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.

Dragon Chasers, Aren't We All

This song is off Wax Tailor's In The Mood For Life, almost a year old but the video is new, and features Charlotte Savary. My guess is PeterP will approve of their creative vision for the movie. It's also a day late, but happy birthday Ralph.

Mercer & Mouse meet Hall & Oates

Broken Bells put out this really good video quite a few months back featuring Christina Hendricks of Mad Men fame, who by the way is also frequently featured in my dreams.



But just this month, thanks to the push made by filmmaker and friend of the band Matt McCormick, Broken Bells has put out a second video for the song featuring James Mercer's mouth sitting proudly on Daryl Hall's face. Here's the unlikely hybrid of Broken Bells' The Ghost Inside and Hall & Oates' Private Eyes.

A singer specialising in chansons

A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" (male) or "chanteuse" (female); a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier. Elou Elan does Nordic Chanson Pop and hails from Copenhagen. Album coming soon, but currently unsigned...maybe Last Choice should start a record label.

Find more artists like elou elan at Myspace Music

Spike does it again

For all the hoopla about Arcade Fire's last video (which was very cool, and we talked about it here), there's something to be said about a video that tells a story and tells it well. Spike Jonze is a genius, and when he gets together with people of this caliber it just shows that much more. This video was actually filmed in Austin, all though I can't recognize anything...

Enjoy Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, through a Jonze lense:

Also, just because we're talking about Spike Jonze, here is my favorite video of his. He made it for his wifey Karen O. This is Y Control by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Skinny Legs and All

"This is the room where Jezebel frescoed her eyelids with history's tragic glitter"
— Tom Robbins

Aussie band the Jezabels put out this video for their song Mace Spray last week. They have been around for a while and are big down under. I think they are great.


This remix of their song Disco Biscuit Love is fun and danceable with a splash of tragic glitter, and reminds me of an old friend of mine.

The Jezabels - Disco Biscuit Love (Dept. remix) by deptdot

Nancy Whang shits robots

Last time we saw LCD Soundsystem's Nancy Whang in a video she was being molested by a pack of crazy pandas in "Drunk Girls." Now she has teamed up with Ireland native Marcus Lambkin, better known as Shit Robot, to leave hipster-colored doppelgangers all over Brooklyn.

Great vid and great song. Here is Shit Robot (Feat. Nany Whang) with "Take 'Em Up"

Musical Paleontology

Watching the Harry Nilsson documentary last night (which was great by the way), I discovered a direct ancestor to Cee Lo's Fuck You.
Check it out:
harry nilsson - you're breaking my heart

Have you got a girl or are you lookin for men? I'm like no and no, so why you wanna know?

A new guy from the UK, Ghostpoet, electronic/hip hoppy stuff. The EP is here, full length coming soon, oh and bonus/nostalgia points to whoever can identify the sample in Love Confusion (Technically Wolf already won, but I'll open it up to everyone else for round 2). Actually I think there's an even more obscure/non-Hip Hop sample that's here too, so Wolf you're back in the game.

http://ghostpoet.bandcamp.com

Don't hate on my Ray-Bans

We haven't had a dance party in a while, so hopefully this post will inspire us to get our dancing on soon. I heard that Barbarella moved to a bigger place... maybe we should explore?

Couple of A-Track diddies for you, first for those of you with Ray-Ban Vision:



Second for those of you with Rave Ambitions:

Nobody's gonna save my life

except maybe Mark Ronson and the Business Intl.

Somebody to Love Me- Mark Ronson
Featuring Boy George and Miike Snow


Also:

Pastel Group

I like these chilled out Boston folks (oxymoron?). They have a free EP you could download if you were to desire such a thing.
http://tiny.cc/mi4zx
This picture has nothing to do with the band, but is called Pastel Group and I like it.

Pastel Group's "Opinions And Thoughts" by clicky clicky music blog

I still love Someone still loves you Boris Yeltsin

Their first album "Broom" is still one of my favorite cd's of the last decade. And all though I have not heard their new album from start to finish yet, the first single makes me very, very optimistic.

This is Sink/Let it Sway from Someone still loves you Boris Yeltsin, their new album is titled "Let it Sway."

