New Teiam Player

Chris Brown feat T-Pain

+ Golden Bear

= Teiam Player

"Kiss Kiss Darkness"








Yeah and I guess I totally lied about a FaveSongs2007 post. But I think this is just as good. Check back sometime over the weekend.

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First Doogie, now a frickin essay?

No music right now. My recent Four Tet post [which none of y'all are diggin, by the way-- why no love for the drumtastic remixes?] was a music overload, and technically it was yesterday, so I haven't yet gone too long without sharing music.

It was brought to my attention that yesterday's Doogie rave perhaps wasn't really that clear. In my defense, I had been up for thirty hours at that point and had been subsiding mainly off espresso grounds and cacao leaves, and I think more than a few times I simply transcribed what the three-foot wizard who was sitting on my couch a lot of that night was whispering into my ear.

So I went back and read over it, and discovered it probably wasn't that clear what I was trying to do. So, dear friends, I've edited it and now it should be a little more clear. If you were unclear and thought I was wacko, go ahead and take another look. If you're scratching your head while thinking your posts are supposed to make sense? then.. well thanks for still reading. Everything after the video clips is the same, so only read it over if you want to laugh really hard again.

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Last night while I shoulda been writing a paper, I broke out a bunch of old poems and essays and short stories I wrote for a creative writing class I took three or four years ago. After that class, I had decided that, without a doubt, I'd be a creative writing major. I'm a Comm Arts major. And not even officially.

So I tortured a friend by reading most of that stuff en voz alta, because [a] I hadn't read the stuff since I wrote it and [b] I'm narcissistic like that. Usually when you stumble across something you wrote a long time ago, you're initially pretty embarrassed at how silly some things were, but then you realize that just means you've improved a lot. Well, maybe that means I haven't improved at all in the last four years-- it's entirely possible, because the most creative writing I do these days appears on the Missed Connections pages-- because I stumbled across an essay I wrote about pencils, and I didn't want to change a thing. In fact, I didn't. Ok, I didn't change anything, but I did remove one small paragraph which shouldn't have been included in the first place.

Here I share it with y'all because if I don't, it's simply going back into a manila envelope and onto a shelf or a floor or into a box for the rest of its life. So let's give him some air first. [Remember this one, Missus Sims?]

I bought some pencils recently. Dixon Ticonderogas. Everyone knows and loves the Ticonderoga. Classic pencil look. It's really the quintessential pencil: the yellow that's otherwise only found on school buses and the three green stripes on the metal band right underneath the virgin pink eraser.

It's strange that I bought these pencils because I have drawerfulls of pencils in my apartment and I never use a single one of them. Pencils from seventh grade, I shit you not. That one's a Cubs pencil, and it hasn't even been sharpened. Ever. I don't hold onto it for any imaginable reason (although if I needed one, the simple fact that it's a Cubs pencil is enough); to throw it away would just be a waste. In fact it's one of those plasticky pencils, the kind that's made out of recycled material. That and the fact that it's got Cubs logos freckling its body are the only things it's got going for it. I hate those pencils though. You can bend them so much you'd nearly touch eraser to tip without it breaking, which now that I think about it actually sounds pretty cool. You always know when to stop, too, because you'll hear those mousy little cracks, much softer than the ones you hear when you drop an ice cube into a glass of water. But if you did break them, you discover that they're the only pencil you can break and have two clean edges, no sharp jagged weapons. If you had one of these pencils in school (the most common brand was Empire, if my memory serves), you were always looking at the rich kid next you's wooden pencil, with a jealous eye. Maybe he'd get up soon and you could snatch it.

I have other pencils in other drawers. I have sketching pencils, which I keep because they have a purpose, even if I never employ them for it anymore. There are mechanical pencils, which I won't even get into because, like a robot, they just seem like they would be the answer to everything. But they're so deceiving, those guys. And then there are the short pencils that were cut off at the waist, their top halves presumably making equally short pencils somewhere else, but with one integral feature to brag about to their friends: the eraser. I keep the short headless pencils around partly because I feel sorry for them, but mainly just because they seem cool to me. Like they were very selectively chosen for a cause much more noble than to be in the grimy hands of an unappreciative student—such as behind the ear of a drywaller, lying littered on the fake grass of a mini golf course, in the hand of a happy bride-to-be perusing Ikea, or in the dark and cool confines of a Yahtzee box.

I must admit it’s been a while since I’ve written anything of substantial length in pencil. That was until two weeks ago when I tried one out in my journal. It was a Saturday, not that the day is of any real importance. Although it is fairly noteworthy that I chose to make an entry in my journal on a Saturday, in August, when everyone else was out at the park throwing frisbee, or on the lake basking in the sun, or somewhere else doing something more summerly than writing in a journal. And then there’s me, doing just that. To my credit, I do believe I was outside at a nearby café, taking in rays and watching people stroll by. People that had too much to drink the night before. People that had money to spend and were looking for somewhere to spend it. People with nothing at all to do but walk around with other people who with nothing at all to do, all of them perfectly content with the nothing they were doing. People with journals to write in but apparently nothing to write about. That’s where we differed, as I sat there, actually having something to write. And I did it in pencil. And that’s how I remember.

What I can’t remember is a time before that Saturday in August that I chose to write in pencil when I had another option, or why. I sat in this spot for several minutes and contemplated a time or a place I would have wanted to use a pencil. Then when I thought I had recalled one, I realized that I in fact had used a pen.

There is something uneasy to me about writing in pencil. It definitely can be just a little fun—that is until the lead gets dull. Then it’s clumsy. Like when it starts to dull and you feel like you’re writing with a piece of balsam fir. And so you turn it between your three fingers every three words, constantly striving for that one straight edge of lead. And then it begins to only write thin lines on the vertical up- and downswings of your letters, but not east or west. And then, inevitably, there is no longer even any salvageable splinter or sliver or slice of sharpness in your hand, and you would be better off writing with that piece of balsam fir. Or a French fry. With ketchup.

But there is still another uneasiness. What is uneasy to me may be very comfortable to someone else, and vice-versa—in fact I have come to understand that there’s a good chance that’s the case. With pencils, it’s the selling point that most everyone else values. Its crux, its sole purpose for being: that little salmon-dyed forgetter-of-mistakes on the non-marking end. I think that is what makes me feel most uneasy about writing with the ol’ No. 2. I cannot understand why anyone would ever write in pencil anything of any significance if he knew there was a chance any schmuck with a piece of rubber could come by and remove it. Forever.

-RTM, c. 2004.

Wait for a FaveSongs2007 installment later today. If the music isn't enough reason to come back, howabout this: it may a historical moment, the first time I say nothing of any of the bands/songs, just posting links. Insanity!

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Boy Genius. All Around Great Kid.

So I finally got my Hulu beta testing invite in the mail last night. Luckily Steep 'n' Brew's wi-fi was ultramegaArgentina slow, and so it didn't deter me from doing my homework. Lucky for me, I resorted to the usual distractions.


