Saturday, June 30, 2007

Basic Saturday #2


I hope the British people make it through this time of terrorism without losing the freedoms that made this music possible.

I don't have that much else to say about this post. Mostly because I don't want to spend that much time writing it. So the music will have to do. I hope you don't mind, but I have other things to do.

And finally, I have to thank all the artists and the blogs I borrow, especially Chaz and Leif from Chazology. Thanks.

No Music List

1. Lil Mama - No Music (Starkey Refix)
2. Je Deteste La Musique - Amanda's Orgasm
3. Leif - The Vomit Looks Nice On Your Mammal Fur
4. Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix)
5. Digitalism - Pulse
6. Young Love - Find a New Way

Young Love - Find a New Way

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Save Net Radio, Fuck the Man


so these bastards at the Copyright Royalty Board have decided that they aren't making enough money off the internet. to remedy this great evil they've planned to jack up the licensing fees for internet radio streams, a move that would potentially force a lot of independent radio stations to close permanently. in protest, radio stations across the country, including the tremendous wrmc 91.1FM, refused to broadcast regular programming.

head over to savenetradio.org and find out how to tell your senator to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act. If we get enough senators behind the bill, we can legally tell the Copyright Royalty Board to go fuck themselves, royally;)

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Basic Saturday #1


I'm feeling pretty basic, and need some anthem against corporations, Saturday work schedules, telephone conversation, and anything else to disengage, separating myself from chosen economic slavery during what's left of my weekend. I'm turning to TTC, not a radical leftist group pushing the revolutionary message, but the French hip hop group proving once again that French culture isn't dead (stupid Freedom Fries). The group defines themselves as such: "We make rap for people who love rap more than anything else in the world, and who fucking love many other things too." I like rap. I like other things, too. A mantra we can all appreciate.

These guys are stuffed with talent like a fat, French kid eating pastries two handfuls at a time. Comprising Institubes finest (Tacteel and Cuzinier, and even DJ Orgasmic on the 1s and 2s) with Texi Latex and Tido Berman backing them up, as well as producer Para One, a DJ synonymous with the Institubes label as well as the infamous Ed Banger, TTC should be busting your headphones soon. Buy their new album, 3615, if you like what you see and hear. And for a track from the new album, check out the single "Une Bande de Mecs Sympa" over at wrmc 91.1FM.

Watch and be free.

TTC - Telephone


TTC - Travailler


Texi Latex ft. Lio - Les Matins de Paris

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

mash across the atlantic




mashups remind me of that old saying: two tracks (or three) are better than one. ElectroSound, un homme from Besançon, France, does it right. Highlights. Keeping it in the UK, light pyramid robots bringing sexy back or communing with animated Gorillaz, updating Eurythmics sweet dreams...enjoy.

make sure to check out ElectroSound on his myspace page.

Muse vs. Klaxons - Supermassive Rainbow (zShare)
Daft Punk vs. JT - Sexy Daft Around the World (zShare)
Eurythmics vs. Basement Jaxx vs. Alex Gopher - Sweet Motorcycle Dreams (zShare)
Gorillaz vs. Daft Punk - 19-2000 Funk (zShare)

Friday, June 15, 2007

outlines - our lives are too short

yeah its friday, but you shouldn't be thinking about going out. you should be waiting with excitement and anticipation for monday's (june 18*) release of the outlines' album - our lives are too short.

outlines who?


outlines are these three french guys (of course), two are mcs and one is a former internationally renowned graffiti artist turned dj (how fucking cool is that). i heard about these guys for the first time this spring over on analog giant, when k. posted their remix of "Lucky Boy" by DJ Mehdi.

DJ Mehdi - lucky boy (outlines remix)

after listening to it incessantly for a good month (understandably) i finally got to hear their new album, and as i've already stated, it was so good i punched my mom in the face. in a time when all we really find ourselves listening to is good remixes, its rare to hear a full solid album from a dj. our lives are too short is just that. the samples and production alone are ridiculously tight, and coupled with haunting, soulful r&b vocals and guest mcs like the RZA and Beat Assailant, these tracks are fairly epic. as far as i'm concerned, this is already top 5 albums of 2007, and it hasn't even come out yet.....

outlines ft. RZA - now that i am free

Monday, June 11, 2007

It's not TV, Its HBO

The ending will be thought about for awhile...my take is he was shot dead. We saw through his eyes his daughter walk into the room and black. Its death yeah I get it...watch the first episodes of the second half when Tony and Bobby are at the lake house...they are talking about being shot. Tony, I believe, says it just happens...no sound...its just nothing. When Tony, who constantly is watching the dinner door waiting for each family member to arrive, finally sees Meadow walk through the door (we literally are seeing through of 1st person p.o.v.) the screen goes black. No sound...no crazy image...its just nothing. Tony is dead. And for what? SIX YEARS!!!! I waited six years for this...sure later on I'll look back and go damn that was pretty fucking good...hell I think so now, but fuck I'm American and I need that instant satisfaction! Then again thats what you get for following a t.v. show for this long.


