The Swedes Are Taking Over The World

Enoch and I ventured down Wilshire to El Rey and saw Lykke Li perform along with Anna Ternheim and El Perro del Mar. Anna had this eerie resemblance to our Testmaster instructor, but that just made us like her more because we loved Amelia.

Lykke Li is one weirdass foxy chick, though. She busted out a kazoo at one point and the crowd went wild. Megaphones, cow bells, kazoos. You can't go wrong. She also kept talking shit about being in love, which was funny to me but probably not so funny to all the goddamn couples that were PDAing right in front fo me. Get a room, Mr. Face Licker!

El Perro del Mar was... blah. But I think I already didn't want to like her because she's this tall, lanky, pretty girl. No one wants to like girls like that, especially if they think playing a guitar and wearing flannel all of a sudden makes them look homely and acceptable. It doesn't.

I Got Game Girl, It Comes Easy...

Time to get my weave and doo rag out. I'm going to Shoreline for a night of rumjungling with Phife and Q-Tip. August 16. That's the day Hip Hop reaches a new echelon of brain waves for yours truly. TRIBE. TRIBE. Worth it alone for Tribe. And the Pharcyde? Yes. Spank Rock. I don't know if anyone else likes them, but using words like 'Game Boy' in a rap song tickles me as much as proper grammar in rap songs tickles NPR commentators.

I also heard that the concert in Devore, CA (aka San Bernardildo) would lead to my inevitable death. Apparently, a bunch of black people jumping around could never have small Asian female survivors. I believe it.

To Shoreline I go.

Eight Bits o' Power

Let the video load, and turn the volume up at around 2:48 because that's the jam to which my spiel pertains. This song was from the undersea base level in Double Dragon II (stage 4, after the helicopter ride).

Mario's & Zelda's themes were more well-known, but in my honest opinion, this track was the best song that came outta the original Nintendo era. The melody had a killer hook, and the accompanying bass added depth and texture that helped this song transcend the limitations of the time.

I'd also like to add the fact that my copy of the original Double Dragon was most likely stolen from me by my neighbor before we carpooled on the way to school at a time when NES games ran for about $50 a pop and the best I could hope for was a dollar a week from my grandma for good behavior.

As such, I've been moderately obsessed with the original Double Dragon series for some time now (subsequent SNES installments just blew), and to this day, the holy grail from which I've yet to drink has been a decent version of the undersea base melody to blast in my car.

So far, I've found two fan-made MIDI's:

Double Dragon - Undersea Base (version 1)

It sounds like 8-bit, ass-wiggling porno music, and while the novelty has yet to wear off, it's just kinda stupid.

Double Dragon - Undersea Base (version 2)

While it's a little more respectable than the first version, it is a little too airy and mellow that it just ends up trivializing the mad ceiling spikes, conveyor belts, and various other life-threatening obstacles that lurk around every corner.

In conclusion, as I continue to search for a better version, I'd just like to say the following: My neighbor was a little asshole.

New techniques include the whirlwind kick and the gang rape.

Sharing My Shame

...because I got Rickrolled today. I felt this would soften the blow.

Wishlist

Due to the engrossing world of GTA IV, Jerome beat me to the punch on a second edition of cool songs and albums. However, that won't stop me from piggybacking off the idea. Oh, and I second the Roots plug. That album is tits, so go get it.

Pretty much every recent Weezer album is bookended with disbandment rumors, and their forthcoming, yet again eponymous but will be referred de facto as "the red album," album already got the ball rolling. Add Rivers Cuomo's mental fragility when it comes to subpar album reception (see: Pinkerton). Just for the hell of it, let's also mention their base of rabid fans, some of whom I'm sure we've run into on the streets of Berkeley.

As such, every new Weezer album is a big deal, and the new one isn't gonna be an exception. I'm actually jumping on the bandwagon with this one mainly because I'm excited to hear other members take lead vocals. Somebody besides Rivers sang lead on "Why Bother" from a December 2005 Japanese bootleg, and whoever it was did an amazing job. Secondly, while "Pork and Beans" isn't exactly my cup of tea, "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" is pretty fuckin' epic.

Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)

Melpo Mene is an up and coming artist from Stockholm. After hearing "I Adore You" on a Volvo ad, I got the old album, Holes, and it was comparable in poppy goodness. His innocuous brand of music kinda reminds me of Belle & Sebastian, and whereas Barry from High Fidelity would call it "sad bastard music," I'd just call it nice and mellow. Bring the Lions Out, on which "I Adore You" can be found, is currently in production and will probably be out in a few months.

Melpo Mene - I Adore You

The Ting Tings have been buzzing on the blogosphere and the live circuit for a few months now, and so it was kind of a shock to find out they still haven't released a full-length album yet. That'll change come May 19th, when We Started Nothing will hit the shelves.

So, the Ting Tings are a chick and a guy (like the Fiery Furnaces), and the music is, depending on what song it is, either '60s pop throwback (like the Pipettes) or funk with a thick British accent on the mic (like the Go! Team). In addition to the touring, they've gained some additional exposure through an iPod commercial (like Feist). Hopefully, when the album comes out, it'll be out on torrent sites too (like everybody else).

The Ting Tings - Shut Up and Let Me Go (KCRW live)

Begging Me For Mercy

Duffy - Rockferry



Getting ready for an 80's-themed fundraising prom party.

And now a limerick:

I listened while throwing one back,
Pure talent, the girl did not lack,
Her voice was pure jazz,
With attitude spazz,
I totally thought she was black.

More Cool Songs and Albums

Santogold
Santogold’s a lot like M.I.A: she does weird things with her voice, she effortlessly mixes genres of music, she’s got a pretty wicked pop/fashion sense and I friggin' LOVE her. Her new self-titled album is a twelve track study in eclecticism that is easily this year's most impressive debut. It’s like New Wave fuzz meets Punk Rock ethos meets blip hop beats and any other gimmicky sounding genre I can't think of right now cause I'm so blown away by the album. Yea, just get it already.



The Roots - Rising Down
Black Thought, ?uestlove and those other guys are back and I'm not sure what happened but dudes are pissed and frustrated. That being said, Rising Down might be the best Roots album I've listened to in a while. Dudes simply do not compromise. The music sounds so raw and the crew throws down so hard on every cut that you can’t help but think they will be the last band standing when this music industry thing crumbles. Rising Down is out now.



T.I. - No Matter What
I’d like to think T.I. spends most of his time under house arrest walking around his mansion in his Hugh Hefner-esque pajamas and swimming in a sea of moneys like Scrooge McDuck. And if dude wants to put up the occasional YouTube video blog to update his fans on what he’s been up to then that’s cool too. But somewhere I forgot that T.I. is still the King of the South so he went and slapped me over the head with a pretty great new cut No Matter What. Dude cannot be broken, peep the realness: “I lost my partner and my daughter in the same year somehow I rise above my problems and remain here.” Then you bring in the church organ beat and then it’s official: sorry Kanye, No Matter What just replaced Can’t Tell Me Nothing as the underdog-f-the-haters anthem. Point blank, period.

Busting a Bus

I didn't really know anything about rap or hip hop growing up in New York City. It wasn't until I moved to the edge of Queens and started attending school in Long Island that I was confronted with Kriss Kross talent show performances and MC Hammer imitations by everyone and anyone who had the good fortune to need to tell someone to stop (hammertime) doing anything.

But one of the first music videos I ever watched on TV as a kid was Woo-Haa!! It showed up on that really fuzzy channel called The Box about once every hour. It was mesmerizing. But being the pre-napster age, once the video stopped getting airtime and (later) The Box vanished from the television set, I went back to listening to Ace of Base bootleg tapes.

It wasn't until I joined up with high school Track that the era of music sharing dawned in my life. Most people carried a short list of items in their bags to meets: running spikes/flats, sports drink of choice, a book they won't read, & CDs. Favorite pump-up album that I owned: The Offspring's self-titled album. Favorite pump-up album that I regularly borrowed: Busta Rhymes' Extinction Level Event.

Today I heard a track that took me back to those pre-apocalyptic days of The Coming, When Disaster Strikes, and E.L.E. It's called "Don't Touch Me" and it's sick.