the universe grayskull?
GhostproofBlanket: When I was a kid I thought, the whole time, that he was saying "By the powerus grascol!" and always wondered what he was talking about. Even though he was standing right there, in front of the gray skull.
BoyleRoche: ...
GhostproofBlanket:I think the confusion came from the fact that that was Skeletor's house? Wasn't it? So I didn't put together why he would even be over there. But anyway no I meant this Grayskul
GhostproofBlanket: i think i mostly just like their production
BoyleRoche: I like that production as well, not just the same beat repeated over and over
GhostproofBlanket: From an itunes user review about them: "Music that has any lasting appeal has to relate to you on a personal level. No matter how cool it sounds initially, rapping about zombies, superheroes and ninjas has no bearing on real life."
GhostproofBlanket: You ain't from where I'M from, son!
BoyleRoche: keepin' it REAL we got some HEAVY shit out hizzah
Ghostproof Blanket: I'm bout to cut a zombie bitch

From 2005's "Deadlivers": (buy)
Grayskul - Prom Quiz

From "Bloody Radio": (buy)
Grayskul - Scarecrow

Two More From TTC

I've posted a few other tracks from TTC — the goofily awesome French group made up of Teki Latex, Cuizinier, Tido Berman, and DJ Orgasmic — but they're my new favorite so I'm sharing some more today. Check out the ridiculous video for "Telephone." Teki is delightfully jolly. Cuizinier wears a Swedish chef hat a lot. Yeah, I don't know. I love them.

They're playing The Knitting Factory on October 12...

TTC - Strip Pour Moi

TTC - (Pas La Peine D'appeler Je Ne Reponds Pas Au) Telephone

buy "3615" or their earlier, more Daft-Punk flavored "Bâtards Sensibles" here.

Friday Funtime

When the East is in the house...
Danger - Blahzay Blahzay

Nightclub brawls are dangerous. But he's okay! (via Goldenfiddle)

Indian Summer Jams.

I've got the top down on my imaginary 'Lac today.

Summertime in the LBC - Dove Shack
Summer Madness - Kool and the Gang
Here's Where The Story Ends - The Sundays

Sidebar, Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes Edition:
When my ex and I first moved to Oakland right after college we befriended a teenaged couple from Tijuana that lived down the street. One day, the girl (whose name escapes me now) came over to smoke a blunt and one of her eyes was swollen shut. She explained that this happened from time to time, and it was because a girl who Pepito had cheated on her with had put an evil-eye curse on her. She'd even been to a bruja, but no spell or poultice could lift the hex or even just bring the swelling down. At the time I was like "Uh-huh" but secretly was all, "They're called eyedrops lady. Medical science — check it out!" Now, though...
I've had this mystery eye infection for the past four months, especially in my left eye. It ranges from full-blown pinkeye bouts to a lone swollen orb, streaming tears for no apparent reason. Steroid drops, OTC drops, compresses, temporary remedies all. I've clearly been "marked," and I did nothing for my eye-karma a few weeks ago when, in describing the video footage of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes' deadly car wreck I said "It's not super-graphic. I mean, you don't see the light go out of her right eye or anything." The *next day*, after a redness-free week, I wake up and the fucking thing is swollen shut again. I just want to say, I'm sorry for whatever I did to the person who hexed me, and more importantly (because famous people are more important), I am sorry to Left Eye, who is now the patron Santería goddess of eye-curses everywhere.
AND STILL, IT WEEPS.
U Know What's Up - Donnell Jones feat. Left Eye

My life is full of problems

Switch is playing Studio B on Saturday night. It's not one of the dates Diplo is co-headlining, but sure to be a great time nevertheless. I'd already put on my spangled sweatband and was excitedly polishing my fancy-dancing shoes when I remembered: I invited some people over and I totally can't go. Blast it!

