On Saturday Night Live last night, Kanye looked like a guy who’d just bumrushed a karaoke stage. Incredibly excited, irritatingly off-key, plagued by what sounded like technical glitches (whch were no doubt planned), fucking up the lyrics and trying to stay on the beat. It was one of those performances that forcefully reminded [...]
Here are the last two:
marathonpacks year-end mix, vol. 3 (128k mp3, 68.4MB) (expired)
1. Black & White Town–Doves
2. A Little Bit More–Jamie Lidell
3. Gone (f. Cam’ron & Consequence)–Kanye West
4. Trouble With Dreams–Eels
5. All We Are–Fischerspooner
6. Gideon–My Morning Jacket
7. Like A Honeycomb–British Sea Power
8. There Goes the Sun–The Pernice Brothers
9. I Was A Teenage Rainphase–Stereolab
10. So Begins [...]
One of today’s videos you all have probably seen already, and the other may have completely missed the radar of those of you not inclined to seek it out. There are, however, some interesting similarities between the two, and while I plan comments in that direction, I’d like to know what you think of ‘em [...]
There’s no better way to start off a week, my mother used to say, than with some lifelike dismembered limbs contrasted starkly against crude computer animation. That, and a hearty stack of pancakes. Mmmm…pancakes. The video is for Xiu Xiu’s “Muppetface” (mov), and it’s easily one of the most memorable I’ve seen this year. It’s [...]
In a genre of music that owes so much to the actual recorded versions of other songs, hip-hop covers (of other hip-hop songs) are always an interesting listen. They can’t be analyzed in the same fashion as a rock cover, but need to be subjected to a different set of criteria–they’re more concerned, most often, [...]
I’m posting this list in the interest of providing visitors an idea of what I’d consider my “canon”–for the last five years, at least. Any music aficionado would agree that a list like this actually goes together pretty quickly, by sorting one’s iTunes by year and taking a glance at the CD rack. My main [...]
Coming after two days of blindingly idiotic and dangerously hubristic denials of reality from President Bush, FEMA director Michael Brown and Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, and during MSNBC’s well-intentioned but sentimentally scripted Hurricane Relief telethon, Kanye West’s unvarnished, emotional and decidedly off-message invective came across as simultaneously refreshing and disquieting. News reporters, running the [...]
After a week-long respite in the Florida sun, I’m back, with a list inspired by my pal Irving of the 10 best singles so far this year. As I compiled it, I noticed that my ideal top ten is replete with up-tempo, danceable numbers–my ideal, parallel-universe Billboard chart.
1. The Decemberists “16 Military Wives“–At a typically [...]
At the halfway point (or a little after), I thought I’d issue my halftime top ten (then I saw the stalwart largeheartedboy’s own version–I swear I had this almost done last week). Anyhoo, here goes:
Spoon Gimme Fiction–A remarkable work from the most iconoclastic songwriter around today. A longer piece on this album will come [...]