Hulu is a new project, owned by NBC Universal, which offers loads of TV programs, both old and new, and even some feature films [Weekend at Bernie's, people!]. It's not just NBC programming, as you can see by the image above, but has shows from all over. Users can embed full episodes in blogs or e-mails [examples below], in which you can highlight certain clips to cue.

After perusing for just a few minutes, a two word review: JUMPIN JIMINY! It all works pretty slick. The resolution is pretty is pretty good, it all streams pretty quickly, easily pause- and restartable, good fullscreen mode.... the way they can do this is through advertsing, however it's really not that bad. One 5-10 second clip at the beginning, and then during 30-min shows it seems they only do one commercial spot which lasts 30 seconds. Of course you can't get around those, but that 30 seconds give you more than enough time to CTRL+T and open your Gmail or check on your Ebay auction or maybe even make that move on Scrabulous [umm, Scrabulous-- anyone else need a new addiction?].

Hulu is the perfect answer to the desire to just want to remember a few older shows, but not wanting to go and drop $40 on an entire season. Really, who could sit through an entire season of WKRP in Cincinatti?

I chose to watch Doogie Howser, MD, as I didn't think I had the patience to sit through an entire A-Team or Airwolf, although yes, they're both available to watch.

Want proof of its awesomeness? Check out this ish, yo.



You can't do that.

And apparently if you're using MSIE, you can't see it, either. Go get a better browser.

And as if that wasn't enough, here's a Vinnie friggin Delpino moment! [yes, it is a different clip; looks to be the same right now, but just click on it already]



After watching this, I was amazed at how good this show really was. Don't snicker, it was good. Here's just a few of the moments I liked the most.

First, I feel the need to quote Vinnie’s wonderful line to the Big Doog in an effort to get more visitors to my blog by attracting all walks of perverts and pedophiles to my blog through their x-rated Google searches:

“Oh, I was just visiting with Doogie, Dr. Howser, listening to his plan to part Wanda Plenn's pulsating red lips with his probing pubescent tongue.”
And now to get the highbrow crowd, I gotta give Dee Hizzy's romantic rouse:

"Girls love getting sniffed. And then, I'll give her a lick on her lobule auriculare."

Spoiler alert!

If you weren’t old enough to watch this kind of smut, weren’t alive, or were like me and the Doogs and were too busy typing in your computer diary, you sure missed out. You can rewind one of those clips and watch the entire episode if you want, but I’m gonna spoil it.

During a birfday prank gone horribly embarrassingly awry, Nurse Spalding drops the Doogie Monster’s [her words, not mine] drawers and we learn two things: [1] Doogie’s voice can get higher, and [2] Douglas Jr is not the smallest doogie in the Howser family as, after being exposed in front of his doctorly colleagues, D'angles covers his dangle and runs off in shame.

D-Hows gets down to the L-O-C and to, like, totally ensure his ear-to-tongue action with Wanda, unloads half a bottle of aftershave on himself. In this montage, there are also plenty of clues that, knowing what we know now, make more sense: [1] He’s wearing pink-spotted boxers! [2] The skinny white boy can dance! [3] Doog Heezy has a James Dean poster. Duh.

Also, in a quicker recap:

Vinnie pukes down the front of some broad’s dress, D-Love smells her hair and then totally sticks his wet one in Wanda’s ear, but doesn’t get much play because some little black kid dies and he's beeped into the hospizzle. And then Dooger Ray Leonard punches a locker so hard that.... a magnet falls off.

All the morals at the end are so obvious/cliche/whatever that they aren’t worth mentioning. But after Doog Little proclaims that he just wants to be normal, Doog Big does dish this unjustifiably denied Emmy-deserving ditty:

“Because you’re not a normal kid. You’re Doogie Howser, MD… BG… AAGK…”

And then Mahatma Doogie goes and writes something profound and poetic about life on his magical computer that always comes on faster than my DualCore [and I’m not talking about my Intel].

The end.

In either clip, go straight to 18:56 to see Doogie's dirty deed go down; it's a beautiful moment and some of you could probably take some notes.

Never have the words doogie, probing pubescent tongue, wampa wampa, harvest dance, pencil neck and lobule auriculare, when used within the same thirty minutes, seemed so wrong. Wait.. yeah they’ve always been so totally damn wrong. Way to go Doog.

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Four Tet: Remixer of the Year

That's right, you heard it here first, forks. I'm hereby declaring frentic beatsmith Kieren Hebden, aka Four Tet, the Remixer of the Year. Forget Justice, Soulwax [please pardon me, Oh Wise Brothers], Swizz Beats, MSTRKRFT, Hot Chip, Diplo [again, pardon me, worldly EclectoMash Master*], and all the countless other electro remixers out there who rocked my bedroom this year. Umm.. not to leave out all ye crunksters [kiddies: is crunk still in?]. Oh! And apparently there's another Beirut [no, not the OHWNT-approved band] going around making good remixes. And what about the Silver Album, Grey Album, and Beachles album -inspired/follower/reincarnate, Bullion's Pet Sounds: In the Key of Dee?. Yeah that's pretty blogdopetastic, too. I'll let nialler9 take over and talk about it, though.

*update-slash-tangent! Right-click + open-link-in-new-tab on over to my not-so-anonymous-friend's [that part will make more sense in another paragraph or so] bee-ell-oh-gee to see a same-time-horrible, same-time-rad video of Diplo and Girl Talk spinning a sweet sixteen [which totally beats out Mark Ronson's TomKat gig, by the way].

And you know what? I'm not even going to talk much about Four Tet. No, seriously. Just this:

[1] If you like Caribou/Manitoba, you should like Dan Snaith's friend Kieren.

[2] I keep trying to convince Postal Service fans who are even too afraid to dip their toes into that electronic stuff to give Caribou and Four Tet a try. Do it. Please. Dip your toes.

[yadayadayada] Some people try to put tags like experimental [it's not], psychedelic [it may be], post-rock [I never understood that one], glitch [no], IDM [umm....], or the jahforsaken tag electronica. Ignore all that nonsense. I have an anonymous friend who says the Cold War Kids aren't rock. Wha? That's like saying the Beatles aren't pop. Or that fish isn't meat. That pink shirts are gay.

[blahblahblah] Ok, so maybe they aren't all the same thing, but my point is this: go read Shakespeare. A rose, any other name, blah blah blah. Oh, and don't judge books by their stupid pigeonholes.

Wake up! The music's finally coming.

In my most illegal post yet, here are SIX downloads: four Four Tet remixes from 2007 [all four of which validate this as a FaveSongs2007 post], one classic FT track, and his amazing remix of everyone's favorite tearjerker, Sia's Six Feet Under -ending "Breathe Me".

