Back to Basics

Lots to talk about in the coming days, hopefully, but in the meantime, a couple of cover songs:





I felt it most prudent to ease back into this blogging thing. Besides, it's what we do best here.

Youtube Mashup

(via boingboing)

Siiiiick mashup artist, Kutiman, takes his samples from youtube clips. Be sure to check out the other vids in his "Through You" series.

It's Valentine's Day, So Why Not?

Clever vid featuring the j-pop/rock band Base Ball Bear. The bassist, Shiori Sekine, is the bassist in the movie, Linda Linda Linda (which is sick!). Subtitles rule:

Dummy!

I'm really lucky to have the friends I've got because it means I have an ever-present source of music-related news to consume and (sometimes) slowly digest. As a result, I don't travel very deep into the realm of the blogo-music-sphere. In fact, it's not uncommon for me to miss shit by months or years. And unfortunately, I have lots of facepalm moments where I am introduced or stumble across a sick act that I then realize I had heard about and passed up just months earlier, or sometimes years earlier. So yeah, this post is about Andrew W.K.

Well, I guess it's not totally about him. It's about how his first album, I Get Wet scared me away with its drippiness and I only just last week started to regret it. I kind of started to get a clue that all was not as it (bloody) seemed when I went to see Ted Leo & Rx's karaoke night and a super down-to-earth and all around nice guy Andrew W.K. was emceeing the event. Then the awesome Disgrasian blog posted about an album of j-pop cover songs. I should go ahead and just quote the man from his website:

I had never really heard music like this… At first it was hard for me to believe that these were the biggest hit songs in Japan - they sound so different from hit songs in the western world. But as I learned the songs and translated the lyrics, I fell in love with them and understood their appeal.

The album? It's effing awesome. Produced for the Japanese market, the thing unfortunately doesn't have distribution stateside. However, with some digging, you may be able to find it. And when you do, you'll find that j-pop standards translate super well into Andrew W.K.'s brand of party-metal. And once you've finished listening to the thing on repeat for a day or two, you may find like I did, that you have an itch to search out the source material. Which brings me to part 2 of this post: The Blue Hearts, who's track, Linda Linda, is included on AWK's cover album.


Debuting with their self-titled album in 1987, these guys apparently enjoyed some pretty mainstream success, with a couple of their songs even becoming classics (read: karaoke staples). Being a relative late-comer to the punk genre, I'll admit right here that I haven't got a very comprehensive understanding of punk history... but I can tell you that these guys are sick as hell. Lasting for 8 years and 7 albums has to count for something, right? There's also something to be said about having a movie written about a group of school girls learning to play covers of your punk songs. Anyway, on to the obligatory youtube embed:

Did you think I'd leave you without a tangible (audible?) sample of The Blue Hearts awesomeness? You were wrong.

Linda Linda - Andrew W.K.
Linda Linda - The Blue Hearts

Ted "the one that says bad motherfucker" Leo & the "hopefully won't mind getting compared to the roots" Pharmacists

On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, two things of note happened. The first, which is probably not so interesting to any of you, is that for the first time, I forgot to pay my credit card bill for the month. Shit.

The second, is that Ted Leo & the Pharmacists played a gig in Brooklyn called Indie Rock Karaoke, hosted by Andrew W.K.

THAT was a fucking trip. Featuring three hours of covers, sung by the audience and backed by Ted & the Pharmacists. Songs by the Stooges, the Ramones, the Misfits, AC/DC, the Cure, the Clash, Joy Division, David Bowie, Blondie, Minor Threat, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steely Dan, and others. They even let tons of people switch songs and do their songs: a Colleen from the audience perform their song Colleen and a dude successfully requested to sing Where Have all the Rudeboys Gone even though it was already played earlier in the night.

