yr dirty boots

'cause there may be times when you think you lost your mind

2009-06-29T13:49:00.007-04:00

i know that i've been gone for a long time. honestly, i wasn't really expecting to post with any kind of regularity. but i have to be honest, since thursday night, i've been doing a lot of thinking.
i'm not going to be maudlin here, or grandstand about how amazing and awesome michael jackson was. or how important he was to me. (although he was both)
in the end, he was a complete stranger. both to me, and i imagine, the rest of the world, even those who thought they were close to him. so now people who can't even spell his NAME properly, and who a week ago dismissed him as some weird pedophile are now crying all over the internet. whatever.

here's what i know:

thriller was the first album-as in, actual record-i ever owned, and i grew up listening to the wiz soundtrack. bad was one of the first tapes i owned, and dangerous one of the first cds. then i just kind of...got into other things. but always had a soft spot for mj, and a 2 or 3 seconds long intro of pretty much any track of his would get me on the dance floor.

i wore out the first and second copies of bad, and lost dangerous, but you'd best be sure i checked on the wiz and thriller this weekend.

i remember everyone being in church one sunday, and as we bowed our heads in silent prayer, my younger brother belting out the beat it chorus, my mom putting him under one arm and walking him out of the back doors while the rest of the congregation snickered.

i remember being in dance class with stephanie nichol and trying to moonwalk in our tapshoes, which worked awesomely because they just slid across the floor.

i remember hurrying home from trick or treating to watch the thriller video on tv with nanny, and then years later, hurrying out of the washroom onto the dancefloor at a halifax bar (pacifico?) when the same video played on halloween some nearly 20 years later.

i remember earlier this year when i was trying to teach the kids at work about pop music history and watching them connect the dots from jackson 5 era michael, to thriller & bad, to the "creeper" they knew him as, and start to re-evaluate what they thought of him and wanted to know more about him

so yeah...
a lot of people are taking this time to sort of (further) demonize or idolize the guy. i don't really think that, for awhile now, i considered the michael jackson that dangled babies and went into hiding and showed up to court in his pjs to be the same michael that posed with the baby tiger or danced through the subway station.
similarly, i don't think of the latter jackson as being same as the adorable little boy in the purple hat, fronting a band of brothers.

no matter which michael you grew up with, you can't deny the man made some of the best music in the world.

i don't even really know what my point is, other than he lived at least 3, and likely many more lives within his lifetime, so it's a weird kind of sadness that i'm feeling with his very sudden (although not wholly unexpected passing), since it's almost like the michael i "knew" has been gone for quite some time now.

but this is an mp3 blog, and you're not here to listen to me ramble on, like the billion other people talking about him since last thursday. it's just kind of shitty that last wednesday no one really seemed to care any more (and i am as guilty as everyone else, i admit).

anyway...
i'm not going to post the stuff that's blazing around the interwebs. i'm quite sure that for now, we've exhausted the remixes and covers (although for sure someone somewhere will be capitalizing on future remixes for the next while). here's the wiz. it's pretty awesome, and was the soundtrack to many an afternoon when i was younger.

you can't win - michael jackson (from the wiz)

ease on down the road - michael jackson and diana ross (from the wiz)

too many themes to combine into a clever title

2008-06-16T08:34:00.003-04:00

herein contains the following:
hints of things to come, thematic elements including summer, nights, driving, driving in the summer at night, thunderstorms, sing alongs, rock and roll and also: good looking rock and roll. also: good 80s memories and tapping your knee/the steering wheel in time with the beat, while possibly rocking your head back and forth.
and another hint of things to come: Z.
alright alright, on to the music in a second. but first: if you were stymied by my bandwidth being exceeded, i apologize. i am working to solve the problem, and so i hope if you have any hosting suggestions or other commentary on the subject, you will share them with me. and now, with no further brouhaha, i give you the music.

cadence weapon - tattoos (and what they really feel like)
the spill canvas - all over you
jason mraz - i'm yours (NOT the new version, in my opinion, this older version is much nicer)
mark ronson feat. amy winehouse - valerie
mates of state - my only offer
robyn - be mine!
annie - i know ur girlfriend hates me
level 42 - lessons in love
danko jones - still in high school
the republic tigers - buildings and mountains

**please note, with my apologies: for the time being, no more right clicking on the links, kids...it's left clicks for now while i sort out the situation**

still a knucklehead

2008-06-12T11:42:00.003-04:00

i have new hardware, so i am VERY busy making multiple playlists, all with exceedingly (and unnecessarily) cryptic names. some involve long strings of numbers. it's good time. alas, the ipod has seemingly bit the dust, but in between gadgets, i found time to make a pant load of mix cds. here are some of the songs that made appearances, and also: i think you would look super cool if you were playing them loudly at a red light with the windows down. because as we all know, music isn't about art, it's about looking cool.

Coolzey - He Did

tittsworth - easy like sunday mornin (commodores remix)

Ghosthustler - Someone Elses Ride

alphabeat - 10000 nights of thunder

MGMT - Time to Pretend

the hush sound - honey

The Cool Kids - What Up Man

Arrested Development - Mr. Wendal

Naughty By Nature - Everything's Gonna be Alright

so...how do we all feel about "mixtapes" and "playlists" once or twice a week? I feel very very good about it.

also, keep an eye out while i reveal the awesomeness that is my new toy!

back for real

2008-06-11T18:20:00.001-04:00

(starting tomorrow)
for now, enjoy this and relive my youth with me:

don't call it a comeback (really, don't)

2007-11-20T14:58:00.000-05:00

i'm going to try to make a go of this thing again, albeit with a slightly different format. in lieu of an actual post today, please strap yourself into a time machine with me...and enjoy.

dangerous times

2007-06-18T16:33:00.000-04:00

i won't give this any introduction beyond the following:

if you aren't already a jesse dangerously fan, i dare you to watch this and not be charmed. think about it, the rascalz never put out a video on ice.

happy birthday to us

2007-06-10T11:47:00.000-04:00

so some stuff's been not so awesome (car breaking down, fighting with EI, looking for a new job) but who cares, because it's my birthday. and also, kim and kelley deal, and judy garland, and if imdb is to be believed, a whole lot of other people. but what matters is the 4 of us. here is our most recent family portrait. also some music for you to enjoy. also i am old now. also, i need to get my stickers for my plates. (also: cheese rangoons and chocolate cake and starbucks) (and yes, i fully realize that a lot of this post reads like i was spammed...apparently that is how i talk/type/write now that i am old, i guess we are all just going to have to get used to it together.)

cracker - happy birthday to me

the breeders - no aloha

requiem for a PIN

2007-05-25T14:56:00.000-04:00

so i had all these posts planned out for this week (like, GOOD ones) and then i had a craptacularly busy week, topped off with my bank account getting skimmed. so, monofus press and cartel (band in a bubble)...you will happen next week, when my anger and frustration have subsided long enough to say the nice things i WANT to say about you. for now though, let's just have a moment of silence for my PIN, which i had to change today. it was with me (on this account) for 10 years. and now it is no longer.

Dear PIN,
We went to lots of places. You helped me get money, you were easy to remember, and easy for me to input. You stuck by me through 8 bank cards, and numerous address changes. you will be missed. i hope you have a good time in PIN heaven.

that being said, today's post is going to be quick and dirty. there is one song that i really WANTED to post, the rest are all for you nostalgia tripping folk out there.

first off, as super awesome as blake lewis may have seemed in comparison to the other idols, he looked kind of sad compared to doug e. fresh. and watching his performance, i thought, blake isn't half bad, but he's no rahzel. in that, he made me say "cool" but not "wow"

thus, prepare your mind to be blown if you haven't already heard this:

rahzel - if your mother only knew

and now these are just here because the start of summer makes me want to build a time machine and go back to 1997. (and if you live here or TO, you sort of can...noah's arkweld is playing here on sunday and nxne in a few weeks). enjoy!

the hardship post - my only aim
letters to cleo - here and now
stars - hum
jale - not happy
cub - new york city

scattershot/burnt out

2007-05-17T17:49:00.000-04:00

i am 18 types of burnt out this week, so if this post makes absolutely no sense, i apologize. well, not really, but if it makes you feel better, sorry. anyway, first off, wtf is this i see about brendan benson's what i'm looking for being used in some commercial that appears to be selling maybe home decor or some sort of thing? i saw it last night, and was thoroughly confused. i mean, it's a great song, if you don't like it, you may be a little on the stupid side (or at the very least, slightly classless), but the lines "well i don't know what i'm looking for, but i know that i just wanna look some more/and i won't be satisfied 'til there's nothing left that i haven't tried" shouldn't really be used to be selling appliances or dining room sets.
ok, so that's out of the way. next up, i *should* be posting about this band in a bubble thing that cartel is participating in, since i have all the press info sitting in my inbox, and i am interested in it, but, again: burnout. so sit tight on that one until next week.
i'm obviously rambling here, so here's some music. completely random. sums up the last little while. enjoy.

chromeo - fancy footwork (guns and bombs remix)
spoon - the ghost of you lingers
petra haden - god only knows
diplo - young folks remix (it's dirty, consider yourself warned. if you are my mother, DO NOT download this)
christopher cross - arthur's theme

global tv clearly owns my heart

2007-05-16T18:52:00.000-04:00

(sorry if the posts during my big comeback week are a little sporadic, i'm doing weird odd jobs in addition to my regular job, and trying to find a new job. job job job. i apologize. and now i apologize for interrupting your musical pleasuring via ydb...)

so as a friend had mentioned to me recently, there's a familiar (to those of us immersed in the late 90s early 00s canadian indie music scene) tune playing over the ads for some new show on global. she was very excited, and now that i have actually seen the ad myself, so am i.
it got me thinking about some other older and for the most part now-defunct bands. bands that made me want so badly to move to halifax. which i did. (don't get me started on how the birdland closed just before i got there, sloan relocated to toronto, and i have NO idea where the hardship post is anymore, and am starting to think maybe they were just a dream)(and yes, i realize they were from newfoundland, but at 18, i had lumped them into the halifax scene). but the music lives on.
and thanks to a ydb reader, i can also now show you that hip club groove is/was SO much more than jizz. so behold below, another snapshot at my musical youth, may it rest in peace, but may it live on in my ipod (which is, by the way, sadly not working currently)

plumtree - go!
hip club groove - shootin' the gift
the superfriendz - 10 lbs
thrush hermit - at my expense

(and ps, it's a donair. while i may be far too old to really want to go back there, pizza corner and the dairy deli will always have a special (albiet drunken) place in my heart)

...dary!

