To make up for the last post about just an average (albeit very fun) rock band, get ready for some of this craziness.
Myspace being the website it is, it's now deciding to feature some good music all of a fucking sudden. First Polysics, then Crystal Castles and now these fine folks.
You might be late to the party too, but Zoot Woman (Myspace) has been making electronic love sounds for The Brits for some time now. They are led by Stuart Price, who apparently has more aliases than the Devil himself.
Seeing as these electro pop darlings are coming out with a new album, you might as well get acquainted and save your pennies for their new release. Just in case you're not sure what mood you need to be in to enjoy these sounds, let me help. Grab the following:
- a glass of red wine
- a white blazer
- the best shoes you have
- an exceedingly cute member of the opposite sex
- candles
- room to dance
- disco ball and lights (optional)
Zoot Woman - The Model
Zoot Woman - It's Automatic
Phoenix - Too Young (Zoot Woman remix)
Just check this out:
- JT
- old school hip hop dance show
- trippy visual breakdown
New album drops next month kids! Here's the two tracks off the album to get you excited. I swear this entire album sounds like a soundtrack to a Western. Imagine watching Electroma from Daft Punk but if Daft Punk was Gnarls Barkley and every scene was the desert scene.
Gnarls Barkley - Charity Case
Gnarls Barkley - Surprise
Let me tell you, I love women.
Asides from boobs and butts, can I tell you personality plays a big factor in my big old heart? It's true! And Maria Bamford (Myspace) has one hell of a personality! Or judging by all the voices she makes, maybe she has more than one.
Female comedians put together maybe two of my favorite types of people together: females and comedians. Maria is so good at being the "awkward comedian" it's almost as if she made it up. While that sort of seems like a backhanded compliment, Maria takes her personality and voice and crafts it into a fine stain glass window made of bizarre life stories, an entire cast of characters and great (albeit awkward) stage presence.
Did I mention she's a lil awkward? But that's what I love about her. Plus she loves pugs so...
Maria Bamford @ Comedy Death Ray
Her set on the Comedy Deathray CD is something that without fail has made everyone we know lose it in giant giggle fits. Maria has a new CD out so check out her Myspace and buy that stuff!
Yelle - Je Vuex Te Voir
Mmm.
Yes, anyways. Yelle (Myspace) has been tearing it up French style and while her album has been out for quite some time everywhere else in the planet, it's finally getting an American release on April 1st. She also has had her track "A Cause des Garçons" remixed by all sorts of folks (Riot In Belgium, Sta, Tepr). Speaking of Tepr...
Yelle - A Cause des Garçons (Tepr remix)
This song is a bit of a small history lesson too. First off, starting from recent history, this remix happens to be a lot of people's introduction to the (sigh) dance craze that is "Tecktonik." And the song itself is actually a cover of an older French song.
If you watch Yelle's original video for the song, you can see where they got the idea for all the imagery now. So, now you know. And you know me, if you're dancing, you might as well be learning something too!
And while we're at it, might as well mention that I've mashed up Yelle and one of my favorite Japanese house artists, Fredo!
Yelle - Ce Jeu
Yelle and Fredo - Ce Jeu Center (LOVE and BEATS mash up!)
Most people will tell you, "if you're looking for that crazy new electro sound, a great DJ who has tons of famous friends or even some decent rock music you can dance to, look into European bands. You'll find some great examples." Truth be told, that person would not be wrong. But... why try to find more than one band in more than one country to get that kick? What if you could find all that in one Japanese man. Perhaps you should meet Shinichi Osawa (Myspace)?
Mondo Grosso - Everything Needs Love (featuring BoA)
Most people may know Shinichi Osawa for his great house/pop adventure known as Mondo Grosso, but Shinichi can do more than chill with some of Asia's hottest pop singers and throw dance parties for fans of music that's all sugar and spice.
Shinichi Osawa - Star Guitar (Feat. Au Revoir Simone)
When he's not busy remixing Kap10Kurt, The Chemical Brothers, Digitalism or m-flo, he may be hanging out with people like DJ Falcon, Towa Tei, LCD Sound System or Alex Gopher! As far as I know, Shinichi Osawa does not have a home. He always seems to be DJing somewhere.
Shinichi Osawa - Electro411
Shinichi Osawa - Foals
Do I have a thing for boy/girl bands? Maybe I do? Crystal Castles may be a little bit too loud for your mother. But, looking at you, I think you'll love their trashy, electro, 8 bit audio love child, yeah?
Crystal Castles (Myspace) have been gaining a lot of steam all over the country as well as the UK for all their touring there (Americans get ready, they are hitting the States for a bit before heading back over yonder). They've already proven to your cooler, older sister that they are not only good at rocking their own parties, but have done plenty of fun remixes of their own.