Coolest songs? Aretha Franklin's Respect (voted best performance of the night by Andrew W.K.) and the Outfield's Your Love:



In case you forgot how that song went... link

Triple Threat

1. Is Q-tip done being pretentious? I'm not entirely sure, but Getting Up sounds miiiiighty nostalgic.

2. Anyone remember Common on Armand Van Helden's Full Moon joint? Well, the Universal Mind Control's electro groove is probably as close as dude will get to doing another house track (click through as embedding's been disabled).

3. Back when Black on Both Sides dropped, I remember listening to New World Water and thinking, shit, did Mos take ISF16 too? As supplementary material to my Cal course on technology and globalization, the track was totally on point. Mathematics is the new New World Water.

Canon Rock Revisited

Yo. Enoch claims I spend too much time wasting time on Youtube. But come on. You gotta love it when it keeps on keeping you mesmerized with the same shit, better and awesomer.

No Way to Ignore This One

The interesting thing about Weezer is that while they sometimes just get so damn boring, they sometimes also get so damn awesome. Over the years, my love for Weezer has waxed and waned with more irregularity than other perennial up-and-downers (i.e. Busta Rhymes). Currently, however, Weezer is enjoying an extended stay in my good graces. While the last album, the Rick Rubin-produced "Make Believe", received low scores from the critics, I loved (most of) it.

Consider that your disclaimer. Oh, here's another one: Pitchfork hated the red album. You've been warned. Are you willing to continue with me into the depths of Weezer/Youtube nerdom?

Pork & Beans (sorry, embedding was disabled post-post)

The fact that I love this video will come as no surprise to those that know me and know how much time I waste on YouTube (ok, well, maybe only Enoch and my girlfriend know that about me). But srysly. This mishmash of all the best(/worst?) that YouTube has to offer is just so badass. In fact, I think it deserves an annotated guide, cut by cut (w/a couple updated edits):

0:00 Funtwo's Canon Rock room reference

0:14 others claim: Split screen reminiscent of One Man Band (what?)

0:16 Numa Numa Guy (Gary Brolsma) 1st appearance

0:17 Ronald Jenkees reference in upper right frame

0:19 Dramatic Chipmunk group appearance/spoof

0:23 Afro Ninja (Mark Allen Hicks) 1st appearance

0:28 back to Canon Rock room

0:31 Diet Coke & Mentos reference

0:37 G.I. Joe Gay & Guy Catches Glasses With Face reference (tshirt sports Charlie the unicorn)

0:41 Mentos experiments again

0:47 Most T-shirts Worn (Matt McAllister) spoof, the tshirts also reference the references in the video: prarie dog, gi joe, pbj time, etc...

0:52 Mentos again

0:56 more Afro Ninja

0:59 Britney Defender, Chris Crocker 1st appearance

1:04 All Your Base Are Belong to Us

1:07 Mentos

1:10 Miss South Carolina (Lauren Caitlin Upton) 1st appearance

1:13 Lightsaber (no specific reference) 1st appearance

1:16 Numa Numa guy again (lyrical reference, too)

1:24 3 Guys doing the Soulja Boy dance

1:26 Evolution of Dance guy (Judson Laipply) appearance

1:30 Chocolate Rain singer (Tay Zonday) 1st appearance/video reference

1:37 Chocolate Rain video reference again

1:39 K-Fed's Popozao video footage

1:44 Tay Zonday again

1:47 Daft Hands (Austin Hall) appearance

1:52 Daft Bodies appearance/spoof (that Enoch showed us)

1:57 more tshirts

1:59 more Mentos

2:04 more Tay Zonday

2:06 Kiscie's Sex Ed reference/appearance

2:08 Afro Ninja back for more

2:11 Afro Ninja + classic Bruce Lee pose & camera zoom

2:12 Chris Crocker again

2:14 Mentos

2:18 Chris Crocker

2:20 Mentos

2:22 Chris Crocker & Tay Zonday playing with Mentos

2:24 more Daft Hands

2:28 Shoes crossdresser (Liam Sullivan) appearance/spoof

2:36 Chris Crocker

2:37 A room filled with everyone, plus appearances of: Sneezing Panda, Ryan & Dorkman, Mocap Donald Duck , mocap gorillas (King Kongs, according to Wikipedia), & the Haiti UFO

2:42 Afro ninja pulls the mask off of a ninja assailant to reveal...