[if you don't know that the above is in fact what I call keeping this short, then you haven't been coming around these parts long enough]

Sia - "Breathe Me" [Four Tet remix]

Battles - "Tonto" [Four Tet remix]

Caribou - "Melody Day" [Four Tet remix]

Matthew Dear - "Deserter" [Four Tet remix]

Nathan Fake - "You Are Here" [Four Tet remix]

Four Tet - "No More Mosquitoes" [Boom Bip remix]

Go buy Four Tet music:
Insound
Other Music
Turntable Lab
Amazon

If you ever happen to see me walking around, bopping with my earbuds in and I'm drumming imaginary drumsticks in the air, chances are I'm listening to something having to do with Four Tet. Or my iPod's dead and I just don't want to talk to you.

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New Teiam Player!

Alicia and the MGMT boys get down and dirty. Well, not entirely. But MGMT definitely makes Alicia pick up the pace here. There's even an extra little something special in there, too [secret-but-not-too-unapparent sample from another OHWNT favorite!].

Alicia Keys + MGMT = Teiam Player "No Kids"

Special thanks to Liz and Rachel for opening my eyes/ears to both of these tracks, both just in the last few days.

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Pale Young Gents Get Forked

Thanks to Muzzle of Bees for the word about the Pale Young Gentlemen record review over at Pitchfuck. Bitchfork. Pitchfork, sorry.

If you want to read it, go right ahead. But I can sum it up:

They give it a respectable 6.9, which is definitely better than this classic review, and better than [but not quite as funny as] this one too, and a whole 1/10 point higher than music as a whole, as reported by The Onion. Wonderful!

Oh yeah, a summation:

They indirectly pick on the little group from Madison, for being.... well, a little group from Madison [no, we can't all be from Austin or Brooklyn or Omaha or Seattle or Bergen or.. wherever all those awesome French electro guys are from]. They liken the Gents to Beirut and Gogol Bordello and, sort of, Coldplay's Chris Martin and-- even more sort-of-- Panic! at the Disco. All in all, it's a decent little review and I don't think the Gents should be upset with a 6.9 from the hegemonic power that is PF.

But really, who cares what they say? I'm just telling y'all cause I think it's awesome exposure for our local guys [although a quick search in The Hype Machine shows that they are getting plenty of online exposure].

And as much as I take digs at Pitchfork, of course you'll still find their link in that section somewhere over there to the right. A weakness indeed. At least I'm not quite this opinionated and blunt.

A PYGents download or two to come.... soon, perhaps. Check back.

If you're not so lucky to find it down your local shop, go buy the wonderful Pale Young Gentlemen album, Pale Young Gentlemen, here.

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In slightly related stuffs, there's a pretty cool editorial over at Idolator [which is quickly becoming a favorite stop of mine; look for it right above the Pitchfork link in that section somewhere over there to the right] recently [October] published a Real Talk Special Report [subtitled: The Black Kids Hype Must Be Stopped]. I agree with it in a large number of ways, not the slightest of which is that The Black Kids really aren't very good, no matter how many blogs you read say they are and no matter how ironic they try to be ["I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You" is sposedta be their breaking out hit] and no matter how many times you slip into some tight jeans and listen to it and try to dance to it.

Anyway, the Idolator article really is not so much about how The Black Kids suck as it is about music/mp3 blogs and hype and all that jazz that I rambled on about several days ago. Maybe I'm just a big musicmedia dork, or maybe it's this damn blog I just started or maybe it's the media effects class I'm taking now-- something is making me really excited about all of this talk and I find it all really interesting. Anytime you feel the need to share your thoughts, I'll be here.

You don't have to take my word for it; go get The Black Kids EP Wizard of Ahhs [oh, gag me with a pitchfork] for free from their website.

Yep, I think I've covered it all.

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Make Your Own Damn Lists

Head over to CatBirdSeat's handy dandy Best of 2007 cheat sheet if you're sick of reading my wicked retahded crazy long rambling hard-to-decipher incredibly mathematically complex lists and want to make your own. While I don't agree with all inclusions, and think some great ones are left out, I do like how they're all broken up. I especially like the Bonus Pitchfork Points under the 'wildcard' section.

And if you have plenty of time and patience to read others' lists [not to mention reckless abandon in not regarding my professions as the one and only true written word], go over to LargeHeartedBoy and check out his ever-growing list of Other Bloggers' favorites. And hey, look! Somehow I even made his list.

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Sunshine on a Cloudy Day, More on VietNam

Happy Monday!

First, here are a couple VietNam tracks I alluded to back on Turkey Day. "Step on Inside" is another OHWNT-approved opening track. Way to go, boys! You really know how to open up an album.

"Step on Inside"
"Welcome to My Room"

Both tunes be purchased as part of the same great album, VietNam. And if you like these two songs, don't go buy their older album, because I guess they're totally different. Which is strange: I swear to jah they're channeling all sorts of Vietnam-era bands on this new album; if I'm not wrong, then what the hell could they have been sounding like if nothing Vietnam-related?

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Ok, I gotta do a little more on VietNam. And as much as I don't particularly care for the way they throw that capital N in there, I never didn't write out CYHSY!'s or TG!T's or ON!OM!'s or TAN!'s or P!atD's YSP!WSD!'s !s, [or !!!'s chks, for that matter] so why should I not respect their capitalization creativity? Besides, I do it all the time.


Anyway, if you thought I was full of shit before, when I was talking about them sounding all 60s/70s-ish, hopefully you've listened now and can believe me at least a little. If you see the picture to the left [it is to the left, right?], where they were featured on last month's Fader, they even look like they're stuck in Vietnam era. Fucking hippies. But they're from Brooklyn! What kind of posers are these guys? Are they trying to be ironic? I don't know. Their neighbors Yeasayer are more close to them sonically than any other Brooklyn hipsters that I know of, but the interview-elusive and semi-mysterious Yeasayer at least seem like they're hip. Maybe it's just their neoretro promo image [don't be fooled, they photoshopped that arm so that it's wearing a pink shirt. And crudely, I might add] or the album cover slash promo shot with the cool tat-like YSR initials.. which aren't even initials.

Anyway, Yeasayer seem like they're naturally cool or they're trying to be cool. Either way, it's working. VietNam seem like they're just being themselves. I've never met them. I haven't even read too many interviews. But if you allow something like Fader to depict you as a bunch of long-haired stoner hippies who are just happy to be in the sun and still have all their hair, you're either Tommy Chong or you just don't give a shit [not that Tommy Chong gives a shit. Obviously]. Seriously, that Fader pic coulda just been an Allman Brothers photo from forty years ago. See?

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Alright, on with the cloud-forgetting. I don't even know what I want to listen to when it's cloudy and miserable, so I sure as hell don't know what does it for you. So.. I'm giving a bit of a mixed bag. Get 'em all or feel free to direct yourself straight to your own pigeonhole/stereotype.

