First, a note about the direction of CKTK. We will be posting our end-0f-the-decade thoughts soon. Also, our top albums of 2009 lists will drop in mid-to-late-December. To lead up to those, we will be posting our top ten albums of the year lists from 2005-2008, sans commentary. We will, of course, link to places online where that commentary is posted if it’s floating out there somewhere. We will also be creating new content, so that the site doesn’t just turn into “Listapalooza 2009″.

These lists will appear unchanged from when we originally wrote them toward the end of each year. This should show you a little bit about what to expect from each author, and hopefully, it will inspire you to go back and listen to some of those great albums that you’ve forgotten from those years.

Without further ado, let’s start it off with ck’s top ten albums of 2005:

1. Sufjan Stevens – Come On, Feel the Illinoise!
2. Alkaline Trio – Crimson
3. Junior Senior – Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
4. Beck – Guero
5. Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams
6. Fall Out Boy – From Under the Cork Tree
7. The Rocket Summer – Hello Good Friend
8. The Decemberists – Picaresque
9. PANIC! at the Disco – A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
10. Sigur Ros – Takk

Ich war so dreist und hab einfach mal den Titel übernommen unter dem ich das gefunden hab. Hier. Aber Vorsicht das ist nicht jugendfrei!

Erinnerte mich an diesen Klassiker:

Alle beide wirklich mal Pixelicious!

(via Yes Yes Y’all)

Normally for the Weekly 10, I find myself counting down things that piss me off. You know, like phrases that suck and uninspired Halloween costumes. So I’ve decided to give you a mix tape for putting up with me airing my grievances Letterman-style.

However, this mixtape is extra mixy. I present to you: my top ten favorite mashups. Wikipedia defines a mashup as, “a song or composition created by blending two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another.”  Basically smushing two songs together to make an even cooler one.

Yeah, I was inspired by last week’s episode of Glee; how could you not be? That show is so. damn. good.

Let me know if I missed any other greatness.

10. “Womanizer” Britney Spears & Lily Allen
Even if she “retired from music,” I still  heart Lily Allen and Britney will always have a special place in my heart. Mixing a little Lily with a lot of Womanizer lyrics? Spice Girls have nothing on fierce duo.

9. “Bittersweet Dirt Off Your Shoulder” Jay-Z & The Verve
Cruel Intentions finale song plus my fave, Jay? I’ll take it.

8. “Live Your Life, Punk” T.I., Rihanna & Vampire Weekend (Mixed by Party Ben)
Vampire Weekend and T.I.? Please tour together. I’d go. And I’d be very, very happy.

7.“Love LockDown Day N’ Nite” Kanye West & Kid Cudi
For the conflicted scenester/rapper in all of us.

6. “Halo and Walking on Sunshine” Performed by the cast of Glee.
The very song that inspired me to spend 6 hours searching for other mashups online and create this splendid list.

5. “Every Car You Chase” The Police & Snow Patrol (Mixed by Party Ben)
Unexpectedly amazing.

4. “Hotel Room Game” Lady Gaga & Pitbull
Yes, Lady Gaga is a crazy biatch. We love her anyway. We also love Pitbull. And he loves us back. Two super catchy pop songs, one even catchier mash-up.

3. Anything off the Grey album
Black Album (Jay-Z) + White Album (The Beatles) = Incredible. I guess that’s what happens when you put two music legends together. I love the song, “What More Can I Say” with “As My Guitar Gently Weeps,” but the whole album is simply amazing. Gotta love Dangermouse.

2. Girl Talk
Every song rules, can’t pick just one; Gregg Gillis is all kinds of brilliant.

1 and a half. “Stand Up and Ring My Doorbell” White Stripes and Ludacris (Mashed by DJ Riko)
Because I couldn’t narrow it down to just ten, especially when Ludacris is involved. Sick beat.

1. “Can I Get Get Low” Lil’ Jon and Junior Senior
Okay, so I may be a little biased because “Get Low” might be my song if I were to do a wedding “Forever” style. Kidding. Sorta. But seriously, blend this throwback Lil Jon with the bouncy Junior Senior and you get perfection. Not to mention it makes Lil Jon slightly more tolerable for people who don’t understand his artistic genius.

Lists are funny things.

Lists, to men, are like catnip to cats. We can’t resist them. It doesn’t matter what it is, we’ll create a list for it. It’s our anally retentive side coming into play; we like to know everything has its place. Most men I think can name their favourite albums, movies (and perhaps girlfriends) in a specific order since we’ve had every waking day to think about it.

When we forget to take the rubbish out, or wash up, it’s probably because we’re making a mental list of something (boring household chores perhaps…)

Lists are also endlessly used in television.

No doubt you will have sat through the Top 100 Singles of All Time, Your Favourite Films Ever or Top 100 Celebrity Sex Scandals – all the cheapest of TV formats and laziest of concepts, which is why they usually end up on satellite channels you’d rarely watch otherwise. They bring out the same D- and C-list celebrities (who’d turn up to the opening of a Coke can) to sit in front of a brightly-coloured animated backdrop – similar in style to a Lava Lamp – and then talk about an event/film/album/song/person the producer had reminded them about a few minutes earlier was such an important part in their life. The better celebrities may retell an amusing anecdote; most will resort to just laughing about nothing (the more they laugh, the more we’ll notice their smug faces while we’re drifting off to sleep) and talking bullshit.

“Oh yeah – haha – this one time my brother and me were – haha – were listening to this Queen song and doing that thing they do in Wayne’s World – haha – and – haha – my brother hit his head on the window of the car! Haha (remember me from that obscure show five years ago?… No?…I was great, honest…)“

However – and the producers of these shows know it – there’s something strangely addictive about them. Even if you get the most irritating celebrity most of all; stitching all the segments together with a witty thing to say before and after each advert break.

