since everyone has been all atwitter about the rapper's delight club, i thought now would be as good a time as any to show the readers of ydb that there's a whole world of kids out there who can do the same thing.
first off, i'd like to turn your attention to the east coast, where jesse dangerously worked with project turnaround, and has produced some amazing results. (talk to jesse if you want more info on this groundbreaking project). ydb is proud to be giving you the worldwide premiere of a girl who is sure to be one of canadian hip hop's future stars if this track is any indication. kassy is a student a herring cove junior high, and wrote the rap herself (beats provided by andrew kilgour. prepare to be impressed:

kassy - unable

next we move to a project similar to rapper's delight club. da hip hop rascalz may not have the polish of some of the other kid rap making the rounds, but this track serves as a reminder that no matter how good the flow, these kids are just that: kids. and kids live for fun whenever they have the chance. there's a lot of exuberance here. (as well as a sentiment that is perhaps far beyond their years)

tuff kids - i don't want you no more

finally, we have a group that is not actually made of up kids. nor do they really have anything at all to do with the rest of this post. but it amused me, and i guess you could say that andy samberg and his crew are pretty close to keeping that childhood ridiculousness alive.

incredibad - ka-blamo
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from time to time, i like to let my less mp3blog-saavy readers in on what's been getting buzz, and i also like to have you readers weigh in on whether or not these bands are worth the buzz they've generated. today is one such time. i've been listening to these songs/bands for awhile now, and i don't know if it's the hype or the music that affects me the most. in some cases (and i will not tell you which ones) i think the hype has completely turned me off of the band. in other cases, i may be giving them more credit than they're due.
now, i know there are a lot more people reading this than just alisha and audra. so today, here's the deal...just comment and say hi. if you're feeling especially generous (or opinionated) then weigh in on these bands and how buzzworthy they really are.
also, notice the addition on the sidebar of a link to ydb's myspace. it's true, we're jumping the bandwagon with a shark. feel free to friend us and come along for the ride.
also, because i don't want this to turn into my first novel, i'm not going to get into the history of the bands, so please be sure to follow the links and find out something you didn't know before.

midlake - roscoe
cansei de ser sexy - let's make love and listen to death from above
ratatat - kennedy
cold war kids - hang me up to dry
hot chip - the warning
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last night i sat down with a few friends to watch clerks. for two of us, it was a repeat viewing, for one a brand new experience. it had been awhile since i last watched the movie, and with the sequel out, i thought it would be good to rewatch it. there were parts i either didn't remember at all, or didn't get when i had first watched it, almost 10 years ago. there were other parts that i had completely forgotten about, but then remembered just before they happened (cousin olaf is probably the best example). but the thing that struck me the most was the music. i didn't actually even remember clerks as having a soundtrack at all, let alone one as good as it seemed to be. watching movies like clerks, singles, reality bites...it's like going back in a time machine, to when i was watching all these movies about what my 20s were supposed to be like, and now that i'm here...well, it's hard to say how true i've been to the script. regardless, if you haven't watched clerks in awhile, i strongly suggest rewatching it. and if you also blanked on the fact that it had a great soundtrack, there's this:

love among freaks - berserker
seaweed - go your own way (how, exactly, did i miss a fleetwood mac cover?)
supernova - chewbacca (not to be confused with the reality show band)
golden smog - shooting star (an earlier incarnation of today's mp3blogsphere favourites)


buy the soundtrack
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back in the heady days of the very late 80s (and technically in this case, the very early 90s), when hairmetal ruled supreme, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why bon jovi was chosen to pretty much BE the soundtrack for young guns 2. after their success with the track dead or alive there really was no band on the airwaves who were quite as good a fit. flash forward more than 15 years to the newest cinematic opus hitting the big screen, and i'm sure a few bon jovi fans are scratching their heads.
because i like to believe that all ydb readers spend the majority of their time under a rock, snakes on a plane is sure to be the hit movie of the summer. and now, muchmusic informs me (through repeated replays of the video) that the hit song of the summer will be cobra starship's snakes on a plane (bring it). as i've mentioned, i have seen this video numerous times, and i should clarify, i am not in the habit of watching much music on a regular basis. these repeated video viewings have come strictly by accident, as i flipped past the station. but i find myself wondering, is this band really so different from bon jovi? if you close your eyes and listen really hard while the song emotes in the background, you can hear a sprinkling of the jovi.
and what's with the starship in the name? don't they know what adding that word to your name can do to a band? did they miss all those specials on what was horrible about the 80s? oh but wait, this is the 00s, and we're all ironic and meta and disgustingly self aware. so they're doing this on purpose. which is why it's funny? ok. well, glad i figured that one out. you know what joe always said: knowing is half the battle!

