My Muxtapes

I've been meaning to talk about Muxtape for a while. Kept forgetting. I'm sure you all know about it by now. Pretty damn ingenius; I think that guy could make millions.

Anyway, I finally got around to making one of my own.

http:// ry.muxtape.com

Okay, so I made two. If you hadn't noticed, there is a new permalink to the right. It's a link to my Teiam Player Muxtape. It's so much better than TeiamSpace in that the songs are higher quality and I can put more of them up. And there's no need for stupid pictures or excess words. Simplicity is bliss. So if you're one of the seven die-hard Teiam Player fans out there, good news for you.


http:// teiamplayer.muxtape.com


Palabra.

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New albums from old bands

And some other random ish.

The verdict is still out on the following few, as I haven't listened to the rest of the album enough. However, these are pretty decent tunes to start with.
The B-52s - Funplex
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
This song ain't bad, but the rest of the album, at a glance, sounded.. really weird and random.
Madonna - Spanish Lesson
She still needs many lessons herself. It's pretty obvious this is Neptunes-produced. Wait-- like almost the whole album is.
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Development
The Mystery Jets - Umbrellaland
Mike Doughty - 27 Jennifers
An older song, finally appearing on his new album, Golden Delicious. Anything Doughty is typically in the category below [meaning: very good] but lately his newer stuff is.. tedious, tried, and tired. Still, he was responsible for this so he deserves a fair chance:
Soul Coughing - Super Bon Bon

The verdict is in and they rock; buy the albums, or at least think about it.
The Teenagers - Sunset Beach
The Teenagers are fun because they don't care what they say. And the music's good.
Destroyer - Blue Flower/Blue Flame Bejar. Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. I've had my doubts in the past about the whole Destroyer thing, but it's bona fide.
Frightened Rabbit - The Modern Leper
Awesome follow-up to one of last year's faves, this is good stuff.
Jim Noir - Don't You Worry
Beach Boys //Beatles who? Jim Noir follows his 2006 album nicely, too. Pure spring/summer poppy fun.

Other random things:
Stylophonic - Soulreply
Nirvana - Lounge Act [Z-Trip remix]
Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket
Because this is one of the best songs off one of the best albums from one of the best bands of the 90s. Period.

Y una mas, para mi amigo argentino, quien ya no se ha presentado. El tema que he intendado darles a Uds antes.
Bersuit Vergabarat - El Tiempo No Para
Acá presento la misma canción, cantado por la fabulosa Fabiana Cantila, quien yo ví en Buenos Aires hace un año.





A woman by another name is not a woman.

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Someone in Buenos Aires reads my blog

And I want to know who it is.

Who are you? Quien sos?

I know more about you than you may know-- well, mainly just the fact that you connect to the internet using Telefonica [or was it Speedy?], which isn't saying much because 98% of the country probably does. But you also enter my blog from my last.fm profile, which is sort of curious.

It would make more sense if my profile still listed me living in BsAs like it did.. when I lived there [or for four months after my return].

So.. otra vez,
quien sos vos?
Me conoces?
Si si, como?
Como encontraste mi profil last.fm?

Pues.. aca te dedico a vos unos temas Argentinos.

Juana Molina "Micael"
Tanghetto "Inmigrante"

Y uno que yo oia mas que nada cuando estaba ahi, aunque no es de Argentina yo lo se.

Juanes "La Camisa Negra"

Pensaba en que tenia un tema de Bersuit, pero no lo podia encontrar. Fijate a Hype Machine para unos.

Chau, Boludo.

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New Porn ok; old porn better

So.... I've been to more than a couple good shows in the past few months [and one which I try to forget that I didn't actually go to], so it's peculiar that I choose the least impressive to write about not 30min after leaving it.

New Pornographers were.... ok. Okkervil River was.... ok.

/end review.

