I may be a tad inebriated, very sleepy, and might've just snuck into my own house. But that's doesn't mean I can't still type, and that you can't get down with the funk. I have to admit I like a few James Brown songs, but none enough to actually download. Heard this one on CBC Radio 2 Morning on Friday though, and it pretty much set the tone for my day.

James Brown is so raw, and there's something a little primal about this song. "Give me my thang." It doesn't get much simpler than that. The horns and the chanting-like backing vocals, and everything else going on that makes funk so all encompassing and keeps it chugging along without ever overloading the beat, it all works for me. Makes me wonder on the other hand why funk didn't really survive much past its heyday.

My Thang - James Brown

More posts to come soon, I'll acknowledge I've been in a bit of a lull the last few days.

Writing a term paper...

...so knock yourselves out, some of my favorite songs:

Crimewave - Crystal Castles vs. HEALTH

Bodysnatchers - Radiohead

Let's Make Out - Does It Offend You, Yeah?

We swear, we're not stoned right now

...but in this case it might help/explain

Black Moth Super Rainbow. No we're not playing a drinking game where the challenge is to string together three verbs and an adjective. That's the band's name, and this is their mission statement I'm lead to believe:

"Deep in the woods of western Pennsylvania vocoders hum amongst the flowers and synths bubble under the leaf-strewn ground while flutes whistle in the wind and beats bounce to the soft drizzle of a warm acid rain. As the sun peeks out from between the clouds, the organic aural concoction of Black Moth Super Rainbow starts to glisten above the trees."

If that doesn't tell you all that they're about...well, you're probably not alone. I first remember hearing these guys as the lead track on a hypem podcast, one day in the spring when I was working on my surfboard in the garage. Their sound was instantly strange and spanning, ethereal and entertaining, lazy and lovable. Alright, I'm gushing a bit, but these guys make likeable music that seems a little bigger than it really is. You might not have to be high, but tell me this music doesn't take you somewhere.

The vocoder T-Pain's the track out, but instead of being grating here, it adds to the magical quality of the song. The synthesizers (I'm a big fan, have you noticed yet?) are all over the place on this one, with the instrumentals acting like the actual verses, and the words popping in once a while to temper the music - much the opposite of your typical pop song.

The lollygazing way the song progresses makes it the perfect summer track to just sit out on the deck to and soak in the sunshine. Which is a hefty accomplishment for a song called "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise." To sum up how this song makes me feel personally when I hear it though, it's like running through a field at midnight with a full moon above. Never done it myself, but that's the beauty of music: at least now I think I know how it'd feel.

Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Rise - Black Moth Super Rainbow

There's nothing quite like these

...to temper my liking for Deerhunter. In my previous post about them, I put up an album cover instead of a band pic. This, sadly, is why.

Lead singer Bradford Cox. Who should really have enough money and fame by now to eat something once a week or so. I could make other jokes too, but I think the pics speak for themselves.

Other blogs post things too

...like theanimalshow.org. I've been listening to some of the tracks in this post and if you're a fan of Girl Talk, you'll be sure to love them (think rapping over Vanessa Carleton on the piano for starters). My personal favorite of the three tracks posted is "If You Wanna."

Personally though, I've never been a fan of multiple-song mashups that keep switching up. I find it's a byproduct (or cause) of our impatient music listening habits, leading to horrible club music consisting of songs being smashed together at their choral climaxes. Not to get preachy or anything.

From Girl Talk to real talk though, this is a mash-up I can get behind:

- plus -

- equals -

Two Weeks of Hip-Hop - Dead Prez vs. Grizzly Bear

Upcoming Concert: The Pack A.D.

The Pack A.D. (previous post / band page) are playing this July 20th at Gus' Pub on North St. in Halifax.

Worth checking out. I'm not gonna lie, I've never been to Gus' Pub and always thought of it as a bit of a dive, but turns out they've hosted quite a few good indie acts.

Quick Hit: Matt & Kim

Jumpy, piano-driven, happy pop music. Plain and simple, with a catchy chorus and thoughtful lyrics. I've always had a fondness for this song, but had forgotten about it til I checked out a link the other day where Bacardi was using this song in one of its ads. That little affectation Matt puts on his voice makes their music that much more interesting.