Bedroom-Dancefloor junkies: Klanguage - "This is Me" [Yuksek Remix], TBReleased

Head-nodders: Pharoahe Monch feat Showtime - "Desire", from Desire

Tight-jeaned hipsters: Deerhoof - "+81", from Friend Opportunity

Couch-lying book-readers: Great Lake Swimmers - "Your Rocky Spine", from Ongiara

Cool Like Me [this is the one that's currently working for me, thanks to a Lovechild]: MGMT - "Kids", from Oracular Spectacular

Hopefully one of those does the trick.

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Favorite Songs of 2007, Part Tres

Subheadings:

Free! Music! Journalism!

and

Band of Horses!

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I finally sat down with my little negrito [I think that's the name I've settled on for my laptop] a while today and was able to do a much-needed activity: listen to some real good music. First I listened to the Yeasayer album [which incidentally has about a 99.75% chance of being on my Top 5 Favorite Albums of 2007 list, yet TBD], and then to the new Band of Horses. I read two good BoH stories over the break which totally inspired me to [a] pack a rucksack and hitchhike to a little shack in the middle of the southern sticks, overlooking a lake and do nothing but write poetry, drink tallboys and eat barbecued pork.. all day.. oh, and [b] listen to more Band of Horses. One little ditty was from November's Paste and a better writeup with short interview was in the latest Fader. If nothing else, there's a killer photo of Ben Bridwell and his pick-up, exposing [but not exhibiting] his tats and beard, both of which are no less than fifty-seven years old. Nope, he ain't no city boy.

In case you haven't heard the old news, Paste is still running a Radiohead-inspired promo-- go name your own price for a full year's worth of Paste goodness. I extended my subscription for the same amount I paid for In Rainbows; four bucks. Fader, still cooler than most in my book, is available for free, every month, in PDF format [have I recently mentioned that?]. Get #49 here. Buy a year of the old-fashioned paperback business here. And since it costs $20 [which is a great deal for this mag], you don't have to feel as guilty as you may for "buying" In Rainbows or Paste by filling in all the boxes with zeros.

ANYWAY.. this was supposed to be a FSo'07 post, and dammit that's what it's still gonna be, at least in part. After cycling through both All Hour Cymbals and then Cease to Begin, I went through some of my favorites of this past year, and these were just a few of the ones that stood out this time.

Spoon - "The Ghost of You Lingers", from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga; 55%
I'm not gonna lie, by this point, I'm kinda totally over Spoon. Kill the Moonlight was awesome, with one of the best album openers of recent times, but c'mon; since then they've just been trying to repeat that. The 55% I just gave them for Ga Ga is really a lie; they don't have much chance of reaching my [possibly fictitious] Fave Albums of 2007 list. In all honesty, I don't even know if I attentively listened to it once all the way through. I did, however, listen to "The Ghost" and "Underdog" a lot. I hope you already have this song and don't need to download it; it's awesome.

Apostle of Hustle - "National Anthem of Nowhere", from National Anthem of Nowhere; 30%
Again, didn't give this album much chance, although I know I should have. I'm a huge fan of Broken Social Scene [ok, who isn't?], and BSS guitarist Andrew Whiteman's side project AoH does things much like BSS godfather Kevin Drew. This song really reminds me of two other related tunes-- BSS's "7/4 (Shoreline)", which shares the same 7/4 time signature and, although "Anthem" isn't blessed with any beautiful Leslie Feist in the background, it just generally sounds similar. It also reminds me of K-Os's "Valhalla", which features Kevin Drew's vocal cords.

Find all of my FaveSongs2007 posts here.

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And since I talked so much about Ben Bridwell's Horses I feel I must share a tune of theirs, as well. "Is There a Ghost" may land on these pages someday before the end of the year as a favorite, but now I'll share "Ode to LRC" which I thought was a strange ode to the early internet chat system, before I realized it was L RC and not I RC. This song is awesome. It's the second track of the album [right after "Ghost"], which doesn't help the rest of the album's chances at getting much play, as I just keep repeating those two. But "Ode" is almost a perfect BoH tune; it's got a little bit of all of their magics.

You gotta love a dude who is not afraid to wail away [and repeat] the obvious: the world is such a wonderful place. And one can imagine him sitting there, on the steps of his southern porch, flannel shirtsleeves rolled up exposing his ink, smoking a cigarette, taking in this wonderful place. And dammit, if not for the awesome music, that's why I like him.

Wow. This really shoulda been two separate posts.

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Twin Peaks

The absolute most frustrating thing all day has been this damn internet here at the Palacio McCormick. I won't go into details, but I sat here in the kitchen for more than twenty minutes while a page was waiting to load. Luckily I had something else to do-- channel surf and wait for someone to pass me some more pecan pie.

In my channel surfing, I discovered Twin Peaks is playing on Chiller. My first thought was what the hell is Chiller? which was followed quickly with whatever it is, it seems like a fitting place for Twin Peaks. They must be limited with the chilling, syndicated, avant-garde television series they run, but wait-- if I can manage to stay up another five hours, Tales From the Crypt will be on. Honestly, that just may be worth it.

I will admit that when it first aired, Twin Peaks was a little too out there, or there just weren't enough things blowing up or showing their cleavage for this eleven-year old to keep interest. I know my ma watched it, and I think my sister at least pretended to enjoy it.

A few years ago, on his DJ mix series album Back to Mine, Alex "The Orb" Patterson featured the theme song from the show. It's Angelo Badalamenti's "Fire Walk With Me" and hearing it on that mix in a local record shop was the first time I had heard it in about fifteen years. It's truly chilling, which leads me to commend Chiller for scoring Twin Peaks.

A further search of this song shows that it appears on loads of different compilations, from ambient/chill mix CDs to.. well, more ambient/chill mix CDs. I think I saw it on a Pure Moods somewhere. Well, I finally tracked down a link to download it, thanks to Battle of the Midwestern Housewives. Go get it here.

Now I'm gonna try to stay awake for TftC.

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Turkeys, VietNam

Well, there are turkeys in Albert Lea, Minnesota, the little town five minutes from my parents' wonderful home, the house at which I went through puberty. These turkeys sold my parents some sort of satellite broadband internet crap which is barely working. Or maybe my parents are the turkeys for buying it. But you can't blame them-- after going twelve years using dial-up internet, first at 14.4 baud and then for the last ten years at 56kbps [umm, compare that to the 5mbps or ~28'000kbps a lot of us with cable have]. Although when I lived here, the McCormick place never saw a download speed reach higher than 1 twpm [one topless woman per minute]. That made the whole post-puberty thing that much rougher.

But now, whether it's the recent snow or the morons who installed the satellite [probable] or the non-expert [me] who installed the wi-fi [highly unlikely], the internets are at a crawl.

So because of this, I can't be bothered to give [m]any updates. That's why yesterday saw my first post-less day since starting this thing! And I could hear your collective wail-- it sounded like those three little mice on the Babe movies.

Alrighty.. now I'm gonna go lie down on the carpet while the tryptophan and Guinness and pecan pie and rutabaga and champagne and crappy merlot all duke it inside my bloated little tummy. And hope that my niece and nephew don't come and jump on my bloatedness.