Naw, srsly, NP was the first band that got me into the whole Indie Rock thing several years ago, with their instantly rememberable, totally memorable and entirely adorable geetar hooks and nearly-meaningless refrains. Not to mention their first two albums were released back when Neko was still unknown enough that she could get away with having artistic [!] nude [!!!!] photos [!!] on her own personal web page [anyone remember that? phew, it's hard for me to forget].

Oh, how they've grown. Now not just the eldest member of the band but also the other redhead [that'd be lead singer AC I speak of] sports a beard. Wha? Would Rivers Cuomo ever grow a beard? Even now, nearly 15 years into his career? Doubt it. And, of course, he's picked up an acoustic guitar.

And despite the facts that: [a] I've never been too impressed by the Okkervil boys, [b] that I only really went to the show because my decrepit friends ax'd me to [and promised, lyingly, to go out with me afterwards.... *ahem*], and [c] that I visually bumped into an ex-girlfriend [of course, effortlessly stunning, grr] not once or twice but thrice and tried not to wonder what the hell she was doing standing near a pimply-faced boy [no, I'm not being a hater; I'm just sayin].... despite these things, oh yeah and the Julylike heat/humidity, I was still able to enjoy the show.

My favorite NP songs are still the ones that could be played with three members + Neko, only there for her beauty-- both visual and vocal. "All For Swinging Your Around", "Mass Romantic", "Electric Version", "The Laws Have Changed", "Letter From an Occupant". All brilliant, and if you walked past my bathroom four, five, six years ago you'd most likely hear me, at the top of my lungs, piping right along-- with Neko's parts.

And so it was a bit of a disappointment to only hear a couple of those. Nevertheless, I was a bit surprised [and very happy] to hear a couple of them.

where the hell were you, you brilliant, brilliant man?!

AND WHAT ABOUT BEJAR?! What the hell? So what if he wasn't there. At least without him, they still played one [the only Bejar-penned/sang song they let the Okkervil dude sing, which admittedly was kinda cool]. But stil.. fucking hell. I waited most of the night to hear one of his songs, and totally expected to hear one of the Jackie songs. Oh well. It' still good here in my bedroom.

And the encore.... two songs? Whatev. Good thing one was totally rad. ELO's [that's Electric Light Orchestra, for y'all kids] "Don't Bring Me Down", wow. The pre-beard, pre-acoustic power-chording New Pornographers woulda covered Blink 182 or [in an ill-advised attempt at being ironic] fellow Canuck Alannis Morisette. But the new shed any self-conscience or vulnerabilities and cover ELO. Again, wow. It was good. I whoo-oo'd and whistled it all the way home. It wasn't the first time they've covered it, though.



Ok, enough ramble. Well, almost-- it should definitely be said that Neko's replacement, Kathryn Calder [who is apparently AC's niece?] coulda put on a red whig and a tighter t-shirt and no one woulda known that Neko wasn't there. Good work, niece.

Now, then, some songs they forgot to play, which are mostly Bejar's work, and a few from a couple of his [many] side projects.

The New Pornographers"Letter from an Occupant"
"Chump Change"
"Jackie"
"Jackie, Dressed in Cobras"
"Ballad of a Comeback Kid"

Hello, Blue Roses
"My Shadow Falls"

And then this, an intimate version of one of his best works as/with Destroyer:

And though the solitudes have won, I cannot begin to crave you.

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losing my mind, heart on my sleeve?

Only kinda; only barely.

By three in the afternoon today, I had:

:scored a goal and defended against several possible goals which helped win a soccer championship
:drank a solid portion of five? six? trophy-fulls of beer
:mildly pinked the skin of my arms and most likely my increasingly thinning hairtop area
:gone for a bike ride [ok, so it was just down the street, but after last week's squats and today's game and nightly habit of little sleep, that's a haul]
:got drunk from beer

proof

Pretty productive, especially for me and especially for a lazy Sunnyday. Fear not, friends of Ry: you'll be comforted to know the old Ryan returned after he sobered up and the rest of the day looked a little like this:

2.55-3pm: was literally on my out the door, schoolwork on shoulder, to meet a friend in the park when I received a message that she had to leave
3-5pm: spent way too much time remixing a song which was really unnecessary in the end
5-7pm: weekly blog catch-up and music downloads, and light online self-promotion
7-8pm: got a little hazy after 7pm, and all time began to blendblurshift into one big.... period
Wha? It's after 9? Oops. Going to study now. [edit: ........going now!]