One of my favorite getting ready to go out songs:
Lily Allen - LDN (Switch remix)

A funny Youtube subgenre is the song posted with either the artist's still image or some sort of slideshow. Here's one for the Switch-produced "World Town," which is my favorite on the new M.I.A.

This song is sooo 2006, but I have it in my head today so I'm posting it.
The remix is good too.
That is all.

Lost to the Lonesome - Pela (pela)
Lost to the Lonesome - Cassettes Won't Listen remix (CWL myspace)

Sleepy Sunny Sunday Mix

Track Rabbits - Fruit Bats
Wait for Me - Dean and Britta (click here for a fun fact!)
The Littlest Birds - The Be Good Tanyas
Nitemare Hippy Girl - Beck
Golden Lady - Jose Feliciano
Well...All Right - Buddy Holly and the Crickets
Hannah & Gabi - The Lemonheads
Only a Ghost - Luke Temple

Friday Funtime

Over 18 and my eyes are green, I wear more gold than that man on A-Team.

Slick Rick - Mona Lisa

Sorry

Oh, Hot Chip. I thought the somewhat-barebones jangle of "Coming On Strong" was a snoozer, and I wrote you off. Then you picked up the pace with "The Warning," which had a couple of real gems and I started to warm up. When I saw the video for "Over and Over" my feelings cooled, because I am shallow and kind of wished you were less twerpy looking. And I'll just say it: loved the beats, lukewarm on the vocals. But this. This song is undeniable. You've broken me. I love you now. This is like that time someone made me watch an "Absolutely Fabulous" marathon and at first I squirmed my way through all the Britishisms and the sweetie-darlings and then after three hours I achieved complete saturation and suddenly found it hilarious. It's like I always say, tenth time's the charm.

Hot Chip - Shake A Fist
For extra bounciness:
Hot Chip - My Piano

The Internets are talking about Sexton Blake (not this one, but this one), who is one Josh Hodges hailing from Portland OR. His "Sexton Blake Plays the Hits!" is exactly what it sounds like. Some of the covers, like this one, are pretty straightforward. His version of "I Need Love" is inspired but "Human Nature" dissolves into a treacly mess, embodying everything I find repulsive about indie white boys suffering from an acute — and effete — case of sinceritis*. You can't help but think he's hoping to walk in Cat Power's path to recognition here, although his largely faithful and completely harmless covers are nothing like her most blistering, nearly unrecognizable ones. I'll hop onto the nostalgia train for B.D. Eyes though, since it gets me every time (listen to the Mylo track if you feel the same way).

Sexton Blake - Bette Davis Eyes

Mylo - In Your Arms (King Unique remix)

*sinceritis: an affliction in which someone's constant sincerity and self-seriousness evokes an "Are you fucking with me here? Your unwavering earnestness is confusing me" reaction in those around them. Symptoms include excessive eye contact, overusing the name of one's conversation partner, and a seeming inability to process sarcasm.

Jams. Jams. All manner of jams.

Thanks to a certain special lady, I had a delightful weekend of sun surf and sand in beautiful Long Beach Island. And it wasn't just fun — I learned some things too: there's nothing quite like a homemade Korean rib or five, and a Mexican blanket makes for a warm and RAVISHING (screw you guys, new fall look) poncho. This week was a bit of a roller coaster, and I needed a dance party reeeel bad. Lucky for me I have a bunch of first-rate undulation specialists in my inner circle. It's like Gabby instructed during the improv-choreography contest: "You can't forget about the ass."

As per request, here was my playlist plus three:

Jay-Z - Dirt Off Your Shoulders (Siik remix)

Yin Yang Twins (feat. Pitbull) - Shake

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork

TTC - Travailler (Orgasmic remix)

Teki Latex - Les Matins de Paris (Surkin remix)

Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow (Van She Tech remix)

Air - Mer du Japon (The Teenagers remix)

Friday Funtime

From Wikipedia: "One item of interest with regard to Biz has been the truthfulness of some of his claims about various musical and pop-culture miscellany which he has alleged he owns. He has bragged in interviews about toys, lunchboxes, videotapes and records that no one has ever heard of although he swears to his ownership of said items."

