To anyone who has listened to Gotye’s Making Mirrors album, I found this 10 minute documentary truly inspiring since the viewer is able to grasp the musical ingenuity of his creative process. After you listen to the Making Mirrors album, Gotye’s refined sound illuminates an incredibly distinctive musical journey of eclectic tracks which in turn, presents a truly engaging listening experience.

I was lucky enough to snag tickets to Gotye at the El Rey in LA next week and I haven’t been this ecstatic in quite some time, for good reason. Enjoy the weekend everyone. Till’ next time.

It’s Wednesday but it feels like a Monday, is that weird? I’m okay with it for now, because I know when the weekend rolls around it’s going to be a really blissful surprise. Regardless, last weekend I had the pleasure of seeing a friend I hadn’t seen in quite some time. This is very relevant to this swaggy track you’re about to hear, so bear with me. This friend of mine is someone I would call my musical equal, because I think we’re on exactly the same level of love for music, in every regard. Ever since we met last year, we’ve been sharing music with one another, already knowing how the other will feel. It’s safe to say that his taste in music is excellent, and lucky for him, he’s a DJ too. (Maybe I should say lucky for the people who get to listen to him at work, because it’s so hard not to dance…)

Anyways, we were at a party together over the weekend when he started to DJ, and he threw down this track. I was sitting at the time and couldn’t help but stand up and groove. This track kind of made me realize when I listened the next day, that my summer was totally over but that good things were happening all around.

I think it’s only fair to include a Boney M. video in this post too, because I know you need it on this surprisingly beautiful Wednesday.

What if all we had to worry about was producing feel good disco tunes and maintaining our afros? How beautiful would that be?

MyKill – Falling

-Ashley

I heard this song a couple of weeks ago for the first time from my hip-to-it friend Julia, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have it on repeat from the minute I heard it. In all honesty, I think it’s really important to take a trip back every once in a while, just to appreciate what was actually responsible for the creation and inspiration of the swagged out music that we have today. I find this to be extremely true especially with disco music. It’s so fascinating to me these days that so many DJs have taken disco to a whole other level, because there are now so many different types of the funkadelic groove that used to exist in solely one way back in the 70s.

After being introduced to Boney M, I went ahead and listened to some of their other tunes. There’s something really incredible about being able to create music that translates the same kind of emotion now, as it did back then. It just makes me want to groove, jive and boogie. You kind of have to watch the video though in order to fully appreciate it, because it’s so weird and yet, so right. I love the introductory guitar, with a sound as clear as water, followed by the unexpected drop into pure disco. The female singers are incredible with their hands in the air, grooving like gypsy wedding dancers, (that one goes out to my buddy Dan, he’s famous for his own fabulous gypsy wedding dance at parties…)

“Rah rah Rasputin, lover of the Russian queen, there was a cat that really was gone.”

-Ashley

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A couple of nights ago, I ventured to the Hudson river, (something I don’t do as much as I’d like) to see a free Tune Yards concert at Pier 54. Somehow, everyone and their mother was there. I swear, every time there’s something free in the city, it’s like people are hired to go by the dozens even if they don’t know the band. However, the crowd at this concert was quite the Tune Yards following, all resembling something of the hip young status. I guess the proper word for that would be hipster, but I don’t really want to make any vast generalizations. So let’s just stick with hip youngsters.

Anyways, I’ve been obsessed with Tune Yards for a while, and I think it’s because their lead singer, Merril Garbus, is so far-fetched, voluptuous, quirky, and multi-talented. The truth is that she takes over the stage in a way that not many artists do, especially since she’s still so new to the scene. I personally love her sound, because it’s so full of range and spunk, but I can understand how it may not have necessarily grown on everyone just yet.

After the concert, my friend and I were having a conversation about new music and how a lot of people have one idea about electronic music. It’s gotta be techno, and it’s gotta sound a certain way. The most beautiful thing about it though, is that it doesn’t. I’d consider Tune Yards’ music to be electronic a lot of the time, not because it’s something I’d play in a club, but because it utilizes electronic tools to create swanky music, and doesn’t overpower the awesomeness of the actual vocals. That’s what electronic music is all about. We’re such a modern age, and even though I find myself often times hating on technology, I’ve learned to just embrace it. It’s so fantastical, and has revolutionized our music world, especially when used correctly. How amazing is that?

