C.C.R.E.A.M. (Christmas Cookies Rule Everything Around Me)

There's two more days until I head back east for some Philly/Brooklyn time but the overconsumption is well underway. This SNL video is still making me laugh on the dozenth viewing, as my office is exactly like this one right now and I am behaving exactly like Fred Armisen. You're gonna have to take me to cookie court. Guilty as charged, Your Honor. Cookie crimes.

I'm supposed to compile a "best of 2008" list for Radio Free Chicago this week. Does anyone actually read these? I know I don't give a crap what anyone else's list is and I certainly don't expect anyone to care about mine - the only reason they're useful is to grab songs I never got around to downloading earlier (I need four more songs for the complete Fleet Foxes album). Anyway, in the spirit of sharing I give you my favorite remix of 2008. Metronomy is great, the video for the original of this song is fantastic, and this remix is the #1 dance party anthem of the year in club My Room.

Metronomy - Radio Ladio (Mac 3000 mix) (div share)

And still no stateside release for "Nights Out." What gives?

ya better hide it, I just might bite it

Bon Iver - Creature Fear
(div share)

Bon Iver plays the Vic tonight; sold out. Group mopefest!

Bon Iver and Lykke Li do "Dance, Dance, Dance" in L.A.

Fuck Yeah, Sharks!

Christmas Time is Here

Vince Guaraldi Trio - Skating (div share)

Update: A psychological evaluation of the Peanuts gang. Schroeder was always my fave, but I did always wonder what was up with Five and his weird hippie family.

Wind chill is definitely a factor.

This morning while I was standing on the el platform, an acquaintance silently patted my arm in solidarity as he walked by. That's because we both looked like we were on the verge of tears from the indescribable cold. I got windburn just walking from the train to my office! I said I would find this charming until early December and I did, but now I just try not to think about the next three months. Now I fully understand why Chicagoans drink so damn much. We need it to live.

Bjork - Hunter (div share)

Daedalus - Soulful of Child (div share)

Au Revoir Simone - Fallen Snow Teenagers Rmx (div share)

You're in for a rare treat, sensory-input-wise, being around me.

Classic Dancehall Gems, part 3

Cutty Ranks - Who Say Me Dun (div share)

Beenie Man and Ms. Thing - Dude (div share)

Papa San - Coca Cola Shape (div share)

James Murphy: brilliant lyricist, amateur puppeteer, all-around genius.

I'm a Pisces but I'd rather be a killa whale

Andre Nickatina - Fillmoe (divshare)

Andre Nickatina - Killa Whale (divshare)

Andre Nickatina - Cobra Status (divshare)

From 2000's "The Daiquiri Factory":
Andre Nickatina - The Daiquiri Factory (divshare)

Andre Nickatina - Rumppa Bum Bum (divshare)

From 2003's "Conversation With a Devil":
Andre Nickatina - A Yo (divshare)

The first time I'd ever heard of San Francisco's Andre Nickatina/Dre Dog was when I moved to the Bay Area in 2000. We were staying at a house in San Rafael and on one of my first days there I rifled through a stack of CDs to find that I didn't recognize at least half the artists, who were all Cali-based: I knew Del and DJ Quik but E-40, Keak da Sneak, and JT the Bigga Figga sounded like totally made-up names for a movie about fictional rappers. "Who's Dre Dog?" I asked. "Is that like, poor man's Dr. Dre?" The owner of said CDs just looked at me with a mixture of pity, confusion, and reproach like I didn't know anything about anything.

And that's what genuinely excites me about the East Bay hip hop scene: As corny as I find so much of it to be, it's this completely successful subculture. The kids there go crazy bananas for rappers that most of the country has never heard of, and some of them even break out eventually. I don't find most of the talent to be half as compelling as the energy that surrounds them though, the main exception being Nickatina. I feel like he has an unabashed lyrical creativity that a lot of those who have had their heyday after his lack (and by 'unabashed' I mean even when it's weird and all over the map it's still great that he went there) and his production is generally interesting too. West syeeeed.