"

And they're coming to the Mohawk on November 22 for a very cheap $10... I love Austin.

Second to Last Choice

I know everyone has been anxiously waiting for the October collection of Last Choices.

Here's the end bit of the link. Same deal as last month.

/?eo2fept22a7jv28

Havana Cultura

Continuing the Gilles Peterson thread, he discovered this Cuban jazz vocalist along with a host of other talent during a couple of trips to Havana last year. Danay Suarez has an EP coming soon.

Records NOT Recordings

Gilles Peterson's 6th installment of music that we're all going to like. It's out now, but here's the taster.

Brownswood Bubblers Six // Teaser by Brownswood

Massive Classics

Teenager in the 90s, I hated 'Around the World' when it hit radio. I just wasn't ready for electronic music,  in a time when bands like Nirvana and RATM had given angsty teens everything they needed. But then, of course, I was victim of that trojan horse called OK Computer (1997). Motherfuckers took alt-rock kids and convinced them that electronic sounds were ok. That's how I was primed for Mezzanine (1998). As a little pushover project of a person, there was no way I was not obsessing with that album. It completely fucked me up. When Mezzanine came out, it forced me to go back to Blue Lines (1991) and everything from then on (Portishead, Tricky, Bjork, etc). Even worse, Mezzanine was my gateway drug into harder electronic music. Daft Punk's Homework, Chemical Brothers' Dig Your Own Hole, The Prodigy's Fat of The Land, all have a special place in my heart thanks to Massive Attack (and all of them are 1997 releases, fucking awesome year).

End of stroll down memory lane.

Here's a cool video from Massive Attack's Atlas Air (off of Heligoland - a meh album):

Massive Attack-Atlas Air-directed by Edouard Salier from edouard salier on Vimeo.

Stuck in Singer Songwriter Hell

Ralph aka Bob Jovi and I attended Troika Music Festival in Durham NC this past Saturday and as the title suggests we were quagmired by singer song writers. Although we placated ourselves through ever increasing vitriolic judgment calls, the music eventually made a turn for the better. As the night progressed and the cheap vodka, food coloring, and sugar built up in our blood this duet of chick rock saved the day.

Cassis Orange is from Chapel Hill, played a very danceable live show complete with cute flaunting flautist.



Pink Flag, chick punk, killer drummer, best _____ ever

Depressing Song for a Depressing Time

After the ass-whooping we received at the polls this past Tuesday, I've been listening to a lot of depressing songs. How appropriate that Cocorosie just released the video for their song Gallows.

Because misery loves company, here it goes so you can cry with me:

COCOROSIE - GALLOWS (OFFICIAL VIDEO) from Emma Freeman on Vimeo.

Glamccordion

An entirely inappropriate follow-up to peterparkour's post, as this fluffy little song clocks in at 2:30. So be it, I like it.

In the age of instant satisfaction...

Bands not called Arcade Fire seem to be having trouble writing satisfying, good, interesting songs that last more than 3 minutes. Everything these days seems to be "get in, get out, wham-bam-thankyoumaam." What the fuck is up with that? What ever happened to courtship? starting slow and building up? What happened to romance? What have we come to? How many questions can a blog post have? What is the meaning of life?

Well, Family Cactus are changing that, they've got a new album called Come Howling full of 4 minute plus songs (with a couple of exceptions).

Here's "Come Howling" coming in at a never boring 6.47 minutes:

Come Howling by Family Cactus

And here is their first video for their song "Kingmaker:"

More Feminists

Melancholic synth-pop from Portland, OR.

Carolyn Berk, she of hypnotic voice and powerful songwriting, has been performing as 'Lovers' since 2001. Now, the band 'Lovers' is her plus two friends (feminist-hardcore band ex-members) that bring in the synth touch for the most recent release, Dark Light. The whole album is worth checking out. Here's one very feminist song as a sample.

Lovers - Figure 8:


Trivia: Lovers are signed to Badman Records. Other artists in Badman include Thao, Portland Cello Project, and Starfucker (a LastChoice pick).

Suffering Season

This was a song I brought to The Awkward Off (and how awkward it was) but didn't end up playing. Anyhow, I like Woods a lot, and I think this time of year is suffering season for a lot of us, what with grant proposals, elections and so on, so I'm posting it now.