Happy Turkey Day, everybody.

Good music to come soon..

..I promise.

Oh ok, you can have one tip right now. If you haven't heard these guys already, go check out VietNam. Just Tuesday, for the first time, I put on their latest album and was diggin on it on the drive to my parents' turkey farm. These guys didn't just pull their name from their stoned asses; this album sounds as if it's been in a vault for thirty-five years. Enjoy.

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Favorite Songs of 2007, Part Dos

Remember, these are in no particular order.

And remember the percentage significance [last hint: it is the chance that this album would make my fave albums list].

Apparat - "Fractales" parts One & Two, from Walls; 88%
I feel like I've talked about Apparat ever since I got the album over the summer. I liked it immediately, and it's only grown on me since. Apparat is now known for being the driving force behind Ellen Allien & his wonderful Orchestra of Bubbles [which is strangely just about the most accurate title for a record that I've seen], and he's currently probably my favorite electro/glitch producers. "Fractales", in two parts, is some of the best work I've heard of his. The comedown which is "Part 2" wouldn't sound out of place on a Sigur Ros record.


Chromeo - "Tenderoni", from Fancy Footwork; 55%
Umm.. this is just funky as all hell, and if you can't get over yourself and dance to it then you need to stop coming to this space.


CRS [Lupe Fiasco, Kanye & Pharrell] - "Us Placers", originally from * NA%, for the mixtape, holmes. 66% for Graduation.
I was originally really hesitant of the Thom Yorke sample, as it's just as obvious as Kanye's Daft Punk sample in "Stronger". But who am I to criticize-- I blatantly sample all sorts of recent crap. I guess I just expect more out of proper producers-with-studios, who should leave the mash-up fodder to us kids-with-computers. Anyway, it's hard to not like a track which is based on a song which you already like so much, and the three boys' flow is smooth like butter. So is Thom's.

Give it up for:
Lupe: "a closet full of clothes and some brand new dangers // and some mexican floral arrangers"
Kanye: "look at all the new beautiful faces // at-home supermodel's MySpaces"
Pharrell: simply for rhyming GlaxoSmithKline.

*Originally appeared on Kanye's pre-Graduation mixtape Can't Tell Me Nothing, but then Kanye decided he had to have it on his album and that's probably ok since he produced it and all; in the end, it's a bonus track or on the export versions of Graduation or something. I also heard it may be coming out on Lupe's new record, The Cool, although it looks like that intel may be inaccurate.

Find all of my FaveSongs2007 posts here.
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Sufjan rocks out, Matt Pond PA pops!

I been holding onto this Sufjan Stevens for a hot minnit. I meant to e-mail it out a while back, but never got around to it. I absolutely love almost [mmm, Enjoy Your Rabbit, anyone?] everything he does, but I think every once in a while he should rock out with his swan out. That one guitar part kept putting the lyric "come along if you care! / come along if you dare!", which made me go look it up. It's the Amboy Dukes, aka The Nuge's band.

Rock on, The Nuge.

Sufjan Stevens "In the Words of the Governor"

And bad naysayers [haha, geddit?] of Soof who think he's all snooty and NYC-hipster and ish, go read this old Stereogum blurb [which was excerpted from Salon], Sufjan Admits he's Full of Shjit. Ha! Title alone gets me. It's worth the thirty seconds, so go.

.

Also, a track off the new Matt Pond PA album Last Light. One of my favorite songs of the past few years just so happens to be a MPPA tune--"Measure 3". Go figure, then, that I've never been all too excited to hear his new stuff [main reason: I usually find it kinda boring]. But, hey! this song is poppy as hell, and I'm lovin it. Third time in a row now.. somebody stop me.

Matt Pond PA "People Have a Way", from Light Years


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There must be some kind of mistake!

I logged onto my own blog from my laptop this afternoon, in order to go download a Teiam Player song, "Int'l Player's Plot" which I posted in yesterday's first installment of Faves of 2007. Well, pictures are worth a thousand yadayada, so that saves you a few.


Can you see it? Like, over 1500 downloads. I don't understand. I went and checked some other OHWNT download links and, nope, only a large handful of downloads for each. So.. why so many for the one?

I still have no answers. Maybe some other blogger/uploader doesn't understand CTRL+C and CTRL+V and accidentistly mistyped my song's link instead of his. Maybe one of you had a lot of time on your hands and intentionally did it, just to screw with my head. But I'm guessing that, while hearing the song stream, someone fell asleep on their keyboard and somehow mashed some keys which made it refresh the page.. 1500 times.

But really, if for some reason there were actually over one thousand people who downloaded that song, I really wish it wouldn't have been that song! I always felt it was kinda undone, and never felt like finishing it. Oh well.

So now here's a better one, fresh from last night. I like this one, so someone make it magically be downloaded 1500 times. And it just happens to be another White Rabbits tune.

Kid Sister + White Rabbits + Digitalism =
Teiam Player "Kid Sister On My Shoulders"

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Favorite Songs of 2007, Part Uno

Well, there are roughly 40 days left in this wonderful year. And in a good portion of those days I'm going to sort through my various "best of" playlists.. that could be an entirely different post altogether.

Anyword.. I'm going to be randomly be adding anywhere from two to.. five? six? seven? songs each time up until either [a] I get sick of doing it, [b] I get sick of the songs, or [c] the end of the year. So without further..

Oh! Brand new idea: the percentage to the right of each album is the probability that this album would appear on my Favorite Album of 2007 list. Watch out now, kids-- lots of links, lots of stats.

Matthew Dear - "Fleece on Brain", from Asa Breed; 68%
I really need to make a regular "opening tracks" section where I share some of my favorite opening tracks. If I did, this would make the list. "Fleece" is one of the most electronic-sounding tunes on Asa Breed, with its oscillating synthlines and neverending looped bassline and probably not one of the most immediate, so perhaps it's a peculiar choice for opening track of an album that is definitely trying to reach out to indie audiences. But it's that never-quite-reaching-climax aspect of it that I think makes it work as an opening track. Besides that, what does it for me is the fact that he sounds one part [OHWNT favorite guilty pleasure] Clutch lead singer Neil Fallon, and one part [TVotR's] Kyp Malone [as I contest he does elsewhere on the record].

UGK feat Outkast - "Int'l Player's Anthem", from Underground Kingz; 4%
This song does not need any introduction. It's bloody brilliant. Earlier in the year I incorrectly deemed it the summer hip hop anthem. Well, who could have predicted the staying power of what turned into two of the most annoying tunes-- I speak of "The Way I Are" and "Umbrella"-ella-ella. ANYWAY.. you have to see the video if you haven't already, because whereas he hasn't yet totally realized greatness on the big screen [although he's definitely trying], Mr Andre Benjamin steals the show in the opening scene. Fo reezy. Further along, though, big UGK thug Bun B flexes his experience and.. bigness. But then the real Big Boi shows everyone why this tune should have really been an Outkast song, featuring UGK.

