This song has been on repeat in my itunes for quite some time now..its addictive to say the least.
“You’ve got the love I need to see me through”
Florence and the Machine – You’ve Got the Love (XX remix)
October 16, 2009
STAR WARS in Concert @ Energy Solutions Arena 10/16/09
Katie got me front row tickets to Star Wars in Concert for our anniversary. She rocks! I know she knows I am a nerd (I played in the Illinois Star Wars Collectible Card Game Regional Tournament when I was 16) but there is no way she can prepare for the nerd explosion that is gonna take place tonight. Will I be taking a toy lightsaber to the show? YES. Will there be lots of other grown men in costumes and/or with other miscellaneous Star Wars paraphernalia? YES. This is gonna be awesome, no doubt about it.
People I might expect to see tonight:
…ok so probably not Megan Fox but the others seem pretty likely.
October 12, 2009
Playground Mix
1. Q-Tip- Gettin Up (Hot Pink Delorean Remix) [kiDD wiDD intro edit]
2. Deadmau5- Catbread
3. Ashton Shuffle- For Everyone (Stupid Fresh Remix)
4. Shakira- She Wolf (Calvin Harris Remix)
5. Fake Blood- I Think I Like It (kiDD wiDD edit)
6. Diplo & Laidback Luke Hey- (Nadastrom Hot Latin Dub)
7. Kid Cudi- Make Her Say (Nadastrom 88 Dub)
8. Major Lazer- When You Hear the Bassline (Dance Area Remix) [kiDD wiDD bassline edit]
9. FPI- Going Back to My Roots (Figure Remix)
10. Alex Gopher- Handguns (Dada Life Remix)
11. Dada Life- Let’s Get Bleeped Tonight
12. Groove Diggerz- Body Flow (Tits & Clits Remix)
13. Fake Blood- Fix Your Accent
14. Audiostalkers- Sex
15. Little Boots- Remedy (A1 Bassline Get Hype Remix)
16. AC Slater- Jack Got Jacked (Udachi Remix) [Tommie Sunshine Relax Edit]
17. La Roux- I’m Not Your Toy (Jack Beats Remix)
18. Foreigner-Cold As Ice (Bastille Remix Shortened Edit)
19. NORE- Floatin’ In The Sky (Bird Peterson Remix)
20. Esser- Lets Work It Out (A1 Bassline Remix)
21. Example- Watch The Sun Come Up (Fred Falke Remix)
October 2, 2009
I like Girls
San Francisco indie-rock band Girls released their debut album Album last week. After first listen I was struck by the deep melancholy and nostalgia of Album. Girls’ have a distinct 60’s pop-rock sound reminiscent of Elvis Costello and Buddy Holly combined with the more drug induced music of the era. Album’s warm lo-fi production feels like a used record you pulled out of a dusty record store crate. Much in the same way that an old used record find does Album really grows on you with each listen. While the pace and tempo of the album varies, the mood is consistent throughout. This is an album you listen to when things just aren’t going right but you accept it and keep going. The angst and hurt though never manage to overwhelm or drag the music down. Girls’ Album is a solid compelling debut from the young bay area musicians.
September 29, 2009
Volcano Choir
Following the enormous success of Justin Vernon’s solo debut under the moniker Bon Iver, the indie-folk singer songwriter has teamed up with post-rock outfit Collections of Colonies of Bees to release a collection of experimental songs as Volcano Choir in the album Unmap. While For Emma, Forever Ago had a stripped down and organic feel the beauty was in the subtlety of its intricacies. Unmap is Vernon taking it a step farther and making that complexity the central focus of the music. Volcano Choir is practically in a genre of its own (get ready..ridiculous made up genre coming up), prog-math-folk-pop. There are definite similarities with Animal Collective and Talk Talk on this album but they are minimal, Unmap is very unique. This album is really hard to describe but i’ll use a shallow analogy that is useful nonetheless. If for Emma, Forever Ago was Vernon’s Ok Computer then Unmap is his Kid A/Amnesiac (the analogy also serves to point out the Thom Yorkness of Justin Vernon, especially in “Mbira In The Morass”). While listening to Unmap it is clear that Vernon is still the driving force in the music, employing many of the musical techniques used in Bon Iver. The difference is that they are now layers upon layers deep. Vernon’s voice becomes part of the thick musical fabric of each non-traditional experimental song on the album, excepting “Island, IS” the closest to conventional track. The symphony of multi-tracking reaches its climax on the penultimate track, “Still”, a reverb-heavy, fully developed, orchestral-like arrangement of the song “Woods” from the Bon Iver Blood Bank EP. It is obvious that Volcano Choir does not have the mass appeal that Bon Iver has but Unmap is an incredible album and impressive achievment nonetheless. This is one of those albums you just gotta lock yourself in your room to listen to while lying on your back, eyes closed, taking it all in.
