Archive for August, 2009

Mariah Carey – I Want to Know What Love Is

Mariah


Here is Mariah’s new song, a cover of The Foreigner’s 1984 ballad. This will be released in September, obviously with better quality, but I wanted to give ya’ll a little preview first. I’m not including the download link this time because it’s being taken down everywhere, but if you want the mp3 you know how to find me. It’s Mariah’s return to her power ballad status, love or hate her…the chick’s got a voice.

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LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends

LCD Soundsystem


I once knew a man who couldn’t read. I once saw him sitting on the sidewalk begging for money, his sharp blue eyes always focused on a flower or a bird. Without moving his lips he conversed with everything around him. As I passed he’d look up, smile, and say something like, “Today, the rain shall wash the world of sorrow.” People thought he was mad, but I ached to communicate with the world the way he did. I thought he was a genius.

Just for curiosity’s sake, I watched myself read a book in front of my mirror this morning. My eyes twitched left to right as if I were possessed. I made each word on the page into a sound that I heard inside of my head. As I did it, my lips moved up and down reflexively, like a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Philosophers and scientists split the human psyche into left and right – also known as the yin and yang of the Eastern world, as well as their Western counterpart’s definitions of the masculine and feminine. The right brain is mystical, spiritual, emotional; the left is calculating, rational, analytical. Whenever you read, the left side takes over.

The first book ever written in our Semitic alhapbet was the Old Testament. It was a book of rules, a book with the Ten Commandments. Somewhere in that first text was a message: nature was now beneath the abstract world of code. The world of code contained the wrod of God.

That code became the brikcs and mortar of our civilization, a civilization of readers, knowers, data crunchers and human processors. We became saturated in letters, in the alhapbet. It wasn’t obvious before the ‘knoewldge economy’ arrived, but once it did, the satration accleraeted. With our fingers on the keys and our eyes on the screens, we both tochued and vewied letetrs all day long. Traveling to and form the office, we wnadreed through a juglne of ad slogans, all demanding our attention, all decoded on sihgt.

How mnay trillions of lettres did I look at? (First, I turn them into suonds, then into wrods, and finally, into menaing.) I don’t konw. But there’s something frighteningly inhuman about the prcoess. Our brains were bmboarded with the same 26 letters, over, and over, and oevr again. Did we really expect our way of thikning wulodn’t change?

Thurogh txet, our mnids wree trnasforemd form oarl to viasul. And all the wilhe, the rghit sdie of our biarn gerw dtusy wtih neglect, and the lfet sdie beacme knig. By the end, we were mree slvaes to an albeaphtic mstaer. And taht is how it hppaened. Taht is why weheenvr I cnofornt my emetpinss thsee dyas, I cna see 26 leettrs satirng bcak at me. We wnet form oarl, to lietral, to mdnaess.


I wrote this before I had a song in mind…I usually do the opposite…but for some reason this fit perfectly for me, and it happens to be one of my favorite songs. It would be interesting to hear what song you think about when reading today’s post.


mp3: LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends

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5 Song Friday!

Fail


Obviously you’re not working so here are a few songs to enjoy while pretending to be busy.


mp3: Bodyrox feat. Luciana – Planet Club

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mp3: Len – Steal My Sunshine

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mp3: Mr. Hudson feat. Kanye West – Supernova

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mp3: Tilly and The Wall – Alligator Skin

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mp3: The xx – Islands

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A.C. Newman – The Heartbreak Rides