Wait...what? As in he makes up toys that don't exist? Like he's all, "Yeah, I have the original V.C. Andrews 'Flowers in the Attic' doll set. Chris, Cathy, Cory and Carrie, all mint-in-box." That's kinda weird, Biz. His own doll comes with delightful accoutrements though.

Biz Markie - Just a Friend

Mmm...white chocolate.

I had dismissed Jamie Lidell as Beck-lite until I caught his live show, where he and his laptop looped and beep-borped their way into my heart.

Jamie Lidell - Multiply (In a Minor Key)

Good for Robin Thicke! I am happy he has found crossover success, although I still prefer his first album. Also, he could really stand to lose the odd 1990s facial hair. [buy]

Thicke - Flowers In Bloom

Honeycut, I just realized, is the only act listed here that hails from the good ol' US of A, and they're also the least white chocolatey. Coincidence?

Honeycut - Shadows

The first time I heard this song I thought it was Robin Thicke, but it's Fink. British, sometimes folky, sometimes bluesy.

Fink - Pretty Little Thing

I know Jamiroquai is as corny as Jay Kay's collection of terrible hats, but this remains one of my favorite sunny day songs. I'm not too proud to share it with you.

Jamiroquai - Half the Man

To my Scandinavian readership

If you are a rap group and you are from Helsinki, I think a good name for your band would be Big Finnish. I don't know why a rap group, in particular; I guess because that sort of bravado is a hallmark of the genre. But really I'm probs just thinking of Mister Cee the Finisher. Love me, love my addiction to urban radio.

If you are a Chinese rapper, though, you should definitely call yourself "Chinesus." My friend once woke up laughing after she dreamed that our other friend introduced her new Asian boyfriend by saying, "he's called Chinesus. But I call him Japanesus!"

Architecture in Helsinki - Heart It Races (DJ Rupture mix)
via KEXP's song of the day podcast, subscribe!

They're from Sweden, not Finland, but for theme's sake:
Snook - Hip Hop

Friday Funtime

A mystery, indeed.

Big Punisher - Still Not a Player

Say goodbye to summer jams

The end of summer always gives me a case of the bummers. I've been living in denial, but the time has come: The season of "Chocolate Rain" and sexy subprime-lending scandals is over, and now I must turn my attention to the hot fall fashions (hike those jeans waaay up ladies!).

Here's a final trickle of songs I had on heavy rotation from Jun through Aug.:

Digitalism - "Pogo"
Cassie - Me & U (siik remix)
Big Ria - "Knucklehead"
DJ Quik - "Pitch in Ona Party"
All Smiles - "Summer Stay"

Fresh hell

Allow me to direct your attention to the Itunes celebrity playlist of Amy Grant, who my mother used to torment me with in the eighties when she was in one of her crazy "let's be really Christian all of the sudden/ I'm going to have faith healers pray on you to cure your recurring strep throat" phases. I mean Amy Grant's own music is horrible, so naturally she's going to listen to the softest of rock, the litest of FMs. But Jesus Christ (sorry Amy), it is literally the worst dentist office music playlist ever invented. "Walking in Memphis." "I Can't Make You Love Me." "You've Got a Friend." Be more of a cliche, please. I wonder what would happen if someone played her, like, Mastadon or Mobb Deep. She would probably burst into flames. I don't want to start rumors, but I've heard it's actually the only way she can be killed.

Metric - Wet Blanket
http://www.emilyhaines.com/

Friday Funtime

Yup, this still makes me laugh.


