Handsome Indeed!

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So this will be another short but sweet post. Remember. Not everything in life is about quantity, but about quality. Some of my favorite writings in the year and a half helping George here have been the shorter posts. My personal favorite? When I wrote about the track “Bicycle Boy” by Rubicks.

Well, this one is along the same lines. Dan Boeckner, of Wolf Parade fame, started his own side project a few years ago with his wife Alexei Perry by the name of the Handsome Furs. At first, I must be honest that I wasn’t into them. When you fall under the spell of Wolf Parade’s other wunderkind singer, Spencer Krug, it’s easy to lose sight that Boeckner is just as full of surprises.

One recent surprise? When perusing the CNN website, I came across this little article featuring the Handsome Furs entitled Indie Asia. I mean, can you believe it? This is great for the indie world, in a way. It helps give exposure to it – much to the chagrin of many a hipster – but also exposes the world to us! Definitely check out those videos.

Well, last night I had one of those moments where a song sticks with me and will eternally make me think of a certain situation every time I hear it, and that’s the beauty of music. I’ve given you three tracks here, but the one song I speak of is the first one – “All We Want, Baby, Is Everything”. The only other song to elicit these sorts of thoughts is Modest Mouse’s “Gravity Rides Everything” – which is a wonderful song in its own right.

The other two tracks – “I’m Confused” and “Radio Kaliningrad” – are excellent, to boot. All three are off of last year’s Face Control, which I highly recommend getting. As you were!

Download Handsome Furs – All We Want, Baby, Is Everything

Download Handsome Furs – I’m Confused

Download Handsome Furs – Radio Kaliningrad

Now, go buy this stuff! NOW!

The best chance to get a Royal Flush in a casino is in the bathroom

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I don’t think I have told you this yet, but I play poker once a week. Used to be a lot more. I mostly stick to poker tournaments, as I think the added level of strategy gives me more of an advantage. I have played in two World Series of Poker events in two different years. Both times I didn’t make the first break because my rockets didn’t hold up. Did you know the odds you get dealt pocket aces only 220 to 1?

A lot of people don’t understand the intricacies of tournament poker. It’s not about winning the most money like it is in a cash game. The chips you use in tournament poker don’t stand for anything except keeping score. In a poker tournament those that are patient get rewarded. Cash game poker versus tournament poker is the difference between dedication and inspiration. Cash game play values steadiness, repetition, consistently making the mathematically correct play, showing up day after day and playing better than your opponents. Tournaments value “seizing the day.” The ability to inspirationally find a successful play in critical situations is far more valuable in a tournament. There are times you step on the gas and times you just quietly fold away waiting your turn to attack. In both types of games though, this one fact is true: There can be hours of boredom around moments of excitement. It takes discipline to not get bored and play any hand. I have a tool to keep me from getting bored and playing bad.

Some of you could care less about poker, and I understand that. You are here for some music enlightenment and I have given you the poker equivalent of a “slow roll“. Here is the tie-in. I listen to an enormous amount of media during these tournaments. I will usually play in these tournaments for 5 or 6 hours. During this time I listen to podcasts and music. I often load up my iPhone with potential albums to review for the site.

Sometimes those albums suck and I end up going through my albums looking for something to get me through. It was today that I rediscovered an album I love that I haven’t heard in such a long time. Caution by the band Hot Water Music.

This album is 36 minutes of perfect punk rock. Is it something in the water in Gainsville Florida where this band, and many of my other favorite punk bands (namely Less Than Jake) originate from? I dunno, but this album saved my butt today. Sometimes it’s not about keeping from being bored. Sometimes it’s drowning out the Chatty Cathy at the table. I swear that some people play poker just to force 9 other people to listen to him or her. That’s what happened today, and I was blissfully drowning that person out with loud punk rock!

The song that stands out most on this album is track two… Trusty Chords.

Download Hot Water Music – Trusty Chords

I hate this place but I love these chords
“an empty fate just means an even score”
And the pain this morning……
it filled my head
It’s JAMESON.
It means that I’m not dead.

Jameson whiskey I presume? Tasty. But that’s neither here nor there. That’s an example of a great song. The entire album is fantastic. By the way, you might be wondering about the band’s name? It’s also the title of a Bukowski book. You have read Charles Bukowski right? That’s a convo for another time and maybe another blog… (perhaps I am ready to create books.inALLcaps.com hmmm…)

You don’t get high on your own supply

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Mike Morales, aka DJ Kue, is quickly becoming one of dance music’s fastest rising deejays and producers. His music has been garnering support from Judge Jules, Kissy Sell Out, Bloody Beetroots, DJ Am, DJ Dan, Donald Glaude, Charles Feelgood and many others.