September 24, 2009
The Beatles Remastered
I am an unashamed audiophile, anyone who knows me can attest to that. I love music but I love high fidelity music even more. So it is no surprise the Beatles have completely taken over my home/car stereo and ipod since last week. Over the last four years the entire Beatles back catalogue underwent an extensive digital remastering process culminating in its full reissue on 9-9-09 . If you aren’t already a Beatles fan the 16 remastered LP’s probably won’t induce a state of full blown Beatlemania. Yet for those of us who already hold the legendary quartet in high regard, the remasters are sure to consume with a newfound love and appreciation. It doesn’t matter what album or track you start with, the sound coming through the speakers will blow you away. The recordings haven’t changed, rather they reveal things you’ve never heard. It is clear that the engineers at Abbey Road Studios took painstaking care to maintain the original integrity of the albums while still breathing new life into them. Each album sounds as if it were recorded yesterday. John and Paul’s voices are piercingly crisp and clear. Paul’s bass lines have an incredible fullness and definition not present in the ‘87 versions. The percussion on every track leaps out of the speaker with every hit of the stick. What really jumps out on the remasters is all the studio work that made the Beatles so groundbreaking in the first place, the layered vocals, intricate percussion, exotic instrumentation, orchestrations, tape manipulations, and effects. The visual equivalent of listening to these albums is watching a movie in an IMAX theatre, the quality in undeniably superior. You will hear things that have always been there but just never heard. The remastered Beatles catalogue truly shines a new light on one of the greatest musical groups in history.
Posting the entire Beatles catalogue here would probably be ill-advised but I have to post my favorite album for your “previewing” pleasure. Below are the links to the FLAC and ALAC versions of Abbey Road (listening to the remasters in MP3 or any other shitty compressed format defeats the purpose of the remastered music. Both FLAC and ALAC are lossless types of data compression, meaning there is no loss in audio quality when compressing music for digital consumption. If you use itunes make sure you download the ALAC version of the album since itunes does not support FLAC files). One last thing, for god sake don’t listen to this on your computer speakers. For full enjoyment and effect play it loud on a real stereo system or with a nice pair of headphones pressed against your ears. 
Beatles – Abbey Road 2009 Remaster (FLAC)
Bealtes – Abbey Road 2009 Remaster (ALAC)
September 21, 2009
Acid Girls
The official video for the new Acid Girls single, Numbers Song, out on IHEARTCOMIX Records. Works more like a short film, just wait till you see how it ends (you’ll see what I mean).
September 13, 2009
Scratch Perverts
This is probably the most original DJ video i’ve ever seen. Totally blew my mind!
August 18, 2009
The End…or is it?
Earlier this month Thom York told the magazine Believer that Radiohead would not be releasing a new LP anytime soon, and possibly never again. This came as a big shock to everyone seeing as how it had been reported that the band has been working for quite sometime now on the follow up LP to In Rainbows. No official post or press release on the Radiohead website just Thom York in an interview saying there would be no more Radiohead albums. Then two brand new, very complete and finished sounding, Radiohead songs “leak” onto the internet in just two weeks. Suspicious? I would say so, especially considering Radiohead’s history when it comes to releasing music. The first song was released directly by the band as a tribute to the last survivor of WWI, Harry Patch, who died earlier this month. The second song, These Are My Twisted Words, leaked anonymously a week later. The band has now posted the song to their website as a free download. The free download from the Radiohead website which appeared yesterday comes with the MP3 file of the song as well as artwork that is to be printed out by the consumer on tracing paper and then arranged in an order that “pleases you.”
It would seem that Radiohead is anything but done. My guess is that they will be releasing an EP soon if not blowing everyones mind again with another surprise album. If there is anything that is certain it is that Radiohead loves to keep people guessing (and they really are good at it)!
Radiohead – These Are My Twisted Words
