sometimes I blog slow, sometimes I blog fast
This is a great picture of Spankrock in Montreal. Check out more at Themfinest.com.

Lupe Fiasco has no releases, but still got a stop on Late Registration. He's got a website, I'll bet he's got a deal, and he's also got a song. As I said elsewher, it's the best teenage skate love rap on the market, so act like you know. It's a part of the post-Pharrell rappers-who-can-actually-sing movement.

Lupe Fiasco- Kick, Push  ¶ 9:27 PM 0 comments

  white teeth, cute smile
I like her for her words. She writes prtty books. Her name is Zadie Smith. All I can give in return is drool, and prehaps some droll prose.

Sometimes you realize that despite all of your hunger for late night Kerouac kicks, for intellecutal discoure, for prose and image, and for meaning (for meaning!), and for life, you're still really into hott chicks wearing jeans. I'm not sure if that should be disappointing or not.  ¶ 7:21 PM 0 comments

  we major Sometimes I just love pop culture with all my sugared heart. See t-shirt at left, and all the things it means.

Other times I want to declare eternal teenage digital rebellion on everything. Reject the old, invent the new, start a movement, outgrow the movement, and keep going, going, on and on gone.

I'm trying to write a formal application to use official fund to purchase 1200s, a mixer, serato, and camo headphones. Money Studies, for real. Guess it's time to get my records right.

The Arcade Fire- Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, radio rip)  ¶ 7:00 PM 1 comments

  tivo on the radio In an effort to improve my mixing skills, I'm trying to put out an hour long mix every week. The bit rate is pretty low, and we're having some trouble with static, but it's still pretty cool.

'Listen son, I've got one word for you "podcasts." You've got an opportunity to get in on the ground floor. I want you to think about that.'

Download here.

Tracklist for all the underground hits: episode one (sep. 15).

The Arcade Fire- Maps
Wanna Love You Girl- Thicke feat. Pharell
U.R.A.Q.T.- M.I.A.
Steam- Paperclip People
Heartbeat-Annie
Bang Bang Rock And Roll- Art Brut
White Light, White Heat- The Velvet Underground
Woo- Vitalic
Stay Fly- Three 6 Mafia feat. 8ball & MJG and Young Buck
Beats On Repeat-LCD Soundsystem
Wait (The Whisper Song)-Ying Yang Twins
The Lovecats- The Cure
Closet Freak- Cee-lo
Got it Twisted Sister- Dopplebanger feat. The Rapture and Mobb Deep
Running Up That Hill- Kate Bush
Da Funk- Daft Punk
Staring at the Sun- T.V. on the Radio
Hollaback Girl (Diplo remix)- Gwen Stefani
Hug It Out Bitch (Diplo remix)-Disco D
Is This Love- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

  ¶ 4:16 PM 1 comments

  little boy lost, he takes himself so seriously "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan" tonight from 9 to 11. Can't wait.  ¶ 2:17 PM 0 comments

  macking since macking been macking
This song makes me want to really get into mid-century rhythm and blues and watch a seven hour documentary on Motown. Read about the Drifters on allmusic.

The Drifters- Up On The Roof.

I'm really excited about No Direction Home. (What does a period in italics look like?)  ¶ 12:02 PM 0 comments

  playing out is not played out
Eightes retro is okay, but antebellum retro is really real. I think it would be great if the Edwardian Art Noveau thing just took over. Attention graphic artists: replace your bubble letters and fake graffiti with intricate ornamentation. Wingding bats, fly free. School teachers, emphasize penmenship and offer elective instruction in basic caligraphy. Mitchell & Ness, meet Courier & Ives.

Cover judged, we move on to the book. Days of Mars comes from Deila Gonzales and Gavin Russom, two experimental musicians from DFA records. They're half of Black Leotard Front, and have day jobs as gallery artists. I haven't seen much bio information floating around, but I think Gavin made many of the electronic instruments used on the album. The little promo sheet from Astralwerks compares the duo to Manuel Gottsching, Brian Eno, and Tagnerine Dream. I know there are people that listen to records like that, but who writes press release like that?

Delia Gonzales and Gavin Russom- Rise (DFA Remix)

I played music for crowds of people twice this weekend, and both nights I got a lot of help from a guitar punk road warrior. The first night, I worked for four hours and did a pretty good job of switching styles keeping the crowd happy. "Gold Digger" is absolutely huge right now, as is "Hollerback Girl." I'm sorta sick of "Don't Cha," and disappointed that people aren't more into "Lose Control." In Bad-Boy nostalgia news, people still remember Black Rob. In the last fifteen minutes, I cleared the crowd with "10 $" and played some special request downtempo regaeton jam. The second night, the crowd was leaning more towards drunken singalongs rather than club bangers, which made my job a little tougher. I got some jawns moving with that walking on broken glass/sunshine routine, but eighties girl pop hits leave me feeling empty. Later,with Sean Paul and Gwen as warm ups, I played "Toxic" all the way through and added the Mike Jones verse from "Still Tippin" on the same beat, thanks to Hollertronix. I even got the thing on beat, which made me pretty happy. Next time, I'll come prepped and pull out some more trixx.