Daylight - Matt & Kim

Bonus Gimmicky/Funny/This-Actually-Happened Video:

Lesson Learned - Matt & Kim

Et moi je t'aime un peu plus fort

the ever-so-cute Coeur De Pirate

I've been meaning to blog this post for quite a while, because it's a nice little study in remixing. I remember I was browsing hypem.com like I usually do, all the way back in February, when I stumbled on "Comme Des Enfants (Le Matos Andy Carmichael Mix)" by an artist named Coeur De Pirate. It had a long song name, and a strange French-sounding artist, so I quickly filed it under "over-remixed Euro trash." I also remember though that it had an inordinately high number of "loved"s for the popular list, so I figured I'd give it a spin.

What followed was a slow, dark and brooding rendition of heartbreak, set to a bopping synth and dancefloor ready thump. I understand my fair share of French, but I really didn't pay attention to the lyrics, as the soundscape was more than enough to hold my attention for the numerous listens I gave the song over the weeks.

Then - and this is where the specifics get cloudy - one of my best friends and I began to talk about the song or the artist; the exact nature escapes me. But we were driving along one day, and I was playing the remix, and she somewhat jokingly/somewhat seriously said "what the fuck is this shit?" (she's endearingly vulgar). I explained it was Coeur De Pirate, and she replied with "oh hell no it isn't, this is some techno, crazy, stupid shit," then grabbed her phone and played the original version of "Comme Des Enfants." It was light-hearted, bubbly, piano-driven and a pop song in every sense of the phrase, a drastic contrast to the remix I was so enamoured by.

Once I saw this side of Coeur De Pirate, I was instantly struck. As it happens, I work at an office where we're only allowed on cbc.ca in terms of outside internet access, relegating me to listening to podcasts from CBC Radio 3, an all-indie, all-Canadian institution I've somehow been blind to for the last 4 years (ignore the fact I picked up a cool poster they came up with when the site first launched, that then somehow managed to stay up in my room for years without me actually visiting the site). Anyways, before I get off track, it turns out they play Coeur De Pirate, and that she's a bonafide Canadian songstress. Go figure.

Back to the music itself though, I mentioned this was a nice little study of the remix. A lot of remixes just add some drums, some synth, re-arrange some words, and voila, a cheap retake on something that probably wasn't even that great to begin with. I'm not gonna try to guess why this remix made it so big based on the singer herself and any perceived popularity, but musically, it's genius in the way it takes the original and reconstructs it, while retaining virtually only the lyrics themselves.

There's maybe an ode to the piano of the original in the build-up of the remix, but from there on out, it's one extended, dark tilt on an otherwise joyous-sounding song. I say sounding because translated, this song approximates to a love-triangle (somehow explained well-enough by my aforementioned non-French-speaking, Coeur-De-Pirate-loving friend), and CDP being stuck in the middle of it all.

"But he loves me still, and my love for you grows a little bit stronger" is roughly what the chorus amounts to. The jumpy and happy nature of the original does nothing to capture that spirit, but strangely the remix does it perfectly. In my limited experience, I have to say that's one of the few instances in which a remix (not a cover mind you) does a better job of conveying the message of a song than the actual original.

Now for all my talking, it's still up to you to listen and decide for yourselves. You can have it one of two ways: take my path, and hear the remix first, then be surprised by the original; or listen to the original and be envelloped by the immenseness of the remix afterwards.

You can only choose one. Someone tell that to Coeur De Pirate though.

Original: Comme Des Enfants - Coeur De Pirate

Remix: Comme Des Enfants (Le Matos Andy Carmichael Remix) - Coeur De Pirate

The Very Best

...are Radioclit and Esau Mwamwaya. And obviously watched a lot of Lion King growing up.

"Dinosaur On The Ark" is one I'll occasionally skip over when I'm driving and listening to my music, simply because it's a bit of a build-up, and I listen to a lot of my music based on the mood I'm in at the time. This one came on at the perfect moment: I hit a long, flat stretch of highway, the sun was just beginning to go down in the sky (nothing quite as dramatic as the album cover above, but nice nonetheless) and there were virtually no cars compared to my usual rush-hour commute.