cobra starship - snakes on a plane (bring it) (i should note that this band is not just a band, but a SUPERGROUP for the new millennium
bon jovi - blaze of glory
starship - we built this city
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having grown up in the midst of the local music scene (please understand, as a spectator, for the most part, unless you count the zine as "taking part"), i feel sort of strange not going to see as many shows as i did when i was 18. then again, i now feel like that weird older person nursing a beer at the back of the lic/aa crowd, the one who no one can figure out why they're there. suffice to say, i feel a little like i've outgrown going to shows in bars. i still like it, and i still go...i just feel weird. awhile back i posted about some local bands that i like, i thought it was high time to do that again. remember, they are all local, and as such, if you like what you hear, please make sure you find some way to support them. (there is an extra added non local bonus at the end, who you should also feel more than free to support).

first let's start off with hip hop. if you were a fan of early beastie boys, then you should like these guys. if you're looking for something more along the lines of jesse dangerously or backpack rap, i would look here.

lo fi - she's dope

then we can slow things down a little bit. for those end of summer nights alone with your special someone, sitting on a muskoka chair after the sun has gone down, you could try either

fieldguide - clockwork (for our younger readers, this would also serve as the perfect soundtrack to leaving all your summer camp friends behind)

or you could try chris bell's post chore project, which would also be good for riding your horse into the sunset.

alive and living - at all

and then there are those times when you need something, and you can't quite put your finger on it. for the late night cruising around and rabble rousing. for the days with no plans that end up being the best days of the summer. for the days that make no sense at all. for the nights you want to get sweaty in a local bar and hear a local band tear shit up in way you've never heard before, i give you

sailboats are white - let's set up north on fire

finally, appropos of nothing (except maybe my guilty pleasure love of elton john and the music i imagine they played in gay bars in the late 70s), i give you the new scissor sisters:

scissor sisters - i don't feel like dancing
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(first of all, holy crap is blogger slow today)
i was perusing the various myspace's and websites of local bands today, trying to put together a post of their music, when i stumbled upon local concert listings. to my surprise, the pepperjack cafe is playing host to no less than edan next month. if you know me, you probably know that i have a soft spot for all things boston (though i will not sink to wearing a my red sox hat at a jays game...and wow was that a great series this weekend...getting back to the music...)and edan is yet another reason why.
now, if you are somehow able to make this particular show (august 26 here in the hammer), i would highly recommend that you get your ass in here, as it's an awesomely intimate venue to see one of the most innovative names in hip hop today. if you haven't heard of him, a) shame on you b) you obviously aren't spending enough time in the mp3blogosphere c) maybe you don't have the internet?
but i can help you out. here are two of the many standout tracks from 2005's beauty and the beat.

fumbling over words that rhyme

promised land

ps he's sharing the stage with this guy
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in highschool i went from thinking they were a bunch of overly pretentious idiots to worshipping the ground they walked on in the space of approximately a week. caitlin had made me a mix tape, and it had i can feel it at the tail end of one side. i pretty much wore out that tape, rewinding it over and over again to hear that song, and today it's still one of my all time favourites. i was hooked on sloan, and when the one chord to another album came out, i picked it up the day it came out, and then again when the import version came out. why 2 copies you ask? well, the import came with a bonus disc, proclaiming itself to be a recording of a "sloan party". the second i put it in my discman was pretty much the second i started thinking seriously about going to halifax for university.
here's some tracks from the bonus cd, as well as 2 of the 3 originals (if you can find me a copy of the everly brother's glitter and gold that would be excellent!)

sloan - i can feel it (live)
sloan - i can feel it (original)
sloan - i can't let go (live)
the hollies - i can't let go
sloan - glitter and gold (live)
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it should come as a suprise to exactly no one that hip hop still gets a raw deal when it comes to the kids who count themselves as it's fans. people have always been blaming music on kids bad behaviour and lack of boundries, and it would appear as though hip hop has completely wrested the title of bad music away from heavy metal and industrial music. but if that's really the case, then why do all these projects keep popping up that show the benefit of introducing kids to hip hop?
awhile ago, i linked you to the rapper's delight club, and today i give you a track from the wilcannia mob. listen and think about it.
(big thanks to jesse and audra for finding the song and getting it to me!)