Picked up the MF Doom/Ghostface collabo over the weekend, along with Got It For Cheap Vol. 2 and Optimo's Psyche Out. Should I call first mixtape "Geek Out?"

Later night caller, here is your request.
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood.  ¶ 10:59 PM 0 comments

  the best electro house jam in the history of the theremin I wanted to write a rage-rant-catharsis post and put up a picture of crack rocks in a box of cards laid across a spread sheet, but I decided against it. So instead, I introduce the Juan Maclean. Back in the 1990s, John Mclean played guitar and keybroad for Sub Pop's Six Finger Satellite and struggled with a serious drug problem. He quit music, left the band, taught high school English to kids in juvie, and lived in the woods.

John kept in touch with his band's old soundguy, James Murphy. The two traded cassettes for a while, and James eventually coaxed John out of exile and back into the studio. John became Juan, Juan released 12'' dance singles got released, and those singles led to an album, which led to critical acclaim. Single here, but more importantly, video down there.

The Juan Maclean- Tito's Way

Video -Give Me Every Little Thing (wm)
Warning: The following video contains midnite cowboys, ass pants, alien abductions, visual references to the television program "three's company," puppets, go go dancers, wireframe sex simulators, and poses the question of whether sexual intercourse with a another consenting adult should be preferred to computer assisted masturbation.

ps- I think i got into chris rockwell's iTunes library last night. Weird, weird feeling. Of all the peers on the network...  ¶ 8:28 PM 0 comments

  why won't you come over here? 12:51 was maginifcent. Gentle opening chords, lights flash, it's 1982, the drive home after the party, that hook, good god that hook, it's tron, it's the past and the future, it's two years before i can drink. Uh-huh that's my shit, all the people in the Tabernacle stomp your feet like this. Second album, promise kept, more of the same delievered, thousand bands started, thrift stores raided.

Now, the third ablum lurks ahead on the calendar. Here's the first new single. Someone hung up the telephone, and Julian's voice is out front now. Somebody polished the guitars, and the album probably wasn't mixed on a G3 this time around. Apparently, Nikolai bought a rumble pak for the bass line and listened to "Enter Sandman" all summer. I'm on listen number five, scratch six, scratch seven. The end has no end, and this shit is on repeat. Just like the new Franz, I hear a great band growing, and I wait for the album.

The Strokes- Juicebox

Lots of good quotes here- watch out, away messages is watching.  ¶ 11:35 PM 0 comments

  she blazed my blaze Altanta, the reported "hip-hop capital of the world," is not Athens, where my mom taught graduate courses in forestry in the late seventies. I apologize to the citizens of both cities, and invite my friends to make funny.

So now that we've made that clear, the Spankrock M.I.A. global ghettotech jump off at the 40watt club was trilly trill. DJs Chris Rockwell and XXX Change were the opener openers. Dudes were a little ADD with the speed up soul, but they hit their stride when they played their own baltimore club tracks. Aparently one of them has a lady sov remix in the works, which is exciting, but not nearly as exciting as the fact that sov could sign with Def Jam and have a S.Carter remix. But I digress-our focus here is Athens last night, not the booth next year.

Hollertronix expatriot Spankrock took the stage next. This guy has great flow, unfuckwitable nerd chic, and some crazy and degranged songs. I'm intrigued, but I've got some questions about the lyrics. The beach boys sample is hot, but "put that pussy on me?" It's 2005- could you explain how this isn't unethically sexist, or at least say please? Building on the DangerDoom collabo, Adult Swim should bankroll as Spankrock cartoon, showing what happens when hipsters stop being nice, and start trying to get with video jawns.

M.I.A. has beats for weeks and stage presence for years. As great as she was this summer in Los Angeles, she's gotten much better. She doesn't work the crowd- she owns it. For an hour, it's dark, it's hot, and you're just an insignificant part of a sweaty, screaming, moving club full of human. She opened with the 16 from Bad Man, threw in her new remix of Joakim's "Nookie," and killed the bubba sparxx riddim. M.I.A.'s testy relationship with Diplo, and Diplo's dedicated relationship with his booking agent prevent Maya from having a full time deejay, but DJ Contra did a good job of filling in. Where did M.I.A. find Cherry? She drops it like it's thermonuclear and sings too!

Last semester, I tried to write a paper in the form of an SAT analogy, hard difficulty. Piracy Funds Terrorism is to hip-hop as London Calling is to rock and roll. Due to some personal reasons, I never finished the thing, but I stand by that grand, sweeping claim. Take another listen- she folds the world map, shipping the Bangles out to Afganistan, Timabaland to Somalia, and Brazillian kids to Akron. Thomas Friedman (Dance Remix): M.I.A. and Diplo wrote a graduate thesis on the effects of globalization, confronting first world materialism with third world danger. Petty Pablo may want Ciara's goodies, but the kidnappers in "Amazon" want to sell Maya into sexual slavery.

Note to 2005 best of the year list writers: don't believe the hype, or the hype backlash, or the reverse backlash. See her live, and tell me about it.