Bonus: it just so happens Teiam Player got hold of this and totally had his way with it. The "official" version ["The Int'l Man of Metropolis", one of the better TP tunes if I may say so myself] can be heard over at TeiamSpace. But another [kinda never totally finished] one can be downloaded here [an exclusive, feel special]:
UGK feat Outkast + White Rabbits + Sufjan Stevens =
Teiam Player "The International Player's Plot"

Menomena - "Wet and Rusting", from Friend and Foe; 98%
This was, if not the, then one of the first albums I knew would be my year-end favorite. And this song has it all. Pianos! Strumming guitars! Chaotic drum beating! Dual vocals, quasi-harmonizing! It's killer. And with the props to Kanye, the video for it is alright, too.

Bonus: and guess what? That's right, Teiam Player's version!
Menomena + The Pack = Teiam Player "Wet Candy"

Phew. Was this the most fun-filled OHWNT post yet, or what? And it's a frigging Friday night. I need to leave the house now.

Find all of my FaveSongs2007 posts here.

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Finally I Speak My Mind

[continued from OHWNT post Angola's "Watch My Feet"]

Now just how I stumbled upon that video is slightly interesting. It comes from a great blog, Awesome Tapes From Africa, which is really cool if you're into realizing that the rest of the world not only listens to funky fresh joints, but makes them, too.

And I got the ATfA link from the UK's Guardian blog, which posted an interesting post here. The Guardian blogster basically states that MP3 blogs are the root of all that is evil on the internets.

But I got the Guardian link from Nothing But Green Lights, a pretty good Kingdom-based blog which tells us all about the British indie scene. NBGL [of whose name I'm still trying to find meaning just as I'm sure, if by some strange happening he ever saw my blog he'd wonder just what the hell it means as well], as an MP3 blogster, disagrees with The Guardian and thinks that sharing MP3s is our jahgiven right.

I have a little [edit: a lot of] interest in this, not because I recently started this machine and now thousands if not millions of people across the globe read it on a daily basis, but because I find it all very interesting. Despite the fact that I share music and sometimes hype up bands, I have the belief that MP3 blogs help oversaturate pop culture with too many bands. Yes, too many. The fact that there are too many bands isn't necessarily the problem; a lot of options is a good thing. But so many choices only means that, naturally, a lot are going to be forgotten about, and therein lies the problem.

Loads of new songs of bands we've never heard of are available every day. I contend that because there is so much choice, all these new songs just blot out yesterday's new big thing. Sure, if you like something, you really like it. I'm not doubting the individual's capability of knowing what they like [I can only doubt my own capability of remembering all of the things I like]. But I question the capability of the consuming audience as a whole, which I think indirectly effects the staying power of a lot of these bands.

So why do I continue to share? Well, because I'm not a part of blogdom fame, and I'm basicall sharing with friends. Oh, and then there's the fact that I aim to be part of the root of all that's evil.

Am I making any sense? Do you have any thoughts? Please sound off, let me know what you think. I'm genuinely interested in what you think.

And just to make this more fun, here's an ancient Teiam Player tune, back before that name even existed. Talk about staying power..

AC/DC + Beyonce + Teiam Player cheekiness = "Work it Black"

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Angola's "Watch My Feet"

Remember [shshdh'rs] when I shared this link over the summer?



Well, juke-lovers, just when you thought it wasn't possible to see anything better....

Tears Tunes

As promised.


Here.

Burial

Real quick, cause I'm still homework-doing. I just had to share this song by hermitlike UK dubstepper Burial, which comes handed over from the Toofers, by way of the Chris. Respec'.
[note: I don't much like most dubstep, but this is simple and marvelous]

Burial.

"Archangel".

Untrue.

The stuttered and looped vocals of this track are haunting and remind me a bit of "Unfinished Sympathy". This song grew on me more than the fungus I'm growing in my plant pathology class.

[Tears for Fears tracks still to come.. possibly. You can't wait, can you?]

Mad World

This morning I scanned Donnie Darko to find a clip that I never seem to remember. Ok, so I was looking to see what Donnie calls his sister while they're at the dinner table. Do you remember? Go ahead, say it. I would, but I try to keep this space respectable, in the event my ma ever stumbles onto it-- if she stumbles, I can handle it. But if she'd scrape her knee on some of my foul language, I couldn't bear it.

Anyway, so in scanning through the movie, I happen upon the awesome scene where the boys hop out of the back on the school bus and walk into school. It's all set to Tears for Fears's "Head Over Heals", which totally makes the scene; without that song, or at least another like it, they'd just be a couple of goofs walking into school. But the song, despite the precarious lyrics, empowers them and they are seemingly the hot shots, parading the halls of the school, perhaps really off in their own little world....

Or maybe that's just the way I see it.

It also reminds me of the awesome summer day that a friend and I rode back into our hometown after being gone to boot camp for two months and-- as if we were transplanted onto a Hollywood set-- Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" came on the radio. We took the scenic route, cruisin through the town, windows down, wind blowing through our buzzed hair, radio bumpin, high school behind us, a couple weeks of summer still ahead of us, feelin like a million bucks. No one cared to vocalize the glaring truth, lest he ruin the moment: exactly one person, save our parents, knew we had been gone all summer, and he was right there in the van with us, just as had been since he picked us up from the airport. No one else had known we left, and so no one really cared to notice that the boys were back in town.

But I digress.

Back to Tears for Fears. Because of Donnie Darko and "Head Over Heals", they're ruling my Last.FM right now, temporarily knocking other retrofaves Jefferson Starship back to the city they built. I love it when something makes me remember just how good a band is or how good some specific songs are. "Sowing the Seeds of Love" while perhaps not my absolute favorite, is, in my opinion, quite possibly the single best song of the 80s-- I've honestly felt that for a long time. Like they [erm, real critics?] say about the Beach Boys's "God Only Knows", the song has everything. It flows like a symphony. It's brilliant. As far as favorites go, it's maybe second only to Toto's "Africa".

So I kept exploring TfF, and I didn't really care for any of the new-to-me old stuff. "Seeds", "Heals", "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" are all killer tracks-- all the rest pretty much suck santorum. But then.. I heard familiar lyrics: "Mad World", which appears on Donnie Darko, sung very fittingly in a somber if not depressing manner by Gary Jules. I had no clue it was a TfF tune! Should I have? Did you? I've listened to the Darko/Jules version about six brazilian times, and completely love it. The original? Eh. Sucks.

Tomorrow I'll try to remember to post MP3 rips of the good songs off the Tears for Fears vinyls and cassettes I may have lying around. Oh, and maybe a bad song like "Mad World", too. But now, I need a nap.

=

UPDATE:

Tears for Fears - "Mad World"

Gary Jules - "Mad World"

Tears for Fears - "Sowing the Seeds of Love"

I talk about films on CD release days

No Country for Old Men
I don't know if I'm more creeped out or intrigued by the trailer. But I want to see it. Tommy Lee Jones is a friggin bad-ass.