Anyways, it might be best to check out some of the actual concert footage. I wish I could have taken some videos, but I was really busy gettin’ my groove on. After scavenging youtube, I found this video which seems to sum the night up pretty well.

Also, I have to add one thing. A really swaggy band opened for Tune Yards, by the name of Austra. Amazing. I found myself dancing to their music in no time. I’d describe their sound as a cross melt between The Knife and Florence and the Machine. They are so hip looking too, it’s almost a little ridiculous. Check them out, you’ll like what you hear.

Bizness – Tune Yards

Lose It – Austra

-Ashley

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How will I know if it’s working?”

This song is undoubtedly about drugs and this video was made for people on drugs. Now I don’t want to send out the wrong message, but strictly for journalistic purposes, I’ll clarify the song which is quite literally about MDMA or ecstasy.

MDMA got you feeling like a champion, the city never sleeps better slip you a Ambien…” (Jay-Z, Empire State of Mind)

MGMT is notorious for their psychedelic drug infused themes, but this song takes it to another level. Not that I would know but the song is basically a very detailed description of the placebo effect people feel when first taking this said drug…

Yeah. It was the first song that we demo-ed almost a year ago. Ben [Goldwasser] and I went up to this little cabin in the woods in upstate New York, and the second I walked in the door I sat down and played this chord progression. The next day we expanded it into a song. Lyrically, it’s about doing drugs. I didn’t realize it until now, but it’s kind of funny, because the first song on our first album was “Time to Pretend,” which was about the imagined rock star scenario. So, “It’s Working” is like, “Yeah, we went out there and we did a lot of drugs and it’s not that great.” The song is mostly about Ecstasy.

Is there any specific experience with Ecstasy that influenced that song?

No, not really. But that’s how we envisioned the track when we were writing it. It stops and starts a lot; it’s frantic, confusing. There’s also a surfing thread throughout the record. When you’re surfing, there’s a specific break you’re paddling to. And when the waves are really good you say, “It’s working.” The song kind of has a surf-y vibe. It’s like surfing on ecstasy. Which is what the “Time to Pretend” video is like. Actually, the video is more like surfing on acid. -Spin interview with Andrew

This is certainly my favorite song from the new album and the video is a trip, enjoy.

MGMT – It’s Working

I was just talking to my friend about how everything in life is an option. We tend to complicate things but life just comes down to choices and understanding that everything you want you already have. Then I saw this Nike commercial and man does that Ad company understand champions. Face the choice, look at the future then act accordingly. Nike really knows how to inspire, I had to post this, enjoy.

Fresh.

She says I’m not romantic
I say she’s too dramatic
I tell her while we’re at it we can work it night by night…”

With the exception of late 80s and 90′s Hip Hop I’m pretty much either completely vintage or contemporary in terms of the kind of music I listen to, there’s not much inbetween. With that said I thought I would bring both of those worlds together for today’s post. I have a thousands of songs I could do this with but I chose Can’t Stand the Rain for a few reasons. For one, the original by Ann Peebles is an incredibly simple but beautiful love song coupled with equally great production and feeling. Two, the Missy version produced by Timbaland turns it into arguably one of the freshest, most stylish and futuristic beats that hip hop has ever seen to date, which is ironic since it is based on a simple sample.

I remember when this video was released, I would sit there in amazement not really understanding what I was seeing but loving every second of it. The bounce on this record is hypnotizing and Missy does her job to perfection, enjoy.

Missy Elliot – Supa Dupa Fly

Ann Peebles – I Can’t Stand The Rain

Short film by ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ director has odd parallels to West’s recent life.

You’ve heard of art imitating life. What about life imitating art? After months of slow-boil hype, the eagerly anticipated re-hookup between Kanye West and “Where the Wild Things Are” director Spike Jonze, “We Were Once a Fairytale,” was released over the weekend.

And, as with the last time these two collaborated (on the “Flashing Lights” video), the results are mind-bending and a bit too close to home. The 11-minute short film  which is not a video for any specific song but features bits of “See You in My Nightmares”  was shot in Los Angeles over two days in January, and it opens with West playing himself. The video was posted on West’s blog on Sunday and was supposed to be released on iTunes in September, but as of press time it still did not appear to be on the store.