2007-05-15T17:03:00.000-04:00

and if the title of this post makes sense to you, then make sure to listen to this track at the 3:08 mark...
the solids - hey beautiful

and because all the blogs in the world are creaming themselves over this, here are no less than 2 remixes of justice's D.A.N.C.E. track. you decide which is the best. (or if you just like the extended normal stylez version the best)

D.A.N.C.E. (mstrkrft remix)
D.A.N.C.E. (data vs justice remix)

i'm back

2007-05-14T01:38:00.000-04:00

...and i'm broke ass, so if you're looking to have an event planned, or need to have some "professional looking" marketing materials made, hit me up.

that being said, i had a huge post in mind for my grand return, but instead, i got distracted by a wave of nostalgia brought on by a night spent watching 80s tv intros. what does this have to do with music? well, first watch this:

now download these (cover) tracks from datashat, and relive the days of staring at green font on a black background and feeling like maybe you were from the future...

don't you want me
young folks
cold medina motorbikin'
(and hold on to your hats, because a promise at least a semi-decent post in the very near future)
(also, i DARE you to try to catch up with my massive accumulated points lead on the ongoing set of contests on my brother's blog)
(also, there may be some prizes coming in the very near future, so tell your friends and neighbours)

CMJ contest time (hurry your asses up)

2006-11-02T15:44:00.000-05:00

ok, first off, if you want to go to this:

NY2LON (new york to london) party over at Northsix featuring Silversun Pickups, The Little Ones, Illinois, Oh No! Oh My!, The Phoenix Foundation, The Heights and DJ’s Franki Chan, Crystal Castles, and The Husky Gentleman

then here's what you have to do. i have two spots available on the guest list, courtesy of the fine folks at +1 music. the first two people to email me either

a remix of cry me a river

OR

any song featuring the words "crying, crying"
get on the list. get it? got it? good. (and hurry, because as you may notice, it is currently thursday, and the whole shebang takes place on saturday)

and in music news...here's some tuneage to get you in the mood (not the jt mood, mind you, the CMJ mood)

illinois - nosebleed
the heights - night relay
the phoenix foundation - sister risk

reaping the whirlwind (i'm nuuuuuuude)

2006-11-01T20:05:00.000-05:00

in case you haven't noticed, i haven't been posting lately. the last 7 days have been fairly nuts for me, and on top of it all, you may have noticed that all is not well in mp3blog-ville lately, what with ezarchive switching things over, and bloggers dropping like flies. i promised i would give this thing at least a year, and i am holding to that. but when the shit hits the fan, school and work win over ydb (unless there's a sugar daddy or momma out there who would like to support me so i don't have to worry about either). anyway...i tried to put this post up yesterday, but spent far too much time getting mad at the new and improved ezarchive, and then had this crazy burst of group project energy, and the whole thing just sort of got away from me. so you get it today. also, welcome our new host, file den, who boasts a much easier user interface, plus, it's free, and you can't beat free.
but back to the post...
some people have comfort food, i have comfort music. here's some of it, as well as some stuff that has been finding it's way onto mix cds, since lately i have even been to lazy to recharge the ipod (crazy, i know). with regards to the selection, like they said on my favourite 80s show, you take the good, you take the bad...and well, you listen. so yeah.

albert hammond jr. - in transit
cassettes won't listen - gigga
the postmarks - goodbye (cwl remix)
sloan - i hate my generation
missy elliott - we run this
classified - find out
azure ray - sleep
ben folds five - one angry dwarf and 200 solemn faces
the four seasons - oh what a night
loverboy - working for the weekend
the bangles - in your room

finally, this always makes me laugh, and i don't care how many times i watch it:

this one goes out to your mom

2006-10-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

ok, a) $10 threadless sale (only until wednesday...HURRY YOUR ASS UP)
b) i am so over my head busy these days, it has ceased being merely funny and has moved into side splittingly hilarious territory.
c) this one doesn't really go out to your mom
d) however, this one does go out to the following people:
those of you who enjoy the ass shaking (both the partaking in and viewing of)
those of you who harass me for not going to barcode
those of you i harass for going to barcode
those of you who enjoy the JT
those of you who really wish they were in the gang
those of you are
e) your mom. yeah.

all listing aside, here's some stuff that i am either constantly hitting repeat on or in a constant state of wtf with. seriously. sound of music? what?
although it's gwen, so i think this is maybe going to be like hollaback girl, where it will be cool for 10 seconds, and then the backlash will come fast and furious. my advice? enjoy it now, before you hear it so many times you want to gauge out your eyes. (well, maybe more your ears...unless you can hear with your eyes...oh man i need a vacation)
yeah yeah...music.

(if you've sent me music in the past 2 weeks, i am not ignoring you, i am just currently a slave to the shackles of time...)

justin timberlake - my love (goulet's d-cup send up)
gwen stefani - wind it up
shareefa - cry no more
lady sovereign - love me or hate me (remix with missy elliot)

t shirt alert!

2006-10-23T21:52:00.000-04:00

there's another super awesome $10 sale going on at threadless! act fast, it ends on wednesday!

no music today...

2006-10-23T18:53:00.000-04:00

...but i think this should more than make up for it:

one of those days

2006-10-18T20:04:00.000-04:00

jay and silent bob - fuck fuck song

...that is all.

3841FFMAA (snap snap!)

2006-10-17T15:08:00.000-04:00

this one goes out to all of us suffering through the midterms and other crap.
(snap snap.)
i wish there was some sort of box we could just put it all away in
(snap snap).
i'm so very very lonely
(snap snap)
and i wish that someone would just listen when i talk
(snap snap).
maybe if i talk more?
(snap snap)
i wish we had marketing this semester
(snap snap)
i could smoke you all
(snap snap)
"teenage angst has paid off well"
(snap snap)
oh poetry, i love the way you don't need to rhyme
(snap snap)
like, at all
(snap snap)
(snap snap snap snap)

get it?
(snap snap)

here's some themed tunes:

the format - she doesn't get it
bowling for soup - high school never ends
snap! - rhythm is a dancer

and just for fun, i thought i should throw this one up again: (jt! jt!)
justin timberlake - sexy back (remix feat. clipse)

ALSO: not that this has anything to do with my class, but apparently, this is a clip of the new gwen stefani, sweet escape (no right click, it's rapidshare) via

boo to midterms

2006-10-16T23:12:00.000-04:00

so this week is a little on the ridiculous side. 6 midterms, multiple assignments, work, five days, blah. the wee blog will suffer, i think. and while i feel bad...i am actually trying at school, so i don't really feel guilty for this thing taking a back seat for a week. that being said, if you think i would leave you empty handed, you clearly don't know me at all. here's some music. enjoy, and wish me luck...(oh and, i guess without meaning to, i have chosen an array of vaguely thematic songs...weird)

the fags - truly truly
moka only ft. mf doom - more soup
rocketship - i'm lost without you here
clinic - the equaliser

label bait

2006-10-12T15:03:00.000-04:00

one of my favourite parts of doing ydb is that i get to hear all sorts of shit that no one has ever heard of. and then when i get to get people all excited about new stuff, it's the icing on the cake. today i bring to you a band with no album, no label, and very little class (i joke because i love them, they are actually quite classy). anyway. for the most part, i believe they are annonymous. they live in toronto, one is from WAY out of town, the other from not so far away, and should disclose that i have been drunk with both of them on more than one occasion. i should also disclose that i have listened to their song "sweater" over and over again at at least one house party, while we rolled on the floor laughing. (not at them...with them...it's an important distinction in this case).
i asked anne (short for anne-onymous) to send me a few tracks to throw up here, because it's high time that they got some exposure to the world, and if anyone deserves some label-lovin', it's these two. i am fairly certain that neither would cry too much if you said you liked them.
so if you like the ladies. and more importantly, ladies who make music. and perhaps most importantly, ladies who make anthem style le tigre non-arena rock with a touch of screaming and fun...then you need to listen to this.

from the doll incident:

the creamiest
boobies
altruistic
arcade boy

and this post just wouldn't be complete without:
sweater

how very appropriate

2006-10-09T11:04:00.000-04:00

it's funny, because i really didn't even intend for this to happen (it's reminiscent of when my vitamins and allergy pills ran out at exactly the same time), but i figure we're at about post #100 (assuming you take out the ones where i say i can't post, and you'll have to wait). so i wanted a post to say thanks. and it's (canadian) thanksgiving. and i'm rambling. but i think the rambling is what makes you all keep coming back. but anyway, i wanted to do something special. and while this may be way less special than what i wantedto do, here's a pantload of music for you to enjoy. (and yes they may have been posted here before, but never in ONE PLACE AT THE SAME TIME) ***and yes, i wrote this all yesterday, so it's even more very appropriate, that i was once again, ezarchive's bitch, and had to wait until today to post this***

figurines - the wonder
junior boys - in the morning (alex smoke remix)
the hold steady - hot soft light
saturna - springboard
ben folds - such great heights (postal service cover)
chromeo - needy girl (bloc party remix)
rusty - wake me
lily allen (feat. sway) - LDN remix
jesse dangerously - heart of a girl
feist - mushaboom (postal service remix)
basement jaxx - oh my gosh (bugz in the attic remix)
basement jaxx - hush boy (les visiteurs remix

and finally, it wouldn't be a celebration without some cat tears

blowing you off to blow your mind

2006-10-05T13:38:00.000-04:00

like the title says today (and yeah. i've noticed i've been saying that a lot lately) i am sort of going to blow you off today. but have no fear, it's with good reason. i am trying to cook something up to celebrate big post number 100. something that will blow your mind. (or at least something semi-cool). i am still taking requests/suggestions though, so send them along if you have them, as i am all ears. ok, i could blather on about my life, and school and work, but you aren't here for that, you're here for the tunes. so today there's an eclectic mix of stuff i've picked up along the way. consider it good material for the ongoing mixtape collection. as always, it's an eclectic mix of songs, but nothing too jarring. go nuts.

the pack - vans (diplo's vans 'til infinity remix) (via)
radiodread - karma police (feat. citizen cope)
lily allen - knock em out
mike doughty - bottom of a well

a musical love letter to dawn wiener

2006-10-04T13:48:00.000-04:00

mostly, i like the title of this post. well, that and the very idea of sending a musical love letter to everyone's favourite mid-90s indie movie outcast icon. (and if she wasn't your favourite, then you clearly were either running around in the wrong crowds or running around in diapers). i haven't really given too much thought to the wiener dog in recent years, and that just isn't right. she was stylish. she was smart. she was cool. she was completely deluded in the most awesome way possible, which was why, regardless of any disturbing moments in the movie, she will always have a place in my heart. even though, in the real world, she would probably be either a high priced dominatrix or a bitter elementary school part time librarian who goes home to 20 cats at the end of the day. or maybe she's exactly the same, only older. she probably puts on air band fashion shows in front of her mirror, using her hairbrush as a mic. she makes friends with the people no one else does. she talks to trees. she cuts pictures out of magazines. she makes all her own clothes, and they look liked they came through a time machine that was built by deeelite and the cast of the partridge family. she doesn't seem to notice that everyone else is noticing her for all the wrong reasons. in short, she's better than all of us, because she's letting her weird little freak inside live freely on the outside. god bless you dawn wiener, whereever or whoever you might be. here's my musical love letter to you:

blitzen trapper - on a dime
the daylights - if words were bullets
prophet omega - get by
some action - don't you look for me
princeton - the indifference curve
rob blackledge - one step
the morning benders - grain of salt
beulah - if we can land a man on the moon, surely i can win your heart

just like tony always said (watch out for the anvils)