wilcannia mob - downriver
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i would be evil and illegal and immoral and post this song, but it's sloan, and no matter how MOR they get, i will always have a soft spot in my heart for them. (plus, since i didn't post the justin timberlake single, i can't really justify (get it? ha ha ha) this). so please, direct your browser to their myspace and give the new song a listen. also, if you are in canada, it's the free song on itunes this week.
like i said earlier to alisha, i don't LOVE it, but it's growing on me, and sounds a bazillion times better than the last album. here's hoping it's a return to one chord to another style (i would go for twice removed, but i think we all know that will probably (sadly) never happen again)...
working a double today, so that's all for now, but i promise i will post more sloan tomorrow (probably from the "live" bonus disc that came with american version of the aforementioned one chord to another)
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i'm trying really hard to be witty and funny, since alisha is pretending to be a super genius today. anyway, in case you were stuck paralyzed in your bed today, because you can't decide what new albums to go get, i'm going to make your decision very easy. go get the new mstrkrft album. that is, unless you're the world's biggest los lonely boys fan, and you only have enough to buy one. i'm not going to tell you to turn your back on your #1 favourite band for this album, but if you're looking for something good, this is your pick.
in case you have been out of the country/under a rock/living in a monastary for the last little while, mstrkrft a side project of death from above 1979's jesse keeler and al-p (who you may recognize from his producing job on the you're a woman, i'm a machine dfa 1979 album). if you picked up romance bloody romance you got a taste of what was to come, and today the brand spanking new album, the looks, is out. if i haven't convinced you yet, here are some samples:


mstrkrft - she's good for business
dfa1979 - little girl (mstrkrft edition)
metric - monster hospital (mstrkrft remix)
wolfmother - woman (mstrkrft remix)

last gang records
mstrkrft on myspace
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first of all, my apologies for my lack of posts last week. like i said, i was working days, and apparently i am not at all a morning person. getting up before 9am just throws me off kilter for the week. but i'm back on nights this week, so expect things to go back to normal.
i finally got my girl talk night ripper album in the mail on friday, and i have been listening to it non stop in the car since. the whole album made me start thinking about mashups, and it occurred to me, that when i talked about soulwax awhile back, maybe not all the loyal ydb readers had heard their work in the world of mashups. then, i had a shower and realized maybe you hadn't heard very many mashups at all (outside of the ones that they play at clubs and on the radio). so then i thought long and hard about the following question: if i was going to post 3 mashups, what 3 would they be? well, i have an answer. hopefully it's one you'll enjoy. if not...well, no one's holding a gun to your head.
(please note, i disqualified anything previously posted here, and any jay-z black album remixes masquerading as mashups)

2 many dj's - beastie boys vs inxs vs ac/dc vs herbie hancock
djBC - sunshine superrapper (cl smooth (feat pete rock) vs donovan)
kleptones - bite(queen vs odb)
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another rainy day, another slight reprieve from what is forecasted to be absolutely crushing heat and humidity for the rest of the week. when the weather gets to be that sort of sweltering there is only one thing to do: stick an ice cube down your shirt, put on some good summer tunes and wait for it to pass, while you sit as still as you can. while i am unable to stick an ice cube down every ydb reader's shirt, i can provide you with some more summer songs. some new, some old, some that you may remember from this commercial. regardless, i can pretty much guarantee that you'll get that summer feeling when these tracks are playing.

lupe fiasco (feat. pharrell) - kick, push (remix)
de la soul - roller skating jam named 'saturdays'
jim noir - eanie meany
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yes it's true, i'm lazy. and in that vein, i would like to present to you two songs which will ultimately try very hard (but most likely fail in the end) to cure me of that disease.
if you've met me at all, you know that i was getting excited about gnarls barkley for long enough that i was most likely annoying by about january of this year (if it was sooner, thank you for being polite). but this remix is, in my opinion, just as good, if not better than the original. there's only one part that seems a little jagged (i'll let you be your own judge of that...think for yourself and all), but for the most part, the remix ups the frenetic energy that simmered in the original come to a full boil.
the other track is from the new tv on the radio. which...well, let's say i'm probably about to annoy you again with my enthusiasm if you spend any time at all with me in person.
but in honor of my laziness...today you do the deciding. yay or nay for tv on the radio?