One of the worst example of this was probably David Gest (winner of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!) presenting the 100 Best Michael Jackson Songs (or something). It was an old show, repeated especially for the death of MJ. The embarrassing links provided by Mr. Gest reached their apex when he announced something along the lines of “You’ll live forever, Michael – you’re the best!”. David? I’m Embarrassed, Get Me Out Of Here!

Blogs also use this format. It’s a sure-fire way of getting people looking at your blog – people love lists remember!

So, all this being said, for the sake of both selfish amusement and the irony of my last paragraph, I’m going to resort to a list myself.

This list is (as you will have noticed from the title) regarding The Ten Best Music Videos in the World… Ever! (The title inspired by all those compilation albums from the late ’90s – in fact, they’re probably still churning them out).

The reason I’m picking music videos is that, by chance, I was watching MTV and between the irritatingly inane shows they put on, and the endless Rihanna videos, something interesting (and refreshingly pleasant on the ears) came on. Something with a wonderful hand drawn style featuring a superhero fighting squirrels and things to reach the princess in distress. The video is number one on my list (which is actually not in any particular order) and it inspired this little blog entry, so blame it for any boredom caused for this post.

It’s worth saying that I’ve been a fan of music videos ever since I got MTV2 a long time ago (in the good old days before it turned into the channel for Shit American Rock), so I know my Michel Gondry from my Chris Cunningham. There are many, many wonderful music videos around (and really, the top ten directors would have been more appropriate since so many are consistently fantastic) but leave any comments if you think I’ve missed out something really amazing.

1. Coldplay “Strawberry Swing” directed by Shynola. View on YouTube
This the first Coldplay video I’ve loved. The others have been okay, but either linked to a damn durge of a song (The Scientist) or just a bit too odd for their own good (Don’t Panic). The basic concept is that Chris Martin is a superhero on a background drawn, with chalk, on a pavement. Obviously this kind of effect could have been achieved in a computer but it seems Shynola actually hand-drew the damn thing with Chris Martin balancing/laying/hand-standing for each frame – I imagine having to wait for the artists to finish each drawing. To someone lacking patience like myself (I love animation but really, it’s boring as hell doing it frame by frame – see this fantastic Fast Show sketch) this makes Chris Martin an absolute star in my books (as if the rest of the world didn’t already consider himself one).

As for the song itself, I didn’t actually think much of it when I first listened to the album (to the point where, on seeing the video, I wondered whether it was even on an album) but now, I listen to it on an almost daily basis.

Users on YouTube obviously love it as well… “this is the most coolest video i have ever seen” is one of the more insightful comments.

It’s a rare but wonderful thing when a music video makes you like a song even more – or even to notice it at all. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it makes for a great experience. You’re able to listen to the song at any time and, even if the lyrics don’t connect specifically with you or if they are too abstract in the song to relate to anything, being reminded of the video makes it much more visual. It’s like a soundtrack album to a movie but in reverse, I’ve listened to The Shawshank Redemption soundtrack countless times, and it always evokes memories of the film (which is my favourite by the way – I’m sure I’ll do a ten ten movies as well some time…)

The talented artists behind this video are called Shynola who created the wonderful animations for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (one of the better things about the film) along with countless other videos – their best listed below, check ‘em out as they say in the States.

• Blur “Good Song” – Drawings by my favourite cartoonist, David Shrigley, animated – again, making an otherwise fairly pedestrian song come to life in what I think is the funniest music video I’ve ever seen, although I appreciate it’s not to everyone’s taste. View on YouTube

• UNKLE “Eye for an Eye” – An amazing video about cute little things running around their happy place being duped into drinking from giant nipples by an evil race of wasp things that then assimilate them all and take over their land. A thinly veiled political comment about the way the West come in, guns blazing, promising a better life and leave having destroyed everything. Well, I think that’s what it’s about anyway. It’s an amazing song and I bought the album because of this, which is lucky because it was, in my view, the best album of that year. View on YouTube

• Junior Senior “Move Your Feet” – I’m of the Commodore 64 generation, so anything with pixel graphics gets my vote, and it doesn’t get any better than this. It’s a crazy song (let’s face it – gay as cheese) and sounds like Terence and Philip from South Park singing, but it fits the video perfectly. As before, I bought the album after this, which is why I refuse to put this video in the overall Top Ten; the album is beyond terrible. View on YouTube

2. Radiohead “Street Spirit (Fade Out)” directed by Jonathan Glazer. View on YouTube
In those good old days on MTV2 that I spoke about with tear-filled nostalgic eyes earlier, this video was one of the most shown – with good reason. It’s a great song for a start. I’m not a massive Radiohead fan (I think they’re vastly overrated) but this one is tortured, weird and has a great tune.

The video ticks several boxes for me:

It’s in black and white (almost everything looks better in black and white); it has bits that are slowed down; bits that speed up; jumping nuns; locusts flying in slow motion; evil dogs; Thom Yorke looking weird; band member, Jonny Greenwood looking like a woman (many women would kill for his figure); glass smashing and someone falling over on their chair.

It’s put together with so much style that you can forgive them for what I imagine amounts to just a ‘brainstorming’ session where they thought “would would look cool slowed down in black and white”.

I’m sure there are many more videos considered better than this but this just sticks with me far more than most, I think due to its haunting nature and probably just that it’s, in my opinion, Radiohead’s best song.

The director is top of his class with a string of fantastic videos to his name. He also directed the wonderful film, Sexy Beast, which, if you haven’t seen, needs to be watched as soon as you can; Ben Kingsley should have gotten an Oscar for it. If that wasn’t enough, he’s the man behind the Guinness ad with the horses in the sea, the Sony Bravia ad with the exploding towerblocks of paint and the Levi’s ad with the emaciated boy and girl jumping through walls in order to reach space (apparently the most expensive advert ever at the time).