2006-10-02T23:47:00.000-04:00

seriously though, all crappy insinuated puns aside, the grates are way better than i think they've been getting credit for. which is to say, for a band with an album as solid as theirs, there hasn't been nearly the mp3blog hype that i would have expected. maybe it's because everyone likes to fall all over themselves heaping praise on be your own pet or breathlessly awaiting whatever it is that courtney love is going to unleash on us in the near future, (and please note, i am a fan of both byop as well as ms love), but it's weird. they're more melodic and accesible than byop (which, understanding how the great big hype machine in the sky works, might be what's ultimately working against them). they are certainly not carrying as much baggage as courtney, and let's face it, maybe it's just time for us to give up the ghost as far as our favourite 90s girl-based bands. they can release as many albums as they want, but they probably are never going to reach the "heights" they did 10 years ago.
it's not a marketing thing, i've seen the cd in almost every mainstream and indie record store i've been in over the past month. whatever, i'm calling on you, the ydb faithful to spread the word. here's some talking points:
- you can dance to it, which is of the utmost importance
-every once in awhile, i catch fleeting glimpses of what 4 non blondes could have been, if they hadn't ended up as a one hit wonder footnote to linda perry's pop songwriting career
- it's catchy, as hell
- they toured with the go! team
- there are handclaps
- the entire album is the perfect length for their music. not so long that you're banging your head against the wall, short enough to leave you wanting to hear more
- if you're into this sort of thing (and let's face it, if you're music-nerdy enough to be reading this thing, you are), the cd packaging is pretty awesome
- they are seriously in contention for best video of the year, look here:
(stephen colbert and his green screen don't really stand a chance against this)

(doesn't it make you want to kind of go out, find them, and just get up to hijinks?...crazy crazy hijinks)

so you've got your talking points, you've fallen in love with the video, no doubt, now what? well, here's some tracks, now go get the album and spread the word.

from gravity won't get you high:

science is golden
19 20 20

the grates on myspace

so there's this thing...

2006-10-02T18:40:00.000-04:00

and the thing is, i was lazy/it was a hectic couple of days. in lieu of a real post, i urge you to click on the link at the bottom. tomorrow ydb makes a triumphant return with a full cd review! try not to get too excited.

be prepared for the awesomest thing you have ever seen before you click on this link

today, part two (actually now today = yesterday)

2006-09-27T15:55:00.001-04:00

so i had this all written and ready to go yesterday, and it just didn't happen. i hope you enjoyed the videos. but enough about that. here's the post:
and now for the music.
this showed up in my inbox yesterday (and from the looks of things, a lot of other mp3blogger's inboxes). like i've said before, sometimes this sort of thing ends with me wanting to plug my ears. but this time, not so much. in fact, i am going to strongly urge you to check this band out further...that is, if you enjoy feeling fresh like a good sleep, waking up to the first day of spring. yeah. take that all you pseudo-intellectual nonsensical metaphor laden blogs*. anyway, back on to the music, more specifically, the music of can joann. in all seriousnes though, i really like this band. and it isn't something i can put my finger on. they seem pretty awesome, and i hope that their live show translates well, because i would love to see them (if they would ever come to hamilton...)

after the seizure is gone
indecisionsway
lady luck

and because i feel sort of bad about yesterday, here's that crazy ryan adams rap song (and here's my apparently obligatory "ha ha ha, balsa wood" comment on the whole thing):

look who got a website

*please note, i actually enjoy these blogs, i am just amused that an entire article was written on the matter.

try to remember everything i've passed...

2006-09-27T14:23:00.000-04:00

here's some video nostalgia, and later (when ezarchive decides to work) there will be another post with some emailed to me music. (please note, i only post the stuff that i LIKE...but the more stuff you send, the more chance there is you'll send something i like)

random 5 from the download file

2006-09-26T12:43:00.000-04:00

once again, all the thinking is done for you. basically, so is the work, since these songs all came as a result of my trawling the wild world of mp3 blogs. what happens in this (because i know you all like to be spoonfed and have your hands held): i download songs from a variety of places to test them out. then, often times, i end up buying the album. or, if i am feeling that very special combination of busy and lazy, the songs sit in a file i have creatively named "downloads" and then eventually i sit for about an hour or two just listening and trying to remember where exactly those songs came from originally. today, you get to be part of the magic. today i put the whole thing on, set it on random and pressed play. the following are the first 5 songs that came on. any thoughts? my guess is no, like i said, i'm here to do all the thinking for you.

bell x1 - flame (chicken lips mix)
the frames - perfect opening line
veruca salt - circular trend
the awkward stage - morons are winning (please note that, hilariously, this is classified as an import by amazon canada)
mactronics - madlymantics

new faves, old faves, and a little wtf action

2006-09-25T13:06:00.000-04:00

read the title of today's post. no really. read it. got it? good. that's pretty much (well it's ENTIRELY) the recap of today's post. as well, a little bit of my television viewing last night (note brothers and sisters is the wtf to my rewatching of season 1 of the office and season 3 of arrested development...i also caught the premiere of jericho again, which i like mostly because, until i see heroes tonight, it seems to have the most potential for zombies or ninjas) anyway, back to music. the cloud room. if you weren't into them over a year ago when the song first dropped on the mp3blogosphere, well, you were maybe a little slow on the uptake. i am attempting to remedy the situation. i could write a missive about the band, but someone already explained the whole thing better here. yes, it's pitchfork, so take it all with a pretentious grain of salt (i hear it's essential to a hipster's diet).
then there's the new song by the postmarks which is creating a buzz, apparently. i mean, if you judge solely by aggregator rankings, anyway. here's your assignment for today's post:

1) compare and contrast the aims, goals and mp3s of evidence presented herein by both the postmarks and the cloud room.

2) which group do you feel was more successful in tapping into the x factor that seems to matter only to people who read and write mp3 blogs?

3) wtf is up with the new jet single? i am pretty sure i don't like it...bonus points if you can correctly predict what band/era they will rip off next. extra special bonus points if you can tell me why sloan doing that doesn't bother me nearly as much.

the cloud room - hey now now (not to be confused with the mid/late 90s song of the same name by swirl 360)
the postmarks - goodbye
jet - come on come on

bakers half dozen

2006-09-22T13:12:00.000-04:00

it's the end of the week. i'm tired. you're tired. we've all been counting down the seconds to friday night since the crack of dawn on monday. at some point, we're probably all going to need a nap. but then what? how do we wake up and face this weekend that we've been looking forward to? well, i will always stand by music as being the answer to all your needs. why these songs? no real reason (although in the case of the sonic youth track, i dare you to try and stay in bed if that's the song you're using to wake up to). so here it is, a somewhat eclectic mix of music to get your ass in gear, before you waste your entire weekend watching the discovery channel.

rinocerose - my demons (feat. mark gardener)
sonic youth - drunken butterfly
dj shadow - six days (soulwax remix)
danger mouse & jemini - take care of business (feat. j-zone-bke)
test icicles - what's your damage (alan braxe fred falke remix)
the fratellis - henrietta
ben folds five - steven's last night in town

i got four on it?

2006-09-20T19:14:00.000-04:00

today there's a fourpack with absolutely no tie in. the songs have nothing to do with one another, and in some cases, putting on after another on a mix tape would kill the mood dead. for real. maybe you're into that sort of thing, but personally i find it to be a bit obnoxious. anyway, these songs are best enjoyed seperately. but i promise they will be enjoyed. i will also fully disclose that at least one of these songs is here mostly because of gratuitous swearing. mostly because that's my state of mind lately. again, i urge you to give me some direction as to what you would like to see here for the big 100th post brouhaha. again, i reiterate the cat tears threat. ok enough with the pleas. listen to these songs. enjoy them. but enjoy them seperately, unless you want to jolt your friends and loved ones.

The Octopus Project/Black Moth Super Rainbow - lollipopsichord
lady sovereign - hoodie (spank rock remix)
the changes - when i wake
be your own pet - bunk trunk skunk

an admission of guilt

2006-09-19T17:20:00.000-04:00

ok, i have to come clean about today's post. i'm not trying. really, i'm not. 2 weeks in, and i'm still sorting out how to juggle this thing with work and school and just...life. i promise i will get better at it, and you will all reap the benefits. i do have a request though. in a few days, it will be our 100th post here at ydb. i kind of want to do something semi-special. it was suggested awhile ago that i post a list of the 5-10 albums that changed my life. well, i could do that (and most likely will at some point), but for a 100th post it seems remarkably self-indulgent.so i guess my request then would be this: do you have any requests? i mean, i have some hilarious stuff just sitting around waiting to be posted. and i am threatening right now, that if no one has any better suggestions, cat tears may make an appearance. (and if you don't have a clue about what i am talking about...well, trust me, you might not want to know. i might not want you to know). anyway, yes, requests. and always, here's some music. some of which has been kicking about my harddrive for a few days/weeks/months. some of which is fitting for the time of year. if you want to make a game of figuring any of that out, go nuts.

page france - chariot
what made milwaukee famous - idecide
the polyphonic spree - lithium (yes, it's a nirvana cover)

how to dance your ass off: a practical, how-to guide

2006-09-18T12:51:00.001-04:00

this post should have gone live when i had a break at 12:30 today, but ezarchive was not being cooperative...
1) find a wide variety of music to listen to, at least 2-3 different genres should be represented. this enables you to not get bored, and also appeals to the largest audience. sometimes it is better to have a vague idea about how to proceed with this step before moving on to step 2. your mileage may vary.
2) locate large quantities of alcohol, but be sure to a) know where to draw your stupid line and b) pace yourself. it's no fun to be so drunk you can't function (and your moves will suffer accordingly) and also, if you get drunk faster than everyone else, you can be certain they are mocking your big move that in your mind, looks like it came straight from a video. please note that this does not include ironic dance moves, as pulling out the electric slide will always have it's time and place.
3) space. find some. no one wants a dance party that is all elbows and eyes, it doesn't end well for anyone, and usually won't last all that long.
4) try not to have any of your scrapper friends show up. fist fights are not conducive to the sort of dance party we're talking about here. although the argument can be made for the inclusion of these friends for other types of dance parties.
5) try to have at least one girl who will at some point, raise her beer over her head and yell "WOOOOOO". a note of caution however, too many of these girls, and the party will go downhill fast, and likely end as a cross between a strip tease and body shots competition.
6) try these songs on for size:

bloc party - helicopter (breakneck mix)
justin timberlake (feat clipse) - sexyback
the sounds - painted by numbers
scissor sisters - paul mccartney

whiter shade of pale

2006-09-15T17:30:00.000-04:00

ever since i heard his work in the dj kicks series, i've always had a soft spot for erlend oye. yeah, i can totally understand some of the critics (his voice is too breathy, he's too one dimmensional, why does he have to sing), but for all of their critcisms, i find myself seeing the flip side of the coin, and actually enjoying those aspects of the music. awhile back, i heard that he was involved in another project, and promptly forgot about it. and then today, lo and behold, pitchfork has a half decent review of said project, and off i go in search of it. having now listened to the album in it's entirety (which was half the reason that today's post is coming so late), here were my impressions:
1) i kind of feel a little like sonic youth took some ludes and travelled back in time with a laptop to visit themselves, and maybe they took sianspheric and hum with them...
2) this feels like watching a college jam band who are really into their own riffs and shoes
3) shoegaze!
4) shoegaze pop!
5) i wonder how long until this is used on a montage on the o.c.
so to summarise, it's good. it's really good. although it took a few listens to really get into it. so here, for you, the whitest boy alive, from the album dreams

fireworks
don't give up

their myspace

yarrrrrrr

2006-09-14T15:24:00.000-04:00

so i don't know about you, but for me, it's not every day that i get email from someone purporting to be a pirate. so you can understand why, although i got an email about david & the citizens, from someone called pirate! brooke black i waited awhile before opening it (the subject line of, Swedish Meatballs Delivered Fresh From David & the Citizens, seemed a little spammy to me as well. but eventually i did get around to opening it, and here is what i found:
The Making of "Until the Sadness Is Gone":