Woods-Suffering Season by malaise

Photosynthesize, This Is How We Realize.

Jazz is back motherfuckers and it's bringing Hip Hop with it! The Beats realized the connection between spoken word and Jazz in the 50s and 60s (Mexico City Blues, Amiri Baraka, Ferlinghetti and Stan Getz, etc.) and now The Revivalist is showcasing this renaissance for all the interweb. The below comes from a collaborative album between the jazz singer Nnenna Freelon and The Beast, it's free to download from http://revivalist.okayplayer.com/.

The Beast - Freedom Part 2 feat. Nnenna Freelon & Suede (produced by Apple Juice Kid) from BECAUSEUS on Vimeo.

Dead, contagious genres

Purists, fans of Rusko and Burial 'before they were big', claim that dubstep died when it left London. Well, fuck them, everyone from Jay-Z to JayBiebz has a cheap-dubstep-based song now. I guess dubstep has joined the Zombie Genre club, together with Rock, Punk, Baroque et al.

Stupid intro done. These two tracks are dubstep remixes of old songs. They are 'Constanza/Mennen' tracks, if you know what I mean. Listen two/three times...

Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You (MiM0SA Remix)


Freestylers - Cracks (Flux Pavilion Remix)

PLZ SEE MY VID, IT ROOLZ

Wolf just posted this on facebook, but I already had plans to post this today... I swear. Damn you Wolf and you thunder-stealing ways.

Anyway, because all of us dreamed about it, finally a band mixed "lolcats" with "Steve McQueen's Bullit"

Enyoy Red Lights by Holy Fuck.

Oh Hot, Last Choice Radio

Oh Land has a new video and the good news is she's still very cute. I'm also pretty obsessed with Gold Panda's new album, but apparently so is every other music blog. Speaking of music blogs, Last Choice is going old school tomorrow and changing the our energy form of our communication from pulsing light to self-propagating, electromagnetic waves: 7-9am on KVRX 91.7. Tomorrow is a Tuesday. If you're a friend we see often tune in via radio, if we're neglecting you and using geographic distance as an excuse,use the inter-web.

Oh Land "Sun of a Gun" from Oh Land Music on Vimeo.

Monday morning pop-up

Brooke Fraser is some sort of New Zealand pop star, who is pretty and makes me feel happy on gray Monday mornings.
Full disclosure: she is also super christian, and thus outs me for my alleged love of god rock. Try to ignore that and enjoy this catchy fun Monday song.

This means warr

Total Warr is a charming electronic pop duo from Paris. They released their first EP "Cascades" in September. Their names are Kiki and Guigui, and they say they came up with the songs after a trip to Eurodisney.

Good for them, I went there once and all I came out with was vomit in my mouth and empty pockets.

Total Warr - Gangsta rap by Total Warr

No Time for Cameras, We'll Use Our Eyes Instead

New single from Matt & Kim. Bring on the smiling contest!

Cameras by theawkwardoff

FanFanFarlo

Reservoir by Fanfarlo is probably one of my favorite albums of last year. I've had it up on the "Audio Fix" portion of my blog for a long time but I honestly haven't gotten tired of listening to it, so it hasn't come down.

They remind of Beirut, which is obvious. But remember that first album by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah?... It was so awesome... it reminds me of that too.

Here's their relatively new video for their song "The Walls are Coming Down"

The Enchanted Forest of Lyngen

Previously unreleased freeby from Röyksopp, download here: http://royksopp.com/track-of-the-month-october

I Wanna Know by Röyksopp

Deerhoof Vs. Evil

New track off of Deerhoof's upcoming album. "The Merry Barracks" from Deerhoof Vs. Evil.Have no fear, they haven't stopped being a touch weird.The Merry Barracks-Deerhoof by theawkwardoffShould have some Hoofdriver soon.

One If By Land, Two If By Tuesday

I bet Major Lazer doesn't have to write grant proposals, but if he did they'd be pretty simple: download existing proposal, replace 15% of the words with the phrase 'major lazer,' snare drum sample, and release. The video also montages many of may favorite cultural icons

Best Coast, New Video, Effectively Unrelated, Enjoy

Junip

I really enjoy Jose Gonzales' solo stuff, but didn't realize he had a band as well. Although Junip is described as Folk Rock / Healing & EasyListening / Jam Band on MySpace, which may be one of the most brutally unappealing combinations of adjectives I have heard since Hungarian Retrofunk Psychedelicthrashpop, I still like them. They have been around for a while, but just put out their first full length album, Fields, in September.