We begin with West visibly drunk and acting pleasantly tipsy in a nightclub, yelling to adoring club kids that the song blasting over the speakers is his. Not getting the reaction he expected from his audience, the tuxedo-clad singer stumbles across the club making random inappropriate comments to women who seem unimpressed with his fame. After bumping into Fonzworth Bentley, West grinds on the dance floor, singing along to his own song at the top of his lungs in an impressionistic blur of rich blues, red and purples, his eyes seriously glazed over. He ends up meeting a beautiful woman and they start having sex, but he passes out on her leopard-skin dress. When he wakes up, he’s in the VIP room with his pants around his ankles; he realizes it was a dream and that he’d actually made love to a leopard-skin pillow.

Startled and dejected by the scene, he staggers to a bathroom while holding one of his shoes and then violently vomits what looks like a stream of rose petals before collapsing to the floor. Lying on the tile, he finds a big bowie knife and uses it to cut his stomach open, which leads to another rose-petal cascade. And then things get even more bizarre, as Kanye digs deeper with the knife, reaching in to grab a small, kinda cute rodent-like demon, connected to its host by an umbilical cord. The ratlike creature stares lovingly at West, who seems sad, defeated and a bit confused at the sight.

‘Ye rips the cord out and puts the demon rat on the countertop, handing it a smaller knife hidden in the handle of the larger one. With no words between them and a resigned look on his face, West watches the rat shake its head pleadingly as he urges it to slice its own belly open. With melodramatic piano music playing underneath, the mini-’Ye gets its own dramatic death scene, as a teary-eyed West watches in guilty silence.

The sight of West woozily walking through the club and indulging in his trademark blustery talk was filmed nearly a year before his bum rush of Taylor Swift at the VMAs, a night when he was photographed swigging from a bottle of cognac. Seeing it now, along with the heavily symbolic birth/ death scene at the end is a bit disorienting, but also par for the course for the envelope-pushing Jonze, who always shies away from the obvious image. In lampooning West’s self-indulgent public persona, Jonze makes Kanye a more sympathetic character, on film at least, helping the rapper to rid himself of whatever demon is inside him in a cathartic, moving and powerful scene.

By Gil Kaufman

Can anyone read, can anyone feel?

That I’m losing my patience, I just came here to bounce.”

- Justice (DVNO)

Someone asked me what I thought about the whole Kanye event at the VMA’s and I instantly got a scorching headache, felt sick, tired, hungry and drowsy. It was sort of like my minds auto-defense mechanism against using it’s extremely complicated make-up and resources to compute absolutely idiotic nonsense.  When it comes to the mainstream these days I find that people talk about everything in existence but the music.  Unlike the stereotypical music critics who hate the mainstream, usually for their own selfish reasons, I actually enjoy certain mainstream music. In fact, I think it’s great when a song can connect with millions of people and bring them together in that way.

Someone’s response to my unfavorable review of Blueprint 3 was that Jay-Z is an incredible marketer. I literally had to go home and think for a few hours to try to understand what marketing has to do with the quality of Jay-Z’s music. I didn’t find the answer.

“I see… the gimmicks, the wack lyrics

The shit is depressing, pathetic please forget it.

– Biggie (Flava in Your Ear, 1994)

This is exactly why I find myself listening to more and more instrumental music these days. I chose Daft Punk’s Robot Rock as the feature song for two reasons. One, I wanted to listen to artists that actually cared about their music and two, I wanted an instrumental song that would allow you to zone out and just listen to music for a change.

Daft Punk – Robot Rock

MP3

I chose to add DVNO to this post because I love what this song is about. DVNO is a sort of commentary on the whole comedic party scene that determines your worth as a person by how many girls you have with you and drinks you can buy.  This silly movement goes hand in hand with the state of mainstream music so I thought it would be appropriate, enjoy.

Don’t need to know my name, to figure out how cool I am.”

Justice – DVNO

MP3: Download

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII.  Exceptional.

One of the reasons I’m so drawn to the 80′s New Wave period is because it represents the time when synthesizers and analog recording coexisted like they probably never will again. It was one of those rare times when the future and past lived in total harmony, i.e. freak of nature artists like Michael Jackson.

Anyways, you can’t talk about 80′s new wave without mentioning New Order, the band whose 1983 hit Blue Monday still holds the record for best selling 12-inch single of all time. Temptation, is a lesser known single released in 1892 and one of my personal favorites from the group. The 7″ single featured in this post is the more commercial and structured version. The lyrics in this song are hard to translate but the feelings of hope and despair in Bernard’s voice are as clear as day. The effect on the listener is euphoric. Here’s to a great song that captures a wonderful essence, enjoy.