In the meantime, these songs have kept me sane and perpetually drive my passion/love of/for/ music. Most for at least a few years, and the most recent for several months. No guilty pleasure here; no shame. Hopefully some or all are new to you and I'll have opened your mind, so that when you lose it later on, you can put these on and regain your sanity. Even if you think you know it, or think you don't like it, I beg you to try. The delete key allows for easy forgetting of a disliked song, but there's no key for plain and simple goodfeelingness through good music.

I don't ask much of you; read these words:

Toto - Africa
Last autumn I came to the conclusion that this is most likely my absolute favorite song of the 80s. It's awesome to remember hearing a song this old, around the time when it was popular, even after you realize what that entails.
Wheatus - A Little Respect
This is the killer cover of Erasure's also awesome tune. I think it first appeared on some teen movie in the 90s.
Roots Manuva - Movements
Roots Manuva is a British hip hop emcee, and this song is of the utmost and sublime chillage as far as hip hop goes [I even put it on one of my old chill/lounge mixtapes!]. My point: don't hate cause you see hip hop; hate only [and IF] after you listen and don't like. This record was one of the very first I bought when I got into the whole DJ gig. I didn't really know what it was, but the idea of British hip hop sounded really cool. Despite him speaking the same language [basically] a lot is lost in translation, cause like he rhyme wit mad slang.
Nine Inch Nails - All the Love in the World
No shit, this song does something indescribable to me every time I listen to it. It's one of the few songs I can do what my good buddy Paul does to every single song he likes-- put it on repeat, repeat, repeat, listening to e v e r y s i n g l e synthetic kick drum, wao wao of the bass, piano chord, strained vocal chord, e v e r y s i n g l e m o m e n t . Only difference between Paul and I is that I've yet to tire of it, two or three years on.
National - The Geese of Beverly Road
I only sorta know what the closing lines of this song mean [Come, come be my waitress tonight / serve me the sky with a big slice of lemon], but I love singing them over and over, and I often yearn for an emotional moment as an excuse to really shed everything and step into this song, with all of me. Even if it's not really applicable to whatever the hell my emotional moment is about.
Department of Eagles - No One Does it Like You
I think I may have posted this last year as part of my FaveSongs thread, but even if I did it probably expired. DoEagles have a new album coming out sometime soon, and it's already way overdue. Their first album was a little hard to sink into, because it was a little too all-over-the-place. If this song is a sign of their change, as it's like nothing else they've done as a band*, then I really don't want to wait any longer.
*I say that because lead crooner Daniel Rossen's solo cover of Jo Jo's "Too Little Too Late" is similar in its sheer vocal awesomeness; right-click d/l it here


I'll slap the bacon out your mouth, dance upon your sarnie....

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Back to DJing: late night drive electro chill mixtape

I copy/pasted this [below, not above] directly from a post I made in a DJ forum I'm a member of, so apologies for the DJ jargon, if there is any. I got really lazy.

For those making assumptions, this is totally unlike my typical creations that I post here [the Teiam Player stuff]; this is a good ol' fashioned DJ mixtape, recorded live, right here in my bedroom. And damn was it fun.

Skip to the tracklist and judge before you listen if you don't wanna hear me ramble any more. Or be a good little enthusiast and judge while you listen before you check the tracklist. Whatev, it's really late. I'll shut up. G'night.