2:43 Peanut Butter Jelly Time banana!!

2:44 back to the room with everyone

2:47 Evolution of Dance guy again

2:48 Numa Numa guy again

2:51 the room & alot of rubiks cubes on a desk

2:53 in the big room w/ Miss South Carolina and a Blendtec "Will it Blend" Blender, and Charlie the Unicorn appears in the background

2:54 Dramatic Chipmunk spoof again

2:57 the big room again

2:59 IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!!! b/w the Evolution of Dance guy's worm, feat. Daft Bodies

3:01 Tay again

3:04 the big room again

3:07 back to Mentos

3:14 end

Harder Bodies Faster Stronger

Since the current theme is youtube videos bastardizing the classics, here's one more for you:



It comes off as bad and stupid at first, but once the tempo picks up, it gets good and stupid.

Pong+Tetris+MK+Pokemon+Zelda+Mario

=The Cal Marching Band

Chamillionaire FTW

Ultimate Victory comes out on Tuesday. So apparently, this album was due out back in March, but was pushed back. It's a good thing, too. If it had come out on schedule, I probably would have totally passed over this gem. Seriously, the first time I heard of Chamillionaire, I literally laughed out loud. I thought it was a joke. A millionaire chameleon? And he raps?

Well, my attitude started to change after catching the music video for the album's first single, "Hip Hop Police". Interesting lyrics, dope beat, and clever video production made a follow-up the least I could do for the Chamillionaire. And now, after listening to the album, I gotta say that I'm sorry for having slept on dude for so long. This millionaire has got some skills. Ultimate Victory is the shit.

Out there in Jupiter, y'all...

Meet Ronald Jenkees, youtube keyboard virtuoso / beatmaker...





http://www.ronaldjenkees.com/cd-store

A. Pop

I may have found myself back in the west, but my head is still in the east. I've got a couple bands on repeat right now. One is a three woman outfit out of Japan called Chatmonchy. Don't ask me what their name's supposed to mean. The only Japanese I learned in my three years as their neighbor was gleaned from fansubbed Naruto cartoons.

But back to Chatmonchy, we're talking about kickassness on so multiple levels. For one thing, they are a band. Drummer, bassist, and vocal/guitar. With melodies and hooks reminiscent of the J Pop superstar, Ai Otsuka, this group befits from a rock sensibility maybe borrowed from heavyweight veterans Puffy Amiyumi. Quite frankly, I wish I was in this band. This song is off their 2006 full length release, Minimari, and one of my favorites:

Chatmonchy - Koi no Kemuri

You can also find their music vids (called PVs in Japan) in their grainy, incomprehensible glory on youtube. Here's one of their most popular tracks to date:

Chatmonchy - Shangrila

Boogaloo Fred

Public television champion, VCR advocate and Vietnam sniper, Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood has been known as many things to many people. Well, now we can add amateur b-boy to his list of accomplishments.

The part when he starts waving is just priceless:


If you check out the Wikipedia page on Fred Rogers, you'll see the Vietnam thing is nothing but an urban legend. He was already filming the 'Hood during the war, and prior to that, he was in Canada smoking dope with Bill Clinton.

Guitar Heroes

Ok. It's been a slow month. So here's the newest GH-related youtube vid.



Oh, and does anyone else out there see a connection between Guitar Hero and the newest single by the White Stripes? Listen for yourself, if you haven't already, to Icky Thump.

More Dramatic Than the Slow Handclap

Last night, the boys of the Lonely Island unleashed another hilarious SNL Digital Short, apparently satirizing one of the season finales of the OC. If you watch the SNL clip first, it totally screws with the gravitas in the OC clip:





If you're not sick of the song yet, here it is for you to love forever. Is it just me, or does Imogen Heap sound like she's got some kind of Ladysmith Black Mambazo thing going on?

Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek

The SNL video's down, but you can still find it here.

Alanis Morissette Has Lost Her Mind

She spent 4 minutes to sing a cover of My Humps. And I just died a little bit inside from watching it. Misery loves company. Enjoy:

From One Guilty Pleasure to Another

Just watch from about 2:17 and on. I swear, it's worth it.

Update: Those bastards took it down. You snooze, you lose.

2006: A Retrospective

Jerome's Top Albums:

10. Georgia Anne Muldrow - Olesi: Fragments of an Earth
Singer/songwriter/poet/producer/rapper Georgia Anne Muldrow's debut full length is filled with melodies and vocal stylings that may be unpredictable and unconventional, but the music is fearless and strangely engaging.


9. Killer Mike - I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind
Balancing hustling anthems with biting social commentary, Killer Mike takes no prisoners on this double disc monster of an album. Utter frustration with the current state of the game (be it rap or politics) has Killer Mike heated and with PATTG, Killer Kill has finally put out the sort of passionate and brutally honest music to match his fire and intellect.


8. The Roots - Game Theory
The Roots album I've been waiting for (or perhaps am settling for) since Things Fall Apart. The music finally sounds urgent and focused. (Props for bringing Malik B back into the fold too).



7. El Michels Affair - Shaolin Series 1, 2
As if the XM Radio live performance earlier this year featuring the Wu backed by El Michels Affair wasn't enough, Truth and Soul records decides to press these gems featuring El Michels interpretation of Wu classics. Bottom line: absolutely face melting material here.


6. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Though the beats don't quite knock as hard as they did on Lord Willin', Pusha T and Malice have finally added a layer of vulnerability and paranoia to the drug raps they do so well, rendering HHNF a compelling character study of two of the drug rap game's most revered kingpins.


5. Various Artists - Soul Jazz Records Presents Tropicalia: A Brazilian Revolution in Sound
A vibrant and informative anthology, Tropicalia exudes the blissfully anarchic spirit of Brazil's Tropicalia movement of the 60s. Also, props to Soul Jazz for including some reading material on the movement with the CD.


4. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
As epic as the album sounds, Return to the Cookie Mountain's highest achievement might just be the bits of pop hidden under all that heady atmosphere. Impressive AND likeable you say? Ditto.



3. The Game - Doctor's Advocate
Left for dead by damn near everyone from his circle, the west coast's veritable lone soldier The Game re-ups with a banger of an album. Name-dropping be damned, the beats knock while Game desperately hurls lyrics of fury at those spitting on his name and those prematurely shoveling dirt on his career (guilty).


2. Ghostface Killah - Fishscale
Sounding hungrier than ever, Ghost spits over fitting beats with the vivid soul and swagger to masterfully weave Fishscale's elaborate drug game narratives. This is the album that cements Ghostface as drug rap's proverbial slang operator. Fuck a Hip Hop Honors award show. Get on dini's level.


1. J Dilla - Donuts
A revealing and captivating look into the mind of a notoriously low-key beat genius in his last hours. Hip Hop, in all its youth has never, with the exception of perhaps 'Pac, quite captured these sentiments the way J Dilla has on Donuts.


Enoch's Top Albums:

10. Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine
In comparison to 2004's Fuckin A, the music's more complex, the lyrics are smarter, and yet, they don't miss a beat with the punk intangibles. This is the "American Idiot" Green Day should've made.



9. TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
If one were to strip this album to its basic elements and released both an instrumental album and an a capella album, either disc would still be stronger than most of the shit that came out this year. In its current, grand form, it should come as no surprise that Cookie Mountain is omnipresent in end of the year lists; it is simply amazing.


8. Ratatat - Classics
Classics may sound a bit too similar like their eponymous debut, but hell, if it ain't broke, why fix it? Plus, the riff in "Tropicana" sounds like it came straight out of the Beatles' White Album.