A.C. Newman


I first encountered Mr. Newman as Carl when I fell in love with The New Pornographers. As Carl Newman, he serves as the band’s lead frontman/singer and songwriter. I so love the way his voice mixes with Neko Case’s in TNP, that I didn’t want to think of him as a solo artist at first. Fortunately, his solo work (as A.C.) is lyrical, vibrant and sturdy. “The Heartbreak Rides” is a straight-forward and very singable track from his second solo album, Get Guilty, released earlier this year. For fans of TNP, Newman’s songwriting trademarks are still here. The melody cruises over chomping guitars, boosted by dry hits from the drums. The lyrics are often repeated and in this song, the entire chorus is the repeated statement “Yo ho.” Why? Who knows. But it works. The music is not overworked (the harmonies he sings with himself have plenty in common with Simon and Garfunkel). The lyrics are straightforward, but sly (with a slight turn, he rhymes “bedlam” with “led them.” You see what I mean?) With two solo albums and four from The New Pornographers, there is plenty of Newman to explore. (Thanks for the review, Chris!)


mp3: A.C. Newman – The Heartbreak Rides

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Kesha – Tik Tok

Kesha


Granted it’s already 2:45pm on Monday but if you want a quick pick me up, take a listen to Kesha’s new song called “Tik Tok”. It’s a slice of regular pop sweetness mixed with a dash of electro synth backing. It’s obvious this song doesn’t require much thinking…it’s kinda like that really cute but very dumb girl or boy in the bar: very clear you’re not going to have any sort of intellectual conversation, but that’s ok because they just really make you want to effing dance.


mp3: Kesha – Dolla (Tik Tok)

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5 Song Friday!

Fail


mp3:The Secret Handshake – Summer of ’98

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mp3:M83 – We Own the Sky

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mp3:La Roux – Colourless Colour

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mp3:N.A.S.A. – Gifted (Steve Aoki remix)

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mp3:One for the Team – Best Supporting Actress

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Anjulie – Boom

Anjulie

It’s 1940′s film noir…large tilted hats on women that coyly cover only one eye like they have something to hide…listening to big band over the dull roar of patent leather shoes taping to the beat…laughing into your gin martini while gazing across a heavily smoke filled room, searching for color…entering a private eye’s office and hearing phrases like, “What brings you to this part of town, kid?” and “You got a light?”…definitely rain-drenched streets, dark sidewalks, flashing neon signs…


mp3:Anjulie – Boom

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mp3:Anjulie – Boom (Mike Rizzo Funk Generation Radio Edit)

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Matt & Kim – Daylight

Matt and Kim

There is a surface tension to this song…like…like…a rubber band being snapped against a snare drum. It’s so crisp, so taut. It teeters on breaking free and spinning out of control but the invisible boundaries that are at constant strain somehow keep it in check. I feel my hands clenching, ready for a release that is imminent, knowing that juuuust beyond the next 8 count there will be cymbals and trumpets. Then it ends, and I’m oddly satisfied. And if you could hear it, this is exactly how daylight sounds.


Matt and Kim – Daylight

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A Fine Frenzy – Blow Away (new single)

Last weekend after coming home from a night out I was listening to some chill music in my room, as one does, and “Near To You” came on. I was singing along happily when my roommate came in and said, “What are you doing to yourself?” Such sentences seem to be synonymous with most songs off of A Fine Frenzy’s first album, One Cell In the Sea. However, with Alison Sudol’s new single it looks like she may be shedding her heavy piano influence and skimming the edges of the pop spectrum (Regina Spektor fans should be happy with this song). Bomb in a Birdcage drops on September 8th, but rest assured there will be at least one tearjerker on the album, you can’t escape your roots that easily.


A Fine Frenzy – Blow Away

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5 Song Friday!

I realize that I haven’t posted in a few days, so I’m hittin ya with five songs. They have nothing in common, I just really enjoy them all. Three were actually featured on “So You Think You Can Dance” in some pretty fantastic routines (look em up…now.). It’s Friday, so close the door, put on your headphones, pretend you’re working, and hopefully enjoy what I’ve posted.


mp3: Just Jack – Starz In Their Eyes (Trophy Twins remix)

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mp3: Citizen Cope – Let the Drummer Kick

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mp3: Civil Twilight – Letters From the Sky

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mp3: Roisin Murphy – Ramalama (Bang Bang)

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mp3: Roisin Murphy – Ruby Blue

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