Other great videos by Jonathan Glazer:

• Jamiroquai “Virtual Insanity” – The irritatingly popular Jay Kay prances about with his stupid hat while the furniture moves around. Very cleverly done (albeit quite simple when you know how) and an example of a really good pop video, which is quite a rarity. View on YouTube

• UNKLE “Rabbit in Your Headlights” – A scruffy man walking down a tunnel, mumbling to himself, getting hit by cars. I’ve no idea what he’s thinking about (I read that he’s trying to work out the meaning of life) but the ending is spectacular. View on YouTube

3. Bjork “All is Full of Love” directed by Chris Cunningham. View on YouTube
This is one of the first videos (I think) released as a DVD single and it was the perfect video for the format. It’s stark and fascinating (like Bjork herself I suppose) and manages to be beautifully classy, despite the ridiculous premise (two robots, both with Bjork’s face, ‘get jiggy with it’ whilst robot arms prod them and cover them with something suspiciously milky and white).

The director, Chris Cunningham, has a something of a midas touch giving all his work a strange, sometimes scary, stylish as hell look that must be damn difficult to do.

In an ideal world, he’d direct an Alien film. Maybe one day…

Two of his other videos for you to look at (do a Google search for his others – they’re all great):

• Madonna “Frozen” – I think it’s Madonna’s best video. Not much happens, she’s a bit goth, she’s in the desert, there’s a black dog… but it’s a great song and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling seeing Madonna grown-up, sensible, and not jumping around in a leotard telling people they’re ‘motherfuckers’ and pretending to be twenty again. View on YouTube

• Aphex Twin “Windowlicker” – One of life’s great annoyances for me (proving I don’t have too many) is that music as God-awful as Aphex Twin gets to have a decent video to go with it. This video is wonderfully stylish, funny, strange, freaky and deserves mention because it highlights the ridiculous conventions set in rap videos where some idiots ogle girls in bikinis. This video is the antithesis of The Thong Song. View on YouTube

4. A-Ha “Take on Me” directed by Steve Barron View on YouTube
Given my love of animation and ’80s music, it’s no big surprise that this is in my list and I think most people of my age remember this video very vividly (even down to the “Nice Cold Ice Cold Milk” poster in the cafe that haunted my youth in the school canteen).

Looking back, the video is extremely cheesy but the animation is so well done it’s easy to forgive it. I also wish they’d resisted the temptation to shoehorn the rest of the band into the video using crappy footage of them playing their instruments against a suitably ‘comic book’ style background. (The same problems haunt videos these days as well – it’s so much better when a band’s ego-driven demand to feature in the video doesn’t get in the way).

The director was very successful during this period, working on loads of other memorable videos but none were really as innovative as Take on Me.

5. The BPA “Toe Jam” directed by Keith Schofield View on YouTube
The BPA (or Brighton Port Authority) is a Fat Boy Slim (aka Norman Cook) project and this, the first release, comes with a fantastically inventive video.

To explain it would ruin the joke of it, so just watch and smile…

6. The White Stripes “Fell in Love with a Girl” directed by Michel Gondry View on YouTube
When I was young (here he goes again with nostalgia) I loved Lego and animated little things with it as well. I imagine the director, Michel Gondry, did the same when he was growing up since this video (like most of his actually) has a whimsical quality.

It’s a video comprised solely of animated Lego blocks. People swimming, the band singing and playing their instruments, running – everything damn difficult to animate anyway, especially in Lego.

Michel Gondry has a knack for doing really complex things (‘high concept’ should be his middle name), as his other videos prove even further. He’s now mainly doing feature films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind being one) which is a shame as I think his ideas suit a short running time much better.

More of his videos:

• Kylie Minogue “Come Into My World” – Kylie must have gotten dizzy making this video; several versions of her walk around several times in a circle. I have no idea how he co-ordinated a shoot like this but it’s wonderfully done. View on YouTube

• Massive Attack “Protection” – A great video with the camera moving into different windows of a big house. It doesn’t sound exciting and, well, it isn’t really, but it’s a great video. View on YouTube

• Bjork “Bachelorette” – Difficult to describe, this video starts with a story being told and then a theatre production based on that story played out within it. Just watch it, it’s fantastic. View on YouTube

7. Blur “Coffee & TV” directed by Hammer & Tongs View on YouTube
Like Shynola, Hammer & Tongs are another group of talented chaps that have worked on many videos and they all (well, the ones I’ve seen) tend to have a humourous slant which defines their style.

Coffee & TV is the tale of a little milk carton that goes off on a little quest to find a missing person. It’s the kind of video that appeals to everyone; it’s funny, cute and there’s even a bit of emotion in there as well for the kind of people that cry over spilt milk.

They’re now doing feature films as well. Their first, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was good, but flawed. Their latest – Son of Rambow – is supposed to be very good but I’ve not seen it yet unfortunately.

Hammer & Tongs have worked on many great videos, but two of my other favourites are below:

• REM “Imitation of Life” – Worth watching for Michael Stipe’s interesting dance moves as well as the technical cleverness involved. It’s a piece of camcorder footage that keeps running forward, then backwards for twenty seconds at a time – we zoom into parts of the video to see details. A tough one to explain, but worth watching, and it’s a nice little tune! View on Spike (I couldn’t find a version on YouTube with audio)

• Fatboy Slim “Right Here, Right Now” – Evolution squeezed into 3:30 minutes with a great social comment at the end. Well, I think it’s meant like that anyway, or it’s just that they wanted to end with the guy from the album cover. View on YouTube

8. David Bowie “Ashes to Ashes” directed by David Mallet View on YouTube
It makes no bloody sense at all, but it’s an example of a really inventive video when music videos were still very ‘new’ (it was back in 1983 – MTV had only been around a couple of years at that point. It was also was less shit than now). I think it was the most expensive video ever at the time due to its use of the fancy video effects (things we can all do on an iPhone these days with the correct app).

Director, David Mallet, directed loads of rock videos (specialising on Queen and AC/DC, strangely) but this is, I think, his most famous.