David & the Citizens recorded this album in Malmö (a small city in Southernmost Sweden, home to bands like the Cardigans and the Ark) with producer Jens Lindgård (Franz Ferdinand, the Cardigans, April March, St. Etienne). During the recording, and in between bouts of Playstation and Jim Beam bourbon, the band hung different metallic and glass objects on a string from the ceiling and hit them softly and randomly, "to produce the sound of a drunken boat in a storm." They turned a bicycle upside down and ran a drumstick across the spinning wheels for the song "As You Fall (I Watch With Love)". They ended up with an album that has already earned them tremendous acclaim in Sweden: they received a nomination for a Swedish Grammy (Best Pop Group) in 2004; they've performed at numerous major European indie rock festivals; and P3, one of Sweden's largest television stations, produced a documentary on the band that has been aired repeatedly throughout Sweden and Denmark.

The US release features original artwork by Brendan Monroe and two bonus tracks, "Betina" and "Glued to the Light," that a re not available on the Swedish version.

so i listened. and i liked. and now i'm passing it onto you with my stamp of approval. although i've heard them compared to neutral milk hotel, i would say a more accurate description would be: the lovechild result of an orgy between nmh and every band i listened to in highschool. vague enough for you?

from until the sadness is gone:

let's not fall apart
new direction
the end

i'll give you a hump day...

2006-09-13T14:11:00.000-04:00

wink wink, nudge nudge. actually, the title has nothing to do with any of today's post, it's more an issue of a) it's wednesday b) i'm still not used to getting up "early" and c) i just don't have the creativity going right now. so what am i posting today? well, one band with subject matter i can relate to (and i can see this week, and so can you if you're in hamilton), one band who is currently getting a lot of internet buzz, and one band who seems to always (at least lately) have some sort of devoted army of follwerers online, but i've not yet posted about them. now, i could tell you which song is which, but i am little distracted right now by the news and it's a little hard to concentrate. but also because i like playing games with you all. so good luck. a shiny canadian nickel to the first person who can match the description with the band. (and here's a clue)

shout out out out out - forever indebted myspace
birdmonster - cause you can myspace
the bishops - the only way that i can look is down myspace

woo hoo emily haines!

2006-09-12T17:51:00.000-04:00

(see, i promised that exact title). so there's a veritable pantload of albums coming out today. but if you, like myself, are finding some newfound budgetary restraints, today's the sort of day that makes you want to curl up into a little ball in the corner, because there are so many options, and not enough money to buy them all. now i realize that for some ydb readers, this whole dilemma isn't the same as those of us here in the great white north. you have to wait until the 26th to get this album. sucks to be you, but it's still my pick. first of all, i have to admit that the partial reason for my pick today is my own strange brand of patriotism. you get points just for being canadian. sadly, those are the only points some bands get (not any of the ones we feature here, but you get the gist of it). if you've been a fan of metric for any length of time, chances are, at some point you've found yourself
standing slack jawed in an audience, having lost control of your limbs some time ago, watching emily haines do what she does best. (that being, being emily haines). yeah, some people might try to convince you that they know the recipe for an emily haines (1 cup blondie, 3/4 of karen o, a sprinkling to taste of bss) but they're lying. and for anyone who that they had her all figured out, today's solo release knives don't have your back should send them back to their test kitchen. here's the evidence:

our hell
the lottery

buy the album

myspace

technical difficulties

2006-09-12T14:07:00.000-04:00

hey folks, ezarchive doesn't seem to be working too hot right now, so you're going to have to wait a little while for my "woo hoo for emily haines!" post. sit tight.

band geeks unite!

2006-09-11T12:56:00.000-04:00

well, to be more correct, choir geeks unite. today's post is for cait, danielle, sarah, casey, and anyone else who ever spent any time in a choir. let me tell a little story to illustrate why today's post is so awesome. once, in highschool, we were handed out the music to a song from les mis. if memory serves me correct, we were all sort of excited about this. partly because of the inherent geek factor involved in choir (so naturally, we had a weird affinity for showtunes) and partly because this was something in english, that had nothing to do with god, and was written when we were still alive. also, it wasn't the sort of thing that you got roped into singing for some festival or competition...it was fun.
thing is, we never ended up singing it. i'm pretty sure mrs. quinn just threw it out there at the beginning of the year just to keep us coming back. which we did. so i guess, 1 point, mrs. quinn. but still, if we had ever done anything remotely like what the scala choir is doing, we would have had a way better time. i know that it's hard to ignore my obsession with covers, but if you can listen to their version of heartbeats and not have goosebumps, then you might not have a soul. (i will fully admit, however, that the first time i heard this choir, i totally just treated them as a joke...so that you understand, i've included the first track i heard, teenage dirtbag)

teenage dirtbag
she hates me
with or without you
heartbeats

scala choir myspace

because the original can always be better

2006-09-08T11:20:00.000-04:00

it's yet another remix day. yeah, you could call it laziness. or you'd be perfectly within your rights to say that i am just excited that i sorted out the wireless situation and feel the need to post right! now! or we could all just agree that i like remixes, and so do you. google tells me so, and the internet never lies, right? also, if anyone reading this goes to mohawk, let me know...maybe you can hook me up with how your first week went. maybe you want to tell me face to face ENOUGH WITH THE REMIX POSTS!...but somehow i doubt that. ok, i have a half hour, and so i figure you can get maybe...four songs out of me? (uploading takes time, people...plus i need to find an amusing picture, for no good reason), so here's your take for the day:

beck - girl (octet remix)
lady sovereign - hoodie (basement jaxx remix)
basement jaxx - hush boy (les visiteurs remix)
spank rock - far left (u-tern electro-boogie remix)

Where’s alice cooper when you really need him?

2006-09-07T18:49:00.000-04:00

Today’s entry comes to you fresh from a break at my first day back at school in a bazillion years. Luckily, not too much has changed in the way of breaks, and I now find myself with more than an hour to kill, with nothing more than a cheese sandwich and a can of diet coke (yes, bring on the brain cancer) to fill up my time. Sadly, while this is also the first laptop entry, I can’t actually sort out the wireless network here yet (and don’t even get me started on the headaches I had last night with sympatico…that is unless you want to hear me being really really pissed off). But enough about me (and trust me, I am well aware that you probably aren’t reading this, and merely clicked on a link from elbo.ws, google analytics doesn’t lie, folks), onto the music. Maybe you noticed that while everyone else in the free world is all excited about the upcoming tv on the radio release, you haven’t heard a peep from me. There’s a good reason for that—four letters: RIAA. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to post the mr. Grieves cover, and they asked me to take it down. Therefore, I am not going to incur their wrath anymore, and will not post any of the upcoming tracks (although from what I have heard so far—awesome). If you get a chance to hear any of it, do, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Instead, today I bring you something different, based on what you all have been searching for. So, top three searches lately were for jean grae, beck remixes, and everyone’s favourite highschool band, the kashmere stage band. so I hope you’ve kept up your searches and found your way bacm here, because today’s your day:

the herbaliser, feat. jean grae - nah'mean nah'm'sayin
beck - fax machine anthem (dizzee rascal remix)
the kashmere stage band - all praises

all you sinners get ready to win big!

2006-09-06T13:58:00.000-04:00

because apparently, if kirk cameron is right, then when all the good folks get raptured, the rest of us get to fight over their jewelry and fillings. so there's that to look forward to. i thought that the weather today would be perfect for a rapture. a huge clap of thunder out of nowhere, brief torrential rain, and now it's sunny. apparently no one around here was raptured, but i can't really say that it's much of a surprise. and in case you didn't get the joke yet, let me spell it out for you. today is all about the rapture. as michelle pointed out a few days ago, it is all about the cowbell. and no matter how shit they be live at times, they always manage to get your ass shaking on their albums. and also, since we all know i have an extreme soft spot for remixes, they are the perfect band for me. ripe for the remix, and rarely disappointing. (i actually think i heard a remix of house of jealous lovers before i heard the actual song. i don't know what that means, exactly, but i think it means something). anyway, the new album is almost in our hot little hands, so to celebrate, here's some of the tracks, just to tide you over until next tuesday. also, of course, one remix.

from pieces of the people we love:

pieces of the people we love
the sound
get myself into it (prince language disco edit)

waiting waiting waiting

2006-09-05T12:46:00.000-04:00

today i am waiting to be able to go to work so i can be ready to start work for real in a few weeks. problem is, i have to sit here at my house and wait for the lovely folks from purolator to deliver my laptop from dell, and they really don't say when they might be here. (to be honest, the website kept telling me it was supposed to be here yesterday, but we all know that the internet doesn't think labour day should be a holiday). thankfully, the finance dept at dell is all good, seeing as i received my invoice BEFORE i got the computer. which is awesome. so i'm trying to make this short and sweet, so that i don't miss them knocking on the door (because god forbid they actually ring my doorbell). so here's 3 songs. maybe they will get you through whatever it is that you're waiting for today.

the blow - pile of gold myspace
the album leaf - always for you myspace
stars of track and field - movies of antarctica myspace

no thanks, we're chock full!