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I'm pretty excited about this mix, mainly because it's the first live mix I've recorded in a few years. I kinda went into retirement a couple years ago after being overseas for extended periods, and just within the past month finally [!!] broke down and bought Serato [I of course quickly realized it's something I should have done years ago, as I've always been a huge fan of looping for extended mixes and live remixing]. It's like the raddest thing since the direct drive turntable itself. I've been mashing and doing longer mixes with Ableton for a while [if you missed it: my megamanic Ableton-athon 180-sample mashmix here], and so getting back onto the 1200s felt real good.

So here it is.. after playing with it for several days, and wanting to do a mix like this for quite some time, I finally did. No time better than starting at 3am, ey? As you can see, it's a mixed bag of stuff, contains some older stuff, and kinda bounces around a bit. It pretty much-- I think-- has a late night feel to it. And since I've been kinda out of the game for a while, it isn't a perfect mix. I'm still not as expert on Serato as I'd like to be, and wasn't able to do as many quick mixes as I'd have liked to. Oh well.

So wait until it's dark, then hop in your car and cruise to it.

Teiam Player presents: The Lighter and Darker Side; early morning in April
Tracklisting:
TV on the Radio - Mr Grieves
M83 - Couleurs
Boys Noize - Shine Shine [Apparat remix]
Booka Shade - Solo City
Juana Molina - La Verdad
Panda Bear - Bros
DNTEL - [This is] the Dream of Evan and Chan
Matthew Dear - Deserter [Four Tet remix]
Caribou - Niobe
Battles - Tonto [Four Tet remix]
Radiohead - Everything in its Right Place
Burial - Archangel [Boy 8-bits remix]
Daft Punk - Make Love
LCD Soundsystem - Never as Tired as When I'm Waking Up
Santogold - L.E.S Artistes [XXXChange remix]
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

133mb hiQ mp3 on DivShare:
http://www.divshare.com/download/4297261-e4a

73mb medQ mp3 on zShare:
http://www.zshare.net/audio/108339900f792d91/

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Awesome Musics: pants off mega dance post

Maybe it's because it's the first real nice day here in Madison since over a week ago, or maybe it's because this music really is that good. But I'm loving so many things I'm listening to now, and I've been getting tons of new stuff in the past couple days.

Not all of the stuff below is necessarily very new-- it's either stuff that I've been diggin on for a while, or stuff that I just got into but immediately liked. Most [or all] is electronic-based material, so if you're looking for acoustic singer/songwriter bizness, you'll fair better looking elsewhere.

[as a reminder, as always, the artist's name is a link to TheirSpace or other official website, and the track is a link to file hosting site with direct download link from there]

M83 - Kim & Jessie
M83's good stuff is really good. A lot of his stuff is waaayy atmospheric, long and going nowhere but when he does this stuff-- lush and catchy-- it's powerful and most excellent.
Muscles - Jerk
Muscles - Sweaty
Muscles is from Australia. Muscles will make you dance. Whoo!
Neon Neon - I Lust You
I've posted a few Neon Neon tracks over time, but this song has grown on me more than most. A duet, it even spurred a mini mixtape of classic duets from 70s, 80s, & 90s that the Neon boys threw together, which can be found at Rolling Stone's website. I urge you to go listen to it here.
Shameboy - Heartcore
Shameboy is probably my latest dance addiction. No vocals here, but good sexy underground electro.
Ghostland Observatory - Heavy Heart
Ghostland Observatory - No Place for Me
The new GO album is so far my favorite of the year. Brilliant. Amazing. Klang Crash Braarrarrarr WomWomWom is approximately what it sounds like. Awesome as all hell.
Dizzee Rascal - Flex [Dave Spoon remix]
It's this blog-house remix that makes me shake a cheek or two. The original is good and grimy, too.
Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire
Cut Copy is also from Australia. They fuse some rock and dance into one powerful monster. And in this particular track, lots of early 90s house elements.
Kelley Polar - We Live in an Expanding Universe
Kelley Polar isn't new, but his music is new to me. If you like Hot Chip's more chill stuff and anything by the Junior Boys, you should like him.
MSTRKRFT - The Looks
This track is a couple years old, but it's killer. Was recently rejuvenated by The Hood here.
Why? - The Hollows
Again, I've posted this track before, but it's just that good.
Super Extra Bonus Party - Adventures
No, nobody likes their name. This is a good funky, chill track. Sometimes it's like they want to sound like Postal Service, and other times they just want to make noise.
Koop - Strange Love
Swedish Koop has one chica with one sweet voice.
LCD Soundsystem - Get Innocuous
I forgot just how fucking good this song is. It should open every dance party you have in your bedroom.
Hot Chip - Hold On
This song is a little too fast to drop in a typical house set, but.... I'd like to try it anyway.
Roxy Music - The Thrill of it All [MANDY vs Booka Shade remix]
This sounds not unlike anything Booka and MANDY have done together, but like everything they've done together being gold, so is this.
Juana Molina - La Verdad
I recently mentioned Juana, and have professed my love to her before, but didn't take the time to post anything of hers. Check this. It's beautiful.

