Dr. Dog - Heart It Races (Architecture In Helsinki Cover)

I love covers. Well, good ones anyway. Sometimes it pains me to think that there will only ever be one version of most songs out there. Although it also pains me to hear bad covers of songs that just ruin something that was so great, fo example what Mike Posner did to ELO's 'Evil Woman'. Good covers, though, can really express an appreciation and give new life to a song through different artistic visions. Like this one. I used to be pretty into folky-kinda music but then somewhere along the way I just got super-tired of it, it seemed like Iron & Wine were the only people doing really cool and original stuff. Now there's only a handful of folk bands that I can tolerate, very few of them being relatively new bands. However Dr. Dog is one that has really been pushing the boundaries of their chosen genre, probably because they have such an appreciation of good music outside the folk scene.
I'm not gonna say that folk-music is going to make a comeback any time soon, but if it did, Dr. Dog would be the ones responsible for it. Kudos.

Ski Beatz & Nesby Phips - Blue Green Enthusiast

Ski Beatz, most widely known for his work with Camp-Lo and Jay-Z's pretty good album 'Reasonable Doubt' has teamed up with New Orleans mc Nesby Phips who have recently acquired the rights to flip a bunch of the King of Cool himself, Miles Davis' tracks. Here's the first re-working of his number 'Blue In Green', entitled Blue Green Enthusiast.
Very cool indeed.

Red Riders - Tomorrow/Today

One of the best Aussie albums of 2009, the hugely under-appreciated Red Riders' sophomore album 'Drown In Colour' was filled with lathargicly(?) brilliant vocals and spooky guitar melodies.
Superbly original and a very illustrative of inner-city life of the scenester/hipsterish kids, without the pretension that normally seems to accompany those types.
Probably my favourite Austalian band and this is the least I can do to draw a little attention to them so please get out there and buy their album & spread it like wildfire.

Gift Of Gab

I don't care what anybody says. California MC Gift Of Gab is the greatest, most versatile, most relevant, most skilled, most, well, gifted MC in hip hop music. Ever. If anyone wants to argue this point with me then bring that shit on. I will take you down.
In this above video (which took me a long time to choose from so many possibilities) he demonstrates why, it's the title track from 2009's The Craft, in my opinion, the best album of that year and their Blackalicious' best album to date. 
He is the creator of so many of the freshest and most original rhyming techniques, and continues to do so whilst serving up the most intelligent, insightful lyrics in hip hop.
He's not a 'gangsta' and doesn't pretend to be, he doesn't need to rhyme about guns & drugs & bitches. He rhymes philosophically, educating listeners subconsciously while making heads nod to infectious beats, usually provided by Chief Xcel, the other half of Blackalicious.
Working experimantally Xcel challenges Gab with abstract beats and dares him to confront Chemistry as the subject on 'Chemical Calisthenics', or on the track 'Alphabet Aerobics' Xcel provides a rapidly accelerating beat while Gab raps working his way from A to Z with astonishing delivery and enunciation. 
So basically, if you wanna learn to flow, listen to Gab. He has the Gift.

Breakbot - I'm Yours (ft Irfane)

I was obesessed with this song this past summer. Great funky feel, cool lyrics, good driving and song and now I've discovered it's got a super cool clip as well. Get on it. 

Matt Van Schie - Journey

Matt Van Schie is coming out with some of the smoothest jams I've heard since I became obsessed with Hall & Oates. His band Van She was one of the most promising acts coming out of Australia in the last few years, although their album 'V' was good, it didn't quite live up to the hype that stemmed from their previous self-titled release, which was, for lack of a better term -  F.R.E.S.H. with a capital SSHHHHH.
I'm not gonna give up on them though, if they are still together I think they could have a solid future and they have a heck of a lot of potential and they're great to watch live. 

Now that he's working solo, Matt Van Schie has taken all the best parts of Van She, simmered them on a low heat until they became a dark, syrupy substance you just wanna slowly pour all over that girl you've been dreaming about all week.