2006-09-01T12:13:00.000-04:00

holy crap it's september. how exactly did that happen? i mean, i know there was a summer somewhere in there, but it seems like it flew by. i'm not sure, but i think this means that i'm getting old. this music however, is not old. it is young like a baby. maybe younger. and less full of shit. and it doesn't cry. work with me here. it's good stuff. and yes, it's another teddybears song, but it's a remix, and judging from the absurdly large amount of you that seem to flock here whenever i post a remix, i assume that you're with me on the "remix, good!" train. as for the other two tracks featured today, they both remind me of how awesome some music was that i listened to in highschool. both the hold steady and the thermals have a sort of energy that just says sweaty all ages (with some grumbling of-age folks sitting at the bar).

teddybears - cobrastyle (diplo remix) myspace
the thermals - a pillar of salt myspace
the hold steady - chips ahoy! myspace

it's almost the (long) weekend

2006-08-31T12:17:00.000-04:00

i've got some tracks today that you might want to pop in your car stereo, just so that everyone else can know that you have good taste. there's really no thread tying anything together (although if you can find one, i'm all ears), they're just good songs. right. now. as for the lemonheads, well, evan dando and the crew will always have a special bit part in my heart, mostly leftover highschool memories, and mostly good ones. the teddybears amuse me. i have no idea why. and the rapture make me feel much cooler than i actual ever will be. so there you have it. go out and play.

the lemonheads - no backbone
teddybears - punk rocker (squeakeclean remix)
the rapture - whoo! alright yeah...uh huh

this one's for some people

2006-08-30T11:31:00.000-04:00

first of all, i should say that, in a few days of rotation on my computer and ipod, these 3 songs have somehow become connected in my mind. i'm not sure if it's similar lyrical content (although i think i may be stretching it there), or if it's just that they fit together musically well, although i couldn't really see all three on tour together. regardless, this one's for some people.
let's start things off with the admission that i am probably the only person who is not a huge fan of alexisonfire who still owns some of their swag. and please understand, i have swag that NO ONE has. it's weird swag, and i am going to stop talking about it. that being said, i do like some of their stuff, and like at least half of the internet, i really liked what dallas green did solo. recently, i got a tip from my MOM that actually panned out. in case you didn't catch him on any of the concert dates this summer, wade (of alexisonfire) has a side project in the works. from the description i was given (again, by mom) ("less screaming, more quiet), i wasn't really sure what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised nonetheless. there's a subtle undertone of theatrics at play here that really suits his voice, and as we all know, i am a sucker for piano. (more on that later). secondly is a track that goes out to my brother (he of the sunny day real estate fan-ism) jeremy enigk is releasing a new solo album in a few months, and it seems to be a definite improvement from past efforts which seemed to draw all kind of criticism. take a listen and see for yourself.
finally, a new mountain goats track, from me to you. because it's good stuff. and you are my people.

black lungs - in memory
jeremy enigk - been here before
mountain goats - woke up new

and if all that wasn't enough, here's some news for michimi (she of the wheatgrass holding). from ben folds' myspace:

about the new release, 'supersunnyspeedgraphic, the lp'.

it's very simple. we took the existing tracks that were done for the ep's, along with 'bitches ain't shit' and 'still' and threw them on an album for mainstream release.

and then

anyway, i'll be in the studio in october. i've got bits and pieces of songs, as i usually do by this time. and i just bought an assload of cheap synthesizers on ebay. i'm not sure i'll use them. haha. maybe the whole thing will be that. who the fuck knows... mainly, i'm just inspired right now.

so on that note, here's one of my favourite ben folds songs, just for you;

ben folds - there's always someone cooler than you

The open-chord tuning saviors of alternative rock...

2006-08-29T12:11:00.000-04:00

a few weeks ago i got an email that the 16 year old me would have wet her pants over. i was asked if i wanted to interview sebadoh. why? well, sebadoh iii has been re-released, and if you have no idea what i'm talking about, well, i'll throw in some tunes at the end of this whole thing so you can see what all the fuss is about. but if you're here to read the interview, you shouldn't really care so much about what i have to say, as what they have to say. so here it is:

so do the rest of the guys play the no doubt to lou's gwen stefani?
or are there no divas in sebadoh?

jason: We were democratic divas all.
eric: Please stop it! Side splitting laughter. We're all Divas! I mean Devo...

how weird is it to know that you've been the inspiration for many a highschool slacker's english presentation? (and how many have you actually seen?)

jason: I did now know this, and have seen none personally. I once did an analysis of Husker Du's "Lifeline" for a paper.
Then I dropped out of school.

eric: It's really weird, beyond strange actually. I haven't seen any of these slacker english presentations, hopefully i'll be invited to one in the near future.

j mascis got his love in with broken social scene and guests at the olympic island show recently. what new blogosphere darlings (if any) are you itching to play a show with?

jason: Deerhoof. I am lucky to be getting my wish soon as Fiery Furnaces (I am a member of the touring band) are doing shows with them in October

eric: WTF? Do we speak the same language? Where is Olympic Island and who are 'broken social scene' and why should i know or care? Blogosphere Darlings is my new band name. Thank You very much!

heard any good/dirty jokes lately?

jason: Q: Why are indie hipsters so bad at karate?
A: --Because they cant get past the white belt.

eric: Yes, at your expense and i'm not telling. Jokes on you. Ok, here's one I made up last September after flying into JFK during Hurricane Ophelia!

Q) What is the least favorite song in New Orleans right now?

A) Katrina & the Waves "Walking on Sunshine." Pretty funny, huh?

what's your most unbelievable story from the sub pop years?

jason: During our initial meeting with them, they made us a financial offer. And because we hesitated for a few seconds, they doubled it.

eric: Being pulled over by two state police cruisers in Austin, Minnesota with Lou driving and smoking pot and popping pseudo-ephydrine truckstop pills. The only thing that saved us was the a stack of Puncture (OR.) magazines with us on the front cover, from a color slide i mailed in. One of the troopers after seeing the zine asked for one and for me to autograph it for his daughter! This incident was after the very last show I played with Sebadoh, in Seattle. Jason and Lou drove non-stop to Northampton, in about 60 hours.

with this reissue, it's almost a given that anyone who cut their indie rawk teeth during the 90s will be falling overthemselves to
proclaim their longterm love for you guys. that being said, seeing as you don't have any songs taking centre stage on the oc, veronica mars or grey's anatomy, do you think the new, younger generation will adopt you as the saviours of independant music, or brush you aside because you aren't on the same label as deathcab? (for that matter, what's your take on popular teen shows being used to break indie bands these
days?)

jason: I can only hope that someone hears "III" and gets excited about it.
I dare not try to understand todays indie music scene, as it has evolved into something that seems nothing like it was when I was coming up.
What is accepted as "exciting" or "interesting" is totally off the charts of my personal asthetics.

eric: I liked being brushed aside and brushed. It feels good. I have never watched any of the television shows you mention. Is that how the growin babies of the 80's find out about new music?

being canadian, i have to ask what your favourite canadian tour
destination is

jason: Montreal. For the poutine and the architecture.

eric: I would like to sing accapella in the Labatt's beer factory after hours. No, really...I played a show in Vancouver with Sebadoh once. I've been to Toronto and Montreal, how about wherever Sasquatch is hanging out?, that's where I want to set up a show.

and finally, the question on everyone's mind, what are your top 5
albums right now?

jason:
Om - Variations on a theme
Flipper - Generic
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
Nashville West - Nashville West
Camp Creek Boys - Old Time String Band

eric: My record player's broken, I don't buy CD's. My next record, "Uncharted Waters," is my current favorite. Destined for release in September on Old Gold (Atlanta, Georgia) and Handmade (Oslo, Noway) Records.

so there it is. if you want to support eric go here, if you want to get to know jason better, go here, if you want to get the reissue, go here, and if you've been sitting on a couch for the past 20 years and think that there was no life before deathcab, take a listen to what sebadoh was doing when you were still in diapers:

the freed pig
gimme indie rock

the sebadoh site
the obligatory myspace link

brown baggin' it

2006-08-28T15:30:00.000-04:00

seriously i forgot how awesomely fun it was to have to navigate myself in a new school setting. in all fairness though, i was very very lucky to go to such a small university, and it's looking as though college won't be all that bad. (i only made 3 wrong turns today, and my student ID does NOT make me look like a hunchbacked albino). however, it's going to take me awhile to get the hang of school and work and ydb, so please bear with me. posts will be as regular as possible (and yes, the sebadoh interview is indeed on it's way). until then, i will try to make up for the sporadic nature of the posts with sheer quantity (and i suppose i can throw a little quality in there too). so today i present the "brown baggin' it mixtape"...because i am too poor for cafeteria food.

red letter anthem - a true champion always...
viva voce - when planets collide
brazilian girls - jique
the goddamn doo wop band - talk too much
junior boys - in the morning (remix)
deaf in the family (feat. scavone, badseed and pumpkinhead) - who are you
sonic youth - dirty boots (if you haven't figured it out by now, this is where the ydb name comes from)
cadence weapon - the gorilla is for sandracing
the 88 - coming home
devotchka - you love me

last welcome back, i promise

2006-08-25T13:14:00.000-04:00

sorry, there was quite a bit of catching up to do, which has meant that this week has probably seemed like reheated leftovers to a lot of you. work is winding down, school is starting up, the weather is getting to that cool time of the year when i can wear shorts and hoodies and not feel either too hot or too cold. in other words, it is great. hopefully todays last post of catching up will put you in a good mood too. if not, well, that's your issue. you always have the option of pointing me in another direction if you prefer. man, i'm tired of talking. have a good weekend.

the marble index - same schools
peter bjorn & john - young folks (punks jump up special disco mix)
annuals - brother
cursive - dorothy at forty

RE:mix (part deux)

2006-08-24T13:03:00.000-04:00

to follow up from yesterday, here's some of the remixes that i didn't post yet that have found their way to me. again there's the age old question of whether the remix is better than the original, and i would have to say that, in at least a few of these cases, it is. at the very least, these remixes are interesting takes on songs that we've all either held close to our hearts for years or have been hearing on hyped up repeat for the better part of the summer. now, the most important question you'll have to ask yourself after giving these tracks a listen is this: does the rudebox remix make anyone else feel like an episode of cops is just around the corner?
finally, totally unrelated to music, but if anyone has any good laptop backpack recommendations, send them my way.

cobra starship - snakes on a plane (bring it) (juan mclean remix)
justin timberlake - sexy back (linus loves remix)
of montreal - disconnect the dots (mixel pixel remix)
robbie williams - rudebox (chicken lips malfunction remix)

ich bin back mixtape vol ?

2006-08-23T12:36:00.000-04:00

so to officially say i'm back from vacation, here's a bunch of songs that have either been forwarded or recommended to me over the past little while...i will warn you, it's quite an eclectic mix, so don't be afraid if some of this doesn't make any sense to you. it's just stuff that i've listened to and put the good ol' ydb stamp of approval on. if you didn't learn anything from my 10 days of birthday mp3 brouhaha, then maybe this can be your tried and true intro as to what makes me tick. by no means is this the be all and end all to what i like to listen to, but it's a good jumping off point. there's some new stuff, some old stuff, some buzzy stuff, and i'm pretty sure that my inclusion of this particular mountain goats cover qualifies as nerdy stuff (explanation: i actually own the andrew lloyd webber greatest hits cassette). so, i'll stop blathering on semi-incoherently, and you can get to work on your ydb music appreciation 101 course.

jed and lucia - off the ground (their myspace)

snowden - anti anti (more info at the official site and more tracks at their myspace)

mountain goats - tell me on a sunday (the aforementioned nerdfest entry)

stevie wonder - we can work it out (if you don't realize this is a cover, you should be ashamed of yourself)

you say party! we say die!the gap (more info at the myspace listen is you like ninja high school or the go! team)

the beach boys - god only knows

kashmere stage band - shaft(read more about these guys here, if you know what's good for you)

finally!