Of all these videos, it’s probably the one you’ll disagree with the most. “It looks crap”, mate, “You’re getting nostalgic and losing your sense of style.” But, there’s just something about it that I love. I’m not a big David Bowie fan particularly, but there’s something wonderful about him walking down the beach dressed like an idiot with an old woman wagging her finger at him (and telling him not to trust Major Tom).

9. Michael Jackson “Thriller” directed by John Landis View on YouTube
I include this video a little reluctantly as every damn list of “best music videos ever” has this in it, but it really has to be. I’m not a fan of musicals (I turned Chicago off after the DVD menu) but there’s something mesmerising about a really great piece of choreography.

There’s also the fact that this music video was an ‘event’. I was too young to remember it at the time but enough people have told me how they stayed up late to watch it to make me think that perhaps it was more of a big deal than we can appreciate these days. The Internet has ruined things a bit really… we don’t have ‘events’ any more, do we?

Anyway, the director’s other films include American Werewolf in London (that qualified him to make Thriller really), Trading Places and Coming to America so that makes him damn good in my book.

10. Massive Attack “Teardrop” directed by Walter Stern View on YouTube
God knows how a video comprised entirely of a foetus singing can be so good, but it really is.

The director is another fairly prolific one, working on videos for Prodigy, David Bowie, Madonna and INXS as well as another two for Massive Attack.

Another of his videos:

• Verve “Bitter Sweet Symphony” A riff on Massive Attack’s video for Unfinished Sympathy, this was the video that, thanks to Richard Ashcroft walking down the road like an arrogant bastard, helped launch Verve into the public eye when we already had arrogant bastards, Oasis. View on YouTube

So, that’s it.

You’ll have noticed that I’ve cheated a little bit by including other videos from some of the directors (making the list far more than just ten) but I don’t care, it’s my list, I can do what I want with it.

There are, however, some other videos I’ve not mentioned that I feel I should for various reasons – those are listed below. Have a look at all of them if you find the time!

Leftfield “Swords” View on YouTube
Summary: A bunch of people in cars, singing along to a chilled out track. I find it mesmerising.

Fatboy Slim “Weapon of Choice” View on YouTube
It’s Christopher Walken. Dancing. Nothing more needs to be said.

Supermen Lovers “Starlight” View on YouTube
Traditionally, 3D animation tends to be quite slick but here the animator has gone at great lengths to make the characters as ugly as possible. It’s a great little story and strangely emotional at the end!

Elbow “One Day Like This” View on YouTube
I’m including this partly because the song is wonderful but also because I think the video is so strange. It doesn’t match the lyrics at all but just focuses on one guy finding joy doing a mundane job. Beautiful.

Nizlopi “JCB” View on YouTube
A wonderfully nostalgic little song with a video to match.

Super Furry Animals “It’s Not the End of the World?” View on YouTube
Another great piece of 3D animation.

Pet Shop Boys “I’m With Stupid” View on YouTube
I’ve never been a fan of the Pet Shop Boys’ videos, but this one is great since it’s the guys from Little Britain doing a terrible (yet accurate) impression of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe.

Peter Gabriel “Sledgehammer” View on YouTube
Most ‘top video’ lists include this at a high position because it was groundbreaking (and it marked the arrival of Aardman Animation – the makers of Wallace and Gromit). It is a very clever video, and perhaps the Coldplay video I mentioned at the beginning of the list wouldn’t have existed were it not for this. Oh, and it’s about shagging, but you knew that…

Definitely not on any of my lists:

Queen “Bohemian Rhapsody” Don’t View on YouTube
Just plain awful.

I hope you liked this list and feel free to write a comment challenging me on any of my picks. I’m sure I’ve left out some great videos, so tell me and I’ll be happy to rethink any of the ones above if you prove that I’m wrong in some way.

OK, so, removing the Preamble entry, this is the 100th post on The Buzz!!

Thank you to everyone who has read, shared, inspired, and commented here.  It’s been an absolute thrill to get to know you (or know you better!).  I try to provoke discussion, so I definitely appreciate people who tell me I’m wrong!

I gave a lot of thought on what to do for the big 100th post, whether it be a list, a retrospective, etc.  As you know, we cover a lot of different ground here, from PR, social media, sports, pop culture and more.

Music, however, is very important to me.  I was a bar mitzvah DJ when I was in high school, and transitioned to radio while I was in college.

I’ve always been fascinated with a concept I call “The Soundtrack of My Life.”  The jist is, you pick 18 songs that MUST be included in a biopic movie about your life.  No other rules apply.  Any piece of recorded music is fair game.  I made several CDs trying to capture this essence, and every one of them was different.  Of course, the 18 songs will change as you have new experiences, are exposed to more music, have more life to cram into 18 tracks, and so on.  This IS not a favorite songs list.  This is music to be played in your life story.  Some of them are included for instrumentals, others for lyrics, and most, hopefully, for both.

I hope you will place your 18 songs in the comments section!

One more thing: Here are my personal favorite posts!

1) The Sports Man-Crush

2) The Currency of Pop Culture

3) The Does/Is Wall

Without further ado, the 100th Buzz – The Soundtrak of My Life (in no particular order):

1) “Chelsea Dagger” – The Fratellis

2) “All For You” – Sister Hazel (acoustic version)

3) “Apache” – SugarHill Gang

4) “For Once in My Life” – Stevie Wonder

5) “Hole Hearted” – Extreme

6) “Life is Wonderul” – Jason Mraz

7) “Big Time” – Peter Gabriel

8 ) “Crazy” – Seal

9) “Don’t Stop Believin” – Journey

10) “The Way You Make Me Feel” – Michael Jackson

11) “Rock & Roll” – Eric Hutchinson

12) “Glow” – Alien Ant Farm

13) “Everything” – Michael Buble

14) “All You Need is Love” – The Beatles

15) “I Need More Love” – Robert Randolph and the Family Band

16) “Metallingus” – Alter Bridge

17) “Will I Ever Make It Home?” – Ingram Hill

18) “Drive” – Incubus

Hidden Bonus Track: “What Is Love?” Haddaway

Hidden Bonus Track: “Can I Get Get Get” – Junior Senior

Jeg faldt over en musikvideo, som inspirerede mig til at lave et indlæg omhandlende mine favorit musikvideoer indenfor dansk musik.