He seems to be grabbing clips from old movies and throwing them together for his video's, as I'm sure he'd be on a pretty low budget, but it seems to be working pretty well as they get the mood across and are purdy to look at. 

This song is best enjoyed with company of the opposite sex, in a low-light situation, or alone during an early morning surf check, windows all foggy, sun peeking over the horizon, crispy lines rolling into an uncrowded cove.

Enjoy.

...and You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Isis Unveiled

 

Apart from having one of the raddest band names in history, ...Trail of Dead are one of the most original (wikipedia calls them an 'Art Rock band' whatever that means), and most badass rock bands out there. Producing consistently good music since their first album in '99, their latest was released in Feb 2009 and I've listened to it, in full, at least thrice every month since I got it and it sounds better and better every time. One of the best tracks is, in my opinion (and everyone is entitled to my opinion) Isis Unveiled. It's got a ball-tearing riff that just makes you wanna thrash around, and then there's the subject matter as well, taking on Creation (one of my favourite subjects), God's apparent 'gift' of free will and forgiveness -

"I have made you in my likeness
And I make you the keepers of my garden world
And if you honor me in kind, I will be grateful, but be warned
For I'm a jealous God
Who placed the demons in hell
And the angels in heaven
At my side"  

and the chorus  

And if they taste the blood we'll let them drink
And if they taste the flesh we'll let them eat
And if one has to be forgiven the we'll pardon all that
And if they raise our walls we'll let them in
And if they raise their swords we'll let them hit
And if one asks to be forgiven then, pardon all that"

If any of you reading this know me you'll know that I'm a hardcore atheist and find all this stuff super interesting and get right into it.

So it's no surprise that I'm interpreting all this as alluding to the pointlessness of the belief in God or the concept that 'He has given us free will', which is both completely oxymoronic and moronic and therefore intolerably infuriating for someone like me. 

This concept is so frustrating to hear people talk about it, because if free will is something that were given to you, then surely it is something that can be taken away, although it won't be taken away, and you can't really give it back.

If you misuse you're free will and let's say you murdered someone, God will forgive you and let you into heaven anyway because you're a believer and that's what they do, and what you did can't be God's will, because God wouldn't command such a thing, would he? Though if he did command it, you wouldn't be responsible- God would right? But who's going to go to jail? You can't throw God in jail, so you'll take the fall for doing God's work. But then where's your free will gone? If you told the court that God told you to do it, they'd just pad your cell. 

Free will was created so that nobody could blame God for their sins, even though everything that happens on this earth is apparently God's will and ''He has a plan for every one of us and yadda yadda yadda''.

Aaaaaaaaanyway. This song is fucking awesome. Listen to it, thrash, jump around, just don't murder anyone in the process.

Hoot!

Bla

Hot Stuff

Maximum Balloon - Groove Me ft Theophilus London

Dope song. Tight Film clip. Silly name. Maximum Balloon? Maybe there's some cool inside joke that I'm not getting or something but I think it's a very sub-standard name for a band. But hey, that's just me. I mean, if you're a member of TV on the Radio, you can do whatever the hell you want.

Dang so much cool music comes out of Brooklyn. TVOTR, Santogold, MGMT, Bishop Allen, Matt & Kim, just to name a few. I sort-of attempted to get out there when I was staying in NYC this year to check it out, as Williamsburg is apparently a hub of creativity and is home to the Music Hall as well, which is arguably one of the best venues in the US, or so I've read. Maybe next year.

I heard this one today for the first time, after hearing a few of MB's other tracks over the last few months and being impressed. I wanted to wait and see if the rest of his work had as much cool, and so far it's looking pretty chill. It's got a similar sound (or mash-together of various different sounds) to TV or the Radio, bringing together live guitar and drums and slipping lots of electronics bleeps and buzzes. What can I say- I dig it.

The Naked and Famous - Young Blood.