Each way I turn, I know I’ll always try
To break this circle that’s been placed around me
From time to time, I find I’ve lost some need
That was urgent to myself, I do believe
Up, down, turn around
Please don’t let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I’ll walk alone
I’ll find my soul as I go home.”

New Order – Temptation (7-Inch Version)

MP3

Wu-Tung Clan ain’t nothin’ to f*$k wit”

This video is bad ass. I don’t post too much hip-hop because it pretty much all sucks these days but this is clearly the exception. Produced by J Dilla, House of Flying Daggers is 1994 New York City all over again – gritty, gully, grimy, great. You might get slapped in the face just for listening to it and then find an empty 40 bottle on your bed with your wallet missing feeling like you have to take a shower – Clan in front, let your feet stomp.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard something this raunchy, even the mix (sonic quality) of the record is reminiscent of the pre- Jay-Z days when vocals and music were actually blended artistically. The video itself is an animation that borrows from the classic kung-fu flick The Five Deadly Venoms. This may be confusing to some since the songs title is also borrowed from a movie -  the 2004 cult classic House of Flying Daggers. It’s gory images are the perfect visuals for the machine gun flows the Wu members attack with, reminds you of those amazing lyricist we once had in the game. If this is what we have to expect from Rae’s upcoming album then I’ll be eagerly waiting for the day to come, enjoy.

Raekwon – Run Away (Feat. Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, Method Man & GZA)

Raekwon – House of Flying Dagger (ft. Inspectah Deck, Ghostface Killah & Method Man)

The song is basically a play on French music/television culture – all the lyrics start with Je Veux or I want and the girl makes a huge list of all the silly but very amusing things she wants…

Je veux etre dans le top de Justice, la main de Gaspard sur ma cuisse.

I Want to be in Justice’s top playlist, have Gaspard’s hand on my thigh.”

This song has recieved mixed reviews, a lot of people think its flat out silly and the only reason people are covering it is because of the naked girls and silly content. I like it for those very reasons, go figure…

Make The Girl Dance – Baby Baby Baby

Here’s a rough translation of all the lyrics…

I want to have Sebastien Tellier on my Ipod ; I want your Mom’s credit card ; I want your dad’s car ; I want to go out with your friends ; I will wear my cutest panties ; I want a hot sex session ; You can look but you can’t touch.

I want to be in Justice top friend ; Gaspard’s hand on my thigh ; I want to be able to count without my fingers ; And I want yours in the right spot ; I don’t want to take the stairs ; Carry me in your arms then ; I want to be the only person on pictures ; And I want to model for Yves Saint Laurent ; I want geniuses as children ; And I want my dog to graduate ; I want your head on a tray ; I want mine on TV.

I dont want a piece of cake, I just want blow ; I dont want Kate, I want Ethan Hawke ; I want to jump off of big ladder ; do as you can for the rainbow ; i want chocolate and vanilla flavoured ice cream ; i want your balls to be blueberry flavoured ; I want to dance like Vanessa Paradis ; I want to see her boyfriend at Ibiza (ie Johnny Depp) ; I want to be asleep when you wake up ; and I want Yelle’s tshirt ; I want to fit in all my jeans ; and I want you to make me presents with your pay check ; I want ice cubes in my glass ; I want to make your grandma smoke weed ; I saw your stupid ex blah blah blah”

I was on set yesterday for the upcoming Kristine Elezaj single Souvenir, and the experience was so captivating that it inspired a music video post. However, before I start talking about that I have to mention the Sony Red One camera the director was using for the video. Prior to that shoot I had never seen or heard about this camera but it is hands down the best picture quality I have ever seen. Retailing at about $30,000, the Red One is to video what the SSL is to music, and I predict it’s going to lead to some outstanding work in years to come, so far anyone into film you might want to do a little research.

With that said, I thought I’d repost one of my favorite recent videos, Stress by Justice.

These days it seems like a song can be discovered, blow up and fade away all in the same week. Unfortunately, this video was a victim of this new rapid pace consumption. Possibly inspired by Mathieu Kassovitz’s “La Haine,” “Stress” captures the not so romantic side of the Paris suburbs. Hard. † Here’s the live performance of “Stress” from “A Cross the Universe.” Sounds like your watching Hitchcock or something, I can only imagine how crazy this concert was. Bad ass.