Den første her, er ikke alene forbundet med en masse nostalgi for mit vedkommende, men ER også én af de absolut flotteste danske musikvideoer der er lavet til dato:

En anden dansk musikvideo der har gjort indtryk igennem tiden, er denne. Ikke mindst pga. billedeffekten, men såsandelig også pga. den historie den fortæller. Det er desværre hverdagskost for alt for mange børn:

Og her er den tredje, som er fantastisk simpel og alligevel underholdende på sin egen lille charmerende måde. Og så er den udelukkende optaget på mobiltelefon!:

(og her er endnu én af samme kunstner, som jeg også holder uendeligt meget af (videoen that is ). Jeg griner stadig når han forsøger et par dansetrin 1:02 minut inde i videoen. Hehe).

Og sidst, men ikke mindst, ét af de mere festlige indslag. Selve nummeret er ikke ligefrem blandt mine favoritter af netop dette band, men videoen er fantastisk!:

I skal være velkomne til at komme med jeres bud, hvis i har nogle.

Move Your Feet – Junior Senior

I already thanked Marsh a billion times for posting this song on his thing. BUT, here it is again!

Download

♫ Jeppe – Big Boy (Ssion’s Bang Bang Remix) via Data Sapiens

Jeppe = Senior from Junior Senior. The Big Boy EP is out now, featuring remixes by Ssion, Lo-Fi Fnk, and Gorky of Bonde de Role. Get it from Echo Park Records.

Les vacances

Bravo !

Voici quelques suggestions qui tournent pas mal chez nous pour les vacances !

À rajouter dans votre playlist, vous ne serrez pas déçus.

The Rose and Her Prince – HEARTSREVOLUTION

HEARTSREVOLUTION nous ont habitués à deux types de chansons électros. Soit des balades, soit des chansons pratiquement violentes.  Cette balade a une vibe hip-hop qui me plaît bien et que je vous suggère grandement.

Jeffer – Boys Noise

Nouvel extrait complet du nouvel album de Boys Noize, les gens généralement sont un peu froid à ce nouveau morceau mais personnellement je trouve que Boys Noize n’a que perfectionné son art et ça promet pour son prochain album.

Hip Hop (Diplo Remix) – Dead Prez

Originalement, cette chanson de Dead Prez se retrouve sur des compilations du genre Top 250 of the Greatest Hip-Hop and Rap Songs et le remix de Diplo a sans contredit autant de gueule que l’originale. Bel ajout électro à cette vibe hip-hop.

Keep The Lights On – Wave Machines

Voici un groupe que je place entre les Bee Gees et MGMT , toute une vibe, des voix accrochantes. Bravo !

Any Way You Choose To Give It (Boy 8 Bit Mix) – The Black Ghosts

Un remix audacieux mais tout de même excellent qui sort tout droit d’une console Atari d’un groupe que j’apprécie beaucoup. Bref, excellent !

Rhythm Bandits – Junior Senior

Bravo pour cette chanson parfaite pour le début de l’été. Très légère et surtout festive!

Bonne écoute!

Here’s another one for the floor, enjoy.

Labl’D- Retrograde

The Beach Boys- God Only Knows (Aeroplane Bootleg Remix)
Radio 4- Dance to the Underground (DFA Version)
Foals- Olympic Airways (Diskjokke Remix)
Aeroplane- Whispers (Hercules & Love Affair Remix)
Tittsworth- Brazilian Rhyme (Tittsworth Disco Remix)
Matthew Dear- Pom Pom (Juan Maclean Remix 1)
Junior Senior- Shake Your Coconuts (DFA Remix)
The Gossip- Listen Up! (MSTRKRFT Remix)
HeartsRevolution- Ultraviolence (Spank Rock Mix)
LCD Soundsystem- Tribulations (Lindstrom Remix)
Das Pop- Fool For Love (Aeroplane Remix)
Grum- Runaway (Calling in Sick Remix)
Sonny J- Can’t Stop Moving(Mirwais Extended Mix)
*like all of Labl’d mixes before, this is recorded live with no post production*

I’m tired of washing the dishes, so you and your sister are doing them after today’s Smörgåsbord.  Today we’re starting off with a recently rediscovered Bloc Party cover, then moving on to a nice k-os track (my favorite off of Yes! so far), and finally we’ll cleanse your palatte with some Junior Senior.  And no TV until the dishes are finished and put away.  Eat up.

Tempera[mental] – Like Eating Glass (Bloc Party cover) (mp3)

k-os – I Wish I Knew Natalie Portman (mp3) from Yes!

Junior Senior – Rhythm Bandits (mp3) from D-D-Don’t Don’t Stop the Beat

: : : : : : : : : : :

It just so happens that my two favorite jams for the summer right now come from the same producers, LA duo Classixx. First off is the only worth Phoenix remix I’ve heard so far, a melodic disco-y take on ‘Liztomania.’ Next is their upcoming single to be released on Parisian label Kitsune, an original track featuring former Junior Senior singer Jeppe. Classixx have been killing it for me every since they were the Young Americans: always with the catchy vocal hooks, and always dancefloor ready. These two new songs are summer anthem necessities. 

Phoenix – Liztomania (Classixx version)

Classixx ft. Jeppe – I’ll Get You 

Efter et sejrsridt gennem Forbrugerklagenævnet, har min computer været til reparation den seneste tid, hvorfor der ikke har været noget nyt her på bloggen. Det skal der naturligvis rettes op på, og inspirationen kommer under tiden fra de mest uventede kanter.