Crystal Castles - Crimewave (CC vs HEALTH)
Crystal Castles - Knights
Uffie - Make It Hott (Crystal Castles remix)
Hieroglyphics
Ah, just hanging out at the beach. Taking a trip away from Oakland. Del, Casual, Pep Love and The Souls of Mischief put together some great stuff in their day. They went on to make some friends (Del chills with Dan The Automater, Souls did a track with RJD2, other members dropped solo albums.) But then, at some point, this happened:
Maybe, I've never been a big fan of songs made for albums or themes. I mean, The Game by Jurassic 5 is not that bad. I just feel like, a dip into corporate waters changes the way you sound on the mic. I've never been a fan.
Black Eyed Peas
Oh, these guys. I don't know what happened here. One point your making stuff like this, having great r&b singers get down on your tracks and then.... Fergie. Really guys? One album you're paying homage to Afrika Bambaataa next minute you're music is being blasted at bar mitzvahs.
I mean it could be worse. You be MC Hammer.
MC Hammer
Jeez, dude.
Hieroglyphics - Fantasy Island
Hieroglyphics - Halo
Jurassic 5 - The Game
Black Eyed Peas - Weekends
Black Eyed Peas - Bringing It Back
Okay, well technically Shawnimals and Squibbles Ink thought of it first, but I am just... you know. Letting you know that they called it.
Shut up. More here.
Thanks for the tip, Ryan!
First of all, to me, the most important thing that ever happened in the 80's asides from popping out my mom's womb, was the explosion of the hip hop culture. Sure new wave is fun to goof around to at a 80's party, but hip hop was far and away the most important milestone of the 80's. (However, you have to credit new wave for inspiring the "electro" scene that Afrika Bambaataa pioneered!)
Here's our good friend Mark Vincent breaking it down and teaching you some moves. Mark Vincent is better know as this gentleman:
And while this video may be old news to some, these may not be:
Who is that dancing with Michael? Can you guess? 
If you said Alfonso Ribeiro, you have an amazing eye ma'am/sir! But, good old Carlton did not stop there. Before he was dancing to Apache with Will Smith, he not only taught you how to break and pop, he was looking to sell you his secrets! Beat that!
Stack that up against current deals now a days and that's something. Let's see Ron Popeil give you a deal like that... But, if seeing muscle bound, closet nerd Vin Diesel six step or seeing Carlton sell you a breaking mat sort of freaks you out, I assure you, you are not ready for this:
It's exactly what you think it is. The Jackson 5. And Dom DeLuise. Don't try making any sense of it because you never will.
(* that's "crazy" in Italian if you haven't figured it out yet!)
Vadrum is Andrea Vadrucci, an amazing drum monster from Italy. (Although he looks like any other college student from New Brunswick, NJ. Which, is not a bad thing. All that really means is that I'd feel comfortable hanging out with him at a bar and talking about how he should do some drums on some Megaman songs.)
Asides from being a gifted drummer, Vadrum has ridiculous taste and has an odd way of showing off his amazing talent. However, it's his sense of humor about things that makes me dig this guy. Sure he could just post videos of him covering some insane death metal tracks but somewhere in his crazy head, he's like "I should totally recording myself drumming to 8bit tracks and classic themes. Mom, where's the camera!?"
It's this sort of left of center thinking I can get on board with. Check out more Vadrum videos at his website or check him out on his Myspace.
A lot of the time, I feel like the ones of us out there with an ounce of intelligence or taste are totally sold short. Hollywood treats us like the old school parent that doesn't understand their futuristic, text messaging, Razor scooter riding, teenage child. More often than not, we're not the demographic being catered to. Even when it's an movie adaptation of a book. Instead, Hollywood caters to the Hummer driving, Mountain Dew guzzling, Blue Collar Comedy Tour fan demographic.
Thankfully, the people who make DVDs sneak in little treats that people who can read or maybe have an art degree would care about. Or at least the kind of people who have more than two emotions. (Asleep and TOTALLY PUMPED!!!) I'm not trying to say the ending of I Am Legend catered to massive meatheads and mainstream America. Hell, even I got pumped at that last bit of action. But... then I saw the "alternate" ending to the movie. One that those who read the book claimed not only was better but was closer to the book's true ending.
Granted Hollywood will change a few things to maybe make more sense of things since movies have time constraints unlike books. But from what I heard, there were plenty of things that were changed for no apparent reason. FirstShowing.net did a great write up about this alternate ending as well as going into a bit of detail about certain meaningless changes Hollywood did during the adaptation of the story.
Check it out and tell me what you think about the different ending.
As you know, I do DJ here and there. I try to release a small DJ set every month. So, to backtrack here are my sets for January and February!
01.28.08 Livemix
TRACKLIST:
01. Grand Popo Football Club - Each Finger Has An Attitude
02. Ursula 1000 - Kaboom (Red Foxxworth remix)
03. AC Slater - Banger
04. Calvin Harris - Acceptable in the 80s
It's a bit crazy and maybe not the cleanest mix ever but it felt like a natural mix and instead of trying to "redo" it and make it super clean, I figure I upload the version of it that came naturally. I think uploading the real version and not a clean "redo" is a lot better because it makes you feel like you were there when I thought of it, right?
Just dance if anything.