It's always different hearing music in my car that I'm so used to coming out from my laptop. There's tradeoffs to each of course; the car has better bass and brings out a lot of elements you wouldn't otherwise notice, but obviously there's the windnoise and sub-par acoustics. My laptop on the other hand I got with an upgraded speaker system, and it picks up a lot better on little hints of treble that would otherwise be lost in the wind-shuffle of my car. Either way, I gained a new appreciation for this Very Best song on my drive home today.

There's the slow, rippling-water-and-jungle-rainforest start to this song, that literally sent a shiver through my body when I heard it today. The echo-y tone to Radioclit's voice provides the perfect intro, as he talks about the wasteland of a post-WWIII (don't lose me here) world, then narrows it down to the microcosm of himself and his lover, hoping "our love ain't a dinosaur, floating on, on the Ark." That line really hit me for the first time today, and I had the adequate time to mull it over, seeing as the majority of the song is dominated by Esau Mwamwaya's singing in Malawi's national language of Chichewa; I have no idea what any of it means outside of "Africaaaa," but damn if it's not uplifting.

That's what this whole song is really: a hymn of victory, swashed in swirling (but not necessarily dreamy) bass lines, chord plucking and tribal drumming, rife with Afro-Pop stylings and Western Pop sensibilities. The war and post-apocolyptic visions mentioned at the start are quickly forgotten by the end of this one, and replaced with a newfound sense of hope. Hate to get all deep like that, but that's really what this song means to me. Even if it all dawned on me on a simple drive home.

Dinosaur On The Ark - Esau Mwamway & Radioclit Are: The Very Best

The best-most-annoying-song you'll hear this summer

yes that's actually them. yes I thought they were black too

They're Das Racist, and they're supposed to make pretty wack music, on purpose though. This song can easily get on your nerves, but rest assured that they know it sounds stupid...as opposed to, oh, I don't know - fucking Soulja Boy, who actually thinks he's good.

Keep that sense of irony in mind when listening to this one. That's probably the only thing that'll keep you sane through two friends arguing about meeting up at the exact same "combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" in New York for almost 4 minutes. Well, that fact, plus the awesome guitar riffs, synths, horns and everything else accompanying this catchy remix by Wallpaper.

If this isn't stuck in your head after the first listen, whether for good or bad, then you might be brain-dead. Or racist. But I think they meant for you to be the second one. Anyways:

Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix) - Das Racist

I actually thought they were dead...no lie

...but they're not. They're just two Scottish brothers trying to make awesome music. I should really stop posting when I'm so tired, cause I can't think as clearly or write as much, but it's the kind of night for this song. Actually, any time is the kind of time for this song.

It's just kinda beatifully distorted, in the vein of a lot of music I like. Plus I can't really say anything about "Just Like Honey" that hasn't been said already...it's kinda been 20+ years.

The particular song aside, I do have to say though, I've always hated most music from the 80's, just because of the local pop music station here that would have an 80's morning every Sunday. I'm not sure what was more aggravating every start of the week: my mom trying to hurry us to make it on time for church (never worked), or the God-awful, straining, hair-clenchingly-annoying pop and "rock" music from that whole era (probably that). I'd say there's maybe 10% of music I actually like from that timeframe.

There's a rider to all this of course: I didn't know The Jesus & Mary Chain, Dinosaur, Jr. and an assortment of good new wave and alt. rock groups were even around making music at the time. It's surely raised the quality of that era for me, one discovery at a time.

Just Like Honey - The Jesus & Mary Chain

Quick Hit: The Pack A.D.

yeah we're pretty fucking awesome

Don't be fooled by the seemingly benign start to this song. The Pack A.D. come at this song from a bluesy/Jack White place in the musical spectrum, and the distorted guitar has to be the most pleasing thing I've heard in...well, a few weeks, but still. The White Stripes parallels are hard to ignore here, save for it seems the drummer in this band actual possesses musical talent.

Making Gestures - The Pack A.D.