Not only are Kue’s skills as a producer in high demand, but his skills as a dj as well. Approaching his 15th year of djing, he has been known for innovating his own style, taking the listeners on a journey through music. It is not only Kue’s track selection that one should look out for, but his constant manipulation of tracks through the use of of doubles, vigorous scratching and other turntablism techniques.

With a combination of great track selection and turntablist techniques, he does what he can to rock a party right!

Download DJ Kue – Don’t Get High

15 years? I’m late to the party. I almost thought I discovered DJ Kue. The day I stumbled across his work on hypem.com, I was in love. This man’s remixes are top notch. They are the sound I want to hear and to play. Besides the electro house sounds that get me excited, he even remixes artists that I love! NWA, Ke$sha, Fall Out Boy, the fucking Shangri-Las?!?! It’s unreal.

As an up-and-coming producer myself, whenever I heard Kue’s tracks I pictured the most awesome studio. I was surprised to discover that he just uses Ableton. I just switched to Ableton as well. It’s actually an amazing bit of software. It’s just software. Don’t you need a ton of awesome hardware? no. Not if Kue can produce these bangers with just that.

It makes me want to refocus. I’m in the purgatory of studiotopia. I’ve been displaced by this housing market of ours. So it’s just me and my macbook, shoved into a little corner of a room. Struggling to find time and space. Having a hard time getting inspired.

Kue offered to answer some questions, so I thought… Padawan can ask the Jedi something? How about: “What inspires YOU?”

Music in general, inspires me. I grew up listening to lots of stuff as a kid and it really just evolved into getting into djing and then production. As a dj, there were always really great tracks I loved but never really had that dancefloor appeal. So, I started making lots of bootlegs. It was really reworking other tracks that I started to learn about production as a whole and make my own stuff.

Like Twisted Sister!

Download Baskerville vs. Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock (DJ Kue re-edit)

Seriously. Me too! That’s why I become a DJ, and why I inspire to remix and redit. To make music that I could share on the dance floor! It’s why I started the blog. It’s great to get to chat with DJ Kue and I am thankful for his work.

If you drop beats on huge dance floors or melt faces in the privacy of your bedroom, Kue’s tracks need to be in your set list.

By Your Side

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So the last day or so, I was reminiscing over some of the old house music tracks I either have or used to dance to. On my own facebook page, I posted youtube links to four separate vids that showed the talents of one Kenny Dixon, Jr. – otherwise known as Moodymann.

Well, while perusing through some of his old records on the discogs site, I found a few gems. Then, I ran across some folks making a claim that he had remixed Sade’s “By Your Side”. Well, that claim has been proven false, however. To be honest? The remix just doesn’t have the typical Moodymann sort of sound to it. Instead, it’s from the boys at Naked Music, which makes much more sense, if you think about it.

Download Sade – By Your Side (Naked Music remix)

Anyhow, that will be one of the tracks listed here. The other is possibly the most well known of all of Sade house remixes. Ben Watt is part of the duo Everything But the Girl, and can you all believe the man is pushing fifty years of age? Wow. Makes me feel that much older, to be honest. Well, here you have his Lazy Dog remix of “By Your Side”, which has easily withstood the test of time. I played this track once at a small gig for a friend a few years back, not realizing that this song was a personal fav of his and his wife’s. So this one is, in a way, going out to Danielle and Fran. A great and unbelievably happy couple that just amazes me with how they do it.

Download Sade – By Your Side (Ben Watt’s Lazy Dog Club Mix)

Since I mentioned Moodymann, I think it’s only fair that I post one of my personal favorites of his. It’s the typical Moodymann, as it’s along the lines of “Shades of Jae” in that it works best as a tool over other tracks, but in the right place? It works on its own. Here’s “I Can’t Kick That Feeling When It Hits”. Seriously a legendary tune. You’d be making a mistake by at least not taking a listen.

Download Moodymann – I Can’t Kick This Feeling When It Hits

And I’m in a subdued state. So no smartass comments this week. Just make sure you support these guys.

Thunder only happens when you’re busy holding onto the shit you haven’t figured out yet

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Now here you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down?
It’s only right that you should
Play the way you feel it

But listen carefully to the sound
Of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering
What you had
And what you lost…
And what you had…
And what you lost

Download The Morning Benders – Dreams (Fleetwood Mac Cover)

Everyone you know bid a happy farewell to 2009. Don’t let the door hit ya, everyone said. Ready to embrace 2010. Well? How’s it going?

