First FaveAlbum2008: Ratatat - LP3. Also: Teiam Player!

I think I mentioned it last week, that electroguitarchillfunk duo Ratatat's third album, LP3, would be the first contender for favorite album of the year. Well, I'm announcing it already. And what about this cover art?

[click for bigger]

When I first heard Ratatat a couple years back, I never thought I could be such a fan. Here are four highlights from their new album. I CANNOT STOP PLAYING THESE TRACKS!

"Falcon Jab"
"Mirando"
"Mumtaz Khan"
"Shiller" [direct right-click-download mp3 link via GvsB]

Also, here's a couple classics from their second album, erm, Classics.

"Lex"
"Wildcat"

Go pre-order LP3 already:
InSound
Or wait for it to show up here:
Amazon, iTunes, Strictly Discs.

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Also, you know I always like an excuse to post some Teiam Player tracks. Here's Tupac's "Changes" with two Ratatat beats from quasi-album 9 Beats. If you've got excellent memory, you already know that Tupac actually raps "rat-tat-tat" in this song. This was something I delightfully stumbled cross only after I'd started making the song. It felt like a Hollywood moment, ya know like when you have a song in your head and then turn on the radio and boom! there it is. No, I don't listen to the radio either. The Tupac thing is also one of those few times I begin to believe in fate. I still don't, mind.

Anyway, that Ratatat + Tupac mish was the original draft and outtake. The Tupac lyrics eventually found a better home in "Close 2 Pac", on top of the Cure's "Close to Me". You can hear that one over on the Teiam Player muxtape. But here below is another TP track, featuring beats from the same Ratatat EP and lyrics from Kelly Rowland's "Like This", which also features the magnificent Eve.

"Ratatat's Changes"
"Ratatat Like This"

Lame titles, I know. But the original Ratatat song titles are simply "One", "Three" and "Four", so there's not much cleverness with title-mashing I could do.

Also, one more song. Every time I listen to Ratatat, I can't help but think they're deeply influenced by songs like the Eagles' "Hotel California". Just listen to the backing rhythm guitar or whatever guitar it is, with the same sort of sound to it. Sounds just like "Lex" if you ask me.

Eagles "Hotel California"

Wizzard.

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New Muxtape: Aytch as in Hour

I don't know what the title means, I just like phonetically spelling out the letter H. It's always been a good fake name for me-- like "Hello, my name is Aytch E. Doublehockeysticks. Pleased to meet you."

So Muxtape lost a lot of everyone's tunes the other day, including my Ry mux. Lucky for all of humankind, the Teiam mux is still alive and kicking, streaming the unofficial "Teiamwork vol 1: Best of Teiam Player 2003-2007".

Anyway, the crash was the perfect excuse to create another mux with tunes I've been jamming to lately. I've only offered one or two of these tunes for download, and most likely won't post any of the others, so you'll have to go stream the mux to hear 'em all. It's a good mux; I'm jamming to it right now.

Tracklist/etcetera:

Ratatat "Mirando" new stellar Ratatat from forthcoming LP3, which will probably be a contender for FaveAlbum2008.
Rolling Stones "Miss You" Umm.. duh.
Yacht "See a Penny [Pick it Up]" If you listen to this, you'll know why I put it here in the lineup. Yacht was rad when I saw him open for Vampire Weekend earlier this year.
Kid Cudi "Cudi Spazzin" A little jazzy/funky hip-hop from the "Day 'n' Night" Kid. Reminds me of some K-Os, both production and rhyme style. A bit diff than "D&N" fo shiz.
Broken Social Scene "Major Label Debut" [fast version] Awesome version of the normally downtempo tune.
Department of Eagles "No One Does it Like You" Was an OHWNT FaveSong20007 for good reason.
Cyndi Lauper "Lay Me Down" My friend DanZim whose photos I posted the other day was working a Cyndi video shoot in NYC this week. Lucky bastard. Watch this space for future post of hott tracks from her new album Bring Ya to the Brink.
Loose Cannons "Girls in Hats" UK KISS100 DJ and production duo with a crossover track-- hipster-, top40- and dancefloor-friendly all at the same damn time.
Treasure Fingers "Cross the Dancefloor" Another crossover, this one will be stuck in your noggin later.
Muscles "Hey Muscles I Love You" The Aussie boys who I've posted a couple times before with one that's always stuck in my noggin.
The Hood Internet "Light Falsetto Music" [Cut Copy vs The Dream] The Hood consistently make good mashes, but this like srsly tops the list for me. ABX totally got it right with this one, and I can't listen to the original Cut Copy ["Lights & Music"] anymore, because it totally lacks the falsetto ooooh, ooooh, baby!s.
Outkast - SpottieOttieDopalicious I used to hear this song all the time in bars, and never knew what the hell it was [yeah I must've never paid attention to Dre's unmistakable drawl]. Embarrassing Ry trivia to hold onto. Perfect summer chiller.

Go listen to the damn thing.

Purchase featured artists' musics digitally or mail order from TurntableLab, Juno, Beatport, InSound, Amazon, iTunes, or locally at Strictly Discs.

Happy long weekend. And remember what it's for, yo.

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sister, oh sister

A crazy friend I met in Buenos Aires as he carefreely nomaded his way across South America, photographer colorstraordinaire Dan of danzim and urbanatural.sh, regularly sends out some of his pretty sweet photos.

Dan usually likes to play around with lights and words, messing with things like f-stop, ISO, shutter speed and probably many other things I've forgotten in the thirteen years since I took a photography class in high school. And then sometimes he does some minor post-snap work. In any event, he regularly does cool things like this [click all photos for larger images]:

And this:


I usually find his stuff to be somewhere between photography/design icon Ed Ruscha and lights fantastic photographer and designer Chuck Anderson, aka NoPattern [you've seen Chuck's work all over, just never known it].