Everyone else is doing it

Pitchfork just reviewed the evidently brilliant Bitte Orca from Dirty Projectors (9.2? it's better than Veckatimest?). I've had a couple singles kicking around for about two months, but all I hear are good things, so I'll definitely have to get the full album and judge for myself. Frankly, I'm real tired right now, but I promised my friend I'd share some Dirty Projectors stuff, and I wasn't able to post anything yesterday, so this'll have to do for now.

I'll just let you guys know that this song has a knack for getting stuck in my head at the strangest times...I'm constantly humming and singing along to it when I'm choking back water during my last few surf sessions. It's an acquired taste for sure, but it struck me as brilliant the first time I heard it, and that's a rare occurence for me. Unique is one word for it; I think it's that noise at the start and end that really gets me and pulls me into the song for a good five minutes, it's quirky things like that that I really dig in music right now.

Stillness Is The Move - Dirty Projectors

This one really highlights the vocals of the female members of the group (depicted here so quaintly/effectively on Bitte Orca's oft-posted album cover). "No Intention" is another one to check out, showing off the David Byrne-ness (yes, DP and DB collabed for the Dark Was The Night compilation) of the group's lead male singer. Same fragile feel to the song, but a different perspective.

Wow this is kinda amazing

...and maybe a tad depressing? Quick, awesome and powerful video either way.

Last Day Dream

(pic and video both found on the equally great yayeverday.com)

Listening to teeth to learn how to quit

You may forgive the immeasurable lateness of this. You Forgot It In People from the epic, double-digit-membered Canadian collective Broken Social Scene was a critically lauded (how many albums score above a 9 on Pitchfork?) success over 7 years ago when it was released. Unfortunately, I was just entering my teens and enamoured by everything the radio, MuchMusic and hip-hop had to offer, so it went wholly unnoticed by myself and most of my friends at the time.

Now that I have a much better understanding of the current indie music world, I've been trying to catch up on some "foundation" level music if you will. I'd always heard about Broken Social Scene, and have vague memories of their mention during Canada's Grammy's, the Juno Awards. My younger sister even remembers them performing, "drunk" and badly as she recalled earlier today. I'm sure it never happened, but I guess either way it didn't leave enough of an impression with her or I.

What first peaked my interest in BSS however was a quote from Kele, lead singer of Bloc Party. He said the group doesn't do covers, but if they did, it would be "Lover's Spit" by BSS. I thought that "hey, if it's good enough for Kele to consider covering, I should at least check it out." This was back in October of 2008 after I went to Bloc Party's intimate concert here in town, and I've always loved listening to that song since then.

It's muted, but the atmosphere is expansive, and the multi-instrumentation really adds to the richness of the song as a whole, as do all of Broken Social Scene's efforts. The lyrics obviously hint at sexual relations (what with "swallow words while giving head") but have an air of forlorness to them, like there's something wrong with what's going on, no matter how passionate it might be; if it's passionate at all for that matter. Loveless love is one way to put the feeling this song conveys.

Lover's Spit - Broken Social Scene

I've been listening to a lot of Japandroids right now (more on them later this month I guess), but I find myself a tad amazed that I like equally their two-man, drum-and-guitar assault just as much as the myriad of layers, instruments and voices present in BSS's work. It's a real testament to the variety of good music, in all its forms.

If you wanna check out more BSS and buy any of their albums, your local record store should be carrying copies if they know what's good for them and if not, head over here. There's even a book chronicling the history of BSS, set to be released July 1st (Canada Day!). I hear good things. But of course, when it comes to Broken Social Scene, you usually do.

Boom-boom-chhhh, boom-boom-chhhh

How this song is good makes absolutely no sense. It's like some perverted My Bloody Valentine/Jesus & Mary Chain...and I love it. It'd be the perfect song to just sit down and put on repeat and try to dissect what's actually being said over that over-powering distortion.

It's primal in a way; I've honestly never heard any vocals so drowned out by the background that they're almost tertiary in nature. Yes, tertiary. Secondary here is the space between the distortion and the vocals: that's where you have your own space to make your own meaning outta this one. Like the title says, for most people, that meaning is gonna be your own first party, when you got so drunk or high that everything around you was the same pounding haze accompanying this track.

Reminisce.