I think we’re all still cautiously optimistic but holding onto the pain ’09 brought us. We’re ready for it to pounce at any moment we’ve let our guard down.

You know what they call that, right? It’s called projecting. So stop it. Or you’ll be begging 2010 to forgive you, and starting this all over again.

Lately I have desperately pondered,
spent my nights awake and I wonder
what I could have done in another way
to make you stay

Download The Morning Benders – Lovefool (The Cardigans cover)

I want you to meet The Morning Benders. They are a cutie patootie fourpiece indie band from northern California. I first heard of them when I caught them on a small stage at San Francisco’s OutsideLands music festival. Their music, and onstage presence, is a bit reminiscent of the Beatles. There’s nothing to not like about them at all. And the music you’re hearing today is a bit off from what you’d find on their multiple EPs and albums. Talking Through Tin Cans might be the most popular album – from 2008. A few have followed, such as this album: The Bedroom Covers, also from 2008. I’m excited to hear what the next album will bring. Just as I try to remove caution from my optimism of this coming year altogether.

You’re the song that the trees sing when the wind blows
You’re a flower you’re a river you’re a rainbow
Sometimes I’m crazy
But I guess you know
And I’m weak and I’m lazy
And I’ve hurt you so
And I don’t listen to a word you say
When you’re in trouble I just turn away

Download The Morning Benders – Marie (Randy Newman cover)

The new album comes out on March 9…

Be the cool washcloth to my fevered head

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Hi, do you know Conor Oberst? Of course you do. You first knew him as Bright Eyes. What, I don’t know if you liked Bright Eyes; you never told me. I can’t keep track of everything you say you liked. I’m just here to share, baby. Sometimes I don’t even remember what I wrote last month. (Which wasn’t much, actually, so I guess I have an excuse there.)

He did a little bit of this before Bright Eyes and a little bit of that after Bright Eyes, eventually calling himself and his backing band Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band… oh, and somewhere squished in there he also participated in a lil side diddy called Monsters of Folk. .

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band was on the OutsideLands lineup, and I don’t know why we skipped their show while we were there. Maybe you can scan through our podcasts and find out. They played festivals and concerts all over. I wish we had caught a performance last year. I am really loving this second album, Outer South.

Board up the windows, unplug the phone
Make it look like nobody’s home
Well, I’m real scared so prepare for the worst

Don’t get scared away if I compare this song to the Arcade Fire. You may not like AF but everyone with taste loves them, so shush it. There are so many strong tracks on this album but this is one of my favorites. Check out “Big Black Nothing”:

Download Conor Oberst – Big Black Nothing

But don’t even think for one second that this song represents the rest of the sounds on this album. A fun love song that I enjoy every time it comes on is “Air Mattress”, which reminds me of surf songs of the 60’s, teen pop songs of the 80’s, and you know what? It makes me think of Stealers Wheel in the 70’s and surely someone who laid it on that electronic keyboard in the 90’s as well.

Download Conor Oberst – Air Mattress

I’ve got a ton more tracks I would love to share with you off this album, for one reason or another. Lyrics are great on this one. The mood is just right on that one. Or any other excuses to use the words this and that just one more time on this blog post. Or I could bogart this post altogether and dedicate a song to Mookie.

Sitting on a plane chewing Nicorette
Paradise lost, haven’t found it yet
Will you talk me down if I get upset?
Be the cool washcloth to my fevered head

Because I don’t wanna dream if it won’t come true
I don’t wanna dream if it don’t come true
If there’s somethin’ in me then I guess it’s in you
If there’s somethin’ in me then I know it’s in you

Download Conor Oberst – Nikorette

Reppin’ The Old School

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So I was out at a Haiti benefit Sunday night pretty randomly. Fun was had. Don’t believe me? Check out the picture of me looking like a complete ass. George actually submitted it to This Is Photo Bomb, so I assume there’s a bit of teh funnay involved.

Anyhow, there were a slew of DJs involved in this benefit. The next to last one I remember was playing a ton of old school – or as some call it, the Golden Age – hip-hop. So today’s post is going to be filled with happy thoughts of old school stuff.

One of the forgotten groups from back when is Ed O.G. and Da Bulldogs. They’re originally from up my way, in Boston. Roxbury, to be exact. Also the home of someone else later in this post. You’ll have to keep reading to find out who, though. Anyhow, the first album, Life of a Kid in the Ghetto, produced two notable singles: “Bug-A-Boo” and “I Got To Have It”. The latter is what I’m sharing here. A great bootleg remix of this was released by Peaches Music on their Jager Bomb EP.