 

You remember when you were a youngun or a teen? Sneaking out, partying hard then sneaking back in the early hours, thinking you getting away with it, when really you're parents knew but never said a thing and then gave you way more chores than usual the following week. That's what happened to me anyway.

This song will connect with ALOT of people, as it really captures the feeling of nostalgia for teen years, the film clip depicting 20-somethings running wild and doing things that we all did when we were teenagers: throwing bottles at old beat up cars, jumping off the biggest things we could find 0 having a general lack for regard for our bodies, just feeling invincible.  

"We lie beneath the stars at night/Our hands gripping each other tight/You keep my secrets hope to die/Promises, swear them to the sky"

This Kiwi 3-piece have kind of the same feel as a few tracks on MGMT's first (and far superior) first album. It just reminds me of all the stuff that I thought was so serious and important back then. Girls, crushes, friendship & falling outs, all the stuff that you look back at in ten years time and laugh at, but at the same time you still kinda miss that feeling.
Anyway, enough sentimental crap, this song is rad. Listen to it late in the night, beer/joint in hand.
Reminisce.

 PS.
If you want the mp3 subscribe to triple j's new music podcast and go back to 18/07/10. That's where I first heard it.

Chromeo - Nigh by Night on Letterman

These guys have been my favourite band for a good couple years now and here is why. 




Saw them on the Gold Coast a a while back but now they've got this incredible new record out and I'm gonna go see them in Birmingham next month. I could faint. I'll keep you updated on my health.

Holganipulation

I like to take photo's, though I'm not very good at it, so instead I screw around with them on Photoshop to make them look cooler. Please let me know if you like them, as I enjoy designing gig posters and that kind of crap, preferably for money. I had alot of downtime today so I remixed a few photo's I took on the Holga my girl got me for my birthday. Here's a bit a few bit and pieces that will hopefully caress your eyeballs and not make you want to look in the other direction. 

Sebastien Tellier - Kilometer (A-Trak Remix)

So, a couple years ago a French dude calling himself Sebastien Tellier released an album aptly titled Sexuality. Every song on that album was, indeed, very f**king sexy. Seriously, throw that thing on and get to fondling, you'll see what I mean. Anyways, my favourite song on the album was 'Kilometer' and I thought 'never will I ever listen to a remix of this song because never could this song ever get any better and anyone who tries to touch will just ruin it' and so on and so forth.
I reluctantly phased it out of my 'Nusic' playlists and placed the album up among Modest Mouse's 'Were Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank' and Daniel Merriweather's 'Love & War' in the Classic Albums of 2008 cortex of my brain, only to be whipped out from time to time and I forgot about my little 'never will I ever listen to a remix' thing, when I heard there was a whole album of Sexuality remixes. I quickly bought it, threw it on and proceeded to burn one down when along came ((( THIS))). A-Traks Kilometer remix absolutely exploded my mindfield. It was racy, jumpy, but still so goddamned sexy. I don't know how he keeps doing it but A-Trak has quickly become my new favourite remixmaster, espacially after he did this   with Yeah Yeah Yeah's 'Heads Will Roll'.
Get into it. 

Duck Sauce- Barbara Streisand

 A-Trak and Armand Van Helden have done it again. The two quasi-bearded hip-cats have formed a dancey duo called Duck Sauce, and have released one of the coolest tracks getting around right now, and called it Barbara Streisand. It's got a way groovy beat going on in back and just a catchy little 'awooawoo-wooawoo-wooawoowoo-oo' thing going on in front, which you'd expect to get annoying after a while but much like their last single 'aNYway' it just, sort of, doesn't. And they've got a killer NYC-party scene-themed video to boot, featuring cameos from the likes of Chromeo's P-Thugg and Dave1(A-Trak's brother funnily enough), Questlove from The Roots, Kanye, Pharrell, and plenty more you might recognise. You can watch it here . Dig?
I gotta move alot of dignity to one side here to admit that I'm eagerly awaiting an album from a Dancey-Club outfit, but there- I said it.