2006-08-22T10:05:00.000-04:00

i'm home. i was actually home late on sunday, but i spent yesterday pretending i was ready and willing to go back to work. as such, there was no post. half because my brain was still in vacation mode, and half because...well, pretty much the whole reason was because my brain was taking some time to catch up with reality. all this school business is a lot of work, but i suppose it will be worth it in the end, when i take over the world, one well planned party at a time. (look out mr. diddy, i'm comin' to getcha!).
on my trip i got to thinking about perfect airplane music. i think that junior boys pretty much take the cake (although i would be lying if i said i didn't listen to girl talk and mandy moore (obviously with michael stipe...)) then i came home to a bunch of emails (including one that sebadoh fans should get excited about), and found some more music that i wish i had on my trip. so here are some selections, in case you're heading anywhere by plane anytime soon. the junior boys got me through a 3 hour delay and plane switch in atlanta, and i suspect they (plus some chris price as well). there's something about moody (and yet subtly upbeat) electronic based music that suits airtravel. maybe it's our penchant for future living, maybe it's some sort of core need to feel plugged into the technology, or maybe it's just that it's good music, and that good music makes all the crap that comes along with travelling, just a little bit more tolerable. regardless. it's good stuff.

chris price - and she was
junior boys - so sleep
junior boys - in the morning

also, if you have ever had a question that you were itching to ask the members of sebadoh, i would suggest that you send your question along to me, pronto

the post you've all been waiting for...

2006-08-18T21:35:00.000-04:00

...or maybe you have been waiting for Heather to get back and for things to go back to normal. Either way, you have no choice because Heather is away this week livin' it up in Florida with old people, and has bestowed upon me (Alisha) the honour of updating her blog while she is away. I also get to write a blog post of my own, which is exciting/stressful, because usually on my blog I don't use capital letters/correct punctuation or write coherantly most of the time. So this is a challenge for me and I might have to lay down afterwards.

Anyway, if you know me at all, which you probably don't, you would would know that I collect girl bands like your grandma collects decorative spoons. Meaning, I have lots and lots of girl bands in my music collection. And if you make fun of me for it I will wait until you go home and then I will sit in my rocking chair and cry to myself and curse the day you were born and maybe throw my slipper against the wall in frustration. So anyway, I was trying to think of some sort of theme that I could use to guide me, but I couldn't come up with anything that had any meaning, so I decided that my theme would be Spanish/Portugese girl bands. I want to apologize in advance for insulting your culture if these bands that I am posting don't actually sing in either of those languages or anything even remotely close to those languages. It's quite possible they do not and I am a fool (note: very possible), so please don't take it personally.

Either way these bands are AWESOME TO THE MAX so just ignore me and listen to them. I've already rambled on long enough so just listen to the bands and chair dance a little and call your grandma to say hi because she misses you. And don't cry because Heather will be home soon.

Cansei de Ser Sexy - Music Is My Hot Sex
Pauline en la Playa - Lo que mejor se ma da
Maria Daniela Y Su Sonido Lasser - Miedo
Bonde Do Role - Melo Do Tabaco (A-Trak Remix)
Vanexxa - Desheredada
Las Pulpas - Vaya Momento

Out of this World

2006-08-17T09:17:00.000-04:00

thefuzzymethod's on vacation with old people this week, have no fear though, ydb isn't dead. there's a whole whack of guest bloggers filling in. today, it's my good friend caleb. you may know him from LJ, you may not know him at all. but trust me, he can school your ass in, uh, school. (and music, obviously)

Lucky for me, an interesting linkage occurs between these bands (otherwise I'd just have to push these bands based on their broad range of amazing talent, and who really cares about that?)... from the opening lyrics of The Februarys' "Charismatica" ("parting the stars, parting the stars") to the title of The Spill Canvas's "Himerus and Eros" (the son of Aphrodite (goddess of love) and Ares (god of war), and personification of lust and desire in Greek mythology), to the artist 30 Seconds to Mars (Mars being the Roman mythological god of war, and the planet being the fourth from the Sun in our universe), a theme of astronomy/mythology becomes apparent. I don't plan on getting too far into my metaphorical and allegorical linkages between astronomy and mythology - Just listen to the tracks and let them speak for themselves.

The Februarys - Charismatica

The Spill Canvas - Himerus and Eros

30 Seconds to Mars - Was it a Dream?

little bro's big shot at fame

2006-08-16T09:53:00.000-04:00

thefuzzymethod's on vacation with old people this week, have no fear though, ydb isn't dead. there's a whole whack of guest bloggers filling in. today, it's my little brother (although he's taller than me now). like michimi, he hails from the westcoast.

(guess who is who in this picture)

this being my big shot at saying something that people will listen to Iwanted to highlight some bands and music that I like that don't really get the attention I think they deserve. Most of this music I just happened to come across randomly in weird situations. Take Song About an Angel for example. I first found out about Sunny Day Real Estate from their contribution to the Batman Forever Soundtrack (I kid you not). Since I liked the song (it's funny, but I can't even remember what it was now), and I was an impressionable youth, I bought a couple of their albums. It turned out that my failed attempt at being cool actually got me some music I really liked. This song I can only describe as an epic. It's a rather long song, but it kind of crashes down like waves.

sunny day real estate - song about an angel

This next song came about from a random search on the Internet. I had just found out the name for this music I liked, so I just put in a search and I found The Juliana Theory (unfortunately I recently discovered the band has called it quits ). This was one of the first songs I heard of theirs and I can identify with it as it seems to be about someone who has a friend who doesn't think before they act.

the juliana theory - If I Told You This Was Killing Me Would You Stop?

The last song, I heard on The Zone (Victoria's answer to Toronto's The Edge). It didn't really get overplayed which was nice. Whomever is singing it seems so confused yet so self empowered.

straylight run - Existentialism on Prom Night

(yeah, that's right, it's me at the Pacific Ocean)

I hope these songs bring you some of the randomness they brought me. Perhaps you will go and look for some music like this and stumble upon some great music of your own....

Check out these links:

acts of kindness - wouldn't it be nice if everyone did
this kind of thing?

pandora - start here to look for random music you might
like...

hold the wheatgrass

2006-08-15T20:05:00.000-04:00

thefuzzymethod's on vacation with old people this week, have no fear though, ydb isn't dead. there's a whole whack of guest bloggers filling in. today, it's my college roommate, michimi. be nice, or she'll kick your ass

I recently moved to Victoria, BC; land of flowers, tourists and everything British. The west coast is known for being green and mountainous. It’s also known for rain, methamphetamine addicts and Birkenstocks (guilty). In music, the west coast likes to lure me in with cutesy indie-pop acts with lots of clapping. Or hip-hop that makes me wanna shake my ass at random men. Actually, my music experience here in BC seems to primarily consist of me narrowly missing seeing my favorite acts live (I had to miss the spectacular Sasquatch Festival for starters). But I refuse to be defeated! And personally I’m not sure how anyone who lives here for any length of time could stay pessimistic for long. So here’s a sampling of west coast love from me to you:

Swollen Members – Too Hot
Imperial Teen - Ivanka
Lyrics Born – Calling Out
Tegan & Sara – Take Me Anywhere

…and in case you’re like me and can’t get enough of this guy:
Lyrics Born – Stop Complaining sorry, the mp3 has gone awol...i'm working to get it back asap

time machine, baby

2006-08-14T08:02:00.000-04:00

i'm not really here right now. well, right now, while i'm typing this, i'm here. but while you're reading this? i am in the future. sort of. ok, it's late and i'm tired and i'm doing my own guest blog spot while i am on vacation with or without my timemachine.
anyway, all confusing attempts at jokes aside, i thought it would be appropriate to travel back in time to the mid 90s. a movie came out that blew me away. really, there was no good reason for it, except for the fact that somehow, i identified. maybe identified isn't the word, since i am not and have never been a horndog de-virginator who is unknowingly spreading HIV. mainly i think i just saw this movie at the right time in my life. plus, it had a killer soundtrack. the movie in question is kids, and love him or hate him, larry clark did good here. it's the kind of story that isn't hit you over the head moralistic--really, there's no lesson in it outside of maybe you should think about using a condom--but it does have a message. unfortunately, i think the message was lost on a lot of the "grown ups". basically, instead of them seeing their teenagers as young adults with real live adult problems and issues, it just seemed to serve as a reinforcement to all of their stereotypes about teens being shiftless and aimless.
but again, a killer soundtrack. let's get to that. first of all, the folk implosion song that everyone and their grandma knows, but it's still good, even now. then there's the always quirky yet catchy daniel johnson, the scare the shit out of you track from slint and one of the best songs that sebadoh released.

folk implosion - natural one
daniel johnson - casper the friendly ghost
slint - good morning captain
sebadoh - spoiled

buy the soundtrack

and just for shits and giggles, here's 2 more folk implosion songs, that you probably maybe haven't heard...from the take a look inside:

slap me
shake a little heaven

covering my ass

2006-08-11T11:45:00.000-04:00

today's post will be short on words and medium length on music. it will be huge on me telling you that i am going on vacation tomorrow. but don't fret, loyal ydb readers, i have some wonderful guest bloggers filling in for me. now, i have to go take all of my shampoo, shaving gel, water bottles and tylenol gel caps out of my carry on, so i'm just going to leave with something near and dear to my heart: a selection of covers, just for you!

self - what a fool believes doobie brothers
the donnas - drive my car beatles
franz ferdinand - what you waiting for? gwen stefani
tv on the radio - mr. grieves pixies
death cab for cutie - sick of myself matthew sweet
ted leo and the pharmacists - since u been gone/maps kelly clarkson/yeah yeah yeahs
the go! team - bull in the heather sonic youth
cassettes won't listen - cut your hair pavement

planning to wear a sackcloth

2006-08-10T11:03:00.000-04:00

it would appear that bringing toothpaste on the plane when i go to florida will not be allowed. that's ok, i wasn't planning on joining the mile high brush club anyway. and to start things off cheekily, here's an old favourite just perfect for the day:

basement jaxx - red alert

now moving on. like most of you, i spend time at various aggregators throughout my day, and usually i have a clue about the bands and songs that are getting a lot of play. however, i apparently slept through the day in music snob school where we learned about silversun pickups. at first (clearly before i listened to anything), i was apprehensive...people were practically gushing. but they must have put some aural crack in them there songs, because i find myself agreeing with the assessments of awesomeness. see if it works on you too (maybe we're all doing the listening equivalent of drinking koolaid, but i think you'll like the taste regardless).

silversun pickups - lazy eye

then there's the seemingly at times ubiquotous diplo's "remix" of everyone's favourite gnarls barkley earworm. like the golddigger remix, this isn't so much a remix as a stripping down/reimagining. but that's what makes it so good. it's also super short, so if you like your music like that, this will work out for you.

diplo - crazy duda

finally, because the pitchfork review was so flattering (although not really all that surprisingly so), i thought i would throw up that track from the new junior boys album.