They have a song called Rope and Summit, which can be our soundtrack for a chilled out climbing video one day, but I like this one better.
JUNIP Always


I have not decided how I feel about the video, but here it is as well. Air guitar world championships!

MAP Digest (Delicious Accents)

You may have heard about this MAP (Music Alliance Pact) thing that has been going for two years now. Music blogs from around the world (current number is 35 countries) contribute one song every month. I've followed it for some months now, with an average "meh" grade. This month's, however, I found to be above average. My favorites were Denmark, Chile, South Africa and Scotland. Those last two are below. The South African one is fun and danceable. The Scottish one is sappy, but sung in a terrific accent.
Goldfish - Fort Knox
Bear Bones - Oil & Lacquer

And talking about delicious accents, I ran into this song by The Suzan (remember Tokyo Pop?). It's also good timing for it because The Strokes rocked so hard at ACL.
The Suzan - Take It Or Leave It (The Strokes cover)

You will cough up crows that peck my eyes and I will do nothing but go blind

New little obsession... Andrew Jackson Jihad are a duo from Phoenix that have been putting out a bunch of albums out for the past 7 years or so. Their last album (I think) "Can't Maintain" was released last year and had this amazing Neutral Milk Hotel feel to it without sounding too copycattish.

Here's "Love Will Fuck us Apart"



And here's "Love in the Time of Human Papillomavirus"

Hungarian Retrofunk Psychedelicthrashpop Band

This sentence is false. The title of this post is also false or pretentious bull shit, but the song is kinda catchy and they have a kick ass band poster. They're no Movits, but for everyone besides me that's probably a good thing. Funk is king and don't you forget it. PS - Moment of silence on Sunday, it's the curtain call for the Liberace museum in Vegas.

Mellbimbo by The Qualitons

Sweet, Sad Folk + Star Wars

Ok, I hadn't heard of Jeremy Messersmith until today, when one of my favorite blogs brought my attention to it (if you can decipher Spanish, and like good things, you can visit Las Reseñas de la Nonna). But this is too good not to re-post.

Also, for those few of you that haven't seen the original Star Wars, now you know what happens.

Yellow Ostrich

Yellow Ostrich is a guy living in New York called Alex Schaaf. His full album, The Mistress, is available for download on his bandcamp.

Yellow Ostrich - Libraries:


Yellow Ostrich - Hate Me Soon:

Raping and lousy rapping

Where I grew up, October 12th is celebrated as the Día de la Raza. I've always liked this name because I feel it means we're remembering that we are the result of the massive clusterfuck that started on that day, and celebrating our diversity. This is, as opposed to celebrating the day in which a) we were saved from pagan gods or b) we claimed this land as ours by killing 10 million people.

Clusterfucks, mixing, 'fusions' and Latin America, October 12th is a good day to listen to Isa GT. She's a colombian musician (living in London now). Apparently 'girlcore' is the appropriate term for what she does.

Isa GT - Pa'las Mamacitas (Original Mix)


And here's an 18-year-old song that still gets stuck in my head every time I think about October 12th. Be warned that it is teenager latin ska.
"Hijos bastardos de colonias asesinas…"

Cardinal Sin? Just Don't Call Me A Moral Compass

I'm sure one of our ground rules was not posting a bunch of shit from the same band, but if so I'm ignoring that here. Belleruche's new album is out today and it's fucking amazing. This song has found its way to my headphones 5 times already, enjoy!

The Track: Cat In a Dog Suit, The Album: 270 stories


Cat In a Dog Suit by morichio

Papa can you hear me? No I'm dancing...

Duck Sauce is the collab between DJs Armand Van Helden and A-Track under Fool's Gold Records.

It's weird that we haven't danced to this at Barbarella yet, but now we can dance to it in our own parties.

Duck Sauce "Barbra Streisand" from Mr Goldbar on Vimeo.

