Merry Christmas Safety Rat

Billboard's 25 top hits of 2010 in one. Compelling if not actually enjoyable.

Return to Sister Winter

Hey guys,

The only thing missing in Caracas right now is all of you.

So Nic, Raf, Sam, Em, Lindsey, G, Jessie, and anyone else that might be reading this blog: I love you and have an awesome holiday.

Here's the best Christmas song ever, and if you disagree we can fight when I get back.

BBC's darling

James Blake has really exploded in England the past year, showing up all over best-of lists and 2011 people to watch out for. He's put out three EP's since 2009, the latest called CMYK full of awesome electronic music and early 90's samples.

Here's a video of his cover of Feist's "Limit to your Love" which will be a part of his full length coming out next year.

Happy New Year and Congratulations From Tapes N Tapes

Video from the new Tapes N Tapes single. They're in Austin at Emo's on 18 Feb. Let's all just be glad that the internet didn't start 10 years earlier, most of our memories are still only memories and not electron archived for eternity...oh and never get married.

Leisure Suit Racist

Remember those video games in the eighties where you had to input written commands in order to have the main character do stuff? One of them was Leisure Suit Larry, where the main objective was to sleep with all the women in the game, some of his strategies included giving out roses, using the right cologne, and my favorite... using Binaca mouth freshener (I bought a lot of those when I was a kid).

Anyway, here's one of the most fun bands of the year with a pretty awesome video paying homage to video games of the 80's.

Das Racist - Who's that? Brooown!

Groupe de rap, SMOD, incame l'emergence d'une nouvelle scene africaine

SMOD is a hip hop group from Mali whose new album was produced by Manu Chao. Their videos are still pretty lo-tech, but the music is good. Here's a challenge, let's not stop posting over the break. Also, are we doing a best of Last Choice 2010 or is that something left to the mainstream blogs?

My guess is this track is referencing the movie Dakan, but understanding the lyrics is beyond my french or maybe I'll just blame it on the west African accent.


SMOD clip video "Dakan"

SMOD - MySpace Officiel | Myspace Music Videos

This is off the new album and features French chick rapper Keny Arkana.

Find more artists like SMOD - MySpace Officiel at Myspace Music

La Patère Rose - PaceMaker

Some friends of mine back in montreal have a music blog, midnightpoutine and I swiped this off their list of best albums by montreal bands in the last ten years. Apparently these folks were here at sxsw last year, but I didn't hear about them.

Goat's Last Song

The Clogs is the sister group to and chamber ensemble version of the National. They've been around for about 100 Indie Rock Years, actually pre-dating the National. Their 2010 effort has received a great deal of attention from the best of lists. 'Last Song' features Matt Berninger on vocals. Other tracks from the album include support from Shara Worden and Sufjan.

The howling is over

Well, it seems like Wolf Parade has called it quits. But they left us with arguably 2 very good albums (I didn't particularly enjoy their sophomore effort) as well as a bunch of really good songs. And don't forget you can still hear very good music from their two no-longer-side projects: Sunset Rubdown and Handsome Furs. Here's their latest video for their song Yulia, featured in a bunch of Best of 2010's lists out there in the web outer-space.



Also, if you want to see the poster I did for their song "You are a runner and I am my father's son" you can click on this nifty link right here.

Diamonds is a girl's best friend

Shiny new super-group of my heart Mister Heavenly includes my beloved Unicorn Nick Diamonds as well as Joe Plummer, lately of Modest Mouse, and Honus Honus of Man Man. I am actively choosing not to hold against them that apparently sometimes Micheal Cera plays bass.
They will be at the Scoot Inn on Monday Dec 13, and so will I.
They have 0 songs out, but here is scratchy live video that convinces me they know how to make things fun.

Passive music for an Active Child

Active Child is the bedroom project of one Pat Grossi, from L.A. He released a really good EP called Curtis Lane in June. Layered voices, synths, keyboards, harp, he makes really pretty and haunting electronic pop. This year he toured with School of Seven Bells and The Islands.

His dad was an executive for Priority Records, the Rap label, so when he was a kid he got to meet Dre, Snoop, Eminem and all these West Coast rappers. I'm cool with all those guys but I'm glad that his music has nothing to do with it.

He released an amaaazing video for his song "I'm in your church at night." It's beautiful, the song is beautiful, life is beautiful. Enjoy...

The virus is based on the human X chromosome, so it stays more pure from woman to woman.

Buraka Som Sistema's label, Enchufada, puts out a compilation tape every yearish highlighting Kuduro rhythms. Vol. 4 is downloadable now from JUNO (http://www.juno.co.uk) and from itunes etc next week. An Austin dude, Double Dutch, is featured in this volume. The video reminded me of a certain Zombie movie that's all rage in Hyde Park these days.