Udenrigstjenestens Seoul-man, som selv har en lille musikanmelder i maven, sender fra tid til anden musikforslag rundt til en stadig voksende gruppe kontakter. Stilen ligger ofte meget langt fra hvad jeg selv hører, så der er altid tale om et helt friskt pust til den støvede og lidt forkalkede Voetmannske musiksmag.

Seneste opfordring gik på at lytte nærmere til albummet Datarock, med det norske band Datarock – som spiller Elektronisk Dance-musik. Genrebetegnelsen har jeg måtte slå op, men mit eget indtryk gik i retning af glad elektronisk funk-pop. Den eneste umiddelbare reference jeg kunne komme på var til Junior Senior, men da jeg i den grad er på musikalsk udebane, er der sikkert nogen der vil slå en skraldlatter op over den sammenligning.

Uanset mine begrænsninger inden for elektronisk musik, så er Datarock glad og positiv festmusik, som måske har nogen lidt skrabede arrangementer i visse numre, men som vinder på en god portion norsk drengerøvshumor. Sangen “Nightflight to Uranus” kan for eksempel vist kun tolkes på en enkelt måde…

Nummret Fa-fa-fa er efter min overbevisning klart albummets bedste, hvilket vist er en gængs opfattelse, eftersom nummeret har været brugt i en større amerikansk reklamekampagne, og derfor har fået massiv airplay “Over There”.

Datarock ligger meget langt uden for min normale indskrænkede interessesfære, og jeg har derfor undladt at give albummet karakter. Det skal dog ikke afholde mig fra at anbefale albummet til enhver som har brug for at få gang i humøret eller dansegulvet.

Mixtape #4 contains mp3s by:

U2, Sia covering Britney Spears, Neko Case, St. Vincent, Snoop Dogg, Friendly Fires, Seven Mary Three, Beyonce, 2 tracks by Gliss, Dan Auerbach, The BPA, and a Lady GaGa remix by Pete Rock.  Click to download the tracks individually or as a .zip file at the end of the post.

U2 – No Line On the Horizon:

From the album of the same name, “No Line On the Horizon” is grandiose, sure (would you expect any less from U2?), but the beginning is as understated as anything you’ll find on their new album.  That doesn’t last long though, not to worry.  “No Line On the Horizon” swells into a song too big to be contained even in the gigantic lemon from which U2 would emerge on their 1997 PopMart tour.  And when Bono sings the “oh-whoa-whoa-ooh”s at the end of each verse, I double-dare you not to sing along.

• Download:  U2 – No Line On the Horizon.mp3
• (buy album)

Neko Case – People Got A Lotta Nerve:

From one of the most pristine voices in the indie market comes the first single from Neko Case’s Middle Cyclone.  The guitar climbs up to reach Case, formerly of the excellent New Pornographers, singing sexily about a killer whale (imagine that!) and herself being a “man-eater”.  Animalistic in its most literal sense.  For fans of: Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis, Lavender Diamond.

• Download:  Neko Case – People Got A Lotta Nerve.mp3
• (buy album)

Lady GaGa – Poker Face (Pete Rock remix):

Pete Rock is a legendary hip-hop producer known for breathing the fine elements of jazz into underground conscious hip-hop by peers like A Tribe Called Quest and The Roots.  Here he takes on Lady GaGa’s smash hit on this unexpected remix, which features none of the usual jazz or r&b samples he typically utilizes in his production.  Since Pete Rock and Lady GaGa probably don’t appeal to the same demographic, this should be good exposure for Rock and GaGa to each other’s respective fan bases.

• Download:  Lady GaGa – Poker Face (Pete Rock remix).mp3

St. Vincent – Actor Out of Work:

Guitars ring in the background as Annie Clark’s (former chanteuse of the Polyphonic Spree) sung “whoo-ooh-ooh”s give way to a muffled synth riff bursting at the seams to get out from under the swell of an angelic choir that emerges halfway through the song.  Clark sings, plays guitar, keys, and bass on her upcoming album, Actor, on which this song will appear.  Like her previous works with Sufjan Stevens, “Actor Out of Work” is beautifully rocking.

• Download:  St. Vincent – Actor Out of Work.mp3
• (buy album)

Seven Mary Three – Laughing Out Loud:

My brother got me into Seven Mary Three after their debut album, American Standard, was released in 1995.  With the superb grunge (it was the 90’s so “superb grunge” was not yet an oxymoron) of “Cumbersome” and “Water’s Edge”, I would have expected 7M3 to be hanging onto their brief 90’s success by making music similar to the vile Creeds and Nickelbacks of the world.  If this was the era of their debut album, I’d recommend this band for fans of Bush, The Nixons, Fuel, and Collective Soul.  But this is a whole new Seven Mary Three with a song that resembles a bit of Candlebox, Stone Temple Pilots, and Better Than Ezra more than any of the detestable faux-grunge that somehow gets so much radio play these days.  Alternative still, but no longer grunge, 7M3 have evolved into a band to watch in the 00’s.  I was 9 years old when I first heard Seven Mary Three.  And as they show on “Laughing Out Loud”, I’ve also learned over these past 14 years the ethos 7M3 displays in 2009: growing up doesn’t have to suck.

• Download:  Seven Mary Three – Laughing Out Loud.mp3
• (buy album)

Sia – Gimme More (Britney Spears cover):

Over an electric piano and the occasional hushed acoustic guitar strum, Sia reinterprets Britney’s dark-ish dance-pop ode to PDA and “going the extra mile with you” that highlights the longing in the lyrics, “gimme more”.  There’s no “It’s Britney, bitch!”-attitude of the Spears version, instead replacing the original’s sexy throb with a melancholy that Britney herself is too robotic to emote in her own songs.  “Gimme More” gets a downtempo makeover that will have you pleading with Sia to give you more.