Justice – Stress

I like girls, that like girls, who like me & like girls.

Is it just me or has there been a significant  increase in the amount of girl on girl make out sessions in New York City nightlife? It’s awesome. I won’t ask too many questions or speak too much on the subject so just carry on girls, carry on.

A good friend put me on to this video way back when it came out, I think it was ‘06… Great beat, great concept, excellent execution. Here’s a little kiss & tell for your Friday morning, enjoy.

“I’m a hustler baby, that’s what my daddy’s made me.”

Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler

Simian Mobile Disco – Hustler (A-Trak Remix)

Peaches – Downtown (Simian Mobile Disco Remix)

This song is about your classic amateur league lovers, you know, the ones so stuck in their insecurities and limitations that they feel the need to assume a particular style or attitude when it comes to love affairs. I’ve always found it amusing when my girlfriends, the kind and loving P.Y.T.’s they are, try to switch up on me and act tuff instead of just communicating their honest emotions…

You been acting awful tuff lately, smoking a lot of cigarettes lately.

But inside, your just a little baby.

It’s ok to say you gotta weak spot, you don’t alway have to be on top.

Better to be hated, then loved, loved, loved for what your not.”

While the posing may seem necessary and even get you what you want at the time, your partner will never really know who you are and before you know it another relationship gone, another story is told…

It ain’t nothing really, ayo dun spark the philly…” – Mobb Deep (Shook One’s Part 2)

I’m sure all this sounds cliché but most of the worlds wisdom inevitably is. Enough ranting, here a fantastic song and video by Marina & The Diamonds, enjoy.

Marina & The Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot

In the beginning of this video she ask the crowed if they love hip hop, than she ask, does anyone know Rick Ross – I’m pretty sure that was a joke. The funniest thing about this video is the audience, whom to say the least do not look like the type of people with a diverse enough palette translate a song which is at face value about selling drugs to how Lykke Li and many others see it, hustlin’ or simply working hard. Still in their defense her busting out and acoustic version of a 2006 southern rap song is literally the last thing anyone would expect. After realizing who she was dealing with she asked the confused people:

Don’t you got any jobs? Are you not like working hard?”

Lykke Li is the best.

Lykke Li – Hustlin’ (Rick Ross Cover)

These guys sampled the drums from “Be My Baby,” one of my favorite 60’s songs performed by The Shangri-Las and produced by one of my musical heroes, the pop mastermind Phil Spector. At face value, this song is about the thrill being gone, the end, going from liking someone to indifference. The callous overtone may turn some off but being a romantic realist I find this stage of a relationship just as interesting as actually being in love. Hey, if you can’t find the good in the “bad,” well then your just not that creative ; )

This video is great, it’s spooky, creepy, disturbing yet very fitting. Having grown up BMXing I was a huge fan of the bike gang doing ollie’s and flatland tricks while this girl is pouring her heart out about falling out of love. I had to turn off the video to actually listen to the lyrics but I you probably won’t have that problem. Cold as ice. Enjoy.

We walked arm in arm
But I didn’t feel his her touch
A desire I’d first tried to hide,
That tingling inside was gone
And when he she asked me:
‘do you still love me?’
I had to look away
I didn’t want to tell him her
That my heart grows colder with each day.”

Bat For Lashes – What’s a Girl To Do

MP3

Almost a year of being released as a single MGMT has finally unveiled a new video for their fantastic but extremely overplayed song Kids.

Control yourself, take only what you need from it.”

Those simple yet profound lyrics have been somewhat of a mantra for me since I first heard the song. Having grown up traveling and living a great but somewhat out of the ordinary lifestyle has made it difficult for me to be a part of the whole 9 to 5 institution, these simple words have helped me simplify when habit makes me feel otherwise. This video features Joanna Newson as a young, wealthy and neglecting mother who can’t seem to realize her child has an extraordinary imagination that has him seeing disturbing monsters and funny Eunuchs. Speaking of Eunuchs, I completely broke down laughing when he runs into MGMT dressed as silver Eunuchs singing Kids in the woods. I’m pretty sure this little kid will be tormented for the rest of his life after playing this role and I expect much criticisim to hit MGMT, either way its a cool concept and great execution, enjoy.

Ben Lee – Kids (MGMT Cover)

MP3

The Kooks – Kids (MGMT Cover)

MGMT – Kids (80Kidz Re-Edit)