Download Ed O.G. and Da Bulldogs – I Got To Have It

Another track, albeit a few years older, is by the Marley Marl Allstars. This one features a bunch of old school guys. Masta Ace, Craig G, Kool G Rap, as well as Big Daddy Kane. Not a bad collection, eh? Well together, they release one of the seminal hits of the late ’80’s in “The Symphony Part 1”. Part 2? Forgettable. So Part 1 is what I bring you.

Download Marley Marl Allstars – The Symphony Part 1

Next is probably the strangest man in hip-hop history. Well, at least when he was still part of the Ultramagnetic MCs. The man is Kool Keith, and some may recognize him from Dr. Octagon fame. Well, this track, I remember watching the music video and seeing Kool Keith in a straitjacket, and if I remember right? What looked like a bird cage on his head. Just fucking weird. Well, the mix in the video was the East Coast mix. The album version of this track doesn’t come close to this one. So enjoy!

Download Ultramagnetic MCs – Poppa Large (East Coast Video mix)

And the last one for today? Is the other Roxbury native I spoke of. His name in the hip-hop world is none other than Guru. While there may be better overall cuts by Gang Starr, this one is one of my personal favorites. Off of the album Daily Operation, this track shows the immense talents of DJ Premier, also. “Take It Personal” is a cut that simply talks of the world of betrayal, and I’m sure more than a few out there can relate to some degree with this song.

Download Gang Starr – Take It Personal

Yes. Support capitalism, too. If you don’t, you’re a communist sympathizer. I’ll go resurrect Joseph McCarthy. And we’ll come find you. Commie pig.

In the meantime…

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The Little One let the cat out of the bag so to speak…but I have been dying to tell you about Blakroc. This little band from Ohio called The Black Keys is made up of two dudes named Dan Auerbach and Pat Carney. They love hip hop, the blues, and make some of the most interesting rock music I have heard.

Damon Dash, co-founder of Roc-A-Fella records, happens to be a fan of The Black Keys. Well he is now. He was a little late to the party. Here is how he explains how he became a fan:

My assistants, who are now actually A&Rs, were going to a Black Keys concert for their birthday and I wasn’t invited,” he explained. “Usually on their birthdays we all do it together and the reason why I wasn’t invited was because the concert was sold out. And I had never heard of The Black Keys and I was like y’all still gonna go without me. And they was like ‘Yo it’s The Black Keys.” So I was like, lemme hear this group. So I start listening to them and they actually became my favorite group.

He made a call to the band about being interested in working with them. An awesome studio in Williamsburg was booked and the band recorded 8 instrumentals in 2 days.. Dash calls some big time rap star homies. RZA, Mos Def, Raekwon, Ludacris, Q-Tip, Billy Danze…The BlakRoc project now is inexorably in motion.

After my brother makes me a copy of the CD to check out, I immediately load it into iTunes. I had been anxious to learn about this project I had heard so much about. Then I listened to it again.

Then I frantically scour the internet. I need more.

I find the official site for the project.

I watched every video off blakroc.com that documents the 11 days it took to bring this project to fruition. On these videos you can see all these amazing artists coming in fresh, never hearing the tracks that the Keys had put together, and dropping rhymes.

Watching RZA get on the fucking guitar and start working a rhythm. The man commands the room and everyones attention. It’s really amazing. His execution on the mic is just explosive. Even Dan and Pat make mention of the collab with RZA saying that, even with a guitar in his hand…what comes out of him is that Wu-Tang sound. “The music is so deep in him. It’s like whatever instrument he’s using it’s like his sound coming out.” If you watch the video, you can see it looks a little awkward at first. Like, “RZA wants to play a guitar? /sigh ok…bass or guitar?” Then they realize it’s gonna be ok. No, it’s legit for sure.

Joel Hamilton co-produced this album with The Black Keys. It’s his studio that you see in all the videos I mentioned above. You will catch Joe in a few of the videos. Here is what he says about the RZA collaboration:

I would say when RZA said my name at the beginning of this track “Oh man Joel” and then he goes into his first verse and it’s like I thought something was wrong and fucked up and I turned around in time to just see him rock the control room. Everybody on the couch, everybody standing around, felt it in the room at that point. He’s doing it like that while there’s people like Billy Danze, Pharoah Monch and all these guys are around and that hadn’t happened for a long time.

Download Blakroc – Dollaz & Sense

The entire album is great. I hear they are already working on a new album. I’m so stoked.