• Download:  Sia – Gimme More (Britney Spears cover).mp3

Gliss – Lovers In the Bathroom & Sad Eyes:

From the Los Angeles band’s second album, Devotion Implosion, comes the detached shoegaze of Gliss.  Behind a dark, crackling wall of distortion, they create mind-expanding pop melodies layered in fuzzy textures.  Amid all the chaotic beauty comes the psychocandy gem, “Sad Eyes”, and “Lovers In the Bathroom”, a song Billy Corgan wishes he could’ve written for Zwan.  For fans of: The Raveonettes, Silversun Pickups, Smashing Pumpkins, and The Jesus & Mary Chain.

• Download:  Gliss – Lovers In the Bathroom.mp3
• Download:  Gliss – Sad Eyes.mp3
• (buy album)

Beyonce – Radio:

She may get the royalty checks for this recording, but Beyonce has nothing to do with this track; “Radio” is all Sasha Fierce.  From the I Am…Sasha Fierce album (Sasha Fierce is Beyonce’s alter-ego), “Radio” features an audacious vocal from Sasha Fierce Beyonce (I’m so confused) over production by Jim Jonsin and D-Town that highlights that same repetitive electronic stutter that, appearing in B.O.B.’s “Haterz Everywhere” and Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, seems to be defining pop-r&b music of this generation.  “Radio” will have you “on the hotline err’day”.

• Download:  Beyonce – Radio.mp3
• (buy album)

Dan Auerbach – Heartbroken In Disrepair:

Driven by old-school guitar riffs and a healthy smattering of reverb over his garage-blues licks, The Black Keys’ singer/guitarist came out with the February-released Keep It Hid, his first solo album.  The Akron, Ohio native recorded “Heartbroken, In Disrepair” being influenced by the analog blues-rock of his father’s record collection and, using vintage recording equipment, remains true to his musical stimuli.  For a split second the opening riff to “Heartbroken, In Disrepair” recalls the echoing guitar in The Smith’s “How Soon Is Now” (you know, the one that sounds like an 18-wheeler speeding past you on a dark highway?), and the guitar is crucial to Auerbach’s work (both solo and in The Black Keys).  But it’s with The Black Keys’ drummer, Patrick Carney, where Auerbach most excels (even Justin Timberlake recently named The Black Keys his favorite current band).  For fans of: The White Stripes, Heartless Bastards, and of course The Black Keys.

• Download:  Dan Auerbach – Heartbroken, In Disrepair.mp3
• (buy album)

The BPA featuring Iggy Pop – He’s Frank (Slight Return):

I knew before I even heard this song that I would love it: my favorite rockstar of all time (Iggy Pop, fools!) is featured as the singer on it, so I was going to love hearing him on a 2009 recording no matter what.  The BPA (Brighton Port Authority) is surrounded by this bogus myth that their debut album, I Think We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat, was a 70’s fustercluck recording session whose tapes were just rediscovered.  The actuality is that The BPA is the latest project of Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim), which features guest appearances by David Byrne (Talking Heads), Dizzee Rascal, and others.  “He’s Frank (Slight Return)” is a cover of the Monochrome Set’s post-punk tune, and the guitars are energizing while the groove bends-and-snaps like an extra in Legally Blonde.  “He’s Frank (Slight Return)” is also featured on the “Heroes” soundtrack.

• Download:  The BPA featuring Iggy Pop – He’s Frank (Slight Return).mp3
• (buy album)

Snoop Dogg – Snoop Dogg Millionaire (feat. Tanvi Shah):

Snoop jumps onto the Slumdog Millionaire bandwagon and rhymes over the spooky vocals of Tanvi Shah.  Lazily-rapped on Snoop’s part, but well-produced by Wild Animals and Chase & Status.  With a skittering bongo-inflected beat, it’s no “Jai-Ho”, but that song was ruined when the Pussycat Dolls were commissioned to sing over the Academy Award-winning song, on which Tanvi Shah also appears.

• Download:  Snoop Dogg – Snoop Dogg Millionaire (feat. Tanvi Shah).mp3

Friendly Fires – On Board:

You know when people, usually gay men, say something’s a Hot Mess?  And mean it in a good way?  You could think of this track from Friendly Fires’ eponymous debut album as a hot mess; more like a smorgasbord of different sounds that combine to get one big party started in your ears (a good Hot Mess), and less like that unconvincing tranny that was at your local bar last weekend (the not-as-good Hot Mess).  Indietronica that will get all the skinny boys tapping their Converse sneakers, if not jubilantly dancing to “that song in the Wii Fit commercial.”  For fans of: Junior Senior, The Rapture, the British new-rave movement.

• Download:  Friendly Fires – On Board.mp3
• (buy album)

To download all the songs of Mixtape #4 in a .zip file, click below:

• Download:  Mixtape 4.zip

Buffetlibre Dj’s made their Summer Mixtape.

Just download and do the dance!

Não estamos no verão, mas quem se importa? Ouçam essa incrível mixtape com hits de todos os tempos.
Dá só uma olhada na tracklist e sinta a vontade de sair dançandinho.

Tracklist:

0. Sintonia Buffetlibre
1. Sub Sub – Space Face
2. Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock – It Takes Two
3. Happy Mondays – Hallelujah (Club Mix)
4. Bassheads – Is There Anybody Out There?
5. Daft Punk – Around The World vs. Technologic
6. Robin S – Show Me Love
7. M/A/R/R/S – Pump Up the Volume
8. Junior Senior – Move Your Feet
9. Junior Jack – E-Samba
10. Tim Deluxe Feat. Sam Obernik – It Just Won’t Do
11. Armand Van Helden – My My My (Club Mix)
12. Larry Tee feat. Princess Superstar – Licky (Herve Goes Low remix)
13. Switch – A Bit Patchy
14. Kaoma – Lambada
15. Mousse T – Horny (Mousse T’s Extended Mix)
16. Kid Cudi – Day ‘N’ Nite (Crookers Remix)
17. Rozalla – Everybody’s Free
18. Thomas Andersson – Washing Up (Tiga Na Na Na Remix)
19. LCD Soundsystem – Tribulations
20. Fred Falke & Alan Braxe – Intro
21. Thomas Bangalter & DJ Falcon (Together) – So Much Love To Give
22. Superfunk – The Young MC
23. Supermode – Tell Me Why (Axwell & Steve Angello Remix)
24. Outlander – The Vamp
25. Kidda – Under The Sun (Herve Remix)
26. Lady GaGa – Just Dance (Make u Deff Remix)
27. Fake Blood – Mars
28.  Black Box – Ride on Time
29.  Bomfunk MC’s – B-Boys & Flygirls
30. Alexander Kowalski feat. Raz OHara – Hot Spot (girls outside the window)

We saw Jeppe, (1/2 of Junior Senior), open up for Chester French months ago at Spaceland and his performance was solid.  Great voice, great energy, and most importantly, got everyone on the dance floor cracking, popping,  and grinding.