Juno
Simply can't wait. It's probably difficult to not typecast Mister Manager, as it's difficult to not call him George Michael. I hope, for his sanity, that he'll play out of that character soon. At least he's doing more than Jason Alexander ever did with George.. or anyone else for that matter.

A Return to Organic Music

Enough of that dance crap that I've been posting and blathering on about lately, and back to some real indie rock.. with one exception: The Go! Team.

I recently started listening to their new album Proof of Youth. Buy it here. Download "Patricia's Moving Picture". If you've never listened to The Go! Team, then you're in for a treat.

I've talked about TG!T's countrymen Jonquil before. "Lions" will keep on keepin on as one of my favorite songs of the year. I just wish it was longer! Check out a live video I found for it here, at their CD release party. Buy Lions. Download "Whistle Low" and "Lily" [note: album opener! And what a brilliant one it is!].

Thanks to GvsB for the wonderful Shuta Hasunuma track, available for download here.

Go download another beautiful song [prediction: it'll grow on you] by everyone's favorite singing drummer Dan Bejar's 365th side project, Hello, Blue Roses, over at fellow Madisonite, fellow Ryan's Muzzle of Bees.

Da Hood Autumn Mix

Every indie kid's favorite mash-up artists The Hood Internet published volume two of their mixtape series. You can download it three different ways from their blog. I'm diggin it right now, and while most mash-ups for some reason always sound better in the summertime in the T-Bird with the t-tops down or out back on the patio sippin Zima and burnin Mexican meat, the inclusion of Radiohead and Interpol make it feel a little more autumnal.

In other mash-up news, despite the fact that I've been doing a whole lot of nothing lately, I still can't seem to find the time to create any more new music from other people's old music. Maybe over TurkeyDay break. But cause I like to share and I'm shameless when it comes to self-promotion of music, here's an old one. And it's one of my own favorites [no, not all of them are].

The Islands - "Rough Gem"
+ Outkast - "B.O.B"
= Teiam Player - "R.G.O.B"

Is it Chinese New Year?

That's what it was the last time I heard fireworks on a day I normally don't associate with loud booms and frizzly lights. Only, at least from my block, the lights can't be seen. I hope that they're exploding underneath the clouds/fog somewhere.

I'm using this blog tonight, as I did just about everything else-- Facebook profile updating, MP3 directory re-organizing, espresso machine cleaning, the list goes on-- as an escape from homework. I don't have any amazing new music to share. Nothing too crazy happened to me this weekend. I can't even think of much to say. That's how bad it is. I want to tell you of an epiphany I had or great moral I learned or that I thought of the greatest movie or television idea, but none of those are true. It was, indeed, a pretty boring weekend for me, Chinese New Year or not.

Alright, so since I don't have anything new to give you, I'll give you something old. In the spirit of nearing the end of this [Western World] year, and the possibility of the end of the Chinese Year [although I really don't think it was, and I'm too lazy right now to multi-task and go look, so I should really just let go].... and the desire to sort out some of my favorites of the year, I'm giving some tunes that hopefully you have not yet completely forgotten about. They'd most likely make my Top 100 of 2007 list, if I ever made one.

El-P [feat Chan Marshall] - "Poisenville Kids No Wins", from I'll Sleep When You're Dead*
Wanna know what I like best about this song? The end. The instrumental at the end is like an entirely different track, and I love it. I also love Cat Power's chiming in during the chorus and her vocal stabs here and there elsewhere. I try and I try but just can't seem to like much more of El-P's stuff, which apparently puts me on the edge of the hip hop community, because people seem to really like him. Does it say anything that the two tracks I really love off I'll Sleep have guest appearances? By "rock"-ers, no less.
*InSound says this was a 2006 release; they're so wrong.

Cloud Cult - "Chain Reaction", from Meaning of 8
Wanna know what I like most about this album? The beginning. If you claim to know me, or have read some of my RDD/shshdh ramblings, then you know I like album intros-- rather, I appreciate really good ones. That's one thing that draws me into Cloud Cult-- each album has a brilliant intro, whether it's an instrumental track devoted to doing the opening work or [as in the case of "Chain Reaction"] it's an elongated instro of the first track. Every time I hear this song it puts me back into the Orpheum Stage Door's little space where I saw them play it [as an encore?] back in the spring. The best moment: the entirety of the drumless strumming and vocals of raw emotion that starts at the 1:30 mark. Shivers, people.

The Tough Alliance - "Something Special", from New Chance
I think I sent this out to RDD/shshdh'rs when I had first heard it in the summer. I played it a couple dozen times in the first few days I heard it. All of the stuff I've heard by them is pretty solid. Swedish boys doin' good pop with a shadow of chill and a sprinkle of electronic coating the whole package.

Teiam Player: the Return

Welcome back, Teiam! This is the first track I've made since early August. And I probably shouldn't have even made it, since I still have loads of homework to do.

When I first heard Pharrell & Twista's "Give it Up", I heard the Swizz Beatz beats of Eve's "Tambourine" all the way through it, and wanted to swap the acapellas and beats of each. Well, it only really worked well this way, keeping the Swizzbeat. At first I was basically just mashing the two together, but then I had a bunch more ideas.. this is the finished product; hopefully not too convoluted.

__Pharrell & Twista "Give it Up"
+ Eve "Tambourine" + a couple others
= Teiam Player - "That Girl Gonna Tambourine it Away"

Bonus!

__Timbaland, et al "The Way I Are"
+ Salt-n-Pepa "Push It"
= Teiam Player - "The Way I Pushes It"

_

TV Digressions

I had a feeling that I'd turn to here to start expressing my recent turn towards TV. I grew up in a house without cable all of my life. When my sister and I were impressionable, our dad paid us $100 each summer if we didn't watch any TV. Easy money. People'd say well you coulda just gone over to your friends' houses but we never did; didn't care. I carried that impartiality towards or disinterest in TV all the way through until recently, for the most part. Sure, I'm a Seinfeld freak, and I've been known to plop down on the couch and veg out to reruns, but not until the past few months have I ever watched so much TV.

This day I think it is a perfect time to watch, if there is any, with all of the technology out there. I still only actually tune in to a TV broadcast once a week, if that [to watch Thursday's 30 Rock, The Office, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]; everything [to include those three] I'm able to download and watch at my own convenience.

Anyway, I bring all of this up because I think I'll probably be mentioning TV more and more in this space. I'm taking a TV class right now, and it's just more and more a part of my almost-everyday life. I'm not ashamed to say there is a lot of good TV out there right now. I'm also still very proud to disagree with dorm room- and living room-fulls of people and say that there's lots of horrible TV out there right now--the majority of it, I believe. I'd give a list of both, but most likely I'll be airing a lot of my thoughts in the upcoming days.