Warren G feat Nate Dogg - Regulate

Bonus cover-ish track from French rapper Cuizinier, who's in a group called TTC with Ghostproof-bedroom dance party favorite Teki Latex.
Cuizinier and Saphir - Regulate
BuyCuizinier's "Pour Le Filles Vol. 2"

Feelin' Frost-y

TKA - Diamond Girl

When hip-hop goes emo

If the criticism most often leveled at mainstream rappers is that their constant "look at my rims/Timbs/hos/clothes" bragging is hollow and just plain tired out, I've always felt that the parallel problem with many indie ones (or dirty-backpack rappers, as Wendy Williams calls them) is that their rhymes often consist of similarly tired complaints about how they'll never be famous, since they're diametrically opposed to the top-40 gangsta game.
While he definitely falls into that trap on occasion, Slug — the rapper half of Atmosphere— is a pretty great writer. I've been in love/hate with him over the years; in addition to his many songs about Lucy the ex from hell, he's expressed some pretty fucked views on women in general. An ex put "The Ocean" on a mix for me after we broke up, and it was 1,000 times meaner and more imaginative than the songs I put on his (Elliot Smith's "Just Somebody That I Used To Know," Leonard Cohen, etc.). Seriously, check out the lyrics. Ow.
Slug's perpetually glowering stance has earned him an unfortunate biracial-Eminem label. He's been at it for longer, though, and I think Ant's production makes Atmosphere altogether more enjoyable. Three songs, two poison-pens and one love letter:
Atmosphere - Fuck You Lucy From God Loves Ugly
Atmosphere - Reflections From Seven's Travels
Felt (Slug and Murs) - Dirty Girl From Felt 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet

A Pixies sample!? (An open marriage-proposal to Diplo)

I'm doing an 'ode to my 1990s raver days' post really soon, and one of the reasons I love Diplo is that he's still coming with songs that I could have heard at Palladium back before it became an NYU dorm. Also, he looks just like the boys in Liquid Sky jeans that would line the hallways chanting "X, X, X, K, K, K" at you the second you got into the party; for this I find him very attractive (hangs head in shame). Hey, if he was good enough for M.I.A....

Diplo - Must Be a Devil - from an Itunes Exclusive live session
Diplo - Diplo Your Head
Spank Rock - Put That Pussy On Me (Diplo Tonite Remix)

He and Switch are playing a handful of tour dates this September, and New York is sadly left out.
Check out Bonde Do Role, a baile funk outfit signed to Diplo's Mad Decent label: (Myspace)

Friday Funtime

He's Shock G! He's Humpty! He's Shock G! He's Humpty! He's Shock G AND Humpty!
Tupac ft. Digital Underground - I Get Around

How long is a piece of string?

Some of our nation's finest minds attempt to untangle the most annoying rejoinder in the English language.
Alela Diane - Pieces of String
(myspace)

Speaking of idioms, I've used several of these great kids' drawings for mixtape covers and whatnot. Check 'em out — I bet you'll fall "in love" with them, just like this guy did:

Coupla weird dudes.

My first show was They Might Be Giants, at Toad's Place in 1992. While it has probably been a good ten years since I've listened to them, the Johns will always hold a special place in my heart. Partially for nostalgia's sake, but also because I really respect the fact that they've been together for decades and have parlayed their creativity into countless projects, never diluting their nerdtastic charm.
Don't Let's Start(from 1986's self-titled)
Whistling In the Dark (from 1990's Flood)
Space Suit (from 1992's Apollo 18)

By my junior year of high school, Dean and Gene were my new favorite two weird dudes. In the school of rock, if TMBG were Mathletes, Ween used to be Mathletes but they dropped out because it was cutting into their "smoking js and playing guitar in Tommy's dad's garage" time. They were just more my kind of people, you know?
From my favorite Weener, The Mollusk:
Mutilated Lips
The Blarney Stone
From Chocolate and Cheese:
Baby Bitch
Joppa Road

In the interest of doing a two-weird-dudes trifecta, I'm posting my favorite song by Sparks. A great deal of their very large body of work is so, so much more bizarre than this, but in a way that makes my pussy cringe. This song rulz though:
Angst In My Pants