Sox: How's it feel... death?
Lillith: It feels like snow and stars.
Gaia: Aw, that's pretty!
Lillith: I remember once lying in the snow under a clear blanket of stars, there were so many stars... You couldn't comprehend what it was like. That vast un-knowable void. But now I understand it. I feel I'm a part of it, that infinite nothingness... I wanna strip. Who's on? Fuck it, I'm gonna dance.

Handclaps and harmonicas

A short happy pick-me-up from what is described as "west coast folk collective" (ugh) Branches.

Surfing the void (to find orgies)

After releasing a great CD in August (Surfing the Void) with arguably the greatest CD cover of the year:



The Klaxons released just a few weeks ago what could be one of the best videos of the year... here's "Twin Flames"

Klaxons - Twin Flames NSFW from BlindPig on Vimeo.

Also, is it too soon to start talking about Southby? Klaxons will be here... I'm going to go ahead and tag this SXSW, that way when it comes closer to spring we'll have a nice selection of Southby bands just a click away.

Stroll Down Memory Lane

Parkour's Die Antwoord post re-kindled my love affair with, for lack of a better term, hip hop fusion. I've been going back to old favorites and finding their new albums not unappealing. Audio Bullys fall into this category (Ralph may disagree that they're hip hop, but that's the great thing about hip hop fusion it's unfalsifiable). They released Higher Than Eiffel this past winter and the below video for the single off the album in August. Hopefully this is new stuff for some of you.

Intense Southern Mood

I guess I'm a bit nostalgic today so here goes a Jorge Drexler song that feels more like a poem. Some of you might remember him as the guy that won the Oscar for making the music for The Motorcycle Diaries a few years ago.

Here's "Mi Guitarra y Vos" (My Guitar and You) and a translation of the lyrics for those of you that don't speak Spanish yet (get on that by the way, we're taking over this bitch soon, one state at a time).



Long live science. Long live poetry.
How alive my tongue feels when your tongue is on my tongue
The water is in the clay, the clay is in the brick, the brick is in the wall, and on the wall your photograph.
It’s true that there’s no art without emotion
And that there’s no precision without craftsmanship
Like there’s no guitar without technology
Nylon technology for the strings
Metal technology for the pegbox, the press, the gouge and the varnish
The tools of the carpenter

The singer-songwriter and his computer
The shepherd and his shaver
The alarm clock that is announcing the dawn
And through the telescope, the last star is still there

Man makes the machine and [the machine] is what the man makes with it.

The plow, the wheel, the windmill, the table in which I put the glass of wine, the curves of the rollercoaster, the semiquaver and even the hemidemisemiquaver. Tea, computers and mirrors, the eye-glasses for seeing near and far, the place the dog sleeps, butter, the herb, mate and the mate straw.

You are with me, we are singing under the shadow of our grapevine. A song that says that we only keep what we don’t tie down. And without having you, I have you… and I have my guitar.

Chorus:
There are so many things, I only need two: my guitar and you, my guitar and you.

There are cinemas there are trains, there are pots and pans, there are formulas to describe even the shells of snails. There’s more. There’s traffic, there are credits, there are clauses, VIP rooms, there are hypnotic capsules and computerized tomographies. There are conditions to the constitution of limited societies, there are baby bottles, there are buses, there are taboos, there are kisses, there is hunger, there is obesity, there are cures for sleep and tisanes. There are designer drugs and dogs addicted to drugs at customs. There are hands capable of creating tools, which make machines to build computers that themselves design machines that make tools that the hand can use.

There are written infinite words: zen, gol, bang, rap, god, fin.

Chorus

Musical Connect the Dots: Múm

Ólöf Arnalds was a member of an impossibly cute band Múm. Here is their song "If I Were a Fish."

I tried to sing it to you guys with my mouth full of veggie dog, but their version is much nicer.

Múm - If I Were A Fish from Rômulo Martinz on Vimeo.

Scandinavian Crush of the Month: Ólöf Arnalds

I haven't posted in a while because I've been mostly rehashing old music. I figured I shouldn't post a new Guided By Voices song everyday--might get kicked out of the club.

But Icelandic sweetheart Ólöf Arnalds has really caught my ear. She's a member of Múm but recently went off on her own to do some more stripped-down folky recordings. Her sophmore release Innundir Skinni, which means Under the Skin, was recently released.

She's opening for Blonde Redhead tonight at La Zona Rosa. Here's her latest video.



and your ears aren't deceiving you...that is Björk singing backup.

Be my Samurai?

I'm coming in hard after the turkey break so get ready... here's Die Antwoord with their single Enter the Ninja.

My friend Greg got me hooked on this South African band. He swears the live shows are pretty amazing, it looks like they would be so let's keep our eyes peeled for when they come to town.