M.I.A. Thing- Carrasco
  ¶ 10:11 PM 0 comments

  grindin
Little Skateboard P is grindin extra hard right now (if only all band nerds turned out this way).

Two monsters:
Drop It Like It's Hot/Snoop
Hollaback girl/Gwen

And then all of these future hits:
I Ain't Heard of That /Slim Thug
I'm A G / NORE
Lavish /Twista
Wann Love You /Thicke
Can I Have it Like That/Gwen

So while you were wondering why that phalsetto dude never had a solo album, he made it, and it comes out in two months.

Where's Chad in all this? What happened to that major drum major?

Tracks for my yalie.

Tape You
Run to the Sun
Stay Together  ¶ 7:18 AM 0 comments

  ghost unot My favorite rappers are getting themselves into untenable postions. Game screamed G-Unit all over his album, but he's changed it to G-Unot and now has to battle 50, Banks, Buck, Oliver, Yayo, MOP, Mobb Deep and Murda Mase. 300 bars killed me, 300 shots was a terrible response, but who's even listening? Is Game gonna get blacklisted at interscope? Is that why Game's new video looks like "99 Problmes" shot on super 8?


Slim Thug hasn't gone gold yet, but he named the album "Already Platinum." The tragic hubris of a Houston real estate agent?

Drop It Like It's Hot, Again- Slim Thug, the Game

Wait, did you not get enough of that keyboard line. Oh, okay. Me neither. Wouldn't it be great it they married that to a Beach Boys sample and made it a baltimore club track? Yeah, that'd be nice. Think I can play it out this weekend?

Spankrock- Put That Pussy On Me

ps- Is Paul Wall one of the dudes in Soul Sonic Force? I mean really. Did dude steal flows and names?

"Get in here, you hipster artfags!"  ¶ 1:38 AM 0 comments

  we live on blood Again, I'm up late and feeling ill.

I fixed the links on the post below. I sincerely apologize to the internet. It'll happen again, but you'll just have to forgive me.

Paul McCartney- Check My Machine

Get it? Read my shit!

Zero Zero came and went, and nobody really noticed. Lead songwriter Ari Katz proves the old adage that New Jersey hardcore punks make great electro pop rock albums.

Zero Zero- AM Gold

All music says this is a "pointless psycadelic dance groove." It's about right, but this song shows why those four words aren't such a bad thing.
Zero Zero- D Minus  ¶ 12:34 AM 0 comments

  fuckin wit the internet (inconsiderate) Hey, let's great instrumental music with guitars and keyboards and drum machines and shit! We'll have bright eyes and ghostfaced killahs searching for small talk in our waiting room in no time! Oh shit- let's make mixtapes and do remixes! That would be really "real!" Am I saying that right?

All suburban kid anxiety aside, this is pretty great stuff.

The Comeback Big Slippa Mix by Ratatat- Shout Out Louds

Two Selections from the Ratatat Street Mixtape
Get 'Em High- Kanye, Talib, Commmon

Hot- Missy Elliot  ¶ 11:14 AM 0 comments

  ten days is a long time
Need to give the blog a motherfucking re-up.

Life has been on some slip-shod shit, and I've been giving teacher all the wrong answers.

The song is a straight rip of of "wait," right down to the one word title, and the video cribes treatment notes from Mr. West.

But..

David Banner- Play

"I'm sorry what I said about your mom giving me a handjob."  ¶ 2:49 PM 0 comments

  thank you john dardinelle
From the mountain goats' blog.

Speak truth to power young Kanye. Declaring that "George Bush does not care about black people," on national tv was pretty important. While some folks are writing it off as a publicity stunt, I still believe in sincerty and the possibility of unhinged celebrities (American Music Awards, anyone?). The College Dropout saw incalcuable human suffering and told it like he saw it. Word.  ¶ 8:39 AM 3 comments

  heatrocks
This hurricane shit is completley ridiculous. Unimaginable amounts of pain, human suffering and loss. I want to focus on what I can do, and empathize with the victims, but instead, I'm just mad.

Can you believe the apathy of the local and federal government? Where are the people we put in charge? Air Force cadets playing basketball a block away from an underwater middle school? Condi Rice shopping for high heels and catching Spamalot on Broadway? Anarchy in the streets while the New Orleans police barricade themseleves in at the station house? FEMA, where the hell you at? Where's the National Guard? Wait, why are all the troops and resources in Iraq again? Who's the president? What was the ruling in Bush v. Gore? What the fuck?

The worst part is that this disaster is undermining a lot of my faith in our society. Are we really this racist? Did we really leave all these people behind? In terms of lives lost and property damaged, this disaster will rival September 11th. That day four years ago launched a War on Terror that cost us trillions, but I can't imagine Katrina starting a new War on Poverty or a War on Racism. I'm definetly upset, and I hope the days to come and the response to this tragedy reafirm my faith.

Rock KoKaine Flow- De La Soul Featuring MF Doom

Bun B- Draped Up

Nextel Chrip- Maceo

I've been wrong before. Young Jeezy is growing on me. Plenty of dudes are talking tons of shit about Chameonaire, but I just don't know yet.  ¶ 9:42 PM 0 comments