junior boys - in the morning

none of these things have ANYTHING to do with the other

2006-08-09T10:32:00.000-04:00

the title pretty much says it all today. there is no theme. there is no vague string tying it all together. it's just stuff that has either found it's way to my inbox or my ipod, and it's stuff i think you need to hear.
i'll ease you into it with something that should sound familiar. (if not, either you don't watch tv, or you have commercial induced fits of tv remote ADD). from the band teddybears, whose album Soft Machine will be released on september 12th. good time music. indeed. (and yes, if you feel the urge to crack open a heine, we're right there with you)

teddybears - cobrastyle (feat. mad cobra)

next is an inbox submission. normally i would sit on things like this and think for awhile about when and how to post about them. but for all the references and namechecks on their myspace, bel auburn makes me think of the heady days towards the end of highschool when shoegazer pop was all the rage. these guys are about one phaser pedal away from being a more melodic and uptempo sianspheric (and believe you me, that can't be a bad thing). they have an album coming out next week (august 14th to be exact), and while i will be spending my days on the beach that week, surrounded by the elderly, i have a feeling this track will be getting some decent rotation on the ipod.

bel auburn - metropolitan (watercolor)

(ps, there are more mp3s here, but remember, if you like what you hear, support the band...especially since these guys are doing it all themselves)

finally, comes (no pun intended) one of my guilty musical pleasures. robbie williams, no matter how cocky the man gets. no matter how big a head he gets. no matter how ridiculously tongue in cheek the lyrics are...i think he still manages to pull off what justin timberlake is trying to do with sexy back, except that to robbie, the whole thing is a joke, because the sexy never left to begin with. give it a try.

robbie williams - rudebox

keep it on the DL (not THAT way)

2006-08-08T12:32:00.000-04:00

so let's just not to get into it, but i think this week, my posts will be short on talk. (not that anyone's here for the reading: mp3's are like porn, and i know that none of you are here for the articles...sadly, i can't get away with wearing my pyjamas all day, but other than that, i'm practically hef).
anyway, here are 3 tracks today that are full of hype, and for once, it seems pretty warranted (except the pharrell track, i don't know that it got nearly as much hype as your average hip hop album, but seeing as this track features kanye, i think i have a natural inclination to think that it must have been hyped to death as the second coming).
regardless, if you haven't yet heard these songs, today's your lucky day. get 'em while they're hot.

the rapture - get myself into it
pharrell (feat. kanye west) - number one
beck - cell phone's dead

RE:mix

2006-08-07T15:03:00.000-04:00

(it's a holiday here in canada, so i've been doing pretty much nothing all day, sorry for the lateness of the post)
often times remixes seem to be either blow-your-mind-awesome or well-that-happened-boring. (unless they are trainwreck style awful, in which case, who doesn't like to listen to a song go all types of tom cruise crazy bad sometimes?) but then there are some songs that get remixed to death, and there are others that seem to want to be remixed from the get go. there are some that are better than the originals, and there are even some that replace the originals. but how does this happen? i mean, we know why the grey album happened, and girl talk is a whole other debate for a whole other day. but what i want to know is, what makes a remix good, and what makes it crap? i have a whole set of wordless criteria in my own head (mainly revolving around the idea of "would this be something i would dance to if i were drunk?", but there's more to it than that). so here's a selection of remixes. you listen, and then tell me which ones you like the best...and if you can put words to it, why. i know the ydb readers are more of the wallflower type, but i will try to find some sort of prize for people that comment and take part in the poll.

Take the poll

Free Poll by Blog Flux

ratatat - wildcat (e vax remix)
peaches - downtown (simian mobile disco remix)
jamie lidell - multiply (herbert's hoedown bump)
dfa1979 (r.i.p.) - blood on our hands (chromeo remix)

grab bag

2006-08-04T11:22:00.000-04:00

as the title would imply, today is sort of a mixed bag. (mostly because i need to run around and do things before i have to go to work, but also because having a coherent theme every day is hard work). first of all, from the mailbags. i have to admit that i am inclined to like juiceboxxx before i even hear a single bar of music from him, based solely on the fact that his vicious pop records album is called r u there god?? itz me, juiceboxxx. luckily, listening to it, i'm not disappointed. seeing as i have been listening to a lot of ninja highschool and girl talk lately, this track fits in nicely:

juiceboxx - thunder jam #3

next up there's the new track (via pitchfork) from local heroes junior boys. i have to admit, it took me two full listens to get into it, but i really like it. again, i think it would fit into my current playlist nicely, albeit during the evening drive home portion.

junior boys - in the morning

next...well, i have to apologize. for the amount of time i spent in michigan between the ages of 10 and 17, you would think i would have more of a finger of the states musical pulse. sadly, i don't. but i'm working on it, and to that end, here's tally hall. you have have seen them on the late late show with craig ferguson earlier this week. and if you did, you either thought a)they were really good, b)they were sort of weird, but still good c) hey! they're all wearing ties, d) the ties are different colours e) this song is catchy or f) holy crap, who makes a list this long, just give us the song. ok. here is is.

tally hall - good day

and finally, if someone can tell me where i got this aaron lacrate remix of lily allen's smile that would be awesome. i'm still on the fence about how i feel about it...at times it seems like it's trying to hard, and then it sort of turns into a gaybar house anthem...i don't know. decide for yourselves.

lily allen - smile (gutter mix)

she's free!

2006-08-03T11:31:00.000-04:00

if you needed a reason to celebrate today, then get excited. why? because today's the day that lil' kim's house arrest comes to an end. In case you haven't read up on the whole "lil' kim in prison" thing, there's a decent article here, and there's always the wiki. (and if you want to see something hilarious, while only kind of related, go here and look at the second listing).
for as much as her theme to growing up gotti sounded like it was phoned in, she has still released some of the best female hip hop of the past 10 years. yes, she's trashy at times. yes, she may be setting some segment of the women's movement back a few decades. and yes, a lot of her lyrical content is decidedly crass. but at the end of the day, it's good music, and there's really no stopping her now. (and even deborah harry is a fan) so please, sit back and enjoy some lil' kim today.

deborah harry's tribute to lil' kim:
dirty and deep

from the naked truth album
lighters up
shut up bitch

the collaboration with missy, angie martinez, lisa "left eye" lopes, and da brat:
not tonight(remix

hot DAMN

2006-08-02T12:30:00.000-04:00

for the summer, i'm working at a pool. in case you haven't noticed, people tend to flock to these places when it gets hot out. the last few days, a lot of people have been a-flocking, and as such, i've been sweating. (because the ironic twist is that while all of these people are going swimming to cool off, the staff is working in sweltering conditions. i'm not complaining, understand, just pointing out the irony). so it should come then, as no surprise, that the hot weather and the heat are pretty much the only things on my mind as i try to soak up every last bit of central air before i head to work. please then, excuse the complete and total lack of creativity today, as i present to you: some songs that either have the word hot in their title, or were done by artists with the words hot and or heat in their names.
(i promise tomorrow to show more creativity, the temperature is supposed to drop considerably by then).
did i miss a hot song or artist? then you should probably let me know (and know that i intentionally left off snoop, foreigner and van halen...mostly because i thought le tigre and peaches might kick their asses)

sonic youth - hot wire my heart
peaches - hot rod
tiga - hot in herre
hot hot heat - bandages
le tigre - hot topic
the lovin' spoonfuls - summer in the city

****EDIT****
not sure how i forgot to include this, but i did...

another hip hop mish mash

2006-08-01T14:05:00.000-04:00

everyone's been discussing their feelings on the yet to be released dj shadow album (the outsider). there doesn't seem to be a consensus on anything, save the fact that it seems like a departure from his previous releases. well it is. i can jump on board with that assessment. but does that necessarily mean it's a bad thing? i'll give you a track from the new album, and a remix of a track from an earlier one. you decide if there's a significant change in quality...or just a significant change.
and then, since endtroducing played such a big part in my reawakening to my appreciation of hip hop in late highschool (after a steady diet of all indie rock, all the time), i decided to throw on another (remixed) track from a band that reminds me of highschool, and then, to keep up with the absurdity of the end of yesterday's post, a track from the band i saw (opening for wesley willis (RIP) no less), on the evening of Sept 11, 2001.

dj shadow (feat phonte) - backstage girl
dj shadow - the number song (cut chemist party mix)
jon spencer blues explosion - bellbottoms('old rascal mix' by u.n.k.l.e.)
grand buffet - candy bars

kids with flow (and some andy samberg)

2006-07-31T12:46:00.000-04:00

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

wet your pants!

2006-07-28T12:00:00.000-04:00

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

i'm not even supposed to be here today

2006-07-27T12:09:00.000-04:00

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

must be something about the name

2006-07-26T12:16:00.000-04:00

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

steel+city+scissor+sisters = say it 3 times, fast...

2006-07-25T12:29:00.000-04:00

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

fumbling over what to post

2006-07-24T12:21:00.000-04:00

(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

i got a thing for you, too

2006-07-21T12:53:00.000-04:00

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)

kids and hip hop

2006-07-20T12:30:00.000-04:00

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

short but sweet and...sloooooooooooan

2006-07-19T12:06:00.000-04:00

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)

do you get it?

2006-07-18T11:27:00.000-04:00

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

mashup monday

2006-07-17T12:12:00.000-04:00

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)

sunny songs for a(nother) rainy day

2006-07-12T18:39:00.000-04:00

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

lazy tuesday

2006-07-11T17:49:00.000-04:00

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

blam! it's a downpour

2006-07-10T17:19:00.000-04:00

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

flashback friday: highschool confidential, part 2

2006-07-07T11:31:00.000-04:00

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

super mope!

2006-07-06T11:37:00.000-04:00

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

not really in the mood

2006-07-05T12:36:00.000-04:00

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

summertime

2006-07-04T14:07:00.000-04:00

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

hesketh?

2006-06-29T12:33:00.000-04:00

welcome to day 2 of "things i was given for free a million years ago". one of the bands featured today you may have heard of. however, chances are, you didn't hear them in the incarnation i'll be offering up. Most people these days, know soulwax as a dj collective who have made some very catchy mashups and other good music. mostly though, you wouldn't associate guitars with them. well, in 1999, they were playing a different song, and the result was just as good as what they put out today, albeit different. (the album much against everyone's advice also spawned their sometimes used name "too many dj's".
second, there's a band that was widely panned by critics, and with good reason. although i think that if you listen to this song as background music, and don't take it seriously at all, it's sort of/kind of ok. and yes, the beginning does sound like a complete ripoff of classic NIN.
finally, something a little quieter. the last song is one i find myself forgetting about for months or years at a time, but then relistening to it, and remembering that it is a good song. someone at amazon made the suggestion that fans of third eye blind would enjoy the album. i would argue that people who enjoy their music at all could find themselves being fans.

soulwax - conversation intercom

cupcakes - vidiots

gus - laugh that i could learn to love

music you've never heard before...

