Entries Tagged 'music' ↓

This summer a lot of people, myself included, are going across the country or across the world.  Some are temporary, some are permanent.  To those leaving home—or starting a new one—happy travels.  Summer Mix: Away From Home

With the weather getting warmer, it’s time to start working out and jogging.  Why?  Because eventually we can’t hide in our coats and we have to wear those skinny, skinny jeans.   I thought I’d share a little motivation mix and impart my old workout mantra (before I had a boyfriend):

You Are Fat and No One Loves You (124.2mb)

This is a pretty wonderful cover of Joy Division’s Transmission by a steelband:

I just put together my summer mix for 2009, a sampling of what I’ll be listening to all summer.  I tested this out on Ft. Tilden beach this weekend and it went over pretty well.  Though sunstroke and vodka tends to smooth over people’s opinions.

DOWNLOAD MIX (116.3MB)

Looks like I really want to talk about music with everyone.  Maybe I’ll rethink my career path and start doing this full time, which would be unfortunate since I’m about to take out $80,000 in loans for grad school.

The band Woods (everyone join Emusic and let me recommend you, ok?) is being hyped pretty heavily and for a fairly good reason.  Listening to their new album, Songs of Shame, makes me think of Bon Iver with a bigger band (or, I guess, if the band Bon Iver didn’t sound like one dude alone in his room).  My favorite track from the album so far is Gypsy Hand, the most upbeat and catchy song they’ve ever done:

Woods – gypsy hand

At first I saw this video and I was like “Oh, hot guy signing and dancing a Britney song, that’s cool cause deaf people can’t hear Britney songs.”

But considering the only redeeming part of Britney song is, at best, the rhythm… I can’t imagine what it’s like to only get the lyrics from one of her songs. It’s almost cruel to subject someone to that.

And is this gay guy trying to give us the impression he’s a womanizer at the end of it???

I’ve had an on and off cold for the last two weeks which means a lot of time playing old Nintendo games and listening to Radiohead. Unfortunately, I don’t have mario paint (and I never had it which really pissed me off because all the other kids did).

Actually, maybe it’s a good thing because I would have done this:

I’ve been listening to the song “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” by Baccara for a couple of years now.  It’s a disco hit from 1980 that was a smash in Europe.  I found it by accident in a compilation of disco classics someone put together and posted to a Newsgroup back in the days before BitTorrent.

Anyway, this song is really a gem.  I figured this was some obscure song until my boyfriend recently pointed out to me that this was a major hit in Europe that never made it to the States.  He also said his mom would sing along to this while cleaning so hopefully there is nothing oedipal about it.  Here’s the video, which is simply renewing my love for the song:

There is something about the thick accents of these singers that really does it for me.  In my mind, I imagine some unfortunate immigrant singing this to her sugar daddy who is about to throw her out…  She just needs to remind him that she can boogie (boogie-voogie) all night long!!

Here is my much delayed Favorites Mix for 2008!

I shouldn’t write my favorite albums of 2008 before the end of 2008 since, well, I read all the other “top albums of the year” blog posts, scour the internet for them, listen, and occasionally fall in love in the nebulous week between Christmas and New Years.  Two big additions:

Women: Women

Black Rice

Chad VanGallen

Unbelievably amazing, beautiful songs.

Willow Tree

I just realized that the only hip-hop I really like (other than Kanye West, Jay-Z and Outkast) is from female rappers or mashups with rock songs. Try as I might, I just can’t get into anything else.  In general, I’m bored with self-aggrandizing or songs about having sex with women.

With that in mind, I love this song from Kid Sister that FreeWilliamsburg directed me to:

Kid Sister – Pro Nails ft. Kanye West

And I’m in love with this mashup from the Hood Internet:

Listen to Usher vs Los Campesinos! – The Year This Club Broke (My Heart)

I stumbled upon this nice mashup of MIA while googling for some New Order mashups:

When it comes to my favorite mashups, I have two. The most dancy one fulfills my love for female rappers and new wave:

And my FAVORITE mashup of all time is from dj n wee (download) and he mixes Pavement’s “Zurich is Stained” and Jay-Z’s “Dirt of Your Shoulders.”

dj n-wee (Jay-Z vs. Pavement) – Zurich Your Shoulder

So A-Ha was my favorite band for about two years in the early 90’s.  I was obsessed with them.  And it wasn’t just “Take on Me,” the classic pop hit from the 80’s, but all of their albums.  I’m serious, I had ALL of their CASSETTES available in 1991.  “Hunting High and Low”, “Scoundrel Days”, “Stay on these Roads” and “East of the Sun West of the Moon” were all in my tape collection.  Those were the days… They Might Be Giants, Roxette, Def Leppard, A-ha, Weird Al, Amy Grant, En Vogue and Paula Abdul.  Shit, I was gay.