7. Cat Power - The Greatest
Regardless of what the title was intended to mean, calling one's album The Greatest tends to elicit fairly high expectations. Cat Power, with the help of the Memphis Rhythm Band, does not disappoint. There's something for everybody, too. If most of the album is too uncharacteristically cheerful, check out "Hate" for that classic flavor of Cat Power melancholia.


6. Emilie Simon - Vegetal
While simultaneously squeezing out the score to the original French version of March of the Penguins, Ms. Simon turned Air's "Playground Love" into a full-length album and turned the sensuality up to 11. The beats and vocals are so fucking sexy that Vegetal should have a parental advisory sticker on it.


5. The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off
The Walkmen, one of the most bitchin' rock bands to emerge in the last five years, is consistent in one sense: they haven't written a bad song yet. Thankfully, the guys have moved out of the garage to make a serenely beautiful album that sounds perfect under a Tahitian moon.


4. We Are Scientists - With Love and Squalor
First, they get the easiest riffs. Then, they get the catchiest hooks. Then, the rest, as they say, is Scarface. Joke-album or not, With Love and Squalor has been one of the most enjoyable albums of the year. Plus, these guys have a wickedly funny website (warning: it can evoke a few WTF's along the way).


3. Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital
Is it possible to make a follow-up that is both more pretentious and more fun? PGMG invented the Kool-Aid martini, so suck on that.




2. J Dilla - Donuts
One expects to begin listening with a heavy heart, but the only word that can be used to properly describe this 44-minute experience is joy. If this is Jay Dee's legacy to the world, then he's already guaranteed to live forever.



1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
At least four songs have be argued for as being the next "Maps." Five were considered to be the follow-up to "Y Control." Eight have been seriously contentioned for their universal appeal as radio singles, and that's only because the other three are too gangsta. That's just how they roll.


Juliet's Top Albums:

In no particular order... [Sidenote: As I'm writing this, most of my cds were stolen. I still have two of the following cds so it's helped to have them to listen to; the other three I will pull out of my ass from what I remember of them.]

Cursive - Happy Hollow
I'm grateful they have kept so many instruments in the wonderful Saddle Creek Records fashion. Hell, after reading about them going on indefinite hiatus, I'm just glad they're back. For me, the song to put on repeat was "Bad Sects" (can you say an awesome, twisted, indie rock ballad?); I just love Tim Casher's crooning.


Brazilian Girls - Talk to La Bomb
Dance, dance, dance, strip! Honestly, I didn't like this album when I first heard it, but it slowly grew on me. It's edgier and jazzier than their other albums. "Never Met a German" and "All About Us" are my favorite songs.



Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
These guys blow me away when I see them live. Young Machetes is an awesome follow up to Crimes (my favorite Blood Brothers album of all time), as they continue to experiment with rhythm along with dizzying lyrics. Think of really good hip-hop gone screech super fast in young white guys (I understand that is a really bold statement to make, so hip-hop elitists, feel free to school me). I never know what to expect with these guys, and if you were to listen to their albums in the order they were produced, it's amazing how these guys continue to grow musically.


TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
My newest infatuation, I can't get enough of track 5, "Wolf Like Me." It's soulful, experimental and has wonderful beats that makes me want to learn how to play the drums (or go and buy a drum machine). The lead singer's stage presence reminds me of Saul Williams' live energy. They were one of the bands people talked about but took me forever to finally listen to, and I hate myself a little more every time I think about that.


Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
I have been obsessed with this CD since it's been out. Thanks to my friend Doreen, I am a HUGE Rilo Kiley fan so when I heard she was doing a solo album, I was a little hesitant to hear it (I can only think of bad examples in both pop and indie bands that have disappointed me). The album has the right amount of songs that do Jenny's voice great justice. It's one of the few where everyone at my work (the coffee one) can agree to listen to. Jenny and the Watson Twins' voices are a match made in heaven and I look forward to more music by the trio.