Shit was dope.  I actually get his version of the Fine Young Cannibals song “Johnny Come Home” stuck in my head once a day.  No joke.  And I love it.

He’s opening up for Ladyhawke at the Troubadour on St. Patrick’s Day and also rockin at the Echoplex on March 20th.  If you’re down to dance like Evan Turner, check him out.

-LaRoushe

“A film is a ribbon of dreams. The camera is much more than a recording apparatus; it is a medium via which messages reach us from another world that is not ours and that brings us to the heart of a great secret. Here magic begins.”

-Orson Welles.

And here we continue with part two of our films that we love, and perhaps even adore, that we feel should make the jump over to the Criterion Collection, if, for no other reason, just to make ourselves a little happier. But here we hit a little closer to home with some domestic picks…

Marco Sparks: My first choice is Putney Swope, 1969, directed by Robert Downey, Sr. and it’s a simple and easy choice.

This film is red hot burning satire, hilarious at times, and an excellent example of what an American film can look like. We’ve all seen it and it’s been better described elsewhere, so I don’t have to say a whole lot here, but if for some reason you haven’t seen it (and you’ve certainly seem homages to it if you’ve ever seen a single P.T. Anderson film), get your ass on it. It’s worth your time.

Obviously, a Criterion no brainer, I would think. August?

August Bravo: Shadow Of A Doubt, 1943, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Probably my favorite Hitchcock film (David Mamet’s, too), and most likely Hitchcock’s as well. I had the pleasure of watching this for the first time in my cinema class. My teacher told the class to pay particular notice to the number 2 in this film, something I thought nothing of until much, much later.

The story is about a man named Charlie. The first scene shows him on the run from two men. Not much is known, but one thing etched into my memory are the bars over his face, coming from the shadow cast by the window. A great bit of foreshadowing. Or maybe not. He visits his married  sister, and her kids. His favorite of the kids is also named Charlie, who’s ecstatic to see her uncle. Weren’t we all like that as kids? So excited to see family, but now as adults we do anything we can to get away from them. But maybe that’s just me.

I don’t want to reveal too much, but the relationship between the two Charlies and how it develops throughout the movie is something that I’ve always found interesting. There’s a pretty strong theme here for 1943, something I still find eerie to this day.

Once again, not having a completely satisfying ending, or maybe it does, is something I thoroughly admire about this film. I enjoy thinking about a film days after I’ve watched it, or at least, I like movies that stick with you for days after you’ve finished them. Not many have that kind of staying power anymore, but Shadow Of A Doubt stays with you for years. Several of Hitchcock’s other films have made their way into the ranks of the Criterion collection and I feel that this film strongly deserves that same level of infamy.

Marco: August has just shamed me wonderfully since Shadow Of A Doubt is one of the few films by the master that I have yet to see, along with Notorious. I’ll get there, man. I’ll get there.

But for my last film for today, I’m going to keep it painfully simple: My Dinner With Andre, 1981, directed by Louis Malle.

There’s quite a bit I could say about this film, which is easily in my top 5 of all time and one that I watch at least once a year, so the trick here will be to say the least. I saw it written somewhere that this film is about two men who meet for dinner, eat in real time, and talk. Yeah, but that’s kind of missing the point, and they don’t even really eat in real time, but there’s such a fine attention paid to detail here that you probably do feel like you’re the silent man at the table during the conversation that takes place here.

Semi based on their real selves, Wallace “Inconceivable!” Shawn is a playwright on his way to dinner with an old friend, New York theater director Andre Gregory, “a man I’d been avoiding, literally, for a matter of years,” who had troubled out of sigth for a while, reportedly traveling the world. But one day a friend encounter Andre  leaning against a building in Manhattan and weeping, having just walked out of an Ingmar Bergman film, where a particular piece of dialogue had left him devastated: “I could always live in my art, but not in my life.” This is what sets up their dinner encounter.

And what an encounter it is. Andre has indeed been around the world and seen some amazing things, and the stories he has for Shawn are incredible. Shawn, a man of simple desires, who wants merely to have a littl money and to be able to lay in bed with his girlfriend, warm under their electric blanket, and read his biography of Charelton Heston, has his eyes opened by a Gregory’s almost explosively adventurous and spiritual look at the world. And so did I. What starts like the ravings of a mad man from Gregory will slowly begin to show you that there is so much more to life if you take one second to not be content with just being another fat, dumb, and happy somnabulist.

Both men are wonderful here and the script was compiled from their real life conversations together, and when you add to the beautiful way that Malle photographs this film, it’s perfect. Like I said, I watch this movie at least once a year and I’d love to tell you that it’s my litmus test for people to pass or fail as they enter my life, but I can’t. Everyone would fail, sadly, and this just isn’t a film for everyone.

I’ll end with this bit from Roger Ebert’s review of the film: “Someone asked me the other day if I could name a film that was entirely devoid of cliches. I thought for a moment and then answered, ‘My Dinner With Andre.’”

Anyway, August and I will be back tomorrow or the next day with a few more domestic selections from you, continuing and possibly concluding our series. I don’t want to leave you with a cheesy statment, like… “Go watch a good film!” so instead, I’ll just say… Watch your step.