gnarls barkley - crazy remix feat. kardinal offishall, joe budden and remy martin
tv on the radio - i was a lover
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it's been a weird day here. for a few minutes we'll have a torrential downpour (at times a sidepour) and then the sun comes out like today is the most beautiful summer day on record. the weather network is no help, since they always seem to be one step behind, so i've been glad that i was able to avoid the jekyll and hyde day for the most part, because i was sitting at work. and that's the silver lining to the cloud...
because i am working the day shift, my posts are going to be later in the day. which is fine for those of you on the west coast and beyond, but i'm giving my apologies to everyone else.
today i bring you two of the rumoured tracks from the upcoming soundtrack to the new outkast helmed musical, idlewild. the release has been pushed back and pushed back, but muchnewsweekly told me that it would be coming out for sure in august, and i will hold them to it. (even if devon was his usualy smarmy ass when he talked about it).
i assume that if you have an internet connection you've heard of outkast, but just in case you've gotten here through some sort of wood and stone contraption, their official website can be found here.

idlewild blues
morris brown


order the idlewild soundtrack
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it's time for another one of everyone's favourite posts, music that we all (and by we all, i mean those of us who lived in a certain segment of southern ontario) spent a lot of time and money on in highschool. i thought to lighten the mood and celebrate summer a bit, i would kick things off with a band whose album was called beach music and the whole thing is rounded off with a nice sleeping time shoegazer tune that will most likely weigh your eyes heavy, even while your head is nodding in approval.
in between there's an appearance from one of my favourite all time catchy songs, a local female fronted band, one of my (bass) guitar heroes (hint: check the picture) and a band that inexplicably did well enough to (in my recollection, anyway) try releasing a second full length that was strangely dance-poppy. they have since disappeared.
almost all of these bands have disappeared, much like my elementary schools. but they live on in cd form, and in our hears (awwwwwww). mushy crap aside, enjoy.
starkicker - get up
the hardship post - watchin' you
jale - not happy
pluto - paste
the breeders - no aloha
redd kross - yesterday once more (from the album if i were a carpenter)
treble charger - 10th grade love
flux - fallen to pieces
the jesus and mary chain - reverence
SIANspheric - watch me fall
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as i was driving home yesterday, my ipod once again proved itself a sentient being, as it chose the perfect 3 songs in a row to fit not only my mood, but the overall feeling of bittersweet dejection on the faces of the portugal fans i drove past. it's strange, because i never would have put these three songs in a category together. they don't really talk about the same subject matter (although i suppose an argument could be made that they actually do). they certainly aren't the same style of music (well, unless "indie" is now a style that encompasses everything not on top 40 radio ad nauseum, in which case...please hold on a second while i vomit). but no matter any of that. last night, they were perfect. i hope they'll work out for you too.
(i should add that there was a movie shoot downtown last night. i drove past it. they were shooting a riot scene, but it was eerily quiet, which was weird, when coupled with the music coming from my car)

john wesley harding - i'm wrong about everything
the weakerthans - watermark
black rebel motorcycle club - shuffle your feet
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i feel like crap today, so i am going to try to make this short and sweet. i have 2 brand spanking new songs today for you, one from a band i hope you've heard of, one i would be happy to hear that you had, but a little suprised. the jurassic 5 track is from their new album, and i enjoyed it much better than the first track that leaked (the one with DMB sullying jurassic 5's good name). the hysterics track is quite awesome if you have ever enjoyed the beach boys. if you've never heard of the band, you should for sure check out music for robots because there's a pretty complete history that can be found within.

jurassic 5 - baby please
hysterics - do it again
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now that it's july, and we've made it through the canada day long weekend, it's officially summer in my mind. with summer, comes the search for the perfect summer music, the perfect summer songs. they are the songs you drive around to. the songs you listen to on the beach. the music you hear wafting over the talking at the patio bar. they are the songs you shake your sweaty ass to at the clubs. i don't think i've found this year's perfect songs, (stereogum has an interesting post (and even more interesting comments) about what this year's song of the summer will be), but i have three nominations for three very different songs...so far.
first up, is an artist who the mp3 blogs have been wetting their pants over for some time. next are a bunch of guys who sound like they would be great fun to drink pints with. and finally is a catchy earworm of a song (with, i can admit, not the world's best lyrics) that i'm still trying to figure out whether or not it's for real. any suggestions for summer songs? pass them along.

lily allen - ldn
cazals - poor innocent boys
jamie kennedy & stu stone - circle circle dot dot
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