Jerome's Top Singles (in no particular order):

Killer Mike "That's Life"
Lil Wayne "Stuntin' Like My Daddy"
Flying Lotus "1983"
Gnarls Barkley "Crazy"
The Game "One Blood"
E 40 feat Keak Da Sneak "Tell Me When to Go"
Snoop, Dre, D'angelo "Imagine"


Enoch's Top Songs:

10. Emilie Simon - Opium
9. Nine Black Alps - Cosmopolitan
8. The Pipettes - Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me
7. Dresden Dolls - My Alcoholic Friends
6. My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
5. Tapes 'n Tapes - Jakov's Suite
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Dudley
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cheated Hearts
2. Pretty Girls Make Graves - Pyrite Pedestal
1. We Are Scientists - Textbook


Bobby's Top YouTube Videos:


I swear I decided to compile this list before Time featured YouTube on their person of the year cover and I admit that what made me decide to post today was a Boingboing writer's top 5 picks (the Maury pickle clip??). Though YouTube has been around for close to 13 months already, it's already hard to remember what the internets was like before it was around. Anyway, here they are:

10. 12 Days of Christmas just slipped in at 10 a couple nights ago when it was featured at the end of a boingboing year-end list (go figure). Just passing on the message.


9. A Special Christmas Box made it in in the eleventh hour. You can thank Enoch for this one. And NBC, for the uncensored version that was set loose on YouTube.


8. Noah Takes a Photo of Himself Every Day for 6 Years arguably isn't much about music and more about one guy who (if this is for real) is seriously bad ass. All the others who also did this (but posted later than him) must have been seriously pissed off when he beat them to YouTube.


7. Cop Ghost Rides the Whip had me scratching my head the first time I saw it on James' blog... and laughing on the floor after I finally understood what ghost riding was. Just wikipedia it if you need to.


6. Asian Backstreet Boys consisted of two guys lip-syncing in a dorm room. Their outfits matched and the third guy playing counterstrike in the back never once turned around.


5. Little Superstar is an awesome clip from a Tamil movie featuring a shirtless dude dancing for the amusement of a reclining man and a bunch of amused children. He even does the move Fatlip uses in his "What's Up, Fatlip" video when he's trying on clothes.


4. The Best Guitar Hero Video Ever is close to being the best video ever -- of 2006. Pizza suit, double-neck guitarhero controller, superfluous effects pedal, star power, go.


3. Canon Rock by Funtwo is video of a guy in a baseball cap playing a super clean version of Pachelbel's Canon in D that was arranged for electric guitar by a Taiwanese dude named Chris C. While other Canon Rock YouTube videos might contain performers with twice this guy's feeling, you'd be hard pressed to find one that is as smooth as this one.


2. Canon Rock 2 is an adaptation of the Chris C arrangement that Funtwo used. It is clear that this young asian man was sent to YouTube by the gods of shred in order to rip Canon to bits and give him a seat in the Canon Rock Hall of Fame.


1. Lazy Sunday was hailed as a glimmer of hope for a dying SNL when it first aired and later was hailed as a new benchmark for viral marketing. If you missed seeing or hearing about this video, you just about missed 2006.


Enoch's Hall of Fame (The Inaugural Class):

Ash - A Life Less Ordinary
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen in Love?
Weezer - Across the Sea
Elliott Smith - Say Yes

Expect these songs on every single compilation I make for everybody.

...With the Words "Justin Timberlake" Six Times for Some Reason

Following the grand tradition of such SNL Digital Shorts as "Lazy Sunday" and that one with Natalie Portman cussing up a storm comes the newest installment of "Not Ready for Primetime" (re: sophomoric) badass-itude: A Special Box, starring Justin Timberlake and, as always, Andy Samberg.

In other Justin Timberlake news, early Monday morning Pitchfork Media released its Top 100 tracks of the year, and Justin Timberlake sits atop the list with his boy, T.I. Is the song that good? Listen for yourself:

Justin Timberlake & T.I. - My Love

UPDATE: Want to win a chance to sing a duet with Justin Timberlake at the Grammy Awards in February? Read all about it here.

Justin Timberlake.