2006-06-28T14:13:00.000-04:00

...that is, unless you were the music editor for a campus paper in the late 90s, or a friend of a music editor for a campus paper in the late 90s.
thing is, there was a lot of crap that we got. so sometimes, it became hard to even want to pop in a cd that didn't come with a press release, from a band you'd never heard of. now to be fair, one of the 2 bands featured today, i had heard of, but the other two were brand spanking new to my ears when i first put them on (sometime around the fall/winter of 1998). to say i was pleasantly surprised would be putting in lightly. after having heard numerous sloan, radiohead or great big sea copies, it was nice to hear some bands at least ripping off less popular bands. (i jest...the closest thing i can come to in the way of comparison would be saying that the band arnold sort of sound like the bluetones sometimes, and really, who besides myself and peter merriman would i be helping out with that description?).
so here is part 1 of a 3 part, 3 day series. tomorrow, 3 more bands, friday, selections from the best movie soundtrack you've never heard.

shudder to think (with jeff buckley) - i want someone badly
arnold - hillside
dada - information undertow

(also, if you would like to help advise me which side of my italian/ukranian heritage i should be supporting come friday, i'm all ears)

**EDIT**
i would be completely remiss (not to mention a complete idiot) if i waited even another second to introduce you to girl talk. i've noticed the name around the mp3blog community over the past few days, but never really thought it could be as completely over the top awesome as it is. listen. if you like music, and have liked music for at least the past 10 years, then you will like this. (if only for the party game aspect of listening to it)
here's a sample:
bounce that

highschool confidential

2006-06-26T12:38:00.000-04:00

back in the day, i spent a lot of time going to see local bands play at what might be the dirtiest all ages club in the history of dirty all ages clubs. it's claim to fame was the lack of doors on the washroom stalls, and the fact that once, the older men's gay bar below had to come upstairs and ask the kids to stop jumping up and down, because it was knocking the tiles from their ceiling.
ah, the x-club. i loved it. sadly, it closed shortly after i finished highschool, (or maybe before, my memory gets fuzzy the older i get) and went from being a gay bar (soda pop) to another gay bar (i can't remember the name of) to barcode (where apparently cover is high, and people are drunk...all i know is, when i drive past it at night, there are strobe lights pointed in my eyes while i wait for the light to change).
in honor of highschool and x-club, here's a mixtape called "highschool, vol 1", because while i am capable of weepy eyed nostalgia on a monday, the creativity just isn't there.

sloan - deeper than beauty
maow - ms. lefevre
furnaceface - excuse me
tristan psionic - divided
plumtree - only in the movies
hum - stars
redd kross - lady in the front row
zumpano - the party rages on
cub - new york city
the new grand - triple jointed
the killjoys - sally won't

i don't have the words

2006-06-22T14:24:00.000-04:00

i found a link to this on stereogum, and i don't know what to say...

As seen on Break.com

if you can't see it (since apparently firefox isn't playing nice, go here

yet another mixtape

2006-06-21T14:12:00.000-04:00

here's the deal: i'm going to be pretty busy over the next two weeks, planning a pub crawl, so in order to give you all your musical fill, i think it would be best (read: easiest for me) if i just gave you all a few sporadic mix tapes in the meantime. today i am giving you a second hip hop mixtape. next week, i promise there will be other genres represented here. in the meantime, i hope you are all making sure to at the very least google anyone whose music you've enjoyed here, and even better would be if you went out and bought their albums. (and don't give me that "but i can't find it" crap, i was able to pick up the new cadence weapon album at hmv, all you need to do is look for it)

(click on the image to get the full size for printing goodness)

mcenroe - safety in numbers
bishop - that's the way
central services - i work for the government now
atmosphere - like today
deltron 3030 - virus
gang starr (feat. macy gray, mos def) - i've committed murder (remix)
sage francis - super mario bros. freestyle
pip skid - straight jacket
plastic little (feat. spankrock & diplo) - now i holler
wordburglar - let's get romantical
the perceptionists - memorial day
cadence weapon - the gorilla is for sandracing

can't get over the hip hop hump

2006-06-20T15:13:00.000-04:00

so here's the thing, the stats on listening to inter alia in my car with the windows down are as follows:
number of cars also playing loud music who turned theirs down to hear what i was playing: 4

number of pedestrians who have stopped and looked as though they were listening: 3

number of mcdonald's drive thru girls who wanted to know what i was listening to: 3

number of moms who have danced to the music while sitting in the passenger seat: 1

i will continue to collect these valuable statistics. in the meantime, enjoy some mr. lif (and if you're in toronto, he's playing at reverb tonight) (and if you want to know even more, you should probably check out the def jux site)

newer songs
brothaz
collapse

"older" songs
inhuman capabilities (with akrobatic)
avengers (also with akrobatic, and quite possibly, my favourite mr. lif track)

catch and release

2006-06-19T12:34:00.000-04:00

I often spend large amounts of time trolling around on various non-popular mp3 sites looking to find things that i haven't heard before. one such site (and i only qualify it as "non-popular" because it's not really a blog, so much as big business) is amazon. the only problem is, i download, i listen, and then i forget entirely that i ever heard the songs. so here's a collection of 4 songs. 2 are from amazon, two are from some of the blogs on the sidebar. do i delete? or do i put them on my ipod and try to find the albums in stores?

(and if you need more games to play, one song goes out to cait, one to michelle)

the librarians - peace and quiet
the illiterati - cigarette girl
cassettes won't listen - cut your hair (pavement cover)
project jenny, project jan - fight song

2006-06-16T12:53:00.001-04:00

i was sitting here debating on what to post today, when i suddenly remembered that it's father's day on sunday. what does this have to do with mp3s? i'll tell you. awhile back, i found a video from the band nizlopi. i have no idea where they're from or what they're all about, but when i saw the video, i thought it would be a perfect post for father's day. so click here, and enjoy (and send it to your dad if you've forgotten to mail a card...or just send it because it's father's day)

i'm also throwing on the new lady sovereign track for good measure, as well as another track, just because i can.

lady sovereign - gatheration
7L & esoteric (feat. Kool Keith) - daisycutta

mini mixtapes mean i'm sorry

2006-06-14T01:54:00.000-04:00

so i've been slacking off here for a few days, and to apologize, here's a mini mix tape for you. it's more than a half hour, less than an hour of hip hop music that i like. well, i'm not entirely sold on the jurassic 5 track (mostly due to the inclusion of one dave matthews) but it's growing on me with repeated listenings. here, i will even throw in a cover for you (if you click on it, you'll get to the larger version):

jurassic 5 (with dmb) - work it out **new**

estelle - 1980

dangermouse and jemini - don't do drugs

jesse dangerously - outfox'd

jean grae - how to break up with your girlfriend

kano - remember me

slum village (feat dwele) - tainted

mystic - the life

anticon - nothin but sunshine

cadence weapon - sharks

the beatnuts - no escapin this

the heart attack - right now

**EDIT** i think that our computer overlords are working against me here. the power went out right before i tried to post this.

the shirts! the words! (it's late!)

2006-06-12T23:53:00.000-04:00

another $10 threadless sale! (it's only on until the 15th!)

even bloggers need a day off

2006-06-12T12:51:00.000-04:00

i'm taking today off, in order to deal with my actual real offline life (i have a presentation to do tomorrow in front of the bay area leadership class.) but i promise to be back tomorrow (or wednesday at the latest) with what i am calling "hip hop week" (in actual fact, the idea fell in my lap what with jesse coming here on wednesday, and getting to hear a track from the upcoming jurassic 5 album...but i'll take what i can get)

happy birthday to me

2006-06-10T17:27:00.000-04:00

cracker - happy birthday to me

(i will be at hess village tonight, if you need me)

t-minus 29.5 hours (or so)

2006-06-09T12:08:00.000-04:00

so with tomorrow being my actual birthday, sadly, today the songs of embarassment come to an end. but i have good news! today will highlight three songs that, when they first came out, i almost completely hated. but i think somewhere, deep down in the cockles of my heart, i knew i like them. the first is from my highschool years (i think, it's getting a little fuzzy the older i get), the second for some reason, makes me think of waiting for the barton bus one morning. and the third, well, if you can listen to this song, alone in your room in the dark, and listen to the words, and think about your own life, and not cry, then (as i have said a million times before now) you don't have a soul. either that or you're too cynical to fall for something that seems to have been written expressly for commercials for greeting cards (or in reality, credit cards) and that touching scene at the end of a television show. i have also decided that it is the perfect song to close up the 27th year of my life and the last 10 days worth of posts here on yr dirty boots.

dishwalla - counting blue cars
everclear - am radio
five for fighting - 100 years

well slap my ass and colour me annoyed

2006-06-08T10:04:00.000-04:00

sorry about the lack of a post yesterday, i had one all set to go, and then blogger decided it was not going to work for awhile, and i had to do my actual job.

anyway, here's what i was going to talk about yesterday. my favourite parts of some of my favourite cheesy songs. i've been told that having a favourite part of a song is an inherently geeky quality. since i am apparently geeky, i have no idea how people could possibly not have a favourite part in a song. but time and time again, when i get all excited listening to something, turn the volume up and implore the other person to "listen to this part, it's the best part of the whole song", their eyes inevitably glaze over and they just grimace and bear it. well, since i can't force all of you to stay seated in my car as we hurtle down the highway, and i hold you captive to my dj capabilities, i'm forced to do the next best thing. here are 4 songs, and i've identified my favourite parts. please indulge me...

wilson phillips - hold on (2:48)
marc cohn - walking in memphis (2:45)
melissa manchester - don't cry out loud (this one i like because of the difference between what happens at 0:44 and 2:18)
beach boys - sloop john b (1:51)

late night infomercial style (what beast? what number?)

2006-06-06T15:05:00.000-04:00

if you've ever sat up at night, trying to find something good on tv, and instead ended up transfixed by one of those 10 cd sets called "amazing super hits from the 70s" or "happy time 60s" then that's probably a good part of the reason why you and i get along. as you may have noticed over the course of the past few days, i have a tendancy to go for the cheesiest cheese that ever cheesed. mostly, i like singing along to it. but there's also the fact that, for the most part, these are actually good songs. it's just really hard for most lovers of music to admit to loving something so very cheesy. (but if hipsters could love since u been gone, why can't they take, say captain and tenille seriously?). anyway, of the 5 songs featured here today, one instantly takes me back to doing karaoke with michelle in halifax, one makes me think of both singing in a stairwell and the mini pops, one is currently my favourite late night sing along in the car song, one reminds me of the cd collection infomercial starring a former brady, and one is just a good song that is so completely over the top it's awesome. see if you can sort out which is which.
(and if you are wondering about the picture, i read a confusing article in the local paper today that said instead of worrying about the apocalypse, the farmers almanac thinks we should be more concerned with squirrels. i can buy that, they were looking at me funny when i was outside this afternoon.)

10cc - the things we do for love
boomtown rats - i don't like mondays
the raspberries - go all the way
elton john and kiki dee - don't go breaking my heart
paul mccartney and stevie wonder - ebony and ivory