Go buy any or all of these peep's stuff from InSound, iTunes, Strictly Discs or Amazon.

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The Dø

I did a search for "the do band" and this was the first image to come up. It's not the band. I don't know who or what it is. But I like her.

Helsinki's The Dø has probably already been blogged about a lot. So what. Go check out this poppy band. Like a mix of the Cardigans and Bodies of Water, crossed with Man Man or Gogol Bordello and a pinch of Lady Sovereign, just for fun. Just download. That's all I have to say for now.

From the album A Mouthful:
On My Shoulders [is on repeat repeat repeat]
Playground Hustle
Unissasi Laulelet
Tammie
Queen dot Kong

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Go Away

what is this crazy thing?

I don't post random songs enough. Usually there is too much new stuff out there to bother with old and random stuff. And let it be on the record that I honestly think that perhaps two of you out there will download any of these songs [as opposed to the average of five].

Today's theme: rain. What else, as the biggest rain cloud in the history of history takes its fucking time crossing overhead here in Madison.

Smokey Robinson "Tracks of My Tears"
It's definitely, by far, without a doubt, my single favorite Smokey song.
Smokey Robinson "Tears of a Clown"
It's definitely, by far, without a doubt, my other single favorite Smokey song.
Silverchair "Tomorrow"
Silverchair had a tune called "Acid Rain", or at least I coulda sworn they did. For some reason I don't have it. Relive my bedroom and the cockpit of my 1986 Pontiac 6000 by rocking out to one of the tunes that was played most in both places.
The Great Mundane "Collecting Rain"
Chicago's TGM performed laptopily here in Madison, at my favorite little place Natt Spil. Sadly, although I planned on attending, the two-fisted combo of working at 0630hrs Sunday and the night before's three hours of sleep damned me from going. This song is b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, in all it's chillistic hip hop -ness and electronic tinkering. Don't let these silly words fool you. Download it! And then visit MundaneSpace.
Thom Yorke "And it Rained All Night"
One of the best songs from one of the best albums of 2006 by one of the singers from one of the best bands.... ever.
Juana Molina "¡Que Lluvia!"
Juana captures my heart every time I listen her. If you haven't heard me say it before, think Jose Gonzalez, but female and sometimes with a keyboard and electronic whimsyness.
Cloud Cult "No One Said it Would Be Easy"
Mr Cult and his band and the painter lady will be here in Madison tomorrow night performing. I've seen him/them/her twice already, and I loved every minute of it. Sadly, I'll instead be geeking out to this guy, also in Madison:
Bon Iver "Wolves (acts I and II)"
Nothing else to say about this man. Listen and love, my friends.. listen and love.

Peas peace, y'all.

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Busta Bust!

This is like, seriously, the most on-fire, damaging, amazing track I've heard in a couple weeks.

Busta Rhymes - "Don't Touch Me"

Be back with more shortly..

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