There’s some thieving going on

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Mookie and I went to the library on Sunday. Mookie was thinking about looking up some music production books, but ended up awed at the CD collection. He checked out 7 CDs. And 2 DVDs. And we each grabbed a few books.

All of these items ended up being somehow related to each other. I abandoned “1984” by George Orwell at about page 80 (I was in between books and had to grab something) in order to start reading Chuck Klosterman’s first attempt at fiction, “Downtown Owl.” Turns out, it’s set over the winter of 83/84, and the high school lit teacher assigns all his classes the book… What do you think… “1984.” I loved “Downtown Owl”. I could have finished it on Wednesday, but I saved the final few pages for the next day. I digress. It was odd, though, that I was reading a compelling story about many different people in a small town who will have one possibly tragic circumstance affect them all, while Mookie is just about to finish “Under The Dome” by Stephen King which is kind of about the same thing.

Wait, there’s more. There were a lot of great music finds in that stack of CDs Mookie grabbed. I had never heard of The Black Keys before. Mookie made a nighttime listening playlist which included The Black Keys, The Black Ghosts, The Black Crowes, and a few other interesting albums.

There’s another coincidence for you already, however, there is one more. One of these artists, although I couldn’t tell you which one since I was listening in my sleep, kept mentioning Hunter S Thompson in one of their songs, and believe it or not we also checked out “Where The Buffalo Roam”, a movie about…who do you think.

Take a listen to this bluesy rock sound and heartbreaking guitar…

Download The Black Keys – Same Old Thing

The Black Keys is a duo from Ohio who have been putting out albums since 2002. In their basement. The latest Keys album, Attack and Release, was released in 2008 after being contacted by Brian Burton write a few songs on an album he was developing. Who is Brian Burton? None other than DJ Danger Mouse. Uhhhhh… The Grey Album??? Heard of it? Anyway, despite still recording the album in Ohio, Danger Mouse produced the record. It’s a beautiful sound. You’ve got to pick it up.

And if you’re interested in what happened when The Black Keys continued to delve in to the world of hip hop, I do believe Mookie is working on a post to introduce you to Blakroc. Yup. Dig it.

Attack and Release is one album you do NOT want to be caught without in 2010. Check out The Black Keys. Seriously. You will be so glad.

From Electro to Electro

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Well, today is more on the guy who is sometimes taking the moniker of the Thin White Duke. It’s Les Rythmes Digitales. I thought of it when I was listening to the On The Floor At The Boutique by Lo-Fidelity Allstars. I have had that album since it came out back in ’98 (or at least that’s when I first laid eyes on it) and I still crack it out every so often. Hell, those of you who dig through our blog posts will find the Jackson and His Computer Band track “Makin’ It Happen” on here. That’s thanks to that same CD!

Well, LRD seminal hit “(Hey You) What’s That Sound?” is on this disc, too. It made me wonder what else he’s been up to and I have to say I found a couple of tracks that I had forgotten about! Now, I can’t stand the group Justice. Sorry. They’re chodes. I mean, there was that whole deal where they basically faked their live set. Although that could be doubtful, too. I mean, if you and I drank too much or sniffed a tad more than needed? We’d probably look like the picture below, also. I can see his reaction now: “Wait. It wasn’t plugged in? Well. We still brought it proper.”

Anyhow, LRD did a remix of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” that’s not all too shabby. And I fucking loathe the original. Whenever I hear the original? It makes me get in my car, drive to a local SPCA, walk up and down the halls of cages, pick the cutest puppy of the bunch, and kick it. Not really. And if you got offended by that? Shut the fuck up. I hear the low price guarantee at Wal-Mart does in fact cover a sense of humor, too. Here’s the track.

Download Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (Les Rythmes Digitales remix)

Well, the man also did what I consider to be a great remix of Cassius’ “Feeling For You”. Much more housey and happy, and I could easily drop this in a DJ set. If I played any more, that is. So you get to drop it in your set instead. YAAAY!

Download Cassius – Feeling For You (Les Rythmes Digitales Dreamix edit)

Lastly is a remix of “Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)”, but this is the Switch remix. When Switch was still any good. Ugh. They split in two, and next thing you know, Switch turns to shit. Sorry, but Switch hasn’t really made anything half-decent in the last two years. It’s depressing, but I guess that sound can only go so far. Well, this is a remix I personally adore. So have at it and enjoy.

Download Les Rythmes Digitales – Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat) (Switch remix)

Now go buy this stuff. I have illegitimate children to feed.