02.18.08 Livemix
TRACKLIST:
01. The Avalanches - Everyday
02. Etienne de Crecy - Out of My Hands (DJ Mehdi Remix)
03. Mylo - Paris Four Hundred / Digitalism - Jupiter Room
04. Tepr - Minuit Jacuzzi (DatA remix)
05. Daft Punk - Aerodynamic
06. Yoshinori Sunahara - Magic Sunset Street
07. Digitalism - Digitalism In Cairo
08. Kavinsky - Testarossa Autodrive
09. MSTRKRFT - Easy Love
10. Surkin - Radio Fireworks
11. Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow (Soulwax remix)
12. The Presets - Are You The One?
13. The Faint - Violent
I apologize if some of the levels are not all perfect. At some point I didn't even notice that part of my cables got loose so the left/right channel out put on some of the tracks kind of got messed up so I had to convert the sound on this MP3 to mono. For what it's worth, it was a big mistake on my end. When I did my set up in Serato, the audio channels were fine. I must've moved my mixer during the set and knocked a cable loose. Won't happen again!!! Not as smooth as it could've been but definitely some good mixes in there, ideawise. So expect to hear some more of this when I try to do "polished" sets in the future!!!
And of course, if you'd like to keep up to date with all my DJing work, feel free to visit and add my DJ Myspace LOVE and BEATS
Designed by Humans (link) is much like every other user created t-shirt design company however, not only is the art featured on their t-shirts better than most upstart companies out there, the designs are actually wearable (unlike a certain company). In addition, DBH goes out of their way to not only make the shirts cheaper for people to purchase, but actually dishes out more money to the artists whose designs get chosen. You also get A TON of neat little extras when your shirt gets shipped out to you. (stickers, high 5s and wishes... well, at least stickers)
Two very up and coming friends from the West Coast are now trying to stake their claim at DBH so you should totally check them out!
First is Corey Lewis (Myspace). Corey is best know for a comic book called Sharkknife (Myspace), a tale of a busboy who turns into a super powered, high top sneaker wearing , kung fu bad ass that saves his restaurant from recipe stealing monsters. Corey is also the founder of GingerBox (link), a web forum that houses the new doodles and conversations about art and entertainment among some of the world's best indie comic artists. Along with working with Oni Press and doing shorts for the new Street Fighter comics, Corey's been dipping into t-shirt design.
One of his first shirts, the Mecha Naga Buddha (DBH), actually became a winning design and is now ready for print! Check out and vote for Corey's other shirts on his DBH profile.
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Also tearing up the eyes and votes of users at DBH is Jason "JFish" Fischer (Myspace). JFish started making a name for himself by custom designing fish pillows of all sizes. They sold like... fishcakes? He further dipped his hand in other things by working with Blood Is The New Black (link) and doing murals and selling prints (store link). Asides from being an avid photographer, he's also starting an artbook called Fine Literature (Myspace).
JFish has tons of great tongue in cheek designs looking for more votes. They are all so good I can't wait to see which one makes it as a real design first!
His videos speak for themselves. Lasse clearly has a camcorder, some interesting ideas and way too much time on his hands. If you've ever done any sort of video editing, especially editing in time with any music or sound, you could imagine just how long all of this took. Regardless, this crazy Norwegian outdoes himself simply using a drum kit and piano. While the video is amazing in itself, it's even more impressive that he has no idea how to actually play either instrument in real life.
Lasse's original "Hyperactive" beatbox video apparently was so popular that one of my favorite sitcom's, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX Networks) decided to copy the idea for one of their promos.
You can tell they were definitely making an homage to Lasse's video by their choice of background. Actually, this is not the only time they've copied someone for one of their promos...
If you read my blog you may know I am a huge Justice (Myspace) fan. If you know their award winning video for "We Are Your Friends," then the above may seem familiar. If you've never seen the video, here it is:
If you'd like to download the audio for Lasse Gjertsen's "Amateur," go to
http://www11.nrk.no/urort/user/?id=36781
It's a Norwegian page so follow this translation: Lytt = Listen to, Last Ned = Download
While Ed Banger Records (Myspace) is well know for their club banging stable of electro artists, far and away DJ Mehdi (Myspace) is my favorite of the crew.
Asides from Feadz (Myspace), Mehdi is one of the few hip hop artists on the label. Mehdi's beats bring it back to the old school with a small dosage of the French electro love that seems to be setting just about every hip blog on fire lately.
Mehdi has worked with one of my other favorite old school sound revivalists Chromeo (Myspace) as well as getting his super amazingly artistic wife Fafi (Myspace) on the track Lucky Boy. He's been remixed by some great artists too like Surkin (Myspace), Outlines (Myspace) and a certain someone named Thomas Bangalter (of Daft Punk).
He's also done some great remixes of his own. He's worked his magic on Notorious B.I.G., Etienne De Crecy, New Young Pony Club and most recently, Ghostface Killah.
DJ Mehdi - Pony Rocking
DJ Mehdi - Leave It Alone
Notorious BIG and DJ Mehdi - Le Cirque
Ghostface Killah - Charlie Brown (DJ Mehdi remix featuring Mapei)