And just to show how fucking ahead of the retro-curve we are, here is a picture we took of Sam and Liz months before Duck Sauce ever had a Barbara inspired hit:

In The Daylight I Don't Pick Up My Phone

...Cause I'm still dead asleep at home.

Ralph and I were discussing my last post and reflecting on how rapping over someone else's song just isn't what it used to be. Thoughts? These guys have ninja in their name, are from Brooklyn (impossible to be cooler than that) and are playing ACL tomorrow after The Very Best. Let's go early and listen to bands that should never, NEVER fucking be made to play while the sun is up.

The Mountains Goats and Adult Swim

A Morel Orel video to The Mountain Goats' "No Children."

Please someone keep me from stalking Darnielle today.



whoa apparently there are a lot of these.

Is it Christmas?... No it's AudioDax

So, we all have soft spots for our hometown, unfortunately mine is in the middle of a corn field. The up side, I get to invent a new music sub-genre: Hoosier Hop*. I'm now only listening to music in genres I invent. Anyways, AudioDax is pretty new and got started at DePauw University (you haven't heard of it) and while they're not likely to save Indiana music, they aren't half bad either. Below is their take on a classic from Crystal Castles. You can download the summation of their catalog for free and for legal from their website. Ralph, they remixed a Vampire Weekend song and I'm not posting it here, but I can only assuming the electrons from your computer are racing to download it as we speak.


http://audiodax.com/




*Indiana is the Hoosier state

We now have Country in our blog, so suck it Pitchfork.

There's this girl called Caitlin Rose, whose music I just got introduced to through a certain southern gal. The song is a lot of fun, it almost reminds me of The Moldy Peaches but with a Country twang.

She's going to be playing Saturday at ACL really really early, so if there are any early birds out there go check her out.

This is Docket:

Oops

Pilöt is a band. As far as I know they are French. I heard the song featured here as the score of the trailer for SigGraph2010 (animation festival). Although it was hard to find good info about them, I found and (legally) downloaded their recent release, Mother. I like it quite a bit. In fact, I like it a lot and it was hard to decide on one song to post.

Pilöt - Oops:


Yesterday I heard good comments about our blog, and not all of them came from Sam. I was very pleased and excited that people are enjoying the music we post.

Salud!

First Aid Kit

Not new, but still timely: Swedish, poppy, and adorable, these ladies are right up my alley. They will be at ACL, but overlap with The Very Best is likely to keep me away. Anyone want to check out their $10 pre-ACL show at Stubbs indoors tomorrow night (10/7)?

FIRST AID KIT | HARD BELIEVER from RADAR MAKER on Vimeo.

El Baile del Gorillaz

I know it's not kosher to just post stuff that you find on Pitchfork (especially because they're kind of assholes). But just today they released the new Gorillaz single, Doncamatic (All Played Out) and it's really, really good.

Enjoy,

Last Choice, First Month

If you're a hardcore fan of Last Choice, you might have noticed that some songs disappeared from the player. Well, here they are, all together in two zip files. One full month of poor choices. PLUS a little Easter Egg, courtesy of Belle & Sebastian.

The internet is policed by robots. So: you know how there's this site called mediafire dot com? And then, after the .com you can write a bunch of nonsense and get to the file you want? Well, add these two strings after the .com (one at a time) and you'll find our two-part compilation of September. Simple.

Part1:
/?xc0lqv2a07rxztc

Part2:
/?iqis9fxaqmrtbb9

Combatientes de Cristal

Spain has been producing really great music in recent years. Behind the El Guincho and Delorean come bands like Crystal Fighters, subject of this post. Good videos, too.

Crystal Fighters - Follow:


Crystal Fighters - In The Summer:


(Further listening of Spanish pop: Klaus&Kinski, Nadadora, Anika Sade. These will eventually find their way into this blog).

LoFi morning

Yesterday I woke up in terrible mood due to some combination of factors including, among other things, several glasses of red wine, a possum in the hen house, and rats in the ceiling.
This song, while not making me feel better, suited my mood perfectly yesterday and still feels right on this fresh new crispy fall day. Thanks to Pete for the heads up on it.

The Barr Brothers were founding members of The Slip, and are now doing their own brotherly thing.