P.s.- I know this has nothing to do with music, but fuck you

Friday, June 8, 2007

so fuckin' dirty........



nowadays, in our postmodern world of blogging and internet djs, any asshole with a mac and a cable connection can make a remix and post it online. and as anyone whose been checking out music blogs for the past couple years already knows, every asshole with a mac and a cable connection has put out a remix. a positive aspect of this free flow of musical innovation is that finding new music, and especially remixes, has become very individualized. this meaning, that many of us listening to remixes and electronic music don't really give a shit how an artist or track is reviewed anymore. searching for music has become a personal journey, and if we like what we hear, then we download/buy/steal it and listen to it.

while this is all well and good, i feel a major consequence is that a lot of people don't take the music seriously. people enjoy remixes and mashups, but tend to believe that 'any asshole' can make them. i think that this view is seriously flawed. sure technology has made electronic music easier to make, but i still feel that you can look at the music with a degree of objectivity. remixes can be objectively 'good' or 'bad.' with that statement many of you will now be saying, "who the fuck is this pretentious asshole." well fuck you. its my blog and here are three objective classifications for remixes that i have devised:

  1. bad: a bad remix just sounds like complete shit and sometimes gives you a headache
  2. good: a good remix is one that is either just as good or better than the original song
  3. epic: an epic remix is so amazing that you either a) never want to hear the original song again, or b) pass out upon hearing it and occasionally shit your pants
the remixes of dirty south, aka Dragan Roganovic, fall into category 3. this self-taught australian dj doesn't remix songs, he composes 7min+ club-crushing odyssies. this guy has already dominated australia and received critical acclaim in europe. he's also been somewhat of a regular feature this year on the remix sunday lineup over at palmsout. now someone just has to get him to come to new york......



chris lake - changes (dirty south remix)
depeche mode - just can't get enough (dirty south remix)
cicada - the things you say (dirty south remix)
mark ronson - stop me (dirty south remix)

Monday, June 4, 2007

The Semi-Ok Gig In The Sky


My junior year in High School, my father had recently begun listening to 90.7 Fordham Radio. You should check this gem of a station out. The station’s neon deon show is City Folk, but the real dark horse is Vin Scelsa’s Idiot’s Delight on Saturday night from 8pm – midnight. Enjoy now back to the story. Towards the end of my junior year my Dad had on 90.7 as we were driving. A song called Brimful of Asha by Cornershop was playing as we drove down Sussex into Morristown. I really liked the song but the reception was so damn shitty, that the sitar blarring in and out over the radio became more of an annoyance then entertainment. As we broke into Morristown the reception cleared up only in time for the one-hit wonder to fade (one more time) into the wanderlust night. My disappointed ears were soon caught off guard by a kick drum. The song then broke into one of those pop medleys that just melts your heart. They grab hold of you andchook you waiting for that next note. That was this song. The title was Heavy Metal Drummer by a band called Wilco. For those who knew, the song was off their fourth album Yankee Foxtrot Hotel. I, however, was lost in the trance of Jack Johnson and other preppy shitheads like guster and dispatch. When I asked my dad about the band he said he thought it was one of the best bands he had heard in along time. He had not listened to the album in its entirety but of the few select cuts he had heard on the radio were convincing enough. A day later I was walking by Scotti’s record shop in Morristown and decided to buy the album. Getting back to my car I slipped the cd into the player and pressed play. I’m not here to kiss ass but goddamn that shit was spiritual. The opening cords of I am trying to break your heart are fucking harrowing. From the Flaming Lips-esque opening to the simple alarming ring of an old piano transition into the true song you could tell this was different. This wasn’t just different but a shift. It shifted musically what a rock band could do. When Jeff Tweedy croons the opening line, “I am an American aquarium drinker,” Wilco was ascending the ranks. In truth this and the follow up A Ghost is Born are two of the best American rock recordings ever. If you haven’t heard either one of these albums stop wasting our time and go listen to them. Once you have completed this you can come back and finish reading the review. Yes that’s what this is. It is a review of Wilco’s newest album Sky Blue Sky. For you to understand the importance of this album we should look at it with these two previous albums in mind.
Ok so Yankee Foxtrot and A Ghost are fucking brilliant American folk, country, alt rock pop masterpieces. They explored sound and creatively broke the norms of many styles. Not really a change for Tweedy as Uncle Tupelo (the prior band) became widely respected for redefining Alt Country. However, Uncle Tupelo’s was not as experimental as Yankee Foxtrot and Ghost. If anything the latter two are echoes of the transition that Tweedy has gone through as a maturing signer/song writer. Uncle Tupelo’s truest country reflection can be heard in Wilco’s first album A.M. Though they never truly lose their country roots, their next album Being There represents a shift in Tweedy’s musical mind. A clue of what was to come in the next two albums. This marks the experimental phase of Wilco. If Being There marks the beginning of this phase then Kicking Radio was the band’s Last Waltz performance. Thus Blue Sky Blue is the raising of a new or rather older Wilco flag.
From the opening lines in Either Way there are signs of romanticism and transition.“Maybe the sun will shine today/ The clouds will blow away/ Maybe I won't feel so afraid /I will try to understand/ Either way.” Tweedy has not lost touch with his songwriting; if anything there is more linear narration. This song is riddled with the idea of Maybe, as Tweedy searches for the return of the past. These abstract laments circulate the whole album, but let’s look at the music.
If anything this sounds more like Uncle Tupelo/ A.M. recordings. There is a return to a simplistic country sound. That does not mean the music is less intricate, but rather you won’t hear the intangible sounds of Foxtrot or Ghost. This album applies to a more basic song structuring and brake downs of classic rock. Sometimes it feels like a Pink Floyd Album (Your Are My Face), other times its bluesy Southern rock (Hate It Here), then there are the tracks that are straight folk country (What a Light) that sound like Uncle Tupelo. The album, in truth, is not what people are going to expect if they are hoping for the Wilco we have grown to know. In a way, they have become the painters, who have painted their masterpieces. With this accomplishment comes the relaxing feeling of content. Yes, this implies the halt of forward progression and that can be felt in the album with some tracks (Shake It Off and Please Be Patient With Me.) They almost feel like Wilco songs we’ve already heard, but previously done better. This stale feeling bunkers down the album but in the same stroke there are tracks in here that show the bands comfort ability with their sound (Either Way, Hate It Here, and What Light.) Overall, who are we to judge one of the greatest American bands? Well, we are Powder Horn and we say this album is 7.5 out of 10. Meaning its good when compared to the rest of the pop shit that is out there, shitty if you are comparing it to Foxtrot and Ghost, and ok if you like Uncle Tupelo and A.M. The Teenager, personally and strongly, dislikes the album. I find myself wanting to like it a little more, so I’ve really tried to give it a chance. In the end it’s a good album, but not a very good Wilco Album.