I wanted to give you one of the many great lines I hear on 30 Rock each week [Tina Fey is a wicked retarded genius], because out of context I'm sure it's just as funny as it was when I heard it last night. But of course I forgot it already.

Oh yeah-- and Al Gore was on last night's 30 Rock. How fricking awesome was that? And how awesome was it that he actually killed? It could have only been better if he used it to announce his candidacy.

Indie Kid's Dance Party Jukebox Guide [a mini-tutorial]

Wanna have a dance party? Well then you need to invite the boys from Soulwax/2 Many DJs into your house. I've always used Soulwax's amazing mash-up mixes soundtrack my dance parties, which usually get pretty wild.... and then my upstairs neighbors would stomp on the floor, I'd realize it's 3.30am and so I'd stop the record, chug a glass of water and slip into my bed.

Breaking out some of the best mash-ups I've ever heard, back when Gregg Gillis was studying for his SATs [ok, in all reality he's only two years younger than me], and before the Erlend Oye DJ Kicks mix album hit the floors, Soulwax was all you needed. And then came along Night Ripper. And now, if you have the tolerance or stamina to skip through the misses, there's The Hood's mixtape.

Well now it's the Dewaele brothers' turn once again, with the proper release of almost all of their wonderful remixes packaged together nicely in a two-disc set. Go buy the damn thing, and dance like like you have ants in your pants. The best part about the set is that the second disc is a mix album, which of course is what I suggest you use those nights when you clear everything out of the living room.

I've had trouble finding it for sale online, and I don't have the actual CDs because I'm waiting for the vinyl release [in the event I ever come completely out of DJ retirement]. So your best bet is to try here or here if you really want the thing.

In the meantime, enjoy these couple tunes. Soulwax totally crash Daft Punk's house in their rework of LCD's 2005 kickoff. Make a list of all the Daft Punk tunes which appear in this and we'll compare notes. Whoever loses has to buy me a Belgian ale, in the spirit of the Belgian Dewaeles. Don't be deterred by the fact that I'm giving a Robbie Williams tune. I first heard this at a club in Argentina, where Robbie is like JT-- only bigger-- and after that first time if I stepped in and out of a club without hearing it, I felt as though my night was incomplete.

LCD Soundsystem - "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" (Soulwax Shibuya Re-remix)
Robbie Williams - "Lovelight" (Soulwax Ravelight Dub)

Free Illegal Art

Girl Talk's record label Illegal Art are doing some good promotion in the form of a free mini-promo CD. It's only four tracks, but it makes all the kiddies happy with a GT track, "Let's Run This". That track is nothing too different from anything heard on Night Ripper, which I guess means.. it's good but nothing new and exciting.

Highly anticipated but sort of a letdown was the Steinski track. Steinski, of Double Dee & Steinski's "The Lesson" fame, is some kind of old hip hop bookworm sample nerd. "The Lesson" which they did back in the 80s were seminal moments in sampling and killer breakbeat tracks. Unfortunately, although it's entirely possible this free track is just as old, it doesn't seem like he's progressed very much at all.

What I am sort of both impressed with and annoyed by, however, is the track offered by Oh Astro. It's fun in the way you hear some of your favorite dancealong songs of earlier this year but it's also a pest in the way you hear some of your favorite dancealong songs of earlier this year, because the original grooves are never fully established, instead mixed together to create new grooves. You'll see what I mean if you go download the ZIP directly from the Illegal Art website here.

And then someone please go tell me how Illegal Art is able to survive as a legit record label who produces nothing but sample-based music of which they don't always get cleared or pay royalties. Or maybe I'm completely wrong about that. Nah, they're criminals.

Deadwood Music

Update: David Schwartz is the genius behind the Deadwood theme. You may already know him by this number if, like me, you knew it as a cue to leave the room as your mother grabbed a cup of decaf and you wandered off to somewhere else in the house, contemplating the possibility that the show actually was funny [conclusion: yes, it really is; just not to an 11-yr old].

Download the theme for Deadwood right here, from his very own webspace. Now I just wish Mike Post would open up webspace and offer all his classics [yes, like the bleeps and bloops from Doogie].

Funny thing is, I've had this MP3 all along. I discovered it when looking for this beauty, which in all its 18 seconds of glory, just may be the shortest but most smile-inducing little piece of instrumental out there.

Not-so-Deadwood

In doing research for a television presentation, I stumbled across this. I had no idea that this was a possibility! I fear, as often goes with smallscreen-to-bigscreen [or vice-versa, as in my revelation below] films, that it can't be nearly as good unless it uses the original cast.

Although M*A*S*H the film with Alan Alda would have been approximately thirty-seven times better than the one with Sutherland's Hawkeye, and that's saying a lot, so....

I don't know, perhaps they really can find a more lovable and sailor-mouthed gangster than Swearin' Swearengen and make something as good as [but probably not better than] the brilliant but short-lived series. Still.. I have my many doubts.

No music here for now, sorry, but I'll try to find the Deadwood theme song somewheres, cause it actually is pretty dern good.

Edit: it's here.

Beirut Still Rocking My Mind

Something made me check out Takeaway Shows this morning, and I'm glad I did. There's a lot of new stuff since I last visited, to include recent favorites Beirut. I've always [well, since I first heard it a few weeks ago] thoroughly enjoyed "The Penalty" [mp3], but this live version made me enjoy it so much more, and now I think it's probably my favorite. Other album standout "Nantes" is rendered as well.

Also, check out latest TaShows offering by Department of Eagles. I first heard "Sailing by Night" while I was in the desert last year, but I must have listened to it more than a hundred times in those few months. They have a new album coming out, and I'm actually pretty excited for it. "Sailing" [still my fave of theirs] and the new "No One Does It Like You", from the upcoming album Gold Suits, are both featured. "No One" is fricking awesome, sounding more like their cousins Grizzly Bear.

Thanks to Music is Art, Hypeful, Music For Kids Who Can't Read Good for the tuneage links.

In totally unrelated news, this right here kinda explains how the Monaco of the Desert works, because I know you all were wondering.

Post #6'978 - will this be my new addiction?

I feel like I've been doing this for months already. Years, perhaps. I've been blogging to my mother for years, only I've always called it everyday e-mailing. Most everyone else would call it outright rambling. I've also been blogging in e-mail form to a small group of friends for several months. Why pester-- torture, even-- them like that? All in the name of kindness through sharing music.

I have yet to decide how exactly I'll continue sharing music through this forum; I'll probably have to start using those damned annoying free file sharing websites that other blogs with little or no readerbase [read: income] use.

Anyway.. that's what this will be, in general. Another bloody music blog. I'll try not to be too snooty.

So, all receivers of the Silver Harm Sugar Hives Drunken Hands blog-o-list: bad news? You may have to start frequenting this space instead. Good news? I can't think of any.

One music note: recently I've been completely and totally addicted to Soulwax's pounding remix of The Gossip's "Standing in the Way of Control". Go hear why.

Happy freaking Winter.