The First Party - Handglops

Grab The Rifles

The above is posted because lead singer Brandon Cox of Deerhunter is evidently scarily thin. And admit it; you've always wanted to see a psychadelic-themed James Bond intro anyways...with a deer.

In contrast to the vividness of Deerhunter's Cryptograms album cover pictured, their music can be quite muted and repetitive, in the most charming of lo-fi ways. I often have a hard time describing my favorite music, because when I really like something, it hits me instantly; that perfect mix of drums, bass, guitar, synth, whatever. I'll usually know during the first listen if I really love something.

Deerhunter is really an exception to that for me. Their music has grown on me as slow and deliberately as some of their instrumental progressions.

Nothing Ever Happened - Deerhunter

...that song however had quite an instant impact for me. Of Deerhunter's music I've heard, it's their most immediate, "indie-rock" jam, a 5:51 minute distorted-guitar-and-pounding-drumming rocker. The rock-out trip the band takes you on for the final few minutes of this tune make you yearn to be front-row watching these guys performing live.

Focus Group - Deerhunter

When it starts to hit mid-tempo however is seemingly Deerhunter's comfort zone. Think Grizzly Bear in a garage band, and if they weren't so meticulous about their audio production. That thin guitar and steady, beat-pacing drumming of "Nothing Ever Happened" is still there, but the vocals have been toned down and given the choir-chorus treatment that Ed Droste et al. seem to employ so well. I have to admit I'm a big fan of said choruses. It doesn't have to say anything, it just has to feel a certain way, and both groups are very effective getting that feeling across with no words. "Focus Group" is a song I initially had no affinity for, but it slowly grew on me like mentioned, and it's one of those short little gems you wish would go on for another 2 or 3 minutes more, because it wouldn't take anything away from the song itself.

If you like these cuts off the Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. double play, definitely check out Deerhunter's newest, curiously-titled five-song EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange. Preview and buy it over here.

Nous Sommes De Venice

This song just comes at you and does not stop. It's like a bad dream. An awesome bad dream.

The way it starts up coyly then builds up bit by bit (shorter than many dance songs do) then just explodes make you wanna...um, dance I'd have to say. Unfortunately the only thing this song does is make me lament the shitty quality of club music in my own city; if it's not Top 40 and on the radio, it's not getting played.

The hard slaps, the pulsing machining noises, the string element and the eerie vibe of the song all combine to make a straight-up dance floor banger. The only thing better than this song would be an extended remix of it, just cause you don't want it to end, and there's two or three gaps where it's not "dance your ass off" heat. Check it out.

We Are From Venice (La Serenissima) - The Bloody Beetroots

Wow, who remembers these guys?

You Get What You Give - New Radicals

Can't believe it's been 11 years since this was out. I'm at that age where I'm just starting to become a bit nostalgic about my youth (I'm barely out of it first of all) but this is one of the songs I definitely remember from back in the 90's. Seeing as everyone from that decade seems to be coming back now, I figured unleashing this little tune was the least I could do personally.

So a weirdo and a softy walk into a bar...

Possibly the weirdest song I have, both musically and based on a video my father described as "sick," and most definitely not in a good way. And he's maybe only said that about 3 things in my life...all of which I can't remember right now. The song has a Middle-Eastern feel to it, but starts with what sounds like African tribal chanting; take that as you may.

I watched the video before I heard the song itself, and I'm not one to watch videos much in the first place. Just to let you know however, the video will give you much more to visualize whenever you hear the song by itself afterwards.

And I won't lie: I frankly have no idea what they're saying for most of the song.

Omar K - Rainbow Arabia

MP3 / youtube

Now this one I've had even longer, but I still remember the first night I heard it. Put it on repeat until the late hours of the morning, and it never lost its feel. Beautiful singing by Lykke Li; the way she drags out her word endings is such a hard thing to put into words. 

It's like slowly pulling sand out of an ocean, then letting it flow back through your hands to where it came from. (Writing and re-writing that sentence took me nearly as long as the song itself.) Kleerup provides a pulsating beat to keep the song moving, but the strings add an element of class to the whole thing.

Until We Bleed - Kleerup & Lykke Li