Beggar in the Morning by the Barr Brothers
01 Beggar by emski2

God Wants To Change Your Life... Where Yo Money At

Rhymefest co-wrote a pile of Kanye's decent tracks and worked with other Chicago types, think Common. This is off his new Album, El Che (Rhymefests' first name is Che). Hip-hop can do soul too.

Starfucker

Here's Starfucker... o wait are they called Pyramiddd now?... oh no they changed back to Starfucker. Anyway, great dancing music...



For those of you with Vinyl fetishes, they're selling a limited edition of the single you just heard through polyvinyl, just click here to get your fix.

Alert FOX News!

Los Campesinos! are invading Austin.

They're playing La Zona Rosa on Oct 23rd.

To celebrate this announcement I'll leave you with my favorite Los Campesinos! song, Death to Los Campesinos! (which is actually one of Lou Dobbs' favorite sentences).

Bruce Lee's soul

From Minnesota, signed to Ghostly, this dude is goood.

Mux Mool - Hog Knuckles


And here's a bonus one, to end our soulful month.
Grinny Grandad - The Good Girl (Askillz remix)

Please someone, break my heart.

Ok people, lets all cry together here.

The amazing Isobel Campbell of Belle and Sebastian fame has just put out a new album with grunge legend Mark Lanegan for their third collab, and fuuuuck are they fucking sounding good together.

Some true americana shit that channels everything from James Brown, to Serge Gainsbourg to Bob Dylan.

The album's called Hawk. The song is called Come Undone. Enjoy...

In Need of Pickup Lines From Peter Parkour

"like Sarah Vaughan, Django Reinhardt and Cut Chemist stuck in a lift with Russian beer and a sampler."

UK blues hoppers, Belleruche, have a new album coming next month and released a single and a couple of videos during the lead up. They also feed my continued obsession with smokey-voiced, female singers.

Surprise, surprise the group is touring France starting in Nov. Anyone know if Mark's apartment is available this winter?

Tokyo Pop

The Suzan is a four piece chick band from the land of the rising sun. They supposedly played an awesome show at Malverde during south-by. It's hard to understand anything they're saying, but that just makes them cuter in my book.

reverse-auditory-melodic-unstickification technology

A website designed to help you get annoying songs out of your head by bombarding you with catchy songs.

More proof that the internet has everything.

http://unhearit.com

CD Mix Exchange?

One of my secret nerdy things that I do is a CD mix exchange with my music director and music industry friends across the country. It's really fun, and an (old school) version of what we are doing on this blog.

I think we should do a Last Choice CD mix exchange. Anybody is welcome to join.

Perhaps you should throw in your hat (blank CD) in the comments section if you want a copy. Then, we can know how many CDs to make.

Also, when Sam gets back, let's revisit the idea of a Last Choice Radio Show.

I'd like my Indie with a pinch of Soul please...

Also, maybe in the competition for best new band name?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Vocal Chords

Grrrls to Men

I was not going to post today, but here's a nice six-degree exercise to ejm's post today:
Sleater-Kinney was part Riot Grrrl, a movement spearheaded by Kathleen Hanna's Bikini Kill. Hanna went on to form Le Tigre and recruited JD Samson. Le Tigre broke up (and Hanna gave her awesome sweater to Tavi Gevinson), and Samson then formed a band called MEN.
I loved MEN at SXSW. I love MEN now. MEN are releasing a new single (below) and have promised a new LP on 2011.

MEN - Off Our Backs

90's party 2010

So, they haven't recorded anything yet, but I am retro-psyched about new riot grrrl supergroup Wild Flag, featuring members of Sleater Kinney, Helium and The Minders.

http://www.mergerecords.com/blog/2010/09/welcome-wild-flag/

Here is a track that two of the the members, Mary Timony and Carrie Brownstein recorded in 2000, as The Spells.

It reminds me of high school in both good and bad ways.

The Spells-Viola by emski2

The Art of Rhythm

Continuing with our melodic string, string. Emancipator is opening for Beats Antique at the Art of Rhythm showcase on Friday in Seattle. I'll be there with my Last Choice press pass and will report back with their call on Velocipede Vs. Velociraptor.




Emancipator - Old Devil by DJ Pandy