But in the latest installment from last week, he played like one of les freres Lumieres and simply caught one tiny moment of everyday life. Below is the masterpiece, unofficially titled what happens when you fall in San Juan.

I can't stop laughing at this picture. It's brilliant. I think I found it even funnier because the copy I received was about seventeen times bigger than the screen, so I saw it piece by piece, first seeing the hermana caida [fallen sister], and then the hermana perra sonriendo [laughing bitch sister]. I can relate-- my big sister would have reacted in the same exact manner.

And so here's a bunch of songs in the theme of the photo.

Sufjan Stevens - Sister
New Young Pony Club - Ice Cream
Muscles - Ice Cream
Interpol - Evil
Menomena - Evil Bee
Colin Meloy - Sister I'm a Poet [Morrissey cover]
Urge Overkill - Sister Havana
Weezer - Troublemaker
Lil Kim - Queen Bitch 101
Bangers 'n' Cash - Bitch
Teiam Player - Kid Sister on my Shoulders

And yes, I did eventually note that she's holding some sort of candied apple or something and not ice cream. Oh well. I already had the ice cream songs uploaded and posted. Besides, the only apple song I could think of was "Bonita Applebum", and you can find that on someone else's blog.

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Weezer

I shouldn't be posting for a while.. too much reading and studying to do.

I'll leave y'all with this, the two best songs off the forthcoming Weezer album, colloquially and fittingly entitled The Red Album.

Pork and Beans
Troublemaker

Both are throwbacks to the Weezer I first loved-- stuff from their first [and second-to-last good album, if you ask me] album.

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Part the Clouds: my new muxtape

I've uploaded a mux of new songs to my muxtape. The theme is the inevitable Spring-->Summer transition we should be seeing any. day. now [like.... srsly, Gaia-- give us a goddamn break already].

You will find summery tracks, mostly all brand spanking new, from artists I've blogged about recently and a few I haven't. But if you needed any more incentive to go listen, each and every song is new to OHWNT-- ie, I haven't blogged or shared the tunes ever before.

It's the perfect little mux to put on in your house or apartment this weekend while you are cleaning or taking shelter from the rain or breaking from studies. It's been thoughtfully and carefully selected and composed for optimal springtime windows open chillful enjoyment.

Tracklist
The Do - Tammie
Jamie Lidell - Hurricane
B-52s - Pump
Jim Noir - Day by Day by Day
Simon & Garfunkel - Cecilia [DJ Silent Partner remix]
Mystery Jets feat Laura Marling - Young Love
DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince - Summertime
The Gossip - Are U That Somebody [Aaliyah cover]
The Black Ghosts - Any Way You Choose to Give It
Ratatat - Lex
Frankmusik, Alphabeat & Leon Jean-Marie - Digital Love [Daft Punk cover]
Flight of the Conchords - The Most Beautiful Girl [in the Room]

Find the mux here: http://ry.muxtape.com

Go buy they's musics at these fine establishments:
Strictly Discs . . InSound . . Turntable Lab . . iTunes . . Amazon

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Teiam Player @ Natt Spil tonight; also: tons of tunes

In a gig I've been referring to as my coming out of retirement, I will be playing whatever the hell I feel like. Because it's Natt Spil, because it's Tuesday, and because I'm me, and if you've ever seen me DJ, I usually tend to play whatever the hell I want anyway. The Spil is the perfect place for that.

Come for late dinner, where they make the best damn stone oven pizza around. Awesome wine list, too.

Listen to Teiam jamz here.
And be my friend here.

But if you really want a feel of what it's like to see my spin.... just show up tonight, causelikes no CD or nothin can represent. This comes closest, though; listen to Triller.

Here are some things I just may play tonight; who knows?

Headlights
Get Your Head Around It
Cherry Tulips
Market Girl
School Boys
Some Racing, Some Stopping

El Perro del Mar
Jubilee
Glory to the World
From the Valley to the Stars

Flight of the Conchords
Foux du Fafa
Mutha'uckas
Hiphopopatomous vs Rhymenocerous
The Most Beautiful Girl [in the Room]

Hot Chip
Out at the Pictures
Wrestlers

Destroyer
Dark Leaves from a Thread
The State
Plaza Trinidad

Be Your Own Pet
Becky
Black Hole
Zombie Graveyard Party

Frightened Rabbit
I Feel Better
Bright Pink Bookmark

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things I've been holding out on

Just what the title says. Skimpy on words, heavy on music.

If you download only a couple things from this page, make sure it's either Ghostland Observatory or Jim Noir. Or Santogold. That said, everything on this page is stellar.

Ghostland Observatory, from their [insanely awesome] album Robotique Majestique
Heavy Heart
No Place for Me
Freeheart Lover
Dancing on My Grave
Robotique Majestique

Jim Noir, from his [super mega poppy and perfect-for summer] album Jim Noir
What You Gonna Do
Happy Day Today

Santogold, from her new album Santogold
L.E.S Artistes
You'll Find a Way
Shove It [feat Spank Rock]
Creator
I'm a Lady [feat Trouble Andrew]

The Roots, from their album Rising Down
The Show [feat Common]
Lost Desire [feat Talib Kweli & Malik B]
Criminal [feat Saigon & Truck North]
Rising Down [feat Mos Def & Styles P]

Jamie Lidell, from his album Jim
Another Day
Out of My System
Figured Me Out

Purchase from InSound, Amazon, Strictly Discs or iTunes.

Enjoy your weekend.

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