Uncle Tupelo - Still Feel Gone - Watch Me Fall
Wilco - A.M. - Box Full of Letters
Wilco - Being There - Outta Mind (Outta Sight)
Wilco - Yankee Foxtrot Hotel - I Am Trying To Brake Your Heart
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born - Handshake Drugs
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky - Hate It Here
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky - What Light

live arcade fire.......

i like the arcade fire, and i like live recordings of the arcade fire.

live at the orpheum in boston, 5/10/07:

the arcade fire - no cars go (live)

the arcade fire - intervention (live)


head over to musica social to work on your spanish and download the rest of the show...

Saturday, June 2, 2007

siik nasty cassie remix....




top 40 hip hop is usually straight shit (in a bad way) but it got to the top 40 because its at least appealing. in the case of cassie's track from earlier this year, "me & u," it made the top 40 because its a fucking amazing song. yes i said it, i love me & u, and i think its one of the best songs that came out this year, and i like it so much i made it my cell ring.

so what could make such a fucking hot song hotter: a fucking remix with ratatat, that's what.

cassie - me & u (siik remix) (zShare)

in the dark dank cave that is the music blogosphere i came upon this dj named siik from LA. he claims to be 23 and go to art school in pasadena and that's all i know about him. and when i'm done enjoying all the tracks on his remix page, i'll probably send him an email begging for more. in the meantime, you all should head over to www.siik.org and check it out, cause this kid is amazing.

DROP THE LIME!!!!!!!!!!!



you should all head over to Happy Ending on Broome St. this tuesday (June 5) to check out featured dj, Drop the Lime. DTL, the self-proclaimed NYC heavy bass champion, and his other labelmates on trouble & bass are f#$king tight as balls and have been throwing skull crushing parties all year. this tuesday at Happy Ending will of course be no different. So be there tuesday, i know dex and i will be dancing our faces off;)

(also there's a an open vodka bar at 11:30:)

and for those of you not familiar with t&b records or DTL, here's one of my favs from this winter:

cutting crew - died in your arms (DTL remix) (zShare)

Friday, June 1, 2007

le mashup


so let's face it, most of the time mashups suck. they're usually tacky and super underproduced. but when a mashup is good its the most amazing thing ever. well while checking out the always awesome chazology the other day, i came across the site, www.bootlegsfr.com. liking both bootlegs and france, i of course had to check it out and low and behold, i found a shit ton of tight mashups. of course some of them suck, but many are good. like this sweet jackson 5 rework:

Martinn - Babies See the Soul (zShare)

anyhow, just sharing the love and giving credit where credit is due. word up bootlegsfr, one of these days i'll learn french and find out the what the hell you're talking about;)