I think my love for A-ha had to do with the Norwegian band’s proximity to Sweden (the capital of bands I like with Roxette, Ace of Base, ABBA, the Futureheads, Love is All).

Anyway, this trip down memory lane is because of this video that’s a recreation of “Take On Me” with all of the actions in the video sang along.  BRILLIANT!

from towleroad

John Maus is dreamy and I wrote about him and his music earlier.  I lamented that you couldn’t find his albums online anywhere, but now you can (iTunes link)!!

Unfortunately, he seems a bit unhinged.  Check the interview below (I agree with his hatred for oceans at the very end of this):

I will leave the apparent insanity/eccentricity as a symptom of being a philosophy professor (Hi, Amy!). It’s sad that while watching this he went from being super dreamy to the type of person you accidentally engage in conversation and regret half an hour later.  Still love his music though…

Oh man, I actually like this Ratatat song, I think, but maybe it’s the use of ABBA!!!!!  And a kind of frightening use at that:

Anyway, I really miss Abba. There is no good pop music like that anymore.

from Freewilliamsburg

I’ve been making my way through the Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 1980’s. This post explains a bit about this 4.3 GB collection of music. Every so often I’m going to pick one out and feature one of the best and unexpected songs and post it on my blog so you don’t have to dig through it.

Everything about this next song screams hipster dance party: dripping in synth, French lyrics and a disco beat. It also has some delightful ruminations on the worth of words. Apparently, they never heard the pen is mightier than the sword!

As for this video, holy shit I wish I was alive for this coked up part of the 80’s.

Uhhh… I have a headache. This has little to do with my chapstick recovery, but more to do with the fact that I left my sweet sweet cigarettes at home. Since I import my smokies from International Duty Free Zones, I refuse to buy another pack for 9 fucking dollars.

Anyway, I saw this today and it made me think of how glad I am that I’ve quit my chapstick addiction before my kids had to suffer through this kind of torment:

I’ve been making my way through the Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 1980’s. This post explains a bit about this 4.3 GB collection of music. Every so often I’m going to pick one out and feature one of the best and unexpected songs and post it on my blog so you don’t have to dig through it.

This song is not something that I’ve discovered as much as “re-discovered.”  I have extremely vivid memories of this video growing up.  Not the future predicting specifics of the video, like the rainbow shooting across the Brooklyn Bridge (which I guess metaphorically predicted the faggot migration to Brooklyn) or the Jackson’s spreading “magic” powders on to young boys. 

I’ve been making my way through the Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 1980’s. This post explains a bit about this 4.3 GB collection of music. Every so often I’m going to pick one out and feature one of the best and unexpected songs and post it on my blog so you don’t have to dig through it.

This song is not something that I’ve discovered as much as “re-discovered.”  I have extremely vivid memories of this video growing up.  Not the future predicting specifics of the video, like the rainbow shooting across the Brooklyn Bridge (which I guess metaphorically predicted the faggot migration to Brooklyn) or the Jackson’s spreading “magic” powders on to young boys. 

Readiohead did a remix contest for their song Nude. This is the great stuff that happens when people let their creations be open to the public (really starts about a minute in):

Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

I’ve been making my way through the Top 1000 Pop Hits of the 1980’s. This post explains a bit about this 4.3 GB collection of music. Every so often I’m going to pick one out and feature one of the best and unexpected songs and post it on my blog so you don’t have to dig through it.

This song has kind of changed my life. Not only is it kind of racist but the beat is so danceable! I wish 80’s dance nights would cool it on the ‘Rio’ and pick up on some ‘Japanese Boy’ by Aneka! Wikipedia tells us she is a Scottish one hit wonder. Really, pay attention to how she pretends to have an asian accent. AMAZING!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCH1IlOfDTM&hl=en]